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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDApacket__05-07-24_0135_604       NOTICE OF MEETING REGULAR MEETING FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL      Mayor Ginny Dickey Vice Mayor Brenda J. Kalivianakis Councilmember Peggy McMahon Councilmember Hannah Toth Councilmember Gerry Friedel Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski Councilmember Allen Skillicorn    TIME:5:30 P.M. – REGULAR MEETING WHEN:TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2024 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 May 7, 2024 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 - Carrie Schneider - Fountain Hills Resident     3.ROLL CALL – Mayor Dickey     4.STATEMENT OF PARTICIPATION     5.REPORTS BY MAYOR, COUNCILMEMBERS AND TOWN MANAGER     A.PROCLAMATION: Designation of May 6 - 10, 2024, as Economic Development Week.    B.PROCLAMATION: Designation of April 30, 2024, as National Therapy Animal Day.    C.PROCLAMATION: Designation of May 4, 2024, as International Firefighters' Day.     D.RECOGNITION: Outgoing Board and Commission member Jill Keefe, for her service on the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission.     6.PRESENTATIONS     A.PRESENTATION: Mayor's Youth Council     B.PRESENTATION: Public Works Projects Update.    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   Town Council Regular Meeting of May 7, 2024 3   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 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 Town of Fountain Hills Town Council Regular Meeting of March 5, 2024, and March 19, 2024.      B.PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a Liquor License Application for Pisa Pizza located at 16650 E Palisades Blvd., Fountain Hills, Arizona, for a Series 12 Restaurant License.      C.PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a Liquor License Application for Spark by Hilton  located at 17105 E Shea Blvd., Fountain Hills, Arizona, for a Series 10 Restaurant License.      D.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of Resolution 2024-22, abandoning the 10' Public Utility and Drainage Easement along the north side of 15326 E Thistle Drive (Application A24-000006).     E.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a Professional Services and Employment Agreement between the Town of Fountain Hills and Robert E. Melton for the position of Presiding Judge of the Fountain Hills Municipal Court.     F.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of Resolution 2024-25, granting a 30' Access Easement on Town-owned property to J.E. Booth Farms, LLC     9.REGULAR AGENDA     A.PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of Ordinance number 24-05 modifying the Zoning Ordinance by amending 5.13, Community Residences, to provide for re-inspections.     B.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a preliminary plat for   Town Council Regular Meeting of May 7, 2024 4   B.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a preliminary plat for approximately 3 acres at the NEC of Palisades Blvd. and La Montana Drive, subdividing three commercially zoned parcels into four lots, PRP22-000001.     C.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Adopting Resolution 2024-16 setting forth the Tentative Budget and establishing the maximum budget amount for the Town of Fountain Hills for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024, and ending June 30, 2025.     D.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 ____________________, 2024. _____________________________________________  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 May 7, 2024 5   ITEM 5. A. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 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 May 6 - 10, 2024, as Economic Development Week. Staff Summary (Background) Mayor Dickey will proclaim the week of May 6 - 10, 2024, as Economic Development Week.   Attachments PROCLAMATION: Designation of May 6 - 10, 2024, as Economic Development Week  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 04/08/2024 02:45 PM Final Approval Date: 04/08/2024  ITEM 5. B. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 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 April 30, 2024, as National Therapy Animal Day. Staff Summary (Background) Mayor Dickey will proclaim April 30, 2024, as National Therapy Animal Day.   Attachments PROCLAMATION: Designation of April 30, 2024, as National Therapy Animal Day  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 04/16/2024 11:39 AM Final Approval Date: 04/16/2024  ITEM 5. C. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 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 May 4, 2024, as International Firefighters' Day.  Staff Summary (Background) Mayor Dickey will proclaim May 4, 2024, as International Firefighters' Day in the Town of Fountain Hills.    Attachments PROCLAMATION: Designation of May 4, 2024, as International Firefighters' Day  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 04/18/2024 07:46 AM Final Approval Date: 04/18/2024  ITEM 6. B. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Presentations                  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):  PRESENTATION: Public Works Projects Update. Staff Summary (Background) The Mission of the Public Works Department continues to be to provide essential services to sustain and enhance the quality of life of the citizens of Fountain Hills in a prompt, professional, courteous, safe, efficient, and cost-effective manner. Through our dedicated employees, Public Works strives to plan, build, maintain, and operate public infrastructure in a manner that respects the environment, preserves these assets for future generations, and fulfills the goals established by our Town Council.  Public Works continually works to implement innovative technologies and processes to improve and maintain the Town’s streets, drainage systems, transportation networks, open spaces, washes, dams, facilities, fleet resources, and solid waste collection in order to provide reliable and superior service to the community. This report highlights the activities and significant accomplishments achieved over the last several months including: • Completion of the FY-23-24 paving rehabilitation schedule approved by Council • Utilizing enhanced pavement marking, added 10 miles of new bike lane • Utilizing the latest technology, to safely grind uneven walking surfaces at 131 locations • Replaced 25 damaged sidewalk panels (900 sq ft) • Installation of pedestrian crossings at Golden Eagle Blvd & Boulder Drive • Safe Routes to School Assessment and final report • Completion of several Capital Improvement Projects • Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event • Electronic Recycling Event • “Friends of the Maricopa County Library” Paper Shredding Event   While accomplishing all these efforts, our team continually looked for ways to improve efficiency, save costs, and better operate and maintain the Town’s infrastructure. We want to thank the Mayor and Town Council, the Town Manager, and the entire Town staff for their support in our efforts to deliver high quality services to the community and our fellow team their support in our efforts to deliver high quality services to the community and our fellow team members. We partner across the organization and assist with all the Town’s activities and events, and we anticipate another successful year.   Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Public Works Director Justin Weldy 03/27/2024 02:36 PM Public Works Director Justin Weldy 03/27/2024 02:37 PM Finance Director Justin Weldy 03/27/2024 02:38 PM Public Works Director Justin Weldy 04/24/2024 08:37 AM Finance Director David Pock 04/24/2024 09:09 AM Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/24/2024 09:11 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 04/25/2024 02:12 PM Form Started By: Justin Weldy Started On: 03/19/2024 05:11 PM Final Approval Date: 04/25/2024  ITEM 8. A. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Consent                  Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes for the Town of Fountain Hills Town Council Regular Meeting of March 5, 2024, and March 19, 2024.  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 Town Council Regular Meeting of March 5, 2024, and March 19, 2024. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve the minutes of the Town Council Regular Meeting of March 5, 2024, and March 19, 2024, as presented. Attachments Verbatim Transcript  Verbatim Transcript  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Town Attorney Linda Mendenhall 04/10/2024 03:54 PM Finance Director David Pock 04/10/2024 04:10 PM Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/12/2024 10:10 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 04/24/2024 03:06 PM Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 04/10/2024 03:51 PM Final Approval Date: 04/24/2024  TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 5, 2024 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:30 p.m. Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember Hannah Toth; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall Audience: Approximately one hundred and ten members of the public were present. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 27 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Town Council Meeting Minutes March 5, 2024 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 MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 27 MAYOR DICKEY: Good evening, everyone. Please stand for the pledge and remain standing if you choose for the invocation. ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Karen Henner. HENNER: Yes. MAYOR DICKEY: Hi. HENNER: Father God, thank you so much for every person here invested in our community. We pray an extra blessing for integrity, respect, honesty, and some good dialogue that promotes our community with safety and prosperity. Thank you. Amen. ALL: Amen. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Here. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Here. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Present. 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 back of the council chambers and hand it to the town clerk prior to consideration of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 27 that item. When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, state your name for the public record and the city you're located. 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 a future council agenda. MAYOR DICKEY: And thank you. And yes, she said vice mayor. So I want to thank Sharron for her service as our vice mayor for the last eight months. And thank you for doing that so well. And welcome our mysterious vice mayor tonight. Do we have to keep the light out of your eyes for a while? And welcome to getting copied on all my emails now. So I wanted to mention our one of the presentation items listed was 6B, and that's not going to proceed. We have been informed that the petitioners are challenging this matter in court. So generally the town won't comment on pending litigation matters. So we won't be discussing this tonight, but we will have more on that later. Thanks. So we'll start with our reports and activities. We'll start with our town manager, please. GOODWIN: Mayor, council, residents, thanks for being here. I just wanted to do a quick update, as I usually do, to mention the events that we've had going on, as well as the events that are coming up. Last weekend we hosted the Memorial disc golf event down at Fountain Park. It's always a really, really high-vis event. It's a fun event. It's really different to see our disc golfers out there and the disc golf community. For those of you that don't know, which I learned, the disc golf community references playing here at Fountain Hills and in Fountain Park as the Pebble Beach of disc golf. So that's high praise. We also had the Mountain to Fountain, which is a road race that begins up at McDowell Mountain Regional Park and runs down to the fountain. Again, beautiful morning for it. Several hundred runners out there, so that was great. This weekend we will be hosting the kite festival down at the park, which is again a very beautiful -- hopefully, there's a little breeze. Not super windy, but just enough for some TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 27 great kites. There's also the watch and clock event going on at our community center. So again, no shortage of activities here in Fountain Hills. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. TOTH: Thank you, Mayor. I have no report this week, but hi, everybody. GRZYBOWSKI: We had a really successful art fair two weekends ago -- I've lost concept of time because the whole retreat in-between the things. Every time I went, I swear I felt like there was more people than I've ever seen at our art fair weekend. So that was very exciting to see. Hopefully, we had some successful artists as well. And then the only other council related thing was the retreat that we all participated in last week. Thank you. FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. I, too, was down at the disc golf and heard nothing but glowing comments about how great the course is. And yes, there's water, so there's a challenge there. But I'm sure we'll find a few discs when we replace that liner. And as you mentioned, the kite festival is coming up. Brenda Kalivianakis and I sat in on a couple of discussions with town staff helping get that organized, and so that was that was well worthwhile. So we'll see how that turns out this year. Excited to see that as well. I want to mention that I spent several hours with our town staff and ADOG down at our dog park this past couple of weeks. And I want to compliment Kevin Snipes and his team. You know, we've got a great facility there. That dog park is really well-recognized in the dog community, and they've got several other projects on tap that they're going to do to enhance some things down at the dog park. So again, I think it's one of the best in the County, isn't it, Kevin? Pretty much. Yeah. And then one other thing I'll bring up tonight, Mayor, if I can, is I talked to our town manager a little bit about this. There's been a lot of chatter and a lot of comments on social media about the robberies going on over in Scottsdale. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because I'd like to see the town issue some kind of a press release or update our residents, not trying to scare anybody, but to give people -- empower our residents and give them some knowledge as to what they can do maybe to secure their TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 27 properties and their valuables a little bit more. I know Capt. Kratzer is going to be giving an update tonight, so maybe he can work that into his update a little bit as to what's going on. And Rachael, I have been reached out to by one of the HOAs in town, so I'll give you that contact information, so we can get them involved in this as well. I think it's important to let the residents know what's going on with the crime in surrounding areas that may spill over here, because there was actually a robbery here in Fountain Hills as well. So again, it's dealing with people coming across the border. There's been a lot of activity in Scottsdale. I know they're on top of it. They're doing extra patrols and that sort of thing. So maybe there's something we can do on the town level, to support that effort and get the word out to our residents and let them know what's going on here. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks. Councilwoman? MCMAHON: Thank you. Good evening, everybody. I attended the Valley Metro board meeting to represent our town as far as our valley-wide infrastructure and light rail is. And also, I wanted to remind everybody that this Thursday, as part of the dementia- friendly committee, we are having an educational hour and a half forum on how to afford to care for a person with cognitive impairment and dementia. And also Fountain Hills Cares presents we're going to be having on March 21st from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the community center a seminar on civility in Fountain Hills. It's a discussion worth having in our town, so that is why we're doing it. Thank you very much. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Vice mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. Thanks, everybody for coming out. Another just wonderful attendance tonight. And for all you people on YouTube, live streaming, thank you. And of course, for all you people that came here in person, it's most appreciated. That's how good government is made by citizen participation. Just to explain just briefly, these glasses are not meant as a sign of disrespect to anybody in the room. I'm fresh off of eye surgery, and the doctor recommended I don't come to the meeting tonight. I didn't think I wanted to do that, so he said, you can either come as a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 27 pirate or a rock star. I chose a rock star. And so yeah, I didn't think the pirate was going to be a real good look. And so but anyway, so that's the explanation. Pardon me for having to wear these tonight. I also did go to the Fountain Hills Fine Arts Festival. I don't know if we have numbers, but it just seemed like it was just bursting at the seams, there were so many people there. Everybody seemed to be carrying things and so happy. A big thanks to our town staff, to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, to the Rotary Club, and to the Chamber of Commerce for putting that on. I can't imagine the work that it took to put that on. So thanks to everybody for making this a spectacular event. Again, we attended the council retreat within the past two weeks. And just so you guys know, we did have more of an attendance this year than normal. But when we talk about big projects coming in the future, like maybe the Target Center and other things, they usually start out at these retreats, and unfortunately, people don't attend these things. And so we have -- unlike tonight, there's just a few scattered people in the audience. And of course, Bob Burns. And if you want to know what's going on and what's coming down the pike, that's when we plant the seeds. You want to see the tree, but the seeds are planted in these retreats. So I really strongly encourage you to come or at least to read the agenda. So you know what's coming up in the future council meetings. It's really important for you guys to know what's going on. Also we attended a ribbon cutting for Linda (sic) Murray and the Lyon Sotheby's Realty; congratulations to them. Like what our former vice mayor said, with the Fountain Hills Cares meeting is going to be on March 21st. Evan Lowe, PhD, is a facility member at Arizona State University School for Civil and Economic Thought and Leadership. He will be one of the presenters. And also Patrick O'Grady is editor in chief for the independent newspapers. He will provide an overview of the civility pledge and how, in many cases, the lack of civility discussion is occurring not just here but all across the country. So I know some people ask about the civility pledge in the newspapers, so they'll be here to explain that. And this event was not meant to marginalize or minimize anybody. It was simply meant to try to bring people together so we can talk to each other, not at each TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 27 other, and that we can be more civil with each other. And I think we all want that in Fountain Hills. And so I encourage everybody to go there. The last thing -- well, I wanted to also appreciate Gerry for mentioning the dog park and all the work that's been done and all the work that Gerry has been doing, and our town staff, the mayor, Rachael, and Kevin; you know we are proud of that dog park. And it takes a lot of work, though, and a lot of coordination with ADOG. The last thing is the legislative update that we go to on Monday mornings. Of particular interest this week was high-density housing in the state and the legislature right now is discussing doing residential high-density housing, 25 homes per acre. And so if that is a concept that you don't like -- high-density housing -- I know we have a lot of watch dogs in this room and a lot of concern over that in our community. The state might be taking that away from us, where the developers can do that by right. So if you're a watch dog and you want to look out for this town, turn your sights to the state legislature too, because there's a lot of things going on there that are going to affect this town, and not in a good way. So anyway, thank you very much, I appreciate it. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. So what do I begin? Everyone kind of talked about the fair quite a bit. So I want to point out that the volunteers, the people that made it happen, the Rotary, all those organizations, there was so much work, yet they cleaned up so fast. So Monday morning, you couldn't even tell the fair wasn't there. I mean, you didn't even see the blades of grass disturbed. It was really impressive to see how one, the volunteers cleaned up, but also staff cleaned everything up. And that road was open and Avenue of the Fountains was open for normal business again, bright and early, at sunrise. So that was really impressive to see. I also had opportunity to see a little bit of the frisbee golf. It was kind of neat to see them kind of setting up at the same time. So that's really all I have. I was really impressed with how fast the town turned around from that fair. Thank you so much. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. It was like the Cat in the Hat. You were kind of prescient about the report that we're going to get from Capt. Kratzer, because we'll be talking about that. The fair -- they had Good Morning Arizona there I think for the whole time TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 27 they were on TV that morning. And so I was able to just chat a little bit, but I went to the booths and such and I was able to kind of squeeze in about the green fountain and a couple other events coming up. So it was nice to be able to do that. And then we had students from Zamość, and actually, there was one from Germany too. I met with Lisa Restuccia (ph.), who is actually hosting a couple of those kids. So we had some kids from our sister cities here, and I think they're going to be here for a couple of weeks. We have a Red Cross proclamation, and I believe we have a board member here, Jim Olson. So meet me down there and I will present it. Hold that right there and then. I'll read it here. Thank you. "Whereas, during American Red Cross Month in March, we recognized the compassion of people in Fountain Hills and reaffirm our commitment to care for one another in times of crisis. And whereas this generous spirit is woven into the fabric of our community and advances the humanitarian legacy of the American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, one of the most honored women in our country's history, who nobly dedicated herself to alleviating suffering. And whereas, today, kind hearted individuals in our community exemplify Barton's commitment as they step up through the Arizona New Mexico region to provide a beacon of hope for our neighbors in need, they make a life-saving difference in people's darkest hours, whether delivering shelter, food, and comfort during disasters, providing critical blood donations for hospital patients, supporting military families, veterans, and caregivers, and saving lives with first aid, CPR, and other skills, or delivering aid and reconnecting loved ones separated by global crisis. And whereas, we recognize this month of March in honor of those who lead with their hearts to serve people in need and ask everyone to join in this commitment to strengthen our community. So therefore, I, Ginny Dickey, mayor of the town of Fountain Hills, proclaim March 2024 as Red Cross Month and we illuminate our famous, iconic fountain in red today and encourage all citizens of Fountain Hills to reach out and support humanitarian missions. Thank you. OLSON: Thank you very much. Really appreciate the support of the town and the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 27 fountain turning red. I've spent a lot of time over the years in Fountain Hills, and I love your community. One thing I want to add about the Red Cross is we are based on volunteerism. 95 percent of people that do work in service for the Red Cross are volunteers. And one of the things that I don't think everybody knows is in Maricopa County, we respond to three home fires and help people in need every single day. So every day across Maricopa County, three families lose their homes. They're often underprivileged people. They're often people in trailers and think of them losing literally everything. So all their medication, all their money, all of their loved items, photos of family. And because of volunteers, we're able to respond and help. So if anybody's interested in helping out with the American Red Cross, we're always looking for volunteers. There is a site that's basically called Volunteer Connection, but if you are interested, we would love to have you join our team. Thank you very much. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you so much. So our presentation that we're having tonight is going to be our Capt. Kratzer from MCSO. He's going to come up and talk to us about law enforcement and give us a report. Thank you. KRATZER: Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. I always appreciate having some time at the council meetings to just go over some updates or some things that we believe are important to the community. And Councilmember Friedel touched on the topic earlier in his report to the mayor about the burglaries that are going on and not just in Scottsdale, but across the Valley. And the group that's involved, I just wanted to talk about some of what the group is, what they've - at least, what the FBI's identified them as, and then some of their M.O.'s, and what residents can do to try to help ensure that they're not a victim and what MCSO is currently working on. So the group's been named the South American Theft Group. You may have also heard it referred to as the Chilean Burglary Group. Scottsdale refers to them as the Dinnertime Burglary Group. And that's because of the hours of thefts or the burglaries are usually between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. and again, usually on Friday through Sunday TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 27 evening. There obviously have been deviations from that, but that's typically the target time. So this group is a large transitional South American criminal organization. The FBI believes the group to be over 1,000 people involved in the ring. They first hit on the radar in 2016, but over the last year, there have been 111 burglaries in Arizona Valley cities alone. And those burglaries have occurred in Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Peoria, and Phoenix. They usually target high-end homes, affluent communities. They're looking for homes that are along golf courses or washes or greenbelts for easy access to park a vehicle and walk up to them. To date, the FBI's estimated $3 million stolen in money, jewelry, and other items. They typically don't target firearms. They typically leave firearms behind. The ring also engages in frauds, trafficking, and stolen property. And they've been coined as, like, a more professional, sophisticated group than just your typical burglar. They usually have maps and plans, and they scope out communities to see which target they want to hit. And they try to hit when somebody's not home. They usually have a method to check and see if there's a resident home. So with that, moving into the group's M.O. They, like I said, they focus on high-end homes and affluent neighborhoods. They like the access to golf courses or washes or green belts. What they have found in some of the trends is that they will rent an Airbnb or short-term rental near the home that they would like to hit. And they plan the burglary out quite a bit in advance with surveillance. One of the things that they tend to do is the vehicles that are typically involved are rental vehicles. They're seeing a trend in rental vehicles out of smaller car companies out of California. So not your Hertz or your Budget. Some of the smaller named companies, and they choose to use high-end vehicles like BMWs, Porsches. And the belief behind that is so that they blend in a little bit more in the community that they're in. They have a tendency to approach the home from the rear and try to enter through a slider, like a Arcadia door or a window. And they'll try to get a reaction to see if anybody's home. Sometimes throwing a rock either through the window or at the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 27 window to make a loud enough noise that they'll wait and see if there's a response from a resident. They've been known to enter a home -- with probably the size of some of these homes, the resident may not hear the glass break. And residents have confronted burglars in their home on several occasions. Typically if that happens the group will flee and get to the getaway car. The getaway car is usually parked nearby where they could walk up. The groups usually consist of two to four male subjects. And usually a getaway driver. And that getaway driver is found, more likely than not, to be a female. If law enforcement has contact with them or a resident they'll flee back to the getaway car, typically pretty quickly. They will engage in a pursuit with law enforcement. And they've had several cases where the vehicles crashed out and they've been able to then make an arrest and get some data from cell phones and other evidence that they've been able to secure. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what MCSO is doing. So MCSO's property crimes detectives, they have been working a couple of cases in MCSO's jurisdiction. Those have been in the Chandler area, but it's technically Sun Lakes with the Chandler mailing address. There's a community down there that's been hit a few times. Detectives have done a couple of sting operations, and one evening over New Year's holiday they were able to catch a group in the act trying to scope out. It was actually an active resident who saw something abnormal, called there deputies in the area for the sting. And they got in a pursuit with the subjects. The vehicle crashed out and they were able to -- they usually have fake IDs. They all had fake IDs. They usually have a pretty well-organized story. In this one, they didn't get into the home or burglarize it. So they didn't have the burglary charges yet but they did get cell phones and they did do data dumps, and they did find a lot of associated information for other residents in the Valley and in California. And they're working with other local agencies to share that Intel. We have gotten calls here in Fountain Hills from Scottsdale police and their detectives, just keeping us up to date on some of the breaks in their cases or some of the things TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 27 they're doing. Fountain Hills obviously fits the mold for these burglaries. Fortunately, to date, and I verified this again with our property crimes detectives, there has not been an identified burglary in Fountain Hills that meets this M.O. that they're associating with that. That may change, but that's where we're talking about ways to try to help; educate the public, make them aware of the group and the methodologies. They see anything suspicious. They see vehicles parked out that looks like they're doing surveillance. Typically, just sitting out on a public road is not a crime, you can do that. If something looks out of place, if there's a vehicle that, maybe, meets some of this, you can always call MCSO. A resident can call MCSO and we'll just check it out. We'll go and make a consensual contact with the individual and just make sure there's nothing going on. Our property crimes detectives have also been committed to making sure if there are any burglaries in the district that seem to meet the M.O. or trends of areas that need to have increased patrol due to the trends, that we're increasing our personnel in those areas and during the times that those are occurring. Going back to how to avoid being a victim. Some of the basic things, and I know some of it sounds very elementary, but be sure to lock your windows and doors. One of the things I did skip over and I want to go back to it because it is important. The group has been known, and the intel from the FBI is that they do have some technology that seems to block or impede surveillance or security systems. And so one of the recommendations is obviously to have security systems, detection devices in your home, and hopefully, those do the job. But there have been situations where they've been found to have devices that block those sort of security devices. Work with neighbors to keep an eye on your home or eye on the community. I heard that there was a call from an HOA, we're happy to speak to them as well. Rachael, if they want to set something up with MCSO, we're happy to give them tips and work with them, set up a watch program. And then again, just call MCSO to report anything suspicious, we're happy to look into it. One of the things I want to hit on before I end and take any questions is, we see a lot of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 27 posts on Ring or social media when there might be something suspected of going on. Where, maybe, there's someone who -- we see it all the time, I see it in my neighborhood on a Ring; someone tried to open my door and there's a video of someone trying the door. The part we don't see is the follow up, where if we are able to contact that individual or they are and find out the end result of the person was at the wrong house and I know people can argue, well, maybe that was their guise. But we would encourage for MCSO to be called so we can investigate those things. And the posts on there, tend to sometimes bring up the concerns that maybe the crime is in their community, people are getting burglarized or there's people casing their neighborhood, and I don't know, that could be the case. But that's where we're asking for residents to call us so we can look into the matter. And that it's reported to us, and that we could provide the caller with the end result of the contact. So that's all I have. If there's any questions from the council, I'd be happy to answer it. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And so I thank you so much, Captain, for explaining the crime, the gang effectively. I did speak to a resident that has posted videos and pictures online. Do you think that that incident that's here in town has any relation to that group, or is it a different M.O.? And if it's an active investigation, you don't want to comment on things, I understand that too, but I just want to make sure the people here are at ease. KRATZER: It is an active investigation. But what I can tell you in talking to the property crimes detective is that it's not believed to be the similar M.O. and the group responsible. I mean, again, there could always be deviations. And down the road, when and if the investigation comes to an arrest, that could change. But right now, it's not believed to be associated. But they are working diligently. They inform me, they keep me up to date on the information or any breaks in the case so that we know. So that if it is, we're able to educate the public and put the awareness out there. SKILLICORN: And Mayor and Captain what can we do? What can that resident do to aid the investigation? You talked about preventing -- lock doors, but what can we all do to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 27 actually aid in that investigation? Because we want to see a conviction here, we want to see it stop. KRATZER: Sure. The key thing for us is timely reporting. So if there is any evidence left behind, fingerprints, shoe impressions, surveillance video. Surprisingly, even if they have these jamming devices and it blocks the signal where, maybe, it doesn't alert the security company, usually the video still captures. And some of these burglaries that -- I think it's the one you're discussing or other ones that we've had recently, there has been helpful evidence that's been left behind that detectives are able to use. One of the other things I forgot to mention and the property crimes detective did ask me to share it is one of the things that they're taking pretty regularly, and the logistics of this have got to be challenging, is they're taking safes. So they'll just take an entire safe that's locked. They'll take it to a location. And they'll get into it. So their request or their suggestion and recommendation is if you have the ability to bolt your safe down, do that. It makes it, not impossible, but close to; they're usually not going to take the time to try to get around that. And then the other thing I was going to say that I did forget too, was a lot of the property that's stolen, the jewelry and the goods, they're not usually sold locally at pawn shops. They usually are shipping it out of the United States. So that's where the trafficking and stolen property is coming from. Any other questions? MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. I just have one question, and that is just given the name of these organizations, they sound like they do have either regional or national flair. Are you getting federal resources to help with the investigation? KRATZER: I can't answer that. I tried to have my property crimes sergeant come out tonight because I knew he probably could answer some more questions. So I don't know if in our jurisdiction with having, I think, three, if we're getting that FBI help or not. I don't know if Scottsdale is with more burglaries and PV. But I do know the FBI, with an organized crime group, typically will provide resources. So sorry, I don't know the answer if MCSO specifically is getting help on our cases or not. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. If you could let us know if that's the case, I would appreciate it TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 27 because it sounds like if they're victimizing people all over the country and they're shipping this stuff out of state, we should really be getting some federal help on this problem. KRATZER: I'll look into that and I'll get you an answer. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you. FRIEDEL: Larry, you gave some great tips tonight, so thank you for that. Can we make sure we get those to our town manager. And then you can get Bo to do some kind of a social media post or website post or something. GOODWIN: Sure. FRIEDEL: That would be great. Thank you. KRATZER: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks. I know sometimes we're shy to call the police, but it's probably the best bet when you see something like this. Our next item is our call to the public. And remind everyone to please tell us what city you live in, but not your address. MENDENHALL: Okay. Mayor, first we're going to talk about what is in your packet. We have some people who have provided written statements. One is from James Kirk, and you can read them in your packet. There's another one from Jennifer Brown, and then five people commented on the referendum. Now we have our speaker cards in person. First, we have Pam Cap, and on deck we have Liz Gildersleeve. CAP: Good evening. Pam Cap, eight-year resident. First, I would like to apologize to Mayor Dickey, Town Attorney Aaron Anson, Town Manager Rachael Goodwin, Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall, and the majority of this town council. I disrespected these council chambers last time I stood before you. I disrespected the process and the rules that helped this council function, and I am sincerely sorry, and I will try to do better to remain respectful in the future. Now, when I read that Councilmember Friedel was running for mayor back in December, I sent him an email regarding Councilmember Skillicorn's attacks. His response was, and I quote, "Pam, thank you for sharing this with me. Let me make one thing clear, please. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 27 Councilmember Skillicorn and I are polar opposites when it comes to our town. I don't condone this kind of behavior and I have very little tolerance or control over his personal behavior. I will have a conversation with others about this. Respectfully, Gerry Friedel." End quote. This gave me hope. Fast forward to February 6th council meeting. Councilmember Friedel, during his council reports, spoke about his involvement with the fight against domestic violence. He spoke about being a champion for young women and girls who are caught in this horrible cycle of violence against women. Once again, it gave me hope that he would stand up for women who had been battered and abused. I spent 30 years as a police officer investigating thousands of domestic violence incidents, and hundreds of sexual assault crimes, so I understand the horrors of it all. After hearing that, I thought, this guy gets it. So imagine how ambushed I felt when Councilmember Friedel pulled the pre-planned attack. I felt like I got sucker punched. How could a champion for women be offended by a picture of a fully-adjudicated rapist being humped by a donkey? It's not like I belittled, demeaned, and slandered a rape victim. I mean, a champion for women's safety would be appalled by that type of behavior, wouldn't he? Yet, instead, Councilmember Friedel decided to attack my character as a private citizen. He stated I have come before this council four times. I have, because of the bad behavior kept escalating. He also implied I caused disturbances each time. That's completely false. Then, to add insult to injury, Councilmember Friedel stated, take it somewhere else. Really? I ask where? The attorney general or maybe a civil rights attorney, perhaps. One thing about crime victims, especially domestic violence, and sexual assault victims, they are fearful to report offenses. Why? Because they fear being subjected to invasive and accusatorial questioning about their background when they are only seeking help. Councilmember Friedel thinks he is a champion for women who are caught in the cycle of violence. The truth is, he is still part of the problem. Thank you. FRIEDEL: I will respond. Thank you for apologizing. And as I stated before, I asked one question, you came before this council and you asked us to adjudicate against TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 27 somebody when you're doing the same things on social media that he's doing. That's all I said. So again, I am a champion for women. You ask any woman in this town and they'll tell you that. This has nothing to do with that, and it has everything to do with our process and our procedure. And I think I made that clear that night. And I still stand behind that decision. And again, thank you for apologizing. GILDERSLEEVE: Good evening. I'm Liz Gildersleeve, Fountain Hills resident. I wanted to bring to the public's attention about a public records request that I submitted to the town following the January meeting, where four of you approved Sandor's high-density requests for the target property. During that meeting, Councilmember Kalivianakis mentioned that she was shown a document from Sandor and Target reflecting a parking agreement. I requested a copy of that document from the town following the meeting, and I was told by the town clerk just last week that the document didn't exist, at least as part of the town's record. This is troubling for a couple of reasons. First, it suggests that Councilmember Kalivianakis was in fact consulting independently with the developer, something she denied doing at the January meeting. Secondly, by not securing a copy of this document for the town's records, it could be a problem in two to three years for homeowners and businesses, particularly those behind the Target property if this high- density apartment building gets developed and there are parking issues. No one is going to remember in two or three years from now that some random councilmember, quote, "saw a document". I would encourage the rest of you to do what Councilmember Kalivianakis should have done, and that is secure a copy of this agreement now, if it even exists, and add it to the town's document database while it's fresh in everyone's minds. That would be a more effective way to protect residents and businesses should a problem with the parking issue arise in the future from this development. Thank you. KALIVIANAKIS: I would like to address. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. I appreciate your concern about the parking in the Sandor project. Just for the record, I've received that request two days ago, if I'm TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 27 correct. Is that correct, Linda? MENDENHALL: I forwarded it for your emails. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. So I received it this week. Of course, I told everyone here I was having surgery and preparing for this council meeting, and so that was something I was going to address. But I think if you're going to be reasonable, you have to give me more than two days to do a records request. And so the document does exist and it'll be forwarded in a normal and appropriate fashion. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Next we have William Ray. And on deck, Ed Stizza. And that is it for public comment. RAY: Good evening, folks. I am. Here to talk about, just very briefly, this Target project. And I will say to you, honestly and without any rancor, we need to vote all of you out. You've betrayed us. MAYOR DICKEY: Please don't applaud or do anything like that. Thanks. STIZZA: Good evening, Madam Mayor, town council, staff, Aaron, and public of Fountain Hills. I'm a Fountain Hills resident. My name is Ed Stizza. And it's just absolutely appalling what's happened over the past three months within these chamber walls here. I've never been more embarrassed for our town than over the past several weeks. And we don't have to belabor what you did with the vote over at the Target Center redevelopment, but I can tell you right now what you did was incorrect, at least in the process it took. You should have taken the time; we've all said this to you. And you should have been more informing of the public. And for instance, a major question that should have been asked is, Sandor, why on earth do we have infill going in all around town? As far as with our businesses, there are several that are coming in to our empty spaces, and this is one of the biggest complaints that was about the Target Center. Well, you know what? For ten years, why didn't Sandor get rid of the KFC building? That's an eyesore, as everybody has said, and made a big point about. And why are all those spaces empty? Well, they were purposely left empty, and those prices were purposely jacked up to keep that center looking as bad as it is. And who do you blame for that? Do you blame the town of Fountain Hills? Do you blame Sandor? Who TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 27 do you blame? The whole point of it was or is, is that there wasn't anything else tried. And you guys pushed this through so quickly there wasn't even any discussion about it. Your own planning and zoning commission told you exactly what to ask, and you didn't -- not one of you asked any of the questions. And it's appalling and it's insulting and should be insulting to the residents of Fountain Hills. And as far as -- there were several comments that were made that the biggest investors are the developers and everything else. Well, I beg to differ. I think the biggest investors are the residents of Fountain Hills. And you supersede all of them. Over the past couple of weeks you totally overlooked their opinion and their viewpoints and the referendum. It's not right. I mean, it's just not right. And you should be the speakers for the actual Fountain Hills residents. And basically, the way that vote went, and the process, the way it went, you kind of made your own decisions without the input of the public. And that was wrong. I mean, it was just wrong. And now what's going to fall on your shoulders is everything that's about to happen, and that's sad. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks very much. Our next item is our consent agenda. Could I please have a motion? FRIEDEL: Mayor, I'd like to pull one item off of there. I have a couple of questions on -- MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. FRIEDEL: It's 8C. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So motion to approve 8A and B? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, I'd like to pull item A off. So why don't we make a motion for just B? MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry? SKILLICORN: I'd like to pull A off. MAYOR DICKEY: Oh, make B. SKILLICORN: So I'd like to make a motion for just B. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Second for that, please? FRIEDEL: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: For the B item. Okay. Roll call? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 27 MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Nay. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. So we'll go with the first one which is 8C? FRIEDEL: 8C, yes. So my question on this is that in the notes of the attachment it had on there, that Sanderos is developing this property. I thought that the church still owned that property, and I wasn't aware of the fact that that had happened. And then the second question is we're replacing a 10-foot easement with an 11-foot easement? WELDY: Madam mayor, Councilmember, there's actually an abandonment of an existing sidewalk and landscape easement behind the existing sidewalk. Many, many years ago for the master-planned area, they had wide sidewalk easements and an additional landscape easement. The property owner is simply asking us to abandon that unused portion that the town does not need. In regards to your first question related to the ownership, I'm not aware, tonight, who the new owner is or whether or not the property is in escrow. FRIEDEL: Okay. All right. So we don't know if there's been any -- MAYOR DICKEY: John may. FRIEDEL: Oh, John? Oh. WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember Friedel, the church processed a land split application TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 27 to split that tract into two pieces, and I believe they either have or will be selling that piece to Sandor. By virtue of them making this application that indicates they are moving forward with that purchase of that piece. FRIEDEL: Okay. So that's the second parcel that was part of the original agreement. So they split that parcel in half? WESLEY: Yes. FRIEDEL: Okay. And you know what kind of numbers we're talking as far as the split is, is it in acres or is it -- WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, not exactly; it's basically in half, but I don't remember what the numbers would be exactly. FRIEDEL: All right. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, and I don't know if this director wants to, but what is that zoned for right now? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember that zoned R1-10, so it's for single family. SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, Director, what's the minimum lot size for that? WESLEY: 10,000 square feet. SKILLICORN: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Any more discussion on that item? Can I get a motion, please? FRIEDEL: So moved. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. FRIEDEL: So moved. KALIVIANAKIS: Can I second? MAYOR DICKEY: Can I get a second, please? KALIVIANAKIS: I second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 27 GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thanks. Councilman, did you want to say why you wanted the minutes removed, please? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Actually, I was going to ask if we could table that to next meeting. I just want to go over the audio one more time. So I'd like to make a motion to table that to the next meeting. MAYOR DICKEY: Can I get a second, please? TOTH: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Nay. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Nay. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 27 KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thanks. So it's out there, but they'll be -- I mean, it's in our packet, but we will be looking at that. Okay. ARNSON: Yeah. We'll bring that back at the March 19th meeting. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. Okay. Great. Our first item is a public hearing, a continuation of a public hearing that we had started before. And I would, with the consent of the applicants this item, which is about extending the hours of the dispensary, would be continued until 3/19. And if council agrees, could we just do that, please? Can I get a motion? MCMAHON: So moved. TOTH: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Is there any discussion? Great. Roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Our next item is a discussion of the sanctions against Councilman Allen Skillicorn for sustained ethics violations. We'll hear from our attorney, and then we'll take speaker cards. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 27 ARNSON: Thank you, Mayor, and council. I'm sorry, Councilman Friedel, I see you had a hand up. FRIEDEL: I have something I need to bring up. Should I wait until after you're done, Counselor, or should I -- MAYOR DICKEY: Go ahead -- FRIEDEL: Point of order? MAYOR DICKEY: -- if it's about procedures? FRIEDEL: Yes, it is. It's a point of order. I want to remind this council that in our rules of procedure, which we just re-adopted on September 6th, 2023, page 32, section 10.4, it says right in our rules of procedure that once the review slash investigation is concluded, outside council will provide the town attorney with a determination whether the complaint is sustained or not sustained. If the complaint is sustained, which is the case here, the town attorney will schedule an executive session for review and enforcement by the town council. It does not say anywhere in our rules of procedure that this should be done in an open session, in a regular council meeting. So are we going to violate our own procedures here? I think we need to -- I'd like to make a motion that we move this to an executive session, whether it's tonight or at the next council meeting, to discuss this. TOTH: Second. ARNSON: So I'm not totally sure what the motion was for. To recess into executive session tonight isn't possible, except for legal advice, because it's not agendized for executive session. And we have to provide, under subsection A1, the employee or the public officer with twenty-four hours written notice that there's going to be an executive session, et cetera. So mayor, sorry? MAYOR DICKEY: I was just going to say can we -- I would say it would be legal advice because he's questioning the process as relates to our rules of procedure. So it would seem okay with me to go -- ARNSON: Yes. MAYOR DICKEY: -- into executive session. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 27 ARNSON: So if we want to talk about this aspect of it in executive session for legal advice, you can always recess into a E-session for legal advice. We have it agendized that way. So if that's the motion then -- MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. Well, it has to be so, right? I mean, we go into executive session, we can discuss whether this needs to be in -- whether the whole discussion needs to be in executive session, which I think is your point. And then we would have to either reschedule or do something else. FRIEDEL: Yeah. ARNSON: I'm happy to give my legal advice in executive session. Any discussion about whether the discussion should be open or in executive session really should take place here. Because that has to do not with my advice to you, but rather your substantive policy about what should be done. If that makes sense? MAYOR DICKEY: We have a motion and a second to go into executive session. Do we have to vote or can I just rule on it? ARNSON: We have to vote on it. We have to vote. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Can we have a roll call on going into executive session, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Nay. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? ARNSON: Councilmember Skillicorn's indicated that he won't be voting on this matter. MENDENHALL: He abstains? ARNSON: Yeah. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Nay. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 27 KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. We will adjourn into executive session. [CLERKS NOTE: ADJOURNED INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION AT 6:22 P.M. RECONVENED REGULAR MEETING AT 6:51 P.M.] MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you all for your patience. The discussion was a consensus that we will have an executive session on the 19th and an action item also on the 19th, to just to clarify and make everybody comfortable with what we were doing. Everything is totally legal, but I think we will respect the wishes of some of the folks here. And so it will be an executive session on the 19th, followed by an action item at the meeting, which would be the public part of that. So what I would need now is a motion to continue this item until the 19th. FRIEDEL: So moved, Ma'am. TOTH: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? Oh, he can't vote. I'm sorry. Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. And our last action item is a related to the League of Cities and Towns. Again, thank you all for coming. We really appreciate your interest. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 5, 2024 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 27 And we're all going to do the best that we can going forward. Does anybody have anything? I know that Brenda, you mentioned some of the stuff at the call. Is there anything you wanted to specifically mention? KALIVIANAKIS: I know that went to the third reading. Has that going to the governor yet, that particular house senate bill? MAYOR DICKEY: Actually, I think they're getting third read in their origin. So they have to -- KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: -- be heard in the other committees. So there's probably sometime on that. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. There's still a lot of bills out there that are paying a lot of attention to cities this year. But we have had the opportunity to weigh in on a lot of them, and a lot of them do have to do with zoning. And I know a joke about it, but this whole discussion would be kind of moot if some of those laws passed, and when it comes to zoning and rezoning and density. So there were some other things about removing voting by mail and things like that. So we just have to kind of see how all of that shakes out. But I don't think we have any new items to weigh in on, on any of the bills that I heard anyway. So you all agree? All right. Next, we have direction to town manager. I don't think I heard anything to follow up on future agenda items. All right. Again, thank you so much for your patience and your interest. We're adjourned. Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on March 5, 2024, at 6:54 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 5th day of March 2024. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 7th Day of May 2024. _____________________________ Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 19, 2024 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:30 p.m. Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn Members Attending Telephonically: Councilmember Hannah Toth Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall Audience: Approximately One Hundred thirty-seven members of the public were present. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 90 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Town Council Meeting Minutes March 19, 2024 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 MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our meeting. Please stand for the pledge and remain standing, if you choose, 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 Vicky Derksen, Fountain Hills resident. DERKSEN: Mayor, councilmembers, and town staff, thank you for accepting the challenge of serving as our governing body in Fountain Hills. We residents, as diverse as we are in our traditions, beliefs, and demographics, can all agree that we rely on you to use the tools of wisdom, reason, and empathy. These tools will 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. As I watch the sunrise next to Four Peaks on this first day of spring today, I was reminded of how small and fleeting our lives are when compared to the expanse of time and space, but we can make life more expansive by loving the place where we live, finding ways to bring more happiness and beauty to the people we call neighbors, and encouraging one another to the best versions of ourselves. We all want the same thing: for Fountain Hills to be its best version of itself. We may have different ideas of what that looks like, but through wisdom, reason, and empathy, we can find common ground and help this town evolve into a place that we love more and more each day. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Here. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Here. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 90 MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Present. 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 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 report back to the council at a future date or to schedule items raised for a future council agenda. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Linda. Before we do our reports from the mayor and council and our town manager, I just wanted to please note that Councilman Skillicorn has exercised his right to have item 9A discussed exclusively in this public forum, so we did not have an executive session per Councilman Skillicorn. So I just wanted to let you know before we got started. So why don't we start with our traveling town manager with her report? GOODWIN: Yes. Thank you, Mayor, council, audience. Thanks everybody for coming out. I wanted to actually extend a quick congratulations to staff on a very successful Irish Fest last weekend. We got lucky with some beautiful weather. I know we had some rain intermittent there, but it worked out to be a beautiful day. Special thanks to Vice Mayor Kalivianakis for working off the greening for us. We appreciate that. Everything went great. Staff did a great job. We had increased attendance. We had increased revenues. It was a smashing success all the way around. But I did want to remind everybody, if you did not get a chance to get your TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 90 commemorative State 48 Greening shirt, we still have a few of those available here at town hall, so you can stop by and grab one; get ready for next year if you want. And then a reminder that we're not done. We still have lots of events coming. This weekend is our annual Eggstravaganza Easter egg hunt for our little ones. It starts at 8 a.m. at Four Peaks Park. It's free, so we're inviting everybody to come out and join us. With that, that's everything I have, Mayor. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilmember Toth, do you have a report? TOTH: I do not. Thank you, Madam Mayor. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilwoman? GRZYBOWSKI: Happy first day of spring. If you guys are like me and you have spring allergies, you knew like ten days ago that this day was coming. We had two legislative updates during the course of the past two weeks and last week I had an opportunity to meet with Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Galvin. And today is Stellar Student Day. It's our favorite day of the month. We're so excited to have you guys here. We love the youth showing up and we appreciate you guys, and congratulations. Thank you. FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. I had the privilege of attending the Farmers Market recently and there were 50 young entrepreneurs with booths there. It was really an awesome event to have these young partners in our town be there, and they learned a lot about entrepreneurship, leadership, selling their wares. A lot of good artists down there, so the next time that comes around, you want to definitely make a trip down there. And I was down at the Irish Fest working the beer tent. I can't believe the amount of beer. There were a lot of Irish people down there this year, so packed house. And it was really a fun event. And we had our kite festival recently too, so that was also an awesome event. And I went on a business retention call with Amanda Jacobs and Betsy from the Chamber TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 90 today at the Mindful Barbell. And it's quite a nice little operation he's got there, so if you get the chance, he's right down on the Avenue. Stop and say hi to John down there. And we also recently had a meeting with staff and stakeholders concerning the fire buffer zone ordinance that we're working on, and we'll be rolling something out on that relatively quickly, I think, so maybe next month. So that's all I have, Mayor. MCMAHON: Good evening, everybody, and thank you for attending. I also had been attending the legislative sessions, and I wrote a letter to the governor to veto HB 2570 and she took all of those letters in consideration and she vetoed it, thankfully. Also attended a ribbon cutting for a really cool gym called Iron Roots. It's family run and it's a small gym but it's really great, and it's right down across from Wendy's, and I would advise everybody to go check it out and get healthy. Also, Mayor Dickey and I attended the Fountain Hills Women's annual fundraiser fashion show and that was a really good experience. Of course, the Irish Festival, the Greening of our fountain. Even though it took a couple of minutes, but anyway, it was really, really a fun event. And I also attended the fire buffer zone meeting with Gerry, and yes, something will be coming out soon from our results of that committee meeting. And this week, on Thursday night at 4:30 at the community center, there's going to be our Cares forum. And it's on civility and we have some great speakers to talk about civility, to educate us on it, and also to have open exchange of conversation to address any questions or concerns you may have. So I hope to see you there. I hope you attend. And thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Good evening, everybody, and thank you all for coming out tonight and livestreaming, YouTube, Cox Channel 11. And of course, if they can't see it, but we have an absolutely packed room here tonight. An informed and engaged citizenry is a keynote to a good TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 90 local governance and we have it in spades here. So thanks everybody for coming out tonight. Just another health report on myself. Last week I explained to this group and some people, if you weren't here, I've had eye surgery done two weeks ago and I had it done yesterday and had to go back today to have them take a look at it. And so I mean no disrespect, but these appointments since COVID are months and months out, and if you cancel them, you won't get them for many months to go. So it was really important to me to get the surgery done and also to be here tonight. My doctor said, you either don't show up or, like I said last week, go as a pirate or go as a rockstar. So tonight I chose a rockstar look again, and so excuse me for wearing these silly glasses. I just wanted to let you know that the Bar Rescue did a refurbishment of one of our local businesses called the Skybox. And they filmed that a month ago. I helped liaise with the permitting, and so Maricopa County did a crackerjack job with the crowd control and all the people that were waiting in line and stuff. They filmed it. They chose to use that episode and last week we had a view party at the Skybox to a ton of people. And they were on TV and it was just wonderful. It's on Paramount. So if you get a chance to look at that, it's one of our local businesses featured really prominently. Also, I had a chance to go to the Irish Festival and that was wonderful. And Ryan from parks and rec and myself, we did the grand introduction that morning. And we did the Greening of the Fountain, which was wonderful. And then I did stay to work through the rest of the afternoon and Gerry served the beers, and I collected the money. And boy, did we collect a lot of money. It was amazing. I want to thank Maricopa County. I want to thank everybody involved for doing -- again, just a crackerjack job. One interesting note, the Caledonian Pipe Band played there this weekend. I actually played with the Caledonian Pipe Band when I was playing with the Coastguard Auxiliary Band at the Scottish games. So I actually had performed with one of the groups in attendance that week, and so that was kind of fun. Did the home-delivered meals this week. And they all keep telling me, for all you TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 90 speakers that come up here to call to the public, please speak into the microphone because they can't hear you. And also for all of our presenters, you've really got to speak up because the people at home can't hear unless you speak directly into the mic, so I'd appreciate that. I also did the ribbon cutting for Iron Roots, and what a wonderful business that is. Located down -- kind of like by the propane place, and it's a heck of a gym, and we're down there with Peggy and the mayor, welcoming them. And lastly, with the legislative update, last week I informed you guys that there was a huge bill coming about high-density housing. It's called the Affordable Homes Act. And if they were to pass that -- and it was passed in the legislature, it would have opened up developers to do a great deal of high-density housing that would have been really detrimental to Fountain Hills. Fortunately, the governor vetoed it, I think, on Monday. So we dodged a bullet there. So good job, Mayor. And good job, Governor. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Welcome to Fountain Hills. I'm going to go reverse order here. Just a couple of events that I was able to stop by and kind of celebrate our awesome town. First off, the Farmers Market we have every Wednesday, that was great to attend. I did stop by the St. Patrick's Day and the green fountain, that was a blast. But also a week and a half ago -- or a week ago was the PICO kite festival which was actually fabulous. And one thing that was kind of fun is this morning, when I was reading the newspaper, I read about the Arizona Spelling Bee which was won by an eighth grader. Not a Fountain Hills resident, but that's kind of interesting. And the word was volemic, and they would have had me on the spelling on that one, but that's relating to or concerning the volume of circulating blood or plasma. So I would have had no idea, and the fact that it has to do with blood kind of grosses me out. But that's all. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. I was invited to speak to a bunch of second graders over at McDowell Mountain. It was really great. They were asking a lot of questions and very bright and there was a couple of Stellar Students there, said hi, I already met you. So it was really neat. And I want to thank the instructor, Lizzie Cooper, for inviting me. She has a kind of a neat story. Her mom teaches there too. The Women's Club, 50th anniversary, we'll have a proclamation for their 50th anniversary I think in next month. And the Irish Fest -- I was there on the Saturday, but then on the Sunday, Channel 10 was there and Channel 12 was there. And we were down by the playground and it was the Sunday, so it wasn't the big day, but it was just so many people there. It was really nice to be there for that. And speaking of young people, we have our Stellar Students tonight. So the way this works, kids that are here, I read about you from up here. You come on up after I say your name and read the nice things about you. And then our friend, Angela, here, she will give you your certificate. And then we'll line up here and then when we're all done, we'll take a picture. And then, while I'm down there, after we're done with the Stellar Students, we're going to do a 50th anniversary -- it must be in the air for it to be our 50th anniversary, of the Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church. So as soon as we're done with the kids, I'll stay down there and have the proclamation. And I believe, the Reverend Dr. Bob Simmons is here; the clerk of sessions, Jack Reynolds; and our friend, volunteer, and long-time resident, Jackie Miles. So be prepared. When we're done with the kids, we'll go right into that. So we always start with our Little Falcons. And our first Little Falcon is Sabrina Rogers. Is Sabrina here? All right. Come on up. "Sabrina's a very kind person and a great friend. She often offers to help and encourages her friends, especially" -- You can come on up. You come on. That's good. Stay right with her. "She compliments others often. She mentions when she likes someone's artwork or TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 90 their block structure. She is thoughtful and very observant and often makes kind remarks about a student's nice outfit or new hairstyle." Speaking of outfits. "Sabrina has good manners and remembers to say please and thank you. She shows pride and good citizenship during snack time by always cleaning up her area and she pushes in her chair many times and pushes in the chairs for her friends that might forget. It's a pleasure to have Sabrina in my class." That's Sabrina Rogers. Our next Little Falcon -- come up and keep her company -- Hudson Miller. Is Hudson here? All right. Come on up. "Hudson is a fine citizen and takes a keen interest in school. He often volunteers to help and is always cooperative. Even when Hudson is busy, he is still willing to help other students. He's very complimentary and supportive. He always has something positive and encouraging to say and helps friends in need." This sounds familiar. "Hudson often volunteers to clean up and he pushes his chair in after snacks even when his friends forget. Hudson is well liked by his peers and he is a pleasure to have in class." Hudson Miller. Now, we'll go to McDowell Mountain. Our next student is Kandus Lalo. Is Kandus here? Come on up, Kandus, if you're here. There you go. "Kandus 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. She goes out of her way to be helpful and support others in need. In art class, Kandus demonstrates great skill and effort in all that she does. She shares her enthusiasm for art by sharing her work that she's completed at home and new skills she's learning. She goes above and beyond and is most deserving of the title Stellar Student." Congratulations, Kandus. Our next McDowell Mountain student is Dante Cachucha. Is Dante here? Come on up, Dante. "Dante is a Stellar Student because he is polite, attentive, and helpful to others. Dante has an amazing gift for art and design, especially weaving, and it's a pleasure to see his TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 90 creations in art class. He's also a wonderful inspiration to his peers. It's an honor to nominate Dante for being a respectful, kind, responsible Stellar Student." Congratulations, Dante. Middle school time. Tayler Sinyella. Is Tayler here? Come on up, Tayler. "Tayler has outstanding qualities as a student. She consistently demonstrates kindness, diligence, creativity, and unwavering dedication to her academic pursuits. Her exemplary character shines bright as she interacts with her peers and her teachers. She is a solid and genuine student." Tayler. Next, from Fountain Hills Middle School is Cash Broetsky. Is Cash here? Come on up, Cash. This is great. Cash is described by his teachers as "A top-notch middle school student. He embodies intelligence, thoughtfulness, respect, kindness, and helpfulness. He consistently participates in class discussions and Cash demonstrates a genuine care for his education." That's Cash Broetsky . Okay. High school. Racine Homyak. I hope I'm saying that right. Well, we are going to read about her anyway. "She's dedicated to her academic journey. She spends her time on and engages the essay prompts no matter if it's a simple bell work prompt or a prompt for a larger essay. Racine writes" -- in capital letters. -- "she gives her insightful and thoughtful responses, provides evidence which shows she's read the work and understands the material, and her written work is interesting to read, which in my world counts for a great deal." That's from the teacher. "Racine is also prompt, studies for exams, and is a fantastic member to have in a group as she's enthusiastic and fun. Every day she brings her crazy cat" -- which is a Beanie Baby, I guess -- "to class. It makes my day to see her cat sitting on the desk while she works." So let's say hi and applaud for Racine. Our last student is also from Fountain Hills High and it's Kai Collier. Is Kai here? All right. Come on up. "Kai. He is consistently surpassing expectations, completing tasks ahead of schedule, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 90 and demonstrating utmost respect in all interactions. He takes immense pride in being a part of the band, evident in his dedication and enthusiasm. Kai is a Stellar Student." Yay, Kai. Okay. We need to move a little bit. All right. Look at the camera and smile. All right. Thank you guys, so much. Do we have the Presbyterian Church folks here at all? No? Aah, there we go. I'm looking in the wrong direction. All right. We got the real one for you guys. Come on up. And you can do the honors here and I'll read it from where the writing is big. All right. Whereas, the Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church, a beacon of faith and community is joyously celebrating its 50th year anniversary. And whereas, on March 31st, 1974, the congregation held its first service at Little John's Bar with founding pastor Rev. Glenn Atchinson preaching from a barstool to an audience of 60 people. Whereas, this historic barstool now residing in the River of Time Museum symbolizes the humble beginnings and steadfast commitment of the Presbyterian church to its congregation and our community. Whereas the Rev. Glenn Atchinson, the brother-in-law of Sally Atchinson, who was the first official resident of Fountain Hills, has played a significant role in shaping the spiritual and communal landscape of our town, not only served as a dedicated pastor from 1974 to 1998, but also contributed significantly to the growth and development of Fountain Hills by serving as president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1979. And whereas, the congregation of the Presbyterian church has thrived over the past five decades, fostering a sense of community, compassion, and spiritual growth, and a special service to commemorate the 50th anniversary will be held later in the year with transitional pastor -- as it says here -- Rev. Dr. Bob Simmons presiding, continuing the legacy of faith community established by the Rev. Glenn Atchinson. So therefore, I, Mayor Ginny Dickey of Fountain Hills, do hereby recognize and proclaim March 31st, 2024, as the 50th anniversary of the Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church and encourage all citizens to join in the celebration and recognize the remarkable achievements, enduring spirit, and unwavering commitment to the church for the betterment of our community. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 90 Let's give them a hand. SIMMONS: Well, Mayor and council, on behalf of our congregation we would like to thank you very much for this proclamation, and we're so excited for the next 50. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, we all are. We're hopeful. Let's get a picture here. Thanks so much. Our next item is call to the public. Please say your full name and the city or town that you come from. MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do have some speakers. We will start out with Gail Conn, and on deck is Kelly Fifer. CONN: Good evening. My name is Gail Conn, and I live at Village at Towne Center. And I would like to invite all of the members of the council to come and take a walk from the museum along the fence line that has been put down to Paul Nordin and see the equipment that has been put there since June of 2022. There is a truck, a trailer, two water trucks, a backhoe, three storage trailers, a business trailer, sawhorses, and numerous pieces of trash that has been left in this field. I have looked at for nearly two years now and I feel that the equipment could be moved closer to Park Place and let their residents view this. I have viewed it since June of 2022. I would appreciate something being done and appreciate if you would take a walk along the fence line between the museum and Paul Nordin where Village at Towne Center resides. Thank you. FIFER: Yeah, I'm Kelly Fifer. I live in Fountain Hills, and I've got a big disagreement about your ideas about the roads and especially Panorama. That is the least road that needs to be done. There's only one spot in that road that needs to be fixed, and that is the exit on the eastside of the parking lot, and that could be done with a patch. We have numerous roads that needs to be done. The southbound road of Golden Eagle from Richwood down to Sierra Madre. And on Richwood from Golden Eagle down to Tepee is a mess, and then Palomino from Fountain Hills Boulevard to Palisades is also a mess. My sister lives on that street, my brother-in-law, and they ruined three tires on that street. My mom has ruined two tires on Golden Eagle southbound. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 90 The northbound is fine. The southbound is a mess. Also the intersection at Saguaro and the three-way stop at Fountain Hills Boulevard is also a mess. Panorama is fine. I drive it every day going to the dog park, and that is not a problem. And for you to spend that much money on a road that doesn't need to be done is ridiculous and I do not agree with your decisions about doing that. That's crazy. Where is the money from the CARE project that we should be getting to do these infrastructure projects? That's what I would like to know. Because this town is falling apart. It is the worst streets. I am so embarrassed to have anybody drive into town and see what's going on in these streets. It's ridiculous. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Next we have Beth Culp and, on deck, Kim Bartman. And then that concludes public comment. CULP: Good evening. My name is Beth Culp and I live in Fountain Hills. I'm here tonight to bring to your attention to additional incidents where Councilman Skillicorn has attacked the character and motives of other councilmembers and the mayor. Section 8.6 of the code of ethics provides that members of the town council must refrain from making attacks upon the character and motives of other members of the council. In a recent letter to his supporters, Councilmember Skillicorn stated, "My voice is being silenced by a liberal mayor, by weaponizing our town's ethics code." This claim is false. The fact is that there are only three ethics complaints that could result in sanctions. All three of those complaints were filed by members of the town council. Not one of the complaints was filed by the mayor. Skillicorn has also claimed in recent communications that the mayor's handpicked legal counsel ruled against me. That too is false. The lawyer was referred for this assignment by the town attorney. The mayor took no part in that. And more importantly, the same attorney who was assigned to review the three complaints that councilmembers brought also reviewed the four complaints where you were found not to have violated the ethics code. So to imply that the mayor handpicked somebody that was biased against you is false and unfair. You also have false claimed that you're being silenced by the mayor and the council TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 90 because they will not allow you to defend yourself and confront your accusers during this evening's proceedings. That too is a lie. It's false. It is true that in the sanctions proceeding you won't be allowed to prevent or defend or discuss a defense, but you have only yourself to blame for that because you and three other members of the council -- sorry, Councilman Skillicorn and three other members of the council are the ones that changed the rules of procedure. Under the changes that were made by those four last fall, the matter is referred to outside counsel for review and determination, and that finding is final and it's determinative and it cannot be appealed. I believe those changes were made to make it more difficult for citizens to prevail. You may recall that, at the same time, they included a penalty provision. So if your claim is found to be without merit, you have to pay the legal fees. I respectfully ask you, Council Skillicorn, to please stop with the false narratives. Things are bad enough right now. Thank you. BARTMAN: Hello, Mayor and council and town manager, town attorney. Kim Bartman, Fountain Hills. I sent this email to Mayor and council and this is regarding when I saw an article that said 12News.com, and it's from Mr. Skillicorn. He quotes, "They are just doing this to embarrass me." MAYOR DICKEY: Can I just ask -- is this appropriate or is it supposed to go to agenda item, or is it okay? Because it's outside of the agenda item. ARNSON: Sorry, I'm not quite sure what the nature of the comment is quite yet. Does it have to do with the ethics matter? BARTMAN: It has to do with something that was in the newspaper that he said that they are just doing this to embarrass me. So it does have to do with -- MAYOR DICKEY: The agenda item? BARTMAN: -- an email that I sent out to the council. MAYOR DICKEY: Would you speak to that when we get to the agenda item? BARTMAN: Unfortunately, I can't stay. So I will just -- I can email it, I guess. Well, I emailed it already. Is that coming up soon? MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. Just -- I'm going to allow it. Go ahead. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 90 BARTMAN: Okay. So this is about the 12News where Mr. Skillicorn said, "They are just doing this to embarrass me. Fountain Hills councilmember faces multiple ethic complaints." Mr. Skillicorn, do you deny that the code enforcement officer felt threatened? Do you really think that those who claim you are committing ethic violations are doing this just to embarrass you? We have owned a home and lived here in Fountain Hills in 2001. We have raised our daughter here, and she will be a proud product of Fountain Hills Unified School District, graduating in May. We love and support our community. From my vantage point, I find your approach to be divisive, unbecoming of a Fountain Hills public servant. Yes, you have the right to speak out on your social media, but is this the way to represent all town residents? For all of the council who continue to share Bible verses and religious information during council meetings, I personally would find living Jesus' teaching through loving and positive actions are a more effective way to spread your faith than preaching during council meetings. Actions speak much louder than words. As a follower of Jesus, I am saddened by the way some of you misrepresent Jesus' teaching by not representing all Fountain Hills residents and appearing only to be championing evangelical Christianity. It comes across as very exclusive. Jesus said the gospels was not one to exclude. Some of you may claim to represent residents of all faith, traditions, and backgrounds, but with your freedom of speech, you have chosen to speak out loud and post/retweet much that contradicts Jesus. I know that some will continue to share Bible verses in council meetings. My hope is that you will show your faith through actions of love, that the negative publicity that some of you are contributing to is embarrassing. Please help us all do better. Your leadership matters. It can either continue to divide or bring us together. What a success story this can be. I will do what I can to work with others to publicize positive information about our town, a message that Fountain Hills is a community of inclusivity, beauty, and friendliness. Hope we can work together. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Our next item is our consent agenda. Can I please get a motion? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 90 MCMAHON: Move to approve. GRZYBOWSKI: Move to approve. MAYOR DICKEY: Can I get a second? GRZYBOWSKI: Sorry about that. MAYOR DICKEY: That's okay. Roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Our next item is an item on our regular agenda regarding sanctions and possible censure against Councilman Allen Skillicorn for sustained ethical violations. I don't know if we have any -- if Aaron is going to start or if you have any words before we have the public comments. ARNSON: Sure, Mayor. I'm happy to introduce the item. I'll keep it very brief. The council's aware, per the agenda that we're here to discuss, that council's determination with respect to any sanctions imposed in light of the found ethical violations in the reports attached to the agenda, that's in the council's determination and I will turn it back to the council for discussion. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them along the way as best I can. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. As we do with all items, we start with public comments cards? MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do have public comment cards. You also have in your packet some written comments and then a last-minute addition through another tab. So in the written statements we have 5 against and 30 for -- 3, oh. And in public comment we have quite a few. So we're going to start off with Joann Lyles, and on deck, Pam Cap. LYLES: Good afternoon. My name is Joann Lyles, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. In 2022 more than 4,800 Fountain Hills residents voted to elect Allen Skillicorn and he's been delivering the desired results: proactively addressing urban camping, readopting the invocation, wise spending on roads, rejecting mask mandates and shuttered businesses, and commitment to lowering taxes, not raising them. His work as a councilmember has been in the best interests of the town. What isn't in the best interests of the town are today's arguments for sanctions; namely, obvious political retaliation, overreacting to social media posts, attaching the weight and authority of a court of law to a report authored by the legal representative of the complainants. The town has a duty to conduct its affairs impartially. Instead, we glide headlong into destructive partisan territory. The fact is the constant stream of outbursts and accusations, manipulate public opinion. They create division among residents, something more dangerous than any ordinance. Again, Councilman Skillicorn represents the views of thousands and thousands of town residents, and in freezing and targeting him, agendas like today's have polarized Fountain Hills. It's not like the town code has never been violated. On March 5th public meeting revealed a willingness to circumvent procedural rules and effectively discredit Councilman Skillicorn's reputation ahead of the required executive session. Ironically, those with complaints were committing the exact offense that Councilman Skillicorn allegedly committed. Ultimately the problem isn't the threat of sanctions against the councilmember. Residents will be angry about it, but the town will survive this vote. Ultimately, the problem is that the sustained harassment of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 90 Councilman Skillicorn and, by extension, those he represents has produced confusion and retreat from public involvement. People don't want anything to do with the consistent negativity. The result? Unprecedented division in Fountain Hills. Please abandon this course of action. Thank you. CAP: Good evening. Pam Cap, eight-year resident. As one of the complainants, I ask this council to consider the actions and behavior of Councilmember Skillicorn carefully and take the appropriate actions to condemn it. I also ask that you consider that Councilmember Skillicorn has shown no regret, no remorse, and he has made zero attempt to mend fences or find common ground. Councilmember Skillicorn is trying to paint these ethic violations as politically motivated and part of a radical agenda. He stated that technicalities in the law were being used to punish him. The truth is, Councilmember Skillicorn is not running for any office currently and there is no radical agenda other than holding our elected officials accountable for their unlawful actions. And those technicalities Skillicorn claims were blatant violations of the minimum standards set forth by your code of conduct. Simple rules that Councilmember Skillicorn couldn't or wouldn't follow. Is this the type of behavior you want from future councilmembers? Elected officials are supposed to hold themselves to a higher standard than private citizens, willingly. Councilmember Skillicorn is not even trying. He was caught lying to the deputy the night he chased our code enforcement officer down. He has repeatedly lied that rainbow flags and books about inclusivity are indoctrination. He has repeatedly lied about drag queens and transgender people being pedophiles, when the truth is most pedophiles are straight men: coaches, scout leaders, politicians, and church elders. Skillicorn has lied about his constituents. He attempted to file a police report against a resident, her use of ready, aim, fire in an editorial. Yet he proudly displays a bazooka on his shoulder with "I got you in my sight" on his social media aimed at us, those speaking out against him. The man learned how to spin things back in Illinois as a state rep when he got caught TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 90 lying. He's lied about the homeless issue here. He has lied about our park using money improperly to pave parking lots instead of our streets. All he does is lie to be relevant. Skillicorn claims his First Amendment rights are being violated by being held accountable. The truth is, he is a liability Fountain Hills cannot afford. Currently, Skillicorn has 30 to 40 residents blocked on his councilman social media pages for no reason other than being a Democrat or a liberal. The Supreme Court ruled this is a clear violation of our First Amendment rights, not his. Skillicorn is trying to bring dirty Illinois politics to our town. It is clear the night he attempted to intimidate the code enforcement officer by saying, "You are walking on thin ice." These are the actions and words of a seasoned politician who doesn't care about the rules or who he serves. Please take these charges seriously. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Next we have Faryl Palles and Cindy Couture on deck. So we'll have Cindy Couture, and then, on deck, Crystal Cavanaugh. COUTURE: Hello Mayor and council. My name is Cindy Couture. I've been a resident since 2004. In the 2022 election, two years ago, Allen Skillicorn and his friends lied, slandered me, twisted my words, and misrepresented me to win his seat on the council. At the time I chalked it up to the fact that some people will do anything to win an election. However, Mr. Skillicorn has continued his bad acting. The current ethics violations are just the tip of the iceberg. Through his actions, his words, and his social media posts, he continues to misrepresent our town and he brings shame to Fountain Hills. Just as he wore out his welcome in Illinois, he has now worn out his welcome in Fountain Hills. He needs to be sanctioned. He needs to be kept from interacting with town employees and he needs to be taught how to use social media so that it represents the town respectfully. Ideally, he should resign, maybe even move to a place more aligned with his thinking. Perhaps Florida would take him off our hands. CAVANAUGH: Crystal Cavanaugh, Fountain Hills resident. I'm here tonight to support Councilman Skillicorn and express outrage that fellow Councilmembers Grzybowski and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 90 Kalivianakis even took it to the level of filing an ethics complaint. You might not like his communication style, but he was actually asking a pretty important question on January 17th. Had anyone on this dais talked with the developers unilaterally or been promised anything from them? No one was specifically accused, but there was plenty of pushback and outrage up there. Either those easy responses could have been, no, I never met with them; no, no one promised me anything; yes, I met to discuss a parking agreement; or yes, I did give my personal email to the developers for them to send me documents directly in order to keep information out of the public domain. Seeking the actual truth seemed of less importance than rushing to file an ethics complaint. I'm seeing a pattern here: playing fast and loose with the truth on some topics and then rushing decisions without being fully informed. Isn't this the same ethics investigator who deemed the complaint against Councilman Kalivianakis as unfounded even though she did directly ask staff to remove signs after she voted for no enforcement? Does Councilmember Grzybowski's description of residents from the dais as rich, White A-holes qualify for an ethics complaint? Anyone of you could be the next target for any minor offense if this is the game we're playing. Sign ordinance locations and distances were confusing. Context is important. Many political signs were being stolen during this time period, so Skillicorn had a tracker in his sign and followed it in broad daylight to a location to get it back. This time it turned out to code enforcement. He followed the sign to town hall, where there was also a deputy. A simple conversation occurred between three men. No threats, no bad language, no loud yelling, or physical altercation. No ethics violation. So why are you once again putting this very selective public hanging on the agenda tonight and then not even allowing him to speak to it? But if you want to talk about unethical behavior, how about a sitting councilwoman purposely giving out wrong information to the community, both before and after the referendum was filed? Or another councilwoman as she sat on the dais pointblank accusing me of lying to people to get their signatures? Or how ethical is it for our town TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 90 government to circle the wagons with a coverup story after the petition debacle and put out misinformation to the paper? You should not be providing any sanctions to Councilmember Skillicorn for these personally motivated complaints. In my opinion, there are way bigger issues going on here in this great town. MAYOR DICKEY: Is that it? MENDENHALL: No. We have more. We have five more request-to-speak cards. Next will be Richard Rutkowski and followed by Beth Culp. RUTKOWSKI: Good evening, Mayor, and council. Richard Rutkowski, 22-year resident of Fountain Hills. My main concern is the presence of this item on the public agenda. Based upon my past experience in a variety of supervisory roles, discussion of possible violations of policy and consideration of possible punitive actions are conducted in private or in executive session. In the past, alleged ethics violations against former councilmembers were not addressed as part of the public agenda. In the interest of fairness and equal treatment, that precedent should be applied to the current matter. Something very important which bears repeating is Section 10.4 of the council's rules of procedure found on page 32, which state, quote, "Once the review/investigation is concluded, outside counsel will provide the town attorney with a determination whether the complaint is sustained or not sustained. If the complaint is sustained, the town attorney will schedule an executive session for review and enforcement by the town council," end of quote. In addition, there have been public comments and observations about divisiveness on the town council and a need for civility. Doesn't addressing this mater as part of the public agenda actually serve to produce divisiveness? I think it does. Does including this on the public agenda advance civility? I don't think so. Lastly, I'm not a Bible scholar, but let me share something from the Bible which I think applies and it may be familiar to many of you here. It's from John chapter 8 verse 7: "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone." I'll conclude with the thought that, if the rules of procedure were followed, item 9A would never have made it to the public agenda and much divisiveness would have been TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 90 avoided. Thank you. CULP: Hello again. My name is still Beth Culp and I still live in Fountain Hills. Councilmember Skillicorn recently wrote no one seriously believes that I have violated our community standards of ethics. It's apparent based on the comments that have been made in the cards and here tonight that there are in fact many, many people in Fountain Hills who believe that our community standards have been violated time and time again. But more importantly, there are two people, both of them members of our town council, who have expressed their serious belief that Councilmember Skillicorn has violated our community standards of ethics. They expressed that belief by filing ethics complaints, and I'm sure they didn't do that lightly. A third member of the town council, Councilmember Friedel, has also expressed his serious belief that Mr. Skillicorn has violated our community standards of ethics. And in an email to me that he sent on February 20th, 2024, Councilmember Friedel wrote: "As for Skillicorn, I don't care one bit for his character and what he's done to our employees, town, and residents. I think I have been clear about that in the past." I would also like to address Councilmember Skillicorn's claim that this proceeding violates his First Amendment rights. I think he knows that. I think he knows it now. There's a Supreme Court case exactly on point that says a public official's First Amendment rights are not violated if he is censured for not following the rules of the official body of which he is a member. In terms of the First Amendment rights, the one argument that I think is most offensive to me is the idea that his First Amendment rights are being violated because he could be censured for chasing down a public employee with his lights flashing on and off and his horn blaring, wildly gesturing to that employee to pull over. That's not just an ethics violation; that's a crime. In the State of Arizona, if you put somebody in reasonable fear of imminent harm by your conduct, that's an assault. And I suggest that, if another citizen had done the same thing, they would have been arrested and charged. The council can't order Mr. Skillicorn to stop doing what he's been doing, and we know that he won't stop. He really kind of relishes this kind of negative attention and acting TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 90 like he's a hero and a champion of free speech and conservative principles, but the fact that he won't be deterred should not deter you from doing your job, following the code of ethics, and finding that he has indeed violated them. You can do that. The only thing we as residents can do is to beg him to please stop. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Next we have Madicyn Reid. On deck, Christopher Enos, and the final speaker is Kim Wolborsky. REID: Hi. My name is Madicyn Reid. I'm a Fountain Hills resident. I'm here to share my disappointment in this response to the line of questioning by Councilman Skillicorn. Any decision you make as a town council is subject to public questioning. The questions representatives ask are a reflection of the questions we would ask. We elect representatives to take on the responsibility of communicating these inquiries for us because we cannot always be present. They should be answered. Instead, we are threatening punishment on the one who asked. Decisions of this magnitude should honestly only be made after holding town halls with public information hearings where all the data is public and concerns like potential conflicts of interest can be uncovered and avoided. This is how we keep our system honest. You are not a board of directors; you are a board of representatives and it's important that representatives first listen carefully and then act carefully. In our inspirational thought shared during the prayer moment it was said, Fountain Hills would become its best self through logic, reasoning, and empathy, and I would add discussion. I hope this council will respect the need for discussion on all the important decisions we trust you to make. No questions pertaining to a decision being made by our representatives should be considered inappropriate. I must address the woman who felt it is correct to not allow a self-defense from Skillicorn. In what world do we as a society not allow an individual to be involved in their own defense? This is absurd. Whether you feel he is guilty or not, to deny a defense is un-American and, honestly, a disgraceful stance to take as a human being. Allen, you are a hero and a champion of free speech. Keep fighting for the right to discussion. That's the way we get to the solutions that are best for the community, is by TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 90 hearing both sides honestly, openly, and candidly. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Before Christopher starts, I just want to say that we did have -- Kim will not be the last person. Richard Sauer will be. Okay? ENOS: All right, folks. Here we go. I'm here with regard to what's known on your report -- very able report by counsel. It's report number 3. Because I have actually something to say about it. It's not an opinion; it's fact. Number one, this is the report with regard to the meeting at which time the zoning was conducted -- the rezoning. There are two things. First of all, after I saw -- I learned about this a couple of days ago. After I saw the allegations I said, what? And I went back and looked at the tape. And specifically on the tape I noted two things. First of all, Councilwoman Kalivianakis was absolutely right to go out and do her own investigation. That's what a councilperson is supposed to do. They're not supposed to sit there and just take information that's handed to them. They're entitled, if not have a duty, to go out and undertake their own investigation. Secondly, Councilman Skillicorn was right to ask questions and the -- ever since seventh grade when I asked the young lady about something and she said, no, I learned that although questions can sometimes be embarrassing, it doesn't nevertheless reflect upon your ability to ask these questions. And all he did was ask anybody here, talk with the developer. And there were some other questions, but they're questions. So keep in mind that you're council people. You're not in a situation where you are required to sit there mute and only accept what others say. You're entitled and should ask questions. You are entitled and should investigate. This particular report should not be countenanced by this council overall, lest your own abilities to question and/or investigate in the future be restricted. This report has a chilling effect on the ability of people to do their jobs as council people and that cannot be permitted. Secondly, there are due process considerations which I won't go into. I would hesitate to say that this would not fly in a court of law. I asked for and didn't receive anything that said what the councilman was accused of or what the evidence was. So the only one I can address the other item -- the other report TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 90 regarding after sign. But I have to say there are more important things for us to do. There are more important things for you to consider. This will set a bad precedent. I would recommend, since I looked at the ethics and it does not deal with this specifically, that you revisit that and dismiss this by reason of being vague and inappropriate. WOLBORSKY: Madam Mayor, council, I'm Kim Wolborsky. I'm a resident of Fountain Hills and, as always, thrilled to be resident of Fountain Hills. I did not plan to speak tonight, so I don't have anything prepared. So this is going to be one of my F speeches, not one of my As or Bs -- I don't know if I made an A yet. But anyway, I am one of the over 4,000 voters who voted for Councilmember Skillicorn, and I'm still extremely pleased with my vote because, as was spoken earlier much more eloquently, Councilmember Skillicorn has voted on the issues as I would like him to vote. He has done what I like. So it's important to me. He's one of my council people. You're all my council people, but he represents my beliefs. So I read over the list of what the different sanctions are that are available to you, and I'm a little afraid to say anything because last time I spoke up, you guys all voted completely against what I spoke, which is fine. But anyway, I would be extremely disappointed and unhappy if one of the sanctions was that Councilmember Skillicorn had to miss a meeting. His vote should definitely not be taken away over any of this. It's important to me. I expect it's important to a lot of other voters in this town. Thank you. MENDENHALL: Richard? SAUER: I thank you for letting me speak. I feel like I'm one of the first that started Fountain Hills. I moved here in 1977 and I think there were two houses on my street. This is a beautiful town. I love it. But I got tangled into some of the things that I thought were wrong in my duration here. I'm a retired aeronautical engineer by title. I had a technical degree, but I was hired as one immediately. I'm a pilot and I also still teach aviation at ASU. Next semester I'll have a 100 students, and I love every minute of it. And I love this community. But I have to say that I am standing by Allen. I voted for him and my problem is, I don't think -- and I'm not going to accuse anybody, but I don't think TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 90 anybody really signed this civility checklist and are living to it. Okay? I think we're letting political ideals get in your way. Now, I fought against these in the past. The power that be, the first one was the school board. That was the only thing we had. And when I got done with those people, they all voted the way they didn't want to vote. And as a result, before we had a high school, our kids were in Scottsdale and out in the area were the gang fights that my daughter was afraid of, were going on. That followed with a second thing that I got involved in, and you know what? I can't even remember what it was. That's the problem with age. I tell that to my students. But I did look at what Allen Skillicorn is supposed to have done and I think a lot of it -- well, I know some of the people involved because their previous predecessors, I had to face some of them, okay? And I believe what he says. Somebody taking signs, even though there's some kind of mild violation -- and I read these articles in the newspaper. I stopped reading newspapers in 1968, okay, because they don't' tell the truth. But our local newspaper did. And the man that ran it, I knew him very well and he was an honest man. And when I was running for school board -- which by the way, I was told if I did run and win, my wife would lose her job as a teacher because it would be a violation of some doggone rule which never made sense to me. I suppose I could have backed out and not voted if she was involved. But bottom line is -- and as you can see this is a contemporaneous speech because I wasn't really prepared to do it until yesterday -- was that -- MAYOR DICKEY: Sir, could you -- I'm sorry. But we're sticking with the three minutes. So could you just wrap up? SAUER: Okay. I've exceed it already? MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. But if you have one other thing to say. Go ahead. SAUER: Yeah. I had one thought. What I felt was all of the things that were said about Allen, especially him leaving with his tail between his legs in Illinois, I thought that was despicable. I don't know who came up with those kind of ideas and things. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 90 SAUER: Okay. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Is that it, Linda, for speaker cards? MENDENHALL: That's it for comment on this item. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Before we discuss as a council, I just wanted to mention that I understand that Councilman Skillicorn, while he's not able to participate as a council person, that he does have the opportunity to speak on behalf of himself and this would be the time to do that if you'd like. SKILLICORN: I'll waive that. MAYOR DICKEY: You're waiving that? Okay. Because this would be the only time, because once we start, it's -- okay. Any comments right now? GRZYBOWSKI: If I may start? First thing I would like to do is read from the January 17 verbatim minutes. I keep getting accused of calling our town residents RWAs. And I need to read from the minutes because that is not what happened. The minutes were included in both today's agenda as well as the last meeting's agenda. And they say on page 84 of the minutes -- these are my words -- I have both listened to the audio and made sure that it is indeed accurate here. It says, "Take a second and think about how you define riff-raff or how you define those people. Good news, our reputation precedes us and they don't want to live here. They don't want to live with us. To them we are those people. To them we are RWAs." Page 84 of the minutes, if you'd like to look at them yourself. I just wanted to do that. Can I carry on? Okay. So another thing I wanted to do was give you guys a quick reminder about my background. I'm sure many of you didn't pay any attention when I ran, so I'm going to go ahead and tell you right now. Prior to owning and managing our gym, I was a compliance analyst for a major insurance company for four states and the District of Columbia. To call this a political stunt is deflecting from the real issue. We have a code of ethics policy that was violated. The current code of ethics was written and approved by council just last year in 2023. One of these complaints TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 90 originated by an action where he violated the town's sign ordinance, the very sign ordinance that he helped to rewrite and we approved in 2023. Had he not violated the town's sign code ordinance, the confrontation would not have happened with the code enforcement officer. Most likely none of this would have happened. I am not politically motivated. If I wanted to make this political, I would have contacted the press. I would have given them statements. I would have made social media posts, and I would have volunteered to be interviewed by the nice lady that's actually back there recording us today. Thank you for being here. I didn't do any of that. One other thing I definitely wanted to get across before I move this on to somebody else. I put asterisks here so I wouldn't do this. A couple of times people commented that he didn't have a chance to defend himself. I'm going to remind you that after each incident he could have apologized -- after the first incident, he could have apologized to the town code enforcement officer. He chose not to do so. It came out in the paper. He could have then made a statement, whether publicly or privately, apologized to the town code enforcement officer. He chose not to do so. After each incident he had an opportunity to defend himself. He had an opportunity to apologize. He chose not to do so. Again, the investigator called him. I assume he was interviewed by the way the paperwork is written up. He, again, had an opportunity to defend himself. He, again, had an opportunity to apologize and he did not do so. Thank you for the time, Mayor. MAYOR DICKEY: Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah, I have more of a statement I'd like to make, and after we've had a brief discussion of what's going on tonight, so I'll save it for now. But I just want to condense this to something very short and very simple to understand. On that night -- and I filed my ethics violation on the code enforcement officer. Sharron did the other. When that happened, in my estimation, Councilmember Skillicorn hunted down our code enforcement officer like a dog catcher would have gone after a stray dog. The code TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 90 enforcement officer felt -- and this is from the reports -- that he was in danger. He fled to the sheriff's office because he felt he was in danger at the time that he stopped the car. These are not contested facts. Allen went to go in his car to remove his sign. So you pull somebody over and you go to get into their car. Then when the deputy gets involved, you lie twice to the deputy officer. Is that what we do to law enforcement when we're stopped? We come up with the first convenient lie and then after questioning, then we confess, yeah, we lied? That's not acceptable, guys. I don't care what side of the aisle. This is not politically charged. They say why is this going to this level, Brenda? Why are you taking it to this level? If Allen would have said, hey, I looked back at that tape, I look pretty bad, I'm sorry, we wouldn't be here right now, folks. We'd be discussing some other agenda item that would help our community and do right by our citizens. We're here because he doubled-down on very bad behavior. Now stay with me. Section 8.4 states that the council shall be dedicated to the highest ideals of honor, ethics, and integrity in all public and personal relationships. Does the characterization and the facts I presented to you tonight that are not in dispute, is that the acts of an honorable -- I won't say person, but an act. And I will say on that night he fell short of what we expect from our public officials, and all he had to do was own it and it would be done. I think that we respect our law enforcement, and when they stop us and when we made a mistake, you don't lie to them. You tell them the truth. So I'd like to address this more later, but I just had to get that out. This isn't that complicated, and I think -- I don't care what side of the aisle you're on, right now we just say, yeah, he had a bad day. He got mad. I put those same signs up and I remember I used to get mad at those same officers too, so I get the anger. But you don't hunt them down and employ self- help to get your sign back. And if you did thing -- the sign ordinance was unconstitutional -- again, you don't employ self-help. You go to put it on the agenda to repeal an unconstitutional ordinance, which I don't think he ever did. He never tried to fix the unconstitutional principles of the very ordinance he said was not constitutional TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 90 and he serves on the town council. I don't think he made mention to our town manager that I think we have a law on the books that isn't constitutional. Self-help in this world is dangerous. Pulling over people in cars and trying to enter it, if it wasn't for our code enforcement officer -- he got real lucky because there's a lot of violence out there. So he pulled over the right person and there was no violence. But what he did was wrong. And I'm sorry, Allen, you should have just said, I'm wrong. MCMAHON: Thank you. You know, I sit up here and I listen to your comments and I appreciate them. But I do want to say that this is not politically motivated. It's based on Skillicorn's conduct. That's all it's based on. We have obligation as a council through our rules of procedure and code of ethics to address a situation like this when there's been a violation of the code of ethics. So to paint it as being something else is wrong in my opinion. It's a privilege and an honor to serve up here as a councilmember and to have your trust. We uphold our code of ethics to the highest standards of our office and conduct ourselves to maintain the integrity of our office and public confidence. Unfortunately, we are here tonight to address conduct found to be unbecoming by Councilmember Skillicorn and, as set forth in our rules of procedure, hold him accountable for our code of ethics and under state law and, possibly, discipline him for sustained code of ethics violations. And the first one involves, Peter, one of our code enforcement officers. And when Councilmember Skillicorn took his oath a year ago, he pledged to represent our town in the highest standards fitting an elected official, while protecting the town and its employees, which he serves. This pledge must be adhered to at all times, not just when it's egotistically or politically convenient for him to do so. And we are here tonight to hold him accountable for his dangerous actions towards Peter. This incident involves a temporary sign, a temporary sign illegally placed. And this isn't the first incident involving Skillicorn and a temporary sign. Because when he was running for election, one of his temporary signs placed illegally was removed and he came to town and he yelled and screamed at town employees, demanding that sign be TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 90 returned to him. He ended up being escorted from town hall as a result of his aggressive conduct. Bu this incident involving Peter is much more dangerous and has been stated, Mr. Skillicorn is aware of the sign ordinance. We've reviewed it ad nauseum, five times under his urging. He knows what the sign ordinance entails and where to place signs. He had a tracing device -- in fact, he had a tracing device on this sign. So to me, he was just lying in wait for it to be taken. And when it was removed, he was on it. He was speeding to town to find out and to follow who took that sign. We all know, and I've heard the word, road rage. Road rage is an aggressive or angry behavior that includes rude and verbal insults, yelling, physical threats, or dangerous driving methods targeted at other drivers in an effort to intimidate or release frustration. Road rage can lead to altercations, damage to property, assaults, and collisions that result in serious physical injuries, even death. You know, based on the facts and what I've seen -- and seen and heard, this -- to me, this is road rage. He tried with his car to run Peter, our code enforcement officer, off the road by flashing his high beams and almost ramming the bumper of his car for two miles. This intense, reckless, aggressive disregard for Peter's safety placed Peter in fear of his own safety and life to such a degree he drove to town, to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and Peter is a retired police officer. He was scared. Skillicorn also, in driving for two miles, must recognize the fact that it's a white town car with a town emblem. So he knew he was following a town employee. He has a duty to protect them. And also, once at town hall -- and this is on tape with the Maricopa County sheriff's body cam. He could have taken a safer action and just walked up to Peter, talked to him about his sign, and asked for it to be returned. He didn't. Instead, he approached Peter at a quick pace and loud, aggressive tone, demanding to give him back his sign. He also tried to break into Peter's car and retrieve the sign. And the officer, Ofc. Limb, called him out on it. It's on the video. He continued to verbally walk towards -- and aggressively walk towards them, Peter and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 90 the deputy, and said you guys are skating on thin ice. When asked by Dep. Limb about his reckless driving and attempt to run Peter off the road, he lied. He denied aggressively and dangerously pursuing a town employee, but the officer called him out on it and he had to admit that he was lying. Again, all of this is on a body cam. So to me, this type of conduct over a sign and this type of conduct as a councilmember, who's supposed to represent and keep our town safe, is egregious. It's done purely to bully, intimidate, and inflict fear in Peter who was merely doing his job. His lying to the deputy when he was caught in the act demonstrates a lack of credibility and inability to hold public confidence or have respect for our officers. The code of ethics provides that we need to set positive example of good citizenship and scrupulously observe the letter and the spirit of the law, also to affirm the dignity and worth of services rendered by the town government and maintain a deep sense of social responsibility as a trusted public servant; it goes on and on. And it's unfortunate that we're even here to have to address this tonight. You know, the attorney was an independent investigator. And she found -- I do not believe that such actions affirm the dignity and worth of the services rendered by the town government and maintain a deep sense of social responsibility as a public service about Skillicorn. His conduct alone has been found to violate these ethics, be unbefitting a councilmember, and really, seriously, has gotten to the point that have to take action to protect our town and its employees. It's also our responsibility to provide closure for Peter and to hold Skillicorn accountable for his egregious acts by possibly imposing sanctions. And in addition, there's another ethics complaint filed against him for his actions at a council meeting where he purposefully and intentionally made slanderous comments to us, found to be in violation. We need to be dedicated to the highest ideals of honor, ethics, and integrity in all of our public and personal relationships, engage in constructive conversations and debates, and avoid personal attacks or derogatory language and refrain from making disparaging remarks about other councilmembers and verbal attacks about their character or motives. Again, he has been found to be in violation of that. He came to the meeting with the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 90 disingenuous intent to use his official position for his express political purpose to manipulate and disrupt the vote at the Target Center development. As found by the reviewing attorney, no matter how Skillicorn tried to fake the sincerity of his purported questions to us, he wrongly used his position to personally convey unsubstantiated character assassinations of me and other councilmembers based on rumors of having ex parte conversations with Target Center developer, trying to influence and get bribes and contributions for our campaign in order for the developer to receive favorable vote. This absolutely did not happen, and I believe that was conveyed that night by me and my comment. I take my oath as a councilwoman with conviction and integrity. I took exception to what I believed and felt was Skillicorn's inappropriate, baseless, and as I said, vulgar accusations against me, and I told him so at the time. I stand on my comment. Since being on council, I have observed Skillicorn and I don't believe he has demonstrated a lack of remorse or inability to conduct himself in a manner befitting a councilmember. In fact, he proudly calls himself the agent of chaos and posts this moniker on social media. His social media posts and photos have denounced and condemned certain people in our town, unfortunately. They stated lies, misstatements, denounced the mayor, amongst other things. You know, I've been going door to door, talking to people from my campaign and a lot of them are complaining. Unfortunately, they're complaining about his conduct. They want us to do something about it, and we have to. He's brought it before us in such a manner that we have to address it. You know, also around -- I attend board meetings and other meetings with colleagues. They keep asking what's going on. Our reputation is being sullied. And as for -- I just think that this is not a political matter. This is based on conduct, and I'm really hoping that you see that he is not the victim. He's the bully in my opinion, and something needs to be done about this because he's hurt a lot of people. So I hope tonight we will do something about it within our power and address his disingenuous conduct and insatiable appetite for negative attention and negative press. Thank you. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 90 FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. It's funny that integrity and conduct are two words that have been used up here, when this council sat here and violated our own rules of procedure and had this on an open agenda item on March 5th. Where was the integrity? Where was the conduct, I ask. Listen, it's no secret I'm not a fan of Allen's arrogant, bullying, rude style, but did it escalate to a fact of an ethics violation? This town received a letter from an attorney on March 5th outlining actions that will be taken against this town and the town council. I got that letter yesterday. For two weeks this letter sat somewhere. I'm disappointed in the fact that it wasn't disseminated earlier. I got ahold of legal advice myself, so my attorney has told me what I need to do, but I do have a few statements I want to make. Again, I don't condone his style at all. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. The mayor put this on a regular agenda item, when the process for the ethics violations have always been in an executive session. This could have all been dealt with in the last council meeting had we done this according to our own rules of procedure for the town. The code is very specific. It states, in fact, that this process is to be conducted in an executive session unless requested otherwise, which happened a little bit earlier today by the accused. Some people think that past ethics violations in this town have been handled in an open session. That is not the case. I have personally verified that with former councilmembers, several of them. This is also in direct conflict with -- I believe it was Richard who brought up the checklist, the civility checklist from the town's own paper. There are several things in there: take the high road, be respectful, set a good example. Are we doing that here tonight? This is the sixth meeting we've had where we're disrupted. When do we get to the town business, is what I ask. I have an idea. Let's do this in two days. Let's hold a civility seminar here in town. This council, there are four of us that are seeking future office in this town. Three of them are on this dais right now that are going to be supporting this effort Thursday night at the community center. Rules for me but not for thee. We're TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 35 of 90 going to tell you how to be civil, but we don't act that way ourselves up here, and I'm including myself in that when I say that. So I have a problem with that. It's not a good example. It's past time now that we get on to the town business. There should be no inhibition to this council to do its job. On advice from my legal counsel, I will not be voting in support of any sanctions against Councilman Skillicorn. I'm sorry I had to reach out to legal counsel, but I respect my counsel, and I will follow his advice. Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR DICKEY: I'm going to see if -- TOTH: Madam Mayor? MAYOR DICKEY: I'm going to see if Hannah has anything. Councilwoman, yes. Yes, Councilwoman Toth? TOTH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. You read my mind. I fully disagree with the process by which this issue has been handled. Last meeting, despite the claim that this was completely legal, we were objectively on a path to violate our own council policy. And thank you to the member of the public who cited the exact lines of that. For the sake of making a further public spectacle of an elected member of this body this week, prior to the councilmember's request to make this solely public, the mayor had already placed this item on both the executive session and public meeting agenda. When, once again, it was brought to her attention that this has not ever been automatically on a public agenda, the response we, as a council, received stated that it needs to be on an agenda for formal action and that, because formal action was not taken on former complaints such as Councilmember Spelich or Magazine times two, there were not -- they were not on a public agenda. Now, I believe this therefore raises the question how did we know that formal action would be taken before we had discussed any of these violations? Furthermore, it has been made very clear that this does not simply concern the violations at hand but appears to have become a trial of Skillicorn as a whole, like his entire personality. And therefore, although it is clear that this vote is already decided, I will be a no vote on anything to do TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 36 of 90 with this issue. I am absolutely baffled by how far this has spiraled, and I find this entire situation embarrassing for everyone involved. Not that long ago, I quoted in a meeting a few verses that felt relevant to a change in how our meetings would be conducted, and those same verses ring true today. And I have to say that there's so much of me that is grateful that, considering the bizarre way this process has been handled and what this conversation has devolved to behind closed doors, that this entire discussion has been in the public eye. I believe this town can judge for themselves who has condescended to the public and who is standing on principle. But again, I'll be a no vote on anything to do with this. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah, just to weigh in, just very briefly on what my attorney friend and colleague Chris Enos said. And that is, for the first thing is, I appreciate your recognizing that, when I attempted to get the parking agreement from the folks who are building the Target Center project, it was because I was doing that to try to protect the people, to make sure that they were promising what they deliver. And there was some of the people in our community said, are you sure they even have a parking agreement? And so I worked really hard. I said, at this town council meeting, I was going to get that produced. That was one of the things I told Councilmember Friedel when we talked privately. I said, if they don't produce what they said they have, I'm a no vote on this thing. And so they did produce it, and now I'm being looked to be vilified, like I'm having private communications. It wasn't a private communication whatsoever. They reached out and said, Brenda, is this your email address? And I reached out and I said, yes. And they said, okay, here's the parking agreement. To vilify that is just beyond the pale. And so I wanted to get that out. And thank you, Chris. I also agree with Chris, that if during that night that Allen spoke, on the 17th, about the exchange of money and the communications, if he had handled just slightly differently, I TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 37 of 90 wouldn't have had any problem with it. He did open the conversation, asking our town attorney if this was a quasi-judicial or legislative process. The town attorney at that time -- I reviewed the tape, like we all have -- said, no, it's legislative in nature. It was not ambiguous. Our town attorney said it's legislative. And so ex parte communications would not even be relevant -- we have a couple attorneys here. That's for judicial proceedings that pertain to judges and having communications with other attorneys. So he threw that out there, which I don't think was in good faith, because there was nothing -- it had nothing to do with those type of communications. And then he mentioned, did we get any campaign contributions? If he would have left it at that, I agree with Chris. But if you look at the tape -- and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm not interpreting it correctly, and if so, I apologize. But when I look at that tape, he made the insinuation, that because you've had these inappropriate communications and because you've greased the skids with money, that this wasn't happen in the normal process. That it was handled with less transparency than we're used to, and it was also rushed along. That was very unusual for a project like this. And so the insinuation was not just did you have any communications and did he give you any campaign contributions. It was more sinister than that. And the sinister part was in the nuance. I invite you to go back and look at the tape. So once again, Councilmember Skillicorn is just walking that line of just knowing when to take it back and when to just push that line a little too far. That night, he did push the line too far, in my opinion. And then lastly, what I'd like to address is this concept of this being a partisan witch hunt and how his political opponents are using this council to bludgeon him, and the many other statements that he's made that I think we're all aware of. I would just like to remind Allen that it was myself and him and Hannah. We're on a ticket together. I was aware of his background in Illinois that was a little questionable. But when I first met him and he gave a speech at the Fountain Hills Republican Club three years ago, he said, I left Illinois, it was a cesspool, and I got the hell out of there, Brenda, and the whole group. And he said, and I'm here in Fountain Hills, and it's friendly and it's civil TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 38 of 90 and it's safe and it's low taxes. And Sheriff Joe, I see you in the audience tonight. I think you recalled that speech because you looked at me and he said, Brenda, I don't like you when he calls it Mayberry, because that's what he called it. We're like Mayberry. I didn't like the reference either. I don't think we're like Mayberry. We got better law enforcement than they had. Anyway. So all due respect to Barney Fife And so I handed out those cards for him. When I thought at the end -- when I thought Cindy might win the election, me and Hannah and Allen put together a mailer. We spent $3,000. We sent a political mailers to everybody that was not decided and hadn't voted, and I think we -- and I'm partly responsible -- got him over the finish line and he did win. And I was proud of that, and we got a lot done. And a matter of fact, when Allen himself just recently spoke to the press, he said instead of celebrating victories for our town, like bringing back the invocation prayer, firing the taxpayer-funded lobbyists, banning mask mandates, and defeating a massive tax hike, some people would rather waste town time and money on politically charged vendettas. But I would remind Allen that I voted with him in every single one of those items. I was with you on that. And so now to say that I have some kind of a politically charged vendetta against him, I find that offensive. Because I think that he takes a lot of good votes, and I've supported Allen, and I'm not going to sit here and try to hide from that. I own it and I wear the T-shirt. But don't accuse me of being politically charged. I didn't like what I saw the day that you did what you did to our code enforcement officer. I have a duty to stick up to the people in this town, to the staff in this town, and to my fellow councilmembers, and I thought you went too far. You do have a tendency to be pretty rough on town staff, and it can be really demoralizing. And you are pretty hard on the people that you don't agree with politically, too. You're very good at it. And attacking the council and impugning our integrity, I just think was just a step too far. And like I already explained, I think the insinuation was we were corrupt. And so again, instead of apologizing and just moving on, we find ourselves here. But to say that I put us here or we put us here, let's just -- it's -- it's you put us here, Allen, because of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 39 of 90 your conduct. You have to take responsibility, not us. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. I want to talk a little bit about the process aspect of it. So in concert, yes, with Vice Mayor Kalivianakis and with Councilmember Grzybowski, I lawfully and appropriately placed discussion of the police and investigators reports, which also included important complaints that didn't lead to a guilty finding. But that is in our agenda. And I put it on a public agenda for possible action, and indeed, a public meeting is the only place where action can occur. In addition, a move to censure a council person is not predicated by that member being found guilty of an ethical violation, but by other members wanting to convey their disapproval of certain behaviors in an official way. Censure provides a public record of action taken to correct alleged or established misconduct, which can also be important should any future behavior become the subject of litigation. This is unprecedented in a lot of ways. Sustained findings in the past didn't require votes by the council in order for the consequence or the apology to be carried out. As has been noted, though, Councilman Skillicorn has decided that he wanted this to only be discussed in public. So this is what's happening right now. I'm not going to agree that I'm an uncivil person. I've never acted in an uncivil way. And I will say we did take action in the past, a long time ago, when we had a ruling against us for a open meeting or like a executive session violation. We voted to accept the ruling and then we had City of Phoenix attorney come and school us on what we did wrong. So we have done this publicly. And the other item -- well, and again, it's was public and the other ethical complaints that were brought up were very much discussed in public. Whether there was an executive session before or not is moot. At this point, though, there have been several complaints lodged for acting in ways not acceptable to our ethics code that we do agree to follow when we take our oath of office -- ethical codes and oaths or statements of the moral principles that govern the conduct of a group, a profession, or an individual. Doctors, lawyers, corporations, teachers, and more share that high bar with us. So TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 40 of 90 these two complaints, attempting to pull over a town employee and casting doubt on the integrity of the council and also the whole town process and the staff involved, were upheld by outside counsel and has been mentioned that the selection of that attorney is a routine matter. The claims that the attorney was handpicked by the mayor to thwart or silence anybody are completely false. Statements made that the mayor and council would have responded about taking the money if we had nothing to hide illustrate how those remarks actually caused damage and caused suspicion upon us and on the developers and on staff. So the fact that I get an email saying, why didn't you just answer, shows that the motivation -- or maybe not the motivation, but the result of that cast aspersions and suspicion on all of us, including the developers and our staff. And ex parte, I'll bring that up. It's a term, as Brenda mentioned, that doesn't apply to our procedures. But if we want to indulge it a little bit about what it means, the council did have thorough information. We had conversation pro and con. It was not one sided at all, and we listened to a lot of testimony that night as well in order to make the decision one way or the other. There's no reason or evidence to say any of those things and make council, staff, and applicants look guilty of something that was absolutely not true. So I do agree that that one is a violation. The interaction with the code and law enforcement officers was unethical, in my opinion, as well as part of a pattern, as it was mentioned, of what I see as ill treatment of staff and disparaging remarks, untrue assertions about their actions and their motives in several departments in this town hall. This has caused distress for them and for the community. When asked by a Channel 12 reporter right immediately after the last meeting about being aware of the the fact that the code enforcement officer felt threatened, you said, I think it's -- councilman said, I think it's ridiculous. Again, this was a former police officer, a police officer that was trained to recognize risks and also how to react to them and to report accordingly. And then that was confirmed by a current law enforcement person. The response on the news is not what I would consider backing our first responders. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 41 of 90 I believe that it is time for this council to take disciplinary action against Councilman Skillicorn to ensure that we collectively do represent our town in a good way. I know that there's difference of opinion on this, but there are many, many people who have been hurt and we represent them just as much as everybody else. It's never a positive thing for us to be going through something like this with a community, with ethical issues within their governing body. However, it is our responsibility to acknowledge the situation and address it seriously, giving our staff and our businesses and all our residents now and in the future the clear expectation and confidence in all of their interactions with the town. We were and will be and will continue to be a united, respectful, inviting family community. We do not have qualifying requirements for entrance and we certainly will not take abuse from our elected officials without consequence. We all value freedom of speech. I know that you've mentioned that and I agree with you, but it's not an absolute or a comprehensive in every situation. We have to practice self-control. We have to practice discipline. And that's necessary in a multitude of scenarios that you can imagine, airplanes, at a play, just a lot of places. There's no joy or satisfaction with this at all. This is a disheartening situation and I hope that we can move beyond it. And at this point, I'd like to ask if there's any motions from any of our council people? Councilwoman -- Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. I also want to make just a very brief statement before I make a motion, and that is to Councilmember Friedel. I appreciate your statement of record and I understand you. You sought your own legal counsel, and you're being guided by that tonight. But I also appreciate your statement about Allen's behavior and supporting the town staff and this council and the residents. I know this is very politically charged, and I know that that was a very brave thing for you to do. So thank you. I really appreciate that. And the emails I received today, which were numerous, many people implored me not TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 42 of 90 to fire Allen and follow the will of the voters. And I can tell you right now that is not on the table, people. This is not an offense that we can remove an elected official. That's not even on the table. And I just want to address that because a lot of people sincerely thought that, like what was mentioned tonight in the call that we don't think you should remove Allen. He was elected. I voted for him. And that's not on the table. And a matter of fact, I don't even want to remove him from any future meetings, even though that's something that we have the possibility to do, because, once again, the people voted for Allen. There's people that like Allen, and they support Allen, and they like his temperament and they like his views on the way he conducts himself. So I would not recommend depriving him of sitting with this very council. And like I did state numerous times, I just hope this is kind of a wake-up call by Allen and we can just work together again, put this behind us. And like I said, so that wouldn't be -- but what I would recommend and the motion I would make is that, at a minimum, depending on what this council thinks, I think he should have a censure in his record. And so I would move the main motion be for Allen to be censured based on his conduct. MAYOR DICKEY: Is there a second, please? MCMAHON: I'll second it. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Is there any further discussion on that motion? I see none. Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Nay. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Nay. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 43 of 90 KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Anything further? Any further motions or discussion? Councilwoman? MCMAHON: Do we do we get specific about the sanctions now? MAYOR DICKEY: If there's something that you would like to -- MCMAHON: Yes. Thank you. You know, Allen, it's unfortunate that we're sitting up here and have to do this, but it's part of our duties as fellow councilmembers. And I would like to, at a minimum, about Peter, see you write a letter of apology to him, for one thing. As for conduct with the staff, I've heard negative things about that too. I think that part of the sanction would be you're not allowed to communicate or be with a staff member without somebody with you. Also -- Do you want me to keep going, or do you want to do one at a time? MAYOR DICKEY: You can keep going. MCMAHON: Okay. Also, you know about the -- we also have the ability to address leadership positions for a councilmember that's being sanctioned. There is a Arizona League of Cities and Towns annual conference every year. I think part of the sanction would be that the town not pay for his attendance there. While that seems petty, it's not. It's part of a sanction. I also would like to talk about ,you know, you can prevent, as part of the sanctions, someone from taking a leadership position who may not have conduct in being a leader. As everybody knows, we rotate the vice mayorship for a couple of months in rotation. So I would like to see as a sanction that he not be, for the remainder of his time, eligible to serve in a leadership position as vice mayor. Those are my suggestions right now. MAYOR DICKEY: Is there a second? GRZYBOWSKI: I was just going to ask, is that a motion? So yes, that was a motion. I second. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 44 of 90 MCMAHON: Yes, it's a motion. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Are there any amendments or further discussion? I'd like to just have a clarifying question about the contact. I would agree with physical contact with staff members but not when it comes to emails and such like that. What would you -- KALIVIANAKIS: I have a point of order. MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry? KALIVIANAKIS: I have a point of order. I just want to get advice from our attorney. After we made a motion and it was approved on a split vote, can we make further motions? ARNSON: Mayor and council, I think things might have gone a little bit out of turn. We already had a motion and a second. So unless there's a desire to reconsider -- a motion to reconsider, which is permitted during this or a subsequent council meeting, then we can do that and reopen the debate. But otherwise, we had a motion and a vote. So if you want to do that and backtrack with a motion to reconsider, I would suggest that's the proper procedure to do it. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. But I know -- I thought that the motion to censure -- and then we could say what that involved afterwards. You're saying we couldn't do that? ARNSON: Oh, I see what you're saying. MAYOR DICKEY: We passed the censure and then we voted on -- ARNSON: Well -- MAYOR DICKEY: We didn't vote -- ARNSON: Right. MAYOR DICKEY: -- but we took a motion to take specific action. ARNSON: So at this point, Mayor, however you want to handle it, you can go and do a motion and a second. If you want to get technical about it, just do a motion to reconsider, second, vote on the motion to reconsider, and then vote on a fresh new slate of things. A censure including but not limited to -- including the following. Right? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 45 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: I'm trying to look at the wording. Sanctions and possible censure against -- so I don't know why we we have to do it that way. But if you're saying that. Would you like to do that? So does the person who made the first -- or anybody can do a reconsideration? ARNSON: Anyone who voted in the affirmative on the motion. MAYOR DICKEY: And then we'd need a new motion -- ARNSON: Yep. MAYOR DICKEY: -- with everything included and and we can -- it's already been stated. ARNSON: Yep. MAYOR DICKEY: So so the motion to reconsider would be -- you'd need an affirmative vote? ARNSON: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So would somebody make a motion to reconsider, please? MCMAHON: Motion to reconsider. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. GRZYBOWSKI: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Yeah. All in favor, please, of the -- I mean, roll call vote to reconsider, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. KMENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 46 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Now, can we say, --since Peggy already said all that, can we say that -- can she move what she previously said, including the censure? ARNSON: Yes, Mayor. MCMAHON: I have a question, Aaron. And one of them that I moved for was to not be with the staff member without somebody. Can I also change that to say that the communications that he has with staff members be respectful or no? ARNSON: Mayor -- MCMAHON: That's not enforceable? ARNSON: Yeah. Mayor and council, I would suggest that we stray from things that have subjective view to them. MCMAHON: Okay. I agree. Thank you. So my prior motion and sanctions that I would like are the same with the exception of that he not be with staff members unless there's somebody else around -- physically around, that Skillicorn not be allowed to be around staff members physically unless there is another person present. Thank you. TOTH: Mayor, may I make a comment? MAYOR DICKEY: One second, please. MCMAHON: So please reconsider the censure. Is that -- MAYOR DICKEY: No, just include it with your motion. MCMAHON: Excuse me. So I include -- it's included with my motion. Whatever the mayor is saying. MAYOR DICKEY: Is there a second? You understand that? So the motion was for a censure and all of those items that she listed. GRZYBOWSKI: So the motion was for the censure? Cannot be vice mayor, cannot physically meet with staff member without Rachael, will not use taxpayer money for him to go to meetings and events like the Arizona League of Cities and Towns; is that what I understand? Okay. So that was the motion. MCMAHON: Thank you. GRZYBOWSKI: I will second that. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 47 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Hannah? TOTH: Thank you. I know that there was a claim we have the ability to do that with the vice mayor. Have we ever done that in the past? MAYOR DICKEY: We've never done any of this in the past. TOTH: Okay. And furthermore, I have a question regarding the communications with staff. I understand we made the exception that he'd be able to send emails, but I would like for the council to very seriously consider if we would like to set the precedent of disallowing a councilmember to do his homework on issues. I think that conversations with staff are really, really important to being knowledgeable about the things that we vote on and I don't think we should limit his ability to do his job. I understand that, again, this vote has already been decided, but I would really like to encourage my fellow councilmembers to really consider what we are doing right now. MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks, Hannah. I believe that we're not -- it would just be physically, and it would be that somebody would have to be with him when he was meeting with somebody physically. Otherwise, any kind of research or emails -- right? Is that good? Phone calls and such would still be okay. MCMAHON: Hannah, we're not preventing him from having conversations, doing research, and carrying out his responsibilities as a councilmember, as Mayor Dickey clarified. MAYOR DICKEY: Any other? Oh. Councilmember, sorry. FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. I just think that this is punitive beyond words. I mean, yes, we can do these things. I just think that it's an awful lot for what's going on here. And I think we've really opened Pandora's box here by oversalting this wound. I had concerns about the communication as well, because we still need representation and things done in the town. So I'm glad you clarified that. I think it also puts a little bit more of a burden on the staff to have somebody physically present. I think he's on notice. I think -- hopefully, he gets this. So TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 48 of 90 I think that's going a little bit too far by putting handcuffs on our staff to be present in a meeting. If we have an issue, then we deal with it. That's just my two cents. MAYOR DICKEY: Any comments about that or any of this? GRZYBOWSKI: Actually, just a quick comment. We do have an issue and we are dealing with it. MAYOR DICKEY: Anything else? Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. You might have been better served had you voted not to do the motion for reconsideration. Because when you voted affirmatively for that, you opened this up to what we're doing right now. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, this is what we wanted. We want the censure and the sanctions, and apparently we had to do it all at once, so. FRIEDEL: It wouldn't have mattered. MAYOR DICKEY: No, it makes sense. They might have thought we might have had a change. That makes sense, that you would have done that. Can we have a roll call, please? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Nay. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Nay. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you very much. Move on to our next item, which is the discussion of approval of ordinance 24-03 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 49 of 90 regarding medical marijuana use. John? Not use, hours. John. I'm sorry. WESLEY: I've got to update my presentation. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. I've been requested to have a break. Thanks. [CLERKS NOTE: COUNCIL RECESSED AT 7:33 P.M. FOR A BREAK AND RECONVENED AT 7:49 P.M.] MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thanks, John. WESLEY: Mayor and council, got a short presentation for you this evening and turn it over to the applicant for further discussion. But we are here to consider an amendment to Chapter 24 of the zoning ordinance, which is a chapter on medical marijuana facilities. Council previously discussed this at your January 8th meeting, and that request that time included a request to change the hours of operation allowed by ordinance and also to allow for delivery. It was continued for further discussions between the applicant and community members, particularly to look at other options within the code. And it comes back to you now with request to remove the provision for delivery services. That will come back at a future meeting. So this evening, we're just looking at the text amendment as it deals with changing the hours. Again, the current hours are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The request is to change those to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. So a couple hours both ways. I won't go into some of the discussion from last time about how this compares to other communities. But as part of the negotiation, one of the concerns for the community, the Protect Our Youth Coalition, was that we do some things to help provide some protection safeguards to youth in the community. And the language that's been discussed is shown in the ordinance language that was provided to you. Been further discussions this evening during the early part of the meeting, and now proposing some slight changes to the wording that was presented to you. And this is the revised language that's being recommended at this time or presented to you for your consideration. The words that are different are italicized. So in the first line, instead of saying "shall TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 50 of 90 offer," it's now "shall include". Added language, "mutually acceptable educational material" and adding to the end "and protecting our youth". So those are some changes the applicant and the representatives from the local organization have come up with for your consideration this evening. So with that, staff and the planning commission are recommending approval. I can try to answer any questions that you have, but the applicant has a more thorough background discussion for some of the language that they have been working, some of the discussions they have had. I guess, I do want to mention one more thing. It's been important to representatives of the town to get this language that's being proposed in the code with regard to providing materials. Ultimately, this is maybe not the best place in the ordinance for it to be. And so if we do move forward with the other change to the ordinance with regard to deliveries, you may see us also come back and tweak this a little bit more, maybe move it someplace else and maybe continue to refine that language. I just wanted to give you a heads-up on that, that that may happen -- another -- another text change. So with that, I will close this one. MAYOR DICKEY: Does anybody have any questions for John before we take public comments? WESLEY: We have the applicant's presentation. They're here also. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Any questions for the applicant? You're going to come up and do that, okay. Hi. SCHUBE: Hi. Mayor, Vice Mayor, council. Thank you so much. I will try to keep my comments brief as it's been a long meeting already. Again, Lindsay Schube with the law firm of Gammage and Burnham. Chloe Plaisance is with me tonight, a land use attorney. And we don't have Tabitha Myers, our general counsel. We have Steve Cottrell, the CEO of the company. He came here tonight to show how important this is to he and his organization. Again, Phoenix Cannabis Company, small local business. This is the only dispensary that they have in the State of Arizona. It was opened in Fountain Hills on August 25th, 2023. And they are committed to being a community member. Part of this, the continuance really did lead us to some great productive conversations. Again TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 51 of 90 and quickly, this will have -- if this text amendment is approved -- a very important operational impact to the dispensary. We anticipate a 40 percent increase in revenue and a 50 percent increase in daily transactions. And at a minimum, we will double staff. Because of the hours, we'll have to double our staff. So at the previous, John said, we were here in January. We were here in January in front of the planning and zoning commission. We are here in front of you guys and council on February 6th, again. We had that two-part request. What happened? You guys continued us. As a result of that, it allowed for an opportunity to get to know Tammy Bell and to have a lot of communications with the Foundation Hills Protect our Youth Coalition. And it also allowed us to bifurcate the request at her request. So what have we done? We've had multiple meetings. Well, one meeting, well, maybe phone calls, email discussions with the Fountain Hills Protect Our Youth Coalition. You guys do have a gem in Tammy. It has been actually a pleasure getting to know her and working with her on this process. She's been very respectful of understanding our business needs while making sure that she is representing the coalition and helping us understand the goals and the needs of the coalition. So it really has been great. We have collaborative -- what have we done? We have collaborative ordinance drafting. We have collaborated and as much as tonight, like we said, we even changed the language tonight at the beginning part of the council hearing. And that's what we're coming forth tonight. And again, the bifurcation that was at the request of the coalition, and we're very comfortable with it. We would like to come back for delivery. I think there are some and I'm not going to stray, town attorney, and talk about something that's not agendized. But there are some conditions that we can put in delivery that hopefully people will feel comfortable with. Maybe we come to a study session at some point, but we know that that's a more detailed conversation. And so out of respect for the council and the coalition, we're happy to spend some more time working on that. In the meantime, though, these hours are important. This is a small local business and these four hours are important to us. So again, what are we asking for? Allow the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 52 of 90 dispensary to operate from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. And then that additional language that we've added in, that was at the request of the coalition, but it's something we're comfortable with. Dispensaries and the coalition are more aligned than one would think at face value. No one comes in who's under 21. There are a lot of safeties and safeguards. So no changes, though, in any of the other zoning requirements or limitations and nothing tonight with regard to delivery, but we would like to come back on that. So this is the language. This was the red language. So we just put it right in black because this is what we feel comfortable with. So again "shall include with each sale, if provided by the Fountain Hills Protect Our Youth Coalition or successor organization" -- that was added by your town attorney -- "mutually acceptable educational material pertaining to the safe storage of marijuana products and protecting youth". That's something that's important to all of us. Again, the hours that we are requesting are less than a neighboring jurisdiction, like Scottsdale. As discussed at the planning and zoning commission hearing, there was a commissioner who discussed something different, something more broad. Again, we want our narrowly tailored request to match the goals and the goals and the values of the Town of Fountain Hills. Again, there are so many safety concerns and that is where I say the coalition and state- regulated dispensaries are more akin than one would think. There are security plans. We have licenses that are very important and valuable, 24-hour independent-monitored security, multiple ID checks. Again, none of these safeguards are in place at liquor stores, drug stores, vape shops, any of those things. So we really -- our values do align with the coalition. And frankly, it's been great working with them and hopefully we can have some continued discussions on on the delivery front. So I'm here with a unanimous recommendation of approval from planning and zoning commission. We did have 55 letters of support in with our packet. And then at our February hearing, there were 13 persons in attendance who registered or who were in support. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 53 of 90 And it really has been great to collaborate with the coalition. So with that -- and again, to answer, John said, it's not normal to have both of those two separate subject matters in the same line. The reason why we need it is because that's how it was noticed, and so we're very comfortable moving forward with that. At some point if there's another text amendment in the future, we can -- but we want to make sure that everyone agreed to what the changes were and what the language was. So with that, I respectfully request approval. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilwoman? MCMAHON: Thank you very much. I appreciate your willingness to work with the coalition on the language. I would like -- I think that we're talking about two things here. We're talking about time. We're talking about the coalition being able to provide some language about safety, storage of the product that people are purchasing. I think in that regard, it's not an end. And if you don't mind, could you please switch back to your language that you changed? Thank you. And am I allowed to ask Tammy a question? MAYOR DICKEY: Oh, she'll probably come up, right? MCMAHON: Tammy, are you going to make a statement or no? Okay. I'll wait till you make your statement, then. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Is that it? Do you have any more questions? MCMAHON: Oh, yeah. So I want to ask you, are you amenable to please changing it to say, (A) for the time, (B) for the wording? Because I spoke with our attorney and he said that is possible to have time be one and then the wording for safe use another -- under the same. Okay. Like section 1 -- section 2B say time and C talk about the coalition providing safe usage language. Because to me, there are two different subjects and I think that we can vote on them separately. Am I not making myself -- MAYOR DICKEY: Is this what John was talking about? Moving it, changing it, and putting it in a different section at another time? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, let's see if what I'm hearing anyway is with regard to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 54 of 90 this change tonight, if we simply change it so it says a medical marijuana facility shall, colon, 1, have operating hours; 2, shall provide the materials. Is that what you're suggesting? MCMAHON: Right. Well, I'm suggesting that we separate it for voting purposes. Because I'm not sure the coalition wants to change the hours, but I know that they want the use information on packages. So to me, it's two different subjects. ARNSON: Thank you. Yeah, I think you're voting on just whatever ordinance number this is. You're voting on this ordinance number, right? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. ARNSON: Yeah. For either an up or down vote. So I mean, there's not two ordinances separated out in two. MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Oh, Councilman. Sorry. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. So this is an interesting topic of expanding the hours for the dispensary. You know, there's a lot of changing thought on this issue. I know a couple of years ago, Arizona passed this as a voter-initiated ballot initiative. But I look at Oregon, no right-wing state there. Just about three weeks ago they decided to re-criminalize drugs because they're seeing crime and blight and just urban disaster around these policies. And I don't see expanding the hours of this dispensary helping Fountain Hills. I don't see how more blight -- I don't see how more homelessness -- I don't see how more crime -- I don't see how more addiction in our town is going to help us. So I'd like to make a motion to table this. MAYOR DICKEY: Is there a second to table this item? Okay. So why don't we take some comment cards, if there are any? Are there any? Yes. MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, there are. In your packet, there's some written comments and we have three against and three people for. And then we have one person in who spoke -- well, wants to just comment in writing that they're for this ordinance. And then we have Tammy Bell as the only actual speaker on this. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 55 of 90 BELL: Mayor, Vice Mayor, council, staff. I had something proposed and then today happened, and now it's not exactly the same, but I will try to share what I wanted to share, at least. As Lindsay had mentioned, we've had a lot of conversations, email, and phone calls. And while I don't think the coalition and any substance retailer will ever be completely in agreement of all of their ways, I am going to say that this dispensary has really shown their willingness to work with Protect Our Youth Coalition, and I appreciate that. What you do see tonight on this ordinance is language that is including a point of sale coalition messaging attached to the extended hours ordinance. This was not -- and I want to make this really clear in public. It was not a quid pro quo. It was not me saying I'll agree with this if you agree with that. I initially requested the addition of this language so that if the council decided to go against what the coalition had said about the hours and expand the hours, we would still have safety mechanisms in place to share this information with the families here in Fountain Hills. So we believe that providing a point of sale message regarding safe storage of marijuana and its harm to youth, given directly to those purchasing marijuana, can make a great impact by reducing unintentional harm in youth access. Having this message of this nature in an ordinance is a clear statement that Fountain Hills is and will be -- approach legal substance sales with integrity and with care. So the language has now changed. Some of the words that my board was concerned with have reversed. I do want to say that the coalition is in favor with including this language and is agreeable to work with the legal substance retailers just like this dispensary to protect our youth. We do that in this way by saying that by the code saying we will include the language -- it used to say offer. So this is making more of a statement that it will be included in every sale, that Protect Our Youth has agreed to provide this language for them. We will pay for whatever the sticker tab looks like that will go on every sale. And we've already found a bit of some wording that we both are agreeable to, so I'm not concerned that we won't find something that we agree to. And they also added protecting our youth, which was obviously my major. I want people to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 56 of 90 be safe. I want them to know how to store their cannabis that they're buying, but they also want them to know that they have to store it to protect those other people that are in their families, and Protect Our Youth has already created a website specifically for this reason -- and I can't show you because I'm not presenting. But we did go forward and move forward with another web page that is specific to the storage, for this reason. MAYOR DICKEY: You can stay there if we ask you a question. So I'll ask you something. This language would be provided by you, correct, or by the coalition? BELL: Mutually agreed upon by us. Yes. We would work with -- MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. BELL: -- with them for the language. I have copies of the one language that we just kind of -- they agreed to -- MAYOR DICKEY: Put together? Yeah. BELL: Yeah. So you know what? Something like this. It says, "Natural does not equal safe for kids. A cactus is natural but not necessarily child friendly. Same goes for cannabis. Cannabis impacts a child's brain differently than an adult. Secure your cannabis." So something similar to that, that would go directly to our web page, that is called secure your cannabis or secure your marijuana. MAYOR DICKEY: Your webpage is on there, you said? So you're actually mentioned on there? Okay. BELL: The first draft is on -- is already up on our web page for it. Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. BELL: So that they could see it. I showed them today. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any questions for Tammy or anybody? No? Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. No. I just want to say that we discussed this, I think, at a ribbon cutting. And I just want to thank you for all the work that you guys have both done. I think the decision by us to carry this over for a month proved to bear fruit. It sounds like it's a really good synergy between the coalition and the legal business. And I've TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 57 of 90 always run on a pro-business platform. Of course, keeping in mind that we want to protect our citizens and the kids. But I applaud you both, the law firm and the coalition, for working together and getting this worked out. And so I'd like to move to approve ordinance 24-03. MAYOR DICKEY: Can we get a second? FRIEDEL: I'll second that. And I also want to say thanks for working together. It was a good idea to table this. And so everybody had input. So thank you. That was a second, by the way. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Okay. I think we're ready for a roll call. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: No. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Our next item is about home occupation. So that's probably you, again, John, too. Thank you all. WESLEY: Mayor, councilmembers. Yes. Next presentation for your discussion and consideration this evening, there are some amendments to our zoning ordinance having to do with home occupations. There's one companion amendment also in the town TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 58 of 90 code. So our residential zoning districts do allow for home occupations. They are defined in section 1.12. And then the main regulations are provided in section 5.14. They haven't been updated for a number of years. And whereas technology's change, types of activities going on change a little bit, we found that the current codes aren't fully addressing some of the situations that we are facing, and therefore we have prepared this text amendment for your consideration. So I can go through each of these. Mayor, I think probably best if anybody has questions as we talk about each one, maybe instead of trying to come back at the end, if that's okay with you. So we can do that. So the first change is in the definition itself. This is a pretty simple one and just kind of gets the ball rolling a little bit in terms of our definition of what a dwelling is. Adding in that it's being used as a single-family residence, because one of the issues we have is a home that we can't really find anybody who's actually living there to be a home. So that the activities can't really say that they're home-based businesses. But anyway, so adding this definition that we'll expected a residence to be used or a dwelling to be used as a single-family residence, we think, again, gives us a little bit of teeth later on with some of the other regulations. And then the other definition is for home occupation itself. So adding a little language in there, again, clarifying what we're looking for in terms of home occupation. And then taking out some of the language. It's actually some of the regulations that are in 5.14. Can be a challenge when you have regulations and a definition, and then plus having them two different places in the code, remember to keep them both updated. So taking the regulation part out, just focusing on the definition. Then moving into 5.14 itself. One of the things that came up in discussions with the P and Z is that as we get into more situations of mixed use with residential happening in commercial zones, right now it was limited to dwellings in residential zones. So we're clarifying that any dwelling unit that has a -- got to have a home occupation. And then moving on into some of the basic standards. Home occupation shall be conducted only by persons who -- the word here is "reside". The language you have in the code that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 59 of 90 was presented to you said "living". And in some discussions with Councilmember McMahon, we used reside later on in the code and that really is a better word to use there. So I just want to point out that what I'm presenting this evening has that one word difference, "reside" instead of "living" at that point. Anyway, the emphasis here is that the occupation use needs to be conducted in a way that's incidental to the residential use, that the residential use stays a primary activity, and you're not really creating any recognizable change in the neighborhood. Then in B, just added some language again at the beginning for a little more clarification on the 25 percent of gross floor area that can be devoted towards the use. And C, with regard to employees, should be no employees working at the home. The business can have employees, but they need to be working someplace else. We might have contractors, pool cleaning businesses, realtors, that type of thing that maybe they work from the home and they have others that work under them, and that's fine. They may come to the home occasionally to pick up an assignment or whatever, but they're not working at the home. One of the challenges, again, that we've been having is with some of the vehicular activity that occurs around a home that is disruptive to the neighborhood. It's not delivery vehicles, but just the volume of vehicles coming and going with the activity. So added a little bit more language in the delivery vehicle section. And then going down to traffic and parking. Currently the ordinance -- MCMAHON: John, excuse me. MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry. I think we have some questions. SKILLICORN: Or maybe -- MAYOR DICKEY: Go ahead, Councilman. I don't know -- SKILLICORN: Well, Madam Mayor, Director, I see here that it was scratched out. 5 went to 6. MAYOR DICKEY: Correct. SKILLICORN: Can we can you tell us why it was changed? WESLEY: Yes, sir. Councilmember, just getting to that point. So when it's the trips, by TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 60 of 90 the way, we count trips -- every time a vehicle moves is a trip. So if someone comes to your house, that's one trip. They leave, that's the second trip. And so at five, it's two and a half comings and goings. And so -- GRZYBOWSKI: They stay overnight. WESLEY: I guess that could happen. So it made more sense to make it an even number. We could have gone down to four. That seemed maybe a little bit restrictive. And so we went up to the six. That's the reason, councilmember. MCMAHON: John? WESLEY: Yes? MCMAHON: I have a question, please. We're at G, right? WESLEY: Yes. MCMAHON: Okay. It's about traffic and parking. If they're conducting a home business here, there probably might be -- more than likely be employees who don't reside there. And they're going to be coming and going to the house. Should they be added to this paragraph? Like customer, patron, and shipping and receiving, and maybe a nonresident employee's trip generation shall not exceed a certain amount -- WESLEY: Mayor and councilmember -- MCMAHON: To include them in there? Or does that come full circle, or what do you think of that? WESLEY: Mayor and councilmember, that could be helpful language to have in there. Hadn't come up before, but yes, if the council would like to add that, this would be a good place to do it. MCMAHON: Yep. Because it seems to me that one of the objectives here is traffic. WESLEY: Correct. MCMAHON: So I would think that it would also need to include them. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. FRIEDEL: John, I have a question, too, about the parking. I realize that you've got members of the family, but if you have nonmembers working there, where are they going to park? And is there limits to that? And you don't want the family members TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 61 of 90 moving their cars into the roadway and taking advantage of that. So how are we going to enforce that? WESLEY: Mayor, councilmember, this is probably one of the provisions that is somewhat challenging when it's going to come to the enforcement. Currently, we don't have any provision for it. Right now it says -- I believe, there are other provisions in the code that that would allow the person who has a work vehicle, they work someplace else and they bring the work vehicle home for that vehicle to be parked in their driveway. Maybe it's in the other section of the code, but right now the interpretation of the code is that as a home-based business, you can't have any business vehicles parked in the -- let's see here -- on the property. GRZYBOWSKI: It looks like it's item number C. WESLEY: There we are. GRZYBOWSKI: Did that help? There you go. WESLEY: So in terms of employees again, I guess, councilmember, I'll come back to the first part of your question. If it's a nonresident worker, they're not supposed to be working at the home. Again, they may come there occasionally to pick up an assignment, get some equipment or whatever they may need, and so they would be there briefly and leave but they're not going to be there for an extended period. And then too -- otherwise to park a work vehicle at your property, I guess, it really comes back to the business being conducted has to be in the home. That's the way we've we've done it, is if you've got a vehicle associated with a business, some kind of big work vehicle parked in the driveway, then that's part of the business not being in the home or in the garage. FRIEDEL: So I've received some complaints and concerns from residents about home businesses, with the family members parking out on the roadway and allowing the workers to actually work in the driveway. So will this be driven by complaint to the town, or is that how enforcement will start on this or -- WESLEY: Councilmember, probably most often, if one of our code officers recognizes the violation, then certainly they will take proactive steps. But this type of thing is TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 62 of 90 probably more likely going to come from a complaint. FRIEDEL: So if you have five employees working for you and they all park in the driveway or garage or wherever, and then those five family member cars are sitting out in the roadway, that that causes some angst for residents. And we've heard about that, at least I have several times. So that will be complaint driven to code enforcement, and then they'll come out and take a look at the situation. WESLEY: Yes. FRIEDEL: Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? MCMAHON: But John, isn't that clarified? C, where it says there shall be no employees working at the home other than members of the immediate family residing at the dwelling. So shouldn't that eliminate that concern to a degree? WESLEY: Councilmember, it should, but again, we do have -- and we've worked some of these cases before where primarily it's been contractors. And so all their employees show up first thing in the morning, get their assignments, get the work for the day, and they're there for, you know -- I don't know how long -- a half-hour, an hour, or whatever it is to take. And so it does cause a problem in the neighborhood. So it's not just a quick stop and get something and leave type of thing. And so they are parking there for that extended period and it is creating some of the -- both the number of the trip generation as well as the activity that's not normal in a residential neighborhood. So we've got a couple of ways we can approach that. We think the changes will add to our ability to address those. MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you. Also, another open-ended question is, for delivery, are there -- have you considered any hours of delivery or would that be something that's just not enforceable so to speak? WESLEY: Mayor, councilmember, no. We hadn't really considered that. It would probably be a little bit of a challenge, given the types of deliveries that occur these days with Amazon and UPS and so forth with extended hours, to know was it a business delivery or some other kind of delivery. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 63 of 90 MCMAHON: But given the purpose of this and based upon what's happened, were there concerns about people being there? I thought there were concerns about people being at the property late at night, et cetera, et cetera. So I don't know if hours -- or putting something in the ordinance about hours would give some more credence or credibility or weight if you wanted, we're able to enforce it or not, or no? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, I don't see where it could hurt to add hours. I'm not sure what those hours would be. Would they help in the situations we've been dealing with? You know, I don't know. Again, it depends on, I guess, how broadly or narrowly we would list it. Deliveries, I'm surprised sometimes how late I get the little ding that I've gotten a delivery from Amazon at my door. MAYOR DICKEY: The other thing might be, like how do we know it's not a family member or something? I mean, I wouldn't be, like, have your neighbor call because a car pulled into your driveway at 11 o'clock at night and you're like, yeah, you know, I don't know. I'm a little worried about that one. WESLEY: It's certainly something we can keep in mind if we continue to have issues, that we can come back with. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, maybe that with the nuisance kind of stuff too. If there's something that's obviously a pattern, then maybe we can kind of go with that. WESLEY: Another change we have is an I, with a change from the outside fire service to being part of the town. Just changing some language here in regard to the building official and fire marshal instead of the fire district. From there, we move into some changes to both chapters 10 and 11 of the zoning ordinances. Chapter 10 is a single-residence zoning districts. Chapter 11 is a multi- residence zoning district. And one is just a little cleanup of some language in 10.02.9 to make it consistent with what we had in 11, so the home occupation as prescribed in the specific section of the ordinance. The main change is adding in both 10 and 11, prohibited use. So prohibited uses "except for those items listed above, nonresidential uses or activities of property or dwellings and associated structures are prohibited." And so again, we think that gives us a little bit more teeth with some of these uses that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 64 of 90 we're seeing that are a little bit hard to truly define as a home occupation, but it's clearly not residential either. And so thereby, I hope we can put it into this prohibited use category and use that as a tool to address the use or the activity. MAYOR DICKEY: There's a typo. WESLEY: Sure. Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Residental "Resiential." WESLEY: Okay. We'll get that. MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks. WESLEY: Okay. I see that now. One of the problems with doing it all caps, it won't catch the misspellings. And then here's a change in town code chapter 12, with regard to the parking and the driveway. Clarifying that a little bit. And those are the proposed and recommended changes. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Do we have any speaker cards on this? MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. First of all, in your packet, you have three written comments who are for it. Then we have two speakers. First will be former mayor Linda Kavanagh, and on deck is Senator John Kavanagh. L. KAVANAGH: Okay. Linda Kavanagh, resident. I wrote this before I saw a lot of this. So if whatever I say you've already kind of looked at, just consider us in agreement on it. So. But I don't want to sit here and rewrite it. Okay. So I think you all know that I'm a supporter of our business community, so why am I not a big fan of home businesses? Well, just like Airbnbs. They started out as a nondisruptive enterprise in neighborhoods. Those who were in favor of Airbnbs thought, how nice for a family to be able to rent a home so they could be together on a vacation. Well, best intentions. Look what happened to that. Without proper regulation or consideration for the neighborhood, they became a disruptive menace and needed immediate post-regulation. Now, the traditional home business used to be, you know, maybe like an accountant and his office and people would drop off their taxes and then come and, you know, pick them up later. But look at what they have evolved TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 65 of 90 into since the pandemic and with the current economy. Now, home businesses that should be in commercial or office zones are opening in homes, creating problems for neighbors. Hair salons, computer repair shops, massage parlors, yoga studios, just to name a few. I even heard of someone in another town trying to start a car repair shop at his home. Think about when you allow a store or a restaurant in a commercial area or in an office complex, the number one question you ask is, where will you park the cars of your customers? But that has not been a consideration of home business licensing yet. Parking cars on a neighborhood street is very intrusive to those that live there. I live next to a home business, and I know there were a lot more customers there than is allowed under the ordinance. And when I did come to the Town, I guess it was about a year ago, and I complained about it, the woman just said, oh, no, those are just visitors. So I mean, and I said, really, do you have visitors? And they all have out-of-state plates from different states. You have all these friends from across the country, but nothing was ever done. She just lied and said they were just visitors. So I don't know how you handle that. But there's also a safety factor. I mean, we're told by the police to be the eyes and ears of our neighborhood. Crime is everywhere. Home burglaries, break-ins. We had car break-ins on our street. So how do you tell the good from the bad when random cars, some with out-of-state plates, are parked on your street? Well, for me, a good solution is to require the home business to have a parking plan, just like a commercial business would, one that would utilize their own driveways for their customers rather than park on the street. I know of a home business that has a driveway where four to six cars can fit, yet they have all their customers parked on the street. I'm almost finished. Okay. If only people could just be considerate, we wouldn't need regulations, but unfortunately that's not the reality. So what I'm asking you to consider is that we don't turn our neighborhoods into commercial zones. Remember, it's far cheaper to open a home business than it is to rent a place, so we might see more and more of that happening and a lot more empty stores in town. And the bottom line is, it should be the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 66 of 90 home business that makes the concessions to the neighbors, not the other way around. Thank you for considering my suggestions. J. KAVANAGH: You took a minute of my time. Hi. John Kavanagh. I'll be real quick. First, I appreciate the town's sensitivity to keeping these businesses not seen, heard, or smelled because that's what your regulation does, and it should be that way. I don't have a problem with people doing business in their home that doesn't go off property and offend people. The biggest problem is the parking, and I think the way you solve the parking problem is to make the ordinance state that during the business hours that they have said they're going to take place, right, all of the vehicles have to be in their garage, their driveway, or parking slabs. So that includes the vehicles owned by the people who live there and customers. Because what happens is the customers don't want to go in the driveway. So even when there are spaces there, they just park on the street. So if you say -- and of course, the other problem is the people, if there's a complaint, then you'll have the people who live there pull their cars on the street to make more room, even when you can get everybody in there. So I think if you basically said that all of the vehicles, if there's space for them, right, have to be on the property, in the garage, in the driveway, or on the slab during the business hours, then enforcement is very easy. If there's a complaint and the inspector comes and sees cars on the street and empty spaces, then there's a violation. And they could warn the person the first time. And then you'll have the people who own these businesses policing their customers, saying, you can't park on the street, you got to pull it into the driveway if there's a space. And I'm just -- I'm not going to-- if there's not a space, I don't really have too much of a problem being on the street. But it's a real pain when there's all these empty spaces and they're all over the street. Real quick. I'm not sure how you enforce the 25 percent rule. When they get the license, do you have an inspector come in and say this is the area? Or are we taking it on faith that they're doing 25 percent? So you might want to address that between your attorney and your staff on how can you actually find out if it's 25 percent. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 67 of 90 And finally, I looked real quick at your first definition. I think you have a flaw in the wording if you want to put it up. And I won't be charging for this because I'm not a licensed attorney. And I looked at it quickly. WELSLEY: This one? Or this one? J. KAVANAGH: The first one you did. Yeah. That one. Go back. It says any occupation or profession carried on in a dwelling unit by residents thereof, which use or activity is incidental and subordinate to the use of the dwelling unit for a dwelling purposes, and which does not change -- oh, no, the other one, I'm sorry. The other one. I was looking for it and it wasn't there. Dwelling, a building or portion thereof built in accordance to the building code adopted by the town, if built prior to adopted by, designed exclusively for residential purposes, and used as a single-family multifamily dwelling. I think the "and" means it's only a dwelling. If not only is it a residential building, but it's being used as a residence. And I think you could make an interpretation that if you had -- if you purchased a single-family house. Right? If you didn't live in it and did business there, it would not be a dwelling because this says it's only a dwelling when it's a residential building and it's used as a dwelling. So if it's not used as a dwelling, even if it's a house in a residential area, it's not a dwelling. And we make this mistake all the time with legislature. So it's not like. Again, if, in fact, it is a mistake. That's my quick take. Anyway. And if you could pursue the the issue of the 25 percent. Maybe when they get their license, they have to allow an inspector to come in and -- or show a plan of the house and where they're going to do it, just, whatever. But the cars is the big thing. Thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Are there any other speakers? MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, there's not. MAYOR DICKEY: Do you have any questions maybe about some of the stuff that Kavanagh said or -- Yes. Council -- Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. State Senator Kavanagh, if we got rid of the "or" and kept it "and," would that solve the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 68 of 90 problem that you're looking to solve? Is it 1.12 definitions? Yeah. J. KAVANAGH: I would just say period. MAYOR DICKEY: Or used as. J. KAVANAGH: Yeah. Don't require that if they use that. Just say if it's residential building. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. J. KAVANAGH: And of course, stuff that attorneys can still argue. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Good. Okay. So can we make a note of that, please? ARNSON: Noted. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. And then the other thing I'd like to address. And this is for you, John, is home occupation section A. We have another problem here. And it says, "Shall be conducted entirely within the dwelling, comma, and accessory structure used for office activities only". And then they deleted accessory buildings. They strike that out. I'm not very comfortable with that because this is just going to lead to a sprawl. What they can't put in their home, they're going to build an accessory building to use for office activities only. And so that's a huge loophole. They could call it a playhouse. It's an accessory building. And they can put all the business materials that they want in there. I suggest that we strike that out and we get rid of the strike out and include accessory buildings has to be of a residential nature, not of a commercial nature. I think that's a no brainer. And any thoughts on that, John? GRZYBOWSKI: Sorry. If I could point out that on the staff summary report, accessory buildings is crossed out, but it is not on the slide. WESLEY: Yes. Mayor, councilmembers, looks like when I updated my PowerPoint presentation from P&Z, I forgot to make that change on the slide. Sorry about that. What's in your staff report is as recommended by P&Z where it crosses out in this provision, the accessory and does allow for it as a location for the home occupation to occur. So given what's in the staff report is correct. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. So the presentation is not correct. WELSLEY: That's correct. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 69 of 90 KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. That's -- MAYOR DICKEY: I didn't even know that. KALIVIANAKIS: I'll have to remember that. Okay. Then the next thing which may or may not be in the staff report, is section J, use is not permitted. And again, I believe in the original version "not permitted" was temporary or overnight keeping of animals for hire. WESLEY: Yes. So it's not going to be in anything that you have. Mayor, Vice Mayor. KALIVIANAKIS: That's the original code, I believe. WELSLEY: I believe it went to planning and zoning commission, we had proposed to them in section J, that is prohibited uses that we add in there keeping of animals. Because we've had one or two instances of that occur in town where people are boarding pets in their home, and it's because of neighborhood concerns. KALIVIANAKIS: So once again, are we eliminating the boarding of animals with the rewrite? WESLEY: So with the rewrite, we're not adding it in. We're keeping it as it is, as recommended by P and Z. KALIVIANAKIS: So they still can board animals? WESLEY: Yes. Up to four. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Again, I wish we would get rid of that too, because I've been dealing with that with a number of people. Gerry, I think you're familiar with one of the cases about the boarding of animals, and it's a real hot-button issue with a lot of people. When you start boarding animals, it leads to barking dogs. It leads to over-boarding of animals, and then it leads to inspections. How many do you have in there? People literally have had a case that people are taking pictures of -- they said, there's four, but here's six because I got six different pictures. And so again, it seems small here, but I would say for commercial purposes, no boarding of animals. If they have pets, it's a different thing. But for commercial purposes, I don't think that's -- that's not right. If they if they want to board animals, they can zone it, put it where it's zoned, and license it and take care of animals. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 70 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Mayor. Madam Mayor, actually, I had a question about parking. I think it was Councilwoman McMahon had thoughts about parking, and I looked at what the senator said, and I'm curious about if there was a revision adding, like, vehicles on the driveway. And I shortened it up and I thought, or parked within the property. That would be carport/garage. We could say designated parking area but on the property. Is that something that you would go along with and agree with? MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So -- SKILLICORN: Do you want me to restate it? Yes. MCMAHON: Okay. SKILLICORN: So the vehicles are parked on the driveway or parked on designated parking spaces within the property. WESLEY: Mayor, councilmembers, we could add that language. I would add it as it relates to customer, patron, worker parking. Maybe exempt the shipping/receiving because of your typical Amazon driver is not going to pull into the property to stop and deliver package. SKILLICORN: And Madam Mayor, just to follow up on that. Yeah, I don't want to strike that part. The customer/patron shipping/receiving is fine. I think that's the added about the driveway. And it was -- if it proves to be a problem, if people say this is too much of a burden, we could we can obviously discuss it. MAYOR DICKEY: Anybody have any further questions or comments about that? John, about -- TOTH: Madam Mayor? MAYOR DICKEY: Yes. Go ahead, Councilwoman. TOTH: Thank you, Mayor. I have a clarifying question for John, if that's okay? How would we confirm that these are commercial vehicles rather than visitor? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, it would take some time of investigation, watching the activity, talking to the business owner, possibly to neighbors to verify what the activity really is. So with any of these, it's typically not going to be a quick response TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 71 of 90 unless it's just something really egregious and blatant in the violation. TOTH: Okay. That's understandable. I also wanted to share that in the case that this is a business that doesn't necessarily make sense for it to be a commercial property. So the one that comes to mind, because my dad has a landscaping business, would be landscaping, but I'm sure there's other examples. If there were home businesses that have more than one or two employees that somebody needs to park on the street, I'm not seeing any kind of consideration for that. And I understand that there can't really be any exceptions based on the type of business, which this completely makes sense in that the the government shouldn't necessarily be the judge of whether or not a business needs to start in the home. Right? Like, I'm sure we've heard the stories of multiple gigantic tech companies that started in garages. But I just -- I have a concern for where our considerations are for what would be considered maybe a lesser issue. Like one car on the street, in the morning, for an hour. Kind of like the example that you gave versus something that's more egregious, which would be some of the earlier examples. I don't know if you can speak to that at all or if that was a clear question, but it's just a concern that I have. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilwoman? MCMAHON: Thank you. I don't even know how that would be enforceable to allow a car to be there for an hour or whatever. I mean, I don't see how that can be enforced. Maybe I'm missing something. WESLEY: Yeah. Mayor, councilmembers. Yeah, that would be a challenge. It would take some consistent observations by the staff to really understand what was going on and what was business related versus other activities that could be taking place in a home. The goal here is to, again, limit workers even coming to the home, because we want to maintain the residential character, residential level of activities that are going on. And so we're really, I think, trying to discourage that type of activity to the degree that we can but still being somewhat reasonable because we know there are legitimate businesses that will have workers that will occasionally need to come by. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 72 of 90 MCMAHON: And I also think that parking on the driveway would hopefully help that situation as well and have, hopefully, less cars on the street. MAYOR DICKEY: Vice Mayor? KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. I guess at this point, I'd just like to move to adopt the Ordinance 26-06 with the, what I would call the Skillicorn-Kavanagh amendment and with the Kalivianakis animal amendment that I think we already noted. Do I get a second? GRZYBOWSKI: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: I'm just reading my notes. Can we discuss it a touch more? I think there was a couple more things that we discussed. Unless there's a second. Is there a second? MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. KALIVIANAKIS: There was a second. SKILLICORN: Well, then -- MAYOR DICKEY: No, you can. SKILLICORN: So the only amendment that I would be talking about is if we went back to the definitions in 1.12, and there is that sentence that had the "and" in it. What if we could -- we really could put a period after residential purposes. ARNSON: And Mayor and council, that's one that that I have written down. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. SKILLICORN: Okay. And then the staff and the staff report was the correct from P and Z. But that's going to be as written. Yeah, that's fine. ARNSON: Good. MCMAHON: I have a question. MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, ma'am. MCMAHON: I need to understand a little bit more about the animal. Are we adding that in or we're just leaving it alone like P and Z suggested? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, what I understand from the vice mayor is that we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 73 of 90 would put that back in as originally recommended by staff, that it would prohibit keeping of animals as a home occupation. MCMAHON: Have you had a situation before for regulating that or anything? WELSLEY: Yes. MCMAHON: Okay. So putting it back in will help you provide regulation for it? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, that's why staff recommended putting it in. It's not in there today, but we recommended it in the draft ordinance because of the problems we've had. MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you very much for the clarification. I appreciate it. SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And sorry about the -- Director, was there anything -- planning and zoning have anything about the -- the about the animals? I'm not excited about removing them. So did planning and zoning have any talk about it, or did they strike that out of staff recommendation? WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember Skillicorn, Yes. As they discussed it, there was concerns that it might interfere with some informal arrangements that neighbors might have with each other in terms of taking care pets for each other when somebody is out of town, that type of situation. If they're not really trying to operate it as a business, I would doubt that that would rise to the level or become a code issue. But that was the concern and that's why they took it out. SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, I actually kind of concur with that. But we do have a planning and zoning member in the audience. I don't know if he'd be willing to step up or if you would allow it. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, sure. You have a specific question? Yeah. SKILLICORN: Well, just about that issue. MAYOR DICKEY: Do you want to come up and talk about it, Commissioner? SKILLICORN: I'll restate. So this is about the -- and this, Mayor, in the staff report or the staff recommendation is about removing the four animals per home current provision. And then -- so it sounds like Director said that planning and zoning talked about that, debated it, and may not want to proceed with that. Do you want to share maybe your TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 74 of 90 thoughts and what the planning and zoning thought on it? COREY: Gosh, if I remember all those details. I don't think I even -- I don't recall exactly what we spoke about there, so I wouldn't want to misspeak. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. I'd like to call the vote. MAYOR DICKEY: One little thing. Can I say something first? KALIVIANAKIS: Of course. MAYOR DICKEY: No second yet. I just wanted to make something -- I wanted to say something because one of the people who is having some issues in their neighborhood wanted to make sure that the definition of residing someplace was clear. So while it might not be anywhere in our code or in our ordinances, John assures me that the definition that we are going with says living in a place for some length of time, one who resides in a place, to dwell permanently or continuously occupy a place as one's legal domicile. So I just want to make sure that there's no loophole, no way to say, well, I'm here for the week, so I yeah, I am living here or something, you know, to just make sure that the resident is the actual resident. So I just wanted to say that for the record. And we have a a motion to call for the question. Yeah. KALIVIANAKIS: Gerry seconded it. FRIEDEL: I did second it. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Well, we'll do it, then. Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Since I have hesitation on the animal issue, I have to vote no. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 75 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: I think she might have hung up because I heard that noise. ARNSON: Yeah, I think the call disconnected, Mayor. [CLERKS NOTE: Councilmember Toth dropped off the call at 8:49 p.m. with technical difficulties] MENDENHALL: Okay. Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. So our next couple items are probably going to involve Dave. Is there any presentation or anything or -- GOODWIN: No. No presentation. I think Chief's going to lead us through these. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. OTT: Good evening. Everybody's still looking happy. I like that. Now, we got a couple IGAs in the lease agreement back. The the first one is the IGA with the City of Glendale for use of the facility that we refer to as grip stick. It's a multi-jurisdictional multi-aspect training facility, both the -- joint PD and fire facility. They've put this out. They redid their IGA. It really went out to the majority of the departments in the Valley. It's not something that we'll probably use very often, but it's being offered to us through this IGA. If we were in the position to do a regional training academy or send recruits to the academy, this would be an option for us. And that's really what this IGA really deals with. And that's where the $4,500 comes in to it. If we were just doing different types of training not associated with the academy, there would be no cost associated with that. We would just go out, participate in classes, and do that. It is over in Glendale. It is available to us. And that's just one of the things, as we get into this, we'll have this IGA. When Scottsdale completes its training facility, they're revamping that, we'll have an IGA with them. We'll soon have an IGA with Mesa coming in. And Mesa would probably be our preferable -- either Mesa or Scottsdale would be our preference for sending recruits to a regional academy when we get to that point, when we start hiring people somewhere down the road. So these IGAs are really just a formality. With that, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 76 of 90 if you would like me to expand on anything with the Glendale IGA, I'd be glad to. MAYOR DICKEY: Questions for Chief. Do we have any speaker cards? MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. MENDENHALL: But we had one person in favor. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Great. Any questions? Motion? FRIEDEL: Make a motion to approve. KALIVIANAKIS: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth, have you joined us again? GOODWIN: She's having technical difficulties. The call timed out, so we're working with IT to see if we can get that reinstated. MENDENHALL: Okay. Perfect. Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. All right. Moving on. OTT: Okay. Our next item is the lease that we had tabled and are bringing back. And I apologize, I probably did not do as good a job on the first go round of explaining how we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 77 of 90 got to the lease and what it really means for us, but as we bring this back, the lease itself still kind of stands. We didn't modify the three percent. The background on that is that we went through a RFP to look for a provider of ambulance services for the town. We only received one bid, and that was AMR. AMR was the parent company to Rural Metro, and with that the original bid was asking for almost $1 million subsidy to provide two ALS ambulances for the town. With that, we kind of went back and went through some things with them. One of the things that made it more attractive for them to be able to provide the current service that we have right now, which does not require any subsidy, we do not have a binding contract with them and in that aspect, they're complying with the requirements of the CON to provide our ambulance transportation for the community. And one of the things that made that attractive to them was to be able to provide a lease to them that was really workable for them. And the lease models what they had currently -- or previously, excuse me. And that was based on a lease that we adopted when they put an ambulance unit up in the Fry's center. I talked to a number of different realtors, both commercial and residential, and there was really nothing to compare this to. There's no other leases in town and very few leases in the Valley where there's actually a municipality leasing to a private ambulance company that provides service for them. Kind of works out that there's about 600 square feet of that station that they use. And we feel that the charges are workable; it's amenable to both sides. And without trying to get back in and rehash some of the things, up the rent on them and increase that -- the multiplier, the three percent per year without really -- for lack of better term, monkeying up the relationship that we have with them, with the services that they're currently providing for us, we felt that the best move moving forward was to keep the lease, as written for the five years, with two two-year renewals and the three percent per-year increase. Most commercial leases that I had researched did not have an increase in it. You would sign a lease for a certain number of months, years, whatever. At the end of that lease term, then that lease would be renegotiated. So with that, we did have some discussion. We did not feel that the lease itself, that adding the CPI increase in there TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 78 of 90 would be a substantial amount of money for the town and that it would throw an imbalance into the relationship that we currently have with AMR to provide the service for the town. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any questions? Maybe she's back. [CLERKS NOTE: Councilmember Hannah Toth rejoined the meeting at 8:56 pm.] KALIVIANAKIS: I just have a quick comment. MAYOR DICKEY: Question? Yeah. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. I'm just going to restate what I said last week or two weeks ago. You know, I guess when I ran for this office and when I decided to go into public service, I left the private industry. And I did run a company in Chicago, and I always tried to follow best business practices. You know, I think a cost-of-living increase in this is just good business. I know a lot of times municipalities, we're spending taxpayer money, and I know some -- you don't want to fight over the nickels and dimes, but in the private sector you have to. And so I don't speak for this council. I just speak for myself, and I don't speak for the mayor. But I know AMR has got a net worth of $395 billion. Their market cap has increased 48 percent in one year, and the CEO makes $320 million and has almost $3 million worth of stock options. And so for us to have a five-year contract, where every year we're going to be losing more and more money and when we're trying to build roads and we're trying to provide parks, I just -- it might just be a protest vote, but I just can't go along -- I can't go along with this. FRIEDEL: You know I did a little research on this. We get a lot more than that three percent from this company. If we need a second ambulance, they're here with a second ambulance for this town. So I want to make the point that I think it's worth more than three percent to this town to have this relationship. So I'm in favor of that. And with that, I'll make a motion to approve this. MCMAHON: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: I appreciate that. I just have to ask if there were any cards. I know we want to hurry up. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 79 of 90 MENDENHALL: No cards, but there are in your packet, there are four people for it. And we also did have a card, but they were just responding in writing that they're for this. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. Any other comments? I agree with you. And obviously this is a service. I look at it not quite as an IGA, but almost more like that than a real estate deal or anything like that. So roll call, please. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: Yes. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Nay. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. One more time. OTT: Okay. Thank you. Moving on. We finally have the IGA with the City of Scottsdale for a mutual aid agreement. This kind of took a little bit of time being put together. We had a verbal agreement with them since the time that they had backed out. They had canceled the mutual aid agreement that they had previously with Rural Metro. We had a verbal agreement, that prior to our transition to a municipal department, that they would still help provide service for us when needed, when requested. And this just kind of solidifies that. There was a little bit of a lost in the shuffle, if you will, that they transitioned through a couple of different town attorneys that dealt with the fire TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 80 of 90 department side of things. So it took a while to get this back and get it in front of them. Coincidentally, it is going to Scottsdale council tonight, which normally we don't do it that way, but it will look a little bit different because there will be two signature sheets for you when you do it. And we'll just exchange signature sheets and move forward. It's a pretty straightforward IGA for us on the mutual aid side of things. What it really does, is the nuts and bolts of it, it says that if we ask for somebody and they have the units available and can provide service to us, they'll provide it. And on the flip side of it, if they need assistance and we have that available, we'll help them. This is kind of in lieu of having an automatic aid agreement, which hopefully we'll move forward to in the near future. This kind of cements our relationship with Scottsdale. At some point, we'll also bring back another IGA, as I said, for the training options once their training facility is complete. So for the most part, this is really a no-cost IGA. It just solidifies the fact that, if we can help them, we will, and if they can help us, they will. So. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you so much. Do we have any speaker cards? MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not, but we have three people who submitted written comments and that they're for it. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilwoman? MCMAHON: I just want to say thank you. It takes a lot of work to put together our fire department, and your diligence and attention to detail doesn't go unnoticed. And I really, really appreciate it. So thank you very much. And with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve this resolution. GRZYBOWSKI: Second. MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks very much. We have a motion and a second. I also want to add that we appreciate that Scottsdale has -- I mean, this has been happening even and now we're solidifying it. But the intentions and the goodwill was there before this. So we appreciate that. And again, thank you also, Chief. Roll call. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 81 of 90 MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? FRIEDEL: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: I prefer in writing. Yes. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. WELSLEY: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you again. Appreciate it. OTT: Thank you. And thank you for all your support as well. MAYOR DICKEY: Our next item is about our sidewalk infill, and we have Justin to present. WELDY: Mayor, councilmembers, thank you for the opportunity tonight. I once again come to you with my proverbial hat in hand. This time on behalf of the people that are pro-sidewalk in the Town of Fountain Hills. The sidewalk gap elimination on Saguaro and Palisades has been a multiyear effort. We have certainly come before the council in regards to an ask to apply for the grant. We've returned and shared with them the 30 percent role plot that we shared with the open house. We also returned with good news that we were able to secure some additional closeout funding. The project moved forward. A few little minor hiccups in regards to some shallow utilities delayed the bid opening. During that time frame we were also the recipient of additional closeout funding to support this endeavor. And then the bids were opened. And it's not uncommon for an engineer's estimate to be a little bit under these days. With that said, we're going to do a quick refresher on what we have. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 82 of 90 This map right here, the very first one, shows the location where these sidewalks will be constructed. This is the beginning of it down here on Colony Drive. This little outcrop, which is Saguaro -- and this is important. As a result of too many conflicts on this section with existing utilities that had to be eliminated from the project. However, the project will continue north on Saguaro and fill the gaps until we reach Fountain Hills Boulevard. This section, which is on Palisades, will only fill the gaps on the north side. As a reminder, this is primarily an eight-foot-wide sidewalk which was within our adopted subdivision ordinance. This is the first segment right here where it actually starts. On the left of the screen is Colony Drive, and just across from that is Lamplighter. And right here is one of the existing critically acclaimed sidewalks to nowhere. Now it will be attached. This right down here is Gunsight. You'll note that our green and red stop in this area, because this section of Saguaro already has a sidewalk on one side. We're just eliminating the gap on the other side. As a reminder, this section of El Largo will not be built with this project. This is the mid-range section to this project. On the left part of the screen is La Montana. South of this on Saguaro, on both the east and west side, we already have sidewalk that's fronting Fountain Park on the east side, and the businesses on the -- excuse me -- businesses on the west side. So the sidewalk starts all over again here at La Montana, and this is all primarily on the west side, filling those gaps that exist right there. This is the final section just north of La Montana. There's a couple of little gaps that we're going to fill in there. This is on the west side. As a reminder, this is the wastewater treatment facility. This is Pepperwood. The sidewalk starts all over there, and now we have it on both sides. This will take us all the way to Fountain Hills Boulevard. Lastly, is the little section on Palisades that is primarily west of Saguaro, which is down here a little ways. Again, we're just filling in the gaps. And all of these gaps are on the north side of Palisades. This will give us an uninterrupted sidewalk on Saguaro from Colony to Fountain Hills Boulevard. South of colony we have some minor gaps that we will address in the future, and it will give us a continuous sidewalk on both sides of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 83 of 90 Palisades, from Saguaro to Fountain Hills Boulevard. That's a pretty substantial amount of walking surface that we'll be including. On the screen in front of you right now is a breakdown of the numbers. You've seen the majority of these before, so we've simply highlighted the ones that we're here to discuss tonight. In order to move forward with this project, we would need to contribute an additional $521,000, because that is the amount that the bid is over the grant funding allotment. While you're thinking about that, keep in mind that this brings our total investment to just under $800,000 for this sidewalk. That includes the funding that we pay ADOT for administrating it, our match for the design, and obviously, our match for the construction. On behalf of those that work to try and achieve these types of goals, I think this is a pretty substantial amount of walking surface. It's a big ask, and I'm well aware of that. $700,000 total, including the $500,000 that we're asking for tonight, is a pretty big ask. So I urge you to consider it. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman? SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Director, first I want to note that there is bike lane along most of those. At least the first part on Saguaro there, there's bike lane going north and south or on the east side and the west side. So my question is, is how much total is the grant amount? If you want to go back. WELDY: The total grant amount is $3.3 million. SKILLICORN: Is it on the sheet? WELDY: Yes, it is. The second. SKILLICORN: Oh, I see it now. Okay. And is there a length of time that we have to use that grant? I mean, do we need to spend in a certain amount of time or lose it? WELDY: Mayor, Councilmember, there certainly is. We can certainly ask for a deferral. I would have to go back and look at all the necessary paperwork from the granting agency to determine whether or not we have that option built into there. SKILLICORN: Thank you. My only thought on this is, even though I would use the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 84 of 90 sidewalk during our fairs -- I mean, there's currently -- but the only thing, I think there's currently bike lane there. And I've stayed alive with just the bike lane. So even though this would benefit Allen, I still want to say that I'd rather spend the money on roads. And you know, we had a public comment tonight. Someone did want the roads repaired. I think that's got to be a priority. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? GRZYBOWSKI: Bummer that it costs us $521,000 more to be able to use this grant money. If we ask to postpone it, all we're going to do is increase the costs, which would increase our costs, because I assume that the grant money will not increase. Correct? Yes. I just heard a yes. WELDY: Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, that is correct. It's after the bid, it's unlikely. The grant money is what it is. GRZYBOWSKI: That that's a huge concern of mine, is if we postpone this a year or two years or whatever, this extra $521,000 is going to increase by at least three percent. To me, cities and towns aren't building highways. We need to be more than roads, our transportation infrastructure. We're moving people; we're not moving cars. And to be able to safely move people, that includes however the people want to travel, whether it be sidewalk or bikes or roads. So I do think that this is very important. I would be willing to approve this to get it done and over while we can at, what I'm going to call, a lower cost than it would be in a year or two. Thank you. MCMAHON: Councilwoman? Oh, it's you first? KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Just one curiosity question. Not a trick question at all. It seems like, when I was young, the sidewalks weren't eight feet. They were like four. I mean, have they just gotten bigger? Because it seems like that's really wide. WELDY: Mayor, Vice Mayor, indeed. So originally, when I was a youngster, the sidewalks averaged between 24 and 36 inches. We've discovered with time that there's not enough room on that narrow width of sidewalk for the activities that's intended. Let's just say a family walking, especially if it's adjacent to a curb and someone walking TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 85 of 90 the opposite direction, or someone with physical challenges and either a wheelchair or these days in a motor cart, they simply need a wider walking space. KALIVIANAKIS: I kind of thought that was the answer. So thank you for answering my curiosity. The other thing I'd just state is, since since being elected, this sidewalk infill connectivity wasn't very important to me a while back. But I hear a lot of people are appreciative of connectivity and the sidewalks right now. And what I particularly like about this project is it seems like they're the right place to put the sidewalks. And two major streets with a lot of sidewalks and nowhere connecting them all up seems like a good -- if we're going to spend that much money, it seems like we're putting the money at the right spot. So thank you for that. WELDY: You're welcome. MAYOR DICKEY: So we've already spent 250-something or $256,000 or so? Is that what that says here? Lost investment. Yeah. So if we don't do it, we've kind of lost that investment. And if we wait, I think one of the other cities re-bid and it was even higher than this. Because that was the other question, like, is it possible to re-bid? But we already kind of heard the answer to that. So I just wanted to -- before we go and ask -- and I'll ask Gerry. But before we do a motion, did we have any speaker cards? MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not, but we do have three comment cards in your packet that are for this item. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Gerry? FRIEDEL: I would say we move people and cars, especially on these two roads. So again, I would agree with the vice mayor that these are probably areas where we probably need it the most, but I wanted to make sure that we realize we do move people and cars in this town. GRZYBOWSKI: The people are in the cars. That's my point. We're moving people and they decide how they want to move themselves. FRIEDEL: I know. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 86 of 90 MCMAHON: Sorry. Thank you, Justin. I'm also for this project, and thank you for being thorough about it. I think getting $3 million is an awful lot in comparison to what we're going to spend, even though, yes, it is a lot of money. But at the same time, our communities really wants to have walkability. I know we've talked about it in the pedestrian and safety committee, et cetera, so I think it's important and the areas that you picked are really busy areas for the most part. So thank you very much. And on that, I'd like to make a motion to approve the funding in the amount of 521,182 for construction of sidewalk along Saguaro Boulevard, Palisades, as well as all necessary budget transfers. And thank you. KALIVIANAKIS: I'd like to second that, please. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Can we get a roll call? MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn? SKILLICORN: It sounds like a reasonable request, but I got to prioritize roads, so no. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Aye. MENDENHALL: Councilmember McMahon? MCMAHON: Aye. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Aye. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you. Thanks, Justin. WELDY: You're welcome. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 87 of 90 MAYOR DICKEY: And it was hard. When you say the sidewalk to nowhere, that was like from 20 years ago. So we're working on it. I appreciate that very much. So the legislative item, I think one of the things we talked about was that everything that we are hearing recently are bills that we've already kind of registered on, for and against, and the one that was vetoed. And then there's another compromise one that sounds like everybody's going to hold hands on. So maybe that's going to be okay. So we'll just keep -- unless anybody has anything new that they would like to bring up and have us take a position on. I think most of them are still floating around, the same ones. Anything else? So the -- the item when we discussed the direction -- we had some speakers get up and talk about the trash and storage from Living at Village Towne Center. So can we get an update on that? And if there's any way to alleviate that or move it or whatever, it seemed pretty reasonable. And then, Justin, again, if we could maybe contact the gentleman who talked about Golden Eagle and Palomino -- Palomino is near, and I'd like to see us do that as well. But the idea of the CARE funding that we did put all of the funding in, we are spending everything that we can, when we can. And also the rationale, again -- and it's very hard to understand, but is that when we fix a road that doesn't look like it needs fixing, it's because we're preventing something from happening in the future. So I know it's frustrating. So maybe somebody -- maybe we could just contact him and give him a little bit of the rationale behind that. And then hopefully, going forward, we will do some things that are a little more visible. Let's see, any future agenda items? Yes, sir? SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, I've got a couple. One is a question. I think about six weeks ago, I requested a DEI policy, and I emailed over the text of that, but I haven't seen it on the agenda. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, I forgot about -- what did we -- what were we going to do? Were we getting some sort of sample or -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 88 of 90 GOODWIN: Actually, we need to have some -- we'll need to have support of two other councilmembers based on your discussion. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So this would be to create a DEI policy for the -- SKILLICORN: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: -- town. SKILLICORN: At the time, I believe, Councilwoman Toth seconded. But -- MAYOR DICKEY: Diversity and -- what is it again? SKILLICORN: Inclusion. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. So yes. So could we get -- you're right. She did. So can we get another support for that? I think it's something -- if there's something that you are particularly interested in, why don't we talk or take a look at that, see if there's -- is there something that you're concerned with and maybe we can do it that way. And if you still have concerns, then maybe we can. SKILLICORN: Um-hum. Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Maybe it's -- SKILLICORN: I believe we had a second and a third on it that night. MAYOR DICKEY: We just had a second. We just had a second. SKILLICORN: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: So. That's right. FRIEDEL: I'll third it so we can have discussion on it. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. SKILLICORN: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. All right. SKILLICORN: The next one a few days ago, or it was a week ago. There was a public speaker that was here tonight. Chris Enos had a resolution about directing the attorney on the referendum suit. I'd like to make that agenda item to discuss that and vote on it. MAYOR DICKEY: Oh. Hold on, what do you mean? We are -- SKILLICORN: Well, I don't want to violate open meetings, but it would direct the attorney in that case. I think that that's -- I can share that. I don't think we should share TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 89 of 90 any more, though. MAYOR DICKEY: Help me, Aaron. I mean, I don't know that we're going to talk about. ARNSON: Well, I believe we -- I believe that the copy of the resolution, at least that I -- I don't know if it's the same version. Presumably, the version that I received, it would direct the town attorney to not defend the town in the lawsuit. Is that the one that you're talking about? SKILLICORN: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Oh. So it was a resolution telling the town not to defend ourselves, correct? SKILLICORN: Yeah. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman? Did you -- MCMAHON: Yes. That seems nonsensical to me because the lawsuit's been filed against -- ARNSON: Hold on. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. We're not going to discuss. I just want to know, is there like a -- is there a second? TOTH: I'll second that. MAYOR DICKEY: So this would be a resolution to not defend ourselves against a lawsuit that our names are on? Individually, our names are on. MCMAHON: I have a question for Aaron, if you don't mind. It's your job. Has such a request ever been made to you before? I mean, if you don't defend us, it's automatically -- anyway, because we're not allowed to discuss it. TOTH: Point of order. MAYOR DICKEY: No, we're not allowed to discuss. So. But we have one person supporting, not defending ourselves against a legal claim. Do we have another person that wants to do that? TOTH: I'll second that. MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. You did. Okay. She saying that she would go for it too, but we need another person. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 19, 2024, TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 90 of 90 FRIEDEL: I'll be the third. MAYOR DICKEY: To not defend ourselves? Okay. So we're not going to defend -- we're going to discuss in public -- SKILLICORN: Discuss it. MAYOR DICKEY: -- not to defend ourselves against a lawsuit. Okay. SKILLICORN: And then there was one more about -- MCMAHON: Before we move on. MAYOR DICKEY: We can't talk about it. MCMAHON: I'm not talking about it. This is going to involve legal advice. So I would like to move that to executive session, please. ARNSON: Well, at least the legal advice component of it will be an executive session, no doubt. Any action on it would be in public. SKILLICORN: And then the last of them was I'd like to, with the the haunting killing of Lake and Riley, I'd like to have a resolution supporting ICE for the town. And that's something I can draft and get that to staff in a day or two. MAYOR DICKEY: Could you please tell me what you're asking? TOTH: Second. SKILLICORN: Well, again, we can't discuss it. It's just a resolution supporting ICE. MCMAHON: ICE? SKILLICORN: Yeah. MCMAHON: Ice what? ARNSON: ICE, Immigration Custom Enforcement. SKILLICORN: Yeah. ARNSON: Okay. MAYOR DICKEY: Does he have a third for that? Does Councilman have a third for that? Thank you. All right. There's nothing else. We are adjourned. Thank you. Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on March 19, 2024, at 9:24 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 19th day of March 2024. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 7th Day of May 2024. _____________________________ Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk ITEM 8. B. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Consent                  Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Kukkola Sonia, Financial Services Technician Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a Liquor License Application for Pisa Pizza located at 16650 E Palisades Blvd., Fountain Hills, Arizona, for a Series 12 Restaurant License.  Staff Summary (Background) The purpose of this item is to obtain the Town Council's recommendation regarding a liquor license application submitted by Veton Gorenca, agent of Pisa Pizza, for submission to the Arizona Department of Liquor. Staff reviewed the liquor license application and found that it is in full compliance with Town Ordinances. Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle A.R.S. §4-201; 4-202; 4-203; 4-205 and R19-1-102 and R19-1-311. Risk Analysis N/A Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) N/A Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approval of the liquor license application. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve a series 12 liquor license application for Pisa Pizza.   Attachments Series 12 Restaurant - Pisa Pizza  Form Review Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/12/2024 10:10 AM Finance Director David Pock 04/15/2024 07:03 AM Finance Director David Pock 04/15/2024 07:03 AM Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/15/2024 08:50 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 04/25/2024 02:24 PM Form Started By: Kukkola Sonia Started On: 04/11/2024 11:24 AM Final Approval Date: 04/25/2024  ITEM 8. C. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Consent                  Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Kukkola Sonia, Financial Services Technician Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a Liquor License Application for Spark by Hilton  located at 17105 E Shea Blvd., Fountain Hills, Arizona, for a Series 10 Restaurant License.  Staff Summary (Background) The purpose of this item is to obtain the Town Council's recommendation regarding a liquor license application submitted by Chandrashekhar Prataprai Trivedi agent of Spark by Hilton, for submission to the Arizona Department of Liquor. Staff reviewed the liquor license application and found that it is in full compliance with Town Ordinances. Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle A.R.S. §4-201; 4-202; 4-203; 4-205 and R19-1-102 and R19-1-311. Risk Analysis N/A Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) N/A Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approval of the liquor license application. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve a series 10 liquor license application for Spark by Hilton.   Attachments Series 10 Restaurant - Spark by Hilton  Form Review Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 04/11/2024 12:23 PM Final Approval Date: 04/11/2024  ITEM 8. D. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Consent                  Submitting Department: Public Works Prepared by: David Janover, Town Engineer Staff Contact Information: Justin Weldy, Public Works Director Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of Resolution 2024-22, abandoning the 10' Public Utility and Drainage Easement along the north side of 15326 E Thistle Drive (Application A24-000006). Staff Summary (Background) This is a proposal to abandon the pre-incorporation 10' Public Utility and Drainage Easement along the north property line of Plat 602-D, Block 2, Lot 56 (15326 E Thistle Drive).  Michael and Colleen Pameditis, the owners of the property, are planning to install landscape and hardscape improvements which will encroach into the existing easement.  Staff have reviewed the site to determine the potential on-site drainage issues in addition to the Town's general interest in the easement.  There is no need for the Town to retain the drainage easement proposed to be abandoned, with the understanding that the owner of the lot is required to pass the developed flows generated by the upstream lots across their property.  All public utilities have approved the abandonment of this easement. 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 adoption of Resolution 2024-22 SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to adopt Resolution 2024-22 Attachments Vicinity Map  Aerial Photo Map  Res 2024-22  Exhibit A: Survey  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Development Services Director John Wesley 04/16/2024 07:21 AM Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/16/2024 08:35 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 04/24/2024 03:06 PM Form Started By: David Janover Started On: 04/10/2024 10:12 AM Final Approval Date: 04/24/2024  BEELIN E H W Y SHEA BLVD PAL I S A D E S B L V D SAGUARO BLVD SAG U A R O B L V D PALIS A D E S B L V D PALISA D E S B L V D SA G U A R O B L V D FO U N T A I N H I L L S B L V D McDOWELL M O U N T A I N R D F O U N T A I N H I L L S B L V D SUNR I D G E D R EL L A G O B L V D AVEN U E O F T H E FOUN T A I N S PA N O R A M A D R EAG L E M O U N T A I N PK W Y CR E S T V I E W D R PALO M I N O B L V D SIERRA M A D R E GRANDE BL V D G O L D E N E A G L E B L V D E A G L E R I D G E D R VICINITY MAP TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NORTH SCALE: 1" = 3500' All that is Ar i z o n a F O U N TAIN HI L L S T OWN OF INC. 1989 TOWN HALL DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT SCOTTSDALE McDOWELL MOUNTAIN PARK FO R T M c D O W E L L Y A V A P A I N A T I O N SALT RIVER PIMA MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY TOWN BOUNDARY SCOTTSDALE 15326 E Thistle Drive A24-000006 DEVELOPMENT SERVICES All that is A r i z o n a F O U N TAIN HIL L S T OWN OF INC. 1989 ZONING: R1-10 LOT 56 LEGEND: PHOTO MAP 2023 AERIAL A24-000006 E THI S T L E D R I V E ABANDON 10' P.U.E. & D.E. LOT 57 LOT 55 COLO N Y W A S H PARCE L " A " RETAIN EXISTING 10' P.U.E. & D.E. RESOLUTION 2024-22 A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, ABANDONING WHATEVER RIGHT, TITLE, OR INTEREST IT HAS IN THE PRE- INCORPORATION 10' PUBLIC UTILITY AND DRAINAGE EASEMENT ALONG THE NORTHERN PROPERTY LINE OF PLAT 602-D, BLOCK 2, LOT 56 (15326 E THISTLE DRIVE) FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AS RECORDED IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY RECORDER OF MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA, BOOK 166 OF MAPS, PAGE 34 WHEREAS, the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills (the “Town Council”), as the governing body of real property located in the Town of Fountain Hills (the “Town”), may require the dedication of public streets, sewer, water, drainage, and other utility easements or rights-of-way within any proposed subdivision; and WHEREAS, the Town Council has the authority to accept or reject offers of dedication of private property by easement, deed, subdivision, plat or other lawful means; and WHEREAS, all present utility companies have received notification of the proposed abandonment. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, as follows: SECTION 1. That the certain public utility and drainage easement, located at the northern property line of Plat 602-D, Block 2, Lot 56 (15326 E Thistle Drive) Fountain Hills, as recorded in the Office of the County Recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, Book 166 of Maps, Page 34, and as more particularly described in Exhibit A, attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference, are hereby declared to be abandoned by the Town. Certain lots within this subdivision are subject to lot-to-lot drainage runoff. The property owner is required to pass the developed flows generated by the upstream lots across their property. SECTION 2. That this Resolution is one of abandonment and disclaimer by the Town solely for the purpose of removing any potential cloud on the title to said property and that the Town in no way attempts to affect the rights of any private party to oppose the abandonment or assert any right resulting there from or existing previous to any action by the Town. PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills May 7, 2024. FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO: Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM: Rachael Goodwin, Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney EXHIBIT "A" TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS EASEMENT ABANDONMENT LOT 56 A24-000006 ITEM 8. E. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 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 a Professional Services and Employment Agreement between the Town of Fountain Hills and Robert E. Melton for the position of Presiding Judge of the Fountain Hills Municipal Court. Staff Summary (Background) Town Code Section 5-2-1 provides that the Town Council shall appoint a presiding judge for a term of four years to oversee the operations and activities of the Town's Municipal Court and its employees.   The Town has employed Judge Robert Melton since 2014 as the court's presiding judge.  The Town's employment agreement with Judge Melton will expire on June 30, 2024.     Staff is requesting renewal of the employment agreement for an additional approximately four-year term, as prescribed by Town Code. This employment agreement is largely identical to the previous version of the agreement, except for minor language changes and the following substantive changes:  Revises Section 1 to coincide with the budget year (i.e., terminates on June 30, 2024, instead of in April 2024), which will simplify salary adjustments for the Finance Department. Revises Section 2.A to provide for salary increases of either 2.5% or the amount of any across-the-board increases provided to Town employees as part of the Town's annual budget adoption process.  Consistent with the Council's direction, Judge Melton will provide a report to the Council of actions taken regarding the Administrative Office of the Court's most recent Court Operational Review. This report will be provided within six months of the effective date of the agreement and again within twelve months, if necessary. Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Town Code 5-2-1; A.R.S. 22-401 et seq.  Risk Analysis N/A Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) N/A Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approval of the Professional Services and Employment Agreement between the Town of Fountain Hills and Robert E. Melton for the position of Presiding Judge of the Fountain Hills Municipal Court. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve the Professional Services and Employment Agreement between the Town of Fountain Hills and Robert E. Melton for the position of Presiding Judge of the Fountain Hills Municipal Court. Attachments Contract  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/25/2024 04:46 PM Finance Director David Pock 05/01/2024 05:55 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 05/01/2024 10:58 AM Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 04/25/2024 04:34 PM Final Approval Date: 05/01/2024  1 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS AND ROBERT E. MELTON Amended and Restated May 7, 2024 THIS AMENDED AND RESTATED PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT (this "Amended Agreement") is entered into on May 7, 2024, by and between the Town of Fountain Hills, an Arizona municipal corporation (the "Town") and Mr. Robert E. Melton ("Melton"). RECITALS A. Pursuant to ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 22-401 et seq., the Town is required to have a municipal court, which shall be presided over by a magistrate judge (the “Presiding Judge”). B. On April 3, 2014, the Town and Melton entered into an Agreement for employment of Melton by the Town (the “Original Agreement”) for the position of Presiding Judge of the Town of Fountain Hills Municipal Court (the “Town Court”). The Original Agreement was amended effective April 8, 2016 (the “First Amended Agreement”), and the First Amended Agreement remained in effect through April 8, 2020. The First Amended Agreement was amended effective April 7, 2020 (the “Second Amended Agreement”), and the Second Amended Agreement remains in full force and effect through June 30, 2024. C. The Town and Melton desire to enter into this amendment (the “Third Amended Agreement”) to extend the terms and conditions of employment for Melton by the Town as Presiding Judge of the Town Court. D. This Third Amended Agreement is based on the Arizona Constitution's requirement of separation of powers and the necessity of judicial independence to preserve and protect that separation. This Third Amended Agreement shall set forth the parameters, guidelines, duties, rules of conduct and compensation during the term of this Third Amended Agreement. 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 is hereby acknowledged, the Town and Melton hereby agree as follows: 1. Term. This Third Amended Agreement shall be effective on July 1, 2024, and shall remain in full force and effect through June 30, 2028, unless sooner terminated for cause as set forth in Section 5 below. After commencing his official duties, and thereafter during the term of this Third Amended Agreement, Melton shall not be in the exclusive employ of the Town, but shall not accept other employment or carry out any other business that would conflict with his 2 duties as Presiding Judge. Except as set forth in Subsection 3(A) below, any such additional duties shall be conducted outside of Melton's regular Town Court work hours and without the use of Town resources or equipment. 2. Compensation. A. Base Salary. Melton shall be paid, in bi-weekly installments, an annual salary of $96,383.00 for the term of this Third Amended Agreement, unless increased pursuant to this Subsection. Melton's base salary shall be increased by the greater of either 2.5% annually, or the amount of any across-the-board increases provided to Town employees as part of the Town’s annual budget adoption, beginning with the first full pay period of the Town's fiscal years during FY 2024-2025, FY 2025-2026, FY 2026-2027, and FY 2027-2028. Melton expressly agrees and understands that the adjustments set forth in this Subsection shall be the sole means for increases to his base salary and that no other adjustments to his base salary shall occur. B. Retirement and Deferred Compensation. Melton may, at his sole option and expense, contribute to the Town's existing ICMA-RC 457 plan account (any catch-up amounts permitted by the plan shall be made separately by Melton). Such contributions shall be in bi-weekly installments via payroll deduction. Additionally, the Town agrees to match equally the amounts Melton contributes to the ICMA-RC 457 plan account as permitted by law, up to a maximum of 11% of Melton's salary. The Town further agrees to allow the transfer of ownership of Melton's plan(s), to the extent permitted by law, to any succeeding employer in the event of Melton's termination from the Town, for any reason. C. Vacation and Sick Leave. Melton shall accrue “Vacation Leave” and “Sick Leave” at the same rate and under the same conditions applicable to other part-time Town employees, based on a 25 hour per week schedule. 3. Duties. Melton shall perform the duties of Presiding Judge pursuant to all laws, ordinances and rules of the State of Arizona, the Town of Fountain Hills and the Arizona Supreme Court. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing sentence, Melton shall be responsible for carrying out the duties and obligations set forth in Chapter 5 of the Town Code. A. Work Hours. Melton shall maintain reasonable work hours Monday through Thursday except for legal holidays, and shall be available as necessary during non-work hours and on Fridays, during weekends and on legal holidays to conduct initial appearances as required by law or to address other court matters requiring immediate attention; provided, however, that all time worked during a calendar week shall not be more than 25 hours, including any leave taken or holidays occurring during such time period. In the event the Town chooses to change its regular work schedule from a four-day work week to a five-day work week, Melton shall conform his work hours accordingly. The Town agrees and understands that, due to the part-time nature of the Presiding Judge position, Melton may take on other judicial assignments. In such case, Melton shall make such accommodations as necessary to ensure that any such assignments shall not conflict with his Town Court duties, including any time during which Melton is serving as a judge or pro tern judge in another court. B. Case Adjudication. Melton shall act as Presiding Judge over all assigned court calendar dockets in a timely fashion and shall, if necessary, secure the services of an Associate Pro Tern Judge or hearing officer to facilitate the timely adjudication of cases in the Town Court. 3 C. Judicial Conduct. Melton shall at all times during the term of this Third Amended Agreement ensure that his conduct as Presiding Judge does not violate Arizona Supreme Court Administrative Order No. 93-30 (as amended by Order No. 96-25) and any other applicable order, the Code of Judicial Conduct, Rule 45 of Rules of the Arizona Supreme Court, and any other rule or law governing the conduct of judges. D. Court Administration. Melton shall, through the Town Court Administrator, act as the chief administrative officer over the Town Court and shall abide by the Rules and Regulations of the Town, including Town Code Subsection 5-2-6, in the conduct thereof. Melton shall, through the Town Court Administrator, be responsible for administering the budget of the Town Court and for preparing and submitting for approval an annual budget in accordance with established Town procedures. E. Community Interaction. In addition to his duties as set forth above, Melton (i) shall oversee and participate in the Town’s Teen Court, (ii) shall participate in the Court component of the Town’s Citizens Academy, (iii) should conduct outreach to the Fountain Hills High School to assist with criminal law and justice studies courses and (iv) may participate in such local charitable or civic organizations as Melton determines appropriate. 4. Performance Evaluation. The Town Council shall review and evaluate Melton’s performance as far in advance of the expiration of this Third Amended Agreement as practicable. Melton's review and evaluation shall be based upon (A) success at fulfilling the reasonably achievable goals and performance objectives for Town Court efficiency set forth by the Town Council in its annual goal-setting retreat, (B) personnel management, including overall management style and ability to lead and direct Town Court staff and ability to supervise Town Court staff, but specifically excluding any evaluation of Melton’s hiring and firing decisions with respect to individual staff members and (C) professionalism, including manner of addressing members of the public who appear in the Town Court. 5. Termination. During the term of this Third Amended Agreement, Melton may be removed from office by the Town Council for cause, including a material violation of this Third Amended Agreement. Notice of removal from office shall be delivered in writing to Melton and Melton shall have the right to request a hearing before the Town Council. Melton may terminate this Third Amended Agreement and resign his appointment as Presiding Judge upon 30 days’ written notice to the Town Mayor. 6. Professional Development. A. Professional Associations. The Town hereby agrees to budget for and to pay for Melton's expenses of professional and official travel, meetings, and occasions as necessary to continue his professional development and to adequately pursue necessary official functions for the Town Court. B. Continuing Education. The Town also agrees to budget for and to pay for Melton's expenses for continuing education courses, institutes and seminars necessary for his professional development as a judge and for the good of the Town Court. 4 C. State Bar Dues. The Town agrees to reimburse Melton the State Bar of Arizona dues on an annual basis in the Judicial Membership Category, if said dues are paid before the State Bar of Arizona deadline of February 1st. 7. General Expenses. The Town recognizes that certain expenses of a non-personal and generally job-affiliated nature are periodically incurred by Melton. The Town (A) agrees to reimburse or to pay said general expenses and (B) authorizes the Town Manager or authorized designee to disburse such monies upon receipt of duly executed expense or petty cash vouchers, receipts, statements or personal affidavits. 8. Bonding. The Town shall bear the full cost of any fidelity or other bonds required of Melton under any law or ordinance. 9. No Reduction of Benefits. The Town shall not, at any time during the term of this Third Amended Agreement, reduce Melton's salary, compensation or other financial benefits. 10. Notices and Requests. Any notice or other communication required or permitted to be given under this Third Amended Agreement shall be in writing and shall be deemed to have been duly given if (A) delivered to the party at the address set forth below, (B) deposited in the U.S. Mail, registered or certified, return receipt requested, to the address set forth below or (C) given to a recognized and reputable overnight delivery service, to the address set forth below: If to the Town: Town of Fountain Hills 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Attn: Town Manager With copy to: Town of Fountain Hills 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Attn: Town Attorney If to Melton: Robert E. Melton or at such other address, and to the attention of such other person or officer, as any party may designate in writing by notice duly given pursuant to this Section. Notices shall be deemed received (A) when delivered to the party, (B) three business days after being placed in the U.S. Mail, properly addressed, with sufficient postage or (C) the following business day after being given to a recognized overnight delivery service, with the person giving the notice paying all required charges and instructing the delivery service to deliver on the following business day. If a copy of a notice is also given to a party's counsel or other recipient, the provisions above governing the date on which a notice is deemed to have been 5 received by a party shall mean and refer to the date on which the party, and not its counsel or other recipient to which a copy of the notice may be sent, is deemed to have received the notice. 11. Waiver. No delay in exercising any right or remedy shall constitute a waiver thereof, and no waiver by the Town or Melton of the breach of any covenant of this Third Amended Agreement shall be construed as a waiver of any preceding or succeeding breach of the same or any other covenant or condition of this Third Amended Agreement. 12. Attorneys’ Fees. In the event either party finds it necessary to bring any action at law or other proceeding against the other party to enforce any of the terms, covenants or conditions hereof, or by reason of any breach or default hereunder, the party prevailing in such action or other proceeding shall be paid all reasonable costs and reasonable attorneys' fees by the other party and, in the event any judgment is secured by said prevailing party, all such costs and attorneys' fees shall be included therein, such fees to be set by the court and not by jury. 13. Headings. The descriptive headings of the sections of this Third Amended Agreement are inserted for convenience only and shall not control or affect the meaning or construction of any of the provisions hereof. 14. Time of the Essence. Time is of the essence in this Third Amended Agreement. 15. Assignment. This Third Amended Agreement may not be assigned, in whole or in part. 16. Entire Agreement. This Third Amended Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties hereto pertaining to the subject matter hereof. All prior and contemporaneous agreements, representations, and understandings of the parties, oral or written, are hereby superseded and merged herein. 17. Amendment. No amendment or waiver of any provision in this Third Amended Agreement will be binding (A) on the Town unless and until it has been approved by the Town Council and has become effective or (B) on Melton unless and until it has been executed by Melton or his authorized representative. 18. Governing Law. This Third Amended Agreement is entered into in Arizona and shall be construed and interpreted under the laws of the State of Arizona. 19. Severability. Every provision of this Third Amended Agreement is and will be construed to be a separate and independent covenant. If any provision in this Thid Amended Agreement or the application of the same is, to any extent, found to be invalid or unenforceable, then the remainder of this Third Amended Agreement or the application of that provision to circumstances other than those to which it is invalid or unenforceable, will not be affected by that invalidity or unenforceability. Each provision in this Third Amended Agreement will be valid and will be enforced to the extent permitted by law and the parties will negotiate in good faith for such amendments of this Third Amended Agreement as may be necessary to achieve its intent, notwithstanding such invalidity or unenforceability. 6 20. Covenant of Good Faith. In exercising their rights and in performing their obligations pursuant to this Third Amended Agreement, the parties will cooperate with one another in good faith to ensure the intent of this Third Amended Agreement can be attained. The Town and its Town Council shall not unreasonably withhold appropriation authority to fund the salary, benefits and other provisions of this Third Amended Agreement. 21. Conflict of Interest. This Third Amended Agreement may be cancelled by the Town pursuant to ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 38-511. 22. Counsel Assistance; Fair Interpretation. A. Counsel for Melton. Melton has either been assisted by counsel in connection with the preparation and execution of this Third Amended Agreement or has chosen to forego such legal representation. B. Counsel for Town. The Town has been assisted by counsel of its own choosing in connection with the preparation and execution of this Third Amended Agreement. C. Fair Interpretation. This Third Amended Agreement shall be construed according to the fair meaning of its language. The rule of construction that ambiguities shall be resolved against the Party who drafted a provision shall not be employed in interpreting this Third Amended Agreement. 23. Records and Audit Rights. Melton's books, records, correspondence, accounting procedures and practices, and any other supporting evidence relating to this Third Amended Agreement (all the foregoing hereinafter referred to as "Records"), to ensure that Melton is complying with the warranty under Section 24 below, shall be open to inspection and subject to audit and/or reproduction during normal working hours by the Town, to the extent necessary to adequately permit (A) evaluation and verification of any invoices, payments or claims based on Melton's actual costs (including direct and indirect costs and overhead allocations) incurred, or units expended directly in the performance of work under this Third Amended Agreement and (B) evaluation of the Melton's compliance with the Arizona employer sanctions laws referenced in Section 24 below. To the extent necessary for the Town to audit Records as set forth in this subsection, Melton hereby waives any rights to keep such Records confidential. For the purpose of evaluating or verifying such actual or claimed costs or units expended, the Town shall have access to said Records from the effective date of this Third Amended Agreement for the duration of the work and until three years after the date of final payment by the Town to Melton pursuant to this Third Amended Agreement. Melton shall provide the Town with adequate and appropriate workspace so that the Town can conduct audits in compliance with the provisions of this section. The Town shall give Melton reasonable advance notice of intended audits. 24. E-verify Requirements. To the extent applicable under ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 41-4401, Melton warrants compliance with all federal immigration laws and regulations that relate to Town Court employees and compliance with the E-verify requirements under ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 23-214(A). Melton's failure to comply with such warranty shall be deemed a material breach of this Third Amended Agreement and may result in the termination of this Third Amended Agreement by the Town. [SIGNATURES ON FOLLOWING PAGE] 7 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this Third Amended Agreement on the day and year first set forth above. “MELTON” “TOWN” TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, an Arizona municipal corporation ____________________________________ Robert E. Melton ____________________________________ Ginny Dickey, Mayor ATTEST: ____________________________________ Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk ITEM 8. F. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Consent                  Submitting Department: Public Works Prepared by: David Janover, Town Engineer Staff Contact Information: Justin Weldy, Public Works Director Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of Resolution 2024-25, granting a 30' Access Easement on Town-owned property to J.E. Booth Farms, LLC Staff Summary (Background) The Town of Fountain Hills is planning to sell a parcel of land that it owns, that was previously used as an access point to Ashbrook Wash from Westby Drive. The subject parcel was identified as a drainage parcel by Special Road District 11. During the preparation for this sale, it was discovered that an adjacent property owner, J.E. Booth Farms, LLC, had purchased their property not knowing that an asphalt driveway used for their access had been built partially encroaching on the Town's property prior to Incorporation. The Town was granted the subject property through a Special Warranty Deed, recorded on March 31, 1997.  MCO Properties granted many properties to the Town with this Deed, including the subject property.  The Deed contained unusual language, stating the parcel is “SUBJECT TO all taxes and other assessments…obligations and liabilities that may appear of record, rights or claims of parties in possession and easements or claims of easements not shown by the public records; encroachments, roadways, overlaps, conflicts in boundary line, shortages in area and other matters which would be disclosed by a survey or inspection of the Property;…”  This essentially means that since this driveway encroachment existed before the land was deeded to the Town in 1997, the encroachment could continue after being deeded to the Town, which it was. The Town is now considering selling this tract of land, and this historical encroachment needs to be memorialized. To resolve this encroachment issue, the Town and J.E. Booth Farms, LLC, have come to an agreement wherein the Town will grant an Access Easement to J.E. Booth Farms, LLC. This Access Easement will allow the asphalt driveway to remain in its current location, even if the Town sells the property to a third party in the future. The easement will be thirty feet wide and will run with the land.  A Driveway Exhibit is attached to the Council Report, showing the extents of the paved driveway area and the proposed 30' easement. Staff recommends that the Council approve the grant of the Access Easement, as it will allow the adjacent property owners to continue using the asphalt driveway on the Town-owned property to access their apartments. 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 adoption of Resolution 2024-25. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to adopt Resolution 2024-25. Attachments Vicinity Map  Aerial Photo Map  Driveway Exhibit  Res 2024-25  Grant of Easement  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Public Works Director Justin Weldy 04/30/2024 04:43 PM Finance Director David Pock 04/30/2024 05:27 PM Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 05/01/2024 05:56 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 05/01/2024 08:56 AM Form Started By: David Janover Started On: 04/30/2024 12:28 PM Final Approval Date: 05/01/2024  BEELIN E H W Y SHEA BLVD PAL I S A D E S B L V D SAGUARO BLVD SAG U A R O B L V D PALIS A D E S B L V D PALISA D E S B L V D SA G U A R O B L V D FO U N T A I N H I L L S B L V D McDOWELL M O U N T A I N R D FO U N T A I N H I L L S B L V D SUNR I D G E D R EL L A G O B L V D AVEN U E O F T H E FOUN T A I N S PA N O R A M A D R EAG L E M O U N T A I N PK W Y CR E S T V I E W D R PALO M I N O B L V D SIERRA M A D R E GRANDE BL V D G O L D E N E A G L E B L V D E A G L E R I D G E D R VICINITY MAP TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NORTH SCALE: 1" = 3500' All that is Ar i z o n a F O U N TAIN HI L L S T OWN OF INC. 1989 TOWN HALL DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT SCOTTSDALE McDOWELL MOUNTAIN PARK FO R T M c D O W E L L Y A V A P A I N A T I O N SALT RIVER PIMA MARICOPA INDIAN COMMUNITY TOWN BOUNDARY SCOTTSDALE Westby Drive Plat 111, Parcel "F" A24-00000? EXHIBIT "B" TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS EASEMENT ACQUISITION NEW 30' ACCESS EASEMENT A24-00000????? LOT 30 85 PA R C E L PARCEL "F" "F " AS H B R O O K W A S H ASHBROOK WASH ACCESS EASEMENT AREA = 4,316.24 SF P.O.B. E WE S T B Y D R CAD SURVEY DATA FILE RESULTS OF SURVEY 20230423878 MCR, RECORDED 08/14/2023 BOOK 1752, PAGE 30 Paved Existing Driveway Area Right-of-Way Line Clearance Distance = 0.53' 3 0 ' R / W 30' EASE M E N T A R E A 30' RESOLUTION 2024-25 A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, GRANTING A 30’ ACCESS EASEMENT TO J.E. BOOTH FARMS, LLC. BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, as follows: SECTION 1. That an access easement through, over and across a portion of certain real property, known as “Parcel F” on the Town of Fountain Hills Plat No, 111 as recorded in the Office of the County Recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, Book 150 of Maps, Page 12, is hereby granted to J.E. Booth Farms, LLC, in the form attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated herein by reference. SECTION 2. That the Mayor, the Town Manager, the Town Clerk and the Town Attorney are hereby authorized and directed to take all steps and to execute all documents 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 May 7, 2024. FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO: Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM: Rachael Goodwin, Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney When recorded return to: Town of Fountain Hills Attn: Town Clerk 16705 E Avenue of the Fountains Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 AFFIDAVIT EXEMPT A.R.S. § 11-1134 (A)(3) ACCESS EASEMENT This ACCESS EASEMENT is made effective this _ day of 2024 between the Town of Fountain Hills, an Arizona municipal corporation (“‘Town”) and J.E. Booth Farms, LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company (“J.E. Booth Farms”). WHEREAS the Town acquired certain real property by Special Warranty Deed from MCO Properties, L.P. d/b/a MCO Properties Limited Partnership, Maricopa County Recorder (“MCR”) 97- 0208849, which included “Parcel F” on the Town of Fountain Hills Plat No. 111, MCR 150-12 (“Parcel F”), subject to, in pertinent part, “rights or claims of parties in possession and easements or claims of easements not shown by the public records.” WHEREAS a portion of Parcel F, as described in the attached Exhibits A (legal description) and Exhibit B (survey), has been used since at least 1976 to access Lot 30, Block 7, Town of Fountain Hills Plat No. 111, MCR 150-12, APN 176-01-373 (“Lot 30”). WHEREAS J.E. Booth Farms acquired Lot 30 by Special Warranty Deed from BCE USA, LLC, an Arizona limited liability company, MCR 2017019967. WHEREAS the Town and J.E. Booth Farms now desire to formally record an access easement over the portion of Parcel F that has been used historically to access Lot 30 and which includes a paved driveway. NOW THEREFORE, in consideration of one dollar ($1.00) and other good and valuable consideration which is hereby acknowledged, the Town grants and conveys to J.E. Booth Farms a perpetual easement over the portion of Parcel F identified in Exhibit A and Exhibit B to be held appurtenant to and for the benefit of Lot 30 exclusively for access to/from Lot 30 (“Access Easement”), which shall include the right to construct and maintain a paved driveway. Any improvement(s) constructed within the Access Easement for access to Lot 30 shall be at the sole cost and responsibility of the then-owner of Lot 30. Nothing in this Access Easement shall cause any driveway constructed within the Access Easement to become public. GRANTOR: TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS By: _________________________ Dated: _______________________ STATE OF ARIZONA ) ) ss. COUNTY OF MARICOPA ) The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me this ___ day of ____________ 2024 by _____________________________. _____________________________________ Notary Public My Commission Expires: Exhibit A LEGAL DESCRIPTION ACCESS EASEMENT FOUNTAIN HILLS ARIZONA FINAL PLAT NO. 111, PORTION OF PARCEL “F” A portion of the southeast quarter of Section 10 & northeast quarter of Section 15, Township 3 North Range 6 East of the Gila and Salt River Base and Meridian, Maricopa County, Arizona, described as follows: A portion of Parcel “F”, of Fountain Hills Arizona Final Plat No. 111, according to the plat of record in the office of the county recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, recorder in Book 150, Page 12, and more particularly described as follows: Commencing at the southwest corner of Lot 30, Block 7 of said Plat 111, said corner being on the northerly right-of-way line of Westby Drive and the POINT OF BEGINNING; Thence south 62 degrees 45 minutes 00 seconds west along said right-of-way a distance of 30.00 feet; Thence departing said right-of-way north 27 degrees 15 minutes 00 seconds west a distance of 20.00 feet, to the beginning of a tangent curve concave northeasterly and having a radius of 1700.00 feet; Thence continuing along said curve through a central angle of 04 degrees 13 minutes 15 seconds, an arc length of 125.24 feet; Thence north 68 degrees 00 minutes 00 seconds east, a distance of 30.00 feet, to a point on the northwest corner of Lot 30, Block 7 of said Plat 111, and non-tangent curve concave northeasterly and having a radius of 1670.00 feet; Thence continuing along said curve through a central angle of 04 degrees 12 minutes 10 seconds, an arc length of 122.50 feet; Thence south 27 degrees 15 minutes 00 seconds east a distance of 20.00 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING. This Easement contains an area of 4,316.24 square feet more or less. EXHIBIT "B" TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS ACCESS EASEMENT NEW 30' ACCESS EASEMENT NEW ACCESS EASEMENT (C) CALCULATED CURVE DATA: EASEMENT AREA: 4,316.24 SF ITEM 9. A. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 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):  PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of Ordinance number 24-05 modifying the Zoning Ordinance by amending 5.13, Community Residences, to provide for re-inspections. Staff Summary (Background) Section 5.13 of the Zoning Ordinance provides the standards for Community Residences.  A community residence provides an exception to our definition of family and allows more unrelated individuals to reside in a home than provided for in the definition if they register the home, and it conforms to the requirements of the ordinance.   The Town Council asked staff to prepare an amendment to this section of the zoning ordinance to allow for increased inspection of these homes. Through the review process, staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission identified two additional areas of the ordinance to consider for modifications.  All the changes recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission are described below. Inspections To provide for additional inspections, the first recommended change is to add a statement at the end of 5.13 C. 2. to allow follow-up inspections when there is a reasonable belief the home may be out of compliance.     2. Following receipt of a complete application for registration, the property will be inspected by the Building Official and Fire Marshal for compliance with all life safety requirements. Any identified deficiencies must be addressed and compliance verified through a follow-up inspection before the registration will be completed. FOLLOW-UP INSPECTIONS MAY BE CONDUCTED UPON A REASONABLE BELIEF OF NON-COMPLIANCE.    The second recommended change is to Section 5.13 C 6 to expand what can be reviewed during the inspection conducted during the annual re-registration process.  6. Reregistration. The community residence operator must register annually by submitting a new application with any updated documents. The registration can be renewed if the following are met: a. The home has maintained a current license or certificate. a. The home has maintained a current license or certificate. b. The home or operator has maintained a current Town business license, if applicable. c. Re-inspection of the property has verified ongoing compliance with: i. life safety standards; ii. OCCUPANCY LIMITS; and, diii. The provider has complied with the policies and procedures established in subsection (B)(5) of this section. ed. Verification of the current, appropriate Maricopa County tax status. Business License During their review, the Planning and Zoning Commission wanted to increase the requirement for obtaining a business license to ensure this step is not missed in the process.  The following changes are recommended for this purpose. Section 5.13 B. Application Requirements  11. OWNER AND/OR OPERATOR Rreceives a Town business license, if applicable. Related to this, Sections 5.13 C. 5. c. and 6.b. will also be amended as follows:  5. c. A Town business license, if applicable. 6. b. The home or operator has maintained a current Town business license, if applicable.    Waiver Requirement When the ordinance was updated a few years ago, there was significant discussion regarding the types of community residences and how many residents would be allowed in each kind to still qualify as a family.  There was also discussion about whether to include a provision for waivers.  The provision for waivers was initially written when the draft ordinance would allow up to 10 residents in a home.  The provision allowing for the consideration of waivers was deleted from the ordinance as recommended to the Council.  At the same time, the maximum number of individuals allowed in a home was reduced.  The Council subsequently reinstated the section allowing for waivers (Section 5.13 E), but staff failed to fully review the language in light of the reduction in the maximum number of allowed residents.  Therefore, the waiver language in Section 5.13 E 1 b still states the need for a waiver of more than 10 residents.  To correct this, Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending the following changes to Section 5.13 E.    E. Waiver FOR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION. To establish a community residence that does not comply with the occupancy or separation requirements, the applicant may apply to the Development Services Department for a waiver FOR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION. In all cases the Development Services Director shall submit the request FORto the waiver to the Community Residence Waiver Committee to make findings of fact in support of the determinations and shall render the decision in writing. The application will initially be reviewed by the Development Services Director for completeness. The Director may meet with and interview the applicant to request additional supporting information to determine the necessity of the accommodation and to ascertain or clarify information sufficient for the Committee to make the required findings.     1. To grant a waiver, the Committee shall find affirmatively all of the following standards:     a. The applicant demonstrates through documentation and evidence that the proposed community residence can and will emulate a biological family and function as a residential use rather than an institutional or other nonresidential use.   b. The applicant demonstrates through documentation and evidence that the proposed community residence needs to house more than EIGHTten (810) residents IN A FAMILY COMMUNITY RESIDENCE OR SIX (6) RESIDENTS IN A TRANSITIONAL COMMUNITY RESIDENCE or reduce the separation for financial or therapeutic reasons.     Currently, there are two community residences in Town that are subject to the ordinance approved in 2022.  Those residences will be subject to the re-inspection requirement when they update their registrations. Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Zoning Ordinance Section 5.13, Community Residences Risk Analysis N/A Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the proposed modifications at two meetings.  They voted at their April 8, 2024, meeting to recommend approval. Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approval of the ordinance as submitted. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to adopt Ordinance 24-05. Attachments Ordinance 24-05  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Development Services Director (Originator)John Wesley 04/16/2024 11:46 AM Form Started By: John Wesley Started On: 04/16/2024 10:47 AM Final Approval Date: 04/16/2024  ORDINANCE NO. 24-05 AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AMENDING THE FOUNTAIN HILLS ZONING ORDNANCE BY AMENDING 5.13, COMMUNITY RESIDENCES, TO PROVIDE FOR RE-INSPECTIONS ENACTMENTS: NOW THEREFORE BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, as follows: SECTION 1. That Chapter 5, General Provisions, Section 5.13 B, C and E are hereby amended as follows: … B. Application Requirements … 11. OWNER AND/OR OPERATOR RReceives a Town business license, if applicable. C. Registration 1. Registration of a community residence with the Town is required prior to beginning operation. An approved registration is valid for one (1) year from date administratively issued. 2. Following receipt of a complete application for registration, the property will be inspected by the Building Official and Fire Marshal for compliance with all life safety requirements. Any identified deficiencies must be addressed and compliance verified through a follow-up inspection before the registration will be completed. UNANNOUNCED FOLLOW-UP INSPECTIONS MAY BE CONDUCTED UPON A REASONABLE BELIEF OF NON-COMPLIANCE. 3. All required documents listed in subsection B of this section will be reviewed. Any required corrections or clarifications must be submitted to complete the registration process. 4. When all registration requirements have been met, the Development Services Director will administratively complete the Town’s registration process. 5. If all other requirements of this section are met, the Development Services Director may issue a conditional registration for up to ninety (90) days while the applicant applies for and receives: a. The license or certificate as required by subsection (B)(1) of this section; b. The Maricopa tax verification required by subsection (B)(8) of this section; and c. A Town business license, if applicable. The applicant may not occupy the residence until these items are received by the Town. If one (1) or more of these items are not received by the Town within ninety (90) days, or is not approved, the registration of the property will be rescinded. Should the license or certificate become revoked for any reason, the community residence operator will have forty-five (45) days to vacate the property. 6. Reregistration. The community residence operator must register annually by submitting a new application with any updated documents. The registration can be renewed if the following are met: a. The home has maintained a current license or certificate. b. The home or operator has maintained a current Town business license, if applicable. c. Reinspection of the property has verified ongoing compliance with: I. Llife safety standards;. II. OCCUPANCY LIMITS; AND, dIII. The provider has complied with Tthe policies and procedures established in subsection (B)(5) of this section. eD. Verification of the current, appropriate Maricopa County tax status. … E. Waiver FOR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION. To establish a community residence that does not comply with the occupancy or separation requirements, the applicant may apply to the Development Services Department for a waiver FOR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION. In all cases the Development Services Director shall submit the request FORto the waiver to the Community Residence Waiver Committee to make findings of fact in support of the determinations and shall render the decision in writing. The application will initially be reviewed by the Development Services Director for completeness. The Director may meet with and interview the applicant to request additional supporting information to determine the necessity of the accommodation and to ascertain or clarify information sufficient for the Committee to make the required findings. 1. To grant a waiver, the Committee shall find affirmatively all of the following standards: a. The applicant demonstrates through documentation and evidence that the proposed community residence can and will emulate a biological family and function as a residential use rather than an institutional or other nonresidential use. b. The applicant demonstrates through documentation and evidence that the proposed community residence needs to house more than EIGHTten (810) residents IN A FAMILY COMMUNITY RESIDENCE OR SIX (6) RESIDENTS IN A TRANSITIONAL COMMUNITY RESIDENCE or reduce the separation for financial or therapeutic reasons. … SECTION 2. In accordance with Article II, Sections 1 and 2, Constitution of Arizona, and the laws of the State of Arizona, the City/Town Council has considered the individual property rights and personal liberties of the residents of the City/Town and the probable impact of the proposed ordinance on the cost to construct housing for sale or rent before adopting this ordinance. PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, Maricopa County, Arizona, this 7th day of May 2024. FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO: ___________________________________ __________________________________ Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM: ____________________________________ __________________________________ Rachael Goodwin, Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney ITEM 9. B. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Development Services Prepared by: Farhad Tavassoli, Senior Planner Staff Contact Information: Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of a preliminary plat for approximately 3 acres at the NEC of Palisades Blvd. and La Montana Drive, subdividing three commercially zoned parcels into four lots, PRP22-000001. Staff Summary (Background) The owners of three existing commercial properties at the northeast corner of Palisades Blvd and La Montana Drive have submitted a preliminary plat to subdivide the properties into four separate commercial lots. The subject property includes full improvements and currently supports three existing buildings and a vacant pad. Building 1 currently houses the HonorHealth Group medical office and urgent care facility. Building 2 currently contains the Sonoran Style home decorating store and a vacant unit (formerly Asian Fang restaurant). Dutch Bros Coffee is the newest business and is located on the southeast portion of the site. A number of commercial units connecting Buildings 1 and 2 were recently demolished to provide additional parking for the commercial site. The area contained within the proposed Lot 3 is currently vacant. Lot sizes are proposed as follows: Lot 1 - 51,758.51 or 1.188 acres Lot 2 - 26,095.29 or 0.599 acre Lot 3 - 17,735.50 or 0.407 acre Lot 4 - 36,249.05 or 0.832 acre  Ingress/egress is provided by two driveways along Palisades Blvd. measuring 24-feet and 30-feet wide. Additionally, there are two driveways along La Montana Drive, also measuring 24-feet and 30-feet wide. An existing parking lot supports the entire site. Staff will require an approved shared parking and maintenance agreement between owners of the four lots prior to final plat approval. Should council approve the preliminary plat, the applicant will follow with a request for final plat, which will be considered for approval by Town Council.   Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Zoning Ordinance                Chapter 12 - Commercial Zoning Districts Subdivision Ordinance        Article 2 - Platting Procedures Subdivision Ordinance        Section 2.03 - Preliminary Plats Subdivision Ordinance       Article 3 - Subdivision Design Principles & Standards Subdivision Ordinance       Article 4 - Public Improvement Requirements Risk Analysis Approval will allow the applicants to subdivide and further develop the property as a four-lot commercial subdivision   Denial of the Preliminary Plat will require that the applicants re-design aspects of the proposal in order to address the reasons for denial. Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) At their regular meeting on April 8, 2024, the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval with a 7-0 vote. In acknowledgment of some of the concerns stated by the Commission, Chairman Grey advised that Town Council evaluate the preliminary plat as it relates to the overall character of the downtown corridor, as some questioned the reasoning behind the proposed lot boundaries as they relate to the common parking area. Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approval of the Preliminary Plat for Palisades Blvd. and La Montana Drive. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve the preliminary plat for NEC of Palisades Blvd. and La Montana Drive. Attachments Case Map  Preliminary Plat  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Development Services Director John Wesley 04/23/2024 04:51 PM Form Started By: Farhad Tavassoli Started On: 04/23/2024 03:52 PM Final Approval Date: 04/23/2024  P&Z Commission Case Map Case Details CASE: PRP22-000001 SITE / ADDRESS: 16716; 16740; 16760 E. Palisades Blvd APN 176-24-251B; 251C; 251D REQUEST: PRELIMINARY PLAT for approximately 3 acres at the NEC of Palisades Blvd. and La Montana Drive, subdividing three commercially zoned parcels into four lots. Site Location 26,002 SF (QSR) PAD 2 .60 ACRES 16750 51,775 SF 1.19 ACRES PAD 1 BUILDING 16730 S S S S S S PALIS A D E S B O U L E V A R D LA MONTANA DRIVE CA M B R I A D R I V E VICINITY MAP PALIS A D E S B L V D SA G U A R O LA MONTANA DRIVEPALISADES BLVD & LA MONTANA DR BASIS OF BEARING Bo w m a n C o n s u l t i n g G r o u p L t d 16 0 0 N . D e s e r t D r i v e S t e 2 1 0 Te m p e , A r i z o n a 8 5 2 8 1 c 2 0 2 1 B o w m a n C o n s u l t i n g G r o u p L t d Ph o n e : ( 4 8 0 ) 6 2 9 - 8 8 3 0 ww w . b o w m a n c o n s u l t i n g . c o m PR E L I M I N A R Y P L A T FH S C - H H - D B C FO U N T A I N H I L L S MA R I C O P A C O U N T Y 11-MD-2022 JCB TKT HT 1"=50'NONE 090831-01-001 2/28/2024 PP01 01 02 PRELIMINARY PLAT FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA LOCATED IN THE NORTHEAST QUARTER OF SECTION 15 AND THE NORTHWEST QUARTER OF SECTION 14, TOWNSHIP 3 NORTH, RANGE 6 EAST, OF THE GILA AND SALT RIVER BASE AND MERIDIAN, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA CIVIL ENGINEERSUBDIVIDER/ DEVELOPER UTILITY SERVICES UTILITY COMPANY WATER EPCOR SEWER FOUNTAIN HILLS SANITARY DISTRICT POWER SRP TELEPHONE / CABLE COX COMMUNICATIONS GAS SOUTHWEST GAS Call at least two full working days before you begin excavation. Dial 8-1-1 or 1-800-STAKE-IT (782-5348) In Maricopa County: (602) 263-1100 Arizona Blue Stake, Inc. SITE DATA LEGEND THE PROMPT PAY LAW WILL BE ALTERED FOR THIS CONTRACT NOTICE OF EXTENDED PAYMENT PROVISION THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT WILL ALLOW THE OWNER TO MAKE PAYMENT WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER CERTIFICATION AND APPROVAL OF BILLINGS TS T BENCHMARK RETENTION CALCULATIONS VOLUME REQUIRED: Vr = D/12 x A x C WHERE: Vr=VOLUME REQUIRED Vp=VOLUME PROVIDED D= 100-YR,2-HR RAINFALL, 2.28-IN A=AREA IN SQUARE FEET C=COEFFICIENT OF RUNOFF: 0.65 (PRE) | 0.81 (POST) PRE VS POST (PARCEL 3) PRE: 0.65 X 17,714 X 2.28/12 = 2,187.68 POST: 0.81 X 17,714 X 2.28/12 = 2,726.18 RETENTION REQUIRED = 2,726.18 - 2,187.68 = 539 CF RETENTION REQUIRED = 738 CF VOLUME PROVIDED = 862 CF LEGAL DESCRIPTION (PARENT PARCELS) FIRST FLUSH (PARCEL 3) 1 X 17,714 X 0.5/12 = 738 RETENTION REQUIRED = 738 CF S S S S S S S S S S S S PALIS A D E S B O U L E V A R D E LA MONTANA DRIVE CA M B R I A D R I V E 26,002 SF (QSR) PAD 2 .60 ACRES 16750 PAD 3 (QSR) .41 ACRES 17,715 SF 51,775 SF 1.19 ACRES PAD 1 BUILDING 16730 PAD 4 (DUTCH BROS) .83 ACRES 36,222 SF Bo w m a n C o n s u l t i n g G r o u p L t d 16 0 0 N . D e s e r t D r i v e S t e 2 1 0 Te m p e , A r i z o n a 8 5 2 8 1 c 2 0 2 1 B o w m a n C o n s u l t i n g G r o u p L t d Ph o n e : ( 4 8 0 ) 6 2 9 - 8 8 3 0 ww w . b o w m a n c o n s u l t i n g . c o m PR E L I M I N A R Y P L A T FH S C - H H - D B C FO U N T A I N H I L L S MA R I C O P A C O U N T Y 11-MD-2022 JCB TKT HT 1"=30'NONE 090831-03-001 2/28/2024 PP02 02 02 Call at least two full working days before you begin excavation. Dial 8-1-1 or 1-800-STAKE-IT (782-5348) In Maricopa County: (602) 263-1100 Arizona Blue Stake, Inc. THE PROMPT PAY LAW WILL BE ALTERED FOR THIS CONTRACT NOTICE OF EXTENDED PAYMENT PROVISION THE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT WILL ALLOW THE OWNER TO MAKE PAYMENT WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER CERTIFICATION AND APPROVAL OF BILLINGS TYPICAL PARKING DETAIL NTS TYPICAL TRASH ENCLOSURE PER FOUNTAIN HILLS DTL FH-135 NTS FIRE TRUCK TURNING RADIUS ITEM 9. C. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Paul Soldinger, Chief Financial Officer Staff Contact Information: Paul Soldinger, Chief Financial Officer Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Adopting Resolution 2024-16 setting forth the Tentative Budget and establishing the maximum budget amount for the Town of Fountain Hills for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024, and ending June 30, 2025. Staff Summary (background) The proposed Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget was presented to the Town Council at the budget workshop on April 9, 2024. The total expenditures for all funds is $46.2 million. Resolution 2024-16 establishes $46.2 million as the maximum amount of expenditures for Fiscal Year 2024-25. After approval of this Resolution, changes to the budget can be made within line items, but the total amount cannot exceed this established amount. The Tentative Budget includes $1.8M in contingency expenditure authority for the General Fund. This contingency provides the Town with flexibility in the case of unforeseen events, such as emergency infrastructure repairs due to a storm. However, this contingency can only be used if there are adequate financial resources available. Quarterly budget updates, including revenue collections, will be provided to the Town Council at the end of each quarter. Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle A.R.S. 42-17102 Risk Analysis If not approved, the Town will not be in compliance with state statute. Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) N/A Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends adoption of Resolution 2024-16.   SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to adopt Resolution 2024-16. Attachments Resolution 2024-16  Exhibit A  Exhibit B  Presentation  Form Review Inbox Reviewed By Date Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/23/2024 08:01 PM Finance Director David Pock 04/24/2024 07:18 AM Finance Director David Pock 04/24/2024 07:18 AM Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 04/24/2024 09:01 AM Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 04/25/2024 02:39 PM Form Started By: Paul Soldinger Started On: 04/23/2024 04:38 PM Final Approval Date: 04/25/2024  RESOLUTION 2024-16 A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, SETTING FORTH THE TENTATIVE BUDGET AND ESTABLISHING THE MAXIMUM BUDGET AMOUNT FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING JULY 1, 2024, AND ENDING JUNE 30, 2025 RECITALS: WHEREAS, pursuant to the provisions of the laws of the State of Arizona, the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills (the “Town Council”) are required to adopt a budget for each fiscal year; and WHEREAS, in accordance with ARIZ. REV. STAT. § 42-17102, the Town Manager has prepared, and filed with the Town Council, the Town Manager’s budget estimates for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024, and ending June 30, 2025. ENACTMENTS: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE TOWN 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 statements and schedules attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated herein by reference are hereby adopted as the Town’s official tentative budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024, and ending June 30, 2025, including the establishment of the maximum budget amount for such fiscal year in the amount of $45,151,633. SECTION 3. Upon approval of the Town Council, the Town Manager or designee shall publish in the official Town newspaper once a week for two consecutive weeks (i) the official tentative budget and (ii) a notice, in the form attached as Exhibit B and incorporated herein by reference, of the public hearing of the Town Council to hear taxpayers and make tax levies at designated times and places. The notice shall include the physical addresses of the Fountain Hills Town Hall, the Fountain Hills branch of the Maricopa County Library and the Town website where the tentative budget may be found. SECTION 4. The Town Manager or designee shall, no later than seven business days after the date of this Resolution, (i) make available at the Fountain Hills Town Hall and the Fountain Hills branch of the Maricopa County Library a complete copy of the tentative budget, and (ii) post the tentative budget in a prominent location on the Town’s website. SECTION 5. The Mayor, the Town Manager, the Town Clerk, and the Town Attorney are hereby authorized and directed to take all steps necessary to carry out the purpose and intent of this Resolution. RESOLUTION NO. 2024-16 PAGE 2 PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, Arizona, this 7th day of May, 2024. FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO: Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM: Rachael Goodwin, Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Pierce Coleman PLLC Town Attorney EXHIBIT A TO RESOLUTION 2024-16 [Tentative Budget] See following pages. Official Budget Forms Town of Fountain Hills Fiscal year 2025 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Official Town Budget Forms Town of Fountain Hills Table of Contents Fiscal year 2025 Schedule A—Summary Schedule of estimated revenues and expenditures/expenses Schedule B—Tax levy and tax rate information Schedule G—Full-time employees and personnel compensation Schedule C—Revenues other than property taxes Schedule D—Other financing sources/(uses) and interfund transfers Schedule E—Expenditures/expenses by fund Schedule F—Expenditures/expenses by department (as applicable) 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Official Town Budget Forms Fiscal year General Fund Special Revenue Fund Debt Service Fund Capital Projects Fund Permanent Fund Enterprise Funds Available Internal Service Funds Total all funds 2024 Adopted/adjusted budgeted expenditures/expenses* E 1 25,585,805 9,643,912 19,760 6,918,531 0 0 889,700 43,057,708 2024 Actual expenditures/expenses** E 2 21,753,562 6,494,302 13 1,318,784 0 0 270,693 29,837,354 2025 Beginning fund balance/(deficit) or net position/(deficit) at July 1*** 3 15,744,610 10,116,596 178,022 8,846,144 0 0 7,831,744 42,717,116 2025 Primary property tax levy B 4 00 00 00 0 2025 Secondary property tax levy B 5 00 00 00 0 2025 Estimated revenues other than property taxes C 6 25,824,816 6,419,651 1,000 3,949,906 0 0 2,000 36,197,373 2025 Other financing sources D 7 0 0 00000 0 2025 Other financing (uses) D 8 0 0 00000 0 2025 Interfund transfers in D 9 0 2,350,000 0 1,425,000 0 0 2,000,000 5,775,000 2025 Interfund Transfers (out) D 10 4,000,000 825,000 0 950,000 0 0 0 5,775,000 2025 Line 11: Reduction for fund balance reserved for future budget year expenditures Maintained for future debt retirement 0 Maintained for future capital projects 4,000,000 4,000,000 Maintained for future financial stability 4,466,782 4,466,782 0 0 2025 Total financial resources available 12 33,102,644 18,061,247 179,022 13,271,050 0 0 5,833,744 70,447,707 2025 Budgeted expenditures/expenses E 13 25,824,816 9,613,657 20,360 9,092,800 0 0 600,000 45,151,633 Expenditure limitation comparison 2024 2025 1 Budgeted expenditures/expenses 43,057,708$ 45,151,633$ 2 Add/subtract: estimated net reconciling items (117,966) (119,359) 3 Budgeted expenditures/expenses adjusted for reconciling items 42,939,742 45,032,274 4 Less: estimated exclusions 8,606,788 9,449,491 5 Amount subject to the expenditure limitation 34,332,954$ 35,582,783$ 6 EEC expenditure limitation 34,364,380$ 35,588,003$ * ** *** Town of Fountain Hills Summary Schedule of estimated revenues and expenditures/expenses Fiscal year 2025 Includes actual amounts as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, adjusted for estimated activity for the remainder of the fiscal year. Amounts on this line represent beginning fund balance/(deficit) or net position/(deficit) amounts except for nonspendable amounts (e.g., prepaids and inventories) or amounts legally or contractually required to be maintained intact (e.g., principal of a permanent fund). See the Instructions tab, cell C17 for more information about the amounts that should and should not be included on this line. S c h Funds Includes expenditure/expense adjustments approved in the current year from Schedule E. The city/town does not levy property taxes and does not have special assessment districts for which property taxes are levied. Therefore, Schedule B has been omitted. 11 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule A Official Town Budget Forms 2024 2025 1. $$ 2. $ 3. Property tax levy amounts A. Primary property taxes $ $ B. Secondary property taxes C.Total property tax levy amounts $$ 4. Property taxes collected* A. Primary property taxes (1) Current year's levy $ (2) Prior years’ levies (3) Total primary property taxes $ B. Secondary property taxes (1) Current year's levy $ (2) Prior years’ levies (3) Total secondary property taxes $ C. Total property taxes collected $ 5. Property tax rates A. City/Town tax rate (1) Primary property tax rate (2) Secondary property tax rate (3) Total city/town tax rate B. Special assessment district tax rates Secondary property tax rates—As of the date the proposed budget was prepared, the two (2) special assessment districts for which secondary property taxes are levied. For information pertaining to these special assessment districts and their tax rates, please contact the city/town. * city/town was operating Includes actual property taxes collected as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated property tax collections for the remainder of the fiscal year. Amount received from primary property taxation in the current year in excess of the sum of that year's maximum allowable primary property tax levy. A.R.S. §42-17102(A)(18) Town of Fountain Hills Tax levy and tax rate information Fiscal year 2025 Maximum allowable primary property tax levy. A.R.S. §42-17051(A) Property tax judgment Property tax judgment Property tax judgment Property tax judgment 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule B Official City/Town Budget Forms Estimated revenues Actual revenues* Estimated revenues 2024 2024 2025 General Fund Local taxes Local Sales Tax $ 13,154,799 $ 16,422,362 $ 14,858,589 Franchise Tax 390,000 229,208 390,000 Licenses and permits Business License Fees 117,785 98,007 117,785 Residential Rental License 50,000 29,867 50,000 Liquor License Fees 500 1,367 500 Building Permit Fees 372,703 522,130 400,000 Sign Permits 3,350 4,993 3,350 Landscape Permit Fees 3,780 7,911 3,780 Subdivision Fees 36,000 72,047 36,000 Special Event Permits 8,500 15,327 8,500 Engineering Fees 5,550 11,133 5,550 Third Party Revenues Planning & Zoning Fees 20,060 13,064 20,060 Plan Review Fees 96,750 46,295 56,750 Intergovernmental State Sales Tax 3,585,690 3,402,519 3,628,998 Fire Insurance Premium Tax 48,516 48,516 48,516 Vehicle License Tax 366,076 340,262 Shared Income Tax 6,387,448 6,302,824 5,108,090 Charges for services Parks & Rec User Fees 244,215 275,333 255,265 Encroachment Fees 35,000 646,972 50,000 Variances 2,600 307 2,600 Inspection Fees 17,000 45,069 29,000 Leases & Rents 277,278 392,689 289,278 Fines and forfeits Court Fines 200,000 217,102 200,000 Interest on investments Interest on Investments 20,000 560,999 100,000 In-lieu property taxes Contributions Voluntary contributions 71,400 35,455 71,400 Miscellaneous Miscellaneous 70,805 93,066 90,805 Total General Fund $ 25,585,805 $ 29,834,821 $ 25,824,816 * Town of Fountain Hills Revenues other than property taxes Fiscal Year 2025 Includes actual revenues recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated revenues for the remainder of the fiscal year. Source of revenues 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule C Official City/Town Budget Forms Estimated revenues Actual revenues* Estimated revenues 2024 2024 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Revenues other than property taxes Fiscal Year 2025 Source of revenues Special revenue funds Highway User Revenue Fund Highway User Tax $ 1,849,404 1,575,600 1,823,078 Vehicle License Tax 854,176 793,946 1,215,914 Local Sales Tax 1,064,618 1,379,237 1,212,573 In-Lieu Fees 100,000 100,000 Recycle Proceeds 1,000 966 1,000 Interest 10,000 419,047 10,000 Miscellaneous 30,000 30,000 $ 3,909,198 $ 4,168,795 $ 4,392,565 Downtown Strategy Fund Sales-Excise Tax $ 106,462 137,924 121,257 Interest 600 26,448 600 $ 107,062 $ 164,372 $ 121,857 Economic Development Fund Sales-Excise Tax $ 425,847 551,695 485,029 Miscellaneous Interest 240 31,099 240 $ 426,087 $ 582,793 $ 485,269 Tourism Fund Grants $ 65,000 102,128 84,000 Interest 180 6,758 180 Miscellaneous $ 65,180 $ 108,886 $ 84,180 Special Revenue - Grants Intergovernmental-State $ 1,190,000 35,778 1,190,000 Intergovernmental-Federal $ $ 1,190,000 $ 35,778 $ 1,190,000 Public Art In-Lieu Fees $ 100,000 5,000 100,000 Interest 240 2,829 240 $ 100,240 $ 7,829 $ 100,240 Court Enhancement Fund Court Enhancement/JCEF Revenue $ 33,000 26,389 33,000 Interest 300 101 300 $ 33,300 $ 26,490 $ 33,300 Environmental Fund Environmental Fee $ Interest 2,400 26,653 2,400 $ 2,400 $ 26,653 $ 2,400 Cottonwoods Maintenance District Assessments $ 9,768 9,697 9,768 Interest Income $ 72 790 72 $ 9,840 $ 10,487 $ 9,840 Total special revenue funds $ 5,843,307 $ 5,132,084 $ 6,419,651 * Includes actual revenues recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated revenues for the remainder of the fiscal year. 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule C Official City/Town Budget Forms Estimated revenues Actual revenues* Estimated revenues 2024 2024 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Revenues other than property taxes Fiscal Year 2025 Source of revenues Debt service funds General Obligation Debt Service Interest Income 600 7,485 600 $ 600 $ 7,485 $ 600 Eagle Mountain CFD Assessments Interest Income 100 926 100 $ 100 $ 926 $ 100 Municipal Property Corp Interest Income 300 572 300 $ 300 $ 572 $ 300 Total debt service funds $ 1,000 $ 8,983 $ 1,000 Capital projects funds Capital Projects Fund Sales Tax-Local 685,240 1,507,715 904,856 Grants 3,768,079 496,463 2,652,500 Interest 10,000 262,262 10,000 $ 4,463,319 $ 2,266,440 $ 3,567,356 Fire Development Fee Fund Development Fees 12,780 8,863 12,780 Interest Income 1,000 20,303 1,000 $ 13,780 $ 29,166 $ 13,780 Streets Development Fee Fund Development Fees 200,740 125,338 200,740 Interest Income 1,000 27,857 1,000 $ 201,740 $ 153,194 $ 201,740 Parks & Recreation Development Fee Fund Development Fees 166,030 99,927 166,030 Interest Income 1,000 57,714 1,000 $ 167,030 $ 157,641 $ 167,030 Total capital projects funds $ 4,845,869 $ 2,606,441 $ 3,949,906 * Includes actual revenues recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated revenues for the remainder of the fiscal year. 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule C Official City/Town Budget Forms Estimated revenues Actual revenues* Estimated revenues 2024 2024 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Revenues other than property taxes Fiscal Year 2025 Source of revenues Permanent funds N/A $$$ $$$ Total permanent funds $$$ Enterprise funds N/A $$$ $$$ Total enterprise funds $$$ * Includes actual revenues recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated revenues for the remainder of the fiscal year. 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule C Official City/Town Budget Forms Estimated revenues Actual revenues* Estimated revenues 2024 2024 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Revenues other than property taxes Fiscal Year 2025 Source of revenues Internal service funds Facilities Reserve Fund Miscellaneous Interest Income 1,000 199,021 1,000 $ 1,000 $ 199,021 $ 1,000 Technology Replacement Fund Interest Income $$$ Vehicle Replacement Fund Miscellaneous Interest Income 1,000 99,120 1,000 $ 1,000 $ 99,120 $ 1,000 Total internal service funds $ 2,000 $ 298,141 $ 2,000 Total all funds $ 36,277,981 $ 37,880,470 $ 36,197,373 * Includes actual revenues recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated revenues for the remainder of the fiscal year. 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule C Official City/Town Budget Forms Fund Sources (Uses)In (Out) General Fund General Fund $$$$4,000,000 Total General Fund $$$$4,000,000 Special revenue funds Streets Fund $ $ $ 2,000,000 $ Downtown Strategy Fund 475,000 Economic Dev Fund 350,000 Tourism Fund 350,000 Environmental Fund Total special revenue funds $ $ $ 2,350,000 $ 825,000 Debt service funds N/A $$$$ Total debt service funds $$$$ Capital projects funds Capital Projects Fund $ $ $ 1,425,000 $ Parks & Rec Development Fee Fund 950,000 Total capital projects funds $ $ $ 1,425,000 $ 950,000 Permanent funds N/A $$$$ Total permanent funds $$$$ Enterprise funds N/A $$$$ Total enterprise funds $$$$ Internal service funds Facilities Reserve Fund from Gen Fund $ $ $ 2,000,000 $ Technology Replacement Fund Vehicle Replacement Fund Total Internal Service Funds $ $ $ 2,000,000 $ Total all funds $ $ $ 5,775,000 $ 5,775,000 2025 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Other financing sources/(uses) and interfund transfers Fiscal year 2025 Other financing Interfund transfers 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule D Official City/Town Budget Forms Adopted budgeted expenditures/ expenses Expenditure/ expense adjustments approved Actual expenditures/ expenses* Budgeted expenditures/ expenses Fund/Department 2024 2024 2024 2025 General Fund Mayor & Town Council $ 65,494 $ $ 65,529 $ 73,038 Administration 2,948,360 2,832,806 3,255,088 General Government 3,238,088 725,886 2,549,408 Municipal Court 495,409 494,876 526,364 Public Works 1,642,802 1,454,034 1,702,118 Development Services 1,318,663 1,310,624 1,578,771 Community Services 3,898,569 3,353,369 4,202,584 Fire & Emergency Medical 5,589,825 5,127,844 5,693,529 Law Enforcement 6,388,595 6,388,595 6,243,916 Total General Fund $ 25,585,805 $ $ 21,753,562 $ 25,824,816 Special revenue funds Streets Fund $ 7,048,280 $ $ 5,179,462 $ 7,087,540 Downtown Strategy Fund 85,200 107,850 90,200 Economic Development Fund 229,630 224,898 315,293 Tourism Fund 354,029 353,395 417,378 Special Revenue Fund 1,190,000 211,809 1,190,000 Public Art Fund 41,761 33,778 41,761 Court Enhancement Fund 54,600 52,500 Environmental Fund 627,024 378,023 404,804 Cottonwoods Maint District 13,388 5,088 14,181 Total special revenue funds $ 9,643,912 $ $ 6,494,302 $ 9,613,657 Debt service funds General Obligation Bonds $ 350 $ $ $ 350 Eagle Mountain CFD 18,900 19,500 Municipal Property Corp 510 13 510 Total debt service funds $ 19,760 $ $ 13 $ 20,360 Capital projects funds Capital Projects $ 6,918,531 $ $ 1,318,784 $ 9,092,800 Fire/Emergency Dev Fee Streets Dev Fee Park/Rec Dev Fee Total capital projects funds $ 6,918,531 $ $ 1,318,784 $ 9,092,800 Permanent funds N/A $ $ $ $ Total permanent funds $$$$ Enterprise funds N/A $ $ $ $ Total enterprise funds $$$$ Internal service funds Facilities Reserve Fund $ 550,000 $ $ $ 550,000 Technology Replacement Fund 50,000 30,635 50,000 Vehicle Replacement Fund 289,700 240,059 Total internal service funds $ 889,700 $ $ 270,693 $ 600,000 Total all funds $ 43,057,708 $ $ 29,837,354 $ 45,151,633 * Expenditures/expenses by fund Fiscal year 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Includes actual expenditures/expenses recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated expenditures/expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year. 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule E Official City/Town Budget Forms Adopted budgeted expenditures/ expenses Expenditure/ expense adjustments approved Actual expenditures/ expenses* Budgeted expenditures/ expenses 2024 2024 2024 2025 Mayor & Council General Fund $ 65,494 $ $ 65,529 $ 73,038 Department total $ 65,494 $ $ 65,529 $ 73,038 Administration General Fund $ 2,948,360 $ $ 2,832,806 $ 3,255,088 Downtown Strategy Fund 85,200 50,000 107,850 90,200 Economic Development Fund 229,630 224,898 315,293 Tourism Fund 354,029 28,792 353,395 417,378 Special Revenue Fund 1,190,000 (28,792)211,809 1,190,000 General Obligation Debt 350 350 Eagle Mountain CFD 18,900 19,500 Municipal Property Corp 510 13 510 Cottonwoods Maint District 13,388 5,088 14,181 Capital Projects 324,600 (50,000)675 677,800 Department total $ 5,164,967 $ $ 3,736,533 $ 5,980,300 General Government General Fund $ 3,238,088 $(2,447,500)$ 725,886 $ 2,549,408 Technology Replacement 50,000 30,635 50,000 Vehicle Replacement 205,700 124,296 Department total $ 3,493,788 $(2,447,500)$ 880,816 $ 2,599,408 Municipal Court General Fund $ 495,409 $ $ 494,876 $ 526,364 Court Enhancement Fund 54,600 52,500 Department total $ 550,009 $ $ 494,876 $ 578,864 Public Works General Fund $ 1,642,802 $ $ 1,454,034 $ 1,702,118 Streets Fund 7,048,280 5,179,462 7,087,540 Environmental Fund 627,024 378,023 404,804 Capital Projects 5,308,231 1,747,500 1,250,871 6,885,000 Facilities Replacement Fund 550,000 593,922 550,000 Vehicle Replacement 84,000 115,763 Department total $ 15,260,337 $ 1,747,500 $ 8,972,075 $ 16,629,462 Development Services General Fund $ 1,318,663 $ $ 1,310,624 $ 1,578,771 Department total $ 1,318,663 $ $ 1,310,624 $ 1,578,771 Community Services General Fund $ 3,898,569 $ $ 3,353,369 $ 4,202,584 Public Art Fund 41,761 33,778 41,761 Capital Projects 1,285,700 700,000 67,238 1,530,000 Department total $ 5,226,030 $ 700,000 $ 3,454,385 $ 5,774,345 Fire & Emergency Medical General Fund $ 5,589,825 $ $ 5,127,844 $ 5,693,529 Department total $ 5,589,825 $ $ 5,127,844 $ 5,693,529 Law Enforcement General Fund $ 6,388,595 $ $ 6,388,595 $ 6,243,916 Department total $ 6,388,595 $ $ 6,388,595 $ 6,243,916 * Expenditures/expenses by department Fiscal year 2025 Town of Fountain Hills Includes actual expenditures/expenses recognized on the modified accrual or accrual basis as of the date the proposed budget was prepared, plus estimated expenditures/expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year. Department/Fund 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule F Official City/Town Budget Forms Full-time equivalent (FTE) Employee salaries and hourly costs Retirement costs Healthcare costs Other benefit costs Total estimated personnel compensation 2025 2025 2025 2025 2025 2025 97.96 $ 8,625,788 $ 892,295 $ 1,068,895 $ 531,533 $ 11,118,511 Streets Fund 6.05 $ 521,557 $ 57,514 $ 69,515 $ 51,888 $ 700,474 Economic Development Fund 1.00 149,274 16,506 7,896 5,247 178,923 Tourism Fund 1.00 80,379 8,936 14,997 3,290 107,602 Total special revenue funds 8.05 $ 751,210 $ 82,956 $ 92,408 $ 60,425 $ 986,999 $$$$$ Total debt service funds $$$$$ $$$$$ Total capital projects funds $$$$$ $$$$$ Total permanent funds $$$$$ $$$$$ Total enterprise funds $$$$$ $$$$$ Total internal service fund $$$$$ Total all funds 106.01 $ 9,376,998 $ 975,251 $ 1,161,303 $ 591,958 $ 12,105,510 Fund Town of Fountain HillsFull-time employees and personnel compensationFiscal year 2025 General Fund Internal service funds Special revenue funds Debt service funds Capital projects funds Permanent funds Enterprise funds 3/22 Arizona Auditor General Schedule G Official City/Towns Budget Forms EXHIBIT B TO RESOLUTION 2024-16 [Notice] See following page. Town of Fountain Hills Notice of Public Hearing Final Budget Adoption and Tax Levy On June 4, 2024, beginning at 5:25 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers, 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Fountain Hills, Arizona 85268, public hearings will be held to allow members of the public to appear and testify or make inquiries regarding Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budgets for (i) the Town of Fountain Hills, (ii) the Eagle Mountain Community Facilities District Board, and (iii) the Cottonwoods Maintenance District Board. On June 18, 2024, beginning at 5:25 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers, 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Fountain Hills, Arizona 85268, the Cottonwoods Maintenance District Board will adopt their property tax levy for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2024, and ending June 30, 2025. A complete copy of the each of the budgets for the Fiscal Year 2024-25 may be viewed at: 1. Fountain Hills Town Hall (2nd floor), 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Fountain Hills, Arizona 85268 2. Fountain Hills Maricopa County Branch Library, 12901 LaMontana Drive, Fountain Hills, Arizona 85268 3. The Town of Fountain Hills website at: www.fountainhillsaz.gov/budget Anyone wishing to respond may do so in person at the meetings or in writing prior to the date of the June 4, 2024, and June 18, 2024, meetings by delivering the written comments to the Town Clerk’s office, 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268. FY25 Tentative Budget David Pock, Chief Financial OfficerPaul Soldinger, Chief Financial Officer May 7, 2024 FY24 3rd Quarter Revenues Update •Total Sales Tax (TPT) for All Funds •$15.2M Collected •$11.3M Budgeted •Construction •$2.4M Collected •241% of budget-to-date •Utilities/Communications •$1.3M Collected •162% of budget-to-date •Wholesale/Retail •$7.9M Collected •113% of budget-to-date •Real Estate •$1.0M Collected •140% of budget-to-date •Restaurant/Bars •$1.0M Collected •135% of budget-to-date •Services •$1.4M Collected •153% of budget-to-date 2% decrease from FY23* *FY23 included $450k audit collection $0 $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Th o u s a n d s Total TPT Collections by Fiscal Year & Period 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Prior Year Audit Collection State Shared Revenues •State Shared Sales Tax •$2.8M Collected •78% of annual budget •Urban Revenue Sharing •$5.3M Collected •83% of annual budget •Highway User (HURF) •$1.3M Collected •70% of annual budget •Vehicle License Tax •$1M Collected •83% of annual budget Key Updates from Proposed Budget •Added $250,000 for Wayfinding Signs project & carried over $50,000 to complete Splash Pad ongoing project in early FY25 •Removed $150,000 for Roundabout (Palisades & La Montana) •Removed $15,000 unused expenditures from Economic Development operational budget Key Updates from Proposed Budget •Expenditure Limitation considerations necessitated a net reduction of $1.9M of the overall budget from $47.1M to $45.2M and other modifications (see next slide for more details) •Moved some CIP ongoing projects to operational budgets for FY25: •Community Services – Sidewalk Replacement - $100,000 •Community Services – Avenue Linear Park Improvements - $35,000 (out of $235,000 bringing CIP amount down to $200,000) •Public Works – Bridge Repair - $75,000 •Reduced budgets to some CIP projects •Community Services – Pleasantville Park – reduced from $800,000 to $700,000 •Public Works – Community Center Renovations Phase III - reduced from $750,000 to $500,000 Key Updates from Proposed Budget •Lower FY24 Environmental projected fund balance allowed $223,000 reduction to budgeted expenditures •Reduction was made in the Capital Projects Fund by delaying the Shea Blvd widening project until budget authority can be transferred from General Fund Contingency, if first quarter revenue projections are met (likely by late October 2024) •Tentative Budget includes a 4.5% pay increase effective July 1st that was recommended by Council at the Budget Work Session Expenditure Limitation for FY 2025 FY25 Expenditure Limit $35,588,003 FY25 Tentative Budget $45,151,633 Less Grants (3,700,000) Less HURF (1,800,000) Less Payments to State (119,000) Less Other Exclusions (760,000) Less Prior Year Expected Carryover (3,200,000) FY 25 Expenditures Subject to Limit $35,572,633 $(15,370) General Fund General Fund Past Performance $19.3 $22.7 $24.8 $14.2 $14.1 $15.7 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 FY21 FY22 FY23 Mi l l i o n s Expenditures Budgeted Expenditures Actual Expenditures $19.3 $22.7 $24.8 $22.2 $24.6 $28.1 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 FY21 FY22 FY23 Mi l l i o n s Revenues Budgeted Revenue Actual Revenue General Fund Considerations •Required to adopt a balanced General Fund budget •Budget process begins with forecasting revenues •Conservative revenue estimate for the General Fund is $25.8M •Tentative General Fund expenditures, excluding contingency, is $24.0M •This results in the General Fund being out of balance by $1.8M •Only two options left: 1.Reduce revenues – leads to lack of budget if revenues exceed 2.Increase expenditures – provides budget only if needed and approved by Council General Fund - Revenues Name FY2024 Adopted Budget FY2025 Budgeted FY2024 Adopted vs. FY2025 Budgeted (% Change) Revenue Source Taxes $13,544,799 $15,248,589 12.6% Intergovernmental Revenue $10,387,730 $8,785,604 -15.4% Licenses & Permits $770,208 $702,275 -8.8% Leases & Rents $277,278 $289,278 4.3% Charges For Services $244,215 $255,265 4.5% Other $141,575 $243,805 72.2% Fines & Forfeitures $200,000 $200,000 0.0% Investment Earnings $20,000 $100,000 400.0% Total Revenue Source:$25,585,805 $25,824,816 0.9% General Fund - Expenditures Name FY2024 Adopted Budget FY2025 Budgeted FY2024 Adopted vs. FY2025 Budgeted (% Change) Expenditures General Government*$6,747,351 $6,403,898 -5.1% Development Services $1,318,663 $1,578,771 19.7% Public Safety**$11,978,420 $11,937,445 -0.3% Public Works $1,642,802 $1,702,118 3.6% Culture & Recreation $3,898,569 $4,202,584 7.8% Total Expenditures:$25,585,805 $25,824,816 0.9% * Includes Mayor & Council, Administration, Court, and Gen. Gov’t departments ** Includes Fire & Law Enforcement departments Supplements •Personnel $ 147,620 •One-Time Expenditures 108,900 •Ongoing Non-Personnel 267,450 Offsets (137,050) Total Budget Impact $ 386,920 Streets Fund Streets Fund Streets Fund - Revenues Name FY2024 Adopted Budget FY2025 Budgeted FY2024 Adopted vs. FY2025 Budgeted (% Change) Revenue Source Taxes $1,064,618 $1,212,573 13.9% Intergovernmental Revenue $2,703,580 $3,038,992 12.4% Charges For Services $100,000 $100,000 0.0% Other $31,000 $31,000 0.0% Investment Earnings $10,000 $10,000 0.0% Total Revenue Source:$3,909,198 $4,392,565 12.4% Streets Fund - Expenditures Name FY2024 Adopted Budget FY2025 Budgeted FY2023 Adopted vs. FY2024 Budgeted (% Change) Expense Objects Maintenance & Repair*$5,322,410 $5,318,910 -0.1% Payroll Expenses $658,909 $700,474 6.3% Contractual Services $666,705 $664,400 -0.3% Other Expenditures $300,256 $303,756 1.2% Contingency $100,000 $100,000 0.0% Total Expense Objects:$7,048,280 $7,087,540 0.6% Capital Projects Fund Capital Projects Fund Green Light Projects in Comm Services FY25 Capital Projects Capital Projects FY25 Four Peaks Park Pickleball Courts $ 180,000 Golden Eagle Park Playground Replacement 150,000 P3054 Sidewalk Replacement (Multi Year) 100,000 Avenue Linear Park Improvements (Multi Year)200,000 Splashpad Carryover 50,000 Total FY25 Green Light Projects – Community Services $580,000 Alternate Funded Projects FY25 Panorama Park (Development Fees)250,000 Pleasantville Park (Development Fees)700,000 Total FY25 Green Light Projects – Community Services Alternative Funded Projects $950,000 $135k moved to operational budget $100k reduction Green Light Projects in Public Works Capital Projects FY 25 Sidewalk Infill & Design (Multi-Year)$ 300,000 Sidewalk Gap Infill, Palisades & Saguaro (Owner’s Allowance)200,000 Town Wide Guardrail Replacement (Multi-Year)85,000 Bridge Repair (Multi-Year)75,000 Palisades Boulevard & La Montana Drive Intersection Improvements - Design 150,000 Pedestrian Marked Crosswalks (Multi-Year)150,000 Golden Eagle Impoundment Improvements 2,500,000 Wayfinding Signs 250,000 Town Wide Storm Water Infrastructure Rehabilitation (Multi-Year)150,000 Total FY25 Green Light Projects – Public Works $3,635,000 Total Green Light Projects = $5.165 million FY25 Capital Projects $75k moved into operational budget Red Light Project Council Directed Yellow Light Projects Capital Projects – Public Works FY 25 Community Center Renovations Phase III 500,000 Total FY25 Yellow Light Projects – Public Works $500,000 Alternate Funded Projects – Community Services FY25 Public Restroom Facility on the Avenue of the Fountains (Downtown Fund, Multi-Year)475,000 Total FY25 Yellow Light Projects - Community Services Alternative Funded Projects $475,000 $250k reduction Yellow Light Projects – Grant Funded Grant Funded Projects FY 25 Initial Town Expenditure Grant Reimbursement Town Final Expenditure after Reimbursement Shea Boulevard Widening – Palisades to FHBLVD (Prop 400)$ 2,500,000*$ 1,750,000 $ 750,000 Shea Boulevard Widening – FHBLVD to Technology Dr (Prop 479)700,000 490,000 210,000 Courtside Villas Storm Water Improvements (SPAP)150,000 112,500 37,500 Low-Flow Roadway Drainage Crossing Improvement Program (SPAP) 200,000 150,000 50,000 Fountain Hills Boulevard/Legend Wash Crossing (SPAP, Multi-Year)200,000 150,000 50,000 Total FY25 Yellow Light Projects – Public Works Grant Funded $ 3,750,000 $ 2,652,500 $ 1,097,500 Total Yellow Light Projects = $4.725 million *$1 million will be moved from GF contingency Proposed Transfers Proposed Transfers •$2,000,000 from General Fund to Facilities Reserve Fund ($1M for Lake Liner) •$2,000,000 from General Fund to Streets Fund for future pavement needs •$350,000 from Economic Development Fund to Tourism Fund to cover FY25 operations and any decreased grant revenues Council Questions? ITEM 9. D. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 05/07/2024 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting Agenda Type: Regular Agenda                  Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk 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 14  Legislative Bulletin - Issue 15  Legislative Bulletin - Issue 16  Form Review Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 04/29/2024 09:10 AM Final Approval Date: 04/29/2024  Legislative Update: Welcome to Week 15 Welcome to the 15th week of the Arizona legislative session. 1,759 bills, resolutions, and memorials have been introduced. Arizona Supreme Court Ruling The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on a vote of 4-2 that the territorial-era ban on all abortions except to save the life of the mother stands following the fall of Roe v. Wade despite the passage of a 15-week ban in 2022. The ruling has rippled throughout state and national politics as the election season continues to heat up. Although a motion was made to repeal the law, legislators adjourned until Wednesday, April 17, and have stated publicly they will continue to consider how best to deal with the ramifications of the court ruling. Conference Committees The deadline for conference committees was Friday, April 12. HB2325 backyard fowl; regulation; prohibition (Payne) was heard on Thursday, April 11 to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. An amendment was passed to the Senate Engrossed version of the bill that (1) limits the number of allowable fowl to six; (2) increases the allowable setback requirement to 20 feet from a neighboring property rather than a dwelling; and (3) includes a grandfather clause relating to enclosures built before the effective date of the bill. The final point relates to another Senate amendment that requires the enactment of an ordinance that limits the height of an enclosure to below the fence line. The League is grateful to the sponsor for working to address issues raised by our membership. Finance Advisory Committee The Finance Advisory Committee also met on Thursday, April 11. While the state must continue preparing for a budget shortfall, the outlook has somewhat improved. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) presentation indicated the legislature must find solutions to the $1.8B shortfall, but that has decreased from $2.2B projected in January. Other highlights indicated a decline in individual income tax due to the phased-in income tax reductions that resulted in record income tax refunds last year as well as sluggish growth in sales tax Upcoming Session Deadlines Every session has deadlines pertaining to bill submissions and hearings. These are established by Senate and House rule and are subject to change. This year’s schedule is as follows: April Tuesday 4/16: 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 collections attributed to decreased consumer spending. Zoning Legislation HB2297 commercial buildings; adaptive reuse (Biasiucci) was signed into law by Governor Hobbs last Wednesday, April 10. The bill represents a collaborative effort between developers and municipalities to streamline development processes for projects that adaptively reuse or redevelop underutilized commercial buildings into housing. It requires municipalities with a population of 150,000 or more to create objective standards that would allow for the development of multifamily residential or adaptive reuse projects on at least 10% of existing buildings currently zoned for a commercial, office, or mixed-use. It is a balanced approach that emphasizes affordability, protects historic neighborhoods, and allows cities and towns to manage their utility infrastructure while providing a pathway for developers to bring more housing units to the market. League Policy Committees The membership and meeting dates of the five League Policy Committees are finalized and will meet in May and June to consider proposals addressing municipal issues. Proposals considered by committees may be recommended as a League Resolution, referred for further study, or assigned a non-legislative solution. Proposal submittals must be sent by Friday, April 19 for the May meetings. For additional details on the process, membership, meeting dates, or deadlines, please send an inquiry to resolutions@azleague.org. Marshall Pimentel, Senior Legislative Associate: mpimentel@azleague.org Adam Babica, Legislative Associate: ababica@azleague.org Rachel Merritt, Legislative Intern: legisintern@azleague.org League of Arizona Cities and Towns 1820 W Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85007 info@azleague.org #Keepup withus on X. Keep up with the issues and events. CLICK HERE What the League is Tracking Stay informed about legislation that affects municipalities throughout thestate. Track proposed bills and resolutions, stay updated on their progress, and actively engage in the democratic process. Here are some priority measures the League is tracking: Legislative Bill Monitoring No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe. Legislative Update: Welcome to Week 16 Welcome to the 16th week of the Arizona legislative session. 1,759 bills, resolutions, and memorials have been introduced. We surpassed the 100th day of session last Tuesday, April 16th. Legislative Elections The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors made its latest legislative appointment to fill the LD11 vacancy left by the resignation of Marcelino Quiñonez. Junelle Cavero was sworn-in on Wednesday, April 17. Representative Cavero (D-Phoenix) has been active in democratic politics and currently works for a multicultural digital media company. She has already declared her candidacy for re-election this year. Last week, two House members announced they would curtail their re-election bids following challenges to their petition signatures. Rep. Austin Smith (R- Glendale) and Rep. Melody Hernandez (D-Tempe) will no longer seek additional terms in the Arizona House of Representatives. If their respective political parties want to hold onto those seats, interested candidates will have to run write-in campaigns for the primary election and garner at least as many write-in votes as they would have needed for their petition signatures to successfully move on to the General Election. Transmitted Bills SB1162 residential zoning; housing; assessment; hearings (Shamp) passed the Senate on Final Read by a vote of 27-1 and has been transmitted to the Governor. The bill requires that administratively complete zoning applications be approved or denied within 180 days of submission. It further requires municipalities with a population of 30,000 or more to complete a comprehensive Housing Needs Assessment every five years as well as an annual report outlining the number of proposed residential housing units the city or town has received, new housing units built, and the number of units planned for. The League and its members support the bill for its provisions aimed at streamlining zoning processes and prioritizing data-driven decision making. Status: TRANSMITTED TO GOVERNOR 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 Adam Babica, Legislative Associate: ababica@azleague.org Rachel Merritt, Legislative Intern: legisintern@azleague.org Position: SUPPORT SB1129 unlawful occupants; property; removal (Rogers) passed the Senate on Final Read on a party-line vote of 16-14 and has been transmitted to the Governor. The bill would require law enforcement to immediately respond to a request of a property owner to remove an unlawful occupant upon receipt of a sworn affidavit attesting to their unlawful presence. It would further require law enforcement officers to remain on stand-by on request of the property owner while they change locks and remove personal belongings. The bill is overly prescriptive and does not seem to consider long established criminal trespass statutes. Status: TRANSMITTED TO GOVERNOR Position: OPPOSE #Keepup withus on X. Keep up with the issues and events. CLICK HERE League of Arizona Cities and Towns 1820 W Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85007 info@azleague.org No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe. What the League is Tracking Stay informed about legislation that affects municipalities throughout the state. Track proposed bills and resolutions, stay updated on their progress,and actively engage in the democratic process. Here are some prioritymeasures the League is tracking: Legislative Bill Monitoring Legislative Update: Welcome to Week 17 Welcome to the 17th week of the Arizona legislative session. 1,759 bills, resolutions, and memorials have been introduced. Political Environment State politics continued reeling last week amid the Arizona Supreme Court’s upholding of the near-total 1864 abortion ban. After several procedural motions to force a vote on the matter, the House passed a bill that would repeal the law, HB2677 abortion ban; repeal (Stahl Hamilton), with three Republicans joining all Democrats for a vote of 32-28. Following the vote, Rep. Matt Gress (R- Paradise Valley), who led the effort to force a vote, and Rep. Oscar De Los Santos (D-Phoenix), who had previously chastised Republicans on the floor for voting to adjourn rather than vote on repeal several weeks ago, were stripped of their assignments to the Appropriations Committee, and De Los Santos was further removed from the Rules Committee. The Senate is set to take up the matter on May 1st. While the abortion debate has dominated political discourse, the Arizona Attorney General announced the indictment of several Arizona Republicans on charges of conspiracy, fraud, and forgery for their involvement in a scheme that sought to keep former President Donald Trump in the White House. In total, eleven individuals make up the slate of so-called “Fake Electors” which includes former Arizona Republican Party Chair, Kelli Ward, and two sitting state senators, Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) and Anthony Kern (R-Glendale). Arizona is the fourth state after Georgia, Michigan and Nevada to bring charges against those who attempted to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. Governor Action SB1162 residential zoning; housing; assessment; hearings (Shamp) requires that administratively complete zoning applications be approved or denied within 180 days of submission. It further requires municipalities with a population of 30,000 or more to complete a comprehensive Housing Needs Assessment every five years as well as an annual report outlining the number of proposed residential housing units the city or town has received, new housing units built, and the number of units planned for. The League and its members 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 Adam Babica, Legislative Associate: ababica@azleague.org Rachel Merritt, Legislative Intern: legisintern@azleague.org are grateful for the Governor’s assent to a bill aimed at streamlining zoning processes and prioritizing data-driven decision-making. Status: SIGNED Position: SUPPORT SB1129 unlawful occupants; property; removal (Rogers) would have required law enforcement to immediately respond to a request of a property owner to remove an unlawful occupant upon receipt of a sworn affidavit attesting to their unlawful presence. It would have further required law enforcement officers to remain on stand-by on request of the property owner while they change locks and remove personal belongings. Governor Hobbs’ veto letter acknowledged the bill’s lack of consideration for existing criminal statutes as well as the potential for unintended consequences – both concerns the League shared. Status: VETOED Position: OPPOSE #Keepup withus on X. Keep up with the issues and events. CLICK HERE League of Arizona Cities and Towns 1820 W Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85007 info@azleague.org No longer want to receive these emails? Unsubscribe. What the League is Tracking Stay informed about legislation that affects municipalities throughout the state. Track proposed bills and resolutions, stay updated on their progress,and actively engage in the democratic process. Here are some priority measures the League is tracking: Legislative Bill Monitoring