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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDApacket__08-28-24_0401_609       NOTICE OF MEETING REGULAR MEETING STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION      Chairman Patrick Garman  Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta Commissioner Randy Crader Commissioner Bernie Hoenle Commissioner Joseph Reyes Commissioner Paul Smith Commissioner VACANT      TIME:4:00 P.M. – REGULAR MEETING WHEN:WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2024 WHERE:FOUNTAIN HILLS COUNCIL CHAMBERS 16705 E. AVENUE OF THE FOUNTAINS, FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ Commissioners of the Town of Fountain Hills will attend either in person or by telephone conference call; a quorum of the Town’s Council,  various Commission, Committee or Board members may be in attendance at the Commission 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 Commission 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 Commission 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 Executive Assistant 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 Commission. Verbal comments should be directed through the Presiding Officer and not to individual Commissioners. TO COMMENT ON AN AGENDA ITEM IN WRITING ONLY, please complete a Request to Comment Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of August 28, 2024 1 of 4   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 Executive Assistant prior to discussion, if possible.     Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of August 28, 2024 2 of 4            1.CALL TO ORDER – Chairman Garman     2.ROLL CALL – Chairman Garman     3.CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (i) must be within the jurisdiction of the Commission, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Commission 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 commissioners may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Commission agenda.     4.REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER     5.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 22, 2024.     6.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Work Session of June 19, 2024.     7.PRESENTATION: Neighborhood Property Owners’ Association of Fountain Hills, Arizona, Inc. (NPOA)                              Ed Petryk- Secretary     8.UPDATE: Fountain Hills 2022 Strategic Plan Implementation - Justin Weldy, Public Works Director.         9.UPDATE: Commission Workgroups     10.DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics.    11.COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN     12.NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 2024.    13.ADJOURNMENT   Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of August 28, 2024 3 of 4   13.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 Strategic Planning Advisory Commission with the Town Clerk. Dated this ______ day of August, 2024 _____________________________________________  Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant   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 Commission with this agenda are available for review in the Town Manager's Office. Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of August 28, 2024 4 of 4   ITEM 4. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  ITEM 5. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 22, 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.   Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approving the minutes of the regular meeting on May 22, 2024. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve the minutes of the regular meeting on May 22, 2024. Attachments SUMMARY MINUTES AND VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/15/2024 05:14 PM Final Approval Date: 05/15/2024  TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION May 22, 2024 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Patrick Garman called to order the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 4:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta; Commissioner Randy Crader (by phone); Commissioner Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Joseph Reyes; Commissioner Paul Smith; Commissioner Phil Sveum Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Development Services Director John Wesley; Senior Planner Farhad Tavassoli; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett-Espiritu 3. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (i) must be within the jurisdiction of the Council, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Council will not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. At the conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual councilmembers may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Council agenda. No one from the public was present. 4. REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Commissioner Smith: - Introduced himself as a new member of the commission - Gave background information about living in Fountain Hills for 29 years, owning a chiropractic business and his son owning a martial arts studio - Previously worked as regional director for GE Financial and in the insurance/financial business for 50 years - From Northern California originally, moved from Modesto - Hopes to contribute his past knowledge to help move things forward Commissioner Hoenle: - Attended the downtown input session at the community center - Noted there was a good turnout and variety of interested individuals - People's opinions were shown with red hearts on charts - Gave some Post-It notes with additional input to Economic Development Director Jacobs Vice Chair Yazzetta: - Echoed Commissioner Hoenle’s comments about the downtown strategic planning event - Serves on the board for the International Dark Sky Discovery Center, getting close to obtaining building permits - Welcomed Commissioner Smith to the commission Commissioner Reyes: - Knows Commissioner Smith from another shared activity - Was out of town for part of the month and missed some events - Looking forward to July when there is no meeting Commissioner Sveum: - Read part of the "Blue Zone" book about themes that could be applied to a community like Fountain Hills - Suggests reading the book if others haven't Town Manager Goodwin: - Main focus has been the budget and CIP for next year - Some staff like the Finance Director and Code Enforcement Officer retiring/leaving - New Finance Director Paul Soldinger was able to train with the outgoing Director - Economic Development Specialist also left recently - Over 100 people attended the Downtown Strategic Feedback Session - Looking to synthesize that data and bring it back to council in the Fall 5. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of April 24, 2024. MOVED BY Commissioner Sveum to APPROVE the Minutes of April 24, 2024, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Vice Chair Yazzetta. Vote: 7 – 0 passed – Unanimously 6. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Appoint a Commission Vice Chairman. MOVED BY Commissioner Reyes to REAPPOINT Vice Chairman Yazzetta SECONDED BY Commissioner Crader. Vote: 7 – 0 passed – Unanimously 7. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Appoint a Commission Chairman. MOVED BY Vice Chairman Yazzetta to REAPPOINT Chairman Garman SECONDED BY Commissioner Hoenle. Vote: 7 – 0 passed – Unanimously 8. UPDATE: Fountain Hills 2022 Strategic Plan Implementation John Wesley, Development Services Director Development Services Director Wesley provided updates on two items in the Strategic Plan: 1. Streamlining the building permit process: - Reviewed and streamlined the online permitting system to get applications reviewed and approved faster - On average, providing first review comments within 17 working days for non- residential projects, faster than the typical 4-6 week timeframe quoted previously - Working to publicize a 20-day turnaround for first review comments to attract more businesses - Adding an additional Building Inspector position should also help streamline the review/inspection process 2. Creating and publicizing an Environmental Plan: - Compiled the environmental elements from the town's comprehensive plan into one document and posted it on the website Other updates: - Provided an overview of the recent downtown strategic planning public input session, noting priorities like increasing shade trees and activating street frontages - The Planning & Zoning Commission is reviewing the wireless communications ordinance related to broadband infrastructure - Provided some updates on the active transportation plan adopted in 2021 and efforts to expand bike lanes through re-striping roads 9. UPDATE: Commission Workgroups. Chair Garman: - Introduced the reports from the two commission workgroups to help guide the June 19th strategic priorities discussion - Presented slides covering the strategic issues covered in 2022-2024, the timeline for developing the next strategic plan, ways to get community input, past strategic priorities from previous plans, and highlights from his outreach to local organizations - Explained the presentations are to prepare for creating strategic priorities at the June 19th meeting - Emphasized the need to consider budgetary impacts and get staff input/sanity check on priorities Vice Chair Yazzetta: - Presented slides on the April 20th community feedback event, including the event format, raw data collected, themes identified, and prioritization exercise results - Discussed sample size considerations and combining the event data with Patrick's outreach - Asked about how much the budget factors into determining priorities that make it into the plan Commissioner Hoenle: - Noted priorities will be refined as planning progresses, with some past items not implemented due to lack of funding or emphasis - Suggested more priority-setting and measurements may be needed in the new plan compared to the current one - Agreed that the budget is a key factor in what is realistic to include in the plan Town Manager Goodwin: - Explained how the budget can enable or prevent certain initiatives, using the example of new permitting software - Said the plan helps guide future budget asks and forecasting - Suggested getting staff input could provide a "sanity check" on priorities - Noted that while council membership changes, staff are a constant that can leverage institutional knowledge Commissioner Sveum: - Agreed staff and council input is needed, despite council turnover, as they make spending decisions - Staff may understand council temperature on certain issues Overall, the discussion focused on synthesizing the community input data, considering budget/staff realities, and preparing for the June 19th strategic priorities setting meeting. 10. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics. Chair Garman: - Stated additional focus on future agenda topics when the commission returns from their July break in August - After identifying strategic priorities in June, they can start being more specific and discerning about the topics and groups that come to present - The goal is to ensure limited meeting time focuses on topics that fit under the identified strategic priorities - Opened the floor for other commissioners to discuss potential future agenda topics No other Commissioners raised any future agenda topics. 11. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN - Chair Garman re-centered the group on identifying the strategic priorities at the June 19th meeting, aiming to solidify them around 90% by the end. - All resources and community input data gathered over the past year will inform this priorities discussion. - After June 19th, they can take a July break, then start detailing strategies/tasks under the priorities in August. - Commissioner Hoenle requested getting raw data from the recent downtown planning session to help inform the priorities discussion. - Town Manager Goodwin will try to provide the raw downtown data, even if not the full analysis yet. - Chair Garman felt their normal ~1 hour meeting time should be sufficient on June 19th, with time constraints acting as a "forcing function." 12. NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 2024. 13. ADJOURNMENT MOVED BY Vice Chair Yazzetta to ADJOURN the meeting of the May 22, 2024, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Commissioner Reyes Vote: 7 – 0 passed – Unanimously Chairman Garman adjourned the regular meeting at 5:13 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 34 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes May 22, 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 MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 34 CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Good afternoon. I'm going to call to order this Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission meeting for May 22nd, 2024. So we're going to start off going down the agenda, as usual. We just called to order, now we're going to go down to roll call. Angela, can you do the roll call for us? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes, thank you. Chair Garman? CHAIR GARMAN: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Chair Yazzetta? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Crader? CRADER: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Hoenle? HOENLE: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Reyes? REYES: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Smith? SMITH: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Sveum? SVEUM: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We have a quorum. CHAIR GARMAN: We have a quorum. That's great. And thank you, Randy, for calling in to the meeting this afternoon. We appreciate it. Even though I know it's probably in the evening where you are. CRADER: No, sure. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. So we're going to go ahead down to call to the public. Angela, did any cards or any -- from the public this week? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No, we did not. CHAIR GARMAN: One request. Have you gotten any emails to our SPAC Town of Fountain Hills address, our email address? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 34 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: I got one. But I don't think it was anything really -- it had to do with something else completely. CHAIR GARMAN: The reason I had -- that's the email address I put out when we do the -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. CHAIR GARMAN: -- outreach. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. CHAIR GARMAN: So I didn't know if anybody used it. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. One person did, but it was not really related to our commission, per se. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. Thank you. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: It was just a question. Yep. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Thank you. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: You're welcome. CHAIR GARMAN: So no call to the public this afternoon or no public wants to comment. Okay. So we're going to move on to item 4 on the agenda, which is reports by commissioners and the town manager. We're going to start things off today with our newest member all the way to my right. Paul, I tend to use everybody's first name because I usually can't pronounce everybody's last name. SMITH: I'll -- CHAIR GARMAN: But yours is pretty easy. SMITH: -- I will get them down sooner or later. CHAIR GARMAN: But if you could start things off for us and do -- SMITH: Yeah. I -- CHAIR GARMAN: -- an introduction? We'll appreciate it. SMITH: Yeah. Just to give you a little background on myself. I've lived in Fountain Hills 29 years. I don't even think I was that old but I really am. My wife and son -- I've have had a chiropractic business here that same length of time, that's when we moved here. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 34 And then my son has a martial arts studio that he's had for -- this is going on his 16th year here in Fountain Hills. And I've had an office here at one time. I was the regional director for GE Financial for a number years, until they, in their wisdom got out of the business completely. And I've owned insurance agencies. I've been in the insurance financial business for about 50 years. So give you some idea where all that goes. But we're Fountain Hills people, we always will. I'm from Northern California, where I lived for 50 years before moving here. And I lived in a little town in the Central Valley of Modesto, which was when I -- my family moved me there, I was about seven, I think. It's 15,000, when I had left it, it was 250,000. So tremendous growth in -- and as we all know about the California growth probably whether they've been there or not. But anyway, that's -- and I'm happy to be here and hope that I can contribute some of my past knowledge of what's taken place and kind of help move us forward. CHAIR GARMAN: Awesome. Thank you very much, Paul. And welcome to the commission. Bernie, you're next. HOENLE: I attended the downtown input at the community center, and it looked like it was a really good turnout, a wide variety of individuals that were there; were interested in what's going on and what should be and could be planned for the future. And I put it, should be because a lot of their opinions were showing up with red hearts on those charts. And they really jump out at you at the end of the session. So there are a couple of things I know the town will look at some of the priorities and I gave a handful of Post- It notes to Amanda. So little bit of an addendum there too. Thanks. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Thanks, Bernie. Geoff? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I echo what Bernie said about the downtown strategic planning event. It was the culmination of a lot of work and a lot of other smaller meetings, so it's really great to see that kind of coming to fruition. It seemed like there was a lot of great feedback that came from it. One of the other hats that I wear is as a board member for the International Dark Sky TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 34 Discovery Center and we're getting pretty close to getting our building permits, so we're hoping to get underway with that here in the not too distant future. But I just want to put that out there. And also want to welcome Paul to the commission, looking forward to working with you. Thanks. CHAIR GARMAN: Thanks, Geoff. Joe? REYES: Paul, good to see you again. Paul is not new to me. We have both shared a lot of time in another activity. I probably more than I care to, but that's okay. Yeah, there was a lot of great things going on since our last meeting. Unfortunately, I was out of town for half of the month, on and off, so I missed many of those. But I'm looking forward to the next month. It's actually a month off, isn't it? Coming up. CHAIR GARMAN: July is the month. REYES: July? Okay. Good. I'm looking forward to July. That's not what I meant. I'm looking forward to actually getting all our stuff together. CHAIR GARMAN: Aren't you retired, Joe? REYES: See here's the problem. I retired and then I took three other jobs on and the combination of the three were more than my full-time work, so it was an adjustment. But that's pretty much it, thank you. CHAIR GARMAN: Phil? REYES: I'm done? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. REYES: Anything you want to say? CHAIR GARMAN: No. SVEUM: I was on an airplane last week and I read some of that Blue Zone book. Very interesting. And obviously, a lot of it has to do with much larger metropolitan areas and countries, actually. But I think you can drill down on some of the themes in that book, and more or less parallel to a community this size. I think it's worth reading if you haven't had the opportunity yet to pick it up, page through it. And maybe you can think of some ways that there could be things introduced to Fountain Hills over a period of time. So it was interesting. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 34 CHAIR GARMAN: Angela, do you have any comments for the group? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No, I do not. MAYOR GARMAN: No. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you. CHAIR GARMAN: Randy, if you could hear me, you're up. Do you have any comments for the group? CRADER: Nothing at this time. Thank you, Chairman. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Thanks. Rachael? All the way to the right. GOODWIN: No real update. I've been here doing stuff. No, the budget is probably the biggest thing on our plates right now. Next week will be the final budget adoption. We've been moving through that all -- it's always the heavy lift in the spring, when we bring out the -- we roll out the budget as well as our CIPs for the next year. So that's kind of been the hot topic internally. We have a number of staff, if you're familiar with some of our staff that will be leaving the organization at the end of June, which is always sad to see. But our finance director, our CFO, David Pock, is going to be relocating with his family to Tennessee, so he will be leaving. I think you guys have all met and hadn't had a chance to hear from Paul, our new CFO that was able to train with him. So that's really exciting that we had the opportunity to dual train for the last six months and him to go through the budget process with us. So David will be leaving. One of our code enforcement officers is going to be retiring; I think this is his third retirement actually. So he'll be heading out as well. And then our economic development specialist also left; if you guys know, John -- Big John as we called him. So we are in the process of replacing that right now. So there's a little of things -- there's lots of things going on. There's always something going on. But if I can answer any questions or share any details about something you might want to know, I'm always here to answer. I was not able to be part of our downtown strategic feedback, but I heard great things. We had over a 100 people come out and share input, and I know John was there and he TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 34 can offer some input. So it was well-received and we're looking forward to kind of taking the data and synthesizing and bringing it back this fall to ask for some council direction and some feedback as to how we want to use that and what changes we want to start making downtown. That's what I got. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Thank you. All right. I think that's it for the reports. We're going to go down to agenda item 5, which is consideration and possible action. It's the approval and the review of the minutes from the regular meeting of our April 24th, 2024, meeting. So first any comments, suggested edits on the minutes from last month? SVEUM: I vote approval. CHAIR GARMAN: Are there any motions on the floor? SVEUM: I vote approval. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Is there a second? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Second. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Now is the time to discuss. Again, anybody have any discussion about the minutes from last month? Nope? Okay. All those in -- we're going to move onto a vote. All those in favor of approving the minutes as is, say aye. ALL: Aye. CHAIR GARMAN: Any opposed? CRADER: Aye. CHAIR GARMAN: I think it was unanimous. That was a late yes by Randy. So unanimous approval of the minutes. Thank you all very much for that. Okay. Now, we're going to move on to the next agenda item, which is agenda item 6. Which is the appointment -- we're doing elections, by the way, this meeting for the next year, as we do every May. So the first position is going to be an appointment of a commission vice-chair. All right. So before we go to nominations, does anybody have any comments, discussion points? No? Are there any nominations? REYES: I'd like to make a nomination. I'd like to nominate Geoff to continue doing what TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 34 he's doing. He's done such a great job and I just got here. So I'm going to keep sitting next to him if that's okay. So levity aside, I nominate that Geoff be considered for continuation of this grand position, second-in-command. CHAIR GARMAN: That's great, Joe. Is there a second to Joe's motion? CRADER: I second it. CHAIR GARMAN: Oh, thanks, Randy. I appreciate the second. Any discussion on the motion on the floor, is Geoff and the nomination for vice chair? Seeing none. All in favor in Geoff continuing as vice chair of the SPAC commission, say aye. ALL: Aye. CHAIR GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none, it's unanimous , Angela. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Now we're going to move onto agenda item 7, which is the consideration and possible action for appointment of commission chair. Before we have any nominations, any comments, discussion points on the chair position? To my left and right. Not seeing any. Any nominations? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yes. I would like to nominate Patrick to continue as chairman of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission. CHAIR GARMAN: Thanks, Geoff. HOENLE: Second. CHAIR GARMAN: We got a second by Bernie. So anybody, any discussion on the -- on me, Patrick, continuing as chair? Left and right, nothing? Okay. All in favor of Patrick Garman continuing as the chair of the SPAC, say aye. ALL: Aye. CHAIR GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none. It sounds unanimous, Angela. All right. So we have the officers for another year. All right. All right. Thank you, everybody. Geoff and I will try to do better this year. All right, so we're going to move down to agenda item 8 now, which is an update from the Fountain Hills 2022 strategic plan implementation by the Town of Fountain Hills Development Services Director, John Wesley. It's nice to see you again, John. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 34 So I understand you don't have any slides today, so it's off-the-cuff. We're going to have a wide-ranging discussion. WESLEY: Chair, we'll take this wherever you want to go. Well, I want to start by saying it was such a pleasure to see this election process happening without us having to get involved in any sign code enforcement for the campaign signs to get you elected to your positions. So that was refreshing. Appreciate that. CHAIR GARMAN: Nobody's going to say anything, John. WESLEY: So I have a few things that I want to update the commission on and then, obviously, here to answer any questions or go wherever you'd like to take it, Chairman. There are two items in particular in the strategic plan that I've had some responsibility for. One of which has been -- let's see here, I keep moving my screen around so I forget where I am at in relationship to -- but it has to do with the streamlining of the building permit process so we can facilitate the commercial business in town. Most of the work that we've done on that has been with regard to our online permitting system and getting that up and continuing to refine it so that we can get the applications in, get them reviewed, and then out the door quickly. With that system in place, we have recently teamed up with economic development and done a review of how long it takes to actually get nonresidential projects reviewed, particularly that first review out. We have traditionally quoted to people, oh, it's going to take four to six weeks to get your first review comments and go from there. With that review, we found that on average, we're actually getting them out in 17 days: 17 working days. Which is pretty close to the four weeks, but a little bit quicker than that. So with that confidence behind us of what our actual stats have been, we're working to kind of publicize that you can get first review comments within 20 days. And so we can again, use that to get a bit more business attraction, saying how well we do at getting those out. CHAIR GARMAN: Phil, go ahead. SVEUM: John, does it make a difference in the size of the project to determine how TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 34 many days it takes to get it in and out the door? WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner, certainly larger projects may take a little bit longer, such as Park Place Development, but even that went pretty quick with the consultant that we hired to do that. We don't get in a lot of really big projects. We feel pretty confident with the typical type of project that we get that that's still a good, accurate review time. SVEUM: Does it make a difference whether it's a residential project or a straight commercial building? WESLEY: With this, we are talking about commercial, the nonresidential projects. SVEUM: Well, specific -- well, that being a -- WESLEY: Yes. SVEUM: -- multiunit building -- WESLEY: Right. SVEUM: -- would you consider that a -- WESLEY: Yes. Yes. So an apartment complex is a commercial, so it's a commercial project. Yes. SVEUM: And one other question about -- do developers have a time period in which their project needs to be completed once it's approved? WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner, once a permit is issued -- once it's approved, they've got basically 180 days then to pull the permit. And once the permit's been pulled, they have to show progress on it. Basically, get inspections done every 180 days. If we go 180 days or more without any inspections or active progress, then it lapses, and they have to come back and get it renewed. SVEUM: So a larger commercial structure could take three years to build, even though it probably should take a year? WESLEY: It could. We've had -- you've seen some things around town maybe, even some residential and some commercial ones that get started and for whatever reason the contractors working on it are slow. They have too many projects, not enough workers, whatever it may be, I guess, they can take a long time, even though it may be a smaller project. But as long as we're making ongoing progress, then the permit stays TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 34 active, and they can continue to work. SVEUM: Thank you. CHAIR GARMAN: A couple of comments. First, for all the commissioners, if you have a copy of this or if the -- I think we've given this a copy at our meetings before. It's like a scorecard, a shortened scorecard. It has the timelines and all of that for the current strategic plan. You can tell mine's all dog-eared and I've scribbled all over it. It's a really good think when we get these -- when the updates come from the town. So you can see who's responsible, what's the task, the projection completion date. So these are like the initiatives that are at the bottom of the strategic plan as we move forward for the next plan. But these are the ones from our current plan. And you can see the detail that we have. So I think this is a great document that Angela's prepared for us. So that's for everybody here. John, so the one you're talking about, identify ways to streamline the building permit process, we thought it could get done within a couple of years. The last update said it's in progress, improve/refine tops, step by step instructions. So the initiative was just identify ways to streamline the building permit process. So in an effort to declare victory and move on, has that been accomplished do you think, and is the town the approval process for that? In other words, you don't have to get council or anybody else to approve streamlining processes, correct? WESLEY: Yes, Chairman, correct. In terms of the ongoing day-to-day process and how it works, it is a staff thing to do, to continue to kind of monitor what we're doing, where we're seeing the hiccups or slowdowns and see what we can do to make refinements and keep things moving. Sort of related to that though, the council is helping us out by, hopefully, in a week from now, two weeks from now when they meet again and approve the budget, to approve an additional building inspector. And so that helps by then -- currently our building official, who reviews the plans, is out having to do a lot of inspections because the contract inspector we've been using haven't been coming through for us or whatever, and so he's not able to do plan review. Having the extra building inspector will help TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 34 then with that permit review process. But also we hope that by having two inspectors, that over time, we can get one a little bit more trained up on the nonresidential side of things. Because we have had a few times when it's been a commercial project that the inspector who normally does residential, is now having to inspect that commercial project needs a little bit more help. He maybe misses some things or has to go back and check before he can sign off. So we're hoping with two inspectors, one can get a little bit more trained on the commercial side of things to help with that part of the process. Because it isn't just issuing the permit, it's getting all the way to the finish line of the building being completed and open, so we're working all the process. CHAIR GARMAN: So do you think that you've identified ways to streamline the process and have those ways been instituted? WESLEY: So Chairman, the things we have identified have been instituted and I would like to declare a victory on this one. And while, you know, it's hard right now with the type of applications that we're typically getting in, the staff we have available, and the system we have available, of pitching any grand changes that are going to make a significant change, but it's something I think is ongoing really. We always want to kind of be mindful of how the process is working and looking for ways that we can continue to tweak it. And so I don't know if we ever really want to totally declare a victory. I think it kind of is an ongoing item to work with and be mindful of. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. Any just, again, because I was here to work through this with the '22 plan. There was more, originally, specificity in there and much more, I don't know, specific instances were given. I'll give you an example of specific area in town, if there's a building permit in a specific area, like downtown, then there was going to be ways to speed that up and maybe it might take a little bit longer if the building permit was for another part of town that wasn't identified as a, you know, high profile area. Those were all kind of softened at the end, just so you know and -- not by our commission by the way, but as we went through the sharing socialization with the council. So what we ended up with was identify ways to streamline the building permit process. That's where we are here. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 34 Phil? SVEUM: John, how many back and forth drafts are there before you provide final approval? I understand the 17 days on the initial comments, but assume the engineers and architects and so on make the changes, how long does it take normally, to get to maybe the second and final draft and your conclusions made? WESLEY: Yes, Chair, Commissioner, we didn't go do the detailed review of the second and thirds at this point. We really were looking at publicizing that first one. But as a general rule of thumb, the second ones and third ones go faster because you're looking at fewer things. SVEUM: But you're not having it -- WESLEY: You're focused on, okay, did they address the challenge that came in. And so , you know, ten days is probably a good number to think of in terms of review time on follow-ups. SVEUM: I don't think you're -- based on my experience, I don't think your time frames are out of line at all. WESLEY: It's not unfamiliar with other communities, we're pretty similar. And it usually does take, at least, two and three's not too uncommon, getting more than three reviews happens but not very often. SVEUM: Well, it kind of is determined by who's on the other side of this as well and how competent their team is. WESLEY: Yes. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: How many building permits do you process monthly, would you say? Like, what's an average month look like? WESLEY: Chair, Vice Chair, I don't know if you have a good handle on that. I had the opportunity on Monday to present to the Community Services Advisory Committee and so I did look back at permits over the last year, and I don't remember those numbers too well. So this will be a yearly number, but it was for nonresidential in 2023 we did, I think it was like 59 permits. And so far this year, we've done 29. For new residential, I think it was like 85 last year and we're, something a little bit less than half so far this TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 34 year. I was kind of surprised to see the number of solar permits and pool permits. Well, you could probably really expect we should have a lot of those in our climate. But people are continually adding those and so those were fairly big numbers also. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Interesting. Thank you. And then, for the inspections, what happens if the inspector isn't well-versed in say commercial, who steps in -- WESLEY: The building official. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Got it. WESLEY: He's out there and sees something he's not quite comfortable with, he'll come back and discuss it with the building inspector. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: And that's Peter, right? WESLEY: Correct. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Okay. I understand. Awesome. Thank you. WESLEY: And so before we move on, maybe to the second specific item that we have. I'm going to piggyback on some of the discussion that's already had with regard to the open house that we had last week with regard to the downtown planning process, because it's related to this topic generally, of economy and the town and that strategic item. I guess, while it's not a specific task here, I think it is a big project that we're involved in with importance with this, I think, general topic of the town's economy. So I do appreciate those who came last week. It's part of an ongoing process that got started the first of the year that we first invited in some focus group people to give us some input and their ideas about what was important and needed in the town center area. We had some online surveys that we got some very good response on. And those things, plus just the staff's ideas from study that we used to come up with kind of some comments and ideas that we had been hearing. And then, with that, some possible ideas for what could be done. And that's when we had the public reviewing then and giving us feedback on what ideas did the public think were most important. With that information we received we'll be working to put together a strategic plan for the council that we hope to have ready for them by September. So they can look at and approve, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 34 and that will be used in the next few years in terms of both staff priorities and budget priorities for the council. And so you might -- I don't know if I should be so bold as to ask a question for what you all would think might be the top priorities that came out of that? I asked somebody else today and they were actually pretty close. But things having to do with trees and shade, getting activity out on the street, particularly along the Avenue. Those types of things were really a lot of the top priority areas that came from this. So look forward to continue to refine some of that and come back with what those plans will be. But any further questions about the comment process and where we're at with it? Okay. So the other items, really specifically that was tasked for me in our area, was to create and publicize an environmental plan for Fountain Hills. We worked with the commission a little over a year ago, going through the elements that were in the town's adopted comprehensive plan and pulled those together into one document and put a new cover page on and so forth. So that's been packaged and put out there on our website and available in a very nice format for anybody that's interested in looking at that topic. So we think that one has been addressed and that we've pretty much closed the book on that for now. Chair, if you don't mind, there's one other item here that didn't maybe specifically have my name on it. But it's going back, again, through what's on your list that I thought I would go ahead and make a comment on. It's in the infrastructure, our town infrastructure, item number 2: support local broadband strategic buildout. And so while I can't maybe comment too much directly on what was looked at there. If you're not aware, the planning and zoning commission has been looking at the wireless communication ordinance that we have in town. Had a lot of discussion as we looked, that has come up with regard to broadband and how that is being addressed currently in the community. Some desire is to really do what we can to have good underground broadband network, some concerns about wireless broadband network, and how that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 34 translates into our current ordinances. So that's an ongoing item. I'm not sure how it's ultimately going to end up. But certainly the wireless component of that is pretty important. The topography, the terrain, the rocks in our ground make the underground a challenge at a lot of locations and so there will be, always, I think, be a significant wireless component to whatever broadband system we have in town. CHAIR GARMAN: Also under -- I think it's under, at least, under infrastructure as well. Are you helping with the bicycle master plan? WESLEY: Chair, that's mostly public works. Justin's been handling that. Some (indiscernible) because we did work with him on getting the active transportation plan developed and approved. Justin was at -- the public works director was at the town council last night for an amendment to that active transportation plan for some additional sidewalk apps that they're trying to move up in the priority level of that plan. But we do continue to regularly look at that, regularly apply for grants to help fill in those gaps and improve that infrastructure. CHAIR GARMAN: The active transportation plan, is that an existing -- been around for a long time? It's an existing and just updating it, or is that fairly new? WESLEY: Chair, it's fairly new. It was adopted in '21. It's the first active transportation plan that we've had. And so it's been a big help, again, for us to understand the system, what the priorities and needs are, and use it when we apply for grants. CHAIR GARMAN: So is there still a task out there for a comprehensive bicycle plan for the town? Is that underneath that active transportation plan? Is it like part of that or is it -- is there such a thing being drafted or -- I don't know. WESLEY: On that term just a little bit. I believe the answer is, the desire is for a more specific bicycle plan as a subset of the active transportation plan because it will look more holistically at a variety of modes. And there's still a need to focus maybe a little bit more on the bicycles. But first of all, I think that's correct. And second of all, I'm not sure where it is in our priority. GOODWIN: No, John, you're actually -- you are correct. So the active transportation plan kind of, you're right, has a holistic approach of all different modes of nonvehicular TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 34 transportation -- non-motorized, I should say. Now, I know Justin has put a lot of effort, the sidewalk gap elimination has probably taken priority in the discussion. And mostly that's because we've been able to secure significant grant funding for that. So we have the money, we have the means, that kind of took priority. That being said, I know Justin has integrated quite a bit of bicycle lane and bicycle -- there's a difference between lane and path; is that right? But what we were able -- when he's -- what he's been doing is strategically integrating it when we do restriping of roadways. And I don't want to steal his thunder, but he was able to basically add a collective of six or seven lane miles to our bike pathways simply through restriping. Not that we went out and added anything more, did anything more, we were just able to re- stripe our roadways to accommodate more dedicated bike lanes. And so he's been updating maps online to reflect that. I know he's been working with MAG to reflect that across the Valley, so that as those types of things go out and funding becomes available for more, that makes us more attractive for that. So the short answer is, no, there isn't necessarily a plan underway. It is sort of folded in under our active transportation plan, but that doesn't mean it's not a priority and hasn't been sort of chipped away at. CHAIR GARMAN: Yep. Bernie? HOENLE: As a comment from being on the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists, most of the emphasis for bicycles, whether it's two-wheel, three-wheel, four-wheel bikes, e-bikes, all that sort of stuff, is tied in closely with active transportation plans, multimodal transportation. In other words, walking on the side of the road or paths or protected paths, it's all on speed and safety and grants and it all ties together multiple facets when you start talking about transportation other than motorized vehicles. And you're talking about even the shade rolls in there and spacing between the sidewalk and the street. There's lots of different things besides the ADA compliance. So I would say that I would definitely support and see that we expand the area and see all the linkages are there in the active transportation plan. I don't think we need to focus on ever having a separate bicycle plan. My opinion. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 34 WESLEY: Anything else you have for me? CHAIR GARMAN: Anything else? No. I'm still letting the comprehensive bicycle plan noodle around. All right. That's great, John. I appreciate -- you know, we made -- you've made lots of progress on all the ones with your name by them in here, for sure. I mean, you were the first one out of the gun to go after the strategic plan, which probably took some years off your life, I know that. But it finally got done. WESLEY: It's good to have these very specific projects to work on and address. So it's been good. Look forward to your next one. CHAIR GARMAN: Any questions? Any further comments? No. Thank you very much for addressing us today. WESLEY: Thank you. CHAIR GARMAN: Thanks, John. Okay. Now, we're going to move down to agenda item 9, which is the reports from our two commission workgroups. So these are going to be kind of end of year basically, reports from Geoff and myself. We have a few slides to show you. And just remember, the intent here is to guide us into the June 19th meeting -- Wednesday, June 19th. Where you'll have access to the data that Geoff has, the data that I have, the data that we looked at all year in our different meetings. And then we're going to sit right down here and have a discussion about strategic priorities for the next plan. So I'll give you a little more specifics about the June meeting in a minute, but just be thinking what Geoff and I are talking about now is helping to prepare the -- I almost said prepare the battlefield. Prepare the -- yeah, prepare the battlefield for the June 19th meeting. So are we -- do we have slides for Geoff? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Which one do you want to start with first? CHAIR GARMAN: Geoff. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Geoff? Go it. Yeah, you should be able to maybe just -- it should work. Working? You want to try it? All right. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 34 VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Thank you, Angela. Okay. So I put together this PowerPoint presentation. It is an overview of the event that we held on Saturday, April 20th. So go ahead and advance this slide here. Okay. So the goal of the event was to gather feedback from community members to determine what topics should be included as pillars in the next iteration of the strategic plan. The layout, we had several stations. There was a welcome station and Patrick was there welcoming people and just giving an overview of what the strategic plan is and what our commission does. Then we had four feedback stations. The first station we had topics listed that were kind of like -- it was almost like word-association, where we tell the people that came through: public safety, town vision and identity, infrastructure, what do you think about those things. So that was the first station. Second station had to do with development, local economy, and the town center. Station number 3 was education, government community services, and recreation. The fourth station was a prioritization exercise and I have a sheet to show you in a few slides about that. And then the final station was thank you for coming, and then did we miss anything. So if there were any topics that weren't included, people were able to list those items there. We had about 35 or 40 people that participated, and then we gathered 101 total notecards from the event. So we got quite a bit of feedback there. Let's go ahead and move on. So this is what the -- it's a snip of the Excel spreadsheet that I have. So this is just the raw data. So I took the notecards and transcribed them into Excel. I had a fun time learning how to re-read cursive. I haven't done that in a while. But I was able to get all the notecards transcribed. So again, that's just a snip of the Excel spreadsheet. And what I'll do is, following this meeting, Angela, I will share the document with you and then you can share with my fellow commissioners. Taking the raw data, I then sorted it into -- and again, this is just a snip, so it's not the whole document. But I took those different topic areas and then put the feedback in the appropriate topics. And then it might be hard to see -- oh, you guys have the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 34 screens there to your left. So you can see over on your right there's a theme. So what I did was, I took the topic or the comment as it was written. I tried to zoom out and figure out what is this comment about. So I put together a list of different topic themes and you can see if you look at -- let's see here, the town vision identity on the left, if you go just down below center, you'll see a pretty lengthy comment that says, "A town with a mixture of restaurants, shops, recreation, safe, low traffic, friendly, respite from the cities, family-friendly, thought and planning on future building of apartments, condos so traffic isn't crazy, make attractive to small businesses, small business owners so dollars stay in town." So that's a long comment and there's a lot of information that we're able to pull out of that. So then just to the right of it, you'll see some of those topic themes are law enforcement, tourism, small business, retail, dining, land use, multifamily residential, civility, and planning. And again, all of you will have access to this following the meeting. But just trying to get that high-level overview of what are people talking about. What is it that they feel is important and then we can go ahead and use that data for next month's meeting. Next. This is called a pair-wise comparison and former Commissioner Jill Keefe came up with this idea. She has a background in this from her time in corporate America. But what she did was, took the topics that we had listed, so safety, town center, local economy, infrastructure, commercial and residential development, government and community services, recreation, and educational resources, and it's a force comparison where you can't, like, you know, put a gold star by everything. If you attended last week's event, the downtown strategy planning session, you were given ten hearts and that was, like currency. It's like you only have so many of these stickers so you've got to select carefully where you place them. So not surprisingly, infrastructure ranked highest for many people, and it looked like nobody put that as the lowest priority. So it kind of goes along with the communication that we're hearing out in the community of, you know, we've got to focus on roads, the sidewalks need to be completed, et cetera, et cetera. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 34 It was interesting to look at safety because it was almost an equal mix of people who felt it was a low priority and also a high priority, because Fountain Hills is a safe community. So I'm guessing that the people that listed it as a low priority are saying, well, Fountain Hills are already safe, it doesn't need to be a high priority. And then the people who said it is a high priority are probably thinking well, it's a safe community, we need to keep it that way. So there's a variety of different ways that you can look at this information. And then down below that, Jill had put together some observations. So infrastructure was rated highest with most responses being middle-high, or highest. No respondents ranked it the lowest. Views on safety were divided, as I just said. Local economy was ranked high or mid-high by 11 participants. Town center and recreation were the two lowest ranked categories. Overall, the respondents had widely varied interpretations of priority. Commercial and residential development was rated moderate by most participants, as was government and community service. So all food for thought. We can, you know, kind of take our time to consider this in advance of next month's meeting. And then, this is the word cloud that we've been talking about for a while. So this was fun. So I took all of the different topic themes and fed it into this app. You have to use an underscore, otherwise it will list -- --you know, say "small" and "businesses" as two separate words, so that's why the underscores are in there. But if you just look at it, at a glance, you see okay, small business is important, education is important, land use, multifamily residential. And then you'll see the smaller words are in there for consideration, but, you know, they didn't get as much emphasis from the feedback that we received. So again, this is more of just like an at-a-glance overview of what we did. This isn't law here, but is definitely interesting to look at. So that was the content of our event. And I will turn it over to my fellow commissioners and see if anyone has any questions that I can shed some light on. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Let's open it up for discussion. SVEUM: Yeah. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 34 CHAIR GARMAN: Phil? SVEUM: I guess, more than 35, 45 people or whatever, that were there, and it was -- we had good conversations. But I'm wondering what a adequate sample size is to take this dialogue to the bank, so to speak. What do you think that would be in your experience, Geoff, when you've been involved in these types of things in communities so much in L.A., and everything else, that -- I mean, how do you say, okay, this is actual community feedback that we can rely on and build on? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Sure. SVEUM: What's your thought? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. And leading up to this meeting, I was hoping for probably closer to a 100 people to participate. SVEUM: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Again, it was one event. We got, you know, say 35 or 40. And some of the feedback that we received is feedback that just, in my interaction with the community, I necessarily wouldn't agree with. Some of it I agree with, others, I'm like, okay, well, I think other people might have different opinions here. But when you stack this, Patrick, how many groups have you presented to on this? Well, if you're going to give your report in a minute, but -- ten groups, and probably well over a 100 people that you have reached through that. Maybe a few hundred people. CHAIR GARMAN: Over 300. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Over 300. REYES: (Indiscernible) start talking statistics. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Sure. Sure. REYES: And other -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Me too. CHAIR GARMAN: If I can add a little bit -- SVEUM: So you're there -- I said five percent, (indiscernible) is -- HOENLE: So in statistics, I have a -- SVEUM: Well, can I just look at it this -- from a population standpoint. Take your TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 34 population, take ten percent, take half of that, okay? Real simple. And that's kind of like your target at best. Not worst. Half of that is still enough to do the work that we need. So all that being said, the numbers that you just espoused to this and between the two of you, here, yeah, we've got enough there to work with. I don't know if you were -- if you were going to lead to, do we need more or want more and do we have time for that? HOENLE: I think your second question, do we need more to validate the -- what's been provided, to lead to conclusions. And I'm not suggesting that 450 or whatever we ended up with is enough or not adequate, but I don't know what that number is to get a legitimate sampling to build this thing. So just curious. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. So there's a lot of biases involved in the way they do it in politics and the way they do it in research, right? But I mean a couple of things to throw out. First of all, there's never going to be a validated answer, that's why we have a job or else we would just let everybody vote and that's what it will be. So at the end of the day, we have to use our experience. But statistically, for a normal distribution is, once you start getting over 30, you can start filling out that bell curve, so you can start getting a model that has on the left and on the right. So anything over 30 starts adding to, if you want to call it, the validity of that model, right? So you always try to get it at least over 30, whatever you're counting. And then, as you go higher, it gets more solid and more predictable as you go ahead. Things like surveys, you need to be able to survey at least 20 percent of your population to have some validity when you're talking research for surveys. If you get under 20 percent, that means all 100 percent of them could be one way, but that could be totally wrong compared to the over 80 percent that you didn't get to. So it depends on the method that you're using to sample folks. But when you're talking politics, you know, when they go out and sample people, it's generally they try to get as far as over 30 as they can. Believe it or not, some of those are pretty small that they do in politics, the sample size. SMITH: I think another, almost impossible thing to put into this type of thing in a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 34 community like this, is age group. Like, for example, recreation was on the bottom. Well, that's because the age group is what it is. And does that add to growth to the town? So I don't know how to -- how you're going to put the age group in there. I don't know. But you got to -- if everybody that shows up are 70 and 80 years old, you're going to get a whole different answer than the people that are trying to be active in the community. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. And I think that's part of our work as commissioners is being able to read between the lines of what the priorities should be. And at this stage in the design of the next strategic plan, I don't think we'll miss what one of the pillars should be. It definitely is something where we'll want to cast a wider net for drilling down to the strategic priorities and the strategic tasks. Because that's where we get rubber starts to meet the road. Whereas this, it's like, you can look at local economy, that has got to be a priority for the Town of Fountain Hills. So definitely something to consider. It's a good thing, Patrick and Joe know quite a bit about statistics because I do not. But all in all, I think that this event, when coupled with the specific community events that Patrick attended, I think, will have quite a bit of meaningful feedback to review and work with next month, so. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. And so -- Angela, sorry. Just as you were standing up. Since we're reviewing these PowerPoints in public, these can be provided to the commissioners, right? After the meeting? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Correct. Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: I can go ahead and send them. CHAIR GARMAN: Awesome. And then the other thing I was going to mention is, where we just went off on a certain direction there is, this is something that we need to pay attention to especially when we come back in August. And that's when I'm going to ask, hey, what other initiatives can you think of to get a pulse of the citizens in Fountain Hills? Remember last year we had this discussion, we talked about surveys and this workgroup that Geoff and his team did, outreach, I mean, I have a slide with five of six TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 34 of them. Going to fairs -- remember that conversation? So I'm going to ask that question again in August and if you have ideas on how we can get more people involved, comments from more people, we're going to have that discussion at our August meeting so we can institute it for the next year. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: All right. Awesome. Thank you. CHAIR GARMAN: Thanks, Geoff. Okay. In the time we have left, here's the presentation I have. Some of you have seen this before; I added on. I did this at the end of our 2022, '23 tour or cycle on the commission, and I just updated this year. So instead of '22 to '23, it's '22 to '24. So let's see here. So this is '22/'23, and if you look in front of you, you should be able to see it a little better. We went over this already last year when we kicked off the -- or at the end of last year. So these are the strategic issues that we covered during the meetings in 2022 to '23. This is what we did just this last year. We put a little more effort within our workgroups this year, so we did have less folks come in to talk to us and we spent a little more time with our two workgroups. But this goes from our meeting last June and all the way through -- I even put June 19th on there as well. But you can have this as well. So now you all will have this in your email. And you put it in your folder and look back at the different topics that were covered, either from outside; citizens coming in and talking about Blue Zone or the Inspiration Academy -- who could forget that presentation, right? Or the town members, like John Wesley, who just came in and talked to us. I also added those under each month. So now you have a good overview of what we've done the last couple of years as far -- and I, by the way, I tried to get cute, and color code them. I don't know how worthful that -- if that's worth it or not, but I tried to color code them based on the four -- those are our four pillars, Paul, that we have in our current plan, 2022 plan. So financial is blue, economic is orange, infrastructure is purple, then health, well-being, safety is green. That's what the colors represent. All right. So that's that. And I wanted to bring you up to where we are as far as the timeline, again, that I TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 34 showed last year as far as '23 to '27. Why '27? That's, you know, five years from the approval of the last plan, when we have a draft due to the council to let them debate and discuss. So you could see we started with the implementation familiarization last year. This year, we've all been pointing towards strategic priorities. That is next month, right? We're going to create those, list those in our 19 June meeting. And then look at next year's, we go to '24 and '25, we're doing what's underneath the strategic priorities, which is called signature strategies in the current plan. So we're going to start fleshing those out in the next year and we'll start that effort at the August meeting, which will lead then into the supporting tasks. Which are the things that we were talking about with John Wesley today, with the -- within two years. And it has a name, who's responsible for the town and the current status. Those are the supporting tasks that -- I think we had 23 of those in the current plan: 11 signature strategies, and 4 strategic priorities going backwards. So this is kind of the way forward over the next few years and it will go by in a blink of our eye, I think. This is the -- I was going to go by this pretty quick, but I wanted you to -- this is just to reinforce what I talked about. Ways to -- last time it was strategic priorities when I did this slide, but I'm just going to change this and start talking about the signature strategies going forward. Ways, I say, to get the pulse, get comments, get opinions from our fellow townspeople. So that's what this is. If you can see, workshops, surveys; these are things we wrote down. Of course, we can always add to this list. This is just what we started last year. So always be thinking, when we come back in August, you say, hey, I want to -- I think we should do this going forward and talk to people. So hopefully, we can continue what we started this year, as far as getting out and about in the town. This is the past strategic priority. So these are all the strategic priorities that I was able to find on all of the strategic plans that the town has, going back to the very first one. So you have this now in electronic version. And this includes the four that we have now. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 34 This is the final, the outreach, that we did this year. Those are the clubs, the service organizations, charities, 5013 -- 5013? Let's just say charities that I went and -- service organizations that I went and addressed. So you see, I just plopped them there. I know they're a little disorganized. But one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten; I was right. Ten of them I went and talked to. With those, at the bottom, those were the highlights. I still have a few more that I'm going to add but if you look at the bottom, then those are the main kind of comments that came from those meetings. You see the 313 individuals attended, so that's when I added up all the people that were at all of these clubs. I took attendance each time or asked how many people were there and then just added them up from that ten and it came up to 313. So you can see the different highlights, comments, demographics, workers -- any -- downtown plan you see. So these are things to help educate us going forward on what was on the mind of the people who I first reviewed the 2022 plan, how we built that plan. And then let them know where we were with building the next plan, I guess, the 2027 plan. And then asked them their opinion and that's the kind of the main things that came out of that. I didn't get -- I didn't have the ability to do that app and put them in how many times they were mentioned and all that. But I just wanted you all to see kind of the main themes that came out of them. All right. So you all have this as well. I think this is the last slide. Yes, that's the last slide. All right. So there are any questions with the slide presentation that I just gave you as far as the output from the outreach over the last year? I guess I did such a great job. Okay. Joe? REYES: I have no -- actually, I have an observation. I look at yours, I look at what Geoff brought in and the other workshop and really much of what we got in the -- I'll call it the workshop but -- would fit in with many of these initiatives that were outlined here. And they should be, because obviously, you did a great job of going back and combing through so many years and different documents where these things have come through. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 34 This to me looks pretty, pretty good base to to move from, really. Anyway, that's just my comment. CHAIR GARMAN: Any other comments? Bernie? HOENLE: I guess, I'd like to say we've been here before, and we'll probably be here again. And the thing is, there's going to be a lot -- going back to some of the comments about how much weight do we give this and what's the statistical view or anything. We're going to go back to previous plans. We're going to look at the budget that's going to be approved now, which is going to be -- extend a couple of years out. You're going to look at reality. Two plans ago, we had an attachment to the back of the plan that was like 51 topics that came up from comments out of the 100 or so that we had in the community center of people, and they were just on a -- basically, on a parking lot. Because there wasn't emphasis on any one of them for either funding or initiative to move forward. Some of them were actually done because they didn't cost anything. But this is still a work in progress is what I'm trying to say. So I think all the comments are really good. What we need to figure out is, as we continue, like what Patrick's done, going out and asking the questions, and we start to focus. And the next level will get us more wrapped around things to be done and then some sort of a priority of what to attack. Because we're not going to be able to hit all of them and make it meaningful. And the other aspect of is, two plans ago we did have more measurements and we had timelines and we had somewhat of a priority set up. And this last time it was like no priorities, and we reduced the amount of measurement that was going on. So we're going to need to figure out what we do on those aspects as we move into the evolution of the next plan, too. Because I think we're going to have more details as we get into the next no kidding planning process. So. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Geoff. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Question. Because with the exception of Patrick and Bernie, this is all of our first go with designing a plan. How much does the budget factor into the different strategic pillars, priorities, and tasks? Because one of the things that came up last week at the downtown strategic meeting is, there's all these different things we can TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 34 do but you got to pay for it. So was anything taken out of the current plan because it's just too far off budget-wise? Maybe that's a question for Rachael as well. HOENLE: I'll track it from the planning aspect and then toss it over to Rachael. Yes, it does have an impact. And it goes back to the reality and what is normally in a budget, and then what can you expect, possibly, to get from grants. And then what can be individually funded by other organizations for the town? So yeah, there's different categories, but when it comes into realism and even though we're supposed to be looking at ten years out, the budget plays a big part in it. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Sure. HOENLE: So. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Rachael? GOODWIN: Bernie's right. There's a couple of ways you can look at the budget impact is, that you have the reality that says -- and I'm going to use John's example because he just was here about talking about the software that we use for plan review. Right? If he comes to me and says, Rachael, I can get this done, but I need new software and it's going to cost us 50 grand. And we go to council and say, hey, we need 50 grand to do this. And they go, not happening. Okay. Then we're back to square one saying, well, we can maybe make some small inroads, but we can't make a significant jump on this without some sort of financial investment. So there is a factor. I don't have the plan in front of me to tell you what may be impacted by that, but I can guarantee you there are some items to that level. But also it helps once the plan is adopted, it helps us know where we want to request funding moving forward so that we can make those budget asks, or design a budget forecast that says, hey, we're not going to need it right now but two years down the line, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about the need for this or that, or wherever those priorities take us. So yeah, budget is certainly an element. And if I might, I was going to actually ask this question. But at some point, do you see staff input coming back to inform this body about where they see priorities and opportunities, I guess? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 34 CHAIR GARMAN: First of all, yes, I call that a sanity check, right? So yeah, absolutely. Yes. Phil? SVEUM: I was thinking the same thing. And not only staff, but also the councilmembers. When they're making decisions, whether it's during budget time or during decision time, whether to spend the money on that particular software that John wants. I think, somehow, some way, we've got to have some additional input from those policymakers. And the problem, of course, is that they change on a rotating basis every couple of years. So it's a hard target to hit than when there's different people sitting up here continually, in leadership. So I would really like to have the staff, though, be more involved with this, back to that -- what you call it sanity check? Sanity check? CHAIR GARMAN: Sanity. HOENLE: Yeah, that's a good idea. CHAIR GARMAN: Geoff? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Thank you, Bernie, and Rachael. That's very informative. Just my personal opinion with this upcoming plan that we're going to be working on. I think we should have different budgetary impacts for the different items that we come up with, because there has been quite a bit of scrutiny on the budget for the last however long. But it would be good to at least have that in the plan, so it informs the council, hey, this is going to be like a small task that is relatively inexpensive to implement and complete. And this is a much larger task that's going to take more time, more money. And then they can use that when they make their decisions or consider these decisions. So yeah. GOODWIN: If I can add one other thing? I'm looking at the list that Patrick provided here and then, obviously, one of the biggest things that I think you heard was infrastructure. That comes with a lot of dollar signs behind it, so to speak. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. GOODWIN: As does -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: A Yelp review with five dollar signs next to it. GOODWIN: Exactly. As does the fountain liner, as does the potential of a downtown TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 34 plan. So yeah, budget certainly is an element to be woven in. And I do like the idea of a sanity check because there's an idea that says, yeah, these are all great ideas. And then you have staff looking at you going, you got to be kidding, right? Like, where does that intersect? So I really do appreciate the idea of bringing staff in. And Phil, just to kind of couple on what you said. Yeah. The leadership on this dais does change pretty rapidly, but one of the constants is the staff. And I think that that's where that can really be leveraged, because we have -- I mean, I've been here ten years. Justin Weldy has been here -- CHAIR GARMAN: 19. GOODWIN: Thank you. Our IT administrator has been here 24. So I know there are some constant and steadies there that may be able to be leveraged with that input. SVEUM: Well, not only that, staff hears from the councilmembers as well asking questions. So they kind of know what the temperature is on on certain issues. So that that would be really helpful. CHAIR GARMAN: I guess, we could have a discussion on that, probably with an adult beverage about the worthwhile that it is. Yeah. It is, yeah. The winds change and we add some stability, here. But I agree, I didn't get a chance to answer. So there is, usually, this does not turn out to be like a Christmas list because as you see, there's things on here, like financial sustainability and revenue sources and things like that usually take up a lot of time. Usually people aren't, we're going to build a professional baseball stadium or something, where are we going to get the money? Or those type of things. But we'll see. We're going to get into that next year and specifically even the year after that. So okay. Anything else with that? That was your question, right? So. Okay. So any other questions on my presentation before we move on? Okay. So that's the end of agenda item 9. I'll click on -- So discussion and possible action and future agenda topics. I would preface this to say this is something that I will really be looking at as we come back to our August meeting. Remember, we don't have a meeting in July. Come back to our August meeting, so we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 34 can really start putting the screws on being more specific next year. Because by the time we come back in August, we will have our strategic pillars or our strategic priorities -- sorry. And then we're going to start filling in under them. So we probably then, will be able to be more discerning on folks who come in or organizations, groups that want to come and talk to us and try to ensure that in our limited time we have, that those topics fit underneath the strategic priorities that we're going to identify in June. So with that being said, if I look to my left, to my right, anybody want to discuss any future topics at this time? Okay seeing none -- more comments from me, I apologize. I want to recenter us one more time before we leave today. Remember the goal. We filtered down this year to our June 19th meeting, where we're going to sit down here, probably have some -- used to be called onion paper or paper. Right? Or are we going to be able to write or type? It might be electrons. God forbid. You know, we should just get AI and just ask, please -- sorry, I didn't mean to say that. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We can do that. I can pull that up. But I also will have I -- CHAIR GARMAN: I almost said that. And Geoff and I are going to help lead the conversation and we're going to bring to bear, we're going to have all the resources here. You have all the resources that have been sent out to you, and that's going to be sent out to you. We've been informed throughout the year. Remember, these are big ticket items that we're going to discuss. When we leave the meeting on June, we should have that limited number of strategic priorities going forward. Like I said before, that doesn't mean it's final, final, final. But we do have to have something solid as we go forward. So I kind of say, like the 90 percentile percent answer. So we'll have those. So come -- maybe it will be quick, maybe it will be a lot of discussion; I don't know. But by the time we leave, Geoff and I are going to try to force us to have those strategic priorities completed, so then we can take a well-deserved break in July and come back in August and start filling out the tree underneath those strategic priorities. Okay. So everybody knows the goal going forward. All right. Yeah. Bernie? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 34 HOENLE: Yeah. Question. And this goes to Rachael. Could we get some sort of idea on numbers that came out of the downtown session? Because I know John mentioned about not till September getting some feedback. This would be helpful for this session coming up too, just to see where the pockets were of interest. GOODWIN: I can say they are starting to pull that together now. I know there's been a little bit of -- there's a couple other priorities that are kind of taking John's time right now through P&Z. So I know that that was a little bit of a slowdown. If I can't get you the formal stuff, I can try to see if we can get you some raw data. At least, something to work with, to your point, so that we have some concept of where the priorities were, even if it's not refined. I think we can do that. Do we have -- question for you, Patrick. I know because it's a big lift on that meeting, do you think our normal meeting time is adequate, or are we planning on changing that or having more time? I just wanted to make sure. CHAIR GARMAN: I think -- I might be wrong, but I think we can get it done within an hour. GOODWIN: Fantastic. CHAIR GARMAN: I think time is a great forcing function sometimes. GOODWIN: True. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Thanks. All right. So those are my comments. I'm going to move down to agenda item 12 now, which is any comments before we head towards the end of this meeting; any comments before we head into the June meeting? To the left. To the right? Nope. Is there a motion on the floor to end the meeting today? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Move to adjourn. CHAIR GARMAN: Do I hear a second? REYES: Second. CHAIR GARMAN: Is that Joe? Joe's second. All right. Any discussion about the meeting today? No. Nothing to my left. Nothing to my right. All right. All those in favor of ending the meeting today say aye. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MAY 22, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 34 ALL: Aye. CHAIR GARMAN: Any opposed? CRADER: Aye. CHAIR GARMAN: No. Thank you, Randy. Have a good evening. Thank you, everyone. CRADER: All right. Thanks guys. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS __________________________ Patrick Garman, Chairman ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: ___________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 22nd day of May 2024. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 28th Day of August 2024. ___________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant ITEM 6. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Work Session of June 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.   Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approving the minutes of the work session on June 19, 2024. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve the minutes of the work session on June 19, 2024. Attachments SUMMARY MINUTES AND VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION June 19, 2024 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Patrick Garman called to order the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 4:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta; Commissioner Randy Crader (arrived at 4:16 p.m.); Commissioner Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Joseph Reyes; Commissioner Paul Smith; Commissioner Phil Sveum Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett- Espiritu 3. REGULAR AGENDA A. PRESENTATION: Utilizing Community Input Workshop Data in the Strategic Planning Process Facilitation and Goals - The workshop was led by Chair Garman and Vice Chair Yazzetta. The primary goal was to facilitate discussion among members to establish strategic priorities for the upcoming year. Review of Past Activities - Reviewed accomplishments from the past years, highlighting the progression from the strategic plan approved in March 2022. - Focused on how the commission narrowed down topics and had more focused discussions in the 2023-2024 period. Public Engagement and Outreach - Efforts included outreach to nonprofits and service organizations, reviewing old plans dating back to 2006, and disseminating results from a town survey conducted in 2021-2022. - Discussed the need to gather more citizen input for future planning. - Engaged with 313 community members through various presentations. - Key highlights from community feedback were documented. Pairwise Comparison Results - Presented results from the pairwise comparison conducted at an open house event in April where infrastructure was ranked as the highest priority by attendees. - Public safety and recreation also discussed, noting varying perspectives based on the town's current conditions. Strategic Priorities and Planning - Reviewed and discussed strategic priorities from past plans (2006 to present), noting recurring themes such as economic development, financial stability, and infrastructure. - A "house" analogy was used to illustrate how strategic priorities support the town's mission and vision. Downtown Development - Emphasized the need for revitalizing downtown Fountain Hills, potentially making it more pedestrian- friendly and reducing car traffic. - Considerations included economic benefits, safety improvements, and environmental impact. Infrastructure - Identified as a major strategic issue, with discussions on various aspects including roads, utilities, and other essential services. - Highlighted feedback from town surveys indicating strong community support for infrastructure improvements. Financial Planning - Addressed financial challenges, including budget gaps and potential funding sources such as grants and bonds. - Discussed recent approvals for street funding and the need to develop long-term financial strategies. Environmental and Active Transportation - Engaged in projects like active transportation plans, shade and walking initiatives, and multimodal transportation options. - Explored unique ideas such as periodic car-free zones downtown to enhance environmental sustainability and community engagement. Discovery Center - The Discovery Center was highlighted as a significant future project, potentially serving as an educational and recreational hub for the town. Land Use and Redevelopment - Emphasized the importance of land use and redevelopment as a strategic pillar, including aspects of preservation and smart growth. - Motion to prioritize land use and redevelopment in future planning efforts. Strategic Planning Timeline - Aiming to refine and finalize strategic priorities by the end of the calendar year. - Scheduled next major planning session for August to further develop plans for 2024-2025. - Plan to review citizen input and feedback collected through various outreach initiatives in August. Communication Strategy - Discussed the importance of effectively communicating the strategic plan to the public and government stakeholders. - Plan to assign members to continue communication efforts and ensure transparency post-approval. Workshop Outputs and Next Steps - Summary of key outputs from the workshop, including prioritization of strategic pillars and identification of major focus areas. - Plan to continue refining these priorities and develop specific actions and timelines in future meetings. 4. NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 2024. 5. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Patrick Garman adjourned the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 5:38 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 1 of 53 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission June 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 JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 2 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: I want to call to order this June 19th Strategic Planning Advisory Commission meeting of Fountain Hills to order. So we're going to go through the roll call first. So, Angela, if you could do the roll? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Thank you. Chair Garman? CHAIR GARMAN: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Chair Yazzetta? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Crader? Commissioner Hoenle? HOENLE: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Reyes? REYES: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Smith? SMITH: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Sveum? SVEUM: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We have a quorum. CHAIR GARMAN: Thank you. Great. And I think -- SVEUM: What am I getting myself into? You guys are all laughing about that. CHAIR GARMAN: I think Randy's going to be here in a few minutes. (Indiscernible) a little bit. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. CHAIR GARMAN: So he'll be walking in. One thing -- so you know, this is a workshop. So Geoff and I are going to help lead us through, but really, Geoff and I's job is to be the facilitators for today. So we really would like you all to talk, have conversations, and we're going to help narrow it down where we get to a stopping point, to where the end goal for today is to have our strategic priorities ironed out as we head into next year. And I have a presentation up here. The reason I'm holding this paper in my hand is because I was going to print out slides for you all, and my printer kind of ran out of ink TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 3 of 53 and didn't print very well. So I have scrap paper. If you had pens -- if you have -- if you want to write down notes for this meeting, I know you all have notes, but if you want scrap paper for today, just grab a piece and use the back of it. The front will be terribly printed pieces of this presentation, but otherwise, we're good. So I added to this presentation. So here's the first couple of minutes just to get us warmed up and in the mood for our task for today. So you've already seen some of these slides. I've added some slides towards the end. You've seen what we did 2022, '23. So that was the year after the last plan was approved, which was March. I believe March '22, was when that was voted on. So since then, that's what we covered the first year. Quite a bit of things that year. This last year what we cover -- so '23 to '24, as you can see, we narrowed it down a little bit. We did a little less just everything kind of topics, more focused topics, but more discussions on our work groups as well. And what came out of the two work groups we had this year. If you remember, just to orient you on the timeline. So we are -- if you see over the last year, we're first-year implementation, familiarization. This year, '23/'24, the end of it is strategic priorities. So that's how we sit today. And when we come back in August, we'll start looking at column, "Signature Strategies" or the next level down from where we get to today. This is far as deliverables, getting us out to 2027. Yes, we're talking about 2027 as we sit here. But the years are going by very quickly. This is what we did. If you remember, we looked at ways to garner input from the town citizens, to get opinions and ideas. These are what we ended up doing. I phrased them. We did outreach for the nonprofits and service organizations. We reviewed the old plans, all of them for the town dating back to 2006. We had a workshop, and then we also disseminated the review, the town survey that the town did -- 2021 time frame, I think -- 2021, '22 that the town paid for. And that was a pretty nice survey as well. But those are things that I remember us going through this year to try to get citizen opinions. And we'll rescramble this for next year. So when we come back in August, I'll be asking TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 4 of 53 you, okay, what do you want to do this year to get citizen input on the plan going forward? But the two main things were: we had a workshop, and we had the outreach initiative. So this is the outreach initiative. These are the ones that I went to talk to, if you remember this slide. And then so about 313 folks in all of those combined. These are the highlights that I wrote down from our notes from all of the different presentations. And don't worry, I have this in a better slide going forward as well. But those are some of the highlights at the bottom. This is the output from the workshop. So these are a couple that -- I don't know, Geoff, did you want to talk about this in the next slide? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. This was that -- it's called a pairwise comparison or forced comparison that Jill had put together. So this was the second-to-last station at the open house event that we hosted back in April. And this is where people -- they had a limited number of votes, so they had to prioritize what was most important to them and what was least important. What really stands out here is if you look at infrastructure, ten people ranked that as the highest priority and nobody ranked that as the lowest priority. So that's a pretty clear indication that infrastructure is a very high priority in this community. Then, if you look at something like public safety at the top row, six people ranked it as the lowest priority, eight as the highest. Us, as commissioners, it's important to kind of read between the lines because Fountain Hills is a very safe community. So the six people that reviewed this as the lowest are probably thinking, hey, we're already a safe community; it is not a priority. The eight people that said it was the highest: Hey, this is already a safe community, we need to keep it that way. So I view that as public safety is a high priority. But this is just -- kind of serves as a guidepost for us to see what people are emphasizing. Coincidentally, like, recreation ranked pretty low. And it's probably because we have quite a few recreation options available here in town. But anyways, that's just food for thought. This is that word cloud. So the different topics that came up from the raw data, I came TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 5 of 53 up with these, either phrases or individual words, kind of like themes. And the larger one of these themes is size wise, that means it showed up more times, and the smaller is it showed up less. But this is, again, just one of those things we can look at and reference and say, hey, what are people saying most frequently when we interact with them to talk about strategic priorities? CHAIR GARMAN: All right. Thanks. So I put them together. This is about the extent of my PowerPoint-making abilities. But the work -- from the workshop, the cloud is on the left. Hopefully, that's a decent representation where I said that's kind of some of the highlights. And then, on the right, is what we got out of the outreach program. I just put all of those in there as well, from the outreach. And I just listed them as they came up. So I didn't prioritize any of them. So there's no prioritization with that on the right. You see what's on the left there, so that's for us to take a look at. And then these are the past town priorities. I went back in a little more detail and looked at all the old plans and added some more to this. Each plan kind of sometimes calls them different things. There's some focus areas, some strategic priorities, but these are the overarching ideas that came forth from 2006 to now. So there's always some interesting ones on there. We've talked about demographic balances on there in the '17 plan. Planning, zoning, and architecture was back, I think that was the '06 one. So there's -- all the way to the right, you see "economic development, economic growth, economic vitality." In other words, there's different forms of these priorities as we get into it. Financial stability versus financial sustainability and so on. So anyways, these mark kind of the arc of priority since 2006. Or we can go back and look at all these. So this is just to get the view in your head; a picture is worth 1,000 words. I worked on another slide here in a couple that makes this a little clearer, but. So we're building a house, at the top is the town's mission and vision. Now, we're just looking at the big pillars that hold up the roof. Next year, we'll look at the signature strategies and down to the identifiable supporting tasks with specific tasks and timelines and responsibilities associated with it. But this is, if you like, a picture of a house. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 6 of 53 This, I turned it sideways, so it looks like an arrow going forward, because we're always moving forward. I had an organization that pointed it this way, so since we're all moving forward. So this is what it would look like if we're moving forward with mission, vision -- moving towards that. That is the target, and then the different priorities in the middle. So this is what I wanted you to take a look at. And this slide will be up there. Is kind of the last slide right now. So that's the mission and vision for the town that they have right now. So again, if you look at this as a house, the strategic priorities are the pillars that are holding up the mission and vision. And that's what we wanted to talk about today. So I purposely did not put pillars underneath that because I didn't want to put forth how many we should have. Right? It's up to us today. And just so you know that that quote, if you start small, it gets big really quickly. If you start big, it becomes unmanageable really quickly. So we just want to try to keep it focused going forward. Today is just the strategic pillars that we can put down, come to an agreement on, hopefully, and vote on as we leave today. (Indiscernible) take action on them, but at least identify them, so then when we come back in August, we'll start thinking about what we can put underneath those strategic pillars. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Patrick, did you say that the vision and mission is from the town? The town's overall? CHAIR GARMAN: The town, yeah. I got that off the town's website. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Okay. I thought you said it was created by -- GOODWIN: No. This group probably created that. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Okay. GOODWIN: That wasn't created by council or staff. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Okay. GOODWIN: So if there's a question about wanting to change that, I think that would be within this group. Do you remember, Patrick, if you guys did any of that previously? CHAIR GARMAN: We did not -- GOODWIN: Okay. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 7 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: -- do this. So it's been there for a while. GOODWIN: Okay. SMITH: But this could be in our purview to change? GOODWIN: Or at least make recommendations for -- SMITH: Sure. Yeah. GOODWIN: -- I think. SMITH: Okay. Interesting. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. So you saw the slides. We can go back to the slides I have. The next slides are what we're going to do next year. So this is where we are right now. So you saw the slides that I presented. If you want to go back to any of those slides and look at what we've done in the past, here is what we did over the last year. I don't know any of these, you just tell me. And I got the clicker, and we'll go to that slide and talk about it. So I'm going to, like, stand up and stand by the butcher block now and kind of write down things so I can kind of keep a record of it and feel free if you don't think I'm doing -- if you want to -- if you want to help, that's cool too, Geoff, but. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Sure. CHAIR GARMAN: So do you all -- I'm going to leave it over to you. I'm just going to facilitate and call on people. But what do you guys want to talk about first? I want this to be the Patrick Plan. This is like all of -- REYES: The very first slide. Again, the first slide that came from the citizen. This one, that one -- the other one. REYES: That one. All right. There are certain things that in my mind don't jive with what we've got up here. And that's -- and I realize those are the answers. But I agree with you on safety. Most people that get out and about feel like they're pretty safe here. And so why improve it? We don't need to improve it. Except the wrong-way drivers, we got to do something with those. Recreation: I have a real hard time with that. And I think that's an age-group situation, personally. As our schools kind of go down a little bit. Because I was on a trust board that we were doling out money in a few years ago when Jerry Myers was alive. And there was a big thing about them wanting TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 8 of 53 money from us for senior pickleball courts and that type of thing. And that was -- if you had taken that slide during that period of time, and maybe it's changed, you wouldn't have an eight on the lowest -- CHAIR GARMAN: Sure. REYES: -- one. I mean, it was a big thing for the seniors, not just for the children and that kind of thing. So I find that kind of unusual that it's that low. It's the lowest of all. Anyway. SMITH: I think, let's see. I think -- yeah, you said it right. I kind of feel like we do have such a well-developed recreational program. I mean, look anywhere. Go out. In reality, go into the -- go next door and see how many things are going on on any given day in all of those rooms and a lot of them are cyclical, and others change. And then you add the overlay of the parks and all the activities going. I've seen so much activity out there, more so than I do, passing other communities here and there. So I got to believe that it's really maybe a way of thinking of, wow, we have so many things going, maybe we don't need to do as much there -- HOENLE: Kind of following the safety. SMITH: That's -- yeah, kind of biased that that priority to make it smaller than really what we would think it might be. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. I mean, you can see this year. It's not really on the list. SMITH: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: So as far as recreation goes. SMITH: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Safety is. SMITH: Yeah. And the safety, that's kind of the follow-up. The one too -- not too long ago here we had the fire department and then right behind it all of the issues regarding the sheriff's department and as it relates to our public safety. And still I -- even during the exercise when we had the folks come in, if there was anything related to safety, it was more in the questions of, how are we doing? That's one. And number two, do we have the right resources that are needed to continue at a safe level? I didn't hear TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 9 of 53 anybody, even not one iota of a whisper of uncertainty in terms of the level of public safety that's being provided for the town. Good suggestions and some quandaries on maybe downstream we'll be thinking about just like the fire, bringing it in-house. And there's some chatter currently, even on that at various levels that I hear out there. But I think by and large when you look at it from a pure standpoint of public safety, not how it's delivered and who does it, I think you're always going to have that in your top three discussions, I really do. CHAIR GARMAN: It's one of the basic functions of government. SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. CHAIR GARMAN: Keeping us safe. SMITH: It's like you can't get away with it. It's there and it's -- but looking at this a little bit further out, it's still good to kind of think about and visualize. Yeah, but -- I mean, we're great. Let's just say everything is dandy right now. But are there more things that could or should be done or more challenges that we'll be facing that might require more focus in that area? Not necessarily saying it be as large as one of the main pillars, but certainly, in one of the -- a lot of the subgroups, there will be a lot of activities, I'm sure that it will be there in. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah, you can see we're kind of lumped them together with. SMITH: Yeah. I mean -- CHAIR GARMAN: Kind of like health, well-being, and safety. SMITH: Health, well-being -- yeah. You look down here to the small town atmosphere, town identity. You go on the website. It's peppered so many places that how safe our areas are. And it wouldn't be there if -- we were not blowing any smoke out there. Relatively speaking, it is. All you got to do is compare the neighbors, and real quickly you get that -- come to that conclusion. I don't know, maybe it would be. CHAIR GARMAN: I'm kind of hearing you saying that safety remains important. SMITH: Yes. CHAIR GARMAN: Recreation is -- SMITH: Recreation is -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 10 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: -- (indiscernible), maybe not. SMITH: If I'm putting in rank order -- CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. SMITH: -- safety is up there. But you know what? I'm going to say my last piece. And then I'll shut up for about a half-hour. I think we should just, like, bite the bullet and recognize that infrastructure is not going away. There are so many. Every one of these slides, I'm -- almost every one of these slides has something related to it or multiple things related to it. And if we looked at the budget, if we look at discussions, if we look at the public and what they say they want, so many things come under that heading that maybe we should just go ahead and put that up there and recognize that we're going to end up probably doing that anyway, and kind of get some of those things out of the way. That's my suggestion. CHAIR GARMAN: That's fair. HOENLE: Okay. One thing. It's good. We'll keep going. But I keep referring back to past experience. So we wound up talking about these different topics which wound up being separate plans. The active transportation plan, the environmental plan, business development plan. A lot of those things came out of the planning commission. We had those ideas and talked about them. Then they got spun off into separate plans because there was enough meat to go around them. But I think if we look at those same topics, there's still some things that should be a strategic view coming out of this commission, like redevelopment of the commercial property, mixed use, that sort of stuff. Like the event that was at the community center, had the people put the stickies on the posters a couple of times, and that drew attention, and people got excited about it. The whole environmental thing with shade and walking and multimodal transportation, which fits in a couple of places. Active transportation, trying to work on downtown, and even the unique idea of shutting it down to cars once a week or something like that. So you just walk through there. So that's the way I categorize things and start lumping them together. And then financial, of course, grants and bonding and other options. And what are the holes that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 11 of 53 we have in the budget? Because the council -- kudos to Justin for the other night at the council meeting, we got that first phase approved for the $5 million for streets, but that still leaves about 40 million unaccounted for. So everyone is happy that this first part got passed based on statistics and analysis by the last study and the citizen groups committee. But it's still in the planning long-range mode, and it's got to be covered in different areas. So that's my two cents right now. I don't want to channel it too much, but that's what I'm thinking about it. REYES: I think most people you talk to on the inner structure part, it's all about the downtown itself. Should that be a walking type part of the town in and eliminating cars at some point? HOENLE: The other thing that really is strategic, excuse me, is the Discovery Center. I mean, it's got to show up on the map sometime. There's a whole lot that's going to be going on with that. REYES: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: You mentioned downtown, are those downtown infrastructure? Is it economic? Is it safety? Jill used to talk about downtime -- REYES: It's all tied together there. Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Phil, you're the only one who hasn't spoken yet. SVEUM: Pardon? CHAIR GARMAN: You're the only one who hasn't spoken. SVEUM: Oh, well, I keep seeing the word "civility," and I understand this is not. It's a nonphysical part of this whole thing, But it's a -- it's a -- and I'm not even sure how to address it in a plan. I think it is a major part of the future. And I'm surprised that with average age of 60-years old, that it's as polarized in this community as it is, frankly. A lack of maturity in many respects. Just show up for a council meeting, so I just have to -- CHAIR GARMAN: Sorry, I just have to -- age, I don't think has anything to do with it. SVEUM: Well, I think age -- people -- CHAIR GARMAN: It's an election year, right? SVEUM: -- that are older at least can fake it. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 12 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: It takes a lot -- SVEUM: Okay. CHAIR GARMAN: -- to be. SVEUM: And I'm not sure. I think -- I've been, as I mentioned, at one of the last meetings, I was reading the Blue Zones book, and there is a part of that can address this humanitarian relationship aspect. And I don't know if it can be an under -- maybe an undertaking of the community, as in different parts of a plan and how to continue to, I guess, address it, and put it out. People think a little bit more about the messages being sent to each other, to other people that don't live here, maybe has a business that is thinking of here. I think the message is those types of nonphysical or nonquantitative characteristics are important and I think the message is bad. And I think as part of growing the community in the right way, the economic development part of it, the message needs to be -- and any person that does branding will tell you that that's really, really important for growth. It's not positive. It should be. It's a great place to live. You guys know better than I do. And I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think that is a much bigger word than it's showing on a slide like this. SMITH: Well, maybe it fits with another one of the big words. Now that I think about it, maybe we should be looking at grouping some of the things. As you were talking, I was looking and thinking about, well, gee, you could do some stuff under education, outreach sessions, all kinds of things that would address civility in different ways. And then as you kept going and you start talking about some of the other things, and I said, gee, I would throw this in that hat also, and that one. I guess that's really what we're here for, huh? To whittle this down. SVEUM: And a lot of it -- a lot of it can be -- a lot of these things can be addressed just by communication. SMITH: Yeah. SVEUM: Just by having people talk with each other and understand why this was done this way and not done that way. And people maybe understand better and become a little bit more civil about it and say, now I get it. Can't do everything, can't fix -- you TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 13 of 53 can't address $40 million worth of roads in a year unless you get agreement to borrow $40 million. But there needs to be more and better communication, I think, somehow in this -- in any community, frankly. It's kind of the way the world is right now. HOENLE: It can be part of quality of life. SVEUM: Yeah. REYES: Yeah, it is. SVEUM: Yeah. HOENLE: I totally agree with you, Phil. And you're right. It's a very difficult thing to try to approach and find out where the little -- the keys are to get into that. CHAIR GARMAN: How about you, Geoff? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Going back to recreation, being that it is so well developed. Rachael, this is a question for you. It seems like that department kind of has its own strategic plan, and it seems like you guys are already a well-oiled machine, whereas like -- CHAIR GARMAN: Did you say the recreation or the -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. Yeah. It seems like -- CHAIR GARMAN: We did that in the last plan. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: They've already gone past what -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. I was going to say it seems like I don't know what more we could offer in the way of suggestions for that department, which, when left to its own devices, is going to pursue grants and do incredible things, award-winning -- GOODWIN: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: -- facilities and everything. So not to say that it's not important, but it's just like, what more can we contribute? GOODWIN: Sure. I think that actually -- well, I'm biased, so I'll be honest. But I do -- when I look at those numbers, I look at it as going, yeah, it's not a priority because it's already handled -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Sure. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 14 of 53 GOODWIN: -- and it's running well. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. GOODWIN: Focus attention on things that need improvement versus things that are functional. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: Two things. I liked the way Bernie's thought about if there's already a plan like the community services plan, integrating that and referencing back to that, that says, hey, they have these strategic plans, these pillars, these items that feed in and how -- it's not necessarily creating new things to do, but how do they serve the big picture? Some of these? Like, I see youth. I see family. I see education. Well, community services feeds into those in -- there's a bigger intersection there. Obviously, it takes more than just community services to serve our youth and family, but that's a big part of it. So to that end, recognizing that they are a contributor, but probably not the end all and be all. So again, I don't know that you have to say, hey, we want our parks to meet this standard, or we want to have 105 recreation classes every day. Right? I don't think that that's the intent of this kind of a plan. But to say, our community services do serve economic development. People choose to live here because we have great events, and we have great parks, and we have reliable activities. I mean, again, I'm biased, but we went out to the Wacky Wet Wednesday today, and there was 100 kids out there. I mean, most people go, do we even have 100 kids here? Yeah, we do. We have a boatload of kids. You just got to know where to look. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. GOODWIN: So understanding that there's one in or that they're just an intersection and being able to broadly say -- what I don't -- what I always fear when someone says, well, it's doing great, we can leave it alone, is that it doesn't stay that way without maintenance and care. Right? You can't just say it doesn't need any attention in that, you can't if you decide to defund it or de-staff it or again, then it doesn't stay a priority. Right? So I don't I don't know that it needs the spotlight to the extent that some of these other concepts do, but it does contribute to a lot of these bigger ones. The TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 15 of 53 health, safety -- the health, well-being, and safety. I think well-being is square right there. Health, most of our health-related efforts stem through community services, whether that's dementia-friendly or hiking trails or whatever it is. Right? It spans the gamut. So I don't know that that answers your question, but I think knowing that there is a plan and not recreating the wheel, but referencing, hey, see what it says in this plan and do those things support the way that that plan has already been established and how it intersects with these key pieces. SMITH: Yeah. Because I look at this as there are some gaping holes in the things that we need here in town. And it's like we need better land use. Like there's a lot of infill development that's missing. There's a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding about what development and redevelopment is. So I feel like that should be a priority. Because there doesn't seem to be. And I get it, there won't be any one unified voice on what we should do with downtown or the Shea Corridor or anything. But I feel like over the next few years, we can do our best to craft some suggestions for what should be done. Because everyone up there has a different idea for what downtown should look like or what should have been done with the Target Center, this, that, and the other thing. So coming up with some broad goals would at least give them a framework to work within pursuing a key employer or saying, hey, this giant vacant parcel, let's attract a developer to it? The state trust land, for example. CHAIR GARMAN: You're exactly right. I mean, we provide the cover for a lot of organizations downstream to go after these goals. That's exactly -- I mean, that's what you're talking about is exactly correct. The community services we put in the last plan, I mean, broadly, it was like one of the tasks I'm thinking from memory is to get our parks. We always thought our parks were good, was to go out and get a national organization that rates parks and see what our rating is. And they did that. And they went through, and they rated all the parks, and they won an award, I think, for it. So it was amazing. So it was kind of confirming to everybody that, yeah, our parks are in good shape. And it's not just us thinking they're in good shape, it's outside of our town thinks they're in great shape as well. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 16 of 53 Then we went on to like connecting the parks so people can get from one park to another, not having to get in their car and drive. So there's a lot of downstream things that come from big goals that we put in. REYES: I think a lot of this all comes back and should be subcategorized under the word "education." Because that was what Phil was saying we need. And all the other things we're talking about doing, the general public for the most part, really don't pick up on all these things. CHAIR GARMAN: That's one of them. Do you guys want to -- REYES: Yeah. Work the education. CHAIR GARMAN: That was the first one. That's from 2006. REYES: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: I like it because it wasn't just kids, our school. It's about -- REYES: Well, that's what you get, but that's not. CHAIR GARMAN: It was funny, we were talking about online classes. REYES: I think everybody has said it -- CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. SMITH: -- that we need to get -- the public needs to know what's going on. HOENLE: Communication and what's going on there. SVEUM: Communication is really important. HOENLE: And it's all about education, educating the public. CHAIR GARMAN: So while you guys are talking, if you want us to write something down, just say. If we don't catch it, please just tell us, and we'll write it down. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: And if you can't read my writing, just ask what I wrote, and I will decode it for you. REYES: Just a question. HOENLE: That's why I'm not doing it. REYES: Have you gone back and looked at what the leadership classes have come up with projects? And do any of them dovetail in things that we're doing or should be done? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 17 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: So we were just last week. Yeah, I'm on the -- I went through the Leadership Academy and I'm on the Leadership Academy board. And we just met last Thursday. And we're trying to -- as a way to promote leadership academies, to show a list of all the things. Because every class has lots of different ideas, and some of them are instituted, and the majority of them are not, just just to be honest. But there's a lot of good ideas that come out of it. I don't know about big picture ideas, but Blue Zone was one that came out of the last Leadership Academy. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: The LED stop lights, stop signs -- REYES: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: And I think the Stellar Students came out of the leadership Academy. CHAIR GARMAN: But I see, especially in election years, so every couple of years, I mean, when you see people talk, but every once in a while, you'll see a council person or somebody else say something that's right out of our strategic plan. You know they've read it, and they're saying, as far as economic development, and they'll quote, it's in our town strategic charter or strategic plan. And I'm like, yeah, it is. Right. So people do read it. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Anyways, so yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: That follows in -- CHAIR GARMAN: I don't know if that answers your question, but the answer is yes, but it's hit or miss. SVEUM: And the part about people read it. You get a lot more people to read it when it's suggested or as a reminder that, hey if you ever look over there in that plan or that plan. SMITH: Part of all these plans -- SVEUM: Including the ones that sit over here now they're taking a second look and -- SMITH: -- are referenced in the council agendas. Just there at the bottom of every. SVEUM: Yeah. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 18 of 53 SMITH: -- topic. You click on the agenda item, and it'll have the plans that are referenced. General plan, strategic plan, sets all that stuff. Right. It's all there -- CHAIR GARMAN: So for each one -- SMITH: -- for the taking. CHAIR GARMAN: -- the last couple communications, strategic plans. SMITH: There it is. CHAIR GARMAN: There was a communication aspect as part of SPAC. Like they make the plan and then they would also craft a communication strategy. So once the plan was either approved or right before it was approved, how that was going to get communicated to town, and then after it was approved, how it was going to continue to be communicated over time. And they actually assigned people on the SPAC to be part of the communication kind of cell to continue to interact with, like the newspaper and the Government, as far as the strategic plan. So it was interesting. But that kind of putting it forward and reminding people about it actually came from the SPAC as a communication aspect. So is there any -- is there any strategic big issue pillars that you think is a no-brainer that we can put down and everybody should, might agree on right away? Because we're halfway through and we need some success here. HOENLE: Number 3. CHAIR GARMAN: Infrastructure. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I hear. HOENLE: Can't get away from it. CHAIR GARMAN: Infrastructure. What do you guys think? HOENLE: Infrastructure that comes up at every -- do you have the figures from the town citizen thing that was done? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: The -- HOENLE: We have the one we did, but the one that the town did. That was one with the hearts and all that. GOODWIN: It's that not compiled yet. It's not compiled yet. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 19 of 53 HOENLE: It is not yet? GOODWIN: It's not yet. HOENLE: Because I think that's -- I was at both of them, and I think that is going to tell us a lot about how people are thinking. But it's going to come out the infrastructure there. You know, you can see, if you looked at all the little heart -- I was going to take a picture of that I should have. But all the little heart pictures and everything infrastructure was very, very big. CHAIR GARMAN: It is also very likely that the infrastructure, if a bond is passed, then this is -- HOENLE: Well, that will go away. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. The roads item is no longer a strategic priority. REYES: But it's not just about roads. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Then it goes away. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. HOENLE: But it's -- CHAIR GARMAN: I mean, roads were not -- we weren't talking about roads in '17 -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: No. CHAIR GARMAN: -- and 2018. HOENLE: And no, I don't think there was anything about it. CHAIR GARMAN: So that's two. So I think I got a couple head nods on infrastructure. Phil and -- HOENLE: A lot of the infrastructure had to do with roundabout, if -- I'm trying to remember. Overpass. Excuse me. A walkway over Saguaro, getting to the park, the end of -- that seemed to be a lot of -- a lot of money. And that that seemed to be a lot of -- had a lot of attention. SMITH: Concrete is expensive. HOENLE: And that -- and making the area more walkable. I mean, the -- REYES: And the bike lanes down -- HOENLE: And the Avenue of the Fountains. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 20 of 53 GOODWIN: Infrastructure is a good -- CHAIR GARMAN: And broad. HOENLE: The lake liner. GOODWIN: Yeah, the lake liner. HOENLE: Yeah. It's a big-cost item too. CHAIR GARMAN: I mean, last time we had -- HOENLE: The liner in the lake. CHAIR GARMAN: Oh, yeah. 5G, and to call the small cell or underground broadband programs. What do you think of them? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I would agree with what you're saying. CHAIR GARMAN: Bernie. HOENLE: Yeah. I'm here. CHAIR GARMAN: What would happen if we did not include it? Do you think -- HOENLE: Well -- CHAIR GARMAN: -- what if we did not include infrastructure? HOENLE: -- something that comes up every time you talk to anybody in the town. It's not on anybody's list. It's number one, swimming pool; number two, a theater; number three, an auditorium, so you can have concerts and shows and stuff. CHAIR GARMAN: I think -- HOENLE: Every time. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Where is it? It's a theater. Yeah. Performing Arts Center is what I heard. Swimming pool, it's right under there with Trader Joe's. It's right there. SMITH: That's right. The Discovery Center has an auditorium size. SVEUM: But not for concerts. CHAIR GARMAN: But remember, we're talking big picture. We're talking big picture. Big picture is not this community swimming pool. That would be a town infrastructure project, though, wouldn't it? HOENLE: Yeah. REYES: Well, it always just comes back to money. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 21 of 53 GOODWIN: I was just saying. You can't have infrastructure. SMITH: No, everything comes back to -- HOENLE: Everything comes back to money. SMITH: I mean, you can have a wish list a mile long, and it would include, every, all -- everything that anybody could imagine. But it doesn't -- it all revolves back to money. Everything does. CHAIR GARMAN: So we started on -- is there anybody think that infrastructure should not be a strategic priority for the town? Remember, we have a whole nother year or two to decide what's underneath infrastructure. We're talking. SMITH: It's an overwhelming requirement. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah, I'm putting a star by that. SMITH: Right or wrong I mean, it's okay. CHAIR GARMAN: What about -- SMITH: Except for the people. When I was, we were at the workshop, were telling me they didn't want dogs doing their business on the Avenue of Fountains' grass. That was a big topic for a few people. Really caught me off guard, actually. HOENLE: I will tell you I was there every Wednesday, policing it because we were setting up for the farmers market. REYES: Well, absolutely, then. Yeah. HOENLE: And I had all my little bags out, and I was collecting. REYES: People didn't want -- they don't want the dogs to use it at all. HOENLE: Yeah, I heard that one. But that's -- I believe that -- SVEUM: I don't think that's going to happen. REYES: No, it's -- but okay. CHAIR GARMAN: All right. So one of the functions then that usually comes out in these forums is finance. Does anybody think finance is not a strategic priority for a town or something else besides finance that would cover finance? SVEUM: Well, just the word itself. I don't know what that means. Well, no, I'm just saying I don't know what that means. I mean, finance -- everything we're talking about, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 22 of 53 I think it has to do with money. SMITH: We'll call it the budget. SVEUM: Is just making sure that the town -- the town is already fiscally prudent and responsible. But also, I think we need to include alternative funding sources. I think the town would benefit greatly if we had a primary property tax, and we need the roads bond, and I might get run out of town on a rail by some people. But you got to pay to have nice things here. And we have a lot of nice things. But you guys are doing this on a shoestring budget and coming from a big city where we wasted a lot of money, it's incredible to see what this town accomplishes -- REYES: With what they have. SVEUM: -- 42 million is the budget. CHAIR GARMAN: Pocket change and peanuts. SVEUM: Yeah. And you look at the amount of money spent per capita for the services that we receive. It's second lowest, right, is Carefree or whatever. There's one town, Cape Creek, that's right below it. And it's like this, this narrative of, oh, we need to buckle down and the wants to have versus the needs to have and all this. It's because you can only cut so far or like tighten the belt so much before you start to suffocate things. So I think that goes into the education side of things where it's like, hey, here's why everybody benefits from this. And you know, I think the road bond is going to get floated next year, and we'll see where that goes. But primary property tax has been shot down three times. And you know, in my mind, it's just -- it's unconscionable because you've got to spend money to have nice things. CHAIR GARMAN: So what you're saying, though, is that the town of Fountain Hills has voted on that issue three different times and voted no. SVEUM: And I think goes back to a lack of education. HOENLE: Yeah. SVEUM: On the matter itself. It also goes back to the demographic here where people that don't live here year round, full-time, probably aren't going to want to spend probably one of the reasons they move here, like, oh, you know, I don't need to spend, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 23 of 53 but. REYES: They can't vote. HOENLE: But I was just going to say that. SVEUM: Yeah. That's true. HOENLE: It's again, it goes back to the money aspect of it. CHAIR GARMAN: So the first plan we had in '06, they talked a lot about, you know, increasing revenue for the town. The last couple plans it hasn't been as prominent. But again, today, we're not deciding on whether to increase or decrease or whatever, we're just talking about is that an issue that people want to talk about that's important to the people in Fountain Hills. And we can put those -- HOENLE: Financial is important. But, like I said, it ties-- CHAIR GARMAN: We can flesh out what to call it, whether it's stability, sustainability. I don't -- the second word after it. HOENLE: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: But finance would be a good start, right? I mean -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: At the end of the day and I come from Madison, Wisconsin, big economic generating county, fastest growing county in the State, university bio- facilities, big insurance companies, and taxes are high, and they got a big hole in the budget. I mean, millions of dollars right now. I think sometimes the more money you get, the more you spend, and you don't end up with anything more than we got right now. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: And I mean, there's things that need to be done, infrastructure issues. But I think a town or city like Madison has gone overboard. From what I can tell, the taxes are probably ten times they would be on a similar property down here. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: So I don't know that that's the answer. HOENLE: It's stewardship of the money. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: What's that? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 24 of 53 HOENLE: It's a stewardship. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: And it becomes a political philosophy as well as what you want to spend money on. And this this community doesn't have the health and human services needs that are in a college town like Madison. So there's different needs, but I just don't know if it would ever solve the problem, frankly. And maybe it is a bonding issue for every one of those big projects, whether it's the streets or whether it's the liner, and just that you have to sell one at a time almost. Because it once the -- I think most people think once the property tax if it went to like a mill rate like it is in other places that the taxes will never go down, it'll never pay for enough because the needs will grow. I don't know if it would or not, but I've seen it on both ways, and it doesn't seem to -- doesn't seem to matter. SMITH: I know that finance. I think going back to where you started, Geoff. How could you -- if you ever want to improve and do many of the wonderful things that are on paper and being talked about? You absolutely have to identify what's going to be your fiscal source. Where is this money going to come from? And I think one of the great areas -- it should be a focal point is to explore different alternatives for both revenue and spending, using your money more wisely, other devices to raise that money. It just doesn't always have to go back to bonds, bonds, bonds. That may be the reality of -- VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: When there's no -- SMITH: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: -- there's no wiggle room? SMITH: Yeah. SVEUM: Does the town have a financial consultant that doesn't just sell bonds? GOODWIN: Yeah, we've met with him a couple times to review options. The bond discussion was driven primarily because it, I'll say it was the most palatable. But there are other options out there. I mean, including other different kinds of bonds. It doesn't have to be a geo bond. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: That's right. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 25 of 53 GOODWIN: It's just that one was the most palatable. And what everyone sort of assumes when you say the word "bond." But to that end, and Phil, I feel like you bring up a good point. I do -- obviously, property taxes would go a long way and make a big difference. Other resources are out there. They're not as easy or convenient or consistent. Grants tends to be the easy out, but it's not consistent whatsoever. And you can't -- you can't plan with a grant. HOENLE: Right. It's never enough. GOODWIN: It's not. HOENLE: It's like the COVID funds. GOODWIN: Exactly. It's not -- that's not a plan. Right? That's a windfall of, oh, cool. We can knock out something neat that we didn't think we could do before. But that's not how you plan for a five-year or ten-year vision. To that end, bonds are palatable because they're finite, right? You know what you're getting, no more, no less. This is what we're buying with this money versus a property tax that feels -- that there's a perception that it will just be a spending spree on a bunch of stupid things. Right? And that there is a perception there, back to Geoff's point, if you're going to talk about financing, is it education or is it a willingness to trust the leadership that's there? I can educate you all day long, but if you don't buy it and you don't believe me, it doesn't matter. So there's a -- there's a little bit of a trust factor that's part of that, and maybe that goes back to visibility. Nonetheless, there are other ways. CHAIR GARMAN: We got to move out. Thanks, man. We got to move on though, right? Or else we're going to be here a while because this is great. I don't know how long -- I'm just going to try to keep it moving forward as a facilitator. So yeah. So we got -- hold on. Hold on one second, Bernie. I got finance and infrastructure. Remember, we're going to spend the whole next year or the year after discussing politely, in a civil tone, speak like -- right these issues underneath each one, what's important under finance, up or down, revenue, blah, blah, blah. Those are all for another day. Today, we just need to get the highlights and move on into July and have a great summer break. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 26 of 53 So we got two. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: How many should we have? CHAIR GARMAN: I'm not telling you that. There is no -- HOENLE: It can't be -- CHAIR GARMAN: Like, I said. You need to have them small and condensed, or else it gets unmanageable if there's too many. We can't have 100 tasks under here. We got to keep it manageable. HOENLE: That was the question. CHAIR GARMAN: Let's go to the next one. I mean, and I'll just throw these out because I'm a facilitator. But nobody's mentioned economics yet. Is that because that's not -- you don't think that's a priority for the town? HOENLE: Economic what? Development? REYES: Growth? Development? HOENLE: Or what? REYES: Vitality? CHAIR GARMAN: I'm not -- HOENLE: Isn't that part of the finance now? CHAIR GARMAN: Is it? So see over here all the different plans. Economic development was in one, economic growth was in another, economic vitality was in another. So you can call it whatever you want. HOENLE: That's one bucket. CHAIR GARMAN: But right now economic development is targeted economic development is in the current plan. And it's been in -- it's been in every plan. HOENLE: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Just so you all know. The whole discussion on economics and that has centered on downtown, too. Is it bringing in businesses? Is it how much retail space versus how much land and development? All of that goes into economics to a certain extent. What do you all think about that? And I just bring that up because it's a common priority in small towns especially. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 27 of 53 VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I think it's the other leg next to infrastructure where you're not going to shake it. It's always there. So you might as well kind of like start considering that as one among. CHAIR GARMAN: See, up in the upper left is the current plan. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. Financial, economic. CHAIR GARMAN: Right. REYES: I don't think you can shake it. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: It it pays the basic services, the economic vitality of the community. Right? And so yeah, it's always going to be very important. But it's got to grow too. It has to continue to grow in order to have staff here, to have -- keep the lights on, take care of the roads, whatever it might be. I mean, it's kind of a never- ending cycle, but it doesn't mean it necessarily has to grow -- it can grow up as well. CHAIR GARMAN: We had one gentleman that was very vocal and one of the meetings I went to one of the outreach who said, and it started a little argument, I don't know if it was Kiwanis or Four Peaks, but it was a gentleman saying, we're just a bedroom community for Scottsdale or whatever, just a retirement bedroom community. We don't need businesses and things like that. We go over the hill for all the good restaurants. And you know, he just went on. And then there was a lady on the other side who was adamantly opposed to that. And it was like this back and forth in one of the meetings. So there's definitely a different viewpoint of the town, what economics means. But we can sort that out. HOENLE: Those have been ongoing for 30 years. CHAIR GARMAN: Scottsdale Heights, right? REYES: Exactly the same. Well, you could find the money somewhere. Right. Bernie, you could find the money somewhere to fix those streets? HOENLE: Probably. REYES: Yeah. Well, that's -- HOENLE: As we get further discussing into the finances, it -- we need to at least present a system that is ongoing and consistent. And we don't have that. Even the $42 million, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 28 of 53 they stopped selling houses and all that, the tax money from the -- the sales tax money would scramble. We'd be scrambling more than we are now. So I think part of our discussion and part of the underlying as we move on, and that is the other. And, of course, the simplest thing is a property tax. But that's -- it seems that pill seems to be hard to pass up here, which would get the snowbirds involved. Because they're not paying for the police, they're not paying for the fire, they're paying for anything. CHAIR GARMAN: No kidding. REYES: Well, there you go. Let them pay for it. It's one of the one of the alternatives that you discussed with your financial consultant considering sales tax increase? I'm not advocating for it, I'm just wondering. GOODWIN: Right. I mean, that's always an option, but I feel like it's -- again, it's a very -- it's not a palatable one. There's not a lot of will behind that because we are already quite high. REYES: Yeah. GOODWIN: I think more of what we're exploring is the -- is what's the potential of districting; whether it's a fire district or a public safety district, something of that nature. Is there a way to -- we used to have the environmental fund that got sunsetted and then recently it's been raised again about, well, how could we do that? There's a question of its legality. But how do we do that? So that again, we're contributing towards specific ideas and concepts, not just a basic tax, but this goes towards public safety, or this goes towards our wash maintenance and our open spaces that are valuable. And why our community so beautiful. So those are some of the things we've been looking at. HOENLE: Interesting. REYES: So going back to an earlier comment, as far as attention to the financing of the budget, nobody showed up at the last review, right? So it's sort of like the education communications needs to be something going on consistently, maybe like every other week in the paper or something. SVEUM: Well, I think you'll find that a lot of people want to complain. (Indiscernible) of information isn't furnished to them, but there are plenty of opportunities. I reached out TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 29 of 53 personally to almost 200 people for the open house, and we had, what, 35 or 40 total show up. And it's like, you can only do so much to get people involved. And you see this with the P&Z process and the votes that council takes on P&Z's recommendations. Oh, well, there isn't enough public outreach. And it's like the process is followed to the letter, and people just are completely unaware. And I think it's they just choose not to pay attention or they. CHAIR GARMAN: Our plan, I keep going back to what we wrote in the last plan. We asked the town to establish reoccurring -- it was twice a year or something like that, a financial open house. And they've been doing that check mark, and nobody shows up. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yep. CHAIR GARMAN: I don't know how. And people always say, well, it's advertised or education or whatever, but it's just not a sexy topic. GOODWIN: It is not. CHAIR GARMAN: So transparency, yes. Attendance not so much. But go ahead, Bernie. But by the way, let's continue to move forward. Let's not get underneath finance and underneath and stay up high level okay. HOENLE: And this goes back to Geoff. So you can blame him or credit him for it. He did a great moderation job for the council candidates and the mayor and all that sort of stuff. But the question that he came up with is the one that we ought to be talking about, what are we going to do with the state land. Now, that is everything with growth, with big things. CHAIR GARMAN: Big plans. HOENLE: I mean, yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: What do you guys think about this -- SVEUM: That's land use? CHAIR GARMAN: When Geoff and I were preparing for this meeting today, he mentioned that, and I was like, is that under anything, or is that its own thing? And we talked about a little bit. And is this the -- is this the thing? Is that an overarching priority, or is it underneath something? But I thought that was pretty current and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 30 of 53 important. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: It's a long, long-term, I would think. CHAIR GARMAN: And I was going to ask. I wanted you to comment -- REYES: And he didn't get any good answers. CHAIR GARMAN: Is that is that a standalone or is that underneath? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I can only ask the question. REYES: I think the size of it almost demands that it's a standalone. It's 1,300 acres, I think. The State-owned land. HOENLE: Yeah. I think that's -- REYES: And there's a lot -- CHAIR GARMAN: It's the town, right? REYES: What's that? CHAIR GARMAN: It's the whole town land use and development. Whether it's an acre plot -- REYES: Oh, yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: That or -- HOENLE: Well, I think there's probably more immediate and there's more long, long- term. REYES: It's always evolving. HOENLE: Yeah. REYES: The development part will always. HOENLE: Well, it's a huge important part of this, no question about it. CHAIR GARMAN: So -- HOENLE: Just something to argue about. CHAIR GARMAN: Well, we could jump into that foray and -- REYES: It could become a project. HOENLE: Yes. You never know. CHAIR GARMAN: So anyways, we dropped off economics. What do you want to do with economics? Is it a strategic priority? We can characterize it after the fact or define it TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 31 of 53 later. But is that an enduring priority for the town? SMITH: Should it be coupled with the government financing side? HOENLE: Yeah. SMITH: Town financing? Because it's kind of like two legs. HOENLE: Yep. SMITH: Right. Because without the sales taxes, our primary revenue source. Right? So without a bustling economy, the town is hurting for money. Right? So I look at this, it's the opposite side of the coin. It's like we want to improve the local economy, so we generate more sales tax dollars. And then we also want to make sure that town staff and council are being good stewards of that money. HOENLE: Maybe that slide that you had back a bit. I don't see it here. I do remember seeing economic -- was it sustainability or some such thing? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. HOENLE: Hold it. Let's see. CHAIR GARMAN: Financial stability. HOENLE: Okay, from there. Let's do the word. REYES: Vitality -- CHAIR GARMAN: People always -- underneath economics is things like what type of businesses do we want? How can we make it easier for businesses to come into town? HOENLE: Yeah. But that -- CHAIR GARMAN: There's a lot under it. HOENLE: Development is coupled with what you're talking about there. What I'm talking about is the sustainability. Not necessarily growth, but just financing your government so that it's able to sustain your plans. How do you pull that together? What word can you end to throw that in? I would couple that with finance I don't know what the other finance slash something. You see what I'm saying? And it gets into some of these other topics that we've already talked about in terms of -- CHAIR GARMAN: You know, there's an argument to be made that government doesn't -- can stimulate the economy a little bit. It can hinder the economy a little bit. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 32 of 53 But -- HOENLE: Maybe we just -- CHAIR GARMAN: -- otherwise, if you just keep your hands off, economics happens, and economic spending happens. SMITH: A laissez faire advocate. HOENLE: Well, if you - if you put down the word economic development. And as we go into tying things down underneath these items. I think the rest of it will fall into place. The growth, the vitality of the economy, and all that will fall into place. Instead of trying to figure out what all those things mean together. CHAIR GARMAN: So you're trying to you're saying -- HOENLE: And it's the same thing -- CHAIR GARMAN: -- land use development would be under all. HOENLE: But they're all -- I think to some degree, yes. I think you're going to find that. Some of you, when the latter -- supposedly had a a contractor developer for the state trust land, that was a real sham. But most of them are. But my point was, we went through this with that land out there, and that's why it's kind of quiet. The sanitary district was all revved up. They were ready to fulfill it, the needs and everything. So maybe we need to go back into this again. And I think that's -- I think it's a good idea. We've been through most of this stuff here. Unfortunately, I've been here too long, I think. But we're not -- that's not true. I love it here. CHAIR GARMAN: There seems to be some, not agreement that economics is -- are you thinking that economics is under another strategic priority or attached to another -- HOENLE: I don't know. CHAIR GARMAN: -- priority? REYES: I think economics and financial stability are two separate things. I think that's the business of running the town, which we have a process. Are we doing the best we can do? We have investments? Are we growing anything? And then the other part is the business side of developing businesses and bringing industry in. Which also gets you right back to also land use. So I know it's hard to combine some of these unless you TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 33 of 53 change a word or two. And maybe we're stuck with it. Maybe it is. Economic development is going to be as good as it's going to get even though I don't like the inference that the -- CHAIR GARMAN: We can emphasize -- the last plan, it was --the emphasis in economics was all on like small businesses. That's what the whole team kind of talked about. But it could be just as likely to talk about land development and high density versus low density and mixed use and all that could fall under economics as well, I think. I'm not an expert. But just an idea. CHAIR GARMAN: You got it down there. CHAIR GARMAN: Well, I'm trying to get a head nod. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: You're trying to figure out where to put it? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Just go for it. HOENLE: Yeah. Write it down. CHAIR GARMAN: Economic? HOENLE: Yeah. Just put it down. We'll figure out -- REYES: Rachael, what's the -- HOENLE: -- how to absorb it. REYES: What's the hole -- what's the size of the hole going to be when the apartment rental tax is no longer? GOODWIN: It's roughly 600,000. REYES: 600,000 a year? GOODWIN: Yeah, that we won't be bringing in. So, it's not nothing. REYES: And where has the short-term rental income gone the last couple of years? GOODWIN: I mean, it goes into the general fund, do you mean that? REYES: No. I mean, has it gone up or down or -- the trend? GOODWIN: I don't know off the top of my head. I'd have to look. We're still struggling with getting everyone registered and actually paying the proper fees. As a lot of them are one-offs, but it's gone up because as more come online, obviously, that's a good TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 34 of 53 thing. The drawback being that short-term rentals are not popular -- REYES: Yeah. It goes back to the safety aspect. GOODWIN: Efforts -- yeah, the efforts to kind of curb them to some degree, but to your point, Patrick, and some of the conversation. I know economic development is such a broad category and it does intersect with so much. And I'm wondering if there's a concept of whether it's business development and growth versus residential or redevelopment of existing spaces. So the idea of where can we grow and where can we take what we have and repurpose. I don't know if that's a way to break it out, but maybe that's for a later conversation, right? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. GOODWIN: So but I understand what you were saying. CHAIR GARMAN: So I think we have agreement on infrastructure, finance, economic development. What's next? We haven't -- HOENLE: Well, I think we need to -- I think we need some kind of agreement on education. It just goes back to -- I remember when the last road bond, everybody -- I don't remember how much it was now -- how many millions. But everybody had that idea that we're just going to take that money in one big pool and just start throwing it out there. And if you -- I went to one discussion on that that explained how that money was used. And we didn't just go get that $50 million, whatever that number was, I don't remember. We didn't go get it. We got it in pieces as we needed it, which lowered the cost of that. That's the type of education we need to get out there to people to do stuff like that -- SMITH: The same thing happened with the school bond last year. HOENLE: -- and the school bond the same thing -- SMITH: It was approved up to a certain limit. But they just see the top number, and it's oh, my God, it's -- HOENLE: That's that's that's what I'm saying. SMITH: You're still talking about finance. We can educate people about finance. So, underneath finance could be education. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 35 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. I was going to say -- SMITH: I'm talking like top level. When you think education we're talking adult or children, or -- that's education, right? Do we need a community college? CHAIR GARMAN: That's what goes down. SMITH: Well, we tried that once. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah, I think that every pillar that we have, there should be an education. HOENLE: Should be an education. Yeah. You're right. CHAIR GARMAN: So that's the current plan we have, the budget roadshow that takes place two or three times a year; it's like that. I don't think that happened previously. Right? Was that -- GOODWIN: Not as much. Not to that extent. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. So that is at least we're providing the forum where people can get educated on the budget, where with all of these -- GOODWIN: You're saying like awareness versus education. And like a -- HOENLE: Maybe that's context. GOODWIN: Yeah. REYES: Awareness is a big part of it. That's probably more the terminology you want to use is awareness. GOODWIN: Okay. CHAIR GARMAN: So what about things that we've left out. And I'm just going to throw a few out there that we haven't talked about. We have safety up here. Safety, welfare, education is another big topic. Wellness is another big topic. What else have we talked about? Look up here. Culture. That was a great one. The lady threw out one of our meetings. Civility and culture. So environmental, is that under safety and wellness? So I mean, I just don't want to reiterate what we already have, but a lot of these are going to be reoccurring. So that's -- HOENLE: That goes back to your comment about Sun City West and Sun City East. Are we really just a retirement community? And if we're going to do something about TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 36 of 53 getting -- inviting more youth into the the town, what would bring them here? Is it all less expensive housing? Is it on things to do? Is it a school? What's the draw? We had a balanced demographic in the plan. Not the last plan, but the one before. And it was taken out for this last plan. So that was a shift. CHAIR GARMAN: And you know, it was under Bernie. That's this demographic balance that's from the '17 plan, I think. And underneath of it, I just breezed it quickly was increasing high density living areas here. SMITH: That's the electrified third rail? CHAIR GARMAN: That was actually in the plan. So you know, so you see how things change. But that's the downward -- what's underneath these high topics. Not small topics. Big topics. I mean, we could just go with this. Do you want do we want a wild card? Do we want -- or is there another that's like an anchor? Over time, you see there's a lot of public safety, health and welfare, environmental stewardship, health, well-being. So you see that pop up a little bit. It's not always there, but it can be small town. So these are older ones. Civility. I wanted to show -- I'm sorry. This is from what we have over the last year. You see a lot of civility homeless planning, all that is upwards to safety, wellness, health, and wellness. I know during the last plan, they wanted to put health in there, right? Because of the age of the folks in town, they wanted to bring in more health care. And you see that happening, right? With the HonorHealth, the urgent care, and the hospital coming up and all this other kind of off-brand preventive medicine, I don't know, IV vitamins and whatever else you see. REYES: Cannabis shop. CHAIR GARMAN: Making it easy for wellness folks to come -- REYES: Yeah, for wellness. SMITH: Yeah. That's in there. CHAIR GARMAN: It could be. It comes under wellness and recreation. REYES: Revenue source, I guess. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. What is the function of our town in this big, spirited discussion? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 37 of 53 We went through the fire department, and now we're talking about MCSO. You know, that's a big discussion. That's safety. SVEUM: I don't think that -- well, the consultant report said that it is just not economically feasible to start an in-house police -- the startup costs, I mean, it would be astronomical. Was it 14 million the first year -- GOODWIN: It's a lot. SVEUM: -- or something like that. And then it's I think -- GOODWIN: But it is a top -- REYES: It's the town safety. SVEUM: All right. GOODWIN: There are people that talk about it and advocate for it. HOENLE: Yeah? GOODWIN: But it's from a conceptual point of view versus the hard costs. I don't know where you get that kind of startup. But yeah, it's -- CHAIR GARMAN: Again, to recenter it. When I'm talking safety, that could be as easy as more lights in the downtown. More light -- what I mean? There's different ways. So for for safety as well. MCSO is one of that's in the news, but is safety an enduring function of government? If not, where would that go? REYES: Yeah. Public safety and slash health welfare. Yeah. Don't forget the welfare part. Sure. CHAIR GARMAN: Do you think maybe we could include this in here -- REYES: I think we combine it. CHAIR GARMAN: -- by a broad community that would include public safety, it would include recreation. It would include personal health; just kind of like a catchall -- SVEUM: Safety and -- REYES: Let's see. SVEUM: Quality of life? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Quality of life. Yeah. Sure, sure. Yeah. Quality of life. HOENLE: Yeah. Community quality of life. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 38 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. I would say this one. SMITH: There it is, welfare. That's why -- hey, that's where I saw it. CHAIR GARMAN: I like quality of life -- SVEUM: Quality of life is better. It is a big umbrella term. CHAIR GARMAN: It is. HOENLE: I do too. SVEUM: I mean, you can go for a walk here at 11 at night. Where you and I come from that's not a good idea. SMITH: I used to work in those zones. I know what you're talking about. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. So you guys think quality of life is a good umbrella term? SMITH: Do we want safety separate from that? CHAIR GARMAN: I think it is part of -- SVEUM: We think that is part of the safety. SMITH: Something like maintain and improve the quality of life and Fountain Hills. CHAIR GARMAN: What's everybody think? What do you think, Phil? Quality of life, safety, health, welfare. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Oh, they all relate. I like the quality of life aspect for sure. CHAIR GARMAN: Randy? CRADER: I don't think you can have any of it without safety in the community. You don't have businesses here. You don't have people moving here. You don't have any of it. So safety is paramount. CHAIR GARMAN: Do you think safety fits under quality of life? CRADER: Can we keep them side by side? CHAIR GARMAN: In one umbrella? HOENLE: Yeah. SVEUM: Safety and quality of life. CHAIR GARMAN: We can do what we want. Yeah. SVEUM: Then we can ladder everything under that in a nice package. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Maintain public safety. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 39 of 53 HOENLE: I agree with that. CHAIR GARMAN: Or improve -- maintain public safety and improve quality of life. CRADER: The safety does -- CHAIR GARMAN: Come up with the completion of. HOENLE: So much of that subcategories for. CHAIR GARMAN: What do you think, Bernie? Quality of life, safety? HOENLE: I was just thinking. I sit on a -- on a call every other month, Arizona Alliance for Livable Communities. Thinking about what they focus on and health is one thing. Parks is another. Getting people out and about. Exercising. All that sort of thing combines together the health and wellness. CHAIR GARMAN: So can health and wellness go under quality of life? GOODWIN: But it's -- CHAIR GARMAN: We can define it right? We're going to take these and we're going to define what they are. SMITH: We could we could chew it. CHAIR GARMAN: We could say what we want. I mean, is it possible -- [CROSS TALK] SMITH: Let's just say we have seven main pillars -- [CROSS TALK] SMITH: -- we actually condense one or more of these into one pillar. Like, I feel like that we have all the stuff we need. I think. CHAIR GARMAN: Well, these aren't these aren't what I'm writing down. Just the ones with the stars. SMITH: Yeah, that's what I mean. But I'm saying that, like, we can still adjust. You know, in the fall we pick back up. CHAIR GARMAN: So I agree, but I still am a very goal oriented person. I've got to get out here with some stars is what we're going to pop up. Sorry. I told you, it's 99 percent. So don't think we can't ever go back to this. That's not what I'm talking about. We can go back and talk and open it up if we have to, but the mayor or somebody tells TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 40 of 53 us to. But so do you all think that quality of life covers? I mean, it's a big umbrella term. Definitely. I just tag on safety, quality of life -- HOENLE: -- go for it. I know -- CHAIR GARMAN: Or is that a separate question? HOENLE: Quality of life kind of falls into each one of these categories. And that's I think that's what Randy was saying over and over. CRADER: Yeah. I think you're elevating it too high there. Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Weren't you the one that came up with quality? CRADER: No. I started with the safety not the quality of life. CHAIR GARMAN: No. You didn't have quality of life. CRADER: I said you need to combine -- [CROSS TALK] CRADER: -- three of these together. I'm a combiner. SVEUM: What about the recreation and stuff. That's subcategory for that. CHAIR GARMAN: Sure. Yeah. SVEUM: Then we don't have to do a direct thing to the community services as we were talking about. So they have their own. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. I mean, quality of life is anything from health care, having a hospital in our town to you're saying safety, lights, and the sheriff, and I mean, it's everything underneath too. HOENLE: To pay less in taxes. It's all in the eye of the beholder. Right? [CROSS TALK] CHAIR GARMAN: But it's up to us to define it, right? And we can define it. HOENLE: Yeah. I mean, it's just -- it's -- yeah. But if you ask ten people, you get ten different definitions. I think it -- I think it's a -- it's a worthy one for sure. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. CRADER: It's a good sponge. CHAIR GARMAN: Can you stick with it for now? REYES: Yeah. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 41 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: Randy? CRADER: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Paul, can you stick with it for now, quality of life? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Bernie? HOENLE: Yeah. We reserve the right to change it later. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. Yeah. So that's one, two -- we're at four right now. Infrastructure -- yeah. Infrastructure, finance, economic development, quality of life. That's four. Is there a crazy wild card you want to throw out there or something that might be different this time than in all the last 15 years that we've been doing this for Fountain Hills? Is there something else that's it's important? SVEUM: I still think land use gets a star, but that's just me. CHAIR GARMAN: So we got to vote for land use development. That is a pretty cool one. There's a lot of stuff underneath that. But I thought -- HOENLE: We didn't start that, didn't we? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. They're not in any particular order, but -- SVEUM: We just need light rail so we can go to the airport. CHAIR GARMAN: Dude, I get the airport in less than 30 minutes. SVEUM: Well, it takes me 35. CHAIR GARMAN: This is amazing for big city. SVEUM: Yeah. It's great. It is. [CROSS TALK] CHAIR GARMAN: We don't want people coming into Fountain Hills. GOODWIN: So you can only come in at 6 a.m. anyway, so it's fine. CHAIR GARMAN: It's in and out, right? It's one in, one out in per day, or it's -- GOODWIN: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: -- two trips -- HOENLE: For the bus? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 42 of 53 SMITH: Not anymore. [CROSS TALK] CHAIR GARMAN: But I have to tell you, the bus coming in. I don't know if you heard. First, I don't want to make it too close, but let's just say somebody in town said that's how her cleaning lady gets into town. So how's her cleaning lady going to come? How's the cleaning people going to come and clean up our house was. GOODWIN: Apparently, she must not be here often. They were talking about like the ridership was like zero. Like, it's really hard to justify. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. All right. Okay. So what else? Get a little crazy. Throw something out. SMITH: Is there anything around the Discovery Center that can be its own or a Dark Sky? CHAIR GARMAN: That's been included in previous. SMITH: I mean, as its own pillar. Is there enough to build around that? CHAIR GARMAN: I think that ties into like, the economic development tourism aspect. CRADER: You know, some some of the ones that are a little different are this one, this identity and atmosphere. Those are a little different. CHAIR GARMAN: I'm not saying those, but I'm saying that's my what I mean by something. SMITH: The civility and civic respect, I think it's we can go ahead and share information and education about a variety of topics. But civic responsibility and civility, I think, is really difficult to try and tell people like how they should act or behave. So I think it's great. I think everyone needs a refresher course in how to be a good neighbor in this town. [CROSS TALK] SVEUM: That's a good point. SMITH: But I think it's challenging to add those to the plan. CHAIR GARMAN: But you know, you know, if everybody agreed with me, we'd all get along fine. So you guys just need to agree with me, and we'd all be civil. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 43 of 53 SMITH: Sure. Yeah. HOENLE: Well. I'll try. Yeah. GOODWIN: I just need a normal neighbor next to you. CHAIR GARMAN: That's what I mean. I heard that old quote, in a democracy or in a capitalist, when everybody's getting along, worry. I mean, to that point, everybody seems to love Fountain Hills very much. It's just the way they express that love. You know, it runs -- it's contrary to what someone else thinks. So anyways. SVEUM: You get that little people come all the way up here. CHAIR GARMAN: It's a village Community in there now. A sense of community environment is something we have talked about. I don't know if that what quality of life. I guess environment could fall under that. Definitely. I mean, to me four is a good number, right? I don't know, but I know if you wanted to put one out there that we could kick around going forward. CRADER: You can build a house on four -- three is a little tough. You're there. HOENLE: It's one for each corner, right? CRADER: Yeah. You can build a house on four. CHAIR GARMAN: Four pillars. Thank you very much. CRADER: Not three. CHAIR GARMAN: I just want to make sure you guys don't have anything different that you wanted to kick around. HOENLE: You're on my mind, so much of that is tied together. It's just, it's hard for me to. Visualize separating them. CHAIR GARMAN: Let's see -- [CROSS TALK] VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I'm going to go back to this whole civility thing because that is what helps things move forward. Because these folks up here are responding to their constituents that may be unhappy and very unhappy and uncivil, and they vote accordingly. So things don't move forward to improve things. If you want to get a bond approved or anything like that. These they all have to vote to approve it. Well, if TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 44 of 53 somebody's yelling at them to not spend any more money or not borrow any more money, they're not going to vote in favor of it. So I think it's -- I think it's a big part of any community right now. I think just not Fountain Hills, but it probably disappears a little bit more in larger cities like Scottsdale here. But I just think it's, and I don't even know if it can be resolved. But I think education helps. The communication helps. Transparency helps. But there's got to be some civility for them to say, okay, I got clearance to move ahead with this difficult decision. Because they're all human. They're going to take things different ways, people are angry. But there's there's got to be some consensus through civility. And I -- it's hard. It's not it's not something you grab on to. Right? HOENLE: Totally agree with you. You know it's -- CHAIR GARMAN: I don't know what would come under that, though. I mean, we talked about civility and community stuff, but then what's under that? What concrete steps can you take down the road that would be in the plan that the government would take of Fountain Hills? VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Well, again, I think it it does lead -- it is improved with better communication. I think you lead to civility with better communication. I hear transparency or lack thereof, which is totally BS. But if there's an effort to even do more of those types of things, I think it leads to -- they told us about this. I've educated you about this. We need this. We need the road. We need the liner. We need these things. It does all cost money. But I don't -- things don't move forward without them up there being able to vote for something. I don't know the answer to your question, Patrick, but I think it's -- there's got to be some more of an effort community wide. CHAIR GARMAN: We do try to try to provide more information, you know, in areas to talk about. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Well, I'm not saying it's not -- there's no effort. CHAIR GARMAN: Nobody shows up. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Yeah. Well, you've got -- but you get different ways of communicating with people today than we ever have. It's not anybody coming to a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 45 of 53 room like this, it's use of other ways of communicating. Internet, through -- CHAIR GARMAN: Any over here? I mean, land use is right there. It's a pretty big one on the workshop. Land use, education, multifamily residential. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: Well, what -- CHAIR GARMAN: That's under development. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: What bigger topic that they struggle with than land use? Okay. It is huge. CHAIR GARMAN: Is it huge enough to be its own standalone pillar, or can we put some verbiage under what we already have? I think, whether it's infrastructure and economic development. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: It is the elephant in the room, frankly. CHAIR GARMAN: Somebody -- what was the development plan? This was a development plan for a completed town. That was kind of interesting. What's the timeline for that downtown strategic plan? I know it's you guys just finished gathering the data, but I imagine it'll be next year at some point. GOODWIN: Amanda, can be bring back some of the findings -- kind of an aggregate of all the findings of all the stickies, in September and then getting some feelers at that point because we'd like to build it into the part of the -- as into the budget for next year. CHAIR GARMAN: Sure. GOODWIN: And so we need that guidance before the end of the calendar year to get that ball rolling. To kind of start that process. But it'll depend. A lot depends on what they like to do and who's sitting up there in December. CHAIR GARMAN: It's hard to imagine '25, '26 already. GOODWIN: Yes. So but yeah, that's kind of the timeline right now. CHAIR GARMAN: Sure. Okay. So I'm not getting a feeling that anybody strongly -- SMITH: I strongly feel that we need an emphasis on just look at downtown. It's a hodgepodge of buildings. There is no -- CHAIR GARMAN: So make a motion. You mean you -- SMITH: Civility and land use. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 46 of 53 [CROSS TALK] SMITH: Land use and development or redevelopment -- CHAIR GARMAN: As a standalone pillar? SMITH: Yes. CHAIR GARMAN: We have a motion on the table. CRADER: I like that. [CROSS TALK] CHAIR GARMAN: Is there a second? Okay. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Second. CHAIR GARMAN: Just now, let's talk about no decision. HOENLE: There's no decision. We're just coming up with a topic. CRADER: That's right. CHAIR GARMAN: No. Yeah, you're right, Bernie. Okay. So some verbiage around land use REYES: And redevelopment. HOENLE: And redevelopment. CHAIR GARMAN: And redevelopment? HOENLE: Yeah. GOODWIN: And you can work in preservation too. CRADER: Just add that and then put a stop. GOODWIN: To where -- CHAIR GARMAN: What do you do preservation of land? GOODWIN: So preservation of land. So there was an item up there. I don't know which one. CHAIR GARMAN: (Indiscernible). GOODWIN: Yeah. There was a previous. CHAIR GARMAN: It could be preservation. GOODWIN: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That could fall under that, too. REYES: Falls under land use. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 47 of 53 HOENLE: Yeah. REYES: Preservation. It's a use. GOODWIN: Its use. Or choice of -- REYES: Yeah. That's a -- that's a word. CHAIR GARMAN: I see all head nods. What about you, Paul? SMITH: Yep. All right. CHAIR GARMAN: Land use and development? SMITH: Land use. Deserves a star. CHAIR GARMAN: That's five. CRADER: You didn't like my (indiscernible)? SVEUM: No, he got it. GOODWIN: I like wreath. CHAIR GARMAN: I put rewrite. REYES: No. I'm sorry. I was talking to Paul. I thought he. SMITH: He meant he met me. REYES: Gotcha. SMITH: It goes in the center. REYES: There you go. CHAIR GARMAN: So that's five. And a new one -- a new one that we haven't done, is that land use and redevelopment. That's a new one. The rest of them we craft very similar in small towns. Quality of life is one that we're really going to have to break down. HOENLE: Yeah, we can. Resize that. CHAIR GARMAN: Because everybody has some health and welfare and safety trend. And that's under quality. Okay. So we got five right now going forward. Five-legged stool. Any others? That was good. Thanks. Getting that through. HOENLE: Give me a cup of coffee. Do you know where to get some? CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah, once. Once you put that in my head, it sticks. I think it's so constructive. And we have a lot of expertise in that area, I think. All right. That's five. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 48 of 53 Anybody else want to throw something up? REYES: So just somewhat as an aside, I am on the working group for the school to sell their property. And last year they voted on Four Peaks. So we're working on what needs to happen with that, with demolition of the building before or after sale. And then there's other two plots of land that I've got a meeting now with John Wesley next week. I've already met with Rachael and the town is going to sell that land. So we're trying to figure out what they need to do to prep it, to get ready to get it on the ballot this coming November. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Wow. So quick. REYES: It fits right into some land use because right now, it's probably going to be residential and maybe park or something else over there at Four Peaks, but that still has to be decided. SVEUM: Not a swimming pool. REYES: No. Well, they did contact the YMCA and they are investigating if it would be economically feasible. I say that because I was there for two weeks, and the people that came in, and I wasn't from that, this the first time I kind of been in that area for that amount of time anyway, and a lot of the neighbors, every one of them, first question. What are they going to do with us? I think it's a good question. HOENLE: The neighbors are on that working group? REYES: Yeah, and a lot of them -- CHAIR GARMAN: High density apartments. REYES: But all of them had their own pet project, you know what I mean? Park. HOENLE: So it's true with everybody, though. [CROSS TALK] CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah, we don't really. It's quality -- but that's the thing. This is kind of a catch-all, right? Quality of life, that could be education. All right. Bernie, you're okay for right now with five? HOENLE: Great. CHAIR GARMAN: Paul? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 49 of 53 SMITH: Good. CHAIR GARMAN: Anything you (indiscernible) this the time. Randy? CRADER: Five's great. CHAIR GARMAN: Amanda, can you sleep at night knowing what we have here is a draft? HOENLE: I don't think you have a lot of -- CRADER: You mean Rachael? CHAIR GARMAN: That's what I said -- I said Amanda? GOODWIN: (Indiscernible). [CROSS TALK] GOODWIN: I think Amanda can sleep fine. I'm fine, I think. [CROSS TALK] CHAIR GARMAN: I apologize, I'm very sorry. Joe? REYES: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Five. All right. That's good. We took an hour and a half to get down to five. So guess what I have a couple more -- I have another slide. We have one minute. I think so. So next -- this is August agenda topic. We're going to look at -- I'm going to ask you about ways to get citizen support going forward for the next level down. Where we would have to go into what types of infrastructure is important to the folks of Fountain Hills. What are we talking about with finance? So we've got to figure out underneath our opinions but also the opinions of people in town. So think of ways -- we did two big ones this year, you know, with the outreach and then the workshop. So we can think of other ways: surveys, more workshops. Geoff loves doing workshops, I'm sure. But we talked about town staff sensing session. I mean, all kinds of things that we can do. But I really like you to kind of put some of those forward in August so we can start putting them into play for the coming year. Right? And then, just to give you the last -- so we're moving into signature strategies. I'm not married to that term, but that was what we did. The chair in the last last iteration called them signature strategies, but that's the next iteration down. So just to give you what I think it is, it would be something like TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 50 of 53 infrastructure, the liner on the lake. And then the next year we would say, what about the liner in the lake? Well, it needs to be done by this time. And you know, all of that. We get specifics to it. And I know that's probably already been worked out, but I just use that as an example. So that's where we're going. So we can get through the supporting tasks 2026. So then we're going to spend the last -- that would be another election in '26. And then we have to pass it to that council and get it passed in '27. That could take at least six to nine months, depending. SMITH: Question. For the previous iterations of the plan, do we run the pillars by council and then like the priorities and tasks, or do we just present the final product in a few years, or do we get guidance from them along the way? And I realize that the council members -- CHAIR GARMAN: Well, they change -- SMITH: -- today are going to be different than the ones in 2027. CHAIR GARMAN: So we'll tell you it's safer. Just wait at the end and unveil it and say, ta da. SMITH: Got it. CHAIR GARMAN: And then, they change a word here and there. But my goal was once we got something in writing like this start, we have now five strategic priorities. Now we have something to take to council and the mayor and say, hey, this is what we've done so far. This is the fire. So my answer would be yes, we can start taking it after this election, especially the next year, show what we have this year. Show what we have next year. So sure, I think we should do that. HOENLE: So my answer to Geoff is we talk to the town manager. GOODWIN: What are you doing back there? CHAIR GARMAN: All right. GOODWIN: I don't think that's a problem if that's what we want to do. I also would include an update on where we are with the current one, not just the future focus, but how how productive have we been on this current one and where we had on those goals, too. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 51 of 53 CHAIR GARMAN: But but I have to do that in one of the council meetings. It has been public and I'm kind of talking about I went up to their office and have a meeting. GOODWIN: Oh, you don't want to do that. CHAIR GARMAN: To show them that do we did this, this is a draft? GOODWIN: Yeah. You want to do it then. VICE CHAIR YAZZETTA: I'll do it if you don't want to, Patrick. GOODWIN: Yeah. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. I'll get my picture in the paper. CRADER: It's right here in the hand. GOODWIN: You could be famous. That's fine. CHAIR GARMAN: Are you sure? I mean, okay, that's a good question for you. Had they ever in the past, have you ever heard of folks hat in hand, taking their plans to an office and talk to Peggy or talk to (indiscernible)? GOODWIN: That's not the role of the commissioners to meet with them individually. They've made it really, really specific that the communication should be flowing via council meetings so that there's a consistency there. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. GOODWIN: I say the same way, or it's either that or it's through whoever your staff person is. So it's me for this one, but it's other staff for other commissions. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. GOODWIN: That's the conduit. And they want to maintain that because it gets really hairy. And it's not this commission that tends to have that bill, word of warning, but other when there's all of these off-hand -- like one offs it gets inconsistent. And then sometimes people are speaking for themselves versus what the bulk of the commission is doing. So they really given direction about wanting it to have a very specific way of communicating. CHAIR GARMAN: No problem. GOODWIN: So if it's something so -- CHAIR GARMAN: I could give you these five -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 52 of 53 GOODWIN: Oh, absolutely. You can give it to me, or you can send an email that says, hey, please review and provide any feedback -- CHAIR GARMAN: And disseminate? GOODWIN: -- and then we can do it that way. CHAIR GARMAN: Just so we have something concrete going forward. We can also come and stand up in a council meeting -- GOODWIN: For sure. CHAIR GARMAN: -- say this is what we've done so far so the public can see. GOODWIN: Absolutely. And they're not opposed to that at all. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah, that's great. All right. That answers that question. HOENLE: Yeah. So you're going to give us a recap? CHAIR GARMAN: What's that? Now? HOENLE: No later. CHAIR GARMAN: Yeah. HOENLE: When it's a little more refined. CHAIR GARMAN: I'm on vacation next week I'll see you all in August. Thank you all very much. HOENLE: August is fine. CHAIR GARMAN: I wanted to challenge you guys and make sure everybody was talking so that we could get the best product up there. So we'll be in August. When we come back in August, we'll plan what we're doing over the next -- over '24/'25 going forward. All right. CRADER: Before we break, let's (indiscernible) Phil for his services back. This is my last meeting. CHAIR GARMAN: Oh, I told -- oh my God. Yeah, I guess you did mention that, didn't you? SVEUM: No, I didn't. I was appointed last night to the Planning Commission. CHAIR GARMAN: What's that? SVEUM: I was appointed last night to the Planning and Zoning Commission. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JUNE 19, 2024 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 53 of 53 MAYOR GARMAN: Wow. SMITH: Congratulations. CHAIR GARMAN: God bless you. SVEUM: I got some notes last night from people, and they said I go, thanks, but I don't know. CHAIR GARMAN: Okay. So you're going to -- SVEUM: This is my last meeting. CHAIR GARMAN: So you're going to transition from this meeting -- I mean this commission to the other commission. SVEUM: Right. CHAIR GARMAN: And all we can ask later. I don't know if you still have that list or we're going to have to do interviews again. GOODWIN: I'm not sure we'll need to look, but the soonest we'll have someone appointed is the August council meeting. That's the soonest we can get somebody on. When is our meeting for this one? Do you know off the top of your head? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: This next meeting. GOODWIN: For the SPAC. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The SPAC will be August 28th, and the council's August 19th. GOODWIN: Okay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: So we do there is -- should be good. GOODWIN: Okay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Should be able to CHAIR GARMAN: I call the end to the SPAC meeting for June 19th. Thank you all very much. And we'll see you all in August -- GOODWIN: I won't be here for that SPAC meeting. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. GOODWIN: That's the same week as the League. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: That's right. GOODWIN: I'll be there. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS __________________________ Patrick Garman, Chairman ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: ___________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Work Session held by the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 19th day of June 2024. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 28th Day of August 2024. ___________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant ITEM 7. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):   PRESENTATION: Neighborhood Property Owners’ Association of Fountain Hills, Arizona, Inc. (NPOA)                              Ed Petryk- Secretary Staff Summary (Background) Attachments Presentation  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  NPOA Strategic Plan Ed Petryk August 2024 Website: https://npoafh.org/ of 40 Who is the NPOA CoA Mission –Replaced b NPOA •NPOA: Neighborhood Property Owners Association •Background •January 1972: MCO Committee of Architecture formed for each plat with expiration after 20 years. •Mission: “Protecting you, your property values and the unique beauty of Fountain Hills is the Committee of Architecture which reviews all building plans. Committee of Architecture approval is required before a building permit is issued … to encourage structures that blend harmoniously together and with the natural beauty of the area” -MCO Properties Inc, Developer January 1979. •1992: NPOA/NCOA for one plat (203) formed in 1992 with ability to expand •44 of 66 plats joined covering ~4500 Homes 2December 11, 2023 NPOA Strategic Plan of 40 of 40 NPOA Authority and Charter •NPOA governance is part of the Declarations attached to the plats and lots within the NPOA. •Organized is a 501-4-C Charity •Mission •Promote Welfare of the Members •Encourage Social and Recreational Activity •Create/Manage formation of Architecture Committee (NCOA) •Agent for the enforcement of the member declarations •Town of FH has no ability to set architectural guidelines, colors, etc.since the Town is not a Charter City December 11, 202 NPOA Strategic Plan 4 of 40 NPOA Authority and Charter •Resources •Office at 16810 E Ave of the Fountains Avenue of the Fountains • Open Weekdays 8am to 3pm •1 Full time Director, 1 part time accountant, Contract administrator. •Volunteer Board of Directors •Volunteer Plat representatives (delegates) •Volunteer Architecture Committee •Funding •Charge for issuing permits and fines for non-compliance •Escrow fee charged for providing documentation and administration ownership transfer •Not an HOA - Cannot charge annual dues or file liens December 11, 202 NPOA Strategic Plan 5 of 40 Fountain Hills NPOA •YE2022: Significant negative revenue with negative trend in the real estate market, inflation of operating costs and enforcement costs. •May 2023, Strategic Planning Team to develop a 4-5 year. •The vision and desired future state of the NPOA is to “do more with more”. •1st More: Better NCOA service, more activities to promote awareness and involvement to create a more positive member view given the main mission is one of oversight. •2nd More: Increased member and delegate participation, increased engagement with Town of Fountain Hills and local businesses, with optimized spending allowing modest add of NPOA resources. • 6 of 40 Fountain Hills NPOA Strategic Planning Process •Mission (from Declarations) Vision 4-5 years out, SWOT, Market scenarios, Strategic Objectives with metrics. •SO1: Improve Value and Awareness of the NPOA •Publish newsletter, community awareness actives, measure permits and fines. •SO2: Expand the relationship with Town to cooperate on multiple fronts •SO3: Continued/Expanded staffing and support within a volunteer organization •All Plats have delegates, succession plans, etc. •SO4: Limit Legal fees and professional services <$50K •SO5: Replenish Financial Reserve Account to 1 year expenses 7 of 40 Key Tactical Objectives to meet Strategic Objectives •SO2: Build relationship and value with Town on multiple fronts •Identify a central and key point(s) of contact that drive relationship with the ToFH •Regular cadence of interaction. •Follow Through on proposed comms from ToFH to Refer those applying for ToFH permit to NPOA •ToFH has lead on issues of variances, easements and setbacks •Eliminate one of the leading sources of litigation •Obtain feedback for open vs closed Issues submitted via Fountain Hills Connect “SEE CLICK FIX” website. •Identify Pilot events or programs to Co-Sponsor/Tag Along to improve NPOA visibility 8/25/2024 NPOA Strategic Plan 8 ITEM 8. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  UPDATE: Fountain Hills 2022 Strategic Plan Implementation - Justin Weldy, Public Works Director.     Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  ITEM 9. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  UPDATE: Commission Workgroups Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  ITEM 10. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics. Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  ITEM 11. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024  ITEM 12. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 08/28/2024 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 2024. Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 03/20/2024 05:09 PM Final Approval Date: 03/20/2024