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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990.0308.TCWSM.MinutesTown Council Minutes 3/8/90 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE WMVSTUDY SESSION OF THE EMMAIN HILLS TOM COUNCIL nKMDAY, MARCH 8, 1990 A public work/study session of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened and called to order by Mayor John Cutillo at approximately 6:32 p.m., Thursday, March 8, 1990, in the Fountain Hills School District Administration Building located at 14605 N. Del Cambre Ave., Fountain Hills, Arizona. Present for the work/study session were Mayor John Cutillo, Vice Mayor Mike Minarsich and Councilmembers Marti Lemieux, Harry Barber, Joe Bill, Charlie Fox and Dick Haugen. Also present were Town Attorney Bill Farrell and Town Clerk Cassie Hansen. Absent was Town Manager Mike McNulty. Councilwoman Lemieux gave a report on the findings, summaries and recommendations of the Magistrate & Court Subcommittee (attached). She further discussed proposed fine schedules (attachment B), saying that it was not a complete list but would be added to once the magistrate came on board and the estimated set up costs (attachment C). She said the judicial bench could also be used by the council. Set up costs are estimated to be $9,450.00 Councilwoman Lemieux then went over the proposed annual budget (attachment D) which she explained was figured using other cities and towns of our size. She said that the salary range for a magistrate ran from a very high of $84,000 to a low of $5,500 and that it would take about 2 to 3 months to set up the court. She said the magistrate would be full time for about 2 to 3 months until the court was set up and then become part time, maybe a maximum of 2 days a week. She said there is alot of paperwork that must be done to set up the court. Bill Farrell said the magistrate would eventually become a part of the town code and handed out the ordinance establishing a magistrate court at this time (attached). He said the codes did not need to be in place before the magistrate was hired and told the council of the current controversy between the superior court, cities and towns and the county sheriff regarding jurisdiction and authority. The superior court feels councils should not view the magistrate as a cash register but as an arm of the judicial system and the court makes the magistrate very separate from the jurisdiction of the council. The council must pay the magistrate and are required by statute to have one but cannot control or dictate policy to him. Councilwoman Lemieux told the council they had better not plan on making any money on the court and should probably just hope to break even. Mr. Farrell said there can be potential problems when contracting with the county sheriff because of the potential for dual loyalty ie. putting incarceration costs back on his "boss", the county. Mr. Farrell said he also thought it would be difficult to find a public defender to work for $40.00/hour. He said it is very difficult to project the revenues from the magistrate until contracts are in place the the town has been functioning for a year or so. Councilwoman Lemieux said there was only about a $6,000 difference between contracting and hiring the magistrate. ro- n• a :�• � a •a••• LAW FMUR(EMEdT - Councilman Fox said this committee has had 3 meetings thus far Page 1 of 7 Town Council Minutes 3/8/90 and summarized these meetings (attachment). He went over the the 3 proposals given the subcommittee by Captain Holt of the Sheriff's Department. He said prices have gone up over the last three months - 1 full beat going up from $287,000 to $325,000 a year. He said the 2 options at this point were having our own police force, which is fiscally not possible in the first fiscal year, and contracting with the county sheriff's dept. They will begin checking into funding available to augment our own dept. over the next 2 to 5 years and report back to the council. Mr. Farrell said that prosecution of all felonies is done exclusive of the town magistrate, sent to Mr. Romley's office and handled in superior court. He said that contracted sheriff deputies shy away from city and town codes and local ordinances, fearing that they have not been written totally legally. Councilwoman Lemieux asked if the sheriff's dept. feels that the coverage we currently have is adequate and Councilman► Fox said they would not really give an indication because it would make them look like they were not supplying enough currently. He further said there are no records on the break down of kinds of calls which have been answered in Fountain Hills, just that there have been 3,000 calls in the district that we fall in. Councilman Fox said the town will have the authority to request veteran officers, familiar with Fountain Hills, when it comes time to negotiate a contract. Mayor Cutillo expressed concern that too much money was being budgeted in the committee's report and that a beat and a half was maybe too much. Councilman Fox said this was not a recommendation and the concerns would be taken into consideration before a recommendation was made. CABLE - Dennis Contino reported that the committee has met 4 times. The first meeting was spent listening to complaints from residents on the current cable service in Fountain Hills. He said they are planning on running a survey in the Times asking for peoples opinions of the current system. He said they checked into going into a temporary contract with Dimension from January until June but decided to steer clear of establishing any kind of an agreement with Dimension. He also said they will be starting to work on the ordinance. Mr. Contino said the committee's objective is to supply all citizens with state of the art service, more stations, local public stations and create revenues. He said creating the ordinance would take about 30 days and they will then ask for RFP's. He closed in saying they were considering hiring a consultant to help write the ordinance because of it's importance in the whole process. CITIZEN PLANNING - Mayor Cutillo reported that he had been attending Town Hall meetings on Wednesday afternoons, planning for the Town Hall to be held on March 24th. He said that council members had been requested to serve as resource people and encouraged all present to put in applications to take part in the Town Hall. FINANCE - Councilman Fox reported on the presentation given to the committee by Bob Casias from a banking investment firm who reviewed funds available. The comet ittee has also been reviewing the interim budget, examining where funds are coming from, how they are calculated and starting to establish a 90-91 budget. He said the final report will be the submittal of the rough draft budget. INSURANCE - Wally Hudson said he is going to be coordinating the insurance of the Road District with that of the town's as well as the employees of both. Page 2 of 7 Town Council Minutes 3/8/90 He will be examining the Road District's insurance and checking for areas that overlap. INTERGOVERNMENTAL - Councilman Bill reported that this committee has not really been formed yet. He said the only focus to this point has been establishing contact with the school district, which has been successful. He said he felt it would soon be necessary to form a formal subcommittee with the school due to the progress made with MCO over future school property. Mayor Cutillo clarified that this committee has had no formal meetings with the school and that he and Councilman Bill had been invited to attend a meeting that the school was having. LOGO - No one was present from the Logo Subcommittee. PROPERTY - Mr. Farrell reported that a revised deed would be ready for the Civic Association the following day. He said that some changes needed to made in the current provisions for liquor as far as the management of the Community Center went but that all was moving along. Councilman Fox said the council still needed to vote on whether to accept the deeds with or without the waiver from MCO. Mayor Cutillo suggested that the Property Committee get together with the attorney to work on their recommendation. PERSONNEL STAFFING - Councilman Bill reported that the committee had received 40 applications in 2 days for the town manager position. He said that Norm Lash was currently working on a benefits package for town employees. He also said that they were working on the boards and commissions to be formed but did not want to proceed on that very much until there was staff in place to support this groups. Councilman Bill also said they were calling people in government to seek out people currently in town government that would be qualified to serve as town manager for Fountain Hills. PLANNING & ZONING - Loras Rauch reported that the committee was looking at and investigating different time frame requirements, review processes, permit issuances and permit sections time frames. She said the committee would be coming back to the council with recommendations and for funding. (minutes attached) PUBLIC RELATIONS & CENSUS - Vice Mayor Minarsich reiterated the importance of the census and supplied the council with minutes from the meeting which outlined the committee's time line for promoting the census (attached). They will be designing flyers and distributing them at the post office and Bashas the last weekend in March in attempt to get citizens to stand up and be counted for Fountain Hills. TOWN CODES - Councilman Barber reported that the AZ League of Cities and Towns was presently compiling a Fountain Hills town codebook based on the subcommittee's recommendations. He said the committee was hoping to get the books by March 20, at which time they would review them and present them to the council for consideration. In formulating the codebook, they studied and reviewed 7 other towns'codebooks. TOW MASTER PLAN - It was reported that this subcommittee had been combined with Page 3 of 7 Torsi Council Minutes 3/8/90 the Planning & Zoning Subcommittee. TOM ROAD PLANNING SUBOOMMIITTEE - Chairman Councilman Fox reported on some of the things the county would be doing on the streets in the next couple months. He said they would be filling cracks, cut out and repatch all areas showing compaction stress and start chip sealing on the first of April. He said they were chip sealing instead of using slurry seal because the latter does not have long lasting ability on heavily travelled roads. He said they would also be looking into signage, lights, left turn arrows, etc. Mayor Cutillo asked if the people living in the neighborhood of the Palmer Way intersection could somehow be canvassed to see how they felt about a traffic light. Councilman Fox said he was going to check into it. Councilman Bill expressed a desire to see a left turn arrow at the intersection of Saguaro and Shea. Councilman Fox said there was a deadline on the 28th to submit for federal funds and the committee was presently working on that. He said the county was also talking about taking out all shrubs and trees on the medians 200' from either end of the median. (minutes attached) Mayor Cutillo announced that Eleanor Bentson had been replaced by Bob Boyle as Floating Clerk on the election board in District 1. The council took a break at 8:49 p.m. before starting the special session that had been scheduled following the work study session. Page 4 of 7 Town Council Minutes 3/8/90 The council returned from break at 8:57 p.m. and Mayor Cutillo called the special meeting to order. AGENDA ITEM #2 - ACCEPTANCE OF MARCH 1. 1990 MEETING MINUTES MOTION made by Councilman Haugen to accept the March 1, 1990 meeting minutes. SECONDED by Councilman Fox and CARRIED unanimously. AGENDA ITEM #3 - DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO APPROVE PLACING AN AD FOR THE TOWN MAGISTRATE IN THE TIMES Councilwoman Lemieux went over the proposal made by Judge Lockwood and his wife to act as town magistrate and clerk (attached). She also went over the ad that she had prepared to place in the Times (attached). Vice Mayor Minarsich made a MOTION that the council authorize the placement of an ad for town magistrate in the Fountain Hills Times. SECONDED by Councilman Fox. Mayor Cutillo recommended that the ad reflect a salary range, ie. $7,000 to $12,000, instead of a set amount of $12,000 and the council concurred that the adjustment could be made in the ad. The motion CARRIED unanimously. AGENDA ITEM #4 - DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A MAGISTRATE COURT (attachment) Town Attorney Bill Farrell supplied the council with Ordinance 90-5, briefly went over the ordinance and explained that it was a generic document that would be part of the town code but could be enhanced or amended as needed. MOTION made by Councilwoman Lemieux that Ordinance 90-5 be accepted. SEC70NDED by Councilman Bill. Marge Schmoll expressed concern that setting up .a court was a large task and that it may be better to contract at the beginning. Dave Gray expressed concern that some services would be contracted as opposed to hiring from the qualified workforce within the town. The council assured him that contracting for one thing would not set a precedent. Bill Tessman expressed concern that the council would have no control or say over the magistrate and Vice Mayor Minarsich responded that many incorporated towns had their own magistrate courts and he knew of few abuses. The motion CARRIED unanimously. MR 5 o- • r,• • r�• • r c�• :�ti5 •+ Since Mr. McNulty would be in Alaska until March 19, the council felt someone should be appointed to act in his place. Councilman Fox made a MOTION that the Town Clerk act for the Town Manager in his absense. SECONDED by Councilman Bill and CARRIED unanimously. AGENDA ITEM #6 - HIRING A SPACE UTILIZATION DESIGNER FOR THE OLD LIBRARY BUILDING Mayor Cutillo said he felt it important to find out in a factual way if the old library building could be used for the town offices. Councilman Haugen made a MOTION to hire a designer for the old library building in order to get the discussion under way SECONDED by Councilwoman Lemieux. Councilman Haugen asked for a need versus no need discussion on having a designer look at and evaluate the building. Vice Mayor Minarsich asked if a price limit had been set on this Page 5 of 7 Town Council Minutes 3/8/90 evaluation. Mayor Cutillo said he thought $400 should cover it. Councilman Fox said he had sat down with an office design specialist from McDonald Douglas already and went over the future staff requirements and space availability they had come up with. Councilman Bill suggested the council let the dust settle for a short time since we had just moved into our present office space and take time in deciding where the future office space should be. Vice Mayor Minarsich said the problem remains that the council must decide if they will accept the Civic Association property with or without relief and that he feels it should be accepted without relief so that it could still be used as a revenue producing property. Councilman Fox suggested the council would be playing Russian roulette taking a chance of losing the property for violation for the deed of trust and that he didn't think it was worth the risk. Councilman Haugen stated that he was not content with only a 3 year waiver if we were using it as town offices. Councilman Haugen made an AME DMEW TO THE MOTION to change the amount the designer would be paid from $400 to $500. SECONDED by Councilman Bill. The AMENDED MOTION CARRIED 5 votes to 2, with Councilman Fox and Vice Mayor Minarsich voting nay. The ORIGINAL MOTION CARRIED 5 votes to 2, with Councilman Fox and Vice Mayor Minarsich voting nay. AGENDA ITEM #7 - ADOPTION OF RESOUYTICN 1990-9 PROCLAIMING APRIL 22 1990 EARTH DAY (attached) Councilman Bill if this was an annual event and the Mayor responded that it was. Councilman Bill made a MOTION that the council adopt Resolution 1990-9 proclaiming April 22 of each year as Earth Day. SECONDED by Vice Mayor Minarsich and CARRIED unanimously. CALL TO THE PUBILIC Dave Gray said he would hope that the council would accept input from the Fountain Hills Board of Contractors when it came time to contract the services of building safety and other inspectors. Vice Mayor Minarsich made a MOTION to adjourn. SECONDED by Councilman Bill. The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:40 p.m. By: ATTEST: Nza4l,�,, 45. Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk TOWN CaITAIN i Joh . Cutillo, Mayor Page 6 of 7 PI Town Council Minutes 3/8/90 I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the work/study and special session of the Town Council of Fountain Hills held on the 8th day of March, 1990. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this (044'�- day of April, 1990. Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk Page 7 of 7