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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990.0814.TCWSM.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE WORK/STUDY SESSION OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1990 A public work/study session of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened and called to order by Vice Mayor Wally Hudson at approximately 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, August 14. 1990 in the conference room of the Fountain Hills Town Hall Offices located at 16836 E. Palisades. Building C, Fountain Hills, Arizona. Present for the work/study session were Vice Mayor Wally Hudson and Councilmembers Mike Minarsich, Frank Clark, Bill O'Brien, Peg Tibbetts and Charlie Fox. Absent was Mavor John Cutillo. Also present were Town Manager Paul Nordin, Town Attorney Bill Farrell and Town Clerk Cassie Hansen. AGENDA ITEM #1 - PROPOSED CHANGES INTHE CABLE TV ORDINANCE Mr. Nordin began by discussing the tentative time table for adopting the cable ordinance and the subsequent steps in awarding the contract for cable T.V. service. He explained that he and Mr. Farrell were becoming less comfortable with the council adopting the ordinance on August 16 and more comfortable with asking the council to table the ordinance until the 6th of September. He said staff feels it would allow more time to get additional feedback from the industry and the council more time to review the three pages of changes which had been made to the ordinance. Mr. Nordin went over the rest of the time table which included issuing the RFP's on October 1st, letting them be out for about two months, and then awarding the license on January 3rd, negotiating and finalizing the license agreement with the successful bidder and signing the agreement at the March 7th meeting. Councilman O'Brien said he felt the ordinance, even with the changes, was substantially similar to the original and he did not feel comfortable with the council delaying the adoption of it. Mr. Nordin said if the council wished to go ahead with the ordinance it would not create any major problems because there were provisions available to amend the ordinance. Councilman Minarsich asked how staff read the fact that some members of the industry had not responded to the ordinance. Mr. Farrell explained that in most cable companies there were three levels of review - the local manager looks at the operational side of the ordinance, corporate legal reviews the legal language of the ordinance and there is additionally some current legislation involving rate regulation and must carry rules that companies are watching to see what happens. Councilman Minarsich stated that he felt the council should adopt the ordinance that they wanted and if the cable industry was not satisfied with it and Fountain Hills could not draw anyone in, they could readdress the ordinance at that point. Councilman Fox said he felt it better to wait and let staff do their _job. Mr. Nordin said the consultant advised letting the council act on the ordinance at the next meeting and that it was Mr. Farrell and himself that were feeling it would be better to wait. It was then decided to go over the changes to the ordinance covered in the memo and Mr. Woodward reviewed the changes with the council. Some of the items discussed included density and Section 13-4-D, which only Dimension Cable was unhappy with, claiming that it could be construed as "unconstitutional taking of property". There were a number of changes that Dimension suggested which staff declined to accept. In some cases, Town Council was changed to Town Manager to expedite the record keeping process and Cable Town Council Minutes 8/14/90 Page 1 of 4 Committee changed to Town Manager. Measuring 25 homes per mile was clarified, "due process" was added to all paragraphs covering the disciplinary process and insurance language was reworded. Council approval of change in ownership and new paragraph F on page 127, appeals, was covered. The council discussed the many aspects of "excusable neglect". Once all the changes were gone over, Vice Mayor Hudson informally polled the council to see if they were comfortable adopting the ordinance on Thursday night. The general concensus was that they would adopt the ordinance on Thursday, the 16th. Mr. Nordin said staff would work up a new time table. AGENDA ITEM #2 - DISCUSS PROPOSED CONTRACT WITH THE SHERIFFS OFFICE Mr. Nordin said the council had been supplied with the proposed contract in their packets which was the latest version approved by the Police Protection Committee. Councilman Fox said there were some items in the contract which needed to be discussed in executive session on Thursday so it was decided to put this item on hold. AGENDA ITEM #3_- EXPLANATIONOF THE VARIANCE PROCEDURE Mr. Nordin directed the council's attention to the variance information supplied for them in their packets. Since the Town Attorney had directed that the council could not discuss the details of the cases before them, Mr. Nordin simply wanted to verify that all councilmembers had the materials necessary to prepare them to hear the requests. Mr. Farrell reiterated the basic distinction between the council's actions Thursday night as the Board of Adjustment and as the Planning and Zoning Commission. He reminded them that the Board of Adjustment was a quasi-judicial or administrative body and because of that should have no contact with the parties involved in the requests. He said that visiting the site was acceptable. As the Planning and Zoning Commission, he said they could expect to be lobbied regularly by applicants and neighbors as well as the Planning Director. Each member can set his own policy when it comes to participation in the lobbying process, choosing to have no contact if they so desire. He did warn against accepting input from only one side. He also said that an ordinance would be required changing the zoning map if the council approved a zoning change but he said that is usually passed at a later date, one reason being to verify that any conditions set forth in the request have been met before the hard zoning changes are made to the map. AGENDA _ITEM _#7 - MCO'S_REOUEST FOR A ZONING CHANGE ON PLAT 601D The council skipped to this item since they were discussing acting as the Planning and Zoning Commission. Mr. Nordin referred them to the map outlining the area in question and said that it involved downzoning the area. He said staff was recommending approval because of this and that few people complain about downzoning. AGENDA ITEM #8 - DISCUSS ORDINANCE..90-10. CHANGING THE ZONING CODE AS IT RELATES TO SWIMMING POOL FENCES Mr. Farrell said this simply involved removing the word "not" from the ordinance Town Council Minutes 8/14/90 Page 2 of 4 which would mean that the rear of a Person's house could be part of the barrier wall around a pool, at least until next June when the state law would dictate otherwise. He said he would not be surprised to see the Legislature amend their bill regarding pool fences before next June when it is to Po into effect. Since this ordinance cannot be passed with the emergency clause. the council felt individuals wanting inspections done should have to sign the waiver that Mr. Farrell had made up, a release and hold harmless form attempting to indemnify both the contract engineering firm .and the town. AGENDA ITEM #6 — APPOINTING THE PERMANENT PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION It was decided that copies would be made of all the applicants for this commission for the council to review. Mr. Farrell said that no formal action would have to be taken establishing this body except the appointment of new people to take the council's place since this commission was already established in the codes. AGENDA ITEM #4 — PALMER WAY IMPROVEMENTS Mr. Nordin referred to a letter in the council's packets from Maricopa County which left some questions as to where the county stood in this matter. He further stated that the question was now before them as to whether or not to fight it out with the County in an attempt to get them to do what they said they would do in the first place or ,just go ahead and make the improvements ourselves. Mr. Nordin said he would request a meeting with the County and continue in his efforts to get them to do the work at the intersection that the council had decided upon. The council was emphatic about getting points one and two done, removing the shrubbery and moving the sign, while negotiations continued on the median work. Ray Baldwin clarified that MCO had originally. a few months ago, offered to take the shrubs out while they had a landscaping crew in the area since the town did not have an appropriate crew at that time. Since taking in the Road Department, it was felt they now had the manpower to do it themselves. AGENDA ITEM #5 — IGA WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT Mr. Nordin briefly went over the intergovernmental agreement with the council. He said there was one area that he and the Town Attornev were not in agreement with which stated that if the Town decided to charge for ante of their activities on school property. the school board got to approve the charges. Mr. Nordin said thev removed that section. Councilman O'Brien said it was written in the school board policies and standard procedure for them and not to have .it in there would be violating their own policies. Councilman O'Brien said he would prefer. in the spirit of cooperation. to discuss this with the school before acting on it with the section removed. It was the general concensus to pull this item off of the agenda. Vice Mayor Hudson requested having the work/studv session materials 24 hours in advance of the meeting. Mr. Nordin said staff would do their best to have the packet materials in advance. The council adiourned the work/study session at approximately 9:08 p.m. Town Council Minutes 8/14/90 Page 3 of 4 TOWN OF 9UNTAIN HILLS By. - A �� ,` � ----- o n . Outilloayor llr'4� ATTEST: C "6. / Cassie B. Hansen. Town Clerk CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the work/study session held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 14th day of -August. 1990. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this day of September. 1990. Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk Town Council Minutes 8/14/90 Pape 4 of 4