HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990.1204.TCWSM.Minutes7t7WN OF 1DOWAIN HILLS
NIMME S OF THE WORKISYMY SESSION OF 77H FOUNTAIN HILLS YUWN Ci7YINt'IL
DACIMER 4, 16D
A public meeting of the Fountain Hills Toryn <<xuncil was Convened al7d called to
order by Mayor John Cutillo at 6: 30 p.m. , Tuesday, December 4, in the
0017ference room of the Fountain Hills Town Hall offices loeated at 166>6 E.
Palisades, Building C,, Fountain Hills, Ar•iZ017a.
LV-LL CALL - Following the pledge to the flag and the in voca t. i on by CC7u17c.11rlan
Charlie Fox, roll call was taken. Fr•esent for roll call were the folloraing
members of the Fountain Hills Town Cocln c i l : Mayor John Cu t. i l l o, Vice, Nay -or
Wally Hudson and Fe-Z Tibbetts, Mike Minarsich, Char•11;e Fox,
Frank Clark and Bill O'Brien. Also present were Town Mc3nager Faul Nordin,
Town Attorney Bill Farrell, Director of Colrlmuni ty Devel oilmen t Gary Jeppson,
Street Superintendent Fat Harvey and Town Clerk Lassie Hansen.
Judging for the Mayor 's Culinary Cup Dessert Competition took place to choose
the desert which would be entered by the Mayor in Sco t tsx1a l e 's E:y tr•a i,�g3nra
Competition. The winner was Sneaker 's Wadonga PLA-idi179 with two votes.
A. Project Update
a. Street Departzent Update
Mr. Harvey commented that at approximately ?: 00 p.m. one of the
Town 's trucks had caught fire that c,ay- as it was being returned to
Fountain Hills from F170el7 ix 017 Bee -line Highway at mile marker
#188. He said attempts were bade to put the fire otlt by both the
highw ,W pa trot and Altai me t r•o wi t 17C%ti t SucceSS , and the- trLlck was
a total Ions. He estimated the dL3r7k3s to the 1�?75 trtrc:l� to be
approximately $5,00,0, but stated that the TOw77 had riot Vet heard
back from the insrlral7ce corlpaT7y . He sa7id lie believed the cause of
the fire to be a broken hyciratillc: line.
b. Overview of the December 2Uth Street Paving Presentation
Mr. Nordin gave can _overview of his planned December 20th street
paving pr•esen to t. i on and d i sc: ussex1 what he proposed to present to
the public. He wet carried Counei lmember "s input xid asked them to
make L377y coitwients anc ,,'br c or•rect..ions they felt necessary.
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Mr. Nordin said he Planned to begin with a series Z1f s1iL!e:=
depicting the history of the. Road Districts leading to the currer; t
time . He commented that the Town had approximately 1117 frli l es of
unpaved roads and 125 miles of paved roads. He exIIlained thsf: the
existing road district bond payments ran thrOLlgh 199,`7 al7d that. the
Town had inherited the r•espc»7sibili ty of maintaining' the road
system. He said that the debt of the Road Districts was $,;
million principal and over $900,000 interest., leavingr a total
outstanding of $ 3,, 900, 000.
Mr. Nordin described the pr•c? ect. goal of his pr•clglmm to be to pave
the ayisting unpaved streets within the Town of Fountain Hi11s.
He said that it would be important that emphaais be made during
the public presentation concerning the fact that this bond issue
was being paid for by all of the prOper•ty owners in Fountain
Hills. He. pointed Out that residents living on unpaved streets
were paying for the existing paved streets and deserved to have
their Streets Paved.
The 1API ellleJ7 to ti on objectives of the program were ref a ted to be
timely completion of the project., cost effectiveness, and
utilization of the financial tools available to the newly
incorporated town. Mr. Nordin said that while new roads were
being paved, he also desired inclusion of a maintenance program
for• the existing paved roads.
Mr. Nordin 's estimated cost for this Lu-cVram totaled $5.1 million.
He estimated further that maintenance of Fountain Hills Boulevard
would be an additional $200, 000. He stated that because NCO was
planning to extend Palisades through to Shea Boulevard it was his
opinion that devoting the $? million required for z•ebuilding
Fountain Hills Boulevazti was premature because traffic patterns
may change. He recommended that. the Council delay any es t. ima t. i ons
for maJor repair and Mintena170e of Fountain Hills BOLllevard until
Palisades was completed.
Mr. Nordin discussed the al ternati ves for funding the street
paving project. He pointed Out that raising local sales tax was
not a viable Consideration because the authority to raise this tax
to pay for paving was not extended to cities and towns. He
explained that the General Ob1_igation (GO) bond used a property
tax and the HURF bond used a gasoline tax as security but a sales
tax could not be substi toted as security for either of these
bonds. He stated that the only way to legally use a sales tax was
on a ' � )ay as you ,go " basis drawing- from either a street oz• g�:nera l
fund. He said that it was not illegal to pay crash or sales- tax
monies to pave roads and colllmented that the estimated completion
time would be 1'-15 years. Priorities would be established in
order to determine which roads would be paved first. He stated
that MCO would be contributing a share of money for this project,
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al though he did not yet Anow how much. The goad thing, 17e r% ir7tad
Out, about the "E77zy as J-IXI ro " pr'C7` r am Was that it did not Inc Cii'
any municipal debt..
The next alternative Mr. Nordin discussed was the "special
improvement. district. "' He e,�,Ia.ined the way this wor.kec; was that
by order of the Council a group of people 1 i ving on a small Or
limited street would be responsible for 100.' of the cost of paving
their street and would pay annually via a special assessment.. He
said the estimated time for completion would be determined by the
willingness of the residents to pay for their streets. He
mentioned that "tax payer inequity" would be an issue, and was
looking, for a more equitable si tua t. i on . He said that this does
not incur any municipal debt and no economy scale could be
considered. He str-essed- that he did not r•ecoziMend either of these
first two alternatives.
The HURF and GO bonds were alternatives strongly r•ecozimiended by
Mrs Nordin to be used in combination as a viable means for
financing the street paving pr (Zi ec t . Ile pointed out that. the HURF
bond would not increase ta.•:es because it was paid with revenue
received from gasoline taxes and was a street department. fund. He
stated the HURF bond Could be used effectively with the C;O bond
and the estimated time for completion would be. 1-3) years. He
commented that. the Torwi would be required to have a bond election
with two ballot. questions -- one for each bond issue.
Mr. Nordin stated that rat though the. HURF and GO bonds r•e;elired
voter approval the time for completion was significantly less than
the other options, the HURF and CTO bonds achieved a gocxl degree of
tax payer equity and paving pr•i0r•itieS were less significant due
to the shortened time for completion. He mentioned that h6 would
like to discuss the street paving prOjeCt again at the Cc-)unCil 'S
next work, 'study session and that.. MCO ryas working very diligently
to determine how much money they planned to contribute.
Mr. Nordinstated that the HURF band would contribute
allpt-oximately 1.2 million. He said that. the Town was not legally
responsible for the h'oad Chi s tri c t "s bond debt and that Mari copa
County was the entity legally r•es~,onsible to take all necessary
action to insure that those bonds were Paid. He coffx7en ted that
the new Town had more authority to raise money for street.
construction .includingr the ability to issue HURF and GCS bonds.
Mr. Nordin discussed his r-6COlIMend3tions as they were ocltlined in
his report. He. h.is estimations would provide funds
sufficient to perforlll the repair and maintenance work for all
Fountain Hills streets over the next five years while providing
money to support a HURT bond issue payment.. He said his
reCC?J7,YIIendati4L)17s were that the Town Council should approve by
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mo ti 017 the cost est1Mates as presented to tal117z, $5. 3 r!712 i cn . He
also said he felt that if the Town were to implement a sales ta,,
on food to suppl elliel7 t the road pa L'in, rr'o �' t `
t" s t� 51 dll.' Lhat 1 C. woL!
continue the sales tax for• the 1•o3d 'S use even after' the CLlr'rE'nt
pr'D7ect was complete. COU170il171an Fox reco11imanded tl7.it the l�iiti77
should wni t and consider other pro ralrls for which they, w�--7uld need
to levy sales taxes.
Three basic funding opti0l7s di -,cussed by Mr. Nordin were the "paj-•
as you go„ Special ?sSBsslllel7t alld the c-ombination HVlil't%017LY
issue. He said he felt the combination H(%' ,%%Ci�% boi7d isSUe
approach was the best option as it allowed the streets to be paved
in a timely manner «rid fifl;:in :ed ill all equitable fash.io17. His
recommendation was that the. Council should by motion direct staff
to take all appl•opr l a to action to implement the jIAIW/a7 bond
option to finance street paving in Fountain Hills.
Mr Nordin also recommended that the Tow77 Council should set the
date for the special bond election for March 1Z, 1991. He also
said that. the Tow17 Council should direct staff to prepare
appropriate ballot language to provide for both new street paving
and street Maintenance work.
B_ Discuss the Following:
a. Special Event Request by the Chamber of Commerce to Close off a
Portion of the Avenue of the Fountains for the Christmas Light.irrg
Prg9i-am.
Mayor Cu ti l l o co11111ien ted tha t the COL117011 AUS fLz1111 l i ar' w1 th this
request and could act on this item at its next regular meeting.
b. Mr. Mendell Oliphant "s presentation can purchasing a living
Christmas tree for Torn Ha11 and donating it to the schools after
the holidays to combat global warming and provide shade to the
playgrounds.
Vice Mayor NLldson sug ested that the Council should fcrz77ish a tree
each year to Town Hall for Cht-istma-- which could later be donated
to the schools or a local park.
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Mr. Farrell sug�-rested that the fo11n of the resolution should be changed to
ensure that the vendor would be paid.
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Mr. Farrell said that he felt the only discretionary part of this or-dinance
was the amount of $100 to offset promotional costs. Mayor Cutillo said he
felt that the amount should be set so that everyone could afford to make in
argument.. Mr. Farrell said the cost of printing materials for this puzpose
warranted the $100 fee. He said that this referendum and initiative was only
for primary and general elections and made the number of registered voters the
basis for• which the appl i ca t. i on of the applies. Vice Mayor Hudson
clarified that this could not effect a special election. Mr. Farrell said
that if the Council desired to impose an initiative election in between
r•egUlar elections they could amend their code but would be required to wait
until 30 days had elapsed before they could call the election.
The Council adjourned the worb;'study session at. 8:40 p.m.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
By: -- -
JohnV.-j-11011- M. Mayor
ATTEST: -- b 1 I
_--
Cassi e B . Hansen, Town Clerk
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and c:orr•ect copy of the
minutes of the Work-I'Study Session held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills
on the 4th day of December, 1990. I further certify that the meeting was duly
called and that a quorum was present.
DATED this -1TW-day of February, i i91.
L4:t�L-- '6 - ILaA_'C_)
B. Hansen, Town Clerk
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