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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990.1220.TCRM.MinutesI I I.tiM� l.. ' / •�rI A public meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened and called to order by Mayor John Cutillo at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, December 20, 1990 in the Fountain Hills School District Administration Building located at 14605 N. Del Cambre Ave., Fountain Hills, Arizona. ROLL CALL - Following the pledge to the flag and the invocation by Rev. Steve Gilbertson of the Fountain Hills Community Church, roll call was taken. Present for roll call were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council: Mayor John Cutillo, Vice Mayor Wally Hudson and Councilmembers Bill O'Brien, Charlie Fox, Frank Clark and Mike Minarsi ch . Absent was Counci 1 woman Peg Tibbetts. Also present were Town Manager Paul Nordin, Town Attorney Bill Farrell, Director of Community Development Gary Jeppson, and Town Clerk Cassie Hansen. A presentation of a clock with an insignia from the Mayor's Council of Guam, a plague, a card, two books and a flag from Guam was made to Mayor Cutillo by Mary Wood. Mr. Farrell explained that when the four Road Districts dissolved, they transferred a series of deeds to the town describing the various road's rights of way in each of the platted subdivisions. When those deeds were recorded, the title insurance companies indicated that they had some confusion as to the exact extent of the title that was transferred and posted some of those deeds - against. individual deeds of property. He said that this problem came to light as escrows carve to close. Mr. Farrell suggested that in order to facilitate recording the emergency clause be added. Mayor Cutillo made a 1' MAW to approve the resolution as read and include the emergency clause. SEQaW10 by Councilman Minarsich and SAABELM unanimously. Minutes of the. Town Council 12,TOX90 Page 1 of 7 0_ .ems r_� � �� � _%t/Y � � NY�.�/ .�__. a�/ Nl � ��Y _e !fi !� � �iI �. A MMIN was made by Councilman Fox to approve closing off portions of the Avenue of the. Fountains and Sggljar•o Boulevard for the rescheduled Christmas Lighting Program. SEMMM by Councilman Clark and CARglM unanimously. A b A ITTS?I #5 - PIS M ATI®N OF TIN STR= PAVING P82= REPORT BY YUNK Mr. Nordin began his presentation by giving a brief background of the people who would be most affected by implementation of the street paving program. He commented that both the public and the Council had been cooperative and caring. Mr. . Nordin gave a brief history of the Road Districts and what they had meant to Fountain _Hills in the. past.. He commented that even though they were disbanded their effects were still being felt. He mentioned two law suits which stopped the Road District's ability to continue their paving work, and also that even though the Road Districts were dissolved in June, 1990 just after the Town 's incorporation in December of 1989, the bond debt of $6 million which was incurred between 1972 to 1979 would be paid off at the conclusion of 1999. He said this debt was exactly at the "half -way" point. with $3 million still outstanding of the original bond. Mr. Nowlin explained that in any kind of program which provided for street paving, there must also be a component for maintenance of the existing roads-. He demonstrated that property owners who 1 i ved on unpaved roads in Fountain Hills paid for the paved roads and deserved to have their roads paved as well. He also discussed Resolution 40 which was drafted in 1983 as an a9r•eeMe17t between the Road Districts and NCO which divided the paving responsibilities. He, explained that his paving program did not include all the roads which Resolution 40 addressed because it omitted those streets on which no-one lived. He said that based on 1990 estimates the cost for paving these non- -included streets was $1.9 million, and should be dealt with separately from the balance of the current. project.. Mr. Nordin stated that. Mbn was not 'getting out of their responsibility" as provided by Resolution 40 because this agreement was made null and void when _ the Road Districts were dissolved. NCO still admitted their obligation based on ownership for those roads which were adiacent to its properties or de vet opmen is and arrived at a net amount of $420, 000. He said that. NCO had -"'reed to pay this amount as the paving program progressed in proportion to the work entailed. He said that the Town would also assume that participation guidelines similar to those outline! in Resolution 40 would be agreeable for any paving omitted from the scope of the current program. Minutes of the Town Council 1 ? ,20190 Page 2 of 7 Mr. Nordin explained his road paving program and its scope as compared to Resolution 40. He discussed the different options available for financing such as obtaining federal funding, using sales taxes, obtaining HURF funding and holding bond elections, and what impact each of these options would have on the Town's citizens. He said if the Town used HURF bond money that taxes would not increase as this was gasoline tax money. He said that when the Town incorporated, it became eligible to receive HURF bond money from the State of Arizona. Mr. Nordin showed that he had compiled an analysis of the Town's HURF receipts and gave a five year projection of what the Town "s revenue would be. He pointed out the three main sources of funding -- the HURF bond issue, MCC, and the General Obligation ('GO) bond. He stated that the terms for the GO bond would be 20 years for $3.52 million, and an average annual payment at 7.5.Z interest would be approximately $445, 000. He said that property tax assessments would be $.41 per $100 of assessed value or would be. $41 annually for a $100,000 home. Mr. Nordin suggested that the Town should hold the bond election on March 12. 1991. He recommended that the Town Council should publicly state that the Town of Fountain Hills is no longer responsible for any past Road District activities, and was not financially responsible for their bonded debt. He explained that the Town had little authority to levy taxes sufficient to pay off the Road District bonds and this responsibility became Maricopa County's as per the Road District statutes. Mr. Nordin recommended that the Town Council should confirm its commitment to pave the unpaved streets except in the areas of new development or where it was the developer's res-ponsibility. He also recommended that the. Council should approve his cost estimates of $5.1 million which included $200,000 for renovation of Fountain Hills Boulevard, and should direct staff to take all appropriate actions to implement the HURF bond option. Ms. Diane Parks who lives on Spotted Horse Way asked if Safeway and Walgreens could help with funding for maintaining Fountain Hills Boulevard, especially during the time which they were building. Mr. Jeppson stated that the development was paying for improvements just adjacent to the property, but was not assessed for the area of road from Shea Boulevard to Palisades. Mayor Cutillo commented that since truckers paid the highest license fees and gas taxes in the state they helped to pay for the improvements. Mr. Walt Franklin stated that he was in favor of paving, but was not very comfortable with the fact that the importance of Fountain Hills Boulevard was being downplayed. He said he felt that due to the fact that the population of Fountain Hills was 10,000 and still growing, Fountain Hills Boulevard would always have heavy traffic as it was the fastest and shortest route to downtown. He said he felt that to go into a project without a plan to improve Fountain Hills Boulevard was less than a full effort and questioned why the Town would back away from another million or million and one-half and totally ignore that road. He urged the Council to look for alternatives which would allow for inclusion of some funds to take care of Fountain Hills Boulevard as a part of this project. Mayor Cutillo commented he felt that paving of Minutes of the Town Council 12/20,190 Page 3 of Fountain Hills Boulevard] could be done at a later time as it could possibly be paved with federal funds should the state consider it a "state road of regional significance. " Councilman O'Brien added that because. the Town Was applying for federal funds it may have had to meet currently unknown developmental standards which would make the cost difficult to estimate. Councilman Clark commented that he felt the Council was not downplaying the importance of Fountain Hills Boulevard, but was playing up the importance by stating that it needed to be looked at in much greater detail and that the possibility of obtaining federal funding did exist. Ms. Mary Wood commented to the Council that when the high school began construction, heavy equipment would be brought up Fountain Hills Boulevard. Mr. Dick Songer cautioned the Council that it should wait until after January 15, 1991 to see if a "shooting war" had begun. He commented that if the country did participate in a "shooting war" the price of paving roads would increase substantially due to the greater price of petroleum products. Councilman Fox responded that any action the Council took would be no more than to approve the program and call an election to see if the community was willing to authorize the sale of bonds, but not the actual sale of bonds. He said that because the election would not take place until March 12, 1991, the Council would have plenty of time to react to a "shooting war." Councilman Minarsich elaborated that the bonds would not have to be issued simply because they had been authorized, but that the Council could wait for a more economically feasible time to do the project. Councilman Fox commented that taxes would not go up until the bonds were sold. Ms. Mary Petroff asked the Council if HURF and GO bonds were tied in any way to transportation and if the money was to be devoted' purely to road paving. Mr. Farrell answered that the Town still had the Local Transportation Assistance Funds (LTAF) available for transportation related needs. He mentioned that there were general guidelines as to how both the HURF and LTAF funds were spent. Mr. Gary Spriggins asked if there was a way to structure bond election issues so voters could commit funds which didn 't raise their taxes first, thus enabling the Town to have done as much as possible without the GO bond. Councilman Fox answered that the two ballot questions were set up so this was done. Councilman Clark further agreed that these two questions were entirely independent of each other. Mr. Nordin stated that he wanted to get the HURF bond as high as possible. He also stated that he wanted to reserve the right to make 817 adjustment to increase the HURF bond issue slightly if his figures indicated more money was needed for this project. Minutes of the Town Council 12120190 Page 4 of 7 Mr. Bob Pollack commented that the citizens could vote to use both the HUFF money and the GO bond so that the tax rates would still be less than what was being paid with the Road Districts. Councilman Minarsich commented that this was the most critical message which needed to be conveyed to property owners. He said that the Town eliminated $,75 per $100 assessed value on property tax and that by 'putting back" $.41, property owners would still have a net savings of $.34 per $100. He further commented that the Town had been instrumental in reducing taxes. Mr. Farrell commented that this community had not caused taxes- to go up, but there were approximately 1,100 bodies which could pass a levy to cause the real property tax to go up. Because of the lending institution's practices, many property owners never saw their tax bills, they only saw the assessed value. He said that although the amount that was levied for the Road Districts went down other governmental bodies such as the school board caused overall tax rates to go up. Mr. Joel Cattleman asked the Council if it was possible and if it was favorable to combine the debts of the Road Districts to have one bond election. Mr. -Farrell answered that probably no savings would incur and that this would be a serious legal impediment as the Town did not become the Road Districts. Councilman Minarsich stated that he felt there was much confusion over what the Road District debt was,, and pointed out that voter authorized bonds were issued, sold and used to pave some roads prior to the litigation. He said that the $6 million debt for road paving which was being paid off was part of an overall $18 million which had been approved. Councilman Clark commented that it had been the intention of the Road District to refinance the $3 million which remained of this debt, add the additional requirement and stretch it out for a few more years. Mr. Cattleman asked if money incurred from a bond election could be used one or two years later at the C.ouncil's discretion. Councilman Fox said the reason this was not a good idea was because Fountain Hills Boulevard may draw as much as 90k funding from federal sources and, due to current economics, property owners would not desire increasing their taxes to supplement a fund to be used at the Counci 1 's discretion. He said that the Council did not want to delay consideration of Mr. Nowlin 's report while waiting for this funding, and said that the. Town could go ahead with paving of other roads. Mr. Nordin stated that if federal funding was not secure' the issue of Fountain Hills Boulevard could either be dealt with separately in a separate bond election or the Council could decide to increase the current request. Mr. Cattleman said that he felt that the psychology of the bond issue could be conformed to the citizenry as an in tegia ted type of bond issue that wasn 't just for people who lived on unpaved streets, but improved the network of streets in the community for everyone. Mayor Cutillo commented that if the Council accepted and voted on the recommendation of Mr. Nordin Mr. Cattleman would be a good chairman for the committee. Minutes of the Town Council 121'20/90 Page 5 of 7 Councilman Minarsich pointed out the great economic benefit of having all the roads paved in Fountain Hills. He said that if the roads were paved more people would purchase lots and build homes, therefore spreading out the tax base for the entire community and reducing taxes for everyone. He commented that selling points should be conveyed to the community and that if this was done effectively, the paving project would pass. Councilman Clark made a AUTILW to approve the cost estimates that had been prepared by staff totalling $5.15 million and that staff be directed to take appropriate action to implement the HURF and GO bond option to finance maintenance and new street paving in Fountain Hills and, further, that a special bond election date be. established. He said he wanted to leave the bond election date vogue and urged the staff to continue pursuing the feasibility of holding the election either on February 26, or March 12, 1991. Councilman Fox SEMMM the motion. (,councilmen Fox and Minarsich shared their feelings in that they were not in favor of having the election on February 26, 1991, but had no objections to the street paving project. Vice Mayor Hudson commented he felt that because Mr. Nordin had put a great deal of work into the report and worked a great deal with the Council to correct items which were controversial he supported it heartily. Mayor Cutillo said he also supported the motion including February 26, 1991 as an election date. Mr. Farrell told the Council that an election date could be set up within 30 to 60 days in advance. Councilman Minarsich stated for the record his opposition to holding the election on February 26, 1991 because he believed it did not leave the Council enough time to mount a successful campaign to communicate the message. He said he felt this issue should be dealt with by the voters of Fountain Hills separately as he felt voter turn -out could be a problem. He further said he felt that the bond issue should have the full attention of the voters of Fountain Hills. Mr. Farrell said that this motion did not legally require that a unique date for the election be specified. He said that the Council had to prepare a series of documents, one of which would be a resolution to call for an election. He stated that at that time he would discuss the pros and cons from a financial standpoint of the two election dates. Once the decision was made, he said that the election date would be inserted into the resolution and published in the. papers. He established that the motion was fine as it was stated. Minutes of the Town Council 12120190 Page 6 of 7 A 0 There being no further discussion by the Council or the public, the motion C RBI10 unanimously. Mary Petroff asked the Council when bids were due from the cable television companies. Mr. Nordin answered that they were due on Friday, January 4, 1991. Vice Mayor Hudson made the BMW to adjourn. SM2YDgl by Councilman O "Brien, and CABBLW unanimously. The Council adjourned at 8:17 p.m. TOWN OF -hrU TAI LLS By: John M. Cu i11o, Mayor ATTEST: C. � & I Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the regular meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 20th day of December, 1991. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this �+ - day of January, 1991. &�"- & ' Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk Minutes of the Town Council 12/20/90 Page 7 of 7 9