HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPAC.2021.0428.Minutes5/26/2021
Minutes
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION
APRIL 28, 2021
CALL TO ORDER — Chairman Craft
at 4:00 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL — Chairman Craft
Present: John W. Craft, Jr., Chairman; Cynthia Magazine, Commissioner; John McHugh,
Commissioner; Chad Bernick, Commissioner; Patrick Garman, Commissioner;
Gerard Bisceglia, Commissioner
Absent: Peter Bordow, Vice Chairman
Staff Town Manager Grady Miller; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett -Espiritu
Present:
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.
No one from the public spoke.
4. CONSIDERATION OF Approving the March 24, 2021, Meeting Minutes.
MOVED BY Commissioner John McHugh, SECONDED BY Commissioner Cynthia
Magazine to APPROVE the March 24, 2021, meeting minutes.
Vote: 6 - 0 - Unanimously
5. UPDATE ON Vision Fountain Hills
Chair Craft said that the Vision Fountain Hills group has finally come up with a list of
questions for the second survey that follow-up to the survey that was done last summer.
Their target date to send the second survey is May 3, 2021. He invited everyone that has
not taken the second survey to do so by going on the website for Vision Fountain Hills.
He mentioned that they're drilling down in a number of areas, some of which he thinks will
be useful if they get good feedback:
If there is to be commercial retail growth in Fountain Hills, what area should we
encourage to grow first?
o Restaurants, health, Wellness, big box stores, entertainment
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2. The COVID pandemic has impacted shopping habits. Which one of the following
shopping habits most closely reflects you today?
o I do more online shopping, I do more local in-store shopping, I do less
shopping overall and my shopping habits have not changed.
3. Which of these aspects of the Fountain Hills community has contributed most to
improving your quality of life?
o Parks and recreation, public safety, special events, sense of community.
4. Which is the most important action Town of Fountain Hills can do with respect to
investing in internet access and broadband infrastructure?
o Offer or promote competition in the residential and commercial broadband
markets provide high-speed residential Internet service for low-income
residents without Internet service, increase investment in broadband corridors
to reach high growth business districts, upgrade and expand public broadband
to create high-speed town -wide access, and invest in innovative ways to
provide high-speed Internet to homes, businesses and the public.
5. Which one of the following goals is most important to you?
o Develop a comprehensive environmental plan that's inclusive of preserving our
open spaces, Develop ongoing maintenance upgrade plans for existing parks,
trails, and recreation areas and work with environmental organizations in
support of our local and surrounding natural settings, and wildlife.
6. If you had $1000 to spend on activities or facilities for youth in our community.
6. DISCUSSION OF Work Group Critiques
Strategic Priority #1 Infrastructure Workgroup —Commissioner Bernick and Commissioner
Garman
Chair Craft complimented Commissioner Bernick and Commission Garman on the
suggestion of renaming the Strategic Priority to "Maintain current infrastructure while
preparing the town for emerging infrastructure trends that increase public safety and
quality of life." (see attached document)
Commissioner Bernick said that after the last meeting, he took the suggestion and rewrote
it from a more tactical level to a more strategic level. He said, he then presented it to
Commissioner Garman, who spent a few days adding his additions.
Commissioner Bernick reviewed the following items from the Infrastructure Workgroup
document. (see attached)
The first signature strategy is still supporting that local broadband initiative with several
different support tasks. Enforcing codes for standards for 4 G and 5 G. Cell towers with the
backhaul lines that can support that type of infrastructure.
The second signature strategy is trying to partner with other agencies and outside entities
to evaluate the health of Fountain Hills Parks and its asset maintenance/management
plan. Put together scoring for the benchmarking for the different assets and what we're
going to invest in and what needs investment and then promote awareness.
The third signature strategy is to increase the ease and safety of multi -use aspects to
Fountain Hills' roads and coming up with master bicycle plans and pedestrian plans.
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The fourth signature strategy is developing an investment plan that's scheduled for
Fountain Hills' streets, medians, and buildings.
The fifth signature strategy is partnering with our utility providers looking for any beta
programs or experimentation that they're doing, and seeing if we can get on board with
that sooner to either reduce carbon emissions and have more environmentally friendly
impacts or improve utility services for the town of Fountain Hills and just be forward -
leaning in what we do with both our energy and water.
Town Manager Miller commented that the Finance Director is doing another update to the
Facilities Reserve plan which covers all town assets other than streets.
Chair Craft commented that he liked the scoring system.
Strategic Priority #2 Economic Development Workgroup - Chair Craft and Commissioner
Bisceglia
Chair Craft spoke on behalf of Economic Development. He acknowledged the
contributions from Commissioners Magazine, McHugh, and Garman. (see attached
document)
Chair Craft said that the group recommended adding a rationale to the strategy, which he
will add. He said it was recommended to eliminate the second paragraph "Fountain Hills is
a small community" in the preamble and had recommendations in regards to branding. He
said that he and Commissioner Bisceglia incorporated the recent voter -approved 2020
General plan that identifies three essential elements. He said that Fountain Hills is a small
community whose long-term sustainability relies heavily on having an active and effective
economic development plan. He mentioned that the local chamber and town actively but
separately work to support new and existing business growth and that the following
strategies and their supporting tasks attempt to address the prospective opportunity of
establishing a more unified business development effort locally and that the strategic
priority now includes the need for collaboration locally. He said that they modified the
complexity levels and added a couple of years per the workgroup recommendation. He
said that he changed the signature strategy to focus on the town's resources for recruiting
new businesses and industry segments compatible with local economic and demographic
realities with a supporting task is to develop industry -specific action plans for recruiting
Health and Wellness business and professional services, education, and Sciences. And
added a second supporting task to develop and actively promote an effective branding
image that emphasizes Fountain Hills, livability, Wellness, and Safety through prospective
businesses and organizations. He commented that what the workgroup recommended
was very appropriate.
Strategic Priority #3 Health, Well-being, and Safety Workgroup - Commissioner Magazine
and Commissioner McHugh
Commissioner McHugh said that SPAC (Strategic Planning Advisory Commission) is a
management consulting organization, we have been hired by the Town Council, who have
been elected to manage this town. The Town Council's job is to make meaningful progress
on achieving the town's mission and our job is to provide them with a plan on what we
think they should focus on for the next five years. He said we do that by identifying
strategic priorities, crafting signature strategies, and defining critical supportive tasks
needed to implement those strategies.
He said that he, Commissioner Magazine, and Commissioner Garman appreciate the
feedback they received.
Commissioner McHugh said it was suggested that they remove the words "local" and
"their" from Supportive Task D and that he was wondering why we would want to remove
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the word "local" and the word "their" since this plan is very locally focused. He said that
local organizations will work with national organizations as they see fit, but he thinks our
relationship needs to be with the organizations that are in our town.
Chair Craft responded that what he read was that we were -to work only with local
environmental organizations.
Commissioner McHugh said that he was puzzled as to why the word "safety" literacy was
suggested to omit from Signature Strategy 2, Task B.
Chair Craft responded that the intent was not to leave it out but to address health, well-
being, and safety separately in each task. In Task C, We offered to create awareness to
the town as a safe community focused on public health and well-being by developing a
contingency plan which would be a community coordinated, critical -based support service
in the event of unexpected occurrences.
Commissioner McHugh commented that they absolutely loved the rewrite of Task D, "work
directly with FHSD and its support groups in promoting the health, well-being, and safety of
their students."
Chair Craft requested that each of the workgroups take the inputs that were received
today, whether in writing or through the conversations, and decide what modifications, if
any, they want to make to their work product, and then get them to Angela.
7. DISCUSSION OF Strategic Plan 2021 Next Steps
Chair Craft said that Commissioner Bisceglia and Town Manager Miller have completed a
fairly comprehensive status report of the current 2017 Strategic Plan in terms of where
each of the specific goals and tasks is to date. This would be part of this plan going
forward in terms of what has been accomplished from the previous plan as it segues into
the new plan and requested it is available at the next meeting.
Town Manager Miller suggested a meeting with the Town's Department Directors to
receive their feedback and suggestions on the new plan.
Commissioner Bernick volunteered to write up a three or six -page mini -plan version and
present it to the group at the next meeting to see if it meets everyone's expectations prior
to presenting to town staff.
Commissioner Garman offered to work on an executive summary.
8. REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER
No reports from Commissioners and Town Manager.
9. ADJOURNMENT
MOVED BY Commissioner Gerard Bisceglia, SECONDED BY Commissioner John
McHugh to adjourn at 5:25 p.m.
Vote: 6 - 0 - Unanimously
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TTEST ANgf pREMARED BY:
Angefa 1='jpiritu, ExeAtiLve Assistant
STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY
COMMISSION
John W. Craft, Jr., Chair an
/,
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular
Meeting held by the Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission in the Town Hall Council
Chambers on the 28 day of April, 2021. 1 further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a
quorum was present. A
DATED this 26 day of May, 2021.
Angela Ejpiritu, Exd� Assistant
Fountain Hills Economic Development 2021
OBSERVATONS
April 21, 2021
Cynthia Magazine and John McHugh
When asked to review the work done by John Craft and Gerard Bisceglia on STRATEGIC PRIORITY "Proactively
seek to maximize targeted and collaborative economic development", our review suggests the following:
STRENGTHS
1. Strong emphasis on collaboration.
2. Interviewed a wide range of resident representatives.
3. Responds to input received from those interviewed.
4. A creative and potentially more effective overall strategy for econ dev than in the 2017 plan.
SUGGESTIONS
1. The Preamble: We recommend eliminating paragraph 2, "FH is a small community.....". It is somewhat
confusing, and its content does not appear to be addressed in any of the strategies or tasks below. Rework
paragraph 3 (now paragraph 2) accordingly.
2. No mention is made of "branding." This was an important part of the 2017 plan that was not addressed
and is still needed. This could be added as a Task supporting Signature Strategy #3.
3. The Town is experiencing sudden growth in health care services (Honor Health, new hospital, urgent care
opportunities are expanding). Is there a need to publicize them to prospective businesses?
4. We think both timeline and the complexity numbers need to be increased. More time than 1 year will
likely be needed to recruit and staff both the Alliance and the Business Advisory Council, schedule the number
of meetings necessary to begin work on forming and agreeing upon each organizations' goals and strategies,
and achieve consensus on the specific actions to be taken to implement the strategies. That is a lot to do in
one year and there are a lot of moving parts.
5. Signature Strategy #3 reads more like a Task than a Strategy. Is there a 3rd Signature Strategy that hasn't
been articulated that this Task would support? Branding perhaps? Also, can you help us understand "training
sectors?"
6. We suggest that you consider identifying some "low hanging fruit" opportunities that could provide more
immediate results while the bigger, structural issues are being addressed. One idea: Beef up James Smith's
budget in exchange for his providing a detailed Econ Dev marketing plan for the coming fiscal year.
SP#3 — Recommended Edits
Signature Strategy #1—
Supportive Task D - Delete the words "local" and "their"
Signature Strategy#2 —
Task A: Rewrite —'Actively pursue the expansion of preventive health and wellness access
within the FH community.'
Task B: Rewrite —'Improve the health and well-being literacy of FH residents.
Task C: Rewrite —'Create awareness of FH as a safe community focused on public health and
well-being by developing a FH Contingency Plan for coordinating critical, community -based
support services in the event of unexpected occurrences.'
1 year to develop Complexity 4 Collaboration — mandatory'
Task D: Rewrite —'Work directly with FHSD and its support groups in promoting the health,
well-being and safety of their students.'