Press Alt + R to read the document text or Alt + P to download or print.
This document contains no pages.
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022.04.12.TCSMBW.Minutes TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
APRIL 12, 2022
SPECIAL MEETING
1. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE — Mayor Dickey
Mayor Dickey called the Special Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held April 12,
2022, to order at 5:50 p.m. and then led the Council and audience in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
2. ROLL CALL—Mayor Dickey
Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey; Vice Mayor Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Peggy
McMahon; Councilmember Mike Scharnow; Councilmember Alan Magazine;
Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember David Spelich
Staff Town Manager Grady E. Miller; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk
Present: Elizabeth A. Klein
3. CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
All items listed on the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine, noncontroversial matters and will be
enacted by one motion of the Council. All motions and subsequent approvals of consent items will include all
recommended staff stipulations unless otherwise stated. There will be no separate discussion of these items
unless a councilmember or member of the public so requests. If a councilmember or member of the public
wishes to discuss an item on the Consent Agenda, he/she may request so prior to the motion to accept the
Consent Agenda or with notification to the Town Manager or Mayor prior to the date of the meeting for which
the item was scheduled. The items will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in its normal
sequence on the agenda.
A. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving a Special Event Liquor License
application for the Fountain Hills VFW Post 7507 for a beer garden in conjunction with the
Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce Gala on April 22, 2022.
MOVED BY Councilmember David Spelich, SECONDED BY Councilmember Mike
Scharnow to approve the Special Event Liquor License.
Vote: 7 - 0 Passed - Unanimously
4. ADJOURNMENT
The Special Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held April 12, 2022, adjourned at
5:51 p.m.
4
4
Town Council Regular Meeting of April 12, 2022 2 of 2
BUDGET WORKSHOP
1. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Dickey called the Budget Workshop of the Fountain Hills Town Council held April
12, 2022, to order at 5:51 p.m.
2. PRESENTATION: Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Proposed Budget.
3. ADJOURNMENT
MOVED BY Councilmember David Spelich, SECONDED BY Councilmember Sharron
Grzybowski to adjourn.
Vote: 7 - 0 Passed - Unanimously
The Budget Workshop of the Fountain Hills Town Council held April 12, 2022, adjourned
at 7:46 p.m.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
C�� O
Gin Dicke , Mayor
ATTEST AND PREPARED BY:
Eliza eth ein, Town Clerk
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 1 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
Post-Production File
City of Fountain Hills
April 12, 2022 Combined Special Meeting/Budget Workshop
Transcription Provided By:
eScribers, LLC
* * * * *
Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not
be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
* * * * *
Page 1 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 2 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MAYOR DICKEY: Good evening, and welcome. I think we are starting with a regular
meeting, so we'll stand and do the pledge,please.
ALL: Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic
for which it stands, one nation,under God, indivisible,with liberty and justice for all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. I think we're going right to roll call. Looking at the
agenda.
TOWN CLERK KLEIN: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Here.
CLERK KLEIN: Vice Mayor Friedel.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Present.
CLERK KLEIN: Council Member McMahon.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Here.
CLERK KLEIN: Council Member Scharnow.
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Present.
CLERK KLEIN: Council Member Magazine.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Here.
CLERK KLEIN: Council Member Spelich.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Present.
CLERK KLEIN: Council Member Grzybowski.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Present.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. We have one item on this regular special meeting, a
consent agenda item. Can I get a motion?
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Motion to approve.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All in favor, say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So I will adjourn the -- do I have to take a motion to
adjourn?
CLERK KLEIN: No.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Okay. We adjourn. And now we're going to open the
Page 2 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 3 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
budget workshop, call this meeting to order.
And Grady?
TOWN MANAGER MILLER: Yes, thank you, Mayor and Council. We're about to give
you a presentation on the Fiscal Year'22/'23 budget. Our finance director and his staff
have worked very closely with all the department directors to put together the proposed
budget that you'll see before you tonight. One of the most important activities that the
Council takes part in and actually participates in and gives direction to staff is on a
spending plan.
A spending plan, basically, is our annual budget process, and it highlights all of
the major priorities of the Council for the next 12 months, both from an operating budget
standpoint and services and programs, but also our major capital projects. And these are,
again, the highlights and priorities of the Council. And this typically starts with our staff
in November, December, and then the Council receives some preliminary budget
information at the retreat in February, and then we go through and further refine and
develop the process. And as you know, mid-March, we actually had a capital
improvement program budget meeting with the Council, and the Council was able to
provide us additional details. So this is a process that we don't take lightly, and it's very
important. And we also had as late as last week, I believe, we had citizen involvement,
and we had an open house on the budget last week as well, so that we could take public
input before we actually have a final budget for Council consideration and adoption in
May.
With that, I'm going to go ahead and turn the presentation over to David
FINANCE DIRECTOR POCK, our finance director, who will go through and do the
presentation.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Hi.
DIRECTOR POCK: Hello. All right. So yeah, this is our first official look at the
proposed budget for Fiscal Year'23. And to start off, we're going to look-- you've
already seen this information actually before. This is the Fiscal Year'22, a year-end
estimates. Just take a quick look at them again so that kind of get some reference point to
where we're going to be starting the year.
Restricted Funds, as we've said before, are basically externally restricted either by
Page 3 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 4 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
statute or by an outside external entity. The biggest one of these funds is the Streets
Fund, looking at about 1.5 million to end the year, and then you can see the rest of those.
We don't have any debt service, so those next three are basically just carried over
balances that roll over from year to year.
Then as far as Committed Funds, these are basically internally Restricted Funds,
restrictions set by Council. We have the Stabilization Fund, a Rainy Day Fund, and that's
going to be around 3.9 million according to policy. Capital Projects Fund's looking at--
it's going to end up around 4.4, and then the remaining funds there.
Then as far as Assigned Funds, these are basically restricted by a town policy.
You got the Environmental Fund with 430,000. The Facilities Reserve Fund looks
enormous, but we have-- that's where we have the 4.2 million and General Fund savings
from this current year. We do get a little bit better interest rate since those funds are
managed by PFM, our investment managers. I looked at that, and we got last month -- I
think we were at .67 percent interest on it, but when you compare that to our LGIP that
gets .01, it makes a difference, so. And then our Replacement Funds, and then finally,
our Unassigned Balance in the General Fund, and you can see that at 9.2.
As far as all the summary, across all funds, 3.4 million. And then the stability
metrics that we have, we're actually improving year over year from 6.2 months of average
revenue in Unassigned compared to 6.4 is where we're expecting this year to end up.
And that's taking out the CARES Act fund and ARPA money and that sort of thing, so.
All right. Any questions so far on where we're going this year?
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. So real quick, I mentioned ARPA funds. Wanted to take
a look since we did receive that first installment of 4.2 million dollars in July, and then
we'll take a look at some year-end transfers that are being suggested. So 4.2 received in
July. 3.4 million is going to Rural Metro for the fire and emergency medical, 800,000 for
MCSO. So that resulted in General Fund savings of that same amount, 4.2.
And as far as suggestions going forward, it's my suggestion that we leave that 4.2
in Facilities Fund under management by PFM to continue getting that higher interest rate
since we will be receiving another 4.2 in July of this year. Then we can use that money
to pay for our public safety fund contracts. The General Fund savings for next year, we
can actually use and transfer to the Streets Fund, and use that for pavement maintenance.
Page 4 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 5 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
And we can do that two years, so we can do it for Fiscal Year'23 and '24, and then for
'25, we can pull the money out of the Facilities Reserve and do that for another two years.
MAYOR DICKEY: Dave--
DIRECTOR POCK: Yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: --just this aspect of it, FY25, this is just a general discussion.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, because there's, you know, facilities. There's other things
happening in Fountain and all that, so there's nothing here binding?
DIRECTOR POCK: Nothing bind --
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
DIRECTOR POCK: Nothing binding at all. Yeah, the only thing that we would be
looking for is direction on next year and how we want to handle the transfers.
All right. So these are suggestions, obviously subject to change. We do need a
transfer into the Environmental Fund to keep that fund operating, suggested 500,000.
That's what we typically have done in the past. Last year, we had also done the same
types of transfers for Facilities Reserve. We did 500,000 for the operational expenses for
that, and then put a million dollars towards the Lake Liner, so that's recommended to do
that again this year. And then the remainder basically falls under that category that gets
transferred to the Capital, Capital Fund.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah, I talked to David about this, I don't know,
yesterday, the day before. I'm going to want to come back to the 500,000 for Facilities
Reserve for annual funding, because I think we have an issue to discuss there.
DIRECTOR POCK: And we will have an opportunity to talk about that. I believe our
discussion that we had on the phone was the understanding that the study that was done
in 2016 suggested about 960,000 a year, plus kind of an escalator each year for inflation,
so this is below that amount.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Well, maybe this is the time to raise it. Yeah, it
was 2016, and with inflation, that 960,000 we discussed would be well over a million a
year. This year we're contributing, as you showed, 500,000 -- for Fiscal Year'18 through
'20, it was 500,000. Fiscal Year'21, zero. Fiscal Year'22, one and a half, with one
million going to the Liner.
Page 5 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 6 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR POCK: Correct.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And so what I raised with you is as we move
forward, let's say several years, 2027, you and I --
DIRECTOR POCK: '27.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: -- discussed, what do you think that would look
like?
DIRECTOR POCK: So according to the plan now, if we continue to put 500,000 in
towards expenses in Fiscal Year'27, there would be a negative balance in the Facilities
Reserve.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Be a negative balance?
DIRECTOR POCK: Yes.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah, I think that's something we really need to
address. And it relates to some of the items in this year's budget that I'm having real
second thoughts about, but we don't have to get into right now.
DIRECTOR POCK: Okay. And I will mention-- sorry.
MANAGER MILLER: I think you were going to say what I was just going to say. Do
you want to bring up the plan update that's underway right now?
DIRECTOR POCK: So currently we have contracted with Willdan to go through in the
study, and the program, and basically all the line item expenses, the funding of it, to see
how much it would actually cost. There's been some --maybe some shortcomings in the
current plan as far as the amount that was anticipated to do certain things when they were
going to be needed, that sort of thing. Everybody knows that inflation's out whack right
now. So we're basically looking at all those things right now, so we will have more
information and bring that back to Council.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And with this progression in the outyears, if we
suddenly get hit with-- other than the Liner-- get hit with things like a roof, a cooling
system, a chiller, so on, we'd be out of money, correct?
DIRECTOR POCK: In the fund, in that particular fund, yes --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- that's a potential.
MAYOR DICKEY: Mike?
Page 6 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 7 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Well, in light of that then, are you still
recommending the 500,000? Or should we, you know, cut into the Lake Liner by half?
Or I mean, or are we go
ing to talk more about this tonight?
g g g
DIRECTOR POCK: We will definitely have many more conversations as we get closer
to the end of fiscal year to see how things are shaping up. These can obviously change
between now and the tentative budget and the final budget. The transfers is kind of an
accounting deal. We don't actually budget for the transfers because that would be double
counting some expenditures. So these can change without effecting the actual budget
number. It's basically, though, something that we need to know going into the next fiscal
year so we know basically what's going to get transferred to the capital fund. That's kind
of the last step.
MANAGER MILLER: Yeah, and I just -- I want to put out a couple different things. So
David, how much did we put away last year for the Lake Liner?
DIRECTOR POCK: A million.
MANAGER MILLER: Okay. And then how much did we put away last year for the
Facilities Reserve?
DIRECTOR POCK: 500,000. We --
MANAGER MILLER: Okay.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- transferred a total of 1.5.
MANAGER MILLER: But the reason why I'm saying that, and again, this year, I am
concerned about this, but I also want to point out that we actually contributed one and a
half million last year, and we're recommending for next year.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MANAGER MILLER: So in other words, these are items -- the Laker Liner is actually
in the Facility Reserve as an actual, you know, line item. So we actually, rather than-- so
we were very-- we were exceeding the million dollars by a half million dollars. But I'm
acknowledging, I mean, we actually had,when the primary property tax was proposed, a
million of that each year was going to go into this fund. So we recognize that a half
million dollars was just not going to cut it, and there is a problem with that. So as the
finance instructor indicated, when we get that report, there's going to be a lot of
discussion I think, and hopefully we'll be able to put our thinking caps on in how we can
Page 7 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 8 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
get as close as we can to what the new report or the new study is indicating that we need
to set aside each year.
And I do remember when we had the study back in, I think it was '16 --
DIRECTOR POCK: Um-hum.
MANAGER MILLER: -- they had, like, I believe two or three different scenarios. One
was level funding, 960-some-odd thousand dollars a year. They also had a -- like, you
could start off lower and then go progressive, or you could actually start off higher and
then progressively, you know, go lower. Kind of like what you can do with, you know,
debt financing and such. So anyways,just wanted to let you know. And then some of
the things that are in there, you probably could finance if you had to. We've always
talked about the Lake Liner is something that we could probably go and seek bond
financing for, the Laker Liner and all those other improvements. But again, this is the
type of stuff that keeps a finance director and a town manager up at night, trying to
balance all these different needs that our community has.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Well, I'm not surprised to hear that you're on top of
it. You always are, but the Lake Liner isn't the only thing. It's, you know, there's a
multitude of other possibilities that we'll have to finance. And we keep talking about the
Lake Liner, but there is much more than that that can come up and will come up. And a
million dollars is fine, but what's a million dollars five years from now with inflation? So
all of these things, I think, have to -- and I know you know this -- all of those things have
to be taken into consideration. I just think we have to be very cautious.
MAYOR DICKEY: I have a couple of questions. So was this a Council policy, or was
this just something that we're doing? Like, so for example, we have the one percent tax,
sales tax that--or whatever the actual fraction is that goes to downtown or that goes to
tourism and such. So these were committed or whatever, internally committed. This is
not in that?
DIRECTOR POCK: This schedule is not. In total, the final point there, the reserve,the
remaining revenues to Capital Projects, is the only thing that's actually outlined in policy.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So do you recommend doing that? Having an actual policy
that says such and such percentage of something will always go to facilities, or is that
overkill? Or does it help ensure that we put enough in there?
Page 8 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 9 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MANAGER MILLER: I think it's something to look at that. I'm not really sure in the
end what -- what happened is, you can see we've got very good policies relating to
reserves, and we're setting aside a lot of money per a policy into reserves. But what
would start to happen is your operations would start to suffer. You would not have
enough going into operations if we fully funded everything we needed to. Because if
you look at, like, things like public safety grow typically at a faster clip than the rest of
the budget. And so --
MAYOR DICKEY: Right.
MANAGER MILLER: -- we're -- so I do think it's probably we do need to have policies
in place, but I'd like to see what the -- what our Willdan team is going to propose to us
and recommend how other cities address these types of needs. We've only had this
facilities replacement fund or Facilities Reserve since 2016, so it's a relatively new thing
for the town to begin with.
MAYOR DICKEY: That's true. And I'm sorry. It makes sense --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: No problem.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- sorry about that -- it makes sense to do that, and I know that in the
past when we've tried to set a percentage or something, we've found, you know, during a
recession or something, we might have to change the balance from 35 --
MANAGER MILLER: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- to 65 to whatever, 50/50. I wanted to bring this up because -- and
since you did that, I'll do it with the Environmental Fund. So we don't have an
environmental fee anymore, and since we are largely funding all of these storm water and
water management with just Capital Funds or you know, hopefully maybe we can get
some infrastructure funding for some of this stuff, but would it just be worth it to not
even say we have an Environmental Fund? Or call it a storm order fund? Because we're
not replenishing it with anything.
DIRECTOR POCK: No. I hesitate a little bit because I -- okay. If I put on my auditor
hat from the old days --the olden days -- it wouldn't be a fund,because it doesn't have a
dedicated revenue source for that purpose. When you look at the Streets Fund, it has a
dedicated funding source. So as it stands now, and if there was no looking to doing an
environmental fee down the road, it probably would be best to wind up that fund. But
Page 9 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 10 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
yeah, right now it does give us that option.
MAYOR DICKEY: Which reminds me, have we ever heard back on being legally
challenged by the state legislature or the AG's office on our ability to collect these funds?
Which would've been collecting about 600,000 a year for the last, I don't know, for or
five years. That sure would've helped with golden eagle and all these other storm order
issues we have --
MANAGER MILLER: We haven't--
MAYOR DICKEY: -- and washes.
MANAGER MILLER: We haven't unless it came through in the last 15 minutes, nope.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
MANAGER MILLER: Nope, we haven't.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Mike?
MANAGER MILLER: There might be an opportunity after the election depending on
who's in that seat to, you know, if there's one that's friendlier towards cities, we may try
to get the opinion. If there's one that's not,just to leave it the way it is, unfortunately.
But--
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Sir?
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Just a quick question. Is there any county money
or state money that we could get for our Environmental Fund? I don't know if there's any
money out there. I just thought I'd throw that out there. I know there's a lot of other
things they look at, but.
MAYOR DICKEY: Just answering,just, there are grants and there are partnerships with
the county and such,but as far as it existing as a fund, it was there because we were
collecting the fee. So as long as it -- it doesn't have to maintain an entity just in case
we're able to collect it again then I would say if we did, it wouldn't have to go into a
particular fund, you know. We'd probably apply for something to say, oh, you know, can
we fix the pipe around the panorama or whatever.
MANAGER MILLER: Mayor, that was a masterful response. Thank you. Because we
are working with the Maricopa County Flood Control District right now on some
potential, either partnerships or grant assistance, for some of our drainage, like our
Drainage Master Plan.
Page 10 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 11 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
Right, David? But it wouldn't have to go into the Environmental Fund, so.
MAYOR DICKEY: Go on.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Based on this discussion, getting back to the reserve
fund, I may have said this before. I really don't see putting a million dollars into the
Liner. We're going to have to go to a bond, and personally, I would take half of that at
least, or all of it, and put it in the Reserve Fund, and then decide whether or not we want
to use it. For example, for Streets or for something else. But I just don't understand the
reasoning behind putting that much money aside for the Liner when it's almost definite
we're going to have to go for a bond.
MANAGER MILLER: Mayor, a couple years ago we had -- Black &Veatch did an
analysis of the lake, and they gave us good news. The good news was that we had a little
bit more life left to the Lake Liner, and so we thought, let's use the time and let's try to
build up a balance that we could maybe use as a down payment and then maybe finance
the balance of it. So it was a good-- I understand where Council Member Magazine's
coming from on that,but I think the Council, at the time, thought that this is an
opportunity. We have time a little bit on our side, so let's go ahead and set aside money.
And then we go before our voters to ask if they might wish to consider approving a bond
question, we can go say, look, we've already set aside x number of dollars, and so we
don't have to finance quite as much. So that was kind of the thinking of the Council at
that time.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I don't really want to get into a debate over this,but
with the Reserve Funds basically going in a negative trajectory, I guess maybe that policy
needs to be rethought. If we're talking about a negative by 2027, and that's not including
any extra things or emergencies that come along, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me
to put a million dollars into the Liner right now when you could put that million dollars
into the Reserve Fund. So that's just my position.
MANAGER MILLER: Well,just for clarification, and I appreciate what you're saying,
Council Member Magazine, it is still just going into the Reserve Fund. So Council
ultimately will make the decision what to do with that money, and if the Council's
decision-- or if they have a different change in heart, they can certainly do that. But the
good news is one and a half million dollars is going into that Reserve Fund.
Page 11 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 12 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. I guess I'm a little late with the slide, so --
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
DIRECTOR POCK: -- we'll just keep going.
All right. So looking at the Fiscal Year'23,just some ground rules as we get
started. One of the letter-- I don't know if the Council had a chance to look online at the
online version of the budget book, but it is available online through the town's website.
It's easy to navigate. You can get to things pretty easy, so we're excited about that. And
we weren't quite as late getting the book out this year as we were last year dealing with
Microsoft Publisher, but anyways. A reminder that budget authority is not the same as
fund balance. Budget authority is the permission. Fund balance is the actual resources
that we use to purchase goods and services.
If revenues are less than expected next year, the expenditures also have to
decrease so that we can maintain fund balance. The tentative budget will be considered
May 3rd, and that budget sets the absolute maximum that we can budget for next year.
So that's coming up in a few weeks, and then the final budget is adopted June 7th. We
can reduce the amount that is adopted in the tentative, but we cannot increase it.
As far as revenues for next year, the common referring that we stay conservative
when we're estimating revenues. Basically, they're forecasted using a trend method with
a ninety-eight percent confidence level. And we also don't include revenues on
incomplete projects, like the Havenly across the street. We didn't include any TPT
revenue from that project until they're completed.
Also, the preliminary state shared revenues, those numbers have been delayed this
year from the League. They're still waiting for the DOT numbers. I was told yesterday
in an email that we should have them by the end of this week. We shall see. So far the
estimates that you'll see in here are basically just my own based on prior years.
Alright. As far as expenditures, the contingency that's included in the general
government department within the General Fund, for next year, it's 2.9 has been included
there. That's basically necessary because we estimate revenues at a certain level. Our
base budget and supplements, if they fall below that revenue estimate, we have to make
up that difference to keep a balanced budget. So like I said, 2.9 included for next year.
You can see that the expenditures, excluding contingency for the current year, were 19.7.
Page 12 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 13 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
Next year's 20.3, $600,000 increase in next year's base budget. And also, the
recommended budget supplements are included in the numbers that you'll see coming up.
So across all the funds, you can see General Fund makes up about three quarters
of the pie, and then the other's their Streets, next largest one at fourteen percent. And
then, I guess, yeah, Special Revenue and Capital Projects are tied there.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Where do the roundabout and shade structures
show up?
DIRECTOR POCK: Those would be in the Capital Fund. This is the actual revenue
slide, so it's not going to be on this slide, but these are the revenues coming into the town
into each--
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Right. Right.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- of those funds.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Right. Right. Okay.
DIRECTOR POCK: This slide, as far as expenditures, it would be in that Capital
Projects portion.
So just to point out total revenues for next year, 31.7. You can see total
expenditures for next year across all funds is 40.5 million. That difference is fund
balance that would be used. Basically Streets and Capital Projects use fund balance to
fund a lot of their operations.
All right. So as far as general fund goes, we're going to start off looking at the
supplements. These are the non-personnel on-going supplements.
MANAGER MILLER: And just to put this in perspective. In this past, when you've had
your notebooks, this was the green sheet, so.
DIRECTOR POCK: I don't know if I need to read through each of these or if
everybody's had a chance to look at them. If there's any questions about these ones?
MAYOR DICKEY: So just to point out, so the first one is the request or the cost or
whatever. The second column, or the next to last column, I mean, is what town managers
-- so that is the actual amount we're more looking at, right?
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: What you actually--
Page 13 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 14 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR POCK: Yeah, it's (indiscernible) it.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- are approving of, and then I noticed -- so I had asked Grady about
the Biz Hub thing before. It didn't have an offset, but now it does, so thanks for putting
that in there. Because we are anticipating, if we go through with that, that there would be
some income coming in, so that's not just the total expense on that one. If you have had a
chance to look through these, did you have any questions?
Gerry, Vice Mayor?
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: I do have a couple of questions. Thank you, Mayor.
The Biz Hub, I love the idea and the program, but my concern with that lease is
that that building is 50 years old, and there are undoubtedly issues that I want to make
sure that we're not on the hook for. There's plumbing, roof, air conditioning, major
mechanical issues with that. Has that been taken into consideration? And we're leasing
that, so are we responsible for any of those repairs?
MANAGER MILLER: First of all, it's not a done deal.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Oh, okay.
MANAGER MILLER: So anything we do, this is a placeholder. And you'll see, we
actually have our economic development director will do a little bit more of a thorough
presentation to you tonight. But just like our buildings, like our Kiwanis building that we
lease, the former Fountain Hills theater that we also used to lease out, town is pretty
much responsible for the building and the mechanicals and all that. My understanding is
we would have really good terms with the school district. They did a analysis that was
completed last year that showed some, like, over the life of the building, for it to
continue, they're going to have to invest, you know, a significant amount of money. And
I don't think that they would be looking at us for that. But they probably are looking for
us to kind of be a stop gap, so that they're not going in and putting a lot of money into the
building for us, and I'm also not wanting to invest, really, a lot of assets or money into an
asset that's not owned by the town. So my understanding is we'll do some cosmetic
things, but there's not a lot that we're going to be doing. And if we can't come to some
terms with the school district on that, you know, like, maybe having a set amount that we
won't expend a certain amount on maintenance, then this will be something I won't
recommend to the Council, as I totally share your concerns.
Page 14 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 15 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Great. And my only other thought is, again, I love the
program, so we've got to do something with that.
MANAGER MILLER: Urn-hum.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: And maybe there's some alternatives right down in town that
might suit us if this doesn't work out.
MANAGER MILLER: I'm glad. I'm glad you're thinking that way. I'm hopeful though
that-- the school superintendent has indicated a desire to try to work with us, and so we
think we'll have some offsets to some of our annual operating costs for that building, and
you'll see that a little bit later.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Good. Thank you.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: I actually have questions about the Four Peaks
building.
MANAGER MILLER: Um-hum.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Do you want me to wait until --
MANAGER MILLER: Do you mind if--
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. Absolutely. Okay.
MANAGER MILLER: Yeah, because we have, like, a--
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: No, I don't mind at all.
MANAGER MILLER: --presentation on that.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. And then this is a continuation from that next page.
We'll add, as far as these ones go, a lot of these are events that are currently paid for
using grant funds. I thought it was a good idea to include them in the general budget in
case those grants aren't received. It's not like we can really skip a year without somebody
noticing unless there's a pandemic or something, so.
MANAGER MILLER: Yeah, so just --
DIRECTOR POCK: I didn't say that.
MANAGER MILLER: -- for clarification to what the finance instructor said, yes, there's
grants, but also, if you look down further to, like, the special events, like Spooky Blast,
Turkey Trot, Eggstravaganza, there are sponsorships that are also offsets.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. And then the non-personnel one-time supplements, so
these would not be recurring year to year.
Page 15 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 16 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MAYOR DICKEY: So this is basically not the way we've seen this before, so you know,
the way the budget's being presented, and it's really clear, I think. I mean, this is new,
right?
MANAGER MILLER: Well, this is what we used to have on a green sheet --
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes.
MANAGER MILLER: --that was standalone. And what we used to do prior to me
becoming manager was we would put together our budgets, and we would all be told we
were overbudget, and we had to reduce our budgets by ten percent. And so we started--
when I became manager, this was a process a lot of different cities do. They have a
supplemental budget process where you request budget supplements, and basically
they're evaluated and ranked and prioritized. And then you try to look for any offsets.
Offsets would be revenues or fees or grants or sponsorships. And so this is just another
way of showing it in a different format than what you've seen before. I don't believe in
the past it was shown this way. You're absolutely right, Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: David?
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I thought I looked this
over close enough, but I must not of because I just almost fell out of my chair. 65 grand
to replace chairs? What chairs are we replacing?
MANAGER MILLER: It's at the community center. All those chairs that we have that
we have for events.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Are we going to La-Z-Boy recliners for everybody? I
MANAGER MILLER: Rachael, do you want to come up and talk a little bit about the
chairs?
COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR GOODWIN: All right. So the chairs at the
community center, we have about between 400 and 450 chairs over there that are ready to
be replaced. So we in the past have replaced them sort of piece by piece, 100 at a time,
200 at a time. It doesn't always make sense economically to do that when you make that
size of an order. This is all in for about 450 chairs, all of the storage racks and all of the
things needed to maintain the chairs over there.
Page 16 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 17 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Does anybody else think that might be a little crazy, or
is that just --
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: I kind of--
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: -- feel a little -- sturdy chairs. They better be made out
of titanium.
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: They definitely stand the test of time, but consider how many
times they are stacked and unstacked and moved and everything else over there. They
take a beating over there.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: What are we doing with the old ones? Can we sell the
old ones or something to offset?
MANAGER MILLER: They get surplused.
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: Yeah, they would go to surplus auction.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: How old are the old chairs?
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: They range in time in terms of when they were ordered
because we ordered them, like I said, about a hundred at a time. So they range from
anywhere from about eight to 12 years, give or take.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Excuse me. When you said that it goes to auction,
the old ones --
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: Urn-hum.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: -- do we get offset money back from that or we just
let them go?
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: No, we do. Whatever they're auctioned for, whatever that
buyer's price is, it comes back to the town. I believe it just goes into the General Fund.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Do you have any idea without -- no? Just
(indiscernible)?
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: I don't. I don't. It depends --
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Okay.
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: -- I guess if they do it by lot or by total.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Okay. Thank you.
Page 17 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 18 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: Justin's our master of those things.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Any other questions?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can I pull the shade?
MAYOR DICKEY: We're not there yet, but we will.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. Any other questions on this slide?
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Yes.
DIRECTOR POCK: Okay.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: I do. What are contracted inspections not
reimbursed for a$100,000?
DIRECTOR POCK: So those are for our development services, building inspections or
plan reviews. I think we have -- the contract not too long ago for Brown&Associates is
one of the big contracts that we have to basically do inspections that town staff cannot get
to in a timely manner.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Urn-hum.
DIRECTOR POCK: And they're not reimbursed by, you know, through a project, or a
development agreement or something like that.
MANAGER MILLER: And you'll see when we get to the next slide, I think it's -- is the
next slide the personnel request?
DIRECTOR POCK: Yes.
MANAGER MILLER: So there was a request for a building inspector--
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Urn-hum.
MANAGER MILLER: -- and I had concerns that with interest rates going up and a slow
down in building activity, that will probably start happening some time later this year. I
don't want to bring another staff person on with benefits --
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Urn-hum.
MANAGER MILLER: -- if we end up having to do layoffs or something like that. I
don't want to get into a layoff situation. I'd rather cut and reduce a budget to pay for
contracted out help.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: So if you end up for some reason hiring somebody,
will this be transferred to that fund?
Page 18 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 19 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MANAGER MILLER: So this is just contracted help --
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MANAGER MILLER: --basically, so it's using a firm to provide the staffing resource.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right. And it basically just adds the budget line item there --
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Okay.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- for them.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Um-hum.
DIRECTOR POCK: Doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to use it all.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Okay.
DIRECTOR POCK: So --
MANAGER MILLER: Right.
COUNCILMEMBER MCMAHON: Thank you.
MANAGER MILLER: All right. Was there any other questions on that last page?
Okay.
All right. So then as far as personnel, you can see there were a few positions
being recommended. There's a senior services activities coordinator, a part-time. A full
time facilities maintenance technician. Moving one of the building safety permit
technicians from part-time to full-time, adding a part-time code enforcement officer. The
IT support specialist from part-time to three quarters time, and then the part-time court
clerk. There actually would be adding two part-time positions, however, one of those
positions is currently in a contract status that we've had for, I believe, three years.
MANAGER MILLER: Three fiscal --
I DIRECTOR POCK: Three, yeah.
MANAGER MILLER: -- years, right. Mayor?
DIRECTOR POCK: So that contract position would go away and it would be brought in
MAYOR DICKEY: How does --
DIRECTOR POCK: -- as an employee.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: How many personnel will this bring us to?
DIRECTOR POCK: I think this adds -- is it three point--
MANAGER MILLER: This is 3.75, the net, but what is the --what is our--
Page 19 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 20 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR POCK: So it would be --
MANAGER MILLER: -- afterwards?
DIRECTOR POCK: -- 66 is where we're at now, I believe; so it would be right around
70 FTEs.
MAYOR DICKEY: Those are some ideas.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Thanks, Madam Mayor. So the code enforcement
officer,part-time on weekends, we already have a code enforcement officer that works
weekends.
MANAGER MILLER: This is doubling up the efforts. In fact, we will be able to have
this person work the week and the weekends part time. With the signed ordinance that
has gone into effect, and we think with the election coming up, there's going to be a lot of
sign activity going on. We heard this from the Council at the time, you were going
through your sign ordinance consideration, so you thought that there was going to be a
net impact on code enforcement, so.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Well,just to justify that, I know I had a couple months
ago about code enforcement doing a presentation to us at a monthly, or whatever, you
know --
MANAGER MILLER: And I directed--
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: --basis.
MANAGER MILLER: --the staff to be doing that.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: So I kind of like to see that there's a need for spending
$30,000 for a part-time. You know, that it's justified.
MANAGER MILLER: Okay. And then the other thing,just to let you know, we were
able to work out arrangements so that there would not be a net need of a new vehicle or a
vehicle. It can use the existing vehicles as well, so to keep costs down.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I didn't want to keep making phone calls about this,
but I'm seeing a lot of violations on the weekends. I'm seeing cardboard boxes with signs
on them in the right-away. This weekend in particular, I saw a lot of them. And I don't
know what we can do about it, but it's --
MANAGER MILLER: Well --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: -- a problem.
Page 20 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 21 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MANAGER MILLER: -- I know that the code enforcement--where is John--Vince, I
know was off this past weekend, correct? So the nice thing about this is we'll always
make sure we have coverage because right now, we don't have every day of the weekend
covered, correct, with the current employee?
MAYOR DICKEY: Right.
WESLEY: That's correct, and we have Mr. Hatcher who works some combination of
Friday, Saturday, Sunday. He varies those a little bit, so people don't used to him
working all the time, but he is currently on a two week vacation. So the next of couple
weekends, he'll --
MANAGER MILLER: But if you see any violations, please forward them on to me, and
we'll get him on. He's very good about being proactive and getting to these when he sees
them, but he wasn't here this weekend to --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: If he sees carboard boxes with arrows saying, you
know, yard side this way and that way, what's he supposed to do?
WESLEY: So he, depending on the situation, he will either move the sign if it's just
slightly out of place. Sometimes when the situation like that, he would most likely pick it
up and either return it to the address if he can identify that, or sometimes he'll just leave it
in the truck and bring it back to the --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah, they have no idea what addresses they are.
WESLEY: That's what I said.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: These are just cardboard boxes with arrows saying
open house, or--
WESLEY: Yeah, so --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: --this is for sale or you know.
WESLEY: -- right. So situations like that, he probably just picks it up and brings it
back.
MAYOR DICKEY: Mike?
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: So then this will bring us up to two and a half
FTEs then for code enforcement?
MANAGER MILLER: That's correct.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, you know, we had those survey and two things that floated to
Page 21 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 22 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
the top or came to the top are roads, which we are now putting more than two million
dollars in in addition, and then the other thing was code enforcement.
MANAGER MILLER: Enforcement of the codes.
MAYOR DICKEY: And it's not just signs, of course, so I think that this is well worth it
to me.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Grady, I don't want to be bothering you every time
I see one. Who should we call? Who should we contact? We don't want to be calling
you every weekend.
MANAGER MILLER: Well, I know, but if you send me an email, I mean, I get it from a
few of you, and I'm okay with that. And then because I need to be the one, it's
inappropriate for Council to have direct contact with a staff person giving them
directions, so please do that to me. And I frequently contact John or the individual
employee, so.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Okay.
MANAGER MILLER: And that way it also helps with tracking purposes to make sure
there's follow up.
MAYOR DICKEY: Oh, sorry. Vice Mayor?
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Two points. Are we at the point where our code
enforcement people are proactively, when they're out on their outs, looking and finding
other errors and things that are going on in town? Like, if they see somebody with a dog
off leash or something like that, are they enforcing that, or are we at that point yet?
WESLEY: Mayor, Vice Mayor, yes, I do identify things themselves to follow up on. I
don't know if they handle dogs off leash, if that would be one of things they'd pick up on
because that would typically be animal control. Maybe they do. I don't know. I'd have
to ask them that question specifically. Yes, they do. And to Council Member
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH, we are working on that method report. It's not
something we've done before so we're figuring out the best way to put that information
together. We should be able to start having those to you next month, I would hope.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: And then I have another--
MANAGER MILLER: And just if I may,just to your point, Vice Mayor, when I have
frequently reported these to Vince, he has already--he's very good and sends me a photo
Page 22 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 23 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
showing it, he already took care of it earlier. So there was a lapse between the time that
either the Council member had been notified by a resident or from the time the Council
member saw it, and he frequently, and I usually forward that right back to the Council
member showing that the violation, like, the sign that was in the right-away or whatever
had been taken care of. So --
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Good.
MANAGER MILLER: -- he does act proactively when he can.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: So then I have another question here. So we're adding a
building inspector? Is that--
MANAGER MILLER: No, the other item that you saw, I was concerned about adding a
building inspector.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay.
MANAGER MILLER: And so we're adding contract money to do the same services.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. All right. So that's a wash--
MANAGER MILLER: Right.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: -- then. Okay, great, thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: So it's fair to say that our code enforcement is not just complaint
based anymore? Because that was one of the things that we really tried --
MANAGER MILLER: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- to get over.
MANAGER MILLER: Urn-hum.
MAYOR DICKEY: And of course, the off leash thing, that's me. I'm out there doing
that, right?
MAYOR DICKEY: It's the mayor's fine. Well, that is the animal control, right?
MANAGER MILLER: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: Maricopa County?
MANAGER MILLER: It is.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, thanks.
MANAGER MILLER: It is.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. So now we're going to go look at basically the operating
or base budgets for every department within the general fund. As you can see, the first
Page 23 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 24 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
three sets of bars on this graph are Actuals. The final two are the current year budgeted
amounts and next year's budgeted amounts. You can see they're very similar, and like I
said earlier, it's about $600,000 difference. And the reason why they're matched is
because we do have to have a balanced General Fund budget.
So as far as revenues coming in to the General Fund, you can see those.
Obviously, the majority is TPT, and then our state shared revenues for a total of 23.3
million. It's an increase 2.6 percent for this year over--next year over this year.
As far as the expenditures, you can see that same amount, 23.3 million, 2.6
percent. The difference being that contingency number that's in that first line, General
Government, is what makes this balanced, otherwise we'd be about three million dollars
shorter our 20.2 million.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: So David, going back real quick on the licenses and
permits, is that kind of building permits you're thinking? Is that primary--
DIRECTOR POCK: Yeah, that--
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: -- reduction?
DIRECTOR POCK: -- same question was actually asked last week at the open house.
And when we took and looked at it, it was basically construction activity.
MAYOR DICKEY: I'll leave that up there for a second.
DIRECTOR POCK: Sure.
MAYOR DICKEY: So the leases and rents, is that rental tax?
DIRECTOR POCK: No. So all of the TPT on, like, residential rental and that sort of
thing would be in the first line, in that taxes line, collected through TPT. As far as leases
and rents, it would be everything from remodel rentals to our bays that we rent out to
Rural Metro for the ambulance, to our cell tower leases.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So rental taxes are included in the top right there?
DIRECTOR POCK: Correct.
MAYOR DICKEY: So just wanted to mention a couple of things going on,just kind of
legislatively where there's something that I think is still alive to prevent cities and towns
from collecting rental sales tax. And then we also talked a little about it, about HEERF
money and some other things that are in the works of being threatened. So hopefully,
these numbers obviously are your best estimate and bet, and you know,but some of this
Page 24 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 25 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
p,
could be effected by legislation.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right. We are watching, I believe it's a 1116, it's in bill 1116 as a
residential rental. Just as for clarification on that, it is the residential rental, so we still
would get commercial rental TPT, and it would not include short term rentals that's
included in a different category, reporting category. So 30 days or longer would be
effected, which works out to be about 500,000 for us.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: So that wouldn't include, for example, AIRB?
DIRECTOR POCK: No.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Do we have those numbers somewhere?
DIRECTOR POCK: As far as what we receive?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah.
DIRECTOR POCK: From that category, yes.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I --
DIRECTOR POCK: We have to give it to -- you know, we can't say for a specific
vendor how much we receive,but I could get that specific number--
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Well, the reason I asked because--
DIRECTOR POCK: -- from our library.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah, the only reason I ask is because that I for one
would like to see if we're seeing any real growth in the number of properties that are
AIRB. In part, because we've had some communities that have really had some serious
problems like Sedona--
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: -- and I just--without going through a lot of
imaginations, if there's some way to keep an eye on that to see what impact they're
having, it might be worth keeping an eye on. Not that we can control it, but at least we
know what's going on.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right. And we do have a residential rental registry. It doesn't
differentiate between long term and short term. Currently, I believe we're right around
700 people or households or addresses that have registered throughout the past three
years. However, without the legislature taking some action on short term rentals and
Page 25 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 26 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
what we're allowed to do and what we're allowed to ask people to do, we can't ask for
them to update their registration. There's some problems right now. Hopefully they get
fixed. I believe there's one bill still alive in the legislature this session that might help --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yup.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- fix some of that--
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yup.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- so.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I know you can't separate AIRB from other rentals.
I was going to ask whether or not that 700 had gone up,but we're seeing -- I guess that
doesn't mean anything. We're seeing a lot of buildings going up that are rentals and so
on, so I guess we can't differentiate between them.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. Any other questions on revenues? All right.
All right. So then as far as by department, you can see the Town Council. Next
year was 78,779 total budgeted.
MAYOR DICKEY: Hey, David--
MANAGER MILLER: Oh, yeah, sorry.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- sorry. This is what I was asking, about the difference --
DIRECTOR POCK: Oh, right.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- in the employment taxes, because nothing has changed --
DIRECTOR POCK: Right. So --
MAYOR DICKEY: --the 3,395, I mean, it's not a big amount,but it's just kind of like,
why was it the same pretty much?
DIRECTOR POCK: Yeah, so a lot of that, back in Fiscal Year'20, when the
administrative assistant was split between Town Council and the Town Manager's
Department, that came out, and so that's why the benefits disappeared, because nobody in
Council gets any benefits in their paycheck. The admin assistant did, and then the
employment taxes stayed the same because-- I'm not sure if that was because admin
assistant-- maybe the employment taxes weren't split. I'm not sure why that actual line
Page 26 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 27 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
item didn't change between the years.
MAYOR DICKEY: And the meetings is probably because of COVID, right?
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: We didn't do anything--
DIRECTOR POCK: Yeah.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- we didn't go to the League, and then we did, and now you're using
that number to -- yeah.
DIRECTOR POCK: Absolutely.
MAYOR DICKEY: Perfect. Thanks.
DIRECTOR POCK: And I believe there was some meetings and conferences this year
that you've been-- you know, that you've attended. However, like I said, these are the
budgeted numbers for Fiscal Year'22. All right.
And one of the largest departments in town is the Administration Department,
includes, you know, town manager, town clerk, finance administrative services, public
information. So there's quite a few that roll up into this specific department with 2.74
next year. Any questions on this slide?
All right. Then General Government, you can see, you know, this department
pays a lot of the town-wide expenses. So big ones like insurance and that sort of thing.
And then as well as the contingency, that last line, you can see how it's changed from
year. And I will say that this current fiscal year, we took a lot of the budget that we used
for public safety and put it in the Special Revenue Fund. So there was more contingency
in the General Fund because of that. This year, I didn't think that was necessarily a good
idea, and it wasn't really showing apples to apples. I didn't give you a real idea. That's
why I put in the difference in the contingency earlier on that earlier slide. So General
Fund,point being, General Fund this year for Fiscal Year'23 shows all of the costs as if
they were being paid,public safety costs from the General Fund.
Then Municipal Court, 422,000. Public Works Department, a slight increase to
1.5 million. Development Services --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: (Indiscernible).
DIRECTOR POCK: Sure.
MAYOR DICKEY: (Indiscernible).
Page 27 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 28 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR POCK: Sure.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Go back to Public Works for a second. No. All
right. Never mind.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. Development Services, 1.4, slightly 1.4. And like I said
earlier, all the supplements that we looked at earlier are included in these numbers, so
you can see that increase in contractual services by the 100,000 dollars. So other
contractual services actually went down.
All right. And then community services.
Yes?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: We need to slash this budget.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: There's no shade structure.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I got chairs.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
DIRECTOR POCK: Chairs would be in there, good job.
All right. And then the fire contract with Rural Metro. This is a contracted three
percent increase each year.
MAYOR DICKEY: It's four percent, you said?
DIRECTOR POCK: It's three percent.
MAYOR DICKEY: Three percent.
DIRECTOR POCK: Yeah.
MAYOR DICKEY: So obviously, this looks this way because of the ARPA money or
whatever, right?
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: A big jump.
DIRECTOR POCK: So compared to last year, yeah--
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- it wasn't budgeted there, so that's what I was saying. It doesn't
look quite right.
MAYOR DICKEY: And the other thing is, we have-- you know, we're doing the
assessments now of public safety, but this is just status quo. So this is --
Page 28 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 29 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- as if we just keep going with what we're --
DIRECTOR POCK: Right.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- doing. Okay. Thank you.
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: We're on public safety, so I would just ask if this is not
the proper place for this, but we had an audit going on too. Have we had any resolution n
that yet?
MANAGER MILLER: I'll let the finance director give an update on that.
DIRECTOR POCK: So we actually have had two meetings with MCSO after we
finished-- after the auditors finished looking at it. We're reviewing their last comments
on the findings, and we do need to set up another meeting with them to kind of see where
we're going to go next. Once we do that, I believe we'll be coming to Council in an
e-session to talk about it.
All right. Speaking of MCSO. And again, this looks a little skewed just because
of the money that was budgeted in Special Revenue Fund this year. I should've looked--
we did get the final numbers. I think it was --was it a five percent increase? Okay.
All right. And that finishes the General Fund. So as far as this presentation goes,
I'm only including the major fund, so it's the General Fund, the Streets Fund, and the
Capital Projects Fund. All the other funds are included in the proposed budget that you
received. If you have any questions on those,just let me know, and I can get those
answered for you.
So as far as the Streets Fund, this one, there isn't a requirement to have a balanced
budget, so the bars are not the same length. You'll see that for Fiscal Year'23, the
revenues are less than the expenditures. That's because, like I said earlier, we don't
budget for the transfers. If it's Council's direction to do the 2.1 million transfer into the
Streets Fund, similar to what we did this year, then obviously, those revenues are going to
look higher when we do our Actuals.
So right now, 5.9 million in expenditures for next year with 4.3 coming in from
multiple sources. Not all of that is HEERF fund. Some of it's from TPT. The HEERF
fund, VLT, and then there's one other of, like, miscellaneous fees and interest and that
sort of thing. So as far as the Actual revenues, wasn't really trying to do these from
Page 29 of 52
Page 30 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Pa g
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
memory. I should've just switched the slide. So you can see the different sources there.
And then the expenditures. So fairly consistent from this year to next year. Any
questions on the Streets Fund before we go on?
Okay. Capital Projects. There have a been a few little changes to this. One was
there was an opportunity that came up with a grant for the safe routes to school for next
year. It's basically for some safety studies. Our portion of that would be$7,000. The fed
chair would be 117, almost 118,000. So that was included as a line item. Any questions
about that? I'm not the one to ask, but I know the guy that is. His name is my name too,
so. All right.
MAYOR DICKEY: (Indiscernible).
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
DIRECTOR POCK: So these are all of the public works requests. There was one other
minor change in here about a third of the way down with the Phase II Panorama Drive.
That increased 30,000 from the last estimate. It was originally shown to you at the CIP
workshop at 995,000, now 1,025,000. And then you'll see that last line, the Safe Routes
to School shows the total for that project. However, we would only responsible for 7,100
for it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Alan?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah, I've given this quite a bit of thought, and
given the Reserve Fund and everything, I know folks think we should spend the money
on the roundabout now and that it could cost more in the future. As I think staff knows, I
favored this for quite a while, but I'm beginning to think that we should not be spending
the money this year. It could be looked at again next year or the following year. Same
with the --where is it? I'm looking down. The Overlook, the access and Lake Overlook.
So we're talking -- I'm losing track here -- I don't know, $350,000 or something like that.
Does that seem right, David?
DIRECTOR POCK: Yes.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: So just me personally, I'm having some trouble
with this, even though I had favored it in the past.
MAYOR DICKEY: Sir?
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: I am stunned, but in the best way. I too am opposed to
Page 30 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 31 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
this, vehemently opposed to it, and I can't believe we found common ground.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: It happened once last year.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Can I jump into that pool too? The water's warm, come on
in. I just think that if we don't have the money to do that program, the roundabout, why
do a study and a design, and sit it on top of the refrigerator and let it collect dust? And
then when we do have the money to do it, it'll have to be redone or amended anyway. So
again, I agree with you two guys.
MAYOR DICKEY: Grady, do you want to --
MANAGER MILLER: Yeah, I just wanted to --
MAYOR DICKEY: -- Grady and I talked a lot about this earlier.
MANAGER MILLER: I just wanted to chime in. I totally understand where the Council
members that are concerned about the costs on the design. The one thing that I just want
to remind the Council, obviously, it's up to the Council as a whole what you want to do,
but we've been very fortunate with seeking and being successful in applying for grants.
And with the infrastructure bill, if, you know, these are gifts that you have out there that
you will probably not be able to see again in our lifetimes. And if we have projects
already shovel ready, meaning they're already designed, then we might be giving up
money that would be paying for the actual project itself.
So I'm just going back when we had the stimulus money from the Great
Recession. Those cities that were able to get to the front of the line were the ones that
had the designs already. Those that didn't, they were not really considered because there
was just too many projects for consideration, and they didn't meet the prioritization. So I
hear what the Council is saying, and if that's what the Council wants to do, obviously, the
staff and I will abide by what you want to do. But I just want you to think about it from a
perspective of these projects may or may not get done. So there's not a guarantee that we
can get federal funding for these, but at the same time, these projects tend to go up in
cost.
And I'll give you an example. Several years ago, we had identified the fire
station, Fire Station 2, and we said the same thing. The Council at the time, we were in a
Great Recession, so I understand the Council's decision at that point, but by holding off,
Page 31 of 52
I
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 32 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
it caused us to have that project go up not only in cost to the point where the development
fees were not enough to pay for that project. We had to have General Fund money that
kicked in. So just these are considerations for you to make and if you wanted to give us
direction tonight, we'll take the direction to take this off, but I just want you to keep those
kind of thoughts in mind when you ultimately make your decision.
MAYOR DICKEY: Sharron? (Indiscernible) --
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Two things. One thing I should've brought up
about 42 slides ago,but I sat on it because I'm not sure if it's going to come up again
later, but the reserve money that was actually mentioned was really only for the Lake
Liner. I believe there's also another million dollars put aside for unexpected air
conditioning breaks, somebody vandalizes the bathroom, that kind of thing. And that was
not included in that. That being said, directly regarding that overlook concrete area,
whatever we're calling it, one of my big concerns about designing it is I feel like our disc
golf club people and our parks and rec people one hundred percent need to be looped in
on any conversation that happens there.
Our disc golf area is world renowned. People from around the world come here
to use it, and we have had tournaments here. So are we impacting the disc golf? We also
plan events there and make money on events that are there, so I feel like unless we're
ready to have that conversation with parks and rec, with community services, with the
disc golf people, I don't even know if we're ready to have the conversation about the Lake
Overlook or the concrete area, whatever we're calling it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Alan?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I have in the past more than once asked for a list of
projects that we are not funding. Where is that list?
DIRECTOR WELDY: Madam Mayor, Council Member, we actually-- that list lives in
our planning, our horizon. There are projects that we discus with the town manager that
require long term planning that are not selected each year based on prioritization. We can
certainly provide to you on a spreadsheet, and we have done that in the past,proposed
projects that go back several years that were not selected or deferred or deemed
unnecessary.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I really have asked for this several times. I've yet to
Page 32 of 52
I
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 33 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
see it. Projects that may not have been deemed necessary before, maybe coming up
again, maybe something we should consider. I don't know how, I, for one, can make a
decision on something on 350,000, $400,00 when I don't know what else it could be used
for that we may deem at least on the part of the Council or me, something that we want to
give priority to.
MANAGER MILLER: Well, I just want to just remind the Council, and I can appreciate
what Council Member Magazine has said, but the capital is really--the staff makes
recommendations. We present those to the Council. We start off with the Council
retreat. We have a capital meeting with the Council, and you continue to provide
direction to staff as to what you want to see. We had a discussion during the retreat, I
think, with Council Member Magazine, saying he had concerns about in the future, like,
going ahead and approving -- once the budget was adopted, he had concerns about some
of these that might be in the plan. And we reminded the Council member and the
Council that you always have -- you reserve the right not to approve a contract or award a
contract, and that's how we've dealt with that. And there have been occasions when the
Council opted not to go forward with something that was in the capital improvement
budget.
But I'm hearing something different from you tonight, which is you're saying you
would like to see a list of projects that have not passed the cut list, and you'd like to see
that in consideration of the ones that are being recommended.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Grady, with all due respect, I have gone over this
and over this and over this. This is not the first time. I have cited, over the last couple of
years, several times that I want to see the cut list that doesn't make it into the budget so
that we can make an intelligent determination as to what's more important than something
else. So for example, if we take $350,000 and we don't spend it on this, what are some
other projects that didn't make the cut list that you determined and staff are more
important?
MANAGER MILLER: Um-hum.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I've asked for this. I've asked for it repeatedly--
MANAGER MILLER: Well --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And I've --
Page 33 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 34 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MANAGER MILLER: -- you definitely are getting it on the operating budget, and I
don't remember seeing this or having heard this at ever for the capital.
So if you go back, David,just go back to the town manager recommended listing,
there's a number of items there that are not recommended, and you can see that. You can
see a column showing not recommended,but on the capital, I've never remembered ever
hearing that you wanted it handled that way.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Okay. Maybe I wasn't specific enough.
MAYOR DICKEY: I think we're kind of talking about how do these things get
generated. So when, you know, over the course of the year, there's either our directors
hear things, or they get ideas, or we have ideas, and they come up with their
recommendations. So it doesn't necessarily mean something got cut. I mean, so
everything that gets suggested all year long, it might be hard to kind of enumerate that.
To say, well, maybe somebody thought they would like --
MANAGER MILLER: So --
MAYOR DICKEY: -- you know, a senior playground, say. So somebody may have said
they would like to have a, you know, an area in the playground or at the park that's a
senior. So you're saying that you would like to see every suggestion or every thought that
came so that you would-- so that at our level, we would be like, okay, I'd rather, you
know, I'd rather see that. I'd rather see a spartan race track or something than, you know,
doing something at the skate park. So you'd rather see everything that -- I think what
we're -- to me, we're getting the recommendations from staff based on a lot of different
input.
MANAGER MILLER: And if--
MAYOR DICKEY: And then we --
MANAGER MILLER: And if I may, Mayor, so what is in front of you is sort of what
Alan's getting at, but it was handled--that was at the--was is at the retreat or was that at
the capital meeting? So the capital meeting in March, which you see in front of you has
the column showing the -- left column showing costs and then the recommended amount.
And there were some things that were recommended, either to postpone or not to go
forward with. And that was handled last month at the capital improvement budget
meeting.
Page 34 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 35 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I pray that the wait time at
the male emergency room isn't long today, because I'm going there, because I'm agreeing
with him again. He one hundred percent has asked for this before. I remember it
distinctly, because I kind of thought it was a good idea. I just want to briefly touch upon
what the town manager had to say about possibly missing out on some funds coming in
the infrastructure bill.
Let's address the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The index just came out this
morning. I think they said inflation was 8.5, 8.6 percent. Anybody that knows anything
about business or anybody that's good with numbers knows that number is closer to 14
percent, so that's a BS number. I believe that, and this is just from what I've seen, I
believe that what we've experienced in 2008 and 2009 will pale in comparison to what
we're about to experience in the very near future. I think you're going to see a collapse of
the real estate market, devaluing of the dollar already. I could go on for hours about this.
I just am a firm believer, and it was pointed out recently this weekend at the oaks
golf outing when people came up to me and asked me if I was crazy, the shade structure
leading the parade and that crazy talk. But also, sorry Rachael,but I think that they're --
we as a council have to be very cautious about the difference between wants and needs.
What we want and what we need. And I would really, really suggest that we as a Council
think about the money that we're going to spend on this overlook and this roundabout,
and all of this stuff I think that will there be a cost increase if a year or two from now we
use a consulting firm again? Yeah, of course there's going to be a cost increase. Would
the cost increase be the same? I don't think it's a genuine argument when you're saying,
well, there's going to be a cost increase. It's not like we've already have the plans and
we're in the process of purchasing materials, and you know, you have a material list and
it's x amount of dollars. Now, two years, of course, in two years that material list could
go up. I don't think a consulting company is going to go up quite as much as the actual
building materials and everything.
So I just -- I don't mean to go on a tangent,but I just caution this Council,that's a
lot of money. That's money that could be spent on other things, and I just don't think -- I
haven't gotten one email from one resident that was for this study. And I just want to
really be cautious about spending that amount of money on these two projects.
Page 35 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 36 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MAYOR DICKEY: Sharron?
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: One thing I want to make sure for the thousands
of people at home watching, I want to make sure that you understand that Councilman
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH just used the word study. What we're talking about is
spending money on a literal study and design of the roundabout for the intersection at
Saguaro and the Avenue, and the pedestrian access in Lake Overlook. It is not actually
doing the work. The money that we're talking about is for a study, and I think that's the
first time we used the word study today, so I just wanted to make sure that our thousands
of fans actually knew that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Mike?
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Yeah, no, I'm listening, and I hear you. But I'm
kind of like, you know, this is a budget session, and we could be budgeting this money.
But say the design contract for the roundabout or design contract for the overlook, they're
big enough numbers that we're going to go out for bid or whatever, and they're going to
come to the council for contract--
MANAGER MILLER: Urn-him.
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: --that we have to approve. So if, you know, that
might happen in the next 12 months. It might not. But you know, it's always something
we can just turn down at that time or say, no, if, you know, things, you know, the
economy tanked per expert David over there. Who knows, but you know, it's not
something that we're signing a contract tonight to commit this money. I mean, we're
budgeting it into a category,but we're not spending it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Right.
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Yeah.
MANAGER MILLER: No, absolutely. And all I was trying to make a point. I wasn't
talking about the cost escalation on the design. I was really talking about the cost
escalation on the construction, and we've seen cost escalations on projects the town has
done to our surprise and dismay. Again, if Council doesn't want to do that, you know,
we're not trying to twist your arms into approving these, so -- and to Council Member's
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW's point, you know, Council always has the right to
say no, or even if it just budgeted. So it's entirely up to the Council if you want it in or if
Page 36 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 37 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
#�?;>e,:,o-i.3S.-*aNaw., 4:*to-.: ,` :4='Y.v...W' .A',�ni`�Y:.^-sz,�'<,.a.Y^- M#idfiC&>?±R". "-Y& .- e
you don't want it. If it is in, then you don't you have to go forward with it if you don't
want to.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman?
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Because obviously, some of these items, you
know, the impoundment area, storm drains, I mean, those take higher priority. You
know, they're obviously bigger ticket items as well. You know, and even the wayfinding
signs, when we had the previous talks, it's like, yeah, let's go ahead with those. But you
know, who knows if they're going to come in at 235, or they may come in at, you know,
350, 450, and then we're like, well, we're going to have to wait. So you know, and we
still -- I don't know if we're going to cut the Lake Liner down from a million or whatever,
so there's, you know, there's other savings that we could employ here if we need to.
DIRECTOR WELDY: Madam Mayor, if I may in regards to the improvements at
Avenue, the Fountains and Saguaro and the Lake Overlook, neither one of those are
studies. Each of those are design numbers. We already know that we need intersection
improvements to increase traffic flow and pedestrian safety, and we already know that the
lake is not accessible from the avenue in the fountains to the amenities, so there won't be
any study included in it,just design.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Where --
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilman?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I have to hate to say it, the community center shade,
where is that?
MAYOR DICKEY: That's next.
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: It's coming.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: That next?
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: On it's way, sir.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: That's coming up next?
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: We're on public works.
MAYOR DICKEY: We're doing public works.
4 COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I'm very excited about it. I just want to deal-- I'm
very excited about it and I can't wait for it to come before us.
Page 37 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 38 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
MANAGER MILLER: Council Member, are you referring --
MAYOR DICKEY: Wait, wait--
MANAGER MILLER: -- to Rachael's umbrella?
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
MAYOR DICKEY: That's public work. We're still on public works here, and the
roundabout is -- well,just to get back to that like to have or need to have kind of a
discussion, a lot of what we do are like to haves because we're trying to have a
community that people want to live at and have enjoyment. And I mean, parks and rec,
no offense, but all of that is like to have. So we have the things that we need to do, the
retention, the water, those things.
Well, first of all, I think the roundabout is a safety issue one way or the other, that
intersection. And I also know that it's an economic development boon to look at this
overlook and to look at the roundabout and look at the Avenue, the Fountains altogether.
This originally was a discussion in 2013, something like that. Maybe before. So we've
had a lot of time --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: We should've funded it then. It would've been
cheaper.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, I tried, and again, it's in our general plan, and it's in our
downtown development plan. We have some downtown money, we have tourism
money, we-- well, we did have some environmental money, which-- in other words,
we're saying that we budget for this. This is how we come up with our maximum budget
amount that we will be approving. Doesn't mean we have to spend it, but I think in light
of the billions of dollars coming in to the State of Arizona with the infrastructure bill, we
can very easily call that roundabout an infrastructure project very easily, and even the
access to the -- down to the park could be looked at like that. So I think we have a lot of
options here. I think that we sort of(indiscernible) ourselves by not at least going ahead
with the design so we have an ability to use some of these other funds and other things
available.
And again, you know, it will come back just like everything else does with a
request for proposals or such. And if it's just, like, hey, no way, you know, we'll know a
lot more as the year progresses too of what our financial health will be. But I really feel
Page 38 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 39 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
like this is an important step for us to go ahead and go with this design for both of these,
especially the roundabout, but it makes sense to do them both at the same time because
they're right there. So I would be in favor of keeping these in the budget and leaving
them as an option as we go forward in'23, '22/'23.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. As far as what Councilman Spelich brought up as far as
the economy, that it is --today was a big number for inflation, and I don't see -- I agree
with him, I don't see it going down anytime soon. But I would like to point out, which
you've already pointed out as far as the capital projects, this does just put it in the budget.
It doesn't mean that the contracts get approved later on down the road, so that does give
us kind of a check valve when it does -- before the project gets started. So that's as far as
the Capital Projects go.
I would also like to say that the contingencies and the General Fund side gives us
that check valve on those expenditures as well. If we see revenues dive, at least we've
got 2.9 million this coming fiscal year to kind of--to identify and say yes, this is a
problem. It's going to be a long term problem. It gives us some time to make some
adjustments in the overall General Fund budget as well.
All right. With that being said --
ALL: [LAUGHTER]. [CROSSTALK].
DIRECTOR POCK: I want to take cover fast enough. No, so as far as the park's
requests for next year, I will mention that there was an adjustment made on this as well.
The Centennial Pavilion. I don't get to say it very often because I'm always saying
umbrella, but it was at the CIP meeting at the 375,000 and it was adjusted down. And I'll
let Director Goodwin talk about that.
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: Mayor and Council, thank you. I would like to point out, and
Mayor, you already kind of commented on this tonight, that the way this is presented
tonight looks different than the way we've talked about it earlier in that the way we've
done the Capital Projects for the parks is by parks. So you're seeing a total by a park, not
per a project, the way we reviewed them previously. So if you have a question
specifically about a project and hey, I thought I we were going to do the skate park.
Well, it's in there, it's just under desert vista park because that's where the skate park
lives. So that is where each of these projects are.
Page 39 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 40 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
But to get right to the point, I know the Centennial Pavilion has been the topic of
de jour. So yes, after we met last time, it was brought up if we could reevaluate how to
bring the cost down, also look at if the revenue potential for it, so that's what we were
able to do. The pavilion itself is really a facility. It would be an addition to something
we could host events under,programs,performances, gatherings,private rentals,
whatever you want to have under there. And I also understand the conversation about not
wants versus needs. I certainly do. And I do think that there are a number of things here
that we've talked about that are needs. We need new lights. We need a new skate park.
It's crumbling. It's at a point where it needs these things. But it's also prudent of us to
take the feedback that we've gotten about our community and what our community wants
to become and make strategic decisions about leading in that direction too. So it is a
balance, and I certainly respect that, and I appreciate the conversation this evening.
That being said, we do feel we can do the Centennial Pavilion at a reduced cost if
we take out some of the exterior additions, some of the landscaping, some of the other
things we were intending to do around the space, and do those in a more phased
approach. We plan on replacing some of the benches and some of the pads and redoing
the whole space as an entirety. We do believe if we can phase that over time, that we
don't have to do all that all in one fell swoop, so we can get that cost down. And answer
to Councilman Spelich's question about revenue, having talked with staff and done a
quick analysis, we do believe that this is something that can probably bring in roughly
about$8,000 a year in revenue. That is a conservative estimate. Of course, we don't
know until we try or till we do, but that's based on roughly ten half day reservations a
year under the same pricing model that we use for the amphitheater.
That being said, what can I answer for you?
MAYOR DICKEY: Vice Mayor?
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: I have a question. Yes, the cost is a concern. Does it make
any sense to wait on this project until the dark skies people have done their bit around
there?
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: That's a great question. Because we don't know their timeline,
it's really hard to answer to say, you know, we don't know when they're breaking ground
or when their project will begin. Obviously, they have quite a bit of funding to acquire
Page 40 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 41 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
first. I did have the opportunity to meet with several members of their committee, not all
of them. But we were able to visit that and see the space, and they were supportive of the
structure that it's not a hinderance to them. If anything, it would add, again, to the scape
and the experience of folks coming to our campus here. Waiting on them would be a
unknown because we don't know when they'll start that project.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: The most recent survey we saw indicated that the
number one priority for the town was roads. Well, I know $275,000 wouldn't even do
more than fill a few potholes. However, there comes a point where I think you have to
draw a line in the sand, and I just think, you know, the community center's been there,
for, what? 27-something years?
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: Um-hum.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And we have done just fine without this. And
would it be nice? Sure, there's lots of things that are nice, and I think it would be very
nice, but I just can't in good conscious go along with something like this even though it's
only 270 --but it's 275,000 here, it's 300,000 there, it's 400,000 there. Pretty soon you're
talking real money, and I think at some point you just have to draw a line in the sand, and
I'm drawing the line in the sand on this one.
DIRECTOR GOODWIN: Fair enough. All right. Thanks.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. I'm back. This next slide changed a little bit, too, from
our last meeting on the capital improvement program. I did not have next year's
estimated revenues, so now I'm just looking -- that should actually say fiscal year'23
construction transaction privilege tax. I apologize for that. So I didn't have that in the
last slide, so we will have more of a fund balance so just to breaking even between
project costs and revenues. Any questions here?
All right. Keep missing my-- I can take those question slides out. Sorry. All
right. So we've already talked a little bit about this in the discussion,but the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act just to give you a little bit of background on it,
and then the types of projects that are going to be available. The background, it was
signed into law November 15th, 1.2 trillion to be spent on various types of projects. I'm
pretty sure that might the only time trillion gets spoken in this microphone, but who
Page 41 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 42 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
knows. Inflation is kind of crazy.
The program categories include transportation, environmental, energy, broadband,
cyber security, and disaster response.
As far as the potential grant opportunities for the town that I was able to see,
transportation, the safe streets for all program, basically focuses on cyclists and
pedestrian safety so there's definitely some opportunities there. Waste water, as far as the
water recycling reuse in storage. I think we've got some of that going on down the street.
And then flood mitigation, which has also been a big topic for the town lately. There's
even some cyber security grants that might be available and news as far as vulnerability
assessments and continuity of operations. We actually just started working on our new
coup, our--this is why they call it the COOP. Continuity of Operations Plan.
So as far as going forward, there's many federal departments and agencies
involved in trying to get their piece of that 1.2 million dollars. You can imagine that's
taking a little time to coordinate. ARPA funding, last year, they basically got the bill
signed and threw the money out right before they even had the guidance in place that
was kind of an interim final rule, which didn't make any sense. Finally got the final, final
rule a couple months ago. That caused a lot of problems, so I think because of that,
they're taking their time with this funding and so it might be allowed before we actually
see the guidance on this. We'll watch for announcements, obviously. The Leagues are a
great source of information for us. We did add additional contingency in the Special
Revenue Fund in case any of this becomes available in Fiscal Year'23. Contingency and
Special Revenue, it matches revenue and expenditures on both sides, so it's basically a
wash. And it doesn't account towards our expenditure limitation for the year.
I hit a slide.
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. Are there any questions on this?
All right. Then the last section is Biz Hub, and I get to leave and turn it over to
Amanda.
MANAGER MILLER: So Amanda wasn't here, but when this first came up, we were at
the Council retreat back in February, and I proposed to the Council an idea, a
recommendation that we consider leasing the Four Peaks Elementary School from the
Page 42 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 43 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
school district for the purpose of continuing with the Biz Hub. Biz Hub was originally
created a couple years ago, and with the departure of East Valley Institute of Technology,
it's been really languishing and it really hasn't really reached its full potential. So I'm
going to turn it over to Amanda, who is going to go through some slides. I understand
there's some questions that Council has. we'll be happy to entertain those questions when
she's done with her presentation.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR JACOBS: Good evening, Mayor and
Council. So as Mr. MANAGER MILLER mentioned, we brought this up as a proposal
during the retreat. I'm saying we, I was not here, but was with you guys in spirit, and so
wanted to give you guys a status update. You'll see throughout we don't have all of the
information. I'll say where, but we wanted to, again, give you an update. This is a
placeholder in your budget, and we're hoping to get a little bit more information,
questions council has so we can come prepared and have all that information before that
tentative budget adoption, which I think is scheduled maybe tentatively on May 3rd.
So Grady already mentioned sort of a little bit of the history, but really the Biz
Hub was designed as a business accelerator. We haven't quite achieved that. I mean, so
what that is bringing in, you know, small startup businesses, having a shared use space,
and again, when we're talking startup, they don't really have the capital to go into a space.
They may have an idea, and so we're looking to see if we can achieve that. And so
leasing for about three years and partnering with the Arizona Business Advisors to help
us with the marketing and leasing of the facility.
So here -- so that top picture are some employees actually currently at the Biz
Hub, and so there's over 61,000 square feet for the Four Peaks. There's nine current
tenants. Two of those were originally home based, and we just heard that was one is
looking to potentially expand within the school, so that's great news. And the town
currently has approximately 300 home-based businesses, so we're thinking that could be a
target market for this. One of our businesses has done truly what an accelerator does.
They kind of started up in there, and then they left, and have a bigger footprint within the
town of Fountain Hills. And so again, that's what we're wanting to see.
And then currently to this day, we've got three potential leads, some in health and
Page 43 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 44 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
wellness, one in assembly. So there is a desire for this. So here I sort of mentioned, so
there's going to be some one-time costs for landscaping and resurfacing the parking lot.
There could be some other fees that we are still working on. So we're waiting on third
parties. Wish I could control them, but we can't, and so again, it appears we could get all
that information before the May 3rd and want to make that commitment to you because
want make sure you guys can make an educated decision and have all the facts.
And so --
MANAGER MILLER: And if I may, Amanda, I just want to jump in on the parking lot.
So the parking lot's really in rough shape,but it's really--we don't have a parking lot
next to the park where we just added the ziplines and all that. So we're able to cobble
those together, and with the economy's to scale, get a pretty good cost per a square foot
on the parking lot improvement, so. So we're thinking ahead and trying to save money so
that wouldn't be so cost -- and I think right now, Justin, wasn't the estimate that came in,
was it for 19,000? That would do the school district part of the parking, and we'll only do
that if we have a lease. We're not going to put it in unless we have a lease, as well as the
side worthy alleyway and the parking lot is adjacent to the park, so.
DIRECTOR JACOBS: And then so this next slide and final slide before we get to
questions, is again,just tentatively looking at expenses at a flat rate of 75,000, and then
revenues, I will tell you, I was very, very, very conservative. And so for'23, we're
looking at over a 124,000. In'24, 181,000. And then in'25, 238,000. And so for'24 --
so '23, looking a little bit flat, kind of staying flat this year, next year, in'24, '25,
assuming potentially four new tenants. And so it doesn't include a concept of a
coworking space in the library where we could rent out, again, maybe capitalize on the
home-based businesses, and also any type of shared costs as we talked with our partners,
the Business Advisors. Quite often sometimes you see the tenants share in the some of
the costs of the utilities, but some of that was not assumed.
MANAGER MILLER: Yes, I just want to point out a few things. So this is not to point
out that we're making money on this. I think you're going to be --we'll probably be
breaking even, or we'll probably be subsidizing, probably about 50,000 when this is all
said and done. But we needed a placeholder from a budget standpoint to appropriate and
have money in the budget for next year if this ends up happening.
Page 44 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 45 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
As we mentioned earlier, there were questions about the condition of the building.
We anticipate, again, probably at worst case scenario, we'll probably lose about 50,000
dollars a year, and I would probably--we also looked at the current leases, and that's
where we were able to get, like, for next year, we know that you can pretty much count
on 124,000 dollars on that. And that would have to be, of course, worked out in the lease
agreement that we would be the primary anchor tenant and that we would be receiving
the rental revenue for that and probably have some other protections in there for the town.
Turning it back over to Amanda, I think I saw some other questions here.
MAYOR DICKEY: All right. Alan?
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Yeah, I confess I know very little about this. The
revenue comes from the tenants?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: Correct.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And what do we charge per a square foot? Any
idea?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: So Madam Mayor and Council Member Magazine, right now, it
varies and has been between the school district and the Arizona Business Advisors and
the tenant, but I'll tell you it hasn't been consistent and it just varies.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Well, would it be the same for everybody?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: It is not because of different square footage. Some of the tenants
have combined spaces, so it's not-- yeah, it's different.
MANAGER MILLER: Yeah, and some of this information is proprietary for us to share
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: All right.
MANAGER MILLER: --because, you know, there's also a private sector that we
compete with on this.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Is it below market? Can you tell us that?
MANAGER MILLER: For the most part it is below market --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: Below market.
MANAGER MILLER: --that's why they're there.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And how many square feet is this?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: For the building, it's over 61,000 square feet.
Page 45 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 46 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: And how many square feet are being used now?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: That I don't know off the top of my head. Justin?
DIRECTOR WELDY: 35,000.
DIRECTOR JACOBS: 35,000.
MANAGER MILLER: And something we didn't mention is in addition to this, we've
identified, like, they have what's called a cafetorium. It would be a combined cafeteria
and auditorium. We believe that we would also like to use that space after hours and on
weekends for community services used for programming and maybe a teen center or
things like that, but we would try to do it in such a way that it doesn't interfere with the
daytime business use, which is the primary intended use of this building.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I assume there's some criteria you use in terms of
who you're willing to lease to? Or would they be developed, some kind of--
DIRECTOR JACOBS: And so that we're looking at depending on what, you know,
Council's direction is, we've started having conversations with the Arizona Business
Advisors, but what we're talking about is a bit of a reset. So it's clear on what type of
businesses we're targeting. So we had a meeting this week, again, looking at what is
already existing and capitalizing on. So again, the health wellness, we've got the watch
that are assembling watches. And again, someone similar, a different industry of
assembly. And so we've landed on that, but there's still work to be done on the targeted
industry.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: I know that you led with health and wellness. Was
that aimed at me?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: It's just --
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: You're up to answering that.
DIRECTOR JACOBS: It's just happening, Council Member.
MANAGER MILLER: Mayor, if I may too, that's a good question. And I've kind of
turned my nose up at a couple tenants, and you know, I can't really go into details,but
they were ones that I did not think really fit with the business accelerator. And it's
nothing against the school district or what they're currently doing, it's just that they were
the type that would probably get in and probably would never grow and get beyond that.
And it was probably they were more youth oriented and not actually, like, they were like,
Page 46 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 47 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
proprietorships and not actually businesses. So that's why I was kind of concerned, and
so we're trying to develop what that criteria would be so that we would ensure that the
best use of the facility is intended here.
COUNCILMEMBER MAGAZINE: That's right. I do have one other question. Since
it's below market rates, is there some point at which you say to a company, time to move
out and go somewhere else? You may not be able to answer that, but I mean, do they
stay below market rates for as long as they want, no matter how successful they are? I
guess this is part of the question.
DIRECTOR JACOBS: So Mayor and Council Member, one, we're going to need to
adhere -- and we're looking with our legal department, so we're going to need to adhere to
what current leases are in place, but that will be part of our strategy if we do get the go
ahead from Council to have those very conversations. You're welcome.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: I'm assuming our goal here is to have these people move into
some of these vacancies in our downtown area.
MANAGER MILLER: Absolutely.
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: That's why we're doing this. And your leads are going to
come from some of our home-based businesses, and you're going to -- I'm assuming
you're going to work with our chamber to get some leads too, maybe?
MANAGER MILLER: Actually, who's been the biggest lead prior to the town's
involvement has been MCO Realty, so you're probably familiar with a realtor named
Dzintars?
VICE MAYOR FRIEDEL: Urn-hum.
MANAGER MILLER: He's actually been very active with trying to flush out leads with
the school district, so I think that's going to continue.
DIRECTOR JACOBS: Mayor and Vice Mayor, I'll say all of the above, and so one thing
we need to work on is that marketing, having that consistent messaging, and all of our
partners knowing that availability. For this to continue to be successful, we need to rely
on our community partners, so yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, Sharron?
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: I have a long list of things. My concern about
community services getting involved in the building is one aspect is you've got
Page 47 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 48 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
businesses in there and they're not limited to you have to be out by 5 o'clock, so the
evening hours are kids screaming or whatever. You may be annoying to some business
owners, so we need to keep that in mind. Are we taking into consideration that we're
going to have to hire a whole new community services staff to man this place? We're
going to have to worry about janitorial services. It's going to have to be daytime and
nighttime because now we're operating on both ends of the spectrum. There's also safety
concerns that to my recollection, I've toured the building probably a half dozen times
now. I don't remember that there's like drop down gates like you guys have down here to
keep the kids on what we'll call the kids' side from the business side, so I feel like that
would be an issue. It's been a while since I've been there to get connected to the internet,
but the internet really was bad last time I was there. I also -- I didn't see it in the fabulous
picture that was shown a little bit earlier, but somebody told me that there are tarps on the
roof, so I feel like I've heard plumbing problems and roof problems. Lah, lah, lah.
MANAGER MILLER: Well, if I could just address the roof issues. So that is correct.
We have seen that physically,but there have not been any detected leaks with when
we've had the most recent rains. The staff went out there to go check and see. We did
get some estimates of what it would cost to seal up the top of the roof just so that we
would have an idea, and it was going to be --was it 200,000? So that wasn't a new roof,
that was just to put a seal on it. As far as the plumbing, we have had it scoped. Has that
been completed, Justin?
DIRECTOR WELDY: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
MANAGER MILLER: And that's a sewer plumbing.
DIRECTOR WELDY: Council Member, there was a considerable amount of
conversation to catch everybody up about the new addition on the western side not
having met the codes. In fact, our due diligence under the direction from the town
manager demonstrated that the pipe that services that area is in fact of adequate size and
it has adequate slope on it. What it was is that it's --the heat traps in all of these sinks,
and laboratory area is drying out, and that allows sewer gases to come in to other areas of
the building. So we are confident that the sewer is adequately sized and functioning in
regards to that portion. And you should--- and I'll also say this. We have had the fire
marshal in there and lots of other professionals as part of our due diligence to ensure that
Page 48 of 52
I
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 49 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
we're providing the best up to date information to the town manager, of course, to provide
back to the mayor and Council in their decision making. So there is a relatively large list
of items that we've addressed in regards to life safety and access and we will certainly
move forward on some of those if directed to do so.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: I still have a couple of things on my list if I can -
MANAGER MILLER: No, no, please do, I mean--
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: I know with, and I don't really know how to ask
this, but with the school being in charge of the building, as the advisory commission, and
that's the committee. That's the only reason why I know about this. New businesses
coming in needed to be a teaching or learning type thing to accommodate the fact that it
was still a school. So that being said, I don't know if I'm concerned about that or just
tossing that out that that might still be a problem that we need to take into consideration if
we're going to renting this out.
Also, stop me if what I'm about to say is too much,but I'm under the impression
that there are two businesses moving in that would meet the learning/teaching
requirement, but they're actually existing businesses in town. So I don't have a problem
with that, but I'm just pointing out that it's not a business incubator as we had hoped for.
So are we going to be a business incubator, or are we looking for just business? I just
feel like there's a lot of unanswered questions that we need to resolve before I'm actually
ready to even have a conversation about it.
MANAGER MILLER: I'll let Amanda address that,but I think I kind of touched upon
my concerns with a couple that were going in, but do you want to address what she just
brought up?
DIRECTOR JACOBS: So two would be new. One we toured. Again, we can't give too
much information,but could no longer afford their rent, and so was looking at the Biz
Hub. But as of this time, it is not going to work for a variety of reasons.
MAYOR DICKEY: (Indiscernible).
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Don't get me wrong, I'm not shooting the
businesses that are trying to move. That's not what I was doing at all. I'm just trying to
make sure that--
MANAGER MILLER: No, these are all --
Page 49 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 50 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: -- everybody's singing from the same hymnal up
here.
MANAGER MILLER: These are all very fair questions and if we -- as an example, if we
have to maintain that building, it's a no go. There's no way I would put my reputation or
have the town be paying for a considerable albatross to put around our neck here, so
we're going do our due diligence before there's a recommendation for a lease here, so.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Thank you.
DIRECTOR JACOBS: Thank you.
MANAGER MILLER: And again, I just want to be real clear. What you have before
you, we've just, because of the timing and such, we just have a placeholder in the budget,
so there's nothing more than that. So we're not obligated to do, like, the parking lot
improvements or anything like that until we actually get a lease agreement, which
hopefully is between now and the time the tentative --well, not between now and the
tentative budget is adopted, but between now and maybe the end of the fiscal year.
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Yeah, I just wanted to add, I mean, in general I'm
in favor of, you know, all the due diligence that we can and at least exploring the concept
further. You know, it's obviously unfortunate the demographics of the town and the
dwindling school enrollment, you know, forced the closure of that campus, and so it's
now kind of a community issue because, you know, hate to just have a building sitting
there vacant or what have you. And so I think this is a good-faith effort to try to kind of
revive that building and keep it viable. But yeah, obviously if there's major issues it's not
something, you know, we want to approach either, but I think for this fiscal year we
should proceed as you guys are talking about and see what happens. I mean, you know,
within the next five years, what have you, you know, might, you know, school district
might be looking at, well, what are we going to do with(indiscernible) as well. So I
mean, there's just all these community issues that we kind of need to tackle as a team and
figure out, you know, what the community wants to do and how we go about it, so.
MAYOR DICKEY: Um-hum.
DIRECTOR POCK: All right. So I just wanted to point out to our thousands of fans we
were reminded of, like I had mentioned earlier, that the town-- the proposed budget book
is available on the town's website. If everybody goes to your government and then down
Page 50 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 51 of 52
APRIL 12, 2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
in the right side, town budget, it takes you to this page. And the first link under the video
is a proposed budget that we just went through today, and it says its not been published. I
think I need to flip a switch upstairs. But that's --
ALL: [LAUGHTER].
DIRECTOR POCK: -- where it will be, and it will have all of the detail and everything,
the graphs and the entire book. It can be printed. Sections can be selected that you want
to print if you don't want to do the whole thing, but that's where everybody would be able
to find that.
MANAGER MILLER: And David has been very modest. This was a major
implementation that both he and the audit on his staff, really, were able to do this fiscal
year. And it's a workflow web-based system, and so it actually, in the end, it was a lot of
effort on their part to get this implemented, but it in the end it's going to make producing
a budget book much more easily--much more easier. The staff also really enjoyed using
it, and I think this is just showing the innovation that David and his staff had in putting
together something that really streamlines our entire budget process, so kudos to you
guys.
DIRECTOR POCK: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well done.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes.
DIRECTOR POCK: And then the last thing I would say is if anybody has any questions
with the proposed budget before we go through and do the tentative in May,just let us
know. We'll be happy to answer.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: You need a question slide.
DIRECTOR POCK: Oh. Oh, I think it closed it already. Sorry. I'll make another one.
MAYOR DICKEY: Then we'll answer.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: He'll email you one.
DIRECTOR POCK: Right. I was just trying to get to, you know, like the 125 slides --
COUNCILMEMBER SCHARNOW: Yeah.
DIRECTOR POCK: -- you know, that you're used to.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you so much for the presentations and all the work that went
Page 51 of 52
CITY OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 52 of 52
APRIL 12,2022 COMBINED SPECIAL MEETING/BUDGET WORKSHOP
into it, of course, from all our directors and staff and Grady, Aaron, and everybody. So
any further questions for anybody? Take a motion to adjourn?
COUNCILMEMBER SPELICH: Motion to adjourn.
COUNCILMEMBER GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All those in favor, say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Good night
Page 52 of 52