HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023.0516.TCRM.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
May 16, 2023
A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E.
Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:39 p.m.
Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon;
Councilmember Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski:
Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Hannah Toth;
Councilmember Allen Skillicorn
Staff Present: Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D.
Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall
Audience: Approximately sixty-nine members of the public were present.
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MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
Post -Production File
Town of Fountain Hills
Minutes of the Regular Meeting
Of the Fountain Hills Town Council
May 16, 2023
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.
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MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
DICKEY: Good evening, everyone. Please rise for the Pledge, and if you choose, stay
standing for the invocation.
ALL: I 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. We have Pastor Rod Warembourg. Hi.
WAREMBOURG: Thank you all for this opportunity. Please join me for a prayer of
invocation. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. Father, I want to thank you for
these who lead our city. And I pray, Father, that you would help them as they lead and
guide our city. I pray, Father, that you would be made wisdom to them. I pray, Father,
that you would help them to lead us into a bright future. We pray that you would be
about their decisions and about the things that happen here tonight. In Jesus' name,
amen.
ALL: Amen.
WAREMBOURG: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Here.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Here.
MENDENHALL: Anyone wishing to address the council regarding items listed on the
agenda or under Call to the Public should fill out a request to comment card located in the
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back of the council chambers and hand it to the town clerk prior to consideration of that
agenda item.
When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, and
state your name for the public record. Please limit your comments to three minutes. It is
the policy of the mayor and council to not comment on items brought forth under Call to
the Public. However, staff can be directed to report back to the council at a future date or
to schedule items raised for future council agenda.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Linda, very much. So we start, as always, with our
reports from our town manager and council. Rachael.
GOODWIN: Good evening. I just had one announcement. I wanted to thank our mayor
and council that attended our staff luncheon, where we honored a number of staff who
had milestones years of service. We had a number of staff that were celebrating 5. 10,
15, and even one that had 20 years of service with us here at the town.
And I just wanted to say thank you. It was a great celebration of our dedicated staff and a
reminder of how many -- how many locals we have and how much work goes in every
single day, seen and unseen. So thanks for joining us.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
TOTH: I have no report this week. Thank you.
GRZYBOWSKI: Being respectful of our time, instead of talking about all of the
volunteer stuff that I've done over the past couple of weeks, I try to keep my comments
pertinent to my duties directly here on the council.
During the last two weeks 1 attended the League Budget and Finance Economic
Development meeting, where only one item was brought up, and it was shot down
immediately. In all honesty, the town manager didn't even know how it was brought to
the table. So we could talk about that later, if you'd like to, Mayor. I'm sure you'll hear
about it.
The town manager, the interim town manager and I met with a couple of their public
service representatives. I attended virtually two League legislative update calls. And last
week I did the first tier suburbs meeting with the National League of Cities. I'm not
actually on their council, but they allow me to attend. And it's always intriguing because
it's not the big cities, the Phoenixes and whatnot. It's the suburbs like us that are
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immediately outside. So that's always an interesting call. Thank you.
FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. I attended several events, including Paws on the Avenue.
It was a dog show on the avenue in front of Classy Jazzy. And were hoping for a bigger
turnout next year for that. But it was a lot of fun. A lot of cute dogs out there as well. I
attended the recent school board meeting. Like Rachacl, I attended the Town Service
Award luncheon recognition for the town employees. I had no idea we had employees
that were there for 10, 15, and 20 years. So that's really a testament to the town and the
staff.
And along that line, Mayor, bear with me. I want to make a statement. You know, we
talked about our capital improvement budget and our buildings and our roads and how
valuable they are and our parks. There's one thing that we don't talk about that I think is
very important of this town, and that's our employees. We have a great group of
employees here. And they help deliver all the services to this town. There's a lot of
volunteers. There's a lot of hours and work that go into that. And 1 don't know if
anybody in this room realizes the fact that our town manager did not take the COLA
increase recently. I hope I'm not embarrassing you, Rachacl. But that's a testament to a
good manager who stood up and said, you know- what, I'm not going to take that increase.
So kudos to you, Rachael. I just want to make sure that everybody was aware of that.
I also want to mention the fact that recently Brenda K. and I delivered home -delivered
meals. That was so rewarding, a couple hours that we spent delivering meals to seniors
in this town. So there's a lot of volunteer opportunities for stuff like that in this town.
And then, the one final thing, Mayor, I want to say is that the Arizona state budget got
passed this past week, and in there was a line item for $10 million going to the Dark
Skies Discovery Center. So that is going to happen.
[APPLAUSE]
FRIEDEL: So we're excited about that. So it looks like it's a big step toward them
getting their funding in place, so look for that and future updates on that as well. Thank
you.
MCMAHON: Good evening, everybody. We had a new Memory Cafe for the dementia
friendly group that was really -- and we had a great turnout. And it was really a great
conversation with the caretakers. And we look forward to having many more than -- it's
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part of our initiative as dementia -friendly town. So to have it be such a success was
really rewarding for all of us. I also, like Sharron, met with a republic representative; we
had a good conversation. And I also wasn't to congratulate all the employees with all the
major milestones from 5 years to 20 years. It was very, very impressive to be able to
honor them, to see their dedication and how much they love working for our town. And
like Gerry said, we really have one of the best staffs, I think, in Maricopa County. So
thank you for that.
And also, I attended the legislative calls, and I was very, very excited to see that we have
$10 million allocated in the state budget for our Discovery Dark Sky Center. That's just
an amazing feat. And it is going to do so much for our town. So thank you.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Miss Mayor. Hello everybody and thanks for attending
tonight. Now, once again, we've almost a full occupancy. Everybody on YouTube and
streaming on live, this is what good governance is all about, is a concerned and active
citizenry. So thank you very much for being good, active citizens.
I also went to the Town of Fountain Hills length of service milestone celebration,
celebrating our employees. It's a great way to acknowledge the years of honorable
service to our community. I want to keep it brief tonight, but I do have some opinions on
our town staff and some contentiousness that's happened lately, and I wrote a open letter
to the town staff, and it will be in tomorrow's Fountain Bills Times in the "Letters to the
Editors" section. So that's why I can keep it brief tonight.
I did attend the Planning and Zoning meeting. And it was a very insightful meeting. I
know if you guys come here and you like this kind of public engagement that the
Planning and Zoning is really where things get started. And I would suggest -- it's online.
It's on YouTube. And it's, of course, live. But it's a good place to get your updates on
what's coming down the pipe.
I did go to the school board meeting. And I know that recently there's talk of this bond
issue. And I would just ask the people, whether you're for it or whether you're against it,
to just be courteous and respectful of each other. I know that there's a lot of
contentiousness regarding that, too. And I think that it's uncalled for. Everybody wants
what's best for the kids. We just have different ways of going about doing it. And so let's
just honor each other's -- respect each other and treat each with dignity.
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The last thing is I did also attend the Paws on the Avenue as well as Brett Kershank and
the mayor and Scott Strasbourg, who were the judges. And they picked wisely. Hannah,
Gerry, and I were the dog handlers, and we got the dogs staged and to the right spot. I
don't know if this was intentional or not, I didn't ask, but it was the same day as the
Kentucky Derby. And so everybody -- the derby has the hats and the outfits, and the
same thing happened that day. It was just a wonderful event because all the -- the pet
owners dressed their pets like themselves. And it was such a fun event to see, and it was,
just again, Fountain Hills' very best. And so, like Gerry said, we'll publish it a little more
next year, and hopefully it will get more dogs and more owners.
Thanks, everybody. Have a great evening.
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor, everyone. Thank you for coming, especially
the smiling students here. I'll steal the councilwoman's thunder and say you can always
stay for the whole meeting, too.
So just, you know, very quickly, I was able to attend the Fountain Hills Coalition. The
Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon cutting last Thursday. I was able to attend. I was
able to meet with the sheriffs department. I teamed quite a bit about those details there.
And there's a whole -- a long list of community events it will take part on. It's such an
amazing -- to have such an active and participant -driven community that we do so many
fun events. So just keep it up, everyone.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. You'll have to remind me to start on this end next time.
I'm always starting over there. So I'll let you guys go first next time. I thought what you
were going to say it was the Kentucky Derby because the winning dog looked like it
could have been a horse.
[LAUGHTER]
MAYOR DICKEY: It was a pretty big one. So it was fun.
I realized at the last meeting I made a mistake when we were talking about our road
bonds. We had our -- you know, we have all this other stuff that we talked about with the
budget, and I said we were -- we were not going to be going for a street bond, and I said
2024, but I meant 2023. So that's this year. And the school district will be discussing
what they're going to do. But we won't be doing anything this November.
I attended a housing policy briefing. It was regarding short-term rentals. It was really
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good. A lot of different cities. And were actually in pretty good shape with our
ordinance. It was from around the country. So some of them haven't come as far, I guess
you'd say, as Arizona.
Quarterly East Valley Mayors' meeting, we had that. We had our mayors' education
roundtable, which this time was at ASU Helios Decision Center. I'd never been there. A
lot of good information I'll share with the superintendent. Mayor's Youth Council
graduation -- that was great. Congratulations for all your volunteer hours. Some of us
seniors will be moving on. And I'll probably see some of the others next year. And
they'll be presenting tonight. So that's awesome.
Capital Times had a webinar about Prop 400e. And the Greater Phoenix Economic
Council, and Sharon knows about this, and mayors and supervisors had a meeting.
Some of that information will be in our presentation that were having today from ED.
And I had my first League Executive Committee meeting. And there was a lot of
information about that bill that pretty much wipes out any local control on zoning. So
we're all trying to keep our eye on that one. I had got a lot of information that I did send
to the council, and hopefully they will distribute. It's kind of a lot, but it's important to
know about this because I have a feeling some of it's going to go through. So we'll have
to keep our eye on that. So really appreciate it.
So our new thing is for the stellar students to be part of the reports, which is right now.
And this is our last one for the year. And we have six kids, two from each school. And
I'm going to start with McDowell Mountain School. Angela has the certificates. And
when I call your name, please come up, she'll give it to you, and then just wait up here,
and then the newspaper will take a picture when we're done.
So I'm going to start with Aubriana Hrisho. I want to say that right. Is Aubriana here?
Yes. Come on up, honey.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICICEY: "Aubriana is a perfect example of a stellar student. Not only does
she always do her very best on her work, she's extremely polite, respectful, and
considerate of others. Aubriana goes out of her way to be helpful, and her kindness is
recognized by her peers. In class she shows great skill and effort in whatever we're
working on and offers wonderful ideas in class discussions. She's an absolute pleasure to
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have in class." Aubriana, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Now stay right up there, honey. Next from McDowell we have
Damon Spex Jr. Is Damon here? Hey, come on up, Damon.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Damon is a stellar student because of the positive example he
serves and the group -- and the growth he has shown in art. He demonstrates what
respect looks and sounds like and makes efforts to inspire others to do the same. He tries
his best and perseveres when met with challenges. He's open to suggestion and shows
great appreciation for the help. It is an honor to nominate Damon for being a respectful,
kind, responsible, and safe stellar student." Damon.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Now well go to the Middle School and Sophia Dwyer. Is Sophia
here? Yeah, come on up.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Sophia is an amazing student and citizen. She is kind, considerate,
and very hard working. She cares about her grades and her classmates. She is," in
capitals, "a stellar student." That's Sophia.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Next from Middle School is Jake Hamcd. Is Jake here? Come on
up, Jake.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Jake is a great student. He works hard on his assignments and
takes his education seriously. Jake is kind and respectful to his peers and to staff. We
think Jake is a stellar student." That's Jake.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Now we have from the high school Alex Brownstein. Is Alex here?
Yay.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Alex is a very consistent worker and is dedicated to doing his best
in all situations. He is someone who sees the value in education and becoming the best
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that he can be in whatever he chooses to do." That's Alex from the high school.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Our last student couldn't make it because she -- she had cheer
commitments. Her name is Riga Homyak, and she's from the high school. "Riga is
always upbeat and is very reliable person in helping with attendance. She works great
with others, and she's a wonderful person to have around. She loves dance and music and
is quick to compliment others."
So let's give Riga a hand.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: All right. You guys ready for this? You guys ready for school to be
almost over?
[LAUGHTER]
MAYOR DICKEY: You arc? I can't believe it. One more. Congratulations, everyone.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming. Next we have our presentations.
And the first one we're going to have is from the Fountain Hills Medical Center.
Rachael, did you want to introduce?
GOODWIN: I think our team is here.
MAYOR DICKEY: Doctor, thank you for coming. Thank you for being with us.
Looking forward to hearing.
EZEUME: Thank you very much, yeah. Can I just go? All right, excellent. Well,
Madam Mayor, Council people, and town staff, I'm very grateful to have been invited to
come talk to you guys, and it's a little bit exciting. Actually, very exciting.
The last time we were here, I was here about three years ago. We were looking to get
this property by Saguaro and Trevino rezoned to allow us to get to bring the first
emergency room -- 24/7 emergency room to the Town of Fountain Hills.
Then the second time I was here, we were hoping to upgrade for 24/7. And we were very
lucky that you guys caught onto the vision which, which is a testament to the leadership
of the town, and agreed with us that it was a service that was needed. And I'm back here
today to tell you guys that we've been open for three years as of last month. And I
wanted to kind of report directly back to you guys as far as what we are doing, how we're
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doing, and what the plan is, going forward.
So for the two years we've been opened, we've seen -- we've had 20,000 patient
encounters as of last month. And for this next year, if our current volume keeps up
without additional increases, we're on track to see another 12,000 patient encounters in
our third year. So that is -- that is really amazing.
Since we opened, the opportunity that exists in the — I'm just going to read through this,
just because I understand I have ten minutes, so I'm trying to get through it very quickly
for any questions.
So since we opened up, the opportunities that exist in the healthcare space here in our
town has been recognized by a lot of other health organizations and providers. And it has
had kind of a downstream effect and resulted in additional healthcare services being
offered by these organizations here in our community. So that's exciting as well because
we -- the more services for our residents, the better it is for everybody.
We have had tremendous support from Fountain Hills and McDowell Reservation
residents. While our shares of patient from Fountain Hills and McDowell Reservation is
about 60 percent, the actual number of patients has continued to grow over the past two
years. We are also starting to see a lot of patients coming in from Scottsdale and Mesa.
And it is continuing to steady increase as well. About 25 to 30 percent of our patients
right now are coming in from Scottsdale. About 10 to 15 percent are coming from Mesa
and some other farther out areas like North Phoenix and sometimes Chandler.
The one thing that keeps bringing them here, or at least looking our way, is that Fountain
Hills is now being recognized as a place where there arc a lot of healthcare options. And
most importantly, you can actually get those services here fast and efficiently.
So many patients from surrounding areas that do come here have expressed surprise
about -- some people don't even know Fountain Hills exists. I mean, I did my residency
here for three years; I'd never heard of Fountain Hills. So it's actually pretty amazing.
When people get over the hill, they are pretty surprised that there is actually a town called
Fountain Hills. And some of them have lived here for five years.
So you know, that -- so they are very happy to have healthcare options and the efficiency
of the facilities we have. We are investing in outreach and awareness about healthcare in
Fountain Hills as an extension of, obviously, the services we offer. We continue to
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sponsor programs here in town, as well as, you know, especially in some of the
elementary schools, middle school, high schools in the Scottsdale area that is closer to us,
including some charter schools such as basis Scottsdale.
We continue to see an increase of pediatric visits from the surrounding areas. And some
of these parents are coming to Fountain Hills for the first time. And I know there has
been a desire to attract young families to our town. And this certainly is not -- is not
having a negative impact; that's for sure.
So we continue to prefer to refer patients to sub -specialists that operate offices in
Fountain Hills. This is one of the things we look at when we make referrals for patients
that are not already assigned to sub -specialists providers.
The majority of our prescriptions, over 90 percent, even from people that are outside of
the town, are sent to pharmacies here. A lot of times patients will come in for, like, an
acute illness, and they want to be able to just go to pharmacy down the street, get the
medicine on their way back. So this, this continues -- this adds to support of local
commercial pharmacies and helps to, obviously, keep those businesses here in town.
Specifically, patients that do visit us express satisfaction about how neat, clean, and
organized everything is. And they feel like they're not climbing over each other to get the
same quality of healthcare that some places you wait four, five hours for.
The most common question we continue to get is whether we accept all insurance for
emergency services. The answer remains yes. And in fact, the NSA law that was signed
by President Trump before he left office mandates that emergency services are covered
by insurance companies at the minimum of their -- in their work rates, regardless of
whether the ER or your services are provided by contracted facilities or not.
The second question we get are from patients who have high deductible plans and what
programs we have to help them deal with patient responsibilities and that, you know, that
they are -- anticipate will be assigned to them by insurance plans. My response to this,
we have continued -- so for example, in '21 and '22, when we were still trying to get our
policies around this, we actually forgave 100 percent of patient deductibles and
responsibilities from all the visits from '21 and '22 for ER visits. And this amounts to
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Since'23 we have instituted an emergency room access high -deductible hardship
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discount, which is applied immediately to patient responsibilities, regardless of the ability
to pay. And then, there is always an option for people to pay a hundred percent of their
patient responsibility if they wish.
So this is where, where it basically supports our goal to make sure that patients are able to
access emergency services without having to choose between paying for their rent and
paying for healthcare services.
So what comes next, tclemedicine, we're hoping to roll out a telemedicinc program by the
end of the month. The goal -- initially, it's going to be Monday through Friday during
business hours. These arc for acute care issues. It's only going to be for Arizona
residents. And the idea is, you know, there are some people that work and they're not
able to go see the doctor. Some people want to talk to a doctor for, like, a sore throat or
some stuff in between work, and they'll have the ability to do that. Ultimately, we intend
to have this service 24 hours, hopefully within six months of initial implementation. We
are hoping to have, instead of accepting ambulance services, by late summer to early fall,
this will be very important for a lot of our residents that would be prefer to be seen in our
community rather than going outside of it. We're finishing up the aims process (ph.) and
as this, you know, progresses, well let everyone know how it's going.
As other healthcare institutions develop their services, we arc studying to observe -- and
we observe the referral patterns of some of these additional facilities, whether they
primarily refer within Fountain Hills or outside of Fountain Hills. We're also developing
ideas on specific programs we're going to have in phases --
[BACKGROUND NOISE]
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible).
EZEUME: It's a sign of good omen.
[LAUGHTER]
EZEUME: -- phase 2 of our facility. So the general ideas of what we're looking to do in
phase 2 includes having inpatient facilities, sub -specialty clinics, general surgery,
orthopedic surgery, cardiology services, and stuff like that. So we are still developing
this program and as we need help from counsel in bring these services here in town, let
you guys know.
So the last thing I have is to talk about how the town can help. You know, the most
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important thing, which we have been very grateful to the town for, has been to continue
to feature our services and the convenience that we offer in the town's outreach programs,
to understand that, even are privately owned, really by the physicians that work there, we
are still offering a public service that is not unlike, say, like a privately owned ambulance
service that responds to 9-1-1.
You know, when you have an emergency, it doesn't matter whether it's -- who owns it.
You have an emergency, and if you get -- can be seen in an efficient manner and not have
to sell your kidney to pay for it, I think that's something that's very helpful for everyone.
Continue to use us as experts in healthcare issues in the community. Follow our
Facebook and social media posts. You know, people have had a positive experience, we
put on there. If you've had a negative experience, call us. We address everything. We
appreciate all the positive comments, but we really, as a facility, focus on the negative
ones and we try to work through them.
Continue to encourage other healthcare facilities to keep their referral within the
community, which is not only in the best interest of the patients, because every -- it's
always best to get care close to home, it also allows all the other businesses to want to
continue to do their best because they know they're going to get those referrals. And I
think that creates kind of a rebound effect.
We all -- we'll also continue collaborating with local emergency response systems such as
our fire department and our first responders to streamline processes and make sure that
we arc being as helpful as possible to supporting their effort in the community.
So on behalf of all the staff at our ER, 1 would like to thank you all for your continued
support and commitment to our facility. It's been a pleasure serving this community. We
look forward to continue to do this in a -- provide quality, affordable healthcare close to
home. And that's all I have. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any questions or comments for the doctor?
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, I got a quick comments. Thank you, Miss Mayor. Thank you
so much for serving our community. Really appreciate having that facility here. Last
month Amanda and Betsy LaVoie from the Chamber and I went there and -- on our
business retention development services, and I did get a chance to tour the facility. And
it is — really, it's a top notch, current -- even the lighting in the rooms is -- from the
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outdoor lighting, they give people less stress. And so it's well thought out. It's a --just a
wonderful facility, and I think we're lucky to have it.
When you mentioned telemedicine, are you able to prescribe drugs on that or is that just
for consultations?
EZEUME: Yes. So if -- so the, yes. If we -- if we're able to make a diagnosis,
absolutely, yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay.
EZEUME: Yes. We'll be able to prescribe medicine. So say somebody is having a sore
throat or something and, you know, they could call in, dial in, pick a physician, and
they'll get assessed. And if the doctor feels that medication is necessary -- could be a
UTI -- whatever acute care situation is, they'll prescribe it. And the person will need to
come in. What's actually nice about it, when we roll it out, it will be cash pay only
initially. Eventually, within six months, we're hoping to start accepting insurance once
we work out all that kink with the insurance companies. But whatever the person, say the
person -- it's going to be flat $65. So say somebody pays $65 for a consult and they
happen to, within 24 hours -- either not feeling better, the doctor feels like, you know,
this is something that need further evaluation, when they come in, that $65 will be
deducted from their patient responsibility. So it's -- so you're not paying twice. So that's
a way of also making sure that patient (indiscernible).
KALIVIANAKIS: Right. Yeah. That's good to know for just the people that are
listening in tonight. And I know they just passed the veterinarian telemedicine bill --
EZEUME: Right
KALIVIANAKIS: -- this past week. And they -- they can't write prescriptions, however,
so they do it -- a significant restriction. It's nice to know that you don't have it. The other
thing, and this will be my last question, but just so the people know, I know you said that
you take all insurance. Does that include AHCCCS for people --
EZEUME: Yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: -- that have less means?
EZEUME: Absolutely, yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay.
EZEUME: We have contracted with AHCCCS.
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KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Thank you.
EZEUME: And for emergency services, it's regardless. It has -- you know, insurance
has to cover it; that's government rule.
FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. So you had 20,000 patient encounters in the last two
years. How many doctors do you have down there?
EZEUME: So we have -- there's a 24-hour physician available in the ER. So you know,
we have seven ER doctors, and four work full-time there. So there's always a doctor in
the house, regardless. We only --- whenever you come to our ER, you're guaranteed to
see a physician. You're not -- and in our clinic, we operate both, and you know, doctors
and nurse practitioners in the clinic. But in our emergency room is all physicians.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any other questions?
FRIEDEL. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, sir. I want to thank you also, because what you're doing
with the ambulance -- and again, we all hear antidotes about how great they are, and
we're really pleased that they're in our community right now.
Our next presentation is Ryan and the Mayor's Youth Council. And I think Ijust saw
Christopher had to leave. But come on up.
PRESTON: All right. Well, thanks for having us, you know. Good evening, everybody,
Madam Mayor, Council members. Thanks for having -- giving us the opportunity to
present here today. The presentation you're going to see was actually created by the
Mayor's Youth Council. So I am going to do you a favor and let them present it. So
you're going to be hearing from them. We're going to start with one of our seniors who's
graduating, with Anna Williams, who's going to come up and get it started.
WILLIAMS: Hi. So first we want to start off by talking about Barn Kazam. So every
year we go to do a team building experience, and we decided to go Bam Kazam this year.
So we focused on leadership opportunities, trying to give people different ways so that
they can show improvement in their leadership and just see who would kind of lead the
group for the rest of the year.
We also wanted to build our group dynamic. A lot of -- we had a lot of new members
this year, so it was really important to kind of introduce them to the way that we kind of
discuss things and try and help make them part of our group.
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We learned a lot about teamwork, leadership, and communication, especially when trying
to solve all the puzzles that are involved in this Barn Kazam. And this also included a lot
of problem -solving.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Could you pull the microphone a little closer, please?
Thank you.
THOMPSON: This was a very fun experience where a team of teenagers came together
to present our flag and represent our town and our organization. We also, in addition to
this, were able to connect and network with other cities.
PRESTON: Yes, Christopher. Christopher had to leave. But the Teen Takeover, it's a
big event. It's the second year we've done it. And it's something that is run solely by the
Mayor's Youth Council. So they do all the planning. They do everything it takes to get it
going and have a really fun event over at the community center. Close the whole place
down, open it just for teens for one night. We'd like to thank our event partners during
that. We had -- Fountain Hills Coalition was out, Sipps Eatery, Fountain Hills library,
Senor Taco, Pisa Pizza, and the Playground Dart -Zone, which 1 spent most of my time in
there in the dart war battles. I think we got a few pictures here to show you as well.
So this is a few pictures of the night, just showing how awesome and the fun and amazing
it was. We had a group from Phoenix Teens come over as well.
And I -- we had a bunch of raffle prizes. And they pretty much clean house with a lot of
the other top prizes. So a lot of fun, great night. Something to do for the teens in town.
As they say with the -- you know, which isn't always the case for them. So something
that's all planned and coordinated by the Youth Council.
D. WILLIAMS: So Toastmasters was an event specifically for the Mayor's Youth
Council, and it's where we learned how to succeed in public speaking. So Kathy H. was
the presenter who was telling -- who was teaching us these things. And what she did was
she used her own presentation in order to show us how we should -- how we should be
giving presentations to people.
As it says in the slide, it just made us more creative, more confident with public speaking.
And it was -- it was a pretty successful event that we put on.
K. WILLIAMS: So throughout the year as well, we have done many community service
events. Some highlights of that, it was the Back to School Bash, where we ran the
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inflatables; Make a Difference Day, where we went and we cleaned up the high school;
Spooky Blast, where we also ran the inflatables; and Noon Year's Eve, where we rent a
video game station.
O W ERS: To continue on to the community service, we helped -- we ran the Teen
Takeover. So we did that. Also, for Irish Fcst, we helped at the inflatables and helped
put wrist bands on people coming in. And at the Adopt a Street, we helped pick up trash
around the fountain. We worked at the Eggstravaganza. And actually, one of our
members, Christopher, he was the Easter Bunny. So he got to, like, hop around. And we
helped out at the Earth Day event here. We helped kids with crafts made out of recycled
materials.
WRIGHT: This year the Mayor's Youth Council has served 296 hours.
[APPLAUSE]
PRESTON: Perfect, yeah. And so again, thank you for having us here. It's -- I've
actually had the pleasure of getting to know these guys over just the past few months, and
I'm overseeing this group. And I don't think I have enough time to really go into how
incredible this group of -- I was going to call them kids, but this -- how great human
beings these guys are. I mean, in addition to everything you've seen, they have, you
know, they're in multiple AP classes. They're heavily involved in clubs and sports. And
a lot of them even have part-time jobs on top of that. And I'm sure that's why Chris had
to run out. There's a lot of commitments that they have. They're doing an amazing job. I
mean, they really -- you know, they're dedicated and they really want to make a
difference in the town for the youth, and it shows in everything they do -- that we do with
that. So thank you, Mayor, for always, you know, promoting this program and the
positive impact it's making in the town. So thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, speaking of committed, you are also, and we really appreciate
all the work that you've done and just the variety of all of the activities. Does anybody
have any questions or comments?
As I say all the time, you model this behavior that means so much to this community to
see these young folks going out there, putting in all these hours. And also, just top to
bottom, doing events like that when you're getting every part of that, and that's been
really successful. So wish you the best for the summer and for whatever you have in
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store. And we'll see some of you next year. And again, thank you, Ryan, so much.
PRESTON: Of course. And you're not going to get out of the photo, so we got to come
to --
MAYOR DICKEY: Oh. Thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Amanda's all ready and raring to go for our Economic
Development. Thank you, bye. Our update, our third-quarter update.
JACOBS: Okay. Evening, Madam Mayor, members of Council, members of the
audience. So here tonight for our third-quarter update, which is from January to March
of this year. But as always, if somebody is new tuning in, if something is relevant and
just happened last month or this month, I will mention it. Before I get started, I did want
to thank Councilmember Friedel and Councilmember Kalivianakis for your comments, as
an employee, as a Fountain Hills resident, and also as your Economic Development
Director. It takes seven second for people to make an impression in our brand. My job is
to try to attract new residents, visitors, and businesses. Some of the divisiveness has
made it challenging.
With that, well go into business attraction. So typically, I'm acknowledging some of our
new businesses that wanted to do something a little bit different. I had shared this slide
during the Community Economic Development workshop in January, which was by
invitation only. But wanted to mention some of this. So again, our residents, our
understanding about some of our business attraction, and as we begin to move forward in
the fall to see the proposed strategy.
So lead generation, that happens through a few processes. So one, it's your economic
development staff, which is a mighty team of two. But us actually initiating contact.
And so over the past six months we have reached out to national developers. And I'll tell
you, sometimes you can get ignored. These developers have responded to us, they
thanked us for being proactive, and then acknowledged too that, you know what,
Fountain Hills was not on their map. And so if they're doing work in Chandler, Tempe,
now we've raised awareness. And so they're open to having some future conversations
with us. We have also reached out -- so again, your Economic Development staff -- to
some restaurant and retail, a total of six, and again, making some progress, a few of them
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acknowledging us.
Just so everyone's aware, I can't always divulge the information. This is as much as I can
share. And that's just because until it's formal and there's things on the dotted line, we
don't want to get people too excited. Or sometimes people can get a little upset and they
can impact negotiations. And we don't want that. This benefits our 24,000 residents, not
just one or two.
Related to the industrial, the four, staff has been able to respond to proposals from the
Greater Phoenix Economic Council, GPEC. The Mayor mentioned them previously.
And then also, they'll route stuff through the Arizona Commerce Authority, so ACA.
There have been other opportunities that, unfortunately, we have not been able to respond
to. We've had the square footage, we have the vacancy, but why we were not is we did
not have the proper zoning. And so again, so there's no surprises, this is being recorded.
We can say today that I said this. Later on, in the fall, we'll be talking about
opportunities of rezoning, an overlay district. I understand sometimes those words can be
a bit scary. But we'll to that a little bit more in another slide.
Our business retention and expansion efforts, again, are going wonderful with our
partners at the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce. Councilmember Kalivianakis is
currently attending those site visits. Just a reminder to Council and then just our folks in
the back and those tuning in, what we're doing is we're inviting our policy leaders -- nine
out of ten times when we're meeting with business owners, the issues they're addressing I
can't tackle by myself Economic development is a team sport. And so having our policy
makers hearing firsthand what our business owners are struggling with is helpful.
And so we continue to see the three themes. So communication, and really it was about
events. 1 may take that off, because I feel like we've tackled that with our spring and fall
guide, which was mentioned during our joint session.
But our businesses, specifically our restaurants, say we don't care who puts on the events,
just let us know, especially when they're very big, because again, you see that there's
work force issues. They want to make sure that they staff up and people are having a
wonderful experience that maybe our visitors become residents or our visitors come back.
And then I've had on the slide, usually downtown, and so now I want to start using the
official name. So TAMA, The Avenue Merchant Association. Again, last year, we're
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working together for about six months. They formalized, have officers, and then you'll
see, they just approved, I believe it was last month, this logo that you'll start seeing
around town. And then as Councilmember Friedel mentioned, the first event launched
sort of under this umbrella was Paws on the Avenue.
All right. Apartment occupancy rate. I want to point out a couple, won't list each one,
but first, Gunsight last quarter was over 70 percent. Casa del Logo was over 80 percent.
These arc our newer apartments. And as you can see -- I know I sound like a broken
record, but again, anyone tuning in, we have a supply and demand issue. If somebody is
wanting to rent, is looking at apartments, townhomes, condos, it's becoming a bit of a
struggle to find space. Some of these locations just have one availability. And if there's
something you need now, it's just not available. And last thing on this slide, you'll see
Pillar at Fountain Hills. So several months ago, Keystone Properties, who owned the
Havenly, which is across the corner, sold and Pillar at Fountain Hills has taken over.
Some of the council members have asked me how is it going, asked about the staff. What
is nice is most of the staff has remained. Some of the folks, of course, with Keystone
have gone off on their merry way, one person with Cushman and Wakefield, but some of
the other employees have been elevated up and promoted. And they're loving their new
employer.
All right. Vacancy Rate, existing buildings. So the first column -- again, we'll just do a
quick reminder. That is from CoStar, one of our leading commercial real estate groups,
who's able to track nationally our vacancy rates. You'll remember, probably in the fall, as
staff began looking at this, you know, if there was a bit of a red flag, that these were a bit
low for Fountain Hills. And so what we've had to do, and continue to do, is we're having
to manually go out -- because some of our commercial brokers arc choosing just to place
a sign. And if somebody drives by and sees it, that's how they know. And unfortunately,
they're not listing it. So again, think of your home. If you're just putting a little for sale
sign, is that really going to do it for you? Or do you want to do an MLS listing?
So you'll see office continues to climb. We're now at 49.3 percent. Industrial is 18.1.
And retail is 20 percent. Again with the office, the explanation with that -- and again,
this is not a Fountain Hills issue. As GPEC mentioned, it's a state-wide issue and a
national issue. And so, what is the result? It's because of COVID 19, the aftermath. So
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again, everyone was forced to go home. Employees tended to like that, to be with their
dog. Maybe do a little laundry. And then, too, maybe some of them just didn't have to
deal with people. Right? We're not always positive. And so our employees have now
sort of taken over and are telling the employers, guess what, we're not coming back.
Some of the employers are forcing it or doing a hybrid approach. But this is -- this is
again -- it's not just a Fountain Hills issue.
And so again, earlier talking about overlay districts, rezoning, we're going to have to be
creative. Again, what everyone is telling us is this is the new normal. We're not going
back. And we'll have to reimagine together some of these spaces.
Again, our economic workshops -- so as I mentioned, in January, we had an invitation
only who had over 50 people come to our economic summit. That was designed to make
sure we got, you know, some of our business owners there at the table. Again, we
mentioned work force issues. They could only dedicate about two and a half hours to me
and our facilitator. Again, most of our council members were there, listening in.
Then we opened it to the public on April 12th. And so that's that image. I was hoping
for a little bit more of a bigger turnout. But again, just hearing that people arc very busy.
Councilmember Grzybowski, I think, mentioned it in her last report, you know, that she
liked it.
So if people wanted to spend five minutes, an hour with us -- and so there was different
focus areas. So asking questions about the downtown, the demographics, looking at
design guidelines, for instance, work force housing, just sort of, you know, checking the
temperature before we start putting together that proposed economic development
strategy.
And so again, you should be looking at that, perhaps September, October. Prior to that,
we're going to take it to -- since it is a strategic plan -- also, again, just to get additional
feedback from our SPAC, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission.
All right. Let's talk about grants. So we were able to announce earlier in the fiscal year
that we were able to secure $230,000 of grant funding through AOT Visit Arizona
initiative. So this was started by Governor Ducey with some of the leftover ARPA funds.
And so your staff has used about over 160,000. Again, economic development is a team
sport. So a big shoutout to Linda Ayers, Bo Larson (ph.), and John Perez.
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So you'll see we've been doing billboards across Arizona, specifically more in Maricopa
County. We've done broadcast and digital marketing with PBS and NPR. Again, thanks
to two of our residents, and one a business owner, we were able to secure, again, a
contract, all paid through grant funding, Evolve PR. And they were able, also, to give us,
not just their issuing press releases on our behalf, but giving us some live event promos.
So you'll see -- Ryan, you just saw him, so he's there with -- I believe this is channel 12.
I can't see. Gotta put the glasses on. Bill's saying yes. And then, of course, our band. So
again, a teaser to try to get folks out there.
And then I have not mentioned this, but what were doing, I have not been able to find
any records, being here over a year, a tourism and an event impact study. So we're
working on that. 1, of course, have made some of my assessments, being new. But it's
nice to have a third party come in because they can also get some of the proprietary
information. So our golf courses, who contribute to the tourism industry, don't want to
share it. Of course, our hotels and resorts, they're able to look at that to see what an
impact tourism is on Fountain Hills. And so when that's ready well be able to share that
and happy that we were able to put that in the marketing plan.
All right. And then, additionally, between the fall and the spring, there's a section of
event sponsorship where we can use a certain portion of that marketing grant to give back
to our events. And so we were happy to support our two largest events, so the Fountain
Hills Arts and Crafts Fairs, and so an investments of 30,000. And through our AOT Prop
302, were trying to get some new, fresh photography for social media, our website. So
that bottom one is one of our newer photos, which I love, very colorful.
And so we've been able to share that to you with the Chamber for future marketing.
And then, also, of course, our Dark Sky Festival. We were able to invest in the festival
25,000. So last year they had 1,500 participants. This year, there was 2,500. So our
marketing is working. They were able to capture a keynote speaker that they've been
really wanting to get. And then we also asked them to add other components to make it
family friendly to get our families and kiddos there, and that's illustrated in that other
photo.
And then thanks to originally our Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Prop 202 grant
funding, it came in a little bit below what we were anticipating to cover costs of doing a
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redesign. And so we were able to make an amendment to our AOT Prop 302. And so
let's see if I can show you fast or if I'm going to have problems. Ta-da. So we had not
been able to redesign the website in almost eight years. And so we've redesigned it,
trying to make it playful, make the font a little bit bigger, have the themes of play, dine,
stay. Again, new photographs. You'll see some callouts. We're having a featured events
calendar. And some things we're changing. One of the assessments that we made was it
was becoming more of a community calendar. And when people are visiting, we truly
wanted to be for our visitors. So we've modified that section. We also have a feed into
our lnstagram social media that we can control and monitor, and then a call to action that
when folks are posting and sharing to use that hashtag, Experience Fountain Hills.
And then just on the bottom here, too, quick access to our visitor's guide, to watch the
fountain livestream. And then something new, we're working with Clayson
Communications, one of our local businesses. A new trend you're starting to see is some
blog posting. So we have that.
And then as we were doing this and partnering with the Chamber on the Visit Fountain
Hills app, it was sort of a chicken and egg, so we've posted this. And our designer -- it's
taking a couple weeks. But we'll have a little button here for the app. So again, pushing
folks there.
All right. And then our Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian community grant, so you'll see
here, Linda Ayers, our very own Linda Ayers, so shout out to Linda, Ryan, Skyler, and
the community services department for putting on a spectacular annual Irish Fest. So we
had over 6,000 attendees last year. You'll see, it's grown to over 8,000. Again, through
our partnership with Evolve, again, another live spot on -- I believe it was channel 3, 5,
and again, having our band there to do a little teaser to get more people there.
So we can say the marketing, having that money is helping. We threw a lot at it so we
can't target, like one specific, but -- and then, of course, our partnerships, I've mentioned
all of them previously, but another thank you to them.
And then the final slide, our tourism. So again, hotel occupancy remains below 70
percent. AOT is starting to see some of the industry starting to recover. But again,
looking at leisure and business, really, we're -- what we're wanting to target is leisure.
Again, what we're hearing is some of the business, the large conventions, just because of
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the technology, some concerns still over safety, that that might not return fully.
Our social media increased by 7 percent. And then, again, the Experience Fountain Hills
website, over 24,000 unique visits. And then you'll see the top five cities. And then just
want to shout out, too, to my partner in crime, Mr. John Perez, who has helped with this,
this rollout, and was a big heavy lift. And so, if you haven't met him, John's in the
background, human development specialist. And with that, happy to answer any
questions.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any questions or comments?
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Miss Mayor. Thank you very much. Appreciate
the presentation. That Dark Sky festival, really good stuff. That was really one of my
favorites of the year. As we've talked about tonight, the funding for the International
Dark Sky Discovery Center was recently pushed through, and it looks like they'll be
breaking ground on that, I'm thinking pretty shortly. This is kind of a softball question
for you, but what do you expect the economic impact to be when that opens up?
JACOBS: So Madam Mayor, Councilmember Kalivianakis, it may be a little bit longer
before it launches. And so I'll have to get back to you with the number. I don't want to
give a wrong estimate. And then actually, just yesterday I was talking with the Mayor
and Manager Goodwin, and we're looking at in the fall actually having a workshop with
our Dark Sky folks.
Because again, being new and being humble and asking different questions, there is a true
difference with our Dark Sky Association and then the new Dark Sky Discovery. And so
starting to talk to see what the town can do to help further -- let folks know that we are an
international Dark Sky community. And so I appreciate the question, but I'll get back to
you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Is the earth cam featured on there anywhere?
JACOBS: Ycs. It was that bottom, like the second button.
MAYOR DICKEY: Awesome.
JACOBS: I just didn't click on it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you We so appreciate this so much, and you know, keep up
the great work with John and everybody else and Linda, and we appreciate that. We --
we know how great -- we know we're a town like no other, so -- as opposed to people not
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ever hearing about Fountain Hills, we're getting to work on that, too, so.
JACOBS: Well, the team is changing that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
JACOBS: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Our next presentation is going to be kind of a status report on our
existing capital improvement projects, where they are right now and how they've gone.
And I think that's going to be Justin. Or no, arc you starting first, Kevin?
SNIPES: I'll start.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
SNIPES: All righty. I guess we're ready now. So Mayor and Council, this is a capital
projects overview for where we're at so far this year as well as what we have left to do
moving forward. So you're going to see where funding has been spent and what's
happening moving forward. So you're going to see different highlights on expenditures.
The green is going to show that there's a projected savings for the project, but it's still in
process. The blue highlights will show that there's still expenditures left this year, and so
we're not sure exactly what we're going to have left on those. And then the yellow are the
projects that are completed and that were completed under budget as well.
This first slide is of the Golden Eagle sports field lighting project. And it's a project that
we've been aiming to do for many years. So it is just getting ready to start here in the
next three weeks. They will be starting -- it's a two -fiscal -year project, so they'll be
starting in June and finishing in July. And we'll be transferred over to Musco's LED
sports field lighting, which, as you can see on the picture to the left, how dark it is around
the field and how bright it is on the field, which is one of the coolest things about the
Musco system. And that one is set at 700,000 for this year, and we are expecting to
expend that.
The next line is our final year of the Four Peaks Park improvement project, and we're just
getting underway with the renovations over there. In two weeks we'll be starting on the
playground LED lighting with Musco as well for the two -to -five-year old and the five -to -
twelve -year -old playground will both have lights where right now there's limited lights
that were left over from the original basketball court that was there, and they're not
designed at all to light up a playground. So that will make a huge improvement.
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And then the kind of the last of our big improvements over there is the landscaping, and
the last thing you want to touch. And that's adding plants and adding granite and
irrigation around some of the -- the new ramadas that we put in last fall.
And we have a -- we still have 57,000 left on that, and we will be expending some of that,
depending on how many projects we're able to finish up this year.
The next one is Desert Vista improvements. And we have ramadas on the way. The
concrete that you're seeing there is the pad for where the ramada is going to go, which is
right next to the playground. So for the first time, we'll actually have a ramada at Desert
Vista Park, specifically for the playground. On the right bottom there, that's actually this
morning. And that's our town staff doing sod installation in the dog park in a couple
different areas where we removed some granite that was getting kicked out into the grass
and always has. And so we eliminated the granite and are putting in new turf in there.
We've also been working on the grading project in the lower end of the dog park. And
that should be finished in the next week to week and a half.
This project we have about 49,000 left on, and we will be expending some of that funding
by the end of the year.
The next project is the Fountain Hills -- the Fountain Park shade pole straightening
project for the shade structures that were over the playground That project went really
well. Luckily, we didn't have to pull out the poles and redo the footing, which was a
concern from the vendor. We were able to get the poles straightened. Even if in this
picture it doesn't look straight, they are. But that went very well. And we painted the
poles as well to give them a fresh coat of paint. And they came out really nice. That
project came in 9,000 under budget. So that'll be going back to the general fund — or the
CIP fund.
The next is the Fountain Park playground lighting. This project, we were able to work
with multiple vendors to find a way where we were able to actually use the shade poles as
light poles. We had to get some engineer drawings done. But it was a significant savings
as we went from needing 12 poles to light the playground to only needing two new poles.
So there's a significant savings that we're projecting, because we haven't done it yet.
We're in the — we're in the middle of starting that, probably in the next two weeks as
well. And we're projecting right now to be about $100,000 under budget. So that'll be
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good, too.
The next project was the skate park renovation/expansion project. This projcct's been
getting a lot of attraction from our local skaters and bikers and phone calls on a daily
basis as well as some sneaking in and some sneaking out. So -- but they're really
enjoying it and -- and they're definitely excited about it. We have a big grand opening
planned for the 24th of June. So we're going to do an evening opening because it'll be
warmer. And we're getting a lot of sponsorships and a lot of people that want to be
involved in it because they've seen what's there. We were able to come in just a little
under budget on this one. But that was kind of the plan as we knew where we were going
to be at and we were able to stay within those guidelines. We still have a little bit more
work to do over there, including adding the lights of the surrounding area and the
landscaping, which we're working on now. And then we'll be done with this project.
The Golden Eagle shade structures, this is a project that has worked on so many different
levels. And we were able to come in 25,000 under budget. The walkers over there
absolutely love them. They're hanging out under the shade and sitting on the bleachers
during their walks. And they've been very thankful about it. All day long we hear tons
of positive comments on them, as well as when we've had our tournaments and little
league and everything else out there. Just having a spot for the parents to sit in the shade
makes a huge difference for how that facility is perceived. Rachael may know a little bit
about facilities without shade.
The next is our park sidewalk improvement. Right now we have about 10,000 left on
that. And depending -- we're in the process of doing several projects right now that may
require a little bit of that. But there might be a little bit left on this one at the end of the
year. We've been able to do the entire sidewalk from Panorama down to the
Amphitheater, the sidewalk up by Plaza Fountain side where the trees have been lifting.
They lifted a couple of our panels as well, so we took care of those. Golden Eagle, we
had to reroute a couple of sidewalks along with the shade structures and improve access
points as well as redo some sections of our handicap ramp. So this funding has gone very
far in making a lot of changes in our parks. So it's been a good one.
The next one is not a CIP project, but I know that it was a big topic, so I wanted to bring
it up. This is the storage unit for the Community Center. And through working out and
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working on some Tetris-type stacking and maneuvering, we were able repurpose one of
our old -- well, two of our old and buy only one new storage container, getting some
shelving and hooks and things to make the storage areas as useful as possible. And we
were able to come in 14,000 under budget on that. So that was a good testament to staff
making things work as efficiently as possible.
And for the next slide, I'm going to ask Mike Cicearone to come up and talk to us since
he's the one that's been in charge. Enjoy.
CICCARONE: So this also isn't a CIP project, but it was a budget supplement in the
amount of $80,000. And it's basically to complete the Community Center classrooms,
complete them with AV upgrades. So displays could be anything from wall -mounted
TVs to projectors and screens, basically moving from those carts -- the TV carts to wall -
mounted TVs, which look much nicer. It was a $80,000 project that was based on
proposals that we had received. Staff was asked if we could cut that cost any way. And
basically, we're going to do the install in-house. So we purchased the equipment, and
then, within the next couple of weeks, we're going to do the install. So with that, we're
going to save about $42,000.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers, a lot of big numbers. I think it's important
to note that on behalf of the mayor and council, the Town Manager, Kevin and I are the
stewards of these big numbers that you see. And we do what we do along with a lot of
people that are in this audience but primarily in this building and others that belong to the
town to insure that the money that is allotted and awarded for these projects is spent to
the best of our ability. And I'd like to take a minute to point out that the contracts that we
bring to you, and often time, you'll hear us mention cooperative use or that other
municipal governments, state, county, went out to bid for these types of services. Some
of the stuff that you just saw that Kevin presented is a benefit of that, where our estimates
often times are a little bit challenging. And clearly he has done his due diligence and
responsibility and demonstrated that we can save money whenever possible, and we do.
With that, we're going to get into a few more here with some big numbers in them.
This first project is a multiyear that's been going on for several years. Last year, this
funding was used to address some drainage issues front in the Community Center. This
year, it has two smaller projects that we are addressing. The last project that will use up
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the remainder of the funding that's encumbered here, which is the $45,000, is to make
some corrections at the intersection of Kings Tree and Saguaro if possible before the end
of the fiscal year. You'll note that there's an additional $4,000 in the fund balance for
this.
The money, when I reference fund balance and/or Kevin references saving, that money
stays in the capital fund. It doesn't go anywhere else at the end of the year. This one
right here is a multiyear long-range program for major improvements. A little bit of
clarification on this. Last year we asked for $ I 1/2 million on this, anticipating that we
would be going to bid. As a result of some requirements for the Arizona Department of
Water Resources and the Maricopa County Flood Control District to review our plans for
the improvements, which are at 100 percent, that review process could be anywhere up to
18 months. So we have taken, under the direction of the Town Manager, $1 million out
of this and moved it into the street fund. Grady Miller had discussed that with you prior
to his retirement. The other $400,000 that you'll show -- that is shown as being removed
from this was moved to other capital projects primarily, and here it goes, where I missed
my estimate and the bids came in higher than we had imagined.
But as you will see here, at the end of this, we arc at about $46,000 for this year. And the
outstanding balance is just under 54,000 that will remain in the capital budget.
This one right here, the project is technically completed; however, the final invoicing has
not been paid and the retention not paid. The intent is to bring it in on or under budget.
There's some negotiations between myself and the contractor right now on some
relatively expensive pump parts that we're working through.
This one right here is the town -wide drainage improvement. As a little back history on
this, we started focusing on the pre -incorporation drainage structures to avoid another
catastrophic failure similar to the one that we had on Panorama just a few short years ago.
This one right here is not started. This was a placeholder with a multiyear horizon. The
intent for this placed holder was that, as the flood control district worked to finish the
drainage master planning for the entire Fountain Hills area, that we would already have
funding available to possibly address some of those projects as they came out of the
master plan. Unfortunately, due to staffing shortages and other challenges that the flood
control district was facing, the project was put on hold for approximately one year. Staff
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was encouraged to reach out to the flood control district by the town manager and engage
them and their selected vendor and determine if there was some way we could provide
support or if they could provide guidance to allow us to move forward with this drainage
study because it's very important. And as a result of those activities, the town engineer
and myself, under the direction of the town manager, met with the flood control district.
And they decided to take a new look at their project processes and have asked the Town
of Fountain Hills if we would be willing to work with them on these studies, moving
forward, for not only the Town of Fountain Hills but other locations within Maricopa
County, and design a boilerplate that streamlined, that most importantly allows for more
seating at the table for the stakeholder. That's you folks on behalf of residents, the town
manager, myself, and the town engineers, in this case, both of them, working through that
process.
Historically, we were not completely shut out of that, but we didn't have as much control
over the process. We are delighted that this process is going to move forward. We have
a seat at the table. And it's still being paid for by the flood control district. There is a
long-term benefit to this manual, whenever we receive it.
This project right here was approved later, after the original budget. This was one with a
considerable amount of discussion, related to flooding and damage to homes along
Grande. They literally got started this week. We anticipate that will be within the
budget, slightly under, and will be completed by June 30th. This one and the next project
was identified as a high priority by the Mayor and council at the time it was approved to
minimize the flooding to properties.
This is the second one which is one Deuce Court. This one is not quite ready to go. But
the contractors should be starting on this within the next couple of weeks. This is another
project that will be finished by June 30th and will be at or below the projected budget.
This is another multiyear project right here. We initially put 270 -- or $275,00 in the
budget as a placeholder. We currently have about 117,000 of that encumbered as we
look at design. And the next phase, and we had met with the Mayor and the town
manager related to this, is taking care of some issues on the front of the building behind
he enclosure wall there. We anticipate that we're going to be able to at least address the
majority of that with the encumbered money. So our projected savings by the end of this
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fiscal year is approximately 160,000.
This is an ongoing, multiyear project where we install cameras at the town's parks and
buildings. This year, due to supply line issues, we've spent $32,000, and there's S42,000
remaining. If we can secure additional cameras and have them in our possession but not
installed, we will spend some of that $42,000 undetermined as of tonight.
This one right here is the Shae widening project. And this primarily focuses on the south
side between Palisades and Fountain Hills Boulevard. This is a grant project where 93
percent of the total cost is paid. And the majority of the funding that you'll see up here is
actually reimbursable. So 93 percent of this will be reimbursed. So again, the
placeholder was 200 and --just under $238,000. We've spent $74,000. We anticipate
about 163 by the close of this fiscal year in savings.
A real popular one here. This one right here is currently at 95 percent for design. The
design will be completed, and we will begin the manufacturing for this by the end of this
year and then complete the manufacturing. As of tonight's meeting, we still have about
S203,000 in that budget. There will be a small portion of that spent for manufacturing
some of the signs that will be installed next year.
Successful multiyear project here. Of the $300,000, we've spent 297,000 of it on
construction and design. There's an unspent fund balance of 2,000 on this one that will
remain.
This project right here was the intersection of Saguaro and La Montana. After the
intersection analysis is completed, a direction -- under direction from the town manager
and the pedestrian and traffic safety committee, this project was canceled. No further
action at this time. That $150,000 remains in the budget.
This is the Palisades and La Montana intersection. So this is another analysis. Little bit
of delay on this. We currently have a contract in review to begin that analysis. But this
will be a — most likely a one- or two-year process. We're likely to get that underway in
the beginning of June and have it leased, the 30 percent roll plot, by the time we close out
that year, and bring that roll plot and some of the analysis back to the Mayor and council
when they return in late summer.
Here arc those big numbers. As you can see, the community services, capital projects
budget was $2 1/2 million. Their expected savings of that is just under $200,000. The
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public works is 3 million, just about 3.5. And we anticipate that well have just under $ I
million when we complete all of the work this year.
With that said, if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
GRZYBOWSKC Just real quick, I wanted to thank you guys for putting this slide
presentation together in such a manner that we actually see how much you didn't spend of
what we gave you to spend. That's one of the things that I feel like has been missing is,
we give you $50,000 or $250,000, and I know you guys have been really great about it,
and maybe mention in passing that we saved this much money. But it's great to see it in
writing. It's great for our visitors and the thousands of TV viewers at home so that we
can all see how much you -- how hard you arc working to save us money. Thank you.
FRIEDEL. Thanks, Mayor. Justin and Kevin, great job on this. I think this is long
overdue. It really gives us an idea of where the money is being saved, where it's being
spent, and what we can do with the remainder of it. Thank you.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, if I may.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes.
WELDY: In regards to pointing out on the slides, that goes to the town manager for
making that recommendation. When I submitted my PowerPoint to her for review, it was
not there. And she explained that it needed to be there for this very reason.
FRIEDEL• Thank you, Rachael.
[LAUGHTER]
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Miss Mayor. Thank you, Rachael. Thank you, Justin,
Mike, and Kevin. I just wanted -- just concur with my colleagues. To update and inform
us of what you've been doing -- we can see pictures of it; we can see the savings that the
staff is providing with us. As illuminating -- I know this took a lot of work to put this
presentation together, but I just want the staff to know it was time well spent because I
think all of us here arc very glad to see that -- this kind of a look back and see what you
guys have done, so I really appreciate that.
And as far as the flood mitigation, I did meet with a colleague this -- our colleague and
constituent this weekend, and when I reported his drainage situation to you, I really
appreciate the fact that you immediately looked it up on the map and you were so
proactive to try to address that. You know, what's going to happen in the future, I don't
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expect you to update us tonight, but I just appreciate the -- the staff, the commitment to
getting things done and to not letting moss grow over these projects but moving forward
in an expedited fashion. And so for that, thank you.
WELDY: You're welcome. Thank you for the nice compliments from all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, now -- no, but -- no. I want to thank you, too. It's all very
good to see this. I know any of these kinds of things are always such a -- so labor
intensive, but then it really gives you an accounting for what you've been doing. We
really appreciate that so much. Mike, wherever you are. Thank you.
WELDY• You're welcome.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, ma'am.
GOODWIN: Thank you. Ijust wanted to thank the staff for putting the work in as well.
We did want to make sure. I -- as a -- sort of a capstone on this discussion, there have
been a lot of questions about the CIP and what happens when there's overages or when
there's savings and where does that go. And what I'd like to point out is staff takes it very
personal. They treat it like it's their own money, you know. They want to make sure that
it does what it's supposed to do, it gets the job done and then some. They take a lot of
pride in their -- in their projects. They take a lot of pride in completing them on time,
under budget. They -- again, they make it personal. And that's why we see such stellar
results. So I wanted to thank everybody for what they do. And hopefully that shares a
little bit. They're not great about tooting their own horns. Sometimes it's all in a day's
work, and that's just what we do. But this is a good opportunity to share that. And we'll
continue to do these types of updates moving forward.
FRIEDEL: I can't agree more. And $1.2 million is nothing to just kick down the road. I
mean, that's a lot of money. And it's good that we have that information. So again, thank
you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Very good. Our next item is Call to the Public. Do we have
speaker cards, Linda?
MENDENHALL: Yes, we do.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MENDENHALL: First is Dina Galassini.
GALASSINI: Good evening. I'm Dina Galassini, 20-year resident. I wasn't going to
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come out tonight, but I decided to address everybody regarding the 5G moratorium last --
May 2nd meeting. I wanted to address a council member who was, I feel, inadequate
regarding their research regarding microwave radiation. I believe the professor that was
cherry -picked by this council member is a profession of the University of Pennsylvania in
which the Gates Foundation has selected to monitor each classroom, videotape it, score
the professors -- or the lesson, and then guide them on how to instruct better courses.
The Gates Foundation selects universities that support their initiatives. It's a sad day.
Think of you, each of getting scored by your job, then guided in a way that puts residents
in harm's way. This professor knows darn well about microwave radiation. He's written
books that go back with the history of microwave radiation, all the way to the highest
technology. He pathetically criticizes one of the most credible reports that was authored
by hundreds of honest scientists and professionals. He criticized the bio-initiative report.
One professor puts down hundreds of credible scientists. It's pathetic. If you would have
done your research a little further, I would have been more impressed. But it's very sad
that this was -- these -- this microwave radiation was downplayed as our public safety
and -- is at risk.
I'll tell you, Council Brenda K., Friedel, and Toth, stand strong with your beliefs. We
need protection. If you hire -- you hired the attorney to protect the town government.
We -- if you -- you -- if you retain him, you can certainly retain an attorney to protect
town residents from this microwave radiation poisoning. When you said that this
professor said that these microwaves aren't -- are not as strong, you know, they're just as
strong as any other antennae, but when you go and you put them a block -- a block from
each other, just think of that and see how you feel after those are installed. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Richard Rutkowski -- Rutkowski, sorry.
RUTKOWSKI: Rich Rutkowski, I've been a resident of Fountain Hills since 2001.
Good evening, Mayor and council members. My comments tonight relate to the 5G
small cell -- 5G small cell towers. Several residents have expressed concerns about the
health consequences of having these towers installed close to their homes. And part of
that discussion at the last meeting suggests that the 5G exposure has not been proven to
cause adverse effects on health. So I want to focus specifically on that aspect of this
issue.
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As most of you know, I'm a physician since 1983. I know I don't look that old, thanks.
Once of my positions is an assistant professor of family, community, and preventive
medicine at a local medical school. And I emphasize the preventive. That is, preventing
illness and preserving health.
The current practice of medicine ideally follows scientific evidence. And for many
conditions, we have the evidence. We know what works and what doesn't. But we don't
know everything. And most importantly, I have personally experienced multiple
examples during my career of things which were considered safe or safe and effective
until they were later proven not safe and maybe even not effective.
A few examples of things that were FDA approved, that is safe and effective, agents
which were subsequently pulled from the market because of problems discovered after
approval and use -- there's a list of them. Resolin, which is a drug for diabetes causing
liver failure. Zomax, an anti-inflammatory drug causing life -threatening allergic
reactions. The original measles vaccine, which caused an increased risk of atypical
measles. Hismanal, an antihistamine causing serious heart arrhythmias. Vioxx, another
anti-inflammatory drug, causing strokes and heart attacks. Rotashield, the first rotavirius
vaccine for infants causing intussusception, which is a serious intestinal blockage.
Merida, a weight loss agent causing increased cardiovascular and stroke risk. Fen-phen,
another weight loss agent causing heart fail problems. Omniflox, an antibiotic causing
kidney failure, hemolytic anemia, and respiratory distress. And the safe and effective
COVID shots, currently expanding scientific data casts serious doubt about the safe and
effective claim.
And there are more. Overall, several hundred drugs and vaccines and other agents have
been pulled from the market because of serious, adverse health effects found after
approval and use.
The point is that often what we think we know turns out to be wrong. So can we rely on
the safety of close exposure to 56 radiation? Isn't it wise to take reasonable precautions?
I think that the moratorium passed at the last meeting, despite the legal questions about it,
was a good first step. I encourage a carefully worded ordinance to be a wise and rational
next step in the process. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Matthew Corrigan.
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CORRIGAN: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers, Matthew Corrigan, homeowner,
Fountain Hills. I would like to address two topics this evening, 5G in Fountain Hills and
zoning in Fountain Hills. In regard to 5G ordinances, I am one of the hundreds of 5G
petition signers and would hope that the Mayor, council, and staff have also read the
petition. I encourage the council to retain Andrew Campanelli and void the existing
contract with Jonathan Kramer.
In regard to zoning, all communities under state law require an updating of the general
plan every ten years. And the former city council approved it in 2020 as a general plan.
Voters must ratify the plan. I am concerned that the ordinances be enforced and that
variances and rezoning should be the exception and never the rule. An interpretation that
goes outside the strict provisions of the zoning ordinances should be a red flag to any
homeowner. At the May 2nd council meeting, a last -hour item, known as the
Mountainside Project, was pulled from the agenda, apparently at the request of the
builder/developer. And concerned neighbors were prepared to oppose the project.
Secondly, later tonight, there will be a request to amend Resolution Number 2414-08 by
adding 14 additional lots to an already 2014 approved project known as Eagles Nest
Parcel 2.
The Realtor/developer had 26 lots approved but now wants 40, so 60 percent more lots in
the same parcel of land. The already developed parcel adjacent to this is parcel I, which
has 21 lots. I wonder how many of those homeowners in parcel I know that the same
size parcel adjacent to them will have 40 lots. How many of these homeowners are
snowbirds and are now back at their home in -- summer home?
Of those additional added lots, the developer has added four flag lots among the new
additions. This seems inconsistent with the neighboring parcel I of roughly the same
size. Although I don't live in either of these areas, I'm concerned about this seeming
trend in zoning. Combine this with recent attempts to allow substance rehab counseling
facilities in a commercial area zoned for dental and medical offices. Maybe it's just a
coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidences.
I was a homeowner living in — if I was a homeowner living in either Mountainside area
or Eagles Nest adjacent to Parcel 1 area, or adjacent to Parcel 3, or adjacent to Parcel 11,
I would be very concerned. Many homeowners have their major investment in these
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homes. And I don't want to see that investment drop in value and depreciate.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Barry Walbarsky.
WOLBORSKY: Mayor and counsel, I'm going to speak on something completely
different. So there was -- I would noticed at the last counseling meeting that there was
$34,000 left in the budget to complete the study for the Eagle Ridge drive traffic signal.
Already S90,000 has been spent on that on a project that we're not going to do. And this
extra 34,000 is to complete a project that we're not going to do. I understand that the
company has told us that this -- this study would last for several years and wouldn't
become outdated. I would like to know if the Federal Reserve Board can't predict what --
what inflation is going to do next month, how does this company know what inflation is
going to do in three to five years? I suggest that this study will be valueless by the time
you'll want to use it.
But there's another concern that I have. And I think it's more important. If you think
about that intersection there -- and if you're heading south on Palisades, there's a big
curve before that intersection, which means the people couldn't see the stoplight in
advance. So a signal would have to be put out a couple of hundred feet before to let
people know that there was a stoplight and it was red so they could stop for it.
Once that signal is put up, people will know when it's not red. And we all know that
people kind of move along that area pretty quickly. And you can't see the intersection
when you're coming from the north to the south. If somebody's making a right turn and
somebody's coming down that street at 45 to 50 mile an hour, the accident is going to be
horrendous. There's going to be serious injuries. There's going to be fatalities. By
putting up a stoplight, you're not making it safer because the stop sign now, everyone
knows they have to stop there. So when cars come out to make turns, you're already
stopped; you're not going 50 miles an hour. I think you really need to rethink this.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Larry Myers.
MYERS: Mayor, Counsel, resident 41 years. First I want to thank you for passing the
moratorium last meeting. I am absolutely certain, after listening to all of you, you know
very little about the subject of 5G small cell and data transmission. I can tell that because
I know some people think that you get better cell service form it. And it has nothing to
do with your telephone.
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So with that in mind, I know you have a workshop. I would encourage you to take the
residents who have done considerable amount of research, that know way more than
anybody sitting on the dais -- I would study their research. I would fact check their
research. And I would listen to more than one party, specifically a guy that I did a lot of
research on, and that was the attorney we hired, who is, in my estimation, what I would
call a tower pimp.
He writes licenses. He creates revenue for town. I think that's how this got started,
because the town needs revenue. Sell license, get revenue. I'm going to stay away from
the medical portion of this. We've already heard enough about that. And I will tell you
that I've been around microwave radiation my entire lift in the television industry. So
maybe that's what's wrong with me.
But I will tell you the one thing that is obvious and cannot be disputed is that there are no
above -ground utilities in Fountain Hills. The master planner saw to that way back in
1968. So putting up a bunch of towers, poles, around town is absolutely the opposite of
what was intended for this community. We talk about our views. We talk about the
beauty. We talk about all this stuff. And then we're contemplating this. Don't think so. I
think you can just contemplate sticking fiber underground where the electrical is, where
the cable is, and where all the other utilities arc, as they were intended, and then you
won't have to worry about the microwave radiation that some folks are worried about.
You'll have the unintended consequences of saving them while protecting the beauty of
Fountain Hills as it was intended. Thanks a lot.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Lori Troller.
TROLLER: Good evening, Mayor, council, Rachael, Aaron. Lori Troller, 27-year
resident. Not prepared for this one, but here we go. I need to clarify. 5G services are
broken in -- down into five type -- sorry, two types of services; that's cellular and
ultrawide products, cellular being everything on your phone. Cellular is what's in town.
It's on the macro towers. The ultrawide products would be what we're talking about
bringing in on -- we don't have it yet, and it would be the small cell stuff.
So Aaron -- when Aaron says, you know, we have the federal and the state regulations
and everything, that pertains to the cellular side. None of us here arc even talking about
that. That's not the products we're talking about. We're talking about the -- the ultrawide
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stuff. Now, the ultrawide stuff isn't regulated by federal or state. We get to do that. It's
just like garbage services. We can say, hey, we want one service, we want it on what
date. We can regulate that all we want.
So there is a court case, a recent court case, that actually calls that distinction out. And
we can rely on that to define those two products. And the moratorium even says, we're
not talking about the phone piece. Totally excludes it. Moratorium doesn't even touch
that. We're talking about the data stuff. We don't have in town yet. We want to write a
moratorium on.
So what does this mean to us? It's just like what Larry said. Rolling hills, open space --
we have property; our property values are based on our views and stuff like that. We get
to protect that. Telcom can't come in and say, hey we just want to put a tower over there.
Can't do that. We can say, put it under ground. That's all were asking for. We're not
trying to stop this. We're not -- we're not what's -- Aaron, what's the word -- it's prohibit.
We're not prohibiting it. We just want to bring it in underground; that's it.
Now, one under thing if I have a moment. I don't speak to health. Try and stay away
from that. Everybody's going to be in the garage talking about that for the rest of their
life. There's still people smoking. No -- if any of you, I'm sorry, but -- the FCC, there
was a -- recently there was a case where the FCC was told, how'd you come up with your
guidelines? And so what did they test? They test little rats for a little while'? No. They
tested a 220-pound man, not a child, not a woman, not a pregnant woman, not an
elderly -- 220-pound man. How do you guys measure up to 220 pounds?
Guess what? Man wasn't a man. It was plastic. All these guidelines we have when we
say, oh, that antenna, that router right there is okay -- it was tested on plastic before it
melted. So when you bring up anything about safety, you can have all the studies, all the
schools, anything you want. What it comes down to is what did the FCC say? And the
FCC says, didn't melt the plastic.
So before you want to stick these things in people's yards and put a license on that and be
responsible for it, that's what we're testing, plastic. Thanks.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Rick Watts.
WATTS: This is going to sound like a broken record. Rick Watts, 30-plus-years
resident, Fountain Hills. Mayor, Council, staff, so over the last several weeks, I've had
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the opportunity to listen to numerous town residents expressing their concerns, as you
have, regarding 5G towers, supplemental small cell towers, and concerns about potential
ramifications to health, property values, et cetera.
My own curiosity drove me to spend an inordinate amount of hours researching through
the FCC, FDA, CDC, EPA, every acronym for something -- other government agency
that I could think of, as well as the telecom associations, independent industry experts,
popular mechanics, and a plethora of other organizations.
So what I found was that there are both pros and cons to the side of this debate. So this is
slightly different. Understanding the clarification regarding the various types of towers
being proposed for installation, understanding various methods of transmission,
understanding the impact on signal strength type, distance, penetration, et cet -- all the
technicalities that go along with this issue, research on health and property values. So
each issue has supporters and opponents. And I admit it's extremely technical in nature,
very difficult to understand. And I think I've got a relatively strong background in
electronics, electrical engineers, that type of stuff
So as I researched the -- I also researched the outside attorney recommended by the town
attorney in conjunction with the town counsel and find that the consultant's background
appears to be geared more towards helping the town develop regulations that are tepid to
produce accommodative ordinances that would allow for the installation of said towers
and right of ways.
The firm, and more specifically Jonathan Kramer, may well be -- may be very well
versed from the technical side. And I give him a lot of credit for the work that he has
done with other municipalities, other towns, but the problem that I see is that regulations
were not necessarily to protect the voiced interested of the residents. And 1 think that's
the slight differentiation that I'm talking about here, is that the focus should be listening
to the town residents.
So when I hear all of the town residents express their deep desire and more objective
understanding in order to properly protect and regulate, I don't know that we're giving it
enough credit at this point. What I would suggest and urge the council to direct the town
attorney to terminate the agreement with Telcom law firm and engage a consultant expert
who is more closely aligned with the expressed desires of the residents and has prior
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demonstratable and successful experience producing an ordinance that first and foremost
listens to the residents' petitions and not a consultant that may have leanings towards
satisfying the telecom industry.
It's pretty straightforward. If their strength in the telecom law firm -- they're experts in it.
But which way do they lean? Are they leaning towards us? Are they leaning towards
government? Are they leaning towards the telecom industry? And I think that's the wild
card. So I would ask you to strongly consider finding somebody that more closely aligns
with town residents. Thank you.
MENDENHALL. We have no more public comment cards.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you all. We appreciate your comments and
take-- we had a talk about it earlier. So more to come.
Our next item is our consent agenda. And if every -- if you don't want anything removed,
could I get a motion, please?
MCMAHON: Motion to approve consent agenda.
KALIVIANAKIS: I second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL. Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you. I'm going to open a public hearing on this next item. John is here to talk
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about a site plan review changes in our ordinance. And so we'll hear form John, and then
we'll take any speaker cards, and then we'll discuss. Thanks.
WESLEY: Thank you, Mayor, Council. Good to see you this evening. Hopefully this
won't take too long. You've had a little bit of an introduction to this before. The Chapter
2 of our Zoning Ordinance deals with the different processes involved in the applications
we received, resulting in special use permits, temporary permits, and so forth.
One of those sections deals with site plan review, and that's the one we have here for your
consideration this evening.
Been going through the entire chapter, section by section, and looking at those sections
for updates to make them more consistent with each other to take care of some issues that
have evolved over time and bring them to you for your review.
The Council did look at and approve modification to Section 2.02 for special use permits
back in September. So with this Section 2.04, which again, deals with our site plan
review process, I think you can sec the outline of the existing ordinance on the left and
the proposed ordinance on the right, very similar. Slightly organized, again, to develop
some consistency with the other sections of this chapter.
Again, going through it briefly, some of the changes that are in here, a lot of it is -- is just
reorganization. But there arc some things that are added, mostly for clarification.
In Section A with the applicability and purpose, under the purpose section, to include a
reference to Chapter 19 of the Zoning Code. This is a design guidelines section. When
you read that section, it tells you that under certain requirements you had to process a site
plan, but the site plan, it doesn't tell you to look at Chapter 19. So this makes that
connection between the two so people can understand where they're at, that connection.
Clarifying the requirement for site plan review prior to submitting for plan review. And
highlighting the benefit of the review for compliance with the zoning. And also amended
to include a requirement with regard to redevelopment expansion of existing site, which
ties with one of the main reasons for updating this section, because currently our code
doesn't give us any direction on how to handle site plan amendments once we approved
one. So that will be an addition we'll talk about in a moment.
The application, Section B. A few minor changes in there, one of which is to bring it up
to date with current practice. The code still talks about paper submissions and how many
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paper copies we need to have. We don't do paper copies anymore, so this clarifies that.
And then several places in this section, we again add references to other parts of the code.
So a person looking to provide the information knows where to look in the ordinance to
find exactly what we're after.
Review and approval, this section was modified a little bit to fit the same format that we
put into the special use permit format and we'll use also in the other sections to keep
consistency in the review and approval process. This one is a little bit different because it
is administratively approved, so it doesn't have some of the pieces about coming to
counsel and so forth.
Sections D and E in the current ordinance deal with appeal and expiration. Those were
unchanged.
Section F is a new section dealing with amended to site plans and provides some
definition of what would be a minor and a major amendment. The main difference that
happens there, if it's a minor amendment, let's looks at -- we're proposing to -- they would
pay half the fee, and so the full fee if it's a major amendment, it's really like looking at a
new site plan, so it's a full fee for that.
And then Section G is the final section of the revised ordinance. This deals with how we
treat site plans in conjunction with special use permits and temporary use permits. The
current ordinance has been a little bit confusing. When you look at the -- the special use
permit piece and the site plan piece, they were kind of circular in which one was
supposed to come first. So been trying to clarify that with this update. And specifically
allowing for conceptual or preliminary site plans to be processed with the special use
permit or the temporary use permit and allow them to wait for the full site plan review.
Once they've gotten that approval and they know with some assurance they can move
forward, avoiding the cost of a full site plan development.
However if they want to submit the full site plan upfront, they can. It also clarifies that if
it's -- if both are involved, they have to do the special use permit first, or as part of the
site plan. We're not going to do the site plan first and then the SUP, because that has
created problems in the past.
And so with that, staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, John. Do we have any speaker cards on this item?
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MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Questions for John from Council? Anybody?
Councilwoman.
KALIV IANAKIS: Thank you, Miss Mayor. Yeah, just a couple of things fd like to
address And I like the administrative changes that you made. I think it's more friendly.
It's more easy to read. And it tightened it up quite a bit. It seems to me that the minor
amendments, instead of paying one half the fee -- it seems like that's a little high. I
would recommend maybe a quarter of the fee. I think that would be fair to our business
owners. I mean, if it's just changing something so slightly, it just seems like kind of a
hard hammer. So that's what I'd recommend.
And then you go into substantive changes in Section 15 and 17, where it calls for a --
now, this is for the site plan, not for the licensing and what comes later. Do you want to
include a photometric plan showing a footcandles and the lighting and all parking areas?
Photometric plans don't grow on trees. They're kind of expensive. And it seems to me
this is not a business -friendly proposition. And also, with the parking lot landscaping
requirements, I think that anybody that wants to build, it is going to build the landscaping
in later. And also with the photometric plan, will add that later. I think both of these just
seem a little business unfriendly to me for this early stage of development. So you know,
what I would -- what I would recommend is just to amend this to have the minor
amendments to a quarter fee and then to basically, just -- at this point, just eliminate the
substantive changes from 15 and 17 and just basically strike out the new redline
provisions that you added.
MAYOR DICKEY: Vice mayor.
MCMAHON: I have a question. On that landscaping, when -- did you have -- are you
including that because of what happened with the hospital in the process of the plans and
the questions with the landscaping afterward? Is that one of the reasonings that you have
behind that?
WESLEY: Mayor, Vice Mayor, not specifically. Just experience with looking at these.
So I don't necessarily have a concern with what Councilmember Kalivianakis is
suggested with removing those particular pieces. But we talk about the parking lot
landscape requirements in Chapter 7. It's not just the plant material. It's the location of
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the areas that are required and some of the calculations that are involved with having
sufficient amount of area that if they wait for the building permit to do that, then they
may find that they missed something and have to go back and correct.
So again, I could go either way on that particular one. And similarly with the suggestion
with the photometrics, there's a specific ordinance requirement, medium five-foot
candles. The sooner they look at it, the sooner they'll know they have it addressed. But if
we want to wait for the building permit to do that, yeah, that's not going to be a big issue.
They're still going to have to meet the requirement.
MCMAHON: So you want -- you want to keep the landscaping one and change it to
five-foot candle -- which ones that? I'm sorry.
WESLEY: That was Romanette xvii.
MCMAHON: Okay.
WESLEY: Yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: Well, could we just say, instead of the photometric plan, just in
compliance with Dark Sky code?
WESLEY: Well, the foot candles is actually in Chapter 7 of the Zoning Ordinance
without the Chapter 8, but they're two separate provisions. And Council again -- Mayor,
Councilmember Kalivianakis, we'll point out, too, that Romanette vi in that list, what
we're looking for in terms of at this point landscaping is a graphic representation of
landscape treatment. It's not a detailed landscape plan. That would come later with the --
with the building permit.
KALIVIANAKIS: So is that code kind of cheap?
WESLEY: It's a start. It's not necessarily the full blown plan but just giving us an idea.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: I have a question about the, you know, landscaping and -- well, first
of all, this was approved by Planning and Zoning as is. Was any of this discussed at that
time?
WESLEY: Mayor, no. They didn't have a specific issues with these --
MAYOR DICKEY: Did they approve this unanimously as is?
WESLEY: Yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: We talk about -- what was mentioned earlier was Mountainside
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potential rezone. And a big part of that, whether it passes or what, how it's reviewed has
to do with the landscaping, so I -- I don't think we should remove that item or really
change it. And again, since the lighting is referenced elsewhere, I'd probably wouldn't
want to change that. And I don't really want to change the fee that much. I don't really
know what that fee is. But it feels like Planning and Zoning heard it twice, made
suggestions, and then approved this unanimously.
When you have a section that's referenced, is it lit up -- can they link to it? Like, if
they're looking in -- I think a couple slides before, you said it was referencing back is --
are they able to click on those?
WESLEY: Mayor, yes. We've had that in the past. I might punt to our town clerk just a
little bit because she works with the codifier and how easy it is for them to set up those
hot links in the code. But I believe it's possible to have some in the current code.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, that -- I mean, it's pretty helpful. Thank you.
WESLEY: Mayor, if you don't mind going back on the fee for the minor site plan
amendments. P and Z did discuss that some and made some adjustments to what staff
had initially proposed along the lines of what Councilman Kalivianakis talked about.
Lowered the bar a little bit, raised the bar, whichever way it would be. Made more things
minor amendments than what we had initially proposed because they had a similar
concern. And staff kind of picked a percentage out of the air, sort of leave it open to the
Council if you would like to charge less for those. Some of them are pretty minor and
don't take a lot of staff time. Others are getting in a little bit more. But, you know, I
don't see that as a big hit on the revenue either way on the town. It could be beneficial to
an applicant, more --
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
WESLEY: -- or a little bit less.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks.
TOTH: Just to go -- kind of circle back to what Councilman Kalivianakis was saying, I
would absolutely support lowering that to a quarter for minor adjustments when it's
specified that it's for minor adjustments. Makes sense that it would be a minor fee.
As for the other changes, I -- I think we can -- I think we could go without the -- I'm
going to say it wrong. I almost said photogenic, but the original word for the -- for the
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study. I think we could go without that for that initial phase with it still being the
requirement once they're going into their building permit. And the --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Landscape area.
TOTH: Thank you. The landscape area, I think that that can stay, considering that was
including much more, but I don't know if we're ready to make that a motion, but I'll try it
anyway. With that I move to amend as previously stated.
KALIVIANAKIS: I second. With those two amendments, the photometric and the fee?
Yeah, I would second that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So it wasn't the landscaping one, right?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: right.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. All right.
GRZYBOWSKI: Wait. I just want to make sure we're clear. We're lowering the fee to a
quarter -- is what we're discussing it -- for the minor only and getting rid of the
photometric requirements for this particular area. Okay, thank you.
KALIVIANAKIS: Question. Are we going to say in compliance with Dark Sky or is
that not necessary?
WESLEY: That's still in there. I didn't hear that one come out. I did not hear that
provision come out of what's in here in Romanette xvii. It will still say, "Lighting plan in
conformance with Chapter 8 of the Zoning Ordinance."
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay, thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Any further comments? Could we have a roll call, please?
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicom.
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL. Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
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MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you.
Okay, our next item is a -- oh, I forgot to close the hearing. Hearing is closed. I always
do that.
Our next item is -- is about the Eagles Nest parcel and Parcel 2. Thank you.
TAVASSOLI: All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the Council, and the
public. And so what you have before you is a proposed amendment to the settlement
agreement that was approved through a resolution back in 2014. It was actually
referenced by one of the members of the public earlier. And so I'll go into detail about
what the amendments actually entail. I do want to make one point of clarification before
moving too far ahead. The staff report refers to MCO as the owner of the subdivided
parcel here, particularly Parcel 2. MCO is actually 50 percent owner. They're part of an
LLC. The other one -- the other 50 percent is owned by MJM holdings. So all of the
staff reports mentions MCO, the resolution actually refers to the LLC.
So the -- the original settlement agreement from 2014 that I mentioned earlier -- and by
the way, there arc a number of agreements between the town and the developers and
owners for much of what's known as Eagles Nest. But the 2014 development -- or
settlement agreement, rather, caps the number of lots at 245. So that's currently what's
effective. The amendments to this agreement particularly focuses on -- excuse me —
the -- what's referred to as the future development down here, which is known as Parcel 2
of Eagles Nest. It's about 58.2 acres. And here's an aerial photograph, obviously.
But the original plat was approved back in 2004 for Parcel 2. That was the final plat.
Originally, developers had proposed 26 lots. Although it was approved by council, the
plat was never recorded by the county, so it remained unsubdivided. It actually came
back for a replat back in 2010 with some slight adjustments to the property lines. That
was also approved, but once again, it was not -- it was not recorded. So it -- it never
became -- it's still a unified parcel, unsubdivided.
You'll notice that there has been a little bit of rough grading here for the cul-de-sacs that
were originally proposed under the original plan for the 26 lots. Those cul-de-sacs have
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not been -- like I said, they've been rough graded, but they have not been paved.
So the amended terms of this proposed amendment before you particularly addresses
changes to the lot count that would -- that was originally agreed upon, and I'll get into
more detail with some further slides, addresses allowances for flag lots, some changes to
the location of the emergency access easement that you'll see in the tentative
development plan that we'll follow, some changes to the cut allowances, as well the
disturbance areas and maximum retaining wall heights.
Now, this is the tentative development plan that the applicant has provided with the
proposed amendments. If you take a close look at the plan, you'll see some underlying,
dashed gray lines of some rather elongated parcels -- or lots, rather. That was part of the
original 26-lot plat that, once again, hadn't been recorded. And you'll see the gray here
refers to the cul-de-sacs that I showed you earlier.
What you see superimposed on that with the black dashed lines is the 40-lot development
that the applicant is proposing through this development agreement.
Now, 1 should stress at this point, approval of this proposed amendment doesn't commit
or bind the town to any particular design. The purpose of the development and
agreement is basically the applicant or the owners requesting certain allowances that may
sometimes deviate from, for example, the subdivision ordinance or even the zoning
ordinance in return for something that the town might be getting in return. And I'll -- I'll
help answer that question at a later slide.
But as part of the amendment, aside from the increase in lot count from 26 to 40, a net
increase of 14 for Parcel 2, the applicant is requesting cut allowances for a few parcels
here -- six parcels to be exact, particularly steep hillsides here. They're requesting cut
allowances of 20 feet for those parcels.
Now, typically the town, for any particular lot, if a developer is proposing cuts and/or
fills of greater than 10 feet, that would require town council approval. Any cuts less than
that would be approved -- would be looked administratively, and that does not require
approval form the government body -- governing body. But in this case, the owner is
requesting an allowance of up to 20 feet in cuts.
The applicant is also requesting the addition of -- or the inclusion of four flag lots, or in
some parts of the country they're called pipe stem lots. But you can see those marked
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here in the -- with the red dots. Now, typically flag lots are not something that is
necessarily prohibited in the town or prohibited by the subdivisional ordinance or even
the Zoning Ordinance. Sometimes there's a little bit of confusion, though, once we come
across a flag lot, how do we actually measure the setback, given some of the -- you know,
given the narrow entrance into the -- the lots, because some may be as little as 20 feet or
sometimes even less. But in this case, the applicant has provided -- or has proposed,
actually, the development envelopes, and that's something that will be -- that is part of the
proposed agreement.
And I should also mention that the applicant is also requested the relocation of the
emergency access easement. The original emergency access easement, which was
approved by instrument of a grant of easement, is shown here in yellow. That's, by my
estimation, approximately, anywhere between 460 to 500 linear feet that was originally
approved. They're requesting, in light of this new 40-lot layout, a relocation depicted
here in the blue highlight, which is approximately about -- about 70 feet.
So in summary, this kind of stems from the previous slide I showed earlier, but I'm
providing more specific with regards to what the changes are. So with this approval of
this amendment to the development -- settlement agreement, rather, the increase lot count
will go from 26 to 40, particularly for Parcel 2.
Now, that's obviously an increase of 14 lots. But for the overall Eagles Nest
development, that will be a net increase of 9. So it goes from 245 to 254. So let me
explain. There were 5 lots in the past few years that have been combined. So the -- and
once they're combined, MCO does not allow them to be divided once again. So although
for Parcel 2 there's a net increase of 14, the overall development, Eagles Nest
Development, there will be a net increase of 9 lots, which would include the four flag
lots. It would include the shortening of the emergency access easement that I discussed
earlier. It would also allow the 20-foot cut allowances for the six lots that I mentioned
earlier.
There will also be, inevitably, an increase in the disturbance area. Now, the average
disturbance for each lot in the original agreement caps it at 24,000 -- 24,700 square feet.
They're maintaining -- the owners want to maintain that average disturbance, but because
it's being increased to 40 lots, there will be a cumulative disturbance of about 908,000
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square feet.
And they're also requesting allowance for 10-foot-high retaining walls. In cases of
hillsides, the absolute max that one can go with regards to retaining walls is 10 feet, but
the average should -- is capped at 8 feet. So any one retaining wall, absolute max, 10
feet. But it needs to average out at 8. In this case, the applicant is simply requesting an
allowance of 10-foot high retaining walls, regardless of what that average might turn out
to be.
So going back to this slide real quick, the question might come up, what is the town
getting in return? Well, what's preferable to the town is better circulation, particularly in
some of these more remote areas of -- of Fountain Hills. Originally, the applicant was
proposing the cul-de-sacs that I discussed earlier. With this increase in the lot count, the
applicant will be providing and dedicating to the town a circular driveway as opposed to
a -- or rather a circular road as opposed to the two cul-de-sacs that were proposed earlier.
This would help emergency access immensely and in case -- in the case of any particular
traffic issues along Mountain Parkway over here, whether it be flooding or vehicular
incidents, it would still provide additional means of access to these lots, in addition to the
emergency access easement in the -- to the southwest of here.
So with that, I will conclude my comments. There are members of the -- from the -- from
both MCO -- rather the LLC, I should say, that owns this parcel here, too, help shed some
light on some of the details of the agreement.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Do we have any speaker cards on this item?
MENDENHALL: Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Questions or comments from Council, then? Vice
Mayor?
MCMAHON: Okay. On — as far as the easement goes, there's only verbal; there isn't
anything in writing, though? Are they pretty sure that that's -- everybody's in significant
agreement with that and it's going to happen and is there any consequences if it doesn't
for some reason come to fruition?
TAVASSOLI: Mayor, Vice Mayor, so approval of this development agreement doesn't
necessarily, I guess, isn't -- doesn't complete the process for the grant of easement. So
perhaps the applicant can correct me if I misspeak here, but the grant of easement will
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have to come at a later date to amend the original easement that was agreed upon, so that
will --
MCMAHON: Okay.
VARGO: I'm with MCO Realty. I'm actually the manager of MJFFH7, the owner of this
parcel. I would like to have Shawn White actually address this because we actually
found some very interesting things when we began to look into it. So Shawn, can you
come up here and address the easements?
WHITE: Yeah, so -- Shawn White for the applicant. Mayor, town council members,
with respect to the easement, we went back in time to try to figure out whether there was
actually an easement that ran across Eagles Nest. What we've discovered going through
our survey process with our surveyors is we have an easement -- or there's an easement
that leads up to Eagles Nest. There isn't a grant of easement that actually extends into
Eagles Nest. So when staff was talking about the loop road and something of benefit to
the town, actually granting the additional access, which you see in the blue line there,
would be something else that -- that the town would obtain through this plan here. And I
think that's what -- what Mr. Vargo is referring to with respect to that particular
easement.
It goes back-- you may have gone through a lot of these settlement agreements. I think it
goes all the way back to 2001 or 2004, and they continually have been amended over the
years. And so go back in time and finding those Atlas surveys were extraordinarily
important for us.
VARGO: Yeah. Address the fact that, really, there were two easements. One was
abandoned. One came to the property line of Eagles Nest. And the one that we show in
the yellow never was recorded.
WHITE: Sure. So there was a -- there was an 80-foot cross access easement that went
across Adero that the prior developer had put in place. And it had gone across what is
now the preserve land and into Eagles Nest. That easement was subsequently abandoned
by the previous developer when they were common owners. And so the 80-foot
easement that tends to show up on some of these surveys in fact was -- was abandoned
some time ago. I forget the exact abandonment date, but it is --
VARGO: 2001.
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WHITE: -- 2001. So — so it was quite a while go that the 80-foot cross access easement
was abandoned. I wasn't involved in that process whatsoever, but I think that was part of
the access between Adero and Eagles Nest prior to having emergency access through the
actual front gates.
MCMAHON: Thank you. I have another question. Please be patient. I'm trying to
understand the disturbance allowance and the change and was it -- going to have a
negative or a positive effect on --
VARGO: The -- okay --
MCMAHON: The disturbance allowance.
VARGO: Vice Mayor, the disturbance is 22,700. It was -- I thought I mentioned 24,000,
but it's -- 22,700 square feet was the original development agreement. That was averaged
over the 245 lots. And it had to be allocated into each area. So Parcel 2, what we're
doing is we're looking at Parcel 2 has 40 lots with an average of 22,700 square feet of
disturbance for those 40 lots. Now, as you look at the plan, you'll see that still -- and
we're not asking for any rezone, so there still is an average of 1.34 acres in size to each
lot that is here.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman Skillicom, did you have something to say?
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Actually, Senior Planner Tavassoli -- did I
get that right?
TAVASSOLI: Tavassoli, close enough.
SKILLICORN: Close enough? Come on. Give me a little better than that. Can we go
back to the summary of changes?
TAVASSOLI: Sure.
SKILLICORN: And this is a unique property because it is very pretty. You know, the
elevation is -- is stunning to look at. It also creates some challenges. So the actual
increase in number of lots, it's still over an acre; you mentioned 1.4. Yeah, I'm going to
suspect that, I don't think any of those lots are under an acre now. So I think the density
is fine with me on that. But where I am getting some issues is the cuts and the retaining
walls.
So I'm a little concerned about the, you know, water runoff. I see that, like, we talked
about where that abandoned easement is there; you know, obviously it looks like the
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terrain there, water could go down that way. But I -- 1 mean, I have the -- some concerns
about erosion. And I also, because of it's such a pretty area, I don't like the idea of
cutting into the mountain and making this terraced.
VARGO: Okay. Councilmember Skillicorn, I ask two things. Number I, the allowance
for the ten -foot -high retaining walls, that was strictly for the road. That's not for the lots.
So that's -- just keep that in mind. And in terms of the 20-foot cut allowances for the six
lots, what we actually did is we spoke to many different builders before we -- as we did
this plan. We started looking at it a year ago. The recurring theme was, we do not like
the cul-de-sacs. So let's try to figure out a way we can connect this.
So many of the builders that we spoke to came up with this suggestion. And I actually
have one of the builders here, who is much better at explaining this than I am. So if you
would -- Brent, can you come up? Brent Hollanti, Custom Homes, who has, I think, ten
houses going right now in Eagles Nest. If you can explain the 20-foot cut allowance for
the six lots.
HOLLANTI: Madam Mayor, council members. So -- excuse me. I'm losing my voice.
These six lots that we're proposing for that 20-foot cut are on the back side going up the
mountain. So they're fairly steep. My -- most of my clients want single -story houses. So
the proposal for this 20-foot -- and what we're proposing to put into the design guidelines
to prevent the -- making it ugly and keeping it within the town's vision for the housing is
that these 20 foot cuts would need to be covered by the house by either the basement --
like a basement wall, so if it's a two-story house, that back wall is going to be covering
that part of the cut.
So it's -- what ends up happening is, with those steep lots, if we don't have a little bit
more of a cut and have a large retaining wall that's put in and built into the house, then
we have to terrace multiple retaining walls up front. And when you get -- get this
wedding cake, terracing effect. And that's what we want to get away from. We want to
keep the houses blended into the hillsides and not have this, which I've -- I've been
building in Fountain Hills for almost 20 years. So I've built in almost every one of the
subdivisions. And I've seen this terracing, and it's not -- it's not pretty. And I -- this is
why we're proposing this on these 20 lots and to have that -- or sorry, six lots for the 20-
foot cut, to have this and the design guidelines, to eliminate that and keep the scenery the
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way it is.
SKILLICORN: And I echo that, even though I like to preserve the mountainside. Are
the -- so the six, they're very steep. Which way are they facing? Are they -- I'm, you
know, I'm looking at the geography right here. Is it facing the south or, you know,
southeast, or is it --
VARGO: So -- let's turn this light on for reference.
SKILLICORN: Is there a slide that shows -- is it the orange?
VARGO: The six orange. So those go from the road up. They go up the mountain.
HALLONTI: Upward sloping lots. And they'll face --
SKILLICORN: And -- and it facing the preserve?
VARGO: Facing the north -- no.
HALLONTRA: No, they're not facing the preserve.
VARGO: They're facing the north. So --
SKILLICORN: They're backing up.
VARGO: (Indiscernible) area -- the Maricopa County park.
SKILLICORN: Okay.
HALLONTI: And then those lots continue going up and then crest over, back in towards
the Adero.
SKILLICORN: Yeah. I'm not excited about cutting into the mountain.
FRIEDEL. Allen, if 1 can allay some of your fears. I've been out to the property and I've
seen it firsthand. This is not going to be a Adero Canyon where they blew up the
mountain and ravaged that mountain. These guys are doing this tastefully. There's about
20 or 25 homes in process right now up in Eagles Nest -- 22, yeah. And really, what
they're doing here, what 1 saw up there was the best use of this land, and the developers
and the residents are working within the land.
So I think this fits very well. I too was concerned with the cut, but when I got out there
and I actually got on the property and looked at it. It makes sense to me, and I don't
have -- I don't have an issue with it. I actually kind of like it. And I like the fact that the
road has a different -- they have a couple of different access points to this area for
emergency vehicles and everything else, too.
So again, it's six lots out of the 40. You're talking, what, 5 percent? I don't think that's a
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stretch. And again, we're not talking a Adero Canyon here, so.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible.)
FRIEDEL: Yeah, exactly. I was just going to say, or -- yeah -- yeah --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible.)
MAYOR DICKEY: We don't have to discourage other neighborhoods. Yes, sir. You
have any more? I'm just kidding.
HOLLANTI: 1 can add, too, this is the request for these, if it's needed. It doesn't
necessarily have to be, but because these are steep lots, depending on the size of the
homes -- 1 mean, the average home I'm building in there right now is 6,000 square feet.
So when you have a 1.3 -- 1.34 acre parcel, you know, where three to five, $7 million
homes to get on that steep of a hillside, it ends up -- you have to build such a tiny home
or go up the mountain. And then the home is terraced. And the age limit in -- the
average age in Eagles Nest, too, they want to be walking up the stairs and doing small
levels on each level. They want single -story, expansive, beautiful homes that blend into
the environment. So that's the idea for this.
MAYOR DICKEY: Is that -- would that be a result, though, of adding these lots? Like,
if you didn't add the lots, it's kind of hard to see what it was supposed to be, but would --
you'd need to do the cuts if we didn't -- if you didn't add the lots. I'm not -- you know
what I'm saying? If you --
VARGO: Well, I understand the question.
MAYOR DICKEY: Would you have that issue with needing to do the 20-foot cuts if you
weren't adding these lots?
VARGO: Well, again, if you're going to connect the road, you have to have lots on each
side of the road. You can't afford to do the road. So by adding these lots, what we're
trying to do is make it blend into the environment much better so than -- as you drive
through Eagles Nest, or any of the communities in town, you'll find that the last lots to
get built on, if they're even being built on, are the upward sloping lots. The ten -foot cut is
a great hindrance to those upward sloping lots because it's forcing steps. It's forcing
many different levels.
And as Brent had said, our average age in Fountain Hills is 58, and it's getting older. And
most of those people do not want any steps at all in their homes. So we're trying to
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accommodate that while still trying to do the best plan we can in terms of the
environment and the aesthetics.
GRZYBOWSKI: 1 am 58 and I haven't wanted steps in my house for easily 20 years, just
for the record. That being said, I lived in the Keys -- the Florida Keys for a lot of years.
And it's a lot of cul-de-sacs. And for me to see them go away and have the loop around
and, you know, a couple of pipe stem sites, or excuse me, flag poles, I realize you got to
do that, but I really like the fact that now we've turned it into one full road all the way
around. My husband used to be a volunteer firefighter in the Keys. And the curse words
that came out of his mouth every time he had to go down one of those cul-de-sacs is -- I
won't go there today.
Also, I totally support the wedding cake terracing. I hate that. I like one wall better than
the whole wedding cake thing that you talked about. I -- yes, cutting into the mountain
side kind of stinks. But I feel like we have to be creative to get the houses that the people
want in those kinds of neighborhoods. And keep in mind, we're only looking at going
from a .50 to .52 lots per acre. So I -- I don't have a problem with this particular request
at all. And if nobody else wants to have a discussion, I'm all for making a move to
approve this as is.
TOTH: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Brenda?
KALIVIANAKIS: I was just going to make a motion.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Could we have a roll call,
please?
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicom.
SKILLICORN: Don't make me regret with too many mountain cuts, yes.
MENDENHALL Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
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GRZYBOWSK I: Aye.
MENDENHALL. Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Ayc.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Ayc.
Thank you all.
Next item is a -- extending the contract with Maricopa County Sheriffs. Rachacl, did you
want to mention this?
GOOD W IN: I'll be happy to introduce it, and then I'm actually going to ask if David
Pock will step up. He was helping draft that as well. As many of you know, we are in
negotiations with MCSO to renew our law enforcement contract. Our current contract
expires on June 30, so little less than 45 days. Once that expires, we do not have a plan
come July 1. So we have been working with them to negotiate a new contract; however,
we do not believe we'll make that deadline. So as a -- yes, as a stopgap, we have a -- are
proposing a month -to -month contract, up to six months, so that we have something in
place until we solidify a final contact renewal. So that's what you have before you. I
know our finance director, David Pock, was very involved with this. So if you have any
questions, he or I will be happy to answer.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Do anybody have -- does anybody have any questions
for David? Do we have any speaker cards on this?
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. It is a written comment. And it's from J. P.
Ward. He just wants you to know that he is for it, and he had some comments. That's the
only card we have.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any further question? Councilman Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, this is more of a statement. So I'm going to support this,
but I do want to make it public, I prefer when we do actually have a renewal is that we
have 19 officers plus the SRO. I think it's unwise to reduce our coverage. But that -- and
I'll make a motion to approve.
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
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KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicom.
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you very much.
Our next item is approving the IGA with Arizona for our sidewalk gap elimination on
Saguaro and Palisades. Justin.
WELDY: Thank you, Madam Mayor, council members. As you'll recall, this is a grant
project that originally started out at about $ 1 million. The engineer of record estimated
it'd be about 2 million. When the final documents were turned over to the Arizona
Department of Transportation, it went to a little more than 3 million. Of that, the town
has received additional grant funding, not only to cover the design, but we also applied
for, under the direction of the town manager, for close-out funds to cover our portion of
the construction.
While it show that we -- for this $2 million sidewalk, there is approximately $221,000,
we believe that amount is going to be substantially lower based on the progress of this
project and the grand funding that has been made available and will become available.
As a brief reminder, this is just an extension to that agreement. A brief update on the
project, it is reaching 100 percent in the design. The Arizona Department of
Transportation, the administrator for these federal funds, anticipates releasing the project
out for bid in mid- to late summer. And then construction will commence shortly there
afterwards. And it will take approximately 10 to 12 months to complete that process.
When it's all competed, we'll have an incredible improvement and a benefit to this
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community, including sidewalks on Saguaro from basically Colony to Fountain Hills
Boulevard on either side and Palisades on the north side from Fountain Hills Boulevard
back to Saguaro.
With that, any questions related to the IGA? I'll do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do we have any speaker cards?
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. We have a written comment from J. P. Ward
saying that he is for this project.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. Councilman?
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, director, on B, did I hear you right? You said either
sides or both on Saguaro?
WELDY: Correct. The project starts at Colony. Across the street from Colony is
Lamplighter. And not to add any confusions, but Lamplighter is on the south side of
Saguaro at this location.
SKILLICORN: Thank you. There's some residents that I know want a sidewalk there,
so -- motion approved.
MAYOR DICKEY: Did anybody else have any comments?
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: We can take a second. Okay. I have all these names on here.
Great, roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: First I need to know who was it that seconded it? Okay, Sharron,
okay.
Okay, Councilmember Skillicom.
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTFF: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
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MENDENHALL. Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL. Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you, Justin. Arc you up for the next one?
WELDY: Yes, Ma'am.
MAYOR DICKEY: All right.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, council members, this is one of the hot topics and a priority
for this council, which is infrastructure. When we discuss infrastructure as a whole, more
often than not, most people are thinking about the big water lines, sewer lines, or
electrical lines that lie within our easements or our streets. But we also have to consider
the infrastructure that runs from this building to that amenity.
Without singling any contractor and/or staff members out, we clearly have issues with
what we refer to as our newer amenities, town hall, community center, library, Fountain
Park -- well cut the list off there. Some of those issues are related to sewer lines. You'll
note that staff is putting forth a recommendation to select the highest bidder here. The
argument behind that is based on research and industry experts. One of the products is
intended as a temporary, not quite complete, sealing project. And they would like to sell
us that again in a few years for the same amount of money. The other one addresses,
resolves the issue, gives us up to 25 or more years of service, and what that does is it
allows for not only this council but future councils and managers to prepare for the
hundreds of thousands of dollars it's going to costs to dig up and/or figure out a way to
replace that pipe that runs under the Centennial Circle.
This is moving that down the road a great distance. And based again on staffs research
and industry experts, this is the best possible solution. And I don't want to be misleading
in any way, shape, or form here. However, the experts say that in the event that this
begins to break down after the 25-year period, there's a possibility it can be reapplied and
an additional time frame added to that.
I don't want to be misleading with that. They say possibility; that's the word I'll leave it
with. If there are any questions related to this, I'll do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do we have any speaker cards?
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MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. J. P. Ward wants you to know that he is for this
project.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. Councilwoman.
TOTH: Justin, I just want to thank you for your thoroughness and including all of the
people that we tried to get bids from and -- and what the situation is with the gapping. So
just thank you so much for all you do. If it's all right with everybody, I'd like to move to
approve the Professional Services Agreement 2023-087 with Pipeliners, USA, LLC for
sewer line repairs.
FRIEDEL. Second.
KALIVIANAKIS: I just had one question before we vote --
MAYOR DICKEY: You bet.
KALIVIANAKIS: -- if that's okay. Thank you, Miss Mayor. If we were to go with the
New Flow bid, what is the warranty period on that?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmember, it's limited to one to three years, depending
on the conditions once they reenter the system. So we've already put a camera in there,
and we have a pretty good idea of the conditions. They -- the selected vendor will place
another camera in there and insure that there's no additional degradation or damage to the
facilities between now and the time they install it. Everything comes with a warranty by
default. The extent of that warranty is really in the fine print that I do not have in front of
me right now.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay, because that was my next question, what would be the
warranty for the Pipeliners bid. Would --
WELDY: There warranty is considerably longer. And again, I don't have those fine print
details. But I will certainly look that up as part of the contact agreement, and also the
manufacturer's warranty agreement on that as provided.
KALIVIANAKIS: I think it'll be settled tonight, so that might not be necessary. Go -- I
offer the vote.
MAYOR DICKEY: We have a motion and a second. Could we have a roll call, please?
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
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MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicom.
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you, Justin. Thank you, everyone who worked on that.
Our last action item -- or item, actually, is about Legislative Bulletin or anything related
to -- let the legislature that you might want to bring up or -- they've been -- you know,
they were off, but then they came back and they had, like, a seven -page third read
yesterday.
Three things that are -- well, two items, but there's four vote -- four bills that are of
concern.
One is Senate Bill 1131, which had been -- had failed earlier, which is the rental tax bill.
And so that one is still very viable. And I had an updated amount from finance, and it
would be a $582,000 hit to the Town of Fountain Hills. So we are going to be trying -- I
think the only thing that's going to work with that is a veto, but I'm not sure that that's
going to happen.
And then there's three -- there are three bills that -- were that -- that one bill that failed
that had to do with zoning, basically making half our conversation tonight moot. But
1161, they split it into three. 1161 really doesn't affect us that much. It has to do with
light rail. But II -- I mean 1161 -- 1163 preempts pretty much any density controls that
we have. It bypasses the general plan, and it -- all of these bypass public input or
participation, which is interesting.
And then HB 2536 preempts zoning regulations, design, and parking requirements and
such. So it's some pretty serious stuff there. So we're continuing to work on those. Do
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MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
you have any questions or anything or any other bills you wanted to talk about? No?
Okay. Thank you.
Our next item is Council Discussion/Direction to Town Manager. Now, I know we had
quite a few people speaking on the 5G, and so we will be getting more information out
about that. One of the things that was brought up had to do with the difference
between -- I think, Lori, you said the large and then the small ones. And I think that
remains an area of confusion for me about which -- what actually causes the concern of
people. So I think we need to get a lot of information and facts out there. So I'm not sure
we can do that now, but we can -- we'll follow up soon. Okay. Thank you.
I don't know if there were any other items that were brought up that we would have to
bring forth.
The next item, our Future Agenda Items. Anything there?
SKILLICORN: Well, on the 6th, do we have enough time to bring up some of our
homeless ordinances?
MAYOR DICKEY: That's going to be the 20th. That's on the --
SKILLICORN: I'm just wondering if there's -- if it has opened up, some timewise?
MAYOR DICKEY: It's kind of more having enough information to have the discussion.
I'm not sure we would have it by the 6th. But it's definitely something to consider
because that -- that does change. That potentially -- we haven't really discussed this, but,
you know, potential change in that meeting. Aaron?
ARNSON: Mayor and Councilman Skillicom, can I connect with you tomorrow and see
what availability we might have, if there's any capacity?
SKILLICORN: Okay.
ARNSON: Okay. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. Because we haven't officially done anything here.
All right. Then we -- if there's nothing else, we're adjourned.
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Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular Meeting
of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on May 16, 2023, at 8:23 p.m.
ATTEST AND PREPARED BY:
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
Cindy Dickeq, Mayor
Linda G. Men. - hall, Town Clerk
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the
minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills in the
Town Hall Council Chambers on the 16'h day of May 2023. I further certify that
the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present.
DATED this 20th Day of June 2023.
da G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk