HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008.1106.TCRAM.Minutes TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND REGULAR SESSION OF THE
FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
November 6,2008
ADMINISTRATIVE SESSION
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Schlum called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m.
ROLL CALL—Present for roll call were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council: Mayor
Jay Schlum, Councilmember Dennis Contino, Councilmember Cassie Hansen, Vice Mayor Henry Leger,
Councilmember Ginny Dickey, Councilmember Mike Archambault and Councilmember Keith McMahan. Also
present were Town Manager Richard L. Davis, Town Attorney Andrew McGuire and Town Clerk Bev Bender.
AGENDA ITEM#1—REVIEW AND STATUS OF A POSSIBLE ART DONATION.
Recreation Supervisor Bryan Hughes addressed the Council relative to this agenda item and stated that the
Fountain Hills Public Art Committee was requesting Council review of a three-dimensional wall hanging
created by Alan Snyder of Potter's Vision, titled "Beginning." He noted that the art piece was valued at
$1,350.00 and was donated by Garold and Verla Been. He added that the proposed location of the art piece
would be the lobby of the Community Center. Mr. Hughes said that there would not be any installation costs
associated with this piece. Mr. Hughes further stated that the art piece and proposed location was approved by
the Public Art Committee, the Board of the Fountain Hills Cultural and Civic Association and by Samantha
Lie Coffman, Director of the Community Center, on behalf of Town staff. He added that the Community Center
Advisory Commission also approved the location at their September 24, 2008 meeting. He pointed out that the
location was an approved site under the sites established for the installation of future public art in the
Community Center.
Mr. Hughes advised that a copy of a photograph of the art piece was included in the Council's packets and
explained that the actual piece would be brought back before the Council at the November 20th meeting along
with four other pieces for the Council's consideration. He indicated his willingness to respond to questions from
the Council.
Councilmember Archambault commented on the fact that the art piece would be located, according to the
diagram, at Site #19, which was at the end of the lobby towards the ballrooms and Mr. Hughes concurred with
the Councilmember's statement. Mr. Hughes stated that location would be very visible since many people
utilized the ballrooms for various events. He also confirmed that the shaded areas on the diagram reflected
locations for additional art pieces that would be coming forth in the future.
Vice Mayor Leger said that this item would be coming before the Council on November 20th for approval and
asked whether the Council would have had already approved the revised Art Council's policies and procedures.
He stated that it was his understanding that although the Council did not vote on it and had not reached a
consensus, that they would have the policy in place before they moved forward and approved additional pieces
of art.
Mr. Hughes expressed the opinion that approval of the policies and procedures would precede the Council's
vote on the art pieces.
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percentile to get them to the Class 3 level. He stated that the study showed that they did have a good Fire
Department but it had not changed since 1996 although the Town had doubled in population. Manpower had
not increased and the number of stations had not increased. He expressed the opinion that the Department was
providing a high level of service despite limitations and they were very proud of that fact but really want to
achieve a Class 3 rating. He said that they should hear something within the month.
In response to a request from Councilmember Dickey, Chief LaGreca reiterated the various calls and response
times. He noted that Fire Station#1 could get to 30% of their calls within five minutes or longer and at Station
#2, 42% of the calls took longer than five minutes to respond to. He reported that the national average was a
four minute response time 90% of the time and they were striving to achieve a five-minute response time 90%
of the time at the outlying maximum. He said that they enjoyed a residential sprinkler ordinance and that
allowed for some credit in the outlying areas. He replied to an additional question from Councilmember Dickey
and advised that the ISO rating did not reflect on the Town as a whole.
Chief LaGreca stated that the study was all inclusive and added that in response to interest expressed by the
Council a study was conducted on the northwest side of the Town and, at the end of the presentation he would
discuss what the Department envisioned to be their final build out configuration for response times throughout
the Town. He noted that they looked at seven different sites, including the two that they were currently
operating out of,that they felt they could go to and conduct an honest study that met several criteria(five minute
or less response polygons; the Town did not have to buy the property; identified property that would not require
a greater than 10-foot cut or fill; and at the south end of Town they took into consideration impacts on
residential neighbors). The Chief stated that the proposed site was quite unique given the fact that the nearest
residents were almost 1,000 feet away from the site (at the current site the closest neighbor was approximately
50 feet away). He said that in the 12+ years that he had been with the Town, the Department had not received
any complaints from the neighbors regarding Station #2 as far as noise and lights. He emphasized that the
Department would be extremely sensitive to the needs of the residents no matter where they decided to locate a ,vii)
station.
Councilmember Dickey asked whether the trucks utilized loud speakers/walkie talkies to communicate that
could generate noise and the Chief replied that there would not be any external speakers at that station. He
added that they had been turned off at Station#1 because all of the firefighters utilized their own personal radios
and there was no need for external speakers. He noted that the people who live at Fire Rock and Westridge
Village were probably suffering from the greatest noise impact right now because as vehicles came up from
Shea Boulevard from Station #1 they were running with full power lights and sirens. He said that if the current
proposal received Council approval,the noise factor would be greatly eliminated.
Assistant Fire Chief Randy Roberts addressed the Council and said that between him and the Chief they had
approximately 70 years of Fire Department experience. He added that they had both witnessed the dramatic
effects expanded response times could have on the public. He reported that about 80% of their calls were
emergency medical service (EMS) calls and said that if a patient was in respiratory or cardiac arrest the brain
was deprived of needed oxygen and heart attacks, strokes, drownings, seizures all could have really devastating
consequences if not quickly treated and corrected. He reported that the American Heart Association advised
that with each minute that passed the likelihood of survival decreases 7 to 10% and within 4 to 6 minutes brain
damage could occur and death could start to occur. He added that although the sprinkler ordinance was
extremely beneficial, particularly in the outer areas, they were not the end all solution, there were still issues,
and a lot of the homes (a majority) did not have sprinklers in the attics. They also did not help with car fires and
situations such as that. He reported that a fire, given enough fuel and oxygen, could double every minute.
Assistant Chief Roberts reviewed the Department's site selection parameters and emphasized that the
Department's number one goal was reducing response times. He added that there were also a number of support
issues that need to be considered. He said that neighborhood integration addressed how well the new fire station
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Lir Chief LaGreca commented on the computer program the Department had used to develop their
recommendations and noted that all Valley departments utilize this program. He said that the program was
supported by the Town's CAD system and latest GIS information and had resulted in information that was
purely analytical and computer driven based upon that information.
Chief LaGreca indicated his willingness to respond to questions from the Council.
Mayor Schlum thanked Chief LaGreca and Assistant Chief Roberts for the informative presentation and
information relative to the third fire station, which was discussed approximately a year and a half ago. He said
that the third station was important because in the future, when the population was not as sparse,response times
would be critical.
Chief LaGreca expressed the opinion that Station #3 might "come into play" in approximately five years but it
could be later depending upon development over the next couple of years. He emphasized the importance of
protecting the Town's mountain preserves and future demands made on the Department as a result of the trails.
He added that they envisioned the third station being a much smaller station, approximately 3,000 square feet
compared to the typical 5,000 square foot stations. He said that it would truly look like a home rather than a fire
station and stated that staff was pretty sure at the current time that Site #4 would be the best location for Fire
Station #3 but they were not going to make that assumption now. He advised that staff would continue to
analyze the area to ensure that they determine the optimum site for the station.
Councilmember McMahan asked whether a study had ever been done on the response times between Kingstree
and Fountain Hills Boulevard and Eagle Mountain. Chief LaGreca responded that studies had been conducted
and referred to a slide that depicted that information (Site #5). Assistant Chief Roberts noted that there were a
lot of uncovered locations in that area and the Chief discussed associated blind spots. He added that right where
the driveway would be located they would be coming straight out, pointing right into the condominium complex
on the northeast corner of Kingstree and Fountain Hills Boulevard. In response to concerns expressed by
Councilmember McMahan, Chief LaGreca said that in the station they would have both the Fountain Hills
Boulevard traffic signal and the Palisades traffic signal interconnected to their pre-emption device to that when
calls came in they could "hit the button" and signal both those lights to turn red to stop traffic and there would
also be some type of a flashing red light to alert drivers that fire/emergency vehicles were coming out.
Councilmember Archambault said that they were talking about moving Station #2 to Site #4 and requested
dialogue regarding site coverage—the distribution of the calls that they currently receive.
Chief LaGreca reported that currently Station #1 receives approximately 2200 calls a year and Station #2
receives approximately 521 calls per year so a big disparity existed. He explained that by moving the station
they would probably be able to take a minimum of 500 calls off of Station #1 and assign them to Station #2 in
an effort to balance the load.
Vice Mayor Leger thanked the Chief for the presentation and said that he was aware of the fact that he had been
working on this proposal for a number of years. He noted that 80% of the calls were EMS and asked what the
other 20%represented.
Assistant Chief Roberts responded that the remaining 20% were calls for fires, special duty incidents such as
snake calls,responding to alarms, etc.
The Vice Mayor asked how many house fires they average in Town and Assistant Chief Roberts said not many.
Chief LaGreca added that they probably average four to six structural fires that require a first line assignment, a
half dozen car fires and approximately two dozen garbage fires.
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Chief LaGreca said that they were giving themselves a 10% margin of error for times they cannot hit the target.
Vice Mayor Leger advised that he would like to discuss a personal experience and stressed the fact that the
Department offered exceptional service and his comments had nothing to do with their performance so should
not be misinterpreted. He noted that response time for a house fire was often variable with respect to a
catastrophe, which could probably happen within 30 seconds or four to five minutes. He added that Fire Station
#2 was on Saguaro Boulevard, less than a mile from where a house fire occurred five years ago. He said that by
the time the fire trucks arrived, and they had responded rather quickly, it was already catastrophic and the house
was a total loss. He stated that oftentimes people had a false sense of security as it related to response times and
he was not talking EMS (life threatening) but rather with respect to fires. He pointed out that there were a lot of
variables associated with their duties and they had experts carrying out these duties but this was something he
"wrestles with." He added that the security they were providing by moving a fire station and suggesting the
things they were talking about tonight did not necessarily mean that the model would be perfect and he
understood that.
Mayor Schlum reiterated his appreciation to the Chief and Assistant Chief and expressed the opinion that their
presentation covered all of the available options and had enlightened the Council relative to future discussions
that needed to take place regarding potential Fire Station#3. He added that he was aware of the short timeframe
involved.
Vice Mayor Leger commented that he knew that the Town Manager had been an integral part of the discussions
and asked whether he would like to provide any input at this time.
Town Manager Rick Davis said that the Chief was well aware of the fact that any decision regarding
construction of a new station must be made in light of the fact that they were facing new economic realities and
so they still needed to be cautious as they moved forward. He added that as they moved forward and considered
adding new facilities, cost effectiveness must be taken into account as well. He stated that all variables must be
analyzed (moving ambulances instead of trucks, etc.) and stressed the importance of "thinking outside of the
box." He said that they had to think about property in the Eagle Mountain area and possibly placing a smaller
facility out at that location. He expressed the opinion that there was little doubt looking at the modeling that the
location on Shea Boulevard provided the fastest response time and the most coverage. He further stated that
there may be other factors and possibilities to consider. He noted that they currently had a facility on Saguaro
Boulevard and there had been discussion about selling it in order to finance the new station but cautioned that
there were probably other municipal uses for that facility. He acknowledged the fact that between the Chief and
Assistant Chief they were talking about 70 years of experience and applauded them for trying to bring forward
the option that they believed would enhance the safety of the Town and its residents. He said that he felt very
good about that and if they could make it work they needed to support the proposal. He added that
consideration must be given to the timing and whether they had investigated sufficient alternatives even though
the alternatives might not be necessarily orthodox. He thanked the Vice Mayor for the opportunity to address
the Council regarding this important issue.
Councilmember Dickey stated that she appreciated the discussion that had taken place regarding funding but
also wanted to ask whether the proposed modeling they were doing (polygon and five-minute response) was a
readily acceptable model that other cities,towns and fire departments utilized.
Chief LaGreca replied that Phoenix, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Peoria and others all used this model and emphasized
that it was not just a local model, it was a nationwide model. He added that as far as "thinking outside the box,"
if they located a satellite station at Fry's, which would mean they would have to lease space there, based upon
the model and seeing how it had worked out for ambulances in other parts of the Rural Metro system, it would
probably cost anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000 a year. He pointed out that over a two to three year period
they would be talking$100,000 or more for the satellite station at that location. He also noted that they were in
contract negotiations with an architect and would come before the Council again perhaps at their next meeting '44)
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Mayor Schlum asked whether moving in this direction would bring the Town more in line with what other
municipalities were doing and Mr. Rees replied that he had conducted research into this issue and other
communities had adopted laws governing this matter. He advised that this would allow Code Enforcement to
actually do the enforcement part and that was why staff was requesting discussion on this issue.
Councilmember Archambault requested input relative to problems Code Enforcement was facing as far as out-
of-town owners (unable to contact,no phone numbers, etc.).
Mr. Rees responded that the items mentioned by Councilmember Archambault represented some of the
difficulties they were experiencing. He said that when they just had renters who were involved in the violations
it may not be part of their contract with the property owners and when they were out-of-state staff did not have
the ability to bring them in to court if they needed to in order for them to respond to the violations.
Councilmember Archambault commented that Code Enforcement staff may be responding to violations that had
to do with the structure and had nothing to do with the renter and Mr. Rees confirmed that statement.
Mayor Schlum thanked Mr. Rees for his presentation.
AGENDA ITEM#4—ADJOURN THE ADMINISTRATIVE SESSION.
Councilmember McMahan MOVED to adjourn the Administrative Session and Councilmember Dickey
SECONDED the motion, which CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY (7-0).
Mayor Schlum adjourned the Administration Session at 6:37 p.m.
Lb,
REGULAR SESSION AGENDA
CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mayor Schlum called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m.
INVOCATION-Rabbi Bonnie Koppell,Temple Beth Hagivot
ROLL CALL — Present for the roll call were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council:
Mayor Jay Schlum, Councilmember Dennis Contino, Vice Mayor Henry Leger, Councilmember Keith
McMahan, Councilmember Cassie Hansen, Councilmember Mike Archambault and Councilmember Ginny
Dickey. Also present were Town Manager Richard L. Davis,Town Attorney Andrew McGuire and Town Clerk
Bev Bender.
MAYOR'S REPORT
None.
Mayor Schlum stated that he received word that one of the Town's distinguished residents had passed away,
Chairman John O'Flynn, and said that he wanted to pass along the Council's condolences to his family. He
stated that this was very sad news and noted that Mr. O'Flynn loved the community and gave so much for so
long to Fountain Hills.
SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES/PRESENTATIONS
(i) Virtual Ribbon Cutting for the Town of Fountain Hills' Customer Service Response System
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Councilmember McMahan asked whether there was a continuing program in place to educate the public about
the new system.
Ms. Decker replied that there were a number of different methods in place to reach out to the public and notify
them of the system including flyers on the kiosks, flyers placed in various businesses' windows, information has
been posted on Channel 11 and on the website, three articles had appeared in The Avenues and a press release
had been issued.
Mayor Schlum thanked Ms. Decker,Mr. Ciccarone and staff for their efforts to ensure that this important project
became a reality. He noted that each request was unique and agreed wholeheartedly with the importance of
enhancing customer service and providing all citizens with an opportunity to provide input and pose questions.
In response to a question from Councilmember McMahan, Ms. Decker provided an explanation of the term
"blog" (similar to a scrapbook with the most recent entries at the top).
(ii) Presentation by Fountain Hills' Traffic Signal Technician Jim Michalak relating to Town "traffic
signal operations."
Traffic Signal Technician Jim Michalak addressed the Council relative to this agenda item and presented an
overview of the traffic signal operations for the Town. He noted that Fountain Hills has 12 signalized
intersections and the Town had taken over maintenance of the signals on January 1, 2008. He said that prior to
that the Town had a maintenance contract with an outside company. He stated that the oldest signal was built in
1985 by Maricopa County and the 13th was currently under construction at Palisades Boulevard and Sunridge
Drive.
Discussion ensued relative to how the traffic signals actual worked (variety of types, the traffic signal controller 441)
and current system), the back-up system, a future system that was being installed at Palisades Boulevard and
Sunridge Drive that would be more user friendly, able to carry out more functions, and designed to
communicate with other equipment/Traffic Operations Centers (TOC); efforts to identify another municipality
that would allow the Town to send their feed to their TOC; the fact that the future system would utilize a
Federally mandated communications protocol, which allowed for grant monies; signal coordination and
maintenance; upgrades; and the installation of a new lead loop, a detector lead-in wire, which would allow them
to begin the process of counting vehicles along Shea Boulevard.
Mr.Michalak indicated his willingness to respond to questions from the Council.
Mayor Schlum thanked Mr.Michalak for his informative presentation.
In response to a Mayor Schlum, Mr. Michalak stated that the system sensed motion and added that they had two
systems in Town. One of them detected vertical sharp edges and the other detected variations in shades of grey.
Councilmember Hansen asked if they had the capability of allowing the lights (arrows) to be green all the time
unless there was a lot of traffic.
Mr. Michalak replied that they had the ability but that it took a timing plan conducted by a professional
engineer. He said that he was aware of the fact that the intersection most residents had a problem with was
Saguaro and El Lago and stated that staff had talked with an engineering firm about looking into the timing at
that intersection in an effort to make it flow and work better.
Councilmember McMahan commented that he received a lot of complaints and questions from residents as to
why at a certain time of night the intersection of Saguaro and El Lago did not go "blinking red."
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the Town's Fire Department other homes would have been lost. He stated that the areas he mentioned were now
very heavily populated. He advised that former Mayor Nichols told him that both he and the Fire Chief were
equally sensitive to the fire response time issues but said that, realistically speaking, it would take some time to
resolve the problems. He said that he had remained patient but enough time had passed. When he saw on
Channel 11 that Mayor Schlum and Vice Mayor Leger had jointly moved to remove from the budget the cost for
the planning and designing of the new fire station he was very upset. He stated that fortunately the other
members of the Council had recognized this as the critical safety issue it represented and defeated that action.
Mr. Fischer said that this was a critically proven safety issue and strongly urged the Council to vote to expedite
the construction of a new fire station.
Richard Kloster, 9215 N,Longfeather,President of the Eagle Mountain Homeowners Association, addressed the
Council and said that he had been involved with major industries throughout his career and he believed that Fire
Department staff really conducted excellent due diligence, looked at all of the aspects, checked with their peers
in larger, more sophisticated communities and, in essence, did a"Class A"job and he wanted to commend them
on their performance. He agreed with the previous speaker's comments and said that Site #4 was the obvious
choice. He informed the Council that a few months ago a resident on Cyrus Court had a heart attack and the
EMS arrived and an ambulance took the homeowner away but he later died. He said that in order to make that
call they had to travel down Eagle Mountain Parkway off of Shea,down Summer Hill and through the main gate
as well as a secondary gate. He stated that that was part of the problem as far as response times. He expressed
the opinion that Eagle Mountain was not unique in this situation and added that Crestview and Firerock had
similar situations but the Chief and Assistant Chief had taken this into account and he would like to commend
them for that. He asked the Council to get their priorities in order and move forward as quickly as possible on
this critical issue.
Lor Mayor Schlum thanked all of the speakers for their comments.
CONSENT AGENDA
AGENDA ITEM #1 — CONSIDERATION OF APPROVING THE TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
MINUTES FROM OCTOBER 3, 14 AND 16,2008.
AGENDA ITEM #2 — CONSIDERATION OF APPROVING RESOLUTION 2008-42, ACCEPTING A
PUBLIC UTILITIES AND FACILITIES EASEMENT FROM STONERIDGE PROPERTY OWNERS'
ASSOCIATION, INC., REGARDING THE PALISADES AND SUNRIDGE DRIVE TRAFFIC
SIGNALS.
Councilmember McMahan MOVED to approve the Consent Agenda as listed (Items 1 & 2) and
Councilmember Archambault SECONDED the motion, which CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY(7-0).
REGULAR AGENDA
AGENDA ITEM #3 — CONSIDERATION OF A TEMPORARY USE PERMIT FOR THE PLAZA
FOUNTAINSIDE ARTS & CRAFT SHOWS FOR THE DATES NOVEMBER 14 — 16, 2008, AND
DECEMBER 6,2008—TU 2008-06.
Planning Director Richard Turner addressed the Council relative to this agenda item and expressed appreciation
to Planner Gene Slechta for doing most of the work on this project. He explained that Mr. Slechta was attending
out-of-town training and could not be present at the meeting. Mr. Turner stated that the first of the two art
L., shows coincides with the Great Fair and the second was a single event that took place on a Saturday in
December. He noted that staff administratively approved an art walk event last weekend and noted that the
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AGENDA ITEM#6-ADJOURNMENT.
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Councilmember McMahan MOVED to adjourn and Councilmember Hansen SECONDED the motion, which
CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY (7-0).
The Regular Session adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
TOWN OF FO AIN HILLS
.4101 By
. Schlum,Mayor
ATTEST AND
P EPA' D
1 41‘ IAdp'
Bevelyn Ja3e .%er,Town Clerk
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Administrative and
Regular Sessions held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills in the Town of Fountain Hills Council Chambers
on the 6th day of November 2008. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was
present.
DATED this 20th day of November 2008.
41 Ai
Bevelyn J. ndir,Town Clerk
j
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