HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022.1101.TCRM.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
November 1, 2022
1. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mayor Dickey called the Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on
November 1, 2022, to order at 5:32 p.m. and led the Council and audience in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
2. MOMENT OF SILENCE
A moment of silence was held.
3. ROLL CALL
Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Gerry Friedel; Councilmember
Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Mike
Scharnow; Councilmember David Spelich
Members Absent: Councilmember Alan Magazine
Staff Present: Town Manager Grady E. Miller; Town Attorney Trish Stuhan; Town Clerk
Linda Mendenhall
Audience: Nineteen members of the public were present.
4. REPORTS BY MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS, AND TOWN MANAGER
A. PROCLAMATION: Declaring November 1, 2022, as Dementia Friendly
Community Awareness
Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon read the proclamation issued by Mayor Dickey
declaring November 1, 2022, as Dementia Friendly Awareness Day
Linda Rode accepted the proclamation and expressed her appreciation.
B. RECOGNITION: Outgoing Board and Commission member Honorable Enrique
Melendez, for his service on the Sister Cities Advisory Commission.
Mayor Dickey recognized Honorable Enrique Melendez for his service on the
Sister Cities Advisory Commission and presented him with a certificate of
appreciation.
Honorable Enrique Melendez accepted the certificate and expressed his
appreciation.
5. SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES/PRESENTATIONS
A. PRESENTATION: Extension of Proposition 400 by: Audra Koester Thomas,
Transportation Planning Program Manager, Maricopa Association of
Govemment.
Audra Koester Thomas, Transportation Planning Program Manager with the
Maricopa Association of Government presented on the Extension of Proposition
400 and answered the council's questions.
B. PRESENTATION: First Quarter FY23 Revenue Update
David Pock, Chief Financial Officer provided the first quarter revenue update for
FY23 and answered the council's questions.
6. CALL TO THE PUBLIC
Pursuant to A R 3. §38<3101(H), public comment is permitted (not requked) on matters NOT listed en the agenda. Any such comment O
must be within the jurisdiction of the Council. and Adis subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Council will not
discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal
action. At the conclusion of the Can to the Public, individual counalmembers may p) respond to criticism. (ii) ask staff to retvew a matter, or
Aid ask that the matter be placed on a future Council agenda.
The following residents addressed the council under the Call to the Public.
Barry Wolborskv a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding the updated
parking signs at the civic center indicating they still reflect no parking.
Crystal Cavanaugh, a Fountain Hills resident, addressed the council regarding political
signs that were removed at the Community Center, mentioning the inconsistencies in
how the sign ordinance is enforced.
7. CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
All items listed on the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine, noncontroversial matters and will be enacted by one
motion of the Council. All motions and subsequent approvals of consent items will Include all recommended staff
stipulations unless otherwise stated. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a councilmember or
member of the public so requests. If a councilmember or member of the public wishes to discuss an item on the Consent
Agenda, he/she may request so prior to the motion to accept the Consent Agenda or with notification to the Town
Manager or Mayor prior to the date of the meeting for which the item was scheduled. The items will be removed from the
Consent Agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda.
MOVED BY Councilmember Grzybowski to approve the Consent Agenda, SECONDED
BY Councilmember Gerry Friedel.
Vote: 6 — 0 passed — Unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Absent
Councilmember Friedel Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor McMahon Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
A. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes of the
Regular Meeting of October 4, 2022.
8. REGULAR AGENDA
A. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of System 4 of Phoenix
Contract 2023-039.2.
MOVED BY Councilmember Gerry Friedel to approve System 4 of Phoenix
Contract 2023-039.2 and associated budget transfers, SECONDED BY Vice
Mayor Peggy McMahon.
Vote: 6 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Absent
Councilmember Friedel Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor McMahon Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
B. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Acceptance of public art for the
Motor Vault Fountain Hills LLC.
Vern Haugen, Principal of the Motor Vault, spoke on behalf of the art piece that
will be installed and answered council's questions.
MOVED BY Councilmember Gerry Friedel to accept the public art application for
the sculpture and authorize it to be installed at the designated location at Motor
Vault Fountain Hills LLC., SECONDED BY Councilmember Mike Scharnow.
Vote: 5-1 Passed
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Absent
Councilmember Friedel Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor McMahon Nay
Mayor Dickey Aye
C. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: To establish an in-house fire
department staffed with town fire personnel, provide proper notice of ending
agreement with Rural Metro in twelve or eighteen months, and to direct staff to
develop a transition plan.
Tim Soule, Fire Chief for Rural Metro addressed the council regarding the in-
house fire department services option mentioning the good working relationship
Rural Metro has had with the Town.
Mayor Dickey opened the item up for public comment. The following residents
addressed the council.
Written Comments
Bob Scarpetti
Sherrilynn James
Dave Long
Barry Wolborsky, a Fountain Hills resident, urged the council to consider the use
of a fire department that is part paid and part volunteer to meet the needs of the
community.
Lee Shattuck a Fountain Hills resident addressed the council in opposition to the
in-house fire department and would support renewing the contract with Rural
Metro.
Council -Elect Brenda Kalivianakis a Fountain Hills resident addressed the
council asking that this agenda item be tabled until the new council is seated.
MOVED BY Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon to officially establish an in-house fire
department with town fire personnel, provide proper notice of ending the
agreement with Rural Metro in twelve to eighteen months, and direct staff to
develop a transition plan to fully implement an in-house fire department,
SECONDED BY Councilmember Mike Scharnow.
Vote: 6 — 0 Passed — unanimously
Councilmember Grzybowski Aye
Councilmember Magazine Absent
Councilmember Friedel Aye
Councilmember Scharnow Aye
Councilmember Spelich Aye
Vice Mayor McMahon Aye
Mayor Dickey Aye
D. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE DIRECTION: Presentation of findings and
recommendations on the Town's Law Enforcement Services by Matrix Consulting
Group.
Greg Matthews presented to the council the findings and recommendations for
the Town's Law Enforcement Services and answered the council's questions.
9. COUNCIL DISCUSSION/DIRECTION to the TOWN MANAGER
Items) listed below are related only to the propriety of (i) placing such item(s) on a future agenda for action, or (iii
directing staff to conduct further research and report back to the Council.
10. ADJOURNMENT
Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular meeting of the
Fountain Hills Town Council held on November 1, 2022, at 8:16 p.m.
a G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
O
Ginrd Dickey, l ayor
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 1st day of November 2022. I further certify that the meeting was duly
called and that a quorum was present.
this 3" da .f anuary 2023.
Lda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 1 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Post -Production File
Town of Fountain Hills
November 1, 2022 City Council Meeting
Transcription Provided By:
eScribers, LLC
*
Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not
be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
Page 1 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 2 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: Good evening, everyone.
Please, stand for the pledge and remain standing.
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.
Please, remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you, all.
Before we do the roll call, I wanted to mention a couple of things. First of all, it's sad
time here in the town of Fountain Hills. A pioneer in every sense of the word, Alan
Cruikshank, has passed away. Our sincerest condolences and sympathies to his family,
and our gratitude for everything he's done for our community. And I'm sure there'll be a
lot more to come.
Councilman Magazine and his wife, have been knocked down with COVID for the last
couple of weeks and he wanted to make sure that people didn't feel that -- he knows his
role and his duty, but that we understand that he remains committed to his position, but
they've had a tough go of it.
And last, I want to mention that for the town of Fountain Hills, we do rotate our vice
mayor position every eight months. And I appreciate very much Gerry's service since
last spring. He's gone above and beyond, and I have a funny feeling he'll still do that.
And I look forward to working with Councilwoman McMahon, Peggy, as she'll take us
through next June. And I want to thank you both for your service, very much.
Now, we'll do roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Thank you, Mayor.
Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Here.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel'?
FRIEDEL: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Schamow?
SCHARNOW: Here.
Page 2 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 3 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Spelich'?
SPELICH: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilwoman Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Magazine?
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Yeah, he's not going to be able to probably call in.
Our first item on our activities; Grady, do you have anything to report?
MILLER: Thank you, Mayor. Real briefly.
Just wanted to do a sound out for the community services department. They put on a
Spooky Blast event last Saturday. Our family had a great time there. I brought my two
grandchildren there and their families, and we had great time. A lot of families were
there, it was very family oriented. A lot of kids having fun in a very safe environment
that we made. This is the second year in row. It used to be on the avenue, I think it was
called Strolnic Low (ph.). And I questioned it last year whether this was the thing to do
and I have to tell you that the staff just did a knock -out job on this. So kudos to the staff
on that.
Also, I know a number of you are going to mention this, so I'll just be very brief. But a
couple of weekends ago, we had a Make a Difference Day and what a neat event that
was.
And those are all my comments, Mayor. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MCMAHON: Good evening.
Yes, we did Make a Difference Day at the high school, which was fun. A little bit of
dirty work, but it was good. And also the Spooky Blast was really, really great. I was
helping out in booth volunteering and we had to cut the line off. The kids kept coming
up and wanting to participate in the games, and it was after 8 o'clock, so we finally --
they were having so much fun, it was hard to tell them no, but --
This year, I think there was at least a third to a half more -- gee, a lot more people than
there were last year, so it was really a successful event.
Thank you to the town.
FRIEDEL: Thanks, Mayor.
Page 3 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 4 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
1 had the privilege of attending the senior night game at Falcon Field Friday night. While
the outcome wasn't what we wanted, it was great though to send the seniors off. They did
a good job this year and really worked hard.
And as Grady mentioned, we had Make a Difference Day and I served with Grady and
we went to this gentleman's house for the second year in a row. So I want to give a little
shoutout to Rick Toth. Out of his own pocket, came out and put down weed preventer
and preemergent on this man's property so that well have a much easier time next year.
So he did a great job by doing that and we really appreciate him stepping up and doing
that.
And then, the last thing is the Mayor and I attended the Salt River Shares Gaming grant
luncheon and we were presented with a nice little token of their appreciation. These are
hand engraved shells; a shell necklace that they gave us. And it was really quite an event
and we were proud to represent the town there.
So thank you.
SCHARNOW: Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. And let's see. Spooky Blast, I was there
too, part of Noon Kiwanis, serving hotdogs and hamburgers. We sold out of hotdogs and
so that was a good thing, and made some money that evening. And that was a fun event.
Yeah, it seemed like a lot more people were there. So kudos to community services for
that.
And also, Make a Difference Day, again, with Kiwanis. And we did some landscaping as
well at a woman's house. And she was at a rehab facility at the time so we didn't get to
meet her but obviously, she had some needs there. So happy to help.
And let's see, Red Ribbon Week. You know, we had the proclamation at the last council
meeting and the whole week went great over at the middle school and culminating with
Health Fair on Friday. We had all 400 kids from the school come through the gym and
we had about a dozen tables set up for different messages and education. And it really
went well. So I want to thank -- the drug coalition organized that.
And then, on Saturday, I was part of the national DEA Take Back Day . So some of us
from the coalition and the sanitary district helped out with the sheriff's office. Residents
came by, dropped off unwanted or expired medications. And brought in 26 pounds of
meds, so it was a good haul. So I'd encourage anyone who still has things at home they
Page 4 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 5 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
don't need anymore, we do have a drug disposal box here in the lobby that's accessible
whenever town hall is open. And you can just drop off those things any time during the
week. And of course, as the Mayor mentioned, Alan did pass away. And of course, I
worked alongside him for 32 years, so obviously sad news. But he lived a good life and
there's going to be more in the paper next week, kind of a tribute to him. So 1 wrote up
something about him. So it should be a memorable edition next week.
Thanks.
GRZYBOWSKI: I was going to talk about Make a Difference Day as well. My husband
and I have dumpster duty every year and it's every bit as much fun as you think it sounds
like it is, although it is easier now. Thank you, Justin, for bringing the backhoc, or
whatever the thing is called, that I call a squishcr. That always helps the task a lot.
Then this morning, I attended the Phoenix East Valley Critical Infrastructure and
Transportation Committee where I got to hear Audra speak, who's getting ready to speak
for us here shortly. And I'm sure it's a very similar presentation.
And that was my two weeks.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Councilwoman.
I wanted to make this announcement; I was asked.
Since we are a purple heart town, marine veteran and Fountain Hills resident, Phil Yuen
(ph.), had informed us that in coordination with National Flag Foundation, on November
I Ith, the 240th anniversary of the establishment of the purple heart will be observed
across the United States.
The National Flag Foundation and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, along with the
Marine Corps League, have partnered for National Light to Unite. The plan is to have as
many cities as possible across America light either purple or red, white, and blue in the
evening on Veteran's Day. The goal is to bring much needed attention to the military or
the purple heart and the many deserving purple heart medal recipients who find
themselves in need on multiple levels. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania will light up first in the
country, followed by the World Trade Center building, and then the rest of us as twilight
comes. So please look for our fountain to glow purple on November 1 l th. And don't
forget that were on Earthcam Live, so share the news so that we can be seen worldwide
honoring our veterans.
Page 5 of62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 6 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Our Fountain Hills Cares event was timely, also about veterans and we had a lot of
resources there, websites and such. So if it's not on our website yet, it will be. A lot of
information that will, I think, surprise some folks.
Our Make a Difference Day, they made a video and we'll be showing that at our next
meeting, but yes, it was as wonderful day. We worked at the high school and thanks, of
course, to everybody that put this together in our community services department and all
of the volunteers.
At the Maricopa Association of Government's regional council, we had a Prop 400
economic development presentation, which I'm sure also Audra, who is a Fountain Hills
resident, will talk a lot about that.
1 went to MomingStar for Hazel to declare Hazel Peterson Day, October 28th. Hazel was
born in 1915 and it was her I07th birthday. And I understand that she was driving up
until 103 and meeting her you can -- it was just a wonderful, wonderful afternoon.
The Spooky Blast was great. As Grady mentioned, when they had done it along the
fountain, but in the way past we always did do it at Four Peaks. So it was kind of a trip to
be there with my granddaughters when I can remember very vividly being there with
their dad. So it was very awesome.
Oh, and they had a movie too, Hotel Transylvania. So that was good, because it was like
real mellow from all the activity that Vice Mayor was talking about; to kind of go out
there and sit on the grass and just watch the movie a little bit. I didn't last that long, but --
And then, again, that lunch was awesome. It's kind of amazing when you think about it.
So Salt River throws this wonderful lunch and gives gifts to people that they're already
giving grants to. So it almost felt like that we should give them lunch. But it was an
honor to be there. We really apprcciated that.
Our next item is going to be a proclamation that -- I ask Vice Mayor, Peggy McMahon,
to present, as Fountain Hills becomes a dementia friendly community and -- please take
it, Vice Mayor.
MCMAHON: Good evening.
Dementia friendly community awareness proclamation is whereas according to the
Alzheimer's Association, more than 150,000 people in Arizona over the age of 65, live
with dementia. Impacting more than 262,000 family members and caregivers, with 53
Page 6 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 7 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
percent who report their own chronic healthcare conditions themselves. And this number
is expected to increase by 33 percent by 2005 (sic).
And whereas the community services department is working together to gather
community leaders and experts in this area to better understand dementia and its
implications. This team will evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses in the town to
help improve outreach to those living with dementia. They increase awareness that it is
possible to have a good quality of lift with dementia and that there's more to the person
than just dementia.
Whereas the town of Fountain Hills is committed to helping remove the stigma
surrounding dementia through information and to connect those in every socioeconomic
group with the resources and the information they need.
And whereas to proactively address public education, improve resource connections, and
partner with businesses to bring awareness, the town of Fountain Hills is proactively
working to become a nationally recognized dementia friendly town in 2023. Designation
to be bestowed on the town by the Dementia Friendly America Network.
Therefore, Mayor Ginny Dickey of the town of Fountain Hills, does hereby proclaim on
November Ist, 2022, the town of Fountain Hills a dementia friendly community.
And we call upon the community to serve people with dementia and memory loss and
their caregivers, by providing awareness of local programs and services and emotional
support. So yay.
MAYOR DICKEY: Is there someone here to present that to?
MCMAHON: So Linda is here for, who's the champion for this.
MAYOR DICKEY: Linda, would you like to come up and get the plaque? Thank you.
She'll meet you down there and then you can say a few words, if you like.
RODE: Thank you so much. On behalf of the dementia friendly taskforce I'm really
honored to accept this proclamation and be part of this endeavor. My husband was -- we
live here -- my husband and I live here in Fountain Hills and two years ago he was
diagnosed with dementia. So it's really changed our lives and we feel really blessed and
honored and thrilled that our town has decided to draw awareness to this disease and
support both people who have the disease and also their caregivers, because ifs a 24/7 job
for all of us.
Page 7 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 8 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Thank you. Thank you very much.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much.
Our next item is a recognition of outgoing board and commission member, the Honorable
Enrique Melendez, for his service on the Sister Cities Advisory Commission. I've known
this fine man for many years. He's devoted to Fountain Hills. Always, his actions are to
treat others with respect and fairness and we've appreciated that over the years.
I'm going to bring the certificate down. If you come up and meet me, 1q1 read it to you
and then you can say a few words, Enrique.
Thank you.
Hold it. I'm going to grab the mic and read this, and then you can --
Thank you. Recognition of Enrique Melendez. We would like to take this opportunity to
recognize the Honorable Enrique Melendez, who was appointed to serve as commissioner
of the Sister Cities Advisory Commission by the town council in the month of June 2016.
During his service on the commission, Enrique took an active role in all activities and
projects that the commission undertook. His many hours of volunteer service, devotion,
dedication, and contributions are sincerely appreciated by this council, his fellow
commissioners, and all the town's residents.
Whether serving our town as a councilmember or as a commissioner, Enrique is the
embodiment of dedication, passion, and commitment to the interests of our community.
Thank you, Enrique.
I'm going to leave this here. So you can have that.
MELENDEZ. Thank you, Mayor. I don't know if this --
MAYOR DICKEY: It's on, yep.
MELENDEZ- I, first of all, would like to express the deepest sympathy from the
Ministry of El Salvador, Mayor Oscar Gomez of Ataco, and the diplomatic corps of
Arizona, for their loss of a giant in the community and a good friend, Mr. Alan
Cruikshank.
Mayor and Council, excuse my back.
The Sister City program began with Alan Cruikshank and Jerry Miles in 1996. They both
went to Kasterlee, Belgium, developed a contract with the mayor there, and that was the
beginning of our Sister Cities program. Kudos to both of them who are upstairs.
Page 8 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 9 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
1 wanted to mention, Mayor, the support I've received from former mayor, Jerry Miles,
who went to El Salvador five times with his wife. Mayor Wally Nichols, who went three
times with his wife. And Mayor Sharon Morgan, who was very passionate about sending
those 44 high school students to build 26 homes, and it's called Fountain Hills Village.
So I know there are other sister cities in the organizations throughout the valley, but 1
think this is the one that we have the best.
So I want to thank you and the support of the council and the community.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MELENDEZ- Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Next are our scheduled public appearances and presentation. We will have a presentation
from Audra Koester Thomas, who is the transportation planning program manager at
MAG, and also a longtime Fountain Hills resident.
Grady, did you have anything?
MILLER: I just wanted to go ahead and introduce her. You did that very well.
I am remiss because 1 did not introduce -- tonight we have our acting town attorney, Trish
Stuhan, and l totally meant to include this in my comments before.
But welcome. We appreciate you being here.
Our town attomey could not be here tonight and were very pleased to have Trish here in
his stead.
With that, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Ms. Thomas, who, as some of us have already
seen with Maricopa Association of Governments, has a presentation on the extension of
Prop 400, which is, as you're going to see, very critical not only to our community but
also to the economic vitality of the entire region.
With that, I'll turn it over to Ms. Thomas.
KOESTER THOMAS: Thank you, Mayor Dickey, members of council. Special thank
you to Vice Mayor McMahon for the invitation this evening to present on an occasion
that I was hoping would be a completely different presentation in educating about a
future ballot initiative that we expected to be on the ballot in two weeks. But instead,
faced with a unique challenge, and luckily we're in it together here in the Maricopa
Page 9 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 10 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
region, to continuing a dedicated half -cent sales tax first established by voters back in
1985.
House Bill 2685 was surprisingly vetoed by the governor after seeing almost two-thirds
of the House and Senate support this legislative session; taking us by surprise shortly
after the 4th of July. The direction we have been given by our elected officials and
regional council executive committee specifically soon after that veto, was to take on a
three -pronged approach.
First, immediately, begin to analyze what the mobility impacts would be of the veto.
Second, to pull in legal counsel to evaluate all of our alternatives to seek an opportunity
for voters' voices to be heard. And then third, to do an economic impact analysis
associated with the continued extension or 25-year extension as the proposed House Bill
2685 had intended to refer to voters this November.
1 will present a slice of each of these as part of this presentation and certainly
acknowledge the opportunity to answer any questions at the completion of today's
presentation.
So with that, I want to orient us with just a little bit of historical context. I think it's
important to recognize what this place was and what it has become because of the
dedicated half -cent sales tax first established by voters back in 1985. Known as
Proposition 300, it became a reality after regional leaders heard that it would take 60
years, six zero, for the Loop 101, the initial segments of Loop 101 to be constructed. So
it still wouldn't have been at this time. And that was deemed unacceptable at time of high
growth and certainly a significant time in our history. And so our mayors got together
and decided to tax themselves to be able to establish what we now know as the Regional
Transportation System.
This is what that world looked like back in 1986. You will see Interstate 17. Even
Interstate 10 wasn't completed through the region. In fact, Deck Park Tunnel in Central
Phoenix, was the last portion of Interstate 10 completed and that was just back in the
early 90s. I'm sure many of you remember that.
But really, this transportation network in our region was a collection of arterial streets.
To get from here to there required going north, south, cast, west, and back and forth, and
it certainly wasn't an efficient route. And so mayors got together to establish, like 1
Page 10 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 11 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
mentioned, Proposition 300 which delivered this, what we know today as the Freeway
Loop System.
Loops 101, 202, the 51, and 143, amongst its achievements in the first 20 years of the tax.
At the time, it was one of the first dedicated half -cent sales tax in the country. Since
then, we have been copied and far surpassed in the amount of investment made,
recognizing how often constituents value transportation for good quality of life.
Our leaders came back together in 2004 and established a new program, known as
Proposition 400. It's the current program we are under now. It helped to finish out the
establishment of the Freeway Network, including Loop 303, opening South Mountain
Freeway just a few years ago. Also became multi -modal, recognizing the urbanization of
the region, our growing and diversifying transportation needs, helping to establish light
rail. Opening of Streetcar just a few months ago in Tempe.
What you don't see illustrated on this map are hundreds of miles of contributions to that
important arterial grid network. It's unique for this region, having that contiguous
network. It also serves as the backbone of our bus transit system which carries over
seven million miles of bus service, supported by the half -cent sales tax, every year.
It also wholly funds the ADA Paratransit that's federally required for our most vulnerable
citizens, the seniors and disabled members of the community, using transit. The sales tax
wholly funds that across the region.
In addition, you don't see illustrated in this map the iterative widenings of the freeways,
adding of the HOV lanes, important traffic interchanges, of course, that come with
iterative improvements, or our other programs including active transportation, safety,
ITS, and air quality.
The outcomes of this investment over 40 years' worth of investment, we all know and
recognize on a daily basis. Its saves us time; estimated to save you over a hundred hours
each and every year, just the freeway network alone. Most of our jobs are located within
a mile or two of a freeway corridor or a high -capacity transit corridor, and you see the
compounding valuation of transportation investments that bring wealth and prosperity to
us all.
It's no wonder that our economic development partners put the transportation network
front and center when they go out and look for the next brightest businesses to bring to
Page 11 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 12 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Arizona. Our friends at GPEC have assembled this map, demonstrating all of the
different businesses and employers they've located to the region and you will see they are
proximate to the high -capacity transportation network for which this region has built.
And it is why they put the transportation network front and center, because it is what has
developed and landed such important economic investments.
And then most of all, and probably most importantly of all, our constituents very much
get it. It's probably the part that's most frustrating about the veto. We weren't surprised
at the completion of the planned development process that included considerable public
engagement, because this is a plan by and for the public after all, that it was polling at
over 70 percent support. Folks in this region uniquely value transportation investments.
They uniquely value the long-range planning that has gone into this system. They don't
know who's responsible. They're not sure who's necessarily in charge, but they very
much value the investment that has been made over the last 40 years and desperately
want to see it continue.
So we're in this very unique position. After 40 years of demonstrated investment, our
future is quite uncertain and we do not have a path to the ballot to continue important
transportation investments into the future. This is the composition of our long-range
investment plan that was unanimously adopted by our regional council. That's the 32-
member agencies, including the town of Fountain Hills, that comprise the Maricopa
Association of Governments. You don't take that unanimous support lightly. We worked
very hard. Mayors worked very hard to make difficult tradeoff decisions to come to that
compremetic (sic) plan. And what you see here is a very sophisticated plan that includes,
not only the sales tax but a variety of other funding sources available to the region,
including federal formula funds that come to the MPO, which is why we're designated, as
well as the smaller thread that you'll see at the very top, which is the State Highway User
Revenue Fund or our share of what was formerly known as the gas tax. And I'll talk a
little bit more about that in a minute. What you see here is a 25-year plan of over $36
billion of investments.
Last time I was here, I talked a little bit more about the capital investment plan itself. I
won't spend as much time on that today other than just to acknowledge the several
hundred different capital investment projects that we have included as part of the plan.
Page 12 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 13 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
You'll see them mapped here. It includes important completion of our freeway network,
completion of the HOV network, establishing of the SR30 in the southwest valley,
completion of the SR24 in the southeast valley, complete reconstruction of 1-17, that
original piece of infrastructure I mentioned at the top of the presentation. Those
important extensions of transit west out of Phoenix, as well as east out of Tempe, both
through light rail and streetcar, and also bringing in new mode of transit to the region, bus
rapid transit, for which were very excited about it's potential. Provides a lot of the high -
quality value of getting somebody from point A to point B, but at a significantly lower
cost as light rail.
What's also important to note about our plan is the dedicated programs we have set aside.
You'll see that in the tangerine color in the lower left-hand corner. These are the
programs, several of them already established at MAG as part of Proposition 400, but
many that have grown because of the public engagement and feedback that we have
received. These are the programs that our constituents say bring them the highest quality
of life. They're the things that matter the most to them. Notably active transportation,
you'll see $ I billion set aside for bicycle and pedestrian improvements. We heard loud
and clear this was important to constituents. It's protecting our most vulnerable users of
this system. We have a bad reputation as it relates to bicycle and pedestrian crashes in
this region, notably. We want to go above and beyond to provide a safe way for those
users to use our system.
But you'll see continued investment in air quality. We arc in a nonattainment area for air
quality that requires us to meet certain targets to ensure that federal funding that were
also relying on, can continue to come into the region. A variety of arterial programs -- a
new program, emerging technology, continuation of ITS, and other important
investments.
As part of the arterial program itself, there are several projects included in it. For the
town of Fountain Hills I wanted to spend just a moment of time reflecting on those.
You'll see our major arterials are articulated here where the region is poised to
contributed over $17 million for Palisades Boulevard reconstruction. A $1 million for
Saguaro reconstruction, as well as widening of Shea Boulevard of over $32 million.
These are the regions share coming out of the extension of Proposition 400 for which
Page 13 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 14 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
partnering with the Town, to be able to enable continuation and a reconstruction of these
facilities.
However, if were unable to continue the dedicated half -cent sales tax, we will lose over
half the funding available to the region. It will completely decimate the regional
transportation system that we know today. So 1 want to talk a little bit about what those
implications are.
When were down at the legislature with House Bill 2685, we got asked a lot of questions
and one of them was, why are you increasing the amount of funding of the sales tax to
transit. And that answer is very simple. It's because that's what the public wanted. We
heard loud and clear a deep desire to expand transit throughout the region, improve its
quality, and we responded. At the end of the day, voters are the ones who are the final
say on the dedicated half -cent sales tax continuation. We want to hear what they want
and we delivered accordingly.
But what's important is when you take all funding sources available to the region into
consideration, by proportion of program, it's actually the arterial and programs that
expand the most compared to Proposition 400. I want to talk a little bit about why that is.
One of the major drivers of the need to expand our regional programs and arterial
program, is because one very important revenue source continues to diminish in its value
and that's the Highway User Revenue Fund, as 1 mentioned earlier. Sometimes referred
to as the gas tax in this state. It is, and has been, the historic funding and revenue source
to build, maintain, and operate the roadways throughout the State of Arizona.
What you see here in this illustration, is the last 21 years of revenues that have come in
from the Highway User Revenue Fund, adjusted for inflation. And what you see is in the
year 2000, the state received more in highway user revenue funds than it did last year.
During that same time, the state's population grew by more than 40 percent. We have not
modernized or increased the Highway User Revenue Fund since 1991, and what you see
here is an inverse relationship. We are using our roads more and more every single day
and literally contributing less and less to their operations, maintenance, or even
expansion. It's why there was so much pressure at the beginning of our process from
towns like the town of Fountain Hills, as well as 31 other member agencies who
submitted so many arterial projects and needs because the value of HURF is so
Page 14 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 15 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
constrained.
so what are the implications if we're unable to continue this dedicated half -cent sales tax?
At least for the arterial program expect fewer new and improved roadways regionwide. It
will limit agencies' abilities to respond to economic development opportunities. And the
decaying condition of our roadways are only going to increase over time due to lack of
funding to be able to maintain them.
Moving on now to transit, the picture gets even more bleak. What you see in this map is
the current transit system here throughout our region, including our express route that
comes morning and evening here to Fountain Hills. What you see illustrated in the red
are routes that are either wholly funded by the dedicated half -cent sales tax or partially
funded by the sales tax. In other words, without a continuation of the tax, these are the
routes that are at risk of discontinuing January Ist, 2026. There's a lot of red on this map.
What's important to recognize is that we're probably under representing just how much
transit's at risk. As I mentioned before, the sales tax also funds the federally required
ADA paratransit costs. Those will then rest at local cities' levels to pick up without a
dedicated half -cent sales tax. What that means is cities will either have to find even more
revenue to come up with that shortfall or be forced to reduce the transit service they
already have in operation, further contracting the system that we were told loud and clear
by the public they wanted to improve and expand throughout the region.
And then we come to the freeway program. This is just a selection of a few of the
projects that we have in the investment plan for our freeway network. 1 want to point out
specifically what's illustrated in this map is our booming economic development corridor
throughout the region. It's no mistake that that projects that we have included in this plan
not only support quality of life, but they're tied to economic development and the
continuation of bringing high quality jobs into this region. You will see some of the most
notable economic development corridors highlighted here, including TSMC, the largest
foreign direct investment in state history, which is projected to bring over 11,000 jobs
here to the region. All of these projects arc at risk without the continuation of the
dedicated half -cent sales tax.
In short, the future of freeways looks bleak in this region. What funding is left is that of
federal nature and will be largely spent on meeting federal performance targets. The
Page 15 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 16 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
region will not be able to build any new freeways; there'll be limited expansions or
modernizations of the existing facilities. And a question that we got asked a lot, well,
can't the state pick up and ran -- how about the bipartisan infrastructure bill that's
bringing in a historic influx of funding into transportation? And while we appreciate and
value all of those investments, they are not enough to make up the gap. We have a
demonstrated transportation need in this region of $90 billion, and the investment plan
we've put together only gets us to $36.7 billion of that need. The reality is we have a
dramatic difference in needs and not surprising. We're the fastest growing region in the
country. Fastest growing county in the country. And we have several -- the cities that
are fastest growing in their different -- or different size categories. It's not surprising that
we have tremendous transportation needs, but I think the amount of need is so
dramatically different.
So I talked a little bit about the implications of not continuing the tax. I want to pivot
now to our economic impact analysis that we just completed. We partnered with a
nationally renowned economic and finance group, EBP US. They're known for doing
this kind of work nationwide. They have a renowned model called the TREDIS model
that does this kind of work. We've used it before in the region and we're able to use our
sophisticated transportation demand model in concert with our economic model to help
understand really what the implications are of implementing the investment plan. And
what you see here are its inputs, those projects that I've already identified under our
freeway highway system, the arterial projects including those here in the town of
Fountain Hills, as well as the transit projects. And we see a considerable amount of
benefit, of course, to all of them. But it was important to quantify them and so I wanted
to provide just a few of those results to you today.
What you see on the left side is just some of the immediate impacts. We see a decrease
in congestion across all modes and purposes with this investments package. And that's
important to recognize since we are still so fast growing in this region. We're going to
add in a couple more million people during the same horizon. We're still seeing a
decrease in congestion from today with the improvements that we included in this plan.
Speeds across all modes increase by one or two miles per hour and that may not seem
like a lot, but when you take that in aggregate, for every trip you make every single day,
Page 16 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 17 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
and everyone -- your neighbor makes, as well as the person that you know back in
Buckeye, that at an aggregate level is significant and adds to a considerable amount of
time travel savings. And we also see an influx in transit trips. We weren't surprised by
that, were adding quality transit as part of this plan.
So what does that translate to in terms of economic societal benefit? We see the time
travel savings alone, calculating at approximately $73 billion over the 25-year investment
plan. Of that 40 billion is coming from business time and reliability savings. And then
just freight interests alone arc seeing a benefit of 4.4 billion. And why is that important;
because those savings get reinvested into the economy. Keeping those dollars circulating
longer into your economy, especially the region's economy, is what builds wealth. It's
what brings prosperity. It's why we all endeavor to do good economic development.
That's why it's so important to capture just how much those savings are, because when
they are reinvested into the region, you see these kinds of outcomes. We're expecting net
new businesses to increase their sales by over $113 billion over 25 years.
Just the region's net economic activity to grow by $60 billion. Our salaries to increase by
40 billion. And the plan itself is expected to bring and sustain over 31,000 jobs each and
every year.
And these aren't just any jobs. These are medium to high wage jobs. These are the jobs
elected officials in this region, over the last 20 and 30 years, have endeavored to bring to
this region to make it more sustainable. These are high quality jobs that have taken a
generation to develop and land here in the region, for which we are now risking.
So what are some of the key takeaways? Clearly the loss of the dedicated half -cent sales
tax will be detrimental to the transportation network here in this region; it is our notable
competitive advantage. We will lose out to our competitive regions across the country
for new economic development.
The region's economic network has led to the economic prosperity that we see today.
And it's our competitive edge, as I mentioned. Without continuing the dedicated half -
cent sales tax, the cost of doing business is going to increase, local sales will be reduced,
and were going to lose high quality jobs.
And I think this is the most important point that I want to leave you with, timing is
critical. Enabling legislation that are opportunity to do a direct referral to voters, is
Page 17 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 18 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
needed as quickly as possible, because it's costing us money. We are the only county in
the state that has to go to the legislature for a direct referendum back to our voters for a
local initiative. All other 14 counties have the ability to go directly to their board of
supervisors to place a question on ballots up to one cent. Pinal County has an election
just in two weeks. If they're successful they will be up to one cent of a sales tax for
transportation, while we still do not have a path to the ballot.
The costs are significant. SR30 in the southwest valley, the center segment between
Loops 303 and 202, is about a $2.5 billion project. It's unique. It's complex. There are
some constraints associated with delivering that project. But with the veto and the lack of
a path to the ballot, were expecting a minimum of a two-year delay to that project. The
inflationary costs alone that taxpayers will have to eat, if we are able to find a successful
path even in the near term, is estimated to be about $300 million for that project alone.
So there are real consequences ultimately to the action this summer.
But 1 want to end on a positive note. You'll see pictured here our transportation policy
committee. This is the public -private partnership at MAG that is responsible by state
statute, for developing and being stewards of the plan itself. It is a partnership of our
local elected officials, as well as six members of the business community that are
appointed by the legislature to endeavor on this partnership. You'll see pictured here the
day that the plan was unanimously recommended for adoption. Regional council, the
next day took action and unanimously adopted the plan and 1 can tell you and report out
that Mayor Dickey, alongside her fellow mayors and elected officials have reaffirmed
their support for the plan. Encouraged us, as quickly as possible, to find a pathway to the
ballot. We've been endeavoring on that front, including as I mentioned earlier engaging
legal advice to find alternatives, or the best path forward and we continue to appreciate
your support in doing so.
So that completes my presentation. Mayor Dickey, members of council, I'd be happy to
answer any questions.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you so much.
Yes, Gerry?
FRIEDEL: Audra, I have no doubt that the $ 1 13 billion more in sales that we'll lose if
this doesn't get, will affect our sales tax revenue. So my question for you is, one, you're
Page 18 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 19 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
looking for a path, hopefully you find that 25-year extension. Why don't we make it 50
years so we don't have to go through this again?
KOESTER THOMAS: Mayor Dickey, members of council, that's a great question. I
will step back to 2001 and say tandem to the motion to adopt the plan there was another
piece that came corollary to that and that was to find parity and endeavor to find parity
with the 14 other counties in the State of Arizona. So we have standing authority just like
they do and don't have to go back through the path of the legislature. I will tell you that
the previous two, Propositions 300 and 400 were both 20-year plans. This is a 25-year
plan, in part to fit all of the highest of high priority projects in; I want to qualify that.
One of the things we were told by the legislature at the beginning of this effort was do not
go over a half -cent sales tax. That was instructions given to our elected officials, even
though we saw considerable public support for more. And I mentioned already we
demonstrated $90 billion worth of transportation need throughout the region. But our
mayors came together, made a lot of compromises and tradeoffs to get to and retain that
half -cent sales tax, not to go over that threshold. But in order to keep the most highest
priority projects in, the decision was to make it 25 years. The extra five years to affirm
projects up to the year 2050. That was the direction the legislature gave us, we delivered
that accordingly. But I will tell you that there is even more sense of urgency in finding a
resolution to ensuring that Maricopa County has standing authority for the future, so
when the public and our elected officials endeavor to do so, we have an easier path to the
ballot.
MCMAHON: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
I need some clarification please, on the regionally supported projects in Fountain Hills,
the Palisades Boulevard. Are those funds available now? Are those funds we're going to
lose if 400 doesn't go through? A little bit of clarification, please.
KOESTER THOMAS: Mayor Dickey, members of council, Vice Mayor McMahon.
Those are projects included in the investment plan supported by a continuation of the
dedicated half -cent sales tax. And so without the dedicated half -cent sales tax those
projects, the 200 others and the $36.7 billion of the entire program is at risk.
MCMAHON: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, I can feel my blood pressure going up as you went on. So you
Page 19 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 20 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
mentioned 32 member agencies. I'm probably not going to end up with the question, it's
just 32 member agencies, a bunch of mayors, bunch of other organizations, every party,
every agreement, everybody has their own local wants, and yet after months and months
and months we came together with a plan that was accepted by all of us unanimously, all
the subcommittees, and brought it forward. And the 25-year thing was actually a sticking
point because they were like, should we, dare we go above the 20? So we went to the 25,
didn't go with the more than the half -cent, which obviously we haven't even been able to
pay for the projects that were already in Prop 400 in the first place. So it was like even if
this passed, a lot of it was going to have to be used for what was already passed.
So we get through that, then we go to legislature, you know, big deal. Lot of meetings
and just really successful. It passes the legislature, right? This veto was a shock, a
stunner, and still have no idea why it happened. So that, of course, goes along with the
idea why does Maricopa County need -- we did get it through the legislature, so I'm not
even that worried about that part of it. But that does lead to needing the signature. So
that's what happened there.
Maricopa County is the MPO, the Metropolitan Planning Organization for this region,
which is again, planning is something that sometimes gets muddled as to the value of it.
These former maps that you just showed us, as they brought us into now, just shows you
the value and the necessity of proper planning. I think when you look at the HURF
funding, it reminds me a little bit about what's going on with the school districts. All
these school districts across the State of Arizona are asking for overrides and bonds and
such, because the state funding, as with transportation, is inadequate to keep up with our
needs. They both point to that same sort of issue where we're not getting it from the State
of Arizona, yet education, transportation are job creators, they're business magnets. You
ask anyone, anybody that you're talking to, anybody Amanda talks to, what are you
looking for? Excellent education, access, access, access.
So how are you going to bring these headquarters? How are you going to bring these
professional CEOs and their families and the branches and the entrepreneurs here. We
want something one way, but you're not providing what they need to make that happen.
Fountain Hills had 13 projects. Some of them were real wish list kind of stuff, but we
had a couple of transit things. Maybe our bus route isn't utilized as much as much as it
Page 20 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 21 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
could be, we had some transit. We had an important intersection improvement for 87 and
Shea Boulevard. Well, yeah, we would have been happier if more than three or four of
them got accepted, but it's zero now. It's moot on what was accepted, because right now
there is nothing. And when we had this presentation at MAG last week, I mentioned at
the time -- because we all do feel protective of our own areas. So what if the road
committee comes back and says Fountain Hills needs a road bond. School districts
always need bonds and extra money. Well then you start to say, okay, you're playing
games with our planning, because we have different times that we're allowed to ask for
these things and now what's the possibility of next November having three different
things on the ballot, which is hard for voters to accept. So then you have your own hill
throated support of this, kind of like yeah, we really need, X, Y, Z in Fountain Hills or
Goodyear or whatever.
So the whole thing very frustrating. It feels like, really like they played games or the veto
played games with a ton of mayors and staff and time and it's very, very frustrating and
we will do what we can to move this forward in a way for our entire region, for the state.
I mean this is Maricopa County, it affects the entire state. And so again, I could just feel
the heat when you were going through this because it's really been years of planning for
this and it was very, very unfortunate.
I didn't know if anybody else would have any questions or comments at this time? Yes,
Mike?
SCHARNOW: Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor.
I was just wondering and I know there's going to be a lot of turnover in the legislature
and obviously, it's going to be a different governor. I'm just wondering, and you can look
at that two different ways. It could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing, and I know
you don't have a crystal ball but you have any -- I'm sure you've met with some of those
newer folks already. You get any inclination from them or --
KOESTER THOMAS: Mayor Dickey, members of council. Well, I'm not going to bet
on politics anymore. I think this summer taught me a lesson. But I will say we've been
monitoring all of that very closely. It's projected to be the largest incoming freshman
class in memory to the legislature, so that's a huge education curve certainly. We lost
important votes, including our bill sponsor, including the speaker of the house who's
Page 21 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 12 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
largely responsible for getting us over the finish line at the end. I do want to
acknowledge the success we did have in the legislature, almost two-thirds of both the
House and Senate; that's remarkable given the current political climate. So I want to
acknowledge the success we did have in getting through the legislature, but we lost a lot
of those individuals who were yes votes certainly.
So we have a variety of alternatives that we're evaluating. We do have to go through the
state legislature in order to have the direct referral, as 1 mentioned. So we have been
working with our legal counsel on a variety of alternatives. Some of them are short term,
some of them are longer term lead, to enable perhaps success at the end of the day. So
were working closely with our executive committee of mayors who are providing that
direction. We'll continue to seek their direction on when and how to deploy accordingly,
but know that there's a lot of work happening behind the scenes to feverishly find a path
to the ballot for Maricopa County voters and so they're not disenfranchised on this matter.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. And probably no one's worked harder than you. And
we really appreciate it. She's been right in the center of this for a long, long time. So I
want to really thank you and it always makes me feel good to see you up there because I
know you're from here and so I know that you care deeply and we appreciate that.
KOESTER THOMAS: Thank you, Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MCMAHON: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Our next item is Mr. Pock is going to come up and give us an
update on our quarterly revenue and I don't know, 1 glanced at it -- well, actually I did
more than that. Maybe there's a little bit better news after what we just had.
POCK: Exactly.
While I'm pulling this up, I will say that I did get a text message from an employee and if
you're driving a maroon SUV in the parking lot, your lights are still on. So and I didn't
get this pulled up, even while I did that.
All right. So before we get into the first quarter update, I did put together a slide for
fiscal year '22. Overall, we had a really good year. Our general fund revenues exceeded
expectations by almost $2 million. Our general fund expenditures were $5.7 million less
than what we had budgeted. That includes the $4.2 million that we received from ARPA
Page 22 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 23 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
and the savings that resulted from that. Our audited year end fund balances will be
available when the financials are presented in two weeks. Our audit results are in and
those will be presented to council then.
After all of our reserve requirements are met and then the suggested fiscal year '23, the
current year transfers are made, a total of 3.7 million will be transferred to the capital
projects fund. and then $4.2 million of this year's, current year's revenues which will,
again, result from the ARPA savings, will be transferred to the Streets Fund for work
there.
So now well get in to the current year, first quarter. Again, were off to a really good
start. Our overall TPT revenue collection was up for the first quarter, exceeded our
expectations. The net taxable activity across everything that happens within the Town
that is subject to TPT, that has increased about ten percent over fiscal year'22, for the
same period. And then we've also had modest year -over -year increases in each of the
categories for TPT.
State shared income tax revenue is significantly higher than it was last year. You'll see
this towards the end of the presentation. Unfortunately, were not going to meet the
Leagues estimate though. They're not coming in quite as high as what the League
expected. But we'll deal with that as it goes along.
The other notable part to this is that the HURF money that Audra was just talking about
in her presentation, those receipts aren't quite as high as they have been in previous years.
As you know, higher gas prices reduces demand and since HURF is per gallon and not
per dollar, that's taken a hit. Not a huge hit but it's noticeable.
So as far as that net taxable activity, you can see that compared to the prior four years.
The total activity was just under 139 million for the quarter. As far as the total TPT
collection across all categories and for all funds, we had budgeted just under 3.7 million
for the quarter. We collected almost 4.5, so that was a good increase -- $830,000 more
than what we expected. However, 450,000 of that was from an audit collection; that's
obviously a one-time audit, so we won't have that. That's why it's so much higher in that
first month of July; 380,000 though was due to increased activity. And then again, it was
850,000 more than last year.
Retail sales is obviously our largest category. We had budgeted 2.08 million, we
Page 23 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 24 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
collected 2.21 million, 130,000 more than expected and an increase of $280,000. And
I'm not sure, either I'm going colorblind or my presentation got a little mixed up. But
we've got two yellow lines there. The good news is that fiscal year '22 is the one on top
of the other one. So we are growing in the right direction.
The next one is construction category. This includes prime contracting and speculative
builders. We budgeted 480,000, we collected 939; it's no surprise that this is the category
where that audit collection was made. But we still had $9,000 more than expected and
47,000 more than last year.
The very consistent chart for transportation, utilities, and communications category. We
had budgeted 313,000, collected 484; it's 171,000 more than what we thought we'd
receive and an increase of 7,000 over last year.
Real estate, again, you can see that these charts over the past four years are staying pretty
consistent among these categories; which is great to see. And they are growing from year
to year, which is even better to see. We've budgeted 239,000 for this category, collected
258; again 19,000 more than expected with an increase of almost 40,000 over last year.
Restaurants and bars, budgeted 246, collected 268. $22,000 more than expected and an
increase of 5,000 from last year. This is really good to see especially since that's usually
the first category to get hit when things start getting bad. So it's good.
The next one, also very volatile and susceptible to economic conditions is services
category. We had budgeted 290,000, collected 317, it's $27,000 more than expected over
those three months and an increase of 2I,000 over last year.
So then we get to the state shared revenues. The state shared sales tax did very well. We
budgeted 852,000, collected 836. That's slightly below what we expected but it's still
pretty close. So it's better than we did last year as you can see from the graph. And I
think we will probably make up that difference during the busier months of the year.
The income tax I've already talked about a little bit. You can see how much higher it is
for this fiscal year, however, it's not quite exactly as high as what the League estimate
was. And that should stay pretty even. Hopefully, that one doesn't move.
Then the HURF revenues that we talked about also. We had budgeted 472,000 and we've
collected 417 over three months. You can see there in the graph that it's well below last
year and I do believe that's just due to the higher gas prices and lower demand.
Page 24 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 25 or 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: Let me just point out that the reason that happens is because the gas
tax is based on gallons.
POCK: Correct.
MAYOR DICKEY: So you would think all this crazy pricing would bring in more sales
tax but it docs not, and it's been that way for many, many years.
POCK: Absolutely.
And then the vehicle license tax is fairly consistent across from last year. We budgeted
282,000 and we collected 287,000.
So with that, that's our revenue update for the first quarter. I'm very pleased as far as
where we are in the economic conditions and that sort of thing right now, that --
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
POCK: -- we're doing pretty good.
MAYOR DICKEY: Questions?
POCK: Any questions?
MAYOR DICKEY: Comments?
I just wanted to mention that we need to be aware, and I don't know how it's going to
relate to what you just gave us. But there are candidates and sitting legislatures,
including last year, who proposed eliminating sales tax on rentals and eliminating sales
tax on groceries. So I know that the reasoning for that is to help individuals, but it will
have a minimal savings on individuals and it could really hurt cities, especially like us,
that really, really depend on that kind of thing. So for example, you had 250,000 rental
sales tax in the first quarter. You know, I'm not sure how that might relate to that but I
mean if it went away totally that would be a lot, because times four, and per year.
And then the retail we had 2.21 million, and I don't know how much of that is groceries,
but 2.21 million per quarter. So however much of that is groceries and I know there are
some reasons why you can't hone in on what everything is, but if that was eliminated
we'd have a lot of decisions to make to make up for that.
Again, it's a kind of a drastic effect on municipalities and probably a minimal actual real
help for folks with the rent and such.
Yes, sir.
MILLER: And those candidates are just one vote. You still have to get it through.
Page 25 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 26 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. And last year though, you know how the actually proposed
getting rid of the rental sales tax and 1 know that they were thinking in terms of people
needing to pay their rent, but it would end up saving them 30, 40, whatever bucks a year
or maybe a little more. But not enough to be able to actually save that. So they did turn
that into a study committee, which I hope -- but I'm almost positive it will come back.
But you're right and that's what we need to hone in on that, right?
Any other questions or comments?
Thank you, David.
MCMAHON: Thank you, David.
MAYOR DICKEY: Next is our call to the public. Do we have any speaker cards?
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. You should have in front of you a letter from a
George Kasnoff. He was going to appear in person.
George, are you here? Okay. You have what he wrote, so you can read that. And then
we have also at your dais, there is an email from Barry Wolborsky, but he's also in the
audience and would like to speak.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
WOLBORSKY: If I do this often enough, you'll all get my name right, I guess.
So I'm back to speak about the parking signs in front of the civic center and I wrote you
that and showed you pictures of the signs before and after, which are not much changed.
1 thank Mr. Miller, he did send me a response as an email and he spoke to me a little
earlier today. I understand the reasons why there needs to be some control over that
parking area because we really don't want undesirable things happening in that lot. And
I'm all in favor of not having undesirable things happen.
I think still, the signs are very confusing as they say, parking only for civic center use. I
understand that that's -- how can I say it? It's partially enforced or it's enforced on certain
things but not enforced on other things. Which doesn't strike me as being a good law or a
good regulation. I think some other things should be investigated, like maybe putting a
number of hours of parking that are allowed in that area, so four hours or three hours,
which would eliminate probably everything that Mr. Miller said was a problem there, but
would still allow people to park there for events down at the fountain or events on the
avenue. and a lot of those are coming up really soon; Farmer's Market starts this week.
Page 26 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 27 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
And then we have a whole bunch of events between now and the end of the year. So I
think it would be good to get those things clarified so that it's just not me and Mr. Miller
and you guys and the people here who understand what it means, but that anybody who
reads the sign can understand what it means. So that's all I've got.
Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Crystal Cavanaugh.
CAVANAUGH: Good evening.
I wasn't actually going to speak about anything tonight, but once again something has
occurred and I can't help but feel that the code enforcement department is being utilized
as a weapon by removing select political signs when certain community members
disagree with the message. The most recent example is today, when a perfectly placed
four by four orange and blue sign against the bond and override, that was located at the
entrance to the community center parking lot went missing. The sign was put up on
Friday at sunrise and remained there until today as is legal, this last week in the election.
Along with other likeminded signage. Coincidentally, when signs from the other side of
the issue and other side of the aisle were put up today, suddenly code enforcement was
alerted. And when our sign was discovered missing, a police report was actually filed by
a member on our committee, as we needed to do many times before during the town
council race. But after I spoke with code enforcement, they told me that they did indeed
remove the sign. Of course, no one called us to inform us of this as is required. It just
happened to be discovered by us on our own. I asked him why remove it; this was an
approved and legal location according to the sign ordinance. He said because it slightly
encroached over the sidewalk and there had been a gentleman using a motorized vehicle
that it interfered with. Really? I have a photo that shows exactly where that sign was and
it does not interfere with anything.
In addition, during the recent town council election, a different four by four sign had been
placed in this very location without any issues, because the placement is legal. In fact,
we use the very same holes in the ground. When the new council is seated, I strongly
urge them to remove this convoluted sign ordinance that seems to be open to
interpretation with rules and excuses being made up as needed to single out opposing
Page 27 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 18 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
political views. This is a misuse of our town government and it must stop.
Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Mayor, that's it for public comment.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much.
Next we have our consent agenda. Any motion, please?
GRZYBOWSKI: Move to approve.
FRIEDEL. Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
All in favor, please say aye?
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Our regular agenda item, our first one, is about System 4 of Phoenix
Contract. Grady
MILLER: Yes. Just quickly. This is a routine item but I've asked Rachel Goodwin to go
ahead and give a little bit of a brief report on this item, because there were a question or
two from councilmembers.
So with that, I'll turn it over to Ms. Goodwin.
GOODWIN: Thank you.
Again, this is more of an internal cleanup if you will. Earlier this fall, council approved a
contract, a cleaning services contract that we use for this building and for the community
center. We also use them for our parks and when that contract was drafted it did not
include the parks. So we had two concurrent contracts running. The parks side is
running out, it ends this calendar year. So it will end at the end of December. So in an
effort to try to consolidate and have one master contract so that it was easier for
procurement as well as payment and tracking, we went ahead and updated the contract to
piggyback on the existing on that was approved earlier this fall.
So tonight's request is to approve the System 4 of Phoenix Contract amendment and the
associated budget transfers to consolidate everything into one.
Any questions I can answer?
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
Any questions? Do you have speaker cards on this item?
MENDENHALL: Mayor, we do not.
Page 28 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 29 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. All right.
Can 1 get a motion?
FRIEDEL: Move to approve System 4 of Phoenix Contract 2023-039.2, and associated
budget transfers.
MCMAHON: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
Atl in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed?
Thanks, Rachel.
GOODWIN: Thanks so much.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do you have this next one too or --
GOODWIN: I do.
MAYOR DICKEY: All right.
GOODWIN: I'm just looking for our PowerPoint here.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
GOODWIN: 1 believe this is it here. Here we go.
I'm just going to go -- let me just -- the next item is a public art item. So per our town
policy, we have a new commercial building being constructed on Desert Vista, which is
sort of -- there's a map here. It's kind of hard to explain. It's back by the dog park, if
you're familiar with the dog park. I believe it was a former location of a church and/or
storage unit. There was several things back there but it is now being constructed for
vehicle and storage. High -end vehicle and storage. It's known as Motor Vault. So this is
the location here. And per our policy, again, any commercial construction is required to
contribute to our public art fund and/or contribute a piece of art equivalent to.
So the proposed public art piece is a replica of the American icon, the Ford GT, which is
shown here. But it will not be life-sized. It will be a smaller version. Good try.
But bigger than a matchbox, how about that? Somewhere in-between.
So this is the rendering of it. It is a stainless steel sculpture. Gives you an idea it would
be placed up on a pedestal. Measuring roughly 72 inches by 48 inches in height.
The piece is being commissioned by artist, Jamie -- I'm going to butcher the last name
Page 29 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 30 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
here, I believe it's Schena. He has been an industrial designer. You can see some of his
work here. He does one of a kind custom sculptures and also works with General Motors
for their design process. So he has been commissioned for this piece.
Regarding the policy and the financial requirements, again, any commercial development
is subject to this. Motor Vault is required to either put in a piece of art or contribute
three-quarters of a percent. The estimated cost of construction is 3.7 million, therefore
they qualify, at three-quarters of a percent, which is roughly $28,000 and the piece
between the commissioning, the design, the installation, and then the supporting
landscaping and lighting is a rough contribution of about $30,000.
So they meet all of the requirements.
1 believe we have someone here tonight with the program, so he can certainly answer any
questions, as can I. So we are looking for council approval to move forward with this
project.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks very much.
Any questions for Rachel? Yes?
MCMAHON: Rachel, the purpose of the art for the town, right? Is it for the town to
benefit by it, correct?
GOODWIN: Correct.
MCMAHON: And who's going to own this particular piece of art?
GOODWIN: When a group decides to install a piece on their property, that is private
property, therefore they are required for maintenance and care and upkeep of that piece.
So they would be the responsible party for the art piece. As is any privately located art
piece.
MCMAHON: Okay. To me this seems very self-serving. They can either pay cash to
the town as far as our art fee, or have a piece of art that benefits the town in some way. I
mean they have a beautiful building designed here. Personally, I don't see what the
purpose of a car would be in front of it. 1 don't know how that's going to benefit the town
as far as contribution. So it seems to me -- like I said, it's more self-serving than really
giving something to the town.
GRZYBOWSKI: Personally, I don't have a problem with the car. I understand what it is
the business is doing and the car is pretty darned cool. Life-size would be better, but all
Page 30 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 31 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
right, whatever, I'll take 72 by 48 if that's all we can get. My disappointment is that it's
not in public viewing area. If I remember the drawing, it's you really have to go onto
their property to see it because it is only 72 by 48, so it's not visible from the street. I
kind of feel like -- I know the art folks have already approved -- the art committee has
already approved it, but I feel like when we ask for art -- it's great, he tied it into his
business. I don't have a problem with that. My problem is if somebody wants to see it
they actually have to go onto the property to see it. Otherwise, I think it's spectacular.
MAYOR DICKEY: Mr. Spelich?
SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
I would like to say for the first time in four years, I'm voting on an art piece that I don't
have to stand and look at for a half hour to wonder what the hell it is. So 1 love it. I'm a
car fanatic. If you want to put it out a little bit farther so the public can see it, have at it.
We voted on stuff that I doubt a lot of councilmembers even knew what it was that we
were voting on. We recently voted on something that I won't get too blue, that -- not you,
blue. But blue that I didn't know what it was and everybody that asked me to please not
vote for it, thought it was something really what it wasn't -- read between the lines.
So I'm a 100 percent for this. If the owner would like to speak to the Councilmember and
the Vice Mayor's concern about it being hidden, but as far as the actual look of it, 1 think
it's awesome.
HAUGEN: Thank you, Councilmembers. Vern Haugen, I'm one of the principals of the
Motor Vault. It's actually right off the street. We're putting it out in the landscaping right
in front of the parking. It's not inside our grounds or anything. We'll put it anywhere out
there and it will be on stainless steel pedestal, be concreted in the ground. Art isn't a --
the eye of the beholder; I look at some of the art, I'm like, yeah. The car culture in
Fountain Hills is huge. The car show you guys have here is the largest car show in the
world, right now. The Avenue of the Fountain -- or I mean, Concours in the Hills. I
don't know if you've been to it, but I mean it's unbelievable. And some of the car guys
told me it is the top one in the entire world.
And 1 can vouch for it because as we open these garages that these guys will put their car
collections and stuff in, you can't believe how many people come out of the woodworks
with car collections like you can't believe. So 1 think this will be a really neat asset for
Page 31 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 32 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
the town. There's small lots where you don't put anything, we're trying to have a kind of
a nice club atmosphere to it and things. And so where we're going to put it, we will put it
out in the front. We'll put it out — I mean there's the parking, we just put it out in front. I
mean it is visible from the street. We're trying to put it up on something height -wise.
We'll get it up where it's high enough where we can light it, where you can drive by and
see it. Especially, we spent $30,000 on something, we want it to be on display.
MILLER: And you don't have a problem with people coming and taking a picture of it
either then?
HAUGEN: No.
MILLER: Okay.
HAUGEN: This kid we -- I mean I started to look everywhere for this art and this guy
that's making this, is unbelievable. Like, he makes scaled cars of-- let me show you.
Like, he'll copy cars inside and out. The motor, everything, out of — welds it out of little
pieces of stainless steel. This thing is going to be really cool. And this is his first public
art installation of a big piece. So he's really excited about it. And so I think this will be
really nice. So we'll get it out and display it best we can. We want it for people to see it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
HAUGEN: Any other questions?
MAYOR DICKEY: No. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
HAUGEN: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Mike, you have something?
I guess when I think about whether they decide to put the art in their project or as part of
their project, it's to make their building look nice. I think this is exactly the right use for
something like this. And I think it's great.
Any other questions or comments? Do we have any speaker cards, sorry?
MENDENHALL: Mayor, no we don't.
MAYOR DICKEY: All right. Thank you.
Can I get a motion, please.
FRIEDEL: Move to accept the public art application for this sculpture and authorize it to
be installed at the designated location at Motor Vault Fountain Hills LLC.
SCHARNOW: I'll second.
Page 31 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 33 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: All in favor, please say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed.
MCMAHON: Not opposed.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much.
GOODWIN: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Our next item is -- we're going to talk about our previous item that
we've talked about. Our in-house fire department.
Grady, I'll start with you and go from there.
MILLER: Thank you, Mayor.
Mayor and council, just for the sake of the public, I just wanted to remind the council and
let the public know that we had a fire services study evaluation that occurred and the
presentation was given to the council and its work session on August 23rd. And during
that presentation the firm, McGrath Consulting gave a very glowing report on Rural
Metro and talked about how Rural Metro had been doing a great job of meeting all of its
contractual obligations.
Part of what the finn's responsibility was and mission was to go and actually look at other
models of potential emergency medical and fire service delivery options. And in addition
to that, there were other options that looked at the possibility of contracting, for instance,
with the City of Scottsdale. Looking at potential for intergovernmental agreements with,
like, a fire district and also then finally, looking at in-house. And in-house had two
options. One was bring an in-house with our own fire personnel and other option was
bring an in-house with the consideration and moving towards automatic aid.
Last month, then we didn't really have a lot of time, because as you recall we also had the
police review; that was the same night. So it got to be a late night. So at the meeting last
month, on October 4th, the council had an opportunity to kind of hone in on two of the
primary recommendations, which it appeared that is -- the two that were most viable were
either continuing with Rural Metro or bringing in the fire department completely in-
house.
As you know, we have a hybrid model right now. So all of our equipment and fire
stations are owned by the town. The difference would be -- is that Rural Metro's
Page 33 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 34 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
currently providing the personnel to staff up our fire department. So with that, the
council then, later took action. They had two options for consideration. One was either
to continue longer term with the contract, the current hybrid model with Rural Metro or
to give direction to staff that they had a desire to bring this in-house.
So tonight before you is an action item based on the unanimous decision that we had last
month for us to give proper formal notice to Rural Metro to bring in the fire department
in-house completely. And so as part of your consideration, obviously there's going to be
discussion tonight, but as part of your motion that you would consider is not only to
provide proper notice of ending the agreement with Rural Metro in 12 to 18 months, but
also to direct staff to develop a transition plan.
Transition plan's very important because we want to make sure that we do all the right
steps, in the right order, in priority to make sure that when it comes time after the contract
has been terminated that we 're ready to turn the key and all of a sudden have our own in-
house personnel to run our own fire department.
I did want to let you know that last week I did have -- our fire chief and 1 had a chance to
also discuss in greater detail with Chief Soule, who is also here tonight and who was also
at the August 23rd workshop when this was presented for the first time. And I know he
also has some prepared comments that he would like to make as well. But on one of the
things 1 did want to point out is, as part of the transition -- tonight, I know its either
suggesting a 12 or 18 month, there was an idea that came out of that meeting that we had
in that perhaps if you were to consider tonight and take action, that you give 12 month
notice. So that would be January of 2024, with the option if there were something going
on and we knew during that last 12 months if things weren't going quite as well, that we
can also have the option of doing a six-month extension of the contract. So that would
get us to the 18 months, if it's needed. It might be very well that we can do this within
the 12-month period.
With that 1'd be happy to answer any questions. 1 do know that Chief Soule is here and
he was wanting to make some comments regarding this matter tonight.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. If it's okay with you all, we will have Chief come up
and give us his comments and his input.
Thank you for coming.
Page 34 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 35 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
SOULE: Good evening, Mayor Dickey, councilmembers, Mr. Grady, Mr. Miller.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak this evening. First of all, I just want to
assure everybody that Rural Metro and the town has enjoyed a long relationship with
each other. 1 think it's been mutually beneficial and I certainly want to express my
support that whatever the decision -- and it certainly sounds as if the move is towards
bringing it in-house. Rural Metro and myself, personally, are going to support you and
the town and the citizens 100 percent through that transition to make it as seamless and to
ensure public safety to the highest degree. So before any of these other comments, just
know that this is in fact, my commitment to everyone here.
1 do want to say that I thought the consultant did an excellent job. Really painted a very
good picture and had a lot of good information. There were a number of issues or a
number of items that 1 just wanted to give a little bit of a counter measure to. And if 1 can
digress a little bit, 1 don't like kind of the promulgation of fear as a basis to make
decisions. So I just wanted to assure you on a number of issues that you should not be
fearful of as a part of your consideration.
One, Rural Metro has no inclination to leave the town of Fountain Hills. We don't pursue
master contracts because the market right now doesn't -- there are no additional master
contracts to pursue here within the state. There are only three states that you can even
have master contracts in the entire country. Part of what I'll be working with the
legislature next year, is to try to get the state to make fire suppression an essential form of
government which would eliminate the need for private fire at all. I do believe that
government is the appropriate venue for fire suppression. It just so happens that the folks
who founded Arizona didn't agree with me. But that was a long time ago.
So we have no inclination of leaving. We are financially solid. Our firefighters are as
well trained as any firefighters in the state. And here in the region Rural Metro provides
absolute best practice for the physical conditioning of our firefighters and the mental
health of our firefighters, and we meet all the NFPA standards for that. So rest assured,
we're not going anywhere.
Rural Metro does serve a purpose for transitions, from towns like yourself to move
towards their own fire departments. That's what happened with Scottsdale and the other
areas in the past that Rural Metro's been a part of. I see this as pretty much the same
Page 35 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 36 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
thing.
Little bit about NFPA 1710. If you guys wanted four -person engines and paid for them,
Rural Metro would certainly provide four -person engines. Rural Metro's position,
because it's not a form of the government, is we take direction from the local government
as far as providing the level of protection they desire. As the consultant said, we've
served the town well, with the level of service. If the desire is to go to a higher level of
service, that's certainly something that can be done with Rural Metro, or by bringing in-
house as well.
What I will say with regards to 1710 is the only component of 1710 that you'll be able to
meet by coming in-house or even going with automatic aid, is the staffing requirement.
The time requirement you won't meet with 1710, with your own department or with
automatic aid. Obviously, you won't meet it with Rural Mctro as well. If you chose to go
to four persons we can certainly put four persons on an engine, just as you will, if you
choose to go with your own in-house.
And to be clear, most fire departments in the country can't meet 1710. We're very
fortunate here in the Phoenix Metro region to have a wealth of -- well, we have the
population density and the population to support the finances to meet 1710. It's been the
biggest hiccup for 1710, the standard for professional fire departments, is the cost. So
regardless moving in either direction will not -- you just don't have the resources
available within the time constraints to meet that.
Secondly, with regards to 1221, one of the things that the consultant failed -- or was
unable to get that information. There's a call transfer for the automatic aid system, just as
well as Rural Metro. So there is no time difference and both dispatch centers meet 1221.
As far as issues of local control, I agree with Mr. Miller and I think that's certainly
something that could have been addressed in contract. I imagine, I've only been here a
little under a year, it will be 12 months next month but what I've heard and what I've seen
in meeting with Chief Ott is that I don't imagine that the town really knows that they don't
have their own fire department. The trucks are red, they say Fountain Hills on them, and
the firefighters represent Fountain Hills. I would be surprised if the majority of folks
realize that you didn't have your own fire department currently. And that's perfect.
The majority of the firefighters who are here in your town have been here for 20 or more
Page 36 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 37 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
years. I have to say I did take a little bit of offense to some of the age comments, not
because I'm old as well, but I've actually stood in front of councils for a number of years
to remind folks that public servants are there to serve the public. And it's an agreement
between the public and the public servants that they're going to take care of each other,
especially as they get older and have more difficulty moving around, right?
And just because these guys weren't public servants in a form that they worked for you,
they were public servants because they've served your citizens for a long time. And I do
think they deserve the opportunity to finish their career and to be taken care of because
they've taken care of you guys and your town for a good portion of that time.
Lastly, I would say that I have done my own financial analysis, I would not take my word
for it, okay? One, I'm a fire chief, I'm not an accountant. Number two, obviously I have
a vested interest, right? What I would say that I think in order to have a sustainable labor
pool of firefighters who are going to be attracted and be able to be recruited and be
retained by the town is going to be a little bit more expensive than has previously been
expressed. I would also say, obviously, if you move to automatic aid, that also will be
even more expensive.
It sounds to me, in speaking with Mr. Miller that the economic indicator is that this is a
good time to make that move. And if that's the case, then again, we're going to support
you 100 percent doing that. If the economic conditions change and it turns out to be
that's not the case, we're still going to be here whether or we have a contract with
Fountain Hills or not. We'll still be here and were going to be ready and able to assist in
meeting your needs regardless of what happens. But again, 1 just would rather this be
framed in the perspective that this is a good thing for you because of the economic times
and this is the right time to make that move, rather than based on fear that we're leaving,
that we're not taking care of our folks, and that automatic aid or the lack of automatic aid
is a threat.
1 met with the city council in Scottsdale almost a year ago because there was a decision to
cancel the mutual aid agreement with Carefree. When 1 met with the council, 1 asked for
and received a public commitment from the mayor and the council and the fire chief, that
just because the contract didn't exist, didn't mean we didn't have mutual aid. They made
that public commitment that if we requested help, they were going to help us. It's my
Page 37 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 38 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
understanding in the past ten years, the town of Fountain Hills has only needed mutual
aid twice from the automatic aid system. They came both times.
You're going to probably give automatic aid considerably more than you'll receive it.
The benefits to getting it when you need it are amazing. It is the gold standard for sure.
If we had the same incident without automatic aid, we would get all the same resources
just not as quickly. There is no concern about the lack of mutual aid for the town of
Fountain Hills. If we ask we will get the help we need, even though we don't have formal
mutual aid contracts. I'm working with CALSC, the Central Arizona Life Safety Council
to get a formal mutual aid contract with CALSC not the individual cities, as most cities
have canceled those because they were paid -for service agreements. So that was the
premise for that.
And just to finish, again, were going to be here to help meet the needs whatever you
choose to do. If this is the right time to make that move, we certainly support it.
Again, I would ask that you take care of the folks who've taken care of you for the past
20 to 30 years, regardless of their age. Understanding that there's obviously
considerations that you have to make.
I appreciate your time and if you have any questions I'd certainly would answer but just
as a -- one final note. Again, the consultant did a great job. There is no issue of
confidentiality. I was never asked any questions by the consultant. I would have
answered any of them. I'll answer any of them for you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilmember Spclich2
SPELICH: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
So I'll start with -- thank you very much for your service. You and I had a chance to talk
after the last meeting. I will start by my age comments were made in jest. But most of
the comments related to age is when the Vice Mayor Friedel, at the time, had brought up
the possibility of Fountain Hills subsidizing the fire department with residents as a
volunteer fire department. And I believe I will stand by my comments and say that I
think a large portion of the residents have maybe missed their prime as far as wanting to
become volunteer firefighters. I'm 56 years old, and you couldn't pay me to get on a
ladder or drag a hose.
So my question to you -- a statement also that I would like to make is, 1 did not make the
Page 38 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 39 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
decision to move forward with this based on fear, okay? There's few things I fear. But
my decision, you know, it's been said recently and the comments got back to me that we
made a snap decision in this and we didn't get a 12-pack and go over to the Mayor's
house one weekend and just sit around and decide, hey, what can we do? Let's blow
some money and get our own fire department. And we just said, oh, yeah, that's a great
idea. This is the fourth --
MAYOR DICKEY: Fifth.
SPELICH: -- fifth time that this has been discussed in public and we paid a boat ton of
money for a study, which I'm vehemently opposed to studies; but we did it. I can't speak
for any of the other councilmembers, I'm sure they will. But I don't think that we based
this decision on fear. So I will ask you do you know -- obviously, you know. How many
contracts do you have currently in the State of Arizona? Rural Metro?
SOULE: I do not know. 1 can tell you here in Central Arizona, which is the only place
that I'm responsible for, is two.
SPELICH: Two?
SOULE: Correct.
SPELICH: And the other contract is with?
SOULE: Carefree.
SPELICH: And correct me if I'm wrong, are they currently seeking to privatize their fire
department?
SOULE: Yes. They're going to put a ballot initiative -- they're discussing putting a ballot
initiative on in May.
SPELICH: Okay. So that leaves you with one contract?
SOULE: Correct. But we also serve -- we have 12 stations. Only three of which are
contract. So that leaves us nine stations that we still will be running without contracts.
SPELICH: And what corporation owns Rural Metro?
SOULE: KKR.
SPELICH: And has KKR ever tumed a profit when it comes to their fire service?
SOULE: Yes.
SPELICH: When? Are you talking now?
SOULE: Well every year that I -- I've only been working for three years and we've
Page 39 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 40 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
turned a profit every year.
SPELICH: Okay. And how many --
SOULE. Not much, but -- again, so I've asked this question actually of my leadership.
What I've been told, take it with a grain of salt, is that they like having fire departments
because it's a good -- it looks good. We're not here to make them money. We're here to
make them look good.
SPELICH: But you agree that all corporations are in business to make money?
SOULE: Correct.
SPELICH: Okay.
SOULE: I'm assuming they make a ton of money on the other stuff.
SPELICH: Okay. How many times has Rural Metro filed bankruptcy?
SOULE: I don't know.
SPELICH: Okay. It's over three times. So -- and Chief, I'm not trying to put you on the
spot. I'm not trying to embarrass you.
SOULE: No, not at all.
SPELICH: Believe me when I tell you, I have the utmost respect for you, what you do.
My whole career has been in law enforcement, 1 never even thought for a second to be a
fireman.
SOULE: I won't hold it against you.
SPELICH: Well, you know, God created policeman so that firemen could have idols.
But I just -- I know that you work for Rural Metro, it's your job to represent Rural Metro
and everything, but I just think that -- I think that this council and for citizens who have
emailed me and said, I didn't put any thought into this, I find it offensive, because I don't
make snap decisions up here. And I would think that anybody on this council or any
citizen would say that I've been a fiscal watchdog when it comes to spending money. Do
I believe that it's going to -- the initial startup is going to be a tough pill to swallow? Yes,
I do. But in the long run, I believe it's the right thing.
So thank you very much for coming today. I really appreciated your comments.
SOULE: And I apologize if I made -- if I gave the impression that 1 thought you based
any decision -- I don't believe that. I think obviously, you're the stewards of the
community and don't give short shrift to decisions that you have to make. But from the
Page 40 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 41 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
perspective of sitting out and watching the meeting, the positive aspects of doing it
weren't the ones that caught my attention, it was the negatives. That's all.
FRIEDEL: Thanks, Mayor.
I have a couple of questions and I don't know whether you can answer this or maybe
Grady can. Can we do this in 12 months? Can we transition in 12 months; is that
realistic? do you think?
MILLER: Based on what I've heard, Scottsdale was 19, but Scottsdale was much more
complex organization. In talking to Chief Soule, the concern is the longer you have as a
period, it starts to have the personnel get a little nervous, because even though we'll likely
go through a rehiring process for them, 12 months is a better goal, to be tighter and ready
to go. So my preference would be 12 months because I do think it can be done in 12
months.
Chief, did you have -- I know we talked about this last week as well.
FRIEDEL: I have a follow-up question then too. Will any of this come back before the
council? Any other decisions once we give direction to the town staff?
MILLER: Of course. There's going to be -- you'll get the transition plan for sure. So
you'll get to see that and we'll likely have that discussed and looked at and it will be
likely items related to maybe budgetary types of things like that. And then also the
budget process. So you'll get to see that.
And then what I'm going to suggest is through our annual budget process, we'll get a little
bit more into this and have a little bit more detail. But when we have our council
workshop retreat, I'm suggesting that we go ahead and typically we have a surplus at the
end of each year and I'm going to suggest that we put together a transition package as part
of the budget, just to anticipate that there may be some higher cost that we didn't factor or
cost that we didn't quite get right, just as a buffer. And then we'll get -- the following
year will be appropriately budgeted. So I think that's just the way to do this, just to make
sure that we don't get ourselves caught.
But council will definitely have a couple of different steps along the way that they'll be
able to weigh in on.
FRIEDEL: Okay. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, Mike?
Page 41 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 42 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
SCHARNOW: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Chief, I appreciate your comments. 1 appreciate your being forthright and sincerity and
appreciate the support you're going to give us, no matter what happens. And I've been
working or living out here almost 40 years, so I've seen Rural Metro and the fire
department from all angles all these decades and have appreciated the men and women
who have served us well. And so I commend them for that.
A couple of things, you know, this kind of reminds me of the debate back years ago,
when MCO still owned Fountain Park and wanted to turn it over to the town. And it's
like, well, yeah it's going to cost the town a lot of money but if you want to gain control.
If you want to improve it, or do whatever you want, you have to own it and take it over.
So you have to, initially take a hit and with this, I'm glad to hear there's going to be a
transition plan in terms of stockpiling some money to take care of the initial cost. And I
know there was one public comment that we had written out here from Bob Scarpetti
(ph.), another police officer, but retired. And he was talking about -- basically he's
against taking it over. But he says I'd much rather see a fire district like we used to have
and that wasn't part of the town budget. And it's one thing I have to agree with Bob on, I
didn't agree with council decision back in the day to disband the fire district and they had
their own finances and their own little separate board to take care of just the fire service.
And I still don't know what was wrong with it at the time, but they did what they did and
so we took it over and have borne the cost since then. And so our budget would be a lot
different if we didn't have to fund fire service. But that being said, there actually was an
effort to start a whole new fire district and they went door to door with petitions and the
effort didn't quite make it. But they had to get a certain amount of assessed valuation and
it was kind of a complicated deal. Anyway, that's kind of a short history lesson.
But I agree with Councilman Spelich. I think it's just economics, like you were
mentioning and the current climate and just feel it's a good time to take the reins and
bring it in-house. Yep.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks very much. Any other questions from Council?
I want to -- before we -- we'll probably get some public comments, but I wanted to thank
you so much. And you're coming here -- and 1 know that you weren't here when we had
the second meeting and that probably would have been a time where you were hearing
Page 42 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 03 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
things like, oh, not quite. So 1 really appreciate that you took the time to see those things
and then to set records straight. I agree with David and others that 1 think the fear aspect
of it, it was something to talk about but it wasn't a driving force; at least in my opinion. I
think what illustrates right here is a loyalty that we all feel. We feel loyalty to you, you
feel loyalty to the guys and gals that are there. But there's always that little thing in the
back of your head but we're not free. They don't actually work for us. And it's just
something that we can't get over that hump. That's kind of my idea of it.
I still do think that the mutual aid and the auto aid will be a good thing for us to have in
the long run and we'll keep working towards that. And then 1 listened to your first
comments in talking about going to the legislature and maybe making some changes that
might kind of go in this direction for others also.
So maybe that's just the right way and the right time for us to do it. It has been a long
time and obviously, we are loyal and grateful and really appreciate you being here and
being available.
I think we probably have some speaker cards, so we'll go with that. And then if you have
anything else you'd like to add, we're fine; you can comc back up.
SOULE: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor we do. First we do have the written comments and I
would like to say thcir name. Bob Scarpetti. As Councilmember Scharnow said he is
against the in-house fire department. We have Sherrilynn James. She is in favor of the
fire department. And then we have Dave Long, who is also in support of the in-house
fire district. Now, we do have some comment cards. First is Barry Wolborsky.
WOLBORSKY: 1 apologize for double dipping tonight, but it's all part of my effort to
get you to pronounce my name right.
Councilman Spelich, when I was a young guy of your age, I was a volunteer firefighter
climbing ladders with a hose.
SPELICH: Sign him up.
WOLBORSKY: Too late. I also pried people out of car wrecks. But I'll tell you I did
other things too. I went to the lady's house with the aid car when her son's nose was
bleeding because he had a bloody nose but she was panicking because he was dying.
Page 43 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 44 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
When I calmed down the son and I calmed down the mother. And I did a lot of things
like that and I felt like I was part of the community. And when I went to the Safeway
store people said hi, Barry, how are you -- because they knew me because I had come and
put out their chimney fire, which by the way you don't use water on.
And we attracted a lot of volunteers from around neighboring communities. The reason
why is for a young man who doesn't really want to go to college for four years, being a
firefighter is a very lucrative career. They work part-time, they can have two jobs. They
get paid very well as a firefighter. And it's hard to get one of those jobs. If you volunteer
for a district for a period of time, and you spend time with the other volunteers and you
spend time with the paid firefighters, they really help you, coach you for your oral exams,
for your written exams and it looks good on your record that you've spent two or three
years as a volunteer firefighter. So they do get hired.
We usually kept them for about two to three years and then we'd lose them when we get
new ones in and train them. They were all well -trained. They were all EMTs. They all
got hired as professional firefighters and got paid a lot more for doing the same work.
And it was a very -- not only was it an efficient way to do it, but it was community way
to do it. And I really urge you to consider that if you're considering switching over. You
have a paid core of firefighters and then you augment that with as many volunteers as you
want. And I know one of the things we have here is, we have some fairly interesting
brush fires. I remember one a couple of years ago, watching it out my window and
saying uh. It would be nice to have an additional cadre of 25 or 50 people if you ever
needed it in that situation. And then you would have that. So I really recommend that
instead of just throwing money at problems, that you look for creative solutions like
maybe a fire department that's part paid and part volunteer, that meets the needs of the
community, and gives you the protection you need.
That's all I've got.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you for your service, sir.
Yes.
FRIEDEL: Barry, I want to buy you a drink after the meeting today because that was my
idea too, to have some volunteers. So anyway, I'm glad somebody else voiced their
concern. Thanks.
Page 44 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 45 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MENDENHALL- Next we have Lee Shattuck. Lee?
SHATTUCK: Good evening. And I apologize for not attending the other meetings on
this subject of Rural Metro.
I absolutely think that Rural Metro have done a superb job. And I'm here to voice my
disagreement with the possibility of not renewing the Rural Metro contract. We have
used them for medical purposes and they give us stellar service. They're always prompt,
courteous, and efficient. The formation of our own emergency response service for
Fountain Hills, as stated by this study, seems costly. A million for a formation and
operation to initiate and you may well be quite sure that that could over. Plus $400,00
annually to operate. These numbers are much in excess of current charges, it seems. It is
rare for new projects to come out under budget.
1 also fail to understand the thinking behind the opinion because Rural Metro is owned by
KKR, a private equity company, that they have to be in it for the money. They have a
reputation of being one of the more reputable and less greedy private equity companies in
the country.
I hereby present my objection to discontinuing Rural Metro and likewise to the formation
of our own police force. Recruiting of these special public servants is extremely difficult
in the present climate of defend the police and public cynicism for our police. It will be
detrimental to the town of Fountain Hills.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
MENDENHALL: And then our last card is from Council -Elect Brenda Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Good evening town council, Mr. Miller.
I have prepared a statement but before I do that, I'd like to thank Grady for bringing up
the August 23rd workshop where they gave very good qualifications for Rural Metro.
Thanks for reminding us of that. Also the Chief saying this is a mutually beneficial
arrangement. And also his comments about, I feel also, that the last time we met on this
subject that they were selling a lot of fear, okay, about wonder if this and wonder if that.
I don't like to base my judgments on fear or hypotheticals.
I want to talk to you tonight about tabling this agenda item for a future town council
session. First of all, this is literally a lame duck council. We shouldn't be making this
type of decision right now. According to the Heritage Foundation, barring exceptional
Page 45 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 46 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
circumstances or strict emergency, congress should not consider making any major or
presidential nominations during a so-called lame duck session. Doing so undermines the
representative government by weakening the accountability link between the people and
their elected representatives.
The idea of having an in-house fire department has been ongoing for years. The idea has
always been dropped when the true expenses of such a venture become evident. Besides
liability insurance, other insurance, health care, the fire personnel would enter the state
pension system. The state pension system and the long-term health care repercussions,
alone could bankrupt our town.
Scottsdale made the mistake of going with their own fire department. They found out
that it cost a lot more money than they were told. Scottsdale has big problems now and it
will get worse, compounded by a bill passed recently in the legislature to ensure long-
term care for any fire fighter who comes down with any form of cancer -- any form of
cancer. They don't need to be -- it doesn't need to be proved there's a correlation between
fighting fires, no causation is required to the job. The liability would fall on our town.
That's not good.
John Cavanaugh, our state rep, this weekend, contacted Jim Lane, the former mayor of
Scottsdale. Mr. Lane admitted the mistake of going with their own in-house fire
department. After three years leaving Rural, they had 45 percent increase in spending
with the possibility of picking up further expenses. That would be $4.5 million morc
than if they were to have stayed with Rural. The same procedure -- this is an apples and
apples, Scottsdale's a sister city, we can expect the same results.
Also in Scottsdale they left it up to a vote of the people, not the seven people in the
chamber that we have here tonight. They had no increase in service, just more expenses.
The best mistakes to learn are other peoples' mistakes, let's learn from Scottsdale's
mistakes.
To repeat, it is unusual for lame duck council to take on a project of this significance on
their way out the door. And very importantly, what about the tax ramifications of this
gamble with our limited resources. With this unnecessary spending with the impetus for
a property tax, perhaps the residents will not get road repair, flood mitigation, or any
other important improvements because all the money will have gone to pay for our new
Page 46 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 47 o162
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
fire department. Let's take time and think this through and the ramifications of this major
decision. Let's talk to Scottsdale and other towns about their experience in fire
protection. Let's slow down and consider liabilities and the financial commitments we
are exposing ourselves to. Let's table this agenda item tonight and leave this in future
business.
Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
Councilwoman -elect, I just want to mention that Scottsdale did not make that decision,
they were forced to do that. They did a vote of the people. The people decided to stay
with Rural Metro and right after that Rural Metro pulled out. So they weren't -- they
could not make that decision themselves to stay with that contract. I don't know if there
were any other alternatives to going in-house, but they did not have the alternative to stay
with Rural Metro. Rural Metro left Scottsdale. Number one.
Number two, I wholeheartedly support that bill that passed to protect firefighters because
they are subjected to toxic and other items that do cause long-term and you may not be
able to say this day that happened, or that day that happened, and for this legislature to
have passed it, I feel like it was very worthwhile. And number three, and I wasn't going
to bring this up, but my son is a Scottsdale fire captain and --
KALIVIANAKIS: I'm aware of that.
MAYOR DICKEY: -- all the issues that you're talking about and the woe is me is not the
case. And 1 don't think that we are lame duck at all. We have been looking at this for a
long time. The sitting councilmembers here and councilmembers before this also, but
this is very appropriately a decision for this council. That's my opinion any way. If
anybody has any other comments, you're welcome to it.
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, I --
SPELICH: Yes, Madam Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Oh.
SPELICH: Your time to talk is over. You had your three minutes, now it's my turn.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. I thought she wanted me to address her. But that's --
SPELICH: This isn't a back and forth. You had your public comment, now it's my turn
to talk.
Page 47 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 48 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
KALIVIANAKIS: I thought a public comment, you didn't refer to the comments -- I
thought that this --
MAYOR DICKEY: Let's let the Councilman speak and then you can absolutely --
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay sure.
SPELICH: 1 do not under any stretch of the imagination consider myself to be a lame
duck. I have made wise decisions, which I think are wise decisions that I've researched
the last four years. So 1 take offense to be called a lame duck. I don't necessarily believe
that by extending this to the next council, you bring any more knowledge to the fire
service than 1 bring to the fire service. We had a study done. We reviewed that study.
We spoke about it. This is the fourth time we've talked about it. This is the first time
you've appeared. So I take offense to it because it kind of seems that it's like we're
rushing this and I don't believe we are rushing it. If anybody is stoking fear it's you by
saying that you think that we're unable to make decisions and that only the future council
is going to make the correct decisions. I believe every councilmember and the mayor up
here will make decisions that are wise up until the time that we leave office.
So I'm offended by your comments. This is not the first time you've addressed this
council and spoke down to us and minimized us. You've done it under the daybreak,
you've done it under the -- I'm sorry, not daybreak, Park Place and other things.
So your turn will come in December and then you can make these decisions but right now
we're making these decisions and I think we've researched this. I don't believe that this is
based on fear. I believe it's based on what we believe is best for the residents and as the
town manager said, you will have the ability to voice your decision once you put your
hand on the bible and swear and get sworn in as an elected official; because right now
you're not.
So I'm offended by your comments. I've been offended by your comments in the past. I
don't like to publicly call people out and I've held my comments when you've made
disparaging remarks to us and this time 1 will not hold my tongue.
MCMAHON: I concur with Councilmember Spelich. 1 think you are extremely rude and
disrespectful to the council of which you are elected to. We are not lame ducks, we're not
stupid. You are looking at a very experienced council with three councilmembers having
over 12 years of experience in this town and guiding it to the success it is today. And for
Page 48 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 49 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
you to one more time come in here and tap your hand on the side of that podium as if
we're the problem and you're not, is so disrespectful I can't not say anything. I have
never once heard you say one thing good about this town. You should be ashamed of
that.
KALIVIANAKIS: You might want to check the definition of lame duck. It's after the
election and before you get seated.
MCMAHON: We're not congress --
KALIVIANAKIS: It's in the dictionary. It's in the encyclopedia.
MCMAHON: -- we're the local council.
KALIVIANAKIS: Just because you're not aware of the definition --
MCMAHON: If you chose your words --
KALIVIANAKIS: --doesn't mean it's not true.
MAYOR DICKEY: Did you want to respond further?
KALIVIANAKIS: I think 1 said enough.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. Any further comments or comments from the audience, or the folks.
MENDENHALL: Mayor, no. We have no further public comment.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much.
All right. So we have a motion -- a suggested motion. Grady, I do have a question
before. Do you -- the way it's written down, 12 to 18 months, is that what we -- is that
what you would like it to say or just 12?
MILLER: My suggestion would be why don't you just have it approved as is? The goal
is to stick to 12 months and then, if we need the additional six months, I could do a
formalized letter to Rural Metro asking for an extension of time.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you.
Motion?
MCMAHON: I'll make a motion. 1 would like to move to officially establish an in-
house fire department with the town fire personnel, provide proper notice of ending the
agreement with Rural Metro in 12 to 18 months, as needed, and direct staff to develop a
transition plan to fully implement an in-house fire department.
SCHARNOW: Second.
Page 49 of62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 50 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any further discussion?
All those in favor, please, say aye.
ALL: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any opposed? Thank you very much.
Our next item is along the same lines. We're going to talk about law enforcement.
Grady?
MILLER: Yes. I'm going to go ahead and call on our chief financial officer, who will
then make a brief introduction of Matrix Consulting Group who will give you a
presentation, as a follow-up to what we just had previously. So with that I'll turn it over
to Mr. Pock.
POCK: All right. I don't have much more to say than that. It was about a year ago when
this contract actually was signed, after the REP process. We did meet in September to go
over the draft findings and Greg Matthews is back again, and returned with the draft final
report and their recommendations.
So with that, I will turn it over to Greg.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Thank you, David.
Well, good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers. Thank you for having me back. My name
is Greg Matthews, I'm a senior manger with Matrix Consulting Group. And this is a
follow-up to our presentation that we did about eight weeks ago, just after Labor Day on
the financial and feasibility analysis for Fountain Hills related to law enforcement
operations.
So tonight, I have about a ten -slide presentation. So we should be able to get through this
relatively quickly. As we did last visit, please feel free to interject as we're going through
the slide presentation. I don't want to sit here and lecture you. 1 prefer some interaction
if you don't mind. Otherwise, if you wish to hold your questions, that's more than fine
because there is the I lth slide which has a question mark for questions.
So with that, let me go ahead and begin the slide presentation. Let's see if I remember
after eight weeks how to use this. I do. Very good.
So what is the agenda for the presentation? Tonight we'll discuss the key findings,
conclusions, and the recommendation of the draft report that has been provided to you
Page 50 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 51 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
and is in your package. There are three major items that we'll be discussing. We'll
discuss the law enforcement services assessment. As you may remember two months ago
we talked in some level of detail about that when we were speaking about issue areas.
Well talk a little bit about the law enforcement contract review. We actually reviewed
the terms and conditions; we didn't talk too much about that a few months ago. And we'll
also talk about the alternative service delivery model that was one of the major focuses of
this particular engagement, looking at an alternative contractor, operation, or possibly an
in-house police department.
With respect to that in-house police department, we've put together an operational profile
as well as a proforma budget. So we'll talk a little bit about that as well.
So just as a reminder, and if you'd like to interject here, please do so. But the last council
discussion, this is just a quick summary of what we accomplished during that meeting in
September. As you recall we discussed various issues and assumptions to get your
feedback with respect to this particular engagement. Some of the many topics that we
discussed regarding the Maricopa County sheriffs office contract was the demographics
of your town as well as the overall safety of the town. We talked about the contract that
you have with the sheriffs office and the number of staff that you're contracted for. And
as a matter of fact, how that doesn't equate to the actual deployment levels which you're
undertaking.
We talked about the importance of proactive time with regard to patrol. If you recall the
whole proactive time discussion; time available after calls for service and those things
related to that and what is the staffing impact of having certain amounts of proactive
time. We talked about investigations and detective caseloads and the staffing impacts
related to that. We talked about key issues related to the current contract. One of course,
I already illustrated and that was you presently have less deployed staff than your
contract calls for.
So those are some of the things that we discussed and that provided a framework for our
meeting two months ago when, basically the foundation essentially of this report that
we've drafted for you.
Recall that part of that effort was looking to see if you have any other potential contract
partners and you do not. We checked with Scottsdale. We checked with the Indian
Page 51 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 52 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
reservation and they have no short or medium term interest in providing any contracted
law enforcement services.
And then we also talked about certain guidelines for what an in-house police department
might look like, to basically profile for all of you what that is in this particular report. So
that's what we did early September.
So let's talk now about some of the outcomes of this particular draft report that we put
together and the patrol findings and recommendations. As you probably recall, the
sheriffs office generally deploys staffing at the minimum staffing level of three personnel
per shift. Recall that that below the contracted services levels of four deputies per shift.
And despite this level of staffing that you presently have, you have more than an
adequate proactive time in patrol, as well as excellent response times in patrol. So at that
level of three staff, you have 73 percent proactive time available. Your response times
are -- I'll use the term, extraordinary for both high -priority calls as well as lower priority
calls.
So what are some of the key recommendations that we detail for you in the report? We
recommend you actually, in the contract, reduce patrol deputies from the contracted level
of 19 personnel to 16 positions. And continue to deploy as you have done. Three
deputies on the dayshift and three deputies on the nightshift. We don't recommend any
changes to your minimum staffing levels. So your minimum staffing level should be at
three. So you contract for three, your minimum staffing levels are three and in the event
somebody's absent, people are called in on overtime, so that you're always at that
minimum staffing level. We recommend that in the contract you add one patrol sergeant.
Presently you contract for three. You should have four patrol sergeants, one on each shift
to ensure line supervision and oversight.
We recommend that you retain the one school resource officer that you presently have.
We recommend adding one watch commander lieutenant. Right now, you pay for 1.25
lieutenants, you should have a watch commander or a manager position on each of your
major shifts. And then, of course, you should retain one captain, which I'm sure Larry is
happy to hear about. Next slide.
So with respect to detective findings and recommendations. Your detective caseload
metrics, that's the primary work that they do, the cases that they undertake are basically
Page 51 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 53 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
below benchmark expectations. We talked about that in some level of detail, as you
probably remember in early September. You have a contract that charges you for 2.55
detective positions that carry anywhere between 6.8 and 7.2 cases monthly on average for
each of them. Many of those cases have limited solvability. Meaning, you really
wouldn't work them very hard because it's very difficult to solve those kinds of cases.
Caseload benchmarks for generalist detectives, which is the kind of detectives that are
really being deployed here for you all, are nine to twelve workable cases per month. So
you can compare that nine to twelve versus the 6.8 to 7.2 that thcy have.
So given their workload metrics, given what's going on with respect to detective
operations and what have you, we recommend reducing the detective staffing that's
charged to Fountain Hills from 2.55 to two detectives. We recommend -- we discussed
this again in September. Locating these two detectives here in the Fountain Hills
substation. So instead of a regional detective over at the sheriffs office, bring them out
here at the substation. And then we also recommend that the sheriffs office should
provide quarterly metrics on detective caseloads, on case clearances, and those types of
things. Thcy don't provide a lot of data, as we discussed in some level of detail the last
meeting and that data should actually be acquired and provided by the sheriffs officer for
you.
So what is the key fiscal finding related to the various recommendations that we made?
The sheriffs office basically has the ability to provide exceptional service at the
recommended staffing levels that we provided to you in the report. That's reduced patrol
staffing, compared to your present contract. That's slightly reduced detective staffing.
That's increasing sergeants and what have you. And that net impact is an annual savings
of about $219,000 per annum on your present contract.
So one of the other steps that we undertook for you all, was to look at the present
contract. The language of the contract, the terms and conditions, et cetera. So what are
some of the findings and recommendations related to that? So the contract terms and
conditions, as you read through it, are generally thorough. Remember we're not lawyers,
but we can look at them with an eye to law enforcement professionals. There are a
couple of exceptions based on our read of the contract that should be addressed.
You have no financial penalties for nonperformance. So basically, the sheriffs office
Page 53 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 54 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
inability to provide you the contract services, you don't have any language that gives you
an opportunity or a leverage to assess penalties for nonperformance.
There's no dispute resolution process identified in your contract. So if you have a dispute
with the sheriffs office, there's no formality embedded within the contract on how you
resolve that particular dispute. There's no particular performance metrics, beyond the
patrol response time for priority 1, that's listed within the contract. With respect to
performance metrics in most professional services contracts, you should have them
because it allows you to effectuate appropriate contract management.
So we recommend you devise performance metrics beyond just the priority 1 calls in the
contract. So consequently what are some of the key recommendations that we have for
you related to that contract review? Add nonperformance penalties and dispute
resolution to the contract. Report quarterly on various contract based performance
metrics. What would those look like? Response times, which is in there for priority I,
but not other responses, detective case clearance metrics. Those kinds of things.
So collectively you can devise some performance metrics which you would expect the
sheriff to be able to achieve, just like they have on response times for priority Is, such
that you can monitor and manage that contract effectively.
Significantly improve the monthly invoice details to enhance the town's internal controls
and avoid various overcharging situations that have occurred. Your invoice presently
from the sheriff's office is very spartan, if you will. It needs to be much more detailed,
such that you can manage the contract effectively from a financial perspective. And then
one of the other elements that needs to be revisited in the contract is how you staff your
law enforcement operation beyond what's defined as the beat structure approach, again
discussed in September. We suggest instead of using a beat structure for defining patrol
staffing levels, detective staffing levels, et cetera, that you instead use more robust
metrics, such as proactive time, which we've discussed. Detective caseloads, which
we've discussed. Those kinds of things.
So those are elements in the future contract, if you so choose to pursue a future contract
with the sheriff that should be changed and adjusted so that you can better manage the
contract and the respective operations.
So this is one of the interest of you all, and that is what would an in-house police
Page 54 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 55 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
department potentially look like compared to the sheriff's office operation? So here's a
table of the police department, Fountain Hills police department that we devised for you.
This is based on a lot of the conversations we've had, similar staffing, based on proactive
time, detective workloads, et cetera. So you can see we've arranged it all the way from a
chief of police, all the way through lieutenants, number of patrol deputies, the school
resource officers, detectives, sergeants, in-house you'd need some clerical and
administrative assistants. We recommend that you continue contracting for dispatch
services with the sheriffs office, there would be an embedded charge for that staffing
associated with that. And the bottom line is for the in-house police department that we
created, it would be approximately 31 total staff
So what does those 31 total staff actually look like when it comes to costing this out?
That will be the last slide on the slide presentation.
So let's give you a little bit of detail regarding that table. So the in-house police
department staffing is based on the report recommendations. That essentially are
equivalent to the recommended sheriffs office staffing that we said you should adjust to.
That would be three deputies on dayshift and three on night. It would be the two
detectives. It would be five sergeants, four on patrol and one in support services. It
would be three managers, a chief, and two lieutenants. It would be the continuation of
911 dispatch as we suggested with the sheriffs office. There's other components that are
important as we costed this out for your consideration and it is in matter of fact, in some
respects to your benefit. Fountain Hills already has a PD facility here that requires
minimal revision. Many, many instances when other organizations go through this
assessment, one of the restricting factors is they have to build a new police department.
You don't really have to do that. That is a benefit to you.
We did in-house salaries for this in-house police department based on a competitive pay
with six other regional towns. And we also developed proforma costs that are
competitive but not excessive, that's our definition.
Now, remember when you develop a proforma budget, there are literally dozens and
dozens of inputs that you can put in a proforma budget. Remember it's a theoretical
model based on your best judgments and assessments. So that's we did. This model that
we created is in a very sophisticated Excel spreadsheet that we'll be providing to the town
Page 55 of62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 56 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
so that that can be manipulated and all kinds of other proforma models can be developed
if you wish. But this is the outcome of the proforma model that we devised.
I don't expect you to look or read this right now. I just wanted to present it here this
evening to give you an illustration of the level of detail that this budget, proforma model,
can result in. This is a listing of many of the major characteristics of the budget model,
ranging from personnel cost to retirement cost, benefits and incentives, startup costs
related to sworn personnel's equipment, vehicle cost, supply cost, external contracts,
worker's compensation and risk insurance, and then other startup costs. And other startup
costs are related to that year 1 cost that you would incur as a consequence of transitioning
potentially from the sheriffs office to your own internal police department.
So the total projected year I costs are about $8.8 million. The projected yearly operating
costs are $4.5 million. So you can see there's about $4.3 million calculated in startup
costs for the first year. That's again, to buy a variety of things, to transition from the
sheriff to your own in-house PD.
So what are the in-house police department conclusions that we arrived at developing this
proforma model for you? A Fountain Hills police department would save approximately
$500,000 per year, compared to the existing sheriffs contract. Now remember this in-
house police department is presently staffed in a way that is below your current contract.
Not the contract that we recommend you move to, but compared to your current contract.
So that saving compared to your current contract would be a half a million dollars
annually. However, there's approximately $300 in savings, when compared to the
recommended revised contract that we suggested for you. Again, that's reduced patrol
deputies, and that's reduced detectives, et cetera.
SPELICH: 300,000.
MATTHEWS: 300,000 a year.
SPELICH: You said $300.
MATTHEWS: I'm sorry, if I said $300. Nope, it's a lot more -- like three zeroes to that,
sorry. 300,000 savings compared to recommended revised. Thank you for the
correction. So the PD startup costs and you mentioned this in September's meeting.
Don't be extremely surprised but the startup costs are usually the prohibiting factor,
frankly, in moving from any kind of contract. It's $4.3 million, that's the startup costs.
Page 56 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 57 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Again, these are based on the variables we selected. So these can change but we think
that's probably within the 90 percent to 100 percent -- 110 percent range, of $4.3 million.
This results in a nine-year breakeven versus your current contract. So 500,000 times nine
is 4.5 million; 4.3 million startup. So you've got about a nine-year breakeven if you
moved to the recommended contract with the sheriff, then the breakeven point extends to
14 years. So consequently, given these startup costs, which you can define however you
wish, it's in the millions, we would recommend that you maintain the sheriff's office
contract but based on the recommended revisions that we have suggested to you in the
report.
So with that, I'll be happy to take any questions.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks very much.
Questions from council?
SPELICH: Not a question.
First off, thanks for the presentation, it was great, unlike the fire contract. And let me
also start by saying Mr. Wolborsky, thank you very much for your service as a volunteer
firefighter.
I think that there's three people in this room that have the most knowledge about this.
And that would be Captain Kratzer, yourself, and myself. So I will tell you that your
presentation's spot on. I have told everybody that my ideal would be to have our own
police department. I would love to see Fountain Hills have their own police department.
I knew it was going to be a big number. I have to be honest with you 1 didn't think it was
going to be that big, but it's a big number. I believe that we have to take into
consideration currently that we're in a recession and that I think that the economy is going
to get worse. So do I think that the citizens of Fountain Hills' appetite for getting
onboard with this, I don't think they're going to have much of an appetite for getting
onboard with this because the cost is prohibitive, I believe, at the time, because well have
declining revenue on everything.
I totally agree with you that we have to put in our contract penalties for MCSO not
fulfilling their obligations. MCSO, as you stated last time, hasn't fulfilled their
obligations or their contract in years. So I'm glad that someone else, other than myself,
has been saying that.
Page 57 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 58 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
I will also go back to a meeting a few months back, maybe not even a few months back,
in which I said to my fellow councilmembers, as well as the town manager and the
mayor, that we have this street committee that's going to make decisions or give us input
on streets. I think it's absolutely imperative that when this contract is negotiated, we put
together a committee of retired law enforcement which this town is full of, that can help
us along with your presentation and your facts, to help create the new contract that we're
going to enter into.
Obviously, this is a big number and so we're going to have to sign up again with MCSO.
So there was no action on that, and after l had said that, nobody ever said a word to me.
So once again, I will state that I believe that we should have a group put together of
retired law enforcement who were in staff and command and did budgets for major
metropolitan police departments to sit in on this; because I believe that internally there's
not enough knowledge within the staff to enter into these contracts. I don't fault them for
that, they're not in law enforcement.
I am troubled over the fact that MCSO has been a little hesitant to share with you, as well
as with us, what the clearance rate is for detectives. What have they been clearing? You
asked for a reduction or you suggest a reduction in detectives, I would like to see that
based on what is the clearance rate? For those of you in the audience, when a detective is
assigned a case, to see that ease all the way through, be it an arrest, prosecution, or
unfounded, or no suspect; that's all in the clearance rate. So I still, to this day, do not
know what MCSO's clearance rate is when it comes to detectives. I'd love to have that
number before I leave.
So a really well put together presentation. I agree with all of your points. I don't know if
I necessarily agree with the reduction of, you want to go to three deputies, right now
we're paying for four, correct?
MATTHEWS: Correct.
SPELICH: So more is always better. So I just don't think at the present time, and I'm
only speaking for myself, I just don't know if the residents -- I mean, we had a little
pushback from the fire thing. If we see now what the pushback would be on an
additional S4 million. In the long run is it good? I just don't think the economy right
now, is good enough to do that. But I really enjoyed your presentation. I think it's spot
Page 58 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 59 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
on. I think we should follow it like a text when we go into contract negotiations. And
thank you.
MATTHEWS: Thank you very much.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, thank you. Councilman?
MATTHEWS: Any other questions? I know the evening's late, but I'm here at your
leisure. I don't fly out till 10 o'clock tomorrow.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do we have any comment cards?
MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
I have a question for you, David. So the staffing that is suggested you're -- except for
possibly wanting to not reduce, the rest of it looks good to you?
SPELICH: Yeah. Before I would make a public decision or before I would make -- 1
would like to make an informed decision if 1 could get the clearance rate and find out
exactly how many cases detectives are clearing and everything. And please, everyone
who's listening, everybody in the audience, everyone who will go back and look at this,
we still have -- what is it? The second safest community in --
MAYOR DICKEY: Tied.
SPELICH: We're tied? So I mean, I'm really proud of the job MSCO does. 1 say it a
thousand times. It's nothing against Capt. Kratzer or the men and women of this
department. I back them 100 percent and praise them every chance I get. But before I
would make a -- I would like to stick with four deputies per watch. Of course keep Capt.
Kratzer. I think were doing okay with the one lieutenant that we have. We have Lt.
Halvorsen, who actually does the work of three lieutenants and I think Capt. Kratzer
would agree with me. He's an outstanding human being and an excellent police officer.
So before Mayor, would give you my decision on the staffing and the detectives, I'd like
to know what the clearance rate is and everything before I make my decision. So if I
could get those statistics and everything before I leave, since I'm a lame duck
councilman, but you might want to hear from me. I would like those statistics and then I
can let you know.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilman?
FRIEDEL: I have a question for Councilman Spclich? Are you interested in serving on
Page 59 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 60 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
that committee?
MAYOR DICKEY: I knew it. I knew you were going to --
SPELICH: I would serve on that committee. Yes, I would as long as the committee is put
together in a hurried fashion, and before I retire. So as long as it was probably within the
first six to eight months of next year, I would be proud to be on that committee. I know
some individuals who have been instrumental in creating big budgeted contracts for
police departments that have expressed to me, when I said this last time, that they would
like to be a part of it. So I think we could really bring some expertise to this and really
work out a great contract. So the answer's yes, Councilman Friedel.
SCHARNOW: Thank you.
Let's see -- where to — I guess I'm not opposed to a committee, I'm just not sure -- I could
see that kind of turning into a -- I don't know, kind of a nightmare as well, because I
know -- yeah, the guys have a lot of background, big cities, negotiating budgets. I know
expertise would be good, but you know, for this fire service thing, we're not forming a
committee of ten fire chiefs either. So I'm just a little hesitant on that. But anyway.
That's going to be up to future council or Grady, I guess.
And then the three versus four deputies, you know, I don't know how long we've been
understaffed. It's been a while, and it seems like the numbers that we're being shown in
terms of the response times and the proactive time, and all that, are super high. So I don't
know -- I know David said more is better, but it just seems like if three is doing an
excellent job, I'm just not sure why we wouldn't take advantage of the staffing
recommendations that the consultant is giving us.
Do you also work with negotiating contracts or is that outside of your realm of
experience in terms of -- I know you do these studies and such, but --
MATTHEWS: It's not in our wheelhouse. We have done it before, I hate passing up
business. But I'm also a straight shooter, so that's the answer. I can tell you on the side, I
represented management in a different arena for contract negotiations. So we could do it
but it's not going to be at the top of our resume.
SCHARNOW: Yeah. Well, I too like all you recommendations and I hope once we do
enter negotiations that all of that stuff is on the table and we can obviously, come up with
something that's amenable to both sides but yet, you know, gives us some more latitude
Page 60 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 61 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
in terms of enforcement of the contract and some of those other parameters you outlined.
So I think that's money well spent on this study in terms of getting these
recommendations.
the last time, and 1 don't know if this is a question for the captain or for consultant or
Grady, but I'm just wondering, can we move somehow in the future toward two SROs?
I've been getting a lot more involved, through the drug prevention coalition, with
activities on the two major campuses that we have and our current SRO is excellent.
She's doing a wonderful job, but I just see the need for almost two SROs in the future
with all the stuff going on in the world out there, and I just think a presence on each
campus is a good thing. And I don't know I f we can work one of the three deputies into
serving part-time on the campus. I don't really know how that stuff works. But I just
would like to think about that, at least.
MILLER: Well, we'll go ahead and explore that, Councilmember. And I also want to
chime in on what Councilmember Spelich said about the advisory committee. Staff is all
fine with that. In fact, I had met with your -- the person that worked in the Chicago area
a couple of years ago. Very qualified individual and I think he would be definitely, in
addition to you, probably top of the list to include.
To your point though, we want to make sure it's structured well, in terms of we want to
make sure that we provide the current agreement to them and also try to get the
performance measures and other items that we need to include and get them to advise us
on it and then we would then basically have our staff team be the ones that would
negotiate with MCSO on that.
So I think it can be done. I just want to make sure it's structured well, so that we don't get
into some issues.
MAYOR DICKEY: One of the things that we talked about too, is the -- when you
presented before was the idea that proactive time and somehow folding in some of the
needs that we see, which may change. There may be a focus that would be different from
one year the next. Something like homelessness or whatever, or short term rentals, or fill
in the blank, the schools, the dances, the sports. There may be opportunities now that if
we're going to relook at the contract, to personalize it, if that's the right word for our
community. Which is something that we had done in the past.
Page 61 of 62
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 62 of 62
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
And to David's point -- first of all, 1 have spoken to you about this. 1 didn't ignore you.
But I think that is a — it illustrates a flaw with the contract, because the people sitting
there making the contract weren't really the beat. The whole idea of the beats and stuff,
was always something that was -- and I was on that committee years ago. And it was
something to wrap your head around for someone that wasn't used to that. So I do
appreciate that suggestion and I think it all actually works together with everything that
everybody has said.
Yes, sir.
FRIEDEL: Just one additional comment. Thanks for your presentation. You highlighted
the fact that we weren't getting what we were paying for and I think David's been harping
on that. So that's still a resolution that we have to arrive at too, what's happened in the
past and come to a resolution on that as well.
MAYOR DICKEY: Anything else?
Thanks very much.
MATTHEWS: All right. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure working with you all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Appreciate it.
MCMAHON: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: All right. And so next, Grady will just -- what would be next for us
on this?
MILLER: Well, it appears the consensus is for us to continue with the MCSO contract.
So 1 believe the next step would be, maybe we'll outline the next steps with negotiating a
contract and how that process might be. We have basically -- our goal is, in my opinion,
to try and get a multiyear to you sometime in the spring. And so we should get going on
that process with advisory group and such. So we could probably give you a presentation
at a later time as to what the next steps will look like.
MAYOR DICKEY: Perfect. And that would go into your time frame, there.
GRZYBOWSK I: Exactly. That's what Ijusttold him.
MAYOR DICKEY: I thought that's what you were saying. Well, thank you.
Our next item, of course, is direction to the town manager for council discussion.
Anything?
All right. We are adjourned. Thank you.
Page 62 of 62