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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/03/1998 Regular Council Meeting MinutesMarana Town Hall, February 3, 1998 By Mayor Ora Harn at 7:04 P.M. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Mayor Ora Harn INVOCATION Led by Mike Reuwsaat IV. ~ Ora Harn Bobby Sutton, Jr. Ed Honea Herb Kal Sherry Millner Michael Reuwsaat Roxanne Ziegler Mayor, excused Vice Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member STAFF Hurvie Davis Michael Hein Jocelyn Entz Roy Cuaron Dan Hochuli Sandy Groseclose Dave Smith Floyd Foster Brad DeSpaJn Dave After Town Manager Assistant Town Manager Asst. to Town Manager Finance Director Town Attorney Town Clerk Chief of Police Water Operations Manager Utilities Director Town Engineer ¥. APPROVAL OF AGENDA A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Ed Honea, to approve the agenda, continuing the Executive Session to a later date. The motion carried 6/0. ¥I. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Herb Kal, to accept the minutes of Regular Council Meeting, January 20, 1998. The motion carried 6/0. CALL TO THE PUBLIC/ANNOUNCEMENTS No action taken. bigger than this. This only allows us to begin the process to take care of some of the more critical, new infrastructure needs like Cortaro and Linda Vista. There is a major misconception. There is no property tax in Marana. I heard several times this week, "You are going to put this tax on us and then raise our property tax." Well, we can't do that, there is no property tax. We are at a major disadvantage in terms of an ongoing revenue to take care of both building and maintaining that type of infrastructure. In the letter from U.S. Homes and in talks with SAHBA, there are a couple of substantial points. One is the financial impact of passing the tax on to the homeowner, as opposed to the developer. Through the sales tax, the credit for that expense would go to the homeowner, not the developer. In a sense, that would be a loss of a taxable income for them. The bottom line is I think this is just barely a start. For future generations, Marana people have an obligation to look at the full picture as it comes out through the MTP and to look at the funding sources that we need in order to maintain a stable infrastructure system, including transportation, parks, etc. In a sense, it is not a dedicated fund. It is only dedicated in terms of a resolution, meaning it could be changed in two years or next week. I would like Council to consider and amendment to the resolution that this 1% be sunset up to five years. And, that during this period and fairly quick, we begin to look at those other funding sources m conjunction with what is recommended by the MTP. The MTP recommends a $2,500 per household impact fee, which is about four times what we are going to be getting on a $100,000 home. We are at about 25% of what is being recommended by the MTP. A manager's committee may be formed to look at the use of those funds and any restrictions that might be forwarded to Council for review. Roxanne Ziegler: Mike, you said a mouthful. To back over what we are doing now, I would like to make a motion. I don't think anyone else needs to look at the numbere, we have looked at them for the audience. We have seen them many times. They are very justifiable. I think it is a good thing we are doing it at U.S Homes, I haven't had the chance to look at their letter but I don't care what it says. The Town needs to take care of responsibility for itself. We don't get enough response from HURF, we always have to dip into our money to get it. I think we are being responsible. A motion was made by Roxanne Ziegler, seconded by Mike Reuwsaat, to approve Ordinance 98.02, an ordinance of the Town of Marena, AZ, relating to the privilege license tax amending; amendJng the Town tax code by increasing the tax rate on contracting activities; providing penalties for the violation thereof; previding for the severebility and designating an effective date. Motion passed 6/0. Vice Mayor Sutton: A lot has been thrown at me today and not enough time is being given for these issues. There are still a lot of "ifees" on this. If we make an ordinance, do those "ifees" stay as an if or can we work those out? My understanding is that since it does not go into effect until May, we can do whatever we want until May. I think it is a Band-Aid, but some people, even homeowners, are concerned about this. Do we need an amendment for the sunset clause, that was one of the ways I was going to be in support of it. in 4 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL February 3, 1998 my mind we can do anything we want until the date we send this to the State. I am in support of it but I wanted to make those comments. Dan Hochuli: The Council could come back later and place a sunset clause on that, the Council could come back in five years and modify the tax. The Council has the authority to do that. If you can sunset, the Council could come back in five years and rescind that portion of the motion, anyway. Mike Reuwsaat: I would like to be very clear on what the process is with the Manager's committee. Vice Mayor Sutton: That can be a future agenda item, or bring it up as we need to. Resolution No. 98-06 Designating Certain Tax Receipts from Construction Activities to be Segregated and Used for Transportation Maintenance and Capital Improvement Projects Hurvie Davis: This is an item that you were just eluding to, to some extent. This is regarding what we would do with these funds. Will they be restricted for capital improvements only or capital improvements and maintenance? As far as the sunset provision on the tax itself, would that have to be in an ordinance or could it be handled by resolution, Mr. Hochuli? When we come back will we need to also amend an ordinance? Dan Hochuli: It is best to think of these two items, B and C, entirely separate. The Council just adopted the change in sales tax revenue. The Council could come in now, under item C, and allocate 2% of the retail sales tax to traffic improvements or capital improvements. They are not related. If the Council is interested in a sunset on the tax increase, and it is possible, we would come back with an ordinance to modify the ordinance that was just voted on. Now we are just talking about allocation of funds and this can be done at a future meeting, if the Council wants to do more study. A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Herb Kal, to adopt Resolution 98-06 and use the funds for capital improvement projects. Motion carried 6/0. Ed Honea: I think we could go into too much detail on this. This 1% is completely inadequate to take care of the transportation infrastructure needs of the future of this town, or even the present. It is really just a Band-Aid, stop-gap measure to give us a little bit of an edge on some of the major capital improvements. If you look at some of the things we are looking at, whether it be Cortaro Road west or the Twin Peaks bridge (estimated at $11,000,000 by itself), we are already behind the curve. This is not going to be adequate to keep us out of hot water. I don't think we want to end up like the City of Tucson and Northwest Pima County, where you float a $358,000,000 bond and you need $2,000,000,000 worth of improvements just to be adequate. I think we need to study this in more detail. We could put this into effect now, without the sunset clause, and in six months to a $ MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL February 3, 1998 year we should be able to come back and say, "We are going to need 'this.'" Contrary to U.S. Homes letter, growth directly affects the need for road widening or improvement. If we don't want to end up like northwest Tucson, we should go ahead and do this, put the money in a fund and, with the help of staff, we will be able to implement something to replace this whole item hopefully in about six months. This item is not going to be adequate to do a whole lot for us. We already spend more money than this entire 3% on capital items, if you take our general budget, every year, and look at capital street improvements, and things of that nature. We could say we are putting it in a separate fund and we are going to use it on capital, but we are already spending that much on capital. It is not really accomplishing anything by "putting it in a separate account" because we are digging into general funds to supplement this, now. Roxanne Ziegler: Councilman Reuwsaat, is the motion you made just to adopt the fund and not the alternate. Mike Reuwsaat: Yes. Just the capital improvement fund, not the alternate. Vice Mayor Sutton: I am concerned. We have to pick an alternative. Dan Hochuli: There are two drafts of Marana Resolution 98-06 in your packet. Both allocate 2% of 2/3 of the construction tax revenue to separate funds. Alternative #1 allocates that money to a fund for transportation capital improvements. I believe the motion would have been to adopt alternative #1 of 98-06. Alternative #2 is exactly the same, however, it designates that money to be used solely for transportation maintenance and improvements. Roxanne Ziegler: I would like to amend Councilman Reuwsaat's motion to add specifically alternative #1. Vice Mayor Sutton: The words from alternative #1 were read, he just did not say alternative #1, so we have the correct motion on the floor. My understanding of what we just did is that we want a committee to come back with some good feasible ways to do this. From what Councilman Honea said, we are going to be replacing this resolution. Why even do it? I thought it was almost your advice to have this at a future meeting since we said we were going to look at it better. Dan Hochuli: My comment was that bringing this to a future meeting is an option. I thought Roxanne Ziegler was not in favor of allocation of those revenues yet. If the Council adopts this, then my understanding would be that staff has our direction and no more committee work would be conducted. Vice Mayor Sutton: My comment, then, is that we should not approve this resolution until we get it back from staff. We should form a manager's committee to come up with the particulars, instead of wasting it. Like Ed said, it is going to take a long time to do that and if we are going to get it in place, we need to get it into place. MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL February 3 1998 Mike Reuwsaat: Out of good faith, in moving forward, I say we just do it. D. Resolution No. 98-10: Marana Transit - Temporary Suspension of Fare for Purpose of Promoting New Transit Service Hurvie Davis: Originally, we instituted transit service from Happy Acres to Continental Ranch to Ina/Thornydale Road to Northwest Hospital. It is limited service, but as any new transit service, it takes time to get it established. It takes time to get the word out that service is available and for people to change their travel modes and to start using the transit. The ridership has been extremely Iow, as expected, at the start of service. We felt the best way to provide more attraction to the service was to suspend the fare during the week of the Founder's Day activities. Limited ridership is the issue. In essence, we are paying for the service but we are not generating much revenue. If we were to provide free service for the week of Founder's Day, we would not loose very much revenue but we might get the kind of exposure for the system that we need to start generating more ridership. Dave After: First, I would like to thank Sandy Groseclose for the idea and tying it into the Founder's Day celebration so we can do advertising as well. As of today, we have had five fares in the last two weeks. The lost revenue would, obviously, be very Iow. We are looking at other ways of advertising and improving exposure, and this is one of them. Roxanne Ziegler: Do you think the Iow ridership is due to the lack of advertising or do you think it is something else? Dave Atler: I would not say that. We did get out about 2,000 notices in the area and we advertised in the Northwest Explorer. There are other things, however, that can be done. This is one of them. Roxanne Ziegler: I think it is a fine idea. We might want to look at this again, in about six months. A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Ed Honea, to adopt Resolution 98-10 to approve staff's recommendation to suspend the $1 one- way fare for a period of one week prior to this year's Founder's Day celebration. Motion carried 6/0. EXE IVE E N - Pursuant to A.R.S. 38-431.01 (A) (4) for Discussion and Consultation with the Town Attorney to Consider the Town's Position and Instruct its Attorney Regarding Li'l Abners Continued to a later date. F. Mayor and Council's Reoort Sherry Millner: I really enjoyed talking to Senator McCain. A few of us met with him on the 22"d and he was very interesting to listen to. I also attended the State of the State luncheon with Governor Hull last Friday, at the Double 7 Tree. She reiterated that her number one priority is education and I was very happy to hear her say that. We also discussed some other things that they plan on doing, taking one item at a time and resolving it before they go on to the next. it was a very good luncheon. Ed Honea: I enjoyed meeting with Senator, maybe our next President, McCain, as well. He is a very down to earth individual and it was very interesting talking to him. The man has a lot of foresight and a lot of good things to say. Today at 3:00 I met with Mr. Atler to talk about my pet project, the Senior Center. It is coming along well. Council member Ziegler and I just met with the Water Committee, that was very interesting and enlightening. We had a meal and it was very good. Vice Mayor Sutton: I am trying to do something with Representative Schottel. There is a bill that is going to be discussed tomorrow. I have not got a hold of him, but it could be a major impact on Marana. It has to do with what happens with annexations and having to pull in a certain percentage of residential and putting all of these extra items on the current annexation procedures. If anyone wants to get the number from Mike, the League is working on this for us. Other sources say the bill will not go anywhere, it is not very supported, but to me it looks like it is directed at us. Maybe if we can get on the phone tomorrow and let them know that we are concerned with it. Mike, Hurvie and I will keep the Council up to date on how that bill is doing and let you know what we can do further down the road. Roxanne Ziegler: Representative Shottel's wife is in our Republican Sahuaro Women's Club and we meet tomorrow night. I could talk to her and see why he is not returning your phone calls. Vice Mayor Sutton: He is very understanding and, obviously, they are very busy up there right now. Every little bit would help so he knows that we are concerned about it being pointed at us. G. Manager's Reoort Hurvie Davis: First, I would like to say thank you. The gravity of tonight's meeting certainly did not reflect the significance of your actions. It is a very significant progressive action that you have taken here this evening. The community and the people in it will benefit from that for a long time to come. There is nothing like sitting in traffic congestion. It increases road rage and accident rates, etc. The money that you have identified as going to transportation from your tax increase will come back and directly benefit the citizens. I want to thank you for those who are not here tonight to thank you themselves. Mr. Howard just reported to us that the City of Tucson Mayor and Council voted, yesterday, to oppose the legislation on the annexation issues. I am sure they will be taking a rather aggressive position on that. Mr. Hein has heard from other communities that are opposing the annexation issues. It looks like there is a lot of opposition to it and I am sure that the League of Cities and Towns will oppose that legislation. Yesterday was another significant day. Mayor Harn signed the Intergovernmental 8 Agreement with Pima County for the bank protection on the Santa Cruz River. We picked it up from the County yesterday and there was a bunch of us gathered around the Mayor as she signed the papers. Mr. Hein and I toured the Avra Valley Airport operation yesterday, at the invitation of Mr. Abrahams. It was a very interesting tour and we were very encouraged with the meeting we had with them. We are going to go look at another project they have and want to expose us to. At the PAG Regional Council meeting last Wednesday, there was a vote to send the Stage II Vapor Recovery issue back to the individual jurisdictions for action on whether or not this region should oppose the Stage II Vapor Recovery. We had PAG staff and representatives of the gasoline industry give a presentation to you a few weeks back by. That should be coming to you within a month and then go back to PAG. Mike Reuwsaat: If one jurisdiction says no, is it a "no go?" Hurvie Davis: That was my understanding when I talked to Tom Swanson the other day. The tentative position of Mr. Swanson is that if one jurisdiction does not go, then it won't go. We had a meeting with the Sportspark personnel and staff to finalize the contract for the 4th of July celebration this year. I am looking forward to a really nice event. With increased fireworks it should be much better, it gets better every year. With ADOT working on the frontage road, in a couple of years from now we should have the frontage road on the west side all the way through. Then you won't have just one exit coming out, you could get east bound on the interstate by taking the frontage road across the CDO and picking up the interstate at Orange Grove. We have had several meetings with staff and developers of the La Mirage project. Hopefully, we will be bringing that to closure with some kind of agreement that both the Town and the developer can live with. We are thinking positive on that, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Staff is doing an outstanding job on that. Talking about transportation, I attended the dedication of the Aviation Parkway in the City of Tucson last Thursday, That was the project costing well over $100,000,000 and over fifteen years of effort. You can see the money and time it takes to put a transportation facility in. Vice Mayor Sutton: I want to make sure that we are clear on the tax. I do not want to read, "Marena increases to 3% sales tax" as a headline next week. FUTURE AGENDAITEMS Sherry Miilner: Since we are going to have a direct election of the Mayor, I would like to see us have some procedures on people who sit on the Council being able to run. I think we should do that before we have this election. Roxanne Ziegler: Mr. Hein, Colonia is still not complete. Mr. Hochuli, the cigarette vending machine issue is still in the air. Herb Kal: Hurvie or Mike, in reference to Avra Valley Airport and their problem with funding for improvements to the airport, would it be proper to have this as a future agenda item. Or, should staff look and see if there is a position we can take. For economy purposes in our town, an airport does have some merit. Possibly, we could ~ook into that and we could take a position to that regard and let Pima County know. Hurvie Davis: Yes, we can do that. Mr. Hein and I have been thinking about it. Mike Reuwsaat: I want to see procedures, in the next month or so, on the budget process for staff. Aisc, I want to see something on the horse in front of Circle K. Ed Honea: Coming from the Water meeting, a while ago, and talking to Mr. DeSpain, the City of Tucson is trying to get the State to pass some resolutions and bills that would allow them to basically pump water anywhere that they are recharging water. Basically, if you were recharging water in the Town of Marana, you could start sinking wells and pumping out our assured water supply. There are some serious problems there. I think it is going to hit some lumps in the State Legislature. I would like to see something on the agenda to pass an ordinance that will not allow any other municipality to pump water out of our assured water supply area, which the State has already designated for use outside of our area. I also think we should get some copies of those suggested bills and such and discuss them and maybe take an official stand and a vote on the Council so we can lobby our legislators. This could be a very serious item, one of our main things to offer is an assured water supply. If someone is allowed to come into our town and stick 20-30 wells on one of these farms and start sucking our water out of here, we are going to have some serious problems. I think we should look at this right now and try to take some action. Roxanne Ziegler: I agree with you 100% but I would like to wait and hear the recommendations of our water users. Ed Honea: We could ask them to meet earlier, but I don't think they are even meeting next month. If we wait for them and then take action, the bill may already be in the legislature and be voted on. I think we should put it on the agenda and then ask them to meet on this item. Herb Kal: Maybe we can ask Mr. Holub to get started on this right away, think this is a very important item. Ed Honea: I agree with Councilwoman Ziegler, that we should let our Water Committee, which does a very good job, look at this item and make some recommendations. I am just concerned that, with the new legislative session going to start pretty quick, I don't want some of this stuff to get shoved through committee and going to the floor without us having a stand. l0 Mike Reuwsaat: Because Of the way the system works, things are written in and written out, they are tabled, or buried or put on the fast track. There is some good stuff in the legislation and then there is some stuff that gives me some real heartburn. If there is a process that can be developed so this Council, by resolution, can address them in a more expeditious way than every two weeks, I would like to see one, even if it means approving a slate of things every two weeks. My experience is that a lot of things happen in two weeks. This water deal may move so quickly in two weeks that it may be too late. Please explore that and, in the legislative session, find a way for this Council to voice its opinion on things like the rights-of-way for Telecommunication Systems and other issues which are very important. Vice Mayor Sutton: I want to see if there is even a possibility of even sunsetting the municipal tax we are talking about. Also, we need to find ways to get the word out about the transit system. Even if we have to run the thing for free for six months and get them addicted, then start charging. Lets look at some way, One week before Founder's Day is probably not going to be enough. Xl. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Ed Honea, seconded by Mike Reuwsaat, to adjourn. The motion passed 5/1. Vice Mayor Sutton voted no. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council held on February 3, 1998. I further certify that a quorum was present. CLERK IUS.Homel U,S, HOME CORPORATION TUCSON DIVISION STEVEN L CRADDOCK PRESIDENT February. 2, 1998 The Honorable Ora Mae Ham Mayor, Town of Marana 13251 N. Lon Adams Rd. Marana, AZ 85653-9723 Re: Construction Sales Tax Increase Dear MayorHarn: Please accept this notice in opposition to the proposed Construction Sales Tax Increase. First of all, let me begin by saying we have enjoyed doing business in the Town of Marana. You and your entire staff have been professional and supportive of our needs. However, it is very disappointing that the Town is considering a proposed construction sales tax increase that singles out our industry of so many that contribute to your income stream, yet benefit equally. Please consider the following upon review of this proposal: We and the development industry understand your challenge o£ growth and the need for transportation improvements. Consequently, we have supported initiatives on a fair share basis. 2. As I understand the proposal, it is not a fair share tax and the construction industry is being singled out for everybody else's benefit. A representative from the Town of Marana stated that the present construction sales tax income for the Town represents approximately 15% of the total income budget. Other than someone worrying about being re-elected, why wouldn't it make sense to raise sales tax to 2.15% across the board. That, in effect, would equal the 1% increase in construction sales tax and absolutely be a fair tax. Doesn't everyone benefit proportionately to growth? There just can't be much argument that businesses stand a much better chance to survive or flourish with population growth. It's a crying shame that virtually no one else is willing to pay their fair share. A comment was made that increased sales taxes of .15%, or 15¢ per $100.00, would potentially drive business across town limits. That very same concern should apply to us, your existing partners. Increased taxes cause us to be less competitive than those in other areas 5151 E, Broadway Blvd., Suite 1 lO0 Tucson, Arizona 85711 - (520) 747-0997 - FAX # (520) 547-0989 License ti B065983 6. "Come Grow With Us". How do you expect us to effectively grow or operate a company when you decide to increase the cost of doing business after substantial commitments are in place. How would you or someone react to your lender notifying you of the need to raise interest rates by 1% on a 30 year note, or $100 a month? 7. Furthermore, we are a pass through business where final price is financable. Financing taxes is absolutely the most inefficient way to raise capitol and obviously does not reflect current income. 8. If it is not a fair share tax of.15% to all business, then call it an impact fee. 9. In fairness to your existing partners, grand father all previously approved development and construction. What you are proposing is taking advantage of your supposed partners as sitting ducks, completely eliminating ones ability for strategical planning. We also call it forward planning. 10. Would you support a phase-in period consistent with the reasonable life of a development under construction. In one instance we have a 6 or 7 year project already committed to the town and it is inconceivable to me how we can afford your proposed 1% tax increase through that duration. [ cannot pick up and go to Pinal County or some other location with our competitors not having that luxury of information you are considering imposing on existing business. I have gone on record stating that I do understand your challenges and have agreed to pay our fair share. I don't think "if we build it they will come." Our business is driven by customer demand and values. I strongly urge you to consider our dilemma and move toward an across the board fair share sales tax of 2.15% (negligable increase). Sincerely, U.S.H~ Steuen L Tuco~ ~//t~,6~'poration Craddock, President [vision SLC/Iwb