Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/07/1997 Regular Council Meeting MinutesMarana Town Hall, October 7, 1997 By Mayor Ora Harn at 7:05 P.M. IL PLEDGE OF ALLEG/ANCE Led by Mayor Ora Harn IH. INVOCATION Led by Mayor Ora ltarn IV. ROLL CALL COUNCIL Ora Ham Bobby Sutton, Jr. Ed Honea Herb Kal Sherry Millner Michael Ranwsaat Roxaune Ziegler Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member STAFF Hurvie Davis Michael Hein Dan Hochuli Sandy Groseclose Jerry Flannery Roy Cuaron Jocelyn Entz Floyd Foster Dave Atler Jane Johnson Town Manager Assistant Town Manager Town Attorney Town Clerk Planning & Zoning Director Finance Director Executive Asst. to Town Manager Water Operations Manager Public Works Director Human Resources Director V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA A motion was made by Ed Honea, seconded by Vice Mayor Sutton, to approve the agenda as presented with the exception of pulling Item A2 to precede Item B. The motion was carried 7/0. VI. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES Minutes of Regular Council Meeting - September 2, 1997 Minutes of Regular Council Meeting - September 16, 1997 A motion was made by Vice Mayor Sutton, seconded by Ed Honea, to accept the minutes of Regular Council meetings September 2 and 16, 1997. The motion carried 7/0. VII. C_ALL TO THE PUBLIC/ANNOUNCEMENTS Ed Honea: I want to make an announcement. This weekend we had a very unfortunate passing of one of our local citizens, Mr. Ben Lee. He has been the postmaster in Marana for the last five years and passed away Friday. Mr. Lee was very interested in the Town of Marana and its people. He helped us a lot in trying to expand our identity with our mailing addresses of our new neighborhoods. Mr. Lee was a very good friend to a lot of us. The funeral services is tomorrow at 1:00 PM at East Lawn if anyone is interested in attending. Dave Atler: I would like to introduce a new staff member of the Public Works Department, Steve Nigren. He is an architect, which is a position created and approved by the Mayor and Council. A graduate from the College of Architecture at the University of Arizona. He has been registered since 1981. He has practiced in Nevada and Arizona. Most of his time has been spent in the private sector. Steve is well versed in development plan procedures, zoning cases, Board of Adjustment hearings, special uses, program skills for facility management. He will primarily be working on the Municipal Complex and providing programs for expansions of current facilities. He has been with us now for about three weeks. VIII. STAFF REPORTS No action taken IX. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS Consent Agenda 1. Resolution No. 97-96 - Authorizing the Sale of Three Homes Pursuant to the Home Program Regulations of the Home Investment Partnership Program of the Town of Marana Arizona 2. Resolution No. 97-99 - Granting of Ingress/Egress/Utility Easement within the "Old Cortaro Road right-of-way" to City of Tucson Water Company A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Sherry Millner, to approve Consent Item 1. The motion was carried 7/0. PULLED FROM CONSENT AGENDA, ITEM #2, FOR DISCUSSION Resolution No. 97-99 - Granting of Ingress/Egress/Utility Easement within the "Old Cortaro Road Right -of-Way" to City of Tucson Water Company Floyd Foster: Tucson Water is replacing the 6 inch pressure reducing valve with an 8 inch pressure reducing valve at an abandoned part of Old Silverbell Road. PRV is meant to add volume to an area called Sombrero Peaks and other areas. The Town of Marana has had complaints of low water pressure in these areas. The PRV will add volume, not pressure, to these homes. However, by adding volume it will stabilize the pressure. I would like to introduce Dan Denmar from City of Tucson Water. Dan Denmar: The new PRV, which is larger in diameter, will allow customers to receive a more even pressure. The smaller size does not allow enough water to flow. Herb Kai: Can we have a background on the 12 inch line that serves Continental Ranch? Where does it come from? What supplies it? Dan Denmar: The Z zone line probably follows Silverbell Road which comes from another booster station. Tucson has many elevations and water has to be lifted uphill. A 12 inch line could probably deliver 3,000 gpm (gallons per minute). Mayor Harm Thank you, Mr. Denmar, for being responsive to this issue. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Sutton, seconded by Herb Kai, to approve Resolution No. 97-99. Motion was carried 7/0. B. Resolution No. 97-101 - Authorizing the Execution and Delivery of an Amended and Restated Town Lease, a Bond Purchase Contract and Related Documents; Approving the Execution and delivery by Town of Marana Municipal Property Corporation of an Amended and Restated Town Lease and Series 1992 Town Lease, a Trust Indenture, a Bond Purchase contract and related Agreements; Approving an Official Statement and Issuance of not to Exceed $8,500,000 Aggregate Principal Amount of Town of Marana Municipal Property Corporation Municipal Facilities Revenue Bonds, Series 1997; Authorizing the Taking of All Other Actions Necessary to the Consummation of the Transactions contemplated by the Resolution and Declaring an Emergency Hurvie Davis: As part of our budget process, you approved a number of projects for acquisition of water companies, roadway projects and improvements to the water systems that we currently have and are in the process of purchasing. You identified the purpose of the sale of bonds is to make these purchases and do the improvements and to carry out the infrastructure and roadway improvements. Most recently we came to you regarding a bond issue to the tune of approximately $8,000,000. We got our first bond rating recently and it came out to be an A-. This is a very good bond rating for us. The issue before you tonight is authorization to make the bond sale. Mr. Cuaron has done most of the work on this and contracted with Mr. Reader. Mr. Cuaron will now speak to you. I think Mr. Cuaron, Mr. Reader and Mr. Cafisio deserve a lot of credit on this matter. Roy Charon: I want to try to limit my comments tonight. I won't add to what Mr. Davis has said, I would rather just introduce Mr. Reader and Mr. Cafisio to explain the good news on the bond market and the bond sale and answer any questions the Council may have. Some very positive news was that our average rate on the bonds sold was 5.06%. As I understand it, this is very good concerning we are earning about 5.6% on our reserves with the LGIP. 1 will ask Mr. Reader and Mr. Caftsio to come up and present the parameters of the bond sale and to answer any Council questions in regard to the execution of the documents. Mark Reader: I am with Peacock, Hislop, Staley and Given, Inc., the Town's Investment Banking firm. As Mr. Davis mentioned, Roy and I have been in constant contact for the last week or so. In connection with the sale, they have summarized it. Usually, when you see me you see a big packet of information. I apologize for that, 3 however, I'm in a very detailed business and I want the Council to be aware of all of the details. With the bond sale, we prepared this book. It is a final bond pricing book. This will be somewhat of a repeat for Mr. Kai and Mr. Reuwsaat because they attended the Marana Municipal Properties Committee meeting earlier this evening at which we went over this same presentation. I am not going to spend a whole lot of time because you can take this home tonight and review this. I will take you into section A, however, because I think it is kind of important. What we have tried to accomplish in section A is to show the Council the 30 year historical index of where interest rates are in the tax exempt bond market. With the exception of the time frame around 1992 and 1993, you have to go all the way back to the 1970's to get into lower interest rates than what is in today's environment. We have included articles out of the Wall Street Journal and credit magazines. These discuss what the bond market was doing at the time we sold your bonds. We sold your bonds yesterday. On Friday, some very positive economic news came out which suggested that job growth had slowed. I think the Federal Government had estimated there was going to be about 300,000 new jobs; that number came in at about 215,000. A lot of.job growth means inflationary pressures, and that drives the interest rates up. Interest rates dropped significantly on Friday because of the decrease in.job growth which is good. However, Fridays are not good days due to East Coast time differences and double-martini lunches. The morning was good, but in the afternoon some interesting news regarding Middle East conflict came out. Iraq, Iran and Seria were in conflict which means inflationary pressure on oil prices (causing interest rates to go up). All of the gains we got on Friday morning were taken away Friday afternoon because of this conflict in the Middle East. Over the weekend the market had a chance to digest all of this information. Monday morning, the bond market rally where interest rates dropped continued. This is when we jumped into the market. In section B, we did a summary. The bond sale date was on Monday. We expect to close the bond issue on October 21st, in about two weeks, and collect the money on behalf of the Town and the Town will deposit all of the funds with the Trustee. The Trustee will hold that money and the Town will draw that money down as it needs it to spend on the specific pro,jects. The bond issue size was $8,175,000 and we sold the bonds at AAA interest rates because we were able to get a bond insurance policy. As Mr. Cuaron and Mr. Davis mentioned, your underlying credit rating is an A-, which I think was very beneficial when we went out and sold your bonds because this was really the first time the Town of Marana had entered the bond market. The maturity range was from about 1-25 years. The road improvement bonds we are going to pay off over about a ten year period because roads don't last as long as water companies; the water companies bond we are going to pay off over about a 25 year period. This will keep your rates reasonable and give you time for the critical mass to catch up with respect to your rate structure. The yield range, the lowest interest rate you got was 3.85% and the highest was 5.30% (average 5.6%). This is an incredibly good interest rate. We discussed, at the last meeting on 9/16, an opportunity for the Town to refinance some of your old bonds (1990 bonds to acquire the water companies and the 1992 bonds that refinance this particular Town Hall). As a result of that, we were able to save the Town $178,000. Effectively, we were able to pay off those bonds five years earlier than what your other financing schedule looked like. So, on a present value basis and today's dollars net of all costs, we saved the Town about $73,000. A lot of this is just details for staff and their budgeting purposes, etc. that I don't really need to go over. The detailed sources and uses of funds is on page 13. I would be glad to answer any questions you might have on that. The rest of it is mostly just a bunch of numbers and some details. With that, I would like to answer any questions the Council might have and then tum the floor over to Michael Cafisio, your bond attorney, to walk you through the appropriate resolution. Michael Cafisio: I would be glad to answer any questions. The Board of Directors of the Marana Municipal Properties Corporation voted unanimously to adopt the resolution approving their side of the transaction. The resolution before you tonight basically approves your side of the transaction and authorizes their side of the transaction. The transaction is effectively structured as follows: It is basically a lease purchase agreement, you are leasing, from the Municipal Properties Corporation, the various projects (except for the road projects) described here. That lease agreement requires you to pay as lease payments an amount equal to debt service each year on the bonds the MMPC is going to issue to get these projects constructed or acquired. There is a trust indenture with a money center bank in Phoenix, Norwest Bank of Arizona. Norwest Bank acts as the "dealer at the card table", meaning they take care of money coming in and make sure money goes out and pays bond holders. If I want to sell my bond, they are the ones I present my bond to so it can be re-registered in the name of the new holder. They basically represent the bond holder and hold the money received from the proceeds of the sale of the bonds. They use the money based on instruction from the Town to acquire the various water companies and build the various projects. There is an escrow trust agreement that takes care of the refunding bonds. A portion of this issue that we are using to refinance the old issue will be deposited with a separate entity and that entity makes sure those bonds get paid when they need to. There is a bond purchase agreement between Mark's firm, the Town, and MMPC pursuant to which the sale of the bonds is taken care of. There are several agreements with the bond insurance company. You also have a debt service reserved fund policy which avoided you having to put up 10% of the bond issue for a smaller premium. There were agreements that relate to that which are also approved by this resolution. Finally, there are the offering documents for the bond issue, the preliminary official statement and the final official statement. That is the document given to prospective investors of the bond so they can make their decision as to whether or not they want to buy the bonds. We spent a lot of time with staff and others working on this document to make sure it fairly represents the bonds and the credit behind the bonds (in this case the excise taxes of the Town). I have all of the documents and I love going through them if you want me to go through them page by page with you and talk about each section. There is a resolution included which can be adopted by just reference to it. For those of you who have looked at it, know there are blanks in the resolution. Those blanks are all completed with information provided to you tonight by Mr. Reader. We will go back tomorrow and rework all of the documents, now that we know what the terms of the bonds are, and then ship everything to Roy to get signatures from you. I would be glad to answer any questions now. A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Roxarme Ziegler, to adopt Resolution 97-101 which also declares an emergency. The motion carried 7/0. Mike Reuwsaat: Interest rates like that and a tight package is an outstanding job and way to do business in order to do the improvements we need at a low cost. I appreciate all of the work done by everybody. Roy Cuaron: I would just like highlight the rating we obtained. For a Town of our size and demographics, to receive an A rating is reflective of our sound financial condition which is a reflection of Mayor and Council policy. I think it is important to note this 5 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 1997 because it is a significant event in thc Town's evolution. Perhaps Mark could claburate on how unusual it is for a town of our size to receive that A- rating. Mark Reader: I would be glad to, real quickly. I put a lot of thought into what we needed to do to drive up your credit rating as much as possible. I came to the conclusion that going to San Francisco to meet with the appropriate people was necessary. I feel that had we not gone over there, we would not have gotten an A-. I do not know of another Town in Arizona with a population base of less than 6,000 people that got an A- rating. The Town does have a lot going for it, it has diversified its economy, your cash position is phenomenal at about $8,000,000. From a policy standpoint, it was a good decision on behalf of the Council to conserve your cash. You can talk to some of the high-gross cities towards Phoenix, that were in the same position at one time and then built their budgets around that. When the economy turned around, they were in a lot of trouble because they did not have a lot of cash. I think maintaining a sufficient amount of cash reserves and diversity of your economic base and the solid management team reflected in your A- rating. Mike Reuwsaat: I appreciate Mr. Cook being here and hearing this and I hope that we will forward a part of this to Mr. Davis also. It is great news! It is good news and tells you about the fiscal responsibilities that the Town of Marana has taken in the resulting impact of that responsibility. I believe that is very news worthy and I would like at least some contact made to Mr. Davis so that it is publicly noted that the performance of Marana in where it is at and what it has enabled the Town of Marana to do (infrastructure and services to its citizens). Mayor Harm Certainly, I want to give a lot of credit to Mr. Reader, who dragged us through the streets of San Francisco and helped us find the right people to talk to and coached us on the format we needed to deal with these companies who were rating us and the insurers. The rating is one thing but then there is the insurance which makes the bond very sellable. Thank you Mr. Reader and Mr. Cafisio. Mayor Ham and Mike Reuwsaat signed the papers so that Mr. Reader could return to Phoenix. C. Resolution No. 97-103 - Official Intent for Reimbursement of Certain Capital Expenditures Hurvie Davis: So that we can maintain that financial integrity of the Town that we just briefly discussed, we are asking you to approve resolution 97-103 which will allow us to reimburse expenditures made for general fund funded by the bond program. This way the money will be put back into an investment pool for our reserve. You may recall that we did this previously with the purchase of the water companies. We advanced the money from the general fund and were able to pay it back to the bond program and this is a resolution to reimburse some expenditures we made for street improvements. A motion was made by Bobby Sutton, seconded by Ed Honea, to adopt resolution 97- 103 with the emergency clause. The motion carried 7/0. D. Ordinance No. 97-30 and Resolution No. 97-100 - Amending Chapter 9 of the Marana Town Code by Adopting Article 9-9, "Sale of Tobacco to Minors" and 6 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 1997 Establishing Penalties for Violations, an Effective Date, and Repealing all resolutions, Ordinances and Rules of the Town in Conflict Therewith Hurvie Davis: This item is regarding the sale of tobacco to minors via vending machines. We discussed this item at a previous meeting and you asked staff to bring back an ordinance and resolution pertaining to this item and we have done so this evening. Roxanne Ziegler: I would like to suggest that we table this item tonight. This has gotten a lot bigger than I thought it ever would. We had asked staff to look into a vending machine that was in one of the companies we have here, or in a retail store. That is what we gave them, was just to look into whether that machine was to be in there. They did a good job and came back with same recommendations and a resolution and an ordinance. However, after looking at the resolution and receiving several calls from people today, we have gotten light of some new information. We were told that there was not an ordinance in the State, County or the City of Tucson addressing these issues. And we have found out that there is something out there covering this issue. So, after some discussion, we would like to table this until we find out what the City of Tucson has. Also, we would like to invite anyone who has an opinion on this, to come up and speak since you are here. Once we table this, we will contact interested people to serve on a committee to give us feedback to what it is we should do in the Town of Marana. I would like to make clear that the Town of Marana does not want to enter into a pro-smoking or anti-smoking issue, we have laws for that. We just want to make sure that our minor children are not easily exposed to cigarette machines in our town. Mike Reuwsaat: I agree with you and would even take it further and suggest that the proposed ordinance go to the Business Advisory Committee and to the Chamber for review and comment and then follow through to the Planning Commission and back to Council for final review and approval. Dan Hochuli: Council member Ziegler, yours was in the form of a motion. Will you put that off until after public speaks or should we vote? Roxanne Ziegler: I would like for the public to speak. For those who don't know, we couldn't take it off the agenda with out 24 hour notice. We would like to hear comments and suggestions from those who have come hear to speak. So, I would like this to not have a motion at this time. Hal Horrigan, Marana Grocery Store, 13865 N. Sandario Road: As a small retail grocery and non-food items store, we carry tobacco items, beer and wine. I would like to say that maybe some of the Council members jumped into this proposal kind of quickly. I think there are an awful lot of State laws that cover quite a few of these areas approached. I have had this store here for fourteen years, and in that time, we have never, that I am aware of, sold tobacco or beer to anyone under age. Also, I am not aware that anyone underage has ever even stole either of these items. Not that we have such great controls, we do what we can, but so far it has been enough. As a business owner in town, I would be willing to work on a committee. I have heard that there is a lot of concern about shoplifting teenagers, stores giving it away or selling it to minors, which is illegal. We don't have a problem with tobacco being shoplifted, at least with teenagers. MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 1997 Paul McMahan, Division Manager of Circle K: Circle K currently operates three stores in Marena end we have another under construction. We employ approximately 50 employees. The concerns we have about the proposed tobacco ordinance are the fines will only apply to the retailers and not to the employees who made the sale illegally or the underage children attempting to buy tobacco. Also, as the ordinence is written, the fee is not stated. It basically said it depends on the number of retailers. There are not a lot of retailers in Marana selling tobacco, so the fees or licenses could be substential. Another concern is the fines are so steep that on a third offense in two years, if you have a disgruntled employee, you could be out of tobacco for up to eighteen months. Tobacco is approximately 25% of our revenue at each location. If that were to happen, there would be the possibility of loosing that site. Circle K has a very good training program for their employees. We meet all of the federal mandated guidelines. I spoke with a couple of council members and with the Mayor and if you would like us to help in any way on a committee, we would be more then happy to work with you. Dwayne Richard, President of the Arizona Food Marketing AHiance: The Arizona Food Marketing Allience is a trade association which represents convenience stores and grocery stores across the state of Arizona. I am here tonight to offer our assistance in eny way possible. We want to work with you as you move forward with this issue. There are a lot of things going on with tobacco. I spend more time on tobacco than any other issue. You are not the only city council looking at the issue. But, a lot of city councils are opening up the door on tobacco end realizing it is a very complicated issue. We have federal issues, half of the FDA rules are in place, the global settlement that the Attorney General worked out with the tobacco industry and is now before Congress, State activity, training, FDA enforcement and maybe even legislation again in this upcoming session. What we don't hear a lot is what we are hearing from Marana's City Council. That is a willingness to sit down and work together as a group. We did see it in Maricopa County. Sheriff Joe sat down with us after a "sting operation" earlier this year and went over the results of the "sting". We worked with him and put together a sign program that is now in a majority of our stores in Maricopa County (the dead camel, upside down). This program went after the employees and fined them and it went after the public saying you have problems if you are a minor or if you sell to minors. That was a message that needed to get out. Now, Sheriff Joe has gone one step further with one of our members and started the "cops in shops" program. Members of his posse are actually in the stores doing odd jobs to look like they are part of the store environment to help catch those people trying to purchase tobacco who are not of legal age to do so. We are willing to do whatever we can. There is a "we card" program that we kicked off again about two months ago. We had five sessions across the State and they were standing room only in every location we had. We would be more then happy to bring that into Marena and work with the retailers in the community. Anything we can do to build that coalition and help provide you with information, we would be more than happy to do so. Don Isaacson, Attorney for Ridge & Isaacson: I work for the Arizona Licensed Beverage Association. I would like to say that we totally agree with the goal as stated by Council Member Ziegler. We are in the business of selling liquor, tobacco, food and other services end try hard to comply with all liquor regulations and increasingly new tobacco regulations as well. We do not went to sell to enyone underage for many reasons. We don't want to be penalized, we don't want to have our employees be fined 8 or loose their jobs. We do support the "we card" program and we have been supportive of the "cops in shops" program. Our concern in this area is uniformity with other cities for training purposes. We support whatever result does come and the role of the City to enforce those laws. I think a lot of this issue will be cleared up when the federal Congress addresses the tobacco issue. One final comment on vending machines. They have become a kind of symbol of unlawful tobacco and sales to m/nors. At one time you could see vending machines in open establishments in the streets, chained to a pole. Those days are gone, we are concerned with vending machines in bar areas (free standing, restaurant, or hotel). In this case, in order to be in the establishment, you must be of drinking age and it serves a very good business purpose (locks up the product, keeps the product fresh and it prevents pilfering and shoplifting). We hope that whatever is adopted in the vending machine area, that there be an exemption for those establishments that are adult restricted. We would like to be part of any working group that you establish on this issue. We are supportive of the goal. Our main issue is uniformity. Mayor Harm My grandson came to live with me when he was thirteen and could come up with a pack of cigarettes with no problem. A lot of times he got the cigarettes from asking someone outside to buy them for him if he gave them the money. What can you do to discourage people from doing that? What does the law say about this? Is there a way to let the public know they could have some problems if they do that for an underage person? Don Isaacson: It is a state law in the Arizona Statutes that you can not give, sell or otherwise provide cigarettes to a minor. If the adult is buying cigarettes from the Circle K and then turning around and selling them or giving them to a minor, it is illegal and any city law enforcement agent could enforce it. We recognize that those kind of violations are not high on a priority scale of a police force. There are "stings" to that end, if children or high school kids are hanging around convenience stores where this type of transaction is taking place. Mayor Harm I think we need to educate the public because I know this happens. Maybe we need to have some kind of program where we alert people that if they do that for someone they are in jeopardy of be/ng picked up. I think public education should be a part of this package. Stephanie Nelson, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association: Jocelyn Entz asked me to come here tonight on behalf of the ordinance that was passed. I want to say a few positive things about this ordinance. The ordinance before the council is a comprehensive approach to limiting children's access to cigarettes, not adults'. Although there are ordinances in place in other cities, there is no state wide ordinance to enforce these youth access ideas you have come up with in this ordinance. There are a number of health reasons for Marana to push forward with this ordinance and resolution. One of these health reasons is that 3,000 kids start smoking every day. Eighty percent of children have reported buying their own cigarettes, 88% of children that try to get cigarettes from vending machines are successful and 60% of children who try to get them from convenience stores are successful. The status quo is not working, the laws in place at the state and national level are not getting to our communities and children. This is not an anti-tobacco/anti- smoking position, this is a children's health ordinance aimed at preventing children from 9 MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7,'1997 smoking. Not one person in this room, smokers included, would agree that smoking for children is a good idea. another concern brought up that I would like to address is that this is perceived as punishing the retailers. The retailers have a responsibility with alcohol that has penalties attached to it. The reason that alcohol carding works is because there is some fine in place. As the tobacco law is w~itten now, it does not affect them. There is no way to enforce the laws on the books. Yes, it is illegal but there is no penalty for tobacco sales to minors. The state and national ordinances in place and the ones you hear about in the settlement with the FDA are not replicated by your efforts. If any thing, they will be supportive of this ordinance, not in contradiction to it. There is no reason for the local level to take a sit back and wait attitude about protecting their children from tobacco influence. Extra efforts of people with different programs and projects are fantastic. Any time we hear about these efforts, we do anything we can to encourage them and give them more funding. They do not replicate the comprehensive approach to keeping tobacco away from children which you have proposed in this ordinance. Getting vending machines and people who do not have licenses out of tobacco sales and insuring that people who do have licenses act responsibly are things that are not going to be hindered by these extra efforts, nor will these extra efforts replicate what you are trying to do. They will help your law, increase the validity and practicality, but they will not protect Marana's children the way an ordinance like you proposed will. Vending machines, in this town, are not limited to bars so that is a very important part. Children can enter bar facilities if accompanied by a parent and bars always have the option to sell these things behind the counter. There are plenty of studies showing that children do access vending machines in bars. Ed Itonea: I agree with what Council Member Ziegler said, I think we can go overboard with trying to control smoking. I am all for limiting vending machines, or even abolishing them, let barters sell from behind the counter. I have a problem with us licensing tobacco retailers because it just adds another layer of bureaucracy to state and federal laws. I think what we are really talking about is vending machines, not regulating the entire tobacco industry in Marana. I think if we are going to send this back to the Business Advisory Committee or the Chamber where all of the businesses will have to deal with it, maybe we should narrow that scope down. I would really hate to see us get to the point where we license tobacco retailers. It would be a lot of work and we would probably have to add staff and I don't even know if it would do that much good. A motion was made by Roxanne Ziegler, seconded by Mike Reuwsaat, to direct staff to look into vending machines within the Town but, in doing so, take the City of Tucson's ordinance and form a committee to come up with an ordinance that makes sense. Continue Item D at a future date. Motion carried7/0. The meeting was recessed at 8:10 PM. The meeting resumed at 8:40 PM. I0 MINUTES OF ~GULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7 1997 E. Resolution No. 97-98: La Mirage Estates - Request for Approval of a 508 Lot Single Family Detached Home Subdivision Preliminary Plat with a 9-Hole Executive Golf Course on 138.27 Acres in a Portion of the North ~ of Section 26, Township 11 South, Range 11 East, Within the Rancho Marana Specific Plan Area. Applicant is ICON Consultants USA, Inc., 1870 W. Prince Road, Suite #11, Tucson, AZ 857 05 Mayor Harn: We received a call from the people at La Mirage Estates asking us to continue this Item until some of its issues could be looked at and discussed. We will move to Item F. Public Hearing: Ordinance No. 97-29: Continental Ranch Specific Plan Amendment - Request for Approval of an Amendment to the Continental Ranch Specific Plan, Changing the Land Use Designations of Parcels 56 and 57 from High Density (HD) to Commercial © on 21.2 Acres Located at the Southeast Corner of Cortaro Road and Silverbell Road in a Portion of Section 35, Township 12 South, Range 12 East. Property Owner is Ranch Holdings LLC, c/o Southwest Value Partners, 8160 N. Hayden Road, Suite J-208, Scottsdale, Arizona 85258 Jerry Flannery: This item is an amendment to the Continental Ranch specific plan regarding parcels 56 and 57 which are currently zoned high density (HD) in the plan. The applicant is requesting an amendment to commercial. This follows, and is in conjunction with, a recent amendment in February, 1996 across the street (parcel 1) where the Fry's and several other shopping establishments are coming in and building. The Planning Commission for the Town, on August 27, 1997, recommended conditional approval on this amendment. Those conditions briefly read, "submittal of a master plan showing the coordination of all commercial pads along with the individual development plans; the requirement of a traffic impact analysis and specific items related to such analysis; required improvements to be constructed on Silverbell Road, south of Cortaro Road; required improvements to be constructed on Cortaro Road, east of SilverbeI1 Road; and the additional dedication of a 25 foot right-of-way on the east side of Silverbell Road along parcel 56. With those conditions, staff and the Planning Commission recommend that this item be approved. The applicant is here and so is the applicant's engineer. Jim Degrood, WLB Group, 4444 East Broadway Blvd: I am here this evening on behalf of Ranch Holdings, the owners of parcels 56 and 57. What we are proposing today is the conversion of uses from high density residential to commercial. We feel that the use is appropriate, it compliments the uses that have been established on the opposing comer (where Fry's is located). We feel there is still the need for some addition retail out there, based on market studies that Ranch Holdings has conducted. We are intending to match up the alignments of the drive accesses with the Fry's Center so that we don't have conflicting access. The biggest influence on the site planning on this parcel is the Santa Cruz River. We will be setting back all buildings a minimum of 500 feet from the primary channel bank. That has really dictated the layout you see before us. The other influence is the old Cortaro Road right-of-way which we will be retaining for the utilities that are already in place. They are proposing the upgrading of the pressure reducing valve station, which is at about this location. We will be requesting an abandonment of the road right-of-way but we will be retaining easements 11 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 1997 for thc utilities already in place. The abandonment has been submitted as a separate request. I would bc happy to answer any questions, now. Roxanne Ziegler: I have one question for Dave Atler. This has to do with the requirement of a traffic impact analysis and specific items related to such analysis. Didn't we just have a traffic impact analysis when Fry's moved in? Dave Atler: The traffic analysis which was done specifically for the Fry's was based on identifying the trip generations and trip distribution (which direction the cars will be traveling). Roxanne Ziegler: So now, we have to have one every time something new comes in. Dave Atler: Correct, it is on the development plan check list. Any time you do a development plan it requires a traffic impact analysis. Roxanne Ziegler: I only ask because I drive through there a lot and there is not that much traffic right now, related to Fry's. Sherry Millner: I noticed just the opposite. I think traffic there has doubled, especially in the morning. The left turn lane from Silverbell on to Cortaro is sometimes a 3 minute wait. I was wondering, is this road (Cortaro Road) going to be widened? Dave Atler: The idea is, to identify certain improvements that have to be done in order to support this commercial center. The road is not centered within the right-of-way, there is more right-of-way on the north side than the south. There is only so much that they can fit in the right-of-way. The future Cortaro Road improvements will have lanes to the north in addition to the lanes there now. For example, the bridge crossing the Santa Cruz River is the eastbound bridge, there still needs to be a westbound bridge and it will be on the north side. They will be required to provide improvements to help support this development and get traffic in and out safely so it will work with the ultimate plan of Cortaro Road. Vice Mayor Sutton: The traffic impact analysis is the impact that the facilities are going to have on the road. The wait at the left hand mm lane in the morning is due to the number of people living in Continental Ranch. In the afternoon, people are pulling into Fry's, and even using it as a through fare. Dave Atler: For a more global picture, the sub-regional transportation study discussed earlier this year, will be supplemented by new data because this is a land use change with different traffic patterns and volumes. Vice Mayor Sutton: I would also like to add, when we ranked the road projects and sent the letter to the County, widening Cortaro was our number two pick. I think it is on all of our wish lists. Ed Honea: The set back along the Santa Cruz River is 500 feet, is that going to be a secure area during high volume? Will there be any danger of flooding? 12 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCII MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 1997 Dave Atler: The 500 foot set back is based on the Town's flood plane and erosion hazard ordinance. They have done some minor drainage for the specific plan amendment. When they come in with the development plans, they will have to have more specific drainage investigation and identify floor elevations and whether or not it will be subject to flooding. The 500 foot set back is for erosion, not flooding. Mayor Itarn: Is there anyone who wants to speak from the Public Hearing? Since there is no one who wants to speak, we are now out of the Public Hearing. A motion was made by Ed Honea, seconded by Roxanne Ziegler, to approve ordinance 97.29; Continental Ranch Specific Plan Amendment. Motion carded 7/0. G. ~ - Amendment to the Town Personnel Policy Deleting Appendix I, Sample Notice of Intent to Terminate (or Suspend or Demote)---Prior to Action; Appendix II, Sample Notice of Intent to Terminate (or Suspend or Demote)~ Subsequent to Action; Appendix III, Sample Notice of Rejection of Probationary Appointment; Appendix VII, Town of Marana Travel Authorization; Appendix VIII, Town of Marana Travel Claim Form Jane Johnson: What you have before you is yet another step in our updating the personnel policies manual. It became evident to me that there are forms which are really not appropriate for the manual. They will still be used, they just will not be in the policies manual. This is the first reading so you cannot take any action at this time, but I would like to answer any questions. H. Mayor and Council's Report Sherry Millner: I went to League of Cities and Towns and it went very well, thank you to the Town Clerk. (applause) Roxanne Ziegler: This past Friday, I spent half the day with Dave Atler looking at the proposed sites for the new Municipal Complex. I would like to say thank you for his time. I spent the other half of the day with Floyd Foster and Brad DeSpain. They really helped me to understand the concept of the water systems better. I really appreciate the time they took to do this. I met with Mike Rossi regarding off-track betting. Vice Mayor Sutton: During League we had a resolution that we sent to them regarding the appointment of two positions in the Town and basically we are going to present some legislature to change the language to determine what amount of time the appointments are made for and what council meeting it will be done at. That resolution went through unanimously with the full support of the committee. Mayor Harn: Thank you for representing me at that meeting. 13 MINUTES OF REGULAR CouNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL 1997 OCTOBER 7, Ed Honea: I think the League went very well this year, even though everyone felt like they needed to rush home and fill sandbags. Sandy, again did an excellent job for our booth at the Festival of Towns. Mr. Hochuli, Mr. Holub, Vice Mayor Sutton, Council Member Millner and I had chances to talk to Oro Valley, Sahuarita, Tucson and different ones about our common problems. I thought it went very well. Tucson was very supportive in some of the things we are interested in. Mayor Harn: One of the reasons I stayed in town on Wednesday and did not go to the League was to attend the PAG Regional Council. We felt this was necessary because there was some concern that there would be a move to put some additional people on the PAG Regional Council and to have them seated at the council. It never materialized. I understand that one of the people who was going to be seated went to the League instead. 1 think it was important for us to be there. I gained support from others on Regional Council. It is important for some of these people to wait and establish themselves before they ask for seating on the Regional Council. I was very busy while you were at the League. I must commend the staff, they were great and we were very prepared for whatever happened. We have put together a fairly comprehensive emergency plan with people out in the community. We brought them in one evening and did training with them. Our staff then went to the Emergency Center at the County and did training with members from other jurisdictions on emergency control methods and evacuation plans. The next week Hurvie, Mike and I went to the Control Center in Pima County and were briefed on what the Town should do in an emergency situation. We feel that we have put together a fairly comprehensive plan, training and implementation so if something does happen we are in good standing. Another important issue for me to present to you is that today the Board of Supervisors voted on the transportation issues that will go into the bond package. It seems that Mr. Van Eckstrum made the motion to pass the items on the previously presented bond package, to include the two items that Tucson had asked for and to remove the $2,000,000 requested by Marana. It passed with our Board of Supervisors (Sharon Bronson) standing up for us. I have not always been excited about Sharon Bronson but she stood up for us and supported us strongly and I commend her for that. We are trying to get another chance to speak and possibly come up with something. Hurvie Davis: On this last issue, in particular, my understanding is that we are not cutting the lights out on the $2,000,000 request. We still have a chance to get that in prior to the 21st of October, when the Board makes the final decision. Although we are not totally throwing in the towel, it is an uphill battle at this point. I would like to remind Council that we are having an ADOT Board meeting in town this month. We are giving them a tour, on October 16 at 3:00, of Pinal Air Park and Krebbs Engineering followed by dinner at 6:30 at 'Lil Abners. The Board meeting will be held the following morning at Heritage Highlands Clubhouse. Last week some of the staff and myself met with a GTEC representative and a business interest who wants to come in with a manufacturing firm. They are looking at property over by Adonis. Manufacturing towers and antennae, it is a clean industry. I had to leave early, but I understand they are proceeding post haste to go through the process and get that facility in. They have decided that they want to do business here. It means jobs for our community but, as all of you know, it is very difficult to get anything on the east side of the freeway because of the flood plain problems, the lack of utility infrastructure and so forth. I think we can 14 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEEtiNG MARANA TOWN COUNCIL OCTOBER 7, 1997 overcome these obstacles and it kind ofpertaths to the La Mirage issue as well. We are working with other development interests on that side of the freeway. If we can bring all of these interests together at the same time, maybe we can accomplish something. We have problems with transportation infrastructure, water infrastructure, sewer infrastructure, and drainage. Once we start addressing some of these problems we can get additional development on the east side of the freeway. One of our hopes is that when development does come over there with the waste water treatment plant, we can figure out a way to get the Adonis subdivision on that and find a way to close down those ponds that they have been having problems with. One final thing is that, assuming the Mayor approves it, I will be on vacation from the 17t~ through thc 26t~ of October on the Oregon Coast. I will have my home plans under my arm and dealing with the bureaucracy to get my plans approved. Mike Reuwsaat: Could each of the members get a most current edition of what is supposed to be approved as part of the bond issue fairly quickly so if we need to we can do some work on our own to look at the $2,000,000. I would like to see the full breakout of it at this point. Hurvie Davis: O.K. Roxanne Ziegler: I would like to see what you are going to write to the County to suggest how to spend the $2,000,000. Hurvie Davis: The $2,000,000 is basically a negotiation we have had in order to try to get something from the County out of the bond issue. The Linda Vista Interchange was a number one priority for the Council. We asked for the $2,000,000 to be able to do the design. Roxanne Ziegler: I can almost assure you, if you ask for $2,000,000 on the Linda Vista Interchange, we will be denied, handily. That is why I am asking. I think we would be smarter in going with something other than the Linda Vista Interchange, maybe the Cortaro Interchange. That is not conjecture on my part, that is talking to some of the people in town. Not everyone is as passionate about the Linda Vista Interchange, myself included. I thing we need to spend that money on Cortaro Road. That is another issue. Hurvie Davis: We still have our number one priority as the Linda Vista Interchange. On the bond issue in general, I am not sure whether the $2,000,000 is identified as being for the Linda Vista Interchange, it may be open ended. I am assuming it is for the Linda Vista Interchange. X. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Ed Honea: In regard to our identity, we have been very successful in having the post office identify Red Hawk, Dove Mountain and Twin Peaks as Marana. I understand that the Cortaro Post Office is going get about 6-10 routes, most of which are going to be Continental Ranch and the surrounding area. There is a good chance that those routes 15 OCTOBER 7, 1997 will go from "Tucson" to "Cortaro", maybe going into that office. I think the Town should make a concer~ed effort to change to "Marana" instead of "Cortaro", if they are going to have to change anyway. It maybe that a lot of people don't want to change at all because of business addresses, but when the time comes and they have no choice we should research it and bring it back and have a committee and a resolution. The other issue is, we have been very successful in the last few years of making developers community proactive in the things they do. (i.e.: school sites, water companies, fire flow, money for off-site improvements, etc.) I think it is time for us to draw up a plan so we have something to hand someone. If we have 500 homes and want a 10 acre elementary school site, we want one well equipped with enough storage capacity for fire flow, 1000gpm for 2 hours. I think we should set up a committee through the council, the planning commission and even some of the development community to draw up what we expect out of these individuals. If we had a plan, a developer could come in with a preliminary plat with areas for wells, storage, schools, etc. We need to have a standard to go by. XI. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Mike Reuwsaat, seconded by Ed Honea, to adjourn. Motion was carried 7/0. Meeting adjourned at 9:17 PM. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council held on October 7, 1997. I further certify that a quorum was present. 16