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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/19/1996 Regular Council Meeting MinutesMINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 19, 199~ PLACE AND DATE Marana Town Hall March 19, 1996 I. CALL TO ORDER By Mayor Honea at 7:10 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Mayor Honea IH. INVOCATION Led by Mayor Honea IV. ROLL CALL COUNCIL Ed Honea Sharon Price Tom Clark Ora Mae Ham Sherry Millner Herb Kal Bobby Sutton Jr. Mayor Vice-Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member STAFF Hurvie Davis Dan Hochuli Sandra Groseclose Jerry Flannery Dave Atier Brad DeSpain 14 Members of the Public Town Manager Town Attorney Town Clerk Planning Administrator Town Engineer Utilities Advisor V. APPROVAL OF AGENDA A motion was made by Tom Clark, seconded by Sharon Price and carried unanimously to approve the Agenda as written. VI. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES A motion was made by Herb Kal, seconded by Sharon price and carried unanimously to approve the minutes of the ReKular Council Meeting of March 5, 1996.. VII. CALL TO THE PUBLIC/ANNOUNCEMENTS Dan Groseclose: He wanted to take this opportunity to invite everybody to a celebration on April 3, 1996 at 2:30 p.m. This will be held at the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center at 101 W. Irvin~con. The celebration is for award recognition for CDBG funds of which the Town of Marana has had the honor of receiving over $1.5 million since it's inception 22 years ago. STAFF REPORTS Staff reports are on file at Town Hall. Ora Harn: She noticed that on the Court's reports the income for the month was exceedingly higher then other months. Have we started to take in DPS tickets from the freeway. MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 19, 1996 Hurvie Davis: No we haven't. The increased revenues are because of the increased staff. IX. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS A. Consent Agenda 1. Proclamation - Proclaiming April I through April 7~ 1996 as Community Development Block Grant Week "CDBG Celebrates Youth" 2. Drug Alcohol Testing - First consideration for adoption at a subsequent Council meeting of a proposed amendment to the Marana Personnel Policies relating to drug/alcohol testing of Town employees. 3. Resolution No. 96-24 and Ordinance No. 96.15 - Adoption of Town Code~ Chapter 10~ Health and Sanitation. 4. Resolution No. 96-25 and Ordinance No. 96.16 - Adoption of Town Code~ Chapter 11~ Offenses. 5. Resolution No. 96-26 and Ordinance No. 96.17 - Adoption of Town Codet Chapter 12~ Traffic. A motion was made by Ora Ham, seconded by Sherry Millner and carried unanimously to approve the Consent Agenda as written. E. Proclamation - Proclaiming April 6~ 1996 as "VFW Buddy Poppy Day" in the Town of Earl Steele, Marana Chapter of the VFW: All of the money from this program goes to help needy families in the Community. A motion was made by Sharon Price, seconded by Ora Ham and carried unanimously to proclaim April 6, 1996 to be "VFW Buddy Poppy Day" in the Town of Marana and encourage all of our citizens to recognize the merits of this cause by contributing generously to its support through the purchase of "Buddy Poppies" on April 6, 1996. C. Presentation - Central Arizona Water Conservancy District (C.A.W.C.D.) Hurvie Davis: We have been heavily involved in water issues over the past year or so. Brad DeSpain: Mr. DeSpain introduced Frank Brooks, Pima County member of C.A.W.C.D. and Mr. Sid Wilson, General Manager of C.A.W.C.D Frank Brooks: There are four members of C.A.W.C.D. from Pima County, the district covers three counties, Mari¢opa, Pinal and Pima. We are glad to work with and help the Town in any way that we can. As a result of Tucson adopting Proposition 200, it created difficulties and problems for the C-aioW.C.D. The purpose of having the water to begin with is the lowering water tables throughout the State. Long range planning is the issue of the day. Sid Wilson: He talked to Council about the Central Arizona Project. He suspects that all Council Members are aware that the C.A.P. was a project that came about from a great deal of effort, it took a long time. As we got the project authorized and began the process of implementing this vision there was a realization that there needed to be an entity responsible for seeing that the Federal Government was repaid the cost of the project. The total cost of the project is approximately $4 billion, but not ail of that is reimbursable. We believe the reimbursable portion is $1.8 billion. The portions that aren't reimbursable relate to environmental amenities, flood control, recreation and water for federal purposes, specifically for Indian tribes. So the C.A.W.C.D. was created by the State Legislature 25 years ago to be the vehicle for seeing that water was delivered, accounted for and payment was collected. As time went on it became clear both within the State and the prospective of the Federal government that they didn't want to have a long term respons~'ollity for operating and maintaining the project. Under an agreement the responsibility for not only accounting for the water, collecting the money and repaying the Government, the operation and maintenance of the facility was turned over to the District as well. We originally had a contract to repay something on the order of about $1.3 billion, but over time costs rose and the Government came back to us and re-negotiated. This escalated our repayment responsibility another $500 million. In 1993 the Government advised us that it would be closer to $2.3 billion and they have never talked to us about those cost increases even though we have inquired at 2 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCI~ MARCH 19, 1996 considerable length. There were problems with the C.A.P. water once it was delivered to homes. There were problems with color, taste and odor, which puzzled him. He is sure that those problems can and will be resolved over time. The local issues for us is that we have a system that has been built to deliver water to Tucson. Herb Kai: Marana's main concern with the recharge on groundwater quality on our immediate wells, with the ~ranted recharge pro,am, how has that affected their water quality. Sid Wilsou: We~ve recharged about 100 acre feet. They is monitoring that takes place, but it is probably to early to really assess if there is any significant change in the ~roundwater quality. The impression that he has from talking to Tucson is that what they are really talking is called a put and take system. They're talking about in Avra Valley recharging 60,000 acre feet a year and taking 60,000 acre feet out. Groundwater moves very slowly so if you're putting it in year after year and not drawing it out, you're going to get spreading out and start impacting what ever the nature of the water is you're putting in the ground. Herb Kal: We are very concerned about the affect of C.A.P. water on our drinking water supply. He feels that if we do get a problem we hopes someone is going to be them to address them. Right now we are faced with high nitrate levels. Sid Wilson: He doesn't believe they are running into any nitrate problems associated with C.A.P. water itself. Hurvie Davis: Mr. Wilson indicated 148,000 acre feet coming to Tucson, is that the total allocation for the Pima County area or is that just the City of Tucson. Sid Wilson: That is the City of Tucson. D. Resolution No. 96-22 - Intergovernmental Agreement with Pima County Flood Control District relating to the Northwest Replenishment Program Feasibility Study as co-applicants to the Pilot Efflueut Central Arizona Proiect Water Recharge Programs. Hurvie Davis: This is an Intergovernmental Agreement with Pima County Flood Control District relating to the Northwest Replenishment Program Feasibility Study, with Marana being the co-applicant. Brad DeSpain: This assures that the Town of Marana is a participant and co-applicant in the Pilot Recharge Projects of the lower Santa Cruz area. It states who the authorized representatives will be for the Flood Control District and for the Town. It does have a cancellation provision in the contract, Mr. Hochuli may want to comment on that. Attachment B shows what the Town of Marana will contribute in/n-kind cash toward the project. A large portion of this contribution will be staff time and supervision participation along with the recreational aspect. A motion was made by Ora Ham, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to approve Resolution No. 96-22 which provides for an Intergovernmental Agreement between the Town of Marana and Pima County Flood Control District. E. Purchase of Water Companies - For the benefit of the Town of Marana. Hurvie Davis: We are making progress in terms of purchasing a portion of the Cortaro Marana Irrigation District System. We are also negotiating and moving towards having an appraisal done on the Marana Water System Inc. Company, they have three small projects that we are looking at. Brad DeSpaln: There is considerable progress being made. We have made a counter proposal to C.M.I.D., it was faxed to them yesterday. Ora Harn: She wanted to thank Mr. DeSpain for all the work and effort he has put into this. Brad DeSpain: Marana Municipal Water service Inc., in his absence Mr. Davis met with Steve Davis and the Marana Water Service, they discussed the price of an appraisal. We may come to an agreement on price and time in the next day or two. We would proceed with that if Council would approve of the funds being spent that way. The Marana Water Service Inc. is contingent upon two things. One is that those areas that we are talking about taking over, Clayton Road MaNUTE$ OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEET1NG MARANA TOWN COUNCH., MARCH 19, 1996 Twin Peaks Road area, they would have to be agreeable to annexation within the Town. The other is that Marana Water Service Inc. has got to get the water improvement and delivery district approved in the E1 Tiro Avia Ranchettes area. If that occurs and we can get an agreement for annexation then that purchase will also take place. Ora Haru: Are we still talking with Tucson that what ever facilities that were given to them would not be sold to us. Brad DeSpain: That is correct, we have reiterated that every time we've talked. Tom Clark: What has the feedback been from customers in reference to the rate increase. Brad DeSpain: He has not heard anything one way or the other. F. Resolution No. 96-23 - Intergovernmental Agreement with Northwest Fire District for fire protection and emergencV medical services for under protected portions of the Town. Hurvie Davis: We have been before Council a number of times regarding fire protection service on the north end of Town. We received proposals, evaluated those proposals and made a recommendation. Council then selected the preferred provider, Northwest Fire District. We have been working on the IGA between the two parties and bring it back to Council for approval this evening. Dan Hochuli: This IGA should have been distributed to Council this evening, he apologized for that but the document was still being negotiated as of late today. The Agreement as it is presented to Council tonight is also in the same form that it is being presented to the Northwest Fire District Board of Directors. The document calls for just over a two year term, the idea of that is we don't know what the boundaries will be in two years. The IGA indicates that Northwest Fire District will provide services in the service area. The service area is defined as all areas of the Town not in another ffre district. The Agreement provides that if the boundaries of the Town should change through annexation or de-annexation that the boundaries of the service area will also change. The rest of the document is pretty seli' explanatory. It provides for a temporary fire station to be utilized by Northwest. The document provides for mutual indemnification indicating that if the Town is sued for negligence of Northwest, Northwest will provides us with an attorney and will pay any claims. Conversely if Northwest is sued for any negligence of the Town under the agreement, then the Town will provide Northwest with an attorney and cover their losses. It also provides for a 180 termination clause at will. Tom Clark: He understands from reading the Agreement that Northwest is going to lease the Marana Auto Sales. Chief Piechura: That is correct. The facility has two bays and the mobile home which is on the lot. Tom Clark: Will there be some type of system so the residents and vehicles will know when tracks will be pulling out on to Grlar Road. Chief Piechura: We had not planned on anything at this point, it could be changed. Hurvie Davis: There was a concern on whether or not they would activate the sirens and so forth. They are going to be some distance away before the sirens wili be activated. Chief Piechura: Legally we have to utilize the sirens as well as the lights. However there are time and traffics considerations that need to be respected. Tom Clark: He received a notice about three weeks ago in reference to disaster training in lieu of the Okiahoma bombing, does Northwest plan on sending the/r staff to that training. Chief Piechura: There are several of those training sessions going on right now. We will have representatives attending. MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 19, 1996 Ora Ham: Since she will probably be one of the close neighbors, the s/rens are really an indication that the Town is protecting it's citizens. She believes that it will be a welcomed sound to many in the Community. Chris Pendleton, Rural Metro Fire He had concerns with some of the wording, the way the service area was presented it sounded like basically everything outside of the f'ire district would basically be serviced by Northwest. His concern is there are areas and homes that are east of Interstate 10 who are under contract with Rural Metro. The dairy farm has expressed that they don't want service by Northwest Fire District. There should be some consideration for that area, so anything served by Rural Metro under subscription be protected. RECESS A motion was made by Tom Clark, seconded by Sharon Price and carried unanimously to approve Resolution No. 96-23 approving the Intergovernmental Agreement with Northwest Fire District for fire protection and emergency medical services for the underprotected portions of Marana. Hurvie Davis: Mr. Davis wanted to thank everybody who worked on this, especially Chief G. Budget Adfustment - Reallocation of budgeted salary plan adfustment funds to appropriate departments. Hurvie Davis: When we put our budget together this year we put in a merit increase for all the employees. That was allocated to the Town portion of the overall budget. What we have before Council this evening is to take the amounts of money that will be going for merit increases to the various Departments and reallocate that from the Town's budget to each individual department. A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to reallocate $187,223 from the Town's Salary Plan Adjustment budget category in accordance with the schedule shown above. H. Pima Association of Governments Regional Council Meeting Agenda - Review for discussion and direction. Hurvie Davis: He serves on the Management Committee for PAG~ Council Member Harn serves on the Regional Council representing the Town. We do not yet have the Regional Council Agenda, but it should be very similar. At the Management Committee meeting we've been discussing the La Mirage 208 Plan Amendment and the effluent agreement that the applicant had a one year time frame hi which to reach an agreement for the effluent. That time frame passed and the Regional Council gave a three month extension to address this item with the applicant, At the Management Committee Meeting last week it was unanimously recommended because of the progress that we are making that we extend the milestone for having the effluent agreement for one year. These 205 Plan Amendments are very difficult to come by, we didn't want to lose this one. Ora Harn: The last time we really had to pull teeth to get a three month extension on a 208 Plan Amendment. It is really refreshing to see that the Management Committee is going to be willing to give a year extension on this so we can make some decisions. Hurvie Davis: The landf'fll map is just an identification of various ex/sting landfill sites throughout the City and County. I. Appointment - Appointment of Bob Miilner to the Maraua Municipal Water Advisory Committee. Mayor Honea: It is his recommendation that Bob Mliiner be appointed to Fill this position. Bob M/liner: He has been involved with the Town since moving here. This Town was originally founded primarily because of water issues and has taken giant steps to assure that the Town continues to have water. He would like to be able to help by serv/ng on the Advisory Committee. MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL MARCIt 19, 1996 A motion was made by Sharon Price, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to approve the appointment of Bob Mllinar to the Water Users Advisory Committee. J. Ordinance No. 96.18 - Amending the Marana Tax Code to create a tax exemption for residential leases. Mayor Honea declared a conflict of interest on this item. The dais was turned over to Vice Mayor Sharon Price. Hurvie Davis: Since he has been with the Town the issue of resident/al rental tax has come up a number of times. The State of Arizona some years ago eliminated that tax, as well as the City of Tucson. He strongly supports the elimination of this tax. He has had a number of people from time to time in the Community that rent residential property give him a hard time on this issue. We generate approximately $1,500.00 - $2,000.00 per year from the resident/al rental ta~ We encountered this problem on a greater magnitude just recently when we were meeting to attempt to annex in the Orange Grove/Camino De La Tierra area. We have some apartments in the area, they objected to annexation of the Town. Then wouldn't sign a petition to annex simply because it would put them at a $66,000.00 a year disadvantage to their competitors. We would be collecting state shared revenues of approximately $250.00 for each resident we have in Town. This issue came before the Town's Annexation Committee, they recommended unanimously to eliminate the 2% tax. Sherry Millner: We have this tax now, but the majority of the cities in Arizona do not, is that Hurvie Davis: He can't speak for the majority, but thc State of Arizona eliminated it a number of years ago and we know the City of Tucson did as well. Tom Clark: He called a lot of cities this afternoon, they all had between 1.8% - 2.0% renters ta~ Herb Kal: Has there been an impact study as far as future projects that will be going in in the Hnrvie Davis: We have not done such a study, it would be speculative at best. He would say that at some point in time we would probably have apartments coming into Town, but as long as we're sitting right next to the County, they would first go there. Herb Kal: As far as annexation purposes we are at a disadvantage as far as putting up apartments in the Town. Hurvie Davis: In his opinion it pevnli~es the customer, ali these taxes are going to be passed to the renter. Ora Ham: She was concerned that if we are competing with areas around the Town for development of apartments, having a rental tax might discourage develop of complexes in Marana. Tom Clark: Do we currently have a bed tax. Hurvie Davis: Yes we do. Roy Cuaron: It's an additional 1%, for a total of 3%. Dan Hochuli: He has a Hst at his office of which municipalities adopted this tax~ The Model City Tax Code which we are required to use is a document that is compiled by a commission. This is the Tax Code that we are allowed to adopt and then there's about 35 available options that we can take on that. We could not come in now and say that we would like to tax some activity unless that activity is an available option. The State requires us to follow the Model Tax Code. The option of waiving this tax is one of the options under the Model City Tax Code. Sharon Price: There is a 10t of properties in Continental Ranch that arc residential, but they are rental properties. MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 19, 1996 Dan Hochuli: Our present status on the Tax Code taxes residential rentals period. There are some options saying that if a landlord owns fewer than three units in the State and no commercial leased property then that would be exempt. Ora Ham: It is her understanding from the apartment complex the Town is wanting to annex that those apartments rent for approximately $500.00 per month. Tom Clark: He is against getting rid of this tax. Ora Ham: Mr. Davis talked to the apartment complex and they were concerned about the tax. This request isn't coming before the Council from the property owner, this is a recommendation from the Annexation Task Force. Hurvie Davis: It is his understand that the apartment complex in question holds 37% of the assessed valuation of the area that we are working on annexing. Without the si§nature of the property owner of those apartments, we would not get that area as it stands today. In order to annex the Orange Grove Mobile Home Estates we would probably try to redraw the boundaries some how in order to accomplish that. We have had a number of meetings with the Orange Grove Mobile Homed Estes over the last couple years, they have indicated overwhelmingly that they want to be annexed into Marana. Sharon Price: We really need to look to the future and assure that we have a good strong tax base. No action was taken on this item. Ora Harn: She would like to see more information brought back to the Council. Mayor Honea returned to the dais. K. Resolution No. 86-27 - Support of professional baseball in Pima County. Hurvie Davis: This is an item that comes to the Town from Pima County. They have been working to get spring training of professional baseball in Pima County and the greater Tucson Metropolitan area. They had introduced a bill into the Senate which proposed an additional 1% excise tax on hotels and motels. This would fund a part of the cost of a stadium. They are running into some opposition at the State Legislature due to the fact that Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved a .25% sales tax increase for a $300 million stadium. Ora Harn: She opposes this issue very much. When we talked about bringing professional baseball into Marana Pima County didn't even want to discuss it with the Town, we got no support from the Board of Supervisors. Personally she thinks that if Pima County begins to get excise taxing that it's just a spring board. If we are going to start taxing anything with an excise tax in Pima County it should be transportation. Tom Clark: He also opposes this tax very much. No action was taken on this item. L. Mayor's Report Mayor Honea: Council just held their retreat in Bisbee, he thought it was very rewarding and it gave Council as opportunity to interact with each other. He has been working with the Annexation Committee in anticipation of getting the Orange Grove/Camino De La Tierra Annexation into the Town. We have a lot of friends in that area who are very interested in becoming citizens of Marana. M. Manager's Report Hurvie Davis: He has spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks on water issues. About a week ago he went to Phoenix with other Staff/Council members for a one day seminar. They had a number of speakers, including former First Lady Barbara Bush. He wanted to mention to Council that he has a memo from the Public Works Department/Town Engineer in reference to bids that were opened for the Sanders Road Project. Hunter Contracting from Phoenix was the apparent low bidder. The Santa Cruz River Bank Protection at Cortaro Road is out to bid, it will be opened on April 1, 1996. ? X. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Sherry Millner: She would like to see an item to discuss interacting with other cities and towns for the purpose of sharing information. Ora Harn: She would like to discuss making arrangements with the League of Cities and Towns to be able to meet with our Legislators in Phoeni~ XI. ADJOURNMENT A motion was made by Ora Harn, seconded by Tom Clark and carried unanimously to adjourn. TIME: 9:30 p.m. AUDIO TAPES OF THE MEETING ARE AVAILABLE AT THE MARANA TOWN HALL CLERK'S OFFICE. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of the Marana Town Council held on March 19, 1996. I further certify that a quorum was present.