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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/20/1995 Council RetreatTOWN OF MARANA COUNCIL RETREAT T0wn Hall Annex July 20, 1995 3:00 p;m. II. III. Vo CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Honea PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Led by Mayor Honea ROLL CALL COUNCIL Ed Honea Sharon Price Tom Clark Herb Kai Cheryl Millner Bobby Sutton, Jr. Ora Harn STAFF Hurvie Davis Sandra Groseclose Dan Hochuli Jerry Flannery Roy Cuaron Bob Kern John Siath Brad DeSpain Kelly Schwab Russell Dillow Diane Benning Jane Johnson Dave Smith Dale Bradshaw Bruce Thomas Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member, excused Council Member, excused Council Member Council Member Council Member, excused Town Manager Town Clerk Town Attorney Planning and Zoning Administrator Finance Director Public Works Director Town Engineer Utilities Director Town Prosecutor Town Magistrate Court Administrator Executive Assistant Chief of Police Lieutenant Lieutenant APPROVAL OF AGENDA A motion was made by Cheryl Millner, seconded by Bobby Sutton, Jr. and carried unanimously to approve the agenda as written. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS INFORMAL DISCUSSION AND ACTION OF OVERALL DIRECTION OF THE TOWN AND COUNCIL RELATING TO PENDING AND FUTURE ISSUES AND GROWTH. TOPICS WILL INCLUDE SHORT AND LONG TERM GOALS, DEPARTMENT AND STAFF GOALS, JLrNK CARS, WEED CONTROL, FUTURE STAFF/COUNCIL MEETINGS, TOWN'S GENERAL PLAN AND ANNEXATIONS, PRESENT AND FUTURE SPACE AND BUILDING NEEDS AND NECESSARY PURCHASE OF LAND, BROCHURES/PACKETS FOR NEWCOMERS AND BUSINESSES, FUTURE FIRE PROTECTION FOR MARANA, REVENUE, COSTS AND FUTURE. Mayor Honea: Mayor Honea passed out a plaque that he wanted everyone to look at. We have a couple new Council Members and Department Heads. We have expanded from 30 employees t~vo years ago to 84 presently. He thinks that once a year he ~vould like to have a meeting such as this to keep everyone together. He would like to discuss teamwork first. The Town of Marana does not have the budget nor the large staff to compete with the City or County. We need to be more courteous, professional and more prompt. We need to work together, there has been trouble in the past with friction between departments. No one is unimportant and no one is irreplaceable. He expects everyone to be professional and maintain high esteem for the Town. We are at the mercy of the people of the Town and they should always be treated courteously. He knows there are times that police officers or employees are talked to crudely, vulgarly arid things of that nature, as long as they are not in physical danger he would hope that the person would just bite their tongue and say "I'm sorry that you feel that way." Every person who works for the Town represents the Town. People are looking for reason to be anti- government. Most people he has talked with speak highly of the Police Department and the rest of the Town's personnel. He would hope that all employees would follow the chain of command and procedure. All of the Council Members should be available to the people that work for the Town. But that does not mean that a police officer should come to the Mayor and bring up his problems with his superiors. We have to follow procedures. He is going to institute a lot of new procedures. Employees of the Town should know ho the Council Members and Executive Officials are. It is very embarrassing for Mr. Davis or the Mayor to walk into the Planning Center and have the receptionist challenge them on why they are there. Pictures of the Council Members are being taken. They will be put in the Town facilities so all employees know who they are. Now he would like to start with introductions of some of the Staff attending. Jerry Fiannery: He is the Planning Administrator. He has been with the Town for almost two years. He grew up in Chandler, Arizona. He spent four years working for Mohave County as a Planning Manager in charge of five planners, two techs and a secretary. He saw coming to Marana as a great opportunity to experience municipal planning on a scale that was really growing wild. One of the first things he came to the Council with at the retreat last year was for additional staff. Within the last year he has brought on a Planner I and a Pla~ner II. The Department has moved to the Development Center and everyone is very happy to be there. One of his goals is to concentrate on total quality management. He has meetings three times a week his Staff and will begin meeting with each Planner on an individual basis regularly. Russell Diilow: He is the current Magistrate for the Town of Marana. He is from a small town in Virginia. He has been a practicing attorney for 16 years and was a judge for the City of Tucson for three years. He was also a judge for the City of South Tucson for two years before coming to Marana. We have streamlined a lot of the work being done in the Court. Diane Benning: She is the Court Administrator and has been with the Town for two years. Prior to coming to Marana she worked for the Court in Oro Valley. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice and just recently finished her Master's in Management. It was quite a difference coming from Oro Valley to Marana. She is excited about having the opportunity to grow with the Town. It is very important that the people in the Court give the people they deal with respect and courtesy. Bob Kern: Mr. Kern is the Public Works Superintendent. He has worked with the Town since it became a Town. There has been a lot of changes and surprises watching the Town grow. It takes teamwork to make anything work. He enjoys working for the Town but he plans on retiring in about two years. Roy Cuaron: Roy is the Finance Director with the Town, He has beet~ with the Town for three and a half years. One of the biggest goals and challenges that he feels confronts hirr~s to manage the Town's resources in conjunction with the Mayor and Council to meet the current and future demands of the Departments. How we utilize our financial resources will go a long way toward determining whether we will have a surplus. He attended a seminar the first week of July in Phoenix put on by the Municipal Treasurers Association. It was very beneficial and he would like to come before Council within the next 90 days with an investment policy that would yield more return on the Town's money. Brad DeSpain: Mr. DeSpain is the Utilities Director for the Town. He has been involved with water issues in the Town for years. He enjoys working with the Town and it has been a great opportunity. Dale Bradshaw: He is a lieutenant with the Police Department. He has been with the Town since 1979. There were just four police officers when he started with the Town. He is originally from Wisconsin and moved to Arizona in 1972. From 1972 till 1975 he worked with the Pima County Sheriff's Department. He spent two years as a Park Ranger and then came to Marana. One of his goals is Community Policing, but he is also very involved in the youth programs. Dave Smith: He is the Chief of Police for the Town. He has been with Marana for almost four years. He has over 21 years in law enforcement. He was born in Tucson and then moved to Coolidge. He worked 16 years on the Coolidge Police Department. He has a beautiful wife, four daughters and a ten month old grand daughter. Some of the goals he has are some of the things that the Department is currently doing. We have a high emphasis on customer service and getting close to the Community. We practice the Park, Talk and Walk Program where officers get out of their cars and talk to the people. We are going to be adding a Crime Prevention Specialist which will be coordinating neighborhood watch groups and business watch. Marana has been a challenge for him and he foresees a lot more growth. Bruce Thomas: He is also a lieutenant with the Police Department. He has been with the Department for a little over ten years. He attended Cochise College and the U orA. His first involvement with the Town of Marana was as a business owner. The Police Chief at that time approached him and began talking to him about joining the Police Department. He decided after seventeen years of being in the auto business that maybe he needed a change and a new challenge. He went through the Academy and worked his way up through the ranks to Lieutenant. His main responsibility is patrol supervision, he also takes care of internal investigations, emergency response team and training. As far as goals the Chief and Lt. Bradshaw pretty much defined the goals of the Department. John Siath: He is the acting Town Engineer. He works with the engineering firm of Collins- Pifia in Tucson. He has a B$ in geological engineering and a Masters in civil He attended the University of Idaho. He moved to Cochise County in 1978 where he was engineer for about a year. He went into the private sector since that time and has worked on just about any type of engineering project. He would like to add to the Town of Marana a little expertise in engineering. He is married and has two sons. Jane Johnson: Jane serves as the Town Manager's Executive Assistant. She has worked both in the private and public sectors. She came to Marana after having worked at Evergreen for three years. She has a Masters Degree in Management. She has not been here long enough yet to get a handle on everything that is going on but her goal is to relieve the Town Manager of a lot of day to day activities and research, and support him in any way that she can. Kelly Schwab: Kelly also serves as the Town Attorney. She came to Tucson to go to law school, not planning to stay. She is originally from Payson, Arizona. After she gradugted from law school and took the bar she hooked up with Dan Hochuli. She loves workin/~vith the Town and enjoys the people. She does all the prosecution work for the Town, so she works closely with the Police Department and Court. She also works a lot with Jerry Flannery with planning and developing. She is thrilled to see the Town growing and is glad to support the Town in any way possible. Mayor Honea: Would like to open the meeting to general discussion. Hurvie Davis: Wanted to mention that Vick Charnis is back in the hospital in intensive care. He would like to add to what the Mayor started off with, interacting with the people in the Community. He has been in public service most of his career and he believes in it. He stopped for lunch and met a man from the Community who started talking about the Town. He wanted to talk about the signs in the Ina/Thornydale area and was pretty up to date on his information. He related to Hurvie that the "A' frame sign for his business is very beneficial. Hurvie informed him of a letter business owners will be receiving regarding the signs. He listened to him and told him he understood what he was saying. He was rather irate and he was going to do everything to keep those signs up. He appreciated Hurvie taking the time to listen to him. We still have the policy that all new employees are to be brought before the Mayor and Council to be introduced. This should help with the problem of employees not recognizing the Council Members. Mayor Honea: Each of the Council Members have been assigned to a Committee or project. Bobby Sutton, Jr. is working with the Business Advisory Committee and has also taken on a PR project. Bobby Sutton~ Jr.: He wants to bring his sense of marketing to the Town. He considered that in the stage the Town is at, we need to start marketing the Town. We need to raise the image that people and businesses have of Marana. Most businesses in the Ina/Thornydale area will not say they are in Marana. The reason being that most people have the idea that Marana is way up past Tangerine Road. He is forming a committee that will concentrate on marketing the Town. He would like to do a video of the Town and brochures. It is hard to change a mind set when people are used to saying that they live in Northwest Tucson instead of Marana. Possibly the video could be financed by some of the builders and businesses in the Town. Hurvie Davis: We need to get the addresses in Town identified as Marana. He has had businesses worded about changing their address to Marana and others who want it changed to Marana. Dan Hochuli: From a legal perspective his office is looking into this issue regarding addresses. Jerry Flannery: Wheeler Abbett, the Chairman of the Planning Commission has talked about getting the Ina/Thornydale area changed to the Marana Central Business District or something. Last month at the Planning Commission he directed Staff to put together an item to see what the possibility was to put some type of sign on the Interstate. Mayor Honea: A lot of times it is difficult to make a change such as this. There is political pressure from different government offices. We need to convince the people in the area it is for their best interest. Over half of our Community is in Continental Ranch and they have a Tucson address. Sharon Price: She hears a lot of people complain about having a Tucson address, they are proud to be in Marana. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: The residents want to be in Marana. Cheryl Millner: Council Member Millner made some suggestions on the newsletter she is going to be putting together. She would like to make the newsletter geared toward what is going on in the Town not just with the Council. It will be put out on a quarterly basis. She would like input from other Town employees. Mayor Honea: He would like to try and get a newsletter out by the first of September. Cheryl Millner: She has experience with putting newsletters together from working with the schools. The format has not yet been decided. It would be possibly a two page, four sided format. Mayor Honea: Staff should have any information they want to include in the newsletter to Jane or Cheryl by mid-August. Mayor Honea has been working together with the Vice Mayor since the election. She was instrumental in a lot of the appointments that were made in Council. He made a political pledge to the Council was that they would work together as a team. Sharon Price is the Council's representative to GTEC, a very important entity in the Community. Sharon Price: At the meeting she attended they discussed the possibility of a $7.00 a hour minimum wage in Tucson. She was concerned with this, if Tucson gets it through, somebody might try to do this in Marana. Marana could not afford this. She feels by attending these meeting there is a lot to be learned, it is very interesting. Mayor Honea: GTEC is also an organization that has a lot of the movers and shakers in the area. It is a very powerful organization. Hurvie Davis: GTEC is spread throughout the Country, as well as internationally. They have representatives that help attract businesses to the area. The Town needs to get a sewer system and flood control in place to bring business in. Herb Kal: Council Member Herb Kai is the Northwest Water representative. The Mayor mentioned teamwork and he feels the Council and Staff have that. His contribution is his expertise in water issues, he has been involved in that since 1970. He appreciates Brad DeSpain's help at looking into these issues. Flood Control was mentioned and this is an issue that needs to be resolved within the Town. Hurvie Davis: Mr. Davis shared information on PAG, Pima Association of Governments. This is a voluntary organization of all the local governments in Pima County. It is a requirement of the federal process in order to qualify the region for federal funds. Pima County, City of Tucson, Town of Marana. Town of Oro Valley, City of South Tucson and soon to be the Town of Sahuarita. All the local governments come together to address regional issues. The Town as a player has a representative, it has historically been the Mayor. Mayor Honea recommended that Council Member Harn continue to serve on PAG. This year is the year for Marana to serve as the Chair of the Committee. Transportation is a major issue with PAG, not only do we receive federal but also state funds. There are various committees within PAG that report to the main Council. We need cooperation and regional agencies to deal with some of the situations involving the Town. Council Member Harn has served very well on PAG and has the respect of all the other jurisdictions. Mayor Honea: By looking at all of the items being discussed, it is all a teamwork concept. Whether the Town works within as a team or with other municipalities. In the not too distant future he wants to work on updating the Personnel Policy. Right now the policies are pathetic. He does not know whether Mr. Hochuli or Jane Johnson will be doing it. The Department Heads need to read through the manual and see if there suggestions they would like to make. Jane Johnson: She has contacted a few other municipalities the size of Marana and has asked for copies of their personnel policies. Mayor Honea: The Town's Personnel Policy would supersede the Police Policy unless there is specific mandated police matters. It is time for the Town to become more professional and have policies in place. He wants to have policies and procedures for everything we do. If you have a poor personnel policy it is very difficult if you have a hard to handle employee, to manage those individuals if you do not have good policies and guidelines. He wants the new policies and procedures to be fair, they are to protect everybody from the bottom to the top, but they are really there to protect the Town. Hurvie Davis: This item was also discussed at the Council retreat. We have budgeted for a Human Resource Director this year. We need to start addressing some of these issues. In the mean time we thought it was best to try and look at putting something together in the mean time. When the Human Resource Director is hired then it will be expanded as Mayor Honea: For the last couple years the Town has kicked around the idea of having an employee appreciation day or a Town day. Elected officials, Town Staff and their families would have a day where the Town would furnish some supplies, lie believes in the carrot theory. If you pat someone on the back and tell them they are doing a good job, that employee will work hard for you all year. We haven't really had anything like that, what is everybody's thoughts on this. Sharon Price: Treating the employees to something like that is probably a really good morale booster, they work hard. She does not think it is a question of whether to begin but a question of getting out and doing it, A committee should be formed to work on this, it is a very important project. These people are what make our Community so good and they should be recognized. Herb Ital; Would it make sense to do something in conjunction with Founder's Day. Dave Smith: If something is done it has to be within the Town limits, or his employees will not have equal access. There are people on duty all the time and it would be nice if they could stop by. Mayor Honea: It could be held either at the Marana Park or the Community Center. Russell Dove: He enjoyed the employee's night with the Tucson Toros, he would like to see more of that, Jerry Flannery: Employees could also be recognized for their years of service, either with a plaque or a pin. Mayor }Ionea: Traditionally at Founder's Day there has been an employee of the year recognized. Each Department could submit an individual who would be recognized. Several suggestions were made for "awards", dinners, get away weekends etc. He wants the Staff to be family, this is still a small Town and he wants everyone to be close. Sharon Price: She feels that Department Heads should also be included. Roy Cuaron: Would that not be creating more of a problem. If we picked one outstanding employee and all the others were bitter about it. If you have a general Town picnic for all the employees and it is a family day rather than trying to recognize one individual. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: When there is individual employee recognition, it gives the employees something to shoot for. He also sees Roy's point, so there could be a way to recognize all employees. He thinks it is good to have an employee and then recognize the nominees from each Department. Dale Bradshaw: He likes the idea of having a plaque at the Town Hall with the employee of the month. Each month a name would be added to the plaque. Herb Kal: If each Department submits an employee then names could be drawn for the awards. 6 July 20, 1995 3:00 p.m. Mayor Honea: When would be a good time to hold such an event. He feels that during the Founder's Day events it could be to confusing. He thinks that the employees could also be recognized for how long they have been with the Town. After one year of service a pin could be given to each employee. Possibly a cup could be given to employees after five years of service. After ten years a plaque could be issued. When you get up in years you give them more. Sandy Groseclose: Maybe a committee could be put together with people from each Department to work on the procedures and what type of recognition. The committee could gather information and bring their findings back before Council. Kelly Schwab: There ~vas an incident in Town not to long ago involving a purse snatching. We had some citizens who chased the man down. She was talking with the Judge and they felt it would be nice to recognize citizens who do things like that. She was really impressed by what these citizens did. Mayor Honea: He felt this was a good idea. There are going to be times when people in the Community help others. Hurvie Davis: A committee could be put together by asking people from each department to volunteer to serve. Mayor Honea: Felt that was a good idea to get a committee together of about four or five people and plan what to do. He feels that positive reinforcement of jobs well done is important to the employees. Sharon Price: Attitude is very important with the Town. In dealing with the County we are going to have to forget whatever past bitterness has been there. Mayor Honea: Regarding fire protection for Marana, he would like to have it for the entire Community. There have been several suggestions. The Town is going to have to be supplemental income or support, maybe it would go with Northwest Fire District. If they need financial support in order to come in and provide service for the entire Community. We need to come up with something creative or else there could be four or five departments within the Town, which is not good. The Town needs one fire department that will come in and work with the Town. If we can contract with a department, but it must be fair to all the people and businesses in the Community. It's so cost prohibitive to have our own fire department. In north Marana there are half the people but 80% of the area. In the south area, Continental Ranch primarily, you have a high tax base, so it's economically feasible. On the north end it is not. If we have to supplement, the only fair thing is to supplement the people that are already in the district as well. Hurvie Davis: He has had some discussion with Northwest Fire District and also Avra Valley Fire District. We are looking at the possibility of establishing a quasi-fire department in the upper part of Town. Something where there would be some trained professional fire fighters, but also have a community bank of volunteers. The numbers don't work to go up and say we have a fire district up here and to have all the necessary stuff that is needed to have a fire department. Northwest has been up and looked at the fire equipment we have up north. Bobby Sutton, Jr.: Council Member Sutton wanted Dan Hochuli to speak on the annexation. Dan Hochuli: He was just speaking with a developer this morning who called and wanted to know when it would be over, because he is afraid to do a zoning change and develop his property if it is going to go back to the County. We still have a ruling from the Court of Appeals, we have asked the Supreme Court to take a look at it and evaluate whether the Court of Appeals ruled correctly. The Court of Appeals decision says go back to having a trial, start over. In the meantime they made some other rulings that we liked and some we did not. We have appealed that to the Supreme Court to take a look at. The Supreme Court does not have to review the case, they decide. We asked them to take a look at it because we did not like some of the decisions. The City of Tucson also asked them to take a look because they did not like some of the decisions. They could do a couple of things, they could look at it and say go back and have your trial and they would set the parameters. It is possible but unlikely that the case could end at the Supreme Court. Then we have a trial, whoever lost that would appeal to the Court of Appeals. The Statutes on annexation trials state that they are to be expedited trials, second only to election protests. That means that this is suppose to be more important than criminal and civil cases brought before the Court. We are talking about two years for a decision. Hurvie Davis: He also wanted to bring up this issue, due to the fact that it has a tremendous impact on the financial picture. We just closed out the fiscal year with revenues of $7,275,346.00, sales tax was $5,336,844.00, a couple years ago the total~udget for the Town was $1.5 million. We need to be cautious.~doesn't think that the Town can* undertake a significant project without the stability of the revenue source we have. He feels uncomfortable going out and taking on to many obligations until we are assured that it is a stable annex. Jerry Flannery: If the Court says no more, is there a transition. Dan Hochuli: That is up to the judge, but his guess is that there would not be a transition. There may be an effective date that is a few days away or a couple weeks away but if it's not in the Town, it's not in the Town. Herb Kai: We always have this annexation "if' hanging over the Town's heads. In Roy's opinion does it make any sense if some of these revenues we are getting now to stockpile it. Roy Cuaron: We have a surplus fund invested in the State's Pool, we are getting a pretty decent rate. Everything that we don't need goes in there and we ended the year with a good balance. His opinion, if we lose the case, he does not see how they could make the Town return the tax dollars. Hurvie Davis: We have been proceeding cautiously with spending. The Reserve Fund is set aside to be used as staying power if the Town would lose the annexation. If we lost the annexation, we would get right back in and do it again. Bruce Thomas: How long do you anticipate it would be before the Town could go through the annexation process again if we lost. Hurvie Davis: He would think it would be about three to four months to get back in. Bruce Thomas: Do we have enough money in the Reserve Fund to maintain for that amount of time. Roy Cuaron: Assuming we don't use our Reserve Fund for any other purpose it should last certainly six months and possibly well beyond that. Mayor Honea: If that happened, the worst case scenario, we would cancel all capital improvement projects. We would try to keep everybody on Staff. Herb Kal: The Business Advisory Committee had a letter they sent out to business, the majority of the responses were in favor of the annexation. Hurvie Davis: The Committee was originally going to present this information and results to the City of Tucson Council, but it was sent out to the news media instead. Dan Hochuli: He thinks that some of those businesses that responded may change their minds once they are informed of the situation with the sandwich signs coming down. It could turn into a public relations problem for the Town. Mayor Honea: He would like to have a meeting like this every year between the Department Heads and Council. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Honea adjourned the meeting. AUDIO TAPES OF THE MEETING ARE AVAILABLE AT THE MARANA TOWN CLERK'S OFFICE. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify~ ~that the foregoing minutes are the true and correct minutes of the Council Retreat held on July 20, 199/5~ f~rther certify that a quorum was present. ...~S' ' - E, TOWN CLERK