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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/02/2010 Regular Council Meeting Minutes,r,,,""""'ti.~~ -r~- ~~~~~ ~~~~'~ REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, March 2, 2010, at or after 7:00 PM Ed Honea, Mayor Herb Kai, Vice Mayor Russell Clanagan, Council Member Patti Comerford, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Jon Post, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roll. Council Member Clanagan was excused from the dais, joining the meeting at 7:17 p.m. via teleconference. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Motion to approve moved by Council Member McGorray, second by Vice Mayor Kai. Motion carried unanimously 6-0. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Christina McVie. She is here representing the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. She expressed their concerns that the current boundary for the habitat planning area ends at the town limits. When these concerns were expressed to staff the response was that there were no plans for annexation, and the fact is that Marana is considering two separate annexation proposals, and their proposal on behalf of both the technical team and the stakeholder working group is that Marana expand its habitat conservation boundaries to its planning boundaries for a future development cost savings of time and money. Council Member Ziegler responded that the town can't cover every eventuality from the planning perspective and that a lot of time has been spent on the HCP. She thanked Ms. McVie's group for their input. PROCLAMATIONS 1 March 2, 2010 Council McEting Minutes MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS Council Member McGorray stated what a wonderful day at the Park (Silverbell) last Saturday. Council Member Comerford announced that she had been reviewing some of the budget items and will have formal comments next week. She recognized several good things going on at the town. Since the last Council meeting, the second Habitat had a wall-raising on February 20. The Catholic Daughters were there who raised $SOK for the house and working. On the 24ti, there was a budget open house at Twin Peaks Elementary for the community with good senior citizens participation. On the 25th there was a blood drive. Not only do the employees give their money, they give blood, too. On the 26th, she visited with the seniors at the southside meeting area regarding decisions that the Council had not made, so we put out fires on that day. She noted that no one Council Member has the right to make any kind of a statement without the vote of the seven of us, and that's important for us to remember. On the 27th, we had a wonderful day with the Crossroads Park opening and celebration. She thanked the patient public for the park to come. Today, our seniors had a picnic in the park, line dancing in the gazebo and had a great time. There are a lot of good things going on in the town -more than just what's reported in the paper. She reminded everyone that Founders' Day is coming up March 20, and tomorrow there's another budget meeting at Heritage Highlands at 6:OOp.m. We're busy. Mayor Honea noted that Council Member Comerford covered most of the items on his list including the Habitat House on Hester. The Catholic Daughters did a lot of good stuff. It will be good to have a family have another home in our community. He noted that the Crossroads Park had been in process for about 12 years, and the Saturday event was great. He noted the people in the community are pretty resilient. They are asking tough questions about the budget, and everyone is pulling together, including the seniors who have volunteered to help keep facilities open. MANAGER'S REPORT: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS Mr. Davidson thanked and acknowledged Tom Ellis and Ryan Benavidez and staff for their work on behalf the park. PRESENTATIONS P 1: Presentation: Relating to Development; request for direction on a potential annexation of property known as the Emigh-Sanders Annexation Presented by Kevin Kish. Vice Mayor Kai left the dais due to a conflict of interest. This annexation is town-initiated. He indentified the four parcels within the proposed area and noted that the property owners have loaned their support to the annexation. Currently the parcels are zoned RH from Pima County. It would translate to Marana's RD 180 zoning. The City of Tucson owns property within the boundaries. On February 17, the City Council approved a contract with (Council Member Clanagan joined the Council at 7:17 p.m. via telephone) Fotowatio LLC, a photovoltaic company, to generate solar power -the second largest one in this region. This is an opportunity to help secure these types of cutting edge industries for the Town. Council Member McGorray asked about space requirements. Mr. Kish acknowledged that there was some discussion during the roadmap process. What is unique about this area is that it's a retired farm field owned by the City, so it lays with no use on it. This is an opportunity for a use and for innovation. Most of the areas within the incorporated area of the town are not suitable 2 March 2, 2010 Council Meeting Minutes and this project would be discouraged in those areas. Council Member McGorray asked who would be doing the work. Mr. Kish noted that the City had a contract with a company to put in the solar farm. Council Member McGorray asked if there would be any tax generated from selling electricity would this to benefit the town. Mr. Kish responded that under this RFP with Tucson Electric Power who is the party receiving energy, and he wasn't sure of the details on how any of that type of recurring revenue would come to the town. Council Member Ziegler asked who owned the land. Mr. Kish noted that Richard Westfall owns a parcel on which his home sits; the northern piece is under Twin Peaks Land & Cattle LLC; and Fred Shafer on the other property. City of Tucson owns the other parcel for the water rights years ago. This currently is under Pima County's jurisdictiono Council Member Ziegler asked if everyone was in agreement with the annexation. Mr. Kish acknowledged that in discussing it with them they had all given their support for the project and would move forward if the Council directed staff to go forward. Council Member Ziegler asked who it would be run by and would the town be overseeing it since within the town limits. Mr. Kish responded that the company running the project would be Fotowatio LLC and that the town would be permitting it and doing the inspections. It would be a private enterprise so the town wouldn't have involvement after the establishment of it other than typical day to day operations for the town. Council Member Post asked if the only reason the town would be annexing this is to say that that we have a solar farm in our town. Mr. Kish responded that that is one of the reasons. We are also looking at opportunities to collect revenue within the town -the permitting. Council Member Post asked if the property owners came to the town and they're agreeable to this. Mr. Kish reiterated that this was outreach by the town, but they have been positive in their support of being brought into the town. Council Member Post asked if there would be future cost to the town such as road repair and maintenance on both the north and the south ends. Mr. Kish stated that during the construction process there would be heavy equipment used, but the town would be picking up the maintenance of the roads as required by state statute. The property owners haven't been asked to do any upgrades or maintenance to the roads. Council Member Post asked for clarification again that there would only be the one- time revenue generated from the permitting. Mr. Kish replied affirmatively. Council Member McGorray asked general questions about whether Twin Peaks Road was still dirt or paved and what would be going in on Mr. Kai's property. Mr. Kish replied that the Kai property is farming, Mr. Westfall has his person residence, and the piece owned by Twin Peaks Land & Cattle has a well site on it. Avra Road is paved. He replied that under the RD 180 sitting utilities on property like this requires a conditional use permit to establish that use on the property if it were to be annexed. Access to the properties for the solar would be along Emigh Road as well as possibility to take it from Sanders Road as well. Council Member Ziegler asked again about the benefit to the town other than having solar in the town. Mr. Kish replied that he's not sure if there will be recurring revenues from the power generation aspect. Council Member Ziegler recalled several years prior about taking property into the town without doing acost/benefit analysis. She questioned the benefit to the town other than staying with the strategic plan balanced against incurring costs to maintain the field. Mayor Honea asked if the photo cells were producing electricity, would the town collect sales tax on the utility. Erik Montague addressed the question and stated that although he is not familiar with the particular business being placed, if it does involve the actual delivery and sale of electricity as a commodity transaction to some form of user, it would most likely be subject to transaction privilege tax. There are some certain exclusions and deductions that are 3 March 2, 2010 Council Meeting Minutes allowed within the tax code, and he would need to verify whether that is actual taxable or if there is some type of exclusion for that type of industry. He would need to come back with more accurate information. Mayor Honea asked for more information and to postpone action on this until the next regular Council meeting in two weeks. Mr. Kish requested Council action to direct staff to bring this item back for the next meeting with answers to the questions brought up tonight and go forward or stop it at that point. Council Member McGorray asked if the landowners intended to retain ownership of their land. Mr. Kish replied that under the agreement with the City of Tucson, it's a lease agreement so they would maintain the ownership of the land as part of their package when they purchased it and retired the farm and took the water rights elsewhere. They are not looking at a transfer of ownership to the company doing the solar work. Mr. Davidson noted that this is part of the review process in making sure that we answer all of these questions. In the Council information, it indicated the costs that the town would potentially assume maintenance related to Twin Peaks and Emigh Roads. The town is already in the area because of the high school. There are one-time financial considerations to be made. So this project's going to be done whether we annex or not. Someone will be able to do the development review and capture those fees as well as the construction sales tax that will be generated. We either have an opportunity to have it in the town as part of our efforts to secure green level projects and solar projects and capture that revenue or it will be done somewhere else. Mr. Kish responded that under the agreement the applicant would develop the property through the Pima County development services. Council Member Ziegler asked for a copy of the agreement with the City of Tucson and the private developer. This did not require a formal motion to bring back to Council for further consideration at the next regulaN meeting. CONSENT AGENDA Motion to approve moved by Council Member Comerford, second by Council MembeN Posh Motion carNied unanimously. C 1: Resolution No. 2010-20: Relating to Community Development; approving and authorizing full execution of an Intergovernmental Agreement with Pima County for the management and implementation of Community Development Block Grant Program funding for Honea Heights neighborhood design and engineering plans C 2: Resolution No. 2010-21: Relating to Community Development; approving and authorizing full execution of a contract (RO16-10-35) with the Arizona Department of Commerce to receive funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Arizona State Energy Efficiency Block Grant Program to assist in the development of a comprehensive energy efficiency and conservation strategy C 3: Minutes of the January 26, 2010 and February 9, 2010 special council meetings and the February 2, 2010 and February 16, 2010 regular council meetings LIQUOR LICENSES BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES 4 March 2, 2010 Council Meering Minutes COUNCIL ACTION A 1: Resolution No. 2010-22: Relating to Economic Development; approving and adopting the Marana Economic Roadmap strategic plan Presented by Josh Wright. He gave an overview of the final draft of the roadmap incorporating the comments. The final document is before Council. He recognized the Council Members who served on the committee -Council Members McGorray and Post. Motion to approve moved by Council Member McGorray, second by Council Member Posh Motion carried unanimously. A 2: Resolution No. 2010-23: Relating to Administration; approving an Electronic Mail Retention and Storage Administrative Directive for Town of Marana employees and elected and appointed officials Presented by Deb Thalasitis. She noted that last September, the Council approved a plan for the town manager to institute a series of administrative directives. As part of that, staff committed to come back when there was a directive that needed to apply more broadly than to just town staff - to elected officials or appointed officials. This directive outlines the parameters for the retention of electronic mail. This policy defines when an email is a public record and the period for which we will retain the more routine emails that are not considered public records. Other entities around the state average from between 30-90 days' retention. We have the ability through our email archive system to retain emails for -120 days, so in the interest of being able to respond to disclosure requests, that is the recommended time limit. After 120 days, if an email is not considered a record under one of our retention schedules, it would be deleted. This does for us is let us respond to citizen requests more quickly. Now we have many, many months of email. It also frees up server space so that we are able to use the space on our computer servers for data. bases and other things that help our operations. So to some degree this is housekeeping. We will be conducting training through the Town Clerk's office and the Town Attorney's office. Once we've been able to train employees, we would ask as part of this resolution that the manager determines the effective date so that we don't jump prematurely in implementing this. Council Member Post noted that there have been a lot of requests for record searches on emails. Does this mean that they cannot request an email that is older than 120 days? Ms. Thalasitis stated that if the email is subject to a different retention schedule -which she enumerated -they could see those but they would need to specifically ask for them. But for a general request, we would only have the ability to go back 120 days. City of Phoenix only retains email for 30 days. On average, the cities are somewhere between 30, 60 or 90 days. But if it's not a record protected by another record schedule, we would not have anything beyond 120 days. Council Member McGorray asked if Council would be provided with a list of categories. Ms. Thalasitis responded yes, and that there will be training that involve boards, commissions and Council Members and town employees. She indicated that staff would try to move quickly on this because server space is precious and costly. Motion to approve moved by Council Member McGorray, second by Council Member Comerford. Motion carried unanimously. 5 March 2, 2010 Council Meeting Minutes A 3: Resolution No. 2010-24: Consideration and possible adoption of a resolution of the Mayor and Common Council of the Town of Marana, Arizona, approving the form and authorizing the execution and delivery of a Loan Agreement with the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona from its Drinking Water Revolving Fund Program and, if necessary, guaranty or similar agreements to provide insurance policies or surety bonds necessary in connection therewith; delegating the determination of certain matters relating thereto to the Finance Director of the Town; authorizing the taking of all other actions necessary to the consummation of the transactions contemplated by such Loan Agreement and this resolution and declaring an emergency Presented by Erik Montague. He noted that in September of 2009, staff brought before Council a request for authorization to submit an application to the Water Finance Authority for a loan in an amount not to exceed $5.25M. The source of repayment for that was utility revenues, which is consistent with the long-term strategy of the utility. Staff did submit that application and it was reviewed, ranked and was identified to make the list for funding. Tonight's item is a resolution to preliminarily approve the documents to close that loan. This would provide the capacity to complete several significant utility projects -specifically the Hartman to Cortaro interconnect, the Camino de Marana water line as well as the Silverbell and CMID well acquisition which the town entered into agreement to acquire last year, and portions of the Twin Peaks/Bluebonnet water line. The sources and uses of the revenue has been identified and verified through the outside consultant and has been incorporated within the rate model. If approved, this will serve as the utility's first formal debt instrument for which they will be completely obligated. There will be no general fund or VAT of any kind. Council Member Ziegler asked for clarification on this coming out of the enterprise fund for payback. Mr. Montague responded that that is correct -the source for repayment is utility revenues. Dorothy O'Brien indicated that she is ready to pick that up in her budget. Mr. Montague responded to an inquiry from Council Member Ziegler about what would have happened if the town had not gotten this loan that the projects at a minimum would be delayed and other funding would have to be found. Ms. O'Brien noted that this is a distinct part of the rate plan previously brought forward to Council, working closely with the rate consultant and Mr. Montague to bring forward the best mechanisms for getting good rates. This is a great way for us to use that program as well as minimize the effect on rates. Mayor Honea stated that there is an emergency clause on this item. Motion to approve moved by Council Member Ziegler, second by Council Member Comerford. lldotion carried unanimously by way of a roll call vote. Mayor Honea noted that he was remiss earlier in not introducing members of Scout Troop 226 and their leader, present to earn a merit badge. He asked them to stand and be recognized at this time. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/POSSIBLE ACTION D 1: Legislative/Intergovernmental Report: Discussion/Direction/Action regarding all pending state and federal legislation and report on recent meetings of other legislative bodies Presented by Steve Huffman who noted that the Legislature suspended all their normal hearings to work exclusively on the budget. There is a special election coming up on the 6 March 2, 2010 Council Meeting Minutes one cent sales tax increase on May 18th. The Legislature announced last week that they were going to try to adopt two different budgets -one with the one cent sales tax increase and one without the one cent sales tax increase. They are trying to pass these prior to the election so that the voters will know what they're looking at. It is not completely clear whether there will be two separate bills or one. There might be a bill with contingency cuts based on whether it passes. Of significance today was an email received from the League of Cities and Towns saying as part of this budget proposal one of the rumors floating around is that as part of one of the tricks to balance the budget they are going to try to take $22M from state shared revenues and give it to counties to offset some shifts they they're going to do from the state to the counties. This $22M would, if they follow the normal formulas, be about $120K out of the Town of Marana's budget. It's my belief, and in conversations with the League, they have the same opinion, that this is the same thing we saw last year that we saw with the vehicle license tax cut where Pop 108 (the requirement says that if you have any impact on the general fund it takes a supermajority vote of the Legislature to pass that). What the Legislature is trying to do last year and it looks like this year is circumvent the Constitution by saying the money is not going to come to the state general fund so it won't trigger that Constitutional provision -we're just going to take it directly from you and give it directly to the counties. He doesn't belief that will meet Constitutional muster, nor does the League believe that. We are all working to keep this from happening, but even if they do pass this, the League will be actively working in conjunction with cities and towns across the state and in court if it's necessary against this. He believes this is a clear violation of the Constitution. This is something to be aware of and concerned but not to stay up worrying about. There are numerous bills going through the Legislature from impact fees to the length of yellow lights and traffic lights in the town of Marana. Council Member McGorray noted that she had heard on a news broadcast the one cent sales tax -that if that does pass, none of it will go to cities and towns. Mr. Huffinan responded that with the current five cent sales tax there's a distribution that goes partially to the general fund and part of it goes to cities and towns and part of it goes to counties. Because of the budget situation, the legislation that was sent to the ballot specifically exempts this one cent from the normal distribution formula. Everything else will be exactly the way it is. The one cent will go 100% toward the state. Within the language, two-thirds is dedicated to K-12 education and universities; one-third is dedicated toward public safety and health and welfare programs, but there will not be the traditional distribution formula to cities, towns and counties like with the other five cents. What they do with the one cent does not in any way affect the formula for the existing five cents that we currently get. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS Motion to go into executive session for Item E 4 moved by Council Member Comerford, second by Council Member McGorray. Motion carried unanimously. Ms. Bronson noted for the record that Council Member Clanagan would be leaving the meeting at 7:59 p.m. prior to the executive session. Council left the dais at 7:59 p.m. Council returned to the dais at 8:45 p.m. 7 March 2, 2010 Council Meeting Minutes E l: Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.03 (A)(3), Council may ask for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the Town Attorney concerning any matter listed on this agenda E 2: Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A)(3),(4) and (7), discussion or consultation for legal advice with the Town's attorneys and discussion and to consider its position and instruct the Town Manager and staff concerning possible acquisition of certain water infrastructure and accounts and water rights and/or resources E 3: Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A)(3),(4) and (7), discussion or consultation for legal advice with the Town's attorneys and discussion and to consider its position and instruct the Town Manager and staff concerning (1) the lawsuit entitled Town of Marana v. Pima County/Pima County v. Marana (consolidated), Maricopa County Superior Court No. CV2008-001131, (2) pending legal issues, settlement discussions and contract negotiations relating to the transition of Marana wastewater collection and treatment to the Town of Marana E 4: Executive session pursuant to A.R.So § 38-431.03(A)(4) for discussion or consultation with the Town's attorneys regarding Chamberlain v. Town of Marana, Pima County Superior Court No. 020094273, and Blomquist v. Town of Marana, United States District Court, District of Arizona, No. CSI-09-671-TUC DCB FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT Motion to adjourn moved by Council Member Post, second by Council Member Comerford. Motion carried unanimously 6-0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meeting held on March 2, 2010. I further certify th~t,~~ was present. Jocelyn C. Bronsori, Town Clerk 8 March 2, 2010 Council Meeting Minutes