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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/09/2011 Study Session Minutes M A� . =/I\ 1"W"0001" STUDY SESSION MINUTES 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, August 9, 2011, at or after 6:00 PM Ed Honea, Mayor Patti Comerford, Vice Mayor David Bowen, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Jon Post, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member STUDY SESSION CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Ms. Bronson called roll. Council Member Bowen was excused; there was a quorum present. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE /INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member McGorray, second by Council Member Post. Passed unanimously 6-0. DISCUSSION/DIRECTION/POSSIBLE ACTION 1: Resolution No. 2011 -79: Relating to Elections; approving and authorizing the Town Clerk to conduct mail ballot elections for the Town. Presented by Ms. Bronson, who introduced Chris Roads, Registrar of Voters from the Pima County Recorder's Office. Ms. Bronson gave an overview of the cities and towns in Arizona which have gone to mail ballot elections. She then discussed the historical aspect of Marana's voter turnout and the number of citizens voting at polling location versus mail ballots. Ms. Bronson noted that considerable education would have to occur prior to the 2013 election for both citizens and potential candidates to become aware of the change in the voting process. She also stated that should the town find itself having to hold an election in conjunction with a county measure, mail ballot voting would have to be suspended for that election, as counties are not authorized under Arizona law to conduct mail ballot elections at this time. Ms. Bronson concluded her formal presentation and deferred questions related to the mail ballot process to Mr. Roads, who discussed issues of forwarded mail, voter fraud and signature verification and security of the mail ballot process. Council Member Post questioned whether Marana was ready to move to a mail ballot election given the low voter turnout. Discussion ensued among Council regarding planning 1 August 9, 2011 Council Meeting Minutes campaigns around mail ballots elections and the new strategies that would have to be considered. Mayor Honea expressed his concern that an all mail ballot could change the outcome of elections. He further noted that candidates may have to change their strategies to get their messages out before the ballots are mailed. Vice Mayor Comerford thanked Ms. Bronson for the presentation and the work she has done on this project. Upon motion to authorize the Town Clerk to conduct mail ballot elections by Council Member Kai, second by Council Member McGorray, the motion passed unanimously 6 -0. 2: Presentation: Relating to Facilities; review of the Marana Operations Center (MOC) Facility Master Plan. Mr. Davidson presented this item as two parts — one being a long -term plan for a permanent site for a police substation to serve the Continental Ranch/Reserve, Ina/Thornydale /Orange Grove and Dove Mountain areas. This will take a number of years to plan and develop, and he will ask for Council direction to move forward with that. In the interim, the second part of the presentation related to modifications to the current substation to make it more functional and safe. Chief Rozema highlighted some of those safety and operational issues, and Vincent Lorefice discussed some of the analyses that have been done toward the modifications. Mr. Davidson noted that Option 2 in the background materials for Council consideration had been put into this year's budget. He reiterated that this project has been a true team effort. It has taken several months to come up with different iterations to accomplish the goal of a more functional and safe substation operation within the financial resources that are available. Mr. Davidson noted that Option 2 was already contained within the current budget at $488K. The requested motion is to provide direction to start the long- term facility. The target date is centered around the construction date that's going to take place near Ina/I -10 — about four years. It would be ideal to have the new police substation relocated before then. When I -10 is lowered, it will cut off east -west access which will have a huge impact on the ability of the town's police department to respond to emergency calls. Council Member Post asked if Option 1 would give the town what is necessary in the interim, to which Mr. Davidson responded that it would and further, that there wouldn't be any extreme impact to operations in the southern portion of the community while renovations were occurring. rice Mayor Comerford moved to direct staff to continue to work on the long -term future vision for the police department, second by Council Member McGorray. Passed unanimously 6 -0. 3: Presentation: Relating to Utilities; proposed comprehensive revisions to Title 14 (Water) of the Town Code in anticipation of changing its title to Utilities and revising its language to cover water and wastewater utilities. Presented by Frank Cassidy, who indicated what has been done to revise Title 14 by eliminating definitions and items that are not needed in the code. Motion by Council Member McGorray moved to direct town staff to proceed with the proposed changes to the Town Code Title 14 and to bring those changes forward to Council for consideration and possible adoption. Second by Vice Mayor Comerford 2 August 9, 2011 Council Meeting Minutes Passed unanimously 6 -0. Council Member McGorray thanked Mr. Cassidy and staff for the work that has been done on this code change. 4: Presentation: Relating to Personnel; discussion and consideration of proposed amendments to the Town's Personnel Policies and Procedures; revising Chapter 3 - Compensation and Chapter 4 - Employment Benefits. Presented by Suzanne Machain. This item relates to holiday pay and the conflict on this item between the personnel policy and the Memorandum of Understanding with the Marana Police Officers Association. The amendment proposes that regardless of whether you work 8 hours or 10 hours on your regular schedule, if your schedule falls on a holiday, you will receive holiday pay equal to the number of hours you would normally work. Ms. Machain noted that this is a first reading and no action is required by Council. This item can come back to Council for adoption at the August 16, 2011 meeting. Motion to direct staff to bring this item back for adoption at the August le meeting by Council Member McGorray, second by Council Member Kai. Passed unanimously 6 -0. 5: Presentation: Relating to Development Impact Fees; overview of Senate Bill 1525 and its implications for the Town's development impact fees; and Council direction on whether to have an infrastructure improvements advisory committee or to submit to a biennial certified audit. Presented by Frank Cassidy, who noted at SB 1525 was adopted this year by the Legislature because there were some municipalities going too far with impact fees. Some were paying impact fees for public safety for helicopters and airplanes. The preexisting impact fee statute allowed municipalities to charge for any public service without identifying what a necessary public service was. So the Legislature essentially decided to prescribe what you can do and how you can do it to avoid all the variations across the state. This is now a fairly rigid statute to deal with, but recognizing that, the Legislature gave cities and towns three years to adopt entirely new impact fee ordinances. So all of Marana's impact fee ordinances need to be replaced to conform to SB 1525. That means new studies and new infrastructureimprovements plans. On the positive side, Marana is not collecting impact fees for anything we should not be collecting for in the permitted realm. A couple of the key things that this law will do is it will require us to have an impact fee not only for residential but also for commercial and industrial uses. For parks, the technical analysis is going to have a significantly lower fee for commercial and industrial uses. Another element is that municipalities which adopt a construction sales tax that's higher than the general sales tax have to credit that full increment against impact fees. Mr. Cassidy would like feedback from Council tonight is whether to submit to a biennial certified audit or to have an infrastructure improvements advisory committee. That committee would consist of people in Marana that we already go to for feedback. Staff is recommending the biennial audit is that it would shorten the time to adopt the impact fees. The committee approach would be more cumbersome. Motion by Vice Mayor Comerford to authorize staff to proceed with a biennial audit in lieu of an infrastructure improvements advisory committee, second by Council Member Ziegler. Passed unanimously 6 -0. 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. 3 August 9, 2011 Council Meeting Minutes Motion to go into executive session by Council Member Ziegler, second by Vice Mayor Comerford. Passed unanimously 6 -0. 1: Executive session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38- 431.03(A)(4) to consider the Town's position and instruct the Town's attorneys regarding a potential settlement of the case entitled Harris v. Town ofMarana, Case No. CV 1 0- 371 -CRP. Motion by Council Member Post, second by Council Member McGorray to give staff authority to proceed as directed in executive session. Passed 5 -1 with Council Member Ziegler voting nay. ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn by Vice Mayor Comerford, second by Council Member McGorray. Passed unanimously 6 -0 at 7:58 p.m. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meeting held on August 9, 2011. I further certify that a quorum was present. o elyn C onson, Town Clerk ��111111�rI,� OF Val 4 August 9, 2011 Council Meeting Minutes