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Home My WebLink About08/13/2013 Study Session MinutesMINLTTES STUDY SESSION 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 2nd Floor Conference Center, August 13, 2013, at or after 6:00 PM Ed Honea, Mayor Jon Post, Vice Mayor David Bowen, Council Member Patti Comerford, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member Carol McGorray, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roll. All Council Members were present. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member Ziegler, second by Council Member Bowen. Passed unanimously. CALL TO THE PUBLIC. No speaker cards were presented. DISCUSSION/DIRECTION/POSSIBLE ACTION D 1: Relating to Strategic Planning; discussion and possible action regarding the 2014 update of the Strategic Plan. Mayor Honea led the discussion by stating that he had talked to each of the Council Members, and everyone seemed content to do the Strategic Plan retreat at the municipal complex and then another day for a field trip. Dates will need to be selected. Curt Dunham and Peggy Fiandaca from Partners for Strategic Action will facilitate the meeting for Strategic Plan III. At that time, Council will talk about updates to the current plan. Mayor Honea started with the retreat first, noting that the Council voted unanimously to go to the Chandler/Queen Creek area for the field trip portion. Vice Mayor Post stated that his issue about going to Queen Creek and Chandler is that if we're going there primarily to look at the arena facility, we'll probably never be able to afford anything on that scale because we don't have the infrastructure that they have. We're designing our infrastructure from the ground up. Council Study Session Minutes — August 13, 2013 Page 1 of 3 Member Comerford said there may be ideas to see how Chandler/Queen Creek got to where to where they are. Vice Mayor Post suggested going to some place like Sonoita to look at that arena. Linden and Willcox were other possible venues to visit an arena. Council Members also seemed to favor saving the cost of an overnight stay by having a one-day working session at the municipal complex, possibly on a weekday in October, and then taking a one-day field trip in December based on the feedback from the working session. Council Member Comerford stated that there have been a lot of changes to deal with since the economic downturn. She has looked at the retreat time as the Council's dream time and not necessarily a time for staff input. Vice Mayor Post asked if after the planning session here, staff could search out an appropriate venue to show something that fits our budget, stating that he wants to be realistic about what we can produce. We can only show the dream; it's up to other people to build it for us. But we can have an idea of what we want it to look like. In addition to nearly unanimous consensus regarding the design and construction of the Heritage Park ranch and arena, Council's suggestions ran from the general — building infrastructure; creating policy; finishing projects such as the Main Street/downtown plan, having staff review projects and plans that have been on the shelf since the beginning of the recession that might create problems when they re-surface; creating jobs and shopping to bring people here; reviewing andlor revisiting areas for future annexations — to the specific such as having staff complete cost-benefit analyses of how Saguaro Bloom sewer revenues could aid development along Avra Valley Road; development at the airport; using established reserves as well as the appropriate use of revenues from the new landfill; building a paved road to the proposed Veterans' Cemetery site, rewarding employees with financial incentives for cost-saving ideas and a formal way for staff to offer suggestions that is broader than a cost-saving idea. Also, Vice Mayor Post would like to explore the possibility of putting a prograxn/policy of partnerships in place to be ready to help landowners if a significant business wants to relocate to Marana quickly, emphasizing that this would give us the ability to attract the kind of businesses we want to grow here. This is similar to Council Member McGorray's request to have "shovel-ready" dirt available for proj ects. Council Member Comerford noted that she also had Council-Staff relations improvement on her agenda. Because staff is working on projects all the time, Council doesn't always see what's going on. She would like a presentation update of projects the Council has approved — perhaps on a quarterly basis. Council Member Kai stated that we need to have incentives for businesses coming into town, such as Fry's in Gladden Farms, to see if there is a way to rebate some of the sales tax they regenerate. Council discussion ensued about the timing of the retreat and the field trip. Generally, they liked the idea of a one-day retreat at the municipal complex in October to get their ideas together and discuss them in more depth. That would also help them determine the best location for a field trip. Mr. Davidson was asked to have staff look into some of the suggestions that were posed tonight and bring those back in written form to Council at the study session on September 10. He said that most of their discussion items are elements of the current Strategic Plan and can easily be categorized. He will also have his staff work with Council to find an acceptable date for the retreat; Study Session Minutes —August 13, 2013 Page 2 of 3 Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays being the best. A field trip can be scheduled after that in December. Council felt that this was one of the best study sessions they've had in terms of getting work done and would like to look at doing these quarterly throughout the year. Council Member Gorray left the meeting at 7:23 p.m. Vice Mayor Post stated that at the end of this process he would like to pick three to five absolutely viable projects that we don't just talk about but do —an action plan and an encapsulated of the strategic vision. ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn at 7:31 p.m. by Vice Mayor Post, second by Council Member Bowen. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council Study Session held on August 13, 2013. I further certify that a quorum was present. � ,G , ��„�� , �'.- .... .. Study Session Minutes—August 13, 2013 Page 3 of 3