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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/02/2014 Regular Council Meeting Minutes- REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, December 2, 2014 at or after 7:00 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 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. All Council Members were present. PLEDGE OF ALLEOIANCEANVOCATIONIMOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member McGorray, second by Council Member Bowen. Passed unanimously. CALL TO THE PUBLIC At this time any member of the public is allowed to address the Town Council on any issue within the jurisdiction of the Town Council, except for items scheduled for a Public Hearing at this meeting. The speaker may have up to three minutes to speak. Any persons wishing to address the Council must complete a speaker card located outside the Council Chambers and deliver it to the Town Clerk prior to the commencement of the meeting. Individuals addressing a meeting at the Call to the Public will not be provided with electronic technology capabilities beyond the existing voice amplification and recording capabilities in the facilities and the Town's December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 1 overhead projector/document reader. Pursuant to the Arizona open Meeting Law, at the conclusion of Call to the Public, individual members of the Council may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the Council, and may ask staff to review the matter, or may ask that the matter be placed on a future agenda. There were no speaker cards presented. PROCLAMATIONS Proclamation honoring Ann Meaders' 20 years of service to the Town of Marana. Ms. Bronson read the proclamation, and Ms. Meaders was recognized for her service by Mayor Honea, John Kmiec and former Utilities Director, Brad DeSpain. Ms. Meanders officially retires on December 12, 2014. MAYOR. AND COUNCIL REPORTS: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS, Council Member Bowen reported on the ribbon- cutting of the year - around farmer's market that was held at River and Stone. He noted that this event is good for the region, and helps promote camaraderie and good health. MANAGER'S REPORT: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS Mr. Davidson reported that the Council Executive Report for November will be available early next week. Next, he introduced the Marana Citizens' Forum to present their recommendations to Council resulting from the Fall 2014 session on job creation and retention. Heath Vescovi- Chiordi introduced Jeff Voss, who presented on behalf of the Forum group, noting that this presentation focused primarily on the downtown area. He began with the goals and objectives with the initial focus to be on Downtown Marana. The first recommendation was to form and develop a thriving downtown district with parks and businesses and event areas. The second recommendation was to create a shared work space facility for businesses wishing to expand. To provide assistance through seminars and training, and creating a stronger online presence at the town for the initial stages of business development. The third recommendation was to provide connectivity to adjacent neighborhoods and destinations such as the Heritage River Park and Santa Cruz shared use path. This recommendation also included creating good transportation routes, providing parking and good ingress and egress from the area. The fourth recommendation was to integrate this overall concept with the YourTown brand for marketing campaigns. Mr. Voss concluded by acknowledging that the recommendations can be incorporated into the town's current development efforts to help Marana create an identity as a destination that December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 2 embodies the town's heritage along with its vision as a progressive community. Council thanked Mr. Voss and the delegates. Council Member McGorray asked the delegates present to stand and be recognized for their contributions. Mr. Davidson PRESENTATIONS CONSENT AGENDA. Ms. Bronson noted that there was a correction to the minutes regarding the members of the Council Committee to review Personnel Action Review Board applications. The correct members are Vice Mayor Post and Council Members Comerford and McGorray. Motion to approve as corrected by Council Member McGorray, second by Council. Member Kai. Passed unanimously. The Consent Agenda contains items requiring action by the Council which are generally routine items not requiring Council discussion. A single motion and affirmative vote will approve all items on the Consent Agenda, including any resolutions or ordinances. Prior to a motion to approve the Consent Agenda, any Council member may remove any item from the Consent Agenda and that item will be discussed and voted upon separately. C1 Approval of November 18, 2014 Council Meeting Minutes (Jocelyn C. Bronson) LIQUOR LICENSES BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES COUNCIL ACTION Al Ordinance No. 2014.029 Relating to Parks and Recreation; amending Marana Town Code Chapter 13 -2 (Fingerprinting and Criminal History Records Checks of Parks and Recreation Personnel and Volunteers); amending Section 13 -2 -3 (Fingerprinting of current and prospective parks and recreation personnel and volunteers; criminal history record information) to provide that fingerprinting of specified personnel and volunteers shall be permissive rather than mandatory and clarifying required frequency of fingerprinting; adding new Section 13 -2 -4 entitled "Alternative background investigations "; and declaring an emergency. Presented by Jane Fairall, who explained that this item and Resolution No. 2014 -120 are basically to give the town staff a little more flexibility in doing background investigations for certain employees, volunteers and contractors. Under the current town code, we are required to do fingerprinting that we send to Department of Public Safety for criminal histories and records checks for employees, volunteers and contractors that work with children or vulnerable adults. December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 3 While this is a good practice, it takes six to eight weeks to get the results back. As an example, in some instances the season is over before we get results back on volunteer coaches. What staff is proposing is not to take away our ability to fingerprint, but that we may fingerprint rather than we shall, and that speaks to alternative background screening checks. Screening can be done through a variety of data bases and Social Security information which will yield results in three to five days. She noted that there is an emergency clause attached to the ordinance. Council Member Bowen inquired as to the current process and its effectiveness. Ms. Fairall responded we use the DPS process and we have been fortunate not to have a check come back on someone we should have hired or contracted with. It is not known how the two processes compare. .Motion to approve by Council .Member Bowen, second by Council Member McGorray. Ms. Bronson polled the Council due to the emergency clause. The Council Members voted unanimously in favor of the motion. A2 Resolution No. 2014- 120 Relating to Personnel; approving and adopting amendments to the Town's Personnel Policies and Procedures, revising Chapter 2 - Employment Process). Presented by Ms. Machain, who noted that some of the revisions being proposed are directly in alignment with the ordinance just approved. She went over the various changes. ,Motion to approve by Council Member Kai, second by Council .Member Mc Gorray. Passed unanimously. A3 Resolution No. 2014 -121 Relating to Administration; approving the transfer of up to $800,000 in budgeted expenditure authority from the General Fund contingency line item to the Heritage Park, Splash Pad project in the fiscal year 20142015 budget for expenses related to the construction of the Splash Pad at the Marana Heritage River Park. Ms. Christeman gave an update on the projects going on this year and the need for the additional funding request of $800,000 to complete the projects. Going on this year are some improvements to the farm and the design and construction of the splash pad. The other activity this year is associated with the Pima County Bond Program. Per our resolution, we requested $32M originally; $16M was recommended from the County Administrator, and $19M is what the committee is currently forwarding on for the heritage park project. The topics being discussed tonight are the farm where it exists now (site of the harvest Festival) and the splash pad. At the farm, there is the construction of the parking lot, the addition of some electrical and fencing and ADA parking and the installation of the garden plots that are being rented. Some of the requested funding is for a restroom at the farm and for additional infrastructure for restroorn facilities at the splash pad. Right now plans for the splash pad are at 90 %, and the costs are relatively close to what was originally estimated with the exception of a restroom and showers. with the site improvements and additional parking, we are assuming this will be a very high traffic area as the only other splash pad in the area is at Brandi Fenton Park, December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 4 which is smaller than Marana's. For the splash pad we are looking at about $1.5M. Currently in the park impact fee line item, we have $1.16M. we are anticipating a little contingency because we don't know any potential problems with the farm construction. Adding the farm restroom will be about. $285K. A total request would be $1.94M. If we take what we currently have in the fund balance from the $1.94M, we are short about $779,777. So the request is for funding not to exceed $800K. Motion to approve by Vice Mayor Post, se cond by Council Member Bowen. Passed unanimously. Council Member Ziegler asked if the maintenance expenses were part of the budget request and what the annual operation expense would be. Mr. Davidson responded that maintenance is part of the operations budget, and ongoing maintenance will be part of the Parks and Recreation budget for 2016 and is not part of this request as construction will probably start in January and run through the spring. Torn Ellis responded that with utilities and chemicals and replacing parts from time to time, it is anticipated that annual maintenance costs for the splash pad will be about $34K.. At this time, there isn't a need to add personnel as the staff taking care of the pool and aquatic facility should be able to take care of the splash pad. Most of the cost is electricity and water. A4 Public Hearin : Relating to Police Depart discussion, direction. and possible action regarding the need for a new police facility and the funding options to pay for the facility, including the possible implementation of a temporary 1 /4 or 1 / 2 cent dedicated sales tax. Presented by Chief Terry Rozema, who noted that this is the final public hearing. Mayor Honea announced the opening of the public hearing. Chief Rozema reviewed the past several months of community outreach, the need for a new facility and the possible funding options to pay for it. Erik Montague presented the funding options and existing sources of funds as well as new revenue sources and some of the challenges for both options. Based on feedback, staff focused on a temporary dedicated sales tax. He noted that the town has experience with a dedicated sales tax. A number of . jurisdictions throughout Arizona have dedicated sales tax for public safety and transportation. He then showed an updated sales tax chart of estimates showing what an118 cent, 1 /4 cent and 1 /2 cent sales tax could yield to fund the facility. U an illustrative example with a variety of funding sources and how long it would take to repay loans, he reviewed the possible revenues for each. For an 118 cent tax, the repayment duration would be a little under ten years. For a 1 /�4 cent tax, it would be a little under five years. For a 1 /2 cent tax, repayment would be about 2.4 years, and for an impact of about $500K, it would be about 24 years. From a cash flow perspective and dependent upon the monies we collect, it might be better to cash finance a significantly larger portion of that facility depending on the timing of the implementation of the tax combined with the construction schedule. December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 5 In response to what our current cash reserves are, Mr. Montague stated that we are just short of $23M in the general fund. Mayor Honea asked if the $18M cost included infrastructure improvements, landscaping, sidewalks, etc. or is it just the building. Mr. Montague said it was his understanding that it was just the cost of the facility and furniture and fixtures, but it does include a 20 percent contingency. Based on some of the estimates or work done previously by some of the engineering groups that staff met with, the amount did take into consideration the location and some of the improvements. Vice Mayor Post asked why, given the amount of money we've been able to put away in reserves, are we going out for a sales tax increase and not just paying the bond payment out of our normal cash flow. Mr. Montague explained the purpose of holding the reserves for use at appropriate times or for projects. Related to the use of any reserves, we should not to reduce it below the level of the policy or practice established of not having less than 25 percent of budgeted expenditures. Mr. Davidson responded that we have a structurally balanced budget which means that all identified revenue is fully allocated to some expense. The reason we have been able to put money into the bank is because we have been very efficient with our resources or we have not been able to complete a project within that fiscal year. So to be able to account for a full debt service payment means we have to cut out of the budget whatever that debt service payment would be. That's why, without a lot of sacrifice, we wouldn't be able to program it into the current budget. Mr. Montague again commented on the use of reserves and why, if we do use reserves, within a two - -three year period, we will be back to 25 percent because of the limitation we've established relating to those reserves and depending on the economy. That's if we use 100 percent cash financing for that. Council Member Comerford asked about the six percent of respondents to the survey that didn't support the sales tax. Chief Rozema stated that he did some research into the statistical significance of the concerns that were brought forward, and there is statistical significance based on a populace of roughly 20,000 voters that we have in Marana. The problem with that is when you start placing confidence intervals and percentages into the mix is that the people who completed the surveys listened to the entire presentation, and that wouldn't necessarily be the case for all voters. He said that he has loo percent confidence in the people he spoke to and who listened to the presentations, they overwhelmingly support the project, and it's not just residents, its business owners as well. Mr. Montague continued with the estimated impact that might be associated with a dedicated sales tax. It does provide flexibility in a number of areas. one is the rate or percentage, and examples have been provided. Duration or length of time is also flexible. we could put a cap after we collect a particular dollar amount and the tax is rescinded. we can exclude certain categories or transactions. of the 91 Arizona cities and towns, approximately 23 have a single item exemption. For a specific dollar amount of a purchase, it would be taxed at a different or December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 6 lesser rate. Of those 23, approximately ten of them use $5,000 for items such as cars, boats, motor homes, jewelry and certain large purchases. As an example, for a jurisdiction with a two percent tax raised to two and a half percent, they might have a single item exemption transaction for $5,000 or more, and that would be taxed at the lower rate. He gave an example which is used by the City of Avondale. That could be considered here. The full amount of the item is taxed at the lower rate. Mayor Honea asked if, for an item over $5,000, you could only tax the first $5,000 and nothing over that. Mr. Montague stated that it becomes increasingly more complex. As part of the process should it move forward, we'll need to bring the recommendation to the Model City Tax Code Commission to be reviewed for consistency and compliance. We may receive some push back on that from the business community related to their accounting and business systems. Mr. Davidson clarified that the tax does not apply to food items. The town does not tax for food consumption, although that option does exist. Mr. Montague then gave an illustrative example timeline for Council action. Council is not able to take formal action this evening because we are obligated to provide certain notices under state statute. Any increase in fee or tax on a business requires a 60 -day notice. For a July start date, notice would have to be posted on the town's website by the end of February. The earliest Council could consider the tax would be the second meeting in April. If approved, we would have ten days to notify the Arizona Department of Revenue as well as the Municipal Tax Commission of the intended action. Council Member Ziegler noted that although she recognizes the need for a new police facility, she has concerns over how to pay for the facility. She is not a proponent of raising the sales tax in Marana in any amount. She would like to see comparisons on the dedicated sales tax for the local area. She doesn't feel comparing Marana to Maricopa County cities and towns is reasonable. A 1 /2 cent sales tax would give us the highest sales tax in the Pima County region. She also raised the issue of cost of debt or cost per capita, and said she has been told and has seen that Marana is close to $4,000 per person. She would like to see a comparison on the debt per capita with southern Arizona towns, a breakdown on the $18M and how that figure was arrived at as well as the higher level components. She then reiterated her previous comments about Marana's current debt starting with the 99 -year. State Land lease, the Tangerine /Downtown sewer line, expansion of the sewer, recent taxes, including 17% from the County, override from Marana Unified School District, the Pima Animal Control Center, and purchase of the sewer from Pima County. She asked to make a motion, but Mayor Honea noted that several speakers had yet to be heard. Mr. Davidson responded that related to sales tax across the region, everyone in Pima County is at two percent. Oro Valley has recently kicked off a community discussion similar to Marana's of increasing their sales tax to 2.5 percent. Their sales tax would be permanent, taking half for police and half to support their park system. December Z, 2014 Meeting Minutes 7 He continued, saying that we actually have limited debt for the town. The bottom line is that Marana is a growth community requiring investments on behalf of all residents -- roads, interchanges, public parks and facilities all have a cost. He then referred to the earlier presentation by the Citizens' Forum that identified that we need to continue to make investments. So the discussion tonight about a police facility is just one more step in the evolution of the town — an investment for the future. overall, our debt is relatively low for the growth potential of Marana's future. In response to Council discuss, Mr. Davidson emphasized that staff first needed to know if there is actually intent to help fund this project before spending any additional money on planning and getting into the specific details. So if there is a desire for this Council to move this forward, then staff will begin the process to start looking at the details of the facility. The $ISM figure is based on engineers who were brought to look at our needs and to give us a comparable to what other similar facilities have cost in other communities. All of that material has been supplied in previous sessions. There won't be a breakdown of costs, but it is more about comparables for square footage, etc. Staff can provide more detail once Council gives direction to move forward. All the current debt has different funding sources, such as impact fees. while there is an up- front cash outlay to be expended; then it all gets paid back from the growth coming into the community. And the same thing will eventually happen for the main sewer plant. All of those things have been identified and talked about as part of the overall funding impact that this facility may have. Ed Stolmaker, President and CEO of the Marana Chamber of Commerce, stated that the Chamber board voted to support the new police facility with a budget not exceeding $18M. The board recommended that the proposed sales tax not exceed one -half cent, and that the sales tax not be applied to retail items of more than $1,000. After hearing from Mr. Montague tonight, he understood that a potential exclusion of $5,000 may also be considered. The board's decisions were based on the needs of the police station, the safety issues, the liability issues, and overall need. The board recommended that the sales tax be the revenue source for building the station while using some of the other resources that are available, such as some reserves and other monies, to draw the debt down from $18M to $15M, and do that in a reasonable amount of time with a sunset when the facility is paid off. David Morales spoke suggesting that the building of Kasha's at Dove Mountain and Fry's at Gladden Farms be used as benchmarks to be in place before implementing a sales tax. Until these two items get built it would be a mistake to go on the sales tax. He suggested that Council go to Harley Davidson and ask them how they feel about the sales tax because it will affect them directly. He referred to the prior discussion about a splash pad. He believes the town needs to grow intelligently and responsibly, and he feels that Council is rushing this. He supports the December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 8 police department; however, funding is an issue. He was against the town going into the sewer business. If the town hadn't gone into the sewer business, this funding would be no problem. They (the town) will have this "yoke" until there are enough houses to offset it. John Beale, a resident for 14 years who recently participated in the Citizens' Police Academy stated that he saw a group of people who love doing what they're doing. He is in favor of the police facility. If he had a risk manager with him or a quality review specialist, they would run from the current facility. He believes we are years behind where we should be. The question is why hasn't it been built before. The town will grow when there is a good thing going, people want to live here, but you have to have infrastructure and business. with funding, keep it simple. He knows that he will receive the benefits of this new facility, and there are a lot of people willing to pay for it. So whatever you decide as the percentage, it's minimal. He is willing to spend to get his safety in line with the basics. Marcia Jakab spoke in support of a new police facility. She noted that the Police Chief spoke to her homeowners' meeting last month, and there was a good group of attendees. People come to those meetings with a lot of emotion, so she was surprised at how supportive everyone was. They had no idea of what we don't have. She stated that Marana thinks of itself as a class act, and we need a police station to support that. She also believes that keeping it simple as the previous speaker stated, is really important. People voted funding for the County animal shelter. People are willing to spend the money to get what they want, and we need the services. It would help attract new residents as well as new police officers, and help retain current employees. We're trying to go out and get universities and businesses to come and make their headquarters in Marana. we have to ante up with a police station to match. Mayor Honea closed the public hearing, and Council Member Ziegler proceeded with her remaining concerns. She wants to get this project down to $12M without raising taxes. It has nothing to do with having a new station or not; it's about paying for it. She would rather pay for it quickly and get it over with. She asked how much we have in reserves now and how much we can reduce that. Mr. Montague stated that the policy established some time ago has to do with establishing a 25 percent minimum. Based on current expenditures, it's just under $9M. So we wouldn't want to reduce reserves at any time to less than $9M. Economic recovery is conning, but not fast enough. Let's talk about how far we can get that $12M down. Council Member Kai stated that he understands the need and importance of a first class police facility, but he has concerns about funding the project with a V2 cent sales tax or more to get this thing moving. with our economy so fragile now, we don't want to drive Marana shoppers somewhere else. He asked if a hybrid solution was possible, indicating that the new mall will definitely have numerous buildings available that will be unoccupied. Possibly we could take a December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 9 couple of buildings, make a substation, or do whatever the Chief needs. As far as our substation here in Marana, we could probably remodel that and maybe get by for less than $18M. Council Member Bowen asked if data was available on how a single item exclusion of $5,000, would impact the numbers given to Council. Mr. Montague responded that that level of data is currently not available and will require some cooperation between the town and the business community. Council Member Bowen indicated that from what Council has heard, most of the business community that have been approached and many of the citizens want this whether the Council does or not, and we need to take into account what the citizens want. Vice Mayor Post suggested taking money from the reserves and moving this project down the road a bit to get a hard number that Council feels comfortable with as a down payment on this project. Maybe look at impact fees again and find out exactly what this is going to cost us. we've had three meetings where we've talked about spending $18M of the public's money. we do need a police station, but he would like to do it smarter. He suggested using some money to get a design. Chief Rozema stated that he didn't have the figures as far as the design cost, but the people that were consulted are in the business of building police facilities, so they based the information on a number of things. One of those was a needs assessment done about one and a half years ago. The consultants indicated that for a facility to grow into over the next 30 years would take roughly 60,000 feet. The cost based on that square footage was roughly $20M. Staff and consultants worked to refine some of the needs and requirements for the same period and came up with a facility of about 45,000 square feet for $18M. Although the numbers may seem rough, the reality is that these consultants do this on a regular basis, so their initial assessments and estimates are pretty close. The Chief didn't have an actual cost from a design architect at this time, but could get that information to Council. Vice Mayor Post stated that he personally would like to see the numbers a little tighter, to know exactly what we would be comfortable pulling from reserves, exactly what number we would be comfortable going to our residents with. He was not saying `no'; he was saying let's do things a little bit cleaner. Council Member Ziegler agreed with Vice Mayor Post. She suggested taking $2M to do some design studies so Council can see what will be built. She would like the specifics of what we will be getting for that amount of money. Motion by Council Member Ziegler, second by Council Member Kai, to continue the item to receive more detail to a date uncertain. Mayor Honea called the question and asked Ms. Bronson to poll the Council. Motion faired 5 -2 with Council Members Ziegler and Kai voting "aye". Mayor Honea asked if there was a second motion. Council Member Bowen moved to direct staff to initiate the process to adopt a dedicated % cent sales tax to be used for the construction of the police facility, using $5M from the reserve funds as well as $]M from RICO funds for the design, engineering, construction and equipment in an amount not to December 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes 10 exceed $18M with a sunset clause of three years. Second by Council .Member Comerford. Mayor Honea called for the question. Council Member ,Ziegler asked if the motion included asking for firm numbers, to which Council Member Bowen responded that it did not. Mr. Davidson interjected and asked that as part of the discussion on the motion, if there is there an exemption or cap to a single item purchase. Council Member Bowen stated that he would like to add an exclusion of $5K. for a single item purchase to his motion. Vice Mayor Post asked for clarification on the motion regarding whether we are just moving forward with the sales tax option or specifying an actual percentage. Council Member Bowen said that he was specifying that a 1/2 cent sales tax be implemented. Mayor Honea asked Nis. Bronson to poll the Council. The motion passed 6-1 with Council Member Ziegler voting nay. Council Member Ziegler noted that her vote was not against a new police facility, but rather due to not having all the facts and information and putting another burden on the community with another sales tax is not a fiduciary result of what we are here for. we should be protecting our community. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSIONIPOSSIBLE ACTION D1 Relating to Legislation and Government Actions; discussion and possible action regarding all pending state, federal, and local legislation/government actions and on recent and upcoming meetings of the other governmental bodies. Mr. Davidson noted that on the next agenda, Council will be considering adoption of the standard legislative agenda for the 2015 session. A copy of that will be distributed to Council by the end of this week. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38- 431.03, the Town Council may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, to discuss certain matters. El 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. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Notwithstanding the mayor's discretion regarding the items to be placed on the agenda, if three or more Council members request that an item be placed on the agenda, it must be placed on the agenda for the second regular Town Council meeting after the date of the request, pursuant to Marana Town Code Section 2- 4 -2(B). December Z, 2014 Meeting Minutes 11 ADJOURNMENT. Motion to ad at 9.-,26 p.m. b Vice Ma Post, second b Council Member Bowen. Passed unanimousl CERTIFICATION I hereb certif that the fore are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meetin held on December 2, 2014. 1 further certif that a q uorum was present. cel C. 'ronson, Town Clerk 7 RRAANA-1 A F z December 2, 2014 Meetin Minutes 12