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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/24/2015 Study Session MinutesN . 7 9 MAR.. NA 17 STUDY SESSION MINUTES 1 1555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Ar izona 85 Council C=hambers, March 24, 2015, 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 STUDY SESSION CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roll. Council Member McGorray was e xc used. There was a quorum present. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE. Led by Mayor Honea. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to ajjproi�e the agenda b moving Item D5 to D3. Second bj� Council Member Bowen. Passed 6--0. CALL TO TILL PUBLIC No speaker cards were presented. DISCUSSIONIDIRLCTION IPOSSI13LL ACTION DI Presentation: Relating to Floodplain Management; discussion regarding the ponding old the Marana parcels known as the El Rio open Space Area and the sustainability and safety of the area. Introduced by Gilbert Davidson, who noted that several months ago the town was made aware of the lake that had formed. An outside consultant looked at the issue from a safety perspective for residents as well as what opportunities this asset could bring to the town. Those findings will be presented tonight which we hope will spur more dialog with all affected parties. March 24 2015 Study Session Minutes 1 Mr. Brann gave the specifics surrounding the formation of the lake, particularly the September 20 14 stalled hurricane/summer storm. There was a breach that had been there for a couple of years which had allowed some flows to come in. But the 2014 event widened the breach and blew it out, so there is a much different situation to deal with now. The lake is in the north side of Continental Ranch and was a barrow pit from the I- 10 construction dating back to the 1960's. The town acquired the property from ADO.T. Beginning in 2011, the town had a disk golf group move in there. They did a lot of cleanup and removed a lot of trash; their presence removed a lot of the undesirable activity which was occurring there. Physically, the lake is made up of two 40- acre parcels. About 50 acres of the pit area is subject to the ponding. The latest breach has caused effluent flows going into the pit, with a low flow area and a high flow area. The higher flows lead to the breach but not with enough volume to sustain the pit. As the weather gets warmer the pit will drain. we saw a lot more flows until January which shifted the effluent channel with intermittent flows coming in during certain times of the day. The town has a project with Pima County to continue the trails in the area which will require looking at mending the erosive forces. There are a few options (1) do nothing; (2) repair the breach; or (3) convert the breach into a recreation feature as a permanent lake. The thirt option will get us into the issue of water righ Ricardo Aguirre, consultant, spoke to those features. � Ie was brought to the project to look at the opportunities for this amenity. These would be under the umbrella of social, financial and economic opportunities. I �e referenced a project outside of Albuquerque called Valle De Oro. US Fish and wildlife created an initiative to get urban citizens involved in national wildlife refuge. This is the model he looked at for the Marana pond. Part of the project is to establish and preserve a natural habitat. Another potential opportunity is to create a wetland mitigation bank. That's the identification of a water resource that you set aside as an exchange that can be paid into this bank. An example is Yuma, which has an east and west wetland linked to the Colorado River. He also looked into this with a view to a 404 permit. Among the ecological values that could be gained is the opportunity of sequestering carbon. He explained the solutions from a bioengineering standpoint. Mr. Davidson opened this up for discussion, including speakers front the audience. Shannon Jones addressed Council and stated she hopes the lake becomes a wetland and nature preserve. She spore to a hydrologist who said there is no concern for flooding of homes. Her concern is dogs who are let off the leash at the lake. Brian Tones spoke as a Marana resident immediately adjacent to the pit. He talked about the value of the lake as a wildlife habitat. � Ie initiated an online petition to maintain the lake as a wildlife habitat. Over 300 people signed the petition. Brad DeSpain spoke as to who owns the water and who has a right to the water. He does not believe Marana has the rights to the effluent at this tinge. He would life his letter to Council kept with the permanent record and for the town's legal counsel to loop at ARS statutes 45- 171, 145- 73, 45175. He is not opposed to the preserve, just a portion of the effluent that is being diverted and going into the lake. I Ie would be happy to meet with Council on this subject. David Wittrig spore. His property backs up to the pit. In 11 1 /2 years he has seen the flo come and go. The question is how to restore the resident quality of life because of the flooding at the pit due to stagnant water, mosquitoes and issues with wildlife coming down the streets. He would like affirmation that no potential flooding would exist and identify and mitigate environmental impact. The pit floods every year during the monsoons. Andrew Core in Continental Reserve March 24, 2015 Study Session Minutes spoke regarding binding at the pit. The lake could be a destination for birders. There is a lot less dumping and Shooting Since the disk golf course went in. D2 ordinance N 2015.007 Relating to Parks and Recreation; designating the Marana parcels generally located in the floodway on the west side of the Santa Cruz River north of Coachline Boulevard known as the El Rio open Space Area as a Town preserve; providing that the preserve shall be subject to the Parks and Recreation Regulations set forth in Chapter 13-1 of the Marana Town Code; and declaring an emergency. Presented by Jane Fairall. Motion to approve by Council Mevnzber Ziegler, second by Vice Mayor Post. Passed 5 -1 with Council Member 1(ai voting nay. Council Member Ziegler commented and stated that the Council should make sure we are not over - stepping anyone's water rights. Vice Mayor P'ost's concerns are those of the residents living most closely to the lake and their quality of life. Council Member Kai concurred with the Vice Mayor's comments as well as the water rights. Mr. Cassidy clarified that the emergency clause required a 75% affirmative vote. with one member excused and one member voting nay, the ordinance passed without the emergency clause. I]3 Relating to Public 'Works; A presentation on the Town's proposed 6 -year Capital Improvement program to be included in the FYI 6 budget. Presented by Keith Brann, who noted that this item is highlighted in the Strategic Plan. He began with the 13 Transportation projects highlighted in the presentation, stating that Marana Main Street roundabout reconstruction due to settlement issues and bad cracking, and the Sandario Road sidewalk /path should be substantially completed by the end of the year. Two Parks projects — the Heritage Park splash pad and Park restroom should also be completed by the end of the year. Project design has been completed on the Tangerine /Downtown sewer conveyance system, the shared use path from El Rio to Avra Valley Road, Twin Peaks Road shared use path access and Camino Martin /Jeremy Place reconstruction. Next he reviewed the process for developing the - seal years 2015-2021 CIP preliminary budget, only year one of the six years is going to get programmed into the budget, so the program itself is flexible from year to year. The ranking criteria is based on several factors including any contractual obligation, making sure the project aligns with the town's goals, department priority, available outside funding, effects on operation and maintenance costs and the effect on town revenue. In some years, ranking is not necessary, and this year it was minimal. I -Ie then highlighted some of the year one projects which are being; looped at to fold into the FY 16 budget. First is the Marana public safety facility with funding from the proposed '/2 cent sales tax and some specific general fund reserves for site costs as well as some RICO finds. There have been discussions with Northwest Fire to co- locate their dispatch center, and they are willing to join in the cost of that. The funding is listed on the charter, but the intergovernmental agreement has not been completed. If that doesn't happen, then the costs shown would be scaled back. Phase I of the Tangerine Road I -10 to La Canada project, the R`1 "A project which we are contractually obligated to do will go forward without having to bond for it. He continued reviewing the preliminary projects with their cost and revenue sources. Mr. Brann then reviewed the Parrs projects. Council Member Ziegler asked about the repairs needed at the Ora Mae I darn pool. Mr. Davidson noted that there have been investments in the pool each year. It is an old pool that was inherited from the County. The upgrade to bring it into Mare 24, 2015 Study Session Minutes 3 more modern standards is to m ale a zero -point slope so that you could wa lly right in, providing greater disability access to the pool; and also upgrade a number of the chemical and mechanical systems. So even if the bond doesn't happen, long term we will have to continue making improvements to the pool. If the bond package doesn't go through we will need to have a conversation about what to do in upcoming years. Mr. Brann then reviewed the Airport Master Plan and Water /Wastewater six -year project plans. Mr. Davidson noted that the Airport is an enterprise fund and is subsidized every year by the town's general fund. D4 Relating to Public warps; a presentation on the Town's proposed 6 - year Pavement Preservation program to be included in the FYI Budget. Mr. Benavides began his presentation by noting that the town maintains 511 miles of pavement. That is the distance between Marana and Malibu, California. The goals of the program are to use a proactive maintenance philosophy, delay the rate of deterioration, reduce overall maintenance costs, improve payment conditions over time, increase safety and achieve higher customer satisfaction. � Ie then provided a high level overall condition index (OCI) which is a g system used to determine the type of treatment that will be applied. The town's current overall average OCI is 77 percent, which is fairly high. Deterioration factors include weather, chemicals, general wear and time. � Ie discussed the treatment types, and preservation efforts over time beginning with 2012 -2014. During that period approximately 43 lane miles were completed. He then charted the future preservation plan beginning with 2015. Each year through. 2021, the plan calls for approximately $1.4M to $1.5M for preserving between 41 to 75 lane miles. Mr. Benavides noted that the department has been deficient in their communication efforts to the public in providing information about upcoming projects. He then outlined the proposed plan to remedy this starting with a road work schedule direct link on the town's website. Further public outreach efforts will be made through HOA newsletters, local media, the town website and applications, the Community Development department, radio announcement, social media on Facebook and Twitter and community meetings. He wants to focus on actually over - communicating even if it means going door to door. Council Member Ziegler asked where the money comes from if it is subject to available funding. Is the money plugged in as a fixed amount each year? Mr. Davidson responded that some of what is being laid out is just for the next year. Mr. Benavides' pavement preservation plan is directly linked to our Highway User Revenue Funds (HURT). To fully fund future years, we will have to loot{ beyond the HURT dollars. we do have the construction transportation fund for major reconstructs and could potentially use some of that money for moderate road construction. Mr. Brann's presentation with the CIP covers a whole list of revenue sources. Those funds will also help to build some of those projects. Council Member Ziegler said that she would like an emphasis on fixing the roads in Continental Ranch given the age of those roads. Council Member Comerford said that the communication piece is important to understand why there eight be a break in the road construction such as weather. March 24, 2015 Study Session Minutes 4 I]5 Presentation: Relating to Finance; discussion and overview regarding the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System and efforts and options to improve the long -term sustainability of the plan. Mr. Montague noted that this is one of the four retirement systems the town participates in. In 2011 the Legislature made some changes to make the plans more stable over time. He reviewed how the local board and the state work together. The League of Arizona Cities and Towns assembled a task force to review all aspects of PSPRS with Scott McCarty, chair of that task force. He is also the finance director for the Town of Queen Creels. Mr. McCarty talked about some of the concepts that are being pursued. This affects all police and fire employees regardless of municipality. He reviewed the system and what the task force has been doing since .Tune 2014 when the task force was formed. There are 15 members who reflect the demographics of the system. Their charge was to loots at all aspects of the system and make reform recommendations. There are 256 different employer plans as part of this one system. Marana only has one plan. There are about 32,000 active and retired employees in the system. what varies 'from town to town are the financial conditions of each plan. The whole system is presently $6.6I3 underfunded liabilities to assets. The employee contributions are constant at 11.65 percent. within the system, Marana is running its own plan. The task force approach was done in phases. Phase I was information and education and becoming knowledgeable about systems across the country. That led to Phase 2, which was to develop employer - recommended practices to improve individual plans. Under Phase 3, they looked for characteristics of a well - designed plan. From Phase 1, they walked away from six major observations. The most obvious is what's causing the deteriorating financial condition across the 256 plans. It goes beyond the great recession. It's not a matter of losing asset value; there are also systemic issues that need to be addressed. The second observation was that for the system to work it requires a structure of the state legislature, PSPRS, the local legislative body and the local board working together. The third observation was that employers are managing a pension plan. This is different than the non- public safety retirement system.. He deferred on the fourth observation, numbers, which he got to later. The fifth observation is the public outreach piece — to get before elected officials, staff and the community to talk about what the plan is and engage the employer in running that plan. The sixth observation relates to one pending lawsuit and one that's already been decided when the legislature changed the system in 2011. As a result, several lawsuits were filed. Those suits are being upheld and the changes are being reset back to the way the system was prior to 2011. In the current state of the system, you can't make any changes to existing retirees' their level of benefits. Mr. McCarty then moved into Phase 2, employer recommended practices. Ile noted that employers can improve their plan's financial condition without waiting for resolution of pending litigation or legislative changes by increasing the assets or decreasing the liabilities, which is very hard to do in practice. Seven recommended practices were noted. The one he focused on was to pay off unfunded liability or debt earlier. He then showed the town's numbers for the next fiscal year. As the employer, the town will be contributing about $1.2M. That's about $17K per employee. The percent funded is about 61 percent. From a contribution rate perspective, they are looking at the amortization cost and the unfunded liability. That's relatively affordable, about what is paid for nonpublic safety employees. In general, the rate is going from om 19.3 9% percent to 24.80 %, a 28 % increase. In Marana there are 21 retirees. Relative to the number of March 24, 2015 Study Session Minutes 5 employees that ratio will get a 50 percent snatch, so that the percentages wi ll go up, and the ratio needs to be watched closely. The debt is set to be paid off in 22 years. But the task force has recommendations to do that sooner. over the next 22 years the town would be paying $13M in interest as a component of the annual contribution at an estimated annual interest rate of 7.85 percent. The concept is like a mortgage. Phase 3 is to design a well - structured plan. The guiding principles are to make it adequate and affordable. It needs to be a meaningful amount, financially solvent, and transparent and accountable. � Ie then reviewed where the task force is now which is to be sure their recommendations are legal and has a variable employee contribution rate so the nonpublic safety employees share that rate. The annual pension benefit increase to an existing retiree shouldn't be tied to the performance of the plan but tied to the consumer price index (CPI) and the plan's funded status as well as a thought to pooling assets and liabilities with all entitles together. Currently, the timeline is to prepare the draft yardstick to be shared with the League's executive Committee on May 15. From May to July, they will have them review and refine the draft yardstick, and then the final yardstick will be presented at the League's annual conference in Tucson. Mayor Honea asked about lateral transfers from one agency to another, does their money travel with them? Mr. McCarty said that some of the money travels and some doesn't, so it's not 100% of a transfer. He also responded to other questions from Council including how the town's portion of $9.1 M came about, referencing the Fields case which challenged the legislature's ability to change the way the annual pension was increased. He also noted that the goal of the reform proposals is to provide something for the next legislative session. D6 Resolution No. 201 5 -027 Relating to Public works; approving and authorizing the Mayor to execute an amendment to an intergovernmental agreement between the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Town of Marana relating to the I-10 1 Twin Peaks Traffic Interchange; and superseding and replacing Marana Resolution No. 2014 -090. Mr. Brann stated that this is a final cleanup to an agreement with ADOT as far as who is going to maintain what and who owns what. Because some of the segments around the Twin Peaks interchange are still county islands, ADOT wanted to make sure that they depicted that on the resolution. This is a key item for the town In that we're working with ADOT to get the right of way turned back to the town from the Twin Peaks interchange. Part of the agreement with ADOT is that when you build something you turn all of your rights over to them at the project footprint which we did. We are still trying to get the right of way back which caused some issues when the mall was trying to go in. They had to get ADOT permits for roads that are ultimately Marana roads, at which point ADOT came to the town and asked if we were good with what they were doing. It's a lot of back and forth. Mr. Davidson interjected about how this complicates things. This has held up our annexation for the bowtie area where we have been working with a number of individuals who want to get annexed Into the town and try to g et economic develop going. All that is being held up because of this thing with the state. It has huge ramifications long-term. Mr. Brann noted that we do have a slot to be on the April ADOT agenda to get the right of way, so this is a key component to get us on that agenda. March 24, 2015 Study Session Minutes 6 Motion to tt l ) pi-ove b Council Member Kai, second b Vice Ma Post. Passed unanimousl 6-0. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03, the Town Council ma vote to g o into executive session, which will not be open to the public, to discuss certain matters. Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.03 (A)(3), Council ma ask for discussion or consultation for le advice with the Town Attorne concernin an matter listed on this a FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Notwithstandin the ma discretion re the items to be placed on the a if three or more Council members re that an item be placed on the a it must be placed on the a for the second re Town Council meetin after the date of the re pursuant to Marana Town Code Section 2-4-2(B). ADJOURNMENT. Upon motion b Vice Ma Post, second b Council Member Bowen, the meetin was adjourned at 8:17p.m. Passed unanimousl 6-0. I hereb certif that the fore are the true and correct minutes of the stud session of the Marana Town Council meetin held on March 24, 2015. 1 further certif that a q uorum was present. e el ronson, Town Clerk 9 /N March 24, 2015 Stud Session Minutes 7