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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/01/2015 Regular Council Meeting MinutesREGULAR COUNCIL MEETING I► 11aIi' 10 11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, December 1, 2015 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 7:01 p.m. Town Clerk Bronson called roll. All Council Members were present except Council Member Kai, who was excused. PLEDGE OF ALLEVIANCEANVOCATIONIMOMENT OF SILENCE. The Marana High School Chamber Choir led by Sarah Ross sang the National Anthem in lieu of the pledge of allegiance. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member Bowen, second by Council Member McGorray. Passed unanimously 6-0. CALL TO THE PUBLIC. David Morales spoke regarding the opening of the Marana, Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in January 2016. He also noted that the local service Chapter 4 of the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) of which he is the Chief Service officer is at risk for closure due to lack of funds. The chapter has I I service officers and is self-supporting through donations. He noted that Chapter volunteers would be at the holiday festivities on December 5 to accept donations to help keep the chapter going. PROCLAMATIONS December 1, 2015 Meeting Minutes MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS, Council Member Bowen reported on his attendance at the Arizona Town Hall held in Mesa. The topic was water. He hi recommended the Town Hall as a great opportunity. Council Members Ziegler and McGorray reported on the recent Tangerine Road widening project held at The Highlands to standing room only. Both Council Members stated how well - organized and concise the presentation was and thanked both Ryan Mahoney and Keith Brann for their efforts in regard to the presentation. Council Member Ziegler also reported on the El Tour de Tucson dinner which she and other Council Members attended. She noted the very nice remarks Mayor Honea made to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. Mayor Hones stated that there would be a ribbon cutting for the Valencia Road project — a project that has regional importance. MANAGER'S REPORT: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS. Gilbert Davidson announced that the annual holiday festival and tree lighting activities will be Saturday, December 5, 2015 at the Town Hall from 3 — 8 p.m. This is a great family event with many performances and activities for all ages. He also noted that the November Executive Report is in process and will be available early next week. PRESENTATIONS Pi Relating to Parks and Recreation; presentation and discussion regarding the 2016 Town of Marana Parks, Recreation, Trails, and open Space Master Plan update. Presented by Torn Ellis. He noted that under the town's current strategic plan, the Parks & Recreation department is directed to update its 2010 master plan. This plan encompasses the vision for the department as well as provides for the daily operations. The intention was to turn Marana into a park destination. As with all plans, it was intended to be modified every five years or so to meet changing needs and environmental concerns. The key questions discussed in the master plan update include what facilities and programs currently exist, who uses the facilities and programs, and what role do the facilities and open space programs have in the lives of residents, what types of facilities are needed and what are the most important, what changes or additions need to be made to existing facilities, and how can we work more collaboratively with neighboring jurisdictions such as state land and national parks and monuments to keep progressing in a positive manner. The update will primarily be accomplished in -house by Parks & Recreation staff with support from other town departments, including Planning, Community Development, Finance, Legal, Technical Services and the Town Manager's office. A major effort will be directed toward getting community input from online and face -to face surveys, focus groups and public and stakeholder meetings. Updating the Plan gives his staff a chance to evaluate current conditions within and outside the department and to make relevant upgrades and additions to neighborhoods and businesses that provide recreation opportunities. Parks staff will be spending an enormous amount of time after the first of the year reaching out to the community for input. This will also help staff compare what we have versus what other communities with similar resources have so that we are not duplicating services. This will enable us to make better use of our financial and staffing resources. The data from all the inventories and community input will then be analyzed December 1, 2015 Meeting Minutes and a strategic action plan will be developed. At the end of the process, Parks staff will work with Finance to make sure any strategy is sustainable, has merit and the ability to be accomplished. Parks staff will continue to keep Council updated as the process unfolds. The ultimate plan is to have the document ready for Council adoption in June 2016. Mr. Ellis concluded that it is a privilege to work in a community where recreation is a focus area of the Strategic Plan. P2 Relating to Development; a presentation for initial Council review, discussion, and comments on the proposed Linda Vista Village at Cascada Specific Plan. The property is generally located on the east side of Interstate 10, approximately a mile from the Twin Peaks Road interchange, on Linda Vista Boulevard. Steve Cheslak introduced Stacey Weaks from Red Point Development to review the project for Council. This was originally scheduled to be a study session presentation. It is a 155 -acre rezoning on Linda Vista Boulevard adjacent to the Marana Center project. Mr. Weaks noted that his group has been working on this plan for over a year and just concluded a neighborhood meeting in Enid - November. This project is a sibling to Cascada Village. In evaluating the project they looked at the existing zoning within a quarter mile radius of the proposed project for both commercial and residential use. The land use classifications for this project are to build on to the employment center next to the Marana Center, residential, common area and natural undisturbed open space. Access will be primarily from Linda Vista Boulevard. Secondary access will be right in /right out along Linda Vista Boulevard. There will be a north /south spine road to provide access to the different planning areas as well as access to the south to provide access to one of the planning areas of the adjacent property owner to Linda Vista. Total open space will cover 36 percent of the site or approximately 55 acres. There will be additional internal common area, park space and trail corridors allocated to each planning area, with over 40 percent of the site dedicated to these features. The maximum number of dwelling units is 851. Mr. Weaks then gave more detail on the diversity of allowed uses within the employment center. These are residential densities in different forms, commercial and retail opportunities, and health care facilities. one of the things they have been cognizant of observing is the relationship to the developed residential areas to the north and east. They have created a 50 -foot buffer along the Oasis T ills development and a 7004 -foot buffer between Hartman Vistas and the planning areas. Another major component is for recreation and trails, building on Mr. Ellis' vision to create that duality of life. He illustrated the conceptual planning study and general overview to give Council a feel for the vision for the project. He did note in response to questions about the number of units that it is more likely they will be in the upper 500's, and there is flexibility built into the project for multi- family development, especially toward the southern end of the project. Mr. Davidson noted that this project will go to the Planning Commission on December 16, 2015 and then back to Council in January. This presentation was initially intended as a preview in a study session. Council Member Ziegler thanked him for having neighborhood meetings and requested that he continue to keep the surrounding neighbors informed about the project. P3 Relating to Budget; presentation of first quarter results for the Town's General Fund and other selected major funds for the 2015 -16 fiscal year. Erik Montague presented this report December 1, 2015 Meeting Minutes which represents the period July through September, focusing on the General Fund and other selected major funds. The big three general fund revenues are comprised of sales tax, state shared revenues and licenses, permits & fees which comprise over 90 percent of the fund. For sales taxes, we are where we hoped to be excluding the additional half cent sales tax. Those revenues are going to the special fund. We might be slightly ahead based on seasonality and conservative projections from the Mall revenues. The Mall numbers won't be available for another 2 -3 weeks. Sales taxes year over year from where we were first quarter last year are up almost 12 percent. There are two main factors -- one is an error, an overpayment of $165K made by Department of Revenue (DOR) Which will be corrected next quarter. The other factor is adjustments in the rate. However, everything does appear to be okay year over year. The numbers will be a bit spewed until we get enough history with the new detail in the tax journal. Intergovernmental revenues are up slightly. License, permits & fees are down year over year. The biggest driver of that is that commercial permits are down. Single family residential permits are pretty much on the mark for the first quarter. Expenditures by broad category are basically where we hoped to be, maybe lagging slightly. Personnel costs, about two- thirds of the operating budget, is where we had hoped to be. The same for contracted services. Some of the operating transfers are lagging, but it is anticipated that they will catch up in future quarters as projects and programs occur. Within these numbers for the 2016 budget we have included a $5M expenditure contingency as well as revenues for the downtown sewer project for the gravity portion. The force main portion will be on a separate funding source. Year over year we are pretty much where we had hoped to be. We have accumulated through the first quarter of FY 2016 about $1.8M in cash and this is reasonably consistent with the prior quarters. We are accumulating cash for debt fund transfers in anticipation of those other projects coning on line. The debt fund transfers will occur in January. Another fund is the Bed Tax Fund driven by state statute which requires that if we have a discriminatory tax rate — that is, if our discriminatory bed tax is higher than our TPT rate, that discriminatory portion needs to be used for tourism purposes. Numbers are lagging lightly in sales tax revenues, possibly due to seasonality. A lot of those numbers will come back. These revenues are important in light of our tourism activities. The Highway Users Revenue Fund (HURF) is vital to us as it pays for a significant portion of the maintenance costs of our streets. These are allocated on population estimates, and we are pretty much where we hoped to be based on estimated numbers. Expenditures are within expectations. For the first quarter, we have accumulated a modest $93K. in cash with the net revenues. We are anticipating a $13M draw in the HURF fund due to the accumulation of cash in the previous years. There are certain projects that carried over as well as some one -tinge projects. The Water Operating Fund is for handling water sales and the maintenance and distribution system. We are pretty much where we had hoped to be at about 22 percent. For the first three months we are at 67 connections. Expenditures are within expectations although commercial is lagging slightly but is expected to pick up. For Wastewater, we are where we had hoped to be on a straight line basis or about 26 percent of revenue, about $248K of the budget. For the first three December 1, 2015 Meeting Minutes months, we have accumulated net revenues in excess of expenses of $98K. In addition to this report, Council was provided with an additional set of pages which provides more narrative. Council Member Bowen asked if Mr. Montague recalled what the reserve fund would be at the end of the fiscal year. Mr. Montague responded that it was $ 18 -19M. Council Member Ziegler asked about the fund the town set up last year for Honea Heights septic f ai lures. Mr. Montague responded that a strategy was implemented to set aside emergency - funds of about $75K. He didn't have a current update, but stated that it has been modestly active with applications and processing. In the last fiscal cycle for 2014 -15, most of those dollars were used. Mr. Davidson interjected that the fund is still viable if there is anything we need to deal with in that neighborhood. Vice Mayor Post noted that with the addition of the half cent sales tax, it looks like the sales tax collection is down considerably. Mr. Montague stated that the half cent sales tax is not included in this number and is located in a separate fund. That is one of the additional funds that staff may bring forward again. For the first three months, we've collected just above $1 M from the half cent sales tax for this year. CONSENT AGENDA. Motion to approve by Vice .Mayor Post, second by Council. Member Bowen. Passed unanimously 6 -0. C I Resolution 2015-127: Relating to Development; approving a final plat for Tangerine Ridge, Lots I - 1 97, Bloch. " I " (Lift Station) and Common Area "A" (Private Streets), Common Area "B" (Drainage /Functional open Space), and Common Area "C" (Natural Undisturbed open Space) generally located near the southwest corner of W. Tangerine Road and N. Migitty Lane (Shannon Shula) C2 Resolution No. 2015128: Relating to Community Development; approving and authorizing the Mayor to execute Amendment Number I to the intergovernmental agreement between Pima County and the Town of Marana for the management and implementation of the 20142015 Community Development Bloch Grant Program to extend the term of the agreement (Lisa Shafer) C3 Resolution No. 2015 -129: Relating to Boards, Commissions and Committees; revising the formal Marana Citizens' Forum process; and clarifying provisions regarding the appointment and reappointment procedures for delegates to the Forum (Jocelyn Bronson) C4 Resolution No. 2015-130: Relating to Economic Development; approving and authorizing the Mayor to execute a Grant -in -Aid Fiscal Agent Agreement between the Tohono o'odham Nation and the Town of Marana for the purpose of funding a dedicated 1�conomic Development Strategic Plan (Curt woody) CS Approval of November 17, 2015 Regular Council Meeting Minutes (Jocelyn C. Bronson) LIQUOR. LICENSES BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES December 1, 2015 Meeting Minutes COUNCIL ACTION Al Ordinance No. 2015.020: Relating to Utilities; amending Town Code Title 14 (Utilities) by revising Chapter 14 -6 (Rates and Charges) to add new section 14 -6 -4 (Bill adjustment for excessive water leak). Presented by John Kmiec for Amanda Jones. This item is something that is currently not in the town code -- primarily in regard to single family customers that could cause an undue financial hardship on the customer. For single family residences, Marana does use the tiered rate structure, which is commonly used in the western United States. It is designed to promote conservation and behavior change in single family units. This is done by incentivizing at different tiers. The less water used, the lower the rate and vice versa. � Ie showed a slide giving the rates for gallons used per month. A service line leak or an internal plumbing leak which goes unnoticed or undetected can take a resident out of the first tier and accelerate them quickly to a tier that creates a financial burden. Staff is proposing an amendment to the town code to cone up with criteria to guide staff to help single family residential customers in good standing. The methodology is to take 3 times the customer's average water use over the preceding 12-month period. A flat irrigation rate would be applied for anything over that three times rate, so it won't keep escalating into the tiers as it does now. The irrigation rate is equal to the second tier in the tiered structure. This would only be applicable once every 36 months. The goal is to apply relief for an unforeseen rather than a water - wasting event at a homestead. This allows the utility to continue to recover the cost of water rate through the meter; but we are not dismissing charges. The groundwater resources rate, which is separate from the consumption rate, would still be collected in full because that was expended even through the leak. Mr. Kmiec then showed a slide with an extr example of the ordinance put into effect. Council Member Bowen asked if proof of the correction is required, to which Mr. Kmiec responded that staff is drafting an application requiring proof of what the issue was as well as proof that it was corrected by the following month. Any time staff sees a high water use outside of a normal range, service staff would call the resident; that is standard procedure. we would advise their that they can come to the department within the month and apply to get this leak adjustment review going. In that review process, the customer would not be charged late fees or other penalties. we would put a hold on that bill until they submitted their paperwork within the time frame. Council Member Bowen asked if water staff read meters manually. Mr. Kmiec responded that meters are read electronically. Vice Mayor Post asked if Tier 2 was the lowest we could go. Mr. Kmiec responded that the average Marana customer is around 6,500- 7,0001gallons per month. when that was multiplied by 2, it gave it a Tier 2 rate structure. Anything lower than that would be an incredibly large break. In his opinion, the Tier 1 rate would not cover the town's costs which is why staff decided on Tier 2 (the true cost). The customer can snake payments for the leak spread out over 12 months. Vine Mayor Post asked if the industry would eventually be able to design meters to turn water off when it gets to a certain amount of gallons that would be considered excessive based on normal use to avoid this type of situation. Mr. Kmiec responded that the industry, particularly in Europe, is coming up with designs that can control water use or shut off water meters at various times of day. That doesn't appear to be very popular in America. But the town's water department does collect data at a very granular level, so if a normal water customer doubles their water use and doesn't know where their water leak is coning from, staff can download the data and track it to show an event at a certain time on a particular day. Sometimes the customer will December 1, 201S Meeting Minutes do a fix and a new data download can then show that the fix corrected the issue. Motion to a j)prove ley Council Member Bowen, second by Vice Mayor Post. Passed unanimously 6 -0. A2 Resolution No. 2015-13 1: Relating to Administration; approving the transfer of up to $350,000 in budgeted expenditure authority from the General Fund contingency line item to the Pines 1, Road Stabilization Project in the fiscal year 2015-2016 budget to pay for anticipated costs associated with this Protect. Erik Montague stated that in June 2015, staff reported to Council on an emergency p urchase related to a sediment of soil issue along portions of North Mountain Pine way in The fines development. Staff reported at that time that there had been some form of an extraction pit that had been filled with what appeared to be inadequate soils. Those soils were settling or lifting in certain driveways and the roadway. Staff identified an estimated cost and a strategy to handle the settling issue. A contractor was identified, mobilized and began addressing the fix for stabilization and lifts. Further investigation of the area produced information that additional costs would be necessary to complete a more thorough stabilization. Because of the possibility of the additional costs, it falls outside of the scope of what had been identified to take from the existing funding sources. The item. before Council tonight is for consideration of allocating contingency funds for any unforeseen event associated with this project. Keith Brann provided a brief update related to the project. At the time the town identified the situation, it was unclear whether Richmond American would participate in the fix outside of the public right of way. They have, and they are also mobilizing there and worming within private lots. A meeting was held at wheeler Taft Library with the residents to review the gauze plan. The meeting was well - attended by the residents. Staff did proceed to do a full scope of the area which led to stabilizing more depth and adding two houses to the project. on the north side of the street, two houses were taken out of the project because the borings showed no physical settlement in the area. Staff is working on a change order with the contractor, who is extending the exact unit prices of what he was using already, so there has been no premium on that. The deep stabilization is nearly complete, and the lifting phase should be completed by the end of December. Subsequent to that, Pima County wastewater is going to fix their line. The town has teamed with Pima County to use the same contractor to do the final street repairs. Although we have been in constant contact with the most affected residents, when the final repairs are complete, staff will have another meeting with them. Council Member Ziegler asked if each major entity would be picking up their own costs for the repairs. Mr. Brann responded that as of right now, Pima County is paying to repair their sewer line. Richmond American is covering all costs outside of the public right of way. The town is working on the deep stabilization within the right-of-way and will be repairing the street. Motion to al)prove by Council Member Ziegler, second by Council Member McGorray. Passed unanimously 6-00 ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/POSSIBLE ACTION 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 (Gilbert Davidson) December 1, 2015 Meeting Minutes EXECUTIVE SESSIONS. Motion to g o into executive session on Item E 2 b Vice Ma Post, second b Council Member Bowen at 8:18 p.m. Passed unanimousl 6-0. 1. 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 2. Executive session pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03(A)(4) for discussion or consultation with the Town's attorne in order to consider the Town's position and instruct its attorne re the Town's position re the notice of claim filed November 24, 2015, b Beus Gilbert, PLLC, attorne at law, on behalf of Mandarina, LLC, arisin out of the planned ali of Tan Road. No action necessar FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn at 8:38 p.m. b Vice Ma Post, second b Council Member Bowen. Passed unanimousl 6-0. CERTIFICATION I hereb certif that the fore are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meetin held on December 1, 2015. 1 further certif that a q uorum was present. Fc e l C. 11 son Town Clerk P/ 9 N December 1, 2015 Meetin Minutes