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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/17/2007 Regular Council Meeting Minutes MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: April 17, 2007 PLACE AND DATE Marana Municipal Complex A. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL By Mayor Honea at 7:00 p.m. COUNCIL Ed Honea Herb Kai Bob Allen Jim Blake Patti Comerford Tim Escobedo Carol McGorray Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Present Excused Present Present Present Present Present STAFF Mike Reuwsaat Gilbert Davidson Jim DeGrood Frank Cassidy Jocelyn Bronson Town Manager Deputy Town Manager Assistant Town Manager Town Attorney Town Clerk Present Present Present Present Present B. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE AND INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE Led by Mayor Honea. c. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Upon motion by Council Member McGorray, seconded by Council Member Blake, the agenda was unanimously approved. D. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Tom Ellis addressed Council and mentioned a couple of events for April. The Racing for the River Duathlon is a 3-mile run, a 16-mile bike ride starting at Gladden Farms Park. This event will be an annual event. The event is to raise awareness and one day raise dollars for the Heritage River Park. On the April 28th, there will be a family night under the Stars for families to enjoy astronomy, a movie, bingo, and camp fire sing-a-Iongs. Carmen Feriend addressed Council to give an update on the programs and activities provided by the Marana Arts Council. In connection with Marana Founder's Day on March 1 ih, MAC held the inaugural decorative ostrich egg contest, exhibit and silent auction at the Marana Senior Center. Six members of the Senior Center, six students from Marana High School and 12 MAC member artists created beautiful pieces of art work on an ostrich egg. On April 1 S\ the Marana plein aire art festival at Saguaro Ranch was held which featured 12 invited artists, most of them nationally recognized artists specializing in a technique of plein 1 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: April 17, 2007 aire painting. The event was hosted by Stephen Finney, owner, developer of Saguaro Ranch. She stated that Council's 100 percent presence at the event was very important to the Marana Arts Council. On April 14th, New York Times correspondent, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Charlie LeDuff, made a visit to Marana hosted by Marana Arts Council. April 21 st at Ora Mae Ham Park, MAC will be presenting the Inaugural Marana Children's Festival of the Arts from 11 :00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. They are planning to kick off the fall season with a many languages bilingual film festival. They are planning an art and fine arts craft show taking them out of the norm of the traditional art shows and featuring works by fine crafters that are fun and funky. They will be planning a chamber music series, student art exhibits. They have the Saguaro Ranch Art Scholarship funds, two $1,000 scholarships will be provided to high school seniors. She expressed thanks for supporting the arts. Mr. Wright addressed Council and introduced the new management intern in the Town Manager's Office, Garrett Culver. He is going to be with us for the next several months. Mr. Culver addressed Council and stated he is a master's of Public Administration student at the University of Arizona and is completing his first year. E. PRESENTATIONS 1. Presentation of the proposed Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WI FA) funding option for the Silverbell Road Project (Barbara Johnson) Ms. Johnson addressed Council and stated the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority is an independent agency of the state and it is designed to finance construction, rehabilitation or improvements in the drinking water and waster water system and their supporting facilities. They generally offer borrowers the opportunity to borrow below market value. There is no matching share. It provides low cost money to help with financing infrastructure. The Silverbell project included a waste water collection system. On the Thornydale project they are asking for an additional 10.25 million to complete it. On the Silverbell project they were looking at asking 10.1 million to complete it. WIF A had an engineer certify the Silverbell project. There are not any closing costs with WIF A. Whatever WIF A pays for the money we will pay 80 percent of it. We do not pay until we use it and if we do not use all of it we do not pay for all of it. There are reporting requirements that need to be done from an administrative and management point with WIF A. Mr. Reuwsaat stated that we will probably need to do some gap financing because we have four of the largest projects all at once. He stated this will be a part of the CIP discussion when they meet in Mayas part of the budget process. ANNOUNCEMENTS/UPDA TES 2 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: April 17, 2007 PROCLAMATIONS - Arbor Day 2007; 36th Municipal Clerks Week F. MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS Council Member Escobedo stated he attended the Easter egg hunt. He stated he attended an event on behalf ofthe Marana Health Center. Council Member Comerford stated she attended the memorial service for the Marines at our airport. Council Member McGorray stated she attended the ribbon cutting for Clinica del Alma which is located south of Benson Highway and is one of the 10 satellites of the Marana Health Center. They have 15 exam rooms, two obstetricians and a nurse practitioner. Council Member Allen stated there were 19 Marines killed in an Osprey used for a training exercise in Marana. Those same aircraft have been deployed to the Middle East. Mayor Honea stated Thursday will be the state of the Town address. He stated next Thursday at the P AG meeting they will not have their regular meeting because Mary Peterson, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, will be here. G. MANAGER'S REPORT: SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS Mr. Reuwsaat stated he owns six of the ostrich eggs and he does support the Marana Arts Council. H. STAFF REPORTS GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS I. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Resolution No. 2007-56: Relating to Water Service; approving and authorizing the execution of the agreement between the Town of Marana and Lennar Community Development, Inc. for construction of water facilities and provision of water utility service for Willow Ridge Commons (Brad DeSpain) 2. Approval of Minutes ofthe March 6, 2007, March 20, 2007, and April 3, 2007 regular and March 27, 2007 study session minutes. 3 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: April 17, 2007 Upon motion by Council Member Escobedo, seconded by Council Member Blake, the Consent Agenda was unanimously approved. J. COUNCIL ACTION 1. Direction/Action: Relating to streets; approving the aesthetic concept for the Twin Peaks Interchange (Keith Brann) Mr. Brann addressed Council regarding the aesthetics for the Twin Peaks Interchange. He stated that Eric Sibson with URS Corporation and Laura Mielcarek with Wheat-Scharf Associates, the landscape architect on the project are present. Ms. Mielcarek gave an overview of the aesthetic treatments as discussed in last week's meeting. Mr. Sibs on stated the theme was previously selected as the Santa Cruz River. They are looking from Council direction that they are pursuing the correct course and possibly some direction on the pier type since they have a selection of three types. Overall the types of themes, incorporating elements within the MSC walls, incorporating the types of landscaping images and elements within the pedestrian railings and they want to make sure what they're doing to date is acceptable to Council. Council Member Comerford stated there is a lot of variance and asked for the final concept when available. Mr. Sibs on stated they intend to bring it back for a final look at all the artistic elements. He also stated there will be an open house in May to present the materials to the public. Council Member Allen asked how long it would take before bringing back the finalization. Mr. Sibs on stated the stage four plan should have the artistic elements more or less finalized. That is a July submittal. Upon motion by Council Member McGorray, seconded by Council Member Blake, Council unanimously approved to move forward with the aesthetic concept for the Twin Peaks Interchange. 2. Ordinance No. 2007.10: Relating to Development; amending Section 4 of Ordinance No. 2007.09 (The Villages of Tortolita Specific Plan adopting ordinance) by extending to 60 days the period for Proposition 207 waivers to be signed, returned and recorded; and declaring an emergency. (Frank Cassidy) Mr. Cassidy stated on the Proposition 207 waivers they wanted to have those in hand before the ordinance actually becomes effective so basically this allows two months for return of the waivers rather than 15 days. 4 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: April 17, 2007 Upon motion by Council Member Escobedo, seconded by Council Member McGorray, Ordinance No. 2007.10 was unanimously approved. 3. Presentation: Arizona State Retirement System (Mike Reuwsaat) Mr. Reuwsaat stated over the last several months they have been working at looking at a change in our retirement system for a number of reasons. Weare currently in the ICMA which is a defined contribution. They are asking to move from the ICMA defined contribution to a defined benefit program which is the Arizona State Retirement System. The recommendation will come in the form of two resolutions for Council to consider. ASRS provides long term disability, health insurance, health insurance premium supplement, and survivor benefits. Employees have the option of taking ICMA funds and buying service credits or years of service towards retirement in the State Retirement System. There are seven annuity options available. Most of the public entities in the state are in the retirement system and it is portable. Currently in the system there are 110 state agencies, three state universities and ten community colleges. It covered 224,000 members in the state. You can qualify for normal retirement and full benefits under the ASRS benefit formula if you're age 65 with any service, if you're age 62 with ten years or combination of 80 points. A member may retire before reaching normal retirement when the member is at least 50 years of age with a minimum of five years of service on the effective date of retirement. The benefit would be reduced. The defined benefit provides life time retirement. There is a medical plan for retiring employees. There are cost of living adjustments. It is not beneficial to employees who go from public to private service. The defined benefit pension plans offer workers a number of advantages compared to other workplace retirement plans. It provides a secure benefit for life. It is the recommendation of staff to approve the two resolutions. The first resolution will approve us to apply to the ASRS. The second resolution designates our Human Resources Director to negotiate the terms and work with State Retirement employees to get it implemented. There is a 60 day notice to terminate from the ICMA if successfully passed. The resolution, application sent to State Retirement to be received on or before April 20th then it would go to the State Retirement Board for approval at the April meeting and then the goal is to implement July 1 st. They will discuss the financing implications in the budget process. a. Resolution No. 2007-57: Relating to Employment; authorizing the execution of a Supplemental Retirement Plan with the Arizona State Retirement System; and declaring an emergency (Frank Cassidy) b. Resolution No. 2007-58: Relating to Employment; authorizing the Human Resources Director as the authorized agent to submit to the Arizona State Retirement System Board for approval and execution a plan to provide for the extension of benefits to employees under Title II of the Federal Social Security Act; and declaring an emergency (Frank Cassidy) 5 MINUTES OF REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MARANA MUNICIPAL COMPLEX DATE: Aprill7, 2007 Upon motion by Council Member McGorray, seconded by Council Member Comerford, Resolution No. 2007-57 and Resolution No. 2007-58 was unanimously approved. K. BOARDS. COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES L. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/POSSIBLE ACTION 1. State Le2islative Issues: Discussion/Direction/Action regarding all pending bills before the Legislature. (Mike Reuwsaat) Mr. Reuwsaat stated there are two specific issues they are trying to get vetoed in the Legislature. The first one is the bill to require us to use construction sales tax in a particular way. The second one is incentives that would take options for the Town to negotiate for economic development. He asked that if the bills are successful that they be vetoed at the governor's office. M. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS. N. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS O. ADJOURNMENT Upon motion by Council Member Escobedo, seconded by Council Member Allen, Council voted unanimously to adjourn. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Marana Town Council meeting held on April 17, 2007. I further certify that a quorum was present. ."\"n,,,,,.. ~... OF M..:i -,..~ $' ~~~,\\\m'",,, ~ ~~ ~ s ~~~ ~""r-t.'~ :i E!cO~Tf \~ ';:. - = == - - ::, SEAL;: ... ~ ~ ~;:: ~ ~ ~:s ~ ~lllm"\\\"A SO ~A{f:1IZ ,\~\'~ ~1111,jl\\\\~ 6