City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. It's 6 o'clock. I'm calling the meeting to order. Could we do the roll call, please? Council member Dwillis, I'm here. Council member D here. Council member Marks, present. Council member Mosley, present. Council member Welen, here. Vice Mayor Coats, here. and Marsha here. And we have a quorum. Okay. Would you all please stand for the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, next we have a brief summary of current events. Uh, the public body does not propose, discuss, deliberate, or take legal action on any matter brought up during this summary unless the specific matter is properly noticed for legal action. As a reminder, if you wish to speak to the council on a matter which is not listed on the agenda, you must submit a request to speak form to the city clerk or the city manager by the end of this brief summary of current events. I

I'll begin. Um on the 24th of March, uh the mayor and I met with uh Verie Valley Habitat for Humanity to discuss giving people a hand up to find or maintain safe and stable housing. Um they shared with us information about their carpenters club and advocated for donations and volunteers to help the Carpenters Club, which helps build new homes and provides critical home repairs here in the Verie Valley. The next day on March 25th, council attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Northern Arizona Healthcare Cancer Center. This new facility, when completed later next year, will enable Cottonwood residents to access chemotherapy, radiation, and other social services in one location. This is a big win for our community. Um and then on the day before Easter, council attended the Easter egg extravaganza at Riverfront Park. Um it was a beautiful day both in terms of the weather and the turnout of families. Many thanks again to the great parks and recreation staff for all their effort in creating this fun and memorable event for the community. That's all. Um on the 25th of March, um I also attended council. I also attended um a ribbon cutting for the state farm office on Cove Parkway. It's not a new office. It's actually uh a new manager or a new director for the office, Savannah Fudge. And you know, it's always good to see um you know, uh somebody who wants to invest uh in the business future of the community. And we welcome Savannah on board.

Madam, Madame Mayor, members of council, um, thanks for the appreciation shared for the parks and recck department. Um, I would like to on behalf of parks and wreck extend a thank you to council, staff, and the community who came out to celebrate the extravaganza with us. We appreciate everyone's support and staff can't wait to do it all again next weekend at Cottonwood's Vintage Run. If you haven't registered yet, you can still register by going to runcottonwood.com and we hope to see you all there. The Cottonwood Police Department is launching its spring citizens police academy beginning April 16th. The academy will meet every Thursday at 6 p.m. for eight weeks and each class will run approximately two hours. This academy is designed to be both interactive and educational. Participants will explore a wide range of topics to include 911 communications, traffic enforcement and investigations, criminal investigations, K9 unit demonstrations, SWAT operations, and much more. This will be a valuable opportunity for residents to better understand the complexities of policing while building stronger relationships with those who serve the Cottonwood community. Additionally, I'd like to remind folks that we now have the Cottonwood Snapshot Newsletter. Our next edition will go out later this week. We urge people to visit the Cottonwood, City of Cottonwood website and sign up for that. And then the last item I have is an event that's coming up on April 30th for the business community. Um it will be hosted at the Red Rooster Cafe noon in conjunction with the Verie Valley Chamber.org and it's titled Manga with Mario. So, it's it's a lunch event for folks to come and eat alongside the city manager and ask any questions that they have related to businesses and just that opportunity for me to network. Um, I can't take credit for the manga with Mario, but eating with Mario just didn't go well. So, we manga is what it is. And so,

are you Italian? I'm not, but I couldn't think of a a meal word in Spanish that goes. And so, John loved it so much he wants a copy of that. So, I'm going to give that there. But um the chamber will start pushing that out later this week for the business community. It's uh $20 for chamber members, 25 for non-chamber members, and it includes a menu item at Red Rooster.

Okay. If there's nothing else, I'm skipping call to the public because technically I don't have that. What I do have coming up is three proclamations and I'm going to read them serially. If any of you would like a a picture with council, um we can do that at the end after all of the proclamations have been read. Um if you don't need a picture with us, don't feel bad. It's all right. The first of the proclamations says, "Whereas the National Fair Housing Law of 1986 as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, prohibits discrimination in housing and declares it a national policy to provide within constitutional limits for fair housing in the United States. And whereas the principle of fair housing is not only national law and national policy, but a fundamental human concept and entitlement for all Americans. And whereas April has traditionally been designated as fair housing month in the United States, now therefore be it resolved that I, an Shaw, mayor of the city of Cottonwood, Arizona, do hereby proclaim April as Fair Housing Month in the city of Cottonwood, Arizona, and do hereby urge all citizens of this community to comply with the letter and spirit of the fair housing law.

Okay. Next, I have a a proclamation for Matt Force. Whereas Matt Force has proclaimed April 20th through the 24th, 2026 to be stand with me, be drugfree week. And whereas the city of Cottonwood embraces a vision of a healthy, vibrant, and strong community for children, youth, families, and people of all ages, and celebrates the fact that a majority of people do not abuse drugs and alcohol. And whereas the city of Cottonwood recognizes that youth prevention is essential based on the fact that nine out of 10 people who struggle with substance use disorders began using substances as a teenager. And whereas knowing that families are adversely affected by illegal drug use, including work problems, legal problems, mental health problems, physical illness, addiction, accidents, accidental death, economic loss, child abuse, destruction of families, driving while impaired, and crimes against persons and property. Whereas, the city of Cotton would like would like to commend and pay tribute to all of its citizens who choose to be free of illegal drug use. And therefore, the city of Cottonwood proclaims April 20th through 24th, 2026 to be Stand with Me, Be Drug-Free week and encourages its citizens to participate in the celebration of a drug-free, healthy community by participating in the planned events, activities, and displays dated the 7th day of April, 2026. Um, and who from Matt Force would like to come forward?

Are you Miss Mcdana? Yes, I am. Good to see you. Yeah, you can step up to the podium. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Okay, we're ready. Thank you so much for having me. It's my first time here. I'm a new employee of Matt Force. This is an honor to be here tonight. Thank you for your time. Matt Force is Yavapai Countyy's prevention coalition dedicated to preventing substance misuse before it begins. Our coalition consists of over 100 volunteers and a broad range of community stakeholders. We provide age appropriate prevention education for students in grades K through 12, focusing on building resilience, life skills, and self-esteem. Through evidence-based education, we empower youth with the confidence to make healthy choices for themselves and their futures. In addition, we support parents and caregivers by offering free parenting classes, community trainings, webinars, and educational resources. Each year, we ask our county government and city and town councils to designate a week in April as Stand with Me, Be Drug-Frare Week to recognize and celebrate healthy choices within our families and communities. Research shows that approximately 84% of people choose not to use illegal drugs. And today we are here to celebrate those positive choices while supporting those who may need assistance. Through strong partnerships with schools, law enforcement, municipal governments, and community stakeholders, we can continue to make a meaningful impact. We respectfully ask you to recognize Stand with Me Be Drug-Free Week, April 20th through 25th, in honor of the health and future of our children. Thank you for your time and for helping us promote healthy, resilient communities.

Thank you. Thank you. The next proclamation says, "Whereas public safety telecommunications personnel are the first and most critical contact our citizens have with emergency services. And whereas public safety telecommunications personnel are the lifeline between emergency responders and the people they protect, working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure swift, accurate, and professional communication. And whereas the safety of our law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel depends greatly on the quality and accuracy of information obtained by Cottonwood's public safety telecommunications. And whereas our telecommunication personnel exhibit compassion, understanding, and professionalism during the performance of their duties, often under highly stressful and demanding circumstances. And whereas the week of April 12th through April 18th, 2026 has been designated as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week to recognize and celebrate the vital contributions of telecommunications personnel in the public safety sector. Now therefore, I, Anne Shaw, mayor of the city of Cottonwood, do hereby proclaim the week of April 12th through April 18th, 2026 as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week in the city of Cottonwood and encourage all citizens to recognize and thank our dedicated public safety

telecommunication personnel who serve with diligence, skill, and unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of our community. In witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Cottonwood to be affixed this 7th day of April, 2026. Would someone like to speak to that? Hi, Chief Rudenfall.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council. First off, thank you. Thank you for recognizing our dispatchers and our communication specialists. Um, the proclamation says it all. There's not much more I could add to it than what that says. But to take it one step above, um, one of the things that I've worked for multiple police departments and I've experienced the dispatchers and communications in and all of them and I have not experienced as professional and more qualified individuals than what we have here in Cottonwood in our communication center. They provide dispatch services for the region for the Verie Valley Fire Departments, majority of the police departments. Um, and they do all this with with minimal staffing and they provide the best service of any communication specialist I've ever been a part of. They do more for our I try to tell our police officers how spoiled they are when you experience other dispatch uh, communities and then you come here and with the amount of work that they do for our officers to ensure their safety, to ensure they're able to do their job uh, in a well professional manner, it's it's incredible. So, I'm super proud to be a part of that. Um I to be honest when I came here it wasn't uh you know I'm a I'm a police officer and I didn't hadn't spent a whole lot of time in communications but now that I'm have had the opportunity to spend time and really be around them um I couldn't be more proud to have be a part of their this agency and be a part of the communication center.

Great. Thank you very much. This this might be an appropriate time for me to say this with where I work at the last uh few weeks. I've had the u experience with both our fire department, our dispatchers and our police department. It was first class. So kudos kudos to you guys. And we are so lucky. Thank you. And we do have a picture here. Okay, coming right up. You guys would like to arrange ourselves up here. We can do this one at a time. Um

Ryan, I didn't invite you up. Did you want to say something about for fair housing? Okay. Are you ready?

Okay. Next, um we we have the consent agenda. I do have a request to speak to um item number five, which is consideration and approval of task order number seven for on call engineering services with dibble engineering for the design repackage bid and construction phases for taxiway a reconstruction in an amount not to exceed $266,877. That's you, Mr. Wagman. him. Come on up.

Hello, Mayor. I just have two very quick questions. I was not able to find answers to these questions by looking through all the documentation that you guys put out and that Dibble Engineering put out. First question is the reconstruction of the taxi way. Currently our taxiway center line to our runway center line is 150 ft which is meets FAA requirements for the type of aircraft that is our main aircraft that we have using our airport. I could not find um any documentation in there that said that the new taxi way, the reconstructed taxi way would maintain that 150 ft center line to center line separation. So my question is where is the taxi way going to be? Well, in the information that I read, the entire the entire taxi way is going to be reconstructed. It's going to be narrower, but it doesn't say anything about it being longer.

No, I'm not talking about longer. I'm talking about center line of the taxi way to the center line of the runway. That distance is currently 150 ft. Not the length of it. If you're standing in the center line of the runway, that's 150 feet from the center line of the taxi way. Is that going to be maintained or is that going to change?

Mr. Wagon, it's my understanding that that will be maintained. The the the taxiway is not being relocated. It's simply being reconstructed. And Mr. Propes is here. He can correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe it's simply a reconstruction in its existing location. Okay, that answers my question. Now, my second question is I wasn't able to find out where the funds for this um money going to Dibble Engineering is coming from. Is it coming from the general fund or is it coming from the airport fund?

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Mr. Ragnon. Um, this will be eventually be grant funded through the FAA. It'll be uh a portion of that will be grant funded and then the matching will be funded through the airport fund. To the airport fund. Will there be any funds from the general fund transferred to the airport fund to meet that requirement? Depends on the rest of the expenditures in the airport fund. If there is enough funds left over to cover that matching then it will it would go towards the matching otherwise whatever is remaining would come from the general fund. Okay. Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you. Um, so having covered that, um, if anyone would care to make a motion to approve the consent agenda. If there are no further items, nothing else. I'll make a motion to um approve the consent agenda items one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. I'll second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi.

Okay. So, allow me then to read the resolutions into the record. Resolution number 3386, a resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Cottonwood, Arizona, approving a highway safety grant application to the governor's office of highway safety for DUI impaired driving enforcement patrol overtime expenses for fiscal year 2027. Also approved then under the consent agenda is resolution number 3387, a resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Cottonwood, Arizona approving the submission of a highway safety grant application to the governor's office of highway safety for selective traffic enforcement patrol overtime expenses for fiscal year 2027. Resolution number 3388, a resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Cottonwood, Arizona, approving the city's application for a highway safety grant agreement with the governor's office of highway safety to fund two traffic enforcement patrol officer positions for fiscal year 2027 and authorizing the city manager and chief of police to execute any resulting grant agreement. payment.

Mayor, could I ask um council member D, did you approve the entire consent agenda? Yes, including number five. Yes. Okay.

Yes, he did say all of them. So, okay. Moving then into uh new business. The following items are for uh council discussion, consideration of possible legal action. Consideration and approval of the professional services agreement with Norris Design for Oldtown Master Planning Services in an amount not to exceed $210,000 and authorization for the city manager to execute the professional services agreement on behalf of the city. Hello, Miss Rail. How are you? Good evening, uh, madame mayor and members of council. Sammy Rial, community development director, here to present on new business item number one for the Oldtown master planning services. By way of a just a brief background, uh, the city council discussed the Oldtown master plan on July 15th and October 14th of 2025. And on October 14th, they provided some final recommendations on what should be included in the project scope and then also the boundary. Uh at that time, the Oldtown master plan, the components were to include uh items such as analysis and recommendations for street and bicycle and pedestrian realm improvements, open space and activation and redevelopment options, parking management considerations, financing, phasing strategies, signage, and more. The RFQ is published from November 22nd to 2020 November 2nd, 2025 to December 15, 2025. and we had nine applicants submit proposals. Upon review and scoring of all those proposals, Norris Design was selected as the top ranked applicant. Uh their initial proposal included an extensive list of tasks which covered more subject areas than

outlined in the RFQ. With this extensive task list, the initial cost of the services came into a little over $316,000. The fee for the services was however similar to other requests or sorry applicants that had submitted um proposals. the after several iterations of reviewing the scope and working with the consultant and um going back and listening to the meetings, we were able to narrow down the scope of tasks to still result in a master plan that is thorough and that achieves the goals as outlined in not just the RFQ but also as previously discussed by by the council. Uh with those revisions, we were able to bring the budget down from the $316 to a little over $26,000. If you recall, we've originally budgeted for about $150,000. So the the scope of services, what we were able to negotiate it down to is about $60,000 uh more than what we had originally and budgeted. The final scope of services includes a wide range of tasks such as community engagement, transportation, circulation, pedestrian realm recommendations and improvements and concepts, parking management strategies, EV parking options, gathering space, uh phasing fun uh funding opportunities, and then redevelopment opportunities for the city-owned parcels. Uh, as such, we're asking that the city council approve the professional services agreement with Norris Design for the Oldtown Master Planning Services and an amount not to exceed the $210,000. That'll get us to the scope of services that we have negotiated uh with Norris Design and then authorize the funding from the general fund council undesated reserve in the amount of $60,000 and authorize the city manager to execute the professional services agreement.

question. Uh what might cause it to go over? What cost to go over?

Uh they had they had quite a few recommendations uh that were in there. I think one is just the the cost of services. Um first and foremost, uh we had uh removed a code and policy alignment analysis. Uh staff can do that. We don't need the consultants to review some of the proposals and concepts in accordance with our own policies. Uh we removed an operational plan for the entertainment district. Um we removed some of the research and suggestions that they were going to do for grant options and and grant strategies. We can do that inhouse as well. Uh we were also to able to merge some of the tasks together because they were so similar. And then after talking to them and they talked to their subconsultants, that's how we were able to one narrow down the task, but also the cost of the contract as well.

Thank you.

So, um, Miss Rail, thank you very much for bringing this forward. Um, I think we're all very excited to see this. Um, following on U, Council Member Wen's comment, um, I wanted to make sure I understood um, this the scope that was discussed last year versus what we're being asked to approve tonight. Um, when I look back at what we discussed last year, um, one of the things that was in last year's proposal was a plan to address multimodal improvements. So like infrastructure upgrades that would create complete streets that service not only motorists but transit users and cyclists. When I looked at the scope of work, Norse design mentioned two on-site field visits to document deliveries, ADA access, parking turnover, and pedestrian movement and other things. But I didn't see any mention of monitoring transit activity or cyclist activity. So is multimodal in or not? So, we did talk to them about other forms of what we'll call transportation or street improvements and pedestrian realm improvements. Uh, not all of those are specifically identified in there. For instance, uh, we talked to them about EV charging options, but that's not specifically listed in their scope of services. So, it's not it's not a um, it's in there. It's it's embedded in kind of the general summary of each of those tasks.

Okay. So, it is in Okay. Okay. That is good because I have to say when I go through Oldtown I I'm seeing an increasing number of bicyclists and it it's a little scary, you know, when you see people trying to park and you have bicyclist trying to get through there. Um, another question in terms of is it in or out? Um, what about restrooms at the north end of Oldtown? So, that is also a consideration that they're aware of that they are going to look at. uh the restrooms in addition to the two turnarounds on the north and south sides of town.

Okay. And can you explain to me the Willard Street extension, what that means? I'm not I didn't understand that.

Yes, I'll explain it to you as best as I can. So my understanding is that there is some consideration for Willard Street to go um I think down to Maine but then also possibly through Maine is my is my understanding of Willard Street and I'm looking around for for some help. Um but that's the Willard Street extension that I'm aware of. That's that's generally it. But, uh, Ryan Bigalow, uh, director of strategic conditions, we're talking about Willard. Um, we're we're really talking about, um, that lefthand turn in from down from Willard into Main Street. Um, and how that's that's problematic currently as it is as we grow, as we see more more and more traffic, as we look for potential development on Willard, um, you know, we need to we need to find ways to address that. So, um, this is just the preliminary, uh, maybe some some designs or some works as how we can do that. There's been some discussions of, you know, potentially a smaller version of a roundabout there or something like that, but um we want to at least start having that discussion, put that into a master plan and then uh let public works and engineering take it from there and uh and get thorough designs after that.

That sounds great. Thank you. Um few more questions. Um what what is the timing in which the city would like for the plan to be completed? Um, the scope of work states that Norse Design will only prepare a detailed project schedule when they get to step two of the process and I get that, but I think it's important for the city to have like a target deadline for project completion. You know, obviously something that's realistic, but what what is the city's target?

The target is 10 to 11 months. The project schedule that they're going to outline is a detailed project schedule of all the tasks and efforts that they are anticipating that they'll have to endure as they go through this project.

Okay. Thank you. Um what direction is city staff providing Norris with regard to funding capacity? The communication from Norris to the city and our briefing package says that the master plan will provide conceptual design recommendations, you know, implementation strategy, etc. All aligned with city staffing and funding capacity. So, what direction will the city be providing Norse on funding? So, will there be like a dollar cap or will it be something like the sky's the limit? I'm just joking. But I mean,

I guess in terms of what what type of direction and what level of participation city staff will have with Norris Design, that will be a lot. Um, we plan on working closely with them on the design concepts. So, they're not overdesigning anything so that they're doing something that's that is fitting within um the city, but also within our budget. So with some of the design options that they're going to be providing, they're going to be providing some cost estimates of what that would be. So that'll allow us to look at not just the design option, but then some of the the funding or I guess the cost estimates so that we have the ability of looking at that and saying yes, no, we need to consider something else or yes, this is great.

Okay. So as things develop, if they're coming up with really outrageous plans that there's no way the city could ever fund, you would provide them the feedback. Absolutely. Okay. All right. Um and my last question is the scope document talks about further scoping of the project in in the first step. So if there are significant changes to the scope, will that come back to council? We've already actually taken care of that first step. Uh so that's what we did in in the third iteration of the um reviewing the the scope with Norris design. So we've already done a lot of that. uh refining the scope. So, I think that can be checked off already.

That's great. Thank you. I was surprised to see that. I thought, "Wow, more scoping." So, thank you. Any other questions? Ready for a motion? I am. If you are, I am. I move to approve the professional services agreement with Norris designed for Oldtown Master Planning Services in an amount not to exceed 210,000 to authorize funding from the general fund council undesated reserve in the amount of 60,000 and to authorize the city manager manager to execute the professional services agreement on behalf of the city. Second.

Okay. Could we do a roll call vote on that, please? Thank you members of the council. Mayor, have a good evening. You too. Thank you. Council member Dwillis, yes. Council member Dell, yes. Council member Marks, yes. Council member Mosley, yes. Council member Wen, yes. Vice Mayor Coats, yes. And Mayor Shaw, yes. And that motion carries.

All right. Next on the agenda is council member request for a future agenda item. We do have a tentative schedule of a few items. Is there anything else that we need to address? Okay, I'm not hearing a thing there. So, let's move on. Claims. I move to approve the claims report for the 17th of March, 2026. I'll second. All in favor?

Okay, if I can just speak long enough to get this out. The next thing that we're doing is um setting an an executive session and um this has to do with the uh performance evaluation before us. So I need a motion to go into I'll make the motion to adjourn from regular session to go into executive session. Second. All in favor? I

Okay, motion carries. So, we're going to excuse ourselves and um let's see which way did I say this makes sense. Do do you want to come in with us at this point? And Judge Kelly and you may come too if you wish.