Tri-City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'm going to call this meeting of the city of Kingman city council to order on Tuesday, March 17th. I will turn some time over for uh roll call to clerk Meredith. Thank you. Mayor Watkins is excused this evening. Vice Mayor Samile here. Council member Dykens here. Council member Savage here. He is joining us on Zoom. Council member Staley is excused. Council member Walker here. Council member Ward here. We have a quorum.

Thank you, Clerk Meredith. If you will please stand, we uh if if you are able and willing to uh listen to our invocation given by Pastor Peter Ernst of the Family Bible Church. After that, we will have the pledge um of allegiance. And I'll ask Counselor Walker to do that. Thank you. Shall we pray? Father God, we thank you for your great providence and allowing us to be here tonight. Thank you for this great constitutional republic that we live in. Thank you for this wonderful city, all the great people that live here and the wonderful leaders that you've appointed over us. Uh Lord, we pray that you would give wisdom to them as they deliberate and make decisions for the rest of our um community. Uh Lord, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Thank you for the liberty, the freedom that we have in Christ. What a wonderful uh gift, the gift of salvation by grace through faith. Bless this time now. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Please join the 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. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yes, ma'am.

Excuse me. I just wanted to let you know that Mayor Watkins is joining us via Zoom. Ah, welcome Mayor Watkins. All right. The council may go into executive session for legal counsel in accordance with ARS 38-431-03A3 to discuss any agenda item. The following items may be discussed, considered, and decisions made relating there to. First item on our agenda this evening is call to the public. Comments from the public. Those wishing to address the council should fill out request forms in advance. Comments from the public will be restricted to items not on the agenda with the exception of those on the consent agenda. There will be no comments allowed that advertise for a particular person or group. Comment should be limited to no longer than 3 minutes. The council may not respond to speakers during the call to the public. The council may direct the city manager to study the matter or request that the matter be placed on a future agenda. We do have a few people that have signed up for call to the public. I have Michael Stowe. If you'll please approach the podium. Welcome, sir.

Hi. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, council members, and thank you for the attorneys and city manager and also officers. Thank you. Appreciate it. Um, I'm here to uh just I'm I'm having a difficult time with a business in town, Rickety Rick Cricut. Uh I live across here 426 Topeka Street and since they've been using their outdoor uh venue for concerts uh the volume has increased to the point where it seems like they are right across the street from me and uh the vulgarity of the music and the language is um absolutely heart-wrenching. Uh, so all of this combined with um uh just well I've I've I'm one of those guys that I take control myself. So I I went I've called them and asked them to please turn it down. I've I'm very nice about it. I've gone over and talked with the assistant manager on the weekend and and uh explained the situation and and uh nothing to no avail has has occurred. Um, I have a video clip that happened on Sunday. I stood on my porch and with me talking. So, there was um an actual um level that you could hear. You could not barely hear me talking because the music and then the language was is graphic and explicit and I caught, you know, five minutes of that. Um, I spoke with the Mr. Cooper or I just earlier, but I I called the police the next day and Mr. Hopper. Um, Officer Hopper came to my uh uh home and we we discussed uh that he had gone through and talked with various people trying to get this resolved. Um, imagine somebody standing there in front of your door screaming

uh and growling insane stuff that you can't understand, but then on top of that saying the f-word and every other explicit uh word that you can think of. and on top of that detailing graphic sexual um acts uh coming across the street directly to us and um and having your your children and grandchildren and and friends there when that occurs. So, uh hopefully you can see that we need to accomplish something and and Mr. Cooper said that uh things are in the works to to see. But they've got an indoor uh sound stage that they can play at. They don't need to come out and play outdoors. And but but it's progressively gotten worse. And even the good bands, the bands that don't use explicit language, they have gotten louder over time when they use that exterior. And I mean, they're they're on until 9:00 at night, seven days a week, you know, whatever time they're scheduled. and uh it's it's too much. Um so I I just want to say that thank you so very much. I appreciate all you guys and God bless you.

Thank you. Thank you Mr. Stow. I know the staff has heard you and u they will be in touch. All right. Next call to the public. Susan Campbell, if you'll please approach the podium. Hello.

Hello. Welcome. I'm Susan Campbell and I I understand that, you know, they say that the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so I'm here to squeak a little. I live at um 3520 Herod Street. I've lived there since 2017 and gradually my street has gotten worse and worse with potholes. Um I know that they've started doing some kind of filling in of the cracks. Um they started down by railroad and and went up to Van Beern and filled in some of the cracks, but there's still huge holes there. But from Van Beern to Jackson to Monroe, they haven't touched it. There's no um there the holes are so huge. This filler stuff is not going to do anything. And maybe that's why they haven't done anything with it. I will go out and purchase dirt myself and put it in the holes. There's a a hole in front of my house, like right in front of my driveway that I measured it. It's 12 foot by 7 foot and, you know, kind of deep, too. I have some pictures. Should I have given those to you that just show you? Okay. So, I just uh have some pictures of what it's showing. Just it's it's really hard on your car. You can't My father stays with me for about uh four months out of the year. We don't have any sidewalks. And that's fine, but he can't even walk on the side of the road because it's so bumpy and and all the dips and holes and everything. I'm afraid he's going to get hurt. So, I'm just trying to address you and and make sure that you know that there is something wrong farther down the street there and maybe they can do something besides just that filler in

the cracks. Thank you, Susan. I know staff has heard you and they will be in touch. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Uh, next is Amanda Agiri. He pronounced it properly. Thank you. It's only because the clerk told me how to announce it. Welcome.

Well, um, thank you for having me, city council members. I'm also from the same block of Herod. I, for the last week and a half, I've been trying to constitute our neighborhood to all be on the same page as to the road conditions. They are severely bad. They are unsafe for the children and the elderly, especially Sue's father, Jim. I talked to him before I talked to her and he said he doesn't drive. He walks. It is insanely It is insane how unsafe the road really is with how much road services there are in the area. I mean, every month there's a crew out there doing something, but they never come to the two blocks between Van Beern and Jackson and Jackson Monroe on Herod. I also took pictures of Phoenix, the road next to us towards Southern and Walapai, the road next to us towards Louise, and they are considerably better. Except for one block of Phoenix on the opposite of Monroe. Half of their road isn't even paved. And to be honest, I feel if our road was dirt, it would actually be a lot better for our vehicles and for people play, for the kids playing, for people walking than it is with the asphalt. Uh, I've got a crevice or a canyon on my side of the road that goes from um two houses down all the way to two houses on the other side of me. And my boyfriend and I were riding the bike home last weekend and he tipped the bike going through the hole cuz it is so deep. Uh there's terrible drainage systems. Uh the road would be so much better if we could have it repaired properly. It would cost less in the long run. it would last longer and I know I would be happier. I'm sure the rest of the neighborhood would be as well. I didn't get every house on the block to sign in the petition. Some people refused to. They didn't want their name in it, but I do have the majority of our neighbors on our side.

Thank you. All right. You all have a happy St. Patty's Day. Thank you so much. I know you've been heard by staff and they will be in touch. Thank you. All right. Anyone else wishing to address council? All right. We'll move on to a consent agenda. All matters listed here are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion on these items. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately. Council, I know you've had a chance to review the consent. Anybody wishing to pull anything? No. That being said, I'll entertain a motion. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second.

We have a motion. We have a second to approve all consent agend agenda items. Uh all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? I. Thank you, sir.

All right. Moving along. Action item 3A. Adopt a notice of intent to consider increasing solid waste rates at the May 19th meeting council meeting. The solid waste financial plan is regularly evaluated to confirm that revenues supporting operating costs, capital needs, and the maintenance of a 60-day operating cash reserve. During the past fiscal year, the city expanded services by implementing a drop off recycling program. Staff's evaluation of the solid waste financial plan has identified a gap between current revenues and the funding required to support current service levels, operating costs, capital needs, and the city's 60-day cash reserve target. Several rate and revenue options are being presented to council for consideration. Staff recommends council adopt a notice of intent to consider increasing solid waste rates at the May 19th council meeting. Welcome, Miss Molen. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor, council members, and Councilman Savage on Zoom. I want to start by giving an overview of what a financial plan update entails and why we actually do this. So the purpose of it is to ensure for this program that our solid waste revenues are sufficient to cover our operating and capital costs, our truck replacement costs, and to maintain a 60-day uh cash reserves for any sort of emergency that might come up. The process in that is that we analyze customer growth trends. We look at our operational and capital needs. So has something changed since the last year that we need to uh whether we need to add staffing or change a program or remove a program. We also look at our revenue requirements for those operational and capital needs. And then we ultimately will develop rate and

revenue models to bring to the council for consideration. The frequency of this is annually. We review the financial plans on an annual basis because things change annually. And if I can just take a minute to share a little bit of history on our solid waste rate program and what has happened with rates over time. So solid waste rates were the same from 2007 until 2021. There was not any sort of increase at that time. And while this seemed that it was a service for our customers because they didn't have any sort of rate increase, what happens is that we as we evaluate costs costs increase then ultimately you end up having to take to the customers a large increase. And so what we have done since then is we have reviewed the financial plan on an annual basis so that we don't have to come to our customers after 10 years with multiple years of large increases. So that's one of the reasons that this is done and this is a standard practice with water and solid waste systems. So the current financial plan. So last year we looked at the rates and we looked at our operational and capital costs and at that time based on what we expected to see over the next five years we thought that a 6 and a half% rate increase year-over-year through fiscal year 30 30 would cover the needs of the program. You'll see though where we are today which is the chart listed below that uh the red line are our expenditures the green line are our revenues but most importantly what I want to point out is the white line which are our our cash reserves and remember the goal is to keep 60 days of reserves and you'll notice that by 2029 under this current financial plan we will have depleted our reserves and then

ultimately would be we would have no reserves going into fiscal year property. Hence the the importance of reviewing these on an annual basis. So this is just a quick listing. I'm not going to spend any time on that. We'll cover what our current rates are, but these are our current rates for our residential customers and then also for our commercial customers because we serve both customer bases. And then we also provide residential extra trash and commercial extra trash. And those are listed at the bottom of the table as well. So, I shared earlier that we look at our customer uh trends and looking at a five-year average residential growth for our solid waste customers, we average about 1.8% but over the last few years that has shrunk to about 1.4%. So, certainly we're looking at customer growth going into the next five years. And while at some point in the future we are expecting pretty good growth as we annex areas and develop areas, we're going to take a we are taking a conservative approach and using more of that 1.4 to 1.5% growth trend. What else did we identify this year that might change for the next five years? and that is that our customer base has grown enough that we expect in 2028 now that we will need to add a route which entails adding an FTE for that route and a truck for that route. So a fully burdened employee is $84,000. Again, that is not salary. That includes all of the benefits and all of the state retirement system and taxes. and then a new truck. By then, we're expecting them to cost about five uh to cost about $518,000. We do finance those trucks and the first payment for that truck would be due in fiscal year 29. So, we need to make sure that we've got reserves to cover that debt payment.

Talking about trucks, let's talk about our trucks. Last year, we actually dove into our trucks and what they look like and how old they are. We have uh 30 I believe about 31 trucks in our fleet and many of them are still well over 17, 18, 20 years old. And so the goal is to keep 21 new trucks, meaning 10 years old in our fleet for our 21 routes, our 21 dedicated routes. And so we have 12 residential routes, five commercial routes, and then four other types of routes that are uh you that are driven those trucks are driven pretty frequently. So far we have replaced we are through fiscal year 26, right? So we've replaced 13 trucks, but we still have eight more to replace. And so just showing you what that plan looks like. We still have not replaced all of our aged trucks when we started this replacement program. We still have more that we need to replace. And all of those are included in our financial plan. I also want to spend a minute talking about recycling. So when we developed our rates last year, we developed the race based on we would add a recycling program and we evaluated staff evaluated that program during fiscal year 25. We sent out a survey. We got about 22 2300 responses and about 33% of those responses said that they would support a recycling drop off program and that they would be willing to pay between5 and $10 per load. And so based on that data and based on a pilot program that we had pre- pandemic, we put together, meaning staff, put together the program use, the cost, and the revenues, brought that to council for consideration, and council looked at those figures and felt that uh they wanted to adopt a recycling program, and you chose to do so and made the comment that it needed to be

self-supporting. The hours are Thursday through Saturday, 8 to 2. It's open to residents and businesses in the city, in the county, and we're charging $7.50 per load. What we have found through February is that we have generated less than $2,000 in revenues. We're hoping that with uh with offering the free program in April and doing a ribbon cutting that it might encourage participation. So, we're estimating we're estimating about $10,000 in revenue through June, but the program is much more expensive than that. So, we originally uh by the end of June, we're expecting it to be about $190,000. Um I in talking to the superintendent, if this is a program that the council wants to consider, we have looked at reducing FTEES and using just part-time employees to try to reduce those costs. So, that's something that we have evaluated going into uh this this next year. So, let's talk about the options. I'm going to go through quickly just the charts, mostly just the words underneath the option, and then I'll show you what the rates look like for the different options. So, option A would be including the route, the additional route, maintaining the 60-day target levels. Those particular items are in every single option. The difference in the options has to do with the recycling program. So option A only includes the funding for the recycling program through June of this year. And you'll see we get to a million dollars in reserves. That white line again on the chart at fiscal year 29. That is about 60 days of reserves and we maintain that. Option B includes funding the recycling program through June of 2027. So extending it another year. And again, we keep those 60-day reserves.

And option C is just continuing the recycling program for all five years of this particular plan. So, what do the rates look like with those different options? So at the top of this particular slide, the top of the table says current financial plan and rates and that was what I shared with you earlier. Last year we talked about that 6 and a half%. What that did not include is the additional driver and the additional truck for that route. That was not included in last year's five five-year plan. The rate that we're current that our customers are currently paying is 20 residential customers are currently paying $21.69. 69. So looking at option A and that is keeping recycling program through June of 2026 that would be an 8.25% increase for fiscal year 27 28 and 29 and then it would drop off to 2%. You'll see the rate difference of 2169 to $2348. It's a $1.79 jump. Looking at option B, keeping the program through June of 2027, it's an 8.75% increase for the first three years and a 1 and a.5% increase in the last two years. And that is 21.69 to $2359, a jump of $1.90. So a difference between option A and option B is 11 for the customer on a monthly basis. And then option C, keeping that program going jumps uh our rates to $23.89, which is a $220 increase. And that particular rate increase is 10.15% for the first three

years. And then it and then it goes down to one and a half percent. Now, something I do want to share that staff considered in these options is that we did not take into account that the program was going to support itself. We're seeing that already that it's not supporting itself. So, we did not expect it to support itself in option B or option C. We used very minimal revenues for the program. So, if council wanted to consider option B or option C, it makes sense that we wouldn't charge our city residents for recycling since all of our customers are having to pay for the recycling program. And instead, if county customers came to use the program, we would charge the $7.50 per load. I want to stop there for a second and see if there are any questions on that concept before I move on to the next few slides. Thank you, Tina. Council, any questions, comments?

Not on that. I have a question. Your mic. Your mic. Your mic. Go back to the slide. Thank you, Councilman Ward. We have 13,22 residential customers and 964 commercial customers. Thank you. You're welcome. Tina, I had a question. Um, can you refresh my memory on what expenditures we already have out there? It's close to I want to say it's about $175,000 I think is what I had shared at the January work session. I just know that we're expecting to have by the end of June. $190,000 we'll have to recover.

190. Okay. And what's our staffing figures for that? So we have re we have significantly reduced our staffing for that. So what our superintendent has done is he has he is using some of his team right now. So in overtime recognizing that the program isn't covering costs, right? We don't want to hire people and then not know what the council wanted to do. So we're using existing employees and some temp labor right now. We might have a part-time employee, and I'm going to ask uh we might have a part-time employee. I'm not 100% confident, but it's mostly temp labor and overtime, and I don't know what those exact costs are, Vice Mayor.

Okay. I was just wondering percentage-wise what what we have in in labor. And then, okay, I think that's it for now. Okay. Any any other comments? No. Okay. Carry on.

Okay. So, our residential customers aren't the only ones that are going to be affected by this, our commercial customers. So, also so also wanted to uh comp uh share some comparisons to our local providers. So, Bulldog disposal, Westside Disposal, and Waste Management all collect in the county and they pick up once per week. And so in reaching out to them, we found their rates as listed on this table and any of the options that the city of Kingman uh that the council decides are all lower than what our local providers are. And additionally, our customers, residential customers get twice per week pickup and not just once per week pickup. I also wanted to talk about the two other fees that I shared earlier which is the extra trash pickup. We are recommending that those particular rates also increase but at a smaller percentage 2 and a half to 2.6%. They don't those particular services don't use all of uh the cost of the program. So, we're looking at an increase from $2745 per extra trash pickup to 2815 and then a $2 increase for commercial extra trash pickup to $815 per pickup. This slide is really just I want to give you a preview of what's going to be coming. It has to do with solid waste and frequency of collection. So, just wanted to share it with you this evening taking this opportunity to do so. So last for many many many years we've been required by the Arizona administrative code to provide twice per week pickup unless we received a variance to do so. Well in February of 2025 the Arizona administrative code changed and that is no longer a requirement although it does allow municipalities to collect as

frequently as they as they deem necessary. And so because our regulations currently state that our commercial lences, meaning our thirdparty commercial providers, um, will collect garbage from each establishment at least twice per week in accordance with the Arizona administrative code. That's no longer the case. So, we're just going to be bringing back to the municipal utility commission and then ultimately to the council some wording changes that no longer reference that it's the Arizona administrative code that dictates that twice per week. It's the city's regulations dictate that twice per week pickup. So, I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that change because we have talked about that in the past about having to apply for a variance for once per week pickup. So then moving on to the next steps. So tonight there are a couple of things that uh staff is asking from council and that one is to provide some some direction on which financial plan and which rate option that you want to consider and then ultimately adopting a notice of intent to consider that option at the May 19th council meeting. And then May 19th, we will hold that council meeting, receive public comment, and then we would ask for council to make a decision at that time. And then whatever is adopted, if anything is adopted at that time, those rates would go into effect on July 1st. And with that, I am available to answer any questions that you might have. We also have our solid waste superintendent with us and our public works director to answer any of those technical questions that I wouldn't be able to respond to.

All right. Thank you, Miss Molen. Um, council, we do have one member of the public that wants to speak. Uh, shall we have him speak and then we can start our discussion? You good with that? All right. Dr. Rob Christensen, would you like to come up, please?

Uh, Dr. Rob Christensen. I reside at 3951 Sornson Drive here in Kingman. I just have a couple of questions about this. Uh first question was the rate increase. Did was that uh did they calculate the cost of fuel since it's gone up since our international events? And if not, is that going to necessitate um the city raising rates again if if fuel prices keep on increasing? So that's my first question. And then my second question is um it's it says on the agenda here u the target uh is to have a 60-day cash reserve. Uh why 60 days? Why not 90 or 120day reserve? So if someone can answer those questions for me, I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Christensen. Um I we'll go ahead and have Tina come up and answer those questions and then if it's okay with council, we'll start our discussion. Dr. Christensen, thank you so much for your questions. Uh, I'd like to respond to the fuel increases. So, while we put this together prior to what's happening currently, certainly we are conservative in the way that we estimate any of our costs, ensuring that there is some room for some of I don't want to say that type of instance, that's terrible, but some things that might happen in the economy or with our program. So I do not believe that that will impact anything that's being presented this evening. And as far as the 60 days, our adopted policy for uh funding uh fund balance or cash reserve policy for our enterprise funds, which is solid waste is an enterprise fund is to maintain anywhere from 45 to 180 days. We had gotten to a point um a few years ago that we fell below that. We were close to 45 days actually and or had projected to be at 45 days and recognized that we certainly didn't want to incur large increases for our customers to get to that 90day reserve level and then also recognized that there aren't a lot of fluctuations in the solid waste program and revenues. So, we felt comfortable that two months of operating reserves would take care of any sort of emergency that we needed to uh address if that came up. All right. Thank you. All right. Council, who wants to start?

I'd like to, Vice Mayor. Ah, Council Savage, you have the floor. Hello. Hi. Uh, Tina, how much have we invested so far for the recycling center? Councilman Savage, uh, thank you so much for asking that question. I don't have the exact dollars to date. Again, I want to say it was about $175,000 a month and a half or so ago, and I expect it to be about $190,000 by the end of the fiscal year. Does that include the bailing machine and all that equipment?

It does. We were able to find a balor much cheaper than what we originally expected. So, yes. Yes, it does. Uh, next question. Just so everyone understands, the rate increases include citizens being able to drop off without a charge. Correct. That's correct. Okay. Councilman Savage, if I can just clarify it, restrict it a little bit more. Not all citizens. So, just city customers, county customers would be Okay.

Yeah. No, no, I understand that. That I that's where what I meant. So, sorry about the misinformation there. Um, if we where I'm leading with this, just because we haven't given it a fair shake yet and committing to a long-term with the higher rates that includes it, we do not know exactly how it's going to end up performing. And to commit to that, I'm not real comfortable with with option B. And that would give it over a year and a half of of trial and error for the program. To me, that seems more of a safe line of not overcommitting, but still being there to see if it's really going to be worth it or not. Would you agree or disagree with that,

Counselor Savage? That puts Miss Moline in a pretty big pickle. So, well, we're going to be making the decision, sir. Yes. Okay. You're welcome, Miss Molen. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Sorry, Tina. Uh, that's my feeling on it cuz that's kind of a a big bite to swallow right off the bat to commit to met that many years. So, I still want to give it a chance because it could end up being very uh resourceful for our citizens. So, that's what I got to say. Thank you, Councelor Savage. Councelor Ward,

I disagree 100%. I don't think that everybody in the city should have to pay for a few people to recycle. We've had 175 from the city or 155 and 70ome from the county. And I don't think you're going to see a lot of improvement, but people have to pay. If you don't pay, you're going to lose even more money. I' I've seen this before. I won't support anything that makes every rateayer pay for recycling. I just won't. That's all I got. Thank you, councelor Ward. Councelor Dykins,

I got a couple of thoughts and a couple of questions. Um, first, if the city and the state were to pursue the potential of prisoner labor as what the city did prior to CO, what kind of value would that put us in or savings would that give us if we utilize prisoner labor to help with the man-hour? out at the site.

Councilman Dikkins, I appreciate that question and I know that's a something new that has come to the surface that we may have the ability to tap into.

I we are still we are working through that since that is something new to us as far as what that would require. It would certainly require employees because they have to supervise the inmates. So, we don't get rid of our employees. But I don't know how many employees would be necessary. Would it just be one now to supervise the crew? Would it still Well, I mean, I think we'd still need two. One to man man the the gate and then one to at least man lab the labor. But I I don't know that we as a team have developed what the savings would be. I can tell you that the personnel costs looking at part just part-time employees for the system are about $111,000. If we had a couple of part-time employees, three I don't even want to speak out of term because I don't know what the solid waste superintendent might really need, but it's not going to get rid of those costs. So, we're still going to have, you know, $150,000 cost and more, probably 175 or so, no matter what. And that's just with one or two part-time employees. If we still needed several, I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's going to move the needle, but it's not going to move the needle to where this is this will support itself. I hope that answers the the way the question that you were going after.

I'm good.

Okay. Thank you. Um, we as a council had stated, which you've already mentioned, that we wanted this to be self-sufficient. Obviously, it is not, nor is it really ever expected to be. Um, the survey that was put out, if I remember the numbers correctly, it was like 33% said that they would consider using the recycling if it was between $5 and $10. To me, that means 67% said no, they would not use it or probably would not use it. So with options well with any of the options but especially B and C then we are requiring 67% of the citizens to turn around and pay for a I'll go there a failing program even though they're not going to have to pay 750 to use it because of it, but 67% said they probably wouldn't use it in the first place. I'm I'm leaning on the fact that somewhat citing not citing that's a very poor word I think somewhat in agreement with Smiley that this is not self-sufficient. I am not in favor of the citizens of Kingman having to pay the bill for a few to use it. Um

I would I personally would be looking more at option A myself just to end the program. Yeah, we're still stuck with paying. We're going to be doing the extra driver and extra trucks. So that's some of the reason why the rates going up. But I personally I think we need to cut it before it keeps get getting worse. The other thing too is a year a little over a year ago when I got on commission. It was shortly thereafter we started talking about uh water rate increase and it was somewhere around like a dollar $1.15. I can't remember exactly. And there was a lot of residents that came out and really uh were not pleased with having their bill go up even a dollar because low income, retirement, fixed income, whatever. And here we're talking about increasing it even if we went with option A $1.79 per month, let alone the next item on the agenda. So personally, I'm looking more at option A.

Thank you, Councelor Dykins. Councelor Walker, you have anything? Yeah. Um, I wasn't really in favor of this program when we when we we looked at it charging the 750 a month. I I just I didn't think it was going to work and and you know, we said we'd give it a try. You know, have we give it long enough? Probably not, but I I kind of have to agree that it's time to to cut and run.

Okay. I just have a I have a couple of things. Um, you know, I I don't want to chase good money over bad. So, I'm just I I tend to support what's already been said. Um, I I think that this program is set up for failure in the beginning, and I think that's because our neighbor um right next to us is offering a service uh for recycling at no charge. So, I think as long as that is in play, I think that we even if our citizens want it, I mean, if you pay or you have the option not to have to pay. So, um I'm I'm sad that that we spent this money, but you know, I know there are some citizens out there that want to recycle. I just think it's just not it's just not the time right now for for us to recycle. And um yeah, I just I think that you know with the two rate increases I I mean the rate increases are are necessary and so you know in order to just keep services. So adding something else to it I I feel I I support um not continuing with the recycling program um and what with what was said. So, I uh with that I I'm going to support the option to take away the recycling program.

All right. Any other comments, questions? Councelor Ward, the only thing Well, when we if we kill the program, which it looks like it's not going to we know it's not going to pay for itself. Um, we sell off the assets. We recoup a little bit and we I mean and we'll be talking about recycling in 5 years. I don't have a problem with people recycling. I have a problem with me paying for somebody else to recycle. Agreed. I support that. All right. With that, any other comments?

I I know um Miss Molen touched on the once a week pickup. I don't support that. I I know that could save us a little bit of money, but I think you'll see trash cans overflowing, trash blowing down the road. Was that something we were supposed to talk about tonight or not? I mean, I don't like that option of going once a week myself. Councilman Walker, the only reason I brought that up is one, we've talked about that in the past about it being a requirement. Just wanted to clarify that it's no longer a requirement by the administrative code and we'll be bringing something back. So, just didn't want to surprise you when you saw that coming back. And if this was something you wanted to talk about this evening, that was an opportunity to do so.

When we talked about it before, I had more people call me in support of keeping the the twice a week pickup than going to the single. I had a few call me and they're bachelors. They, you know, they don't even fill it up now. And I'm like, well, a lot of families do, and if we go to once a week, you're going to see that can overflowing and then blowing down the street. And I think I think to your point, Councelor Walker, when we looked at that, we looked at that as a way to maybe decrease the last rate increase that we can just to kind of mitigate that. And I I wholeheartedly agree. I I think the the our constituents push back on that. So, um pretty hard. So, I I wouldn't support that uh either at this point.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. along those lines, just looking at the survey uh that was done at that time, 66% said they preferred the twice a week pickup. So, thank you. Thank you, uh, manager Walsh. All right. If there's no other discussion, Councelor Ward, and when we looked at that before, Tina, there wasn't that much difference in money at the end of the month whether you did one pickup or two, was there? Because you're carrying the same amount of garbage. Councilman Ward, that's correct. It was a very small difference. I want to say maybe $19 versus the $2169 that we were bringing to you. That's That's what I was thinking. Thank you.

All right. Council, what's your pleasure? I'll entertain a motion. Vice Mayor. Councelor, I was trying to think what would what's your title? Vice Mayor, I would like to make a motion to adopt a notice of intent to consider increasing solid waste rates at the May 19th council meeting in reference with option A and the presentation tonight. All right, I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a motion. I have a second to uh go with option A and adopt a notice of intent. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? I I

Thank you. All right, moving right along. Uh, item 3B, adopt a notice of intent to set a public hearing for May 19th to consider increasing water rates and establishing new water fees. The water systems financial plan is regularly evaluated to confirm that revenues support operating costs, capital needs, and the maintenance of a 60-day operating cash reserve. Staff's review of the water systems financial plan indicates that current revenues are not sufficient to fully support existing service levels. Operating expenses, capital requirements, and the city's 60-day cash reserve target. Rate and revenue options are being presented to council for consideration. Staff recommends council adopt a notice of intent to consider increasing water rates and establishing new fees and set a 19th public hearing date. Miss Molen,

thank you again, Vice Mayor and Council members and Councilman Savage on Zoom. So, beginning of this is very similar as to the last presentation. So, I won't necessarily cover everything in detail. This is the overview of the annual update. The one thing I want to talk about on this particular slide, we go through the same process, the same frequency as what we do with our solid waste rate plan. And I want to talk a little bit about the rate history with water rates as well. So the last time that we actually had a water rate, so I don't want to say the last time because we have increased rates for a few years, but in two July of 2012 was the last time prior to 2023 that we had a water rate increase. And similar there, right? Once we got to the point that we really started evaluating the plans and looking out five years, we realized, oh no, we need to address this and yes, our customers have had no rate increase for 11 years. Now, unfortunately, they have to have a few years or we need a few years of high rate increases. The goal is to get to a point where we're increasing incrementally and minimally and not how we have had to do in the LA over the last few years. So, let's talk about the current rates. They're a little bit different than solid waste, a little bit more complicated. We have base rates that is a flat rate charged to every customer. It's based on the size of a customer's meter and whether or not they're inside the city limits or outside the city limits. The monies that we collect from those base rates go to the overall operations of the system. We also have volume rates and these are tiered rates that are based on the gallons of water used. Those are also uh based on the customer class. So if you're an irrigation customer, if you're a residential customer, a non-residential customer, and in addition to whether or

not the customer is inside or outside the city limits, it also funds our everyday operational costs. Then we have a capital renewal fee component to our water rates. This is a flat rate charge to every customer also based on meter size whether you're inside the city limits or outside the city limits. But the particular these revenues particularly go to fund our large capital replacement projects. So it's not for operations it's for the large capital replacement projects and this is the only source of revenue that we have for those projects. So we'll start with the current financial operate financial plan for our operating system. Last year when we evaluated the program, we increased rates in fiscal year 26 at 13% and we thought that we would need to increase rates uh 8 and 1/4% and then 2 and a half% 3 and 1/4% 3 and a/4%. Now when you look at the number of days in reserves, similarly with water, we try to maintain that 60-day cash reserve level. What we're seeing if we were to do those rates is that we're actually well above the 60-day reserve level. And so that's good news, meaning that we don't need to increase rates to the level that we originally thought we were going to to increase them to. And then I also want to go into the current financial plan for capital renewal. Now, there is no minimum reserve for the capital renewal fund because it's all about just covering projects. And so, last year, we looked at a 20% increase year-over-year to cover the capital projects that were listed in the five-year capital improvement plan. And you'll see that based on those rates in those rate increases, what's in the plan, we actually end up depleting all of the reserves.

So, let's look at our customer base. Let's start with evaluating the financial plan. And we look at our customer base. We have our residential growth, our five-year residential growth trend for customers inside the city limits. You'll notice is a little bit less than what we are seeing outside of the city limits. And that's what we're projecting for the next few years as well. We also have commercial uh customers in in uh in our customer base too. So what has happened since last year when we reviewed the plan? There are a few things that have happened and one our revenues were higher than what we expected. One, we had a little bit higher of an increase in our outside customer base than what we originally expected. And then also what we noticed is that we did not have a lot of rain last year. And typically when we don't have a lot of rain or almost no rainfall, we see a trend where our commercial customers use more irrigation water. And so that is part of the reason for the increase in revenues. We also had some positive experiences in our expenses. So our engineering team has had some turnover and had some struggles filling some positions. So we saved some money there. Uh between electricity and natural gas, we saved a little bit of money there. It's a very big expense for the program, but we saved a little bit of money there. And we always budget certain a certain standard amount for infrastructure and pumps and uh repairs and maintenance. Didn't have to tap into all of that this this last year. Uh so those are the major differences in expenses from what we estimated versus what we actually experienced in fiscal year 25. Also credit and debit card fees. No longer is that happening. So in fiscal year 25 we incurred in the engineering

and utility billing team uh divisions rather $35,000 in merchant card fees. Now there were a few months this year that we still absorb those fees and that's going to be about $100,000 but in the outy years it's zero dollars. So it's a big savings in all of those outy years. uh we are monitoring the use of other electronic payment methods in the event that our customers go that route and we need to reconsider uh maybe not absorbing those particular costs but for now the system is able to absorb those costs. So those are some of the operating costs that have changed. The capital costs that have changed this year is we have uh some some different capital that are in our operating fund. You'll see the list here. It's about $2.4 million over the course of five years. And then in our uh in our capital renewal fund, meaning the large capital replacement projects, you'll see there's about $13.4 million. That's about an increase just under $2 million from last year. And there are two particular projects on here that are being recommended to be added to the upcoming plan and that is the city well 10 and Castle Rock transmission main project and the main tanks transmission main project. The final phase uh that particular project actually was included last year. It came in way above estimates and so we had to phase that project. So this is the final phase of that particular project. Now, I have on here service lines um highlighted with some stars. And I didn't know if Manager Walsh wanted to talk a little bit about the service lines and uh what that entails or might look like.

Yeah. So, as as you all you're all aware, um we've been having issues with service lines each summer and as as the summers come around, we see those um those leaks uh popping up. Um it's I believe we had a presentation oh almost a year ago now may maybe not quite a year ago. Um where we we were able to see that our service line leaks were higher than what the city of Phoenix has. So so we definitely have an issue there and and we are looking into that issue. We're working with um public works right now is looking at uh bringing a consultant on to identify basically those leaks. Right now, we've got them throughout the city, but but look at the potential causes. We we feel like we've got a pretty good idea on what those causes are. Um but also coming up with a solution on on how to address those leaks in a in the most efficient way. So,

thank you, manager Walsh.

So, I want to I want to spend a couple of minutes on this particular slide. So, these particular fees that are listed on this slide are fees that are not charged to every customer. It is only customers who use this fee or it's a service that we provide to certain customers. And these particular fees have not been increased in many years. And you'll see in that last updated column there the years that those particular fees were updated. They currently generate as they are currently set $325,000 a year. Now, staff is recommending that we look at those fees and instead of keeping the fees at the rates that they've been for many, many years, some of them since the 80s and 90s, we look to actually recover the full cost of providing these services to that small class of customers and increase those particular fees to this these rates, which would generate another $130,000. dollars to the water system. We are also looking to establish two new fees that we currently provide at courtesy. We do not charge for this but it does get used and that is our non-pay disconnect lock. We're looking to establish that at $22 which is full cost recovery and our customer assisted turn on and turn off. We get calls periodically, goodness, I think it's a sign pretty good number, more than a couple of hundred customers that give us a call and ask us to come help them turn on or off their meter for whatever purpose that that they need. And we're currently doing that for free. So, we're looking at charging $27 or fully recovering the cost for that. Tina, can I ask a question while we're on that slide?

Yes, Vice Mayor. Um, so I'm just curious as to why uh some are at 90 98% cost recovery and some are over 100% cost recovery. Can you explain that? I can, Vice Mayor. We're looking really just to round the figure.

Okay. Thank you. So we have a couple of options for the council to consider in for the water system as well. So option A is uh this is for operating right for the volume rates and the base rates we are this particular option includes the increases to those fees that I just showed on the prior slide. So if those fees are something that council wants to move forward with with increasing those fees then the system increases would look like this in fiscal year 27 3.85% 85% through fiscal year 30 and then 2.75% in fiscal year 31. That keeps us at the 60-day target reserve and also continues our services as we're currently providing. Option B is if the fees on the couple of prior slides are not increased, they are left as they currently are. Then the overall increase would be 4 and a4% until fiscal year 31 and it would drop to 2.5%. So what does that look like for our customers? So right now for option A, I'm just going to pick one or two numbers on here. The base rates currently for a customer, a residential customer, this is the size of their meter, that 58 meter. They're currently paying $1868. That's a flat rate. It would jump to $19.40. If there was no increase to those fees uh to the fees on the prior slide, then it would jump to $1948

for a c residential customer inside the city. What does that look like for volume rates? Option A, currently a low user at 3500 gallons is paying $212 per thousand gallons. It would jump to $2.20. And option B, it would jump to $221. So, moving on to the capital renewal fees. So, the the large replacement projects, the proposed The current financial plan is a 20% increase through fiscal year 30. Under the proposed, it would be a 50% increase the first year and then drop to a 7.5% and then a 5% increase. And if I can point out here, by the time you get to fiscal year 31, it's $11.83 under the proposed. And in fiscal year 30 under the current plan, it's $12.84. So it's it's a savings overall by the time you get to that that particular year. And then what would the current versus proposed capital renewals fees be for our customers? So again looking at a customer with a 5/8 inch meter. So our residential customer inside city limits currently paying $619 and it would jump to $929. So what is the customer impact? So looking at our residential customers under option A, a low a customer with low usage would see a jump of $46. $3122 is what they're currently paying and it would jump to $35.28. Our average customer uses about 6,100

gallons. So that average customer is going to see a jump of $4.33. And then the higher user you'll see is the $6.54. It's a little bit higher for outside residential customers. And then option B is going to be higher because those are higher rate increases. And this is what the dollar amount increases are for inside and outside customers. And that includes all of the fees, the base, the volume, and the capital renewal fee. So all three fees are included in the customer impact figures. So comparison to other cities. So looking at the same cities that we have compared ourselves in the past, you'll see that the lowest city. So this is a comparison of a residential customer inside city limits using 6,100 gallons of water. What does that look like amongst all the cities? Lake Habsu City is the lowest rate, $22.64. And then you'll see that we are right in the middle. Our current rate and our our proposed are in the middle. And then you'll see where Chino Valley, Flagstaff, Cottonwood, and Prescuit are higher than than where we currently are and where we're proposing. Bullhead City is at $3947 currently. So the next steps for this particular item would be similar to the last item. We're looking for council to select a water rate increase option and then adopt a notice of intent to consider those rates at a May at the May 19th council meeting holding a public hearing and then on May 19th looking for public comments and then ultimately uh adopting a rate increase or not. And if approved, then those w those rates would go into effect on July 1st. And with that, I

will try to answer any questions. I also have our public works team in the audience to answer any technical questions that I'm unable to respond to. Thank you, Miss Moline. We do not have a member of the public signed up to speak on this item. Uh councilors, do you have any comments, questions, discussion? Councelor Walker, I have one question. I'm not sure if this would be a Tim or a Jamie question. The service lines we we have $850,000. I mean, I think that's low or is that what we're really projecting for next year with all the breaks? I I'll leave that to Jamie. Okay.

Hello. Welcome. So, it's in my opinion, if we're going to do what really needs to be done, it's low. Um, per line on the average, we're probably about 3,000 dollars per line and we have 24 roughly 24,000 lines. So, in order for us to kind of make a dent, um, 850,000 is fine, but if we really wanted to get a jump on it, it's low. Okay. Because I know we have neighborhoods all over town. I'm not telling you anything new, but yeah.

And people are honest. You know, when are we going to get our lines fixed? And I don't know when we're going to rip that band-aid off and look at it. If this is not the time we want to look at it or where we at as a council. Well, I did have a follow-up question for you. So, I mean, it's 850,000 for this year, right? Are we going to do a phased approach and similar to streets? Sure. We're going to have like we're going to grid out the city and

Yep. And uh Jack has been working with GIS to try to get us into a spot with our new software that we're looking at where when he comes up with his districts um it'll show us that there's service lines of stuff that need to be replaced in that area as well. So kind of a value engineering. Okay. So it could be in in in Tina's calculations. Are you projecting that amount out for the next so many years? That would be a question for Tina.

So, and and I'll let Tina answer that if I may, though. Um, really the 850, as I mentioned previously, we are working to bring on a consultant to give us basically a planned approach on how to attack these. We're early talking about what I brought up. Yeah. So, so basically this gets us through this year, helps us address the the emergencies that come up. Okay. Um, but ultimately to address the overall problem, that's where we're bringing a consultant on to help get a excuse me, a good plan to to really attack it. Thank you,

Vice Mayor. Councilman Walker, if I may, the $850,000 is actually the five-year um the five-year plan. And we did that because for the same reasoning, we know that something's going to come out of this uh study, and something's going to need to be done, but we don't know what that dollar amount is yet, and so we're waiting for that before we bring anything to you. I hope that explain explains that. So that $850 is for the fiveyear. It is. So, $350,000 next year, $350,000 the following year, and then minimal the outy years, thinking that there's going to be some sort of solution that we're going to bring to you next year to consider.

Okay. All right. Good discussion. Anything else? No. Councelor Ward.

Jamie, is that replacing the lines when they blow or just band-aiding them like we have been? Well, the current um 350 that we've been using, they've been doing both more of a band-aid than they have been full service line replacement. Um it's what we're going to see come out of this LCR um uh inspection that we're doing uh per ADQ, we're going to start to identify lines that um the condition. So they may still they may if we find that they are um not copper and they're those lines that are blowing on us the the plastic poly um that will actually help in identifying that as well. But to answer your original question we're doing both but more right now with the 350 on just repairing lines.

Okay. All right. Councelor Dikkins. This is more going to be for Tina. Can I like those? Of course. Go that way. Of course. Stick around, Jamie.

I've I've got notes everywhere, so I hope I can get to them. Um, the slide that talks about pumps and motors and that we spent less this past year. Yes. 150,000 less than is estimated. Does that mean that we need to look at possibly $150,000 more next year because those pumps and motors that weren't required to be replaced, are they going to be that much more wore out? And will they need to be replaced? I mean, we lucked out this year, but that doesn't mean it'll happen again. So, Councilman Dykens, we always estuds and maintenance for infrastructure and pumps and motors or for our infrastructure because we know that anything can happen. So, it was just an area that we saved, but we've got the additional in the outy years to cover anything that comes across our plate.

Okay. Um the other fees that slide I this may be apples and oranges but I kind of look at it as last year when we were looking at the fact that we were not charging for credit card use and we were losing a half a million dollars a year. So, this isn't the anywhere near the same amount, but it still makes a difference. Personally, I think we should be using or going by this new schedule for the other fees and bringing in the estimated 132,000 instead of providing totally free service and the city biting the bullet on it. If the customers need extra special things done, then to me, I think they should be the ones that paid for that special service. Um, oh goodness, where am I now? Under the options, option A. Yeah, I can see that screen a whole lot better than this one. Uh option A, we're talking whether we do option A or anything else. We were currently planning on increasing the fees. It looked like it was going to go 8.25 for the next year. Yes, there's going to be a big drop after that, but for the next year was going to be a a pretty large increase percentage-wise.

I like the option A of including the other fees which gives the opportunity to drop that percentage way down and just keeping it level straight across at the 3.85. I like that. And then capital renewal where you're talking about Yep. That's the one. Um, the current increase was 20% straight across the board versus a one time 50% increase and then a major drop thereafter at 7 12%. I like that. I don't like the 50% but I like the major drop thereafter. But the thought the question I had with this one was I'm going blind with that son. The question I had was instead of 50% if it was somewhere in between so it's not such a big hit the first year. Could we consider increasing it but not so much? and then the 750 would be a the 7.50 would be a little higher but not anywhere near the 20. Was that looked at at all or just this here?

So, Councilman Dykins, thank you. And that's a great question. So, it's all based on the timing of the projects that are in that are that we see here. Let me just get back to that slide so we can talk about them. So, it's all based on the timing of these projects. And one of the particular projects that we've added to the list that we weren't expecting to add is that million dollar is that main tank transmission. Uh the final phase for the main tanks transmission. It's an additional million dollars in the first year that we feel is very important to make sure that we complete that project. We're already working on the first phase. I don't know if we're complete with that first phase or not. Um but we are working on that first phase. So we feel that it's important to include that project the first year and that's what's driving that 50% increase. Um we can certainly look at doing something different. Um I I know that internally it's a priority to get the project completed, but ultimately we can look at doing something different. Manager Walsh, do you want to chime in? I think you you said it perfectly really with the uh the main tanks. We've gotten the line all the way from Castle Rock up to just short of the tanks. Um what this will do is is allow us to get in there and and connect it to the tanks. Um that helps us on a number of of uh issues, but but it it also does uh help out in in a small part with the uh the service line leaks that we're seeing. Um once we have that connection um that will allow us to pump directly from the tank or from the wells into the tanks rather than feeding the system at the same time as filling the tanks. Um when those pumps come on you see a much you know an increase in pressure which you know that increase in pressure that decrease in pressure um is not helping

us with our service lines. So that will help in in that area as well. But but overall system uh reliability or system uh efficiencies and functionality once we get that connected it will really help.

I can share that the only other project that would be in fiscal year 27 that uh so let me share the projects that are actually in fiscal year 27 uh we have our uh $200,000 of the distribution lines. We have $150,000 for pumping equipment, $350,000 for our service lines, $500,000 for our meter replacement program, $200,000 for our wellsight chlorine and motor control cabinet upgrades, the lead and copper rule revision that we have to comply with, $500,000, and then that main tank's transmission of a million50. There's not a lot that wouldn't be a priority, but we can certainly look at moving the I I might be speaking out of line, public works director Carreri, possibly the wellsite, chlorine and motor control cabinet pushing that $200,000 to a different year. Um, and I don't know if there

if I if I can just chime in a little bit on this. I I think the the question really is that that first year. Um ultimately we have to get to the same we still have the same amount of funding, the same amount of of revenues that we need to see in order to do all of these projects. The question is is do we frontload it right now so that we can get these priorities done right away or do we put them out a year and then just raise those rates, you know, next year, the year after. ultimately, excuse me, as Tina mentioned, um, we end up at a lesser rate. I don't know if you have that slide, if you can bring that slide up just to show it again. At the end, we're actually believe we were lower. So, we're at the 1183 um, going this route as opposed to the 1284. So, um, the the initial year is a a a significant increase. you're going from 743 to 929, but then after that the the increases are, you know, much less and and getting to a a final number that's that's lower.

And would it be a true statement if we put off some of those capital projects to another year or two, those costs could actually be higher due to inflation. Very true.

Okay. Um just to for me to finish up personally I'm in favor of the option A including the other fees and then I am in favor of the capital renewal plan as proposed on this screen here. the 50% though I don't like that but the 50% to get these projects done so that we're not paying more a year or two from now and then the drop down to the 7.5 and then the 5.0. Okay. Thank you, councelor Dikkins. And that was exactly where I was going to go with my talking points because that 50% increase, that's quite the stinger, but I understood why and I'm glad we went through that exercise to explain to the public. So, um although I don't enjoy that either. I I support it because I think the overall getting that connected and the the relief that it's going to give to our service lines, I think, is is very important. Um, so hopefully we can see some smaller leaks or not as many. So, um, and, uh, I I support the direction you're going, doc, or councelor Dikkins. So, all right. Any other comments? No discussion? No. All right. What's your pleasure? I'll entertain a motion.

I thought I heard one down there.

Well, not formally. Go ahead. To meet Carl's criteria, I'd like to make a motion to adopt a notice of intent to set a public hearing for May 19th to consider increasing water rate water rates and establishing new water fees to include option A, which it does include the other fees and going with a capital renewal. rates, proposed rates of the 50% in fiscal year 27 and then the drop down in fiscal year 28 to the 7.5.

All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. We have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? I. Thank you. All right. Motion carries. All right. We're going to move along to our agenda. We're going to uh flip things a little bit. We're going to do uh department reports. We're going to do B before A. We have uh legislative update from uh Tom Dorne. Are you available, Tom? I am here. Welcome.

Thank you. Uh Madame Vice Mayor, council members, um happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you and uh it was good to see all of you last week. Those of you that were able to make it uh down to the Kingman Day at the Capitol, uh as you know, it it it was a very successful uh event. We uh had for those of you that weren't there, we did have meetings just to bring you up to speed and for the public. Uh we did have meetings with the governor's office uh to discuss various issues. Uh we had meetings with the department of corrections uh uh regarding the facility near Kingman. Uh we also talked with um uh the office of tourism and their emphasis on Route 66 and their continued efforts to collaborate with your team uh with Josh and um and and Becky and everybody uh up there working on on tourism issues and the Route 66 and the 250 year celebration. Uh we also uh met with the um uh with the water infrastructure financing authority to discuss opportunities with regard to projects uh in the Kingman area. uh we did have our lunch with our legislators uh which was a great opportunity to break bread and just kind of uh talk with them about some of the major issues. And so all three of them were excited to meet with all of you. And so that was a positive uh discussion. And then we also we wrapped up the day with meeting with Jennifer Toth, the director of the Arizona Department of Transportation and her staff uh including her deputy director u um Wade uh who was also uh there. And it was interesting because both of them Wade Webb and Jennifer Toth both him and

him and DPS and her with ADOT uh got their start in Kingman. So, um it was a it was a good good exchange and um so and and manager Walsh did a very good job with his art on the whiteboard showing them how they would like some you guys would like some transportation projects done. So, u uh that that was a very productive day. Um, also, uh, with regard to legislation, we are, and I'll just, as if we didn't have the discuss, I'll just give you an update on legislation. Some of the big items continue to be the rural transportation uh, advisory council bill 2304. Uh, we have the Kingman projects that are in there. Uh, uh, and so we'll see uh, uh, where that goes. As I've told you many times, those projects that are being asked for by waycog and the other cogs around the state and the rural transportation advisory council, uh they're kind of a a deal closing uh fund, if you will, for budget votes. So, we do our delegation is very enthusiastic and uh and working hard to get things in the budget uh for the Kingman area. So, we'll see what happens. Uh it really depends on the funding and and with regard to funding and the budget uh just so you all know the finance advisory committee is meeting this week. Uh and that is uh the panel that's made up of the university economist and other private sector economists where they give an update on the state budget and the state revenue revenues. So uh that is everyone's kind of waiting for that. It's almost like waiting to for the Fed or the jobs numbers to come out. uh uh that's what's we're going to have and so that is really going to have an impact on on the budget moving forward here you know and and as I've told you before if it's done if the revenue numbers look

good they may move the budget sooner rather than later if they look poorly I look poor they may wait for the April numbers to come in when we all pay our taxes and that way they have more money to do what they need to do or want to do and um so and throw on top of that an election year. So, more to come on all of this. So, we'll see what happens. Um with regard to the bill that that the city uh really would like to see done, Senate Bill 1167 uh sponsored by Senator Angus, that is that allowing the publications and the newspaper uh to also be done uh uh online. Uh we've been putting a fullcourt press on that and working with the senator trying to get uh the chairman of the committee who's from the White Mountain region uh who is be holding kind of to the uh the newspapers in that area. Um trying to get him to to hear the bill and uh uh he's open to it and we're grateful for that. So we'll we'll see what happens on that. Um, also just to let you know that House Bill 4030, that is the one that was going to prohibit it was Representative Justin Olsen. This is the one that would prohibit a city uh in towns from uh passing any fees uh taxes fees forever and ever. Um uh and that went down in the House um 21 to 31. So that that's good. Um uh and but there's still the ballot measure that remains out there. And it's not that all the cities and towns want to go out and raise taxes or fees, and I'm I know you you as a council probably certainly don't want to do that either. Um but you don't take hamstring the the the cities and towns from ever uh managing their future uh financially. And so, um, we that the there's a concurrent resolution, House

concurrent resolution that could send it to the ballot. So, it's really important for all of you to continue to put the pressure on your legislators to say, do not put that on the ballot because can you imagine if that got on there and people would pass and then you would never ever be able to raise any revenue for a city or town in our state. Um so it would be extremely difficult and um so there of course there's other bills there's water bills a lot of water issues that we're dealing with uh and uh next week is the last week to hear bills in the um other chamber. And then after that there's a week of uh appropriations committees and then we're just dealing with what's left and and and moving the bills through and getting a budget done. Uh, and like I said earlier, that timeline is really going to depend on what we find out this week. Um, and the leadership of who wants to get out. Uh, some legislators will want to get out to campaign for other offices. Uh, the governor may want the Democrat governor may not want these Republican legislators to get out to run for other offices. So there's the politics that we're dealing with and we deal with that every year regardless of who's in the governor or the legislature. It's the politics of timing in an election year. And um and that's it. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Council, any questions for Tom? I just I had a question about um HCR uh 2052. Would you like a letter from us or can we can we put together some kind of of letter that would be helpful? We'd be uh uh Madame Vice Mayor, Council, uh yes, I think that's a great idea. And uh uh I have a document that I can actually put something together for you if you like.

Yes. Yeah. If you'll work with manager Walsh on that, that'd be great. And I just wanted to personally thank you for all the connections that you continue to put us in front of all the right people in all the right places at the cap. Um it was very uh nice to be able to meet with the governor's team and and get uh get their ear for a while and um you know the department of corrections was fantastic ADOT. So, I I think there's a lot of good and and the more they see Kingman at the capital and the more we get to have that one-on-one uh contact with them, the more recognition they have of us and and of our area and it it just stays fresh for them. So, I appreciate all that you do for our uh Kingman Day at the capital and I think it's it's done us very well.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor, and I I congratulate all of you because this was your vision. Um you all wanted to have a day at the capital. So, now that you've had two days at the Capitol in a row, you guys look real comfortable. People know you. People are coming up to you. Um, oh, Kingman's here. So, it's a it's a good thing. Uh, and uh, you know, I'll probably just follow you guys around next year, God willing. So, good job. It's very exhausting. We appreciate all that you do down there. Is there anyone online that wanted to have any comments to Tom or have any questions? All right. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate you.

Okay. Thank you all. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Same to you. All right. Now, we'll go to the Kingman Police Police Department's annual report. Chief Cooper, welcome.

He's doing it for me. Thank you, Vice Mayor. council it was helping me. I uh again I feel like it hasn't been that long ago but it's been a year since I've been able to present to you our annual report and you all should have received this uh a little over a week ago I suppose and uh I am honored to have the opportunity to share it with you and it's also available to the public or it will be very soon. I wanted to present it to you officially before we release it to the public so you had a pre-screening as it were. Um, and that'll be available at kingmanfle.com and on the uh side of the page there's a there's a link to annual reports. So the first slide similar to last year I like to look have my slides look similar to Tina's at least once a year with graphs. Uh I do enjoy graphs and bar charts and it helps me to understand them. But I wanted to highlight some of these uh crime statistics and trends over the last few years. Uh in 2025, we did see a slight little over 1% increase in total calls for service from the previous year, which is something I would expect to coincide with growth uh increased traffic volume and also our visitor volume. But what I can attribute it to as well as I continue to be very proud of the work that the officers do. The officer generated activity increased again for a second year, but this last year it increased by 13%. Excuse me. And I like to highlight what officer generated activity really means, but it refers to the officer's proactive enforcement efforts. When they're not obligated to a call or doing report writing or followup on an assigned call, uh it's they're taking action on their own initiative and it's something that's encouraged. It's something that's expected. And what can result from that are drugrelated offenses, criminal traffic violations, which is DUIs, criminal speed, and also warrant arrests. It also is part of our urban camping enforcement efforts as well and

most of those are generated from officer generated activity. They're taking again taking the initiative. Uh but what's important to me to point out to you is that all these crime categories listed is just a highlight of the what I would call might be of mo most interest to the community, but it doesn't include everything that we do. So, it's important for me just to let you know that this does not include call types similar to disorderly conduct, warrant arrests, trespass, traffic stops, field interviews. Uh we have department service related calls that we handle civil issues. Uh we assist medical often we have death investigations, tobacco offenses, and other mis assorted misdemeanors that aren't included in this in this report. But what I do like to highlight uh within the calls that are listed on the on the screen and in the report, there are some areas that I would call concern, things that I pay attention to and my team pays attention to to see if there's things that we can do uh proactively. A lot of what we do is reactive just by the nature of what we do. But sometimes there might be opportunity for us to be uh reactive, you know, pre uh preventative in what we do. Uh thefts were up a little over 4% from the previous year. I can tell you we we spend an exorbitant amount of time at a local big box store every week and we don't see any decrease in thefts and shoplifts that are occurring there. Uh sexual assaults were up a little over double from the previous year. I want to mention that that doesn't mean there's a a a sexual predator on the loose in the community. Uh most of these are things that are delayed. Uh some of them are to be unfounded. Some of them get suspended because there's lack of evidence or lack of cooperation from the victim. So it's

not as urgent or dangerous as it might seem just based on our, you know, general understanding of what sexual assault means. It covers a lot of things within that as well. And arson's uh were up significantly. and something I appreciate having the opportunity to describe. In 2022, we started reporting uh through NYERS's state. It's a federal data standard of crime reporting, national instant national incident uh reporting system and it categorizes things a little differently. So, this includes not just there's a couple incidents last year uh where it was a structure was lit on fire or a dwelling. The others are mostly uh like trash can or dumpster fires. When we report them that way, it's considered an arson. Doesn't mean we'd charge somebody with arson. They'd probably be charged with criminal damage or reckless burning, but it does pop up in the uh statistics of arson. Some good news, positive trends. Uh there was a significant decrease in vehicle thefts uh of almost 30%. If you remember last year, it was up pretty high. there was that ongoing social media trend with juveniles and young adults doing the thing with those certain vehicle brands but even with the decrease it's still a little higher than usual and something that compared to the previous five years and it's something that I could say a common denominator in those is most of them many of them involved unlocked vehicles within with keys and things left in the vehicle and the vehicles are stolen not all of them but a significant portion excuse me another increase that's good is we had a 13% increase in DUI arrests. Again, it kind of highlights the officer generated activity. They're out there being proactive and looking for traffic offenses and impaired drivers. Uh we did have a 47% increase in traffic citations. So, I'm very proud of that. I'm not happy that people are necessarily getting tickets, but I'm a firm believer that issuing tickets and written warnings uh is the best way to

modify driving behavior. So, there was an increase in traffic citations issued. And I don't believe it's coincidence, but there was a three and a half percent decrease in traffic crashes. And there has to be a correlation there. Uh, and our burglaries continue to trend down. Uh, something I found interesting, adult arrests were down slightly while juvenile arrests increased, which is the trend. And the juvenile arrest increased about 71% from the previous year. And that's just a kind of a trend the way things are going in in society. And lastly on this slide, the total traffic collisions are 172. That also includes private property, we call them private property crashes. So it's important we did we handled 324 private property crashes. And on the next slide, I'll get more specific into actual roadway crashes. Any questions on

I did um Chief I I was gonna ask about the juvenile because I saw I saw the increase year-over-year and then holy heck. So what do what do you attribute that to? So I can't it everything I would say it's kind of anecdotal but I know other jurisdictions are having similar problems. There's a lot of social media activities. You know there's family dynamics that come into play the deterioration of the the home. Uh what kind of crimes are you seeing in the juvenile section? There is a whole lot of tobacco crimes, vaping crimes in the schools. Okay.

There's a lot of those. Um there are some shoplifts and the thefts and there's uh truency type issues and things that are going on, but there's nothing other than the vehicle thefts that were occurring last year. There's nothing that really is jumping out to me right now. So, I mean, all those crimes are bad, but it's nothing that's like an escalated crime like a like a, you know, robberies or, you know, things like that. I I there was there has been over the years, last several years, there has been an increase in violent crime involving youths and guns and that was kind of statewide. So, uh I can't I can't really tell you if that's dropped at all. My my feeling is that it hasn't.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Uh on this slide is the uh traffic a little more traffic related uh on their citations and whatnot, but here traffic crashes are listed minus the private property ones. And that's where I was able to identify there was a three and a half% decrease from the previous year. And again, I'd reiterate, I don't think it's a coincidence that our citations and written warnings had increased. Um I mentioned on the side there that there were fatal five crashes that resulted in five fatalities, which was the same amount as the previous year. And our highest incidence of intersection related crashes continues to be the Stockton Hill corridor. I'm sure that's not a surprise. Uh some highlights uh of what we accomplished last year. We were in our second year of reacredititation. Um which is something we're proud of. I previously, I think a couple months ago, was able to highlight uh our accepting the Trilogy accreditation award through the ALEP Arizona law enforcement accreditation program. We were one of the few in the state at that time. Uh our initial department accreditation six years ago. We developed that. Subsequently, our dispatch center received similar accreditation and then last year our property and evidence received accreditation. So, we received that. So, it's a big deal for us and it's a big deal in our in our environment and law enforcement. Uh we were able to activate our street crimes unit, something we've been wanting to do for several years. Um so we have two detectives that were have been assigned to that. We call it SCU. They're not assigned or expected to handle regular traffic calls, but they're to focus on issues, quality of life issues, repeat offenders, if there's a neighborhood, the hot spot that's going on, a lot of drug u drug uh offenses that they're discovering, multiple search warrants. So, they're doing a lot of good work and I'm very proud of of what they're doing as well. Last year, we were able to implement our police aid program that's a part-time for somebody out of high

school. They're not quite they're not 21 and we use them part-time to try to develop them and mentor them to hopefully want to when they get the right age become a police officer hopefully with the police department in Kingman. Um, it's also a force multiplier for us because they do help us with some of the lower skilled things like private property crashes, um, graffiti, traffic control. They do help us with those things as well. And grant funding, we're still pretty proud of the grant funding. Uh, that's helps us support some of our, uh, DUI extra duty as well as our magnet task force is very grant dependent. Uh the recruitment team continues to work hard tirelessly in addition to their regularly assigned duties. Um I briefly mentioned this I think last year but our internet crimes against children child crimes detective uh was implemented I want to say it was about a year ago and detective Gabby Sumar is doing really really well. It's a terrible thing that we have to have somebody for that. But anytime we receive a tip from this IAC task force in the Phoenix area, the expectation is that we're going to follow up and it usually always almost always is child exploitation, child pornography, right? And grooming, different things that are happening. So if it's determined to be coming from in the Kingman area, it's assigned to us. And I have a detective, that's her primary function. And she's been very productive. multiple search warrants, arrests have been made, and as ugly and unimaginable as it is, it's necessary. So, I'm proud of the work that that she's doing. We still invest heavily in our advanced officer training. There's a lot of training requirements every year. They don't decrease, they seem to increase. We're able to handle a big chunk of that internally. We send officers to become an a trainer certified in that area, and then we do a lot of that uh internal. Uh but there's still things that we send officers out to and we've been fortunate to be able to do that. Our community feedback continues to be positive overall. We

have several ways that we can receive that traditional email and um online, you know, anonymous tip type stuff. But we also have something for the last several years. If somebody calls our dispatch center and makes a police call, they're automatically sent a text asking them to participate in a survey. fire department, same thing. And ours hovers high 80s to 90% which is acceptable to me. Not everybody's always happy with the things, but it causes us to consider what's going on and maybe what happened at that time. Did they not get called back at the right time? It's usually the customer service type stuff that causes people concern. And then our leadership and executive development, something we continue to focus on. We're doing that. There's several of us in the department that could retire anytime we choose at this point. Um we have a pretty young officer cadre, but then we have people that um we're preparing for future leadership and it's something we're able to continue to do. A lot of that happens internally and we send people to advanced um leadership development as well. Looking forward, recruitment and retention remains our priority. Um we're currently we currently have three off three recruits in the police academy. one in Lake Havsu, two in the Yuma Academy. Uh the vacancies, not counting them, they're included on our current staff. We're currently eight sworn positions down, seven officers and then one unfilled sergeant position. Um crime reduction and prevention continues to be something that's important to us. We discuss it and look at ways that we can do something new, not the same old way. Traffic enforcement is probably one of the top things that we get asked or complaints from. traffic enforcement. Um, we're also needing to fill some specialty assignments. We have been able to fill a few spots, but some things that we're waiting as our staffing hopefully improves. Um, we still need to fill in one school resource officer

position that's been un unfilled for for some years. A detective position, same thing. And then also, uh, one traffic enforcement officer position. We're also preparing for growth with the annexation discussions and the interchange coming in. uh as a city as a whole, we're all talking about growth and what's going to be needed. So, that remains uh part of our strategic plan looking forward. Again, we're going to continue with our leadership development uh internally. And also something that's fun, I'm sure you're aware, the city's 75th anniversary is coming up in 2027, and we're doing something special for our officers, a special badge acknowledging that. And then uh you can expect to see the officer be wearing that badge all of that next 2027 of the year. And we continually do work. I call it our branding. I find that valuable. Our brand, what we're known for, uh how people look at us. And we don't take it for granted that the community is expected to respect us or trust us. We know that it's something that we have to earn. And we do share that in different ways in our communication uh daily and weekly in team meetings. And it's something that I feel as I shared these pictures with you that I feel kind of represents that. It represents our mission and our vision and our values. And it's not just a slogan on a wall. And we do use these photos and some other similar in our promotional material, excuse me, and on our recruitment material, but it was something that I felt captures captures that really well. And then my final slide, um our app continues to be real popular. I know Vice Mayor Samy promotes it often when I see her at groups. Uh so I would encourage everybody if you don't, it's free. You can scan this QR code and sign up for push notifications. I make a point that we don't overuse it, but if there's something high-profile or a big police activity in an area or roads are crashed and roads are detourred or a severe community event, weather event, whatever it is, that's

what we use it for. And also our Facebook page is still continues to be our most popular way of communication. We do have an exwitter account. It connects to the Facebook page. We're on Next Door the app as well as we do participate in as many community outreach events as we possibly can. We make ourselves available. I got a great cadre of people that are comfortable and capable to communicate to different community groups. And so we always make ourselves available for that. just about any topic you can imagine that involves public safety. And something that we're working on, we do have a recruitment QR code that links you to our application page. And I'm toying around with how that might look as a decal or a sticker on our police police car. So, I'm working towards that. I've seen other agencies do it. Makes sense. I've seen some that look pretty tacky. I don't want to look tacky. So, this is just kind of a draft what that might look like. So, working on that. But I appreciate it. I always thank you for your support and I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right, counselors. Councelor Dakkins, if I move the mic close, you know, I want to say something. I do. It's a good indicator. And hopefully I won't get any pens thrown at me by the rest of the council. Um, recruitment catches my attention. We're down eight offic Well, seven officers and one sergeant.

Sergeant I I remember close may I don't know six months a year ago I noticed a billboard advertisement promoting or advertising another agency and it was like in the city limits that we're advertising outside to me we have no business doing that and I know if we don't own the billboard there's nothing we can do but maybe we can rent that billboard board instead of letting them rent the billboard. Anything that we can do to increase the recruitment because if if we could fill those seven or eight slots, how much more positive things could we be getting and results getting for the community if you have the manpower to do it? So the question is your budget as far as recruitment, is that something that you might want to attack council on as far as maybe throwing a little bit more money your way to help with this process? because to me a little bit of money could really go a whole long way for the benefit of the of the city and your department.

Right. Thank you, Councelor Dikens. I do appreciate few years ago we did we did had a I I'll say a sufficient recruitment budget. I still feel like we're okay. We did try uh several billboards in town along the freeway on the way to Golden Valley. And so we tried to measure how effective they were and it was very kind of subjective. we don't really know how effective it was. I know when we got feedback. Um, so there things like that that we're looking for. I saw that exact same sign and it sign and it really jumped out at me. I actually said well done whatever agency it was. I won't tell you who it is. Um, but it is something we consider. So my ultimate answer is I think we're okay with what we're doing. Uh, we work well with our HR department. They put information in the periodicals. Um, we try to make sure that our Facebook page is is accurate and up to date as well as our website because that's where people are going to go, right? They're going to read the annual reports. If somebody's truly looking for law enforcement, I would expect them to be reading the annual reports to see what we're about. So, so I don't want to attack the council on uh anything, but I I I think we're okay in regards to that. Did you have a followup?

And maybe this is just to my ignorance, but I know in the fire in the fire department they have the fire academy going through high school students. I can't even remember what the name of it is. W not is it wave? Does the police department have something similar or a wave program that uh could be recruiting high school students to pursue law enforcement through college and getting on board with Kingman,

right? Great question. Thank you. Uh we do not have that directly, but we support one that Lee Williams High School has down there. They have a public safety program. We donated an unused police card to them uh I don't know six months ago or so um to support that program and we participate in that program. We provide training and teaching and motivational talks and leadership development in that and the idea is for them to come out of high school and then we currently have our police aid position which is filled. So that's the only onboarding we have. So that's the only thing similar to what fire department has and this is it's been in effect for I want to say one of our retired officers Don Dowy runs that built has built that program and he's been running I will say at least three years. So we still have high hopes to see what comes out of that and they're considering doing a similar program at the north campus Kingman High School or allowing students to come attend that. So and then we have our other onboarding. We have our junior police academy which gets the younger kids. Um, we're working on standing back up our police explorer program gets them through high school. It's also development, right?

Any other comments? Councilor Ward Rusty, you told us last year that overall recruitment nationwide for police department is a problem. Is that still the issue?

It is. Nothing's really changed. Yeah. So in 22 23 there was most of those time we were running about a 30% deficiency in position which was significant for us. For the past 10 years the average has been about 15 to 20% vacancy for us on sworn positions. So it's something that's up and down a little bit. We'll get a few and some leave for there's varied reasons. So it is a it is a statewide nationwide concern. A lot of people might apply, but it's finding the qualified ones that's proven to be difficult. Yeah, I was looking at the figures on how many apply, how many

Yeah, I just wanted to ask that because I know a couple other agencies that always seem to be short. Y and Yep. I appreciate the question. Any other questions, comments? I just want to thank you for keeping our city safe. Um the the loss in positions or the short uh is that due to attrition? Is it due to you know um people leaving to go to other agencies? What what's the trend there? And and what's the lateral movement as far as are we receiving any laterals coming in or

So a little of all that I suppose we do have a lateral that we're looking at right now. He's coming from a a large agency in the Midwest, which we're excited about. Um we're hoping to bring him on soon. He likes the area. He likes what he sees. Um so that's we have lost a few to other agencies. We almost had an officer that was going to go to another agency nearby, but he last minute decided he likes it here. So that was good news for us. Um I can't say attrition. I don't know when's the last time we actually had a retirement. Um but I know there's potentially a few coming up. Okay. So, it's just a combination of things and then sometimes the grass is greener over there and others just, you know, I can't put it on a definite.

Okay, perfect. Well, thank you. Thank you for your report and for all that you and your team do for us. Thank you. Uhhuh. All right, moving on to uh item six, announcements by mayor, council members, and city manager. We will start with you, manager Walsh. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Nothing to report tonight. All right. Councelor Walker, nothing tonight. Thank you. Councelor Ward, nothing. Councelor Dykins. Councelor Savage, nothing to report tonight. Mayor Watkins, nothing. Nothing tonight. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, sir. Um Tom already talked about our uh day at the legislative day at the capital. I want to thank our legislators. Um, we were able to meet with all three, Senator Angus, Representative Bizuchi, and Representative Gillette. So, I thank them for taking time out of their busy schedule. All right. Number seven, council requests for future reports and updates, council. Any requests? Any requests from online? None.

All right. Hearing none. Uh item number eight, executive session, the cart hub lease agreement. The city manager requests council to go into executive session pursuant to ARS 30- 38-431.03A4 to discuss and get direction regarding a cart hub lease agreement discussion and possible action. I will entertain a motion. All right, we have a motion. We have a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? All right, we'll be back. Okay.

All right, we're back from executive session. I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion that we I just lost the word. table. Table. Thank you. I make a motion that we table the discussion dealing with a cart hub lease agreement between Kingman and the county. All right, I have a motion. I have a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? This meeting's adjourned.