Town Council - Special Meeting

Good afternoon everybody. I'd like to thank you for joining us in this really important meeting in the for the future of the town of Pinetop Lakeside. We do have a quorum. I'm going to ask everybody to make sure your cell phone is on silence before we get started. Thank you guys for checking on that. It's really nice to see everybody here. I'm going to turn this meeting over to um Stacy MacArthur who has spearheaded the team that's put this process together and she's going to explain to us how this is going to work this afternoon. So Stacy, good afternoon. Mayor, vice mayor, council, and citizens of Pinetop Lakeside. It's so great to see all of you here. We are we're here the final stages of the interview process tonight and tomorrow night. I see many of you in the audience that have followed us through this journey and I'm very grateful for your input as we conclude the process. Just a brief summary of what happened yesterday. We had chosen a panel of six to interview each candidate. two of our employees that have been with the town and held director or supervisor positions. We have Chief Dan Barnes, 22 years. Frank Nurano, he's here, 18 years. Two business owners, but they also play a very big part in the Chamber of Commerce. We had Mike Moffenwire and Karen Rubin. And you will see these two at our events. um very active in the town. We had two individuals that have held equivalent executive positions with our community. Donna Whitzinger, our Navajo County Supervisor, and Brian Savage, former fire chief of Timber Mesa. Council has been forwarded the scores from the interviews as well as the videos for each candidate. I'd like to thank all of

them. This evening, each candidate will provide a personal introduction and continue with their presentation based on their written challenge. The written challenge has already been reviewed and graded by the committee and council. The presentation will be 15 minutes and there will be no follow-up questions. The candidates will then go out with the council and the audience for until we reset the council chambers for the meet and greet. The meet and greet was by invite only. Um we would have loved to have everybody but time permitting and it was just not it. So this morning the interview committee held a very strategic meeting with the candidates decide who was going to be first tonight and tomorrow night. That being said, we flipped a coin tonight. Uh, Jack Teal will be first and then Christy. Tomorrow night, Christy will go first and Jack then Jack. And I think we just want to thank you all again. Um, tomorrow night council will inter do their interview at our regular council meeting and then they will um elect to go into executive session if needed.

Okay, thank you all. Thank you, Stacy. So, Christie will be out of the room and we will let Jack go ahead and come on up and start your presentation. Um, come on up, introduce yourself, and we're ready for you, Jack. Uh, good evening, mayor, council, staff, community. Uh my name is Jack Teal and I'm here to interview tonight uh for the open town manager position. A little about myself, I started in municipal government in 2004 as a part-time lifeguard. Uh since then, I've worked through just about every layer of municipal government um with frontline experience to supervisory experience uh to becoming a manager to becoming a director to leading multiple departments. In my professional life, um I have a degree in uh business administration with an emphasis on leadership from North Central University and I currently am enrolled uh through Arizona State University in their certified public managers course um expected to finish this May. And so there's more I'd like to talk about myself, but I understand tonight I have a time limit. Um so for any other questions, I'd happily answer those during that public meet and greet process. And with that, I'll I'll go ahead and jump into my presentation if you'd like. just to give this a a quick run. Okay, got it. Organization stabilization. Uh becoming the next town manager um of Pinetop Lakeside. So I'd like to start talking about organization stabilization. So after any period where you have

significant uh change in leadership at the top, it's understandable that staff morale, staff con confidence, and staff alignment can kind of take a step back. So, it's going to be the primary responsibility of your next town manager to set that as their number one priority. Uh to restore stability and trust to the organization. I plan to accomplish this um in a grounded approach through transparency, open communication, and presence. All values that I've demonstrated throughout my entire career in public service. Uh rural Arizona values are important with communities such as Pinetop Lakeside. And holding those traditions and our values close is going to be important for the next town manager. And that means you're personable and you conduct business face to face. When we start talking about regaining trust, I think that happens building those relationships and that happens face to face, not electronically when we're treating people as an email coming through the workflow. Uh in small communities, relationships matter. And so it my approach is going to be to make sure that we are are strengthening our relationships, having presence, and building that trust both as a staff and as an organization. when we talk about leadership turnover and financial concerns, um those are those are big things and it's going to take a collaborative effort to be able to correct those. So, one of the first things I would plan on doing is getting our entire executive and leadership team together and resetting that alignment and making sure that everybody's on the same sheet of music moving forward. Um so that way everybody has an understanding of that shared vision and what we're doing, serving the public with clarity, consistency, and accountability. Continuing on um with organization um stabilization uh I' I've kind of broken it down into my first 30 60 90 days. This is really a discovery opportunity. I need to understand um what the un understand the organization and what its needs are. Uh so that's going to be a lot of things. It's going to be a lot of one-on- ons.

Um and that's with staff, that's with council, and that's with community members who have concerns too. And really simple questions. This isn't rocket science. what's working, what's not, and what do you need from leadership at this point in time. Another thing I would look at doing is poll surveys. Um, I would like them to be anonymous so we can get some real truthful feedback from our staff and our community [clears throat] members and even from council if they'd wish to put it in. Uh, I am somebody who you you will learn um that I I cander is second to none. I want people to be candid. I want to know the true story. When all the cards are on the table, we can build a better picture and have better solutions moving forward. Uh that may mean that we review our standard operating procedures. Are we doing things the right way? Are we following our current policies? And do we need to look at policies? What is our work plans? What vacancies do we have? Anytime uh you tend to have turnover at the top, that level right below it tends to see some turnover there, too. And so we need to be smart and efficient with how we're using those those positions and how we're utilizing our resources. Are we being effective? And not only are we being effective, but are we being effective doing the right things? Continuing with organization uh stabilization again we need to rebuild confidence and that's done through consistency. So I to spoke about this in my panel discussion yesterday. So if you've got an opportunity to watch that or the people that were in the panel um staff needs to know what to expect when they come to work and that starts with being consistent at the top. If you can be a consistent leader and everybody knows what to expect and that clear picture is set, everybody knows how we're driving our mission forward. Um, I'm somebody who tries to say what I mean and I try to mean what I say and that creates um, clarity and I believe there's kindness in clarity. Sometimes being clear may mean setting hard expectations but if you can set that clear expectation and people understand it, it's much easier for them to follow. Um, we're going to be a solution first organization. Things are going to go

wrong, but it's most important we fix the issue at hand. When something is broken, we fix it. We don't run from it. We don't sweep it under the rug. We don't say that, "Hey, this isn't happening." We address it head on. We take a st a step back and we say, "Hey, what's working? Why is it not working? Let's get it right." And then we address the accountability piece of that. Accountability is important. Doesn't always have to be punitive. That is unfortunately part of accountability sometimes, but accountability could be, hey, where did we go wrong? How do we put implementation steps in place so we don't repeat those same mistakes? Doesn't always have to be a punitive measure, but everybody needs to have that accountability for an organization to succeed. Um, and then transparency behind decisions. Uh, so I spoke about this yesterday as well. There's going to be times where not everybody is going to agree with the decision. And as a leader, you have to be okay with that. I don't expect everybody to love every decision I make, but when that decision is made, I expect you to get on board with that decision. And when we uh can clearly explain the why behind the decision, it's much easier for people to accept that to move forward with you. Next, I want to talk about um public communication. And you'll hear uh I'm reiterate reiterative in a lot of this. And it's not because I love hearing myself speak um but I really want to drive home those values of of what I as a professional do and what I'd like to see within the organization. Um so again public communication um it should be proactive, predictable and easily understood um by anybody who wants to do it. We can't uh information only matters when the person is willing to accept the information and how it's presented. And so if we can't clearly present information and it's not being accepted then we aren't doing our job. Um we we do that through shared um service principles. So I'll talk again here in a minute about um our strategic plan. The strategic plan is the guiding principles

of the work we need to be doing. Your service principles are how you're going to conduct that work when everybody's on that same page and understand you can move that mission forward with that unwavering expectation that everybody is held accountable to those values as an organization. And we're going to put town over department. Anytime you have um silos, you're you're facing a linear thought process and you're not looking at it as a system. And for government to work, you need to understand the system. Not just the system of the town, but how do we fit into the region? How does what we do impact our nonprofits and our other um partnerships throughout the area? And when we look and view things as a system, we're able to get better data and make better decisions that will help us over the long term. Through that process, um we're going to be proactive in inclusion. We're not going to wait for people to come to us because they have a concern. We want to involve people from the start. Um, and when you have involved citizenry, that's going to increase our trust when we're inviting them in to see how the sausage is made. They're going to have better trust in what that end product is going to be. We seek input um and then staff and and council can make the decisions on how we'd like to move forward, but it should be a collaborative process. Um, on the staff side, I would expect all my direct reports to to do what I call a five and 15. This is a weekly rundown of kind of what their department is up to, what we've accomplished. It shouldn't take that director or that leader more than 15 minutes to put together and it shouldn't take me more than five minutes to read it. And this is an effort to stay informed about what is happening throughout the entire organization so I then can keep council informed. There should be no surprises for council or at the very least we minimize those surprises for council and we do that through those five and 15s. Um I also believe leaders should be present. um it builds trust a lot more effect uh effectively than any um ad any product we can put out. If you're there in person, you can have that conversation. You're going to build that trust far more effectively.

Uh that leads to our next point of community engagement. Again, like I said, it's I'm reiterative a lot of the times, but it's because I want to reinforce those values. We're visible, we're accessible, and we're connected. when your citizenry has access to its leadership and there aren't those barriers there, they feel more confident coming in and asking those questions. [snorts] Um, so I would do that through quarterly conversations. Um, asking the community, what do we need? What's going on? Let's figure out what the needs of our community are and how we can help um, solve those needs. I would do that through rotating manager office hours. I'm a firm believer that you need to meet residents where they're at and if they're always coming to you, you're not holding up your end of the bargain. Um, and so we would get out into the community, maybe we're at a coffee shop one day, maybe we're at a restaurant the next. Um, but meet residents where they're at to remove those barriers of access to your government. Uh, silver lining of that, right, is you also get the economic stimulus of that. Anytime we're going out to local businesses, you're encouraging that activity. Um, [clears throat] helping those businesses succeed. Um, those are going to create strong partnerships. Um, and strong partnerships depend on strong engagement. If we're only ever reaching out when we need something, it's not really a partnership. That's a one-way road, right? And so, we want to make sure we're proactive and inclusive and reaching out to see how we can help others. And you do that through those collaborative offerings where we're getting out to the community and understanding that base need. And then in government, as you all know, there's always going to be opportunities for misinformation. And we need to meet misinformation with facts. We're not arguing. We're not there to argue, but we want to make sure we're timely and with information that's easily digestible, grounded in facts. If we can do that, it will reinforce the trust in the organization. We can't control what others will think, but we can give them the information and allow them to interpret that at their will. Um, but as long as we're doing our best and providing facts and it's grounded in the intent of information, um, we'll be much better suited to handle those things

that come up. And then we want engagement that reflects um the values of Pinetop. We want to make sure that we include um our summer residents. Um we want to make sure we include our tourism, but we don't want engagement that strays from our values. Um so when we're looking at the the tourism and we're looking that piece of it, it's great to have people here. We are sales tax based community. Um but we want to make sure we're smart and intentful with that. So we're balancing that quality of life and I'll talk about that again here in just a second. So strategic direction. Um you heard me talk about this already just a little bit. It's the town manager's primary responsibility to carry out the will of the collective council. So based on what the seven of you um give direction to through policy, it's the town manager's responsibility to make sure that that's carried out through the professional staff. Um this is aligning that strategic plan and council's vision with operations. So you can see we've got the strategic plan up here that this council adopted in May of 2022 that carries us through 2027. And assuming those four strategic pillars are still the desire of this council, that's the marching orders for staff and what we need to do. And if you pair that with the value cards, um, and like I said, I I carry mine everywhere I go, so I always remember what I'm supposed to be doing and how I'm supposed to be doing it. You pair what we're supposed to do and how we need to be doing it, you're going to have a much better success plan that way. Um, our service values anchor our decision-making processes. And then lastly, I would like to see our departments tie their budget request into the strategic plan. If you're doing that, you're not only increasing the transparency, but you're showing what the taxpayers have asked us to do is getting done with the tax dollars. We are being good stewards of that tax dollar. Continuing on with our strategic direction, um there were some key uh strategic priorities that were mentioned and so I know annexation was a a big topic of discussion in that and so it's important

to understand um what is our role in annexation. Is this council um giving direction to staff to be aggressive in that annexation process or are we taking an informed not persuade approach to it? In either case, it comes with presenting information. Um, so those clear infographics that are easily digestible, creating fact sheets, uh, frequently asked questions, uh, do those service level comparisons, and obviously that cost and impact study to make sure it makes sense for the town to annex any of that area along with, you know, you have the statutory requirements, um, the 50% of land ownership and the 50% of the value. Got to make sure you're in alignment with those things as well. uh we need to make sure that we're addressing the fiscal responsibilities and that happens through controls and clarity. Um these are baked into every layer of the organization from the time you get hired to the time you retire. All of that should be baked in and embedded in how we operate as an organization and should be clearly understood from everybody to make sure that those strong financial controls are in place. And then again, sustainable tourism. Balance that quality of life with economic vitality while holding true to who Pinetop is and the values that Pinetop Lake holds. Last um measuring success. So I think it's it's important you're going through this process and you're selecting the next town manager. Well, how are we going to know um what success looks like? So I I am a firm believer that you manage what you measure. And so uh year one year one benchmarks is executive team alignment. Are we a cohesive collaborative unit or are we siloed and working on our own things? That's going to be a measure of success for myself um and and frankly any town manager you select. Um completion of departmental goals. Did we get done the things we said we were going to get done? It's pretty clear. And if we didn't, is [snorts] there a good reason on why we didn't get those things done? What are those barriers? And how do we remove them so we can continue progress? uh

tone and clarity in council discussions. Um does council have all the information it needs to be an effective council? Making sure that all council members receive the same information so we're all starting off the same level filled, right? That's going to help limit those surprises. That's going to help aid uh in those discussions specifically when we have to have those tough discussions. Our resources are what our resources are. Sometimes that means hard conversations need to be had. So, as long as we are um communicating that council feels well informed, I think that that's going to be a good measure of success for us. Um improve public participation trends. I think a silver lining of anytime you go through struggles like this is you have an engaged citizenry. Um that's great, but our goal should always be an engaged citizenry um built off of trust um and good engagement. So, it's good that everybody is here and this is a great turnout tonight. Um and the council meetings that I've watched have had good turnouts. How do we change that to where they're coming to us um praising us much like the the chamber has done and not just coming to us when they have a grievance? And that will be a a good measure for success as well. Not that you control everything, but if we can change that and push it a little bit more in our favor, we'd be doing good as an organization. And then strengthen those community partnerships. Uh don't wait till somebody reaches out for help. If you know there needs help, what can we do to help provide that help? Um, and with that council, um, in closing, uh, we're going to measure success with stability through transparency, trust through consistency, engagement through presence, alignment through shared purpose, and leadership built on rural rural Arizona values. So, thank you, council, for your time, your trust, and your consideration.

Thank you, Jack. We appreciate that very much. We will invite Christy to come in and if you wouldn't mind waiting out in the visitor center. Jack, you got it. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Hi everyone. Thank you. You want me to go ahead and start?

Started. Sure.

At first, I wanted to say what a amazing um crowd we have here tonight. It's a it's a true testament to the community and involvement we have here in the town of Pinetop Lakeside. So, um before I begin, I wanted to share that I am not a polished speaker. I speak from the heart and I care deeply about this town and the people who serve it. Because of that, I may get a little emotional and I ask for your patience as I speak from a genuine place of commitment to the town of Pinetop Lakeside. I have worked for the town of Pinetop Lakeside since June of 2020. Currently, I serve as the town clerk and have had the privilege of and honor of serving as the interim town manager over the past several months. Before coming to local government, I spent 28 years in healthcare. That career shaped who I am. It taught me compassion, patience, integrity, hard work, and the importance of serving with dignity and respect. While my pivot into local government was unexpected, the skills in health, the skills I gained in healthc care have served me well in this career and continue to guide how I lead. My career in public service started in the clerk's office where I worked side by side with t the town manager, town council, and the town attorney. With that, I learned firsthand how governance in local government works. I've stayed um oh, sorry. I completed five years of municipal education, earning my certified municipal clerk, my master's municipal clerk, and my certified public manager designations. for each of those. I'm very proud of the work I put in to get those. I stayed actively involved on the state and international levels um as a member of the Arizona Municipal Clerks Association and the International Institute of M of Municipal Clerks serving on committees focused on education, legislation,

records retention and elections. This has given me a broader perspective of best practice and good governance. And most importantly, it has shaped the kind of leader I strive to be. Steady, serviced driven, and committed to doing what's right for our community. Pintop is home for me. This is where I work, shop, and continue to build my life. My connection goes back to the White Mountains five generations. My parents are both from Snowflake. My mom was born in McNary and later worked at the MC McNary sawmill in as an early in her early teens. My dad and my dad's family owned and operated an A&W in Snowflake and from them I learned the value of hard work and dedication and taking pride in everything you do. My dad and great-grandfather Bryant taught me how to fish on Bill's Lake. Bill's Lake is a small private lake between Shamway and Xolo. When I got a little older, my dad decided it was time for me and ready. He was ready for me to go to Black River. I was not invited very often because I heard it was too hard for the of a hike for a girl. When I was a little older, they they my dad and brothers decided to invite me. I don't think they were very excited about it, but they did it. And little did they know, I would outfish them all. And to this day, I still proudly hold the the record for the largest smallmouth bass in my family. My brothers are watching today, so I just had to get that little dig in. Black River is a special place for me and my family. It is so special that my husband and John, my husband John and I were married on a portion of the upper Black River. I learned to snowboard right here at Sunrise Mountain and spent many weekends there with family. And if you can't tell, I truly love the White Mountains. John and I don't have children, but we have one really spoiled dog. We have a junior mountain bike team and

we love mentoring youth in a sport we both love. John is an avid mountain biker and while I love mountain biking too, I am far more casual about it. And by casual, I mean slow. My husband, if you don't know, is a very talented mountain biker and has a mountain bike race coming up in South Africa in March. And um I'm really excited for him. He's been training hard for that. I also love supporting our local businesses, especially our local coffee shops. And if you see somebody walking around town in flip-flops, sipping on a an iced coffee in the snow, more than likely that's me. [snorts] I'm a hands-on person and a strong project manager. I have built multiple homes, and I even do my own tile work. [clears throat] I've been I believe in rolling up my sleeves, doing the work, and taking pride in that work. I am proud to call Pinetop Lakeside home. It is truly an honor to serve my fellow citizens and I am grateful for the opportunity to stand before each of you tonight with a deep love of this community and a strong commitment to its future. I go ahead and start into my u management plan. I've already introduced myself so I'm going to skip that again. This presentation reflects both my man my written management plan and the experience serving as interim town manager. My focus is simple. Rebuilding trust, restoring operations, and moving Pinetop Lakeside together forward together. What I'm sharing tonight is not theoretical. It is informed by what I have seen and experienced firsthand inside this organizations and the changes I have implemented during this period of transition. Over the past year, leadership transition has created uncertainty.

I have seen how that uncertainty affects staff morale, financial clarity, and public trust. Those three things are connected. When staff lacks clarity, service suffers. When financial systems lack structure, confidence erodess. When communication breaks down, trust is lost. This moment is not just about recovery. It is a reset opportunity. Stability must come before growth. That that understanding has guided my decisions as interim manager and shaped my approach moving forward. My leadership philosophy is rooted in servant leadership. Serving as interim town manager tested this philosophy in real time. Decisions were made under pressure, often with incomplete systems and under high visibility. I lead with transparency over surprise. I believe trust is earned through consistent actions, not promises. That means pairing structure with empathy, setting clear expectations and following through. It also means grounding decisions in the values of our community, not convenience. Stabilization begins inside the organization. As interim town manager, I saw firsthand where unclear roles, inconsistent processes, and shifting priorities created strain for staff. Strong internal operations must come first. When staff understands expectations and trusts leadership, that confidence shows up in the service provided to the public. Mission and values must guide daily decisions, not just long-term planning documents. This is why stabilization was my

immediate focus. Before launching new initiatives, I had to restore clarity, consistency, and dependable leadership presence. I would like to share some steps already taken to help stabilize our organization. I implemented weekly agendaized director meetings to align priorities, direction, deadlines, and cross-dep departmental communication. I also established a consistent leadership cadence so departments were were no longer under operating under operating in silos. Sorry about that. I reinforced chain of command and administrative authority. I began reviewing the employee policy manual and will work with a team to recommend changes for clarity and consistency. The James Vincent Group was hired for budget stabilization. We implemented monthly financial [snorts] exception reporting. We have reduced the amount of purchasing cards held by employees. As a result of this, monthly purchases by employees has significantly decreased. We will also be implementing monthly project reporting. Fiscal accountability became an immediate priority during my tenure, not a future goal. gaps in purchasing practices, project tracking, and financial visibility were already impacting confidence, addressing that required structure. The actions shown here reflect that work. Updating the town purchasing policy will clarify thresholds and documentation. Implementing monthly status reporting so scope, budget, progress, and forecasts are visible. introducing a monthly financial exception report to flag concerns early and using a change order safeguards and

spending pause protocols when basic information is missing. These are not concepts. The they are guardrails designed to protect staff, council, and our community. Several operational and capital projects were advancing without consistent documentation of scope, approved budget, funding source, and change order justification. In some cases, invoices were submitted without clear project files or confirmation that spending remained within the town council approved budget limits. This create this created unnecessary financial and compliance risks for staff and the organization. Some corrective actions we have taken include requiring a standardized project file for all active projects including scope, budget, funding source and approvals. Implementing monthly budget status reports for executive leadership, council and public visibility. Updated purchasing policies are being worked on right now and implementing change order approval safeguards and spending pause protocols when documentation documentation is incomplete. These changes will improve our financial transparency, stronger internal controls, reduced risk exposure, and restored confidence in the town's fiscal management. Our employees have endured leadership turnover and uncertainty. Rebuilding confidence requires predictability and followth through. As interim town manager, I focused on restoring regular communication and leadership presence, weekly director huddles to align priorities, a consistent Friday inside town hall email update to staff and council so that they will know what decisions were made and why. We also began reinforcing staff recognition and clarifying chain of command and responsibilities, reviewing

and updating the employee policy manual different from the purchasing policy manual and as part of ensuring fairness and consistency. When staff feels supported and informed, morale improves and service quality follows. During my tenure as manager, it became apparent that we were facing staff confidence issues and communication. I felt it was important with the recent leadership turnover that we had to address the issues quickly and openly. I retained an independent human resources officer consultant sorry to con conduct confidential interviews with all employees. This included written organizational climate assessment to evaluate organizational health, communication, trust, and leadership alignment. I shared these findings transparently with staff and council. I hosted an all staff meeting and delivered a state of the town address explaining when directors found out about our budget shortfall and outlined our organizational priorities. This was followed by a Q&A so that the our employees were able to felt seen and heard and be able to get some questions answered. Although there is more work ahead, these steps have already improved communication, restored leadership presence, and created a clear path forward for strengthening morale. One of the most consistent messages I heard during my interim tenure was the need for clear communication. Trust is built when government communicates clearly, consistently, and across multiple platforms. Communication should reduce confusion, not create it. That is why I emphasize no surprises for council or the public. Transparency is not about perfection. It is about honesty, clarity, and follow through. Some actions implemented to increase

public communication include attending and participating in local community meetings to share town information transparently and answer questions directly. Utilizing the town's communications director to proactively distribute timely, accurate information on the town's website, social media platforms, newsletters, and press releases. The results of these actions has improved public awareness, reduced misinformation, and strengthened trust between the town and community. I have lots of slides about communication because it's important. So, one of the most consistent messages Oh, sorry, I'm on the wrong one. Okay. The monthly projects and dollars dashboard is a direct response to real questions I have received while serving as interim manager. Residents want to know where tax dollars are spent and how projects are progressing. I will develop a public basing dashboard which will be shared at council meetings and online. It will show approved budgets, expenditures to date, percentage complete, and milestones of all projects. Citizens should never have to guess where their tax dollars are going. Visibility builds confidence. Communication must work internally, externally, and with council. Internally, that means weekly updates, clear written directives, and an open door policy. Externally, it means consistent operational messaging using simple language, and multiple platforms. For council, it means weekly written management reports, early notification of emerging issues, and transparency around project status, delays, and staffing challenges. This structure supports good governance and informed decision-making.

Not everyone comes to town hall. I have learned that quickly in this role. Engagement must be accessible and inclusive. Listening matters as much as informing. Trust grows through real conversations, not just formal meetings. Meeting the community where they where they are is not a slogan. It is a practical necessity. The engagement tools shown here build on relationships already in place. Neighborhood pop-ups will bring town hall to neighborhoods. Business roundts will create honest dialogue about tourism impacts and economic challenges. I will develop and host a civic academy. This responds directly to recurring questions I've received about municipal budgeting, elections, and operations. Small towns thrive when we work together with our surrounding cities and towns, our utility partners, our public safety partners, nonprofits, school districts, business community and business community. These relationships expand our capacity, stretch our resources, and strengthen our regional voice. I wanted to share a little bit of work that is already underway or completed. We've draft I drafted anouou which is a memorandum of understanding for those that don't know with the Blige school district to establish formal a formal partnership between the town and the district in support of the teacher just project [snorts] which provides affordable housing to teachers. As part of that partnership the town contributed inind services to construct an access road for the project. I've drafted letters for Pinetop Fire District for a safe haven baby box [clears throat] and a hazardous field mitigation grant. I am currently working on an intergovernmental intergovernmental agreement with Timber

Mesa Fire and Medical District which will come before council at a future meeting. These partnerships are not symbolic. They are practical, resultsdriven, and rooted in shared responsibility for our community. Strong partnerships strengthen safety, public safety, support workforce housing and improve infrastructure and create more and create a more resilient town. Engagement must be inclusive, accessible, and considerate of work schedules, mobility issues, and technology limitations. Offering multiple platforms, formats, times, and materials ensures more voices are heard. Inclusivity strengthens trust and leads to better decisions. Once trust and stability are restored, the town can move forward strategically. Fiscal responsibility will be supported by dashboards, capital reviews, and resetting stalled projects. If the town wishes to explore annexation, annexation education must be fact-based, supported by impact studies, open houses, and clear tools. Sustainable tourism planning reflects real peak season strain on staff and infrastructure. Reliable core services like road maintenance, policing, and facility safety must remain dependable. These priorities are interconnected and in and informed by operational realities. Success must be visible and measurable. I will be doing this by delivering 90% of projects on time and within the approved budgeted amount, publishing dashboards consistently, increasing engagement participation,

improving staff morale trends, increased sales tax revenue, growth in new business, business retention and licensing trends, street maintenance, meeting service targets. These measurements will build accountability and trust over time. I would like to close by reaffirming my commitment to the town. Integrity and transparency, clear answers and accountability, long-term stability over quick fixes, leadership grounded in listening. I have been serving in this role during a very challenging time for the town. What I offer is continuity with improvement to leadership and and leadership informed by lived experiences. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to serve you, my friends, my neighbors, my community. Thank you. Thank you, Christie. Um, appreciate your presentation. That concludes this portion of the meeting. Um, the candidates will be out in the visitors center if you want to kind of mingle with them a little bit until we have the invitationon meet and greet that will start at 5:30. So, thank you all for coming. Appreciate it.