Town Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Well, welcome, everybody. Welcome. The meeting is a special meeting. It's now call to order with the clerk. Please call the roll.

Mayor Stanton. Here. Vice Mayor LaBelle.

Here.

Council Member Andine Keller.

Here.

Council Member Leitman.

Here.

Council Member Moore. Here. Council Member Pace.

Here.

Council Member Thomason.

Here.

We have a quorum. Thank you, Mr. Miller. All right, we have some action items coming up here next. The first. is a procedural item that will suspend the council rule regarding that at least four council members should attend a meeting in person. And I believe Mr. Duncan Miller is going to walk us through that.

Mr. Mayor, I really don't have anything to add. This is a routine procedural matter that we have used in the past when a majority of the council or a quorum of the council attends by Zoom.

Thank you. All right, with that, I'd ask if there is a motion.

I move to approve suspending Section 7 of the Town Council Rules of Procedure regarding remote attendance at council meetings. I second.

All right. It's been moved by Council Member Pace and seconded by Council Member Thomason. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Next up. We have got a second item is discussion and possible action to approve Resolution 26-12, approving the 2026 canvas of the primary election held on July 21, 2026. as it will be presented by Duncan Miller.

DUNCAN MILLER JR.: Mr. Mayor and members of council, so as you know, we held an election for mayor and three council members on July 21, 2026. Here are the official election results. It was necessary to get 1,449 votes in order to be elected at this election. Actually, all four council candidates received more than a majority. So under ARS 982101G, if more candidates receive a majority of the votes cast, then seats available. The candidates who receive the highest number of votes equal to the number of seats to be filled for the office shall be declared elected to that office. So Bob Brown, Bill Nasikas, and Anna Thomason are elected to the town council and will receive certificates of election. And the mayor, of course, will be given a certificate of election for mayor. There's no recount necessary because the margin between candidates three and four, council candidates three and four, are much greater than one half of 1%. Whoops. So I have this slide here. I just wanted to share a couple of interesting numbers here. This line here that says early ASRS 16579, this is a new I guess, new row in the recount resolution based on a law change in the last legislative session. This ASRS 16579 are the voters who went in person to a voting location, a vote center, to have their early ballots verified to bypass the signature verification process. So that's what that 130 number is. Early voters who came in with their early ballot had their signature verified. And they're tracked separately. And they don't have to go through the signature verification process down at the tabulation center. And actually, 23,000 people countywide took advantage of that new process. The other thing I wanted to note on this slide, just as an interesting curiosity, non-registered turnout. This is the independent voters. We have 3,184 non-party registered voters in Paradise Valley, and only 22 of them voted.

Wow, that's amazing. Thank you.

So that's something to focus on in future elections, to try and do better outreach to independent voters. Because in Arizona, we have open primaries, and they're allowed to vote. They just have to go through another process to request a particular ballot, a Republican, Democrat, or local races only. It looks like only 22 went through that extra step.

may I, this is Council Member Liebman, may I have a question? Does that mean those are the people who are registered independent who went through that extra step, or are those the people who, I don't understand, because I know I'm one of those people, but I had to do, or are those the people who just vote in the state, sorry, the town election, but not the state election. Because I think that would be a small number.

So all of the races are on the same ballot. So there are 3,184 independent voters. If you're on the active early voter list and expect to receive a ballot in the mail, you would not. You would have to contact the county and tell them if you want Democrat, Republican, or local races only. 17 people did that, and five people actually went to a vote center and requested a ballot.

That's incredible. All right. Thank you. Two of those are my husband and me.

And this last slide is just a bar chart of the last 36 years of voter turnout in Paradise Valley, so about 37% turnout in this election, which is not the highest and not the lowest in our 36-year history here, but just wanted to show that as a curiosity. So Mr. Mayor, the recommendation is to adopt Resolution 2026-12.

Thank you, Mr. Miller. And I'd ask if there are any questions, more questions from my colleagues? All right, not seeing that, is anyone anticipated to speak on this issue? Mr. Mayor, I don't have any requests to speak. All right. If there's no further discussion, I'd ask if there is a motion.

Mayor, I move that we adopt resolution 2026-12, approving the 2026 canvas of the primary election held July 21st, 2026. And I'll say I enthusiastically make that motion for our new council members. Thank you. I second. All right.

It's been motioned by Council Member Pace and seconded by Council Member Thomason. If there's any further discussion on the motion. If not, I would ask... I ask all to say aye in approval.

Aye.

Are there any opposed? Motion passes. All right, we're moving along as promised. The next item is a discussion and possible action to approve resolution 2026-13 relating to the first amendment to the Phoenix distribution easement of the Salt River project for the underground conversion for the Rose Lane project. And it will be presented by Mr. McGuire.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. As we were moving through the Rose Lane undergrounding project, that's the SRP aesthetics project where SRP's money dedicated for that purpose is used to beautify various areas. Undergrounding is the main way that they do that. That's a fairly expensive process. So whenever we get the opportunity to underground power lines in the town, we generally do. Rose Lane is one of just a very few that are left in town. And so we were very happy to see this project move along. You all approved the agreement, the intergovernmental agreement with the with SRP back in May. But since that time, the easement area has shifted a little bit. It's all still within the same rights-of-way. It's just a different line that they're taking in the right-of-way for the underground line. So they asked us to have the easement modified to match what they're actually doing in the field prior to issuing the construction contract. And that is what Resolution 2026-13 does. And there is a staff recommendation for approval. Happy to answer any questions.

Are there any questions for Mr. McGuire? All right, not seeing any questions. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this issue? Seeing none, is there a motion?

Mayor, I move we approve Resolution 2026-13, approving the First Amendment to Power Distribution Easement with Salt River Project relating to the Rose Lane Project and authorizing the mayor to execute all necessary documents. Second.

And who is the second?

I lose, Julie. Sorry.

OK, so it's been moved and seconded. With that, if there's no further discussion, I would ask for a voice vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, motion passes. That went smoothly. Thank you. Finally, we have one executive session item that we'll be talking about. So we'll need to. Mr. Mayor, that was only if necessary. So we're not, we don't have to do it? Yeah, we don't have to. Okay, well, then there'll be no executive item. So I would ask if there is a motion to adjourn this meeting.

So moved. Second.

And moved and seconded. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Anybody opposed? All right. Get out there and have a great day, everybody.

Thank you, everybody. Congratulations to our new and returning members.

Thank you.

Indeed. Congratulations.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Bye.