Common Council - Regular Meeting

I told her to reach out to me again. So the first time she called to do a table.

Hi Julie. address.

Okay. All right, it is six o'lock. So, we will um we're going to actually have a public hearing before we have our regular meeting. So, um can we have a roll roll call to council?

Mayor Hartless here. Vice Mayor Jen absent. Council member Shant here. Council member Daniels present. Council member Deleó here. Council member Madineski here. Council member Grimwalt here.

Okay. So, our first um our item for this public hearing um is the liquor license application for Kuram Chima, owner of Parker Shrine Shrine, 616 West Riverside Drive in Parker and that is the 76 station. So, um, obviously nobody's here unless Bri has a problem or [laughter] [gasps] it's basically sounds like it's just being transferred from one owner to another. So, I don't I don't know that it's a something that we have to really get into if anybody has any comments from the council about it. Okay. Hearing none. This is that was only a a discussion.

We good, Christina? Everything on your end? Yes. If there's nobody there from the public, you don't have to obviously Yeah. hear any comments. Okay. So, we will uh adjourn the public hearing and call the regular meeting to order. Please silence your cell phones. Uh another roll call of council, please. Mayor Hartless here. Vice Mayor Jen absent. Council member Shant. Council member Daniels present. Council member Deleó here. Council member Manineski here. Council member Grenaw here. Okay. So please join me for the pledge of allegiance and remain standing for the invocation from Brie McCrae.

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.

Dear heavenly father, we are just thankful for the town of Parker. And I just thank you for the mayor, the vice mayor, and the council members and all the employees who work so hard to uh make Parker a great place to live. And Lord, I just pray specifically um as so many in our community are facing grief and sadness and heartbreak uh over the past couple weeks that you would just uh make your presence and peace be known in this community. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Thanks, Bri. Okay. Um hang on. Um we have a presentation. Is it Julie Donan? That's me.

Southwest Fair Housing Council. Okay, you have the floor.

Okay. Um, hi everybody. My name is Julie Don and I work with Southwest Fair Housing Council. Um, we are a an organization, a nonprofit organization that serves the entire state of Arizona. Um, our goal is to make sure that everyone has fair access to housing regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, um, familial status or disability. Um, a big part of our mission focuses on education and outreach. Uh we provide complimentary training and test or training and classes to um housing providers, landlords as well as tenants so that people know what their rights are. Um and so that also so that landlords and housing providers are up to date on um you know what the requirements to be in compliance with the Fair Housing Act are. Um we can like I said provide uh trainings. We can do them digitally or in person um and other resources and we also help work with negotiating any kind of conflicts between tenants and landlords as well. Um we do testing in communities to identify any emerging issues and then that testing can uh inform our education and outreach efforts. Um let's see what else. Um and we al offer confidential help to anyone who believes that they might have experienced discrimination. Um, so I just want to let you guys know that we are a resource and we're here for um you guys and your your residents. If there's anything we can do, um, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Could you define testing? What what you meant by testing? testing is um let's say like so if someone were to call and say that they um experienced let's say that they said that they um were not able to get a reasonable accommodation or modification for a disability testing would it's kind of like secret shopping. Gotcha. That's what I thought. Okay. Yeah.

All right. Any any question or comments from council? I had one uh not sure you guys help with this, but I once was speaking to a landlord who was looking to uh try to make his tenants that are on a fixed income trying to see about turning his uh property into a section 8 housing, but I understand that might be something that we don't have in La Pa County. Do you guys help with like navigating that or any assistance in that?

You know, let me jot down your name and I can follow up with you. Um, I don't I mean we don't personally do anything with um section 8 housing, but I can help get some answers to the best way to go about that. I did previously work as a housing navigator and helped with um navigating some of those programs. So, I think I might be able to find some information for said landlord. Okay, wonderful. What was your name? Corey Madineski. Okay, don't even try to spell it. Just [laughter] put Corey. Mad. Cory mad. That's all I know. Half of it. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

All right. Thank you. We appreciate your input. Thanks. All right. Thanks, guys. Okay. Our next item is called to public, which we don't have any public, and the chamber director's report. Erica Daniels.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Not a lot to report today. Um, we have been gung-ho with tube float. So, I know that a lot of people think it's not till June, but June will be here before we know it. Yesterday, we opened up live for registration and before about 300 p.m. It was between 3 and 4, we hit our first 300 registered for Tube Float. Last year, we had a total of 4,000 that were registered. So, we are very excited to beat that this year with high hopes. Um, we're doing a lot of things very differently. So if anybody's interested in volunteer, please come to the chamber office so we can talk to you about that this year. I think before in the past, it's been very much so. If you volunteered before, you just come again. We're doing things a lot different with our new insurance. Thank you to the town of Parker for always supporting us through our Parker tube float. Next weekend is a LeaZ County Fair and on Thursday at noon, we are actually holding a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for Mr. Miguel Torres. long advocate in the community, huge in agriculture, and he actually sat on the board out there for many, many years and helped us get Leaz County Fairgrounds to what they are today. So, if you could please join us for that, I will be sending you guys invitations via email. And besides that, that's about it. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Our next item is the consent agenda, which is two items. the town of Parker regular meeting minutes of February 17, 2026 and the liquor license application um that we had the public hearing on earlier with no public comment. So I would entertain a motion for those two items. I'll motion to consent the following consent items. Second. Moved and seconded to approve item A and B on a consent agenda. All those in favor? I opposed. I

I think that was an I. It was just late. So, thanks Ray. Um, our next item is number one, discussion action to approve the I3 holdover agreement between the town of Parker and the Leaz County Cooperative action relating to the animal control shelter catery. Um, Christina, you have something on this?

Uh, yes. Just a short summary. So, you've seen this before. Um, It's essentially just a holdover agreement to extend the term. So no other changes to the agreement. Um so we entered into the original agreement in 1999 that expired um in 2024 and then since then we've just been doing these holdovers mainly because as you know you just approved the ground lease right there's going to be a new shelter built and I think it's just a matter of maintaining the status quo until um all the new operational you know functions come on board. So, but I'm happy to answer any specific questions, but this is just extending the term for another year.

Yeah, I got a little bit alarmed when I was reading the contract because it sounded like, wait a minute, this isn't what we talked about, but that's the old stuff. We're just kind of carrying that over until we do the new agreement. Correct. Ray, you have something?

No. Okay. No, I don't. Any comment, questions? We're not expecting anything major to happen there within the next year besides the construction. Hopefully, it'll be before a year, but yeah. Um, but it's going to look a lot different than the one we the old ones that we've seen. Um, the town's really going to have a less of a role, I think, in in a lot of ways. So, it's good for us. All right, I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move to approve the third holdover agreement between the town of Parker and County random control. I'll second motion. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion or comments? Okay, all those in favor? I I I motion carried. Uh item two is discussion and action to approve deny resolution 032026 relating to the executive session remote attendance policy. Christina

um so mayor and council so you had asked I think a couple months ago to look into sort of how other cities and towns um have their executive sessions and whether or not members or staff how they can participate remotely. And so we did some research and we sort of put together essentially a draft. It is in a form for you to approve tonight, but certainly if you have changes, we can always table it and come back. Um, just generally this is essentially just establishing a remote participation policy and it does apply to both town council and staff. Um, and we kind of reiterate I think the some of the comments we'd heard from you as well, which is that we obviously want to encourage in-person attendance. Um, and so this isn't necessarily sort of a substitute for, you know, for that. Um, but essentially, this is kind of where I had the question. We didn't really know in terms of whether or not you wanted to put a limit on how many times someone could participate. And again, this is just e session. So, this isn't just regular open session. We had put five, right? We just kind of put a number kind of based on what we'd seen. Um also we just need to make sure obviously whoever is participating remotely through an e session that they have the reliable internet connection that they are alone right that because this confidential discussions an e session they can't be disclosed they can't have others present with them um and then we just have a section here basically on open meeting law compliance which is just making sure of course that we're providing the proper notices um we have some requirements that if members appear remotely we're just supposed to provide that information on the minutes um just to clarify for everybody obviously who was there in person versus remote um and that they also you have the responsibility to keep things confidential under open meeting law. So that's kind of like a just a little overview but again if you have questions or revisions we can always bring this back.

Yeah, I think it's a I think it's a good policy and I feel like we kind of hashed it around and and I don't know how everybody feels. I'm okay with it just with the understanding everybody has that understanding that executive session is privileged communication. So you're going to take precautions when you're doing it remotely is the I feel comfortable comments.

I know Christina when Justin was here last time and u Ry kind of participated in the executive session. He asked to actually see the perimeter of where Ray was at. Is that something we can put into this? Because I didn't see that closure to see like you mean the back. present. Yes, sure. Yeah, we can we can we can add that. I was just questioning that because I I know Justin made mention to it the last time and then I didn't see it in this in this. So, good coach.

So, with that said, because I don't really care about that because if I was trying to trick you all, I would just tell somebody to hide under the bed or go in the bathroom while I film the room. Um, but if we if we agree to that, Christina, do we make that part of the motion that we're going to modify it or do we just put this on a later agenda?

We [clears throat] can I mean, I think it's um you can do a couple things. You can either just adopt it as it is right now. We can bring back an amendment. Okay. Um or what you can do is just provide you what I mean direction and we can add it in as part of the what you're adopting tonight because that's simple enough to Okay. Okay. Then I'm okay if somebody wants to make a motion to approve. Oh, by the way, there was um an executive session possibility for this, but I guess we already moved past that. I should have mentioned that in the beginning, but I think it's fine um just to talk about an open meeting. Yeah, that would be for legal advice, but yeah. Okay. Yeah.

All right. Um, never mind. I'm looking at item three. Um, so I'll make a motion to approve resolution 03 2026 um relating to the exe executive session remote attendance policy as written and then we could do an amendment later. Right. I'll second. Second. Okay, it's been moved and double seconded. Anybody any other discussion? Okay, all those in favor? I I I

opposed. Motion carries. Item three is discussion and action to approve deny accepting the fourth amendment between the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the town of Parker regarding the Colorado River sewage system joint venture agreement. Council may vote to discuss the matter in executive session. Um I'm comfortable just discussing it because it's a minor it's a minor change. We asked for um we asked for a change last time. There was a a clause in there about if there was a dispute. The original contract said that it would go to federal um mediation or you know um

arbitration. Yes. and then they had changed it to say it would go to tribal court and the council wasn't comfortable with that. So that's been removed out of there. So that that's the only change, right, Christina? Correct. With with this? Yes. Everything else was what you'd seen previously with this fourth amendment. That was the only change. So um so I am comfortable with it as is. Anybody?

I do have one question. I I know in previous amendments it stated that the town should have uh their director serve two years. Um and now I see in here and I possibly missed it the last time that uh one of us serves one year and then the other one serves two years. Am I correct? How how's that? Maybe upon appointment just to stagger the terms. Right. Exactly. I say it's supposed to mostly be because of staggering. Yes. You don't have to everyone is would essentially have two-year terms but staggered because when when this all gets hashed out and done, we would reappoint everybody. Yeah. Okay. That's my question. Oh, yes. For the uh

Okay. Yes. If with this amendment. Yeah. That way we wouldn't have two leaving at the same time. So when we say reappoint everybody, so we expect once this amendment goes through that the tribes go back for re not the amendment itself, but the entire agreement when we're finally it's all said and done. And does that sound right, Christina? We would basically elect a new board.

Right. So, at this point, I mean, this amendment really isn't changing sort of how you're structured at the moment. It's really the only addition is that it's trying to clarify that the neutral director, the one by, you know, the third party that's supposed to be appointed, that that person is subject to the two-year term because for whatever reason, that just wasn't included in the original agreement. Um, And so you should not have any changes based on this amendment with your structure. However, if for some reason I guess the tribe or you know the town wanted to do that, we certainly could sort of restart, but I think it would just end up being the same people appointed. So I don't know that that would be serve any purpose. But

yeah. All right. Go ahead. I I uh Christina I just I'd like you to clarify that um if we don't have the member at large and for the quorum um if it's a two to two tie does it nothing happen? Does it die for lack of approval? you talking about like how the amendment language talks about the vacancy or or even if you don't have a majority for a vote,

right? So, I mean, we essentially tried to address the vacancy issue because I think that was the the issue we had the most, right? Um to where there the board couldn't act because we just didn't have a quorum and couldn't get a quorum. So, that language in A7 is supposed address that if there's that vacancy um essentially that very hard and fast quorum requirement afford doesn't apply it's going to be based on the majority of who's present um so it is only limited to vacancies not necessarily just I guess if people don't show over a period of time

okay so any other action that we take um we still have to have both parties have to have at least one member there before the vote can be taken. Yes. So, the original quorum requirement isn't changed unless there's a vacancy issue just so it doesn't prevent sort of the operation of the board.

Okay. Um I do have a question on the neutral director. So we're stating that because the current uh neutral director or the atlarge is appointed by the BIA um with this new if both the tribes and the town agree upon this does that now void that director and we go back to the two town and the two tribals electing a neutral director director. So, we didn't change how that person is sort of appointed and approved. It's really just supposed to be the actual term is two years and then the um eligibility requirements. So, the you know they wanted to see like a 25 year old you know minimum sort of age requirement. Um also of course that they had to be a resident. Um, but aside from that, that's just essentially those are the changes in terms of the I guess that neutral board member position. I I think what I'm hearing is if if the tribes and the town agree to replace that at large person, we have that discretion. Does that sound right? as long as we agree.

Well, this this amendment isn't changing anything. So, I have to look at the original agreement. Okay. To see if that's I guess how it operates currently.

And I will say also just to kind of to go back to um Council Member Sean's question, we did add in A8 a new section about emergency actions. So maybe that's what you were referencing because it's um whether it's due to a a vacancy or other issue. Obviously joint venture has had some emergencies and we wanted to address if that happens again that it wouldn't be that action couldn't be taken because there wasn't a quorum under that four that's required. And so we do have a little bit of flexibility there that even if it's not due to a vacancy if um the board is meeting and an emergency and we kind of find, you know, obviously threat to health and public safety and financial loss, etc. If those conditions, you know, apply, then the um sort of four person quorum requirement is not necessary. Again, it's going to be based on who's present, right? The majority of who's present.

If if we have a split vote, does the motion die for lack of I mean, if it's a two to two tie, what happens? And it's usually usually yes. Um I don't know about the bylaws for joint venture. Yeah, that's the challenge here is because you know obviously it's a separate board so it has its own separate you know structure bylaws but typically yes if you have a tie that usually means a motion fails. That that's important. Yeah that's what makes that at large position so important also.

[sighs] Okay. Anything else on this? Okay. I will make a motion to accept um to approve the fourth amendment for the joint venture agreement between the town and the tribes.

I'll second the motion. Okay. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion, questions? Okay. All those in favor? I I I I carries. Um item four is going to be tabled because Norah is not here. Um council liaison reports. Anybody have anything? Streets and traffic. Um we didn't have quorum. We We only had one member attend. So, unfortunately, we weren't able to meet last week. Okay. Anybody else? Nothing for parks and wreck. We meet next Tuesday.

Okay. Um announcements. Tuesday, March 10th, Park and Rex Committee, 4 p.m. Uh, Le Paz County Fair, March 12th through the 14th. And then Tuesday, March 17th, our next council meeting. Speeding's adjourned.