Common Council - Regular Meeting

Excuse me. OK, we're going to call this work session to order. Please silence your electronic devices, and we have a roll call of counsel.

Mayor Hartless? Here. Vice Mayor Jentz? Present. Council Member Shantz? Present. Council Member Daniels? Present. Council Member De Leon?

Here.

Council Member Matanitsky? Here. Council Member Granvalt?

Here. Okay, so our first item is the Chamber of Commerce, is it civil sign?

Should be civic. Civic.

I was wondering, okay. So Laura, are you gonna take that one?

So for many, many years, the Chamber of Commerce has maintained Display of all of our local civic organizations, and it was housed on a parcel by the Colorado River Indian tribe up near Walmart unfortunately in the last couple of big wind storms that we've had and it has collapsed and Completely So Chamber went up and was able to save all of the little plaques and stuff. And they've currently been trying to decide where they might want to relocate it or put it back where it's at. One of their ideas was to relocate it to Western Park. Kind of in the corner there where all those

Or the 9,000 political scientists?

Yes. They did give me kind of a little, and I gave it all to you, kind of a little drawing or kind of plan of what they would like to sort of do. It doesn't necessarily have to be exactly like this, or this was just kind of a rough idea. We could make it match, you know, Welcome to Parker signs those kinds of things But they're really if they go back to where it was previous they have to go into and actually lease a section of that property from the tribes and go through all of the Kind of hoopla and I I really think if we put it in Western Park kind of in that corner up a little It'll have to be kind of a breakaway, I believe. Steve can correct me if I'm wrong, but kind of a breakaway sign anyway. But we could be able to put banners there that people are ready to advertise different things, make it kind of the way we want it. But they were just curious as to if that was an idea that you guys would be open to or which direction kind of to go.

Personally, I think it's a great idea because you're advocating for some of the big nonprofits in town. I think when you used to enter the town prior, back in the days before Walmart and everything, That was a big sign that you always saw. You knew the Lions Club was here. You knew Rotary was here. You knew all that kind of stuff. And we're kind of missing that small town vibe with that kind of, because you go back to the Midwest, and those are huge. You enter all the small towns, and I hate to say it, Parker kind of models after that kind of thing. I would love to see it at Western Park on that corner. That's a site that everybody sees when they do come in town from Lake Havasu. But I would like to see, probably on the bottom, where we can have the banners. This is a great idea. I love it. So I think it's something we need in that park.

Yeah, I agree. I remember years ago when it was really falling apart around 2009, and we went out and repainted it and fixed it up and got all new signs from all the civic clubs and put them up there. I don't even recall asking for permission from the tribes. Walmart wasn't there at the time. We just did it. Right. And nobody said anything, so it sounds like it would be better on town property, just easier to deal with, I guess.

We were able to save all of the specific signs so that they could be reused. But you're right. In 2009, we did. And they couldn't find any kind of lease or any kind of agreement at all when they were asked. As far as the tribe was asked, they didn't have anything either. With that, I guess we'll kind of move forward with this and bring you some I'll pull Steve in on it and then the Chamber and kind of see what their thoughts and what we can legally do as far as where to put it and how big it can be and all of those sorts of things. I'm not sure that we want anything illuminated, but maybe a light shining up, something to that effect.

One thing I do like more like on the outskirts over there, I know where It is tribal land over there, but it is more like a welcome into Parker. So that's where it happened. It's more of the entering into Parker, I think, over there was a little bit nicer for that regard. It's a welcome sign into Parker where that's a little bit further in. But I mean, for ease of trying to get something, I'm not sure what the coordination has been with trying to work. Or I imagine it would be a lot more challenging. to try to get some sort of lease agreement to allow to put in there. So I'm sure that's playing a factor.

It is. And, you know, back then, too, before Walmart was there, that entire thing was just a huge empty field. So you're right. You saw that. That was all you saw. It was like, oh, now it's a little more distracted.

Yeah, and that's where there's a little bit more, and that's where...

Erica Daniels with the Parker Chamber. Yes, it has been extremely difficult. Like Nora said, we tried to go back ages and ages and see how we were even first able to put the sign there. CRIT cannot find us anything. We were kind of grandfathered in there. And so we just kept refurbishing it and trying to save its life as many times as we possibly could. This time it was on the floor by the time we got there. We had different volunteers coming out there and helping us pick it up. worked with crit for about two months before i reached out to nora just trying to find anything at this point we'd have to lease like a whole lot of land just to be able to put that sign there and that's not feasible right now for the chamber yeah so mayor

I would agree then at that point something's better than nothing. I would say still my ideal preference is that portion, but if that's not possible, then I think over here is the furthest part out and also is a very nice spot of when you do enter and does give that nice look and feel portion to it.

Now have the welcome to Parker signs kind of that we didn't have before kind of where Parker actually starts versus.

Yeah, from the Phoenix direction and from the California entering in direction.

Okay, I'll work with the chamber and see what they kind of ideas they can come up with.

So,

There's no but we're just discussion Nice I mean again, I think that's a corner of the park we typically look for what's going on in town And I don't know. It's just a good spot for something like this. I think it's a beautiful concept design.

So They said anything about like the distance it has to be from the street or from a Property or reviews safety related traffic incidents.

I don't know No, they haven't as of yet because we haven't really proposed that yet, but we will Their right-of-way is not very far off the curb or the sidewalk per se but there is a like a 75 foot Triangle that you have to stay out of because it's on the corner So there are some things that in our actual code that we'll have to look at to make sure that it fits appropriately And then we do send it to a dog for their thumbs up We move on to item to discussion for the 2627 budget I see Dennis is on I

on the TV up there. I am.

Can you see me? Yeah. OK. Great. I cannot see any of you guys. Darcy was texting me to see if I could see you guys. I'm talking to a black screen right now. It kind of froze up there, and then now it's a black screen. But that's all right. So if anybody has any questions as I go through this, I'll make it fairly brief. But go ahead and just jump in. You can interrupt me at any point. I do have some slides. I'm not really going to go through the slides. They're pretty much slides that we went through previously. I just want to touch on a few points that I've got on the slides. And then I want to go to the budget document itself. Just to reiterate a few things, the Town of Parker, we do have some challenges going forward. One of those challenges is really just our fund balance and net position challenges. And so what we're working towards in the current budget and going forward is working to get a balanced budget. Fortunately, the incorporation of Santan really has not had the impact that we might have expected, at least in the first year, with some of the estimates. Our revenues are flat, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but it's not a bad thing either because I think Some of the expectations from people smarter than me and also myself was that for some of the smaller to mid-sized towns that the expectation was some of those revenues might go down a bit. However, you know, Santana is also bringing in revenues of their own as well with their incorporation. However, you know, it is going to be a challenge for the future, especially as some of the larger cities populations grow and some of the smaller to midsize towns stay. you know, either reduce or they stay the same because that will change the share of revenue that's actually being shared. So it's something just to have in mind and to sort of keep in your mind as we go forward with the budget process in future years as well. So within the budget, we do have, there's a few things that we did include in there. We did include salary adjustments for town employees. Nothing's been implemented. but we had budgeted for increases in that. It's more similar to what was done the previous year related to a one-time payout during the year, but there is amounts that are budgeted within there for any type of salary increases. One of the things that I want to go to, so you should have the budget packet in front of you. And again, I'm talking to a blank screen right now. So feel free to jump in if you have any questions. So on the summary page, I've got a summary of all of the individual funds. And so what you'll see in those individual funds is that every fund is either, with the exception of the general fund, is either operating at a balanced budget or with a little bit of excess. So the water's got about $56,500 when you exclude the contingency that's budgeted of excess in there. uh the her fund and we've talked about the her fund previously we've got a pretty large contingency in there as well as capital that's budgeted within there but that's got a carryover that is budgeted in the her fund as well And then the general fund is the only one right now. It's excluding the contingency of about 200,000 that's in the general fund. It's at about a deficit of about 261,000. Most of that is related to the transfers, which is the subsidies that go to the congregate meals at home delivered mold. which, as I mentioned in the previous meeting, good news on that is that that subsidy has actually gone down pretty significantly with the IGA that was negotiated with the county, as well as Quartzsite, where they're paying their share related to those home-delivered meals. So that reduced the subsidy significantly on our part because a portion of what our uh contribution is to uh with our contract with wacog is coming from the county as well as quartzite um i i did the budget a little bit differently as well hopefully it's a little bit easier to follow what you'll see in there is i've got a summary of all the individual funds and on that summary i broke down the expenditures where you can see the total salaries that are budgeted the salary-related expenses. And then the other operating is pretty much like utilities, insurance, professional services, which would be like audit contract, that type of thing, debt service, which is more reserved for any type of bonds or loans. So leases would fall pretty much under the operating. And then we've got a separate line for capital and then contingency separated out. So you can see some of the major categories of those expenditures. And then the following pages has some detail. I would say less detail, but like for the general fund, for example, it's got a breakdown by department. So you can still see a detail of what is in each department for salaries, salary-related expenses, and then your other operating expenses, debt service, capital, and contingency. So you'll see that breakdown, and you'll see a similar breakdown for each one of those funds that follow. And then the... The last several pages in there is, I think, what has previously been presented to council, which is more of every single line item. So we tried to break it down so you could see where each fund stands as it's budgeted with some detail for each of those funds. And then you still have every single line item and how it's budgeted. compared to the 26 budget and where we're estimating that 2026 will fall. I know we're done with 2026, but not really because we still have about two months of closeout. We're still accruing some expenses back. So, you know, these are still estimates for 2026 as well for the actuals. So what we will be bringing tonight to the council meeting is the proposed tentative budget to be adopted tonight. I think what is in the resolution is to adopt a $14 million budget. You'll see on the summary that we actually have in the budget budgeted expenditures of almost twelve point seven million. So the resolution is a little bit higher and we did that intentionally that way during the workshop. If there was anything that. that needed to be added or recommendations from council we could include that but essentially once published once adopted tonight it'll be published and then it'll come to council for a final vote once published we cannot exceed whatever dollar amount that we publish tonight as far as a final adoption we can always go further than that but that would be sort of the ceiling as far as when we come back with the final in a couple weeks for what can be adopted on the expenditure side of the budget. So that is really my presentation. So this is, I'll open it up to any questions or comments that any of the council members have related to the budget.

I think we did it not to exceed 13 not 14.

Okay 13. Okay, and that's fine. Okay, I I didn't see the resolution but yeah, so 13 so we still have You know about 300,000 leeway in there again if there's anything that we need to adjust during the budget workshop today So

I want to go back to the pay increase thing. Are we doing a percentage or are we doing the holiday bonus thing like we did last year?

So to answer your question, what I did is I actually allocated across the fund because regardless of whether we do the holiday bonus or whether we do across the board an increase, it'll still be allocated to the different departments. And so the increase is about a 3.5% increase across the board to the different departments. So that provides us a little bit of room as far as what we can do or what we want to do. That's going to be ultimately council's decision as far as whether it's across the board or we do a holiday one. from a financial perspective, knowing that we want to try to preserve fund balance going forward. The holiday one is a good one just because we've got five to five and a half months under our belt. And we can make a decision at that point, like how much we would want to hand out based on where we're at with the budget and whether revenues are coming in as we projected. So that, you know, provides us up to a three and a half percent at that point uh that we could do or you know like i said it's up to council there could be something that you know is implemented across the board um at the start of the fiscal year uh and you know anywhere up to three and a half percent uh you could do less than that and then you know we could look at it at six months again as well to holiday pay

Did we also include, I know we haven't really given steps out to our police officers. Is that also something we've included or something we're considering in this budget?

So there is, and maybe Nora or the chief can speak to this a little bit better than I can. We did because there was a couple of items, I think as it relates to like, I don't want to use the wrong verbiage here, but if it's like additional duties or whatnot, I think that we did adjust for that. And I think for certain certifications, if I'm remembering correctly, Nora, you can correct me if I'm saying that wrong, or Chief, you can correct me if I'm saying that wrong.

We did do that. That's for like the canine program and some other special specialty things. But we did put in there where they could get the next step up. It fits in with that 3.5% should you guys choose to do it that way. because in the past we've always, I'm not gonna say we've always, but in the past we've mostly done a merit raise. for staff, and then several years ago, I think three, maybe four, the police department went to steps. So every year they get a step. They don't necessarily get the merit raise. They get a step, and it's basically the same thing. It's a certain dollar or percentage as you move up for how many years you've been on the force.

So it's kind of predetermined. You were going to move up. I remember when you presented this.

I prefer that over the merit because years ago, the merit system was like, hey, you're my friend. I'm going to give you a raise, but I'm not giving you a raise. So I prefer a percentage or a step myself, just across the board.

Yeah, and I think you kind of hit it on that. When we give that That one-time thing at the end of the year, really, that was the one thing that hit the employees' salaries or whatnot, but they never really increased. I think if we do the 3%, I mean, in all reality, every year you earn a little bit more kind of thing, whereas you get a one-time increase.

christmas bonus or i'm not saying that but no and councilmember i i would uh i would agree with that i think there's pros and cons to both of those um from from the town side you know obviously a pro is is you know giving a across the board increase uh to employees is is you know, showing a level of appreciation. The con is exactly what you said, is that it sort of bumps, well, not sort of, it does, it bumps up that base level so that in future years, you know, when we're looking at doing increases, that base is now 3% or 3.5% higher. So, you know, if you want to give another 3%, it's significantly more than it was the year before. So there's a lot of those type of considerations that have to go into it because, you know, as I mentioned, you know, the incorporation of Santan didn't have probably the level of impact that I was expecting and probably, you know, like I said, the people smarter than me were expecting. But I do foresee in the future, as population of some of the larger cities grow, that it will have more of an impact on some of the smaller cities and towns. And for the town of Parker, not having, and I'm not proposing this, but I'm just saying not having a property tax The general fund is solely reliant on your town sales tax as well as the state shared revenues. To some extent, you've got some control over the town sales tax based on businesses that come in and how you can support those businesses. But again, the state shared revenues, you really don't have much control over other than how can you grow your population to sort of keep up with some of the larger cities that are growing faster than we are.

And Mayor, and it goes work combination of both. So with how Dennis was saying it's going over six months and seeing how we are, even if we did say do like a three and a half percent, that's say increase at that particular time. That means that we're only expending that three and a half over that next six months. So it's not necessarily all that three and a half is being expended because we're not expended for the first six months if we do it in that December, January time period for a base raise. So then that's still about 1.75 that we wouldn't have expended where say that could also be built into a bonus at that point and still doing a three and a half and still be within this particular budget amount. Just not proposing that we do it in that fashion, but that would all be allowed for kind of within this budget as well. So we're not necessarily... constricted, but that portion, doing it at that time frame, allows us to have that type of flexibility.

But it's in the budget, whatever we decide, because this is tentative adoption?

Correct. And what that means is we can't go anything above what we have here.

Yes, and if I can jump in real quickly. So as far as like the 3.5% increase in salaries that are in the budget, that's simply sort of like the overall budget. You're sort of adopting a ceiling at this point. Any proposed increases would come to council separately from just the adoption of the budget. The adoption of the budget wouldn't Mayor Mrakas, automatically say that there's a three and a half percent increase it's just budgeted for the any type of increase that Council chooses to do would come separately and would be implemented, whatever point it's brought to Council to approve.

Mayor. Another question I have, can you, so I'm looking over at the water funds over here with the, can you explain the difference between the net revenue expenditures after transfers and the net revenues over expenditures after transfers excluding contingency? I see one operating at a deficit for the water funds and one at a surplus. What is the, I guess, what number should we be looking at or what's the difference between those two, the deficit and the surplus there?

Yeah, so the transfer that you're seeing, so your net operating revenues over expenditures, and keep in mind that that negative $226,000 that you're looking at, that includes capital of $346,000. Not all of that is necessarily, I'm sorry, the 346, that also includes $170,000 of contingency. And so when you back out the contingency, that's where, because the expectation is that you're not going to use the contingency. And so that's sort of where it's saying that after the contingency or excluding the contingency and the transfer coming in that you would actually be operating at a surplus of $56,500. That transfer that's coming in is actually coming from the Water Debt Service Fund in order to make the debt payment on the debt that's in the Water Fund.

And it's the water fund, that portion that we have to be operating at surplus, that historically we were operating at a deficit, is that correct, where we had to do the...

That's correct. Okay. Yeah, so the water fund is an enterprise fund. And so unlike, say, your general fund, the water fund should be operating at a break-even or at a positive. Because the idea is that as a government, even if it's an enterprise fund, you're not out to make a profit. However... when we use sort of the term profit in this sense, is that what you're doing is you're building your reserves for investments into the future. So we want to see a positive in the water fund because we want to be able to have funds set aside for future capital that we absolutely know is going to have to happen because You're always going to have water lines that have to be replaced or fire hydrants or whatever equipment that's related to the water. You're going to have an investment that you have to make into the future in order to maintain the facility. So, you know, I don't want to use the word profit because that's not the point. We're not making a profit. But you do want to have a surplus in that fund so that you can start building reserves for that future investment in the capital that you need to have in the water fund.

So that $58,000 is with capital expenditure or without capital expenditure?

That's with capital. It's without contingency. Okay. And so some of that capital, I would say, is spoken for, but not the full $346,000. So just...

I know in other worlds that with capital items, we depreciate it. So for this type of budget, is it built into depreciation or is it the full cost of the capital that's into this year?

It's the full cost of the capital. So the enterprise funds are on the full accrual basis of accounting, but the budget is a budgetary basis. And so we want to budget based on what the actual capital expenditure is going to be, not what we're going to depreciate, because, you know, the depreciation on it doesn't give you budgeting for depreciation doesn't give you a good picture from a cash flow perspective or from what you're putting aside in reserves in order to fund future, you know, improvements or repairs to the water system.

So at this point, is $58,000 adequate enough for future as a surplus? I mean, I guess in my mind, when we're spending $300,000 on capital on this type of basis, $58,000 seems somewhat as a lower amount of surplus. So one, I guess, do you consider that as adequate amount of surplus? And number two, does this bake into any sort of rate increase for the water?

So the water fund, I think, Don't quote me off the top of my head, but I think there was a rate increase in the last couple years. And there was also meter replacements that were done. I think that was through a grant. And so that has actually helped the revenue side of things. To answer your question as far as whether that's enough, I would probably say no. However, like I said, built into that capital, not all of that is necessarily spoken for. Some of that is... sort of, I want to say like a just in case. So it's somewhat of like a contingency, but it's separate from the contingency because normally like contingency in order to dip into that $170,000, management would have to come back to council and say, you know, we've got to use contingency for this specific project. Normally contingency is reserved for something related to health and safety of the community. It could be something where you're getting a smoking deal and you want to use that contingency in order to To get some type of capital or whatever it might be, obviously. And so those type of things would come to council and say, we would like to use the contingency for X. Versus capital is available for use. Not all of it's necessarily spoken for, but it's there for use for management, if that makes sense.

It does. And if we do say have rate increases throughout this time period, this doesn't necessarily affect our budgetary limitation for spending. So, I mean, that's not necessarily going to be affecting that portion. So even if we do decide that at a later point, that should be fine. But it's more trying to think about the future portions of how this is going to operate. I mean, overall, in my thoughts and standpoints, it's probably every two years the it should be coming back for a rate assessment.

For the next three years, we do have a rate increase. We just did that.

Built into it.

So just to clarify what Dennis was saying and what your question is, the $56,000 is not, we're building the capital reserve for the Water Department's ability to actually have that contingency or backup to our capital projects. It's something. So this is the first year in which we're going to actually have a balanced budget. Correct me if I'm wrong, Dennis. But essentially, we've been operating up until last year, taking out of the general fund to operate the water department. That being said, yes, we need to. continue to build that at a healthy point to where then we can stop actually building it and actually use the capital in that reserve to actually fund some of these capital projects. We're still going after grants for these projects, but that's something that we need as a backup. The rate increase that we did or the rate study that we did two years ago, so that's a five-year study, a five-year implementation plan. So there's a rate increase this year and for the next three years, as Nora just mentioned. And we started off with a big base rate increase, which jumped from $10 to $25 for the base rate. And then this year is the first year in which we're actually increasing the actual commodity rate, how much the cost is going up per 1,000 gallons. And so that's going to continue to happen for the next three years. And that's going to help us build up this capital reserve.

OK, perfect. That's what I wanted to make sure that there was already rate increases on an annual basis.

Yeah. And my expectation, council member, just to sort of add on to what Steve had said, is that to answer your first question, you know, is 56.5 adequate? I would say going forward, no, but with the built-in rate increases, that number is going to go up. And so we're sort of like at year one of, you know, in previous years we have been operating at a deficit so for year one i think we're at a good place to say 56.5 and potentially it could be more if we don't need to use some of that capital budget but then in the next two to three years we should see that number going up mayor

Dennis, this is Marion. I have a question. Will the budget limitation affect any grants that we could receive for joint venture that could total over, let's just say, $20 million? I'm hopeful here.

Let me answer that question. So your limitation on what you can adopt, so what we have in the resolution is $13 million. So we can add to this budget in order to get it to $13 million as far as what would get published and then what would get finally adopted. So the resolution is $13, so we can go to $13. If you had $20 million of expenditures, you would be over your expenditure limitation. I know what you're referring to as far as the IGA, and there's going to be a lot that goes into that. You are not going to incur $20 million in 2027. There's going to be a lot that goes into that if that IGA is in place, and regardless of whether it's grant funds or not, where you're not probably going to incur probably even a quarter of that in the 2027 year, because there's going to be a lot of planning, engineering costs that go into that But a majority of your costs would be related to, you know, any type of construction or any, you know, anything like that. So to answer your question, a long answer to your question is no, I don't think it'll affect the 2027 budget, but it's definitely something that we have to plan for if that agreement goes into place for future budgets.

Okay, thank you.

So is there any way, say, if we had a fork up, say, $5 million for that particular project, is there any way for us to have an amendment portion to that?

Not after it's published. we we can increase that budget today um so you could amend the resolution today and we could add to that budget um You know, my recommendation would be if you wanted to bump that up another 5 million, and we go to 18 million as far as your expenditure budget. You know, my recommendation would be that we budget a revenue and an expenditure for an additional 5 million dollars. And at tonight's meeting, when you adopt the budget, you would you know make the motion to approve the resolution um and i see christina's on here so she can correct me if i'm wrong but within that motion you could uh have another motion to increase that expenditure uh budgeted amount by five million dollars to eighteen and then we can adjust this schedule that'll be posted. And once it's posted at 18 million, then you can't go higher than that. That would be your ceiling. So your final adoption then, which would be in a few weeks, would be $18 million or less.

And that's fine. You can do it that way.

Sorry, Mayor. Why would we not want to go cautionarily high? I mean, I know that there's the various loans and grants from WIFA and other portions without that. It seems like there is some push to get those funds expended on the sooner rather than later basis for certain portions. So wouldn't we want to be cautionary really high instead of Just a medium or conservative, I guess, at that point. In case we do have to have those expenditures and we do have those funding.

I mean, I have actually no issue with that. Like I said, my recommendation would be then to let's budget it as a $5 million additional revenue in grants with a $5 million expenditure with the expectation that that's where a lot of that's going to come from. Your annual actual expenditures are right around like the $8 to $9 million range. you know at 13 million i felt like you know we were we're in a pretty good place but you know i i honestly i don't really have any objection to that yeah as long as i public understands that that's not our actual budget yeah which there's a lot of people here tonight so that's that's good absolutely yeah i mean and and that's why you know generally when you adopt a budget, you definitely wanna go higher than where you're at. And then that's where we are. We are higher than where you're at, but you don't wanna necessarily go over 18 million, but we're also having this conversation and hopefully most of the public is hearing this or the public that has interest in it is there hearing this. That we are, you know, if we choose to, we can add 5M dollars to this budget as a revenue and expenditure. And it's not saying that we're going to spend 18M dollars, but we're setting a ceiling of 18M just in case.

Yeah, I would probably even just be again caught that. On the higher portion, because if we're not to say. you know, doing half of what we anticipate with that cost. And what we're saying is that we're not going to be doing those capital portions of that future project here for at least another year. We're not going to have that funds outlaid for another year time period if we do have that, is what we're saying at that, if we're limiting ourselves on the lower basis. So that's where I mean just you're saying our annual expenditures usually doesn't exceed 8 million so that's where I would probably say 20 million as a whole thinking about 12 million leeway room over there thinking about total cost of that project half of that might be somewhere near that I don't know 24 I'm just I don't know number you know exact numbers, but I'm just saying that allows about 24 million as half of that project Uh, with current spend is that portion now chances are we're not going to have that capital outlay anywhere near that in this. But I also don't want to say at this particular point in time, we will not get it until or we will not have any expenditures in that fashion until July of 27.

Yeah. So, you know, like I said, I have no issue if you want to do that. I believe and I don't I don't have it right in front of me, but I believe that the voter approved when the ballot went to the voters. There's usually there's an estimate that goes in as far as what you're going to estimate that your budget expenditures would be for the next year. Five years, I believe it is. And I think that number was at around 17 and a half or $18 million. That's just off the top of my head. I would have to go back and look. So, you know, adding another 5 million to that would still keep you within what was originally voter approved. And again, like I said, you know where we put it at is we're still putting excess in there. And, again, having this communication, I think, is great because if we add another $5 million, for those that have an interest and if they're online listening or if they're in person, they'll understand that we're not saying we're going to spend $18 million, but it's there just in case we have this funding and the opportunity to start this project. So, like I said, I wouldn't have an issue doing that.

And I'm sorry, you're saying 18 million. I'm probably saying closer to 20 or 21. And you said that that would be allowed, correct?

that the 18 would um i christine probably needs to jump in on this a little bit but when you uh put the uh the the voter approved expenditure limit on the ballot there was estimates um that were put into the ballot i i forget how many years ago that was um and i and i believe for the 2027 year it was around 17 and a half or 18 million I don't I don't know from like a legal perspective if if you can budget to exceed that or Because it is just an estimate going into the ballot But that that's a pretty significant jump from what was in the original ballot measure Can we budget based on?

Our limitation that was set at the vote by the voters.

Yes, I I would feel comfortable doing that.

Yes make the motion that way that we budget exactly what was in the budget limitation Yep. Yeah Okay Clear as mud now

So what I'm hearing from council is that at the council meeting that you will propose to or someone will make a motion for the proposed resolution for the tentative budget. And then within that motion, somebody will move to add an additional $5 million to that resolution and adopt the budget at $18 million.

I would say to the maximum amount of what the budget or voted approved would be is what I anticipate the future.

It was done at 18 and a little bit of change. So I wouldn't go over 18.

I would say maximum.

Yeah, not to expand the budget limitation that was voted on. Okay.

Okay. Anything else? No. Real quickly, council, just so you're aware, I will not be able to be on the regular council meeting, but I'm anticipating with this workshop that what we just discussed is sort of what will happen as far as the motion to adopt the resolution and then to add an additional $5 million to what's in the resolution to make it $18 million. So I won't be available for questions on the council meeting. So if there's any additional questions, I'm more than happy to answer them right now.

Any questions?

No.

All right, thank you Dennis All right.

Thank you.

We're gonna adjourn this work session and we're gonna take a break in between and do Okay, we're gonna call the regular meeting to order we have roll call the council mayor heartless here vice mayor Jen present councilmember Shawn councilmember Daniels Councilmember de Leon councilmember manisky your councilmember grandma here Now we're gonna take a pause and Anthony you're here to do this presentation.

Okay, call it the podium, please Mayor if you could just mention that you're taking your recess We're taking a recess

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Anthony Diaz. For you who do know me, it's good to see you. I am the recently appointed new commander of VFW Post 7061, and I was told about an hour ago that I'm going to be presenting some certificates to some first responders for the incredible work that they do. So from the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Department of Arizona, a certificate of special appreciation is presented to Austin Ward. global medical response?

Hold on, should we call everybody in? Let's call everybody in.

Austin Ward? Yeah, we don't want anybody in the hallway. You guys come on in. All right, sorry, Anthony, I just didn't want to leave anybody out. They're here for a reason, so.

Yeah, absolutely. I would, with your permission, I can just start over once everybody gets in? For sure.

Normally when there's this many people at council meeting, it means everybody's mad. Or this many first responders, somebody's getting arrested or getting taken to ambulance. So we're happy to see everybody here today. This is great. Go ahead, Anthony.

So again, Council, everybody who just came in, my name's Anthony Diaz. I'm the newly appointed commander of VFW Post 7061. And on behalf of the VFW, I'm here to present some of you first responders with some certificates of appreciation for all the amazing work that you guys do. So from the veteran of foreign wars, United States, Department of Arizona certificate of special appreciation is presented to Austin Ward global medical response And I got three more so Armando de Leon Ryan Ponce. And finally, Brock Shoesberry, Parker Police Department.

Thank you.

Thank you. And to all of you guys, thank you so much. Yeah, Agudi's here from the Pioneer. He probably wants to get a shot of everybody. Come on up.

Do you want them back here, John? Like have them come across the back here? We'll move.

Thank you.

Can I get one really quick?

One, two, three. Armando's my hero.

On behalf of the town of Parker, I don't know that we've ever had this many first responders in one place, so I feel super safe right now. So thank you to all of you guys that got awards, and just all of you for all the things you do. It's greatly appreciated. Thank you. Probably the last thing we want to do is hang out for the rest of this boring meeting. You're more than welcome to leave. We appreciate you guys. You're also welcome to stay. Thank you for having us. And Austin, love when bald-headed guys get awards. Pretty good for just ad libbing there, Anthony.

What's up with that? Anytime, anytime.

Anytime or before. Yeah, we have one more for you.

Okay, yeah. You have my number, but if anybody needs my number for anything, just get it from Ray.

Thank you. Just put it on, post it online. Yeah, put it online.

Make sure you send it to all the telemarketers.

Wiedemeyer's not the commander over there anymore?

Wiedemeyer's not the commander over there anymore?

Recess is over.

Everybody back from the playground. Our next item is the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the invocation from Pastor Louie. So please remain standing.

Heavenly Father, we gather here tonight for important business, but Lord, we want to take a moment and just stop and thank you for the bravery of these men and women who are our first responders in this area. We ask you to bless them. We thank you for them. And we pray that we might be as brave in our duties as they are in theirs. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Thanks, Louie. Okay, our next item is a promotion presentation. Chief Bailey.

I'm a little late in the game with this. I just, I guess I wanted to make sure it was going to stick before we put this group out here. No, it was my fault. We're late in the game for this. They're both great, amazing. Employees, officers, supervisors, friends, you know, one of them had traded over for a long time, and he finally saw the light and decided to come over here, and I'm glad Wes did do that finally. And there's Steve, too. So back in October, Steve Maia was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and then back in December, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. So again, we are late in this, but I do want to recognize them for all the hard work that they have done done in these roles and also the hard work they put forth to get this position. It's not an easy feat. It's a lot of stress. I know putting up with me, I know Johnny can attest to that and these guys so far can attest to that. I'm not easy to work with and get along with sometimes. With that being said, we're going to kind of do things a little backwards here. We'll start with Wes. We'll do an oath of office for a supervisory. We'll do a badge presentation, and then you can have whoever you want to pin your badge on. If it's me, great. If it's not, well, I'll get over it. So, Wes, come over here.

We'll try this. All right. I will safeguard the rights of those I serve, mentor, and support those under my supervision. Maybe if Phoenix wants to take a picture, too, before we do this.

Randy, you guys can all take a picture. Yeah.

Yeah. Say cheese. Cheese. There we go.

Good job, guys. Sorry the chief flagged you on that one.

You haven't held their pay. It goes in effect now. All right.

Thank you, guys. We appreciate you. Like I said to the other first responders, thank you so much for all you do. Appreciate it. And you're welcome to stay. We won't be offended if you run out the door like Johnny Ferris always does. Do we have any call to the public? Okay.

Our next item is the Chamber Director's Report, Erica Daniels.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Erica Daniels, the Executive Director of the Parker Regional Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. And first, I would like to invite you guys to our July Chamber Mixer that is next Thursday, July 16th at 530 at the Parker Fire Department. Please remember, it's a great opportunity to network with local businesses, meet community members, and thank our local firefighters for hosting this month's event. We would love to see you all. There, I did hear that they might even bring out the fire trucks, so bring your littles and let's have some fun. The Chamber is also currently hosting our school supply drive for new teachers. We are actually hosting our new teacher orientation breakfast as well. I did send out that invitation to you guys. I have a few RRCPs. If you have not and you will be attending, please let me know as soon as possible so that the Elks could feed us all some yummy breakfast. If you guys would like to donate anything into the teacher's bags, there is 20 new teachers. So we're getting those bags ready for them as we speak. If you could get those to us by July 20th, it would work perfect. On the tourism side, we've continued working closely with La Paz Tourism Group. We submitted all of the dates available for annual community events. If there are any that are changing that you know of that you did give me, please let me know those dates as soon as possible. I know that the Parker Fire Department has switched their annual barbecue to October, so just keep those dates in mind. And the passports will be coming out very soon. As always, we continue to promoting our local businesses and welcome visitors to visit our visitor center. Thank you guys so much for all your support. And I will hopefully see you guys all at the Parker Fire Department next Thursday.

And I'm off.

He'll be back.

He was expecting to talk a little bit longer. I know. He's all, she'll talk forever.

I figured he'd still be up there talking.

He'll be all clapping when he comes back in the room.

This is awful. This is shit.

Z, you RSVP'd, right? Yeah, you did. And you RSVP'd for the orientation breakfast.

Sorry, Z, I should have told you to take it.

I didn't want to skip you out on any type of consent.

Consent agenda. There's three items for the consent agenda that we can vote on as one, unless somebody wants to talk about one of them.

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agendas, items A through C. Second.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item 1 is discussion and action to approve deny resolution 07-2026 adopting a tentative budget for the fiscal year 26-27. Proposing expenditure limitation for the same year and setting a date for a public hearing on the tentative budget and adoption of a final budget. So what are the dates? Just so we can put it in the motion. Do we have dates or?

So it'll be on the 21st, our next regular meeting.

That's the next meeting? That's election day too, huh?

Yes, it is.

Okay, do you want to tackle this one?

Sure. I will make a motion to approve resolution adopting a tentative budget for the fiscal year 26-27 with the expenditure limit of that same year and setting a date of the date stated with the adjusted amount of the expenditure limit to be the amount that was the voter approved amount that was previously set forth from the

Of approximately 18 million second that gonna fly Christine Yes, that works All right, it's been moved and seconded any discussion It is tentative until the next meeting so Okay, all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries. Item 2, Discussion and Action to approve Deny Resolution 08-2026, designating the Chief Fiscal Officer for submitting the Fiscal Year 2027 Expenditure Limitation Report to the Auditor General, Nora.

This is just some housekeeping. We do this every year, some annual... Adoption of a resolution designating the chief officer for the official submission of the fiscal year 2027 expenditure limit report to the auditor general. And that would typically be me.

So that's the motion, though? We're designating you? Yes. Okay. Mayor, do we have to do this on an annual basis?

Yes.

Could we not just make a standing portion designating that the town manager is the chief fiscal officer?

No, this is a statutory requirement. Every city and town has to do this every year.

Every year.

Okay.

With that being said, I'll make a motion. Make the motion to designate the chief fiscal officer, being the town manager, for officials submitting the fiscal year 27 expenditure limitations report to the auditor general.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any questions, discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item three is discussion and action to approve the NIA resolution 09-2026 and award the bids and enter into real estate purchase agreement with Sean Clancy for the three parcels listed and authorize the town manager and town attorney to execute all agreements and documents as may be necessary to further the transactions and carry out the terms of these agreements. Nora.

So what we're asking tonight, we've supplied you with all three purchase agreements. They are for the parcels up on one of them's desert and the other two are on Eagle, up by where River Sports is right now. It would be those lots behind it. We solicited bids. It closed on July 1st. We opened on July 2nd.

Mr. Clancy was the highest bidder on all three lots Yeah, and this I mean this is literally the culmination of 10 years or more actually like 12 years It was before any of us were on council I think Marion was on council when this entire block was purchased by the town with the idea that it would be sold off for retail economic development and it's Some of it was good, some of it not so good, but this is really kind of the end result of that effort. So thank you, Sean, for jumping in. This is going to be great for Parker.

Thank you. Mayor, were there multiple bids just for?

We did all the advertising that we were required to do, and this was the only bid we received.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

I said we did all the advertising that we're supposed to do to go out, and this was the only bid we had.

We did set a lower limit, correct?

And this is the basically baseline limit of the valued amount of what we set for each one? Okay. Any further questions or discussion? I'll make a motion that we approve item 3 as listed and stated. It's been moved and double seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. Appreciate you. All right item what we're gonna do is flip item four and five So item four item five which is now item four is discussion and legal advice relating to the common interest and confidentially confidential agreement between the town of Parker Colorado River Indian tribes and joint venture and recent actions by joint venture impacting the town's liability and So I'll make a motion we discuss this in executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431.03823 and six.

I'll second.

OK, it's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor of going into executive session? Aye. Motion carries.