Common Council - Regular Meeting

After the meeting, I'll try to remember to ask Erica. Do you know if Karina has reached out to the youth presidents yet for the next Parks and Rec meeting? Or should I send her a reminder?

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure. I haven't even asked her anything about Parks and Rec, but I could ask her tomorrow, too.

I can email her, of course. respond back too well to emails, but I can text them.

Okay, for sure.

It's going to be another tight one.

We can ask Corey if Corey comes. She did ask Hawkers.

library girls it would be lori i don't know if she spoke to lori because i did speak to the panthers this month for the chamber so she might not talk to lori so i'll ask eileen

Same with Z. Right? I didn't have anybody say they're not coming.

Randy, were you around at the Chamber when they did the cowl plop?

I don't think so, no.

i remember it but you do i don't think i was involved in the chamber at the time where it walks around on a grid and drops yeah was it was it a rodeo rotary rodeo thing it was at the fair it might have been at the rodeo then when they had it before yes we're trying to bring it back um kingman's doing it so i'm gonna go watch theirs i'm very curious Bull poker? I need to look that up.

Oh, yeah, I would run.

I would definitely not be sitting there.

I have seen that bull poker. That's pretty, pretty intense.

Last one there was like $1,000. Oh, wow.

Yeah, humans having their cow pop in two weeks, so we're going to go check it out and see exactly what it's about. See if we can bring it back.

She's right out by the door and somebody else is also.

We don't have a quorum at this point. Do we have somebody online?

Yep, somebody just popped in. There's Ray.

There's our quorum.

I'm going to go live.

Joan, do you want to read this proclamation or do you want me to read it?

Okay.

Do you know how to read? Do you know how to read?

I memorized it earlier. That's why I went and changed. I heard you wanted a picture, so I don't want to be in my work clothes.

Oh, really? Yeah.

Oh, now we got a quorum for sure.

Just in time.

Alright, we're going to call this meeting to order of the Parker Town Council. Please silence your electronic devices during the meeting. We have a roll call of Council.

Mayor Heartless. Vice Mayor Jent.

Present.

Council Member Shawn. Here. Council Member Daniels. Present. Council Member De Leon.

Here.

Council Member Mananeski. Absent. Council Member Granwald.

Here.

All right. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the invocation by Pastor Louie Marsh.

Just for the record, Council Member Mananeski just arrived.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time we can come together and unite as a community. We pray you'll bless our leaders, give them insight and wisdom to guide this town and this whole area towards the kind of place that we want it to be. It will be a place where families can come and live and thrive together. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Louie. Excuse me. Okay, we're gonna have a proclamation now for National Patriotism Week, which is September 7th through the 13th. Whereas the benevolent and protective order of Elks through its constitution is a patriotic order, and whereas the order promotes the ideas that the citizens of this nation live in freedom, one through the great sacrifices and many tribulations, which have provided the foundation for a free, prosperous and independent life. And whereas we realize that each generation must work to maintain this freedom, otherwise through carelessness or indifference, the rights and liberties enjoyed may vanish. And whereas it is fitting and proper to recognize this freedom and to honor the nation which provides it now. Whereas, therefore, I, Randy Heartless, Mayor of Parker, Arizona, do hereby proclaim September 7th through the 13th, 2026, as national patriotism week during this event urge all citizens to join with the benevolent and protective order of elks in expressing gratitude for the privilege of american citizenship with appropriate celebrations and observances by witness thereof i have here unto sent my hand and caused the seal of the city the town of parker arizona to be affixed this first day of september 2026.

So you want a photo?

John's home too. If anybody gets a photo, they can send it to me and I will mail it to him, email it to him. Yep, he's home.

Oh, good.

Is that what you were going to ask?

I say I'll move out of the way.

Oh, sorry.

That's what we'll do. Bring it to us.

Thanks to the Alps for all that you guys do and for the Mexican dinner on Thursday, which I try to never miss. Okay, our next item is call to the public. Do we have any? No? Okay, our next item is Chamber Director's Report. Erica Daniels.

Excuse me, Mayor and Council, that went really fast. I am Erica Daniels, your Chamber Director. We have a lot going on. September is going to be a very, very busy month because we have tons of stuff coming up. First, we do have the mixer that will be hosted by the Elks on September 17th. They are inviting everybody to attend, wear your red, white, and blue as they'll be celebrating America's 250 and have some awards to give out that evening as well. So please, please be able to attend that. We encourage you guys all to come out. Then we are also getting ready for our gala. This is gonna be our second annual gala and it'll take place October 17th at Havasu Springs Resort. And we are also planning a La Paz County Pumpkin Patch. that is going to be october 2nd and 3rd at the La Paz County Fairgrounds. We have tons of stuff happening. Lots of partnerships are being formed. So be on the lookout for all kinds of information regarding that. We hope to see you guys at all these events. Thank you.

Thank you, Erica. Our next item is the consent agenda, which has four items which can be taken as one unless somebody wants to pull something out and talk about it.

I will make a motion to approve the consent agendas A through D. I second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as listed. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item 1, discussion and action to approve deny resolution number 12, 2026, Bureau of Reclamation Water Smart Enhancing Water Resources Projects Program.

under funding opportunity number r26as00017 for ami antenna project steve steve's online right here go ahead steve thank you mayor and council uh the water department staff performs monthly meter reads using a tablet staff drive all of the alleys to collect the data that automatically transmit from the meter and the ground to the tablet the meter reading typically takes three days using two staff members the installation of this census advanced metering infrastructure fixed network system will automatically transmit the monthly water meter usage data to the front office so staff will no longer spend three days reading meters instead the front off staff will retrieve the data by the stroke of a key on the keyboard Resolution 122026 is the town council's acknowledgement, approval, authorizing staff to submit an application to the Bureau of recommendation water smart, enhancing water resources project program for this advanced metering infrastructure project. The fiscal impact the proposal from census for the hardware software, and the 1st, year subscription fee is 123,692 dollars. Staff budgeted 150,000 in the adopted 2627 capital budget. If the town is awarded the grant, it'll be a 50-50 matching grant. So the estimated amount the town would be responsible for is $61,846 if we are awarded. Steps following if approved is to submit the application. So the recommended motion is to Public Works staff respectfully request the Mayor and Council to approve Resolution 12-2026 And I'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

OK. Any questions for Steve? Discussion?

Yeah, I had a question. So Steve, that's the first year implementation cost. So this would be like an annual thing that we'd have to renew?

Yes, the software would be correct. yeah and the the the first year cost or after the initial uh implementation i believe is around 23 000 so it's about 23 000 a year on an annual basis for this system but the amount of money it's going to save and the amount of time and resources the staff will will get back by actually having this done is is immeasurable it really is it's going to free up a lot of free time for the staff to work on items. And it has other capabilities as well. It's going to be giving the customer abilities to actually have data at their hands as well. So it's really the entire water industry from a metering perspective is going to this just for that purpose. The efficiency is going to be fantastic. So savings on fuel, savings on vehicle maintenance as well. So there's a lot of benefits to this.

Thank you.

And Mayor, I'm sorry. Did you say the annual cost is $23,000 annually or $123,000 annually? $23,000. $23,000. $23,000. Okay.

I make a motion to approve resolution number 12-2026. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve. Any further discussion, questions?

So that's just about a $2,000 just coming up to that. So $2,000 per month-ish with that. So that seems, and you said it would save about six, I guess, working days. Is that correct of your anticipated portion?

It saves three days a month. So over the course of the year, obviously, that's much more. And like I said, the other savings on fuel and on just vehicle maintenance for just doing this activity, I don't have those numbers, but that's an annual savings as well. So it'll make up for that $2,000 cost.

And you said, uh, so you said, uh, I'm sorry, three days, but, uh, you said you had two employees who does it, uh, for three days each. So a total of six days, there are six working days with that two staff members, three days each month.

Okay. Any further discussion? all those in favor aye aye opposed motion carries item two discussion action to approve deny the 2027 wacog area agency on aging contract for the purpose of providing home delivered meals nora

This is the WCAG yearly kind of update for the congregate meals reimbursement and also the home delivered meals. They're allotting us $115,345 for the congregate meals and $133,000 and 30 or 65 dollars for um the home delivered meals for a total of 298 710 dollars for the year typically um mid-year we get a little extra on some of it when they figure out that they have a little money left over or somebody wasn't using theirs um it's pretty much the same contract that we do every year with them um it worked out really well last year with um court site in the county helping fill that void from did we ever determine because there was a time we were talking about maybe they paid a little too much or they didn't pay enough and they might adjust it or did we just left it For courtside in the county where they haven't completed their end of the year finances yet, but. We believe that they're pretty. It's pretty close with the budget. We had a budget for about the same amount for next year. Or this year.

OK. Any questions or discussion? I'll make a motion to approve item two.

I'll second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion, any questions? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Item three, discussion and action to approve, deny a wage increase for town employees for 26-27 budget year. Nora?

The administration department proposes an across-the-board wage increase of $1 per hour, while a 3.5% salary increase, which is approximately $110,000, was originally budgeted. A $1 per hour adjustment exceeds the total by about $10,000. um however because of the effective date is delayed until the first pay period in september the actual overall cost will align closely with the budgeted amount the potential disadvantage of this flat fee approach is that higher interest higher earning employees will receive a smaller percentage increase than they would if we did the straight 3.5% adjustment. Following this, we did budget for this was a budgeted item for the raise this year since we didn't do one last year.

we gave bonus we did bonuses um so we budgeted for 3.5 you're saying but it's from this point forward we're not going retroactive to july 1st yeah i mean i like the percentage myself but i'm open

Mayor, so to your point, what you're saying is the dollar increase would basically, I think, help out any employee more beneficial who's earning $28.57 would disproportionately help them more below $28.57. Any employee earning more than $28.57 would help disproportionately less with that flat increase. So that's the cutoff, what we're talking about for the disproportionate increase. benefit or disadvantage uh at that particular amount did you just calculate that or is that yeah no no wow tells you all um so yeah you're thinking about that particular range with that now one consideration i think where i was thinking originally with the wage increases when we originally discussed that we're talking about a 3.5% increase at that future point. I think in my mind, I was thinking right around maybe more of the Christmas time mark. And I think over at that particular time, we've had bonuses and different portions with that. So I think in my mind, there was a combination of I don't know if we did a raise and bonus in years past. But where that would have allowed, if we wanted to do, say, the raise and bonus, Whichever direction that would have been near the six month mark where there could have been a portion of that as a bonus portion of that is a raise where that would have still fit within line with the budget as a whole. Because that is six months post the into the fiscal year, this is a little bit earlier into the fiscal year so it's going to have more of a impact on this particular year's budget.

is everybody in most departments kind of even and the only reason i ask because i think about like a dollar raise so we'll just say like public works for instance there might be guys that have already been there for 10 years but they started at 10 an hour where the guys coming in are starting at 21. these are numbers are pulling off top of my head um so are they kind of like even at this point or is there a huge like if i started this year and i'm getting a dollar raise i'm making more now than the guy that's been here for 20 years um

Actually, I mean, they're pretty close, some of them, but right now when we hire somebody in, the things that we look at to calculate their pay is do they have certificates or their kind of training that they've already done? If somebody, if we already have somebody hired, say in public works, they go get an, like two of our employees just went and got their electric license. So we gave them a bump. That's kind of how they kind of move up other than these little raises that we get most of the time.

So it's like an incentive within their department? Yes. Okay.

Typically we've always done between a two and a three, three and a half, one, I think two years ago we did a five, but that's very, very, I mean, I don't even remember ever doing something that high before. So typically it's about this three, two to 3%, as far as raises go.

It's quiet over here.

Mayor, what's the reason for this time period versus other time periods of when doing it? Because I think last year we had more of this discussion near the December or November time period.

so last year we had this kind of conversation during um the work session budget session and we knew that we were pretty our budget was going to be very tight last year we weren't really sure where we were kind of at so that's we were looking at not doing any raises at all and then when december rolled around we took a look at and while we had a little extra money we had found Some where we hadn't hired people or there had been a vacancy. So that's what we used last year to be able to get those bonuses. This year, our budget was a little better. I mean, it's not grand or anything, but it's a little better. Typically, we do our raises either if we do a COLA, we do at the very beginning of the kind of the budget year. If we do JUST A SALARY INCREASE. WE TYPICALLY DO THOSE DURING THEIR REVIEW PROCESS. AND SO WE GIVE THEM A RANGE OF 2, 3% OR 2, 3.5%. AND JUST FELT LIKE DENNIS AND I SPOKE QUITE A BIT ABOUT THIS AND FELT LIKE SINCE WE DIDN'T GET THE RAISES LAST YEAR, EVERYBODY KIND OF, EH, THAT IT WAS WE WOULD LIKE TO DO IT A LITTLE EARLIER THIS YEAR AND KIND OF DO IT STRAIGHT ACROSS THE BOARD VERSUS some not getting anything until December, some not getting anything until June of next year.

With that being said, with those that say, I get this dollar raise my first pay period in September, and then my valuations comes up in December, I realize that that doesn't mean I get another dollar raise in December.

What's the total amount? If we go 3.5%, do you have a figure?

It's approximately 110. I mean, it's real close in there.

So. Right now we're in September. So we would be for for pay periods from July for the reason I'm asking is I don't think we should do this every year. We should do this on July 1. That's when people should get their raises. So I was trying to calculate 110,000 by 26 pay periods i'm trying to backtrack and see if we can go back to july 1st retroactive get the retro check yeah and i know that's wasn't your proposal but i just think it's it's not fair to go well we'll talk about it later i mean if we're going to do it let's do it um on july 1st when we plan the budget now i don't want to make it complicated to because you're going to have to back pay everybody, but that's where I'm at.

What do we use for, I guess, evaluation of wage scales? Do we have a set of wage scale for Do we have any tool or just kind of what has been our.

Typically we look at our budget during the season of budgeting and then we've kind of just always done a little bit of. just a small raise i guess there's not really a scale other than um with the police department they do have steps so they would bump up for every year that they're there they they move up a step so we don't have that on our side um the only time we do is if you guys decide that you want to do a cola raise or something like that and then we look at the overall going around

Do we have, you know, so there's no, I guess, prevailing starting wage for any sort of you know, the various disciplines, like, so say public works versus...

So we do have what we typically start at, start somebody at, and then the ending, you know, so we have that range in there. And then it kind of goes from how much experience they have, again, what they have to offer as far as to bring.

In those regards, there is that pay scale range for the various disciplines over there with that. How is that evaluated? Do we use like salary.com? I don't know. There's salary.com, Glassdoor, call up other places.

I know that before we've called this, sorry, I didn't mean to, but I know before we did, like when we were looking for a town clerk or we're looking for a town manager, since I've been sitting here, we've made sure that we were very similar to other places like ours. Um, and we actually were, cause I was really shocked. So especially I think it was a few years ago that, um, the library gonna, I want to say it was a library that kind of got a pay increase and it was because the other libraries were, we were getting paid nothing compared to other libraries were. And we did do that too. When we went out for our town managers, and our town clerks i think right now we're still very similar within all of our departments of what other rural cities pay their employees yeah the the one that we're kind of you know low in are some of the um public works guys but um for the most part we're pretty close to the county um most of the towns our size anyway are those our newer public works guys like coming in at a low like no i mean they're

Like I said, they're pretty comparable, but there are a few not gotten the full 3% every year. They've only gotten a 2% instead of a 3%. So those are a little bit lower, but as they grow, it becomes more. The other thing that you probably wanna think about too is just doing that straight, that dollar straight across helps kind of our budget in the long run, because we're not doing this whole end of the year, And your higher ups are not getting, you know, the $3 raises instead of.

And I guess I feel like this is what our finance person has indicated that we can afford and sustain. So I think we have to take that into account also. Correct? I mean, you've worked with Dennis on this? Yes. Okay.

did you guys see if it would be a huge difference just kind of pagan backing off of what randy said if we did retro it with it being in our fiscal year is it in the budget to retro or it is not in the budget to retro and that's why we it's not i mean can we make it work yes is it ideal no but

And I'm sorry to jump in. I mean, we have a significant amount of, I mean, not, but there is wiggle room overall with our budget. I mean, we made sure to have that in there. Now is it within, say, that particular budget amount? Maybe not. But that is where we did have wiggle room, in a sense, to be able to do that. And I think those were part of the questions of when we asked. And so, I mean, there is, yes, but there's only so much wiggle room that we do have. So it's just cutting that particular amount. I do understand where that flat raise would be more beneficial, and it does help more the entry level positions in those regards of having a flat raise. But it also does, in a sense, are more experienced individuals. It does not help them as much. and it does potentially, could have some frustrations where their maybe experience, their other portions do, they're not necessarily kept up in the market overall with that. And now you're, in a sense, not allowing those individuals to be, you know, increase at that particular rate where they may elsewise with a percentage increase to help more benefit the entry level type of positions so i would i do have potential concerns overall with that that is one of the disadvantages that we spoke about so we have around 60 employees is that right we have 52 full-time okay 51 without you guys

So employees like not picking on anyone, I'm just trying to think off the top of my head. And I guess I shouldn't even say that person because they're moving. But if we had somebody start within this fiscal year, and then they're leaving, their salary would not count at all, right? So if I started in July 20, and I just gave my two weeks, this would not count for that person at all, right? If they're gone before the next pay period. But if they happened or two weeks was within that pay period, they're going to get that dollar, they would

I would say my preference is more the percentage portion. I think that, you know, because it's talking about retention of, you know, either retention of the, in a sense, Where do you want that retention focus to be? A lot of times those somewhat more entry level coming on into that. Yes, we want them here a long time and grow and develop, and we very much want them to have that. But it's also then in a sense to the disadvantage of the more experienced individuals that we have in our leadership type roles.

NORA, HOW MANY EMPLOYEES IF WE GIVE THE DOLLAR ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE TOP EARNERS? IS THAT LIKE FIVE IN YOUR MIND OR 12?

YOUR DEPARTMENT HEADS ARE THE ONES THAT AND SOME OF YOUR SUPERVISORS WOULD PROBABLY FALL INTO THAT CATEGORY. THAT'S ABOUT TEN?

FOUR?

I THINK WE'RE ALL HERE.

I WAS GOING TO SAY.

IN REALITY, I THINK ALL OF US ARE IN THIS ROOM. We don't care about the disadvantage.

Yeah, if I may too, I would prefer the straight across dollar because it actually helps the staff members. There's a good amount, if not most, of public works that is under that mark as far as what Councilmember Zafir mentioned. So this would benefit them. The supervisory and management are good as far as salaries are concerned. So I tend to want to really appreciate and keep those that are under that amount and giving them the bump, especially because that's the core of public works. And yes, there's staff members that have been here for quite a few years that are under that mark. And I don't want to obviously mention any names, but there's people that have been here longer than I have that are under that mark.

I can tell you, too, as far as, again, I can't see Rob's phone.

I can't hear it, but... that department heads are compensated in other ways that you know we don't really need the pay raises every year at least from my personal experience um i would rather give it to the employees who do the bulk of the work to be honest with you who like in steve's case if they have a couple that are below that mark who who have been here for a long time or in the library's case you know speaking for myself i'm sure other maybe others can agree with me but I feel as a department head that it's more incumbent upon us to make sure that the employees and our staff are taken care of before we are, because we do have, you know, we have the admin leave pay, we have the freedom and flexibility within our schedule more so than what the employees have. So there are other things that we are compensated for, not just in the salary makeup, but if we had a choice, we'd rather give it to the employees.

I agree.

So you're agreeing to the dollar is better than the, just to be clear.

Me personally, I'm agreeing to just giving the employees a dollar raise and not department heads, but I can't, I can't make that decision. I can't speak for anybody else.

I'm making that same, same statement of the dollar across the board would be more beneficial to my department.

According to my probably not great math, we're talking about, 105,000. 51 employees times $1. Times 2080 hours, which is the whole year. So to me that would be going back to July 1st, 105,000. Otherwise it's. Like 89,000 if we started from next week so. And I'm glad you guys said something. um because i would lean towards the dollar now and i think it would certainly help out the people on the lower end that are making a minimum you know if you give them a 3.5 and you're making 16 it's it's only like 50 cents an hour so um i'm okay with that i'm fine with it but i think we should retroactive it back sorry megan to make you do all that calculation but i see those um i see other checks that i sign that are sometimes back pay and things so i know we can do it um you got to do it 51 times but that's where i'm at just just so you know it's about a sixteen thousand dollar difference if we if we back pay and then everybody gets a nice bump I just don't think it's fair to drag it out and, well, let's talk about it in September or let's do something at Christmas. So that's where I'm at.

I'll make the motion to do the dollar increase and have it back paid to July 1st. Second.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. I will accept your second. All right. It was a little premature. Sorry about that. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion?

I guess my biggest discussion is hearing from all the department heads is that they do not want the dollar raise rather go to their employees.

Or I didn't hear that.

I'm thinking I can't speak for anybody else. I am fine with that. With my department. I again, I'm not speaking for public works or library them, but that's your personal feeling. I'm one person and I can't make sure that we should do that.

I was insane liability thing. OK, just in case.

Trying to get a clearance and like a clear statement.

I mean, if you're at $100,000, it's $2,080 a year. The 3.5 is $3,500 a year, so it would be less. But I feel like it's equitable to compensate the people under $27,000, like you said, more fairly.

I do think, in a sense, those people who are at the top of the pay scale, typically there's a max out limit within a pay scale range. So if they do hit that particular limit, what would be, in my eyes, appropriate is to do basically a cash out. So it's not an ongoing expense for the increase of rate, but it's, in a sense, a one-time cash out or one-time pay out for that particular top of scale range of whatever that scale range that we have. So if somebody's at top scale, then you would pay out, in a sense, that out entire one-time portion at that particular period. I'm not sure how many people we have at top of scale, but that, in my mind, would be how you would want to move forward at that particular point if somebody is at top of scale, instead of allowing them to, in a sense, go up infinitely or not pay them out whatsoever.

I mean, there was a time when we had a town manager that was making a lot of money and i couldn't figure it out but then somebody said well she's been here 20 years and if you go three percent a year for 20 and i did the math and i was like okay i get it but there should have been a cap at some point so i don't know that anybody with us right now is is way up like that because nobody's been here for more than five or six years maybe steve's been

Your chief has been here longer than me. I'm 14, 13, but I have staff members that are at the 20 mark and 16.

But there could be other ones who come in with 20 years experience, all the certifications under that. So you're starting them somewhere near the top of the scale range already. So where you are starting them somewhere near the top. So it can't happen without just so many years experience here working for the town.

OK, it's been moved to do across the board increase of $1 an hour retroactive to July 1st and it's been seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor aye. Post motion carry. Thank you guys for the input. I appreciate it. I think it helped a lot so. All right. Our next item is discussion and action relating to the matters protected by the common interest in confidentiality agreement between Joint Venture, the Town of Parker, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes, and other proposed agreement with Joint Venture and CRIT. I will make a motion to go into executive session to discuss. So moved and seconded. All those in favor? Aye. We will go into executive session. Thank you, Joan.

Bye, Joan. Stay in here for just a second.