Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Pinetop Lakeside Town Council to order. Welcome everybody that's here. Um, please make sure your cell phones are on silent and we do have a quorum. So, I would invite you to stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance and please remain standing for the invocation. [clears throat] I pledge algiance 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. Vice Mayor,

our eternal father in heaven, as we come here and gather in this council meeting this evening, we are indeed grateful for this beautiful community in which we are blessed and privileged to live. We are grateful for the moisture thou sent to our lands and pray that thou would continue to send moisture to reinvigorate our forests and to keep us in a safer position from from forest fires. We are grateful for those who serve in our armed forces and uh our first responders. Thankful for their dedicated service. We ask you to bless them and their families. [clears throat] Likewise, we are thankful to be part of this community and so thankful for the dedicated employees who work for the town of Pinetop Lakeside and grateful for their dedicated service. We pray for them also and their family members and we pray for thy spirit to be with us during this council meeting as we discuss matters that are important for the town that we might consider what is best for our community and those residents of our community. And these blessings we ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. [clears throat]

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Item B on our agenda is call to the public. The town values and welcomes public input. Please address the council as a whole and not individual council members. Do not address staff or members of the audience. Council action on items brought up and call to the public is limited by the open meeting law. Council may direct staff to study the matter and reschedule for further consideration at a later date. Items on the agenda are not heard during call to the public and individuals are limited to three minutes. Um Kenny Kale. Um Mayor Winin and council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I've come to the report to the council about the citizens dog park committee which met last Tuesday in your town offices involves town directors that brought up negative impacts of the possibility of a park. This is what the committee really wanted. It is the spirit of civil dis discussion free of misinformation that government grows a lesson worth revisiting in our current times. I've listed five of the major concerns that was brought up and uh how we addressed them. Uh what we do agree on is that the cost of a parking lot that meets an ADA requirement is the largest expense. This cost and the lack of support indicated in the original plan caused the dog park to be turned down. This parking lot could have been beneficial to the softball fields, tennis, pickleball courts, and the lakewalk, but it may have been misunderstood that it was only for the dog park. We've discovered that it takes another We discovered that it will take another two years to develop a comprehensive plan for Mountain Meadows. That plan may or may not include a dog park. I've already been addressing the council for over two years on this issue for a town committee. Assigning assigning a committee is what most towns

do as a first step. The cost of which is minimal. This is the standard practice among town councils. Buying prime property to prevent the building of an un unwanted business was a decision done to save our town's image. The timing, however, when the funds were limited placed us in further debt. [clears throat] I know criticism will continue as long as the land is not used. One solution could be utilizing the space with a dog park. Dog parks can be easily and inexpensively constructed and also demolished for f future uses. Utilizing this land for a dog park, it reduces the parking lot expense for a dog park. It'll increase natural um natural tourism facility that's visible from our main street. Doesn't require any trees to be cut down. Reduces concerns that our council listens but does not act on community requests. Thank you. Thank you, Kenny. Is there anybody else that would like to address us tonight? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to our consent agenda. Item C. All items listed are considered routine matters and will be enacted by one motion of the council. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of town council requests that the item or items be removed for discussion. Council members may ask questions without removal. Items removed are considered their normal sequence unless called out of sequence. We've got three sets of minutes on our consent agenda tonight. Are there any questions or comments from the council?

Vice Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda. I second.

Thank you. We have a motion, a second to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you, McKenzie, for getting all this done. Item D is business before the council. Public comment will be taken at the beginning of each agenda item after the subject was has been announced by the mayor and explained by staff. Any citizen who wishes may speak one time for five minutes on each agenda item either before or after council discussion. Questions from council members, however, may be directed to staff or a member of the public through the mayor at any time. Item D1 is a discuss discussion and consider legal action of resolution number 26-1799 entering into an inter intergovernmental agreement with Navico County for court collection and criminal justice services. Christie. Uh, good evening, mayor and council. Um, I'm bringing this intergovernmental agreement to you guys tonight that you probably saw when you read the intergovernmental agreement that it went into effect at the end of 2025. Um, I ask a lot of questions and I wanted to understand this. So, I um had several emails back and forth with the court and uh I thank them for their patience. Um, one of my questions was if you if you look on the IGA, um, the town's portion for these criminal justice fees and, um, court collections fees was 16,570. And my question was, when I look at towns, um, like Snowflake who are quite a bit larger than us, they're paying 9,455. I wanted to know why. Um, you know, coming to found Snowflake and Taylor combined. So, I asked a lot of questions. I figured out um I wanted to know if you know we we have somebody to collect those for us because we don't have that ability. But I did get a list of all of the things. I wanted to know where the money went that they're collecting and how much we're actually getting out of it. And I have a whole list from the court on where some of these fees go to. There's fees that go to defensive driving. Um just all over to the state and to the county. um the

county's fees a lot less than the the states, but the town um when I asked Stacy to pull what the the town is actually making on this, even after we pay our $16,000 a year, we're still um bringing in money for that. So, we're still making money on that. So, I I just the reason why I'm a little bit late on bringing this to you is I really I wanted to understand it. So, um this is already in effect. We've already made payments on this. It it's something that we do every year. So bringing it to you just basically finishing the the paperwork for it and that's that's all there is. If you have any questions for me, I'll try my best to answer them. Thank you. Any questions?

I just wanted I think you've kind of answered it now with all that. So I'm assuming this is the fiscal year 2526 started in July. Is that right? Yeah, but they they by the time they got it count approved by the supervisors and everyone, it got to us kind of late [clears throat] at the end of the year. So, I've held on to it for a month just going back and forth on emails trying to understand what this is and what we're paying for. Okay. But it does go the same fiscal year. Yeah. And we'll be doing it again here for 2627. Right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Anything else for Christie? I'd entertain a motion then. Councelor Heisler. I move to adopt resolution number 261799 entering into an intergovernmental agreement IGA with Navajo County for court collections and criminal justice service. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Further discussion. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you, Christie. Item D2 is [clears throat] um discussion and consideration legal action of resolution number 26-1800 approving a call of election for the August 4th, 2026 primary election and November 3rd, 2026 general election. McKenzie.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um we're bringing to you guys the call of election for our primary in general. Uh right now the election is for the primary is that for August 4th like two years ago there is a high probability of it moving up a week and since publishing this last week they're proposing moving it up two weeks. So um hopefully they vote on it next week because if it moves up two weeks then the um filing period would be um February 23rd. So, it would start in February 23rd. Um, we for on the ballot we have the mayor and three council member seats. Um, packets are available for pickup. Um, don't wait till April 6th to turn in your signatures because it will most likely be the deadline before that.

Okay. Thank you, McKenzie. Um, I have an executive committee meeting with the league. So, if there are any updates on that tomorrow, I would certainly let you know. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So, we're meeting tomorrow. Um, are there any other questions or comments? Yes, sir. I just have a question. Now, you're saying, well, that uh that'll move that date when when things have to be in for us. My question is, um, I mean, can we put this into make a motion without using that date so that the other dates are good? Because then otherwise, don't we have to go back and redo that?

We actually do not by state statute have to do a call of election. Um it's only if there is a if it's a special election, but we just have done it in the past and it's just a good publicity. Um we could go back in a minute or but we probably just do a staff memo. Um okay. All right. That answer my question or we could say primary election to be held in conjunction with the state. Yeah, something along those lines maybe would with So any other questions or comments? I'll give you a motion. Uh, Vice Mayor,

uh, I move to approve resolution number 26-1800 authorizing the call of election for the town's 2026 primary election to be held in conjunction with the dates provided by the state uh, for 2026 and the general election to be held on November 3rd, 2026. That one does not change, right? Correct. Okay, I second that.

Thank you. We have a motion second. Further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you, McKenzie. Um item D3 is discussion, review, and possible approval of the town manager contract. Um you can see before us that we um have the contract um with the items that we agreed on um in our last executive committee meeting, executive session rather. uh our town attorney negotiated with um Christy Salsco and came up with this agreement and so I guess we've been calling her town manager but until this is signed you still I guess are really technically interim but that's okay [laughter] that's okay you've been doing the the job anyway so I believe that this encompasses all the the things that we all discussed um so are there any questions or comments from the council um seeing none I entertain a motion then I'll give you

vice mayor get back to here. Sorry we go back and forth a little here. And there wasn't a CDR. There wasn't a CDR. Just have to approve the contract as presented. I I move to approve the contract as presented to Christy Saskkov for town manager. Second. Thank you. We have a motion to second. Is there further discussion? I'll second that. Thank you. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. Thank you. That passes unanimously. Now it's official. Christie, thank you.

We appreciate appreciate. Um, so [applause] there being no further items on the agenda tonight, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Is that a record?