Town Council - Regular Meeting

I show six, but we'll wait. I think she hung up, didn't she? Didn't she say she texted another number? But did I could be wrong. I don't know.

Crystal, are you ready? I have six. I do, too. popped up for a minute, but let me see if the broadcast is on. Yes. Okay, we're good. Okay. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Pineup Lakeside Town Council to order. Um we do have a quorum. Please make sure your phones are um silenced. I'd ask you to stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance and please remain standing for the invocation. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Councelor Fel, let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, we just thank you so much um for this community that we get to call home. Lord, we just thank you for being in control of it all. God, we just ask that um you be with our meeting tonight. Um guide us, Lord. Um give us your wisdom. Um help us to have patience. Um Lord, and just with all the turmoil globally, Lord. I just ask that you be with all the service men and women and their families, Lord, and um just comfort them and bring them home safely. Lord, I also think of our local law enforcement and just all that they do um and the encounters they deal with daily um and their families, Lord. And I just ask that you be with them. And lastly, Lord, I I ask that you be with our first responders as we enter into this uh fire season, Lord. I just ask that you give them strength and wisdom to deal with everything that they do on a regular basis. Lord, be with us tonight in your son's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Councelor Ferno. Item B on our agenda tonight is called to the public. This is a business meeting of the town council. The town values and welcomes public input. Please address the council as a whole and not individual council members. Council action on items got brought up during call to the public is limited by the open meeting law. Council may direct staff to study the matter for further consideration at a later time. Items on the agenda are not heard during call to the public and individuals are limited to three minutes. Um I have a request from Lin Cribbomb.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, town council. I have the schedule, the Wednesday schedule, the hikes for all summer. We have it made. I do not have the Tuesday one yet, which is the two and three mile hikes on Tuesdays. But these hikes are four to six miles and it tells you how long the hike will be and where it will be and where to meet and all that kind of stuff. So anybody who wants one, they are now available in the visitor center and um I hope that people will want to come and hike with us. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I want one.

Yes, please. And thank you for all your work that you do with Traxxton. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Could I have you? I'm going to post at the World Mart. Thank you.

Okay. While you're handing those out, um, thank you, Lynn. We'll move on then to the 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 an item or items be removed for discussion. Council members may ask questions without removal of the items from the consent consent agenda and items removed are considered their normal sequence unless called out of sequence. As you can see, we have several items on the consent agenda tonight. Are there any questions or comments from the council? Seeing none, Vice Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda. I second that.

Thank you. Do you have a motion to second? All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Item D is business before the council. D1 is the presentation of the March 2026 financial report. We have with us Gabe tonight and Sarah. Good evening, madame mayor, members of council. Um your March financial report is in your packet. Um we'll touch on a couple of revenue items and then look at our general fund um expenditures as well as our other fund expenditures. And then finally, fund balance. First up, looking at our revenue summary for the month. Um this is actually year-to date through March. Um we collected $5.6 6 million worth of tax uh revenue for the month of March in the general fund. You can see here um sorry total revenue of 5.6 million um in the general fund. TPT collections are just over $4 million. Other taxes are about 1.3 and then we have non- tax levy revenue for our yearto date of about um 20 222,000. Um just looking at our TPT um as you remember last month we had an issue that we were trying to reconcile through um year-to- date. Um we were able to reconcile that all the way through March. Um and so I'm happy to report that these numbers um are reconciled through March. Our TBT um is down from previous year to date of about 1.6 um%. March was down about 1.5. So right in the same kind of trend that we're seeing. You can see here the main drivers of that with construction down 57% um commercial rentals are down about 20

and then retail sales is up as well as restaurants and bars. U looking at our general fund expenditures um we've expended about 4.1 um or excuse me that's for remaining um we have about $5.4 million that we've spent through March year to date. Um and we're just over um just shy of 60% of spent. Um you can see most of our categories of our departments are under budget um or right at budget with the exception of magistrate and we've talked about that several times over the um last couple of months uh regarding the annual contract that comes at the very beginning of the year and that's why magistrate is showing uh red there. Um looking at our other expenditures by fund, um we've spent um year-to- date of about $3 million compared to a budget of 33.7 million. Um all funds are in the green status. We've only spent about 9% of our total funds. Um for expenditures of our other funds, the big drivers of that obviously are in our grants and our capital. Um we've not done much is in the way of spend in those two funds. Um, and so that's what's driving most of that uh with our grant revenues and expenditures as well as capital. And then finally, looking at our fund balance, um, we ended the month of March with cash on the general fund of $2,353,533. Um, which is up from February of about 291,000. We are slightly down from March of 2025. Um, that's a good trend. If you've recognized from our previous reports, we've always seen significant number um significant cash declines year-over-year. So, we're now at that point of the year um where we're

starting to see just minor changes. Um, and so we'll continue to trend and watch that closely um with our projected cash um and general fund ending balance of about $2.2 million right now. That completes my report, but I'm happy to answer any questions the council may have. Thank you, Sarah. Any questions or comments?

Okay, thank you. Seeing none, we'll just keep moving along, then. Um, item D2 is a public hearing, discussion, and consider legal action of resolution number 26-1810 for the use of CDBG funds. Um, we have a sign-in sheet in the back there, and I need to have everybody, including staff and council, sign in on that sheet before you leave tonight. It's very important. We do have Isabelle from Nikk hopefully on the phone, but I'm going to turn it over to Christie first. She's not on the phone right now on the air, but if we need her, we can call her back. Okay.

So, I'm not super well verssed in this. Molina put this together and she's out on some leave right now. So, I'm going to do my best. I just for those you have this information in the CDR, but for those that are tuning in tonight that may not have seen this, I'm just going to give a little bit of background. On February 26th of this year, the town held a public hearing for um community input on the community development block grant fund for project ideas. The current estimate amount of CDBG funds allocated to the town of Pinetop Lakeside is just over $510,000. At the hearing, several projects were presented to um and citizens uh were given requests for funding forms to fill out and to submit their projects. The town received three um requests for funding applications. The projects must benefit a minimum of 51% low to moderate income people. Any um projects presented that do not benefit a minimum of 51% low to moderate income do not qualify. We had uh the three applications come in. One um was for Woodland Lake Park for drilling a well doesn't meet the requirements of of the CDBG fund. And then there was another one for a water company. Um that one was they said really hard to prove the low to moderate income. A salary study would have to be done which is timeconuming. So, at this time when I talked to Isabelle at NOGOG, the only project that was turned in that meets the requirements at this time would be funding the um community center renovation and they have it estimated at 510,000. So staff recommends that the council move forward with approving the community center renovation and then once this is done uh we have several steps we have to take and get some accurate quotes and we don't have the accurate number from Niko yet on those allocations but that's what came in as the estimate so it should be somewhere close. If you have any

questions that I can't answer we can get Isabelle from Nikok on the phone for you. Thank you for that Christie. Are there any questions for Christie? No I don't have any questions. Um, this is a public hearing. Is there any member of the public that would like to address this? Okay. Well, thank you. Well, seeing none, I will go ahead and close the public hearing. Um, and what are the council's wishes? Vice Mayor,

I move to approve resolution number 26-1810 authorizing the submission of an application for fiscal year 26 state community development block grant funds certifying that set application for the Pinetown Community Center meets the community's previously identified housing and community development needs and the requirements of the state CDBG program and authorizing all actions necessary to implement and complete the activities ities outlined in said application. Second.

Thank you. We have a motion to second. Is there further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you, Christie and team. Um item D3, discussion and consider legal action of resolution number 26-1811 calling the 2026 general election on November 3rd, 2026. Lisa,

good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and councel. This resolution is calling the town's general election for November 3rd, 20, 2026 in coordination with Navajo County. It's for placing on the ballot to continue of town of the town's home rule auction as required by state law. Thank you. Does anybody have questions for Lisa? Motion. Councelor Heisler. I move to approve resolution number 2618111 authorizing the call for election for the town's 2026 general election to be held November 3rd, 2026. I'll second that.

Thank you. We have a motion to second. Is there further discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Okay. Item D4 is discussion and consider legal action of resolution number 26-1812 authorizing submission of a project for consideration through the Fort McDow Yavapai Nation 2026 Arizona benefits fund grant chief.

Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Uh the 2026 cycle is now open for the Prop 202 grant for uh the Fort McDall Yavapai Nation and um Nation requires a resolution up front to submit the application. So that's why we're coming to you tonight to seek approval for that. Uh in this year's grant application, we're going to uh

motion. Council Heisler, I move to adopt and approve resolution number 261812 authorizing submission of project for consideration through the Fort McDall Yavapai Nation 2026 Arizona benefits fund grant authorizing the chief of police as agent and or his design for the town of Pinetop Lakeside to conduct all negotiations and to execute and submit all documents and any other necessary or desirable instruments in connections with such grant. I'll second that. Thank you. We have a motion to second. Further discussion. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you, Chief. We wish you well. Okay, we're on the roll here. Christie, item D5 is the town manager report.

I'm going to make up for some time lost there because I have a really big report for you guys tonight. So, I I saw that our screens went there. There we go. They went blank after that last one. So, I was a little bit worried that the PowerPoint wouldn't come up. So, if we can Yeah, just control L. A what? Control L and it will take a break.

There we go. All right. All right. I have a big report for you guys tonight. I will try not to talk too fast because it looks like we saved a little bit of time on some of those items. I wanted to start with um the report of some things I've been working on at the town. I have completed writing all of the evaluations, expectations, and goals for all the directors of the departments for the town. Um the director review meetings are underway. I've completed one and my goal is to have them all done by the end of April. I've met with all directors and they've been um tasked to start on their supervisors uh reports and then those supervisors will do the the reviews for their staff and I've asked them all to be done by June 1st. kids with any luck if we're able to do a cost of living adjustment this year. I would like to have all of those um reports and expectations done before we move on with that. Um recruitment and staffing. Right now, um we have posted for a public works director and a community development director. Right now, we have three applications for public works director. They all look really good. We have one application for a community development director. So, if anybody knows anyone who'd be a great fit for our town, please send them our way. We are going to be looking for one to two maintenance workers for the uh one for well maybe one for streets but we may be moving things around a little bit. So it may just be one for parks and um facilities. So we have that posted and we've had a couple good applicants there. Tomorrow we are doing interviews for a finance and admin clerk and we have five really good applicants. So I'm really thankful for that. That's going to help make up some of the work that Stacy did in the office. um that and we've really been missing having someone there to help with that because everyone's picked up a lot of work. Regional community engagement. Last Tuesday, actually April 7th, I attended coffee with council. Vice Mayor Buen, council member Todd Bernno led that discussion. We had a good crowd. Some of

the main topics um were I wrote a note here, home rule, the dog park, emergency preparation, and the green waste event. So, there was some good discussion. So for anybody who doesn't know what coffee with council is, the first Tuesday of every month, citizens are welcome to join two council members at the Pinetop coffee house and have just candid discussions. Ask any questions you want and then council members can respond to those. I attended the Apache and Navo County managers meeting and we had a lot of good discussions there on ways that we could help each other out, especially with the new legislation on the home plans and we're going to do a cost sharing on going to be a good savings for the town and I always appreciate the network of town managers that we have in the up here in the Navajo County. The Chamber of Commerce meeting last week was amazing. Uh was that Timber Mesa led a emergency preparation uh discussion. It lasted for several hours. There was a lot of people in attendance. And with that, I wanted to share that Katrina Jenkins will be at the meeting, the first meeting in May is what we're scheduled, but I met with her last night at the Pine Talk meet and greet and it may be the second meeting in May, but she's going to come and talk about the emergency preparedness at that meeting. I know a lot of citizens were concerned about that, so please tune in. She always brings a lot of good information to us. the finance department, uh, they just presented tonight. They are transitioning in our payroll and our accounts payable. So, that's ongoing. It's a little bit behind because we have bills coming in from some that are emailed, some that are mailed, and they're all over the place, but we're getting caught up on that. So, we're happy to have some of that taken off of the staff's hands here. Um, the fiscal year 2627 budget is under development and ongoing. And then the audit presentation which was slated for tonight, they wanted the auditor came back wanting some more information. So we're moving that presentation to May 7th. I want to give a special appreciation and shout out to Annie

who's not here tonight, Lisa and Alana for their transition support in the finance department. Everybody has stepped up a lot just to make sure that that transition has gone smoothly. Community services, we had the Easter event. Over 500 meals were served by Rotary. It was well attended. This was the first year it was held at the Lakeside Gym. Everybody seemed to like that location. Even though we had great weather, it was a little windy, but it this time of year, we never know. I think we had snow one year, so had to pivot. So, having that big location um worked out really good for uh that event. And I want to do a special thanks to Rotary for coming and cooking to for us. And then the pickle ball club for working with us on making the gym available for us for that day. And then all of our sponsors. I want to go to the next slide because here's all of our sponsors. And I there's a big list here, but I do want to I do want to call out every single uh business in town that participated in this because without them, this wouldn't have been the success it was. So all the sponsors for those baskets that you see there were Mountain Retreat Realy Experts, Rim Outdoor Solutions, Birdman Media, Summit Healthcare, Navapache Electric, Frank M. Smith, the Rotary Club, Moto Mortgage, White Mountain IV Hydration, Karen Rubin State Farm sponsored two of those baskets. The Pinetop Lakeside Chamber of Commerce, the White Mountain theaters, Mr. Zekes, Perez Mountain Roofing, the Pinetop Lakeside Library, Haven Health of Lakeside, Puma Federal Credit Union, Alarm Lock and Key, and the best team realy executives. So, as you can see, Priscilla and Annie put a lot of work into that, and we wanted to make sure that we thanked all of our sponsors for helping make that a successful event. It's nice to see the businesses giving back. So, this is a good reminder for me to plug everybody uh for everybody to

please shop local and support our local businesses as they support us. There's one more picture of just some people enjoying themselves. U there's some pictures of the Rotary up at the left. They were the ones that did all the cooking but also supported did a basket Kieran Rubin State Farm in the middle. And then over there there's all of our VIPs that come and keep everyone safe and control the traffic and parking for all of our events. All right, I'll move on to the library. Um, I think I skipped a few on the community services. Priscilla also has taken on the cemetery. The cemetery is a handful, but um, we've had a several burials lately and as Priscilla, she's on the back, is learning, it's a lot of work and um, she's doing a great job, but cemetery seems to be moving forward. Um, I'm not going to say without a hitch because there's always challenges at the cemetery, but we're getting through them. the library. I want to thank the friends of the friends of the library. The volunteers put in 81 hours in the month of March. They also donated 270 materials and that's books, coloring books, all kinds of um neat ideas or neat pamphlets that they they um supply to the library. The summer library programs that are upcoming are the American America 250 programs. They're going to be hosting a red, white, and blue art exhibit on April 2, 21st that will be inside the library. If anybody wants to participate in that, reach out to the library. And then I have up there on the top left, that's May the 4th be with you. And it's a Star Wars themed day that they'll be hosting. And this month, you can see the creativity here. Those two um displays on the right have several employees and some council members in it. Those are bobbleheads and their theme for the summer is unearth a story. And in the bottom left, they have brought back all of these old traditional oldies but goodies books. And um that's their theme theme for the summer. So they've got a lot of creativity and a lot of good programs

going on over at the library. So stop by sometime and see them. They love the visitors. Police department um continues to move forward. We have a new executive secretary named Ketty Samiski who started on W yesterday actually. So we welcome her. Total incidents for the town of Pinetop Lakeside for March were 616. We had 304 calls for service. 312 of those were officer initiated incidents, 148 traffic stops, business and building checks, 101 five accidents, one agency assist, one civil, two crime, and zero deaths. 33 arrest. Five of those were felony, 28 were misdemeanors, and then 52 citations were pre were given out. Seven were personal criminal 17, I'm sorry. 29 were vehicle moving violations, and six were unclassified. I wanted to give one more small update on the police department. The gel the jail cell doors we've been waiting on are in um the builder came in. Those will be in they'll be installed between the 21st and 25th of this month. till next week. Uh oh. Just in time for um the ribbon cutting on May 13th. So, we're excited that we walked through and did a little just a few small things that they need to finish up in the police department. We're getting that one all finished up. Lisa's been busy in the clerk department. Um we have a council vacancy. That process is going to be next Tuesday. Oh, that's the wrong date. I'm sorry. It's April 21st and it's at 6 p.m. I thought I fixed that. So, I'm very sorry. That is wrong. No, I'm sorry. That's when the applications were due. And then we had we have four applicants right now that are going to be interviewing for council and that is next Tuesday at 6 p.m. Lisa's also been working on um postings for the election and fee schedule as well as timelines. And then I also wanted to mention that tomorrow we're doing a cemetery cleanup. This was the idea of the mayor's use advisory committee. They wanted to do

some community outreach. public is welcome between 8 and 12 at the Lakeside Cemetery tomorrow morning and it's on Larsson Road. I'm sorry I don't know the address. So, anybody that wants to come and help us do a community cleanup and do something that makes you feel good, come join us at the Samarit tomorrow. Our public works parks team is really excited to have some help with that. Community development, some activities. Uh Frank approved 12 building permits in the month of March, nine business licenses, and a total fees collected of 7,262. Some ongoing code compliance. I wanted to mention a special thank you to Rudy. Um he's our code enforcement officer and he is responsible for all this cleanup that is happening happening out here in front of White Mountain Summer. Is that right? Is it White Mountain Summer Homes? Lakeside Summer Homes. I get that wrong every time. Lakeside Summer Homes. If you guys haven't I'm sure everyone's noticed it. It looks amazing. And Rudy um is doing a really good job with cleanup efforts. He's he I don't remember the count, but he told me how many signs he's picked up illegal signs and then also he's doing a lot of business outreach for us for people who are not responding on business licenses. He's just stopping in and mentioning maybe you guys forgot this and he's a really um nice, friendly guy and he's getting a lot of people to comply and we really appreciate all of his efforts. marketing and communications assisted with the Easter um event support and finance support. They also released talk of the town yesterday. They're working on color t-shirts right now and their community campaigns are firewise and I noticed what one that's not up here is the bearaware that we're doing a a campaign on that as well. Our social media outreach is 392 tourism views, 89,000 town views and four live broadcasts. It is currently working on transitioning to one point a cloud-based system which is actually complete um it was completed

yesterday. This helps with the James Vincent group um and us being able to utilize the same files. And then he's also evaluating a fluent stream fo system to try to um get some cost savings for the town there. Public works completed the teaches road project today. I'm going to flip over this picture so you can see it. This isn't completed. I went over and got some pictures today and it's done and it looks amazing. The guys did a great job. I'm proud to um let you guys know that that job came in at about $22,000 total cost with equipment and staff time and we budgeted anywhere between nothing. Well, we knew it was going to be that, but up to 50,000. Anything over that was going to come to council. We completed it at $22,000 which is a really good um we had four streets crews out there working on it and they got it done in record time and the the people that are that brought that project to the town are very happy with the work they've done. Um they're going to now start on pothole patching in Pinetop and Lakeside. Parks is currently um ramping up all the landscape. They've finished town hall this week and they're working on really hard on the parks. It was little league grand opening day last Saturday and they're going to be busy through the summer with that. With that, they're also just assisting in other areas as they can in the town while we're short staffed. Fleets working on maintenance and organization and Ryan also brought over a list of um equipment and um vehicles that we have that the town could auction off. So, it's it's great to have him um putting that together for us. facilities. Um guys have been working on the steps and handrails at the Blige Youth Center. They were painting those yesterday and should be done with those. They're working on the facility maintenance and assisting in landscape. The collection center had 799 uh customers last month and 65 tons were processed. And then let me move forward to this. The collection center, I want to remind everybody of the free green waste

program that we have that is Oh goodness, I can't see that date. It's May 7th to no April 7th to May. What is that thing? April 1st. I can't see that red writing. Ba basically the months of April and May.

April and May. Free to residents of Pinetop Lakeside. 50% discount to anyone who lives in the unincorporated parts of Pinetop Lakeside. Um, I want to thank uh Eric De Garza for the efforts he did in finding us a a really affordable way to haul those in a shorter distance for our workers and less stress on our trucks and gas. We have green waste. We're trying to get the town to clean up and also work on being firewise. Staff recognition. There's so many staff me members I want to recognize and I apologize but I left my paper in my in my office and I don't want to forget anybody but I'm going to try. The teamwork that we've had during the transition has been nothing short of amazing. We've had cross cross departmental support staff stepping up in new roles and continued service delivery. Rose from the parks worked over in not not just Rose, Rose and Hollis worked over at comm the collection center while Eric was off on light duty and they're back in parks and really appreciate all the help that they gave us over there. Anna Marie from the library is covering at the front desk at the library or public works while we're short staffed there and to cover Anna Marie's shifts at library. I've got to get this straight. At the library, Bessie has stepped up and has picked up some extra hours. So, just utilizing the staff we have and people were excited to pick up a few hours here and there that were part-time workers. Um, let's see. I know I'm missing people. Everyone has stepped up. So, I just I appreciate all of our staff, so I don't want to single anybody out, but honestly, our everyone's been amazing and I'm thankful for everyone and everything that they've stepped up to help with. I'm sorry I don't have my list because everyone's done great things. All right, I need to get my paper so I can read this because I definitely can't see that print. Our employee of the month, I am proud to say, is Annie D. Roger. She's not here tonight. She's on a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii, as you can see in that picture. I'm going to read this. We

are proud to recognize Annie De. Roger, marketing and communication director, as our employee of the month. Andy has been with the town for nearly seven years and during the six years I have had the privilege of working alongside her I have consistently seen her step up whenever needed. Whether supporting other departments during staffing shortages or taking in additional responsibilities, Annie approaches every challenge with a positive attitude and a strong commitment to organization. Annie is a wealth of knowledge and an invaluable resource to both staff and leadership. Much of Annie's work happens behind the scenes, often without recognition. Yet, it pays a plays a critical role in keeping our operations running smoothly and our community informed. Annie's dedication, professionalism, and willingness to support others make her an incredibly valuable member of our team. We are grateful for her continued service to the town, and we are pleased to recognize her contributions. And before Annie became a director of marketing and communication, she worked in the community services department is marketing tourism and did um create all of the events from the mayor's tree lighting, the Easter event, um the fall festival parade, just so many great events. Her creativity is second to none. So, we appreciate all of the hard work Annie has um done for the town over the years and all the amazing events that she has helped put together for our citizens. Um, Priscilla has moved into that role and is going to do a great job. So, we're excited to have her there as well. But, we're also happy for Annie. This is a same slide I had in the last manager report. Still fitting for us. I just want to remind that this has been a period of transition and challenge. Some days require extra patience and flexibility, but our team continues to show resilience and commitment. The path forward is clear and meaningful progress is underway. I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody might have. Thank you, Christie. Anything any questions for Christie?