Town Council - Regular Meeting

Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. so

Regular town council meeting, May 28th, 2026. Call to order. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Lopez. Present. Council Member Keough. Present. Council Member Freund. Council Member Greer. Here. Council Member Schumacher. Present. Vice Mayor Sercher.

Here.

Mayor Paguda. Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you, ma'am. At this time, I'd like to welcome down Pastor Lloyd Murphy from Foundation Church for our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand if you can.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, how we thank you for this community in which we live. We thank you for the freedoms that we enjoy in this land. And this week we pause and we remember those who have paid the ultimate price for that freedom that we enjoy. we thank you for them and we pray for their loved ones and as we think of them we pray for our brave men and women who are serving even now in harm's way protecting our nation and our freedoms we thank you also for our police and our first responders who protect us and serve us right here at home And Father, we thank you for these public servants before us. And we thank you for the labor and the time that they invest in our community. We pray a blessing on them and their family as they attend to this good work. And we pray now for this meeting tonight, that you would give wisdom and discernment, that you would give a sense of justice and equity, and that you would do good to our community through it, that everything that would be done with integrity and dignity. And we pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, sir. Now, item three, can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Council Member Schumacher? Yes. And Mayor Polgada?

Yes.

That passes, Mayor.

Next up, call the public. Clerk, do we have anyone?

Elijah Snyder?

Is there Elijah Snyder here? Going once.

No one else, Mayor.

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to Item 5, Council Communications. Start to my right, Councilwoman. We'll talk about Wolfstock.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor reminded me that Wolfstock is this Saturday here at the Civic Center. It starts at 9 a.m. Basically, it's an annual event. It's just a great, great time to come on out, especially if you're looking to adopt a dog. So hopefully we'll see you there. Thanks, sir. Councilman.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to, first of all, thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to miss last week's council meeting. I was in Washington, D.C. at Police Week. We will be getting a full report from the officer that did attend Police Week with me. Also, I was able to meet with Congressman Paul Gosar, which was very interesting, and we talked all about water and what we're going to be doing here in rural Arizona and also in southern Arizona. So, thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Davidson. Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, two things. The registration for the Household Hazardous Waste Program is open and that closes on June 26. This is a program that we started last year for the residents of Prescott Valley. If they have hazardous materials, paints, Other types of things that should not be disposed of in landfills. This program will literally come to the resident's home, pick it up and safely dispose of it. But it does require an advance registration and that closes again June 26. Residents can call neighborhood services or visit the town's website to be able to obtain the registration for that. and one other thing is we do are hosting a memorial service for the canine canine mac that suddenly died that's going to be next week here in these chambers june 3rd at 4 pm it is open to the public for those that would like to pay their respects to the canine thank you sir next up consent agenda all matters listed under consent agenda are considered routine by the town council and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items

If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to remove 7C and 7D from the consent agenda and discuss them separately.

All right, let's do 7C, 7D. What questions or comments, sir, do you have for staff that are not in the council packet?

On 7C... We have hired this, this is for Madhouse Water Management. We have hired this consultant to find solutions to our dire water problem. Prescott Valley has been in a severe water overdraft and out of compliance as long as there has been an active management area in the last century. We blew past the stated goal of being in safe yield by 2025. We must have them, Matt, outline what steps are necessary for our town to reach safe yield. This is essential for the long-term survival of Prescott Valley. Without that, I believe that this study is just feel-good window dressing.

So is it just a statement or any questions for staff?

I think that we need to... discuss as a council if we wanna go forward with requesting them to cover how we can get to safe yield, what we would have to do. There are a number of different goals and steps that they've outlined for different levels of water savings. But the key one, the most important one is to reach safe yield and that's not covered in this study.

Ms. Lund, do you just wanna comment on anything before?

I would actually point out that this water conservation planning is a tool in the chest to perhaps in time become in conformance with safe yield. It will not completely solve the problem. There are a number of different things we need to do for that. having them come up with solutions for us to reach safe yield is beyond the scope of their current contract.

Anything else, sir? Well, I think that John Potter, You know i've spoken i've spoken my opinion on it, I don't think that it's worthwhile unless we have that included in it, but anyway, and then I have item 70 if you want to you can hit 70 as well on item 70 agreement with matrix new world engineering. John Potter, It says here. The town of Prescott Valley's commitment to treated wastewater effluent recharge has been well documented through the Vision 2024 plan, where one of the water and land stewardship goals is to recharge 100% of available effluent in accordance with town standards. In advancement of that commitment, the town is proposing to expand its current effluent recharge capabilities. The related project will serve to expand the footprint of the wastewater effluent recharge facility and thereby increase infiltration of this water resource into the aquifer. We already don't discharge 100% of our effluent water into the aquifer. A significant portion goes to irrigation at the Stone Ridge Golf Course and Mountain Valley Park. Additionally, town effluent has significant PFAS contamination, which I believe we should not introduce into our drinking water aquifer. In 2007, Prescott Valley sold 2,724 acre feet of water rights, that's 887,615,400 gallons of our effluent water rights to Water Asset Management LLC, a New York City-based investment company. As a result, we no longer have the ability to control certificates of assured water supply. All of this needs to be openly discussed rather than swept in with the consent agenda passage. Thank you. Anything else you want to comment on that, Ms. Lund?

The objective of this particular project is simply to extend the extent of the recharge facility to areas that are already seeing effluent. So we send effluent to Mountain Valley Park. That would be the endpoint that we are going to be using as the start of this recharge facility. So we are not exposing new parts of the aquifer to PFAS. It's already been exposed there. Yeah, I mean, yes, this does actually increase the number of potential recharge credits we can earn each year and expand out the portfolio. When it comes time to discuss the implications of having an expanded recharge portfolio to expand our sale to water asset management, we can certainly discuss that in greater detail. However, we are capped essentially right now at 1600 acre feet and I'm not comfortable with

fulfilling more of that contract that we have with water asset management at this point thank you and just one more time you have a degree in water hydrology or something i do okay just checking i'll just take a motion to approve 7c and 7d separate we'll do 7c first mayor okay motion to approve 7c please mr mayor make a motion to approve

Amendment number one to the Professional Services Agreement with Modest Water Management Inc. for water conservation master planning in the amount of $89,873. I second. Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes 6-1.

Thank you. I'm just going to do items, get a motion to approve 7A, 7B, 7D, 7E, 7F. In one motion, please.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve all items under consent agenda with the exception of 7C by electronic vote.

I'll second.

Please call the vote.

That passes 6-1.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, Old Business Town Code Chapter 13 Zoning Update. Second reading. Brittany, are you here? I see you. Council, are there any questions or comments for staff prior to reading? Seeing none, I apologize for you having to come all the way up. Clerk?

Ordinance number 2026, 979, an ordinance of the mayor and common council of the town of Prescott Valley, a municipal corporation of Arizona, amending chapter 13 zoning to allow for additional flexibility and to conform to current and prior town practices, making a conforming amendment to chapter 14, subdivisions and other land projects. Providing that all other chapters, articles and sections of the town code not hearing repeal or amended shall remain in full force in effect. Providing that if any provision in this ordinance is held invalid by a court, the competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions shall not be effective, shall continue in full force in effect. And providing that this ordinance shall be effective 30 days after its passage and approval according to law.

Court shall dispass.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, extension 2023 commercial economic development policies. Mr. Kerr, welcome.

Mayor, council, I'm here to ask you for an extension and an expansion of the grocery sales tax relief for attracting new business. If you could pull up the map for me. You have the map in front of you. We made one change to this map After your packet was given to you and it's the very top up there, you'll see that piece of state land in that smaller piece that's right across viewpoint there. We're the only additions, but everything in magenta is what we're looking to expand as Prescott Valley grows. We need another grocery store desperately, and so we're trying to give as many opportunities as we can. to the people of Prescott Valley and for these grocers to come in and expand. They will do it based on land availability and what I call skin in the game. And this is what skin in the game means. Being able to contribute at least a small portion to their development of grocery store. It's it's well deserved. And they will do fantastic with that that gets that puts us in the forefront of economic development for recruiting new business. We have several on the line right now. And this just extends that addition.

Mr. Mayor members comes. I just want to clarify. It's not a sales tax. No, it's I'm sorry.

Construction sales, construction sales tax.

So it's on the construction.

Sorry, just I don't have a question. I just think we need to provide you with all the tools possible in the tool bag to attract a grocery store. I don't think there's a single person in this room that would disagree that we need another grocery store, perhaps even a couple in the Prescott Valley area. So I wish you all the luck. I hope this can help. And I'm confident that in the next 12 months, we'll be able to snag something.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think we are to other questions or comments for staff. And then I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign resolution number 2026-2454, extending the existing business and industry incentive program through June 30th, 2030. Second. Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am.

This one has a second motion.

May I just get a second motion, please?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign resolution number 2026-2455, extending the existing grocery store supermarkets incentive program through June 30th, 2030 by electronic vote. I second.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, 2026 primary and general election update. I believe Ms. Burchill is here. Welcome down. Welcome, ma'am.

Good evening, council. How y'all doing? Thank you for having me. So we are going to give you an update on everything elections because we are in it now. Okay, so every time I start anything with elections, especially since I haven't probably spoken to many of you before, I always make sure that everybody understands who does what. So I'm taking this chance just right now while you have me here to kind of educate everybody here in the audience and online also of who does what with elections. Am I pointing this at a certain place? Arrow, right? There it goes. Okay, so in Arizona, we have a separation of duties. A lot of times, because I am the elected official, people come to me and say, hey, Michelle, what's going on with the count? Or what are you counting? Where's the tabulation? In Arizona, the recorder is responsible for early voting. That means the 27 days leading up to election day. I'm responsible for voter rolls, voter roll maintenance, drop boxes, emergency voting, in-person early voting, signature verification and special assistance boards for anybody that may need help with casting a ballot. Election day falls under the board of supervisors who actually appoints the elections director. So candidate filings, vote centers, poll workers, ballot creation, all falls under the elections director. And then of course, actually putting out the results on election night and the days after, depending on how many late early ballots we have. 2026 election dates. So the primary election was moved from August to July 21st. So our first day of early voting will be 27 days before the election. I'd like to show this graph because a lot of people assume, you know, about 30, 60 days before is all it takes to actually start an election. We're actually planning 210 days in advance. So we have been planning this since last year, getting prepared. Our UOCAVA voters will be the first ones to receive a ballot, and that is going to come on June 6th. That is our military and overseas voters. And then from there, we will start with our early voters. Eighty percent of Arizona pretty much votes early by mail. And then from there, we will lead up to Election Day. If you want to know anything about elections in Yavapai County, please come to Yavapai County to make sure that you are getting the accurate information. A lot of people don't know that counties actually run the election. So what you hear in another county, say our neighbors in Maricopa or Coconino or Mojave, will not be the same as what is done and how it's administered in Yavapai County. So you want to make sure when you are getting information that you're coming to the source. You can get a lot of great information from YavapaiVotes.gov, including some voter education to how to check your registration. Please do that before the cutoff. How to vote your ballot, because you would be shocked at how many people vote their ballots wrong. So all of those things lead up to bottlenecks when it comes time to actually get into tabulating ballots. These were our current quarterly statistics from April. So we had 176,000 voters that were active at the time of the April 1st quarterly cutoff. In 2020, we had 165,000. So we are growing fairly quickly. This number will change usually by the week. We have an average of about 300 movers a week in Yavapai County. So at any given time, people are moving, coming in and out, and this number is changing. DIFFERENT THINGS THAT YOU CAN FIND THAT WE WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT IS ELECTION DAY VOTE SETTER WAIT TIMES. WE HAVE SEVERAL LOCATIONS, WHICH I'LL GO OVER IN A FUTURE SLIDE, ABOUT YAVAPAI COUNTY IN TOTAL, BUT SPECIFICALLY PRESQUETTE VALLEY. BUT IF YOU ARE HEADED TO A VOTING LOCATION ON ELECTION DAY, YOU CAN ACTUALLY CHECK TO SEE WHAT THE WAIT TIME IS. We don't want lines, so if you can decide to go a mile down the road and skip the lines, we definitely recommend it. And as far as the tabulation schedule, that's what everybody's interested in. You can watch us tabulate ballots online. We will put the schedule of the expected times that we will be in the room where you can visually watch what we are doing ahead of the actual election. One thing we did change this year is we revamped our voting instructions. I actually had created a voter integrity committee with leaders of our Democrat and Republican parties, and we included some independents and formally had the Libertarian Party involved. But we work together as a bipartisan group and created an easier example for how to vote your ballot. And we are really waiting to see kind of what the response is, because we have thousands and thousands of people that call us to ask us a question that's actually on their voter instructions that are in with their ballots. So we're hoping that maybe this helps with that and maybe gives a little bit more of an ease to the voters. Another thing we changed this year was, actually last year, was where your voter signature is. We saw a lot, sometimes over 100, rejected ballots because people did not sign their ballots. So we actually took all of the... Different examples from all the other counties and work together again in a bipartisan group to redesign our affidavit envelopes. Last year's city of Prescott and jurisdictional elections, we actually saw a 50 percent reduction in rejected ballots just by this new design. So this is something that people will see different this year. It saves time in processing the ballots. And it's one less person handling live ballots because we're no longer using a poll tab. Thank you. Everybody, please track your ballot, especially if you are a vote-by-mail ballot, if you vote by mail. We want to make sure that you trust but verify. You can sign up at my.arizona.vote, and you can actually make sure that you are able to see that your ballot has been received by my office. And when your status says received, that means it's in my possession, in the building. Once it says accepted, that means it's been tabulated and accepted into the ballot count. So we want people to make sure that you are double-checking our work. If you mail your ballot in early and it gets up to Election Day and you haven't seen that it shows received, you can absolutely still go vote on Election Day because that means we have quarantined those late, early ballots. You can vote your Election Day ballots and we will actually destroy the... One that's potentially in the mail chain at that point. Current drop boxes. We have 19 drop boxes in Yavapai County. One of the most popular is right here in this parking lot in the city hall between there and the police parking lot. Prescott Valley is the second drop. most used Dropbox. It's the largest Dropbox we have also. So anybody can drop off their ballot at any of these locations. They will officially be open the day that early voting starts, and they will be closed promptly at 7 p.m. on election night. A lot of people ask me about Dropbox security, so I always make sure to give everybody my perspective. Every time you mail a ballot back to me, even if you lived right down the street on Fair Street, your ballot is leaving Yavapai County, going down to Phoenix for processing, and then coming back up. So that means your postal carriers, the truck drivers, the people down at the regional facilities, the truck drivers bringing them up, the postal carriers receiving them back, all of those people are touching your voted ballot. All of that takes time as well. Usually after each election cycle, I will see hundreds of ballots come in late after the cutoff. In 2020, we received a ballot from 2012. So I'm not exaggerating when I say we've seen some late ballots. So in my personal perspective, after seeing what I've seen in the process, I highly recommend you choose to use a secure drop box. This reduces the chain of custody. It goes from your hands to my background checked oath of office bipartisan teams that pick up these ballots from these drop boxes. Each one has fire suppressors. We have motion detected night vision solar power cameras on them. We use two separate keys that are unique to each box and unique to Yavapai County. Our bolts are not exposed. We do not tell people when we're picking up ballots from a drop box. We don't want a bad actor to know when we have something in there and when we don't. If you do choose to use the mail, please mail it back early. Because again, it does take time. And if it gets lost in the shuffle somewhere, you have time to track that and hopefully remedy it. So here's some Prescott Valley statistics. So right now, 2026, we show active voters at 33,938. In 2024, we had 31,542. So we are growing here in Prescott Valley. We have 3,700 inactive voters. What that means is these are voters that were registered in Prescott Valley, but we've sent them, say, a 90-day notice or some sort of election mail, and we've been notified by the post office that they no longer live at that address. When you're inactive, you sit kind of dormant on the rolls for two election cycles. We will not mail them a ballot. We will not mail them any more election mail until they remedy whatever is going on with their voter registration. Out of the 33,000 or almost 34,000 voters, 26,438 get a ballot by mail. So a large amount of Yavapai County, I keep saying Yavapai County, large amount of Prescott Valley actually chooses to vote by mail, 78%. UOCAVA voters, we have 19 registered UOCAVA voters in Prescott Valley, and we have 20 federal-only voters. Federal-only voters mean that somebody that's probably recently moved here has not given us their proof of citizenship. This happens because usually people that move, say, from California are not required to show their proof of citizenship to register to vote. Arizona you are so you show up at my office and say yes I can't wait to vote and we say well sorry we don't have your information yet and they get put on the federal only list until they bring that information in 2024 general election this is where I really wanted to bring up some pretty firm statistics for you Our Prescott Valley in person voters. We had 4090 of them for the general election of 2024 that came here right next door to this building. 37% were not Prescott Valley voters. 37% were our neighboring Yavapai County, Dewey, Spring Valley, Mayor, anybody that maybe is coming up from Black Canyon City, or Chino or anywhere else in this area. So out of the 4,000, over 1,500 were not Prescott Valley voters. During the primary, we only had 405 voters, so it was very quiet. And we thought, OK, this is pretty easy. We were in a smaller area. But when the general came and 4,000, that's what we have to plan for. Everything we do is about trying to predict voter behavior. And you can see that jump just from that four months difference. 400 to 4,000 was a big jump. So everything we do is looking at historical data and making our decisions on how we plan futures, depending on how our voters behave. On Election Day, we had 3,096 Election Day voters at the multiple locations throughout Prescott Valley. And 19,000-plus voters returned their ballots to the Prescott Valley Dropbox and saved over $14,000 in postage just for that one election. Throughout the entire 2024 election cycle, we saved over $100,000 that stayed in Yavapai County instead of putting it towards the USPS by people using a Dropbox. And then it goes back to 2022. We had 335 for the primary and 906 for the general. Considerations. So I'm sure some of you, I assume, are aware with why we are changing location. But I haven't talked to all of you. You're probably seeing things online. So please allow me a minute to elaborate. When I am choosing an early voting location, 16-542 of the EPM or statute says the recorder may choose an early voting location that I deem is necessary. We've always had early voting at my office in Prescott and then also my office in Cottonwood. We are at a point now where our county has grown so much that we are kind of bursting at the seams. In 2022, we came and worked with your wonderful town clerk to work out some sort of an arrangement because Prescott Valley is where the growth is happening now as far as people coming into the area. And you are a solid half an hour closer than anybody coming south of us from having to drive deep into Prescott to choose to vote early. So I'm looking for places that are available for 27 days plus the time it takes me to set up and go away right to take it down so really i'm looking at 30 days so any location has to give me full access to that spot for 30 days but not just once twice and in a presidential year potentially three times when we have a ppe so every time i'm doing this i'm going to prioritize a location that can give me both the primary and general because it's not good practice to move VOTING LOCATIONS IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ELECTION CYCLE. WE WILL ALREADY SEE PEOPLE SHOW UP HERE THAT AREN'T GOING TO GET THE MEMO THAT WE'VE MOVED, SO WE WILL WORK WITH FATIMA TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE PLENTY OF SIGNAGE HERE TO LET VOTERS KNOW WHERE OUR NEW LOCATIONS ARE. Space. We are looking at where can we accommodate the most polling booths possible to be prepared for those large surges of voters. Security. We need to make sure that we have a spot to have our equipment secure and that there's limited access to anybody that's not an election worker. Additional things we look for is clear views, line of sight. We're having to watch what's happening outside of the voting location due to electioneering. ADA parking cost. Are there bathrooms? Is there access to water and utilities? All of that is going into our decision-making. And I highlighted very clearly one thing that does not go into my decision-making is what is potentially going to be on a ballot. Ballot language does not influence the selection of a voting location. Politics should not and will not be considered when I am making these decisions. There was some community suggestions about using the library. We have the crystal room, I believe it's called, upstairs. Can't do that. If anybody's seen what was going on in 2024, we're going to have either lines going up the stairs where you're going to have somebody fall, or we're going to have overuse of the elevator, and if the elevator goes out, what do I do with my ADA people? People had recommended your police training room. Police aren't even really allowed to be within the 75 foot limit because some people feel police are intimidating. Some people are uncomfortable with seeing somebody in uniform. I don't know why, but that's a thing we have to consider. A few people said, well, let's just use the 2024 space. I'm going to get to that in a moment. But one thing that is in the new EPM, the election procedures manual that was signed by the governor in December of 2025, there is a line mitigation plan that is required for us to make efforts to make sure we try to keep voting lines within a half an hour. Anybody that voted in the general at the early voting location right here next door saw that we had over an hour wait, if not longer, because I was here working those lines, doing everything I could to mitigate the chaos that was happening. Schools, a lot of people talk about schools. I personally have seen the ugly side of elections, unfortunately. I'm seeing it right now as I'm standing here. I personally do not prefer to use schools when schools are in session. We've seen a lot of things happen to our kids in schools these days. The schools are a lot more locked down, and I prefer it that way. When you're seeing electioneering and you're seeing people outside arguing and you're seeing police being called because people are not getting along and the ugliness that comes along with politics, I really would prefer that not to be around the kids because, unfortunately, it gets ugly. Okay, so... Going to the past. In 2022, our first time we had a voting location with y'all was on the kind of second floor, or I guess, what is it considered? The third floor? Middle floor? Third floor. Looks like the second floor of the Prescott Valley town location. It didn't work out very well. We had a lot of security concerns because you had people coming in from multiple entrances. People were walking behind people voting their ballots, looking at the PII on the back of our screens. It was disruptive to town... you know, activities. We had a lot of people complaining about the walking up the stairs. They didn't realize that there was a ramp on the other side. So it just, the feedback we got from not only the election workers, but the community, we decided that wasn't a good location. Our second location was actually next door at the Parks and Rec kind of big lobby area. That was our preferred space. It was a larger space that allowed for more polling booths. But we did receive complaints from the voters about the lighting because you have a big open area with all the windows. It allowed for easier line management, but it was disruptive to other town business. And we know there was a lot of scheduled community activities where we were kind of overtaking that area that...

You know you'd see students and other kids and people come into.

The third location was what we were placed into during your renovation it was a very very small room and the amount of voters that we saw ended up being really bad the line was. doubling through the hallway into this room, out the side, all the way down to the parking lot. We were having ADA people that couldn't get inside. We had to literally move people out of the way. We had people asking to sit down because it was getting really hot in the hallways. People outside were freezing because it was just chaos. And there was nowhere for us to put any extra voting booths. We use the analogy of a restaurant. You can only fit so many tables inside. And when you have a two-page ballot, which we expect to see this November again, we're going to actually expect these people to be potentially voting 45 minutes to an hour. We can't kick somebody out of a booth because there's 200 people behind them waiting. You literally have to allow those people that time. so that location we were actually really nervous that we were going to get stuck back in that location and then when we talked to the town clerk in i believe it was january we realized oh no this isn't going to work so let me just clear the air you as the town did not not offer us a space you could off only offer us a space that we don't feel is adequate for the volume of voters that are coming and that are expected so i just want to make that clear because it seems like there might have been some confusion about that as well um so the early voting location is going to be at 3001 north main street we wanted to find something close enough to this location as we could because we know voters are going to show up here and then get told to go to another location We have to look for, again, that parking, the ADA accessibility, the line of sight, the ability to use this location for both the primary and general election. We will be replacing locks to make sure that it's only our people inside of this area. We will have clear visibility on where to vote. And we will have election observers from the political parties there making sure everything is kosher and ready to go. And we will have full access to the site. So I want to address a few things, if you'll please indulge me. Again, potential ballot language does not influence the selection of a voting location. I received quite a few complaints from some members of our community telling me that they're concerned about the conflict of interest at the voting location I selected. One of the big things that they feel I should have known was that the place that offered us a free location, I should have known that they were behind some sort of an ordinance issue that was approved here with the town council. I am responsible for approving the signatures on petitions. When we receive petitions from any municipality, my office is checking those signatures to make sure that the voter is a qualified elector for whatever the petition is. The petitions that we received for the town of Prescott Valley are specific to two referendums. Neither of these referendum languages, which I have on the screen here, mention anything about the location that I'm using. They don't mention anything about the company that generously offered this location when I called out looking for a place. So there's nothing in there that I saw that would have made me consider there is a conflict of interest. I have not seen what the future ballot language is going to be. I assume it's going to be very close to what we see on the screen here and likely will not mention the company in the ballot language. I would hope not. The other thing that people seem to have a concern with was that there are two PACs, or political action committees, registered in that same building, the same as Arizona Dermatology, and it looks like some other places in the same building. Just to be clear, this was actually voted on and approved April 1st, and it looks like from the information that I received from a concerned constituent that these PACs were developed after that location was selected. I have never been involved in a political action committee. I don't see those filings. The only reason I saw this is because somebody from the community sent it to me. But again, this was not based on ballot language, referendums, political action packs, none of that. This was based on the convenience of our voters. Clear as can be. My job here is to make sure everybody gets access to the ballot. It is not to get involved in the politics, whether it's this jurisdiction, countywide, statewide, or whatever it is. So, electioneering is unlawful. We will be strictly enforcing electioneering. So, if anybody is outside talking to voters, talking about candidates or issues, within that 75-foot limit, we will handle it accordingly. The security will be restricted and we signed a lease to take over that facility during those time frames. So nobody will be allowed inside those doors while I have access to that building. Conflict of interest. Again, there is no law that states we cannot have a voting location somewhere where something has to do with language on the ballot. If that was the case with the arguments being made, I think that same case would have been made if I was using your facility because the referendums are specific to zoning approval that you all did. So I can't do that because it's going to be a trickle effect, right? Every time a county issue is on the ballot, I would not be able to use my locations. Every time a jurisdiction has council persons on the ballot, I can't use those locations. It's a trickle down effect. Every time a school is having a bond override, we wouldn't be able to use those locations. So it's something that we don't want to set a precedence that something like this is starting to have an effect because we will not see any voting locations moving forward. And it can really have a negative impact on our voters abilities to cast a ballot. If you are uncomfortable using the optional voting location that we selected, and you would prefer to use a school or a church, There's plenty of them for you to use. The 2026 primary locations are going to be Liberty Traditional, right down the street from here also, the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints on Pronghorn, and Canyon Bible Church. And then in the general election, we will be back at Findlay Toyota. We couldn't get Findlay for the primary because of that date change that the governor signed. So again, we have plenty of options for our voters. And as we saw in the previous slide, 78% of Prescott Valley voters actually vote by mail. So I just wanted to make sure everybody knows we are giving you plenty of options. If you choose not to use one, there are many more available. If you want to vote in person at one of my other locations, you can come to 1015 Fair Street or you can go to 106th Street in Cottonwood. The Fair Street location, as you can see that line, that's about what it looked like right outside this building in 2024. We are growing. This is a temporary solution to a larger problem. At some point in the future, we are hoping to find a consolidated elections building that is in a convenient location in this tri-city area where we can make a mass super center, but specifically somewhere to accommodate everybody in this general region to come and vote at our office where the magic happens. Transparency, if you're uncomfortable with the process, if you have questions about the process, you can come to our office on Fair Street on the second floor and actually see what we do. This is what we're dealing with. It's getting tight. This is a lot of ballots. It's a lot of people in these areas. But you can also watch us at yavapivotes.gov forward slash elections. And future considerations. We ranked 14 out of 15 out of the counties, Yavapai County, 14 out of 15 to the state as far as numbers of full-time staff per registered voter. We don't have any room left to... get more people to help us. We expect to see larger ballots. Longer ballots mean longer lines. Again, we are hopefully going to find a long-term solution with that election space. But in the meantime, what I want everybody to see here is that this is a thankless job. This is not an easy job. This has been the hardest job I've ever done. And I try to plan for everything. This situation, whatever this conflict was that people want to say, was not a part of my plan. It was not something that I had expected, but I will tell you that I will do my job, whatever that is, in whatever way it is, and I will make sure that we have integrity with this election. And that is all.

Any questions?

Thank you, ma'am. Counsel, have you got any questions for Ms. Burchill?

I just want a clarification. The site by the library, the preferred one, did that have the lines that you were talking about or it just said lighting?

The site, you mean the second one that I said was our preferred? Yes, we were told we can't use that area because there's already other planned activities that are scheduled in that area that we didn't want to disrupt.

Then what was offered up to you this time?

The same room, the small room in number three. I misunderstood.

I thought you had the preferred room. No.

Go ahead, sir. Michelle, I just wanted to thank you for your excellent presentation. I know there was probably a lot of work went into that and a lot of effort. And unfortunately, you've been through a lot of angst on this situation. But what I see is that you've made a very good faith effort. And I think that most of the people I've spoken to in the community agree that overall, you're doing a very good job. Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms. Burchell, I just want to thank you for your professionalism, and hopefully there's not a single person in this room who doubts her ability to do the job with the Yamapai elections. I just want to say that you've managed to debunk about 20, I'd say, conspiracy theories that were shooting around social media in about 15 minutes. And if people would have just reached out, had a conversation, civil one maybe schedule a meeting not through threats or anything like that to you and your family which is completely unacceptable i just want to just say thank you on behalf of the town you do an amazing job and i wish you the best i appreciate it thanks guys next up item 9b chamber of commerce appropriation agreement renewal

Good afternoon. For the record, I am Diana Soto, Economic Development Coordinator for the Town of Prescott Valley. What I, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, what I am presenting to you today is information for consideration of the Chamber of Commerce Appropriation Agreement with the Town of Prescott Valley. The purpose of this agreement is to continue the town's partnership with the chamber in support of our visitor center, business engagement and initiatives that contribute to the town's overall economic health and quality of life. The town and the chamber have maintained a longstanding relationship that have served as key community partners since 1990. This agreement formalizes the continuation of that partnership while clearly defining expectations, services, and accountability and measures moving forward. This agreement aligns with the town's strategic plan priorities related to economic development, tourism enhancement, and community prosperity. The partnership supports the goals of encouraging a strong and local economy, supporting business retention and expansion, promoting Prescott Valley as a destination for visitors and future investment, and enhancing the quality of life through community and business engagement. This agreement further supports the town's vision of maintaining a business-friendly environment that contributes long-term economic sustainability. Are we frozen? Frozen? I will continue with the bullet points. Scope of services. Under the proposed agreement, the Chamber will provide services that include business outreach and engagement, community and networking event support, thank you, visitor and relocation information services, contribute to the town's communication initiatives, tourism support and destination branding, and collaboration on business advocacy efforts. Accountability and oversight. This agreement establishes clear deliverables, service expectations, and reporting requirements. Oversight components include defined performance expectations, regular reporting requirements, tracking of services and outcomes, and ongoing coordination between town staff and chamber leadership. These measures are intended to ensure that the partnership continues to deliver measurable value to the community and remains aligned with the Town's strategic objectives. Compensation structure. The proposed agreement is a three-year partnership framework at $125,000 per year. $99,500 is allocated to the visitor center operation. The remaining funds support our many community engagement efforts, such as PV Days, Valley of Lights, Shop Local 365, Restaurant Week, and among many other events that this chamber supports us. In addition, the Town further supports the Chamber during these signature events with traffic control, public safety, and roadside maintenance. The proposed $125,000 agreement does not reflect an increase. In fact, it remains level for the past several consecutive budget cycles. Staff recommendation would be to approve the proposal agreement with the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce. And if you have any questions for me, I'm available to answer them before I introduce Steve Brissetti, CEO and President of the Chamber of Commerce.

Council, we have questions for staff. Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Diana. Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, town council members, and staff. On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and my team who is here tonight, Rochelle Skowarek, who's sitting way in the back. She's our membership service director. And Tiffany Talbot, who puts on all these wonderful events, especially most recently, PB Days. And we're a small team of three people, but we get, we might be small, but we're mighty. And my board of directors are here tonight as well. Mr. Brett Dahl. Mr. Ronnie Jenkins and Ms. Lucy Leyva, we appreciate the longstanding partnership with the town of Prescott Valley in support of our local business. And that's what we're here about tonight, supporting our local business. Some new initiatives we're undertaking this year is taking over the Shop Local program from the town, year-long program to promote local businesses. We're going to be engaging in our business owners by doing what we call business walks, PARTNERING WITH OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND MR. DAVIDSON AS WELL, WE'LL BE DOING SOME CERTAIN TOUCH POINTS OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR BY CHECKING IN, STOPPING IN OUR LOCAL SHOPS AND LOCAL BUSINESSES TO SEE HOW ARE THEY DOING AND WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP THEM. THIS IS A TEAM EFFORT, IT'S A GROUP EFFORT, AND WE'RE PROUD TO HELP AND BE A PART OF IT. AS DIANA ALLUDED TO, THE DOLLAR AMOUNT, I KNOW PEOPLE FIXATE ON THAT, HAS NOT CHANGED IN SEVERAL BUSINESS CYCLES. And I've got to be honest with you, it does get more expensive each year to maintain these events, especially the lights on Valley of Lights. LED lighting is not cheap. It's pretty expensive. But we're committed to putting on a good show, putting on good events for our neighbors and our partners. And one other thing we're also undertaking this year is we're going to expand our hours in the visitor center. We're going to include weekend hours from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Having spent the past 20 years in this marketplace and the tourism destination, I know for a fact that that is a high-demand time period to touch and connect with business travelers in general coming out from the Phoenix marketplace to beat the heat. Because why would you not want to be in Prescott Valley in the summertime, right? So we'll be expanding those hours to include weekends to better serve our future and potential customers. Any questions I can answer at this point in time?

We have questions or comments for the Chamber. Thank you. I just want to say, Diana, that I see working with the Chamber, you look at other communities throughout Arizona, a lot of them operate in a silo where you'll have Chamber of Commerce doing something by themselves, not interacting much with the town. You have the schools working by themselves. Here in Prescott Valley, we take that team effort. We're all working to try to benefit each other. Mr. Dahl, I'm sure you'll agree with that. At the Town, we're trying to do good things. We're working with the businesses. I see Leon shaking his head, saying that this is something that we do as a community to make things better for everybody. And I think as we work as a team is the best way of doing it and bringing the Chamber on as a team member and not just as a silo place that we give 125 grand to and just hope they do a good job.

They work together with our staff and good things happen.

Thank you very much for that. The Chamber has been an excellent partner. And while we have created some new initiatives in economic development over the past couple of years, the Chamber is willing to take those on. So it gives us a bandwidth to come up with more creative initiatives and continue to give that value, that quality of life that we're known for, right? That's what it's all about.

Thank you, ma'am. With no other questions, I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve renewal of the Chamber of Commerce Appropriation Agreement in the amount of $125,000 per year for fiscal years 2026, 27, 2027, and through 28, and 28 through 29 by electronic vote. I'll second. Please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next up, development impact fee update. Mr. Judy, welcome. Mayor and council, I know you just approved the chamber contract. Is this a good time to bring up my idea for the Valley of Frights Halloween display? I keep plugging that. One of these years, we'll do it. We're here tonight to talk about development impact fees. The town assesses development impact fees, or what we sometimes refer to as DIFs, on all new residential, multifamily, commercial, industrial uses. And these fees are intended to ensure that development pays their proportionate share of infrastructure costs for adding capacity but maintaining our existing levels of service in the town. So we assess fees in four different categories, including police, streets, parks, and the library. The library fee will actually be going away at some point. We assessed that back when this building was initially constructed to pay for most of the costs. But once that debt service has been completed and any general fund advances are repaid, then that fee will actually go away. So some examples of how impact fee funds have been used in the past. On the park side, we actually constructed Wild Medwards Park using development impact fees. pickleball courts and the lighting at antelope park were constructed using impact fees on the street side we constructed the free free flow rights on glassford and 89a as well as brown ranch parkway and antelope meadows the improvements the sunset drive which we enjoy we used impact fee funds for that project and we are partially using some funds for the existing glassford hill road expansion project The police station expansion, the last time that we expanded the police station, we are using impact fee funds to pay for the debt service on that facility. So statute requires that we update the fees every five years. We last updated them in 2022. So we're a little bit ahead of that five-year deadline. There's a couple of reasons why we're doing that. One, we received a $9.9 million funding allocation from the states to widen Glassford Hill Road. We weren't anticipating that the last time we completed the study. Also, the infrastructure agreement we approved for the Viewpoint subdivision, we agreed to update our fees this year to help offset the cost for the widening of Viewpoint Drive. Historically, we have presented, there's actually three documents that you'll be considering over the coming months. There's lots of acronyms here. One is called the Land Use Assumptions. We call that the LUA. The other is the Infrastructure Improvement Plan, or the IIP, and then the actual report itself. Historically, we have done the LUA and the IIP separate, and then released the Impact Fee Fund report later. People are always curious how adoption of one report impacts the ultimate fee schedule. The state law actually requires that we contract with a third-party consultant to conduct the study for us. So we've contracted with Raftelis to do that for us. With that, I'd like to introduce Todd Cristiano from Raftelis to walk us through what he has been doing over the past several months. Council is not being asked to take any action tonight. This is just an introduction to the reports as well as the future timeline.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. My name is Todd Cristiano with Raftelis. And tonight's presentation is a review of the work that we've been going over with Ryan and staff regarding the development impact fees. He's covered quite a bit of the presentation for me already, so that's a good thing. Quick agenda. We'll just go over the legislative thing portion a bit, talk about the methodologies we used, and we'll dive into more of the details of the different fees for police, streets, and parks and trails. We have a fee comparison at the end, too, for both residential and a couple of example commercial and industrial entities. As Ryan mentioned, there is an Arizona revised statute that sets forth the requirements for developing development impact fees. It doesn't necessarily tell you exactly how to calculate, but there are some guardrails in which we need to work under, and we've done that. Here's a couple of examples of bullets here. This is not the exhaustive list that's in the statute, but just to give you an idea that we need to make sure that growth is paying their proportionate share of new development. Like Ryan mentioned, we have a couple of documents. We have the land use assumptions, or LUA. It contains a number of things that we need to set forth that are assumptions based on developing the impact fee. We have our infrastructure improvement plans. which talks about the existing conditions, the deficiencies, and the future capital required, and just provides all that information so that it goes into the development impact fee. And finally, the DIF or development impact fee report is simply all the calculations and takes all those assumptions and things and shows how we've calculated it and parses it out between the residential and the non-residential development types. We're going to be before you a number of times over the course of this process. There's a number of steps here and a lot of touch points with council. One of the statutory requirements is that this process can take no less than 225 days. We are calculating it out about 260 just based on the planning of council minutes and meetings and when we have to have the documents ready to go. We'll be definitely coming back to you with this information again. So be time to talk and ask questions about our fees and getting to more of the details. So a few changes from the last study, and I'll tell you that our last study we did in 2022, a lot of the assumptions are really based on growth and growth was a lot higher, projected to be a lot higher, around two percent. In this next go around, the population projection has projected to go down to about one point one five percent. And that's based on information we use from the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. They provided that information for us. And so as a result of the reduction in growth or population and with inflation in construction prices and infrastructure costs have gone up, We're going to see some increases to the fees. Just kind of a spoiler alert, there are increases to the fees across the board, and it is a function of that. There are some other nuanced things with streets that I'll get into in just a moment, but you can see here that we're going to be adding about 6,500 portions of population over the next 10 years, and I have some comparisons to what we did in 2022, if I can find it here. um i think i have it here um population let's see uh actually i don't have that number but This is much lower than it was in the last 10-year projection we had. We're projecting to add 3,000 housing units and about 1,300 jobs. The jobs and square footage are linked together. We use that to help develop the fees for the non-residential development commercial because there was a relationship between square footage and number of jobs. Those are our projections over the next 10 years. I would say that they were almost double in many areas there during the 2022 study. Let's talk about streets. And we're looking at a number of projects that are going forward over the next 10 years. And Ryan can provide some details if there's some questions regarding some specific projects there. Some assumptions here. We're looking at just a growth-related portion of projects over the next 10 years. Your current infrastructure, that is part of the equation. We have about 60.5 lane miles of arterials. Those are the major streets, not the small neighborhood collector streets, just those main arterials there. Right now, a key assumption and indicator for our calculations is 2.8 lane miles per 10,000 vehicle miles traveled, and that's just a level of service that we have to maintain. We cannot develop fees that increase the level of service across any of those fees. If you want to increase the level of service from where it is today, you need to have other funds to do that, be it grants, property tax, revenue, sales tax, whatever the case may be. And again, we're only looking at the city portion of the town portion of growth-related arterials, not looking at anything going outside the town's boundaries. Here are some of the projects that we're looking at. A total of the growth-funded cost in that red box is $14.9 million worth of growth-related portion of those projects. So those projects do include some repair and replacement, upkeep, but there is a growth portion to it or oversizing, if you will, on a number of those projects. And we're adding about 10 additional lane miles there. Okay, so here's the fee schedule, proposed and current fee schedule for streets. If you look over at the fourth column, you can see the change there. So residential is projected to go up to $2,124, and you can see the increases there for the others. Now, non-residential is based on a per square footage basis, so it doesn't really tell you how much somebody's fee is going to go up here. It just tells you the increase in the unit cost. The one thing I want to stress here is, though, that this is the maximum supportable fee. So council has the option to adopt nothing, to retain the same fee or adopt a portion. So it just gives you a range of options when coming down to the adoption of these final fees. So I just wanted to point that out. police. And again, we're in a similar situation. There's an increase there. We're looking at the growth share. Our service demand allocation, this question comes up quite a bit when we're doing fees, like, well, how do you split things out between residential and non-residential? We look at a functional population, and that simply looks at, it's a demand allocation factor that we can use to assess what kind of demand is the residents going to place on these facilities or Police requirements versus non residential and it looks at the population within the city and population community outside the city. Visitors coming in the number of jobs number of people working and a lot of those things that kind of all goes into the into the pot in terms of helping us determine how we're going to allocate those costs for the police facilities between residential and non residential. We have a current inventory of 100 vehicles and the average cost is $97,000. That's kind of a level service item there. And we also were looking at the inventory of police headquarters. So really buildings and vehicles are the two components that make up the police fee and the average cost per square foot is approximately $302 per square foot. When we look at our infrastructure improvement plan, we can show that our net growth cost is about $2.5 million over the 10-year period. And in order for us to get to that, we have these fees here. Again, on the last column there, we see about a $270 increase in residential and about $255 for multifamily, and then about a zero change for industrial and some increases for office and retail fees. restaurants so a similar story to streets it's just increase in cost a decrease in the population growth are attributing to that Parks and Trails, I feel like I'm repeating this. We're looking at the number of facilities that are going to be serving over the next 10 years. Again, the functional population here is a little bit different because obviously a lot of non-residential development doesn't really use the parks as much as a residential or population does. But there is that activity by non-residential entities that might use the park for some reason or another. You think about a daycare, they might take the kids over to the park. There might be a a garage show or i'm sorry car show or something that's going on sponsored by a company that sort of thing so there is there is a little bit of a functional allocation or cost allocation to the non-residential portion for parks We have about 181 acres, and the average cost per acre we were estimating at $287,000. Level of service here, we have about 85,737 linear feet of improvements, and the average cost per linear foot is about $80 per linear foot. And those numbers come from working with Ryan and just estimating based on what we've done last time and scaling that and looking at what the construction cost index have been and to develop those current prices for the development of the fees. There was one methodology change that we, from the 2022 study, we did update the cost per linear foot to $80 per linear foot from a lower number, which is $53 prior. The $80 per linear foot is based on a specific project cost, same level of service, so we used that value instead. That helped drive the one of the charges on or part of the fee up for parks and rec. Whoops and when we did that, I think that better reflects the unit cost because we had some actual costs that we're able to use based on some documents from the town. So here are these various projects we have over the next 10 years for both parks and trails. You can see it's about $287,000 cost per acre and cost per linear foot about $79.80 roughly per square foot based on these projects here. Again, here's our table versus the maximum supportable versus the current fee and again increases across the board for each one of these development fee areas. So we'll get a comparison here of or a total of the each fee area here for parks and trails police streets that have library and even though that will be going away. We total that up and that column is for single families 93 9343 dollars compared to the current fee which does also include library of 6133 dollars a change of about 3200 dollars. and so on and so forth with the the rest of the fees for residential and the non-residential categories let's look at a fee comparison um obviously with the changes we're seeing with these initial changes we're seeing the calculations we're going to see a change in where prescott valley fits within the community for similar development right now the current fee for prescott for all the components here we're kind of in the middle the proposed takes us Far to the right there. But I want to caution you that this is one data point. Many of these other communities might be in the process of updating their fees. These might have different infrastructure. Plus, when we look at these fees too, this is the non-utility fees. It doesn't include the water and wastewater impact fees, which could be significantly different between town and other areas as well. So that could change the positioning of where Prescott would fall in the whole continuum of these different communities. And this is for a residential three bedroom, 2,000 square foot dwelling, which is We considered the average for a comparison here. A couple of non-residential examples here. A hotel room, 112 rooms, 65,500 square feet. We're more in the middle there as compared to the residential. Again, we still have the water and sewer impact fees or development impact fees to consider when putting that whole piece together there. Grocery store 20,000 square feet. Again, kind of in a similar area there as well. You see the magnitude of the difference in change there. So next steps. There's another public hearing August 13th and will be getting some feedback. I think from development and those who are reviewing the report that's now currently published. And again, there's some other meetings touch points with Council here on the 24th again on October 8th and November 11th. So a lot of time for feedback, comments and for us to go back and look at some additional information if needed during this process. We're hoping for implementation in January 26, 2027. So that completes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, sir. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, sir, we'll welcome you back. Excellent.

Thank you very much.

Ms. Bliss, do you want to, I'm sorry, Selena, can you hold on one moment? We're going to do something a little, kind of flip it a little bit. We'll just jump to 9F, get this off the charts so you guys can leave. So let's do recommendation of a Series 12 restaurant liquor license for salt and pepper.

Mayor and members of council, the liquor license application submitted by Salt and Pepper Cafe is for a new Series 12 restaurant liquor license for the business located at 2970 Park Avenue. All public notice requirements have been completed in accordance with state law. Notice of the application was properly posted at the business location and no written objections were received. Therefore, staff recommends that the town council forward a recommendation of approval for this application.

Thank you, ma'am. This is a public hearing, which I'll open up now. Is there anyone out in the audience that wishes to speak about this item directly? Up to you, sir. Yes, I see the applicant is here, so I'll welcome him up. If you want to say a few words, Leon, introduce who you have here, then I'll close the public hearing.

Good evening, Mayor and council members. We just wanted to come by, say hello. Salt and Pepper wanted to say hello to everybody. I also wanted to say, to piggyback on what the mayor said, the way you guys conduct yourself with the chamber or small business in the community, We have other businesses in other municipalities. Nothing reflects like this. So it's a pleasure to do business here. We're excited to come down to PV. We feel like we fit in here. It's like where we're supposed to be. So thank you. And we're glad that you chose Prescott Valley. I got tired of driving into Prescott to visit Salt-N-Pepa.

And I will say, I got interviewed by Pepper at Fry's one day, and she asked me if I was a waffle guy or a pancake guy. And I took a lot of heat for being a pancake guy. I want you to know that a lot of people reached out and it wasn't apparently a popular choice. So I'm sticking by it. The lemon pancakes over at Salt and Pepper are top notch.

Thank you.

I'll close the public hearing. Council, do you have any questions or comments about liquor license?

I also want to say thank you for choosing Prescott Valley. I'm looking forward to having a meal there.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, I make a motion to recommend approval of the Series 12 liquor license on behalf of Salt and Pepper, located at 2970 Park Avenue, Prescott Valley, to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control.

I second.

Now, clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Now, Ms. Morris, you're up. 9D, resolution number 20262448, tentative town budget adoption.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council. Just to set the stage, we do have two items on the agenda this afternoon related to the budget. First, the approval, a request for approval of the tentative budget, which would set the maximum limit for the fiscal year 27 budget. What you have before you in the packet are the official forms, and they show that the proposed budget is $222.5 million. If you compare that to last year, 221.5 million, we do have a slight increase. One thing I want to mention about the budget is that we are structurally balanced. Ongoing revenues do exceed ongoing expenses. And we also show our total resources, which is revenues plus savings of 279 million compared to the $222 million proposed budget. That does also include the first year of the capital improvement program, which is the second item that we'll bring for you tonight as well. We're asking for an approval of a 10-year plan, the first year being included in the budget, which totals about $74 million. Just a reminder that the capital improvement plan is how we prioritize critical infrastructure and plan for long-term planning. With that, we don't have a lot of major changes from our study session or our individual briefings, but we have prepared two short presentations if the Council would like to go over those.

If you, Council, see the presentations? Yes, ma'am, go for it.

Okay, thank you. The first one is the proposed fiscal year 27 tentative budget. With all budget conversations, we always wanna focus on our duty to our residents and our citizens, which is to deliver exceptional service to enhance our quality of life. Again, as I mentioned previously, we are structurally balanced. The state law does require us to balance the budget where total resources exceed total expenses. We go above and beyond that and make sure that we're structurally balanced so that ongoing revenues support ongoing expenses. Our theme this year was to make sure that we use what we have wisely, so we weren't looking to have increased revenues. We held our revenue estimations flat, and we also held our expenditures flat, except for some of those items which were related to safety or risk. Some of the items that we do have tentatively approved in the tentative budget include some changes to personnel. These are driven again by either compliance, safety, or other crucial items. Many of these are paid for by either a reallocation of dollars or by special revenues or enterprise funds. This is how we graphically show Schedule A, which was one of the required forms from the state. And so what we show here is that our general resources exceed our general expenditures. And then you can see this same with special revenues, capital projects, enterprise funds. And then this year we have a new internal service fund, which is related to our self-insured program. This graphically shows you revenues versus expenses, so this doesn't have that strategic use of savings, but it does show that we continue to focus on our savings account for strategic items. This is a representation of Schedule D. And so what the state requires us to do is show you how we're transferring funds between the different type of funds. So you can see that the general fund does have transfers in of $5 million, but transfers out of nine. Those are strategic items. One of them related to establishing a replacement fund for things like parks and amenities, computers, network environments. type stuff, which is about five million, and then also three million to fund the claims reserved for our self-insurance plan. And then you can see the other items there. This is our general fund revenue picture. What you can see is that the general fund remains pretty stable with local taxes and intergovernmental revenues representing the largest piece, or 91%. This shows you our expenses by department. One thing that I do want to point out is that the scale is different from each side, so we have the smaller departments versus the larger departments. And again, the departments were focused on saying within their current fiscal year 26 expenditure allocation, and that's what you see here. This is our full-time and FTE equivalent. So it shows you that a large portion, 85% of our personnel costs are driven by the general fund. And then it shows you our equivalent count. So about again, 85% coming from the general fund. This again is just to remind you that we are fiscally conservative and community minded. And so this graph shows you that in all of our forecasted years in this five year timeline shows that our revenues do exceed our expenditures for ongoing revenues and ongoing expenses. This is the fund balance. So in the years that we have more revenues than expenses, we have what we call a surplus or what you can think of as your savings account. So from 2017 to what we forecast through 2026, you can see that we've grown that over time. We do plan to end fiscal year 26 with a large surplus due to increased revenues and then conservative expenditures. And so we forecast that somewhere between $7 and $8 million. As we talked at the budget retreat and the budget study session, we do plan to use that for ongoing costs for the following year rather than depend on ongoing revenues. It's a more conservative approach. So it shows that uptick, but then we are using that for those strategic items that we looked at, and then you can see that it levels out. And here are our next steps. So we do have two public hearings and then the final budget request adoption. And with that, this is the tentative budget.

Thank you, ma'am. Council, we have any additional steps or any additional questions for staff?

I followed up with Gilbert today because I had a couple of questions. Like the Perjana project, we're going to be removing that from the budget since we're not moving forward with that project. So that's a $704,000 that will be removed. Yes. That's correct. I also inquired about the Oh, the Humane Society. There was something in the budget about creating our very own for a little over two million, and that's not going to be in the budget.

That's correct. They are my spare council member, Akil. That was actually removed from the original request. So we do have a presentation on the capital improvement, but in order not to give you a full book, that still does include some of those projects that were denied. And so the Animal Control Center or the Humane Society at 2.3 was removed.

Okay. And my thought was I also see a lot of money going to the Glassford Hill development and engineering to construct the Glassford Dells Park per the plan that was submitted to include like the trails, parks, farmer's market, ropes course, disc golf. And I was thinking that maybe we could reallocate that money towards a general plan update. I don't know that everybody's on board with doing the Glassford Hill project, and it hasn't gone to a vote of the council. So I just thought maybe we could... You know, rather than moving forward with the engineering and construction funding for Glassford Hill at this time, I would support reallocating those funds toward updating the general plan and beginning the process of identifying community members to assist with that effort. The Wildlife Foundation guide that we recently reviewed recommends updating the general plan, and doing so would complement the ongoing Parks and Recreation Master Plan, as well as the Fane Park and Historical Preservation Plan. I don't know if anybody is willing to put that into the budget for our next discussion.

Mister mayor council members comes over kill if I could just clarify. The only thing being recommended and this budget for glass for dells is trail development so building trails which was one of the top parties indicated by residents through the various surveys and then it's doing some engineering work on what's called the Southgate parking lot which is over by Home Depot. So those are the only 2 items that are included in next year's budget.

then maybe we could update that because it says these amenities hold strong potential to bring in new tourism opportunities through the construction of trails, park amenities, farmer's market, ropes course, disc golf course, and connected open space. And it's at a cost of 1.29 million.

So that's the description for the overall project, but what is being put before the council is only trail development, which is roughly a hundred some thousand dollars. And then there's an engineering piece, which is another 125,000, I believe, 150,000.

I see 250 for 2027 and 122 for 2028.

You're looking at the total capital, the outlying years for that. So that again would have to be approved or reviewed by council at each fiscal year.

Again, I think that we ought to be doing an update on our general plan. It is outdated and it was kind of rushed through the last time.

Thank you. This evening, as we discuss the upcoming town budget, which is approaching a quarter billion dollars, although our finance department has done an excellent job of projecting income revenue streams, balancing the books, and leaving us with reserve money, we don't have any formal process of oversight by the council. What I mean by this is that we look carefully at the money coming in and going out, but we don't look effectively and efficiently at how the taxpayers' money is being spent, what we're getting for our money. For a few examples, are we getting our money's worth from all these expensive consultants that we frequently hire? Why are our town employees driving around in costly gas-guzzling Ford F-150s, mostly empty, when hybrid Ford Mavericks are available, which get approximately 30% to 40% better fuel economy and cost tens of thousands of dollars less per unit? Why is our police department using gas guzzling Tahoes and Explorers when official Pursuit rated hybrid Ford Explorers that have been tested and certified for Pursuit are available, which get roughly 30 to 40% better fuel economy at a time of $5 per gallon gasoline? Are we getting worthwhile results from our stormwater initiative that has increased everyone's water bills? Why are our ball field stadium lights on when nobody is using them, including even during a snowstorm? These are just a few areas, and my intention is to illustrate governmental ways not to pick on certain departments. This is in no way an attack on the folks who prepare our budget, they are doing a great job. No, this is meant as a wake up call to the town council that we are not doing our fiduciary duty to the town's people and the taxpayers if we don't carefully scrutinize the return on investment that we make on every major item. We can and must do better. As part of the solution, I am offering my services as an automotive expert and consultus gratis to the townspeople. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? I'd like to also remind council that our job is we set policy. We trust in our town management and the department heads to go about every daily day activities. We also have a program here at the town called OpenGov where any resident can go online. You can click on it and you can see how much we're spending on copy paper if you want. And I'd also, I want to say that we've also added what $8 million if we continue to our surplus, meaning that we are going to have $8 million more in our rainy day fund than the year before. That seems like a pretty good job of doing books. So I appreciate your work, ma'am. I'll entertain a motion to approve the budget as is. If it doesn't go, then we can revisit it.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign resolution number 2026-2448, approving the tentative budget fiscal year 26-27 and giving notice of public hearing June 25th, 2026. I'll second.

Mayor, that passes 5-2. Thank you, ma'am.

Next up, 9E, Capital Improvement Plan. Do we have anything to add for this, ma'am?

We do have a short presentation, but it just really summarizes the amount of the 10 year plan, which is about $481 million. Again, with the first year included in the capital plan of $74 million. I do wanna mention that annually we look at the plan. And so these items might be in the plan, but every year it's up to council's discretion on making those changes. The reason that we do the 10-year capital plan, again, is to prioritize those critical infrastructure and then asset preservation for our current investments, and then to align those projects with our financial capacity. So this allows us to take that longer strategic look at how we're managing the town for our resident services. These slides you probably are very familiar with and how that's funded. So we have a number of different items that we use to fund the projects related to the last presentation on the development impact fees that should be ready around January. And so for the next budget season, you'll see some reallocation of funding sources based on what's approved in that plan. Again, this shows you that 10-year plan. So it shows you five years plus the out years together. And then the next one shows you our current funding. There is a lot of provisional funding for seeking grants or grants, loans, forgivable loans, that type of thing. And then again, what's included in the first year budget is year one.

Anything different than we were presented at study session two weeks ago?

No, we did move some of the phasing around, but the same projects, but we pushed a couple things out.

Thank you. Any questions or comments for Ms. Morris? Ms. Morris, I do want to say before we call the vote, this will be your last budget with us. You're moving on, and I just want to say that it has been a pleasure working with you. You are a true budget person. machine, I would say and you do a great job. And the town was better for you being here. So I wish you all the luck in the future.

Thank you so much. I have enjoyed supporting an amazing community will still see me here and I appreciate the guidance and support and and still hope to support the community any way I can.

Thank you. That being said, I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the fiscal year 2027 through 2036 capital improvement program and accompanying capital improvement financial plan as long as a long-range planning document to guide future capital investment and infrastructure planning efforts subject to annual budget appropriation and future council approval by electronic vote.

I'll second. Clerk, please go ahead.

Mayor, that passes 6-2-1.

Thank you, ma'am. Anything else for the good of the order? Seeing none, I'm going to adjourn. We're going to give it about a five-minute break, and we'll start back up with the ever-exciting CFD budget.