Town Council - Regular Meeting

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REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING JUNE 25, 2026.

Council Member Lopez. Present. Council Member Keel. Here. Council Member Freund. Council Member Greer. Here. Council Member Schumacher. Present. Vice Mayor Zurcher.

Here.

Mayor Paul Gouda.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you, ma'am. At this time, I'd like to welcome down Elder Stephen Adams from the Firm Foundation Bible Church for our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand if you can.

Thank you. Let us pray. Our God and Heavenly Father, we give you thanks this evening for your goodness and grace to us in all things. For as your word tells us, every good and perfect thing comes down to us from your benevolent hand. And Lord, I thank you for those here tonight that serve our community. Thank you for their willingness to serve. And please bless these proceedings with purpose in a spirit of peace. We ask for your presence and for wisdom as decisions are made for this, our home, for our Prescott Valley. Your will be done, for it is in Christ's name we ask it. 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. Thank you. Next up, can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Have a second?

I'll second.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, proclamation, Parks and Rec Month.

Park and Recreation Month, July 2026. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of communities throughout this country, Whereas parks and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks. And whereas parks and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illnesses such as depression, attention deficit disorders, and Alzheimer's. And whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles. And whereas parks and recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction. And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for Children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the U. S House of Representatives has designated July as Park and Recreation Month. And whereas the town of Press Prescott Valley recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Now, therefore, I kill Palguda, Mayor of the town of Prescott Valley, Arizona, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Park and Recreation Month in Prescott Valley and encourage our citizens to enjoy the natural beauty and activities available in the community. Thank you. Park and Recreation Professionals Day, July 17, 2026. Whereas the Town of Prescott Valley recognizes that the parks and recreation field is a diverse and comprehensive system that improves personal, social, environmental, and economic health. And whereas the Town of Prescott Valley recognizes the importance and benefits of park and recreation services that enrich the lives of its citizens and helps make this community a desirable place to live, work, and visit. And whereas the town of Prescott Valley supports the skilled work of park and recreation professionals to strengthen community cohesion and resiliency and connect people with nature and each other and provide and promote opportunities for healthful living, social equity and environmental sustainability. And whereas the town of Prescott Valley values the essential services that park and recreation professionals and volunteers perform to provide recreational and development enrichment for our children, youth, adults and older adults. And to ensure our parks and recreational spaces are clean, safe, inclusive, welcoming and ready to use. NOW, THEREFORE, I, KELPAL GUDA, MAYOR OF THE TOWN OF PRESCOTT VALLEY, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM JULY 17TH, 2026 AS PARK AND RECREATION PROFESSIONALS DAY IN THE TOWN OF PRESCOTT VALLEY.

NEW SPEAKER P. WITH JULY BEING PARK AND RECREATION PROFESSIONALS MONTH OR PARK AND RECREATION MONTH AND HAVING PARK AND RECREATION PROFESSIONALS DAY IN THE SAME MONTH, Parks are connection hubs for our community, for everyone, to be able to recreate and enjoy. With that, it wouldn't be possible without the dedicated, hardworking professionals that you see before you. With that, I want to thank them for each and everything that you do day in and day out. Thank you for keeping our parks safe. Thank you for helping us to have fun. And I hope everyone in the crowd and in the town gets out and recreates. Join us, 4th of July, Red, White, and Boom, next Saturday. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, call the public. At this time, members of the public may comment on matters listed on the agenda or solely on matters within the jurisdiction of the town. Any persons wishing to address the council must register their name with the town clerk prior to the commencement of the meeting. At the conclusion of call the public, the council may respond to criticism, ask staff to review a matter commented upon, or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. Such remarks shall be limited to three minutes unless additional time is granted by the mayor. Clerk.

We have seven registered. The first four names, Walt Hutton, Maria Ginter, Carolyn Zurn, and Randy Vosburgh.

Will those four names please work their way down to the front? Go ahead, ma'am.

Evening Mayor, Council, Randy Bosberg, longtime PV resident. I'm here because I oppose spending $146,000 of taxpayer money to repair or enhance the lighting on the arch structure. Many residents, myself included, did not want in the first place. Let's remember how this started. The arch was funded with COVID relief dollars. These funds were meant to help people recover, families, small businesses, essential services. And not to build a decorative sign using recovery money for a vanity project was already misuse of public trust. Now the town wants residents to pay again because the company that built it went out of business. That is not financial stewardship. We have real needs in this community, infrastructure, water security, road maintenance, public safety. These are core responsibilities. These are the things residents should expect their tax dollars to support. Fixing a sign that never should have been funded the way it was is not a priority. This is not defensible. When a project is a mistake, the answer is not to double down and spend more. The answer is to correct course. You have a duty to be responsible stewards of public money. That means respecting the intent of federal relief funds, prioritizing essential services, and showing residents that you understand the difference between a want and a need. The 146,000 line item in the budget is not a need. It does not improve safety. It does not improve services. It does not address any real problem facing the people who live here. Do the right thing and remove the funding from the 2026-2027 town budget. Thank you.

Clerk, were they the two names we have lined up?

Carolyn Zurn and Maria Ginter.

All right. I see Carolyn. Right there. You're fine, ma'am. You can wait. Ms. Ginter, go ahead.

Can you hear me?

You can just pull it down. There you go.

How's this? Okay. I hate this. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of town council. My name is Maria Ginter, and I'm a resident of Prescott Valley. Public speaking isn't something I am comfortable with, but I felt this was important enough to be here tonight. I'd like to address campaign contributions to council member Kalpal Guta's campaign by individuals and businesses with significant interest in development and real estate. Forgive me if I pronounce some of these names wrong. Jason Gisi, G-I-S-I, CEO of Arizona Eco Development, a company that owns thousands of acres and is developing thousands of homes in Yavapai County, contribution $1,000. Nancy Ebarb of Glow Realty, contribution $3,500. Mark Worth, local developer and real estate investor, contribution $3,000. David Grounds, president and CEO of Dorn, D-O-R-N, Homes, Northern Arizona's largest home builder and the company constructing viewpoint expansion, contribution $3,000. Dwayne Hun, H-U-N-N, President and CEO of Hunt Development Company, contributions $6,750. These are all legal campaign contributions, and I am not suggesting otherwise. I simply believe the citizens of Prescott Valley deserve to know who is financially supporting our elected officials and to consider whether those donors may have interest in future development decisions that come before this council. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, ma'am. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the Town Council. My name is Carolyn Zurn, and I'm a Prescott Valley resident. Glassford Hill is one of Prescott Valley's most recognizable natural landmarks. For many of us, it represents the open space, wildlife, scenic beauty, and quality of life that brought us here in the first place. As Prescott Valley continues to grow, I ask this council to make protecting Glassford Hill a priority. Once open space is developed, it cannot be replaced. Any proposals affecting this area deserve careful consideration of their long-term impacts on traffic, water resources, wildlife habitat, public safety, and the character of our community. Residents should have meaningful opportunities to participate before major decisions are made. Economic growth is important, but it should be balanced with preserving the natural resources and landscapes that make Prescott Valley so unique. I encourage the council to protect Glassford Hill for future generations and to ensure that any decisions involving this area are made transparently and with the community's long-term interests in mind. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Robert Johannesson, Ellen Hoytis, Joe Colosimo, and last call for Walt Hutton.

Welcome, sir.

Good evening to the mayor, vice mayor, council members and staff and guests. My name is Robert Johansen. I've lived in Granville since early 2018. I previously lived part-time in Chino Valley from 2004 to 2010. The reason for my attendance here today is to talk about the water situation. When I lived in Chino Valley, I was on a well, a good well, and At that time, the city of Prescott and the town of Prescott Valley were in the process of buying the water ranches up in Paulding. And I guess the idea was to build a pipeline and you get the water rates from those water ranches and pipe the water down to Prescott Valley. When I left the area in 2010, I expected that these pipeline, the pipeline was going to be built. When I returned in late 2017 to look for property, I was kind of surprised when I got to Prescott Valley and I saw a whole bunch of additional development, but there was no pipeline. The reason why I moved back to Prescott Valley instead of Chino Valley, I was concerned about the water situation back then. And although I understand that the council and the mayor has recently begun to investigate options to conserve water and recycle it, et cetera. It seems like it's been a little too little too late. There's been quite a bit of development that's been approved to date that has not been built. It's something like, I think, 10,000 units of housing. And our water is already strained. And I'm concerned that this is gonna push us past our limits. This is a finite resource. We don't have surface water to help us. There's really no simple solutions to increase the water supply. And I guess the cost of the pipeline is now something like $300 million, and apparently, from what I've read, is not economically feasible. So what I would ask would be for the council be very cautious in approving any new development considering our water situation. Also, I have a hard time understanding how all the 10,000 units that have been approved but not built, if there's a time limit on when these people or the developers need to have developed the property in order for us to understand where our water situation is. So thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Welcome, ma'am.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Council. My name is Ellen Hoytis. I live in Viewpoint. There are multiple audio recordings in which you, Mayor Palguta, criticize and even laugh at senior citizens. In one recording, you say that people who come to speak during public comments are just looking for three minutes of fame. Well, I'm not here for three minutes of fame. Early in the Prescott mayoral campaign, there were repeated claims that Lawrence Nigel, at 80, was too old to serve as mayor. He is 78. Councilwoman Greer, you are over 80 years old. How does it feel to serve alongside someone who suggests... Ma'am, I'm going to have to stop you on this.

Ma'am, I'm going to have to stop you. We can't have a... This isn't political right now. This is just all about...

This isn't political.

We're not going to have you address council members and talk about an upcoming election. So if you have other things you'd like to talk about.

I haven't mentioned anything about the election.

You did, ma'am. So what we're asking for is just, if you have anything else you want to speak about, like water.

Okay, so I just wanted to know how she feels knowing that age alone makes a person ineffective.

Ma'am, we can't have that conversation back and forth. You know that.

Joe Colasimo no longer wishes to speak.

So are we all done, ma'am?

Yes.

Thank you. Moving on, Council Communications, I'll start on my right. Councilwoman?

Yeah, I just want to remind everybody this Saturday at 9 a.m. is the Freedom Rock Cutting, the celebration for the Freedom Rock here at the Civic Center, and I hope to see you out there.

Councilman?

Yes, under current events, with July 4th rapidly approaching, we must give thanks to the freedoms we have and protect our First Amendment rights. As some of you know, there is a Facebook page titled Mayor Kel Palguta, which is a quasi-official looking page. Councilman.

Councilman, this is not what we're doing.

This is not what we're doing. Sorry, guys. This is a current event, Mr. Mayor.

No, we're not doing this. I'm sorry, sir.

This is a current event.

Mr. Leggo, are you going to weigh in on this? We're not using this opportunity to attack political opponents. Good try.

Mr. Mayor and Council, as we know, the state law requires us to only do the things that are allowed by statute for our agendas. In this circumstance, council members are given an opportunity to talk about current events and that they've attended or that they encourage the public to attend, we would not be able to talk about anything else during this period.

Anything else, sir? I couldn't hear the last few words. Would you just let the last sentence?

That we wouldn't be able to talk about anything else on this part of the agenda.

Really?

Sorry for wanting to follow the law, folks. Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Mayor. In case you haven't heard, hockey is going to be coming back to Prescott Valley. I just wanted to say a big shout out to Justin Reynolds and the ownership group for investing in Prescott Valley. I also want to do a shout out to staff, primarily Ryan, Judy, Gilbert Davidson and Selena Morris for all your assistance in getting this deal through. Just looking, you know, it's a very exciting opportunity for our town and looking forward to it. On a Saturday, I do want to acknowledge the passing of long-time planning and zoning commissioner, Arda Rutherford. Arda passed away on May 30th and just found out about this. I had the honor to serve with her for about almost nine years. And just a remarkable woman, and she's going to be dearly missed. Councilwoman?

I just want to thank all the residents that drive on Glassford Hill Road. I have to exit out of Granville quite often. I take a right. And sometimes you think, okay, you're going to come up to the stop sign and sit there for quite a while. It's a one lane, down to one lane, and some of it's been very uneven. But I'll tell you what, I've met the most courteous drivers that I've ever known. And I just want to say... Thank you to them and to all the construction crews for going at the speed that they have because I'm amazed every day when I see more of the sidewalk finished out and the lanes starting to complete. So that's all I wanted to say is thank you.

Councilman?

Mr. Davidson, management report. Commissioner, members of the council, two things. This is our last meeting for the fiscal year. We will be going on the July break, and our first meeting back will be August 6th, which normally would have been a study session, but it is being scheduled as a special meeting. There's a couple of voting items that the council will have to consider at that particular meeting. So there's no meeting through all of July. And then it was mentioned we do have the Red, White, and Boom July 4th, America's 250th celebration. And obviously July 4th, 3 o'clock in the afternoon to 9.30 in the evening. It is open and free to all of our residents and beyond. A lot of fun activities for kids, families alike. Most of it's free other than what you need to purchase in terms of food and beverage. Please come out and have a great time celebrating America's 250th. 250. 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.

I'll make a motion to approve all items listed under consent agenda by electronic vote. I second. Clerk, please hold up.

Mayor Paguda?

Yes.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, Board and Commission's recommendation to appoint Robert Noble to Building Board of Appeals.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, John Jacobson, Principal Planner. I worked with the clerk's office and followed the interview process. Staff would like to recommend appointment of Robert Noble to the Building Board of Appeals. Thank you, Robert. Mr. Noble. Mr. Noble.

You're doing this on your own free will? No one's twisting your arm? Sandy was. For a second. No, free will. Council, have any questions? Sir, I want to thank you for just volunteering and wanting to participate with the town. That's awesome. I wish everyone had the same attitude as you do. Thank you, Mayor. With that being said, can I have a motion?

Mayor, I'll make a motion to appoint Robert Noble to the Board of Appeals for the remainder of the term with a renewal date of September 5th, 2027.

I second it.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. And again, thank you, sir. Good job. Next up, recommendation to reappoint Krista Ayers to the Library Board of Trustees. She's our student physician.

Mayor, vice mayor, council members, yes, Ms. Ayers is not here this evening, but I've been serving with Krista the last two years that she's been on the Library Board. She's a fantastic addition, and I highly recommend reappointing her to the student physician.

Any questions for staff?

Just want to say that I visited with her recently and she's really having a great time. And so I fully support her in the library position.

I got a motion to approve. Clerk, please call the vote.

Sorry, can I get a motion on that?

I believe that the motion by Councilwoman Kuehl is second by Councilwoman Schumacher.

I make a motion to recommend and reappoint Krista Ayers to the Library Board of Trustees in the student position to a term with a renewal date of June 30, 2029. Consideration and possible action.

I second. Councilmember Kuehl? That passes unanimously.

Next up, item 10A, Logan Simpson, Design Final Wildlife Connectivity Guide. Mr. Jacobson, welcome back.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, council members. Again, John Jacobson, Principal Planner. As you're well aware, we've gone, this is the end of year two for the Wildlife Connectivity Guide. We won't get into a lot of detail tonight, but in your packet, you'll find the final document. Not to say that we aren't moving ahead this coming year with the implementation. But if you remember the first phase in the first year, we completed June of 25, what we termed the foundation plan. That was chapters one through four. The implementation plan, which is finalized this month, both of those together, comprise the Wildlife Connectivity Guide. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Christina Kacher Webb, who you've met previously, either through some of the study sessions. She's with Logan Simpson, who is our consultant on the project. Thank you. Welcome, ma'am.

thank you john mayor members of town council thank you again for having me tonight to present to you the final plan again that's good okay like john said we have wrapped up our second phase so almost two years of working on the wildlife connectivity guide and countless engagement efforts throughout these two phases from working on two large community events one during the first phase and one during the adoption of the or the draft plan review during the second phase a number of listening sessions with community members interested parties and agencies across the state as well as local and the including that technical advisory committee with arizona game and fish a dot y plan or yavapai plan and the local counties and agencies that are interested in this connectivity as well across the region it's been very um a great time to be a part of this community to learn and to get the input and the desires about this plan As I mentioned, when I was here in April, we had had a community meeting. We had that draft plan up for the rest of the month and got a number of comments. Didn't really make too many changes. A lot of the comments were supporting or just maybe technical adjustments to the plan. So most of the final plan that you have in your packet tonight is basically what was presented in the draft plan. We did add additional summaries for the engagement efforts that we had during the draft plan. That is what is in that final draft. So some key takeaways throughout the planning effort that happened over both two phases that we heard from the community is that they're very interested in the wildlife connectivity and habitat needs from the glorious megafauna to the open spaces that that provides, including the need to educate and expand wildlife friendly design through the planning process. We heard large public support for planning implementation type tools while reducing wildlife conflicts that also provide for the health and safety of your community through different transportation design elements as well. We heard a desire for that regional collaboration and to effectively involve partners to get the support and funding needed to implement a number of these efforts. Just a quick overview of, you've seen this before, the five different chapters where we've used data based on key resources of different habitat types for the important sensitivity of these areas, from riparian areas to megafauna type habitat and that is then built off of case studies and these case studies brought in examples that are implemented across the country but also here in Arizona that we can based on that implementable type projects that you guys can build off of and learn from other folks. And then finally in the best practices and strategies for that implementation. Some of these benefits are very similar to the Parks and Rec Proclamation that was read earlier. But again, open space, wildlife connectivity provides a number of similar benefits. Like we mentioned before, having this guide will provide that predictable development, ability to expand economic prosperity, ecosystem benefits from stormwater management to clean air, as well as attract residents and provide for public health benefits where you know trails can be done in tandem for example so the next quick slides i'll just go over these real quickly again in the plan we outline a number of tools that can work together in different stages to provide that connectivity in the in the long run starting with land use and development standards And then different types of conservation and connected habitat, working with partners and different types of land trusts to look at conserving either corridors or different types of properties. And then finally, improving that connectivity, working with regional partners and transportation entities to provide the safe passage of wildlife while protecting for the health and safety of the community. Finally, we did hear a little bit about the need to include applicable types of funding to make a number of these tools actually foreseeable in the future. And so one of the things that we did here at the April meeting was general support for these. It was a rough straw poll, so I wouldn't take it for granted, but THERE WAS SUPPORT TO CONTINUE TO DO EXERCISES TO UNDERSTAND THE LEVEL OF SUPPORT, INCLUDING A POTENTIAL CONSERVATION FISCAL ANALYSIS WHICH COULD BE COMPLETED WITH THE HELP OF TRUST FOR PUBLIC LANDS AS ONE OF THE EXAMPLES ALONG WITH YOUR PARTNERS. So we did hear that through that last draft, and so that is recommended. And then tonight, as you look through your budget packet, and I'll wrap up here really soon, because I know you have a busy agenda, that first element for implementing this plan is in the proposed draft budget. So that will be considered to look at the general plan amendment, to update the goals, to align with the ideas in the mapping as the first step in that process. Thank you all for your time and your attentiveness in the past two years. I really appreciate all the number of meetings that you guys have allowed us to present to and the consideration for this project. Thank you.

Any questions or comments?

After reading those choices about a general plan update, I would just say to all of my fellow council members that maybe we could suggest that they move forward with the middle choice and do a major amendment to the general plan that includes updates to the land use chapter and also incorporates a wildlife overlay map.

Anything else? I'm sorry, Mr. Davidson.

Mr. Mayor, council member, and all members of the council, yes, this will be leading into that. So this next year will be kind of the first bite at the apple with it. But in future fiscal years, we will be working on major updates to the general plan. So it's going to be a long process. But this is the beginning of establishing that roadmap in order to be able to make some of those adjustments. So that is part of the long-term plan.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Ma'am, great job. And whenever anyone can get a quote in from the Lorax into a council presentation, that's pretty good. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Next up, item 10B, Yerba Pi Humane Society contract renewal.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Tracy Lira, Neighborhood Services Director. This is a one-year renewal of the town's animal shelter services agreement with the Yavapai Humane Society in the amount of $105,980. The agreement maintains current service levels and includes minor administrative updates related to licensing fees, terminology, and records requests. Yavapai Humane Society remains the only local organization reasonably capable of providing the full range of animal sheltering services required by the town, making this an essential contract. So with that, I'm here for any questions.

Questions about this? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign a contract with the Up by Humane Society for animal shelter services in the amount of $105,980. I have a second. I'll second. Clerk, please call the vote.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, item 10C, CH2M, Hill, Omai, otherwise known as Jacobs, year two of three contract amendments. Wadsworth, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Well, we're here before you again, another year. As you mentioned, this is year two of a three-year contract with Jacobs. And Jacobs, in one form or another, has been working for the town on our water and our wastewater system since nineteen ninety three uh... so they've been here a long time uh... but uh... to get into the current contract uh... As we do every year, we negotiate any changes in the scope that they're doing for our water or wastewater system and so forth, and also changes in their compensation. And so with this year, we're looking at a 2.5% increase in their base fee, which covers just the basic operations with their staff. Some of the supplies and things that they buy covers their overhead and that sort of thing, their profit, obviously. And so there's a 2.5% increase in that. You will see that the increase looks like it's more than that. We're actually moving something that was in a different part of the contract into their base fees, and that increases their base fees by another $70,000, and that's for a backflow prevention specialist. and then some other miscellaneous charges. So that covers their base fee. This contract is a lot bigger than just the base fees for their work, though we've got a number of other things in here. I've got up here a summary of what the base fee is for each of the four different utilities that they run for the town, manage, and what the increase is for this year over last year's contract. Additionally, there are reimbursable items in their contract, such things as paying for repairs. So the equipment that they buy that they have to fix, we don't put a set amount in the contract and say, stay under that. We don't know what's going to break down during the year. We don't know what the repairs are going to be. So those are reimbursables. We put money in the contract. When they spend that money and they send the invoices to us, we pay that amount. But the laborer to do the repairs is already covered under their base fees unless they have to contract something out. So this is a summary of what the reimbursable items are. What's missing from this list is electricity because electricity is actually paid directly by the town. Those bills come directly to us. They don't even pass through Jacobs. This number is going up a little bit over last year the biosolids I believe is increasing about $100,000.

I think that's the main increase this year on that item.

So we do also have additional services projects which are. LARGER TYPE OF PROJECTS, REPAIRS, REHABILITATIONS THAT WE TRY TO PLAN FOR IN ADVANCE. A LOT OF THEM OCCUR, WELL, THEY OCCUR AT THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT, AT OUR WELLS, AT OUR TANKS, AND THEY'RE THINGS THAT THEY HAVE CONTROL OVER ALL THE TIME ANYWAYS. We add these additional projects in for them to do, and so it comes under a different budget under either our capital or repairs budgets. But we try to identify those ahead of time. We get a dollar amount set in the contract, and then we move those forward. So the list of those for this year under water, I've listed them all up here. I know that you've got these in your packet and you've probably had a chance to look at them, so I'm not gonna go through them. But for water related projects, the amount is about $2.7 million worth of various types of things that we need for them to do. Under wastewater, we have about $3.5 million worth of projects. And there are some large projects in here. You know, for instance, if you look at the, there's, well, there's a bunch of different ones in here. Down near the bottom, we've got a belt press rehabilitation for $600,000. Well, the belt presses are probably 20 to 30 years old each, and they are, you know, large, expensive pieces of equipment. And so a rehab on one, it's like doing a tune-up on your car. you might go in and take it in, and it might be $300 or something, depending on what you have done. Well, that's what we're doing here as a tune-up, but on a big piece of equipment that we do maybe every 15 years or 10 years, $650,000. So a lot of these look like they're larger dollar amounts, but these are all critical pieces of equipment we need to maintain our wastewater treatment plant. We have a very large investment in our treatment plant, in our wells, in our tanks, and we need to make sure that we're keeping them up and running correctly we don't want to have to go out and replace them we'd rather you know maintain them properly so in all with all of the different things we're looking at we're looking at a little bit over 14 million dollars total for the year coming out of the four different accounts And that is it. We do have people from Jacobs in the office or in the audience. Their regional manager is here tonight and their local manager and staff are also represented if you have any questions for them. Otherwise, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Wadsworth? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to authorize the mayor to approve Amendment Number 1 to the Agreement with Operations Management International Jacobs for Town Utility Operations, Maintenance and Management in the amount of $14,112,224. I second. Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Next up, Item 10D, Jacobs Professional Service Agreement Amendment Number 1. Roger.

Okay, well, I'm going to take the opportunity tonight to give you a little bit of a status update. And let's see, this item is for the Professional Services Agreement related to the design work that Jacobs is doing for us at the Quailwood Well No. 3, and it's a PFAS treatment design that's going to be installed at that well. And just so you know and the audience knows, This is not Jacobs, the operating arm that's here tonight that we just talked about with the contract. This is the Jacobs Engineering Group. They're two different groups, but they are obviously within the same family, same company. But for this design work, they utilized some of their national experts and then people who actually do design work for a living. And so... I did want to give you an update and a background on this project in general, because it's had a pretty long history. I'm going to hope to keep this a little bit brief, but the original contract was approved in 2024, and the contract value was almost $1.9 million. And it sounds like a lot of money to do design for treatment at one location. But there are reasons why this cost was so high, and that includes the pilot testing and permitting, along with the design, along with helping us manage the grants and loans that we've received. And so it's a big project, and the piloting takes up a fair amount of it as well. But it did not include construction administration, which is something we'll be talking about in the future. But tonight's amendment number one is just to increase the time on their contract. The contract expires at the end of this month. But we're still obviously in the middle of design. We want to extend it for another couple of years. And we're anticipating getting this project out to construction within the next three or four months. I wanted to give you some visuals of what the pilot effort looks like, and this is the first one. But as we were working through the project, there were also some changes that occurred within this. And we originally thought we were going to install treatment facilities at three of the wells in the Quailwood area. But after looking at it more and more and looking at what the cost was for each well site, we were looking at $2 to $3 million or a little bit more per well site. And some of those wells down there are very small wells in the terms and context of a municipal well. They're only about 100 gallons a minute. So spending $3 million on a 100 gallon a minute well is not a good investment in money when a lot of our other wells are putting out 500 gallons a minute, 1,000 gallons a minute. And so we switched gears and went after a different project to do a pipeline to help supplement that area. So we eliminated two of the well sites. And because of that, there was some laboratory testing, which was called a rapid small-scale column test that we also didn't have to do because we were piloting at one location. We would have had to done this laboratory testing for all three of the whale sites to kind of prove that they're all very similar in nature for what the design we were doing. So we eliminated that. We actually lengthened the piloting timeframe so that we could get better results and know what type of treatment media we actually had to have in our ion exchange units. And then there were a couple of other things that we changed. And so I wanted to bring that to your attention. We've done all of that without increasing the budget and going over the original budgeted amount. So this is a no cost increase or no cost change order, mainly to extend the time of the contract. This is another picture of the pilot test equipment that was done for nine months, testing six different columns. And these were the results. I believe we shared these with you a couple of months back. And this just depicts a couple of the different or all of the different test materials. And we were sampling in these columns to see how effective the treatment was. So there was a port where we were taking samples out that was halfway down in the column. And it basically like a filter material, it's ion exchange, but So there was a 50% port. There was a 75% port where we were testing from where obviously the water passing through had a longer period. And so we wanted to see and get as much results as we could through the 75% test port. If you look at the 50% on this graph up here, there's a a pretty big variability as far as where they crossed the line that was the limit for the PFOA, which is the PFAS chemicals that we're trying to remove. And as we got to the 75% test port, they kind of converged back together again. So this was to help us figure out which media we were going to need to purchase. This is ultimately what the equipment might look like, although it's going to be inside of a building, but it's a pretty big series of tanks like this with a bunch of piping. And so where we are right now, we completed the pilot testing in February. We're 80% done with the design. We now have to go through a pre-purchase process for the pressure vessels, the two tanks that you just saw. We're going to pre-order those before we bid the contract out because they have a fairly long lead time, so we want to get those purchased. And... So that's a lot of what we're doing right now. We're anticipating getting the construction project out to bid within the next two to three months. Right now we've got to still have about $500,000 remaining in the Jacobs design contract. We're going to utilize more of that as we get closer. And then next steps, number one, approve the extension that's requested of you tonight. We've got to... Submit some of the specifications to both WIPA and EPA for their approvals the design construction Documents we will have to do another amendment with Jacobs in a couple of months to add the construction services And then move forward with the project, and I'm sorry if that was very long-winded But I did want to give you an update and keep it as short as I could so with that. I'll take any questions great job Mr.. Watcher with the questions council Neil when you filter out the PFAS

What do you do with what's there? It's a toxic substance, basically. Nobody wants it. How do you dispose of it?

Well, so the ion exchange media, you call it a filter and that's an appropriate description, but really what it's doing, it's a chemical, they're actually exchanging ions out and trading the ions that are on the material and trading it out for the PFAS. But that material becomes a hazardous waste. And so right now it has to be disposed of at a hazardous waste disposal facility. With the material we're looking to purchase, We believe that the life of the material in the vessel will be nine months or a year in length, so we'll have to be doing those change-outs about once a year and disposing of that material. Ultimately, we will have a contract with a company that supplies the media to us. They will come in, they will remove the media from the vessels, put the new stuff in, and haul the old material away, and the cost will include the disposal as well.

Do you have any rough number on what that disposal process will cost on an ongoing basis?

I did not look at that before I came here this evening, so I don't have that information on the top of my head.

Thank you.

Councilwoman?

And just in general, are we still looking at $2 million to $3 million for the well? Because that was a few years ago. Is that going up a bit?

I think it'll still be within or under probably around the $3 million range. And as you'll recall, we did receive a loan from WIFA recently. For $4.2 million, which turns out that when they gave us that loan, they gave it to us with a 90% principal forgiveness. So we only have to pay 10% of that whole loan back. So that's great. We also, as part of that... got an EPA grant for another $2.1 million. So the loan will help cover the design costs that you've already seen for the $1.9 million. We'll use the loan to pay ourselves back for that to cover part of the construction and then the 2.1 from... EPA will also go in to pay for the construction. I believe the cost of the annual media replacement or removal is probably going to be on the order of $100,000.

I think that's what I remember you saying before. But thank you. That all sounds great.

Thank you, sir. Seeing no other questions, can I get a motion to approve?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve amendment number one, with Jacobs Engineering Group, Incorporated, for Prescott Valley PFAS Design Services for Quailwood Well No. 3, extending the expiration date of the contract and ratification of scope changes, with no change in the contract fee of $1,895,844 by electronic vote. I'll second. I'll second. Please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, item 10E and 10F. Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, and staff. This item is a request to approve the intergovernmental agreement with Humboldt Unified School District for funding for school resource officer positions and the school resource sergeant position. The town and HUSD have had prior agreements in place for this same purpose to support the assignment of Prescott Valley Police Department school resource officers and an SRO Sergeant to HUSD campuses. The staff report before you continues that relationship for an additional four fiscal years through June 30, 2030, unless terminated by either party. The purpose of this agreement is not simply to place officers in schools for routine policing. The SRO model is intended to support a safe student environment by improving communication, building positive relationships between students and law enforcement, helping with conflict resolution, and supporting prevention strategies on campus. That is the core reason staff recommends approval. From a fiscal standpoint, this agreement continues a shared cost model. Two of the four SRO positions are funded 100% by HUSD. The other two are funded 50-50 by the Town and HUSD. The SRO Sargent is funded 45% by the Town, 40% by HUSD, and as we'll discuss in the next item, the remaining 15% will be funded through a separate agreement with participating charter schools. THE POLICE DEPARTMENT'S FISCAL YEAR 2627 BUDGET INCLUDES SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO COVER THE TOWN'S PORTION. THE BIGGEST CHANGE FROM THE PRIOR STRUCTURE IS ADMINISTRATIVE AND FISCAL ALLOCATION. PREVIOUSLY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT AND CHARTER SCHOOL FUNDING ERAGENTS WERE CODIFIED IN A SINGLE AGREEMENT. THIS YEAR THEY'RE BEING SEPARATED INTO THE HUSDIGA AND A SEPARATE CHARTER SCHOOL AGREEMENT. ALSO, ONE CHARTER SCHOOL THAT PREVIOUSLY PARTICIPATED IS NOT FUNDING A 5% SHARE OF THE SRO SERGEANT POSITION THIS YEAR. SO THE TOWN HAS ABSORBED THAT ADDITIONAL SHARE THAT IS ALREADY REFLECTED IN THE 45% TOWN RESPONSIBILITY AND IS COVERED IN THE ADOPTED BUDGET SOON TO BE. THIS AGREEMENT ALLOWS US TO MAINTAIN CONTINUITY IN SCHOOL SAFETY OPERATIONS, PRESERVE A SUPERVISORY STRUCTURE FOR THE SRO PROGRAM AND AVOID DISRUPTIONS TO THE RELATIONSHIPS ALREADY BUILT WITH STUDENTS, FAMILIES AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS. The recommended action is to approve the IGA with HUST to fund the officer and SRO sergeant positions.

Any questions for the chief? Do not entertain a motion on this item.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the IGA with the Humble Unified School District to fund SRO officers and SRO sergeant positions. I'm second.

I second.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next item, sir.

It's been a little bit, Mayor, Council, staff, since I've testified about two items so closely related, but I think legal would tell me I've got to talk about it all again.

Do we have any questions in reference from Council in reference to why it's separated into two items?

That's really the only difference.

It's the only difference? Yeah. Seeing no questions, can I get an entertain motion for item 10F?

I'll second. Clerk, please call vote. Mayor, that passes unanimously. Thank you, ma'am.

Next up, item 10G, recommendation of a series 10 beer and wine store liquor license for Aldi, number 187, located at 3330 North Glassford Hill Road. This is a public hearing, which is open now.

Our office received a new application for a series 10 beer and wine store liquor license submitted on behalf of Aldi number 187, located at 3330 North Glassford Hill Road. In accordance with Arizona law, a notice of the application was posted on the front of the premise for the required 20 days. No written comments were received during this time. Based on this, it is recommended that the town council forward a recommendation of approval for this application.

Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone out in the audience that wishes to speak on this item? Seeing none, hearing none, close the public hearing. Do we have any questions for the clerk? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to recommend approval of the Series 10 beer and wine store liquor license on behalf of Aldi 187, located at 3330 North Glassford Hill Road, Prescott Valley, to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control.

I'll second.

Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, item 10H, final town budget, fiscal year 26-27. This is a public hearing, which I am opening now. Welcome, ma'am.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council. Tonight we have a public hearing regarding the proposed budget, final budget for adoption for fiscal year 27. We do have a short presentation for you. As you know, the process started in December with a retreat and then we've had multiple Council briefings and then also a tentative budget session as well as a another study session. And so I thought rather than in true fashion coming to you with more numbers, I would take a qualitative approach and show you what we've been able to achieve with community involvement, council direction, and the cooperation of the departments in collaboration. So when we came into the budget, in addition to looking at providing key services to the community, we also wanted to focus on financial stability, stewardship and resiliency, risk management, and strategic readiness. And why did we do that? The first thing that we did was we really wanted to take a look at what financial risks do we need to prepare for. The budget allows us to actively manage any uncertainty that may come. So that might be an economic downturn, it may be infrastructure needs, health care costs increase, utility emergencies, being competitive in compensation, economic growth related infrastructure, and then also being able to take advantage of grant opportunities. So one thing before we dive into that concept, I did want to reiterate that we are structurally balanced. The state requirement is that the legal requirement is that the resources exceed our expected expenditures. Resources includes not only recurring revenues, one-time revenues, but also savings. We go above and beyond that and make sure that we're structurally balanced by ensuring ongoing revenue support, ongoing expenses. And so this chart shows you the projection for the next five years. One thing I want to note is we did mention in the past that we do anticipate ending fiscal year 26 with a surplus of about $7 million. And so that is reflected in this chart. This shows you what we often refer to as our savings. So in the years that we have more revenues and expenses, that surplus becomes savings. That also translates into financial resilience. What that means is that we have stability during economic downturns, emergencies, and we can also take advantage of strategic opportunities. And so what you have in the final budget is really where we want to take that one-time money or or savings and invest it in the future. You may remember that we had a conversation about becoming more conservative in how we budget for the future years. So in the past, we would estimate our one-time revenues and then plan that. But instead of that, we want to know what we currently have in savings and then how we want to use that in the future. So that plays into our risk management approach. So risk is really that uncertainty that can be caused by those different things that we talked about, economics, infrastructure needs. So this shows you the types of funds that we are reflected in Schedule A, which is the official forms. And it shows you by category what we have budget authority for. One thing that I really did want to point out is that even though we have almost a quarter million dollar budget, that doesn't mean we plan to spend it. But it provides us with the opportunity and flexibility that if we identify a funding source, we have the budget authority to not only accept that, but to also spend it. And so this kind of just breaks that down for you. One other thing is that I wanted to reiterate that the budget does establish legal spending authority, and the amount of $222,559,730 is the amount that we brought forward with the tentative budget, and there have been no substantial changes. But what it doesn't mean is that we have automatic spending authority. So how do we protect public funds? This is a process that we go through. So once budget authorization is provided, we still evaluate our projects. We have procurement requirements, contract review. We verify that the funding has actually been received, not that it was just funding that we planned for. And then we have council approval. And then we do some performance monitoring throughout the year. And so what did our budget prepare us for? So how did we build fiscal year 27? All those things that I mentioned earlier, those are all the things that we kept in mind to make sure we had that flexibility. Here's an example of putting those concepts into place. And so we see the housing fund we did allow budget authority should an opportunity come to provide workforce or affordability housing. For developer contributions in conjunction with a town engineer, we talked about the need that if there's an infrastructure requirement where there's some development or some changes, that there might be a piece or an opportunity to share those costs with either a private property or a developer. And so this gives us that budget authority to receive money and then to spend it. At the last special meeting, we did talk about the class and comp process and that there was $1.5 million available in the budget. That's a reserve that's set in what we call non-departmental. So when those final decisions are done, we would come back to council and ask for the authority to budget transfer those. And then, as you know, we are establishing a health fund, an internal service fund, and the reserve is $3 million. That, again, just allows us to have better alignment with what we need to provide with health care inflation. And then we were also able to establish $5.3 million in replacement funds to take care of deferred maintenance or things that need to be taken care of in the future. So here are our accomplishments. Really the message is that we didn't simply balance our budget for one year, but we positioned ourselves for the future. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, ma'am. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone out in the audience that wishes to speak on this? Speaking none, I'll close the public hearing. We're moving on to item 10I, where we can have counsel ask any questions or comments. Is there anything else you wish to add or are you ready for questions?

I'm ready for questions, I have nothing to add.

Okay. Councilman? Are we at, my screen changed, are we at the- We're at 10-I, final town budget fiscal year consideration and possible action.

Okay. And one thing that I wanted to speak on was the, you know, we have the capital improvement plan, which budgets, what is it, like 3.8 million towards the development of Glassford Hill. And, you know, that was concerning to me. I did speak with Gilbert about that to get clarification. And even though the budget states that this is going to be engineering for the entire, that it's going to be this year, and it's going to be for the entire six years, he's assured me that the budget will only be dealing with the trails and parking for this year. Is that correct?

Mr. Mayor, Council Mayor, yes, the fund. So in our budget software, each department has to put in the full description of what the project is. And because this is a long term project, many, many years into the future, it captures kind of the essence of what that is. But this particular budget item is only for the engineering on what's called the South Gate parking and trailhead area, which is near the Home Depot. It does not include any other component of the of the park that will all have to come back to Council for additional review.

Thank you, that makes this easier. The other item that I wanted to mention was the arch. And I know you and I have talked about this before, but there's got to be some way to hold our vendors accountable. My thought was, could we file an insurance claim? They're no longer in business. Can we file against their insurance company or something to make us whole?

I'll defer to the town attorney on suing people.

Mr. Mayor and Council, we obviously can sue under the contract. In this particular case, that contract was actually settled with that company and then they went out of business. So I'm not sure that that would be successful in terms of going after that particular company.

Thank you.

Councilman?

Selina and staff, I think you've done a great job overall. There's approximately 1,000 pages in this budget, countless line items. And out of all of those things, it seems like there's only about two major points of concern with the townspeople, which represents a very small percentage of the overall budget. But I think we should address those, and Councilwoman Keel has touched upon them. When the town announced the construction of the arch over Glassford Hill Road, the townspeople were told that no local tax money would go into it, only federal COVID recovery funds. Now, just a few months later, we have a budget request for $146,000 for upgrades, which should have been included in the original construction. I believe that this expenditure is very unpopular with the citizenry, and I call for a polling survey, which the town already owns. to pull the townspeople to assist in determining how to go forward on this one item, which again is just a small percentage of the budget. Regarding the Glassford Hill expenditures, the town used the AZTAP organization as consultants, and a report presented on June 4th states, although outdoor recreation holds immense potential for Prescott Valley, the panel concluded that Glassford Dells Park is not a strong economic driver. In the town budget, over $3.6 million is set aside for this Glatsford Dells construction and engineering over the next five years. I believe that this expense should be examined further, and we should have a summit with Prescott and county officials to determine our compliance with the intergovernmental agreement, which originally called for only for passive uses of this park. And some of the funds from both of these projects might be better spent on our aquatic center project or the heritage village project, which I introduced at council when Mayor Palguta was on the beach in Mexico. After the recent council meeting, when I brought up the fact that council has no system of oversight over major expenditures of taxpayer monies, the vote was quickly forced to prevent me from speaking. All I wanted to do is discuss items 7C and 7D, which are expenditures hidden in a consent agenda, and discuss creating an oversight process. Why would anyone be against an oversight process unless they have something to hide? The mayor actively halts any remarks or comments that don't match his personal agendas as a builder and a realtor and creates a hostile workplace environment. If we council members don't vote the way he wants us to, we can expect lies, attempts at public humiliation, and personal attacks such as the one he directed at me after the meeting on June 4th. Any other workplace would not tolerate such behavior, which leads to why we keep having referendums. The council, led by the mayor, refuses to consider what citizens had to say, refuses to work on compromises and consensus building. Thank you.

Vice Mayor, anything to add? Council? Just to clarify, I was on three beaches in Mexico. Just so we're clear on that. The fact that suggestion of leading a community of 52 000 people by a survey monkey is ludicrous council is elected to serve the people and that's what we're doing just because we've had three emails talking about the arch i don't feel like that is an overwhelming number of residents crying out against this so at this time i'll make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign the resolution number 2026 dash 2456 adopted final fiscal year 27 budget in the amount of $22,559,730. I'll second. Mayor, that passes unanimously. Thank you. Next up, designating chief fiscal officer for fiscal year 2025 to 26 and 26 to 27. Expenditure limitation report to auditor general. Mr. Davison.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, this item is an annual statutory requirement for the Arizona auditor general's office. It requires the submittal of our town's annual expenditure limitation form, which was referenced in the budget presentation. But in addition to that, the auditor general requires the designation of what's called the chief fiscal officer. That has been Selina Morris, and Selina is unfortunately leaving the employ of our great town. And so we are going to be designating our deputy director as the interim director. and Irina Armakova will be the designated CFO for the town per these official documents. Any questions?

Any questions for Mr. Davidson? Seeing none, entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to recommend the authorization of signature resolution 2026-2451 designating Irina Armakova as chief financial officer for fiscal year 2021. 2025, 2026, and 2026, 2027. I second. Clerk, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, item 10K, annual update finance policy 4-11, PSPRS pension funding.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, tonight we have an updated PSPRS funding policy before you. The state requires us to bring that to council annually to let you know where we are with unfunded liabilities and request that you accept the liability. One thing to note, I wanted to point out in 2024, our unfunded liability was $8.5 million, and we were at 80.5% funded. We are pleased to present to you in this funding policy that we are $4.2 million unfunded and 92.3% funded. So we are well on our way to making our goal of becoming 100% funded. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

That's great news. Selena, not every community in Arizona can say they're even close to where we're at for the unfunded liability. So great job on that. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, hearing none, entertain motion.

Mayor, I make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign Resolution No. 2026-2452, adopting the annual Public Safety Personnel Retirement System, PSPRS, pension funding policy for employees hired prior to July 1, 2017, and formally acknowledging the town's share of assets and liabilities as outlined in the most recent actuarial valuation report provided by PSPRS.

I'll second.

Court, please call the vote.

Mayor, that passes unanimously.

Thanks, ma'am. And that comes to the end of our night, folks. You can stick around for a CFD meeting if you'd like.