MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE

THATCHER TOWN COUNCIL

August 11, 2009

 

Present: Mayor Bob Rivera, Vice Mayor Mulleneaux, Councilman Eric Merriman, Donald Innes, Wayne Griffin, Ken Larsen

 

Staff Present: Manager Terry Hinton, Chief Mike Payne, Attorney Dudley Welker, Town Clerk Lona Duncan, Engineer Heath Brown

 

Absent: Charles Morris

 

Visitors: Mike Nelson, Aimee Staten, Tom Claridge, Sandee McClelland

 

AGENDA

 

Welcome and Call Meeting to Order. American troops and families

 

Pledge of Allegiance lead by Kevin Griffin

 

Roll Call.

 

OPEN CALL TO THE PUBLIC:

 

Jay Helm said he was from Air Evac and he was one of the pilots I came to explain the membership program from PHI Cares. The PHI program is for a very small annual fee per household. If you have insurance it is 50 and without insurance it is 100. What this covers is everyone in the household a flight on a medical air craft for medical emergency reasons and they will not receive a bill. If their insurance pays 40% or 80% that is billed to insurance and if they have no insurance there is no fee.  When I speak of family members that is everyone in the household plus 3 non member people like an elderly Mom or Dad who has moved in with you. They would be included as long as they are listed in that family group. Just to give you some back ground it cost about 20,000 to be transported to Tucson or Phoenix and usually the insurance will pay all but 4000 thousand dollars which you are responsible for.  A group can be any organization as long as there are 15 people and the price goes down to 45 dollars per household. In terms of municipalities and they pay for the members of 100 or more it would be 35 per household. Phi has about 16 air craft based in Arizona and 65 bases national wide. So if you are out of Arizona and need emergency help you can get it. Just to make sure you understand it does not pay for other medical transports by the other companies only PHi. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux asked if there were other charges that might occur on the flight that may not be cover. Mr. Helm said there are no extra surcharges what ever isn’t covered by insurance we take. Terry ask if there was a deductable when used and the answer was a one time payment and that payment would be when you join and then due again the next year at the same time. It can run with your other insurance and due at the same time if you want it that way. Councilman Larson asked if there was a limit to the number of flights and the answer was no. Mayor Rivera asked if in the case of a car accidents and you can’t tell them you need to be flown out what happens Mr. Helm said need to make sure your family members know that you are a member of PHI and also you could carry the card with your medical insurance card and driver license so the officer can see it. Being a member doesn’t guarantee you will get a flight if we are out of area with no other ship available and your doctor determines that you need to go now then it will would be on another provider to take you. Chief Stevens ask where the other ships are located the answer was here Sierra Vista and Tucson, Showlow, Phoenix area and Yuma we have a new one coming soon but I couldn’t tell you where it will be located. Chief Stevens said so if the town doesn’t want to go with this we could get 15 co-workers as a group and we could still sign up as a group and the answer was yes. Council thanked Mr. Helm for coming.

 

PUBLIC APPEARANCES:

 

CONSENT AGENDA:                      

 

A.           Approve minutes of the July 14, 2009 Regular Council Meeting.

 

B.           Planning and Zoning Monthly Report.

 

C.           Police Monthly Report.

 

D.           Approval of Invoices.

 

E.         Financial Reports.

 

Councilman Mulleneaux made motion to approve minutes and reports.

Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

 

OLD BUSINESS:       Discussion, consideration and possible action

 

A.         Frye Mesa Subdivision Infrastructure Bond.

 

Terry said we discussed this briefly at last Council meeting and Attorney Welker has looked at it. Dudley Welker said the real problem is that it is coming from the wrong angle this assurance of construction of subdivision of improvement really doesn’t assure the construction. The way it is worded it gives Sollars and Nelson the authorization to keep you from getting the money. The other thing I see is all the money that would be available to you is quote undisbursed money. A bond is to pay for construction and if it is properly done you have rights to take as much money as needed to correct and fix it. I say this because this says Lynn Hancock is not responsible or liable for sufficiency of funds to pay for the Public Improvements or quality of workmanship and material. This doesn’t do what it should do as a bond. To go on the deal is secured by deed of trust which is just the current mortgage what really counts is the promise to pay what ever the debt is. This deed of trust is a standard deed the problem is there is no promissory note. Is that important yes it could be worthless without this promissory note can it be fixed yes just by changing one paragraph. In all of this I am not disputing the honesty of anyone involved I am just saying things don’t work out the way you may think. The easy way to take care of this is for Mr. Hancock to put up the money and for Sollars and Nelson to get all of the work done up front. When there work is done you don’t care. Who gets the first deed of trust do you know?

Mike Nelson stood and stated number one this is done in phrases so it makes the subdivision have 21 lots and the infrastructure will be done in the beginning. The second thing is we went to the Bonding Company and they didn’t want to do it in phrases they wanted the total 500 or 600 thousand and then we would have to borrow in order to do the work. What we purpose is this letter of credit something we just drew up because we didn’t know what you wanted we expected the Town to go through it and make changes. As a second thing we put in a note and deed of trust to show our good faith and to protect you totally. If we need to go put the money in the bank we will be glad to do that. Terry asked Mr. Welker if he could rewrite the letter and have Mr. Hancock put the money somewhere like an escrow account or bank account that gives us the assurance that it won’t be spent unless we release it but yet it is still his money. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux suggested to table until Attorney Welker can re- drafts a letter of credit.

 

B.         Phased Retirement - Smartworksplus

 

Terry said we talked about this a couple of times. This is what the schools and EAC and City of Safford are doing. It appears to be a win win for both parties it is very much like the Cops Drop program. The contract can be terminated on year to year bases or anytime within 30 days notice and with cause immediately. This is the same for the employee. Vice Mayor Mulleneanux said the Drops has a maximum time of 5 years what about this. Terry said that is Council’s decision you also decide who you want in the program. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux said he knew the reason that the drops program has the 5 year is so those jobs are not tried up indefinitely. Mayor Rivera asked is there was interest right now and Terry said there are only two people right now that are eligible and in about three years there are one or two more. Rivera asked if we decide not to renew contract is there a cost to the Town the answer was no. Terry said this program is the employee works for Smartworks Plus the first year and then come back and work for us the second year.

Sandy McClelland stood and introduced herself as the President and Co-Owner of Smartworks Plus. Smartworks Plus has a parent company Smart Schools Plus which has been providing retirement for the last 7 years to schools through out the state. We have been working with 50 districts saving them thousand of dollars. This is an opportunity to keep your employees that are eligible to retire. They have the skills and this is a way to reward your loyal employees. The Arizona State Retirement program says you can work part time under the 20/20 rule without hurting your pension but if you want to work full time you have to set out for one year. However you can go to work for a private company and those two rules don’t apply you could earn full wages and not hurt your pension. The issue of who is eligible for full normal retirement is (1) 80 points age plus years of service or (2) 62 years of age with 10 years of service or (3) 65 years of age. The other thing you need to look for is people that are in good standing.  The benefit to the employee is a higher gross earning and an immediate cost savings for the Town. Let me give you some figures I have three different salaries to compare again the salary amount is up to you the Council. Let us start with offered salary of 80%. 85% or 90% Looking at an employees that would make annually 60 thousand if they got 80% of 60 thousand they would have 48 thousand and with ARS pension of 41,400 they will be making 89,400 doing the same job they were do at 60 thousand before.  In addition they will not long be making the 9.4% employees cost to ARS. The cost savings to the Town of Thatcher on 60 thousand is in the cities cost for social security, medicare, unemployment, worker comp for a total of 5196 in addition to the 9.4% for ARS matching of 5640 and health insurance which is about 14 thousand looking at over 84 thousand for someone who is earning 60 thousand. Now if you will compare the cost of the employee retired would be 48 thousand because you no longer pay insurance the cost of payroll social security, medicare etc has dropped from 5196 to 4234 for a total of 52,223. Smartworks has a 4% overhead and operating cost so your total cost would be 54,143.00 a 36% cost savings. In working with different cities they offered a range from 75% to 90% that is up to you and we will help you with that. Mayor Rivera asked if you have a employees under contract do they get merits increases answer was that is again up to Council how they work the contract. This is not a buy out program this is to keep people here that have the skills you need. As Terry said the service agree gives you complete control you can terminate this agreement in it’s entirety or for an individual with 30 days notice or an employee can be terminate 10 days with non compliance or immediately for unprofessional or misrepresenting the Town of Thatcher a lot of flexibility. Councilman Innes how long does it take to get the service agreement. We would determined what you want it to look like and we will help you decide and then we would like to have a meeting with the employee to see if it is the best time for them and if Smartworks is the  best thing for them. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux asked if there were up front cost or annual fee and the answer was no just the 4%. Terry said we would like to proceed with the Council’s approval. Vice Mulleneaux asked don’t we need to decide. Terry said that is what Attorney Welker myself and Smartworks with suggestion from you will put together and then bring it back and let you look at and make changes if needed.  Some of the things Council was concerned about insurance, how long the contract considering the Medicare retirement age, the performance, the percentage to be paid, guide line rules. Terry said they would bring something back to next Council meeting. Sandy thanked Council for letting her come and make the presentation.

 

NEW BUSINESS:      Discussion, consideration and possible action

 

A.         RESOLUTION NO. 553-2009:           A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, ARIZONA, DECLARING AS A PUBLIC RECORD THAT CERTAIN DOCUMENT FILED WITH THE CITY CLERK AND ENTITLED "THE 2009 AMENDMENTS TO THE TAX CODE OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER".

 

Terry said Resolution No 553-2209 and Ordinance No 156-2209 are our yearly adoption of our tax code changes received from the Arizona Legislator and we have to do this. This is part of the deal that was made years ago in order to keep the sales tax rate the same. The Legislator and a group of Business men get together and make system tax code with exception of the tax rate that each town or city can set. This is a new copy of our tax code. They know and understand the rules.

 

Councilman Innes made motion to approve resolution No. 553-2009. Councilman Larson seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous Motion passed

 

B.         ORDINANCE NO. 156-2009:                        AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER, ARIZONA, RELATING TO THE PRIVILEGE LICENSE TAX; ADOPTING "THE 2009 AMENDMENTS TO THE TAX CODE OF THE TOWN OF THATCHER" BY REFERENCE; ESTABLISHING AN EFFECTIVE DATE; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS.

 

Terry said this is the companion document to the above Resolution

 

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to approve Ordinance No. 156-2009. Councilman Merriman seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous. Motion passed

 

C.        Mt. Graham Golf Course Resort – Information item.

 

Terry said the Council has a couple of maps to look at the solid looking map is for a general plan amendment. The whole Mt Graham Golf Course area is within our general plan area but is presently not all annexed. To start the process for this development the first part is to make sure what they are doing which is a plan unit development or overlay district meets our general plan requirements. In order for that to happen they have to do general plan amendments this is the first step in a long process to get a development out there. Heath and I have met with developers a number of times and we are pretty comfortable with the general plan. In Oct they will be on the agenda for a general plan meeting and between now then they will have public meetings we will have two public hearing one with P& Z and the other with Town Council to approve or disapprove. Looking at this you see the green sliver that is what Heath and I pushed though so those homes are protected with open space behind the houses on Fairway. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux ask the width and the answer was 250 ft avg. Tonight we just wanted to give to you information. Again this is the every first step in a long process. This will take some time but the general plan needs to be done to help them with the process. Then after that we will talk about the annexation, the overlay, plans and streets and get more into detail. We will also have an Attorney look at it and will draft a development agreement.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION: Pursuant to A.R.S. Section 38-431.03 (A)(7) the Council may go into Executive Session to consult with the Town Attorney for legal advise.

Terry ask to go into Executive Session with Attorney Welker, himself, Heath Brown and Lona Duncan

 

Vice Mayor Mulleneaux made motion to go into Executive Session and Councilman Innes seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous at 8:45

 

A.         Decision on Executive Session.

            None

 

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:

 

A.         Town Manager’s Report:       

 

Terry said tomorrow school starts we are very pleased with the street department and we also did some work at the Post Office. Vice Mayor Mulleneaux what Council to know that the Post Office Mistress said she was very happy with how the Post Office turned out. Terry said we will see tomorrow how it works with the mom’s dropping their kids off but we do believe it will be safer. Mayor Rivera asked Terry to relay a thank you to the crew.

Terry said Heath and I have been working with an engineer to fine tune the swimming pool project we will have our finished product for you next month and then after you look at it we will have two public meetings. Councilman Innes said there are a lot of community people that would like to help and Allison Stiles said the Ft Lowell pool in Tucson is one you might want to look at and she would be interested in helping.

Terry reported Heath made his presentation for the transportation enhancement grant at the Tact meeting and we ranked number three we thought it was great. It will now go to the State so we still have a chance of getting it funded. Councilman Innes ask we had to fund any of it and Heath said we have to pay 5.7% of 750 thousand. There are up front costs that we have to pay like plans.

Terry said with the stimulus grant we have which should be a 4 day but there is so much red tape to do if we get it bid out by March we will be lucky. We have done everything we can do we are waiting on ADOT consultants. Information on our Cops grant out of the number that was submitted they had 14% of the total approved.  The things they looked at was if you had lay off’s the amount of crimes which all worked against us. Chief Stevens said no one is Graham County received the grant.

The State cut another 14 or 15 Resource Officers but ours is still here which if Officer West.

As of Sept 5th our Police Department will start law enforcement activity at the Golf Course. City of Safford is asking us to do that and we will use the Town code on that. Chief Payne asked if that included fire and Terry said he would have to verify that. Mayor Rivera asked out the garbage collection. Terry said that David Kincaid was reviewing that.

In the budget we put the cell phone policy making the cell phone a personal responsibility. I have a list of those required to use phone. In the next 3 to 4 weeks we will phrase that policy in. Councilman Innes asked about looking into it for Tye Stewart she uses her personnel phone for town business. If we don’t have them on the list of having to have a phone they can request it and we then will look at the need and the tearing system to see what your usage would be we have decided that the police will be required to have a phone.

Mayor Rivera asked about the status on the 20th  Ave Enhancement grant concerning the sidewalks. Heath said they had to buy some right a way of 750 sq ft from the Safford High School that was just cleared and the other clearance is the railroad they are suppose to move ahead with or without the railroad and if we don’t get that easement they we will leave it out and Safford will come back and do it on their own. Heath said it is right now held up in ADOT planner. Mayor asked if it was a sidewalk on each side of the road and Heath said it will be 6ft. wide. Heath said taking a wild guess it will not be this year but maybe next summer it will be finished.

 

B.         Fire Department Report.

 

Chief Payne said we are working on financing the fire truck. Terry said we are working on the performance bond what happens is in order to get the discount we have to pay for it upfront but if we pay upfront we have to have the performance bond and we are trying to get him to send  it so Mr. Welker and I can review it. We have two pretty good offers one from Zions Bank which is a little better than the truck company. So at this point we are waiting on the performance bond.

Chief Payne said we are grearing up for fire school next month some of the classes got cancelled so we are adjusting that. In October we have the BFF Conference which we are going to sponsor for the State .We are going to cut it down to only 2 days this year but that will be a lot of work for us. We appreciate the opportunity of getting this truck especially if this Golf Course project goes through.

 

C.        Police Department Report.

 

Chief Stevens said just to let you know David Perkins son was hurt last night and was flown to University Medical Center and I understand he has staples in head but doing well. Chief Stevens said that National Night Out went every well I heard a lot of good things and had a lot of good help Officer West was the police liasson and he did a good job. We had more people attend than last year. Mayor Rivera said he thought it was the biggest turn out he had seen. Chief said he wasn’t sure how many people but we cooked 512 hot dogs and we ran out. Mayor Rivera said how do thank everyone from the National Guard to Fire Dept to people who did the games and all the great volunteers. Chief said the first year I was here they had a dinner out at the Golf Course for the volunteers. That might be something we can do again. Mayor Rivera said this Council is all for that they do a lot of work. Terry said they work on it year round. Chief said today we did get a grant of 6000 thousand for a in car camera and a new radar for Everett’s grant car. We will be out the first week of school we are going to check the new bus route and make sure people understand what to do.

 

Mayor River said he thought is was a great thing to do having a movie theater at the new project. Terry said they did that in Kearny and it turned out real good we showed G rated movies on Friday night. We have talked about it here and having it in the Thatcher Park on the soccer field.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

 

            A.         Safe House- Councilman Griffin said at the June meeting they elected officers for the next year and the next meeting will be in September. As you may have seen in the paper they got there security training with the County. Treasury is myself, Marie Kouts Vice President and Pastor Bob is the President.

 

            B.         Chamber of Commerce- Councilman Merriman said the position for the Executive closes on the 24th and there were 34 people that applied. The books are coming for the Salsa Fiest there will be 8 balloons and the train ride will be for 3 days. The train depot was bought back by the railroad and they are going to fix it up.

 

            C.        SEAGO- Mayor Rivera said they had a meeting July 31 in Benson and they gave a presentation about the Az Quality Q it was very interesting. Heath mention San Carlos tribe is going to join Seago will also be a member of CAG. Councilman Merriman said they have to redo the bylaws in order for  that to happen.

 

            D.        Arizona Foundation. Councilman Larson said they had a meeting last month and another one next Tuesday. We are in the process of organizing and we have some new members. We are thinking of having a booth at fair so more people understand what the organization is about so we might get more people to donate to a good cause.  There are a lot of good organization that assist people in varies ways. Mayor Rivera asked if this Arizona Foundation is a charter like Graham County and get money from that foundation. Terry said it is a Non Profit Corporation 501C and over the years of donations they have seed money and with that seed money they give out grants to other non profits based on there need and what the board has decided to do projects. The more seed money the more donations can be given. We have been participating since the State of Arizona started it and they used to match what we gave. Councilman Larson said there are different investments with that depending on what is going on with the State but we usually get about 20 thousand for people in the community to request money for their needs. Last year we gave a little to everyone.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

Councilman Innes made the motion to adjourn and Vice Mayor Mulleneaux seconded the motion. Meeting adjourned at 9:35pm

 

A     ATTEST:

 

A     APROVED:

 

     _____________________                                           _____________________

     Lona Duncan, Town Clerk                                           Robert Rivera, Mayor

 

 

      CERTIFICATION

 

       I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the regular/special meeting of the Town Council of the       Town of Thatcher held on the 11th day of August 2009.  I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present.

 

______________________

Lona Duncan, Town Clerk