Prescott Valley Approves Infrastructure Plan Paving Way for 20-35% Development Impact Fee Hikes; Public Testimony Contests Surveillance Program and Campaign Flyer Claims

Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] town of Presa Valley regular town council meeting. Council, please log in. clerk, just confirm. We have a quorum. Next up, I'd like to welcome down uh Cheetah Olsen, Pres Valley PD Chaplain, for invocation and to lead us in the pledge. Welcome. Thank you, sir. If we could just bow our heads, please.

Heavenly Father, as we gather here this evening, we want to thank you for your continuous protection over our residents, our families, and our community. We ask tonight for your divine wisdom. I ask that you would grant these leaders insight to serve with integrity and compassion, always seeking the common good. We also pray for clarity. Clear away any confusion amidst complex issues and help us communicate with transparency and respect.

I l I ask Lord that you would give this council unified vision for the prosperity of our town. And may everything accomplished today bring honor to you and lasting benefit to our community. In your name we pray. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the toies, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, ma'am. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So move. I'll second. Council member Thoron. How would how do you wish to vote? Thank you.

That passes unanimously. Thank you, ma'am. Next up, proclamation. First one is a very extremely important one. Code compliance specialist appreciation month. Whereas code compliance specialists provide for safety and welfare of the citizens throughout the United States through the enforcement of local codes or ordinances facing various issues of building zoning housing animal control, environmental health, and life safety.

And whereas code compliance specialists often have a challenging and demanding role and often do not receive recognition for the job that they do in improving living and working conditions for residents and businesses of local communities.

And whereas code compliance specialists are dedicated and highly qualified professionals who share the goals of preventing neighborhood deterioration, enhancing and ensuring safety and preserving property values through knowledge and application of housing, zoning, and nuisance codes and ordinance.

And whereas code compliance specialists often have a highly visible role in the communities they serve and regularly interact with a variety of state officials, county officials, first responders, legislative boards, commissions, agencies, and bodies. Whereas code compliance specialists are called upon to provide quality customer service and excellence to the residents and businesses of the communities in which they serve.

And whereas the American Association of Code Enforcement wants to recognize and honor code compliance specialists and professionals across the United States and bring awareness to the importance of code compliance to the communities of the United States. And whereas the American Association of Code Enforcement was established in 1988 for the purposes of providing ongoing training and support for code compliance professionals working in the United States.

Now therefore, I kgura, mayor of the town of Presca Valley, to hereby proclaim the month of October as National Code Compliance Specialist Month. Thank you. Thank you, mayor and council, for recognizing code compliance appreciation month and more importantly, the work that our code compliance team does. Our team does work that isn't always easy, but it makes a real difference in our community.

They approached their work with professionalism, fairness, and genuine commitment to helping residents and keeping Presca Valley a great place to live. I'm very proud of our team and grateful that the council is taking the time tonight to recognize their hard work. Thank you. Yeah. All right. The town is also recognizing uh this month as ovarian cancer awareness month. There's just no one here to accept the proclamation. Moving on, scheduled announcements and presentations. Mr. Betti.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on what is happening at the Presc Valley Chamber of Commerce. As I always say, our mission is pretty simple. We advocate for business, we provide educational resources, and we connect people. And when we do those those three things well, we are not only helping our businesses, but more importantly helping build a better Prescuit Valley.

So, let me give you a quick update as to what has been happening. Let me start first with with something that occurred just last weekend, our 33rd annual Pong Horn Golf Tournament. We had what I like to call perfect chamber weather. It was beautiful and we had 68 golfers out and supporting the chamber. Congratulations to team Travis who took first place followed by Adams Bank and Trust and we had the CEO from Adams Bank and Trust, Mr.

Jessup Adams, who actually flew in from Nebraska to participate in the golf tournament. We had the longest drive and closest to the pin competitions and some great raffle prizes and plenty of friendly competition. But as much as we enjoy getting out and playing on a golf course, what makes these events really meaningful is what they allow us to do for our community. Through our 50/50 raffle, we raise enough money to award another Chamber Foundation scholarship.

That is something we are particularly proud of. Every time we turn a chamber event into an opportunity to invest or reinvest, I should say, in a student and their future, we create an impact that goes well beyond one day on the golf course. And I want to give a special shout out to Vice Mayor Matt Cersea for participating. I think I even saw his name on the leaderboard. Where you were on the leaderboard, I'll let you tell that story.

The next big initiative I'd like to talk about is Prescuit Valley Restaurant Week, which runs from October 9th through the 18th. We are excited about this event. Right now, we have a little over 30 restaurants signed up and we're still adding participants. The goal is simple. Get people out of their kitchens and into our local restaurants.

We want residents to try something new, revisit an old favorite, bring their family, invite their friends, and experience the incredible variety of food we have right here in this town. They compete. The the complete list of participating restaurants is available on both the Prescuit Valley Chamber website and Explore PB websites. Residents will be able to find who's participating, promotional information, and menu selections all in one place.

And there is another piece of the marketing effort we are particularly excited about. Residents should watch their mailboxes on October 3rd, we're told, for our official restaurant weeks coupon mailer. This will be a great way to promote the event and give restaurants another reason, give residents another reason to get out and support our local residents restaurants over those 10 days. And of course, we had a little compet we will have a little competition.

There are some serious bragging rights at stake here because the competition is completely customer-driven. People who visit participating restaurants will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite in two categories. best breakfast and lunch and best dining spot. The winner will receive what we affectionately call our own version of the Stanley Cup, the restaurant week traveling trophy. Last year, we only had one category and Back Burner is a is a current defending champion.

So, Back Burner now has a target on them for com for to take over possession of sole place. We look forward to seeing who takes home the traveling trophy in each category. Most importantly, restaurant week is another opportunity to remind our residents that when we support local and shop local, we are directly in supporting the people who live, work, and invest right here in our town. I also want to take a moment to recognize our newest chamber members.

We are excited to welcome Nikking and Adult Services, Redwing Shoes, Yavapai County Education Service Agency, Docin Health, Margaret M. Kosiba Loan Officer, Swift Movers, and Ghettos High Desert Mechanical. We are grateful that each of these organizations and individuals have chosen to join the Prescuit Valley Chamber of Commerce. Our membership continues to grow and that's important because a chamber is only as strong as the businesses and organizations who that participate in it.

When businesses join the chamber, they aren't just buying a membership. They are being part of a network of people who believe in Prescuit Valley and want to see this community continue to grow and prosper. So to all our newest members, welcome to the chamber family. Another program that continues to gain momentum is our business academy.

We have kept the business academy going strong through the end of this year and I'm particularly encouraged because we have already receiving interest from people who want to participate in next year's program. The business academy is designed to develop our current and future business leaders by providing education resources connection and practical information that they can apply in their own businesses.

We talk a lot about economic development and sometimes economic development gets reduced to attracting new businesses and or building a new project which is important make no mistake. But economic development is also about developing the people who are already here. It's about helping someone become a better leader, helping an entrepreneur understand how to run a business, and giving our next generation of business leaders the tools they need to succeed.

That is what the business academy is all about and we're excited about where it is headed. Finally, I want I want to uh make sure everyone knows about an event happening this coming Sunday from 1 to 5:00 p.m. at Mountain Valley Park. It is de la community which translates to bridges of the community. This is a familyfriendly event hosted in partnership with the Hispanic Business Association and our Presca Valley Police Department. The purpose is simple.

Build bridges with our Hispanic community and create opportunities for people to come together. And we're going to have a lot of fun while we're doing it. There will be great food, mariachis, and face painting and bounce house for the kids and quite honestly probably for the parents as well.

We also will have the Folk Laura dancers which is always a great experience and apparently we're going to see some dancing from our own Chief Bob Tyer that itself is worth the price of admission which is free by the way. This is exactly the type of event that demonstrates what a community can do and accomplish when we work together. In closing, when I look at everything we have going on right now, I am truly encouraged. We are supporting local businesses.

We are creating opportunities for our restaurants. We are investing in students through our foundation. We are developing future business leaders through our business academy. And we're welcoming new chamber of commerce businesses and we're bringing people together through events like plante de la community. Our theme at the chamber is connecting commerce and cultivating community.

And I believe those words really capture what we're trying to accomplish because a business does not doesn't exist in a vacuum. The restaurants, the contractors, the professional services, nonprofits, educators, healthc care providers, and entrepreneurs who call Prescuit Valley home are all part of what makes this community special. So, mayor, vice mayor, council members, thank you for your continued support and and partnership. And to everyone here today, I encourage you to get involved.

Come out to plante de cumidata on Sunday. Take part in restaurant week. Support one of our local businesses because when we support our businesses, we support Prescuit Valley. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next up, call the public. At this time, members of the public may comment on matters listed on the agenda 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 to 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, mayor, we have five people registered and first one is Lawrence Nigel. Good evening, members of the council, administrative staff.

I'm here tonight to make my commendation for outstanding delivery of exceptional services to our community by the neighborhood services department. Uh, I personally had um interaction with them when I took advantage of a marvelous um service that you provide called the toolbox. It's great. Uh, I had the opportunity since I don't have weeds on my property because I've got artificial turf and well manicured shrubs, etc. There are others in the neighborhood who have weeds going crazy.

So, I just do it as a neighborly gesture. I go and uh whack their weeds, but I don't have a weed whacker. I got rid of mine because I didn't need it. So, I went to the neighborhood services. I was greeted by the code enforcement officers and Tracy Lero, the manager. I found them to be extremely cordial, friendly welcoming and serviceoriented.

Especially, I want to recognize Brent Bo Bowen and Anthony Jackson, both the code compliance officers who serviced or gave me the tools and then had to take them back and set them off for repairs. It's a story I won't bore you with, but I had to come come in three times to get and then the last one, the wheel fell off and I found the the nut and bolt and all that and repaired it and finished the job and brought it back.

But I have to say that if all the departments in this town uh use this as an example to deliver exceptional services to your community, I congratulate them for doing an excellent job and thank them for their courtesy uh making me feel like I was welcomed, making me feel that that uh I wasn't just there to pick up tools, but I was an honored member of the of the community which I didn't have to live here more than two years to be treated and um I wanted very much to recognize them in a public forum and bring you something positive for a change.

Thank you. Thank you sir clerk. Next up Frederick welcome sir. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you so much for your time. Uh my name is Frederick Ho. I'm a public affairs specialist with the Office of Disaster Relief out of California. I'm sorry, Office of Disaster Recovery. I'm here to share some important information uh in reference to the recent pocket fires that can assist business owners and nonprofit organizations.

Uh we offer uh assistance in the form of a economic injury disaster loan, also called an idol loan. Small businesses can qualify for assistance if they were impacted by the pocket fire and saw a loss in revenue for up to $2 million um for up to 30-year term uh at 4% interest with no payment and no interest for the first 12 months. Nonprofits, that includes churches, are also eligible for this program and they may qualify for the same amount um at an interest rate of 3.6%.

Again, no interest, no payments for the first 12 months. These are considered working capital loans that help pay things like um utilities, payroll, uh rent, leases, uh inventory. There are several different ways which you can apply. You can go to sba.gov/disaster. You can also call our customer service number at 1 8006592955. For those who would like some personal one-on-one assistance, they can go to one of our business recovery centers. We have two of them.

One is located in Flagstaff at the Moonshot Accelerator Building on North Gemini. Their hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 4:30. We also have one down in Sedona at the Chamber of Commerce Administrative Building at 45 Sunset Drive. Their hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 5:00. Um, the application deadline is generous. It's not until 11 May of 2027. I left some information sheets with a QR code at the uh table by the front entrance. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, sir. Laura Coell. Welcome, ma'am. Hello. Uh my name is Laura Coll. I'm a small business owner here in Presca Valley. And tonight I wanted to talk about the Presca Valley poll results. Uh, nextgen polling surveyed 808 local voters from September 17th to the 20th. The results were weighted with a supported margin of error of 3.8 percentage points. 59.5% opposed flock camera use and 36.1% supported it.

The poll also found that 56.8% 8% believe the cameras help solve crimes or find missing people. That answer is part of the results, too. [laughter] 78.5% were concerned about potential misuse, including personal searches or sharing data without their knowledge. 80% supported independent audits and public reporting, but not sorry, not just an internal review, an independent audit with results made public.

76.6% wanted public presentation and council approval before camera program starts or significantly expands. When asked what should happen next, 56.3% wanted camera use decreased or eliminated. 34.7% wanted it maintained or or increased. And this discussion is happening across Arizona since September 2025. Sedona, Flagstaff, Sierra Vista, South Tucson, Surprise, Tempe, Cave Creek, and PAC have ended their flock agreements or announced that they are ending them.

Chandler shut down its 40 flock cameras. Panal County Sheriff's Office announced it would not renew its contract. Cottonwood also just deactivated its readers. Those decisions are not all identical. Ending a flock contract does not always mean ending every license plate reader system. But tonight I'm asking about Presca Valley. We have the poll results. We know what the people surveyed said. Now I'd like to hear from this council and how will you respond?

And for the record, my prior objections, open meeting law complaint, public records request, and preservation of demands remain unchanged. My participation is not consent to the program or ratification of prior actions and I reserve all my rights and remedies. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Clerk Bruce Tanki. Welcome, sir. Mayor, council, I'd like to bring up a You just might need to move that microphone a little bit. Yours is a little bit taller than the previous speaker. That's it.

After uh coming to a previous meeting and listening to Bruce Evans pat himself on the back three times about the Amazon deal, um I brought my attention to the last uh issue of the Tribune where he stated citizen groups were against the 20 acre Amazon parcel which is my understanding is a 100 acre parcel and they had control of it for so many years and then they could do whatever they wanted with the other 80.

So, I don't know if we're being misrepresented by this individual, but it would like to bring it to uh public's attention that that's what my understanding is. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Clerk Joe Colossimo. Welcome, sir. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Joe Coloss, resident of Prescat Valley. [clears throat] I wanted to make some clarifications on a couple of comments that were made at our last council meeting. Uh Mr.

Nigel spoke regarding the board president of Stone Ridge confronting two people handing out flyers regarding Prop 404 in the neighborhood. And what Mr. Nigel said was true. The board president called those people liars. But why did the board president say that? Because when your flyer is knowingly telling people that if they vote no they will stop the mine when in fact it does not.

When the flyer says to vote no for no new mines near homes when in fact a no vote puts the gravel pit closer to more homes. It's a gravel pit not a mine.

When your flyer scares people into believing that they will be poisoned to death by silica when there has never been one case of that, including with the gravel pit workers themselves since the existence existence of the pit in when your flyer tells people to vote no so there will be no heavy trucks on the road when in fact a no vote puts those trucks on Stone Ridge Drive, Highway 69, and Glford Hill Road.

and the above facts are easily available, but you still put out your flyer anyway, that makes you a liar. The Stone Ridge board president was within his authority to question and confront the false information being distributed to his fellow neighbors in his neighborhood. A former mayoral candidate should understand that. Furthermore, Mr. Nagel and his friends have made it clear that they want me off a planning and zoning commission, not because of my performance as a commissioner.

No, they have made this personal. Mr. Nagel himself has made calls to the town manager who has nothing to do with appointments or dismissals of commissioners, and a former candidate for mayor should know that, demanding I get taken off, saying I am quote unstable. Yet he has gone on social media to spread his hate about me to everyone. I'm not on social media. So who is the unstable one? He has never bothered to have a conversation with me.

Personal vendettas are what could make the new code of conduct and ethics being proposed very dangerous. Council, if I'm not serving this town competently as a commissioner, you should vote me off. [applause] But this has nothing to do with my ability to serve and you know it. Thank you, sir. Clerk, no one else. Mayor, thank you, ma'am. Council comments. I'll start to my right. Councilman, no.

Councilwoman, I said, uh, I just would like to start off with thanking everyone that was out at the healing fields last weekend, um, removing all the flags and and getting them all securely put away. There's a great turnout, Ryan, and it is a special time. So, I just want to thank all the volunteers that were out there. Thank you, Councilman. Last week, uh Gilbert Davidson and uh Tracy Lond and myself attended the uh state of the Verdie River uh watershed conference up in Camp Verde.

And uh it was very pleasing to see all the work that's been done and that's being done to uh try to conserve the river uh improve the water quality. Uh and there's other parts of it that were that were significant to us. Uh one was a prongghorn connectivity um by Jeff Gagnen from the Arizona Game and Fish Department. And uh the other was about the uh Del Rio uh Springs land acquisition and and the future of that. And uh I don't know if Mr.

Davidson has anything to add to that, but anyway, thank you, Mr. Davidson, you're up for manager's report. Uh Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Yes, it was a a great conference. even the one hour on um snails. Um that was fascinating uh learning about the snails. But there were some really good sessions uh and some good takeaways. So for our community uh we do, as a reminder, there's the fall festival uh next weekend, October 3rd, here at the Civic Center campus. It's a great family fun event.

It's from 11 to 4. uh lots of uh free activities um for all age groups and entertainment and so come on out for that. And we're also starting the annual uh updates to the community. So we've uh last night visited the Ponghorn HOA. Next Tuesday, we have an open session here in the council chambers at 3:30 p.m.

So, that's open to anyone in the community that wants to come and learn from all of the different departments, uh, different projects that we're working on, uh, and ask questions to learn more. So, that's again next Tuesday, September 29th at 3:30 here in the council chambers. Thank you. 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 consent agenda. It will be considered separately. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Mayor, make a motion to approve the consent agenda items 9A through 90 by electronic vote. I second. Cler, please call vote. Mayor, that passes unanimously. Thank you, ma'am. Next up, comprehensive fee schedule update. Believe Miss Bristo, you're going to lead us off. Welcome. Good evening. Thank you.

Stacy Bristo, development services director, mayor, vice mayor, council members, town staff, and community members. Um, yes, we're here to talk about fees. That's always really exciting. People are always really happy to hear about potential adjustments to fees. Um, it's been a long, long, long time since there's been a comprehensive fee update.

Um, I want to say a special thanks to the town manager, my business analyst, um, Amanda, finance department, and our consultant who's going to be presenting virtually here in just a few minutes with a semi- brief presentation. Um, we have, sorry, I brought the wrong glasses tonight. Um, we have a couple of thoughtful options for council. So, um, there was a lot of thought behind all of this process.

So, there's going to be, um, some unique options for you to take a look at like phased approaches and those kinds of things. So, I'm very excited to share that with you. And then also I wanted to let you know that we've had two initial um discussions with the YCCA group um proposing and sharing some of the information.

Um as time moves forward over the next 60 days or so we're going to be going back and doing more detailed work with that group as well to get into the weeds and some of the questions that they may have regarding this. So um with that I'm going to hand it over to my consultant and then I'll come up towards the end of the presentation um for one slide that I would like to share and then we'll go um for questions after that. So I believe he's up and ready. Go ahead and take it away Robert.

Thank you. Okay. Uh, can everyone hear me? Okay. Yes, sir. You're good. Okay, great. Uh, mayor, members of council, thank you for having me. My name is Bob McDermott. I work with PFM, Public Financial Management. We are headquartered in Philadelphia where I'm I'm uh uh speaking with you today. Um, going over the fee study findings that we have for the development services department.

Uh just to give some background on this presentation, our our objective here was to look at the the fee schedule for development services um and understand what the the cost of providing the services is based on the the relative to the uh fee levels that are actually being charged. So we're looking at the current fees, understanding operations, benchmarking against a comparator group, a local group of jurisdictions, uh analyzing cost recovery.

So taking into account discussions with uh department uh members of the department across the town um and then understanding what based on those based on those uh the inputs that we received from the department um understanding cost, how you compare and then presenting some options. So these are not prescriptions. I'm not saying exactly what you should do. It's more just what you can do based on the information that we found.

Um, so our our outcome here is to provide a datadriven framework to support informed decision-m by leadership. Uh, so as part of this presentation, we covered 66 individual fee proposals. We have I have a longer version of this presentation which covers every fee. This is a consolidated version which I I'll go through uh relatively quickly. I also have revenue estimates.

Um, and I and I just really want to make sure that it's clear that there's several options for some new fees that have no historical baseline. Several existing fees that are changing structures or have some variance in fee volume from year to year. So this is a a directional estimate. This is a very high level estimate uh based on the information that we have. So I just want to be very clear uh with that.

So, as I mentioned, we looked at total fees analyzed 62 based on discussions with the with the departmental leadership that we recommended to change uh new fees that are currently not charged that may be an option uh for implementation. And then four, again, based on the the discussion with departmental leadership that we don't recommend uh changing.

And then here's uh some estimates as I mentioned high level estimates of fee revenues based on what I call year three revenues which is if the town were to implement the full cost of service fees that match the full cost of providing the service based on the estimates that we have. [clears throat] So I I work on fee studies and the the framework that we use for evaluating fees. First we you answer we ask three questions. First cost recovery.

So there's a a fee that's being charged, revenue being collected. First question are do revenues offset the cost of providing the service? What is the relationship between what is being charged and what it's costing the municipality? Second, we we tend to look at comparability. So looking at local jurisdictions, similarly structured jurisdictions. So you know what are they doing? How do they impose these fees? Not only at at fee level, how much they're charging, but how are the fees structured?

That's that's something we also look at. And then also policy. So should the service where a fee is being charged fully pay for itself or should it be subsidized by tax revenues? And uh just an example that I would give is is library services. Um the cost recovery is not paramount for uh as part of a policy goal for the [clears throat] reason for implementing the fee. So there isn't as direct of a relationship. So we we just wanted to contextualize how we approach fee studies.

So, as I mentioned, the the primary analysis as part of this fee study is the cost of service analysis. So, we take into account the direct labor cost. So, the amount of time it takes staff to complete certain um certain tasks, whether that's plan reviews, inspections, letters, permit releases, etc. The indirect labor, so the uh we adjust based on the hours that they actually work. You know, staffing has PTO, sick time, etc.

uh we incorporate the costs of health care, retiree uh contributions, other benefits etc. We we include operating costs you know it's not just simply the hourly rates that are being uh that that are costing the town uh money but also utilities maintenance printing costs etc. Then we have indirect cost allocations which are centralized services that provide services for other departments like budget payroll human resources they provide services to other departments.

So we incorporate those costs as well. This is standard methodology. Um so this just elaborates a little bit more on what I just went over. Indirect labor hours, operating costs. So for for this instance, operating costs includes just the the costs of running development services, professional service contracts, technology costs, utilities, etc. Um and then indirect cost allocation. We include HR, legal, finance, the town manager's office, creative services.

Um, and then I I detail exactly how those are incorporated into our model. So, three important caveats, the the time estimates that we used or were provided by staff in discussion with staff. Um, the benchmarking that we used attempts to compare structurally similar fees. So other uh jurisdictions may have different structures for how they charge fees or how they describe fees. We we attempted to use the the best apples to apples comparison, but every jurisdiction is different.

So this is our our best attempt at at providing apples to apples comparisons. Um and then uh cost of service is a a reference point. This is based on the estimates that we have, the information that we have. It's not strictly a recommendation for what the town should do. This is showing what the cost of providing each service is when there's a fee associated. So just an example of the process for understanding the cost of service. We map the process. So step one is application intake.

Then there's legal review and then there's plan review. Then we get the staff time for in this instance the director an hour and a half planner one three and a half hours. We apply those overhead rates the the fully loaded rates that I discussed you taking into account benefits departmental overhead and then we develop findings for achieving cost recovery. So understanding what the full what the full cost of services based on those inputs.

So as [clears throat] I mentioned uh we we did benchmarking as part of as part of our fee study. Uh we used a combination uh primarily we used pres uh Prescuit Flagstaff Marina uh Queen Creek Yavapai County and then in some instances Aendale Goodyear and Oro Valley for for building related fees. So as I mentioned fee structures vary widely there's different units different calculation methods.

So general comparisons sometimes are are not possible but um but in in many instances they are very comparable. Um and then I included a sample here for appeals and interpretations. Um you know as and you know the question being why are these types of fee studies important? Um you know why are we doing this work? Um it it takes effort and to and legislative effort to update fee schedules.

There there there is a generally usually a fee study conducted and it requires action on behalf of of a legislative body to update fee schedules. And we see this um in a lot of municipalities and I and I gave uh I included some of the comparable jurisdictions and when they most recently updated their fee schedules and there's there's some variance there. Certain fees can be updated one year and not the entire fee schedule.

But um I in the comp group it it ranges pretty widely from uh all the way back to the the early 2000s to most recently uh 2025. So there is a a wide variance there. So some of these fee schedules may be updated um in the coming years, but this is just where we are now. [clears throat] So we we took the department the development services fees and and did the the comparisons by uh different categories. So I I consolidated a lot of our findings into again this shorter presentation.

And I have a longer presentation uh just for all of the individual fees, but just to highlight the kind of larger points. Um here I'll show some examples. So, as part of the building permit fees, um, since these are based on a valuation schedule that are that are structured differently, we attempted to show an example of a two a property that would be valued new construction at $250,000 and and how based on these valuation tables, Prescuit Valley compares.

uh Prescuit Valley uh currently for a $250,000 property building permit would be 978 based on the proposed fee schedule. The the updated valuation table if that were to be implemented. Uh the the red bar shows where Prescuit would Prescuit Valley would stand. Um planning fees. Prescuit Valley planning fees are among the the lowest in the group uh and leave the most room for cost recovery. Um so I I have two examples here. Landsplit minor land division and then major general plan amendments.

And this is the base fee that we're showing here. Um there are also additional acreage charges. Um by year three both fees as I show in the chart would reach full cost recovery and then you can see how they match in the group. again if full cost recovery were to be implemented.

I also have and I'm sure this is uh not legible uh just given the size of the text but we we go through each of the fees under planning currently in terms of of ranking just where uh in terms of fee levels where Prescuit Prescuit Valley ranks um usually at the at the end of the group the the lowest uh fees currently being charged and then if the the full cost of service by year three were to be implemented oh again let me let me make sure that I describe What I mean by year three, um, when we show we we showed a a a plan if full cost of service were to be implemented over three years.

So you take the full cost of service, let's say it's $1,000 for a fee and currently um, Prescuit Valley is charging $250.

there's a a we we take that difference and divide it over three years and then include a 3% growth of costs by the town which is just based on historical averages and um again it's so so I just wanted to make sure that I covered exactly what the year three so if the town were to implement the the full cost of service over three years that's what the fee would be in that one column and the town would have in in many of the instances the the the highest fee.

Again, this is just showing an illustrative example of where the town would stand. Um, for subdivision fees, uh, based on current rates, Prescuit Valley has the lowest base fee and lowest per lot rate for both plat reviews. So, the full gap is is a little bit wider than what is shown. Um, if the full cost of service were to be implemented in this year three proposal, you can see where Prescat Valley would would stand.

uh going from the the the the the lowest in the comp group to near the median for preliminary plat and then um at the top for final plat. And here's a breakdown of how the uh each fee within subdivisions break down believe in every instance except for um final plan developments based on current rates. Prescuit Valley is the charges the lowest rates of the of the comp group. And as you'll see here, um, in some instances there's seven comps that have a real apples to apples comparison.

Sometimes it goes down to four. Again, in our attempt to show, um, apples to apples comparisons um, based on the comp group. And then Prescate Valley would if if full cost of service were to be implemented kind of move out of that that base of of being the of charging the lowest rate among the comp group. Zoning fees a very similar story. Prescuit Valley's reszoning fees the the lowest in the group by a wide margin.

Um we include also a zoning verification letter which uh for for minor uh minor cases. This is a new fee that was being proposed. Um, so charges nothing today. So the lowest of the group at at nothing. Um, while peers are charging 50 to 250. Um, at full cost of service, this would be $78, which still uh would keep Crescuit Valley within the the median of the of the comp group. And here's a breakdown. Again, this is a very similar story among most of the fees that we examined.

Prescuit Valley's current um current fee schedule being the the lowest of the group and then cost of service, the actual cost of service that we estimated being much higher than the fees that are currently being charged. Similar story for for grading fees. the lowest in the group.

We used a a 100,000 cubic yard example to show what's currently being charged and then based on a proposed fee schedule um where the town would uh would stand among the the comp group being in the in the median inspection fees. Um, this this one is is a little bit tougher because many of the other jurisdictions may charge minimums uh a minimum number of hours outside of normal business hours.

Currently, the town is is not charging an overtime rate, but staff is um is earning overtime when they are working or inspecting outside of normal business hours. That's something that we flagged and our recommendation. Again, we're not making a lot of hard recommendations here, but charging uh the actual hourly rate is something that we do recommend. So charging an hourly rate that incorporates overtime rates when those are um being paid to staff.

We include some additional detail here for inspections and fees with a very similar story of the town being currently the lowest uh rate being charged. Um in this instance for inspections and fees, the town moves towards the median instead of uh towards the front of the group in terms of fee levels if full cost of service were to be implemented.

We have board of adjustment fees um showing here appeals and interpretations prescuit valley's fee being far and away the lowest of the of the c of the comp group and then showing full cost of service year three again using that those growth assumptions that we include. Um the town would would still not be um the highest of the comp group if the full cost of service were to be implemented. And here's a breakdown of fee by fee uh fee by fee details for the board of adjustments.

There's some other fees as well that we include. Temporary certificates of occupancy for commercial projects. And then here's where the the current cost of service estimates um again with a three-year implementation would place the city or place the town based on current uh current rates charged by the the comparison group. Okay. So a summary of findings. I know I went through this.

Um there's a lot of detail that's included in this, but I think what's most important is that currently based on the the benchmarking that we conducted, Prescuit Valley is the the lowest cost provider um of the comp group. Um at the same time, these fees are recovering well below the cost of service. Nearly all of the fees fall very short of full cost recovery. Um so there's multiple ways that the town can respond.

either achieving full cost recovery, phasing in increases to have a goal of a certain percentage of cost recovery, um implementing hourly rates, so in or fees are are are charged based on the actual hours that are that are conducted by staff. But again, there's a lot of options here for for what the town can do because of how wide the gap is between the fees that are being charged and the cost of service.

So I think that's that's the most important takeaway is that currently the town again is the pretty much across the board the the lowest has the lowest fees of the of the local jurisdictions that we examined and the cost of service is much higher than what is being charged. So there are a lot of options here as to what the next steps can be. So we show that that phased increase as an option. Um and there's multiple steps.

we we do an an even increase years one, two, and three to achieve full cost recovery in year three. But again, that's that is if full cost recovery is the goal for um those fees in particular. Um I also want to highlight that the large percentage increases that are shown based on the revenue estimates, this this is reflecting a low starting point and not really a aggressive pricing.

So, a fee moving from $500 to $250 may show a $400 increase, but it's only $200 in in dollar terms when another fee of one of the comparable jurisdictions may go from a,000 to 1,200 and it's only showing a 20% increase. So, again, these large increases in a percentage basis are are reflective of how low the fees currently are. Um, so I think what's important is to contextualize all of all of that. Not only where the town is, the cost of service, but how it compares to the local jurisdictions.

We have some other options for consideration. Um, a self-certification program. Uh, so the self-certification program lets registered architects and engineers certified code compliance. So this speeds up the process for for building permits. um this is done in other jurisdictions. Our recommendation just based on what we what we've found in speaking with development services um recommending adopting a a Phoenix style fee.

So there's a $300 intake fee plus hourly work um that occurs after the intake meeting. Um this cuts down on the the time that it takes to approve since um certification can be done outside of of the city's operations. Um and then also credit card processing fees. So, the town is currently subsidizing these fees today. Um, based on the information that I received, it's about it was $48,000 last year. Um, this is something that many municipalities charge.

Currently, it's it's 2.9% of payment volume. So, um, approximately, you know, and it and it does vary a a little bit, but the estimate that we came up with is currently you're paying 2.9% um to uh to in merchant fees relative to what is being charged by cards. So, the town is subsidizing that and and and people who are paying a or cash, check, etc. are effectively subsidizing those costs. So, uh we recommend implementing a credit card fee.

Again, this was based on discussions with the with leadership. Um, and um, again, uh, many jurisdictions, I also want to note, will exempt certain payment types, cash, check, or a in order to provide a a an option that doesn't charge that doesn't include a search charge.

Um also in discussions with leadership there uh are proposals for um uh work order uh uh stop work orders, red tags, zoning violations, um the notice and order postings of 7 $750 and then the zoning violations would be $250 per day up to $2,500 which is the the maximum under um Arizona law. And then we include, you know, these are very similar to some of the other jurisdictions uh that we examined within the the comp group as well. And I believe this is my last slide.

So I don't know if Stacy I can um move to your two slides. Yes, thank you. Um thank you for that presentation. Very helpful. Uh I have a couple comments, but I'll share the slide first. Um I just want to give an example um on the slide where we talked about conditional use permits and if you looked at the the range in the three years where we would be at um one of the top levels um conditional use permits we've only had five.

So from an impact perspective when we think about wow that's going to be a lot of impact we only had five last year. Um this is an example of obviously we're not going to go to true cost recovery. This is an example of two conditional use permits um that we had to work on. Obviously, we're not going to charge $128,000 for conditional use permit, but this is the true time it takes staff on some of these bigger outlier type use permits.

Um, we do have a um two different types of use permits and conditional use permits. So, just wanted you to sort of understand the true burden that it takes um when we're doing these assessments sometimes. Um the full cost recovery rate um that we would be charging is um maybe a different reasonable rate as opposed to what some of these projects actually take in time. So I just wanted you to have awareness to sort of what really does go on behind the scenes on some of these bigger projects.

So that's just an example of that. So thank you for that slide. Um also I just wanted to do a reminder that um none of nothing is retroactive. So for example um the cost of this fee study, the cost of the Asella um software system, none of those things were retroactively or put in here at all. This is just going forward. So none of those costs were recouped in this um in the setup at all.

Um I also wanted to make note that the hourly rate when that um they talked about how we did our assessment about the hourly rate, everybody works at different paces, we took an extremely conservative approach looking at it from the perspective of um how if we were the most efficient possible, what should the hours take to do the job? Um so that's the approach from the hours that we gave him to do that. Um and then temporary certificates of occupancy, that's a new one. Um they're a lot of work.

Um, it's a wonderful offering for the business community to be able to go into their business, generate the sales tax revenue. Um, and that's all really good. Um, but often sometimes landscape, other things aren't done. Um, but when we come back, those punch lists are long and it takes sometimes two to 10 visits and a lot of work to get those things done. And so that's why we're we're taking a look at a fee in that. So, just want to add those.

And then this was um also want to make sure that we offer and are thoughtful to this process. Besides that, we're going to have at least 60 days to go through these things with um YCCA or other members of the community that have input to us um if it's adopted, we're also recommending that um there's a grace period and we wouldn't start until the fiscal year. And that's all I have and all of us are available for questions. We have questions for staff. Councilman. Thanks, ma'am. Thank you.

Moving on. Land use assumption infrastructure improvement plan. Welcome sir. Mayor and council, if you h haven't had enough numbers thrown at you, I'm going to throw a few more out at you for this presentation. I apologize. This is actually the third time that you've seen this PowerPoint. It's part of the process that's laid out by by statute for adopting or amending your impact fees. Could you bring up the presentation? I'll just start in general about impact fees.

They are charged to new development to help offset the cost of infrastructure required to serve that development. There we go. Again, you've seen these slides before. What we're talking about tonight primarily are the streets, police, and the parks fee. What we call the non-utility development impact fees. So the statute again impactes have to have a beneficial use for the development. Um it's adopt they are adopted based on the plan that you are considering tonight.

And I'll just reiterate you're not voting on the actual impact fees tonight. You're only voting on whether or not to approve the infrastructure improvement plan and land use assumptions. So development fees may not be used for any operating cost. they can only be used to fund new infrastructure. So this is the timeline that we have talked to you about several times this year and this is where we are at tonight to consider adoption of that IIP and LUA document.

So following the last public hearing that we had, we had an additional stakeholder meeting. So we made some modifications to the IIP which I will focus on as part of this presentation. You can see the land use assumptions. They are assuming a 1.15% annual growth rate, 2.2 persons per household based on the US census. And the census is also estimating will increase employment by approximately 1300 jobs over the next 10 years. So here I'll go over some of the projects.

On the streets fee, we're primarily focused on three street corridors. One is Viewpoint Drive north of 89A. The second is Glastford Hill Road, which is currently under construction as you are all aware. The third is the Jasper Hill and excuse me, Jasper Hill. There's a new name, Jasper Parkway Construction. That street is ultimately designed to be a four-lane road, two lanes in each direction.

In addition to that, there were there will need to be some improvements made to Highway 69 at some point to include a dual left turn lane as the Jasper subdivision continues to build out and as other residents use that street. So the adjustments that we made in the streets area, we increased the unobligated balance. This is a fund balance that we currently have sitting in the account. So that changed from the last time that we prepared this slide.

We also changed the growth percentages to a 50/50 split on most of the projects. We realized that even though impact fees help fund a new infrastructure, that current residents benefit from that new infrastructure as well. So, what that does and what the fee study shows is what the council can adopt. It's called the maximum supportable fee. The council can always choose to adopt a fee lower than that, but this sets the actual, you know, cap that you can adopt.

So, based on the in information in the infrastructure improvement plan, fees could increase from the current $2,671 up to $3,616 uh for the for a residential or single family home. Multifamily would go from $1,539 up to 2457. And then you can see the non-residential rates there as well. Police the police impact fee is funding only two items. One is the debt service on the existing expansion that was most recently made as well as funding new police vehicles and the associated equipment.

So if the town hires a new police officer, we can't use impact fees to pay the salary of that police officer, but we can use it to purchase a new vehicle and the associated equipment. So that's what the police impact fee is going towards. Based on the results of the study, it could go from the current $44 up to 676 again 341 to 596 for multifamily parks and trails. So we made a few changes here as well. We removed a couple of projects on the park side.

One of those was the Glastford Bells Regional Park, what we were calling the East Gate. We're not likely to make any improvements there over the next several years. So, we removed that project from this study. Uh well, we kept the trails portion in because we are wanting to move forward with trails as part of that park.

We also had a project to construct uh lights at the T-ball field at Mount Valley Park, but we have a separate funding source for that that's already been approved in the current budget. So, we removed that as well. And we did the same thing here. We looked at the percentages of growth versus non-growth and changed those roughly that to 50/50 for most of those projects. End result is again ultimately for single family home the fees could increase from 1469 to654 from 1241 to 1458 for multifamily.

If you look at all the fees combined, so what it represents is the current fee is $6,133. That could increase to $7,535 for single family. For multifamily, 4,119 to 5,59. You see on the non-residential square foot, industrial could actually go down just slightly, which is good for our recruitment efforts for industry to come into town. uh office and other services would see a.37 cent increase. A big increase there is on retails and restaurants going from 394 to potential 724 per square foot.

So how do we compare? You can see our current versus our proposed. So there was a slight adjustment there as far as residential is concerned. a hotel, you know, that would increase slightly, but we're still very competitive with with other jurisdictions and there would be a, you know, an increase on the retail side and that's where you saw that that big number earlier. Uh, we do have Nikki from Rafelis online if you have any technical questions about the report.

We are required by state statute to hire an outside consultant to perform these studies for us. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions, but again, you're you're not voting on fees tonight. You're only voting on the infrastructure improvement plan and land use assistance document. Thank you, sir. Do we have any questions for staff or for Nikki with technical questions to be answered? And I'm sorry, I I may be a little bit confused about um some of the projects that were shown.

They were not on our our CIP plan. How do these relate? Are we approving these projects um even if they weren't on the CIP plan or um I'm I'm not sure. Sure. Well, the when you're adopting impact fees, you have to develop or adopt a separate infrastructure improvement plan. So, it may differ slightly from what's in our 10-year CIP that you approved earlier this year for this fiscal year.

If there are changes that we need to make to align those two documents, you know, this infrastructure improvement plan we've been making changes to after we adopted the 10-year CIP. So, we will make sure that in future editions of our 10ear CIP that those will align. Councilman, there there are like aotments for parks for example and putting up the lights and the structure, but is the ongoing cost of the electricity and maintenance and everything. Is that also considered? It is not included.

You cannot use the limited bite fees for operations. So that's not included in So the the other taxpayers have to cover it. That's correct. Anything else for staff? Well done. Seeing none, I'll enter a motion. Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the land use assumptions infrastructure improvement plan by electronic vote. I'll second. Clerk, please call vote. Mayor, that passes. Thank you, ma'am. Moving on. Item 10 C. Pres Valley Broadcasting Company lease agreement. Mr. Judy. All right.

Mayor Council, when the town purchased Glassford Hill from the state land department, it came with three communications tower on the top of the hill. It was a buy one get three free deal. Uh, one of those towers is owned by the town. We use it for public safety and for our meter reading system. Second tower is used by Kathma for communications. Third tower is used by the Prescali Broadcasting Company. Uh, that tower has existed since 1986. It is a commercial lease.

So, what you have before you is a lease patterned after the same agreement that the state land department had with Prescal Broadcasting Company. Uh, it would bring an additional $7,800 in annual revenue to the town. It would be required to list the town as an additional insured on their insurance. If anything were to ever happen, there's nothing no changes being proposed to the site. It's just the existing tower as it is. It would be a 10-year lease with a option for a 10-year extension.

Happy to answer any questions. Go ahead, sir. How does that rate uh compare to comparable sites in other municipalities in the region? We did not, mayor, council member, we did not compare to other sites, but we took the same rate that the state was assessing to them. I know they typically have appraisers that are appraising those costs. I was informed by by Mr. Cohen Sanford that the state actually increased his rate a couple of years ago to accommodate for that adjustment.

Any other questions for staff? Entertain a motion. Mayor will make a motion for the mayor to sign the lease agreement with Pres Valley Broadcasting Company for the Glastford Hill Tower site by electronic vote. A second. Please call the vote. Mayor, that passes. Thank you, ma'am. Next up, item 10D, proposed town code provision regulating ebikes. Ma'am welcome. Thank you, mayor, members of council. Tracy Lera, neighborhood services director.

Tonight before you is the first read of the proposed ebike ordinance. This ordinance creates a dedicated section of the town code addressing ebikes and other wheeled devices and establishes clear regulations for the operation within the town. Council previously reviewed the ordinance at the last study session and since the discussion, we've made just a two minor changes. We established a fine of $50 per offense and we removed the permit agreement section from the ordinance.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you guys have. And we we kind of talked about this in great great length last time about ebikes. Council questions for MRA. All right. Okay. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. May I'll make a motion to read ordinance number 2026-985 by title on two separate occasions and place the same on final passage by electronic vote. I'll second that passes.

Ordinance number 2026985 an ordinance of the mayor and common council of the town of Presca Valley a municipal corporation of Arizona repealing article 11-6 reserve and reenacting article 11-6 bicycles electric bicycles electric and non-electric powder vehicles and electric personal assisted mobility devices in chapter 11 traffic of the town code providing that all other chapters articles and sections of the town Code not hearing repeal shall remain in full force and effect providing that if any provision in this ordinance is held in valid invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction the remaining provision 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.

Thank you ma'am. Next up item 10 amendment to town code chapter 12 flood plane management. Mr. Lier, welcome. And this is a public hearing. Thank you mayor and councel. John Latir the town engineer. Think we have a Okay. This item before you is an update to chapter 12, which is flood plane management. Um the update is intended to update language in the town code uh based on a review that was done by the Arizona Department of Water Resources. Um this Here we are.

Uh, this is based on a periodic review that's done by ADWR. Uh, it was last reviewed and updated in 2021. So, this past summer, we went through a review with ADWR. They recommended some language to update town code to make it consistent with um with state language and federal language.

Um, I [clears throat] did make a note in here that ADWR did note uh that the town staff has been very proficient in the mapping of flood planes modeling and letter of map changes in keeping with the town town's flood insurance rate map current and accurate. Um, so with that, I'll ask answer any questions. Council, any staff or have any questions for staff on this? As I mentioned, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone out in the audience that wishes to comment on this item?

Seeing none, hearing none, I will close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion. I make a motion to read ordinance number 2026-984 adopting by reference that certain public record entitle chapter 12 flood plane management once by title only on two separate occasions and place the same on final passage by electronic vote. I'll second cl. Mayor, that passes.

Ordinance number 2026984, an ordinance of the mayor and common council of the town of Presca Valley, a municipal corporation of Arizona, amending chapter 12, flood clean management of the town code, providing that all other chapters, article, sections, and subsections of the town code not hearing, repeal, replace, or amended shall remain in full force in effect.

Providing that if any provision in this ordinance is held in valid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provision shall not be effective. shall continue in full force and effect and providing that this ordinance shall be effective 30 days after its passage and approval according to law. Thank you, ma'am. Final item, opioid settlement check and wire transfer. Sir, welcome. Thank you, mayor, council staff.

We've received two checks and a wire transfer from the Yavapai County Community Health Services as a result of settlements at the national level for opioid settlements. uh PD requests permission to accept these funds which will be used for opioid abatement and enforcement and education among other things. Thank you sir. Council have any questions for accepting this? Go ahead sir. How long will these fees continue to be dispersed?

So it's it's not exactly certain but we did some research into that and it could be as much as another 10 years. Thank you. Anything else? Can I have a motion please? Mr. Mr.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve allocation of recently received opioid settlement funds in the amount of 81,239.96 as well as any necessary transfer of budget authority to the PVPD budget for education, purchase of necessary equipment, software for drug investigations, and vehicles as part of enforcement related to the opioid epidemic by electronic vote. A second. Please call vote. Mayor, that passes. Thank you, ma'am. Anything else? Anything else for the good of the order? See none.

Have a great night. [music]