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MINUTES
WICKENBURG COMMON COUNCIL
STUDY SESSION MEETING
Monday, February 10, 2025 - 2:00 P.M.
1980 W. Wickenburg Way – Police Department Training Room
WICKENBURG, ARIZONA 85390
A. CALL TO ORDER – Mayor Bratcher called the meeting to order at 2:03 PM
B. ROLL CALL
Present:
Mayor BG Bratcher
Vice Mayor Brian Jones
Councilmember Kristy Bedoian
Councilmember Shawn Clark
Councilmember Margaret Nyberg
Councilmember Rebecca Rovey
Councilmember Art Rubash
Staff Present:
Troy Smith, Interim Town Manager
Trish Stuhan, Town Attorney
Tim Suan, Deputy Town Manager/Economic Development
Steve Boyle, Community Development Director
Amy Brown, Town Clerk
Les Brown, Police Chief
Robert Martinez, Finance Director
Tarah Mayerhofer, Human Resources Director
Ed Temerowski, Fire Chief
Herschel Workman, Public Works Director
C. NEW BUSINESS
1. Presentation, Discussion, and Direction Between the Common Council and Town
Staff Regarding Council Priorities and Planning for the Town of Wickenburg in FY
2025/26. Presentations may include discussion of the following: Capital
Improvement Projects, Parks Master Plan, Parks and Open Space, Community
Center, Recreation Programs, Revenue Sources, Public Safety, Economic
Development, Code Compliance, Annexation, Public Utilities, Technology,
Citizen Communication, Special Events and Community Quality of Life. The
purpose of the meeting is for staff to present information to the Council to assist
in formulating town priorities and planning.
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 2 of 8
Interim Town Manager Troy Smith stated that he really has two roles for this
meeting, one as the Interim Town Manager and the other as the retreat facilitator.
He brought a cowboy hat for when he has to step in the role of the facilitator to
move the meeting along or to put an item aside for discussion at a later date.
Mayor Bratcher started the meeting by talking about teamwork with each other,
with staff and also with the residents. Her hope today is for this to be a
brainstorming meeting.
Robert Martinez, Finance Director, started with a brief financial update. The
budget timeline is to bring the budget to the Council for a work session in April,
the tentative budget in May and the final budget in June. He provided a revenue
summary for the first six months of FY 2024-25:
Next is a chart specific to the sales tax/Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) numbers
for July – December comparing the current year with the past two years.
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 3 of 8
There are a few notes on the sales tax regarding potential impacts:
• Effective January 1, 2025, property owners should no longer collect and remit
any TPT on income from long-term lodging which are stays of 30 days or
more. This was supposed to be off-set by an increase in the income taxes
provided to the cities and towns.
• HCR2021 is progressing through the Legislature to eliminate all food and
grocery tax that will cut between $900,000 to $1 million from the town budget.
The General Fund had an ending fund balance of $27 million for FY2024. The
overall growth has been 118% in the last five years. $4.35 million of the fund
balance is reserved or restricted per policy at a minimum as the General Fund
reserve will be maintained in an amount not less than 15%. $2.9 million is
committed to Operational and Council Contingencies at a minimum as
contingency will be established for all funds of at least 10%. The projected fund
balance for FY2026 is $19.75 million.
Tim Suan, Deputy Town Manager, then introduced the current Council Strategic
Plan to provide an update on the projects.
• Develop and Adopt a Long-term Strategic Financial Plan for Capital Projects -
Started in FY24-25 and will be implemented in FY 2025-26. There is currently
a 3-year Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) list. Council requested a 5-year
CIP list. The one hold-up for that is that staff has to know how much is
available each year to have an idea what will fit into any year.
• Evaluate Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) – This will be to change the
program for the town to be more inclusive of all departments needs. This will
be a future project.
• Implement Employee Engagement and Development Survey – This is
ongoing with action plans developed with each department to help with
employee engagement.
• Evaluate Internal Fees and Cost Recovery Policies – This is being tracked for
cost recovery and will be a future report.
• Conduct Transportation and Transit Plan – This is for a circulation plan. Move
back a year or two.
• Conduct a Facilities Master Plan – This was done on a small scale with
SiteLogic to list the replacement needs for the buildings. Get a sample report
to the Council.
• Implement Council direction on the Community Center – Discussion later this
meeting.
• Implement Water and Wastewater Master Plan (Year 2) Recommendations –
The current project is the South Wastewater Treatment Plant Expansion that
is funded by a Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) loan and will
have the bid opening on March 6.
• Implement Water and Wastewater Master Plan (Year 3) Recommendations –
There are ten years of projects for water and wastewater set. There were five
years of rate increases that started for System 1 on July 1, 2024. The WIFA
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 4 of 8
loans created debt, so the rates have to increase to cover the costs of the
projects that have to be completed. Council asked for a report on the rates
and usage after July, which will probably be available in September to review
the rates.
Council took at break at 3:15 PM.
Council reconvened the meeting at 3:25 PM.
• Evaluate Hangar and Tie Down Opportunities – This was a discussion for
later in the meeting.
• Evaluate Development Impact Fees – In order to have impact fees, the town
will have to hire a consultant for a study that will list the projects that the funds
can be spent on. Some communities add an additional $20,000 for any new
build in fees to pay for new growth. The Council in the past stopped collecting
the impact fees because they thought it would inhibit growth and the
Wickenburg Ranch development agreement doesn’t allow impact fees to be
charged for that community. The Council instead has connection fees for
water and sewer as well as construction sales tax for the roads.
• Strategic Annexation to manager Urban Pressure and Economic
Opportunities – The annexation strategy was sent to the Council for feedback
recently.
• Develop Community Engagement Volunteer Program – There is an informal
program right now by department. This idea was a more formal program to
recruit volunteers with a volunteer coordinator. It was stated that it is really
hard to get volunteers right now. Either take off plan or discuss at a later date.
There is still the neighborhood engagement with Make a Difference Day that
will be the second weekend in April this year after Dump Days. Neighborhood
Watch program was of interest with the town’s help.
• Seek Partnerships to Increase Recreational Programming – The
Winter/Spring recreational program included several new partners for
programs, so this is ongoing.
• Zoning Code Update – There was a written update given to the Council on
Thursday.
• Develop and Implement Wayfinding Plan – There is a committee set up to
review this.
• Develop Economic Development Web Portal – A basic framework for this
portal was presented to the Economic Development and Transportation
Committee at their last meeting.
• Conduct Economic Development Strategic Plan – There are elements of this
in the General Plan.
• Attract and Support the Growth of Light Industrial Businesses – This is in
progress and ongoing.
• Council also asked to create more events and use the rodeo grounds and
Community Center more.
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 5 of 8
The Parks and Trails Master Plan was approved by the Council in October 2024.
This plan included maintenance items, enhancements to current parks and the
development of new parks. The maintenance list includes the following:
The new park opportunities include the following ideas and costs:
Interim Town Manager Smith provided the Council with dots to put on their top
three priority projects. After some discussion the following three came to the
front:
✓ Kerkes Park – This is the least expensive that can be done with a use
agreement with the school. There are issues including flood plain and street
issues. In addition, this has to be an agreement with the school district,
Hassayampa River Preserve and Simpson Ranch. In addition, it is making
improvements on property that the town doesn’t own, so the gift clause would
need to be reviewed.
✓ Sunset Park- This would be for $7.3 million. The issue is that item one is only
a practice field, so it is not large enough to move football onto it for them to
play. They would like to see bathrooms for the pickleball. The Wickenburg
Christian Academy is not going to be able to have the football team they
wanted yet, but they were told that there needs to be engineered grading and
drainage plans to start with and they were going to work on those. The
thought is to maximize the use and try to not have football on the baseball
fields.
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 6 of 8
✓ Sunrise Park – This is a $14 million project with it costing $650,000 per
entrance into the property. We can start by applying for grants for the design
and budget, but this is a long-term project.
The maintenance issues were discussed with Director Workman stating that they
have dealt with many of the safety issues and other small fixes. They will look at
what they can fix in a more condensed timeline. It is less expensive to do now
than to wait a few years. He figured with the Barbara Brown Park that he can put
in a shade and table for about $5,000, since that isn’t used much.
Coffinger Park was discussed with the gopher issue, so the grass area can’t be
used for sports. The town did hire an outside company to exterminate them, but
they weren’t consistent, so the town is now doing it themselves at a lower cost,
but it is time-consuming. The thought was to move t-ball to the dirt infield area as
the gophers aren’t in that area. They just need a dugout or bench for them as
that was taken out. In addition, the town does need to look at any safety issue as
Coffinger Park was deemed unrentable due to safety concerns.
For right now the priorities are as follows:
✓ Coffinger Park – See if t-ball can play on the dirt infield
✓ Sunset Park – Build field 3, which will mean moving the dog park, so item 6
will also have to be completed.
✓ Sunset Park – Item #2, the extension of the field to make it usable for football
was not feasible right now due to it cutting too much parking out at the park.
✓ Sunset Park – Extend field A to be able to be a regulation field for soccer.
There will need to be some dirt work done as there is a drop off. A licensed
engineer would need to complete stamped plans, and then local licensed
contractors can donate time to complete the work, to save money.
Council took at break at 5:09 PM.
Council reconvened the meeting at 5:14 PM.
The next item of discussion was the Community Center. This was built in the
early 1970’s, so it is 54 years old, with 10,000 square feet under the roof on 4
acres of land. It can fit about 380 people with round tables and 400 with
rectangular tables in the main room. Interim Town Manager Troy Smith asked the
Council’s thoughts on the uses that are important to them and the residents they
have talked to for the property. The Council gave the following responses:
• Lifeline of the town in the Downtown
• Gathering Place
• Celebration of Life
• Non-profits use – Guys Who Grill
• Concerts
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 7 of 8
• Gun Show, Gem and Mineral Show
• Focal Point
• Event Center for private events
• Public Good for Quality of Life
This building has been running at a deficit of about $100,000 for years. It was
requested to get more events into the building. The question has been whether to
have a conference center or community center. He is hearing the desire is not to
have a hotel on the property, so that will be removed from the website.
Renovation of the building will cost $6.5 - 7 million, with minor updates for ADA
compliance, fire sprinklers, and cosmetic improvements. New construction is
estimated to cost $8.7 – 9.5 million for an expanded, versatile 11,000 square foot
facility that will meet the priorities established in the survey. Right now, there is
wasted space with two kitchens, when only one is needed, and a very large
stage where only part of it is used. There can be a small rehabilitation of $2
million to extend the useful life of the building. The town can bring in consultants
to talk about debt services including bonds and loans. The General Fund has to
cover all costs for police, fire, parks and roads, so there is a lot of need with
limited funds.
Council discussed the $2 million option to deal with some structural and
functional issues only. There will be another meeting at a future date to go over
the priorities and talk about revenue sources.
Items that were placed on hold for future discussion include the following:
• ADOT – Town Road Maintenance and Ownership
• Sewer Fund Options – General Fund Subsidies, Fund Balance and Rates
• Development Impact Fees
• Develop a Community Volunteer Program
2. Presentation, Discussion and Direction Between the Common Council and Town
Staff Regarding Council Orientation which may include discussion regarding
Open Meeting Law, Council-Manager Form of Government, Code of Ethics,
Council Policies, Rules of Conduct at Town Council meetings, Roberts Rules of
Order and Expectations
This item was not discussed due to lack of time.
D. EXECUTIVE SESSION - (Council May Vote to Go Into Executive Session Pursuant
to A.R.S §38-431.03(A)(3) to Receive Legal Advice from the Town Attorney on Any
of the Above Agenda Items.)
Town Council Minutes of February 10, 2025
Page 8 of 8
E. ADJOURNMENT
MOVED BY Councilmember Kristy Bedoian to adjourn at approximately 6:02 PM
SECONDED BY Councilmember Rebecca Rovey
VOTE: 7 – 0 (Yes – Mayor Bratcher, Vice Mayor Jones, Councilmembers Bedoian,
Clark, Nyberg, Rovey, and Rubash)
BG Bratcher, Mayor
ATTEST:
Amy Brown, Town Clerk
CERTIFICATION
I, Amy Brown, the duly appointed and qualified Town Clerk of the Town of Wickenburg,
do hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes
of the special meeting of the Town Council of Wickenburg, Arizona held on February 10,
2025. I further certify the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was
present.
Amy Brown, MMC
Town Clerk