Minutes 04/07/25 Study Session

MINUTES 
 
WICKENBURG COMMON COUNCIL 
STUDY SESSION MEETING 
Monday, April 7, 2025 - 3:00 P.M. 
155 N. TEGNER - COUNCIL CHAMBERS 
WICKENBURG, ARIZONA 85390 
 
A. CALL TO ORDER – Mayor Bratcher called the meeting to order at 3:00 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. Discussion and Direction to Staff Regarding the Proposed Draft Budget and 
Capital Improvement Plan for Fiscal Year 2025-26 
 
Troy Smith, Interim Town Manager, stated that the purpose today is to discuss 
different aspects of the budget and to get direction from the Council. 
Management has given the department directors the following direction: 
• No increases to departmental baseline operating budgets for the fiscal year 
with a focus on maintaining core service levels, increased costs only due to 
inflation, policy changes and utility increases 
• No new personnel requests 
• Create a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
Page 2 of 8 
 
• Reduce reliance on one-time revenues – there are global and national 
economic retraction indicators, so the budget needs to be conservative 
 
The budget creation has an emphasis on strategic resource allocation including:  
• Aligning funding with Council priorities and adopted plans 
• Preserving financial resilience while supporting key initiatives 
• Limiting operational spending within anticipated revenue projections 
• Department budget numbers presented today do not include personnel 
increases 
• Use of fund balance limited to capital improvement projects 
 
There is a recommendation to create an operating contingency line item: 
• Designed to address unforeseen needs or emerging priorities 
• Requests for expenditures require Town Manager approval 
• Provides flexibility and increases accountability  
• Funded by reducing General Fund departmental baseline budgets 
 
The annual budget is a fundamental policy document of the town. It is a financial 
plan which is the best guess for expenses and revenues for the next year. The 
budget has to be high enough to be able to use any grants that we receive during 
the year, but we don’t know at this time what grants will open and if we will 
receive any of them. It does establish the expenditure limitation, which is the only 
thing that can’t change. It also establishes the property tax rate. It is the provision 
of the town's financial resources to provide the community programs, services, 
and projects. The budget numbers will change as we progress through the 
process of getting to the final budget as more expenses and revenues are 
received.  
 
Robert Martinez, Finance Director, shared that the General Fund revenues are 
mostly flat with the exception of the local sales tax, which is being decreased by 
$1 million. Last year’s budget estimated the local sales tax to come in around 
$9.5 million, but based on the numbers we have now, we expect that to be closer 
to $8.5 million.

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
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The next item for discussion is property tax. The current rate is .4132 and the 
levy is $600,000. The town is waiting for more information from Maricopa and 
Yavapai Counties for the property tax.  
 
Councilmember Bedoian stated that she always wants to decrease the property 
tax but at a minimum, she would like to keep the levy the same. No one 
understands the Truth in Taxation information, so it is best to not increase the 
rate to avoid that confusion.  
 
Vice Mayor Jones stated that he doesn’t want to see an increase in sales tax.  
 
Consensus of Council was to keep the levy at $600,000 which will lower the rate. 
Interim Town Manager Smith reminded the Council that the property tax is only 
about 5% of the town’s revenue and only 4% of the total property tax collected 
goes to the town.  
 
Finance Director Martinez then shows a few summary slides showing the 
department general fund actual expenditure overview and the budgeted 
expenditure overview. The Human Resources (HR) and Information Technology 
(IT) departments are new, so they don’t have numbers prior to last fiscal year.  
 
Interim Town Manager Smith wanted to then go through some general updates 
on projects or issues to make sure the Council agreed with the direction that staff 
is moving.  
 
The first is a transportation plan that was on the list of projects but is very 
expensive costing between $150,000 to $250,000. The town has talked to 
Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG), and they can help with the plan 
and only charge the town about $20,000 for the plan.  
 
Town Hall restrooms have been an issue that the Council brought up at the 
retreat. The newly renovated restrooms are now open, and the hours will be 
changed to be open from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm, 7 days per week. He would still 
like to look at the visitor’s center being open more for visitors to use their 
restroom. In addition, there might be an option to add a restroom on the outside 
of the Smokeater’s building.  
 
The Community Rodeo Association of Wickenburg (CRAW) wants to do some 
improvements at the rodeo grounds including a waterline, power, sewer, barn 
and possibly a drive through roadway. They are applying for a Wellik Grant for 
some of the funding. The town has submitted a letter to Wellik stating that the 
town is not applying for a grant and wants to support the CRAW application. 
There was a question about the cost of increasing the lighting at the rodeo 
grounds, which will be brought back with the amount for a possible CIP project.

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
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There is a new line item for property abatement that will have $50,000 put aside 
for non-compliance issues. This will only take care of one property a year and will 
clean it up, with a lien placed on the property.  
 
Hershel Workman, Public Works Director, reported that the town has received 
the bids for the south wastewater treatment plant liquid intensification that will 
increase the capacity of the plant by 400,000 gallons per day. The estimate was 
$1.4 million, so the town received Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of 
Arizona (WIFA) funding in loans for $1.4 million. The bid came in at $2.9 million. 
We have contacted WIFA to see if we can increase the amount. The town 
received wastewater loans in the amount of $5.2 million with $1 million in 
forgivable principal. The town also received water loans in the amount of $3.4 
million with $829,000 in forgivable principal. These funds are for several different 
projects.  
 
Tarah Mayerhofer, HR Director, requested direction on employee compensation. 
In April 2023, the Council approved the town’s classification and compensation 
philosophy to have a fair, transparent and equitable rewards system. The market 
rate for any job is at the midpoint of the range. Some employees might lag the 
market or lead the market depending on if they are above or below that midpoint. 
This is called the compa-ratio, which is determined by taking the employee’s 
salary and dividing that by the market midpoint. If they are at the midpoint, they 
will be at 100%. The goal is to get everyone to 100% to remain competitive and 
fair. Misalignment is usually anything outside 10% of the midpoint. For example, 
if the market midpoint is $60,000 and someone is paid $57,000, their compa-ratio 
is 95%. If someone is paid $63,000, their compa-ratio is 105%. The above or 
below should reflect their experience, skills and tenure. There are several 
employees who have been with the town for over five years in their position and 
they are not at the midpoint, but we have hired people in close to their salary, 
which causes compression, which can result in turnover.  
 
Staff is proposing three steps to try to deal with the compa-ratio and compression 
issues. We are early in the budget process so we are not sure that we can afford 
all of this, but this is the proposal that we are planning to add to the budget.  
 
• Step 1 – Increase base salary by 4% for all employees to keep pace with 
market trends and cost of living.  
• Step 2 - Employees with more than 5 years of service in their position and 
below the market midpoint will be brought to midpoint (100% Compa-ratio).  
This prevents new hires from leapfrogging more experienced employees. 
• Step 3 – Employees below 86% Compa-ratio will be moved up to at least 
86%. This ensures the most misaligned salaries are addressed first.  It allows 
new employees to reach midpoint in about 5 years.

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
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There are 14 full-time employees that will be affected by step 2 and 7 full-time 
employees in step 3. There are 4 part-time employees that this will also affect. 
There was a request to bring back the Employee Cost Index (ECI). 
 
Interim Town Manager Smith stated that before anyone receives any of this, 
there will be a review to make sure there are no discipline or performance issues. 
If they are on probation, they will not be eligible. He stated that other cities in the 
West Valley, which is where we lose police and fire employees to, are proposing 
4-10% increases to their pay. Last year the increase was 6%.  
 
HR Director Mayerhofer then discussed employee benefits. The town has 
employee benefits through Arizona Metropolitan Trust (AzMT), which means that 
we are self-insured in the pool. The increase for this next year is at 4.5%. The 
Council is now eligible for benefits, there are new voluntary benefits and there 
will be a change to the Health Savings Account (HSA) vendor. 
  
HR Director Mayerhofer reported on the Arizona Municipal Risk Retention Pool 
(AMRRP) renewal for this next year. This is also a self-insured pool with 
coverage for auto, cyber, property & casualty, liability and workers compensation. 
With a change in staffing, the risk management asked AMRRP to do an audit of 
the town properties to make sure there was adequate coverage and all properties 
were included. It was found that there was $42 million in additional property that 
was not listed in the town’s assets so there was no insurance coverage for over 
70 locations. The cost for this additional coverage will increase the premiums by 
$76,000 per year. AMRRP understood that that was a large jump, so they are 
allowing the town to build up to that over five years with increases of $15,500 per 
year. In the review, the property deductible was reviewed and suggested to 
change it from $5,000 to $10,000 for an annual savings of $19,227. Since 2017 
there have been two claims under the $5,000 deductible and two claims around 
$20,000.  
 
Finance Director Martinez moved on to the financial policies.  
 
Procurement Thresholds: 
• $0 - $4,999.99: No quotations or bids required 
• $5,000 - $24,999.99: 3 written quotes approved by Department Director 
• $25,000 - $49,999.99: 3 written quotes approved by Town Manager 
• $50,000 and Above: Sealed bids, competitively procured contract, or 
cooperative purchase approved by Town Council 
 
Budget Transfers: 
• A transfer from a capital line item (9#### account) requires Town Council 
approval prior to incurring the expense 
• A transfer between funds requires Town Council approval prior to incurring 
the expense

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
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• A transfer within the same department requires approval of the Department 
Director prior to incurring the expense 
Reserves and Contingencies: 
• Should be appropriated to provide for emergencies, mid-year requests, and 
unanticipated expenditures 
• General Fund Reserve will be maintained in an amount not less than 15% of 
new General Fund revenues for the budgeted fiscal year 
• Contingency will be established for all other applicable funds of at least 10%, 
and the equity of all funds will be maintained to meet the objectives of the 
fund 
• $100,000 will be budgeted under General Services each year to indemnify the 
town of unanticipated insurance claims 
• Expenditures may be made from contingencies only upon approval by the 
Town Council 
 
Interim Town Manager Smith moved on to the fee schedule because during the 
Town Council meeting when the proposed fees were posted to the public, the 
Council indicated they wanted to have a discussion during the budget workshop 
regarding fees. Mayor Bratcher stated that her concern was the water and 
wastewater rate increases. Interim Town Manager Smith stated that the town 
needs to wait a year to see the data, which will not be until July and then to 
analyze, this can be brought back in September to review the rates. Staff have 
looked at one of the larger expansion projects and due to a possible decline in 
water usage, that project might be able to be moved out a few years. No further 
input on changing the fees was provided by the Council.  
 
Public Works Director Workman requested some direction on the recycling 
program.  
• Regulation: Maricopa County Environmental Health Code (MCEHC), P-14, 
Section 5, Regulation 4: Frequency of Collection requires two (2) pickups per 
week 
• Council’s Previous Direction: Limited recycling losses to $25,000/year 
(previous losses were $66,000/year) 
• Resident Survey (2019): Indicated support for a $1.50 increase to offset 
losses – this was included in the recent rate increase 
• Current Recycling Limitation:  
✓ Current budget funding does not guarantee the ability to recycle all year 
long  
✓ Contract service provider has both equipment and personnel reliability 
issues. There is a concern about CR&R’s ability to haul the recycling for 
the town. 
✓ This has led to resident concerns about whether the town actually 
recycles, impacting program credibility and contamination rate increases 
• Potential Options: 
✓ Maintain the $25K cap 
✓ Increase the cap to $66K to cover the entire fiscal year

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
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✓ Eliminate the program entirely so the town would have no recycling 
program which could cause public backlash, the town would have to deal 
with the blue bins and the town is still required to do two weekly pickups, 
so there will probably not be a cost savings 
✓ Seek outside contracts for recycling through an RFP process 
 
Vice Mayor Jones would like to look at eliminating the recycling program as that 
seems to make the most fiscal sense.  
 
Councilmember Bedoian would like to stop paying for the program due to the 
high contamination rate, so she would support either eliminating the program or 
reducing the cap.  
 
Councilmember Nyberg would like to see the town start fining people for 
contamination to make the recycling more valuable.  
 
Interim Town Manager Smith stated that usually all costs are passed on to the 
residents and if there is not a savings, the town can look at elimination.  
 
Public Works Director Workman stated that the costs used to be $19.60 per 
month plus $1.50 for a recycling surcharge. In 2023 the rate was increased to 
$26 and then $27 in 2024 with both fees rolled into one total amount. The town 
has a contract with CR&R to transport the materials and Waste Management 
charges the town $105 per ton to process the materials. To look at a place in 
town to drop off recycling, the town would need to add staff at that location, which 
will not save any money.  
 
Consensus was to bring back the costs of eliminating the recycling program and 
explore alternative vendor options.  
 
Public Works Director Workman turned discussion to the Coconino Parking Lot. 
He started with the history: 
• 2020 – Council approved an agreement to swap a town parking lot with this 
property with the Desert Caballeros Western Museum 
• 2023 – Town entered into a contract with Art Barber to move fill dirt into the 
lot 
• 2024 – Town entered into a temporary construction easement with the 
museum to use the property for staging 
• 2024 – Town entered into an agreement with John Lape, Architect, Inc. to 
design the Coconino parking lot 
 
Councilmember Bedoian didn’t think another parking lot was needed downtown.  
 
Councilmember Nyberg disagreed and thought that parking would be needed 
especially when the new museum is built, but it is not needed immediately.

Town Council Minutes of April 7, 2025 
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Interim Town Manager Smith stated from his research there was a perception 
that the town would be building a parking lot. The museum will use that 
temporarily for construction staging. The project will be moved to a later date in 
the CIP list. 
 
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.) 
 
E. ADJOURNMENT  
 
MOVED BY Councilmember Margaret Nyberg to adjourn at approximately 4:59 PM 
SECONDED BY Councilmember Shawn Clark  
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 April 7, 
2025. I further certify the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was 
present.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amy Brown, MMC 
Town Clerk