Council Minutes 09/05/23

Town of Wickenburg — Regular Meeting (2026-02-02)

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Town of Wickenburg
MINUTES

WICKENBURG COMMON COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
Tuesday, September 5, 2023 - 5:30 P.M.
155 N. TEGNER - COUNCIL CHAMBERS
WICKENBURG, ARIZONA 85390

A. CALL TO ORDER - Mayor Pereira called the meeting to order at 5:30 PM

B. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Led by Police Chief Les Brown

C. INVOCATION - Led by Pastor Duane Middleton, Mt. Hope Assembly of God Church

D. ROLL CALL

Present:

Staff Present:

Mayor Rui Pereira

Vice Mayor Kristi Henson

Councilmember Kristy Bedoian
Councilmember BG Bratcher

Councilmember Brian Jones

Councilmember Rebecca Rovey
Councilmember Art Rubash

Stephen Erno, Town Manager

Allen Quist, Town Attorney

Tim Suan, Deputy Town Manager/Economic Development
Steve Boyle, Community Development Director
Amy Brown, Town Clerk

Les Brown, Police Chief

Tarah Mayerhofer, Human Resources Director
Ed Temerowski, Fire Chief

Stephanie Wojcik, Finance Director

Herschel Workman, Public Works Director

E. MAYOR & COUNCILMEMBERS REPORT ON CURRENT EVENTS
Councilmember Art Rubash stated that many of the youth sports have started
including soccer and football.

Councilmember BG Bratcher congratulated Rachel Willis on winning National
Outstanding Specialist. She attended a summer policy class at ASU. At Glendale
Community College, she attended a ribbon cutting for their new cyber security
program. She also attended the League of Arizona Cities and Towns conference

this past week.

Town Council Minutes of September 5, 2023
Page 5 of 14

Tim Suan, Deputy Town Manager, reported in his Council routing form that in
June 2022, the council directed staff to work with Bearcat Manufacturing
Company to update and renew the lease of approximately 1.7 acres of town-
owned property adjacent to their manufacturing plant located north of the
Wickenburg Municipal Airport. An appraisal of the property was conducted
establishing fair market rent at $1,175 per annum.

By a 7-0 vote under the Consent Agenda, Council moved to approve the
lease agreement with EDECO-Southwest Service Company, LLC. for the rent
of approximately 1.7 acres of real property and authorize the Mayor to
execute the contract.

2. Public Hearing on Annexation 23-01 Titled Black Mountain Consisting of
Approximately 160 Acres of Vacant Land

Steve Boyle, Community Development Director, reported that in May of 2023, the
Town Council approved an annexation application for vacant land on the far west
end of the town. The land is privately held by Rancho Rio Land & Livestock, LLC
and is all currently vacant. The annexation blank petition was filed at the
Maricopa County Recorder's Office on August 9th, which started the 30-day
clock to begin the process. Once the 30-day waiting period has expired, staff will
send out the petition to the property owner for signature. The land is located just
east of Black Mountain and is bound by the town limits on the southern property
line and then connects to Black Mountain Road. There are no development plans
currently, but the property owner desires all their land to be within the town

limits. The zoning is rural residential as this is very remote with mostly hunters
and cattle occupying the area now.

Public Hearing Opened by Mayor Pereira at 5:53 PM
Public Hearing Closed with no input at 5:53 PM

3. Consideration and Action Approving a Notice of Intent to Amend the FY 2023-24
Consolidated Fee Schedule for Athletic Field and Rental Fees and Approve
Resolution 2338 Amending the Policies and Procedures for Facility Rental and
Special Event Services

Tim Suan, Deputy Town Manager, reported that this is a follow-up to the direction
given by the Council on August 7, 2023, to waive field rental fees for local non-
profit youth sports and bring forward fee changes and scheduling policy changes.
These changes include the Council's direction to waive rental fees for local non-
profit youth sports organizations for the use of athletic fields, concessions, and
storage.

Town Council Minutes of September 5, 2023
Page 6 of 14

The changes to the fee schedule include the following:

* Change the deposit name to Athletic Fields to include all parks fields.

* Allow one storage space per local non-profit with a traditional recurring event.

* Waive fee for local non-profit youth sport organizations for storage space.

* Waive fees for concessions for local non-profit youth sports organization and
clarify charge for others.

* Waived field rental and lights fees for local non-profit youth sports
organizations.

* New Fee for Local non-profit, residents, and non-residents with a field rental
base fee and lights fee to cover costs.

This will start the process to change the fees with a notice of intent which will
appear on the town website for 60 days. The final approval will come back to the
Council on November 6" with the new fees then being effective on December 6".

The change to the policy includes the following:

* Change our current “Traditional Event” to “Traditional Local Non-profit Event’.
This would eliminate residents & non-resident from being able to book more
than 12 months in advance.

* Changed the job title on the policy to Special Event Program Manager.

* Removed 1av since our facility reservation process does not go through the
Clerk’s office.

* Add that the misuse of lights or a renter not locking up a facility could result in
the renter losing their deposit.

* Add wording for the Town to be able to close a park for an extended period of
time at any time for maintenance and/or grass reseeding.

* Add clarification that a local non-profit youth sports organization must submit
a special event application, sign a contract, pay a deposit each year even
though the rental fees are waived for recreational use.

Councilmember Bratcher would like to take out the traditional event so changing
1A3 by taking out traditional and taking section 2A2 out completely.

Councilmember Bedoian wondered about the outside groups that were
destroying the fields, she asked if this is a large enough deposit for the travel
clubs. Director Workman stated that the travel teams have a lot of games over
one weekend, which then requires more maintenance. The $250 deposit should
be adequate as he didn’t think that we would have travel teams anymore with the
new setup so it would get used by the local groups only.

Town Attorney Quist recommended the following changes based on the request
from Councilmember Bratcher and the Council can just approve based on the
recommended changes, so it is clear in the minutes.

e Delete the word traditional from Aic

e Delete section B1b in its entirety

e Renumber subsequent sections

Town Council Minutes of September 5, 2023
Page 7 of 14

MOVED BY Councilmember Kristy Bedoian to approve the notice of intent to
amend the Consolidated Fee Schedule for athletic field rentals and approve
Resolution 2338 amending the policies and procedures for Facility Rental and
Speciai Event Services with the revisions by the Town Attorney

SECONDED BY Councilmember Rebecca Rovey

VOTE: 7 — 0 (Yes — Mayor Pereira, Vice Mayor Henson, Councilmembers
Bedoian, Bratcher, Jones, Rovey and Rubash)

4. Presentation and Action to Award Bed Tax Marketing Funds in the Amount Up to
$10,000

Councilmember Bedoian declared a conflict of interest.

Tonya Forbrook, Grants and Public Information Administrator, reported that the
Bed Tax Marketing Grant offers qualified applicants up to $5,000 of funding for a
grand total of $10,000 of available funds. This is the third year of the program.
During the FY23-24 solicitation there were seven organizations requesting funds
for a total funding amount of $32,284.

As a result, applications were evaluated and scored using the evaluation criteria
in the grant application. Evaluation areas include program description, project
needs, community impact, goals, and objectives, and leveraged resources.

Total Funds

Score | Requested
253 $3,100 —[Wickenburg Conservation Foundation
248 $5,000 _|Wickenburg Breast Cancer Network

Organization

241 $5,000 _Wickenburg Jobs for Arizona Graduates
Historic Wickenburg Downtown Merchants
233 $5,000 Association

233 $5,000 [Wickenburg Community Hospital
226 $5,000 _|Wickenburg Art Club
195 $4,184 [Friends of Music

Lydia Abril, In-Town Business Owner, didn’t think that non-profits should receive
tax dollars as she would never think of asking for taxpayer money to help print
her information, which she handed to Council.

Nohi Rosen, In-Town Resident, didn’t want non-profits to receive tax dollars and
requested to abolish the bed tax.

Councilmembers Rovey and Jones asked for a recap regarding the history of the
bed tax. Deputy Town Manager Suan stated that the bed tax funding was
designed to promote economic development and tourism in town by reinvesting
the money into the community to draw more people to Wickenburg. This bed tax