Citizen Bond Committee Meeting City of Peoria, Pine Room February 6, 2008 Amended A regular meeting of the Citizen Bond Committee of the City of Peoria, Arizona, was convened at 8401 West Monroe Street in open and public session at 6:33 p.m. Members present:, Frank Bohall, Pam Potter, Tom Campbell, Santos Diaz III, Alan Doerschel, Kathy Heyman, Don Holtzee, Greg Loper, Ron Lyzniak, Armando Macias, Jack McCleary, Marvin McCloe, Ken Myers, Gary Nelson, Mark Proctor, Jim Redondo, Pete Rivera, Michael Rogers, William Schindler, Barry Spiegel, Pat Temes, Anne Wojcik, Wendy Wood, Member absent: Jamie Arkin, Gracie Gibson, Phil Hanson, Gary Nerdig, Peter Raymond, Paul Studer Regular Agenda Chairman Greg Loper called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m. Mr. Loper reminded members to be sure to sign the attendance roster at each meeting. A motion to approve the minutes from January 30, 2008 meeting was made by Ken Myers and Jim Redondo seconded the motion. Ron Lyzniak questioned the lack of in depth detail on the minutes from last week. He would like more detail in the minutes. Jeff Tyne, Budget Director acknowledged his request and said staff would look into this. Mr. Jeff Tyne gave a brief recap of the previous meeting and what was going to be covered in the meeting, including how the City of Peoria will relay the information to the citizens, the draft recommendation and summary of authorization needs totaling $244,299,525. Ron Lynziak questioned if the projects listed in the handouts were in order of priority. Mr. Tyne responded the projects listed in the handouts were in no particular order. Fire Stations #8, 9 and 10 were discussed. Since Fire Station #8 and #9 are already funded; there were many questions regarding Fire Station # 10 and impact fees. Depending on when Fire Station #10 is built it may be funded with impact fees. The problem appears if the need for the Fire Station comes before the funds from the impact fees are available, then the City must fund the Fire Station with bonds and the impact fees reimburse the funding when they are collected. The City has some ideas as to where Station #10 is going to be located, but population will drive the final location and service level needs. Chief Robert McKibben explained that in the City’s Budget, Fire Station costs include the cost for the station, trucks and staff. Chief McKibben also explained the City out- sources the ambulance service, but wants to keep the paramedic services in-house. Vistancia had a development agreement with Peoria that they would build their own Fire Station and then the City will repay them as impact fees are collected. The City will look at using this same process in the future with developers. Another project discussed was the Community Center. The Community Center currently has funding of $4.2 million, but the City feels a larger overhaul maybe required and additional funding needed. Once funded, the City will evaluate whether it would be more cost effective to renovate or tear down the existing building and start new. Mr. John Wenderski, Deputy City Manager conversed with members about the total bond authorization amount. According to the draft prepared by staff, the current value is $244,299,525 with an inflation value of $342,016,922. If the committee approves this current amount, it would keep the current tax rate at $1.25 per $100 of assessed value. The bond committee can recommend a change of the tax rate to Council if they wish. But, current staff would never over spend and put Council in the position that they have no choice but to increase taxes. Staff would recommend dropping some CIP projects in order not to issue debt and create the need to increase the tax rate. He also stated that the City usually requests bond authorization every five years and the new committee will re- analyze the CIP projects at that time. Grady Miller, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, spoke on the tools the City of Peoria will use to inform the public of the bond authorization on the voter ballot. The City Attorney’s Office, along with the City Clerk, will create and distribute a legal pamphlet to the citizens. The Communications and Public Affairs Office will prepare an easy to understand pamphlet describing the bond authorization with commonly asked questions. There will be a series of Town Hall meetings conveniently placed through out the city, so citizens from all over Peoria can attend. Channel 11 will show videos about the process. Mailers will be sent to all citizens and starting in July, all video taped meetings will be available online at the Peoria website. Finally, the Peoria Focus quarterly newsletter will also include discussion of the upcoming bond election. All of these publicity items will need to be completed by the end of September, as October 2, 2008 is the earliest date that citizens can vote by mail in ballot. Bond Committee members are encouraged to attend the Town Hall meetings to speak to citizens about the process, discussions and decisions made by the committee. Anne Wojcik asked if the Bond Committee members could be advocates for the bond authorization package. Citizen Bond Committee Members are allowed to be advocates; city staff is not. Bill Mattingly, Public Works Director, presented further information on the residential street overlay program. He explained the handouts and indicated they are prioritized by color. The larger number in the square is the township number and the smaller number is the anticipated year of the project. The rubberized overlay is made from recycled tires and will extend the life of the roads and helps with noise reduction. This program will decrease the frequency of maintenance or complete overhaul of the roads resulting in a cost savings. Mr. Mattingly also discussed that this program can be scaled down to a 5- year term for $10 million. This would mean the top priority roads identified in the program could be completed in the first five years. The next Bond Committee in five years could then re-evaluate the program and decide if they wish to continue it. Committee members asked several questions regarding project scoring. Mr. Wenderski and Mr. Tyne explained that each department assigned the scores. One department might think something within their own area is a higher priority, not realizing that another project may have a higher priority for the City as a whole. An example is a road overlay might have a high score, but when you look at the safety and traffic congestion aspect, the overlay project may rank lower and that overall ranking is not included in the scores on the handouts. The project score is only one tool used by City staff. All of the projects are evaluated using different tools to prioritize from a citywide perspective. Grand Avenue is another project that was discussed by committee members. This is an ADOT funded project, but city funds will enhance the project. To get the project started, it will cost $3.6 million. This project entails landscaping, walls, right turn lanes, streetlights and other amenities. Phase 4 of the project will study whether it would be better to make Grand Avenue go underground like in the City of Glendale. Greg Loper directed the committee by going down the Summary List presented by staff. The Committee was in agreement to keep the tax rate the same as $1.25. Anne Wojcik motioned to reduce the parks fund by $14.6 and include the $1 million for the Community Center, $10 million for the street overlay and $3.6 million for the Grand Ave Improvement Project. Ron Lyzniak seconded the motion for purposes of discussion. The Committee discussed how important parks are and that the voters would want the parks. The motion and second were withdrawn. Mr. Wenderski explained that since the cost to add the additional projects discussed by the committee was $19.6 million, which is less than 10 percent, the committee could recommend all the proposed projects. Mark Proctor made a motion to include the Fire Station for $5 million, $1 million for the Community Center, $10 million for the residential street overlay program and $3.6 million for the Grand Avenue improvement project in the Summary List previously handed out. Kathy Heyman seconded the motion and the committee vote was unanimous. Chairman Loper asked if the committee could change the proposed dates for the projects. Staff advised that the proposed date for each project is part of the financial planning process to develop the Capital Improvement Program each year. Moving projects around can adversely impact the overall financial plan put into place with the adopted CIP. Program. Mr. Wenderski did advise that committee members could discuss the timing of projects with other citizens and their council members. The draft recommendation to council will be changed by staff to reflect the inclusion of the additional projects and mailed to committee members early next week so that a final recommendation to go to Council could possibly be made at the meeting next Wednesday. Mr. Wenderski explained that in the future, committee members would continue to receive mailings to keep them informed regarding Council meetings and Town Hall meetings they may wish to attend. Chairman Greg Loper announced the next meeting would be February 13, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Loper then made a call to the public. Being no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned at 8:47 p.m. ___________________________________ Greg Loper, Committee Chairman Submitted by: _________________________________ Michelle Grieb, Executive Assistant Finance Department