Moved by Councilmember Scott Overton, seconded by Councilmember Jeff Oravits to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of August 25, 2015, and the Special Council Meeting (Executive Session) of August 25, 2015.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

The following individuals addressed the Council:

Robert Vane, member of Flagstaff Water Group, encouraged amendments to the proposed Water Study to include tiered water rates for commercial users.

Ann Marie Zeller, Flagstaff, distributed a handout and stated that the proposed water rates need to be brought closer to actual costs.

Erin Young, Flagstaff Water Resources Manager, showed the plaques created by the winners of the fourth grade competition on Water Conservation, noting that they are being installed in many restrooms around the area. She also reported that the Water Festival is going to be held on September 17, 2015, where they will have over 1,000 fourth graders. She commended Robin Harrington for her work on this project and she thanked the Council for their support with these efforts.

Mayor Nabours recognized Stacey Brechler-Knaggs as Chairman of the City's Climb to Conquer Cancer team, noting that there were 52 participants for the City's team and they raised over $3,000.

Mayor Nabours also recognized Finance Director Rick Tadder and his team for their recent award of the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in preparation of the City's Annual Financial Statements.

Councilmember Oravits asked for clarification on what these expenses would provide. Mr. Vagen responded that it would provide continuous updates of the software and whenever staff experienced a problem they can call for support.

Moved by Councilmember Karla Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Eva Putzova to approve payment of annual software maintenance costs in a budgeted amount not to exceed $583,784.00 pursuant to contracts with:

• Harris Enterprise (City Contract No. A2012-0619.1), draft invoice for $133,402.50;
• SHI (reseller for Microsoft) (Arizona Procurement Office Contract No. ADSPO11-007500), draft invoice for $137,947.86;
• SirsiDynix (Library) (City Contract No. A2000-1023.1, as amended 10/23/2000), draft invoice for $74,577.44;
• Intergraph Corp. (Public Safety) for $210,085.00 plus any applicable taxes, and approve its contract renewal.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

Water Production Manager Thomas Bolyen gave a brief PowerPoint presentation which addressed:

WHAT IS OUR TOLERANCE FOR RISK?
WHY BE PREPARED?
EMERGENCY BACK-UP WATER
CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS
UTILITIES DIVISION CONTINUITY OF OPERATION STRATEGY

Mr. Bolyen clarified that currently they would have water for 1.8 days without power and with this purchase they would have enough for 5 days. Discussion was held on whether they could keep the used generator that is currently on the trailer mobile, rather than installing it at the East shop. Utilities Director Brad Hill explained that they could keep it mobile but they would need a truck and would need to purchase a lot of extra material to hardwire across the ground. They are trying to eliminate that type of hazard. Mr. Hill said that they understood that it was a big request, but it is a huge protection to the community as they currently have no back up. He said that the 5 days is assuming that their facilities are full; if they are not, it would be less. He added that if the Fire Department had to fight a fire at the same time they would not have the 1.8 days.

Vice Mayor Barotz asked Mr. Bolyen if it was his understanding that, based on best practices, many municipalities across the country have backup. Mr. Bolyen said that was his experience and best practices and communities have backup. He said that these precautions have come from evaluating the weather, storms, etc. An example is when Sandy hit; most were caught off guard and had no backup and had no water.

Councilmember Putzova said that she assumes that they have an emergency plan that kicks in some time during this period. Mr. Bolyen said that they will be doing their best. Mr. Hill said that if they lost power they would be ramping up notification, but once notification starts, people have a tendency to fill up their bathtubs and protect themselves. He said that the City has an operations plan, but this is not included. If this equipment is purchased, the plan will be modified to include this. Councilmember Putzova said that she would like to see the emergency plan.

Mayor Nabours said that their questions are in no way a criticism of staff, it is just a lot of money, and they are trying to weigh whether this is the best way to spend it. He asked if they are  missing information from Arizona Public Service (APS). Mr. Hill explained that this request came from a prior meeting between APS, Mr. Copley and himself wherein APS brought up the fact that they have one single feed into the City. They are now building a second facility; however, they were clear that the City should be looking at a better way to protect its water supply.

Councilmember Evans adeed that there was a power outage in the Sunnyside area and they did not have power for a week and there have been issues before.

Councilmember Overton said that it was a fair level of risk and completely respected staff's request; however, he would request it be value engineered. He said that the cause is noble and he is confident knowing that they have one backup generator to use at the Shop site. He asked what the rental market looked like.

Mr. Bolyen said that there are no generators of this size in Flagstaff. There are some in Phoenix which would take five hours to get, if they could get a truck quickly. They are rented for $6,000 a month if not used and $27,000 a month if they are used.

Discussion was held on the probability of different occurrences where they may be without power. Mr. Hill referenced the recent tornado in Bellemont and wildfires. He said that if either of those types of events took out the line, they could easily be without power.

Councilmember Brewster noted that Phoenix has had terrible problems this year with storms and power outages.

Mayor Nabours said that he is not convinced that the City could be without power entirely. He would like to hear from APS. Councilmember Oravits said that he would like to hear from them as well. He would also like to hear more on the rental market.

Mr. Bolyen said that there is a fleet of 14 generators in Phoenix, 8 of which are available. They charge by the month and whether they are used. He said that contracts can be put into place, but they cannot guarantee rental delivery unless the City pays each month. He said that it would be $82,000 to rent for a year if they did not use it.

Moved by Mayor Jerry Nabours, seconded by Councilmember Jeff Oravits to postpone this item for two weeks.

Vice Mayor Barotz said that she would support the motion, but they should be mindful that the weather patterns of the past should not guide this decision. Just because they have not seen a situation happen, they can look around the world and use that as a guide.

Councilmember Putzova said that she was prepared to vote in support of the purchase. It worries her more that they are not prepared for extreme weather. She does not think that $500,000 over ten years which is the lifespan of the generator, or $50,000 a year, is that big of a price tag. Today there are only eight available in Phoenix. She believes that staff has provided the necessary information and expertise, and it was enough for her. She sees no reason to postpone the action.

Vote: 6 - 1

NAY:

Councilmember Coral Evans

Business Attraction Manager Gail Jackson briefly reviewed the amendments to the contracts and service agreements. Mayor Nabours said that it appeared that the changes were in favor of the City. He asked staff if they saw anything in the way of changes that would be a detriment to the City. Ms. Jackson replied that she did not. She said that now the space is built at the Accelerator, it provides NACET the flexibility to tweak charges, with the City's approval.

Moved by Councilmember Karla Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Eva Putzova to authorize the City to amend the existing master leases and service agreement with NACET for the service provided to the Business Incubator and Accelerator; both city owned facilities on McMillan Mesa.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

Fire Chief Mark Gaillard said that this is continuation of a service relationship they have had since 1997. Mayor Nabours asked how many of these agreements the City has. Chief Gaillard said that they have two fire district agreements--this one and Lockett Ranch, but they have hundreds of parcel contracts within the City planning area and adjacent.

Mayor Nabours asked if the two fire districts agreements were similar. Chief Gaillard said that this one is a relatively small subdivision, while Lockett Ranch is larger and greater assessed valuation, which is why their rate is more.

Mayor Nabours asked if these work out to be a fair deal for the City. Chief Gaillard said he believed they did, specifically since the contractual arrangement does not cause the City to take on more capital infrastructure, with the minor risk involved, and it helps lower the costs for Flagstaff citizens.

Moved by Councilmember Jeff Oravits, seconded by Councilmember Coral Evans to approve the IGA between the City of Flagstaff and the Westwood Estates Fire District.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

FMPO Manager Dave Wessel said that the Executive Board of the FMPO has provided the funding for this contract to look at the best practices in operations and management opportunities, for higher levels of cooperation between the City and County and modernization of their processes. He said that LA Consulting is a highly qualified firm and he spoke directly with some of their clients, including Prescott and Reno-Sparks, both of which were very satisfied with their performance.

Mr. Wessel said that they will come in and work with leadership and management of the Public Works departments at the City and County. They will review their current maintenance practices for roads/streets operations, compare those to a very robust database that has been developed by them, looking for opportunities in the management structure to find efficiencies. He said that it will focus on street repair, not traffic signal operations.

Public Works Director Erik Solberg said that what they are looking to get from this study is whether their street sweeping, snow plowing, streets maintenance, etc. are up to the best practices, or if there is something they should be doing differently.

Mr. Wessel noted that these are funds through a federal grant to the FMPO which come from the surface transportation program. He said that there is a match on the part of the City, but that will be provided in-kind with the public works staff at the City and County.

Moved by Vice Mayor Celia Barotz, seconded by Councilmember Coral Evans to award the contract for the Roads & Streets Operations and Maintenance Efficiency Study RFP 2015-70 to LA Consulting, Inc. of Manhattan Beach, CA in the amount of $197,769.

Councilmember Oravits said that he would hesitantly support this and he really wants to see some savings from the study. Mr. Wessel said that the second phase of the study would be implementation, so if they do not see the savings there, they could terminate at that time.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

Airport Manager Barney Helmick said that before the Council summer break staff did a presentation about key items on this project, and this is coming back asking for the FAA grant to start the Master Plan. He said that it is funded by the federal government at 91.06%, by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) at 4.47% and the City's share is 4.47%, or $24,545.

Councilmember Overton credited the Airport and FAA, noting that if things are in the study they have usually followed through. He asked if any of this money would be used to look at those parcels that could be marketed or sold for economic efforts. Mr. Helmick said that this is a big picture document and does not drill down into that specific use, but it could give them an outline. He said that they are working with APS regarding their substation which will support development of the airpark as well as the south campus area.

Mayor Nabours asked if it would get into future parking. Mr. Helmick said that this looks into that issue further and will come back with options, some of which may be extreme.

Mayor Nabours asked if it would get into the possibility of expansion on the east side of the runway. Mr. Helmick said that he did believe this will get into that, now that they have the option of looking at the east side parcels.

Mr. Helmick said that this is part of the largest capital program, most of the funds come from user fees or some form of property tax for aviation businesses. It goes into the federal program and provides about $3.6 billion. That amount changes annually and is divided up across the country.

Moved by Councilmember Scott Overton, seconded by Councilmember Coral Evans to approve the acceptance of an FAA Grant Agreement in the amount of $500,000 for the Update Airport Master Plan with AGIS and ALP project; and authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

Moved by Mayor Jerry Nabours, seconded by Councilmember Jeff Oravits to remove this item from the table.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

Human Resources Director Shannon Anderson said that this is the revised document, as directed by Council, that directs employees to the NAPEBT documentation with regard to retiree insurance.

Moved by Councilmember Karla Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Scott Overton to read Ordinance No. 2015-14 by title only for the final time.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

 
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FLAGSTAFF RELATING TO RETIREE INSURANCE, AMENDING THE EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK OF REGULATIONS AND FLAGSTAFF CITY CODE, PROVIDING FOR REPEAL OF CONFLICTING ORDINANCES, SEVERABILITY, AUTHORITY FOR CLERICAL CORRECTIONS, AND ESTABLISHING AN EFFECTIVE DATE
 

Moved by Councilmember Karla Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Eva Putzova to adopt Ordinance No. 2015-14.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

City Clerk Elizabeth Burke briefly reviewed the proposed ordinance, noting the changes that had been made at the last meeting.

Brief discussion was held on whether the wording should be changed to clarify that citizens would need to sign, not submit, the petition, and staff was directed to look at this further and amend as needed.

Moved by Councilmember Karla Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Jeff Oravits to read Ordinance No. 2015-16 by title only for the final time.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA, AMENDING THE FLAGSTAFF CITY CODE TITLE I, ADMINISTRATIVE, BY ADDING A NEW CHAPTER 12, CONSIDERATION OF PETITION, RELATED TO CITIZEN PETITIONS AND ESTABLISHING AN EFFECTIVE DATE

Moved by Councilmember Karla Brewster, seconded by Councilmember Coral Evans 

to adopt Ordinance No. 2015-16.

Vote: 7 - 0 - Unanimously

Councilmember Evans asked for an update on the temporary crossings on Fourth Street and when they will be permanent. Additionally, she voiced concern with the pedestrian crossing on Butler by NAU, noting that pedestrians are not pushing the button which lights the caution and residents are concerned that someone is going to get hurt. She asked if there was a way to ticket the pedestrians that are not following the traffic laws.

She has also received complaints about bikes traveling the wrong direction on one-way streets, and asked if they could be ticketed as well.

Councilmember Evans said that some time back she requested a legal opinion on panhandling and whether they could be required to obtain a business license. Ms. D'Andrea replied that it would be coming.

Councilmember Oravits commended staff for the good job done at the Frances Short Pond.

Mr. Copley reminded everyone of the Fourth Street Gateway dedication at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow and said they should have all received a "save the date" for the renaming ceremony for the Hal Jensen Recreation Center.

He also also commended Adam Miele on wrapping up the street safety repairs of over $9 million, improving 126 lane miles, with $3.6 million coming from the recently-passed tax. It was noted that this was just year one and it would pick back up next year.

Vice Mayor Barotz agreed with Councilmember Evans' concerns regarding the pedestrian crossing on Butler. She said that residents in that area are very confused about why the problem cannot be solved, and said that it was not a question of if, but when, some gets killed.