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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 12/20/2011 *PLEASE NOTE: Since the Glendale City Council does not take formal action at the Workshops,Workshop minutes are not approved by the City Council. 'ITN 1.1i GLENIV1 MINUTES OF THE GLENDALE CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP SESSION Council Chambers—Workshop Room 5850 West Glendale Avenue December 20, 2011 1:30 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Elaine M. Scruggs, Vice Mayor Steven E. Frate and Councilmembers Joyce V. Clark, Yvonne J. Knaack, H. Phillip Lieberman, and Manuel D. Martinez, ABSENT: Councilmember Norma S. Alvarez ALSO PRESENT: Ed Beasley, City Manager; Horatio Skeete, Assistant City Manager; Craig Tindall, City Attorney; and Pamela Hanna, City Clerk 1. PROPOSED CITY TASK FORCE ON WATER AND SEWER PRESENTED BY: Joyce Clark, Chair, Government Services Committee This is a request from the Government Services Subcommittee of the City Council to discuss and provide guidance on the proposed city task force on water and sewer. The implementation of this task force supports Council's goal of one community with high- quality services for citizens. This item was presented, at the request of Council, for discussion at the September 6, 2011 Workshop during Council Items of Special Interest by Craig Johnson, Executive Director of Water Services. This topic was then presented to the Government Services Committee (GSC) by Mr. Johnson on November 1, 2011. The GSC met again on November 15, 2011 to discuss the details regarding this proposal. The recommendation of the GSC for Council consideration is as follows: • The Mayor and each Councilmember can recommend up to 10 citizens for this task force. They will be processed through the existing standard protocol for all board and commission members. Though a deviation from standard protocol, for the purpose of this task force, a 1 citizen can serve on this task force while currently serving on another existing board or commission. • The role and responsibilities of the task force members are the same as a board or commission member, including but not limited to, an advisory role making recommendations to the Council; committing to attending meetings regularly; preparing for meetings appropriately; and using critical thinking to determine recommendations. • The task force should be provided with an educational program/process covering water resources planning, water/wastewater treatment, reclaimed water storage, rate structure determination and other pertinent topics. Based upon the education provided, and through facilitated consensus-building discussions, the task force would be asked to provide Council with information on the city's water and wastewater utility service, and possible positions on the proper stewardship of these valuable resources. • The length of time needed by the task force is dependent upon securing a facilitator, the development of curriculum as well as the time required by the task force to study, deliberate and offer recommendations to Council based upon the material presented. The task force will provide citizens an opportunity to learn about the various functions, processes, and considerations required to effectively provide water services for the community, as well as a determination of the appropriateness of present and future rate structures. Water Services will incur the cost for a professional outside facilitator to promote consensus building and also use internal staff as facilitators. Staff will develop curriculum in accordance with Council recommendation and will provide knowledge on water, wastewater issues and other topics and present the recommendations from the citizens' task force to Council. Provide guidance on process guidelines to outline the process for moving forward with the proposed citizen's task force on water and sewer. Joyce Clark, Chair, Government Services Committee, provided a brief summary. She stated that once the Council has approved the basic structure and the roles and responsibilities of the task force, the information will be turned over to staff. Staff has been working on an ordinance that just needs the information created this afternoon to be put into that ordinance. She expects that ordinance to come forward in January and once that ordinance has been passed, they will go through the process of notifying the public and accepting applications for the water task force. She added it was not known how long the task force will be needed. Mayor Scruggs asked if the Councilmembers if they had additional topics or suggestions or comments? She stated that she would start as she did have comments. She said that she would like to suggest, if the Council agrees, that a portion of the educational part of the programs provided to the task force members cover AMWUA, Central Arizona Project and Central Arizona Water Conservation District and how they interact and how they— in many ways have a very significant influence on what can be done - oh and include SCROG, definitely. Those 2 outside agencies that the city is a member of or that have regulations of their own that impact city services. Councilmember Martinez commented that this committee process had been done similarly to the Bond Committee? He suggested they publicize this program well to provide opportunity to everyone who might have an interest to apply. Mayor Scruggs said she had some questions on that process. Each Councilmember will turn in 10 names. She noted the public needs to understand the government services committee meets at separate times and they might want to consider meeting in an open room where people can come and hear the discussion. Because there might be people interested. So, if each Councilmember puts in 10 names but two or more Councilmembers might put in the same name then there aren't a total of 70 individual names. She asked how will the Councilmembers know that there are more vacancies because Councilmember Knaack and Councilmember Lieberman all suggested the same person, so that's not 10 people. How does the Councilmembers find that out? Mayor Scruggs referred to a statement by Councilmember Clark that the government services committee would follow the same process and so the process is government services committee meets and discusses all these names. She asked if a note would be sent out saying that if a person didn't want their name discussed publicly then they should respond. And then the process is those names are discussed by Council in Executive Session and Council decides which names go for appointment. She asked if that was the process envisioned. Councilmember Clark stated she was correct. She added that in the case of several people submitting the same name, they will advise everyone right away so it can be decided who will be submitting that person and who will have the vacancy to fill. Councilmember Martinez suggested possibly submitting 10 names with two alternates. Councilmember Lieberman remarked he was not sure every Councilmember had 10 names to submit. He noted that was why it read, each Councilmember could submit up to 10 names. Councilmember Clark recognized his observation, but added she suspects they can all come up with 10 names. Mayor Scruggs said she expected there was going to be a high level of interest in this task force. Also, some citizens may question why their names might go in and they might not be appointed. The council is going to have to be very open about this; not just, in Executive Session. Also, given that some members may not have 10 names to submit, then other members should be allowed to fill that up. Because what's going to happen is if it's like every other long term task force we've had that takes a number of months to go through everything —people move, people get busy with their job, people fall off. So what you start with, you don't end up with that number and it's just a big educational process, people can't show up half way through and pick things up. So, if a Councilmember can't come up with 10 names, then the rest of Council should be able to fill in so that the list starts with the 70 names. Because she really thought by the time this is done, if there are 50 people, the city will probably be lucky because people's lives just change and they can't fulfill their commitment. 3 Councilmember Clark and Lieberman agreed. Mayor Scruggs asked Councilmember Clark, when would she like these names to be submitted to government services committee by? Councilmember Clark stated this process could not start this until the ordinance was passed, therefore by February 15, 2012. She added that could change if the ordinance gets pushed back. Councilmember Knaack stated it will also be very important to have someone from the Arizona Department of Water Resource on the task force. Mayor Scruggs said they might even get into funding opportunities. The cities have been tapped to keep their department — Arizona State Department of Water Resources operating — that's something else that the public doesn't understand that works into their utility bill because the state doesn't have enough money and so now cities are running state services. Councilmember Clark summarized the suggestions heard today. The recommendations are that part of the educational program should include information related to the State Department of Water Resources, AMWUA, Central Arizona Project, Central Arizona Water Conservation District and SCROG. In addition, if there were duplicates in the names that are provided, Council will be notified immediately in order to work things out. Also, if there are vacancies on the first round, Councilmembers will all be notified so they could submit additional names to fill any vacancies that might occur. Based on when the ordinance comes forward to Council, they hope to have approval of the committee members on or about February 15, 2012. Mayor Scruggs said Councilmember Martinez suggested submitting more than 10 names in order and then if there are shortages from other Councilmembers, you can go to those extra names. Councilmember Clark agreed. Mayor Scruggs asked is Council okay with this? Vice Mayor Frate noted that the time frame for the task force to make any difference in water rates and with the budget for next year was not very realistic. Mayor Scruggs said it probably won't be done. Water rates will just have to wait. Vice Mayor Frate agreed and added that he just wanted everyone to know since many might want to get involved because of water rates. However, they are now on the right track on this issue. Mayor Scruggs asked do you want to make an early announcement to anyone watching this workshop that is interested in being considered for this committee. Just send an email to your Councilmember or to me. Give us your name and your address and whatever you want to tell us about yourself and that you would like to be considered for this task force. Councilmember Martinez remarked that they need to submit an application. 4 Councilmember Clark stated that the applications were online. She asked anyone interested to fill one out and send it in. As no further business was discussed, Mayor Scruggs adjourned the meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 2:01 p.m. 5