Things To Do

Yavapai Central scouts out a sampling of important meetings, cool happenings, places to visit and community events.

Town Hall on Housing

The Arizona Town Hall will be in Clarkdale next Tuesday, January 27th. Hosted by Yavapai College with assistance from the City of Sedona, the Cottonwood Economic Development Council and the Verde Valley Regional Economic Organization, the interactive luncheon program will seek ideas on how to solve some of Arizona's housing issues. Tickets are $10 and you can register by phone at 602-252-9600 or online at www.aztownhall.org.

Prescott Pipeline Discussion

Several groups concerned about Yavapai County's water future will hold a forum called "Big Chino Pipeline and the Verde River: Your Water, Your River, Your Future," on Wednesday, January 28.

The discussion, sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens Water Advocacy Group, Sierra Club-Grand Canyon Chapter, and Arizona Wilderness Coalition, will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Prescott College Crossroads Center, behind 220 Grove Ave. in Prescott. Pizza and beverages will be provided, beginning at 5:00 p.m., and information tables open at 4:00 p.m. For more info, call Joanne at (928) 772-8204 or email joellers@biologicaldiversity.org.

County-wide Spelling Bee

Yavapai County students will get a chance to flex their spelling muscles at the Yavapai County Spelling Bee on February 18th at Franklin Phonetic School in Prescott Valley. The winner will compete in the Arizona State Spelling Bee on March 28th at the KAET - Channel 8 studio in Tempe and the state winner has a shot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in May.

Sustainable Planning Committee Meetings

So far there has been a meeting in Prescott on January 9th in Prescott. The January 23rd meeting scheduled for Cottonwood has been canceled. Upcoming meetings scheduled are February 6th (Prescott), February 20th (Cottonwood), March 6th (Prescott) and March 20th (Cottonwood). Agendas and future meeting dates will be posted on the county web site. The committee also has its own web page. The mission from the committee's web site follows:

Yavapai Central will be reporting on these committee meetings as often as possible.

Hard Numbers

In our last post we estimated the total cost of returning the $50 million loan the county voted to take out last year at $1,881,276. We were a little low. Budget director Donna Fagan provided us with the actual costs. We did not take into account interest accumulated on the money in the plus column or various costs incurred in taking out the loan in the minus column. Here's a printout of the document sent to us by Ms Fagan. We had to do some handy cutting and pasting to get it to fit on a standard sheet for the scanner. Just click on the image to see it at a size large enough to read.

If you add up all the pluses and minuses you'll learn the total cost of the loan, at a minimum, if returned at the earliest possible date, will be $2,071,872.21. Just for the record.

Back It Goes

"You find out your mistakes from an audience that pays admission." Edgar Bergen

We all make mistakes. Some are more costly than others. And sometimes the price is paid with other people's money.

The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors today voted to return the $50 million lease purchase agreement loan it approved to fund it's ambitious capital improvements program in April of last year. Interest payments on the loan are $26,563 a week and there is a $500,000 penalty for early repayment.

The earliest date for repayment of the loan is May of this year. Yavapai Central has requested the exact figure for the total cost of the loan to taxpayers from its inception to the repayment date and will report that amount as soon as it becomes available. But estimating the cost based on the fact that the loan was for a minimum of one year or 52 weeks, the total interest from May 1, 2008 to May 1, 2009 would be $1,381,276. Adding in the early payment penalty then brings the total cost to $1,881,276.

The board ultimately chose to approve "Capital Improvement Plan Alternate #5" from an array of 6 choices presented at the last meeting. Alternate Plan #5 includes these key elements:

• Building the Juvenile Detention Center at the county's Prescott Lakes Parkway site
• Taking two planned office buildings planned for the same site off the table
  
• Not using money from the contingency fund
• Apportioning 30% of the county sales tax to capital improvements
• Adopting a "pay-as-you-go" approach to capital improvements
  
• Returning the $50 million loan
• Using $14 million in capital reserves

The board also discussed a recommendation that all departments cut their budgets 7.5% across the board. A budget proposal prepared by staff and presented by county administrator Julie Ayers redirects 50% of the half cent sales tax to the general fund, 30% to the capital improvements program and 20% to the regional roads program. The half-cent sales tax goes into the General Fund and the monies are allocated according to the board's priorities and at its discretion.

Supervisor Springer questioned whether the cuts proposed could be made by all departments without affecting personnel.

"Is it possible to cut that much without laying off people?" she asked, and suggested the other two supervisors were "attacking the problem with a meat cleaver." She added later in the meeting that she believed the proposed alternative and the across-the-board cutting "is not a fiscally sound financial plan."

Chairman Thurman said he "had no idea" when he voted for the $50 million loan last year that the economic downturn was going to be so severe, but now he felt the best thing to do would be to return the money and scale back the building program.

Under current conditions, said Thurman, "you can't borrow money to buy a new car. You have to fix the old one right now." He added that he considers this a "moral decision," and that he believed the departments themselves know best how to meet the cost-cutting goals. "I'm not going to micro-manage these departments," said Thurman.

Supervisor Davis concurred, complimenting department heads on their efforts so far and calling on his fellow supervisors to support them.

"Now more than ever our employees have stepped up to the plate," said Davis, adding that by scaling back now "when the economy returns we're poised and ready to get back to work." He called the alternate plan a "reasonable proposal that makes sound financial sense." It was Davis who made the motion to act on the proposal. Thurman voted with Davis to approve and Springer voted "no."

An earlier idea to relocate the Juvenile Detention Center to a remodeled Gurley Street jail facility was scrapped. Supervisor Thurman said the cost of remodeling the older building for that use was prohibitive, but locating administrative offices there would be cost-effective. He mentioned the county attorney's and public defender's offices as potential tenants.

Supervisor Springer disagreed saying the Gurley Street building "doesn't meet the needs" and that she favored "keeping the reserve and continuing those [building] programs."

Also considered today was the timing for a return to the voters to approve a 1/4 cent increase in the county sales tax to pull the special jail district out of its ongoing deficit. The tax would also help create funds for future construction of an adult detention center in Prescott, according to officials. Supervisors and sheriff alike agreed that the need to close the Gurley Street jail made this even more imperative.

"By closing the Gurley Street jail," said supervisor Thurman, "the people found out we are in dire need."

The matter of the jail tax will be considered again and possibly brought up for a vote at the February 2nd board of supervisors meeting in Prescott.

[Musings: What if all the supervisors had listened to the public last April and voted not to incur the $50 million debt? What if?]

On the Line

How do you balance a budget that's knee-deep in red without laying people off while going forward with ambitious building and road projects? That's what's on the line this Tuesday when the Yapavai County board of supervisors meets in Cottonwood.

District 1 supervisor Carol Springer presented her "balance-the-budget" ideas at the board's January 5th meeting in Prescott, but none was voted on. Yavapai Central has obtained a copy of what was presented on the screen from county administrator, Julie Ayers. The Excel file is titled "Budget Deficit for Carol" and is copied unaltered to the right. (click to read full-size)

The additional compensation under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program is authorized by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which President Bush signed on Oct. 3, 2008.

Supervisors Thurman and Davis took issue with some of Springer's cuts and discussed curtailing both road and capital improvements projects and keeping employees.

But officials admittedly cannot separate the task of balancing the budget from facing the deficit in the Special Jail District. And, indeed, this fact was not lost on the supervisors, although they are separated on the agenda. Along with the study session on how the county's half cent sales tax is to be spent and what to do with the $50 million lease-purchase agreement (loan) taken out last year...

2. Board of Supervisors - Discussion on the County's budget, including capital improvements and regional road program and consider with possible action: 1) Re-allocation of the County's half cent sales tax; and 2) Status of the $50 million capital improvements loan.

...there will be a discussion prior to it on when to go back to the public to ask for additional sales tax revenue to put the jail district back in the black and build a new adult detention center in the county seat.

1. Yavapai County Jail District - the Board of Supervisors will resolve into the Board of Directors of the Yavapai County Jail District and following consideration of this item will reconvene as the Board of Supervisors. Discussion and consideration of a potential time line proposing the levy of an additional Yavapai County Jail District Excise Tax. Julie Ayers, County Administrator.

The target date for reintroducing the tax mentioned at the board's last meeting was September 1st of this year, however supporting materials for tomorrow's study session shows time lines for eight possible election dates, as early as March 10th of this year and as late as November 2nd of next year. However, the deadline for the early date, the time line shows, has already passed.

The state's Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) has briefed Arizona state legislators on options for the fiscal year 2009 and 2010 budgets. The details were released last week and a county-by-county analysis is expected soon. One key point the supervisors will also have to figure into any county budget discussions is that state revenue is not projected to return to 2008 levels until at least 2012.

In other business, the board will be deciding on their representation on various organizations and entities. This includes the chairmanship of the Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization (CYMPO) Executive Board, a position currently held by supervisor Springer.

Debt and the Devil to Pay

Last year, like many Americans, Yavapai County went into debt. This year, like many Americans, some Yavapai County officials wish they hadn't.

The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors of 2009 faced the debt dilemma head-on and at least one supervisor seemed to have borrower's remorse.

Asking the question of the day, perhaps the year, District 2 supervisor Tom Thurman after hearing about current budget conditions and planned capital improvement projects inquired "Where are we going to get the money to do all this?"

Some of the money is to come from the county's half cent sales tax, of which county administrator Julie Ayers gave a brief history. The tax, said Ayers, was implemented, as allowed by state statute, in 1994 and was originally allocated for roads in what is called the Regional Road Fund and to the General Fund to reduce the property tax rate. In 2005, when the same board members sitting now were also in their respective positions, the Board passed a resolution that the funds "be allocated at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors," said Ayers. "So basically this is revenue that the Board of Supervisors may allocate to wherever they would like," she added.

60% of the sales tax was allocated for the Regional Roads Fund and 40% was allocated specifically to the Capital Improvements Program. However, in looking at fiscal 2008-09 "due to the severity of the financial shortfall to the general fund and the resulting impact to county services, a full or partial shift of the half cent sales tax on a either a temporary or permanent basis I believe is part of our discussion today," said Ayers.

The second answer to supervisor Thurman's question was to be $50 million the county borrowed in April of 2008 in the form of a lease-purchase agreement to build a complex of county buildings at the Prescott Lakes Parkway site it owns. But the cost of the loan may have made it a liability, rather than an asset. Weekly interest costs for the loan are $26,563 and with principal payments would be upwards of $42,000 a week.

What to do? Continue with the ambitious capital improvements program and carry the loan, but in order to meet the $13.3 million budget shortfall begin laying off county employees and closing existing county facilities?

Just prior to the afternoon budget discussions the supervisors voted to close the Gurley Street jail and begin transporting all prisoners to the jail in the Verde Valley. In a separate "balance-the-budget" proposal presented by district 1 supervisor Carol Springer she advocated closing the development services department in the Verde Valley.

Four alternate proposals were presented in the supporting document for the meeting agenda on the county web site for the capital improvements plan discussion, but the one presented to the public at the meeting actually showed six alternatives. Thurman apologized saying "unfortunately the agenda that was advertised did not have all of the different proposals in it." Three of the six alternates included returning the $50 million loan, which would mean a $500,000 penalty and according to supervisor Springer could not be done until May at the earliest. Springer strongly favored keeping the $50 million and going forward with the capital improvement program. Her budget proposal, she said, would allow them to cut spending enough to go forward with the building program.

But supervisor Thurman was not convinced. "I have a real problem building $70 million worth of buildings and not doing community cleanups," said Thurman. "I have a hard time building buildings and laying off folks."

Countered Springer, "I believe what taxpayers expect is that when our revenues decline that we cut expenditures, that we cut spending. Not that we take from other sources and borrow from other places in order to shore up unrealistic budget spending." She added that "hard decisions" needed to be made and that probably included laying people off.

Springer added that all economies are cyclical and that this has been "one of the most precipitous" downturns in recent memory, but she was optimistic about a turnaround. "If you recall," said Springer, "over the past four or five years it was also one of the swiftest increases, and during that time we spent the money. Nobody complained when we spent the money. And we spent the money on the departments we felt it was most needed."

But Supervisor Davis was not convinced either. "We just voted to close the Prescott jail," said Davis and reminded Springer of her proposal to close down the development services department in the Verde Valley. "How can we justify that we need to build more buildings when we're shutting down operations and closing buildings down?"

On February 19 of 2008 the Board of Supervisors, then, as now, consisting of supervisors Thurman, Davis and Springer, with Springer acting as chairman for the year, voted two to one (Davis said no) to borrow $50 million.

In stating his objections supervisor Davis said "I don't agree with only using $7 million for capital improvements. I don't agree with keeping $18 million in reserve instead of dealing with our budget problems. And I don't agree with borrowing $50 million and obligating the county to a high loan payment."

A single public hearing was held in Cottonwood on March 17 at which all public comment, both written and spoken, was opposed, and the lease-purchase option was approved in a two-to-zero vote on April 7th (supervisor Davis was absent).

No action was taken on any of the six alternate proposals for the capital improvements plan at Monday's meeting, and likewise no decision was made on whether or not to return the $50 million loan. In the meantime, architects and engineers hired to work on the capital improvements projects at Prescott Lakes Parkway and elsewhere still need to be paid. We can most likely expect to hear more at the next Board of Supervisor's meeting on January 19 in Cottonwood.

To hear the audio file from the January 5th meeting (only if you have Internet Explorer though, folks...it won't work if you have Firefox or are using Mac's Safari -- we tested them) you can click on this link.

[Musings: What is the total cost of the debt since it's inception so far and what would it be if we repaid the money at the earliest possible date allowed? If we do not return the loan money, exactly which projects can we afford to go forward with? Since the Board and Sheriff Waugh agreed an increase in the county sales tax to move the Jail District out of the red and accumulate the funds to build a new jail in the Prescott area would be sought again as soon as possible, what is the contingency plan if it doesn't succeed a second time? Did the Board jump into the lease-purchase agreement too quickly, underestimating the gathering clouds over the economy in the first quarter of 2008 and do so without carefully considering all the "what if" scenarios?]

Whither the Dells?

Yesterday the County Planning and Zoning Commission took the first step toward approval of a major expansion of the Granite Gate Senior Living Community located in historic Granite Dells. In a 4 to 5 vote, the commission recommended approval by the Board of Supervisors at their first meeting in February. Commissioners Jon Barnert and Tom Reilly recused themselves, Reilly because his firm is directly involved in the project. Commissioner Gene Kerkman's was the only dissenting vote.

The 150 new units would take the form of a 4-story addition to the existing facility and two new buildings, with two stories each. One two-story building would be a facility for dementia and Alzheimer's patients and the second would be for rehabilitation, both for Granite Gate residents and outside clients. The total footprint of the expansion would be approximately 50,000 square feet.

God's Garden

The Granite Dells area is an almost other-worldly landscape of weathered rock formations strewn along Granite Creek. It was once a popular picnic spot for early residents of Prescott, and a pavilion followed by a dance hall was built in the early 20th century.

But to those interested in things historic it is perhaps best remembered for the Garden of the Gods Resort that was built in the 1920s. It featured Prescott's first heated swimming pool, a petting zoo and cabins that attracted hundreds of guests. Over the years it fell on hard times and closed in 1970.

The Granite Dells was a favorite location of the silent movie western cowboy hero, Tom Mix, making many movies there and in Williamson Valley between 1913 and 1928. Sharlot Hall Museum's web site is worth checking out for a nostalgic look at the Dells' contribution to movie magic.

Granite Gate was originally built as a resort in 1985, but never completed. It was sold and converted into an assisted living facility that opened its doors in 1994. There are currently approximately 85 employees and the expansion would add about 65 additional employees on three rotating shifts.

Pros and Cons

In order to accomplish the Granite Gate expansion, the Board of Supervisors must approve a major Planned Area Development amendment and a minor community plan amendment. The Granite Dells Community Plan was last updated in 1991 and states that future development was specifically to exclude "nursing homes." Instead it says the community would like to encourage resorts and other travel and tourism-related businesses.

"It perplexes us why people would be opposed to a use that is far less intrusive than a resort hotel would be," said Bill Feldmeier, the agent representing the project to the commission. Feldmeier is a former county supervisor and currently serves on the state transportation board, having been appointed by Governor Napolitano in 2006.

Feldmeier added that several conservation groups support the project and that the gain of both temporary construction jobs and permanent jobs at the facility, plus an increase in the county's tax base would all make approval of the project a positive move. Ten acres of open space are included in the proposal. And in response to objections that such an expansion would violate the Granite Dells Community Plan, Feldmeier said "It's a plan and it's only a plan. It's not the Bible....these are a guide and are not to be used like the Ten Commandments."

Opponents of the project included David Spence, chairman of the Granite Dells Association. The Dells is an "irreplacable asset" said Spence and "intensive uses" like this expanded facility would create an excessive amount of change to the area. We are "undeniably and overwhelmingly opposed," said Spence.

Concerns from other opponents, all of whom were nearby residents, included loss of views, diminished property values and the county's failure to live up to its own published plans. Impingement on wildlife corridors was also cited. Said resident David Cross, a 53-year veteran real estate appraiser, consultant, analyst and expert witness "people who bought in this area believed that the PAD ordinance would be followed. That's what we relied upon. To do anything else would be a travesty."

Richard Harder, also a resident, echoed Cross's argument citing "rights and assumptions made when we bought our property" and resident and real estate broker Kathleen Yamauchi added "this sets a scary precedent, to start changing PADs."

Agent Bill Feldmeier answered objections concerning possible impact on wildlife that "animals will adapt," and as for declining real estate values, the conservation easement included in the proposal would increase values, he believed. Elise Link, County Planning Manager, added that any property value loss can't be substantiated and that she and staff do not consider actions taken to be "precedent setting."

[Musings: Personally, I would like to see the statements by conservation organizations supporting the project, which I will obtain and comment on in a later post. I am also interested to see how the trails system will work into the site changes. And the question that always comes to my mind when highly treasured and sensitive areas like the Granite Dells are being considered for further development -- Does Yavapai County have a mission to preserve open space? If so, where? When? What specific locations that are considered county "treasures" are we committed to protect? It should be noted that the City of Prescott has actively sought to purchase property in the Dells as part of its open space program and in addition to a 37-acre purchase on the east side of Highway 89 approved another important 80-acre purchase on the west side of the highway abutting the land it already owns around Willow Lake in August of last year.]