During the Nov. 14 meeting of the Holbrook City Council, the council addressed an item on the agenda regarding the residency requirement in the city’s personnel policy. According to City Manager Randy Sullivan, the need to address the requirement is to accommodate the police department, which has been unable to recruit qualified applicants within Holbrook.
After a brief discussion, it was decided to strike the residency requirements outside of what is required in the charter, which states the mayor and council members must live within city limits, and with the exception of emergency city personnel in the city water department who would be required to be within a 10 minute response time in the event of a water main break. The staff was instructed to change the policy and bring it back at the next council meeting for consideration and approval.
Councilman CJ Wischmann stated that in the past several weeks he had a great deal of interaction with the Holbrook Police Department and was very pleased with their service. “I had interactions with Sgt. Parra, Patrolman Parra, Rieser, Jed (Koon), Lt. Arend and they were all positive interactions, which leads me to say that I don’t believe the police department gets enough recognition.
“I also found that they are overworked, they’re underpaid and we need to address that at the strategic planning (meeting) or the next year’s budget.” He added that he felt those reasons were why the city is unable to recruit new law enforcement officers into the area. “It was reassuring to me, being a person that criticizes all the time, to have nothing but good results,” he said.
In other business, Councilwoman Francie Payne stated that the county has received the bid for replacing the roof on the old courthouse in the amount of nearly $118,000, with a great portion of the cost due to the required asbestos removal.
“I would like the other council members to consider the possibility of looking at our next budget to see what we might be able to afford and maybe share some of the cost. I’m not saying 50/50, I’m just saying I think it would be good for the project as a whole and good for the community as a whole if we could come up with some money to assist the county in paying for this,” she said.
Payne added that there has been talk about repairing the roof on and off for the past 20 years. “One of these days it’s not going to be necessary anymore if we don’t get it replaced.”
Wischmann informed the council that he took an evening and drove down every city street north of the railroad tracks and counted the number of streetlights that were not lit. “I found 29 lights that were not in service. I got out and took the numbers on each one of them and on the following Monday I got ahold of Janet Dean with APS (Arizona Public Service) who in turn got ahold of a gentleman named Rick from APS out of Snowflake and they’re working on it,” he said, adding that since that time he has noticed a vast improvement.
What Wischmann was apparently unaware of was that city officials had been working with APS for two months on the situation. According to Director of Administration Pat Nichols the lights that were out had halogen bulbs, which APS no longer provides. He and City Clerk Cher Reyes had been discussing with APS what LED lights would work best with the light fixtures and had just met with APS three week ago with the final decision. According to Nichols, the change in lighting will mean a significant monetary savings to the city.
City Manager Randy Sullivan updated the council on projects taking place in the city. “We finished the cart hangars out at the golf course. Six of them are already taken care of. It’s really popular out there and a lot of the golfers are really excited about buying their own carts.”
He also reported that the fuel tank has been finished at the airport and the old tank has been demolished and that work on the soccer field at Hunt Park is going well.
Regarding financial matters, Sullivan stated that sales tax revenue is up about 2.5 percent over last year and most of the departments are all under budget for the year. “The only concern on there is the water adjudication fund passed last year to help pay for the adjudication fees and the fees are extremely high this year.” He suggested that during the budget process the council might want to put a cap on that or another option would be to increase the water fee, which is currently an additional $1 for citizens each month on their water bill. “We’d have to increase that fee to about $4 to pay the current rate of the adjudication fee.”
He also reported that two grants were submitted to the Arizona Fish and Game Department to help out with the development of the fish pond and park area planned for the area at the west end of Buffalo Street. He also announced that two new businesses have opened in town. One is Somberitos, which closed briefly but is now open next to the America’s Best Value Inn on Navajo Blvd., and Trinibops Cakery & Coffee in the old Wayside Café building on Hopi Drive.
Sullivan also noted that there were 60 runners who participated in the annual Zombie Run held last month. There was also a very good turnout for the Halloween Spooktacular.
Police Chief Mark Jackson informed the council that the department is still down two officers. He noted that one applicant has made it through the polygraph and another one is being considered. If they do well he is hopeful to get them into the academy next month.
Later in the meeting Jackson requested and received from the council, the authorization to accept a Susteen Outreach Mobile Forensics grant in the amount $4,000 for a device that downloads cell phone information. Jackson noted that the device the department currently uses does not have the technology to accommodate the newer model phones. The remaining cost of $995 would come from the department’s impound fees.
The council also discussed what to do regarding the strategic planning session planned for Nov. 17 and 18. Vice Mayor Wade Carlisle and Councilman Wischmann stated that they would be unable to attend and staff reported that Mayor Tyler, who was not present at the meeting, informed staff he wouldn’t be either. In discussing the matter, the council members agreed that it would be important to have all members present.
The meeting facilitator Jason Foutz who was present at the meeting agreed stating, “I believe it’s fruitless to have a strategic planning session without all the necessary bodies in the room.” It was agreed that Foutz would review his schedule and coordinate a better time for everyone to participate.
Navajo County Manager Glenn Kephart introduced himself to the council and those present at the meeting. Kephart informed the council that he was looking forward to continuing relations with the city. “The relationships and partnerships we’ve had together will continue as they have in the past with a goal to make them even stronger,” he said.
The council also agreed to cancel the Nov. 28 and Dec. 26 meetings due to the holidays.
