Holbrook Vice Mayor Matt Searles announced his resignation from the city council during a meeting of the council on May 10. In his announcement, Searles stated that his reason for resigning was that he has accepted a job in the City of Parker that would allow him to advance his career.
“I am grateful for the trust that the citizens have for me by allowing me to serve on this council. Holbrook will always be in my heart,” stated Searles.
Later in the meeting the council discussed the method by which to fill the vacancy left by Searles. His resignation was accepted by the council and the city charter states that once a resignation is accepted, a new member must be selected in the next 15 to 30 days. In the event of a tie vote that would extend the process beyond 30 days, an election would be required.
The process of selecting a new councilmember falls on the remaining council and the mayor, who shall select a qualified person by majority vote. The appointed council member shall then serve until the next general election or until a successor shall have been qualified.
Councilman-elect Bobby Tyler will be sworn in to his position on the council on May 24, but the 15-day minimum required to appoint the position left by Searles would not allow the council to make that appointment any earlier than May 25. It was determined that a special meeting would be held at 6 p.m. on that date in order to consider any nominations.
“I’ll be blunt,” stated Mayor Jeff Hill. “I hope Mr. (Richard) Peterson would consider a nomination for the position. We just had an election and know already who all wanted to run.”
Peterson, who lost his seat to Tyler in a close vote during the last election, nodded that he would accept the nomination. If appointed to the position by the council, he would serve out the remainder of Searles term, which expires in 2013.
In other business, Finance Director Randy Sullivan informed the council that the city sales tax audit is progressing due to the work of Al Holler and Associates. To date, Holler has conducted 18 audits. Of those audits, nine have paid the amount that was owed, one is on a payment plan and eight accounts are still due.
“Since the audit began, we have paid Al Holler $72,000 for his services and have recovered over $90,000. We have three more audits we want him to look into and I believe he also has several others,” explained Sullivan.
Although staff was pleased with the funds recovered by the audit, City Manager Ray Alley believes the most important part of the audit is to educate business owners.
“A lot of these people simply did not know that they had to pay these taxes, and from now on we will be able to collect on a regular basis,” stated Alley.
Sullivan also informed the council that in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service, the salary paid to council members will need to be moved from contractual agreements to payroll in order to have Federal Insurance Compensation Act (FICA) tax and Medicare taken out from their checks. Council members receive $100 per month as payment for their service to the community and the mayor receives $200.
Alley updated the council regarding the new well on McLaws Road, stating that the work should be complete by May 13. Road construction continues with East Delaware Street from Third Street to Second Street complete, and the work on East Erie Street from Third Street to Navajo Blvd. is to begin in the next week.
He also addressed a concern he had regarding the city’s participation in the Northeastern Arizona Consortium Grant. Alley admitted that he was unable to attend many of the meetings set up by the consortium, but also questioned the validity of the program.
According to Alley, four months ago all of the cities, and Navajo and Apache counties joined in on this as a Housing and Urban Development program. It allocated $5,000 to each city for three years in exchange for a lot of input and certain criteria that are listed as things that must be done in return. The criteria include bike paths and other amenities that improve rural areas.
“They say don’t worry about meeting those criteria, but that bothers me and I don’t feel comfortable with it. These are federal funds. Navajo County has pulled out of the agreement and I think we should too,” said Alley, adding that the cost for him to attend the bi-weekly meetings plus the criteria did not make the $5,000 enough of an incentive to participate.
The council agreed and supported the decision to withdraw from the consortium.
In other business, the council approved an expenditure in an amount not to exceed $1,890 to A to Z Drilling for the labor involved in repairing a well that had a pump that needed replacement.
Also approved was a request to declare Industrial Service and Supply as the sole source provider for Accu-Tabs in order to keep the same provider for all well systems.
Alley noted that the city pool is being drained and cleaned, and should be available for use beginning Memorial Day weekend.
He will also be getting together with Caleb Lanting of GHD Consulting to discuss the cost of a flow study regarding the sewer system. The system has already been digitized, so the work would be primarily computer generated, and would indicate potential blockages that could occur should growth take place in the community.
