CAREFREE – Lyn Hitchon spoke at Tuesday evening’s council meeting during Call to the Public to thank Marketing Director Gina Kaegi and staff for the pumpkin festival.
Mayor Les Peterson said 55,000 to 60,000 people came to the festival.
Michael Pedreira also thanked all those involved for putting the pumpkin festival together.
Stating he and his wife have lived in town for the past 12 years, Pedreira said, “There’s a whole lot to be thankful for. We couldn’t be happier living here,” and joked, “Council is great, for the most part.”
As Vice Mayor John Crane was about to read a letter into the record from Darlene Goodman, Goodman asked to speak instead.
Goodman urged council to consider providing a dog park where citizens and their dogs can socialize together.
Peterson publicly recognized outgoing council members Melissa Price, Glenn Miller and Bob Gearhart as people to whom “we owe a debt of gratitude.”
Presenting each with a plaque thanking them for their service, Peterson noted Price was a person who helped “put so many things in place” and pointed out her perseverance in the push to hire a marketing director and build the town’s new gateways.
Peterson noted Miller has had over a decade of service to the town and he too was a driving force for getting things done in town.
Miller said, “It’s been my pleasure and it’s been a lot of fun. I feel good we got all these projects done,” and stated he would be leaving the new council with $6.4 million in the bank with everything paid for.”
Peterson said Gearhart, who has served on council for the past 20 months, does a lot of work with Hospice.
Gearhart thanked council for the opportunity to serve and said it was a “tremendous learning experience.”
Gearhart said a lot was accomplished over the last couple of years, including the hiring of Kaegi, whom he said has done a great job.
Peterson asked attendees to stand and give the three council members a round of applause.
During current events, Vice Mayor John Crane said there will be a Veterans Day celebration from 3-5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 with speakers and live music at the Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion.
It was pointed out that the newspaper incorrectly stated the day of the week as Wednesday instead of Friday but had the right date.
Councilman Gene Orrico said the Kiwanis pancake breakfast will be from 7-11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12.
Town Administrator Gary Neiss and Accountant Jim Keen presented an overview of the town’s and consolidated court’s annual audits with Crimson Singleton from the audit firm Hinton Burdick, PLLC attending telephonically.
Neiss commended Keen and the consolidated court staff for their time and effort during the audit.
Neiss said the town is continuing to build its reserves while investing in the community without a property tax.
He noted the town built the fire station, paid off town hall and completed scheduled road maintenance projects while growing the town’s fund balance to $6.9 million.
Singleton said there were no issues and only a few minor journal entries for the town and no findings for the court.
She said there was a recurring entry regarding segregation of staff duties but noted that is difficult to do with a small town and limited staff.
Councilman Mike Farrar asked if she could expand on what she meant and possibly give them an example.
Keen said he does three things that most larger towns have three people to do, such as different people doing accounts payable, accounts receivable and the general ledger.
However, Keen pointed out he cannot sign on any of the town’s bank accounts.
Peterson explained the approval process for paying invoices and all the people involved before the checks are signed.
Miller said that was why council also gets the financials and check ledgers every month to review.
Council voted unanimously to accept the town’s and consolidated court’s audits.
Due to the legislature’s passage of SB 1350, which limits cities and towns from passing ordinances that prohibit vacation rentals, the town had to amend its ordinances to come into compliance.
Town Planner Stacey Bridge-Denzak said council would only require one reading since the text amendments to the ordinance had already gone to the planning and zoning commission.
Bridge-Denzak explained SB 1350 required reversal of those portions of Ordinance 2005-03, prohibiting rentals for less than 30 days and restrictions of any kind of residential use.
Some of the definitions being removed included: transient use, timeshare, residential occupancy and, under the home occupation section, “transient use of dwelling.”
Bridge-Denzak said the new law required adoption of compliant ordinances before the end of the calendar year.
She said HOAs, through their CC&Rs may regulate themselves as third party agreements and can impose restrictions.
Miller suggested sending a letter out to the HOAs in Carefree to explain the changes in the law and the town’s ordinance, as many may not have any such restrictions in their CC&Rs because they were simply relying on the town’s ordinance.
Bridge-Denzak said that could be done.
She said the whole premise behind the bill was to not discriminate against renters and treat all renters equally.
Oricco said, “I see a whole lot of bed tax falling through the cracks,” and stated it was hard to enforce.
As they opened up the public hearing portion of the agenda item, John Traynor said, “The issue of HOAs is nebulous,” claiming the law would now open the door for non-residential use unless the CC&Rs specify residential use.
Bridge-Denzak disagreed and said it is still a residential use and changing the time frame to less than 30 days does not make the use commercial.
Council passed the text amendments unanimously.
