Valued neighbors, in recent months, Carefree’s Town Staff has received what I believe is unfounded criticism regarding their approach to 1) delivering upon a heavy ongoing workload overlaid with necessary major projects and 2) the overall staffing costs for managing the requirements of the Town.
One has to first understand the nature of the workload handled by the Town Staff. It is what the Town Council and Town Administrator developed when arriving at the current working approach. For example, the revision and updating of the General Plan is a once every ten years project, and a directional signage strategy for the downtown area, which was purposely laid out to be secluded away from major highways, was a once-in-a-lifetime project.
Contributing to the “base workload” are the many areas over which the Town has required jurisdiction. For example, the number of building inspections of new and remodeled buildings numbers in the thousands each year. In addition, many state reporting requirements must also be met, most of which are unknown to someone not integrally involved in the Town’s business.
On top of this base workload are occasional major projects. After investigation and discussion, we determined to utilize experienced outside experts to work with Town Staff to manage projects when they arose.
A salary study was recently presented in this month’s town council meeting supporting the staffing model with which we subscribe: Councilmember Mike Johnson, a career Fortune 500 CFO, and Dr. Sharon Smith, a world-renowned author and economist living in Carefree, spear-headed the study.
*Congratulations to our team for the prestigious 2024 Build Arizona Awards. Carefree was recognized for two such awards—a pavement preservation project and the water consolidation project, for efficiency and cost controls while bringing all Carefree residents under one service provider.
Vince D’Aliesio
Carefree Councilmember
