Council Appropriates $3.2 million More For Naranja Park Buildout

Council appropriated $3.2 million reserves for Naranja Park Buildout
On November 16, the Oro Valley town Council appropriated $3.2 million to “complete” the build out of Naranja park amenities. The approval is exactly what Town staff wanted and includes all of the value engineering changes town staff recommended.  In addition, the council earmarked $509,000 of development impact fees to cover the overrun.

Bond project items that will not be funded at the moment are detailed in our posting of November 16. These will be subject to “pay as you go” spending. 

Nicolson: Sports Tourism is "front and center"

One of the key areas considered by the Council was sports tourism. This concept was introduced to council by former Mayor Hiremath. Councilmembers Nicolson and Jones-Ivey want a world-class pump track that can be used for competition. They think that it will bring people from out of town who will stay in the hotels that have yet to be built. During the one hour discussion, Nicolson, focused only on the pump track. He spoke of nothing else. Clearly, Nicolson wants his pump track.

Musette Drive Connection from Tangerine

Barrett: Borrowing was a good deal when we did it

Vice mayor Barrett commented several times during the meeting to justify why borrowing money to finance the park was good idea. The town received a favorable interest rate on the $25 million in borrowing. The amount of funding to build out the amenities was estimated to be $33 million. Yes. The amount ballooned to well over $50 million, Barrett noted. 

Mayor Winfield claimed that there was no way to predict the overrun

According to Winfield, the original estimate was provided by an engineering firm. This is not the case. It was provided by a Parks Consultant. In addition, the council was advised on several occasion by Public Works Director Keesler that there were materials shortages and that costs were rapidly inflating. 

Solomon: Council ignored statistically valid survey regarding parks priorities

Councilmember Steve Solomon said the same thing that he has said every time this subject is on the agenda. His assertion is that the amenities that are being built don’t follow what people want because they don’t in any way sync with the statistically valid survey that the town did 18 months ago. No one asked for a skate park. Or a splash pad. Residents want trails. Solomon is correct. But that ship has sailed!

Bohen: Last election validates doing this

Councilmember Bohen pointed out that we had a recent election of four people. These are the same four people who proposed the bond. They were reelected. Obviously, the community felt they were doing the right thing.

Greene voted "no" but gave no reason

Councilmember Mo Greene did not vote for the measure. He did not state the reason why he voted “no” since he did not speak. Our guess is that he was caught off guard when Solomon voted in favor. Generally, Greene votes the way Solomon votes.

Winfield's "sleight-of-hand" succeeds

Mayor Winfield is giddy over the fact that Naranja Park is going to be completed. He achieved what former Mayors Paul Loomis and Satish Hiremath were not able to get done. Both Loomis and Hiremath proposed that the town issue bonds that would be paid via a secondary property tax.  Residents voted “no” on that. 

Winfield, on the other hand, circumvented the entire “property tax thing” by issuing a bond that will be serviced from the existing sales tax. A rather clever sleight-of-hand. Oh yes… Winfield and his council also abandoned the “pay as you go” funding for parks improvements. This is a policy that his council at one time affirmed and that all council’s have followed.  The reason that policy prevailed is that is unwise to borrow to fund “wants.”

The "thing in the punch bowl:" Town has no idea what it will cost to maintain Naranja Park

What is lost in all of this is what it is going to cost to maintain the new Naranja Park. Ongoing maintenance cost of the facility has never been considered by this Council  This despite the fact that town ordinances require estimating maintenance cost before committing to build any facility. That is simply smart fiscal management. It is important to know what it is going to cost to maintain a new facility because that cost is borne in future budgets.

Water Rate Hikes Coming...Reclaimed Water Use Becomes A Strategic Decision

Potable water rates and wastewater use in forefront

Two items on last week's Town of Oro Valley Town Council agenda related to water. One is a water rate increase. The second is a discussion the potential for extending the towns reclaimed water system to those parks currently use potable water for irrigation.

Potable water rates will increase in August

The council unanimously (6-0, Jones-Ivey absent) approved it's annual increase in water rates. An annual increase is part of Water Director Peter Abraham's plan to gradually increase rates to compensate for increased cost. This year, the cost of CAP water went up, causing the need for this year's increase cost. The rates schedules were accepted as presented. 

Mayor Winfield would like to see the town increase the cost of water to those homes that use more than 3,000 gallons of water a month.  Council Member Solomon disagrees. He noted the unfairness of this increase in subsidization by larger homes for smaller homes. The current rate schedule already does this.  The average use of water for Oro Valley homes is 7,000 gallons per month.  Winfield's suggested change further increase water cost to most resident.

Reclaimed water system to stay as is for now...further discussion needed

Council members Nicolson and Bohen had asked that a discussion of the wastewater system be on the agenda. They wanted to know: Can the system be extended to those town parks that use potable water? If so, what would it cost to do so?  What would be the impact on the town's potable water supply?

Abraham sees multiple uses of Oro Valley's reclaimed water allotment

Oro Valley Water Director Peter Abraham framed his response in a broader context. "When I started diving into this my mind was going to some amazing places that might be of better benefit to the community than just extending the reclaimed water system. We have an opportunity here to further ensure our sustainability. We have the resource. Let's take our time and wrestle with it."  One possibility is that reclaimed water can be treated and injected into our current potable water system.

Town Manager Jacobs: Future use of reclaimed water is a major policy issue

Oro Valley Town Manager Jacobs agrees that "this is a major policy issue. It is something we need to figure out in terms of what is right for this community. This should be incorporated into the strategic leadership plan."

Yes. The reclaimed water can be extended to the southern area of town

The cost of doing so depends on the route and the engineering challenges along the way. Abraham guesses that it could be $8 million dollars. But then again it could be $10 million or $6 million. Since Abraham doesn't know the route, he can not give a firm estimate of the cost of extending the route.  

Yes. The town does have enough capacity of reclaimed water to be able to supply those parks that are currently using potable water

These parks used 6.4 million gallons of drinking water in April [panel left]. That is the equivalent use for 917 single family residential home.

Jacobs will present a motion to the town council at next week’s meeting to “…analyze and develop policy options for the cost-effective and efficient long-term use of the Town’s unused reclaimed water entitlement.” (Source) This is to be completed by June 30 2023.

- - -

The Hiremath "Development Pipeline" Continues To Drive Residential Home Growth

Many residents expected a slowdown in residential home growth in Oro Valley after the 2018 election

One of the things readers have said to us is that Oro Valley home growth has been rapid at a time when they expected home growth to slow down given that a new council was elected to do just that when it took office in November of 2018.

Indeed, the opposite has happened

Rather than seeing a decrease in residential construction, the town has seen an increase in the number of residential building permits issued in 2020 and 2021. (See chart at right, below)

Where did this increase in homebuilding growth come from?

Residential home growth came from the "Hiremath Pipeline"

According to Town of Oro Valley Planning Manager Bayer Vella speaking to the Planning and Zoning Commission on March 1, the increase came from actions taken by Mayor Hiremath led councils. Those councils passed several general plan amendments and rezoning changes that created this substantial growth. 

It is a "pipeline" of residential home building growth, according to Vella, spearheaded by two major developments." 

These two projects "...are really the more dramatic areas of change.”

Capella Project

Perhaps the biggest area of concentration is at LaCholla and Naranja. It is known as Capella. That development will have as many as 600 homes. A Hiremath council led the approval of a general plan amendment for Capella in 2015. They followed with a rezoning of the property in May, 2018. "We are just starting to see ground broken there in terms of subdividing subdivision development and I certainly expect it to accelerate." 

 

Tranquilo at Rancho Vistoso

Vella also pointed to a second development project. In December of 2017, the Hiremath Council approved a general plan amendment and zoning changes for the Tranquilo project. That's 227 units which are being built on the edge of Big Wash. "They are grading now and prepping the site that's across the street from Sun City, right under or near the bridge…a bridge across Big Wash." (See our editorial on this)

Vella: Town is no longer building a “pipeline” 

Things changed in 2018 with a new council. “Right now, Oro Valley is not building a pipeline. There have not been, ... residential rezoning ... of size to create a bump like that in the future.” 

LOVE Fact check: There have been no general plan amendment or rezoning to accommodate large residential developments under the Winfield Council. In fact, there have been no general plan amendments at all.
- - - 

Bits and Pieces: Time To Free Oro Valley

Time to Free Us!
There are a number of reputable studies that show that 50 to 80 times the number of recorded COVID-19 cases are out there; and that these people were either not sick at all or had cases so mild they didn't have to pay attention to it. Guess this isn't such a scary apocalyptic flu after all.

Using even the lowest estimate of 50 unreported to every reported case, the COVID-19 numbers look much less threatening. Perhaps, not threatening at all.

Here's the adjusted numbers:

• You have a 2% of getting sick enough to even worry about it
• .1% is overall mortality rate if you do get it. That means you have 99.9% chance you will be just fine.

Now that we have the data it is clear that only those who are at highest risk should have been locked-down. Those who serve them need to take precautions. The rest of us need to get back to our lives.

Mayor Winfield does not agree with us. Watch his recent video.  It is yet more: "Stay Strong", "We're in this together" pablum.

We are not children. We need to be treated like adults. And we do have the "Bill of Rights".

In his video, Winfield claims that COVID-19 cases in Arizona are increasing. He is wrong. The total number of new cases are flat or decreasing. 250 new case a day in a state of 4  million people does not make for an epidemic. And most days it is far less than that.

The number of cases reported have been spiking up and down because more tests are being done. These people may have it but they are not anywhere near close to being really sick.

Mr. Mayor, there are 4 million people living in this state and a whopping 5,700 cases in total. There are at most 10 cases in Oro Valley and there are 45,000 residents. 

It is insane to imprison 99.9% of the population!

Heat and sunlight kill the virus on any surface in 2 minutes. Open our dog parks. Open our tennis courts. Open our basket ball court. Give us some semblance of progress. 

You can do this. The CDC says that a State can and should be opened on an individual county and town basis.

One size does not fit all. Fight for Oro Valley to be free. Be a leader. We don't need a nanny.

The "excessive noise" police have no standard noise measure
This is from Nextdoor.com. An El Conquistador resident wrote:

"We have our music on in our backyard, we live off the 15th hole. Country music playing, with no vulgar language or anything bad. We have the cops show up for a noise complaint?! Are you kidding me! It wasn’t even 7 pm! The officers were professional and understood our confusion....I am baffled by the ridiculous nature of this situation and the lack of courtesy in this well established neighborhood."

We wonder: What the police were thinking? We wonder why the person who complained, if there was one, didn't simply go over to the neighbor. And why was it necessary for two cops to show up?

The Oro Valley noise ordinance (10-1-4) states: "No person shall negligently make, cause, or permit unreasonable noise." What, exactly, is "unreasonable?" It is not standard of measure. It is entirely subjective. "Unreasonable noise" can be and should be quantified in the ordinance defining decibels within a distance commensurate with zoning of the area. It is easy to establish a standard. Let's do it.

Impersonating LOVE and Winfield
Someone has created a fake LOVE email address (letorovalleyexcel@gmail.com).  If you receive any emails from that address, they were not sent by us. Someone (most likely the same person) has also created a fake Facebook page that appears to be the facebook page of Mayor Joe Winfield and they are sending friend requests to unsuspecting people. Please always check to make sure that the emails or friend requests you receive are actually from LOVE or from Mayor Winfield. It if looks suspicious, disregard it.


---

Winfield Takes Reigns In Fixing Town's Unfunded Public Service Pension Liability

The unfunded public service pension liability is $23 million
Mayor Joe Winfield made it clear at last week's Oro Valley Town Council meeting that his council is going to both recognize and work to pay down the town's unfunded public service pension liability ("PSPRS" [Arizona State Public Safety Personnel Retirement System]) of approximately $23 million.

Approximately $2 million is allocated in this year's budget to do just that. There is also an added $1 million that is being paid to cover this year's liability.

Oro Valley is not unique in having an unfunded pension liability problem. According to the PEW Institute, Arizona has funded only 63% of its pension liability. Unfunded pension liabilities are significant for most communities in the US, What is unique is that our town, under Winfield's leadership, is going to do something about it. 

The Question: Pay less now or more later?
Council Member Nicolson wants the liability paid sooner rather than later. He emphasized that paying the liability down sooner rather than later saves the town money because the amount paid in will immediately start accruing compound interest, thus reducing the amount of future payments. The money is expected to earn over 7% once invested to fund the liability. The actual return, however, can vary significantly depending on how the private sector is doing economically.

Council member Rhonda Pina agreed for the need for a paydown, though perhaps disagreed with the timing. "We do need to make a pay down." She, and Council Member Rodman, want to be sure that the pay down does not impede the funding for other services. Regarding future budgets, she emphasized that "we're cutting back on future services and need the ability to be flexible" when it comes to paying down this pension liability.

Winfield provides direction
Winfield became aware of this unfunded liability last October. "This is a significant issue that we as a council...are taking ownership of," he noted at the council meeting. "I believe that the budget that has been presented that includes payment towards the principal is a wise move." Winfield is depending on staff and the town's budget commission to study this situation to provide future direction. "I believe that once that occurs, then it will be a natural next step for the staff to begin to look at...a variety of options of how to address this unfunded liability which we know has grown significantly."

"I want to go on the record that this is a significant issue for us as a council and a first step is to define the PSPRS policy, to really articulate what the problem is and then to give to our very capable staff some options..." on how to deal with this liability. "We may have to be thinking out of the box" to solve this problem.

Specifically addressing the police, Winfield said the police "...put their lives on the line. We want the pension to be there for them."

Council Member Rodman summed it up: "I agree with everything you just said...Every pension plan in this country is underfunded."
---
Source: Oro Valley Town Council Meeting, June 5: Mark 1:25 to 1:32