CC - Agendas - City Council - WORKSHOP - 10/28/2008

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Prescott City Council Joint Special Meeting/ Study Session — October 21, 2008 Page 20 Ms. Griffis said that it is a viable alternative. She said that in the Council packet there was a list of deferred infrastructure items, and they found it surprising that every one of the items was being deferred in future years. She asked why they would not defer something facing them right now. Mr. McConnell said that it is a ten-year planning period. Projects they have in process now are constructed typically no earlier than the third year because of design and property acquisition. Mayor Wilson said that as soon as they start losing money, they are losing projects. Dave Maurer, Executive Director of the Prescott Chamber of Commerce, said that after weeks of study they were still reasonably confused and felt it was complex so they employed an outside, neutral firm to review the Economist.com report. He said that the Council has their 26-page report which raises a series of questions. He said that if he was sitting in the Council's seat, he would want to know that everything lines up in the report. Councilman Roecker asked if they passed what they have in front of them, but with the delay Councilman Bell suggested, if the law would allow them to reduce the rates without going through another study. Mr. McConnell said that the study identified the maximum rates that could be charged; the Council has the latitude to charge lower rates or make them effective at a different time. Mayor Wilson asked Mr. McConnell for both his and Mr. Jackson's response to the report prepared by DPF&G. Mr. McConnell said that Mr. Jackson prepared a written response to their report, working over the weekend and it was given to the YCCA during the meeting. He believes that Mr. Jackson's response to the report is accurate. He understands that Mr. Jackson has a much more detailed response to each of the questions raised, but the bottom line is that staff is comfortable with Mr. Jackson's study and his response to the DPF&G report. Mr. Jackson said that he did have a chance to review the report and they did raise issues, none of which had any credibility. The report has a lot of misstatements of fact and a lot of incorrect statements. The analysis was flawed. They did not find it to be credible. He said that they did not find any of their findings to merit any revisions at all in his study. They are fully confident and stand behind the accuracy of the Economist.com study. Bill Matthews, 1806 Pony Soldier Road, past president of YCCA and currently serving on the board, said that he had a different perspective. They realize that impact fees are part of the culture in Prescott and always have been, regardless of what they were called. He said that in years past their director, Ethan Edwards, stood before the Council