The Camp Verde Town Council nixed all current council policies and procedures and approved an engineer for the Northbound Sewer Collection System Expansion Project at its June 16 meeting.
Council Policies
The council voted to do away with all town council policies, rules and procedures for the council and all town boards, commissions and committees with the intent to replace them with “best practices guidelines.”
The resolution was presented by Town Clerk Cindy Pemberton, who said the move to do away with the current procedures is because the majority of the rules in the procedure handbook, which was last approved in 2011, are now out-of-date as the Arizona Legislature continues to make changes to state law regarding public meetings.
Because the town already has to follow the state’s laws regarding public meetings, Pemberton said they see no reason for the town to have its own redundant resolution. Instead, the town has drafted “best practices guidelines” that the council and all boards, commissions and committees will follow.
The guidelines will be a working administrative document, and the council will no longer have to take formal action to alter the guidelines. However, the town has agreed that it will not alter the language of the document without allowing the council to first review it.
“I want this to be considered as an administrative document, something that the staff works on and something that’s brought before council when you take your elected official capacities,” Pemberton said. “This is something we would provide to all elected officials as a best practice.”
The council had to vote to dissolve all current town procedures and policies in order to make way for this administrative document of “guidelines” to be effective. Anything that the town wishes to enforce in regard to public meetings that is not already outlined in state law will be implemented as an ordinance in the town code.
One thing that will change as a result of this is the procedure for getting an item on an upcoming agenda. Rather than filling out a special form, anyone can now contact the town clerk and ask that an item be placed on an agenda and they will handle the administrative side of it.
Pemberton said the city intends for the council to be very involved in finalizing the guidelines and will be seeking input from the other boards and commissions in the town before implementing the final draft. The council will review the guidelines again on July 7 once everyone has had a chance to provide feedback on the current draft, though it won’t vote on the matter since it is considered an administrative document and not a town policy.
The resolution to do away with town policies was passed, with councilwoman Jackie Bakercasting the lone dissenting vote.
Sewer Project
The council unanimously approved Rick Engineering Company as the contractor for the Northbound Sewer Collection System Expansion Project.
The company will provide the design and engineering services for the project, which will involve putting just over 8 miles of gravity sewer main line along the State Route 260 corridor, which will also include 2.8 miles of sewer force main, approximately 1.36 miles of gravity sewer line, two new lift stations and eight new sleeves along the highway corridor.
This phase of the project will cost the town $1.2 million, which was approved via a loan from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona in January of this year.
Dale Miller with Rick Engineering Company thanked the town for giving the company the opportunity to provide the engineering and design services for the project.
“We sincerely appreciate being selected by the Town of Camp Verde staff for this project,” he said. “We’re very confident that you’ll be extremely pleased with the result of our services.”
