Council vows to determine direction for future land acquisitions

Tuesday night when council members were asked to take action on entering into negotiations for the purchase of the Estrella Gin site, Councilman Will Dunn didn’t hesitate to express his feelings on the subject.

“We’ve come full circle in doing it wrong,” said Dunn.

The Estrella Gin site is located off Garvey, approximately one quarter of a mile west of John Wayne Parkway. Comprised of two parcels, the total acreage is 59.96 acres.

Negotiations would come back to council, and the parcel would be intended to solve space needs for various municipal facilities like police, fire, fleet maintenance or public works.

Vice-Mayor Brent Murphree said that he was “thrilled that this property is back in the mix. We really need to take a look at this.”

Dunn moved to table the agenda item; a 5-0 vote resulted as both Mayor Kelly Anderson and Councilman Joseph Estes had recused themselves due to a conflict of interest. Anderson’s father, Oliver Anderson, is a stockholder in the gin, and Estes has a client involved in property negotiations.

“The caveat is that we take time to decide what we want the city to be,” said Dunn, prior to the motion being tabled.

Councilman Kelly Haddad added, “We don’t know. We don’t know what we’re doing.” He noted that all landowners previously submitting properties for the city’s consideration need updates on where the city is in reference to a city complex site.

Tom Gardner, representing the Echeverria family and their HBE Farms property, one of the five properties in the HDR analysis, told the council that last month he waited for such an update. “It didn’t come,” he said. “Even as this thing evolves, we need dialogue. The spirit of good faith is what we’re after here.”

No contact has been made with landowners who submitted properties according to City Manager Rick Buss, who indicated that staff was waiting for council direction,

“I think the onus is on us, guys,” said Murphree. “We need to address everybody who came to the table in good faith.”

Dunn told his fellow council members, “We’ve got to have a game plan, and we need to apologize to Maricopa for this being weird.”

Council members planned to discuss their goals and objectives at Wednesday evening’s retreat, although a specific discussion of land negotiations could not take place since it wasn’t agendized.

Councilman Kelly Haddad (left) and Vice-Mayor Brent Murphree listen to the commentary surrounding the Estrella Gin site acquistion. Council tabled the negotiation item, hoping to set goals for land acquisitons at their Wednesday retreat.

Tom Gardner, who represents the Echeverria family’s property, told the council, “The spirit of good faith is what we’re after here.”

Council meetings at First Baptist Church
During the Tuesday council session at their new meeting place, the First Baptist Church of Maricopa, resident Ken Edwards offered some concerns about breaching the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

“I’m concerned about whether the city offers money or a donation to this church which would show favoritism,” said Edwards, who asked if any council members belong to First Baptist. Councilman Steve Baker replied in the affirmative. “Did other churches have to chance to offer?” asked Edwards.

City Attorney Denis Fitzgibbons replied, “The issues raised are good issues – we thought about them, too.” He assured Edwards and the council that the Arizona League of Cities and Towns had been contacted and that there is no problem. The ordinance making the church a meeting site for the council and for the Planning and Zoning Commission passed unanimously.

Maricopa resident Ken Edwards came to city council Tuesday night to express his concerns about breaching the First Amendment by using the First Baptist Church as a council meeting site.

Police acquire records management system
In order to be ready to become Maricopa’s first city police department on July 1, Chief Patrick Melvin and Deputy Chief Kirk Fitch has moved into new modulars, with more coming soon, acquired some vehicles and uniforms and hired an administrative assistant, Nora Corrales, an IT specialist, a property and evidence manager, a crime analyst and three sergeants.

Tuesday night the department got what Melvin calls the “brains of the department,” a records management system.

City Management Assistant Paul Jepson told the council, “This is a big piece. All the paperwork police have to do is wrapped up in one program.” The $400,000 contract was awarded to Spillman Technologies, enabling Maricopa to tap into the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office system without purchasing a server, an additional $150,000 investment.

“This is a one-time cost unless we add modules,” explained Melvin.

“This system allows integration with all 15 counties in the state,” explained Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez, who was on hand to explain its benefits. Vasquez indicated that for an armed robbery it would take 45 minutes to an hour to get all the information by traditional methods; the Spillman system achieves that in seconds. Spillman presented a seminar on the system’s capabilities to city officials and public safety committee members recently (see related story).

Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez was present at Tuesday’s city council meeting to explain the benefits of the Spillman records management system. The council approved the system; as soon as it is in place, the county will download all Maricopa information.

The system allows booking information, photographs and fingerprints to be shared almost instantly. In fact the PCSO is holding all Maricopa information, which is ready to be downloaded into the records management system.

Council agreed to a grant application for the police department to fund an Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) to be used for alerting officers about wanted individuals and for Amber Alerts. This technology enables police to capture 4,000 to 10,000 plates per shift.

Council also agreed to enter a Joinder Agreement with the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System on behalf of Maricopa’s full-time police officers.

Photos by Aaron Thacker