The Payson Common Council met in regular session on April 9, 2025, at 4:09 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers. The meeting included public comments, a lengthy debate over the March 26 meeting minutes, a first public hearing on the FY 2025-2026 fee schedule, and an executive session for the Town Manager recruitment process. The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:59 p.m.
Items B.2, B.3, B.4 were approved unanimously (7-0) without further discussion. These included:
Item B.1 (minutes from February 4 Work Session, February 12 Regular, and March 26 Regular meetings) was pulled at the request of Council Member Flaherty for discussion.
Call this meeting of the common council, the town of Payson to order. This is April 9th, 2025. Wow. Okay. It's April 9th, 2025. I just the echoes throwing me off a little bit up here. It's a little sharp up here. Oi. But can you hear back there? There we go. I think it's just because we're not going to be able to do that. But that sounds good though. Well, and I think we got new speakers up here, don't we? Aren't these new? In the back really? They're not yellow anymore. If they can hear, I can tolerate the little bit of echo. Yep, absolutely. Megan, would you call a roll? Let the record reflect that all council members are present. Okay. And ask Pastor Michael Ford of Expedition Church to give the invocation. Pastor Ford, nope, no pastor Ford. Councilman Ferris, would you like to give us an invocation? Yes. Dear Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to meet. Watch over us, make all our deliberation. Uh something that would be pleasing in your sight. Just give us the wisdom and the heart to go forward, Lord, in a meaningful and constructive way for the benefit of this town. We just thank all those that have given their effort and time to make a better community. And we just ask for your guidance and protection over Payson and all those that are here. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. One nation with justice for all. Since I got out of order and we already did the roll call and we're all here, uh let's do call to the public. This time we're citizens have an opportunity to speak on any issue within the legal authority and jurisdiction of the town of Payson. The town must abide by Arizona Open Meetings Law, and this agendized item is the public's opportunity to be heard at this meeting. And uh with that, we'll proceed with call to the public. Charlie Sarah. But whether you agree with the strategy or not, it's hard to argue with the stated goal. Tariffs are meant to keep more dollars in the American economy. If you charge other countries to ship their products into the United States, some companies will move their manufacturing operations into this country in the simplest terms. Instead of paying other countries to make our stuff, we make our own stuff. When we go from the macro to the micro, we see something similar here in Payson. As we've learned over the past few months, most of the contractors being paid to do multi-million dollar projects in Payson come from the valley. The consultants we pay tens of thousands of dollars come from the valley. The attorneys we hire, the contract attorneys, and the other attorneys that represent Pays and lawsuits come from the valley. The studies that are farmed out are farmed out to out of town experts, and we spend a high percentage of local tax dollars to pay non residents. If you didn't know better, you might think there are no experts in Payson, but that's just not the case. Much more than some might realize. Unfortunately, every time we have a project, the money seems to go to people who don't live in town.