Note: The agenda, minutes, and transcript consistently refer to this meeting as February 25, 2026; however, the metadata provided indicates March 2, 2026. This summary follows the provided date.
The meeting was called to order at 4:02 p.m. and adjourned at 5:11 p.m. Mayor Otto presided. All council members were present. The meeting included public comments, approval of minutes, a current events report, an audit presentation, and discussion of proposed fee changes.
D.1 – Presentation of Annual Town Audit Interim Finance Director Elias Jouen introduced McKay Hall, Senior Partner at Hinton Burdick, who presented the Fiscal Year 2025 audit results.
D.2 – Proposed 26-27 Fee Changes Town Manager Coldwell presented the proposed fee changes, emphasizing that many changes result from bringing services in-house (e.g., engineering plan review) rather than outsourcing, which should reduce turnaround time for contractors from months to weeks.
Note: No other agenda items were considered (sections E through I were listed as none).
Common council for the town of Payson, regular meeting, February 25th, 2026. I call this meeting to order and ask Jason Redford to do the invocation. Okay. I want to make sure that got the name right. So our kind Father in Heaven, we're grateful to be here today to be in this beautiful town of Payson, Arizona. I'm grateful to enjoy the weather that we've had and enjoy the beauties that we are surrounded by. We have had unseasonably warm weather this winter and pray that we will receive the moisture that we need to preserve life here in this town and the surrounding towns. And we pray for thy grace to be with us. We are grateful for the leaders who lead us and pray that they will be directed by the we pray for our local leaders to do the same, that as decisions are made in this town that they will search for thy will, and that the decisions that are made will be pleasing unto the we are grateful for the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf to be able to sustain the freedoms that we enjoy and we pray that those freedoms will continue as we serve our country as we serve our neighbors. We pray that thou will continue to bless us in all that we have and all that we need. And we say these things in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, amen. Okay, thank you. As a reminder, it's election season and state law prohibits any town resource, including staff time, equipment, and anything of value to be used to influence an election. This prohibition applies to call to the public. You can talk about a town issue, but please do not advocate for a specific candidate or ballot measure. We appreciate your efforts to help keep the town to help the town comply with the state law and avoid using taxpayer monies to influence an election. As always, call to the public is for issues within the purview of Payson to do anything about. So off we go. Tom Dunning. Mr. May, Town Council and Town staff. Sometimes when you want to make a minor point, you use a more uh extravagant or outrageous or extreme example. Just to get yourself into the vein of where you want to be. So I'm just gonna be outrageous here. Um suppose that you, the members of the town council and the mayor, had to sit in the back row of our chamber here. Would that indicate something uh about the respect due to you or um the uh consideration with which you should be treated? And so once again, I would note that part of this row here is empty and empty here. Um I notice that our town attorney is is over here on this side now. But uh if we look to the back in the back row, uh we have our police representative sitting back there. So just in a common sense sort of way, why can't we have our town representatives, departments heads or whoever they are at this uh, you know, in any uh from any department just here to make a report or uh for um just because they're here. Why can't we have them up here sitting where everybody can see them? You know, just in a common sense sort of way, there's like I see four empty chairs there, I see one, two here. Um I would like to feel that part of supporting our town representatives, the staff who work so hard for us, is that they can be up here. Why not? The chairs are empty, uh, and they're taking seats from uh people in the audience. So it it's I'm the only one who's talking about this, so I'm just a gadfly, right? But why can't we give a little bit of respect to our town staff? I've always said that I think our town staff is one of the best in the in the state, if not the best. They perform so well, and we should just at a minimum let them sit up where people can see them. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Robbins. Jeff Robbins, Paison, Arizona. Uh thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk. Uh 16,500 residents in the Pacon, Arizona, and Mr. Otto decided to choose me to do a postal media post about uh that was false. Uh I never once disparaged Mr. Greg Martinez once. Uh I didn't even think much about him, actually. I sent an inquiry to the town about a separate line that said Mr.