The Town of Payson Common Council met for its regular meeting on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, beginning at approximately 4:01 p.m. in the Town Hall Council Chambers, 303 North Beeline Highway, Payson, Arizona. Mayor Stephen Otto presided. All seven council members were present, with Vice Mayor Susan "Suzy" Tubbs appearing via Zoom and Council Member Scott Nossek arriving at approximately 4:03 p.m. Staff present included Town Manager Darren Coldwell and Town Attorney Christina Estes-Werther. The Council took public comments, received a Town Manager update on economic development advertising, and voted unanimously to enter executive session on three new business items. The meeting recessed at approximately 5:01 p.m., reconvened at approximately 7:26 p.m., and adjourned at approximately 7:27 p.m.
Oh, welcome back. I call this meeting of the common council of the town of Payson regular meeting to order this twenty-third day of September twenty twenty six. Councilmember Tubbs is a fearing via sill. Thank you. Now's the time for call to the public, which allows citizens with an opportunity to speak on issues within the legal authority and jurisdiction of the town of Payson. The town must abide by Arizona Open Meeting Law, and the agendized item is the public's opportunity to be heard at this meeting. When called to speak, please approach the podium, speak towards the microphone so your statements can be heard, give your name. Town requests that you address the comments to the council as a whole. If you are speaking on an agenda item from today's meeting, uh looking at the agenda, I have I've seen one that wants to speak on one of the agenda items. There's a possibility it will be done in an executive session. So it's okay, I will call you during call to the public if that works. So thank you. Note the council will not be entering into dialogue with you or answering your questions. State law prohibits the council and staff from responding to your questions or comments, and at the conclusion of call to the public, individual town council members may only one respond to criticism made by those who have spoken, two, direct staff to review or follow up on the matter, and three direct that the matter be put on a future agenda. If you desire direct response to your questions or concerns, please contact the council member or staff directly available on the town website. The purpose of this meeting is to conduct town business. And if you have not filled out a speaker request form and request want to do so, I will ask at the conclusion of these uh requests to speak forms if there's anyone that else anyone else wants to address us. And at that point, raise your hand, I'll acknowledge you, and you'll be given your three minutes. I also request at this time that uh if anyone has any signs or anything that they want to display during the meeting, please do not do so. It be disrupts our meeting. I I would ask that uh anything resembling a sign or a prop, please please do not use it. Uh may I just and just to clarify, it's um no sign should ever block somebody because that would be disruptive and could obviously impact, but we can't like just outright say no signs. So as long as it's not blocking, so if you're gonna have something, you just probably should probably be in the back or on a side. So that's the first amendment. Okay. Signs, signs everywhere there's signs. Uh that being said, a song. Uh let's begin. Tom Dunning. I'm Tom Dunning. I'm a 21-year resident of Payson. I have uh stood up here a number of times and spoken in support of our town staff. Today I'm here to support our female staff. In terms of sexual conduct, no woman who is an employee of our town should ever have any doubt that she is protected from sexual harassment or abuse. I'm a man. How do I know about such things? My late wife, Linda, was a survivor of sexual abuse when she was a teenager. She would be standing here telling you this if it helped any woman forego this hurt. It never completely goes away. What can we do to ensure our town is a safe place for our female staff to work? We can believe them. We can also be aware that such conduct has happened in our town and could happen again. We can also commit to vetting programs, rules, and education to prevent this harmful conduct from ever happening again. Thank you. Thank you. Robert Hirschberger. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Robert Hirschberger, 22 years resident here. Last time we had a meeting, I spoke about affordable housing, particularly about starter homes for habitat and the possibility of using some of the property just to the east of the town hall facilities for such a facility. And today I'd like to be a little specific about it.