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Arizona Theme Park District Board moves forward in second meeting ... slowly

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - Operating as a brand new entity, the Arizona Theme Park District navigated its second meeting last week with caution, moving forward with baby steps.

Board members took action on three of the six items on their agenda, while asking for more information or saying it was too soon to decide on the remaining items.

The five-member theme park district board had its first meeting on Feb. 13 at Phoenix City Hall. The second meeting took place on April 17 at Williams City Hall.

Chairman Craig Fritsinger, Secretary Ken Edes and David Phelps attended the meeting in person. Vice Chair Michael Nowakowski called in by phone, and Daniel Valenzuela was absent.

The first order of business was to appoint legal counsel. After discussing the matter in executive session, the district board voted to appoint Pat Lopez from Rusing, Lopez and Lizardi law firm in Tucson.

Edes said Lopez has experience with real estate matters and is knowledgeable about the theme park legislation.

"He's also worked with several municipalities, and I think that's kind of critical because that's the area of expertise that we're actually functioning under," he said.

Lopez's payment from the theme park district board will be deferred until the group is able to issue bonds.

Theme park district board members also adopted an Intergovernmental Agreement with the city of Williams for support services.

The city offered to provide the following to the district board: an official meeting space in the city council chambers when available, a posting space for public notices, the use of existing equipment to facilitate and record meetings, and a linked page on the city's website to post agendas and minutes.

"If you could talk the city of Williams into even providing you more support that would be wonderful, but I think what they've offered is a gracious offer on their part and I think the agreement is clearly written," Lopez said.

In return, the IGA states that the district shall "diligently undertake its task of developing a theme park within its boundaries to become financially independent." The IGA will be in place for one year.

Finally, the board members approved their bylaws, policies and procedures. Their attorney recommended they wait on adopting the charter so they have more time to draft it.

"My experience has been that organizations over time kind of adjust their bylaws as they realize what fits them and their operations a little better," Lopez said. "However I do think you have to have a basic framework to operate under."

The board members did not make any major decisions on their remaining three agenda items.

One of those was a proposal offering consulting services by Andrew Meshel, who is a licensed attorney, has a master's in business administration and is a combat veteran. Meshel said he could help the board with administration and staffing, procedural assistance, media management, stakeholder engagement, contractor coordination and risk mitigation strategies.

He proposed charging less than 0.25 percent of the total project cost and less than 1 percent of the anticipated soft costs.

When board members asked for public comment, Williams Mayor John Moore said he thought it was too soon to hire someone for that position.

"I think it was a very good presentation, and I think down the road you may need somebody like that," he said. "I think you're a little bit premature in making that decision."

Greg Markvluwer from the Granger Group, a company who has presented a theme park proposal to the board, asked if Meshel had done a project like this before.

"With respect to a theme park development, it will be brand new," Meshel said. "I don't think that doing any of the things that I've specified that I will be doing will be brand new to me at all."

Meshel added that he did have people lined up to help him manage the project.

After the board members discussed Meshel's presentation in executive session, they opted not to make a decision about a consultant yet.

"I actually think we are redefining the cart before the horse and the chicken before the egg here. I think this is premature," Phelps said. "This opportunity came to us, we're grateful for it. I'm not ready to make a hire like this, but I'm excited that we're attracting this kind of quality talent, this kind of energy to this effort."

Phelps added that he'd like to see Meshel submit an hourly fee schedule so the board can compare that to other potential candidates. The board discussed possibly working with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns to hire a retired city manager to act as the manager of the theme park district.

Edes agreed that he was not ready to make that kind of decision at this point.

"I'd like to continue our discussion on what we're looking for," he said. "I think this is encompassing a scope that we haven't even discussed yet and how to pursue and where to go with it. So let's keep dialogue as we move forward."

Also on the agenda was a discussion about indemnity insurance for the board.

"Many times in volunteer organizations they look to make sure those directors who are volunteering are at least covered by insurance related to their service," Lopez said. I have no idea if it's available for the district because this is kind of a brand new creature."

Lopez pointed out that the board couldn't buy insurance until it has funds. However, board members directed Lopez to look into their options.

Finally, board members convened to executive session to discuss their procedure for soliciting potential bids for the district.

However, after reconvening in regular session, Phelps said the board was not ready to establish that procedure.

"This is premature for the board," he said. "We understand that we are under an expedited time frame to try to make things happen for the city of Williams and for the city of Phoenix. But what I propose we do is continue this agenda item until we have secured some kind of manager or executive director or administrator to place beneath us a foundation of the procedure for soliciting potential projects, which both of the existing applicants would need to follow."

After the meeting, Fritsinger said he was pleased with how the meeting went.

"I was nervous coming into today not knowing which way it was going to go. I didn't know which came first, the chicken or the egg," he said. "So now we're down a clear path and I feel very comfortable and the other board members feel very comfortable as well. I think we're going down the right road. It was very difficult to make any decisions without legal counsel. That was a huge accomplishment today."


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