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City seat for theme park questioned by council
New legislation adds a Williams seat to taxing district, though no one knew it was coming

Williams ended up with a little more control over how things would be run when it comes to the proposed theme park, tentatively planned for a location east of Williams, whether they wanted the control or not.

An amendment to House Bill 2489, which was recently passed in the Arizona State Legislature, allows for five seats on a special tax district that would be formed for the theme parks, built by Grand Canyon Northland Amusements and Entertainment in both Williams and the Phoenix area. According to members of Williams City Council, the legislation was not something they had requested, nor had clear knowledge of, until after the legislation was passed. The bill was originally passed a number of years ago, according to Williams City Manager Dennis Wells.

"House Bill 2489 refers to the legislation that was passed a couple of years ago, which would allow the formation of a district to allow the construction of a theme park, or theme parks in Arizona," Wells said. "The legislature did pass a change to this law, 2489, and basically two parts of that changed, that I think are of note, and that council should be aware of and look at."

The changes to the law, Wells, explained, included a revision to the board of directors.

"The bottom line is Williams could have one out of five seats on the board of directors, the county having two rather than three," Wells said. "The other major difference from the old law is that they got the legislature to approve a time extension. They changed the date from 2008 to 2013, granting a time extension to collect a district together."

The special taxing district, which would earn revenue from visitors to the park, was formed to help pay off the park's hefty price tag.

Council member Don Dent expressed his concern over the addition of a Williams seat on the special district.

"The reason why we didn't have a board member originally was because of the potential of a conflict of interest, so I don't think that works to start with" Dent said. "I think we need to let whoever it is from Grand Canyon Northland Amusements know that we're not pleased at all. The one issue that we have to have changed, that I've always wanted to have changed, is the wording on whether they would pay in lieu taxes or not and that was never changed. They've done everything behind closed doors, not answered any of the questions that the county has asked them."

Mayor Ken Edes told council that he spoke with Supervisor Matt Ryan June 28.

"He said that they had a small discussion about us being involved in the tax district, the formation of directors, due to the fact of longevity, one of our concerns is 20-25 years from now, the board of directors could decide they're going to quit the in-lieu of taxes and having a position on that board would kind of give us a position to watch over those things, but they had a small discussion only. They did not agree to it (and) it wasn't something they were making a decision on and the theme park people were not even involved in that discussion."

Edes explained that the original legislation for the bill included a seat for Williams, but that the seat was later changed to a county seat.

"This is how it was originally written, two seats being from the county, two from the big city and one for the small city," said Edes. "They were very uncomfortable with the idea of Williams having the swing vote, because it was going to be in our backyard."

Edes said he encouraged the supervisors to do what they thought was best, which led to the fifth seat's placement with county officials, as long as a supervisor in the Williams district sat on that board as well, he added.

"I'm more concerned about the County Board of Supervisors than anything," Edes continued. "My suggestion is that we get together with the Board of Supervisors. We need a unified front. I'm not saying that this is going through or not going through, but we need a unified front with our Board of Supervisors on how to approach this. At minimum we need to write a letter to the Board of Supervisors saying that this is not something we endorsed or signed off on."

He went on to claim a small measure of responsibility for the matter as he had not called Matt Ryan's office at the County Board of Supervisors to check on the matter of the Williams seat prior to it being passed in the legislation.

"Casey (Buitenhuis) talked to me. He talked about the extension," Edes said. "He talked about going to some of the original language in the Board of Directors. He told me that the Board of Supervisors was behind this. Lucy Mason (state representative), she's the one that pushed this through. I actually called her the day after I heard about that and she never got back to me."

Council member John Moore recommended that a board member be picked to work as a liaison to work between all the entities involved and report to council on a regular basis.

"That's one thing nobody has is good information about what's really happening," Moore said.

Casey Buitenhuis, chief of staff and vice chair of Grand Canyon Northland Amusements, explained that the change in the legislature was not something they tried to sneak past anyone intentionally.

"Actually it was not a secret and if anyone thinks it wasn't handled properly then I will take responsibility," Buitenhuis said, adding that the revision was added to a house bill, one that happened to be on tap for decision. He said GCNAE pushed the legislation forward themselves when they heard about the bill.

"It was totally our company and we came to the city with it. Within a matter (of) just a couple of weeks, it was just lickety split, that this thing was completed and it passed," Buitenhuis said.

According to him, the city had been made aware of the revision to the legislation and that a meeting with the county had already been set up prior to the legislation's passage.

"We contacted the city prior to going to legislature," Buitenhuis said. "I had the staff hand carry a letter to them and to Steve Peru (with the County Board of Supervisors)."

Buitenhuis went on to say that he did not believe the addition of a Williams seat constituted a "swing" vote, as the city of Williams was originally designed to have a say in the district when the board was first formed under the original legislation.

"It's not a swing vote. Originally they were to be in it," Buitenhuis said. "We felt and they felt - they should have some voice as to what's being built in their city."

Representatives of GCNAE and members of the County Board of Supervisors met in May to discuss the best way to move forward on the project. Buitenhuis said he intends to improve the lines of communication between everyone involved in the theme park project.

"There's absolutely no benefit to us not to have the county involved. We're very excited to work together with everyone to move forward," Buitenhuis said. "I want to see this move forward in a very positive manner."

The meeting with the county counted as the first formal meeting between GCNAE representative and county officials - at which GCNAE members were given a basic outline as to how to proceed in the formation of a taxing district.

"They made the appointment to come speak to us, to inform us that their project is proceeding, that there continues to be development," said Steve Peru, Coconino County Manager. "We reiterated back to them that's its really important that the development firm continues to do analysis on the project."

Peru said the county was surprised by the passage of the legislation.

"That was news to us, we were surprised by that," Peru said. "This is brand new legislation. It's never been done in Arizona before."

The forming of the board, in light of the legislative change, creates a few new questions, "There's a little unclearness of how this gets formed," Peru said.

Once the formation is complete, he added, then county staff would request further documentation - including a business plan for the park.


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