The candidates for Town Council were the guests of the Men’s Discussion Group on Monday, July 25.

Moderator Sherman Abrahamson asked about improvements the council is able to implement; past council decisions the candidates feel were a mistake; how the council can address surplus commercial space; managing projected budget deficits; and should the town consider becoming an age restricted community.

The key improvement the candidates focused on is work on the Fountain and lake, improving the water quality and efficiency.

Mike Archambault noted this is not a new problem, but past efforts have fallen short of resolving the issues of algae content causing odors.

He noted aeration of the lake is key to improving the water, which needs to be done by expanding the number of aerators and extending fountain operation.

Upgrading equipment for aeration and improving operation efficiency need to be addressed, he noted.

Mayor Linda Kavanagh stated the council is on track and needs to continue its street maintenance and pavement management programs.

She said council has added $1 million to the annual budget just for pavement maintenance.

Kavanagh also noted that the fountain is operating on 50-year-old technology that should be updated to improve its efficiency.

Councilman Dennis Brown said he could think of no significant bad decisions made by the council in recent years.

He thinks perhaps the council should have acted more quickly to consider new technology for the fountain.

Cecil Yates said the town’s experience with the environmental fee was not a good one, although he did thank citizens for a greater than 90 percent collection rate for the first year.

Implementation of the fee was plagued by poor communication and bad parcel information.

Yates said the town needs new revenue solutions, although he does not support a property tax and believes the sales tax is too high.

Art Tolis said the town needs to streamline and eliminate some fees and processes to allow businesses to more easily set up shop in town. He believes this will help fill some vacant commercial space.

Tolis said much of the vacant space is in the larger shopping centers, which will take more population to attract the business to fill those slots.

He added that landlords also have a role, however the council can do nothing to keep rent affordable.

Yates said that a portion of the vacant space for lease is obsolete and the town needs to encourage redevelopment. He said there is no incentive for owners to make concessions on leasing even though there is demand.

He said the council can address codes and the process to make doing business more attractive.

Brown said the town has addressed many of the issues quite well and is at a stage now where there needs to be an increase in population.

“Many people said Fountain Hills is too far out,” Brown said. “I say it is just far enough out from the city.”

Tolis said the town should move quickly on proposed development projects to help offset the budget deficits.

“It should not take two years to begin a project,” Tolis said. “We need to put a priority on getting shovels in the ground.”

Archambault said that commercial development will not generate enough revenue to offset the deficit. He said he would take $27 million in sales to generate that much sales tax and noted that is not going to happen.

Everything from improving efficiency to looking at user fees and bond programs needs to be put on the table, Archambault said.

Kavanagh said she is very optimistic about the revenue picture. She said staff is presenting “worst case” situations in its revenue projections.

Kavanagh said things are improving and she believes the outlook will be much better over the next five years.

As for whether the candidates want to consider Fountain Hills as an age restricted community, it was a unanimous no. They want to continue to focus on making Fountain Hills attractive to young families and addressing housing and job issues.

Council candidate Tim Rawlings had another commitment the day of the forum and write-in mayoral candidate Ginny Dickey was ill.