The Town Council met for its annual day-long budget planning session on Tuesday, Feb. 25, and managed to cover a lot of ground with little drama.

Town Manager Grady Miller said this is an opportunity for the council to take in a broad overview of revenue, issues and goals for the coming year and provide input as staff prepares the budget for next fiscal year.

Mayor Ginny Dickey said it lets the council step back and see whether the vision for the future is in focus as they plan for a new year.

Finance Director David Pock said, looking forward a few years, revenue projections continue to lag behind expected expenses based on inflation. However, he showed that for the current fiscal year expenses and revenues are balancing out pretty evenly for the first six months.

The town continues to rely heavily on sales tax, both local and state shared, to fund its General Fund budget. Pock said that revenues from sales tax are showing appreciable increases. A sales tax increase took effect Nov. 1, well into the second quarter of the fiscal year.

The transaction privilege tax (sales tax) projections forecast through the remainder of the current fiscal year anticipate a revenue at $10.6 million, with total revenue at $17.6 million, according to Pock. He sets the estimate for the 20/21 Fiscal Year at $12.6 million with$18.4 million in total. The expenditure forecasts for both the current fiscal year and the next are below the revenue projections.

Pock also explained that the town’s various fund balances are in compliance with the town’s adopted fiscal policies.

In November last year the town hired Colby Wattling as procurement officer to oversee purchases by the town. He is the first employee the town has dedicated to purchasing since it was incorporated.

Wattling used the council retreat as an opportunity to discuss plans to involve local vendors in working with the town to provide services. He said in 2019 that the town spent $614,806 with a total of 74 local vendors. He provided a list of 21 he described as “frequently used.”

Wattling explained that the National Institute of Government Purchasing has an official opinion regarding municipalities using a local preference for public purchases.

“The NIGP maintains the position that local preference policies are in conflict with the fundamental public procurement principles of impartiality and full and open competition and therefore, does not support the use of local preference policies as an appropriate tool for improving local economies.”

However, the NIGP opinion recognizes that such policies exist and recommends that “local procurement preferences are reflected as one of many criteria in a ‘best value’ evaluation award process.”

Councilman Art Tolis is an advocate for giving some preference to local vendors in awarding town business. He suggested a tolerance in the area of five to 10 percent of a low bid.

Councilman David Spelich agreed, saying he hears from businesses who believe they are “shut out of the process” in getting business awarded by the town.

“We only help ourselves when we help Fountain Hills businesses,” Spelich said. “We owe it to town residents to do whatever we can to help local business.”

Miller said he has already directed staff to make sure local vendors are aware of bidding opportunities for the town.

Wattling said he will organize a forum in the near future to provide information to local businesses about working with the town.

The objectives of such a forum would be to show vendors where to look for bid/proposal opportunities with the town at fh.az.gov/bids.aspx.

Also, he aims to introduce the vendors to NotifyMe to become aware of bid opportunities.

The forums will also describe the difference in working with a public entity versus private (assure them that payment is prompt and slow pay is not an issue) and get input from vendors on why they might be hesitant to submit bids or proposals.