The Town Council has approved a preliminary budget of $35,333,495 for the 2017/2018 fiscal year that begins on July 1.

The proposal is consistent with council discussions over the past month, with $1 million added to the total discussed as recently as April 24.

Town Manager Grady Miller said the budget preparation has been an extensive process and represents the council’s policy statement of its vision for the coming year.

The budget is posted for public review over which time the council can reduce the total, but is not permitted to increase the total. The public hearing and final adoption will be considered at the council’s June 1 regular session.

The bulk of the additional $1 million comes as a change to the manner that the town is handling the third party inspection process for development. The third party inspectors are under contract to the town to handle the building safety inspections for large projects such as Park Place.

Currently the contractors are being paid directly by the developers and Miller said the town wants to change that to give the town better control and assure that the contractors understand who they are working for.

This is not an additional expenditure for the town but simply creates a pass through of the funds. The developer pays the town, which in turn pays the third party inspectors.

New business

The portion of the budget that generated the most discussion is funding to enhance the ability of the economic development department to attract new business to town.

Economic Development Specialist Scott Cooper had proposed contracting with a national marketing firm to assist in attracting new business to town. Cooper said the contract would give him access to a couple of dozen nationwide business recruiters. Cooper would continue to manage the leads and follow-up.

The proposed agreement with the contractor would be a three-year deal with a $50,000 cost in year one. The costs would be reduced over years two and three. The town would also have the option to end the agreement each year depending on effectiveness.

Councilman Art Tolis said he does not like the proposal to hire outside marketing help. He prefers to hire someone on-site to assist Cooper with direct business recruitment.

Vice Mayor Alan Magazine was opposed to any financial help in the area.

“Have we really looked at the whole budget to determine whether this is the highest priority for this funding,” Magazine said. “I don’t think this should be done ad-hoc.”

He noted that discussions about projected budget shortfalls have been “daunting.”

“We should only add something if we determine it is absolutely necessary,” Magazine added.

Councilman Cecil Yates noted that he is regularly in contact with economic development staff in other cities and they ask how Fountain Hills gets anything done with just one person. He also noted that Cooper is highly thought of in the business and Fountain Hills should do what it can to make sure he stays.

“This is a need, not a ‘nice to have,’” Yates said.

Councilman Henry Leger said he agrees the need is there and asked Cooper directly why he chose to recommend the contract rather than a new hire.

Cooper said it is more cost effective. He said the program would give him access to more than 20 people with 9,000 contacts across the country.

“They would get the contact information to me to target the best fit for Fountain Hills,” Cooper said.

Councilman Dennis Brown suggested they budget for both.

“I believe Scott does a great job and he knows what his needs are,” Brown said. “I would support the contract, but also believe we should approve one new staff, but not hire until we see the results the contract agreement brings us.”

The council approved a motion to accept Brown’s proposal on a 6-1 vote with Magazine voting no.

Finance Director Craig Rudolphy told the council that the $35.3 million total does include money for both options.

Visitor Center

With a separate discussion the council decided not to budget $30,000 this fiscal year to support a new visitor center in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce.

Town Manager Grady Miller said the Chamber is planning to relocate to commercial space in the new Park Place development and the town has agreed to participate in a joint visitor center.

Miller said Chamber officials are expecting to be ready to set up shop by the end of the calendar year.

Council members were skeptical of that timetable and asked Brown, who is a general contractor, what he thought.

Brown said he does not believe the Chamber will be able to relocate by the end of the upcoming fiscal year (July ‘18).

The council voted 7-0 to remove the $30,000 from the budget.

The final vote for the tentative budget was 7-0.