Mayor-Elect Ginny Dickey hosted a meeting Tuesday, Oct. 23, that brought about 100 residents out to the Community Center to talk about town issues.

Dickey was joined by fellow council members, both continuing and recently elected, who introduce themselves and fielded questions from the audience. It was a throwback to the “Coffee with Wally” sessions held by Mayor Wally Nichols and similar to meetings held by Mayor Sharon Morgan in the homes of residents.

Dickey invited newly appointed Councilwoman Sherry Leckrone and Councilmen-elect Mike Scharnow and David Spelich to speak to the group. Vice Mayor Art Tolis and Councilman Alan Magazine were also both present.

“We want to hear your ideas and concerns,” Dickey told the crowd. “We want to connect informally, but want everyone to participate and feel involved.”

Dickey said she will welcome the use of social media in a constructive way. She said it is a way for citizens to raise concerns and get their answers fairly quickly.

Leckrone said she understands people will have competing points of view, but said she has no personal agenda and is open to hearing from everyone.

“I want you to understand why we make the decisions we do,” Leckrone said. “We don’t have all the answers and we will hear good ideas from you.”

Spelich said he will bring transparency and trust to the council.

“We, as a council, need to rebuild trust with the citizens,” Spelich said.

He said one of his goals is to establish an independent audit committee, which he said are quite common with municipal governments.

The objective is to provide a true and accurate view of finances. Spelich said there is a lot of talent within the community that can be tapped to work alongside the town manager and finance director.

As a criminal investigator, Spelich said public safety is important to him.

“We need to take a look at our public safety contracts and sit down and discuss what is needed in law enforcement for Fountain Hills,” Spelich said. “The crime rate is on the increase, we need to talk about deployment of patrols and shifts.”

Spelich said he is not as familiar with fire service, but is willing to sit down and talk with someone familiar with the operations to see how the Rural/Metro contract stacks up.

Spelich said as an investigator he finds it necessary to avoid social media, but he is available on his cell phone and via e-mail.

“I will respond,” he said. “You will never be ignored.”

Scharnow, the former editor of The Times, related how following the election he received a call from a former council member suggesting he would now find out what it was like to be sitting on the receiving end of the criticism.

“We have the common themes of trust and transparency,” Scharnow said. “It would be nice to talk about the issues without the public feeling we are out to get them.”

The council is facing some difficult choices going forward with setting priorities, according to Scharnow.

“Listening to the people we will get it figured out,” he said.

Dickey noted that there are needs for infrastructure that the town does need to address. She said the council wants to find out from the people what they might be willing to forego to address needs with limited revenue.

“What do you want from the town,” Dickey asked. “What needs to give? We need to think about these things together.”

Residents made comments regarding environmental issues along with recycling, and one woman asked for a ban on plastic grocery bags.

When a man asked about Fountain Lake and the water quality, Dickey invited Tom Reski and Gregg Dudash to address those issues. Reski and Dudash sit on the Sanitary District Board of Directors as chairman and vice chairman, respectively.

They talked about district projects that have impact in the park including a joint effort that will add two additional restrooms in Fountain Park.

The Sanitary District is the water manager for Fountain Lake and Reski explained that much of the algae and water quality issues stem from the fact that the lake is a closed system with no circulation other than evaporation and mechanical aerators. The system has improved since more aerators were added to the lake about a year ago, but it is still difficult to address all the quality issues without a lot of money.

Sodium in the treated waste water also came up. Reski pointed out it takes several million dollars to install a treatment system to remove salts from the water. He said a primary source of the sodium is water softeners. He said the use of potassium in the softeners would go a long way toward cutting back on the salty water but, at three to four times the price of sodium, it is difficult to get people to switch to potassium.

Dickey said she wants to go forward working hand-in-hand with the district and similar entities.

“We have the same constituency and serve the same taxpayers, we need to work together,” Dickey said.

Another resident asked about attracting commercial business to town and Dickey said that brings to mind the question of what is the role of the town with regard to economic development.

“What is the best use of the funding we have? What works? What should we be doing,” Dickey asked.

She said commercial entities will make their own decisions about coming to town based on demographics and other metrics.

“I’m not sure what the answers are,” Dickey said. “As we move forward we need to think of ourselves as the same community. Don’t think of it as ‘us vs. them,’ or what the council is trying to do for the town; bring your ideas to us.”

At this point Dickey has no plans for regularly scheduled “Town Talks,” but said she wants to use the program to meet informally with the public occasionally.