Transparent Payson had the opportunity to appear on KMOG.  As always, we appreciate their generosity.  During the show we stated that citizens should not be surprised they don’t get everything promised by the current Town Council.  In this post, we calculated that a minimum of $85m would be required.

Ordinance 964‘s total is $54.3 million.  The Ordinance undervalued the aquatic center by $16 million, a 55.17% increase.  Assuming a similar increase on all items, the total is just under $85 million.

People may not believe that or think it is simply inflammatory rhetoric.  We looked at the last public project, the Splash Pad.  The amount budgeted for the splash pad was $473,000.00.  The amount allocated to date? $714,906.00.  By our math that is a 51% increase, or a difference of 41% over the budgeted amount. In dollar terms, that is $241,906.00 over budget.

Below in .pdf is information from a couple of Town presentations.  That includes the presentation on March 27^th, 2024.  Part of that presentation states:

At the July 26th, 2023, Town Council meeting it was not yet known if the Town’s requested grant amendment would be approved or if the AZSPT would still reimburse the Town as originally contemplated due to the proposed relocation of the splash pad.  Council authorized staff to proceed with splash pad construction so long as the Town’s total expenditure did not exceed $550,000.

But what did the Staff report of March July 26^th, 2023, state?  Here you go:

Staff has worked with a vendor identified from the National Purchasing Partners Contract and one who has developed numerous playgrounds for us in Payson, to develop a cost estimate for a splash pad feature at the Green Valley Park playground which includes 2,800 square feet of surfacing and substantial seat wall with all 10 spray features at an estimated cost of $331,000.  This would be a turnkey installation including all materials, supplies, construction, and utility relocation.

So the project went from $331,00 in July 2023 to “Not to exceed” $550,000.00 in March 2024 to $714,906.00 in September 2024.  They had a council decision request on September 3^rd, 2024, in part, to address the shortfall.

Grant Capital Project Fund (Fund 403) – ($294,022.67)

This fund has a negative balance primarily because the approved total expenditure for the Splash Pad was increased after the final budget was adopted from $550,000 to $799,000 ($550,000 of Town funds plus $249,000 of AZ State Parks grant funds).  Due to the AZ State Parks grant being a reimbursement and the fact that only $550,000 was included for Splash Pad expenditures from this account when the final budget was adopted a transfer is necessary to close out the fiscal year.  The grant reimbursement request has been submitted, but the reimbursement has not yet been received.

It appears “Not to exceed,” much like “emergency,” does not mean what we think it does.  We don’t recall snow cone vendors, the Mayor in a costume, and a surge of local media fawning over this announcement.

The Town of Payson requested a copy of the radio show from KMOG.  That is a fun request.  Why is that request fun?  The Town Clerk’s office made the request.  KMOG denied the request pending guest approval.  We have a public records/FOIA request to the Town.  Maybe the Town wants to intimidate us?  The Town has a history of just that.

Back to the FOIA request.  The same day the Clerk’s office made a request of KMOG, the Clerk’s Office sent us a status on our records request that is beyond six months.  We suspect the delay on the records request is politically motivated as the emails we have reviewed from the Town employee do not reflect a positive image of the Town on various local issues concerning the Town’s apparent disdain for some citizens.  The emails we have reviewed are not privileged and they are encompassed in our request.  We are optimistic that the disparaging emails will be produced.  We will share them once they are.

Here is the follow-up from the Town:

Good Afternoon Mr. Aal,

Please be advised that due to the volume of your request (over 4,000 files to review), the documents you seek may not be available for 90 days or more.  If you were to choose to limit your request, responsive documents might be available sooner.

Do not be shocked by the Town’s concern over the volume of documents.  The documents requested, emails, are in electronic format.  We have requested the documents in the native format.  That format allows for inspection of the metadata.  Email headers accompany every email and contain detailed information, such as the sender, receiver, route, timestamp, and more.  That is different and more accurate than a copy of the actual contents of an email in a printed format.

By law, many businesses and institutions have retention requirements.  Email retention services offer a robust spectrum of search and sort features.  The actual initial query is a few keystrokes.  Those retention service applications are very beneficial daily in response to subpoenas.  The legal system would halt if document requests/subpoenas required months to be fulfilled across all businesses and institutions.  We recognize some of the emails may be privileged.  If Town Legal were reflected as a copy on the distribution list, it may be privileged and not subject to a records request.  Others may involve Human Resource issues.  Those might require an actual review to determine if they are privileged.  The search and sort features typically offer flags or exclusion functions.

To address the request by the Town, we provided the following response.

Good afternoon Ms. Bailey,

It strikes me as odd that 187 days after the request, the Town approaches me to limit the request parameters to expedite the process.  If this were a good-faith effort on the Town’s part, I suspect the Town could have provided the first tranche of documents as a partial fulfillment.  The Town did not choose that path.  Instead, the Town tries to limit the request.  Ninety days from today will be December 7^th, 2024. Two hundred and seventy-six days is not a reasonable period for public records.  From the request, it appears the Town has not yet begun the process of review.  As a reminder, we have had several email exchanges:

• On April 30^th, the Town stated, “We are still working on your records request.”
• On May 31^st, the Town stated: “Staff is still working on your records request.”
• On June 17^th, the TOP stated, “Your records request is currently in legal review for necessary or required redactions.” Your office then explained that the Clerk’s Office is a two person department.
• On July 31^st, the TOP advised, “The documents for your request are still being reviewed.”
• Today, September 9^th, the Town requests a limitation on the request.

Those prior statements appear to indicate that progress was being made in the process.  The request to now limit the request would discard all of that prior effort.  We certainly don’t want the prior work to have no value.

I am not concerned about the total number of files.  I am concerned about the requested documents and the associated attachments.  The request remains as initially submitted.

Perhaps we should wait 297 days to post the KMOG radio interview?  Good for the goose and all. 

Thank you again to KMOG for the hospitality and for providing a copy of the show for our use.  The radio interview is below.  We do hope the Town Clerk’s office enjoys listening to it.  😉

Radio Broadcast via KMOG

Saturday, September 7^th, 2024.

Decision Request of September 3^rd, 2024

March 27^th, 2024 Staff Report

July 26^th, 2023, Staff Report