Surprise, AZ News blog

Mayor-elect Lyn Truitt will not assume Surprise’s top office until Jan. 1, but already he is meeting with City Manager Jim Rumpeltes to create two new staff positions.  

Truitt wants an assistant to the mayor and a council liaison to streamline communication between city staff and elected officials.

Rather than posing questions directly to department heads, council members and the mayor would go through these assistants, Truitt said.

 

“Information will be disseminated evenly, and it allows (council members) to be more informed prior to meetings, and it frees up time for staff,” he said.

While reporting to the council, the new employees would ultimately answer to Rumpeltes, Truitt said.

Truitt said he will bring proposals for both positions to a vote at the City Council’s first meeting of the year on Jan. 10.

Truitt said he expected fellow members to see the need for extra manpower to keep up with the city’s concerns.

“We need to do a significant PR job in Surprise and present ourselves as knowledgeable and qualified to speak on the issues,” he said.

His idea to hire both an assistant to the mayor and a council liaison is not unique.

“There’s quite a list of communities that have these positions,” Truitt said, naming Mesa, Glendale, Peoria, Goodyear and Tempe as Valley cities that already have such posts.

The positions would need approval by the council, but City Manager Jim Rumpeltes has endorsed the move.

“This has come up through the years because of the workload on the existing staff, and it’s long overdue,” Rumpeltes said.

Truitt hopes the application process for the positions can begin shortly after he takes office in January.

Truitt said he is hoping to hire Miryam Gutier-Brown, a former intergovernmental programs director for Surprise, to serve as mayor’s assistant. Truitt’s intent is to hire Gutier-Brown as soon as possible, at least on an interim basis, while additional applications are sought.

As for the council liaison, the city’s new elected officials would have a big say in the person hired to work with them, Truitt said.

Salaries have not been discussed, but Truitt said they would be competitive with similar positions in other Valley cities.

A handful of homeowners and ranchers from the rural, unincorporated community of Wittmann have asked to be annexed into Wickenburg because they are fed up with what they suggest are greedy annexation plans by Surprise.  

Wickenburg is seriously considering the request.

However, such an annexation would force Wickenburg to cut across state trust land and into Surprise’s general planning area, which could put a crimp in Surprise’s development plans.

 

Planners from both municipalities are scheduled to discuss the issue early next week, said Steve Boyle, Wickenburg’s assistant town planner.

Surprise wants to build thousands of homes and a large industrial facility by the BNSF Railway tracks in an unincorporated part of the Northwest Valley. Surprise would later annex the projects into its city, and in some cases has already awarded future incentives for area projects that are not yet within its limits.

Much of that planned development falls next to Wittmann, where pristine desert and horse properties stretch for miles. Residents there have vocally opposed Surprise’s encroachment for more than a year.

The fight climaxed in October when the Surprise City Council approved preliminary plans for the BNSF Railway facility despite vehement opposition from Wittmann residents. The facility would go up near the Nadaburg Elementary School.

In November, Wittmann residents flooded a Wickenburg Town Council meeting and pleaded to be annexed. Since then, Boyle has been tasked with figuring out how such an annexation might unfold.

Wickenburg’s first priority is to annex about 5 square miles - about a quarter of Wickenburg’s current size - southeast of town along U.S. 60, Boyle said. That project, called the Hassayampa annexation, has been in the works for about a year, and is expected to happen in early 2008.

Next, Wickenburg would continue to annex southeast until it grabs the intersection of U.S. 60 and U.S. 74 and the surrounding residential areas, which include parts of Morristown, another unincorporated community affected by Surprise’s development plans. Wickenburg continues to meet with representatives from the state Land Department to help the plans come to fruition.

Boyle said Wickenburg has met with Morristown residents and had a good show of support from homeowners hoping one day to belong to Wickenburg. A municipality needs the consent of 50 percent or more of the assessed land value and property owners in an area to annex.

Because Wittmann is about 20 miles southeast of Wickenburg, it may not be until 2010 that Wickenburg would even border Wittmann, making an annexation possible, Boyle said.

Dubbed, the “dude ranch capital of the world,” Wickenburg has long been known for its rural, Western heritage - a feature that is appealing to many homeowners in the unincorporated Northwest Valley, Boyle said.

SURPRISE - Skip Hall, a former Surprise Planning and Zoning Commission member, plans to run in the upcoming recall election against incumbent Surprise City Councilwoman Gwyn Foro.   

Foro faces recall in a special vote-by-mail election that will conclude March 11.

“I’m still questioning why a recall is even going on,” Foro said Monday. “I’ve certainly done nothing illegal or unethical. Everything I’ve done has been approved through the city attorney. But, I guess we’ll go through the motions and waste taxpayer dollars for this anyway.”

 

Hall filed paperwork on Monday to circulate nominating petitions. The deadline to file is Jan. 11.

Hall and any other potential candidates need 26 valid petition signatures apiece to get on the ballot, City Clerk Sherry Ann Aguilar said.

Residents looking to oust Foro submitted 418 recall petition signatures in October. The Maricopa County Elections Department declared 370 of the signatures valid. Only 320 valid signatures were needed to force the recall. The election is expected to cost about $10,000, Aguilar said.

Leaders of the effort have criticized Foro’s treatment of her constituents and her support of a retroactive retirement plan and flat-rate auto allowances for council members.

Chet Neier, the president of Rose Garden Mobile Home Resort’s homeowners association, is the second Surprise resident to seek a place on the ballot in the upcoming recall election against District 6 Councilwoman Gwyn Foro.  

In November, residents hoping to remove Foro turned in signatures necessary to force the special election. Maricopa County election officials verified the signatures on Dec. 4, opening the door for applicants.

The vote-by-mail election, estimated to cost about $10,000, will conclude on March 11.

 

The deadline to submit signatures is Jan. 11. Each potential candidate needs 26 valid signatures to get placed on the ballot.

Neier, who lives in the same development as Foro, has not served previously in public office in Surprise.

On Monday, Sun Village resident Skip Hall announced he also hopes to join the race. Hall is a former planning and zoning commissioner.

Unlike a normal Surprise election, the winner in the recall does not need to get more than 50 percent of the vote. The person who receives the most votes is declared the winner.