Council extends Stahle’s town manager contract

The town council has approved a rezoning that will allow commercial development by Rancho Sahuarita next to the main school campus and extended by one year the contract of Town Manager Jim Stahle.

Stahle on May 27 won his contract extension by a 4-3 vote. Stahle actually had five votes, as Council Member Scott Downs said his “no” vote was in opposition to the raise, noting Stahle “is making progress” on new directions the council has given him.

The council also eliminated a requirement for a pedestrian bridge between the main school campus and Presidio del Cielo, at the request of the school district, and gave town staff direction on how to devise an ordinance to regulate political signs.

Stahle was given a 3 percent raise, bringing his salary to $141,421, from $137,302. That makes his salary slightly greater than that of Town Attorney Dan Hochuli, who in January was given a raise to $141,277. Downs said he did not support that big a raise during economic hard times.

Stahle’s extended contract runs to June 10, 2009. The council spent about an hour with Stahle in executive session, then spent about another hour discussing the matter after he left.

No residents spoke for or against Stahle. In January and February, a half dozen or so Rancho Sahuarita residents spoke at town council meetings or had their letters read and called for Stahle to be fired. They cited a variety of issues, principally the town’s failure to expand the wastewater treatment plant fast enough to accommodate explosive growth in Rancho Sahuarita from 2005 to 2008.

Voting for Stahle’s contract extension were Mayor Lynne Skelton, Vice Mayor Phil Conklin and council members John Sullivan and Charles Oldham. Voting against were Council Members Marty Moreno and Roger Minor. Skelton and Oldham have expressed support for Stahle in the past after he was criticized by residents.

The council at the May 12 meeting gave positive evaluations to Hochuli and Town Clerk Sandra Olivas.

At the June 9 meeting the council will discuss the contract of Town Magistrate Maria Avilez.

The council approved by a 7-0 vote a rezoning that will allow the commercial development on the northeast corner of Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard and Sahuarita Road on property that the Sahuarita Unified School District plans to swap to Rancho Sahuarita in return for construction of an expansion of the administration building.

School Superintendent Jay St. John said the 4.19 acres was of no use to the school district but has much commercial value, in the neighborhood of $900,000. The land is across from the Fry’s Marketplace and is a visual part of the entryway to the Rancho Sahuarita master planned community, though it is not part of the Rancho Sahuarita Specific Plan.

St. John said the only way to expand administration space, an item not paid for by the state and generally unpopular with local voters, is to swap unimproved real estate, or land, for real estate improvements, such as buildings.

St. John reminded the council that the town built the current school administration building several years ago in return for the 22 acres of land being used to expand Anamax Park, land the school district was given years ago by a mining company but that could not be developed as a school.

The council voted for an 8-foot high wall around the eastern and northern sides of the parcel, and decided any future bus lane in that area should be on public right of way, not private land, as proposed by town staff.

Town Planning Director John Neunuebel, who had advocated the use of private land, said the town owns a 150-wide right of way along Sahuarita Road, so there would be no problem locating a bus lane along that road, probably on the east side of the intersection.

On the pedestrian path to the school campus, town staff had requested that the master developer, Rancho Sahuarita, and builder, K.B. Home, leave open an easement for a path in case a future school board changed policy and called for a pedestrian bridge.

St. John has said repeatedly that for security reasons he prefers to control access to the main campus, which does not accommodate walkers, and said the school board does not see the value of a pedestrian path to a bridge across a deep wash, where there could be liability issues. The council bounced back to staff the question of how to regulate political signs in a way that is Constitutional but still would discourage candidates from leaving them up for months on end. Court rulings have severely limited attempts to regulate political signs as a violation of free speech, so the town has been trying to regulate all temporary signs, a category that includes political signs, that are placed alongside roads in the town right of way.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738