Oro Valley Community Academy — Mayor Joe Winfield and Town Manage Jeff Wilkins

Kickoff (6:00–7:00 PM, Council Chambers)

Format: ~25 people in person, several more on Zoom. Runs Tuesdays/Thursdays, 6–8 PM, for 6 weeks. Attend at least 5 of 8 classes to graduate; graduation dinner happens during the last class, with a formal graduation in front of Town Council the following Wednesday.

Facilitators: Milini (staff, running her 8th Community Academy) and Michael Garcia (planner, 2nd year helping).

Mayor’s welcome: This is the 29th year of Community Academy. Over his 8-year tenure, the mayor has kicked off 8 academies, 69 classes, welcomed 265 people, and graduated 237. He laid out the “four pillars” of local government:

• Public safety — police, courts, town prosecutor. Oro Valley has ranked in the top 3 safest AZ communities (often #1) for 8 straight years.
• Public works — facilities, roads, water utility (its own enterprise fund), stormwater. Regional pavement rating (OCI): 76, the highest in the Pima County region.
• Parks and recreation — over $40 million invested during his tenure.
• Land use — currently finalizing the OV Path Forward general plan (his third: 2006, 2016, 2026). The 2016 plan had 300+ action items, and the town completed them all.

He emphasized no property tax (Pima County collects that) — the town runs on sales tax, so “buy local” was his closing pitch.

Program

Town Manager Overview — Jeff Wilkins

Background: 32 years in local government (Fishers, IN; Buchanan, MI; Kendall County, IL; Columbus, OH).

Structure:

• 12 departments, ~593 employees (including part-time, counted at 0.47 FTE — mostly lifeguards and transit drivers)
• Council-manager form of government: 7-member council, 4-year staggered terms, at-large (no districts), nonpartisan elections, even years. Vice mayor is selected by council, not separately elected.
• 4 direct reports to Council: town manager, town attorney, police chief, chief magistrate (judge). Other 9 departments report through the town manager.

Key themes:

• No property tax; reliant on sales tax and state-shared revenue. A resident once tried to “negotiate” the lack of property tax — not how it works, he noted.
• No TIF districts or property tax abatements available under Arizona’s “gift clause” (upheld by AZ Supreme Court) — the town cannot give money/incentives to a business without something of equal value in return.
• Retail leakage is a real issue (Costco, the mall, etc. are outside town limits), driving retail recruitment efforts.
• Population has plateaued: growth in the ’90s/2000s, modest growth 2010–2020, flat since 2020.
• ~80% of residents commute out for work; ~80% of workers commute in — a fairly typical suburban split.
• 200-year groundwater supply estimate; usage is down from 20 years ago despite growth.
• New taxes proposed last year: a use tax passed (levels the playing field on untaxed out-of-state purchases); a cell phone tax and commercial rental tax were both rejected by council.

Budget & Operations Deep Dive — Finance Presentation (Speaker 1, likely the town manager continuing)

Police headquarters project:

• New police station planned on Oracle Rd. Building was a good real-estate deal (~$3.8M, compares favorably to new construction), reusing existing walls/plumbing/electrical where possible.
• $7.2M in grants applied for; ~$7M in grants total mentioned elsewhere for the town.
• Currently in schematic design phase, working through space needs with all departmental “users.”
• Rule of thumb cited: every $1M borrowed costs roughly $70–75K/year to repay over 20 years at historical rates.
• Existing dispatch/telecom tower will stay at the current site even after staff relocates (too costly to move the tower).

General fund:

• Main operating fund; primarily sales tax and state-shared revenue — no property tax revenue.
• Utility bill sales tax (~4% on a $100 combined water/electric/gas bill) is the only “mandatory” tax residents pay locally.
• Arizona only taxes goods, not services — so salons, insurance agents, and similar service providers are taxed the same as any shopper only when they buy goods locally.
• O&M budget has been essentially flat for 3 years (one department was asked to cut O&M 0.5% this year); only one new position added in 3 years (a police officer). Cited a $4M reduction in cost trend.
• General fund revenue growth is not keeping pace with operating expenses—the town has started making cuts and just passed a “budget stabilization plan” to handle in-year revenue shortfalls.
• Capital fund (their “savings account”) is growing even as the operating side tightens.

Annexation:

• Requires contiguity (or a 300-ft connection to town boundary), can’t be more than twice as wide as it is deep, and needs a petition signed by 50%+1 of properties AND 50%+1 of total property value.
• Commercial property owners are often reluctant because they don’t want to risk losing a tenant over new taxes.

Capital projects highlighted:

• Lambert Road and Sonora Rd projects (~$2M each), both within 5 years.
• Shannon Road extension to Tangerine, near Ironwood High School — $25.8M.
• $10.4M in RTA “Next” regional safety funding, including a new signal at Basset/Tangerine near Naranja Park.
• $5M pavement preservation allocation spread over 20 years, being expedited to beat construction cost inflation.
• ~$52M in RTA transit funding over 20 years; transit ridership growing (~76,000 rides/year mentioned in one section, ~71,000 in another).
• $7M for bridges, $4M for police headquarters referenced among capital asks.
• New drone/first-responder program (partnership with a private site host) funded by a state grant, plus a records-sharing software integration with other regional departments.

Growth/land use notes:

• ~12% of land remaining for development, mostly infill or difficult topography — more expensive to build on than open land.
• Soso Highlands (old Pusch Ridge golf course clubhouse site): zoned for multifamily condos, but the owner isn’t currently motivated to move forward — town anticipates a future buyer.
• Rudy Ranch (east side, near the “bridge to nowhere”): rezoned for condos (north) and commercial (south); a privately owned parcel near the bridge is complicating full build-out.
• Population projected to top out around 52,000–53,000 before leveling off — the area is largely landlocked, and the area north of town lacks tap water access.

Police department:

• 140 full-time employees; response times are a point of pride tied to the “top 3 safest in Arizona” ranking.
• A council member asked why officer counts have stayed roughly flat (180ish) since 2014 despite population growth — the answer leaned on response-time performance as the key metric rather than headcount alone.
• 10% of criminal cases involve domestic violence charges.

Parks & Public Works:

• Parks and Rec: 29 employees (10 at the aquatic/senior center, remainder split across parks). Golf operations profitable on the operating side (before capital costs).
• Public Works: 59 employees, including transit; two staff handle in-house traffic signal synchronization.
• Traffic data: Oracle Rd widening pushed daily counts from ~36,000 to ~57,000; La Cañada widening (2021) pushed counts from ~8,700 to ~12,700 between 2020–2025 — framed as a success (traffic moving to designed thoroughfares instead of cutting through neighborhoods).

The session was cut short by a technical/power outage in the building; the second half (focused on the OV Path Forward general plan) was moved to Thursday’s class.

Town Overview Presentation