Laurie Ann Martinez, a clinical psychologist and longtime Payson resident, used her public comment time on Oct. 8 to invite council members to the fifth annual Lanterns on the Lake at Green Valley Park on Oct. 16 and to request restoration of municipal funding for the Time Out Shelter.

Martinez said the shelter has served the community for 32 years, providing food, clothing and short‑term shelter, and asked the council to consider refunding the organization’s support. She invoked the town’s constitutional constraints on gifts—referring to the state constitution’s “gift clause” originating in 1910—but asked the council to consider how the town can legally and prudently restore funding given rising operational costs.

"This is due to rising costs, daily operations. We provide so much more than we actually take from the community," Martinez said, noting the shelter’s role in preventing homelessness and supplying hundreds of thousands of pounds of food and clothing.

Martinez invited the mayor and council to attend and speak at Lanterns on the Lake as a show of community support. No formal council action or motion on shelter funding was recorded at the Oct. 8 meeting; the item was presented as public comment and a call to action.

What happens next: Martinez asked the council to evaluate funding options and to consider legal constraints and exceptions to the gift clause before restoring municipal support to the Time Out Shelter.