Fountain Hills council approves RFP to solicit town legal services

The Fountain Hills Town Council voted 6-0, with one member absent, to approve a request for proposals for town legal services and directed staff to proceed in accordance with the procedures outlined in the solicitation document at a special meeting in Fountain Hills.

The action authorizes staff to issue the RFP that town staff prepared and to follow the solicitation procedures in the final draft presented to council; councilmembers did not amend the text and there were no public comment cards submitted. The vote recorded six yes votes and one absence.

David Trimble, a town staff member, and Rob Durham, a town staff member, were identified during the meeting as the primary drafters of the solicitation. An unnamed staff member thanked Trimble and Durham and said the council had reviewed multiple drafts: "Yep. Mayor, as, David comes up, I was just gonna say he and, Rob Durham down here really did the heavy lifting on this. So first of all, thank you to both of them. You've the mayor and council has seen multiple versions of this drafts, making sure that we got all the details right. And even though even even then after we've had multiple eyes on it, you guys were still able to make sure we had our shells and our maze and all of our details right." Trimble responded, "Not really. I, think I don't have anything more than more than you said there. So good to go."

Council members did not request substantive revisions during the meeting. The clerk reported no public comment cards. The formal motion was: "Approve the request for proposal RFP for town legal services in this current form and direct staff to proceed in accordance with the procedures outlined in the solicitation document." The motion was seconded; the mover and seconder were not specified in the transcript. The roll-call vote recorded the following: Council member Skillekorn — yes; Council member Watts — yes; Council member Earl — yes; Council member Calavianakis — yes; Vice Mayor Lan Urbie — yes; Mayor Bridal — yes. Council member Mann was absent. The presiding officer announced the vote as "6 0."

After the vote the council moved to adjourn and ended the special meeting.

The approval authorizes issuance of the RFP and directs town staff to follow the solicitation procedures; it does not itself select or award a legal services contract. Any subsequent award or selection process was not part of the recorded action at this meeting.