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Local business owners and school officials press council for clarity on fees and SRO exemptions
Summary
During public testimony, small business owners and school‑district representatives urged the council to clarify how the proposed public‑safety surcharge and SRO exemptions will be applied and asked that calculations be more equitable, transparent, and appealable.
Business owners and a school‑district representative used the public‑comment period to press the council for clearer rules and greater equity in proposed fee changes.
Tammy Sona, who owns a business in Wagner Plaza, told the council that the traffic‑based fee model understates how shared parking and community events load onto common lots and that the model would pass costs unfairly to small tenants: “Adding another recurring fee based on an inaccurate traffic model is neither fair nor equitable.”
Rick Harris, a local property owner, said the public‑safety surcharge proposal reads like a mechanism to solve a roughly $300,000 budget shortfall rather than a targeted public‑safety solution and warned it could drive businesses away. Phoenix‑Talent School District representatives (Dawn Watson and Brent Berry) thanked staff for working with the district but asked that the SRO exemption language be clarified — they said the exemption relies on an active contract and sought clarity about billing timing if a contract has not yet been finalized.
Speakers repeatedly urged staff to publish clear examples and to make the appeals process easy to use before implementation; staff said notices had been mailed to affected accounts and that the code provides a flexible appeals process for customers who dispute category assignments or trip estimates.
