by 
Todd Pryor
Superior Fire Chief Todd Pryor, who has been co-serving as Superior Town Manager with Police Chief David Neuss for the past three months, has been provisionally appointed as full-time Town Manager by the Town Council.
Pending negotiations over salary and benefits, Pryor, who has headed the Superior Fire Department since 2008, will succeed Margaret Gaston as Town Manager. Gaston resigned in January following revelations that town government hadn’t caught eight withdrawals totaling $2,300 from a town debit card by Mayor Jayme Valenzuela allegedly for personal use. Because of the scandal, the positions of Town Clerk and Financial Director also are currently vacant.
The decision to appoint Pryor came at the April 14 Town Council meeting that was long on agenda but short on Council members. Only a bare quorum of four members (Vice Mayor Olga Lopez and Council members Michael Alonzo, Mila Besich-Lira and Stephen Estatico) were present. Among the absent was Mayor Valenzuela, recall petitions for whom were filed at Superior Town Hall three days earlier.
In selecting Pryor to be Town Manager, and thus begin rebuilding Superior town government, all four Council members praised his longtime work as Fire Chief and especially for how he filled his duties as interim Town Manager.
“Pryor has been doing a good job since assuming Town Manager duties in January. Things have been running more smoothly in town government than ever before,” said Estatico.
Alonzo agreed, stating, “Pryor has streamlined government systems. Communication issue as gone. The overall atmosphere at the Town Hall has improved. And he already knows Superior, enabling him to do an effective job from Day One.”
The subsequent vote to appoint Pryor as Town Manager was a unanimous 4-0.
Steps to fill the other top town executive positions also were taken by the Town Council during the meeting.
Members voted to form a selection committee to interview applicants for the position of Town Clerk, which has been vacant since December. Serving on that committee will be Estatico, Besich-Lira and Pryor. No deadline was set for selecting an applicant for the job.
It was the firing of former Clerk Rachelle Sanchez, with Mayor Valenzuela casting the deciding vote, that set in motion the chain of events exposing misuse of the town debit card, the resulting resignations of other top town officers, and current efforts to recall Valenzuela.
Council members further voted to engage the services of the Colby & Powell accounting firm to provide financial oversight to Superior town government. The firm will enable Superior to eliminate the position of Financial Director (vacant since late January) by performing the same duties and services at $60,000 per year, about half of what the town was paying in salary to the last person who held that position.
On a separate measure, members voted funds for Colby & Powell to continue its audit of past Superior government financial records. The new audits would cover fiscal years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.
In other business, the Council hosted a presentation from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) on the upcoming widening of U.S. 60 through Superior.
Widening on the south side of U.S. 60 from Cobre Valley Clinic to State Route 177 begins this month and will run to September, with work shifting to the north side of U.S. 60 from September to December, said Mindy Teague, senior engineer on the widening project for ADOT. As part of the project, the Stone Avenue Bridge will be replaced (causing traffic on Stone Avenue under U.S. 60 to be detoured for six months ending in December). Raised medians will be installed on U.S. 60 by March 2017; and lighting, landscaping and final pavement being installed by June 2017.
Teague also noted that the intersection of Main Street with U.S. 60 will be moved slightly to the east to square off the intersection for safety reasons.
Council members expressed concerns about pedestrians crossing the wider U.S. 60.
Bill Harmon, district manager of the ADOT Southeast Region, said studies will be made to determine where a majority of crossings are made, then measure the volume, frequency and speed of traffic in those locations to program traffic lights to provide pedestrians with enough time to make a safe crossings and synchronize these lights to smooth the flow of traffic. The raised medians also will provide older or slower citizens with a safe place to stand when crossing U.S. 60. Street lights will provide better illumination at crossing sites, thus helping to reduce accidents, Harmon added.
Police Chief Neuss in his capacity as interim co-town manager reported on his attending a meeting of the Pinal Regional Transportation Authority (PRTA) concerning its proposed 20-year plan for road improvements throughout Pinal County. He noted that while nearly all the road projects are in western Pinal County, it would still be a good deal for Superior residents to vote for the 0.5% increase in the county sales tax to fund these projects as the plan would provide Superior with $300,000 annually to use on local road projects. Superior would get back more than what local residents would pay in higher sales taxes.
But Besich-Lira objected to having Superior residents pay any more sales tax than they already do. The 10.7% sales tax paid when shopping in Superior is tied with Mammoth as the highest in the county and second highest in all of Arizona. As a total 11.2% sales tax would hurt local businesses, Superior would have to consider lowering its sale tax if a majority of Pinal County citizens elsewhere vote for the transportation projects-supporting 0.5% sales tax hike.
Two changes were voted in Superior’s zoning laws. Under the old law, if a structure classified as a non-conforming use (such as a residential home in the middle of an area zoned for commercial use) is more than 50% destroyed it cannot be rebuilt. Under the amended statute, variances can be obtained to rebuild such a structure. The zoning law also was amended to enable variances for building on non-conforming properties, such as those with odd shapes.
Council members decided to continue the ADOT-supported Rest Stop on U.S. 60 with some changes. Hours of use will be shortened by three hours to from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. And all sinks, toilets and urinals will be replaced with stainless steel models that members hope will reduce vandalism that has proved costly in recent years.
An effort to secure a federal grant to replace the generator at Superior’s waste water treatment plant was shifted from applying with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to applying with the Department of Emergency Military Affairs and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It was a stretch to consider the town’s current 1977 vintage generator’s maintenance issues as one affecting Homeland Security, even though it had failed to activate during the last four power outages. The grant application likely would have been rejected by DHS, Pryor told the Council.
James J. Hodl is a career journalist who has worked for newspapers, magazines and trade journals. A graduate of Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism, Hodl began his career as a reporter with the Palatine (IL) Herald and the Morton Grove (IL) Review before becoming editor of the trade publication Appliance Service News. In recent years, Hodl has had articles published in Consumers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Home Remodeling, Kitchens & Baths and Salute; and has contributed to trade publications serving the home furnishings, restaurant and casino markets. A native of Chicago, Hodl relocated to San Tan Valley in 2013.
by by