The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors meets most of the day Tuesday (county offices are closed Monday for Labor Day) with a possible lunch break around noon.
Action items the board could vote on include rearranging positions in the Medical Examiner's office so that the office has positions for two medico-legal death investigators, and approving allocation of forest fee money.
Yavapai County currently has one death investigator. If the board approves the new position designation, it would give the county two full-time death investigators, County Administrator Julie Ayers said.
"The death investigators are trained to examine a body and determine whether it would need an autopsy or not," Ayers said. "By having staff trained to make that determination in the field, it would save a lot of time and the cost of transporting a body to the morgue, having the ME determine an autopsy is unnecessary, and then having to re-transport it to a funeral home."
The county does not have a full-time medical examiner and contracts with a consortium of doctors from Maricopa County for ME services. Ayers said that re-designating the positions would not add any additional costs to the budget, and that the second employee is qualified for medico-legal death investigator certification.
The county has about $238,000 in forest fee money. The board will vote on how much to spend on forest projects, which probably will be about $85,000. That would leave about $153,000 to spend on future projects.
The board has several hearing items scheduled, which it could vote on after discussing an item.
At a previous meeting, the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission voted a positive recommendation to the board to change public notification for properties one acre or larger from the current 300 feet to 1,000 feet. The board supported the change during a previous joint session with the Commission.
The board hears a proposal from Land Use Manager Steve Mauk to amend the Guest House zoning ordinance and allow owners of detached guest homes to rent them for a minimum of 30 days. The current zoning ordinance does not allow guest homes to be rented, and it does not restrict the length of time non-paying guests may use a guest home.
Opposition from community organizations and private individuals included concerns that the guest house amendment would decrease property values, increase traffic in neighborhoods and tempt some owners to operate bed and breakfasts from their guest homes.
The board also takes up two open space subdivision development ordinances. The ordinances would be voluntary options for developers and would apply to a maximum of 640-acre parcels.
The purpose of the ordinance would be to encourage developers to cluster homes on smaller lots by allowing them to build more homes through open space incentives. Development Services Director Chad Daines said it would be a tool to discourage lot splits and wildcat subdivisions.
In other business:
• The board re-hears Chris and Dietra Cave's appeal of a zoning violation for a home they built without permits near Ash Fork. The Caves appealed the violation order and presented their case to the board at an August meeting.
During that meeting, the board rescheduled the hearing because of an incorrect date on a photograph of the property. The Caves are residents of Las Vegas and complained about having to return for a second hearing, calling the board "a kangaroo court."
The board offered to hear the case via teleconference but the Caves declined the invitation and will appear in person.
After the hearings, the board meets at 1:30 p.m. in executive session to discuss bid contractors' bid qualifications for four capital improvement projects: a new morgue; construction and remodeling of county offices located on Commerce Drive; building a new health center in Cottonwood; and remodeling the existing Camp Verde Courthouse.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the county hearing room, 1015 Fair St., in Prescott. The meeting is open to the public.
The complete agenda including background material may be read and downloaded at www.co.yavapai.az.us.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, September 07, 2009
Article comment by:
Tim...???
How much will the death investigators be paid? Do Maricopa doctors come here to do autopsies? Do they also bring their own equipment? Is their a search for an actual M.E.? How is having an M.E. unnecessary? Are we paying this consortium "per body"? How many autopies would there have to be before that balance exceeds the $150,000 we were paying the guy before. I think Ms. Ayers ought to actually see how things really work rather than thinking it looks good on paper.
Posted: Monday, September 07, 2009
Article comment by:
huh what??
Why Doctors from Maricopa County? We have local Dr.'s who would love the extra money... Is that 5 lane hwy. to no where still going to happen?
Posted: Sunday, September 06, 2009
Article comment by:
Politics as usual!
So, let me see, adding two new full time positions to the Medical Examiner office isn't going to cost extra. Are these people working for no pay? The Yavapai County taxpayers are already paying more for the "consortium" of doctors from Maricopa County plus the cost of the histology services. How does any of this mean less money being spent. I guess the Board of Supervisors thinks the average person paying taxes is either stupid or unconcerned about their decisions. Too bad there is at least another year for them to squander our money before we can vote them out.
