The eight individuals seeking to fill the vacant seat on the Town Council went before the public Monday evening to introduce themselves and respond to questions posed by the audience.

About 50 sat in Town Council chambers to participate and the forum was streamed live on the Internet. Mayor Jay Schlum was out of town, but watching on his computer screen.

The candidates include Michael Becker, Melanie Blatt, Dennis Brown, Catharina Eberhardt, Tait Elkie, Mary Nickum, Terri Schmidt and Art Tolis.

Town Manager Rick Davis moderated the forum, and there was little disagreement on the number one issue facing the town right now -- maintaining a sustainable financial position.

The town needs to come up with new ways to bring in revenue to sustain services and maintain the quality of life, Blatt said.

“We do have a beautiful town, and we need to ‘brand’ it to bring people here,” Blatt said.

She said the citizens have a lot to offer and everyone needs to work together to develop ideas.

Elkie said the town needs to raise its profile to bring people here from other parts of the Valley to bolster sales tax revenue.

On top of that leadership and staff need to make sure they continue to be fiscally responsible, Elkie said.

Mary Nickum believes the community should seek out high tech green industry for business. She also suggested promoting the arts and culture as a way to bring in more visitors.

The town needs to do what it can to attract more businesses that provide the goods and services people need, Schmidt said.

“We need to make sure people do not have to leave town to make the purchases they need,” Schmidt said.

Tolis believes the town needs to build on the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce to improve tourism to the community. He also said Fountain Hills needs to partner with Fort McDowell, recognizing that the Yavapai Nation has the land for expanding economic enterprises that Fountain Hills does not.

The candidates also generally agreed that the land use plan for the Ellman development of the former State Trust Land was a pretty good one.

They recognized it wasn’t perfect and might need some fine tuning to continue to address concerns.

“A good plan in the eyes of one person is not necessarily a good one in the eyes of others,” said Brown, who chairs the Planning and Zoning Commission, said. “I feel the plan Ellman brought us was a better plan than we had and quite acceptable for Fountain Hills.”

Eberhardt likes the plan, but has concerns about density.

“We are getting to the anticipated build-out population of 30,000,” Eberhardt said. “The development will be good for schools as it is promoted to families, and the increased population will help sustain (business).”

Becker said he is excited about the development and what it will bring the community in growth.

“I think the concerns about traffic are manageable,” Becker said.

A current topic of discussion around town is whether to consider a single trash hauler in Fountain Hills.

The candidates had mixed opinions on this issue.

“I don’t favor a single hauler that would stifle any benefit the town receives from competition,” Elkie said.

He believes a “monopoly” on providing service could result in higher costs to citizens.

Nickum said she thinks it should be a single hauler.

“I’m tired of five or six trucks on our street every day and the trash cans out every day,” Nickum said.

Tolis said there should be more study on the issue, and he believes the town could structure an agreement to address all concerns.

Blatt said she could support a plan that would allow the town to monitor the service and suspend the agreement if it was not working to the citizens’ satisfaction after a year or so.

Brown supports the single hauler concept for everything including commercial.

No one likes a property tax, and in this case it applies to the candidates for the council seat, although there is something of a line between the “absolutely not” and “never say never” positions.

Schmidt said if the town can find no other sources of revenue it may have to look at a property tax.

Tolis says no.

“The people have made it crystal clear how they feel,” he said.

“No one wants to pay more taxes,” Blatt said. “If at some point there is no other way to sustain critical services, we would have to look at it.”

“The Town of Fountain Hills has highly educated people,” Brown said. “I think we can figure out how to avoid a property tax.”

Should the town make expenditures on items that are currently in the budget, whether they are absolutely needed or not, was another question.

“The budget is a tool, or guide for identifying projects and needs,” Tolis said. “It can be adjusted as needs dictate.”

Becker said he sees a lot of unnecessary expenditures and cited the traffic signal at Palisades and Sunridge Drive as an example. He believes such projects should be cut and the money spent where it is needed more.

“If all agree it is unnecessary, why would it be in the budget in the first place?” Elkie asked. “We need to review all expenditures closely.”

Schmidt said everyone has a little different definition of necessary.

“Projects need to be prioritized to identify what needs to be done and what can be delayed,” Schmidt said.

Schlum wanted to know how each candidate handled conflict resolution.

The responses were similar. Listen to all sides, don’t prejudge, don’t get emotionally involved and respect the point of view from both sides of the issue.

At its regular session on Thursday, May 7, the council will appoint the new council member.

Council interviews of each candidate will take place in a closed executive session prior to the decision.