Pinal supervisors make vote totals official

One of the items pulled from the consent agenda, acceptance of the final plat for Toscano Villas, will be handled Friday morning via a telephone conference call meeting.

The other item pulled from the consent agenda was heard separately and concerned a settlement with Twilla J. Jones and Edward F. Jones to settle litigation. Neighbors had complained that the Joneses were operating a construction business out of their home on North Fantail Road, northeast of Casa Grande. Edward Jones, vice president of Delta Construction Co. and a licensed commercial and residential contractor, had been building cabinets in an attached woodworking shop.

Their neighbors contended that Jones' enterprise did not fall under home occupation regulations, and to prove their point, they videotaped trucks coming in to pick up cabinets and then followed them and videotaped them delivering the cabinets to construction sites where new homes were being built.

The matter was brought before a Pinal County hearing officer, who determined that the Joneses were in violation of the ordinance regarding home occupation. In an effort to avoid litigation, the Joneses and the county formulated an agreement, whereby Jones could continue to make cabinets in his home workshop but could not sell them to other contractors.

Stipulation No. 5 in the agreement states: The operation or assistance of a business does not include the building or finishing of cabinets or other furnishings by Edward F. Jones as a hobby for his personal use or the use of the immediate family of Twilla J. Jones and/or Edward F. Jones, immediate family being defined as children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters....

"This is a good settlement, a clear and comprehensive agreement," said Bill McLean, chief deputy civil attorney. "General rural law permits home occupations, which are mostly thought of as someone putting a computer and phone in a spare bedroom and using it as an office. Limiting Jones' cabinet-making hobby for personal or family end use is a good compromise."

McLean directed his next remarks to the Joneses' attorney when he said that should the problem continue, steps would be taken. "The court is just across the parking lot," he said. He also noted that in a letter he had received, the neighborhood group wanted the county to mete out some kind of punishment or fine, but he didn't feel that was called for, considering the Joneses' cooperation in reaching a settlement.

In other actions, the board approved the following:

n Request for a special-use permit by Desert Rose Baha'i Institute to establish a 250-by-250-foot private religious cemetery with office building on a 2-acre parcel in the north Eloy area.

n Request for a special-use permit by Michael Rizzo to provide assisted living for 10 or less residents within an existing dwelling on a 1-acre parcel in the Tierra Grande area.

n Request for a zone change by George and Joanne Koulouris to establish a gas station and food store on a 16-acre portion of an 80-acre parcel in the south Cactus Forest area.

A request for a zone change by Joe Auza to allow for rural residential home-site development on a 40-acre parcel in the south Francisco Grande area was withdrawn by the applicant.

A public hearing was held in which the supervisors approved the Pinal County Alarm Systems Ordinance.

After conducting an executive session, the supervisors returned and sat as an appellate board to hear a request for a continuance of a status review hearing and action on appeal of a hearing officer's decision on the case of the Pinal vs. Dora Warcola, pertaining to a violation of a county ordinance regarding the outside storage and parking of numerous inoperable or unlicensed vehicles and scrap.

The request for a continuance of the hearing was denied, and it was McLean's recommendation that the board set the matter for a hearing in not less than 30 days.

"The defendant has had from May to September to resolve the matter," said McLean, "and she has come up with no reasonable alternative. Reasonable efforts have not accomplished any sort of settlement, and it is my recommendation that the board go forward with the process of a hearing. All citizens are entitled to a hearing, but the history of this matter leads me to believe that we will end up across the parking lot (the county courthouse)."

Supervisor Jimmie Kerr added that the matter had been going on for 11 years, and Supervisor Sandie Smith moved to uphold the hearing officer's decision that the property must be cleaned up in 30 days or the next step would be court action.

A work session was held in which the board addressed proposed changes in the Cable Television Ordinance Fee Schedule.

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