Members of the Buckeye City Council met in closed session Tuesday to discuss the hiring of a new city attorney.
Former City Attorney K. Scott McCoy recently retired, necessitating the appointment of his replacement.
Henry has been the Assistant City Attorney since March 2023.
Henry told InBuckeye that she has not accepted an offer from the city, but that “there is a lot to think” about before the next council meeting.
Regular Council Meeting
Following Tuesday’s Special Council meeting, the city’s elected officials met to move a number of initiatives forward, including an approval of a planned four-story Marriott extended stay hotel at Miller Road and Durango Street, just south of the Interstate 10 interchange.
The project has been in planning stages for three years by Keyur Patel of 1929 Hospitality LLC.
Noted on Tuesday was that the hotel will rely on city water and sewer, setting the stage for larger discussions on Buckeye’s water plans addressed in two other significant agenda items before council on Tuesday.
Councilmembers heard an in-depth report from the Water Resources Director Terry Lowe detailing Buckeye’s Integrated Water Master Plan.
Water Plan
“The city commissioned Carollo Engineers in 2024 to update the IWMP, with a draft completed in Fall 2025,” Lowe stated in his report.
The draft was reviewed by engineers familiar with “Buckeye, Buckeye developers, and the homebuilder's association,” Lowe stated.
It includes “water resources, water, wastewater and reclaimed water infrastructure needed for the city to grow through 2040. Further, the 2025 IWMP establishes the road map for future infrastructure needs including treatment, conveyance, storage and pumping.”
Buckeye City Mayor Eric Orsborn praised the report for including flexibility that allows development to progress easier.
“I think we had at points previously come up with ‘this is our master plan for water; this is our master plan for sewer and it has to build exactly like this.’” Orsborn said. “You had areas that couldn’t develop because we said you had to build all the infrastructure to serve that area before anything could start.”
John Raeder, the city’s chief governmental affairs officer, also provided a glimpse on how the city was lobbying for water resources on the state level in the upcoming legislative session.
Raeder said his feeling was that state legislators, together with the Gov. Katie Hobbs, would do what they can to obtain the state’s fair share of water from the Colorado River.
Answering a question from Councilmember Craig Heustis on if the Upper Basin of the Colorado River – including parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – would continue to try to “strangle the Lower Basin” – Arizona, Nevada and California.
“I think it would be fair to say that the Upper Basin [of the Colorado River] feels that they should not take the same level of cuts as the Lower Basin,” Raeder said. “I think broadly that … in particular, Colorado feels like they have already taken sufficient cuts and shouldn’t be required to bear any more of the brunt of these reductions, whereas the Lower Basin states are advocating for more broad based cuts across all of the states.”
As part of his report on legislative priorities, Raeder said the city would continue to lobby for water resources as well as other issues that “reflect Buckeye's values and the city's commitment to protecting the character of our community and high quality of life for residents.”
