There we go. Looks like there's been some changes up here in the technology. I noticed a new button. Welcome to the Mesa City Council meeting for August 31st, 2026. I am Vice Mayor Scott Summers. Mayor Freeman is out of town as in his and is excused although he is here in spirit. Uh, Council Member Duff is also absent and excused. Council Member Adams and Council Member Goforth are both participating by Zoom. I see them online. Council member Adams, can you hear us? >> I hear you loud and clear. Thank you. >> Excellent. That makes a quorum. And Council Member Goforth. >> Yes, I can hear you. Thanks. >> Okay. And I have them on screen. If we have any issues, I'll let you know. But we do have a quorum for the meeting. Uh we'll begin by an invitation by Reverend Brian Crane at Eternal Life Lutheran Church, followed by the pledge of allegiance by scout from Troop 3054, Kayla Ramirez. Would you please stand for the invocation? Let us pray. [clears throat] Oh merciful father in heaven, who holds in your hand all the might of man, and who has ordained the powers that be for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well, and of whom is all rule and authority in the kingdoms of the world. We ask you to graciously regard your servants who lead us here in Mesa, especially our mayor, vice mayor, and council members, as well as all the leaders of our state and nation. May all that receive the sword as your ministers bear it according to your commandment. Enlighten and defend them by your name, oh God. Grant them wisdom and understanding that under their peaceable governance, your people may be gardened and directed in righteousness, quietness, and unity. Protect and prolong their lives, oh God of our salvation, that we with them may show forth the praise of your name. through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord. Amen. Kayla, >> please, [clears throat] please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, [snorts] with liberty and justice for all. >> Nicely done. >> Reverend Kayla, thank you so much. We don't have any awards or announcements today. So before I move on to the consent agenda, Miss Mosley, I see three speakers, right? We only had three filed today. >> Correct. And I wrote the third name. It's So it's Jillian Ryan, Mary Mayabino, and Jerica Trimble. >> Okay. So that'll be the uh order we'll bring you up at the end. With that, Mr. Christopher, the consent agenda. >> Good evening, vice mayor and council members. These are the items on the consent agenda. All items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion. There'll be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item. Item two, approval of minutes of previous meetings is written. Item 3 A, act on liquor license application for its wings, 6837 East Main Street. Item 3 B, act on liquor license application for Original Cuisine, 1853 West Broadway Road. Item 3 C, act on liquor license application for Soul Station, 1976 West Southern Avenue. Item 3 D, act on liquor license application for Sam's one-stop shop, 2111 South Alma School Road. Item 3E, act on liquor license application for Sprouts, 1110 West Southern Avenue. Item 3F, act on liquor license application for Kagawa guys, 2121 West Bottom of the Bay Road. Items 3G and 3H, act on liquor license applications for Longbo Golf Club, 5601 East Longbo Parkway. Item 3 I, act on liquor license application for Organos, 3506 South Signal Road. Item 3 J, act on liquor license application for Fumar Reeds, 5925 East Southern Avenue. Item 3K, act on liquor license application for Sprouts 5131 South Ellsworth Road. Item 4 A approving a design bid build contract for improvements to the Elliot Road corridor from the Eastern Maropa Floodway to Ellsworth Road. Fundings from local street sales tax of which most of it will be reimbursed by a federal grant. Item 4B, approving contract for East Mark Aquatic Complex, pre-construction services and construction manager at risk. This project is funded by the 2024 parks and culture general obligation bond. Item 4 C, approving contract for Red Mountain Aquatic Complex, pre-construction services and construction manager at risk. This project is funded by the 2024 parks and culture general obligation bond. Item 4 D, approving three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for windscreens, protective netting, and batters eye repair and replacement for the parks, recreation, and community facilities department. Item 4E, approving three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for helicopter pilot training services for the Mesa Police Department. Item 4, approving dollar limit increase of the term contract for off-site on-site vehicle washing services for citywide departments is requested by the business services department. Item 5 A, approving resolution setting the date and time for the public hearing on the continuation of the Mesa Town Center Improvement District number 228 to be October 26, 2026. Item 6A, introduction of ordinance for annexation case 25-684 to annex approximately 5.2 2 acres located at the southwest corner of Williamsfield Road and State Route 24. Item 6B, introduction ordinance for annexation case 25-893 to annex approximately 196.3 acres located at the northeast corner of Ellsworth Road and Williamsfield Road. Item 6 C, introduction of ordinance for zoning case 25-891 for approximately 196.3 acres located at the northeast corner of Ellsworth Road and Williamsfield Road. This is for a reszone to allow for development of the Legacy Park mixed use community. Item 6D, introduction of ordinance for annexation case 25-725 to annex approximately 38 acres of county rideway along Signalute Road about 1,250 ft south of the southwest corner of Signalute Road and Williamsfield Road. And item 7A, approving ordinance amending sections 10-4-2 and 10-4-3 of the Mesa City Code to establish a continuous speed limit of 45 miles per hour on Ellsworth Road from north city limits to the south city limits by modifying the Ellsworth Road speed limit between Elliot Road and the South City limits. Vice Mayor and council members, these are the items on the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. Christopher. Miss Mosley, has has there been a request to remove any item from the agenda? >> Uh, no. base. >> Does any council member wish to remove it? Seeing none, I'll accept a motion. >> I have a motion from council member Heredia. Second from council member Taylor. All in favor, please vote. >> I. >> Mr. Adams is an I. >> Council member Goforth. >> I >> I. With that motion passes unanimously with Mayor Freeman and Council Member Duff absent and excused. Item eight is items from citizens present. We allow up to three speakers three minutes each because topics the speakers raise are not on our agenda. State law generally prohibits council from responding to the speaker. Our first speaker is Jillian Ryan. Jillian followed by Mary Mabino. Mary, you'll be on deck. You can come up too. Jillian. >> Hi all. Um, you all know who I am. So, I'm here to speak again and there's a few things I want to address. Concerns that I have about the city council, the decisions our city council is making. So, we know that with recent cuts to the Colorado River, um, Arizona is going to be impacted by that. So, I'm really concerned with why we are building luxury hotels. I don't know why that's a priority in this current climate. We're in a drought. I want my kids to be able to live in this city. So, when I see you all approving things like luxury hotels, something that me and my family will never be afford to go stay at. It is very aggravating. I don't want these. I want water. We want water and we need water. Same with data centers. You said there's nothing you can do about this most recent one getting built with in, you know, at NT. I think you guys should try to get creative and figure it out. It hasn't been built yet. You know, nobody wants it. We don't need it. Let's get rid of it. Figure something out. Do something for the people. Okay. So, there's those points. As you all know, I have been attending almost every single city council meeting for over a year to speak out against the 287g agreement that we have with ICE. It's an optional agreement. We're the only municipality to have this as you all know and um you have all made it incredibly difficult for us to speak out about this issue. you have changed the procedures on us multiple times, multiple times, often with very short to no notice. Um, you also had 80 plus people who supported this agreement come out about a year ago. And you and the mayor, Mark, he let four people talk, all who supported the agreement. It's the only time in this whole year that I've been coming that I saw four people get to talk during public comment. What happened the next time when a hundred of us came? He tried to tell us only one of us could speak. So we were able to get our three, but that was it. That y'all talk about being fair. You talk about fairness and all of this stuff. That's not fair. And I've told you all that in order to make that right, you need to let four of us speak against it one of these coming up meetings. That's how you repair this. That's how you earn the trust back from your community. Lastly, what I'll say is we [clears throat] need better candidates. So, I'm asking anybody who's here in this room, anybody who's listening, anybody who might listen later, anyone who has friends to run in 2028 to replace Rich Adams who publicly thanked an officer for assault for using aggressive a force force and assaulting a child at a protest. And Dorian Taylor, she needs to go. She ran an openly transphobic campaign and she is not the type of person we need representing all of our residents. So if you're listening today, join groups like Indivisible Mesa Lucha Mesa Valley Indivisible and get involved. Know who these people are. Thank you. >> Okay, Jillian. Thank you. No, no. Mary Mabino and then followed by Jerica. And I apologize. I think I called you Jessica. That's what I had in front of me. Jerica Trimble, you're on deck. Hi Mary. Hi, good evening vice mayor and council members. I'm Mary Mayo and I live in district 5. A year ago, Lewis Ruiz was selected as Mesa's new director of arts and culture. In that role, he has oversight over the Mesa Arts Center, but perhaps he's unaware that a drag queen Christmas show has been booked there in December, a few days right before Christmas. Apparently, this show features transfestites dancing around with suggestive sexually explicit moves while lip singing to Christmas songs. Is this really the way for Mesa's public funded facility to celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with men dressed up as flamboyant women mocking the very notion of Holy Christmas? Is this what we can proudly point to our families and friends and recommend they go see? I might expect this in San Francisco or Phoenix or even Tucson, but in conservative Mesa. And what about age limits? The online box office shows 18 plus welcome. But when I called and questioned this, the person answering was unsure as to what that actually meant and whether it is or isn't enforced. Why is a $13 million taxpayerf funed facility hosting an adultly entertainment show, especially when this falls outside the scope of traditional family-friendly entertainment? It's really way past time to revisit the wording of your NDO, which basically lays down groundwork and allows for shows like this to appear here. This non-discrimination ordinance was adopted in 2021 and even though Mayor Freeman is not here tonight, um I would like to thank him for being one of the no votes as opposed to two other board members of the city council who did vote for it. Just so people are aware, this NDO added additional categories like sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity, which is besides the traditional categories such as race, sex, and ethnicity. And this NDO applies to places of public accommodation. I'm not talking about separation of church and state here. I'm talking about community standards. Do we want our city known for traditional family values or are we opening the door here for anything goes with complete disregard for decency, common sense, and morality? Instead, we are now exposing our city and residents to things that would have once been unthinkable until eventually the unthinkable becomes normal. Is this show really compatible with the image you want portrayed for Mesa being that this is a taxpayerf funed facility? >> Mary, can can you wrap it up? >> Yeah, this is my last is done. >> Okay. >> Um being being that this is a taxpayer funded facility, I really hope you your answer would be that it's incompatible and unacceptable. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mary. >> Jerica, I'm sorry. >> Oh, you're great. [laughter] It's probably not the first time, but >> Yeah. No, it's fine, >> please. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, my name is Jerica Trimble. I've lived in Mesa since 1998 when my parents and I moved here when I was 12 years old. So, I relate very deeply when I hear members of the council or other people who live here come up and talk about watching it change so much over the years. Um, one thing I've noticed recently that changed is all of the flock cameras that are all over our city right now. U, I'm very, very deeply concerned. Um, let's see. Chandler, Tempe, Surprise, Tucson, Sedona, and Flagstaff have all recently cancelled their contracts um and are in different uh parts of the process of getting the cameras removed. Like City of Chandler can't even get Flock to come out and remove them. They've had to put bags over them because they're still running and even though they've canceled the contract, they're still continuing to surveil people. Um so I just there's widespread reports of massive misuse of these cameras. So like there's two major things. First, they don't work. And second, um the uh the just being misused by police officers and city officials. So there's reports of police officers using the system to stalk people, either spouses, expouses, women that they just think are hot. One officer created a hot list. So every time a per the person drove by, he got an alert and then he could go track them down. Um so there's widespread reports of things like that. Um also, uh they just don't work. like they misread license plates and then cops are pulling over families with kids in the car at gunpoint because a Y was misread as a V. And this is happening all over. I just saw a video where one family their car was mistaken mistakenly marked as involved in a homicide. They went got the vehicle out of uh from back from the police out of evidence. They did not mark that the the vehicle was cleared and that family was pulled over on their way home from getting their vehicle back at gunpoint. And you can hear the officers in the body cam footage saying this is a constant problem. This happens all the time. So like I just have major safety concerns. Like that can happen to any of us. You know what I mean? Like these cameras just misreading our license plates and pulling any of us and our families over at gunpoint. So I just I know that police departments are saying that they solve a lot of crimes and they get a lot of good out of these cameras. Um they solve crimes perfectly fine without surveilling everyone. Like that's the problem is they surveil everyone. um even people who are haven't done anything wrong and then people are getting caught up in this system that just doesn't work. And I really truly believe that it's not long until someone is killed by a police officer because of these cameras. So, I just love to see Mesa end the contract. Um I'd love to see a full audit and investigation done because if there's been misuse happening here, those folks need to know about it so that if they've been stalked, they can do what they need to do to protect themselves. Um so, I'd love to have a full audit done. and there are police officers across the country being fired, investigated, and arrested because of the way that they've used these cameras. So, if there are any officers here or city officials that have done those things, I'd like to make sure that they're held to the same standard of accountability as anybody else um and that they're arrested or charged or whatever needs to be done. And I'd love a city ordinance banning all these types of cameras um in our city. So, that's all. Thank you. Yes. >> All right. Thank you so much, Jerica. With that, that's all the items we have. Is there a motion to adjurnn from council member Heredia, second from council member Taylor? All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> And we are ajourned. Thank you. >> [music]