welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for the evening of April the 17th 2023. I'll note for the record that all of our Council are present we will begin this meeting with an invocation offered by Reverend ozetta Kirby with the Holy Trinity Community AME Church Reverend Kirby thank you for holding online we appreciate that she'll be participating by a zoom following the invocation we will have the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand for the player prayer and remain standing for the pledge fear God we thank you this evening for Mesa Mayor John Giles Lord we thank you for all of the council members secretaries who work so diligently with him to make Mesa Arizona a very Progressive City where your people can Thrive and work together raising their families sending them to excellent schools where teachers continue to bring the best curriculum to the Forefront so that children are prepared to be successful adults and able to work with diverse community members in safety and unity with our police departments fire departments and everyone who promises to do the right thing we pray and we ask all of these blessings in Jesus's mind to name amen amen amen thank you 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 with liberty and justice for all thank you next item on our agenda is Awards and recognitions we have one Proclamation on our agenda tonight April the 29th is Arbor Day as many as we just discussed downstairs I recently announced a challenge to plant one million trees in Mesa the initiative is called trees are cool and if you go to our website you can learn how to plant and record trees of your own here to tell us more is Donna Defrancesco the conservation coordinator from the Environmental Management and sustainability Department Donna good to have you with us please tell us more about how we're celebrating Arbor Day thank you very very much uh yes greetings to all of you and everyone that's with us here tonight and watching on television we're so excited to be with you tonight for the event and we know that you look forward to this all year long the presentation of the mayor's Arbor Day Proclamation uh I just was very excited about all the things you guys were talking about before the meeting I am going to suggest to our those that are watching that you do visit our website as you mentioned there's also a specific Arbor Day website mesaaz.gov forward slash Arbor Day and they can find a copy of the Proclamation and more details on all the upcoming Arbor Day activities as well as the trees are cool initiative I'm happy to once again let you know that our tree City USA application for our 2022 initiatives has been approved and we are proud that we are now Tree City USA for the 13th year we will be attending uh the celebration this Friday at the state capitol with other Trees Arizona tree cities to accept our award there the tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation and helps provide cities with Direction technical assistance and public attention about trees and the urban forest and the health of those Urban forest in our communities one of our requirements to be a tree City USA is to have an Arbor Day observance and to have the mayor sign an Arbor Day Proclamation that's one reason we're here tonight the National Arbor Day is always on the last Friday in April so it is officially on April 28th this year mayor sorry to correct you on that it was the 29th last year so it does change each year and it'll be a week from this Friday however Arbor Day is especially significant to Mesa this year since you mayor Giles during your February state of the city unveiled mesa's new trees are cool initiative as you mentioned earlier with the goal of planting 1 million trees in the City by 2050. at the event you gave out 300 cute little tree seedlings the to those that were at the state of the city and got them to bring them home and hopefully plant them and register those trees we have had other great giveaways since then as well at the libraries with some of their programs we do have one more program coming up on Arbor Day in April April 28th at Red Mountain Library where they're also giving out some of those some more trees and I love hearing council member Freeman that you've got trees you're giving away we have we're also going to be doing The Lorax book reading on Arbor Day with Mesa Public Schools and even most of you are participating that even Holly I heard you're participating even our city clerk is doing a reading as well so and many other volunteers so thank you so much for that so this initiative is part of mesa's larger climate action plan that outlines our City's commitment to protect and conserve our environment and natural resources and we know that trees play such a crucial role in that in those goals to help clean our air shade and cool our neighborhoods they're superheroes of nature where they fight climate change by providing that those cooler temperatures and lowering surface and air temperatures they clean our air by absorbing carbon dioxide while producing oxygen and also save energy if we place those trees in specific areas around our homes where they can reduce our air conditioning needs and of course they clean our water and help to absorb rainfall as well so mayor I'm here to tell you that your announcement Was Heard by many and we've had a tremendous response by the community you know I was going to do a pun in there somewhere so because of that our signature tree planting event this year is really exciting we have Partners all working together with the city to plant 20 trees in Skyline Park on April 25th with all these organizations and their employees and students will have over 40 volunteers to help plant large 24-inch box trees in several locations throughout the park these Partners include corporate sponsors non-profit organizations and educational institutions and I'm going to ask them to join me up at the podium each group at a time so Shutterfly we have Kirsten thomen could you please come up please welcome Kirsten and from Boeing we have Kirsten Sorensen come on up Kirsten and these are our two title sponsors for the event they're going to help us to pay for those trees which is so important and helpful for us uh from Arizona sustainability Alliance we have Orlando casares and Paul falzoni so they are a non-profit that help to plant trees and work with volunteers they're a great organization they do a lot of other things to to help with sustainability initiatives so contact them if you are looking at doing any pre-plantings to either volunteer or have some planted in your community really exciting we have vice principal Renee Clancy along with four students from Skyline High School Elijah Eric Hayden and Sarah come on up and they've already made tea shirts for the event mayor and council members I think it's so cool and so amazing so thank you all and then last we have Justin Mensel uh from West Coast arborist now they are a contractor for the city to help take care of our trees but they always participate in these types of events uh and help us with some of these initiatives so we appreciate the extra time that they put into all these things so we thank them for being here tonight uh for for being here for this event for supporting our the initiative for really coming together as a community to help us plant trees and I'll just see if mayor council has any other comments you'd like to make thank you Council any comments yes I would just like to say thank you so much thank you for being such good Community Partners and stepping up and not hesitating to get involved in this initiative and supporting it and I'm so excited about the students being involved uh just just wanted to thank you thank you for your enthusiasm and your for your support thank you councilmember go forth and I know you played a role with uh with Shutterfly and getting this so thank you to for the sponsors that are here that are making this possible with with a lot of private support in addition to the public Consciousness that hopefully we're raising I'm so excited we've got our our mace Public Schools engaged I hope it's someday I get one of those really cool t-shirts I didn't mean to cut off the council other Mr Freeman I know you're enthusiastic about this as well I love trees mayor in fact this Saturday as you I mentioned I'm having that Safety Fair if any of you would like to come yeah we have we're going to give away trees and if others would like to donate more trees that'd be awesome so thank you I'll leave it at that thank you Miss Pillsbury and since I'm married to an arborist I cannot say something right I might get in trouble when I go home yay for trees thank you to all of you for helping us make our city more beautiful and environmentally friendly and all the things that will happen as we do those projects so thank you so much and tonight marks I think the officially the first use of the tremendous pun so we'll we'll keep a running total come up with another one for next year well thank you we'd love to and just so you know the uh our April 28th is the day on the proclamation so thank you Council let's go and take a photo with these great volunteers and we'll celebrate Arbor Day all right so yes I think we can turn around I think so let's try that thank you okay [Music] [Music] one more yeah thank you that's so cool foreign thank you again to those who came to help us kick that off I my seedling from the state of the city is alive and well I hope everybody got one that's uh still doing fine uh next item on our agenda is the consent agenda owned by Mr Kevin Christian for forward to read the consent agenda good evening mayor and council members these are the items and the consent agenda all items is through with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will 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 minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A act on liquor license application for Casa de Mambo 1130 West Grove Avenue item 3B act on liquor license application for Pier 88 boiling seafood and bar 945 North Dobson item three C act on liquor license application for Quick Trip 9038 East Elliott Road item 3D act on liquor license application for the stone Korean Tofu House 6910 East Hampton Avenue item 4A approving contract to purchase a replacement shooting range Target system for the Mesa Police Department item 4B approving dollar limit increase the term contract for axon Flex on body camera and controlled electrical weapon equipment supplies and Storage for the Mesa Police Department item 4C approving one-year subscription with a one-year renewal option for electronic device access and decryption software for the Mesa Police Department item 4D approving four-year term contract with six years of renewal options for victims Services case management solution for the Mesa Police Department this purchase is funded by the Justice assistance grant item 4E approving dollar limit increase for the purchase to upgrade convert one helicopter for the Mesa Police Department item 4f approving contract to purchase one CNG powered roll-off refuse truck for the Solid Waste Department item 4G approving use of a Cooperative contract with a purchase of two forklifts for the fleet services and solid waste departments item 4-H approving one-year term contract with four years of renewal options for residential gas meters for the materials and Supply Warehouse for the energy resources department item 4i approving three-year term contract with two years of renewal options for demand response program services for the energy resources department item 4J approving use of Cooperative contracts so the purchase of furniture furnishings and kitchen equipment for the post for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4K approving three-year term contract with two years of renewal options for two Master job order contracts for landscaping Construction Services items 5A through 5D for approving resolutions for the following pass-through Grant applications to the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation five A's for child crisis Arizona five b is for Arizona burn Foundation five C is for Desert Sands of Performing Arts desert sounds performing arts and 5DS for Gene Lewis boxing club items 5e through 5-h are for approving resolutions for the following pass-through Grant applications to the Ak-Chin Indian Community five E is for child crisis Arizona five F is for Desert sounds Performing Arts five G's for Gene Lewis boxing club five H is for Alice Cooper's Solid Rock teen center item five I approving resolution and setting May 15 2023 as a public hearing date to review the proposed fiscal year 2023-2024 annual assessments for the Mesa Town Center improvement district the proposed final assessments do not include any rate increases item 5j approving resolution to enter into the first amendments to the development agreement with Dobson properties subfund to modify compliance states to build a four-story multi-family residential development on property located at 139 North Dobson Road item 6A introduction of ordinance for zoning case 21-1072 for property located north of Baseline Road and West of Gilbert Road rezone the planet area development overlay and site plan review to allow for townhouse development item 6B introduction of ordinance for zoning case 22-1015 for property located east of Power Road and south of Warner Road rezone the planned area development overlay modification of an existing plan area development and major site plan modification for a commercial development item 6C introduction of ordinance for zoning 22-1214 for property generally located west of Alma School Road on the north side of Southern Avenue major site plan modifications to allow for a restaurant to the drive-through item 7A approving ordinance for annexation case 23-123 regarding a portion of County right-of-way generally located on Power Road between Baseline Road and an area south of Guadalupe Road and item 7B approving ordinance for zoning case 22-714 for property located in the south of Baseline Road on the east side of Haas Road a rezone of the planned area development overlay and site plan reviewed to allow for a multiple residence development mayor and council members these are the items in the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Mr Mosley do we have any request to speak on an item that's on the consent agenda no requests for the consent all right thank you I see we have a motion made by council member Freeman seconded by council member spilsbury please vote motion passes unanimously for approval of the consent agenda next item on our agenda for this meeting is items from citizens prison we have either the two cards are there any additional cards those are the only two that I received May first we'll hear from Mr Burl Farnsworth Furniture is welcome you have three minutes mayor and Council when I was here last I made a very simple request at the end of that meeting was concluded with this quote from mayor Giles I would love to respond to this but we can't do that because this item is not on our agenda but it is tough not to respond to that I thought for sure that I would have received a call for further discussion or at least to have had this item on the agenda for discussion tonight this request was to open an investigation into those serious allegations made at the Joint Senate and House election committee meeting on the 23rd of February I can't imagine that this subject has not been a topic of great interest and discussion at the drinking fountain or at the break room certainly Mr Mayor you've had discussions with your current council members and the two former council members who are included on that list what was their reaction if you haven't you haven't done your job Mr Brady you would have contacted as many of the 15 individuals who are mentioned on that list and to inquire of their status certainly one of your duties as city manager is to make sure that none of your employees are involving themselves in Behavior Unbecoming employees of our city if you haven't you haven't been doing your job Mr Smith you're the chief law enforcer for the city of Mesa as our City attorney have you inquired of any of those individuals on that list have you done any kind of investigation with the Mesa City Police Department your job is to keep the citizens of Mesa Safe are you doing your job council members are not on that list have you inquired of fellow council members if not you're not doing your job for thoughtful consideration what is the definition of collusion remember to not speak is to speak the silence is becoming deafening light is the best disinfectant hopefully the city of Mesa will soon issue a statement reporting on the internal investigation that is necessary and that the citizens of Mesa deserve thank you thank you Mr Farnsworth Mr Smith the last time Mr Farnsworth came and made this statement I don't think we felt that it constituted a personal attack that would allow us to respond do you think anything he said today Rises to that level that would allow us to respond to this so mayor and Council so the general rule is is that Council can't respond to anything that is brought up at the call of the public which is what this is referred to other than to say to refer to staff or something to that effect unless it's a personal attack the allegation regarding or at least implication that sort of cancels involved in collusion I think amounts to a personal attack I'll say this uh but over the last 10 years there's only been I believe one personal attack that's occurred we would benefit that we live in a city that just doesn't happen very often and so on this exception to this statute doesn't come off very often and so that's you know it's a benefit of living in this community but I believe tonight was the second time that it has occurred in the last at least 10 years and maybe 19 years that I've been with the city so you think it's appropriate for me to respond I'll say I I believe you can respond I'll say that it when it's happened before the response has been limited because of the nature of it I will give a limited response Mr Farnsworth the city of Mesa did respond to those attacks and and I would invite you to to look on the to look that up what that response was is the individual who made these attacks has been prosecuted multiple times for domestic violence in our city and that's why many of the individuals that were listed in that attack were folks involved in the criminal justice system in our city uh also that's why the city of Mesa was also bore the brunt of a lot of of those attacks along with some other wonderful organizations like the LDS Church these allegations have been thoroughly debunked I would invite you to read many if there's countless newspaper articles that have shed light on this topic and found no evidence at all credible or otherwise that these allegations are anything but laughable so I would encourage you to to do a little bit of research into that um no you may not your three minutes are over uh and I would also encourage Mr Farnsworth to rethink this bad habit you have of coming to these meetings and raising these types of personal attacks under items from citizens present because that's a tantamount to essentially slapping someone who has their hands tied behind their back that's not a very good look for you so I would encourage you to find something on our agenda that maybe addresses one of the issues that you're interested in talking to us about and come up to the microphone and talk about that because then we can engage in a dialogue and we can shed light on the ridiculous nature of a lot of these allegations so I wouldn't I look forward to having you come back under and and would encourage you to follow that format rather than this this uh not very brave habit you have of coming and launching attacks during items from citizens present you're done thank you very much next uh Barbara blooster good afternoon I have gifts I would like to give the city council and they are gifts that the the library would not would not take my for the love of country they are five CDs two stories on each CB for Fidelity and the city council I just pass them out to those that um also because there's nothing like loving this country and the liberties we were given and so um that's why I did these stories they are is this included in my three minutes I'd like this not to be included in my three minutes anyway uh so oh well that was not a very positive thing anyway um I'm here to discuss agenda 2030 because I understand that Mesa Prescott Flagstaff Tolleson Scottsdale Phoenix and Glendale have all accepted agenda 2030 out of the United Nations now the United Nations was founded in 1945 by Communists to for the the point of the United Nations was to figure out ways to avoid war they just had two world wars and they wanted to have so those that were there wanted to figure out other ways to control a population besides war and they picked Health as well as just controlling people the surreptitiously is that the right word around about and this agenda 2030 as we see it is very much part of that and in spite of their going around Wars they have had Wars continually in the United Nations they're just Undeclared so then they're not one there's not a goal and we destroy our youth well anyway today is about this agenda 2030 the amount of waste relating to the public transportation is astronomical and destroys the free enterprise system for we have been in Chile on our mission and we found little micro or micro micro buses the free enterprise you know the individuals figured out we're going to do Transportation here and so they got their Microbus and they went through this towns and picked up people these huge city buses and this all this is extremely expensive is a total waste and it destroys the free enterprise system we need a free enterprise system we don't need government dictating hardly anything even your trees I don't know how how much the city is spinning on trees but that's individual responsibility or maybe a corporation wants to plant trees somewhere but we don't need the taxpayers forced to do anything except minimum um Services you have your police and your fire and and I object I would like to have private libraries because this I passed out to you you'll love them those stories they're done like they're done like Louis Lamour stories you all know Louis Moore's stories I would hope and so they're fun they're Americana and they're done like that only they're real issues I want to encourage you to not be part of agenda 2030. I'm assuming I've done my three minutes okay well thank you that concludes the items on our agenda for this meeting is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Freeman and Mr Summers all in favor please say aye aye thank you we are adjourned [Music]