good afternoon welcome to the december 15 2021 formal meeting of the phoenix city council i will call the meeting to order will the clerk please call the rule councilwoman ansari here councilman decisio here councilwoman guardado here councilwoman o'brien here councilwoman pastor here councilwoman stark here councilman waring here vice mayor garcia here mayor gallego here our country has experienced enormous shocks since we last met today we will have a moment of silence to recognize the tornado losses in our country in the midwest and south the now 800 000 americans lives lost to covid the loss of many partners including goodyear mayor georgia lord but nothing hits closer to home than a young man new to the phoenix police force who is clearly committed to a life of service i ask that you hold a kind thought for officer tyler moldova and his family and the medical professionals who are caring for him please join me in a moment of silence thank you so much mario barajas is with us here today to provide interpretation service mario would you please introduce yourself yes mayor thank you hello my name is mario wadahas and i will be serving as a today's spanish interpreter for the city council formal meeting i'll now take a moment to introduce myself to our spanish speaking audience and review some brief instructions housekeeping thank you mario well our city clerk please read the 24-hour paragraph the titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number g zero three six nine three one s four eight one one nine four eight one three four four eight one three five four eight one seven zero and four eight one seven one three four eight two one six and resolution two one nine eight one thank you very much vice mayor do we have a motion on item one motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commission nominations second we have a motion in a second any discussion any opposed please say nay nay do we have a motion on liquor license applications motion to approve items 2 through 26. second a motion in a second all those in favor please say aye aye aye aye aye opposed please say nay passes unanimously city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve items 27 through 91 accept the following items 32 33 34 37 60 and 67 item 68 is continued to january 26 2022 item 91 is continued to january 5th 2022 and excluding these items for public comment 31 34 61 and 87. second thank you any corrections roll call i'm sorry yes decisio yes yes o'brien yes pastor stark waring yeah garcia yes diego passes 9-0 the next portion of our meeting includes comments from member of the public and i will turn to our city attorney to explain public comment thank you mayor good afternoon members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council general comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made during citizen comment session at the end of the agenda speakers must present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner profane language and personal attacks on members of the public council members or staff are not allowed a person who violates these rules can lose their opportunity to continue to speak thank you so much we begin with agenda item 31 authorized premium pay under arpa to eligible city employees motion to approve item 31 second we have a motion in a second we do have some members of the public to address the council we'll begin with steve berlin followed by tony duczynski i'm mayor and council my name is steve berlin i'm the president of the united phoenix firefighters association local 493 and also a captain with the phoenix fire department um the firefighter's position has always been continues to align with the international association of firefighters as far as vaccinations we absolutely encourage our members in fact everyone to receive the vaccine and for those who aren't sure we ask them to seek medical advice and make an informed decision and then we recognize all approved exemptions also but we adamantly oppose any vaccine mandate for our members who are refusing to receive a vaccine and who do not qualify for an exemption with that being said this item is is this expansion of the incentive program that the city of phoenix already has is an excellent approach to increase our numbers and get us to where we need to be so i asked mayor council to please approve this item and thank you for your time tony is next followed by marissa leyva hello can you hear me yes okay thank you mayor and council for letting me speak to my name is tony diezinski i am with the phoenix fire department a captain paramedic for over 25 years you know last week we talked about vaccine mandates and how wrong they are in a form of discrimination and so here we are now talking about preferential pay so are you guys going to let the federal government tell you how to run our own city well if you're going to give out this premium pay for employees it should be given equally to every city employee regardless of whether they're vaccinated or not vaccinated like an old country song said you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything so don't fall for this trickery it's the oldest trick in the book bribery greed and easy buck all you guys and girls that are on the city council you are better than that because what will happen next segregation so please stop this discrimination stop this attempt to divide our city employees and nip it in the bud and say no to this discrimination and let us say to every city employee that we value everyone that every worker matters whether you're vast or unvaxed you matter because everyone is an essential worker so let's show that to everyone at least let's treat everyone with respect consideration and acceptance no matter what their vaccination status is thank you marissa is next followed by brett hi uh i just can't believe that we're even considering this when every top five city except for phoenix already has a vaccine mandate in place is this going to be in addition to the 7 500 hiring bonus for cops and the 750 dollar bonus they get if they get vaccinated within the department because i feel like i keep having to call in to ask you guys to stop giving money to cops and it's getting really exhausting to bribe people with two thousand dollars to do the right thing for safety when we're in the middle of a massive surge is ridiculous and a massive misuse of coveted relief money it's completely ridiculous and i can't believe that it's even on the agenda thanks brett is next followed by patrick hello can you hear me yes we can thank you uh when i heard about this 500 bonus i thought it was a very nice gesture for those of us that stuck with the city and provided the services that required during the unknown and rapidly growing pandemic if you were deemed essential then you were there were no teleworking options available you had to be in the office to keep getting a check and we were no questions asked we were strong diligent and wrote out the ever-changing guidance that was coming down from the feds daily we were all a team working together to keep the water flowing the trash moving the city areas maintained and the major buildings operational we were essential to you when you needed us it took all of us to make it happen not just a handful the additional 1500 you are proposing is absolutely in violation of your own drafted and approved ar 2.35 you are not only discriminating against those that choose not to disclose their middle goal information to you which i might add is none of your business in the first place but you are absolutely retaliating against those people in the best way you can if we were all essential then we should all be essential now without having to bend the knee to your ridiculous mandate which quite frankly is on its way to the highest court in the land and will eventually be ruled unconstitutional the fact that you're dangling an additional fifteen hundred dollars in the face of those that choose not to be vaccinated or chose not to share our cards with you is probably the lowest thing i've ever seen from an employer you're on a very slippery slope with us right now being vaccinated has nothing to do with and shouldn't be lumped into who was essential then either give everyone the additional 1500 or give everyone the flat 500 regardless of their status mr city manager is this what you want to be remembered for after climbing the ladder to the very top of the honored position you now hold do you want to be remembered as the city manager who sat quietly and watched as the mayor and council vote on something that you know deep in your soul is just not right be the leader let the employees see that you see each of us equal in your eyes mayor guy eagle and council you should be proud that under your leadership more city employees have joined their respective unions for representation seeing how you do not care about them equally i ask those of you who vote yes on this today make a public statement prior so your voice is on record thank you our final speaker will be patrick hi can you hear me yes we can um my only concern is in the item number 34 uh for the emergency and rental assistance program that our organization have been uh assisting many of our many of the city of phoenix community members but unfortunately uh this item 34 if it passes today with only the five uh organization that was selected chosen by the city employees as the uh uh you know to continue with the era 2.0 it will discriminate either and leave many family behind and we have been uh you know helping those family to you know to stay homeless uh until now you know to keep you know to uh you know to be able to keep the lights on because of the you know your work your contribution and support so sir this is a vaccination item is it possible you meant i think we may have item number 34 this is for the emergency and rental assistance this is the one i'm i'm speaking for maybe my name was calling earlier okay uh we had item 31 now so we may have had an error here but we council members if you could note the comment for item 34 um am i going i'm going am i going to be allowed to speak out you know when item number 24 is calling yes um we'll bring you back for item 34. thank you thank you for our staff do we get everyone who is registered for comment on 31 yes mayor wonderful thank you council member comments or questions here i got a question wonderful we'll go to vice mayor and then councilman dececio thank you mayor um very proud to support this item uh to show our employees that we appreciate their hard work and their willingness to do their part to keep everyone in the community safe please if you're able to get vaccinated i want to thank all of you all who have already been vaccinated and proud to be able to support um and and i'm sure after the holidays employees will appreciate these extra funds for making sure that not only our employees are healthy but the community we serve as well thank you thank you we'll go to councilman de ceo then councilwoman ansari and then councilwoman gordado just a quick question to staff does the federal government require the individuals to be vaccinated or is this something that's done through the discretion of the council mayor councilman to cco members of the council the government the federal government through the arpa legislation does not require employees to be vaccinated to receive premium pay that is an optional addition for the council to make thank you mayor so i'm going to be voting against this not that i don't believe that individuals deserve this money because i think they do and i believe that people should be treated fairly but what really bothers me more than anything is that while certain leaders were cowering in their homes hiding from the covid brave men and women primarily from police and fire were out there protecting us they risked their lives they risked their family lives they risked the lives of the people around them to protect us this was meant to give those individuals that little thank you that they deserve and now it's become politicized into a vaccine type of mandate so i've also asked city staff i sent a letter to jeff barton earlier today because this swirl of whether or not the city of phoenix can still mandate the vaccine is still out there i've asked for an executive session to help resolve this thing once and for all get it on head on as soon as possible and so at the next executive session we're going to see if the city students can oppose this on their own thank you mayor councilwoman i'm sorry thank you mayor i'm also very proud to support this item i'm very happy to see that our all of our hard-working essential workers whether full-time or part-time will be receiving premium pay through um these arba funds and on top of that i think it was very clear when we heard last week from heads of hospital systems from banner to valleywise that there's no question that our hospital systems are very strained at this time and banner has said that we expect another peak mid-january so i hope that this you know fifteen hundred dollar incentive will go a long way to encourage all of our city employees especially those that are interacting with the public every day to get vaccinated but thank you again to all of our employees i know um you know we could not have gotten through this pandemic without you and we're still very much in the pandemic so important that everybody does everything they can to protect the public thank you so much thank you councilwoman guardado thank you mayor yes um also wanna say thank you um to all of our employees that remembering the hype of the pandemic when the city had to shut down you know when we had people had to work hybrid and we had no idea last march where this pandemic was gonna lead us what was gonna happen i just want to thank all of our city employees for their flexibility for their hard work for everything that they had to do to accommodate with their families i know that it's not been easy it's been incredibly difficult and my heart goes up for all of those families that have um lost family members um because of coved i know that we've had we've had quite a few of those um in in our own city um so i am definitely very supportive of this i know this is money that it's gonna come very handy um to a lot of people um that are out there that continue that continue to keep us safe that continue to keep our our city clean and i continue to make sure that that that our city um continues to move forward we're still in the in the middle of this and and it's not close to being over um so i am very proud and happy to be able to support this item and that we can get some money to folks um as the holidays are around the corner thank you mayor thank you councilwoman any additional council comments i will be supporting this item as well i think it's important to note that the city did a nine percent compensation package increase for our employees and that we've tried to regularly show appreciation for people who worked through the pandemic and who continue to do so right now our hospitals are telling us they are at a very difficult time elective surgeries are being canceled we heard powerful testimony last week from hospital executives we learned that there are hospitals that have more coveted beds filled right now than they did at this time last year when a vaccine was not available we also heard that overwhelmingly the people who are hospitalized who have serious injuries or deaths are unvaccinated we want to do everything we can to support our healthcare workers and to make sure that people in our community can get the care that they deserve vaccinations are safe they're a good way to protect yourself and i would encourage everyone to do so last week healthcare leaders shared that natural immunity does not protect you to the same degree as vaccination and we want our city employees to be as safe as possible that's part of the reason certain city employees particularly those who work on medical issues do have to get vaccinations as condition of their service it's worth pointing out again that premium pay does not go to the city's elected officials executive staff or managers again want to thank everyone in our healthcare system and encourage our residents to get vaccinated and to get a booster as well thank you so much additional comments do any additional comments roll call i'm sorry yes decision no yes o'brien no past store um i would like to explain my vote um i like to say that several colleagues on the council were when kovit first started uh were out in the field helping our employees get vaccinated and hosted uh vaccination clinics for our public safety our fire and anyone else that wanted to get vaccinated and tested so i take great pride along with other colleagues of being in the forefront of not hiding but really protecting our employees so i am voting yes stark yes wearing no garcia yes gallego yes passes 6-3 we next move to item 32 a request to authorize a partnership with the partnership for economic innovation motion to approve item 32 second and noting that councilman pastor will not be participating in this vote any questions or comments roll call i'm sorry yes to cco yes it's dark yes wearing we next moved item 33 request for additional contract authority for funding from hud to be distributed in accordance with arpa and cares act emotions who approve item 33 second any questions or comments roll call i'm sorry yes decision yes yes o'brien yes pastor stark yes no garcia yes gallego passes eight one item 34 is authorization to enter into agreements with cplc foundation for senior living pilgrim rest foundation saint vincent de paul to disturb disperse emergency rent and utility assistance funding vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve i'm 34 second we have a motion and a second i did tell patrick that we would return to his comment in this item so we will go back to uh patrick for his comment on this item thank you mayor mayor gallego and thank you a city councilman and and woman my name is patrick masoya i am the president for the refugee and immigrant community for empowerment uh known as rice i am um uh you know coming to you today to uh to request that the city council uh do not approve this uh agenda agenda in line number 34 as the selection process because our agency was part of this program but uh due to some um you know unexplained reason we were not selected even though having you know a big huge impact in the community keeping the family in their home and also assisting families during the coverage since last year until now and uh this uh you know five agencies alone will not be able to sustain the demand uh that our community is facing and to meet other demand as you know as a result i am requesting that the city council uh you know uh reject i mean do not approve this uh item but you know request an amendment and the second review uh during the the selection process because the metric the city employee used to determine uh to make the choice uh was not uh proportional thank you thank you so much any additional questions or comments we'll call i'm sorry yes to cco yes yes o'brien yes pastor stark yes garcia yes diego passes 8-1 item 37 is authorization to enter into contracts to provide refugee asylee and immigrant services do we have a motion vice mayor motion to approve item 37 second questions or comments roll call i'm sorry yes yes pastor passes 7-2 next item is item 60. i have a potential conflict so i'll turn to the vice mayor thank you mayor moving on to item 60 councilman gordal do we have a motion yes motion to approve item 60 second second there's a motion in a second any comments roll call i'm sorry yes does eco yes yes o'brien yes pastor yes stark yes waring yes garcia yes passes 8-0 next go to item 61 fire hydrant repair and replacement program j-o-c i will turn to councilwoman pastor hi um i really appreciate those working on item 61 but i have a motion motion to approve item 61 stipulating the term of each master's agreement is for up to one year to substantial completion or up to 3.4 million whichever occurs first second we have a motion and a second we will go up to the phones for public comment we'll begin with mario ayala followed by chris idlebird thank you mayor uh can you guys hear me yes we can perfect considering the recent changes uh we support the revised structure of this contract while i still strongly disagree with contracting out the work of the bargaining unit i understand the complexity and the importance of this service to our community i request that in the future we utilize our internal staff to perform the work that they have been hired to do and i would encourage the water department to look to the union as a reasonable partner who would love to be a part of the solution and not the problem we would request that we continue to meet with the water department for updates uh for the fire hydrant for status of the fire hydrant backlog and explore opportunities for internal staff to assist with the overall goal of the fire hydrants once again we look forward to accomplishing the overall objective of bringing these fire hydrants back into operable conditions while allowing our internal staff an opportunity to resume the responsibilities once this contract has expired thank you for your time and i ask that you please support the amendment thank you chris is next followed by james mckenna good afternoon council and thank you for for hearing from me today on this very important agenda item as a safety professional i am also concerned that the city has fire hydrants that are not in good operable condition i agree that this is a safety concern to our firefighters and the public we all serve as vice president of afscme local 2384 i have a vested interest in seeing that our members are afforded the opportunity to do this work i believe that work that is historically done by the bargaining unit stay in the bargaining unit this being an emergency situation i do understand the need to bring outside contractors to speed up the process of replacing non-working fire hydrants i'm pleased to see that the proposal to the contract to to this contract work has been modified from its original dollar amount and length of time and will allow our members to resume doing this work in the near future to accomplish this and to assure that we don't run into this problem again i would implore the city to use all its resources to fill the vacancies that contributed to getting us in this position in the first place and showing my support i urge council to vote yes and approve the contract that is currently written thank you thank you james will be our final speaker on this item can you hear me close your door so we can't hear you there was an echo which you obviously figured out good afternoon everyone we understand the importance of the fire hardens and their need in emergency situations and we can see the necessity for this contract to repair the almost 1 000 hybrids that are currently out of service we also believe that the abundance of vacant positions in the water service department has been a contributing factor to the accumulating number of hydrants that are out of service in the future we'd like to see the water services department invest in its own infrastructure by hiring and filling the almost 120 almost 125 vacant positions that it currently holds we'd also like to see the department invest in retaining these employees as they hire and fill with qualified candidates thank you thank you councilmember questions or comments councilwoman guardado followed by the vice mayor thank you mayor so i have some comments um and then i also and then i also have some questions um so i'll start with my comments um i just wanted to say um that i'm very frustrated by how this item came to us i remember my first few months on console it was a little bit over two years ago we were told about the need to repair and replace hundreds of our city fire hydrants i joined other council members and asking that our water services department worked quickly to ensure this could be done by the city of phoenix employees as opposed to outsourcing the work to a private contractor this was important to ensure the quality of the work performed and that the that the men and women doing the work were part of our city of phoenix workforce with as you guys know very important to many of us on the council with good pay union representation affordable family health care a pension and respect on the job and this did not happen so i would like to ask some questions of those who are bringing the item to us today um so is karen there [Music] yes i am councilwoman thank you two years ago we were told by the water services department that there was that there was a training skills issue related to city employees working on this project my question is what efforts were taken by the department two years ago we're talking two years ago to upskill and training our current employees to get this project done thank you councilwoman uh we have assistant director brandi kelso with us this afternoon and i would turn to her to address that question thank you mayor and members of the council we have been working diligently to train our employees on the repair and replacement of fire hydrants one thing that we have done is we've been having manufacturers of the hydrants come in and do on-site training trip you know ticks trips tricks and tips on how to do it efficiently and so we've been having those brown bags and and bringing staff up to speed on on training related to both repairs and replacement so how many people did you guys train because then if we had trained enough people we wouldn't be outsourcing at this point so how many people um how many people did you need then how many people do you need now and why didn't we train enough mayor and members of the council we have three areas in this division leaks and brakes valves and then the hydrant program the hydrant program has about 24 positions associated with it and they do all the pieces both the pms the repairs and the replacement so about 24 though there is some vacant seeds that run from year to year um depending on staffing levels at any given time if i could councilwoman if i could just add i think that over the last couple of years one of the things that we have accomplished is a study to understand how much of this work we can continue to do in-house and as a result of that work we have significantly shifted the contract request so that existing staff will continue to handle all repairs this this contract is strictly to address a backlog of replacement once the backlog is cleared we do have sufficient staff sufficient well-trained staff to handle repairs and replacements as they happen now i i understand that and i think karen that's what you told me two years ago and i and i think that at least i was very clear that i didn't want to see all of all of this work outsourced um and i think that we could have done a much better job um in making sure that that didn't that that didn't happen i guess that's where my frustration is still at that we're still looking at outsourcing as an option where we should not be looking at that as an option and if this is a critical job then i i would have appreciated um been given a heads up a year ago and saying you know what this item is going to come back to you so that was my first question then my next question is what efforts were taken to advertise recruit hire and train new city employees to repair and replace those fire hydrants or moving people people up right how many people were we able to upscale and how many people are moving on to better positions mayor and member of the council we've actually been working over the past year or so to streamline our utility tech hiring program we've done a lot of things to have continually open recruitments moving people through the process and we've been working with unit two leadership to further streamline that i don't have the exact numbers of how many new hires we've had in the past year in the utility tech program but i i'll get that for you and send it to you we do have a significant amount of vacancies in that in that area we lose one to two employees per pay period most of them are being promoted within the city and very few are actually leaving the city so then are you saying then that you guys are having an issue then hiring folks for these positions that is correct um it is a very competitive market right now and so for example uh six to eight months ago we were getting about 200 applicants through the utility tech advertisements for recruitment and i think this last time we only had about 50 applicants okay and then my next question is of our current city employees in the water services department how many of them have been working and repairing these fire hydrants mayor and council members as i mentioned earlier i think there's about 24 people in the fire hydrant program and are there any folks that are in the middle of being trained for this yes we have um i think six to ten trainees in the program and they go through all aspects of the division both the leaks and brakes and valves and hydrants so that they can do the full range of duties and when did the water services department leadership know that the repairing and replacement of city hydrants had reached a critical stage of mayor councilwoman guardado we have been working to address this issue for several years as you know the issue the approach that we're recommending now is the result of a lot of hard work to identify the fastest and most efficient way to do it i think that we all recognize that the number of hydrants throughout the community that are not functional is a significant public safety concern and we have known that and been working toward a solution now for at least two years that i'm aware and when was a decision made to shift from city employees repairing and replacing hydrants to the desire to outsource the work to a private contractor mayor councilwoman guard otto in fact in prior years before we had spent down the contract authority we were contracting out some of this work it was only after the spending authority was exhausted that we we turned to identifying another solution so we have been contracting out some of this work for many years but the approach we're recommending now is to contract out only the replacement of the backlog and once that backlog is eliminated we'd not need to further contract out okay thank you for that so i want to make sure that i that i'm very clear today i do not take it lightly when i am asked to vote on an item when the city department's leadership did not do the work we asked them to do the residents i represent in my district tell me time and time again about the need to create good jobs in our city i do not appreciate being backed in a corner as to vote between good jobs or functioning infrastructure and i understand the importance of keeping our our city safe i am gonna be voting yes on on this item um but i guess i did have another um question for jeff yes ma'am um jeff would it would it be possible um given that these are critical jobs and given that this is about keeping our constituents safe and it's about the safety of the whole city and making sure that we that multiple departments are able to do their jobs and when people lives are on the line is there a way that we can offer and then a hiring incentive for these folks i'm given that this is something that we really need to do just the same way that we we're doing for other critical positions mayor members of the council councilwoman guardado that is an excellent question and as you know a few weeks ago you did approve the incentive the retention bonuses and so that money could theoretically be used for this group since again you mentioned this is a critical function and we are having significant amount of turnover here so this is something that could be evaluated between the department and hr and it would avail itself to that potential one thing i also want to emphasize to you based on your line of questioning and my discussion with the department as well as the both unions that are concerned with this issue you have my commitment that this contract is one year the backlog will be exhausted and if it's not exhausted then someone's going to have to answer to me as to why it's not exhausted as well as going forward based on what's been demonstrated to me the staff that water has allocated to this program is sufficient to maintain the existing work once it's caught up so this work does belong to unit two moving forward well thank you thank you so much for that jeff and yes under your leadership i i believe um that this is going to get done and that is one of the big reasons why i will be voting yes on this um thank you jeff thank you mayor thank you vice mayor thank you mayor and uh thank you councilwoman guardallo for those uh line of questioning i was going to ask a lot of the same things um i want to thank council and pastor and the units for getting together and figuring this out and for the labor representatives to be here today and understanding and being gracious and knowing that public safety is important and that these hydrogens functioning are important even though it might cost some of their folks literally cost them their jobs or their funds i'll be supporting this item since you know it's been brought to our attention and as we've discussed here um moving forward this could be a safety issue for our employees and our residents um however i want to be clear similar to councilman guardalo um that while maybe historically this council has decided to outsource and at times decimate as we see here public services and goods um for the prevalence of privatizing them um i do not believe that that's what's best for our city i fully believe that our city employees are capable of doing these jobs and i look forward to the compensation studies um to what he was spoken of earlier to see how we can raise these employee wages and provide more competitive wages as an employer to feel these uh vacancies in the water department again i think it's really important that we make sure that this doesn't happen again um to think that it got to this point and we are trying to be bailed out by um trying to contract it out now i'm glad that we're able to do that and making that decision now but i really hope that we don't put ourselves in a similar position um and grateful for the the comment and statement you just made jeff and and uh we'll be voting yes on this we'll would hope we don't have to do this again thank you mayor just a good question of staff wonderful we'll go to councilman decisio and then councilwoman pastor do you think you just can somewhere just uh re-read the motion again motion to approve item 61 stipulating the term of each master agreement is for up to one year to substantial completion or up to 3.4 million whichever occurs first thank you for that that's all i have thank you we'll go to councilwoman pastor and then councilwoman ansari thank you um you had mentioned this study uh when did you receive that study or when was that study done mayor and members of the council i recently completed this study i was new to this role as an assistant director i was an assistant director at the water department another role and so i just completed that study about a month to two months ago okay so it's fairly new and the study in the and due to the study or because of the study then there was uh rearranging not necessarily positions but on how i don't even know how to say it uh rearranging of duties i guess or how they were went out in the pipeline i guess is that correct or am i wrong the the analysis was actually how many outstanding items did we have and how quickly we thought staff could get it done and what we determined is for repairs our existing staff is able to get that done within a year's time however due to the backlog of the replacement it would take staff several years to do that which the department along with the fire department felt was unreasonable time and so that's when we decided to move forward with a contract to help us get it within that one year's time frame okay thank you because i appreciate you and your new role of doing the study in order to get us back in track however the backlog has been in existence i believe since 2016 and is just year after year after year has then compounded and we are here today um and as some of my colleagues have stated two years ago i think it's even three um have been at this point and we're very direct all of us were very direct on how we wanted to move forward in hiring and moving that backlog forward or move it along and and get rid of it and be able to put not only our constituents uh or our constituents safe but really our first responders and our firefighters to be safe than to be able to get water and get it to where it's needed and save many lives um now we're at in the critical state of this backlog and we now have a plan so thank you for the plan um but we didn't hire and i think that's the issue to be able then to move on this backlog my understanding and i think it's great that we have the apprentice program but knowing the prince program will work or these utility and tech programs then maybe we need to encourage for more people to get into the program so that then we have uh them available for this situation my understanding is that uh with the thousand hydrants that we will work through in the next year of the backlog it will take a year to do that and that's unfortunate in itself and because safety is at risk what i also heard um was that we had 50 applicants out of those 50 applicants how many of them went into those positions mayor and councilman pastor i'm not exactly sure because some of them are probably still in the process it takes anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks because they need a cdl permit and that can take anywhere from three to five weeks for the employee to get that before they can start but i'm happy to work with our hr professionals to provide some data to you on that and and where we stand yeah i think it would be important to provide it to uh all the council because we do only have 24 and obviously we need more than 24 to do the work or the backlog i am wanting to know the 24 that we currently have how many do we need once the backlog is done to maintain and continue at the level that we need to continue because that's going to be critical mayor and council woman pastor that was part of the analysis that i completed and i looked at how many repairs and replacements were identified in the past year and based on the current staffing level we are able to maintain and keep up with the repairs and replacements expected moving into the future okay that brings me to how many hydrants do we have total 57 000 so 24 people will be able to maintain 7 000 hydrants 57 000 yes 57 000 so they'll be able to maintain 50 20 okay let me get this math right 57 000 and 24 people will be able to maintain however what i have just heard and what i know is there's a thousand hydrants that are on backlog and you're telling me 57 000 we have currently 57 000 hydrants and 24 employees can maintain that so why can't our city employees be able to do the backlog marin and councilwoman pastor it's three portions so the the portion where we pm the hydrants and we purdue preventative maintenance on it um that's a one person um job and they can accomplish about a thousand a week or so i don't have the exact number in front of me and so as we've seen over the last few years as we're maintaining them the backlog in both repairs and replacement is coming down as far as as how many crews it takes to repair it's a two-person crew and they're able to complete and keep up with the current backlog it's really the replacement that it's a three-person crew and they're only able to get about five hybrid hydrants done a week last year we had about 92 additional hydrants that were identified and given the staff that's assigned to that they're able to keep up with that rate okay i'm interested in your report and your analysis because if i did it correctly i think it was 57 that's 2 375 hydrants per employee for if they're maintaining checking and everything else and so you're saying and what i'm hearing is that out of those 57 the thousand that are not on unoperable then takes an employee longer to fix that hydrant yes that's correct the replacement takes quite a bit of time and effort it's more of a true construction as opposed to the pm is more of a a 10-minute job where replacing can take the whole day okay so is it possible then to build a replacement crew since it takes an employee longer a replacement crew that then uh we're not in this situation so that then uh we have a replacement crew always constantly fixing other than the 24 because i'm here in the 24 uh are right now just maintaining they're not fixing they're maintaining they're checking um mayor and councilwoman pastor let me clarify the 24 is the whole program there's about 12 they're actually doing the preventative maintenance and the other 12 are split between the repairs and the replacement we have about two crews dedicated to the replacement but they're also the crews that help with our valve replacement because it's similar type of work okay thank you i would like to in the future have a plan on how we are going to i want to see a plan on how we are going to maintain i do believe we need more than 24. um or else we will always be in this situation and 12 and 12 12 and 12 is not cutting it it's not working um and i appreciate the fact i really do appreciate the fact and with fire that we need to uh get our hydrants up to standard and move ahead but in the in the process of doing that like i was told two or three years ago we were gonna solve this problem uh but we're not now we're at uh definitely in a crisis or a critical mass of of making this happen and i don't want to put anybody's life at jeopardy thank you councilwoman and sorry thank you mayor um most of my questions have already been asked at this point i'll just add that um i'll also be supporting councilwoman pastor's amendment to this item since i'm still relatively new to the council i was unaware of the history that councilwoman guardado outlined in regard to the fire hydrant issue so i just want to sincerely thank mario and the afscme team for their diligence in reaching out bringing their concerns and helping to understand the history of how we got here um agree with my colleagues that moving forward i hope that this is the last time we're faced with a situation like this where we're having to choose between good paying jobs and public safety i hope we'll do everything we can to proactively monitor projects to make sure that we keep good paying jobs in-house and um also very much look forward to seeing if it will be possible um to use some of these hiring or retention incentives for these workers as well thank you thank you any further comments or questions roll call i'm sorry yes decisio yes yes o'brien yes a store yes garcia yes diego passes 9-0 we next move to item 67 the police records management system requirements contract here's one that comes to us every few years uh vice mayor do we have a motion uh motion to approve item 67 second questions or comments roll call i'm sorry oh all right i can explain i'm sorry what did councilman said to cco say sorry mayor i can just do it through the at the vote that's fine okay i'm sorry yes to cecil uh mayor i'm gonna be voting no uh the city several years back i think 2015 or 16 i can't remember you're a little older so i have a hard time with dates but we voted for about a 30 million dollar contract for the same thing after many of us raised a lot of concern a lot of questions staff came back and insisted on moving forward when a lot of us had a lot of questions and even the lying officers that were needing it using it had concerns about it as well the then it turned out within the next year two years it didn't work so literally 30 million dollars went down the drain and i just don't think adding another eight and a half million to something where the taxpayers are now liable for that error i don't think they should have been liable for that air quite frankly i think the people that made the decision to push this thing forward should have been financially liable themselves rather than sticking this to the taxpayers so i'm going to be voting no on this i appreciate the police concern on it but i'm not going to be responsible for their waste on this thank you mayor yes o'brien yeah that's door stark yes wearing uh uh man mayor i'd like to explain our vote real quick um so makes excellent points this has been a fiasco from the start i do think it was under the uh one of the previous chiefs and uh well i agree with everything he said i also think you know we've got something that's not operable that has to be fixed but um when i hit my meetings about this with the department um now that that is an acceptable level of performance the amount that we paid for that product after being assured uh that it was supposed to be rock solid so i'm gonna vote yes but we need to do better garcia yes there you go passes eight one we next move to item 87 which is the final plot at the southwest corner of 19th avenue and thomas in councilwoman ansari's district councilwoman do you have a motion move to approve item 87. second we have a motion and a second we do have a member of the public to comment marc rodriguez the floor is yours hello mayor kate gallego and everybody has a phoenixview account so it's good to hear from you again how are you all doing today we're doing great mark that was great mayor kate gallego because you're the awesome mayor and i'm wondering that 16 i mean 19 avenue and thomas that i go to was the metro tech high school that i go to back when i was in 2010 to 2013 when i graduated over there even though i go to that encanto park and to that shenzhen island amusement park because i like to do sand art and all that stuff and right on the train and all that stuff because it's kind of having fun going to the park and also and also that having great times over there and of course it's christmas because and the holidays are here because i want to give you guys a shout out to yasmin asari carlos garcia betty wangado laura pastor i saw you at the mcdonald's and i want to give a shout out to maria true as well deborah stark ann o'brien jim waring the cco you're not my type stop the cecio still not a fan of you dude respect you dude and all that stuff it's because i respect your team i respect your everything and bear cake gallegos i hope you got your thank you card because i called your office because i hope you got it and then jeff barton i hope you get your holiday card because i sent it to you on monday because i'm just being grateful for you so i can met you at the manager since september of 2011 is because ever since you gave me the city certificate it's because i like talking to you guys and i want to see you in 2022 it's because i love talking to you guys in the city council meeting and this is the final formal meeting of 2021 and also i want to say thank you for everything thank you for me and i was talk to you guys in january back in january 2021 is because i would love to see you guys again and then also that would be for me today have a wonderful day happy holidays merry christmas happy quanta happy hanukkah and happy new year have a great day bye thank you mark roll call i'm sorry yes the cco yes yes o'brien yeah pastor yes stark yes swearing yes garcia gary yes thank you yes yes passes 9-0 [Music] thank you that is our final agendaized item of today we next move to resident comments and i will turn to our city attorney's office to introduce this portion of the meeting thank you mayor during citizen comment members of the public may address the city council for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern to them the arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments but prohibits city mem council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented thank you thank you today we will begin with ann ender followed by faith currents good afternoon thank you mayor gallego um vice mayor garcia and council members this is annender operation blue ribbon today i believe i speak for a large part of the 1.7 million citizens in phoenix that are in support of our phoenix police department for the past two years our public safety has been jeopardized as some members of this council have targeted phoenix pd under the guise of transparency what i've heard publicly has been chief williams accepting responsibility for any failures within the department furthermore she's welcomed accountability and transparency coupled with unwavering efforts for improvements conversely vice mayor garcia has used his position on this council to tear down this police department all the while ignoring the needs of his constituents and the excessive crime in his district it's disappointing that mayor that you've allowed this behavior and degradation to occur what when meetings lacked any decorum with vile comments being spewed at our officers it was with the it was the efforts of the people to put an end to it and the result we the residents of this city are fighting for our right everyone's right to public safety as i've stated before many neighborhood leaders and myself contribute well over 40 hours per week unpaid to support our phoenix pd and ensure public safety again for all citizens in phoenix and here we are today a city coming together to hope and pray for a miracle for a 22 year old man new police department as he fights for his life after a most heinous ambush please ask yourself and consider if over the past two years the council collectively sought solutions for hiring sworn personnel retaining the current force or even identifying tools for efficiencies would we be here and again ask yourself if we'd be here today praying for that miracle for his for the officer for his family in the phoenix police department so if we do nothing else let us come together to honor officer muldeven by providing support to the phoenix police department and ensuring public safety for all thank you faith kearns is next followed by frank urban can you hear me yes we can my name is faith kearns i'm a longtime citizen of phoenix here and i am calling because i'd like to discuss the elizabeth preventable petition for the homeless and i myself have had the police trashed my stuff literally in front of me and i've heard of others and have seen it been done to other people i'd like to ask for the police to be a little bit more respectful on how they deal with the homeless and the cleaning phases thank you very much i get my time thank you and city manager i believe you had a letter on this item mayor that is correct thank you uh we next go to frank urban followed by elizabeth venable hi my name is frank urban i'm a a long fairly long time with uh president of phoenix here um i would like to speak on elizabeth venables petition i myself like faith currents have had the police trash my stuff while i was homeless numerous times and sometimes right in front of me other times when i've walked away to talk to a friend or something like that i think the police should be a lot a lot more respectful to him to homeless and not give them a time limit on how long they get to how long they get to move their stuff because some of these people are elderly some have mental disabilities some have physical disabilities okay that's it thank you our final speaker today will be elizabeth venable okay so i'm speaking on behalf of my petition my sister petition um i had previously submitted a citizen petition they said it wasn't actionable essentially so i made my petition more actionable essentially i'm asking you to suspend and reconfigure the uh cleanups around cast and throughout the city until you are able to not trash the belongings of people living on the streets continually i have talked to over a hundred people to whom this has happened we have another person in the room to whom this has happened i'm not going to say your name whatever but um it's and we've had other people come and speak um to the city council alicia and um michael joseph garcia both had their uh possessions thrown away in violation of the fourth amendment and all four of these people have had uh that have spoken in front of the city council had this happen basically in front of their faces and this is a continual thing that you're going to need to address or i keep re-emphasizing you're going to face liability if you do not address these issues so please decide if you are going to reconfigure the cleanup so that they observe the basic fourth amendment rights and don't take these justifications for police about whether somebody whether everybody abandons and relinquishes their property when it's trashed in front of their faces and that's all i would say thank you so much that inc concludes public comment for today's meeting we are adjourned need to support their families each year tax volunteers help more than 3 million people file their taxes which brings almost 4 billion dollars to taxpayers across the country every volunteer tax preparer plays an important role on average each tax volunteer helps file about 40 returns bringing an incredible 45 000 back to the local community