evening welcome to Mesa city council meeting for December 11 2023 uh mayor Giles is participating via zoom and all council members are present I think I see mayor Giles on on the line can you hear us yes okay um we'll begin with uh the meeting with a pre-recorded invocation uh from Pastor Jose Luis Amaya of Iglesia Theo L betel Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance everybody can you please stand do we have the recording good afternoon everyone and thank you for making me a part of this special activity and I'm thanking everyone of the members of the councils and then all of them to be every day bless and prosp in every aspect of your life thank our mayor Giles for this invitation to do the invocation let's do it father we thank you for this special day when everybody get together also with the community with all the members of the council and our Mayo John Giles and we asking you Lord to give him in this special time the strength the wisdom to work together in all the the details for the different situations in our community we thank you Lord for their families and we asking you to bless him and keep him safe we asking you Lord in the name of Jesus Christ and you bless his is upon every one for which it stands than one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right uh next item is our consent agenda Mr Christopher would you please read the consent agenda I think we have a 6B off the consent agenda good evening mayor 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 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 of minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A act on liquor license application for St Bridget Roman Catholic parish Monday event February 10th 2213 North Lindsay Road item 3B act on liquor license application for Fairway Market 340 West Brown Road item 3 C act on liquor license application for meno 805 north doson Road item 3D act on liquor license application for First Watch 1859 South Stapley Drive item 4 a approving three-year term contract with 2 years renewal options for barricade rental service for special events for various City departments item 4B approving contract to purchase upgrade 1 MD helicopter for the Mesa Police Department this purchase is funded by Public Safety sales tax life cycle funds and the department operating budget item 4 C approving three-year term contract with two years of renewal options for sports field commodities for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4D approving cooperating contract use for the purchase of three heavy duty trailers for The Water Resources Department item 5A approving resolution adopting the updated city of Mesa Emergency Operations plan and consistent with FEMA recommendations authorizing City departments to make non-material modifications to the plan item 5B approving resolution enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the state of Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to be a party to the Arizona Mutual Aid compact to receive and provide emergency assistance item 5c approving a resolution to execute a waiver of adot's four-year notice provision for RightWay abandonment is allowed by by state law this will allow ADOT to proceed with a mement and transfer to the city of previously identified traffic interchanges along US 60 between Dobson Road and Ellsworth Road item 5D approving a resolution to enter into a lease agreement with Mesa United Way on behalf of foster 360 for portion of city- owned property at 432 West Pepper Place item 5e approving a resolution to enter into a development agreement with signal be industrial and Mortenson development related to reimbursement for the cost and expenses of Performing roadway striping work on Signal be Road south of Guadalupe Road and North of Elliott Road item 5f approving resolution for zoning case 23139 for property located west of Greenfield Road on the north side of University Drive a sight plan review and Council use permit to allow for a mini storage facility restaurant the drive-thru and a multi-tenant building with a drive-through facility item 5G approving resolution for zoning case 23- 416 for property generally located south of Southern Avenue and east of Power Road Council use permit to allow for development of a private school item six a approving ordinance amending table 1 and Title 5 chapter 17 of the mesa city code entitled Mesa development impact fees by removing the fire impact fee from the table to confirm the discontinuation of the fee item 6B has been removed from the consent agenda and item 7A approving subdivision plant Lemon Lane for property generally located north of Brown Road and East of valvis to drive mayor vice mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all right Miss Mosley any other blue cards we have no requests all right I see a motion by council member Summers and second by council member Freeman um please cast your votes mayor Giles how do you vote I vote I all right motion passes unanimously so thank you um we'll add uh we have a blue card for item uh 6B we have uh uh Mr Earl Taylor Jr you have three minutes state your name and your address please good evening Mr vice mayor and members of the council My Name is Earl Taylor I live in District 2 at 462 North 39th way I'm in opposition to the proposed ordinance to raise Council salaries and to incorporate automatic pay increases so that the uncomfortable a issue of raising your own salaries never has to come up again I fear that the type of Citizen legislature envisioned by the founders of both our nation and our state is evolving into an occupation rather than a mission to serve there's always those who would turn our offices of public trust into a job an occupation if you will a a place of profit with retirement benefits Health Care Etc it becomes a job to them a career in politics if you will one of the first signals of this trend is to see proposals come to raise salar so that a person can live off of his or her income the argument is usually that it opens up possibilities for more people to get involved in politics personally I want someone who has been through the fire of life so to speak I want someone who doesn't have to depend on his or her salary from the city to live I want someone who can truly be independent of the special interest forces so prevalent in our society today I would like to point out that every time you as a council votes to raise spending whether it be for more City programs or for your own salary increases it increases the tax burden on citizens of Mesa families are suffering already from forces beyond their control the last thing we need is more taxes Mesa already has the high the second highest salary for mayor and City Council of all the cities in the state of Arizona Studies have also shown that the states with the highest public servant salaries also have the highest taxes of all the states in the United States that correlation is amazing for the sake of mesa's citizens let's not follow that Trend I do not come here merely to complain or object to something I have a suggestion I know that you as members of the city council are stretched sometimes to the limit in what is expected of you rather than asking the citizens to pay you more so you can do more let's think of ways in which your workload can actually be reduced let's think of reducing the functions of city government to its proper role role of protecting equal rights providing essential services that we all want and leaving the rest to free markets but that's a topic for later discussion I've asked that this item be removed from the consent agenda so we can all see how each of you feel on this issue urge you to vote no on the proposed ordinance thank you very much thank you Mr Taylor any questions comments from Council is there a motion or is there a motion any comments questions Council bburg I'll just go ahead and make a comment um I thank you Mr Taylor um we had a good discussion last week and I appreciated you coming to speak to me and talk to me um I I think I've told a lot of people I thought this was a volunteer position because I was going to run for um School Board which was a volunteer position so I was shocked talked that we made money and then when I started to do the job I thought I can't believe I was going to do this for free because it is so much work um and requires so much effort in so many hours um if you're going to do the job right which I I try to take this seriously and do the job right so I attend a lot of things and it requires a lot of work and um and I know you address this in your comment but I do think that um that if we if we don't have a a uh sufficient salary that it does limit the people who can do this position and I think there's a lot of voices that aren't heard on this Council because they don't have the ability to do the supplemental to whatever job they're doing to support their family so um for for that reason I'm in support of of what we're doing our city is huge each one of us each of our districts is about 85,000 people which is the size of Flagstaff or or bigger than Flagstaff and so um I think it is um it's a it's a good fair amount for what we're doing in in our job every week so those are my comments any other com I can make a motion unless there's any is there a motion right a motion by vice mayor this is Mayor Giles I have a comment go ahead mayor thank you uh I just think it's important that we we point out that the this item is prospective for future councils I think you know state law prohibits from raising our own salaries so again this is uh seeking to uh really just to keep salaries current the former policy resulted in in in salaries falling behind and many years going without an adjustment this new policy just ties it to inflation uh we've seen other cities U have to make very large increases the Tucson most recently just more than doubled their salaries because it had been many years since an increase had taken place and and that's you know just clearly not a model that we want to emulate so the uh the ordinance that's before us just locks in Council salaries at this current level and adjust them for either the less of uh the smaller number depending on whether the the city employees are getting raises or whether or not there's been an inflation so it's not it's really directed to look at it as an increase rather than just locking in these salaries and allowing for inflation adjustments so I I support the ordance all right any other comments all right um there's a motion from council member spilsbury seconded by myself um we vote mayor how do you vote I vote I all right motion passes unanimously thank you everybody next item is uh items from citizens present we have one blue card uh Miss Mosley do we have other blue cards all right we have one blue card uh Cheryl Ross [Music] Ross will you state your name and your address please before any of that I'm really nervous and I'm recognizing you're just people too my name is Cheryl Ross I'm from District 3 your district and hello and thank you for the opportunity to speak I am here today with questions as I mentioned I live in District 3 across the street street from Sloan Park where you were last night it was awesome anyway I am here because I have questions about the noise in my neighborhood created by airport operations originating from Sky Harbor I am not able to quietly enjoy my property due to the volume and frequency of all the noise overhead I've called C I've called your office I've called city council and I've called mayor Giles I've spoke at the council meetings before and he said he would have someone from his staff call me back eventually Scott Butler called me and told me that the city of Mesa has quote no standing and I'm hoping someone can help me understand how the city of Temp and the City of Scottdale have standing but Mesa does not specifically given the fact that the City of Phoenix has segregated the airspace between cities creating separate class classes uh with one gaining quiet Skies while the other has gained all the burden of Phoenix moving the end of the runway to Mesa airspace specifically in what my opinion is highly prejudicial and discriminatory are the residents of the City of Phoenix and the City of Tempe greater than or better than me in Mesa why were all the flight paths developed to strip any abandonment or abatement for Mesa residents with 100% of jet operations coasting up to Mesa airspace and then gunning it and doubling altitude and speed in a very short window I have conveyed my concerns to the City of Phoenix via their app which provides confirmation email messages however the city is not reporting any of my complaints cuz I know myself and neighbors have made them and they're not showing up in the monthly reports so I just need someone to help me understand how I can have a better quality of life when Sky Harbor has all of their planes over my house I thank you so much I'm so proud of myself thank you thank you M Ross uh and unfortunately we can't respond to comments but uh we'll have conversations afterwards so appreciate it all right uh this concludes our our meeting uh is there a motion to adjourn council member Summers second by Council memb skur uh all in favor say I I we are adjourned I all right thank you [Music] mayor