e good afternoon welcome to the April 9th policy session of the Phoenix City Council we'll call the meeting to order and we'll begin with roll call will the clerk call the role councilwoman wado here councilwoman Hajj Washington here councilwoman O'Brien councilwoman Pastor councilman Robinson here councilman wearing vice mayor Stark here mayor Gayo here thank you so much for joining us today we'll begin with Council information and followup requests begin with the vice mayor and then we'll go to councilwoman HUD Washington thank you mayor and this will be very short but I want to pay uh tribute to lovey Borstein she was um the found found ER of Chompies along with her husband and she passed away a couple days ago I will tell you I've spoken to many of people that have grown up in District 3 remember the original Chompies as a matter of fact I think one of your staffers actually went to Shadow Mountain he talked about how they would skip lunch skip school so they could go to Chompies and get a cookie from lovely so I I think it she's just a wonderful woman sorry that she passed away but as we all know Chompies is an institution in the city of Phoenix and so um it's with great honor that I can say I knew her and um I will continue of course to go to Chompies thank you mayor thank you so much February 14th 2022 was chompy's 43rd anniversary and Borstein family Appreciation Day in the city of Phoenix has been wonderful to hear from so many folks who were impacted by lovey we'll go next to councilwoman hod Washington and councilwoman gado thank you mayor since our last policy meeting I've been on the move around District 8 and I just want to highlight a few of the things that I've been working on next slide it was an honor to commemorate a legend in District 8 with the unveiling of a ceremonial sign for Vernell Meers Coleman at 7th Avenue in Buckeye Road as a community advocate for more than 40 years she worked to improve the lives of people living in poverty in Phoenix she is remembered for Reviving the celebration of juneth in Phoenix instrumental in helping to organize St M Mary's Food Bank and so much more also I served as a judge for the future star stem competition held at the sou Mountain Community College in my district the event is for middle and high school students it was DED designed to provide an opportunity for them to explore codin through physical Computing they created and designed a stem solution and presented their project to the community it was an impressive Gathering of students also as part of the final four events one of the most established neighborhoods with a rich history look took Center Court as the NCAA dedicated their legacy project at East Lake Park and Community Center later in the week I took a private tour with NCAA president Charlie Baker of the East Lake Community Center and it was so nice to showcase the gem in our community next slide please believe it or not the NCAA was not the only game in town I was excited to celebrate opening day with the Phoenix Mercury in the historic Warehouse District the Suns and the Mercury are an important part of our community and opening a new team member campus not too far from the arena will bring new energy and contribute to the revitalization of the warehouse District in Phoenix from collaboration spaces to pickle ball the space has it all and I'm so thrilled that is in District 8 this weekend Miss juneth Arizona Sasha revon invited me to be a panelist at the teen engaged conference 2024 this impressive group of young gathered together early on a Saturday morning to work towards their goal of inspiring the next generation of the civically engaged I also attended three Community budget hearing a CommunityWide hearing the CommunityWide bilingual hearing and the hearing held in my district I learned a lot from our community and look forward to working on a budget that meets the needs as best as we can next slide on Saturday April 6 I also co-hosted an event with Zion Institute for a free community event with free books entertainment resources creative workshops and much more it was a f fun event with empowering Arizona transformative Justice Zion Institute and the Phoenix metropolitan alumia chapter finally I attended the LaVine and South Mountain Community picnic at Ashley's backyard charity toar along with the LaVine Community Council South Mountain and LaVine Chamber of Commerce and arm Mario CA sorry arm Mario Ranch did an excellent job of hosting an event that has the perfect balance of unity resources and fun next slide please my staff and I are looking forward to the upcoming events we'll be participating in for the remainder of this month and next month on April 20th at 9:30 at the marville STA Precinct coffee with the cop will be at El cafesito located at 7540 West Indian School Road we're also going to celebrate Spring's arrival with friends and neighbors and support local businesses at the fiesta on Central Avenue join us for food fun music and much more on Saturday April 20th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the northeast corner of Central and Baseline Road in Phoenix and on May 4th we ask you to join us for party and Pierce at 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Pierce Park next slide please as always do not hesitate to reach out if you need help with any City resources or notice an issue in your neighborhood thank you mayor thank you we'll go next to Council guado and then councilwoman pestor thank you mayor budget hearings your voice matters it's time to make it heard at the upcoming Anderson budget hearings learn about the city manager's trial budget and share your thoughts and opinions the city budget funds everything from Parks and streets maintenance to Water Services police and the fire department the ccil district hearing will be tomorrow Wednesday April 10th at 6: p.m at the marville community center 44:20 North 51st Avenue in the multi-purpose room the Spanish language Hearing in cooperation with Council District 4 will be Tuesday April 16th at 6 pm. also at the marville community center multi-purpose room The District 5 marville jobs and resource fair if you or someone you know are looking for new career or resources please join us for for an annual Marval jobs and resource fair to be held this Saturday April 13th at the Marval Community Center from 10: a.m. to 2 p.m in partnership with Parks and Rec Department we invite the local elementary school districts labor and City of Phoenix apprenticeships City departments and Community Partners to offer jobs information and resources to our residents in addition to great information for job Seekers we provide a fun family atmosphere with fun activities for kids and music so definitely bring the family there will also be free health screenings and food trucks available District 5 will also be hosting two exciting Park activation events on Saturday April 20th the first will be at Washington Park for a community cleanup starting at 9:00 a.m. and ending at 10:30 after the cleanup we will be moving over near the doc park for a family fun event from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 we will be meeting in the grassy Park area just north of the dark Park we will have food truck music a bounce house and so much more please come and join us the second event is on Saturday the 20th will be the spring festival at eloo Park bring your kids participate in games with a raffle priz enjoy music educational information resources free haircuts at the Spring Festival in partnership with the esta super moms thank you mayor thank you councilwoman Pastor thank you mayor if you look at this picture uh This Is Me with Cesar Chavez in 1992 um as I was at uh ASU in the uh president of metcha and I found happened to find the the picture someone sent it to me so incredible uh great haird days um but uh CIP weather as I'm still in the fight next slide CVS uh invested more than three million to support health organizations in Phoenix uh CVS will provide free screenings to detect early risks of diabetes hypertension and heart disease starting this month so if you see the code or you can get the code scan it and you can get an appointment tomorrow will be next slide tomorrow will be my coffee chat at luana's uh police and neighborhood services will be there so looking forward to seeing you next slide our third annual 5K with the America uh African-American reconstruction group was a huge success we raised over $1,000 for scholarship fund and support some of the local black vendors next slide a well- earned congratulations to the public works department they were recognized at the 42nd annual environmental Excellence award the food waste program diverted over 67,000 P tons pounds of waste to the Landfield next Slide the city city of Phoenix launched the new uh suad the Phoenix Facebook page to connect with Spanish speaking residents this page offers information about city services local events and important news and more councilwoman wado and I next slide will be at the Joint District Four and District 5 budget hearing next Tuesday at the Maryville Community Center the hearing will be held in Spanish English translation will be available next slide uh oh there oh sorry uh join us this Saturday at steel Indian School park for a free family friendly neighborhood concert uh thank you to the Carnation Association of neighborhoods for hosting next slide Chief by Arizona is hosting an Earth Day Festival at stho Park next Saturday and if you have any questions you can always contact my office I also want to recognize uh Monica VI Loos and congratul her in her marriage this past weekend so thank you thank you I wanted to start with a quick thank you to those involved in producing the Phoenix history video City series a group of dedicated residents contributed their time and effort to Chronicle the history of our great city thank you to council member Jacob Butler of the Salt River Pima americop and Indian Community Jared riddle Regina best Andrea Barrera Mark tobo Anthony Prater II our city staff and our mayor's office historian Steve Schumacher it's been a big news week for the City of Phoenix and the State of Arizona yesterday President Biden announced $6.6 billion dollar in chips act funding for tsmc in District 1 in Phoenix they also announced their intentions to build a new Fab facility a third one to make the world's most advanced microchips 2 nanometer so small it's hard to describe it's extremely impactful and will mean great jobs and prosperity for for families for generations to come we think it is the largest foreign direct investment in a green field project in the United States history at 65 billion dollars want to congratulate Sky Harbor airport on winning a employer of the year the employer of the Year award from women in transportation um some tougher news today this morning the state supreme court took us back in time by 160 years when they upheld the 1864 territorial abortion ban this is devastating to so many families Phoenix is a pro-choice City We Believe women should be able to make their own health care decisions they should be able to decide when and if they start a family when row was overturned this Council voted to work with our police chief to deprioritize any calls related to AB abortion law violations that policy still applies while this ruling is dark we can't use hope and we call upon our lawmakers to defend women's most basic rights any additional updates before we move on right item number one is the expenditure limit task force I want to thank our task force chairwoman Monica VI aobos Rachel aha Todd Sanders Brian Willingham and the late Robin Reed this is not the first time many of you have served our community even in this capacity and I want to thank you for your service so I want to take a moment to honor Robin Reed the CEO of the Black Chamber of Arizona and a good friend to so many across our community Robin went above and beyond whether in business education or just being a friend he was a champion for Phoenix in our region he saw the hope and promise in our city and we will all work to carry out on Robin's Legacy of service to others in community we are so sorry to have lost him we'll next turn to our budget and research director Amber Williamson to introduce this important topic thank you mayor members of the council and residents I am pleased to be here today with our city uh expenditure limit task force chairwoman Monica VI aobos Deputy budget research director Aon Merz they'll be helping me to present this this item today so Council the state expenditure limitation item is a constitutional amendment that was approved by the voters of Arizona in 1980 it restricts spending for cities and towns to levels based in 1979 80 adjusted only for two factors population and inflation we receive the population factors straight from the state demographers office and the inflation factors are provided to us from the Arizona Department of Revenue they rely on the national economic Bureau of analysis through the United States gross domestic product implicit price deflator those factors are what's used to calculate our annual spending limit as you know Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country we've grown considerably since 1980 we're a regional leader it's for these reasons we're not able to meet that strict formulaic limit City of Phoenix expenditure growth across all City departments and funds exceeds those population and inflation factors in order for the city to comply we would have to reduce our annual expenditures across all City departments and funds by an estimated $2 billion this represents about 30% of the total City operating budget if the city does not comply with the state spending limit or have the voters approve an alternative there would be a non-compliance penalty based on State Statute that penalty is estimated to be one-third of our state shared income tax revenue as a reminder State shared income tax revenue is allocated 100% to our general fund we're estimating that would be a loss in revenue of $120 million in fiscal year 2526 I'm now going to hand over the presentation to Aaron MZ who's going to walk through the options that the task force considered to recommend to the city as well as a history of how City Phoenix has complied with the state law thank you m mayor members of the council as Amber mentioned there are three main Alternatives that cities and towns can use uh as an alternative to the formula state limit that she just discussed the first is the alternative expenditure limitation otherwise known as the home rule option this must be approved by voters at a regularly scheduled general election of the members of the governing board it's good for four years if approved by voters and any and all expenditures may be Exempted the next option is known as the permanent base adjustment this permanently increases the base limit for the calculation of a city's annual spending limit it would only grow thereafter by the INF and population factors that Amber just mentioned it must be for a specific dollar amount and it's worth noting that it may not truly be permanent if City's growth eventually exceeded that new permanent base that was adopted there's one other option that is available uh known as the one-time override this is effective only for one year it's really designed for things like a natural or man-made disaster and it must also be for a specific dollar dollar amount similar to the permanent base adjustment but again because of the one-year time frame really prevents it from being a long-term solution as far as the city's history with alternative expenditure limitations uh Phoenix voters have approved a home rule option 10 times since 1981 now in the in the 1980s and the early 1990s that home rule option Exempted certain Enterprise funds and that allowed the city to stay below um the state expenditure limit as Amber mentioned we're now projecting to be roughly $2 billion over the formulaic limit and so even if we were to exempt the Enterprise funds such as Aviation Water and Wastewater um we would still be over the limit so since 1999 excuse me the limit has been set at the council approved uh adopted balanced budget every year I will also note that there were two permanent base adjustments that were presented to voters once in 1985 once in 1997 uh but both of those were rejected by voters so the city has a long and successful history with the home rule option the city also has a long history of using uh members of the community to provide input and insight into this process and so we have as Amber mentioned Monica Vios here today she is the chair of the expenditure limit task force and she'll tell you a little bit more about the work of the task force and how they arrived at their recommendation thank you so much uh mayor gyo uh members of the council uh thank you for this uh opportunity councilwoman Pastor thank you very much for the congratulatory note no one was more surprised that someone wanted to marry me than me so I appreciate that um with regard to the expenditure limit task force Phoenix is not required to but appoints a Citizens task force such as the one formed this year to recommend an approach to the expenditure limit committee for citizen members with strong mix of public sector private sector and nonprofit experience all are very comfortable and have been very comfortable reviewing the city's finances and studying the impact of the state expenditure limit I'd also like to take a point of privilege to recognize my colleague my friend Robin Reed thank you mayor gyo for recognizing his contributions to the state um we missed him on this task force but uh we forged ahead the way he would have wanted us to with regard to uh the oh see you have animation you guys are fancy okay sorry you want to drive for me absolutely thank you um we held three meetings in devoted time outside of the meetings to studying the issue and analyzing City funds and final Financial forecasts the first two meetings focused on learning about the state spending limit learning the city's history with the expenditure limit and previous options selected studying and asking questions about staff prepared forecast for City funds including the general fund the third meeting was spent discussing the available options merits of an alternative expenditure limit or home rule option versus the permanent base adjustment and recommending an option the task force worked with staff after the third meeting to finalize our report and recommended ballot options after reviewing the options available the task force members voted unanimously to recommend continuation of an alternative spending limitation or home rule option which establishes the expenditure limit at an adopted budget um and that be presented to the city council and voters further as in the past we also recommend the city continue its practice of engaging residents in the annual budget process to ensure each fiscal Year's budget reflects the needs of the community the basis for this recommendation to continue a home rule option is it provides the needed flexibility transparency and annual involvement of residents in setting the spending limit the home rule options supports local control and affirms Phoenix's long-standing open budget process resulting in a balanced and responsive annual budget another key benefit of the home rule option was the requirement for another review by an independent task force and vote of Phoenix residents four years from now the task force considered the permanent base adjustment and one-time override options but determined these options would not provide the flexibility the city uh requires to continue existing programs and services or to expand those Services uh into uh in the future based on community input and engagement the permanent base adjustment was not recommended because it would require a significant increase to cover the city's current level of expenditures and it may be confusing to voters additionally as the report indicates it may not be truly permanent if the city exceeded the Perman base adjustment in the future it would require voter action to adjust the limit again also unlike the uh home rule option this option does not provide the annual community involvement for an independent citizens task force and two prior attempts at this option failed in 1985 and 1997 the one-time override was not recommended as it is only for one year and for the purposes of covering costs due to a natural or man-made disaster this option also must be for a specific amount so if a if it is a poor fit um it is a poor fit as a replacement to the home rule option the home rule option accommodates new taxes approved by voters since 1979 to 1980 for uh programs such as Parks preserves Public Safety and transit services the home home rule option also allows for key Regional services to continue these Services have outpaced the Phoenix population and inflation for example Sky Harbor airport is funded by fees paid by the Airlines and passengers and provides airports but serves the entire region it serves almost seven times more passengers than in 1980 new enhancements like the Phoenix Sky Train and the rental car center aren't included in the original expenditure limit calculation but benefit both Phoenix and valleywide residents other City departments also provide vital Regional services such as public transit through Light Rail and bus services other important city services such as water and wastewater and solid waste have implemented significant environmental and security mandates and expanded to meet the needs of the fifth largest city in the country the city simply cannot provide the current level of expected Services Under the state imposed limit as we reviewed budgets for other cities believe me when I tell you that Phoenix runs a tight fiscal ship I'd like to congratulate our city manager and staff for meeting the rapidly growing needs of Phoenix effectively and efficiently in summary the home rule option protects uh important communi services at existing levels and provides for future growth accounts for the fact that Phoenix is a leader for the entire region Beyond Phoenix residents preserves the city's commitment to a transparent Community engaged process that results in a balanced budget thank you for this opportunity to participate in this process I'll pass it back to Amber thank you so much Monica so Council today upon approval of the task force recommendation the next steps would be to set the two statutorily required public hearings these would take place at formal council meetings on May 1st and May 15th immediately following the second public hearing on May 15th Council would adopt the resolution to refer an alternative expenditure limitation proposition to the voters June 12th via ordinance Council would adopt the form of the ballot the election will take place on November 5th so today Council we are asking for Action to accept the task force recommendation to approve an alternative spending limit home roll option where the annual spending limit would be set at the adopted balance budget only after obtaining Community feedback we would set the public hearing dates for May 1st and May 15th this would also authorize staff to take the steps that are necessary to prepare for the November 5th election that concludes our presentation and we can answer any questions thank you director Williamson and chairwoman and the entire team who worked on this including the the the citizen committee there's going to be very important stuff on the ballot this may be one of the least understood but most important local government will be at the bottom of the ballot if you're watching you already know local government is important but we sure hope people make it the whole way on the very long November ballot have moved forward in this area for the last quarter century and essential services will be so deeply impacted by this item vice mayor do we have a motion yes mayor I uh make the following recommendations that we accept the task force recommendation we approve home rule option with the annual spending limit which equals our adopted budget we're going to set our public hearings for May 1st and 15th and authorize staff to take steps to prepare for the November 5th 2024 election second we have a motion in a second Diane Barker is here to provide testimony good afternoon mayor and Council I'm Dian Barker in district 7 I'm in support of Home rural Phoenix has been having this for quite a while it is an option that local revenues would be best spent with some oversight of the needs and what I am suggesting to you as what you've said mayor on this ballot it'll be important because I think it's 479 the regional transportation we're going to need to have consistency in the reporting and the city anything that the city is spending particularly on this issue and any other department needs to be appropriately documented because if we were going by the state constitution it's my understanding that they wouldn't allow you know these federal and state Monies to be combined but we're using federal and state I guess as far as our revenues and if it's reported here and at mag Valley Metro in the instance of Transportation it needs to be consistent thank you thank you so much council member questions or comments Council Gord thank you mayor I would like to thank the test Force task force chairwoman Vios thank you so much for your leadership um city manager Jeff Barton and Amber and the budget research department for their work on this item your input and support in this matter are important as we navigate through these important budget s decisions it is crucial that we comply with the state expenditure limit and I support the task Force's recommendation to refer to the voters and altern alternative spending limit also known as the home rule option on this upcoming ballot in November by voting in favor of this measure we are securing our City's Financial stability failure to pass this measure could result in a substantial penalty imposed by the state red reducing Revenue to the city and jeopardizing our ability to continue important general fund programs and services for residents thank you mayor thank you the importance of home Ru cannot be overstated looks like we are ready for a vote all those in favor please say I I I any oppose nay I passes unanimously thank you so much for all the hard work that has happened and the hard work to come item two is the appointment for an interim council member for Council District 7 the city Charter states that when a vacancy occurs with more than one year remaining in the term the city council must appoint an individual to fill the vacan until a special election can be held the last time the appointment process occurred was under the late mayor thelda Williams in the words of my predecessor serving on the Phoenix City Council is an awesome responsibility it takes courage to put your name in the ring and resolve to be willing to serve thank you to each candidate for answering the call to serve to Public Service as outlined by the city Charter and the memo sent by to the city manager on March 23rd the candidates will be called today in alphabetical order by last name and each will have five minutes to address the council and the audience after the candidates have po have spoken members of the public may have up to two minutes to speak and council members have the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates the council member will then vote to select the interim district 7 council member as Allowed by the charter any council member May nominate any qualifi a qualified individual to fill the V VY with no second required the council will vote on the candidates in the order in which they were nominated and the first candidate to receive an affirmative majority of the votes of the council members present will be selected to fill the vacancy the interim council member will take office as soon as the oath of the office of office has been administered and signed and will serve depending on the results of the special election and I will turn to the city clerk to walk us through the um the two possible timelines mayor members of the public Council uh mayor giko this particular interim Council appointment serves from the time the person is appointed through the canvas of the vote for the November 5th election during the November 5th election there will be a special election that election will be for the a person to be selected by the voters to fill the remainder of the council district 7 term currently and that will be that person will either serve from the canvas of the vote for the November election which is currently scheduled for November 20th through through the end of the current term which is April 21st of 2025 10: a.m. or If no candidate receives 50% plus one of the votes at the November 5th election for the special election then the top two vote Getters will go to a runoff and the runoff election candidas of the vote is currently scheduled for March 26th and therefore uh the person will serve from the day after March 26th through April 21st of 2023 for approximately three and a half weeks thank you so much the city clerk received submissions from four candidates the first of which is Gilbert arisu so we will ask Mr arviso to come forward he will be followed by Carlos all right thank you mayor uh I'm going to be as brief as possible as you all have access to my letter of interest and resume which I would encourage you to skim over as I speak as I mentioned in those documents my family has a rich 100-year history serving downtown in south of Phoenix and I continue those efforts to this day I am not here on a whim and what was submitted to you I talked about my extensive leadership chairing the programming of one of Phoenix's largest health and housing providers coordinating a coalition of dozens of community organizations to address health related social needs and much more most notably for district 7 I was in the DC office when John McCain announced his vision for the Rio solato building on the foundation laid by many local leaders and when his staff learned that his only intern from Arizona had roots in South Phoenix I was told I had no choice but to be involved I still remember the day going back and forth on what we should call this project this vision for South Phoenix a historically disconnected Community from the rest and we settled on real reimagined which was approved in the recent bond election and thus Community engagement efforts by staff are ongoing and I'm ready to step in and help with those efforts but I want to highlight something that does not make the Limelight but will be critical for this appointment the ability to answer the phones and respond to mail demonstrating that I can readily respond to these requests from constituents I want to give you a very recent example a neighborhood in downtown Phoenix had asked for updated resident permit parking signs last year for the Super Bowl and World Series the signs were faded unrecognizable and therefore people were parking in their neighborhood causing safety concerns for this neighborhood where they lived worked and played their request to replace the signs went unnoticed when it came time for the final four I made my concerns known to the host committee and City staff and worked with the neighborhood to get all the signs replaced outdoing expectations as the Signs Now reflect light at night the complete opposite of what the neighborhood had and the neighborhood was ecstatic what seems like a day-to-day activity to a community leader is a major win even for the most overlooked neighborhoods and I'm ready to continue this leadership engagement and great work to advance our shared goals together and I'll just just note that uh in the picture that uh councilwoman Pastor put up of uh Cesar Chavez he was wearing a button-down shirt and that is why I uh wear button-down shirts so thank you thank you so much Carlos is next followed by Michael Mayor gyo vice mayor Stark and council members thank you for the opport un to uh make my case for the council District interim appointment I reside work and vote in district 7 our family has lived in the district for more than 20 years I have a history of working in the nonprofit Arena ranging from engaging Community Partners leading anti-hate advocacy and co-creating leadership development programs my experience also includes serving as a YMCA Child Care manager Special Assistant to a United States Senator and as a voter Outreach coordinator in pel County I was born and raised in the AR in Arizona's copper Corridor which is at the heart of the State of Arizona and that's where I gained the values instilled in me of caring for Neighbors courtesy costs nothing and Community is everything it's these values that will inform my services as a council member for the City of Phoenix additionally I served as mayor for the town of Hayden along with being elected twice as a councilman member and also served as a vice mayor I've publicly made three pledges the first to not run for the district 7 full-term Council seat in the upcoming November election two the salary earned from this interim appointment will be reinvested into district 7 except for my employer um to advance support and aid for nonprofit agencies and clearly to support residents I will third I will fiercely protect the nonpartisan role of the district office and responsibly assist all residents regardless of party affiliation the decision to submit my name for the appointment came with the deliberation and with approach this approach that's crucial in both leading and serving on for the public good it came down to three things for me connecting communicating and creating I know there will be tough and difficult issues to address and votes to cast as part of the job in these instances and in my life Life as a whole there's a verse I lean into from Joshua be strong and of a good courage and it's the word good that strengthens me the most be assured that when it's time to take a stand I won't be shy I'm not a perfect person but I will try to be a responsive public servant and I'll be respectful to all we may disagree on certain or most issues that's okay it's part of the democratic process however it doesn't mean that I'll dismiss or diminish you as a person with a different Viewpoint to mine on public policy my concerns are a direct reflection that residents ask me to be addressed crime public crime Public Safety heat resiliency homelessness and Parks and Recreation I don't underestimate the power of using one's Voice or joining with other voices to get things done the same applies to joining forces to move forward on critical issues I will seek out and invite other to join me roll up our sleeves and get to work people want results and they deserve to have them I will work with anyone who acts in good faith to work on and find solutions to issues impacting residents of district 7 and as a whole city I believe my record of direct constituents assistance nonpartisan elected office and service to community makes me well suited to serve the residents of district 7 and I thank you for your kind consideration thank you Michael nowakowski is next followed by Lisa mayor council members thank you for this opportunity about 30 years ago my wife da and I were looking for a place to live and we decided on district 7 we have six children five boys and one girl and we have a new member of our family um a grandson that's going to be one years old in May you know this whole leadership came from really my father my father's here right now he's 90 years old and he was a leap commissioner and from that experience I knew that service to others was something very important and something that ran into nowakowski blood I believe I'm the only applicant that's really qualified with 13 years of serving as the council member of district 7 I was voted in three times by the residents of district 7 to serve that District there's no one else that you're going to interview today that has that 13 years of experience 13 years of good times bad times heartaches and all kinds of in between you know one of the things I want to do today is really focus on our staff also I remember coming in as a new council member back back in 2008 we're going through an economic downturn and we had to cut and cut and cut and it was our staff members that we sat down with and at that time I think Deborah Starks was actually one of those staff members that we sat down and we said you know we're going to have to make some some cuts to all of our budgets about 20% and you all help us be a part of this process we reached out to the community and we asked the same thing can you all help us out and sure enough that miracle happened that everybody started to give in everybody started to work together our staff was willing to go on furos and give up some of their time and thank God that at the end of my term I was able to pay back all those great staff members that gave up that time and those efforts and all those fur and raises in between we were able to give some back so thank you all and I think that's what Phoenix is all about I always said that we were a team and it's really about a team Phoenix approach with our staff with the council members that we have and hopefully I would be that next person up there to help out but I think it's about leadership you need an individual that will lead an individual that will sit people down from different walks of life and different opinions and try to find that common ground and that's that's one of the things that I'm good at trying to find that common ground it might not be a win-win for everyone but at least we were able to sit down and have that conversation and do what was best not for those individuals or not for myself but for the City of Phoenix and that's what leadership's all about and I believe right now that's what district 7 needs more and all I was just driving down Central Avenue with my son Michael Ray taking him to um ASU it's his last year year and then hopefully he's going to be going into law school next year but one of the things he said is Dad the streets still all torn up the light rail isn't built yet I go no son and he goes why I go that's a good question I'll ask um maybe I'll ask some of the council members when I go and get interviewed on M Monday or Tuesday I me sorry but you know to think about it we need to be out there in the community telling them why why why is it that we don't have a hospital south of The River Why is it that we don't have a movie theater yet south of The River Why is it that we don't have places for our families to sit down and eat why is that we need to answer those questions why haven't we built that Tech Corridor that we promised the AA Mountain individuals that we were going to do so that people can work and live and and play in the communities that they live in I I'm going to continue being that champion for public safety for economic development and I believe that I'm the best choice for this position because I have that experience of 13 years that I have the compassion and I would make sure that district 7 gets its fair share of amenities and resources that it deserves to have so with that thank you and God bless thank you Lisa Perez is our next and final speaker good afternoon um mayor vice mayor members of the council thank you for the opportunity this afternoon um coming to this decision about putting my name up for district 7 was a very hard one for me I do community service and I'm involved with my community because I want to be not for the Pats on the back and the thank yous and the OG's you did something great here it's because I wanted to something to improve my community that's it quality of life for myself and my neighbors that's what drives me to be so involved in my community I do want to say what Michael said is exactly right one of the um things that's most important to me is bringing in the services and the amenities in district 7 I know that there's parts of us us Community activists who people are say all you guys do is whine about stuff but the reality is being in Southwest Phoenix we're the furthest south I touch Avendale and tson we don't have very many services we just don't we have to drive anywhere to go shopping we have to we don't have very good Metro so people can't take buses anywhere it is a place that does need some some improvement in some more infrastructure one of the reasons I decided to run and put my name in it was just to put my name in I wanted Community activists across the city to know that your voice matters and saying something out loud is okay even if we disagree that it's still important to have the conversation and to be willing to let it go once a decision has been made there was a recent zoning case in my area that I was pretty Furious about Council approved it how to let it go there has to be a bigger picture item for why the council chose to do that in my community and I have to respect that it's as simple as that we know that the person who serves in District s's answers to the constituents that they serve but have to be in mind keep in mind that the city overall it has to be the priority and I understand that and it's important and this council person will have to do that I would like to follow a little bit of what councilman inari's office was very helpful I didn't know her when she ran for office um but she has been was responsive she was uh passionate about issues and if she disagreed she didn't hesitate to pick up the phone and say so sorry not going to happen and I appreciated that the respect that she had for the community and the respect that she had for myself and others uh showed and I would like to make sure that anybody who has that has wants to have that relationship with the council member that they should and they should always feel free to ask the question we may not agree we may disagree but I think it's important those of you that don't know me most of you know me I serve right now on the City of Phoenix Planning Commission which is something I wanted to do the very first time I saw my packet I about passed out and um but it has been it's going to sound weird it's been a joy I have learned so much from being on the Planning Commission I've learned about other places within the city I've had the opportunity to talk with individuals who are fighting as far up as a Anthem area but getting to talk to them and hearing their side about it has been very interesting and has been really quite a pleasure so I've had contacts all over the city now that I get to work with on issues that come up because for me and for them those zoning cases are about their quality of life and they should be heard one way or another and it's important couple things I just want to mention uh I also serve on the Australia Village planning committee um I've had the privilege of serving on the go Bond committee a couple years ago and then what was formerly known as the electric uh vehicle task force all of which has been just amazing opportunities to be able to learn more about the city and the individuals that I got to serve with which was important to me lastly my community service also stems from me being a uh older mother I'll just leave it like that I have a 13-year-old had him late in life but I want my child to learn civic responsibility that it's his job to give back as much as he gets and he's an only child so I mean I'll let tell you what like it isn't have an only child maybe he's a little bit spoiled I'll be honest um and I enable that which is not good but I want him to understand it so he's out there with me for cleanups setting up my tents for gain events he's out there when I go to speak at things I'm going to drag him to the budget meetings this week because I want him to understand the opportunities that even as kids how you can get involved and why it's important to be involved in your community before I end I want to thank all my friends who sent me encouragement to go ahead and do this even if I don't get the appointment I do want you to seriously consider me but I also want to say thank you to them always speak out on the issues that are important to you your voice does matter and we need a council person who is going to stick up for everybody in the community and for the City of Phoenix thank you very much for the opportunity thank you so much all of the applicants have volunteered so much time with our city and our community and we want to thank you for your commitment to a better Phoenix that concludes the applicants and then we will go to public comment we'll begin with Oscar followed by animus good afternoon my name is Oscar I live in the district I'm one of 200,000 constituents from district 7 um to me this is a no-brainer you got somebody that's got 13 years experience a former council member versus other individuals which they all sound good they all they all um have a lot things going for them you know you have a a former mayor of Hayden with a population of 600 people you know versus 200,000 um it to me it seems like this is going to be a four-month interm and what better position would would it be then to have Michael with the experience go in there than having to train somebody or teach somebody the ropes you know you have um you have somebody that served on a school board um they have that experience with the city and you have the other candidate that that my notes here that ran for a race in District 8 and now he wants to represent district 7 my question is what district does he live in uh the boundaries may have been redone I'm not sure but that that's a question that needs to be answered and um so I'm an advocate for Mr Noah thank you thank you animus is next hi mayor hi Council people thank you for having me thank you for having me today I know the last time I spoke to you I probably had two minutes I don't see a clock running oh it is running well I am here in support of Michael nowakowski for the appointment to district 7 I'm invested heavily in that area of help a lot of uh candidates campaign in that area in District 8 district 7 for LD uh Senate as well as LD house I know the community very well and have spoken to a lot of the residents and voters of district 7 so a lot of the issues I understand fully Michael has represented that community and has addressed a lot of their issues over the years and has done a very good job including also the entire city of Phoenix from an economic standpoint with the development of the downtown Corridor helping with the Cotton Center development with South Phenix and the LaVine build out there's more to be done we're in a new era right now as a city is a fast developing fast growing city and it has posed some major challenges Michael nowakowski has demonstrated the ability to collaborate with colleagues like yourself to be able to move forward with a with with a combined mission for all of Phoenix he will come back in this intern period of time I'm sure and support each and every one of you in getting things done that you need for your residence and Community um I have a lot of confidence and trust in him I first got to know him at LaVine Little League Baseball wherein his family participated over the years and grew up there and I was a coach um for one of the teams every year so I've had an opportunity to observe him talk to him learn from him and um I think he'll be a great addition to this Council in this time to continue to work and move things forward as you seek to or as the community seek to elect someone please think favorably to uh appoint Mr n Kowski thank you thank you so much that concludes public comment we'll now go to council member questions and we'll begin with councilman Kevin Robinson mayor thank you very much and I trust you can hear me okay beautifully okay thank you very much um I'm sorry I could not be there but as you know my wife and I are on our way to um Portugal to celebrate our anniversary and her birthday and um but I I know how important this particular process is so I want to be a part of it uh the first question I have and it's for all actually for three of the candids because I think Mr gendo ala and I'm apologize if I'm saying the name wrong I think he made it very clear that he is not seeking to run um for the office permanently but the other three candidates Mr arisu Mr Noah Kowski and Miss Perez can I hear from each of them whether or not they plan to seek the position permanently wonderful so we'll do alphabetical order if that works again and then I'll go reverse alphabetical order next time so for Mr arviso do you plan to run for the four-year term okay say to the microphone so that's perfect uh um no in my uh letter of interest I'm not running for special any any of the elections or the um or the the different uh options that there are thank you council member Robinson this is Michael lowski I remember happy wife happy life so you're doing the right thing and I am running for this position I'm running for the special election and I'm going to be running for the um 4-year thank you mayor members of the council Council M Robinson this Lisa Perez I have put my name in for the special election and I I kind of want to explain why right now the way that this election's going to go whoever gets appointed today will only serve until November if somebody wins a special election it would be a different person and then whoever is running for the four the full term if that's a different person so district 7 has a chance of having three different Representatives within one year which is not really great I put my name in for special election I have not made a full decision about whether or not I'm going to run for the full term I am discussing that with uh friends and colleagues um but I'm leaning towards it because I do want to see some continuity thank you very much okay well thank all of you for your answers I I do appreciate that the reason I asked that particular question is that I think it is critical that the voters in district 7 pick their representative and clearly this is something we are doing bounded by Charter we're picking someone to fill a vacancy for a short amount of time I think it's going to be critical for the residents within district 7 to pick that person so I I will leave it at that for that particular question um I do want to ask another question Mr nowakowski is more for you and um you had mentioned in your um presentation that um you want to do what was best for the City of Phoenix you mentioned you'd served in good and bad times and I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud or anything along those lines but you know I I know how important these positions are I understand how politicians are viewed these days and I think it's critical to be Beyond reproach could you expound a little bit a little bit because I know there was an issue surrounding you and some ethical dealings um when you were in office before and I you know I I think it's important for us to understand your position on that where you um where you stood and I know things were discontinued because then city manager zerker removed the issue from um it a sale of property and such but can you tell us why we should vote for you with having that in your background um what exactly are you talking about I know that there was a a question of Insider I I used the word Insider training for lack of a better word but there were some issues with some land dealings with your employer with you and there were a host of things it's in the papers it was in the papers I should say right so I I would think that you should remember that no I remember it very well so council member Robinson it it went all the way to the um Supreme Court and they dismissed it saying that there is no evidence and they don't know even know how it actually got to the Supreme Court so it was a lot of inside politics that was going on um my employer at that time was the Caesar Travis Foundation they were trying to build some affordable housing in downtown Phoenix I run the radio aspect of the Caesar Chavis Foundation I have nothing to do with the housing aspect of it so basically somebody tried to make it seem a developer that lost the bid tried to make it seem like I had some insight information to actually help out the um Caesar Travis foundation with that if you want to go into more details we could there's a bidding um chart that you have where you get points and the point system is if you were going to be own if you would pay for the land outright and they said yes after I reviewed it they actually the scoring was really that chavas Foundation I think it was traml Crow or something like that that put in for that that they basically outscored the rest of the individuals and basically the person that came in second place that was upset about this whole system I mean situation and that brought it out to the media to try to throw out a a new bid in which they were uccessful on and took it to court basically wanted to create condos instead of affordable housing and rental property so that's why they really lost the bid because they didn't follow the the the scope of the um the RFP so if you'd like to go into more detail I think you can ask the um your staff to give you the whole scoring and the whole detail and then you'll figure it out yourself okay well thank you for that you again I asked the question like I said not trying to be a stick in the mud or anything like that I just think it's critical that the the that we as the elected body the folks who are going to chose you know pick this person on a temporary basis we have all the facts and know where you stood what you underst what you know what your position was with it um you know I wasn't there um I was in the city at the time I remember it and I'm sure others would too and I think that's why I thought it was important for you to explain and and I thank you for your explanation it is appreciate it thank youil member and you're going to find out council member when you become an advocate for affordable housing or for the minority community that you're going to end up getting in involved with political football and that's exactly what happened there thank you thank you and we would welcome the council member to stay near the microphone because I think there'll be a few additional questions if you if you'd like council member Robinson oh thank you mayor um Mr noow I get that I do understand that but you know I I think like I said having you explain it means a lot definitely to me and you know it's always that appearance of an impropriety that um sticks with people so it's good to hear your you know how it turned out and everything else because that may not have been known by a lot of folks and I think that's important and the May the very last question I have for each one of the candidates is um have any of you had an opportunity to speak to um former councilwoman onari wonderful and I believe this time we'll go in reverse alphabetical order so we would start with Perez Lisa Perez uh mayor vice mayor uh members of the council um councilman Robinson just an opportunity to speak with her in general or yes but the reason I asked this question foration you know I just she was doing a wonderful job she was voted by in by the residents in district 7 I was just curious as to whether or not you had an opportunity to talk to her and to get a feel for what she was doing what her thoughts were and that type of thing I didn't reach out to her because I didn't want to put her in any kind of a weird position but um she uh we were sad to see her leave I'll be honest with you um um we she did the courtesy in a year before she right before she announced she called a few of us and we had dinner and we discussed it and she told us that she felt the passion to go on um so I haven't talked to her about this she may be watching her staff is watching right now um but I just didn't want to put her in a we position thank you council member Robinson this is Michael novakowski the last time I talked to the council member was actually at the um LaVine barbecue I was the MC for the Cow Milking that um basically she won that Cow Milking of LaVine so she's known as the queen of Cow Milking out for this year and that was the last time I had a conversation with her all right thank you council member Robinson this is Carlos gind before I answer I'm going to wish you and your wife safe travel um I did not and have not spoken to council former council member onari regarding the appointment or her role in office thank you councilman this is Gilbert arisu I have not spoken to the former councilwoman about this position thank you Mr Aro mayor that concludes the questions I have at this time thank you very much for the opportunity thank you councilwoman huding thank you mayor I also have a few questions for the for those that are interested um my first question is um I feel like you will be representing the constituents of district 7 I would like to hear from your perspective what are the major issues that you believe that district 7 is facing and what are your plans to address those and then I have multiple questions do you want me to give them all now or okay think multiple questions assuming they are not so complicated that it would be unfair to yes so it's not unfair so the other question that I wanted to kind of tie in one of the major issues right now I think that's facing district 7 is the new proposed homeless shelter in that area 75th Avenue and Van Beren um the reports are there is not complete neighborhood support for this and I would love to hear what you plan on doing to help Rectify that issue is it is it so two questions General priorities and then specific to the the 71st Avenue great and we will go in alphabetical order again so I believe the two are actually connected um it has to do with Community engagement as I said in my speech district 7 particularly south of the river has been historically disconnected from the rest of Phoenix and that is why I focused on engagement in my speech so not going in there and telling folks hey this is what is good for you but listening listening and responding to the needs of the community and as I put in my letter of interest and in my resume uh I focused on responding to the needs of the community um so again for that particular uh homeless shelter uh I would go and engage the community um I engaged the community at the 24th Street in Washington uh shelter uh I was there at all those meetings uh as connected to my my employer um so I was there and and heard the concerns there and I'm willing to to do the same for um that location and is there anything else you would like to add specifically about what you believe to be the major issues fa in district 7 and how what you plan to do to address them so I believe the the major issues as as what has been talked about is you know the lack of services uh south of of uh the um the river um there is there's no trauma One hospital there are small hospitals uh south of the river um but I believe that that is the the biggest concern is how can we get um services to South of the river and it was also mentioned earlier about amenities these are topics that I've been talked about for for many many years um we talked about uh with r reimagine how they're at Central in the river bottom can we put a cultural Plaza to to recognize the residents of South Phoenix and their and their commitments to um to the rest of Phoenix so I believe that is is part of the part of the problem and again it goes back to what I've been saying is this disconnection from the the rest of Phoenix thank you council member hjge Washington thank you for your question um there's so much related to each other in district 7 but I'm going to go first with um the applicability of law enforcement heat resiliency and the shelter um I think what needs to happen is yes the community engagement with the neighborhood but not Community engagement as a checkoff point it needs to be real and it needs to be culturally appropriate as well as addressing it both in English and in Spanish because they're concerned about their children on Sunday I did take a drive out to the area and actually walked from the school to the proposed Site Area and found it that there was a safe distance but that won't matter if we're not able to communicate that effectively to the neighborhood and to get their input they have ideas like for example there are going to be safeguards in place for the shelter because it won't be a walkup shelter there will be Behavioral Services that will be provided and we're heading into the hottest time of the year 65% of this interim appointment takes place during the hottest time of the year so all of those combined together are really important to address and to address it without being shy and to address it in a way that matters to the community because once communities involved they're invested in the succcess of a project this is Michael milowski for council member Robinson you know district 7 is really split up into um five areas we have the downtown area where I mean 16 years ago you wouldn't have believed what you see now now and that was really because we worked together with the community with individuals that had vested interests in downtown from ASU to all the small businesses to the individuals that live downtown and I believe that's what made downtown so special and now what we see in downtown Phoenix one of the biggest concerns that there was was having a grocery store the food desert and especially in the downtown area and in this C what what do you call it the capitol mall area and we were able to I was able to Champion bringing fries supermarket downtown Phoenix so that was some of the concerns in downtown safety for our students making sure that people feel safe but at the same time if you're going to come down to one of the 200 bars or restaurants or our um local businesses in downtown Phoenix that we have now it's the parking issue is one of the biggest issues how do you park in downtown Phoenix without paying $40 to $50 to come down to an event or so so we really need to figure out how to help out those local businesses in downtown Phoenix how to help them survive and at the same time how can we attract people to downtown but not bankrupt them when it comes to parking right the other thing is marville marville is hungry and needing more programs for youth keeping our kids active active during the summertime during after school hours we need to create more soccer fields football fields activities for our young people you know the um there's a privately owned West complex that's right there on 99th in McDow that's being sold now we have Apartments being um built right there so there's about 18 soccer fields that are going to disappear so where are all those individuals that use that West complex that's privately owned going to play soccer now right now it's a nightmare just trying to figure out how to schedule all those different soccer teams I just looked at um council member Betty she's nodding her head like she understands what those nightmares are people are calling wanting to know how can they get a soccer field how can they get more activities how can they get baseball fields softball fields out there and and Public Safety people people want to live in their neighborhoods and feel safe we need more police officers and how do we do that we need to figure that out we need to figure out how to recruit more officers and making sure that those officers come from those neighborhoods that are in the most need and I think little by little we'll figure it out but we need to figure that out that's one of the biggest issues out there um it's not in the district anymore but it used to be Desert Sky mall that was going to close and we've basically figured out bringing a developer an individual that created a mall in Los Angeles and converted into a Hispanic uh Mallo atmosphere and that's exactly what they did at at um mergal de Loos and so you need to think outside the box let's let's go to other cities other states and steal their great ideas and bring them here to Phoenix to make sure that the Metro centers of the world the I still call it um uh Chris Town malls of the world and the desert skies don't close right and um the other thing is you got estrea estrea is out there and we have all kinds of opportunities we talked about creating the that when we advocated for the 202 Freeway the Ed Pastor freeway um basically we sat down with the community all the stakeholders and they said well what we need to do is create quality jobs out here and one of those things was creating a corridor for Tech a Tech Corridor where we can bring High pain jobs to district 7 along the freeway that people can have access they can come and live and play and be there and and that's one of the things that when I turn on the TV and I hear that Queen Creek or surprise or Avendale just got a tech company and they just basically I feel like they stole it from us and we should have that right there in the esta Mountain that freeway Corridor that we have out there when you talk about LaVine oh my God people are talking about that hospital that we need we already have a hospital zone for it and with a helicopter pad and all that I think we're going for a second one we can Zone all the properties that we wanted stuff but we need to go and find those hospitals that want to be in LaVine a full-blown hospital when I was on the console we had two PE two in the um two companies that wanted to open up their hospitals there and they were fighting over and negotiating I'm not sure what happened with that negotiation I was termed out and I was out of that that negotiation aspect of it we need a Costco I mean we lost a Costco in LaVine going all the way to surprise and they said that we were going to be next and Bucky already got one so we need a Costco out there you know other thing is a place for families to sit down and eat we need more restaurants we got enough fast food restaurants we need a sit down restaurant where families can go after a graduation after a birthday have their birthday parties there and enjoy each other when you talk about south Phoenix we need an overhaul on South Phoenix when we talk about the light rail I mentioned my son Michael racing damn I'm graduating from ASU and they started I started um ASU and they torn up um Central Avenue and it's still that way why why and we need to answer those questions why about three months ago I got a call from a western wear a local business right on Central Avenue St Michael I called district 7 they transfer me over to light rail they um they then they transfer me over to the contractor then they transfer me back to the city and I've been going around and around in circles so can you help me I go yeah Absol absolutely so what I did is I called Marcus and I said Marcus we're having this problem is there any way you could just sit down and talk to that person goes absolutely Michael and two days later Marcus and Debbie Lopez went out there and basically had a conversation with this individual and they fixed it just like that they basically had a they tore up his um his parking lot and just basically left a for in hole in the middle of his parking lot where people can actually fall into or their cars can actually get stuck in in that trench that they had right there they cut off the power of his lights in his parking lot and he said Michael those are my security lights and I've been calling and calling and calling because I need those lights on so nobody will break in and steal my boots and my clothing and then barricades along the street so that my sign already got torn up I just bought that sign seven months ago and A truck hit it because there was no barricade to warn it that there's a sign right there so basically when you have communication with individuals we have staff members and that shout out to Debbie Lopez and Marcus for really doing their job and once they're asked to do their job our staff's out there so representative Washington I mean I can go on and on and on but those are some of the big issues that are in our community right now just Public Safety is another one that we need to make sure when you pick up that phone and call 911 that police officers are there to protect and to serve our community and if a loved one is having a heart attack or that's ill that the paramedics and the fire department is there within minutes right so and regarding the um homeless shelter I believe and once again again I told our staff and I told our cul and you weren't a part of it when when I was on the Cil that we were going to get sued we were going to get sued with what's going on in Cass and that we need to do something about it and I basically fought that we cut it down to what we promised the community was 300 bids and all the services surrounding around around Cass and basically that didn't happen on the contrary they wanted to increase it to a th000 bids a th000 more bids than the 800 that they had so what I'm afraid is going to happen because I signed that petition about about 35 34 years ago to allow cast to happen there but the petition that I signed said that basically there was going to be 300 beds surrounded with services and that would be the max they passed that 300 beds way long ago so I believe that's going to happen the same thing on the vanan site the other thing is we as a city need to do better we need to do better in communication we can't just go in there and tell the community this is what's going to happen no we need to help out our homeless community and this site has been suggested what do you all feel or what do you all think but no what we've done is we gone in there and we said this is what we're going to do and we had a community meeting not to get input but to tell them what's going to happen and then it's not even going through the Planning and Zoning where people can actually go and protest or say their opinion that's has to be more transparent and more open the process and that's wrong that's very wrong and you as individuals that are sitting in the council right now should not let that happen you should have it go through the right procedure which is the vill Village which is the planning zoning and back to you as the council member and going instead of going to a committee of individuals that we all don't have say so or you all to make that decision thank you mayor members of the council councilwoman Hodge Washington I'm going to start with the navigation Center um I live down in the area by where it's at um I was an early supporter of it I was not happy the way that it came out but for those that know zoning it's an A1 Property that only needed a use permit and did not have to go through the regular process for Planning and Zoning to get the permit to do this I do believe they should have gone out earlier but I think the city did a good job of trying to have they had two Community meetings they met individually with individuals that were upset about it they also went to organizations that requested meetings to discuss it in full um I did send a letter of support to the board of adjustment to approve it because I think the process of what the city is doing is trying to locate homeless facilities around the city is something that we need to do everybody's going to say not in my back air nobody wants to have it but I also add that I'm on the F Elementary School Board so the people that were testifying about the school that's right there I'm a board member for that school we take Safety and Security of our children as the utmost importance for that so I know why they're talking about they fear for their children not being safe in schools I took a little offense to that but I understand it they're a parent I'm a parent and it is but it is our number one priority to make sure that all of our children got going to that school but talking to our police officers our local police officers they need this tool in their tool belt to help them there's no beds available for them to take people and our housing population our homeless population in the fur western region is now growing we didn't have it even a couple years ago but it's there and it's growing and I do believe that this is something we need in our community and I hope we'll put in other communities um as far as problems that we have in the district I mean I can go on and on and on but most immediate in the west side we need more infrastructure I mean these are kind of bigger things we need infrastructure we need more uh uh Transportation options uh our bus lines stop they don't go they don't connect from road to road which is problematic for people to get from to and fro and we don't have amenities we don't have very many sitdown restaurants we have no medical out there we have one Urgent Care on 99th Avenue and uh Lower Buckeye roads we have no other medical facilities in the LaVine area I I LaVine area in the southern area they need more retail to catch up with all the multifam that's been entitled down there and theine love them to death they'll be very vocal about what they need down there and what they want down there and I love it um but that is something that is true and in both Australia and the leavine areas we also have issues with County because we both have a lot of County land that surrounds our areas and is uh difference for we have the river that runs through it and people use the dry River beds to shoot to have parties to do all kinds of stuff down there and that is very problematic and again we have that issue where do I call the City of Phoenix police do I call Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and half of the time depending on what road you're on you don't even know who you're supposed to be calling so that is problematic and I would hope the communication between um the city and county can get a little bit better on some of those issues in the downtown area right now you're struggling well not even struggling the amount of growth in the downtown area is just phenomenal even I come downtown and right now I think one of the issues they have is the clean up for the construction for light rail is a big deal and also trying to mold how many more residents are living downtown versus those that weren't just as M uh no as Michael just said so many more people are living downtown and so having that Urban feel and opportunities for the people that live down there and balancing it with the growth that's happening um bigger picture can will we get light rail down I 10 I think that'll help the Maryvale area and our area and then sr30 coming through if proposition 479 passes um I will literally be able to sa that freeway from my bedroom because it'll be right right below where I live but it's a major piece of infrastructure just like with the loop toe is I don't see it necessarily as a problem although it's going to be a very big undertaking that we'll have to deal with in district 7 thank you thank you so much this are my question thank you so much any additional question councilwoman O'Brien thank you mayor I'm not sure the order but I have three um questions surrounding Public Safety so maybe if they can take them all at one time okay and I think this time time we just did alphabetical so it' be reverse alphabetical so and again would welcome if people just want to stay close to the microphone until we're done with questions so when when I was elected to office um there were some concerns around Public Safety and certainly our Police Department did not necessarily um feel supported by the city council additionally we are struggling to hire officers um we are in a situation where our our firefighters are concerned about response times as are we and we're doing everything we can to provide them with the resources that they need um I'm curious what your stance is on Public Safety my stance is I support them 100% um I know that a couple years ago there were people like we don't want Cops in our neighborhood we don't want to see police officers my community wants to see police officers and we're friends with them I talk to my caos all the time I run a block watch in my area um and we have the privilege of getting a new fire department in our area which I want to throw that in there really quickly but I'm 100% supportive of our officers um I got the privilege of going to a was it taser training I taser training and I'm going to go do a police experience this weekend um with the city of Phoenix Police Department so for me 100% no doubt I supportive of our police officers and our firefighters thank you um do you believe that our current city leadership is capable of reforming our Police Department without a consent decree and doj monitor yes and I know that that's a really tricky subject for some people but I don't think that Cent degree I'll just say it is the way to go and I've seen other cities and what they've gone through and how many years it's taken them to get from from Under The Descent decree and I'm not going to pretend to say that I know everything about it but it does not seem and I would hope that the city does not go in that direction would you um would you sign an agreement in principle without reading the full doj findings report which would commit the city to negotiate in good faith towards a consent decree I know this has come up too I'm it's hard to sign something in good faith when you haven't read all the documents and I know that we're going back and forth with doj by getting the documents for everybody to read I don't know why they wouldn't just do that it seems a little weird to me um again I don't know all the basics I just know what I've read and what I've Been Told and I don't know if I could do it in good faith just on something that I have no idea what the report's going to say thank you council member 100% um back in 2007 I actually ran in by enforcing the law and people are saying are you crazy in mville and South Phoenix well I knocked on every single door at least once and people were saying we want more police officers we want our neighborhoods to be safe we want our kids to be able to go to the park and play at nighttime so I became the chair of Public Safety and one of the biggest concerns I had was when I was there we had so many police officers and firefighters that passed away we have these beautiful services and memorials and all that but it's too late so what I created was the star spangle on Banner celebration basically was honoring all the Fallen police officers and firefighters and right here on Washington we would have a banner it would be a red banner for firefighters with the picture of the firefighter that basically passed away the year that he passed away and the the year of his service right and then basically we would do it in blue for the um police officers and then we had a educational component that was along with it that if you had an iPad or a smartphone that b basically you can go in there on a on the special app for teachers and bring your class and go through a field trip and you can find out more about that firefighter or police officer and you find out that they weren't just firefighters or police officers they were basically coaches for their baseball teams you know all little leagues and and ministers and and helping out the youth and all that so we got to learn a little bit more of who that individual was and then we would end it with a big celebration and the memorial moral Day celebration with fireworks and then we had young people that would write um messages on these um little boats and then they would light them up and they would go on the on the um Lake out there at Caesar Chavis and then we had fireworks with we would recite the names of each Fallen police officer and firefighter so absolutely we need to support we need to make sure that they know that they're loved that they're want and that they're respected and I think that's one of the reasons that we created that the other thing that isn't that I created that doesn't exist anymore is a crime Summit we created a crime Summit for all the blockwatch individuals at that time it was District 8 and district 7 and then we had all the precinct commanders out there and we had the police chief and basically it was a day out at the police training um complex that they can actually have an hour with their commander of their Precinct and learn about the services that the each Precinct offers to the community there's a lot of people that don't understand that it's not just a Precinct you can use it for meetings there's Services there's resources that a lot of people don't know about so it was a time for individuals that wanted to meet their commanders and the Community Action officers that they can have that dialogue for an hour and then afterwards the mayor myself and the police chief would have have a question and answer with any individuals that were there at that crime Summit and then they had a chance to go through the training just like any police officer would have um through the complex and then the and then your the next question which is do you believe our current city leadership is capable of reforming RPD without a consent decree and doj monitor no absolutely I believe they do they can and would you say sign an agreement in principle without reading the full doj findings report no I would not sign sign it at all and I would I would actually talk to our past um Sheriff Paul penon and asked him what was his experience and what are his thoughts and I think we all know what his thoughts are we heard it very clear on the media and what he thinks about the county and how they they are going through and how it's a waste of money right thank you council member O'Brien thank you for your three questions I may need a refresher on some of the questions the first one is yes I support and respect our Public Safety departments both the police department and the fire department um the work that they do is incredibly difficult um and we are not there for every incident that happens but we need to be supportive of our police department and I have had the chance to work specifically with the bias Squad unit in terms of hate crimes and incidents when I work for a national hate anti-hate organization and I saw the care that they took with victims I saw the care that they took to ensure the institutions that might be targeted were informed and were protected so I know the value um that our police officers bring to the community and it's not just the ones that are patrolling it's the ones that are investigating it's the ones who are out there protecting um and serving our citizens the second question second question is do you believe our current city leadership is capable of reforming our PD without a consent decree and doj monitor yes I do because um every system every large operation there is always a time to improve and there's always a process that should be in place to to uh reform so yes um and I think it's important that we we do it carefully thoughtfully but yes to your answer with regard to the consent decree no I would not signed sign U site unseen so yes I am a major supporter of Public Safety the reason is my dad was one of Arizona's first EMTs at 16 years old 20-year volunteer firefighter for the City of Phoenix uh he was there when all they had were jackets and helmets and the little rubber boots and we saw and he saw that Evolution and so it's really ingrained in me um from from that perspective um I also you know we're as we know the Community Action officers they keep getting moved around because um because of budget constraints and things like that so I'd be uh really interested in seeing how we can get Community Action officers more back more involved and and I've heard from them personally like that they would like to be more involved um as far as the second question I don't know if I have all the information what I the information I do have was what was provided at the community meetings um the the road show as the media called it um and the media uh kind of bashed the city's Road Show I don't know why I attended I thought it was good I thought great information was given I thought our uh City leadership gave some good plans as to how we can uh reform um my biggest concern was this idea that oh well if it worked in St Louis and Baltimore then it's going to work for the City of Phoenix I'm not really a big fan of the copy and paste uh type of of policy um so that's what I got from those uh Community meetings so because of that um I wouldn't necessarily sign uh you know uh I would sign an agreement saying I think we can handle it ourselves based on the the information that that I have currently okay thank you appreciate that thank you councilwoman any additional questions all right uh councilman wearing well actually can I ask a question of Staff yes okay thank you uh so this would be for attorney Julie cre so uh I think it was only this morning or maybe last night that I heard there might be concerns about the eligibility of former councilman nowakowski because he had served three uh this was news to me so I'm just curious eligible and if not why not because he's out of office now he served the three terms my understanding was if you serve two full terms as mayor then you can't come back as mayor sometime down the road but I don't remember that was the case for Council people and in in recent memory both Sal the CIO and thelda Williams both served more than three terms in their lifetime now they hadn't served three full terms back and S was actually appointed for his second term so uh secondly there were uh concerns about someone who did not apply that were out in the news media about their eligibility because they've been a state legislator so I just going forward as long as this going to be the process if nothing else I hope before this comes up again um that we have some consistency about who is eligible for these appointments so mayor members of council councilman wearing so we did have a question come up about the consecutive terms and our city Charter is silent as to essentially a break between I'm sorry between those consecutive terms of office so I basically let everyone know that that that could be an issue because our Charter is silent as to that issue so uh mayor so we could potentially get sued and if and what happens then an injunction district 7 would go without represent try to figure out what we might expect don't think but we obviously lawyers but second it's not really our job to sort that out so like what would a judge do with it's just so mayor and councel there's a possibility of of a challenge like I said there's there's a possibility there's an open legal question and it could just be an action to see if that person is eligible to keep the office which is called a quo warranto action I think in the past mayor and Julie asked for guidance from the attorney general or some such maybe it it's not practic here today right now but I would just suggest going forward we we get some guidance because we we have quite a few of these appointments um I ran against somebody who was appointed for my GRE Stanton was appointed Tom Simplot beat somebody who was appointed and Betty beat somebody who was appointed didn't even count how many that is but that's like seven or something I think just in the last Maybe 20 years so uh so it it comes up pretty regularly we just might be prepared um given the quality of life at the legislature they might want to come over to the friendly confines of the city someday down the road we might want to particularly on days like today they're probably like why the hell did I ever want to be a state legislator so um what was I thinking uh poor judgment working for you so um having been one I can make those kind of jokes uh but I just like I can make jokes about Illinois but I I would I think it would beho us just to get kind of clarity on both of those issues how we do that but I think we've done it in advance in the past so there's that I also wish we had a process where people as far as I know the only person who could up live in district 7 I'm not asking if you're address mayor would be the mayor otherwise this process involves all people who don't by definition live in district 7 um tricky one I think and if we could come up with a different plan and maybe submit that to the voters because this is something that comes up pretty regularly I have a perfect plan but I think anything better than oh it might appoint people who are really eligible got to be a better way so thank you mayor I appreciate it it sounds like there is no clear answer so thank you I'll turn to vice mayor Stark for a motion thank you mayor I would like to nominate Carlos Galino alvir thank you no motion no second is required roll call W yes hudge Washington yes O'Brien mayor Max exp my vote please do thank you um I will be voting yes today for um Carlos and I will be doing so because um he will run for the special election but has committed to not running for the full four-year term and so with that I vote Yes Pastor yes Robinson yes mayor may I explain my vote also please do thank you um for pretty much the same reasons that councilwoman O'Brien stated I will be voting for Mr gindo elv also but um all candidates really showed a great deal of stuven grit and everything that it takes to be in the office but I like the fact that he has stated that he is not interested in running for the position permanently and I think that is a question to be decided by the residents in district 7 so my is yes thank you wearing uh mayor I'd like to explain my vote please do uh so I I think Kevin said maybe fly in the ointment or something earlier so first I'm going to vote no uh but we had talked Carlos and I uh I think you understand my position uh so this I think you understand uh because I was very pleased with your presentation when uh you appeared uh before Deb Stark and I a few years ago about the ethics commission and then uh I think a subsequent iteration of that same process I was very impressed with your resume I think you'll make an excellent member I have no doubt I think that about all the members I served with Michael norowski he was a great colleague I enjoyed him very much um uh you know leis I used to see in the hall and so forth so I think you all would have done a fine job I do have concerns about this process I won't belabor it but I've just thought that we should have people who are independent not going to run um and I do appreciate that you checked one of those boxes uh I just think In fairness to the voters who are not going to get to participate um that that that should be something we should try to do get somebody who's I appreciate your resume I wish you all the best of luck and uh appreciate you understanding my position I'm voting no Stark and mayor if I can explain my vote I first off I want to say thank you for all the speakers today and the people who wanted to serve district 7 I'm impressed by Carlos's um dedication to the district I know he's lived in it for 20 years but I'm very impressed that you're willing to donate your money to nonprofits your salar so that really speaks highly of your dedication to the residents of district 7 thank you mayor thank you there you go Carlos we have worked together for 15 years whether it be you helping set up leadership program prrams for the Latino and African-American Community your fight against hate or your work building coalitions because District Seven and8 are quite close in many areas you and I have actually been quite close neighbors for and seeing each other often at particularly shopping opportunities and it's it's good to uh be able to vote in your favor I think you will be a great interim council member I vote Yes passes 71 thank you congratulations to our newest member of the Phoenix City Council there will be a swearing in shortly we are adjourned