we will have a pledge of allegiance by cooper shepher cooper if you'll come forward after the not right now but but but after the prayer and uh lead us in the place of Allegiance we'll we'll do that so everybody please stand thank you mayor members of council everyone here I thank you for this opportunity to represent my faith community and to present a prayer on behalf of them for you all let us all take a deep breath and be fully present in this space and in this time gracious God I ask your blessing on all who are gathered here let all remember we have more in common than we have in difference that we are all connected through the Divine to each [Music] other as a humanity and as a community may all that happens here be done with wisdom and Good Will and for the common good that this will be the community you want it to be the community we all want it to be I ask for grace for this evening grace for all who would speak and that all who would listen would have ears to hear all these things I pray with Good Will with good sense and with love for all amen amen thank you Cooper please join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Pastor and Cooper for getting this meeting started correctly item one is to consider and take action on the appointment of Scott Butler as the city manager effective June 1st 2025 I'm just going to lead out uh I feel really strongly about and I've said this before Scott's experience his depth of knowledge of our operations he's well prepared for this role his strong relationships with employees to smooth uh ensure a smooth transition for a department his work ethic problem solving and skills and leaderships helps us maintain a high standard within our community more importantly promoting our strengths from within and helping us to move our foundation make it stronger and Scott's Vision will guide us into the future with that uh I'd like to ask councel is there anything else you'd like to say in regards to uh Miss Mr Butler's appointment here's your chance M I feel like we've all kind of been able to express publicly but I I want to publicly express my support for Mr Butler um I think our city is on a incredible trajectory right now and um we have a lot of gratitude to Mr Brady for what he's done for the last 19 years and we're in the best financial position we've been in and we definitely have challenges ahead of us and things we need to work on but we really are in such a good position and I'm grateful to be part of the city at this time when when um so much incredible work is being done and um I I love what you said mayor last week that you've never heard anyone say anything bad about um Mr Butler and we kind of joked and laughed about it but it it's true I have never heard anyone say anything negative or bad about him and it doesn't mean he's perfect we know he's not perfect but he um really has tried hard to work with all of the different um players and all the different decisions and these are complex issues and that we have to deal with and so I I really appreciate his ability to work with um competing voices and trying to figure out how we can all come to a better place and better Solutions so thank you thank you council member vice mayor Chris thank you uh for your service to this community longstanding but also for setting us up for what's probably one of the easiest decisions that we've made in a in a very long time Scott I've known you a very long time when you were just a a wee little intergovernmental relations just a baby intergovernmental relations person and and to to see how you've developed and what you have done to build Mesa and be a partner the more responsibility you've taken on successfully so your ability to talk to different groups with different opinions and have all of these groups and I I've had a lot of phone calls all of them in support of you becoming the next city manager and I that's hard to do that's really hard to do so congratulations uh sorry that we're going to do this this to you but I think that's where we're going to head we're going to find out in a minute but I look forward to to working with you into building a better Mesa so thanks again thank you any more comments from the council if not I'll entertain a motion to appoint Scott Butler as the next city manager effective June 1st 2025 okay we have a motion from uh Francisco Heredia and a second by vice mayor Summers please vote all right thank you it's in the affirmative so so Mr Butler as tradition has it will you please come up and say a few words we only do this every 19 and a half years once a generation mayor I appreciate that um no I and and thank you first of all to the council again as I expressed on on Thursday morning during our discussion I um really appreciate the the faith and the trust that all seven of you have placed in me to to um to try to fill the very large shoes of of Mr Brady and so um we've we've got a great team here at the city and I know as there's been articles about this transition and others I'm glad it's focused on that right it's the continuity of the good that we're doing at the city and as council member M spillsbury said we we certainly have challenges every every city does and there's certainly uncertainty about um many facets of of government but the stability and and the continuity that we have here at the city I think is is really uh an Envy for many of our our colleagues um around the valley and and frankly uh throughout the country so uh thank you for that also again um just as um the vice mayor just did I I have to um thank and recognize Chris Brady uh for for this for his outstanding leadership but also his commitment to um allowing opportunities for investment throughout the organization and um and for preparing a great bench of of talent throughout the city I'm I'm not the only one that could be standing before you today and that's a testament to the fact that he believes so much on um promoting from within and elevating uh leadership and so um that is a a value and a virtue that certainly hope to continue and replicate because Chris has made that a Hallmark of his 19 years at the city so thank you Chris for for everything that you've done I also just you know want to thank a lot of my uh friends and colleagues who um I don't know why they're here instead of going home right now but it's it means a lot that you uh turned out tonight and and uh former council members and uh and others who took time out their busy day to to to come by uh tonight and I'm I'm so appreciative um I know um probably in June I'll have a few more opportunities to say say a few words so I'll keep it short tonight but I especially want to thank um my wife for uh for joining me uh tonight she she literally rushed off a plane didn't think she was going to be here so um I'm glad DPS is underfunded uh right now so that she can make it in time but um but I appreciate her because uh you know it it uh certainly takes a village at home too I and council member hered and I joke about this all the time between getting kids to soccer practice and volleyball practice and you know doing the work that we do in the mornings in the evenings and and I really do enjoy talking to you all late at night uh she can attest to that I never roll my eyes when I get a text or a phone call uh in the evenings I promise um but no we I I couldn't do it without her um support and um just making life function for for my family I I really appreciate that so thank you all um again I know uh building upon the Legacy that um Mr Brady has said we're all going to do great things together to to further Mesa and continue to deliver that great U service to our residents so thank you thank you Mr Butler appreciate that item [Applause] two sorry can I just say one thing or my is our time up absolutely not I just also wanted to Echo I should have said it earlier a big thank you to Chris Brady as well um you've you've um spent a lot of your life your career life I guess serving this city and serving it well and we really appreciate it great thank you anything else Council if not we'll move forward with item two the consent agenda Mr Christopher you'll come up and read that please good evening mayor and Council these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless the council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item three approval minutes of previous meetings is written item 4 a act on liquor license application for marado me poblo 103 West 8th Avenue item 4B act on liquor license application for Diamond Don 42 South McDonald item 4 C act on liquor license application for s De beastro 5221 South Power Road item 5A approving resolution to enter into an agreement with Dr Ralph and Marilyn Wilson to accept a monetary contribution to the idea museum with the benefit of naming rights of the art studio item 5B approving resolution enter into an agreement with the heel River Indian Community to accept a monetary contribution to the idea museum with the benefit of naming rights of the imagination Gallery item 5c approving resolution to extinguish a 1ot controlled vehicular access easement and three drainage easements at 7035 5 East posos Road for property development item 6A introduction of ordinance for annexation case 2589 for annexation of approximately 3.3 Acres of County rideway along South 222nd Street from East posos Road extending North approximately 2200 ft into the city which transfers this rideway to the city item 7A act on Subdivision plat for Burden West at Pioneer Crossing for property located at the southwest corner of East Thomas Road and North valis to drive mayor and council members these are the items on the consented agenda thank you Mr Christopher Miss Mosley are the blue cards on any agenda item no request for this mayor okay all right I'll take a motion okay the motion is vice mayor summer second by Miss bilsbury I'll on this vote okay it's unanimous on that thank you next is item 8A to conduct the public hearing prior to the release of a petition for signatures for the proposed annexation case 24- 01031 located at the northwest corner of East Elliott Road and South hos Road I declare the public hearing open Miss Mosley do you have any requests to speak from the public I have not received any requests mayor all right thank you do any council members want to address this item all right see none I declare the public hearing closed this hearing was to release a petition for signatures there's no other action on this item this item will come back to Council in the future for consideration on the annexation with that item nine is items from citizens present uh we allow three speakers three minutes to speak because of the topics the speakers uh raised that are not on the agenda state law generally prevents Council from responding to the speaker for those watching on Channel 11 you should know that many times at the conclusion of the meeting a council member or staff member will follow up to the speaker and get more information and look into the matter further our first Speaker tonight is Mary minino did I say that right Mary if you're here will you please come forward state your name and address and appreciate you taking your three minutes with us thank you hello I'm Mary mayeno address is 60190 Hobart Street in Mesa I'm a PC in District 5 um I I believe in common sense equality which seems to be somewhat lacking these days my topics tonight are the 3030 plan and the non-discrimination ordinance both of which are on your website the 3030 plan aims to increase women on the police force by 30% by the year 2030 do you think I really care or do you think most people care about a 30% stat I'm a woman and I don't care if the stat is 30% or 3% what makes sense is if police have gotten on the force through Merit based on who qualified the highest on various tests and skills whether you're a man or a woman it does not make sense to either lower standards so a woman could be hired or to pass over a man more qualified if I need a cop I want one that was meritoriously selected and if warranted I want them to be pretty badass and able to Save a Life maybe mine the website speaks of gender equity and demographic diversity could we please just focus on merit-based qualifications for a job no matter what the race or Sex Is We the People are tired of all this woke agenda nonsense and would just like to get back to Common Sense bottom line Equity is inequality and it's discriminatory because it puts one group of people above another based on sex or race now your non-discrimination ordinance says it protects against discrimination based on sex orientation gender and gender identity which puts it on the same par and footing and alongside the traditional areas of race sex ethnicity Etc this ordinance applies to places of public accommodation which is not wise especially as it can relate to women and girls bathrooms and locker rooms this absurd wokeness is being taken to a dangerous level biological women are not comfortable with a biological male presence in their bathrooms and locker rooms these places should be for biological women only trans women are men and trans men are women no matter what kind of mutilating surgeries or hormones they receive putting transgender rights above biological women's rights is immoral and it's wrong Queen Creek has done away with with Dei Scottdale has stopped Dei and its funding two weeks ago president Trump has eliminated all Dei from the federal government the wording in this ordinance needs to change my gosh people please use your Common Sense on these topics of concern to a lot of us here thank you so much thank you Mary thank you Mary well that's all the items we have for this meeting I'll entertain a motion to adjourn so moved thank you Miss go forth vice mayor all in favor say I I I we're adjourned [Music]