well welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for September the 11th 2023 that I think we we can't just um run by that date without pausing to reflect on the significance of that can we today is the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks nearly 3 000 women and men were killed that day by the terrorist attacks thousands more were injured and many First Responders and others died from Health complications caused by those attacks we will never forget the images of planes flying into the World Trade Center people jumping from burning buildings First Responders running into those buildings and collapsing buildings we should also never forget that flight 93 did not arrive at the hijackers intended target that's our nation's capital because of the courageous actions of the 40 passengers and crew members on board who learned of the first two attacks by cell phone and fought back ending with a high-speed crash of that plane in Pennsylvania during our prayer tonight I would invite all of us to be particularly mindful of those victims and their families and the First Responders that were so brave on that day and afterwards and the many Heroes of September 11th um so thank you for allowing us just to pause and reflect on that I will note for the record that council members Duff and go forth are unable to attend tonight and are excused to council member Summers is participating by a zoom and all other members of our Council are present we will begin our meeting this afternoon with an invocation offered by Pastor Jared Moore of the Trinity Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance so I invite everyone to please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance well thank you Mr Mayor and council members I'm grateful to be here today on behalf of Trinity Church where we have recently changed our name to One Life Church our main campus is on Gilbert and University just went through a multi-million dollar renovation and we have we're one Church in two locations we just launched a new site out in the Eastmark neighborhood so we are committed to Mesa and we're grateful we're grateful for this I am a little underdressed that I'd like to be but here's why yesterday we celebrated our one year anniversary of being one Church in two locations and so we gave everyone in attendance one of our one life AZ t-shirts just to celebrate so you might see about 15 to 1600 people around our city walking around with these t-shirts and I wanted to gift our mayor our city council and the people that aren't here today bummer for them so the staff a bunch of t-shirts now here's the thing my assistant did her very best online to size all of you up so please take no offense to the sizes that are in here and she threw in a couple extra just in case we got it we got it wrong but if you don't like it put it in your shop we don't care but just a little gift from one life Arizona or onelifeaz.church um just to say thanks and we love being a part of all on the great things that are happening in this in this amazing city as the mayor said today is September 11th I think it'd be appropriate as we begin our time this invocation just to take a few moments of silence and then I'll I'll come together and lead us in a prayer let's do that now Lord your word says that you come close to the Brokenhearted and today we realize on this significant day that there are many people who are affected in different ways of the tragedy of 9 11 but particularly we pray for families of loved ones whose live lives were lost that you would come close to the Brokenhearted that you'd be near them and Lord we thank you for our amazing country we know we're not a perfect country but we're a great country we thank you for the opportunity to live in this amazing country and also in this amazing this amazing City and now as we turn our attention um to the work before our city and our Council and our mayor I pray that you'll give them wisdom he'll give him discernment of all the different issues that they're dealing with God go before them I pray this over our church all the time I prayed over our city tonight that you would just make the hard things easy and whatever we're dealing with that we would trust in you first and then we would work hard to Steward what you've what you've given us and so I pray as we begin this meeting tonight that the love of Jesus would come here to us that the Holy Spirit would rest upon us and the mercies of the heavenly father would be near to us and fresh to us tonight in Jesus name we pray amen and God bless you all thank you Pastor please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance of America and to the Republic foreign thank you next item on our agenda is Awards and recognition we have two items on that agenda for tonight first we want to acknowledge uh we have a changing of the hands of Benedictine University I think everyone's aware that Benedictine has been a wonderful partnership for the last 10 plus years between that great institution in the city of Mesa and throughout that that 10-year period we've been very privileged to have uh Charlie Gregory Charles Gregory at the helm of leading that effort and the bad news is that Charlie is retiring and so Charlie I would invite you to come forward and and share thoughts perhaps on on the significance of that partnership over your your service but also we're very excited to meet your replacement I had the pleasure of being introduced to Dr Joseph Foy and having a wonderful conversation with him earlier today and and I I feel like you're leaving us in good hands but tell us what's what's new at Benedictine thank you Mr Mayor as uh you and I have discussed I know I have three minutes but as I told you earlier it usually takes me three minutes to say good morning so I'll try to make this quick uh yes a year ago I announced that this last year would be my last year at Benedictine I've been blessed to serve the last five years as president but prior to that in about 2011 and 12 I was charged with helping to open up the campus in Mesa and the reason we did that is because it was a great fit for us our mission seemed to be identical to the mission of Mesa we didn't come here to raise money we didn't come here because we needed the resources we came because there was a need that we felt like fit with our mission quite well and we've grown in those days from 63 students to close to 450 maybe more than that this year we'll get through the tally it's grown and the reason it's grown is because we had the support of the mayor's office the city council members and our colleagues and through the years have become my friends and I'm grateful for that many of them have served on the city council or worked on the staff and and it's more than just a Business Association it's a partnership and I'll be grateful for that so when I announced my retirement to the board they went into um a national search it took us all year long and when they asked me what I would look for in the next president I said I think that you need someone that has truly been addicting at heart that likes to listen before they speak someone that's a servant leader that believes in serving others over self someone that guess what we're about as a mission and looking at the greater good of all rather than the individual and I'm pleased to say we found such an individual his name is Joe Foy Dr Foy is a colleague he's well versed in the Benedictine values he knows what our mission is he's a friend and I think that you will be well served as a community I know the university will be well served with him at the helm it is a distinct pleasure and honor for me to pass the torch and to tell Dr foyes I have publicly and privately that if I can help him anyway I will do so it's a great honor for me to introduce to the city council and all those online and listening to Dr Joseph Foy the 13th president of Benedictine University thank you good evening Mr Mayor and esteemed members of the city council members of the city and of course colleagues and Friends of Mesa I've learned since starting in this role in Late July it is always really hard to follow Charlie Gregory but I will do my best this is truly an exciting time to be at Benedictine University starting our second decade serving the Mesa Community and Beyond as I begin my tenure as president I look forward with tremendous optimism to extend our work outside of the classrooms of Gillette Hall to work with each of you in the city and with area businesses and K-12 and Community College partners and non-profit organizations in a more direct way so as to bring the power of partnership and the university to bear on meeting the needs of our times in the coming days I'll be assessing the needs of our campus while making critical Connections in and throughout the community and I'm glad that those started tonight Mr Mayor including also the privilege of meeting with Bishop Dolan and the Diocese of Phoenix so as to serve our faith-based and value-centric Mission and our status as an independent Catholic University within the Diocese of Bolt Gillette Joliet excuse me and the Diocese of Phoenix living out the Benedictine wisdom tradition while there is much to be done it is my vision that Benedictine is collaborating with all of you to bring greater access to opportunities in the areas of Health Care and of Mental Health Care technology including the emerging field of artificial intelligence and education and in business I want to work with business and industry to co-develop Badges and certificates for returning adult and working learners so also that they can advance their career prospects as well as transitional possibilities extending that to K-12 to establish clear High School to college to Career pipelines and Pathways of opportunity most importantly we want to work with you to retain talent for tomorrow's leaders right here in Mesa so having had the privilege of working with this community well at Alverno College to launch the direct entry Masters of Science in nursing and from The Experience Benedictine has had under the leadership of presidents Carol and brofly and of course my colleague and friend Charlie Gregory I know we could not ask for better Partners in that endeavor of building the bridge to the Future so I look forward to working with all of you in this community and I thank you for your time thank you Dr foyer I have on my script that we're going to come down and take a pic don't take off too quickly Charlie let's come out we'll take a photograph with you and Dr Foy just commemorating this transition and and recommitting our you know the city to this great partnership foreign thank you under Awards and recognitions we also want to continue the acknowledgment of our of today's date and then the 911 uh anniversary that we're that we're all very aware of it's been as we've talked about earlier 22 years since that tragic event and I'm I'm glad that one of the ways we've chosen to commemorate this event is by dedicating a day of service in our community and throughout the country and and I'm very proud of the service activities that have occurred in Mesa last Saturday and those those activities will continue throughout this next week so on this last Saturday Mesa kicked off our commemoration of 9 11 with a breakfast honoring the brave men and women serving our community as First Responders and remembering those we lost 22 years ago in observance of the September 11th National Day of Service Mesa is joining just serve to inspire volunteerism through service opportunities throughout our city many service projects will continue this week and weekend and we encourage residents to get involved by visiting justserve.org after the breakfast this weekend just served volunteers presented our First Responders and elected officials with a special gift that was made through a service opportunity I'd like to invite the Lynn Bodine to come forward and tell us more about that event welcome to Lynn I'd like to invite my just served colleagues to join me here at the podium if that's all right mirror of course thank you so much um mayor Giles vice mayor Heredia members of the city council thank you for the opportunity to be here as mayor Giles mentioned earlier 22 years ago today tragedy struck [Music] and nearly 3 000 lives were lost many of whom were which First Responders who rushed into the Twin Towers to rescue victims of the attack in remembrance of the Fallen this past Saturday just for volunteers hosted a pancake appreciation breakfast in honor of mesa's First Responders they are the ones who are first on the scene when unexpected tragedy strikes the residents of Mesa at the event nearly 300 firefighters and police officers were served breakfast in the plaza at the Mesa Convention Center speakers at the event shared memories of 9 11 11 and commended the courage of those in attendance also at the event as the mayor mentioned handmade quilts were presented to the leadership of Mesa fire and medical department and the Mesa Police Department along with notes of appreciation from the students at Johnson Elementary and youth from the Kimble East stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as mayor Giles mentioned this event also served as a kickoff for a 911 love your city week of service we'd like to invite individuals families businesses schools and everyone in Mesa to participate and join together in turning a day of Sorrow into a day of service there is something for everyone to do volunteer at a neighborhood School clean headstones at the city cemetery donate food to a food bank write notes of appreciation to a veteran or member in the military or volunteer to help out a local non-profit these and other projects can be found as the mayor mentioned on justserve.org or the city of Mesa volunteer website at this time I'd like to recognize Gwen Matheny who along with other Jester volunteers made 52 patriotic themed handmade quilts over the past six weeks to honor our First Responders here in Mesa mayor Giles and vice mayor Heredia we also recognize your many contributions to the safety and well-being of the residents of Mesa at this time we'd like to invite Gwen and also Tava Udall to present you both with a quilt of our things and appreciation to you in addition Fred Ashby and other fellows just sir volunteer brought a sample of the many notes that were shared from the Johnson Elementary School students that day thank you thank you one way I'll come down for a photo and you guys can look at our beautiful quilts [Laughter] it will be crowd in here thank you are we coming close to fitting in here no we're fine we do this all the time the forest has always been back thank you all right thank you thank you thank you very much next item on our agenda is our consent agenda we'd invite Mr I invite Mr Kevin Christopher forward to please read the consent agenda good evening mayor and council members these are the items of 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'll be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A approving one additional vendor to The Cooperative use term contract for heavy duty truck construction industrial Fleet and equipment parts services and accessories for the Fleet Services Department item 4A approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Pinal County for replacement of a city of Mesa gas line within County right-of-way this Project's funded by the 2010 gas bonds item 4B approving resolution to enter into the intergovernmental agreement with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and the Mesa Police Department for Cooperative Law Enforcement Training item 4C approving a resolution to enter into a fiber license agreement with zayo group replacement of a fiber optic cable network within the public right-of-way item 4D approving resolution extinguishing portion of a 60-foot temporary retention easement located at 5818 East Baseline Road item 5A approving resolution declaring the document filed to the city clerk entitled city of Mesa Personnel rules effective October 18 2023 to be a public record and providing availability of the documents for public use and inspection item 5B introduction of ordinance repealing the existing Personnel rules applicable to city of Mesa employees and adopting new Personnel rules item 6A introduction of ordinance Missouri case 22-835 for property located south of East Lehigh Road and East of North Stapley Drive rezone the planned area development overlay to allow for a single resident subdivision item 6B introduction of ordinance for zoning case 23-22 a property located west of Val Vista Drive and north of Brown Road rezone and major site plan modifications to allow for development of a day care center item 7A approving ordinance for zoning case 23-282 for property located north of Ray Road on the east side of Power Road major site plan modification and amending the conditions of approval of zoning case 21-69 to allow for a financial institution for the drive-through item 8A approving subdivision plan for property located west of Gilbert Road on the north side of McKellips Road and item may be approving subdivision plan for property generally located north of Broadway Road on the east side of 63rd Street Mayor and council members these the items on the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Ms Mosley have there been any requests to speak on an item on the consent agenda no request mayor all right thank you I see that Mr Freeman has made a motion seconded by council member spilsbury please vote Mr Summers how do you vote I vote I thank you motion passes unanimously with council members go forth and Duff absent and excuse next item on our agenda is item 9A I have declared a conflict on this item so I'll be not not be participating on this item and vice mayor her radio will be handled item 9A is to take action on the construction manager at risk guaranteed maximum price number one contract for the Signal Butte Water Treatment Plant expansion Ms Mosley do we have any requests to speak on this item number Quest Spaceman do any council members want to discuss this further the request is there a motion to approve this item I see a motion by customer Freeman a second by council member spilsbury uh please cast your vote Mr Summers how do you vote I vote I I uh the motion passes unanimity with the mayor of seeing due to a conflict thank you thank you vice mayor thank you vice mayor next item on our agenda is item 10 items from citizens present Mr Mosley I know I have one request to speak are there any others that was the only request all right thank you uh invite forward Mr Brian Moore Brian I know I got your name last name wrong Maury I'm sorry and I apologize I was a little bit late thank you very much for your attention welcome Brian you have three minutes thank you very much uh and thank you for the opportunity to be heard as we honor and remember all those who lost their lives 22 days 22 years ago excuse me and all those who continue to fight for individual freedoms today I'd like to take a moment and thank Mesa police and Mesa fire and medical for what they did for for my family earlier this year in January my mother a longtime Mesa resident who has suffered from mental disease and substance abuse for a long time ingested a lethal dose of fentanyl when I found her in her apartment she was unresponsive she had no detectable pulse she was cold and stiffed to the touch and her eyes had glazed over in that moment Decades of fear pain and anger overwhelmed me I was unable to speak I couldn't think of what to do if not for the patients of your 911 dispatcher the skill and most importantly The Compassion of the First Responders who rushed to our side that waking nightmare would have been the last moment I had shared with the once very competent and compassionate woman who helped raise my brother and I from a miracle that not even the doctors could fully explain she is still alive today she has some lingering issues but nothing that will prevent her from enjoying life should she choose to do so I wish I could say that my family was stronger in this moment because of this incident but we're not there yet instead I just want to remind everyone especially today everyone who cares about other people First Responders and the epidemic of addiction in our society that while it may be easier to dismiss and even hate substance abusers because of the pain they cause especially to those closest to them we must remember that they are sick and they are not free and oftentimes neither the people are around them I got to watch Mesa Police and Fire work together and I'm grateful for that experience thank you to them in the emergency room staff at Banner Desert Hospital thanks to them there is still a chance that my mother will free herself from addiction none of those professionals gave up on us that night so I won't give up on our family either thank you very much thank you for for sharing that Brian appreciate that that concludes everything on our agenda for this meeting is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Freeman and Miss Pillsbury all in favor please say aye aye aye thank you Mr Summers uh we are adjourned [Applause] [Music]