Good afternoon. I know Vice Mayor Quasimman is on his way back to uh the DAS, but in the meantime, I will go ahead and call the January 27th, 2026 city council regular meeting to order. and city clerk Ben Lane. Can we have a roll call? >> Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Lisa Barowski, >> present. >> Vice Mayor Adam Quasman. Uh, council members Jan Debascus >> here. >> Barry Graham >> here. >> Kathy Littlefield >> here. >> Maryann McAllen >> present. >> And Solange Whitehead >> here. >> Uh, city manager Greg Kaitton >> here. >> Interim city attorney Louis Santea >> present. >> City treasurer Sonia Andrews >> here. >> Acting city auditor Lelay Cloff >> here. And the clerk is present. Thank you, mayor. And here's Vice Mayor for the record. >> There we go. >> He is entering the building. All right. This evening, we have police officers Sergeant Eric Balls, Officer Ray Wilburn, Sergeant Mike Claw, as well as Scottsdale firefighters Travis Radkkey, and Logan Darling. If anyone requires their assistance, please let a member of our staff know. And just in time for the pledge of allegiance, I'd like to uh look to Vice Mayor Klesman to lead us. >> Join me alsible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. And this evening, uh, uh, Councilman Graham will help us with the invocation. So, take it away. >> Thank you so much, Mayor. I am pleased to introduce Pastor Jason Fritz, who will give tonight's invocation. He's been kind enough to offer to give tonight's invocation. Pastor Jason Fritz is a Scottsdale native and he founded Illuminate Church, Illuminate Community Church in Northeast Scottsdale in January of 2016. Under his leadership, Illuminate has grown as a thriving church, reaching thousands in person and online. The church places a special emphasis on meeting the needs of the valley. Just last year, they provided over 50,000 meals to low-income and homeless individuals throughout the city. He and his wife served together in ministry seeking to cultivate a church marked by truth and grace. Again, it's my honor to introduce uh Pastor Jason Fritz to give the invocation for tonight's city council meeting. >> Thank you so much, Councilman Graham. Will you pray with me? Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to gather today and to serve this beautiful city of Scottsdale and its people. We ask for wisdom, clarity, and especially humility as decisions are being made. That each discussion would be marked by integrity and respect and a sincere desire for the common good of the people. God grant patience where there is disagreement, courage, where difficult choices need to be made, compassion for those whose lives are affected by the decisions that are going to be made here. Pray that this would be a productive time. May our efforts contribute to the peace, safety, and the flourishing of this great community. God, we are so grateful for the privilege of public service. None of us is here in these positions by accident, but ordained by you. So, we ask for your guidance and your grace and your truth as we proceed. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. >> Thank you, pastor. >> Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much uh this evening for the mayor's report. Uh I'd like to thank everyone that attended the state of the city address last Thursday. It was a great turnout uh record-breaking I think and had a full full house at the Fairmont Princess and uh I really appreciate the chamber for putting that together for all those who attended and uh especially uh the Fairmont Princess for making it a wonderful event. And if you didn't make the event, uh we now have the um link up uh for the recording of the entire event. So tune in if you couldn't make it. Um that is on uh scottstom mayor.com and lots of other channels as well. So uh and moving right along uh we Oh, and we it will also be airing periodically on channel 11. I should include that. This week is Western week. We're really excited about the Prada Deloul coming up Saturday. I think we're all going to be there in cowboy hats and boots. We hope you'll join us. And it's of course one of the biggest uh days of the year here in Scottsdale. And then we have the Hash Knife Pony Express coming in. That's Friday, right? That's Friday. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, they will be delivering mail to us. Truly, this is a really exciting event which will take place outside of the Museum of the West. Actually, it's it's gonna the event's going to take place there, but it's the culmination of the Pony Express, who is traveling with mail. Uh, and we're the last stop. So, come join us there. I believe the event starts at 11:00 a.m. So, that's really exciting. And, uh, we'll be pushing out notice of that and please call if you need any other details. And I've talked about the, uh, Prada del Soul and, uh, which ends with the Trails End Festival. Uh, of course that brings our western heritage uh front and center and it is such a great big event and we hope to see all of you there. Um, and correction uh Pony Express is high noon out in front of the Western Spirit Museum. So looking forward to all of that. Uh, in terms of presentations tonight, we have no presentations tonight. possible executive session announcement. As is the case at every regular city council meeting during tonight's meeting, the council may make a motion to recess into executive session to obtain legal advice on any applicable item on the agenda if authorized by the council. The exact session would be held immediately and would not be open to the public. The public meeting would resume immediately following the executive session. However, meeting minute approvals. We have uh looking to approve the um special meeting minutes of November 3rd, 2025, executive session meeting minutes of November 3rd, 2025, regular meeting and work study session minutes of November 3rd, 2025. And if there are no revisions or questions on those, I will entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor or opposed, register your vote. Excellent. Next, we have consent agenda items 1 through 13. Uh, does anyone have any questions or look to have any presentation on any of the items on the consent agenda? >> Councilman Graham, >> can we pull item 10? Madame Mayor, Western Spirit. >> Yes. And that is was going to be my request as well. So, >> okay, good. >> We're on the same page. Excellent. Um, so moving on, I don't see any more uh requests to consider or have presentation on that. So, with the exception of number 10, uh we have consent agenda items 1 through nine and 11 through 13. And I'll entertain a motion to approve those items. So moved. >> Mayor, I apologize. Can you include 13A as well >> and 13A? My apology. >> So moved. >> All those in favor or opposed, indicate your vote, please. All right. So why don't we take number 10 and we'll go from there. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mayor Barasi, members of council. I'm Rachel Smatana, the tourism and events director for the city of Scottsdale. And tonight, I'm bringing forward Western Spirit Scottsdale Scottsdale's Museum of the West. They are requesting $90,000 for marketing funding. And uh on December 16th of 2025, the Tourism Development Commission recommended an allocation of $90,000 from the Tourism Development Fund allocated specifically for destination marketing. This request was made to help res uh support the outreach efforts by the museum to attract new art lovers to the museum's opening of their new and former Councilman Smith would have me add privately funded expansion uh of their beautiful museum right here in Oldtown Scottsdale. As we all know, arts is an integral part of Oldtown Scottsdale. in this exciting new development um provides an opportunity to communicate with the valley and beyond to get to know our beautiful museum and rem and remind everyone that Oldtown is the place for exciting arts and culture experiences. So, the Museum of the West brought forward a marketing plan and these are some of the deliverables they intend um over the next three months in advance of their grand opening week March 24th through 29th. City staff has evaluated the proposal and has identified a a public purpose and direct consideration substantially equal to the proposed city's expenditure. So, uh here is the action we are requesting and Todd Banker, CEO of Scottsdale's Museum of the West, is also here to um provide information and answer any questions you may have. Thank you. All right, [snorts] Councilman Graham. >> There's um a public comment, Mayor. >> Yes, Bob Pedman. Thank you. >> Good evening, Mayor Barasi, council members. Name is Bob Pageman. My comments um are centered on how to get most bang out of the buck, how to maximize the potential of the museum, how to increase visitation. So, one of the things that happens when the council approves a big project is that certain promises and projections are made and those projections are usually used to justify the approval, how it's going to impact and how it's going to improve the community. So, back in 2013, I watched the entire session of the museum when they got when they got the $13 million to to build it. And there was a consultant that made a whole bunch of projections. I want to put this on the on the projector as soon as it shows it. Okay, let's see. I got to put it down here. Okay. So basically in 2013 the projection was made that by year five the attendance of the museum would be roughly around a 100,000 visitations per year. Okay. To put this in perspective the recent numbers as the city has told me are more around 50,000. In my opinion if that was the 50 the 50-year projection by now this should be maybe 150,000. So it's certainly falling short. Now part of what they said also in the same you can see back down here that's the consulting company that that presented that and made the objections it relied heavily on on the museum attracting from the valley you know from Scottsdale from PV from from Phoenix metro in general. So the question is why hasn't any of that happened? The other thing I would say that if you listen to the you know to that if you watch that council meeting for example Suzanne Clap made um made a big speech about how the museum's purpose is also to activate the arts district. That was a major reason that it got approved. It's going to activate the arts district. Now I'm not here to figure out why that stuff hasn't happened. Uh I would say that one of the main reasons is that when they approved the project they they never put in a marketing plan. So, so they thought that by magic they're going to get those those numbers. By magic they're going to attract these people to the museum. So, there's been an absolute absence of a of a solid marketing plan. I don't know who to blame that on, but it's that's the fact. The museum is is kind of like a lure to bring visitation down. It's an activation tool. it it I think we've forgotten that it's an activation tool and we want to bring it back to have it be an activation tool and here's my challenge. Let's say it's 50,000 visitation and it's probably not all paid visitation. What can we do to bring it back to a 100,000 but that was that was year five by the way. We're in year 10 right now. If we can set that as a benchmark then then you know the challenge becomes how to do that. And I think that's the real metric that can be used that it's going to it's going to increase the visit. And by the way, it's not increase, it's bring it back to what was projected. And I think if we can do that, it's going to make a big impact on how it's going to drive traffic to Oldtown. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Bob. All right. Uh I have a couple of questions. I don't see >> Oh, after you. >> Yeah. Yeah. You want to go first? >> I didn't see you up there. Sure. Uh I have a couple of questions. So, this um TDC approves uh it's new events that over a three-year maximum lifespan $75,000, right? That's kind of our general criteria. Actually, it's not general. It's absolute. Uh or it should be. And so, how does is this coming under that program? >> Mayor, members of council, no, it is not. We uh that is for the new event development fund. The maximum of 75,000. This is specific to marketing. We did something similar to this I believe in 2016 related to a Hopi exhibit. So it's not unprecedented to um for the bed tax to pay into marketing to drive more people to the museum and to Oldtown Scottsdale. But this is separate from the event funding program. In fact, this would be taken from the city's portion of the destination marketing funds. >> Okay. And then is there a a sharing of expenses uh for the scope of this marketing program between the museum itself? >> This was not contemplated with a match. No, we will uh only pay for receipts of advertising related to the opening of the Louiswis Sands the Fourth Center and the Basha Western Art Collection. So they're going to um we don't pay till postevent. So they're going to prove how they advertised and the expenditure around that. We reconcile that and then pay post uh postevent. >> So maybe these questions should also go to Todd. Um so does that mean the city is being asked to pay for all of the marketing expenses for this purpose? >> This wasn't brought forward with a match in marketing. This is just direct marketing dollars. >> So is that a yes? the city is paying for. I don't know if you have additional expenditures. We are not requiring it with this contract. So, I will >> Okay. And before we switch gears to Todd, uh if you know, hopefully you know, um what is Experience Scottsdale doing uh to promote this new addition and the experience that comes with it? >> And I think Todd has also had meetings with them and can speak more specifically to that. They do intend to support this as well though. >> And then I'm going to have some follow-up questions for you, >> madame mayor. I can address that specifically. Experienced Scottdale we is uh definitely planning. and we've already talked to them and our director of marketing is here and working with Rachel over there to make sure that they utilize their destination marketing tools, the channels that they use across the country to to promote this event and to promote this new new 12,000 square feet. It's being added to this Museum of the West to let people know that there's a whole new set of attractions now at the Museum of the West. So, yes. Okay, two questions on that. When you say, and I should have asked Rachel this, when you say this event is this, can you explain what the event will be and what the time frame is? >> There's the opening of the 12,000 square feet, which is going to be a week-long event, four new spectacular western exhibits that are going to be in inside of that 12,000 square feet. And we want to make sure that we we only get this opportunity one time when we have a big new part of a facility to showcase to the world. And that's really the heart of the reason for the request for the 90,000 is you can only market so much with certain dollars. And adding this $90,000 on top of what we're going to spend is the ability to now go showcase on some TV, some radio, digital advertising, banners, all the things that we need to do to get that uh traveling art culture interest that's coming to town to come to our museum. Also afterwards, not just the 24th through the 29th. This is a longterm thing because we got a whole new uh part of a building that's going to be showcased to the world and we want to make sure that we can allow people to to know that it's actually happening. Without this 90,000, who's to know that's going to be able to have the ability to have people show up, right? And so we want to have the week of opening, showcase it to everybody that we can outside the state of Arizona as well as our neighbors in our state and have them know that this opening includes the Eddie Basher collection from East Valley and all the other exhibits that come with it. >> Okay. Todd, what is the museum's uh portion of the mark marketing budget that is parallel or analogous to the marketing budget that you're asking the city to fund for $90,000? >> Well, we have been uh spending a good amount of the money curating these four exhibits that have have been able to be that we are going to be able to market about this event. And we're gonna I don't know the exact amount, but it's we are going to have marketing expenses on top of the 90,000. You have an idea 50 or so total with the 90 part of it, but we can't >> I'm sorry. Did you say the 90 is >> part of it? >> Included included in 150. Yeah. >> And so over what span of time is that? >> Over the We've started already. >> Okay. And so that budget has been presented uh to Rachel and the city >> what your part is. >> Yes. Not all of it because we're going to pro provide receipts to do the audit at the end to showcase all the things that we're doing. But you can guarantee that we're doing TV, radio, concier targeting around the valley, um print banners on the on the highway on the free on the streets and direct mail campaigns. And do you know have you had discussions with experienced Scottsdale what they're planning to dedicate in terms of financial resources allocated to this particular >> don't have the dollar amount but they've they've committed to us to help us market this outside the state. >> Okay. Uh I'm going to turn it over to Councilwoman Graham and I I believe oh Councilwoman Mckllen excuse me is is next unless did you did you jump down? I'll I'll go I'll go in. >> Okay. So, uh I'm going to circle back before we we move on to the vote, but thank you for the answers. Councilwoman Mckllen. >> Thank you, Mayor uh Rachel uh and Todd. When the um Museum of the West first opened and the size of it, similar to what one of the former speakers spoke, Mr. Pesman. So, are we doubling in size with this extra 12,000? Is it a third larger? Yeah, about the size. >> Yeah, we've gone from 43,000 square feet to 55,000 square feet with this addition. >> Excellent. And I understand the importance of what you said, the hitting it hard one time. You can only have one grand opening of a new event. and to even get the Eddie Basha collection which has been sought after worldwide for it to be coming to our Museum of the West which is also a Smithsonian um authenticated uh venue museum uh is quite remarkable. So anything we could do to make sure that more people attend on a regular basis. Uh as my suggestion with this marketing would also be that people understand not just the collections but that they can rent out the Museum of the West and that it can have wedding receptions and making sure that it is a dual process when we're publicizing it so we have more return on our investment uh for the future. Just my suggestions. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Whitehead. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, thanks, guys. Um, you know, most most of the people up here weren't here. I think it was 2023. Wasn't that the magical year where every time you opened a drawer, you found gifts of art and money? And was it 23 or 24 that uh I just wonder if it might be worthwhile to tell the story of how we got to where we are today with this grand opening because there were there was a large gift of money. There was a that obviously the collection uh the Bosa collection. Can you just kind of review that? [clears throat] Councilwoman Whitehead. Um, the Museum of the West was afforded the opportunity to receive the Eddie Basha collection. And as Councilwoman McAllen talked about, this was one of the most highly soughtafter collection of Western items in the in the world for a lot of pl a lot of reasons. It represents a lot of the top cowboy artists in in the world. And so when Eddie Basher wanted to buy a painting, no one would get between him and that painting when he was [laughter] he would he would end up getting it. And he has secured some of the greatest art there is. And so we have the opportunity now to showcase that in a museum. It was in the gallery down in Chandler on his bases complex for the last 25 years. And now it is now coming to the museum and it's already starting to be curated in our first floor of our new expansion. And so when that was afforded to us, then we had $12,000 donation from Lewis Sands I 4th so that we could build the proper museum complex for this Eddie Basher collection. And since then, we've now determined what we're going to curate the rest of the museum or rest of that 12,000 square feet with with three other exhibits. And so we are going to have one of the largest uh Hopi pottery collections in the United States will be in the Museum of the West in this new expansion area. That's one of the other exhibits. And then we'll have American um Native American jewelry which will be one of the largest Native American jewelry collections ever. And uh the vision of bronzes from Charlie Russell, Remington, John Coleman, all the great sculptors of the United States will have their vision, their their bronzes in there. So, we are showcasing this with some of the very best. And as I said earlier on, you don't get to do this opening other than one time. So, we're going to do it up the best way we can to showcase this to get people there that then can go start telling people about how special this is. And I think Scottsdale Sales Museum in the West only deserves the best and have the best turnout. So, >> thank you. Yeah. I just wanted to put in context what we're marketing and you know I none of us were here as far as I know when the museum was built. I'm grateful every day it was built. That was a big risk and you know I I guess the projected numbers didn't turn out but I cannot believe over the last five years how many changes have been made. I mean this you know and these investments and so I'm really excited about this. I also want to talk about the uh experienced Scottsdale dollars versus the decision a council that I was sitting on made which was to uh have kind of internal control of marketing dollars and that's what we're discussing tonight and part of the reason was was to focus in on as the speaker said the local traffic and I think that's really something I'm interested in. I hear from visitors all the time that they've been to the museum, but I speak to residents all the time who have not. And so, I mean, is that that seems to be the focus of this $90,000. >> Would you I don't know if you or Rachel want to expand on the target audience and how it's different from what experience Scottdale does. >> Oh, absolutely. [cough and clears throat] We got to we have to we have to do a lot more marketing in the local market. Um we have the conversation all the time about people that show up that live two miles away from the Museum of the West and it's the first time they've been there since it's been open in 11 years. And we're like why did why do they not know about this? And there can be art connoisseurs as well and just you wonder how they don't know about it. just hasn't had the the marketing juice to do what it's it needs to do. And we just really feel like this is one of the big opportunities that we have with this museum over the course of its 11 years. And so that's why we're requesting we want to showcase this new part of the building which is the city's building and we want to make sure that we showcase it the best we can. And so um of these marketing dollars um is it who uh decides how like I have no expertise as an engineer in marketing but uh how to best spend those dollars. >> It's direct mail to the homes in the local areas. It's utilizing the Andy Bashad list. Oh >> make sure that we can tell all their fans that that's this is coming to the Museum of the West and things like that that we're doing. >> Okay. And I'm sure your board members are keenly involved. I'm seeing some of them in the audience with ideas, too. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Councilman Graham, followed by Councilwoman Littlefield. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, thank you, Miss Matana. Thank you, Miss Mr. Bankoffer. Uh, you know, I just as I'm listening to these questions, I I mean, just to be a little blunt, um, if people don't know about the museum, it kind of falls a little bit on the museum. Well, just to be candid about that, Mayor and Councilman Graham, in the 11 years that we've been as a museum, the budget has grown incrementally, slowly trying to build it up to a piece where we have enough marketing dollars to market that it's actually there. Do are you looking at like what your like what your marketing budget should be as a percentage of your total operating expenses? Like >> are you guys looking at metrics like that to make sure your marketing >> we're try our goal is to increase our marketing. That's our number one goal >> and that's what we've started to do. We just have this opportunity now one time to say we're opening up this glorious new ex exhibit space and we want to showcase it to the world. >> No, I um so I'm a big believer in the Museum of the West and I I you know I think it's an excellent asset. >> I love that it's western themed. I love it in our downtown. Um we've invested the city has invested in a significant amount of money. Um, we built the building and then, you know, Museum of the West, Western Spirit doesn't pay rent. So, that's a big boost cuz we really care about it. Um, we when the museum was first started, you know, it was, I think, a $400,000 annual injection was promised for the first five years. Um, but that five-year uh termination was waved. And so I think we still give that contribution every year if I understand that correctly. >> Correct. >> And then plus we also last year gave sort of a um a one-time injection for some lighting and for some speaker and some seating upgrades and that you know for some capex >> that's important and and we've been there and we go there and >> those are helpful and those are valuable. Um, I'm also I mean I agree with some of my colleagues the you know the Sans expansion, Louis Sans expansion and Eddie Basha collection. I mean a lot of money has gone into that that was privately funded. >> Yep. >> Um and um so it's a real asset to our city. Uh I guess uh maybe for Miss Matana um this is not Tourism Development Commission approved. What did the TDC um review these uh funds? Did they make a recommendation on them? >> Mayor, members of council, yes, they did. December 16th, they heard a presentation from Todd about uh more specifics on the marketing plan and recommended to bring forward to you uh requests for $90,000 for marketing. >> And how did that number how was that number arrived at? I mean, why not 50,000? Why not 150,000? What was the thinking behind that number? Mayor, members of council, this was the number that uh we were approached with by the Museum of the West that they thought they could execute their marketing plan. Um and these are the dollars that they needed to um formulate to finish that plan to execute that plan. >> So, when you were there at the TDC, did you guys talk about how $90,000 would fit within their existing marketing strategy? >> Was that discussed? >> Yeah. >> And [clears throat] what did you what were the conclusions from that discussion? I wouldn't say that it was a in-depth instruction uh discussion. Todd did go into the specifics of the marketing plan and how they were going to employ that um in a little greater detail than he has here today and it resonated with the TDC and they unanimously approved uh bringing it to you. >> Did you guys discuss uh the breakout across categories, digital ads, print, social media? Are there any partnerships are you guys promoting at the waste management open? You doing anything like that? >> Mayor, I I guess what what what's the breakout of the how it's allocated? Was that discussed at TDC? >> Yeah, but we didn't have individual numbers. We just talked about the categories that we were going to focus on specifically and the for the first time TV came up that we knew we would not be able to do TV if we didn't have the $90,000. >> Um what are you this was kind of asked but who are you targeting? Are you targeting instate um what's the breakout between instate and out of state uh travelers? Mayor Broski, Councilman Graham, I we are focusing on both. >> Yeah. >> So, it's important that we utilize experience Scottsdale and we um make sure that we are talking to our in our residents around the valley here as as well so that they know this this new expansion is taking place. >> Do you have any firm commitments or anything in writing from experience Scottsdale? nothing in writing. But >> um what's the just for the public? I guess this is kind of also a um promotional marketing opportunity. What is um what is the launch date for the um exhibition and um you said it's a week long. When when is that? >> March 24th through the 29th. >> So it sounds like you're going to start cutting checks here. Do you um pretty soon to get the promotion? Is that right? >> We've started. Yes. Are you you're confident that the full I think you said that you're going to probably match it $60,000 because you said $150,000 total marketing strategy for this? >> Yes. >> Um and are you're confident that none of that's going to be banked. That's all going to be spent leading up to the March opening date. >> Hopefully by then. We might have to do a little bit afterwards because we we believe strongly this goes on >> forever. >> Yeah. Not that we're gonna fund forever, but we're going to fund this for a while to make sure that we keep the enjoyment and uh enthusiasm going. >> Um, and have you talked to um have you worked with any of our partners? um setting aside experience, but Scottsdale Arts Historical Museum um maybe do you have any partnerships contemplated to stretch the dollars and get any sort of synergies um with other our other partners to as a force multiplier? >> Well, experience Scottdale has really stepped up and said they would help us. I mean, so we >> we want to make sure we focus on out of state >> traveler, art art people from the outside of the state as well. So, >> okay. Thank you, Mr. Bankoff or Miss Matano. >> Councilwoman Littlefield. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I am going to support this tonight, but I do think that your marketing strategies need a good review. Um, from what I have seen over the past few years, uh, it leaves a lot to be desired because you need to contour to when people are going to be in the downtown area and wanting to find a new place to go visit. Um, and I'm talking primarily around the Christmas time when you have, you know, thousands of people roaming around looking at Christmas lights. One experience I had which really brought this home to me was my husband and I had been enjoying the Christmas festivals along the canal bank and looking at all the lights and the lights in the pool and the canal and all this stuff. And we got on the bus and we took off into Oldtown downtown area. And of course immediately it got dark, right? And so we're traveling through the bus and on the bus was one other couple, a couple from Canada. And we started chatting with them and talking to them and talking about Scottsdale and what all they could come and see and do and all this. And she said, "Well, don't you have a museum down here somewhere?" And I said, "Yes, we have Museum of the West." She says, "Well, where is it?" And we were driving right past the door and it was totally dark. No lights, nothing. And I said, "That's it. You can come back in the morning and go visit it, but you need to kind of plan some of the marketing." And and this is just basic business around when the people are going to be there, when the people are going to be interested in seeing stuff that are tourism related because we have a whole bunch of tourists here. So to me, I I'm going to approve this because I think we need the money in order to expand our marketing projects in this, but I think it needs to be a little better honed as to where we spend that money and how we reach the people who are already here but have no awareness of what's where it is, what it is, how it's doing, when it's open, when it's closed, >> all of these kinds of things. So to me that's vital you know and and I think experience Scottsdale can help with that to some extent too >> and work with them on that kind of issue. Thank you. >> Thank you Councilwoman Dascus. Thank you Madame Mayor. >> I think what you're hearing is very consistent support for the Museum of the West. It is a point of pride for the city of Scottsdale. Uh I think of the Museum of the West as an anchor for Oldtown. It is a fantastic place to direct people to because it's beautiful. It's luxurious. It's um it's a warm and wonderful place to come with really interesting western heritage that really no one sees anywhere else. All accumulated in one place. So, it's a very very special place. And um I think our consistent question is what can we do to grow attendance? partially because we're all thinking about how can we grow attendance throughout Oldtown in general. And I think this is an opportunity for us to go ahead and say if we grow attendance in the Museum of the West, that can have a definite economic impact on the remainder of Oldtown. So, what I'd like to suggest is that we not only consider this for our tourism plan that's coming up for review in February. Um, but maybe we could ask you to come back and give us a presentation on the results of this 90,000. um and the marketing plan that you have and if there's a partnership that you're looking for from us, something like that, we would I think we're all expressing an interest in growing your membership and working with you because we really value the Museum of the West and we feel that you have a tremendous contribution to give to Oldtown. >> I couldn't agree more. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. So, I don't see any more questions on the board, but I'm going to just ask another question uh that I didn't ask earlier, and that is you may have heard um instead of doing the downtown and Oldtown external marketing PR contract, uh the city manager has um developed that started to develop that in-house. So, have you had any discussions, and that's for the promotion and marketing of the area you're in, um, as well as all of the downtown and Oldtown areas. Have you had discussions with staff, um, about because as I understand it, there's a million dollars, I think, or thereabout, dedicated to marketing, which our tourism, you know, our staff will be uh, executing and dispersing um, directing traffic on. Have you had discussions with how your expectations or plans dovetail with what the city is now trying to do for Oldtown and downtown? >> Well, I can say that I've had short conversations with Rachel and and Greg and Judy. I but we haven't got into it deep because we've been caught up in the whole trying to make sure that we get this first three month campaign off the the u the chart and going. And so we do know about that. We're we're familiar with it. As we talked about um a couple weeks ago in here, promoting that Oldtown is very very important and it's it's not just us. It's all of Oldtown and making sure that that is still the place where everybody wants to come when they come to Scottsdale. And so I I believe strongly that we should have continue those conversations immediately. >> Okay. And there was a um some discussion about experience. Scottsdale may not be the right, you know, organization to be um promoting this on a widespread level. I disagree. Um I don't know that much about the Basha collection or the SANS, you know, collection. Um, but if it's so widely acclaimed and um and known, I would think this certainly could serve as a national or international event. So, I I feel like tapping into Experian Scottsdale's expertise there because what you're what I'm hearing you say and I'm a huge fan of the Museum of the West, huge fan. And I I think that um it can achieve bigger success than what we're doing. And I'm not sure how you do that, but some of this discussion may be helpful um in terms of as uh Bob Pedman pointed out, I was on the council when this whole concept was coming through um on the private public partnership and the city was being asked to spend a tremendous amount of money and back then I expressed serious concerns about um really another city sponsored art museum, right? I I think that's probably exactly what I would have said. We have one on property here, you know, over at Smoka. >> Um, and while a different flavor, I did have major concerns about that becoming a city supported, uh, facility. And you've done an incredible job with getting, um, private funding, nonprofit funding, uh, through donations. And I think it's outstanding. It's it's stunning. But I I I can't vote for this tonight based on what I've heard and what I've read. I don't think there's a clear marketing plan. I don't think there's um there should be an allocation of what the city's going to be spending. I know it's up to $90,000, but it should be specifically set out. I think there should be in all honesty an equal if not more match maybe I would say more match from um private or you know uh or fundraising dollars right and um when people when groups come to the city to ask for money from the tourism from bed tax or or for any reason right we have very high level of scrutiny and I just I haven't heard that tonight like what is what exactly are you going to do. And I do think that given the fact that the city has decided to start its own internal push to market um and do public relations for Oldtown, you certainly fit well within that box, if not the centerpiece of that box. So, I think there's an opportunity there that that hasn't been um hasn't been investigated yet or fully fully, you know, looked at. And I know how hard you guys work to do this, but if if it were just up to me, I'd say it's a no for today. Go back, work with your board of directors and your internal team, experience Scottsdale and the city, and see how we can get a pie of money that doesn't isn't all on the city's shoulders. So, that's that's all I have to say on that. And great job. I know we're putting you to the test tonight and uh you you've answered the questions. I just think we can we can take a finer pencil, sharpen the pencil to this one. Councilman Graham. >> Mayor, thank you. I will move to adopt resolution 13580. Um, Councilwoman Dubowskis made some excellent points. I thought that that I was I thought that her comments were um spot on. And I'd like to, if I could, Mr. parliamentarian and maybe adjust my motion to modify it to say that you on the condition that they come back and report um how the marketing program went as far as and this is maybe for the contract administrator. I know that Steve Gigma is the contract administrator but Miss Matana I know you supervise him. Um I don't know what I want to look at but I mean maybe come back and give us a breakout of >> sure by category how things were spent. Um key performance indicators such as attendance increases visitor origin data. Um maybe some estimated economic incremental economic impact. Um maybe you can do some sort of return on investment calculation for us. And then we'd also like to see kind of maybe some details of the monies that you guys put in um how those were contributed by the museum and just to give us some the taxpayers some confirmation and assurance that both sides of the money were spent, nothing was banked and everything was deployed so we can maximize this roll out for this massive investment that we hope is going to be wildly successful. I hope you send us an invitation because I'd like to be there for it. And um and that's my motion. March 24th at 2 PM and hopefully is on all of your calendars because I have >> sent that over a couple months ago >> though. That's going to be a big day for the city and for the downtown. Yeah. >> And for your museum. Yep. >> And um >> I'm I'm sure you're getting your speech ready and >> and so if I can make that motion. >> I'm going to second the motion and I'd like to speak to my second. >> Okay. Are you done? >> I'm done. But the the the city at Uh, city attorney, >> mayor, members of city council, and councilman Graham, what I would recommend in terms of your motion is make it two parts. The first part, adopt the resolution because it adopts the contract and then a second part to your motion would be to direct staff to bring back the the information that you you just uh requested. So, I'll move to uh adopt resolution 13580 and then I'll move to direct staff um to bring the Museum of the West uh and the contract administrator and the tourism director back to report on the success of the program including a breakout of um expenditures by category um key performance integrators such as um uh attendance increase visitor visitor origin data and other metrics. clear calculation of the return on investment. Um break out of uh Museum of the West portion of their of their marketing dollars and um um did I say anything else? And that kind of covers so just kind of a brief thing just to >> make sure our taxpayers know that >> oh and then also just to clarify that that everything was spent and that there was nothing banked so we can maximize promotion for the event. >> It'll be spent. Okay, I'll I'll second that. And yeah, I I just want to comment that I think this discussion has been really good and um but because of the timing of this event, I I don't want to I'm going to support it too. But it is uh you know it is the kind of information that you know had we all been ahead of the game in November, December, we could have been asking for and more clarity on how these dollars. But I like the very much like the idea of seeing how it works and I'm I'm rooting for huge success. It's amazing what has happened at the museum over the last three years. So, >> thank you. >> All right, Councilwoman McCallen. >> I just want to make a comment. Actually, my question is a clarification question for uh Miss Matenna. Um, with the TDC when we give money out to groups, they have to come back and report. Correct. >> Mayor, members of council, they always do a postevent reconciliation. We rarely just have these marketing uh requests. So, we always get those and deliver those to the tourism development commission. There are some of the major events like canal convergence and um you know a lot of the uh new event development do come back and present especially if they think they are going to request it again. It's it's not for certain for every expenditure but often uh we will hear from those folks again and everyone has access to the postevent reconciliation. >> Okay. I just think it would be a great practice and then that way when groups do come back to us, we know if we've had return on investment, we know if you've done what you said you're going to do. All the questions that um occurred here tonight would be answered. So, um that's just my thought. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor Quasman. >> Thank you. Todd, can you just tell us again what the date is on that event? >> March 24th. So, thanks. Um, >> 2 p.m. >> Mr. City Clerk, do we have a council meeting that night? >> Yes. >> At two at earlier, >> right? It's at 2 p.m. though, correct? >> Yeah. Our event starts at 2. >> Okay. I just want to make sure in case we had to change times, measuring twice, and >> in mind when we set 2 p.m. >> Thanks. >> And Councilman Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I will also be supporting this tonight, but I would like to suggest or ask that when you come back and talk to us again that you show um how you plan to interact with the other tourism businesses in the downtown area and to see if you can all kind of add on to each other and build a a unified downtown tourism attraction center. um and actually help each other and make make a a connected a connected branch. I guess that's what you want to say. >> And I think that's in in uh connection with your question, mayor, about this new set of funds that we're going to use. That is a big part of that. >> Good. >> Getting everybody to work together. >> I think it's very important. Thank you. Absolutely. >> All right. I don't see anything further. And uh with that, let's take a vote. Thank you very much. All right. We do not have any citizens petitions tonight, but we do have non-aggendaized comment period. So with that, we'll turn to the non-aggendaized public comments. Starting with Steve Sutton, followed by Dan Isac, Melissa Keg agenda, >> Marcus Don Powell, and Justin Allen. We'll step right over here to this podium and Steve Sutton. I'm going to need use of the projector. You please turn it on. Thank you. Steve Sutton, address on record. Good evening, Honorable Lisa Barowski, Mayor of Scottsdale, and other council members. This is the 2019 City of Scottsdale bond election pamphlet that has three ballot questions. Funding for bond parking structures and other community spaces and infrastructure is only mentioned in question two where it is written. Shall the city of Scottsdale be authorized to issue and sell up to $112,300,000 aggregate principal amount of its bonds to provide funds to design, acquire, construct, reconstruct, improve, furnish, and equip municipal facilities and improvements, infrastructure facilities and improvements, public parking facilities and improvements, streets and transportation facilities and improvements, pedestrian facilities and improvements, event space and improvements, and community and open space infrastructure and improvements, including acquisition of land or interest therein necessary for any such purpose and to pay all necessary legal, financial, consulting and other costs and fees in connection therein. Also included in the election pamphlet was a list of planned projects. The operative word being planned because these projects were not promised. Now the simplest way to explain this difference between planned and promised is with quotes from an Arizona progress article authored by Councilwoman Solange Whitehead. Quote, "Is the council's job done after the bonds are voter approved? No, absolutely not. Each individual project will still be subject to council review and approval." End quote. These quotes allude to the fact that projects can be cancelled due to lack of council approval. They are not promised. So, what were the plan but not promised projects regarding parking? None are mentioned in the question two ballot language, but there is an accompanying list of projects that has two projects mentioning parking. The language of the first project number 15 is very specific in designating size, location, and purpose in stating build 200 space parking lot off 75th Street to serve the city court and Scottsdale stadium. The second project number 63 does not specifically state size, purpose, or location. It only states creating multiple buildings in an area exceeding a square mile in size using this language. Build parking structures in Oldtown Scottsdale. In fact, of the 20 listed projects accompanying question two, this is the least specific in size, location, and purpose. Any council member that previously claimed voters voted for a garage to be built at the parking corral or in historic Oldtown was not being truthful. Any council member after hearing my public comment tonight who continues to make that claim should be considered to be deliberately lying to the public. >> Thank you, Mayor Bowski. >> Thank you, Steve. Dan Isaac. >> Dan Isaac, address on record. Um, in the past I've spoken about hypocrisy and audacity. The, um, words today are macity and idiocy. I'm going to start with the latter. A year ago, when the city council, in order to appease a vocal, rabid faction of their supporters, got rid of the sustainability plan, that was idiocy. When they did that to diversity and not DEI, diversity, because the city did not have any quotas or preferential hire, so it was just diversity. That was also idiocy. It was idy not just because it was bad policy to remove them, but it subjected our city to a PR nightmare. We weathered that storm well until last week when somehow through amazing incompetence by our city manager, not only did the NAACP feel unheard, they felt so disrespected that they are threatening a national boycott of Scottsdale. The NAACP is a 117-year-old organization that is well respected and very powerful. If an executive of an corporation created such a fauxaw, that executive would either be terminated or to take a play out of Mr. Kaitton's book, put on administrative leave unpaid until an investigation is held. I think the council should consider such action. Now, let's talk about macacity. At the last meeting, Barry and Jan repeated lies about the budget for an outside advertising agency. First, Barry kept saying it was a million dollars of overhead. I know math is hard, but he's an accountant. He should be able to do arithmetic. It wasn't a million dollars, but he likes saying that because it's a bigger number. More importantly, if any of you believe that only 40% was going towards professional services and the rest was overhead, you have a profound misunderstanding of how professional services firms work. You are paying for expertise. You cannot do an advertisement without developing the content. You cannot figure out where to put that advertisement without doing analysis on the market. To say that it was all overhead is as absurd as saying that when Michelangelo painted the cysteine chapel everything but the cost of the paint was overhead. No, you are paying for skills. So to call it overhead was either idiocy or macity. And lastly the vote was to deny the contract. Nowhere did the vote direct our city manager to spend thousands of hours of internal staff's time to take it in house. I believe that was an abregation of his responsibilities and again this council should discipline him for making a decision that is actually the council's purview. Thank you. >> Thank you Dan Melissa Kemp. Hi, I'm Melissa Kemp. Uh, McCormick Ranch was here two weeks ago. I'm back for part two of what I hope will be a series based on civic responsibility in our public comment. In my first part one, I tried to focus on a specific form of resident input, which was open public comment. That's what's happening right now and its importance to you as a form of early warning from your residents about what's going on in their neighborhood. Tonight, I want to speak a little more broadly about civic engagement as a rule or as a whole, which includes Oakland public comment, but it's bigger than that. It can show up in public comments, but it also shows up in other ways like um the sustainability plan. So, I didn't know that that was coming up earlier, but I can't help but notice that we had a sustainability plan a year ago that was um discarded by this city council despite the fact that the creation of that plan was through civic engagement that spanned multiple years, hundreds of residents, thousands of hours, and had massive amounts of support from your community before it was just completely discarded. You had other options. You could have put it into a work study. You could have pulled it back and done some trimming, but no, you discarded it. So, you basically discarded civic engagement. So, here we go. Highly engaged residents who engage in work like that and bring it to you, they're not a problem to be handled. They're an asset to be valued. They come in all kinds of personalities, all kinds of shapes, and all kinds of voices. Some easier, kinder, gentler. But at the end of the day, when residents care enough to show up and speak up and unearth problems and participate in the solutions, that is a precious resource to be valued and respected. Replacing the level of effort through staff time that those thousands of hours of citizen unpaid volunteer labor created would be very expensive. And let's go further. that still paid labor would not deliver the same level of resident knowledge that was in that plan and the amount of buyin you had from the fact that the plan was coming from your citizens themselves. So when engagement is recognized in values, your solution sets increase. The decisions that you make improve. The stewardship of our tax dollars gets better. Your costs are reduced. It makes good sense, good fiscal sense to value civic engagement. It's an asset. The opposite. When residents are dismissed or discouraged, the opposite happens. Participation narrows. People leave quietly. Voices get quieter, but they just disappear. Trust erodess. And as a result, your solution sets decrease, your costs increased, disagreements and legal implications increase. It's just nowhere good. So when residents see that years of effort can be set aside that quickly and discarded, a lessons learned. Investment of their time and talent stops. From a stewardship perspective, this matters. This council in the last year has poorly stewarded what was the gift of precious active civic engagement. I'd ask you to rethink that. Thank you very much. And next we have Marcus Don Powell. And last we'll have Justin Allen. >> All right. I've got a couple crucial and critical vital issues here. Um, is did we turn this on? There we go. All right. 2020, my children were abducted by DCS. No cause um at all. Case was dismissed. Uh, everything was found to be without merit. Through further investigation into it, in order to take children, you have to get an approval from a judge. DCS just can't come in and take your children. So, in order to create a sense of urgency, the attorney general and the department of child safety made this declaration. If you could zoom in on it, I've pointed out the c the numbers and such, but what we have here is a declaration from the department of child safety that basically cites a case number. This case number was submitted to a judge as a cause of an alarm that the children were in some sort of danger. This was signed and notorized by both the attorney general and the department of child safety. Upon further review, I my uh discovery there is upside down, but that's okay. Upon further review, you can go match this case number with public record and see that this case was dismissed. Therefore, inside of this notorized declaration from the Department of Child Safety and the Attorney General that states that everything herein is true and accurate and that these children are in danger is in fact the opposite, inaccurate. This case that they cited as alarm for the children to be taken was actually false. That case had been dismissed many years ago. Subsequently, I was placed in a my children were taken. So, I went from a single father with two children and a three-bedroom home. They took the children. I was claiming assistance. Uh I was I was claiming my right to benefits because I qualify through ADA. and they placed me in a unit with black mold all through the unit. And I lived there for over a year. There's black mole. I lived in that unit right there for over a year. Can you see that? Uh lead paint. Lead paint was in this unit. Proof of lead paint uh test strips right here. Yeah. Look at that dark. All right. So, I lived in this toxic environment for over a year. Finally, after a year, they came in to ask me uh to move to a different unit. I had the big 40inch TV. I asked them for assistance. I asked them for a rolling quarter dolly. They refused that reasonable accommodation. Few weeks later, knock on the door. EPA's there. Kicked me out because of a health hazard. Big bright orange sticker on the door, health hazard. Got to go. I contact the place um the agency that was doing the housing and the funding. Hey, what's going on with my ticket? They just ignore me. After a few weeks, they finally said, "Oh, you don't have a ticket anymore. You made threats to staff out of nowhere. Completely made up. Stole my housing voucher." So, I'm calling for an investigation into the housing agency because 2,000 a month, I have a permanent housing voucher. 2,000 a month, 3,000 a month over the next 60 years. That's millions. 80 years. If I'm going to live another 60, 70, 80, that's million. That's over a million dollars. uh crimes and heists have been um committed on much lower motive than a million and a half, a couple million dollars. And so I'm calling into investigation into section 8, home inc. And any housing agency because I'm telling you right now, somebody stole my permanent housing ticket and they just ignored me now. I can't get a hold of section 8. They just ignore me. >> Thank you very much. sorry to hear about all of that and um we wish you the best of luck. And >> do you have any suggestions on where I would go next? I >> I don't and from what I can tell this is not a city issue, but we're not uh this isn't a time to engage um in with someone speaking on non-aggendaized items. So, I'm sorry that I can't help you anymore with that, but wish you the best of luck and thank you for coming to visit with us today. >> You guys have a great day. Thank you. >> All right. Uh, that concludes the non-aggendaized public comment that >> I'm sorry, Councilman Graham. Oh, there we go. Sorry. >> Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to respond to one of the comments that was said because there was um because my name was referenced. So, >> go right ahead. >> Um, a comment was made. Um, espersions were cast against the city manager and I just want to say that Mr. Greg Kaitton is proving himself to be a steady, professional, and resultsoriented city manager who I believe consistently puts residents and taxpayers first. And um his calm leadership and focus on public safety and ability to manage complex issues uh makes him the executive our city needs. So, thank you, city manager. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, moving right along, we've added a new um rule for council members to provide reports. Um, and just a a comment, I I don't think we discussed this when the rules were discussed, but it would be helpful to have this indicated on the agenda moving forward. So, maybe we can talk about that at some point. >> Oh, mayor, it is on the agenda. >> I mean, identified with who is going to be issuing a report is what I mean by that. That could be helpful. >> Mayor, if I may suggest that you do it calm and then by seniority >> and we'll be sure to >> I' I'd rather just go with the board because maybe everybody does not have a report. You know what I mean? So, I'm going to stick with the protocol. Councilwoman Littlefield, >> who by the way happens to be the most senior member of the board here. So, there we go. Does that mean oldest? [laughter] >> Doesn't necessarily mean that. >> Thank you, mayor. >> Wisest. >> Oh, I'll take that one. >> Oh, thank you. I I just would like to let everyone know that the council's open meeting invitation is now available to anyone who wishes to speak directly to the council members regarding an issue which is concerning to them. We are currently holding these meetings here in the KA from 4 to 6:00 p p.m. on Monday afternoon before the Tuesday council meetings. Two of us, Jan and myself, were here yesterday to listen to citizens directly regarding their concerns and they do not have to be concerns that are on the agenda, just city concerns. I believe it was a very positive session and at least some of those concerns can be addressed fairly quickly now that we know about them. Some may take a little more time, but at least we're on our way. If you have similar Scottsdale concerns, tonight I am inviting you to our next session, the Monday afternoon before the next council meeting from 4 to 6:00 p.m. The next council meeting is February 10th. So our next meeting will be February 9th here in the KA 4 pm. If you have a Scottsdale issue that is concerning to you and about which you would like to make us know aware, please come and sign in. It does not have to be an item that's on the con uh on the agenda. The front desk will be manned and we will have police here as needed. We will talk one on- one and see what we can do to help. Even if we cannot help directly, perhaps we know someone who can. The next um meeting, as I say, will be here on the 9th and there will be at least two of us, maybe three. We cannot have more than three because of the the laws about having an a maximum number, a majority number. So if you have something that is of concern to you, last night we had two people show up with with very vital concerns that we had not heard of before. And so it was a very interesting um meeting and a very interesting conversation with both of them. We also had another gentleman here to reiterate a concern that he had. So please feel free to come if you can. If you have an issue, let us know. We can't help you if we don't know about it. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I'm going to interrupt uh council comments or reports to go back to Justin Allen. I jumped ahead and thought we were already to Justin Allen. My apologies. I hope that wasn't him that just left. Anyone know it was? Oh, someone go grab Oh, thank you, Rachel. Appreciate you. All right. Uh let's let's go back to the council uh comments with the understanding that if we can get Justin back, we'd like to hear from him. Uh Councilwoman Whitehead. >> Uh yeah, I just wanted to share a memory. Wait, see he's coming back. Okay, let's let him go first. >> That's that's great. Justin, my sincere apologies. >> Thank you very much. >> I thought Is that him leaving? Because we recog I recognized him. >> Yes, I appreciate it. I appreciate you letting me speak today. Um there's, you know, I get when my phone died, I had a uh what I what I wanted to say written on there, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of um uh unfortunate circumstances that are happening in the world. And um you know, I was brought here uh I was drawn by the Holy Ghost to you know, let you guys know that uh we seriously have a lot of fraud, a lot of um misappropriation of funds um that are going on in this state, a lot of mortgage fraud, deed fraud, and we have foreign agents that are working on our soil against Americans and Scottonians alike. And this is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. And uh we need to restore peace and justice in this world. And you guys are the leaders and you guys have a duty to do that. So, thank you very much. You guys have a beautiful evening. >> Thank you. Thank you for being here, Justin. We appreciate it. All right, Councilwoman Whitehead. >> Okay. Um, thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I just wanted to share that the city of Scottsdale lost someone really special who was a friend of mine and his name was uh Rick Kirsten and uh he was one of my first friends when I moved to Arizona and I went to the same gym. There were only two gyms at the time and so he and I went to the same one and we both only went to the gym so we could justify our coffee. So we sat around and had coffee afterwards and um it took me years to understand so much of what he was to this community. He was an artist. I knew that he was a absolutely amazing painter. He was a cartoonist. Um he was um he had galleries and just he continues to have these greeting cards that are just amazing. But he also he and his brother uh produced the brilliant and iconic artwork uh for the Wallace and uh Ladmo show that many people who've been here a while remember. He also produced the cutest um cartoons to promote the Mcdow Sonor and preserve when it was just a twinkle in our eyes and we thought how are we going to get these 30,000 acres well you want to talk about marketing that was good marketing and so he and he was just um a you know a great man a father grandfather and again an incredible artist and um the last time I saw him not surprisingly we bumped into each other in uh none other than our Oldtown Scottsdale farmers market. Um so I just uh wanted to bring to the attention that we lost him and he was uh truly just another special person in Scottsdale. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman uh Whitehead. And now are we going with Councilwoman Mckllen? >> Whoever. >> Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. You're next. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um that was he was a gem for Scottsdale and so related to so many different people. We were talking about that before. Anyway, uh as part of the um council's um reports every week, what my hope is that you'll get to hear some of the activities that each of the council members have taken part of uh because we all uh can't be at everything, but we can be at some things. and some of the exciting things that happened last week in Scottsdale. Uh, one was the Wimi, which is what's in my backyard. And I want to thank the city manager and his team in constituent services and neighborhood services. Um, Jamie Peterman especially, uh, for putting that together and continuing to put that together. There'll be another one coming up in a few months that will be in the south. This is the second one we've had and it's just an opportunity for citizens to be able to go and there's a table for every department in the city and if there's a question you have before you leave you will either get it answered or we will get your information and we'll find out a way to get that information to you. So, it's just a real personable way for you to have an opportunity to be with all the um staff who understand what your situation might be. And it may be a simple answer or it may be long term, but uh the staff, the city staff has really dedicated themselves to this and I appreciate uh the city manager um going through with this and continuing this project. And you get an opportunity to tour whatever facility it's at. Last time it's been at fire stations this year. Next year they'll be at different facilities, but it'll just give you an opportunity to stay in touch with city staff. Another opportunity I had this last week was to um attend the Scottsdale Serenade Conf uh concert which was at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church which uh Councilwoman Dascus and her family attended and Councilwoman Whitehead attended along with myself and other members in the audience who are here today. Uh, but it was 75 years of history of Scottsdale through music. And we were laughing ear, we were even talking about it today. There were two ballads that they shared, one of which I had heard and one I had not. And they were ballads about Scottsdale. And I thought, how did I, who've lived here my whole life, not know this ballad? So, um, we're going to make sure we get it sung and we're we're all going to learn it. Maybe a sing along. Just kidding. Uh, but it was lovely and it the concert focused on the history of Scottsdale through music and with a western flare. Great program. Uh, this week coming up is Tonolo Middle School's National Junior Honor Society induction. That's tomorrow night. I think Kathy's going with me. Uh, and then uh, of course on Saturday is the Proadel Soul. So, this is just really an opportunity for you to know that we want to attend events and if there's an event out there that you want a council person at, request us. We'll somebody's going to come to it. So, uh I'm just happy that there's so many still very friendly family um events that are here in Scottsdale. It's not all glitz and glamour, but it will be on Saturday though. I guess the theme of the Prada is the diamond um celebration. So kind of would that be like electric cowboy type glitz? I don't know. Anyway, that's my report. >> Thank you very much, Councilman Graham. These are very good and and positive messages and uh I have one that's maybe a little um sadder um but I did want to share and the family doesn't know that I'm sharing this tonight but I wanted to share mourn the sudden and heartbreaking loss of a dear family friend um Sarah Lucas who was a brilliant and precious 13-year-old student at one of our local elite charter schools. who passed away um last week peacefully in her sleep from the flu. Her bright mind, joyful spirit, and deep faith as a proud member of the Scottsdale Bible Church touched touched everyone who knew her uh leaving an indelible mark on our community. And they held her services on Tuesday this week at Scottsdale Bible. Tragically, uh, the flu claims perfectly healthy people every year, and it reminds us to stay vigilant with our health this season and hold our loved ones close and hug them a little tighter while we can. So, uh, we just pray for Sarah's family, the Lucas family, um, and her younger, uh, surviving sister Scarlet. um that her family and friends find comfort in uh the cherished memories that they have with Sarah and in the love that she shared so freely and in the promise of eternal hope that she embraced herself. Um and I don't think this is the best venue for this, but there is a um if if if you do search the the Lucas family um Suprani and Steve Lucas, there is um sort of a commemoration that um that he had used to help the family, but we pray for them and uh we lost a very precious, beautiful soul from Scottdale. Thank you. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor Clausman. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor. And again, I echo uh Council Member Graham's um sentiments about the Lucas family, and may the author of life comfort the mourers during this difficult time. Um uh I first of all I want to thank uh the mayor and members of the council for all of their wellw wishes knowing that my daughter my newborn was was hospitalized this last week. I'm proud to say that Ya Houdet is uh doing very well and and she's on the road to recovery from RSV. Um and uh um I want to give a special um a special congratulations a hearty mazletov to uh Mendelouch and his lovely wife. Uh he is an assistant rabbi at congregation Bethila in Scottsdale and the son of the spiritual leader Rabbi Alouch. So this would be Rabbi Luch's first grandson, Rabbi Nestra Luch um and who's going to be celebrating um his eighth day. So he'll be having his bris tomorrow and all are invited at Congregation Bethila tomorrow at 8:00 to celebrate that very special occasion. Um Hardy Mazletov on behalf behalf of the council for the entire Jewish community and Scottsdale community as a whole. Um also uh tonight is uh in the Jewish calendar. It's a very special celebration of Yudvat um the 10th of the month of Shvat. And for those um for those in the uh Kabad world of of Judaism, um I certainly attest even though I don't dress like a black hatter all the time, uh I very much am part of the Kabad philosophy. And this is the day that um the Rebi took the reigns. This is the day of the yard site, the passing of the sixth labreerbi of righteous memory and the and the um and the ascension of of uh the labavbi mendelers of righteous memory to become the leader and uh and really changed the course of world jewelry and American jewelry honored by Ronald Reagan, honored by Jimmy Carter. um multiple presidents and and really is the um the impetus when you see kabad houses around the uh around the world and every university you know the big joke is is that Elon Musk is going to get to Mars and he's already going to find a Kabad house there waiting for him so um we're very grateful um and on the final note my um I just want to say I wish I could make it to Prada del Soul but it is on a Saturday and so for religious reasons I will not get to make it so I want to see everybody at the council and the mayor and wonderful pictures in their best cowboy gear. So with that, thank you guys. >> Thank you. That concludes our council reports and our meeting for this evening. So uh with that, I will move to adjourn. >> All right. Anyone opposed? >> All right. You get to stay here by yourself if you are. Bye.