e good afternoon welcome to Phoenix city council chambers we'll begin today with an invitation please rise for police chaplain John Taylor please join me in prayer dear wise and loving father first let me say thank you on behalf of all who are gathered here today thank you for your many blessings and thank you for life itself thank you for the ability to be involved D in useful work and for the freedoms that we enjoy in this great nation you have said that citizens should obey the governing authorities since you have established these very authorities to promote peace and Order and Justice and so I pray for our mayor for the various levels of City officials and in particular for this assembled Council I'm asking that you would graciously grant them wisdom to govern a sense of the true needs and Welfare of our people a confidence in what is good just and right the ability to work together in harmony personal peace and in their lives and joy in their work I pray for the agenda set before them today please give them Assurance of what would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in and around our beloved City of Phoenix it's in your blessed name I pray amen thank you for the beautiful words please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al flag United States America and to the rep for it stands one nation thank you I'll Now call to order the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council will the clerk call the role councilman galinda here councilwoman wado here councilwoman Hajj Washington here councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman Pastor Council Robinson here councilman wearing vice mayor Stark here mayor goo here Daniel Feliciano and Elsie DTE are here to provide interpretation could you please introduce yourself and your team thank you mayor hello my name is Daniel Feliciano and together with my colleague ELC D will be serving as Spanish interpreters for today's city council formal meeting I will take I will take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speak speaking audience and review some guidelines POS gracias thank you mayor thank you so much will the clerk read the 24-hour paragraph the titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours part of this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number G 7314 and S 51355 through 51379 thank you will the City attorney please explain the role of public comment yes thank you mayor members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made in the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda the city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations claims or litigation additionally any member of the public who appears before Council in their capacity as a lobbyist must as required by Phoenix city code disclose this fact before addressing Council the city code requir speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner profane language threats or personal attacks on members of the public council members or staff are not allowed the person who violates these rules will lose the opportunity to continue to speak thank you we'll now go to approval of the meeting minutes councilwoman O'Brien do you have a motion on item one mayor I move to approve the formal meeting minutes for August 28th 2023 second motion and a second all those in favor please say I I I any oppos nay passes unanimously councilman wearing do you have a meeting a motion on item two uh move approval of the minutes for September 6th 2023 second we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously councilman Robinson do you have a motion on item three yes mayor I move we approve item number three formal meeting minutes from November 21st 2023 second Motion in a second all those in favor please say I I any oppos nay passes unanimously boards and commissions vice mayor do we have a motion on item four yes I move to approve mayor and city council boards and commission's recommendations or nominations second Motion in a second all those in favor please say I I and the opposed nay passes unanimously the city provides an advisory role to the State of Arizona on liquor licenses we'll go to that portion of the agenda next vice mayor do we have a motion yes I move to approve items 5 through 11 we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously item two uh 12 is recommended for disapproval uh this is a item in councilman wearings District shall we hear from staff and then I'll turn to the councilman for a motion or that' be fine all right if Kristen could give us a brief update on this one good afternoon mayor members of the council I'm Kristen benitz of the city clerk's office this request is for a new liquor license for a restaurant the rec the location was not previously licensed for liquor sales and does not have an interim permit the 60-day limit for processing this application is November 16th 2024 in accordance with the airone revised Statute 4-21 B the application was posted for the required 20-day period and no protest or support letters were received staff recommends disapproval of this application based on the applicant's failure to provide the required City questionnaire and failure to Pro to pay the liquor license application fee the applicant has not completed the application process and therefore has not demonstrated the capability quality qualifications and reliability to hold and control a liquor license thank you thank you councilman wearen there is no one registered to comment on this one uh move for disapproval second we have a motion and second any questions or comments roll call it is a motion for disapproval yes yes yes hjge Wasington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor thank you I move to approve items 13 through 42 accept the following items 26 and 31 and can the clerk confirm if there any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comment second yes mayor vice mayor also excluding item 20 also excluding item 20 second we have a motion and a second roll call gind yes wado yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes goo yes passes 90 we next move to item 20 which is a grant from the Ford foundation for our tree and shade master plan we will be featuring the plan at an upcoming policy session do we have a motion I move to approve item 20 second second Leonard Clark is here to comment good afternoon mayor and council member members uh my name is Leonard Clark and I am here in support of this measure uh as we've all seen with this just beyond crazy summer breaking all records of heat um we need more shade how many times have we gone into the parking lots of a fries or a Walmart it's just asphalted cemented and people will park sometimes very far out in the parking lot to get that shade and uh I've personally seen how in a case tree in our own yard can go crazy in 2 years it can be almost 20 ft tall providing shade so we're going to have to start coming up with some things I know you're already working on because of the extreme Danger from the heat you know people don't realize just how dangerous it's getting this shade initiative is very critical looking at the trees that require very little water of course there is the public safety downside out in the West Valley some towns have cut down the trees and our washes because they fear the people who are unhoused um that are uh maybe some of them who might have uh uh addictions and these types of things will commit crime they go in there and they live and that's a tragedy so that's the role that our government your leadership should play in these parks that we have so that we don't become like a New York City Central Park where if we're going to have trees and shade then we have to have the people to enforce that so I'll just talk about defunding the police we're going to need citizens and people out there and police to make sure that the criminal element the ones who would harm our families the ones who pedal their drugs who have their addictions and refuse to to try to stop taking their drugs will not inhabit these shaded areas but we need the shade so I hope you'll look into those and I support this and hope you will pass it thank you thank you well councilman gindo AA thank you here I just want to say that um when I was briefed by staff from the city manager's office on this Grant application as well as the plan which we hear at a later time I want to thank them for the thorough work they've done for the explanation and most especially for the oxygen return on investment that we will get when these trees achieve um the the height um that are that's necessary for that so thank you so much to the staff for their hard work on this thank you well said roll call G yes wado yes HUD Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 thank you we next go to item 26 which is a request to enter into an IG with the Community College District for supervised emergency medical technician and paramedic preceptorships I move to approve item 26 second we have a motion and a second noting that councilwoman Pastor will not participate in this item roll call valind yes wado yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes giko yes passes 8 Z Item 31 amends city code related to speed limits will the city clerk please read the title I it 31 is for ordinance G 7314 an ordinance amending chapter 36 vehicles and traffic article 12 section 36-18 schedule 1 of the Phoenix city code relating to local speed limits at 27 locations vice mayor I move to approve item 31 second motion and a second roll call gind yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 we next move to the final portion of our agenda and I'll turn to our City attorney to explain it thank you mayor during citizen comment members of the public May address the city council for up to three minutes on issues of Interest or concern to them the city comment session is limited to 30 minutes the Arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented thank you so much uh we will begin with Diane Barker followed by Beatrice contas Proxima good afternoon mayor and city council I'm Diane Barker in district 7 glad to see my councilman here and when I'm interested in our environmental cleanup I got to speak briefly with Mayor Kate and it's the uh there was an amendment of an IGA over at Maricopa County in the last month and the price is going up for them to pay the city as most fees are I presume my um particular interest we've got this Zebo waste that we're goal headed for 2050 we have recycling center I think more people are getting accustom although every day I learn what I shouldn't be sorting I should not be putting plastic bags which are all over the place in there so we have a lot of education and what I'm thinking because the city has a very focus and a good one for more housing more affordable housing we want jobs I'd like to see where we're instead of selling this plastic this you know that we create after this waste center which apparently China isn't buying anymore that we have the center for producing that near where we're building some affordable housing hopefully city owns it city owns some land down there by Broadway and 35 and that is full of I think cont mination needs to be cleaned up and it's got beautiful possibilities with wildlife and we have people that are maybe getting a little money for a startup home they would be working in these recycling centers so i' I'm asking you to explore holistic corridors where we can achieve the goals for zero waste and employ people that are working working let's support working people that contribute to this great country thank you thank you Diane I missed Leonard Clark on speed limits I apologize Leonard so be after Beatrice we'll go to Leonard Beatrice good afternoon my name is Beatrice contas I've been an ESL nged tutor for over 15 years working with nonprofit organizations it's so reward reping to work with a community at Smith Park Center for a few years there was there has been four completed courses these programs initially were sponsored by now students cover but now students cover the teachers rates since it hasn't been easy to get more sponsors to continue supporting them it's great to see people thrive through to grow in education for better jobs higher positions continue studying to have a career even for parents to help their children with school there's a great interest on these programs groups are from 10 to 20 students per class throughout the week and I thank you for the space and time to present our issues inquiring for your support as well and keeping to offer and give this community the opportunity to prosper and succeed there are some parents and uh students that are going to also present their testimony for this issue thank you thank you and maybe I'm member of our team can explain how to apply for Workforce grants um be oh sorry U Leonard is next followed by Coco thank you mayor gyo um is this going to be the whole because I was going to speak non-citizen as well because I'm not going to speak long on the first one first one I guess you're saying that this is for 31 I blew it on letting you that's right speak on for on on speed limits so if could you do both uh yes thank you so much I appreciate it um just real quickly on the speed limits I know that it's going to be determined by Traffic Engineers and people using scientific information and all of that but I just want to tell you as even though I don't live in the city of Phoenix uh I live close to it I was born here and uh it's getting to the point where my concern when you pass a measure about speed limits is when you pass laws you do have to look at what is the enforcement mechanisms and right now we don't have enough police and I'm sorry that it's Politically Incorrect to my friends to know this the police are the ones who enforce our speed laws so if you're going to change and add these new speed limits and other parts of the Town how do I keep the Maniacs who were getting on my bumper when I come here people you have to be careful how you look they pull guns on you young people especially think they don't have to follow the speed limit they're going felonies so I'm just saying when you if your Traffic Engineers when they are considering these speed limits what good are the speed limits if there is no enforcement it's not your fault I know there's a small crowd of people that want to hate the police and say we don't need enforcement sorry but Anarchy doesn't work now I just wanted to move on to the second thing that I wanted to talk about um as you know President Biden was here uh at the hila indigenous uh reservation and finally did an apology for the federal government's role in kidnapping indigenous children I am not indigenous but I am a parent and if my child was ripped away from me of course and and then on top of it my child died and I didn't know what happened I would be deeply concerned so I'm very thankful to president pidan for doing that but there's several things I wanted to talk about as a native Phoenician in regards to Phoenix Indian Steel Park um one the plaques around the park are outdated now I know that Deb Holland and I'm very thankful for President Biden for appointing for the first time an indigenous person to be the in charge of the Department of interior I know that she I think the investigation is through or she just issued the second volume for this report on children at Phoenix Indian schools how they were mistreated so in light of that and I know you cannot comment on investigations but if you go to Phoenix IND indan still Park to this very day and this is not you this was not done when you were here but the plaques give glowing reports I've looked at all of the plaques and they don't talk about the abuses or anything they make it sound like the children that were kidnapped from our indigenous brothers and sisters uh that they just went on a field trip and they had a great time so I would ask that this is not revision of History I'm just asked that we have an update of this and I would ask Congressman Stanton who was a very good mayor and I was thankful that he let me speak so many times here before him his name is on one of the plaques could he please ask Secretary of the Interior Holland and work with all of you folks to reconsider redo the plaques I'm not saying bad good things didn't happen there in the very end in the 1960s but what I'm saying is we need a revision and then finally Secretary of Holland has announced about children deaths she's saying she doesn't want souvenir Hunters we must have dignity and I totally agree with her but how many children we are not being told how many indigenous children died at the Phoenix Indian School why have we not been given this information Phoenix must come up and admit this thank you thank you Coco and then Francisco good afternoon council members my name is Koko Garcia I'm the founder of Handover Rover a dog rescue and I've been up here a couple of times recently uh what I haven't mentioned is I'm a dog trainer and a behaviorist and I want to start by expressing gratitude for the animal cruelty statutes in Phoenix which are broader and more protective than the state while there are many areas to work on there is one critical area that's missing and I'm here to ask for your help in addressing it currently there is no law in place that prevents an animal from being confined to a space too small for its entire life I apologize ahead of time if I get emotional this is a really important topic and it's it's pretty deep there's no chance for movement and no chance for freedom and we see it every single day as a behaviorist I've seen firsthand what animal what Extended Animal confinement does to their their behaviors they deterior deteriorate mentally and emotionally they develop neurotic behaviors that sometimes if they can be undone it takes years and there's not a lot of people that want to deal with that in some cases oops I'm sorry there there's also serious health risks for Animals forced to live in their own waste without relief right now there's an active Animal Welfare case going on and it could have been resolved had this kind of confinement been prohibited by the law it's got wrenching and I believe that we can do better my team and I are committed to researching these policies and other places where similar laws are in effect and we'll draft language to present to you very soon I wanted to bring this issue to your attention now because the animals in our city deserve better thank you thank you Francisco I Vilma Francisco Guzman okay Francisco has departed do we have Vilma Lopez Missy puit after Vilma SMI Smith parz thank you Smith Park smth Park Smith Smith Park okay my name is uh uh my name is Vilma Lopez and I'm a student at uh uh Smith Park that uh school that is uh about to be closed and it brings this great s sadness uh um that the closing of the park since uh it has been a center of education for us and we've been be able to have English classes um that uh we were able to uh care for our needs with our our teacher Beatrice contas [Music] okay Gass we've been having many classes that have benefited the community there such as the GED classes uh English classes there's been activities for children and education there as well as uh different activities such as soccer and very uh very uh good opportunity that for growth in in that we have had there and we're just asking if there's any way that we can have an opportunity to continue with that sort of education at that location thank you Miss followed by Paul hi mayor city council um I am in District 8 hi I was here um last month but I went to the wrong meeting but I still spoke so I'm here now to speak to all of you um my name is Missy PR I am the founder of Arizona's first Cat Cafe latara currently now I'm an initiative um called chees all cat with the Arizona avvo cats and we're here to advocate for cats and humans alike um I'm sure you know that we are in a cat crisis right now I would love for everyone to acknowledge that we have over 500,000 cats roaming our streets and it's not it's not a nice life the suffering and sadness that they have to deal with every day is overwhelming there is no Department of Animal Welfare so it so it falls on our private citizens and our nonprofits the nonprofit and privately funded model of cat rescue is not working we need city funding and help from everybody I'm asking for the city to recognize this and be a part of the change in the cat community and that's all I have to say thank you thank you Paul is next followed by Emily Paul Paul simos thank you mayor and thank you Council um I'm a citizen of the country Gables Community residential subdivision I'm here to discuss the City of Phoenix Valley Metro rerouting of south bound Route 27 impacted by the roundabout at 31st in flamco country Gables the riter was the riter alert was issued on September 27th with only three days notice without any neighborhood input or adequate notice Community expresses disdain immediately about this subject petition was circulated of the affected homeowners in the area 21 out of 23 residents signed the petition that impacted by this Bassy routing I did the sign petition letter was emailed to City Council on October third to a member on October 24th I attended the city city of Phoenix citizens Transportation Commission meeting voiced my issues and gave them a copy of this petition the initial cost for the traffic coming device Improvement has been for 2009 has been purged I have records of the improvements in 2014 in 2014 the City of Phoenix spent $92,000 for the common device at the intersection of country gaes and Flamingo I could not retrieve the records from um 2009 if I were to estimate that they spent $100,000 on this coming section in 2009 that would mean that the city has spent over $400,000 on a Comming Comming device on a collector Street intersection in a nocal local neighborhood since the rerouting per Valley Metro schedule and One Direction on a local Street in front of my house I've had 14,000 14498 buses and 80% of them have advertisement so I know every lawyer in the state of Arizona I'm trying to be a little funny here so the safety concerns to the elementary and middle school children that are used to walking across the street to meet my dog and say hello I have to shun them off uh the economic pricing of my home I've been there for 32 years I didn't buy my house in front of the bus rout I'm asking the committee to submit my uh petition and I have other paperwork for this matter thank you thank you Emily is next followed by erinda good afternoon my name is Emily sturup I am with Handover Rover I am a board member and I have known Koko Garcia since 2020 I have a little bit different perspective on Rescue that I'd like to present to you today I have several autoimmune diseases that drastically affect my quality of life I've had hundreds of hospitalizations and over a dozen surgeries managing my symptoms has become my whole life when I met coko I made it clear that wanted to help but that I had very limited resources and very limited energy she didn't miss a beat giving me some local transport duties for veterinarian and grooming appointments it wasn't much but it changed my whole outlook I was in a very dark place I just lost my mother to covid and my own health was wavering my depression was so awful I felt like I was losing that battle getting out of the house to help these dogs save my life little by little I realized that I could help and it was everything everything to me there's a lot of us with limited abilities in this is in Arizona I hate to use the word disabled but we we have abilities also and time that we want to to give to our communities and um this is something I didn't think I'd ever ever actually be able to do and it has changed my entire well-being and my entire existence this is so much more than helping dogs this is encouraging ourselves and others to get to know our neighbors this is getting involved in your local community developing friendships and learning tools to help animals decompress and realizing those tools help people too I have such a renewal renewed appreciation for my community and my local government I still have to deal with these chronic illnesses but now I have a whole community of resources I believe we have a nonpartisan issue here that could really help bring some justice to these animals and some purpose to those of us who have limited thank you for your time thank you and Linda Calderon Proxima Victoria Gonzalez gomezz [Music] thank you um hello my name isind Calderon and I am a director at the Smith Park and I'm very disappointed with uh the results of of the closing of the Smith Park uh I've been there serving for three years and we've been working on on staying open and I'm very uh um upset and uh uh disappointed in Carlos cindo for not supporting the the Latino community and and helping us maintain this uh this uh uh educational program open to us l [Music] um just to mention that one or two sentences at a time would help me be more uh accurate um sadly uh we lost our entire soccer uh program because of this closure and we're seeing various problems arise because of them nor the City of Phoenix nor any of the other councilmen uh men uh members uh of the City of Phoenix were able to help us with uh having the the funds needed it has been the the family uh the parents of the community uh that have been able to help with sponsorships and and funding for the programs that we've had at Smith Park to this point and even then they're looking to close the park that we been funding ourselves and we ask that Carlos cindo do not divide the community do not uh uh uh encourage the division amongst us we ask you to be a good leader for us so that we we can United as a family as a one and and be able to provide the best Services possible for our our community at Smith Park and we ask that we Pro uh provide this help for Our Generations um not only present but also in the future and we ask that uh Council gindo don't listen to different uh gossipers that different comments that provide negative uh negative feedback about the community park and we ask that you help the immigrants that are finding our district and provide us with Solutions for [Music] [Music] Smith Park and I'd like to thank the director of The Parks who had spent some time with us and all those who provide services at the um Smith Park we've been able to accomplish a lot such as providing 400 backpacks for uh children jackets also uh different uh Provisions for those who are pet owners in the park such as bags to pick up the waste and um we just ask that uh we continue forward helping the community with the progress uh of uh providing a solution for our problems thank you may God bless you and hope we take the make the best decisions Victoria Tera Victoria Gomez [Music] thank you please I almost started speaking in Spanish my our name is Victoria Gomez and I'm also a student at Smith Park um I used to receive uh the education there for free but now I'm a paying student and we hope that we can continue with this program and I'm really saddened because of the closure of the park and if you can see uh I've been able to benefit from the educational classes as a student there and has been a resource for me to uh progress and to uh have uh um benefits for the future and move forward with uh with um my um progress in life and there are uh many other programs that many have benefited from that I haven't and also that the children have had soccer um the soccer program there has been a positive influence in the children of community that we wanted to continue to provide for them uh so that they have opportunities in the future [Music] we go there to relax to know other members of our community and to benefit from the the different programs there and I thank you for your time gracias Teresa will be our last speaker Park yes my name is Teresa Martinez and I one of the students who have received my GED from attending the programs at Smith Park and I would like to thank all those who are involved in the programming so that these classes would were be uh were able to be [Music] conducted and the programming here was h great opportunity for me to obtain my GED uh to make progress in my life and better the situation in my family and that it could be a better uh to contribute for my family and also for my community and on the other hand it saddens me that uh uh in the future these opportunities will be taken away for myself and other members of the community to prog make progress in their lives Park and I'm also disappointed because of all the this what the Curren is uh uh that of the closure of the Smith Ark that are taking away opportunities for future uh students there so I am appealing to higher authorities to see if we can uh get some consideration to provide educational programs such as uh GED U classes in English and other programs that have been provided at Smith Park thank you thank you uh we had two speakers we ran out of time for so they will go first next time we are adjourned may I want to ask a question you I drive come on Bo