what good afternoon thank you for joining us on Wednesday September 18th before the city council meets we will convene the assisted housing governing board I'll call that governing board to order roll call Board member Galindo V here board member wado board member hjj Washington here board member magard board member O'Brien here board member Pastor here board member Robinson here board member wearing here Vice chair Stark here chairo here Vice chair Stark do we have a motion on item three yes I moveed to approve resolution 224 second we have a motion in a second roll call gind yes guado yes hod Washington yes mager O'Brian yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes GGO yes passes 8 Z sorry 90 we will adjourn the board meeting thank you so much for joining us for that important housing work and now we will move to the invocation I'll invite police chaplain Harry ston forward Madame mayor honorable council members and guests please pray with me Lord we know that wisdom will continue to grow as a byproduct of right choices and godly responses and as we apply your word to our daily circumstances we ask you to help us make good use of the wisdom that you give us every day sometimes our choices may not seem clear but you are not the author of confusion we know we have enemies who want to deceive and confuse us so father please instruct this counsel give them a heart for your will wisdom a growing desire for understanding and insight we know that wise choices will watch over us keep us safe and fill us and the citizens that we serve with joy so guide every decision we need to make today Father help us to observe lessons from all you have created the truth principles which you have built into the very Universe let us learn from the wisdom of sewing and reaping the importance of a strong root system in Life or learning even the industriousness of the ant father we pray each practical and spiritual choice we make will reflect your perfect will we pray all of this in your name amen thank you please remain standing vice vice mayor will you lead us in the pledge iance to the flag of the United States of America thank you vice mayor and chaplain seon we'll Now call to order the formal city council meeting will the clerk call the role councilman Galindo here councilwoman wado here councilwoman Hodge Washington here councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman Pastor here councilman Robinson here councilman wearing here vice mayor Stark here mayor gigo here thank you we come together on a hard day for the city many have just attended the funeral of office zaye kulage thank you for those who are keeping him in your memory and and those who worked so hard to give him a very powerful event this morning today's council meeting we'll have two interpreters Carmen Kota and Elsie dwarte Carmen would you please introduce your team thank you mayor my name is Carmen Kota along with my colleague Elsie dur who will be providing Spanish interpretation for our spanishs speaking audience today I will now take a moment to introduce myself myself to our Spanish speaking audience [Music] [Music] thank you mayor thank you so much will the city clerk please 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 prior of this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number G 7234 and 7297 through 7301 s 51233 through 5128 1 and resolutions 22245 through 22246 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 in 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 requires 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 so much councilman guardado do you have a motion on item one yes I have a motion to approve meeting numbers from 1123 second all those in favor please say I I any oppos nay I passes unanimously councilman Robinson do you have a motion on item two yes mayor thank you very much I move to approve the minutes of the formal meeting on May 3rd 2023 second any comments all those in favor please say I I any opposed n i councilwoman Hodge Washington do you have a motion on item three yes mayor I move that we approve the June 14 2023 minute second any comments all those in favor please say I I passes vice mayor do you have a motion on item four boards and commissions yes I move to approved mayor and city council boards and commission nominations second Motion in a second all those in favor please say I I I any oppos nay I congratulations to our new Commissioners we will ask you to come forward and we will conduct a swearing in ceremony we are so grateful that you are advising the City of Phoenix on important topics including Youth and education please raise your right hand I state your name do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitutions and laws of the State of Arizona that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of the youth and education commission according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations we are so lucky to have you serving if you could go behind the council would like to congratulate you for thank you and congratulations to our commissioners you are helping advise us on the future of our city and topics including Science Education the next portion of our meeting agenda is liquor license applications we provide an advisory role to the State of Arizona do we have a motion vice mayor yes I move to approve items 5 through 31 except item 16 second motion and a second any comments all those in favor please say I I I I any oppose nay passes unanimously item 16 is Foothills beer and wine we have two members of the public to speak will begin online uh Mr R uh floor is yours do I have video as well no just audio I'm afraid okay yeah my name is raan Raman ra and I'm the owner of The Kuman auki Foothill Center which is located next door to the proposed liquor store I'm here today because the city rejected 40 letters from current families of students enrolled to my center and I'm also here because Arizona revised statue 4-27 does not protect a child Center business as as my own um I oppose this proposed location for a liquor store that will be located 10 feet from our front door for a couple reasons and I'll give you those reasons now first reason is that in our classroom we teach to preschoolers Elementary as well as middle school and high school students it's my opinion and the opinion of Kuman families that a liquor store should not be located next to our Kuman Center I don't want my students being exposed to the marketing of liquor wine or beer as well it is a safety concern that customers of such a store store will be very close vicinity to my students uh whether on vehicle or on foot uh second reason is there's several vacant Suites further down the shopping center that are not located next door to my Kuman Learning Center and these would seem like more appropriate location if someone were to seek putting in such a store in fact if it was in any of those locations I wouldn't be opposed to such a business because of these reasons um I suggest you reject the proposed location of the liquor store next to my learning center and I think the toughest part if you guys approve such a thing is explaining to to my parents why there's a liquor store next to my cuman center and I'll have to tell them the City of Phoenix thought it was appropriate for one to be there um that's all I got to really say on this matter so thank you for your time and listening to my concerns thank you so much for your testimony uh next uh available to speak if necessary is Mr Singh uh please come forward if you would like to provide testimony in support of this item all right uh that concludes the public comment on this item that is in District Six I will turn to councilman Robinson thank you very much you know in our office we take these liquor license issues very seriously and I understand completely where the um operator from The Kuman Center is talking about with the liquor store being right next door to it um we do also rely on the background and the work performed by the police department when it comes to these liquor licenses and they're moving to um recommend approval on it but what I would like to do is I think I will move to deny um license at this point and my understanding is and please someone correct me if I'm wrong it would then go back to the state allow for a full hearing where both parties would have an opportunity to um State their position and then it would allow us to move on a little bit more um more informed I think so with that mayor I'll move to deny the the motion second I second the motion we have a motion and a second Denise do we need a roll yeah roll call G yes wado yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yeso yes passes 90 all right so that will go to the of Arizona for a final decision city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion yes I move to approve items 32 through 94 accept the following items 37 42 53 57 66 75 and 81 noting that item 93 is withdrawn and that item 94 is an add-on and can the clerk confirm if there's any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comments yes mayor vice mayor also excluding items 52 60 62 63 and 65 those items are again 52 60 62 63 and 65 second we have a motion and a second roll call gind V yes wado yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes goo yes pass is 90 item 37 is part of the payment Ordinance do we have a motion I move to approve item 37 second motion and a second any comments roll call gind yes yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing no Stark yes GGO yes passes 81 item 42 is the acquisition of property for a fire station at Baseline in South 67th Avenue we have a motion I move to approve item 42 second we have a motion and a second this is an exciting one for our city we received several public comments on this one all in support for example full support LaVine has grown exponentially and needs more fire Services another one our family strongly supports the addition purchase of this property for use as a fire station would be a very much needed addition comes at an exciting time for the City of Phoenix we are in the process of adding two new fire stations right now one at 19th Avenue in Chandler Boulevard to serve the auki community thank you to Congressman Stanton for including this station in congressionally directed spending to fund a portion of the construction costs we are also underway at 93rd Avenue in Lower Buckey this station will incorporate a cancer prevention strategy and its design will include hot warm and cold zones thanks to great leadership uh here at this table in November of 2023 our voters approved a 500 million doll Bond program including 214 million to enhance Community safety through fire police roadway and pedestrian infrastructure this includes $80 million to replace and upgrade three fire stations and construct a new fire station at locations from 7th Street in Hatcher to 44th Street in Thomas the new station will be up in District 1 at the 303 and 51st Avenue four stations will have a community Assistance Program area which will help us respond to emergencies including involving uh those involving homelessness and needs for social service with non-sworn personnel and more fire stations require more firefighters the fire department is in the process of increasing Staffing levels and have added 134 full-time employees so far this year in January we held a graduation ceremony for new fire recruits total of 39 recruits graduated and began their shifts shifts in on January 8th in may we had a ceremony for 42 new recruits and on Friday the uh of last week our recruit class graduated 54 new fire recruits next week Phoenix fire will graduate 34 new paramedics to add to our team and we have one more recruiting class this year entering the academy tomorrow we also graduate 14 dispatch operators with Phoenix fire so a lot of investment happening to keep our city safer thank you to all who are working on this any additional comments roll call councilwoman hod Washington thank you mayor I just wanted to briefly say um LaVine I Shar with D7 and the community has been consistent and persistent in their their request for additional fire stations so I'm very happy to see us moving forward and I'm very excited to see that we will now be trying to alleviate some of the pressure that's placed on our firefighters in Station 58 they do a phenomenal job and I just wanted to take an opportunity to say thank you to them for continuing to take care of line and you will have additional resources coming very soon well said roll call gind Yes W yes hjge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 thank you item 52 is next related to Food Systems vice mayor I move to approve item 52 second Eric can we oh you got we got you can you hear me okay all right um I just came to speak briefly about the uh the food bank system we have um I recently was helped by the uh I forget what it's called but it's the food bank on 9th Avenue um and one thing I noticed is they uh they offer other services in conjunction with the food bank specifically I was able to sign up for a Department of Economic Security program that they bought me a new computer not this one a much nicer computer than this actually um and I would just like to ask that we uh at our food banks we try to make people aware of other things that they may be able to get from I think it's called nourish Phoenix other things they're able to you could connect this to the the agenda item that would be fabulous I'm sorry welcome come back comment very important but yeah I apologize I I tried to but um the agenda had no further information about this and several other items so I digress and uh thank you for your time wonderful this is related to residential Garden systems awesome thank you roll call yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 thank you next is item 53 which is amend the federal Community Development block grant construction loan agreement with cplc do we have a motion I move to approve item 53 second we have a motion in second noting that councilman gindo AA will not be participating in this vote um and we will take public testimony on the city contract with cplc Elizabeth Venable urge you guys to vote for this item I think it's important to um be flexible with your um Community uh development block grants and and use them for organizations that generally have a good record um I do want to encourage you um as I try to every now and again to um look to sometimes more ambitious allocations and sometimes more coming from the general fund as opposed to Federal funding but I do want to encourage you to vote for this and I you probably will so thank you thank you roll call W yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes goo yes passes 8 Z Item 57 is next will the city clerk please read the title item 5 7 is for ordinance g730 and ordinance amending chapter 8 Article 2 Section 8-7 poultry and rodents and section 8-10 minimum area limitation nuisance of the Phoenix city code vice mayor I move to approve item 57 second roll callind yes yes hjge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes beo yes passes 90 thank you item 62 is a Cooperative Readiness agreement with six I'm sorry item 60 is trail head custodial maintenance services do a motion I move to approve item 60 second we have a motion and a second we have several members of the public to testify and on this item we will take testimony on trail head maintenance we will begin with Kelly followed by Jess [Music] and this is the contract which for janitorial services yes um mayor council thank you for listening to what I have to say today my name is Kelly Schuler I'm a third generation Phoenician I'm the vice chair um for the desert Conservation Commission for the City of Tempe also the director of cleanup Papago which is a 501c3 I'm in support of this maintenance contract but I just want to make a couple statements Rangers should not be utilized for custodial maintenance the role of the park rangers should be to educate the public and keep our parks and preserves functional and accessible for all please respect their job function and do not continue the job creep I am grateful to the mayor and Council for pushing this contract through my concern is why did it have to come before councel in order for this to be solved thank you for your time thank you Jess is next followed by Jerry good afternoon mayor council members I'm Jess dos I am representing the hiking Community here um I want to say I'm majorly in in favor of this and again i' reiterate what Kelly said is it doesn't seem like something that should have had to be pushed to the council it seems like we have a Parks Board that should have made sure that this was not an issue and it is really unfortunate that it was not their goal and they did not foresee that this would be the problem that has become for our major Trail hits you cannot have the Rangers going in and opening up and then waiting for people to use the bathroom while they clean it it is not allowing them to educate or do their actual real job and it is also making it so the bathrooms aren't that clean um I love the Rangers but they are not professional custodial maintenance people and it is very important that we allow that job of custodial maintenance of our Trail heads to be a respected position that is paid by a crew that is just focused on that and please let our Rangers continue to be Rangers at the trail head so I thank you very much for doing this for our community thank you thank you Jerry is next followed by Tim good afternoon Jerry Van gas U thanks for taking up this agenda item uh you know as just said uh this all could have been avoided uh we need to get bio joral back out there fulfilling their contract which doesn't U conclude until December 31st um everybody was blindsided hikers Rangers neighbors by this action by a district supervisor Park supervisor in the North who doesn't even have jurisdiction over Camelback or pesta or authority to terminate a contract our attorneys filed a public records request that I'll give to the members up there asking to see the written notification of termination of their contract it took two hours for the public information officer to get back with us saying there were no records there was nothing you can't operate on verbal pettiness uh as Clare Miller the ranger up there supervisor did and uh and for the her superiors to sit idly by and allow this to continue basically condone it and try and spin it is reprehensible it's total der elction of Duty now we know we're going to hold people accountable and we know nothing investigation is going to be done by the city so our attorneys and other members of our community are putting together have already started their own investigation and turned up quite a bit thank you I'll leave these Tim will be our final speaker good afternoon Tim Sakowski first I want to thank you so much for having this item approved and having it approved this afternoon by the council it is something that needs to be done we need to have the restrooms at these facilities cleaned every morning and not by the Rangers the Rangers have a specific job to do their job is to make sure people are safe on the mountain there's making sure traffic is moving in the Parks not to be inside cleaning the restrooms I ALS also want to thank John for bringing this to the council's attention I'm not sure why we really are bringing it here to the council because there should be a chain of command and management that should have handled the situation in the parks department this should never have been brought back not there was never a 30-day notification given to the cleaning company in order for them to stop doing their work this was instituted by a individual who really shouldn't have any power making managerial decisions but that's neither here nor there at this point we just need to reinstate the contractual Arrangement and make sure that the Rangers at this point are not cleaning the restrooms and that these thousands of people in the morning can enjoy their hike without having any type of problem when they get there thank you thank you that concludes public comment on this item councilman HUD Washington thank you I have a couple questions for the park director is someone available oh sorry Cynthia thank you um I just wanted to clarify where are Rangers being asked to do any of the janitorial services at crail heads uh good afternoon mayor councilman Hodge Washington and members of the city council yes effective September 1st through today after the execution of this uh Award of the contract Rangers have stepped in to fill in the duties of opening the gates and Performing uh restroom cleaning duties which they are permitted to do by their job description okay but with the passage if this uh service contract goes forward we would have they would resume their other duties correct yes mayor members of city council councilwoman HJ Washington that is correct and then there was a questions or some conversations from our public speakers that wanted to understand the procedural process and why we are here versus having it being done internally can you respond to that yes mayor members of the city council and councilwoman hudge Washington uh for the past five years these duties specifically at a select number of Trail heads including Camelback Mountain in pesta have been performed by biog janitorial services so that's something that we have contracted out uh and the there was an oversight and the contract was not extended in time and therefore uh this is our stop Gap if you will so that they're allowed to continue those Services while we conduct a request for proposals a solicitation and then award a contract for another 5year period so if I'm hearing you correctly it was not an intentional decision to cease this contct contct and more so was an oversight that is correct councilwoman thank you that concludes councilwoman obrian so um and can you I I think the other thing that the public um commenters were curious about is why did this have to come before Council today could you explain that please yes mayor councilwoman O'Brien and members of the council the council has the authority for the payment Authority uh to approve the spending that's needed to have this contract and that Authority lies solely with the council so it could not have been done at at your level or at the city manager's level because of the amount of the contract correct councilwoman O'Brien that is correct thank you so much appreciate it thank you roll call G yes wado yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes star yes G yes passes 90 item 62 is our agreement with the federal government and board of Arizona Task Force One do we have a motion I move to approve item 62 second Eric Nelson um all I saw is this is dealing with the cooperation between the city and the Federal Emergency the F am I correct in that okay um well I I'm not sure exactly what part of the uh the cooperation between the uh this year first year like I said the agenda I wish the agenda's had more links on it but anyway um I uh you know I think of things that are pretty much a certainty in my lifetime um I wasn't expecting to grow with a pandemic yada y y all this stuff and I think of things that will affect my home state uh disaster wise that are certainty in my lifetime and um other than the extreme heat I would just like to point out that the San Andreas fault is like what 15 20 years overdue so in my lifetime it's a certainty that between 5 and 10 million people will head down the 101 to Phoenix and I'd like to make sure we work with FEMA to make sure that Fenix is not forgotten when the funding rolls around like like that man quoting the other man said an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure um so I I don't think we should necessarily spend any money on it but we should have a plan ready to go because uh I I it's going to throw off our growth projections it's going to throw everything off and um I think it's important that we keep uh the City of Phoenix a safe uh world class place to live and we don't you know um I have my own opinions about people from California as I'm sure other people do it's just a different way of life and I think we need to be careful to avoid culture clashes and uh maintain Law and Order in such a situation um thank you for your time thank you this is an item that supports our team Phoenix responding to declar disasters which have ranged from several hurricanes to the 9 11 World Trade Center in New York City roll call yes yes hjge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes excuse me Stark yeso yes C is 90 item 63 is request and apply for and accept funds from The 100 Club of Arizona for antidotes for toxic exposures vice mayor I move to approve item 63 second Eric please I uh I don't have much to say about this item other than uh I think it's a shame that The 100 Club doesn't have $50 million in its bank account I think uh uh leaving doing the Reaganomics thing with the food stamps and leaving uh assistance up to wounded officers to a charity is irresponsible and uh leads people who really want to help with their hands tied so I in the future I'd like to see the city step in and uh provide adequate funding for uh people who are gunned down trying to save our lives thank you thank you roll call nind Yes W yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes goo yes pass is 90 item 65 is in agreement with uscp do have motion I move to approve item 65 appr second Eric um I would just like to say God bless all our First Responders and uh the Capitol Police have the hardest job of any Police Department when it comes to not becoming politicized one way or the other and I'd like to I'd like to think that the City of Phoenix Police Department is good at following that example uh thank you for your time thank you roll call gind yes yes H Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 item 66 is an under intergovernmental agreement with Valley Metro Rail for Public Safety access to public safety video councilman Robinson do you have a motion I do mayor I move to approve this um this item second second recognize councilman Robinson for comments and then councilwoman pestor mayor thank you very much I I want to make sure it's on the record of really thanking Valley Metro Rail for partnering with the police department and our realtime operations centers because what this will do for those of us who've had an opportunity to see the value of the R's especially when they're in the precincts and that's something I I think will continue to be invaluable to us and it's something that the citizens are participating in we're seeing a great deal of participation by the officers on the streets in the precincts and I can't say enough good things about this particular partnership and I just wanted to make sure it was on the record that we really appreciate that opportunity it'll allow us to continue to do some great police work work and in partnership with various um entities around the city thank you mayor thank you councilwoman pestor followed by councilwoman O'Brien thank you um I'm actually really excited for this IG because this been uh work in progress uh for the last two and a half years uh with Valley Metro am very proud that we are the first city to uh sign the IG and what it will do it will help us be ready to go as real time Tri real time crime centers are activated making Light Rail video um available which helps us on on Rail and makes us make sure that we're keeping it safe uh it's a great step in the right direction and I'm happy to say that Phoenix uh did it first so thank you thank you councilwoman O'Brien thank you mayor I amum also am excited that we are entering into this in intergovernmental agreement with Valley Metro um the r RC's in the city are helping an already very strained Police Department I know that when I visited Glendale and watched theirs they showed an example of how they solved what would have been essentially an unsolvable crime and that was the murder of a seven-year-old little girl and so I can't tell you how valuable I think this is to our our city and helping our Police Department um solve crimes and our prosecutors prosecute those so um grateful for that and fully in support thank you mayor thank you roll call gind yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes goo yes passes 90 item 75 is next it is an application to the federal government for a TOD planning Grant I move to approve item 75 second motion and a second roll call gind yes yes hjge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing no Stark yes goo yes passes 81 item 81 is in district 6 at 56 Street Thomas Road to Camelback engineering service agreement Council Robinson do have a motion thank you mayy yes sign I move um approval for item number 81 second and I'll turn to councilman Robinson for comments mayor thank you again you know I'd like to thank the Arcadia residents simply because they've had a great deal of patience with the city as or rather as the city brings this highly anticipated project forward I'd further like to thank the street Transportation Department for identifying the additional funding to keep this project moving forward in a timely manner you know Arcadia is a community filled with Avid cyclists as well as many students riding their bikes and there are four schools in in the immediate area that this particular project will benefit so I know that they're looking forward to the completion of this project providing safer bicycle travel in the entire area and thank you very much mayor thank you so much roll callind yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes goo yes passes 90 we'll next turn to the citizen comment portion of our agenda and I'll ask the City attorney to introduce this segment thank you mayor during citizen comment members of the public May address the city council for up to 3 minutes on issues of Interest or concern to to them the citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes the Arizona opena 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 we will begin with Coco Garcia follow in person followed by Mike Norton online hello council members thank you for having us my name is coko Garcia I'm the founder of Handover Rover a 51c nonprofit dog rescue here in Phoenix I want to apologize for not being here sooner I feel I could have made a bigger impact had I started on this side but I didn't we learned very early on that the laws are not set up to protect the animals so for the last eight years our team got good at negotiating we got good at using tactical empathy and speaking to our community in order to help animals that are suffering last year I messed up really bad I didn't follow my own rules I was out of state and I was in a hurry and I was desperate for help I placed a dog with a woman that was a horrific animal hoarder unknowingly we found out two months later that she had 67 animals and some of the most grotesque conditions in a 900t house there were animals that had no use of their hind Limbs and Bones protruding from them when we called on our police to help intervene they said their hands were tied there were no laws in place to help retrieve these animals and unfortunately unfortunately what was happening was visible we could see it we could film it we could hear it and we could smell it when we couldn't get help for these animals I decided to go public we're heavily active on social media I threw myself under the bus let the world know I made a pretty bad error but we needed help and we needed help getting these animals out a few days Days Later those animals were seized what happened in that house wasn't because of a cultural difference it wasn't because that it was an impoverished Community it was a woman that was doing really really bad things and there should have been laws in place to help that situation we're here today because we want to introduce ourselves to the city council to the to the members to the public we want you to know that we are your soldiers we are the first ones on the scene and we're the last ones to leave we can no longer negotiate these animals out of bad situations there just isn't enough of us moving forward we need your help we need your help with change we need your help with ideas but I'm not going to ask for your help to come out into the the field with us we will bring the information to you we will bring you everything that we have and we'll come to you with ideas we'll come to you with language for new contracts we just can't do it alone anymore thank you thank you for that important testimony go next to the very patient Michael Norton and that will be followed by um John foresight mayor guyo and city council thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak today I'm working with the Rogers Ranch residence committee which is an informal group of residents located in leine and particularly in the square mile that we refer to as Rogers Ranch where a number of different master plan communities are located over the last couple of years we've been in front of you several times to talk about it what could be done to activate Norman Park property and through your efforts and through our advocacy our park has made it to the five-year Capital Improvement plan list but we've we've identified problems that we would like to discuss with the city where we believe there is an opportunity to move our city forward um Jerry and I watched The Parks and Recreation board meeting last last month uh closely we wanted to watch the 10-year master plan progress get rolled out by the consultant who was contracted to do that work while that work is exciting in many ways the thing that really disappointed us and concerns us is that there is very little if any time or effort spent with respect to how the city is going to improve its ability to fund the projects that we need know we need to to move forward about the same time we saw that came out of the trust for public land that ranks the parks throughout the nation top 100 cities in terms of size accessibility quality investment and so forth we we saw that in 2024 Phoenix was in the bottom 15% of the top 100 cities in terms of its overall score not because we lack acreage we rank right at the top for total acreage committed to Parks because we spend so little and we're it's so difficult for us to do the things that residents really want our hearts to become I look back with Jerry we looked back to 2014 he brought the beta to me in 2014 we didn't look great but we were still in the second quartile for all of the top 100 cities we were TOs for the median Park size tops total acreage but short funded we ask that the city consider strongly the formation of a commission a committee of citizens Civic leaders governmental leaders who begin immediately to explore the possibilities that might be available for this city to accelerate the activation of our dorm Park property and to accelerate the development and restoration of our parts please consider that request strongly thank you thank you for that testimony John is next followed by Kelly John foresight I'm sorry I yes I didn't catch we had two John's thank you John foresight John does not appear to be with us so we'll go to Kelly and then John Hines hello mayor and Council thank you again for listening to my public comment um I actually just want to address the bicycle path the Grand Canal between Tempe and the City of Phoenix for over two years the short lights they have slowly been stripped of wiring the tops um it's Pitch Black in some areas specifically between Priest Drive and 44th Street that stretch kind of needs some love um it's definitely I would say lack of a better term sketchy um as a woman I would not feel safe riding especially at night I won't ride that stretch Alone um and I am an a Avid bike rider so is my partner uh secondly I would like to address the Oak Street pedestrian bridge over the 51 freeway that need needs a lot of fixing um there's a lot of used syringes lots of broken glass it looks like someone set it on fire as well along with graffiti and trash everywhere um I that definitely needs to be addressed and then I also just want to add um if you truly believe in public transportation then the light rail should be given the priority uh my personal experience I went to concert down in Phoenix we waited Light Rail didn't leave for about 20 minutes so we got off we started walking we actually made it to the next light rail stop before the light rail we got off um I'm bringing that up because I think a lot of people utilize public transportation to get to jobs um and I think it should take priority um I do drive a vehicle but I do think it should take priority and be faster than what it is and it should take priority over cars um that's all I have to say thank you so much for your time thank you for that testimony John is next followed by emilene yes um Madame mayor members of the council good afternoon I am an occasional bus rider it was not until I received my May water bill with the bilingual flyer that I learned that there were changes of foot regarding the paying for transit for my part the szen was working fine and there was no need for change it so happens that I was visiting in Los Angeles when a new Fair payment system was instituted for the MTA there therefore I had personal experience with the problems the change had brought on May 20th I wrote to the CEO of Valley Metro detailing those problems and asking for Assurance that they would not come to Valley Metro I included a self address stamped envelope by July 10th when I had not yet received a reply I sent a follow-up letter by August 1st when I still had not received a reply I sent a letter to our city manager asking for help I included my telephone number not receiving a response by AUST 30th I called his office I was told that someone would call me back no one did so on September 6th I called again and got the same result the same promise with the same result I then made a trip to City Hall to see about making an appointment to speak to someone the guard at the door told me that I had to First Call to get an appointment the fact that no one returned my calls did not impress him I don't know what else to do so here I am thank you uh councilwoman Pastor I think is going to follow up and then Kelly she will also follow up with you her District includes the the Oak Street area appreciate both of your testimony emilene is next followed by Tim hi Council I'm just here to speak on CBI and how they're in they're they don't know what they're doing there there's a lot of they have a city to contract um stuff City contract but they're not falling through with a lot of what they say there's a lot of they don't back and forth they the conditions that they have us living in aren't very good at all um I've been to the hospital twice for mold in my room and I brought up to them and they said there's nothing they can do they won't move me it's just really bad living conditions that they're putting us in they take us off the street to put us in hotels that are even worse than being on the street and they're not folling through with anything that they're saying they make a lot of promises that they don't uh keep and when you bring up to their attention they say that there's nothing they can do for you or for you I've been in this program for two years now and I trying to get out of it as best as I can but they they changed the rules and something needs to happen because I bring it up all the time to them other any infectiveness that they're having thank you for that testimony Tim is next followed by George good afternoon Tim sirkowski there has to be some clarification in what I just heard about the parks department this contract will ARR arangement what was said here is incorrect we had a park ranger park ranger stop them from coming and cleaning the uh restrooms their contract is up December 31st there wasn't a glitch here there wasn't someone that oh we made a financial mistake they stopped service they didn't give the company 30-day notification and they just stopped because they didn't like this company this Ranger did not like this company so consequently she took it upon herself to stop having this service done at at these Parks it wasn't an oversight I want a clarification here this wasn't oversight this was absolutely mismanagement at this point my God they should be looking at someone if they're going to change uh at the end of December are they looking for someone at the present time to put these people in place I want to know why a ranger had theth authority to do this instead of Cynthia who's in charge of the parks department why why is this who's running the parks department does the Parks Department need a management plan uh so that they can understand truly how the chain of command goes up so that they understand who they have to go to to communicate because it seems like that's a misnomer in the parks department if we have Rangers who making managerial decisions and just doing it at a whim and causing thousands of people harm because that's really what's going on here you have thousands of people who want to hike that mount all the mountains in the morning and some of them want to use the restrooms and they can't get in to use the restrooms so that's it it's really become a problem and it really kind of makes me upset to hear that oh it's just a mistake we just inadvertedly did this how come Cynthia didn't stop this when she heard about it before that's her job if you run a company your job is to make sure that glitches like this do not affect thousands of people and it it really did affect thousands of people so I just wanted to change and voice my opinion on on what really had transgressed here because asking the questions is one thing getting the correct answers you didn't get the correct answers here and that's the that's the problem here if we were going to get to the root of some problems we have to get the correct answers and people have to be upfront and righteous right from the beginning and not say oh it's a financial error a financial problem it was already in the financial budget to play pay these people until the end of December so it can't be a financial glitch at this point I want to thank everyone for all the good work you guys have been doing today and thanks so much for taking care of the parks thank you George is next followed by Eric well good afternoon Madame mayor honorable council members my name is George Gallaher and I'm a 60-year resident of Phoenix and happily a 30-year res uh user of public transportation coming here today on the light rail I saw advertisements indicating there's a new way to pay your fair and that's very true and that rolls out next month I'm here as an advocate for ser seriously mentally ill adults roughly 30,000 in the county Valley Metro blessed their hearts came up with this plan without collaboration but that's nothing new for Valley Metro um my concerns is when this rolls out October 28th is who's going to pay the fairs right now people who have a serious mental illness have a write under Arizona Administrative Code Title 9 chapter 21 for transportation and the changes that are coming indicate that you need a smartphone which I have a credit card cash and an account this leaves out many many people who are trying to get to work also um I'd like to throw out the Valley Metro isab ising that you'll only be charged once a day and I have found that you can be charged up to four times in a day so I ask for your help and your collaboration with some understanding of how these issues will be addressed for individuals who are are entitled to public transportation I'd like to avoid a Department of Transportation complaint and I'd also like to avoid using legal means to force the city to provide public transportation thank you all very much have a good day thank you for your testimony I believe we have a solution to that but unfortunately the individual in charge is helping someone who had the previous um um but I think our team and and our valy Metra lead councilwoman pestor may be able to follow up with you um and if we could make sure the public transit team hears about that obviously they're still helping the previous speaker uh busy day for them Eric is next followed by Christie obviously my favorite part of public comment hold on this is obviously this is obviously my favorite part of public comment because you can say pretty much whatever you want and uh seeing as how I'm unemployed and live on disability I have pretty much all day to come up with ideas to help you guys I have pages and pages of stuff um and I'm not one to usually act out of anger so forgive me I'm going to do my best not to get loud or swear or anything but uh given the recent events pretty much everything other idea I have for you goes right on the back burner um in conjunction with the the police shooting recently um that's not what I came to talk about I'm just saying that ties into this uh you know it's one thing to sue for peace it's one thing to say we shouldn't hurt each other but it's another thing to deny someone the right to self-defense and Advocate violence I don't know if anyone knows the difference but the difference is the Free World and terrorist so I got an argument with this person on Twitter the other day and who knows if they're a Russian who knows what's going on on that website but it was crazy to me because they made a comment like you you but you should you can't stand with our our bodies and not our rockets and just the most terroristic unamerican horrible filth I've ever heard uh and it angers me it angers me we have cops getting shot hello wake up there are cops getting shot okay and rhetoric like that only feels the fire and you know I spent a lot of time trying to figure out do these people hate America because we're R around qu go Sal B LED like that's cool and I I can't I found something the other day on the internet I want to read to you guys if I may that I think brings some clarity do they hate America no they hate what they see in this chamber a democratically elected government their leaders are self-appointed they hate our freedoms our freedom of religion our freedom of speech our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other hold on I got ahead of myself oops our freedom of speech our freedom of V they want to overthrow existing governments I got to fast forward to end because get the best part all right this is this is what I really came here to say they stand against us because we stand in their way we were not deceived by their pretenses for piety we have seen their kind before they are The Heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century by sacrificing human life to serve the radical Visions by abandoning every value except the will to power they fall on the path of fascism Nazism and total totalism and they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmark grave of discarded lies quote George Bush September 20th 2001 thank you for your time thank you Christie is next followed by Elizabeth good afternoon Madame mayor and council members my name is Christy margaro and you may recognize me from the last city council meeting where I provided an update on Animal Welfare in our city I am here today to give you some background on our group and what we are trying to accomplish over the course of the last decade we have experienced a rapidly increasing domestic pet overpopulation in our city a few years ago we started reaching out to our fellow animal rescue partners and found they were experiencing the very same frustrations it was becoming increasingly more difficult for all of us to keep up a group of us that were passionate about trying to figure out the root cause of these issues joined forces to see how we could help our name is pause it stands for Phoenix Animal Welfare Solutions our goal is to identify the causes of the pet overpopulation crisis we are in and make cost-effective recommendations to our city officials that can be picked up and implemented we know there are so many human issues every minute of every day and we acknowledge that we cannot drop any of those to Deep dive into Animal Welfare in our city but our group wants to help we've spent the last three years researching and gathering information we've been in communication with several City departments the Phoenix Police Department Neighborhood Services and the city auditor Department to name a few we have met with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control and aus council members we have pulled related City contracts and reviewed them we have dug deep and we want to share what we've learned with you the pause team along with other rescue Partners passionate about improving Animal Welfare in our city will be speaking at City future City Council meetings to share ideas and ask for your consideration we are willing to do the heavy lifting but we can't make change without you we want to partner with each of your offices and we hope you will consider hearing what we have to share see you next time month and thank you for your time thank you Christie and Elizabeth venal is next will be our final speaker okay so I wanted to look at some of the data that I was able to get the council to move forward with with the office of Homeless Solutions to measure outcomes and exits and um see whether programs are being effective and I wanted to look at specifically at the um Street outreach program uh for results for this year and um I wanted to note that um okay so out of 648 total out street Outreach exits um about let's see 35% oh no 35 individuals um out of 648 um achieve permanent housing um 17 individuals out of 648 exits achieved temporary housing um let's see what's this number 514 exits out of 648 from the street Outreach ended in homeless situations so they just stayed the same right and then bigger than both the permanent housing and the temporary housing was institutional situations and so um I wonder you know um it there's been a decrease obviously um in the amount of Street outreaches going on from the city of Phoenix right because there's no more Brown well you still are under brown right but you've largely cleared out the zone and maybe you don't feel like you have the incentive I also feel that these programs sometimes are not culturally appropriate and don't seek results I think it has to do a lot with the contractors that are specifically picked for these services and also the context in which these so-called services are offered um if people are more likely to be put in a mental institution than they are to receive any form of housing or temporary shelter 17 individuals is really low 35 and 17 individuals for receiving any form of housing or shelter out of what 648 I think it was that's really low and so what incentive do people have to participate what confidence do they have and I do think that still you know you got to look at which providers and and have they been accountable for the long time that they've been in use I mean and I'm specifically talking about certain contractors that work with fening cares and do law enforcement Outreach there's no transparency but that's what I believe that these um Outreach numbers come from so I would just encourage you to achieve results that are desirable for the city's residents thank you we are adjourned with two classrooms in construction of a one-story brick building with a second Renaissance survival architecture was funded Dunbar like all schools in the United States following the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education ruling