good afternoon welcome to the May 16th policy session of the Phoenix City Council thank you so much for joining us I'll call the meeting to order we will wait for roll call until we take a formal a formal vote on the budget and we'll begin with Council information and follow-up requests beginning with councilwoman and O'Brien thank you mayor so from coast to coast this morning I flew in from our nation's capital where I spent the last week meeting with members of our Congressional and Senate delegation to Advocate on behalf of Phoenix in these meetings I expressed the importance of receiving federal funds to help the construction of our Advanced purification system on 91st Avenue and to support Appropriations for increasing the height of Bartlett Dam to capture more water along Salt River Project as you all know the Colorado River is at historically low levels and Arizona isn't just the baby State because we were the last of the 48 but were also the baby State when it comes to the Colorado River allocations meaning the central Arizona project Canal is lowest priority for River water rights the more cuts the federal government make on allocations to the river the more North Phoenix is going to feel the squeeze and while we can't change where we where we are on the priority list we can continue to build infrastructure to shrink Phoenix's dependence on Colorado River and ask for federal funds to build that needed infrastructure conservative estimates claim that a full build out our Advanced purification system Phoenix would be 50 percent less dependent on Colorado River water this is a crucial piece of infrastructure that will allow Phoenix to be an integral part of the system to preserving the Colorado River I also took time to meet with representatives from several several federal agencies such as the FAA where we discussed needed Investments and improvements at the Deer Valley Airport the Department of Housing and Urban Urban Development where we discussed the outdated equation used by Hud to allocate housing Choice vouchers I expressed to them my frustration with us being the fifth largest city in the country and having about approximately 7 300 vouchers available to our residents as compared to the sixth largest country in a city in the country Philadelphia who gets over twenty three thousand I also met with the Department of interior and the Bureau of Reclamation to discuss with them all the water conservation programs Phoenix is looking into and have already implemented from the new water Smart Homes being built in District 2 to the rebate incentives for switching out to low flow toilets and smart irrigation systems I did ask them to help us pass Federal legislation to make it easier to offer Turf back buyback programs here in Phoenix currently any potential residential Turf buyback programs would actually end up being taxable income so we want to remove this as taxable income so that our citizens aren't being taxed on an incentive program to help us conserve water I believe that representing the city means more than just sitting behind the diocese it also means advocating on the state and federal level so as much of what we've been able to do as a city comes from Grant and programs administered administered by state federal agencies I wasn't just in DC to meet with our federal Partners I went for D to DC for the National Police Week and to honor the five officers from Phoenix who were recognized for their heroism and bravery on the early morning of February 11 2022. those officers were Tricia Eskridge Chris Jones John no Austin Peru and Travis spitler they were the the officers who answered the call which was essentially an ambush where the caller said that they had had a home invasion with three attackers that had killed his wife of our officers ended up being shot that evening with three additional hurt by shrapnel and a poor innocent baby was used as bait when the officers were no longer willing to approach the house thankfully we didn't lose an officer that night it was an also an honor to be present at the ceremony where officers all over the country were recognized for their heroism and bravery in the face of danger Additionally the City of Phoenix was honored to get to be one of the few agencies to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery and lastly it was a solemn morning yesterday when police officers family members and supporters from all over the country joined together on the capitol lawn where the names of officers killed in the line of duty were read off one by one two of those were from Phoenix they were officer Philip James vavarnak Jr and Sergeant Thomas Crawford Craig I cannot express enough my gratitude for the men and women in blue who put their lives on the line every single day so that we conceal feel safe in our communities and neighborhoods thank you all thank you mayor thank you thank you for that important work we'll go to councilwoman guardado followed by councilman Robinson thank you mayor first off we got news today that Governor Hobbs an attorney general mice will be taking action against over a hundred fraudulent Sober Living homes throughout the state that have cheated our state of hundreds of millions of dollars and prayed on our Native American residents my office has been working with neighbors who have been dealing with with these fraudulents over living homes for the past three years we have met with residents and our city departments worked with our community action officers coordinated with the Arizona Department of Health Services and finally worked with state level law enforcement to address this issue today is a huge victory for both our city residents and patients who have who were promised care if you or someone you know suspects a fraudulent or unregistered Sober Sober Living Home Governor Hobbs is encouraging residents to report them by dialing 2-1-1 and select option seven next I wanted to thank all the neighborhood leaders and elected officials and City staff that took part in the ribbon cutting ceremony for project Haven in District Five this past Monday I was honored to be joined by so many of my constituents who helped push forward a vision of care and support for seniors in our community that are experiencing homelessness as as we continue to address the homelessness crisis in our city it is going to take each and every one of us doing our part project Haven has proven that when there are real commitments and accountability for communities our neighbors will say yes in my backyard and welcome smaller specialized facilities now more than ever we need to share the love and ensure that every District in our city provides services and housing for our most vulnerable residents next I want to invite residents out to our first community cleanup of the Camelback Corridor we will be meeting this Saturday May 20th at 8 A.M at the Maryvale Bridge United Methodist Church at 4802 North 59th Avenue we will focus on this cleanup on improving the area around Camelback Road and 59th Avenue in combination with our organizing efforts that are helping create a new neighbor neighborhood association and small business Alliance I want to thank the neighborhood services department especially the incredible Rosie Espinosa for all of their work in partnership with my office on these efforts I am excited to see everyone out this Saturday and especially look forward to seeing Glendale city council member Jaime aldame join our efforts as we begin to work in partnership with Glendale on a shared vision of safety and Community along the Camelback corridor I do want to take another moment to congratulate a friend and true champion of our city employees Jason Stokes on his upcoming retirement Jason has honorably served our unit 7 city employees and members of aspartia since before I was on Council I have appreciated Jason's friendship and support over the past few years especially as we work together to address the need to improve wages and benefits for city workers I hope that Jason sees the upcoming mous in the historic investment we will be making in our city employees as a testament to the work he has put in over the years congratulations Jason on your retirement finally as the school year winds down I want to congratulate all those graduating especially want to thank Alexia Heredia and her classmates from Maryville High School who worked over the past year on projects to improve our community thanks to their hard work in 110 degree weather knocking on doors and working with different residents we can tell that we can say that they probably helped gate 11 at least in our community on a more personal note I also want to take a moment to congratulate my son David on his graduation next week he will be leaving Elementary School and going into junior high I'm looking into a new era for him and very proud to say that he's graduating as a dual language student so very happy for him and congratulations to him and I am very proud of him thank you mayor congratulations we'll go to councilman Robinson and then the vice mayor um thank you mayor first of all I want to follow up on something that councilwoman O'Brien mentioned it is National Police Week and I want to take the opportunity to thank all Phoenix police officers anyone who has had an opportunity as councilwoman O'Brien mentioned had an opportunity to be back in D.C during police week it is an extremely solemn opportunity to pay tribute to police officers who have given you know the ultimate sacrifice so my thanks to each and every member of the Phoenix Police Department I think it's the very least we can always do is recognize their sacrifices that um secondarily in on a lighter note the we're finishing up our first month in office and I want to thank all the city departments that have truly been helpful in our quest to really get in place our staff within District Six is doing has been doing our Herculean task and getting up to speed on a host of issues the vast majority of concerns we have coming in from residents have been about streets homeless issues neighborhood parks and rec and a host of issues surrounding anything involving our city obviously and All City departments have been great in responding to the concerns and the needs that our staff in the office have had which has allowed us to respond most appropriately to the residents so I thank I thank everyone for that and later this week Thursday the 18th we'll be at the peak neighbor Association event just an opportunity to bring them up to speed on a host of things that are going on in the city then Saturday the 20th the Arcadia Osborne association annual meeting we'll be doing the same thing there helping them to or bringing them up to speed on things going on they want to update on the city council office everything within District Six and lastly I'd like to invite the community to join join me next Friday the 26th at 7 A.M for coffee and donuts or snacks or what have you at Hillside spot on Warner Road out in ahwatuki we will be out and about at least three four times a a month in the council District in different parts just meeting with the community talking to them first face to face and first hand so we can address their their concerns more directly so with that mayor thank you very much for the time thank you vice mayor and then councilman pastor thank you mayor and we have a slide deck and I think you can just go to the second slide please The District 17 kicked off May out in the community first up we held our Smith Park mobile office hours last Thursday and we got feedback on pilot Park programming efforts to bring soccer and basketball courses to the community we also hosted our Central City community meeting at Burton Bar library with over 50 residents and neighborhood leaders in attendance and we were privileged to have our office of Homeless Solutions the crisis assistance program so Phoenix fire and the parks department in attendance and our streets department so thank you so much to all who attended what we have gotten requests from from residents for our next community meeting is presentations on gun violence prevention efforts at the City of Phoenix as well as historic preservation and finally I was honored to be the keynote speaker at our sister cities youth Ambassador graduation really amazing to see 12 graduates from across Phoenix they'll be heading across the globe to our sister cities we'll be they'll be representing the city and sharing their experiences from Phoenix next slide it seems like every other week we're hearing very good news and the amazing results from our American Rescue plan strategic American Rescue plan strategic plan and one critical win for neighborhoods is the Enterprise network connectivity and Wi-Fi which are now available at Smith Park and three other neighboring district 7 Parks access to free and affordable Wi-Fi is essential in our Digital World next slide wanted to touch on our work to engage with and offer people living around the Human Services campus safe indoor shelter on Wednesday as was well reflected in the media city city staff engage with approximately 54 individuals and I'm really pleased to share that they helped Place 43 individuals into a shelter or a hotel these block by block engagements are not new we've been doing this targeted and well outreached cleanup effort since December of 2022 and again I want to share that they have had about a 70 percent acceptance rate or a success rate while there are certainly residents who have mixed feelings about the cleanups I do want to Spotlight a story from the Arizona Republic's coverage that shows how the city is making a really positive difference there's a story about Barry Hayes and Daniel Mackey who had been living on the streets for three months when they learned a few weeks ago that their block would be engaged at first they were skeptical because they had previously left a shelter where they hadn't felt safe but Outreach workers this time connected them with a different transitional shelter which was run by our partners at Community Bridges and Mackie shared that it was a smaller much more mellow and much better fit for him and his friend and he felt that it was going to work and he had very high hopes about it so this is great want to highlight the success story and again 43 individuals were placed this time around in fact more people moved into that block that stat than staff was expecting that tells us a few things one word of mouth is building trust and two unsheltered residents are happy with the diverse options that we are providing them so I want to as always thank Scott Gina and Rachel you've been working extremely hard and I think we're seeing very visible prog progress I will also be inviting a few legislators next time to the cleanup so that they can see firsthand how Phoenix has improved our process and and working on a Humane thoughtful approach moving forward next slide this year's state budget included historic investments in housing infrastructure investments will go a long way in building new temporary and permanent housing I'm really excited about the 150 million dollars in the Arizona Housing Trust Fund the trust fund is a critical tool that can be used for a variety of projects including building new housing and funding homeless shelters transitional housing and re-entry housing for former formerly incarcerated people but even more importantly housing trust funds can be leveraged alongside American Rescue plan dollars or private Authority bonds from the AZ Commerce authority to go even further to fund affordable housing developments that might not happen otherwise next slide finally a few upcoming events where you will see our team May 23rd will be at the Mission of Mercy Clinic opening which is located in South Phoenix this new clinic will offer free medical services to uninsured families in the area so we're super excited about that June 17th my office will be hosting our second annual Roosevelt Pool Party from CPR classes to free giveaways um there will be something for everyone in the family so please join us and All Summer Long our team will be taking over heat relief shifts with our office of heat response and mitigation last Wednesday Zoe and Morgan who are two of our long time interns were helping by the zone so if anyone's interested in signing up or helping us with a volunteer shift please email us or call to join us thank you so much thank you I'll wait for my slides the mayor had to step away so I'm taking over she allowed me uh May coffee chat recap I want to thank everybody who joined us we talked about Street Outreach homeless encampments and cleanups and a lot of community updates we had a great conversation with staff and some of the needs that are are wanted by the community so thank you thank you to the staff FCC is awarding 700 000 ports affordable connectivity program Outreach Grant which we applied in January so I was able to attend the press conference in the training event hosted by FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosen Warsaw to learn more about the program and its goals to provide eligible residents with free or reduced internet service uh this is all connected to the deck as we started in 2020 that will be uh this will be rolling out into our communities and those that qualify um are welcome to join and we will also have Community organizations uh being a part of this so thank you last Thursday staff and I provided breakfast for every teacher support and supporting staff member at the Charles W Harris School in District 4's West Side for teacher appreciation week what is very interesting is I work with their Community the rake up club and we do a lot of cleanups within that area so it is nice to be part of that and the principal and all these teachers there's more there are more participated and had breakfast and you see Brody right there with his teacher so next slide rodie and Ike became buddies Brody wanted to know what I did and how I changed policy and he said can you help me change my uniform policy and I said yes and I said but you have to do some work in order to change your uniform policy and one of the teachers was there chuckling and I said see this teacher he's politically active he can help you so this is what I need you to do I need you to figure out and write a petition and on the petition you write we want to change the the rules our uniform rules and put in what you would like to see and then after that get it blessed by your teacher who's going to help you write it and then go around the school and ask them if they're willing to sign your petition I got a text and a picture of the signed petition from the principal and we all chuckle because the principal was there when Brody and I were having this discussion so um he's graduating and he'll be going on to Maryville and I'm very proud that I was a little bit of an influence at a certain point in his life to teach in Civic engagement and we'll see if the uniform changes so stay tuned Happy Mother's Day for many of you or for many of us that shared our story in the Aries Central article you saw what is next for me in the sense of bringing a blood tests to detect breast cancer to underserved neighborhoods I'd like to thank Taylor Seeley for highlighting the women on this diocese and the mothers on this diocese who multitask and lead in many different ways so in October I will also host a women's health and wellness Forum with leading doctors and Cutting Edge medical technology companies that are going to support Women's Health especially in the underrepresented communities my month has been very busy as you know graduation season is here and I no longer sit on the Phoenix Union board after 12 years so I didn't normally out for two or three days at starting graduations at eight and ending at 10 o'clock at night but not this year so I was able to attend the Phoenix College graduation and every one of these pictures has a meaning Oscar de la Salas was our keynote speaker you see the board member Maricopa board member you see Imelda Imelda has Blossom she was originally I met her when I was working on a woman's piece small business entrepreneur and she has now been recognized all over the place she's had several recognitions especially at the black and white um then you see uh Natalya who is saying peace I met Natalia when she was at Central as a sophomore and I didn't know the connection between her and I until she went home and told her mom hey I met so-and-so her mom happened to be a woman that worked at a dry cleaner that my dad attended very often and so they became friends so when my father passed we asked her to press his suit and get his clothing ready for him and Natalia happened to be there and she says you're the woman I met so this year she has now graduated from PC she was in education and she will be moving on and I am so proud of her because that's just a It's a small world and a connection that I have with her then you see two young women at the bottom in the middle you see uh Betty Betty I met as an ace as an Outreach director she joined uh Ace achieving a college education and she struggled a bit and so her and I became friends and I provided uh support systems around her and she found me and she says I'm graduating I like to see you and she says and I'm really proud I'm graduating my sister at one point they were homeless and I did help them around that space so I am very proud to see the family achieving and thriving you see a mariachi uniform right here PC first started their mariachi group this year I got a call saying hey I wanted them to perform for the swearing in and they said we can't because we don't have uniforms so I hustled and helped and everybody and the city Mitch helped me figure out how to get them uniforms as you see they performed at PC they had he's wearing the uniform but if you see the back it's the bear which is the mascot of Phoenix College you see the group uh the Mariachis and it was the first time them playing at the ceremony and what ended up happening is students at the end got up and started dancing in the pride of their Heritage so you see a bunch of teachers too and then a young boy with his mom as she walked to get her diploma so a fun day exciting to see all the happiness happening within our community after that graduation I attended uh central Arizona Dental Society foundation and the Arizona Dental Mission of Mercy and it was their 10th anniversary celebration if you know anybody knows in December right now they're looking for volunteers so anybody in the Dentistry world and even just volunteer to check in there are two days December 9th and 10th where those that need some assistance with their Dental needs can line up and get appointments or line up and then go in and be able to get their needs serviced and it happens within not two days and it's full force service so they're all different types of dentists that are there and uh people helping uh Claire are right here as you see uh she I met Clara because she worked for my father now she's part of this whole whole elaborate piece what ended the story behind the 10th anniversary is that we wouldn't have a 10th anniversary they went to visit my father and said hey we need the Phoenix Coliseum they're charging us left many they're charging us and we're not able to afford it he got on the phone called the governor at that time and said please do this this is a service for our community and ever since they've been at Phoenix uh veterans Coliseum so I was able to celebrate because they honored him that night for uh inspiring and continuing that work the other side of this is I did a veterans a PC veterans dental clinic along with them and was able to serve many people in the community college area that were veterans to get the needs that they needed at that time and it was for free then on Saturday I went and Charlie Jones Pearson place would Leia Melrose cleaning up that area and cleaning our Canal so I'd like to thank that Community for always having cleanups once a month and doing what the right thing of keeping our community uh beautiful then I hosted the second annual Corridor panel discussion focusing on mobility and connectivity residents voiced their concerns about walkability and the Tod within that area I'd like to thank Deputy city manager Ellen Stevenson Jesus Sapien keaney Knutson and Jessica Medford Miller for joining me and to discuss some of the things that were happening on Central congratulations to Chad makulski director of Aviation for being airport executive of the year that's awesome under his leadership he has a dedicated head embarking on a net zero carbon zero piece and achieving carbon-free electricity by 2030. congratulations to um Cynthia Campbell for uh being placed on the water policy Council by Governor Hobbs and a coerced Zona Pacheco who is very active and if you're part of her email list you know all the resources that are happening within the community she received the Aguila award and so I wanted to recognize her next slide uh pool party in Salito Park come join us June 3rd 10 a.m we're reopening the pool thank and then next slide June community chat here we go proposed water rates Street Outreach Community update safety tips we'll see you then and finally our public meeting on proposed water rates increases that will be at Encanto Park Clubhouse please join me thank you thank you and congratulations councilman hunt Washington thank you mayor I just want to kind of give a couple highlights from our office I want to First say thank you to City staff for insisting that we are getting settled in I appreciate all of the assistance I also want to extend my thoughts and prayers to the families of the officer Mark acre and Sergeant Timothy wheeler thank you for their service we are saddened by their loss I also wanted to say a part of one of my highlights just the last couple of days was participating or actually observing the enhancement at the 9th Avenue cleanups I wanted to say a special thank you to homeless homeless Solutions and the office I spend three hours out there and observed it firsthand I was pleased with the professionalism and care that we saw being offered to our unsheltered residents we know it's not an easy problem it doesn't have an easy solution but we did see for me many times individuals were focusing on those that were refusing services or the lack of enough housing for every individual to be held but I choose to walk away with the experience of seeing the individuals that were coming to the coming to the city first for services I I personally saw two individuals who transitioned who moved one of them moved their tent closer to the area so that he could Avail himself of service and the other one I saw personally run up to us looking for services and I think those are the success stories that make this worthwhile so I want to say thank you to the staff for a great job on a difficult circumstance so I know we are continuing to make progress in that area I just want to let you know that I appreciate it um second I wanted to highlight um we also I spent a little time Teachers Appreciation teacher and staff appreciation I was able to spend some time with the Roosevelt School District as well as the Levine School District as we prepared some tokens of appreciation for the teachers and staff who do the Lord's work they dealt with busy bodies like myself and chatty caddies and they do a good job raising our next Generation so we want to also a special thank you to them I also had the opportunity to celebrate with the inaugural Levine Sundown bike Walk and Run that took us down the Levine area conveyance Channel a fun time was had by all we had lights on the bikes and the Walkers it was a great time I look forward to the next one and lastly yesterday myself and the vice mayor we attended the fifth annual science fair Engineers of the future in in my district at the South Mountain Community College we were able to participate and celebrate with 60 students as they built their prototypes of bridges here in our community so it was also great to see the the Next Generation again being cultivated to help serve us in the future that is the end of my report mayor thank you councilwoman any additional council member updates all right last week the governor and the state legislature agreed to a budget plan that was passed and signed into law the Housing Trust Fund was funded at 150 million dollars and that is good news as well as some Appropriations to combat homelessness it is critically important that Partners from across the state and valleys step up to do their part in providing Services as we work to make sure that our unsheltered community has good safe options at the legislature there is there's still concern about some of the builds that are moving forward and lack of action on others there are bills that continue the state legislature's poor history on overreaching into local control including our zoning code I am proud of our City's track record on approving affordable housing developments and working to make developing affordable units easier it is pretty common at this Council when we have projects going forward for the council to ask for more affordable use than what is proposed and to push to make that a priority we need to engage our community in planning efforts including important efforts like the Central City South Transit oriented development plan and honor the work that they have put into our residents have put into planning our community it's critical that we maintain these abilities if the legislature would like to partner with us to improve affordable housing it would be wonderful if they gave us the tools that many other communities have including inclusionary zoning I would also love to see action on extending the proposition 400 Maricopa County transportation plan in 2021 the Maricopa Association of governments passed a transportation plan unanimously with support of all cities towns tribal Nations and the business community in the county and how we want to allocate Transportation dollars passing a plan with that many stakeholders is no small feat but Maricopa County did it we Remain the only county in the state that is forced to receive approval from the state legislature to take our tax extension initiative to the ballot the state legislature must act on this plan so we can continue to build a more robust and sustainable transportation system and this conversation is made even more important as we may fade May face cuts to other dedicated revenue streams that fund other departments such as public safety and Parks so many of Arizona's residents live in cities and cities need to be important Partners as we craft State legislation with that we will move to the main event item number one is the Phoenix City council's decision on the 2023-24 budget I will now turn to city manager Jeff Barton and budget and research director Amber Williamson to present this item mayor members of the council I just want to take a few moments and say thank you thank you for your leadership thank you for your guidance thank you for your stewardship and your direction as as we've developed and crafted a balanced and fiscally sound budget and I think that's no small feat considering that we're just three years removed almost to the day from the date that we first ran into covid which produced the sharpest and quickest deficit and and economic downturn in the nation's history so again your your guidance and your leadership have gotten us not only through that but you also got us to this point that we are today and the budget that you are taking action on today is is one that I'm extremely proud of it's one that focuses on core city services but it also focuses on your commitment and your belief and our most valuable resource the 14 000 people that I call co-workers and employees of the City of Phoenix and so I just want to say thank you for the work that you've done and your belief in in our in our Collective staff and with that I'll turn it over to Amber thank you Jeff mayor members of the council and residents we are here today to ask for action on the fiscal year 2324 City manager's budget just to briefly recap our general fund status this is the same as what was presented to you on May 2nd it has not changed our estimated general fund resources are just over 2 billion unless our estimated expenditures to provide programs and services just under 1.9 billion leaves us with a general fund surplus of 134 million as always we are required to adopt a balanced budget so we are proposing allocating that proposed Surplus or that estimated Surplus to a variety of programs and services our city manager did collect Community feedback from residents to ensure the budget proposed to day reflects priorities of both the council and the community we did that through 12 Community budget hearings held from April 3rd to the 15th as well as collected feedback through our interactive budget tool fund Phoenix on our website as well as comments directly to the budget and research department overall we saw strong support for the proposed trial budget additions in the areas of Public Safety resources for Human Services and homelessness increases for employee compensation ads for Community are the Gated alley program as well as for Community Arts grants and also the proposed supplementals for parks department and total just over 700 comments from 360 residents those changes to the budget to the trial budget totaling 1 million I'm going to go over those briefly I want to add that all the proposed editions are included in the city council report and also available on the website so proposed increasing from 125 000 in the trial budget to 250 000 for Community Arts grant funding 250 000 for Cricut this would increase up to three field opportunities in the city 125 000 to increase Parks maintenance specifically to make repairs and improvements included at including at sueno Park next fiscal year as well as one-time funding of 250 000 for new leafs Phoenix day early childhood education center this provides affordable education for infants on up as well as for Street Maintenance 250 000 that would provide for a street sweeper dedicated to cleaning bike Lanes across the city as well as the cleanup of washes and medians so in total general fund proposed editions of 134 million allocating 85 percent of that to employee compensation roughly estimated at 114 million as our city manager indicated our employees are our top asset we know we have significant city-wide vacancies just under 17 percent vacancy rate we want to invest in our employees to continue to develop it the best Workforce we can to deliver programs and services to the community we have also already Incorporated expenditure estimates for the class and comp study implementation next fiscal year that will be coming to the council later this month for the remaining 20 million this would be allocated to critical supplementals as well as to our contingency fund first for continuity of services for vulnerable populations this category totals the 7.6 million the largest category item in this category is 5.2 million that would be for operations at homeless shelters in the city for Public Safety responsiveness and criminal justice support 3.8 million the largest component of this is for the Phoenix fire department three and a half million to add 31 new sworn personnel to operate the new fire station at 19th Avenue and Chandler Boulevard as well as to add a new Rescue Unit all designed to reduce emergency response times also for healthy neighborhoods and Community enrichment 3.6 million this includes expanding the funding for the Gated alley program as well as adding the 21 new parks positions 14 of those would create two new dedicated Urban Park Ranger teams to provide Park service at night as well as provide an additional Forestry Crew to maintain our trees and then 5 million for our contingency or rainy day fund this would achieve the four and a half percent of ongoing operating expense for what's proposed in the general fund budget we also have non-general fund editions these are for our Enterprise and special Revenue funds 1.5 million these also have not changed since what was presented to you on May 2nd roughly 900 000 for Phoenix Sky Harbor this is to add airport Access agents as well as vehicles for the airport Bureau additional funding for development services fund 500 000 to help for positions to help manage the shape Phoenix permitting system as well as to expand their electronic plan review team and then 50 000 for public transit that's to provide for additional bus stop cleaning and maintenance so next steps for our budget adoption process after Council action today we will come back at formal on May 31st for legal budget adoption that would be tentative adoption and then June 14th would be our final budget adoption and then July 3rd ends the process with property tax levy adoption so Council that concludes my presentation we are recommending approval of the city managers proposed 2324 budget thank you so much Amber thank you and your team for all the work to get us here today we'll we have one member of the public here to speak so why don't we begin with Santosh good afternoon distinguished council members and City officials my name is Santosh representing Cricket group a couple of weeks ago I was excited to be here to support the Diversified budget today I wanted to extend the thanks on behalf of entire Cricket community in Arizona more than 2 000 players who've been more than happy to hear the news about the fund not to get into the details but this is really important because this week is very special for most of us here we have celebrated Mother's Day and I'm seeing more than 50 percent of you know City officials as women so and in Phoenix or in Arizona we don't have not even two players two female players playing Cricket so this fund will definitely helpful to develop Youth and more importantly female cricketers and also we've been trying to compete with neighboring states which we were not able to do so because of lack of infrastructures especially the pitch and the ground and this initial seed money would help us to overcome those hurdles and I would like to extend my thanks especially to Council women the best talk councilwomano Brian councilman Jim Waring but equadio Kevin Robinson Keisha Washington vice mayor Ansari city manager Jeff Deputy City managing budget research director Amber Williamson Parks and Recreation officials Cynthia and Daniel also a lot of City officials who were working with me relentlessly for past three years thank you so much I appreciate it thank you for your organization both in your time management as well as to engage the community we'll look forward to supporting the addition of cricket in this budget council member comments councilwoman pastor I have a question um I actually think this is a great solid budget my question is with things happening at the legislature um possible cuts what happens mayor members of council I'll let Amber kind of expand I mean at this point a lot of the conversation at the state is speculative in nature and so I think we've made very strong commitments to our community and very strong commitments to our labor partners and I think we need to honor those commitments I think whatever happens at the state legislature we've got enough Runway to figure it out unfortunately between Amber and I you know we've got years of of dealing with with deficits and balancing budgets in troubled times and so that that that doesn't scare me I think we have ample time to kind of prioritize what what our priorities are as an organization as a city but I think today this budget is fine I think again we're living within our means I I think the the practice that we've been doing for the past couple of years with our five-year forecasting and our Revenue shocking and the things that we've done to really be very strategic about how we balance our budget and how we spend moving forward puts us in a very strong position now I say all that again knowing that there are these possibilities down the street but I think we've got the staff and the fortitude to get through that and so I think right now the budget that we passed today is one that we can sustain based on what we know as of right now and I don't know if Amber would like to add anything no I think our city manager did a great job of summarizing but what I would emphasize is just the point that what we're hearing is that if it were to be transmitted to the governor and if she were to approve eliminating residential rental it would be effective January of 2025. that would be fiscal year 2425 so this would be adopting the 2324 budget and we would certainly work with the city council and bring back options if that were to come to pass on ways we can balance the budget thank you councilman O'Brien thank you mayor an excellent question councilwoman Pastor because certainly it is frustrating to think that we're doing all the right things and yet the state legislature is continuing to um strip try to strip away local control from cities all over the state and and could have severe adverse impacts on communities fortunately as you both have stated we're in Fairly good condition that cannot be said for all communities across the state um and I hate to sound like a broken record but I do want to just make sure that we are going to be able to um sustain our Park security as we go into the next budget Year and that we have that plan you talked about 17 percent vacancy savings is is typical I'd like to know if we're going to be able to use that vacancy savings to continue Park security into this coming upcoming budget year mayor members of the council councilwoman O'Brien that's a that's an excellent question and we started talking about this at the last meeting when we we talked about the budget I think with your approval today there are several things that that we're already working on one is that with your approval of today's budget we can start recruiting for those new positions that become effective July 1 so that we can kind of shorten the Gap in the recruiting process and get those folks closer to onboarding by the time we get the budget to potentially eliminate some of that Gap the other thing is a brand new fiscal year brings a brand new start of the of the finances for every department so there will be there will be vacancy savings within the parks department that will Avail themselves of the opportunity to cover those vacancies with security as well as to look at other opportunities if that's necessary I think the the other thing that you know we've talked about is with the the salary savings that we have budgeted There's an opportunity to just evaluate what we have to do longer term with our Park security and so I think we've got ample time to do that we also have year-end savings more than likely that would could possibly come into that conversation as well the park security can be continued with the vacancy savings we have so that we won't experiencing a gap between bringing on Park Rangers that is an option that we can consider I think one thing that we may have to do is possibly bring that contract back to this body before you go on break so that we have enough expenditure limitation on it so that we can actually increase our spending Authority Under that contract okay mayor I'd like to I'm not sure who if I make that to you City man Jeff that we do please bring that back to this body so that we can ensure there is not a gap in service thank you mayor thank you Jeff thank you councilwin O'Brien I would be pleased to support that we need to keep investing in safe Parks councilman guardato thank you mayor personally thank all the incredible City staff that worked on this year's budget hearings I I also want to take a moment to once again thank my team in District 5 who engaged over 1150 residents from our neighborhood for our 2023 budget Community engagement survey I am especially thankful to Emmanuel Deborah Melina everyone in my office that went out there spoke to residents at all of our different community events to door-to-door outreach to talking to Folks at our local are at our local small businesses thank you guys for all of your hard work residents in District 5 talked about a lot of issues as at the city from a lack of 9-1-1 and Crime Stop operators to issues with our bulk trash collection to the challenges we had Opening Our pools or that we still have filling in our head start classrooms as I said before we know that these issues have been a direct result of low pay for our city workers that is why I am so happy to see this budget address low wages head-on we are allocating 85 or 114 million dollars to wage increases for our city employees I am happy to support this budget because of the investment it is putting into the people that make our city great when we take care of them I know that they will have the resources and support to take care of our residents I want to especially thank our city manager Jeff Barton and his team for bringing us such a com comprehensive budget and I will be voting to support this I understand the issues at the legis at the legislator I understand that there's challenging times that might be um Coming ahead but I really appreciate um what you just said Jeff about making sure that we feel our commitments to our constituents I know a couple years ago there was always a sentiment you know the first place where we cut is with our employees and I'm very thankful to you and to everyone that that's not what we're doing today and that we will toggle things head on as they come upon us and we'll make the changes we have to make but we do need to make sure we take care of our workers and that we are able to deliver um to our constituents the service that they deserve and I will be voting yesterday thank you thank you councilwoman councilwoman Stark thank you mayor I actually will be supporting this budget and I do want to reiterate um to staff that they did a great job on this this is very complicated because you have to please all of our residents as well as us as council members and I do appreciate that juggling act you do a tremendous job of that especially um or appreciate it I did have a chance before the budget presentation to chat with the city manager Mr Barton and he did assure me that we still will reevaluate at 3 plus 9 the possibility of putting some money in to help with affordable housing and so I look forward to that future discussion again this is a great budget it addressed a lot of needs and I appreciate your hard work and I too am very happy for staff they really do deserve just con compensation they do such great work for us they really are the ones that make us look good I mean you really do you do outstanding work so with that thank you mayor thank you councilman Stark vice mayor thank you mayor I will echo my colleagues um I think while this budget known prior years we've had all these new glamorous new programs while we don't have that this year I think this is one of the strongest budgets and one of the most important budgets that we'll be voting on and we have in many years paying competitive wages to our employees will not only provide meaningful improvements to the quality of life of those employees but also ensure that we can continue to provide the very basic and critical services that our residents are asking for what I'm really excited that that will mean is hopefully you know within our planning department we'll be able to streamline and approve housing projects much faster we'll be hiring more Park Rangers to keep our Parks safe which residents are really excited about and honestly another piece that I'm very excited about in our budget is the allocation for homeless Emergency Services talked about how successful the cleanup engagement efforts are down by the Human Services campus and with 70 percent of individuals accepting shelter and we know so many across our city need it this will this allocation will help us house 420 individuals and sheltered includes two facilities the 22nd Avenue Shelter in district 7 and the Rio Fresco Healing Center so I'm really appreciative of that allocation and hope that we'll continue to prioritize housing and combating homelessness and our budgets moving forward and while I'm disappointed that public bathrooms did not make it in this budget I'm encouraged by conversations I've had with our city manager and the director of community and economic development around how we can work with our downtown stakeholders to bring public bathroom access to Transit stops Downtown thank you so much looking forward to voting yes councilwoman Hodge Washington thank you mayor I too echo my colleagues comments and settlements of regarding our staff I think it's a truly a great showing of The the of the value that they bring to the city and we want to make sure they're adequately compensated I I know it's one thing to say you're competitive but I think it's more important to say it's a reflection of the value that they bring to the city and to recognize that they are a most valuable asset and we are invested in that so I am pleased to vote Yes on the ballot I'm sorry on the the budget as well as I actually wanted to take a moment also to say thank you one of the first things I had an opportunity to do while when I was waiting to be sworn is attend the d8 budget here in public hearing and I'm grateful to see that a majority of the feedback that we received at that public meeting was incorporated and somehow into the budget so I commend the I commend Jeff I commend you Amber for the ability to make sure that we continue to remain in a fiscally sound manner while incorporating the feedback from our community members so thank you thank you so much I too am looking forward to supporting the budget we are investing in our city Workforce those are the folks Who deliver the level of service that our residents deserve we also make investments in housing and services for those who are most vulnerable we work to mitigate the impacts of climate change we are passing this budget between Mother's Day and Father's Day and so the investment in early childhood is timely as it always is to invest in our youngest residents who are our future appreciate all the city staff who participated in more than 12 Community meetings and understood hundreds of comments we did receive comments in the budget process that were more of a policy nature or of of ideas about how to look at programs and we will continue to work to move those forward as well when appropriate so thank you to those who just were focusing on how we could be a better City I joined councilman Pastor in being concerned about the residential rental tax would be a cut of more than 80 million dollars to the City of Phoenix and hit targeted areas including our transportation Investments the multiple Public Safety initiatives that our voters have passed at the ballot parks and preserve funding as well as our general fund in the past when the legislature has made changes to our city tax code they have backfilled with funding from elsewhere and I certainly hope that they will value the work that our First Responders and infrastructure source of services that we do at the City of Phoenix and find a way to make up for any cuts should they decide to move forward with those I still maintain concern about some of that that happening is related to the debt ceiling and what that will mean for our economy and we'll continue to watch that it is possible we may need to adjust mid-year depending on what is in front of us but we will try to to be nimble and and to still deliver for our residents I'm hopeful that next year we can make some additional Economic Development Investments including on the international side and continue to have flexible funds including to invest in the efficiency of our operations Energy Efficiency solar and more that can really make sure we are spending Less on energy and more on programs so we have a lot of exciting opportunities still in front of us but it will be good to move and take our first step forward in this multi-step process to approve the City budget at this time we will go into our formal action item will the city clerk please call the roll councilwoman guardado yes councilwoman Hodge Washington yes councilwoman O'Brien councilwoman Pastor yes councilman Robinson yes councilwoman Stark yes councilman Waring here vice mayor Ansari here mayor Gallego here item one transmits a balance budget for the fiscal year 2023-24. vice mayor mayor I move approval of the fiscal year 2023 to 2024 budget second we have a motion and a second is there any discussion and just to confirm with our clerk this is a Voice vote yes mayor you can do a Voice vote would anyone like okay we'd like individual votes so we'll do roll call well yeah Hodge Washington yes yes O'Brien yes a store I'm waiting for woohoo yes Robinson yes Clark yes Waring mayor profession to briefly explain my vote please do thank you I appreciate it I am going to be voting no but uh it's not a reflection of any of the work of the staff uh Jeff you had committed to me at being of the year or probably in the last year uh that this was going to be a more Back to Basics budget that's a it's already been alluded to by another member but this is exactly what it was not adding any new stuff I thought we got badly distracted the last few years frankly while our roads were crumbling and you know we had the homeless situation smiling out of hand we were off talking about a lot of other stuff and that was very frustrating to me but you did say that that was going to be at an end this year and that was true and I appreciated that very much as always I say this every year for about the last decade most of you weren't here for for some of that or most of that period uh their data forecasting and Analysis of what's going to happen I I got to believe it's the most accurate in the country I mean Warren Buffett probably doesn't do a better job than you guys do or predicting like where the economy is going to go what our revenues are going to look like uh I have no reason to believe that's going to be any different here so I have every confidence if something does change that you'll be able to to navigate us through it I did contemplate voting yes on this probably to the surprise of anyone who knows me but I will say um there's just there are too many holdovers from previous years that made that impossible for me but I do appreciate this year's focus on the things that I think residents are really noticing and that have come back to bite us now because of inaction so again that's the fault of elected members not not you guys but uh but I'm going to vote no but I do appreciate your work on this very much thank you I'm sorry yes Gallego this budget does have exciting new things including a fire station in ahwatuki so I am excited to support it I vote Yes passes eight one that concludes today's agenda thank you so much for joining us we are adjourned [Music] thank you