oh it's really nice in here how about we check out one of these toilets noon welcome to the Phoenix City Council November 2nd meeting we'll begin today with an invocation we're joined by chaplain fesmaier Lady Gaga thank you for this day an opportunity of new life and new opportunities to do good I ask your continued presence and protection on our leaders our protectors and those who do the vital work that keeps our city functional oversee and protect the Integrity of our upcoming elections preserve and raise up leaders who represent the people and not agendas leaders who are themselves respectful humble filled with character and integrity who unite bring peace security protection and honesty in all and to all they serve protect this body of leaders in this sacred chamber today and all they represent in every decision and action protect their families and this city we pray this in your holy name amen councilwoman guardato would you please lead us in the pledge we'll Now call to order the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council will the clerk call the roll councilwoman I'm sorry here councilman decisio council member Garcia here councilwoman guardado here councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman Stark councilman Waring mayor vice mayor Pastor here mayor Gallego here Mario Barajas is with us to provide interpretation Mario would you introduce yourself yes thank you mayor hello once again my name is Mario Barajas and I'll be serving as today's Spanish interpreter for today's city council formal meeting I'll now take a moment to introduce myself to our Spanish-speaking audience my name is possible muchas gracias thank you mayor thank you Mario well our 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 to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number g7043-7054 s 49119-49143 and resolution 22080 thank you public comment has an important role in Phoenix Council meetings I'll turn to our City attorney to provide background thank you mayor members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items to be discussed comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made in the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda the city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations claims or litigation the city code requires speakers to present their comments on respectful and courteous manner profane language threats or personal attacks on members of the public council members or staff are not allowed a person who violates these rules will lose their opportunity to continue to speak thank you councilwin Stark do you have a motion on item one first I just want to check with Madame clerk did you get my two Corrections yes I did thank you very much councilwoman then I moved to approve October 21 2020. second we have a motion in a second on the meeting minutes any additional Corrections all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay passes unanimously vice mayor boards and commissions motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commissions nominations as revised second we have a motion in a second any comments all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay that passes and we do have a swearing-in ceremony today thank you again to our boarding commission members who are willing to serve our community let's raise your right hand I state your name do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the State of Arizona that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic and that it will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of State your board according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations welcome to City of Phoenix service thank you for stepping up congratulations to our new Commissioners we'll next move to liquor license the City of Phoenix serves as an advisory role to the State of Arizona vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve items three through ten second motion of the second any comments all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay passes unanimously city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion city clerk are we oh that's you sorry [Laughter] motions to approve items 11 through 56 except the following items 18 20 29 30. noting that item 25 has additional information item 44 is as revised item 46 is withdrawn per the November 1st 2022 Planning and Development Department memo items 53 54 are being continued to December 7th 2022 item 56 is being continued to November 16 2022 and excluding these items for virtual public comment item 26. and can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded from in-person public comments thank you vice mayor there are no other items to be excluded and I did want to clarify that item 26 is the item that has additional information has additional information yeah okay thank you second we have a motion and a second any corrections roll call I'm sorry yes deceasio yes Garcia Garcia yes thank you yes O'Brien yes Stark yes Waring Pasteur yes Gallego yes passes eight zero mayor councilwoman Stark could I just um because we're continuing so many of the zoning cases perhaps when they come back rather than copying everything again because if the audience hasn't seen it's War and Peace maybe we could just get a summary of the the letters of opposition and support the second time around I think that is a brilliant suggestion and I would encourage we do have a number of well we have one case where um each sheet is a single person in favor and they get each their own paper and that is part of the reason it is so large and I I hope that will be the last time we do this because be more efficient with our use of resources um wonderful thank you councilman Stark for that and just to clarify that the um public hearings were all continued except for 55 and that one does not have any person people registered for comments it just stays with us because it is a public hearing all right item 18 vice mayor I'd like to move item 18. second motion a second any comments roll call I'm sorry yes decision no Garcia yes yes O'Brien yes Stark yes wearing no Pastor yes Gallego yes that says seven two item 20 marketing Services vice mayor I move item 20. comments roll call I'm sorry yes deceitio nope Garcia yes yes O'Brien yes Stark yes wearing Pastor yes Gallego yes passes seven two item 26 park ranger Phoenix Park Ranger program councilman O'Brien we have a motion and a second mayor but I also like to make a substitute Motion in 26 that also includes the choya trail we've got we just opened up that trail and it's more of a regional park and that Park is critical we've had multiple complaints City staff will tell us about it of individuals jumping the fence creating an unsafe situation so I'd like to make a second and a an alternative motion and actually I recognize councilman Stark for the second but we'll recognize you for a substitute Motion in a substitute motion on that okay well yes so we now have a new motion on the table which is the addition of choya to councilman O'Brien's motion okay so we have a second so the motion on the floor is now councilman decisions motion all right um we have oh Mr Quick uh councilman decisio all right Troy Trail here's uh and I know there's been a lot of discussion on this and to the council members uh this has been driven by the council uh it you know staff has done everything that the council has asked them to do the majority of the council to do and generally that's just a you know just what happens here there are a lot of times that there are a lot of votes that occur there are a lot of situations and issues that come up that I just don't agree with and I don't like but staff takes their directions from the majority of the council or at least their perception of the majority of the council and so I'll just be very blunt about it it's not really them that you know that'll be you know that are the staff members are behind us if there's anyone that's upset it ought to be at people like myself and others on this Council that have driven this agenda if there's anyone upset about that that's who it should be directed toward I don't think it's fair to direct it at anyone that's on the table here or anyone in the background or anyone else that's just my personal opinion on this thing it was just it it's it's us that have driven this thing and we've driven it for a while now and it's because we see what's happening in our Parks right now is a problem and if we don't get ahead of this and start putting security out there as quickly as possible in our Parks we're going to have an issue we've already got issues we've had multiple shootings in our Parks we've had multiple drug deals going on in our Parks things that are not even accounted for in the aggravated assaults that are happening and from my end I need I need Security in my Parks I just need it there and if I don't have it there I'm doing a disservice to the people that I represent and the security the fastest way to get there right now is through this and if sometime in the future a year from now or two years from now you know staff can be able to hire but right now they're not being able to hire they are not able to hire the park rangers faster it isn't going to happen as a matter of fact we can't even get police hired right now let alone Park Rangers and others that are out there and any delay any day of a delay in my district in particular is a problem so I've got to have the security out there today I can't wait two months three months six months or a year from now otherwise we're going to start looking like some of these cities that we've seen on the west coast and back East so I don't have that kind of time to wait I just don't have that ability to wait uh in my district the people in my district need that sir those services today and so I'm fully supportive of this it needs to happen immediately and or as fast as possible and if there's a another way to do this to where we can start hiring on and then weaning ourselves off of this great then that would be a path of success for everybody it's a win-win for everybody but not to move forward with this today I think would just be a problem for me and my district and and I've got I've got that responsibility to make sure that they're protected and they're protected today and those families are able to go in there but go ahead mayor thank you thank you councilman decisio councilman Waring uh thank you mayor yeah I get complaints about people not being able to use a park not feeling comfortable taking their little children to the parks that's why we build the parks we don't really build them for any other purpose we build them for leisure so people have outside activities people have places to take their kids anything that's impinging upon that undermines the use of the tens of millions of dollars we spend on our Park system we just spent I don't know how much you know money got spent on Cholla but it doesn't make sense to have people being chased away and so anything that can help with that is something that I want and again this isn't staff asking for it this is me on behalf of constituents in my district I'm asking for it I think that's part of having a few others as well that's how it came to be here in the first place one concern I have uh Cynthia and we have talked about this is I want to make sure you know that we know what the uh the people that are going to be hired are actually doing I want to make sure that they're covering the territory of the parks so if I get a complaint that there's an encampment or something in one of these parks where we have these folks working then I want us to be able to get out of the contract and find people who will actually do the work and I don't think that's unreasonable I've been frustrated already that some stuff's been overlooked but I get how short of people you are how many parks there are and spread over obviously such a big geographic area just travel time alone probably chews up a lot of their day but I want to make sure we're going down this route that we have some option I've been frustrated about the shopping cart program as you've heard at other meetings um you know this is uh this is not a good situation I a few years ago with the old city manager Ed Circa I complained about security at the libraries I felt like people were probably not going because they felt a little uneasy with some of the behavior that was being exhibited this is the same we build those facilities so citizens can use them to better themselves feel better about themselves take their kids to play softball whatever and chasing it chasing people away is not acceptable and in this particular case I want to make sure that these resources are being well used so could you could you explain like what the options are um in terms of the hiring and what the expectation is going to be sure councilman wearing mayor members of the city council so we would be if if we proceed with the pilot recommendation we'd be looking to amend the contract with our current security provider who provides the services currently in three downtown parks and so we would amend the agreement we would make sure that those operational orders if you will mirror what is happening in those downtown Parks now and we will work with them to set some measures in place particularly on reporting and what kind of information they can share with us but also we'll make sure we specifically address what happens if those security guards are not following those operational orders and how that would be addressed there's a section I believe in the current contract that addresses some of that but making an amendment would give us an opportunity to be more specific on this exactly if we proceed well I appreciate that thank you and then every district will have at least one Park included in this correct mayor councilman Waring members of the city council it depends what uh what option we proceed with today so based on some of the feedback we receive we added additional options uh one of those options is one per Council district and then the other two are the original eight plus the original eight and a few more let me rephrase so the option that's on the floor now is councilman decisio's motion I'm sorry I wasn't more specific but my bad sure yes councilman Waring that's correct thank you we'll go to the vice mayor and then councilman O'Brien and then councilman and sorry so I really appreciate staff trying to solve a big problem and uh nobody's arguing up here that the fact that our Parks need to be our parks our Parks need to be safe nobody's arguing that piece or discussing that piece the discussion is what should we do with our parks and how do we keep them safe and how do we keep those that are vulnerable in our Parks be able to provide the resources that they need or guide them to where they need especially at the night of third shift um in the sense of these Security will be on the third shift so I just want to put that out there to those I'm not really sure where the storyline or the tagline of people shouldn't be mad at staff I'm not really sure who's mad at staff or where that narrative came about but staff is responsible for providing what people have asked to the council I had asked for data and there was no data in this packet so I don't know who I should be mad at should I be mad at my colleagues or should I be mad at staff I don't know but that's not the issue and I just want to put that narrative out there um what we're discussing right now and today what I understand and after being prepped yesterday were about Urban Rangers Urban Park Rangers there's preserve Park Rangers and what I was told there's Urban Park Rangers my understanding is that there's 24 or 22 24 that have been hired and there are two left that need to be hired okay so that makes it 26 Urban Rangers these Urban Rangers Park Rangers have the ability to write citations yes or no mayor vice mayor uh yes they do the security at night from I believe I think 9 30 10 30 or I don't know 8 30 to 8 P.M to 10 a.m to 10 p.m will they be able to write citations Vice may they would not be able to write okay so they wouldn't be able to write write citations all they would do is ask somebody move along you can't be in the park these are the hours if there's something illegal happening what what what ability do they have to do I mean something illegal happening what will they do or if I passed or mayor members of the city council uh the way it works now is they would uh go up to the individual or the group of individuals performing the activity they would let them know they're in the Park after hours they're obviously performing illegal activity or violating a code of conduct Rule and they would ask them to move on if they don't move on they would then contact the police department for assistance what would the park ranger be able to do uh in that scenario vice mayor and mayor members of city council they would do something very similar they could trespass so that would be different a park ranger could trespass an individual from the park but again if they don't listen to a park ranger the park rangers would also call the police department they are not allowed to detain individuals okay um I just wanted to put that out there I'll have more questions later thank you we'll go to councilman O'Brien followed by councilwoman and sorry thank you mayor Cynthia do we have how many parks has this service currently uh mayor councilwoman O'Brien we currently have three downtown parks with security services and how long have those Parks had this type of security the security services at Civic space Park have been in place since the park opened around 2009 and that's because it's part of our agreement with ASU that Security Services would be provided due to its location across the street from the University then then the overnight Security Services that Rove between Civic space hands and Heritage Square began around 2013. okay and then so the last time this contract was approved by the council was when 2018 all right that you said the operations are from when uh the currently the the overnight operations in downtown parks are 10 P.M to 6 a.m and what will it be for the parks in the pilot the pilot recommendation is 8 pm to 10 a.m to allow some overlap with park ranger hours during Park closure and opening times so that allows to us to provide a physical presence in our Park prior to closing and then overnight when many of the calls come in um and then into the first few hours at the beginning of the park councilman O'Brien that's correct okay and can you tell me a little bit about the criteria that was used to select the original eight sure we looked at information particularly that we track through our park ranger program and the three primary criteria used were the number of visits or calls for service to a park for Park Rangers as well as the number of trespass notices is issued and the number of I'm sorry trespasses highest number for calls visits and then also code of conduct violations in the park okay so Cortez Park which is a park in in district one has received 21 of all the calls of the eight parks that were listed um which is enormous and in in the 18 months I've been on this Council that has been a park of huge concern for my constituents so I am very excited to support this option that will help to hopefully Move Along people who are who are not following our park rules and support our park rangers and our police officers how many Park Rangers do we have Cynthia councilwoman O'Brien mayor members of the city council we have a team of 30 individuals on the park rangers for the urban side that includes park ranger twos threes a park manager oversees them and a supervisor so that I'm factoring into that number that Team Works seven days a week in two different shifts from 4 AM to 11 p.m covering the 185 Parks currently and how many vacancies do we have um we re we currently have two vacancies we were able to fill 10 of those positions over the last few weeks but we have two vacancies currently on that team I'm very excited to hear that new information so this but this pilot program will be will help to fill a stop Gap while we get all of those Folks up and on their feet and also help our Police Department who is understaffed as well correct councilman O'Brien during that overlap period yes what it primarily does is put eyes in the Parks after hours as well okay so I do think that they're you know the parks department has provided as well as police department you know information and data to support having this additional tool in our tool belt to provide safety in our Parks a place where we want our citizens to go we've been trying to activate Parks including Cortez Park where we have ball fields and basketball courts Little League tournaments we have a city pool that was busy all summer long however that's just not been enough to keep the um you know illegal activity and visitors to after or after our parks in the after hours and as recently as three weeks unfortunately we had a dead body in our Cortez Park Lake so I wholeheartedly support this item and look forward to because it is a pilot program hearing what kind of impact it makes in due time and whether that's you know in six months or a year but I really appreciate you moving quickly quickly and swiftly on this and getting the additional folks out thank you mayor thank you we'll go to councilwoman I'm sorry and then councilwoman guardato and then council member Garcia thank you mayor first I just want to start by making clear I think to the vice mayor's point I think for me in particular and everyone up here we all want to keep our Park safe I support making sure the parks in my district are safe we address crime that occurs in them but I really don't believe that this proposal does what we need to do to actually address the hiring challenges and wage increases in our own Parks rain in our own parks department that our Park Rangers desperately need um if par if private security was The Proven solution that I would be all for it but the issue is that I don't believe it's been made clear that this would actually solve our problems and not just move the issues that are happening to other areas of our city whether that's other Parks canals neighborhoods the policy that was presented to us a couple weeks ago that list of parks has now completely changed we suddenly have you know if it was so urgent and if we had you know if folks on the dice are saying that we've been working on this for so long how did that list completely shift from what it was a couple of weeks ago to now include parks in every single District I don't think it's data driven but I just really want to focus on this point that was already has already been touched on a bit about private security versus Ranger functions so Cynthia you you've already said private security cannot write citations correct so what would they actually be doing and can you tell us exactly how that would differ from a park ranger both differences and similarities door mayor councilwoman Ansari members of the city council So currently Rangers do have citation authorities they can't arrest they can't detain but if an individual that they make contact with stays and is willing to engage with them they can issue a citation they can issue a trespass notice a security guard and the way that this works now downtown is they Patrol the park in pairs they drive in a vehicle they go to one part they get out they Patrol the grounds on foot they address any park rule violation so naturally if they see individuals in the park they'll educate them and let them know the park is closed they'll ask them to leave if those individuals are performing activities that are illegal they'll do the same they'll ask them to leave if people are violating rules like using Park amenities for unintended purposes like sleeping on playground equipment or things like that that's something else to help educate them on um and ask them to move on I will say uh you know one of the greatest benefits we've seen is the deterrence and people knowing that um they do come through the parks to minimize some of that activity so if we were to put them side by side they essentially do the same thing except our park rangers can actually provide citations our park rangers can cite and they can trespass okay so park rangers have more Authority they're accountable to the city now some mentions were made of very violent things gunshots being heard dead bodies do you see a difference in how a park ranger versus a private security I'm just trying to understand why we're not going the park Direction route so in the in that situation what is is there any difference between the two or where they both need to call a police officer to come to the scene if it's crime um either is going to both are going to call the police okay so now going into our park rangers how many Park Rangers and I think this was already set but I just want to make sure I have it right how many Park Rangers do we have for our 185 Urban parks in the city of Phoenix 28 Rangers and two supervisory positions a team of 30. and how much are we paying our park rangers um currently and I have that if you bear with me our Park Rangers salary range currently is about 37 000 to 56 000 for a range or two forty one thousand to about 62 000 for a Ranger three okay I just want to put that on the record because I think you know we all know that 37 000 even up to the 62 000 is not a livable salary in the city of Phoenix right now do we know how that's comparable to other Arizona cities um in in very brief preliminary research it's very comparable and I say that because uh the structure is very different across the cities Across The Valleys some park rangers are under the police department the positions are different and most have very few park rangers in their cities in comparison to US okay well the reason I'm harping on this is we've had discussion time after time we've said over and over again our employees are our most valuable resource at the City of Phoenix we need to appreciate our employees now we are talking about the safety of our Parks we have a function already as a city employee position that's job is to do that I guess what I'm trying to get at is that my preference would be to be able to spend funds that we have to do whatever it takes to hire more Park Rangers can we add a third shift can we you know do the exact things that we are hoping to do with the subcontract within our own boundaries that is what my preference would be I also don't think that this approach goes far enough to look at the holistic situation how we looked at the data in these parks and said okay do these Parks differ in any way when it comes to the amount of lighting that the park has or the amount of activation that takes place at this park and all of the other things that come with a safe secure clean Park do we compare in those areas as well and I believe we should be looking at that and once again I'm very supportive of keeping our Park safe I want to make clear that I have gone back and and forth on my decision on this particular item because I do hear from my constituents about it I know it's important I know there's parks in district 7 that are not safe currently our people do not feel safe and whether you know it's reality or perception all of that matters but what I want to see is investment in our own City of Phoenix employees I want us to do whatever we can we went you know we completely accelerated the timeline for increasing police salaries because we saw a need and we did that and now we're seeing results in hiring within our Police Department we can do the exact same thing when it comes to park rangers especially when again you made very clear Park Rangers have more Authority they can do more to keep our Parks safe so that's where I that's where I stand on this thank you thank you councilman guardado followed by council member Garcia thank you mayor yes I just also want to say I am also very very supportive of making sure that our parks are safe I have two young children I actually physically use the parks a lot in in my area and I know that we need more safety and I think this is more what's happening right now it's just the same thing that happened with our issues but bulk trash we weren't paying people enough people were leaving the city of Phoenix the same thing that happened in the police department we weren't paying people enough and people started leaving the police department right we saw it with our 911 operators two years ago we weren't paying them enough we were treating them with dignity and respect and they also started leading once we started looking at these issues on the same thing with our with our lifeguards the moment we started paying a little bit more people were coming in and we were able we were able to open up a lot more pools and here we are here we are today now with this issue in our Parks right where if we did have a third if we did have a third shift if we did pay more um to our parkwing jerseys it'd be a lot easier I think we've at this point we should have figured it out that when these issues come up and we hire more then we're able to address a lot of these issues right I was just in a briefing yesterday with Lori and we talked about the fact that we had a lot of the drivers that have put in their two-week notices they they took them back when they saw that they were going to get a three dollar raise so we know what the solution really is to these crises that are happening because we don't pay people enough that that is our biggest issue because when you take away the 11 there's a lot of these Rangers that actually qualify to put their kids on access and that should be a huge embarrassment for all of us and I know that Lori and Jeff you guys are working extremely hard on that class and comp study but these issues all these issues that we're having right now is because we have not done what we had to do to make sure that we pay our workers enough for them to be able to do the job and for us to be able to continue to keep people on we've I've seen it on social media I've seen it on Facebook where we've where right now park rangers are leaving the city because they don't get paid enough and I think and instead of bringing in a security company I really think that we should be hiring more right as the chair of CCI where supposedly we were supposed to be dealing with Parks you know we asked for some time you know to come up with a holistic approach right to figure out how this really needs needs to happen and I'm sorry Cynthia and Inger right that you guys were rushed to bring a solution to the table right so congratulations on that for bringing bringing in a rushed approach but I really do feel that this is not the solution we all want safety in our Parks we hear it from our constituents but I just don't understand why I said that we rather give how much is it Jeff between 800 and a million to a to a to a company right that's how much it's going to cost us right it could cost us um up to 800 right now and if we kept them for a year it'd be close to a million dollars is that roughly right Americans women or other members of the council the request today is up to eight hundred thousand dollars and that's an annual amount we're not entirely sure what the exact dollar amount will be until we can work with the security company on their approach and how many staff and and the rotation that they will take right but there's a chance that it could cost more I think that's unlikely because we've already done some preliminary research on that and the approval that we would be seeking would be up to eight hundred thousand dollars so we wouldn't be able to spend beyond that without additional Council approval so I I just think that you know we are going to have more accountability in our hands right now we're asking security guards to go into our parks and these are security guards that are not armed it's 11 it's midnight it's one o'clock in the morning and they're supposed to go in there and deal with the challenges that are happening inside our parks and now we're putting more work onto our police officers which is what we said that we wanted to stay away from because we wanted them to go deal with different issues so I think as chairwoman of CCI I think mayor like I would like to make another motion right all right our City attorney mayor member of the council by rule we already have a substitute Amendment on this there cannot be another amendment or substitute there could be a friendly amendment that have to be accepted by the maker in the second but there can't be another substitute or our Amendment at this time and our current maker our councilman decisio and councilman Waring well my question to councilman decisio would be can you uh the second motion be a friendly Amendment to the first motion well it depends on what it is and whether or not the person who made the motion is supportive of that or the second of that okay okay so I'm not going to make a unilateral decision here I've made a commitment of where I'm going on this and I'm going to stick with it so everyone understands how I work so um you're going to have to work with the others and ask them to on the council will still uh councilman guardado still has the floor so okay so I would recommend that in a motion number one we evaluate the current park ranger structure in compensation this would include prioritizing them in the upcoming compensation study if not sooner in order to fill the current vacancies B simultaneously assess the hiring processes evaluate the job description cut unnecessary requirements and expedite the onboarding number two formation of park ranger third shift a work with stakeholders to include but not limited to human resources aspatia in our Korean Park Rangers to form and overnight their shift this would allow accountability enforcement and proper training to deal with the complexities of the issues in our parks and number three temporary park ranger incentive program this would be aimed at incentivizing our current Park Rangers Workforce to take newly created overnight shifts while we wait on the formal creation and recruitment have a third shift I think these are ideas that I think would address um the issues that we're having right now in in the Parks I I understand um what councilwoman O'Brien says we we need a solution right now and I think that could be part of the of the solution instead of bringing in a security company and then we figure out a way how do we expedite the hiring of more Park Rangers and working with human resources even bringing in a company that will help Human Resources being able to onboard people a little bit faster I think that's a better solution than bringing in a security company that that the only thing they're going to be able to do is tell people to go away and I think our park rangers have a lot more Authority which I think it's something that I believe we should be moving forward with everyone real solutions and we want to stop a lot of these problems councilman decisio and I'm sorry Marion this is going to be a longer response as it always is with me so I apologize for that response you're about to get so the answer is no I would not support that and and I'm going to explain why we have a budget cycle coming up real soon that can easily be put into the budget the second thing and this is more of a fiscal issue that staff's been grappling with we've been pushing you know this Council as a whole has been pushing for more and more to be done internally and Jeff if you could and I think I know the numbers but if you could provide every council member up here not right now because it takes a little research the average cost per employee for all 13 000 plus employees if you could just show those numbers and I want to just give an idea here the City of Phoenix does not have enough money under the current system that we have to do all these things the more we take things internally here the more expensive all services are going to be in the past the City of Phoenix has done a really good job of balancing out between what we do internally managing it running with it and hiring enough employees and also Contracting out I know it sounds bad to some people but the fact of the matter is we've done that because it's a fiscally responsible thing to do so I just want to give it a couple examples the current system that we're on the the pension model that we have approximately 40 to 42 percent of all costs related to that employee because you have to look at numbers too it's it's there's a human element of this but there's also a cost element of this and we've always had a really good balance in there and and it's about 42 40 to 42 percent of all costs associated with any employee that we take in represents additional cost so if an employee is getting sixty thousand dollars a year there is a product about a hundred to a hundred and five thousand dollars is the total cost per employee I'm guessing our total cost per employee right now is north of 120 000 per employee so as we add those people on to do the jobs that others have done in the past it becomes unsustainable and sooner or later you're going to have less and less Services believe it or not you will provide less service and less ability to get things done to the public under the model that we want to see the second thing the pension model that we have here and I've talked to Jeff repeatedly about this so creating a bifurcated model where employees younger employees do not want this okay they want portability they want to be able to take their money with them the current system that we live under right now doesn't allow that so you're just not going to get those type of employees to work here now you can raise the pay enough let's say we raise it from 60 000 or whatever the amount is per employee to 80 000. you've got to add another 40 to 42 percent onto that at all times so every time we add uh a cost on and again these are numbers it's not taking the human element I get it but every time we do that you've got to add in additional monies and our insurance program here is is beyond anybody's comprehension it's that good so all those things cost and all those things are part of our employee pay packages so the individuals that are not being hired on right now because they're younger they don't want a pension they want to be able to take it with them if we were to create some type of bifurcated system we would be a lot better off this is a bigger issue than what we're talking about here but we're seeing it now with the fire hydrants and Jeff's had heard me talk I mean I've asked about that too like what's happening how are we going to be able to take all these in we're creating a safety issue with our employees we have to be able to be more Nimble faster and be able to deliver a service but at the same time have a base amount of employees here and have individuals be able to do other types of services and if we don't like the job that they provide then we can kick them out so the other part of this deals with that this is a pilot program we're there to test it so that was a lot longer answer why I cannot support that I'm happy with the way things are right now I gave my commitment I'm good with this and I'm going to stay with where I'm at okay we'll go back to councilman guardado assuming councilmember Garcia whose turn was is okay with that I think it's not fine thank you I think just an addition because I just don't think that this is just about about pay I think pay has a lot to do with this I think it also has and there's a lot of studies out there that show that activation is also incredibly important right when we when we think about safety in the Parks so in addition I would also like to give directive for us to be able to go back to CCI and explore a few options in our preserves we have a park Stewart Steward program and I would like to see options on how we could expand this to our Urban parks to allow volunteers and neighborhood leaders to take on a more coordinated role of maintaining the parks number two to work in coordination with our office of Homeless Solutions to return to the subcommittee with options for Outreach Services number three to return with our presentation on how we can increase programming in our Pro in our parks to include but not limited to movie Nights food truck events farmer markets sponsoring Recreational Sports and other means of activation I just think activation is the solution we're seeing it in other cities we're seeing it in other places that this is what actually works when we want to activate a lot of these a lot of these spaces I know Cynthia you and I have had conversations about this I think this is something that the community wants and when it comes to workers I think that before we look at numbers we look at we have to look at people as humans and I think that is part of the reason we're having all of these issues is because we've been looking at the numbers for too long and not looking at people as humans and that's the reason why these humans are leaving us and going to other parts of the Maricopa County for different jobs and yeah and every time we subcontract something out you know like councilman council member Warren was saying you know we're we're sometimes not happy be with the services that they're providing and once we subcontract out there is no way to really measure if this is working or not because they're not within the city I think that's part of the reason why I like what we're doing with our office of Homeless Solutions and I think that's part of the reason we brought it in-house because we saw that subcontracting that out was not working and I just think that the more we look at things as numbers and as not as human beings and the work that needs to be done in our districts I I think we're going to continue to see these these problems ex explore explode a lot more we're seeing it already we we started seeing it with the operators the last one was the bulk trash pickup you know our neighbor our neighborhoods are still not looking the best but they know that we're working towards a solution so I'm hopeful that we can look for a real solution and that we stop with these Band-Aids that actually don't work thank you mayor thank you we'll go to the very patient council member Garcia and then councilwoman Stark thank you mayor um so first of all I think you know adding another Park could have been a simple Amendment but also understand uh the game and how being able to make it a full secondary motion does not allow anyone else to actually present a viable second option um and second I Sal thank you for for explaining it in the way you did because I think it makes it clear for myself that I fundamentally cannot support us going in the route of replacing good jobs or replacing our city workers uh with subcontracting um especially when what we need right now is is quality what we need right now is folks that are going to do the job um with with the intention of fixing long-term problems um what is happening to our parks and our intersections across the city is real we have a housing crisis as well as an opioid crisis these eight hundred thousand uh dollars should be used to put a real plan together for all of our parks and and to figure out both short-term and long-term Solutions there's a short-term solution just presented that we could actually have our own folks that are ready uh trained assigned that already have the ability to handle what we need and and yeah we're deciding not to use them we're deciding today that instead of admitting our hiring failures and our inability to keep and Value City workers we are subcontracting non-qualified private security without a procurement process without a transparent process we um especially for the physically conservative folks on the council it's mind-boggling to me that we're willing just to add to another contract that is actually a joint contract with ASU without ever setting up expectations or priorities for this new program we're just going to add and hope and pray that it goes well we're again crawling victims to cheap political points and people trying to solve things quickly or pretend to their constituents that they're actually solving something when we all know all this is going to do is create a false sense of security instead of us actually attacking the root causes these private security agencies will not have the ability to give tickets or enforce any of the park rules like we've you know that's been mentioned before um and then we go into the problem of how do we select Parks I can in District a can think of over a dozen parks that need resources that need help that we should be working on that that aren't safe right councilman guardado I have a six-year-old that I frequent parks with um and you know throughout the game events we we went to I think most of us went to all our parks and know the dire needs that they all have that that this isn't going to solve I think we're all frustrated and deserve the opportunity to to find the real and and short and long-term Solutions um it was that was our goal in the subcommittee it would the thought was to actually go back and figure this out I I would appreciate it and I would ask mayor and Council uh to maybe have a work study so that we can all figure this out or have a full discussion of different options um it's also been portrayed um or or kind of being pinned down um to vote on this whether we're choosing that we care we don't care about our Parks um I think we all care about our Parks I think uh specifically in my district or or some of the districts or the folks that have shown concerns I think we're showing concerns because we have the the probably most dire situations we're also currently going through our Park strategic plan a plan that hasn't been updated in 20 years that has a whole portion on Safety and Security that's going to give us and allow us to look for a comprehensive way of having this um so I'm gonna I'm gonna vote no on the options for the both options that we were limited to today um not because I like the understanding that we have a crisis and our parts aren't safe but it's with the hope that we actually tackle it um with a fully funded strategy that we're not just reactionary and putting these Band-Aids out um that are actually going to hurt us and are going to put us in a situation where um we're going down a path that obviously councilman the Cecil appreciates but I don't think um majority of the council appreciate going down this privatization path and so I'm going to be against this obviously that's what I've spoken about um have some more questions for staff but I don't know if there's a public comment or or where the conversation is going but definitely we're now going to be against the both motions that we're allowed to vote on thank you we'll go to councilman Stark thank you mayor um I appreciate everyone's comments and I too want to see us fully staffed with Park Rangers and I would like to see evening shifts we are not open just from eight to five in our Parks but we need a short-term solution and we do already have Security in three parks and from what I can tell we haven't had a lot of problems or a lot of complaints I look at security as a visual deterrent when I go to my shopping center my target there is security they drive around the parking lot and I think that probably prevents break-ins into cars they walk around the stores and that probably helps prevent theft maybe not all of it but it certainly is a visual deterrent and I think that's what we need right now about six months ago I got a call from a resident and they were in the park they were activating the park they had a little league team practicing the coach was there the parents were there the kids wanted to take a break and go to the bathroom and one of the parents had the good sense to say let me check first and he walked in and he saw two people using needles doing drugs that is unacceptable I know we need to solve our drug problem but we also have to make sure our parks are safe for our children for our families for everyone and so I see this as a stop Gap measure I do not think it's the last solution but again it has worked well in three Parks already and we need to really look at what our park rangers do and how we can activate them in the evening as well and that's going to take some time so in the interim I think we need to have security I I I've had this fight with Sal about privatization before on the building inspectors if you recall and I I don't want to see that I want us to have Park Rangers that work for the city that are proud to work for the city that do a good job we're not there yet completely so in the interim we need this I just don't see them being a problem again if they have been we would be hearing about it correct have we had very many complaints mayor councilwoman Stark members of the city council we've been trying to pull data it's hard to to get data to confirm that number but what I can tell you or a number I should say what I can tell you is that what we're not seeing in the parks that are having the services uh the security services currently we're not seeing the incidence of vandalism that we have seen in some of the other Parks we're not seeing as much drug paraphernalia being left in the Parks and so those are the kinds of things that we're not seeing and that rolls over into the morning right into the daytime hours as well and so what is not happening in the night makes the park a slightly different situation the next day thank you and again I see it as a visual determinant I I really do think that security works well with police we have security all over our city and I haven't heard it be problematic and if security has a call the police because someone's doing drugs guess what it's a police job to get to that Park and make sure they're not breaking the law and so I think you know I I realize that maybe it'll Place additional work on the police but in this case I think it's okay because our children and our families are in our parks thank you mayor councilman Waring then councilman I'm sorry thank you mayor so Deborah's is an excellent point about the graffiti and stuff it's not just people that they'll be monitoring but also the general atmosphere I wouldn't expect them to just walk by a big blotch of graffiti on uh one of the buildings in the Parks or something and not report it that should be taken down that kind of blight it just it makes it an unwholesome atmosphere an unfriendly atmosphere uh I would never use the word solution for this this isn't a solution for anything but it's better than the nothing that we have right now and I understand these people can't go out and make arrests and so forth but you know what pretty soon the people who are causing problems in the park are going to come to understand yeah about 10 minutes after I see that guy who's telling me to leave a police officer shows up and then it's an issue a bigger issue so that's not a bad thing at all I mean citizens call us and police respond to that I get calls and we immediately send it to police and they respond to that this isn't any different except these people are paid to be out there and to do this and we're spending 107 million dollars we just had a discussion on this on the homeless situation how much do we spend running our Parks program every year Cynthia uh mayor councilwoman Waring uh as I'd have to look at the number for the park ranger program to be able to answer that I'm sorry I mean all your hope to have parts to have parks for citizens over 100 million yeah so we're trying to make this hundred million dollar investment a little more user friendly for the people who are actually paying for it that makes a lot of sense to me if people don't want these services in their districts find some more parks in District 2 and we'll take them happy to have them because I think citizens are actively asking for this even if they when they contact me they're not don't totally understand they just want some folks were making the parks an inhospitable place to not be engaging in those behaviors in the Parks anymore and that's not an unreasonable request when they're pitching in a hundred million dollars of taxpayer money every year to have parks in the first place to take their kids so we can say we're not disputing that issue but at this point I would say those of us who are supportive are trying to make a good faith effort to make our 100 plus million dollar a year investment a better investment a more user-friendly investment for the people who are actually paying for it and wanting to use it for wholesome reasons and then also try to maybe find something that might work and if this is that something great if it's not we'll move on to sales point and try to do something else but the status quo is not acceptable and it's getting worse by the day I said the same thing about the libraries a few years ago I just couldn't believe going to Burton Bar library the behavior I was seeing exhibited and some of the other libraries too I thought you know I love going to the libraries with my mom when I was a kid that's where I learned to love reading that's a good wholesome activity it's a good thing for kids to learn it happened to work with me I don't know if it benefit anybody besides me but I was happy to have that that skill I'm like I wonder if my mom would have taken me to the library if we would have been seeing the obscenities the the plumes of smoke right outside the front doors and stuff I don't know very debatable point and I think about how many parents might be making that decision and not contacting a council office and so you don't know so I asked and we did more security at some of our libraries because it was really getting out of hand and it seems a lot better now I go to a lot of different libraries just just frankly to check I like to see kind of what's going on this is really no different and I think it would be misguided to say we are not going to try anything we're going to study it and then maybe somewhere down the road we'll find some some extra money to hire some some permanent people we need people right now these security companies this is what they do for work we're already doing this in three parks so in the southern part of the city and I think it's a good thing to try to expand this given that there really haven't been any complaints nobody's been standing up here at public comment or something complaining about these security guards and it sounds like according to Cynthia's testimonies to highfalutin a word but her comments it seems like it's helped and your point is a good one uh Deb about the the graffiti and stuff just getting rid of that stuff really helped that's why we have the shopping cart program that's why we have a graffiti program makes the city more livable so I think this is something we should move forward with and then if it works see if we can do some more if we can hire Park Rangers that's great too nobody's saying don't do that it's not either or but definitely something has to be done or should we should scale back how much we're spending on Parks and I don't think anybody wants to do that because if they're going to get less utilized and that's the stuff I keep hearing is that people are a little leery now of going to some of these places then you know what we got to make that decision I don't think that's a decision we're going to make so we got to maximize the usage for the parts that we have and this is one way one small way to move towards that goal in my opinion thank you thank you we'll go next to councilwoman Ansari thank you um couple of thoughts and questions I think with all due respect to my colleagues I don't think anyone here is suggesting that today we do nothing I think we all know the status quo is not okay we all want our parks to be safe what I understood from the suggestion for a friendly amendment is that we have this eight hundred thousand dollars up to eight hundred thousand dollars why can we not spend this exact same pot of money towards hiring park rangers and doing whatever it takes to expedite and I guess for those numbers Inger or Cynthia I'm curious from you if we were to determine today that right now we could add a night shift to our park rangers right now we could Implement hiring incentives right now we could like what timeline does that take do we really need a stop gap of a full year to to make that up or if we were to go all in on this can we make an impact there mayor members of the council councilwoman I'm sorry that's a great question what we could do would require more time than what has been asked of us in the three-person four-person memo that came to us requesting immediate action and so the proposal that has been put forward is something that can be implemented more or less immediately within a four to six week time frame that's a much shorter time frame than we could Implement an addition of Park Rangers and or hire additional Park Rangers even with a salary increase even with an incentive it would take several months probably best case scenario four to six months to implement those types of things we would still have to study the salary we would have to implement an incentive and we would have to go through hiring processes which you know even though Cynthia mentioned we've been able to in the last several weeks bring on 10 Park Rangers that didn't happen in the last couple weeks from start to finish that was a multi-month process to get to actually onboarding those additional Rangers so these things don't have to be mutually exclusive but the proposal that we're putting forward today is intended to be a temporary stop Gap measure to what some have have utilized today is that terminology to have an immediate approach to address the safety issues in the Parks and then you know we can still we are actually already looking at compensation for Park Rangers as part of the class in comp study and we have other tools like the incentives mentioned that we can Implement to expedite some of that hiring and making sure that we're retaining quality Rangers in our program but doing something that would be implemented in a very short period of time is not necessarily viable given our processes and and the things that we would need to go through to put those in place so we can conduct some of those activities just not in the immediate time frame that's been requested but if the same amount of money were to be used to and I'm just spitballing to implement hiring bonuses to bring someone's suggested bring someone on to help us with Expediting these processes to add a third shift like why can we not do that it just seems crazy that as a city of Phoenix we cannot make that happen in a couple of months and to me it would be better to wait a couple of months and have an actual solution that works with quality employees who work and are dedicated to the City of Phoenix who actually have authority there's a lot of language being put out about fiscal responsibility how is it fiscally responsible to spend money on privatizing a core function of the City of Phoenix when they have no Authority they're just driving around and we talk about downtown some of these downtown parks are in my district and we're forgetting the fact that there's also increase police patrol happening downtown we also have ASU police we also shut down some of the bathrooms there's a lot of other reasons why maybe we're having less issues at Hans Park than we are in some of these other parks and to just to say that it's a proven solution to have privatized security to me is not the case and again four to six weeks is still not immediate we could wait a couple months use the same pool of money and support our own park ranger program that's all I'm saying I don't see why you know we would never talk about privatizing police officers park rangers are a core function of the city that's one of some of the bread and butter of what we do so that's where I would like to see us focus our our funds if we if we have eight hundred thousand dollars to do so thank you thank you we'll go to council the vice mayor and then Council and then I will make some comments and then go to councilman guardado thank you um I'm hearing the term status quo stop Gap Lori I disagree with you there's many reasons why I disagree with you because yesterday we spoke and you said oh this is a short term and I said no I don't think this is a valuable short-term peace and I stated and I said why don't we make a third shift we currently have Park Rangers that we could look at and make a third shift with our current Rangers and actively recruit for the the last two of the urban Rangers then I was told well no that's difficult I have to go back and talk to the groups and you didn't tell me that Cynthia told me that it's really difficult we can't do that so I accepted that answer as of last night but this morning what I found out is we did have Park Rangers that did do third shift there was a third shift I also found out that there is the possibility because I did talk to some of the employees and the labor groups I did talk to them and said would you willing to be doing a third shift because we are in this crisis and they said yes we would also like to see if there's going to be a third shift because third shift in all our safety areas have incentives and additional dollars for working at night so that's where I disagree with you because there is a short-term solution the other piece is the four to six weeks this solution can happen in four to six weeks as we then move quickly to then start to fill all our other ones we could do this in four to six weeks and provide the solution to my counterparts so that's where I'm I'm not on the same page the other thing what I know about four to six weeks is you're asking you're asking security right right now they don't have enough employees and there's a reason why they don't have enough employees we have Super Why coming and when Super Bowl's coming there are a lot of security firms and places that are right now hiring for Super Bowl the issue is you have to have a certain license in order to be in the security Arena that delay is happening right now because DPS can't move they're two months backlogged right now and they can't move fast enough because of a shortage so maybe we should privatize there and help with DPS and ask them can you move this quickly so then we can get our security guards in our parks my point is is that there's a domino effect and we aren't going to get the security in four to six weeks but we can in four to six weeks look at our park rangers go talk to our park rangers and ask we're going to do a third shift here are all the different possibilities are you willing to help us and that conversation has not been had your vice mayor if I may just address that quickly the it is not a question of whether our park rangers would be willing to support this effort that is we have an excellent team and very dedicated staff who I believe would go above and beyond to to you know perhaps even volunteer to be part of the third shift the the question is do we have enough staff total to staff three shifts and the answer to that is no unless we have much smaller shifts than we have now which I wouldn't recommend that we downsize the first and second shift in order to create a third shift our recommendation would be to add positions to create the third shift which would require additional individuals to work those positions and to increase our our total staff of the Ranger program in order to have three full shifts rather than splitting the first and second shift into the third shift do I understand that but why don't you ask the park rangers why don't you ask the park rangers look we're into crisis how can you help us instead of us making executive decisions let's ask them thank you vice mayor I am going to be supporting this item safety is a top priority for us at the City of Phoenix I believe it's wise to try multiple different strategies I really enjoyed joining councilman Ansari earlier this week when we did a hiring event and we were able to hire several individuals for our parks department I will continue to try to support that effort I think this makes sense we have used a similar tool at several parks and I believe the results have been good another item I consider is what input we have from our voters we had a vote on a proposition called 300 related to Transit security and it asked our voters would they consider private security to support Transit security and they overwhelmingly said yes it was 78 approved what passed in every Council district and so that is something I also consider in situations that have some items in common what have the voters said and that was a pretty strong approval so I hope that this policy makes sense and I'll continue to support our amazing Parks Rangers I want to continue to invest in Parks Rangers I'm proud that we have grown that program during my time at the city and want to continue to do so in that area and now I will go to councilwoman guardado and then councilman Waring thank you mayor um Cynthia just a question um how long would it take um how long did the security company said it would take to onboard the new security that they need um to fill these positions sure uh councilman guardato and mayor members of city council the current provider has informed us they would need a minimum of four to six weeks to get guards into the parks that we have on the list thank you thank you for that um Lori how long is it going to take us to give the drivers the wage increase that we just approved or that you guys just recommend it so the way the incentive increases is that what you're talking about the three dollar increase yes so that uh will go into effect at the end of November about four weeks six weeks from start to finish it was probably six to eight weeks right so I I just think that you know we I again I'm gonna well first I wanna say and hopefully everyone can listen and everyone can understand I don't think I'm against having safer Parks I'm the first one to advocate for safer Parks that's the first thing you know and I just hope people can stop saying that we are saying that we don't want to have safety in the Parks the second thing is that you know I get it that there's a lot of us that a lot of these areas have not we've not put a lot of money into the areas like West Phoenix South Phoenix and I think that it's only fair to say is let us decide let our constituents decide what type what type of programs they want to see happen in their parks like if you look at if you look at this proposition you have other council members deciding what's going to happen in West Phoenix and in South Phoenix and I just I just don't think that's right I get it that that's been the norm for a very long time but we were hoping to be able to change that you know there's a lot of vocal council members on this console now and I think that we understand the pulse of our the districts are very different you know District Two and District Five are very different and the needs are very different right and to say that we I don't want Security in my Parks is wrong so I just want to put that on the record I think that we have to get more creative you know and we continue to do the same thing all over again we continue to subcontract out thinking and hoping and praying that this is going to work and that it's going to be the solution and we continue to see failed programs in the city of Phoenix and things that we continue to put money into and that then we continue to be frustrated about and we only take action at the moment that becomes a crisis and I and I really hope that we can really look at this that we would look at this from a different lens and that a lot of us that do have a lot of the affected areas that have the higher numbers would have been respected and they would have given us a chance to figure out what's the solution I believe we brought a solution an immediate solution today I do think that we would be able to onboard a little bit faster if we gave the HR department the support that they needed to be able to make this happen so it so it is very frustrating to hear some of the narrative but just you know to put everything in perspective like I do want Security in my Parks but I think all of our constituents the areas are different and I think our constituents know exactly what is it that they want to see we look at what's happening in the light rail right now if you go and you talk to my constituents over in 19 North over by Glendale and in at Northern and where the light rail stops people are not happy people are not happy with the security company that's the reason why how much money are we spending Lori on the 27th Avenue plan and on the 19th Avenue plan mayor members of the council councilman the worst spending approximately six and a half seven million dollars total on on the plans combined and I think that's money well spent but I don't think we would have had to spend that money if security was the answer right we see everything that's happening in all of our light rail stops we see the fentanyl we see all the drugs that are being used and we and we get it our security guards are not meant to deal with those type of situations and if you go talk to people in District Five and you talk to people that live in that area they're really upset and they're upset at the solutions that have been brought forward and I think they're also going to be really upset to see the Securities at the parks because what's going to happen now is that not only getting phone calls that now we have people in the alleys and we're just moving people along and I just wish that we would have looked at that at least for me in D5 that's part of the big problem that I see and what's going to happen and if we do this at Maryvale Park then they're going to go to Maryview Park and then Laura's gonna start getting the car the calls and from there they're going to move to Desert View right and then councilwoman Ansari is going to get the calls I just don't think that we're comparing we're comparing apples to oranges and and I just wish we just would have had a different solution thank you mayor thank you we'll go to councilman Waring and then councilman O'Brien thank you mayor the mayor was right to bring up the uh I think it was Proposition 300 vote on the transit that was an excellent example that I had neglected to mention uh we are also on the Public Safety Committee led by councilman O'Brien um you know trying to look at potentially not having police give out traffic tickets by schools and stuff or not traffic tickets but parking tickets by schools and stuff like that stuff that you don't necessarily have to have a gun and a badge to do so we are sort of Outsourcing some of those activities to free up police officers for more intense activities shall we say this is a lesser version of that to my mind we're trying to have eyes on so people can help tell police hey we've got this issue I am always respectful and receptive to the argument that our districts are different my district I get it is very different Cynthia you and I had talked about that and uh where parks in my district rank in terms of issues and it was a lot lower than than frankly the other districts but there's no way that citizens in my district that I represent because I go around and talk to them too just like the rest of you do uh are receptive to the activities that they're seeing and I think this is the course of action that they would prefer if there is some other course of action that would work better in other districts I'm open to having that discussion but then I'll take the leftover security people because I think that's the expectation in District Two I'm not speaking for the expectation in other areas I don't think we need to study this and study this and so forth we've already studied it it's already been used in three parks by the company that we're talking about using um to the argument about the uh the light rail people are unhappy because I've heard from them it's the product that was created has created an atmosphere that now people don't want to use it it's not probably so much the security company is that there's no way to police the entire thing there's too many trains too many miles Etc and so people are pretty frustrated I've heard from them I don't even have this in my district but one ride they're an awful lot of people where I knock on their door and like well I took one ride on that thing not doing that again I'm sure they'd be receptive to more security people it's probably not the quality of the security people it's the lack of security people compared to the expansive problem but Light Rail was a city generated problem won't go off on a light rail thing but we didn't have to do that but City Parks have been around for a long time in cities not just ours we're not getting rid of the city parks as we just sort of alluded to earlier so if we're not going to get rid of them we better make them safe and usable and this is one way to make that happen I believe that would work in District Two if it's not perfect for other areas we'll have a discussion about what might work I'm not sure what that would look like I think the best thing is to have people looking for trouble finding it reporting it to police or park rangers and addressing it immediately I do think that'll probably shift the problem around so some of the parks that are high on Cynthia's rankings for trouble spots that'll probably shift when we place them at one spot then it'll probably shift to another Park and then we'll probably have to kind of move around or hire my security people if we feel like this is working it sounds like it's already been working at the three parks that that's what we hire a Parks director for is to tell us this stuff we're not at those Parks the person who is ultimately responsible for this is sitting right there and she's saying it worked at the three Parks we're already doing it at I have no reason to disbelieve that seems to know what she's talking about we trust around a lot of other stuff why not this so I just want to respond to some of the comments I heard but I I completely understand the argument that it's different in different areas of the city I am simply trying to reflect what I think constituents would want in District Two And I think are frankly demanding so thank you councilwoman O'Brien thank you mayor I likewise would like to say that I don't pretend to represent constituents in other districts and that all of our residents and constituents may have different desires or needs but Cortez Park was on the original list and no one consulted with me prior to it being withdrawn from that subcommittee's agenda and my constituents do want their parks to be safe they do want security who are going to enforce the rules we have for our Parks so that they can use it with their families I am not pretending to make a decision for my fellow council members and like some of my other fellow council members if you don't want the security in your parks and there are other Solutions then I'm happy to have the extra security I have constituents who are mad because I don't have a second Park and as it relates to Leading with services and activating Parks every time I meet with or attend a coffee with a cop in my district I hear our commanders talk about I times when they go out with Phoenix cares with CBI with Neighborhood Services and talk about leading with Services the City of Phoenix leads with services that means we ask folks do you need help and they talk about we talked to 97 people three people took Services we talked to 75 people two people took services and now there's a new game they know if they say that they ask for services and then when Services they don't get in trouble with the police and then when Services show up they tell them no I don't want them or maybe they go into services and in a day or two they leave them now some folks I believe are using services and it's helping but it is disheartening to go to those Community meetings and hear that we lead with services and folks aren't accepting them I am all about finding a whole solution and attacking it from multiple places but this is what my constituents want need and deserve thank you mayor thank you we take safety very seriously and this council is doing a wide variety of things to make our communities safer we've invested more in mental health and trying to support addiction recovery than any city council from Phoenix before us we continue to work with our partners at Valley Metro which recently approved a raise for the private security arrays yes moved and more salary raised right so I think it's important to do multiple different things we can do that because the 76.6 percent of Voters in Phoenix supported proposition 300 we can't rest we have to continue to innovate this Council has taken very important steps forward on safety among pedestrians and in our streets we got to do lots of different things and and continue to address new challenges and I'm proud that we've stepped in a variety up in a variety of different ways including more social workers more clinicians more people who have lived experience The World Keeps evolving and the City of Phoenix has to meet those challenges do we have any additional comments councilman sorry yep two comments and then I'm just gonna explain my vote um councilman Waring we are not privatizing police positions I just do want to mention that we are civilianizing them within the same department so it is a little bit different than this because those are still Police Department positions with the same benefits of a city employee whereas in this case we are Outsourcing and have no control over that so and I very much support civilianizing those positions in PD and I think those police assistant positions are great number two I think to councilman O'Brien's point you know I understand I think there's been a lot of discussion around this item and I understand you know maybe the item was withdrawn and I don't know who was consulted or who wasn't but for example I also was not consulted when this memo came forward from the other Council offices even though there are parks in my district so I think that issue kind of goes on both ends I think we all would have benefited from more robust discussion just like every other item you know in public safety we talk about the police crisis for every single month and we come up with better Solutions we civilianize positions we've raised wages we've had better results when we have time for that robust conversation so I wish we would have had the same for this the reason I am voting no on this item today is because I don't think it's good enough I don't think it's strong enough I it doesn't mention anything about our own employees it doesn't mention anything about raising wages for Park Rangers it doesn't do anything we're going to talk about how we're gonna do those things but we're not actually voting on that today so because of that I will be voting no I want parks to be secure but I don't want to waste our money just to make ourselves feel good feel like we're doing something when it's just going to push around the problem thank you vice mayor did you raise your hand to vice mayor thank you there is an example or there was a statement made that we don't necessarily have data but what we can see that vandalism is uh not as high and not seen in the public park drugs or needles my question to you is do you think that if we had a third shift of Park Rangers would that be would we have the same result uh vice mayor Pastor Mayors members of the city council I don't know honestly that I could answer that I think that's why this is intended to be a pilot we don't know exactly what will happen in the pilot are these the right hours what are we going to see exactly in these Parks overnight right now we don't have Rangers in the Parks overnight so we don't really have a baseline to compare to because there are no eyes in the Parks currently other than in those downtown parks I guess I'll reframe my question the statement is we need to have eyes in the Parks and when we have eyes in the Parks vandalism graffiti needles anything else activities go down so eyes in the park in the three parts are security my question is if we have eyes in the parks that are Park Rangers do you think we would get the same results May advisement past store uh yes honestly I think that we could get achieve similar results it's going to achieve eyes in the Parks overnight because I think we will get the similar results and I will get more because they can write citations the other piece is how much do the security guards get paid vice mayor I have that information are the current wage that we pay or rate that we pay for our current with our current security company is 23.90 an hour okay thank you um what my final statement is is that we talk about kids and families not one and going to the park and then we talk about kids and families being in the park but um having to go to the bathroom and there's items happening in the Parks those items are obviously happening in the day because I don't think kids and families are out late at night our bathrooms are closed so if it's happening in the day and we have Park Rangers and staff that roam our parks I'm not sure if this is going to deter the behavior and I really think deterring a behavior is really sighting but we can all argue against that the other piece is that um I got a call from a resident a woman was a little off having a mental breakdown she was running around the park completely naked there were soccer games going on families that were there the constituent called and the constituent was told by police that that was a low priority call so I don't know how any different it would be with security other than having eyes on the park and you know vandalism and some of these things but I think we would have that with our park rangers and plus um how that would even change if a security person happened to be there and that happened they would have called the police and gotten the same answer so I think we're all in this in the space that we do want our Parks safe we all are in the space of how do we do that we all have there's been two short-term suggestions of how we can get there um and really the short term we can get there with what we have today it's just being creative in how we get there secondly it's a matter of really sitting down and putting a long-term plan and I did some accident uh research yesterday pulled up research did research on on Urban parks that are the same size as us in different cities looked at their uh pay looked at what they did but one of the areas that I was most interested in is activation and I think that should be a middle term goal I know there's a long-term goal it could be possibly a short-term goal to keep our Parks healthy and safe because I don't want our Parks we invested as councilman Waring has stated we invested millions and millions of dollars into our parks and we don't want our Parks empty we want them vibrant we want our neighborhoods vibrant and safe and activation is inexpensive because according to the studies done by the national Recreation and Parks Association it can be as simple as yoga classes Zumba after school activity bands even a food truck night that happens within the willow neighborhood that could activate those areas it'll take a lot of effort and a lot of us to work together to lift that within our communities but once they find out it's a safe space and a space to go I believe rebranded and we brand our parks the other things is park rangers in this study are the best activation that you can do cities Parks Alliance which you probably know of shows successful active smart small Parks increase their property values by five percent our citizens will always want to increase their values their property values so I feel it's our responsibility to help them to increase their values and also be able then to keep everybody within that area safe and outside but the end of the day it's the park rangers that will do that because my end goal is to get park rangers in to be able to have the authority to cite and so I'm hoping because this is probably going to pass I'm hoping the three of you that make more than me come up with another short-term goal a midterm goal and a long-term goal that works for all of us and it could be a variety of things because at the end of the day I'm not the one that is going to come up with it but I did I took the time and I don't have the expertise really yesterday to really do all the research to find these answers to come up with short-term and long-term goals along with a lot of my other colleagues so I'm hoping because I have a lot of Hope that this happens and this is not the responsibility of just staff it's also the responsibility of the city manager and assistant city manager to help so I will be voting no on this item thank you thank you vice mayor and thank you to our staff for always looking for new Solutions we are one of the most Innovative cities in the country and now we will go to our very patient residence we will start on the phone with Anna Hernandez followed by Luke black can you hear me yes we can okay thank you my name is Anna Hernandez um lifelong resident of Phoenix uh incoming state senator for legislative district 24 over in Maryville um and also a constituent of district four um I heavily opposed this measure because once again a majority of the council is focusing on Band-Aids instead of solutions like nobody's really talking about um well not a majority of the council is talking about actual solutions that would address the issues that we're seeing if we actually took funds and addressed our housing crisis and harm reduction services and resources for our folks that struggle with mental health and with substance use that's what would really keep our Parks safe it's interesting to hear Sal talk about the financial impact of bringing on additional Park Rangers or paying the park rangers more because he's adamant about paying police officers more but you the same energy is not here for Park Rangers so that's pretty interesting um again I heavily oppose this um because we we want our Park safe but not by private security we want to see real solutions that address our housing crisis our substance use issues are climate uh crisis also and we need to offer more services to our constituents that are out there so that they are able to use the parks moving bringing in private security all you're doing is to the point of one of our council members you're just moving people to another location we're not doing anything to actually help our people so again I highly oppose this measure and would urge the council to vote against this I owe my time we'll go next to Luke followed by Ginny Anne good afternoon Council my name is Luke I live in uh Phoenix district five Washington Park is where I go I work second shift and so I am in that Park after hours pretty much three or four times in a week walking my dog the only people that are in that Park are folks that are sleeping like we are literally criminalizing people's lives like average Behavior right and this is not the first time we've had this conversation we had this conversation in 2018 and 19 when we originally began the process of expanding the park ranger program at that time I live by Pierce Park which is also on this list which also has a high number of folks without homes that have been that park at night these exact same questions the exact same points that council members have raised today were raised then and they have not been addressed to speak we need to be addressing mental health uh support we need house support and we also need substance use support those are things that are going to make our Parks safe and keep our streets um keep people that are using our Park safe as well this Council has Illustrated one consistent thing which is that you will expand the police department at any cost this will lead to a larger Police Department the contracts with private security are going to expire in a couple of years and those Duties are just going to get passed on to more police which will mean more police in our neighborhoods it will mean more police in neighborhoods of color black and brown neighborhoods that are already over police like you all are not providing a solution to any problems but you are providing another way to increase policing of black and brown people in this city thank you jinnian is next followed by Rebecca mayor members of the council as a teacher I spent many many hours on playground and bus Duty I learned that just being visible was the most effective tool I had to influence good behavior the issues for peers in Perry parks are bad behavior such as the use and selling of drugs and the lack of respect for our shared public spaces with a shortage of police and Rangers of private security makes sense mayor Virgo you helped dedicate the Mary Moore playground at Pierce Park you understand pierces for families councilman Garcia you're at Pierce and you heard the neighbors comments and concerns I respect the requests the mayor and the council to support easier option one or three that would include both peers and Perry Parks thank you thank you Rebecca is next followed by Christopher Martinez hi can you hear me we can okay hi um thank you my name is Rebecca Denise I live in District Seven interestingly enough I live on willetta Street and Third right right around the corner from where you already have security I have never seen them out patrolling the park not at night I'm there pretty late sometimes walking my dog I see them parked in their car and also I don't see anyone else really trying to enjoy the facilities of the park between the time of 10 p.m and 6 a.m in the morning to spend eight hundred thousand dollars nearly a million dollars in a pilot program that could ultimately fail when we know that what we need right now is housing to address a housing crisis we need different harm reduction Solutions if you do not want people doing drugs in your Park then offer a safe space for them to do it because the reality is is having CBI or some type of crisis response come in in the moment when someone's probably already high or not in a great mental state and expecting them to receive Services is insane that is not how people accept help that is not how it works and if any of you have ever been through our Behavioral Health process here through Maricopa County it's horrendous sometimes you wait weeks as someone with an SMI diagnosis which I've experienced with my brother weeks just to get a psychiatric appointment what we should be using this money for is immediate crisis response we need a housing first initiative if you want to see your Parks not have these issues then what we need to do is provide the basic human rights that people need to where they can even be in a mental place where they could receive any type of care and I just want to highlight something in this in this proposal it says the park rangers are an integral part of the Phoenix Community Action response engagement Services the impact of homelessness does not affect me and you who have a home who have access to food who have access to the things that we need and impacts the people that are living on the streets who don't have a restroom who don't have anywhere Christopher is next followed by Karen hello my name is Christopher Martinez I'm a resident of Laura pastors District um I oppose this measure um after watching this I understand that my conclusion is that it's going to pass regardless of public input and as per usual people's minds are made up prior to public comments people are put on agendas items are added a day before they're addressed which does not give people a chance to organize and mobilize [Music] um to adequately respond to these types of measures um I think adding another level of policing is wrong it doesn't work I think we need more services I think understanding that right now we're in a severe housing crisis severe extreme I talk to people weekly who are have just lost their housing or about to lose their housing because their rents increased beyond what they can pay I talk to people living in their cars and their cars are broken and they have nowhere to go and they go in the restrooms in the park to wash up and clean up and instead of addressing some root causes you're you're going to the other end which is more policing and this is a pilot program but not for just plain security we know what this is pilot program for it's for more policing later and we need to respond in a humane way and this is not a humane way this is a crisis people who are utilizing the park are in a crisis the people you are wanting to chase away are in crisis and addressing crisis with policing does not work and um I appreciate some of the responses from some members questioning legitimate legitimacy of this um I do not appreciate mayor Gallego using this as a platform for um whatever comes next in her political career this is Karen is next followed by Jessica hi can you hear me we can awesome um my name is Karen um I live in District Four here in Phoenix Arizona um and I'm going to talk about the thing that the council did not uh means that is the most important thing to think about to take care of and each one of you have chosen to be in this these positions where you get to have this power and talk about how important parks are and what that can be and how that brings joy for families but families don't have to look only the way you see them families can look like an individual wanting to relieve themselves from the Heat and they don't have a home housing is a human right and if all you have is a park you deserve that space just as much as kids do just as much as the people around them do that have homes near the parks every single one of you needs to sit with the fact that you don't think about the humans every single one of you I've been sitting here and listening we're talking about the park and that's wonderful the park can be part of this too the most important thing is the human beings there and it shouldn't be that we should try to criminalize them we should try to see them as the humans that we are as well it's not acceptable that the only thing that this Council does time and time again is want to criminalize and police over and over we want so much police that we want to become the police we don't even want to be in community together we're so fearful of what we have to sit and be uncomfortable just because you're uncomfortable doesn't mean you need to police the situation it means you need to have conversations you need to stop you need to listen everyone deserves safety and that includes the people that are houseless that includes the people that don't vote because you chose seats of power that respect the land that they're on as well we all deserve that respect thank you Jessica is next and then we have Anna Juarez registered to speak if necessary hello my name is Jessica Spencer I am a student at ASU for social work Navy veteran disabled veteran using my benefits to do so I live around the corner from Cass I've been to many of these meetings before not as many as Luke and as Luke noted this will just lead to more policing when the contracts expire and being literally right around the Hub of all this police activity I'm obviously not happy with what I see and I talk about it pretty often as Warren noted y'all literally just want to play whack-a-mole and push people around this has been proven so many times in so many studies that's not fixing anything I can only expect that most of you have your pockets in these contracts for security and for these temporary shelters that go up for millions of dollars and have a shelf life I'm so tired of your corruption I know nothing I say will change it I am purely here to share my spite of this system that was built for no one but those whose Pockets benefit from it I am constantly seeing this police brutality and this is what it's going to lead to you guys are punting it off the private security and has been noted it doesn't do anything it does nothing we need Human Solutions we need Housing Solutions we don't need more policing I will not thank you you're not even worth my time but I am here for others I despise you we'll ask uh we'll ask Morgan to come down to the podium and then Anna is registered to speak if necessary Anna would you like to provide testimony uh hello hi good evening I'm Anna Juarez uh vice president of McDonald's of agk restaurants with McDonald's um and I am very familiar with the issue that we are facing right now we currently have 25 restaurants close to 1600 employees and we're currently uh going through severe issues but not just I'm not here just to talk you know about our business the reason why I brought those up is because I wanted to make sure you guys know where I'm coming from I'm very familiar of the issues that we're facing um I do have a security company to cover the majority of our restaurants special especially the restaurants that I I'm currently struggling with which are three main restaurants um in in the Phoenix area and it's not working I'm ready and I'm ready to move forward with spending extra cost and moving forward with hiring police officers after the police officers just because it's not working I'm not seeing a different I think we're going to a really a serious Society crisis right now with all the mental health issues tax issues prostitution and homeless issues and it's just getting uh worse and worse every time um I used to I you know I'm a mom too as well and I in one of my my best memories as a mom it's going to the parks our pox used to be our safe environment um our Parks used to be that place where we used to go and have happy moments used to be that place where we can get there and have you know you know fun times family times you know we go into swing sets we go into the the play area we can go for walks I don't feel that we can do that anymore without feeling the fear of what's going to happen or or what's happening um you know a few feet away from us someone's doing drugs someone's sleeping on the side um the bathrooms are not safe to go in there so if we're going through a severe issue of Crisis issues as a society thank you and Morgan is next in person followed by David Portugal hi um can you guys hear me thank you so much I'm kind of struggling with what to say here um this has been a two-year plus Journey for me um dealing with this issue in in the park Perry park that is on the same street that I live on um two years that I've been begging and advocating for the city to address the rampant crime in my Park two years that my child and the children in that Community haven't been able to use that Park according to the recent census data 40 of the children in that neighborhood are below the poverty level most there is affordable housing all up and down that street and the children there can't use the park that was designed and intended for them the families can't use it I was just there today this afternoon in broad daylight and I was propositioned and followed home I had to run to a local church and thankfully the doors were open and I was able to stay there and call a lift to take me to my home on the same street down the street because I couldn't walk home from my Park safely I don't even know how to begin to explain the trauma this has caused to the residents of our neighborhood and I don't know how to begin to explain how it feels to have people have no empathy for the residents dealing with this day in and day out there are violent crimes happening there on a daily basis we had a shooting at three o'clock in the afternoon right next to the playground and thankfully nobody was hurt but we're suffering we are in pain I am a neighborhood leader but I am not a solution to this I'm a single mother do you know how many vacations I have missed and meetings that I was supposed to be on and time with my daughter that I am spending to be here to talk to you to beg you to do something that I've spent calling city council that I've spent trying to get my neighbors to stay engaged and motivated to affect change year after year when nothing happens and I don't know I'm at my Wit's End and I'm just begging you to please please consider the impact on everyone thank you David is next in our final and um so David is next and then annander good afternoon my name is David Portugal uh I'm here in opposition of item number 26. I want to thank councilwoman woman guardado for encouraging everyone to consider this as a human issue and not a numbers issue for nine years I worked in mental and Behavioral Health with youth who often had mental health and substance use diagnosis many of these youth had experienced multiple types of trauma and many were funneled into our broken foster care system which often criminalizes them and funnels them right into the justice system with the lack of social support and a lack of resources many of these youth age out of the system with the lack of social employment and coping skills as well as a Justified lack of Hope in the system and society as a whole who failed to protect and serve them many inevitably end up unsheltered and many I know also frequent parks for all the same reasons Parks were designed for as I listened to multiple members of the council site complaints about safety and speak on behalf of Children and Families I can't help but think of all the children and families our system fails on a daily basis by continuing to rely on a punitive police state model I want to know which studies and research shows a private security Force remedies homelessness what research shows that writing citations remedies addiction every month we hear about mental health and wellness calls escalating into black indigenous and people of color being killed by those sent to help what type of escalation and racial bias training will these private security Force receive I implore the city the the city council to learn from the city of Houston which has successfully moved 25 000 people from the streets and into homes of their own using their housing first approach which is supported by Decades of research that moves the most vulnerable people straight from the straight from the streets and to Apartments not into shelters and without first requiring them to requiring to Wing them off drugs or complete a 12-step program or find God or find a job the logic behind that being when you're drowning it doesn't help if you're a rescuer insists you learn to swim before returning to returning you to Shore people can more effectively address their issues once they are on land the overwhelming majority of these 25 000 formerly helpless people have remained housed after two years thank you and is next and I believe our final speaker will be Chaz Salazar your new Gallego vice mayor pastor and council members and Ender I'm a neighborhood leader and I'm also the president of operation Blue Ribbon I support this supplemental measure to promote safety in our public parks with not only a shortage of police officers but also Park Rangers the separate seems prudent to expand this pilot in order to provide safe parks for citizens the opposition has been telling us that the parks are available for the unsheltered to use at their Leisure and to sleep there overnight well after Three Fires this last week I beg to differ on that I also disagree that the security guards will only chase the problem from the parks to the surrounding properties and increase the calls for service to Phoenix PD isn't that what we want them to do well don't we want arrests made when there's a crime being committed I also challenged that the increase of salaries has been the magic wand in recruiting police officers I don't think that's a fact and I don't think that money is the solution to everything but here's a funny story so during my teenage years um 1970 not 75 we used to go to Encanto Park Golf Course hop the fence and party under the trees so that tells you how old I am anyway we got chased off by an overnight security guard and Golf Course great it worked so that can work today uh lastly I just want to say that um I view this as another resource for Phoenix PD to address crime just as the 27th Avenue corridor plan will address the crime in that Corridor so please vote in favor for providing additional security to our Parks thank you Chaz is next good afternoon my name is Chaz Salazar I'm a flutist teaching artist and musical activist from South Phoenix I am here in opposition of item number 26 on the agenda Community safety is achieved when we have the resources we need to thrive this now eight hundred thousand dollar request for private security in our Parks is a direct attack on our unsheltered relatives by criminalizing them simply for being unsheltered it's a horrible excuse of a solution under the guise of safety private security AKA police and policing do not keep us safe I do not feel safe with police and I do not trust police vote no on this item and instead put this money and more towards addressing the root causes of these issues the root causes of why people are unsheltered put the money towards affordable housing to address the housing crisis put it towards services for unsheltered relatives put it towards Mental Health Resources for those who need it but do not hire a private security company to police our Parks they will only cause further harm to those who need help the most and also I want to call attention to a type of harmful behavior that I witnessed by a member of this city council at the meeting on October 12th calling someone an idiot for being an BLM type is racist Behavior and let's be clear racism has no place on any City Council if you do not recognize that this country was founded on the enslavement and genocide of black and Indigenous people and that the very systems and structures we operate in which continue to harm and oppress black and Indigenous people are a continuation of that Colonial history and if you are not actively combating those systems then U.S leaders are not doing your job I'm sorry no decision just really quick he's referring to me because the BLM is a racist organization period and it's a terrorist organization as well as far as I'm concerned so at the end of the day it saddens me because I think Phoenix is on a path and you know listening to all this becoming another Portland Seattle Minneapolis it there was a time where children could go into a park and it was safe and they didn't have to deal with individuals shooting up in the bathrooms and doing those types of things they didn't have to deal with that and our parks are becoming unsafe they really are and if we can't address that today I can't let this happen in my own area I just can't so from my end of it I mean yes mayor but I'm saddened by all of this because this may have been an easy stop Gap solution that until we start hiring people to do that or if we even need to do that I don't know I'm not sold on that completely right now I want to see what this pilot program is because it is a pilot program and it is something we have to do immediately we can't live like this any longer we can't allow our citizens to live like this I can't do it so I'm a strong yes on this mayor I've been a yes on it I've been wanting to do this for over a year now and it just saddens me that families have to deal with this and think that it's okay for this to allow to be happening in our city right now and it should not be allowed thank you mayor Garcia no no Brian yes Stark yes wearing yes pastor yes I want to make some comments though um I just want to I want to thank Karen for pointing out the human factor of all of this because there's human factors coming into play all the way around and with those human factors along with Morgan's story there's trauma happening throughout our parks and so my final request is that is that um I want I want to make sure that I can say and go out to my constituents that our parks are safe but that isn't the case and for me this isn't the solution I don't want any more Band-Aid Solutions I actually want solid changes and so I am voting no there you go yes passes five four substitute motion we next go to item 29 which is related to art design at 27th Avenue do we have a motion I move item 29. comments roll call I'm sorry yes no Garcia yes yes O'Brien yeah Stark yes wearing no pastor Gallego yes s is seven two item 30 is membership in hydrogen projects Consortium motion I move item 30. second councilman O'Brien for comments thank you mayor I'm excited about this item and the prospect of hydrogen fuel and power hydrogen fuel is something that my office has been researching and studying as an alternative clean energy power source in our conversations we've learned that Cummins is close to Bringing to Market 100 hydrogen fuel cell engine for heavy duty Vehicles like trash trucks fire engines and buses I'm hopeful City staff will start researching the capabilities of this new engine and what it could mean for our City's Fleet better still in discussions with the private and utility sectors we've learned the infant infrastructure we currently use to transport natural gas may be easily converted over to hydrogen fuel transport meaning the cost of switching over infrastructure to achieve a Greener City may be reduced through the use of hydrogen lastly in discussions with ASU and other private sector interests my office has learned we can use any of our existing and future planned solar arrays to generate our own truly carbon neutral green hydrogen fuel I'm confident hydrogen fuel will be an integral Party part of the city's future and by participating in this Consortium and with continued conversations I hope the city can jump on now as opposed to years after the technology has entered our homes and residents thank you thank you councilwoman O'Brien I join you in being excited about this item hydrogen will be an important tool in our decarbonization efforts including transitioning heavy duty vehicles from fossil fuels as you have mentioned we want to defer diversify our decarbonization resources so that we're not overly dependent on any one solution we've learned we can be more resilient and adapt to supply chain and other challenges when we have multiple tools our region is well poised to be leaders we have strong culture of innovation and we're well equipped to be on the Leading Edge of hydrogen technology development in partnership with our utilities universities and business partners such as Nikola based in South Mountain we are already developing hydrogen products we have an incredible opportunity to drive sustainability and create good paying jobs for our residents this vote is part of a regional Consortium and that will allow us to compete for federal dollars that are currently available which will position us well for the future I look forward to supporting it councilman decisio thank you mayor and I want to thank you for all the work you did this and Ian and others that worked on this hydrogen is the next fuel that is the fuel that's really going to transform our economy we can talk about electric we can talk about all those things but hydrogen is the fuel that's going to be doing this once we get a distribution system and all the things you've got to work through it will be worked through though I'm excited about it I like the fact that Phoenix is getting involved in this early on it needs to happen and I think it's just going to be exciting to see what this is going to be like in the next 20 or 30 years it's going to take about that long for something really to take hold and I just appreciate all the work that everybody's put into this thank you mayor thank you roll call I'm sorry yes decesio yes Garcia yes cordado yes O'Brien yes Stark yes Waring yes Pastor yes Gallego yes passes 9-0 we next go to item 55 which is really a public hearing related to the southwest corner of Tatum Boulevard and the Loop 101 Freeway uh understand we do not need a staff report on it although we do have staff here we'll open the public hearing we don't have anyone registered for public comment close the public hearing turn to council member Waring thank you mayor I'd like to make a motion uh motion to approve for the Planning Commission recommendation and adopt the related ordinance second motion a second comments roll call I'm sorry yes deceasia yes Garcia yes O'Brien yes Stark yes wearing yes Pastor um yes Gallego yes passes 9-0 that concludes our agenda's business we turn to the final portion of our meeting which is citizen public comment our wonderful City attorney Chris Meyer is retiring him and we thank him for his service for what may be the last time ever would you explain citizen public comment thank you mayor during citizen comment members of the public May address the city council for up to three minutes on issues of Interest or concern to them that are within the jurisdiction of the city council this isn't common session is limited to 30 minutes the Arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented wonderful [Applause] thank you so much for your service to your city and we look forward to welcoming Julie Cree when we next convene um we will begin public comment with Maria Barbosa followed by David Borg my name is my name is Maria Barbosa and I'm here because I was given a four-year contract I lived at the trailers at 18th Avenue they gave us a contract on the 10th of October and on Friday they gave us a letter and on Friday we got that letter indicating that we needed we needed to vacate by May 1st is [Music] and they're just playing around with us they have us all traumatized our kids and they're just causing damage to us they had already made given as hope giving us four years and we have other neighbors that they have to vacate by the 30th of this month and so right now our concern is where are we going to be going all the kids all the neighbors the elderly everybody foreign and also the kids are they're just their state of mind is just not right and we're all just wondering where are we going to go to thank you David is next followed by Martha Gutierrez hello I am uh with the Periwinkle mobile home people here um my name is David Borg I live in Mesa I am a member of Unite Here Local 11 and I take the well-being of my community very seriously and I consider anyone who has to live paycheck to paycheck who's renting out where they live and who works for a wage a member of my community because we live very similar lives we have to deal with very very similar issues um when I first moved here I moved to uh in the city I moved to Tempe and I was very quickly uh thrown out because the people who owned our Apartments sold it to a luxury developer and suddenly we had nowhere else to go we found another place to go live but the rent was 200 higher it was in disrepair and our rent's going to be increasing by another 300 by the end of this year this is a big issue that everyone in this city has to deal with where are we going to live how are we going to pay rent and the people at Periwinkle are facing something I can't even imagine their entire Community is being disrupted by GCU buying up the entire property and it's something that their Community is something so rare something like people actually like working together like they know each other they help each other they're here fighting for their Community you don't see that too often this is something that's beautiful and I really think that Phoenix can set precedent in making this city one that supports tenants one that supports workers one that supports people who want to build community rather than one that wants a support developers or for-profit universities it's ridiculous that I think we even have to be here thank you Martha is next followed by Dr Sylvia Herrera Herrera Buenas good evening my name is Martha Gutierrez Jose De Familia I'm the mother of a family I currently live at the trailers that are on 19th Avenue at Las Casitas trailer park s familias foreign I've been living there for 16 years but there's also other families that have been living there for about the between 25 and 30 years personal tengo approximately me personally I have only 30 days to vacate con me Familia I have nowhere to go to with my family foreign we have 30 days to vacate there can you imagine there's people that struggle to vacate in six months can you just imagine that um you know the crisis that we're currently going low-income families with this big crisis that we're going through right now we don't have savings to be able to look for another place bendiga and we ask you with your hand to your heart and with my hands to my heart with all dignity and respect that you help us in this crisis thank you very much thank you and one moment please we cannot respond to public comment but we can say things that are scheduled and moving forward I think so within no the task force there's information online about what we're doing here yes yes okay that's direct the city manager to respond to people or but the council can't do it or to talk with them okay so What could okay well could we just um I would I would just would like to ask if Jeff if someone on the staff could catch people as they're leaving just to give them an update of where we're at with the task force okay and and Dr Herrera I didn't sorry we just um and knowing that we can't respond vice mayor um I would ask the city manager to also uh bring a team of departments together to try to assist the situation um and be able to help and um thank you to Dr Herrera you the floor is yours um and then that followed by Cindy hummus good afternoon mayor City Council Members Dr Herrera first I'd like to acknowledge our ancestors that came before us and stood up and are guiding us on this path to Justice and to this day we have the grandmas we have the ants we have the veterans the elderly the older people in our community that are guiding us as well from the Casitas to a Weldon Court to the GCU Periwinkle Mobile Home Park they've committed to fight for a basic human right and that's their home where they're secure and that they have a safe environment and community the residents of the three mobile home parks have made a commitment to have this type of housing that's affordable for them and now uh they're being told to vacate their most secure and safe environment and community that they've established over the decades the city has also committed to explore solutions for the residents but the question is does the city have the will to find a solution that is the commitment that the residents are asking for there's a will there's a way but we need that will in order to move forward to find these Solutions and we need to work on this together and we will continue to uh to come forth with the residents as well to uh to request to make that request until the request has been acknowledged and uh and we find a a solution to this problem thank you thank you we'll go to Cindy next and then we'll go online to Christina before coming back to Estrella oh thanks for letting me speak some following some very sad stories my main concern is the homeless and it's very sad I was doing some math and if I'm correct it's less than one percent of our population from what I see Phoenix is 1.6 million and our homeless is about ten thousand and although my heart bleeds for them it's a very dangerous situation for them and it's a very dangerous situation for the city and I've thought many times and I'm not too far from the math clinic on 28th and Cactus and I don't know what the answers are but I know that that's not productive and the homeless gravitate to that area and I know that I personally don't go shopping at night for a reason and even in riding my bike on a Sunday afternoon before one o'clock someone came up with a bike beside me and anyway it was just a concerning situation I'm asking that we follow glendale's lead and stop the panhandling because it doesn't get these people off the street it encourages to stay on the street and we have a beautiful city but it's being covered with trash and my friends and I go out regularly and pick up trash but we're one little team so we don't make a lot of impact and I'm thinking maybe we could do a city-wide cleanup and encourage everybody to get on board and sadly money has been a big comment today but we can't pay the people off the streets and the security guards that they're wanting we're always talking about the Rangers the security guards that would be hired are Phoenix citizens too so I appreciate your time and I'll be praying for wisdom for all of us Christina Tyler followed by Estrella Gutierrez hi this is Tina Tyler um I don't know if I'm supposed to speak now um but I'm actually trying to talk about a completely different issue that I'm bringing up so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to speak now or not this is the appropriate time for General City business hello please go ahead this is the right time for General General City business go ahead okay so um the what I'm trying to speak on is I'm a first aid CPR Ade instructor with the American Red Cross and I ran into a situation where 9-1-1 was actually called on me because I was vomiting so much to where I was choking and gasping for air um uh what happened when um paramedics came out there is that they did not wear any pte no gloves no masks um they did not even they cut me off when um I was trying to explain my medical history and they also did not ask questions regarding symptoms um what was all the biggest concern um even more than just those is that they didn't follow House Bill 2431 and the reason why I am choosing to speak at this form meeting is because as an instructor with the Red Cross and I've even tried escalating this uh with a red cross as well as different departments within the state there currently isn't any department or any certification course that a person could actually learn about their rights when it comes to House Bill 2431 that they have the right to accept or decline emergency transportation and also they have the right to not be counseled when it comes to um when it comes to if they should have emergency medical transportation I was misdiagnosed with having a fever and even my own doctor which I had spoken to previous uh previous two paramedics even said that I was showing signs of covet it turned out I had covet these paramedics are still responding to calls as we speak and most likely not wearing PPE and have now contaminated several people with covet and I would like it to where at our different libraries as well as different uh public facilities to wear House Bill 2431 that there is a form that tells people of their right to be able to accept or decline transportation and not be uh uh Council for emergency medical uh Transportation um the biggest concern if House Bill 2431 is not followed and um coming from being a first day cprid instructor with a red cross is that if it is not followed uh the concern is that thank you so much uh we will ask our team to follow up with you and see if we can get more information to address this situation Estrella is next followed by Salvador Reza good evening mayor city mayor and members of the city council my name is Estrella Gutierrez and I'm a resident at Periwinkle mobile park um right now currently going through relocation at the moment because of them trying to rebuild or build build things in that area it's a hard situation for most of us because most of us don't have the funds to um get a new place for our families most of us there have children under the age of um 13 you know my youngest is six and we're struggling um a lot with all of this right now they are wanting us to relocate yet they are failing to provide a a place for us to live in or at least a decent amount for us to be able to provide for our family a new home and not only that but they are also failing to provide security and safety for us at the park at the moment last night we had an incident where there was some squatters coming into the house next to mine personally it was the house next to the one I live in and um they were there and the cops were called and nobody did nothing about it we called ucu to let them know and they didn't care much about it they said they were not trying to prosecute or or proceed with nothing and it's you know I stay there late at night my husband goes to work um around 12 30 a.m and I stay there all night by myself and people those people there saw that we had called the cops on them and you know now I feel threatened because they saw we were the ones calling the cops on them and they couldn't do nothing about it so it's it's sad that we have to live in that area where they want us out and they also can't provide any sort of um any any type of of security for us we asked them to patrol the area yet they they um they failed to do so and at the moment that's what we are facing so that's it thank you for that important testimony um Salvador Reza followed by Alondra Ruiz my name is I guess we're here again for the same reasons but even more dire the landlords stoop to anything and everything to get rid of the residents we were able to secure them thanks to the Community Legal Services and also the Ida we're able to secure them a four in a one-year contract well everybody was so happy because we were able to secure and they negotiated like if it was true and they actually made him go all the way to Mesa so that they could pay the rent and take the contracts and then two weeks later they come in and they say hey by the way I want you out in 180 days or I want you out in 60 days can you imagine the shock to all the little kids and everybody else so that's the level of I would call them predators that are coming in to take over the place those are the predators that we are protecting and not yourself but the laws of the State of Arizona are protecting because they have the right now when we talk to the attorneys about probably uh you know getting for a breach of contract or also for bad faith contracts the attorneys say well we have to look at it because you know the State of Arizona law that you know if you do a change of views to do that he knew it all the time he knew all the time that he wasn't going to respect that contract Jesse went through the motions of that contract and you know I'm talking about a foreign corporation a Cairo corporation that wasn't even legal uh when they gave him the the the the the first order to leave and now these guys are protected under the State of Arizona law now the City of Phoenix I was able to look into uh just browse through the through the draft proposals and basically they're basically saying that they're not going to challenge the State of Arizona with the cases at the seventh at the seventh I mean at uh ninth ninth ninth Circuit Court where they actually Trump the State of Arizona and basically allows the the state or the cities to actually create uh mobile home park zones so uh they basically say they cannot do anything about it and that's your proposal uh they basically you know repeat the same thing you know we're going to help them with this we're going to help them with that we're going to help them with that well if we had waited until then a lot of these people in 30 days would be without a home luckily we have uh Ida that stepped up and they're looking for places right now I just as we speak they're looking for places and that's the type of of response we need we need quick response we cannot be if we wait too long in a month there's nothing we can do about it thank you very much thank you Alondra is next good afternoon mayor and City Council Members I am Alondra Ruiz from Peregrine Park um where we are still being displaced by Grand Canyon University who is practically prioritizing profit over human beings um I hope that um you guys don't do the same thing and that we can find some help that you guys can look into resources of what we can do so that we don't become homeless we are all low-income hard-working families and and we are being displaced from our homes um only with the six-month notice um luckily we were able to extend those those times to May 28th but um what's really frustrating to me now is that Grand Canyon University hire a company named trellis and trellis is constantly almost on a daily basis calling our elderly folks now and that's very heartbreaking to me because I have I've been blessed to have a mom that's 87 years old that's still alive and I would never want anybody harassing her over things that confuse her even um spam calls confuse her and think and she thinks that they're important you know she's but now what trellis is doing and what Grand Canyon University is doing they're calling our elderly almost on a daily basis telling them that they they know of other people that are are moving sooner and that they should also do the same thing and this is really confusing our elderly they're they're very uh they are a very vulnerable uh population with within our mobile home park and GCU is taking advantage of that that's very evil of them and then they're using trellis to do it as well to be making all these calls um so I'm here again to please ask you to help us find resources of how we can all not end up being homeless thank you thank you Chad Kroger what up dudes we are a massive student debt my degree in Philosophy from Arizona State while intellectually nourishing has not translated to dough being in the red sticks in your Dome it's like a dense Marine layer Cloud just filling up your mind which makes it tougher to see the nice life sets rolling through I've heard from politicians on the left and right that they can't get rid of student debt because it'll cause inflation but something has to be done and I think we got the solution as long as you're paying money you still get to be in college I'm talking student section free tickets to the football games entry to frat parties free of age discrimination which we think could really be a boost um meal plan or the Dank cafeteria so I can load up on tasty burritos and access to the gym where I once played a pickup game against James Harden Council this will get Americans fired up citizens will be able to enjoy the fruits of college which will give us the Stoke boost needed to earn some Jing and pay off her if the good times never end the hard times never exist please watch your language let's be sins for life thank you sorry for cursing it added effect JT Parr will be our last speaker good to see you again um what up Council I'm here in support of Chad Kroger's idea we were offered translation but we were worried some of the lingo would get lost so I am going to do the speech in Spanish because we want everyone to feel included and get hyped on this idea I am Colombian although most people think I'm Jewish que pasa Amigos de Arizona Sante is Le is Dinero de puedes quedar and Universidad grew to gratuitas para la sections juega Contra James Harden Council Esto Los ciudad Donald existen gracias [Music] thank you we are adjourned [Applause] yep and Willow's ready for the sock hop right there with the little diner costume so cute I'm sorry Arrow cute correction next up we have Sharon Martin with her Old English Sheepdog Abby and Abby has been with us since the very first class look how cute matching poodle skirts I didn't get the memo otherwise I would have dressed up with you girls yes she she knows she knows what to do next up next up we have Tracy stufflet with her English Bulldog Evelyn and Evelyn has been with us for four years and although Evelyn's main goal for being here is to help our customers