good afternoon welcome to the November 1st 2023 formal council we will begin today's meeting with an invocation from fire captain Troy holtorf all right father God thank you for who you are merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness you've made it known to us the path of life we know that in your presence there is fullness of joy and in your right hand Pleasures forever more Lord we ask that your will be done here today for we know that your will is good pleasing and perfect thank you God that we can even pray to you what a gift that we can take refuge in you and you alone God we are so thankful for the people here whom you've put into their respective positions we know this has been instituted by you so I thank you for each and every one of them and the work they do individually and collectively we pray for mayor guyo and the various council members here today we pray for the different elected officials the staff members workers and citizens of Phoenix here with us God we ask that you would bless these next few hours as we enter into a new meeting we want our Direction and purpose to be honoring to you so again we come boldly to you now to ask for help Lord we desperately need you so would you enter in and lead us today we pray that your voice and your plans would penetrate the walls of this building there is an agenda in place today Lord we ask that you would bless it but ultimately Lord we ask that your will be done we also pray for your special Shield of favor and protection over our First Responders working the streets God be with them we pray that they know you're with them to the end always and as for this city Lord the City of Phoenix we humbly ask Lord would you bless us and keep us would your would you make your face shine upon us and be gracious to us would you turn your face toward us and give us peace and we pray this in the powerful name of Jesus and all God's people said amen thank you please remain standing vice mayor anari will lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we will call to order the formal meeting will the clerk call the role councilwoman wado councilwoman Hodge Washington councilwoman O'Brien councilwoman Pastor here councilman Robinson here councilwoman Stark here councilman wearing here vice mayor Ansari here mayor geko here Mario baras and Carmen Kota are here to provide Spanish interpretation Mario would you introduce yourself yes mayor thank you hello my name is Mario wahas and together with my colleague kman Kota will be serving as Spanish interpreters for today's City Council formal meeting I'll now I'll now proceed to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking audience well thank you mayor thank you Mario would the city clerk please read the 24-hour paragraph the titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number G 7161 7172 7176 7181 through 7189 S 50277 through 50312 and resolutions 22165 through 22166 thank you will the city clerk explain public comment I'm sorry City attorney 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 additionally any member of the public who appears before Council in their capacity as a lobbyist must as required by Phoenix city code disclose this fact before addressing Council the city code requires speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner profane language threats or personal attacks on members of the public council members or staff are not allowed a person who violates these rules will lose the opportunity to continue to speak thank you item one is the meeting minutes councilwoman Pastor do you have a motion I move item number one second Motion in a second all those in favor say I I any oppose nay eyes have it boards and commissions item two vice mayor motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commissions nominations we have a motion in a second any comments all those in favor say I I any oppos nay we will now do a swearing in ceremony please raise your right hand I state your name I Jason shner do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and the laws of the State of Arizona and the Constitution and the laws of the State of Arizona and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic and that I will faithfully and impartially and I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of Phoenix Workforce board discharge the duties of the office of Phoenix Workforce board according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations commissioner thank [Applause] you you're welcome congratulations commissioner the city council provides an advisory role to the State of Arizona on liquor license applications that is the next portion of our meeting vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve items 3 through 16 noting that item 16 was originally recommended for disapproval due to a finance department recommendation of disapproval and has since been revised second we have a motion and a second any comments all those in favor say I I any oppose nay I have it item 17 is in councilwoman hudge Washington's district and I will turn to her for for a motion appr disapproval based on the finance department's recommendation of his approval of item number 17 thank you we have a motion for disapproval do we have a second second we have a motion and a second I do not have any comments on this one do we have any not all right roll call hjge Washington Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark wearing I'm sari yes GGO yes passes 70 thank you city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve items 18 through 82 except the following items 25 37 39 40 43 59 78 79 and 81 noting that item 70 is requested to be continued to December 6 2023 items 6975 and 76 are requested to be withdrawn item 80 is continued to November 15th 2023 and item 82 is continued to January 24th 2024 and excluding these items for virtual com public comment item 37 can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for inperson public comment yes mayor and vice mayor we also need to exclude item 27 33 35 36 and 38 I will repeat 27 33 35 36 and 38 okay all right we have a motion do we have a second second comments roll call Hodge Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing yes anari yes Gayo yes passes 70 item 25 is a law lawsuit settlement vice mayor move to approve item 25 second comments roll call hjge Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing no hanari yes Gayo yes passes 61 item 27 is the recommendation to begin quadrennial review of the home rule option vice mayor move to approve item 27 second Motion in a second any comments Jeff Caldwell mayor council this item is to look at how the city is spending money how much money it needs and it allows for the city to spend more money than what is allowed by the Constitution if the voters approve the City of Phoenix has been spending too much money for far too long the current budget is $6 billion and it has a $134 million surplus and you guys keep adding more to the spending every meeting so for the city to spend money it either has to issue bonds or increase taxes Phoenicians can't have their taxes continuously raised and also the municipal bond market looks to be heading towards the same liquidity crisis as the treasury market the treasury market and the municip bond market are tanking and that is the reason why our interest rates are skyrocketing that's how interest rates work bonds go down interest rates go up they have an inverse relationship that is economics 101 and so if we continue the astronomical spending we potentially May face a crisis at the City of Phoenix and I highly encourage that you vote no on this agenda item because we can no longer afford to to spend more money than what we can afford thank you thank you roll call hjge Washington yes Castor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing yes anari yes Gayo yes passes 70 item 33 is the city's bottled water contract do we have a motion move to approve item 33 we have Motion in a second Jeff Caldwell mayor councel this is a contract for five years $1 million for bottled water plastic bottled water and I highly encourage you to vote no because you guys just raised our rates earlier this year and if you vote no you can apply that $1 million to the amount that you raise citizens Water by you can easily substitute the bottle water with tap water which is what the rates were increased on earlier this year so with that I encourage the council to vote no thank you thank you comments roll call hjge Washington Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing no I'm sorry yes Gayo yes passes 61 item 35 is Information Technology Solutions and services contract vice mayor move to approve item 35 second Motion in a second Jeff Caldwell mayor council so I hit on this topic previously this is for a different uh vendor this is for CDW this is a $35 million contract and again the contract is not listed on the website so I can't look at or the agenda so I can't see what these specific um programs are going to be provided by this uh entity however CDW has the ability to add biometric tracking and facial recognition to all previously installed cameras on their website when they discuss this they actually have the average camera that you have at every intersection it's not the red light cameras it's those surveillance cameras that monitor traffic they can add facial recognition to those cameras we need to ensure that our fourth amendment is not violated we need to know what these contracts are for it's $35 million it's a lot of money so so I can't recommend a yes vote on this without knowing what the money is going to be spent on what the City of Phoenix is going to use this for and please do not Implement spyware or tracking to these cameras that are in our intersections or any camera that is used by the City Phoenix thank you thank you Leslie Shephard I was going to start laughing because he comes up here and he says no he's the only person that comes up you guys don't even blink an eye don't even look give a roll call yes yes yes yes one person listened that was good to know okay so what are the contracts for nothing's made clear there's no transparency this the C DW has the ability to add biometric tracking and facial recognition to all previously installed cameras which is what he just said it's almost like people think the movies are just the movies they tell a story I don't know if people most people know that CIA is actually affiliated with movies they put things out to let us know what's going on so when they're sitting here talking about these things being to keep track of us you busy there mayor I see you're busy typing some stuff up it's one of the few times we get to come up and talk it's good to know you're paying attention so in here their website show a picture of the type of camera sitting on the top of the lights in the intersections as an example this is not a red light camera it's constantly keeping track of us some of you are going to pass this because you've already got in your mind made up you don't even need to hear it you're just doing the formalities of this I'm glad to know at least it seems like one person's listening you guys one day will be victims of the very thing that you're passing you're only going to be in your position for a certain amount of time whether the military arrests you or whatever the situation is you're only going to be here for a certain amount of time I know some of you never even shown your Oaths that was asked for re most recently so anyhow we ask that you don't violate our fourth amendment and allow these people to have the right to come in and monitor us like we're the minority of report all these movies that are out there are people like oh these people are crazy they're conspiracy clear this no that's called ignorance or that's somebody complicit so I'm asking you do not allow our fourth amendment rights to be violated and vote no on [Music] this comments councilman wearing uh Jeff or whoever would be appropriate to answer what uh what are we using this stuff for uh councilman let me see if the IT department is here Steen um Hambrick is going to come up I'm sorry council member can you repeat the question what are we going to use the stuff in this contract for mayor council members council member wearing um this contract is a broad contract it's for U all kinds of IT services it can be used for software implementation can be used for uh software purchase uh things of that nature okay thank you Council H Washington thank you mayor one of the concerns raised is whether or not we're using any any level of facial recognition or our biometric tracking do you have any any answer to that um councilwoman Hodge Washington uh I'm not aware of any um but uh that would probably be um something that would uh be known by uh either the uh police department or U probably the police department uh it would not be something that its would be uh implementing go to the best of your knowledge this contract does not provide further Biometrics or facial Rec to the that's my knowledge it is not being used for any of that councilman Hajj Washington just to jump in we we as a city are not tracking or nor are we collecting facial recognition information on any of our citizens or employees to be honest with you this contract is just really it's it's a contract that we use is a Statewide contract that we use to buy equipment and software and it's it's a leverage contract which is why it's a Statewide contract thank you for the clarification thank you both Council pestor so I want to be clear um as stated earlier that this is not being used for facial Rec recognition or anything but does it have the capability of doing that mayor members of council again I'm not a it technologist I would tell you that pretty much any software has probably capability to do it we all carry phones our phones have the ability to do that but as a practice and as a policy we as a city are not implementing or turning on any of that type of software to track our residents what are you using it for again this this contract is how we replace our computers uh primarily computers and software so when we buy desktop computers the ones that are sitting in front of you our laptop computers some of our mdc's that Police Department use in their cars same thing with fire and their and their fire apparatus as well as the software that many of us are run simply you know Microsoft Word Excel uh teams and all of those different things it's it's a broad contract as as the IT director specified it it is not specific to tracking of anything it it's really just a robust contract that allows us to procure Information Technology software and supplies okay so this particular contract will be used to purchase uh computers and softwares correct okay and um this is not associated with or it probably has the ability but we would not be using it for biometric tracking or facial recognition that is correct okay thank you roll call hjge Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing no Ansari yes Gayo yes passes 61 item 36 is our contract with lur Innovations do we have have a motion move to approve item 36 second Motion in a second Leslie first of all I want to thank you guys for asking those questions I believe that um based on what you said there and what they said it won't be used right now for that but it's nice to know that it was on record so thank you for asking those questions okay for number um item 36 I'm know on that as well this is for a grow this is for growing vegetables and non-meat dairy products that makes me even sick to even say that out loud it just makes me gross out to think that you guys are going to pass something that could possibly be uh substituting the normal way we're supposed to eat food um have there been any programs like this created in in Phoenix for the cattle or dairy Industries that's a question I have uh furthermore the agenda States in response to the co 19 pandemic the office of the environment program oep developed a food assistance plan to address a food food needs for vulnerable populations and communities um impacted by Co 19 on May 5th the World Health Organization Chief declared that the end of the co 19 being Global Health Emergency it says this that it ended so it says Co is over so the fact that they're even trying to make foods to work with Co when it was already considered being over seems like this definitely would fall in the category of a no because it's unnecessary and not only that uh we don't need to be making strange foreign foods for our bodies to eat God gave us what we're supposed to eat with natural vegetables and natural fruits and natural meat and I know that the uh ASU is pretty good at doing all kinds of little experiments to try and use on people um definitely I know most of us don't want to eat bugs and so I'm asking you for sure to say no on this because it doesn't make sense for it to even happen if Co is said to be done well then this definitely should fall under the no category comments roll call councilman wearing uh so Jeff I interpret this as people who don't have food trying to be more self-sufficient am I misinterpreting that no councilman wearing you're exactly right this was a program that is kind of a continuation of something we set up back in 2020 with the co coronavirus Relief Fund and it's an extension of that it's about food insecurity and and trying to to provide food for areas that do have food insecurities so it's not substituting not trying to be high-handed or anything I can afford afford to frankly buy the food I I want we're not substituting the food that I like which includes steak and cious amounts of meat my doctor disapproves what are you going to do um we're not substituting that we are not um again if you remember back in the 2020 time frame when we first were standing up these programs there are a lot of areas across the city that are kind of food deserts and have food insecurities and many instances when you have underserved areas they don't necessarily have the same access to Quality um health health foods and so this is an opportunity to provide some of those yeah in the absence of any correct yeah it's not replacing food it's giving them the potential to have food right the only reason I think CO's mentioned in here is because the funding came from the federal government that is correct which I think at the time was Republican controlled if I remember he serves um that passed this and sent us the money you are 100% we don't spend the money we send it back that is correct vice mayor I just want to add my support for this item I think um from our American Rescue plan investment some of our food resiliency programs have been the most successful and some of the best feedback we get is about these programs so I'm very excited to see that we're moving forward on it and to councilman wearing's point this money was received because of coid but also Co is very much still a real thing and and many people are still getting Co but this is unrelated to that um and just excited to see us invest in food resiliency for for our city thank you roll call hge Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing yes Ansari yeso yes passes 70 item 37 agreements for carbon neutral cities Alliance Game Changer fund do we have a motion move to approve item 37 second we have a motion and a second checking it let's see Jeff Caldwell followed by Leslie mayor council the this is a continuation of the policies that we've asked you to not implement this is a prime example of a policy that is going to disrupt the food market I know it's not very much money at the current moment but when a government program begins it gives the ability for the the city to grow a bigger program and that's what is listed in the agenda itself to provide the uh Network possible to make this happen to get the grant the grant is going to come if you approve the grant is going to come from an organization that was founded in Copenhagen Denmark this is called a game Cher for a reason that is what it is called a game Cher and this is going to create a c circular food system that is set up by the City of Phoenix that excludes meat Dairy and cattle all the livestock uh industry there are five organizations that are LIF listed as partners I am not very good at pronouncing the first one but it's uh c leati collective if you actually look at their website they uh they have a site dedicated to to Black lives matter which is fine but they have a quote on their website that says in your name George Floyd and for all those impacted by Injustice and violence we will continue to build black indigenous Solarity towards abolishing systemic oppression for the next seven generations so they believe that there is systemic racism the co-founder of this organization if you do move forward this money will be paying this person who is quoted by saying they are testing disruptive and creative ways to challenge the white dominant culture [Music] thank you Leslie is next followed by Tom I again thank you guys when you do ask the questions it kind of does follow kind of like we were just talking about um you know when I hear stuff about we're trying to help people who are not in areas where they can get good food it's called stop throwing food away and take it to them we throw away so much food in this state in this city so when we're trying to create things and then we have somebody come up and say well what we're trying to do for the people you can keep your stake but the people who are less privileged we need to create a weird kind of food for them that's very to me you talk about racist you talk about inequity is when we're sitting here allowing food these situations this literally we have food that we throw away every day you know what it is we're not making the most of what we do have there is so much food thrown away and why is that I mean I'm not saying that you have to have the solution right now but when this gentleman over here literally said that the reason in the last one which really ties into this one too is because you know people who don't have as much money don't have as much food well then why is that we're throwing food away constantly why would we make foring something for somebody to me that's that's that's that's hurtful to hear that people who don't have food we're going to create for them odd stuff and test things on them why don't we just take what we have which is real food and figure out a way to facilitate it to these people and quit trying to create something that was never supposed to be created food is grown and fruit grows and then we kill it and we eat it so I hope that you say no on [Music] it thank you roll call hjge washhington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing no Ansari yes Gayo yes passes 61 item 38 which is work with ASU on greenhouse gas inventories do we have a motion move to approve item 38 second we have a motion and a second let Les Ley Shephard in 2022 the State of Arizona gave ASU 36.8 million dollars ASU should do this for free furthermore ASU has multiple degree programs dedicated to eliminating Dairy and meat products in the name of reducing global warming ASU is based on conducting these types of evaluations ASU is a money and we need to stop giving them money and they need to drop this I ask you guys to vote no on this so many of these things that you guys are going through is being used in the name of helping people who don't have I think it's a racist disgusting deplorable thing to say again I go back to the fact we have more than what we need we just don't find ways to Resource it out and ASU should be doing this for free ASU I've already said what I said about them and I just ask that you vote no and I believe this gentleman up here that looks very distinguished who said what he said I believe he's probably got a very nice and sincere sincere heart but I'm just saying you guys vote no on this that I mean these people don't be treating them like their science experiment experiments to me I don't know why people are thinking oh we're trying to help the people who are in need no you're treating them like subhumans when you do these kind of things thank you thank you that concludes public comment on this item appreciate asu's partnership in making sure we have solid data to make good decisions roll call Council all right Council sorry vice mayor councilman weing whoever wants to go first uh so Jeff going back to what this is um isn't this just measuring our output of solution councilman wearing I believe that's the case but I'll ask Allan to clarify thank you mayor uh councilman wearing I do have with me uh Nancy here to uh answer any more specific questions but yes uh that is a uh potential for ASU to measure what our greenhouse gases are so that we can work as part of the climate action plan to uh have data as part of our discussion with the community and the council going forward but we're not changing any of our practices or anything are we mayor Allen mayor council weing no we're not so it's just measuring like was happening long before the words climate change ever even came into the Lexicon in the 1970s the cars did it changing from Leed gasoline to unlet smoke stacks all the stuff that you saw in TV commercials saying we probably shouldn't pollute so much this kind of just follows on that does it not mayor councilman wearing you're you're correct there's some additional technology to it but it's essentially the same thing yeah I mean nothing's really changed this isn't some new thing um the points about ASU I guess you know they're probably G to get paid from somebody to do something I suppose but um it doesn't necessarily have to be us but could we use these funds the 104,000 to hire a police officer mayor uh councilman wearing I think the the funds were set aside as part of uh the existing budget to address uh climate issues as part of the climate action plan because we uh do have to address that from a regional perspective as it relates to uh EPA requirements with the potential uh impact of what it may do regarding uh greenhouse gases uh in the future related to Economic Development so when we have a a new uh use that comes in from a manufacturing that creates greenhouse gases is uh there are potential ways that we would have to to do offsets and other things to address that in the future and so collecting this data now will help us map a course to address those things so we don't get to that standpoint in the future uh is the long part of of answering your question and I think the short part of it is that I believe the council could reallocate uh you know that funding as part of of the budget so if I had to sum up it's only encumbered because of where it was placed in the current budget which we could go back and change I have no illusions that we're going to I did vote against the budget frankly in park itic we should focus more on public safety and so forth I'm not sure how much this 104,000 is going to change what we're doing at the same time I certainly see benefits in finding out hey you know we're polluting how can we do better in the future uh I don't think there's anything Insidious about that but I don't know that this is going to be the game Cher it should be but at least hopefully now now people to understand what we're actually doing measuring pollution the money could have been spent on building a park or something else uh it wouldn't get us all the way to one police officer but that's what we had the budget discussions for in the spring that that's already happened um it could be reopened it's not going to be barring some Financial cataclysm where we have to go back and you know lay people off or something so I think that hopefully Mak everybody understand what it is this thing was vice mayor just quick comment I I want to thank staff for for bringing this to us as somebody who has spent my entire career working on solutions to climate change we know that data is the most vital and this partnership with with ASU is is phenomenal and just also want to push back on on the the point that was made around um that This only affects certain populations the the air pollution that we have in Phoenix we're ranked fifth Nationwide worst ozone pollution and ghg Emissions have a huge part in that um and so anything that we can do to have viable um strong data to make sure that we're making decisions as elected leaders to reduce our ghg emissions is really imperative so I'm grateful that you all are doing this and will always continue to support this thank you thank you and to me this is timely after a very rough summer I spoke to many employees who were hospitalized for heat exhaustion including members of our police department and it was it was a tough summer the hard uh data out very recently about the number of people we lost in this community to heat related illness many of which had a public safety component roll call H Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing no onari yes AA yes passes 61 item 39 is X-Wing non congregate shelter vice mayor move to approve item 39 a motion in a second I'll turn to the vice mayor for comments thank you mayor I'm very excited to support this I just uh I'll start off by saying that last month I had the opportunity to visit um some nonprofit organizations in Austin and San Antonio who are doing incredible work to address homelessness in particular um they are really leading the way when it comes to tiny homes and um places that really provide a lot of dignity um and many of them are housing individuals who had been homeless for decades um I Heard directly from both the providers there as well as residents the value of having a door that closes and locks so they can have their own private space to transition out of homelessness is very impactful and um it's really an entirely different and more valuable experience than traditional shelter and can make all the difference for many who don't feel safe or comfortable in congregate spaces all that being said I think the x-wings that we are investing in provide just that um they you know we many of us had the opportunity to go visit them and for those who haven't I would really recommend it there was a really heartfelt video of an individual um who who was given space in an X-Wing and just the he was overjoyed um at that opportunity and the safe space of that provided and and really a a firm um next step out of where he was before in the congregate shelter so I hope that this will be just the beginning of us testing x-wings and that if they continue to prove to be successful we'll be able to utilize them more across the city thank you thank you councilwoman HJ Washington um vice mayor took many of my comments um I too am in support of this item the x-wings provide individuals who are experiencing homelessness with the essential space and privacy they need as they seek to find more permanent housing um having a safe and dignified living space is something that we cannot underestimate and it greatly contributes to that individuals regaining stability and finding more permanent housing um like the vice may have visited many of the X-Wing sites I've also seen the individuals that have taken the opportunity to that have been placed into these x-wings and many of them it's a first step to reclaim in their own space many of the individuals that we um that are currently in our x-wings are individuals who are just like you and I who go to work every day and every every day and unfortunately they don't have a place to live and this is their first step in moving toward towards their housing plan so I am very supportive the x-wings thank you these are shipping container housing based projects and first we're in our Market as market rate departments I believe we are still the home to the tallest shipping container housing in the country and then our city manager realize they could be used to build housing quickly for those in need it's been very successful they were able to build under shaded canopy very quickly and get deployed and this is really a nice success story for our city it's one that has been highlighted in National Publications towards the towards the Washington Post as a good model that other cities might want to adopt so looking forward to supporting this item any additional comments roll call H Washington yes yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing yes onari yes thereo yes passes 70 item 40 is college Depot architectural Design Services do we have a motion move to approve item 40 looking forward to supporting this as well College Depot is growing it has been a wonderful part of our community it can help connect high school students with the resources to go to college including the financial aid forms it also can do more than that so uh connecting students who want to go into construction with apprenticeship opportunities students who need a Gad with those resources I'm excited to uh award this to Holly Street Studio a uh company that has a lot of local expertise and understands the greater Burton Bar a beautiful architecture there as well so congrats to Judy and the college defo team roll call H Washington yes gor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing Ansari yes goo yes passes 70 item 43 bookmobile for underserved areas vice mayor thank you mayor I'm super excited to see this bookmobile project is moving forward residents in this area of district 7 have been asking for Library access for quite some time so I very much want to commend the advocacy of community leaders especially people like Lisa Perez and other neighborhood and School District leaders in particular for working with us to make this happen um what's even more exciting for this region is that it's set to get its first Branch library at the future estria Civic space Park through millions of dollars in funding uh knock on wood with the general obligation bond estraya has historically been one of the areas of the city that has been overlooked so I'm really thankful that this part of our community is going to get significant Investments now and in the years to come um move to approve item 43 second roll call hge Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing onari yes Gaya yes passes 70 item 59 is the third Street pedestrian bridge Engineering Services do we have a motion move to approve item 59 second this is an exciting item that is related to the large raise Grant the City of Phoenix received through the bipartisan infrastructure law it will improve connectivity including for pedestrians and bicyclists I'm very hopeful that as we make this investment we will coordinate with the amazing work being done on the bridge for Central Avenue as well there as well as some catalytic Investments I hope the city will be making along the riverfront we have several great teams who are in the area and I would just love to see them all work together so that we can take this area to the next level and also honor the fact that Phoenix exists because of this Riverfront and we uh need to continue to invest in the area vice mayor I think you said it perfectly mayor I'll just Echo that this will be this project is a very critical connection uh between downtown and South Phoenix um and it's one of a number of exciting things that are happening in the area and I think um just really Testament to the work that so many individuals have done on the vision of Rio reimagined and um I hope that the city especially will continue to prioritize uh making sure we bring that Vision to life thank you Council Pastor uh this is exciting to see and the vision of congressmen at Pastor continuing as it transitions into Rio reimagine um and the and the space that uh a great Visionary had of people walking uh on Rio um I call it the Rio uh Rio Salo and making sure that uh people are connected but also nature is part of the space and education is part of the space so uh appreciate the continuous uh avocation and growth of of this area thank you thank you roll call hjj Washington yes Castor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing anari yeso yes pass is 70 we next moved to the Planning and Zoning portion of our agenda we'll begin with two related items items 78 and 79 which are in district 7 at the North West corner of 43rd Avenue and Baseline Road we'll begin with a well let me ask the vice mayor do we need a staff report all right we will open the public hearing uh we do not have any members of the public to comment on either 79 or 78 so we will close the public hearing uh the vice mayor did a lot of work on this it started out with a lot of public input and the partners listened and so we are here today vice mayor perfect so I will motion to approve the item per the Planning Commission recommendation and adopt the related resolution second we have a motion and a second on 78 roll call H Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing onari yes Bayo yes passes 70 we Mo go next to 79 vice mayor motion to approve the item per the Planning Commission recommendation and adopt the related ordinance second we have a motion and a second comments roll call Doge Washington yes bestor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing onari yes Gayo yes passes 70 next we go to item 81 which is a public hearing for the northwest corner of 27th Avenue in Harvest Groves Lane speaking of items where the councilwoman has been doing a lot of work shall we have a staff report we do not have any members of the public to speak on this one all right we will open the public hearing uh we do want a brief presentation on this one so we'll welcome Wendy Rell and and uh Wendy is the only speaker registered we do not have any members of the public on this one uh thank you Madame mayor members of the council Wendy Rell with from Barry Ral 6750 East Camelback I'm hoping staff can help me out and pull up our presentation very very brief presentation thank you for uh Mr Beric if we are struggling I can just chat instead go ahead yes wonderful thank you so much uh again my pleasure to be here today on behalf of equity connect uh regarding LaVine Ranch this is a request to reone a small just over 7 and a half acre site to r18 um the site that we are talking about when you see here um to our East and to our West is really a sea of r18 uh to the South is the Harvest Grove neighborhood we've been very very hard at work with that neighborhood um some to our North you actually get even more dense with um R3 development so as I mentioned we've been very hard at work on this case since spring of 2023 we actually started over 40 units we started with cluster product uh we started with two-story home and there has been a significant amount of opposition from the neighbors uh where we sit today however is we have agreed ultimately to cap the density at 30 single family platted Lots uh I'm going to briefly touch about the number uh a number of additional conditions that we've agreed to ultimately the result of which the neighbors have withdrawn their legal protest uh and we've come to a compromise that they are supporting here today so we have modified the site plan toate create the buffer to the north of 30 ft and the buffer to the south of 50 ft uh we have ultimately reduced the Lots from 40 to 30 we've agreed that all of them will be single story homes we've agreed to the minimum lot size of 50 fet again we've increased that landscape buffer to the north uh We've maintained a 50- foot landscape track to the South uh We've agreed to create solid masonry walls along the perimeter we've got staggered Street fronts um we have agreed that all of these will be platted lots to facilitate them being for sale homes uh We've also agreed to provide notice of the Agricultural nature of the area as well as the commercial wedding venue that occurs um and we've agreed to work with the neighbors regarding connection to the Sewer to give you an idea of what that looks like um we even drilled down on the design with detached sidewalks 22- foot wide driveways we've agreed to low-level lighting to keep that dark sky um and we've agreed to Monument signage again getting very very granular with these neighbors talking about how we would gate it was a request of theirs as well uh We've agreed to the wall types we've agreed to paint the wall on their side for all the neighbors that have been uh Cooperative here just gives you an idea of what this will look like in particular from Harvest Grove being all single story homes um we also went into great detail on the design as to what that would look like as to the articulation upgraded garage doors um really ensuring a quality product here for LaVine um as a result we were successful in having the legal protest here removed all of the checks you see are people who have now signed um in agreement with the compromise that we have here and then finally I also wanted to point out you know we we fought very very hard on this case to maintain as many Lots as we possibly could the reason for that just so it's clear I know this Council already understands this very well but just for the benefit of saying it out loud here is to try to make these homes more attainable by making a product that would be eligible for someone to use an FHA loan and to do that you really the larger the lot sizes get the more house you end up putting on it um the less likely it is that someone will ever be able to qualify for an FHA loan making it more and more difficult for people here ultimately to attain housing um so with that we were pleased to have the support of the lcrd pleased to have the support of the village and of your Planning Commission and I would respectfully request your support subject to all of the very carefully and deeply negotiated stipulations thank you thank you any questions we will close the public hearing this item is in District dat I will turn to councilwoman HJ Washington you mayor um thank you Wendy Mr Redal thank you for your work in working with the neighborhoods as you mentioned you started off with a very strong severe opposition and I'm very grateful and pleased that you and the neighbors were able to reach a compromise especially a compromise that allows us to provide more units in my district that are that are attainable for the average uh resident of Phoenix so I know it was a hard battle it was an uphill battle but I spoke with yourself and neighbors and I asked you guys to come to a compromise and I'm grateful that you were able to get that done so it is um I motion that we approve the item per the November 1 2023 Memo from the director and adopter related ordinance second motion and a second roll call HJ Washington yes custor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing Ansari yes Gaya yes passes 70 thank you very much congratulations to all who worked hard for a good outcome that concludes the agendized portion of our meeting we now go to the final portion citizen comment we'll begin with the city attorney explaining this part thank you mayor during citizen comment members of the public May address the city council for up to three minutes on issues of Interest or concern to them the citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes the Arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented thank you we'll begin with online comment from Michael Norton and he will be followed by thank you maryo vice mayor onari city council I appreciate the opportunity to speak I'm speaking today on behalf of Carol and Jerry Carlton who are members of the Rogers Ranch resident committee and also members of the board of the Rogers Ranch 2 homeowners association they are dealing with physical issues associated with an a accident they're still recovering they asked me to speak for them we sent to you a letter today by email I'm sure that you've received it I know you'll read it I'm not going to read it into the record I am going to ask that you consider a few issues the the Carlton spent their early careers serving the public as appointed officials of the Department of Labor they served under three different presidents four different presidential five different presidential terms excuse me and at at the peak of their careers they were answering directly to the Secretary of um Administration and project management they understand what it means to be a public servant they also understand how public servants deflect issues that are uncomfortable we don't want to become a a an issue of conflict we want to find Solutions but in order to find Solutions we have to have a very open method of communication and dialogue we don't have that today we raise issues and we are ignored or we raise issues and we get a slight hip check and we're shoved to the side and it's hope that we'll just go away with a you know a minor explanation of why we should be happy that no one cares about our project this issue is a huge issue and and it's one that you can't ignore and it's one that you can't deny the properties that are donated to the city for the purpose of becoming Parks rarely become a park for 30 years or longer you just don't get to it we're now working on a master plan project that you know supposedly will develop a master plan over a period of a couple years after which the master plan will kick in and we'll start to work on the projects of building Parks over a few five five to 10 years in the future but it doesn't build Parks we're talking about work not working on work and we should instead be considering the the fact that we have systemic failure in the development of parks you take Idol to far more property than the city is capable of developing you don't have the capital budget for it you're not going to do it you shouldn't take the property in the first place but if you have taken that much property and you're sitting on it you do the community you do the city no favor by accomplishing nothing with the land you're not assessing property taxes you're not developing Parcels that are supposed to enhance the community you're instead insisting that those part are final two speakers are Jeff and Leslie mayor members so last time we had a meeting um I criticized the mayor's directive of only allowing five comments per person the city's website says that we can comment on any agenda item so there's no limitation on the city's website the guideline also says that we have the ability to comment for two minutes which is fine but we have been limited on the amount of items that we can comment on we can only comment on five agenda items so that is a restriction on our ability to uh petition our elected officials that is guaranteed under the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution Article 2 Section 5 so I am curious why why after I brought that up it's in the Attorney General's opinion it's cited in that document that I listed last time why I'm still limited only five now moving on vice mayor you just said that we you you believe that there is no diversity on impact from climate change when when you campaign to become what you are today you said that there is environmental racism and in 2001 you also said there was environmental racism before you went to the cop event at the United Nations and so I don't believe that your comment today was genuine to what your beliefs were when we were on that specific agenda item previously so there's been a lot of discussion regarding Banning meat and all that other stuff right so what I have been saying is the city of Phoenix is implementing policies giving money to certain individuals that will then lead to a group or a industry that cuts out Dairy and meat you're not going to come out and just outright ban meat consumption and to that point ASU has these programs that they teach people that live livestock and cattle are the number one producer of greenhouse gases in the world from the food from the food uh industry so they're already bias in their opinions when they create these documents that the city is supposed to use that is the whole entire premise around the meat consumption mitigation so with that I yield but I I strongly encourage the limitation go away from the five agenda items thanks Leslie is our final speaker first I want to apologize to you mayor when I was here last I thought how you were going to answer was to invoke an emotion out of you and I said something that when I thought about it later I wish I hadn't said so I apologize to you for that so now moving on um as we're sitting here saying we have no speakers we have no speakers we have no speakers you have speakers what he shared was the Constitution that's being violated you came up here and you had somebody sworn in are you afraid to give me eye contact or is it just a personal thing because you obviously are not even going to bother from your dead stare of whatever you're looking at that's why I tried to provoke you last time because of the way you're so detached from having any acknowledgement to We the People I've called you I've send emails you return no phone calls you return no emails you're quite the busy woman we should be allowed to speak on as many topics if we want to according to the Constitution which says that we should have frequent reoccurrence so you violate the Arizona Constitution and you violate the Federal Constitution when you have these little little whatever it is restrictions on how many times people are allowed to speak you yourself can change that if I hear well it's always been like that you can change it you have no problem running off to New York spending money on our dime for your luxuries I don't know why there's not portapotty lined up out here there should be the women that I heard two meetings ago that was the main thing they talked about is how dangerous it is for them being homeless to try and use a restroom at night I don't know why there's not Porta parties po po porta potties all around here there should be you know why because it should be in your face every time you walk out the door when you're passing agenda items with absorbing about a money for things that are about climate change you think somebody cares about your stink climate change which we already know there's many scientists that already say that's nothing but a bunch of freaking hogwash but it's used as a good way to to use move around money why is that a problem for me because when we have people who can't even go to the bathroom they're just around the corner from you because they're homeless because they have no way to shelter themselves I hear about the you know the miniature house thing that's great we got people with urgent needs right here today why are there not porta-potties set out outside this this facility I don't have a p problem walking past it to come here you shouldn't have a problem walking past it you don't have to live in it you just have to pretend like you care about it we know that it's like I said you don't even blink your eyes this way to act like I matter or anyone here matters meeting we're adjourned and thousands of medical breakthroughs including a shyen analytics Paradigm Diagnostics and biomics which are now a part of exact Sciences along with Caris life sciences and vium Animal Health all play critical roles in Precision medicine exact Sciences has a growing presence on campus so does ni's national na Institute of diabetes and digestive and kidney diseases main research facility the newest addition to the campus is 850 PBC a 227,000 ft fully lab enabled building designed for bioinnovation and collaboration it's home to Arizona State University's translational science there