welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for the evening of October 21st 2024 uh council members Duff and vice mayor Heredia are unable to attend this evening and are excused all other council members are present uh we will begin this meeting with an invocation offered by Jess brown with the desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance I noticed that we have some Scouts that have joined us tonight thank you very much for being here would you be willing to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance so right after the invocation the prayer if you could just come up to the to the microphone and lead us in the pledge we'd be we'd appreciate that all right thank you very much Pastor I'm sorry so please stand for the prayer and remain standing for the pledge thank you mayor I don't have a title I'm just Jess okay thank you Jess if you would like to participate you may take a posture of prayer that's faithful to your religion or tradition starting with a deep Collective bre together we invite a a sense of reverence for the importance of the work of the council and a respect for the understanding that all people who share the Breath of Life are of sacred worth Spirit of life we share our gratitude for this day and for everyone included in this Gathering we share the hope that our leaders in this Council may be guided by a mindset of compassion and collaboration as they work together to serve the people of our beautiful city we ask for wisdom guidance and courage that they may make sound decisions as they lead us forward we ask for clarity of focus and a Liberation from Fear as a time of transition approaches may all of may all of us may every single one of us be comforted during the season of election that there may be a true lasting peace and a hope for our Collective future we celebrate the gift of diversity in Mesa and recognize the privilege it is to live in a city where inclusion and togetherness is of such value May our community continue to grow in generosity and care for one another especially those who are the most vulnerable in the in the most in need of care we ask for continued blessing and prosperity in our lives and in our service that together we may build the Beloved Community where all people can live in safety trust and freedom let it be so thank you all right thank you Jess all right Scouts please uh step up okay please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and stand One Nation well done thank you uh first item on our agenda is our consent agenda we'll invite Mr Kevin Christopher forward at this time to read the consent agenda good evening mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered it's a separate item item two approval minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A act on liquor license application for Amad Del Senor De MOS one day event November 2nd 12:31 West Baseline Road item 3B act on liquor license application for ultimate imaginations today event November 8th and 9th on Mesa city streets at one North McDonald item 3 C act on liquor license application for Amari STM Foundation One Day event October 26th 48 South McDonald item 3D act on liquor license application by the Guadalupe on Maine 1526 East Main Street item 3E has been withdrawn by the applicant item 4A approving dogar Limited increase to the term contract for structural extrication personal protective equipment for the Mesa fire and medical Department the contract is funded by the public safety sales tax fund and the Department's operating budget item 4B approving three-month extension and dollar limit increase to the term contract for street sweeping services for the transportation department item 4 C approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for emergency and Non-Emergency response for hazardous non-hazardous Universal and Biohazard Waste for the Environmental Management and sustainability Department item 4D approving use of a Cooperative contract for sports referee services for the Parks and Recreation Department item 4 e approving dog limit increase to the term contract for maintenance repair operating supplies and related Services as requested by the business services department item 5A approving resolution to enter into contracts with the Arizona electric power cooperative for solar electric power supplies and Associated energy and battery energy storage for a contract term not to exceed 25 years item 5B approving resolution to enter into contracts with qualified suppliers for as many as three firm electric power supplies and Associated energies for a contract term not to exceed 5 years item 5c approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Phoenix in Mara County for distribution of Grant funds from the Edward burn Memorial Justice assistance grant program the funding will allow Arizona State University to provide Technical and training assistance and criminal analysis within the Mesa Police Department planning and research division item 5D approving resolution enter into a subgrant agreement with the Arizona Department of Public Safety to accept Grant funds from the victims of crime act victims assistance grant program the funds will be used for personnel expenses at the police department's Mesa family Advocacy Center item 5e approving resolution for zoning case 24724 for property located east of Chrisman Road and North of Germaine Road Council use permit to allow for metal refining casting and Extrusion uses by JX Metals item 6A Inu ction of ordinance for proposed amendments to section 11-43 D7 of Title 11 the mesa city code pertaining to freeway Landmark monuments item 6B introduction of ordinance for zoning case 23417 for property located south of East mcdal Road and West of North Valvista Drive rezone with planed area development overlay to allow for a single resident subdivision item 6C introduction of ordinance for zoning case 24- 498 for property generally located north of mcdal Road and west of Greenfield Road rezone plan area development overlay and major site plan modification to allow for expansion of an industrial development item 6D introduction of ordinance for zoning case 23- 653 for property generally located east of Greenfield Road and south of mccps road reson with plan area development overlay s site plan review and revocation of a council use permit to allow for an industrial development in item 7A introduction of ordinance for proposed amendments to section 11- 25-4 of Title 11 of the mesa city code pertaining to Billboards mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Miss Mosley do we have any requests to speak on an item on the consent agenda no request mayor all right thank you I see that council member Freeman has made a motion seconded by council member Summers please vote thank you that uh the consent agenda passes uh with five yes votes and uh council member stuff and Heredia absent next item onor agenda is agenda item 8A and 8B and all um let me see it's to conduct a public hearing on these items known as the Gateway Auto Mall generally located east uh and and on the west side on the east side and west side of signal but Road and on the north side of posos road uh and involve a public hearing and taking action on resolutions for minor General plan Amendment retails tax incentive findings and approving a development agreement and an ordinance resoning the property I declare the public hearing open mayor just to clarify it's 8 a 8 B 8 C and 8 D thank you very much thank you mayor with that with that caveat I uh I missed the first sentence of that so thank you so I declare the public hearing open m Mosley do you have any requests do we have any requests from the public to speak on this item no request mayor thank you do any council members wish to address this item hearing none I declare the public hearing closed if there's no objection from Council we'll take one motion for the approval of items 8 a through 8D the general plan Amendment the zoning ordinance the retail tax incentive findings and the development agreement is I see there's a motion made by council member spillsbury seconded by council member Summers please vote thank you that motion passes with five yes votes and the council members Duff and Heredia absent uh next item on our agenda is items from citizens present Miss Mosley do we have any requests to speak on this agenda item I have not received any requests all right I think we have some folks that are stepping forward right now thank you all right we have uh three requests to speak uh first is Ryan winkl welcome Ryan you have three minutes thank you sir hello mayor and Council uh Ryan Winkle uh 911 West feto Circle M Arizona um I'm just here as representing the Arizona fair housing center and uh in thinking about the termination of the utility assistance program that happened uh recently and knowing that these lead directly to evictions uh Arizona housing center basically our main job is to work on Fair Housing law we are an extension of Hud's um enforcement arm but in recent cases we've become a lot more of eviction prevention and housing counseling group uh because there's so much need for that and with this happening um we're going to get a lot more calls soon saying that we can't pay this or can't pay that like where can we seek assistance and we can send them to Mesa can we can send them to New Leaf all these other places but they're also stressed the county has resources and so does the state but what I'm here to ask you is um to please find it in your hearts and in your budget to find some extension of this this program in some way through the the winter time it would be nice through the Christmas time that's all here can I just quickly Mr Winkle thanks for coming we haven't terminated the assistance program what's changed like with APS and SRP is that if someone isn't paying and after we've worked with them we can now turn off the the power but we will if we we we have not terminated we have not stopped helping someone financially with assistance and we'll work with anybody who's willing to come up with a payment plan so I don't know where that information came is I thought the sumary assistance program was terminated now no no no it's that it's only meaning that at some point we even after working people we wouldn't turn off their power for any reason during that summer period now that we're into the fall assuming someone isn't working with us and we're trying to assist them we can turn off but we're trying to do everything we cannot to turn somebody off but as far as the assistance as far as the financial assistance that's still available okay so then if if someone calls us and asks hey they might turn out okay all right great thank you all right thank you very much next is uh naen Hathaway welcome naen you have three minutes yeah quickly John thank you uh for your just um unwavering conscious in uh national uh politics um also I am currently the the secretary of the First United Methodist Church of Mesa they've been there 130 years I believe they're the only church active church that has a full cooling center um Monday Tuesdays and Thursdays that provides showers uh clothing um and food um throughout the week we have had an influx of calls um on October 1st through the 10th um because the way the utility assistance Bill does work or assistance helps is from May until October you will not get your utilities cut off however come October 1st it is due in full um every call we've had there has not been any uh communication that there was a payment plan there's also an article in the newspaper where the city utilities was contacted and there was no such um option of payment plans at that time so I'm not sure if that's new based on that article but if you call now um it is either due in full or you're basically in a lottery because it can only disconnect about 100 to 200 people a day uh they also will not tell you where you are at um in the queue so um it's almost predatory because come may you say you don't have to pay and then October you have to pay in full it would almost behooved the utility company to say pay at least half of your bill you know so that way maybe there could be some accommodation throughout that summer um the only problem too is that any church or Catholic Charities or Mesa can Mesa can does an amazing job however they are out of funds as of last week maybe they got a new influx of funds but we tell people call for assistance there's lots of phone numbers to call you're really putting people in Desperate situations into phone tree Abyss they are not getting the help they need funding is exhausted um they are exhausted um and then in the past we can help a family or any family is like $200 to $300 so four families call me for $200 to $300 I can help them if one family calls me for $1,200 for their bill I cannot so even if MAA utilities just made it a little more um you know bits and pieces to to keep them activated or smaller payments um continuing to put the onus and responsibility on community services like a fair housing or the LDS church or the Methodist Church or Catholic Charities just seems like an irresponsible Thing by the utilities to not have an alternative plan since this happens every year and it's only going to get hotter um so I'm hoping for 2025 um there is some uh look into this by council members to make that adjustment uh for next year okay thank you and I I think well I'm G to ask Mr Brady well yeah well um nothing has changed we haven't changed anything and as long as someone's making payments we're not shutting them off um we just don't shut you off for that period of the summer regardless of your status so now we will work with people to make payments and we do expect them to start making some kind of payments but we can we can get offline and and talk about that but we haven't changed anything from apolly from the years's past and we don't have less money to assist people than we've had in in years past so all nothing has changed the only thing that's changed is a report by the media that there were some individuals saying the city didn't have a specific plan to assist people because we try to customize it for their need needs um but we are looking at a policy so it can be written but we haven't changed anything from what we've done things in the years past we have as much money to assist people as we've always had so I think there's been some media's kind of done a good job of uh confusing this but we'll be glad to work with your folks and you can refer them back to us as long as they're willing to pay we're not going to cut them off yeah I think the media did its own job I think the utilities does a terrible job of clarifying the options people don't know what to call and what key word would make them valuable enough to be able to make payments um so some people do get payments some people don't um people aren't quite sure how they qualify for that we're going to restate this again but thank you an and thank you for what your church is doing on the heat relief we appreciate that uh next is Katherine blaskowski welcome Katherine you have three minutes as well my name is Katherine baskowski I live at 617 North ju Street w m it literally over there I am a city of Mesa Electric customer my bill would my electric would be shut off completely for probably about 3 4 months because I was not able to get a payment plan through city of Mesa my mother has an AC machine my sibling and father have seat machines they don't offer a program where you can't shut us off they only offer a program like Hey we're going to shut you off tomorrow move those people out I can't afford to put them to a hotel we don't have any family here so so my concern is we need a program for City Mesa to not shut people off with life saving machines or go more to where they offered to do payment plans on the 1st of October I was told I have to pay the full amount they never offered me a payment plan at all the only time I got sort of offer a payment plan was when I contacted my Senator so I just like to State like maybe that's something we should look into helping get life saving machines people to where they can't be fully shut off or give more of a warning to help that that was my comment okay thank you very much so uh again just to thank you have a have a seat we appreciate you uh normally we don't respond to items from citizens present but I I think there is a misunderstanding as to what the city's uh program is and Mr Brady did a great job of explaining that but uh I'll just restate it that the city has financial assistance for utility customers and that's available year round not just during the hot summer months there is a moratorium on on disconnecting Electric utilities during the summer months because obviously that could be a present a life-threatening situation because of uh air conditioning so so that is that the moratorium is only for the the time of the year where it's life-threatening to turn off someone's utilities but year round the city has Assistance programs and will work with people on payment programs and do everything we can to to help them take advantage of that and it I think it's I think what happened to so people knowing we don't cut off their power during the summer they don't pay anything and then it does come due in October and that's where I think the big challenge is because then it's a large amount because it's been accumulating all summer it's better for people to pay something during that time and but we just don't cut off but I think what happens is now that has turned into well I'm just not going I don't need to pay because they're not going to shut off but it does come du at some point and we can and know work we'll work with communicating on how we can work on those payment plans but it does have to get paid before we go into the next hot season again we can't just keep rolling the balances because then all the other rate payers are are picking up that cost but we do have specific plans uh for seniors right we have a specific rate for seniors um and we have other Assistance programs that we can talk about so if you fall into the category of folks that are struggling with your electric utility bill please ask the city if uh to to what extent there's some assistance available and for a payment plan and and uh hope hopefully you don't have too much trouble engaging in that conversation mes all their Windows is no Avil forties soes not time yeah and that is not correct that there is a city program to help people with utility assistance and that's available all year long it's not only during the summer months so uh hopefully we can correct some misunderstandings there and if that's the case we can organize a candid get the funding all right thank you uh that concludes everything on our agenda for this meeting is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Summers and miss spillsbury all in favor please say I I thank you we are adjourned [Music]