Thank you everyone. Welcome to our Mesa City Council meeting for March 9th, 2026. Council member Adams is unable to attend and is excused. All other council members are present. With that, we'll begin this meeting with an invocation by Pastor Jose Luis Amaya at the Eglacia de Cristo Elim Church, followed by a pledge of allegiance. Pastor Amaya, please come forward. Thank you. Please stand. Thank you, mayor. Nice to remember January 7th, 2025. Remember that day. >> Mhm. >> More than a year ago. And it's a blessing, you know, to see you. And the Lord is giving you a strength for the whole year. Three more years to come. They're going to be full with blessings and strength. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day and for everything you have done. and for you is the glory, the honor and the praise. Thank you for every one of all the members of the council and their families and also all the institutions of this city. We thank you for this moment and we ask you to guide them all the time. Give them courage and strength and give him knowledge, understanding and mainly wisdom to deal with all the necessities of this city. In the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you again. Amen. >> Amen. >> And amen. Thank you, pastor. >> Thank you. Are there boy scouts here? They were going to lead us in our pledge of allegiance. >> They're there. >> Okay. Come forward, please. Now, if I'm correct, you're from Pack 10 and Troop 484. Is that correct? Or all from 484? >> All right. Great. Microphone's yours. You want to lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I >> I pledge allegiance >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Troop 484. Thank you guys. >> So item one is the consent agenda. Uh Mr. Christopher, if you'll come forward and read the consent agenda. What I have now currently 4 B C F consent, 5 A B off consent, and 6 A off consent, 7 A off consent. >> 6 A and 7 A are on consent or >> off. 7 A is off. >> Okay. >> All right. The rest is yours. >> All right. 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 as a separate item. Item two, approval of minutes of previous meetings is written. Item 3A, act on liquor license application for Zach's Cigar Bar, 7310 East Main Street. Item 4 A, approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for landscape maintenance services for city facilities or the facilities management department. Items 4 B and 4C have been removed from the consent agenda. Item 4 D, approving three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for traffic signal loop detection installment services for the transportation department. Item 4E, approving three-year term use of a cooperative contract for pavement management services for the transportation department. Funding will be from either the local street sales tax or the highway user revenue fund. Item 4F has been removed from the consent agenda. Items 5A, 5B, 6A, and 7A have all been removed from the consent agenda as well. Mayor and council members, these are the items on the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. Christopher. I'll entertain a motion to approve. All right. Thank you, Mr. Ready, and thank you, Miss Duff. Please cast your vote. All right, it passes uh unanimously with Mr. Adams absent. We'll go back to 4B. Uh 4B is a dollar limit increase to the term contract for safety and medical supplies for Mesa Police and Public Safety Support Department Citywide. I have two speakers, uh, Mr. Reggie Brun and Noah James. Reggie, you're up first, followed by Noah. Thank you for time. Uh, I'm going to be speaking for a few items today. So, I wanted to just review who I am with everyone and why I do this. It's going to it's going to apply, believe me. My name is Reggie Braun. I'm a data engineer with over 25 years of data management experience. I've worked for industries ranging from nonprofits and universities to defense contractors like Warhol Innovation. I often provide statistics on risk and gap analysis as well as forecasting trends and other insights the data can provide. Scott Kong, the city of Mesa CIO, who has many more experience than I have. >> Reggie, I need to stop you. You need to talk about the safety and medical supplies for Mesa Police, not Mr. Con. >> I am, sir. >> All right. You need You need to stay on that topic that agenda. >> I just need to give my legitability. Pardon? >> I just want to give my qualifications. >> You do that every time. We're familiar with your >> qualifications. I just don't know. I don't get a response from you guys, you know. >> So, I want you to stay on the topic, please. >> Okay. Uh, so what I've noticed in a lot of like what I did last time with the MLB thing is I noticed a lot of these contracts tend to have a lot of verbiage which I'm familiar with which kind of is true but obiscates some of the data and in this particular one if we're talking about law enforcement and the um safety and medical supplies and statistics I'm trying to find it here. What are we how much are we asking for the onetime deal? Couple $700,000 or something like that. Um, this is going to be like a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars we have in the next few agenda items. But including things like ballistic helmets and shields kind of gives me pause when we talk about the fact that we're talking about medical and safety. It kind of makes me think more of we're talking about militarization. Um, whether or not those should be included in this, I haven't done that much research, but again, it seems to put a priority on the militarization. Now, we've already talked about how successful our crime statistics are. We've already reduced violent crime, and I am going to talk again about sexual assault. And so, therefore, I'm wondering in this and the others, how much further we need to invest in either militarization and or single source contracts that inflate the budget. And I'll stop there because I know I'm going to talk more. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Reggie. Uh, Noah James, uh, you're on item 4B. >> Aloha, um, mayor and to the rest of the city council. My name is, uh, Noah James Markham. Um, I'm from the great city of Tempee. Um, so this item right here, 4B, um, I think I heard in your study session that, um, the wonderful Greg Stanton, um, helped fund some of this stuff. So, um, you know, I I don't >> No, no, he did not fund any of this, so stay on this topic, please. >> He He did do He did give you some money for something, right? >> That's a different agenda, >> right? But it still ties into it. Um, yeah. And so I have a a concern about face mask and that's sounds like what the ICE agents have been doing is they've been putting face masks on. I don't know what kind of face mask you're talking about. >> These face masks are for biohazard when people are interacting with each other in medical situations. So that's what the purchase is for protection. >> Okay. >> It'd be similar to what nurses and doctors would wear in emergency room. H that's interesting because it that seems unsafe. Um especially [laughter] um you said it's it it for nurses and doctors. I mean that is something that ICE does too. They have masks just like that too. Um, but this I do not like because I don't trust the Mesa Police Department, especially with people with disabilities. And this if I I don't think you should fund this if you cannot even protect people with disabilities. Um, and so yeah, that's why I don't think Mesa, you know, I had an instant today that they did an awful job on that. And so I don't think they should have this if they can't take [clears throat] care of special needs people like me. Thank you so much. Mahalo. Uh council, I'll motion to approve item 4B, dollar limit increase term safety contract for safety and medical supplies. Thank you, Mr. Summers. Second by Miss Go forth. Please cast your vote. Motion passes. Thank you. Move on to 4 C. 4C, we have uh Reggie Braun is speaking on the use of cooperative contract for the purchase of 200 ballistic helmets replacement for the Mesa Police Department. >> Thank you. Again, this is going to be obviously related to it. Now, again, we have we have great law enforcement. We have great staff. I whenever I talk about these things, I don't want to blame the police that boots in the ground. I'm not going to blame the city clerk or the attorney. My first day in military history class, my captain was very clear to us. Enforcement, whether it be overseas or whatever, is done at the behest of the people in power. And forgive this parliament, it is a thing that said rolls downhill. When you make the priority for military and ballistic helmets and you and we have a great violence rate, a violence crime reduction rate, and the sexual assault clearance rate is less than 12%. There's a misappropriot appropriation of resources. The impact that those things have sexual assault and other things that are unsolved I believe outweigh the need for for ballistic helmets if for sure we are combating violent crime effectively. Now, uh, as opposed to the also just the idea for the last one, I just want to be clear. [clears throat] Uh, the Avon M50, the air airboss LBM, uh, they're not actually only for biohazards and surgic supplies. They're actually, uh, compact to fit under tactical uh, face masks and helmet. They are actually tactical field operations. Under that last agenda item, these are high mobility, lowprofile units designed to be worn with ballistic helmets and kept agents. So again, I'm curious why we're kind of obiscating these things and why we're burying them in the agenda. Uh this is going to be a common theme with me because I have done this kind of deep dive and it is frankly a little bit triggering. So let's talk about $400,000 increase for some of these uh line items. That could probably go to rake kits. That could probably go to people who are researching cases. That could definitely go to counseling services. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Reggie. Just to be aware, this is replacement of 200 ballistic helmets. With that, council, I'll entertain a motion to approve item 4 C. Thank you, Miss Taylor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Please cast your vote. Okay. Motion passes unanimously with Mr. Adams absent. All right. Moving on to 4F. 4F is a three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for traffic management systems, video wall upgrades, and replacement for our transportation department. Uh Reggie Braun is requested to speak on this. >> Thank you again. Uh this is another situation where I've started getting into the details of these contracts and I'm looking for some clarification. Uh as you know in the Super Bowl ad this year, there was a severe lashback against flock cameras and involvement with Ring. Therefore, any kind of surve surveillance or traffic monitoring becomes an uh well uh freedoms and a privacy issue to everyone and specifically the citizens of Mesa. So my really simple questions is that these are uh labeled as dual use. Does TMC data interface with federal enforcement? And if it does, is that voluntary? Is that done by a order or is it somehow buried in logistics of the contract? >> This is a video wall upgrade for our transportation department only. I can't answer the rest of that. Mr. Butler, do you have someone that would like to answer whether we interface with >> you stay there, Reggie? >> Yes. >> There's three mics. >> Um, good evening, mayor, council members. Eric Gaderian, um, the director for the transportation department. Um, so this is for our video wall, the transportation management center. Uh, we use our video feeds to to manage traffic in a real time perspective. Um, we do share our video feeds with the police department and the real time crime center. I don't know where the the feed goes after that. >> Okay. Thank you. All right, >> Mr. Brown, rest is yours. >> Yes. So, that didn't answer my question. So, we really need to know since it's already shared with law enforcement and that we do know for flock cameras, public information is your license plate as well as the person driving. I would like to know under our rights, you know, for whether or not our data is shared with the government how it's shared and if it would be shared. You don't have to answer it now. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Council, I'll entertain a motion to approve item 4F, three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for traffic management system. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Miss Go forth, please cast your vote. Motion [snorts] passes. Thank you. With Mr. Adams absent. Okay. Item uh 5A. 5A is approving and authorizing the city manager is designated to enter into a power purchase agreement energy storage agreement with panel solar project. Uh we have one speaker Mr. Noah James. Noah if you'll come up. Aloha mayor and to the rest of the city council again. Um I just have a question. Is this um Panal Solar? Is it for Panal County or is it different? >> It's the name of the company. >> Oh, it's the name of the company. So, it's not Panal County then. >> It's only in Panell County, but it's panel Solar. >> It's only in Panell County. That's what you're saying. >> The company names Panel Solar, >> but it's not in Panel County. >> It is in Panell County. >> Oh, it is. Oh, okay. Got it. Um, yeah. So, I love Panal County. It's a great city to live in. um because they illegally tried to put the 287g agreement there with the attorney. Um you know, so um yeah, I I really like solar. I do like electric power. This is really good. Um and yeah, hopefully this will help now because they are better than Mesa. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Noah. I'll entertain a motion to approve item 5A. Thank you, Miss Duff. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Please cast your vote. >> Motion passes with Mr. Adams absent. Uh, next we'll move on to I have 5B. 5B is approving authorizing city manager into an intergovernmental agreement with Gilbert Unified School District number 41 for solid waste recycling collection. We have one speaker tonight, Noah James. >> Okay. Um, aloha, mayor, again, and to the rest of the, um, city council. Um, I really have a concern. I, you guys are I don't know if you guys are going to be involved with Gilbert Unified School District. Um, but you know, I love Gilbert and that's where I lived for a long time and [snorts] um I just don't trust Mesa, you know, coming and going into Gilbert. I just it just seems >> You don't trust us to pick up their trash? >> I don't trust you guys. I think Gilbert can do it because I don't trust you with the 287g. So, um yeah, I vote no. >> Thank you. >> All right. Please hold your clapping. Yes, just for clarity, the uh the city limits of Gilbert and Mesa are not the same as as the school district limits of those same communities. So, in my district, there are several high schools and grade schools. And that's what this contract is is that we will pick up >> Gilbert school trash, but it's actually in the city of Mesa. City of Mesa, >> right? >> All right. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion for item 5B. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Second by Miss Dove. Please cast your vote. Motion passes with Mr. Adams absent. All right. Next, we'll move on to item 6A. 6A is a a zoning case, Mesa Premier RV and Bose Storage Phase 2. Uh we have one speaker, Noah James. said it's 6A, right? Or >> that's what you requested. >> Yeah. Yes. Okay. [laughter] Mayor and to the rest of the city council. Um, you know, I did look at this and Mesa, it's just interesting because I don't know why we need this. This is already old stuff here. Like it just I don't know. I just don't like this. I mean RV and boat storage facility. It just it's I don't know. I don't think we need this here. I think it should be something else more exciting than this if we're going to use some kind of money here in Mesa. And I I reject this. So yeah, Mahalo. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Noah. I'll entertain a motion to approve item 6A, zoning case 24-01027. Thank you, Miss Taylor and Miss Goforth. Please cast your vote. All right, the motion passes with Mr. Adams absent. Okay, item 7A is off consent. That is a ordinance proposing amendments to chapters 1 through 87 of the title 11 Mesa City Code. I have one speaker, uh, Reggie Braun. As far as I understand it, 7A is designed to save the city money by reducing the hours staff spend on public hearings. >> Correct. >> Correct. Uh, so let me see here. Is this the zoning situation or is that the different one? I'm which I'm confused which one came off the consent agenda. >> This you request to speak on 7A >> which is is it does it cover the zoning? Does it cover the expansion of marijuana dispensaries? >> No. Okay. So this is more about administration uh administration. >> Did [clears throat] you do your research on this? I have done a lot of research, sir. I'm sorry. When I do this work, it's off my own time. Normally for these kinds of threeminute talks, I charge about $1,500 to $3,000. So, I'm sorry if I haven't done the complete deal, but I'm hoping that you give me clarity that you know these well enough. No. Okay. So, let's just call it administrative friction and overhead. So, you're trying to reduce those things. Um, I have been trying to get some PRRS done, which are public records done. Um, I am finding that there's some administrative overhead in getting those uh serviced. So, when it comes to the idea that you're going to reduce administrative overhead, I would really like there to be a uh a compliance with the ARS that says that uh the public should be getting the right to information in a timely manner. Currently, my PR is about 70 days late. So, that's in violation of the IRS. I would like to see that added to something like this. That's all. If you're going to focus on saying that we are going to reduce the kind of time for review for efficiency, then we should at least get responses to our emails, our uh notations, the city attorney and the city clerk, which unfortunately I've never received despite 3 months. It's about 70 to well between 40 and 70 days. [clears throat] Thank you. >> Thank you, Reggie. So these changes are administrative due to compliance with the Arizona provide statute code in the paragraph. So these changes are mandated by our state legislature. That's why we're doing that. So I'll entertain a motion to approve 7A. Thank you, Miss Duff. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Please cast your vote. Motion passes with Mr. Adams absent. With that, we'll move over to the items from citizen present. I have three speakers. The first one is uh Leanne McKelvie. I hope I didn't mispronounce it. Leanne, please come forward with a Dela Ramos on deck. Okay, Leanne. >> Hello. You did say my name correctly. Thank you. >> Oh, thanks. >> I'm originally from a small town in Ail from Ail, Texas. When I was about 22, I moved to Arizona and today I'm proud to call the city of Mesa my home. Growing up in Texas, sorry. Growing up in Texas, I had a very clear and firm sense of right and wrong. In my mind, if you committed a crime, you were wrong and need to go to jail. And end of story. But since moving to Arizona and opening myself up to new experiences and opening myself up to like new experiences and cultures, I've realize that life isn't always as crystal clear as I once believed. I've I have public speaking anxiety. I'm sorry. >> We all do. Don't worry about it. >> Thank you. I've learned that text is definitely not Latino cuisine, that the world is bigger and more complex than I realized. So, I started asking myself difficult questions. If a parent steals food, are they a horrible criminal or are they a parent doing what is necessary for their family to survive? If a student steals a tablet to be able to do work on to work on at home to do their homework at home, like are they heading down a dark path or are they a child desperately trying to keep up in a system that aims to keep them in poverty? Some might say they should just use the programs available to help. The reality is either those programs are either full, not enough funding, difficult to apply for, or getting shut down. While learning new things, I have changed my ways of thinking like why can't why can't anyone else? Mayor Freeman, you were a firefighter for 31 years. 31 years facing things others run away from. Our community is on fire due to 287G. this is your time to put this fire out and end this like end it like it's your chance to save our community please. You are like you have a family legacy of immigration. You're a descendant of Charles Crimson who is a founding father of Mesa. Only difference between him and the people today is that he was considered a pioneer. Some of you have financial backgrounds like years like years of financial background. So, y'all should know the economic value of having immigrants living here. Look into the recent to me it's recent. It was like a month ago um publishing of Ka the Ko Institute article on how much immigration helps us whether documented or undocumented. Wait to everyone. I want to leave I want to end it with this. Proverbs 14:31. Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Thank you for your time and have a good day. >> Thank you, Leanne. [applause] We'll next hear from Adella. Adella Ramos if she'll come forward. And then on deck is Michelle Cleveland. Adella, you have three minutes. >> Good afternoon, members of the council. My name is Adela. I am a junior high student here at Mesa. I live in this community and I care deeply about what happens in our city. Today I am not speaking from anger. I am speaking from concern. Concern rooted in the love for MSA and the responsibilities many families feel right now. Mesa already has a 287g agreement with ICE. As you know, this agreement is supposed to only focus on people who are already in custody. But what we are seeing in our neighborhoods goes beyond that. And the result is fear. Fear of calling the police. Fear of asking for help. fear even when someone is a victim of a crime. And when fear walks in the door, safety walks out the window. I want to be very clear, enforcing the law matters. No one here is asking for the law to be ignored. But the city of Mesa should not be doing immigration work that belongs to the federal government. Our local police should be focused on protecting our neighborhoods, preventing crime, and making sure people feel safe reporting crimes so they can be solved. Law enforcement cannot do their job well if part of our community is too afraid to speak up. Because when a mother hesitates to call 911, when a victim of domestic violence chooses to stay silent, when a witness refuses to report what they saw, it is not only the immigrant families who suffer. The entire city is suffering. Mesa becomes less safe for everyone. This country has always been its strongest when leaders choose courage over fear. Abraham Lincoln held a divided nation together by appealing our shared humanity. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that there could be no peace without justice. Cesar Chavez taught us that human dignity is not negotiable. That is the United States that many of us still believe is possible. Right now, our country feels more divided than ever. That's why local decisions matter so much. You have the power to either build trust or break it. And if we don't act now, the damage will be deep and lasting. Not only for the families who are afraid today, but for the future generations who inherit a city where neighbors don't trust the people who swore to protect them. So today, I'm asking you So today, I'm asking you to leave with conscience and courage. Please take action to ensure that Mesa Police is focused on local public safety, not immigration enforcement. cancel the 287g agreement with ICE and set clear boundaries that protect the trust between law enforcement and the community because a city that only protects some is not a safe city and a city that governs through fear loses its soul. Mesa could be Mesa could be a city where the police and community walk together, not against each other, where safety is built on trust, not fear. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you, Adella. Next, we'll hear from >> [applause] >> You can snap your fingers. Let's reduce the clapping, please. Michelle Cleveland, come up. Michelle, >> good evening, Mayor Freeman. Council members, thank you very much for giving me this time to express the opinions of a legal immigrant, a very proud naturalized citizen of this country. My family waited in line in a refugee camp in Italy. We were refugees for almost a year, hoping that the wonderful country of the United States of America would allow us the privilege of coming to live here. There are thousands of people, millions of people over the years who have waited in line patiently. The lawb breakakers who are too afraid to call the police should go home to their country of origin where they belong. >> I will not be silenced by the hecklers veto. >> I'm going to warn you. This is your warning. I'm going to escort you out of this room. Okay? Just be patient. We listen like everybody else. Thank you. Go ahead, Michelle. There are so many hundreds of us city of Mesa residents who are too busy with our daily lives, taking care of our children and working our jobs to come here and speak. I am a resident of the city of Mesa unlike a lot of people who have come here to express a contrary opinion. I believe there are more residents of the city of Mesa who believe the police should do the job of policing, >> but also >> all hold your comments. >> All laws should be respected. And if someone is here illegally and they are actually the resident of another country, they should go home. And if they break additional laws, that should be expedited. They do not belong here. Those of us who waited in line are disrespected. Those of us who waited in line are hurt. How many thousands of people that are waiting in line are not going to get the opportunity because other people jumped the line, broke the law, and came here illegally. By supporting illegals here, you are supporting a slave class of people who are underpaid because they're paid under the table. If you hire someone who is illegal, but you don't know it because they gave you a social security number, they are stealing from someone else to have that job. They are causing someone else all kinds of heartache and that someone else is going to have to pay their taxes. >> Thank Thank you, Michelle. Your time's up. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. [applause] All right. >> Officers, we want decorum here, please. Miss Mosley, is there anyone that I missed in this part of it? >> No, mayor. That was all of the requests for tonight. >> All right. With that, uh, councel, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Miss Goforth. All in favor say I. >> I. We'rejourned.