welcome welcome everybody to the Mesa city council meeting for June 3rd 2024 we'll be having a regular council meeting followed by a special council meeting uh roll call the mayor is unable to attend tonight and is excused and we have council member go forth uh attending via Zoom all other council members uh are here present uh we'll start with uh uh the invocation by Reverend ton Garcia from the First Christian Church and Then followed by the Pledge of Allegiance uh Tony well thank you for this opportunity citizens of Mesa will you pray with me gracious and loving God We Gather here today United in our commitment to serve the city of Mesa we ask for your presence to guide us in our deliberations filling our hearts and Minds with wisdom compassion and a spirit of cooperation Lord we are grateful for the diverse voices and talents that come together in this room each person bringing their unique perspective and passion for the common good as we discuss the matters at hand grant us Clarity and discernment help us to listen with Open Hearts to speak with kindness and to act with Integrity May our decisions reflect your Justice and mercy promoting peace and prosperity for all we lift up our community members who are facing challenges whether they're physical emotional or financial surround them with your comfort and support and show us how we can be instruments of your love and care in their lives bless our city leaders with patience perseverance and an abundance of wisdom we are especially grateful for our city council members and staff whose dedication and hard work make this city a better place strengthen their resolve to seek solutions that uplift the most vulnerable Among Us and to build a city where everyone feels valued and included May their service inspire all of us to contribute to the common good with the same commitment and heart and may we honor you and the trust that's been placed in Us by the people we serve Lord in your Mighty and precious name we pray amen amen now pledge aliance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all thank you T for that invocation uh next item is Awards and recognitions and announcements we'll have a a proclamation here uh for June 2024 celebrating lgbtq plus pride month in the city of Mesa um mayor Giles has proclaimed June 24th LGBT uh lgtbq plus pride month in the city of Mesa in recognition of the contributions made by the lgbtq plus community in 2021 Mesa passed a non-discrimination ordinance demonstrating our commitment to ensuring Mesa is inclusive and welcoming tonight we are proud to highlight a local and Regional resource here to accept the proclamation is Nate roten uh CEO of one in 10 a nonprofit organization that serves lgbtq Youth and Young adults welcome Nate thank you vice mayor and thank you council members for uh this Proclamation today uh my name is Nate roten the CEO of 1 in1 we've been providing services to lgbtq Youth and Young adults in Arizona for the last 31 years out of our Downtown Phoenix youth center but also our 20 satellite locations located in cities throughout Arizona including Mesa Arizona I want to thank you all uh for your support and specifically point out and thank mayor Giles for his allyship to our community council member Duff and council member spillsbury uh you all have been incredible allies to our community and you continue to do such great work supporting the work that we're doing for our youth one in 10 Works to provide leadership development and support to young people as well as Suicide Prevention at a time when a Trevor Project study that was released earlier this year said found that nine out of 10 lgbtq youth feel that they are they feel worse about themselves because of politics in the last year so while a proclamation can just be words to some people it does send a message of support and lets young people that are lgbtq know that they are seen and supported um and that means a lot from the city that they live in so I thank you all for this Proclamation perfect and we have a proclamation here if we can come down and take a picture thank you all right thank you thank you [Applause] all right next is the uh the consent agenda Mr Christopher would you please read the consent agenda uh Miss Mosley are there any blue cards for a consent agenda item we have two two the two cards cards that I handed to you are the only two for item 5p we have 5p coming off consent count so good evening vice 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 as written item 3A act on liquor license application for pizza aroma tyan Cafe 7145 East Main Street item 3B acting liquor license application for mango mini Mar 760 South Alma School Road item 4A approving Cooperative job order contract use for pool construction services Primm Hall pool replaster guaranteed maximum price item 4B approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for original equipment manufacturer and aftermarket refu body and sweeper body parts for the Fleet Services Department item 4 C approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for original equipment manufacturer heavy duty truck parts and repairs for the fleet services and makes of fire and medical departments item 4D approving dollar limit increase the term contract for landscape maintenance services for the parks retention basins and sports Fields Zone one for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4E approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for event security crowd Management Services for the parks recreation and Community facilities and arts and culture departments items 5A through 5f are approving resolutions to modify fees and charge charges for the following City departments 5 A is for the arts and culture Department 5 b is for the business services department 5 C is for the development services department 5D is for Falcon Field Airport 5 e is for the Mesa fire Medical Department and 5f is for the Municipal Court item 5G approving resolution to enter into a 5-year intergovernmental agreement with the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport Authority in which the Mesa Police Department will provide dedicated law enforcement services to the airport item 58 approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with americop Association of governments for the acceptance of the 2024 design assistance grant for the Red Mountain multimodal study item 5i approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the Arizona Game and Fish Commission to administer the community fishing program in Mesa item 5j approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the regional Public Transportation Authority to participate in the Platinum transit pass program in Mesa item 5K approving resolution enter into a 25-year purchase power agreement with Salon Corporation for four downtown Mesa solar projects item 5 L approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the town of Gilbert for the installation and maintenance of a 36in city reuse Pipeline and related apperances within the town's limit item 5m approving resolution to enter into a climate pollution reduction Grant Coalition memorandum of agreement to implement climate pollution reduction activities specifically Fleet electrification and food waste to energy pre-processing facility item five and approving resolution designating the chief fiscal officer with the authority to submit the city's 2024 2025 fiscal year expenditure limitation report to the Arizona auditor general on behalf of the city council as required by State Statute item 50 approving resolution adopting a pension funding policy and accepting the employer share of assets and liabilities under the public safety personnel retirement system as required by state law item 5p has been removed from the consent agenda item 5 q approving resolution designating the general election date as November 5th 2024 item 6A introduction of ordinance zoning case 22267 for property located south of williamsfield Road on both sides of signal be Road a reone with planed area development overlay and Council use permit to allow for future development of an auto mall large commercial development and a multiple residence development and item 7A approving ordinance for zoning case 23796 for property located west of Meridian Road and or the Pacos Road major site plan modification and amending the conditions of approval for zoning case 14- 57 to allow for an industrial development vice mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all right um any other any questions from our council members on any any of these items I know we talked on them in our study session all right is there a motion I see a motion by council member Freeman and second by council member spelsbury council member go for how do you how do you vote Yes I think do we have uh there we go all right item consent agenda passes um we'll move on to the item that was taken off consent 5 p and that is calling a special bond election to submit to the qualified electors of the city of Mesa in conjunction with the general election to be held on November 5th 2024 uh we have three blue cards here now uh we'll take them in order where we receive um Mr Jonathan bush bush all right Jonathan you have three minutes I think the one I gave you recogniz the T-shirt uh hi uh recently I saw a bold uh safety for designed from our transportation department for Center Street the plan would take uh Center Street from five Lanes to three with parking on either side and keep the center turn lanes for getting around occasional queued or stopped cars or a garbage truck uh a good compromise with the congestion concerns of some council members it adds buffers between parking and a new wide bike lane pedestrian Crossings have better safety and visibility and I I bike on Center Street every day of the week uh for my commute most Wednesday mornings I'm forced to use the right travel Lane to avoid trash cans placed in the bike lane by residents uh in June 2023 a driver refused to move uh to the left lane when I was riding in the right lane passed too close and then proceeded to honk and curse me out uh the redesign would eliminate that conflict uh in May of 2024 while writing a to a transportation Advisory board meeting on this very topic uh police fan turning right on University uh almost hit me while I was while I smacked on the back of his van to get his attention uh while taking a right on University uh the redesign would also help uh drivers better notied cyclists and pedestrians at intersections um as it is now I use my experience and caution to avoid being injured by cars but others shouldn't have to have my knowledge to bike safely on on Center this project would slow traffic to Safe speeds and make collisions less likely uh I I urge you to to support the agenda item thank you thank you Mr Bush um next person is Rick Castillo you can state your name and address for the record you got three minutes thank you Rick Castillo 455 East 1 Avenue and Mesa okay um real quick a couple months back the Mesa Transportation Advisory Board recommended a project to transform Center Street into a complete Street complete this was in turn formed by a multitude of studies and feedback sessions data to inform the City eight of 11 of the travel sheds received 50% respondents with a 62% overall mean favoring removing an automotive travel Lane to enhance bike and pedestrian safety despite this as suggested in a recent disappointing study session it would appear that some of the council was terrified to do so we aren't just a culture of automobiles and bedroom Comm ities and we aren't Scottdale at one point downtown Mesa was a regional center of activity in the so-called downtown of the East Valley surpassed only by downtown Phoenix we spent large sums of funding on a variety of projects that by themselves could not Revitalize this node of activity but rather work together holistically to connect our downtown to other parts of the city and the valley the light rail grants a federal empowerment Zone Downtown transformation all of these working together what's the missing ingredient safe accessible and connected streets ss4a more than a catchy term it's a commitment to making streets for people in all modes of transportation not only cars Equitable transportation is a key component of a social determinant of Health this in my industry is what we talk about when we think of all the things that go into what make a healthy and mobile population a successful City takes this into account a slightly slower more Equitable safer and sensibly cooler we all know about Mesa Summers signature Street project to take a nearly entirely City maintained from an extra wide soulless laab of asphalt into a thoroughfare that serves everybody this thinking isn't new but it's been known to not be a part of our meditations for a long time it's a catalyst for restoring where we and our families live work and play according to the city's own data from the downtown transformation office we added 254 residential units in downtown M from 2010 to 2020 not bad 397 more just since 2020 and there's another 867 near completion we'll call that around 1,250 in just 5 years we'll have another 1,900 residential units in planning negotiation that will likely open their doors to new downtown Mesa converts do you know what they're looking for walkability bikeability car optional modes of transportation maybe someday a grocery store 21 new business added since 2020 and 11 new businesses are under construction or lease all want a piece of the action and it shows the thoughtful and deliberate work that the city has done to welcome these individuals and businesses this is our culture we are industrious creative and motivated every year we get to bike to work as a show of solidarity to get her down an entire Center Street Corridor for almost Farmland on the Center Street Salt River Basin all the way to our beautifully evolving downtown and we need police escorts to make it happen wouldn't it be something if we could ride and walk together safely every day I mean I'm probably a little biased I love bikes my best friends love bikes we ride together we walk together heck I even met and months later fell in love with my girlfriend my partner on bike rides we value our community and we spend money downtown got the receipts we know our Representatives the business owners and many good folks who do great work for this city these are employees informed by this Council we implore the holdouts on Council to rethink the myopic and frankly little outdated perception that more lanes and faster cars equals a happier and more prosperous City this is simply not the case time time is up Mr prove positive I'm happy healthier and more connected because I slowed down and took in my community thank you thank you thank you Mr Castillo um next person is uh Luis Montes you can state your name address for the record hi Louis Montes I'm uh I live at uh 945 North Pasadena just a mile north of here um lifetime uh resident born and raised here in Mesa um so uh I I just want to get like exactly what we're talking about here which is um Center Street uh and not just funding for something to happen in Mesa for safety this one's pretty obvious pretty clear we have one one Route One safe um area to bike ride that is the uh the canal um it's great it's there's a stadium connector we can get to 10p from it assuming we had connectivity to this thing uh downtown does not downtown is an island as far as biking goes I know I have a lot of friends come down and join me um to ride bikes downtown and the way they do that is they load them at their vehicles uh they put bikes in their trucks they come down we ride around because we can't actually get to downtown safely um so this one right here is just a no-brainer as long as we are if we have um funding available through bonds however we do this um let's connect downtown to the one artery that we have for safe biking right now um not uh we're we're good on the recreational stuff uh you guys done just fine um we're even putting A New Path exclusive to a neighborhood called the Lehi Loop that's disconnected from the rest of this infrastructure that we can drive our cars to go and get to how about we do some connectivity we build a network um so we can you know we can have uh restaurants we can have uh places to drink downtown be awesome if we didn't have to keep bringing more cars downtown to enjoy these things because we could just ride our bikes to it I've got two sons that ride their bikes along with myself um down center it's dangerous this is obvious it does not support uh there's not enough traffic not enough cars to support for uh two lanes in each Direction with the median um because we have two lanes in each direction that are wide the cars that do ride on this or that drive on on this on Center Street um go really fast and it's really dangerous let's take out at least one lane um I you know I I live right in this area and uh this is something that's just a glaring Omission as far as connectivity um in in the valley so uh we have friends that come to Temp they have to suffer through this as well when they want to come and ride with us um so yeah obvious no-brainer just downtown up to the canal I mean and if we wanted to connect it in other directions even better but this right here is just the most clear um obvious win we fix up Center make it safe for biking connect it to the canal path and people up in North Mesa people in Tempe can come and enjoy downtown spend tax dollars just like the rest of us do over here and uh just kind of keep going what we've been building for the last few years but um give us other methods of transportation other than bringing more cars to downtown that's it all right well thank you Lis we uh any of the council members have any comments council member Duff yeah I I just want to acknowledge you and thank you for coming out to speak I know you're very passionate about it as I am am um for tonight's agenda for passing the bond we are simply just due to the time and deliberation that's necessary I'm confident we can um move forward on this but for the bond um we will just leave it as a general statement and then deliberate that further hopefully the bond will pass and we'll get into that so right now um it's just a $7 million for Safe Streets for all project and then after the election hopefully we'll come back and uh work on that and um we'll be talking again and I appreciate your passion and how much you do to grow the biking community in downtown and uh knowing that that is you know the solution to lessening the amount of parking spaces and and things it would make it more Equitable and walkable which is economically more um sound and more vibrant um so anyway I'm going to start getting into this discussion and that's not what we're discussing tonight we're just passing the bond but I appreciate your enthusiasm and passion and thank you for taking your time to come here tonight right uh council member spillsbury I do just want to respond really quickly and thank you guys for coming I love your passion I know that I'm not your favorite person right now but I want you to know that I um I'm I'm committed to making it safe too I don't know what the perfect way is to do that and I think we have other options and and multiple options and so I'm waiting for some data that we have on for First Avenue and just just exploring more and so I also am committed to seeing what we can do to make it safer for bicyclist and I don't want to think that I don't that I don't care at all about about the safety because I do so I appreciate your passion and your willingness to come down and express your um your opinion and we're we're listening so thank you right anybody else council member go forth yes thanks vice mayor I just too want to Echo thank you all to the speakers for coming and um uh talking to us about what's important to them um as far as Mobility uh I to a bit disappointed that the the bond isn't specific for connectivity into downtown but if if the bond does pass we do we do have a sort of uh we have another B at the Apple and when we look to uh issue the bonds and spend the money downtown will certainly be one area that we look at and I hope that you all continue to voice your opinions on this to continue to let us to know let us know what's important to you all that live down here in the downtown area uh it will be important when we um make those decisions uh and um direct those dollars so again thank you for coming and and speaking tonight okay uh Council mayor Duff vice mayor sorry to interrupt I just want to throw in one more comment for the public in general um we're allocating $7 million in the bond package for Safe Streets for all project why we call it a safe streets for all project is there is federal funding grants available that will um fund the project 80% that's unheard of when you hear of grants available for projects it's tremendous so I that is the reason why it's we're not defining exactly the project but it is so important that we pass that and support it because um being able to leverage that of 80% of the cost of improving our streets um at the federal level so thank you right thank you and just a reminder like my council members mentioned this is a to call a special bond election uh to submit the qualified lectors of the city of Mesa in conjunction with the general election to be held on nember 5th 2024 so there's a variety of different projects uh that we're calling on uh with this item um so I would if no other comments or questions I will take a a motion in a second made let me reset start oh was it I didn't see the motion I see it but it hasn't come up here yet but I made a motion want to try again there's a second second is it not flashing you to make a motion no right sorry we'll do a voice vot is it working apparently not so do we just call we have a motion by Council Freeman a second by councilor Summers uh how does everybody vote I maybe do roll call councilor Summers Council M spillsbury hi council member Freeman hi uh vice mayor deia I uh council member Duff hi uh council member go forth how do you vote Yes all right uh motion passes unanimously uh thank you uh next item uh we'll move on to uh items on not on on the consent agenda items 8 a and 8 B uh are to conduct a public hearing and take action on the proposed fiveyear Capital Improvement program for fiscal years ending 2025 to 2029 uh I declare the public hearing open uh Miss Mosley uh do we have any requests to speak uh from the public on these items items no request vice mayor all right do any of the council members want to address these items hearing none um I declare the public hearing closed uh do I have is there a motion uh to approve item 8 B the the fiveyear capital Improvement program resolution all right we have a motion cut by council member Summers second by council member spilsbury um uh please cast your votes council member go for how do you vote Yes right motion passes unanimously thank you uh item nine uh next items are from citizens present Miss mosy do we have any request to speak I think I have two items here those are the only two yep uh we have two items uh on uh named Bridget Vega uh Bridget Vega you can state your name and address for the record Bridget Vega good evening mayor and Council change begins with awareness Justice starts with us when does it stop when each and every single one of us have the courage to stop looking away and turning a blind eye you don't get to look the other way on this issue innocent souls and children were murdered Jeremiah Steven haly jir and Preston it could have been any one of our children or loved ones we must take a stand against Tain violence and create a safe space for the children teenager Connor Jarnigan who was brutally assaulted by brass knuckles continues to take a stand in the face of adversity and be a Beacon of Hope as a community we ask that you adopt the language and lock arms with Chandler and Gilbert as they've implemented the Connor jigan no brass knuckle ordinance to make it illegal for miners to possess and also illegal for anyone to sell or distribute to miners for the brass knuckles next we ask for Preston Lords unruly Gatherings ordinance to increase penalties for unruly Gathering involving minors including for property owners or tenants of places where those Gatherings occur even if the owner or tenant would was not personally in attendance we demand accountability please continue to keep all the families in your prayers if we can take a moment of silence for Preston Lord and all of the teens who've been assaulted mentally physically and sexually and all the youth that were wrongfully murdered due to senseless acts of violence we demand Justice for the Youth thank you for your time thank you Miss Vega um next person we have uh Clarissa Arnold or terissa Arnold sorry thank you for your time tonight my name is Carissa Arnold um I'm here to share our story um I have a daughter who was sexually assaulted by a gentleman at our school that was connected to the Gilbert goons and what we proceeded to walk through was three years of intense bullying that um ultimately ended up affecting my son the whole goal was to attack her emotionally and we almost lost her as a result of it we are not the only family who has been affected by these situations there are many teens that are being affected by bullying in our schools they are attacking them emotionally they're attacking them through social media and using any and every way Avenue possible to try to humiliate these kids as a result our kids are taking their lives because they feel like they have no other choice in this matter what we are asking for is your help and support as a city council as we work towards creating a way to keep our kids safer in our schools our schools are not disciplining our students my own daughter watched a weapon discharged and even though this was not in the City of Gilbert it is happening in your city as well so again our ask is to come forward that you would start partnering with us this is kind of the beginning of our message um and we want to make sure that our kids are safe going forward as school is going to be starting soon thank you thank you Clarissa unfortunately we can't comment on any items uh from citizens present but uh comments are heard so thank you for coming in um next item uh before we adjourn this meeting uh just a reminder that we have a special council meeting right after we adjourn this meeting so please stay with us uh uh Council me uh council member go forth uh that is uh all the items for the today's meeting is there a motion to adjourn uh Council M Summers second by council member Freeman all in favor say I I hi uh we are adjourned