foreign good afternoon thank you for joining us on Wednesday April 19th we are excited to be here today with our new council members councilman Robinson and councilwoman Hodge Washington and welcome then we'll begin today's meeting with an invocation please rise and join us for an invocation from police chaplain Sexton please remain standing councilman Robinson will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you all will now call to order the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council will the clerk call the roll councilwoman guardado here councilwoman Hodge Washington here councilwoman O'Brien councilwoman pastor councilman Robinson here councilwoman Stark here councilman Waring here vice mayor I'm sorry here mayor Gallego here we have two interpreters with us to provide Spanish interpretation Carmen Kota and Gloria San Miguel will you introduce yourselves yes thank you mayor hello my name is Gloria San Miguel and along with me is my colleague Carmen Coda we will be serving as Spanish interpreters for today's policy session for the city council formal meeting I will now take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish-speaking audience [Music] my name is completa posible gracias thank you mayor thank you for your assistance will 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 part of this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number g7100 through 7104 s49567-49632 and resolutions will the City attorney please explain the role of public comment in Council meetings yes thank you mayor members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made in the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda the city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations claims or litigation the city code requires speakers to present their comments 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 number one is boards and commissions vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commissions nominations second leave a motion in a second any comments all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed nay passes unanimously we do not have any individuals to be sworn in today so we will go to liquor license applications the City of Phoenix provides an advisory role to the State of Arizona on liquor license applications vice mayor motion to approve items 2 through 11 except item two second we have a motion and a second any comments roll call yes Lodge Washington no or yes thank you O'Brien Pastor yes Robinson Stark yes Waring uh yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes eight zero so we have approved licenses for a variety of groups from Lovecraft beer shop to a special event with Madison Camelview PTO or at least recommended their approval to the state we next turn to item number two which is crazy girls Cabaret mayor councilwoman Stark yes um I've had a chance to talk to councilwoman uh O'Brien I would like to move to disapprove item two because the applicant has not shown he is capable qualified or reliable based on his prior liquor license violations second we have a motion and a second from councilwoman pastor we have Jeffrey Miller here to speak if necessary based on the motion would you like to speak okay not seeing on Virtual okay um he is online okay let's uh Mr Miller can you hear us uh yes ma'am and thank you mayor vice mayor and Council my name is Craig Miller I work with the Arizona Liquor industry Consultants at 1811 South Alma School Road in Mesa Arizona we're working uh with the clients to file the acquisition of control for this location so it's not the location in question it would only be the people and the the new applicant that came in is a current licensee at other locations with um a clean clean background in this one his father was one of the owners and his father's not doing well uh health-wise so it was transition the father is passing the shares on or sold them to his son who's now joining into the business um he's been through title IV basic and management it's operating other clubs in the metro area with no issues um and putting this this through he's already capable reliable and qualified at his other locations and we've just moved that he's capable reliable and qualified uh in a new application if he's currently a licensee at other title IV licensed establishments thank you for that testimony and again the motion was a motion to disapprove so a yes vote would support disapproval and then it would go to the state for further scrutiny any comments roll call yes Lodge Washington yes O'Brien Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes eight zero city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor the motion to approve items 12 through 108 except the following items 22 through 26 32 45 52 62 63 66 78 81 and 82 noting that items 107 and 108 are add-ons and excluding these items for virtual public comment items 2560 and 108 and can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comment yes mayor and vice mayor also excluding items 48 49 50 and 67 that's 48 49 50 and 67. thank you do we have a did we hear I did not hear a second for this second wonderful we have a motion and a second does anyone need to the clerk to repeat the items 67 right correct 67. okay thank you all right roll call yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes eight zero we next go to a series of public hearings related to our memorandum of understanding with our labor groups this is a two-step process we will have a hearing today and then a vote at a subsequent council meeting um there are similar Investments including an increased compensation for our employees across all of those and so any council members who wish to speak on any of those items I will recognize council members to speak on items 22 through 26 or individual items within those when they would like to do so we will begin with a public hearing on item 22 which is our memorandum of understanding between the City of Phoenix and launa local 777 will open the public hearing we do not have any individuals to speak so I will close the public hearing would any council members like to speak on any of them or remember at this time councilwoman guardato thank you mayor the labor contracts we are presenting today are an investment in the people who make our city possible our 911 operators are firefighters our community action officers our water service workers our Street Maintenance workers our Head Start staff our park rangers and all of other thousands of incredible city employees they come to work every day to provide the services and technical skills that make our city run they deserve to be paid well and provide good benefits we know that when we pay people more and provide them with good benefits employees Thrive their families are taken care of and they invest in our local economy this is basic economics it was exciting to hear that this year we are going to be retaining and opening up more pools because we have more lifeguards and supervisors that are staying we had a 74 retention just because we were able to change wages this past year this simple truth is also why I believe our city should ensure that companies we do business with pay their employees fairly when employees do not wear a city badge but they do City work it only makes sense that they are paid fairly just like our own city workers from building the new community centers our residents deserve to expanding our Vital water system any worker that works on City projects deserves to be paid fairly I look forward to my colleagues supporting and ensuring we pass these new labor contracts for our incredible city employees and that we also lead by example by improving wages for at a larger scale on City projects thank you mayor thank you any additional comments All right we will go to the next public hearing this is on item 23 a public hearing with afscme local 2384 unit 2. open the public hearing we do not have any individuals to comment so we will close the public hearing we will next go to item 24 which is a public hearing on afscme local 2960 unit 3. open the public hearing we do not have any individuals to comment and we do have an individual to comment on item I missed item 23 I am sorry um item 23 we did have a member we do have Jason Henley to comment on item 23. is that better okay Jason Henley I'm the president of local 2384 I represent right we represent uh 1485 unit members work for the City of Phoenix we make sure that the lights stay on the water stays running in your city we make sure that the trash trucks keep blooming um as well as a variety of other things um from all departments in the city this has been a long time coming I've I've been a Millwright for not about 18 years now and uh and we've seen we've seen the lack of of wages and benefits throughout throughout skilled trades for years um from the from the Great Recession on so um we're very happy I want to thank I want to thank the city council um for for going the extra mile on this um and that comes from everybody everybody everybody that I've talked to in the unit is really excited about this so I was told to uh to thank you all for um for this but I just want to make sure that that we don't end this here that there are people out there that keep this city working they keep clean water coming to your house they keep planes you know uh departing and arriving from Sky Harbor they they keep the bathrooms clean they keep the curbs clear you know they um they paint graffiti in our neighborhoods um there are a lot of there are a lot of moving parts to this and I don't think that most of these people get um get the recognition that they they deserve and uh also I want to speak for the other brothers and sisters in in the units not unit two they deserve everything that we do as well and I will thank you for them too so um hopefully in the next meeting we can approve this um and I thank you for that my time's up thank you president Henley president petroli first of all thank you my name is Frank pacholi I am president of asthma local 2960. we represent armed Detention officers 911 dispatchers operation assistants secretaries your your fire inspectors back there pretty much you name it first of all it's very nice and sometimes rare opportunity for me to come up before Council on praise management and Human Resources but I love doing so so I hope to do so many times in the future associations were professional beneficial to both the employees as well as the city The increased wages and bonuses before you today will encourage more people to come work for the city as well as be able to retain employees after many years of drought we will be able to keep employees and bring them in from the private sector and we're finally catching up to the increased wages in the private sector we hope that will continue as believe it or not we'll be doing this whole thing again in nine months I want to thank you mayor I want to thank Council I want to thank Labor Relations I want to thank city managers and assistant city managers for incredible support this year during this negotiation for the workers and finally being able to give them the competitive wages and bonuses that they truly deserve and you are appreciated hopefully too in the future we can work towards getting our part-timers the benefits of Health Care that they don't receive in the city but we'll save that fight for another day today I just wanted to say thank you on both City side from all of unit 2 unit 3 all the units that are here before thank you so much thank you for that important testimony we will close that public hearing and go to item number 25 which is a public hearing of our agreements with plea we have six individuals to speak on this item we'll open the public hearing on item 25 we will begin with Stephanie Espinoza followed by Ann Ender good afternoon city council and mayor and the public my name is Stephanie Espinoza and I'm here with the Pueblo's budget I'm sure y'all heard plenty from us but we're once here again um and we're here today specifically because the police Phoenix police got 20 million in pay raises last summer and every other city worker was left behind Phoenix police are already the highest paid police in the state the millions of dollars that will be given for police pay raises and bonuses in this contract should be going to fund Community Resources from the Pueblos budget that came directly from your constituents we do investment in the city workers who help our communities thrive in our Pueblo's budget it includes investments in labor like increasing pay for all city employees full-time or part-time to a minimum of 20 dollars per hour every time we ask for new Investments and expansions here at the city we are told the same thing over and over we don't have staff for implementation and we hear from the city the same city staff that the reason for this is because we don't have competent wages for city workers and they rather go to other cities or sectors with higher wages why not invest in city employees who keep our communities our streets our Parks clean and thriving people who can provide direct services to our community members and keep our neighborhoods thriving I was just outside council chambers with around 30 unsheltered folks who need access to restrooms 24 7 in public spaces housing that is safe from heat and access to free transportation and so many other resources that we could invest in our community members and their well-being all of our community resources and programs are left with crumbs while the police budget just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year thank you thank you and Ender is next followed by Chalet Flores good afternoon and Ender Operation Blue Ribbon police support I actually had something prepared but her comments really I think struck home struck a chord in me you know we have the privilege to the Constitution and the privilege you all give us to our opinions and I respect everybody's opinions but there's a big point that a lot of the Public's missing here and this is why this the memorandum of understanding with the police department is critical there's 2200 members and I know you all know these numbers but just for the public so they understand we don't have enough officers and we need contracts and wages that are going to attract good people and retain the ones we have don't you want Public Safety in your neighborhoods I do because and that's why I collaborate with them all the time we work all the time with our departments the Departments and with the um um the commanders in the precincts I'm sorry so I guess I got off my soapbox but I just I also want to plead and to the silent majority and councilman wearing you mentioned that in your inauguration speech we know the majority of this city does support their Police Department so I'm asking you all to start speaking up we can't have just one voice it's a fact what we talk about we're not throwing numbers out there that are fun to say it's facts so please speak up and I just encourage all of you to um be very positive and prove it and thank you so much and I'm sorry I forgot to welcome um councilwoman Washington and councilman Robinson it's pleasure to see you here thank you thank you Mrs Flores is next followed by Ben Laughlin to whom I direct my comments I will not say your name although you've branded us with animosity We Stand we stand out of necessity in response to your negligence and failed leadership we don't represent the minority we represent the people who are most impacted you invalidate our efforts to demand accountability you invalidate even your Council peers by claiming that we are merely staging unfair political stunts we call this gaslighting a political stunt is allowing yourself and your departments to break your own city code and negotiate the spending of our tax dollars behind closed doors a political stunt is forcing those who dare to challenge your leadership out of committees and City positions a political stunt is graduating from an Ivy League school and moving to one of the most marginalized District in the nation to build your political career to you this is a political career to us it is our livelihood this month a judge sent you a clear message about future negotiations with plea and that you won't get away with violating city code in the future will you do when you no longer get away with your medical stunts your political stunt to hide the mou contract details impacts the safety and well-being of everyone in our community every dollar police get is a dollar that could go towards critical Community Resources like housing 24 7 bathrooms and public transportation by the way why don't you move those positions out of the police into other departments to actually reach Solutions your disproportionate budget that takes literally every takes from literally every department and bloats the public safety allocation is embarrassing how are you not embarrassed I'll close with thank you to the city officials who do not shy away from accountability those who are asking the hard questions please continue to be bold is next followed by Leonard Clark Yale uh my name is Ben Laughlin I'm a resident of district four um I'm speaking today in opposition to the pay raises for Phoenix police police officers got massive pay raises last summer while other city employees were left behind um with thousands of vacant positions in this city and many programs and services hurting because of it it doesn't make sense to double up on pay raises for police they're already the highest paid Department in the state and it sends a message to other city employees that their work isn't as important as the work of police having basic things like clean Parks reliable trash pickup Head Start and enough housing for everyone will do more to boost the health and safety of our neighborhoods than in other pay raise for police I'm also here today to encourage Council to take action to open these negotiations to the public in December we saw the city let plea withhold their proposed contract from Community review and telling us there was nothing they could do to hold plea accountable to the process at this point I'm not actually sure why we even have a city code when it seems like Council and the mayor in particular get to pick and choose when to follow the law making these negotiations open to the public would at least solve the problem of plea being able to hide their contract the lack of the lack of uh the proposed proposed contract in December meant that residents didn't get to give feedback to council members before the negotiations were already wrapped up you all know that changes on these contracts rarely if ever happened once the negotiations have closed giving us this public comment period as our only option is a false opportunity to impact a contract that has severe Public Safety consequences to be honest it was really hard to be motivated to show up today when I knew my comments would have no impact um all that being said no on pay raises for police yes on pay raises for all other city employees and please open up these negotiations to the public thank you Leonard Clark is next hello Maryland council members and thank you to the new city council members that were just have been newly inaugurated I would just first of all like to speak to the young people they're not all young but the ones who believe that their words tonight have no uh they don't have hope that what they're saying is going to achieve change ideas are more powerful in the long run than standing armies than police with batons clubbing you shooting you in the back and then having the law system work against you that's why we talk more today about the philosophy of Plato and Socrates and Aristotle than we do about Alexander the Great and his armies in the short run the armies and their their guns and their weapons and their batons yes they can they can temporarily silence but as Dr King and Mahatma Gandhi and Cesar Chavez right here from our beautiful state of Arizona have shown us the power of ideas and your non-violent will of love and light to overcome tyranny which I believe equals hate can indeed work sometimes unfortunately in the long run or the short run we have dictators and they do have to be conquered but hopefully that's not the case here I put myself down as neutral but I would like to be switched to against because I believe just as from a Libertarian standpoint with civil forfeiture the legal right of the police to Rob citizens for having large sums of cash on them because the last time I checked in the Constitution I don't think that you should be having your money taken away and legally robbed by people with the badge and before people start saying I hate the police I love the young people speaking out and I love the young police officers who are like confused because their Elders have told them to fear the people who speak up against them we are combating a system not each other and for that I would just say again we need a lot more reform in this country because I quite honestly with the armed camps going on I just I think love and light prevails and thank you to the young people for being here thank you to our city staff do we have any additional members of the public Tacoma on this item no mayor all right we will close the public hearing on item 25 and go to item 26 which is a mou between the City of Phoenix and firefighters local 493 we'll open the public hearing do we have any members of the public to comment on this item no mayor we will close that public hearing we will go to item 32 which is related to the dedication of easements and deeds for public utility roadway sidewalk and shared use path purposes do we have a motion move to approve item 32. we have a motion do we have a second second any comments roll call yes Hodge Washington yes it's my understanding that councilman Pastor has a conflict does that have a conflict yes thank you Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry Gallego yes passes 7-0 we next go to item 45 which is a resolution to declare the second Monday in October of each year as a designated City Holiday known as indigenous peoples day do we have a motion motion to approve item 45 second we have a motion in a second councilwoman pastor yes this is a really exciting I am working with uh the Native American Community to uh declare this resolution but also to work on a land acknowledgment uh on the second Monday in October so just wanted to put that on the record thank you councilwoman and the human relations commission is also working on that and the Parks Board has already moved forward on that this is an exciting item that has been many years in the making in my city council days we had residents come to us two young men in particular to ask us to recognize indigenous people's day and we began originally as a recognized day but not a city holiday and now we are with this vote have the opportunity to take it to a full designated City Holiday which would recognize the roots on which our city is built and I'm looking forward to supporting it any additional comments councilman Waring that is the question so this is going to be a day off for the city it's going to be closed how much does that cost us mayor members of the council I can answer that question councilman Waring um the cost to the city for an additional City holiday is approximately one and a half million dollars to the general fund and approximately two million dollars to all funds are we taking away at holiday we are not should we think about taking away a holiday mayor members of the council that would be a decision for the council to make that is the proposal is to add indigenous people's day as a holiday without removing any other holidays can you remind me of the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas they are paid holidays correct mayor members of the council councilman Waring um currently the day after Thanksgiving is a paid City Holiday the day after Christmas is not Christmas day is a paid holiday Christmas Day I know but December 26th is not no that's correct but the day after Thanksgiving is Grand Thanksgiving Thanksgiving I'm talking about the day after Thanksgiving and the day after are both paid City holidays yes thing should we do a swap where people use vacation days so they can have this day off in October that would be Revenue neutral would it not mayor members of the council my assumption would be that that would be Revenue neutral that decision would be something for the council to make and also something that we would need to negotiate with our labor groups as the current holidays are part of the memoranda of understanding our days off mayor included in the compensation packages I mean we're basically just adding another day off and that's all stuff that's probably in the mousse we're just talking about right in some fashion yes time off people get would be in there right the city holidays as they exist today are costed to the labor packages this would be an additional holiday added on top of that that would not be costed to the current package that's before you today when you negotiated did you include that in there no this was not included in in the package that was negotiated this year it would be negotiated going forward as part of of as part of the holiday package so basically we're just asking taxpayers to not have the city open for another day and to pay two million dollars for the privilege mayor members of the council councilman Waring this was brought to you at the request of the council last October when indigenous peoples day occurred we were asked to look at this and bring it back as a proposal to the council and so that's what is before you today thank you thank you roll call yes Hodge Washington yes pastor of course yes Robinson Stark yes Waring no I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes seven one we next moved to item 48 which is a request to increase Head Start birth to five and child care partnership funding vice mayor move to approve item 48 second thank you Head Start has been a major priority for this Council look forward to a support supporting this item we do have one public comment from Leonard Clark thank you council members my name is Leonard Clark I was born right here in Phoenix but uh I hope that you'll pass this not since the days of Governor Napolitano when we had all day finally fully funded kindergarten you know I just hope the legislature will do like you're doing and I hope in the National Congress which they're trying to do something for daycare right now for the hard-pressed families who have to work and have no one to watch their children I congratulate you for at least trying to do something here in the fifth largest city in the United States of America I hope you will vote for this thank you thank you roll call yes Hajj Washington yes yes pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes there you go yes passes eight zero we next moved to item 49 authorization to extend contracts with central Arizona shelter services and the Salvation Army vice mayor move to approve item 49. second Leonard Clark as you oh as you know this has been a controversial issue I'm glad that you're taking these actions um It In fairness we have no rent control in the state of Arizona we have young people constantly worrying that their rent is going to be raised because A legislature has decided to stand up and there's nice landlords out there but the big landlords they've got their way at the legislature no rent control many of our young people are being thrown into the streets and since the days of Reagan with deregulation people who have mental health issues and Drug addictions who would like to get help but because of the lack of funding for those who put that first I guess they called it physical conservatism but it makes no sense in the long run because you lose money when more people more Americans get addicted this is what almost destroyed China in the early days was the Opium addictions but they took drastic measures to stop that so right now we have a severe problem going on and I don't think it's totally fair to blame Phoenix all of these surrounding areas need to do the same I'm not sure if something's going on in Avondale and the other cities but again I congratulate the the city council for your hopeful voting for this measure which will try to do something while trying to respect the human rights and dignity of our homeless brothers and sisters who have their belongings taken who are looked down upon but the truth is it could be any one of us that this could happen to so please let's get going on this let's do something the ninth circuit court judge I believe said of appeals as long as the municipality or the government entity can provide housing and get these folks off the streets that that's a way to do it I know some of my friends are concerned about that but I think it's a start we cannot have our brothers and sisters freezing to death dying of dehydration this is the 21st century and City of Phoenix will become a city of love and light and you're going to help do that today by passing this thank you so much thank you roll call or roll call yes called Washington yeah pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes that says eight zero we next move to item 50 with his authorization to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Maricopa County move to approve item 50. second and this is another investment related to shelter we the City of Phoenix is partnering with Maricopa County and Community Bridges and this is to partner on the funding costs Leonard Clark perfect for those of you who are watching online Leonard Clark is in support of investments in homelessness Roll Roll Call yes Dodge Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes okay yes classes eight zero we next move to item 52 authorization to amend contract with Maricopa County Community College District route to relief move item 52. second and noting that councilman Pastor will not be participating in this item we have a great partnership with our community college which has been helping us invest in people to make sure they can get high-wage jobs this program not only helps with tuition but also child care and transportation and has helped folks move into health care jobs semiconductor jobs and so much more any comments roll call yes Hodge Washington yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry Gallego yes passes 7-0 we next move to item 60 Parks and Recreation Department Park activation neighborhood grant program do we have a motion move to approve item 60. second we have a motion and a second Dana Burns please come and testify virtually hello hello we can hear you go ahead oh hello good afternoon everyone thank you for this opportunity I am in support of this Park's activation and yesterday our new d8 councilwoman thank you ladies for helping me with the extra support I needed for an event coming up this Sunday April 23rd I invite the whole city of Phoenix to come out and be a part of what we're doing to activate at the band Park on 32nd Street and Rose Road in South Phoenix this is something that we need in our community that allows learning opportunities respect appreciation for the culture of one another it promotes engagement and building of strong and diverse communities Miss Dana Burns in the whole South Side we are in support let's go City of Phoenix let's go thank you thank you there's a lot of Smiles in the room uh in response to that testimony this is an exciting one we have so many great ideas in our city and this will give our community an opportunity to move forward and we've had a lot of ideas in our budget process this year including on Cricket so folks in the community pay attention to this one roll call yes Hajj Washington yes pastor we are gonna go and go yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes eight zero thank you and and just a note that that program will be modeled after the successful neighborhood Grant application process that we are currently been doing on arts and culture and it's funded in partnership with our federal government we next move to item 62 utility transportation and golf vehicles and related accessories equipment parts and services vice mayor I move to approve item 62. second comments roll call yes Dodge Washington yes yes pastor yes Robinson Stark yes Waring no I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes seven one item 63 is first in McKinley Street Parcels lease and Redevelopment authorization to issue solicitation vice mayor thank you mayor I moved to approve item 63. second we have a motion in a second vice mayor Ansari thank you mayor um I just wanted to highlight how exciting this RFP is it's one of the first of its kind in our city which specifically is asking for a mixed-use high-rise development that includes stipulations asking for 10 affordable housing and 10 percent Workforce housing it's critical that we provide more affordable housing options for our teachers our retail and restaurant workers artists and Senior and seniors who actually live in live and work in the downtown area that's what I hear most from long time residents who continue to be pushed out of our downtown core due to a lack of living wages that they can use to compete with new residents who can afford the higher rents I want to emphasize for developers who might be looking at this RFP if you're considering applying a key portion of this project is looking for ground floor activation and we're looking to fill everyday needs for a truly walkable neighborhood so retail that's missing in our downtown downtown still needs more basic amenities like a hard hardware store a laundromat a nail salon a veterinarian's office just to give a few examples and we want to make sure that these needs can be met without getting in a car so that more of our downtown residents can opt out of owning one I also want to note that this project will be on both sides of First Street and provides an opportunity for Unique iconic architecture that could really Place make this specific intersection in our city I really really cannot wait to see the end result of this RFP thank you thank you and this shows that we are incorporating affordable housing in a variety of different votes we've done some traditional votes already today including investments in shelter but this is going to be mostly market rate and we'll have both affordable and Workforce units as the vice mayor mentioned the American Planning Association has called Roosevelt Row one of the top places in America we are hopeful that as we move forward with this request for proposals that it will align with the Roosevelt Row success and Community Values looking forward to supporting the issuance and seeing the creative ideas that come back roll call Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes there you go yes passes eight zero we next moved to item 66 which is text amendments to Phoenix city council code chapter 10A Phoenix Convention Center will the city clerk please read the title item 66 is for ordinance g7102 an ordinance amending chapter 10 a of the Phoenix city code pertaining to Convention Center and theaters this code was last updated in 2014 comments roll call oh we need a motion thank you councilwoman Pastor or vice mayor a move to approve item 66. second roll call yes Hodge Washington yes pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes eight zero we next moved to item 78 contract award for Tod planning grant for the Northwest extension Phase 2 Light Rail corridor vice mayor move to approve item 78. I'm sorry the city clerk has reminded me that I think we do need to go to 66 67 next I'm sorry this is another one that Mr Clark has pulled for comment uh vice mayor we have a motion on 67. move to approve item 67. second and item 67 is Homeland Security grant program funds Mr Clark thank you council members I know sorry to slow down the action a little bit my name is Leonard Clark on the homeland security uh these types of things you know I'm conflicted about it because of course we know that the great reform we need to have for law enforcement and the judicial system in this country although the judicial system seems to be saving our Republic right now so thank God for independent judges but um I'm concerned I I think that I would tilt towards supporting this because I am concerned with the growing civil Strife across the country with people who think that hate is going to get them somewhere militias and groups arming themselves I do worry that if some type of action is taken in the near future by some of our friends who believe that I guess parts of the Constitution should be terminated I do worry that the public safety of the citizens and the people who live in Phoenix Arizona uh what do we have to know to be reassured as a public that you will protect us how do we not know you will not have the forces and the technology to stop militias from blocking highways cutting off water to us everything it sounds like far-fetched but if you look at the Ukraine and what happened in the Crimea with Mr Putin so as much as I know that we need to to have continued great radical reform of law enforcement and I do not hate law enforcement because there are those who give their lives but there are others who get away with murder and it's not fair to the ones who sacrifice their lives to have their reputations sullied I still think that we need I would ask that you vote for this Homeland Security item because in the coming days we're seeing signs of civil Strife civil Conflict by some people who think that through acts of Terror they can they can do things this is how small groups of people do great very bad things and very good things all they would have to do is cut off the major roads the water plants we have a nuclear power plant how do we know how can you assure us that you won't so thank you please thank you [Music] comments roll call yes Hajj Washington yes pastor Robinson yes yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes eight zero back to item 78 contract award for Northwest extension Tod move to approve item 78. second comments roll call we have a speaker all right Jeremy Thacker good afternoon as an urbanist and Avid supporter of strong Town's principles I find myself conflicted on whether to support spending time and money to create a new Tod plan for the light rail extension clarify you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of reinvent Phoenix and the Uptown TRD policy plan and Josh and his team for that matter yet you may be hard-pressed to find bigger critic as it relates to the execution of the plan for example the Uptown Tod policy plan mentions the Uptown steering committee over 30 times The Five-Year action plan a one-page document mentions the Uptown steering committee over 10 times of all groups relied upon in the plan an action plan the Uptown steering committee takes the lead yet the Uptown steering committee was dissolved after a year for the last six years we've had our foot on the gas and nobody behind the wheel at a July 2015 meeting in these Chambers council member Pastor wisely added a friendly Amendment to the ordinance regarding the walkable Urban code that required ongoing annual review of variances use of puds and other metrics uh 2016 was the only instance of this report taking place so apparently we've got our foot on the gas no driver and no rear view mirrors either even if we did maybe we should pump the brakes while I believe the purpose policies plans and metrics were on target I must ask what gooder policies that aren't enforced what good is a plan that is not executed what good are metrics that are not measured or reviewed what good are objectives when no mechanism exists to bring them to fruition how can anyone trust a new plan when the existing plan have been used as a mechanism by Developers for increasing density in units while avoiding the other requirements and walkable communities how can residents of Uptown not be cynical of a new plan when the existing plans betrayed us I propose that the new plan will not be any different unless this leadership shows the fortitude to reassure residents by reinvesting and reinvigorating in the purpose of reinvent thank you thank you roll call cuardo Washington yes Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring no I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes seven one item 81 is to um related to a solid waste disposal facility fee well the city clerk read the title item 81 is for ordinance g7100 an ordinance amending chapter 27-53 of the Phoenix city code to increase the solid waste disposal fee to commercial customers disposing Solid Waste at City facilities and to eliminate the solid waste disposal facility permit fee do we have a motion move to approve item 81. second comments roll call yes Hodge Washington yes pastor yes Robinson yes yes Stark yes Waring no I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes 7-1 we next go to item 82 amend the city code to related to Street improvements will the city clerk please read the title thank you item 82 is for ordinance g7101 an ordinance amending Phoenix city code chapter 31-101b pertaining to the street Improvement assessment policy to align with Arizona revised Statute section 9-243 move to approve item 82. second we have a motion in a second any comments roll call yes Hutch Washington yes O'Brien yes pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes Waring I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes nine zero we next move to item 108 which is related to the prevailing wage ordinance and request of an eight-hour rule to research the legality of a prevailing wage ordinance this item came from a three-person memo from council members who were requesting to put it on today's agenda this right Denise okay I'm sorry the city clerk I thought was saying something to me the City attorney has advised that we take this in two votes one related to past action and one related to action moving forward we have been talking with the Attorney General's office who has agreed to provide us with legal support so that we can craft an ordinance that will help us fairly pay our construction workers which we want to do um we want to make sure that we move forward in a way that is legal and financially viable a clear majority of council members here want to make sure that we support our construction workers and I certainly unequivocally want to support the fight for fair wages to our construction workers in particular we owe our City's incredible growth and infrastructure improvements our construction workers work in hard conditions including our extreme summer heat we previously voted on an ordinance that was not brought to Council in a process that included City officials so our City attorney had not seen the language when we voted if we are going to do a ordinance that withstands legal challenges I think it's important to have a transparent process that includes stakeholders and legal review every member of the council agrees that Community engagement is important and we want a process that brings contractors unions and residents to the table to find a legal path forward the council members who asked to move it forward have emphasized the need to do it quickly and the city manager is linked is working with us to lay out a process so that it can move forward this year which is important we want to work on the language it is better to have one that can withstand lawsuits and that make sense and is consistent with both our city processes and codes as well as the laws of the State of Arizona so we want a robust process that is transparent but also my colleagues have pushed the need for speed and deadlines would anyone like to make councilwoman Stark Amir I'm happy to make a motion I I will say that I agree with you we need to look at Fair wages for people that work on on City projects but we need to do it correctly we need to make sure we're looking at the issues um what that ordinance may look like but also what kind of financial impacts this might have on our future right now I am very concerned because of our comp and class study and I want to make sure that our workers that are at the city get paid fairly and I don't want to see something happen to that but I'd be happy to make a motion first motion would be to rescind the decisions of the city council on March 22nd 2023 to pass the resolution titled a resolution of the city council of the City of Phoenix Arizona enacting the following prevailing wage ordinance for City projects to be codified as article x i v of chapter 43 of the city in Phoenix City code because of a number of substantial legal procedural deficiencies related to the resolutions Passage [Music] we have a motion and a second councilwoman Pastor I have a substitute motion go ahead my motion is to direct staff to process a resolution of the city council of the City of Phoenix Arizona enacting the following pervading wage ordinance for the city's projects to be codified as article 14 of chapter 43 of the Phoenix city code that was passed on March 22nd 2023. second we have a motion in a second in following with Council rules we will vote on The Substitute motion and then we will vote on the original motion if the substitute motion is unsuccessful regardless of the first motions we will then have a motion on the path forward and next steps related to the second part of the three-person memo additional councilman guardado thank you mayor Julie I I had just a couple of questions for you so what's been said here is that the the proposal or the ordinance that we put on the table is illegal um can you tell us what of that um of that memorandum or whatever you want to call it is illegal so mayor and Council so some of those issues we discussed in e-session and so I would rather not you know provide those in public what I can tell you is this second motion that you've made to ratify those actions should solve that issue if the council were to pass to proceed with that ordinance so we don't know if what we put forward on the 22nd is illegal or not because you don't have the authority to look through it correct because you haven't had the eight hour rule passed at least that's why you told me that last time you were in my office that you were not able can you explain them to us on your memo to the mayor where you're asking her not to sign this into um into referendum or in into an ordinance why was that of course so mayor and Council what I discussed with you is on its face there are some legal issues with the ordinance that was passed on March 22nd I would recommend that we discuss any specifics of those in an e-session the memo was regarding some process issues that we saw with passage of the ordinance so it's more the passage not the verbiage in the ordinance correct mayor and Council that's correct so with that there are two issues so there are legal issues both with the passage of how it was processed on March 22nd there are also legal issues with the content of the ordinance so there's two separate issues and then my my last question in regards of the 1487 that was filed let's say that this repeal goes through in the ornance dies what what happens what do we still have to wait for a decision from the from the AG so mayor and Council in my understanding is that we have received a 1487 complaint which for the public is a complaint from a legislator saying that passing this resolution is in violation of Arizona State statutes if this uh if the ordinance goes forward then we would go through the process of responding to the 1487 complaint if this ordinance is rescinded in in today's action then we would advise the AG's office that there is no longer an ordinance that would potentially be in violation so there would be a chance if this was not brought forward to to kill this there would have been an option for the AG to come in tell us what to correct corrected and then move forward a lot sooner is that correct so mayor and Council if under a 1487 complaint process which is governed by Arizona statutes the Attorney General would give us the complaint which I have not seen and then we would have a chance to respond the Attorney General would then opine on whether they felt the city was in violation of the 1487 the state statutes okay thank you thank you for that so with that being said I mean we have had plenty of conversations about this I've been on this console since 2019. my first day in office I have been talking about the need to improve wages in our city for our city workers I have been advocating for improved contracts and meetings with leadership and racquet file members of our labor groups and we just heard from them of how much I've never heard them talk so great about how proud they feel about their Union contracts like they have today so congratulations to all of you for our contracted workers I have walked the picky lines and spoken to workers out on strike as they fight for better pain and benefits we have seen airport workers right with the lines and lines of not being able to make a coffee we've seen workers where they don't have the benefit that they need and we've seen workers die at the airport as well because they don't have the benefits that they deserve and for the construction workers who work on our many large-scale City projects I have been meeting with you and advocating for fair pay and benefits through a pervading wage ordinance in 2021 the Phoenix City Council had an opportunity to pass an eight-hour rule to begin looking into a prevailing wage ordinance the majority of the council at the time voted against the idea I'm not exactly sure what's different today maybe we have more homelessness out on the streets and maybe we think it's a good idea now I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen with this but we've been trying this since 2021. I continued to look into the issue I spoke with developers I spoke with labor leaders I spoke with construction workers I spoke with attorneys and elected officials and I know there's been rounds and rounds of meetings about prevailing wage with different council members in different companies and people that are affected by this on March 22nd a bipartisan majority of the Phoenix City Council voted to pass the city's first ever parenting wage ordinance we made history but now that history has been repealed as people hide behind their concerns with the so-called process the same process has led us to where we are today with the country's worst housing affordability crisis in an astronomical rise in homelessness that anyone who drives on our city streets can see many of us on this console have campaigned on promises to support Working Families the folks being left behind the ones being squeezed or priced out of those or on fixed incomes and the people who build up our city while they struggle to put food on the tables people in our city are struggling every day to make ends meet and we have a responsibility to stand up for them and their families we need to do it today we not we cannot do it at the end of the year and we cannot go through another process this process started in 2020 and if you ask me I think it started way before that the prevailing wage ordinance is One path to improve the lives of Working Families in Phoenix I would hope that my colleagues agree that we should let the Attorney General decide how do we move forward faster I think that is our opportunity to really put a prevailing wage on the table I understand the concerns I understand the legalities let's let the attorney general make this decision and do it now now wait another six or seven months or let other people that don't agree with a pervading wage that are greedy enough to think that they don't want to touch their own Bottom Line This is not going to make anyone go poor this is only going to help us deal with the homeless crisis that we have in front of us and the housing crisis in front of us right now thank you mayor thank you [Applause] thank you councilwoman 1487 has been referred to as the mother of all preemption bills it takes away State shared revenue from communities if a single legislature and the Attorney General feel that the action is not appropriate here we have an opportunity where the Attorney General of Arizona is happy just to work with us and provide advice we don't need a threat of loss of State shared Revenue we have an attorney general who wants to find Solutions and has been working with other communities in a proactive way if we are going to have a good legal debate it's important to have the lawyers who will be defending this in court involved in the crafting we can find a way that is both legal and financially viable to invest in our construction workers those two ideas can coexist and we have an opportunity to do so the language we voted on previously was language I had not seen until we were voting on it and that is not a good way to do public policy it's the first time in my about a decade here where we just passed something straight written by a lobbyist well-meaning or not we have to work with our City attorney and do this in a transparent way we will learn more people have brought up a variety of concerns including folks who are in the labor Community who have ideas about how they might have had different language because they were not involved in the language we voted on at the last meeting we can get this done right this year and we can work with the attorney general without a threat of loss of State shared revenues any additional councilwoman pastor Julie do you happen to have the slide of uh demonstrating the timeline of how long we've been advocating for prevailing wage mayor and Council yes I do have a timeline regarding the prevailing wage ordinance history okay could do you want to verbally talk about it or do you want to put it up on the I don't want to do it I'd be happy to run through it okay if that's because I believe uh 6 20 22 I was part of uh this language 623 it was a police policy session could you please tell me what uh we were voting on that day right to Mayor and Council so the timeline for prevailing wage on June 23rd an eight-hour rule request for consideration to research a prevailing wage ordinance was taken to policy session and that item failed and that item item failed uh there's several uh colleagues of mine that were part of that when it was brought to 623 the same argument as we're hearing today uh was the same argument in 623 2022. um I got a lot of heat because I was a part of this I got a lot of heat because I slowed the process down in order to have a community engagement community outreach along with another colleague we did that process we went through the process then the vote came up 6 23 and it failed can you tell me the next time the the next agenda date was July 1st 2020 at a formal meeting there was a request for reconsideration of the item from the June 23rd policy session and that item failed that I am item failed I believe it wasn't heard or it failed we were going to take it off and then we decided to we were just going to keep it on and go forward once again it was up for reconsideration had a discussion with Community leaders colleagues we were prepared to go and it failed there's another time that we did it can you I want to say it was six 22 2021 correct um about a year later it came back to policy session uh for an eight-hour rule regarding construction jobs and compensation once again you guys can go back and see the history and look to voted against it try it again it failed oh it proved that that approved approved then we had uh e-session discussion only regarding that and it didn't move then we had another meeting on October 6 2021 consideration of a prevailing wage ordinance came to a formal meeting and failed and failed again and then was it March 22nd I can't remember it was my daughter's birthday or not but last week March let me see what day that wait a second okay it was March 22nd when we finally brought it back up and it passed and now you want to see it's getting repealed or rescinded however term you want to use then I received a confidential uh packet or a confidential packet as to why um reasons why the ordinance could not come about and one of the understandings is I believe it's rule 15 in the rules of council proceedings that I was told it was a a procedural purpose so I went back and I read about the eight hour rule and what it says it says um as an individual council member shall only request a staff project requiring over eight hours of Staff work by seeking approval of the full City Council goes on to say this includes requests such as research or Nets development listening sessions hearings or Community input meetings the requests shall be made in writing to the city manager identifying the project being requested Julie the item that we voted on on March 22nd 2023 we voted on an ordinance or however you want to title it I have the big long title here well to Mayor and Council it was put on the uh agenda as a resolution I'm sorry it was put on the agenda as a resolution okay but then we passed it as an ordinance we had this conversation this morning well it there was some confusion I believe because the title States it was a resolution of the city council enacting a prevailing wage ordinance okay well regardless of resolution ordinance we passed an item am I correct a prevailing wage item mayor and Council that's correct okay thank you so if you read rule 15 we didn't ask for a development of ordinance because we developed it so I just want to be clear on how this is all playing out um then if you read on you you go on to be and you read and it says however development of a new ordinance and if you're in a subcommittee will generally require an eight-hour request approval by the full well we didn't our city to develop an eight-hour rule we presented one and we voted on one and it passed and when as item passes the directive is then it gets implemented by staff but then now we have a procedural piece um and I appreciate all the things and everything that is happening then we'll get talking about finances and the finances and you know all these pieces about budget and how it's going to hurt the budget and hit the budget and comp in class and everything else what I understand from the city manager and the conversation that I've had with him is that this could be phased in and looked at in a phase process we just may need some time and and looking at it that's the conversation that uh I have heard and other other my other colleagues have heard am I wrong or right I'm correct okay so what happened yesterday is a 1487 came about and for the AG to look at this and give an opinion and uh your hearing argument as to why we have to do it and those council members weren't right and they didn't do it right and this is why we have to do what we have to do and we have to go through an eight-hour Rule and I want to get it through but it's gotten through and you're going to see right now in a vote who really believes in prevailing wage and who believes in the workers my bottom line is is that I renewed My Vow on Monday and what I said is I put people over politics and I will always stand with that value because it's been ingrained in me and I will put people over politics and families over politics because of that so I will be voting yes for that [Applause] just want to clarify it is not a repeal because it wasn't codified it went through in a very atypical fashion which was very rushed we saw the language most of us saw the language just a few minutes before the vote and we have already gotten legal letters that are concerned about the process in addition to the content so for folks who want this policy to be enacted you don't want procedural concerns you want just the debate on the content and this is vulnerable in two different areas because of the atypical process going forward it is quite likely this is a question that will be decided in one of two ways the Arizona Supreme Court will make a final decision or the voters of the State of Arizona will make a decision voting on a ballot initiative that clarifies two ballot initiatives which govern what we do in the state of Arizona it'd be very helpful to draft a policy with the Attorney General support because it is going to end up in the courts regardless of what happens we ready Council councilman vice mayor thank you mayor I just wanted to ask some questions of Jeff and Julie um could you walk us through Julie I guess the difference in the process between waiting for a 1487 from the AG what that would look like and if you could play out the two different scenarios let's say she looks at it and says it is legal then what could happen and if she says it's not legal then what could happen so mayor and Council if if we proceed with passing an ordinance and we have a 1487 challenging that ordinance so we we have so so there's a back and forth with the attorney general the Attorney General we explain you know our process why we would think it was was legal so we try to defend it vag will then opine they they can do three things they can say that it's it's fine we can move forward they don't see a violation they can say that there is a violation and we need to rectify it we usually have 30 days to do that or they can say that it's unclear now once if if they do say that there's a violation and we have 30 days to rectify it then we would decide whether to repeal it or whether we wanted to challenge it and if we challenged it it would go to a court and where we would have a normal procedure and argue that though best case scenario she comes out and says yes this is fine please proceed worst case scenario we still have 30 days to go back and basically be back where we are today correct we would have time to repeal the ordinance that we don't immediately lose any Revenue we have the opportunity to amend mayor and Council that's correct okay and then in regards to I know there are um you know that would obviously clarify the legal issues in regards to financial concerns that have been brought about in my conversations with you Jeff one of the areas there's a couple things obviously it's you know the stakeholder groups are stakeholders who are not part of the conversation who want to be and there's things like the bond that you know we have already passed and we've already gone through that process and maybe we don't want to touch going back would you see a feasible option for you to while we wait for an AG opinion or determine the legalities for you to hold some focus groups some stakeholder meetings develop a timeline and a phased approach and all of these different pieces could you potentially do that vice mayor mayor members of the council I think you can do both concurrently I think we could definitely set up some focus groups and move this thing forward I think there's a there's a path to get here you know I think we're all supportive of the concept I think it's just doing it the right way and I think we also do have to you know my job is to protect the city from a financial perspective I've got a fiduciary responsibility and I think we have to do things in a way that's not going to impact the budget this thing came out when the budget was already baked it was already cooked it wasn't you know and it wasn't known at the time we developed the budget and so I think you know we've got to reconcile that and so I think there's an opportunity for us to kind of look at this in a phased approach and maybe you roll things in in a slower fashion maybe you set thresholds on terms of dollar amount of various contracts and you look at the CIP you take the bond program is a different animal altogether and then we evaluate the other areas but we do that collectively with you with the council we do that with our labor Partners out there that are actually doing the work on behalf of the city as well as the contractors that are employing those individuals I think we have to have a holistic approach and we can do that and I think we could probably get something back to you by before the end of the year okay so do you see us being able to do that in both scenarios of you know the scenario in which we wait to see what the AG does with 1487 if we don't rescind the ordinance but then also if you know I will not be voting to risk in the ordinance but if that does take place we could I mean I guess why do we need to rescind can we not just move forward and you run the processes that you need to run to ensure that this is financially viable okay okay um councilwoman our vice mayor uh and sorry mayor members of the council I'm not an attorney so I don't want to get into the legality of things however just me being a rational person um looking at the ordinance as it is I've got questions about the ordinance in the applicability to certain things that I don't know if it was intended or if it was an oversight or an overreach and so for me signing an ordinance that may require a complete if I were in your shoes if I'm signing an ordinance that may require a complete overhaul with very little the same I don't know why I'd sign that I don't know why I'd adopt that I'd probably wait until I had something that was in a better in a better fashion that is achieving the goals of what I wanted to achieve especially if I've got counterparts saying that they're supportive in trying to move something forward but that that's just me that's my perspective okay I mean I think where I stand on this has been pretty clear it sounds to me like it would be viable for us to wait for a legal opinion and to have you look at a phased approach simultaneously either way I would like to see us move forward in a positive way on this I think it's far past time the City of Phoenix Pass a prevailing wage it's already a federal standard and the projects that the City of Phoenix you know our streets department other departments when they get funding from the federal government they are already required to pay a prevailing wage there's no reason why our city shouldn't be doing that so I personally am extremely committed to making this work no matter what no matter what happens but I just I hope that we can maybe consider you know we've already passed this policy can we amend it in a way to make it legally and financially viable but if not I'm sure there's a way that we can move forward in a positive manner and bring everybody to the table labor unions industry leaders and make this something that we pass thanks councilwoman pastor I'm sorry um I just need to correct something and Julie if you can help me um we're actually not rescinding it we're we're the title is repeal of the prevailing wage ordinance and request an eight-hour rule to research the legality of the prevailing wage ordinance um I just needed to put that it's it's a repeal of what was voted on uh last week and I made the mistake of saying rescind but it's a really a repeal um my question to you Jeff is uh you made the statement or actually Julie Jeff made the statement uh let's do the right thing and uh do it the right way there's a path forward to do it the right way without repealing it um we have a 1487 in the 1487 the AG could say here are the areas that are in conflict or that you need to look at [Music] um while that's going through we can all have a discussion like uh vice mayor Ansari said there could be a dialogue we can meet with Community leaders everybody that's all part of this but my question is do you recommend to repeal this uh mayor and Council that is is definitely a policy choice but um we are faced with the 1487 you can choose as a policy to see how the AG reacts at the very least I would suggest that you um halt the uh the ordinance going into effect because of the threat of a 1487 and because of the fiscal challenges that we have I don't think staff is ready to implement this ordinance within 30 days so I think that we would need to have time to evaluate the impact of it and look at you know potentially the wage study and and how this would have impacts so I understand that so what I heard is we need to study we need to look at the impact also phase in the impact so my question is you're saying we can't happen in 30 days so what's the timing that you would need mayor and Council from a legal standpoint I think we need about 30 days as far as from the staff standpoint of researching and evaluating the um the legal I'll let Jeff speak to that mayor members of council councilwoman Pastor I actually haven't had a chance to actually sit down and sketch that out just being blatantly honest the reality is if you really want to have full-on engagement it's going to take some time I mean we've got to engage people on the front end and the back end and during the process right so that that's where I was saying to you that from my perspective it's going to take us some time I mean I think we can get a couple of meetings in on the front end with you as well as with some of the folks that have a vested interest in it prior to you going on on recess and then in the summer continue to work on it you get back have something to possibly present to you then the goal would be to have something that you could present and adopt and also for me to kind of phase in the approaches because again that's going to take some creativity and that's kind of the place where I like to play I think we all know that and so I think I can have something for you by the end of the year and that that's I can't give you an exact date and I don't want to fall I don't want to give you false hope and so I'd rather just tell you I think I can realistically give something to you by the end of the year so I appreciate that because I don't want fault if I'm hearing from staff or legal that we need more time to be able to implement this stagger it in and look at the budget pieces implications of how then it gets phased in that's what I just heard that's how I'm interpreting it please correct me if I'm wrong I think you got my part correct councilwoman Pastor as far as the phasing end to look at the financial aspect I think the legal thing is that's Julie's going to have to answer that question and I think there are there are several pieces and components to that legal that legal side of that and mayor and Council it so our evaluation if if the ordinance that was passed stands then obviously what we can all the only thing we can do is review that and give you advice so I can't change the language now I could recommend changes to come back if I thought that there was some legal language in there that we could help fix so that's normally the process that we would go through when we get an ordinance for development so in this case I would be able to evaluate it and then I could recommend new language that you could bring back or I could just say here's the risks of your current language okay so what I'm hearing is that [Music] um we can work with this we have a 1487 I will come back we flip the what happened in the ordinance is we flipped it in the sense of uh there wasn't an eight hour of research we flipped it we came with an ordinance and now it's uh now you're doing it the opposite way of coming back to us to say here are the following areas that we have concerned with here are the following things that we will be in line or out of line and then we could then bring it back to a vote and vote for that versus repealing the whole thing mayor and Council that is certainly an option before you thank you I'm here councilwoman guardato um so what do we what do you need from us right now um do we need to make an a friendly amendment to councilman pastors motion to give you that directive what do we need to do uh mayor and Council I believe the motion that you have on the floor is to proceed with processing the ordinance you can you know if we did that I would go ahead and go through that that review legal review process and then I would just need direction it depends it's up to council whether you would want to bring that back for an evaluation to to review the language all right so uh councilwoman pestor so do I need to modify this motion or mayor and Council you can modify your motion if you want to give me direction to do a legal review and you know bring that evaluation back to council okay I would like to add that to my motion okay and thus the second agreement yes all right any additional comments I'm just going to say one more time we I support the effort for better pay but it was done the wrong way and we want to make the ordinance defensible in court all right we'll begin with online virtual comment from Mark cartenus Mark will be followed by in person Jason Henley can you hear me we can thank you thank you mayor and honorable council members uh for the record I'm Mark Cardenas address 2320 West Mitchell Drive I'm a member of the of Boilermakers Local 627 uh here to speak in favor of the previous ordinance that was passed and in opposition to the res of the repeal of the that's on the motion today um our Union is made up of 80 Native American membership and we're actually very proud to have majority of our current apprentices that are current that are going through our program to be majority women um we supported many of you um as you sought to be on Council uh because we knew that you would have our backs as our members are up north and around the state uh keeping our power plants running um keeping our minds going our cement plants going uh in particular I know uh councilman guardato did mention that uh you know a lot of our union members do died in fact we actually had a member pass away at a power plant last week due to the dangerous conditions that are there but they do it because it keeps food on the table for their families uh roof over their head and we do it in the hopes that our elected leaders in particular the City of Phoenix have their backs as they're working every day um and part of that one of the most important things to our Union is to have a prevailing wage language um that's in city code state law hopefully soon so that's why I'm here to speak in support of prevailing wage and hoping that um you all do the right thing today thank you thank you and Denise do we have anyone else online mayor we do not not online we've many folks in person so we will go to Jason next and then Josh Umar Jason Emily uh I urge Council to keep this in place and let the AG do her job um there's no no harm in that uh thank you councilwoman guerrado anasari and Pastor um I don't think I can say any more than you guys have said um to this to this point um this hurts nobody this this is is a ridiculous argument that we're having here today about paying people a livable wage and that's where the roots of prevailing wage have come from um and the fact is is that most people are probably making more than the prevailing wage it is a statement by the city saying that you know all these things that we've said this is this is an actual action that the city can take instead of just speaking right so all I hear is a bunch of fear about what may happen the legal ramifications blah blah blah and and that's all it is it sounds like fear tactics to me let's let the AG figure out what her business is and whether she decides she wants to further uh the issue of this in court and and we can also work out the details of this um like vice mayor on sorry sorry said earlier um we've said time and time again we want to pay our people five percent more than than the average well this is this is a great way to have the action in place to back up the words that we say instead of just uh you know livable wage which really means nothing to anybody because it hasn't it isn't it there's there's no metric that's developed by anybody when we say that with prevailing wage there is an action that um that goes along with that so thank you thank you Josh is next followed by Frank petroli all right hello thank you again to the mayor and council members welcome to the newer council members ammonia my name is Josh Umar I'm the executive director of the subcontractors Association here in Arizona and I'm here to support the repeal and the request for the eight hour tonight um I will not rehash all the times of all the previous testimony I've given about the ill effects of the ordinance um I I do just want to point to uh despite the disdain that's been expressed for it um some problems with the process I mean I've never been a part of a process where an ordinance is being passed I've never seen it done where a City attorney has not even had a chance to look at it city manager has not had a chance to look at it people are offering amendments and being asked to vote on something that they've never even seen before or been presented with only minutes before uh it seems like a disastrous way to make policy to me and now we're hearing despite the claims that we've all looked at this and we've been talking about it forever that there's still miles to go in terms of wage impacts and phasing in and what do we do and what do we not do this has not been thought through at all in my opinion so I'm here to support the repeal and I'm also kind of wondering uh what problem is being solved here I represent 200 plus subcontractors my members are almost to a company paying above prevailing wage right now they're investing millions in training programs and Partnerships with local community colleges they're working safely they're doing things the way we want it done and so what I would say is let's have a real stakeholder process that involves more than a small sliver of the workforce and more than a small sliver of the stakeholders involved and ask us to come and talk with you you know uh I we want to have we will bring especially for newer council members we have been asking for years as long as this process has been ongoing to have meetings to come in and give you perspective on this and we will bring as many as widest swath of Industry professionals as we can my Association is not trade specific we represent every trade and so we would ask you to repeal this and think this through with a better process thank you Frank is next followed by Luke Douglas afternoon Frank pacioli president of aspie local 2960. we are opposed to revoking this we want to keep the prevailing wage ordinance it's the right thing to do certainly I I know that this counts along with the city can walk and chew gum at the same time so certainly we need to figure out the legality of it certainly we need to figure out the implementation of it make sure it does not affect the city worker job City at well but I think we can do both at the same time by keeping this this is a statement more than anything it is a statement saying that prevailing wage is what we feel is the right thing to do let's just figure out a way to get it done through the complications that have occurred thank you thank you thank you Luke is next followed by Fred yamashida thank you mayor members of the council my name is Luke Douglas I live at Central and Baseline in the South Mountain Area I'm an attorney with the Torres Law Group and I'm here today to address some of the questions about the legality of the city's prevailing wage ordinance the workers who've advocated for this ordinance over the last several years only have one ask this afternoon time Arizona law gives cities a process to test the legality of ordinances with minimal cost and an expedited timeline without ever setting foot in a courtroom SB 1487 allows any state legislator to challenge the legality of any ordinance and request the Attorney General to investigate it that process began earlier this week when Senator Miranda filed a 1487 challenge alleging that the Phoenix prevailing wage ordinance violates Arizona revised statutes 34-321 as its opponents have been saying throughout this process the AG now has 30 days to investigate and rule on whether the city has the authority to enact prevailing wage so in terms of the ordinance itself when we compare the city's prevailing wage ordinance Arizona ARS 34321 and the Arizona Municipal minimum wage Act there is some room for attorneys to disagree on how to interpret these conflicting laws but at the end of the day we only need to wait a matter of a few weeks to have an answer the Attorney General will rule if she rules that it's illegal then we can repeal it and move on if the attorney general rules the ordinance is legal then we can focus on the merits of the question and not fear of legal repercussions we can talk about the economic impact of workers and the City and make our decision based on merits rather than fear thank you so much [Applause] Fred is next followed by Jason sangary thank you mayor and Council I'd like to welcome new council members Hodge Washington and Robinson congratulations so my name is Fred Yamashita and I'm the executive director of the Arizona AFL-CIO we represent 160 000 union members belonging to over 54 different unions in the state of Arizona but we have a key for workers all across the state and today again I am asking for the mayor and Council to really consider retaining the prevailing wage ordinance or resolution that was passed on March 22nd let the process play itself out with the attorney general it will not be a long time to wait we're talking about less than 30 days and I think as has been said several times in the last few minutes that there's plenty of time to do the right thing in regards to the legal process the uh the finances of the city and then ultimately the fate of the workers that would be affected by prevailing wage for the City of Phoenix it's the right thing to do and I'm just hoping that we go back to the invocation earlier this evening that wisdom would be upon this mayor and council tonight in their decision thank you [Applause] Jason is next followed by Devin good evening my name is Jason Sangster business manager Financial secretary Ironworkers Local 75 here in Arizona I am in favor of prevailing wage the last project we did down here for the Ironworkers Local 75 was in in 2012. and I was on that project I was on majority of your projects I went through the apprenticeship through a local 75 I was a majority of the projects Downtown Phoenix throughout the 20 years of my career here 21 years and um I probably built Phoenix I built it every day I went to work proudly every day the last time I went to work for Phoenix was in 2012. my members today have not touched the Phoenix project since then and it's mostly because of this prevailing wage prevents wage theft it ensures that good skilled workers are on the job site it makes sure that everybody that's there is doing their job this is why union workers are on prevailing wage job and is why prevailing wage is a union scale somebody here earlier talked about the impact evaluate the impact I could tell you right now we will be evaluating the impact investigating a collapse structure at the end of when you know when when it fails I mean we're going to be looking at like like New York is right now looking at a failed structure years from now because we chose the cheap route and we chose to not use skill qualified workers to do this job that's all I got to say about this thank you for your time [Applause] yes can you just explain a little bit more um deep what's the difference between a worker that receives a prevailing wage and a worker that doesn't um the difference between that is going to be that the workers that are on prevailing wage jobs are going to get a benefit package if they're a union worker and if it's going to be an open market worker typically they're paid out all on the check so they don't have a benefit package and that's going to be you know basically the the difference there and also the union workers have gone through a certified apprenticeship they are required to approve that on these prevailing wage jobs by certified uh certified payroll you know all the contractors have to do that so you know they're utilizing certified apprentices that are in a certified apprenticeship program with the state of Arizona so that's very important that is the training is approved through the State of Arizona for the craft that we do and do you know how many other states or cities have also passed the pervading wage is it just Arizona or does purvey any wage already exist in other jurisdictions oh it exists in many other jurisdictions we're kind of on the late freight of catching up to them got it thank you so much yep thank you our final speaker is Devin hi everyone my name is Devin arbuthnot I am a union iron worker out of local 75. I was fortunate enough that my brothers elected me as one of their Trustees for the union so I'm here to voice my support for keeping the prevailing wage or getting it active and opposing the repeal of this I'm going to read a little passage from ARS 23-364. it says right here a County city or town made by ordinance regulate minimum wage and benefits within its Geographic boundaries so I think that makes it pretty clear that this is legal I mean I heard some talk about a process but in my opinion it's kind of just a backhanded way to screw over us workers union and non-union it seems by councilwoman pastor's account that there has been a long process going to get this passed and now we're just coming up with last minute excuses to try and keep working people down and I think that all of us here need to make our voices very loud very clear that prevailing wage will show that the City of Phoenix is on the side of the working person and we'll be setting a trend hopefully for more cities to follow and support the Working Class People the cost of living is going up wages are stagnating we need some kind of protection against that that's kind of all I've got to say thank you for your time everybody [Applause] thank you councilwoman Hodge Washington I had a question for you Julie if you may can you hear me okay explain a little bit more as to the SEC 1487 the scope of what those reviews look like is it limited simply to the its um conformance with state law or is it is it a more comprehensive review so mayor and Council I actually haven't seen the 1487 so it will depend on how that is laid out and it also depends on the Attorney General if they want to look at the broader issues or just on its face whether it's a violation of the state statute I assume the state statute in question is 34 421 which is a state preemption of municipalities enacting any kind of wages in relation to construction work so the Attorney General might just look at that issue straight and then let the city respond I have a couple questions um is it fair to say that the city has already received the threat of litigation if this ordinance will go forward mayor and Council yes we have and if I want to make sure I wrote down correctly what your recommendation was to so um sorry councilman Laura Pastor regarding halting the ordinance um from going into effect um for a period of time so that an additional ordinance can be crafted or something of that effect mayor and Council yes of course um as as I have already said it certainly council's policy Direction but legally we would appreciate time to review it to try to look at the language to to try to give advice and also of course for staff to to prepare if this was going to go into effect thank you for those clarifications thank you 1487 was legislation originally passed by Andy Biggs when he was a member of our state legislature it was designed to respond to what he felt was overreaches by local government it was not designed to allow the Attorney General to offer free legal advice to cities this attorney general is just willing to talk to us and so we can do so without threat of loss of State shared revenues I've been vocal in my opposition to 1487 and will continue to do so I think it's important to be consistent if it is a bad tool we should be consistent and say it is always something that preempt cities and is not a good way to get things done for folks in the labor movement you will benefit more if we do something legally that lasts and follows good established procedures it is more important to have public policy that sticks than a quick victory that is easy to overturn councilwoman pastor Julie and uh city manager Barton you had stated that uh you needed more time I heard 30 days and then I heard a little bit more how much time or how many days do you need mayor and Council I think we both gave different answers depending on the review so for a legal review you know I think 30 days to look at the language and do some research and be able to make any suggestions we could probably get that done in that time and and on my side if you want a real process involving all aspects and all folks affected by this then I think we had would need a longer Runway and then also time for me to develop a way to implement it to where that you minimize the impact on the budget that we're in the process of adopting right now and try to build it into the budget as we start constructing the 24-25 budget Okay so 60 90 120. Council I just need I need time because I I'm asking because I'm going to revise my motion so I'm asking yeah from my perspective councilwoman Pastor I think I mentioned earlier I can't give you a definitive date all I can commit to is that I can probably go through a complete process on my end with all the things that I'm going to look at by the end of the by the end of the calendar year and have something presented to you that could be adopted and hopefully in effect if you adopt it by the end of the year I can't do any better than that right now just given again I have to look at scheduling and you guys go on break I've got to work over the summer we've got other processes I've got a bond program coming up I mean there are a variety of other things I understand that I just either that I'm going to put something in so um end of the year is what six months okay okay so I'm going to revise my motion I'm going to move to in halt enforcement of the ordinance for six months I don't know how many days that is but you guys and I direct staff to prepare a prevailing wage ordinance that incorporates enacting the following prevailing wage ordinance for the city projects to be codified as article 14 of chapter 43 of the Phoenix city code that was passed on March 22nd 2020 2023 enacting which which will include a phase-in implementation so we have a motion and a second okay mayor councilwoman O'Brien mayor does that she made a substitute motion so now is she completely amending her substitute motion I'm just I'm trying to understand the process I made a sub I'm adding after this discussion yes this is a this is my substitute motion and then councilwoman guardado but I think it would only we could to follow our rules you could you can't make a new substitute but you can amend correct if it's a friendly Amendment mayor and counsel so my understanding issues I think that seems like a sufficient friendly Amendment and councilman guardato was comfortable right with it I am still going to support the original motion but I think that is a legal friendly Amendment okay so we roll call and recognize everyone who wishes to explain their vote what are we we're voting on your motion ado mayor when display my vote so I think that we need to move forward with this I appreciate Jeff you working with us to try to make this work I think that we again we've been talking about this for some of us 2020 for other people a little bit longer than that so I think that we really need to move forward we have a crisis we have a housing crisis we have a crisis with people that are experiencing homelessness we see workers dying on the job every day and we just need to stop this I had a friend of mine she's seven months pregnant and she lost her husband in one of these construction sites as she is getting ready to have a baby so we definitely need to make these changes we definitely need a prevailing wage that's going to work for everyone and I'm hopeful that we will also talk to the AG and figure out something that's going to work for everyone that's involved but especially the workers that can continue to go into these construction sites and a lot of them do not know if they're going to go back home to their families and I will be voting yes Hodge Washington I'll also take a second to explain my vote um I believe that every worker should be compensated with Fair decent and comparable wages regardless of the employer Economic Development provided opportunities for those that need it most is very important to me however I cannot take off my legal hat it's part of the skill set that I believe in part is why I was elected I know what happens when we don't follow legal advice to be clear I understand my colleague's frustration and respect their desire to get something done in an expedient manner the timeline shows that this has been in the works for some time but I also acknowledge that the resolution that was currently before us has some deficiencies that should be remedied if our goal is to get something passed we shouldn't move forward with something that is flawed that we know is flawed I think the mayor acknowledged that we have an extraordinary opportunity right now to craft an ordinance that meets with that goal with the assistance of the Attorney General's office so I do believe that we should collectively I do believe that all of us collectively want to ensure that whatever is passed involves all of the stakeholders and follows the necessary procedural requirements moreover it doesn't instill trust in our process when the city manager or the City attorney and members of city council didn't previously see and have an opportunity to vet the ordinance so I am in favor of direction to the staff to craft a prevailing wage ordinance that follows the proper procedural steps including Outreach to effective stakeholders that considers the fiscal and practical impacts and takes a phase implementation because we do not want to negatively impact our hard work and City off City staff we also want to enact something that we know will be upheld to do otherwise would be simply be an empty promise to the workers within our city I support the motion especially because it gives us the opportunity to work with the Attorney General's office to craft something that is likely to pass legal challenges so I vote Yes O'Brien no pastor um let me explain my vote I made the motion so but I'm going to explain in this motion and into this dialogue and the reason why there was some amendments to it was because I heard staff say we need more time in order to implement this and look at this so I gave more time um directed staff it allows the AG to come into play because we're not uh repealing it so the AG can come into play and then I also heard about the phasing in and the and the budget and fiscal responsibility which we all have so this this motion has everything with a dialogue and discussion along with uh the community to have additional conversations so it provides everything that everyone has talked about and concerns and has said so I'm voting yes Robinson if I could explain my vote please um just in the last 24 hours or so I've received no less than 40 emails text messages and phone calls about this issue and I will tell you it has been a split most you know happen favor the other half against and a promise I made not too different from councilwoman pastor promise I made throughout the campaign is that I would always listen to the folks as they bought issues forward to the city council and then what I would do from there is take that information to the best of my ability based on the information that it was given to me make a decision what I'm concerned about not necessarily concerned but based on the information our city manager has provided and what the possible costs would be that is of concern to me and I think it would be irresponsible of me especially you know it just would be irresponsible of me not to consider that because we have significant financial issues that we have to consider and based on information provided by the city manager adopting this now and then following this procedure it would cost it would be a considerable cost and I think there would be a considerable unintended consequences attached to it for that reason I'm voting no Stark No wearing no I'm sorry yes Gallego no fails four to five we are back on the original motion roll call on the original motion no Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yeah Pastor no Robinson yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry no Gallego yes passes six three turn to vice mayor for a motion related to the eight hour rule can I ask a couple questions first please do uh these questions are for Jeff so building off of the conversation we just had and the direction that councilman Pastor just gave around directing staff to implement a pro to figure out a process of how to make prevailing wage work in the city of Phoenix I feel very strongly that I want to start this immediately bringing stakeholders to the table labor needs to be at the table of course industry also needs to be at the table can you tell us how quickly you can move this process and what it might look like yeah councilwoman and vice mayor and sorry mayor members of the council I need a few days to kind of process and sketch it out um again I think we can given that we've got assurances that that the Attorney General's office is willing to talk to us also to try and help find a safe space a safe space as it pertains to the state statutes so I would probably be able to get back to you with some sort of sketched out process in a week or a couple of weeks maybe two weeks and then again look at trying to identify folks that could participate in the various focus groups and then have some some deadlines for myself as well as the staff that's going to be working on it I got to see who's available again we've got a lot of staff that are busy doing other things right now and some of those things are also legally obligated we're at your end so we've got a lot of other things that we've got to get done so again I think I can have a process and a product and have a couple of meetings before you guys go away on break in in June or July and then have something for you when you come back and and you know to vote on before the end of the year I I can't give you a firm date without actually having to sketch it out and understand how much work is going to be involved you know because it's not one focus group it's not two focus groups it's several it's it's meeting with you guys on the front end meeting with the attorney general meeting with labor industry and then staff as well because we're also going to have some staffing needs you know our title 34 staff is going to need more people because you got to also ensure compliance we also have more people in procurement probably because again we're gonna have to bet contracts differently and and let them differently so there's a lot of there's a lot of planning that has to go into this it's it's not just something I can you know I wish I could give you a direct answer it's it's just it's a it's fine I mean you said end of the year during the last conversation which was to Halt the enforcement but in in theory had that passed we would have had something by the end of the year to look at can you give us assurance that we will have a policy by the end of the year my goal again my goal today and I will say this to everybody my goal is by the end of the year we will have something for you to evaluate for consideration okay and can you also give us assurance that the workers that are actually being impacted by the policy would also be at the table for these conversations of course okay I'm done with questions let's do the motion okay I motion to authorize the use of the eight hour rule pursuant to rule 15 of the rules of council proceedings to allow staff to research a prevailing wage or similar ordinance intended to provide livable wages to contract workers on City projects to include options for applicability with various types of City contracts as well as a phased implementation to ensure fiscal health and sustainability second we have a motion in a second councilwoman pet store may I ask the motion maker to put by December by Our Last December meeting or I'm okay with that whatever the what's the last formal in December I don't have it on my calendar so December 13th so to bring back a policy by December 13 2023. and the seconder is okay with that yep okay so the motion has a deadline so being responsive to councilman guardado Vice marantari and councilman pastors need for deadlines councilman guardato thank you Jeff I guess my other question to you is when we say labor when we say workers I think I would also be comfortable that we meet with the with the Union's labor attorneys as well as well as we're doing this can we get a commitment around that as well sure thank you thank you roll call on the vice mayor's motion cordado yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien no Pastore yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing no I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes seven two thank you that concludes item 108 we next move to the final portion of the city council meeting citizen comment I will turn to our City attorney to explain this portion 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 Arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments that prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes thank you thank you we'll begin with brother Stephen sidlowski followed by Timothy Coughlin beloved Phoenix City Council one of Mayor and citizens I'm late brother Stephen Gerard sidlowsky I would just like to open with everybody here there's about 110 of us in the council chambers this is from the Holy Bible Isaiah 44 24. God your Redeemer who shaped your life in your mother's womb says I am God I made all that is with no help from you I spread out the skies and laid out the Earth I'm delighted to let everybody know since the last city council meeting I was able to attend a wonderful Youth Life educational series if anybody would like to look at what we all likely looked like as persons in our mother's womb at 14 weeks I have a wonderful ultrasound video now on my phone which I've never had before it also includes a heartbeat also it was a delight to be at the Ahwatukee Easter Parade it was very well organized very well attended and I purposely went down the street about an hour before the parade where I presented the life peace Zone banner and handed out some wonderful Bible bookmarks to those in attendance it's a very wonderful family oriented event I'd never witnessed an Easter Parade in the country I travel all over the country so it's very special for your community to have an Easter Resurrection parade upcoming we have Mother's Day and Father's Day I'm going to eventually be uh delivering to all of you a proposed personhood resolution and new language where you can insert person and language as a preamble in your city Charter and I look forward to uh discussing those possibilities at a future Workshop possibly with your legal department city manager and mayor whoever you felt might be important who would like to receive that educational series finally uh the my final talk is I do continue to express continued concerns for what I witnessed in that crisis in the last city council meeting for potentially uh displaced citizens on the mobile home scenario at uh Grand Canyon University I purposely did the next day as I promised I would to go over and visit the university I did deliver a letter of concern to president Mueller and his executive assistant Amy and I hope that they will continue to respond positively but I do Express that there are some concerns out there with what's going on with all of that and I think the city mayor here might consider an emergency 90-day humanitarian crisis ordinance thank you all God bless you very much thank you Timothy is next followed by Leonard Clark good afternoon mayor Gallego members of the city council thank you for your attention I'd like to greet my new councilman Kevin Robinson thank you very much councilman Robinson for your time in accorduality in our prior conversation on the telephone I wish you a very fruitful tenure in your new position one quality of life issue which bothers me is all the gravel on the sidewalks I guess that all of the Phoenician dogs have decided to go into the garden and pour a lot of the gravel onto the sidewalk to me it's very irritating to have to walk over all this gravel it cuts your souls and goes into your shoes sometimes I think that the nickname of Arizona should be changed from the Grand Canyon State to the gravel State at least the gra would remain in the name I wonder whether perhaps small fences could be erected around all of the Yards which have the gravel in them fences high enough so that the dogs can't get their paws over them if that's not considered feasible perhaps either it could be mandated that the grave will be glued together or that the gravel be removed and leave the dirt or dry grass underneath or put down linoleum or rubber or some other such surface in these Gardens or perhaps you could install some smooth Stone there whatever you do I wish the gravel could be removed and there should be no more watering of the grass given our water shortage this is another problem in my neighborhood thank you very much for listening thank you Leonard is next followed by Beatrice Johnson hello city council members and I would like you some of you probably already know this but for some of our citizens and residents who are watching what took place today with the union and by the way you can thank our Union brothers and sisters just as my father was AFL part of a Carpenters Union AFL-CIO for 50 years you can thank them for your overtime uh the limitations on what employers will do to you you know remember the old days where children were they had to go to work when they're 8 10 11 or 12 and sadly some states are trying to make excuses by making it easier to bring back child labor not just for the family but these big companies because they're so desperate to get the workers but they won't want to pay us much but the last Governor the reason the cities are so afraid one in the state constitution they basically have these cities I mean this is the polities of Arizona and a permanent inferior position so they can always say I've listened to many legislators at the stating committee say we have the power over the cities because in the state constitution the last Governor stacked the Arizona state supreme court with more judges put on judges that he wanted study the process of how the judges are appointed but the one of the the original sins going on right now in our country and not just because of what's Happening you know with our situation is gerrymandering we have congressional districts like where I live in congressional district nine with a I was going to say gentlemen but uh an individual named Paul gosar and he won with almost 70 percent of the vote when people see that their vote doesn't count because the districts are so gerrymandered people lose hope and in a constitutional and yes to my conservative friends Democratic Republic uh when people lose hope then they give up on the notion of loving you know maybe the country they're in because why should they care if they don't have a voice people are not stupid we have the internet now it is outdated to think the public is not watching 24 7 now with the internet what goes on so to the people out there watching if you want to change this so workers can get paid fairly the federal government thanks to you know sorry the Democrats I'm an independent Progressive are doing something about that but here in Arizona you have to stop the gerrymandering uh and we have to be watching the state legislature you know we have our attention here but they're there right now they're the ones who have no rent control so your children can be put out in the street they're constantly trying to weaken environmental controls so anyways look at the appointment of Superior Court judges look at the gerrymandering again where I live the guy won was 70 no Democrat even dared to run against him but we need to make it a fair system Independence shouldn't have to get Triple the amount of votes if you're an independent like myself um this is not going to change until instead of people saying you know terminate the Constitution we can amend things let's get something done don't give up thank you Beatrice is next followed by Jeremy Thacker good evening my name is Beatrice X Johnson I am the baby sister of Dorothy Jean Dale Chambers who was killed on April 26 2022 along with her compassion her companion Joseph Gutierrez they were killed by Nebraska Pekovic who was speeding the data show he was doing 58 to 60 miles an hour in a 40-mile Zone he was under the influence he said he was not drinking but he blew a .031 and when he was asked why he had alcohol in his system he said he he took two doses of DayQuil earlier in the day he flocked several steps in the sobriety test the responding officer wrote in the police report that he showed signs of impairment two times a officer came later one hour and 15 minutes later and gave him an eye exam and allowed him to go home after killing two people speeding while under the influence our family has been through pure hell with the police department the Phoenix Police Department first of all my sister laid an immort for eight days and they never notified us detective Taryn Campbell never called our family detective Taryn Campbell has not called our family to this date even though he is the lead detective on this case he has never called us anytime this case was moved I had to go see the police department I have to go see a lieutenant he never ever moved this case unless I and our family pushed and so now it's a felony but the county refused to take it mostly in part because of the way the City of Phoenix wrote the report but it's for misdemeanor he had a Raymond on the seventh he did not show up for the arraignment so I ass the judge to put a bail or being worn out the city prosecutor was sitting right there she did not ask I turned around and asked her couldn't you have done that she says yes this gives our family no hope that we will be really receiving justice of any form from the city Prosecutor Office concerning this case he was arrested but he did not see the judge our family was again denied our victims rights because we were not able to go to the judge because he never saw the judge he had two deaths and a failure to appear in a second degree and he did not see the judge there's a lot going on with this and we will continue to come back until this person is held accountable and all those who are involved in this case are held accountable especially detective Taryn Campbell who never notified our family and as the lead detective has yet to speak to our family concerning this case thank you Jeremy is next followed by Eric Nielsen good afternoon again uh I'm going to submit to Citizen petitions to the council regarding I need to keep one of them it's stapled regarding developments in the Tod districts the first one is to create a policy that uh will not allow old entitlements that were put on properties prior to the transit or the light relevant being finished or started from disrupting the plans that we have for the light rail districts and the Todd districts as part of reinvent Phoenix which is happening now also to create a temporary zoning overlay that prevents certain elements that are objectively non-walkable from being part of any developments within the Tod District much like we did with the tod-1 when we needed a temporary plan to step in and prevent people from creating developments that we're going to disrupt the light rail I think the same needs to be done now for the holes that are in the walkable Urban code so I've outlined some of that in here the problem facing uptown at least in my neighborhood is that we are getting ready to be the most dense residential neighborhood in the city including downtown with everything that's being proposed and while we've completed our part with the density of the developments adding 5 000 units and in an area of a half mile which will double more than double our population the remaining elements are still outstanding so when done well density has much to offer when done poorly by clustering narrow ranges of income groups household types and economic activities constricts daily life and removes options in other words density without walkability is inhumane and that's exactly what we're facing in uptown so I'm asking that you do something about it plus the fundamentals that go along with it Timothy I'd love to have your sidewalks with gravel on them we're missing sidewalks on a minor collector Street where children on the children's path to school at Central High School no protected bike paths as I got on the train to come here today I live at Camp uh Campbell and Central right at the canal a pedestrian was struck and I believe killed by a vehicle as I was coming here that's where 5 000 kids go to school if we're going to say we're doing Transit oriented developments let's actually do it let's don't make it an excuse to create density and Nightmares that create revenue for the city but don't give us the lives that we were promised thank you Mr Nielsen is next followed by Elizabeth Venable um hello my name is Eric uh so many thoughts to Senate you guys but I guess as our email addresses are for um but today I want to tell you about a friend I made once named Lyndon Hubert I'm in college he was nice he's part of our little International group of friends at um Scottsdale Community College and like me he suffered from mental illness he was a good guy he's a good guy hey we all loved him he never heard a fly type of but uh he got evicted from the silver house because he smoked marijuana with me in a hotel room and he died at the sign of Broadway in a heat stroke in the middle of July I don't hold other people callable for his decision to walk 36 miles I know but when I do whole accountable is is it's to not change what's wrong with the system and that's all I have to say thank you for your time thank you Elizabeth Venable is next followed by Frank Urban sorry okay hello my name is Elizabeth Venable born and raised in Phoenix Arizona and the founder of fun for empowerment some of you many of you are familiar with our organization uh some of you are new and so I just wanted to say just up front that we recently had successful litigation against the City of Phoenix for violating the civil rights of people who are on the streets particularly by throwing away their personal property however um I'm pleased with how it's going so far but I can't talk anymore about that anyways um what I wanted to say though is that many of the shelter facilities that are in the city of Phoenix are not Americans with Disabilities Act compliant for example central Arizona shelter Services if you call them you can verify this if you have um epilepsy you cannot stay there if you have physical disabilities you cannot stay there if you have cognitive disabilities where and you cannot take care of yourself you cannot stay there if you have emotional behavioral disabilities wherein you um are disruptive you cannot stay there and cast is always is often an entry point into other forms of shelter so denying people access to the resources that are in Cass is problematic very problematic and then I would also say that as I've stated before shelter is a cost savings to the city if you put the most expensive people to take care of on the streets it's an elevation of costs and some of that is federal funds I know a lot of the budget doesn't necessarily come from the general fund but it's still City money that is being spent and could be spent if saved on other quality of life issues so um I wanted to say also I'm sorry to skip to another Point um I wanted to say also I think we need transparency in the police budget in the mou and citizen participation because um it represents such a huge portion of the general fund budget and um it doesn't seem very transparent to allocate such a huge portion of the budget much higher than the uh surrounding cities actually um as a percentage of the overall general fund and probably the entire budget but um definitely the general fund and so I think that transparency may give an insight into whether or not residents obviously a phoenix feel that it's well spent money but again back to it I know my time's going to run out um please look into Ada violation it's in City facility City funded facilities Federal funding facilities such as central Arizona shelter services in Yuma thank you thank you Frank is next followed by Kim Baker hi my name is Frank Urban I've been an Arizona native since 1993. um I'm also with fund for empowerment I would like to bring address to the housing short affordable housing shortage I know you guys are working on this but I just you know there's very little affordable housing for the people on the streets there's very little in the way of uh heat relief during the summer there's very little I mean and also I would like to bring up uh we we they could use some more public restrooms out there that are open 24 7 so that they can use them so that the business owners will stop complaining about them defecating or urinating on their property if they have the facilities there they will use them uh and um just like with Elizabeth uh casts will not allow people with mental disabilities physical disabilities anything like that to stay there and I honestly believe that you guys should take this money out of the general fund instead of the federal fund for this and that's it thank you Mr Baker is next followed by Mark Rodriguez excuse me I'm still having some challenges but um encouraged to be here with you tonight today I am I have a petition before the mayor and the council wanted to say hello to you all councilman I I think I gave it to you last year last week uh two weeks ago I'm sorry I did give it to you guys anyway um before before the there are city manager I'm asking that you investigate what happened to the open law complaint I died but the wrong date there but I'm asking November the 22nd 22nd uh date be looked into by the city managers office the the complaint uh was was given to a copy of it to given to you all I have not had an answer yet so as soon as you can give me a answer would be great uh I thought I thought um anyway have a good a good day all right thank you can somebody follow up with him thank you and and staff has received the petition we can confirm that Mark Rodriguez members of the Phoenix City Council it's good to hear from you again it's because I like to talk to you guys at the formal meeting because I was going to go over there because I have other things to do because I wanted to see you guys again because and I wanted to meet the new members but hey it is what it is Mayor at city councils and it's also the subject that all that stuff from the city of Phoenix said even though I'm a Levine resident for like 13 years and all that stuff and Keisha House Washington Kevin Robertson it's good to hear from you guys it's because I never met you guys but even though I met you before but hey you know it's because mayor Gallego I wish I could see you again and all that and yeah I'm sorry I hope you got your birthday card because I called your office and hopefully you got it received in in Laura pastor it's good to hear from you and I wanted to see you again but Betty wangado 2 and Jim Waring and all the other people and at the city council and Mary Gallego especially you and your son and all that stuff because I like talking to you all the time and even though it's difficult that because and when I'm autistic a man because it's because I'm just saying because you guys are awesome and welcome Keisha and Kevin and it's good to hear from you Mir it was good to hear from all of you at the city council is because Laura Pastor do Japanese language is because I hope you're listening to you because I hope I'll teach you how when I when I see you and yeah sorry I can't wait to see you again because the city needs me and all that stuff because I like painting Yazzie I like teeny Mary kg and Betty and Deborah Stark and Jim wearing and all the other people from the city councils because I am just autistic and even since you gave me the city certificate about a couple years ago when I was toward the Phoenix City Hall it's because mayor Gallego I know you're smiling is because I like you man as a friend as a phoenix resident and as a community piece person at Levine and also I am unhappy guy and I love seeing you all the time and Yasmin Ansari if you're hearing this I hope I'll see you soon and I hope I'll see you on Saturday and also I'm just happy about this about seeing you at The Saturdays event and also mayor Gallego and the members of the councils it is good to hear from you and it's good to hear from all of you and mayor Gallego and that's it for me have a wonderful day May the force be with you thank you Mark Ismail Ismail Morales is next followed by Carmen Terrell hello can you hear me we can hear you oh okay sorry um I'm here to present a citizen petition so bear with me uh pursuant to chapter 4 section 22 of the Phoenix City Charter I would like to present a citizen petition regarding certain motions limiting public comment during meetings at the city council whereas during the formal meeting of April 5th 2023 item 93 was placed on the agenda by three council members regarding a study for a potential moratorium on development of three mobile home parks in the city of Phoenix whereas a motion was made by councilmember Stark seconded by councilmember O'Brien so I have no public comment for item 93 as a similar item was heard at the previous formal meeting item 93 was a different item but serve a similar purpose whereas many residents of those affected mobile home parks were present at the meeting expected to be heard and speak on that item whereas on the boat of five to four the motion did pass and no public comment was held for that item whereas as public officials it is essential for citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to speak in that case given it was a different item citizens were denied of that right whereas the Phoenix City Council currently has that right to limit public comment according to council rules and procedures however it is up to Djokovic to implement rules on public comments in accordance with Arizona attorney general opinion number i-99-006 it states that while open meeting law grants members of the public the absolute right to attend public meetings the open meeting law neither requires nor prohibits participation by the public in the discussions and deliberations of a public body this in turn leaves it up for a discretion by each public body to decide how to handle public participation a hereby petition to the Phoenix City Council to revise Phoenix City close section 2-60 rule 9 of the decorum speaker and audience and add the following subdivision that the mayor or presiding officer and council members promotions that limit public comment to no public comment that includes for all items new and continued except for public hearings that are time certain that are open and closed by the mayor or presiding officer the Phoenix City Council should uphold their duty to listen to Citizens and take those comments into consideration when hearing an item please act upon this within the 15 days according to set Phoenix City Charter code I emailed this to all public to all the offices and to the city clerk thank you very much thank you Carmen is our next speaker we can okay good afternoon mayor and members of council my name is Carmen Terrell and I just want to say that um I'm confused on where to turn because when I hear about the shelter services that are happening around here one minute I'm told to go to the actual facility to address these concerns but then when I go to these places they're telling me to go to the council and the same holds true for the uh Valley Metro Transit company along with other Transit companies that are in the city of Phoenix so I'm confused and I really need some clarification and also I just want to say too that with this stuff that's going on here and a lot of people have commented today and um I just think that there needs to be changes done as well as um just some kind of action as well as acknowledgment because I feel like impoverished people and things that are needed for the empowerless community are not being done except for like a city sweep and it's just getting too tiresome you know a lot of people have various sources of income which you know a lot of places aren't allowing as well as the Section 8 issue I've talked about that many times before because I feel like vouchers are a waste their backlogged there's no um time and um portability and all that it's biased and everything there needs to be help now and um I just think that I need some clarification as well as some action so if there's any way that I can get some kind of back from you all that'll be greatly appreciated thank you thank you Carmen is our final registered speaker we are adjourned ADOT will remove your filled trash bags from the roadside after the cleanup is complete avoid over insertion and drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated Adopt A Highway program encourages recycling so collect the recyclables and take them with you make sure your group has enough water and that on-site first aid is available leave snakes alone people are bitten because they try to kill a snake or get a closer look at it keep hands and feet out of areas you cannot see don't pick up rocks or firewood be cautious and alert at all times if you or a group member is bitten wash the bite with soap and water immobilize the bitten area and keep it lower than the heart and get medical help remember you signed a permit to do this that permit has terms and conditions it is very important that you read and abide by them inform your ADOT Adopt A Highway contact at least five days prior to the cleanup ever foreign we need to make sure your dates don't conflict with other Highway uses so it's very important to know who your adopt-a-highway contact is and that they have your contact information we need to know as quickly as possible if a new coordinator is appointed or if you change any of your contact information make sure everyone in your group fills out a volunteer registration form before each cleanup the Arizona Department of Transportation wants this to be a rewarding and safe experience for all of you volunteers like you make this program successful by giving your time and energy to make a positive impact on the environment your efforts are appreciated very much so not only by ADOT but also by the citizens of Arizona and the visitors who will enjoy a cleaner State because of your hard work so spread the word Arizona keep it Grand [Music] [Music] hello my name is Elijah and I'm a water resource specialist here at the City of Phoenix businesses are part of what make Phoenix a great place to live and like our other residents they have their own role to play for water conservation however we understand the water conservation for businesses is different than our other residents if you're a business owner you know that your facility uses water in many more ways than