welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for the evening of July the 10th I will note for the record that council member Goforth is unable to attend the night and is excused and council member Summers is participating with us via Zoom the rest of our Council are present we will begin this meeting with an invocation offered by Reverend Mindy Tucker of the unity of Mesa Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and we're pleased tonight to have a couple of Scouts with us that are going to help us with the pledge we'll hear have Scouts Macy Lane kilty and Sam Mike come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance following the invocation so please stand for the prayer and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you Mr Giles Colleen our attention to the divine to whatever name we have from our faith tradition to what I call God knowing that there's only one presence and one power active in the universe and in our lives God the good omnipotence affirming in gratitude for the Divine wisdom that is flowing through the hearts and minds of our city council members in gratitude for the Caring Hearts and Minds that have come to speak on issues this evening knowing that the wisdom of the Divine is also flowing through them in gratitude for this Collective body representing the people of the city of Mesa holding their highest interests at heart knowing that the decisions that are made this evening and in every moment of the work that we all do for the city of Mesa are always holding these people in our minds and hearts in great gratitude for wisdom for courage for compassion for kindness for love and an ability to adhere to the law which has been put in place to protect us all we say thank you God and amen amen hmm please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Reverend Tucker and thank you Macy and Mike uh our next item on our agenda is the consent agenda we invite Mr Kevin Christopher to please come forward to read that agenda good evening mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval minutes of previous meetings is written item 3A act on liquor license application for room for Joy one day event August 19th 2550 South Ellsworth Road item 3B at the liquor license application for Amigos Market 1350 West University Drive item 3C active liquor license application for East Mesa Market 723 East Main Street item 3D act on liquorland supplication for Beria zolos 1005 East Main Street item 3E act on liquor license application for smoking hot smoke shop 350 West Baseline Road item 3F act on liquor license application for Main Street Harvest 121 West Main Street item three g at the liquor license application for fuel Bros 6806 East Brown Road item three age academic license applications for Allegiant Air 6250 South taxiway Circle item 4A approving contract for Central Mesa Interceptor sewer rehabilitation pre-construction services and construction manager at risk item 4B approving contract for fiber optic expansion phase two package number one downtown and West Inner Loops construction manager at risk guaranteed maximum price number two this project is funded by the 2018 Public Safety bonds item 4C approving contract for Central Mesa reuse pipeline construction manager at risk guaranteed maximum price number three item four D approving contract for the studios at Mesa city center phase two part of finding us from the American Rescue plan act item 4E approving ratification of emergency purchase for Baseline Road manhole and diversion structure Rehabilitation item 4f approving ratification of emergency purchase for water transmission main improvements phase one item 4G approving one-year term contract with four years of renewal options for polyethylene natural gas pipes and fittings for the materials and Supply Warehouse for the energy resources department item 4A is approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for Information Technology Solutions and services for various City departments as requested by the department of innovation and Technology item 5A approving resolution to purchase the Hibbert garage located at 20 North Hibbard item 5B approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Queen Creek Unified School District for reimbursement of the salary and benefits of a Mesa police officer to perform school resource officer duties item m5c approving resolution to vacate portions of public right-of-way and the 3600 block of East Thomas Road to accommodate future development of a single-family residential subdivision item 6A introduction of ordinance was only case 22-1332 for property located east of Power Road and North of Guadalupe Road site plan modification and amend conditions of approval on zoning case 88-32 to allow for a restaurant or the drive-through facility and a car wash item 6B introduction to ordinance for zoning case 23-92 for property located south of Warner Road West of Ellsworth Road site plan modification and demanding conditions of approval of zoning case 21-595 to allow for an accessory minor automobile repair facility item 6C introduction of ordinance Missouri case 23-235 the property located south of Warner Road on the east side of the 80th Street future alignment and the north side of the Sebring Avenue future alignment rezone the plant area development overlay inside plan review to allow for an industrial development item 7A approving ordinance for annexation case 23-215 the annexing public right-of-way in Maricopa County consisting of property located within the 3800 to 3 900 blocks of South Power Road subject to approval by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors item 7B approving ordinance for zoning case 22-1003 for property generally located west of Greenfield Road and North of McDowell Road rezone the planned area development overlay and site plan review to allow foreign Industrial Development item 7c approving ordinance with zoning case 22-1176 for property generally located east of Alma School Road and south of Southern Avenue rezone the new planned area development overlay Council use permanent site plan review to allow for multiple residents development item 7D approving ordinance for zoning case 22-1168 for property generally located east of Country Club Drive and south of Main Street rezone within the form-based code regulating plan item 8A approving subdivision plant DHI Longboat for property generally located north of McDowell Road West of record Road item 8B approving subdivision Platinum Estates at Pioneer Crossing for property located south of Thomas Road and East of Val Vista Drive and item 8C approving subdivision Platte University in 202 for property generally located west of the Red Mountain 202 Freeway on the north side of University Drive mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Wright Mr Mosley I know that we do have a request to speak on agenda item 5A so that will be removed from the consent agenda do we have any requests to speak on any other items on the concern no other request all right thank you uh we have a motion made by Mr Freeman seconded by Ms Pillsbury please vote Mr Summers how do you vote I vote I thank you all right the consent agenda passes unanimously with council member Goforth being absent next item on our agenda is agenda item 5A this is approving the purchase of the Hibbert garage located at 20 North Hibbert we do have one request to speak on this Mr Farnsworth you have three minutes mayor and Council first of all this this item proposal is unconstitutional your complete description of reasoning for this purchase is to benefit the business people in downtown Mesa which is discriminatory to the businesses and the rest of the city of Mesa that's an unconstitutional request actually this parking garage is a continuation of the blotched ASU project in 2016. when the voters in the city of Mesa turn down the proposal to raise the sales tax for the purchase of or to build the building for ASU and for Public Safety 81 000 citizens voted against that proposal that day yet the city council turned around and says oh they really didn't vote against the ASU building they just voted well then you turned it around and you said we'll just bring it back and we'll let seven people make the decision instead of the 150 000 people that voted in that election with the city of Mesa that's pretty egregious the original deal called for a 63.5 million dollar building for ASU that's a balloon two I understand over 100 million dollars the garage parking is nothing short of replacing the parking lot that had to be removed in order to build the ASU building I predicted during that debate that that's exactly the item that would this that the city would face in the days to come and here we are trying to replace the parking lot that we had that we removed in order to build the ASU building that the citizens of Mesa said no to moving 600 parking spaces from other parking areas to this proposed purchase is not necessary as the city of Mesa has currently enough parking for its city employees the city of Mesa is not a country club now you want to cater to the downtown businesses and give them a taxpayer subsidy for which only a very small fraction of the citizens will ever come to downtown Mesa and to enjoy the amenities that are down here well it's not the citizens of mesa's responsibility to make sure that there is ample parking in downtown for the businesses it's the local businesses themselves the 12 million dollar cost with the building and the renovation is simply unacceptable under these terms that's a cost that should be borne by the businesses in Mesa and downtown if they think that parking is the item that they need in order to be successful Sunbelt needs to rent the garage out it's been vacant it's their property let them see if they can make a profit with it let them run a good business and then you can determine whether or not down the road the city of Mesa could rent some of those parking spaces from them that would be more feasible than expensive your time is up and expending 12 million dollars of the taxpayer money thank you a couple items yes because I think he kind of left it out there and didn't want to speak to the actual uh situation that we just talked about this downstairs the city capped its contribution to the 63.5 million the cost might have been over 100 million dollars but that wasn't on the city's ticket that was a decision made by ASU and they paid the difference so no one should think that the city paid more than what it um actually committed to and the city otters gonna check on that so let's just make that very clear the parking lot that was ASU was built on weight but had 40 30 parking spaces that were actually utilized during the time that that building was there so this is not you know 40 parking spaces now 900 parking spaces this is an opportunity to provide for parking and I think we'll disagree we think that having more parking downtown is stimulating the businesses and and our own activities our art center our we're going to have a new venue the post opening up soon we're going to have the studios opening up we're creating a lot more demand downtown so we think this is a great opportunity opportunity for the city to support the Investments we've already made downtown thank you thank you and Mr Brady would you talk briefly about the source of the funds for the for this parking garage are there any bonds being issued no no debts being issued matter of fact we're using cash from the sale of property downtown that we've been able to accrue we'll receive two million dollars from the previous Brown and Brown Auto um AutoNation we were receiving back the two million dollars to the city initially purchased the property that allowed this parking garage to be built for to support a um car dealership downtown and so we've got back the two million dollars plus the sell of other property uh downtown and throughout the city is how we're paying for it all right thank you council is there any discussion on this item thank you Mr Freeman you know Mr Brady and I think you need to point out that we paid cash for the downtown ASU building we put about 23 million dollars towards the cash I think somewhere in that so we do have is it roughly about that amount well yeah go ahead Mike so so our debt our indebted in US is oh it's way less than yes yes thank you yes we've used proceeds from other cells and those cash contributions it's much less than that yes yeah and I think that's a benefit to the downtown area and it's going to affect the whole city of Mesa with having ASU and our the programming there for well and I'll just if you don't mind my saying this because it's true many of the big developments are already coming to downtown uh they've all said the reason they're chosen to build choosing to build downtown to bring residential is because ASU chose to come here first we heard that from The Grove we've heard that from the grid we've heard that from Eco Mesa so it that investment has already stimulated payback to the city several in several ways thank you thank you Council any additional discussion yes Ms Duff point out that um all the parking in downtown is public parking none of the businesses own any of the Lots any of the garages they're all public parking in which the city owns the city does sell permits and earn revenue from those parking spaces also it is very costly for us to use our centralized Downtown parking next to the businesses for city employees it is a better space for customers when you come to downtown to be able to use the spaces next to the businesses and right now there's a lot of complaints a lot of pressures but people saying they don't want to come to downtown because it's too difficult to find parking I had someone who's holding a meeting and having a handful of people where I'm going to park we have to really search by moving employees out which are um yes they do support the businesses but we want to make sure customers that are coming to our downtown have access so this is very typical for downtowns that use centralized parking you get out of surface loss and you do a vertical parking and centralize this is typical ways for urban areas so thank you all right thank you Miss Philly um I I think we've gone over all of this in all of our discussions about this already but one important point I think that needs to be made is that um through all the study of this we need more parking and to build a parking garage this size per space would have been I don't remember what the number but it was much higher than this so we we actually know we need this and it will absolutely benefit the city and all the people that want to come and the huge growth in the city and this is actually much much cheaper to already have a garage there that we just have to do some renovations to than if we were to build one from the ground up which we all see the need for it and so I think this is kind of an incredible thing that we have one in a kind of a perfect location too I'm kind of I hate walking so I would love it to be even a little bit closer to the downtown area or to the city area but it's it's good it's they're going to move the location of the doors so people don't have to walk around the corner and it will be safer to to walk that distance and for our employees and I think it just makes a lot of sense thank you any additional discussion the mayor yes Mr Summers uh to council member spilsbury's Point um to put a number on it I had Jim take a look at the the agreement and the replacement costs from both appraisals that were run recently back uh even back in 2013-14 the replacement cost for this garage would be somewhere between 12.7 and 12.8 million dollars so the purchase price of 8 million is actually good value uh ultimately for if we had to replace these spaces from scratch and that data's old so we know that that those replacement costs have likely gone up I think we think the replacement of a parking garage per space runs between 25 and 30 000 per space so if you take that times 900 you're well above 30 million dollars so it seems like I mean yeah nice thing is an existing parking garage that's depreciated obviously it wasn't built it was built for a car dealership so we're gonna have to add the security in the elevators but even then at 12 13 million dollars this is still less than half what we'd have to pay um otherwise yeah Mr Brady I would agree with you on that one and part of what was built into these models I think was the external economic obsolescence of of the garage it's uh since the business has moved out so um the replacement cost even at those minimums of the 13 14 12.8 to 12 point uh I'm sorry 12.7 12.8 million uh what we're paying for this garage is significantly less so in the future if we decide to step away from the parking business if you will and sell this uh into private hands uh we the city taxpayers will certainly see the money return to the to the coffers and then some thank you Mr Summers Council any additional discussion all right Mr Freeman has made a motion seconded by vice mayor Heredia please vote Mr Summers how do you vote I vote thank you thank you that motion passes unanimously with council member Goforth absent and excused next item on our agenda is item nine items from citizens present Ms Mosley I do have Mr farnsworth's card do you have any other cards he was the only one all right thank you Mr Farnsworth you have three minutes come on I think you still miss the point just because the citizens of Mesa have money in their account is not a reason to favor one business over another how about a tax refund I don't think mace has ever given one I checked Miss Mosley and none of you yet signed your little form that your name doesn't belong on that list so anyway I've asked her to put one in your box we'll try the old adage third time maybe a charm mirror your response at the end of each session of public comment Mr Farnsworth as you know we cannot respond to your time at this time to your comments you know how to get a hold of me but nobody has so apparently you're really not interested in responding at all since 2015 fentanyl overdosed deaths deaths have increased by five thousand percent projected to be a hundred thousand deaths in the U.S from fentanyl use this year alone federal agents just seized a ton of fentanyl in Arizona enough to kill 453 million people June the 5th the date of a previous council meeting 54 pounds of fentanyl pills and two and a half pounds of meth were discovered in traffic stop on I-17 cartel human trafficking is producing horror stories every day and just at the Arizona news on June the 19th was a story that said article cartels recruiting your children for human smuggling damage to private property by illegal entry of individuals under the influence of the cartels and everyday occurrence uniformers plowing under crops ready for Harvest because of human contamination cost protect the American citizen and Arizona citizens escalating every single day article 3 section 3 definition of treason giving Aid and comfort to the enemy Fourth Amendment rights rights of citizens to be secure in their persons those are being violated constantly because of the cartel movement and illegal drug trafficking taking place across Arizona your job as part of the government process is to protect those rights not expand them for the criminals any person on that list of February 23rd 2023 if guilty they are in violation of their oath of office and are guilty of said crimes then this concern is bigger than falsified deeds and is Amplified by the long-held claim blood on your hands I'm asking again for a full investigation the city of Mesa for all those whose names are on that list to take whatever action is necessary and to con to confirm to the citizens of Mesa that their rights are being protected and that they have the right to enjoyment of life liberty and happiness in this city thank you thank you that concludes the agenda for this meeting council is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Freeman and Ms Pillsbury all in favor please say aye aye aye thank you Mr Summers we are adjourned [Music] thank you [Music]