Good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us. Before we begin today's formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council, the city's assisted housing governing board will convene. I will call to order the assisted housing governing board and ask the clerk to call the role. Board member Deisio. Board member Garcia here. Board member Wardado here. Board member Maghard here. Board member O'Brien here. Board member Pastor here. Board member Stark here. Board member Wearing here. Vice Chair Ansari here. Chairwoman Ggo here. Item three is the meeting minutes. Board member Maghard, do you have a motion? My motion to approve the meeting minutes. Second. Any comments? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Nay. Item number four is resolution 217. Board member Maggard, do you have a motion? I motion to approve resolution 217. Second. Comments questions. Roll call. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Yes. Maghard, yes. O'Brien, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. GGO, yes. Passes 100. We will adjourn the board. Thank you so much to board member Maghard for joining us. We appreciate your continued help. We'll next move towards the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council. We'll begin with an invocation and I'll turn to police chaplain Robert Fazmire. You're welcomed and invited to join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful and blessed day. We thank you for the refreshing rain and the sustaining snow. We thank you for each person gathered in this place. We also thank you with gratitude upon our hearts for the protection over all the events of these past two weeks, for your protection of our protectors, our first responders, and the exceptional job which they did to protect this city and state. We thank you for the financial blessings that will be provided to be used in making this city a better place to live and to work. protect our leaders. Grant them wisdom. We ask that you grant them discernment and truth and the courageousness of integrity and character. Bless and guide the business and the decisions of this gathering. And we also ask that you bless the families of those represented in this room as we work together to serve you. For we pray this in your holy name. Amen. Please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Council member Deisio, will you lead us? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under Godis. Thank you to Chaplain Fezmire and Councilman Deisio. We'll now call to order the meeting. Will the clerk call the role? Councilman Deisio here. Council member Garcia here. Councilwoman Wardado here. Councilwoman O'Brien here. Councilwoman Pastor here. Councilwoman Stark here. Councilman Wearing here. Vice Mayor Ansari here. Mayor Ggo here. Mario Barahas is with us to provide interpretation. Mario, would you introduce yourself? Yes, mayor. Thank you. Hello. Hello, my name is Mario Barahas and I'll be serving as today's Spanish interpreter for our Spanish speakers. I'll now take a moment to introduce myself to our Spanish speaking audience. Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much. Will our 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 prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only. Ordinances numbered G7078, S49401 through 49441 and resolutions 22098 through 2210 0. Thank you. I'll turn to our city attorney to explain the role of public comment. 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 in 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. Person who violates these rules will lose the opportunity to continue to speak. Thank you. We'll move to agenda item one. Vice Mayor Boards and Commissions. Motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commissions nominations. Second. Any comments? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Passes unanimously. Thank you so much to our citizens who provide this important role in advice to the city of Phoenix. We will now swear them in. Please raise your right hand. I state your name. do solemnly swearly that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Arizona and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of according to the best of my ability. So help me God. Congratulations. You are officially sworn in. If you could go behind the council would like to personally congratulate you. Again, congratulations to our new commissioners. So many of us up here got our start on commissions volunteering with the city and it's incredibly important. The city council provides an advisory role to the state of Arizona on liquor license. We'll turn to that portion of our agenda. Vice Mayor motion to approve items 2 through 11, noting that item 11 was originally recommended for disapproval due to finance department recommendation for disapproval. However, since then it has been revised and is now recommended for approval. Second comments. Roll call. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Ward, yes. O'Brien, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing yes. I'm sorry. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 90. City clerk, are we ready for ordinances, resolutions, new business planning and zoning? Yes mayor. Vice Mayor. Motion to approve items 12 through 72 accept the following. Items 13, 14, 40, 45, 57, and 71. Noting that item 46 is as corrected. Item 70 is to be continued to March 22nd, 2023. Item 71 is as revised and excluding these items for virtual public comment. Items 71 and 72. And can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comment? Vice Mayor, there are no other items to exclude at this time. Thank you. Second. We have a motion and a second. Roll call. Deisio. Yes, Garcia. Yes, O'Brien. Yes, Pastor. Yes, Stark. Yes. Wearing. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 90. Item 13 is a payment ordinance item for the Maricopa County Community College District, noting that Councilwoman Pastor will not be participating. Do we have a motion? Move to approve. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any comments? Roll call. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. I'm sorry, yes. VGO, yes. Passes 80. Item 14 is also payment ordinance, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. Do we have a motion? Move to approve. Second. Comments. Roll call. Deisio, no. Garcia, yes. Yes. O'Brien, yes. Pastor, Stark, yes. Wearing, no. I'm sorry, yes. Diego, yes. Passes 72. Item 40 is a raise grant application. Vice Mayor, move to approve item 40. We have a motion and a second. I'll turn to the vice mayor for comments. Thank you. I'm very excited to support this grant application and work towards securing up to $5 million in federal uh in federal dollars to design a Lavine area conveyance channel action plan. The conveyance channel has been a hot topic in my district, especially this year with Lavine residents asking for better active transportation and recreation infrastructure, lighting, um, and better safety measures. We've been raising this issue with Deputy City Manager Mario Paneiagua and I just want to thank him for turning those concerns into action through this grant application which will help fund the planning process to make the community's requests a reality. I look forward to being very involved in this process and making sure that the community's input is taken into account so that we can deliver a top-of-the-line final product. This 5.5 mile corridor could be a major destination for the Southwest Valley and for living families. Thank you. Council member Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, council or vice mayor, I'm sorry, and myself has spent a lot of time in this part of our our districts. I'm really excited for this grant as well. Uh, the Lavine Channel has functioned to help prevent flooding and I agree that it could become a great amenity. So, looking forward for I'm sure community will be engaged, but looking forward to getting this grant and getting to work in this area. Thank you. Thank you. The city of Phoenix has been very successful with raise grants. We were awarded $25 million last year for the Rio Salado pedestrian and bicycle bridge which will help us invest in our riverfront corridor and reimagine the RI riverfront. This is a slightly different grant in that it is a planning grant. So allow us to talk with the Lavine community about top priorities and this type of investment and it would not preclude the city from applying for a larger scale discretionary raise grant this year to support land reuse in the area around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. So this is a $5 million grant and requires a match of the city of up to 1.25 million. In October, we sold property at 67th Avenue to A DOT so that they could construct SR30 and that was a $ 1.5 million sale. So I believe a condition or suggestion of that sale was the proceeds be used in district 7. So now we have this moving forward and we asked our street department to come up with many initiatives to improve pedestrian safety and encourage active transportation. So there may be a good opportunity to leverage resources here so that we can go even further and take the 67th Avenue property and turn it into millions more. Um very exciting investment Lavine has been developing around the canal including some of the retail that we've been working so hard to bring. Uh and movie theater very beloved as well. Any additional comments? Roll call. Deisio, Garcia, yes. Word, yes. O'Brien, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. I'm sorry, yes. FGO, yes. Passes 90. Item 45 is next. Sale of unclaimed and forfeited firearms contract. Do we have a motion? I move to approve item 45. Second. We have a motion and a second and maybe a brief explanation of what this is. Mayor, members of the council, executive assistant chief Derek Elmar is coming to the table and he will provide a very brief presentation regarding what this item entails. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members. Um, very briefly, uh, the, uh, firearm disposal, uh, and just to give you a brief history on what it is and and what we have to do. Um, if I can get the remote to work. Got to got to be smarter than remote. Got it. Thank you. Um disposal of uh firearms as required by us is uh by a state law means a disposal uh by transfer of the property uh to the actual owner uh sell that conversion of those firearms or destruction or by any other means. Uh the court has required the courts are required uh to order a forfeite on certain cases that involve felonies. Um and those those court orders come to us and require us to dispose of those firearms. Uh if the uh transfer of the sale of the firearm uh must be sold to a federal licensed firearm dealer which is Sierra Auctions which is who we have contracted with to dispose of some of our firearms. The only ones that we are talking about are the ones that are court ordered and those are the uh ones that are in question. Sierra Auctions will sell the firearms to to the public and then in return a percentage of those proceeds will be given back to the city of Phoenix general fund for the contract to Sierra Auctions. The contract language limits the sale and transfer of the firearms to only those items that we are court ordered uh to uh to forfeit for forfeite uh for the sale um by state law. So, the only ones that we're looking at are the ones that the court order is telling us we must uh sell uh by court order. Uh Sierra Sierra of Auctions is a federal firearms license and is required to follow the federal standards for resell including background checks on those items as well. Uh firearms that are prohibited by state or federal law, those will not be transferred to Sierra. those are automatically part of our destruction and those are the ones that are allowed to be destroyed by us. So those will not be a part of that. Uh as of right now uh all the firearms that we have uh currently uh in storage is over 42,000 uh firearms. Of those 30 a little over 3,200 are ready uh to be transferred. Of that the court ordered portion is just slightly over 1,400 uh items. So, the items that we're talking about here today are those 1400. Thank you, Chief. Any comments? We'll go to Councilman Wearing and then the vice mayor. Thanks, Chief. Um, the state sets firearm statutes, so we're basically just following state law and we really don't have a choice, right? Uh, Councilman uh Mayor and uh Councilman Wearing, you're you're correct. We don't have a choice. Those are court-ordered that uh telling us that we must uh sell these firearms. Vice Mayor, thank you. Um, I guess I would just like to start by saying today that my vote today is with the understanding that this item will pass and therefore the city will be in compliance with state law. I will be voting no personally because I am very firmly against the notion of reselling weapons that have been confiscated or forfeited and in some cases have resulted in violent crime in our communities. I don't think Phoenix should be forced into the business of selling weapons and in the past we have been able to melt them down and use them for public art like the large release the fear sculpture at Roosevelt and Central. But as we know and as you mentioned um chief that state law makes that impossible today. So I want to take this moment to call on state leadership to remove the statutes such as 1487 that prevent cities from making our own critical public safety decisions. There were 648 mass shootings recorded in the United States in 2022. There have been 67 so far in 2023, including one just a couple days ago that made national headlines. And in Phoenix last year, we had a record of gun violence in our city when we announced Operation Gun Crime Crackdown. Last summer, Phoenix put out a statement that we were seeing 45% more gun homicides at at the same point in 2021. So again, I am willing to work with whoever that I can, whether it's federal, state, local level, to provide more options for cities and towns to choose from. We're the ones closest to the communities that actually suffer from gun violence and have a duty to create a safer city. So I strongly believe selling them is a mistake and we are being forced to make that decision and hopefully soon, one day, we will have an actual choice in the matter. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to Councilwoman Pastor followed by Council Member Garcia. We'll go to Council Member Garcia. Did you also want Okay, we'll go to Council Member Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Um, similar. It doesn't feel right for us to be selling uh back these guns uh that were used in crimes. We're seeing uh violence epidemic across the country. Obviously in my community, South Phoenix, um with the tragedy that happened recently in Michigan State this week, um I too would like to call on state legs to take take this up and look into changing the gun sellback system. Um also, you know, whether it's the state forcing us or anyone else forcing us, um it's still up to us to make the best decision possible for us and our constituents. And so there is such a thing as um being forced to or or other uh jurisdictions not not being right. And so I too will be opposing this measure. Councilwoman P store, I have a question. Um and I don't know where that slide is. I don't have the slides in front of me to ask. Um we can bring it back up. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Um, okay. So, I understand that there's a state law and that courts are required to order a for forfeite and sale firearms. Um, when we transfer the when the the firearms are transferred to Sierra Auction, who are they sold to? They're normally sold at auction, but they are required to follow federal laws as they sell those guns back. So, who does the auctioneer or the auction house sell the guns to? I believe that is a public auction. Okay. So, it's a public auction. So, the public, anybody in the public can go and bid on uh uh confiscated firearms. Am I correct? So I believe that's anyone that qualifies to purchase a firearm can. Yes. Okay. And um I believe there's many incidences that we have in the past uh of government doing this and those guns and landing in uh others hands that then are used against us. And I just don't want to name those several incidents, but um I think there's some examples of that. And I understand that it's state law, but there is a point in time where as electives we have to say this is an appropriate law and in the sense we're being forced to do this. And that's my understanding because it's state law. That's a yes, right? Sorry, uh, Council Councilwoman Pastor, uh, mayor. Uh, yeah, I don't I just enforce the laws. I don't I don't make them ma'am. Okay. Thank you. And I did have a opportunity to talk with Representative Longden who has a bill, House Bill 2191, which would give the city the ability to make more decisions. Although in this case, these are really a court that has given us a directive. I think it's important as a body that makes ordinances to follow laws and follow court orders even when we do not disagree with them. when even when we do disagree with them, which in this case we want safer communities with less gun violence, but it's important to follow our courts. So, I will be voting yes. Roll call. Deisio, yes. Garcia, no. Mayor, can I explain my vote? Please do. Yes. I'm going to be voting no because I also agree that the city should not be in the business of selling guns into our community. And I just think that there has to be a different way of doing this and also calling on to the state to help us figure out how is it that we don't continue to do this and be obligated to make decisions that we know are not right, especially for certain parts for our community. Thank you, Mayor O'Brien. Yes. Pastor, no. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. I'ms sorry, no. Diego, yes. Passes 54. Next, we go to item 57, Mville Parkway Terrace Remodel. I'll turn to Councilwoman Gordado for a motion and comments. Thank you, mayor. I would like to make a motion um for item 57. Second. Thank you. And I just wanted to take a moment to thank Titus Matthew and his team and the housing department for working hard to bring this item forward. My team attended one of the meetings with residents of Marville Parkway Terrace and know how excited they are. They are to have an updated and modern units that provide additional community spaces and better accessibility. It is essential that we continue to provide our seniors with a safe and afford and affordable housing options and I am very excited to be able to support this item. Roll call. Deisio Garcia. Yes. Word. Yes. O'Brien. Yes. Pastor. Yes. Stark. Yes. Wearing. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. VGO. Yes. Passes 90. Now we move to the planning and zoning portion of our agenda. We'll begin with item 71, which is in council district 4, the northeast corner of 7th Avenue and Camelback Road. We will begin with a staff report and welcome our deputy city manager, Alan Stevenson, and our planning director, Josh Berk. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Item 71 is a request to reszone a 7.449 acre site in council district 4 and the uptown to area from CTOD1 to WO code T55 to allow multifamily residential. Bring the project the slideshow up here in a sec. The proposal calls for 249 dwelling units in a four-story building. Thank you so much, Yousef. The area here on the screen highlights the projects. It did highlight the project location just north of Camelback Road on the east side of 7th Avenue. Here's a snapshot of the site plan. As I mentioned, 249 dwelling units in a four-story building. These are the renderings of the project and the perspective is from 7th Avenue. The Hamburg Village Planning Committee recommend approval with an additional stipulation by a 12 to4 vote. The planning commission recommended approval per the VPC by an 8 to zero vote. Staff recommends approval per the February 13th memo from the planning and development director and adoption of the related ordinance. Mayor happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Pestor. Any questions? I would like um those that want to speak to speak and then I I have a a that I want to say. Thank you. Perfect. Then we will go ahead and open the hearing. Uh each side will have 10 minutes. Although you do not need to use all 10 minutes. Uh the applicant can reserve time if needed, but again does not need to. And um the appellant um can use all time for the first speaker or divvy it up as he or she sees fit uh for their 10 minutes. So we'll begin with the applicant. Brian, the floor is yours. Thank you, mayor, and members of the council. For your record, my my name is Brian Great House. My address is 1850 North Central Avenue. um here on behalf of Magnolia Property Company who is the proposed developer of the site. I want to start out by thanking Josh for his presentation. Showed some pretty pretty pictures up there. I'll try to skip through some of my pretty pictures. Uh but we did the same analysis as as planning staff did. And we found that this proposal is extremely extremely consistent with the reinvent Phoenix and the Uptown TOD policy plans. Uh so therefore we agree with all of staff's findings in the report. We appreciate staff's recommendation of approval, the villages recommendation of approval, and the planning commission's unanimous recommendation of approval. And we accept stipulations 1 through five uh including the revision to stipulation number 15 as provided in the memo that was distributed. This is a classic underutifi underutilized infill redevelopment opportunity on a 5acre site where there were rundown buildings that were obsolete operating with commercial businesses. Uh most of those buildings have been demolished today. They were demolished because I received a call from the president of the Medlock Historic Neighborhood Association uh telling me that there were criminal trespassers in there and there was some drug activity and things were being stolen stolen from the community. Uh I called my client who called the property owner and had those buildings torn down. I understand one of them would had caught on fire from some cooking of methamphetamines. Um, and so they've they've been demolished and this is a great redevelopment opportunity to clean up a site that's had some challenges over the years. If you look around the area, there's a large commercial shopping center across the street to the west. That's the Camelback Village Square. If you look in the to policy plan, there's four pages dedicated to a vision of that area being redeveloped with a mixeduse concept. Um, this is a residential development, but there's also two commercial buildings on the south side that front directly onto Camelback Road. Those are not being reszoned today. Those are going to remain C2 and they are commercial opportunities. So, this side is a multifamily development. The site to the east of us is compatible because they're also a multif family development. And then east of there is a hotel and several restaurants that Vintage Partners developed. As you saw from Josh's slide, it's a C-shaped building. There's two driveways to access the site. One is on the north, one is on the south. If you look at the TOD policy plan vision for the area, um the the similarities are uncanny. You look at that's an L-shaped building. We're proposing a C-shaped building. These are the elevations Josh showed a moment ago, and the total investment money being invested here is upwards of $70 million on this redevelopment site. We've done a significant amount of outreach on this project. It started with discussing the proposed development with city leadership back in the fall of 2021. We were asked to reach out to the Medlock Historic Neighborhood Association. We did that in January 2022 after many emails and phone calls. We had a meeting with their transportation committee chair at my office where we talked about some concerns that the neighborhood had. Uh then we submitted a pre-application to the city in March 2022 and we uh emailed potential traffic mitigation design options and we submitted or we we emailed our draft traffic study to the transportation committee chair so that they can begin evaluating the development. Thereafter we submitted the reasonzoning application. We were asked by medlock to meet with the streets transportation department. We did that. We talked about mitigation options. We talked about the city's uh ongoing capital improvement project on Coulter, the funding for that, how we can contribute to help that. And we learned a lot from those discussions with uh streets transportation department. Then we went back to Medlock and we had those same conversations of what we can do and what we can't do. and they asked us to continue evaluating particularly how many folks could turn left out of our development. And we did that through something called the gap analysis. Thereafter, we held a neighborhood meeting and we finally had a a final sitdown in November of last year to come to an agreement on a $25,000 mitigation fee that would be deposited into the streets transportation escrow account to be used towards future uh improvements. And I have a quick slide here on the traffic study conclusions because this is extremely important. Um, when you compare the previous 47,000 square ft of commercial buildings that were on the site to the proposed development, the proposed development is anticipated to generate 63% fewer weekday trips. So just by the fact of it being a less intense use of commercial use, it's going to generate less traffic. There's nothing on the site today, so it'll generate more traffic than exists today, but it has existing zoning in place in that C2. And if you look at the entire use list of C2, um this proposed development would generate 49% fewer weekday trips. So it's less traffic from this development than exists in the zoning today. Uh we also did a left turn gap analysis and the findings were rather surprising. Our our multif family development is anticipated to have 30 left turns out of it in the AM and the PM peak hour. And if you assess how many gaps there were in traffic during that peak hour, there were 87 gaps in the AM peak hour and that could accommodate 142 vehicles because some of those gaps were one vehicle, some were two, some were three vehicles. So there is an opportunity to turn left. In the PM, there were 61 gaps with the potential to accommodate 82 vehicles. So there is an opportunity to turn left. And the concern you're going to hear today is people who can't turn left and decide to turn right and go down Coulter Street, Georgia, and Oregon. We believe most of the people can turn left. We don't know how everyone operates with their human behavior when they're driving. So, some folks might think it makes more sense to drive a mile and a half around to get to the same point that might you might be able to go straight to on 7th Avenue, but the opportunity is there and all you have to do is wait about 20 seconds to turn left. We're also implementing a bike program in this development so residents can rent out bikes, bike down to the restaurants on Central Avenue. Hopefully the shopping center gets redeveloped across the street and the whole area just begins to um generate activity and investment dollars. Finally, we request city council's approval consistent with the policy plans in the area and the recommendations from staff, village, and um planning commission. Thank you. Thank you so much. We will now hear from Ken Waters. Thank you, mayor. Um, hello. I'm Ken Waters. I'm the uh appellent plaintiff on this. I uh this is why it's before the city council because I challenge this. Had long conversation with Josh, some conversation with Brian. Respect everybody. I was here two and a half months ago. Is this endowed enough? I was here two and a half months ago at December 7th um where I also appealed uh the omniet. They were going to switch back to single use. They said, "You got to be kidding me." Um so they went for an extension. We found a point of leverage. They said, "Okay, let's let's fight this." And thank God Laura Pastor stepped up and saved the day. She said, "No, we're going to stipulate you you keep the um mixed use component." they were going to quietly, stealthily uh just switch to single use. And when I found out that they were going to switch back to single use, I I just like what's going on on on the Central Avenue on our Main Street USA corridor. So, I I I just took a drive down Central Avenue and we're just inventorying the drip by drip by drip singleuse apartment projects on our main street, USA, on our central avenue. It deserves mixed use. So, I started going down this rabbit hole of TOD and light rail and watching all these urban planner on YouTube. I was familiar with it to begin with because I was there at the very first when Omnia ca came into being in 2015 and they came out of the gate with a mixeduse project. Well done. And then the muse down at McDow, they too did a mixeduse well done city of Phoenix. And then uh things started to go ary. Let me back up a little bit because if I was here December 7th, I made the charge, the city of Phoenix is ruining the light rail to I overstated the case because I only inventoried Midtown and Uptown and now it's going out Camel back and really from Central to Osborne. It was just like nine singleuse non-mixeduse projects and just just ridiculous. And now it's going out Camelback and from Camelback to 7th Avenue is a half mile. So really my comments are in a twomile range. One and a half mile from Osborne to Central and from Central over to 7th Avenue. This project is on the TOD. It's across the street from a light rail station. And to we got to start thinking that TOD is really the walkable urban lifestyle goal to get people out of the cars to not, you know, drive around and to get on the rail or not even get on the rail, just start walking around the the dwellers and the riders. We're building a system in this two- mile stretch. Let me keep it at that, okay? Because downtown is dynamic and things are going on um elsewhere. But I mean the legacy that's happening for the Ed Pastor put the system in he funded this from Congress. Thank God the great our great congressman and Laura's father. Um bless him. And I wasn't for it at first but now we got it and it's you know we got to make the be best of it. And what I'm seeing in this section where the city is signing off and these projects are getting staff recommendations. how they get staff recommendation is beyond me because what we're creating is a system where where's there to go? There's no place to go here. Uh I went to the section where down by uh FedEx office and shipping supply right down there south of um Indian school, the FedEx building and then there's the Bose Donuts. There's three projects in there. Central Midtown Park on Central and Aura um Central. Three projects. Those are three missed opportunities. I walked in. I I was the only one on the sidewalks. No one was coming out of the apartments. If those were mixed use on our Central Avenue retail and commercial corridor, um they may have been vacant for a couple years. So be it. Tapestry on Central took a while to fill up, but they're now filled up. These buildings are going to be there a hundred years. We want a dynamic vibrant Central Avenue, um our Main Street, USA corridors. And by doing these projects drip by drip of just single single use apartments, we're killing our Main Street USA corridor. Um, and now we're going to start doing it with with um central no from Camelback corridor as well. That's a 1.5 mile corridor from Central to 19th. 1.5 miles. It's also 1.5 miles from Central down to Osborne. Now, if we can't make excuse me, if we can't make mixed use work at the northeast corner of 7th Avenue in Camelback, the northeast corner of 7th Avenue and Camelback across the street from a light rail station. And if you we can't make it the logic work to put a mixeduse there, where else are you going to do it on on the camel back corridor? because this is the best case to make it mixed use. Um, and then down the corner, my god, it's southwest corner of Central and Calac, the very heart and soul of Uptown. Southwest corner of Central and Calach. They too were going to promise about 20,000 square feet. I heard reportedly allegedly mixed use that was going to be the prize plum of Midtown and Uptown as far as projects goes. They too have now scaled back to we're not going to do mixed use. It's just going to be apartments. Excuse me. At the southwest corner of Central and Camelback. My god. Omnet tried it, but thank God uh Laura Pastor stepped up and she saved the day and stipulated. No, you're going to stay with the mixed use. If the logic works there, it certainly works at southwest corner of Central and Camelback. And it works at the corner of northeast corner of 7th Avenue and um 7th Avenue and Camelback. You've got a win streak going right now, Councilwoman Pastor of one right now and saving the day on Omniet. I'd like to see you save the day on this project. I heard you've been working on it for four years, but it's not contributing to the TOD. I mean, I what you were doing for four years bringing this along, I I I don't know. It's not worthy of being on the TOD. should be like, you know, a quarter mile off the to. Um, we need all hands on deck on the uh tod. I listened to a video this morning where Las Vegas was bragging about what's going on in Phoenix and they said there's been $7 billion worth of developments along the TOD. This is a big time subject here. I don't know where those figures come from, but if there's been $7 billion worth of development along the to 7 billion with a B. This is a big big deal for the city of of Phoenix. Um, right now developments are handled by the council, the district council person, because the elephant in the room is don't mess in my district and I won't mess in yours. So, Laura Pastor is our god and goddess on this uh item here. Um, it just happens to be. So I'm I'm pleading with you continue your win streak what you did with OmniNet and say hey let's maybe rethink this and add some mixed use because then down the road the betting store in the corner something will happen there that will be turned into hopefully mixed use as well and then get all hands on deck and see if you can do a soft core um persuasion job on the southwest corner of central and Celback That should not be going apartments only. That should be a prize gem. And then just keep your wind streaks going, Councilwoman Pastor, of mixed use after mixed use because these singleuse housing projects on our on our Main Street USA corridors have got to stop. And I and I put Camelback um right up there with right behind Central Avenue. I would say Central Avenue is is Phoenix's primary Main Street, USA corridor. And Camelback goes down through Uptown, through Builtmore, through Esplanade, through the Camelback area, through Arcia, out to the Scottsdale Steel um fashion square. So I I would say Camelback is one of, you know, right behind Central Avenue as far as being another prime commercial retail corridor. Um it's a tod I've just I just woke up. I just had an epiphany like we are ruining this TOD. Um I mean I should have been in the fight a long time ago but the cost of getting involved in all these projects and basically getting the crap beat out of you at the village planning committees and the planning commissions. Most people don't appeal to the city council. They just leave it at that. I guess I got a high threshold for pain. Um but we really need to wake up and take this to seriously because let me circle back. TOD is all about building the walkable urban lifestyle and you either do it on a rich basis or it's not going to work if you do it sporadically a mixeduse project here a mixeduse project there um you know it's going to be unsuccessful uh we've had so many missed opportunities um with all these single use I mean between Indian school and Camelback it's basic it's almost been ruined with all these single-use projects. I mean, there's like eight projects between Indian School and Camelback that are just, you know, not contributing to the TOD. They're not contributing to Central Avenue, not contributing to our Main Street, USA. So, that's why I brought this project up. I don't really have any micro criticisms of the project itself, but these single-use projects are killing us and I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. We will now go to comments from others who have signed up to speak. We'll begin with Ellen Bilbury, followed by Jason Morris. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak on this issue. My name is Ellen Bilbury and I live at 215 West Georgia within the Medlock Place neighborhood, the beautiful Medlock Place neighborhood. By the way, if you've been down to uh in that area to some of our restaurants, I'm here to support the Magnolia Project, which has proposed an apartment project along 7th Avenue. Two years ago, we learned criminals were living in the buildings behind that old shopping center and um and burglarizing within Medlock. And we got pictures of the things that they stole in the in that shopping center. They were taking out all the copper as well. So, with the help from the police, the city, and and the owners, and now I just found out, Brian, um we were able to um get that all demolished, and and I begged for demo permits a lot, and the city really helped. Um, you might know that we got one of the biggest fires in central Phoenix happened in that shopping center because of the people living in those back buildings. And so it almost ignited the big Broadstone project which is was halfbuilt along Camelback. And so thank God the police the fire were able to protect that one from burning down as well. So last fall the Magnolia group was interested in buying the land and after a group meeting we saw that it was only four stories instead of six as allowed and in that to a high density to that is not like our historic district which is very low at central. So, and that the zoning uh cap is 56 feet, but they only wanted for um uh stories on that. And they wanted to build front stoops, setbacks, and trees. Am I done already? Oh my gosh. Oh, sorry. We're just asking for traffic mitigation. Just let you know. That's what we're here for. We need help. Thank you. Thank you. Jason is next, followed by Lucy. Uh, mayor, members of the council, can you hear me? Okay. Yes, we can. Thank you. Uh, for the record, this is George Pascal at Whitney Morris, uh, filling in for Jason Morris, who's a little under the weather today. Uh, thank you for the time. Uh, we represent the immediately adjacent property owner to the east, Alliance Residential, uh, who's currently under development on their site there. um had some initial concerns with the project layout uh in particular the the north property line and how it interfaced with a a drive access easement uh on our property. Uh reached out to Magnolia. They've been incredibly responsive um and great to work with and the updated stipulation 15 in your updated staff report uh reflects the efforts uh to date. And with with those changes, we are now fully supportive uh of this application. Um and really look forward to uh it coming to fruition. I I think that the changes between Alliance's project and this project um you know over the next two years, this corner when these both come to fruition is really going to be uh very positive. Uh and we worked with Ellen back in the day and she's she's correct. Um you know, it's really getting the seediness out of here and really uh going to be a great corner again. uh that can really be an asset to the neighborhood uh and and the great adjacent historic neighborhood. So, thank you for the time. We are uh fully supportive of this project Lucy and Janice will be next. Mayor, Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Lucy Willis. I'm a resident of Medlock Place Historic. My address is 547 West Oregon Avenue. I live on the corner of 7th Avenue in Oregon. We've heard Mr. Great House tell us that this project adheres to the guidelines of the urban walkability in the tote attempt to shoehorn a multi-story apartment complex into a small parcel with limited egress and ingress all on 7th Avenue and no mixed use. He is a paid spokesman for the developer who if they achieve their reasonzoning will either build or sell to someone who will build it. Mr. The great house gets his fee. Developer makes money and they both go on their way. Done their job. You as council members have asked the citizens of Phoenix to elect you to make the decisions about the future of Phoenix. Another job. And if something goes wrong with those decisions, oh well, just a job. Done it and moving on. In this instance, please don't make the small historic neighborhood Madlock Place the collateral damage to advance some dystopian dream to support the light rail and urban walkability, but in reality making an already extremely dangerous intersection worse. um creating already overused 7th Avenue into an untenable traffic jam situation and funneling more cutthrough traffic into the neighborhood. But okay, wait. The developers Alliance and the at the Broadstone and now Magnolia have pledged to contribute $25,000 to explore traffic mitigation, but never a definite comprehensive plan, just promises of studies. The board of three of Madlock Place quickly signed on to promote the project without informing neighbors. Pay to play. I have a petition I'd like to give to Laura Pastor with 70 signatures from the citizens of and neighbors in Medlock Place that are opposed to this. Thank you. Janice Paul, I believe, will be our final speaker, but we'll confirm with staff. Hello, my name is Janice Paul. I live at 539 West Oregon Avenue and I am opposed to the zoning change. I would like to say off the bat that our neighborhood association did not inform many of the neighbors regarding this big project and we had just found out about it when the sign was posted. Um, our major issue is traffic. I've lived here for 18 plus years and I know through daily experience that turning left onto 7th Avenue is very dangerous and it certainly takes longer than 20 seconds the majority of the time. We fear that um those people in the Magnolia apartments will become frustrated with the traffic and end up turning right and making another right to cut through our neighborhood. Um, I know the traffic studies that um, the lawyer was speaking of, but I'd like to also say that data can be manipulated. We have no sidewalks in our neighborhood basically. Um, and that means that anyone out walking, including the numerous children in our neighborhood, are walking in the street. If cars are parked against the curb, then people are forced further into the streets. Okay, there's no traffic mitigation plan for our neighborhood with the exception of Coulter uh with their two roundabouts for the bike path. Um and cut through traffic will be a very big danger to the children and the people out walking. This also includes the high school students at Valley Lutheran High School. Uh those walking to and from school. Um, just probably two weeks ago, a child was hit in a crosswalk of 7th Avenue and Coulter on her way to school. Uh, the added increase in traffic in this area is just too dangerous. And I ask you to consider when making this decision that what you decide will have an impact on the Medlock residents for years. Thank you for that testimony and just confirming with our team we have gotten all the speakers. All right, we will close the public hearing. I have a question for our planning director. There is legislation, Senate Bill 1117 at the state legislature and while Mr. Waters was testifying about how cities need to be more active to create transit oriented development, etc., it was just making me think what would be the impact on our process if that bill were to pass. Mayor, members of the council, as an example, one potential impact if you focus on this on this project as an example, as the bill is currently worded, a project like this would would be allowed by rights without an opportunity to address things like traffic design and the enhanced streetscape in collaboration with the community. Thank you so much. I just think it's important to understand Councilwoman Pestor has been working a long time to address issues including traffic streetscape impacts on neighborhoods and mayor um oh Councilwoman Stark. Yes, I've had an opportunity to review Senate Bill 1117 and I'm going to commend uh Councilwoman Pastor for the work she did with the neighborhood and she was allowed to do that work with the neighborhood. If uh Senate Bill 1117 went through um because they already have commercial zoning, my understanding is they could build a multifamily with a limit limit of the height at 85 ft. It would have to be 85 ft or greater within two miles of a light rail stop. Am I correct about that, Josh? Mayor, Councilwoman Stark, that's my understanding of the bill as well. Yes. So, that kind of takes us out of the process. It takes the council person who represents the district out of the process who probably knows that area and that neighborhood much better than a bill, a statewide bill because I think I I can't speak for the council woman, but I'm going to guess she spent many months on this project to make it work for the community. and it takes a lot of time and effort to make sure we're doing the right things so that we can all coexist. So, she is allowing for additional multifamily, but also trying to look out for the existing neighborhoods. So, I I want to thank the council woman for what she's done and hopefully we can alert more of our residents about Senate Bill 1117. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Councilman Deisio. The other part of it too, just following what Councilwoman Stark was talking about, I just want to commend Councilwoman Pastor for doing this too. I mean, of of the people up here, we're all, you know, pretty much alphas to a large degree, but Laura knows how a way to to get things done and to protect neighborhoods. I mean, she's been very proficient at that. It looks like she's done a ton of work on this thing because this thing has changed so many times and it's never 100% to where people are going to like it. you know what I mean? Or love it or hate it. It's just one of those situations where you get into a spot where you just got to hold certain things firm. And it looks like she did an excellent job on this. So, I want to commend her on the work you've done on this thing, Laura. I mean, it's apparent that you've done a tremendous amount of work. You take into consideration the neighbors in there and um congratulations on that for the work that you put into it. Thank you. We'll turn to Councilwoman Pastor. So, uh, I want to thank, uh, the neighbors that have spoken. Um, and what I want to do is bring up the slides because I'm going to demonstrate how I got to the decision making that I did. So if you look right here from the I17 to uh the 51 all those everything in red is commercial. So if you look at Camelback all of that area is red and where the little black boxes is the project that we are discussing. And one of the things that I've learned with a lot of the work on Camelback is through reinvent because reinvent was part of the community and the community participated in reinvent and then two years ago I did the urban land institute project which will be uh we will be revealing unveiling in April and in there it also demonstrated we need people in order to support the commercial on Camelback. Once again, all the red is commercial. Across the way from that project, we have a fries, a Starbucks, um a jump place, and that area is also going to get revitalized and there might be the possibility on one of the paths of resident of a multifamily within that scope and area. So what I'm saying is as a resident of that area pretty much all her life, understanding the nuances of historic neighborhoods and understanding also the transition that we are going through in the growth. Um, I also am a strong advocate of protecting neighborhoods and protecting neighborhoods in the sense of uh the dynamics of the traffic which I hear and understand and be able then to how do we incorporate single family residential also along Camelback which is those are our historic neighborhoods but really how do we incorporate multifamily And this was the ideal space to really put that there because it's close to the to the transportation area and can get people to and from work on Camelback. So as you see this slide that that's as the yellow the yellow represents all the residential. Once again you see the little black box right there. And remember, Camelback is is commercial. If you look at this slide, you see a a purple and then you see a really dark purple where the star is that requires more that requires uh more than uh two height of uh of two which requires multif family. This is in the reinvent. This is the land use. This is what everybody agreed to. So this project that's here in front of us is actually following what the community designed. And so I want to go right here because we talk about the walkable urban uh the woo code and Ken talked about a slow drip. Well, it may look like a slow drip right now because different parts of the areas on light rail is being built out and following the reinvent. and we are trying and we're doing uh and implementing the WO code. And if anybody has watched me in some of the zoning throughout 7th Street and 7th Avenue, Councilman Deisio uh will understand that I want a larger piece of the WOO code on the sevens to make it walkable. If you look at this project, that's what it's going to do. It's the beginning of the WOO code on 7th Avenue above Camelback. It's also building a shade canopy which we are advocating for. And so the project in itself is a really good project. Now, I understand that um several neighbors in uh in Medlock didn't get the notice of this project. And so what I am going to ask uh Josh is how far do they need to get noticed? Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, right now are reszoning requirements uh require a notice to all registered neighborhood associations within one mile and all property owners within 600 ft. So, all property owners within 600 feet of the project. So, some neighbors did not get noticed because they were not within that area or zone. And so um understanding the holistic piece of the effects that will happen. I also have Keeny Kudson our streets director who I have been working with four years on third on connectivity on third but we've also have a big project going on Coulter so could you please explain that mayor counciloman pastor member of the council uh the current project we have going on is a culter street project between 15th Avenue and 20th street and it's a bike and pedestrian project so there's going to be bringing um you know our active transportation focus of the council of the city towards having an east west uh important corridor there and that project is actually in the process of design right now. So um as you as he stated there's the bike and pedestrian project that will be happening on uh culture from 15th Avenue all the way. Um and Councilman uh Deissio had a project across District 4 which we all I got involved because some of my uh constituents asked me to get involved and we got involved and we really built a good piece on that. What came out of that was the cultter culture from 15th Avenue and the bike and pedestrian uh walkability. So there are good things happening within our city. There are great projects happening. Um one of the pieces that Ken spoke about spoke about was act activation on this project. The activation the activation is really having the stoops on 7th Avenue. And that's one of the pieces that I had trouble with due to the fact that um for me was safety. And so this project also puts a buffer uh in front of the area or the stoops and shade where it is activated. And I understand that we want activation on the bottom, but I believe in this project commercial is all the way around this piece. And so I am going to give the motion and that I wanted to explain to my colleagues and to uh everyone what happened and how it came about holistically for me. Um I don't work in a silo fashion. I work in uh looking at the bigger picture and then moving into what that project looks like. What I do have a question, Keany, is can we do a traffic study around there once it's built? Um, mayor, counciloman pastor or members of council actually is uh, one of the stipulations that our department would have for this development is to do a traffic impact study around that's going to be a requirement as part of the development to determine those exact impacts. Okay. And then the other piece is can we look at a hawk also because I'm thinking about the the pedestrian and the bike but that's a bigger picture. Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, members of council, as part of the Cultter Street project, we anticipate a number of different op um creative solutions we'll be looking at to be able to get people safely across Coulter Street, across the major crosssection, cross streets, whether it be seventh street, 7th Avenue, Central Avenue. And so those are all part of the project to be looking at those. And can you speak about third from Camelback? And uh Third Avenue as well is a project because the Third Avenue is many people may know is for decades has been part of the Sonor and Bikeway corridor and we've been working um over a number of years now as as Councilwoman Pastor noted um to be able to improve and provide better active transportation facilities along there. Um we're getting ready to stick start construction um between uh McDall, I'm sorry, from McDow all the way up to Thomas and also we have plans going all the way up uh to Missouri as well. Thank you. So, um, I recommend or I'm making the motion of the approval per the February 13th memo from the planning and development director and adoption of the related ordinance. Second. We have a motion and a second. Thank you for your work on this. And again, I think it is important to remember if we Senate Bill 117 passed, these abilities to work on traffic issues would be greatly compromised. Any additional Councilman Deisio? At one point regarding the project on Coulter, she was right on that. Um, we did make some changes to it. She came to me and said, "Hey, here's why we want to do this." And she remembers. She's got a long memory, but that is true. And I want to commend her for that because she made the project better in my district, too, which we weren't doing uh at the time. And she came and explained to me exactly why she wanted to do that. So, she's been extremely consistent when it comes to these types of projects. So the project you're seeing now is very similar that uh to the one that she you know helped me within my district. So Laura, you were right. Right. Thank you, Mayor. That's it. Roll call. Deisio. Garcia. Yes. Yes. O'Brien, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. Ggo. Yes. Passes 90. Thank you. That concludes our planning portion of the agenda. We have approved 249 housing units today. We next go to item 72, which is consideration of a citizen petition. We do have two members of the public to comment. We will begin with Michael Rogers followed by Skyreer. Um, yes. This is Michael Rogers. Can you hear me? We can. Yes. Michael Rogers. I um live at 3612 East Palm Lane and have since 1988 and I'm aware of the um the cause for this petition uh as it has received uh quite a bit of coverage uh in in the news and on social media. Um, mayor and council, I thank you for the opportunity to speak and I'll be brief. Um, I think it's fair to note that as for the alleged misuse of this resource uh in intended for community building and underprivileged kids by council members uh Garcia, Pastor Ansari and Guardo, I think the words of the iconic Sage Goomemer Pile come to mind. Shame, shame shame. That being said, it seems unwise to remove this resource from the use of other council members who have not abused the privilege. I would favor a censure of the four who may have misused the suite and perhaps suspension of the privilege for them, but not a blanket cancellation for the entire council. Uh my wife and I raised two boys who are now well on their own in their 20s. They they're both doing extremely well. Uh when one of them misbehaved, we brought consequences. We didn't punish both of them if only one of them misbehaved. I think it makes uh good common sense from a parenting standpoint and from a a governing standpoint uh to hold uh people accountable but not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And I thank you very much. Our final speaker will be Sky. Hello. Can you hear me? We can. Awesome. Thank you so much. Um, hi. My name is Skyreer. Um, I'm in favor of a ban on the use of the city skybox suite. I don't think council members members should be able to attend sun games or cancer uh concerts on uh our dime. And that just period. Um, they're the highest paid city council members in the state, right? I'm a Suns fan, too. Um, and it's not right for the city council to have access to a suite that no one else in this city has access to. Not only that, uh, Councilman Garcia, as we've talked about, um, have used it to go to events um, with the organizations that have illegal contributions to his campaign. Um, what is it about being a a city council member that is giving you the right to skybox tickets just because you're an elected official? Why do you get to go to a Sun's finals games for free and none of us do? That's my question. I'm done speaking. Thank you so much. Thank you. That concludes our testimony on item 72. Mayor, Councilwoman Stark, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to move to approve option A, which would disallow city council from using the suite. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Wearing. Actually, I'm not seconding it. I'm just waiting to see if somebody seconds it and I've got a comment. Okay, I will second it if nobody else is going to. All right. Uh, we have a motion and a second. And now recognizing Councilman Wearing. Yes, I actually wanted to take this a different course. Most of us, as I look down this row, weren't here when we had the vote about building the stadium in the first place. Um, some of us had strongly held views about building a stadium. Uh, the ownership group that we were working with is now much richer because we did that because they've now stole the stadium. That's like the main takeaway I think of all this is that nothing against him, but you know, we made Robert Sarbor a lot of money by by making that vote. That was really the one definitive thing that happened by building that stadium. But it happened. It's there. Um, you know, banning the box or whatever. I I'm sort of sitting here beused. We build the stadium and they decide to give us a box. That seems odd to me. We front the money and you decide what to give us. Shouldn't it be the other way around? We take what we want and decide what's left for you. There's a new owner now. The stadium, this team went for supposedly $4 billion. I wish him all the success in the world. My question is, can we sell the stadium to him? Do we have to have a basketball stadium? Is there some rule that says we have to? And if not, I guess why not? Because some teams do own their own stadiums. And obviously, the value of this team has increased. I think it's 10 times since Robert Sar bought it in 2004. So, in less than 20 years, it went up 10 times. And I am not sure. I'll turn to our city attorney. Are we agendaized to have that conversation? Uh, mayor, we are not. Okay. That was Thank you. Okay. Well, I mean, we're talking about the stadium, so I'm not going to quibble, but um you know, I I don't I don't know if we're going to So, what are we going to do with the box? I mean, what do we do with it now? It sounds like it sits empty a lot of the time, which doesn't make a question either for staff. Yeah, I I the statistics I saw in the paper, I think it was 45% of the time or something it sits empty. Mayor, members of the council, Chris Mackey, uh, economic development director and deputy city manager Ginger Spencer coming to the table to address that question. U, as you know, the box is currently used for economic development purposes and and Chris has um several instances where that box has been utilized to benefit the community at large. So, I'll turn it over to Chris and Ginger. Thank you, city manager Jeff Barton, mayor and council. Item 72, which is before you, is a citizen petition that was submitted by Mr. Andy um Diaz, Nunees Diaz. And what it is is in regards to the use of the cityowned arena suite. Um the policy that we have in the city um that governs the use of the arena suite is a a department policy through the community and economic development department. They administer the policy. The policy includes six areas that were approved by city council for use which basically revolve around economic development and youth related activities. Um the use of the policy we have department host uh and that includes city staff as well as elected officials that is allowed in the in the policy. Um it also has tickets. It governs documentation that we need to have in place and if there are additional tickets that are purchased um it also governs that as well. What I'll do is turn it over to our community and economic development director, Miss Christine Mackey to talk a little bit more about the policy and use of the suite. Good afternoon, Mayor. Councilman Wearing to specifically ask your question. I think you asked how often is it active and how often is it dark? It was the specific question I heard as we were walking up. There are approximately 130 events in the arena on an annual basis. A number of them are nonprofits, people, you know, doing events and activities for others. You have the Phoenix Suns, you have the Mercury, you have the Rattlers, and then you have concerts, and then you have Disney on Ice and and events like that. So when we look at those 130 nights a year, those aren't all ones that we have access to, but we do the Suns and the Mercury and the Rattlers and and most concerts that are there. We tend to use it on an annual basis. It really ranges, but we'll use it anywhere between 40 and 50 times a year would be average. Over the pandemic, of course, not many. And over the last year, um, as we came back up again, about 25 times. Mayor, can somebody refresh my memory? How much money did the city put in, meaning taxpayers put into the stadium? Mayor Kentman Wearing, the city on the initial construction partnered with Mr. Kangelo to build the stadium development agreement was from 1989. Most recently, the renovation of the stadium. The city funded $150 million of the rep of the $240 million of the renovation. It's an expensive box. Um, for one that sits empty more than half the time, or at least we don't get to use it half the time. More than half the time. Um, okay. I I I don't know that this is going to change anything. I would love to have an item where we approach the new Sun's owner, I've never met, I don't know if any of you guys have, and say, "Are you interested in taking over the operations of the stadium?" That certainly happened with other stadiums. I will also point out for those who think we're short of government funds, we are that rare city. We now have three basketball stadiums because we have this one. ASU has a basketball stadium. You still got the one sitting over on McDow. ASU didn't want to work with the NFL team or vice versa or whatever. So, we had to build two football stadiums and then ASU had to refurbish their stadium after this other one was built. Seems like maybe they could have worked together on that site, but they didn't want to do that. We're now going to have uh three hockey stadiums. That's got to be some kind of record somewhere. You got the one sitting empty in Glendale. You're going to have the one built in Tempee and you got ASU having one. That's that's a lot of stadiums and they're getting more expensive by the day. If we could devest ourselves of one, that would make me happy and then we wouldn't even be having this discussion. There wouldn't be a box to be discussing. People would be buying their tickets themselves, whatever. So, um I I just that's what I'd like to see this discussion go. At the moment, I'll second Doug uh excuse me, Deb's motion, but um it just seems like the simpler linear thing was the thing has been redone, refurbished, it's brand new for these teams, these leases, and the revenue streams. If you ever follow it, and you should since we own one, that's that's a big deal. And that drove up the price of this team undoubtedly. they can probably put a number on it. Might have increased its value, I don't know, billion dollars or something. There's only a few teams out there that you can buy. So, I I just think the time might be now to have that discussion and I I think it would behoove us to do so and then we won't have any more of this. So, thank you. Uh I think I council Deisio followed by the vice mayor. Oh, thank you, mayor. So to Jim's point one, if I remember correctly, the policy that we put in place back in the 90s, I was involved in it. So it was meant to promote transparency, which I believe it did. So it followed with the policy that we've created back then. Now we're looking at new policies that I think that, you know, as life goes on, you should always make changes, too. Um, my preference would be just to e a either sell it, which I think you just get a one-time deal on it, but I'd rather lease it out uh every year. Why not? We make a lot more money that way. And then if we have to, we can put into the agreement because an agreement is nothing more than just a piece of paper. That's all it is. Whatever you put on the back, this is whatever is legal is what you end up doing. So, we can always put in language once we lease it out. that says that we will get it certain times, but we have to reserve it two or three weeks in advance so that if we do have somebody like, you know, and we do use it for these things. If you want to bring people in and show them off our city, what better place to do that than with the Phoenix Suns now that they've got Kevin Durant. I mean, it's he's an exciting player and the players themselves are exciting, too. And people want to see that. They want to be able to see that. They want to see that we have an opera. They want to see that we have the symphony. people want to see and make sure that we are a well-rounded community. So, from my end, my preference would be just to lease this thing out and then work it out that way. I think we make money that way. Um, and we get past a lot of this that we're it comes up every few years. Last time this came up was probably 15 years ago. Um, on the point of the Phoenix Suns deal that was struck, and this is critical to understand to Jim's point here was that if you look at the 1989 deal that was put together by Jerry Kangelo at the time, the Suns put in the majority of the money and they got the No, I'm sorry. The the city put in the majority of the money at the time. No, I'm sorry. The Suns put in the majority of the money at the time and the Suns got back in return the majority of the money. The city of Phoenix didn't. And if you look at that, that ended up being a pretty good deal for the city of Phoenix taxpayer. Really good deal long term. The deal that was struck and that why it's problematic and why the Suns made so much money on that deal was that the majority of money that came in was from the taxpayer and the least amount of money was put in by the Suns. This is the most recent one. And in return, the Suns received the majority of the money. It was completely turned around. And if you look at it just on an economic basis, I estimated that that one agreement that was done was basically an ad of $3 to $500 million in one day into the actual asset value of the Phoenix Suns. Three to$500 million out of our taxpayer monies because the majority of revenues went over to the Suns at the time. Well, good for them for putting it together. I didn't agree with it and I think Jim didn't either. But that's a huge difference there if you look at it just economically. So from my preference um to the maker of the motion if they'd be willing us to lease this thing out, I think we'd be much better off doing that. Financially, it's better for the city. And if you're looking for transparency, you can't get a a model more transparent than that because then we can reserve in advance why we want to use that box. and we'd be better off. I don't know begrudge anybody that would have used it or not because that was the policy in place and things, you know, things happen and um and I just don't I mean I just think it becomes political after a while and I'm not I don't think we ought to be throwing political stones at people for doing what was already a policy that was in place. But it's okay to change it now. It's better it's good to take another look at it right now and to figure out a better way to do this. And I still think that the leases and if people look back at my comments back in the 1990s, they're very similar as to what they are today. Back then I promoted the same thing. Said, "Let's just lease this thing out." So that's where I would be right now. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. We'll go to the vice mayor and then Councilwoman Gordado. Thank you. Uh Chris and Jinger, I just have some questions. Um first, I just want to clarify a couple of facts. So can you just uh tell us who owns the suite? Mayor, vice mayor, the city owns the entire arena. When the agreement was written, the Suns act as the operation operator and maintenance of the facility. The city receive the suite as part of the development agreement. Doesn't have a financial value to the suite. We don't have the ability to sell it. We do receive 12 tickets at no cost as part of the 1989 development agreement and utilize those tickets. So if we were to give it back, it would go back into the sun's inventory and they would lease it or sell it to someone else. Okay, great. So in that case, am I right to understand that there are no taxpayer dollars used for the suite in particular? Vice Mayor, for the benefit of the suite and the utilization that economic development does to the suite. That is correct. For the suite use, not for the construction of the facility originally, but for the suite use. No, there are not. It's all private dollars, of course. Obviously, the city council before many of us were here chose to invest in the arena, but the suite in particular. I just want to clarify because I know there's understand misunderstandings about taxpayer dollars being used to utilize the suite. So, what would happen if the city decided not to use the suite any longer? Mayor, vice mayor, it would go back into the sun's inventory and they would find another um someone to lease the suite. So, we would not make any money by giving it back to them. Mayor, vice mayor. No, we would not. Our the way our agreement is written from 1989. And who developed the policy for sweet usage? Mayor, vice mayor, I did. Our department, my department with legal advice did. Okay. And again, Ginger mentioned this, but to clarify again, it is within policy for elected officials to utilize the suite. Mayor, vice mayor, that's correct. It is it is formally stated in the administrative regulation that elected officials can use the suite. Perfect. I just wanted to get those facts correct. I think that's important for the public to understand that this was within policy and that taxpayer dollars were not used. Now, I want to hear from your perspective, Chris, when it comes to economic development. You mentioned the suite is used about 30 to 40 times per year. What are the benefits of having a council member present um when you are trying to do work when it comes to economic development? Mayor, vice mayor, economic development does utilize the suite and I my professional opinion is it's a tremendous benefit for our recruitment activities. We, you know, we talk to a lot of people and often I'll hear from people, you know, we're trying to recruit and they'll say, "I know everything I need to know about Phoenix." And I'll say, "Oh, that's great. What do you when were you in Phoenix and what do you know about Phoenix?" They'll say, "Was there in 198 1993 I golfed at the Builtmore. I know all I need to know." It's like, you know, if you've not been to Phoenix in the last five years, you've not been to Phoenix. And the the way that we've leveraged the revitalization of this the entire central city is getting individuals who've been naysayers to see it when it's all lit up, when it's very active, when it's very forward thinking. We've seen, you know, we've seen 10 million square feet of new development come in the last eight years in downtown Phoenix. And if you look at the the individuals who end up building buildings, a number of them were were there. We hosted them. They got to see downtown at a different scheme that at night time when it was dark and quiet. To your direct question of the how the council members benefit. I'm the chief cheerleader for Phoenix. That's my job. That's what you all pay me is to recruit companies into Phoenix. Our companies truly appreciate the time that they get to spend with council to be able to understand from the council what's important to them to feel welcome from the individuals who are put in place by our citizens. I it's a different conversation that you all have with them than we do. We provide facts and figures and we I sell, you know, as as you all like to say, I'll sell anything that's not nailed down. That's my job. But when they hear from you them, the appreciation that you have for them coming, it goes miles in helping our recruitment efforts. Okay. And then can you also elaborate? I think this entire discussion has made me think much more broadly about the various economic development strategies and initiatives that you have to attract companies to bring business to Arizona. And I think if we're going to have a conversation about where, you know, the usage of taxpayer dollars and when elected officials are allowed to go, then we should look at everything, whether it's conferences, events, trips. There are so many different things. It's this is one very small piece. So, can you kind of elaborate in the variety of ways that elected officials are involved in economic development for the city of Phoenix? Mayor, vice mayor, thanks for the clarification. I was not quite sure where you were going, so I appreciate that. City Council does an incredible job for us in in highlighting Phoenix in making Phoenix. We compete on a global level and you attend with us whether it's it's lunches or dinners or conferences or trade delegations. You do trade missions with us. You travel with us in our Phoenix sister cities. You are are with us. as I tell everybody, you're our secret weapon in being able to really showcase Phoenix in a different light to individuals than than staff can themselves. So, uh you you participate with us in a in a robust uh way in in different functions and events that we have. And and mayor and vice mayor and sorry, and subcommittee, excuse me, council members, I'd like to add to also what um director Mackey just stated. Um, so that question that you asked, um, Councilwoman, uh, Laura Pastor as chair of the economic development and economic subcommittee also asked that we come and give a presentation on the sweet policy and talk about those other initiatives as well. So that's something that is on that subcommittee um for a larger discussion on February 15 uh, excuse me, on February 22nd. Um, so just wanted to add that to the discussion as well. Thank you. And thank you, Chris. I think that was the most important for for me to understand that it's beneficial to you and that you know you know for me personally I I believe if we need to implement policies that build trust with the community that's number one priority I don't think any of us have a preference about doing any of these things we want to do what's beneficial for our districts and for the city of Phoenix in the case of the time that I use the Sunswuite Arizona Fresh executives were there several months later they made a major investment in South Phoenix and and the last time I ran into them They brought up how welcoming the city of Phoenix has been to them and all of these different ways that we have worked to bring them here. Um, and so I'm looking forward to that discussion in economic development because I think if we want to be transparent, we have to do it in all of the different ways. I find it concerning that this particular conversation, frankly, is happening the days that the day that ballots are dropping in in one of the other districts. And I think that it's political. So, I do think we need to be honest about that and and really have a true conversation about transparency. Thank you, Mayor. I had uh said Councilman Gordado and then Council Member Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Um yes, the Footprint Arena is a cityowned facility and it has been since long before I came into council in 2019. We've had many conversation about the facility, but I have treated the arena in the same way I have treated all city-owned facilities as a place to continue my effort to bring opportunities to the residents of my district. Whether that be through creating strategic partnerships or economic development. This past weekend, the city of Phoenix was on the global stage with the Super Bowl. There were numerous events at city-owned facilities that the mayor and council members were invited to and attended. From concerts at Hance Park to the Super Bowl experience at the Phoenix Convention Center, which by the way, my my kids were able to enjoy on Saturday night. Council members and the mayor were invited to a VIP event, a private concert with Gwen Stefani at the city owned convention center. I know there's a lot of people in the council um and the mayor who attended and others didn't. So I would like to ask the question, what is the difference between council members bringing groups and community partners to a cityowned facility like the footprint center arena and the mayor and council members attending the events that took place this weekend that were not open to the public? Another question and other comments. I would like to understand the difference between bringing community partners to a city-owned facility like the footprint arena and council members and the mayor traveling to meet the companies like TSMC and Taiwan. What is the difference between council members and the mayor traveling to any number of countries across the globe to meet with companies and community organizations to convince them of the value of coming to Phoenix? We have an entire office in our community and economic development department dedicated to creating ties with other regions across the world to attract business and cultural exchange to Phoenix. Council members and the mayor regularly attend these trips. I believe there is a trip being planned for this summer to South East Asia countries which mayor and other council members have planned to attend. I understand that in an election year, these sorts of items will be brought up and pushed by those with transparently political motives, but I know that the great majority of residents in District 5 see and appreciate how hard my team and I work to strategically use every opportunity and venue possible to bring investment to our community. For example, in my district, I continue to work closely with the Milwaukee Brewers, who are based out of a city-owned facility at 51st Avenue in Mville. My team and I coordinated numerous events with them at the ballpark. We have hosted everything from backpack drives and food banks to vaccinations efforts and holiday events. I would say that in that facility, we have distributed thousands of backpacks to children that don't have the means to be able to buy one. This past December, we gave out 500 toys to kids at our Mer Very Mary Mville event. I have also worked in partnership with a local radio station to bring baseball teams up from Mexico to play exhibition games at our share facility as part of our effort to create spaces of community celebration and familyfriendly activities in district 5 that were very needed especially after after this pandemic. I am extremely grateful to the partnership my office has built with the Brewers and together we have collaborated to put a city-owned facility to work for our community. I for one trust Chris Mackey and her ability to ensure the different opportunities we have entrusted to her team. She is always strategic and she has been a master at attracting and retaining businesses in the city of Phoenix. would like would like to thank you for all all of the hard work, Chris, that you have done and all the great ideas that you have brought to our city, but also into district five. And I know we have many plans with the Brewers given the partnerships that we've been able to build with them. Now, they are bringing in their owners and we have so many more plans um for the for the Brewers facility out in Mville. Excited um to put that plan together. But however, I would ask that if this council would like to address council members and the mayor's use of city-owned facilities, I would encourage us to be consistent in our approach and include an examination of council member and mayor's use of all economic development opportunities from travel abroad to reporting of what events council members and the mayor attend and their capacity as elected officials as we did based on already existing policy when we attended. the footprint center. We should promote always transparency at every opportunity. And like some of my colleagues already said, this should not just be done when there is a polit when it's politically convenient. Thank you, Mayor, Council Member Garcia. Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you, Councilwoman Wardo. I think you took a lot of words out of my mouth. Um, I think when we came on into council, we were following the mayors and previous council's lead on trying to use every resource and and vehicle to make sure we showcase our city. Um, I use the foot the footprint uh uh suite and and I'm proud to say that in similar fashion um we brought over $200 million investment to my district to District 8 with Arizona Fresh Project. Um I happen to be a Spanish speaker and a lot of those investors um came from Mexico and other places. So I I believe I played a crucial role not only in making sure that we had a need in the district but to make sure that those folks ke felt comfortable that the city of Phoenix wanted to work with them. Um I think for you know this is obviously a a political stone and and I think unfortunately our staff gets caught in between this. We had a similar situation with park security months ago. Um, and and I want to tell Chris, I trust you completely. I I I don't think we should create more barriers for yourself. And I also want to also make clear that not one extra cent was spent for us to go um the times that we went. Um but yet like some of my colleagues have said uh you know some council people may not have used the suite but they've also requested it for other companies whether it's Mayo or others to to show up even if they weren't showing up or um but we constantly spend money on conferences lunchons events um Councilwoman Stark the maker of this motion um got to travel on on taxpayer money to Asia and decided to stay an extra week in Asia. Um, again, if if it made TSMC or it made other things happen, that's great. But I do think if we're going to have a conversation and have these political stones be thrown that we look thoroughly at what happens. Um, I can point to what happened from the visits that I went to the footprint center. Um, can the mayor speak to what the Gwen Stefani concert brought to um, the city or hanging out with the Bidwells and Gwen Stefani on Saturday? Um, what that brought to the city? Um, and again, I I haven't asked that question, but I think that's the lens that we have to look this look at this. And again, finally, I I wouldn't be supporting this because it it would mean that we're giving a resource away um that we are not currently paid for. I agree with Jim. We we made uh the expense a long time ago and folks on this council decided uh to make Robert Sarver uh a billionaire. Um, I don't know what it would have been sold for if we wouldn't have made that investment, but I do know that we made that that uh that that much more expensive. And so, um, I I am sorry, Chris, that you're being put through this um that you're being embarrassed in this or I don't know if you're being embarrassed, but to me it's embarrassing that we are questioning your judgment um and your great ability to continue to produce for our city. And so I wouldn't support the the motion that's being made and I would appreciate if we continue to trust Chris to do our job. Councilman Deisio followed by Councilman Wearing. Mayor, I'm going to make a mo a substitute motion to lease it out then send it to the ED committee for the policy for that and then you can do carveouts and do all that stuff that you want to do from that. So, um, either that or it goes to Jeff, whichever way, but leasing it out solves everything. It ends this discussion. It started back in the 90s. And at the end of the day, by leasing it out, then Chris, you can make determinations as to who you want to see in the box. And I would have to agree to some level you want to see an elected official at times be able to shepherd people in. They want to see they want to hear from policy makers. I know it sounds bad, but it is true. uh business people want to hear from policy makers where they make the determination of whether or not they like what the policy makers are saying they agree with and then they make those investments in our community. So there are times you've got to have policy makers do that. I'm not big on ribbon cutting myself, but you go to those things because people want to see that you support their operations. So, from my end of it, I'm making a substitute motion to lease out the box, then have it go to, I guess, Laura's committee in order to um make the determination as to what those policies are. That's my motion. We'll go to Councilman Wearing and then Councilwoman O'Brien has not had a chance to speak yet. I'll go to her and then we'll go to the vice mayor. So, it's me, Mayor, am I next or did you say Councilman O'Brien? Councilman O'Brien, I guess. Do you mind if Councilman O'Brien has not spoken? Yeah, that's fine. I had called on wearing when I called on Deisio but I know, but she hadn't spoken. You hadn't raised your hand yet. A question. Um I think that would be for Julie. Is um Councilman Deisio's substitute motion, is that allowable under the topic given the topic that we're having? Sorry. Well, mayor and council, and I'm not sure if I heard a second on that motion, but um to address that, it it could possibly go under other direction to staff related to the arena suite policy, but I would also caution that I am not sure that we can contractually do that. So, we would have to look at that possibility. So we would have to amend, you know, this is a direction related to amending the the sweet policy and then we would certainly direction to staff. We would need to look at some of those other possibilities. Sorry, Councilman Tisio, could you repeat it so that I make sure I understand? The sub thank you for the substitute motion is to u lease out the box and find out if we can legally do this contractually to do that. lease it out and then send it to the subcommittee that would be overseeing this for policy changes. It's this really simple thing. It solves this right here and allows us to vet it out and if we can lease it out, we do. If we don't, you come back to us. So, just for clarification that you want staff to make to find out if we could lease it out. Yeah. And send the discussion regarding the the suite use to ED as it's already on the agenda for next week. That's where it should go anyways. Yeah. Okay. So, it becomes a public hearing of a discuss a discussion and I I will be hardressed to support anything if it doesn't increase if it does not include a uh lease provision in there to lease it out the box because then you can put in place policies as to who's there, who's not there. Uh we did something similar to this in the 90s um when we created this policy. Yes. Thank you so much for that clarification Councilman. So we'll go councilman wearing and then the vice mayor and then councilwoman pastor unless counciloman pastor wants to get her first chance. Yes, it's fair. All right. So wearing vice mayor pastor. Well, first of all, I I should have said this before. I'm not criticizing anybody for that. That's not that's not my thing. I didn't know the ballots were coming out today. Uh that that's not my uh this isn't my thing. But what is my thing is is I didn't think we should have done this again when most of you weren't on the council. So this isn't, you know, again, this isn't really directed to you at all. I did think this was an opportunity to maybe revisit that issue because we just happen to have a new owner as well. We should at least meet him. He's a business partner of ours effectively, pretty big one. um and see what the appetite me might be for doing something different than we've done it before because a salad that said I mean and nothing against Robert Sarver but but we made him a ton of money that's the one actual economic development thing that for sure happened is he's a lot richer than he would have been if we hadn't have done this deal and all due respect because again it's not the people sitting at the table basically who negotiated this deal either they're all new too it's now four years on a lot of things have changed of the city or yeah four years on. Um but Robert Star is a very smart guy and I can just tell you it put him in a room with we don't manage stadiums really for a living and stuff he's going to win that match up every time. It'd be like having me fight Mike Tyson. I'm going to lose and probably look stupid and get killed doing it. So not surprisingly he came out with a great deal. But at this point it might be nice to cut our losses. We don't get a lot out of this, frankly, other than, you know, maybe some restaurants get built around the stadium and so forth. Please remember three short years ago, people weren't going to Suns games. I kept hearing from people that they couldn't give their tickets away. Sports are a very tricky business. And as a kid who growing up in Chicago, I can tell you your teams don't always win. In fact, a lot of times they lose. Every team I root for right now is wretched except the Suns. And a couple weeks ago, that didn't look so promising either. Now things have changed completely. But it's a very tricky business. And the idea that the stadium's going to be packed and people are going to be flocking downtown and everything for in perpetuity, that's kind of silly, too. You look at the history of that business as a whole. So, I I would just respectfully say at least let's have the new fella in, talk to him, see if there's a way to maybe get out of this. There are other places Chris can take clients. Again, I'm not criticizing anybody who's who's going out and doing whatever. That that's not my role in this. you do whatever you need to do. Chris, we want you to be successful. Obviously, we've had stuff come to District 2 and we're pretty proud of that up there. But, um, in terms of the what we can and can't do with this lease, I I just again I'm fascinated by this because we put in most of the money. I mean, I don't even know what to say to that. That is just kind of bizarre to me. So, it would be nice if we could say with all respect, if we want to lease it out, you know, that that's what we're going to do. We did just solid by giving you $150 million that frankly we could have spent on parks or more police or firefighters. All that was talked about at the time. I think the revenue stream is like $20 million a year in perpetuity, stadium or no. Correct. And that's I guess a question for Jeff or Lori or somebody. At least that's what it was when we were doing this a few years ago. Councilman, could you repeat your question, please? But so the revenue stream that pays for the stadium that was about $20 million a year if memory serves. Now that's a memory from four years ago. Is that still about what it is? It's probably gone up from there. I don't have the exact number, Chris. I don't know if you have the sports facilities forecast off the top of your head. I don't have it right off. It's probably gone up. I mean, it's that's years ago. Inflation and everything else. It's likely bringing in more revenue and like you said, the Suns have have been successful and there have been a lot of more hotel bookings and all of those things play a part of of of that revenue stream. But when they did we did this, I voted against it. But when this happened, they were dreadful and the stadium was empty a lot of the time, including probably the suite. I I just I wish we could revisit this. Maybe we can't. I definitely think um I I don't want to give the I'm not stupid. I don't want to give uh uh the suite back to the Suns for nothing. That doesn't make any sense. Leasing it out makes a lot of sense. To hear that, I don't know if we could even do that. That that that doesn't seem right to me. So, at some point, we got to take back a little bit of control of this relationship because it's gotten just way out of hand. And I mentioned all those other stadiums to show just how out of hand it's gotten. We're not doing these teams a favor by having them in the facilities. I mean, we're doing them a favor. they're not doing us a favor by playing there in the subsidized stadium. So, there's got to be a little more balance with the taxpayer because I just I saw this deal and I just thought it was just it was clearly a recipe for making Robert Sar money when he sold the team. That's and I don't blame him for that. He's a smart guy. But I just now here we are having this discussion. And it's not surprising to me, and I wish we could revisit this in a more meaningful way than just talking about one suite in a multiund million dollar facility. We don't have as a city a lot of multiundred million dollar facilities except water in the airport. So that's my piece. But again, it's nothing against anybody who who did anything with the box. I don't really that's not my thing. So thank you, Vice Mayor, followed by Councilwoman Pastor. Thank you. Um, so I since I didn't hear a second, I have a secondary motion. Maybe I'll be willing to accept it. Um, I think we cannot. Well, can we turn to either our city clerk or city attorney for council rules? Yes, mayor and council, since we have a motion on the table, unless that has died. If there is, so I think you need to check to see if there's a second before we make another motion. Can I give a suggestion to the maker of the motion? Yes. Okay. Um, just given the the conversation, I I was thinking we could do a secondary motion to continue this conversation and look at all policies under community and economic development and have them come back with recommendations. So, not a more holistic approach based on what was said today. I would take that and but with one condition on my end only is that if there isn't a lease provision moving forward going forward on this thing, I wouldn't support it. So, I would be supportive of most anything that you want to do on something like that as long as there's a lease provision because then you can control it. You actually have a lot more control when you structure an agreement of how it's going to be handled. I mean, I trust Chris Mackey. I don't think you're stuck in the middle of this. I mean, it just, you know, you're just part of what it's happening right now. You're amazing. Actually, you and Ginger, I mean, I love watching Ginger up there. She's incredible. But um yeah, I'd be happy to do that if you'd second it. But from my end, I have to see a lease provision in there. Other than that, you can write how you want. Can you add the ED? Yeah sure. It's going to the subcommittee next Wednesday. I always do what you tell me. Okay. Thank you. So okay. Just kidding. I don't. We butt heads more than anybody up here. But yeah, if you want to do that, let's do that. Okay. I'm good. Can we have clarity on the motion? Well, Yas mean, you want to just go ahead? Just say it. It's yours. Okay. Um, we're going to move to continue the item and have CED evaluate all economic development initiatives that we use to attract business to the city and make recommendations on policy at the next economic development and equity subcommittee meeting. Yep. I don't know. We'll just mayor members of the council just for clarification. So the maker of the motion would be councilman deisu and seconding is is c is vice mayor. Okay. All right. And just so I understand. So what you are hoping to do is have a much broader conversation on Wednesday. But we don't have to like share the secret sauce of everything Chris does. Well, I don't know. You have to take me out and kill me to do that. Okay. I mean, part of it is our people that sell Phoenix and and that is hard to replicate but and also for clarification, mayor, if I may, uh, this is then being referred to basically the subcommittee. Is that correct? We're being we're continue it to that subcommittee meeting. Okay. Thank you. So, it's basically a motion to refer economic development including the arena, but the conversation can be all of the all-incclusive. Okay. and and the citizens petition or what's in what's what's in there. We Sorry. Thank you, mayor. I I just want to ensure because we did just slightly broaden the scope of the topic that um Mrs. Mackey would have the appropriate amount of time because Wednesday is one week from today and so I just want to ensure that she feels comfortable presenting then but on that broader topic. uh Mayor Councilman O'Brien uh uh Councilwoman Pastor had asked for a broader discussion at her subcommittee back in January and so we had been preparing for that conversation for some time. Now with the direction from the council and the expanding of that conversation, we'll be ready. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure. Coun Vice Mayor, let's Okay. So, does Councilman Deisio still have the floor or you're good? I've been good for a while. Thank you, Mayor. So, then I think we're now to Councilwoman Pastor. Yes. So, um, it's been a lively discussion, uh, since this, uh, whole time this article dropped and for whatever reason, it is what it is. Um, I do think it's political. um and if we look at all the connections and how it is. However, I think it's I think it's timely to have this bigger and broader conversation as to what uh economic development looks like in the city of Phoenix and who participates in the economic development in the city of Phoenix. I think it's our responsibility as elected officials to attract businesses to uh bring them to our city and demonstrate and show what our city's all about. Um, I was one that used the suite and uh I was one that was also a bilingual speaker and was able to talk to companies that wanted to expand to Phoenix and they did. Uh last night I happened to be at one of the uh restaurants that I wanted to support uh who I spoke with um in the suite and the owners and I became um conversational and I went to visit the restaurant and we sat and we talked and we talked about expansion. Where do you want to go? Some people they were talking Glendale. I said no let's go Phoenix. Um and so those dialogues do happen amongst people wanting to come to Phoenix. The other uh time I was there and I think I'm 50 to 50 uh uh for for what I did. Uh I was with the venture capitals a bunch of venture capital people who happened to be doing some cancer research who then became because of their re research is a Nobel Prize uh awardee is from scripts and Mayo and is here today. Um, I was part of the bioscience conversation and I don't think that there's anything wrong in in having those conversations and being in that space because I attracted economic development. The bottom line is is as elected officials we are our job is to sell. Our job is to build community, to build vibrancy, and our job is also to sell pro solve problems with our constituents. As you saw earlier, I had a big case on zoning. That's bringing people to Phoenix. That's moving people on the light rail corridor that we want to be utilized. That's moving people to downtown to sporting events. If we weren't vibrant, the Super Bowl wouldn't have been here. we're not investing in our city, the Super Bowl wouldn't have been here. The Final Four is not going to be here. So, I find this conversation um I think it's broader in conversation of looking at policy and seeing what it is and what as a council we want to do, but it would be silly for us as elected officials to hand tie our hands and not recruit economic development. And so I am I have asked since December for this to be in my subcommittee. It was supposed to be in January. Uh for whatever reason it wasn't placed on the on the council and then it is now placed in February and we will have this broader conversation. But um appreciate uh everybody that has brought it to our attention because now we will have look at all our economic tools uh that everybody uses in order to attract business. Thank you. All right. Seeing no further comments, I think we are ready for a roll call on Councilman Deisio's motion created with assistance from the vice mayor. And everyone clear on all right. Roll call. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Ward, yes. O'Brien, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark, yes. wearing. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes. There you go. Yes. Passes 90. All right. That is our final agendaized item. We now move to public comment. And I'll turn to our city attorney to introduce that portion of our meeting. 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 but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented. The citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes. Thank you. We'll begin with Tama Brown followed by Rosario. Good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is Tamika Brown and I am a general worker lead for Aramar at the Phoenix Convention Center. I have worked there for approximately over five years. We will hear from unemployed workers united who are fighting for housing justice. If the city's subcontract companies paid their employees enough to live on, I would not have been homeless. If Aramar actually paid its workers a living wage, I wouldn't have been homeless. Sorry. Um I wouldn't have to move twice in within this last year. Um I I I deserve to be able to afford housing, but currently I cannot do that. I currently make$,650 an hour and I don't have work enough hours to qualify for health insurance. Like most of my co-workers, only two people out of 59 people actually have health insurance coverage. Why is that? Okay, it's a shame that the city of Phoenix allowed it contractor Aramar to treat his workers this way. Aramar is a contractor with the city of Phoenix. So why is it okay for a city contractor to treat their workers that way? Look into Aramar's contract. Push them to do better, to pay their workers a living wage, and to treat their workers with dignity and respect. Thank you. Rosario is next, followed by Magalie. When I start convention center, good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is Rosario Lechuga. I am a banquet server for Aramark at the Phoenix Convention Center. I have worked there for five years and I make 1640 an hour which does not include gratuitity. This past weekend, many of my co-workers worked 12 plus hourlong shifts for the NFL. Brought in outside temporary workers to work the event. But some of these temporary workers were making double what we make. Why is Aeromark allowed to bring in outside workers and pay some of them twice as much as their own workers? So I ask all of you, don't we deserve to earn that much money what the temporary workers are making? I don't work my full 40 hours a week even though I want to. I have 56 co-workers and only four work full time. And out of those four, only two have health insurance. Only two Aramark workers at the Phoenix Convention Center have health insurance. for allowing their contractor Aomark to treat workers like this. I want health insurance. I want to be able to afford my rent. I want to work. And Aeromark needs to do better. Gracias. I urge you to look into Aromark's contract and push them to treat their workers with dignity and respect. Thank you. Maggie Martinez signs next, followed by Ken Waters. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Maggali Martinez signs. I'm here as a Phoenix resident and with Unemployed Workers United. I am a first generation Mexican-American born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I've had the privilege of growing Desletches Cafe with my partner. As a small business owner, my income is not guaranteed, especially during a looming recession. Many of my own extended family members are a paycheck or two away from being uh from having housing insecurity. Council member, I'm sorry. This past Sunday, you acknowledged and addressed a comment of mine on Instagram stating, and I'm paraphrasing, the city council is prioritizing source of income discrimination, but was waiting for the law department to finish working on language for the ordinance. We ask that you continue to show leadership on this bill, not only for the constituents in your district, but for all constituents in the city of Phoenix. Actions speak louder than words. We understand once larger cities take protective measures, many others follow suit. While you all sit comfortably in this chamber, there are many sitting on dirt and concrete easements just miles away with housing vouchers in hand. It's important that we recognize the privilege of time. Every day we wait, more lives are claimed by the harsh winters and unforgiving Phoenix summers. Death is knocking. We should not wait to do what is right by the residents of our city. We need to act ahead and be proactive about expanding tenant pro protections. I am very disappointed at the lack of initiative on this issue out of fear of failure or fear of optics. If nothing was ever fought for out of fear of reduction, we still wouldn't be allowed to vote, let alone run for office as minority women. Radical problems require radical solutions. If we can talk about the Phoenix Suns, we can talk about tenant protections. Put SOI on the agenda now. Thank you. [Applause] Ken is next, followed by Lucy Willis. Council members, um maybe make a suggestion uh that you maybe allocate 15 20 minutes of public comment before the council meeting because some of these council meetings can go a long long time and to and to make them wait. I didn't I this was right after the I only signed up because it was right after 71. I thought I'd be speaking really quick. So anyways, um to just allocate maybe 15 20 minutes and then those that uh don't get in that window go at the end because uh I've been at council meeting and spent lasted eight hours omnet 2015. We had to wait around eight hours before our item got up and then to to give public comment afterwards. I didn't want to waste all my time on that. Um, anyways, I want to circle back. Laura Pastor, it's a council woman. Uh, your comments about being proud to put an apartment-only complex on the to where 99.99% of the people are going to walk to the back of their car, the parking lot, and go out and drive. Urban walkability, the goal is for them to get out and start walking the sidewalks there. They're not they're not going to be using it. It's ironic that I'm talking about the TOD. I wasn't in favor of it originally, but now that we're here, it it can be a huge huge huge opportunity. And Las Vegas was just uh you know, giving you kudos that it's brought 7 billion. I don't know where that number came from. Uh I guess it's true, but 7 billion dollars in economic development along the TOD. So, uh, I thought that last item, which I think was much to do about nothing and and I support that you guys continue to use the, uh, um, facilities there, I think it looked like it was political, so I was actually going to say, "Hey, I support the council in using it." So, anyways, um, but a whole lot of time was spent on that suite. And then when we talk about a tod that Las Vegas is bragging that Phoenix has7 billion dollars in economic development along the to and there wasn't a whole lot of conversation going on that but when we start talking about a suite that maybe you know you guys have privy to there's a whole lot of discussion I think I would have liked to seen a lot more discussion by the city council on the TOD because I don't I think there's an echo chamber in the city of of u of Phoenix on this topic and I would like to if I could maybe call into the city manager's office uh tomorrow and see if we can break this echo chamber and maybe talk about some other things that should be brought up on the TOD because right now in uptown and Midtown it's not happening. single use is the antithesis of what's needed there. So anyways, um appreciate your time. Thank you, Lucy, if she's not here. Okay, Beatatrice Johnson, followed by Luis Herrera. Good afternoon to the mayor and city council. My name is Beatatric X Katon Johnson and I am the baby sister and the next of Ken and a spokesperson for the family of Dorothy Jean Dell Chambers who was killed by Vajila homicide on April 26, 2022 while in a cross mark and just steps away from the sidewalk when Nabasa Pekco, a sky business owner uh killed my sister and her companion Joseph Gucci who were unsheltered at the time of their death and resided in Perry Park. All the witness reported that Peekovic was speeding. Also a report that he was driving reckless wigging in and out of traffic. A witness also said that if he was not speeding, he would have saw them. The black box reported he was going 50 to 60 miles per hour 5 seconds before he killed them. Peekovic failed the physical part of the sobriety test and he had blew a 0.31. The Phoenix officer who gave him the test 30 minutes after he killed my sister said he showed signs of impairment. The Phoenix police did not give him a blood test. Uh 1 hour and 15 minutes later came another officer who gave him a eye test and let him go. We believe the police is doing all it can to protect the driver. Nabosa Pekovic. Police detective Taran Campbell never notified our family. My sister lay in a morg for eight days. And if we had not went and cared for her every week to check on her, we would not know that my sister was dead. The Phoenix police never ever notified our family. We only learned because we wear a fair checked her every week. We are devastated of the fact that we are equally the same officer who never notified our family. Detective Taran will um uh Campbell is the same officer who had the ability to say what charges that he would get. And for 10 months, our family has been fighting the Phoenix Police Department. My sister was not killed by the Phoenix police, but for 10 months, we have been fighting the Phoenix police. He sat on this case. He never moved the case unless we called the police chief, unless we called the commander. I've been doing all this for 10 months so that he could get to city council prosecutor. And he finally got a court date on February the 7th, and he did not even show up. and he has a warrant for his arrest. We want him arrested. He killed two people. And our family should not have to go through this. And it's because my sister was unsheltered. She was not a throwaway. She was very loved. And we will never stop fighting. And we want Nabasa Pekco arrested. And then later we'll be back to talk about these Phoenix police officers. Luis is next, followed by John Foresight. Uh, hello. Um, I actually go by Bash. My name is Sebastian. My middle name is Sebastian. Uh, so I used to work at the convention center three years ago in 2020. Um, I got laid off because of the pandemic. Uh, recently I tried to go back. I went there twice, put an application in, and um I talked to the HR guy who I've seen before, uh they didn't he told me explicitly that he's not going to consider hiring me. So the reason that this is significant and this has been brought up already by friends, co-workers and allies here. Uh but the convention center is when I was working there in 2020 there was 125 workers and now there's like 59 or 60 like Rosdio had mentioned. So it's severely underst staffed there. And when I was working there back in 2020, um they were fully staffed. And when we had an event, Comic-Con, uh which if you guys know about that, it's really busy. Um it was a lot of work. Like I was dishwashing and they used a lot of temp workers for that event. And when you if you've worked in um in the food industry and you use temp workers, it's really unorganized, it's really hard because temp workers um for one, like Rosia had mentioned, it's unfair that they get paid more than we do. And they're only used because, you know, companies can make more profit this way. and also event-based kind of uh companies. I mean, I guess you sort of do need it, but the heavy reliance on it causes a lot of problems with just how organized the work is and the workload and with um with Comic-Con, it was all over the place. It was crazy. So you can imagine that when the Super Bowl happened last week that with half the staff they had compared to three years ago that it's going to be even more crazy. And so people were working 12-hour plus shifts the last couple weeks. um the workload is obviously really heavy and just it's just not fair that like um that the workers have to deal with that and that the at the same time that there's a heavy workload for the workers there um this the company is not trying to staff people clearly like they said they weren't even going to consider me until after the Super Bowl and um that um that Um it's uh at the same time they're making a lot of profit. So I mean what we're asking them it's very simple. Just make sure that they actually staff uh the company and make sure that they push them to actually like pay fair wages. Look into the contract that they have uh with Aramark and push them to do the right thing especially when they need it the most. Thank you. Thank you. Bash John is next, followed by Rex. Good afternoon, mayor, members of the city council. Um, my name is Rex Whitmer and I'm here along with a diverse spectrum of citizens of Phoenix uh, in support of the source of income ordinance. What brought me here today is that I find it surprising that in our city in 2023, an American citizen approved for a housing voucher can be denied by the landlord simply because of that housing voucher. And I find it unethical and morally reprehensible that a veteran approved for a veteran housing voucher can be told by the management office of their apartment complex that they are denied housing in that apartment complex because of the housing voucher. That's been uh quoted directly from uh an American citizen in South Phoenix. Um we have evidence of that. Um the beautiful thing is that this ordinance has uh agreement across the political spectrum. I know that I think we have eight out of nine uh indications of support for this sources of income ordinance on the council. And I'm here to ask for two things. The first is unonymity and consensus. For the the final remaining member of the council who has not yet indicated support, we would love to meet with you and discuss uh getting your support. It would be amazing to have full consensus from the city of Phoenix for what I think is an obvious uh legal issue. uh really it should be illegal that a landlord can deny anybody housing uh because of their source of income. Um in fact I was surprised that this is even a debate like why is it legal anywhere in the country? Um it's not a liberal city thing or a liberal state thing. The city of Dallas, Texas is in support of this source of income ordinance. the state of Utah, the state of North Dakota, like as read as you can get have state ordinance for source of income. So on on urgency um civil unimity, I'd like to ask for a meeting with the one last remaining member of the council who has not yet indicated support and have a candid conversation about that. And then on the issue of urgency, I would ask that each council member find a resident in your district who needs a housing voucher who's been denied housing. And if you can't find one, talk to us. We'll search for them. Have one meeting, one conversation with them, and the urgency will become very clear for you. So, thank you for your time. Michelle Ashton is next, followed by Sebastian. My name is Michelle Ashton. I'm the program manager for a domestic violence elder abuse shelter. Um, we find uh housing for our clients. They're all 50 and older, men and women. Um, and it's a confidential shelter, so their safety is of great concern. Had a client uh the other day apply for housing at Culter Park Apartments with her section 8 voucher and was um denied. Uh they told me that it was because her residency letter that we provide to all apartment complexes stating that they do not use their address um was not fair housing standards and that all their residents are required to provide this a mortgage letter or a lease, which I was like, well, if she has a mortgage letter, why would she be applying with you guys? Um so there's one story right there. Um, and I can fill and I'll be back to tell you guys more stories because I have tons of them when it comes to pe my clients being denied housing uh currently for either not making enough. I have another client who applied for an apartment uh complex 55 and older tax credit. She receives SSI and was told that she does not make enough. Um, if you guys are familiar with SSI, at least in her case, she is not allowed to have more than $2,000 in her bank account at any time or she will be penalized. She cannot afford any housing at all right now. None. And her time of two years is almost up in our program. So, it's my understanding that you guys have the power to pass this source of income ordinance. I don't understand what the issue is. If it's about worrying about violating state law, fortunately, state law is not a living, breathing person with their rights to fair housing being violated. State law is not at risk of being sexually assaulted due to the ch the dangers of living on the streets. Um, and urgency appears to mean something different for everyone. I've sat here for over two hours knowing right now that I have a client facing a five-day eviction because her apartment complex and the city of Phoenix section 8 cannot seem to resolve why she receive she has a $4,000 balance. Um certainly though the $2,000 signon bonus did get paid to the apartment complex. Um so we're trying to figure that out and each moment is of urgency. Councilwoman shared with us that uh through investments they're able to provide children with gifts. How many of those gifts do you believe children like those you helped will be able to take with them when they're evicted and living in their vehicles or in shelter? With all due respect, council members, my clients are not fascinated with the dealings of how much was paid for for the stadium or for this luxury box that gets to be used by council members. There's um Oh, sorry. Time's up. I'll be back. Thank you guys. [Applause] Um I would like city staff to meet with um forgot your name, Michelle. Regarding some of these cases, Sebastian is next, followed by Mitchell. Um, first I want to thank Michelle for taking her time to be here. She works directly with our community who is impacted by this kind of discrimination. Um, I also want to thank the woman that was here earlier that lost her sister. Um, it was very courageous for her to be up here and share her story, which I'm sure is not easy. Um, and also our friends at Unite Here for coming and fighting for better working conditions. Um, I'm here on behalf of Kathy Burns. Um, if I haven't introduced myself for you, you don't remember me. My name is Estendra Portillo. I'm an organizer unemploy unemployed workers united and I'm here um on behalf of a great member and elder in our community um Kathy Burns. Kathy is currently in the hospital fighting her second round um with COVID. Even so, she got on the phone with me yesterday. We had a good long conversation um and she wanted me to share uh you know what kinds of hardships she's endured um because of source of income discrimination. Um Kathy has been living in the city of Phoenix all her life. She told me that she's been living on a fixed income for a couple of decades now due to a disability that she has. Um and after two years of waiting, she qualified for section 8. Um, since then she has had to leave two of her homes twice because both of those apartments got sold and the new landlord was like, "You know what? We don't take section A here. You got to go." Right. Um, and so the first time that she was kicked out out of her home, it took her six months to find a new home. Thankfully, she did. The second time she was displaced, it took much longer. Um, so long in fact that she lost her section 8 benefit. Right. She told me she like literally grew physically tired of searching for a place to live. Um, having sex having eight surgeries on one of her legs, walking from the parking lot to a leasing office over and over was painful. She grew tired of having to find money for application fees that did not pan out, that did not turn into anything. Um, applications fees that she couldn't afford. and she she also shared with me how much it hurt to know that she was losing a benefit that was keeping her afloat. Um now almost all of her disability income goes to paying rent. She's paying three times the rent um than she was when she was on section 8. And in her own words, she told me, "I am not only fighting just for me because of low income or a section 8 voucher, but for all those people that don't get anything and are living on the streets. I feel for them. We have to help the people. I cry for them. I pray for them when I eat dinner because I can feel their bellies. We have to help the people." I wish we all have the courage and heart that Kathy does. Source of income is something that you can do now. We need to get it on the agenda. I really don't want to sit through another 40 minutes of a son's sweet when we could actually be talking about something that will help people today and keep them off the streets. Um, thank you. Mitchell is next. Hello, Phoenix City Council. It's nice to meet you. So, my name is Mitchell Kramer. I am a physician assistant student here. Um, and I am speaking in approval of affordable housing and the um the SOI ordinance that we've talked about. Um, so you know, I grew up here in Phoenix. I was born and raised and I'm going to PA school here in the valley and I just wanted to share my views as a healthcare worker. Uh, my patients share some of the most valuable moments of their lives with me. uh like in the clinic when they bring in their newborns with feeding problems in the delivery room where they entrust their their first moments of their child's life with me or recently when we've had to di bring out the diagnosis of autism and comfort the family through that commu the confusion and pain but more specifically to our our situation here in Phoenix. Every summer, emergency departments have dedicated zones for our unhoused neighbors who come in with exposure. People with internal temperatures above 104, 105 who often do not make it. I pride myself in having a rapport with my patients without judgment regardless of the path through life. It's because of this connection that I also feel responsible for their health and advocating for them in spaces where they might not have access. But that responsibility is also shared with you, the city council, the public officials making decisions that affect their lives. Their health is as much determined by my work in the clinic as it is by your policies made here in city hall. I hope to impress upon you that we are not just talking about housing today, but about the health of people and communities. When you succeed in reducing the cost of housing, that gives my patients more money to afford medical care. When you succeed in designing policies that secure their jobs, that means that they can schedule time to see me. When you prioritize clean air in my patients neighborhoods, you reduce the incidence and severity of asthma that then I have to treat. I ask that you help protect my patients, the people on public assistance, from discrimination by landlords so that they can afford to stay in safe homes and safe spaces so that they can come and see me in a clinic and don't end up in the emergency room. Thank you. [Applause] Carla is next, followed by Stephanie. Hello, Mayor, City Council. My name is Carla Edenho and I'm here representing um Unemployed Workers United as well as the thousands of residents who are currently being pushed out of their homes, many of whom rely on public assistance such as section 8 vouchers and social security recipients. We at UO have been working alongside our community members and partner organizations to urge you to pass an anti-discrimination or ordinance based on source of income, which the city has the jurisdiction and the authority to do. We cannot afford to wait. Folks like my aunt who's a domestic worker was given notice to vacate after living in her home for over 20 years. She unfortunately she fortunately had family support to find somewhere new to live. But for many residents that is not a viable option for them. Workers deserve better. The city must move to protect Phoenix's most vulnerable residents as opposed to greedy landlords who benefit from taking advantage of them. We urge you to work out whatever legal issues, whatever things that y'all need to figure out as soon as possible and get this done for the people of Phoenix. Thank you very much. Stephanie will be our final speaker. Hello everyone. Um, hello Mayor and uh, council members. So, my name is Stephanie Santiago. I currently work and live in the community. I have actually seen firsthand the effects and of lack affordable housing has created amongst families and the underserved. At my work, people line up at our weekly food distributions across the valley two hours before we even start distributing food. And this is because it's either food or rent. They have to afford rent, so they got to come get the free food, right? Folks with health issues, you know, the spikes in our in in in our grocery stores are not helping. Folks with health issues, our veterans are being forced out into the streets because they can't no longer afford rent. They can't afford a place to stay or even the vouchers that are given to them just they're being denied across the valley. It's ridiculous. Community members that are in fixed incomes unfortunately are losing their homes, cannot access even a safe shelter for their families, and a lot of them are being forced to sleep out on our streets. Mental health has now become a huge factor. Substance abuse has become a way to self-medicate and a lot of it has become due to not even having a home. This hurts me to the core. I personally have two extra people living in my home right now that can't even afford a studio apartment, working two jobs. How are we supposed to get ahead and become self-sufficient families if we don't even have a chance? The stress of encountering so many people being displaced honestly is sickening and it's only getting worse by the lack of action by our elected officials that have had this subject. It it's let's be honest, it's only been exacerbated by COVID, right? and and the lack of landlords taking emergency vouchers for families that are in need of this assistance. You all need to do what's right, guys. You know, enact tenant protections now to protect our communities from rising rents. Stop filling greedy landlord pockets. Start prioritizing vulnerable communities and put source of income on the agenda now. Please. Thank you so much. We have our had our final comment. We are adjourned. It's to