thank you and welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for April the 3rd all of our Council are present we will begin our meeting with an invocation offered by Pastor Cindy Carpenter with the terrorist Christian Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance welcome Pastor thank you and I just want to say thank you all for all of your hard work that you do every single week let's pray father in the name of Jesus I ask that you give to our mayor and our council members the spirit of wisdom and Revelation and the knowledge of you God that they would know what is the hope of their calling that they would make wise decisions that they would always look to you for guidance by the Holy Spirit and we thank you that they will come to know you in a deeper way thank you that Mesa becomes a very prosperous City that we always have all sufficiency for all things in the name of Jesus amen amen please join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all well thank you Pastor for being here we appreciate that good start to our meeting on our agenda tonight that we will begin with a it's under our Awards and recognitions we do have one Proclamation that we'd like to take care of I'm proud to Proclaim April of 2023 as fair housing month in Mesa Arizona this month recognizes the passing of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which sought to eliminate discrimination in housing opportunities and to further housing choices for all Americans here to accept the proclamation and tell us more about fair housing is city of Mesa Community Services deputy director Mary Branton Mary will uh come down and give you this Proclamation and take a photo with you but feel free to share any thoughts you have about housing in the city and fair housing specifically we didn't know we were going to make a presentation bet we are excited to Proclaim April as the fair housing month for the city of Mesa and we always strive to make sure that all of our residents have housing that is safe and that they're not being discriminated against for any reason for their housing I'll just add that that includes all of our programs and services for any of the agencies we fund or any access to the services here in the city of Mesa because we receive federal funding we do make a commitment to enforce fair housing and to make sure that there's opportunities for everybody so thank you so much well thank you that was Michelle obanisi and Mary Brandon these ladies during covet I I if you don't mind I'll piggyback a little bit the city of Mesa did a wonderful job of our housing department in particular in working with eviction prevention and utility payment assistance disbursing I'm going to say 65 million dollars 60 60 million dollars over the course of you know less than two years and that was that that's that's a lot of work and so these these ladies and they're those who work with them have done an excellent job of helping a lot of Mesa families with housing and and we continue to be very committed to that so they're well deserving of our respect and thanks so Council let's go down and take a photo with this Proclamation and celebrate National Fair Housing month foreign spaced out there we go do we all fit in the frame okay thank you thank you so much you can find a good place for that anyway okay thank you thank you thank you I'm sorry that's all right thank you the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda we'll invite Mr Kevin Christopher to come forward or read the consent agenda Mr Christopher I'll let you know that we have received uh cards to speak on agenda item 8B so that will be removed from the consent agenda good evening mayor and council members these are the items in the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member orders citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A act on liquor license application for college bound one day event April 29th at Riverview Park 2202 West Rio Salado Parkway item 3B act on liquor license application for college-bound one day event April 30th at Riverview Park 2202 West Rio Salado Parkway item 3C at the liquor license application for Arizona Aviation historical group one day event April 29th at 4426 East fighter Aces Drive item 3D act on liquor license application for Rito's Mexican food 1033 North Dobson Road item 3E act on liquor license application for Sky High Dobson 1941 West Guadalupe Road item 3F act on liquor license application for level one our Kate bar 48 West Main Street item 3G Acton liquor license application for MOD Pizza 5021 South Power Road item 4A approving three-year term contract with two years of renewal options for replacement bomb suit and helmet for the Mesa Police Department the initial purchase is Grant funded by Arizona Department of Homeland Security item 4B approving dollar limit increase in additional vendor Awards to The Cooperative use term contract for communications cabling systems for various City departments as requested by the police department and the department of innovation and Technology item 4C approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for vehicle decals and graphics for the Mesa fire medical Mesa police and various City departments as requested by the Fleet Services Department item 4D approving one-year term contract with a one-year renewal option for parts and repair services or fire apparatus for the Mesa fire and medical Department item 4E approving one-year term contract for playground equipment repair and replacement parts for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4f approving use of a Cooperative contract for the purchase of furniture for various locations for the library Services Department item 4G approving the dollar limit increase to the term contract for herbicide application and vegetation removal services for the transportation department item 4A is approving purchase to repair the primary entry Monument to the fiesta District to the transportation department item 5A approving resolution or authorizing an intergovernmental agreement memorandum of understanding with Maricopa Association of governments and various Arizona cities towns tribal governments and political subdivisions regarding the engagement of a full-time Urban water Ambassador in connection with the Rio reimagined Urban Waters Federal partnership and River revitalization for the Rio Salado River item 6A introduction of ordinance for annexation case 22-123 regarding a portion of County right-of-way generally located on Power Road between Baseline Road and an area north an area south of Guadalupe Road item 6B introduction of ordinance for zoning case 22-714 for property located south of Baseline Road on the east side of Haws Road a rezone with planned area development Overland site plan reviews allow for multiple residents development item 7A 7B and 7c are for continuance to the May 1st 2023 city council meeting these items are for an annexation zoning ordinance and development agreement for the proposed development Legacy Gateway hotels located along Williams Field Road West of State Route 24. again these items are for continuous to the May 1st 2023 city council meeting item 8A approving ordinance regarding zoning case 22-1263 for property generally located east of Greenfield Road and south of us 60. rezone the plant area development overlay and site plan review to provide housing accommodations for patients and their families at Banner Gateway Medical Center item 8B has been removed from the consent agenda item 9A approving subvision platform project 4 on property generally located east of Sussman road on the north side of University Drive item 9B approving the subdivision platform Adobe luxury villas econominium on property generally located south of the Brown Road on the west side of Recker road and item 9C approving approving Subdivision plat for Villas and McDowell and property generally located west of Power Road on the north side of McDowell Road mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Ms Mosley have we received other than the 8B cards I mentioned earlier any other requests to speak on an item on the consent agenda no request me all right thank you we have a motion made by council member Freeman seconded by council member spilsbury for approval of the consent agenda please vote thank you the vote is unanimous in favor of adopting the consent agenda next item on our agenda is item 8B this is to take action on an ordinance it would amend the mesa city code to revise the formal procurement and Council Improvement threshold and update and modernize the language we do have two requests to speak on this item uh we'll appear first for Mr Peter and nelm I hope you'll correct my pronunciation of your name Peter welcome you have three minutes thank you welcome a mayor and city council agenda item 8B increases the threshold for the city council approval for procurement expenditures from 25 000 to 100 000. I believe expanding the city manager's spending authority to a hundred thousand dollars without city council approval weakens the city council's ability to exercise prudent fiscal oversight of government expenditures therefore I strongly oppose agenda item 8B and request that the mayor and city council will known item AP since 2011 the city council has overspent government governmental activity revenues by 947 million and transferred from the business type utility funds over 1.2 billion to offset governmental activity over spending the currency of budget for General governmental projects revenues of 452 million and expenditures of 591 million for a deficit of 139 million in expenditures over revenues the budget reflector transfer of 120.1 million from the Utility Fund and 14.8 million transferred from other funds to offset the deficit the city of mesa's 2022 knit position statement shows that Mesa has the highest level of debt compared with Phoenix Tucson Chandler Gilbert and Tempe Mason's 2022 change in their position statement reflects that Nate Mesa overspent General governmental activity revenues by 55 million dollars none of these other cities overspent their General governmental activity revenues instead they all reported surpluses the city of Mesa transferred 115 million dollars from utility funds to the general governmental activity funds to cover its overspending due to the city's overspending I failed to understand why the city council is considering increasing the city manager's spending Authority when it seems to me that the city needs to improve physical oversight and to give an unelected official Carl Blanc on this I think it's not pureed an oversight for the city council you need to keep control of the finances you're not doing a good job as it is now thank you thank you Peter next we'll hear from David win Stanley welcome David you have three minutes you Mr Mayor and city council my name is David winstanley I live on topaz Avenue just south of Ray Road near Eastmark in councilman Summers District I come to speak on this uh you have been mandated by proposition 477 to make this change so it seems appropriate your presentation has some good examples from other cities of what they have done for the level however I have three suggestions for you the first one is to examine paragraph 1-21-8 paragraph C there's a disconnect between what's called larger large dollar amounts and the amount mentioned in that paragraph This is under Emergency Care Emergency spending and I think there's a disconnect in the wording I'll leave that up to you and your lawyers to to decide the second thing is I'd like to suggest that you consider lowering the amount why is that according to ZipRecruiter the average salary in Mesa is forty five thousand dollars according to the U.S Census Bureau the average household income in Mesa is sixty five thousand dollars according to the Arizona Republic Mr Giles your salary is seventy three thousand five hundred dollars and yet we're giving the city manager authority to spend and more than those amounts anytime as often as he wishes without restriction so my per second suggestion is to ask you to consider doing it more gradually you have the authority to make that change you can do fifty thousand dollars this year and a hundred thousand next year the third thing I'm suggesting is there's no oversight in the ordinance um there's there's no limit to the number of times it can be done there's no limit to the amount there's no reference to it cannot exceed a budget um there seems to be a slight lack of oversight of that and so my request and suggestion is you should add that to that ordinance of for a year do a trial and look at what you need to be watching in the future I thank you for your consideration uh Mr Winston yes could you give us the citation to the section that you thought might have a wording problem uh it is one dash is it 12 or 21 I'm doing it for memory dash eight it's the emergency section paragraph C it says any large dollar amount and that proceeds to talk about twenty five thousand dollars and so I think there's a disconnect in the wording there okay thank you I think Mr Smith has it in front Okay thank you Mr Winn Stanley yes uh Council any discussion on this item while you're thinking Mr Brady there was some some terminology that was used uh by our first speaker can you can the city of Mesa is it legally possible for us to overspend and engage in deficit spending it is not married by state law we must have a balanced budget and then the reference to filling the Gap with utility transfers the city's been doing that for 80 years it's not the city it's not the city manager it's since 1943-42 that the city has always transferred funds from its Enterprise Fund in lieu of a primary property tax that's the trade-off in Mesa so it is both the transfer is both an order is created by ordinance it's for it's a formula and it's established by the council that we've been living by for many years so it's we don't use it to fill a gap we don't look at as a way to fill a deficit it's just a part of the programming has been since 1942 that's why the city of Mesa has not had a primary property tax during that period of time thank you and the comment was also made that other cities are running at a surplus is that the case yeah I think was what's uh we're actually um pleased to tell everyone if when you read out when you go and look at an audit and a table on the sheet uh the way I've been trained to do this and I've been as business for almost 40 years is you go down the column and all the way to the right and then we're pleased to say in total government in 2022 the most recent audited statement of the city the net position ending is one billion 51 million 921 thousand dollars the best has ever been since 2018. thank you Mr Smith do you have a reaction to the uh the question about the language I do mayor and Council so the section is cited 1218c the reference to twenty five thousand dollars been struck out so if you if you look at the the language it's I'm looking at the the item that's off of legislar and the one that you would sign if it were to pass tonight and the reference to that exceeds twenty five thousand dollars and then the numerical version of twenty five thousand all of that is struck out so because this is a revising previous language the the document shows the pre the old language and it shows a line through it right so that may have created some confusion okay well yeah then that's a that's uh that's a problem that the version online didn't reflect that that was that language had been crossed through so mayor sometimes people's phones when you try to look it on on your phone your software doesn't show um unless you've downloaded uh the the the word format sometimes it won't show it is enlightened this is a print off I don't doubt what you're saying this is a print off of the largest star item so if you have the software and you if you look at it yeah um it is struck out okay thank you Council any comments okay let's go with Mr Freeman and Mr Summers thank you mayor I wanted to point out when we transfer the monies from our Enterprise fund it's strictly for our Public Safety budget so we did an ordinance change I think about a year and a half ago two years ago is that right Mr Brady or was it a resolution it's an ordinance but um it's 25 and 5. 25 does go to Public Safety twenty five percent so part of that money goes towards our Public Safety funding and budget uh Mr Summers I had to find the mic on this one so you mentioned that there was an audit Mr Brady I'm sorry who who does the audit are we referring to the ACT for yes sir I think I was referring to the question the mayor had yes I was referring to the most Audi most recently audited financial statements by our outside Auditors third party and that is reported in the what's now called the actor correct correct yes on page eight we'll have a presentation on that I think we had we had a presentation I encourage uh the public to go look at that it shows our net position since 2018 I think is how far we met back and we are over a billion dollars the highest we've ever been okay so here's here's the issue I've had with this um before and we and in a study session I've mentioned this and it goes to Mr win Stanley's uh concerns on how much we're raising this I believe it was in 1978 we set the the city council headset ten thousand dollars as as the limit back then and then adjusted it again in 2003 so the CPI from 1978 to roughly 2003 would have put this at 29 300 and the council set it to 25 000. it kind of goes to your point Mr Brady that you made on that day that the council really set it too low and I would agree with that we probably did said they did set that too low it should have been more along the line of thirty thousand dollars for to meet the CPI so if you look at what that thirty thousand dollars would be today in the CPI and I'm using the sbi's calculator on this so that is my source that would put us a little over forty eight thousand forty eight thousand seven hundred so I if we looking at the other cities are setting this at a hundred thousand dollars but if we were to be a little bit more fiscally prudent I think seventy five thousand would one increase the level that would understanding that things are getting more expensive we want to be more efficient in and 25 000 just as an efficient in moving things quickly and getting projects done but I think 75 000 would be an agreeable level for one uh rather than the hundred thousand and like Mr Urban Stanley said we can look at this again next year and decide if a hundred thousand is a better number the other thing I think would be important this just goes back to when I was on Council before we raised the contracts for Professional Services we raised that level as well to up to twenty five thousand dollars which I think it stays today still about that number but in agreement with that Council to have that number set and to make sure that Council was fully informed of what the spending was we had a quarterly report submitted to Council on that spending so there are a couple of options here we could set it at a hundred thousand and require quarterly reports we could set it at 75 000 and look at it against next year but my preference would be to maybe even have both where we get quarterly reports on what that spending is the council and set the rate at 75 000 for this year thank you mayor thank you Ms Pillsbury yeah so last Thursday at our study session I don't know if you were able to watch we kind of went over um like a really broad overhead budget discussion and I learned a lot from it and I felt like our constituents would benefit from being able to click on our website and to see more summary General picture of an explanation of how the budget works in the city just because I think a lot of people are confused and don't quite understand it's extremely complicated um I my understanding is that this changing this to a hundred thousand and giving more leeway would actually make things move a lot faster and if anyone who's worked in government knows that nothing moves fast right like I've been doing this for a little over two years and it's frustrating that just how long some things take and so I loved the thought that this could move things faster I also love to the point that I believe councilmember deaf made is that this also would allow us to use local businesses easier and through that procurement process I think when you look at the list of cities and you look at their budgets and you realize their population and that Mesa is almost twice the size of all the other cities on on here besides Phoenix and that almost all of them are at a hundred thousand I I totally support the hundred thousand um if I've learned anything the last couple of years is how many checks and balances there are are on all of this all these processes there's tons of transparency there's no way people are going to hide things or do anything that that um we that 5 10 15 other people see and so I trust that a hundred thousand is where we need to be the size of our city the the ease of of moving some of these processes through faster I have complete confidence that the 100 000 is a good solution thank you Mr Pillsbury and stuff I'll chime in as well I do want to add a couple comments especially as far as this expenditure limit the expenditures are still within our budget so it's not like a free open check that you can just write anytime it still has to be within the confines of a budget that we set at Council so it's just the ability to spend some of these smaller amounts within that budget without the council approval so it's not an open open check also on some of our funds it may appear to have a deficit but we have reserves and we have a goal of what our reserves should be bottom line and so sometimes especially in our utilities instead of raising our rates to the point of covering our costs we have had built up some reserves and we wanted to spend down the reserves in order to maintain the reserve goal so if you see but overall as a city no we are not running as a deficit any individual fund you might see some nuances of that I agree with council member spilsberry on efficiency there are supplies and products that um our departments need and for them to write the proposal to have it posted with city council for it to get to that meeting it can be a 60-day delay and we already know the delays and Supply chains now so it's a matter of just being efficient being able to get the supplies the products that they need quicker in these small expenditures in order to be provide the customer service that we aspire to provide to our residents I think is necessary thank you thank you other Council discussion Ms Goforth um yeah I I tend to um agree with councilmember Summers on his calculation uh over the years taken into account CPI and where it should end but I uh but also taking into account um the the total of our budget the comparison cities I think the a good compromise from going from the 25 to 100 Within this year both of the suggested uh his suggestions I think are good middle of the road first steps I would tend to lean towards you know maybe approving the hundred but being given a report a quarterly report on what's Happening so that because as we've said this is the ultimate responsibility of of the council to ensure uh our our dollars are spent well not that we don't trust the staff and our city for sure but that that is part of the council's responsibility and I think looking at it quarterly is is a prudent thing to take on as a council not necessarily burdening the process because we understand that [Music] um it's it's about efficiency as well but that we do have some oversight mayor can I just offer a clarification the original charter of 1967 set the Threshold at ten thousand dollars according to our CPA CPI inflation calculator ten thousand dollars in January of 1967 is now ninety one thousand four hundred and forty dollars and seventy three cents so frankly we didn't go there we were trying to be like our peers because our peers have had the hundred thousand dollars for quite some time and they move much faster and purchasing things but even if you look at the CIP CPI we're over a ninety thousand dollars in the 1967 10 000 and using the CPI inflation calculator that we use we got the ninety thousand thank you but yours but in 1970 what what did you say 1978 was set I said 78 because it said three times I'm just saying what the number was in 1967 when the charter because all those were I mean I'm not even going to try to defend 2004 25 000. we were already behind the other cities all we're saying is we just want to be like our peers we want to build a purchase and move quickly just like our peers do at a hundred thousand dollars that's where we got the number we didn't use an inflation Factor we use a comparative of other cities we backed into and looked at let's go back to the window it was originally set by the charter it's 10 000 1967 that's ninety one thousand dollars today thank you Mr Summit so I would be comfortable with that number if it came with the caveat like we did previously I mentioned having a quarterly report return to council so we can look at it one thing that we do have to make sure we have accountability is we have a city auditor that works independently for this Council not not for City management that we hire so if we got quarterly reports at the hundred thousand and we were uncomfortable with it we could forward it to the city auditor for review so I would be comfortable with that thank you that was one of the points I wanted to make too is that uh it was another addition to the city Charter was the then it was not that many years ago was the addition of a city auditor position that report 14 years to the council how long ago was it 18 years 18 years ago yeah uh and so uh the the uh the allegation or or the the concern that this there might be less scrutiny being applied to the financial uh workings of the city I I don't share that concern a number there are State procurement laws there are City policies we have this city auditor and as has been indicated uh this doesn't give any additional budgetary Authority or discretion to the city manager it really is just a trying to figure out how we can move a little quicker because waiting you know sometimes there's getting on this agenda is in and of itself is something that's very cumbersome and then sometimes that agenda gets continued for a week or a month and so it can be frustrating to be a city employee and have to wait for that process to to work its way through in order to do your job so and again I would also remind everyone that this was something that our voters did in the last general election amending our city Charter to allow for this so I'm in support of the the motion and I do Mr Brady note that a couple of our council members have asked for a quarterly uh report on how this is operating yeah I think we'll have to get some clarification at some point about that I don't know if that's part of the motion here because is it the question of we want to query report of everything under a hundred thousand dollars or between 75 and 100 I mean because that's a very long list what about the 25 to 100 because that's what we're being asked to raise it from 25 to 100. again that'll be a long list if you want to see that I would suggest if we were comfortable getting to 50 or 75 it was between 75 and uh 100. I I think I was told it's about 50 some items is that right 57 items from which from uh between 50 and 100 000. okay I was gonna say anything from under 100 is probably going to be or not so between 50 and 100 uh mayor council member uh I believe it's 99 uh up to a hundred thousand dollars so it's the zero to a hundred thousand dollars I'm sorry the number 50 50 to 100 was like 57 items yeah okay okay if if we could make that part of the motion I'd be well so part of the motion might require us to re-notice if you wanted to see this direction yeah if I could clarify that um the current reporting requirement for the Professional Services is in management policy uh which is issued by the city manager he received direction from the council put it in management policies so it's not Contracting it's Professional Services yes so um you know that is one option for the council if the council gives the city manager Direction that's the way we would go on the reporting so as not to delay the uh consideration of the amendment okay well I'll note that the motion has been made and seconded for the agenda item that has published okay so let's go ahead and vote on that and I think we have had the city managers heard our uh suggestion that we get an update on a perhaps a quarterly basis of the difference between 15 and 100. you can do that any additional discussion prior to evil prior to voting all right thank you it's been moved and seconded please vote that vote passes 6-1 with council member Summers voting Mill um next item on our agenda is items from citizens present uh as mostly do we have any requests to speak under this item I have received no requests there all right thank you that concludes the business on our agenda there's a motion to adjust to adjourn thank you Mr Freeman and Mr Summers all in favor please say aye aye thank you we are adjourned thank you