Good afternoon. Welcome to the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council for May 25th, 2022. Thank you for joining us. We'll begin today's council meeting with an in invocation from fire chaplain Nick Patrusi. Good afternoon. Thank you for the honor to be here. Before we get started, I was wonder if you would please if we could uh observe a moment of silence in regards to the evil events in Texas yesterday and then I will start praying. Father God, we we come to you today with uh heavy and heartbroken hearts, Lord, with the events that took place yesterday. I would just like to lift up each and every family that was involved in that situation yesterday with the little children, Lord. Father, I pray for the families. I pray for the I thank you for the officers that ran into the gunfire to to stop that situation, Lord. I pray for each first responder that showed up that day and took did their job, Father. Lord, I pray for the medical team that's still treating them at the hospital, Lord. Father, I just uh I just thank you for for men and women that choose to try to help and make a difference, Lord, but it's such a tragic event. I just pray that you be with that community, Lord, as we Father God, I just we thank you for this day you have given us and the opportunity to serve our great city and community. Father, I thank you for our mayor and council members as they have chosen to enter this arena of leadership. Lord, I ask you to please guide them and give them wisdom and discernment as they make decisions on today's agenda. Please give each of them open hearts and ears to listen to each other and the community that they serve. Please give them courage and strength for the follow through on their decisions. Father, I'd like to pray for all the city departments and their leadership. Please put a hedge of protection around us as a city. Once again, God, thank you for the opportunity to serve wherever we are. To you be the glory. Amen. Thank you, Chaplain, for those words. Councilman Wearing, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Thank you so much. We'll now begin with roll call. Councilwoman Ansari here. Councilman Deisio. Council member Garcia here. Councilwoman Wardado here. Councilwoman O'Brien here. Councilwoman Stark here. Councilman Wearing here. Vice Mayor Pastor, Mayor Ggo here. Mario Barahas and Carmen Kota are here with Welcome Councilman Deisio. Mario Barahas and Carmen Kota are with us to provide interpretation services. I'll turn to Mario for a brief introduction. [snorts] Yes, mayor. Thank you. As you've already mentioned, my name is Mario Vahas and also Carmen Kota. We will both be serving as today's Spanish interpreters. I'm now going to take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking audience. Mario. much. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Mario. Will the city clerk please read the 24-hour paragraph? The titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only. Ordinances number G6986 through 6988 S48615 through 48677 and resolutions 220 through 22028. Thank you. I'll turn to our city attorney to explain the role of public comment in council meetings. Thank you, mayor. Members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items to be discussed. Comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council. General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made in the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda. The city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations, claims, or litigation. The city code requires speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner. Profane language, threats, or personal attacks on members of the public, council members, or staff are not allowed. A person who violates these rules will lose their opportunity to continue to speak. Thank you. Next, we'll move to boards and commissions. For today's council meeting, Council Member Garcia will serve as vice mayor. Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? Motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commission nominations. Second. A motion and a second. Any comments? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Nay. Passes unanimously. We next go to agenda item number two, which is reappointment of the Phoenix Municipal Court judges and chief presiding judge. Vice Mayor. Motion to approve reappointment of Judge Tina Salman, Judge Laura Lori, and Municipal Court Chief Presiding Judge B. Don Taylor III. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comments? Just want to express my appreciation to our municipal court system for continuing to innovate, to be uh solutionoriented, and to navigate difficult times, including a pandemic. I look forward to supporting this. And for our city clerk, do we need a roll call on this? All right. Can we have a voice vote? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Nay. passes unanimously. Uh, congratulations and we'll look forward to the swearing in at a future meeting. The city council provides advisory services to the state of Arizona on liquor licenses and we will turn to that portion of our agenda. Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? Motion to approve items 3 through 11. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comments? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Nay. passes unanimously. Next we go. City clerk, are we ready for ordinances, resolutions, new business planning and zoning? Yes mayor. Thank you. A great agenda today. Economic development, 39 housing units, and so much more. Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? Uh motion to approve items 12 through 111, except the following items 14, 30, 43, 46, 50, 52, 62, and 67. Noting that item 52 is as revised, item 62 is being continued to June 15, 2022. Item 105 is as corrected. And excluding these items for virtual public comment, items 40 and 52. And can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comment? Vice Mayor, no other items need to be excluded at this time. Thank you. I will second. We have a motion and a second. Any comments or corrections? Nice job, Vice Mayor. Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Ward, yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. VGO, yes. Passes 8 Z. Thank you. Next we go to the payment ordinance. Uh item 14, race forward our GRE program. Vice Mayor, motion to approve item 14. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comments? Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio, no. Garcia, yes. Ward, yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, no. GGO, yes. Passes 62. And next is item 30, settlement of claim, vice mayor. Motion to approve item 30. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comments? Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio, no. Garcia, yes. Yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, no. GGO, yes. Passes 62. Moving on to item 40. Do we have a motion? I move to approve. Second. Roll call. I believe there's someone who wants to speak. Okay. Vice Mayor. Okay. Can we get that speaker not on the line? The speaker is not on the line. Okay. Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio. Yes. Garcia. Yes. And I wanted to make a quick comment just in gratitude of the firefighters. We know our firefighters need this support from us. Their job is so dangerous and we hope that this leads to better health outcomes. So, yes. O'Brien. Oh, sorry. Guard, yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. GGO, passes 70. Thank you. Moving on to item 43. Do we have a motion? Motion to a second. Second. Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes, Deisio. Yes, Garcia. Yes, I'm a yes, but I have comments on this. So, I just wanted to thank Nancy Allen, Rosanne Albbride, and the whole team in the Office of Environmental Programs for their work on this item. Overall, their focus on the Phoenix Resilient Food System portion of our American Rescue Plan Act allocation has been exceptional and I appreciate their work connecting to small farmers across the city. I am proud to support Yobro Farms in District 5 as a recipient of this important grant opportunity. My staff has been in contact with with the team at Yro and we are eager to support their continued efforts. Thanks again to the city staff that work so hard on this grant and I am excited to be supporting this item today. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 80. Next, we go to 46, the authorization to issue the RFP for the Mexico Trade Office in Enosio Consulting Services. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve item 46. Second. We have a motion and a second. Comments. Council member Garcia. [clears throat] Thank you. Uh Councilman Gardo and I had the experience of going out and and opening and and having conversations with the folks in Armosio. Um really excited to uh continue that work. um continue the support for both businesses here to flourish in Armosio and businesses from Armosio to flourish here. So really excited to vote yes on this. Councilwoman Guardo, thank you, Mayor. Yes, it was it was a really great trip that we were able to take out there and seeing um the opportunities of partnership and being able to bring a little bit of of Mexico um to Phoenix, especially for all of those people that cannot make the trip out to Mexico. I know that we just had a delegation of folks that were just here from Mosio and and trying to figure out how is it that they bring um their businesses here. I'm looking forward to this partnership. I'm very grateful um for for everyone that received us with opened arms and Edmmo and been able to open up the office and I'm excited to seeing all the great work that's going to happen. And also thanks to our economic developer Chris Mackey for all of her hard work on this and keeping them motivated during the pandemic. I know that it was not it was not easy. The last two years have not been easy, but looking forward to what this partnership is going to bring for the city. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Ansari. Thank you, Mayor. Um, first I wanted to also congratulate my colleagues and and thank them for leading the the delegation to go to Aerosio. I think this is very very exciting. Um we all know that Mexico is one of our strongest trade partners and um especially for me as we wrap up our work on the electric vehicle roadmap for the city of Phoenix. I think reopening our services and the manufacturing powerhouse of Sonora is perfect timing. I was excited to hear that they are actually the first city in Mexico that has started to electrify their city fleets starting with solar powered electric cars for their public safety department. So, I think our close proximity with them and working with them closely will be great as we begin to do the same. And also, huge thanks to our economic development uh director, Chris Mackey, um who traveled to celebrate the rededication of this office. It's a very exciting day. Thank you. Thank you. Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Wardado, yes. O'Brien, yes. Yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, no. GGO, yes. Passes 71. Next, we go to item 50, enhanced Municipal Services District Consulting Contract Award. Vice Mayor, motion to approve item 50. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any comments? Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio, no. Varcia, yes. Yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing. Mayor, I want to explain my vote and uh if I say something wrong, if Chris Mackey could correct me, but I I vote against the enhanced municipal services district, but this is not part of the enhanced municipal services district. This is an audit or oversight of them. Is that correct, Chris? Mayor, Councilman Wearing, that is correct. This is not part of the EMSD. This is an oversight and audit of the financial information that comes out of that. Yeah. So even if I may vote against the program, I certainly would want to make sure the taxpayer dollars or tax or any dollars are being spent appropriately. So I'm going to vote yes. Thank you. Ago. Yes. Passes 71. Thank you. Next we go to item 52, which is authorization to enter into a development agreement and other agreements with Concord Wilshshire Capital for the redevelopment of Metro Center Mall and the acquisition and construction of public parking garages. Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? Motion to approve item 52. Second. We have a motion and a second. We do have one member of the public to speak and then Steve Betts available for any questions that that council members have. We'll begin with Mary Grace McNeer. Mayor and council, good afternoon. I apologize. I may have signed up incorrectly. I have no comments on this other than to support it. Thank you. Do any um first we'll go. Does anyone have questions for um Steve Betts or uh Mrs. McNair? Wonderful. Thank you. All right, that concludes our public comment and I will turn to Councilman Wearing for comments. All right, Chris, I've talked to Thank you, Mayor. I've talked to you about this before. Could you just explain what we're doing here? Mayor, Councilman Wearing, I'd be I'd be privileged to. So, this is a a development agreement that would provide an opportunity for the redevelopment of Park Central Mall, our former mall that of course I remember being at when I was a small child, Frell's ice cream parlor waitress right here. Um, so as we look at moving forward, some of the most significant challenges that we have in old mall redevelopment is the cross- access parking easements and infrastructure. As you can imagine, they're like a bowl of spaghetti underneath the malls. So, can I can I You said Park Central, I think. Metro. Oh, guys. Metro. Oh my goodness. Please excuse me. I apologize. No, I know. I'm getting my old age. I [laughter] was like, "Wow, this is completely different than I thought it was." Let me look again. Okay, I didn't mean to correct you like that. I thought I knew what you meant, but just people at home might get confused, too. For the record, thank you so much for correcting me. Metro Center. Um, oh my goodness. Uh so what this allows the opportunity is for the city to come into a public private partnership and to uh participate financially with any new general fund revenue that's created by the project or in the the district around the the area around the project that would reimburse them for the cost of the public parking garage and any public amenities that would be open and available to the public with public easements over the top of them. From the day this is built, it will be built and o it will be built and paid for by title 34 through the developer themselves and at the end of construction at certificate of occupancy the garage the garage or garages will transfer to city's ownership. So they will be in city ownership. This is not a this is not a community facilities district. This is not a special taxing jurisdiction. This is simply the city using its general fund revenue to cause redevelopment of a mall and in return uh we will own a public asset which is the the parking garage and have public rights over uh a public amenity space. Mayor, can I ask a follow-up? Please do. Thank you. I appreciate it. So I mean we own parking structures downtown, correct? So those are are pay lots. Is is this so is this going to be a revenue generator for us or I mean what what kind of lot is it going to be or is it just going to be open parking for the mall or do we know? Mayor Kinsman wearing yes we do know. So there will be a revenue that goes so the the I'm going to make up a number. Let's say the garage is $17 million to build a garage. There will be uh an account that the city's TPT money goes into. any parking revenue goes into uh and anything else that's collected on the parking garage goes into that revenue will be used first as operation and maintenance O andM on the garage and a long-term capital program on the garage secondarily it will be used to pay off the debt service on the garage itself when the garage is paid and and let's say that it's paid at 25 years it may be paid earlier when the garage is paid at that time yes it will be a revenue generator to the city we can charge for parking. A future council could choose to sell the garage and monetize the garage at that time. That would be for a future council to decide what they want to do with that publicly owned asset. Uh, mayor, if I can. Um, so if I had to sum up what you just said, this may be completely wrong. The developer builds the garage, we collect the revenue, we pay off the garage, and at the end, we own the garage. Just a little and then and then we own and we get the revenue from the garage whenever that is paid off. Just a little tweaking there. So the the there will be a a participation between our finance department and the developer by which there will be an account that we we both have access to that will be where the revenue is paid off from those assets. So um we we would collect all the asset money on the garage. It would go into a fund that then would be collected to us, correct? And then anything that's not needed for operation and maintenance and capital of the garage would go to the developer to pay off the debt service. So, we won't control the debt service. The developer will. The city will have no obligation to the debt service at all. Uh, Mayor Chris, it's up to them to pay it off. And then taxpayers are on the hook for running it. People who park there are on the hook for running it or paying for it. It's pay as you go and then when there's spillover it goes to the developer to pay them off for building it and at the end we have a revenue generating asset. Mayor Councilman Wearing, you're exactly correct. Is that accurate summary? Very accurate. I just want to make sure I understood. I appreciate your patience with me. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Any additional com Councilwoman Stark, Mayor, I just wanted to thank uh Mr. Betts and Chris Mackey for the excellent work they did. But I know there were two people determined to make sure this would happen. And that was first Councilwoman Thods and now Councilwoman Ann O'Brien. Um and I'm very excited for them. I'm very excited for Metro Center. I remember going there too with the old ice rink. So this is very exciting that we're going to see redevelopment and I know this development agreement will help ensure that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes. Deisio, yes. Garcia, yes. Yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 8 Z. We next go to item 67, visual visual interpreting services for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve item 67. I will second it. [snorts] Wonderful. Thank you, Councilwoman, for that second and I will turn to you for comments. Thank you. I'm very excited to support this item. Several months ago, then Board of Supervisor Steve Chukree asked me to meet with one of his constituents who is legally blind. The gentleman is a frequent user of Sky Harbor Airport. He told me of an app that can guide him through an airport. It actually gives him the visual assistance to find gates, read arrivals and departures, look at menus at the restaurants and the like. One of the airports he mentioned that used it was where Chad once worked. So I immediately contacted Chad and he put the wheels in motion to provide this service for our airport as well. Just another example of Sky Harbor being the friendliest airport in the country. So I want to thank Chad Matt and his staff for making sure this was implemented. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. And for those of you who don't go to every council meeting, Chad is our aviation director and Matt is Matt Hy who was our project manager on this great project. So thank you. another win for making Sky Harbor more inclusive. This builds on the work we've done to be a dementia friendly airport, including offering a compassion cacti lanyard that signals to our team when people with u dementia or other high needs are in the airport and might be able to get additional support and services. Um people in our community with an autism diagnosis have benefited from as well. Soon we'll open a new concourse that's doing uh additional uh investments to make sure that we are accessible and and leading the pack. And so Matt, Chad, and and the team, congratulations and thank you for your leadership in making sure that Sky Harbor is the friendliest airport for everyone. Additional comments, uh Councilman Deisio, it'll be quick. Uh just wanted to thank Chad for all the work that he does over there. He's really been on the cutting edge on many on many things and he's been able to bring back to the city of Phoenix, you know, that cutting edge tech uh mentality and we haven't had that in a while. We used to just kind of stagnate and now we're literally moving into a new era and um I just am impressed every day by what he does over there. Thank you, Mayor. Wonderful. Roll call. I'm sorry. Yes, Deisio. Yes, Garcia. Yes, yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 80. Thank you. Councilman Wearing, do you have a motion to reconsider item 69? Yes, Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to reconsider item 69. Second. We have a motion and a second to reconsider item 69. So if this motion is a motion is successful, then we would revote on item 69. All those in favor of reconsideration of 69, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Nay. We now return to item 69, which is the request to submit annual Federal Transit Administration grant applications and enter into grant agreements. Before we reconsider, does anyone have any comments on this item? And I would just say I was enthusiastic about supporting this the first time and will again thanks to the infrastructure and jobs act as well as our partnership with the federal government generally and the support of our voters with T2050 and Proposition 400. We have a great abilities to maintain our transit system which has been so important to the success of our community. Um these are great news for anyone who's worried about maintaining our buff bus fleet or or um security investments. So much more and and a very exciting good news item. So with that, we will call roll call on item 69. Motion. Oh, I'm sorry, Vice Mayor. Motion to approve item 69. Second. We have a motion in a second. And I I'll guess I'll ask one more time for additional comments on 69. All right, roll call. I'm sorry. Yes, Deisio. Mayor, just a quick explanation. Even though it does have some transit associated with it, this is an overall project that would be extremely beneficial to the city of Phoenix. And you know, with when it comes to projects, sometimes you have things you like in there and sometimes you don't. But overall, if you look at the benefits of this project compared to everything else that might be in it, uh it's completely outweighs anything that could be negative. And so I'm going to be a yes. Mayor Garcia, yes. Ward, yes. O'Brien, yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, no. GGO, yes. Passes 71. Thank you. That concludes the agendaized port. 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 citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes. 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. Thank you. To show we are multimedia, we have two comments today, one virtual, one in person. We'll begin with a virtual with Joel Ericson followed by Annne Ender who is with us and we'd invite you down to the podium. Joel, the floor is yours. Yes. Thank you for your time uh your honor and and council members. Um I'm here on behalf of the support Sky Harbor Coalition. As you all know, Sky Harbor is the largest economic engine in the state. It's very important to our whole community to protect Sky Harbor for the future. The uh proposed Tempy Entertainment District, which is straight east of Sky Harbor's busiest departure runway, I I'm concerned that it places the future of Sky Harbor in jeopardy. Um, included in that entertainment district is a high-rise residential building in an area with high levels of aircraft noise. And it goes against an agreement between the cities of Phoenix and Tempi. An agreement that dictates flight paths for plane departing to the east of uh, Sky Harbor. And the agreement protects Tempi neighborhoods from having flight paths over their homes. uh placing anything residential less than 2,000 feet off the end of a busy runway and right under the flight path is a direct violation of that agreement and it's going to lead to noise complaints. That's how it goes when you develop residential around an airport and then they begin to oppose airport development and it leads to less air service and fewer local jobs and and more costly flights. And I would hate to see us in a situation like Denver where we have to relocate a major source of um transportation infrastructure to a location outside the city to be able to develop it further. Um I'm asking you all to do everything you can to protect Sky Harbor for the benefit of the entire region. Thanks for your time. Thank you an good afternoon. It's so neat to be here. Thank you. Um, Mayor Ggo, Vice Mayor Garcia, and council members Anner. I'm president with of Operation Blue Ribbon. And it's hard to believe that for the last two years, we've been um engaged, myself and other neighborhood leaders have been engaged in activities to um show our Phoenix Police Department support as well as um the What is someone saying something? As well as um trying to uh boost the morale. And I'm here today because I have a great concern um about a decision that's been made to um seek um an interim police chief outside of the department. And I think it puts um the our it puts our public um safety at risk and I think it makes our I think it's going to be critical to um our our the stability of our department. I'm sorry I'm getting confused. So for whatever reasons this decision has been made, expect consequences in the form of further loss of officers, inability to attract candidates, and a continued rise in crime. Our public safety is already at risk, and as we are just above the minimum number of sworn personnel to effectively manage the increasing crime. They need a leader they can trust and one that's has experience to bring the department back to the crown jewel it was. I believe that leader is in place. I think he can restore our our um police department back to what it was. And I think that it will be um a big mistake not to to move forward that way. And I say that with all due respect to our city manager and his department. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment. We are adjourned.