council meeting for uh I don't know if you heard all that but thank you and welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for December the 9th of 2024 I will note for the record that all of our Council are present for this meeting we will begin this meeting with an invocation offered by my friend Pastor Jose Luis Amaya with elaia de Christo Alim Batel Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand for the prayer and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance welome past good evening everyone everyone welcome let's pray thank the Lord father we thank you for this special moment we thank you for every one of the council members and our Mayor John Giles and we asking you all the time for the blessings to them for their families and also for them to have all the time the knowledge understanding and the wisdom they you give them to serve our community we thank you Lord in the name of Jesus Christ amen amen thank you Pastor please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Pastor oh yes yes I just want to have one minut one minute and to express a gratitude to our mayor that for 10 years you're doing good good good job and everybody appreciate what you do all the communities and we thank you for your service has been so good oh and I'd like to present this to you from our church and our Hispanic Community thank you to you and I can read it quick if it's okay okay why don't you why don't you read it and that'll give me time to to job down up front and and accept that okay thank you he says from elesia the chryst and we do this appreciation for to our Mayor John Giles for who amaz us with his service performance and faithfulness for many years of service thank for being and M A Good Man of Faith thank you Pastor God bless you [Music] you for the back you thank you uh thank you Pastor Amaya and his congregation are uh a wonderful blessing to our community I I think reflect back to to co and how he stepped up with the adopted grandparent uh program during the pandemic and all the other opportunities that uh that you've created and and uh responded to in our community we appreciate you and and your congregation uh the first item on our agenda is Awards and recognitions uh and we have three awards that we want to highlight today uh first Mesa has a depr rooted history and Aviation including our Falcon Field Airport which was initially a training base for the uh Royal Air Force uh council member Duff who has a a very fun history a family history associated with with this cause has invited the Arizona aviation history group and Mesa sister cities here tonight to make a commemorative presentation uh to our Falcon Field Airport council member Duff honor of attending the United Kingdom Falcon Field Day at National Memorial arbored um in England representing the city of Mesa and we gathered to commemorate the Deep connection between our communities and pay tribute to the brave Cadets who trained in Mesa and served in World War II Falcon Field was established in 1941 to train British royal Air Force pilots more than 2,000 young courageous Cadets from England came to our city far from their home to prepare for the challenge ahead serving With Honor in the defense of freedom in recognition of their service we presented a plaque to the Falcon Field the Next Generation Association at the National Memorial Arboretum in England for Falcon Field Day it was a deeply meaningful event as this United Kingdom Association comprises of Royal Air Force pilots who trained at Falcon Field during World War II yes I think there's two or three three remaining and their descendants some of these Brave Pilots lost their life during training here in our buried in the king's plot at the Misa cemetery and we recognize their service and loss every year every year on Veterans Day Sunday as a descendant of one of the pilots who stayed in Mesa after the war I found it particularly meaningful to visit their Homeland and honor their service and their ultimate sacrifice for freedom so the this pla serves as a tribute to their sacrifice and the profound bond between Mesa and the United Kingdom I know the memory of those who trained at Falcon Field will always remind us of the power of Courage collaboration on the unbreakable ties between Mesa and the United Kingdom and in this light we are in the process of establishing United Kingdom Mesa sister city so here with us today as the mayor had mentioned is Christine Selman president of Mesa sister cities and Joselyn Condon of the Arizona aviation history group and some other members I but if Joselyn and Christine can come forward to the podium to share a few words and then stve remaining we'll do a photo hello thank you council member Jen Duff and mayor Giles for having uh me here today representing m sister cities um I'm honored to be a part of the awards and recognition um of this meeting um as you know Mesa sister cities um is as what we consider the not for-profit one of the not for-profit arms of um the city of Mesa um that is really out there being a community advocate uh for the city of Mesa um to be to create Global Community Partners and friendships um to keep our borders open and with friendship and uh we work and have friendships with uh Peru Mexico China New Zealand Canada and currently working on Partnerships with Malaysia and Barry St Edmonds in um in England uh so I uh appreciate being here today I was on that trip um to go to bur St Edmonds and we were able to go the arum and seeing the love of Mesa come from the um from the Aviation Group was astounding and how much memory that each of them had um we just knew that it was the right thing to have to have them become a sister city so we are in the works of that and I thank you both for your support with that and your guidance so without further Ado Joselyn hi I'm Joselyn Condon founder of the nonprofit number for British flying Training School Association and part of the Arizona Aviation historical group the British pilot program was a true collaboration with us instructors British Cadets Mesa residents and great flying weather many Mesa residents worked at Falcon Field and they welcomed Cadets into their homes on the weekends they formed lifelong friendships that continued formally as the Falcon Field Association and had reunions and newsletters the pilots often came for Remembrance Day to pay tribute to the 23 Cadets that were killed during training that lay in our Mesa cemetery and after the war was over some returned to live in Mesa just as council member deff's family eight years ago one of the English descendants saw a bumper sticker the pilots had made and it said I learned to fly at Falcon Field she wondered where is Falcon Field and why did my dad go there she contacted Karine and her staff and planned a vacation to find out she and I were introduced and a friendship was started a ride in a steerman was taken and we wondered if there were more descendants with the same questions our search then found 19 Pilots 50 widows and over 50 over 80 families on four continents and we're still finding more in 2021 I spearheaded and planned the 80th anniversary celebration of Falcon Field and the number four British flying training school and held it at one of the original World War II hangers that started a new Gathering of descendants in England every year since today our association and the Arizona Aviation historical group are helping the completion of a documentary about the number four British flying training school called Patriots Skies we plann the Remembrance Day ceremony every year at the Mesa cemetery and we're working with the British Consulate in Los Angeles to find the British sister city for Mesa we're helping the archive room at the Mesa Library as well as the Mesa Historical Museum to further spread the word about number four we designed a new bumper sticker for all the new pilots that learn to fly at Falcon Field the airport its staff and our nonprofit together play an integral part of connecting sharing and preserving the history of Falcon Field this plaque is made of wood saved from the World War II hanger after the devastating storm it's made by Sarah and Dave henches of Hawkeye engraving a longtime Mesa business it's a replica of the plaque placed at the National Memorial Arboretum in England and we thought it would be fitting to have a copy of it in the airport terminal to spark the questions with new VIs visitors of why were the British here the plaque says in honor of 2 over 2,300 RAF Cadets who trained as pilots on 27 courses at number four British flying training school Falcon Field Mesa Arizona 1941 to 1945 they will rise on wings like eagles we'd like to thank Karine nrom her dedication has made a difference and in true Mesa Spirit created any friendships and this is the plaque green thank you appreciate everything you do um yeah yeah we'll go down there I'll invite us all council member Duff anything to add to that um no okay well then again thank you uh council member Duff uh Joselyn and Christine well let's have the council go down to the front for a photograph with this uh this one beautiful plaque okay I think we can go we break either way here thank thank you [Applause] thank you that that's uh that's such a fun story for anyone who doesn't know the story of the RAF cadetes coming to Mesa the go to it's always cool in Mesa podcast there's a great um description of that and and you should try to everyone should go to the event that's on the Sunday of Veterans Day where we uh folks from the RAF come over and help us honor the 21 uh Cadets that are that are there who lost their lives uh in during World War II in mes Arizona uh next uh volunteerism is a Cornerstone of our great City I'm grateful for the dedication and generosity of Mesa residents who selflessly give their time and talents to make our city stronger this year the city of Mesa was recognized with the 2024 Global just serve award here to tell us more is Sarah Anderson of just serve Sarah thank you mayor and City Council Members it is my privilege to be able to present to you locally what was already given at the National League of cities conference the global just sered city award this award is given in recognition of mesa's exceptional commitment volunteerism and it starts here with the executive team with the mayor and your vision and the city council members who are getting their hands dirty at love your city day and 911 day I know um there are lots of things in between those events also where you're volunteering and it is supported by your excellent staff at uh Community engagement with Cynthia Asura and the rubber really starts to hit the road with Katie poly who is the city's volunteer program coordinator and all of the volunteer coordinators at all the city departments make a big difference but perhaps the most important reason that the spirit of volunteerism thrives here in Mesa is the thousands the thousands of volunteers who reach out and lend a hand to their neighbors throughout the year I'm thinking of Bonnie who's kind of a classic grandma and if you visualize Mrs Claus in your head that's maybe who you're going to see and and she was there early on a cold January morning in her beanie and scarf and puffer coat and tnis shoes to help with the point in time homeless count not just counting members of our community who experience homelessness but helping them connect to Community Resources and giving them a packet of winter supplies I'm thinking about uh James who coordinates the dinner as a volunteer at paste chisto I think 12 nights a month he told me for years if you volunteer with James at Pate Cristo he gathers in all the volunteers and talks to you about treating the dinner guests with dignity and compassion and kindness and then he leads the group of Volunteers in a prayer and then boom it's Off to the Races he is the most efficient guy and we serve 150 to 200 people that night uh working with James at P chisto I'm thinking of Taylor who um with Superstition Manor Event Center who uses his expertise and his video production equipment to help the hip-hop homies produce their videos and Hip-Hop homies are a group of young adults with Down Syndrome who spread the joy they feel through dancing and making these videos and so it's a great example of Taylor helping the Hip Hop homies who again helped their community and I'm thinking about Judy who has spent years Gathering members of different congregations of all faiths to help children who are who have experienced abuse or families who are homeless or refugees or veterans and if you go to Judy's house there is almost always a box on her porch with the sign where she's collecting donations for the vulnerable people she's working with at that time and I could go on and on because the city of Mesa is just chalk full of these kinds of volunteers and our city is safer and more resilient and more beautiful and a more welcoming and a more United City because of these volunteers and so on behalf of all of the great Mesa volunteers it's my honor to present to you this Global just serve city award and to thank you for your leadership in this most important civic duty our duty to reach out and lend a hand to our fellow Travelers on this Earth congratulations to the city of Mesa and thank you well thank you Sarah thank you very much Sarah this is a very meaningful award and again to recognize in this way is is very gratifying uh Council let's go up front and take a photo with Sarah and this award here being here are we in should we consolidate a little bit are we all are we all in the frame thank you thanks again thank you it's a big deal we appreciate it hey how you doing good to see you thank you thank you more follow all five C right nope they're not um finally over the weekend the city of Mesa was recognized with the United Nations sustainability development goals initiative Innovation award at an event in Munich Germany I was honored to be there to talk about mesa's climate action plan and sustainable development initiatives I've asked Francis Tesmer from the organization to join us this evening to share more about the award Francis welcome yes step right up Francis thank you so much for being here good evening The Honorable Mayor John Gile the council member citizens their team and the Beautiful citizen of Mesa a city I love and respect um yes I want to share a little bit about this award this is the most prestigious Global award ever uh it was given to the city of Mesa to your wonderful leader Mayor John Giles at the parliament in Germany we have over 500 European leaders at this event uh both on on political level as well as Academia and as well as Business Leaders and I have to share with you it was such an honor and pleasure to walk with your mayor to this space and see how all of these leaders recognized you your work your dedication your commitment there was 270 countries and places that had applied for this award from 35 countries it was incredible to see the video of your city and the initiative that you've done over the years and for the entire 500 leaders of Europe to applaud you again and again it I have to tell you as someone some of you know who loves this city who loves this leadership and who loves what you've done and the commitment that each and every one of you have to each other to your city and to Arizona as a whole it was an absolute pleasure to see that and to be part of that so on behalf of Senate of economy of Europe I am a economic Senator myself on behalf of United Nation and on behalf of collective Humanity I want to thank each and every one of you your amazing leader and the Beautiful citizen of Mesa and congratulation to all of you congratulation to all of you and thank you for being a role model in the award and congratulations for your very meaningful award from the United Nation have a wonderful evening thank you very much Francis I'm I'm going to invite you to join us uh and we'll take a photo commemorate we brought the ward uh photo to commemorate it and and I don't know if you caught that Francis is uh one of the Senators uh that was in this legislative body that presented this award so we uh appreciate you being here very much Francis thank you don't you hold that okay all right thank you than congratulations appreciate you You're great thank you very much all right next item on our on our agenda is approving the consent Agenda One by Mr Kevin Christopher to come forward to read the consent agenda Kevin I think you you you know we have several uh items that have been removed from the consent agenda just make let me just make sure that you and I have this are on the same sheet okay uh for ab C and F are off five did you get that yes okay 5 C MH 8 b and a yep uh and 11a okay well 118 was already off that that's the uh the public hearing on the annexation right all right good evening mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval of minutes of previous meetings is written item 3A act on liquor license application for Echo karaoke 1844 West Broadway item 3B act on liquor license application for ktown 1832 West Broadway item 3 C act on liquor license application for La figlia Pizza and Pasta 1839 West Guadalupe Road item 3D act on liquor license application for Pizza Mart 132 29 East Main Street item 3E Acton liquor license application for hot dogs Los MOS 330 South Gilbert Road item 3F act on liquor license application for the Stonehouse 6910 East Hampton Avenue item 3G act on liquor license application for steadfast Diner 5149 South inpan Parkway items 4 a 4B and 4 C have been removed from the consent agenda item 4D approving 5-year term contract for solid waste disposal processing for the Solid Waste Department item 4E approving dollar limit increase for the term contract for Refuge Truck Body repair services for the Fleet Services Department item 4f has been removed from the consent agenda item 4G approving six-month extension and dollar limit increase to the term contract for automobile dealers eligibility list for Citywide departments as requested by the Fleet Services Department item 4H approving dollar limit increase for the term contract for S seal emultion for the transportation department item 5A approving resolution adopting and Publishing the city of Mesa 2050 Transportation master plan as a guiding document regarding the vision for transportation investment and policy in the city of Mesa item 5B approving resolution enter into a memorandum of understanding with Valley Metro Rail for Safety and Security Services for light Rave Vehicles Park and rides and other related buildings located within the city of Mesa item 5c has been removed from the consent agenda item 5D approving resolution authorizing the sale of the real property and improvements located at 6030 South Kent Street and 6035 South Kent Street known as AZ Labs item 5e approving resolution extinguishing a portion of three separate 20ft easements and Facilities easements located at 6131 East Southern Avenue to allow for expansion of an existing Walmart item 6A introduction of ordinance for zoning case 24-15 for property located near the northeast corner of hickley Road in Main Street rezone with bonus intensity Zone overlay and site plan interiew to allow for a multiple residence development item 6B introduction of ordinance was zoning case 24-7 52 for property located near the northeast corner of Banner Gateway Drive and Greenfield Road reson with plan area development overlay and site planner view to allow for a multiple residence development item 6C introduction of ordinance for zoning case 23- 970 property generally located into the intersection of Mesa Drive in Second Avenue this is for a rezoned site plan review to allow for multiple residence development item 6D introduction of ordinance for zoning case 24745 the property located near the northwest corner of Southern Avenue and Country Club Drive major site plan modification for development of a limited service restaurant with a drive-through facility item 6E introduction of ordinance for zon case 24711 for property generally located west of reer Road and Thomas Road rezone with plan area development and bonus intensity Zone overlays and a site plan review to allow for an industrial development item 6f introduction of ordinance for zoning case 24- 636 the property generally located east of mcdal Road and Higley Road major site plan modification and Council use permit to allow for expansion of an existing mini storage facility item 6G introduction of ordinance res zoning case 24656 property located at the northwest corner of Picos Road and South Mountain Road major site plan modification and amending condition of approval at number number one for zoning case 15-24 to allow for expansion of an existing manufacturing plant item 6h introduction of ordinance for zoning case 24426 for property located near supers Springs Boulevard and Southern Avenue major site plan modification and am many condition of approval number one for zoning case 9943 to allow for a service station item 7A approving ordinance or proposed amendments to chapters 6 7 8 81 and 87 of Title 11 of the mesa city code pertaining to Adaptive reuse item 7B approving ordinance for proposed amendments to Chapters 67 and 60 or excuse me 67 and 87 of Title 11 of the mesa city code pertaining to residential zoning application review time frames item 7 C approving ordinance repealing mesa city code title 8 chapter 1 in its entirety and adopting a new replacement mesa city code title 8 chapter 1 titled backflow prevention and cross connection control item 7D approving ordinance for zoning case 23859 for property generally located south of Southern Avenue and west of school road reson to allow for the fiesta defined mixed use development items 8A and 8B have been removed from the consent agenda item 9A approving ordinance res zoning case 24474 for property located south of Pacos Road and West of krisman road reson with a plan area development overlay Insight plan review to allow for Industrial Development item 9B approving resolution to enter into a development agreement with kamatsu America Corporation and Sunbelt Mesa Ellsworth related to design construction and dedication of rideway for the intersection of krisman road and posos road item 10A approving subvision platform map of dedication for destination at Gateway for property generally located south of williamsfield Road and East of signal but Road and as discussed at the study session this is correcting East Gate wood Auto Drive to East Gateway Auto Drive mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Holly do we have any other requests to speak on an item that's on the consent agenda okay thank you and I think uh I think we made all of those we pulled all of those already um Council uh that we have a motion I'm sorry we're adjusting to new techology the motion made by council member spillsbury seconded by council member Summers for approval of the consent please vote that passes unanimously uh all right the first item off of the consent agenda that we will speak to will be item 4A item 4A uh is uh regards posos Road and storm drainage Improvement pre-construction services and a construction manager at risk uh this relates to Regional drainage improvements to approximately three miles of pus Road posos Road I have a request to speak on this and I apologize uh I'm not I'm sure I'm saying this incorrectly I think it's spinny or Sparky Allison Sunny I'm sorry Sunny please come come up and have a have a stand right in front of the microphone please right now we're doing 4 A pass so you want to speak on 4 C okay thank you all right well 4 a has been pulled so uh is there a motion for approval of council any discussion on 4 a okay uh all right so who's ever U let's go ahead and initiate a a motion and a second for 4 A and um all right I see that council member spillsbury has made that motion seconded by council member Summers please vote that pass is unanimously thank you um just checking to see if 4B is off consent pretty sure it is okay so forb uh is the use of a Cooperative contract for a one term one-year term and with a one-year renewal option for unmanned aerial systems remotely operated devices and related goods and services for the Mesa Police Department we have a request to speak on this item by Alex Vanek Alex mayor yes um that that's probably incorrect I'm 4 C 4E 4f and 4G okay I'm sorry it looks like a b to me so okay handwriting all right no problem all right thank you uh is there a motion to any Council discussion on this item all right is there motion made by council member Summers seconded by Council me vice mayor Heredia please vote thank you that passes unanimously oh wait I did have another card on item 4B uh Melody wetstone Melody are you here Melody I apologize please come up I I think you wanted some additional information on this agenda item I do okay May welcome members how are you good so I wasn't really planning to talk but I do need some clarification on that regarding the mini drones and the regular drones the mini drones I understand that but the regular drones the larger ones that is so according to the documentation that came with it it talked about for events and that sort of thing but is there anything else that they were planning on using that for great we had a good presentation on this from our Police Department a week ago uh Chris should we yeah so within in neighborhoods or just even wherever there is a police call that the Drone can can get there yes so basically the drones are going to be used if it's in a neighborhood it's going to go down in sorry down into the homes and being able to see it be like it's to think of it as like our helicopters today now we'll just have drones they'll get there before our Patrol officers get there to be able to have eyes on the incident and be able to direct our police officers about the inent was taking place okay and don't we have something like that now not first responder drones we have some today today that they have to be someone has to actually stand on the roof at the police department and watch that drone and have eyes on it the entire time okay and then what would this particular drone again it'll be released by remotely from someone in our real-time crime center from within a building to be able to see that as opposed to being on top of the roof like you mentioned okay I want to make sure I'm being clear when you say today where would the police officer actually be the police officer will be most likely be someone in our real-time crime Center so it's an enclosed area where they have they view cameras hundreds of cameras and now and they include drones that these drones now can be uh deployed by someone in the realtime crime Center okay and what is the likelihood of any of these drones getting shot down I mean it could happen today we have again we use drones today that hasn't been a problem is provides Safety and Security and response for our police officers okay and then what about the maintenance of the drones and that sort of thing cost wise yeah no it's all included here there cities in the valley are using these and so we're just this is the latest technology and fighting crime okay I clarified it thank you all right thank you very much Melody um item 4 C uh I'm sorry we already voted on 4B yeah 4 c um 4C deals with this is a dollar limit increase to the term contract for hardware supplies and related city services uh essentially allowing us to go to Home Depot to purchase equipment I believe we have uh two requests to to speak uh Mr Allison sunny I got your name right this time call Sparky I okay it's a good day to be called Sparky congratulations to the ASU football team had spark yeah all right uh following SUNY will uh Alex you'll come up I live at 6545 East Adobe Street uh I don't understand I'm assuming that you put these this out for contract or bid as Home Depot and any of the other hardware stores in the city of Mesa is that correct we can have staff respond to that anything else you'd like us to respond like give us your questions and my question is why Home Depot and why not Dan's Ace Hardware on Gilbert or out at bashes on Power Road that's my question okay good question thank you thank you Mr Brady who should respond to this Mr quens are you here so am I done here uh yes unless you have any other questions no that's fine okay but we'll respond to your question staff will and then you let us know if that youd like good evening mayor councel this item is uh a purchase against using a uh Cooperative contract uh issued by miracup County um we have in the p and this is for Hardware this doesn't include uh HomeGoods that kind of thing that you would find at a grocery store um we have in the past issued a solicitation ourselves and um lards was not at that time able to respond to the RFP and become a participant in the contract so uh we haven't done that in a while but this is a Cooperative contract and so Ed when you say Cooperative contract it means another entity governmental entity following the same procurement rules that we would employ in this case Maricopa County went out through a public process came back with pricing we were able to look at and adjoin that contract to our advantage exactly all right thank you so we're participating in the Maricopa County contract that was competitively bid that is correct sir yes Mr Mr Freeman has a question so Ed just for clarification when we go out to bid I think that was Sparky one of his questions was how congratulations um how how do we get a bid RFP process do we advertise that and so any uh let's say wholesale or retail uh provider can do the construction services Like Home Depot um so in Thea when Mesa put it out yes we use arbid lists we make those notifications and and all those places that we make notifications Maricopa County does a similar process yes so do we use Mesa businesses for this procurment um so Maricopa County did this one okay so whoever's on Maricopa County's distribution list and wherever they advertise it they would have been notified yes and so this would be Home Depot and so consequently we probably go to Home Depot in Mesa yes that's what that's what I was asking all right thank you I don't know if that helped Sparky at all but that was one of mine why more support of local in Mason as opposed to corporate okay thank you uh we also have a request to speak on this item I believe from Alex thank you mayor council members I'm here to speak on item 4 C last week we heard that the city under your management was financially responsible but also needed another 30 million utility rate increases otherwise the sky was falling and the fire and police were in Jeopardy last week council member Summers said that we have a lot of work to do and we need to look at ways to slow down spending also last week council member go for said that she is a low tax small government conservative let me let's put this to the test here on 4C the city wants to increase the spending limit to for Home Depot by 200,000 you already increased the spending limit by 100,000 this past September September 26 I understand the cost of everything has gone up and I do not want you to think that I am being unreasonable so I ask you to demonstrate to us that you do challenge staff by making a motion and having a second to change the increase from 200,000 to 100,000 show us how the city has spent the increased limit and if you need more come back to us to discuss another increase thank you may may be very clear because I don't want anybody to hear what they heard and believe it there is not a 30% increase inreasing utility rates there's not a 30% we've covered this in multiple meetings so first of all there's not a 30% okay 30% if you want to find a 30% increase go to the town of Gilbert here it's 5% and it's $5 thank you uh speaking to this increase that so that the the spending limitation uh is being increased but the spending can be no more than it can only be more than what's budgeted right so the council always reput those constraints on the budget so we're not asking for the budget to be increased it's just this procurement needs to be increased so departments are already restricted to stay within their budgets that been approved by the council okay thank you okay so again we're going to entertain a motion and a vote on agenda item 4 C Council any additional discussion on this item all right have a motion for approval made by the vice mayor seconded by council member spillsbury please vote thank you agenda item 4 C passes unanimously next we have agenda item 4f this is a three-month extension and dollar limitting increase to the term contract for light duty and police vehicle maintenance and repair services for the Fleet Services Department uh we have a request to speak from Alex thank you mayor and council members I'm here to speak on item 4f last week we heard the city under your management was financially responsible but also needed another 30 million utility rate increases otherwise the sky was falling and our police and fire were in Jeopardy last week council member summmer said that we have a lot of work to do and we need to look at ways to slow down spending also last week council member go forth said that she is a low tax small government conservative let's put that to the test on 4f the city wants to increase the spending limit for Fleet Services for maintenance of a 1,200 light utility vehicles from 800,000 to 1.3 million that is a 500,000 half a million I understand the cost of everything has gone up and I do not want you to think that I am being unreasonable so I ask you to demonstrate to us that you do challenge staff by making a motion and having a second to change this increase from 500,000 to 200,000 show us how the city has spent that increased limit and if you need more come back to us to discuss another increase I do understand that you do not have to go to the Limit that is the limit and so want you demonstrate to us that you can be responsible with our with our finances for the city for and then come back and if you need more make the case thank you all right thank you so mayor on 4f what's Happening Here Is We are under evaluation for additional contract to maintain police vehicles we need to get those police vehicles back out on street so they can be used by our Patrol officers um this has become a challenge for us to M keep the maintenance of vehicles and keep more Vehicles out on the street so we're not having to double up and that will help us provide better Public Safety coverage what's happening is we are going through a valuation of a new contract for these same services but they more need we need more time to go through that process to review the proposals that are in front of us while we're doing that we still need to maintain police vehicles and so as such all we're asking for is take the existing contract and and extending it we're not this isn't adding more money to the budget it's not costing us more money these are dollars that would have been spent on a new contract we're just instead of being able to go into a new contract right now we're spending more we continuing to extend the existing contract until we can get a new contract in place but in meantime we don't want to have to stop maintaining Patrol vehicles and not letting them get out on the street so this is our recommendation as we move forward thank you Mr Brady I also have a card to speak on this item that I was just handed from Karina kadlick Karina good afternoon um I'd like to make a comment in regards to his reply on the money and the and the budget for this contract um contract 20283 originally started at the amount of 230 uh $280,000 um into be supposed to be for a three-year contract renewable every two years um so far to date um as of April 20th 2024 it's gone to $1,300,000 in spendings for that contract um looking for as you might State you're looking for a new contract to happen well you've had every two years for the last since 2020 to find somebody to fill this contract now as far as spending is concerned if we're trying to cut back and and I don't by no NE necessarily mean cut back but I know that um there are 1,200 Vehicles is what the contract is for for for the police but I understand that we have our own city city Ma has their own Fleet Department that are supposed to be fixing these vehicles not taking away from the business owners who the contract is not through and because they're small business owners in Mesa but I'm just saying what's the sense of having our own Fleet division to fix the vehicles and yet they're not using that Division and that would be my question to you is how how can we um yet better spend our money or or if we have our own division to do it but yet we're Contracting out so mayor again once again we are not increasing the budget amount we're just increasing these contract amounts while we procure the next contract and by the way the existing businesses Larry H Ford am Mesa business Thompson Auto Repair a Mesa business friendly Auto Centers a Mesa business so most of these and it's an increase in the contract to provide these services not an increase we're not asking more money the budget isn't changing there's not any savings here it's just the contract has expired we either reach the limit or the term is up so we need to extend it while we continue to maintain vehicles but it doesn't change our budget we're not here asking for a revision in the budget thank you Mr Brady Council discussion so U Mr Brady what what is the answer of we have a fleet services that also do trucks they just can't keep up with everything I don't we don't have a Fleet Service could handle all these vehicles so we need outside we use a lot of Maintenance the things that we can do and turn around very quickly maybe some warranty work um a little bit of body work but we need to have this additional uh work that we can send out um and so that's our way of balancing meeting the needs of the police department and I imagine that saves us in the end Contracting out third party contracts rather than hiring more staff because otherwise we're going to be yes we are going to come to a budget and ask for a significant increase and adding personnel and Facilities we don't even have the facilities uh to be able to absorb this much work thank you Mr Summers Mr Brady I assume this contract extension is through April 3025 you have the advantage on me let me see what does it say so look at it well it's yeah that's what I'm getting you're talking about the first page ma'am yeah uh under recommendations don't have contracts the time now so again this is just trying to what extent you're correct it should be 25 should be April 25 under recommendation it says April 24 should be 25 yeah and so and hopefully we before then we'll come with the new contract okay again not asking for a budget increase nobody's asking for more money we're just administratively trying to extend this contract while we sign get the new contracts in board okay will the new contract likely be in next year the 20 25 26 budget Mike how much time do you need to get this done another till April before April will be done three months three months we'll have back the new contract for you okay and then it has to come through approval yeah we'll come back to Council of course so if we anticipate this actually done being done by April of 2024 do we need to make any uh 25 25 well oh I'm sorry 25 so do uh we need to note for the record that the there's a typo in the agenda you say that yeah sure 25 that's fine other Council discussion on this all right uh let's entertain a motion for uh agenda item 4f we have a motion made by council member SP spillsbury seconded by vice mayor Heredia please vote that passes unanimously next item off the consent agenda is agenda item 5c 5 C is recommend approval of a locally preferred alternative extending street car East on Rio solato Parkway from the current street car Terminus at Marina Heights to Dobson Road South on Dobson Road terminating at Main Street uh we do have several uh requests to speak on this item I we'll we'll hear these in the order in which they were submitted first uh and each of you will have three minutes please step forward uh and I'll kind of say who's the follow following speakers so you can kind of get ready and queue up first we'll hear from Stephanie Wright followed by Tim Bole Stephanie welcome Stephanie you have three minutes oh thank you mayor and Council thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Stephanie wri I live at 660 North date in Mesa I'm here not only to speak in opposition to the street car expansion in Northwest Mesa but also to pay tribute to miss Mr D mon who has been my neighborhood wingman since 1993 when the city of Mesa put forth the building a healthier Mesa initiative and I talk D into getting involved along with other people and the city to work in the M the Carson Jr High boundaries our neighborhood group started formally working on the street car issue in February of this year along with our general plan meetings while also discussing the transit Orienta development plan which encompasses approximately half a mile on either side of Rio solato and Dobson Road in April we met with the transit oriented development uh folks and then in June Deon wrote an email which was presented to our neighborhood group and was presumably sent to you mayor Giles and the City counc counc and because he's no longer with us for me to verify that it um it was sent um I I brought it with me tonight but if you know de his emails were very lengthy and so what I'd like to do he had eight points in his email that um that we as a group decided were our concerns first traffic disruption and public inconvenience impact on crime and social issues Financial concerns economic impact Last Mile problems future Transportation Trends environmental considerations and alternatives to Light Rail and D concluded this email with the following the rise of electric vehicles and alternative transportation Innovations present more adaptable cost effective and less intrusive Alternatives a more prudent approach would involve enhancing current transportation services and embracing emerging Technologies to meet mesa's evolving Transportation needs and if it's all right later on I can always forward this email to you thank you so much thank you Stephanie and those of us who new de certainly join you in that uh we're going to miss him terribly Tim Bole followed by Barbara Parker my name is Tim Bole I live at 450 North Emerson in Mesa I'm an architect I'm a professor at asus's uh planning school I was a former professor at Columbia's planning school I lived in New York I know transit systems I love transit systems have great memories of that um and I as an ASU Professor with two kids at ASU I see the public transit we'll go Sparky first but I see the public transit system working wonderfully in 10p but I don't see it working here when the transit systems are proposed we need to know that they come with challenges and everyone who's going to participate in them needs to know those challenges my neighborhood saw a dramatic increase in crime after the light rail system was built or as it was called in the study session study session a perceived increase in crime one of the reasons we perceived this increase in crime was that when my mom and her sister were taking the light rail to um a con concert they were shot at from the Circle K that's where our perception comes from there's an additional perception when you see the uh the police reports from the time when the light rail opens you see that crime goes up 150% for the approximate 10 years before Co shuts it down that's where the perceived um uh rise in crime goes we were given a lot of information in the uh in the groups the studies that were done with the um people these were um inaccurate uh this one said that originally there were 79% of all households in the area turned out there were actually 58% this was corrected in in an email to me and I believe that was sent to you I don't believe this was corrected to the to the neighborhood meetings the block meetings if it was I wasn't invited to those meetings there's another error in the maps that were displayed during the public Outreach saying that there were people living in the Mesa Riverview area and people living in the Fri evit Corridor right through here the maps are inaccurate if inaccurate information is presented to the public that needs to be corrected to the public in the same manner that it was given the first time um given this I ask that you propose I ask that you postpone selecting the route until mesa's residents are given correct information about how many people need public transit and what the effect on crime will be in new public meetings this should happen the same number of times in the same location that they were the first time then you as a council can get the neighbors feedback on accurate information as many of you are my good friends I know you feel like accurate information should be given to all neighbors prior to be prior to a massive decision like this being made if important if it was important enough to present the first time it's just as important to correct it if all the money awarded for the original study has up until now has been spent then I believe we missed our shot we shouldn't spend Millions more on an additional study after the original was terribly flawed because that's rewarding bad behavior the public process in democracy work wonderfully when accurate information is presented to everyone whom it will affect please respect this process by voting against this item thank you Tim next we have I'm sorry folks we we uh I appreciate the jazz hands thank you uh just to make sure that this is a welcoming environment for everyone we don't allow loud uh demonstrations of support uh it was a great presentation worthy of Applause no doubt but uh give us some jazz hands if you want to let Mr Bole know how you feel Barbara Parker followed by David wi Stanley good evening mayor mayor elect city council my name is representative Barbara Parker legislative district 10 and I represent 250,000 of your residents as constituents as well I'm live in northeast Mesa and um I am standing in respectful opposition to F agenda item 5C which is to expand the Tempe street cars in your own report which I have here you're stating that you need to connect Light Rail to make May select Tempe for your 2050 plan the report does State and your recommendation was made to you in the report that you can delay this or absolutely not approve it it states here that you can delay it or not approve it I am requesting that you do not approve it um you'll it may be said that this is federal dollars and it won't cost the citizens anything I do want to remind people where federal tax dollars come from they come from your citizens it's going to be pulling down a half a billion dollars from your citizens taxes to pay for 44 miles and I repeat for only 4.4 miles and the millions of dollars to force the citizens to live in high density 15minute cities which create years of contention stating it to reduce contention it destroys the homeowners properties values destroy small businesses when these federal tax dollars dry up you will come back again and say you need to make a utility rate tax again like last week to repair to maintain these cute San Francisco cable cars um that no one will ride um this will waste the taxpayers money in perpet uity it costs less to pave over the current Light Rail than it does to maintain it because you are not capturing fair you have no plans to capture fair and you're going to be forced to capture Fair because 479 states that you're going to have to do it by 10% every year now um You Won't cut bloated topheavy departments but you want street cars when and I quote less than 1% of all of Arizona residents ride mass transit less than 1% ride it and less than .2% of all commuters ride it um so you're going to increase utilities last week to pay to run our city to attract increase your salaries to attract good people to run so that they can vote to increase more taxes and more rates for failed costly infrastructure projects which we affectionately know them as money sucking sucking crime ridden moving urinals on wheels for the homeless thank you thank you Barbara please please uh I we appreciate your enthusiasm please don't be disruptive David when Stanley followed by Mary men Bueno May Bueno Mayo out for the speakers up here we can't see the timer oh I'm sorry I'll let you know when I'll give you a I'm sure you would but it's it's sometimes anyway we'll work on that I I think see that little black box in front of you I think we the plan is that it was supposed to be running on that it's not visible here so now it is whoops there it was yeah it was thank you you and I have the same it's up now right okay yes I can than thank you uh good evening Mr Mayor esteem council member City staff my name is David winstanley and I live in southeast Mesa and near East Mark in councilman summers's District nice nice Tie by the way you should maybe make a bolo version for uh um mayor I'll have I go with your three minutes please please um I am also the chairman of your transportation Advisory Board uh and I serve at the pleasure of the mayor I do need to state that I am here representing myself as a citizen and an individual member of the tab not speaking for the board as a whole the presentation you received last Thursday on this subject had some statistics that were not in the transportation Advisory Board presentation a 55% population growth in the study Zone uh and a 58 8% of that population had 0 to1 automobiles along the Dobson Road Corridor really 55% increase in population can only happen uh in a high massive vertical high density housing because the de the area is fully developed and landlocked um similarly the study area contains large numbers of apartments with ASU students explaining the statistics do we need to pay for ASU Stu students to have Transit I ask are you as council members aware that the transit plan includes need scores for various projects and that this score gives a higher weight to other factors such as service equity and affordable housing than to expected increases in population or increases in employment this became clear during the tab presentations the subject at hand the extension of the street car line from Tempe into Mesa was driven in part by these Transit need scores for the presentations given to both Tab and the council um it is clear that the street car was a foregone conclusion no serious Alternatives were given for West Mesa rather rather only alternative routes for street car uh were considered is the cost of installing rail into Mesa streets really Justified for Mesa residents will there be an adequate return on investment for this cost to Mesa I asked for this analysis during the tab presentations and was told told that Valley Metro would come back and present it to date they have not um while you may argue that saying yes to to this no Co it will be no cost to Mesa we learned last week that City Council Members sometimes vote in favor of cost increases in order to stay with the plan or support the system so this decision cannot wait on the results of the study especially if it does not include substantial realistic Alternatives I respectfully ask that you vote no on approving the local preferred alternative and ask City staff to go back and work with Valley Metro and Maricopa Association of governments to come back with more costeffective alternatives for transit in West M for West Meson night residents thank you thank you thank you David and thank you for your service on the transportation Advisory Board Mary May Beno followed by Norm sendler hello I'm Mary mayeno I live off of Recker road and Brown Road Tempe right now has a street car system the proposed street car extension from Tempe to Rio solato to Dobson to Baine Street apparently is required for projects to obtain funding through the Federal Transit Administration capital investment grant program adopting a locally preferred alternative abbrevi LPA is essential to pursuing this Federal grant apparently mag which is the Maricopa Association of governments has had this in its Regional Transportation plan for the years 2031 to 2035 with an estimated cost of close to 403 million also so everyone here knows besides Dobson Road they have plans for Southern Avenue and Country Club Drive as future high-capacity Transit corridors will car Lanes be sacrificed because of this I know you're going to say this item doesn't construct a street car or a street car extension or allocate funds but let's not be but let's not be disingenuous allowing Mesa to utilize federal funds to determine viability of this project is just the next step in accomplishing this goal of transforming mesa into a high-capacity Transit nightmare turning parts of our lovely city into a bunch of rail tracks and overhead wires putting this rather putting this BL rather bluntly Main Street in downtown Mesa is really ugly with its railway tracks and overhead wires intersecting everywhere and a pain to navigate as opposed to the quaint downtowns of Gilbert and Scottdale those are really cute um now your street car proposal is going to be putting more and more rail tracks and overhead electric wires on more and more streets Tempe is different from Mesa we don't want to turn mesa into a tempy version of itself I moved to Mesa because I didn't want to live in a high density crowded Tempe we did not want you to approve the LPA street car at this time Mesa is not Tempe and by the way I've never heard anyone say boy I'd sure like to see a mass transit system all over Mesa thank you thank you Mary Norm sendler followed by Jonathan Bush you can come and check with the clerk sir did you turn in a blue card are you Norm oh I'm sorry Norm I had you down oh yes there's a a a u a zoning oh you're on the you're on the anex I apologize thank you that's going to be agenda item 11 a and so you're you're coming up like all she okay thank you we'll note that uh then we're gonna have Jonathan Bush followed by jeie F fanella hello hello my name is John Bush and I live at 132 East Brown welcome John keep your eye on this little box it's so you know you have three minutes we'll do it May thank you I live in Mesa and work in Tempe and a recently constructed office tower at University and rule this is part of the novice Innovation Corridor when my company moved into this space in 2020 I got curious and looked up all the other buildings that would be part of the same Innovation Corridor and it was a a wonderful plan big Office Buildings hotels restaurants Apartments grocery stores when I think about the street car project in the context of all the other great things happening in Mesa and temp I get really excited I think of all the ways students and workers in these new areas of our our neighboring City can live and Shop in Mesa students and workers can find cheap places to live in adus which were recently made legal in the single family neighborhoods and some of those adus can bring extra income for working class homeowners our Asian District the spring training facilities at Riverview Mall can be connected to with worldclass Transit and I'm excited for the great economic opportunities for large and small businesses alike I'm excited for the opportunity for Mesa and temp to grow together and I'm in support of the street car extension but would like to see a different final alignment going through River mall I hope you will vote Yes on this LPA and continue to support the project in the future thank you thank you John uh Genie F Vanella followed by Mark lavender all right hello Council my name is Jenny fanella I live at 1901 West University Drive and I am here to tell you about my excitement for the extension of the street car uh I am part of the 58% of people that are zero to one car owner uh I have been for uh pretty much the entire time that I've lived in Mesa uh including when I lived at the Riverview town homes on Riverview and Dobson for uh five or six years uh I take Valley Metro to work very frequently and enjoy my time uh I'm really excited to see connection between uh Tempe Marketplace and something closer to Riverview and also just to uh increase the amount of connections uh between Transit and the city because the more places that the transit can take you to and the more places the closer that you can get on and ride the transit the more likely you are to use it the more that your ridership will go up thank you thank you Genie uh Mark lavender followed by DJ Stapley hello Mr Mayor thank you for listening to us all last week with the utility rate debate as I like to call it um real quick uh I grew up as a well-traveled child back in the 70s and I went through cities like I grew up in Atlanta uh grandma lived in Little Rock I went to New Orleans on a vacation then I ended up moving to Albuquerque and all these cities had railroad track in the middle of their downtown and I was like but it was never used and I was like what's going on with this track here and it was told that oh yeah that back in the day we used to have a trolley it used to run through town and take people around but you know after World War II and people started coming home and people started getting cars we ended up before going to trolley so we just drive on the tracks now and ignore it so I was like okay uh so my point is is that this sounds more like regress than progress it's like we're going back 100 years in technology compared to what we should be doing and making Mesa car friendly and I would go ahead and also uh uh go another step further is I went to one of these meetings last summer and I can tell you at least at my meeting and I've heard at others that nobody in Mesa wants this thing they don't want it they're tired of construction we've been under construction with the fiber optic cables for ever in a day and it's just and I think we just need to work on making Mesa a little bit more car friendly the other thing is is I've also uh talked to people who were proponents of this and I said hey why not just use street car buses like tempy's orbit system as opposed to laying permanent track and their contention was well development will follow the permanent track and I'm like development following the permanent track you mean like the devel that has gone from Mesa Drive out to Gilbert drive we basically can create an economic black hole between those two points right down mesa's very own Main Street with the light rails so I don't believe that argument either um the other thing is is that you know I've heard argument that this is basically for free or that at a substantially reduced cost we're getting a Federal grant my issue with that is that taking money from the Federal government is almost like taking money from your mother-in-law there's always there's always a string strings attached we're going to spend Christmas at my house this year or I can't you know things like that uh there's always going to be something attached to that money we get from the federal government and then one last thing and this is what I want to close with is that when we the uh Consultants came and did this business of uh you know the community meeting they had a logo of their um I can't believe I'm good phone call right now anyway they had a logo of a car with a big circle around it and a line through it like no more cars and I'm going to tell you they are very very wrong on that cars are one of the biggest things that take people out of poverty and into Prosperity cars Ena people to have opportunity they wouldn't otherwise have in fact a study that was done by the Housing and Urban Development indicated Mark your time is up so if you can rack it wrap it up yeah okay perfect thank you so much indicated that cars people who I'm going to just give a small study on this just a small part of this but uh cars uh not only do cars take people to opportunity but people who have cars are twice as likely to find a job and four times as likely to remain employed so if we care about the most vulnerable people in our society we should fight for Individual Car ownership and let's make Mesa friendly to cars thank you thank you Mark Jen John again folks please uh let let's you can't make noise Jen John followed by John Demco and we have Tim uh oh I'm sorry d DJ oh I'm sorry yeah DJ I didn't mean to skip over you DJ is we'll go with DJ DJ keep your eye on the little box okay mayor council members and staff thank you for your service I think there's uncounted time spent this last term thank you very much I request respectfully that this item 5c be denied or delayed to allow staff to spend time I know they already spend time but to make it done right um and find something that will be tailored to the neighborhoods for these few topics that I think are very important number one the balance of who benefits the the more solid jobs along the corridor in question are in Tempe near ASU those corporate buildings where on the Mesa side it's mostly housing Walmart you know big box a little bit of downtown it's going to benefit Tempe more than it's going to benefit at Mesa the housing will be here the residents will go to Tempe very little the other way around two traffic impacts I don't know if this study has talked about whether the impacts of even a smaller Light Rail will reduce traffic counts in front of the Asian Corridor businesses it' be good to study where their customers are coming from if this if it's a regional Asian Corridor are they driving there from Dobson Ranch and Chandler or further if so then how would this impact that how would traffic counts be reduced on doson road then further east and west on Southern if the door opens for this traffic counts a l near the Cub Stadium how will East Mesa residents get to the Cub Stadium um there was a suggestion that perhaps the a connection be to Tempe and Dobson Road occur but there's already a bus on real solato and then there's the neighborhood Buzz that connects downtown already to Riverview how would those be affected traffic impacts economics how will this affect the economics I know two business owners near the light rail who said after the light rail came they're their driving customers reduced where many businesses whether Professional Services or other do not are not close enough to the light rail points to get the the the people in the door as much as they'd like cost others have talked of the cost we've urged and um staff to consider other other Alternatives including buses and more Innovative systems done in other cities macr planning impacts are really critical here that I think need to be focused on not only here but in all plans Mesa is and will be 15 M long plus East Park and Gateway when I worked um and locally I tried to get to downtown through Mesa Drive or Country Club If This Were approved it would open the door to a light rail on Country Club or Mesa Drive Mesa Drive is very narrow very dangerous I've been in two accidents there from others hitting me um what are the impacts there of reduced Lanes reduced traffic counts remember we're a Suburban City and we're proud of it and we're Urban we're proud of that too I I re respectfully request that this item be denied or delayed until a solution can be done that is tailored to the neighborhoods thank you thank you DJ uh next card I I I knowe now says I do not wish to speak on this item or I but it's a card in support of the project from J uh of the the agenda the agenda item from Jen John de uh the last card I have is from John Demco welcome John thank you good evening Mesa mayor and and and mesa city council I'm John de I am I'm John Demco uh a Transit Advocate who is studying oven planning for nearly six years at alazon State University and I am and I want to speak about agenda item 5c about the the the ready street street car extension yes I am aware that that there is opposition for the against this ex extension especially since with the impacts of crime and whether people will use it as well as all the federal spend all the federal spending it could have been money put towards improving the bus services like making it come more come more often or Sol more prices and I do totally agree with that so so I would like to see a study for the to see how would enhancing the existing bus services work but but if it still comes through that the street car is the according to the LPA is the most preferred alternative Then I then since it's more Transit I am in support of it and the address for the record I am I live in I live at 323 East Veterans Way in Tempe one of the city is currently Sol by the street car thank you very much thank you John those are all the cards I have on this agenda item does anyone else wish to be heard on this item all right uh now it's time for Council I'm sorry did someone raise their hand in the back hi come on up can we get your name and address and you'll have three minutes to speak on this yes hello my name is Jen John and I originally did not expect to speak today I have your card right here Jen yes but I have changed my mind um my address is 1023 North Barkley but before I moved back over to the east side of Mesa I used to live along the same route that we are planning to add the street car excuse me I have heard many people say that nobody is asking for increased Transit options in Mesa but I would like to stand here and tell you that that is not true I am one of the members of our community who want to advocate for more increased Transit options I work in Federal grant funding in management and I have um some inkling of how federal grants work and I believe that we need to take the opportunity to gain some momentum and continue to apply for Grants such as these by using the transit street car along Rio solato as a um evidence of success I understand that there were some issues with previous studies done I would like to say that my family has several cars um however I would like to have fewer cars if possible because I do enjoy using public transport to get to work in back um I also also happened to work with many people impacted by health problems and disability that make it difficult for them to work and drive specifically drive and when I was working with them the light rail specifically was a great opportunity for them to be able to get out of the house and go to many different places including Arizona State University where I was working um so at the very least please do not completely deny this uh I would hope that you either pass it or let it um or shelf it to discuss different routes if necessary thank you for letting me speak today thank you Jen all right uh Last Call on this item anyone else wish to speak on this item please come up and uh come to the microphone please you you didn't fill out a card right not okay that's fine just give us your name and your address please and you have three minutes my name is Carver bearon I live at 1233 North Mesa Drive here Mesa um my spouse takes the light rail every day commuting into work and coming home and Light Rail has been a really great option for us here in Mesa to allow us to have that Economic Opportunity to allow us to get between the great local businesses in our community by expanding the street car it creates more connections there more places that we can access as well um allows us to connect more of that Asian District to Mesa riverv viiew and to these other locations in Tempe as well and move around the area even without needing to have uh a car for each of us uh so I highly encourage you to support the uh Light Rail expansion today great thank you thank you very much uh any additional comments please step up to the microphone sir your name and address please my name is Jeff Potter I live at 8449 East Culver Street in Mesa uh I hear a lot of individuals here speaking on this and and uh I would be in opposition to it uh I think you can go on the light rail a majority of the days with the baseball bat and swing it around and you'd be lucky if you hit anybody uh I think it's a waste of taxpayers dollars I think that the light rail in general was uh 30 years Antiquated even before it was put in and now you're talking about putting in a even additional more Antiquated system such as a trolley car service uh there's plenty of other things out there such as the uh Valley Metro buses that run and even those if you're driving down the street and paying attention a majority of those you're lucky if there's five or six people on them riding them at most times not to mention there's other uh Transportation uh Services out there such as uh Uber Lyft uh Vivo uh plenty of ways to get around in the city of Mesa uh I don't think that this is anything but a black hole that will suck money from the taxpayers of the city of Mesa all right thank you very much any additional uh speakers all right uh we'll now shift oh I'm sorry please yes step up your name and address please and you'll have three minutes uh my name is Frankie Bower and I am in district 6 nice to see you all again uh and thank you for the time I just have a couple of questions so my understanding is the construction cost of this is going to be is estimated currently at 42 m960 th000 is that accurate give us your questions and what would uh okay so that's my first question is if that's accurate and if we are going to consider moving forward I my ask would be um and maybe this has already been done so if you guys have the information that would be great uh cost vers reward so if the cost is going to be 42 m960 th000 how many people are actually using the rail today the bus system today so per citizen what would be the cost and also what would be the cost to actually ride the rail it sounds like it's almost free so I'm just just trying to get a better understanding of the cost versus the reward that might help us to better determine if this is something that is worth our while or something that we want to pursue great great questions any others uh nope that'll do it thank you okay thank you very much all right last call anybody else want to speak all right uh we'll have Council discussion and I'll probably hear from some staff on this uh I appreciate those questions and and here here's I'd like to just kind of reset people's expectations and remind people what the actual agenda item is that we're discussing the vote tonight is not on whether or not we should join the tempy street car uh the vote tonight is whether or not we ought to use funds that would have been awarded from from the federal government to Tempi and Mesa to study whether or not it's a good idea to to go forward with the street car so they the vote on whether or not to join that or make a commitment to do that is somewhere between 18 to 24 months away uh assuming that we do this study so you asked some great questions having to do with the cost estimates right now the answer is we don't know you asked questions about the economic impacts you know what are what potentially would the economic impact to the community be in exchange for this money that's a great question we don't know so uh the qu the question is should we do a study uh to answer those questions and and also I I I have I've had a lot of respect for uh Stephanie Wright and DJ Stapley and Tim Bole who live in this neighbor neighborhood and are passionate about this neighborhood they asked some great questions and and I'm going to summarize what I think they were saying which is please don't commit tonight to do to do this please delay it because we want to get good information and we want you to listen to the neighbors that's actually what this agenda item is is to get information to talk to the neighbors to study this it's we're not tonight voting on whether or not Mesa ought to be a part of the street car okay I'm sorry the public comment's over what the resolution says the resolution says to pick an alignment and to pick an alignment we do a study to pick an alignment says approval of extend okay well we'll we'll address that thank you uh all right so that having said that I my expect well and also uh there's also I think some confusion on the technology involved in a street car versus a light rail street car does not take up an an additional Lane the the the the track is embedded in the in the uh asphalt so when the street car is not there cars are driving on it so it is uh the capacity is somewhat different so again there's a we need to explain to the public uh with more detail what this would look like compared to what the light rail technology looks like so uh Council let's open it up for discussion I know we've got uh several council members that I'm sure want to address this who would like to begin Julie I have more of a question um so this is approving so it's approving a study I have my mic on but it doesn't sound like it's on CA we can't hear Julie is her mic on went foret there we go okay um I I know that it's just a study to explore options which I already said downstairs I think the neighborhood and Community needs to be super super involved in this more than they have been they've been involved we need the city to do more Outreach to them um but we are deciding the route is that correct I don't know if Jody wants to come up or um I understand what's maybe happened already in the study was the different route so this is now this would settle on a route that then we would study further is that correct yeah I think the simplest way to put it is what tonight's action is is is Council saying if street car is extended this is the alignment this is the route that we would like to see it extended as so they're saying you're saying if street car is extended we would like to see it extended East on Rio salato to Dobson then South on Dobson to Main Street so that would be the corridor and so there's no option to study um further down Dobson or down into the fiesta District or anything like that not at this time nope just stopping at Main Street because I'm not even sure how I feel about street car or if it's something we should do I do think um the only way it's going to truly benefit is if it does go down to um MCC and the hospital and then goes east on Southern down to the fiesta District which is on the cusp of a lot of um development um and generating a lot of um traffic and and entertainment areas so which I think it sounds like we're like 20 years out from even being able to do something that far south I gu I just I'm not sure if I um there's no way we we kind of have to connect into Tempe right and then it would have to connect that way like there has to be connections or else there's no point in just like plopping down a street car somewhere without the connections and as a region we've set so if you look at from the original 20 miles on light rail we we find we do extensions based on doable reasonable amounts so as um actually to kind of minimize impact in in one way and then the other way is what's financially respon what's financially we can max out and capable of doing so we don't typically do seven or eight mile extensions in that so we break them up into manageable pieces to bite off that's been our that's been our regions kind ofo for the past couple and so so to clarify then it has to go it has to connect to the Tempe part and go down to Maine before it could ever connect from Maine going south corre correct yes that's that's what we would Envision yeah because we have to connect into Tempe somehow so this would be the only way to do that okay I just because I see tons of potential for the MCC um I mean the Asian District goes this you know all the way up to Southern or all the way down to Southern however you want to look at it but um and the all as many employees that would be at the hospital and visitors to the hospital and you know all of that I don't need to repeat myself but I it's hard for me to justify this part without that part although we obviously don't have the money and wouldn't spend it on all of that but there's no way to even study that then we we could like so what we did when we were building the light rail extension the central ma extension through downtown we started we started that project and as we were developing it we realized a better Terminus a better long-term end of the line was Gilbert in Maine as opposed to Mesa Drive in Maine so while we were working on the C the extension through downtown we started the process to look at extending it further to Gilbert Road so if that was something as we go through this process that Council would want us to look at we could do that it wouldn't come out of the Federal grant money but that's something that if that was council's something that they wanted we could have that conversation and look at that okay I just want to make one more comment that um I think that during construction of the light rail which this is not light rail so it's not going to be the same um type of of situation exactly but um there was maybe some um businesses that suffered through that but I think anyone can drive down Maine and see that it's booming and and that there's a ton of growth happened and Main and it's not a black hole in any sense of the word so I think I I wanted to just make that comment amen and and I know Mr her has a question for you but Jody let me just you asked an excellent question if you look at the agenda item it looks like we're approving this alignment but the really the way to read that is we're we're proving studying this alignment if we're going we're doing studies of the alignment what what alignment should we study and this is the alignment that we're studying and so Jody last week when we were talking about this I said well what if there's breaking news what if Riverview or Festa mall or you know says Hey we've landed a major League Soccer franchise and we want to build a stadium here and we're thinking gez maybe we should turn left instead of right when we get to Riverview uh if and we're studying an alignment and two years or five years from now the reality on the ground is changed and and that impacts where we would ideally put a trans a fixed Trail Transit line uh this doesn't put in in stone that this is going to be the the the final alignment or does it we have some flexibility up into a point with this so we have about that 18 to 24 month period where we can we can we have the flexibility to if something changes in the Riverview area we can you know kind of stop what we're doing re-evaluate and we would have to go back out and then come back to council to formally adopt another yeah LPA we we changed the study right but right now this is the proposal is this is the alignment that we're going to study okay thank you Mr her yeah I think question question was POS on uh writers ship you mind maybe talking about not just light ra ridership but I think the importance to understand that in any type of system we need connection right uh so having things like the neighborhood Buzz having wayo having these Alternatives uh are important um are not just one one piece of the that we should put all our chips out in one piece right it when we talk about Transit the importance of connecting to multiple modes of transportation is the I think that's where we want to head into it especially in an an urban area not for every like I mentioned last week not everywhere in Mesa makes sense to have this I think but in an urban area like we're seeing in TP and West Mesa I think this it it makes sense to look at how we can connect people uh from 10p to come to the to the Asian District to shop there right that means more sales sales tax dollars uh for Mesa right uh so can you explain just how many writers or maybe people I think somebody from uh Valley metros here just just you explain how these the transit kind of works and and and how it can next people to destinations to placemaking opportunities to work to schools to doctor's appointments to families right so sure um so one part of this study will be looking at the con connectivity how does it connect to pedestrian access bike access um bus connections which is why we've taken previous steps to increase improve our bus service on University in Broadway and added the fiesta Buzz um and all of that is important for what people are are taking to lots of we do have on the existing Light Rail alignment we do have three parking rides but the parking ride at Gilbert and Main is our highest ridership route we get a lot of ridership at Country Club and Alma School and there's no parking right there so that people are transferring from the bus to light rail people are walking and taking their bikes to those stations and transferring to light rail to go to their jobs to school to doctor's appointments all those things and all of those elements will be part of this next phase in looking at what does that connectivity look like and how can we improve that and how many people how many writers do we have a month or um yearly whatever you have on I'm trying to I don't have that number the I think somebody from Valley Metro is here probably has it he's very prepared because the comments have been made that nobody's riding the light rail nobody's riding Transit right right but we've heard speakers that people are riding this you see it across the street you see it I I I operate a small business here on sore main you see hundreds of people uh going to the the grocery stores on fries and Alma School gr going back and forth to Temp and Mesa going back to uh to you know wherever they need to be using Transit right so yeah to answer your question uh mayor and vice mayor uh Light Rail uh in the last full fiscal year of 24 carried just over 10 million Riders uh street car carried 800,000 and then our bus system carries just under 26 million do you have Mesa specific we got it thanks thank you um I don't have Mesa specific but uh but I will tell you but I will tell you that all that information is available online um but that's that's the overall writers ship I I apologize if you want to make a specific yeah but I will tell you actually I do I I do have it broken out here um let's see here just light rail Mesa carries or welcomes 1.8 million of those rides now you're going now 62% of the light rail systems in Phoenix 18% in Mesa and 20% in Tempe that follows the mileage of those cities so if you look at the light rail mileage within each of those cities 60 2020 it's 60 20108 m so people use it the more the more you provide it the people will use it I'm sorry M public comment is over all right thank you other Council other questions comments Mr Summers it's going to work hey I can hear my voice uh for the City attorney there was a question asked about whether this was a study uh if this route was locked in if it uh if this resolution does pass and I wonder if we can get an interpretation on the resolution that's in the background 12 312 section one does this lock us into a particular route is this approval of a route so mayor and council member Summers and I I'll say something that Jody sort of variation of what she just said and she can also provide additional information it does indicate in the exact languages it's says that council is supporting a preferred alignment and then it states the alignment that has been stated multiple times so it is indicating council's adoption or support of that particular alignment as a as far as the ability to change it in the future I think Jody mentioned there is a time frame obviously Council can come back with another resolution I don't know the exact time frame under the federal rules in which you could make that second I'll say another resolution to change it I think Jody indicated it might be around 18 months but I'd have to kick it back to her for that further explanation yes so what the process is is so we would go if you approve this this alignment which it is locking us into an alignment to study which like we talked about on Thursday we need a baseline to kind of start with um we would go through that process we would be flexible to be able to make an adjust up until the point where we came back to you and said this is this is what we this is kind of the go noo decision so here's where we're at this is um when we came this is what the study found this is what our writers ship estimates are this is what the adjusted project costs new estimated project cost would be based on preliminary engineering which will take us to about 30% in the environmental work and then at that point Council would confirm that this is the project to move forward that's one scenario another scenario could be before we got to that point where we would then start applying for federal grants to fund the project if there was a development that changed in the Riverview area we could go back revisit this and then come back with a different locally preferred option for Council to consider that would be basically going back through to this system although we do have 11 or 13 studies that have already been done right righta pick from there that's my only question um of comments before the vote though great so we have to make a commitment to what route to study so that the study they can't just study every route in the city of Mesa so we have to say here's the route to study yes Alicia oh okay that thank you mayor that was clarification and then what happens right so we do this study mayor indicated 18 24 months and then what so we do the study we would come back to council we would continue to have these conversations throughout we would come back to council with here's the the traffic impacts here's the construction impacts here's writers ship projections here's the refined project cost and present all that data to you and then that would be where you would make a decision to move forward with that project move forward with it or to say you know we don't think we want to move forward at that point and then we would stop the project okay and and kind of back to council member SP spillsbury question about having to tap into or extend from 10B I mean that's because it was looked at Region as a region right correct not just yes Mesa individually in isolation we didn't we've never looked at Mesa individually to do some of this we always it's connecting into a regional system is what's going to make this successful because people people want to go different places so if you want to connect into the region to bring people in and so people can travel within so we haven't we didn't ever look at just a Mesa specific option and when do you do you know that when Tempe studied it originally was it with um in in mind extending East into Mesa is that kind of how those conversations the conversations and the vision of what that would grow into um were taking place during that during their study process and have kept ongoing through the years as their system was going through construction and opening no go back councils ago when we said hey there's a possibility they're looking at street car and at some point the question was does Mesa want to consider jointly doing this so the discussion about this alignment about going down Rio solato and Dobson we've been had this discussion multiple times with councils spir you know not regularly but certainly over periods of time and unfortunately I think and has it been voted on sorry it's been got the direction has been given absolutely it's hard because these things are so they take such Le long I mean years Le long time and so we could have a discussion that could be two or three years ago and now here we are having another discussion with the new Council new Council the community has different sentiments about it um so it's it's it's a difficult it's not a very like continuous stream of processing where it's we're actively talking about this even every year or certainly every month and so I think that creates this dilemma I think at some point we're trying to set the stage to give the community input even more what we've heard from Council we need more of that we need more details and study so we can answer a lot of the questions that are being asked about what does this mean what does the construction look like we've not done street car in Mesa and you can't compare it to light rail because Light Rail wasn't just about light rail we literally placed all of the infrastructure under the pathway of Light Rail especially was going through downtown we had some historic pipes and storm drains that we needed to replace I don't know what it looks like here but I'm pretty sure it's not quite as intense it was at the end of the day it's still a significantly costly choice that some Council in the future is going to have to decide and but I think what we're saying is here we're working with Tempe we've received federal dollars to do more study to answer some questions nothing's permanent things happen right uh new developments take place and we can adjust but it's a tough question and part of it is you know this Council wasn't there when we got probably the last direction to move forward so this is where we are today all right Alicia are done okay Jen uh we just passed our here we go our uh 2050 um trans Master Transportation plan and in the mobility goals that are spelled out in the plan it says mesa's Transportation network is a safe resilient efficient and interconnected multimodal system that supports and strength the community and its economy also when I was reading the transportation plan it was um as far as the public input number two was making public transit a more viable option that was the number two response out of of from our residents the number one was concerns about congestion and making and reducing our congestion for cars and that's what Transit does there's only so much we can do in a given Road and I can say in Dobson Road particularly we don't have any land to add additional Lanes so all we can do is have some kind of form of Transit that carries more people in a smaller space um I was going to make some other point about it I forgot so I might come back to that um it kind of reminds me of really La when I looked at reading materials about LA and their transportation system their freeways their roads they they um didn't want transit for the longest time they refrained from it they stopped no one wanted it they were there's several issues but anyway the freeways got bigger and wider and wider and wider and so did the roads and it got so bad to the point that they can't really move and if you've been in there to go from one place to another just to go a few miles might take an hour just to go a couple miles might take an hour it's horrible now in recent years they've been implementing Transit because they have no other option to move people I don't want to wait until we're La in the west part of Mesa the densest part of Mesa before we start doing something about it I don't want to be in living in this condition of massive congestion public safety issues and people not to have options he hey hey hey public comments over you're being rude people not to have options for their Transit I know a lot of people who say that I'm leave I'm going to leave this area the reason is because I'm a young professional well educated I want to be in an area that I don't have to own a car I like to live a Transit lifestyle so we're not taking away any cars we're not doing that we're just saying let's allow there's no Lanes being taken away let's allow multimodal transport within our city to allow all P um all people all ages all abilities and all incomes to have a transportation Choice um we our city is very large and if you don't want to be live in a Transit area we have plenty of areas that don't have other than maybe a bus stop don't have rail or street car it's a lifestyle it's an option in a very dense area this area is going to grow along Dobson Road of 45% by 2050 we can't accommodate that within the lanes that we have now um we are building for the future we're not building for what's in the past or even today's current situation this has been studied since I think 2017 there's been studies going back and an immense amount of information and study done at uh mag and before we even got to this point and for Mesa to be selected for this grant is like amazing to get this far given the amount of stud is very difficult to get these grants the and the grant is already awarded the grant is in Valley metro's account it's it's done so we can use it all in temp and say we don't want Transit folks what about all the people that I hear from what about all the people that responded to our transportation plan what about the 27,000 people a day that are using the transit in Mesa the light rail in Mesa so let's just be a city for all people all abilities all alternative ways of getting around the city not just one which is cars um I think that's about it thank you all right thank you additional comments Mr Freeman thank you mayor and Jody and you can sit down I mean it's nice of you to stand there for us I just wanted to before I start out just thank deont and his family he's a great Civic leader a great mentor to myself uh mayor and I both attended his funeral this past week I did too oh I'm sorry I didn't see you Julie attended as well thanks um you know a red flag went up for me when we started receiving emails from the neighborhoods along the light rail cor or the street car cdor the proposed Corridor that they weren't informed and I thought why did that fall through and and so we've asked some questions and and I know there's been a lot of Outreach out in the community from Metro and from our staff to get information but one of the things that I just recently returned from a meeting in uh Boston Cambridge area at Harvard University and it was interesting when I got off the aircraft I I got a voucher for Uber to come to the conference and I thought well you know I'm willing to take mass transportation or multimodal but that didn't happen so I know that there's other pressures out there for multimodal transport ation whether it's bus Light Rail or street car um one thing that's concerning to me is I would I think some of the statistics were co-mingled because you kind of had to dig into some of these attachments to get information for example the households was zero to one cars uh the study area was 58% but then when it broke it down Tempe was at 48% Mesa was 42% what does that mean uh to me it me means to me that you as residents had to work really hard to find extrapolate this information it should have been more available to you so that you could uh make more informed decisions and comments and I I appreciate everything that everybody's done I I feel that there's pressures out there uh in my conference in talking to some of my new colleagues and other Mayors and mayor elects and Mayors throughout the United States that you know some stated they they would not have a street car in their Community because it's it's hard to find and keep the oper ation and maintenance for it going on and these these were cities in California but regardless uh I think personally that there should have been better information presented to the public and especially the neighborhoods involved but of course all of our dollars are going to be used throughout the city towards the operation of Maintenance If This Were to go through and forward in the future uh we've talked about high capacity Economic Development and potential developments along the corridor and uh I I just believe that we need to give this more time uh to vet this out and and so I'm going to vote no on this I'm going to tell you right now because I feel it's important that we have use your jazz hands jazz hands thank you that we have a little bit more time to discuss this and I know we'll have 18 to 24 months but then you know it's a lot of time for Valley Metro and for staff to to put this all together for you but I we value your input we want you to continue to do that but that's where I stand right now I think there's just too much out there that we don't really know about but I know the study if it's granted the council moves to move forward on it that the study will vet that all out and I'm not against multimodal Transportation I feel it's imperative I had a really great experience I used the light rail to go to an ASU game a couple of Saturdays ago and it was packed first time and I write I want you to know I ride the light rail probably about every two months just to keep track of what's going on haven't been on the bus routes but the ridership is to not to my expectations and and I've always said this and I'll say it publicly it's it's been a low performing asset in our community but it's brought Economic Development to some areas our city which I have appreciated but at the end of the day I'm going to vote no and I'm going to stand on that for it now thank you thank you Mr Freeman Council any additional discussion Julie um so if the vote is a no vote tonight we can't jump back into the study uh my understanding is we cannot uh pursue funding without a study so if we don't do a study then we're kind of dead in the water U we're don't trying to clarify all of this in my head um yes if there if the council votes know not to adopt the recommended LPA the recommended corridors we stop the study there there would be really no reason to move forward with doing the information gathering to come back to give you all the data to um to make a decision the money just would go to Tempe the money would go to Tempe I mean because it was um maybe suggested that we could I mean the delay of the vote tonight doesn't actually I mean we have to vote tonight and so the delay of the vote really is just saying no to it I don't really see any way to delay this yeah that because temp council is taking action next week and it's going through to finalize it so that kind of like give give the study team a foundation a base so that we know what we're working with to move forward what area and to give us some certainty when we're out talking to the community on this is the corridor this is what we've been directed to do to look at so that we can come back and we're actually analyzing all the information within that because other otherwise we could be looking at maybe we maybe we take it down Rio salato to Alma School maybe we take it down Rio salato all the way to Country Club and there's so many different scenarios that could come out of that that we just financially from a budget perspective it doesn't it makes it more challenging and Tempe has not voted on this yet they're voting next week so if they voted no this would also be dead in the water yes okay um and that's just a matter of when the council meetings right right I I really truly don't know how I feel about this um I don't know if in um 18 to 24 months I I will be here and I don't know that I will vote Yes on this but I do think that um I do think that we can I think there could be some benefits so I want to see so I'm I'm going to support it because I want to see what the studies lead to but I as as again as I said downstairs I will make sure that the community is very involved in this and that we really dig into the crime and we really dig into the construction traffic and we I mean dig into all of it so that there are no surprises in the future so that we can make a really educated vote on whether we actually do it or not that's that's our intent thank you Mr Summers thank you mayor uh for those of you who want the under bridged uh version of my opinion you can listen to the long uh study session we had on Thursday for for now I'm just going to shorten it down um I'm highly suspect of street car one I think the the economic impact benefits Tempe we heard that once already given this route you think about what's happening in Tempe you have the river Riverview the mall M Avenue ASU there's a lot of things to do my concern is that all this does is pass in front of the Cubs Stadium once it does that I I just Envision people staying in Tempe in a hotel jumping on it for March coming over to the Cub Stadium going to a game and then taking it right back over we've been extraordinarily disappointed in the retail development uh in a recent retail study the quality retail initiative that we uh paid for showed uh that there was no discernable increase in sales tax revenue in this area area during spring training so that's a concern um secondly there's really been no mandate I I know there's a lot of folks in here who are are not fans of Light Rail and I totally understand why but there in 2004 when prop 400 passed the voters did approve Light Rail and so that's what was built but that was not part of Port uh prop 479 so then the question is really going to become where does that funding come for from the three Mouse uh tempy street car was $200 million to construct right in that neighborhood and that was with a combination of federal fundings prop 400 sales tax and local funds well we don't have local funds for this federal grants are likely to dry up uh and 479 like I said doesn't have it um in addition we're likely to see some increased costs like uh real real solato Boulevard is a a major thoroughfare for uh Regional infrastructure uh maybe we can move where those tracks go but if we have to dig up some of that Regional infrastructure that's going to be a lot of money so ultimately at the end of the day I don't see this really as being a major public transportation proposal I think it's it's a small scale one that'll benefit temp be more than it'll benefit Mesa um so that will be my vote thank you mayor all right thank you any additional discussion Alicia um I I I share a lot of the concerns that you all brought up I have a lot of the questions that you have I I'm not convinced on the need I do see uh how it it uh is Justified in timy I'm not sure that I see it justified in Mesa um but I do have those questions and so and there are there are residents here in Mesa that do support it and that would like to see it um um but I I think that this as we stated a no vote is a no is a no vote for any street car a yes vot is we have a lot of questions to answer my categor ising that correct um so uh this is a yes vote is not necessarily a support of Transit support of the street car a yes A yes vote is um there are a lot of questions and uh there is there are a lot of people who do support this and I think as a city as a whole that we should answer those questions for the people that are asking them so that that's the way I will I will be uh voting tonight thank you thank you uh I'll explain my vote as well I think maybe I already communicated this but I think a no vote tonight is essentially uh putting our fingers in our ears and saying don't confuse me with the facts uh 18 months to 24 months from now there will be a very uh significant vote made on whether or not Mesa ought to join and commit to the street car that will be a a big vote and when this Council makes that vote they need to make that vote in a very informed way with data they need to answer these wonderful questions that were presented here today the way to do that is to do the study uh and so uh to me it's clear that that's the the um the correct way to go so uh again Council any additional discussion all right is there a motion to move forward with uh agenda item 5 C we have a motion made by vice mayor Heredia seconded by council member Duff please vote thank you that passes 5 to2 uh next item on our agenda thank you that was a great discussion thank you for being here and and and participating in that next item on our agenda is agenda items 5A I'm sorry 8 a and 8 B uh we will consider these in reverse order with uh 8B first is there any Council discussion on this item Mr Summers sorry folks we're still getting used to this um so 8B we're taking out of first of all Ada and AP were just technically out of order although I asked for an opinion and we were fine with that um I've been consistently against installing um Billboards so I'm just going to make this clear nobody in MCE has ever asked for more Billboards we' it's as a matter of fact when you when you look in look up Billboards in cities you find places like L Mesa California last year said they don't want it in their neighborhood the entire state of Alaska doesn't allow them and nobody that's traveling between Flagstaff and Albuquerque or or better yet maybe Albuquerque to Flagstaff because you want to get out of New Mexico is saying hey look at these beautiful Billboards um I'm all for comprehensive sign packages if there were stadiums or highrises or buildings I I mean I think about the the renewal of Time Square in New York those are advertising Billboards too but the way it's integrated into the built environment makes a lot more sense to me than just uh televisions on polls so I'm going to oppose uh item 8B um and that's the reason why all right thank you any additional discussion on 8B Julie I'll just make a few comments um I am in support of this because I um already when you drive on the freeway you there's a ton of billboards and everyone assumes they're Mesa anyway so it's not like there's no Billboards and there's is just going to pop up but also the biggest reason why I'm in support of this is because I think our Mesa College promise program is absolutely incredible it's a huge blessing to our city and to the people who participate in that and um it will affect generations to come and this provides for a solution for the funding of that in in um perpetuity really um my concerns were that it would be um problematic to any residents that live nearby and there's been extensive studies done with the view of those with the lights um so that those um that will not be a problem to neighbors and so knowing that we took care of that and made sure that wasn't an issue I um was in full I am in full support of this thank you Council any additional discussion I'll just Echo council member spilsbury's remarks this uh this on the agenda it says this is about a billboard it's not about a billboard this is about Mesa College promise and if the impact of this uh this EX ception to our billboard ordinance to allow Mesa Community College to have two Billboards uh the impact of that is the same as a $10 million endowment uh for Mesa College promise for low-income college or high school students in Mesa to get funding to go to college so that's uh that's wonderful and that's something to celebrate and I'm I'm very uh pleased and proud that we are doing this uh is there a motion uh to proceed forward on 8B we need V someone need yeah Mr Freeman has made a motion seconded by uh Vice May vice mayor Heredia please vote thank you that passes 61 uh next item is item 8A any Council discussion on this item Mr Summers so having been soundly defeated on uh item 8B and uh since the council as a whole as democracy goes has decided to to allow the Billboards I do agree that if there's going to be Billboards it should go to a cause such as the Mesa College promise um my wife and I are both uh former veterans in the United States Air Force and and as part of our service we were to had the ability to go to college afterwards and that I tell you what it takes you from doing really grunt work in the military to being able to go to college and and having a full career is a big deal and I know this isn't quite the same uh but for people to have access money is really what suffers most people for trying to get uh not just college but technical education as well so if we're going to do this let's do it for a good cause and I will support item 8A thank you Mr Summers any additional discussion on agenda item 8A I do Mr Freeman test test is it okay so I really like this because in perpetuity for educational components you know I think the mayor was spot on when this was initiated because allowing uh people from everywhere to attend college two-year College I mean that's the highest degree that I got was a two-year college and I relished that opportunity however I probably would have gone further had this been more available in my younger life but with with that said I'm really appreciative of him moving forward and taking this to the next Next Level because this endowment will create funny mechanisms for everybody in Mesa coming our Mesa Public Schools and adults too so I feel that's important thank you mayor thank you Mr Freeman Council any additional discussion on agenda item 8A all right uh we'll entertain a motion thank you uh council member spillsbury has made that motion seconded by council member Summers please vote thank you that passes uh unanimously next item off of our agenda is I'm sorry well it's actually next on our agenda is it agenda item 11a which is to conduct a public hearing prior to the release of the petition for signatures for the proposed annexation case 23-14 located on the Southeast corner of North hws Road and East mcdal Road I declare the public hearing open MS Mosley I have in my hand several blue cards on this agenda item do you have any other addition additional I have no others mayor all right thank you we'll hear from these individuals in the order in which we they were received we'll begin with Jeff Potter followed by Vincent Kelly Jeff welcome you have three minutes I uh I'd like to say that the uh notice board that they had up there by the de uh developer or the attorney whoever put it up there uh had a nice little uh you know 4ot by 8 foot but when it came to this meeting there was a little thing that looked like a yard cell sign that was just leaned up against that little 4 foot by 8ot so I don't think uh a full representation of the individuals that would have liked to have come to this one is actually here but uh I am opposed to this uh as it is uh currently uh designed uh they've uh come up and asked for it to be zoned and in a certain format but then they ask for five or six different stipulations so that that resoning could fit how they want to do things there and not have the actual zoning would be done under the zoning itself uh literally one house away from where they want to build behind that house is another property that is almost 5.9 Acres on that 5.9 Acres they're going to build six houses they want to take this 30 acres and build 61 houses uh in the surrounding Community most of the houses are rural we have anywhere from half half acre to 3/4 acre to one acre lots I am going to directly see this this is right across the street from where I'm at uh you know the proposed you know value of this you know is $3 million and if they go and were to build on that 30 Acres even Acres of uh one acre lots still that'd be $30 million for the $3 million invested uh the community uh that they referenc that this would be like a uh UNAM Mesa development when they started that development four years ago the original value said starting at $400,000 by the time they carved in roads and broke ground it was $700,000 so if you were to take and do the math even at their $3 million investment if they did one acre lots that' still be a $42 million profit or not I'm sorry for the proposed that they want to do the 61 houses that's going to be a $42 million profit um on top of their $3 million investment so uh what we're asking for is that we go and uh maintain what the community is or strictly adhere to what the uh ruling would be for zoning that is appropriate for that area all right thank you Jeff uh and we had this discussion thank you very much I I wanted I have four more cards to to hear from the public on this but Mary downstairs just let's set expectations with this neighborhood as to what the process here tonight what is correct I'm going to do a quick reader digus and then you correct me tonight we're voting on releasing the petitions for the for the the PE folks who own this property to ask to have that property annexed into the city of Mesa after if they go out and are successful in gathering those petitions they'll come back to the city then they'll be they'll come back to the city council and the city council will make the decision on the annexation then after that there's a zoning case where we get into all the nitty-gritty of the proposals about how many homes on how many acres and all all of the details associated with the development so there are are really three bites at this apple what's happening tonight is we're just releasing the petitions and saying we'll entertain um the notion that this piece of property can be annexed into the city of Mesa what correct my description May mayor Jiles the only thing I would um add to that is the at the January 13th meeting both the um annexation ordinance the introduction of the annexation ordinance and the introduction of the zoning cases will both be heard on that day with then the final action following that great so if that we have a motivated neighborhood that wants to weigh in on this zoning case January the 13th our Planning and Zoning Board will begin uh consideration of the zoning case but before we can Zone it has to be in the city of Mason and make mayor that's a key point they stay out in the county we have no control on what they can develop out there right unless they want our utilities but otherwise by bringing them into the city allows us then have this process with the zoning and mayor Jiles the only thing I would I would add is that it's already G to the Planning and Zoning Board both of those cases will come to City Council on the same agenda okay and so it's already been considered by Planning and Zoning so the January 13th date is when it's at the city council that's correct okay I'm sorry I misspoke so don't go to plan anazon come back to Council January 13th and to Mr Brady's Point development standards in the city of Mesa are a lot more restrictive than they are in the county when you have a county developed project you can tell the difference between a city develop project and and the the standards to which they are held so uh just as a general rule this isn't Q&A but yes but but uh that's generally accepted that uh you would rather live next to and a part of a city developed project than a county develop project where can I ask a question yes of course Mr Freeman so Mary just reading the council report background bottom paragraph says the annexation will establish city of mesa's zoning designation of Agriculture or a on the property so this's St change fix out for me uh so mayor council member Freeman what happens is once the property is annexed it has to come in at a a with a zoning designation that's similar or less than as the r135 in the county designation that's correct and so what'll happen is it will come in it'll when if city council annexes it it comes in as Agricultural and that's what the zoning case will look at is the rezoning of that property per the applicant's request okay I hope that clarifies his question a little bit so it basically the uh County zoning is transferred to the City Zoning which will be Agriculture and then again the applicant is requesting uh reone from that okay thank you all right well back to hearing from the speakers but I just thought it might be better for you guys to understand the where we're at in the process and the multiple layers of this process okay we'll hear from next Vincent Kelly followed by Linda finklestein thank you my name is Vince Kelly and I live at um aot 43 in mace Arizona and when I had build my house I buil it on a 7 uh 7 acre lot on a custom lot this project is going to be across the street from me on mcdal road and the problem is going to be is that I'm going to lose a lot of my city lights views loss of dark sky loss of privacy looking into the backyards extra traffic noise loss of home value being next to high density smaller homes traffic minimum of 160 additional cars backing up on mcdal road and H road because there school district that or school bus that picks up a uh a bunch of kids and that's going to back the traffic up on our uh Community now the the other problem is that the entrance is supposed to be on the cross the street from our community and the problem's going to be is that cars are going to be coming out of their Community we're going to be coming out of ours we're going to want to go right they're they're going to want to go left there's cars coming down from uh Ellsworth all the way down speeding down there about 40 50 miles an hour and the problem is going to be is is that it's going to restrict our way to get out of the community now mcdal Road uh there was discussion on uh putting houses uh smaller houses on uh Culver and also on Waterberry and also on H but they never mentioned anything being on mcdal road now if they put two stories out there then it's going to be totally block my view and I won't have any kind of view at all so I'm opposing that they basically do not approve this project because when I moved in and I bought my lot I had was told that there was not going to be any kind of project or any kind of housing development at all in that project or in that Community but to put 2.2 houses on one acre in that Community is going to be really high density for traffic and buses and cars and because people leave on h Road and they travel all the way to Ellsworth doing 80 90 mes an hour on motorcycles there's a lot of traffic coming from Ellsworth going down to uh H road that are coming from the lake so that traffic is going to be so congested and I oppose the whole project thank you thank you Vince okay Linda finklestein followed by Margaret kibbit good evening welcome Linda thank you so I live in Thunder Mountain in States uh which is across the street from this project and I have one serious concern and one area where I'm offended let's go with the serious concern uh I don't think it's nice for people to meet by accident and I am convinced we're going to have people hurt trying to negotiate leaving and coming from their homes if you think about lendus they have the street Ridge Crest because there's a bunch of people on one side of McDow who leave the neighborhood and on the other side of McDow they leave their neighborhood it's the the two will collide and just knowing human nature and knowing how people go real fast down McDow I don't know who's going to get hurt but people will and it seems like this is my understanding maybe it's not accurate but it seems like the city doesn't want to take responsibility for traffic control and safety and neither does the county and I had one person say to me today well get the names of everybody who approves this when there's a class action suit because you theoretically care about us but if you let this development come and I'm not even talking about how many houses that they're they come in at the last piece of open property and everybody else has half an acre three quarters in one and they're the last piece of property to be developed and they just cram in these houses they're going to look beautiful I know that congratulations they could put fewer homes for more money but that's not their business model so the area that that I'm concerned about that I'm offended is the idea that they would come in and this is the last piece of property and they're going to milk it for all they can and if you actually were to drive out out and look at the neighborhoods I think it's a really precious area and we we came there with an expectation and it's a shame but the real issue for me mostly is the safety and I I don't know why government can't take responsibility for what they know is going to be an issue lendus has a solution we would need that as well so that's my that's my comment all right thank you thank thank you for being here Linda uh and I I I'm sure you'll be back for if this project goes forward Margaret kibit followed by Norm sendler was okay I get it okay Margaret's indicated she'll be back for the zoning case assuming that there is one uh Norm sendler is the last card I have on this agenda item are we still talking about 5c no talking about 11a all right so I live at the halls of McDow and and actually wrapping a little bit into 5c um there were some really good points because what's being proposed is just a tremendous density of homes so totally out of whack with what is in that neighborhood and uh I I I don't know if you can see pictures very well but here's the the little attachment that that came with with what was on the agenda today right so it's black and white here's this nice little red line that's what it looks like but this is actually what it looks like so let me put this one back so you can kind of see it I mean this is what the land is all right so you can see that it's 30 Acres of open Land one portion of it is for water capture down there and then uh uh and then this is what's how the rest of that housing density is and and they're proposing when they first had these meetings and Sean I got a letter Sean Lake I Really they they said 81 homes and I thought that has to be a typo it can't be 81 homes it has to be 18 no we go and we talk and and Sean is pitching about how lucky we are that Blandford wants to develop this because what a great developer Blandford is and and it's like well Sean there's just too many houses here no no no but blanford's going to do a great job and I said you know Sean I feel like I'm a missionary caught by a bunch of cannibals and and the the chief canni is saying Norm you're really lucky because we have the best cannibal chef and I mean to tell you people are going to Rave on how good you taste when we have you for dinner it's like Sean no I'm sorry I really don't want to be for dinner that's you know that's not what I want to do so what what is going to happen and this is this is what they're propos hosal is as opposed to just a little square now you can see the density of Hose homes so here we are in the county right there's like 30 homes over here and they're going to have 77 homes over here on this side and that's really what the problem is and I realize that you're looking at an annexation only but right now it's teed up as an rs15 not an rs35 not an rs45 but an rs15 so three homes per acre so that's just three and four times the density of what the homes are over there so I have I have one last little little picture and this is this is a picture of a mouth and this a normal dental teeth and you can see what those look like and that looks pretty normal this is what's being proposed and I don't know if you can see this but there are 102 teeth in that mouth not 32 and that's exactly what the problem is so when you're thinking about this annexation and that's why I really wanted to be here today and present this is that when you're approving this annexation you're still by default impr in approving that rs15 and not a 35 or 45 so thank you thank you Norman uh any additional comments on this agenda item uh all right do um council do any council members wish to address this item Mr Summers yes this thing just for clarification and bouncing off with council member Freeman said this according to the report that we have because I don't have all that information you have that was part of a public meeting that will come to us later but it does say that the property is currently zoned single residents are 135 in Maricopa County so they do have the ability to build houses in that zoning code the annexation ordinance will establish city of mesa's zoning designation of agricultural on that property is is is that correct looking at the city our default when we Annex that's correct it's our default so they still couldn't build the the higher density homes you're concerned of so we're going to be having this again in January and it sounds like there's going to be a lot of meetings and a lot of issues coming forward so you don't have to worry about it going vertical today all they're doing is coming into the city and then we're going to have this Council will have the opportunity to weigh in and what that development looks like so well just to clarify Scott I mean that that is happening all at the same time on January 13th depends on Mary they'll come in with Annex today's the the public hearing to open and and release the petition they come back January 13th with annexation and rezone and the development so may your council member go forth on January 13th we'll come back with the ordinance for the application which is the resoning right which is for a different density or for a different zoning District than the Agricultural and at the same public okay meeting will have the annexation ordinance also so and mayor and Council remember this is Introduction that's corre we don't have to do introduction that's correct I mean right I mean this is a your typical zoning case we do introduction for the zoning case in the annexation Council can again hear the questions and comments or even in a study session if you're not getting the right answers this is just the process right it'll show up on the 13th because it's already gone to Planning and Zoning the council always has there's no inevitable decision here it's just that's when it's scheduled it is intruction sometimes Council will either defer the introduction and ask for more time or pass the introduction and wait until and then maybe work but that's you know we work with the council member to kind of figure all that out um but there's no the final decision is not January 13th um be later than that but certainly it's important to be part included in this process to people get engaged and so this is important but um that we're following the normal process this is anything different what you've seen before yeah so that was what I wanted to clarify we're not voting tonight January 13th is still not the vote it's introduction so we will because I have seen zero details on the actual development case right so as the neighbors you guys know a lot more than I do sitting up here that was in our my our agenda so I would want to be able to take the time to go through all of the details of the development and so I'm glad we're not voting on it tonight because I wouldn't vote for it since I know nothing about the development but um it's good that you came and you sent us email so we're aware of it and so I'll be looking for those that documentation to pop up so that I can study it more thoroughly before we have these conversations and yeah January 13th we'll have a good robust conversation about the actual development and whether we feel like it's too many houses I have another Mr Freeman so Mary walk us through the annexation process what what percentage of this and that triggers the annexation um mayor council member Freeman so this is just the release of petition and what this requires is that all of the property owners once this petition is released would have to sign this document to then bring that to County to the city council for the annexation to move forward for that public hearing that introduction on the third 1 Mary how many property owners are there there is only one property owner at the current time so there's only one person which is why typically we would bring this on the 13th that would just be our normal schedule but again we can modify that if needed okay that was my question yeah so this is the developer who is a property owner yeah seeking for I mean the annexation is just the precursor to get the to get the zoning right because otherwise they have to develop currently owned Byford homes right maybe the I'm sorry the does the applicant want to speak or well this again this is just the annexation we're not talking we don't we're not a gendi to really talk about the zoning case right now okay that's next that's fine yeah right we get it I've got Mary's nodding her head we agree there's not a lot of drama as to how the single property owner is going to whether they're going to sign the petition or not okay so that let's not pretend that I mean no one's suggesting that so this is just kind of a perfunctory thing to set up the that has to be done before the zoning case yeah and I I I think I mean we're we're withholding comments on the zoning because this is not the zoning case the agenda item we can't speak to it really yeah so um and and the rest of the council as you heard hasn't even looked at the case because the zoning case is not on the agenda tonight so they'll have had a chance to look at it this is in my district I'm very familiar with it I've been to your community meetings I I understand the case and I'm prepared to talk about it when it gets put on the agenda on January 13th and again just to be clear folks on January 13th is when we we introduce the zoning case and two weeks later well we'll set a date for the hearing on the zoning case so I said earlier three bytes you get four bytes of the Apple there's do we issue the petitions do we do the annexation or do we introduce the zoning case and then we vote on the zoning case so am I so tonight is just whether or not the city of Mesa would ever entertain the notion of this piece of property coming into the city boundaries and mayor is the only way we can have a zoning discussion yeah and we can't have a zoning case until that happens all right Council additional discussion on this all right thank you uh I declare the public hearing closed again this hearing was to release the petition for signatures and there's no other action on this item which will come back to the council in the future for consideration on the an ation uh we now have a motion made by council member Freeman seconded by council member Summers please vote thank you passes unanimously so again uh for the neighborhoods that are here please check those dates January 13th you need to be here uh and that's to introduce the case and a subsequent council meeting after that will be the the vote on the zoning case all right thank you very much next on item on our agenda is item 12a 12a is the city's annual comprehensive financial report and single audit report Ms Mosley we have uh I have one card to speak do you have either request to speak on this item all right thank you so what well let's hear from the the the speakers and then I'll ask staff to come up and just have a seat right there just uh we have a request to speak from Mr Carrie Davis Mr Davis welcome good evening Council mayor regarding the annual comprehensive financial report I have a couple of questions on page 14 the bottom of the paragraph it says the city's outstanding long-term out debt decreased 117.8 million due to normal debt repayment if you turn to page 15 and you look at the supporting schedule of outstanding long-term debt it shows that as of 2023 the City had 1.72 5 billion in outstanding debt and at the end of 2024 it had 1.89 one billion in outstanding debt that's an increase of $165 million I don't see where that agrees with what's written in the financial report where it says it decreased by 117 million that appears to me to be a $283 million error suggest that that would be get that would get uh corrected before publishing the annual comprehensive financial report is that correct uh we'll ask them to address that so give us all the questions and then I'll ask staff so that's one question right okay which is correct we'll answer that next question has to do with page 52 on page 52 it indicates based on the schedule that's printed there that there was a transfer out of 27 million from the utility funds to the general fund and then they transfer out of the general fund of $80 million been indicated previously that the bulk of the transfer from the utility funds is used on Public Safety my question is where does it show that in the annual comprehensive financial report I don't see that I see that 127 million went out of utility funds 80 Mill ion came out of the general fund at least 47 million that 47 million I believe was then used to increase the general funds Reserve balance also on that same page so so the question is can you show me where the transfer of utility funds is being used for Public Safety got it the next question has to do with a paragraph just below that table says that the transfer from business type activity to governmental activities on the government-wide statement of activities is 126,127 M 134,000 yet page 56 52 indicates Ates it's 126 m771 a difference of about $363,000 so the question is on that one which is correct got it so those are the three questions that I have regarding the financial statements thank you very much great questions we'll uh we'll ask staff to respond to those thank you you're bet can we have can we have staff just make the presentation yes then answer the questions absolutely because I think it's important to hear position by the outside auditor about the you know Integrity of the audit and then I think we can get into those specific questions that's great yes absolutely so we'll invite the staff up to to make the presentation regarding and again this is a mandated uh presentation right that we that we conduct the the audit and that we hear about it in a council meeting so this is to comply with state law so thank you um uh part of this was to hear from the from the public and so we these are all Mr Davis was the only card we had so now we we have a presentation on this item from our finance director and outside auditor welcome good evening mayor and Council um you are correct that it it's required by State Statute that when the Acer is um accepted by Council that it be off consent and that the partner that was in charge of the audit be present to do the required Communications um I had a presentation that I did a week ago I wasn't plan on going through it unless Council wants me to so I would just have Jean dietr introduce genan Dietrich as the partner for clipon Larson Allen to do the required Communications and then I would be happy to answer the questions that were posed give us a a short paragraph summary of your presentation that you gave to to to council this a clean report you mean tell us what what what the what the audit says um it's clean opinion unmodified opinion no findings we follow generally accepted accounting principles and we follow all the counting um standards that are appropriate for governments all right position of the city is better than the city Final position the city's net position has increased over the last five years the net Position will increase when revenues exceed expenses and when our total City assets exceed our total City liabilities right thank you very much um Miss Allen yeah but we we'd love to hear from the the auditor herself you need yeah this is required go ahead thank you Council thank you mayor for giving me the opportunity to present our audit results for the audit of the city of May s Arizona for the year ended June 30 2024 we have issued our report in accordance with generally accepted audit accounting standards in the United States of America and we performed our audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and those standards those government auditing standards issued by the comp troller General and we also performed a single audit in accordance with uniform guidance for your single audit We performed a single audit over two major programs Your Community Development block grant of about 10 million in federal expenditures as well as the Corona virus state and local fiscal recovery funds of which you had about 24 million during the year your ca that was tested was about 68 million in total federal awards for the year ended June 30 2024 for the year ended management and the city did change one accounting policy and early adopted standard 101 gby standard number 101 regarding compensated absences this increased your compensated absence liability for those certain performers using sick leave as well as an estimate on what was projected to be used in the upcoming years this change resulted in a past restatement of net position for the amounts wor significant material to the financial statements as whole and management adopted that standard in accordance with the guidance we noted no transactions entered into by the city during the year for which there is a lack of authoritative guidance or consensus and all significant transactions have been recognized in the financial statements in the proper period management does arrive at certain estimates to come at the total Acer the annual comprehensive financial report those significant estimates would include your single employer other post-employment benefit plan as well as your change and investment associated with your joint ventures we evaluate those estimates We compare their determination with years to see that they're consistent and we test those balances for management bias we did not identify any bias in our testing from management certain financial statement disclosures can be deemed sensitive uh disclosures of this would be something uh an example would be a going concern there were no certain sensitive disclosures affecting your annual report and all your financial statement disclosures are considered neutral consistent and clear we did not identify any fraudulent or unusual transactions in our test workor and we encountered no difficulties in performing the audit management was ready and prepared for the audit and were issued um by November 30th we did identify a couple of past adjustments associated with the oped plan in that it was fully implemented and disclosed during the year and there was a passing on restatement as it not Material as well as your compensated absences as discussed previously none of the misstatements detected as a result of audit procedures and corrected by management were material either individually or in the aggregate we had no disagreements with management with accounting policies as well as with the adoption of 101 and management made certain representations to us upon issuance of your annual financial report we're not aware of management consulting with other accountants what we would deem opinion shopping were not aware of any such Communications we do have discussions with management with up regarding upcoming pronouncements gby statements none of those disc discussions were a condition as our um engagement as your external Auditors we do um review and read through your required supplementary information this would include Management's discussion analysis but we do not opine on such information and we did not identify any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in internal control to present to this body and are there any questions from Council for us thank you I I apologize Jean I called you Miss Allen earlier that's the name of your firm I apologize clion Larson Allen uh thank you Miss Dietrich thank Council any questions uh from staff or our auditor on this Mr Summers thank you for the presentation we're still working on the technology thank you for the presentation but um we we've heard from staff on on what your findings were and then it sounds like what you presented to us is what you have to present by law which is great it sounds like we're in a good fiscal position right now but there were three specific questions asked by and those were not addressed so I guess the question yeah I will you're going to answer them now okay thank you so much I should have waited all right thank you Irma hi the first comment or question related to the decrease in um the um outstanding debt um the sentence that was referenced only spoke to that the decrease related to our annual payments it was not a statement on the total decrease in liabilities because he has corrected it go up so that sentence that $17.8 million specifically speaks to the normal repayment of our debt and that's all that sentence is saying that was first comment um the second comment had to do or question had to do with the transfer from the Utility Fund to the general fund and um the you will not see the reduction of Public Safety cost because of that transfer because that does not follow Gap if we presented it that way the way we required to present transfers it's other financing sources so it's at the bottom of our statements and um so you will not see a reduction and expenses anywhere else because transfers have to be reported as transfers in or out in other financing sources and our true cost of Public Safety has to be properly presented in our annual financial statements so you would not see that decrease because that would not be following generally accepted accounting principles or government accounting standards that we follow um if I understood M Mr Davis's question on that he said the report reports that we gave $80 million to Public Safety but how can I verify that Public Safety got that amount now he was questioning the 127 million cuz he did not see it going into public safety and that's correct you would not see that because that doesn't follow Gap um and there is no Public Safety fund it goes into the general fund because that's where our Public Safety costs are his second part was there was a transfer out of 80 million that went to other funds other non- majors and the majority of it 67 76 million excuse me 76 million of the 80 million transfers out went into our general Capital project fund which is the city pays for capital projects on a cash basis so instead of issuing bonds we used cash that we had and we paid for some capital projects so that's what that 80 million is and if you look in the um combined statements in the back of the of the financials I think it um starts on page 111 you would see the revenues and the transfers in and outs but that's where you would see where the 80 million transfer went it went into the general C Capal project fund great um and then the other comment I think was a discrepancy between what was in one of the notes trans um the transfer note and what was in mdna sometimes we round in the mdna so that's where that $300,000 difference was okay thank you very much uh do any additional uh public comment all right do any council members have any additional discussion sorry what's sure what's mdna I'm sorry it's the management discussion and Analysis it's on the first part of our financial statements it um is about a 16th page it starts on page five and ends on page 16 and it's a high level summary of the city's performance our assets and our bonus and expenses our debt our Capital assets our infrastructure it's a sum it's meant to be a summary so if someone did not want to read 185 page document they can read those pages and have a um high level understanding of the city's performance and then Irma when do you send out your P paer what's it called paer yeah what we actually have a draft that should be ready for you soon we've already had the first draft come through tell Council what that is because that may be the English version of the the paer is the public annual financial report we published one for the first time last year um it's something that we've been wanting to do for a while and that is a summarized about 12 to 18 page document that puts in more easy relatable terms um so a citizen would be able to read it and understand where's the revenue come from where does it go um and um that's a summarized version of this that's even shorter and has more pictures and graphs than words in it and it it's based on the numbers that are in our annual financial report but it doesn't have all the financial requirements so it's instead of being 185 Pages it's eight pages it'll probably be a good resource for you as well as for the community yeah I remember that last year and I remember thinking it was amazing because and I could actually understand a little bit more of this but can you just say the acronym one more time paer paer Public public annual financial report you just talk so fast because you know your stuff personal it's two Hispanic and sorry okay sorry financial report public annual financial report okay thank you now we all know what that means thank you oh popular I'm so sorry popular popular sorry apologize professional popular I'm I'm just I I appreciate you addressing his questions but just to make sure they got addressed or we can I know we can't get come bring him back up no but we've we've actually had a chance to visit with him on most of these questions in the past so this isn't the first time that answer has been given but we'll be glad to do it again okay thank you well sorry mayor Mr sum now that we've heard some of the spefic specific questions being laid out I hope as we go through this this um civilianized um presentation of the budget we can potentially address how that money transfers um into the general fund through the general fund and out into these various agencies because obviously there are questions and concerns about how that money is raised transferred spent and this is an opportunity in the next really six months or so as we do our budget to look at how we present this to the public in a in a way that's easily digestable so I think taking the questions that we've heard today just as a Baseline and and moving forward would be very much appreciated thank you and I'll let Brian from OMB know yes that's true thank you thank you Council any additional discussion on this item all right Mr Davis I hope we address your questions I this this seems like uh we would invite emails or or deeper Dives uh we we'll continue to to provide any answers that we can for your questions uh Council uh we would entertain a motion on this thank you council member spillsbury is removed for approval seconded by vice mayor Heredia please vote thank you that passes unanimously next item on our agenda is items from CI citizens present uh I hope you all looked at the agenda for this meeting what it says is that we have uh uh we will hear a maximum of three speakers for three minutes each now I received six cards and thankfully we've got a wonderful city clerk that keeps track of the order in which these cards were received so pursuant to our agenda I will we'll be hearing from the first three people that submitted cards I apologize to the other three people and would encourage you to please come back at the next meeting and uh be here early and make sure you're one of the first three cards uh so we will first hear from Marcy Hutchinson welcome Marcy thank you much it's good to be here Marcy Hutchinson Mesa resident building mesa's Workforce and creating Pathways education through strategic education initiatives has been among Mayor John Giles highest priorities under John giles's leadership the mayor city council and City staff have supported the funding development and impl implementation of Mesa K ready collaborative multi-generational program marshaled Community literacy Advocates by mobilizing readon Mesa establish the Mesa education and Workforce Development Roundup table welcomed asu's mix Center to downtown Mesa celebrated the opening of asu's school of Manufacturing Systems and networks at the Polytechnic campus established and helped fundraise over 1.4 million to date to support the Mesa College Pro program connecting qualified high school graduates and adult Learners with free community college education under this mayor this city council and City staff you have tirelessly supported youth programming that engages our kids meeting their interests and needs with all America City initiatives such as project lit expression through the pro the spoken word exciting literacy initiatives at the city's museums Mesa youth climate action fund the mayor's youth committee spark Mesa police officers connecting with communities by coaching MPS elementary kids and activate where our high school students propose innovative solutions to the problems that keep the mayor up at night the school district has blatantly stolen these ideas realizing that the solutions to our problems were sitting in our classrooms mayor Giles you have advocated for educational opportunities for Mesa residents at every opportunity as a Mesa resident and the president of the Mesa Public Schools governing board thank thank you thank you mayor for your many years of service as a council member and the mayor of your hometown thank you for all you've done to keep Mesa a great place to be a kid thank you thank you Marcy and your timing was spoton ended with zero seconds left uh thank you for your service on our school board uh Jeremiah Underwood followed by Michael Hughes good evening everyone um I'm honored here to speak to you all about how Mary GS has H me and many other students through the M College promise program I can attest to its impact on my life that I have I can attest to its impact on my life through the M College promise program I was able to attend M Community College with no tuition fees which lessened my financial burden and allowed me to focus on my studies although I have the support of my family the program provided me with additional support and supportive community that helped me come out of my show and feel more confident in expressing myself with the guidance and resources offered by the program I was able to explore different opportunities and get involved in extra activities to which helped me develop my skills this program made possible by the efforts of Mayor JS provides valuable opportunities for students to pursue their education and achieve their goals being a part of the program I am committed to helping other students being part of the program I have been being part of the program I have been valuable opportunities for students pursue their achieve their goals being a part of the program has been a rewarding experience for me and now as a student specialist working for the M SCS program I am committed to helping other students have the same positive experience there is no doubt that you maror Giles has made lasting impact on the city and its future Generations thank you thank you Jeremiah thank you very much um Michael Hughes take me a while to get up there okay well well won't start the clock till you get up here you guys okay one [Music] more well mayor Giles here you are on the half yard line at your last council meeting and I've been asked to come tonight to share a few thoughts on your 10 incredible years as Mason's mayor I will make my comments short as I know you are ready to conclude this meeting I know that you appreciate all the wonderful accolades that have been given to you these last several weeks I also know that being the humble person that you are it is not something you feel very comfortable with with that being said I wanted to come tonight to say two very simple but meaningful words thank you last week I had the honor and the privilege to hear many people speak to congratulate you on a job well done they talked and congratulated you on how you have improved Mesa businesses and how you have made Mesa a better place to live and how you have created more jobs and how you have done so much for so many I agree with everything that was said they were all tributes that were very well deserved I'm here to say thank you for doing your very best to not only help the halves but also doing your very best to help the have knots yes the have knots the less fortunate the people who don't have a roof over their heads the people who don't have enough food to eat the people who can't afford utilities the people who are destitute the people who need the most help you have championed for the people who were not only abled but for those who are disabled I say thank you because you have done it in a kind caring respectful authentic and approachable manner you have always done what is Right mayor would I appreciate apprciate so much is that you did you did it with honor and Grace mayor Giles thank you for doing your very best for all the people of Mesa Maria Giles thank you so much for a job well done thank you thank you Mike um oh thank appreciate the jazz hands um that concludes our agenda for this meeting but I am going to take a point of personal privilege just uh because this is my last meeting um it's been 10 years um and uh four years before that on the council 15 years before that uh and here's the the big irony in the last you know few last week or two that we've had a couple of opportunities where people have come and been so kind to express the thanks to me and I'm just uh I don't get that because um I am so grateful for the opportunity uh to have served in this position for the last 10 years it's it's been the honor of my life uh and I will never do anything professionally that will ever uh approach uh what a tremendous honor this has been uh I'm born and raised in Mesa and I I believe that serving this organization serving this municipality uh is U the highest calling that I could have uh pursued and uh I'm just again incredibly grateful to the people of Mesa for electing me three times to this position uh and um the the other thing I'll I'll close with this uh if you read the mesa city Charter the actual U powers that are granted to the mayor are pretty minimal uh okay there there's not a tremendous amount of clout uh that's written into the city Charter for this position uh and so the only way that a mayor is impacted or may or gets anything done in this form of government is if he plays this as a team sport uh and so for anyone uh who has has any appreciation for anything that I've been involved in in the last 10 years I would just remind you uh I am so proud to have been part of a a strong City's team of elected officials and staff and a supportive community that has come together in this community in such a great way uh to make some really great things happen Mesa is in a great place right now and we've accomp we are as the awards that we celebrated today indicate um we're going to have to get over this Mesa humility thing that we've uh that we're all very proud of um and um acknowledge that there are great things happening here and it's uh uh a small part of that had to do with who the mayor was so thank you as a resident uh and someone who's hoping to raise my uh eight and growing uh number of grandchildren here I am so thrilled that they will be able to choose mace Arizona as the place uh where they can uh they can ra they can can come back and work and even continue to raise their children uh Mesa is one of those cities in the United States you don't have to go to Austin or Salt Lake or Denver or the Bay Area if you want to have high quality jobs and and access to all of the opportunities that this great country provides and um so I'm proud to call Mesa home and I'm very grateful to you for the opportunity to have served uh so that concludes this meeting is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Freeman all in favor please say I I thank you we are adjourned [Music]