Phoenix City Council Formal Meeting - July 2, 2025

uh the SSP America team and uh the uh
amazing uh Phoenix Aviation staff
partners. Thank you so much.
Um we're excited for travelers to dig
into the bold, vibrant taste of Tacos
Chias. And yes, you get a sample today.
Um I'd like to do a couple quick
shoutouts and thank yous to the folks
that were involved in this. Uh the city
of Phoenix aviation team. Uh, thank you
for championing the local brands and
flavors, bringing them to Sky Harbor.
Thank you so much. Um, our Rockstar
design team at Hail Collective, Haley,
Megan, Sarah, and Richie are all here,
and this is all you. Fantastic job on
this design.
Brian, Timothy, I haven't seen in the
audience yet, but uh, he is our beloved
general contractor here from Phoenix and
has knocked this one out of the park as
well. and our all-star team at SSP
America, Natalie Green, has worked very
hard with Armando and the brand bringing
this to life at the airport. Um, others
behind are Melissa Gaus with our
marketing team and Cecile Delini uh with
our operations team, Donald and Maria
around here too. Um, longtime fantastic
managers for us. Uh, just can't can't
say enough about them and what they've
done to bring this to life at the
airport. So, um, of course, Armando and
Nadia, your food, your hearts, and your
story are going to leave a mark on
millions of travelers.
Thank you so much. And now, I'd like to
ask you to come up and say a few words
if you wouldn't mind. Good morning,
everyone. Thank you so much for being
here today. This moment means more to
me, to us, than I we can fully express.
Takoshi was began as a dream nine years
ago. A way to honor my family, my roots
in Chihuahua and the flavors I grew up
with. We never imagined that one day
would have the opportunity to share our
food and our story with the world, let
alone in the international airport like
Sky Harbor. This location isn't just
another restaurant for us. It is a
symbol of how far we've come of all the
early mornings and long nights at heart
work poured into every single taco,
every ingredient and every decision. And
none of this would be possible without
the people that believe in this vision,
our family, our team, and all of you who
supported us all along the way.
To Sky Harbor team, thank you so much
for welcoming us. We're honored to be
part of this community and we look
forward to serving travelers from al
around the globe with something real,
something made with our heart.
To my team out in the street side
locations, you are the heart of
Takoshias and this success is also
theirs.
To everyone who's ever tasted our food
and felt a little bit of home, this is
also for you. Gracias to
[Applause]
Hey, how do you follow that? Right. Um,
no, we're we're so blessed. You know,
it's one of those things where when
Nadia and I opened up our original tacos
shop on McDow, you know, we call it we
had a blissful ignorance. Uh, meaning we
had no idea what we were doing, right?
It's one of those things where we just
imagined that we wanted to bring kind of
our childhood food um to people, right?
That that was the whole goal. the whole
was like, man, we have this little shop
that has like 30 seats and you know,
we're hoping that one day we can live
off of this, right? I still had a job at
night, you know, like now I was holding
it down. Um, in that, you know, in the
last 9 years of our lives, it's kind of
felt like a blur. um this, you know,
like I I always say that coming from an
immigrant family, you know, that
basically is trying to figure out their
place in the world, this is a big symbol
of that, of just kind of our hope and
our dreams and u in a lot of ways just
kind of basically making it um
a reality that that you know our our
families faced a lot of kind
stuff coming up and you know, you come
up with absolutely nothing and and not
not knowing anything and you know, as we
get here, we're still trying to figure
it out. So, we're just so blessed. We're
so um humbled by this. You know, it's
hopefully it serves as inspiration for
other people. Like, if we can do it,
anyone can do it. And it is one of those
things that we're, you know, incredibly,
man, I can't even, you know, put express
it. Uh thank you all so much. You know,
uh we love you. Um yeah, thank you
Mexico.
[Applause]
Thank you uh Armando and Nadia. And I
wanted to uh to just have a couple of
final acknowledgements. Thank you again,
Scott, for bringing identifying the very
best of Phoenix and bringing it right
here to Sky Harbor Airport. I also want
to acknowledge um the beautiful family
Armando and Nadia's family are here uh
today with us to the left and thank you
for all coming out and celebrating this
special occasion with us all. I also
wanted to acknowledge my aviation team.
We have Sarah Deer, our chief operating
officer uh here with us. Uh Roxanne
Favors, our chief revenue officer,
couldn't be a part of this celebration.
She's traveling today. Uh but she really
helped to lead the team along with
Richard Graham and our entire business
office to really make this happen. So my
my sincere thanks to them. I know the
mayor's office staff is with us today as
well. I want to thank them for joining
us for this special occasion. And and
last, but certainly not least, I want to
thank this amazing mariachi band that's
been with us today. How about a round of
applause for them?
[Applause]
Good morning. Thank you so much for
joining us. We'll begin with an
invitation from Police Chaplain Jim
Williams.
Thank you, Madame Mayor. Would you
please join me in prayer?
Lord, I come to you reaching out and
requesting your participation in our
city council meeting today. I lift to
you our mayor, our city council, and
their staff members. I believe you have
selected and anointed everyone on this
leadership team, and for that, I thank
you. These are precious and willing
individuals that constantly share their
leadership and talents. Father, I ask
you to draw the mayor and the council
close to you, granting them favor, wash
them with your wisdom and discernment as
only you can. And Father, I ask that you
protect all of our city leaders, our
city employees, thus keeping them
healthy and safe. Lord, thank you in
advance for your grace and discernment
and love extended to all of us as a part
of the city of Phoenix. To you, Father,
we give all the praise and all the
glory. Amen.
Thank you, Chaplain. Councilwoman Hajj
Washington will lead us in the pledgece
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, Councilwoman. will now call
to order the former meeting formal
meeting of the Phoenix City Council.
Will the clerk call the role?
Councilwoman Guardo here. Councilwoman
Ernnandez here. Councilwoman Hodgej
Washington here. Councilwoman Pastor
here. Councilman Robinson here.
Councilwoman Stark
here. Councilman Wearing
here. Vice Mayor O'Brien here. Mayor Ggo
here. Mario Barahas is with us to
provide interpretation. Mario, would you
introduce yourself and your team? Yes,
mayor. Thank you. Good morning,
everybody. My name is Mario Barahas. I'm
going to be serving as a Spanish
interpreter along with the rest of my
team, Elsie Darte, and Oscar Monroy.
Now, I'll introduce myself ourselves to
our Spanish speaking audience.
Mario,
commentary.
Thank you, mayor.
Thank you. Will the city clerk read the
24-hour paragraph? The titles of the
following ordinance and resolution
numbers on the agenda were available to
the public at least 24 hours prior to
this council meeting and therefore may
be read by title or agenda item only.
Ordinances number G7396 and 7398 through
7404. S51964,52022,
52035, 52059, and 52135 through 52177
and resolutions 22316 through 22319.
Thank you. Will the city attorney please
explain the role of public comment? Yes.
Thank you, mayor. Members of the public
may speak for up to two minutes to
comment on agenda items. Comments must
be related to the agenda item and the
action being considered by the council.
General comments that go beyond the
scope of the agenda item must be made in
the citizen comment session at the end
of the agenda. The city council and
staff cannot discuss or comment on
matters related to pending
investigations, claims, or litigation.
Additionally, any member of the public
who appears before council in their
capacity as a lobbyist must, as required
by Phoenix City Code, disclose this fact
before addressing council. City code
requires speakers to present their
comments in a respectful and courteous
manner. Profane language threats or
personal attacks on members of the
public, council members or staff are not
allowed. The person who violates these
rules will lose the opportunity to
continue to speak. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Item one is boards and commissions. Vice
Mayor, do we have a motion?
I move to approve mayor and city council
boards and commissions nominations.
Second. We have a motion and a second.
All those in favor, please say I. I. Any
opposed?
Passes unanimously. Thank you to and
congratulations to our new
commissioners. We have some very
important ones today. Please come
forward for your swearing in.
Please raise your right hand. I state
your name.
Do solemnly swear
that I will support the Constitution of
the United States. I will support the
Constitution of the United States and
the Constitution and laws of the state
of Arizona.
that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same I will bear true
faith and allegiance to the same and
defend them against all enemies foreign
and domestic
that I will faithfully and impartially I
will faithfully and impartially
discharge the duties of the office of
discharge the duties of the office state
your office
according to the best of my ability
according to the bestility so help me
God so help me God congratulations on
your unanimous appointment. You'll
please go behind and thank the council.
The Phoenix City Council provides an
advisory role to the state of Arizona on
liquor licenses and we will go to that
portion of the meeting next. Vice Mayor,
do we have a motion?
Mayor, I move to approve items 2 through
29 except items 10 and 27 and noting
that items 9, 11, 21, 26, 28, and 29 are
as revised and now recommended for
approval. Second.
We have a motion and a second. All those
in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Nay.
Passes unanimously. Item 10 is Glen Rosa
beer and wine. Uh why don't we hear
speakers and then do a motion. Uh we
have one speaker here for this item,
Zayn Ramen. Zayn, the floor is yours.
Good morning, mayor, and thank you for
letting me speak over here. I will keep
it very short and sweet. in that
in that area we have lots and lots of
liquor licenses right now. There is no
need for one more. Uh it's a very
sensitive area. I've been there for
almost 35 years of my life and it's just
increasing again and again and it's not
helping in that place at all. That's all
I would say. Thank you. Thank you so
much for that testimony. That is the
only speaker we have on item 10. It is
in council district 4. So, I will turn
to District 4 Councilwoman Pastor for a
motion. Well, actually, um
I don't know who who would be saying
what the process of the liquor license
is.
Good morning, mayor, members of the
council, Councilwoman Capastor. Uh this
liquor, my name is Kristen Laay Benvitz.
Uh, I am from the city clerk.
This is This request is for a new liquor
license for a convenience store that
does not sell gas. This location was
previously licensed for liquor sales and
does not have an interim permit. This
location requires a use permit to allow
package liquor sales. The 60-day limit
for processing this application is July
18th, 2025.
And this particular application was
posted for the required 20-day period
and the one uh protest letter from the
speaker was received. Staff gave careful
consideration to the protest letter
received. However, after reviewing the
application in its entirety, staff is
recommending approval of the application
and staff also notes that the applicant
must resolve any pending City of Phoenix
building and zoning requirements and be
in compliance with the city of Phoenix
code and ordinances.
Okay. And the reason why I said asked
that is because uh there was a liquor
license at that establishment. Uh
they're currently applying for one for
the same establishment that's already
been established.
And uh secondly, uh the approval is
because there are no um any
discrepancies in their background,
financials or anything else. That is
correct. Okay. I I make u make the
motion to approve the liquor license.
Second motion and a second. Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez.
Hudge Washington. Yes. Pastor,
yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes.
Yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 8 Z.
Item 27 is the grow room. also in
district 4. We do have several speakers
on that item. Why don't we ask our
police department staff to come forward
and um if you could provide a brief
update on this recommendation which is
recommended for disapproval and then we
have two members of the public to speak
both in opposition.
Mayor, just for clarification, would you
like a staff report and introduction
first? Yes, if we could have a staff
report. Thank you very much again. and
my name is Kristen Laay Benvitz from the
city clerk. This request is for a new
liquor license for a club. This location
was not previously licensed for liquor
sales and does not have an interim
permit. The business is currently being
remodeled with plans to open in August
2025. The 60-day limit for processing
this application is July 5th, 2025. And
this application was posted for the
20-day period and no valid protest
letters were received. Staff recommends
disapproval of this application based on
the police department recommendation for
disapproval. And here today to provide a
briefing regarding the police department
recommendation are Commander Shane
Dissotell and Lieutenant Brian Milhone
Milhone, excuse me, from the Phoenix
Police Department. Uh in addition to my
left, I have uh Nathan Watts here from
the prosecutor's office.
Good morning. Uh thank you, Mayor Dgo,
staff. um and the city council for
allowing me to this time to come for
you. Uh when we looked at this
application, we had three reasons that
we decided that we would um recommend
this approval. We looked at the
application. First, the signatures need
to be done in a certain time period, 180
days. The signatures don't have a date
on them, so we don't know when they
actually were collected. Uh it we also
asked the second point was how many
members they actually have. They have to
have 51% of those members. During the
interview process, the applicants said
they had 300 to 350 members. They later
sent in an email saying they had 172
members. So that discrepancy there uh
not having enough percentage there. It
didn't satisfy the other requirement.
And the third is this is obviously a
unique establishment that's asking to
allow their members to smoke marijuana
in private. But this uh this application
allows for the public use of or sale of
of alcohol. They can have events and in
those events they could have a public
aspect of that with those that that
cause concern and obviously when we look
at these applications we we take in
account the community the problems that
it may cause the community the city and
obviously anything uh members of the
council. So for those reasons we uh
recommend a denial and that is all I
have.
Thank you so much. We have two members
of the public to speak. We'll begin with
Barbara followed by Patrick.
Good morning. My name is Barbara Damiani
and I live in the Lomol Lindon
neighborhood. I have lived here for the
past 40 years plus. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak. I'd like to
express serious concerns about the
proposal to combine a marijuana club
dispensary and liquor license under one
roof in our neighborhood. The kind of
operation induces multiple layers of
risk in many ways goes against the
spirit of respons responsible zoning,
public safety, and the community
planning. Upon reviewing the city
council meeting agenda and the notes for
the grow room, Mr. Davis has not
provided the required and necessary
documents to approve his requests.
Furthermore, mixing marijuana and
alcohol increased risk. Combining
marijuana sales and alcohol consumption
in a single location is public safety
red flag. Both substance impaired
judgment and coordination together the
effects can be intensified.
Um they can increase DUIs, fights,
accidents, overconception leading to
medical emergencies.
This type of combined establishment can
change the character of a neighborhood
dramatically. It sends the message that
the city is open to high-risk, high
impact business models involving
multiple intoxication substance under
one roof that may deter families and
businesses or future investments and it
could negatively impact how the
community is viewed. The ro the growroom
is close proximity to the many schools.
As a community, we have a shared
responsibility to safeguard our youth.
Managing one type of regulation
substance is already challenging for
local authorities. The burden of law
enforcement, code enforcement, and
public health officials could be
significant. Phoenix PD is significantly
understaffed and this would cause a
manpower burden on them and may affect
response time in a community when like
we need the police. combine the
operation in one location could create a
magnet for problems including loitery,
petty crime, drug diversion, and
violence. This is just Thank you so
much, Barbara. Very uh good important
testimony. Patrick will be next and then
we will hear from the applicant,
Matthew Davidson. Patrick, the floor is
yours.
Thank you. Um I have lived in the
Lolinda neighborhood for 57 years in the
same house. Uh I also have uh spent
about 50 years in the bar and restaurant
business as well as 20 years as captain
paramedical and fire department. So,
I've seen a lot of sides of uh this
issue and I am really worried about the
connection between marijuana and alcohol
just uh as a public safety issue, but
also this particular location is really
really a strain on egress and uh access
to Indian School Road. If you want to go
east, you you'll have to go all the way
down to 19th and make a Uturn around the
island. And getting in headed uh west,
you won't be able to to make a left turn
without going down to the next
intersection, which is actually the
freeway. And I really am uh concerned
about the possibility of traffic
accidents and people doing dumb stuff
like driving over the median. uh to try
and get where they want to go. I've also
seen the effects of uh of alcohol over
the years and having been in the bar and
restaurant business for 50 years, uh
people just do dumb stuff when they're
drinking. And the combination of the
drinking and the marijuana, uh I just
think is going to not be a good thing
for either the citizens in general or
our particular neighborhood. Thank you
very much.
Thank you, Mr. Davidson.
[Music]
Uh, thank you, council members. Um,
there seems to be a lot of
misinformation and misunderstanding
about exactly um who we are and what
we're doing. Um, I don't know where it
came into the public idea that somehow
we are combining the consumption of
cannabis or the sale of cannabis along
with alcohol. We are a education group.
We are members who work in the cannabis
industry. We help people to set up their
own ability to be able to grow cannabis
rather than having to pay dispensaries
money. as of November 2020, when the um
Marijuana Act passed, it allowed each
and every one of us over the age of 21,
if we so chose, to grow our own cannabis
rather than have to give money to
corporations. And that's what we do. We
help people to set that up to be able to
do it themselves in an area where
otherwise they wouldn't be able to. I've
spoken with uh Councilwoman Pastor and
let her know what we're doing. And then
in response to what the uh police are
bringing up as to why they feel we
shouldn't be approved, we had 172
members at the time that we took the
vote. The vote was taken in October of
2024, October 19th, and we began
gathering signatures after that date.
That is notated on all of the meeting
minutes that we provided you. So, we
couldn't have any of our signatures
prior to that date. So all of our
signatures are within 120 days of when
we applied for the liquor license. So we
satisfy that requirement. We also had
114 signatures provided to you at a time
when we said we only had 172 members.
That would be in excess of the 51% that
was required. Additionally, they
continue to say that we're going to be
consuming cannabis in this location and
that is not allowed in our bylaws. We
are only having to have a private lounge
because cannabis plants cannot be
brought in public. And so we need a
private establishment for that. And all
of the locations we've rented for our
events, we have had to rent an entire
space to make it so it is not available
to the public.
Thank you so much for that testimony.
This is in District 4, so I'll turn to
Councilwoman Pastor for a motion. Yes.
Thank you. Uh I move to disapprove uh
the liquor license. Second. Motion a
second. Any comments or questions? Roll
call.
Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Hudge Washington.
Yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing.
Yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 90.
City clerk, are we ready for ordinances,
resolutions, new business planning and
zoning? Yes, mayor.
Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? I move
to approve items 30 through 108 except
for the following items 45, 46, 47,
57, 58,
59,
60, 65,
78, 93, and 104 through 108. Noting that
items 58 and 108 are as revised.
Item 66 is withdrawn.
Item 92 is as corrected. And can the
clerk confirm if there are any other
items that should be excluded for
in-person public comment? Yes, mayor.
Vice Mayor also excluding items 43 and
61. That's items 43 and 61.
Second.
We have a motion and a second. Roll
call.
Yes. Hernandez,
yes. Hodge Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes.
Yes. Passes 90.
Item 43 is a lawsuit settlement.
Vice Mayor, do we have a motion?
I move to approve item 43. We have a
motion and a second. We have two members
of the public here to testify. Stacy
will be first, followed by Nicole.
Hello, mayor, members of the council.
Um, I was just we've been here a lot
lately to speak about traffic safety
issues and so when I um did some digging
and I'm I'm not here to blow up the
settlement or anything. I'm here to make
all of the council members aware of the
fact that um
there was a gentleman who was hit and
killed on uh 46th Avenue and Thomas
there's a he was an African-American
gentleman. Uh there's a settlement for
$150,000
for his life. He was legally crossing in
a crosswalk. But I just want to make you
all aware that um in back in 2019
uh on the Thomas Road shared youth
pathway in the same area where this man
died and I believe in 2017 there was a
cyclist who was killed. More recently uh
this year there was a motorcycle crash
at the same in uh intersection. But back
in 2019, there was actually a
recommendation made to the city for
improvements in this area um that
included high visibility crosswalks. Um
all the all the all the more better
safety issues. Uh and it would have cost
the city in 2019 at that time $173,000.
And I read uh the answer and the amended
answer that the city did in this lawsuit
and it's just gaslighting. You just
you're gaslighting people who who lost
their their dad, their husband. You're
you're gaslighting them and you're
saying no, it's it's safe. Our streets
are safe. Our streets are not safe. Um I
do hope that attorneys continue to name
this city in lawsuits. I'm heartbroken
that this family of this
African-American man is getting a
smidgen of what a lot of the property
settlements are getting. So, thank you.
Thank you. Nicole is next.
So, I'm here to also talk about the
needless death of an individual, a
family man, a father um that occurred
last year at this location close to 47th
Avenue in Thomas um in the city did um
make a proposal to do high visibility
crosswalks. And that's something I've
been here talking about quite a bit
lately, right? High visibility
crosswalks. um we don't know if that
would have saved this individual's life
when he was legally using um a
crosswalk, but we do know the fact that
high visibility crosswalks reduce
pedestrian fatalities and incidents by
40% better than automated enforcement,
which we're going to hear about later.
Um and what we do know is that um this
is also an area that's been in great
need for a very long time. It continues
to be divested. We're 10 years after we
passed the Proposition 104 to fund
things like this. Nowhere can I find any
funding on crosswalks. I see it on our
sidewalks um using our T2050 funds. I
see it for painting street or traffic
signal poles. Traffic signal poles.
We've painted since 2016
over 700, but nowhere can I find
anything about paint for people walking
high visibility crosswalks. nowhere. Um
this is an insult the payout and this is
something that we need to better better
understand on um it's just not anymore.
We can't accept it as business as usual.
Stop blaming pedestrians. We're all
pedestrians at one point or another. Uh
we need to make this a priority number
one just like we do with any shooting
victims. will go to social media and and
rave about the tragedies there, but this
is exactly the same thing. This is
violence that is um needlessly done. And
we hope that streets department is
listening and council is listening
because we need to move forward and
making sure that these areas for so long
that have been divested needs to happen
now today. Thank you.
Thank you. Any comments? Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Haj Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 90.
Item 45 is the adoption of the property
tax levy for 2526 fiscal year.
Open the public hearing. We have two
members of the public to comment. We'll
begin with Orlaobo followed by Annne
Ender.
Good morning. From the moment this tax
rate increase was presented, city
officials were pushing this as a key to
fixing our fire response time crisis
that's been ongoing for over 10 years.
It's interesting that up until now,
there hasn't been such discession or
urgency regarding this crisis. The city
will be under a lot of pressure with the
claims that this indeed will fix our
response time crisis and that the money
actually goes to the fire department. To
say response times will drastically
reduce to four minutes when they're
double that is deceptive. If the city is
not afraid of what response times are
for each district they would be
presenting them at every public safety
meeting, not to mention every budget
meeting. I constantly see news stories
regarding delayed response times or
mountain rescues that require tremendous
amounts of apparatus and personnel. This
causes a ripple effect to a department
that's already in crisis. I will
continue to put the city under a
microscope, watch every news story, read
every article, I'm well aware of what
the true response times are.
through my public records requests,
although the most recent have been
highly redacted on ambulance times. The
fire department and the city deserves
more than just a tax increase when it
comes to funding public safety. Thank
you. Thank you. And will be our final
comment on this item.
Mayor Ggo, Vice Mayor O'Brien, and city
council members. I just really want to
thank um the city manager's office,
Amber Williamson, and the budget and
research office for their um fiscal um
what's the word I'm looking for? I did
it again. For taking care of our city
budget as well as they have. I most I am
most appreciative of the focus on public
safety. We know we have many issues
whether it be the fire department
response times. We know we need to hire
more officers. we need to pay them
better. Um, but we also need technology
for them and I hope that we see even um
more functionality out of of that for um
our officers to be able to keep our
public safe. Thank you. Thank you.
We'll close the public hearing and turn
to item 46, which is the adoption of the
property tax levy for the next fiscal
year. Vice Mayor Mayor, I move to
approve item 46.
We have a motion and a second. Any
comments? Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Hudge Washington,
yes. Pastor,
yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes.
O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 81.
Thank you. I wanted to note for those
individuals who are here for the data
center items 107 and 108, there is a
staff report on the planning
department's text amendment page which
makes uh some changes to that and would
encourage you if you were here for that
item. It might be worth your time to
look at that staff memo. It has some
items related to a waiver process and a
few other changes.
With that, we will go to item 47. Will
the city clerk read the title? Item 47
is for ordinance G7402, an ordinance
amending ordinance G7241 to include
proposed revisions to Phoenix City Code
Chapter 18, article 11, section 18-413A,
related to the requirement to post heat
safety plans.
Thank you. We have several members of
the public here to testify on this item,
but u before we do that, shall I turn to
Councilman Gardado for a motion? Yes.
Yes, I would like to make a motion to
approve item 47.
Second. Second.
Thank you so much. And and thank you to
my colleagues who working very hard on
this one. Uh we'll begin with Nyall
followed by Binium.
Good morning and thank you.
Sorry.
My name is Nyall Bunger and I'm the
climate justice director for an
organization called AZA and HPI for
equity. We are also part of the Arizona
heat standards coalition for the past
year where one of our main focuses is to
have a proper heat or to have proper
heat protections for workers here in
Arizona. As someone who has spent almost
half of my life here in Arizona, I've
seen how our summers have progressively
gotten worse. I myself have had jobs in
the past working outdoors with limited
access to breaks from being in the sun
or even unconditioned environments
inside. One of my first jobs after
moving to the state, I passed out while
working indoors. He is an issue impacted
by all of us or that impacts all of us,
not just some of us. I do want to thank
Councilwoman um Betty Gordata and for
her help and her for her helpful reforms
being introduced today. There is still
more reforms that are needed in Tempi,
where ANHPI helped push for Arizona's
newest local heat ordinance earlier this
year. City leaders built upon Phoenix's
model by adding to the laws um adding to
the law things like anti- retaliation
measures, heat protections for city
employers and requirements that
contractors be evaluated for future bids
based on their compliance with the
ordinance and the quality of their heat
safety plans. Phoenix has a huge
opportunity here to lead the way on how
we tackle our ongoing heat crisis. I do
believe that we or that with the proper
amendments, we can pave the way for
workers and employers to have more
access and success uh to productivity
all while making sure that our workers
are able to have safe work environments
and be able to leave and go home safely.
Please be the leading example when you
return by improving the ordinance
further to make sure that contract
workers are kept safe. Thank you.
Thank you. Pineium is next followed by
Philberto.
Good morning.
My name is uh Binam Hilu and I'm a
driver with uh Sky Shifts alongside with
my um colleague here for Alberto. Um my
workers and I were very excited when we
when this council passed the uh original
heat safety ordinance last year and we
were eager to have our tracks uh
retrofitted in May with functioning AC
temperatures on the the tarmac regularly
exceeds the uh ambient the ambient air
temperature by 40 to 60°.
So working without functioning
functional AC units was insufferable and
even dangerous. Un unfortunately
um of the trucks I have driven since the
AC installed I count only four that have
AC units that are actually lower. The
tracks interior suitable temperature.
Most of the AC units in my opinion have
little or no impact. The company has
given us swamp coolers to try and help,
but these aren't spee es especially
effective and only work for the first
couple of hours before the battery dies.
This is particularly troubling because
Sky Chefs also does not allow us to keep
bottled waters in our trucks. Uh,
instead
and instead has us receive waters from
safety drivers on the tarmac without AC
units capable of lowering the
temperature enough as drivers are still
at risk of dehydration and other heat
related illness. My co-workers have
considered recording the internal
temperature in our vehicles to show the
city, but we were worried we will be
punished by management. I am very glad
that the council is tackling this
problem with the ordinance with the
first set of fixes here today. And I
want to thank Betty uh Guardado and her
staff for this work. Thank you. Excuse
me. I have some questions mayor for him.
Excuse me. I have some questions for
you. Do you mind staying at the podium?
Yeah, please. Thank you.
Yes. So, if I understood you correctly,
you're saying that there is no
functional um AC unit inside your truck.
Correct. So, we have about 22 trucks and
out of those 22 trucks, there is only
four trucks that has working AC units.
They installed some AC units now, but
they're absolutely no use. They they
don't
Can you explain to us what is it? What
type of AC unit these are? They have um
different they have two different units
um that they installed recently, but
they don't they don't really work. We
can you can feel the heat inside of the
truck still with the windows look rolled
up. So, it's it's pointless. I don't
know what the the AC units are called.
Um there are two types of them. They're
different. one one that looks a box and
one is on top of the uh the truck, but I
am not sure what they're called. Okay.
And how many hours um do you guys work a
day?
Um
8 hours is regularly, but u we do more
than that. I do sometimes I do 18 17 uh
16 hours and most of us do the same
hours. So we do a work a lot of
overtime. 16 hours a day. And out of the
16 hours a day, how many of those hours
do do you have functioning AC? From what
time to what time?
I would say if we with the new coolers
that they just brought, they were the
battery lasted for about 2 hours and it
does not help. So, but that's about it.
And and why is it that they don't allow
you to bring cold water into into your
truck? because they uh they have safety
drivers now. They initially they said it
was um a safety problem that we cannot
have water drinking water while driving
and all that and now they have safety
drivers inside the airport providing
water like driving and providing water.
We have to wait until we get one brought
to us. And how does that how does that
impact your work if you if you have to
wait for the safety water? Like does
that impact your work or does that work
or or how many hours do you go without
water? Yes, it does impact our works
because we can get dehydrated from that
heat out there. Um sometimes we don't
see the drivers for a few hours. I mean
they'll be driving around but they may
miss you. Uh they may not see them or
they may not see you. So that could go
like 4 hours without having one. Maybe
they go back to the kitchen to get water
and it takes a little bit longer to
come. So, it does affect us. It does
affect the the our work and it also
affects our health because if we're not
drinking enough water and that heat,
it's it's a problem. So, in your 16 hour
shift, how many hours will you go
without drinking water? Um,
sometimes 2 hours, 3 hours, sometimes
half an hour. It just depends on where
whether they are there or not. And on a
hot day, how hot is the tarmac? What's
the degrees on on the tarmac when you're
driving? It can get to 115, 120°
maybe sometimes. It's very very hot.
Great. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank
you.
[Applause]
Philberto is next, followed by Alandra.
Good morning. My name is Philberto Les.
I've been a driver at Sky Chefs
servicing American Airlines, United,
different airlines for about uh 14
years. I am the one who brings the food
and drinks to the planes. I work uh five
days a week uh from 3:00 am to 12 pm.
Many of you may remember me from when I
spoke to city council last year about
lack of air conditioning for Sky Chef
trucks working on the airport tarmac
where temperatures sometimes get much
higher like he said than 110 115 degrees
that can be unsafe uh working with uh on
proper AC. My colleges and I have been
fighting for years to win AC in our
trucks. That's why we were so grateful
to city council for passing the heat
ordinance last year which helped get AC
units installed but like he said not
working properly. And I want to thank
the council and particularly council
woman Betty Guard
and her staff for considering the
improvements to the law.
Still more reforms to the ordinance are
urgently needed. The reality is that
even now most Sky Chef TR struggle to
bring that temperature down with the new
AC units. Many of the AC units just push
air around the cabin insters
to cool down and the batteries like he
says doesn't work.
When we brought this problem up during
safety training last week, the company
safety instructor told us that
technically the ordinance doesn't know
as specified that imperative the AC has
to keep the inside of the truck to be
considered functioning. Many of my
co-workers are very angry about it, but
I'm afraid to bring I think I have some
questions.
Okay. Yeah. Filibberto, um when the when
the ordinance was presented, I know that
you were one of the workers that was out
in front of this um together with the
mayor and myself and um now
Congresswoman Ansari and Councilwoman
Pastor. Um can you tell us a little bit
about what is it that management told
you about when these air conditioners,
air conditioning units were going to
come in or if you guys were going to get
new trucks? Uh the manager told me uh I
was uh lowering my truck and he went
straight with me and told me, "Pilberto,
next uh May
you're going to have 20 units for this
kitchen, a brand new units. They're they
are going to start working the starting
uh on June. But what happens, what I
hear, these 20 units were taken to u San
Francisco because they got a new
contract there and they took him to that
kitchen and in we have a new trucks.
They just put this uh units that doesn't
work properly. So are you going to have
new units of air conditioning or new
trucks? We supposed to get him. But they
took them to San Francisco. Okay. But
that that's make us so angry.
Brand new trucks. Okay. And um that's
why I'm here. I'm I'm going to tell you
uh I'm so afraid of what is going to
happen after I come here and talk
because uh
there are retaliations and I'm so afraid
of that. I got family I got so many
bills to pay but I I feel unsafe working
on that conditions. two or three days
ago it was 115 on the term it was I
believe 120 so I I want to tell you okay
well let's talk later I think we got all
the
yeah I just want to tell you when I was
in training class three days ago the
training guy tell us that uh the law you
guys uh you pass it doesn't say the
temperature the truck has to be they
found that hole that's why that they
don't care about putting a a good uh
units yeah let's talk later about that
okay thank you council sir um sorry
uh council has a question for you soto
I have a question for you. You just said
that you're afraid of retaliation
because you came here to city council to
participate in the civil civic process.
Share your concerns on the record. What
kind of retaliation are you afraid of to
face from your employer for exercising
your complete right to come and share
your concerns? Yeah. Uh like uh to get
fired and um to be uh there are a lot of
ways to make me uncomfortable working
there like uh put in more more work on
my shift and
the worst to be fired. That's what I'm
afraid and that's why the other people
are afraid to come and talk. Yeah. Okay.
Thank you, Phil. Thank you.
[Applause]
Thank you. Alandre is next, followed by
Maxwell.
Hello, my name is Alandre Morales
Sanchez and I'm here on behalf of my
family, friends, and community and the
Arizona Worker Heat Justice Coalition.
I'm asking city council to implement
some changes to strengthen and have more
enforceable heat safety standards for
all workers. As a daughter of an outdoor
construction worker, I live in constant
fear for my father's health. The extreme
heat has already taken a toll on him,
worsening his high blood pressure,
damaging his skin,
and affecting his mental health. I fear
that the time that we have to rebuild
our relationship could be cut short
because of something as preventable as
heat exposure. I know I'm not alone. I
know there's a lot of people that have
the same worries.
And we do know that in 2024, we
experienced one of the deadliest summers
on record. We can't afford another
summer like this without taking serious
action. I do want to acknowledge and
thank the city of Phoenix for passing
the ordinance last year. It was a
meaningful step forward, but there are
still some critical gaps as you have
heard. First, coverage needs to expand.
The current ordinance doesn't protect
workers like my father. To truly make a
difference, these standards must include
a broader range of workers, including
those employed indoors in high heat
environments. Second, we need strong
with protections. We've already seen
workers like Hilberto who just spoke um
be be at risk for speaking out. Without
these protections, those who report
unsafe conditions
can
can suffer extreme consequences. I urge
you to expand this ordinance to protect
workers
and give peace of mind to families like
mine. Thank you.
Thank you. Maxwell is next, followed by
John Bower.
Good morning. Uh, my name is Maxwell
Ulan. I am a staff attorney for Unite
Here Local 11. I'm also a labor
representative on the city of Phoenix's
uh contract worker heat safety advisory
committee which is a long name but
basically what we do is advise city
staff on the implementation of the heat
safety ordinance that was passed last
year. So, Local 11 has over a thousand
uh Sky Harbor-based members, and we were
very proud to support the Phoenix Heat
Ordinance uh last year when it was
passed as the first step in ensuring uh
heat safety for our workers. And the
reforms being introduced today are
welcome improvements. I want to thank
Councilwoman Gordado and her staff
particularly uh for their leadership in
proposing these fixes.
Still, we need to do more to make the
heat ordinance enforcable and effective.
In the past year, a solid majority of
the advisory committee members from
business, community, and labor have come
together to voice their concerns about
flaws in the ordinance's design.
as some examples of the challenges that
we've identified under the current under
the current ordinance. There are no
protections uh for workers who speak up
about violations from retaliation.
There are no heat protections for city
employees.
There is no uniform system for filing
complaints about violations with the
city. And the mechanism for holding
subcontractors accountable is difficult
to enforce and highly complicated.
Additionally, because contractors are
not required to affirmatively furnish
their heat safety plans, the city often
lacks confirmation that adequate plans
even exist until it is often too late.
As a member of the advisory committee, I
respectfully urge the council not only
to pass the important fixes before you
today, but to adopt additional reforms
in the coming months to address the
problems we've mentioned. Thank you.
Thank you. John is next, followed by
Trina.
Hello, mayor and members of council. My
name is John Bower and I am a political
and legislative action deputy
representing ASME in Phoenix. I'm here
today to speak to you alongside fellow
members of the Arizona Heat Standards
Coalition, which brings together labor
and community organizations to advocate
for stronger workplace protections in
Arizona. ASME represents thousands of
bluecollar
and administrative workers that are
employed by the city of Phoenix. And we
estimate that over 2,000 of these
employees are exposed to heat on a daily
basis with at least 1,500 bluecollar
workers directly exposed to the extreme
heat throughout their entire shift and
hundreds more being exposed to heat
through building inspections, important
casework, park maintenance, and
essential functions at Sky Harbor to
just name a few. Many of us were proud
to support the passage of the Phoenix
heat ordinance last year as a major
first step. And as we learn from the
roll out, the reforms being introduced
to Phoenix's heat ordinance today are
welcome improvements.
We want to thank the council and
particularly Councilwoman Betty Gordo
and her staff for taking leadership on
these reforms, but still there are other
reforms needed to make the ordinance
enforceable and effective for our
members and workers across Phoenix.
Under the current ordinance, ASME
notices a few areas for improvement. For
example, there are no heat protections
for city employees, which beyond what
you have heard about the contractors and
other employees means that there are no
retaliation protections for workers who
speak up about violations. There are no
protections for those in ventilated
warehouse spaces that are still
susceptible to extreme heat. There are
no requirements for departments to post
their heat safety plans. And there are
no requirements for additional heat
safety equipment such as cooling vests,
neck wraps, and other uniform and
equipment that can help city workers
stay cool when exposed to stream to
extreme heat. While we do recognize that
the current heat ordinance and protocols
implemented for city employees at the
department level have gone a long way in
preventing many tragic deaths, we want
to highlight that local 2384 has
received multiple reports of critical
incident incidences related to heat in
the last year. Thank you.
Thank you. Trina is next, followed by
Cecilia.
Hi, thank you. My name is Trina David. I
am a crew chief for a major airline at
the airport at Sky Harbor Airport. I've
been there for almost 17 almost 18
years. One at a regional carrier for
over a year and I've been 17 years with
the major airline. I know firsthand the
heat crisis that it plagues the airport
workers, all airport workers, not just
airline workers.
So, you asked, "How hot is hot?"
Last Wednesday, June 15th, a week ago, a
week and a half ago, it was 112 degrees
at 3:11 p.m. I took my heat gun out. The
tarmac was 155. Our still carts are 147.
We have to push, pull, and maneuver
those carts everywhere. Not to mention
the fuelers or the caterers that walk
around in the heat with no shade, no
protection or anything else without air
conditioning. We stand for long hours
out in the sun to work flights. As you
know, flights are very fluid. You guys
are all very excited when your flights
come in early, and you're very mad when
they come in late. But what you don't
know is that we are the ones standing
out there waiting for those flights to
come in or come in late. Well, you don't
have access to available shade because
we need to park these airplanes and get
you guys off where you need to be as
soon as possible. So, the heat crisis is
real. Dry heat is real. It is a
convection oven. You breathe air, it
burns your lungs, your throat, and it
bakes you from the inside out. No amount
of water or hydration drink which will
bring other medical complications can
satisfy the dehydration that you feel. I
myself worked over the weekend. I worked
Saturday with no issues. I worked Sunday
an hour and a half into my time in the
shift. I had heat related illnesses and
had to go inside to cool down.
Retaliation is real. People felt
threatened, terminated, disciplinary
action. being marked for harassment,
being monitored and micromanaged,
waiting for you to slip up so you can
get disciplined.
[Music]
I have a lot more to say, but my time is
up. So, if you have any questions, I'll
open it up for you guys.
Counciloman Gordonado. Yeah, I have um
Where exactly do you work? Who do you
work for? I am a crew chief with
American Airlines. I spent a year, three
months, three days with Mesa Airlines,
which is now Piedmont. And I am a proud
member of the AAM union.
And you said that you had a gun and it
said that it was 150 degrees on the
tarmac a week ago. Yes, I can send you
the pictures. And and my other question
is, um, how accessible is water for you
when it gets really hot? Um, that's
debatable. Uh uh most of us, a good
portion of us carry our own vacuumsealed
containers. Myself is 33 ounces, which I
use every freaking hour. Um so I am very
well hydrated. Uh other times we rely on
the company to pl provide somebody to
drive around with cool water or a
hydration drink because we do run out
when we're out there on the ramp.
Sometimes the water is not cold because
they cannot chill it fast enough for us
to to make the rounds.
And my other question is, have you had a
chance to look at the heat plan that
your company um your your employer is
supposed to provide to you? Um yes. So
when the heat ordinance came out last
year, we all were really excited. We
thought like, all right, this is good.
Someone's finally listening to us. But
it actually had no change and no impact
at all to our organization because they
said the break rooms are provided.
However, the break rooms are a long
walk. So if I'm working at the very end
of a concourse, I have to make a long
walk. And again, we're not out there
when those planes come in or need to go
out. So break rooms are not that
accessible at times because we are on
tight schedules. And do you have access
to a a cool place, a chilling place if
it gets too hot for you? They do provide
tents on the ramp. There are some
locations that have a swamp cooler, but
with um some spotty conditions at the at
the airport itself, like the power will
go out on the the columns that it's in,
and then we have to get electricians out
there, which takes a day or two, or then
we rent generators to go. But this is an
airport worker and an airline worker.
The fuelers and the caterers do not have
access to what we have access to.
So, I mean, to us, we're spoiled because
the fuelers and caterers don't have
shade, don't have tents. They rely on
our airline to give them um hydration
drinks, right? Whether it's water or
Gatorade. Thank you.
Thank you.
Cecilia is next, followed by Sergio.
Hello everyone. Uh my name is Cecil
Ortiz. I am a warehouse employee at uh
airport management services, also known
as Hudson. I also a labor representative
on the city's contract worker heat
advisory committee. Before joining
Hudson, I worked for an airline
subcontractor as a passenger service
agent pushing passengers who needed
wheelchair assistance. During the summer
months, I remember standing on the jet
bridge, sweating in full uniform without
access to water as the temperatures
would reach over 100 degrees inside the
jet bridge. I saw my co-workers, my
friends passed out from the extreme
heat. I finally joined my co-workers to
take action. Last year, we rallied,
spoke out, and demanded that the city
take action and in 2024, we won a
historic heat ordinance. Soon after
though, I was fired for re the reasons
for my firing are suspicious at best.
And I believe it's not a coincidence
that it happened so soon after I spoke
up. But because Adosh's timeline for the
filing retaliation claims are it is just
30 days. By the time I made the
connection and thought to file a
complaint, it was too late. Since
hearing about the issues I complained
about, city officials have been trying
to uh get copies of my old employer's
heat safety plan. But because of how the
ordinance is written, the city depends
on the contractors, in my case the
airlines, to enforce the ordinance
against subcontractors and ask the sub
subcontractor for a copy of their plan.
Last I checked, the city still hadn't
received a copy from the airlines. So,
I'm glad uh I'm so glad for the reforms
Councilwoman uh Guardo is introducing
today to make the heat plans more
accessible to workers. But for workers
to feel more protected and speaking out,
Phoenix needs to be do more by passing
its own retaliation protections and
create a way to hold subcontractors
accountable more directly. That's why a
majority of the advisory committee is
here today to support reforms to the
heat ordinance that would do exactly
that. When you come back from break,
please help us to pass the changes that
will help ensure workers the best
protection on the job that they deserve.
Thank you.
[Applause]
Sergio will be our final speaker.
Uh my name is Sergio Rodriguez Lopez.
I'm a community representative, a
committee member on the Phoenix's uh
heat safety advisory committee. First
and foremost, I'd like to thank Betty
Wardado for this great first step in
improving the ordinance. The ordinance
is Phoenix's first attempt at improving
workplace safety for employees working
in the heat and I'm glad to see that the
city's uh council is building on that e
effort. So, thank you. Um I do ask that
we don't let the foot off the pedal in
terms of improving the city's ordinance.
As a majority of us advisory committee
members have noted, more needs to be
done to ensure retaliation protections
for workers, accountability for
subcontractors, and transparency in the
existing heat safety plants. We also
need a a more clear, more centralized
system for monitoring and handling
complaints. As an EMT and a safety
professional, one topic I do want to
touch on is the cost of safety.
Unfortunately, cost tends to become a
barrier that prevents safety initiatives
from becoming a reality leading to
unnecessary deaths. So, I ask that when
you look to consider adding a safety
initiative, do not look at it as a cost,
but rather as an investment, an
investment that pays you back by
preventing far greater losses that come
with uh failing to protect people. As an
example that I I want to use, look at
the Uranell fire that occurred here in
Phoenix. And just a few uh days back, it
was actually been 12 years since the
incident. 19 firefighters lost their
lives, families were destroyed,
communities were shattered, and this and
the the state faced millions of fines in
lawsuits.
The cost of stronger safety training,
better communication to tools, and
decisive evacuation policies would have
been a fraction of the millions that the
state had to pay out in settlements. And
more importantly, it would have saved
lives. Now, as a resident who lives and
works here in Phoenix, I ask that you do
what's right. Make the choices that
ensure that every worker, every
neighbor, and every family member makes
it home safely at the end of the day.
Because in the end, doing what is right
always pays back in the lives that are
saved, families that are kept whole, and
a safer, stronger city for us all. Thank
you. Thank you.
Thank you so much. That is our final
public comment. I'll turn to Councilman
Gordado. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I guess
first I have a couple of questions for
Mario.
So, so Mario, as part of the ordinance
here, what we have in front of us on
page two, bullet point number,
bullet point number, where is it? I lost
it here. Bullet point number three, it
says that all enclosed cabins or cars
need to have air conditioning. And we
are now hearing from workers. One,
you know, we went, you and I took a tour
a few months ago. We saw the type of
units that they had inside the trucks,
but now the workers are telling us that
these batteries are running out after
two hours, which is something that the
general manager never told us when we
were taking the tour. And the other
thing that the workers are also telling
us now is that it's running just
hot air inside the trucks. And then
they're also telling us that not all the
trucks have air conditioning units. And
here it says that on May 1st, 2025,
they were supposed to be in compliance.
What what measures as a city are we now
going to take
um with these companies that are not
complying?
Mayor, members of the council,
Councilwoman Guard, thank you for the
question. Uh yes, you are correct that
in the or the existing ordinance even
without any changes today requires um
that contractors provide access to air
conditioning in vehicles with enclosed
cabs and all such vehicles must contain
functioning air conditioning and that
requirement went into effect on May 1st
earlier this year. Uh and uh as as you
mentioned uh we did a site visit out at
the airport particularly with the with
the Sky Chefs was one of the uh visits
that we made and uh we did we were able
to see a demonstration of the air
conditioning that they had in in one of
the vehicles. Obviously, we didn't uh we
didn't go through all of the vehicles.
And so now, having heard the testimony
today, um we will investigate those um
claims that not all of the vehicles have
fully functioning air conditioning in
compliance with the ordinance. That's
something um that we will follow up on.
And I'll look I'll look to Chad uh
Makovsky, our airport services director,
uh to give any additional information he
might have on how we do that
investigation.
And thank you, uh, Mario, Mayor,
Councilwoman Gordado. Uh, in addition to
hearing the testimony today, um, we do,
every one of those vehicles do have to
go through one of our security vehicle
gates, uh, we will putting it be putting
in a directive this afternoon that every
one of those vehicles with that specific
company. uh until we're satisfied uh
this issue is resolved uh we'll in
addition to the security check we'll be
asking those security guards to actually
make sure that the air conditioning is
blowing cold air in the cab of the
vehicle I mean I I just think that we
pride ourselves you know that I mean the
airport is our economic engine I think
as a console rightfully so we've
invested so much money into this airport
we all take a lot of pride walking
walking through that airport making sure
that we make it easy for anyone that
wants to come and make business into the
airport that we make it easy for people
to be able to come in. I think we most
of us always go and go to the ribbon
cutings and making sure that this is a
functional airport. But when I hear that
even after a year of this being
implemented, I mean, we've just heard it
from a couple of the workers, they still
don't have access to water, right? We're
we're still hearing that there's workers
that are going four, five, six hours
without without any water. And just a
correction, it sounds like that it's the
swamp coolers that we saw when we went
on that tour that the battery runs out
after 2 hours. Um, it's not even the
ones in in in the in the trucks. So, I
just think that I think workers are
right. I think we need stronger
measures. I do applaud this council, the
mayor, our city manager, Mario, Chad,
um, Congresswoman mwoman, I'm sorry,
everyone here who made this ordinance
happen a year ago. I think for all of us
is is incredibly important. And I didn't
see a lot of happy faces up here when we
saw worker after worker coming up and
saying how the conditions, some
conditions have changed, but not
everything has changed. And when we
passed this ordinance a year ago, we did
say that we were going to continue to
make reform and we did say that we were
going to continue to look at the
ordinance and try to make it continue to
make it better. I know that it's not
easy for you guys. So, I do applaud
everyone and leadership for all of your
hard work and everything um that
everyone here um has done. I think that,
you know, for a lot of us, it it is
important that we continue to keep our
our our workers our workers safe. I
think it's been a huge priority um for
this council and for that I applaud the
mayor's leadership on on all of this and
everything that she has done um to move
this forward and to all of you for
moving so fast on this on this
ordinance. Um but I would like if
possible legal will tell me if I can do
this or not. I would like to add um to
my motion that as we move forward with
the reforms being presented today that
we bring this back in the in the fall to
talk about the reforms that workers
brought forward today.
Remind me who was the second Oh, okay.
Pastor
me. Okay. And you're fine with that?
Yeah. Okay. And and the other thing I I
would thank you thank you to my
colleagues for that and I would also
like to add um you know that it is
important for us to keep an eye on
retaliation with a lot of these workers
and making sure um that we keep everyone
majority of these workers that are here
today have worked for this airport for
over 10 years. Some of them maybe even
20 years. So I think it is important. I
think we've all worked really hard on on
reforms and making sure that we keep our
workers at the airport. I know that
every single person that does business
in the city of Phoenix loves to be able
to get off get off that plane and being
able to greet um a lot of the same
workers that they get services from
every time they fly here and they take a
lot of pride and I think that's part of
the reason why they continue to come
back is because they see that we do have
the friendliest airport um here in
Phoenix and I will continue to take
pride on that but I hope that we
continue with the reforms. I know that
today um we're going to make sure that
there's a phone number for complaints.
Um that everyone will be able to file be
able to file their complaints. Um that
these plans will now be available on
bulletin boards in areas where workers
work and that it's not going to be a
mystery of where this plan is anytime
the city or the workers ask for it. So
for that again, I want to thank
everyone. I want to thank all the
workers that took a chance and took a
risk and are putting their job on the
line and coming out and speaking today.
But most importantly, I want to I want
to thank my colleagues and and city
management um for all of all of your
hard work on on this. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you so much. Thank you for your
work on this. uh to address a couple
things that came up for our team. Heat
regulations for city employees that are
a different place than heat uh
regulations for city business partners.
Yes, mayor, members of the council,
that's correct. Um the heat regulations
for city employees are in administrative
regulations and we do have an
administrative regulation. It's 2, I'm
sorry, 2.31B.
This is an administrative regulation
covering heat illness and injury
prevention and it essentially mirrors
the content of the ordinance. Wonderful.
Because that's very important to us. We
want our city employees to be
safe in our very difficult heat. So,
thank you. And we we'll keep looking at
it to make sure it it keeps up with the
standards. We Absolutely. And we will
add the elements that are being added
today as far as posting and bulletin
boards and those sorts of things as
well. Wonderful. And important uh thanks
to councilwoman. It will be posted in
both English and Spanish.
Great. Really appreciate that. And then
for our team, if we could just check
into that
testimony that you can't have a bottled
water.
Um I cannot think of a good reason to
not let people have bottled water.
Mayor, uh members of council, um I was a
bit surprised by that testimony as well.
uh we will be immediately following this
this council meeting uh inquiring with
that company as to their policies
related to being able to transport uh
bottled water on the on the vehicle. Um
I also mayor if I may I just wanted to
briefly mention that uh related to
retaliation the city has long held uh an
important policy on that and um ensuring
non-retaliation in in the in the sense
that um we have public safety and heat
safety hotlines. Uh we have an app. a
CISA airport app where people can take
pictures. Uh employees have access to
this app. They can submit um an
anonymous uh communications to the city
about safety issues including heat
related issues. Uh so if employees are
not feeling comfortable communicating
these issues to their employers, we
would encourage them to please
communicate them to the city. We'll hold
that information confidential and we'll
uh do a follow-up inquiry with the
employer. Thank you. Thank you so much
and thank you for this intention. When
we passed the policy, we wanted those
vehicles to be air conditioned the whole
time that they're working. Councilwoman
Pastor, thank you. Um, I first want to
thank uh Councilwoman Wardado and the
collective in in getting this to where
it is. Um, I actually find it very
unfortunate that we're back at the space
that we're at and I hold us responsible
for that. Uh, because we shouldn't be at
this space. Um what should have been
done was the piece should have been
enacted. We should have had checkpoints.
We um and the items that we're putting
in now
are good. Um but we also had to have a
committee to come together. We had to
gather testimony in order for change to
happen within here. And I get it. We
have to follow our our process. Um, I'm
hoping that this space next year, it's
more of thank you for implementing what
you said you were going to implement.
Uh, thank you for providing the
necessary items that are needed in order
for us to stay alive. Um, have the water
that is necessary.
Um,
and I want it's just mind-boggling to
me. Um, but the most critical piece for
me is a retaliation
and I know legally we cannot do
something and it's a third party because
we've gone round and round about this.
However, it is real.
We have seen it. I have felt it.
So, I'm not really sure what we can do
in that space.
I know we have a a line and everything
we're trying to to protect, but
ultimately
that third party can do what they want.
And so to those that are here today, I
commend you and have great gratitude to
you because you are taking a risk
and it is a and when you take risks that
should demonstrates leadership.
So thank you
Councilwoman Hut Washington. Thank you
mayor. I also want to say thank you to
Councilwoman Gardo for leading this
effort. I also want to say thank you for
staff for um incorporating some of the
comments from our that we've heard
today. But I also wanted to say um I I
have a little concern about the we asked
individuals to volunteer for our
different committees and boards as a
city and we still have some ways to go
regarding integrating the
recommendations from the contract
workers heat safety advisory committee
as well as members of the um heat uh
heat safety co collective. And I just
want to know um we've this current
proposal has set forth some of their
requests, not the majority. And I I just
wanted to know I wanted to kind of
piggyback off of Councilwoman Gallardo's
request that we actually have a plan
going forward to address these. Um, I do
believe I I I think it's it's also
telling that our our residents are feel
comfortable coming here to city council
to share their concerns, but they should
not have to come to council to voice
these complaints, especially when it
talks about their employment. Um, we we
presume I like to presume the best in
everyone, but sometimes that doesn't
always come to fruition. I thank you um
Chad for noting the Cay app as one way.
Is there any other way that um employees
that believe there's a violation of this
ordinance can currently report that so
that they can um so that we can have
this information and start the relevant
investigation if necessary?
Thank you, Mayor. Uh Councilwoman Hajj
Washington. Yes. So, um, we do have a
dedicated airport employee website at
skyh harbor.com/mp employees uh that has
information uh that is both available in
English and Spanish to employees so they
know how to report uh this information
to the city uh in addition to the the
safety aspects of of their work
environment just the heat aspects of the
work environment is a dedicate dedicated
category uh in terms of the complaints
they can file related to their uh work
environment. uh we have a dedicated
public safety and security team that's
there to receive those complaints and
adjudicate or address them uh as they
receive them. Uh and uh they can do this
in a number of ways. There is a phone
number and in fact uh thanks to our last
tour and I want to give uh credit to
Councilwoman Gordado as we did the last
tour uh as of next week on the back of
every singge
uh there will be a dedicated phone
number to a safety line as well as a
heat safety line uh for employees uh to
be able to call. We have that
information posted at all public
assembly areas where employees typically
congregate as they're moving about our
airport. And we have again 47,000
employees at Sky Harbor Airport, over
1500 companies at Sky Harbor Airport. So
as they're going to the elevators,
they're able to access this information.
Uh there are posters in the employee
service elevators and around uh
hightraic areas for employees. Uh so
they're aware of, you know, water
fountain areas, things like that. So
they're aware of how to communicate to
the city. But to to directly answer your
question, they can call us, they can
email us, they can go to a website and
report information that way. We have a
dedicated app that they can download and
put on their phone to communicate
information to us that way as well.
Thank you. Thank you for that. You
actually anticipated one of my questions
and my questions was how are we going to
educate them about these resources and
it sounds like that is a process that's
in play uh that's going to move forward.
So, thank you for that. And I also um
want to reiterate or just um reaffirm my
support for making sure that we do
include whistle holder pro whistleblower
protection for those individuals. Um we
want to make sure that these um
complaints are not um the the source of
someone's losing their employment. Um I
just want I think we are on the right
track when it comes to addressing one of
our most dangerous conditions here in
the valley is there is our heat. we
can't ignore that and we want to make
sure that we are protecting those um
workers to the extent that we can. So I
think that we're on the right track. I
just really would like to stress that we
should heed some of the not some we
should heed the recommendations from the
committee members. We appointed them for
a reason. I'm not saying everything can
be accomplished but to we should not be
summarily dismissing their um the
recommendations made to them. So I just
wanted to echo that support for the um
recommendations made by them. I
understand it might be a scaled process,
but I think we need to have an
intentional plan to work towards
achieving many of the goals that the
recommendations seek to serve. So, thank
you, Mayor. Thank you, Mariel. If I may,
um, mayor, members of the council,
Councilwoman Haj Washington, I just I
just want to express my appreciation for
the heat safety advisory committee that
we've been working with. uh many of whom
you heard from today u Maxwell Ulene
Cecilia Ortiz Sergio Rodriguez um and
there are a few others uh Sydney Hawkins
Chad Araruda and um Dr. Song those are
the members of our heat safety advisory
committee and and we we do work very
hard to to hear what they're saying and
take that input. Um, one of the one of
the recommendations that hasn't that we
haven't talked about that they that the
committee made that we've already
implemented was for the addition of a
posi position dedicated just to this
purpose. And so at the airport, there is
now a new position um that will be uh
responsible for monitoring compliance
with this ordinance out at the airport.
And so that's that's an important
recommendation that that com that came
from that committee. And so we're
thankful for for the efforts they made
to do that. That committee's also been
working on a model heat safety plan that
we can share with our contractors. And
so that's something that's in progress
as we speak. Um and um they're they're
doing a lot of diligence to make that uh
to to make that something that works for
for all of our contractors and and is
useful. Um, and so I I just wanted to to
state that that we do um we do take very
much into consideration what they're
bringing forward. The discussion about
language on retaliation is is
complicated and so that's something that
hasn't come forward yet, but it doesn't
mean we can't get there and keep working
on it. And I I think that's the
commitment that you're that you're
hearing today. Um that we'll do
something that that could be brought
back later. And I thank you for adding
that for stating the clarification
because I think it is helpful for I
wasn't aware as a council member that we
had submitted that position and we had
created that position. So I'm grateful
to hear that we are incorporating in to
we're incorporating into our plan the
feedback from our community members. I
think that's how we create you create
good alliances and relationships. So
thank you for that clarification and I
I'm look just look forward to seeing um
more steps of moving forward our our
plan to ensure the safety of our
workers. So, thank you for that. Thank
you, Mayor. Thank you so much,
Councilwoman Hernandez, followed by
Counciloman Gordado, followed by
Councilwoman Pastor. Thank you, Mayor.
Um, you know, I just want to make sure
that um the workers especially know that
I'm very supportive of the heat
ordinance. I think the only thing I
didn't like is that I wasn't here to
vote for it when it passed. Um, while I
also recognize that we have a lot of
work to do to address a lot of the
issues, we are facing record heat in the
valley because of drought and
environmental changes. Um, and I'm
really, like I said, I'm really glad
that this council passed that ordinance
last year with the leadership of
Councilwoman Guardo and the mayor. Um,
and extremely encouraged that we are
having the conversations to continue to
look at ways that we're strengthening
this ordinance. Um, and especially on
the enforcement side to make sure that
the partners are
doing what they need to do to protect
our workers. Um, and this is a great
first step in that direction. Um, I
would also like to acknowledge the many
concerns that the advisory committee has
identified, um, as well as the stories
that we just heard here today that are
extremely concerning um, from the
workers. I mean, we all heard it. Um, so
we as a city really need to work towards
ensuring that those concerns are
addressed um, such as the protections
for whistleblowers and expanding the
coverage to warehouse workers. Um, I
definitely agree that we need a stronger
accountability and oversight um, piece
to ensure that the implementation of the
safe working conditions are made because
something as simple as access to water
is literally a life and death situation
um, in the face of a heat crisis. I
personally am going to continue to push
our legislative partners, our governor's
office, um, to ensure that statewide
we're also working on heat protections
for workers everywhere. Um, and I think
we're at a point where the business
community should join us in that. The
threat us not protecting our workers are
is not good for their business. So, I
don't know why at this point the
business community has not gotten on
board to support measures like this. So,
I will continue to advocate for that um
to get to do what I can to get more
partners on board um and looking forward
to working with all of my colleagues uh
to find ways to strengthen our city this
the steps this city has taken to uh make
sure we're we're delivering for our
workers. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you,
Councilwoman Gordado. Thank you, Mayor.
Um Chad, I had a follow-up question um
for you um when it comes to the trucks.
You said that
what what's going to happen with the
trucks if they get to the tarmac,
they're being checked, and there's not
any cool air being blown in in those
trucks. Uh, thank you for the question,
Mayor Councilwoman Gordado. So, up up to
this point, what our um security guards
have been doing is periodically checking
for compliance as those vehicles, and
this is any vehicle, would go through a
vehicle gate onto the airport proper. uh
what they would do is ask the driver if
they have functioning air conditioning
in the vehicle. Now, recognizing and
hearing the concerns today that there
might be concerns related to
retaliation. Uh we're going to take this
a step further, uh I'm going to direct
our staff to have our contract guards at
those gates actually check the vehicle
as a part of their inspection to see if
they can feel cool air coming out of the
the air conditioning units. If that
vehicle is not in compliance, it will
not be allowed to come onto the airport
property. we will be directing them off
airport property and back to their
employer for uh for further and then
we'll we'll take that information and
that would be then the beginning of an
investigation we would do with the
employer that they may not be compliant
with the ordinance. And given this
change, are you are we going to give
them a memo and let them know, okay,
these we're we're going to this is this
is the accountability piece from from
the city's perspective in terms of
vehicles that we will let onto the
tarmac and the ones that we won't. Uh,
Mayor and Councilwoman Gardado, I
believe these companies are already
aware of that. We've previously
communicated that expectation that any
vehicle that's not in compliance would
not be allowed on airport property. Uh,
but we will take this a step further. In
addition, uh, Councilwoman, I just based
on what we heard today, um, that's
evidence enough in a public meeting uh,
for us to actually take this up as a
potential allegation of a violation
against the ordinance that the ordinance
somebody is not complying with the
ordinance. So, we do intend to open up
investigations based on the testimony we
heard today as well. And then I know
that we're going to be hiring a new
position or we have a new person that's
going to be going around the airport and
making sure that people are in
compliance. Can we make sure that these
trucks are also part of the tour that
they're taking or when they're going
around and checking for compliance that
can that they can also come and see one
of these trucks when it's 2:00 in the
afternoon and it's 160° on the tarmac.
and mayor, Councilwoman Gardado, that
position we're currently recruiting for
when it is on board and uh fully
operating and up to speed at at the
city. It's our intention to have them uh
not only respond to um complaints
related to uh heat ordinance compliance
uh but also to do proactive work in the
field, which would include going out and
visit visiting companies. As I had
mentioned earlier, we do have 1500
companies that are permitted to operate
at Sky Harbor Airport through
contractors, subcontractors, vendors,
concessionires, suppliers, and what have
you. So they will not hit every company
all the time, this one person. Uh so I
just want to set that that expectation,
but uh certainly in the rotation of the
things they do, we can make sure that
the inspection of these vehicles is a
part of that rotation. Right. Again,
thank you so much for everything that
you've done. You've been a great partner
um since we started um talking about
issues um here at the airport. I failed
to mention Matt Hail. Thank you so much
as well for all of your hard work and
making these tours a little bit more
accessible. And also um want to thank
Mayor's chief of staff for coming with
us in the last tour and and making this
happen um for all of their hard work.
And for any of my colleagues that would
like to join us today, we're going to be
going and doing another tour at the
airport with our city manager and seeing
what the conditions are like. I'm sure
we'll have a lot of fun as we're out
there today. And again, thank you all
and thanks to the workers and thank you
for everything that everyone's done.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman
Pastor,
uh these are my last comments tomorrow.
Uh congratulations.
Good luck. Today is your last uh at
least formal meeting
uh as you move on uh to another position
or another city. And so I I was just
kind of chuckling up here as we're
having this discussion and I'm like, "Oh
gosh, Mario, today's Mario's last day,
not last last formal meeting." So
congratulations. I just wanted to
acknowledge that and thank you for all
the work that you have done for the
city. Thank you. Can we get a round of
applause for Mario?
[Applause]
Uh among the things uh Mario Panagua has
done for us ranging from budget and
technical things to major infrastructure
investments, we moved forward the
regional transportation plan. With his
leadership just delivered a light rail
extension, Sky Harbor Airport named
number one airport in the country during
his time in leadership. We worked
together a lot on sustainability and
making sure we do a variety of different
investments including saving money on
our energy bills. So we you you leave a
big legacy behind and we appreciate you.
With that, I think we are ready for roll
call. All right, roll call. And mayor,
if I may, real quick, um I would like to
just correct the record for the prior
item for item 46. That item did pass
with a motion uh of 9 to zero, a
unanimous vote. So I just wanted to
correct the record for item 47. I will
call the roll call now. Wadd yes.
Hernandez, yes. Hudge Washington. Yes.
Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. VGO, yes. Passes 90.
Uh, two other updates related to the
meeting. If you're here for the data
center item, I had announced that it's
on the text amendment page. There are
also paper copies here. And then Denise,
do you have an announcement related to
item 72?
Yes, mayor. It's my understanding that
item 72 um there has been a request to
reconsider that item.
Okay. So, uh item 72, when we get to
that, we will have a hearing on 72,
which is related to equipment for law
enforcement.
So, we'll just do that motion when we
get to 72. Yes. Yes. Thank you, mayor.
All right.
Item 57 is related to the Toon ODM
Nation Tribal Gaming Grants. Uh, do we
have a motion? I move to approve item
57.
We have a motion and a second. The Tonom
Native Nation are great partners of our
helping us with a variety of things
ranging from public safety uh to
cultural investments. Uh, noting
Councilman Wearing will not be
participating in this vote. Does anyone
have a comment? Councilwoman Hernandez.
Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I just have
a question for legal on this item. Um,
and one of the specific items listed uh
as part of the grant process around the
25,000 grant for Phoenix police to
purchase the fingerprint readers. Um,
should we be awarded this grant? What is
the constitutionality of officers
scanning an individual's uh fingerprints
before they have been arrested, charged,
or booked?
Um, mayor, members of council, so I'm
not familiar with the language in this
specific grant or what the requirements
are specifically for this grant. Um,
generally speaking, um, our law
enforcement would be required to um to
follow federal and state law in regards
to immigration enforcement. Okay. Thank
you, mayor. Um, and I'm going to be
supporting the overall grant. Um, but
should we be awarded this money and
before we allocate that, I would like to
have a conversation around that piece to
make sure we understand if there are any
con constitutional issues there um or
what liability the city may face.
Thank you.
Thank you. Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Haj Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 80.
Next item is item 58, which is an
authorization to amend our contract to
the human services campus known as keys
to change to increase authority and
extend turn. I'll turn to the vice mayor
to introduce extend the term and I will
turn to the vice mayor to introduce this
item. Thank you, mayor. First, I want to
express my admiration for the Keys to
Change organization and the people who
help us help those who are in need the
most. The Keys to Change campus has been
an invaluable asset through our efforts
to clean up the zone and provide
services to our unhoused populations. We
want them to succeed and we want to
strengthen our relationship with Keys as
we have with Cass. With that being said,
over the past couple of years, there has
been a pattern of concern related to the
leadership at Keys to Change. In a
recent interview with Shan Raundo from
the Arizona Republic, they admitted to
being in a multi-year deficit over the
last two years. We have been contacted
by their vendors over lack of payment,
resulting in security guards walking off
campus from the safe outdoor space. The
key staff was behind on sending bills
resulting in duplicated costs and in one
instance the city being build after a
contract had already closed out. These
are taxpayer dollars and we are expected
by our residents to be good stewards of
these dollars. Because of this, we must
expect the people we contract with and
do business with be operating in good
faith. When there are concerns that
arise, we have a responsibility to our
taxpayers to demand oversight and
accountability from our vendors and
partners. It's why I demanded a board
seat from Keys from Keys to Change. When
there are issues this concerning, we
need to have a seat at the table. Before
I make my motion, mayor, I'd like to
hear from the Keys to Change
representatives or members of the public
on this item. Do uh I do not have anyone
registered to speak on this. Do we know
if Keys to Change is here?
Thank you. If you could
Good morning, mayor and council. Amy
Schwabender, CEO, Keys to Change.
If you want to pull it up, it don't we
don't want you to bend.
That looked uncomfortable. Uh, everyone,
my name is Myron Hams and I'm the chair
of the board.
Sorry. Thank you Amy and Myin for
joining us. Um, there have been
discussions and you've previously said
previously said that the city having a
non- voting seat on the board for keys
to change would be bad governance. Will
you explain to me how you believe this
would be bad governance from your
perspective? Sure. So, I'm not an expert
on these things. So, I asked u Can you
hear me? Okay. Would you mind just
pulling it a little bit closer? A little
bit higher. Yep. that better. I'm not an
expert on these things. So, I had asked
our um chair of our governance committee
to kind of give me the major talking
points because you've been in discussion
with him. Um and primarily it would it
would take a change in our bylaws, which
is the process that can be accomplished,
but it is, you know, it's a process that
wouldn't happen overnight. But secondly,
there were some best practices as it
relates to nonprofit uh boards and I
asked him to summarize some of those. So
if you'll give me a second, I'll just
kind of read read down. So as it relates
to conflicts of interest, when you have
a private funer on a board, it often
brings either personal or institutional
priorities that may not align with the
nonprofit's mission or long-term goal.
Their presence on the board can create
situations where decisions are shaped by
donor preferences rather than the needs
of the organization and its stakeholder.
For example, a private funer might
advocate for programs that reflect their
own agenda.
Oh, I'm sorry, private public. Sorry
about that. Therefore, I can promising
the board's uh fiduciary duty of loyalty
to the mission impaired. Number two,
impaired board independence. One of the
board's primary responsibilities is to
exercise independent judgment in
overseeing the organization. However,
when a funer occupies a board seat,
their financial influence may
inadvertently or intentionally sway
decisions and discussions. Other
directors might be reluctant to
challenge the funders's views,
suppressing healthy debate and
underlining the board's ability to act
in the organization's best interest.
Number three, even with the perception
of undue um public funer influence can
weaken trust among staff, volunteers,
and external stakeholders. Transparency
and accountability, cornerstones of
effective governance are threatened when
donors are perceived to have a
disproportionate sway in the
organization's decision. This dynamic
may de deter deter other donors or
partners from engaging.
Number four, unmanaged conflicts of
interest can uh have legal implications,
particularly if the decisions appear to
benefit a board member's personal or
financial interest. In such, the
organization and the funer risk
reputational harm, which could affect
fundraising, partnerships, and public
trust. And number five, funders serving
on the board may unintentionally
redirect organizations focus towards
their initiatives that align more
closely with their funding priorities
rather than the nonprofit mission. This
phenomena known as mission drift can
weaken the organization's identity,
alternate core supporters, and dilute
its impact.
With those things in mind, we had
offered an alternative which was to have
a non- voting board seat on our
financial committee instead of the
general board. The idea behind that is
the financial committee meets every
month for an hour to hour and a half
which would give you direct and deep
dive into the finances. A board member
we talk about finances 10 to 15 minutes
depending on what the topic is and we
only meet 10 times a month. So it' be a
lot more visibility into the finances a
deeper dive and on a regular basis.
Thank you for that. The city though as a
main funer currently sits on a number of
boards ranging from the arts to service
providers like the Herburger Theater,
Cass Trellis, the Arizona Housing
Coalition and United Way, which Amy came
from before she was in this position.
Um, would you say these are or
organizations are promoting bad
governance? No. Uh, I can't speak for
the other organizations, but I do have a
response to that. Okay. Good. You said
no. Thank you. Um, could we have OHS
staff please come to the table.
Thank you Rachel and Gina for joining
us. Rachel, could you explain why it's
critical to seek for the city to seek
representation at a seat at the table on
the keys to change board?
Thank you, mayor, members of the
council, council, uh, Vice Mayor
O'Brien. So, yes, we have been working
with your office as well as Keys to
change to, um, express our, uh, need and
desire to have more transparency with
the organization leadership. We have,
uh, regular meetings with staff. our
staff meet regularly, but this really
all stemmed from, as you described
earlier, some of our financial concerns
with the organization,
concerns that we had that actually led
to the city uh performing an audit um of
OS and our contract with Keys to Change
and really looking for a higher level of
discussion and transparency with board
uh with the leadership of the
organization, which is the board. Okay.
And so can you be more specific in the
concerns that that you specifically saw
besides the ones I highlighted?
members of the council, Vice Mayor
O'Brien, the the concerns you
highlighted are these specific concerns
we had, the deficit um that was
expressed to us from leadership um and
really knowing that we are we as a city
of Phoenix and this organization being
in the city and really the the front
entrance to a lot of people experiencing
homelessness, we the front door for a
lot of experience people experiencing
homelessness, we have a desire to make
sure that that organization is a healthy
organization and we have a desire to be
aligned with them and partner with them
and and really the the desire to be a
non- voting seat on the board was to to
have that transparency to know what the
leadership was doing about some of these
very serious financial concerns. And
will you talk about the relationship
between Cass and the city before we
joined their board versus um two years
we've had a seat on their board for now
two years. Vice Mayor O'Brien, yes. Um
we had similar concerns with the Cass
organization, although uh a little
different. We had a lack of transparency
uh with their financial records as well.
Um we're not able to to get questions
answered that we had related
specifically to their financial or
organization financials. Um having the
non- voting board seat on the on the
cast board has really transformed a a
lot of that. Uh we now get access to
their financial statements every month.
We get their board packet every month. I
attend the board meetings when I can. Um
they they're at the same time as policy
meetings. So, I'm not always able to
attend those. Um, but when I can, I just
have a broader understanding of the
organizational structure, what the
leadership is doing. Um, and I have a
direct line to to their finance staff
and and staff as as well. And h how has
that created, I guess, or has it created
a stronger partnership in working with
them? And how does it lead to better
services?
Vice Mayor O'Brien, from from our
perspective, we we definitely feel like
we have a lot more transparency and an
open and honest um um relationship with
not only the the cast staff, but also
cast board members. They have come to
visit safe outdoor space. They often in
board meetings will ask me questions
directly about the city's perspective on
items.
Okay. Thank you. Um and and I do
acknowledge that um Myron sent me uh a
um suggested um compromise last week and
so um mayor I'm ready to make my motion.
Wonderful. And we will go to Councilman
Hut Washington for comments but we might
as well have a motion on the floor and
let her ask. Okay. Councilman Hut
Washington. Well, I just wanted to first
uh I wanted to make sure that we gave
Keith a chance, the opportunity to
answer the question you were trying to
answer regarding um why you think this
is um would not why you were saying why
this would not be bad. Sure. I
appreciate that. Um I like I said, I
can't speak for the other boards, but I
can speak for our board and where we see
those differences. So again, I'd like to
summarize what my chairman of the
governance committee said. The city of
Phoenix does have board seats in other
nonprofits, but is comparing apples to
oranges in a city that might own land
for that organization or does not
directly compete with that nonprofit.
The office of Homeland Homeland Office
of Homeless Solutions competes for the
funding source against keys to change.
They oversee the contracts and write the
scope of work to preserve the integrity,
independence, and mission focus of the
nonprofit governance. Public funders
should be encouraged to contribute
through advisory roles, donor councils,
and other special initiatives rather
than occupying board seats. We have put
forth viable options that include a
board seat on our a non- voting board
seat on our finance committee that would
allow the city to have greater
transparency and oversight over
financials and coordination with keys to
change. These approaches can allow keys
to change to benefit from their insight
and support while maintaining clear
boundaries that uphold good governance
practices. Thank you for that. Thank
you. And I just wanted to ask Rachel um
uh Rachel Millie a question regarding
the other boards that we sit on. Um, can
you tell me a little bit of the
I don't want to say history, kind of how
those board seats came to be because I I
I understand the need for disclosure of
information, but I also understand the
fine line between usurping their ability
to manage their nonprofit in the way
that they they deem appropriate. So, can
you tell me a little bit about that?
Mayor, members of council, Councilwoman
Haj Washington, I can really only speak
to the the cast seat, correct? Okay. Um,
so yes, the uh the board seat that I
currently sit on as a non- voting member
of Cass also came um was a direct um uh
um reflection of a contract that was
before this council and it was put right
into the ordinance that they uh require
a non- voting seat for the city of
Phoenix in order for the the contract to
move forward. And was that when I asked
sorry probably should have been a little
clearer. I was asking to the level of
because this feels a little acrimonious
right now. It's and I was wondering if
it was more of a better negotiated
relationship. Can you share anything on
that? Sure. Um, Councilwoman Haj
Washington, um, it it definitely was not
something that Cass initially was um um
um wanting to do certainly, but um but I
think uh they made the decision to go
forward and and they did change their
bylaws and and I now have been sitting
in that non- voting board seat for about
two years. Um and it it definitely was
not something that they volunteered. It
was a negotiation and they agreed to it.
And then my other question is, do we not
do we currently have language in our
contract as it stands if that allows us
to
review the finances in another mechanism
other than having a a a board member or
a vote a member seat on a finance
committee? Counciloman Hodgej
Washington, we have language in our our
our contracts that allows us to see all
of the financials related to our funded
programs. Um we certainly get the audits
from all of organizations that we um um
that we contract with the annual um
audits. However, we don't have access to
see their monthly financials how their
their full organizational budgets. No,
we do not. Okay. And but we do have the
ability to see the information that to
request this information. Do we have the
ability to request this information as
it currently stands in our contract?
Counciloman Haj Washington, I would have
to um check with our contracts
individuals. We have full ability to
audit the organization and and we do an
annual financial audit of the
organization. Um but I don't know if we
get the full financial documents.
I have some additional com comments, but
I'll wait until the actual motion is
before us. Okay, mayor. Thank you.
Wonderful. Vice Mayor, I think we're
ready for a motion.
Okay.
Um, the issues we've discussed today are
deeply concerning and and the push back
um that I've received from Keys to
Change leadership about seeking this
seat in a non- voting manner um to get
openness, transparency, and
collaboration and accountability has
been very frustrating. Um and it has
seemed like the that the the interest in
being partners is not truly there. Um
the city of Phoenix is respond
responsible for funding a quarter of
this year's $24 million keys to change
budget. Um that's roughly $6 million a
year. $6 million of tax dollars that
demand oversight and transparency. It's
been stated that giving a funer a non-
voting board seat is bad governance. I'm
just not sure for who by having way of
having seats on their boards. Cass would
disagree with this statement. Trellis
would disagree with this statement and
United Way would disagree. A non- voting
board seat improves collaboration,
strengthens coordination, and enhances
transparency and trust. All things that
I would have thought Keys to Change
leadership would have wanted as well.
With that though, we the city are
willing to show that we are good
partners. And so the motion to approve
item I move to approve item 58 with
these cons contingencies to ensure that
services are not paused or interrupted
and that this compromise will hold keys
to change accountable while maintaining
the same level of services.
these contingencies to the um motion for
approval. That a representative of the
Office of Homeless Solutions be included
as a non- voting member on the Keys to
Change Finance Committee. Number two,
that a representative of the office of
homeless solutions and a representative
of the city council participate in a
monthly meeting with the Keys to Change
CEO and the chair of the Keys to Change
board or another designated board member
to review board packets, answer any
questions, and have discussions. that a
representative of the Office of Homeless
Solutions would be invited to keys to
change board meetings as a guest in
situations to include but not limited to
items of interest are as identified a
need to exchange information, seek
feedback are agreed and are agreed upon
by the representative of the Office of
Homeless Solutions and the chair of the
keys to change board or another
designated board member. Lastly, should
the city determine the above three
requirements are not leading toward a
better working relationship with Keys to
Change leadership, the city reserves the
right to give a 60-day notice to Keys to
Change to begin the bylaw amendment
process to provide for a non voting
board seat or forfeit the remainder of
the contract.
Mayor, before I second, can I make a
friendly amendment to the last language?
I would suggest if if uh vice mayor is
open to specifically add that um after
non- voting board seat filled by OS or
forfeit the remainder of the contract.
Yes. Thank you.
And I second.
Thank you so much. Do you have any
additional comments, Vice Mayor, before
we go to No, ma'am. Council, we'll go, I
guess, to Counciloman Pastor and then
back to Counciloman Hodge Washington.
Hi, thank you. Um,
one of my concerns really is
um
how sustainable keys to change is.
And for me,
we are providing dollars for for me of
having a quality service.
um
and understanding that our money is
being used in the way it needs to be
used.
The other piece is we have a financial
responsibility to our taxpayers at the
end of the day and to hear the back and
forth as to why uh someone cannot sit on
your board as a non voting member is
very challenging to me because other
nonprofits have done it and we have
asked it. So I see resistance in that.
And when I see resistance in that, that
makes me question as to why and what is
it?
What is it that you don't want us to
see?
Thirdly,
we've had a voting member sitting on
your board, city of Phoenix.
He was a police officer.
he has left because he got promoted and
has left the city and is now doing great
things in another city.
So the fact that we haven't the the fact
that to hear you can't be on it, we've
had somebody on it.
Um and so I'm not understanding.
Um at the end of the day, what was my
motion was going to be a little
different than that. Um, but
I like the fact that that there's the 60
days
and that we can look. I would like to
see the metrics. I would like to see the
finances. I'm now digging.
I'm now wanting to know.
And um,
and I think now there's that challenge
for us because what I don't want
or what I
What I hear is
we can't continue.
We have to pass this because if we
don't, we won't have these services. But
I want to know that we're having these
services even when we pass it.
And that's the challenge that I have.
and that's to staff to really look at
put in this contract
a lot of the metrics that we need in
there. And what I would like to see is
that in six months, which might be
October, November, I don't in six months
that we come back, it could be 60 days
to determine if we're going to continue.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll go to Councilman Hut
Washington and then back to Councilwoman
Hernandez. Thank you so much, Mayor. I I
I I
am in favor of one, two, and three of
the of the conditions. I cannot get
behind number four. And let me explain.
I respect the Keys to Change ability to
make decisions about their governance.
I'm not going to tell them that they
just because their situation aligns with
another organization that they have to
necessarily follow that same route. I
would hope that we would be able to come
to that conclusion as partners, but I do
believe in giving vendors some opport
some ability to decide how they choose
to govern themselves. I have some cons I
have I understand the concerns about
transparency and in making sure we um
have the right, you know, we know what's
going on there, but I think there's
other ways that can be done. I am also
concerned that by us um advocating and
taking this position, we are implicitly
telling other cities in this in this
region that they do not have to
contribute their fair share to the key
for change campus. Um we are the ones
that are most affected because it's
located here in Phoenix. But I do not
believe that we should be the we have to
be careful of that. Uh my concern with
so uh condition number four is we are
putting potential termination on a
subjective factor. It says if the city
determines that the following three
conditions are above mentioned three
conditions are not leading to a better
working relationship. That is a very
subjective standard. What does that
mean? And I understand what we're trying
to go for here, but I want to ensure
that we are not um potentially allowing
the services that are needed by our
unsheltered population to be guided by
something that it that is not as
tangible. I would like us to work
towards a more cohesive working
relationship, but I am very concerned
about tying um the hands of our one of
our key partners in this homeless and in
in dealing with our unsheltered
population simply on if they don't give
us a voting uh board seat and they
forfeit the rest of their contract. I
think we can do better. We have shown a
history of working together and I think
we can do that. I just have concerns
about a subjective standard that would
lead to the ter termination of our
support. Our support is not dimminimous.
Our support is 25% of their budget. And
I understand us trying to ensure that we
are being good stewards of the funds for
our residents. But I think there are
other ways that can do that shy of
forcing them to change their governance
practice. So thank you mayor um for
allowing me to say that. Um, I think
push back is normal by Sorry, I have one
more thing. I do think push back is
normal when you're asking someone to
change the way they have always done
something. Uh, I just want to be careful
and ensuring that if we h if we move
forward for standards to determine how
one, two, and three are met. They should
be clear parameters. It should not just
be up to
it should not be up to vig uh vagaries,
especially when you're talking about our
unsheltered population. There's no one
here to advocate for them. So, I just
felt the need to share that and I just
think we need to be a little bit more um
concise in what we really want here. If
what we really want is access to the
information, I think that can be done um
without requiring them to give us a
board seat. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilwoman Hernandez. Thank
you, Mayor. Um first question for staff.
I know um be there was an audit done I
and you know I'll be honest I'm newer so
I don't know the entirety of our audit
process but in light of some of the
conversation and I thought of this
question based on what councilwoman
Hajra Washington just mentioned on her
concern on item number four from the
vice mayor's motion do we have the
ability as a city to do an audit at a
random time at a at a set time um to be
less subjective of what we're trying to
accomplish so that we know that
financials are in order. Mayor, members
of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez,
that's a good question. The way we
typically would audit an organization
like this, we would primarily want to
wait until if we're doing a financial
audit, we'd want to wait until we
actually had all the finances for a
particular time frame. That way, we can
reconcile it with, you know, an outside
auditor state financial statement or
other things like that. We will also now
that this is on our continuous audit
plan, we're also going to be looking for
for compliance with our existing
contract and the programs and services.
So that doesn't necessarily have to wait
um for a particular point in time. Um it
could be done at any time. The random
nature of an audit like that is best
suited so that you don't get in the
habit of knowing when we're coming in.
Okay. Um just so for clarity, we are
able to do that. Do you think that that
would alleviate could that be a path of
building that model to alleviate some of
the concern around a subjective matter
like a subjective opinion?
I mean, yes and no. I I guess to the
council woman's point, I think what I
heard her saying is, you know, the
better working relationship that I think
is the part that is purely subjective.
That that isn't something that an audit
is going to determine for you. Um,
that's that's something that everyone's
going to have their own opinion as to
what it means that the relationship is
better. Okay. Thank you for that. Um, I
have a couple questions for uh Amy and
Myin. Um, and before I ask you my
questions, I want to be clear to
everybody that the Keys Change campus is
in District 7. Homelessness and housing
is a top priority for this office. So,
you know, Amy, I immediately after being
sworn in, we reached out to your office.
we came to tour the campus. We we were
proactive in reaching out actually
before I even knew this was an issue. So
um and you you know you gave us a tour,
we saw the campus um in light of this
you know there is concerns of the
financial management of the campus which
I think are valid. Um I you are familiar
with my work. you know that I always
stress for transparency and
accountability because I really want to
reenter all of us that at the middle of
this are people and people that ex that
need services and people that we need to
deliver for. So I'm encoura I I know
that there's push back on both sides and
there is a relationship that needs to be
built. Um prior to jumping into politics
my entire career was relationship
building. So, I'm pretty confident that
we can develop a good relationship that
will address a lot of the concerns that
have been shared that are valid, right?
Because we we h as a city, we have to
set a standard of what we expect to see
partners deliver, service providers
deliver to our people, right? So, that
that's always at the foundation. And I
think you are of the same mindset. I
mean, I'll let you answer for yourself.
Um, but I think that there's room here
for improving a working relationship to
really address the concerns of the city
staff, of council members, of your team.
Um, and I think the important part is
how do we get to that? I have a little
bit less concerns with item number four
because I think that there is there is a
willingness for us to partner in this to
really deliver for our people, right?
So, I guess my question to you would be,
are you open to making sure that we
continue to build and do all the steps
on your end um to make sure that we are
addressing the financial concerns and
actually improving the working
relationship so we're not in this tugof
and situation and we're really focused
on delivering for the residents that are
in need of services. Yes, thank you,
Councilwoman uh Hernandez and yes, agree
with you totally. Uh, Keys to Change has
always been responsive to any request
from the city of Phoenix. When it's an
audit, a monitoring, a request for
information. Um, we we wrote this
proposal as a compromise. It was about
asking questions to inquire where the
request for a non- voting board member
seat was coming from so that we could
understand and how it applies to our
good governance. We have other grant
arrangements where we have to
demonstrate we're following good
governance. And so it it wasn't a matter
of resistance for resistance sake. It
was to ask questions to gather
information and ask for some kind of
compromise that works for both parties
because the city of Phoenix through all
their amazing efforts and the growth and
their efforts to address homelessness
over the last several years will not end
homelessness alone. Keys to change the
13 other partners on key campus will not
end homelessness alone. Our tagline is
working together, ending homelessness.
And uh you're welcome to come and visit
us anytime. Office of Homeless Solutions
reaches out when they want to visit with
someone, when they want to see what's
going on. Um, we're always responsive to
any requests for sharing information
being present and we suggested that the
the recommendations be included as an
amendment to the contract so that it
became part of the legal legally binding
agreement with the city of Phoenix and
would last passed myself or Myron as a
board chair and it was tied to the
operation of the organization. Okay.
Thank you Amy. And I know you know for
being in the sake of transparency you
know when we toured we requested from
our office to set up a monthly meeting
with a campus just to be aware what's
happening. How can our office be re uh
be a good partner since the campus is in
our district you agreed to that. So,
independent of this, our office had
already made that request for a monthly
meeting and briefing with you and your
team. Um, that you I know you are
working with our your staff is working
with our staff to figure that out. Um,
and you plan to you're okay with
continuing that in addition to this
other piece of
of the conversation? Yes, Councilwoman
Hernandez. We again, we are in District
7. We've always gone to district 7
electeds and staff to understand the
issue, the challenges and the success.
Um we house people every day from key
campus and we want you and your staff
and the rest of the residents to know
that it's not not all doom and gloom. Um
there are positive outcomes every single
day as it relates to moving people into
housing. So yes, whatever happens,
whatever happens in this uh contract
negotiation, uh district 7 yourself are
welcome to to visit anytime and set that
monthly schedule. Okay. Thank you. Um
you know, I did have conversations
around this and I've stressed the
importance to everybody that the only
pieces that is unacceptable is for there
ever to be a lapse in services. Um, and
I think that two things are true here.
That there are concerns, there are
issues that need to be addressed, but
also recognizing that we cannot put
ourselves in a position to ever be part
of an interruption to services. Um,
especially right now in the we are now
in our very high heat season. Um, and
there is lives on lives at stake now,
right? And I think we all recognize
that. Um, so I think the goal, what I'm
hearing is that the goal of everybody is
to make sure that we are addressing the
issues that that have existed in the
past with the financial um, management
of the campus and build goodwill, build
a good solid working relationship for
all parties involved. And Rachel, I had
asked you like, do you feel that the
offer um from from Myin and Amy to have
the monthly meetings um would get us to
that goal? Mayor, members of council,
Councilwoman Hernandez, yes, we we think
that the the offer that they put forward
meets the the intention that we were
looking for. Okay. Thank you. Um I think
that's all my questions for now. Thank
you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. I I do want
to just correct the record because I
think you just um Amy said something
about a voting board member seat and we
never sought a voting board member seat
but eight years ago we did have both the
city the city the county and the state
had voting board member seats and there
was an effort to um buy keys to change
those to non- voting board member seats
and and I share this because Amy shared
it with me in these discussions and that
there was an NDA given to those three
entities to sign in order to be in a
non- voting board member capacity. At
that time, seven or eight years ago, the
leadership of those entities chose not
to sign those NDAs. I requested a copy
which Amy gave me and we provided it to
our um city attorney who said that we
could sign that NDA today just as a
point of reference to um also how we got
here. Um I believe that all I still
believe strongly that all four um of my
amendments should be added um to the
contract in order to proceed forward.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman Hud Washington.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I I just want to
clarify from u I presume our our
representatives here from Keys to Change
heard the first three conditions that
were raised by the vice mayor's motion.
We we agree and would accept those. You
would agree the with the first three,
but presumably not the fourth. The
fourth is kind of like what you said.
It's very subjective. Okay. Um and I'm
not really sure if the fourth is
necessary if we're doing the first
three. Um obviously a little closer to
the mic. Um sorry. Thank you. Could you
do I need to start over or could you
hear what I said? Start over. Okay. So I
we I would be in agreement with you. The
fourth one is very subjective and how
you would measure that. Um, you know, I
believe the first three are going to
build that relationship and um the
office of homeless solutions, I keep
getting it with the other one. Um, it
that that would solve that. Um, I think
it's fair to evaluate our progress and
say, are we accomplishing what we set
out to do? but to put this um I don't
know there's a carrot and a stick to put
a stick saying well if we don't feel
like you're doing it um that we're going
to terminate the contract which would
lead to end of services but uh I'll
leave that up to the council but my my
two cents would be that's a very
subjective solution and I think the the
two parties that are going to be
involved in this daytoday can figure out
if we're being successful or not. you
actually led into what I my thoughts
were on this as well. Um, I know there's
a current motion, but my recommendation
to item numbers four on this would be at
the end of Q3, we would review the
relationship and see if the changes that
have been outlined in one, two, and
three, and would have a meeting to see
whether to discuss and outline if there
are additional recommendations to
strengthen the relationship and address
the financial concerns and come up with
a mutually acceptable time frame for
those implementation. But I know there
is a current motion on the floor, but I
would recommend revisions to um to
condition number four along those lines.
Did um okay, Councilwoman Pastor,
so I keep hearing building a
relationship. I want to know how long we
have been in this relationship.
Mayor, members of the council,
Councilwoman Pastor. So, uh, the city of
Phoenix and Keys to Change have
partnered for since its inception. Um,
uh, Keys to Change was a a very valuable
partner, as was stated earlier in our
efforts around the the zone. Keys to
Change operates our safe outdoor space.
Um, and so we've I think we've been a a
funer and a partner um, since its
inception,
which is what 20 years. How long you
been?
20 years. 20 years is correct. Okay. So,
we have a relationship. Um, I think we
have a like in any relationship a hiccup
uh of where we need to have a
an honest truth dialogue
on how we need to move forward and uh
possibly change both our ways of how we
operate or how we discuss in a
relationship. It's an ever evolving
relationship.
Um I want to know from legal um in any
contract we have the ability to uh
cancel
u mayor members of council I don't know
the terms right now. Yes I it's standard
in our contracts um to have cancellation
provisions. Um I haven't seen this
contract. Sometimes it's a cancellation
for convenience and you know we don't
have to have a reason and other
contracts we do have to have a reason
for cancellation. Okay. So we already
have it. Um
so in the language can we put 60 days
that we have the ability to cancel a
contract? I don't know what the language
is. I would like to to figure this out.
Mayor, members of council, Councilwoman
Pastor, their their previous contract
had a 30-day cancel. Well, 30 days is
even better. I mean, I don't know, 60 or
30. Yeah, I think 60 is better for you
guys, but I I'm just trying to move this
because we have a long agenda and um I'm
trying to figure out where we all can
Okay, so I I will take a hint on that.
We will move the motion. The motion on
the table is the motion made by the vice
mayor with the amendment from district
7. Is that right, Denise? I have a
question. Uh, Councilwoman Hernandez.
Well, since mine was a friendly
amendment, that wouldn't count towards
the motion motion, right? No, it's not a
substitute. So, someone you someone
could make a substitute motion, but at
the moment, we are moving the vice
mayors with your amendment to fill the
seat by OS. Is that right, Denise? Yes,
mayor. All correct. Call the vote.
Mayor, can I council Haj Washington? I'd
like to make a substitute motion and my
motion would be to adopt conditions one
through and three as stated by the vice
mayor with condition number four being a
motion to sorry the condition is at the
end of Q3 we review the relationship and
see if the prior conditions are working
and have at least one meeting to discuss
and outline if there are recommendations
to strengthening the relationship and
addressing the financial concerns.
second
and Q3 would be so we'd sign it and then
it'd be March 31st.
Is that what Q3 means? Be September 30th
would be Q1.
So is this fiscal year? Oh, fiscal year.
Our Q3. We have fiscal years and
calendar years and we just I meant
calendar year. So it would give us an
opportunity to at least see by the end
of September if this is working. Okay.
So Q3 of 2025, correct? Okay. Oh, that's
different. Okay. Yes. It's to say so we
would have at least attended uh we're in
June now. We would attended July,
August, September, and October meeting.
Yeah.
I'm sorry. If Do we need additional
time? Can you just say your motion
again? So my motion is um conditions
one, two, and three as previously stated
by the vice mayor's motion. And for
condition four is at the end of Q3 um
for the calendar year of 2025, we would
review the relationship and have at
least one meeting to discuss and outline
if there are recommendations to
strengthening the relationship and
addressing the financial concerns.
And who is in that meeting? It would be
the same individuals who keys to change
in the office of homeless solutions, the
representative from the office of
homeless solutions.
So in September, Rachel and Amy would
meet.
Is that all that
if you if if Okay, let's I'll change the
time. I'm just trying to have a I just
want to understand what what the motion
is. The motion is at the at a date
certain, we can determine the date. At a
date certain, we review whether or not
the first three conditions are working
and if additional recommendations are
needed to address the strengthening the
relationship and addressing the
financial concerns.
And um do we just do you mind if we go
to the vice mayor just to
so yeah I have a question if that is the
change
what is our ability to
enforce any recommendations that may
come up at the end of Q3 and 2025
given the way the contract would be
written then.
Um, mayor, members of council, so my
understanding is we have a 30-day
cancellation provision currently in the
contract without a reason. Yeah.
Correct. Okay. Okay. So, it's without a
reason, then fine. Okay. And then any
council member who wants to talk to
Rachel or provide input is free to do
so. And also, I'm asking if so, if we
don't if we think that September is not
enough time, maybe we may get to the end
of the calendar year, December of 2025.
I'm just trying to come up with a
solution that I feel is more palatable
for me. It does not have to be agreed
to. I was Does this work for you D7?
Okay. Yes, it work. Yes, it works for me
because I will be meeting with the Keys
campus no matter what.
So, vice mayor.
So the
number four just doesn't put a limit on
three or six. If if it is working in
if it's working, it's working. If it's
not, then we have the option to request
that non- voting me board member seat.
So So if if are we putting in six months
or are we putting in the end of
September?
What's the time frame?
What do you think is an acceptable time
frame? Are you asking me? Yeah, both of
you. I mean, I think by September, we
will know if all these are working. I
think six months is an olive branch to
show goodwill to our partners. So, I
personally think six uh the end of the
calendar year. So, and then come back
and revisit. Um so, end of calendar
year.
So I would then based on that I would
say it's until December 30 a after the
end of the fis I'm sorry the calendar
year of 2025 we have a conversation but
I don't think anything in this motion
precludes the ability to have the
conversation earlier if necessary. No.
Okay. So, the motion and the second does
the second agree. Okay. Yes. All right.
So, we'll do a more structured review at
the end of the calendar year, but
everyone will keep reviewing and meeting
throughout that time period.
Okay. And Denise, we're clear with what
the motion is? Yes, Mayor. All right.
Are we ready for roll call? Roll call.
Mayor, can I explain my vote? Please do.
Yes. I will be voting yes, but I would
also like to thank um Councilwoman
Ernnandez and Councilwoman Kesha Hajj
Washington for always carrying the
burden u when it comes to homeless
facilities um and throughout our city.
Just want to thank you guys for all of
your hard work. Any support that you
guys need um please please let me know
um in which way uh we can be helpful to
you guys. Um we know that it's that it's
a lot of work. It's a asking a lot of
you guys and it's a lot asking from the
community um in the surrounding areas
and want to thank all of the partners
that continue to do all this great work
and to Rachel and Gina, thank you guys
for all of the work um that you guys
continue to do day in and day out. um
and looking forward to seeing um more
facilities hopefully coming um in
districts where we don't have them and
hopefully just all of the enthusiasm
that there was around this issue.
Hopefully we have a lot more enthusiasm
with more folks wanting to add more
facilities in their districts. Thank
you. And I'll be voting yes. Hernandez,
mayor, please do. Thank you. Um I want
to start off by thanking staff for the
hard work. I know that this is not an
easy um issue that we have to deal with,
but since I've onboarded, you have all
been available. Any questions that we
ask, you are there and willing to answer
and working with us to figure out
solutions that are acceptable to our
office um and how we serve our
unsheltered residents. I also want to
thank Amy and Myin and the entire Keys
uh leadership team and the entire staff
there. Um, I know this work isn't easy
and having to work with elected
officials is never easy. Um, because we
are a lot to handle sometimes. Um, but I
think that you are an instrumental
partner in really the services that are
provided to our unsheltered residents
and just our folks that are struggling
um with poverty. And you know, I agree
with you. We cannot solve um
homelessness on our own. Any of us can.
we have to be really invested into um
solving the root cause of these. So, I
thank you for your partnership, for your
willingness and openness to continuously
meet with our office, provide us any
information that we have requested. Um,
and I'm I'm confident that moving
forward, we're going to get to a place
where it resolves everyone's issues and
everybody can deliver the services to
our people that we should be delivering
and to the standards that that is
expected of our residents. Um, so I am
supporting this motion to renew it
because under no circumstances is it
ever acceptable to interrupt services.
So I will be voting yes. Thank you. Haj
Washington. I feel like I've already
explained my vote, but I hopefully this
is an opportunity for us to we've
identified those concerns and we realize
the severity behind the need to be good
partners and hopefully we can come up
with something that works. So, I will be
voting yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes.
Stark,
yes. Wearing
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 90.
Item 59 is related to the Valley Youth
Theater. Do we have a motion?
Um, second.
We have a motion and a second. I'll turn
to Councilwoman Hernandez. Thank you,
Mayor. Um, I don't want anybody to be
stressed out. These are actually good
comments. I want to congratulate Valley
Youth Theater and the city for moving
this gold bond uh project forward. When
this facility is finished, it will bring
two theaters and close to 400 seats into
District 7, which will be a great
enhancement to our art scene and are
investing back into black and brown
youth in the district. So, I'm super
excited to see the beautiful work that
the youth at the Valley Theater will
produce. And I expect to be invited to
your very first production. I will sit
front row and cheer everyone on. Thank
you.
Thank you. Our vand continues to deliver
for our community. Roll call.
Yes.
Yes. Haj Washington. Yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes.
Yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 90.
Item 60 is the authorization to amend
the intergovernmental agreement with
Maricopa County and a funding agreement
with PCDIC for senior bridge affordable
housing project. Do we have a motion? I
move to approve item 60. Second. Turn to
Councilman Hud Washington. I too have
great comments. Um I just wanted to
highlight this project. The Vanderian
corridor has long been in need of
revitalization and projects like the
senior bridge not only provide
affordable housing but also signal to
our community um that long-term
affordable and attainable housing
investment in district 8 is the path
forward. With 54 new units at Senior
Bridge site, we are provide we are going
to be providing safe, stable housing for
those who need it most. And I'm so
pleased that we have found a way to keep
this project moving through strong
community and county partnerships. Well,
thank you, mayor. Thank you. And I'd
like to thank uh Inger Ericson and team
who worked on us on the financing for
this. It's a really nice design and a
great show that we value our older
adults and want them to have a safe
place to call home. So, thank you. Roll
call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Touch Washington.
Yes. Pastor,
yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Presses 90.
Item 61 is related to arts grants. Do we
have a motion? I move to I move to
approve item 61. Second. We have a
motion and a second. This is an exciting
one that includes a wide variety of
nonprofits, schools, and more in our
community. It's everything from the St.
Patrick's Day parade to Convergence
Ballet to Herrera School Arts Program.
So looking forward to supporting this.
We do have one member of the public to
testify. Ismael, the floor is yours.
And thanks. You probably learned a lot
more about Keys to Change than you were
expecting. Yeah. Few right. Uh I do have
wonderful comments to say. I'm a I was a
former uh arts and culture commissioner.
I was termed out in 24. Uh but I uh I
know that the work of Mr. Manaka and the
and the commission that they do a lot of
work. Uh there's a lot of vetting uh
when it comes to these arts grants. Um
$1.6 million $1.6 million of these
dollars going back to the community.
It's always good to uh hear and I know
I've been more of a hiatus now. I'm more
on the sidelines, but I'm coming for
something else later on. But um I will
say that these grants are very
important. I remember when I started in
2018 uh we talked about equity uh in
terms of funding um not not just for
certain districts but for all districts
and over the time that I was there I was
happy to see that there were more
organizations and I see that there are
more organizations that are knowing
about these grants and I even tell uh
the people that I know are artists hey
you know apply for a grant you know you
might uh you know it could be a benefit
and it could be beneficial to the
community so I am um one of these
residents now as a commissioner but as a
resident uh and come in support of this
motion thank you very
Well, thank you for taking the time to
serve on our commission and to testify.
Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Haj Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien,
yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 90. Item 65 is a multi is
multif family housing revenue bonds.
Vice Mayor, I move to approve item 65.
Second. Second. Councilman Hud
Washington. Thank you again, Mayor.
Again, I also wanted to highlight this
project. Um, as many is probably
evident, housing is one of our most
urgent needs in this city. And um this
project brings new life to underutilized
land and delivers 109 mixeduse sorry
mixed income homes to the Edison East
Lake neighborhood along with an on-site
dental clinic and a Head Start program
that supports healthy and early
education. It's a win for our families.
It's a win for housing stability and
it's a win for smart neighborhood
investments. I also want to thank the
theme the team at the housing department
and their partnership with the Phoenix
IDA and Gorman & Company for helping us
move closer to our choice neighborhood
goal of replacing over 500 agent public
housing units with more than 1,000 new
homes. This development represents
stability for working families, dignity
for seniors, and a peace of mind for
residents who want to stay rooted in the
neighborhoods they call home. I'm proud
to support this project and excited to
see its long-term impact in District 8.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Hudge Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 90.
Item 72 should have been removed from
the omnibus and was not. So, uh, I would
entertain a motion to reconsider item
72. I move to reconsider item 72. A
second. We have a motion and a second.
All those in favor say I. I.
All right. Now we go to item 72. Vice
Mayor. Do we have a motion on 72? I move
to approve item 72. Mayor.
Second. We have a motion and a second.
I'll turn to Councilman Hernandez for
comments. Uh thank you, Mayor. Um, I am
in in opposition to item 72, the
approval of a $3 million contract for
Pro Force Marketing Doing Business as
Profor Proforce Law Enforcement, a
company that supplies firearms,
ammunition, duty belts, handcuffs, and
other tactical equipment to the Phoenix
Police Department. Let's not sanitize
what this is. It this isn't just
procurement. This is a massive
investment in in tools of state violence
in guns, ammo, and physical restraints
for our community members. The US
Department of Justice has documented
that Phoenix Police Department has a
long and ongoing pattern of
unconstitutional and discriminatory
violence, especially towards black,
brown, and unsheltered communities in
Phoenix. Uh, the department has created
and fostered a culture of violence. The
DOJ report made it clear that Phoenix PD
engages in disproportionate use of
deadly force, unjustified stops, and
excessive punishment against our most
vulnerable residents. And the name of
the vendor alone, pro-force law
enforcement, captures the violence that
the department demonstrates. Violence
first, then ask questions later. As a
city, we have not done enough to offset
the damage that the DOJ outlined in
order for us to move forward with this
item. No community reparations, no
independent oversight with actual teeth,
and not enough reinvestments into
non-carceral responses and community
services. The people of Phoenix deserve
safety, but real safety that doesn't
come from an organization who says they
are dedicated to public safety, but
engage in pro-force tactics to subdue
its residents. We should be pro-
housing, pro healthcare, pro- mental
health crisis response, pro public
transit, and pro dignity, and especially
pro community. At what point will we
think twice about continuing to expand
the police state? I will be voting no.
Thank you. Thank you.
Any comments? Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, no. Hudge Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 81.
Item 78 is related to traffic safety.
I'll turn to our transportation
chairwoman, Deborah Stark, for a motion.
I move to approve item 78. Second.
We have a motion and a second.
Councilwoman Hernandez. Thank you. Um I
have two questions for staff on this
item. Um,
Thank you. I think you got your steps
in, Brandy, on the way down. Thank you.
Um, my first question, who will
determine what areas uh the photo
enforcement cameras are placed in?
uh members coun u members of council um
councilwoman Hernandez um it's all based
on data so we're looking at three years
of crash data to then make that
determination okay um so using the data
will I as a council member any other of
my colleagues be able to have
flexibility to decide where in the
district these cameras are placed
um that's a great question thank you
council members. Um, at the October 2024
meeting, uh, the council gave direction
that they really wanted it to be
databased. However, we know that there
might be some locations that from an
engineering perspective, we can't put it
somewhere. Um, and so those are the
decisions we would be making um, and not
be subjective to what and where they go.
Okay. you know, my I just have a concern
around the the data piece of that
because, you know, for example, in D7,
there are complete neighborhoods that
don't have sidewalks that don't have the
proper infrastructure that has been
invested into the years. So, I'm
concerned on how the data would show
like what areas need this. It would also
be areas that are black and brown that
are working families that could be
negatively impacted by fines. Um, so I
guess just looking for more clarity
there.
um because of the concerns around how
that data could translate out to
pinpoint locations. So, just wanted to
make sure you're aware of that. Thank
you. Um members of the council,
Councilwoman Hernandez, um the data that
we'd be looking for is more crash
related and speed data and not
necessarily existing infrastructure.
However, we would when we go to place an
item, we would look to see what
engineering infrastructure is there and
whether it would impede um in any way
the decision. Um a lot of the especially
the vehicles are around schools and we
do know that there are some instances
where putting a vehicle uh to do speed
during a school doesn't fit with what's
already there in the the built
environment. Thank you, Brandy.
Vice Mayor.
Thank you, Mayor. I understand that some
people's preference is for police
officers to monitor traffic rather than
cameras. Um, quite frankly, that would
be my preference. And the reality is we
don't have enough officers. Phoenix has
28 dedicated motor officers assigned to
speed and traffic enforcement, and we
have more than 5,000 miles.
Let that sink in. Fewer than 30 officers
covering more than 5,000 miles of
streets. It's impossible for police to
be at every intersection. This
technology will help to fill the void.
The data shows that red light cameras
significantly reduce deadly T-bone
collisions. One study by the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety found
cameras reduced the rate of red light
crashes that ended with someone dead by
more than 20%. Three intersections in my
district have some of the highest rates
of red light crashes in the city. 43rd
Avenue in Dunlap, 43rd Avenue in Poria,
and 31st Avenue in Thunderbird. I look
forward to using this technology to
improve safety for everyone, drivers,
pedestrians, and cyclists. In New York
City, speed cameras near schools led to
a reduction in speeding by more than 70%
and a nearly 20% decrease in crashes
that resulted in injuries. These are the
kinds of results we need in Phoenix,
especially near our schools. A study by
AAA found automated speed enforcement
cut the number of cars speeding more
than 10 miles per hour by nearly 50%.
These cameras work and they work fast.
The same AAA study found positive public
opinion grew over time when camera
programs were data driven and
transparent. And that's what we're doing
in Phoenix. Cameras will be used in
locations where the data show the most
crashes. Data will be reviewed every six
months to ensure photo enforcement is
geared at the areas where we can make
the biggest impact. This program is
about prevention. We want to prevent the
loss of property and loss of life. It's
designed to be revenue neutral, meaning
the city is not out to make money off of
this. It is designed to pay for itself.
Should there be net revenue, it will be
invested into tra traffic safety
programs. Phoenix has a responsibility
to act now. We are not reinventing the
wheel. We're following proven practices
from other major cities to protect
drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. If
we don't act, we're accepting the status
quo. And the status quo means more
injuries and more deaths. Thank you,
Mayor.
Thank you, uh, Councilwoman Stark.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, and Vice Mayor
Wells said, I think you took away some
of my thunder by your comments, but I
too would prefer not to have automated
enforcement, but we do not have enough
motors. We're not the only city
experiencing this either. Uh, there was
a time where we had a full force of
motors and people really respected the
rules of the road. It's just not
happening anymore. I see people that
come up to a yellow light and they just
think it's a mere suggestion and they
can go ahead and go through a red light.
This behavior has to stop. And I think
if anything, seeing what happened in
Tempee when they put up their automated
enforcement,
2,200
tickets within three weeks. We've got to
change behavior on our roads. We have to
protect pedestrians. We have to protect
bicyclists and we have to protect our
motorists. So, this is a means to do
that. Hopefully, as we move forward, we
still look at different ways to better
engineer our roads and that we can
recruit enough motors. But right now, I
think it's necessary that we have this
tool. Thank you again, Mayor. Thank you
for your passion to make sure we have
safer streets. of saving lives and we
this has been a real passion saving
lives on our city streets have been a
real passion for so many of my
colleagues. Uh Councilman Robinson gets
called on time and time again to provide
his perspective on this issue and we
deeply appreciate your leadership on
this as well. Uh do you want to comment?
Thank you for your leadership and then
we'll go to Councilwoman Washington.
Thank you Mayor. Um Councilwoman Stark
said it best that um Vice Mayor O'Brien
said it all. She really did. And I'm
what I'm going to do is change it a
little bit and put a little bit of
different perspective. And and I'm
speaking with um 36 and a2 years of law
enforcement experience. And that
experience tells me that if you're going
to change behavior, if you're going to
change the way people drive, if you are
going to make them obey the traffic
laws, if you're going to make them drive
slower, not run those yellow and red
lights, there has to be a consequence
for the action. And when we put the
cameras out, when we are able to and we
have already committed to ensuring that
there is a significant educational
process as we do it and before we do it,
that will make a difference. There's
little doubt in my mind that um we will
see almost immediately a change in
driving behavior. law enforcement
experience has taught me that the
experience that other cities are exper
you know that that they are seeing that
changes things and as um I don't
remember if the vice mayor said it or
councilwoman Stark you know if we're
okay with the status quo if we're okay I
get the reports from commander fortune
every day if we're okay with people
dying with regularity and you look at as
to why it's happening it's because of
the way people drive we can change that
we have an opportunity to really make an
impact and mayor thank you very much for
the opportunity to comment. Thank you
for your leadership. Councilman Hud
Washington. Thank you mayor. Um benefit
of going after many uh most of my points
have been covered but there's a couple
things I do want to just have us explain
for the um community what happens to the
infrastructure investment that we make
in this situation in this contract if
there is future legislation that goes
against the deployment of these safety
cameras.
Um members of the council, Councilwoman
Hudge Washington, um Phoenix isn't
actually purchasing any infrastructure.
It's all the vendor doing that. Uh we're
paying a service fee for to them for
that infrastructure. So if this u if our
legislature or goes to a referendum
where it is deemed that this is not an
acceptable mechanism in our city
anymore, we would not lose any
additional funds other than what we've
already paid for the service fee. Is
that correct? uh council um members in
Hajj Washington. Yes, that is correct.
Okay, thank you. Um just I want to talk
a little bit about the um the
application of this. Many of this is
mentioned is to to change the driver
behavior whether or not that's slowing
down or to be more focused on the road.
What mechanism are we intending to track
or what metrics are we intending to
track to show that to see whether or not
driver behavior is actually changing
over time at these sites or are they
just being shifted to another location?
Um members of the council, um
Councilwoman Hodgej Washington, um as
mentioned earlier, uh our plan is to
look at the data every six months. Um
mostly on the Hinn the high injury
network, but we'll also be looking
overall to make sure that new locations
don't come onto the hinn. Um but we'll
look at be looking at that to see if we
can see that behavior. In addition, you
might recall that the council authorized
as part of this an educational program
in which we'll be doing um a website and
social media and other things um to also
enforce that change in behavior. Thank
you. Actually preempted my other
question which was about the efforts to
educate the community ahead of the
deployment of these cameras. I I too um
am in support of this program because
it's about changing driver behavior for
the safety of all that use our roadways
from our motorists, our pedestrians, and
our bicyclists. Um I too was um taken
back by the number of violations that
the city of Tempe saw within the first
two weeks of deployment. Um 2,200
violations in two weeks. Um got
definitely got my attention. And in
speaking to those that um were privy to
this, one of the things that they they
said to them that it reckoned for me was
it shows how serious of a problem we
have with distracted drivers. The
drivers are not paying attention. It's
my understanding, and you can correct me
if I'm incorrect, that the design of
this program is a a driver has to be
going 11 miles over the speed limit and
they have to pass two clearly marked
warning signs be um before the system
even triggers. That means that these
cameras are found are focused on drivers
who are truly distracted or not engaged
in this process as they drive. And if
the similar if they are ignoring the
warning signs for cameras, they also are
missing a potential pedestrian crossing
the street or another motorist entering
the roadway or a cyclist also sharing
that street. So I I think this is a part
of important part of our traffic
enforcement strategy and it's I want to
make sure that we do this in a way
that's effective and equitable. And I
think like you mentioned you're focusing
on the high injury network and I just
want to make sure that we continue to
focus on our most dangerous
intersections but not only limited to
that but we ensure that we're not
transition that behavior to another
location. Um, so I wanted to just say
I'm in support of this program and
especially for me once I heard and saw
what happened in Tempe and understanding
more about it. I do agree that we don't
want to financially be punitive to to um
disenfranchise population, but we also
want to make sure that the roadways are
safe for all in all neighborhoods. So I
am in support of this. Thank you, mayor,
for the opportunity to share my
comments.
Thank you. Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez. Mayor, may I please?
Thank you, mayor. Um,
sorry. Um, I am opposed to photo radar
because I have not seen enough data that
this will be a solution to ped
pedestrian safety. Um, because it does
nothing to encourage less vehicles on
the road. Um, this is not a solution
that will make our street safer. I also
still have many privacy and surveillance
concerns around these this issue. Um, I
am supportive of building infrastructure
in our city that prioritizes people over
cars. I believe in investing in street
lights, crosswalks, bike lanes, hawks,
roundabouts, more bus routes, free
public transportation, and more safety
education for residents that use all of
our roads. Um, all of these measures
would actually slow cars down, reduce
traffic, and move our city towards
safety and sustainability. As I
previously mentioned, there are
communities that have been historically
disin underinvested where we don't even
have sidewalks or proper uh street
infrastructure in place in 2025. Um and
that is existent across district 7. Um I
also do not believe in criminalizing and
ticketing our residents. It has never
proven to make us safer, especially when
residents know how to avoid the serving
of the tickets, which I still don't
believe there is a solid way to make
sure the enforcement on the ticketing
side, the ticketing side happens. Um,
finally, the state legislature has made
it clear that they plan to preempt the
city on this photo radar and all uh
traffic enforcement cameras. I believe
it is financially irresponsible for us
to invest $12 million in equipment and
infrastructure and jobs when the state
will make our investment obsolete in the
next two years. Um I think it is be
rather a better decision to invest our
tax dollars um into real investments and
not into surveillance and
criminalization
um around our most vulnerable
communities. Um, I vote no.
Haj Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
I apologize. Wearing
O'Brien. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 71.
Thank you.
The council sometimes takes a break at
the three-hour mark. Would we have sort
of several items to go, but two main
ones. Would we like to power through or
break?
Okay. So then a quick break after we
will do the motel conversion item 93
and then do a a quick break.
Okay. And mayor, I will be leaving at
1:00. Okay. So we'll get through this
one and then I'll be gone. All right.
More good news for senior housing. Item
93. I'll turn to Councilman Gordado.
Thank you, mayor. I would like to make a
motion on item 93. Second. Motion a
second. And I'll recognize you for
comments, Councilwoman. Thank you. I'm
thrilled to share that we are moving to
forward with this project that will
provide 126 units of permanent senior
housing in District 5. This initiative
will prioritize low-income seniors aged
55 and older, converting a former hotel
into a safe, comfortable home for those
who need it most. It is exciting to see
this critical needed housing opportunity
with on-site services offering senior
security and dignity in their in their
later years. This development project is
located next to the Haven and Innovation
27 workforce training education center.
Collectively, these projects will
introduce affordable housing, create new
job opportunities, and enhance local
infrastructure, fostering economic
growth, and improving quality of life.
And they are all
collocated. Together, these initiatives
represent a powerful step forward in
revitalizing the neighborhood. and
empowering its residents for years to
come. Thank you to everyone who has
supported this mission and the project.
Our seniors deserve the best and we're
committed to making it happen. I would
like to thank Assistant City Manager
Inger Ericson, Deputy City Manager Gina
Montes, human services department, city
engineer for their commitment to the
neighborhood and for creating
opportunities for our residents to
flourish. I would also like to thank VIP
Coalition, Washington Park Neighborhood
Association, Okodio Glenn Community
Alliance, North Glenn Square, Alta Vista
Blockwatch, Glen Canyon Vista Blockwatch
for their continued support on these
vital projects in our community. And
again, let's remember we can always get
our neighbors to say yes in my backyard.
Um, these neighbors have definitely put
in the work um to making changes in
their community and very excited for
this item. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. Congratulations. Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Hudge Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing
O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. passes 8 Z. All
right, it is 12:54. We will be back at
10:05.
Brief recess.
Good afternoon. Thank you. If you could
please find your seats. We will begin in
about one minute.
And for my colleagues, we will begin
with another roll call.
Welcome back to the July 2nd council
meeting. I'll call the meeting order.
Will the clerk call the role?
Councilwoman Wado
here. Councilwoman Hernandez here.
Councilwoman Hodgej Washington here.
Councilwoman Pastor.
Councilman Robinson here. Councilwoman
Stark
here. Councilman Wearing.
Vice Mayor O'Brien here. Mayor Ggo
here.
Thank you so much for sticking with us.
We appreciate everyone's patience. We'll
now go to item 104 and 105.
These are related items. We will have
one public hearing but two votes. Uh
that'll be the same for 107 and 108. One
public hearing, two votes. Uh
we'll open the public hearing. I do not
believe we have anyone to testify. We
will close the public hearing. I'll turn
to Councilwoman Stark for motions. First
item 104.
First item 104. I move to approve per
the planning commission recommendation
and adopt the related resolution.
Second.
We have a motion and a second. Roll
call.
Ornado, yes. Hernandez, yes. Hudge
Washington, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 70.
Item 105.
Thank you. Item 105. I move to approve
this item per the planning commission
recommendation and adopt the related
ordinance. Second. Motion a second. Roll
call. Wardo, yes. Hernandez,
yes. Hodgej Washington, yes. Robinson,
yes. Stark,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 70.
All right. Item 106 is a public hearing
at the southeast corner of 33rd Avenue
and Dynamite Road. Uh, Vice Mayor, do we
need a staff report on this one? Uh yes,
please. All right, we will ask our
planning and development director, Josh
Bernark, to come forward.
Mayor, members of the council, I'll turn
to our deputy director, Trisha Gomes, to
provide an overview of the request.
Oh my lord.
Did it just go?
[Music]
Almost there. We're just having some
issues with the clicker.
Apologize.
Thank you, mayor, members of the
council. Item 106 is Z-4-25-1,
a request to reszone 10.07
acres located approximately 330 ft south
of the southwest corner of 33rd Avenue
and Dynamite Boulevard from S1 to R110
for single family residential.
To the north, south, west, and east are
single family residents zoned S1. To the
east is a vacant lot proposed for single
family residential zone R110.
The proposal is for a 30 lot single
family residential community. The
concept uh the conceptual site plan to
fix two east west streets and one north
south. The northernmost east west street
will extend through the adjacent
property to the east which will be
developed at the same time as the
subject site.
The Deer Valley Village Planning
Committee was scheduled to hear this on
May 20th, 2025, but did not have quorum.
The planning commission heard this item
on June 5th, 2025 and recommended
approval per the staff recommendation by
a vote of 8 to1.
Staff recommends approval per the
planning commission's recommendation and
adopt the related ordinance and happy to
answer any questions you may have.
We uh thank you. We'll go to the public
hearing now.
We'll open the public hearing. Uh on
this one, we will have presentations
from the uh from both sides. You can
have up to 10 minutes. You may use
slides during your presentation and then
everyone who didn't speak during the
presentation will have two minutes after
no uh slides for that portion. You can
use your 10 minutes with one speaker or
you can divide it up as many times as
with as many speakers as you'd like. But
if you speak during the presentation, we
will not call you again after the
presentation. Uh we will begin with the
applicant who can reserve up to two
minutes of time for comments at the end.
Mr. Great House.
Thank you, Mayor and members of the
council. Um and thank you, Trisha, for
making that great presentation. Uh we
couldn't agree more with the staff's
findings in the staff report. We
appreciate staff's recommendation and
the planning commission's
recommendations of approval on this one
and we accept stipulations 1 through 17
that are detailed in the staff report.
Um
I'm Brian great house. Our firm
represents Morning Vista Homes on this
development that is shown in red
outlines on this uh slide here. And as
we drill in a little bit closer, as
Trisha showed a second ago, part two is
the subject of this resoning case. But
part one is important and it's
instructive on how we got to part two.
Part one was approved unanimously by
this council approximately one and a
half years ago. It was also zoned from
S1 to R110 like we're requesting today
on part two. Um during that part one
case, there was a significant amount of
more opposition than we have today. I
understand there's fiveish folks here
today to speak. Um during that part one
case, we uh brought this the height of
the buildings down to singlestory. We
limited the density to three dwelling
units per acre and we eliminated a
portion of the site that was north of
where part one is located today. When
our client came to us and said we're
going to move forward with part two, we
came up with a plan to do the same thing
that was important in part one and carry
that over to part two. So that's why
there's stipulations today for
singlestory homes. Uh that's why it's
limited to three a little bit less than
three dwelling units per acre and we're
proposing 30 highquality single family
homes on this uh on this site.
This is the landscape plan. As you can
see, the streetscapes will be nicely uh
landscaped. The common uh retention area
and amenity area will also be
landscaped. The homes will be very nice
uh kind of a modern rural feel to them.
The interiors will be very high quality
as well.
Uh, a very key aspect of this case is
that 33rd Avenue is the line between
what is designated 0 to two dwelling
units per acre and what is designated
two to five dwelling units per acre.
This site is squarely in the area for
two to five dwelling units per acre.
What we're proposing is a little less
than three dwelling units per acre. So,
it's on the low end of that range, very
compatible and consistent with what the
voters approved in the general plan.
If you also look around the zoning uh
from I17 west, you'll see a lot of R16,
R18, and some other R110 zoning
districts. So, we're also consistent and
compatible with the surrounding uh
patterns of development. Um,
communication with neighbors was uh very
important to this on
very important to this case. Uh, Bill
Stein Consulting was knocking on doors
before we even filed an application. We
held a neighborhood meeting, one-on-one
meetings, group meetings, and constant
conversations have occurred since we
first filed the application. Uh, we met
with um, vice mayor, um, D1 chief of
staff, the neighbors, and their attorney
back on June 5th. And although we didn't
get to agreement on everything, we came
to agreement on a lot of island items
that were here uh today with
stipulations and agreements on what we
will provide.
That is the conclusion of our brief
presentation. Um we request your
approval here today and I would like to
reserve some time for rebuttal if if
that's okay. Thank you. I believe Mr.
Lota is presenting next. That's right.
Uh, thank you, Mayor and Council. And
can we have our presentation, please?
Thank you.
Okay. Uh, I am Tim Lod. I'm here on
behalf of a number of residents in this
community, including Jacob Gant, the
Joneses, and the Vans, who are here to
testify today. You'll hear from them a
little bit later. One note I wanted to
make um to the mayor, uh some of them
signed up under item 108 mistakenly, so
I'm hoping they can still be called up
to testify. I didn't want to forget to
mention that. Um but at any rate, I did
want to start sort of taking you through
this presentation. Um now, what Mr.
Great House said, we did meet.
Unfortunately, uh we didn't really feel
like we had a um someone we could
negotiate with. Uh when I went out
there, um this is what I found. It's a
great community, and this gentleman was
just on on horseback
riding. Uh one of the things you did
hear is that it is largely S1 in this
area, which is one house per acre.
uh we understand that the uh times
change and that's why my client had
basically put forward a proposal to
allow um double that that my client
would support uh and um and then finally
and I'll show you this letter that I
sent is um where we talked about hey
we're we're going to go to R118.
So it essentially
we asked for what we consider a a small
concession here and we don't think we
got it. I also wanted to mention that
and I put this in a letter to the
applicant that hey we um
we have a um well and it doesn't look
like this is our presentation. Did I
switch it out?
Let's go ahead and pause the I'm sorry
about that.
Now it is okay.
Okay. So, you see the site, but you
know, one of the things that that the
and this is the letter I sent. we would
propose R118 zoning for the site which
we think is a significant improvement on
what the applicant has now. Uh the
applicant has R143.
Uh unfortunately I got a TUR letter back
and this is after we had to um we had to
sort of almost beg for a meeting with
the applicant to ask them hey you know
what we can support a project we just
don't support the type of density you're
asking for. Um so we think we've we
think we've made the efforts. Um one of
the things that also no village planning
committee here and no prop 207 waiver
and no site plan that meets the code and
and I'll get to all those items. Uh the
first is the village planning committee,
no quorum and the uh chair asked the
applicant to come back when there was a
quorum and the chair said no. Uh and um
so if we look at their application, it's
in my opinion it's it's very limited. Um
and we don't have a waiver of 207 claims
and and why don't we have that? Um
that's a curiosity for us. A staff
normally requires it, but it in this
instance they decide not to. So and
we're going to put it in a stipulation.
I have serious questions about whether
this stipulation would actually survive
legal scrutiny. Why not just have the
person sign the Prop 207 waiver now? I
it doesn't make any sense to me. Um and
I I think that asking them to sign later
is just asking for legal trouble. What
if the applicant says, "Uh, well, thanks
for giving me this reasoning. I'm not
signing any waiver." I don't know where
that'll leave us. There are important
stipulations in here. So, the Prop 207
waiver should have been submitted
instead of relying on an after the
zoning change
waiver.
The site plan requirements section 506B5
A5 is very clear.
Uh we need building configuration and
heights, setbacks, landscaped areas,
appropriate calculations, parking, lot
coverage. So, if we look if we go
through and we actually
The act the staff report actually notes
this that we have a um they do not list
any of these things. They don't list
elevations. What the staff report says
on that topic is well they provided us
elevations initially and then uh and
then they they took the elevations out
and they're going to go in a different
direction but as of now we don't have
elevations for you. That's what the
staff report actually says. uh we don't
have parking calculations. The staff
report also notes that a and um we just
we don't have a site plan. So I think if
you look at all this and you put it all
together and today we actually had
people out there who are apparently
looking at buying the site. Um so we've
got an applicant that didn't turn in a
real site plan in in violation of the
Phoenix zoning code. didn't want to go
back to the village planning committee
is trying to rush this process through
has a certain number they want to hit a
and what is that number I think the
bottom line here is we you know they
always say things need to pencil but
they've not shown us any examples of
what they need to actually pencil so I
they it's just take our word for it
we're going to show up hat in hand
asking for a zoning change but we're not
going to execute your Prop 207 waiver
we'll get to that later. I if if the
city can can enforce that. Uh we're not
really going to do a a site plan. We're
not really going to give you elevations.
We're not going to do these
calculations. Uh we're just going to
give you what's essentially a very
rudimentary plat. Um so I I I think
those are essentially the legal points.
I think this thing when you're you're
asking for a zoning change, uh what I
think a major increase in density, I
think it's incumbent on you to come up
with all these things and to um to
actually go forward with what the city
has requested and that's just not
happened. Um, so with that, I'd like to
reserve the balance of my time for um
I'd like to call Mary Vaughn up to
finish out the talking on this subject,
but I'd ask that you turn this project
down. I don't think this will be the end
of the project. I think we actually we
have had discussions. They just haven't
gone anywhere. I think please turn this
project down today and we will um and
then we can get back roll up our sleeves
and and get down to something that works
with this applicant. Thank you.
Thank you, T.
Okay, if we could pull back up the
presentation.
So, thank you. All right, so how do I
operate it here?
Um, she gets the final three minutes.
Great. That's fine. Yes, I think we need
less than that. So ultimately, um,
myself and my neighbors in the
neighborhood, and I live at 3209 West
Overland, our concerns with this is the
lack of understanding on what's actually
going in there, as well as um the impact
it's going to have to us from a density
perspective. So, how do I flip through
the pages here?
If you could help me with that, someone
scroll down. Sorry, stop the clock for a
second.
that. Okay, perfect. All right, so uh
Tim went through the legal components of
this. I want to show you what the actual
neighborhood is here. We are in an area
which primarily there isn't any reason
to go north in the neighborhood unless
you live there. But what you do have is
getting to the freeway, which is
primarily how everyone is going to go to
work or grocery store, whatever they
need to do. They're going to have to cut
through here to get on Oberlin to get
down to the freeway. Here's what Oberlin
looks like. It is one lane and when it
rains, this is what happens to our
street. And we do not have the ability
for two cars to go up and down at the
same time. And we're going to have all
of this additional traffic pushed
through our street and our neighborhood.
And we did not get the opportunity to
have the village plan. Uh we believe
that there would be tremendous
growth is possible for our neighborhood,
but we need to get this infrastructure
in place first. This is where we live.
This is my house and my street, and
you're going to add potentially 30 to 40
cars on it.
I would say these are the houses on our
street and our neighborhood. And what
we've gotten from them is essentially
pictures off the internet of nice
houses. That's it.
So, we will let my time go. If there's
anything else, thank you for your time.
Thank you so much. I will try to get
everyone who is under 108, but may need
help if I miss anyone. We'll go with
Jacob Gant next,
followed by Rick Jones.
I had my uh notes in here. It said good
morning, but it's now afternoon. So,
good afternoon.
My name is Jacob Gant and I live on uh
3231 West Dynamite, 33rd in Dynamite. Uh
thank you for giving me the opportunity
to uh speak. Um I'm opposed to this
zoning case as I'm directly affected by
this uh reszoning.
um
they wrote on there that on their
findings, the proposal is consistent
with the surrounding zoning districts.
It's literally sandwiched in between S1
zoning. So, that just doesn't make sense
to me, unfortunately. Um they also talk
about the elevations and saying like the
elevations are going to be there. Staff
recommends stipulation number two and
number three to ensure elevations
contain enhanced design features and
that be maximum height of the buildings
no more than 20. So, feet and so that
just doesn't seem like it's on there for
uh the elevations for the enhanced
design features on there. Um I want to
do mention
that there could be a potential flooding
issue on the lower leftand corner. It's
the southwest corner of the site plans
that they did provide. They wrote on
there that it says that that the water
retention basin is for drainage but then
also track C is for drainage. So when
they had a response to us they had said
that the storm water will be retained on
site and should and should improve
drainage conditions for the area. So we
have two different statements here it
looks like for the site plans and for
what they stated on there. So that just
doesn't seem correct. So I just want to
let you know that the the flooding, if
it does flood in that Traxxy area, it's
going to go down to Oberlin and it's
going to severely flood Oberlin. Um
there's also going to be headlight
issues where they have the streets going
towards the houses. They didn't want to
work with us to maybe like guide those
streets around. So there's going to be a
lot of headlight issues and so forth.
And um and yeah, that's all I can say.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Rick is next, followed by
Sean.
Good afternoon. My name is Rick Jones.
My wife Andrea and I live at 27807 North
33rd Avenue for 11 years. We built a
home here. We built our business here.
and my wife after 25 years of teaching
is retiring here. I was preparing this
last night and I felt very angry,
frustrated and helpless. I wanted to
attack business reputation. I wanted to
attack the process. I wanted to question
ethics and I wanted to question
donations.
Then I remembered why I got involved. I
wanted to improve the infrastructure of
our community, roads, sidewalks,
drainage, curb appeal. I felt this was
the perfect opportunity to negotiate
some much needed revitalization. After
after all, what developer wouldn't want
to invest in neighborhood appearances
versus legal fees and lobbyists?
What I found through the process was
fear. Fear of being vulnerable. Fear of
looking weak, so you become inflexible.
Fear of losing a case. You accuse a
stranger of vandalizing a sign. Fear of
not being successful. You rationalize
profit over people.
Fear of voting against a colleague so
you won't so you follow instead of lead.
Fear tears people and communities apart
and often hides the truth.
They divide. They harbor hate. They make
compromise impossible.
Last night I realized I don't want to
live in fear. So I'm asking the leaders
for a no vote. Not to determine a winner
or a loser, but to send a message that
fear is not a healthy path forward.
No fear of flood zones. No fear of
setbacks. No fear of colleagues voting
against you in the future. No fear of
legal legal repercussions.
I'm confident with a no vote we can
return to this board member board in a
short time with a development plan that
can be used for developments as an
example of community working together
for a better Phoenix. Thank you.
Thank you. Sean is next.
Mayor, council members, good afternoon.
My name is Shan Sichia and I live on
3225 West Oberlin Way. I want to first
thank you for giving us the opportunity
to listen to our concerns.
Uh we are here simply asking you to
consider our u consider the approval
that you have granted them before for
the R10 zoning. We understand the city
is you know is for in favor of expansion
and development and we're all for it.
We, you know, we support that, but we're
here, you know,
we're asking you instead considering,
you know, to to approve an R18
at the minimum for this project. Uh as a
real estate broker with over 25 years in
experience in the valley, uh our concern
is this development will uh
it will affect the value of our
properties, you know, in general. It
will deevaluate our homes. It it will
make them less attractive to future
buyers that they're looking for that
kind of environment, that kind of, you
know, area to live in. Uh also that is
going to cause uh more traffic is going
to cause more problems to our street
Oberlin way. You've seen the the
flooding the flooding the the the
smallest source the street is so small
you can only drive one car you know each
you know one direction. So all this
stuff, you know, is going to affect us
negatively and and I all I'm asking is
to please uh reject their their their
application and uh we're okay with R18.
And thank you for your time.
Thank you. I believe that is all our
speakers on this item.
We'll close the public hearing and turn
to the vice mayor. Thank you, mayor. Um,
so could we start by addressing some of
the issues that Mr. Loda brought up reg
Let's first start with the not the Prop
207 waiver and I apologize. Are you I I
think I I you Oh, Mr. Did you need a
rebutt? Are you good? Apologize if you
don't mind. Okay. Can I just open the
reopen the public hearing? I'm sorry.
Just 30 seconds worth. Our application
was deemed complete by city staff. We
met all the requirements. The assertions
that are made in the letter are we do
not agree with at all. And we received
that letter yesterday. Um we've been
through all the issues and we believe
this is not a dense development. It's a
very low density development at the low
medium scale.
And we'll deal with we'll deal with
drainage improvements. We've got an
improved traffic study, design of homes.
All those things are dealt with down the
road, not at the resoning level. Thank
you very much. And I guess while you're
there, have you signed a 207 waiver? We
have not. Okay. Is there a problem? No,
there's not. There's a stipulation that
requires the 207 to be signed before
preliminary site plan approval. Yeah.
Close the public hearing.
So, sorry, back to the Prop 207. They've
not signed it. there's stipulation. Is
there something is that normal practice?
Yeah. Uh mayor, vice mayor, members of
the council, um that is our standard
practice. Typically, we will include a
stipulation in all reasonzoning cases to
provide a Prop 207 prior to preliminary.
Okay. And then relative to the site
plan, can you address that concern?
Mayor, vice mayor, members of the
council. Um, yes, site plans that are
submitted as part of the resoning are
conceptual. All the, um, so it does
provide information like lot layout, lot
widths, uh, location of open space, uh,
things of that nature. The specific
details you get more granular in the
site plan review process. Okay. So
again, this is normal correct procedure
for how we do this. Um, can we talk
about the flooding issue that the
neighbors brought up?
Mayor, Vice Mayor O'Brien, members of
the council, uh, as as Trish mentioned,
the site as it proceeds through our
review process will go through a
thorough review on all things related to
single family design review, traffic,
and grading and drainage. And they will
need to demonstrate that all on-site
retention will be retained on site. So
the the drainage facilities will go
through a thorough review through with
our engineers and ensure that the water
that they capture on site will be
retained on site.
So I I
feel like especially in district one and
there are some other districts but that
whenever I get a resoning case um that
we are sharing the same worstkept secret
in Phoenix and that is Phoenix is
growing. We're growing by leaps and
bounds and there are only two ways we
can grow. They're up or out. Um in
either case, we continue to hear from
residents in that particular area that
they don't want the growth.
Unfortunately,
we can't stop growing and maintain the
types of economic development that we
have um and and tell people they can't
come live here. Uh we can't continue to
stick our heads in the sand and pretend
new jobs, new residents don't exist and
that we're not in a housing crisis with
a lack of housing from affordable up to
market rate. This project is a good
project that will only benefit the
community.
After having met with a couple of the
community members, reading their emails,
and speaking with their attorney, there
are some valid concerns for their
neighborhood. The streets are not fully
built out as evidenced by the photos
that were shown. They experience major
flooding during storm rainstorms and
there are no sidewalks or ADA walking
path accessible throughout the
community.
I understand that development pays for
themselves, but in this case for this
community, they're not going to develop
and we as a city need to look at
alternatives like evaluating the cost
and rolling this into a future capital
improvement project. Um, I've also heard
the residents and their desire to main a
rural feel for their community. So, I've
had conversations with the street
department and I've had and I have some
questions for the applicant. So, Mr.
Great House, if you could please come
back to the podium.
Would the um would your client be
willing to explore alternative options
for a more rural feel for the required
streets improvements, including curb,
gutter, and sidewalks? Um because I
agree that the standard six-inch stepup
and sidewalks just don't match this
rural area. Absolutely. And we'll pursue
those options and the final design will
be designed in the future. So I don't
know exactly what those will be, but it
has to be approved by the engineering
planning and engineering department.
Okay. And can we have Eric come to
table?
Eric Crowberg, city engineer. Thank you.
Thank you, Eric. My staff's been working
with you on a non-standard concept for
these road improvements. Can you explain
to us here today and those listening at
home what a ribbon gutter is and ex and
further detail what this new standard
may set for their neighborhood?
Uh thank you uh mayor, vice mayor,
members of council. So we did have some
conversations with your office and there
are alternative sections that we could
look at uh to fit more with the rural
kind of feel and the community that is
out there. Ribbon curb is essentially uh
a strip of concrete that has a level a
slight depression in it that would help
with drainage but doesn't necessarily
require the 6- inch vertical difference
that you're talking about. It helps to
um provide a buffer for where the
pavement comes up against so that the
pavement doesn't degrade at the edges
and those types of things. So it's there
are a couple different ways we could go
with that. Some of it will depend on the
engineering that is associated of how
wide that ribbon curb may be, but those
are all things that can be determined
during design. And is this new design
something that would meet the
expectation of traditional street
improvements?
Uh mayor, um vice mayor, members of
council, uh while it doesn't follow the
currently approved street classification
cross-sections, uh it is it has been
used in other locations in the city. So,
it would be uh acceptable as again as
long as it meets drainage and some of
those other requirements. Okay. Mr.
Great House, in order for this to be
done, it would require a stipulation to
be added to force your client to apply
to a technical appeal to the suburban
ordinance to receive staff approval for
this design concept, which we just heard
from the city engineer would be
appropriate. If this new design results
in some cost savings, would your client
be willing to lay down some sort of
sealant on the door road portion of
Oberlin Way as a show of good faith to
your future neighbors? Our client is not
here tonight or this afternoon, but we
would recommend that he agreed to do
apply those savings over to Oberlin for
a dust proofing or some type of surface
that's agreed upon.
All right. Additionally, I have
requested um streets to do an analysis
of the costs to improve the roads in
this area um as well as sidewalks and
gutters because they are an area that
unless something like this development
comes in um does not ever see
improvements and I have received um
commitment from city management that we
would work on incorporating this into
our a future CIP to ensure that this
neighborhood um has safe streets uh as
well that are not just single car
streets. So I I think that this is a
good compromise and will set the future
standard for what road improvements can
and will look like for this area. I've
I've asked, as I just said, what streets
once we get those numbers back, I am
committed to working with city
management for the CIP. These residents
pay the same taxes as all the other
residents in Phoenix, but they're wor
they're burdened with half-built streets
and localized flooding and unsafe
pedestrian conditions because of our
policy that development pays for
themselves and where they just happen to
live. So, I look forward to setting a
new standard for how Phoenix develops
and what quality of life we provide our
new residents as well as our existing
residents. With that, I am ready to make
my motion. I move to approve Z425-1
per the planning commission
recommendation
with the following stipulation with the
following additional stipulation as
follows. The developer shall file for
and actively pursue a technical appeal
for an alternative street design to
accommodate roadway drainage that
reflects a rural design and adopt the
related ordinance.
Thank you. I have a second.
And and just to confirm with that
stipulation, if the technical appeal is
successful, they would be required to do
the street uh upgrade and Josh is
nodding that that is the case. All
right. And uh Vice Mayor, very much
appreciate your hard work on this. I
will happily work with you to make sure
we can get the funding in this and then
so for your neighbors, for your time.
Hopefully a better street and less
flooding will help the neighborhood and
we can talk to Supervisor Brophy McGee
who I believe represents this area and
the county which manages the flood
control district. So we'll try to get
something. Also want to apologize for
the lack of quorum at the village
planning commission committed to trying
to get that addressed as well. So for
the gentleman who said he didn't want to
complain about the process, it would be
fair to complain about the process. All
right. Do we have a motion of second?
Roll call. Juvado. Mayor, I just have a
quick question for Josh. Oh, sorry. Um
Josh, I'm looking at the uh staff report
and I just want to confirm that I'm
reading this correctly. The standard
requirements in the R10
um have a certain max requirements. In
reading this, it looks like the proposed
site plan falls under those standard
requirements, which to me that
translates that the project wouldn't
even meet the high end of the density
that they could build in this project.
Is that is my interpretation correct?
Mayor, Council Member Hernandez, members
of the council, you are correct. Okay.
Thank you.
Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez, yes. Haj Washington,
yes. Pastor,
yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien,
yes. GGO, yes. Passes 90.
Thank you. We will now go to items 107
and 108. These are both related to
public um to data centers. We will have
one hearing but to two votes. There's a
general plan amendment 107 and 108 is
the ordinance. I will welcome our deputy
city manager Alan Stevenson forward uh
to introduce the item and the folks who
are at the table.
Thank you, mayor, members of council. As
you stated, items 107 and 108 are
related and will be heard together and
then separate actions. Item 107 is a
general plan amendment to establish
policy guidance for data centers. Item
108 is a text amendment to the zoning
ordinance to add data centers as a
permitted use in the ordinance and
establish regulations for this use. Up
here at the table with me, I have Josh
Bener, the planning development
director, Trisha Gomes, the planning
development department deputy director,
and Andrew Maguire, who's outside
counsel of on this issue from the law
firm of Gus Rosenfeld. Um, with that, I
will now turn it over to Josh who's
going to walk us through uh the
presentation here and then the team be
happy to answer any questions.
Thank you, Alan. Mayor, members of the
council, as we discussed back in
December last year, there are a variety
of reasons that a policy and regulatory
framework are needed in Phoenix for data
centers. The first and foremost reason
is for the health and safety of Phoenix
residents. The report you received in
your packet summarized the health and
safety impacts of data centers. These in
these impacts are significant and
include the stability of the electrical
grid given the significant demand data
centers have for electrical power. Fire
safety given the size and complexity of
these facilities. Challenges with fire
resource capacity in some parts of the
city and potential for hazardous
materials on site. Utilization of
on-site power from diesel to nuclear
along with battery storage. the water
demand that could be needed at the data
center or by our utility providers to
supply electricity to power dry cooling
systems. Analysis has shown that large
data centers can use anywhere from
100,000 to 1 million gallons of water a
day or the equivalent of 8,000 homes.
Security risks at facilities with
valuable and sensitive data, loss of
land for services such as health care
and access to healthy food, and noise
pollution from the servers, cooling
systems, and generators.
Many of the health and safety impacts
are driven by a dramatic change in the
scale and intensity of data centers in
the last 15 years. Data centers used to
look like offices. On the screen is an
example of one of these offices,
office-like data centers on Third
Street, just south of Indian School
Road, built in 2010 and approximately
6.9 acres in size. It's a great example
of the scale and intensity of what data
centers used to be.
The next slide gives you an example of
the dramatic change we are seeing in
data center development. The subject
data center is on 40th Street just north
of Loop 202 freeway. Construction
started on the facility in 2023. It's
more than 80 acres in size and requires
its own dedicated electrical substation.
Lastly, as we discussed back in
December, data centers are not addressed
in the Phoenix Odin ordinance. So their
unique characteristics are not being
addressed in the development process. As
documented in the health and safety
report, APS and SRP report that they
currently have more than 15 gawatts and
17 gawatts of load requests from new
data centers respectively. Consider that
the total capacity of each utility is
currently less than 10 gawatt and it
becomes very obvious that many pending
data centers will have to include
on-site power plants. This is a clear
contrast with the traditional office use
and requires a different level of
development review to protect public
health and safety. This the lack of any
sort of policy or regulatory framework
coupled with a tremendous demand for
electricity from the data center
industry highlights the urgency needed
for a framework to be in place.
The framework has two parts. Part one is
the general plan policy with the general
plan amendment. Part two is the zoning
ordinance update with the text
amendment. The general plan policy will
be will be used to evaluate the f future
special permit request or major
amendments to PUDS. The proposed general
plan policies focus on location criteria
and design. The text amendment has four
main provisions. Adds data center as a
listed use to the zoning ordinance.
Establishes a definition for data
centers. Requires a special permit for a
data center use. and institutes
performance standards aimed at
mitigating the threats to public health
and safety we have seen in other
jurisdictions. The text amendment also
includes site and design requirements
including building and landscape
setbacks.
Before and during the public hearing
process, staff held three stakeholder
listening sessions. The general plan
amendment and text amendment were
reviewed by 14 of the 15 village
planning committees. The general plan
amendment was recommended for approval
or approval with direction by a vote of
10 VPCs and recommended for denial by
four of the VPCs. The text amendment was
recommended for approval of
modifications or approval with direction
by seven of the VPCs and recommended for
denial or denial of direction by seven
of the VPCs.
Many of the recommendations for denial
of the general plan and text amendment
were regarding a request for additional
time for review. The planning commission
unanimously approved both the general
plan amendment and text amendment with
some modifications. For the general plan
amendment, language regarding utility
agreements was updated along with
removing reference to a specific energy
efficiency code. For the text amendment,
the commission approved new language
regarding exemptions for projects with
final site plan approval or PUDS with
the data center use delineated.
Commissioner approval also included
clarifying language regarding the types
of utility lines that could be
undergrounded, the addition of a
specific noise standard via stipulation
and replacement of the requirement for a
will serve letter from utility within
two years to agreement with a utility
for service.
You are in receipt of two memos that
proposed changes to the planning
commission approved language. The June
26, 2025 memo added language regarding
updated noise standards and special
permit evaluation requirements and
enforcement language. The July 1st, 2025
memo captures all the language from the
June 26 memo with the following
additions. Modification to the
definition for a data center to increase
the threshold for projects like
corporate campuses to have data service
facilities from 10 to 25% with
additional limitations including a
maximum size of the facilities. change
to the change to the exemption for from
final site plan approval to preliminary
site plan approval and language
establishing a process to manage
applications for binding waiverss of
enforcement.
Mayor staff recommends approval of
GPA-2-25-y
per the planning commission
recommendation and adoption of the
related resolution. Staff recommends
approval of Z2A-2-25-Y
per the July 1st, 2025 memo from the
Planning and Development Department
director and adoption of the related
ordinance. Mayor, that concludes our
presentation. Happy to answer any
questions.
Thank you. Any questions before we get
to public hearing? Mayor, Councilwoman
Stark. Mayor, thank you. Could you talk
just briefly about the waiver process? I
believe that Prop 207 actually sets up a
waiver process and some of your
recommendations are trying to arrest
that arrest address that process. Thank
you. Thank you, Mayor,
Mayor, Councilwoman Stark. Uh yes, the
uh proposed waiver process uh that is
part of uh this ordinance adoption lays
out uh information uh pursuant to
proposition 207 that requires the city
uh take a potential waiver of claims for
diminishment of value to do the
enactment of a land use law that
diminishes the value of someone's
property. So, the uh ordinance language
sets out a process for someone to apply
for that waiver process and then for
staff to evaluate those and process them
and ultimately bring them before uh the
mayor and council for them to uh decide
on whether or not we should grant a
waiver of um the new regulations as it
will apply to that specific property.
Thank you. And mayor, just one other
question. Um, I I do understand the
structure of Prop 207. I can recall
fondly the Arizona Planning Association
trying to fight this proposition to no
avail. But having said that, um, they
can, and I noticed in our staff report,
you talk about the special permit
process, but actually they could, I'm
not sure what their argument would be,
but they could argue tab two as well,
right? I mean, landscaping I don't think
really diminishes the value of property,
but if they wanted to pursue that, they
could pursue it. Correct.
Madam Mayor, Council Member Stark, uh,
Andrew Magcguire, the uh, you are spot
on that Prop 207 establishes a process
by does not establish a process by which
the waiver would be handled with the the
through your ordinance. The ordinance
sets the table for how the major pieces
of this provision would be dealt with.
Um we had not heard any provisions or
any concerns about the provisions
relating to uh landscaping and otherwise
in order to include those. So the your
process is focused on the the prime
provisions of the ordinance.
Appreciate that. I I I have not either.
I just thought we should clarify that.
So, um, thank you. I I, uh, appreciate
all the hard work staff has done on
this. Um, I know, mayor, this is a
passion for you and I think, um, we have
before us something that we can really,
uh, move forward on, but, uh, thank you
and thank you for allowing me to ask
questions. Thank you, Councilwoman
Hernandez, followed by Councilman
Robinson. Thank you, Mayor. Um, just a
couple questions really quick. Um Josh
in the presentation um because of the
evolution of what the data centers have
taken, it sounds like I just want to
confirm this is the first step that the
city has taken to make substantial
changes to the amendments to address the
evolution for all intents and purposes
of data centers.
Mayor, Councilwoman Hernandez, yes,
that's correct. As I stated in the
presentation, data centers are not
currently defined or addressed in the
zoning ordinance in any way. Okay. Thank
you. So because of that, they can pretty
much have by right now and can pop up
anywhere. Would that be correct?
Uh, mayor, Councilwoman Hernandez, the
with the addition of this language, it
would provide guidance on on where they
would be permitted, which districts
they're allowed in, and what the
standards they would need to develop
under. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um my
next question because you know it seems
like these bigger data centers that use
a that have a lot of energy and water
water usage are newer thing that is
happening across many states. I don't
think it's an issue isolated to Phoenix.
Um, but because they're a newer thing,
do you know if we have any research or
data on what the long-term effects um
the long-term environmental impacts are
from these data centers into where they
are being built?
Mayor, Councilwoman Hernandez, as you as
you noted, there certainly is a variety
of of research and analysis that
occurred across the United States as
you've seen more investment in data
centers and we highlight some of those
in the report. uh given that they are in
some ways a new phenomenon at the scale
that you highlighted. It's one of the
reasons why we uh are requiring a series
of of potential studies uh or analysis
as part of the application process so
that as as they continue to invest in
Phoenix that we have the necessary
information to equip you the community
with the right information to evaluate
uh the the request as it goes through
the hearing process. Thank you so much
Josh.
Councilman Robinson.
Mayor, thank you very much. And I I
think I need some clarification on the
waiver process. As I read the memo, um
I'm trying to understand more
completely. And the question may be for
Josh or Mr. Maguire or it could be for
Julie Cree. I I don't know just yet or I
guess you guys will determine who
answers the question. But the waiver
process, it's an administrative process.
Um the ultimate decision is made by the
council. Correct.
Mayor, uh, Councilman Robinson, you you
are correct. Uh, ultimately the the
waiver process as, uh, staff has
envisioned with, uh, this ordinance
would have staff process an application
and then bring it forward to the mayor
and council to make a decision on that
particular waiver, which is the way we
always do it. You know, staff does it,
they run it by council, council says
yes, no, maybe so, what have you.
Correct, Mayor. Council Robinson, that's
correct. Okay. I I'm just trying to
figure out the way it's written. I'm
almost reading it as though it has I
mean the process
kind of takes away from staff a little
bit is almost what I'm reading. And if
I'm reading it wrong, then I'm reading
it wrong. But I would think that staff
is going to have a better feel for what
needs to be, you know, submitted to
council. I mean, I I think when you
include us, which is not a bad thing.
I'm not saying, you know, we shouldn't
be included. I'm just trying to figure
out is that the most expedient way to,
you know, work through these issues and
problems that we have.
Mayor and Councilman Robinson, uh
probably what you are picking up on is
that the prop 207 statute has uh
requirements, limitations around what
the the city can ask and require for
that. And so it is a little more
constrained in that process, but we do
have information uh in there and are
aware of generally what we would be
trying to talk to applicants about to to
work on processing a waiver and be able
to bring that forward to the council.
And if the council wished to change the
process uh in the future, so they all
didn't come to the mayor and council,
that's something that could be looked at
in the future down the road. But as in
currently envisioned, they would all go
to the mayor and council for final
decision. No, and I get the final
decision part. I don't have a problem
with that. It just seems like we're
included a council in that process that
is normally worked through by if I'm
unless I'm reading it incorrectly that
is normally worked through by staff. Am
I I think Mr. wire wants to say
something and you know so
yes Mayor and Councilman Robinson the
Propto7 doesn't necessarily have a
process built into it the statute as you
know is enacted by initiative and is not
uh does not have a prescribed set of
steps that you would go through in order
to evaluate a claim. uh other
municipalities who have addressed this
issue have established their own process
that is similar to but not exactly the
same as the way that the city of Phoenix
process is set up. The idea is to uh
have your staff provide you with a
complete set of information to evaluate
but nothing about that will change the
90-day time frame in which it will need
to be processed. The claims from submitt
to time of decision will need to be
within 90 days. So, the staff's
necessarily going to have to be uh
clearing house for you to get quickly
through them and to you within the
statutory time frame.
Okay.
Okay. I I I'm still I still think it's
cloudy
and my concern is being able to address
these in a in an expedient manner. You
know, that's when a waiver process is in
place, you know, I trust Josh and Trish
and their folks to review stuff and then
get to us because I think there's going
to be a better understanding of the
process. And that's where I want to make
sure that's clear. And administratively,
it's an administrative process. Keep it
as that, keep it at that, and keep it
with the staff that they then can make a
recommendation to us because we do it in
so many other departments. It just seems
like we're
do we necessarily need to include that
extra step? That's the way I read it.
And if I'm wrong, like I said, I'm
wrong, but it the looks of getting I I
think I might be a little right. I don't
know.
Uh mayor and council member, we of
course would never tell you even a
little bit wrong. Um uh what you are
seeing though is is basically the same
kind of process that you had that you
just went through a moment ago where
your staff takes care of a lot of
administrative pieces before they come
to you for the final decision. Other
communities have addressed this issue
and have delegated the authority to
grant these binding waiverss to staff.
And so, uh, as Josh had mentioned or,
uh, as Alan mentioned, if you were, uh,
if the council's direction to the staff
was to come back with administrative
process by which Prop 207 binding
waiverss could be, uh, issued by staff
without coming back to council, we would
need to do so in a way that would
provide the staff with the guardrails
necessary to avoid an improper
delegation of that authority. So the
process today is set up just like your
zoning process where the staff will do
the administrative part, but that the
ultimate decision is the councils. If
the council wants to change that to have
an administrative process, it's
certainly possible. Some of your peer
cities have done so, but it's not what
this process is currently set up to do.
Okay, Mr. Maguire, thank you very much
for not telling me I'm completely wrong.
I do appreciate that. Mayor, thank you
very much for the time. Thank you.
Thank you. Any ready for public hearing?
All right, I will open the public
hearing uh for uh those folks who are
here on behalf of clients. Uh normally
it's just one client, but there are many
folks who have multiple clients in this.
So, if you would just maybe want to
limit five of your clients and if it's
if you have 10, you don't need to say
all 10, but when you disclose who you
represent, if you could do the first
five. All right, we'll begin with uh
virtual comments and we'll begin with
Linda Abeg
followed by Chris Green.
Thank you, mayor, members of the
council. Uh my name is Linda Abe and
I've been an involved member of the
Lavine Village Planning Committee for
nine years. My fellow committee members
and I have spent countless hours working
for sustainable and responsible and
diverse development in Lavine. We voted
unanimously and emphatically in Lavine
to support this text amendment because
the language currently in ordinance or
lack thereof does not allow for any
involvement or oversight from the public
process to ensure that we find
responsible and sustainable ways to
integrate data centers into our
community. Over the years, we have been
on the front lines working to ensure
that our area of Phoenix is developed
with balance and intention. We've worked
to make sure it has enough housing for
new residents, enough retail to support
those residents, and beneficial
infrastructure like parks and safe
roadways. In all of this, one of our
primary priorities has been employment
for all the residents we are welcoming
in our new developments. With the
tireless efforts of CED and our council
members and the mayor, we were able to
zone hundreds of acres of land to allow
for an employment corridor and get SRP
to agree to bring power lines to support
industries that would allow residents to
live and work in Lavine. However, before
we even had time to celebrate that, data
center companies came in and bought
almost all of that land. There was no
public hearing, no input sought from the
community, no respect for the
responsible and sustainable planning
going on in our area. The current lack
of regulation regarding data centers has
allowed a quick overturn of the
intentional planning that has been done
at all levels to ensure the long-term
success of being in Phoenix. It's vital
that this text amendment go through to
set responsible guidelines for data
centers and to allow city planners,
officials, and residents to participate
in the process because while we welcome
all types of development in Lavine, we
need to ensure we find a responsible and
sustainable way for data centers to join
our community. So, Lavine emphatically
supports this text amendment and I ask
that you would do the same and help our
community to be um a safe and
sustainable place for our residents.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for that testimony.
Oh, uh, Chris Green is next, followed by
Chris Murphy.
Okay. Hello. I'm Chris Green. Can you
guys just verify that you guys can hear
me? You're a little I guess. Yeah, we
can hear you. If you could be a little
bit louder, that would be wonderful.
Okay, no problem. Uh, I'm Chris Green.
I'm an energyme for the International
Association of Firefighters. The IFFF
represents approximately 357,000
firefighters and emergency responders
across the nation. Uh I was pulled into
the conversation because I've become a
bit of an expert on not just on energy
but on data centers because it is part
of the part of the energy spectrum. And
while data data centers are an important
part of our future, there's there's no
question about that that they are
needed. Um the guard rails that we have
the opportunity to get up really is
where they're placed where they need to
be. Uh, Council Member Hernandez nailed
this when she said currently they can go
just anywhere they want to go. This is
highly problematic. Now, these are not
just big large cumbersome labyrinth
boxes. You know, these are the size
these can be the size of a neighborhood.
The power demand on these things is
severe. The water demand on these things
is severe. For the fire response and the
emergency responders that come to these
facilities, what they're going to find
is a maze. they're going to find a a
security system that is unmatched by by
most anything I've ever seen in my
career. And that's 30 years with Seattle
Fire. Uh which means accessing for
emergency patients that need medical aid
or a fire becomes completely problematic
because they're hardened security and
basically their zero trust policies and
they need these because of the security
uh responsibilities of these facilities.
That said, the question becomes, well,
do these things really have fires? Are
there are they really that problematic
for the fire departments? Well, Lowden
County, Virginia is home to some of the
uh the the highest populace of these
data centers. And what they saw during a
10-month period during 2024 was over 700
emergency responses to those data data
centers. Now, traditionally, the fire
department responds to largely EMS
alarms.
For data centers, it is 3 to one fire
responses rather than EMS. And I can
tell you the the chemicals that will
burn off in a fire in a data center are
absolutely severe. Some of the worst
you'll ever see. The dioxins that can
pour off these facilities is not
something that you can simply turn
around and fix. The fire departments
across the country are really
illprepared to deal with these
facilities. So despite the fact that
they are needed and they need to be
built out, the question is could you
speak also to the energy storage
component, the on-site if there's
on-site like lithium battery backup?
Yeah, sure. Thank you, mayor. U
certainly. So, traditionally, if you
think about what a UPS room was, an
undirected power supply room that was
powered by lead acid batteries, then
they transition to nickel metal hydride.
Today, as of the last 10 years, they're
using lithium-ion batteries in a v
variety of different chemistries. N and
so when those things have problems,
those fires are extremely difficult to
suppress even with water. So if the
pre-engineered system, which all of
these data centers will employ, if that
fails, the fire department is is delayed
at getting suppression where it needs to
be because of the maze and the security.
And on top of that, they're moving into
a space that is oftentimes reflective of
a deflogration hazard. That is an
explosion.
We have had fires at these facilities
across the country. We've had these
fires at these things across the globe.
Once these things get beyond the initial
phase of a fire,
we don't have a lot of success getting
the fire under control. And on top of
that, we're working in a completely
energized environment. Meaning shutting
the power off to these things for the
safety of the fire crews that have to
work inside is not easy. And that's
something that I'm a bit of an expert
at. I can tell you I would be severely
challenged trying to control the power
for a a a data center and yet that would
be the expectation to ensure the safety
of the firefighters. So what I would say
is that the guard rails for zoning is is
really good for your community living
spaces. But the idea that these things
are innocuous buildings that never have
problems, that's completely false.
compounding that that their problems are
generally fire related, not EMS. When a
fire gets outside of the box of a data
center, you've got real problems with
the kind of chemicals and dioxins that
will pour on the community around you.
This really is your opportunity to get
up some guardrails on where these boxes
go because again,
the modern world says these things have
to exist. They just simply do. But
again, Council Member Hernandez nailed
it right now. You can put these things
anywhere you want to put them and that's
a mistake. That's a mistake. Thanks so
much for uh letting me speak. Thank you.
Does anyone else have any questions?
Councilwoman Hernandez. Yeah, thank you,
Mayor. Um I would want to ask Chris a
question regard from the fire safety
concerns around the facilities that
would have self-generating
um power specifically like do they use
meth or produce um methane gas into
those neighborhoods?
So, it's hard to say specifically, uh,
uh, Council Member Hernandez, as far as
what sort of things might be offging
because for the most part with with
lithium-ion batteries, you know, they're
they're relatively inert until there's a
problem. And then you're talking about
hydrogen gas, which adds to the
deplogration hazard. You're talking
about hydrogen fluoride, which obviously
is a bone seeking gas, which that's
pretty problematic. You're talking about
explosive levels of carbon monoxide. All
of that pouring out of the facility.
Now, part of the problem, Hernand, uh,
Council Member Hernandez, is that
ventilation,
ventilating these buildings is extremely
problematic. How do you move all that
smoke out of this massive facility? I
can tell you Seattle Fire has something
called a mobile ventilation unit, and
that is to move gas and smoke outside of
train tunnels and light rail tunnels.
That's precisely what you would need to
ventilate even a modest size uh uh data
center. And remember, where's that smoke
going? If that's in a neighborhood, near
a school, your downtown, basically your
living community, that's where it's
going. And these are some of the more
toxic chemicals that we've had to face
in really the last 10 years. And that
does have to do with lithium ion. But
again, you have to consider everything
that's in there. Now, not to make it
worse, but the future because of these
high energy demands for these data
centers, they will outpace SRP and APS.
they will outpace what they can provide.
They're moving in what is called what is
called these uh u uh they are they're
small uh modular reactors
and it is what you what it sounds like.
You have a building that's basically
about a small three-story building and
it's nuclear and it's meant to just
provide power to those facilities. Now
that is a that is something that seemed
like pie in the sky 5 years ago. I can
tell you those things are being marketed
right now to data centers. That's their
target audience and they can make the
kind of energy onsite that those data
centers need centers need to to do the
work that they do 247. Remember from an
energy demand standpoint there is no
downtime for a data center. It's peak
demand and one of the best places to get
that frankly is small modular reactors.
They're out there. They can be purchased
right now. They're not in place right
now, but make no mistake, once the box
is built and the energy demands start to
wayne or they outpace what SRP can can
provide, they'll turn to this. That's a
fact. And that's not the time to figure
out that that place is next to a school
or a hospital or in your living
communities. So, again, I uh I I um uh I
I praise Representative Hernandez for
really getting to the crux of this. the
zoning. This is your chance to get some
guardrails of responsibility around
these these boxes. Um, not to shut them
down, not to stifle them, but we should
at least have a say over where they're
placed. This is this is your
opportunity. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Any other questions for
Chris? Thank you for your testimony. And
now we will go to our second Chris
followed by Angie. So, Christopher
Murphy, followed by Angie Daro. Just
confirming you can hear me perfectly.
Perfect. Good afternoon. I apologize you
cannot be there in person, but I am out
of town. My name is Chris Murphy. I am a
Phoenix resident. I am also a member of
the Phoenix Fire Department and United
Phoenix Firefighters Local 493 for the
past 32 years. I'd like to share a story
with you. As a young firefighter, I was
dispatched to a fire in a commercial
structure at roughly Indian School in
Third Street. When we arrived, we
encountered a massive structure with no
windows, a single man door entrance on
the street, and no signs whatsoever on
the building other than the numbers for
the address. When we made access, it
happened to be a US- West telephone
switching facility. That tells you how
long ago it was. You It was US West. It
was full of smoke, pitch black, and the
sprinklers inside were going off. The
unfamiliar layout, miles of cables and
rows of equipment as well as toxic smoke
from the uncontrolled fire were
extremely extremely challenging and it
was deemed a hazardous materials call
which we were all exposed to. It started
from overheating equipment. Today data
centers pose these same risks. We know
they are power hungry and are serviced
by complicated high voltage electrical
lines which can fail. Large banks of
lithium ion battery backups are also
required. When these batteries generate
more heat than they can dissipate, they
catch fire, which produces
cancer-causing smoke, exposing
firefighters and the community. A fire
in a data center can easily overwhelm
built-in suppression systems, which
would necessitate the fire department
using tremendous amounts of water, which
would create contaminated runoff. Data
centers pose a risk to firefighters as
well as the community at large. As
firefighters, we are committed to
keeping the community safe. We do this
through fire code compliance and
operational readiness. I also have a
nightmare scenario for you. Data centers
when they are built have an area set
aside for additional power expansion.
When APS or SRP are no longer able to
provide the energy required, these
facilities will bring in small-cale
local nuclear reactors. Think of how
residents will react when they hear that
coming in. And that's if they are even
made aware. The best way to fix an
emergency is to avoid it happening in
the first place. I think having a
special permit process to assist the
city with ensuring these facilities are
following the current fire code and are
safe to operate is a reasonable ask for
everyone involved and I support that
proposal. Thank you. Thank you so much
for that testimony.
Um Angie is next
and Angie will be followed by Ginger
Sykes Torres.
All right, then we will go to Ginger
next
followed by Ben Graph.
Oh, do we hear Ginger? I'm sorry. Do we
hear Danie?
That was not okay. Sorry. Please go
ahead. Apologies. Mayor, city council,
and city staff. My name is Jinger Sykes
Torres. I am vice president of
resiliency programs at Local First
Arizona. Local First Arizona is the
largest business coalition in the United
States and we focus on driving inclusive
community and economic development
throughout Arizona. I am here to support
the general plan amendment and city code
ordinance related to data centers. These
proposals will enable the city to make
informed decisions that affect the
health and safety of our communities,
creating a pathway for thoughtful and
sustainable growth and development. We
are concerned about the increasing
intensity of impacts that the unchecked
expansion of data centers are having on
our city and state economy and small
business community. We are facing an
affordability crisis and we're in a
perfect storm of national and local
issues impacting our state's resiliency.
Federal incentives for clean energy are
being eliminated in Washington while
electricity demand in Arizona is surging
and power companies are struggling to
keep up. Data centers use a jaw-dropping
amount of energy which is expected to
grow to 90% of APS's and SRP's
prospective industrial demand. A demand
that does not Wayne overnight. Fossil
fuels are increasingly used to power
these mega centers because there's not
enough longduration storage available to
decarbonize effectively. This is a huge
setback to our states and our city's
clean energy goals and jeopardizes the
reliability of our electricity grid.
Small businesses compi comprise 99% of
all businesses in Arizona employing 42%
of our state's workforce with
exponential increases in data center
energy demands. Other businesses will
likely end up waiting longer for power
interconnection. Some predict up to four
years wait time for smaller companies.
At a recent GPE meeting, APS expressed
concerns about small businesses being
able to access excess energy they need
to survive. The proposed resolution and
process will help ensure that we don't
sacrifice the growth of other businesses
and our overall economy to the
untethered development of data centers.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Ben is next followed by Christy McCann.
Mayor, members of the council, my name
is Ben Graph with the law firm of Corals
and Brady at 2 North Central Avenue,
Phoenix, Arizona. I am here today
representing uh American Express
specifically in regard to their campus
at 566th Street and Mayo. Um originally
uh as we reviewed the uh proposed
ordinance uh there were certainly some
concerns um expressed by AMX how this
might uh inadvertently affect their
campus and their operations. Ammex has
been a long-term partner with the city
of Phoenix from its first travel agency
in the 70s through its selection of
Phoenix to build out its corporate
campus in the early 2000s. Uh they now
employ over 3,000 individuals uh here in
Phoenix uh and provide many other
opportunities for contractors and jobs.
Um I'm very happy to report that after
working with uh the planning department
um specifically with Mr. Bernaric. Um,
also the city manager's office through
Alan Stevenson and, uh, Christine McKay
from economic development has just been
fantastic to work with. Um, as of the
memo received last night, uh, AMX no
longer has any concerns regarding the
language. Uh, and we certainly
appreciate the new language that's in
that memorandum again, as of July 1st,
2025. Um, I also would just like to note
that the outreach and conversations that
council and council staff have provided
have allowed for this compromise have
allowed for this very important employer
and partner in Phoenix um to see a
resolution today. Um, that certainly
works for their concerns. Um,
specifically, mayor, thank you uh for
your input, for u for your attention.
Uh, and also this does fall within
council member Jim Wearing's district
and we appreciate his input and
attention to this issue as well. So,
thank you.
Thank you. Christie is next followed by
Will Green.
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.
Agenda items 107 and 108 create a
procedure framework
for design and location criteria for
data centers. As an education
professional, I understand the need for
explicit process direction. It helps to
sorry it helps to drive expectations and
outcomes. I do not believe the general
plan amendment and ordinance
strive to prevent data centers from
being constructed. Rather, they provide
the process. Clarity leads to
predictable outcomes. To that end, I
urge mayor and council to support items
107 and 108.
Thank you. Will is next, followed by
Nick Wood.
Great.
Uh, good afternoon, Mayor and Council.
My name is Will Green. I'm the new
Arizona Rep for Southwest Energy
Efficiency Project, or SWE. SWE's
mission is to advance energy efficiency
within utility programs, building codes,
and our transportation system in
regulatory proceedings, and lawmaking at
the state and local level. We appreciate
the council taking up the important
issue of data centers and their impacts.
Sweep's March 2025 report entitled data
centers power needs and clean energy
challenges highlights their largecale
power needs that Arizona's utilities
will be hardpressed to meet. Um staff's
excellent uh report showed the 15
gigawatts of interconnection requests
just in APS's territory. To put that in
context, um last summer APS's entire
system peaked at around just over eight
gigawatts.
Of course, they won't be able to meet
you that entire interconnection request.
Uh but it goes to show the the scale of
of uh of power needs. Um so we support
uh the city's proposed 2640 foot
distance requirement
uh for data centers from high-capacity
transit. Energy efficiency and
transportation calls for co-mingling
transit investments such as light rail
and bus rapid transit with adjoining
complimentary uses such as compact
convenient housing and employment and
retail and sweep is neutral in
provisions unrelated to efficient use of
energy and smart city design. Um yeah,
just thank you for your um your time and
and uh this conversation. I think we'll
continue in other forums such as the
Arizona Corporation Commission and you
know, encourage the city's participation
there if you're if you're interested.
And I'll just note um there's been a
number of comments on lithium-ion
batteries. I do want to caution against
battery storage being referred to as
sort of a a boogeyman in this. Um, Sweep
does see battery storage, especially
on-site battery storage as uh part of
the solution in terms of reducing grid
peak impacts um of of data centers um
and also eliminate the need for fossil
uh generation on site. So, thank you so
much.
Thank you. Nick is next followed by
Samantha Deos.
Mayor, members of the council, Nick
Wood, Snell and Woomer, one East
Washington Street. I represent multiple
data center companies, but specifically
today a company called Menllo. Um, a
nationwide developer. I'm a very, as a
zoning attorney, I'm big supporter of
this text amendment. It provides
clarity. It provides definition. It
provides development standards, design
standards, use standards that I think
are very important with respect to this
area. With respect to Menllo, two and a
half years ago, we started work on a a
tech center that includes office and
data storage. Um, it's located in
Awatuki uh near 48th and um Thistle
Landing. Basically, we spent a year
working with surrounding neighbors uh
with everything from the standpoint of
setbacks, building height, um building
orientation, location of substations,
landscaping, a park with pickle ball and
everything else. After that year, it
culminated in um overwhelming support um
no opposition. This council approved it
18 months ago. In that 18 months now,
we've spent time with SRP uh working on
um uh reaching an agreement to provide
um power which of course has been
completed uh and has been signed. So now
we have a binding agreement and also
working on preliminary site plan
approval and we have that today. So
we're very supportive of the text. We're
also very supportive of the
grandfathering provision that's in the
report that came out uh yesterday and
section 647 A2 KKK4 which basically
exempts our project for example from
this the provisions of this um text
amendment as well as design standards
etc. Uh with that I'd be happy to answer
any questions you might have. Thank you.
Any questions?
Pickle ball in district six. Imagine
that.
Uh, thank you.
Uh, Samantha is next, followed by Vana,
mayor, council. Thank you. My name is
Samantha Deamas. I'm with Rose Law
Group, 7144 East Stson. Um, and we just
want to thank you for the process with
VPC and the councils and the planning
staff's dedication. Um, and especially
for the inclusion of the grandfathering
language under Prop 207 that was issued
in the draft last night. Um, we just
want to thank you for including a
process for waiver for those who have
investment back expectations to protect
and one that is under the bounds of Prop
207 rather than traditional legislative
discretion. Um, but again, thank you
staff and everyone else for their
dedication to this process and thank you
for letting me speak.
Thank you so much. Vana is next followed
by Tom.
Do we have Vana? Okay. Uh Tom is next,
followed by Liliana.
Uh thank you. um here to speak on behalf
of the Arizona chapter of 7 by24
exchange and our 60 members that support
the uh the data center industry here in
town. I want to acknowledge the hard
work by the staff and it's been a
whirlwind. Um I think it's still in
flux. I know that we issued stuff
yesterday and so I think people are
still digesting some things and I think
a few things are not resolved yet. I'm
here to ask for a couple of weeks for
people to digest it and uh clarify a few
things and if you will not allow that if
you're going to pass it today to pass it
and I don't know the wording but to pass
it with a direction to staff to resolve
the open issues approved as noted in my
world. Um a couple of those issues
um
still not clear on the need for a
special use permit. you have an
incredible process you've gone through
with all the details and if you meet all
the details
it feels like restrain of trade that you
then have to have a special use permit
for that this new comp new new
comprehensive set of standards would
exist um specifically in the last week
there's been changes made on the
acoustics requirements and I think
that's been a good effort but it says
that there shall be a 45 dB at night and
55 dB during the today and what if the
existing uh conditions the ambient is
beyond that. So I think we need to
continue to refine that and I made some
suggestions in the last week on that. Um
again wanted to point out on the water
usage
uh 15 years ago we used air conditioning
systems and didn't use a lot of water.
12 years ago we did evaporative cooling
and have used a lot of water. Since that
time, we're no longer doing that um in
your in your jurisdiction or in other
jurisdictions. It's back to an air a
high efficiency air conditioning system.
It's a closed loop. It's not using
water. So, appreciate your uh thoughts
and really think that again uh little
details and the landscaping, you know,
clarifying that it's at maturity. Just a
lot of words that need to get fixed from
the last uh week of really hard work.
Thank you.
Thank you. Liliana is next,
followed by Stephanie.
Hello, my name is Lily Vidales. Um, as a
concerned resident born and raised in
South Phoenix, I urge decision makers to
reconsider the rapid expansion of data
centers across the Phoenix metro area.
These facilities pose serious threats to
our environment, infrastructure, and
communities. I currently go to school in
Memphis, Tennessee. Less than a year
ago, Elon Musk built his XAI supercomput
data center in South Memphis, a
predominantly black community. This was
brought to the city with false promises
of economic growth and opportunities.
However, it's only brought suffocating
smog and pollution, worsening the
environment for these already vulnerable
communities, and no new jobs for
community members. Memphis residents are
angry and frustrated that they had no
say about this center as they are facing
the health consequences. Arizona
residents deserve better. I'd hate to
see what's happening in my college town
happen in my hometown. These facilities
provide minimal public benefit. They
require taxpayer funded infrastructure
like roads, utilities, and fire
services, but produce few permanent jobs
and offer little to no return to the
community. We must protect our power
grid, water, and black and brown
communities who face the most
consequences of the corporations who
take advantage of our environment. I am
fundamentally opposed to data centers
even though they're here and you are
offering restrictions. Data centers are
not condu conducive to any of your
sustainability goals or efforts. It
forces your constituents to compete for
energy and water. Please pause the
spread of data centers in our desert
communities who are negatively impacted
by heat and water access such as south
and west Phoenix. Arizona's future
depends on it. Thank you.
Thank you. Stephanie is next followed by
Michael Duffy.
All right. I am Stephanie Herd. I'm at
10207 South 47th Avenue in Lavine.
Um, I want to say that everything that
Linda Abe said, she was on point and
she's I agree. I second everything she
said. Um, I'm also on the Lavine Village
Planning Committee that unanimously
recommended to adopt the text amendment.
Uh, there are currently a stunning
number of data centers looking at Lavine
and these data centers are trying to
move fast. Since SRP announced the South
Mountain Transmission Project, data
center developers have been like
vultures,
like vultures trying to get our land.
They want to ravage the area we
desperately need for retail, restaurant,
housing, and employment.
We need a process to determine whether
the land is appropriate for the data
centers, and we need it now. We can't
wait. Lavine can't wait. Estraa can't
wait. We need your help. Please vote in
favor of the text amendment so they
don't overtake places like Lavine
and especially the town core we've been
working so hard for with economic
development, with city council planning,
streets. Um, it's been a long process
and we've been working hard and we're
almost there. Please help us save that.
Uh, you heard what the fire department
speaker said about public safety. Lavine
already needs another fire department
without taking data centers into
consideration. There is a place for data
centers, but not in our town cores. The
data center developers are ready to act
and grab all the land they can. We need
them to be responsible. This text
amendment was initiated for so many
reasons. Thank you for doing so. You're
saving us. Please give our village a
chance, the chance it needs. Please
approve and adopt the data center text
amendment as is. Thank you guys.
Appreciate it.
Thank you. Michael is next.
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My
name is Michael Duffy. I'm here
representing Local 493 United Phoenix
firefighters. I'm a fire captain with
the city of Phoenix. I've been on the
fire department for 29 years. I'm in my
19th year as a captain. I'm currently
assigned as a technical rescue and
hazardous material safety officer,
meaning I respond primarily to those
calls to keep our members safe. Um,
today I'm here asking for help. I'm
asking for help of the council and you,
mayor, that oversight for these battery
storage centers are hugely important.
Um, thermal runaway is a real thing.
You'll see it on the news. Look it up. I
don't have enough time to explain the
the subtle nuances of the nery of that,
but it is it's a it's a uh it's a real
thing. Um the product of combustion uh
the smoke that is your hot zone. Um the
chemicals involved in that are hydrogen
cyanide, hydrogen fluoride, heavy
metals, uh such as cobalt and manganese,
nickel, um known carcinogens, things
that you can't just wash off with a
shower, things that don't just um get
washed away with water. They're in the
dirt. they stay there. Um these
facilities have already hurt
firefighters in the city of Poria. Um
there was an explosion, a deflogration
if you will, um that resulted in
catastrophic injuries for those members.
We would ask that with this oversight
that hopefully we can get signage, we
can make sure that we identify where
these facilities are. Um, and ultimately
when you think about where these go,
understand that with the smoke being the
hot zone, anything downwind of this
thing when it's on fire, those people
are being exposed along with your
firefighters. So, we're asking for the
1865 members of the Phoenix Fire
Department, please vote for this. Give
us that chance to of more oversight and
protect your investment. Um, a very
precious investment, if I might say, of
our your 1865 members of the local 493
servicing the city of Phoenix. Thank you
so much. And would you be willing to
take a question? Of course, vice mayor.
Thank you, sir, for your testimony
today. Um, I'd actually like you to
please explain thermal runaway. So, what
happens in thermal runaway is
lithium-ion batteries don't like heat,
and when they get hot, they start to
just create their own energy, and once
they get into a a point of thermal
runaway, they'll actually catch fire.
Our turnouts are rated at uh the
protective ensemble that we wear to
fight house fires or structure fires are
rated at 17.5 seconds of of what's
called a flashover in a house.
Flashovers at 1,000°. These batteries
when they cook off can get to
temperatures of 3600°.
So if you can see the difference or the
problem that we are going to inherently
get involved with, especially if we have
to go inside of a structure. We're not
talking about a Tesla car on the
roadway. We're talking about an enclosed
structure that is a maze that these the
entire area is energized and now we have
batteries cooking off and when one cooks
off the one next to it will start to
cook off. Thank you sir. I appreciate
that. Yes ma'am. Councilwoman Hud
Washington. Thank you Mayor. Thank you
also Captain Duffy for answering these
questions for me. You um kind of just
like glossed over what you call the
Poria explosion. Can you tell us tell us
a little bit more about that? what
causation and what are some of the
lessons learned from that? So, the
lessons learned on that is that was
actually a battery storage center. Um,
it was an APS battery storage center and
there's three things that you need for a
fire. You need heat, you need oxygen,
and you need fuel. So, the suppression
system in this box, if you will, took
care of the uh took care of the oxygen.
And when our firefighter Poria
firefighters opened the door, they gave
this monster what it needed, which was
air. It still it had the heat and it had
the fuel and it deflegated. It exploded.
It was a freight train coming out of the
door. I I wish I had had the opportunity
to show you some of this some of the
actually have the captain at the time
named Hunter Claire was actually on this
call. Suffered catastrophic injuries.
Two firefighters were airlifted from the
scene to uh Valley Hospitals. Um, but
again, what was happened is the the it
was an a very small like uh it almost
looked like a ConX box with these
batteries. They went into runaway. They
caught fire. They burned up all the
oxygen because it was sealed up real
tight. They used a a suppression system
that wasn't water but actually starves
the fire of oxygen. When we opened the
door, we introduced oxygen and it just
it exploded. Thank you for your service,
sir. And thank you for their Thank you
for your testimony. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Wonderful. Thank you. Very important
testimony. Councilwoman Hernandez. Yes.
Thank you. One quick question. Um, you
mentioned something around the signage
of where these data centers are. Can you
expand a little bit on that? What would
be what would be nice for us on the fire
side, speaking purely, not as any kind
of expert, but just a guy who's been
running calls for a while. the more
information you can give us as far as
something we can put into CAD when we
get when we get dispatched, we have an
MCT or a computer in our truck that
would allow us to know the the address
is tagged to one of these uh storage
centers. Um maybe signage there on the
buildings that actually let us know what
we're dealing with. that addresses that
are tagged in our system so that we know
on a tactical premise as we're
responding that we're dealing with
lithium ion batteries or a or a storage
center would be very very helpful. Thank
you. Yep. Vice Mayor, thank you. So,
relative to just what he was talking
about, can we make sure that staff looks
at how we make sure the fire um CAD
system denotes that um and maybe to the
safety with Peoria? Is there other
information that we should be keeping in
our system so that our men and women who
are fighting our fires know what they're
walking into when they get there? If
staff could look into that as we move
forward on this, I would appreciate it.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you, sir. Thank
you. Thank you. And I think it would be
great to work with our firefighters
about what information they would like
and where. And then I think there was
also a significant fire in the East
Valley at a data center. So maybe just
as much lessons learned so that maybe
the permit process or the waiver can
help us get the information we need to
keep communities safe and firefighters
safe. All right. Uh I believe that is
all of our speakers. We'll make sure
that happens. Appreciate that. Deputy
city manager close the public hearing
and I'll turn to my colleagues for
comments and a motion.
Vice Mayor,
the
I move to approve per staff
recommendation and for the July 1st,
2025 memo from the planning development
and director. Mayor, mayor, vice mayor,
just a quick point of clarification. You
have two items before you. item 107
which is the general plan amendment
which be recommendation and adopt the
relay resolution and then 108 as per the
memo. Let me back up to 107. I skipped
ahead to 108. I think I might have been
trying to get us out of the meeting
sooner. I move to approve the item for
the planning commission recommendation
and adopt the related resolution.
Second. Second. Have a motion and second
and thank you for that. Thank you to
everyone who testified. It was quite a
long meeting but a really important
topic. The city of Phoenix is committed
to innovation and being a technology
leader. We've gotten international
recognition for that. We also want to
make sure we have best practices and
that we put advanced technology in the
right places. We're a diverse city.
We're a large city. We have different
geology, different communities. We have
different levels of fire hazmat coverage
and we need to make sure that we do land
m land use planning in an appropriate
way that ensures we can deliver for all
of our residents in a safe way.
appreciate everyone who participated in
this process, including Ellen, Josh, and
Trish. I don't think this was the issue
you would have chosen to work on, but we
appreciate all of the time that you put
into it. It really matters to the people
of Phoenix. Uh, thank you to our village
planning commissioners and and all the
stakeholders who have participated. And
I'll turn to Councilwoman Gordado.
Did you want a comment? Is she ready to
vote? Oh, everyone is ready to move.
Yes. Councilwoman Hud Washington. Thank
you. Um, I know we're all getting ready
to wrap up, but I just wanted to just
kind of uh stress a couple of things.
Specifically, for me, my villages really
guided this conversation. Our villages
voted um to approve this and the ones
that did deny it, they actually wanted
more direction, which we have since
incorporated into our proposal. I I
think we have um I want to say thank you
again to Planning for the very detailed
report that you outlined the safety
concerns because I think we need to
stress to our development partners this
is not saying we don't want a ban we
want to ban planet u data centers in our
community we want to just be more
intentional about where they go and make
sure that they're not providing a
greater risk to the adjacent properties
that are next to them for me one of the
things that was very enlightening during
this process is understanding when we
throw about um both SRP and APS talk
about the number of gigawatts that of
power that is in the queue. Um based on
their letters, it's almost about 32 um
32 gawatts in the queue. And when I
learned what like a maybe I'm the one
that's new to this, but a megawatt of
power is equivalent to one super Walmart
or between 400 to 700 single families
homes. That is a significant amount of
power that are being that we have to
make sure we're placing in the right
spaces and not next to residential
communities. Our firefighter, I think it
did an excellent job of talking about
some of the actual exposures and the
concerns that we have. If there is a
fire, those chemicals are burning in our
community. our firefighters. Thankfully,
we do have we're able to provide them
with the the equipment to prevent them
from inhaling whatever toxic carcinogens
might be out there, but our community
members don't have that as well. So, we
need to be mindful of that. I also
wanted to just take a second to talk
about um I really appreciate some of the
outreach from the community that reached
out about this. When this first came
out, it was an issue that it was no, no,
no, don't do this. And I was grateful to
see that we had some of the same
opposition come here today and say that
they are now they now support it. They
felt they were heard. So I also wanted
to give kudos to staff for working
through that. Um data centers as noted
are not what they were 10 years ago or
even earlier. They have evolved in size,
scale and impact and I think we as a
city must respond to that. I really
think that we are we are being more
proactive. We are not waiting to see an
issue like we've cited some of the
speakers talked about like in Memphis or
in uh Northern Virginia. We are being
more proactive. We have to ensure that
we are good stewards of the resources
our community needs including our power
grids, our fire safety. For me, the fire
safety is a big one. Many parts of my
district do not have a fire station, but
we're working on that. Right, Jeff? So,
we are ensuring that we are you're
nodding in your head, but it's a
legitimate concern. and I need to ensure
that um we are making sure that they
have the right resources around here for
that. We are protecting our firefighters
as well as our first responders. And I
just want to ensure that I I think this
is the right step. We are making
progress. We are aligning them with the
city priorities that we've already
adopted, which is to protect our health,
promote safety, and ensure that our land
decisions are intentional and equitable.
And as someone who represents community
where access to health care
infrastructure and economic
opportunities can sometimes seem
limited, we can't afford to um not make
good decisions and not serve our broader
public service good in a balanced and
equitable way. And I think we've done
that with the waiver process. So I say
all that to say that this has been a
conversation we have been having for
several months and weeks really intense.
I mean, my one of my last meetings
before I came into council today was
about the data center and I think to see
the testimony and the speakers here
today mean that we have done a good job.
So, I just wanted to say thank you again
to everyone that was involved in this
process in ensuring we move forward and
I I am happy that we're at a position. I
know we still have a couple things that
would probably need to be finalized as
we move forward regarding our waiver
process, but I think we're in good
space. So, thank you staff and thank you
for everyone.
Thank you. And I think this process will
continue. The technology is evolving
quickly just in the time we've been
working on this. There have been now new
energy storage technologies that have
been commercialized. So we keep learning
more and and the industry keeps
changing. We've seen a seismic change.
When the city first welcomed data
centers, data was mostly data standards
mostly stored information. Now they're
doing computing bigger calculations.
It's they're getting hotter. The energy
use is getting more intense. Will
Green's testimony was very powerful.
we'd have to build not one new SRP but
two new SRPs just for the if we were
going to say yes to the connection
request they've received. Same for APS.
It's this is arguably the biggest change
in economic development I've seen in my
decade at the city. This is a very
significant industry and we're pleased
to be working and developing good public
policy to make sure that we can welcome
high-tech in a way that makes sense for
Phoenix and is safe. Any other comments?
All right. The motion on the table is
for item 107, which is the general
planned amendment. Roll call.
Yes. Nandez, yes. Pudge Washington, yes.
Pastor,
yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. Bego, yes. Passes 90.
Item 108 is the ordinance adoption. Vice
Mayor, I move to approve the item per
the July 1st, 2025 memo from the
planning department director and adopt
the related ordinance. Second. Have a
motion and a second. Roll call.
Yes. Hernandez. Mayor, may I explain my
vote? Please do. Thank you. Um, first, I
really wish I would have paid more
attention in chemistry class. It would
have come in really handy on this topic.
Um, and the more I learn about data
centers, um, the more complex the issues
really get and actually make me less of
a fan of data centers. The list of
concerns far outweigh the benefits that
they bring to the communities that
they're placed in. Um, and one of the
biggest concerns is the health and
environmental impacts that they have on
those communities. Um, along with the
fire concerns that we heard from some of
our firefighters. Uh, I represent
communities in district 7 that have seen
adverse effects of environmental impacts
that have resulted in shorter lifespans
in south and west Phoenix of about 14
years from other parts of the city. Um,
District 7 also has the highest amount
of food deserts. Um, and the development
of these data centers are taking up land
that I believe would be better suited to
provide more housing, more health care
access, access to healthy food, um, or
more permanent job employers. Um, these
are centers that also use an extreme
amount of energy and water that also
contribute to our heat island effect.
So, I am very supportive of the guard
rails um in this text amendment to
ensure that the development of these
data centers have those guardrails in
place that will protect all of our
communities um especially considering
how many potential sites exist in
district 7. So, I vote yes on the text
amendment change or adoption. Haj
Washington,
yes. Pastor,
yes. Thank you. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, may I explain my vote?
Please do. Thank you, mayor. First, I
want to um shout out a huge thank you to
the mayor and my colleagues and all of
city staff as well as our outside
council um for all the hard work as well
as our stakeholders who have been there
every step of the way to ensure that we
put together the best policy that would
marry both the openness that we have for
in Phoenix for businesses with the
safety for our communities. Um, it is
important that we say that we are still
open for business and we want folks to
come here, but we also need to marry
that with the safety and health concerns
of our community members, our visi
visitors and our other businesses. And
because I think this does that, I am
happy to support this amendment. I vote
IGO.
Yes. Passes 90.
Thank you. That is our final agenda
item. We'll turn to our city attorney to
introduce public comment.
Thank you, mayor. During citizen
comment, members of the public may
address the city council for up to three
minutes on issues of interest or concern
to them. The citizen comment session is
limited to 30 minutes. The Arizona open
meeting law permits the city council to
listen to the comments but prohibits
council members from discussing or
acting on the matters presented.
Thank you. We'll begin with Sal Raza
followed by Julia Tagert.
Thank you. My name is Saladoresa. Uh
3341 East Cambridge Avenue, Phoenix,
Arizona 85008.
Uh the reason I'm coming today is
because uh as you have seen on the news,
LA is under occupation and attack. Uh
we're not that far from it. Uh this is
going to go nationwide.
And uh my worry is that uh over there in
LA uh there's u bounty hunters. They're
not even ICE agents that are attacking
our community, kidnapping our community.
Uh many of them even US citizens, they
don't respect. Uh and one of the things
is that they're not even trained. Uh
some of the cities over there in LA are
beginning to uh put guard rails where uh
the community is calling the police
whenever they believe there's a
kidnapping going on by uh bounty hunters
and many times when they hear that I can
see you can see them in the videos they
just they just leave. Uh, I don't know
what are the
protocols from the Phoenix police to
deal with that, but it's coming this
way. It's coming for sure. Just this
morning, I came here and I signed up uh
to to to speak right now. And then I was
called because they there was uh some uh
what they believe were ICE agents. I I I
cannot confirm there because I wasn't
there. Uh in the area of Walmart on 36
and Thomas,
which to me if if it's true, they're
probably scoping for future rates around
the Home Depot here. And as you know,
Home Depot is in big trouble right now
in LA because they have refused to uh to
uh deny uh entrance into their parking
lots to ICE agents and to uh uh bounty
hunters. Uh unlike the Dodgers that they
actually told them to leave. Now, I've
talked to the
uh Home Depot uh uh person in charge of
uh government affairs, and he basically
told me that they could not do anything
about it, you know, flat out, and they
were not involved. Yet, you can see ICE
agents chasing
customers inside of Home Depot in the
videos that are coming out of LA. So,
uh, that's that's something that's
coming down and, uh, I basically would
like for the city of Phoenix to start
seriously thinking what's going to
happen because it's coming our way
whether we want to or not. The
occupation is already is already
happening and there is a war against our
communities, not only in LA, but
throughout the United States. Thank you
very much. Thank you.
Julia is next, followed by Stacy.
Hi. No, thank you for letting me speak.
Today is my birthday, so I can't be down
there with you guys. Um, but I wanted to
speak about a couple of things. For the
past two, three years, I've gone to the
parks board meetings, and I've asked for
the North Mound Visitor Center exhibits
to be updated or renovated a little bit.
That visitor center is run by the Saver
Mountains Foundation. It's all
volunteer-based. Um they volunteered
over $150,000 worth of their time last
year. Um and the exhibits are over 25
years old and a lot of them have faded
from the sun. You can't read them
anymore. Multiple people have come in
that don't understand what they say. Um
so I would love for you know the city
council to consider looking at that
visitor center to get updated because
the South Mountain one was updated and
you know they deserve the update but
also North Mountain deserves the update
as well. Um, the Charles Christensen
trail plaque was stolen and it's been
missing for seven years. I sent the
parks department a photo of what the
plaque looked like. I think it would
great to get be great to get that
replaced this year. Um, since it's been
missing for seven years. I also noticed
that for all 180 parks and the different
trails, there's no history online for
why they were named what they were
named. Um, I think that would be great
for the city to work on that, especially
since many people are forgetting who
used to be a part of the city, like
Charles Christensen, Penny How, uh, Die
Gilbert, Maxine Lake, um, those sort of
people, and having different communities
work to say why the parks were named
after the people they were named after.
Um, I've also sent in requests for, uh,
the mayor's office for proclamations for
a couple of upcoming events. The Save
Our Mountains Foundation that runs the
visitor center is doing a fundraising
festival October 13th, 14th, and 15th uh
this year. And I sent the agenda to you
guys as well as Hansen. Mortuary is
going to do a 75th celebration on
October 25th um to celebrate 75 years in
business and also gain historic status.
And the 25th of October and 26 is a
Sunny Soap Studio Tour. It would be
great to have you guys come out and see,
you know, what Sunny Soap has to offer
and our rich history. We're trying our
best to preserve it and keep everything
positive and you know these very trying
times. Um so I would really like you
guys to consider those things because
our history we're losing very fast.
There are many people who were a part of
the city for decades that were losing um
that I would love for them to be honored
and remembered while they're still alive
and while their families and descendants
are still here. So thank you. I know
this was a long meeting and I appreciate
you listening to public comments.
Thanks for sticking with us long on your
birthday. Happy birthday. Stacy Champion
is next. And is Ann Ander still with us?
Ann, if you could wave. Okay. And then
Stacy is follow. Is John? Yeah, John is
still here. John is after Stacy.
Thanks. Um, I was going to talk about
some other things, including my
incomplete 2-year-old public records
request, but want to instead share
something that happened this morning. um
while I was waiting given the fact that
we have to come an hour before the
meeting starts to sign up and I had a a
meeting that I couldn't get out of. So I
was on the phone for that hour and at
this building right behind us right here
um in plain view of everyone there was a
gentleman who was laying down
uh motionless basically. Uh, I saw a lot
of people just walking past him um and
muted my call, went over, first of all,
made sure he was alive. Um, asked him if
he needed medical attention. He said I
really could use some water. Came, got a
bottle of water from one of the
officers, went back over, talked about
the cooling centers. What you need to
understand is a lot of people don't have
phones. Um, and so there was a a woman
who had uh come out. I believe she shape
works maybe for the city. I think that's
a city building. But, um, she said,
"What can I do to help?" And I said,
"I'm on this meeting right now, but if
you call 211, we could get him, I think,
transport to the cooling center." So,
while I was literally with my AirPods on
having a meeting while also tending to
this man, she did that. Um, and then
while I was finishing the meeting, we
helped walk him over to get into an
Uber. I helped get his seatelt on to
take him to a cooling center. As of the
28th of June, we have 165 heat deaths
under investigation and five confirmed.
to come here and hear about the fact
that the airport workers are still
having issues. Um, all of these
different things, but to to go through
that on my way in here, we are not going
to solve any of these problems unless we
actually not just start seeing people,
but start acting when we see people. Um,
I am
I'm just one person, right? But the
number of people I watched,
including a ton of staff, walk past this
un motionless man who is older is not
okay. And I think we need to start with
having more empathy.
And we're we're going to keep seeing
record-breaking deaths. Um I know y'all
took your victory lap last year. I
believe it's completely unwarranted. Um,
but my god, like if if if you're
collectively willing to kind of step
over people, right, without helping
people, what does that say about us as a
city? Thank you. John is next, followed
by Christian.
Good afternoon. I'm John Foresight. I
come here to talk about civil rights,
life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. But it's going to take a
pause today. I've been sitting through
this whole meeting, and it's been a long
meeting, and I've noticed that every
single council member has been on their
phones, not paying attention to public
speakers. People come here to This is
the chamber of the people. We come here
to tell our government our opinion.
Whether you like our opinion or not does
matter. Jefferson didn't care. We're on
the eve of our country's birthday and I
watched public speakers. I watched every
single council member here with their
faces down while people citizens were
addressing their government. Seems like
you don't care.
I'm offended. Everyone here today should
be offended.
I'm going to leave you with this. Thomas
Jefferson in 1776 was 33 years old.
Thomas Jefferson is a genius. He crafted
the Declaration of Independence and 80%
of our Constitution. I want to read you
something and I want you guys to take
this to heart. Jefferson said, "I'm not
an advocate for frequent changes in laws
and constitutions, but laws and
institutions, i.e. Government must go
hand in hand with the progress of the
human mind. As that becomes more
developed, more enlightened. As new
discoveries are made, new truths
discovered in manners and opinions
change.
With the changes of circumstances,
institutions must advance also to keep
pace with the times. And I'm going to
tell you, every time I come here and I
talk about civil rights, city of Phoenix
is not advancing with the people. The
people want change. People are asking
for change. We had an individual here
talk about the ICE rates. There's I'm a
Republican. I don't like them. Our
government isn't listening. And when
you're with Miss Ggo, you're checking
your phone right now. Thanks for um
the respect. That's amazing.
Thank you. I received a message about
two people who had left. was absolutely
related to my job. Christian is next,
followed by Ismile.
Ismile is next. He is followed by
Nicole.
All right. I have one more before we go
on summer break. Okay. Uh per chapter 4
section 22 of the Phoenix City Charter,
I is Maya G. Morales and presenting a
citizen petition regarding the return of
partial late night bus service in the
city of Phoenix bus routes. Whereas on a
policy session on April 23rd, 2020 on
the vote of 9 to0, Phoenix City Council
adopted a staff report from the public
transit department to curtail bus
service past 11 p.m. in the city of
Phoenix citing reduced ridership during
the CO 19 emergency. Whereas wrership
has grown from fiscal year 23 to fiscal
year 24 in the city of Phoenix coming
from valley metro numbers there has been
a 5.5% increase to start one can justify
late night service on key routes such as
routes 3 7 8 10 16 17 29 I mean 17 19 27
29 35 41 and 50 just to a few uh the
light rail can have some late night
service but it's already has some late
night service already implemented in it
whereas currently The service ends at
11:00 p.m. for the entire city Monday
through Sunday. Whereas with service
before 2020, service will end at 2 a.m.
on Fridays and Saturdays. Whereas we are
now the fifth largest city in the United
States. Thus, a return of partial late
night service can enhance night life
opportunities to enjoy our downtown and
other cultural areas of the city. This
can come with benefits that work with
late nights as well in those days.
Whereas there have been numerous studies
that have shown that late night that
having late night public transit
services can reduce drunk driving
accidents or incidences of DUI
violations.
Therefore, I petition to this Phoenix to
this Phoenix city council to do the
following. Number one, have the public
transit department draft a report on
whether late night public transit can
return on certain routes on Friday and
Saturday nights, including budget
impacts and conversations with
bargaining units that can be affected.
Number two, hold public hearings
regarding return of late night public
transit services in the city of Phoenix
as how the city council sees fit. And
number three, uh, draft an ordinance or
report on returning partial late night
services on Fridays and Saturdays on
routes that the public transit
department or city council sees fit. I
do look forward to this petition being
heard for the next city council meeting
or whenever it's heard because I know
you guys are on summer break. Um, I
submitted a copy to the city clerk and
to all the offices. Thank you very much.
Nicole is next, followed by Tim.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you for your
citizen petition. I actually am here to
also talk about something very similar.
No citizen petition. Um about the
Citizen Transportation Commission um
recently I've learned that they don't
post um public meeting minutes until
yesterday for the whole time that
they've been um and as a commission
meeting. And in that I've been able to
learn more re recently that this
commission decides on bus routes and
pulling back uh bus routes um on the
times and frequency. I'm pretty
disappointed in the commission overall.
I was very quiet and this is a
commission that oversees and advises you
all on billions of dollars of um
taxpayer dollars for uh transportation
infrastructure.
um in this process too uh 15% of the
T2050
funds uh excuse me of streets T2050
funds. So streets department gets uh
their own allocation from our taxpayer
dollars to to put towards our
infrastructure for streets. 15% of that
is supposed to go towards equity
mobility program 15% every year. Um, but
today we voted for automated enforcement
to where that's primarily going to go in
these areas where we're supposed to have
put in equity, mobility, infrastructure
at at least five years ago, if not a
decade ago or even before that. It
should have just always been there,
right? But we're at here today. Um,
streets department funded a study to
where it said exactly in these 12 equity
mobility areas what to implement. And
that was completed in 2019. still
nothing has been implemented except
we're going to put automated enforcement
in there and profit off those folks. Um
but sadly the city then decided to do
another study just last year on these
equity these 12 equity mobility areas.
Why? I mean really this is getting
ridiculous. There must be some kind of
connection with consultants here to help
them you know profit from these
incessant studies. But we will not put a
lot of money into studying um automated
enforcement. We will not do a pervasive
public outreach on automated
enforcement. And when we have automated
enforcement, the equity issue is for
instance when a $100 ticket um it's
going to affect someone very different
who lives off minimum wage salary than
someone who makes at least 100k. We know
that. So there's going to be some people
it's going to be easy for them just to
pocket that ticket and move on and
continue speeding. Um one thing I do ask
is please support next year. hopefully
the Republican who brought this up to
the the House um this past session um
for speed inhibi inhibitors. I would
love to see the city of Phoenix with the
millions that we spend on lobbyists show
up and support speed inhibitors um for
people who are incessant speeders in our
state. Um because that's going to really
help push us across the line for making
sure our streets are safer and more
equitable. Thank you. Thank you. I
received a message that Tim has left. So
Jerry will be our last speaker.
Jerry, uh, the floor is yours, I think,
unless Tim is here.
Okay.
Thank you. Uh Jerry Van Gas, longtime uh
public watchdog for our mountain
preserve and park system.
Um three three months ago to this date,
an illegal, unannounced, unauthorized
144 foot bridge
uh commenced construction within the
Phoenix Mountain Preserve system at
Pyestto Peak.
uh to do any construction in the
preserve, it has to go through the city
council.
It never did. It's in your own city
charter.
You know, even more disturbing is our
parks director. Her justification for it
was a the subject of a May 27th
uh article in the Arizona Republic
justifying it.
Park officials, however, are pointing to
a 2016
management plan for the Phoenix Mountain
Preserve.
Since 2019, the department has completed
the phased improvements to Mosquite,
Brittle Bush, Choya, and Sarro areas.
The Pyesttoa roadway
and pedestrian bridge, the foot bridge
at the Okatia Romano is the final phase.
quote they they say which is us they say
things like this is a mystery project or
a secret
in no way did we try to hide this
well
subse prior to that prior to that Ernest
Martinez
a good friend who's also an uncle to
Lori Pesttoa
got an email from Cynthia
Aguilar stating
all of the improvements that have taken
place with the exception of the
pedestrian bridge were part of the
approved master plan with the exception.
So we got a self-confessed liar as a
parks director.
your own
handbook. The city code has a has a has
a section on ethics. Let me read that to
you.
It's the policy of the city of Phoenix
to uphold, promote, and demand the
highest standard of ethics from all of
its elected officials, employees, board
members, and volunteers.
Accordingly, all city elected officials
and volunteers must maintain the utmost
standard of personal integrity,
truthfulness, honesty, and carrying out
their public duties. That's not
happening, folks. We need a new parks
director.
That is our final speaker on public
comment. Have a happy 4th of July. We
are adjourned.
I think he's coming down. There you go.
[Applause]
Yes. There you go.