Phoenix City Council Formal Meeting - March 26, 2025

This here is our lovely
gymnasium. It has basketball capacity,
volleyball, pickle ball. We have
wonderful courts that are meant for
youth and adults spaces. And this is
also included in your membership when
you register at phoenix.gov or at our
front
desk. Welcome to our multi-purpose room.
Uh this room is designed to have special
events, meetings, take classes. Uh it
seats anywhere between 80 to 100 people
and is is
reservable. This is our beautiful
courtyard along with long games where
families can come and enjoy the
beautiful Arizona weather. This space is
also available to reserve for special
occasion occasions and special
gatherings. And this is our beautiful
teaching style kitchen that we have here
at the Cesar Chavez Community Center. It
is designed to teach classes here in our
community. So, if you're interested in
cooking 101 or maybe baking, this might
be a good class for you to come and
take. Um, we have stoves, refrigerators,
microwaves, and I know this will be a
great place for you to come and enjoy
and learn to
cook. And this is our wonderful game
room space where it's designed for youth
and adults to come hang out and engage
in a friendly game of pool table,
hockey, or foosball. This is also a
great space for parents to come hang out
while their par their children are
taking classes here at our lovely
community center. This is one of the
amenities that is included in your
membership here at the Cedar Chavez
Community
Center. And this is our beautiful
upstairs fitness center that is designed
with cardio machines, free weights,
weight machines. And if fitness is one
of your goals, this might be a place for
you. Um, out here we have this beautiful
view of the Estrella Mountains where
while you're working out, you can have a
a great view here. Um, this also has an
outdoor
space that is designed to take a class,
maybe like an outdoor yoga or meditation
class. Um, also a reservable space. So,
if you have a meeting and you'd like to
enjoy the beautiful weather here in
Lavine, this might be the sp the spot
for
you. And this is our wonderful indoor
walking track. So, if you don't want to
be outside, you want to get out of the
sun for a little bit, you can come in
here and take some laps. Um, it is used
to walk or run. And keep in mind, 14
laps is one mile. Um, to the side you
will see all of our Lavine uh historic
photos. These photos date back to the
50s. And you will see some of the lovely
traditions that still happen here in the
Lavine village, such as the barbecue
parade and the Lavine Parade.
One of the most interesting parts of the
Phoenix area in the history of it was
right in this area during World War II.
There was actually a German P camp with
upwards of 3,000 prisoners in it at one
time. During the fall and winter of
1944, specifically December 23rd, 25 of
the prisoners had dug a tunnel over the
last couple months. and decided they
were going to escape. And right here
where this wonderful marker is is where
they came up out of the tunnel. They had
put together a raft and their plan was
to head south and intersect with the
Hila River, use the raft to float to the
Colorado River, take the Colorado River
down to the Gulf where they had some
supporters who were going to take care
of them.
Unfortunately, uh, what they discovered
fairly quickly was that Arizona rivers
don't necessarily have water in them,
and they were all pretty much captured
or gave themselves up soon after. The
building you see behind me was built in
1929, known as the Sun Merkantile
Building, built by a man by the name of
Shing Tang. He was the very first
Chineseborn businessman to build such a
warehouse within the city limits of
Phoenix. He was also the father of
Thomas Tang, a city council member and
later an appeals court judge for the
United States. It didn't take long for
Mr. Tang to make this warehouse the
largest grocery warehouse in the city of
Phoenix. It was not only in the heart of
the warehouse district, it was in the
heart of the second Chinatown in
Phoenix. The Sun Merkantile Building has
been on the National Register of
Historic Places since 1985 and is
currently owned by the Phoenix Suns
organization. As a citizen of Phoenix,
you can certainly come visit here at
Third Street in Jackson and experience a
building that is important to the city
of Phoenix, the warehouse district, and
also to our Asian-American
community. Happy 100th birthday to one
of the largest municipal parks in the
entire United States. South Mountain
Park began in 1924 when the city of
Phoenix bought from the US government
14,000 acres of land in what was called
the Salt River Mountains at the time.
From 1933 to 1940, 4,000 workers from
the Civilian Conservation Corps built
pretty much the entire infrastructure of
South Mountain Park as we know it today.
It currently has upwards of 50 different
trails you can enjoy and upwards of 100
miles that you can go mountain biking,
just regular hiking, backpacking,
whatever suits your pleasure, even
roller skating. All of the different
things that are available at South
Mountain Park, including the thousands
of huh gum petroglyphs that are over a
thousand years old, are all different
things that add up to South Mountain
Park being one of the Phoenix points of
pride. Welcome to Phoenix in about a
minute. Today we visit an amazing site
in North Phoenix, the Deer Valley
Petroglyph Preserve. A/4 mile long
nature walk featuring petroglyphs and
natural desert plants. The preserve has
an incredible museum and gallery with
exhibits like the southwest ceramics,
Manos and Metat agave, the Hedgepath
Hills exhibit, and the Roosebuilt
platform mount study. But the main
attraction will always be the
petroglyphs in the Bayol boulders. more
than 1,500 symbols full of history and
storytelling from the indigenous
cultures that lived here before us. So
don't miss this amazing opportunity and
visit this historical site right in your
backyard.
The building you see behind me, the
Phoenix Indian School Visitors Center,
is one of three buildings that remain
from the original Phoenix Indian School
here at Central Avenue and Indian School
Road. The three buildings you see today
represent the original buildings that
were built in 1892. The Phoenix Indian
School itself started a year before in
1891 at the West End Hotel in downtown
Phoenix. The Phoenix Indian School is
also the only Indian school in Arizona
that was not on reservation land. Not
many people know that the Indian School
actually had a band that started in
1894. The band building behind me
started out as an elementary school in
the 1930s. In 1960s, it became a
practice facility for the band. The band
itself in the early days was so
incredibly popular, not only in Phoenix,
but
nationwide. The band traveled as far to
the northeast as Philadelphia, Atlantic
City, Washington DC, and as far to the
west as Marching in the Rose Parade in
Pasadena, California.
significant events that the band
participated in as statehood day. It led
the parade in downtown Phoenix, the
dedication of the Roosevelt
Dam, and they actually marched alongside
President Ronald Reagan in a Fourth of
July parade in
1983. The Phoenix Indian School closed
in 1990 and the band building closed
along with it. has sat idle and empty
for nearly 20 years when a group got
together in 2017, renovated the
building, and opened it as the Phoenix
Indian School Visitors Center. Today,
inside the visitors center is a small
exhibit that celebrates the legacy of
the band and the Phoenix Indian School.
I think when you when you consider the
Senica Capri and the impact it had on
Phoenicians and Phoenix and society
around this area, you got to stop for a
second and really understand where
Phoenix as a city was at that time. I
mean, in the early 60s, Phoenix had just
come from about a 10-year span where the
population of our city increased 400%.
So, Phoenix has always been associated
with growth, but especially in the early
60s, we just reached a point where we're
almost about 500,000 people. So, it was
really growing like crazy. Um the
downtown had shifted, shopping had moved
from downtown. Places like Builtmore
where the Synica Capri was were really
booming. The whole Arcadia area, all of
that was really really growing at a very
rapid pace. uh movie theaters in town
where they're just on the leading edge
of what were called multiplexes where
they're very common now where you go and
there's 10 or 12 theaters in one
shopping mall or something and you have
all kinds of choices. Well, that was
just beginning. Uh the majority of the
theaters were still the single screen
like the Fox Theater, the Oreium, the
Palms Theater. They were single screen
theaters. Paramount Arizona
uh hired a guy named Ralph Haver to
design the uh Senate Capri Theater. They
really wanted a
one-of-a-kind massive um very ornate
luxurious theater uh that rivaled
theaters anywhere in the country. And
that's what they wanted. They hired
Ralph Haver who at that time was a very
prominent architect in Phoenix. He was
primarily known for designing homes and
residences and different kinds of retail
buildings. He wasn't really known for
designing and u drawing um a theater.
And so they hired him and building it
starting in about 1964.
And uh the building itself when it was
finished
16,000 square ft 17,000 square ft
theater had a big arc uh curved entryway
a portico as you came into the lobby.
There was Italian tile everywhere. There
was a 24 foot high stained glass window
that the stained glass that had been
imported from New York. One of the
things that when you talk about people
who went to the Cynic Capri on a regular
basis in those years, they remembered
this the curtain and the curtain was
just a massive piece of material and it
was gold and it swept back and opened up
and and just to display and present the
movie theater. But there was
4,000 in of gold metallic material that
were purchased to create this massive
gorgeous
Good afternoon. It is March 26, 2025.
Before we convene the formal city
council meeting, we will have a meeting
of the city's assisted housing governing
board. I'll call that board to order.
Will the clerk call the role?
Board member Galinda here. Board member
Wardado here. Board member Haj
Washington here. Board member Maghard.
Board member Pastor.
Board member Stark
here. Board member Wearing
here. Vice Chair O'Brien here.
Chairwoman Ggo here. Item three is the
meeting minutes. Vice Chair, do you have
a motion?
I move to approve the minutes.
Second. We have a motion and second. All
those in favor, please say I. I. Motion
carries.
Item four is a resolution. Vice chair,
do you have a motion? I move to approve
the resolution. Mayor.
Second. We have a motion and a second.
Roll call.
Valinder Vida. Yes.
Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes.
Maghard Pastor
Robinson yes Stark
yes wearing
yes O'Brien
yes Ggo yes passes 80 item five is
resolution 226 required by the federal
government vice mayor vice chair do we
have a motion I move to approve the
resolution chair Second.
Roll call. Galinder. Vera. Yes. Ward.
Yes. Haj Washington. Yes.
Robinson. Yes. Stark.
Yes. Wearing.
Yes. O'Brien. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes
80. We will adjourn the assisted housing
governing board. I'll invite fire
chaplain Troy Holtorf forward to deliver
an invocation for the formal city
council
meeting. Would you all pre please pray
for me? Pray with
me. Father, we rejoice in you
always. May your graciousness be known
to everyone. And I pray these words over
my brothers and sisters with me today.
May we think about and live out whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever
is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is commendable. May we
dwell on that which is morally excellent
and worthy of praise. Help us, Lord.
Help us to be these kinds of people,
your people, as we carry out today's
meeting.
Help us to do only what we have learned
and received and heard and have seen in
you. We know our peace will soon follow,
so we rejoice. Thank you, Father. It's
in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Thank you,
Chaplain. Uh Vice Mayor, would you lead
us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge
allegiance to
Thank you, Vice
Mayor. I'll now call to order the formal
meeting. Will the clerk call the role?
Councilman Galinda here. Councilwoman
Waldo here. Councilwoman Hodgej
Washington here. Councilwoman
Pastor. Councilman Robinson here.
Councilwoman Stark
here. Councilman Wearing
here. Vice Mayor O'Brien here. Mayor Ggo
here. We have a great team with us to
provide interpretation service. Mario,
would you introduce your team? Yes,
mayor. Thank you. Good afternoon. My
name is Mario Vahas. I'm going to be
serving as an interpreter also with El
Darte who will be helping us as well.
I'm going to introduce ourselves now to
our Spanish speaking audience and review
a little bit guidelines uh with our
Spanish
speakers.
Fore! Foreign! Foreign!
Gracias. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you,
Mario. 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 G7343 and
7370,
S51726 through 51777 and resolutions
22283 through 22286.
I'll turn to the city attorney to
explain the role of public comment.
Thank you, mayor. Members of the public
may speak for up to two minutes on 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. The city code
requires speakers to present their
comments in a respectful and courteous
manner. Profane language threats or
personal attacks on members of the
public, council members or staff are not
allowed. A person who violates these
rules will lose the opportunity to
continue to speak. Thank you. Thank you
so much. Today is a special day. One of
our own is celebrating a birthday. Happy
birthday to Councilwoman Gordado.
Woohoo.
Everyone has to be on their best
behavior today.
Thank you. Yes. We hope it's a happy
celebration. We'll begin with the
meeting minutes. Councilman Robinson, do
you have a motion on item one?
Mayor. Yes. Thank you. I move approval
of item number one, the formal meeting
minutes from November 13, 2024. Second.
We have a motion and a second. All those
in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed?
Nay. I. Passes unanimously. Councilwoman
Hodgej Washington, do you have a motion
on item two? Yes. Yes, Mayor. I move
that we approve item number two, the
November 20th, 2024 formal meeting
minutes. Second.
We have a motion, a second. All those in
favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Nay.
Passes unanimously. Vice Mayor,
Councilman Galindo Vera, Mayor, may I
have a point of personal privilege and
request that we do a minute of silence
in honor of the late Congressman Raul
Grihalva. Thank you. That is a beautiful
idea. Please join me and the council in
a moment of silence.
Thank
you. Uh thank you for that important
recognition of the late
congressman. Vice Mayor, do you have a
motion on item three? Mayor, I move to
approve item three, the meeting minutes
for December 4th, 2024.
Second. Second. We have a motion and a
second. All those in favor say I. I. Any
oppose? Nay. I
passes
unanimously. We have an all-star group
here today for boards and commissions,
which is our next item, item four. Vice
Mayor, do you have a a motion? Mayor,
may I have a point of personal
privilege? Please. Mayor, I'd like to
welcome the children of a couple of
folks who will be sworn in today and
that they are Violet and Charlotte and
Zilla and Paris who are here to support
um their parents who will be sworn into
the village planning commission. So,
thank you for joining us kids. You can
never start too early learning about
your local government.
Mayor, I move to approve mayor and city
council boards and commissions
nominations.
Second motion and a second. All those in
favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? I.
Passes unanimously. We will now ask our
newly sworn in, our new commissioners to
be come forward to be sworn in.
This
one is kind of a little
Please raise your right hand. Repeat
after me. I state your name. I
do solemnly swearly swear that I will
support the Constitution of the United
States that I will support the
Constitution of the United States and
the Constitution and laws of the state
of Arizona and the Constitution and laws
of the State of Arizona. That I will
bear true faith and allegiance to the
same.
and defend them against all enemies.
Foreign and domestic foreign and that I
will faithfully and impartially
discharge the duties of the office of
discharge.
State your office
according to the best of my ability.
So help me God. Congratulations and
thank you for your service to the city
of Phoenix. If you'll go behind, the
council wishes to congratulate you.
Congratulations to our new and returning
commissioners. Thank you so much for
your service to our
city. We next go to the liquor license
portion of the agenda. The city of
Phoenix serves in an advisory role for
the state of
Arizona. Vice Mayor, do we have a
motion? I move to approve items 5
through 12, noting that item seven is
withdrawn.
Second. We have a motion and a
second. All those in favor, please say
I. I. Any oppose? Nay. I.
Passes unanimously. 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 13 through 81 except
the following items 18, 37, 38, 48, 50,
56, 60, 66, and 67. Noting that items 52
and 81 are withdrawn and excluding the
following additional items for virtual
public comment, 64, 66, and 69. 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 item 30. Also
excluding item 30.
Thank you so much. We have a motion. Do
we have a second? Second.
Roll call. Galinda. Yes. Yes. Hudge
Washington. Yes. Pastor,
yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. Diego, yes. Pass is
90. Thank you. Next up is 18, a payment
ordinance item for Bryon Corporation.
Vice Mayor, I move to approve item 18.
Mayor,
second. Second. We have a motion and a
second. Mayor C. Uh, Councilman Wearing,
go ahead.
Uh, thank you. Uh, so the staff knows uh
this this seems a little expensive for
what it is. They gave me uh some
information about why that is. If they
just explain that information and let's
see if that uh the explanations um
satisfy everyone concerned.
Thank you. We will welcome our deputy
city manager, Gina Montes.
Thank you, mayor, members of council.
Councilman Wearing. Um as you know, we
had our um ribbon cutting on this um
particular facility this morning. Um a
complicated project. I'm going to have
we have um Eric Ferber and Rachel Milley
here. I'm going to have Rachel talk
about some of the details um of that
project.
Thank you, mayor, and members of the
council. So this was our new shelter at
71 71st Avenue in Van Beern where we
will now be um sheltering up to 280
individuals per night at this site. Um
this change order was to complete the
site, complete the project build out
what was a very complicated project. Um
and some of the final um final pieces of
the project included um installing all
of the shade structures, completing the
sprung structure, and then also as you
all know, we had a temporary tent on the
site um from July until just recently.
That tent has now been removed. People
are in the sprung structures, but Brycon
needs to ready that site for the two
additional X-wings and the additional
restrooms that will be coming to the
site.
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Casta.
please.
Yeah. Thanks. So, um I know two things.
Uh number one is I know how expensive
tents are. Anyone who's gotten married
outside knows how expensive tents are.
Um so I can only imagine. And that was
You weren't sure before, but that was
built into the 8 and a half million.
Correct. I think that's what you just
said.
I apologize. Mayor Councilman Wearing,
could could you restate um the question?
I we couldn't quite hear
so the the chance uh I ap it's probably
my croaky voice. Sorry. Um uh you had a
chance there for a period of time that's
built into the 8.5 million. You weren't
sure when I asked you before whether
that was included in its cost or not. It
sounds like what Rachel just said it was
included. Yes, Councilman Warren, that
is correct. Um the the vision tent is
included in this $8 million. Correct.
And you're right. I earlier this I did
not know. Yes. Yes. You didn't know
before. Second, um I've dealt with
enough developers who want to build in
flood planes. What that can do to a
project's cost. So uh I don't I might
have missed it. I stopped up ears, but
uh I don't remember you mentioning that,
but that that probably added the cost
substantially. So it wasn't just like
the normal structure. You had to do some
stuff at the foundation level.
she had to pay for the tent and that's
all encaptured in the 8 and a half
million act.
Yes, mayor Councilman Wearing that that
is correct. Um to in order to have space
for people at the beginning of last
summer um we had the temporary vision
tent um and all of the costs associated
with that um added to the
project. Okay. All right. Thank you,
Mayor. I appreciate it. Thank you, J.
Thank you. Any additional comments?
Councilwoman Hodge Washington. Thank
you, Mayor. My question is whether or
not we anticipate this is our last major
investment at the site or do we
anticipate additional expenditures for
the 75th, sorry, 71st Navigation Center.
Mayor, members of the council, this is
the final payment for this. This wraps
up our project at that site. Thank you
for the information. Thank you, mayor.
Thank you. Anyone want to provide an
update from this morning?
Councilman Glenda. Thank you, Mayor, for
the recognition. Um, so this morning we
did our grand opening and um we um this
site is a referral site. It is not a
walkup site and it is one that um will
provide um overnight shelter for 280
persons. There is a women's section, a
men's section, and a partners section.
And um with the use of the containers um
that are internet ready and have all
these great features to it. But the most
important part of it is it offers
individuals an opportunity for a second
chance. Not only to get sheltered, but
also to get wraparound services like
mental health and the dignity of a job
to go into a second chance of having a
home. And the staff have done a
phenomenal job of putting this project
together since July 17th when the tent
first opened. And now we've moved to the
to the different structures. And um as a
councilman for district 7 where this
resides, I'm really proud of the work
that's gone into it and the lives that
we will change um for the better. And so
I just wanted to offer that today for
the council.
Thank you.
Roll call. Galindra Vida. Yes. Or yes.
Haj Washington. Yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 90.
Item 30 is related to the a pay um
changes to pay. Do we have a motion?
Um I apologize. I move to approve item
30. Second. Second. We have one uh
comment. Scott uh Kirk, please come on
down. Hello council members. Um came and
spoke with you last month and uh you
guys encouraged HR to come speak with us
for transparency on these matters and I
thank you because they did come speak
with us. Um I'm here again because
obviously there were some unsatisfactory
um things that came out of that. So we
will continue continue our efforts. Um
they did openly say that they made
mistakes in this matter and didn't say
they had any interest in fixing that
anytime soon. Um but I would like to
thank uh Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Bendereak
um for coordinating meetings with us to
allow our voices to be heard. um so that
hopefully we can come up with long-term
solutions to uh reestablish equity and
cultural competency in the pay structure
here at the city of Phoenix for the long
term. Thank you for allowing me to speak
today and thank you for honoring your
commitments.
Roll call. Galinder Vida, yes.
Yes. H Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. Viego, yes. Passes
90. Thank you. And after this next item,
I might suggest to my colleagues that we
take item 66, Wallace Ladmo ceremonial
street. And I'm out of order. So, if
everyone could consider whether that
makes sense, but we'll we'll stick with
37 now, which is an important one. an
authorization to sponsor City of Phoenix
FastTrack City's HIV AIDS community
outreach event. This is a very important
initiative led by Councilwoman Stark and
Councilwoman Pastor. Do we have a
motion? I move to approve item 37. Mayor
second. Second. Second. Turn to
Councilwoman Pastor for comments. Thank
you. Um I just want to uh thank my
colleagues for uh understanding the
importance of FastTrack Cities. Uh I
chair it with Councilwoman Stark and we
have been moving the needle and moving
it forward. Uh what I do want to say is
it took us a little bit in our committee
to realize uh to do some of the
outreach. We would need some dollars. So
I want to thank my colleagues for uh
putting that as a priority in our budget
of 250,000 to do the outreach that we
have been doing throughout uh Phoenix.
Some of the outreach has been um to Can
Community Health, Phoenix Pride, Ant
Rita Foundation, Affirm, Southwest
Center for HIV, Valley Wise Health,
Lookout Publications, Maricopa Community
College, uh Hopemakers Outreach, UMC
Strength, One Community, Southwest
Center, One and 10, uh Ant Readers
Found, Oh, I said that. And Ripple and
Spectrum Medical. Those are some of the
uh community impacts that we have made
with these dollars. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your
leadership. I got to join Councilwoman
Stark this weekend. AIDS Walk returned
to the city of Phoenix and our team was
very involved in uh making that a
successful event. We continue to provide
really important educational information
at a time where some of it is becoming
less available as well as supporting
direct therapies and education. And if
if people have not seen the mural going
up uh in downtown, highly recommend
that. So, Councilman Stark, thank you
for your leadership this weekend and and
generally as well. Uh any additional
comments? Councilman Glender. Thank you,
Mayor. I just wanted to take an
opportunity to thank um both
Councilwoman Laura Pastor and Deborah
Stark for their leadership on this
important effort. Um, HIV pre HIV and
AIDS prevention is still an important
matter and it should be taken seriously.
Both of them do that and I know that
councilwoman pastor mentioned some of
the organizations impacted and affected
with the outreach. Many of them are in
district 7. So I very much appreciate
this ongoing effort and their leadership
to ensure that this issue does not fade
away and that it's front and center.
Thank you. Thank you. Well said. And
unfortunately, the last year available,
we saw a 20% increase in diagnoses in
our community. So, our work is not done,
but thanks to great science and clinical
partners, there's such effective
treatment available. And the city and
and the two council women have gotten
international recognition for this
effort. So glad that while some branches
of government go a different direction,
we are going in the direction of public
health. Roll call. Galinda. Yes. WD.
Yes. Hudge Washington. Yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark.
Yes. Wearing.
Yes. O'Brien. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 90.
Thank you. Vice Mayor, do we have a
motion to suspend the rules to take item
66 out of order? Yes, Mayor. I move to
suspend the rules to take item 66 out of
order. Second. We have a motion and a
second. All those in favor say I. I. Any
opposed? Nay.
All right. Item 66, Wallace and Ladmo
Way ceremonial street name signage. Do
we have a motion?
Oh, I'm sorry. Um, I'll turn to the city
clerk.
Item 60. Oh, sorry. Oh, I apologize,
mayor. I thought I
All right.
Uh, do we have a motion?
Mayor, I move to approve. Oh, I will
yield to the my colleague in district.
How about a second council? I'll do the
second. Wonderful. I think we have
several council members who want to
speak on this item. But uh given who we
uh have here today, shall we begin with
council requests or
um I guess a little background might be
appropriate. Uh, I'll um turn to
Councilman Glindel Alvivera and then
Councilwoman Stark to introduce this
item. Mayor, I'll go ahead and yield to
my colleague.
Council Stark. Thank Thank you. Thank
you. Um, I'm very excited about this um
um item. Uh Julia Tagert is probably
sitting out in the audience confirmed
and she certainly brought this to my
attention. As a matter of fact, last
year there was a wonderful exhibit about
WH Wallace and Ladmill at the Sunny Soap
Historical Society. I was schooled in
well why they were so important to Sunny
Soap. Wallace lived in Sunny Soap for a
while and Ladmal sponsored many Sunny
Soap High School graduating parties at
Legend City. And I know Julia approached
me and said, "We really need to do
something." And she's right. My
sister-in-law is the most excited person
about this item because she still has
her Wallace and Ladlow bag. So, I am
very excited. I am happy to support this
and I will turn it over to the
councilman in District 7.
Mayor, is it okay? Thank you,
Councilwoman Stark. Um, I'm so happy to
be the councilman for the for district 7
that will be the host for this
ceremonial signing. I grew up in rural
Arizona and so Wallace and Ladmo was a
completely new item for me when I moved
to the city, but I understand its
cultural relevance and how many people
get so much joy um from the work that
they did and especially um the LandMo
bag. Everybody talks about the Lambo bag
and so mayor, this is going to be a
great addition to the downtown. There's
a great following and I believe that
it'll be a great landmark for the city.
So with that, I move to approve the
item. Second. Oh, we got we got double
motions. Oh my god, I forgot. Sorry.
See, now you you didn't just come to you
didn't just come to a meeting, you came
to a show. The council's great
enthusiasm for this. Uh, now I am so
pleased that we have Pat McMahon with
us. He will be our next speaker. If you
could, we'll turn to Pat followed by
Julia. This is such a special experience
because you can get trophies in this
business that we're in and you get Emmys
and all kinds of recognition. most
particularly the laughter of the kids in
the audience and the recognition even
all these years later. Uh but uh this
acknowledgement is so special for all of
us cast members, the people that were
directly involved with the show and the
production and friends of those people
who have gathered here today.
Wallace's son David Ladmo's son Robin
could not be here well because they have
jobs and and they just wanted to
acknowledge the fact that this is one of
the most special kinds of recognition
that the show has ever gotten even in 36
years here at uh at Channel 5. Uh I will
tell
you this acknowledgement from me
personally. One of the most important
things today to me is that you invited
kids. Not only because of the fact that
without them there would have been no
show, but also because I deeply
appreciate having somebody in the
audience my size.
when you uh when you talk about the
Wallace and Ladmo show, you talk about
Phoenix because while New York had us
for a little while and they wrote to us
and said, "You know
what? Gerald is just too rotten. Can you
make him a little nicer?" We said no.
They said goodbye. In Los Angeles, we
were on for a while. They said, "Could
you make Captain Super a little less
political?" We said no. They said
goodbye and we're saying now to all of
you, it's the best thing we ever did.
Thank you so very much from Wallace
Ladmo and the man who pushes that button
and says sit
down. Uh Pat, incredible testimony from
incredible icon in our community. Julia,
I am so sorry you have to follow that,
but we wouldn't be here today without uh
your leadership and and uh Randy, you
will follow Julia. Yes. No, thank you.
Uh the meaning for this street sign
going there is when you go down First
Avenue, you will see the Wallace and
Ladmo mural. So you'll see Gerald,
you'll see Wallace, you'll see Ladmo,
and then you'll see Wallace and Ladmo
way. So it's kind of putting everything
together, and that was where it was
filmed in the old KPHO studio building.
Uh, the show has such a significance to
Arizona. People love the show. It's
their childhood. My dad loved the show.
He's still upset he never got a Ladmo
bag. Um, so no, I'm very glad that we
have the entire cast here to celebrate
with us and for you guys to share your
memories about the show. It's been off
for 36 years, but people still remember
it to this day. They love it so much. I
mean, they want a Ladmo bag or they want
a Ladmo tie. And I'm just I'm so
thankful for everything that they have
done for the community. They fundraised
over millions of dollars back in the
day. I mean, they really were for, you
know, Phoenix and Arizona, helping
children, you know, being a part of the
community. It's just it's an amazing
thing to see. And to have this street
sign go up to honor them, I think it's a
beautiful thing. So, thank you
guys. Thank you. Randy will be next,
followed by Rita.
Mayor and council members. Uh I'm Randy
Murray. My wife Teresa and I own the
first studio which was the building that
Wallace Lammo was born in. Um the show
um we're very fortunate to have the
building and to be the caretakers of
such a historic building and we're
thrilled that there's going to be a
Wallace and Admo way just to the north.
Uh that's great. Uh but I want to take
the opportunity to say uh I am a
filmmaker and have had the good fortune
of having a great career and really love
what I do and that is because I watched
Wallace and Ladmo as a child. I saw them
on TV and I said if those guys in those
costumes can make a TV show, I can make
a TV show. And uh I'm so grateful and
I'm grateful for the city for doing
this. Thank you.
Rita is next, followed by Dan.
Hi, my name is Rita Davenport. Honored
to be here to recognize friends of mine
that made such a difference in not only
our world, our community, but when I
look back at the times that we had
together. I remember one time that Ladmo
and his wife and our families went down
to Mexico and we said, "Ladmo, nobody
knows you here, so you can just relax
and have a good time. We're out on the
beach and Ladmo's running and these kids
lined up, Ladmo." And they were chasing
him all down the beach. So, he couldn't
get away from the notoriety and the
prestige and the respect that everybody
had for him. But, you know, the Wallace
Ladmo show was not only for kids, it was
for adults, too. As many adults watched
it as kids. And there are still people
in counseling right now that did not get
a Wallace and Admiral bag. It's really
it's really sad. I mean, u feel sorry
for them. Um but the difference that
they made in our community and the the
things that Wallace could bring out to
talk about to get people laughing and
make such a difference. So I am grateful
to have spent time. and my studio was
right next to theirs. So, I got to
listen and laugh and uh you know,
laughter is therapeutic and what they
did for our city to make people laugh.
Just mentioning their names made people
laugh. So, we are so grateful and I I'm
so thrilled that there's going to be
this recognition of a street sign with
their name on it. I asked um Pat if we
could do also a street with Gerald on it
next time. So, we'll work on that next
time, Pat. Uh but it is it is just
amazing what you're doing. So my
congratulations and I'm I'm just humbled
to have been exposed to this kind of
talent for so many years. It raised the
expectation of all of us. So thank you
for doing this and God bless you. Love
you.
Thank you. Dan Horn is next followed by
Gina Thomas.
I'm not sure this is needed, but I
thought a little background on the show
might be helpful. So, just sit right
back and you'll hear a tale. A tale of a
TV show that started 1954 on Five
KPH. A fellow by the name of Bill, a
witty lad indeed, conceived a new
identity for laughs named Wallace Sneed.
A TV station hired him just to get him
off their backs. His pastoring had worn
them down. They could bear no more
attacks. Now, this prospector guy with a
program there, Ken Kennedy was his name,
made Bill part of his Gold Dust Charlie
show, and Wallace rose to fame. Soon,
the station wanted him to host his own
show on the air. The folks in Phoenix
tuned their TV sets to its Wallace
broadcast there. He started strong,
doing all he could, but solo gags ran
dry. He knew to keep the show afloat,
he'd need another guy. Next thing you
know, this cameraman was drafted for a
skit. He did so well, there was little
doubt that Ladmo would be it. We'll jump
ahead in the story now, a decade more or
less. The boys were doing really swell,
their show a big success. When Wallace
had this sketch idea that needed more
support, to pull it off required three,
and they were one guy short. Just then,
Pat, the brand new weatherman from the
new set studio strayed. Wall enlisted
him to play the part, and history was
made. It's ages now since the show went
off, so why such reverence today? for
the joy ride they chauffeured over 35
years down Wallace and Ladma Way. Thank
you.
Incredible. Uh Gina uh Thomas was
actually for item 69. I apologize. Ben
Tyler, you are next.
Ben, can you hear
us? Ben, we'll try
one. Okay, one second. Okay, I now we
can hear you. Thank you.
Oh, great. So, I'm up next. You are You
have a tough act to follow. Okay. I I
need to warn you. Uh, is it going to be
a problem if my camera's not working? I
mean, can they at least hear me? We can
hear you but not see you.
Okay, good. I'm all set.
All right. Uh, we are looking forward to
your testimony.
I'm sorry. Um Um, you you are it is your
turn to speak. We are looking forward to
your testimony.
Oh, okay. Great. Yeah, me too. Thank
you.
Okay. So, um Ben, if you wanted to start
talking now, it's your time.
Okay. Um hi everyone. My name is Ben
Tyler. Um and I have a bit of a history
with Wallace and Ladmo show. When I was
eight years old, I got my card pulled
out of a barrel. This was 1964. There
were no Ladmo bags. Uh, you got to
choose a toy from Ray Bradbury's toy
cottage. Uh, later in life, I actually
was hired to write and uh, do some minor
characters on the show. Uh, I couldn't
believe it. And then around 1999, I
wrote a play called, believe it or not,
the Wallace Ladmo show.
Um, it uh is weird for the fourth
largest city in the United States to
have a kids TV show as part of its
legacy, but that's certainly what we
have here. And I would like to take this
time to personally thank the city of
Phoenix for not leveling the old KPHO
building as they are want to do. I guess
it's not a beautiful enough building,
but that mural sure helps a lot. Um, so,
um, yeah, this is Phoenix history. I was
born and raised here. Um, Wallace and
Ladmo had a lifelong impact on me. I'm
delighted you're putting up the sign,
the street sign. Um, I know there are
many people here who are wondering what
the heck is Wallace and Ladmo. Uh, but
us, the old-timers, we we fill them in.
And, uh, it's kind of a shame, I guess,
that they missed it. Uh, that's all I
have to say, and I'm just delighted that
you are doing
this. And that is it. Thank you.
Uh, thank you all for that important
testimony. We are so lucky to have so
many incredible
icons with us here to testify and thank
you for all who have made such a
difference in so many people's lives.
One of the great things the city can do
to recognize that is to name a street in
honor of an important event person or
show and we are excited to move this
item forward. I think many of the
council members also have comments. Do
we have additional comments?
All right, Councilwoman Haj Washington.
Thank you, Mayor. I started off Satan I
would, you know, excited to support, but
I think I may need to start a recovery
group for those of us who have not been
gifted a Lammo
bag. But while I hadn't have the
pleasure of having this show as a part
of my childhood, however, I have seen
the profound impact it has had on
generations of Arizonans. It has brought
joy, laughter, and a deep sense of
community. What touched me beyond the
entertainment was LA Wallace and Ladmo
gave back in meaningful ways. Raising
funds for local charities, supporting
pet adoptions, and even helping the
Phoenix Children's Hospital acquire
life-saving equipment. This recognition
is a well-deserved tribute to a show
that had such a lasting legacy. It
helped shape the childhood of so many in
our cities, one landm bag at a time. And
I am pleasure, it's my pleasure to
support the installation of this
ceremonial street sign, honoring your
legacy, Vice Mayor O'Brien. Thank you,
Mayor, and um thank you, Councilman
Kindo, for for bringing this forward.
What an honor for such a great show. And
I am old enough to have grown up with
Lad Wallace and Ladmo. Um and and I did
not get a Ladmo bag so maybe I could be
part of the support group there.
However, my father went to the fire
academy and as part of his fire academy,
he went with Ladmo's son Robin. And when
graduation came, while it was really
exciting to have dad graduate, Ladmo was
still the star of the
graduation. So I had very fond memories
of of meeting Ladmo and and his son. But
again, it was all about Ladmo even on
that day. So, thank you for all the
laughs and wonderful giving that you did
for our community. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilman Glendo Aira. So, I
know that many of you are in recovery or
in need of a group. I will share with
you all that we will have Lambo bags
available at the event. there will be a
limited number that will be sponsored by
district 7. So I cannot guarantee that
everyone will get one. So there may
still be a need for those who need the
group sessions but we will definitely
have some there. So um to my colleagues
I will have one for you to the community
first come first served.
I'll make sure to get there early.
Wonderful. Thank you. And I think this
began when uh Julia Tagert, president of
the Sunny Slope Historical Society,
brought this to Councilwoman Stark. So,
thank you. It was a great idea, Julia.
Roll call. Kalinder Vida, yes. Ward,
yes. Hodge Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark.
Yes. Wearing.
Sorry. Wearing.
Oh, yes. You didn't hear me. Yes. Yes.
Thank you. O'Brien. Yes. GGO. Yes.
Passes 90.
By unanimous vote. The Phoenix City
Council has adopted Wallace and Ladmo
Way ceremonial street signs. Look
forward to joining you to unveil those
street
signs. Thank you so much. We will now
return. We want I think do you want to
give a pause for a moment in case anyone
wants to get a chance to leave? Although
you're welcome to stay for our entire
council meeting, but
Yeah, we
are so lucky to have had the Wallace and
Ladmo family join us here today for this
important vote and we will get to see
them very soon. And thank you again to
to Pat McMahon
for being with us here today.
that they may regret leaving because
next up we have authorization to amend
ground lease
agreement with the Christ Town uh LLC to
modify the term and expand the pre
premises. Do we have a motion? I move to
approve item 38. Second. We have a
motion and a second. I'll turn to
Councilwoman Pastor for comments. Yes. I
um I don't know if staff's here, but I
have some
comments.
Um and I guess my question is really I
didn't realize we were leasing that
property. I thought we owned that
property. And so,
um, I have several questions as to, and
I think I know the answer, but I want to
put it on the record, uh, for the future
of possibly, uh, purchasing that
property, uh, since we're doing all the
upgrades, we're expanding. And I
understand that it's a part of the Chris
Town and it's it's an asset to them,
but, uh, that property is also an asset
to us and I I feel like we should own
that.
Um, I guess my question is why haven't
we purchased the property or why haven't
we thought about purchasing the
property?
Mayor, members of the council, and
Councilwoman Pastor, um the the reason
why is because the landlord is not
interested in selling the property and
has not been interested. The
started in 1960 and throughout this time
they have not uh been interested in
selling. So is there a possibility in
the future to possibly relocate
uh the yucka library because this is a
long I think a 25 year lease 50-year
lease.
Um
and I'm curious to know that if if
that's
possible. We have land on
um 19th Avenue in
Montabelloo that we could possibly build
a library
around. Mayor U, members of the council,
Councilwoman Pastor, absolutely. I mean,
that would be the city's decision. If
they would like to relocate and uh buy
another property and build another, you
know, the library somewhere else, that
is something that can can be done. I'll
turn it over. Yes. So, that's definitely
something that can be done. That library
is um a strong part of the community
there. Um and so we are looking to
continue our partnership and and leasing
that land um where the community uses
that library now. But looking to the
future, that's definitely an option to
consider. Well, I guess because we're
signing a a 50-year lease, that's that's
where I'm um asking these questions
because when we sign a 50 years
lease, what would be the cost to break
the lease?
Yes.
Um yes. Um, the city can negotiate,
mayor and members of the council,
Councilwoman Pastor, the city can
negotiate the terms of the lease and can
come back and and negotiate with the
landlord. Okay. So,
do you want to continue this item for
Yeah, I would like to continue this
item.
When Okay. When does the lease expire?
this new
request year lease and
inspiring one. Speak closer to the
microphone. We can't hear you. Thank
you. It expires in uh 57 207. No, no,
no. Current the current lease right now.
Correct. The current um Councilman
Pastor, mayor, members of council, the
current lease expires in um 207. We
renegotiated the terms of the lease to
allow for the expansion of Yucka
Library, which is a GO bond initiative.
So, we needed additional land to expand
that library. So, the lease was
renegotiated to include that additional
land to build on. Okay. Can we just
continue it so I can just then ask these
questions? For how long? For how long?
When's our next meeting? April 9.
Okay. Continued April 9th. Yeah. Okay.
because I think we'll I mean I think
I'll have the answers. Mayor, I move to
continue the item till April 9th.
Second.
We have a motion second. All those in
favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed?
Passes unanimously. We will be back on
April 9th. We next go to item 48,
acquisition of property in the Rio
Re-imagined area. Do we have a motion?
Mayor, I move to approve item 48.
Second.
Councilman Glendel Vera.
Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make uh
um some comments. This parcel lies
within the Rio Reimagine Corridor, a
bold regional effort to re revitalize 45
miles of the Salt River with sustainable
public areas and economic opportunity.
Rio Reimagined was conceived at ASU in
the 1960s and was an effort led by
Congressman Ed Pastor and Senator John
McCain with the goal of revitalizing the
riverbed through community activation.
The city's acquisition of this property
would position this site as a cat
catalytic anchor for investment and
ecological restoration aligned with
Phoenix's long-term growth. Securing the
property now protects against
speculative or incompatible development
that would undermine equitable and
strategic
revitalization. The vision of this
project was supported by the Phoenix
City Council and the residents through
the 2023 bond question and today we are
here to deliver. South Phoenix has borne
the burden of environmental injustices
like gravel pits and landfills. This
site offers an opportunity to reverse
that trend. Located near the South
Central Light Extension, light rail
extension, the parcel is well suited for
mixed use or civic uses that maximize
access to transit. Development here can
serve as a model for sustainable
inclusive urban planning. With this
action, Chris Mackey becomes the first
director to spend all of the bond
funding allocated for this project. And
I hear this is a point of pride for her
and the department in supporting the
south south Phoenix community. Thank
you.
Council woman pestor. Oh no, we did. Do
you want to speak? Sure.
Um, actually this is this is very
exciting uh a personal pride uh due to
the fact that uh uh Congressman Pastor
happened to be my father who I happen to
look at him as my father and not as a
congressman. But uh it's a personal
pride for for me because I know the
labor of love that he placed into making
this dream happen and making it the
river bottom no longer uh a a river
bottom with tires, trash, and a dumping
ground and really built and had a vision
to build uh what there is today. And
others have a vision to continue it on.
So um it's a point of pride uh for me
and my family at this moment.
Councilwoman Hodgej Washington. Thank
you, Mayor. I also echo e echo the
sentiments of support and excitement for
the acquisition of the land to further
the rear reimagine project. As mentioned
by my colleagues, it takes a it takes a
step forward in and rectifying some of
the harms that we've seen in that
community and turn in the riverbed into
a area where more individuals can
partake and see the beauty that entails
South Phoenix. So, I'm excited to
support this project.
Thank you.
The next three months are an enormously
important series of months for Rio
Reimagined. The city of Phoenix would
not exist without the riverfront area
and we are investing in it in big ways.
You will see later today a vote on a
construction contract to build a bridge
for pedestrians and others across the
riverfront to make it a great recreation
spot or for kids who want to uh walk to
school or or uh jobs in the area. We
hope it will spur additional investment.
the economic development department will
have control over this land and we'll be
able to move forward with the city's
ambitious visions which started long
before any of us were elected and
include the Rio Beyond the Banks area
plan and um the Del Rio area brownfields
plan. So many of our residents have come
together to envision this area. We've uh
got with support from the federal
government got an important grant to
develop a transit oriented development
plan. Our planning and depart
development department conducted an
assessment of the uh Rio quarter to
identify property and this was one of
the most important properties for
redevelopment. Thank you to Enrique for
leading that effort. We're really
excited for this to move forward. It's
my hope that this plot of land will
become a catalytic investment, that
private dollars will follow public
dollars, and that we'll really have the
kind of resources devoted to this
corridor that it deserves as such an
exciting place in our city. So, I'm
excited to support this item. Want to
thank Councilwoman Haj Washington who
chaired the bond which will help make
this possible as well as my colleagues
who have each been dedicated to this
area. There are a few areas in the city
that get citywide attention and and Rio
has just been such a priority for this
council including um our part and and
for our partners as well. ASU has been
very focused on supporting us in this
area as well as a private sector
nonprofit business leadership group that
is trying to take Rio Salado to the next
level. Uh we're grateful to the federal
support uh and and Congressman
Pastor who is making this investment
still possible. So a really exciting two
votes today and I look forward to
supporting this item. Roll call
Vita. Yes. Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes.
Pastor. Yes. Robinson. Yes. Stark.
Yes. Wearing.
Yes. O'Brien. Yes. GGO.
Yes. Passes 90.
And should have mentioned I think when
uh Councilman Wearing was working for
John McCain, they talked about how to
bring this forward. So, uh, big big
progress on a lot of, uh, visionary
ideas at today's council meeting. We
next go to item 50, Phoenix Business and
Workforce Development Board
Certification. Do we have a motion?
Mayor, I move to approve item 50.
Second. Second. We have a motion and a
second. Councilwoman Pastor.
Yes. Um, I have some comments.
Um, this is actually this is a really
great program that we have in our city.
Um, and it's their workforce program. It
is creative, cutting edge, and
innovative with the mobile unit, career
unit, uh youth summer employment. We
were the first in the country to have an
apprenticeship training program for
semiconductor
technicians. We are already looking at
opportunities for training in AI
um and is in ingraining it into the
business. We have a broad uh partnership
that includes 400 plus training
providers including Maricopa Community
College system and our workforce board
is led by business. So the the advice
offered to the city council is timely
and what business is needed in today's
world. So, I am happy and glad that we
are putting our paperwork in to get our
board certification so we can continue
on and doing the great work that we are
doing within the city.
Thank you. Well said. And and thank you
to those who have served on the board,
including our current chair, Sam Willow,
who is an expert in medical devices, as
well as we've had great representation
from several lab labor organizations,
including CWA.
Roll call. Kinder Vera, yes. Wardado,
yes. Hajj Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes
90. And earlier today in the omnibus
vote, we had an important vote on the
summer youth program. So, coming up soon
and a great opportunity for our young
people. We'll next go to item 56,
customer engagement software contract,
and I'll turn to Councilman Robinson for
the motion. Mayor, thank you very much.
I move to approve item number 56, but
I'd like to say a couple words if I
could, please. Second. Perfect. We have
a second. We'll recognize you for
comments. Thank you, mayor. Um this
particular software engagement item
something we we um presented or was had
presented in a public safety and justice
subcommittee. It gives us yet another
opportunity and and I use that word
opportunity um on purpose. It gives us
another opportunity to allow the police
department in this case even though
we've used this engagement program
throughout the city. This is
specifically for the police department.
It gives us yet another opportunity to
allow the police department to ensure or
to you know to better itself to
understand what the community is
concerned with or about and it gives the
police department that opportunity to
hear from the public and then to respond
accordingly. So I see this as yet
another opportunity for accountability,
another opportunity for enhanced
professionalism, all the things that we
would expect from our police department.
I think this particular software will do
just that. Mayor, thank you very much
for the time. Thank
you, Councilwoman Pastor. Thank you. I
have some questions uh regarding this
item.
Um and my understanding is that we have
uh Zen City now and what we want to do
is add
blockwise. Uh, is that for the police
department and the communications
office? Um, and I believe Zen City is
with the communications
office currently. Or who uses Zen City?
Uh, mayor, council members, uh,
Councilwoman Pastor, uh, the
communications office, um, uses Zen City
currently? We do, um, they do social
media listening as well as a quarterly
community survey. This product is
specific to the police department. It
continues the survey concept, but it is
specific to policing. Okay, that's where
I was getting confused because Zen City
can't be used for the police department.
Uh what is the difference between Zen
City and Blockwise? Uh Zen City is the
overall product. Uh Blockwise is a
specific feature within the products
that Zen City offers. So currently
within the community survey, we do ask a
question about public safety, but it is
one single question. This will allow us
to have a survey that's ongoing that is
specific to things related to the police
department.
Okay. So then, okay, so I'm just going
to explain it for the public because
it's it's a little confusing. And then
we're adding additional dollars.
Um, so we have S Zen City, which is our
overarching software or survey piece.
Then in that piece there's a question in
particular towards police or or first
responders and it's just a question and
then from that question I think
blockwise if you could explain this to
me blockwise then comes into play then
to create or add additional questions or
inquiries about the zinc city question.
you want to add more to that.
I hope I'm right. Thank you, mayor,
members of council. Councilwoman Pastor,
yes, that's correct. This tool is an
addition to the features offered by Sin
City that allows us to assess the impact
in the organizational performance being
executed by the Phoenix Police
Department.
Okay. And then my question is um how do
you how will you use that data? Like
it'll pull
I guess I'm gonna ask the pool. Uh, do
you 43rd Avenue and I'm gonna use what
Thomas uh safe place or safe area? Um,
and then they then they they say yes or
no. And then I'm assuming underneath
there there will be another question as
to um why don't you why do why is it a
no? And then there's another question.
And then you'll aggregate that data and
what will you do with it? Mayor, members
of council, Councilwoman Pastor,
excellent question. There are standard
um components that are assessed
utilizing the Blackware um software
program. Those four standard features
regardless of jurisdiction or location
or city are the consistent that allows
us to assess performance not only within
our city but in comparison to other um
communities of our size, nature and and
makeup. Those four standard things
include um asking questions about
safety, fairness, respect, and voice. It
also allows us to customize questions
specific to um issues that face specific
communities. Those questions can include
um what is your number one issue or
problem in your area. One of the great
features that it allows us to do is to
also be able to understand within our
broader community of the city of
Phoenix, we have individual smaller
communities um with precincts and things
like that. So it allows us to understand
individually even within our precincts
what the impact is. It's a really unique
opportunity when we look at being able
to assess um the impact that the
services we afford or provide to the
community what that impact is. It's very
difficult to measure that and this is
one of the the first ways that I'm aware
of that allows us to understand what
that impact is and most importantly
allows us to identify those
opportunities for improvement so that we
can improve our performance and the
positive impact that we're having within
the community.
Okay. And then my last question um so it
sounds like that like this platform
provides this information. How then do
you how then do you place this
information to create trust and
relationships with the community because
that's what was said in the
packet. Thank you, mayor, members of
council, Councilwoman Ptor. We will
utilize this information just like we do
with all of our our metrics and share
them from a a a way for us to be able to
improve. Share it with council, with
leadership, with our community. It's
their voice. It's their feedback to us.
We use that information to make good
decisions and identify ways and and um
approaches in which we can be more
effective. I think it's important that
that information isn't just ours, it's
the community's information and we're
able to share that.
So, I want to thank you for that because
uh we do need um transparency in the
sense of uh communities voices uh being
collected uh gathering the data that is
needed and then being able to find
different ways to become effective
within our community and build the
trust. um and the relationships that are
needed uh within our within our
community and within our city. So, I
appreciate that and I actually uh Jody,
I always appreciate working with you uh
because you're a straight shooter and I
know you know your stuff and so um I I I
want to thank you for that. Um but thank
you. Those are my comments.
Thank you. Roll call. Kind. Yes.
Cordado. Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes.
Pastor. Yes. Robinson. Yes. Stark.
Yes. Wearing.
Yes. O'Brien. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 90.
Next we move on to an item related to
fiber to home. I'll ask the city clerk
to read the title.
Thank you, mayor. Item 60 is ordinance
G7343, an ordinance authorizing the city
manager to amend the Phoenix City Code
by adding a new chapter 5D titled
network infrastructure services.
Mayor, I move to approve item 60.
Second. Second. We have a motion, a
second. Uh this is one of the items
where we've gotten a lot of input over
the last several months and this one has
evolved a fair amount. So, we're going
to begin with a presentation, and we're
so thankful for everyone who's been part
of our stakeholder process. We will have
a much better policy when we're done
because of all of this work. I'll
introduce our deputy city manager, Ellen
Stevenson.
Mayor, uh,
Councilwoman Pastor,
we made a motion. However, I have a
motion and I have some additional items
to be added to the motion. Okay. So,
we'll do Do you want to hear the
presentation and then motion? All right.
So, as soon as the presentation's over,
I'll go to Councilman Pastor for a
substitute motion
or friendly amendment. We'll decide when
we get there. Thank you. Our lawyers
will be ready to tell us which one it
is.
Great. Deputy City Manager. Thank you,
mayor, members of council. Uh, as
stated, this item, we'll add a new uh
chapter to the city code to allow for
licensed providers to install fiber
optic network uh internet service within
the city's rightofway. I have with me uh
Eric Froberg, city engineer, and Kevin
Cenotto, our rideway manage uh manager
within the street transportation
department. City code uh chapter 5D just
inserts a new uh framework within the
city code to allow for licensing for
fiber optic uh services. It's in the
same city code where we have uh items
that allow for cable television,
utilities, and other infrastructure
within the city's right ofway, but all
done through license agreement. This
just establishes specific language for
fiber optic
providers maybe asking what is uh fiber
optic uh in uh services and they're a
communications network that transports
high-speed data to and from end users.
Uh and in this case the FCC defines that
broadband service for high speed as more
than 100 megabits per second download
speed. Uh the typical fiber to home uh
services range from 500 megabits to uh 2
gigabytes.
The existing uh access for this type of
service uh within the Phoenix area is
that 99% of the city is coveraged by
covered by meeting the FCC minimum uh
100 megabit service uh that's covered by
Cox Lumen Centry Link um within the city
of Phoenix. Uh if this proposed
amendment goes forward uh then the
residents could have a choice for other
internet service providers uh that would
be able to come forward enter agreement
with the city and then they would be
able to choose uh some different
high-speed uh internet service
providers. I would add that uh another
interesting fact is that the Cox
provides 96 and a half% coverage uh at 1
gigabyte speed which is very high speed
internet service throughout the city as
well. So we are well covered in this
area but the proposal does allow for
additional services uh should firms come
forward and choose to do
that. One of the existing license uh
processes that this was modeled after is
our Cox cable television uh license.
They pay a 5% of cable TV revenues only.
Uh there's no license fee for the
telephone or internet, but those are
provided in a bundle as many people
know. Uh this does include their
permanent inspection fees um that are
within that 5%. So it gets deducted out
of that 5% for what they have to pay for
that. They do comply with the city's
requirements for horizontal boring and
trenching to install infrastructure in
the public ride ofway. And they do
comply with the pavement restoration
code requirements. uh as
well. Uh with that, I'm going to turn
over to uh Eric Froberg and then we'll
be happy to answer any questions. Thank
you, Alan. Uh mayor, members of council,
um thankful to be here today to kind of
go over some of the details of the
proposed language. So, this first slide
is is focused on the fees that we be
attributed to this code amendment or
this code, this additional code
language. uh the the main one and
because we really wanted to have parody
with what Allan just talked about what
Cox and some of the other utilities
already pay to use our rightway. So the
framework that we have here feel is
pretty much in line with that. So uh we
have two different uh versions. We have
a 3% on direct gross revenue. Those are
for firms that install, construct and
maintain the fiber in the rightway but
also serve as the internet service
provider. Uh there are firms that uh
would fall under the second uh the 6%.
Those are firms that would design or
construct maintain uh the fiber but not
serve as the internet service provider
and be more of a wholesaler where other
internet service providers would use
their fiber. So, uh, these two options
try to create some parody, uh, with that
5% that Allan talked about. Uh, in an
effort to protect the city while this,
uh, these programs are starting, uh, in
their infancy and starting to go, we do
we did institute an annual minimum fee
of $6 per home passed. Uh, that fee
would stay in effect until the 3% or 6%
end up being the larger number and then
the the smaller fee or the the annual
minimum fee would go away.
As we went through this uh starting back
in tip and all the way up the tip
presentation uh through in November and
then all the way up to now, we've had
lots of uh interaction with
stakeholders. Uh and through those we've
kind of summarized the the majority of
the comments down to these four uh main
topics were kind of the ones that kind
of rose to the top. One being the
clarification of the fee, why 3% versus
6%, how those work. Uh there was some
conversation uh about how fiber to the
home in new developments uh new
subdivisions uh would be treated. Uh
that then had us based on those
conversations uh we added some sections
in there. We added a section in there
that for new developments as they are
being developed uh subdivisions are
being developed uh that uh when they're
putting in all of their utilities, the
water, sewer, gas, all of those types of
things that we would suspend the and not
collect any of the rightway fees uh
until the subdivision had built out to
51% in an effort to allow them some
incentive to build uh in advance before
the pavement was down and those types of
things. Uh the the other two items uh
were micro trenching. Uh the city
currently doesn't allow micro trenching
in the rightway, but based on some
conversations that we've had uh we did
offer some of these firms the
opportunity to do a pilot. Uh and one of
them has taken us up on it and that
pilot will start in May. Uh it's
anticipated to start in May which would
give us the opportunity to view how
micro trenching works and how it would
uh impact our pavement over the long
term. I would also say that MAG has
created a working group uh to look at
micro trenching kind of in a global view
from all agency perspective. Uh so we're
not doing it all individually. We're
going to try to do it as a group. Uh
Kevin and a few others uh that are in um
the streets department are part of that
working group. So we think uh we'll be
able to explore micro trenching a little
more as we move forward. And then the
last one that there was some
conversation about was the pavement
restoration policy. Uh and we do know
that uh mayor and council have been
especially protective of our payment uh
and has advanced over $200 million as
part of uh from the T2050 money to do
the accelerated payment maintenance
program. So right now uh any any utility
not fiber to the home but any utilities
that go into our rightway have to comply
with the payment restoration policy.
Um, additionally, uh, we had lots of,
uh, conversations with the, uh, CWA or
Communication Workers of America group.
Um, they did have the opportunity to
attend one of our, uh, utility
contractor trainings. uh they were after
the fact very complimentary of that
training of how thorough it was and want
to commend Kevin and his group for doing
a good job of making sure that the
contractors at work in our rightway uh
are doing it safely and and following
along with all of our uh code require or
all of our city requirements. But
through those conversations with CWA, we
were able to improve some processes and
procedures uh before allowing
contractors to work within the rightway.
Um some of those uh things that we
worked on or the languages that we
worked on was making sure that skilled
workers were required in the rightway
and that they were complying with OSHA
and ADOSH requirements and then of
course just regular compliance with any
MAG or city standards policies and
procedures. So with that I will turn it
back over to Alan.
Mayor members of Council uh staff is
requesting approval of city code uh
chapter 5D amendment for network
infrastructure services as presented by
staff. Uh, we're happy to answer any
questions.
Thank you. I think we're going to hold
the motion until after public comment so
we make sure we have all the input
possible. Do council members have
any questions? All right, we will go
then to public's testimony. We'll begin
with Kelly followed by Jeremiah.
I always pick the people who are seated
furthest
away. Uh, good afternoon. My name is
Kelly Henshaw. I'm with BAM Broadband.
We are a local internet service provider
currently building a fiber home network
in Scottsdale, Arizona. and we are
working with the city of Phoenix
currently to begin potentially building
to about 12,000 homes. Um we are here in
support of chapter 5D. It allows us to
build and compete against the current
monopoly. Um so you know we hope that
you guys approve this today and thank
you for allow us allowing us to be here.
Thank you. Jeremiah is next followed by
Fernando.
Good afternoon,
council. Um, I do have to identify as a
um,
uh, lobbyist. Thank you. That's what I
was looking for. So, my name is
Jeremiah. I'm the president of CWA local
7050 here in Phoenix. Uh we are
encouraging the city of Phoenix to
commit to a strong oversight process uh
of these fiber developments. In January
of this year, the city of Las Vegas
issued a notice of default to the Gigap
Power for violating its franchise
agreement in the city. According to the
notice, Gigapowers infractions caused
significant and unreasonable disruption
and created public safety risk. As of
March 11th of this year, communication
with the city, Gigap Power has not been
allowed to start construction in new
areas until further notice. Fiber
deployment is a very complex
infrastructure work that requires
diligent communication and coordination
between all parties. Failing to
diligently communicate and coordinate
operations can negatively impact the
public and the city infrastructure if
the work is not completed properly.
Based on the experience of Las Vegas and
the local cities right here in our very
area, residents during the Gigap Power
deployment, it is in the city of Phoenix
best interest to require detailed
workforce plans from lences to allow the
city to review and track the records of
the contractors that lenses are
proposing and work of our rideway. I
will stay available for any additional
questions that you guys may have. Thank
you. Any questions? Thank you.
Uh, Fernando followed by Andre.
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Thank
you for having me. My name is Fernando
Roman. I'm a member of the Communication
Workers of America, Local 7026. We
represent about 2200 telecommunication
workers in the area. Uh I'm here today
to speak to the work the city um of
Phoenix has done to draft and implement
the new form wherein lences will be
expected to provide a list of the prime
contractors and subcontractors to the
city during the pre-construction meeting
to improve transparency regarding who is
working in our rightway. As a former
broadband technician with Lumen with
over 25 years of experience, I know
firsthand how important it is that we
have properly licensed companies and
highly trained skilled technicians
performing critical infrastructure work
in our streets. CWA sees this as a first
step to improving accountability on
complex fire deployment projects and we
look forward to continuing to work with
the city on oversight of this project as
it deploys.
And I want to personally acknowledge uh
council member Pastor and her staff on
uh implementation and attention to this
matter and also the streets and uh
transportation department. Thank you.
Thank you. Andre is next followed by
Andrew or Andrea
maybe. Andre or Andre Torres?
Okay.
Thank you. Um my name is Andre Torres. I
am um the director of operations at Zoom
Technology Arizona and it's uh my
pleasure to be down here to support this
initiative. Um we believe that um first
let me give you a little bit of
background. Zoom technology is new to
Arizona but not new to the fiber
industry and uh we believe that the
transparency and communication that uh
the city's team has uh brought before us
has while it's been a long uh we've been
patient and fully support of what is
being proposed to the city council in
doing so um our roots originate uh from
South Africa and uh we believe that um
having um another fiber
operator uh to be able to provide
service here to the community. Being a
resident and um um native of Arizona, I
can tell you that having a choice uh
makes it much more um uh competitive to
um those that um have that luxury to
have that service provided to them. Um,
in doing so, we have plans to obviously
uh bring that service here to Phoenix as
well as other communities here within uh
the Phoenix area. Currently, we're
building in uh Chandler actively and uh
we're in full support of the chapter 5D.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our final speaker will be
Andrew.
Hello, my name is Andrew Novaski and I'm
the chief build officer for Nov Fiber.
I'd like to thank the mayor, the city
council, um, and the streets team for
the opportunity to provide Phoenix with
not only fast and reliable fiber
service, but also very affordable fiber
service. Um, I'm here to support the
coordin code ordinance as well. Um, Mr.
Cenot and his team have been phenomenal
to work with. They've kept us engaged
and um updated throughout the process
and we are here to fully comply with um
all aspects of the agreement and we look
forward to continuing our work here in
the city of Phoenix. So, thank you very
much.
Thank you. That incl concludes the
public comment. I'll turn to
Councilwoman Pastor.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm just going to
give a little bit of background and uh,
probably some people are like, why is
Councilwoman Pastor involved in this?
But I'm gonna explain. Um, the city of
Phoenix has worked collaboratively with
CWA to revise and improve its contractor
transparency disclosures to encourage
better accountability for fiber
deployment projects given recent
publicized incidents in the region. The
city has created a new utility
inspection pre-construction meeting form
which includes the list of contractors
and companies working on the permit form
which permites are required to submit at
a preconstruction meeting and has
updated its utility inspections
contractor process and procedures
document to reflect this new
requirement.
I never knew that as a council woman I'd
be sitting here learning and talking
about
Fiverr. But in 2020 we what we went
through a process which was called COVID
and I got actively involved in the
digital divide and in that process I
realized uh we didn't have fiber in
Phoenix. we had limited fiber and some
of the fiber that we had, we didn't have
the speed level that we needed in order
for students to get uh to do get online
and do the work that they had. Uh some
fiber uh some communities um contractors
uh had a certain uh a special program
where you can get it for $10. But what
we discovered in COVID was that you
could not do your work with that
special. And uh Cox at the time who I
was working with ad admitted that and
said we we realize that now. So here I
am today uh talking about Fiverr and the
necessity of of really having
transparency and understanding who is uh
working on our streets and and some of
the incidences that have happened and
some accountability of sewer lines being
broke. Uh people working in uh
communities or in neighborhoods where
things are happening and neighbors don't
know who to call or where to go. Um we
do have a contractor but then there's
also a subcontractor. So it becomes a
little difficult to find out who is
responsible at the end of the day. We we
work with the main contractor and the
subcontra subcontractors work with that
contractor. So it gets a little
difficult. So all this does is just help
uh provide uh some transparency and
accountability if anything happens.
Um, one of the things in the motion uh
was that uh I have three items that uh
needed to go into the motion.
Um I guess to staff, do I need to add
these things into the
motion? Mayor, members of council. So,
um, Council Member Pastor, if you would
like to modify the motion, um, if it's
more than a minor modification, it would
be a substitute motion.
I guess I could do a substitute,
probably safer. Yeah, I'll do a
substitute motion.
Um the motion is to approve the proposed
chapter 5D city code amendment as
presented by staff with the following
additional direction to staff to update
the policy procedures and forms in the
following manner. Number one is to add
requirement for each contractor listed
on the utility inspection
preconstruction meeting form to provide
the register of contractors and Arizona
business license number for their
company.
Item number two or number two would be
to add the following language to any
future license agreements with fiber to
to the home companies. A licency will
abide by the city's utility inspection
contractor process and procedure
requirements including pre-construction
meeting requirements along with submitt
of the completed utility inspection
pre-construction meeting form at the
preconstruction meeting. And number
three is to add add the following
language to any future license
agreements with fiber to the home
companies. The city reserves the right
to revoke a license agreement or
individual permits for fiber to the home
projects for non-compliance with
approved license requirements,
construction permits, or any city code
provision or policy requirements
pursuant to city code
31-8
I. And then in addition to that on the
form
um I would like it to to say percentage
of employees that reside in
Arizona and the business cell
number. That is my
motion. Second. Thank you. Thank you.
Appreciate the councilwoman's motion and
everyone who's been involved in this
process. We have had months of
stakeholders meetings and we have a
better path forward as a result. So,
thank you to everyone who has worked
with
us. We also were responding to a very
important series of stories on channel
12 from Bianca Bono that uh talked about
some of the challenges our neighboring
communities have had. We will now have a
more transparent process. It will be
easier to figure out who was doing the
construction and we'll have clear
contact information. That was one of the
items we learned from neighboring
cities. When there's a problem, you have
to be able to find the responsible party
right of way and address it. People come
to the city and we need to have that
information. We also hope that
neighborhoods will get that information
on door hangers. We're working hard to
make sure neighbors are notified ahead
of time who will be doing work in city
streets and how to address any issues.
We've learned that in the process of
this construction, people have had
issues with uh ruptured sewer lines or
uh cable cut. We want to make sure that
we have accountability. The
counciloman's motion gives us the chance
to revoke license if we have uh parties
who repeatedly cause issues in our
rightway. The city streets belong to all
of our residents and we want to make
sure that we manage them in a
responsible way. Um, the city of
Phoenix's policy also make sure we
maintain our pavement in good quality.
When many of us were elected, there were
real challenges with potholes. In a city
survey, it was one of the top issue. The
Phoenix Council accelerated $200 million
to invest in improving our paving and
potholes. This is a responsible policy
that allows us to maintain the city
streets in good condition. We know that
a broken windshield can really disrupt
your day. It can be unsafe. And so we
want to make sure that we have strong
city streets. Uh we do have a path
forward for companies that have
technology innovation that can help move
the utility installation forward while
respecting our highquality streets. So
we tried to balance a lot of different
concerns in developing this policy. uh
the pricing structure changed and is now
more responsive
to what businesses said including for um
companies that are installing in
subdivisions and then can have uh a
payment structure at the end when they
are closer to revenue. So we hope that
we addressed a lot of the issues. Again,
we'll have more transparency. We'll know
who is doing construction in our city
streets. There have been some challenges
with out of state companies who were
hard to contact when there was an issue.
And Councilwoman Pastor's motion
addresses that as well.
Uh we'll go to the vice mayor and then
Councilwoman
Gordado. Um thank you, Mayor. I just
want to go over the new development and
I appreciate that very much given that
I'm in the north valley and and have um
lots of area where there are not streets
yet. Giving the folks opportunity to get
in there before those streets are are
built because we all know that digging
into them later is is not fun for any of
us. Uh Eric, you when you explained that
part of it, you said they would be
charged on
um per
house once it was built out. I just want
to clarify because there's a difference
between when the house is sold because
that's one stage and then when it's
built and they receive the ability to
occupy the house and those are two very
important um different or they're two
very different things and the difference
is important to me because somebody's
not living in it and paying the the
company while it's being built. So I'll
let you answer that question first. Uh,
mayor, members of council, uh, vice
mayor, the the way that the code is
currently written is that the fees will
be waved until the 51% of the homes in
the subdivision are sold. And can you
explain why we do sold versus until we
get
51% occupants till 51% of them have
their um, occupancy certificate. Sorry,
mayor uh, vice mayor. In order to sell
the actual home, you have to have a
certificate of occupancy and have met
all the construction requirements uh at
that point. So you you would have a your
co then be able to to sell the home uh
as a piece of real estate, meet those
requirements, and then have somebody uh
purchase that home. So not once it goes
under contract, once it is actually the
sale is entirely completed. Correct.
Thank Thank you for that that
distinction. I do appreciate that and I
do appreciate all the work you have all
done to um add this piece to it. It is
important that we don't go back and dig
up brand new streets. Um and I also
appreciate the efforts made to allow for
the opportunity for multiple um
providers to go into the same trench and
and working together to minimize the
number of times we're cutting into our
streets. Thank you. Thank you so much,
Mayor. Thank you. We'll go to
Councilwoman Gordado followed by
Councilwoman Haj Washington. Thank you,
Mayor. Um, first just want to thank
staff for bringing this forward. I think
this is very well needed in our city.
Also want to thank CWA for bringing in
um some great recommendations to making
sure that we continue to keep providers
accountable, that we make sure that we
have the best service that we can here
in the city of Phoenix. So, thank you
for that. And also want to thank
Councilwoman Pastor for um leading on
this on this charge for all of us here
today. And I know that our policy will
be a lot better thanks to all of these
changes. But thank you staff. Thanks
everyone for all of the hard work. Thank
you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman Hud
Washington. Thank you, Mayor. Um I just
have a few questions.
Um, one, I'm not necessar I'm not saying
I'm in disagreement with the conditions,
but I believe because we have spent so
much time engaging with our stakeholders
in this process. It's been continued a
few times. I just wanted to hear from
staff is whether or not you thought any
of these conditions were things that um
would be deal breakers for our
stakeholder group or things that you
would want to take back to our
stakeholder group for conversation.
Mayor uh Councilman Hajj Washington uh
at this point all the stakeholders who
have expressed uh an interest in in
being here. We've tried to address their
concerns. There are uh some other firms
uh who uh are interested in the market,
but because of our pavement restoration
requirements and not allowing the micro
trenching uh and in one case the
concerns about the wholesale cost, at
this point they're they're not going to
commit to coming to Phoenix. Um we did
uh have discussions with them and said
we're open to continuing the dialogue
with them but uh you know where this is
at there are a number of people who
support it and it's a a good code
amendment to move forward. the those
other requirements as we've outlined and
you all have discussed are high
priorities for the council as it relates
to streets and and those are big upfront
costs and that's really where the
industry is faced with those upfront
costs uh that they have to then carry
over time and try and get people to sign
up and so that that's a challenge for
them and I think that's the the biggest
obstacle to some of them coming in.
Thank you for that and and I apologize
my question was not as carefully crafted
as I thought it was. I understand there
are some vendors that because of the
recommendation that you're putting forth
today, they did not agree, for example,
with the micro trenchion and I am okay
with that. I feel like the investment
that we have made as a city, we have a
fiduciary obligation to respect that and
to do our part to ensure that our
streets continue to give our residents
the best experience. I was my question
that I was trying to ask but I didn't
know so well was more so given the
additional conditions as stated in
Councilwoman Pastor's motion. Did you
see anything that would be a a area of
concern for our stakeholders that you
think um would need to go back? I I
didn't see anything from uh from my
perspective but because I wasn't
involved in the conversations I just
wanted to give that opportunity to ask
this I wanted to ask that question.
Mayor, uh, Council Haj Washington. Uh,
no, we do not. Uh, we briefed them on
some of the changes and and issues about
a week or so ago, and I don't see
anything that came out of motion today
that will cause any concerns. Apologize
for my response. No, that that was my
fault. So, thank you for that
clarification. Um, I wanted I mean, I am
personally in favor of the addition of
the register of contract numbers. Uh,
for those that don't know, I do
insurance litigation. Um, and I know
exactly what it is to be dealing with an
unauthorized u a non-registered
contractor. There are benefits of having
a contractor who un who is bonded. Um, I
was curious whether or not there is any
bonding requirements that we would be
requesting of the actual
um prime or subcontractors that would be
doing this work just to ensure that if
there's something that does go wrong
that they have adequate security. Mayor,
uh, Councilman Haj Washington. Yes. The
city requires, uh, liability insurance
by the license holder, uh, for $2
million, uh, and then contractors also
hold a $2 million liability insurance
policy to work in the right of way. Do
we require that similarly for the
subcontractor that would be working on
the project?
Yes, the subcontractors also. Okay.
Thank you. Um, those are my questions,
mayor. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Many of the items in Councilman Pastor's
motion were items we were going to do
administratively. I think at the city we
the council votes on the big picture and
then the details often staff implements
u these were items that staff was
already planning to implement. We are
just moving them into the council vote.
Is that fair mayor? Uh that is correct.
Wonderful. I think the counciloman
thought it was important that we codify
this so that that there are some things
that we want to be very clear about
including high standards. And so I think
this is a good choice. We know you were
committed to it but you're allowed to
retire someday and we want to make sure
our commitment to our
residents is codified. So thank you. Uh
you mentioned there might be a pilot
coming forward in May. It's getting hot.
Can we move that even up? I'd rather
work in April than May. Uh mayor,
members of council, I believe the the
May date was chosen by uh Google uh as
part of that pilot. So we can do it in
in April if they're able to do it. Okay.
We want to get folks great
connectivity. All
right. Roll call.
Vera, yes.
Yes. Haj Washington. Yes.
Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 90.
Thank you. And I should give credit to
Councilwoman Stark who chaired this
committee and shephered through this a
lot of complex changes. So, uh, uh, she
very much had a major impact on this
policy and we're grateful her for
leading this very technical item. Thank
you, Councilwoman
Stark. Uh, we next go to item 64,
Terminal 4 lobby retail solicitation
request for contract award. Do we have a
motion? I move to approve item 64,
mayor. Second. We have a motion and a
second. We will go to David for public
comment.
Um, all right. Uh, good afternoon, mayor
and council. My name is David Bonia. I
work for SSP America as a cashier at Sky
Harbor Airport. I'm a proud member of
Unite Hair Local 11 and a shop steward
for my union. Companies seeking valuable
airport contracts from our city should
be expected to meet the workplace
standards we fought so hard to
establish. That means the city needs to
hold companies accountable for the
standards already in their contracts
with airport companies, like the
protections against uh extreme heat and
racial
discrimination. Many of my co-workers
were disappointed with the city's
response to workers complaints about
alleged racial disparities in SSP
workplaces in
2023. And with summer approaching, we're
worried whether companies will actually
follow the heat safety rules the council
passed last year. The city plans to
continue handing out contracts like
this. It's important that it holds
contractors to account to maintain good
jobs and working conditions for all
airport workers. Thank
you. Thank you. We will next go to
Lucia.
Uh good afternoon mayor and city
council. My name is Lucia Selenas. I
work for HMS host as a cook at Cabo Sha
at Phoenix Sky Harbor. I am also proud
member of unite here local 11 which has
done a lot to raise the wages and
working condition at the airport. All
workers at the airport should be able to
earn a dignified living. Before our more
resident contract, I had spent nearly
$400 a month of
medication. Now I pay just $40 a month
under a new healthc care
contract. But it's not been but it's
been a long struggle for me and my
co-workers to get here. For that reason,
it's especially important that the city
do its part ensure that airport
have have responsible
employers. If the city is going to give
a val a volume contract like this, we
will also be expecting the city to make
sure all airports company pay a decent
wages. so workers can offer housing and
health
care. Already the city of Phoenix has
committed to putting contrast protection
against Russian discrimination and
stream
heat. Fine needs to do more to raise the
standards and ensure the airport
companies are held their existing
commitment. Thank you.
Thank you. Very nice job, Councilwoman
Gordado.
Thank you, Mayor. I just have a couple
of questions on on the
contract. Thank you,
Chad. We will introduce our aviation
director, Chad
Makovski. Thank you so much. Airport
real estate because of its prime
location and limited availability is
expensive. Because of that, locations
for vendors at Sky Harbor Airport, like
other large and busy airports, are
incredibly valuable due to their prime
position and limited availability. It's
truly all about location for restaurants
or vendors looking to secure a spot
within our terminals. The competition
should be fierce, often requiring them
to work hard and really negotiate with
the city to outbid one another and agree
to significant lease agreements. I guess
my question is was the competition
fierce on this lease agreement?
Um, Mayor Councilman Gordado, thank you
for the question. Uh, in this particular
location, this is a single unit
location. It's about 1,700 square ft and
it is located uh pre-security uh before
you go through security at Sky Harbor
Airport in terminal 4 and level 3. As a
result, uh it is a lower traffic area or
there's lower demand for that facility
than in other uh comparable facilities
that would be after the security
checkpoint. In this particular
solicitation, we actually received two
proposals and we evaluated those
proposals and the uh the winning
proposal is with Parody's Lagard Air,
which is before you here today. And is
that normal for us to get just to being
the fifth largest city and one of the
biggest airports, is that normal for us
to get one or two biders for this type
of contract? Mayor, Councilwoman
Gardado, it it varies on the packages
and how many um uh locations were
bidding out on each package and where
those uh packages are located at the
airport. So in this area pre-security my
experience has been that because it is a
lower demand location that uh this I was
not expecting more than two to three
proposals for this particular uh
proposal.
Okay. And then my other so I'll go over
some comments. Um given the premium
nature of these opportunities, it's
crucial that we leverage our position as
a city to ensure we achieve the best
possible contracts for both our city and
airport workers. The length of these
contracts play a vital role in the in
that leverage and I believe we should be
strategic in how we approach that
aspect. And my question is how were we
strategic in getting the best deal for
the city and our workers?
Mayor Council Member Gordado, I have uh
chief revenue officer uh Roxan Favors is
with me. She is far more uh wellversed
in this particular proposal than I am.
So I'm going to defer to her if I may.
Perfect. Thank you. Uh, thank you,
mayor, members of the city council. Uh,
yes. Uh, Representative uh, Councilwoman
Ggo, um, Gardo, I'm sorry. I'm just a
little nervous today. You're you're not.
Uh, this particular, uh, solicitation we
did through our public, uh, process. So,
when we put that out, a couple of things
that we do look at in which to make sure
that all the units are very
representative of not only our local
community, but our local culture. So, we
do have design standards. So, we do
require our minimum was $350 per square
foot in design. We've seen in the
industry um postsecurity locations them
spending up to anywhere between $800 and
$900 per square foot. In this particular
um location, they are um going to spend
around
$576 per square foot um to bring the
design standards that's up. What we also
require um and I appreciate all of the
public comment, all of the requirements
that this council made forward when it
came to extreme heat, those requirements
are in the contract. Um all of the
requirements that have been um echoed in
similar concession agreements regarding
um employment, their training, showing
us all of those standards are also
echoed in this particular contract that
is here um before. And so we continue to
learn those lessons that the mayor and
council have uh ensured that we want to
be able to be a quality um airport
quality employer that are carried
forward in this particular contract. In
this award that's in front of you today,
um this particular company, uh while we
are race and n, uh genderneutral, has
committed 30% to our small businesses
and all three of their small businesses
are local Phoenix small businesses that
participate with them. And they've been
really great partners in other portions
of our initiatives at the airport um in
this one voluntarily being part of our
sustainability green business program.
of carrying forward all of those items
that are very important to the airport.
Thank you so much. You did amazing.
Thank you. And I guess another question
for you, Chad, why a 10-year agreement?
And thank you, uh, Mayor, Council Member
Gardado. Um, what we do before we put
out a solicitation is we actually work
we have a concessions consultant that
works with the airport that pays very
close attention to what's going on in
the industry. uh also looking at the
costs of construction, uh the types of
um concepts that are going into airports
around the country. And as a result of
our consultation with them, as well as
looking at what our peer airports are
doing, uh we quickly realized that uh
food and beverage contracts, which were
typically at the 10-year term uh length,
uh are now actually going to closer to
15 years. And as we looked at our peer
airports at the time, uh almost all of
them, I to my recollection, were at
least a 10-year term for retail. And
that's uh for two two reasons. One is we
want to make sure we try to draw in
competition and because this was a low
demand area of the airport, we wanted to
set a term that we thought would
actually draw competition uh for the
proposal. And then the second reason is
that over the term they do an initial
capital investment that Miss Favorvers
had mentioned and then over the course
of the term they actually make
additional investments in that facility.
We want to make sure that the business
has the opportunity to properly
advertise that investment over the term
term length. So then what you're saying
then is that we're going to be moving
forward we're going to see more 10-year
contracts coming coming to us instead of
five. Uh mayor council member Gordado I
I I wouldn't want to say today that
that's definitely going to be the case.
What we do is as we uh move forward each
time we look at what the kind of the
condition is, the location of the
concept, we look at what's going on in
the industry. We look at cost of
construction and then that informs our
our position with every one of these
concessions proposals. We do bring those
to the council as before we actually
issue the uh revenue contract
solicitation because we want to make
sure that the council's comfortable as
well uh with those term links. Right. I
I mean, Roxanna, as much as I loved your
presentation and I think you did a good
job explaining, I guess I just still
don't understand
um the expense of, you know, of of
what's the major expense that they're
that they're going to be spending on um
given that it's not a big kitchen, it's
not a restaurant, like what is that huge
expense and what is it that's going to
cost so much money? No, thank you. I
appreciate that. So for this particular
location, they will um the current unit
will close. They'll completely gut that
unit and they'll bring in all new
buildouts. That's for that. Um keep it
in mind at the airport for every
concession while we may bring utilities
to the lease line. They then have to
pull those utilities throughout their
particular store unit that is there. We
also have requirements on energy
efficiency. So all of the units like I
was saying it's a complete gut and
rebuild of the store on that costing
estimate that's there. Additionally any
of the uh coolers that they bring in new
technology we do ask them to bring in
new technology for speed of service. Um
they may also be bringing in uh TV
monitors are not currently used in the
unit to be able to uh let the traveling
public know what's available, what's for
sale. So those are all those cost
estimates that is um coming to that
total for that they have a very unique
design to uh reflect that there are a
local uh store unit that's there. So
those were all the design costs that go
into that particular unit and for
retailers um like you had mentioned
there's not large uh kitchen equipment
that needs to be there. So they do need
that period of time to amvertise for
those assets that they will be bringing
in and to be able to finance that. Okay.
Well, I would just ask that we as we
look at these contracts that we take,
you know, a harder look on these because
this is just a convenience store. It's
not something bigger than that. Um, and
as much I will support the item today. I
just was very curious on why a 10-year
contract and why we thought these
expenses were going to be bigger than
what we what we normally do. And then on
the heat ordinance as well, I think
that, you know, we're having a few
hiccups with some of the other companies
um that I've been hearing about. Um, so
I I would recommend that we make sure
that we have some sort of line of
communication between those workers in
and the city because it sounds like
they're not they have not been able to
file complaints at other parts of the
airport. So I would recommend that in
this contract we make sure that we spell
that out more clearly on how is it um
that workers can file a complaint. um
especially we're we're seeing that this
summer is probably going to be even
hotter um than last year and making sure
that workers do have that opportunity to
be able to file a complaint. But thank
you guys so much um for answering all my
questions. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. Roll call. Galinda, yes.
Gordado, yes. Hajj Washington, yes.
Pastor, yes. Robinson, yes. Stark,
yes.
Wearing. Yes. O'Brien. Yes. Diego. Yes.
Passes 90.
We next go to item 67, small business
enterprise program. And I'll ask the
city clerk to read the title.
Item 67 is for ordinance G7370, an
ordinance amending section
18-205A of chapter 18, article 7 of the
Phoenix City Code relating to the small
business enterprise procurement program
to extend the small business enterprise
program. Do we have a motion? Mayor, I
move to approve item 67. Second motion
and a second. Any
comments? This is a exciting one. Small
business is big business in the city of
Phoenix. We are a real leader in small
business investment. We have a a
nationally recognized program that helps
make sure local dollars support our
local small businesses and put our local
contractors to work. Over the last five
years, we have since the last time this
program was extended, over 555 million
construction dollars that went to small
business
contractors. Since the last extension,
nearly 3,300 construction contracts went
to small business contractors. And we
have certified more than 300 new firms.
Thank you to the small businesses who
are building Phoenix. Roll call.
Kalinda, yes. Or yes Haj Washington yes
pastor yes Robinson yes Stark
yes wearing
yes O'Brien yes Ggo yes passes 90
thank you we next go to item 69 Rio
reimagined third street Rio Salado
bridge do we have a motion mayor I move
to approve item 69 we have a motion and
a second second any comments
We do have members of the public
to testify. Uh we'll begin with a great
multimodal leader Suzanne
Day and then we'll go to poor Gina
Thomas who I tried to get to testify
earlier on Wallace and Ladmo but who
really wanted to talk about the
bridge. Hello mayor and council. Thank
you for all of your work, all that you
do all the time. This is not easy. I
didn't actually intend to speak. I
thought I marked only to speak if
needed, but I do support um bicycle
access to that bridge over the Rio
Salado at Third Street. Yes, please.
Yes, please. We need it. Thanks. Great
testimony. And you did. You
accurately were not going to give me an
A for today's meeting. I'll give you an
All right. Uh I'm just so focused on the
counciloman's birthday. I don't know.
Gina Thomas is next, followed by Nicole
Sanderson.
Hi everyone. Can you hear me? We can.
Okay, wonderful. Thank you so much for
letting me speak on this and I
appreciate I was I was trying to get
some uh comments ready for Wallace and
Ladmo earlier. Um and I guess I wanted
to just maybe make the the kid related
connection to that. So yeah, my name is
Gina Thomas. I'm a resident of Phoenix.
I live around um Camelback and Central.
I have two young boys. We love biking
all over the city. And I just wanted to
say I fully support this Rio Salado um
uh project and the bridge project. I
love that there's a bike ped bridge
that's happening. And with that $25
million investment, I just want to
please please please finish the
connection through downtown so that my
kids and I can ride from where I live
downtown over the bridge um and and keep
that connectivity because without the
connection to downtown, we can't access
that bridge via via our bikes. Um, and
again, just kind of making the Wallace
and Ladmo connection. I I appreciate
everything that this city council and
the mayor has done to make it safer for
my children to bike, to bike with me, to
bike on their own. Um, it's it's a very
difficult thing to do. As a parent, it's
a scary thing to do. I want them to know
how to get around their community
safely. Um, to feel that independence of
being able to get places on their own.
There's a lot of parental pressure to
have to drive your kids absolutely
everywhere. and anything that we can do
to add connectivity for non-car ways for
our children to get around and support
that independence. I I just really
really really support that and I hope
that you'll consider making that
connection to make this bridge even more
impactful. Thank you. Thank you. That
was really nicely done, Nicole.
Hi. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you.
Uh great. I would love to back up the
next speaker. I'm super excited about
the Rio Salado pedestrian and bike
bridge project. It's an amazing project.
I was very fortunate to see um the full
presentation on it by one of the city's
engineers last month at the warehouse
district council meeting. It's very
impressive. Um and the I noticed that
the presentation also mentioned that in
the area of the project, one out of
every five households doesn't own a car.
Uh, I live downtown and I think there's
a growing number of residents downtown
who also are foregoing car ownership. I
know mine's about to be too old and I
don't want to have to replace it. So, I
think uh I urge the city to connect the
bridge up to downtown. I think third
street is a great choice. From the
city's published data, it looks like it
wouldn't interrupt any of the vehicles
uh users who currently use Third Street
to add some bike infrastructure there.
Um it would probably boost retail sales
along Third Street like in Arizona
center. We would all benefit from that
and the TPT revenue. Um, and this would
really go a long way, I think, to help
the bottom 15% of wage earners to access
more jobs, access, you know, the entire
corridor of Third Street and all the
other connected bike facilities and get
to jobs around the city. So, I want to
uh encourage the city to build onto this
great project. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. That concludes
testimony. Any comments? Roll call.
Alindra Vida, yes. Ward, yes. Haj
Washington, yes. Pastor, yes. Robinson,
yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing,
yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 90.
Thank you all. That concludes our agenda
business. I'll turn to our city attorney
to introduce the final portion of the
meeting. Thank you, mayor. During
citizen comment, members of the public
may address the city council for up to
three minutes on issues of interest or
concern to them. The 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 so much. We'll begin with Bill
Sheil followed by Koko Garcia.
Thank you, mayor and councel. Uh, my
name is Bill Sheiel, 301 West Lynwood
Street. And, uh, like the couple of
previous speakers, I really want to
thank you for your investment in bicycle
infrastructure and the uh, Third Street
Bridge over Rio Salado really
exemplifies that. And so I'm going to
echo those comments. Um I'm a frequent
user of the recently expanded Third
Avenue and Third Street uh bike lanes,
separated bike lanes, and they do a
great job of connecting downtown with
Midtown and
Uptown. Um and really excited to see
that connectivity uh be extended to
South Phoenix. Uh so uh here's the butt.
I'm surprised and disappointed that the
county apparently has dropped the ball
on this year's bike to work uh event and
I'm hoping there might be a way to get
that back on the calendar with city
leadership. Several of you have
participated uh in this event in the
past and it really in my mind I thought
it always was a city event. I didn't
realize the county had anything to do
with it. Um, this would be a great way
to show off uh our new bike lanes. The
event usually happens in midApril, so
time's running short. Uh, nationally,
the event is scheduled for midmay, so
perhaps there's a way to piggy back on
that. I'm sure there are bicycle
advocacy groups that would love to help
make the event a success. I appreciate
your time and hope we can make this
happen. Thank you. Thank you. Coco is
next, followed by
Missy. Good afternoon, council members.
My name is Koko Garcia. I'm the founder
of a small rescue called Handover Rover
here in Phoenix, Arizona.
Uh my team and I have been coming to
these meetings for several months now
and we've been coming in an effort to
bring some of the horrific animal abuse
cases that come onto our plate to your
attention. But we've been doing that
simply because we need your help. And
every time I show up, every single time
without fail, you guys help us in some
way or fashion. You've been you've been
able to help us. And you've even gone as
far as to meet with meet with us outside
of this building. And today I'm here to
ask for your help again. Last week,
Senate Bill 1234 had some opposition and
it did not pass. This bill bill amends
language currently to make it easier for
our law enforcement to do their job and
for prosecutors to do their job. For
example, currently in Arizona, it's
legal for our companion pets to live
tied up to a tree in 115°ree weather
with less than an inch of water in a
water dish. And that water can be green.
It can be putrid. It can have maggots in
it, mosquitoes. And I'm saying this
because I've dealt with that and I've
encountered that. And that that is
legal. A tree is defined as
shelter. The owner can say, "I fed that
animal
earlier." And the water dish, it doesn't
matter if there's even water in it. It
could be a lid. As long as something's
there, that is that is legal for the
animal to live like that. Last summer, I
received a request for a dog that was
living outside with no no food or water,
and it was very, very common. This thing
happens all the time. When I arrived,
the dog was severely dehydrated,
malnourished, and suffering heat
exhaustion. I politely got the owner's
attention, and when I asked him about
water, he pointed to his roof and
pointed at the the condensation runoff
from the AC unit, and underneath of it
was just a little lid that was down
there. and he said, "That's condensation
runoff and that's his water and that's
fine." I knew that law enforcement
couldn't do anything, so I didn't even
bother trying to get anybody involved.
Um, at that time, I just handed the guy
$100 and I said, "I'd love to have this
dog." And that was that. I I live with
25 dogs and a five- bedroomedroom house
on a ranch. And I'm very fortunate that
I have property to be able to heal these
dogs and treat these dogs. Uh, I've been
up since 4:00 a.m. and that's 24/7.
That's just how I live because I want to
help them. So although bill 1234 didn't
make it, it was rebranded to bill
1658. This bill asks for the bare
minimum. It does not ask for much else.
It asks for portable drinking water. It
asks that shelter not be a tree and it
it be an actual shelter. It asks for the
the owner not to throw a box of Cheerios
out there and not be the food. It's it's
the bare minimum. So today I'm here
today to
ask for your support in that bill. I
would like to know if I could get a
endorsement from all of the count all of
the council members in support of this
bill. Thank you.
Thank
you. Missy is next followed by John
Forsight.
Hi, Mayor. Hi,
council. I'm just going to read this
because I'll mess up if I don't. Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is
a well-known phrase from the United
States Declaration of Independence.
Every day. Every day. There's so many
posts on social media that myself and
other animal rescuers see of kittens
being abused, cats being abandoned.
Their caretakers are tired, sick, broke,
depressed. At the end of their lives,
they can say they saved this many amount
of cats. But at what cost to their
happiness? All the while, the cat crisis
is still a crisis because it was never a
priority. There are many things in life
that are beyond our control. the
weather, time, natural disasters, other
people's opinions. The cat crisis is
something we can control. We can help
the suffering of cats and their
guardians who are not happy. They are
sad. They're overwhelmed, and they feel
alone. For many reasons, we need to
start opening up the conversation and
working
together. I live in Garfield District,
District 8, um Garfield neighborhood,
and um I've lived there about 3 years.
When I moved in, my house came with 18
community cats in my backyard. It's a
pretty big backyard. Um, they're lucky.
They
get misters in the summer. They get
heated beds in the winter. They even get
catnip and toys. And they get fed three
times a day. That's That's from a cat
lady. Not all cats get that. Hardly no
cats get that. They're suffering.
They're
dying. It's not a It's not a good life.
My neighbor um that lives next to me has
lived there for quite some time. Every
single day she puts a pile of poop next
to my car in my driveway because she
hates the cats. She hates my cats.
They're not my cats. They came with the
house, I tell her. Um she still does it.
This
hate is so much with so many other
people in our community. So, if the city
can jump on this, then you guys can be
a a steward to this and make it so where
everybody else can kind of follow that
lead. Taking action on this issue is
only going to improve Phoenix reputation
as a compassionate and progressive
place, attracting residents and visitors
alike. We hope that
SB1658 will also help this initiative.
It's time to be a part of the solution
because remaining silent and indifferent
is the greatest sin of
all. Um, I've been coming to this now 16
times and Councilman Robertson, I
appreciate that you are willing to meet
with me. I somebody contact me today. I
came today to say I'm I don't even want
to come anymore because I feel like
ignored. I feel I all a community member
wants to do is be heard and be listened
to. And I cannot believe I cannot by I
cannot believe 16 times I've came here.
I' I've been on a list since November to
meet with the mayor. I just I'm I don't
understand why this is an important
issue and I hope that other people
aren't ignored for their issues. Thank
you. John is next, followed by Jerry.
Good afternoon, elected representatives
of the people. That is how the
constitution refers to you as. I am John
Foresight. I told you last time I was
here I was going to be back today to
talk about the erosion of civil rights
here in the city of Phoenix. Last time I
visited recently the Mesa City Council,
which is the third largest city here in
Arizona, there was five police officers
in the chamber. Now, I'm concerned
because one of America's greatest
traditions is a citizen's right to bring
arguments against their government. I
believe the large police presence in
this chamber is affecting Americans
rights, Phoenicians, to be able to come
here and speak openly and honest. Now,
Thomas Jefferson, he's a pretty famous
guy. He's honored nickel $2 bill. He was
our third president. He wrote the
Declaration of Independence, 80% of our
Constitution. He was the smartest person
in the room. He warned us years ago that
democracies not only can be ugly, they
should be
ugly. It has to be uncomfortable. We
have to talk through our issues. We're
not doing that here in the city of
Phoenix. Fear is growing inside of the
city of Phoenix. Fear is a violation of
people's civil rights. It deprivives
them of liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. I have a daughter. She's 22
years old. She's an ex D1 NCAA softball
player center field. She confided in me
recently that she fears walking across a
parking lot walking to her car. First
thing she does and I guess this is very
common amongst women. She gets in her
car and she locks the door. Pisses me
off to no extent that in this country we
have citizens that are
fearful especially fearful from our
government. Now I had intentions to come
here today talk about Michael
Kenyon. This is
horrific. 1949 Accords of the treatment
of enemy combatants. The Geneva
Conventions. Those officers violated
what our military expects out of our
soldiers. Our military has higher
standards in the city of Phoenix. That's
amazing. I tried to go home last night
after a rough day. And just look at some
feel-good news. But the first news story
that came up in my feed was city of
Phoenix again, Mr. McAlpin. If you don't
know who he is, he's an innocent black
man who's deaf. He has cable pausy. He
was tackled and attacked by two police
officers. The inhumanity of what is
going on here astonishes me. These are
no longer isolated incidents. We have to
talk about these things. These aren't
these incidents aren't happening in
other cities. They're happening here in
the city of
Phoenix. I'm amazed. I said it last
time. I'm the only one
outraged. There should be more outrage.
I have made a decision. We're going to
talk about it. We're going to address
our issues. I'm going to come here and
tell the city of Phoenix I'm a native
Phoenician. We fix our problems. Thank
you.
Jerry is next, followed by Emily.
Thank you, council. Uh, I have a handout
I'd like to uh hand to uh each council
member.
Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, council
members, once again, uh, I'm addressing
the fiasco that's gone on for nine years
now down at South
Mountain with a renovation that was
supposed to be to honor the park and
celebrate its centennial, which was last
year. They're still working on it. last
year at this time in April, uh, deputy
city manager gave me a listing of all
the projects that were being completed
and in progress down at South Mountain
since its inception in uh,
2016. Uh, if you look at that
chart, you'll see that uh, there were
only two projects left to be completed.
One month
later, another $13 million were added to
the project for three items that were
never even on the list. One was only has
only showed up one
time. It's a It says land purchase. It's
a house.
$7 million of three pi 3PI money. This
is all 3PI
money. One month from where we were
assured, here's where we're at. We've
got two projects we'll have to do. Then
all of a sudden, the visitor center is
being remodeled two years after it was
dedicated for another
remodel. And then another activity
complex which had stood empty and
unused. No construction going on for
eight months. All of a sudden needed.
This is a contract at risk, which means
you can't just get more money. But you
voted on $5.5 million on July 1st last
year to the weak excuse that it needed
to be completed. This is all 3PI money.
So you basically were lying to the
public and they're really tired of it
because we've got 3PI money. The course
of his lifetime is over a billion
dollars and it's a basically a billion
dollar bait and switch. Thank you.
Emily is next followed by Tim.
Good afternoon. My name is Emily Sturrup
and I'm from Tempe, Arizona. I'd like to
start by saying when I was eight years
old, I was on the Wallace and Ladmo show
and I did receive a Ladmo
bag. Um, anyway, I was a little
flustered by all that, so bear with me.
Um, I was just released from the
hospital a few days ago. I have Crohn's
disease and over the past 32 years, I've
had 12 surgeries, hundreds of
hospitalizations, and now I have a
permanent
ilostomy. Truly, I would rather be on
the home at home. uh watching old reruns
of Charlie's Angels while disassociating
for the next three years and uh nine
months. Um but I can't I lead with my
heart and that is why am I here today.
There are so many things wrong with our
health care system but that's not what
I'm here to discuss. There's a bigger
problem than the health care. This
country is having a lack of empathy
crisis. It's affecting every system in
our country and it seems an impossible
task to try and solve. But I do have
some suggestions. We need to start
focusing on ch changing legislation for
animals. It has been shown throughout
history that if you can get the public
to care about animals, they naturally
will start to care for other human
beings. I am on the board at Handover
Rover, an animal rescue founded by Koko
Garcia. I have been involved in her
rescue since 2020 and I've watched her
move mountains. She is the hardest
working person I've ever known and her
dedication to improving the lives of
animals is unmatched.
Koko has the drive, passion, and
intelligence to lead this fight. We are
looking to change laws, retrain the
police in assessing abuse, and educating
the general public. We need those in
office to help make these changes. There
is so much unnecessary suffering, and we
are here to help, but we need your
guidance and your support. We will be
following up with emails, phone calls,
and inerson meetings. This is our time.
I feel so compelled to do everything I
can to make the world a kinder place for
the younger generations. I myself do not
have children, but I am part of the
village. I want my younger rescuers to
know we are fighting for them as well as
the the animals. I look forward to
working with you all and making Arizona
a blueprint for other states to follow.
Thank you for your consideration.
Tim is next followed by Christina.
Good afternoon. Tim
Surakowski. Before I start talking about
what Jerry was talking about, I want to
thank this group of individuals for all
their dedication and all the time that
they have
spent dealing with animals that really
need our help. They really, really,
really need our
help. I love animals and I love my dog
more than I like most people. Sad but
true. And I sleep with my dog, so I
understand their concern. And I think we
should be have more people become more
involved with this project and helping
take care of our animals that are
running wild in the streets. So, I
really wanted to thank these individuals
for coming here. They've been doing it a
long time and there's not enough that I
could say about all their great stuff
that they're doing and getting up at 4.
I understand that every day my dog gets
me up every day at
4. We have requested a number of times
3PI to see exactly where the 3PI money
is at. This year supposedly you spent
almost $89 million of 3PI money. We'd
like to know where it has gone. Where'd
all this money go? What what what have
you spent the money
on? We have a forensic accountant at the
present time looking at at the federal
budget and we have record requests in at
the present time so that we can see
exactly everything that's being spent.
But it seems to be at this point that no
one can give us a great financial uh
disclosure of any of this. We keep
asking for it, but no one wants to
really do it. So, what we're going to do
if we have to, we're going to do some
subpoenas. We're going to ask for all
the checks at the present time of these
quote two accounts that you say are in
separate accounts and we're going to
look at all the check numbers and stuff
and we're going to make sure this money
is being spent correctly. Not that I
would ever question anything that you
know the money is being spent for. Even
in the inside of the city of Phoenix,
it's called a slush fund. And we all
know probably it's been used as a slush
fund because, you know, the money was
there and if it's there, they'll use
it. I think that if we look at the $23
million makeover of South Mountain and
you start looking at really what was
spent there, and now I'm looking at
stuff that they're saying they spent $49
million dollars there. What did they
spend $49 million on? So these are all
questions that we keep asking every
month and I know you guys must be
getting bored with listening to us. Come
every month and talk about this. But
there is one way we can resolve this.
Put the money in two accounts. Put it
online and let's see exactly where this
money is being spent. Let's see
beginning balances and let's see ending
balances. And that will make the people
really proud of our our government
officials because they'll
say thank you.
Christina is next followed by David.
Hello, my name is Christina Tyler. Uh
the reason why I came to speak today is
actually on three different issues. So
the first issue um comes from the
previous board meeting that um I
attended earlier today at Maricopa
County Board of Supervisors meeting. Uh
and it sounds like um what they
concluded when it comes to one of the
components of the ADA issues because
they refused to have a webinar. It
sounds like the Fifth Avenue and a
Jefferson parking lot would require uh
joint cooperation to be able to allow um
a little uh uh shuttle van or a little
uh golf cart to transport people with
disabilities to go to and from their
board meetings. So, I'd hope that the
city of Phoenix responds to the Maricopa
County Board of Supervisors in a timely
manner on that issue. So, that way
individuals can be reasonably
accommodated as necessary. Uh the other
issue that I wanted to discuss today uh
has to do with uh Burton Bar Public
Library. What is happening that I found
out a few days ago is that uh the um
bookstore has been closed for the last
year because of uh due to a lack of
volunteers to be willing to volunteer
for it. And what I have been finding is
by trying to figure out information of
what it would require and also
contacting the source that is listed is
that um the source that you guys have to
respond for calls and uh emails is not
responsive. So, I'd like to ask for the
city of Phoenix to let me know what it
would require of an individual and how
many people that you would need in order
to get the bookstore back up and
running. I believe that this is a
necessary resource for the city of
Phoenix and I believe that the city of
Phoenix city council needs to provide
answers, resources and guidance towards
what we need to do as a community to
help support our Burton Bar Library to
have a bookstore which provides food and
drinks in a convenient manner as well as
uh lowcost books for the individuals uh
within in Maricopa County and um city of
Phoenix. And the last issue that I'd
like to speak on is to do with um House
Bill 2431. I would like the city of
Phoenix to change their policy in
compliance with state statutes to where
if a police officer is going to uh
detain an individual that if their head
hits the ground that it is emergency
transportation com uh commuting the
individual so that way they have their
rights to emergency transport in
compliance with House Bill 2431. Thank
you.
Thank you. David is next and then our
final speaker will be Diane
Barker. Uh, mayor and council. Um, my
name is David. I am a lifelong resident
of the city of Phoenix. until recently.
Uh, Phoenix and Arizona was my home.
Arizona is still my home. Uh, I know
this is just comments, so I thought I'd
provide a little perspective of my last
month in the city of Phoenix. On
February 27th, 2025, two uniformed
officers accompanied by the planning and
devel
officer accompanied by the city of
Phoenix planning and development officer
came to my residence and asked me what I
was doing. When I was telling him that I
was repairing a pipe, he told me I
needed a permit. When I told him I
didn't need a permit, the plumber said I
didn't need a permit. He says, "Oh, I'm
turning you over to non enforcement."
And I said, "Okay, well, I'll talk to my
legal team and if I need a permit, I'll
apply." And he said, "Okay." And then he
mentioned And then he pointed to the
police officers who were accompanying
him. police officers that were
accompanying a city of Phoenix planning
inspector on an unofficial visit. How do
I know it's unofficial? Because I went
down to the city of Phoenix that day. I
talked to neighborhood services. I
talked to planning and development and
they had zero complaints. Zero
complaints in their system about my
house. I said, "Is it usual for the city
of Phoenix Police Department and the
planning and development inspection to
come to a house?" And they said, "No."
Every single one of them. I talked to
the assistant director of planning and
development. He said no until he talked
to his guy and then he tried
to was over. I filed with the oat that
the city council
created. I filed with uh Mr. Robinson's
team there. Uh they contacted me back
even though the city of Phoenix Police
Department had no incidences. No
incidences. I recorded it
all. Professional standards
bureau canled my thing. I talked to Oat.
They agreed to mediate. They agreed to
mediate. And then lo and behold, lo and
behold, four weeks later, four weeks
later, the Professional Standards Bureau
for the Police Department calls
me and they say there was an alarm that
two police officers were responding to
at 4041 East Fairmont, two houses down,
and that is why they are there. I have
recorded all of this. I have recorded
every discussion with the city of
Phoenix. Every discussion with the city
of Phoenix. I have lodged complaints
with the professional standards bureau.
I have lodged complaints without and
they can do nothing. I can't even
complain. I can't even complain about
the development department because
Thank you very much. I appreciate your
service.
Diane will be our final speaker.
Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm in
District 7 and yes, I will wave to you
and I've been in support of many of your
initiatives completely. um the heat
relief in district 7, my representative
uh Carlos Galindo Riveras, even though
I've had some opposition in the
neighborhood on it, but I think they've
come around too and we're moving forward
to a more satisfying, but we'll miss you
and we want the city to keep on, you
know, taking care of uh people that are
less than fortunate and they need help
and we need help. Okay. So, um I've been
listening today. I almost wasn't going
to come over here. Normally, I go to
Wednesday over to the board, which I did
to MAG. I've stopped going there because
guess what? All their policies and
studies has only got us and Phoenix the
worst air quality in the country. So,
um, also I'd like to add I hope the
streets department and anger looks into
I just saw on MAG last night that your
efforts on prepaving a lot of them are
for alleys. Now, I could be for some of
that, but when you when I'm on
particularly buses, they're rattling on
major streets like uh Thomas, you need
to pave those streets. So I'd like to
see where in priority on MAG we're doing
dust proofing and paving if in fact you
move those to the more used streets
mayor. Okay. And so finally I'd like to
say the federal government's the biggest
employer in the United States bigger
than wall Walmart's 2.7 million. We have
a lot of people and the lady spoke about
there isn't empathy in this country.
This was a bipartisan. I got into my
files. I've been going to a lot of
meetings because I do care to
participate with government. Can you
believe people are all upset with this
group called
Dodge its efficiency to cut down on
this? Mind you, the biggest employer in
the United States is federal government.
The thing is this dodge by another name
started in 2018 or maybe before there is
a group they're still around and they
were looking at the inefficiencies waste
and there they this is bipartisan it's
called open the books and they wrote a
letter then in 2018 to President Trump
to join in in looking into all of the
waste and to make a transparency and to
have it bipartisan. So people in this
country regardless of party need to look
I could name off these. It's my time's
up but look into
openbooks.com
talking. Thank you. We are adjourned.
and town of Apache Junction Mayor Chip
Wilson. Let's give them all a round of
applause.