Phoenix City Council Policy Meeting - March 25, 2025

e
good afternoon welcome to the March 25th
policy meeting of the Phoenix City
Council I'll Now call the meeting to
order will the clerk call the
role councilman galinda here
councilwoman wado here councilwoman Hajj
Washington here councilwoman Pastor here
councilman Robinson here councilwoman
Stark here councilman
wearing vice mayor o Brian here mayor
goo here we'll begin with Council
information and follow-up requests and
we'll start with District 8 councilwoman
Hodge Washington thank you
mayor there's been a few EV since our
last policy meeting that I wanted to
share with everyone next slide
oh there we go last week I celebrated
women's History Month with the
councilman um Carlos galinda AA at the
Latino shape in the future breakfast it
was an inspiring morning surrounded by
powerful Latino leaders and Trail basers
who were making a difference across our
city I also had the honor of attending
the ceremonial Street naming of aen mues
the Mento ceremony it was a move and
tribute to the women of the movement
whose Legacy continues to shape our
future next
slide okay next slide please Frozen
oh ah there we go um next I just want to
invite everyone to join us for a few
upcoming um important events in District
8 first don't miss the district 8
Community budget hearing on April 7th at
6:00 p.m. at the South Mountain
Community Library we want to hear from
you your voice matters and how we
prioritize and invest in our community
next our coffee chat our next coffee
Misha will be in LaVine on April 10th at
10:00 a.m. at the Caesar Chavez
Community Center these coffee chats are
great opportunities to connect ask
questions and share your thoughts and
lastly on April 12th at 9:00 a.m. we are
hosting the district 8 Health and
Welfare at the south Phoenix Youth
Center come on out for free health
screening resources and financial
Wellness tools for you and your family
next
slide as always if you need help with
any city services or notice and issue in
your community don't hesitate to reach
out to my office that is all I have
mayor thank you thank you so much we'll
next go to coun councilwoman
Pastor good afternoon
um I'd like to thank uh representative
Cesar agad for inviting me and being a
co-sponsor with uh Unity cruise to the
capital um we had a great time
showcasing our low rider community and
those uh at the capital and also U many
voters that were there lots of
fun um it was an honored to join uh
councilman galinda Alid and councilwoman
Hajj Washington
and the mayor and I'm missing somebody
um in
the and highlight their efforts uh these
women worked alongside Cesar Chavez to
fight for Farm Workers the street naming
is just one step towards recognizing
them and thank you for doing
that budget hearings begin next week
please participate and give a voice to
the budget visit phoenix.gov
budget to review to view the full
listings of the
hearings next slide I will be hosting a
listening session on summer heat plans
this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:
p.m. at the Memorial Hall hoping to see
everybody the community wants to know
what we are doing this summer for
heat and please
register on Monday we are hosting a
cleanup on our West Side for Cesar
Chavez Day we will meet at Morris K UD
doall middle school for light
Refreshments before beginning the
cleanup of the alleys in the area scan
the QR code to sign
up I do want to bring attention uh since
it is policy I do want to bring
attention to uh an incident that
happened this weekend that uh with it
could be part of heat but with uh our
unsheltered population our unsheltered
uh population residents uh there was I
received a text along with uh those in
um office of Homeless Solutions about a
resident and uh forward that text to the
staff and I didn't hear anything back
from the
staff um I still don't have an update on
that other than we are trying um Stacy
champion who was The Advocate all
weekend and was The Advocate who uh
helped Anna get situated
um I'm grateful for her doing that uh
because at least Anna had an advocate or
else she would have been placed out on
the streets where she uh really needed
some medical
attention uh Stacy also brought up
another incident uh regarding another uh
resident and so my expectation is that
staff respond to me um my expectation is
that then I get understand and get uh
advice or tools so that I can
communicate to my constituent or our
really our constituents not mine um in
order to be able to assist or enhance
some services so um that is my comment
thank
you thank you mayor D5 has been
celebrating exciting milestones and
creating fun events for our community
and I am delighted to share that we
won't be stopping anytime soon this past
Saturday March 22nd my office in
partnership with NSD celebrated the
1,000th gated alley I I want to thank
all the neighbors who joined us to
celebrate the incredible milestone for
our city and our community I also want
to thank NSC director Spencer self and
deputy director Evette rer for helping
make the event possible as well as the
department and program managers who have
made this program such a huge success in
our community coming up this weekend we
have the grand opening of the Grand
Canal scape this Saturday March 29th
from from 10:00 a.m. to noon located
along the canal at 63rd Avenue in claron
Avenue there will be free parking at
mville high school come celebrate the
unveiling of phase three of the Grand
Canal scape adding four miles of
beautiful outdoor amenities for everyone
to come out and
enjoy this event is perfect for families
and outdoor enthusiasts and is free and
open to all also on Saturday March 29th
from 12 to p.m. we will be hosting our
next marville Mercado celebrate
celebrating wom's History Month come and
enjoy a vibrant Gathering of local
vendors delicious food and Lively
entertainment at our maral Mercado at
the maral community center we will have
free health screenings for women and D5
micro
museum honoring iconic women in history
this community event is the perfect
place to explore unique crafts save
local flavors and soak in the festive
atmosphere with family friends and
neighbors join us this Saturday for a
funfilled day in
marille this past week our office was
delighted to participate in the Via
theas gain event in marille prep Fiesta
where we also had the opportunity to
begin sharing the youth interaction
survey regarding the development of
Youth interaction policy for the police
department very delighted to say um
between the two events we were able to
collect over 60 no I'm sorry 80 surveys
team is looking at me like we did more
than that um so just want to thank the
team for all of their hard work and all
of the youth that partic that has
participated in this survey and I also
want to invite you all to please um
share it with all of our youth and
hoping to be able to have huge success
with the survey thank you
mayor thank you so much councilwoman
councilman Galindo Aira thank you
mayor two weeks ago I I joined uh the
mayor in over 100 incredible volunteers
to clean up the Rios wetlands and
together we cleared out six tons of
trash huge thanks to the real reimagined
Team ASU and adq for bringing us all
together to protect this beautiful and
important
ecosystem next
slide I had a fantastic time at the St
Patrick's Day Parade a big thank you to
the Arizona east valley mustang club uh
Club for the great ride um it was really
cool and I also want to offer my
congratulations to the vice mayor an o'
Brien who was this year's Grand Marshall
next
slide last Monday councilwoman hjge
Washington and I hosted another
successful leine quarterly meeting thank
you to all the residents who attended
and engaged with us next
slide last week I had the great honor of
hosting the inaugural Latina shaping the
future breakfast in celebr ction of
women's History Month a special thank
you to our incredible panelists Raina
Montoya Maria Lopez Elisa Bustamante and
Angelina Bravo our amazing MC Nicole
Gutierrez from abc5 and of course the
wonderful eladas for moderating most
importantly thank you to all the
incredible women who joined us to
celebrate connect and Inspire one
another I also am appreciative um for
the attendance of my special guest to
the event councilwoman elect Anna
ernandez
next
slide on Saturday the city proudly
unveiled the
aen street sign honoring the courageous
women who played a vital role in
Arizona's Farm worker movement I said it
there and I'm going to say it here
without women there is no
movement next
slide last night I continued my cooking
tour of district 7 fire stations with a
visit to Fire Station 3 I'm excited to
be nearing the Finish Line with only
three more more stations to go VI
stations 1 44 and 62 next
slide to stay connected to the H to
what's happening around the city and to
get more involved check out phoenix.gov
as always if you live in district 7 and
want to contact me it's easy you can
reach out through any of the options on
the screen I'm here to serve you and
greatly value your input thank you
mayor thank you any additional council
member comments
great I have one brief one uh the my
team was able to join today with uh
cleaning professionals to recognize
National cleaning
week it is a international celebration
that recognizes cleaning professionals
who do everything from making sure
semiconductors can be safely made
without any compromises in quality to
the
individuals who keep City Hall and
council chambers clean so we just want
to thank you all for the important you
work that you do and then with that we
will go into the main event uh today
we'll have one hearing and two votes we
are going to discuss our summer heat
plan we plan year round for heat in the
city of Phoenix on the coldest day of
the year we still think about preparing
for heat this meeting comes as we set
another record
yesterday of a heat record that had been
in place since 1990 fell and that is
something we say pretty regularly here
this is a challenge that continues we
are going to have a 100
degrees earlier than one would have
hoped uh our extreme heat is an evolving
Public Health Emergency that requires
every level of government to step up to
save lives here in Phoenix we are
working to do our part I'm proud of our
cross departmental Phoenix team that
includes office of emergency management
Fire Department office of Homeless
Solutions office of heat response and
mitigation libraries and more who do
work to improve our heat relief efforts
year-over-year last summer we targeted
areas with the highest heat related
emergency calls to place our extended
hour cooling centers and our first ever
24-hour cooling center we saw a
reduction in heat related calls last
summer as a result 2024 was a Hott the
hottest summer on record in our
community according to Maricopa County
despite the Heat record the number of
people who lost their lives from a heat
Rel ated illness went down for the first
time in a decade the number of people
who lost their lives is still way too
high but the curve didn't happen by
accident it shows that providing a
coordinated thorough response to extreme
heat can save lives today we'll discuss
on how to build upon last year's efforts
including the continuation of extended
Library hours and a new proposed site
for a 24-hour cooling center I want to
thank mag Maricopa County and our
partners CommunityWide who support
cooling centers and connect residents
with life-saving resources lastly I want
to thank my colleagues on the city
council for your leadership and
commitment to this issue I'm proud that
our investments are delivering results
and saving lives thank you to our city
manager Jeff Barton the Phoenix
leadership team our First Responders and
all of the hardworking staff and
contractors for your work to keep our
residents safe and comfortable in our
summer heat with that I'll turn it over
to our Deputy City mon ma manager Gina
Montes
thank you mayor members of the city
council um we're pleased to be with
before you this afternoon to talk about
our
2025 um heat response plan and maras who
you so eloquently put it we are evolving
this plan we worked all last summer and
continued even into the winter to plan
for this coming
summer and planning for the heat the
summer heat is truly a LIF saving
Mission um with your direction and
support mayor and Council in 2024 City
staff executed a plan to enhance our
services and reduce heat related
illnesses and suffering and of course
save lives the work involved many
partners internal and external and this
year the team is proposing a plan that
we um hope will continue to improve and
based on what we learned from last year
um today presenting um will be Dr Nick
stob who's the chief medical officer for
the Maricopa County Public Health
Department executive assistant chief Tim
chry with the Phoenix Fire Department
department and Dr David hondula who's
director of The Office of heat response
and mitigation and I also want to
introduce um with us core members of our
what we're calling our heat ready
unified command team and they're with us
as well to answer any questions after we
complete the presentation Rachel mney
director of The Office of H Solutions
Aaron McFarland director of the Phoenix
Public Library uh Michelle Litwin heat
response program manager and and
Commander Brian Lee director of The
Office of Emergency Management and I'd
like to acknowledge Amy St Peter with
the Maricopa Association of governments
as you know mag is a very important
partner in the regional heat
relief today we'll be reviewing a
summary of the Maricopa County heat
surveillance report an overview of the
2024 heat response efforts proposed 2025
heat response plan with a focus on the
heat relief um effort specifically and
then we will request that the mayor and
Council take action on the plan itself
and related items necessary to execute
the
plan mayor you alluded to the number of
Partnerships that it takes um and in
addition to Maricopa County and mag who
are with us today there are many
Community Partners who worked with us
last summer and who will again support
the effort in
2025 and as you can see there's a
tremendous support from all of our
partner
organizations within our organization
there are more than 20 departments that
supported the heat relief effort in 2024
it will once again require the full
support of the City of Phoenix to
support the 2025 plans and now I'll turn
the presentation over to Dr stab to
discuss the heat surveillance
report thank you Gina um good afternoon
mayor gyo council members um as was
referenced um I'm going to start by just
looking back at last summer um it was a
record Summer in many ways um um and I
think it sets a stage for understanding
um what our health data is and and how
successful um we were what work we still
have to do moving forward so um here on
your screen um in red is last Summer's
high temperatures um over a gray line
that shows your 30-year average and I
think what's remarkable is how many days
over the summer had uh days
significantly higher than that 30-year
average um also notably our temperatures
into October um and that long heat wave
that we experienced um really till the
end of October the records that were set
um importantly include um 113
consecutive days at or above 100
degrees we had 70 total days at or above
110 and for the first time we reached
110 degrees um in the month of October
so really um an unprecedented um
summer as was mentioned um in Maricopa
County um in the last 10 years as we've
been tracking our heat related deaths um
we have seen that number climb
year-over-year um with a record increase
uh in 2023 a 52% increase over
2022 um and that represents uh uh 800%
increase in that last
decade I think it's also important to
note here that in that time there has
been no significant change to the way
that we are investigating or defining a
heat related death
so uh we are very excited a few weeks
ago to announce our preliminary uh heat
data along with great work um that was
done here in the city of Phoenix um we
saw the first decline in the last decade
um in that total number so uh 602 with
eight uh deaths still under
investigation um we will have our final
report out later in April um but this is
definitely um a point in time where we
really wanted to reflect on what we did
last summer um as is uh did uh was a
significant change um in the trends that
we had
seen so digging into that data a little
further um while the overall number fell
um the data shows that we have
consistently high-risk population um
that need our support to survive during
the summer um the majority of those heat
related deaths were men of middle age
and occurred in urban areas so here you
can see that um about 80% of the heat
related deaths were male
um most of the deaths uh more than 50%
occurred in individuals aged 35 to 64 so
um certainly more of a middle age uh
while there is a trend towards uh older
individuals being um at high
risk and nearly 60% of our heat related
deaths um occurred in non-hispanic white
persons however African-Americans and
American Indians are disproportionately
impacted here you can see that 15 and 6%
of um African-Americans and American
Indians uh were amongst the heat related
deaths um compared to five and a half in
one uh just over 1% in our
population so similar to recent years
about three qus of our deaths occurred
outdoors and and with a preponderance of
those outdoor deaths occurring um in
urban areas so that's really I think
when we're focusing on where we can have
um meaningful interventions that's those
are the spaces that we are most
concerned
with we do investigate the living
situation of individuals um and has been
typical in recent years about uh 50% or
half of heat related deaths occurred in
individuals experiencing
homelessness we also are particular
interested in the number of these cases
that involve substance use um more than
half of the heat related deaths in 2024
involved substance use and quite notably
almost um 90% of those deaths involving
substance use um involved stimulants so
you can compare that to um 44% that that
involved opioids so really um trying to
highlight going into the summer and
working with Partners um the
significance of stimulant use do you
mind taking a quick question Council
pestor
short how do you collect this
information so all of this information
is collected through investigations
through the office of the medical
examiner um we look both at cause of
death on death records as well as cases
that are um taken up by the OM may have
toxicology data so looking specifically
at what substances are
detected okay so you go back and and
look for that information or data or you
that's correct okay thank
you all right and with that I will end
my portion and pass it off to Chief
CH thank you Dr stop mayor Gago members
of the
council as a city We've Come Together
working hard to build collaborative heat
response programs with the intent of
saving lives I've been with the city of
Phoenix for over 20 years and these heat
response programs have been the most
collaborative I've seen involving many
City departments and other part Partners
our heat response plan includes actions
and efforts of many First Responders the
provision of cool and accessible public
spaces drinking water cold and safe cool
and safe homes Recreation heat safety
for workers Community engagement and
Outreach and significant
collaboration from the fire department's
perspective our heat resp response
programs have saved lives last year I
shared the firefighter experience in
extreme temperatures during the summer
months firefighters in Phoenix and AC
Ross the valley prepare and work some
very long and difficult shifts our heat
response plan included both short and
long-term strategies and we have said
that people cannot die from extreme heat
exposure sitting in an aircond
conditioned building with a cold bottle
of water in their hands accessible
cooling centers opened when needed where
needed save lives additionally our heat
response strategy included long-term
options connecting services offered by
the City of Phoenix and other partners
to those in need and when compared to
last year 911 patients with heat related
medical emergencies were reduced by 20%
exceeding my expectations especially
considering we have the longest and
hottest summer on
record the location of heat relief sites
is important and this map while a little
bit difficult to see I'll describe it
shows the locations of the three
extended hour library locations from
last year choya yucka and Harmon also
the map shows Burton Bar the 24-hour
site and Senior opportunity West which
was opened overnight and heat response
excuse me heat patients within a mile of
these sites in 2023 total 248 and that
number was reduced to 185 in 2024 that's
just a little bit over a 25% reduction
immediately around those site
locations the Adaptive heat response
program built and implemented the
leadership of Mayor and Council were
significant and the challenges presented
to us inspired more Innovations like the
fire dep Department's new treatment
options for patients having extreme heat
related emergencies this was the Cold
Water immersion program was truly a
boots on the ground initiative and it
was developed by our EMS training
captains in coordination with our
medical director and downtown fire
companies that were inundated with Hyper
hypothermia calls in 2023 this program
is for patients with extreme heat
related illness who are unresponsive and
with temperatures above 104.5 de f using
cold water immersion thir our goal is to
get our patients temperature down to
101° and get those critical patients
transported over to the emergency room
311 patients throughout the whole summer
May through October benefited from this
treatment the busiest months were June
with 66 July with 151 and then August
with
70 cold water immersion therapy and
Rapid transport to the hospital Sav
lives we've had people who would have
died prior to this new treatment that
left the hospital with no d deficits
this is the best way to manage critical
heat patients and our goal for this
program is for it to spread across the
United States and around the world to
share the new life-saving stuff that
we've developed here the Phoenix fire
department has been contacted by fire
departments around the country about our
cold water immersion treatment program
including LA County Miami Dade San
Antonio and others and while this treat
treatment program has saved lives I know
that our comprehensive heat response
program which reduced heat related
emergencies Again by 20% prevented
countless patients from needing this
treatment and with that I'll turn the
presentation over to Dr
hula thank you Chief and good afternoon
mayor and councel as the chief alluded
to last year marked significant growth
for our heat response program
complementing the field techniques that
the chief just spoke to with your
support the city made major investments
in some of our heat relief Network sites
last year and we operate these sites to
keep people from needing to call 911 for
heat emergency in the first place first
we created 247 and overnight respit
options at two City facilities these
facilities were selected after a
rigorous analytical process that
considered Health Data accessibility and
facility infrastructure and capacity we
open these resources as part of our
effort to address a regional need for
more after hours and overnight capacity
nearly every heat relief night heat
relief site in our region closes at the
end of business hours yet we all know
how dangerous the heat can be into the
evening hours and overnight and the
health data support the need for that
overnight capacity we operated a 247
heat respit and navigation Center in the
former and vacant Cafe space at Burton
Bar library and we provided overnight
relief at the senior opportunities West
Senior Center between these two sites we
saw more than 28,000 visits from more
than 5,000 unique visitors and at these
sites we had a comp comprehensive
Staffing model to try to help visitors
solve the challenges that brought them
to the heat relief site in the first
place we also had a robust security
model to ensure that visitors and the
surrounding areas were as safe as
possible with respect to Extended hour
cooling centers last year the city made
dedicated space for heat relief
available in three of our library branch
locations after typical operating hours
ended these locations were chosen based
on the same analysis that informed the
247 and overnight options
a cooling center space was open at all
Sites until 10 p.m. and that included
added hours on Sundays and as with our
24/7 and overnight sites this was a
multi-prong staffing and security effort
with our library staff Community Bridges
Inc and security these sites also log
thousands of visits and some of these
sites had visitors experiencing a very
wide range of circumstances we saw
visitors who were seeking heat relief
after youth soccer practice to Residents
who were coming there because they were
without power for one reason or another
these sites were resources for the
entire
Community now while the primary mission
of our heat relief sites is to provide
residents a safe air conditioned space
to cool off and get hydrated we
recognize that these sites offered a
great opportunity to help people get
connected to additional Services trying
to make those connections is why we
implemented a robust Staffing model with
teammates from the office of Homeless
Solutions and our partners at Community
Bridges Inc and that sta Staffing model
made made a huge difference in the lives
of hundreds if not more of our community
members from our heat relief sites last
year we're proud to report that more
than 900 people were were placed into
programs including Housing Shelter and
family reunification that includes many
families and
miners because of engagement at a heat
relief site as we sit here today there
are more than 300 people in housing who
otherwise might not have been
our robust staff and services model at
heat relief sites also included health
and medical care provided by teros
health and ASU nursing you can see some
of the metrics on the slide in terms of
the numbers of hours contributed and
supplies distributed these Partners
addressed a very wide range of health
and medical needs and among them we
provided special attention to heat and
substance use concerns as Dr stav
alluded to substance use is a factor in
over half of our heat related deaths
which is why we were motivated to engage
these Partners developing specialized
informational resources on heat and
substance use and ensuring that heat
relief sites are part of the city's none
distribution
program I'd like to briefly highlight a
few other programs that were part of our
plan last year just to illustrate its
breath the city once again last year was
the backbone for regional water
distribution for heat relief in addition
to the 62 heat relief sites that the
city operates we provided water to
another 60 Community partner
organizations Distributing approximately
1. 2 million bottles in total throughout
the
summer your commitment of American
Rescue plan act funds enabled us to also
offer D direct financial assistance to
organizations that support heat relief
efforts last year we were able to award
more than $300,000 to 18 organizations
and their reach impacted more than
36,000 residents providing them
resources such as heat safety supplies
and access to Extended and weekend
cooling center
hours City departments including the
heat office provide support for some of
the major events that Phoenix was
privileged to host last summer including
the WNBA All-Star game at these events
we offered popup Hydration Stations and
cool zones as well as heat safety
education to ensure that residents and
visitors had a positive experience and
to avoid further strain on our fire
department resources responding to heat
illness calls Partners in these efforts
included the convention center and
Downtown Phoenix Inc and finally our
Citywide Communications campaign had
expanded modes and reach last year there
was information on traditional
Billboards and digital signage we
distributed thousands of the pamphlets
that see you can see on the slide as
well as a companion version that was
focused on heat and substance use and of
course we fielded many interview
requests to spread the word through our
Media
Partners as you've heard from my
colleagues we know that the full Suite
of these heat response programs reached
and benefited many community members
last year you've heard the statistics
but just to put them all in one place a
20% decrease Citywide in he related 911
calls including more than a 25%
reduction in the immediate vicinity of
those five enhanced heat relief sites we
saw the first decline in heat related
deaths in more than a decade but beyond
those metrics are the hundreds or I
would estimate even thousands of lives
that were changed for the better as a
result of Engagement with the heat
response program including the 900
placements we talked about before I
think it's also important to remember
the thousands of visits that simply
resulted in a few hours of Peace comfort
cool space and
quiet I would like to acknowledge that
we are a long way from achieving the
collective Community Vision that heat
related illnesses are minimized and heat
related deaths are eliminated public
health professionals widely agree that
heat related deaths are preventable we
are seeing positive indications that
show that your support has enabled us to
gain meaningful traction on a very big
Regional problem but a problem that we
still have a lot of work to do to fully
solve
one of the important components of our
team's work to coordinate heat response
programs last year was our improved data
collection efforts that informed our
after action report at the end of the
season and guided our planning for this
year this is a datadriven approach a few
of the E key insights that we learned or
had confirmation of last year is that
this comprehensive Staffing model was so
essential we learned iterated and
evolved through the summer in terms of
what the Staffing and security presence
looked like and we have iterated to a
model that we are confident to deploy at
the start of the 2025 Heat season while
we did see reductions Citywide in heat
related 911 calls and reductions near
the heat relief sites our general hot
spots for heat related 911 calls are
consistent with previous years those
include the downtown core and the i7
Corridor extending North to
approximately
Poria and finally we had confirmation
that sites that are accessible to all
modes of travel but especially
pedestrians is very important a very
very high percentage of visitors to our
sites got there by foot and the next
most common modes were bicycle or public
transit so Guided by those insights and
many more we've revised the heat
response plan for 2025 in your packet
we've highlighted several actions that
are significantly revised or added for
this year but in our presentation today
we'd like to focus the dialogue on key
revisions in the strategy area of
providing publicly accessible cool space
we will share with you proposed changes
to the 247 Heat respit center and the
operational model for extended hour
cooling centers the operational season
planned for heat efforts this year like
last year is May through September
although in light of that unprecedented
heat we saw last October we did
demonstrate agility to extend operations
by a few weeks I'll remind you mayor and
Council that we are trying to solve this
Regional challenge in that there's very
little publicly accessible cool space
available after typical business hours
in fact about onethird of heat related
911 calls occur outside of typical
business hours and I think it's a safe
bet that some of the calls that do occur
during the typical business day are
because people are not able to find
adequate cooling
overnight so for
247 this year we once again conducted a
rigorous search for facilities that
could be part of the heat relief Mission
keeping in mind our key selection
criteria as we did before including 911
calls accessibility and having the
necessary capacity infrastructure and
Life Safety Systems and we are glad to
report that we have identified a
property at 20 West Jackson Street that
is available for short-term lease for
this Mission we've conducted assessments
with our fire colleagues planning our
Ada team public works and it and we're
confident that the property can meet
needs for the operational season we've
also understood the modest scope of work
that we'd like to complete before we go
operation opal on May
1st importantly this location has the
capacity to accommodate the combined
population that Ed the Burton Bar respit
Center and the senior opportunities West
overnight facility last year so we're
proposing to consolidate the 247 and
overnight efforts into one facility
Burton Bar and Senior opportunities West
in the proposed model would no longer
host enhanced strategies but would
continue serving as heat relief sites
more generally as consistent with dozens
of other City facilities this would mean
that Burton Bar is a cooling center as
it has been for many years during
typical business hours and Senior
opportunities West Senior Center
participates as a Hydration Station also
during normal business
hours and with respect to Extended hour
cooling centers we're proposing to make
a change that we hope is received as
good news for all residents and it's a
change that will also help with our
staffing and operational planning unlike
last year when we only had a limited
space available for heat relief without
access to full Library services this
year we're proposing to keep these three
library locations fully open with
services and programs until 10 p.m.
we've identified A Better Staffing model
that will improve efficiency and reduce
burdens on existing staff and we will
also support these locations with
Community Bridges ink and security
resources during those extended hour
periods we're excited about deploying
this model at three locations because
not only does it continue to provide
essential heat relief for the community
but expands the indoor air conditioned
resources available for residents and
families who are looking for things to
do in cool space during our long hot
summer and with respect to some of the
complimentary integrated activities at
these sites we plan to continue
integrating health and medical services
at the 247 and extended hour locations
including those Partnerships with teros
and ASU nursing we'll also be continuing
to work with local researchers and
organizations with expertise in
substance use and overdose prevention to
ensure that our messaging and engagement
is as effective as possible in
addressing one of the major contributing
factors to heat related deaths and I'd
now like to hand the presentation back
to Deputy city manager Montes to review
the management and budget components of
the plan and to share a few final
thoughts thank
you thank you Dr andula mayor and
council at once again we'll continue the
model with our heat ready unified
command team um addressing operations
and and um managing any concerns that
arise as quickly as possible um this is
helpful because the key departments are
engaged on a daily basis and make it uh
make it very efficient and the team will
once again provide a weekly heat
response report provided directly to you
mayor and Council which will also be
available on phoenix.gov heat and this
report includes heat related calls for
service visits by location referrals for
services and other information key
information from the summer summer
program the cost for this summer is
approximately $4.9 million which will be
funded by City American Rescue plan act
arpa opio opioid settlement funds and
funding from the Maricopa County
Department of Public
Health we'd like to close uh with a
video of a family that we me we met last
summer um during during our um heat
response
activities hi I'm line and I'm with the
office of Homeless Solutions this summer
I worked at our Burton Bar heat Relief
Center over this summer our teams were
able to connect 900 individuals
including families and small children
into placement services such as shelter
and housing this is one of the families
that we'd like you to
meet basically had a bunch of trials and
tribulations that led us to homelessness
Devon Keith and their 2-year-old
daughter zy found themselves living on
the street during Phoenix is dangerous
summer heat it was hard it was back
struggles but it was hard yeah you know
just to go to sleep still outside like
that you know she's she's PR she's she's
H just called field the family heard
about the 24-hour heat relief offered at
Burton Bar Central Library and went
there looking for help yeah we wouldn't
be right here if we never made but still
that sh stet
and wasn't there there they met Caroline
who helped connect them with her room at
you mom's family shelter car was nice
they was was so amazing yes they Comfort
us they make sure was hydrated and
snacks from De my daughter he's um very
healthy yes now they're looking forward
to their future as a family now we at U
it's like we get this started to get old
please be together that first step yeah
and that's all we needed was that first
and have a message for anyone else in
need of help not just say keep Faith
keep striving get the resources they out
here is is willing to help I'm bear
witness to
it we really appreciate the family's
willingness to share their story and May
and members of the council we
respectfully request your
approval let me advance the slide to
moved by the video we respectfully
request your approval of the 2025 heat
response plan and authorization to lease
the 20 West Jackson Property to contract
with CBI to operate and provide
Supportive Services to authorize the IGA
with Maricopa County and to authorize
the agreement with CBI for security
services and with that we're available
to answer any
questions thank you so
much we'll go first to councilman gindo
AA uh and we we'll begin with item one
which is the approval of the heat
response
plan thank you mayor um I have a couple
of questions first of all thank you all
for your presentation I very much
appreciate the work that you've put into
it it's thoughtful it's caring and for
many of our viewers who are watching I
want you to know that this is not
seasonal planning this is annual
planning in ensuring the safety of our
residents during the hottest time of the
year so Dr stab I got a uh two questions
for you the first one is why is that
stimulants play such a big role in
substance abuse related
deaths thank you mayor uh and councilman
gindo alira um so it's a physiologic
response so
um
stimulant uh based substances cause a
response in the body that elevates the
Heat and and
makes um makes your ability to respond
to the environmental heat more difficult
so it just compounds the the heat
obviously we see the same or we see
similar responses with other drug types
um that may uh make a person confused
and unable to follow through with a plan
to stay cool um but the it's the
compounded effects of stimulants and
heat that make them especially dangerous
thank you and then my second question to
you is what role does Co comorbidity
play in heat related
deaths yeah so in our final report that
will come out in April we will have more
details on those comorbidities it's
important I think it's why we see um
more heat related deaths amongst older
uh individuals um often times with
comorbid medical conditions um as well
as mental health conditions that we also
know um put individuals at higher risk
for heat related death so um it is an
important consideration definitely
something we work with our Health Care
Systems and healthare providers to make
sure that when they're talking to their
patients who have those conditions that
they're talking about planning for heat
as well how to keep um themselves uh
cool hydrated and um and specifically
with certain medications uh act
differently
um when a person is in in the heat so uh
taking that full uh all those
considerations into account when we at
Public Health are planning for our heat
uh season thank you um Dr hondula
um in on page five of the draft it talks
about the 31 specific heat response
actions and number three is increase
access to drinking water how do you plan
on doing that can you uh share that that
information with us thank you for the
question mayor and council member gindo
alira there are a number of specific
actions in the plan that speak to our
efforts to improve access to drinking
water amongst them is Distributing
bottled water through our heat relief
sites and to Community Partners and we
are very happy to be working on a new
distribution model to support the entire
community in partnership with the
Maricopa County Public Department of
Public Health we are in lock step in
developing a new logistical model that
will be even better for the whole
Community we're also proud to elevate
the work of Partners in the office of
innovation inre increasing access to
drinking water through the chilled water
fountain pilot program and my second and
final question for you is on number six
says Implement heat safety measures for
workers how is that going to happen and
are there Partners um is there a
partnership with others for this um
initiative thank you for the question uh
councilman mayor and and and council
members the the city's action with
respect to worker safety occurs on a
number of fronts but I I think it's also
important to to set the context that the
state really holds primary jurisdiction
over worker safety uh in Arizona and we
with the council have been exploring
opportunities to improve uh worker
safety engagement certainly the
excellent work of our human resources
department in developing and
implementing heat safety plans for every
city Department last year the council
also passed a new ordinance that creates
heat safety expectations for contracted
workers there continues to be an ongoing
dialogue with staff and a city manager
Advisory board that was commissioned to
ensure that that ordinance is
implemented as effectively as
possible thank you and thank you mayor
thank you so much we'll go to councilman
Robinson and then councilwoman pestor
then councilwoman HUD Washington thank
you mayor you know the first question uh
first of all I want to um comment along
with my colleague you guys it's an
exceptional presentation a lot of hard
work that's been going on for some time
and I thank you for that and very
appreciate of all your hard work the
first question I'll go to J Montes and
it's about um I I know the answer to the
question I'm going to ask it anyway
because I think it needs to be asked in
a public forum is there anyone else any
other municipalities in the greater
Maricopa County area is anyone else
doing the amount of work or the type of
work that we are doing in comparison to
the size of their
localities mayor um councilman Robinson
the other cities um what in my
observation they have generally done the
um opened their existing City facilities
during business hours um our hope is
that this Summer that there will be an
improvement and I know there was a call
through um the mayor and her role with
the amop association of governments to
get other cities to um to expand what
they're offering but I can confidently
say that that there are there isn't
another city even kind of scaling down
for um for what the scope of their
Community has um that that's anywhere
close to the effort and um that we are
putting in to heat response here with
the city of Phoenix and partnership with
with the county and that's what I
thought and thank you for that question
for Dr St stob um it was actually on um
slide page number 12 it's the heat
related depths and I know this is a
Maricopa County um these are numbers
from Maricopa County but when we talk
about the urban area is there any way or
do you have the information to break it
down into how many of those are actually
in the city of Phoenix and if not that's
okay I'm just I don't want anyone to
have to do any work that's not already
there yeah thank you councilman Robinson
and mayor um so when we have our final
heat report available um we will be able
to fill data requests from cities who
are looking for those specific numbers
um you know whether it's just total heat
related deaths in the city or how they
break down in these different spaces um
and go into much greater detail um this
was just from our preliminary report
which keeps it kind of high level um but
we are prepared to share that with uh
cities and other partners
okay that would be great to know when
when it is available thank you for that
and along those same lines when we look
at the heat deaths that are inside
inside the residence and things like
that I would also be curious to know you
know again not just Phoenix but if
there's a way to see where those are
happening because clearly I it it's an
economics thing sometimes I think we
recognize that but us knowing that would
allow each and every one of us up here
to sometimes apply a little bit of um
I'd say pressure for lack of a better
word to some of the utility companies or
other organizations that can be helping
in these areas if we're aware of it you
know it's already it's too hot now as
far as I'm concerned but it's going to
get hotter we know it and if there's a
way that we can continue to help you
guys doing the job that you're doing you
know I would and I I think I'm speaking
for my colleagues up here if you let us
know I know everyone is more than
willing to help but again thank thank
you for the presentation it's
exceptional really appreciate the
information and I know you're doing good
work thank you thank you mayor
councilwoman hun Washington and then
councilwoman pestor thank you mayor um I
Echo the sentiments that I stated
earlier thank you to the fire department
or office of emergency management heat
response and mitigation Homeless
Solutions Public Health Maricopa County
for the incredible work and service and
coordination that you provide to our
community um there are too many partners
to list as we saw on the screen but we
realize that collaboration is really the
collaborative approach is what really
makes the differ difference although we
saw records um being broken and it comes
to the heat we also for the first time
saw first decline in in heat related
debt so that means that what we're doing
is making progress so the updated Heat
response plan I think is about being
proactive it makes sure we are planning
ahead and allocating the necessary
funding and resources necessary to save
lives it's not about they're just not
numbers these are actually lives that we
are talking about um reduce our
emergency calls so our firefighters can
deal with the true emergencies in our
community and we are protecting our most
vulnerable from extreme heat so I want
to start off by saying thank you for all
of your efforts we've seen a reduction
in heat debts as little 911 calls and
I'm hopeful that we continue to build on
that success I have a couple of
questions uh probably need a little
clarification um on slide 13 um as
councilman this is kind of a piggyback
because he got the first part of my
question councilman Robinson um we saw
for those individuals that are not
experienced and homelessness we saw
their numbers for 2023 and
2024 um I don't want to use the word
stagnant but they really were not um
they both were at
42% um I presume that our primary
strategy to those individuals or a
combination of two things one ensuring
that the resident where they are located
has um adequate Cooling and two is um
communication is there something else
that I am missing on when we talking
about those that are currently um
housed thank you uh councilwoman Hajj
Washington mayor and council members I
think you did well in summarizing the
types of programs are that are available
in particular for summer heat response
although if if we zoom out I think it's
also important to remember that there's
a much larger set of of resources
available that can help people with uh
energy assistance home weatherization uh
some of those are programs run by the C
City or in partnership with the city
some run by utilities or in partnership
with utilities that all play an
important role I think what our team
needs to keep working on is helping
ensure that residents are available of
those and working with the other City
departments that that Implement them
where we can find opportunities for
improvement thank you for that um one of
the questions that I have and it's more
of a data I don't the data is not
available at this juncture it talks
about on page nine of the draft report
it talks about among the indoor heat
related debts 62 occurred in a home and
air conditioning units were present but
88% of the time but um but often not
function in do we have any data to
determine whether or not these are um
rental properties or whether or not
these are owner occupied properties I'm
just trying to understand the scope of
the need necessary to address that
problem thank thank you for that
question councilwoman um I think um in
our investigations we we are not able to
get that specific
information
um I think in response to your earlier
question about what we're doing focusing
on those indoor deaths is is really
focusing on some of the messaging that
we do to the community to make sure that
you're checking on your neighbors
checking on your families making sure
that everyone in our community has a
plan because we are all Expos to the
extreme heat um your power cutting off
or your air conditioning going out
suddenly can make uh can put you in a
very difficult uh situation especially
if you have mobility issues or or don't
have other folks to help you at home so
that's really our focus and then um as I
mentioned earlier too speaking with our
healthcare provider Community making
sure that they're talking to their
patients and about a plan for for
getting through the Heat and what the
resources may be um so we're kind of
taking that multi uh multi-prong
approach thank you for that um the other
part of my question goes to I'm making
some presumption here I have no access
to data I'm just going off of antidotal
compation I've received over time is
that many times the individuals that are
in homes that don't have the air
conditioned either on our functional or
our elderly population and those are
individuals who sometimes makes those
decisions without being aware of the
some of the resources that are available
to them um is there any specific
component of the plan that you think um
we need to highlight or stress to ensure
that that population is more advised of
the information of the resources that
are available to them
thank you for the question councilman
hod Washington mayor and council members
uh yes we agree we we hear the stories
of of decisions that are made uh perhaps
unaware of the available resources uh we
know that our our elderly neighbors also
have challenges in in sensing how warm
the environment is because of how the
the body uh ages over time uh so we've
certainly been in conversation with the
human services department about
opportunities to engage at our senior
centers and promote messages through
channels like those I think we have more
work to do on that front as you noted
there's a lot of progress still to be
made with respect to our our senior
population while I have the microphone
open councilwoman if I may just in
response to your previous question I do
think it's important for the listening
public to be reminded that the city does
have a cooling ordinance that creates
requirements for uh reasonable cooling
standards at rental properties and if a
tenant is in a a building that is not
being adequately air conditioned our
excellent teams in the neighborhood
services department and human services
department will get involved to help
bring that property into compliance and
ensure that our renters are cool and
that was kind of where I was going to go
with my my original question is
identifying is do we have a problem
where we're where our landlords are not
aware of this or we're not actively
enforcing this um and I just wanted to
make sure we had that flagged on our
radar to make sure that those
individuals are we keep some track of
that information going forward so that
we can know whether or not the problem
actually lies with the landlord or in
the equipment or do we have single
family we have owner occupied residents
where they simply can't afford it and
they don't meet the qualifications the
resources that we provide I'm just
trying to figure out what the disconnect
is because uh um most of our attention
um focuses on the unsheltered population
and I want to ensure that we are not um
we are not ignoring those individuals
that are also equally vulnerable that
just because they happen to have a roof
over their head at this juncture um that
they are still vulnerable and accessible
to heat related deaths so that was the
purpose of my my original question um I
do have an additional question jumping
on it was more to slide number
14 and the reason it's a question is the
way I read this slide it indicated that
in
2024
89% of the heat related debts um had
some type of substance use involved is
that
correct uh thank you councilwoman uh
Washington I want to to just to clarify
um these bars are of those deaths that
involve substances so about 50% of the
heat related deaths involve substances
of those that involve substances 89%
involved stimulant so it's 89% of 50
okay so thank you for the clarification
so you're saying more than 50% of the
debts involved um involved substance and
of those of that 5 50% or whatever that
number is 89% % of them involve some
level of stimulant that is correct and
so I think if you're looking at our
preliminary report I think it follows a
little more
um a little easier you see the bars in
succession um but yes that's correct
okay thank
you um one more I'm coming I'm almost
there um I I have a couple questions
regarding the um they proposed 24hour
247 rest B at 20 West Jackson um
and maybe this is a better question for
city manager Montes um what do we
anticipate to be the anticipated cost of
operations for this
Center um councilman Haj Washington if I
could have um I'm going to have Rachel
milley come up and she's been delving
into the details of the costs and can
help us parse out the different areas
sorry I was trying to be helpful but
apparently it wasn't appreciate it I
knew we we'd bring her up here at least
once
today mayor members of the council so
the the cost to rent the facility uh
with rent and utilities included is
roughly $40,000 per month and then our
costs on top of that for
CBI um didn't bring my glasses and my
budget is really small uh 1.7 million
for is the contract amount for CBI to
operate that in a 24 um 24 hours a day
with their security team inside and then
an additional 700,000 for our
overtime PD that we are lining up for
the exterior of the site to maintain
security outside of the site and then
our neighboring um properties around the
around 20 West Jackson um did I hear you
correctly you said rent and utilities
are about 40,000 a month correct because
I thought I read
um and yeah the packet says the city is
responsible for utilities and
maintenance so that's why I was
confused yes our mayor and members of
council our rental agreement is for the
rent and utilities of the site roughly
40,000 a month and then we will be
responsible if anything were to happen
with the air conditioning or any ongoing
maintenance all the janitorial that will
be um on our uh on the city and CBI to
maintain all of those okay well that's
good to know that the rent includes the
utilities as well um thank you for that
one of the questions that I had when we
were um discussing this in our briefings
was the understanding the extent of the
community outreach and the community um
I know this isn't predominantly more of
a commercial area and I want to ensure
that the businesses are have been a have
been brought up to speed as to what to
expect and and is there some nature of
um Outreach and coordination with those
neighbors thank you yes so mayor
councilman Hajj Washington um at all of
the locations um we we've begun reaching
out to um neighborhood groups Property
Owners um as far as 20 West ja Jackson
in particular
um I'd like Rachel to kind of summarize
some of those discussions we've had um
kind of an a a a ring team so whoever
can go among the the team will will'll
send someone to talk with the neighbors
and um and try to um help them you know
address their concerns answer questions
make sure that we are preparing
ourselves well for this summer so maybe
if you want to address the ton West
Jackson sure mayor and members of
council so specifically for 20 West
Jackson we've met with our closest
neighbor neighbors um who own several
properties right around the 20 West
Jackson site we've also met with the um
chairman of the warehouse uh District
Council and and just recently we
presented at the entire Warehouse uh
District Council we're also working
through downtown Phoenix Inc leveraging
their Partnerships to have additional
meetings with additional partners that
might want to to learn a little bit
about what we're doing and how we're
securing the
site so if I heard um correctly it
doesn't feel does not we do not do we
believe that the community outreach has
been
completed or is it still ongoing mayor
members of council we have a couple of
additional meetings that we anticipate
getting um uh within the next few weeks
um some directly through downtown
Phoenix Inc and then we're also working
through neighborhood services department
to talk to the neighborhood leaders just
south of the 20 West Jackson property as
well do you mind Sharon the um feedback
that you have received thus far from the
neighbors that you have spoken to Sure
Mayors and members of council um
we are are primarily uh have focused on
the businesses around us and and we have
heard obviously some concern and some
recommendations some of the things that
we are letting them know that we're
putting in place at the beginning are
things we learned last year at 20 West
Jackson or excuse me at the Burton Bar
library so for example we're starting
off May 1st with our overtime PD outside
of the of the center um last year we we
um added that sort of Midstream in our
in our um in our process um the other
thing that I think is that we're putting
in place beginning May 1st is a 24-hour
hotline at 20 West Jackson so if any of
our neighbors have an issue they have a
number to call directly and then we're
also going to offer to to meet with
these Neighbors on a on a frequent basis
throughout the summer so we can be
addressing concerns as they come up as
well okay thank you for that um what do
we anticipate to be the capacity at the
rest bid Center at one
time mayor members of council um we we
anticipate that this s site can take
over both the operation that we had at
Burton Bar and Senior opportunities West
last year which were both around 50
individuals each um however this is a
20,000 squ foot uh facility so we do
want to be able to meet the need no
matter what that is um we anticipate um
we're going to be working with our fire
department and public um Planning and
Development Department to get an exact
number we anticipate it um upwards of
100 individuals at any given
time um one of the other issues that we
talked about um at the last brief in was
understanding the Staffing plan for
um for our proposed vendor for the rest
bit Center can you share a little bit
about
that sure mayor and members of count uh
the council
um Community Bridges Inc Staffing plan
has um two 12-hour shifts for the
24-hour location um so the in each shift
we'll have a a minimum of nine staff um
with uh various levels of Navigators and
peer support with supervisors as well um
and then Monday through Friday os office
of Homeless Solutions will also have two
additional staff there um from 7 to 400
P.M every day
okay my last question was um oh my last
question is about libraries um because
we are extending the library hours to
provide additional cooling um cool
cooling centers um and I just wanted to
have a few question thank you so much I
wanted to make sure I understood where
we were with the additional staff in
needs um because I do believe we're
going to hire some additional temp staff
in order to make that
happen yes thank you uh councilwoman
Hajj Washington mayor members of council
so Library staff um has been working
hard to get those positions filled we
have an opportunity to hire 40 seasonal
part-time workers um to come and staff
extra hours at the library during the
summer on Sunday March 16th at Briton
bar Central Library we held a hiring
event um we have we had about 45 City of
Phoenix staff that interviewed 78
individuals moving 65 forward in the
process um to get them on boarded or
pre-board so that we can have them um
actually on staff by the middle of April
trained and ready to go for the
beginning of this service so we are set
and ready to go with the additional
staff members um per approval of council
today thank you so much for that and I
know my questions have been very heavy
at this uh the logistics but I want to
mention one of the benefits I think of
the heat response plan is we are also
extending our library hours not just for
heat response but also for General
members of the public to participate in
the library activities so thank you for
being able to do that mayor those are my
question thank you so much thank you
we'll go next to councilwoman pestor and
then councilwoman
gado unless we should start with
councilwoman gado yeah councilwoman
gado thank you mayor um first I I just
wanted to take a moment to express my
heart felt appreciation for the
incredible work that has gone into the
2025 heat response plan the the decrease
in confirmed heat related deaths in mopa
County from 645 in
2023 to 62 in 2024 is a significant
achievement particularly considering the
challenges we face during a record
setting Heat season with 70 days above
110 degrees and an astonishing 113
consecutive days over 100 degrees I am
especially grateful for the pl's
emphasis on Outreach to vulnerable
populations particularly those
experiencing homelessness who
represented a staggering 91% of visits
to heat relief locations this focus is
crucial for ensuring that our community
members receive the support they need
during such extreme conditions so just
like piggybacking a little bit on some
of the questions that were being asked I
I just I guess my question is and I
don't know if this is more like we
passed the heat ordinance last year
right where we were going to ask
employers and different people to work
with us and making sure that we held
everyone accountable as we were doing
this um do we know how many of our
numbers are related to those numbers um
for example you workers at the airport
are any of those numbers
combined thank you for the question uh
councilwoman mayor members of council
with respect to heat related fatalities
that information will be included in the
final reporting that the C will have so
we do not specifically know uh in terms
of the heat data what was the case in
2024 with respect to specific uh worker
and employee concerns we would have to
defer to our colleagues in human
resources department yes because I think
we I mean I think um some of the
questions that were being asked in terms
of you know when it comes to air
conditioning um you is it is it rental
properties is it owned homes I I think
being able to figure out what who is it
that we hold accountable around that I
think it's important because I think as
a city we are definitely being a leader
and helping um during during these
months and we just got to make sure that
everyone else is also doing their part
because I still continue
um to hear that there's a lot of
complaints especially at the airport
workers um filing for complaints and
there and those complaints are not being
attended to um and we don't need to get
into that right now I think it's a
different different conversation but
definitely something um that I think you
guys are putting your best foot forward
and I think as a city we're doing a lot
and we're asking neighbors to also do a
lot so making sure that we're holding
everyone accountable um to all the
different ordinances that we have out
there I I think it's important to making
sure that we continue to lower our
numbers every year so with that being
said you know I would like to extend my
sincere thanks to our assistant city
manager Lori Bas andgar Ericson Deputy
city manager Gina Montes as well
everyone at the Phoenix fire department
and the offices of of Emergency
Management heat respon and heat response
and mitigation Homeless Solutions Public
Health I know you guys were work really
hard every day to make an incredible
impact into our community so thank you
guys so much for all of your hard work
thank you
mayor thank you so much and and and
important to recognize led by Phoenix
city councilwoman we had the Arizona
leading worker protection ordinance that
we passed at this body last year
councilwoman Pastor thank you thank you
mayor um I first would like to actually
thank the mayor uh for a great
discussion about the resit center uh
because I had some reservations
regarding where the location was and the
fact that uh downtown we have placed uh
millions and millions of dollars to
build downtown and get it back to the
level that we would like to see
inactive um but her and I talked uh
deeply about it and one of the things
and items that I see in the packet is
security because we talked about
security what I don't see in the packet
is security for the
libraries um and I'm not sure if that's
an add different because I was looking
through each item and I don't know if
it's item three that that's in addition
to or where it's at but um I do want to
have that
discussion what I want to ask is is this
a new contract for
CBI mayor members of council yes this
will be a new contract with CBI for this
summer we did have a contract with them
last summer as well and this one will be
a new Fresh contract this summer and
what's the current contract that we have
right now with CBI we have several uh
mayor members of council we have several
contracts with CBI none for heat rest
bit this will be a new um uh contract
just for heat resit services for I
understand that but I want to know what
the total cost uh that we have the total
cost of all our cbi's contracts mayor
members of council I can pull that for
you and get that to you later today okay
I just is it millions and millions of
dollars is
it um mayor councilwoman Pastor the um
we can get you the total um the the
contracts we have are mainly for the
Outreach contract and then they also
operate we have contracts for operation
of shelters they're operating the
Phoenix navigation Center and then we
contract with them we provide funding um
for other projects as well I and so we'd
have to get the total um for you later
but it um it is a significant
amount yes and that's why I'm asking
that that's why I'm asking the question
because I want to understand why we
continue to put millions and millions of
dollars into
CBI and
uh when we know that there's other
uh nonprofits that also do this type of
service so I'm trying to get get some
clarity around this and understand
that's that's just where I'm at right
now um so in this 1.7 million that's for
the resit item three it states that uh
and I want to know if it's included in
the 1.7 million or if it's an addition
to that we're going to uh pay another
2.9 Million I think uh to
CBI mayor members of council the 1. 7
million was just for the the uh 20 West
Jackson site that is for them to provide
all of the 24-hour services and as well
as their own private security for inside
the 20 West Jackson site additionally
we'll have another ISB for the services
at all three libraries for the extended
hour site however they are not providing
the security services at those libraries
that is included um in the library
Staffing model okay so it's about four
4.6 I don't know I don't have my
calculator right here but about
approximately 4.6 million dollar that we
will be voting on
today something like that um Council and
it's $4.9 million is our estimated um
our total no no four is the 4.9
including the
2. N yes okay so yeah
4.6 um all right I just wanted to get
some clarity on that um um I would like
to add security
to the
libraries so I don't know where that
comes from Council and pestor mayor
members of council that would be me um
so I can speak to um Library security is
included in the library Staffing model
we're hiring nine additional security
guards in that 40 part-time seasonal
staff um that will continue you know the
library security model through those 10
o' through that 10 o00 hour Monday
through Saturday and then additionally
on those Sunday hours from noon to 10:
p.m. okay thank you I just wanted to
make sure that was there for my uh for
our constituents and then uh secondly
thirdly fourth uh I would like to see a
breakdown of this
budget um it's not in the packet so I'm
not sure and it wasn't in the
presentation of the breakdown of where
the 4.9
million is going and where the chunk is
going I believe it's to bi
um one of the things that I have heard
throughout uh the community and in
particular my uh Town Hall Forum
Community chat whatever you want to call
it is uh
that
CBI Community have challenges with CBI
and some of the behaviors of CBI so one
of the things that came out of the the
meeting
as she spoke passionately about it was
that she asked if we are auditing and so
I want to know how we're
auditing this piece over this summer of
all the
organizations that are participating in
this piece and in the audit how are we
holding them
accountable and if they're not meeting
what they need to meet what are we
doing so are we doing that mayor and I
don't going to have Rachel talk in
detail um about kind of how we um U
monitor our contracts but I would I do
want to comment that with the creation
of the office of H Solutions we do
manage our contracts very closely in
terms of the quality um our um our
liaison our deputy director um we have a
special projects administrator that is
very engaged they are all very engaged
with the providers and they have
different assignments to ensure that the
that the um projects and programs and
services are going um going well and
that when we identify issues we're um
we're acting on them in terms of kind of
the formal audits um are you talking a
financial audit or are both financial
and programmatic and we can we can
address both I'm talking about all of it
soic delivery of services
financial I think we have to be good
stewards of our dollars Absolutely I'll
um Rachel if you want to elaborate on
more spe specifics on that um mayor
members of council Council woman Pastor
so yes we are planning a a large fiscal
audit of CBI for their um multiple
contracts next year and then also my
team does provide um programmatic audits
as well so we will be um uh we do a
formal in-person look at all of the uh
client records look at their hmis
records and that happens um at least
every other year depending on the number
of contracts but specifically for heat
relief um we will have OS staff in
person on site sort of leading this
effort with in comp in uh partnership
with CBI Monday through Friday every day
in fact last year it ended up being
seven days a week for several several
weeks in the summer as well so we're not
only doing fiscal monitoring at the
fiscal level programmatic monitoring
formally with their contracts and then
sort of on-site um monitoring
daily thank you and is this contract for
six
months how long does it go
I know it starts may but I don't know
where it ends I believe it it's a it's a
year um and the reason it is a year is
to enable us um to close out and if it
extends um if it extend the Heat season
extends and if you have anything to add
R yes um mayor members of council last
year our contracts were September one or
excuse me May 1 through September 30th
and we ended up having to extend them
this year we just went ahead and did it
for a year knowing that we um don't want
that administrative burden if we have to
go another week another two weeks
another three weeks just to make sure
that we're
covered okay so now that led me to
another question
um so we're going to approve 4. T9
million for a
year when I thought this
was for well it is for heat it's part of
the heat response plan but really for
the respit
piece so I need clarity
because I think this now I have a
totally different thought yes uh mayor
council when Pastor the the heat plan
will go May 1st definitely through
September 30th we have um an option to
extend into October like we did in 2024
in the event that um that the Heat
season extends like it did last year so
that is the plan that is really what we
have funding for we don't have funding
to go beyond that um some of the
contract um terms and time frames um
were um were put in place to enable us
to efficiently close things out to make
sure that we don't have to come back um
you know unnecessarily to council for
something you've already authorized so
the the season is um May 1st um
anticipated to um for the resit centers
to close September 30th option to extend
um into the summer for the 247 for that
heat um um if the if the heat
extends okay is the rent that we are
paying for till September or is it till
October or is it till
November the lease goes through
September 30th with again an option to
extend I believe it's by by month if we
needed it um if we needed it to extend
so we could extend for an additional um
month month to month mon basis if
needed all right I just um I'm just a
little concerned about voting for 4.9
million um in the sense that what I
continued what I heard was it it is for
a
year um it may may to September with the
option of extension to
October um is there but if there are any
Monies
that have not been spent you have the
ability to use them throughout the year
that's that's and I
getting faces looking at me so I'm not
sure Council if I may read from the
report the term of the lease is five
months beginning April 14th through
September 30th with an automatic option
to continue therein on a month-to-month
basis so that's what it reads that's
what the contract
is yeah you have the option but we don't
necess have to right I guess what I'm
saying is if I add up everything that we
just
discussed um
from April mid April to the end of SE
September I don't will that be 4.9
million yes yes mayor council and P
members of the council that is that is
the cost it is 4.9 million do for the
summer
um is that a clarifying question on the
last answer okay we'll go to you for a
clarifying question and then we'll go to
the vice mayor thank you mayor for the
opportunity to clarify I guess I my
question was on partly you said the 4.9
is for for the summer even though for
example the CBI contract is for up to 14
months is the 2.9 Million in the CBI
contract the full extent of what we
would incur if we went to 14 months
month or is that the amount we incur for
five months the
minimum that that's for the five five
month period it was
administratively um helpful and
beneficial to have the contract go
because we end up closing out the
contract and billing that comes in and
so um for that reason and I apologize
it's creating some confusion but it is
our intent and it is it's a summer heat
resit with the five month period thank
you mayor have a clarifying but I will
yield the coun all we'll let the vice
mayor go and then I'll come back to you
as soon as the vice mayor is done maybe
my first question will help put a bow on
this
one if you all need to go past September
30th and this contract these um
recommendations are approved today but
then you have to go past September 30th
will you need to come back to us for
more
money we believe we have the fun
built in for to if we had to extend into
October to extend into October yes okay
and any if there was money left over
let's say we get to end on September
30th may God and mother nature bless us
with a short summer um that money would
just go back into the budget correct
correct the the funding sources um um a
lot of it is arpa dollar so that funding
will be spent first and that needs to be
spent and then the opioid funding that
would that could carry over into the
fallowing year so we did have some
funding that we didn't spend last summer
out of um you know the the different
arpa sources both County and ours and so
we were able to um use those funds this
summer okay thank you um so
congratulations on the decrease in heat
related deaths as well as the reduction
in calls to our 911s um um dispatch for
emergency services additionally on slide
uh
22 it says that there suspected
overdoses looks like you're saying they
were reduced by about 20% during the the
summer months is there someone who um
could maybe explain why we think that
number that there was a
reduction in our in our deaths or
overdoses sorry they were not deaths
suspected overdoses uh VI vice mayor
thank you for the question question
mayor and council members uh
unfortunately our colleague from The
Office of Public Health who is most
familiar with those data was not able to
join us today but we'd be very happy to
follow up with you as soon as we can
confirm the statistics with you okay I
appreciate that um can you tell us how
many individuals visited our heat relief
centers during the 2024 season in during
the hours when we tracked
visits VI mayor thank you for the
question uh May mayor and council
members at the five sites during their
extended or additional service period so
that would be the full 247 at Burton Bar
the overnight at senior opportunities
West and only the extended hours at the
three library locations there were
35,000 approximately 35,000 visits and
our best estimate is that those visits
were made by 5,000 Unique
Individuals and do we know about how
many of those 5,000 Unique Individuals
accepted Services I would like to defer
to my colleague thank you Rachel M on
that one thank you mayor members of
council um 962 individuals accepted a
placement in shelter housing treatment
programs family reunification programs
so we had 962 placements okay thank you
very
much um I'd like to talk about the or
have you tell me about what kind of um
Community stakeholder involvement
Outreach or coordination occurred for
the three P public library areas um that
are out in the individual
districts sure mayor and members of
council we have met with several
stakeholders at each one of the
libraries um I'll start with maybe choya
Library uh we met with Shannon McBride
um a representative from the Metro
Center development and uh a
representative from the Double Tree
Hotel um for the Harmon library we met
with Phoenix revitalization Corporation
um and Central Park neighborhood and
we're pending a meeting with Grant Park
and Harmon Park neighborhood leaders um
and then for yaka Library we met with
the YMCA and we're pending meetings with
Solano school and um Kimco which is I
believe the management company at
Christown Mall and is Commander Lee your
contact for the the different precincts
police precincts um that are would cover
those libraries or do you meet
individually with the uh park or the
precinct commanders mayor members of
council Commander Lee has been helping
coordinate all of the meetings with um
he's been coordinating and meeting with
the commanders um but we did have a
meeting with all of the commanders as
well um regarding 20 West Jackson okay
and you referenced that there is a phone
number for the folks at 20 West Jackson
to call um in that surrounding area who
who or how would the community members
business owners around these three
libraries call if they have concerns
we are coordinating a telephone number
that would be a call like one number
that would reach someone um one of us on
the team to attend to any um concerns or
questions during open traditional
Library hours as well as extended hour
heat relief um so we will have a phone
number um that will directly call a
library staff member or someone from the
heat unified team okay and I do want to
just put on the record that I do
understand the and I hope the community
will use it and welcome the need for
just extending the library hours for
everyone however I did express to you
all that I was concerned because we
cannot track now numbers or we will not
be as accurately able to attract or
sorry collect the numbers part and have
that data collection and provide reports
um but I do understand it does allow the
community to to use that resource or
those resources while they're available
um
I was in DC a few weeks ago for NLC and
and happened to pass a a hypothermia
Relief Center um building and I'm
curious can you remind us the policy
around just our our public buildings
during normal business operating hours
and how and how are they available as a
cooling
center um mayor uh vice mayor members of
the council we um have a number of I
think more than 60 sites that are
identified as either hydration um
stations cooling centers where folks can
come in and get a bottle of water they
can come in and get out of the Heat and
so it it really um those sites um can be
identified either through 211 or the mag
heat map it goes on and you can go on
there and and find out where the
locations are once it's active so that
that map is still being populated for
the 2025 season um it and those many of
those are during the operating you know
hours of whatever the city facility
might be and there's a number of
different facilities and does that
include Phoenix City Hall um does that
include you want to address
that vice mayor thank you for the
question mayor and council members
historically Phoenix City Hall has not
been listed as a heat relief Network
location uh what I might add is that the
uh the packet and the plan references
increased engagement with the city
employee base to build knowledge of the
heat response the breath of heat
response programs so it's our Our Hope
we've been working closely with human
resources to develop content here it's
our hope that every city employee is
empowered and well positioned to help
refer people to the formal heat relief
Network sites as well as the
transportation resources that could get
them there okay um I'd like to talk
about 20 West Jackson um you talked
about meeting with uh Shannon McBride
and and I hope um Gordon James from the
Metro Center area but but Shannon was um
the first in City of Phoenix to create
19 North and they those businesses came
together and created um that district
and they collected the authority to
arrest for those businesses and so and
they pay for private security um I worry
about that warehouse District uh given
all the the dollars we've invested in
there so I want to know are we going to
be able to um have the same kind of
network at for the warehouse District
those boundaries and do if you get
trespassed in one place you're
trespassed from any private businesses
in that area um mayor vice mayor um we
are looking at the model um that they've
created up around um Shannon McBride and
the 19 north um um and that is something
that will will'll let you know how that
progresses I can tell you that um that
we have already begun working with the
property owners to ensure that their um
atas their authorities to arrest are in
place so that we have the those um all
at the surrounding properties um in time
for the start of the the the Heat season
May 1st if we don't already have them
and for those who may not um understand
what that allows is for if um if
someone's um um unauthorized on private
property um the police department can
address those kinds of problems and so
that is um a tool that's available
throughout the city and and we will U
make a special effort and have already
begun that effort um with those property
owners owners and the warehouse House
Council to ensure we have all the tools
in place um for safety and I would if I
could recommend that we um get those on
record before May 1 but create that map
so that we can hand out that map at the
center so folks know that those are not
places that they they should be um they
have the cooling center there other
places but I would hope we're doing all
we can so thank you for that my um the
other question I have are you talked
about the community grants we provide
heat relief Community grants um to at
least 60 Community partner organizations
in
2024 what I'm weary of um from my
experience and I will say it was from
2023 is that Maricopa County provided a
grant to Glendale the city of Glendale
and then city of Glendale gave it to one
of their Partners who came to Phoenix
and worked out of a church and created
um some concerns and issues so when we
give grants to Community Partners what
do we ask them about what they're going
to do with their grant money and how do
we coordinate or do we make them
coordinate with those surrounding
businesses and communities where they're
going to be thank you for the question
uh vice mayor mayor as a member of
council as one minor point of
clarification 18 organizations as Grant
recipients the past couple of years 60
groups have participated in the water
distribution program 18 grantees just to
be sure uh we had it clear uh we have
been evolving the grant program over the
past couple of years with your guidance
and one of the new expectations that we
set for grantees in 2024 was that they
were part of a physical heat relief
location there were some organizations
that participated in the first cohort
that conducted more Street Outreach
related to heat relief that were
grandfathered in in 2024 but we have
heard your your feedback and concerns
and are trying to focus on the physical
heat relief sites with the grant program
most recently okay and that leads to the
water distribution that we're giving
water and we're Distributing it and and
I know I've asked you all this about
about Cortez Park last year I bring it
up again only because I had a community
meeting last night and I had several
community members swear to me that the
City of Phoenix was handing out water
under a white tent in Cortez Park
undoing much of the work that is done
the rest of the year um by the police
department and the blockwatch and ohos
and and CBI all the all the partners um
Walgreens came to visit me this year
because they sit on the corner by Cortez
Park so again I ask if we give water to
Community Partners do we
know what they do with it where they're
going and do we ask them to interact
with the the businesses or the
neighborhoods around where they
distribute that water vice mayor thank
you for the question uh Mayors and
members of council first for the record
I I will reiterate and reconfirm that we
are not aware of any component of City
Heat relief that was Distributing water
in Cortez Park uh last year but we will
continue looking for the answer to the
the question with respect to how this
operates moving forward as mentioned
we'll be Shifting the distribution model
to have partnership with the county on
this and I think this um your concern is
one that we need to factor in the
conversation now those conversations are
happening on a daily basis in terms of
what the pickup looks like what the
agreements and conversations are so now
is the perfect time to fold your concern
uh into that process and we'll be happy
to do so okay I and and I don't mean
that just for my community and the
partner I think that it is for every um
District the entire city that we do need
to get resources out but we need to make
sure we are continuing to work with the
stakeholders and businesses around there
so that you know we set expectations and
and we are working to um keep them safe
and secure while keeping this population
safe and secure as well so I appreciate
you um answering these questions again I
I it was a done deal until it got
brought up again last night so thank you
thank you very much mayor thank you
councilwoman HUD
Washington thank you mayor for the
opportunity to ask on my on a question
that I missed um I wanted to ask a
couple questions regarding the I've
heard about the solic um the process of
identifying um 20 West Jackson I want to
talk a little bit about the process of
identifying um CBI as the heat respit um
relief
operator um based on what I gathered
from the information there was not an
RFP submitted it was simply because they
were listed on the qualified vendors
list is that correct mayor members of
council last year we reached out to all
of our qualified vendors list and asked
them to put together um a a proposal for
what it would look like to do our summer
heat resit operations and they were
selected off of that list and then this
year we continued um to utilize them for
our operations so last year you were
talking about the request was made for
2020 um24 Summer correct okay so we did
not do a active solicitation for 2025 we
did not um how does the contract amount
compare for 2024 to what we have
presented to now for us in
2025 mayor members of council it is um a
little bit higher we did learn a lot of
lessons last year and what we did in
2024 and we asked for um some some
changes but I can definitely get you
sort of the the exact amount spent on
CBI last year compared with this year
budget little higher um if you were to
take out my understanding from what
you've said thus far is it does include
um for inside security um which was not
in accounted for last year um do you
have an idea of what the difference was
if we were to take out the security cost
um mayor and members of council just to
be clear we did have security um in
cbi's contract last year as well one of
the the bigger um items for this year is
the the size of 20 West Jackson is going
to require require more staff um at that
location than we did at our other
locations the other uh large expense
that CBI is is has for this year is um
we're starting with police overtime
beginning May one last year that didn't
start until Midsummer and that is a part
of their contract as well but I thought
the police over time was a separate item
from the um CBI contract because I
thought the CBI contract was 2 point I'm
sorry I get it right 2.9 and then we
there was this uh area for the Police
contract for a separate $700,000 so am
I mayor members of council Council man
hod Washington so the 2.9 Million will
help us reimburse CBI for that $700,000
expense CBI will be entering into a
contract with police if approved today
for that contract and then our os's
contract with CBI will help them to
reimburse and pay for that um
service so I let me come back to that on
the police Poli contract but I want to I
want to stick a little bit on the CBI um
and
the lack
um my concern about the process
of taking a with without I I feel like
this is a this was a a significant
contract that may have benefited from an
actual Outreach process to make sure
that we are receiving a competitive Bid
And although we may not have received
um what's for lack of a were the type of
interest that you we saw we would have
wanted last year I don't think that
precluded or that should have precluded
us looking for actually doing a
competitive process this year can you
talk to that mayor members of council we
did not go forward with the competitive
process this year really based on what
we learned last year and wanting to
build on that operation that that we did
um eventually get um into a a really
good rhythm with CBI so we did move
forward with a request to move forward
directly with CBI based on what we
learned last year and if I could um if I
could real quick a mayor councilwoman
hjge Washington um the the process of
establishing the QV is a solicitation it
is a formal solicitation and there are
qualifications so it is procured um
there is a there is a time limit to that
vendor list which will expire um at some
point I don't have the date off the top
of my head but that is considered a
formal
solicitation um I hear what you're
saying um but it but it it was procured
so they they met the requirements in
general but it was not specific for this
location and this operation that's where
my concern comes from um I want to make
sure that we are we are prudent in the
resources that we do have we have
resources as a result of some federal
action through arpa fund a number of
those things and they are going to go
away eventually and it's going to be on
the city to be able to sustain those and
I want to ensure that we are
um not setting a precedent of certain
types of um course of conduct going
forward as well as the amounts that are
to be paid for this because we are going
to be the ones that are going to be
tasked with figuring how to well the
council will be tasked with trying to
figure out how to do that and if we're
not starting off with a baseline that's
competitive where we have multiple
biders um looking towards what they can
offer at this site um I think we're
doing ourselves a disservice and I just
wanted to point that out I understand
the design to maintain relationships and
build on those relationships but I also
want to make sure that we are not um
closing the opportunity for other
potential vendors to bid on this work
and provide us as any other business
with competitive bids to do the work
that we need to serve our community so I
wanted to ensure that I I stated that um
I do I it's no secret I'm not we've had
some qualms with u I've had some qualms
regarding the qualified vendor list and
the way that that it has been handled
and this is I hate to say it doesn't add
to some of my concerns regarding that I
think this is a contract that we kind of
I think the Lessons Learned should have
been put into a a more of a extensive
RFP of some sort to give us the
opportunity to see whether or not
Community Bridges is would have been the
right partner for us going forward as
much as we want to establish
relationships I again I have to say that
we want to make sure that we are being
competitive and we're getting we are
allowing other um vendors the
opportunity to bid for this type of
project um and I wanted to go back to
one of the questions that you said that
it included additional staff in for um
for this larger site um and maybe my
recollection is in in Incorrect and feel
free to correct it but I thought that
CBI also provided staff to our different
sites throughout the city is that
correct mayor members of council yes
they staffed all five locations last
year okay
so I my assumption is are I would think
that we would have been just using the
the the numbers or the dollars for those
five locations and kind of consolidating
that staff into one central location and
with that consolidation we would have
expected to see some level of cost
savings yeah mayor members of council
yes we uh I will say we we have a larger
site that is going to have a larger
Staffing presence than both the Burton
our librar and Senior opportunities
combined and that's really between that
Staffing level and the increase Police
Department costs are the two main
increases and CBI staff and if I may one
more um a lot of the the things that the
library covered last year at Burton Bar
library are now being passed on to CBI
that's in their contract for the
janitorial services and everything
needed at 20 West
Jackson and then um with the site being
the new site being as large as as it is
is um I have not physically seen the
inside of the site and I'm just
concerned about one of the well if we're
responsible for utilities as stated in
the packet or if the landlord is if it's
included in our rent I'm concerned about
whether or not we are um Cooling and
keep in control climate control a site
that we may not have enough individuals
to make it you know not to make it
worthwhile because every every
individual is worthwhile but is there
capacity within that area to kind of
section off which areas we are Tang we
are actually actively
using mayor members of council yes this
site has a designated space that will
just be for families we'll have a
designated space just for women who
don't necessarily want to be in the
general population and a section just
for general population but there are
several spaces in the site such as
office spaces that we don't intend on
using for clients necessarily and I
thank you for that clarification but I
think my question was more so for
example if we have this huge 21,000 foot
facility open and we are seeing that on
a daily basis we're probably seeing 25
to 50 people come in um when the site is
can capacity is closer to 100 people is
there any Avail uh any option or
opportunity for us to um minimize the
area that is actually being cools
because at the end of the day we also
want to be good stewards of the
resources that we have so we're not
cooling this entire um facility unless
we have to and I know it's difficult to
estimate this and because we're going to
a new site I'm just concerned that we
are um may have I don't want I want us
to have the capacity if we need to but I
also want to make sure that we
can um downsize internally if we need to
as well mayor councilwoman Hajj
Washington that's something we um were
not prepared to answer fully today we
will definitely look into it my
um it is a warehouse space and there are
some walls that don't go all the way um
to the ceiling to describe it you know
that's kind of sectioned off and so um
I'm not clear whether or not we could do
that but we will um explore whether or
not we can um and um and get back to you
on that so we absolutely understand what
you're what you're saying um in terms of
um trying to save energy and if there's
um um ways that we can partition off or
have zones that don't need as much AC as
others um we're we're absolutely um
going to explore that and and address
that and I I want to go back to make
sure my questions are I'm trying just to
make sure we're not wasteful I do
believe that the Heat resit center is
necessary I'm not saying that we don't
want to do it I just want to make sure
that as we transition from a to a new
model that we are making sure that we
are being efficient and not just um and
we are good Financial stewards so thank
you mayor for the opportunity to ask my
questions thank you for answering my
questions
everyone thank you councilwoman
pestor all right any additional
questions councilman Glendo ala do you
have a
motion Mary before I make my motion I
have a few
comments um yesterday when I was
interviewed by different news stations I
said that the Arizona heat is
unrelenting and our approach must be
unrelenting and I do believe that this
plan meets that criteria I know the
staff has worked hard and diligently to
ensure that we can protect as many lives
as possible we see that the arrow is
pointing downward in many indicators
that are important in Saving Lives is
this plan perfect no but there will be
modifications and there will be
improvements made along the way it's
important that this Council stay
informed and so I'll be asking for staff
to make sure that they provide the
necessary information that's been
requested by members of this Council and
to ensure that that's included um as
public record so that that can be
inspected not not only by the council
but by the
public um last night I was reminded
about why this plan is so important I
got home after cooking dinner with the
firefighters and our air conditioning
broke and so it was warm for all of us
including our dog Georgie we opened all
the windows and fortunately it was fixed
this morning but for many people in our
community they're not so lucky or they
go without completely throughout the
whole summer that's why this plan is so
important that for PE to have that
accessibility available and let's face
it not everyone is going to be happy
with individuals that will be within
their neighborhood or within their
block they're undefended many times
they're mistreated a lot of the time but
we have a moral obligation to ensure
that we are doing our part even though
there are other communities that are not
and that's a separate problem and
discussion for another day but I
strongly believe in this plan and I have
visited the site of the next resit
Center it is large and councilwoman
Kesha hodj Washington makes a good point
because we also have to think in
sustainability and be responsible
stewards for the environment and
ensuring that we're not spending money
that doesn't need to be spent but the
thing that really makes me um support
this Center is the fact that there will
be designated areas for general
population for women and mostly for
families and that includes children and
I want to make sure that they have a
safe space at all times when we're
they're in our care may or I move to
approve item one approval of the City of
Phoenix 2025 heat response plan second
we have a motion in a second we'll go to
uh public comment we'll go with iners
first and then virtual we'll begin with
Cleo followed by
Stacy mayor can I ask one
question um yeah I in the the maker of
the motion when you were asking for um
the direction that they can keep us
inform was that part of the mo motion or
were you just adding that as a reminder
I'm
sorry mayor I'll include it as part of
the motion if that's okay uh-huh
I think that would be helpful I think so
thank you thank you mayor uh thank you
councilwoman Stark so again uh Cleo uh
if
you want to come on
down good afternoon mayor and
councel uh I believe on your your heat
relief I'm one of those
18 uh vendors uh that are
allowed to share in this incredible
responsibility um we kind of do it a
little different in Sunny Slope we're
almost embedded with each
other uh I'm AB bedded with the office
of Homeless
Solutions uh Michelle and Julia I talk
to every week
um with respect to the deputy city
managers I also talk with them uh we're
all collaboratively trying to work on
one thing is I would like to one day
come here and oppose whatever we do for
heat relief because we don't need it
anymore
uh I work second shift I work between
the seams when everybody goes home I
know that that
family and it took six different staff
agencies to help that family with what
your attempting to do at Jackson you
can't take children to Burton Bar it
doesn't work we need something like what
they do at Jackson so we can collaborate
get that family isolated get some Impact
Services to them and not determine if
they're just overheated from the weather
but determine what services are got not
only save their lives but change their
lives that's the reason why we need this
collaborative approach and nobody else
does it better in Phoenix because if
they was I'd be over there I thank you
for the privilege of talking about what
my small nonprofit does we predominantly
are in three in district one but we're
trying to do more with what resources we
have in I do heat relief right now we
actually start in February to much a guy
named David told us we needed to do it
all year
long and I just thank you for the
opportunity we couldn't do it without
you guys's help thank you so much
wonderful thank you so much for your
partnership and that testimony and I
should have clarified we'll do one uh
public comment on item one and then one
on items two through five uh Stacy in
person followed by Reverend seon uh
virtual
I am not that
tall um mayor would you be okay and
hello thank you mayor counsel does that
sound weird it's very echoey um would
you be okay with me just combining my
comments in one Fell Swoop okay can we
get four
minutes and I think if you could wait
till the clock starts all right
go um I first want to State on the
public record that um as some people
stated the confirmed heat death list
isn't yet fully available but heat
deaths are historically undercounted and
like reporting that has occurred in
other states like Texas I I believe and
and will prove um eventually that there
are many deaths especially within our
unsh sheltered Community where heat
absolutely was a contributor to these
deaths but they are not being counted um
so uh I just think for this city to be
taking by all of you like some crazy
Victory lap uh over a handful of
preventable deaths is gross
personally um more than 1,000
unsheltered residents died from all
number of things in Mira County in 2024
FYI um um which is another in my opinion
failure of the city as um my
councilwoman pointed out I was trying to
help a 78-year-old unsheltered woman uh
this whole weekend and still today um
within your plan I'm still not seeing
simple lwh hanging fruit like Plastering
posters with info at convenience stores
and public bus and light rail stops uh
there's no mention of whether free
transport will still be available to
people uh there's no solutions for how
to keep people safe who do have broken
ACS or how they can get fast funding for
repair uh a handful of water fountains
and the sprawling City doesn't cut it um
how often does this city actually
enforce your cooling policy for
landlords because I hear from community
on the regular that it's not very often
um why is everything date versus temp
based when people die from heat from
April through October and just yesterday
when I was in the zone it was
95° in March uh you talk about shaded
bus stops yet 12th Avan Jefferson an
area with high death count still doesn't
have a shade of bus stop which I've
personally been advocating for many many
years now why isn't the city or mayor
advocating to have SRP stop
disconnecting people's power and
dangerous temperatures they're pushing
for Statewide utility disconnect
rules um I see these things knowing
there are people working on these issues
who deeply care the isn't meant to
disparage them but as someone who has
read every single heat death report for
Maricopa County for many many years now
and not just the medical examiner report
I read the investigator reports where
there's a whole lot of details and
information everyone for years before
there was even press on it um I can tell
you that a lot of lives could have been
saved by a more proactive versus
reactive response to these issues many
of you been have been here watching this
unfold for all these years uh and it's
my personal opinion that Phoenix is
still failing to protect our most
vulnerable residents um I also find the
plan somewhat vapid if I'm being honest
and I feel it's important to add that
people at overnight cooling centers were
not even allowed to lie down last year
so is a difference between a shelter and
a cooling center um just not being able
to lie down overnight which I find uh is
cruel honestly um um and also to some of
the questions getting asked today that
data could be gathered really simply if
the death investigators in not just
Maricopa County but all counties used uh
the CDC uh supplemental heat death
investigator form it is a fill-in-the
blank form I did an interview with the
New York Times about it last summer uh
according to will humble it is a very
simple rule change um at the state level
with public health uh and there was at
least one man and I think actually two
who died right right outside of City
Hall uh Reverend seon followed by Jenny
span thank you so much uh mayor and and
Council um it is an honor to be able to
speak to you today um my name is
Reverend Katie seon I serve as executive
director of the Arizona Faith Network a
multifaith uh Network throughout the
State of Arizona um since many years ago
we've been working very closely with the
city of Phoenix and uh in regarding the
heat response and mitigation plan we've
worked closely and have been working
hard to bridge our resources both
through the city and through our network
of faith-based locations to respond to
the Urgent needs of our heat vulnerable
Neighbors from hosting cooling stations
to uh resfit centers and sharing um both
materials and volunteers we have worked
side by side with the city and city
leaders and many of you to protect the
lives of those most impacted by extreme
heat today I stand in support of this
plan to say we are grateful for the
critical and truly remarkable work of
the City of Phoenix and the heat
response and mitigation team their
leadership is not only saving lives here
at home it is setting the standards for
cities around the country this team's
Innovative equity-driven and community-
based approach is a model of how local
governments can respond respond to the
rising heat crisis throughout our
country this is a model of how we can
both approach with urgency and
compassion and also redly admit that
there is more to do we know it's not
perfect but we are doing more in the
city of Phoenix through Partnerships and
through this plan than others are doing
throughout the entire country this is
reflected in the leadership of this 2025
heat relief plan and is reflected in the
ongoing long-term work towards
mitigation strategies that will reduce
massively um our death rate for those
impacted by heat extreme heat for people
of faith is a moral issue it's a test of
our shared humanity and we are proud to
call ourselves partners of the City of
Phoenix and to continue to meet this
challenge with care equity and
resilience to be on the ground day by
day uh Jenny span will be our final
speaker thank you good afternoon Madame
mayor and members of the city council
I'm a clinical assistant professor at
Arizona State University with the Edson
College of Nursing and health Innovation
I want to thank you for this opportunity
to speak to how the city's heat relief
program has been integral to the
partnership between the City of Phoenix
and asu's pre-licensure nursing program
for the last 16 years I have worked as a
community- based nurse in the Phoenix
metropolitan area and have come to know
firsthand how our unique environmental
challenges affect people of all ages
last summer through the city of Phoenix
heat relief program ASU nursing students
were able to do wound care many mental
health exams mental health screenings
lice treatments substance abuse scoring
Narcan training harm reduction training
Health surveys and blood pressure checks
they also provided a variety of
education for children as well such as
safety around water handwashing and
nutrition your heat relief program fills
a very important space and impacts
countless lives in our community this
program also offers a unique Hands-On
EXP experience for nursing students to
see what Healthcare in the community
looks like often students come to
nursing school with a very narrow view
of what healthare looks like most of
them only know what they see on Gray's
Anatomy High Acuity fast-paced
hospital-based care not only does this
vital service gets students well
acquainted with heat related health
concerns and also allows them to see the
impact of these concerns in typically
underserved populations they learn how
to use critical thinking to assess how a
client will get needed services and
understand how to find resources most
importantly they will learn how our
basic nursing tenants of compassion and
advocacy are necessary to support all
client populations in the community
thank you for your continued support of
this program and the ongoing partnership
with
ASU thank you that concludes our public
comment to any council members have
additional comments or questions
councilwoman ha Washington thank you
mayor um just have a couple of questions
based on what we've heard as during the
public comment specifically I want to
talk a little bit about how we uh some
of our strategies to engage the
community for heat Readiness which is
strategy 7 I see in action 7.1 it talks
a little bit about um flyers and print
Sor say print communication and um
safety message to our trans trans U
Transit writers um are there any other
mechanism in which we truth how we share
this information with General members of
public because I don't believe that it's
just our unsheltered population as the
data shows but how do we get out more of
this information to our
community thank you counc cman Hodge
Wasington for the question mayor and
council members if any of our
communication colleagues are in the room
and would be happy to to join me to
share I think last year it was much
harder than ever to move throughout the
city without encountering some of the
summer safety messaging that we had
which did include messaging at Transit
locations it did include digital and
print Billboards throughout the city we
saw similar Investments made from our
partners uh at the County uh and uh we
are having
conversations uh about several of the
other communication platforms that were
mentioned mened earlier including
ongoing conversations with some of our
regional convenience stores to leverage
them as a mechanism for getting the word
out us so I I think we we have been
expanding but can continue expanding
even further to ensure that as many
residents in possible are aware of what
they're doing what we're doing and how
they can access those Services okay the
other concern was raised regarding
transportation to our centers that
provide um cooling centers
um my understanding of how they operated
last year is if we did encounter someone
that needed a assistance there was a
level of Transportation can you talk
about
that councilwoman thank you for the
question mayor and council members yes
we recognize that transportation to heat
relief sites is a critical part of the
system uh last year to remind the
council and the the listening public
free transportation to cooling centers
was available through the regional 211
service during extended business hours
and those were free rides provided by a
ride share Service uh this year uh this
is an involving conversational model
that is the the details of which are
still being figured out I'd invite my
colleague from the county health
department to to share the most recent
update as as he understands
it thank you mayor and council members
um that is correct we are um working
with uh 211 to ensure that that uh that
um resource is still available there is
funding um to continue that Riot share
service um over the course of last
summer it became more and more um used I
I don't want to say popular but um we're
getting a lot of use so um we are
looking for other partners as well who
are um willing to um to share resources
for that uh for
that um and since you brought up 211 um
oftentimes I have heard um concerns that
those num that number is not always
answered or responded to um cier to
respond to that
thank you for that question uh
councilwoman
we carefully go went through last summer
um in our partnership with two onone um
regularly looking at the data the number
of callers they have um they collect um
very good data on the length of time it
takes to answer those calls and what
resources they're able to provide um and
we felt like they were a really critical
part of our effort last summer to expand
access um to the heat relief Network by
adding um a a call-in component to what
traditionally has been um the hrn map on
the website so we think that's really
important part of this response I'm
sorry say the last part again regarding
the
website so the heat relief Network the
map on the website that is maintained by
uh by mag um is only accessible via the
web so we think having a call-in um
access point so that people can call as
opposed to log on is really really
important to being able to find those
sites I would agree with you because not
everyone has access to the internet to
figure out which website they need to
find the location so I definitely would
be supportive of that um my other
question goes to um I have a question
but they go to I guess Neighborhood
Services um because they do the
enforcement of uh broken AC and the
landlord
um I saw Spencer a minute ago he may
have stepped out okay
um well I don't know if anyone else can
answer this question regarding um the
resources that were available for um I
know in some cases we do provide um air
condition uh temporary air conditioning
I'm sorry Spencer he's
racing I'll wait on you
bless
you thank you for joining us up here um
with respect to the air conditioned
broken units or cond uh we can you tell
us about the service that the city does
provide to our residents that have run
into a broken air condition
unit absolutely mayor councilwoman uh
the neighborhood services department
provides a weatherization program uh
with funding from the state and the
federal government
sorry out of breath ran upstairs no
worries um and and so the intent of the
program is to make the uh heating and
cooling systems within a home more
efficient however one of the key uh
elements to that program is being able
to
provide replacement AC units um when
when systems do fail for eligible
homeowners and um have we gotten to a
point do you recall um in summer of 202
24 did we get to a point where our
request or the demand for the available
temporary units exceeded the available
Supply uh councilwoman no uh however uh
I will say that we did uh reach a point
where we couldn't keep up with demand uh
we we partner with foundation for Senior
Living FSL and that was one of the
issues Last Summer the other thing that
I would note is uh it does take some
time to qualify for BS and complete the
work so our immediate response is to
provide a temporary portable cooling
system uh during that time okay and do
you uh would you would you say you were
able to keep up with the demand for the
temporary cooling system systems sorry
councilwoman yes
absolutely okay and can we talk a little
bit about the um enforcement of
landlords that failed to provide the uh
provide to sorry fail to ensure that the
premises have work in um
units uh yes mayor councilwoman hjge
Washington we do enforce the city's
cooling ordinance last summer we had
approximately 180 cases uh about 55 of
those ended up having no violation with
115 uh ending up with a notice of
ordinance violation and 11 of those a
citation and what that tells me is uh
most of our landlords are responsive
once we are engaged
once we do begin our process and engage
with those landlords most very quickly
resolve the issue we only had 11 that
went to
citation and can you give us an idea of
what is the extent of that process like
how long does it take from uh a resident
calling in a concern versus a
resolution mayor councilwoman great
question we always encourage folks to
reach out first to our human services
department through the landlord tenant
counselors where their provided educ
ation about their rights so they can
help secure those rights prior to our
involvement on the code enforcement side
we work very closely with the human
services department and once that's
completed we'll go out the very same day
uh to take readings of the temperature
and to provide uh that instant
communication as best as we can with the
landlord uh in most cases if there is if
they are not cooling sufficiently we
will issue a notice of ordinance
violation that day and it's a 20 4 hour
notice if they don't have resolution of
some kind by the next day we would issue
a
citation thank you for that
clarification
um and I want to make sure my notes are
accurate here when we talk about um not
having the when you originally talked
about not having the resources well you
realize the demand for resources was
greater than the supply I presume you
were talking about resources for the
actual report pairs is that
correct mayor councilwoman absolutely
okay can you give us an idea of what the
disparity or the looks
like uh so as as I mentioned we do have
enough funding to do the repair
ultimately U the delay was just in
timing last summer was particularly long
uh and so towards the end within the
last couple of months the uh our our
contractor was overwhelmed with the the
require or with the demand um and so it
it took a little bit longer so in some
of those cases it extended by a couple
of months longer than what we otherwise
would hope to see okay and um given that
I what I've heard it seems like it's a
process um some process issues need to
be sh up have we made some changes or do
we have some changes in the pipeline to
address those process SE concerns uh
mayor councilwoman yes uh we are
continually looking at this program
working with that partner and and uh
looking at all options including
Staffing up uh helping to R uh push for
resolution of cases in Prior uh that
we've had prior to the summer months um
so that we can build that capacity as
well as working with various contract
subcontractors that they work with so
that they have additional capacity to
complete that work okay I'm coming up on
last questions for you um but what is
our ant what do we normally anticipate
that our contractor would be able to
complete the repairs is there a time
frame
mayor councilwoman uh it depends and I
and I would stress that again the focus
of the program is weatherization and
efficiency so it's not just simply the
replacement of the HVAC system it also
includes sealing ducts uh replacing
windows and various other things in
order to make the home more efficient
our uh Focus however of course in the
summer months is that replacement of
that HVAC unit so they they work as
quickly as possible usually it's about a
month lead time of working through all
the various requirements when it comes
to getting their application vetting
that application the other elements that
are required and then entering into the
individual contract for the work that
needs to be performed once they're past
all of that stage uh then then it's
usually a very quick resolution um you
know as as short as a week in some cases
okay thank you for that um those those
are my questions for you on that thank
you so much thank you mayor thank you uh
your question earlier about 211 reminded
me we we do not have a stable funding
source right now in Arizona and that is
a real challenge that is one for another
day but hopefully the state legislature
will address that councilman Glendo a
mayor before you call for roll call I
want to say thank you to my colleague
from District 8 for the questions that
she asked getting that Clarity these are
complex issues that are not easily
resolved overnight I'm glad that she is
on point with her questions especially
as if it pertains to Communications um
as we see it just doesn't happen there
is a process there has to be eligibility
and that is also to safeguard the
taxpayers dollar thank you councilwoman
Kish haaj
Washington mayor members of the council
would you like Dan Wilson our
communications director to kind of go
over um Can can't hear you you're on but
you're not close my apologies is that
better it is yes okay um I was asking um
mayor members of the council would you
like Dan Wilson our communications
director to go over high level the
communications plan for these efforts
yes that would be greatly
appreciated all right mayor and members
of council uh we learned a lot of good
lessons last year about how to reach
individuals um we used um multiple
different sources we um created
pamphlets that were available to
businesses to hand out we worked uh with
DPI with visit Phoenix to help
distribute those um we did a unique um
purchase of advertising where it was
targeted around the areas of the cooling
centers um so that we could Target
people who were in those areas um to
make them aware of uh the available
resources um we uh worked with the
transit Department uh to uh put
information into the bus stops so that
um people who are at bus stops um can
find that information quickly uh and
these are things that will continue to
do this year social media uh actually is
is a really valuable tool in this
because we can geofence that uh and and
Reach people who are looking who are
doing searches for this kind of thing we
can Target you know people who are
looking for cooling centers and and get
that information into their
hands thank you thank you councilman
gindo ala thank you one of the things
that I'd recommend is Radio because
there isn't always internet
accessibility for many in our our
community so how can we provide
strategies sorry strategies that Target
individuals who don't have access to the
internet um for example going on on
different newspapers that now have um
podcast and so forth so that we're able
to reach them and this information is
out there and it can also be circulated
again for example for the Latino
Community um use of mobile phones is
overperforming so how do we reach that
Community um through your strategies I'd
really be interested in the work that
you all can do that not today but
another time yeah absolutely and and
councilman uh galinda ala and mayor and
rest of the council that is something
that we do as well um you know we have a
a Spanish uh speaking Pio who is really
embedded it with the Spanish media and
you know we we every week we get an
interview uh in Spanish on a topic that
we choose um and we're we did heat
response and heat mitigation frequently
and we'll do that again this
year councilwoman pestor yes this one's
for
Spencer uh Spencer you talked about uh
contractors being
overwhelmed um is there a possibility
that we can add additional contractors
in order for them not to be overwhelmed
and if they're overwhelmed then we move
that work to a different
contractor mayor and councilwoman Pastor
absolutely that is that is something
that we are certainly interested in
doing and and working with our primary
contractor foundation for Senior Living
uh to do
so okay so am I hearing this correctly
we are going to do that for this summer
and have additional contractors uh for
this piece because I don't want to be in
the middle of the summer and then be
told uh our contractor overwhelmed and
we weren't able to add additional so I I
would like to see additional contractors
at it so that we can move at the
capacity we need to
move mayor councilwoman understood okay
process sometimes we hinder ourselves in
building process what is needed in order
to change the process to qualify for or
uh air condition or any of the
weatherization piece that we can uh look
at today in order for it to be changed
for tomorrow um as we start to hit uh
these summer months so that maybe we're
asking some unnecessary questions and uh
we can move the process
faster mayor councilwoman uh there are a
couple of things that we're particularly
looking at for this this summer uh one
is we are nearly fully staffed with our
housing rehab Specialists uh which we
were not at the beginning of last summer
uh and so I think that will facilitate
uh a more expedited process the second
thing is uh our community workers are
able to go out to the homes in order to
collect paperwork we were doing that
last summer as well uh however we have
improved some of that communication in
that process so that we're not waiting
for them to require W it's more of a
initiative that we lead um where we're
asking questions about can we come on
whatever date in order to collect those
that paperwork uh and then the one other
item that we're working on is a more
streamlined process uh we know that not
everyone has internet connectivity and
the ability to submit information online
uh however we are working on a new
intake Tool uh that will make that
substantially easier than it has been in
the past in order to get those
applications
and it will be ready by the time we hit
May mayor councilwoman no uh that that
particular tool will not this summer we
likely will be still working primarily
from uh our paper application and our
existing online forms um until we work
out the Kinks we don't want to run it uh
deploy it prematurely so when will we
think it'll be ready
fall
winter
spring I I I I do hope that we can
deploy it this summer however I I cannot
say that with certainty at this point
okay so you're hoping this summer if it
doesn't go this summer then I will bring
it back and ask if it's ready by winter
which is October November
December um so it should be ready by
then the following summer um thank you
for being proactive I appreciate the
answers thank you roll call gind yes
wado yes HJ Washington yes Pastor yes
Robinson yes
Stark yes
O'Brien
yeso yes passes 8 Zer thank you so much
we'll now go to items two through five
uh we'll begin with public testimony
Cleo and Cleo will be our only speaker
and just this is the 20 West Jackson
contracts with Community Bridges and
contract with Maricopa County Department
of Public
Health good afternoon mayor and
councel
uh you know heat relief is a personal
topic to me because I have lived
experience and that lived experience I
kind of remember how dangerous our
summer is and how casual he can sneak up
to you and kind of one of the things I
want to stress is that as one of the
nonprofits that operate with
that we're already engaged in what we're
doing now and we work interdependently
with City staff on getting information
out to people our first step is
prevention
we want to get people educated as to
what we need to do second is the
resource whatever resource we need to
apply I actually was able to do to AC
units and I done it through neighborhood
services started with our rep we
directly intake to person and we got it
out through OHS that we made some inter
you know interdependent calls and that's
the way we do this system uh we can't do
it alone with the City of Phoenix we
can't do it without the City of Phoenix
uh we're trying to change the way we do
Outreach in the community and our summer
heat causes us to do things that we
never have done
before but the goal is not only to save
lives but to preserve the quality of
life in our community and we're going to
do whatever it takes I've got high
expectations of what we're going to do
and some of the people that I'm looking
at that uh everybody talks about a city
that what they do after hours I talk to
people all day and all night long so get
ready for the phone calls for me it's a
concept in our community of Sunny Slope
if you give us a task we're going to
figure out a way to solve it thanks for
being a part of
it thank you that concludes public
comment uh councilman Glen Del do we
have a motion on items two through five
I do indeed mayor I moved to I'm sorry
will the city clerk please call the role
and read the 24-hour paragraph sorry
councilman I ahead of councilman galinda
for roll call councilwoman
wado yes councilwoman this is for roll
call thank you councilwoman Hodge
Washington yes here sorry councilwoman
Pastor present councilman Robinson here
councilwoman
Stark here councilman wearing present
vice mayor O'Brien
present mayor goo present thank you and
the titles of the following ordinance
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
ordinance is numbered s
51722 through 51 725 thank you
mayor councilman instant replay mayor I
move to approve items 2 through 5
Second Motion in a second everyone
recognized to explain their vote if they
wish roll call gind yes wado yes HJ
Washington yes I want to explain my vote
first um I am going to vote in favor of
this because today's high is expected to
be 97 degrees so it is definitely a need
however I'm disappointed that the level
of community engagement has not included
all of the businesses that we have
talked about and we know that this is
not a small um small um matter in their
neighborhoods and I'm also disappointed
that we did not go out to seek more
competitive bids for the vendor um but I
am still going to vote in favor of this
but I wanted my dissatisfaction to be
noted on the record thank you P
door um I'm gonna explain my vote um
item
five it states that uh Community Bridges
will pay the cost of police services at
a 247 resit Center not to exceed
700,000 however at the top it says this
is for district s and
Citywide so I'm a little confused as to
um I'm not confused actually it says 247
respit which is district
7 the piece that I don't not
understanding is when it says Citywide
so um but I'm a yes that's that's just
where I'm at
Robinson yes
Stark yes O'Brien yes GGO yes passes 8 Z
that concludes today's endai business we
are
adjourned uh dump the truck pretty
quickly and safely uh call 911 and then
call your supervisor I was uh a little
bit