Phoenix City Council Formal Meeting - January 22, 2025

again in 1 minute
good afternoon thank you so much for
joining us if everyone could please rise
Rabbi Lov will provide our
vation almighty God this past Monday we
honor the legacy of Reverend Dr Martin
Luther King Jr this week synagogues
across the world will read the story of
The Exodus and the dialogue between
Moses and Pharaoh both Moses and Pharaoh
made new laws for their people one led
to a people subjugated and enslaved and
the other to an elevated and free
Society Dr King's Legacy reminds us that
the SA same founding documents of our
country were used to Rally both those
who wish to subjugate and enslave and
those who wish to elevate and free how
one understands a source depends on how
one approaches it myones the great
scholar and philosopher whose passing is
celebrated this Friday taught in his
Guide to the perplexed that to quote the
human race contains so great a variety
of individuals that we cannot discover
two persons exactly alike in any moral
quality or in external appearance and he
continues but the well-being of society
demands that there should be a leader
able to regulate the actions of man he
must complete every shortcoming remove
every excess and prescribe for the
conduct of all so that the natural
variety should be counterbalanced by the
uniformity of legislation so that social
order be well established as my monity
sees it a leader must respect each
person's individuality while not
creating chaos almighty God bless our
mayor and council members as they move
forward in legislating for our city that
their work results in a stronger and
Freer Society give them the strength and
resilience to bear this awesome
responsibility with good grace and above
all with their good will for each other
intact let them each appreciate that the
differences that inevitably arise among
them are because they too are acting in
what they see as the Public's best
interests and let that in fact be the
case
amen amen thank you Rabbi vice mayor
O'Brien will lead us in the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God
indivisible thank you vice mayor we'll
Now call to order the formal meeting of
the Phoenix City Council will the clerk
call the role councilman Galindo here
councilwoman
wado here councilwoman Hodge Washington
here councilwoman Pastor here councilman
Robinson here councilwoman Stark here
councilman wearing here vice mayor
O'Brien here mayor giko
here we have Mario baras and his team to
provide interpretation Mario would you
introduce yourself thank you mayor good
afternoon my name is Mario wahas I'm
going to be serving As an interpreter
along with my colleagues Elie larte and
Capri Moreno
I'll now take a moment to introduce
ourselves to our Spanish speaking
audience
thank you mayor thank you so
much will the city clerk please read the
24-hour paragraph the titles of the
following ordinance and resolution
numbers on the agenda were available to
the public at least 24 hours prior of
this council meeting and therefore may
be read by title or agenda item only
ordinances number G 7319 and 7350 and
s51 598 through
51615 will the City attorney please
explain public comment yes thank you
mayor members of the public may speak
for up to two minutes to comment on
agenda items comments must be related to
the agenda item and the action being
considered by the council General
comments that go beyond the scope of the
agenda item must be made in the citizen
comment session at the end of the agenda
the city council and staff cannot
discuss or comment on matters related to
pending investigation claims or
litigation additionally any member of
the public who appears before councel in
their capacity as a lobbyist must as
required by Phoenix city code disclose
this fact before addressing Council the
city code requires speakers to present
their comments in a respectful and
courteous manner profane language
threats or personal attacks on members
of the public council members or staff
are not allowed a person who violates
these rules will lose the opportunity to
continue to
speak thank you item one is meeting
minutes councilwoman HUD
Washington thank you mayor I move that
we approve item one the minutes from our
August 26 2024 foral we have a motion
and second any comments all those in
favor say I I passes
unanimously vice mayor boards and
commissions do you have a motion I move
to approve mayor and city council boards
and commission nominations second we
have a motion in a second any comments
all those in favor please say I I any
opposed passes unanimously I will ask
our commissioners to come forward for a
swearing in ceremony
please raise your right hand I state
your name
I do solemnly swear swear that I support
the Constitution of the United States
Constitution of the United States and
the Constitution and laws of the State
of Arizona theti
laws that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same that I will bear
faith and Al to the same and defend them
against and defend them against all
enemies foreign and domestic foreign and
domestic and that I will faithfully and
impart ially and that I will Faithfully
andar discharge the duties of the office
of discharge the duties of the office of
State your
office Village planning planning and
design review board according to the
best of my ability according best of my
so help me God so help congratulations
Commissioners on your unanimous
appointment to help the City of Phoenix
move forward we ask you to come behind
to say hello to the
council e
congratulations again to our newest
Commissioners we provide an advisory
role to the State of Arizona on liquor
licenses and we'll turn to that portion
of the agenda now vice mayor do we have
a motion on liquor licenses I move to
approve items 3 through 17 second motion
a second any
comments all those in favor please say I
I any oppose nay passes unanimously city
clerk are we ready for ordinances
resolution new business planning and
zoning yes
mayor vice mayor do we have a motion
um I move to approve items 18 through 39
except the following items 27 and 39
noting that item 39 has additional
information and excluding the following
items for virtual public comment item 26
and can the clerk confirm if there are
any other items that should be excluded
for in-person public comment mayor vice
mayor no other items to exclude thank
you second we have a mtion in a
second roll call
M yes
wado yes hjge Washington yes
Pastor yes Robinson yes Stark yes
wearing yes O'Brien yes GGO yes passes
90 we next go to item 26 which is
authorization to enter into contracts
for eviction legal service
do we have a
motion I move to approve item 26 second
we have a motion and second Teresa Hill
is with us to provide comment Teresa the
floor is
yours good afternoon mayor and Council I
know you can't answer questions and I
totally understand you may already have
looked at these things do these
companies offer no cost evictions or
reduced in costs uh to re to the people
that are in need of assistance for
eviction how many companies are there I
was hoping there'd be a little
presentation to let us know how many
there are and if there's a Max per
company and they have maxed amount I see
that we've already gone with a second
round so I don't want to I'm glad that
we have two that have but my concern is
as I was looking on the website to find
out
what kind of work they didn't have
evictions but what they wrote to me when
I asked if they covered it they said I'm
sorry we don't handle
evictions
unfortunately uh we
handle uh employment services and
tenants and so I just wanted to make
sure that we're looking at them being
able to handle it now um as we go
forward because I'm finding the same
thing when I contacted the other again
just through the chat they told me
here's a number so how helpful are they
for somebody that's in a
crisis um also I just wanted to take a
minute to thank you for posting these
because not all the time can we get
online with you at that time but I want
you to know we listen some of us follow
the agenda
and if there is something still I love
it that you give us that opportunity to
still make comments so again thank you I
appreciate the time thank you Teresa
this actually gives us a great
opportunity to help us get out the word
about this program we have for several
years had an eviction assistance program
but there are new people who need to
know so we have our our great Human
Services director here why don't you
give us a quick
update thank you mayor uh mayor council
uh what this agenda item is doing is
adding two more providers so that would
be a total of three providers uh to our
Legal Services uh contract and so we
will have individualized contracts with
each of these providers and they will be
providing um no cost services to
Residents who are eligible those
residents do um uh apply for service
through the human services department uh
City staff evaluate that based on our
eligibility criteria and then based on
the services that the resident may need
they would be referred to one of these
three entities so the the services that
we are able to offer is mediation uh
limited and full
representation as well as post eviction
services
thank you so this Council really wants
to prevent homelessness we know that
once someone is no longer in housing it
is much more expensive and it's much
more disruptive to their lives to
address that so we're hopeful we can
work out really positive outcomes we
know that people with representation are
much more likely to have a successful
outcome and this has been a a real
passion project of several council
members so we'll go to councilwoman Hajj
Washington and then councilwoman Pastor
thank you so much mayor um again thank
you to Deputy CD manager Gina Montes as
well as our Human Services director
Jaclyn Edwards and the staff for the
human services department um I wanted to
start off by saying kudos to the the
department on the recent launch of the
eviction Legal Services Program which
they launched on January 1st um as
mentioned it provides um they know I'm
trying my best to contain my excitement
but we provide this provided full and
limited representation in court and
mediations and post eviction so services
at no cost um and we have seen a demand
for this type of service and we are
trying to do this in a way that keeps
track of um how we can best utilize our
services and I'm I'm excited to see that
we have additional vendors that are
opening up to this possibility I just
wanted to just briefly one of the
questions that the the caller had I just
wanted to make sure we answered it for
her um is concerning the U it seems like
she may have reached out to one of the
or two of the compan compies on here and
got a response that indicated that they
don't handle evictions can you give us a
little bit about um what the what a I
think we should talk a little bit about
how the process should start and how we
determine which ones go to which
vendors mayor councilwoman Hajj
Washington thank you so how the process
works is that a resident who is facing
eviction or may have faced eviction in
the past um goes on to the human
services website and they complete a
screening form so we determine based on
that screening form what type of service
would be most appropriate based on their
situation from that the staff does uh
evaluate the resident for eligibility
criteria once they are deemed eligible
for the service then we will
assign a specific legal service provider
that every legal service provider is
providing each and one of those Services
um in in each bucket U per se um but it
will be rotating through some of the um
entities also have a cap in how many
cases that they can take per month and
so we are tracking that information as
well if um the resident did contact uh
one of the providers and asking if they
handled evictions it may be a uh uh
language uh terming phrase of that they
are not processing evictions they are
supporting tenants the other piece is
that the contracts for uh the legal
service uh providers are not able to um
go through until after they are added to
the QV thank you so the first step is
they contact the human services
department and not the actual vendors um
I just wanted to Echo the sentiments
I've shared with you in closed in in our
briefings that I'm very excited that we
are expanding this um program and
providing additional vendors because
that helps minimize the delay that those
that need a legal services May um
encounter and I'm also grateful that
we've talked sign significantly about
the data that's necessary to track these
to ensure that we are we are keeping
track of the quantifying the project
success so that we can identify errors
through Improvement and also just
demonstrating the importance of such a
project so thank you mayor for the
opportunity to um just again show
highlight my support and I look forward
to voting yes thank you councilwoman for
your passion for this councilwoman
Pastor yes um what I wanted to know on
the Q uh
qvl uh we added two more it looks like
law practices and then Community Legal
Services the
third that's correct councilwoman okay
so we have three that will be working in
the
space correct okay so my understanding
in as as I was listening to the speaker
is really they're helping the
tenant in this process and uh it's not I
don't think it's
employment uh mayor councilwoman Pastor
so the each of the legal service
providers May uh provide services in
other lines of business whether it's
employment or um whatnot but that those
are not what the city is funding we are
focused on uh legal services for those
facing eviction or who have faced
eviction
previously those who are facing eviction
or previously has faced
eviction yes what does that mean can you
just can you give me an example um thank
you uh mayor councilwoman Pastor so we
are um we do have post eviction Services
um that uh a resident may be eligible
for so if someone has previously faced
an eviction because of how Arizona State
statutes work uh the eviction even if
they have satisfied the eviction paid in
full potentially their past uh rent it
is not removed from their uh record this
way um if they are proceeding with um
trying to to rent another um home they
may be uh rejected declined from that
rental uh because of this eviction on
their record so a post Eviction Service
would help support sat making sure that
that is uh reflected as satisfied or
sealed so it's helping them it's it's
assisting them in order to be able to
rent another apartment or a home or even
a trailer or anything that is needed
uh post eviction because it's on on the
record that is correct
councilwoman I have another question in
that space because you know we are
dealing with eviction then at that point
will this um applicant I'm just going to
use applicant uh will be given
opportunities to go to different
services in order to maybe really they
have a job but they need a higher
skilled job uh to get skilled up or to
get into an another space or job where
they have uh the qu the skills but
Unsure how to go about doing it will we
also be able to offer some of those
Services mayor councilwoman Pastor thank
you for this question yes how we have
designed the program specifically by the
clients coming through the human
services department front door um we
have uh we will have a better
understanding of what their
comprehensive needs are in addition the
legal service providers uh understand
and it is written in their contract that
they are supposed to refer back to the
human services department so all of the
services that we have to offer or the
connections with other nonprofits or
other community- based organizations we
are able to make those
referrals thank you I want to thank uh
staff for really modernizing our uh
space and evictions uh due due to the
fact that I work very closely with this
space and we do need additional uh
vendors on here uh only because of
capacity wise but in addition to that
residents wise of of being able to have
Services the other piece is I want to
thank uh councilwoman uh Hajj Washington
and taking the lead uh and wanting to
modernize this we all wanted to but it
always takes uh one of those leaders to
say I'm going to jump into this one to
to help and assist and bring it to the
council so I do want to thank everybody
that has been working on this thank you
thank you and since I am sometimes
critical of the state when they don't
partner with us uh we received funding
during the height of the pandemic from
the Doug duy Department of Environmental
security to fund this program so it has
been multiple levels of government that
funding originally came from the Biden
Administration so a partnership federal
state and local which we'd welcome more
of councilman
thank you mayor um before I ask my
question of staff I too want to join
councilwoman pastor and congratulating
um councilwoman Kesha Hodge Washington
for her tireless efforts in this Arena I
know that this is something that is of
great passion to her and yes it's okay
to be excited about it because you
worked really hard on it um my question
regarding um for staff is can you please
um tell us the elements that make up the
eligibility criteria for this
program thanks thank you mayor
councilman yes uh the primary
eligibility requirements are of course
they need to be a city of Phoenix a
resident or receiving uh City Water
Services secondly they need to U be at
risk um or have experienced an eviction
and so the application process does make
that determination on their uh risk
assessment in this area and the third is
an income eligibility so uh they need to
be at 80% of area median income so what
that means is for a family of four it's
around
$54,000 a year which would be the
cap thank
you vice mayor thank you so much um
councilwoman Hajj Washington already
made a little bit of a reference to this
but it's important to ensure that the
dollars we're spending are producing
results and so will all three vendors
have to provide the same data on on how
they're working with clients and what
kind of results they're
getting mayor vice mayor yes there is a
standardized reporting format for each
of the legal service providers uh it is
very comprehensive it's based on each
each Service uh so each of those buckets
of service uh it is uh detailed based on
uh closed cases as well as case loads
there's both outputs as well as outcomes
so this is standardized across um the
three providers they have to submit that
on a monthly basis on a quarterly basis
they are to submit um more of a
qualitative um information client
success story as well in addition to
that the human services department will
be um uh will be uh surveying clients um
30 days after case closure is reported
by the service provider to um ensure
their
um client satisfaction per se and then
we will also be reaching out to them six
months after case closure to help
determine if housing stability in some
way shape or form has been achieved and
last question is will we have be
tracking any data on those who we are
not able to help right so if they come
through our process and we determine
based on income or I I don't know what
are the other eligibility requirements
will we track that and be able able to
look at that
data mayor vice mayor thank you for that
question yes because uh again the human
services department is receiving those
uh requests we're able to uh continue to
track both demographics all of the
questions on completed screening forms
now if someone hasn't completed it it
won't we won't be able to uh track that
uh thoroughly but for all completed
applications we're able will be able to
report back on what the uh success rate
to move on to the next step and this
will also be able to help us um
determine if we need to do Outreach in a
specific area or uh potentially revise
our eligibility criteria uh if we're
seeing that that there's a high rate of
people who are not able to move on for
services wonderful thank you for that
and I just want to congratulate my
colleague councilwoman Hajj Washington
on her work in this area and I look
forward to working with her and other um
council members to fully expand our
Legal Clinic thank
you thank you and again thank you to our
members of Congress who voted for this
funding as well roll call gind yes
wado yes hjj Washington yes Pastor yes
Robinson yes Stark yes wearen O'Brien
yes G
yes pass is 90 the good news continues
with item 27 which is the Phoenix
Children's Museum expansion this project
is funded through our bond I think it
might be my son's favorite Bond project
he loves the children's museum is
excited to see it go to the next level
uh it is also exciting for us because
it's in a great historic building so
preserves one of our treasured buildings
and and create recreates it so that our
younger residents can enjoy it uh a real
point of Pride for me was how much of
our bond invested in our kids they
couldn't vote for it but we were
thinking about their future uh this
project is in District 8 uh and
councilman HUD Washington ched our bond
so exciting news vice mayor do we have a
motion I move to approve item
27 Motion in a second roll call
gind
yes yes hjge Washington yes Pastor yes
yes Robinson yes Stark yes wearing
O'Brien yes goo yes passes
90 all right we next head to our
Planning and Zoning agenda with a focus
on item 39 which is the northwest corner
of 21st Street and turny we will hold a
public hearing on this uh we'll begin
with 10
minutes uh presentations from each side
the
um speakers can decide how to use their
10 minutes one speaker can use all 10
minutes or um they can have multiple
speakers and then we will go to all the
public who has signed up uh we will
begin I believe with the
applicant open the public hearing
good afternoon mayor uh members of our
Council Ashley Marsh 40 North Central
gamage and Burnham for your record um I
did submit a PowerPoint presentation I'm
hoping staff can bring that up for us um
and as I do that I just really wanted to
to thank um everyone uh here this
afternoon I know we have a few members
of the public both in support and
opposition of our project and I wanted
to take a minute to thank everyone who
participated in this process um it's
been wonderful uh to make adjustments
into changes and to work with neighbors
both with concerns and really excited
for the future of this one I also wanted
to thank staff for doing a great job and
really really thank councilman Robinson
for his leadership and his staff's team
and uh and guidance and working through
this proposal so I'll go ahead and get
started with that uh this piece of
property that we're talking about is at
tney in 21st Street it is 1.8 gross
Acres 1.5 developable Acres um it is an
assemblage U opportunity it's currently
6 16 apartments and two single family
residences it's located just south of
the Camelback core so everything you see
in red is commercial zoning everything
you see in blue is a multifam zoning
designation and everything in red is for
a another commercial zoning so this
piece of property is situated in a
really neat urban area of D6 just south
of the core um along Camelback um when
you look at the piece of property we're
talking about that 1.5 Acres um you'll
see it is again situated in a very
multifam District um it is surrounded by
multif Family communities um
Condominiums um some Condominiums rented
as Apartments firly Apartments then
conversions so very much an urban area
with R3 surrounding and um R5 kitty
corner currently zoned
R3 um the general plan use designation
for this piece of property is$ 10 to15
delling units per acre um which you see
in that that uh yellow star and again
currently situated with other densities
um 15 plus delling units per acre each
of those are considered a high density
uh designation both at 10 to 15 and 15
to more dwelling units per acre and
that's important because of the way
that's considered under the general plan
the general plan uh treats those
densities and comparable really because
um there's a a rule out there that you
wouldn't need a plan Amendment for
something under 10 acres an exception to
that rules is when you're looking at
those multif family districts and the
general plan allows for some flexibility
to transfer between uh a 10 to 15 and a
15 plus um without doing a general plan
Amendment which we are not seeking here
um because under the general plan itself
those land use categories in those
higher densities are considered to be of
the same General character for the area
so there's no planned amendment required
for what we're requesting which is an
apartment use um at a higher density
than we have now because the general
plan treats those as
consistent so coming full circle to what
this property looks like today um this
is a a picture of the property I've
described to you both the zoning and the
general plan um as you can see it is a
dated property it's from the 1970s and
1950s and has really surpassed the
economic life cycle um for for this
piece of property It Is flanked by
multistory communities I showed you the
zoning map with the higher um and denser
uses and you can really see that this
piece of property um is Again flanked by
those three
stories so initially we filed an
application um for a rezone to request
R5 zoning to bring a four story 75 unit
proposal um it' be a brand new Housing
Opportunity for more of a workingclass
folk with some very reasonable rents and
amenity rich with pools workout
facilities dog washing station we've got
a whole list here um adding sidewalks
where there's none now um we were a
little underp parked this Council
remember there was a text amendment to
change the parking ratios that happened
during our site planning so we were a
little underp parked um but we're really
excited to bring a brand new uh multif
family opportunity that we felt F felt
excuse me was in line with the character
of the neighborhood looking at that our
proposal was 48 ft where there were 44
uh feet across the street so again felt
that that four story was really
contextually appropriate um for what
you've already seen developed in the
previous slides um after our Camel Back
East our first presentation there we
reevaluated and took some more feedback
um and made some revisions before
planning commit committee to incorporate
neighborhood feedback to reduce the
building height along the frontages to
reduce uh that fourth story to three
along the frontage to reduce the density
from 75 to 64 um that in turn also um
changed our parking requirements and
ratios and we were able to meet those 96
provided 96 required and we added some
enhancements for landscaping to the
North and the South with that it took
our building profile down quite a bit
and I'm going to speed through this next
portion may as I hope to reserve two
minutes for rebuttal um as you can see
in that previous slide now we are now 38
ft where there's 44 across the street
and another profile view where you see
this building blend very nicely with the
contextual surrounding area U we did
hear some criticisms about traffic and
how this project would bring more
traffic so even though not required we
had our traffic engineer take a hard
look at that those beige boxes represent
the existing traffic counts for the 16
units and two single family homes 127
units and that top box is what would be
increased with our proposal so you have
127 trips currently 259 and that bottom
Blue Line are the new Chips trips
generated so 132 new trips but only 10
and and 15 AM and PM trips where you
experience traffic the most during those
peak times um again we have two points
of egress and Ingress so we feel that
50% of the traffic will be dispersed in
either way but taking those criticisms
and concerns about traffic to heart we
had our traffic engineer go out and
collect counts and take a hard look at
the existing volume which again be
consistent is that that brown box um the
capacity on 20th Street uh is still
there with an excess of 30% after our
project only adds 05% of new trips uh
similarly still quite a bit of capacity
along 21st street again that white is
what is going to be available the green
is what our project is anticipated to
contribute which is 3.3% and then still
32% uh capacity is already consumed we
appreciate there's a school in the area
and those peak times are tough I'm a
parent of um a one and a three-year-old
so I'm experiencing day uh daycare
pickup and drop off myself and those are
not fun times a day but again um these
roads have the capacity to handle our
traffic um real quick cuz I like to
reserve just a couple minutes in
rebuttal uh we do feel that this is a
great land use and it does support
several of the initiatives set Phoenix
is set forth including the housing
Phoenix plan the tree and shade master
plan Transportation electrici fication
comprehensive bike plan um and the
conservation measures and there's a
number of stipulations on the case to
address these policy and initiatives by
Council uh finally um we feel that this
is a highquality multif family community
um just south of the Camelback core comp
to other buildings we've had substantial
revisions we've had a lot of
conversations with neighbors again we
appreciate all that district 6 has done
um in conversations with us and the
neighbors to make sure we made some
improvements and changes to the proposal
we have a number of infrastructure
improvements that we will be bringing we
have Planning Commission unanimous
approval we went back to Village a
second time with the revisions and had
Village recommendation for approval and
staff support and we're in agreement
with all of the staff proposed
stipulations so if that may I will
reserve a couple minutes for rebuttal
and appreciate and available for any
questions of the council thank you I
understand Lee will begin the speech on
behalf of the
appellant or
opposition good afternoon mayor and
Council my name is Lee bumbar I live at
1902 East Montesito Road or Avenue and
that's in Peters viiew which is directly
across the street Peters viw is
sandwiched between the sr51 and 20th
Street so 20th Street is a vital
Community for us and we do have a
presentation perfect and clicker awesome
so I'm going to contrast a lot of things
that was just presented obviously people
who are in opposition are and the
majority of this is going to highlight
from the general plan the chakis village
character plan the housing Phoenix plan
the the uh housing needs assessment as
well as talk about some of the other
the yeah the um projects that she
referenced the properties that she
referenced that are R5 those are
actually heavily stipulated the first
ones are four 28 dwelling units per
store three stories and the maximum
height is 44 ft but that because it's a
sloped roof the actual Building height
per city of phix code is measured to be
37 ft so um she's going to go to an
example
the other property that is across the
corner across the street is also R5 but
is built and and um stipulated to R2 in
17 dwelling units per acre and exterior
has to be twostory and Inter interior is
limited to three-story so the details of
it
matter I'm going to go back to the
beginning
here
so Phoenix is planning a great City but
what does this project provide it
undermines our neighborhood certainty
and character they're trying to apply um
the height and density that is not seen
in this area at all there are very few
projects particularly in Chach East that
have this density in the middle of a
neighborhood you see this density on
collectors and arterials not on local
streets so you I've highlighted several
things and throughout this entire
document there is a lot of discussion
about certainty character encouraging
housing op options open space as well as
putting the density in cores um surround
you know the how imp how surrounding
neighborhoods are impacted we must
ensure that there's infrastructure
planning so I'm going to go through
several of these it does strain our
existing infrastructure 20th Street is
overc capacity during rush hour that's
what they failed to note yes during
normal times non-rush hour it we can get
in and out of our neighborhood but at
rush hour it can take um several minutes
before we're able to safely get out
taking Indian School Road is taking your
life into your hands uh so 20th Street
really is our safest e Ingress egress so
this is an example of what city of
Phoenix current planning policies and
development policies done to
neighborhoods and single family
residences this is couple years old it
was described by residents who live
nearby as a prison in their neighborh
and it's it's look so how is this
increasing the property values for the
next door it doesn't because all that
person can do is either keep it a rental
potentially or it goes to multif family
development as well so now you're you
keep to in keep eliminating um
developments the developer and several
others have stated that this is an
infill development it is not the City of
Phoenix is very clear about what infill
is and where it is in the boundaries and
this lot is neither vacant nor
undeveloped it may not mean what the
current owner wishes it to generate
income wise but that does not mean it's
an underutilized parcel it is it is a um
15 16 units of affordable housing and it
reduces the
um Family property in the area so you're
undering our stability and certainty how
do you pause this
you're undermining our character of our
neighborhoods by approving projects this
all we we've tried to
develop and provide compromises that has
includ starting with r3a and going to R4
and matching the dtas which is across
the street their um density of 28 29 per
R4 standards we've asked three stories
there only providing a 5ot landscape
buffer adjacent to single family houses
uh how would you like to have lighting
and parking Vehicles right outside your
bedroom
window all right so um let's get to this
next one so this was used by the
attorney she has misrepresented
neighborhood um in to the city in many
ways she has used these specific
developments as reasons to approve
zoning including three developments
north of Campbell uh Campbell has uh
different zoning north of Campbell has
different zoning in character than the
neighborhood being impacted because it
is part of the Camelback East core
gradient which ends at Campbell and does
not extend further south the three
developments the attorney did include in
the neighborhood are all two to three
stories um and they are all individually
owned units they're not highrise and
they're not highdensity rental
apartments the Camelback East primary
cor specific plan states that the Great
radiant is intended to prot protect
adjacent neighborhoods and their
residential character and quality of
life um so the Dakota is zoned R5 it is
west of the property but it's built to
R4 no more than 28 dwelling units per
acre it has proper setbacks Palm Court
which is south of the property is zoned
to R5 also but it's built to R2 these
were both uh part of a larger uh zoning
package when they were negotiated that
impact the entire block this is only
developed to 17 dwell units per
acre
so
further the attorney commission updated
traffic counts on Campbell but she has
not presented those today um either
because they're so high or because we
called her out to the city for
intentionally manipulating traffic
counts in front of Madison Elementary
School the diagram here shows where the
traffic counter was placed in blue in
front of the school to intentionally
avoid counting all westbound traffic to
the school they also intentionally
collect Ed these counts on days there
were uh that were scheduled as half day
for PTA meetings in order to avoid
proper afternoon traffic counts as there
are two schools on Campbell both at 20th
and 24th the photos here are uh West on
Campbell during school um drop off and
Street South from Campbell this is where
they want to put almost 300 cars or 150
cars I guess if you count half of
it
um M Marsh has also been allowed to
manipulate a public process for her CL
clients benefit including unethically
using her personal network of contacts
in real estate and law to write letters
of support for this project many of them
contain the same phrases shown here
about living in the area even though
they live in Scottsdale Paradise Valley
Mesa or miles away from the project in
Phoenix and will not be impacted by it
as a homeowner who will be impacted by
this development it feels like the city
ignores these types of actions which
causes real harm to the people who do
live and own
here leadership at the city has uh
offloaded their responsibility for the
housing issue to private developers and
investors who have only Built market
rate apartments in the last five or six
years in kellbach East 95% of multif
family units built have been market rate
and in those developments half of those
developments single family homes were
torn down the outcome of this approach
has been that rents continue to rise
thousands of market rate Apartments sit
empty in Phoenix today and we have the
highest eviction rate in the country you
cannot continue to pretend that more
market rate aart Ms are going to solve
this issue it is impossible to have
18,000 empty apartments available for
rent in Phoenix and at the same time
have 16% of Phoenix renters being
evicted from their homes this is an
affordability crisis if the current
approach solved the affordability
problem those things would not exist at
the same
time the attorney project specifically
will tear down existing two-bedroom
apartments that were recently remodeled
currently renting for less than $1,700
for month per month it will repl waiting
for others to
join um sorry it will replace them with
two bedroom units costing
$2,300 $2,300 per month rent a person
has to make $992,000 per year at that
rate in order to keep their housing
costs under 30% which is considered
affordable by Hud Miss Marsh had the
audacity to call these working class
rates at the VPC
meeting in addition the developer also
plans to tear down two existing single
family homes to build this project so
you were voting today on whether to tear
tear down existing Workforce affordable
housing and two single family homes and
replace that with unaffordable housing
while also destroying a residential
neighborhood in the process we would ask
that you weigh this decision carefully
as the project alone will contribute to
higher eviction rate lower affordability
in Phoenix and fewer single family homes
in
Phoenix we will be very clear because we
want this on public record the reason we
are here today is because the city is
deciding whether we are willing to
sacrifice workingclass homeowners and
the neighborhoods they've invested in
for decades to the financial interests
of a few millionaire developers and
donors your vote today is a clear in
sorry your vote today is a clear message
either way to every workingclass
homeowner in your District thank
you thank you so much uh we'll begin
with Roberta
Candelaria followed by Larry whitel
hi there my name is Roberta Candelaria
and I'm the homeowner of the property
just to the north of the subject
property and let me start by saying I'm
not included in the current assembly of
this project um I purchased the first
home about 15 years ago as a rental
property and I own three homes that I
rent out regularly one of the Lots is a
vacant land that is Street facing and uh
just to give you an example of kind of
issues I deal with I have to rent a
dumpster once a month and that's because
people use it as a Dumping Ground I have
unauthorized homeless people camping
there um I have my my three homes are
rented by long-term tenants and
fortunately they help keep an eye on the
property for me but it's it's quite the
challenge um in regards to traffic I
understand the concerns about 20th
Street but quite frankly your vote isn't
going to make a difference one way or
another people use the 20th Street as an
alternative to the 51 so they're going
to continue using that whether you vote
for this project or not um I'm a real
estate broker and I'm heavily invested
in the area I also own two rental
properties just to the west of 20th
Street in Highland Estates um it's also
my primary residence and I've lived
there for 20 years I will say that
working and living in the city center
hasn't always been easy um up until
Until the Last 5 Years I dealt with
break-ins while I was home I dealt with
people sleeping in my backyards um
because it just didn't have the
development in the area to support a
better demographic um fortunately the
City of Phoenix has been fantastic in
authorizing variances and offering
exceptions that allow homeowners to
increase the size of their floor plans
to allow for larger families so now
instead of just having a bunch of who
knows who living there we have families
and a really strong demographic so I
strongly support the development I feel
like it's going to up it'll it'll step
up a very economically and socially
depraved
area thank you thank you Larry is next
followed by
Chad thank you mayor I registered to
speak if necessary it is not necessary
thank you thank you I apologize you are
correct and I did not catch that
uh Chad is next followed by
Jackie sorry I'm a little nervous just
trying to catch my breath here a little
bit um good afternoon for the council
and thank you for the time my name is
Chad laferty uh I'm here to speak in
favor of the project I live at the
southeast corner
of Campbell and 20th Street so my unit
faces directly and my development faces
directly into the school um that goes
right there across the street from us uh
when they talk about the street on 21st
Street I walk it every single day I have
two dogs we walk twice a day once in the
morning and once at night um they sit
there and they talk about traffic I can
tell you right now uh I work from home
three days a week and I walk my dogs
anywhere from 7:50 to 8:30 in the
morning 9 o'clock in the morning and
after 8 o'clock in the morning
Campbell's completely empty and so is
21st Street so them talking about
traffic is just blows my mind to be
honest um I'm also here in support of
the project because of the fact that
we're in a housing crisis here in
Phoenix and the way that we get out of
the housing crisis is by permitting
projects and doing smart densification
of infill projects like this um I mean
in Phoenix alone in 2022 bc15 did a
story about ongoing housing shortage and
estimated that to be around 120,000
units last year ASU did that same study
and they came up with 270,000 units in
homes in the Phoenix area and which
we're at a deficit at in
2024 we permitted as a phoenix as a city
15,000 multif family units we were
projected to do 33,000 units and we did
half right now uh I work on Commercial
Real EST estate broker on the financing
side I've been on the financing and
development side for 10 plus years I can
tell you there are significant
challenges on the development side that
we are facing today that developers are
having a hard time and so it's costs
interest rates labor cost material cost
you name it it's also time spending
going to these
meetings sorry but thank you for the
time thank you Jackie is next uh
followed by Steve
mayor gyo members of the council my name
is Jackie rich and I'm representing the
neighborhood Coalition of greater
Phoenix and also the board of directors
of the Murphy Trail Estates neighborhood
association my address is 314 East roie
Avenue the Coalition and my neighborhood
association are concerned about this
zoning change for reasons that have
already been
articulated we support rezoning of this
parcel to
R4 while there are R5 zoning Parcels
nearby you really wouldn't know to look
at them because of their um density and
height this application however would
have the height and density of R5 and
would establish a precedent that would
adversely change the neighborhood if the
council chooses to Zone this property as
R5 we re respectfully request that you
add four additional stipulations to help
protect the neighbors and address the
housing goals these stipulations were um
emailed to you by the Coalition last
night and again by me this morning and I
hope you've had the opportunity to look
at them the first of these three
stipulations the first three of these
stipulations are based on the applicant
statements of intent that were made at
public meetings we would like to see
their good intentions tied to the zoning
change through stipulations they are
number one prohibit commercial uses that
are allowed by R5 zoning two prohibit
the outdoor use of the third story flat
roof noise generated from up high
carries throughout the neighborhood and
I've learned this from personal
experience three require the apartment
units to be priced as Workforce housing
affordable housing will be lost from
this development so similarly priced
housing should replace it the fourth
stipulate
is to require the submitt of necessary
permit applications within the year
following zoning
approval um thank you that was an
efficient use of time uh Steve is next
followed by
John thank you very much uh council
members I live in the neighborhood at uh
2203 East Flower Street and I got to go
fast here one thing that I'm uh was kind
of depressed about is the process the
things kind of like loaded from the
beginning The Village planning committee
I looked up people on the board or on
the whatever the committee is and it's
like loaded the deck was heavily Laden
that we need to change that process
second when I came in here when I first
heard this I was saddened to find out
that I live in an e my house is has
outlived its economic life cycle
whatever that means you know it's like
uh I live in a dump I guess um and I
looked up the owner's property over here
the the gentleman that owns this project
and his house seems like a nice house I
wonder if it's outlived its economic
life cycle and if you would like this
project next door to to his uh house and
there his other properties which I
looked up on the Maricopa County uh
cessor
website uh I guess it comes down to what
you consider a high quality development
I think we've counter proposed what
would be acceptable in the neighborhood
so we're not against building this
project just that it needs to be in
keeping with the neighborhood and and I
just want to remind the owner that as my
part in the neighborhood I'm going to
heavily scrutinize the build on this uh
project regardless of what happens here
today
um far as code OSHA documented workers
licensed contractors everything is going
to be this the most heavily it's going
to be one of the most heavily
scrutinized builds in the history of the
City of Phoenix because I'm going to be
there making sure that happens so let's
get ready to go thank
you John is next followed by Robert
my name is John Peta and I've lived at
2121 East Clan
Rosa I'd like to reflect Bri briefly on
the history of what we've gone through
since
1986 all the ladies did a wonderful job
in their
presentations I'm just here to show you
what this neighborhood has gone through
since
1986 in 1986 a developer initiated
zoning case Z
21086 to reone 10 acres
across to from my home allowing
357 four-story Apartments our community
raised concern and through the
constructive
communication facilitated by the
planning and zoning department this
rezoning case was
denied importantly the council meeting
was held at 6: p.m. back in the old
days enabling strong Community
participation something today's meeting
format
unfortunately
hinders then in
1994 traml Crow came along proposed
another five R5 project for 200
Apartments this too was denied but
through dialogue with the was reached a
compromise to down Zone The parcel from
R3 to R2 Ina enabling owner occupied tow
houses this preserved our neighborhood
character while accommodating an R5
designation on the attorney in 21st
Street for complimentary two and
three-story
buildings these outcome reflect
dedication to the
balancing development within our within
our neighborhood thank you thank you
Robert is next followed by
Kathy good afternoon thank you for the
opportunity to speak my name is Robert
Greenberg and I live in close proximity
to the proposed development I am hoping
to convince you to deny the resoning
request from an R3 to an R5 r3a r45 no
R5 no precedent setting fourth floor for
starters during an early meeting between
members of the community and the
applicant team I engaged the developer
in a discussion regarding risk return
expect ation the developer himself said
that he could build under the current R3
zoning and turn a profit let me repeat
that the developer said that he could
build under R3 and turn a profit why
Hopscotch over viable options to land on
R5
profiteering next councilman Robinson
being apprised of the situation convened
the meeting between the parties to my
knowledge the councilman seeking restit
uh resolution expressed the desire for
the applicant team to reach out to the
neighborhood didn't happen the
councilman's wishes were disregarded and
by extension the council's wishes were
disregarded and the neighborhood ignored
impertinence lastly the applican team's
unwillingness to compromise further
preferring to repeat their now stale
concessions even given and developers
statement Ray R3 profitability is ging
audacity we the neighborhood folk have
been or being will be negatively
affected by and confronted with blatant
greed flagrant disrespect arrogant
intransigence reward this Behavior three
floors please no fourth floor thank you
thank you Kathy is
next hello thank you um my name is Kathy
delori and I live at 20201 East Roma my
husband and I have lived in the home
which is a single family home that is
directly east of this parcel we've lived
in this home for 34 years and when we
bought the home 34 years ago we we knew
it there was L some change and
Redevelopment of the neighborhood and of
course we were good with that um and so
when I received I live within 600 ft of
the parcel so I received the necessary
required letter um that was issued and
when I first read that letter I thought
oh boy here goes the neighborhood with
an R5 request for an R5 so I'm here to
ask you to please deny an R5 especially
for our neighborhood I am very seriously
concerned with the additional traffic
that um that R fivs will happen in the
nebor will bring into the neighborhood
um if other um developers will see this
and most likely start gobbling up the
other
small unit properties in in our little
neighborhood and if they see this goes
R5 the rest will ask for R5 for high
density our neighborhood is not suited
for R5 development so I'm asking you
please deny the R5 resoning request
thank
you thank you
Ashley really strong you prefer you go
around the other way
thank you mayor and apologies for
cutting through there but I wanted to
get to the podium quickly and address
some concerns so we appreciate all the
feedback we've had on this proposal it
has been an enormous um amount of
Correspondence both support we've had
over 170 letters of support from
Neighbors we've had concerns which
you've heard here this evening um we've
had six notification letters over 400
pieces each we've had four neighborhood
meetings this is our fourth or fifth
public hearing depending on how you
count it so we've had a lot of
Engagement with the neighbors and each
of those feedback points have made this
project better so I thank everyone for
being part of the process um we have
made revisions we have listened we've
lowered the height we've lowered the
density we've satisfied our parking
we've enhanced landscape and we've
really tried to thread the needle
between bringing a beautiful quality
project that fits contextually with the
multif family properties and bringing
something that is um something the
neighborhood will enjoy and be uh proud
to to walk by um and still making it
something we can build and all of those
are a lot of pieces to a puzzle put put
together so we appreciate all the input
we've made a lot of changes you've heard
directly from the neighbor most impacted
Miss candaleria who supports the
application on the North side um we've
commissioned the traffic studies we've
shown you in our previous presentation
that there's a lot of capacity still on
these streets so with that we would
really respectfully request um a
recommendation for approval along with
Planning Commission and the VPC and
happy to address any questions or
concerns and again I just want to thank
the public and D6 for all their work on
this thank you mayor thank you do any
council members have questions for
anyone who
testified close for no questions for the
public all right we'll close the public
hearing uh I will turn first to
councilman
Robinson mayor thank you very much um I
want to make a brief comment before I
actually make make my motion um this
particular issue hit our office early
August early mid August and it came from
Kathy delori and even though Kathy went
to marville high school and I went to
Trevor Brown we still spoke to her um no
and Kathy delori um Lee busenbark John
Penta Melissa rhods and a host of other
folks what they demonstrated in the last
six seven months was a true commitment
to their neighborhood to their community
and I really appreciated that they
provided a great deal of feedback and
input to us as an office and I don't
want to go too far without thanking
general for RNG and Ralph in my office
and Cody Kellogg because they did the
truly heavy lifting and really helped to
process this whole thing or to move
everything along um the the applicant Mr
uh Richard Kafka represented by Ashley
Marsh I found them to be professional
throughout um everyone tried to come
come to from my opinion everyone tried
to come to a level
of compromise um obviously not everybody
was happy with what we came up with or
what we talked about and what people
wanted but um I think it was Josh that
told me Josh mnar mnar that um planning
brings neighborhoods together
neighborhoods and people together he
said but zoning has a tendency to push
them apart and we've seen a little bit
of that in this whole thing but I W to
thank Trish and Josh both because they
have been tremendous throughout this
whole
ordeal and I just think it's important
throughout this whole time that we
listen and I I think we did a very good
job of listening to all sides and taking
everything into consideration and with
that mayor I'd like to make a motion to
deny z- 74-2
4-6 as filed and approve R4 a with
stipulations outlined in the memo from
the planning and development director
dated January 15 2025 with a
modification to stipulation four and
three add three additional stipulations
as follows modification to stipulation
four a minimum 40 foot building setback
shall be provided along the north and
east property lines as approved by the
plan and Development
Department stipulation number 22
there shall be no rooftop decks along
the north and east
perimeter stipulation number 23 or
stipulation 23 the de developer shall
notify the following individuals by mail
15 days prior to any planning hearing
officer requests to modify stipulations
or any zoning adjustment requests the
notice shall include the date time and
location of the meeting and hearing Le
busenbark at 1902 East mon
Avenue Phoenix Arizona
85016 Kathy delori at 2201 East Roma
Avenue Phoenix Arizona
85016 John Peta 2121 East Glen Rosa
Avenue Phoenix Arizona
85016 the Peters view neighborhood
association Chris Moser Velasco at 4243
North 18th Place Phoenix Arizona
85016 in the East mornings side Acres
neighborhood association John Peta again
at 2121 East Glen Glen Rosa Avenue at
Phoenix Arizona
85016 stipulation 24 the developer shall
work with the street transportation
department traffic services division for
the application submission for Speed
humps along 21st Street between turny
Avenue and Campbell Avenue and turny
Avenue between 21st Street and 22nd
Street prior to the plary site plan
approval improvements are subject of
public petitioning approval the speed
hump program requirements along the west
and East sides of 21st Street in north
and south side of tney Avenue the
developer shall send petitions via
certified mail and provide proof of
delivery to the traffic services
division the developer shall be
responsible providing all funding of
such improvements prior to requesting
certificate of
occupancy mayor thank you very much for
the time second thank you we have a
motion and a second councilwoman in HUD
Washington thank you mayor my question
um I was trying to keep notes of
councilman Robinson's um stipulations I
just had one question for clarification
does do your um stipulations address the
Ford
story yes it does this well if I could
I'll ask Mr bernic or M Gres to
um mayor councilman Robinson councilman
Hodge Washington there are existing
stipulations already in the memo that
the council member referenced regarding
the the setback height for anything
above three stories and then the
councilman threw his motion right now
added additional requirements with
respect to what happens on top of the
structure thank you I just wanted to
clarify it and it's culation 22 which
provides for no rooftop de thank
you I do Council woman pestor I just
wanted to
clarify the stipulations that uh the
constituent
had
stated are those included in the motion
they're modified or modified yes okay
all right thank you mayor Vice
councilwoman Stark I think um that the
stipulation that was modified with the
rooftop it's very hard to enforce people
doing things in their backyard or in the
rooftop but the way you've stated it
you've actually looked at the design
element of the rooftop to try to address
that right thank
you so I think the councilman tried to
address density noise concerns traffic
concerns height concerns you've been
listening and um thank you to everyone
who participated it's hard to disagree
with your neighbors but I think there'll
be a better project for Community
involvement and the councilman's
leadership roll call gind yes
yes hjj Washington yes Pastor I would
like to explain my vote please do
um I just want to congratulate the
neighborhood and your advocacy and how
you wanted to preserve your
neighborhood um there are some terms
used that I
found
insulting um this is a workingclass
neighborhood and a working class
neighborhood deserves a home and a
quality of a
neighborhood and to say comments that
were
said that
um I just felt
very
insulted and so I feel the
neighborhood
um kind of pain in thinking that people
think that your neighborhood is not up
to
par um we are a workingclass
neighborhood our city is a workingclass
city and I just needed to make those
comments because it was really getting
deep into my soul so uh I am a yes
Robinson yes
Stark yes wearing yes O'Brien
yeso yes passes 90
thank you that concludes the agendized
portion we'll turn to the City attorney
to introduce the public comment
portion thank you mayor during the
citizen comment members of the public
May address the city council for up to
three minutes on issues of Interest or
concern to them the citizen comment
session is limited to 30 minutes the
Arizona open meeting law permits the
city council to listen to the comments
but prohibits council members from
discussing or acting on the matters
presented
thank you we'll begin with Diane Barker
followed by Jerry Van
gas good afternoon mayor and city
council I'm Diane Barker in district 7
just want to let you know the transit is
working it got me from the light rail
two buses transfer to root for the Ohio
State Buckeyes the national football
champions and you've got an advocate
living right downtown there I have to
thank Amir Kate again for her team
beating us so that we could become
Champions I am big on
competition I am for um contracts being
uh in the city being not only
competitive open to all qualified
persons and having our city of officials
and Council people make sure that we are
governing those contracts and so also I
wanted this is the second time I got to
see you mayor and mayor takes the lead
over at Maricopa County associate I'm
glad because we are the largest city in
the valley not only today we had the bad
news and people have suspected this but
we are the worst air quality in the
nation now we've been blaming California
Unfortunately they had a lot more fires
than we did but single occupancy
Vehicles create the Mi Mission the uh
missions and uh whether you voted or not
for the
president going to drill baby drill so
more than likely we will have
more and it's my suggestion alternative
Transportation typically has been
something inside of the single occupancy
vehicle but I very much encourage you
when you can to ride share and to try
our Transit it's just not for the
homeless to say that that is what our
rail is these are public projects that
are built for the public and so let's
get behind what the mayor has said she
wants to have it
publicized what is really happening with
our air quality and also you know when
it comes to homeless uh Phoenix and
mayor I just saw when I came from mag uh
a big uh more grocery carts in front of
the federal bankruptcy building on the
way so we have and even going to my
neighborhood Raa meeting people have
noticed that we're getting a greater
homeless problem not only evictions but
people that come out here it's so dag on
cold back East so we need to continue
the
plight and um let's get together thank
you thank you Jerry is next followed by
Cappy good afternoon uh Jerry vanas
public watchdog for the city park
Mountain
Parks uh Tomorrow there's a uh Parks
board meeting to address uh heat related
closures at South Mountain
Park uh it's they're calling it it's not
really a meeting they're calling it a
workshop uh yesterday to get ahead of
that I had our Attorneys at the Arizona
Center for Law in the public interest
send out a uh formal record request
uh which reads as
follows please provide a copy of any
press release public notification news
article or other communication intended
to notify the public issued prior to
October 24th
202 that references closures of South
Mountain Park during excessive heat
days 4 hours later our attorney received
a response the city has reviewed its
files and there are no responsive
records to your
request no public notification yet they
took action the old cart in front of the
horse well back in November 26 we also
filed a record request which read as
such copies of all written notifications
concerning proposed
closure Mountain Park during excessive
heat
days from the Phoenix Parks and
Recreation Department
following all
Council Park
employees L
twice response I got here to the meeting
lo and behold our attorneys sent over an
email
all uh the city had reviewed its files
and has determined there are no
responsive documents to your request
you're tell
they I got 40 seconds they couldn't have
determined that back on November 26 it
took us sending out that memo this
morning we sent one to each of you other
City
officials uh tomorrow is just a a sham
it's a total sham so we'll be there
thank Cappy is next followed by
Jarrett hi I'm Cappy match um with funds
for empowerment can y'all hear me
okay all right if you could get right in
of the microphone okay how that better
perfect okay all right um I wanted to
talk a b about the keeping the shelters
open using the general funds the 15
million that we're that we'll be getting
um and keeping the shelters open
especially for the elderly it is so hard
for elderly people to be homeless I have
been there since 2015 I am finally in an
apartment I've been there for three
years after I broke a hip um and been
misplaced displaced several times um
it's just really hard for a homeless
person and elderly to survive out in
this world
today that's all I have thank you thank
you Jarrett is
next followed by uh Wendy
thank you for your time uh I was hoping
to speak uh after uh the person who
inspired me to come down here uh one of
my heroes Miss Missy who has spoken
before you uh before I am uh district 7
uh I am here to support those who took
their time the effort and also a lot of
their their funding to uh speak on
behalf of the Phoenix feline
population uh those who have forever
homes those who are
feral those who uh who have been
abandoned um there's a many have been
dumped my bonafides is a i my family and
I have been taxpayers in district 7
since
1972 uh I spent several years Animal
Control uh as a volunteer and also as an
officer on the trucks I investigated
hoarding cases uh puppy mills and uh dog
fighting rings um also I am currently
eight years into volunteering at our
wildlife
rescue um I have witnessed uh economic
downturns a Great Recession and the
current Uh current
postco situation uh I am also a colony
manager for several feral cat colonies
uh what I'm here to do is to support
there's there's no agenda items in in
front of you right now I just want the
to support the advocacy um there's
a advocacy creates attention uh I I
believe uh miss miss miss puit has asked
for some meetings uh in terms of in in
support of the uh cat advocacy uh
attention creates education education is
what we're hoping to do to not only the
general public but to district managers
to to public officers we we we we no
longer accept intake at the County
Animal Control cats so what happens is
they get dumped or they get abandoned or
they get used as bait for um forgive my
emotion for uh for dog fighting rings
that are still still here so all I ask
of you is some attention and attention
and awareness awareness brings education
we just hope to uh have you help us
maybe in support and funding but
awareness and education for the general
public of the homeless pet
overpopulation especially the cats thank
you thank you Wendy is next followed by
Michael
Norton hello my name is Wendy Morris I
have a full-time job with United
Healthcare but the past 35 years I've
been volunteering doing TNR the cat
situation is a crisis people are dumping
friendly cats they're having litters
they're never spay and neutered it's
just us volunteers doing the trapping
the transporting paying for the spay and
neuters the City of Tempe has a TNR
program the city of Mesa is going to
start one what can we do to get the City
of Phoenix which is the largest to do
something I mean all of us that have
been doing this for a long time we're
getting older every day we need a new
Young breed of people to help
out I mean it's it's I don't even know
what to say but it's really really bad
and it's like what Missy says there's so
much cruelty people hate the
cats and you can't just trap them and
dump them that's illegal the only way to
do it is to get them spayed and neutered
because if you remove them that creates
the vacuum effect which more cats just
come and take the place the only way to
stop that is when you have them all
spayed and neutered then the male cats
don't go looking for other females the
other male cats don't come looking for
these females because they're Spades so
you have a little Colony that eventually
will die off but they keep rodents
away it's just very sad and again we're
just volunteers doing this my phone is
non-stop literally all my friends
everything is just and people needing
help trapping cats you've got elderly
people Sunday we had to go to Avendale
because this lady on a ventilator she
needed help that was our second time it
took us an hour and a half during the
week to get to her house but on a Sunday
it only took us 20 minutes but we
managed to get the last two cats so we
helped her out and now those cats won't
be breeding and she's feeding and taking
care of them so I just want the City of
Phoenix to do something to help us thank
you thank you Michael is next followed
by Elizabeth
venal goo thank you very much for the
opportunity to speak to the city council
today it has been a few meetings since I
spoke to city council partly because of
vacation recesses also because my
comments weren't necessary at a couple
of the different meetings statement that
I'm going to make today I made when I
was first for with Jerry Carlton who
some of you have met the president of
our
HOA Jerry passed away since the effort
was made to draft this this statement
and his work has been taken on By Dana
Kenny and William Kirkland who are also
on the board one of whom will serve as
the president for the board as we go
forward and they'll come forward to meet
with you going in the future we're going
to make these comments again tomorrow at
The Parks and Rec board
a few items that we ask for the city
council to consider given the fact that
we are coming up on budget deadlines
there is a need to move promptly and we
hope that you will be able to act before
the deadline set first we know that
there is not enough money to develop the
parks that sit dormant today that that's
not a question that's a statement the
magnitude of the problem is something
that's yet to be determined we have not
yet received a report from Parks and
Recreation that
identifies dormant park properties that
are that are waiting either to go on the
capital Improvement list or just or to
be built either one uh we asked for that
report quite a while ago it was it was
suggested that it would be sent to us it
was not a formal action we have not yet
seen that report from Parks and recck
we're going to be asking for it again
that fit in dovetailed with the city's
Tree Project which was approved in the
fourth quarter which we supported
wholeheartedly we wanted to ask that the
tree project be
specifically defined as
including the uh planting of trees on
Parcels that have not yet been developed
for Parks but will be in the future
there's nothing better than planting a
tree in advance of the development of
the park and letting the tree grow and
become a mature tree before the park is
built we would like the that that
consideration to take
place uh more urgent than any other
issue we continue to have fire problems
we're going to talk about heat
protection for The Preserve tomorrow at
the parks and W meeting but we have a
problem with fires today that has not
been addressed as a
specific uh issue related to dormant
city-owned
properties the dormant city-owned
property unless they've been graded and
rocked like the properties to the west
of the airport uh repeatedly grow weeds
invasive weeds stink net is one of the
primary issues we had another problem
with a stink net fire on January 1st
when fireworks started a fire that
fortunately was caught before the wind
pushed that fire
into thank you Elizabeth is next
followed by Sharm Mary
okay so um it's going to be budget
season soon so we thought we'd start
early and point out that um you all have
invested a lot of arpa money that has
sunsetted in um some new facilities I
want to encourage you for the for people
experiencing homelessness I want to
encourage you to make the commitment to
fund um these shelters and other housing
units um as needed uh from the general
fund because uh especially because I
don't anticipate new federal funding
will come anytime soon especially not
akin to the arpa money um the investment
pays off significantly in terms of cost
savings to the city when it comes to
lowered uh utilization of law
enforcement lowered utilization of fire
and emergency services and then State of
Arizona as well as City of Phoenix in um
medical um and a variety of associated
costs the am amount of savings that um
one person who is sheltered generates
for a municipality as was demonstrated
in Denver is um approximately U
$115,000 um you all have uh built um
over um
certainly over a thousand units I think
you know so if you're looking at an
budget allocation of $15.3
million savings it pays for itself you
know um and sometimes we don't see
reductions in costs like they're not
visible a lot of externalities are not
immediately visible when we look at a
budget but when we have ex um economic
analysis we need to consider um not just
the uh allocations but the
efficiency the uh return on
investment um the value that you get not
only in human lives even economic
productivity building a tax base because
you know when you House people you
provide them often with the ability to
work um and many people want to work you
know you provide them with stability um
if they have problems with substances
it's much easier to come off the
substances um especially when it's not
coercive and it's a support so I really
want you all to take it seriously that
um funding Contin these Services
especially through general
fund is absolutely critical because um
you know it doesn't just impact human
lives like literally the money will be
returned and it may not look as obvious
in the the budget but if you do the
analysis it will bury you out I can you
know offer many sources with regards to
this and that's it thank
you thank you uh charmark is next
followed by
Christie I'm sorry for my poor
pronunciation that last name
jamama all right christe is next
good afternoon Madame mayor and council
members my name is christe
margaro Phoenix citizens that have been
working improve Animal Welfare within
our city why is improving Animal Welfare
in our city so important beyond the
obvious reason of preventing harm to
sentient beings according to the FBI
there's a well documented overlap
between animal cruelty and domestic
violence child abuse and Elder abuse
animal cruelty is often tied to
underlying psychological disorders and
issues the identification and treatment
of those issues is the best way to
prevent recidivism and escalation to
more heinous crimes against humans the
American Psychiatric association
identifies cruelty to animals as being
linked to sociopathic Behavior cruelty
to animals displays a need for power and
control combined with a lack of empathy
in layman's terms animal abuse and
cruelty are General precursors to crimes
against humans detection and deterrence
are critical Concepts in law enforcement
as these are the tools that identify Bad
actors and work to prevent future Crimes
by holding violators accountable and
displaying to the rest of the population
that this Behavior will not be tolerated
did you know that Salvador Ramos the
young Texas man that committed the mass
shooting of 19 humans at U valdi
Elementary uploaded videos on social
media of himself torturing cats with
those human lives have been spared if
his behavior was taken seriously when he
was torturing animals it has come to
light over the last 6 months with
examples that have been brought forth by
my fellow animal rights activists that
our Phoenix police officers are not
appropriately informed regarding our
Animal Welfare laws some of these
examples have been provided right here
during city council like last week when
Missy puit talked to you about the cat
being strangled and left for dead an
officer that responded to the call
stated on video that he didn't even know
this was a crime additionally we've met
with some of your offices and shared
details on a larger scale Animal Welfare
incident and you were shocked to learned
that no citations were issued according
to a Humane the conditions they called
the police out to were absolutely
citable we have an Enforcement issue
that is caused by more than just a lack
of headcount there appears to be an
opportunity for officer training to
bring them up to date on our Animal
Welfare laws and what is expected
regarding enforcement did you know the
city's contract with a Humane states
that a Humane shall provide periodic and
Education and Training Services to our
police department and City prosecutor is
that happening has that ever happened
according to the FBI's website numerous
training courses and materials are
available to law enforcement many of
which are free the national District
Attorneys Association created a guide
titled investigating and Prosecuting
animal abuse that provides extensive
information for law enforcement officers
also the Humane Society of the United
States offers a course titled
investigative considerations concerning
animal crime violations to law
enforcement departments across the
country please ask our police commanders
what training on Animal Welfare topics
they have received and when we need our
officers to be able to identify these
violations and be well trained on best
practices thank you for your
consideration see you next month thank
you Tim is next followed by
missy good afternoon Tim surowski thank
you for allowing me to
speak I wasn't really sure what I wanted
to speak about to
today especially after reading the
response from the city
about stuff that we've asked for for
months and months and
months I think I'll just pass on that
today and I want to talk about filming
at the parks boards meeting waiting for
others to
join I'm glad they're joining I think at
this point we need to start really
having the Parks Board
on TV so that everyone can see that we
have a group of individuals who are
non-elected making decisions for
millions of people when they should be
at a certain point asking and going to
the city council for their
recommendations I'm not sure after
reading the charter of the power
structure of the parks
department I thought that they had to be
voted all the people the Parks Board be
voted in by the city council not just
the mayor I I might be wrong on that my
question truly is how can a group of
individuals who are non-elected
individuals be making decisions for
people in AR in the Phoenix area they
can't it goes against our constitution
of Arizona so I'm trying to figure all
this out and I'm reading I'm reading all
of this stuff and I'm I'm asking myself
why why are we not really doing what we
should be doing for the people that are
electing you into your
office so I'm really at this point
asking that we start having a having all
the meetings on TV so that everyone in
the area of the City of Phoenix and
anyone else who wants to pick it up on
YouTube can see exactly what's going on
so that they have a clear understanding
of who's really making decisions for
them and then they can really kind
contact their city council people and
ask how come non-elected officials are
changing and making decisions that they
really shouldn't be making thank
you thank you Missy is next followed by
Linda hi Council hi mayor I'm Missy puit
um I'm thankful for my cat Advocates
being here today and I actually I wasn't
sure I knew that I wanted to talk about
I always wanted you to just be educated
on cats and the crisis we're in but I
actually want to just read you just a
little something well I'm first going to
tell you a story because you know I
always tell you a story so I help out
with um some of the seniors that live at
the westward hoe and I actually con uh
went to a uh cat funeral there a month
ago and uh one of the ladies there she
her cat passed away and while I was
there another lady came out and wanted
to talk to me and wanted my help
actually a lot of of the people that
attended the funeral brought their cats
out for me to visit and um this lady is
probably about 90 and wanted me to come
into her home and outside her little
apartment there at the westward H I
don't know if you've been there before
um she had about 20 cats out of outside
her window she probably has no I mean
she has no income she go they probably
give her food every day she spends all
of her money to feed these outside cats
every day and has called multiple places
and there's nobody that can help so we
will help her all of us that help every
day volunteering our time to do that um
but it would be really nice if
especially City places like that are
given the opportunity to have somebody
that goes in there and helps them with
that so I just wanted to read you I want
you to know why we're so passionate
about this and why we really just want
you to listen and and um we want your
attention I don't know if this will take
a minute and a half it might take longer
so I'll just stop as soon as it happens
dear Animal Rescuer this letter is a
simple attempt to acknowledge the hard
work that you do each day to keep
animals safe I want you to know that
your work has not gone unnoticed I want
to than you I know how many nights
you've spent in your car waiting for a
stray cat to make the decision to enter
a metal cage for a bite of food Wendy I
know that you are the very first ones on
the scene of disasters long before
Humane Society shows up with their
cameras I know how many dogs and cats
you've picked up from County at the 12th
hour minutes before it was going to be
euthanized and I know how often you pay
your own cost out of your own pocket to
give these cats and dogs a chance at
life I know you spend hours late at
night searching Craigslist for free to a
good home ads because you are one of the
few who realize these animals will be
picked up and sold to lab animals or
used as bait for animals for illegal dog
fights or worse I know how frustrated
you are with humans and that you are
often called crazy or Ecentric or
unbalanced for alleged for allegedly for
helping animals please don't worry most
people are not emotionally equipped to
see the potential beauty of a mangy dog
or kept their compassion for cat that
has just bitten them up there are many
humans who will never understand but you
do I also know how much you struggle
with your own species and that you often
sacrifice important personal relation
ships because you are so passionately
committed to saving an animal try to
remember that strength in any belief has
historically been the dividing Factor
within Society it's true with politics
with religion and our belief in saving
animals these people will never
understand why you would rather spend
your last dollar on a can of food for a
dangerously thin cat then spend on a
meal for yourself thank
you thank you Linda is our next speaker
mayor council members thank you for
allowing me to speak my name is
l I've lived in Phoenix Arizona my
entire
life I've never seen anything so
horrendous as the overpopulation of cats
the abuse and lack of help to try to get
them some help TNR to be very effective
in many many regions of this country but
unfortunately we don't have the funding
we have the ability we have the talent
and we have the people willing to go out
there and trap these cats but there's no
funding I'm retired I'm in my 70s I can
no longer afford to run my credit cards
up to pay for spaying neuter the reason
I'm here
today financial help so that these cats
children are seeing dead dying kittens
on their way to school way home we're in
constant kitten season here it never
ends and it's
tragic we formed a group of several
other Trappers that are willing to abide
by whatever the city would like us to do
and we're willing to go out there free
of charge and trap these cats if we can
just get the funding to spay a neuter
for these cat cats Wendy Morris spoke
before her and I have trapped together
on many occasions last October we were
featured in the New Times magazine by a
reporter who went trapping with us she
had no idea what was involved we had to
use metal traps but we also had to use
drop traps she couldn't believe it it's
a great article if you haven't read it
I'd be glad to send it to
you I don't know I could just rattle on
here all day about the need to help
these
animals I don't know what to do to get
the attention that we need if somebody
can like guide me in that direction what
type of format what do we need to you
know submit to get some financial help
we truly are in crisis here I get calls
from people I've got over 80 cats that
need to be trapped spade and neutered
right now the only appointments I have
are eight appointments next month
eight that's it that's
10 every
time these cats just continue to breed
and breed but the time I trap those cats
there's going to be more
kittens I don't know what else to say
thank you for I hope we can all come up
with a
solution thank you we are adjourned
are an absolute Rockstar looking forward
to next year it is clear to us that we
will not be able to operate these sites