City Council | Regular Meeting - July 2, 2025

I'd like to call the July 2nd, 2025 city
council regular meeting and work study
session to order. City clerk Ben Lane,
will you please conduct our roll call?
Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Lisa Barowski,
present. Vice Mayor Jan Debbasquez,
here. Council members Barry Graham here.
Adam Quasman
here. Kathy Littlefield here.
Maryanne McCallen present. And Solange
Whitehead here. City Manager Greg
Kaitton here. Interim City attorney
Louis Santea here. City Treasurer Sonia
Andrews here. Acting city outlayoff
here. And the clerk is present. Thank
you, mayor. Thank you very much. Uh
tonight we have Scottsdale Police
Sergeant Eric BS and police officer Ray
Wilburn as well as firefighter Alec
Woodhead. If anyone requires assistance,
please notify a member of our staff. Uh
this evening I will lead us in the
pledge of allegiance. Please join me.
I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic
for which it stands. One nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
And for this evening's invocation, I'll
turn the mic over to Councilwoman
McCallen. Thank you, Mayor.
Uh, I'm going to um depart from the
normal. I will be doing the invocation
myself tonight, but uh this past week, I
reflected on um the invocation and what
kept coming back to me were thoughts
about protection. protection for our
country, protection for our state, for
our citizens of Scottsdale, our staff,
our families. This past week, we
celebrated in the city of Scottsdale the
20th anniversary of the Scottsdale Fire
Department.
Um, we also celebrated the 12th
anniversary of the Yarnell Hot Shots and
the unthinkable murder of firefighters
in Idaho. So with that, as we prepare to
celebrate the birth of our nation this
July 4th, I would like us all to keep
our Scottsdale firefighters as well as
all of our first responders in our
prayer. And if you'll please bow your
head, I'll read a prayer.
Prayer for firefighters protection.
Most powerful God, we offer our prayers
for our brave firefighters. Protect them
from harm as they dedicate their lives
to serving others. Grant them health in
body and spirit. Bless their efforts and
commitment.
Comfort them in stressful moments at
work. Grant them all the blessings they
deserve. We ask this in your name. Amen.
Thank you.
As uh for the mayor's report this
evening, I'd like to share uh a
proclamation that I've issued which uh
declares proclaims uh parks and
recreation month here in Scottsdale. And
I'd like to read you an excerpt from
that proclamation. And I believe there's
someone here from uh the parks and
recreation office that's going to accept
it.
The Scottsdale Parks and Recreation
Division was founded in 1960 and has
evolved into an awardwinning and
nationally accredited agency. The legacy
of our parks and recreation division
includes familyfriendly neighborhoods
supporting economic prosperity and
energizing team and sport destination
tourism. Congratulations to all our
parks and recreation volunteers and
there are so many. We are so blessed. uh
our employees and leaders as I
officially uh proclaim July 1st, but it
is the second as uh parks and recreation
month. So, congratulations
[Applause]
All right.
Uh, as is always the case during
tonight's meeting, the council may make
a motion to recess into an exe executive
session if we need to obtain legal
advice on any applicable item on the
agenda if authorized by the council. The
executive session will be held
immediately and will not be open to the
public. The public meeting would resume
following the executive session. Now,
I'd like to turn to the public comment
uh which is reserved for non-aggendaized
items. And that in that is for
Scottsdale citizens, business owners,
and property owners to comment on
non-aggendaized items that are within
the council's jurisdiction. No official
council action can be taken on those
items, and speakers are limited to three
minutes to address the council. If you
wish to speak on a non-aggendaized or an
agendaized topic, please see the city
clerk. We've received uh several
requests for public comment, and I'm
going to take those all. Uh now, um as a
reminder, uh last evening and and the
last couple of meetings, we've had
people come to the podium and there's
been a banter back and forth with
council and I'd like to keep that
eliminate that from the process. This is
the the point in the meeting where
you're free to uh make comments that are
not agendaized action items on the
council. Uh and council is free to make
a comment, but uh I'd ask you to leave
it at that without the back and forth.
So with that, uh Josie Colin will be our
first up for the comment period,
followed by Whitney Warman, Dan Isaac,
Jason Alexander, and Michael Fernandez.
Hello, my name is Josie Kolan and my
address is on record. I'm a Scottsdale
resident and having lived in Scottsdale
for 7 years, I genuinely feel it's the
safest, most beautiful, and livable city
in the valley with its unique blend of
natural beauty, walkability, and overall
quality of life. My choice to continue
living here reflects how deeply I value
our remarkable environment and the
thoughtful planning that it takes to
make our city so attractive. I greatly
appreciate and expect opportunities for
residents like myself to advocate and
participate in city planning processes,
ensuring that the city continues to
reflect the community's vision and
needs. With the undeniable and
accelerating impacts of climate change
worldwide, I was profoundly disappointed
when our city council rejected uh
recently voted uh to reverse the
adoption of the carefully crafted and
previously adopted sustainability plan
by repealing a plan that involved
thousands of hours and extensive input
from residents, experts, and staff. The
council not only disregarded careful
planning efforts, but also the voices
and priorities of the majority of
Scottsdale residents. This plan and
guidelines are imperative to the quality
of life that we all value here. While
our local businesses do their part to
maintain economic vitality, they rely
heavily on city government to
proactively ensure the long-term
vitality and resilience of our community
infrastructure. It's vital to establish
a clear baseline and vision for
sustainability created and communicated
by city leadership so both residents and
businesses can have consistent guidance
and support in pursuing sustainably
livable goals. Scottsdale's residents
take great pride in our history of
visionary leadership, notably through
the McDall sonor and preserve and
meaningful green building codes. Our
city's renowned regionally and
nationally for prioritizing resident
well-being, wellness, and health through
policies that promote clean air,
mitigating extreme heat, and maintaining
livability. The existing legacy of
proactive, forward-thinking policies
makes the council's decision to step
back from the thoughtfully written,
comparatively moderate sustainability
plan that was voluntary, no less, even
more disheartening. Citing immediate
cost implications to justify the repeal
ignores that there are far greater
future expenses uh in the economic
reality that we face if preventative
actions aren't taken now. Scottsdale's
economy thrives significantly on tourism
and outdoor recreation driven by our
unique scenery and environmental
quality. The long-term costs that would
come from kicking this can down the road
are uh disheartening to someone like me.
The evidence around water shortages,
rising heat, energy concerns, and
declining air quality doesn't need a sc
you don't need to be a scientist to see
it. It's visible and we can all feel it
when we walk outside every day.
From restaurant and hotel owners to
others that are dependent on tourists to
construction workers exposed to extreme
heat or homeowners worried about water
scarcity or their health or their
livelihoods even. The impacts of climate
in action are clear and immediate. Our
city's legacy of thoughtful,
forward-thinking leadership requires
renewed action today. Sustainability
isn't optional. It's essential for
preserving the exceptional quality of
life Scottsdale residents cherish and
depend upon. Thank you.
Thank you. and councilwoman
Whitehead has a comment. I just want to
you you can I just want to sincerely
thank you.
All right, Whitney Warman followed by
Dan Isaac and Jason Alexander.
Thank you. My name is Whitney Warman. My
address is on record. I've been a proud
resident of Scottsdale for over 10
years. We moved here because Scottsdale
has always stood out as a safe and
livable city with a unique character. I
have the honor of being the architect
for the Scottsdale Museum of the West
expansion project. This project means a
lot to me, not just professionally, but
personally, because it's my ability to
directly contribute to the city I call
home. I was absolutely thrilled when I
found out that the city of Scottsdale
had adopted the 2021 International Green
Construction Code, a thoughtful move by
our local government. And as a result,
we have reduced our construction waste
to the landfill by 80%.
Just because it asked us to change our
way of separating waste. That is real
impact with real leadership. But in
January of 2025, I was absolutely
devastated to learn that the city of
council had repealed the community
sustainability plan and its task force.
This completely broke my heart because I
believed in your leadership. This plan
was a result of three-year effort
involving residents, city officials,
local businesses, and experts in the
field. It was approved by the community.
It had been adopted by the council in
December of 2024. So, I've got to ask,
why the repeal so suddenly and with
little public notice? More than 350
Scottsdale residents emailed you urging
the council to reconsider. We are the
community you're committed to leading
and we are asking you to restore
Scottsdale's path to a livable city.
Scottsdale has always been a leader. We
built the Indian Ben Wash green belt to
mitigate flood control when other people
were pouring concrete. Now, cities like
Los Angeles are completely changing
their concrete channels into green belts
like ours. You know, who here loves to
hike? We've preserved over 30,000 acres
of the Snoring Mountains, and that is a
fundamental aspect of Scottsdale's
character. We pioneered wastewater
recycling. This is who we are. We are a
city that values clean water, clean air,
and healthy spaces. The sustainability
plan is a roadmap to protect what we've
built and prepare for the challenges
ahead. Look, the saros are dying and
they're built to live here. Dust storms
are rising. Monsoon rains are becoming
fewer. We are seeing more 15 plus
degrees days every year. How is this
going to affect our ability to live
here? How is this going to affect
tourism? How is this going to affect the
number of days on the golf course?
Leadership means looking at the bigger
picture and providing guidance. If we
abandon our commitment to a livable
city, the very identity of our city, the
livability, the economy will be at risk.
I urge this council to please reconsider
the repeal of the community
sustainability plan. Show us once again
that Scottsdale leads with vision,
wisdom, and care. Thank you. Thank you
so much, Councilwoman Whitehead. Once
more, I have to thank you. And I want to
tell you how proud I am. We had a
national expert on green building codes
that helped us uh adopt those codes and
I'm so proud they're still on the books
and I can't wait to see the expansion.
Thank you for your comments.
Thank you, Dan Isaac.
Dan Isaac, address on record. Mayor,
thank you again for the opportunity to
speak. Imagine my surprise when a couple
meetings ago, Adam and I actually agreed
on a topic. It was in response to a
public comment from a resident thanking
the city for improving Shea Boulevard
and specifically some of the safety
features that were put in place. Adam
said that as a counselor and as a um
personal injury attorney, he applauded
things that would make our roads safer.
I completely agree with that. Although
there is some question of whether
extending yellow lights reduces
accidents, but that's for traffic
engineers to debate. However, what I
can't reconcile is if this city council
and Adam are concerned with the safety
of our roads, why they would have voted,
specifically Adam, Barry, Jan, and
Kathy, to spend more money and to delay
a project to make it less safe. It is
irrefutable that the traffic circle at
Scottsdale and Dynamite was rated
A in safety and efficiency,
but the four council members decided to
spend more money and delay the project
to make it rated D. So, if our council
is supposed to be careful with our money
and care about resident safety, I would
love an explanation for why they would
have made this decision.
Second topic, points of order. Barry and
Adam enjoy calling for points of order,
particularly when the conversation isn't
going in the direction that they like.
I'm all for running these meetings
according to the rules and procedures of
the meeting.
However, these rules also require no
sidebars.
Barry and Adam routinely have sidebars.
It is a violation of the rules of order.
If they continue to do so, I encourage
the mayor to wield her gavvel far more
uh disciplinarily
to rein in their inappropriate use of
rules to limit conversation.
A couple meetings ago, Barry not only
was having sidebars with Kathy and Jan,
but he was telling Kathy how to vote on
a motion.
So, not only did he violate the rule of
order, he violated decency by telling a
person how to vote. Now, admittedly,
Kathy was a little confused because
there were two motions. She shouldn't
have been confused because one of the
motions was hers. But not only did we
have to take that whole vote over with
Barry telling her what to do, but then
we had to redo that motion because Kathy
was confused as to what her motion was.
First it was two mayor employees, then
it was a mayor and a council or a clerk
employee. Then it was two people who
aren't currently in positions. We wasted
five minutes clarifying that. So anyway,
thank you for your time, Mayor. Thank
you, Dan. Councilman Graham. appreciate
the public comment. I don't appreciate
the um intimation about my colleague,
Council Member Littlefield. Um Council
Member Littlefield is someone who has
served this city with distinction for
over 10 years. She enjoys very high
resident support um among her community
and uh the intimation that the negative
intimation is not appreciated. Thank
you.
Jason Alexander,
followed by Michael Hernandez and then
RL Whitmer, Steve Sutton, Sutton, Susan
Wood, and Jose Escadero.
Hi, Jason Alexander. Address on record.
I have a video I'd like to play and if
uh the staff would play that now for me,
please. A lot of that's just wild,
unproven, baseless accusa speculation.
Um, but I dispute ever making that
accusation about you. I don't I didn't
make that accusation. Isaac, there's
just so much baseless unproven
speculation that um most of what you
said is is unproven speculation that I
wouldn't agree with. Um, I wanted to
keep that that issue. This is your
police report, Councilman Graham. It's
not speculation, Mr. Mr. Uh, but it was
just baseless speculation. So, what what
word would you use other than
conviction, Barry? um baseless unproven
speculation. Thank you for coming to
speak to us. You use the same comment
after any person points out your bad
behavior.
So Barry uh has a problem with the
truth. He has a problem with open and
honest conversation.
I posted my public comments from last
week's council meeting on Next Door. And
uh could I have the overhead, please?
Barry reported my comments, saying that
I was spreading false, potentially
defamatory information, that he had
received a guilty verdict in his ethics
complaint. And not only did Barry report
them,
he had airport commissioner Tom Kooie
cut and paste the exact same report.
Well, of course, Barry's complaint was
thrown out and laughed laughed out
because
here was the article written by Jay
Greyber of the Independent, which
specifically said, "Graham found guilty
of ethics violation, violation of ethics
code, found guilty of the violation."
Similar language was posted in the
progress.
Councilman Graham unintentionally
violated ethics code, violated the
city's ethics code. Barry, you have a
problem with the truth. And your
response to call people speculative or
defamatory is truly vile. And then to
say that it breeds distrust and
agitation in the community, well, I
think you should turn that mirror back
on yourself.
Nothing breeds distrust and agitation in
the community than an elected official
who lies, bullies, and defames.
Barry, if you're going to respond to
every criticism claiming it's
defamation, hire a lawyer and prove it.
Of course, I don't think you'll find a
lawyer to take your case because the
moment they go into discovery, all your
texts, all your emails, all your phone
calls will become part of the discovery
process. And in those phone calls and
records and emails, I imagine we'll see
multiple open meeting law violations. I
imagine we'll see more ethics
violations. I imagine we'll see more
attempts to conspire and file false
police reports against the mayor. False
reports with the county attorney. Point
of order. Uh no, Mr. Graham. Last night,
Mr. Parliamentarian, is this is this one
of the topics in the city's
jurisdiction? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alexander.
Could I get a little bit of time back
after uh Mr. Graham has interrupted me,
please? Sure. I I don't I don't think
this it's this this comment period. I
can hear you. The comment and you've
said your point of order, but the
parliamentarian I I asked for his I'm
the parliamentarian. No, you're the
presiding officer. Listen, you can
challenge it and we can take a vote on
it. You're the presiding officer. The
I'll go ahead now. I don't need any
debate. I will rule on your point of
order. And this is a comment period for
non-aggendaized items. There is no
definition about what citizens can
comment on other than that. And if you
want to challenge it, then it can go to
our city attorney.
Thank you. Uh to answer your question,
you can have 10 more seconds. Thank you,
Mayor Barowski. Mr. Graham, hire a
lawyer. There are so many people who
would love to support me in a counter
suit against you.
Thank you,
Michael Fernandez.
Yeah.
I'm Michael Fernandez. address on
record. It's become more than evident
that council members Duboscus, Graham,
Quasman, and Littlefield have no respect
for the opinions of Scottsdale
residents, businesses, property owners,
and visitors. On May 20th, we turned in
petitions with more than 5,000
signatures asking for p for a public
hearing on the parking garage in
historic Oldtown. The council denied our
request, pigeon holing the petitions
with city manager. On June 24th, we
asked again to have the council hold a
public hearing on the garage. In a 4 to3
vote, they told the public they don't
want to hear what they have to say. Last
December, in response to Axon's upzoning
for 1900 apartments, more than 26,000
registered Scottsdale voters signed a
petition to refer the zoning to the
ballot for quote their approval or
rejection at the next regular general
election or city or town election end
quote. And what did this council do?
They failed to set a date for the
election, defaulting to November of
2026.
Several council members, current and
former, flippantly flippantly told the
voters and Axon that they would need to
wait until November of 2026.
In a June 22nd column, former Councilman
Bob Crash Littlefield stated, quote, "By
the way, we are not cancelling the
November 2026 election." End quote. Bob,
who is we? Do you mean you and your
council member wife? When did the
council set the election for November
2026?
The signatures were verified in January
of 2025, and the next available election
would have been May of 2025.
But because the council balked on
holding a timely election, Axon was able
to secure special legislation exempting
them from local zoning. Delaying the
election to November of 2026 is meant to
benefit incumbent Councilman Graham and
former Councilman Littlefield, who will
be running for election along with the
Axon referendum.
Therefore, we are submitting this
citizens petition to have the council
hold the Axon referendum election in
November of 2025 or March of 2026.
It's time for council members Duboscus,
Graham, Quasman, and Littlefield to
abandon the refusal to let the people
speak, put voters first, and hold the
election now. Mayor,
thank you, Mr. Hernandez. Mr. Fernandez.
Excuse me. Councilman Graham, you're out
of order. I was about to call on you. Go
right ahead. Mr. Fernandez, I have a
quick question for you. May I ask you a
question? No. Yeah.
Madame Mayor, point of order.
I'm sorry. We don't This is not a This
is not a discussion period period of
time. That's first of all. And second
point, I I really have three points of
orders here. Madame Mayor, you're not
the parliamentarian under rule under
rule three, Mr. Graham, Councilman
Graham, this is not a discussion period.
And and I asked the true
parliamentarian, the at the city
attorney that that to rule whether
Councilman Graham is a candidate for
office or not, and perhaps he needs to
file for office because this is getting
very dangerously close to a to a
violation of rule 7.1, meeting after
meeting after meeting of all of this uh
public comment section. So, I'm just
asking for a ruling about about whether
Mr. Graham is is best suited to file for
office uh so that we can get rid of all
of this nonsense every time. This Thank
you, Councilman Clausman. This seems
highly off topic and if you have
questions for the city attorney on any
of those issues, you should direct those
to the city attorney, not during the
public comment period. Well, it's it
madame mayor as a point as a point of
order. This is this is the reasoning is
is because while we respect the comment
members ability to uh to speak their
mind under their first amendment and
under the under Arizona state rulings
that happened in other cities, we do
have rules of what the public comment
can and cannot be. So my question is
this is this advocacy or is this not
advocacy? So I'm going to move on.
This is not a question that is relevant
to this public comment. I call for a
vote then of the council. I call the
poll of the council to be able to ask
the parliamentarian of whether this is
advocacy or not advocacy. Second, you
had three legal questions. So, please
state your motion to overrule my
decision.
My motion is a call for the vote to be
able to ask the parliamentarian unless
you withdraw to ask the parliamentarian
whether this is advocacy or not
advocacy.
Second.
All those in favor?
I. Yes.
You have the stage. Thank Thank
goodness. go ahead and take on the
questions that you just Thank you,
mayor, and members of the city council.
Um,
the members of the public, uh, according
to the rules of council procedure are
only to address matters within the
jurisdiction of this body. Um, when we
start talking about things that are not
within the jurisdiction of this body,
that's not appropriate topic for public
u comment. Um, while the first amendment
applies, it's not unlimited. Um, for
example, and I'm not commenting on the
nature of the commentary, but is next
door within the jurisdiction of of this
council? Probably not. Um, also the
rules of procedure say that all members
of the public are supposed to follow the
same decorum as staff members and
members of the council. Um, and um, I
the city attorney is the uh,
parliamentarian and and the mayor
obviously is is the presiding officer.
Um, when it comes to public comment, um,
there's not supposed to be a back and
forth between the parties, meaning that,
uh, uh, the if the criticism is
appropriate, um, their time is ended and
then the council member or council
woman, if they so choose, can respond,
but they they're not to be interrupted
under the under these rules. Um it's not
supposed to be um an undisiplined um
discussion. There's in fact supposed to
be no discussion during public comment.
Um in terms of and this is a foundation
that I'm laying an um answer to council
member Quasman's question. Um the reason
he's talking about advocacy is that the
city council doesn't have jurisdiction
over candidates. So, it's always
inappropriate and it's clearly spelled
out in our rules that you can't advocate
for candidates or ballot measures a
against them during our rules. Um, so I
hope Councilman Quasman that has um
answered your question. Um, advocacy,
political advocacy for ballot measures
and candidates is never appropriate
during our uh public comment. And the
cut public comment is for
non-aggendaized items within the
jurisdiction of the city council. Um and
um according to the rules, the quorum is
to be respected.
Thank you for that uh city attorney. I
appreciate it. Uh Jason Alexander was
specifically talking about the ethics
hearing. So that you know there's some
gray area there as to what you just
described.
That that is true, mayor. Um although
there is some miscatategorization
because the term guilty or not guilty is
used in a criminal proceeding and um you
know it's not our job obviously to um um
tell people what they can can or cannot
say. Um but yes, you're correct. It is a
gray area.
Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Uh,
next we have RL Whitmer, Steve Sutton,
Susan Wood, and Jose Escuderero.
RL Whitmer address on record. This
council is the worst example of elected
officials that I've seen since the 1988
impeachment of Governor Mikum. Friends
ask, "What can be done to write this
situation? Why can't the five
Republicans work together?"
I tell them the shenanigans started on
day one with Barry Graham's baseless
criticism of the cost of the mayor's to
the public of the mayor's inaugural
inauguration when the event was paid for
by private donors. And then there is
parking gate where council member
Debbachis filed an unfounded criminal
complaint with the county attorney
alleging bribery and bidrigging. She was
joined by council members Quasman and
Graham. After interviewing Debbacus
Quasman and Graham, the county attorney
dropped the investigation like a hot
rock. You can get audio interviews from
the county attorney via a public records
request. In Barry's interview, he
claimed the mayor is the only person
that can hire and fire the manager and
promote him or not promote him, but you
know, adjust his compensation.
The chart is clear that is the uh
council has that authority and the city
manager serves at the pleasure of the
council.
I have on the screen here ARS 132907.01A
01a quote. It is unlawful for a person
to knowingly make to a law enforcement
agency a false, fraudulent or unfounded
report or statement or knowing knowingly
misrepresent a fact for the purpose of
interfering with orderly operation of a
law enforcement agency or misleading a
peace officer. End quote. Councilman
Graham is a licensed CPA.
Board of Accountancy requires CPAs to
adhere to a higher ethical standard.
Quote, as distinguishing mark of a CPA
is acceptance of its responsibility to
the public.
Accounting professions consist of other
excuse me, its responsibility to the
public. The accounting profess
professions public public consists of
others who rely on the objectivity and
integrity of members.
The public interest is defined as the
collective well-being of a community of
the people and institutions that the CPA
serves. End quote. Council members
Debbacus and Quasman are licensed
lawyers subject to discipline from the
state bar. Supreme Court rule of
professional conduct. Quote, "It is
professional misconduct for a lawyer to
commit a criminal act that reflects
adversely on the lawyer's honesty,
trustworthy, or fitness as a lawyer. in
other respects or engage in conflicts
involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and
misrepresentation."
End quote. Mr. Bacas, Mr. Quasman, Mr.
Graham, if you truly want a cohesive,
unified city council, it is time for you
to acknowledge your wrongdoing and
apologize.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Uh, Councilman Graham,
just a point of order. I I think that I
respect Mr. Whitmer's first amendment
rights. I just don't know how any of
that related to um thing items under our
jurisdiction
and uh m Mr. Whitmer there there's
there's no back and forth, sir. No, I
understand. I'm just going to make a
statement under the jurisdiction, but
it's a misdemeanor. Sir, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. And the second
thing I was going to say is that uh Mr.
Whitmer attributed an anonymous quote to
me that's totally false. Um, and so I I
dispute that. Thank you.
Thank you, Steve Sutton.
Can you hear me? All right.
Steve Sutton, address on record.
Honorable Lisa Barowski, mayor of
Scottsdale and council members. Barry
Graham is the first council member to
ever speak privately to me. Since last
August, we've conversed at nearly every
council meeting until about six weeks
ago when I created a petition he does
not like. Contra uh conversational
topics range from Barry's hatred of
government, the dog park, Barry's
misconceptions about the origins of the
English longbow and use in the 14th
century,
agreement on not reappointing a
Scottsdale commissioner, my employment
as an intelligence analyst at the
National Security Agency, and once
political advice that caused Barry to
lose his temper and later acknowledge
its value and apologize.
Barry knows enough about me to know I am
a man of good character who would not
destroy his own life by threatening him
with violence. Last night's council
meeting video recorded Councilman Graham
making the following 10 sequential
comments to me when a member of the
public from I perspective threatens
unpleasant consequences against me. I
have young children at home. That was
threatening speech. You made a comment
that well that was just one version of
the comment. That was what was written.
That's how I felt. You made a comment
that I was trying to keep it private.
What I meant by that, I know that police
reports are private.
What I meant by that is I'm not
broadcasting it. Let's keep it between
us. You were the one who promoted it.
Now, I've been told that his halting and
emotional delivery might have gained him
some sympathy. But let's look at what he
really said.
Barry, those statements communicated
that you felt I was making a threat of
violence dangering you and your
children, that you wanted to keep
knowledge of your feeling threatened
private between you and me, that you did
not want to broadcast the incident, but
did broadcast it by telling the police
while knowing it would be would not be
private. So, I have two rhetorical
questions for all Scottsdale to ponder.
Councilman Bear Graham, why would your
next action be to broadcast knowledge of
this incident by informing Rod
Pritchette to post in his blog that I
made a threat and I am now on a police
department watch list? Why would you and
Rod Pritchette make a public comment
that could increase the danger to your
children by potentially provoking
violence from someone you believe is
threatening violence?
Council Graham, you never felt
threatened. You felt an opportunity
tapping you on the shoulder, the
opportunity to make a political attack
by misrepresenting my comments. When
confronted with your obvious
deceitfulness, you attempted to shield
yourself behind your children. Barry
Graham, you are not a principal
conservative you pretend to be. This
incident and others have convinced me
that the other council members should do
everything in their power to prevent
damage to their individual reputations
from association with you.
Adam, Maryanne, Solange, Lisa, Kathy,
and Jan, my petition is a gift. you have
failed to perceive. It provides you a
win-win opportunity. If you can't figure
out how it it does that, ask me for an
explanation. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman Graham. Thank you,
Mayor.
Mr. Sutton, I will just remind you that
that report was intended to remain
private and I don't take it back. I
would do the same thing over again.
I um
I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr.
Sutton.
Susan Wood.
I don't see Susan Wood. Uh Jose
Escadero.
Good evening, council. My comments are
going to be so unimportant.
My name is Jose Guerero. I came from
Spain in 1979
and I live here ever since.
I walk from Osborne to Chapar Lake every
day at 5:30
for six miles back and forth. And this
is my observation during my work.
Grounds are amazingly in great shape.
There are four fontines on the way. Only
one of them works. The other three, they
don't work.
Um,
there are five palm trees along the
continental golf course. They haven't
been trimmed for the last 20 years and
they are full of rats. rurats. I mean
you can see them coming down the tree.
Um
there is a pond by Indian school that is
almost empty and it stinks. So I don't
know if that is the problem of the city
or the problem of the golf course.
Um it's a health hazard. It's going to
be fobable mosquitoes pretty soon.
Um
So, let's see. Um, who takes care of it?
The city or the golf course? 10 days
ago, while I was walking on the path, I
was hit by a golf ball about 200 miles
an hour on my car. Okay. So, um,
nobody took responsibility for it. Not
the golf course, not the golfer.
Um, I think there should be a net
between T number one and T number four
so people don't get hit by a strip
while walking. Um,
widening the widening the sidewalk by
two feet that from Osborne to I don't
know maybe like a half a mile. They are
taking off the good
uh slabs and they are replacing them
with with the 10 feet slabs. I think
that is a waste of money um in my
opinion. Uh thank you very much.
Thank you, Councilwoman Whitehead.
Excuse me. Uh you know what I think we
need is for you to walk over to this
gentleman here so that we can um write
down the uh specific issues you brought
up. Is that would that work for you,
Ben? Okay. So,
Oh, yeah. You can give it to Yeah. Tori.
Do you do you want to talk? Oh, because
the golf you're not the first to
complain about that. Yeah. Thank you.
And thank you for bringing this to our
attention,
Council Councilwoman uh
Littlefield. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Um
that's what I also wanted was to get a
um copy of the notes that you had made
so that we could uh further study those
issues. Thank you.
That concludes our public comment. We
will now uh move on to the meeting
minute approval. Meaning meeting minutes
approvals. Uh we tonight we're going to
entertain a motion to uh approve special
meeting minutes
of June 10th, 2025 and executive session
minutes of June 10th, 2025.
So moved. Second. All those in favor,
please indicate your vote.
Councilman Claus. Thank you. Thank you.
Uh there's an added item on this agenda
that uh came in less than 10 days prior
to the meeting which requires a separate
vote in order to remain on the agenda.
And that is uh the work study session
item number one which was added on June
27th, 2025. If there's no objection,
I'll entertain a motion to accept the
agenda as presented.
Uh so moved.
Second.
All those in favor, please indicate your
vote.
I.
That motion passes. Next, we have our
consent agenda items number one through
five. Numbers one through five. Uh do
any members of the council have any
questions or wish to have uh one of the
items removed?
See, seeing none,
mayor, I'll make a motion to uh to
approve items consent agenda items one
through five.
Second. All those in favor, please
indicate your vote.
I.
Next, we have receipt of citizens
petitions and petition. There was one
submitted earlier today.
Uh so I'd like to
we have three options with this petition
and that is direct the city manager to
agendaize the petition for further
discussion, direct the city manager to
investigate the matter and prepare a
written response to the council with a
copy to the petitioner or take no
action. Uh this is a really big topic
and I think it's worthy of having a
hearing on and that is to uh
move the uh election on the ballot
initiative regarding the Axon project to
an earlier date. And uh I would make the
motion that um we direct city staff to
agendaize this to the next available
meeting. I'll second that. And I will
point out that a petition that was um a
referendum in Glendale. The uh vote did
happen immediately after. So that would
have been earlier this year. So I
definitely support that um motion. Thank
you.
Councilman Graham. Thank you, Mayor. I
will make an alternate motion to direct
city manager to investigate the matter
and prepare a written response to the
council with a copy to petitioner.
Second.
We'll take a vote on the alternate
motion first. All those in favor,
indicate your vote.
I
you voted no.
Thank you. Let the record reflect that
Councilman Graham is interfering with
Councilwoman Littlefield's voting at
this time. Point of order. No, I'd like
I'd like to let the record reflect that
because it's a problem. May I make a
point of order?
Adam voted against it.
I'll make a point of order. I don't see
where that's in the rules that a record
reflects something. So, I'm going to I'm
going to make a point of order just to
to strike that com like you don't even
strike a record. You can't strike it if
there's no rule to even put it in the
record. So, ask the parliament. I guess
my point of order is to ask the
parliamentarian whether that is
empowered by any member of the council.
So for thank you for your input again
councilman quasman. For the record I can
speak to the voting and what's happening
on the dis. So uh I'm going to go ahead
and overrule that. I don't think there's
a legal question to that.
So,
it that failed. So, we're going to take
a vote on the underlying motion, which
is to have an a meeting this item
agendaized for a future meeting. And
Council Councilwoman Littlefield, would
you like to speak to it or Okay, we're
going to go ahead and take a vote on
that. Would you reset it, please?
Yes.
Point of order. C. I'd like Can we I
would like to clarify what this motion
is. Yes. To agenda. Mr. Lane, can you
clarify what the motion is?
Mayor, uh, Council Member Graham, this
is, uh, Mayor Barowsky's motion to
agendaize this item for a future council
meeting. So this is just just so I'm
clear. If you vote yes, you are voting
to have a meeting, a public meeting
about holding the Axon referendum
earlier than November 2026. Is that
correct?
That was my understanding. Is that cor
is that your motion? The motion is to I
could have spoke to that. Thank you
though, Ben. Appreciate it. Uh the
motion is based on the citizens petition
that we have we agendaize this matter
which is the consideration of the date
for the vote on the referendum
for a future agenda and have a hearing
on it which is critical should be to all
of us.
So, we've started voting. Councilman
Graham, please cast your vote.
My votes cast. Okay.
Not sure what this is. No. So, it's not
the motion. I'm going to state it again.
There's been a citizens petition asking
us to agendaize for discussion the date
that we intend to schedule the vote on
the referendum
to move it. And so we would agendaize
that and decide on the vote. Barry
Graham is you're you're amending my
motion. I'm telling everybody what my
motion is. We don't need you stating
comments that are inaccurate. That's my
motion.
Um, Madame Mayor, the petition is
specifically asking for the election to
be held at the next available date,
which means sooner. So, the petition is
asking for the discussion at the hearing
to be holding the election as soon as
possible, not in November of 2026.
Correct. I just want to make that
clarification because I I don't know
that that was clear from what you said.
I I can certainly read that and saw
that. However, my motion is to discuss
the petition that's been presented and
identify a date, whether it be earlier
or leave it later, regardless of there's
the petition, what the decision is. I
think it's important to have a meeting
on this.
So, my motion stands. Point of order.
Point of order. I have a point of order,
too. Is the question is my understanding
is that when a citizen's petition comes
up in front the motion or one of the
three the three things uh has everything
to do with the petition not an
individual motion that may or may not be
different from those three options based
on the citizens petition. Correct.
So reading again what it what the
citizens petition allows us to do. I've
made a motion once again that we
direct the city manager to agendaize the
petition for further discussion which
would include what date to set schedule
the election period. That's the motion.
That's what would be agendaized. This
discussion has become far too difficult
for what it's worth. Point of order. I
do I I just I I respectfully disagree
with the mayor. This petition says have
a have a meeting about the next
available date as allowed by law, which
would be like maybe I don't know when
that would be. Maybe November, maybe
March. I called the question.
Uh okay, another point of order. You
can't call the question while I have the
floor and while I'm while I'm getting a
ruling from the par parliamentarian. So,
I think you're out of order, council
member. So, is and I this is kind of
backing up um what council member
Quasman said is that we don't get we
don't get to make a motion on something
that's close a derivative of what the
petition says. The petition says have a
have a meeting to um call for the
election at the next legally available
date. That is the only thing that we are
voting on one two and three. So, so you
agree with that, Mr. Parliamentarian,
mayor and members of the um council, the
way that the um item is agendaized, it's
receipt of citizen petitions, right? And
it's agendaized in a very particular
way. You can accept and acknowledge
receipt of the citizen petitions. Any
member of the council may make a motion
to be voted on the council to do one of
the following three things. Direct the
city manager to agendaise the petition
for further discussion. That's number
one. Number two, direct the city manager
to investigate the matter and prepare a
written response to the council with a
copy to the petitioner or take no
action. Um, it sounds like uh there's a
motion to direct the city manager
agendaize the petition for further
discussion. That particular motion
shouldn't be expanded with any other
particulars other than taking the
petition as is for further discussion.
I'll leave it at that. Further
discussion, which just to clarify,
uh, city attorney,
um, that doesn't mean we have to decide
to take their date that's on the
petition. Just to clarify, mayor, that's
absolutely correct. Um, and mayor,
members of the council, that it would
simply be a discussion and it presumably
be agendaized in some way to take
further action if necessary. And I I
would remind everyone that discussion in
itself is a legal action. No, no. Um
there would be no guarantee of what the
the decisions would be.
So my explanation of my motion is
correct. We can decide what date to have
it on at that council meeting at a
future hearing. Yes. It can't be decided
on now. Correct. I wasn't trying to do
do that.
So, all those in favor of having
agendaizing this
for a future discussion about the date
of the election, please indicate your
vote. Are we starting this over? Do you
is does anyone need to revote? No. Okay.
Did you have something? So that
was that was that the vote on mine?
Yes. Yes, it was, mayor. Okay.
All right. Moving right along. Uh, Mayor
Councilwoman Whitehead. Yeah. I I would
like to It seems to me, you know, again,
this isn't about if you're for or
against a parking garage, for or against
Axon. This is about this council
continuously denying the residents a
voice. Point of order. This is I am
going to make an alternate. I'm going to
granting
We're not discussing a topic. Point of
order. We We are I'm going to
Councilwoman Whitehead. I'm going to
agree with that point of order. The vote
has been taken and we're moving on to
item number seven.
Point of order. Are we've taken two
votes? Uh is this council uh am I as a
council woman allowed to make an
alternate motion?
Mayor and members of the council. Um
typically an alternative motion would
occur during the initial motion. Um
correct and in the sense the motion and
vote has already been concluded and on
the citizen petition. So I I think that
um time has passed in this particular
case. Okay. and and point of order. She
can make a motion to reconsider having
voted in the affirmative in the in the
previous alternate motion. Solange can
make a motion to reconsider that motion.
I I'm Councilman Quasman. Um generally
you can make a motion for
reconsideration if you're on the winning
side and I believe she was on the losing
side. So I'm not sure that she won. She
won. Mr. Parliamentarian, she was on the
winning side previous motion. Then I
stand corrected. which was the alternate
which was the pre which was the
alternate motion which was Barry
Graham's motion which then gives her the
floor to if she would like to reconsider
the previous motion which was which then
would be called for a vote which would
send that to the part uh to the to the
um to the city manager if she wanted to
call that back up she could speak
I I would like the city attorney to
weigh in and confirm I I'd like to get
my legal advice from the city attorney.
Thank you, mayor, members of of the
council. Um
the the motion that I was paying
attention to was the mayor's motion to
set it to a uh future council meeting.
That motion failed and um I understand
that there may have been some sort of
alternative motion um for me to assist
you better. Can you um tell me a little
bit more about that?
In my six plus years on council, I've
never seen a petition not addressed. And
so if uh both motions that were on the
table failed, then these residents walk
out empty-handed. That's all.
So So you'reing point of order, m point
of order, Mr. Mr. Parliamentarian, I
just want to be very clear. There was an
alternate motion brought up by Barry
Graham to adject to send this to the
city manager. Miss Whitehead vote, Mrs.
White had voted in the in in the uh uh
the side that was the the while it was a
no vote, it was on the winning side and
re and can recall that motion back up as
reconsideration of that motion thereby
giving the opportunity for that petition
to be sent to be listened to or
hearkened in her words.
I'm not completely sure I would look at
it that way, but in in in the interest
of openness and transparency as a par
parliamentarian, if Councilwoman
Whitehead wants to um as as the
prevailing side, um bring it back for uh
reconsideration. Um I think that'd be
appropriate in this case.
Okay. Well, thank you. Then in that case
I um I move to allow I I think it's I
Can you put it back up on the screen
please? Item I think it's option two.
I'll wait for it to to where this is not
what I think is best but I think option
two is better than empty-handed which is
to have the city manager Thank you.
Let's see. Is that No. Option one,
direct the city man. Oh, no. Two, direct
the city manager to investigate the
matter and prepare a written response to
council and at least then our residents
have a a response of some sort. Thank
you. I second that motion.
I vote I
You voted I. I vote I.
Okay.
Can you guys hear me on that side? We We
can. Councilman Clausman, you were
registered incorrectly, so we're working
on that.
So, mayor, that that passed six to one.
Yeah.
All right. Moving on to item number
seven. We turn to our boards and
commissions and committees 2024 annual
report presentations. Tonight we have
the annual presentations, discussions,
and possible direction regarding key
accomplishments and major actions taken
from our human services advisory
commission, planning commission, and
veteran advisory commission. Uh Ben
Lane, our city clerk, Ben Lane, I'll
turn it over to you.
Uh thank you very much, mayor. Um uh
honorable may members of the council, as
we started last night, we're continuing
our reports from various boards and
commissions. Um as the mayor mentioned,
we have three tonight. Uh first up, we
have the human services advisory
commission. Uh Mary Jung, uh the vice
chair, and Mary Wkcowski, uh the sta
staff representative, will present the
report now. Thank you.
Good evening, mayor, members of the of
the council. Tonight, I come before you
to talk to a little bit about the human
services advisory commission, our board
purpose and makeup.
The purpose of the human services
advisory commission with the assistance
of staff shall plan, develop, improve,
and modify the human services to address
the needs of Scottsdale citizens. Human
services advisory commission shall also
coordinate with other government and
private agencies and provide
opportunities for citizen involvement.
They shall review and make
recommendations to the city council on
funding applications and also serve as
the Scottsdale Housing Agency governing
board. The Human Services Commission
consists of seven public members
appointed at large by the city council
and they serve three-year terms. In the
Scottsdale Housing Governing Board,
there is an eighth member, a public
member um that is considered a member of
the resident advisory board or an HCV
participant which is mandated by federal
regulations. And that member serves at a
one-year term and is appointed by the
Scottsdale Housing Agency Governing
Board.
Some of our key accomplishments through
the human services commission are we've
completed the human services strategic
plan for 2025 2028. We had the
completion and adoption of the five-year
consolidated action plan and we also
completed a food bank expansion.
Some upcoming opportunities and
challenges include the implementation of
our human services strategic plan in
year one. continue to support vulnerable
Scottsdale residents and prevent
homelessness and increase our volunteer
involvement and engagement.
With that, I will turn it over to you
guys for any questions or feedback and
Mary Jung if she has any additional
information. Well, first, uh, thank you
so much for coming. Thank you, Mary, for
your service to the city as a volunteer
on the on the commission. And, uh, I'll
see if anyone has any questions.
Councilwoman Mckllen. Thank you, Mayor.
Uh, thank you, Mary, for serving as vice
chair and thank you, Mary, for all you
work in human services. Uh, the
expansion of the food bank is just
phenomenal. Um, and I'm grateful for all
you do and especially I know how
dedicated your volunteers are in human
services and I know that Councilwoman
Debbascus volunteers, Councilwoman
Whitehead volunteers um through human
services and uh
being a former human services employee
um it just makes me really proud to just
see all the steps you're taking to help
the citizens of Scottsdale, especially
those most vulnerable. So, thank you for
what you do. Well, thank you to the
diligent staff in executing an excellent
expansion. It improves efficiency and
enables us to deliver um up to or serve
up to 20 families where we a day uh
where we were previously serving six.
So, it's expanded our capacity and it's
far more efficient.
Councilwoman Whitehead. Yeah. I just
want to say thank you to both of the
mayaries and um you know something I'm
wondering about is if there will be any
cuts to that we rely on federal dollars
for so that's just something for the
future that would be helpful for us to
know and so that we can get ahead of
that. Thank you
Littlefield. Thank you mayor and thank
you both and all of the people on your
uh committee to do the work that you've
done. It's necessary and it helps the
most needy and of our citizens and you
help make their lives be much better. I
get reports on things that happen and I
I really want to thank you all very much
for your hard work and your efforts,
your dedication.
Thank you. Did you want to say anything
else, Mary? Just thank you. Um the staff
are amazing and very hardworking and
dedicated and it makes it a pleasure to
serve the city alongside them. Thank you
so much. Thank you for coming this
evening. Keep up your great work.
Mayor, uh next up we have the planning
commission presentation. Uh it's being
presented by William Scarboro, the
chair, and also Brad Carr, the staff
representative. Thank you.
Welcome. Thanks for sitting through this
pretty long night so far. Appreciate you
coming.
Thank you. And uh appreciate you having
us, mayor, honorable mayor, members of
the council. Once again, for those in
the audience, Brad Carr with the
planning department. I am pitch hitting
this evening for Mr. Tim Curtis, the
planning director, who is the staff
liazison for the planning commission. To
my right this evening is William Scar
Bro who wears many hats in the community
here in Scottsdale. Two very pertinent
to um us here with the city. Um one he's
the president of the model railroad
historical society which if you don't
know has a a pivotal uh component with
the whole railroad park and two um
pertinent to this evening he is the
chairman of the planning commission. So,
thank you for receiving us this evening.
And we'll give a I'll give a brief
background on the planning commission
and then Mr. Scarbor will go into some
further detail.
So, the planning commission, as most of
you probably know, is uh is intended to
hold public hearings required by law and
make a formal recommendation to the city
council on all matters concerning and
relating to the general plan amendments,
zoning district map amendments,
otherwise known as reszonings, zoning
ordinance text amendments, conditional
use permits, and municipal use master
site plans. They also review
abandonments and other matters within
the scope of the planning and zoning
powers granted by the state of Arizona.
The planning commission acts as an
advisory board to the city council on
land use and zoning matters and they are
also authorized to count confer with
other advisory commissions. They are
members are me as there seven members
public members appointed at large by the
city council. With that, I'll go ahead
and turn it over to Mr. Scarro. Thank
you, Mr. Carr. and uh it's always a
pleasure to sit next to you and uh
either here or working in the DRB or
when you sit in for Mr. Curtis of the
planning commissions. Uh honorable mayor
and council uh key accomplishments for
2024 and I will do my best to talk into
the mic. Uh zoning text amendments
regarding adaptive reuse and accessory
dwelling units, Oldtown character area
plan amendment, zoning cases,
conditional use permits and
abandonments.
The upcoming opportunities and
challenges are uh general plan
implementation, redevelopment versus
growth, state zoning, uh preeemption,
and zoning code amendments. I would
welcome any questions that any council
person has.
Vice Mayor Dascus.
Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um so general
plan amendments, what do you mean by
that is uh general plan implementation?
Great question. Uh so basically we want
to make sure that cases are in alignment
with the general plan or become in
alignment with the general plan. So
there are times when uh we have uh
amendments that come to us that actually
bring it in alignment with the general
plan. So it takes a non-conforming to a
conforming. That's excellent. Um what
concerns do you have on the on the
commission? What what questions what
what do you worry about? Is there
anything that we can help you with uh
for the council? Um again u these kind
of interactions actually are are very
powerful to where we can have a
dialogue. Uh major concerns um I don't
know if I have any major concerns about
minor ones. I I think actually the
redevelopment versus growth is is one.
Uh it's understanding that that most
projects that come to us are no longer
the simple raw land new deals because we
are uh this community is coming to a
buildout. we don't have an excess amount
of just raw land to develop and so a lot
of the the projects that are coming
forth now are more redevelopment
projects. So being mindful that it's an
infill project, a revitalization or
repositioning project. Uh just keeping
that in the forefront of our minds as we
review those projects. Yeah, I think
what what we talked about last night
with DRB is applicable and maybe
helpful. I don't know if you had a
chance to watch some of that, but we
seem to have a consensus that we're
really looking for projects that fit
well in an area um and are just the
highest quality possible. So, um the the
Palm Lane project that came through
yesterday, that was an excellent
project. Um I think we were all very
pleased with that one. Um so, that was
an example of some really good work that
that came through. Um, and so projects
like that that are those redevelopments
but are going to enhance and ri lift up
the neighborhood, I think are the kinds
of things that we're looking for and
hoping that you will um, look for that
as well on planning. Um, and uh, things
that really um, have the flavor of
Scottsdale. We have a unique imprint, a
unique footprint, and uh, we'd like to
maintain that charm. um and something
that's different. So, um so I think
that's also uh something to be noted. Um
and uh my girls were in the city of
Scottsdale summer camp and uh we're very
excited to go to Railroad Park. Okay.
Last week and it got cancelled on them.
It's in process. It will be soon. It's
going to be uh mid July. I I believe the
date is the 19th, but please don't hold
me to that. We're working through some
last minute items to to make it just
right for the citizens. Kids are very
excited about it. Awesome. Thank you for
your service. And thank you and thank
you for your feedback. Pleasure,
Councilman. Councilwoman McCallen. Thank
you, Mayor. Uh thank you, Brad, for
pinch hitting for Tim and thank you, Mr.
Scarro, for uh all you do for this city
in your volunteer capacity. um along
with I agree with many of uh items that
Councilwoman Debbasquez said that about
the city's character and what the plan
looks like and there's so many aspects
to it that many citizens understand many
don't they just see a building go up
they think it was planned you know a few
months ago as opposed to years out how
the rules change and this year um I know
that your uh commission is going to be
facing a lot of um challenges with
implementation of new uh state
legislation, especially with ADUs, and
understanding how they can be enforced.
So, I know that that's a new challenge
that's coming your way, and I'm sure
you're going to meet it with gusto, uh
and if there's anything we can do as a
council to support that or help you,
especially at the state level, through
legislation, things like that, please
let us know. But again, looking forward
to the uh new roundhouse. I know how
hard I took a tour with you of the park
and it looks beautiful and thank you for
all of your volunteer efforts. Yeah,
thank you for those comments and and uh
yes, I I appreciate the staff. The staff
does the staff does a lot of the heavy
lifting when it comes to these uh text
amendments that are coming forth because
of the the state mandates. Uh so again,
just want to thank the staff for all
their hard work there.
Thank you. I don't see any other
questions, but I just want to reiterate,
thank you so much for everything you're
doing. Uh, Railroad Park is super cool.
Love the tour, too. Um, great work on
the planning commission. I know it's
it's going to be interesting how this
all plays out. Uh, but I would encourage
you to always have an open line of
communication with us, with the members
of the council, and if there's any, you
know, thing coming your way that's
especially concerning, um, you know, we
could always do another work study
session. That's not a bad idea. Thank
you so much. I appreciate the time. Of
course. Thank you.
Uh, mayor, our final presentation
tonight is from the Veterans Advisory
Commission. Uh, Justin Layman, the
chair, and Kelly Corset, the staff
representative, will be presenting.
Thank you.
Thank you. Welcome.
You You've been voted the happiest man
here tonight.
[Laughter]
No offense to all the other happy men in
the room. Thank you. Kelly squared me
away with turning my mic on. As you guys
all know from your um participation in
the chambers uh candidate forums, I was
Mr. Smiley with my bell. So, it's always
a pleasure. I have to I have to say I
don't remember it as you're very
exuberant tonight, but you're always a
happy guy. But I am. I tend to try to
keep things uh with a smile on. So, good
news. Kelly gets to kick us off. Uh,
madame mayor, members of the city
council, thank you very much for
inviting us here this evening to talk a
little bit about the Veterans Advisory
Commission. If we could hop on to the
next slide, please.
Uh the commission has a number of uh
purposes as dictated in the enabling
ordinance uh primarily related to
connecting with the community um
improving the quality of life for
veterans,
strengthening uh programs, and really uh
celebrating and honoring veterans in the
community. And as you'll see when Chair
Layman gets into some of the details, uh
we do that in a number of different
ways. Uh next slide, please.
The commission is actually made up of
seven members uh like uh like all your
commissions, five of whom uh shall be
military veterans. And the current
makeup of the commission, there are six
uh veterans of the armed forces and one
uh community member who does a lot of
work with an amazing local nonprofit uh
that does a lot of work for veterans as
well.
All right. And then it's my turn. Uh
thank you for first I want to say thank
you for having us here. It's a privilege
to speak with all of you and it's really
a privilege to serve the city. Uh I
really do uh enjoy this work. Uh it's a
tremendous privilege because I get to
work alongside one of the best city
staffers Mr. Corsette. So thank you
Kelly for his incredible service. I will
might touch on that a little bit later.
Uh so some key accomplishments. Uh
Kelly's listed three veterans a video
podcast series we cover throughout the
state of Arizona. It's on our public
access. We do everything from stories of
uh veterans uh veteran service
organizations. Um great to watch. Um
some good news is is we've got two
interns uh brought on staff to help
Kelly and his team produce more of those
episodes. So that's one of the things to
be look on the lookout for. We're going
to try to get more episodes produced. Um
the second thing is Scottsdale Salutes
program. Um that program is the first
two weeks in November. We take the about
44 light poles in Oldtown and we put put
up the eight foot banners. Uh
Councilwoman Littlefield of course knows
what I'm talking about here. Um and then
we have a little ceremony. Madame Mayor,
uh you you'll join me in November uh to
present. Uh we are working this November
to expand that with Scottsdale Arts. So
we hope to have some exciting uh maybe a
band come play. Um and so just expand
that program. Last year we expanded it
to include the Prada del Soul. Uh so
what we'll do is we create a veterans
float. We invite those members, those
service members, their families to come
walk in the the parada. So that's just
been another nice add-on to the
Scottsdale Salutes program. And then our
veteran recognition events or observance
events. Um most of you know and most of
the residents have uh taken notice of
our Vietnam veterans event. That event
has pushed over 250 attendees. It was
well it's been well attended. You madame
mayor as you saw at Memorial Day we've
added through a partnership with a
nonprofit a essay contest and so we
began this last uh March with a essay
contest uh for a student at Arcadia High
School. Uh and we did that again in
Memorial Day and we'll do it again in um
for Veterans Day separately. We're
working on another event. This is don't
get me in trouble if if we can't pull it
off but we're working hard to do it. Uh
September 19th is uh National P and MIA
Day. So this would be a new uh event for
us. We're working to to put it together.
Uh so hopefully I'll have some good news
to share with you uh once we come back
from the summer. If I can get the next
slide. Thank you. Uh Ben, I assume it's
Ben on the the clicker. Um so upcoming
opportunities and challenges. Uh
something that we also added last year
was authorizing uh the city's lobbyist
to just track and report to us federal
legislation. Not that it's our
prerogative to comment on it, but we can
at least just be aware of it and then if
there's something that we think that you
should be aware of, we can share that
with you. Um and we'll continue to to do
that work uh periodically. And then
again, our work really is centered on
adding and expanding events. Um so I
welcome your questions or comments and
feedback.
Thank you. I really enjoyed the uh
Memorial Day um event. That was very
nice. Uh and thank you. Absolutely. And
Madame Mayor, if I may, that that la
this last May um our attendance at that
event had grown has grown now to 200.
The previous two years, I think coming
out of COVID, it took some time, but
together with Vietnam Veterans Day. So,
so I'm so thrilled you were there. Um as
you saw, over 200 folks on Memorial Day.
Uh, so when it's hot outside, even at 10
a.m., uh, it's a It was hot. It was
great, though. It was beautiful.
Councilwoman Mckllen. Thank Thank you,
Mayor. Uh, thank you, Mr. Corset, for
all you do with this commission, and
thank you, uh, Chairman Layman. I've
attended, I think, all your veterans
events this year, and I'm just so
impressed with your commission and how
every member of your commission is
dedicated. I attended one of your
commission meetings A couple of your
commissioners followed up with me, sent
me emails about just things, invited me
to other things outside of the realm.
So, I love that you guys are working
with other commissions, that you're
working with Scottsdale Arts, that
you're working in human services, that
you're working um with other nonprofits
to bring them um in partnership with the
city. uh your your commission is really
elevated uh your game and uh so I'm
looking forward to the September 19th
event. I will be there. Um and if
there's anything I can do to help you,
but thank you for all of your work. Uh
exciting things happening. Thank you,
Councilwoman McCall. Appreciate that.
Thank you. All right. I don't see any
other questions, but uh I see
Councilwoman Littlefield.
Thank you, mayor. I just want to say
thank you for all that you do for our
veterans. Um, it's a very important
commission to me. Um, not only was my
husband a veteran, my dad was a veteran,
my uncles were veterans, and um, so I
kind of grew up in that kind of military
frame and it makes a big difference, I
think, for Scottsdale that you do what
you do. Thank you. Thank you,
Councilman. Appreciate it. Thank you
very much.
Thank you.
All right, that concludes the boards and
commission uh updates. So, turning now
to
uh other agenda items. This is an item
for consideration, mayor and council
items uh that I added to the agenda for
consideration
and that there's two. It's number eight
and number nine that are highly
connected and that is about uh getting a
presentation and looking at options
regarding uh what we do with our red
lights uh specifically to extend uh both
the yellow light and as they call it the
amber uh which is the connection as I
understand it or the term of art uh
after the light turns red to when it
turns green. So layman's terms for me,
keeping the lights red longer so that uh
we can make our roadways safer and uh
eliminate where possible uh t-bone
intersection
crashes, which as we all know can be
deadly. Uh I also uh want to have us
look at lagging red arrows. As I
understand it, we're the only city in
the valley, I think, but I'd love to
hear from staff in a presentation at a
future meeting, uh, that still has
lagging arrows. And, uh, apparently
there's significant dangers associated
with lagging arrows. And I I personally
believe uh, but look forward to hearing
from our traffic engineers about the
safety data. I think that we should have
a uniform system throughout Scottsdale
where there's not some lagging, some
leading, some no arrows whatsoever. Uh
so I think that's that's important. Um,
but especially when it comes to lagging,
I think they can be easily confused and
uh it sounds like there's a reason why
they've been eliminated in other
communities or maybe we decide to keep
them. But would love to have the uh city
look uh staff give us a presentation at
a future meeting. So I'll take these one
at a time before I move on. Uh, city
council has the option to, and this is
regarding number eight, consider whether
to agendaize a staff presentation and
discussion on lagging left turn signal
intersections in Scottsdale to determine
uh in an effort to determine the most
efficient tra traffic signaling system
to improve traffic flow throughout the
municipality and more importantly to
make intersections as safe as possible.
Uh, I would like to ask my colleagues to
support uh directing the city manager to
agendaize the staff presentation for
further discussion. So, I'll make that
motion. And that is number one.
Mayor, I I'll second the motion. Um, it
seems to me that items eight and nine
are related. I would make a friendly
emotion friendly amendment to I mean,
the both are tied to traffic to Sure.
eight and nine together. Unless Luis uh
unless you you see an issue with that,
that's perfectly fine with me.
Mayor, members of the council, um
they're your proposed items right now.
They're agenda separately. I don't see a
a problem voting on them together. So,
uh that friendly amendment is accepted.
So direct the city manager to agendaize
the staff presentation for further
discussion on items number eight and
nine which deal with safety and uh and
navigability I guess of intersections
when it comes to red light signals.
Got a motion and a second. Please
indicate your
vote.
Councilman. Thank you.
Thank you. That motion passes. Next, I'd
like to talk about uh the parks. Um,
I've personally received a lot of um,
input regarding concerns about the grass
in the parks and I know it's a delicate
balance. This this afternoon we received
a thank you for your um, overview and
the memo uh, city manager Kaitton. Uh,
and I think if my takeaway I read it
pretty quick because I was in between
meetings, but and you've t we've talked
about this before or at least I have
with somebody um in that department that
I think the issue is uh the cost of
overseating and keeping the grass green
and lush uh year round or to the best of
our ability. But I I would just really
love to hear from both the water
department and parks, you know, and
wreck um or public works, whoever is
engaged in in in this process. I'm sure
there's a couple of departments and
really know our options. Uh especially
with our v our residents vote voting. I
think it was 58% voted to tax themselves
more for parks and the preserve and
public safety. So, I do think there's a
real appetite for making sure and and
your memo concluded that uh this met
industry standards kind of this is what
everybody does in the valley, but as
Scottsdale, you know, we're always the
leaders and achievers uh and and the
best you is what we try to attain. And
I'm sure we're doing that, but I for one
would love to hear the options and what
that really means in terms of cost and
uh and effort and impact on water. So I
would like to ask my colleagues to
support uh consideration uh or to
support excuse me agenda directing the
city manager to agendaize this uh a
staff pre presentation
on this at a future council meeting. And
that is with respect to the annual
seating and water program of our parks
that are owned by the city of
Scottsdale.
So moved.
Was second.
Um I'll second it. I it seems to me that
um I have a couple comments on that.
many of the areas that get overseated
are actually not um they're Scottsdale
Parks but managed by for instance
McCormack Ranch. Um so there's actually
this is a kind of a big ask. I I I would
wonder if we should um and I haven't had
any time to read the memo. So, um,
perhaps we should get quite a bit more
information, uh, before we actually have
the meeting ahead of time so that we're
not just having a meeting, uh, blind, so
to speak. Thank you. But that's fine.
I'm It's a very very important topic.
And I I will also add that we really
paid a lot of attention to functional
use. So, we want people not to be able
to not to have to have yards because
they can go to our parks. But, okay, I
will second it and support it. Thanks. I
I'm going to add a clarification in that
event because that's a good point. I
would uh limit this dialogue to our the
parks that are owned and operated by the
city of Scottsdale where there's
practice fields and you know all kinds
of people playing and um I I I'd like to
limit that. Are you okay with that,
Councilwoman Whitehead? Okay. Thank you.
I don't see any other requests to speak.
All those in favor, please indicate your
vote.
Thank you. That that passes. Thank you.
All right. Uh next, I would like to
discuss and ask support of my colleagues
to uh direct the city manager to
agendaize a staff presentation at a f at
a future meeting. Um and this would
involve uh chief uh Tom Shannon as well.
and it is involving uh the status of
where the Scottsdale Fire Department uh
stands with respect to the fire
mitigation prevention efforts
specifically the application of fire
retardant products uh as mitigators
which are currently in use by the US for
forest service and uh the expansion uh
or status of volunteer efforts uh
specific to proactive wild fire wild
fuel fire fire fuel excuse me mitigation
efforts and I I I do think I know that
Chief Shannon is working on these
efforts and perhaps uh planning a
presentation but there's no time like
the present to really dig into this um
and we've got a long hot summer in front
of us but would love to hear where we
stand so I'd like to make a motion to
direct city staff to agendaize the a
staff presentation
for a future meeting. I'll second that.
Madam, Madame Mayor.
Yes. Hold on. Councilman Clausman, I
know it's kind of clunky because you're
on the phone, but um I'm just going to
ask uh Councilwoman uh Whitehead if
she'd like to speak to her second. Uh
no. Um I mean, I think this would it
would be good to have that um in
conjunction with ANOS, but no, I
absolutely support it. Thank you.
Uh, Councilman Clausman,
I'm I just want to say just want to
reiterate that the purpose of Chief
Shannon's presentation is merely going
to be about
an update based on the previous
presentation we had before. And that's
the narrow scope of the pres of that
presentation where where he laid out his
plan to ensure that um that we didn't
have the same problems with the uh that
that the California wildfire um and
wildfires had on their community. Am I
correct on that? Just very narrow scope.
Uh no, the agenda item which you
probably have in front of you was it's a
an actual application of a um preemptive
fire retardant product. And I don't
think that that was the focal point of
his prior presentation. And also that's
that's fine. Yeah. So
Oh, go ahead. And and also I apologize.
It's it's hard to Yeah, it's hard to
hear. And also um the status of the
volunteer um expansion effort that he's
previously talked about.
So, I have a motion and a second.
Please indicate your vote.
I thank you. All right, moving on to
item number 12, which is
I'll turn it over to Vice Mayor Dasquez
because there's not much on here. Agenda
is review of PE possible code changes to
chapter 17, motor vehicle and traffic of
the Scottsdale Revised Code.
Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, this arose
out of a conversation um that I had with
Chief Leuk uh who is here and we have
unfortunately had certain areas in the
city where we have medians and um there
are folks that are standing on the
medians and that is unsafe. Um we don't
allow campaign signs, we don't allow
signage in medians because we want to
keep folks safe. Um, but we actually
don't have an ordinance that says that
you can't stand in a median. Um, unless
you're just immediately crossing uh for
a crosswalk purpose. So, this would just
be an ordinance that would help police
to let people know that they can't stand
in medians and keep people safe. So, I
would ask that we uh direct the city
manager or actually uh the city attorney
um to uh agendaize the item for a future
meeting uh with the uh ordinance. I'll
second that motion. Thank you.
Uh, Councilwoman Whitehead. Um, yeah,
that sounds right. Signs, political
signs aren't allowed in meetings.
Somebody
Boy, that's we need some enforcement
there.
Thank you. And I'd just like to speak to
that first before we take a vote. Uh,
right before the meeting started, we had
met on the exact same issue. So, that's
uh that's something I'll definitely be
supporting.
All those in favor
that mot.
Thank you. That motion passes. Okay.
Moving right along. Uh work study
session. Next we have a work study
session which uh is a less formal
setting for the mayor and council to
discuss specific topics with each other
and city staff and provide staff an
opportunity to receive direction from
the council.
to provide an opportunity for public
input yet continue to maximize the
amount of time available for council.
We are not taking public comment. Oh, we
are. We don't have any public comments.
Okay, got it. No public comments. So
presenting tonight on the recruitment
process for the new associate J city
judge is Monica Boyd, human resources
director and Maryanne Bay Judge Maryanne
Bayardi. Bayori I I know your name and I
Bayardi.
Okay. Bikardi,
thank you for being here.
Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members
of council. Um, my name is Monica Boyd,
the human resources director here at the
city of Scottsdale.
Good evening. I'm Maryanne Bayardi, the
presiding judge of our city court. And
madame mayor, vice mayor, members of the
council, thank you for having us here
today. So today we have a um a new item
for you, a recruitment for an associate
city judge. And the process here at
Scotsdale is a little bit different than
um some of the processes that we've been
involved, but you do have a role and
we're I'm going to share background
information with you today and hopefully
get some direction on you from you on
how you would like to um be involved in
this process. So today again we're
wanting to provide information to you
because this is a unique process to hire
a new associate city judge at
Scottsdale. We follow um processes under
Scottsdale Revised Code. And so those
are the um areas that we want to provide
to you today and again get a selection.
So what's prompted this process is we
have a retirement of an associate city
judge. Um the judge is James Blake. He
is retiring in September of 2025, but
this is a very lengthy process that
involves board members, staff from human
resources and city council. So, we
started this process about March. Judge
Bayardi reached out to us um to initiate
that process and we again follow
processes under Scottsdale Revised Code.
For judicial appointments, we use the
judicial appointment advisory board
which we refer to as JAB.
Next slide. Okay, JAB is a seven member
board. Um, and one of their purposes per
Scottsdale Revised Code is to recommend
to the city council the best qualified
persons to become full-time city judges.
And the list here is our current board
members. And you can see we have judges,
attorneys, and citizen members on our
board.
So in the process, JAB is supported by
the human resources department. They we
work with them to lead the recruitment,
conduct due diligence, select candidates
to interview and they also conduct the
initial interviews. Under Scottsdale
Revised Code, they have to interview a
minimum of six candidates and then their
task is also to uh recommend three
candidates to city council for
interview. And so city council um at the
end of this process will get the minimum
of three candidates to um interview and
make a recommendation for appointment um
to work with our judge.
So a little bit about the recruitment
because it is underway. We opened it on
May 16th of this year. We posted it for
30 days. Uh we screened the candidates.
We received uh 58 applications. 52 met
qualifications. So, we do have a big
candidate pool this year. The
applications will be reviewed by the JAB
board members on July 16th and 17th
because we have so many candidates. It's
going to be a two-day process.
Interviews are scheduled. It says
September 5th, but I believe it's
actually going to be September 6th. So,
that's coming up. And we anticipate the
recommendation letter to council to be
September 10th. And uh we hope to be
able to have council interviews
candidates late September, early October
for an appointment um in early October.
So from you today, we are hoping to get
direction on how you want to conduct
those interview processes. The judge,
myself, will share that information with
the jab board and the candidates so they
know what to expect as they continue to
move along in this process. So, we um
provided three options to you and I can
talk about each of those options in
depth if you would like, but they're
pretty straightforward and you're
familiar with some of these processes.
We've used them before.
Thank you. So, I'll hear from my
colleagues. My personal preference would
be to do it in open in the open session.
We've we used to do it that way and I
thought that was always really effective
and transparency priority. So,
Councilwoman Whitehead.
Um, so yeah, I agree with that except I
I wonder if it would be better for the
candidates and for us to really get to
know the candidates and in an executive
session. I think possibly altogether
because then maybe we all hear the same
thing. So after the last interview
process,
but anyway, so my preference would be
that an executive session and then
possibly I guess we could do a public
session if necessary afterwards, but
just to really kind of dig deep.
Council me Councilwoman Littlefield.
Thank you, Mayor. And yes, I agree with
Councilwoman Solange Whitehead. I think
that would be the better way to go.
Thank you, Councilwoman McCallen. Thank
you, Mayor. Um, I agree executive
session might give an opportunity for
all of us to be more comfortable and
open to discuss and then if needed move
to public. Thank you,
Councilman Graham.
I'll go with the flow. I I agree with
these sentiments.
Vice Mayor Debasquez. Um yeah, I think
an executive session would work. Um we
had experience recently where we had um
very different experiences and
interviews and so um I think that um it
might be nice to see it all together.
The idea though would be to narrow it
down from three to one. Correct. If and
and Judge Bayardi, you will have your
own separate interviews with these
individuals. Uh that is not uh part of
the process. Uh I will be involved uh
I'll be present when they interview with
the jab and um certainly I'll be
available if they have questions for me.
Uh and then they will make the
recommendation at least three. With as
large of a pool as we have I could see
potentially there being more than three
that are sent to city council. Um and
then uh I would hopefully be present
also during the executive session if
that's the way you choose to interview.
um as opposed to having those interviews
in um public session. I think there are
advantages and disadvantages to both.
Madame Mayor, you mentioned the
transparency of having open interviews,
but um I leave that to you, of course.
Uh and I'm always available as a
resource for however you choose to go
forward.
And we are down from 52 to 51 because
one of the candidates accepted a
position as a associate judge in
Gilbert. So the process is that we uh
receive the three we make a
recommendation for one. You would
actually appoint or or do are we
appointing you are appointing it's part
of the Scottsdale Revised Code process
for judicial appointments. Um you know
cities do it differently but this is
Scottsdale's process and so we're
partnering with the judge on the front
end with the recruitment communicating
with Jabboard on what she's looking for.
And of course, if you are looking for
information from the judge about what
she's looking for in a candidate, um I'm
sure she's happy and available to do
that. Absolutely. Great. Thank you. Yes,
Councilwoman Whitehead. Uh I would like
to know if it's possible and if my
colleagues support it to have Judge
Bayard in the executive session with us.
It was very very helpful to have our
auditor with us in the interviews. So
there is a board attorney that's
assigned to the jab board and we can ask
that question. Um we want to make the
judge available to everybody as part of
this process because ultimately she is
going to be the manager of the position
so we can consult with our the board
attorney. Uh city attorney you have a
comment.
So the jab process is outlined in
ordinance. U members, mayor, members of
the council, in terms of when it gets to
the council, it's very simple. It says
the council can either accept or reject
Jap's recommendations. So, it's
open-ended up to you how you want to do
that. And ultimately, what the charter
says, you appoint the judge. So, it's up
to you whether you want the presiding
judge in the executive sessions and and
there's no need to um consult um the
board's attorney. um um w with what I'm
saying right now. Okay. Thank you. So
maybe we just need to see if how we feel
about that like with nods. No. Yes. Yes.
I see two yes. I see a no. I see a yes.
I think I think yes prevails. But I mean
mayor, I'll leave that up to you. Do do
you want us to vote or you're just
looking for direction? I don't think
this is agenda. We're just looking for
direction today. Yeah, I think you
probably have your direction. Thank you
mayor. Do you have any questions about
it? Do you have any clarification? Uh so
the candidates that are recommended from
the the jab be that three or more then
council will interview in executive
session and with me in executive session
as well and then council would uh go
into the public setting and make their
vote for which candidate they're
choosing. Am I getting that right? It s
sounds like that's the consensus.
Perfect. I'll let the candidates know.
Thank you very much. Thank you, mayor,
vice mayor. Thank you. Yes, members for
your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. Uh that concludes our business for
tonight. I will make the motion to
adjourn.
Second. Yeah. All those in favor? I
All right.