City Council | Regular Meeting - January 28, 2025

e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e e
call the January 28th City Council
regular meeting to
order and as soon as we get seated uh
clerk L Ben Lane please conduct the RO
roll call thank you mayor mayor Lisa
barowski present vice mayor Barry Graham
council members Jan ducus present Adam
quman present Kathy Littlefield here
Maryann McCallen present and Salange
Whitehead here interm city manager greay
kton present City attorney Sher Scott
present acting City Treasurer Anna Leah
Johnson present acting City auditor llu
present and the clerk is present thank
you mayor
thank you very much welcome everybody
tonight we have Scottdale police
officers Sergeant sha Ryan and detective
Dustin Patrick as well as firefighter
Mike tweet if anyone requires their
assistance at any point during the
meeting please advise I am going to ask
councilwoman Jan devasquez to lead us in
the Pledge of Allegiance
of the United States of America and to
the stands
na indivisible withy and justice for
all thank you very much so for the
mayor's report I'd like to point out
that tonight is vice mayor Graham's last
meeting as vice mayor on behalf of the
city council we wish to thank you for
your dedicated service over the last
eight months and over the last couple of
years as well and I welcome councilwoman
Jan deasus as our uh new vice mayor
moving forward effective February 1st so
congratulations thank you very
[Applause]
much so presentations tonight we I'm
pleased to uh invite and announce that
we have the Scottdale fire department on
hand uh Chief Tom Shannon and he will
discuss with us tonight the very
important subject of our Wildfire
mitigation preparedness and mitigation
Plan update thank you Tom good evening
mayor and Council um in the gallery
tonight are many uh representatives of
the fire department as well as other uh
City stakeholders um it it really does
take a village to keep the City safe
when it comes to Wildfire uh planning
and preparedness it really starts with
our Emergency Management division that
oversees all of our Citywide hazards and
uh that starts with a Maricopa County
Wildfire Comm Community Wildfire
protection plan Scott sell has its own
Annex in that plan I'd like to just kind
of describe some of the features of that
for you um let's talk a little bit about
the risk that exists when we talk about
wildfire and certainly we it's no uh
surprise to us that we live in a very
hot dry climate and our fuel model is
substantial in terms of uh open space
and the things that uh have existed way
before Scottdale uh was ever the
bustling City that it that it is uh a
term that is important to all of us is
Wildland Urban interface what that
really means is where communities and
and businesses abut the Open Spaces um
some of those areas are uh estate lands
some of those areas are Tonto National
Forest areas some of those are uh
established preserve and what's
important is those communities are
directly interacting uh with the fuels
that exist out there um the causes of
fires can be certainly natural uh
naturally caused by uh lightning um
every once in a while you'll get uh the
occasional uh uh unknown fire that
exists that has no real cause of origin
and so it just goes as unknown but
really what we're talking about here are
human-caused fires uh substantial number
of the fires that we experience here in
Scottdale are construction uh based uh
to No Surprise uh Vehicles dragging
chains careless uh disposal of smoking
materials warming fires um not so much
here but as as not too long ago the
Patriot fire was actually caused by uh a
power line uh Associated U start and so
that can have a significant uh potential
uh most most uh notably recently in
Hawaii and California those power line
uh impacts and then fireworks that that
is probably the most significant concern
that we have several times a year is the
uh use of fireworks in in unauthorized
areas and then another term that's
important to uh should be important to
is the the term community confguration
that really is the new lexicon if you
will as to what what uh California just
recently experienced and certainly
Hawaii and that is where communities
whether densely populated or not are
intertwined with the environment and uh
the next slide will kind of give you a
sense of how that translates is we'll
see fire move from vegetation to
vegetation understandably vegetation to
to uh structure and then structure to
structure what we just recently saw in
California was really a combination of
vegetation and structure so densely
intertwined that uh that coupled with uh
winds that frankly no fire agency could
outperform uh caused structure to
structure impacts um our goal in
everything that we do is to disrupt uh
these Pathways as much as we can we do
that through direct interaction with our
uh Community Services Division our
Planning and Development folks uh
certainly our neighboring uh communities
and agencies help us in that regard but
the key is for us to disrupt those fuel
Pathways in a very very responsible way
we do this through defend defensible
spaces home hardening and then this uh
wooi or Wildland Urban interface
suppression response I will tell you
that we have a very capable response
system in Scottdale we have many uh
capable assets and we have phenomenally
capable firefighters but really the the
goal should be prevention and that's
really what we'd like to talk to you
just a little bit more about today this
is our brush fire history Over The Last
5 Years um the the SL the picture to the
right kind of gives you a sense of the
Bluer dots or construction starts and
the uh red dots are non-construction uh
brush fires they could be other they
could be human cause but they're other
sources but as you can see um we do have
a sizable number of uh brush fire starts
thankfully most of these are contained
to uh a very small amount of square
footage or even acreage um but every
once in a while and and notably the last
couple Summers we've had some large
fires that have required substantial
internal and uh Regional
assets uh this this slide just kind of
further gives you a sense of of that
number 72 was in 20 224 so let's talk a
little bit about risk mitigation
strategy here's what we do every year it
is substantial and it includes everybody
you see really be on the on the balcony
uh and that it it really starts right
now where we're planning all of our uh
fuel mitigation efforts we leverage the
grants that we're able to obtain uh from
hiring a very talented uh fuels manager
from the from the uh National Forest
Service and that really sets us up to
enact all of the aspirational goals of
that Community Wildfire protection plan
that that is that is posted with the
county um throughout the year you see
that we have hazardous vegetation
programs and preserve Steward Education
and Training and HOA interaction
firewise uh uh education and uh program
management as well
as uh preparing ourselves for what we
would anticipate as being the hazard in
front of us so every year around March
we will hold a tabletop all of the key
stakeholders come to that tabletop and
we talk about what the forecast is for
the Fire season we get a report from uh
the national weather uh agencies and
they tell us really what does the the
potential for fire look like and then we
literally storyboard scenarios and talk
about Who's got what responsibility and
we go through various uh location starts
and that is super important for two
reasons number one kind of checks us to
make sure that we're thinking about the
season ahead but it also establishes
those critical relationships that we
don't want to be uh uh you know having
to start with on the incident we want
those relationships established well
before one quick anecdotal story uh I
believe it was the diamond
fire uh if I'm correct uh was actually
uh spotted by one of our one of our hot
shot teams that was from the tono um and
th they Patrol Those their their
response areas just like we Patrol our
response areas and the the the time
between them spotting that and our brush
trucks uh interacting with that fire was
literally minutes and that just wouldn't
happen unless you work that relationship
and so that's that's a positive uh note
to make here so our our community risk
reduction efforts come in the form of
actual Community risk reduction officers
we have three of them uh that uh we
established some years ago uh to do the
daily work of ensuring that communities
residents businesses and then honestly
the wooi itself is uh uh always being
monitored and being watched uh
construction safety guidelines are are
encountered with each of our contractor
that are out in the Wildland Urban
interface um from the permitting process
in planning and development all the way
through the execution of the build we
want eyes on that on that property uh
this is an area where we can improve Pro
you'll hear that in the recommendations
but we uh interact with the contractors
uh uh significantly and
frequently uh our inspectors are just
outstanding our inspect our inspectors
do over 200 uh site inspections a year
um they do hazardous vegetation
assessments they do home safety
defensible space assessments and all of
that contributes to setting the resident
up for a safer uh uh existence within
the wooi this is an example of those
construction site inspections uh quite
literally what our inspectors will do is
as they do their daily inspection uh
list of activities they will engage the
contractors who are uh out in the wild
and urban interface and make sure that
they're doing things right that they've
got the appropriate cutting spaces if
they're doing uh hot work uh and and
there's many additional things that we
can do in this area but this is a great
addition to our our our planning
hazardous vegetation assessments what's
important about this slide is look at
the upper leftand corner we see 33,000
contacts so in 20124 there were
33,000 residential contacts for veget
hazardous vegetation and the red to the
right shows total issues followed or
followed up on what's key to this though
is these are the the actual firefighters
that would respond to that area doing
these uh doing these site inspections
and they what they do is they engage the
the property mostly Through a Windshield
survey we're sitting in our trucks we're
looking at the hazard and then if we see
see things that we think need to be
rectified what we'll do is we'll engage
the property owner and I'll show you in
just a second with flyers and we'll
reach out and contact them uh using
volunteers that we have to see we how we
can help them improve their uh their
property uh fuel management um the
example that you see here the picture
that's in the middle is an example of uh
growth all the way up into a a resident
that might be an area where we would
give counil and and offer them
recommendations to provide defense
defensible space so these hazardous
assessment vegetate these these
assessments uh of vegetation are
absolutely essential uh additionally we
uh we have been been the benefactor and
probably the primary benefactor of
healthy Forest initiative grants uh
especially because of the great work of
Dave Ramirez and what we are able to do
here and what this slide represents is
the leveraging of Grant dollars and
existing dollars in inside uh Community
Services Public Works the water
department to address those those areas
that are most likely to uh be Source
locations for starts and do the defend
defensible space work either in the form
of uh chemical treatments or mechanical
treatments essentially landscaping and
so this is a slide that shows how we
truly do try to leverage every dollar we
have to to uh get the biggest bang for
the buck if you will this is that uh
flyer uh representation that I wanted to
share with you we have not only our
firewise program which is the content on
the left that we provide to our
residents and and businesses so that
they can uh live safely within the wooi
but then if there are issues we give
them do information on the right right
to help them uh kind of manage that risk
as we as we engage with them uh what
you're looking at here are the compliant
firewise communities Scottdale is really
has a uh bit of a a proud uh speaking
point in that we've got all these folks
in the green that are established
firewise communities that's no small
task that requires a substantial
commitment from these HOAs and these
communities and we applaud them and we
interact with them daily the Comm the uh
prevention staff and the community risk
reduction captains are engaging with
them uh continuously to help them
improve their their uh living within the
wooi uh the areas where we have orange
and yellow are uh areas where it's
either pending uh established firewise
uh compliance or are aspirational one of
the things that's important about
firewise though is it's not the Cure All
what it does is sets us up for
um uh greater defense what we think in
Scottdale is necessary is is a little
bit more thoughtful um uh look at the
mix of fuels and the topography and the
the uh design of our communities to make
sure that all the features of firewise
are either addressed or uh complemented
by other things that we would recommend
and you'll see that in some of uh some
of the recommendations portion the AOS n
uh naturally uh Natural Area open space
maintenance uh conversation is an area
where our Planning and Development folks
are experts uh but essentially what it
describes is what exists in our in our
Wildland Urban interface and that is a
very fingery penetrating fuel uh reality
in and around our homes we know what a
Scottdale looks like and we know what
our washes look like some of those are
very overground
many of them include invasive species in
fact all of them do uh the the the The
Sweet Spot is making sure that we're
managing fuels in protected areas like
the naos as well as areas like The
Preserve where substantial work has gone
into uh establishing um uh best
practices in those areas and also making
sure that we take care of the fuels that
now exist there um that you'll hear that
as well in my recommendations a little
bit of example of before and after uh in
terms of uh firewise programming two the
same properties you can see the
overgrowth on the left and the the uh
the Improvement on the right all of that
sets us up for a a less likelihood that
that vegetation to occupancy transfer is
going to occur and that's the value of
firewise as well as you know folks just
feeling more comfortable in their
communities that's the fireway program
is many strengths but that that's
certainly one of them so as we as I wrap
up and get close to
questions uh really where we're at in
terms of our uh Community file Wildfire
protection uh program strengths is this
the people up on this up on the balcony
the prevention staff the plan review
folks the uh Planning and Development uh
uh Personnel uh our community services
uh staff uh um The Preserve staff
everyone who's engaged in the inspect
ction and the planning of living inside
that wooi are are key uh certainly our
emergency response resources are are
valuable assets but we really do hate to
rely on them we've been pretty darn
lucky over the last few years that so
many of the air assets that we all saw
over the last few Summers were available
many times they're not because they're a
very rare uh asset in the southwest and
we have just been fortunate in our in
our experiences that they have been
available certainly I mentioned the
community engagement that's an area
where I think we need to do more uh we
can do more by engaging the community
and educating them and then bringing
them in on solving some of their own
problems and then certainly stakeholder
uh engagement well ahead of these issues
um the firefighter training that we do
now uh I think meets the needs of
Scottdale but uh from a system
perspective and you you all realize that
we operate in a very sophisticated fire
system uh there's more that can be done
to integrate everybody's capabilities so
that if they come to Scottsdale they're
operating uh more effectively so when it
comes to recommendations from my
perspective and the seat that I sit in
and the the the accountability and
responsibility that I feel for this
issue uh I think we obviously need to
continue our community engagement really
try to drive if not more firewise
communities than drive more Scottdale
specific fuel management uh ideology and
then uh continue the community
stakeholder engagement I think we do
need to expand our inspection and code
enforcement um uh intentions uh I think
we should be more purposeful in some of
our uh preemptive uh work uh the the hot
work is a key issue in the construction
world so where the grinding and cutting
takes place I think there can be areas
where we ask for enhanced notification
the day of the grinding versus uh
pulling a permit for grinding work but
that could take place over the next 180
days we just don't know when I think we
can do better there and then I do think
we can review ordinances to look where
there's opportunity to give uh my
position the authorities that might be
required to manage fuels that exist in
the naos in The Preserve that perhaps
have been uh restricted in terms of the
ability to touch those but clearly are
contributing to the potentiality of that
that vegetation to structure uh fire uh
problem and then uh the last the last uh
recommendation that I have and that is
we work so well together in this city
because of the collaborative process and
really the people that are involved in
that that may not always be the case and
so I think that what we can do is put
some structure around that and uh put
more responsibility on the fire
department to truly have the authority
to prioritize fuels from from the
northern most part of our city to the
southernmost part of our city and really
uh not have to rely on
relationships uh entirely uh to ensure
that the prioritization of our fuels
management takes place I will tell you
that we have had nothing but success
stories in that regard uh we have Force
multiplied and leveraged Grant dollars
tenfold and so I don't want to leave you
with the impression that uh there's a
problem uh I just don't know that it'll
always be uh me and my fantastic
Partners in these seats and so I think
that we can do better there so with that
um when it comes to when things happen
uh I think that we can do better in
holding folks accountable uh for perhaps
uh uh areas where they may have been
informed that they needed to do better
and didn't uh and so we are working with
uh our legal Partners to strengthen that
uh a lot of that has to do with timely
response to the investigative side of
fires and then adherence to very
important prosecutorial procedure to
make sure that we set them up for
successful civil and and criminal uh
prosecution if that's if that's
necessary but clearly I think we can do
more um with that uh I'll stop talking
and I'll let you ask questions uh to see
if there's any anything you want to
expand on thank you Chief Shannon very
important issue and appreciate you
taking the time to give us an update and
also talk about your recommendations and
I know there's other council members
that want to uh ask questions or discuss
this but I for one would love to see
this on a future agenda in the very near
future come back uh agendize your
recommendations for consideration so
with that before we make any decisions
on that I'd like to ask vice mayor
Graham to
speak uh councilwoman de I didn't I
didn't press the button there I don't
know why someone someone pressed your
button it's up
there councilwoman
dequez thank you mayor barowski uh thank
you Chief Shannon first I just wanted to
take a moment um to say thank you for
all the work that you're doing um we are
a very unusual City owning a mountain um
and so it's unusual um an opportunity to
protect us uh through those wildfires so
I appreciate all the work that you're
doing um and I agree with the mayor I'd
like to see your recommendations come
before Council so I I hope you'll work
with the city manager on that um I would
like to tell a brief story which was U
over the weekend our neighbor across the
street uh thought he smelled gas and the
fire department showed up immediately U
Hazmat truck came immediately he's an
elderly gentleman and there was no gas
but they did not make him feel dumb um
they took care of him and they um
brought my little girls fire hats and
they made them feel so welcome and so
the work that you're doing impacts the
community and it makes people feel
dignified and it makes them feel safe so
thank you you're
welcome thank you Council woman
Whitehead thank you mayor um thank you
Chief Shannon and thank you to all of
our firefighters here um I just have
some specific questions and I of course
agree with the uh with the mayor and
councilwoman jasus said I want to see
this uh these agendized but I I just
want to make sure I understand um right
now obviously it's the fire department's
um responsibility to prevent and then uh
protect against fires but what I'm
hearing is that uh overseeing the uh the
mitigation of fuel mitigation is not
currently under your jurisdiction it's
broken up into different departments is
that correct there is accountability uh
for for that uh uh council member
Whitehead uh the reality is that um we
have ordinance in place that addresses
uh how we deal with fuels in the naos
and in The Preserve and those are
managed by very capable uh departments
uh in Planning Development and Community
Services we work very collaboratively
with them to prioritize the fuels that
we are aware of and uh we focus a lot on
the the ride of ways easements and and
those woo those very particular woo
areas my my concern is that I'm
accountable for the decisions we make
but I don't necessarily have the
absolute authority to change the the
order of play if you will so where we ha
where we have uh potential
disagreement I really don't have the
authority to change that under current
current ordinance and so my
recommendation is that we strengthen the
the authority of the fire chief to uh
thoughtfully use fuel modeling and Fir
flow uh Pro program programming software
programming to work with our current
Partners to ensure that what we think uh
is best practice in perhaps the naos or
even in our protected uh preserve is
really what really exists now the
technology has changed so much that we
can do vegetation assessments that
precisely identify invasive species
versus native species and so we we can
be very precise in the in the fuel
reduction that we're talking about this
is not talking about uh you know clear
cutting huge areas this is about being
very very precise and very thoughtful
um thankfully we haven't had a a a a a a
consequence to this
request um my concern is that we may not
always be lucky and so I think we need
to have some some safeguards in place to
give the authority to the Chief who
ultimately is accountable for what
happens yeah so I think that that makes
sense to me that if you have the
responsibility it might be good
certainly moving forward again we have
such excellent staff of having the
responsibility and the authority and one
on the fire chief
because because um yeah I mean what I'm
seeing is all these Open Spaces when we
think of wildfires we always think of
The Preserve but the the fires often are
starting not are outside of The Preserve
and they're in ing our neighborhoods and
our preserve so yeah I would like to see
that also let's talk about the uh open
space maybe more for the Public's um
benefit so we have obviously 30,000
acres in in The Preserve but we have
naos we have a lot of different open
spaces can you describe how
much how much of that do we have in the
city oh I would I would need to call in
my my closer and Jes Zeus or Aaron um I
did hear an interesting factoy
um that there is almost Equitable amount
of naos easement as there is uh uh
preserve acreage and that is a stark uh
visual if if if you can imagine it eron
perhaps you would want to speak to
that mayor Browski and council members I
don't have the exact figures but Chief
Shane on your right they're almost an
equal amount in naos so um we certainly
are committed to moving forward the last
time we updated the naos ordinance was
in 2004 certainly worth a look through
this process and we're committed to
partnering with the chief on that yeah
thank you I wasn't trying to get an
exact number what I was trying to to get
across to the community is that we have
a lot of land that needs to have
oversight and when I think the naos
which was I still think a national uh
we're such a leader on that we wanted to
preserve the desert unfortunately our
invasive plants didn't obey so we need
to update our naos ordinance so that we
can tackle uh the these invasive plants
and as the chief will often say also
overgrowth of our native plants um but
then everybody thinks okay we're going
to clearcut you already address that but
can you describe so you might have a a
wash or you might have some naos how you
said you can pinpoint you're not going
to clearcut can you go into a little
more detail or show some we can and I
wonder if if my audio visual folks can
bring up the naos uh video um I
anticipated that clarification on what
NEOS is and what invasive species and
Native species look like is there can
you pull that up we have a quick video
but you can imagine as as you look here
um there I'll show you that is that is
both invasive spe invasive species and
Native species coexisting but in a very
very tight uh exist
and then as the Drone flies up you'll
just see how proximal to the residence
they are and so what that type of
overgrowth um there's there's a property
owner who ha who has uh obligation to
address that what we're hearing from our
residents is they want to they want to
address it but there are some
prohibitions in doing so um we have
setbacks that we can uh uh move to uh
that that give us a generally uh
advantageous position in terms of
defendable space but depending on the
topography if we have a slope depending
on climate or or weather conditions
those those fuels can be outperformed by
weather very easily and so what I would
suggest to you is that example which was
right around 108 in choya is a good
example where we might want to go in and
do some things to that area to to do the
thinning that you saw similar to the
firewise programming it's not it's not
substantial it's just giving that the
native uh species a chance to to
continue to Exist by clearing out a lot
of that overgrowth dead vegetation and
and the invasive work okay yeah thanks
and one final comment is on the funding
obviously our our rules and laws are
only as good as our enforcement so do
you see an increase in with the prop 490
funding an increase in inspectors
because that's something I would like to
so we do the fire department had some
490 related request as did community
services and others and uh right now
we're leveraging all those dollars to
literally sit together and reprioritize
how to how to address fuels management
um we all talk about each other's
funding sources for the same reasons and
that is to meet that priority list and
uh I I don't see any reason why that
won't continue regardless of any
ordinance changes okay thanks and yeah I
will say th those are all my priorities
so I look forward to having this on an
agenda where we can dive deeper thank
you thank
you I think councilwoman Mallen you want
to speak as well you're not up here and
I'm not sure why but go ahead here
though um thank you mayor uh thank you
Chief Shannon my question for you is you
had mentioned you have three risk
reduction
officers can you just explain real quick
do they go out into the community are
they the ones that go into the community
and say hey this is what your homeowners
association needs to do um what is their
function May barowski and members of the
council and council member mallum yes
they they're kind of a a a you know
other duties as assigned uh person in
the fire department they're all captains
they're 24hour responders and so they
will deal uh primarily with the HOAs to
do education they'll do site inspections
they'll meet with the residents and talk
to to them about firewise protecting
their their their individual properties
uh they're Jacks of all trades they do
Community Education they do uh response
and initial investigation are so if a
fire were to occur they might be the
first one to go to the to the source
site and not worry about firefighting
activities at all they also have other
duties uh for uh off hour inspections
that might be required they are
terrorism lays on officers to deal with
the all hazards nature of the the the
threats that exist in Scott cell so they
are truly a utility player that focuses
primarily on the prevention issues um
for not only our residents but our
businesses as
well thank you thank you Chief Shannon
and all of your fire are you on there no
yeah oh okay I thought that was a
mistake okay vice mayor Graham thank you
mayor thank you mayor Browski Chief
Shannon thank you for the presentation
um the naos uh statistic you mentioned
that's staggering and I think that's
just says a lot about our community what
we've preserved and both inside and
outside of the
interface um mayor barowski uh members
of the council uh vice mayor Graham the
naos is necessary it it it is what adds
the beauty and and and and uh yes
personality of Scottdale and that we
coexist in this mountainous region um
but just like California if we if we
don't uh tend to it it will respond to
us correct and so uh I have a philosophy
when it comes to Wildland fire and that
is I'd rather keep it out than put it
out and so our goal and not only our
tactics and our strategy is to reduce
the potential for the for the start uh
get to it early and and keep it out and
all of those things include not only our
very valuable preserve but the the NEOS
perimeter that um is so expansive as you
heard well thank you Chief Shannon this
is putting I would assume it's putting a
lot of residents at ease um you didn't
even mention or go too deep into our
life- saving sprinkler code we could
spend hours on that alone and um just
real quick fire hydrants uh putting
people at ease how much how often are
those checked and you say a little more
about that and that be my final question
yes and I don't want to go too far into
that we do have uh the director of the
water department here if you want to ask
him specific questions about that but
let me just tell you that uh mayor
barowski members of council uh we have
an outstanding relationship with our
water department you know they're the
the flip side of our coin if you will
and so uh we feel very good about the
water distribution capabilities our
hydrant checks we uh I heard just
recently today we get to over two-thirds
of our existing hydrants where are
nearly 12,000 in number every year and
uh so I feel very good from a fire
perspective on that and I'm happy to let
the water director speak to it that is
satisfactory and thank you Chief Shannon
mayor barowski thank you thank you very
much and uh councilman quasman has a
word thank you Chief Shannon and I'm
just so grateful for all that you're
doing to protect protect citizens of
Scottdale and um like like uh Vice May
Graham said putting everybody at ease um
I have just a just a special point that
doesn't have to do with with Wildfire I
I I owe you Chief Shannon and the
Scottsdale Fire Department a tremendous
debt of gratitude on um on Sunday
January 19 was the middle of the night
so it's basically the 20th um my
15-month-old
Ari um was turning blue and he was going
into full seizure
and at 2: a.m. and it was thank God it
was Mother's intuition to just check on
him for some reason in the middle of the
night just woke up and and checked and
it was about you know I have four
children and this is about as scary of a
moment as any Dad could ever possibly
have and within four minutes four and a
half minutes fire department was there
and strapping my little baby boy onto
onto a stretcher was very very scary
moment he he got better and then Rel
colled while the fire department was
there and they got him out of there
quickly and thank God Ari's okay and
everybody's okay but I just on a
personal debt of gratitude this is like
one of the benefits of being able to sit
on this rostom and thank you both in an
official capacity but also as a dad in
personal capacity thank you thank you
thank you thank you for all you
do you're welcome
thank you glad everything's okay
councilman
quasman uh with that I uh would like to
add to the agenda the February February
11th agenda assuming that's sufficient
time for you to bring back
recommendations I would ask that it be
added we can take a vote on this uh that
you bring back recommendations for
council's consideration and uh adoption
or approval um and with that uh
requesting to add to the agenda go ahead
Sher mayor I I apologize this this item
is for a presentation and no action um
but I think we hear that the council
wants us to come back quickly and we'll
work towards that end I can add that
under May coun mayor and counsel though
right um if
you well we would have needed to know to
put it on the agenda um um to add it to
Mayor and Council items but I I think
we're hearing you okay thank you very
much we'll look forward to seeing the
recommendations come back before on a
future agenda you're welcome anyone else
okay thank you very
much next we're going to move to the
public
comment public comment is reserved for
Scottdale citizens business owners and
our property owners to comment on non
agendized items that are within the
council's jurisdiction ction no official
Council action can be taken on these
items and speakers are limited to 3
minutes each to address the council if
you wish to speak on a non- agendized or
agendized topic please see the city
clerk and I know there have already been
uh
six six uh six public comments
registered and I will read off the names
two of which are also citizens petition
they've filed a Citizens petition so
starting with Steve Sutton then follow
followed by Dan Isaac Linda mil Haven
Lee cofell and Phillip K ker and Steve
please approach the podium
mayor barowski before I give my public
comment I wish the council to know that
I carefully compose all my public
comments comply with the three minute
rule tonight unexpected staff procedural
actions make necessary a very short
explanatory addition to my public
comment that I hadn't anticipated I
asked the council to Grant and forgive
my possible need for a few extra seconds
Beyond three
minutes two weeks ago the council voted
to put my petition on the agenda of the
next meeting last week I learned it
would not be on the agenda due to a
staff procedural problem yesterday
minutes before I gave a new petition to
the city clerk I
learned a preliminary agenda has been
created which has chaperel dog
park Parks and Recreation staff comment
on
it I hope the council understands that I
cannot ask petition supporters who may
have to leave work early arrange child
care or reschedule other appointments to
attend a council meeting without without
having the certainty that a subject of
the petitions will be addressed by the
council that and other reasons soon to
be explained are why I've submitted a
new petition to the
council for five months I've spoken to
and provided information to the city
council and Parks and Recreation
Commission while waiting for a decision
on dog park signs four months ago Parks
and Recreation director Nick moliner
said something to me the gist of which
is we had a survey if I change the signs
I'll need something to tell all the
people who
complain well D director mulinari did
not have a survey on dog park signs and
two months later I provided the
something he said he needed hundreds of
residents supporting changing the signs
and documentation of research refuting
any rational complaint about a sign
change I petitioned the city council
because the behavior of some members of
The Parks and Recreation Department
commission have convinced me they cannot
be trusted to be objective in taking
action on the
petitions I provided the council a large
amount of information and documentation
that should be sufficient for making an
informed decision tonight I want to make
sure council members are aware of an
opportunity people across the entire
political Spectrum signed the dog park
petitions the petitions provide an
opportunity to demonstrate to the
residents of Scottdale that the council
members can cooperate in supporting a
nonpartisan inexpensive easy quickly
Implement policy change that does not
provoke the anger and ranker expressed
in front of and on the Das at the last
council
meeting please do not let five months of
waiting turn into six months of waiting
for decision decision on the the dog
park
signs I Steven Allen Sutton on behalf of
the hundreds of Scottsdale residents who
requested new Dog Park area designation
signs and adequate signs through two
separate petitions the council
unanimously voted to accept on November
12th 2024 now petition the council to
take action on the subjects of those
petitions by voting on The Following
item one vote tonight to reapproved the
two petitions on the agenda for the next
scheduled council meeting and perform
all procedures necessary to ensure that
there is not another failure to have the
city manager off must place the subjects
of the petitions on an
agenda item two vote at the next
scheduled council meeting to approve or
disapprove the immediate adoption and
installation of the new Dog Park area
designation
signs item three vote at the next
scheduled council meeting to approve or
disapprove the immediate adoption and
installation of the new dog park
etiquette signs item four if the council
approves one or both types of signs vote
to take action that ensures the city
manager's office confers with Steven
Sutton prior to the manufacturing inst
of the signs the purpose of the
conference is to finalize the design and
installation characteristics to optimize
Effectiveness in the manner previously
explained at the November 25th 2024
council meeting and the last item is
vote at the next scheduled council
meeting to direct the city manager's
office to have approved new signs
installed no later than February 20th
2025 thank you very much for your time
thank you Mr congratulations new vice
mayor
bakas thank you Dan Isaac
almost four years ago I began attending
the council meetings regularly after
they restarted in person I was horrified
by what I saw particularly the behavior
of the former mayor who bullied
colleagues and
speakers I wrote emails to the council
about this and spoke publicly at
meetings it was in part why I ran for
office I even spoke out when the prior
mayor did this to Barry Graham even
though I disagree with virtually
everything Mr Graham says or does it's
about respect and
collegiality imagine my surprise when at
the first meeting of the new Council Mr
Graham took bulling and censorship to a
greater extent he used a procedural move
to stifle all conversation even a thank
you from council member
Whitehead he did so after he repeated
his false statements about the
sustainability plan so no one could
correct him on
record Mr Graham was aided in this
disgusting display by Mr quasman M
deasus and the little
Fields interestingly it was only two
hours earlier that the new Council memb
spoke about working with the council I'm
not sure in what Universe silencing your
colleagues is working with them but it
certainly shouldn't be the universe
Scottdale is
in Mr Graham's crusade to limit
discourse has spread to social media
where he's blocking people on next door
as is Miss
deasus and now Mr quasman is publicly
ranting about blocking people from
attending Council meetings because of
what he supposedly overheard in a
personal
conversation Mr
quasman if offensive private speech is a
disqualifier for being in the Kaa I
would like to remind you of your vulgar
Laden pajora of rant about former
council member Durham at the Via Linda
Senior Center on Election Day do you
remember that I certainly do as I'm sure
others with an earshot would as
well to make this council's offense even
more egregious it appears that Mr Graham
violated the open meeting law of AR ARS
38-43 by emailing a quorum of the
council to strategize on the vote of an
agenda item and yes the members had all
been sworn in before the email was
sent the public ceremony before the
meeting was a duplicate event for the
public further Mr Graham included a
former council member whom voters
rejected twice as mayor and a business
owner who receives taxpayer dollars to
support his and related business
is this how the council is going to
operate with a shadow Council made up of
unelected
members and in the interest of time I
won't en enumerate the profound
misstatements by the little Fields
regarding the drb role with regard to
density and zoning and the apparent lack
of understanding of what mixed use
means so what did we get from our
council at the first meeting stifling
discussion and comments from colleagues
ignoring the fact that the vast majority
of written comments in December and
January favored the sustainability plan
in other words not listening to
Residents and disregarding the rule of
law and basic decency that's quite the
trifecta
congratulations thank you Mr Isaac next
we have former councilwoman Linda
milhaven good evening Linda mil Haven I
live on Belgian Trail here in Scottdale
so congratulations to the two council
members and thank you for your
willingness to serve I wish you all a
success because your success is Scot
still success while there may be
disagreements in our community around
policy issues I believe there are
several things on which we can all agree
I think we can all agree that our
discussions should be civil respectful
open honest and transparent in fact the
council rules of procedure includes the
civility pledge developed by Scottsdale
leadership and adopted by many
organizations in Scottsdale section 10.2
reads in part as a member of the Scotto
Community I will genuinely listen speak
respectfully and be accountable for my
words and actions during your campaigns
you will emphasize the importance of
listening to Residents and I hope that
means you will listen to everyone there
are over 240,000 of us who live in
Scottsdale and you serve all of us not
just the few who voted for
you I think we can all also agree that
we hope that you will study the issues
be open to new information rely on facts
and data be willing to consider
alternative points of view be thoughtful
in your deliberations and make decisions
for the greatest good you didn't get off
to a very good start in the first
meeting I commend the mayor for her
efforts to tr keep control of the
meeting but I hope that as you settle
into your roles you will do better
everyone in Scott still is relying on
you and we wish you the best now I'd
like to shift to a policy issue I
applaud your pledges to increase
resident access and participation in
City Hall this has been the goal of
every previous city council and we
should be ever Vigilant to look for ways
to keep residents informed and involved
at your last meeting you used this as
one of the reasons to adopt an ordinance
to establish the budget review
commission I believe this is misguided
establishing the budget review
commission is an abdication of one of
your most important responsibilities and
which is to be good stewards of our tax
dollars the city budget is the mechanism
through which the city council supports
programs and projects that deliver our
quality of life you should not be
delegating policy decision
about what projects and projects and
programs get funded or don't get funded
to unelected Residents in addition
direct appointments do not meet your
goal of including more residents direct
appointments ensure that only people in
your current circles will be included
rather than opening the opportunity to
more to other more qual other to other
qualified residents also as new city
council members you have a lot to learn
about the city's workings and finances I
don't expect that I will change your
mind about this Commission but I do hope
that you will stay close to this process
learn about City finances and watch the
details of the discussions of the
commission so you can make informed
decisions when it's your turn to approve
the budget and finally as you learn
about the city I know that you will
learn that city employees are not lazy
Slackers but rather they follow the
direction of the city council their
professionals experts in their fields
and all of them contribute to making
Scottsdale the wonderful place it is
they deserve your gratitude and respect
thank you thank
you next Lee
cofell hi there uh lee ofile uh I live
on um 7726 East Thomas Road um I wanted
to come here and just uh speak about
roundabouts there's something I um I I
think are a unallied good that uh we
have here in the city and I think our
roundabout first policy meets the meets
both a uh it lowers costs for the city
and uh for residents it is uh it reduces
congest they they reduce congestion for
the city and for residents and uh they
are also safer uh for the for the
residents who use them um so the for as
far as cost um the first thing I kind of
want to that I'm thinking about is today
with the news that the uh federal
government
is uh stopping all grants and uh
loans as a member of the Transportation
Commission I see how much of our budget
our transportation budget comes from
from outside of Scottsdale the majority
of it comes from outside of Scottsdale
and a large part of that comes from the
federal government and so I think with
roundabouts being the less expensive
option uh that is something we should
consider if we're going to watch over
every penny that uh the citizens of
Scottdale contribute here they are um in
maintenance cost they are less because
you do not have polls that get knocked
down by drivers you do not have light
bulbs you do not have electricity costs
you do not have the maintenance that an
intersection requires they are faster uh
because there is no wasted time whenever
anybody needs to go through people are
able to Transit through uh when when
there is an opening there and so they
have been shown over decades to allow
more through traffic uh through through
intersections and then uh they're safer
uh I've also looked uh ADOT has recently
published their findings on um
vulnerable Road users and just general
crash data and the overwhelming majority
of deaths and serious accidents and
crashes happen in intersections
roundabouts are an important tool to
bring down speed which is the number one
cause of uh of injuries and death is
speed and roundabouts bring that down as
a member of the Transportation
Commission I had a we had a citizen come
in and talk about her experience in the
um in the roundabout she was uh hit
there was a conflict in there and when
she took her car uh in there was no
damage to it her vehicle was okay and
she was able to leave that intersection
without any injuries or having to do all
that so I would just say for the 30% of
Scottdale residents who don't drive
please think of them also when it comes
to roundabouts thank you thank you next
we have Philip ker followed by Tom
Durham and then finally Greg
Blair good evening my name is Philip ker
I live at 7822 East coaches Drive in
Scottsdale um I'm a former city employee
32 and a half years um I'm here
representing my neighbors and our HOA um
I live near 78th in Shay um we'd like to
to request that the council direct staff
to look at the look at installing an
always stop 78 Street in Gold Dust
Avenue um and lower the speed limit on
78th Street um we have a problem with
cut through traffic and speeding on 78th
Street that we would like to try to
address this manner in this manner as
opposed to installing traffic control or
traffic helming devices so um that is my
request I have prepared a document
that's attached to the petition that
that I've submitted and um it includes
speed data that's been collected by the
city that documents that there is a
speeding issue and also outline some
policies um that hopefully will be
considered when looking to do some kind
of action so appreciate your uh
attention and and uh thank you for
having me thanks thank you thank you uh
vice mayor Graham uh thank you mayor
brow just real quick I just want to uh
comment on Mr ker I uh served almost
seven years on the Transportation
Commission um Mr ker is a retired City
employee from the Transportation
Department he always did such a good job
making Transportation issues accessible
and he just gave really good uh
wonderful years of service to the city
of Scottdale so thank you for coming
back and talking to us Phil thank you
thank you gram appreciate that
former councilman Tom
Durham thank you mayor and council
members uh after listening to Chief
Shannon and sing the fires in Los
Angeles I'm so proud that our community
had the vision to support proposition
490 and provide additional fire
mitigation funding and this is your
friendly reminder that a majority of
this Council opposed that fire
mitigation and wanted to deprive of our
fire department of the necessary tools
uh for fighting fires especially in The
Preserve but I'm here for a different
reason tonight and that is about the the
blatant uh
illegality of um last the last meeting
regarding a violation of the open
meeting law as we all know council
member Graham wrote an email to a
majority to the council that was members
quasman uh
ducus uh
Littlefield uh mayor barowski and Shadow
member Bob Littlefield and he had a
quote plan with two parts the parts of
this plan were first to repeal the
sustainability plan and second to shut
off Council debate so that no one would
be able to show the errors in his
emails now this preconceived plan was a
clear violation of open meeting law I'm
putting on the screen if I can uh can I
do that uh it's a statement from the
Arizona agency handbook
7.51 which is prepared by the Arizona
attorney general which says if an
electronic communication from one member
of the public body proposes legal action
and is sent to enough members of the
body to form Quorum a violation occurs
even if no public member uh responds to
the electronic communication so there's
absolutely no doubt that's what happened
here a council member Graham sent a
communication to a majority of the
council proposing a plan and proposing
action on it a clear
violation and They Carried this plan out
to a te at the last meeting uh the
members fell in line followed uh council
member Graham's dictates and voted to
shut off debate and voted to repeal
sustainability
plan and it doesn't matter the other
members didn't respond to this email
even though uh the Attorney General in
her investigation may show that they did
and it doesn't matter that they reached
this agreement before the council
meeting because they carried the
agreement out during the council meeting
after they were inaugurated and members
of the public and what are the
consequences of this uh the law provides
that all legal action taken in violation
of the open meeting law is null and void
this means that the repeal of the
sustainability plan is null and void
since it was taken down in violation of
open meeting law so your effort to
repeal the open the sustainability plan
is null and void and it still stands in
place thank you thank you former
councilman
Durham that I believe is the
last one more oh Greg Blair excuse me is
Greg here
mayor council members thank you for
allowing me to speak um I just wanted to
thank you all for the work you did on
repealing the sustainability
plan uh
the sustainability plan contained things
that I think were uh not well defined
and potentially could open the city to
uh re uh spending resources
ineffectively and not spending our money
wisely I think you all displayed uh um
courage and Leadership even in the face
of of open rebuke and uh intimidation so
going forward uh I think the people who
the residents who voted for you can be
assured that you will be listening to
them so I appreciate it thank
you thank you next we are moving on to
the Kaz consent agenda items 1 through
13 and if there's there are no questions
I'll entertain a motion to
approve those consent agenda items
meeting oh meeting
sorry mayor I I'll move to oh you need
to open the section up
you go
ahead we're moving on to the meeting
minute
approval uh are there any having read
and uh receive the minutes are there any
revisions if not I request a motion to
approve the meeting minutes of December
3rd Madame mayor I will move to approve
the meeting minutes um from December 3rd
and December 4th correct second all is
are those the correct dates Ben yeah are
those okay did we miss those last time
okay I know we read those last time uh
please register your vote
I'm voting yes she's hitting yes you can
see the lights on the record
councilwoman deow okay unanimously
approved moving along to the consent
agenda items 1 through
13 if there are no questions on those
I'd invite a motion to approve consent
agenda items mayor Madame mayor if I may
make a motion to approve the um consent
agenda items with one small comment and
that is my um the uh my um item number
seven we've deferred item number seven
parking structures in Oldtown Scottsdale
very
important projects and very excited to
get those back on the
agenda and that is the one comment I
will add and with that I will move to
approve the consent agenda items 1
through 13 thank you I'll second that
and I'd like to speak to my second on
one item go right ahead um just item 13
I just want to really thank uh our city
staff and the Scottdale Community
College for working together and opening
pickle ball courts on Sundays holidays
and summer so I'm really excited about
item 13 that happened last year
so thank you all those in favor
I'm registering yes and that
passes thank you uh we've already done
all the public comments on non-
agendized items so with that uh citizens
petitions we've heard two citizen
petitions from the uh individuals that
spoke earlier the first one on Steve
Sutton for your consideration I'll uh
asked for a motion to uh bring that back
to the next scheduled agenda on
the issue he's raised on dog park
signs um mayor are you asking for a
motion to bring that back um could we um
bring it back the February 11th or been
our our meeting scheduled 11th or 28th
yeah uh thank you vice mayor um yeah so
this is actually scheduled for the
February 11th agenda
already it will be on that agenda okay
thank you okay so we're we're set on
that thank you and then the second
petition uh that we just heard on Mr
ker I'd ask for a motion or
consideration on agendize that item
mayor I would like to motion to direct
the city manager to agend uh sorry
number two direct the city manager to
investigate the matter and prepare
written response to councel and I also
want to I think he already snuck out but
it was nice to see Mr ker
again I'll second that thank you all
those in favor please register your
vote yes
please moving along to Mayor and Council
items uh number 15 tonight I have the
proud opportunity
to appoint
our uh citizens budget commission the
budget review commission members uh at
our last meeting we unan unanimously
approved the adoption uh and imp
paneling burning back I should say the
budget review commission so I have been
provided a list of names by all of my
colleagues so I will read those and uh
any of the individual that are present
please step forward uh and accept your
appointment I see in the audience David
Smith who I have personally appointed as
the chair of the budget review
commission and uh I'll take a moment to
just share I've worked with David Smith
in the past he previously chaired excuse
me previously served on the citizens
budget commission and he was also our
former uh acting you are the actual City
Treasurer I think yes yes so uh very
proud to appoint David Smith uh next
vice mayor Graham appoints Mark Stevens
uh councilwoman devasquez appoints Brad
Newman councilman quasman appoints Bob
leri uh and councilwoman Littlefield
appoints Sharon
sites councilwoman Mallen has appointed
Daniel schwier councilwoman Whitehead uh
appointed Carla and I know several of
these individuals are in the audience
right now and without belaboring it does
anyone oppose their
appointment um and you uh there were a
comments earlier by former councilwoman
um Linda milh Haven and I can say this
is a such a quality group of individuals
and really drives the point home how
direct appointments can uh can really
step up and make a difference in our
city so thank you all for your
willingness to serve moving along to
item 16 and I'm going to let uh
councilman quasman take the stage on
this one thank you Madame mayor members
of the council yesterday January 27th
was International Holocaust uh
Remembrance Day it it serves as a stark
remembrance for the liberation of the
owitz concentration camp and um provides
a
very needed um uh opportunity on an
annual basis to see uh exactly what
happens when an ageold metamorphosized
uh changing virus of
anti-Semitism um uh that grows into
something that turns into extermination
one-third of the Jewish people lost
their lives my family
members lost their lives and uh it just
just to show you what true genocide is
Madame mayor members of the council the
Jewish population is roughly exactly the
same as it was 80 years ago it did not
grow with the rest of the global
population that just shows how decimated
we were as a people to that end um there
is a what is known as the IRA definition
okay through the international Holocaust
remembrance Alliance it's an it's an
international working definition of
anti-semitism as I said before um
there's a metamorphosis of the virus of
anti-Semitism uh in this world
anti-Semitism as Rabbi as the as the
famous former Chief Rabbi uh Lord
Jonathan Sachs the famous former Chief
Rabbi of the United Kingdom said anti
anti-Semitism is something that changes
faces it changes shape and most recent
ly um the manifestation in a post
Holocaust world has included the
targeting of the state of Israel not as
a
criticism as just another country but
targeting the state of Israel that's
conceived as a Jewish collectivity and
that's the key um of this working
definition um I want to be sure this
count to uh to members of this Council
criticism of Israel similar to that
leveled against any other country cannot
be regarded as anti-semitic criticism of
Israel conceived as a Jewish Collective
that is where anti-Semitism begins um
the IRA working definition has been um
has been adopted by a numerous amount of
us entities including the US Department
of State the US Department of Education
uh multiple States including the State
of Arizona as well as as M uh multiple
municipalities uh throughout the country
including uh large Jewish populations in
uh the the Miami Dade County uh Miami
Dade as well as uh um Beverly Hills
California this is not a legally
binding uh
uh agenda item that's that we're going
to place on the calendar this is not
legally binding this is used as a tool
with which to educate and help
communities understand what
anti-Semitism truly is and uh as we know
Scottsdale is one of has one of the
largest Jewish populations in the state
of Arizona um in this congressional
district David scher's congressional
district it is the by far the largest
population of Jews in the state of
Arizona uh what this does is we're going
to agendize I'm asking to agendize this
item
and uh make sure that we uh that we have
staff place it in a way wrap it in a way
that is going to have unanimous support
and and uh Community involvement make
sure that that anybody who has any
concerns those concerns will be laed and
can be used as an educational tool
moving forward and so with that um I'm
happy to answer any
questions do you want to go ahead and
make a motion I I I
move to it's a movement it's a it's a
motion to agendize the item at a later
date at staff's at staff's
discretion okay I move to direct the
city manager a responsible Charter
officer to agendize the item for a
future
meeting language is right there in front
of me
second all those in favor register your
vote thank you that item passes thank
you members and that concludes all of
our business official business for
tonight but I do see I just want to add
welcome to I understand you're the
Pinnacle Presbyterian troop 869 I did
some research while I was up here uh
thank you for joining us today you
missed you missed the spotlight and the
pledge so now you're going to have to
come back and sit through another
meeting so you can talk to your troop
leader about that um I would like I
would like you to come approach the dis
after the meeting concludes so we can
take a nice photo of all of you here at
the council meeting and I appla your
participation and interest in what's
going on in the city so having no other
further business I will motion to
adjourn second all right all those in
favor thank you so much thank you
everyone e