City Council | Regular Meeting - August 25, 2025

Good evening everybody and welcome back
to city hall for those of you who were
not here last week. Uh, at this point
I'd like to call the August 25th, 2025
city council regular meeting and work
study session to order. City clerk Ben
Lane, there he is over there now. New
place, please conduct the roll call.
>> Uh, thank you, Mayor. Mayor Lisa
Barowski,
>> present.
>> Vice Mayor Jan Debos
>> here.
>> Council members Barry Graham
>> here.
>> Adam Quasman
>> here.
>> Kathy Littlefield
>> Maryanne McAllen
>> present. and Solange Whitehead
>> here. In
>> uh city manager Gre Kaitton
>> here,
>> interim city attorney Luis Santa
>> here.
>> City treasurer Sonia Andrews
>> here.
>> Acting city aud club
>> here.
>> And the clerk is present. Thank you,
mayor.
>> Thank you very much. This evening we
have Scottsdale police officer
uh Lehander and Sergeant Eric BS as well
as firefighter Michael Malichek. If
anyone requires their assistance, please
let a member of our staff know. Uh, as
an announcement, please note that item
number 16, uh, the city of Scottsdale
general plan 2035, was withdrawn by
staff and will not be considered by the
city council this evening. Also, the
planned work session item uh which was
an update on wildfire mitigation and
volunteers at the Scottsdale Fire
Department specific to preventative
wildfire mitigation efforts was
withdrawn by staff due to an agendaizing
error and has been continued to Tuesday,
September 9th. So, I apologize if you're
here for either one of those issues. Uh
neither will be held uh or discussed
tonight. I'd like to call upon
Councilwoman McCallen to lead us in the
pledge of
>> allegiance
to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for it
stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all.
>> Thank you very much. And this evening,
Councilman Adam Quasman uh will lead the
invocation.
>> Yes. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Tonight,
I'm going to be delegating the
invocation to Rabbi Schmooie Bronstein.
Rabbi, if you'd please join us at our
new podium over here, and after the
invocation, I'll be giving a brief bio.
Almighty God, master of the universe,
today is Rohesl, the beginning of a
month in the Jewish calendar known as a
time of reflection and closeness to you.
Our sages teach that during Lol, the
king is in the field, that you are near
to every person wherever they may be. As
we open this Scottsdale city meeting, we
ask that you bless our leaders in our
city with wisdom, with clarity, and with
peace. Grant us wisdom. The wisdom to
see that every human being is created in
your image. Each one possessing dignity
and purpose. The sages teach who is
wise, one who learns from every person.
May we be wise enough to listen, to
learn, and to respect the divine spark
within every voice. Grant us clarity,
the clarity to distinguish between
healthy debate and harmful division,
between disagreement that strengthens us
and conflict that weakens us. In a
democracy such as ours, differences of
opinion are not a liability but a
blessing. For through them we refine our
vision and strengthen our community and
grant us peace. Not only the peace that
comes when we all agree but the deeper
peace that comes when people of
different perspectives, backgrounds, and
walks of life live together with mutual
respect. The labbearers
reminded us that even one act of
goodness and kindness can tip the scale
of the entire world toward peace. We
also recognize that by gathering here
tonight, this council is fulfilling one
of the seven nohide laws. The universal
code by God given by God to all
humanity, the command to establish
systems of justice that bring order and
fairness to society. And may all seven
values guide us to never blasphe your
name, not to commit murder, not to
commit adultery, not to steal, not to be
cruel to any living creature, and that
every society be governed by just laws
based on the recognition and
acknowledgement of you, oh God. May
Scots be blessed as a city that reflects
these timeless principles. Bless our
leaders of this. Bless the leaders of
this coun council. Bless all who call
Scots home and bless our nation with
wisdom, clarity, and peace. And let us
say amen. Before I step down, the Torah
teaches that every prayer has to come
with a practical application of
something good. And the Labavatba asked
my grandfather when he did this, wife's
grandfather in Congress, that he do a
mitzvah on the spot. So, I brought with
me a silvercoated Pushka carved out with
the city of Jerusalem, and I'm going to
put $2 into it. One on behalf of me and
Council Member Cosman, one on behalf of
everyone else here. And when you go
home, you can think of one more mitzvah
to do to make the world a better place.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. And Madame Mayor, if I might,
I would like to just give a quick bio of
uh of Rabbi Schmooy, who's just
wonderful. Rabbi Schmooie Bronstein,
originally from Brooklyn, New York,
studied in Brooklyn, Connecticut,
France, and Canada, where he went on to
receive his rebbitical ordination.
Known for his dynamic personality, as we
all saw, Rabbi Bronin has traveled as
part of a rabbitical internship program
dedicated to the personal and spiritual
well-being of undeserved communities,
underserved communities. They are
certainly deserved. They are absolutely
underserved.
serving Jewish populations in Eastern
Europe, South America, and Asia. As part
of this work, he also volunteered as an
ASL interpreter, helping deaf students
fully participate in Jewish programs and
community life. Before moving to
Scottsdale with his wife to open the
Kabad of South Scottsdale Center for
Jewish Life, Rabbi Bronstein spent two
years directing the educational
department of the Jewish Children's
Museum's International
program. He also teaches Talmud at the
local Scottsdale Yeshiva High School.
One where, God willing, my son and my
two sons will be able to study one day.
More than his communal leadership role,
Rabbi Bronstein is most proud to be a
husband to Mushki and a father of their
adorable daughter, Kana. And if I might
say, for those of you who don't know
what a Pushki is, it's one of the it's
one of the staples in any community. And
God willing, I'll be promoting something
soon in the next year to have a push key
also in this office. And that is a
charity box. That is something that we
look for. Not it doesn't have to be a
dollar. It doesn't have to be a lot of
money. It could be one penny every day,
but it's something that surely would
make our world a better place so that
every child and every adult knows to add
a little bit to make this world better
on a daily basis. Thank you, Rabbi.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor.
>> Thank you. Thank you both. That was very
nice. Uh, as and for the mayor's report,
I want to brag a little bit about our
fine city. We served as the host for the
Arizona League of Towns and Cities this
past week and it was held at the
gorgeous iconic actually Scottsdale
Princess and it was uh nearly a week-l
long uh activities and uh seminars,
conferences, team building exercises,
um updates on information, what's
impacting all of our cities, 91 cities
and towns or towns I should today uh
were there. Um members of our city staff
were there. I definitely saw at least
two uh and heard three of my colleagues
were there. It was really a great
experience and we we were on full
display. Not us, but compliments of
Scottsdale Princess and a beautiful
week. So, uh shout out to Scottsdale
Princess and the city of Scottsdale for
hosting that wonderful event. Give a
round of applause for the princess.
Uh moving right along. Uh as is the case
at every uh regular meeting, uh the
council may uh make a motion to move
into an executive session during this
meeting tonight. Uh and that would
involve recessing into uh obtain legal
advice on any applicable item on the
agenda if authorized by the council. The
exact session will be held immediately
and will not be open to the public. The
public meeting would resume uh right
thereafter following the executive
session. This is now the time for the
first public comment announcement and
I'm going to there are only six people
that have signed up for comments
providing uh comments on non-aggendaized
public uh non-aggendaized items, excuse
me. So, I'm going to go ahead and take
them all uh at this time. Starting with
Steve Sutton, followed by Betty Janick,
Carla, Tammy Caputi, Brian Scott, and
lastly, Mark Rens.
Steve Sutton.
Everyone hear me? All right.
>> Check.
>> Steve Sutton. Address on record. Good
evening, Mayor Bowski and council
members. After I complete presenting the
following information, I will ask the
council to act on matters within its
jurisdiction.
It was August of last year when I first
spoke to the city council about safety
and civility problems at Chaperel Dog
Park. Six months later, the city
council, led by Mayor Barowski,
implemented what hundreds of Scottsdale
residents requested through two
petitions I created to improve safety
and civility at Chaperel Dog Park.
If I had known a year ago how many
instances of verbal abuse, false
accusation, liable on social media, and
attempts to physically intimidate me
would occur in the coming months,
including as recently as a week ago. I
may never have spoken to the city
council a year ago.
On Sunday, June 1st, 2025, council
member Barry Graham received an email
from Scottsdale resident John Black. Mr.
black & complaining about the dog park
petitions completed six months ago
wrote,
"Let me tell you that 80% 80% of those
signatures were under duress because
Steve would harass anyone until they
signed his petition." Mr. Black & also
wrote, referring to me and the new
parking study petition, "He is harassing
people until they sign the petition."
The absurdity of these accusations is
obvious. In a 4acre dog park with a
community of daily users, it is
impossible to harass and place hundreds
of people under duress to force them to
sign a petition. Knowledge of that
behavior toward even a few people would
quickly spread, making it impossible to
get 500 pet signatures on two dog park
petitions and so far 100 people to sign
a parking study petition. My courteous
behavior and the popularity of the
petitions made it easy for me to get
signatures from approximately 95% of
residents
approached for a signature. Now, at this
point, you may be thinking, "This is a
trivial incident for this council to be
concerned about, and you would be right
until you learn of the far from trivial
actions taken due to Mr. John Blackick's
absurd complaints. Last week, I received
copies of a series of over 30 emails
sent from June 1st to June 6th, 2025
between resident John Blacket, council
member Barry Graham, city manager Greg
Kaitton, chief of police Joe Leuk,
assistant chief of police Richard
Slavven, assistant city attorney Thomas
Sorski, senior director of parks and
recreation Nick Moliner, and parks and
recreation senior staff. Those emails
make it very clear that something far
from trivial occurred due to John
Black's email.
Something that is a threat to all
residents of Scottsdale. Something all
Scottsdaleians should vigorously defend
themselves against.
I'm out of time tonight. Fortunately,
city staff has informed me that I am one
of the first five residents scheduled to
speak in public comment at tomorrow's
meeting. I will finish my presentation
tomorrow before asking the council to
take action on what is within its
jurisdiction.
>> Thank you, Mr. Sutton. Next, Betty
Janick.
Betty Janick, can my addresses on
record? Um, good evening, Mayor and
Scottdale City Council. It's good to be
back here.
On November 2nd, 2021, general plan 2035
was ratified by a vote of the citizens,
the first one in 20 years after several
previous unsuccessful attempts. This was
accomplished with contributions from
numerous citizens providing constructive
edits, expert guidance from board and
commission members, and visionary
council members. Less than four years
later, the current council wanted to
make significant changes and classify
them as minor amendments, item 16 on the
original August 25th council agenda,
which would require require only four
votes to overturn the will of the
people.
One stated jur uh justification was to
comply with recent legislative changes
on accessory dwelling units, adaptive
reuse, among others. In a news release
late Saturday afternoon, city manager
Kaitton stated because the focus is now
on state statutes that the city is
already in compliance with, there is no
requirement or need for the city council
to initiate these changes and thus no
need for agenda item. Item 16 is gone.
Snafu avoided. This backpedaling by the
city wholly in part or in part was based
on councilwoman Whitehead's knowledge of
the law and institutional understanding
of the inner workings of our general
plan, the city, and the state, which she
shared with recently appointed city
manager Kaitton. Verification of the
existing compliance was subsequently
noted by our city attorney. We do not
and have not changed our general plan
annually based on changes to state
statutes. Councilwoman Whitehead's
experience as she enters her seventh
year on council proved invaluable in
avoiding possible bumbling by the
council's voting majority. The second
justification was to comply with recent
ideological city council actions. This
is totally inappropriate and a violation
of our trust. I counted 196 changes to
our general plan. Could I have the
overhead on, please?
These changes were hidden from certain
council members and the public until the
last minute. Changes included
unnecessary word smithing, replacement
of words such as incorporate or promote
with encourage or consider, redacking
the word sustainability and diversity,
and completely removing policies and
adding new ones. That's what I have
here. I know that you can't read it
because it's a lot of text. It's on page
231. That was part of um item number 16.
There are 18 items here.
Five of the 18, which is 28%
were of these programs were deleted with
crossouts. I don't know how anybody
would consider that minor. Um, just one
more minute. Equally repugnant was their
classification of these as minor when in
fact they are major and in a front to
our C citizens. It is bad governance to
allow four council members to approve
this plan. I applaud Councilwoman Caputi
and all the citizens who contacted city
hall and made the objections known. I
suspect this is an additional reason why
item 16 was abruptly removed. We need to
thank Councilwoman Wind uh Whitehead for
her persistence and fortitude. And
finally, I want to know who decided to
add item 16 to the agenda and why was it
done in secret? Thank you. Thank you,
former council woman. Next, we have
Carla.
Hi. Um, I'm Carla, preserve pioneer and
peaceful valley resident. Thank you for
the opportunity to speak. Um, as you
know, I don't normally speak about
things unless it's a preserve issue, but
hey, in Scottsdale, normal flew out the
window months ago. So, um I'm grateful
that item 16 has been pulled. Um but
I've been around long enough to know
that it will probably come back in one
form or another. So, and I hope I really
hope that staff doesn't take the blame
on this. I hope that however this
happened, we get the truth and it
doesn't come back. But I fear it will.
So, I want to talk about sustainability.
Now, we can all respectfully disagree on
what happened to the sustainability
plan, but I would hope we can agree on
what the word actually means.
Um, in this general plan rewrite,
everywhere in the environment section
that the word sustainable was, can you
not hear me? That the word sustainable
was, they took it out and put
stewardship. Now, as co-founder of the
Preserve Steward program, I'm a big
believer in stewardship, which means
taking good care of things now. And
that's different from sustainability,
which means taking care of things so
that they'll be here for future
generations. And I know all of us with
kids and grandkids care deeply about
that. So, those two words don't mean the
same thing and they are not
interchangeable.
The other thing I'd like to I'm confused
about actually is the place in the
general plan. This is weird. Um where
sustainable wasn't taken out was only
when it came to the economy and the
budget. Then much like when the budget
review commission presented to council,
there was big talk from this council
about sustainable budget. So my question
to everyone is why is it okay to use the
word sustainable when you're talking
about money but not when you're talking
about the very things land air and water
that are absolutely essential to keep
residents alive and healthy so they can
earn that money. It makes absolutely no
sense. So I would just ask please don't
let this come back. Don't waste any more
staff time or taxpayer dollars on
something like this again. Ever. Thank
you.
>> Thank you.
For former councilwoman Tammy Caputi.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tammy
Caputi. Addresses on record.
I was part of the council that worked
for months on the 2035 general plan.
This is a citizengenerated voterapproved
policy document that expresses our
collective vision and aspirations for
the future of our city. General Plan
2035 built upon decades of feedback and
was approved by Scottsdale voters. The
community and council spent years
fine-tuning every word. Tonight, you
were planning to consider overwriting
the will of the voters for ideological
agendas. This is an insult to our
residents, a waste of time and tax
dollars, and it lacks transparency.
Fortunately, the item has been
withdrawn. Hidden from view, our shared
values of welcoming all and living
thoughtfully in our desert environment
were crossed out of our general plan.
Only a few council members were aware
and it was snuck in on consent agenda.
These were not minor changes. These are
the core values that make us the gold
standard of the valley and a golden rule
city. Even that term was scrubbed.
Sustainability means using resources
responsibly so they can be available for
the long term. That's a dirty word. The
sensors were so intent on banishing
words that might be deemed offensive.
They nonsensically purged mention of
terms like economic diversity and
equality in the context of street
safety. They censored the word climate.
They cut the words domestic violence,
discrimination, and homelessness.
Removing words does not magically solve
these serious issues. It just makes them
more difficult to address. Our process
for general plan amendments is intended
for changing land uses, not blacklisting
words some council members find
offensive. General plan amendments
follow procedures that provide
transparency and public participation.
They don't happen in the heat of summer
behind closed doors. At Mayor Bowski's
town hall, she was asked why council got
rid of our sustainability plan. She
said, "We already have one. It's called
the general plan." Well, we almost lost
that, too. Stop this lunacy and return
to common sense leadership that listens
to residents, makes thoughtful decisions
that include us all and sustains us into
the future as a worldclass city. Thank
you.
>> Thank you. Hey, Tammy, can you Tammy?
>> Yes.
>> Did that little mic cover that is it
right there? Can you put a Would you
mind?
>> So much better.
>> Yes, I think it would be better. Thank
you.
>> Uh Brian Scott.
>> Hey there. Test, test, test. Brian
Scott.
I've got uh you could do the projector.
Okay. I've got the event development
guidelines for Scottsdale. Nobody wants
to talk about these.
The uh tourism development commission
doesn't talk about these. The city
council doesn't talk about these when
you're voting on uh events. So, the last
time I was here, I raised concerns about
breaches in Scottsdale's event
development funding guidelines regarding
the Persian New Year's Festival. These
guidelines exist to protect public funds
through accountability and transparency.
Yet, the city is playing fast and loose
with the rules for distributing
taxpayer money.
Here's the postevent reality for the
Persian New Year's Festival. On March
1st, only a few hundred people ga
gathered at the civic center, thousands
less than what is required for funding.
uh the organizer posted a video
um saying that
they're calling it a private venue where
certain people couldn't be in here. So,
I'm just going to play that for you real
quick.
>> Excuse me. This is a private venue. You
can't be in here.
>> So, she says, "Excuse me.
>> Excuse me. This is a private venue. You
can't be in here."
>> Private venue. You can't be in here.
That alone disqualifies
the um this event from public funding.
The second scheduled date, March 28th,
was cancelled, making the contract
ineligible. And the final date, May
17th, was a red carpet foreign language
movie screening
self-described as an intense drama that
explores chaos unleashed in a city.
Okay, that has nothing to do with
Scotsell's brand or tourism goals. These
failures represent a breach of the
guidelines, a breach of the contract,
and most importantly, a breach of the
public trust. So, I am demanding a full
audit under section 7 of the contract
number 2025-024-
Charlie Oscar Sierra. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mark Renz.
Good evening, uh, Madame Mayor, city
council members, city manager, and uh
staff, city uh Scottsdale staff. I'm
Mark Wren and you have all my contact
information with your staff. I checked
that earlier. Uh and for the record, I
just want to make it clear I'm here
representing myself. Nobody else, no
other organization.
I originally was planning to come here
to talk about what several of the other
speakers talked about, which is agenda
number 16.
uh which was
loosely stated amending the general plan
and that was re removed over the
weekend. And I want to start by saying
whatever the council members and city
managers rationale for doing that. I
commend you for doing that. I commend
the mayor, council, and city manager for
revisiting this item and choosing not to
proceed with it.
In the six short months since this
council was sworn in, it has taken
several controversial actions, most
notably the elimination of the
Scottsdale sustainability plan
and the diversity, equity, inclusivity
program and office.
I'm going to focus both these programs.
Let me point out both these programs had
strong support from the co Scottsdale
residents and voters. Both these
programs were developed as a result of
dozens of meetings, hundreds of hours of
participation by city staff, residents,
and businesses. It wasn't something, as
you all know, that just appeared
overnight.
I'm going to just take a minute here and
uh talk about sustainability.
That's my area of what I'd call a little
bit of expertise. I spent 15 years of my
career helping land owners, industrial
leaders develop sustainability plans and
uh I was part of the team that developed
the first nationwide industry
sustainable for sustain it was called
sustainable forestry initiative that
sustainability plan. So I have a little
bit of expertise but let me just start
real quick with the Cambridge definition
of sustainability.
That definition is sustainability is a
management approach in which
environmental and economic actions of
the current generation do not diminish
the opportunities to have similar
quality life for future generations.
So, I turn to those council members who
want to purge, and yes, I mean purge,
the concept of sustainability from our
general plan. And I say to you simply
this, what's wrong with assuring that
our children and our grandchildren's
future? What's wrong for ensuring that
they have the quality of life we've come
to enjoy? So, let me just completely uh
close I'm see I'm running out of time by
reminding all of us in here tonight
that the Scottsdale 30 seconds if I
could ma'am the the Scottsdale general
plan belongs to all of us. It is not the
city council's general plan.
I hope that the council will reflect on
this past weekend's decision
regarding
how we can better how you can better
represent the people of Scottsdale by
encouraging public involvement and
taking into consideration their
appointment not through draconian
decisions
designed to achieve personal political
agendas. Thank you very much for time
me.
>> Thank you. And that concludes the
speakers. And I see Councilman Graham.
Do you have a question or comments?
>> Oh, I just going to quickly respond to a
couple of those comments, which I
appreciated all of them. Um when Mr.
Wren was speaking, the powers that be
came in before us, didn't they?
Um
Mr. Scott um who spoke about
tourism events. I I um this isn't a
dialogue, but just something to think
about talking to tourism development
commission if you've gone to speak with
them, meet with commissioners, have you
email the city council and uh because
those publicly funded events are they
must meet certain conditions. They must
be open to everybody. So what you're
some of those commentaries are
concerning. And then um to my former
colleague, Miss uh Councilwoman Janick.
Um
you know, we
we served together and um I learned a
lot from you during the years that we
served together and um
if you're comfortable, we can just talk.
You can call me in the future, but you
use words like hidden and deleted and
and secret and just none of that is
true. like I would categorically is
untrue. So, but I respect you and I
appreciate you coming to talk to us
tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.
>> Thank you. That concludes our public
comment period.
Oh,
there we go. Councilwoman McCallen.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just want to say
thank you to everyone who came out
tonight. to I know a lot of you came out
to speak specifically about the general
plan but it had been removed. Um but
thank you for your time. I also wanted
to commend my colleague uh Councilwoman
Whitehead for bringing it to the
attention of many of us and helping us
to understand um you know the importance
of what the general plan stands for and
the input of the citizens and so just
thank you so much and thank you so much.
Um thank you
>> councilwoman Whitehead.
>> Thank you mayor. I just want to say what
a pleasure it is to be here with the
colleagues that we spent often uh late
nights uh with thousands of hours of
citizen input writing that general plan.
And so I think that is the value we know
it's the soul of the city and to get
over 70% of the voters to support a plan
that they wrote I guess isn't that
surprising. So, I'm grateful for you
being here. I'm grateful for uh city
manager Kaitton's decision to uh remove
it from the agenda tonight.
>> Thank you. Now, we are through with
public comment on non-aggendaized items.
Uh next we have meeting minutes
approvals and we have uh request
or look ask for a motion to approve the
regular meeting minutes of June 10th
2025 special budget meeting minutes of
June 10th 2025 special meeting minutes
of June 17 2025 and executive session
minutes of June 17 2025.
>> So moved.
Second.
>> All those in favor, please indicate your
vote.
Thank you.
Next, we have the consent agenda items 1
through 14. Uh, if any members of the
council have any questions on any of the
consent agenda items or request to move
any of those to the regular agenda,
please advise now.
Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion. Oh,
uh, Councilwoman Dascus.
>> Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, item
number five, the, uh, women's NCAA. It's
a $225,000
for tourism. So, um, if we could have a
presentation on that. It's a lot of
money. I'd like to take a look at it.
>> Absolutely. Let's go ahead and pull that
off the consent agenda. Anyone else?
I don't see anybody else. So, I'll go
ahead and uh ask for a motion to approve
consent agenda items 1 through 14 with
the exception of number five, which we
will have a presentation on.
>> So, moved.
>> Second.
>> All those in favor, please indicate your
vote.
All right. And is there
let's see here. Are you ready to go
ahead with the presentation on item?
>> Great. Thank you.
>> Good afternoon, council, vice mayor,
council members, and mayor. Uh this
evening I have a presentation for the
Arizona major events host committee
agreement related to the women's final
four event will be taking place here in
April of 2026.
The event the final four is once again a
regional event. Uh the Arizona major
host committee I'll refer to him as a
host committee going forward is
requesting $225,000
in support of a regionally hosted 2026
women's final four. The tournament be
played April 3rd and 5th, 2026 in
Phoenix Arena in downtown Phoenix. On
June 17th, the TDC recommended city
council allocate 225,000 to support the
event funding agreement.
Some of the background on the event. Uh
looking at this particular slide, uh we
took a look at the men's final four,
which many may recall took place two
years ago. Uh in 2024, uh the host
committee requested funding from various
municipalities and contracted with ASU
WKE school uh business school to
complete the NCAA men's final four
econom economic study uh which you see
some of the numbers here. The Scottdale
investment for the men's final forum was
$432,000.
The realized value per the host
committee at that time was 581,000 and
the economic impact on the region per
ratio was 429 million.
A little more background um information
on that particular event. The 24 men's
final in Glendale attracted over 713,000
individuals to all the events that took
place uh during the weeks in front of
the uh tournament. Had an average of
75,000 game attendants, 40 million
broadcast viewers, and over 2,000
credential media. Um this next one's
important. And according to Smith Travel
Research, our department pulls daily
reports uh related to the Scottsdale
area on all the hotel properties. And
this was rather significant over that
period of time. I believe it was three
days we measured here. We saw some
substantial increase in the room nights
in Scottsdale. We had an average
occupancy of 77%. Which on average over
the days was almost up 40%. Uh we had an
increase in average daily rate of 352
and again that was over 30% on the
average over those three days. The
average repar was 27312 which up 83%. So
that was rather significant related to
the men's event.
So on the analysis just a little more
background which I think is important
here on how that fund or ask is uh
presented to the tourism development
commission and city council. Um the host
committee has an operating budget
requesting 2 million from all the cities
in Maropa County that qualify for Prop
302 funds. The host committee utilized
the same formula as the Arizona office
tourism for Prop 302 funds and how it's
distributed. And that's based on the
percentage of total gross revenue sales
from previous calendar year as well as
the value of the proposed sponsorship
deliverables that we would receive here
in Scottsdale. And the host committee
calculates the contribution for
Scottsdale at 225,000.
Some of the highlights uh related to the
contract u we will receive a minimum of
2,000 room nights uh for Scottdale as
part of the official room blocks. We do
anticipate more than that. Um we are
seeing some interest in uh some groups
attending that event. Um some sporting
groups are coming in staying at the
valley hoe. So we anticipate getting
more than 2,000 room nights. Uh the host
committee acted to promote scale's
preferred destination to sponsors,
alumni groups, attendees for lodging,
entertainment, and auxiliary events
surrounding the tournament. Uh
collaborative efforts will include uh
trophy tourism stop in Scottsdale, local
business programs, school engagement
initiatives, and opportunities to
elevate the Scottsdale brand through
digital content as well as coordinate
efforts with Experience Scottsdale,
who's planning on doing some incremental
uh marketing and sponsorship for the
event. Um in regards to that, I'm going
to stop right there. We're also hosting
the CEO forum in Scottsdale, which I
think is uh a nice thing to have this
year. There's two properties that are
being looked at for that. So, that would
be interesting. Economic development can
work rather closely with that to further
explore opportunities there. We're also
hosting a VIP golf tournament similar to
that CE program at a Scottsdale golf
course. So, that's important as well, as
well as read of the Final Four. Some
other initiatives that are good for the
public as well related to this contract.
There are also some limited number of
tickets we will receive to the game
itself and some of the events and we
plan on tying those into city tourism
and economic development objectives.
Uh further analysis as I mentioned
experienced SCASA will partner closely
with the city of SCASA and the host
committee to leverage the 2026 NCAA
women's final four and the host
committee estimates the value of
sponsorship package at 560,000
uh based on the above bed tax investment
of 225 coupled with the sponsorship
benefits the television coverage and
national media exposure should provide
substantial value and direct
consideration related to the ask here
today and I want before I get to the
action request I want to fill in a
little bit more that staff did related
to the funding aspect of this. Uh we did
some analysis work. We work with a
consultant economic consultant. Uh we
take we first start with the minimum
block which was 2,000 and what would we
receive from an economic impact and we
believe that's that number fell with
2,000 room nights a little over 100,000
about 6,000 additional visitors would be
here in attendance to this potentially
related to that. So that gets us a
little over 100,000. We believe all
those other marketing aspects I just
went through, the CEO forum, the golf
tournament, the marketing exposures will
get us so that we receive fair
substantial value for that investment of
225,000.
So here's our action request here.
Resolution number 13473 authorizing
funding up to 225,000
from the 2526 operating budget and
support agreement 2025128
for the women's final four agreement in
April 2026.
That concludes my presentation. Address
any questions.
>> Thank you. I see a question from
Councilwoman McCallen.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Uh thank you, Steve.
Uh I um I attended the TDC meeting where
they did the presentation on the women's
final four. I was very interested in it
because of having the final the men's
final four. I wanted to see that make
sure that the women's final four was
getting their due. um well they're just
rewards so to speak that they were
getting as much money. We actually are
only asking for almost half of what we
gave to the men's. I know that last week
I saw a presentation at the Arizona
League of Cities and they talked about
at Sky Harbor Airport uh Mayor Ggo of
Phoenix just unveiled a massive mural uh
to advertise the women's final four and
that rooms are already filling up fast.
Uh I always find it fascinating that
another city like the city of Phoenix is
out there publicizing, putting all this
money into it. They're having the event
in the city of Phoenix, but all the VIP
events are happening in the city of
Scottsdale. So, we do get the bang for
the buck. We are definitely getting um
more than our fair share. I I believe
not actually hosting the event, but all
the ancillary events that build the um
the actual women's final four. So, I
wholeheartedly um
support this. And with that, I will move
to adopt resolution number 13473.
>> Second.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. I see a question from Vice
Mayor Dasquez and also Councilman
Clausman.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, this all
sounds wonderful. Um, can we get a
follow-up report on how it how it came
out? I would love to hear that we booked
out 200 rooms and um and and the
success. I'd love to hear about that. Um
I'm also a big um proponent of combining
events like you're doing here with
having golf tournaments and things. I
think that that makes it even more
attractive to come and stay in
Scottsdale and and spend dollars in
Scottsdale. And I'm grateful that you're
collaborating with um Experience
Scottsdale on this as well. So um if it
hadn't been second the motion hadn't
been seconded, I would second it as
well. Thank you,
>> Councilman Clausman.
It was Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, it
was very funny because uh, Councilwoman
Duboscus read my mind. And what I'd like
to do is not just a follow-up report.
Let's use this as an example. Uh, this
is a very good data point that we can
have a really thorough audit of how we
utilize our economic development
dollars. It's a finite amount. It's not
too big. We have a large event. It's in
a specific place. We have sites set out.
So when I say when we have a report, I
would love to prior to prior to the end
of this year, let's have a comprehensive
benchmark if we can have that set up. Um
u Mr. Kaden um so that we could have so
that if we could do that, we will
absolutely see okay, it hit one, two,
and three, but it failed on four, five,
and six, and here's where you think we
could move from there. Right. And I
think that this can be utilized um uh uh
going forward for both large events and
small. And I think that the people um
the residents really do deserve get to
see where their dollars go. So a
comprehensive benchmark beforehand
followed up by a report I think would be
even we'd be even better.
>> Okay.
>> Thank you. And uh I I think that's a
great approach. Uh I had a long
conversation with the city manager about
this in particular event uh and was
convinced that it was a good ROI.
However, I would love to see what uh
what the tradeoff is. Uh personally, I
think we we should dedicate our these
funds uh first and foremost to uh events
that actually originate and occur in
Scottsdale and whether or not they're
here now when we're spending money on
big events that are in another part of
the city. I struggle to think that no
one's going to stay in Scottsdale if we
don't contribute $225,000.
I think that's simply not the case. Uh,
so I don't know how you parse through
those details in order to confirm that
that's really included in the economic
impact and would we have that economic
impact with or without that event. So
I'll look forward to that discussion,
but most importantly, I want to see what
the tradeoff is and what we're, you
know, putting there rather than
investing in new events in in Scottsdale
that actually are here and here
year-over-year, for example. So looking
forward to that. And uh having said all
that, I uh we have a motion in a second.
All those in favor, please indic
Oh, you are. You're right. Thank you.
Sorry about that. And city clerk, we're
Yep. This is Brian Scott. Go ahead and
Thank you.
>> Okay. So again, I I've brought the uh
updated 2025 2026 event development
guidelines for you to see because nobody
wants to talk about them. The uh tourism
development commission doesn't talk
about them. Council doesn't talk about
them, but here they are again for you.
Uh I would say the city analysis is a
misrepresentation
because it doesn't include what the
guidelines say. And it's the guidelines
prohibit this from going on, right? It
says it's a mega makes an exclusion for
a mega event. Nowhere in the analysis
does it say this is a mega event. So
it's it's excluded. See the
qualifications.
You have to meet all the qualifications
to be eligible for funding.
So I'm just here to throw some basics at
everyone. And I want to remind you that
the event development guidelines exist.
They're not a decoration. They're
protection. They were created so
taxpayer dollars aren't handed out on
gut feelings tied to accountability, but
tied to accountability, transparency,
and measurable return.
So, we're paying these city staff
hundreds of thousand dollars. And with
the missing basic items here, the
original tourism development commission
bylaws from 19 1988 said funds must
follow criteria to ensure projects meet
the intent of this division. That intent
was simple. to protect public funds. And
each year, this council has adopted
these guidelines as policy. So if we
ignore them, we're not just bending the
rules. We're breaking the trust.
Scottsdale Tourism Fund should never go
into a black box or get spent outside
our city without clear benefits to our
residents. So I urge you follow the
guidelines you approved, uphold
accountability, and don't make
exceptions that undermine this these
safeguards. And I'll say my advice is or
my suggestion is that you reject this.
Put it right back to the city staff and
tell them you want radical transparency.
You don't want to have to take the fall
for somebody like me come up here and
point out the obvious things. And why
isn't the Tourism Development Commission
talking about these?
Saves a lot of time.
Thank you, Mr. Scott. I uh you raised
some good points and I really appreciate
your passion and uh I for one will be
looking at all those points you just
made. Councilman Graham.
>> Thank you, Mayor.
Mr. Gigma, is there um
is there a requirement for us to write
this check um for the event to be
qualify as a mega event?
>> No, not necessarily. Um, but I'd like to
point out that that document that was up
there, that is our criteria defined the
mega events in one and two and that
generally an event that's regionally
participated in like this one.
>> I'm going go into who's participating.
The host committee was here can go into
that
>> but that defines a mega event as well as
the structure of what we are presenting
here. That was on that document one.
>> M Mr. Gigma. Um,
does the event have to qualify as a mega
event for us to write the check?
>> Yes or no?
>> Well, to define it as a mega event,
those criteria I just went through, that
would define it as a mega. The TDC makes
the recommendation based on the
presentation and the values associated
with that. Staff brings forward that
recommendation.
>> No, I I but I'm just and that's the
process
>> and I'm just kindly asking it. So the
gentleman put some points for the events
to qualify because this event is not in
the city of Scottsdale. So there's
that's okay if it meets certain
exceptions. Um does it have to meet all
those exceptions or just one of those
exceptions?
>> Generally the two that I just went
through that it's a regionally
participated event both from a funding
aspect and a venue aspect. Correct. And
generally this particular those things
are in there are for our large events
regionally events. Super Bowl would be a
perfect example of that.
>> Correct. Yeah.
>> So that kind of frames that this those
type of request Oh.
>> Does it have does it have to be a mega
event for us to participate?
>> I you not necessarily.
>> No, that helps the criteria for the
commission. Okay.
>> And for staff to recognize that as a
variable that we proceed forward
>> in terms of what's there.
>> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Gigma.
>> Question.
>> Uh, Vice Mayor Dascus. Thank you, Madame
Mayor. Um, with the criteria that the
resident just provided to us, it did say
that it was a disqualifying event. If it
if they were receiving regional dollars
from multiple cities, did it not?
>> Not disqualifying. No. If they have to
be if they're not if they don't receive
it, that could be disqualifying. In this
particular case, the host committee for
the F women's final four is receiving
regional participation.
>> And so, we do not feel that this meets
this is a a disqualifying event. You're
you're comfortable that this is a
qualifying event that we can that does
not um violate the guidelines.
>> Correct. The tourism commission and city
staff uh believes this meets the
guidelines for a mega event and funding
at this level.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Seeing no other comments or
questions, I will please ind there's a
motion in a second. Please indicate your
approval by voting yes
>> or no
>> or no. Well, the approval would be
Disapproval.
>> One or the other.
Councilman Quasman.
All right. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
>> Moving right along. Uh next I we move to
the regular agenda. The city council
will uh consider each item starting with
item 15 which is an applicant appeal of
the historic preservation commission
denial of a certificate of
appropriateness to screen in a balcony
patio at a residence within the villa
villa mter ray unit 7 historic district
with multiple family residential
historic property uh R-5HP P zoning
which is at 7635 East Pasadena Avenue. I
see Jesus Merillo standing at the
podium. Historic preservation officer,
please proceed.
>> Mayor, I'm I'm recusing on this item.
>> Okay. Uh so let's hold while Councilman
Graham exits.
>> Go right ahead. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Bowski,
Vice Mayor uh Dubascus, and members of
the city council. Again, my name is
Cesus Planner here with the city, but
today I'm wearing my historic
preservation officer hat. And so, if you
don't mind, I'm going to bore you just a
little bit with some HP, historic
property uh procedural information that
I hope will help uh explain how we got
here tonight. Uh typically, as you well
know, including uh this city hall, we've
got historic preservation overlays on a
variety of communities and and
properties in the city. Um, as such,
anytime a case or a property receives
that designation, there's two cases that
go with it. One is a zoning case and
another one is an HP historic property
case. With those cases come along what
we call guidelines, and those guidelines
are what are used as criteria to
understand whether a request in the
future on that property still make
allows that property to be historically
uh significant. So, as such, when when
those guidelines are are are approved
with those zoning cases and HP cases,
even though they're called guidelines
for the purposes of the of the cases
themselves, they are considered
ordinances like other ordinances in the
city. Um, I also wanted to to share that
uh the bylaws of the Historic
Preservation Commission state that if
there is a a vote made, be it in the
affirmative or in the negative uh of if
there's got three to three votes, if
it's a tie vote, it is considered a
denial. And so, a little more
information to again get to how we got
it here tonight. Through the HP process,
we have two separate processes. One is
called the a certificate of no effect
and that's when a request is made that
seems to be on a on a lower level and
within the authority of staff. It's
almost like a staff approval if you
will. And then the larger request that
really need to be vetted against the
guidelines is called a certificate of no
effect. It is that certificate of no
effect or I'm sorry certificate of
appropriateness that was requested of
the of the historic preservation
commission. when an applicant or an
owner does not agree with the decision
made by the historic preservation
commission, they are allowed to come and
appeal that to the council. And so as
such, tonight the city council is being
asked to act in the role of the historic
preservation commission in regards to
the appeal. So thank you.
So again, the action that requested as
the mayor mentioned earlier is an appeal
of the historic preservations
commission. um in the request was to
enclose uh with the screening the
seconds story balcony uh at this
location. So the location as you can see
here on the larger scale is located on
the northeast corner of East Miller Mo
Road and uh East Chapper Rail Road. A
closer look you could see that it's more
specifically on the southeast corner of
North 76th Place and East Pasadena
Avenue. And yes, it does have the R5HP
designation over it.
So, some of the key items for
consideration, uh staff became aware of
the uh of the screening or the enclosure
of the second story um patio by uh by a
neighbor who put in a a request a
citation with the code enforcement. So,
staff did vet those uh criter Steph the
we vetted what had already been done
with the criteria and felt that it this
was a call for the historic preservation
commission. As such, this is an appeal
of their decision.
These are some of the graphics that or
some of the pictures that were uh
provided at that historic preservation
commission hearing. As you can see, uh
some of these are from the interior of
the enclosure and some are from the
outside.
Here's a couple more uh of those
pictures. As you can see, the the
netting that encloses that second story
patio.
When it was presented to the Historic
Preservation Commission, it was done so
on at two different occasions. on May
1st. It was provided uh through a
presentation by both staff and the
applicant. Uh the uh historic
preservation commission felt they needed
more information. So it came they
continued to the June 5th. It is at that
June 5th decision that the certificate
of appropriateness was requested one
more time from them and that is what uh
is being appealed here today. So when it
was presented to the Historic
Preservation Commission, staff provided
the two u main uh guidelines again
ordinances that identified or that were
related to to the improvements
themselves. The first one is from policy
number 13, more specifically 13.2
uh which states that we should avoid
applying a new exterior material such as
stucco or siding that obstructs the
historic pattern or a combination of
those materials applied. So again,
that's what staff felt during their
review that was done to the site. Uh the
second guideline that was that closely
resembled uh that needed to be vetted
with the with the improvement was policy
number 19, more specific 19.4 that
providing shade in ways that are
traditionally used in the development
such as cloth awnings or windows and to
avoid installing shade screens on the
exterior that obscure the historic
windows or doors.
So when uh so staff had made the
recommendation to the historic
preservation commission that they did
deny the case based off of those two
criteria.
The historic preservation commission
then voted in the affirmative and it
ended with the 3 to3 vote. Again as per
their bylaws resulted in a denial.
So now the action here requested of the
city council tonight is again for the
issuance of the of the certificate of
appropriateness and the appeal and the
appeal of the decision from the historic
preservation commission's denial to
enclose that second story balcony patio
area. So tonight the his city council
acting as a historic preservation
commission has has uh the four the four
decisions that you see there before you
on the screen. One is to uphold the
Historic Preservation Commission's
decision and deny the case. The second
is to reverse the Historic Preservation
Commission's decision and then
identifying uh the guidelines that you
feel that they are that that the
improvements do meet. Approve the case
with additional stipulations or continue
the case again for additional
information. And so that concludes
staff's presentation. I know the
applicant has a presentation themselves
and again staff is here to answer any
questions. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. Uh, next we have
Tim Loda on behalf of the applicant.
>> It's a good question though.
>> I think. Was that the right answer, Ben?
Sorry, that was the wrong answer.
Everybody else stands there. You're
special.
>> We need review.
Thank you, mayor and members of council.
I'd like to uh I'm Tim Loda, 2198 East
Calbeck Road in Phoenix, and I'm here on
behalf of the applicant, Kathy Young,
who's here with us today in the
audience. And I I think um one of the
things that that was said earlier was
you can see the screen here. And and I
think that one of the first points is
you can barely see the screen. Um I mean
and we are here today talking about a
screen that's been put up on this upper
patio that you see in um in this photo
now. Um the screen had been up for has
been up for 6 years now. Uh in fact, one
of the the persons um Miss Young's
neighbor um you know this has gotten
some attention in the neighborhood and
she called her to ask why she had taken
down her screen. Well, the answer was
she hadn't taken down her screen, but
it's so visually unobtrusive that her
neighbor thought she had. Um, when she
put up the screen, it had the full
support of the her HOA. Um, and I I
don't think there's anyone in opposition
to it that the person who opposed it had
actually uh actually moved out, the
person who bought the house uh supports
it. So, I think one of the reasons
people support it is, you know, these
historic neighborhoods, they have a lot
of appeal, but but when we overdo it on
them and and create a straight jacket, I
think that appeal gets lost. And the
people that are closest to this project,
who who love this neighborhood, and it
truly is a unique neighborhood, it's
gorgeous, are supportive of this uh of
this screen. Um, I do want to get into
some of the um the staff and I'll get
back to that in a second, but let's talk
about policy 13 to begin with. And yes,
it was a 33 commission vote. So
obviously, if there was one more person,
there would were would have been no
appeal. Okay. Policy 13, preserve the
patterns of building materials and
elements that distinguish the Via
Mterrey townhouse style. avoid applying
a single new exterior material such as
stucco or sighting that obscures the
historic pattern. I mean, we're not
talking about stucco or sighting. We're
talking about a screen. Um, it's meant
essentially to be able to so that her
cat can go out on the balcony and can't
get out, can't be subjected to uh
potentially um some of the feral
creatures in her neighborhood. It's it's
just that it's not um it's not anything
but a screen. and um staff, if you I
don't know if anyone read the report,
but they went out and and measured it
with with candle light and took took
part of it to the the hardware store. I
I I think the proofs are the pudding. I
mean, you can hardly see this thing as
the pictures bear out. So, I mean, I
don't think we're even talking about
policy 13. It doesn't seem to apply.
We're talking about a um something that
is not stuckco. It's not sighting. Um it
doesn't really obscure anything. Um,
let's talk about policy 19. Minimize the
visual impacts of utilities, accessory
structures, and equipment and other
fixtures. Uh, provide shading in ways
traditionally used in the development,
such as cloth awnings over windows.
Avoid installing shade screens on the
exterior that obscure historic windows
or doors. Well, this isn't this isn't
really a a shade screen. It's it's a
screen, and it's not a it's not a
fixture, either. Um, I I think for
whatever reason the staff just I mean it
seems like they kind of tried to find
anything uh as a reason for denying this
certificate of appropriateness. And what
we've gotten here is essentially uh you
know these these policies that don't
even seem to apply um that that have
been used to stop Miss Young from from
doing something um from keeping
something that she's had for for many
years without without really any
problem. I do want to talk a little bit
about here we see the some of the other
things in the neighborhood. I think
these are examples of of shade screens.
Um you see them over the houses. Um, and
my my point here isn't that, you know,
look look at what everyone else is
doing. Uh, the point is that that these
these little additions here and there h
have not ruined the neighborhood. They
have not made the neighborhood not
historic. They have not led to a decline
of the neighborhood. I think these are
are much more uh visually um I don't
even know what the right right word is,
but noticeable than than the screen that
Miss Young would have. Um, I would also
point out this is something if you see
it right in the middle there, it covers
a a water treatment um
um a water treatment unit and that was
approved. So, some of these other ones
may have been grandfathered in, but
again, the point isn't whether they
should have been allowed or shouldn't
have. The main point is look these
things there's always going to be little
things that people do to their houses
and that's just the reality and um again
probably the reason the people who are
closest to this project support it is
because you have to have a minimum
flexibility in order for the
neighborhood to remain attractive. Um so
with that I I know we've already heard a
um the staff presentation on this. We've
already seen a number of photos, but
I'll just take you back to the actual
screen. Uh, and we'd ask that uh it is
important to Miss Young. She's lived in
the neighborhood a long time. Um, she
likes to be able to It makes the the the
patio, the upstairs patio more
comfortable. It makes it more livable.
It is very important to her. It doesn't
seem like it's much of a um um a burden
on the neighborhood at all. and it
certainly seems to meet the criteria for
a certificate of appropriateness. So,
we'd ask that you approve that here
tonight and I'd be happy to answer any
questions.
>> Thank you, Mr. Loda. The only question I
had was uh what the HOA say about it and
you already said that. So, thank you for
sharing that. Uh we're going to turn to
public speakers here now and starting
with Diane Frank followed by Jennifer
Ramadan.
Ramadan and Marcia Young.
Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hi, I'm
Diane Frank. I live in Vil Monteray 7
where Kathy Young lives. And um
I think the gentleman that spoke just
before me took away a lot of the points
I was going to make. However,
I would also like to point out um
that that is possibly the most absurd
ruling I've heard yet from historic
commission. We live in a community that
just went through the hottest summer
ever. And this lady is trying to
protect the second floor of her house
where the heat rises to. I think SRP
would say the same thing. We all host
all of us have screens on our windows,
even if they're only onestory houses. I
have a screen on my house. Um,
she has a cat. We have two owls living
in a tree quarter of a block away. We
have coyotes that roam the neighborhood
uh every afternoon and evening. They're
bold and brazen.
And um I see no reason whatsoever why
she shouldn't have this screen. Those of
us who live there have not complained
about it. Uh times change, the weather
changes. Um, I think it's it's it's a
reasonable uh addition to our house even
though it's not permanent. I have seen
changes that are that are incredible.
People have built walls in front of
their houses. I don't have the pictures.
They've made patios on their front
yards.
One gentleman in unit six has paved his
driveway with pavers. That was not
original. Um, there's plastic grass on
numerous houses. That's not original.
Um,
I I think that historic has um
overstepped their boundaries and um this
is not the first time and I know this is
not the place now for me to take this up
with them. But when you are living under
their rules and regulations, you are no
longer the king of your castle or the
queen of your castle. You make the
payments and you are technically the
owner, but you are not in charge of your
own property. And I am absolutely
opposed to making her take down the
screen for those reasons. Um,
it's inconvenient and it's a loss of
ownership rights and nobody else in the
community has complained about it except
this one gentleman who was a nightmare
of a neighbor and that's a whole other
story. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much
Jennifer
>> Ramadan Ramadan.
Oh, I understand.
>> Oh, okay. Thank you very much. Uh, well,
that concludes public comment on this
item and I don't see any questions or
comments from anybody here on the dis.
So, with that, uh, anyone want to offer
a motion?
I I think I'm going to make the motion.
Uh jump to the chase here. So, thank you
for speaking. Thank you, staff. I don't
understand why this was opposed by uh
the Historic Preservation Commission. I
don't understand why I don't know if
staff was really opposing it, but
nonetheless, uh I'll make the motion to
I guess it's reversal even though, as uh
Tim Loda said, it was a draw. Uh but in
that case, it's a failure. So,
I will make the motion to reverse the
decision of the Historic Preservation
Commission.
>> Second.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. All those in favor, please
indicate by I.
>> I.
>> I. Sorry. Or yes. On the keypad.
>> It's not coming.
>> One of these days, we're gonna get this
working.
>> In the meantime, we'll just play a song.
All right. Yeah, back in the old days we
used to just do that, right, Kathy?
>> All right, moving right along. Uh, we've
already done all the public comments, so
we don't have any more public comment uh
for non-aggendaized.
And moving on to item number 17, receipt
of citizens petitions. I don't see any
of those.
Nope. And so next we have
item number 18 under the mount mayor and
council items are next 18 18 through 20.
18 is our board for our boards and
commissions to continue their annual
2024 report presentations. Tonight we
have annual presentations by the board
of adjustment and the McDow sonorin
preserve commission. So, I'd like to
invite up the board of adjustment uh
individuals here and staff member.
Oh, sorry. Did I take that? All right,
there we go.
My goodness.
Good evening, Mayor Barowski and council
members. My name is Brian Kluff. Um, I'm
one of the planning managers with the
city's planning department. I am also
the uh staff representative for our
board of adjustment. Um, here with me
this evening is the board's chair, Mr.
Jason Chronone. Um, I'm going to start
out with the first couple slides and
give you a brief intro introduction of
the board and what they do and then I'm
going to pass it on to Mr. Chron to
finish up with the last couple slides.
Uh, next slide, please.
And, uh, the board of adjustment is a
quasi judicial body u made of seven
members appointed by the city council.
Um, they are tasked with four pretty
specific duties. Um that is to hear
applications for variances from the
zoning provisions of the zoning
ordinance, appeals of the zoning
administrators decisions and
interpretations as well reviewing
requests for disability accommodations
and under the land division ordinance
they also hear appeals uh of general
managers interpretations or decisions.
Um unlike other boards and commissions,
the board of adjustment is a bit unique
uh in that they do make the final
decision on their actions. Uh appeals of
the board of decision go before the
superior court. Um that's a a quick
summary there and I'm going to turn it
over to Mr. Chron. Thank you.
>> Next slide please. Thank you. Uh thank
you Mr. Kloff, Mayor Baski, and city
council. Thank you for having us here
tonight. My name is Jason Shirron, chair
of your board of adjustment. some key
accomplishments from last year. You can
see we had five meetings in 12 months.
So, we don't meet every month. Kind of
jumps around a little bit. Uh we heard
eight cases last year. Uh three cases
were approved, five cases were denied.
Little breakdown of those. Uh we had
zoning ordinance variances. We had four
cases. We approved three, denied one. Uh
we had uh three zoning administrative
appeal cases, we denied all three. And
then we had one disability accommodation
request and we denied that as well.
Next slide, please. Excellent. Thank
you. So, uh, upcoming challenges,
opportunities, uh, this year, um, I'll
be stepping down, uh, in December. I'll
have my six years up, so we have a new
chair voted in on January. Um, one other
op one other obstacle that we see is the
majority is a very young board this
year. U, most of us are two years or
less except for myself that'll be moving
on. Uh and with that and not having
regular meetings every year, we decided
that uh with our legal team and staff
that we would do a little more robust
training initially when we come we have
new people coming on as well as looking
at an refresher trainings throughout the
year. When we go a couple of months
without having a meeting, things get a
little old. We forget a little bit. So
we actually just had a refresher
training last month. Um, so when we see
things go a month or two or three, legal
and the staff will get us all together
and help us with a little refresher. We
haven't done that in the past, so we're
going to start trying to do that in the
future.
Um, one other thing that I brought up to
staff was the qualifications of members.
Um,
in a previous meeting with the DRB, you
guys decided to try and have uh more
specific types of people on your on your
member boards. So, I wanted to see if
you guys would look at that as well for
the future, trying to provide uh a
certain type of board member that has u
you know, a little more understanding of
how the quasi judicial system may work.
Uh contractor guys like me don't have a
lot of the legal background. Uh so we're
we're looking at how you did the DRB in
emphasizing trying to have more specific
qualifications where that board is
requiring to have three members with
architectural, landscape, architectural,
environmental science, those kind of
things for that board. So when it comes
to the board of adjustment, I think it's
going to be important to try and have at
least two that have some sort of legal
background. I was lucky enough to have
uh a lot of lawyers and even judges on
my board with me the past six years and
it's very very helpful. Um this new
board that you have, I think we have one
lawyer on on right now and that's it. So
we all feed from each other. We all work
together very well. Uh but I think we
might want to consider that when you're
looking at appointing new board members.
Um that's all I have. If you have any
questions for us, you know, we're here
to answer any.
Thank you. That was very helpful. Thanks
for your service and uh I love the fact
that you just offered those
recommendations. I think that's a great
great idea.
>> Councilwoman Mckllen,
>> thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say
thank you to Mr. Is it Chron? Is that
Yes.
>> Okay. Uh and thank you for your
suggestions. Uh it's always helpful,
especially you've served it seems like
three terms then if it's six years, two
terms.
>> Two terms.
>> Two full terms. Okay. Uh thank you.
That's a lot of time to spend. Um
especially that's a very intense board
uh commission. So, thank you for your
time and thank you for your suggestion.
>> You're welcome. Thank you,
>> Councilman Quasman.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Chron, first
of all, and I apologize if I didn't see
it in an email directly, but are those
suggestions were those submitted to us
in writing before?
>> No.
>> Can you please submit that to the
council in writing? Also, um I have
actually a question I could ask Brian if
are are there other boards and
commissions that with specific
requirements
um to appoint um that are that are
specific to that board and commission
like for example professional license or
otherwise
>> that you know of. I don't mean to put
you on the spot.
>> Mayor Bowski, Councilman Quasman. Um the
one specifically that I know of is as
Mr. Shirone mentioned the development
review board. Beyond that, I would have
to defer to maybe the city attorney or
other representative,
>> right? Other than the one that was that
was spoken of. Um, is that okay? Um,
Luis, if you
>> Honorable mayor and members of the
council, there are different boards that
have specific um requirements. Sometimes
it's not necessarily lensure, but it
could be they're from the tourism
profession or or or such.
>> Okay.
>> Does that answer your question, sir?
>> Yes. And I just thank you. I just do you
think that the professional lure of um
of a bar license as part of it as you
said recommended but it should in your
opinion it should not be required and my
ask is is why why not? I just want you
to elaborate a little bit more on that.
>> Yeah, I don't believe it needs to be an
absolute lawyer. I mean we have a it's
it's a quas type uh situation and
understanding some legal terms you know
to me is important. I mean, we do get
into that situation where if you
understand certain terms, it will
definitely help you understand where
we're coming from from a legal aspect of
the board. Um, and that's why I'm saying
it shouldn't all be seven lawyers or
court reporters or something that has an
understanding of the legal vernacular,
but having a few has definitely been
helpful during my six years. And now
that I'm leaving and seeing that we
don't have as much on the board today,
um, does keep our discussions a little
different. And so I just think it would
be beneficial. And I'm not saying
full-blown lawyer or anything. I'm just
saying someone with some sort of
background into that area.
>> Thank you very much. And I don't see any
other questions. Thank you for being
here. And uh, good luck.
>> Thank you.
>> Next, we have the McDow. Uh,
Sonor and Preserve Commission.
Welcome. Thanks for being here tonight.
Good evening, Mayor Bowski, Vice Mayor
Dasquez, members of city council. I'm
Nick Molineri, the senior director for
the parks and recreation and preserve
department. Um, this evening we're we're
grateful to have an opportunity to
update the council on the activity and
the accomplishments of the McDall run
Preserve Commission. We have our
commission chair Steve Kuchio and our
vice chair Savannah Angling to provide
our update.
>> Oh, I got to push that. Good. Thank you.
So, this is the McDall Sonor and
Preserve Commission 20 24 annual report.
Um, I'll do this slide. Commission
purpose and makeup. The commission is
responsible for making recommendations
to the city council on matters such as
but not limited to one
provide realistic funding plans and
actions necessary to implement those
plans. For example,
using uh utilizing the parks and
preserve sales tax funding for the first
time. We recommending recommended
funding for cultural resources, ERP
projects, invasive species removal and
wildfire
uh mitigation as well as education. And
these were the specific categories
allowed under Proposition 490.
Two, we serve as the oversight committee
for implementation of preserve
acquisitions. Of course, there haven't
been any acquisitions for several years,
but there's always a possibility that a
strategic opportunity could come up. So,
we'll stand ready if that happens.
Number three, we prepare management
plans for public lands and public access
areas. So, some of the trail heads have
some of the older trail heads, I should
say, are beginning to show their age.
and the recommended five-year preserve
improvement plan, which was recommended
to the city council,
um is our strategy for addressing that.
Plus, the Rio Verie Drive wildlife
overpass comes into play with the
five-year plan. And then fourth, we
respond to any other requests on the
part of the city council. As far as the
commission and what it consists of,
seven citizens that are appointed by the
city council uh to include specific
skills and experience to carry out the
assigned tasks. So we have three members
who are highly experienced in project
management.
One member with strong financial
background. Our vice chair here has wide
experience in animal control and and
volunteerism as well as in public lands
law enforcement. And then the rest of us
are just we know a whole lot about the
preserve and how it operates.
Next slide. I'm going to turn this over
to vice chair
test one two.
>> All right. I'm commissioner and vice
chair Engel King and I'm going to
present the four uh key accomplishments
and major actions taken by the preserve
commission in the last year. So first uh
we had the 2024 update of the ecological
resource plan. So we enhanced the 2016
version of this plan by recommending
guidance for the scientific studies that
evaluate and monitor ecological
resources in the preserve and promote
its long-term health in addition to
evaluating what's currently going on.
And then two, we completed the Browns
Ranch interpretive trail. Yay. Um there
are now four interpretive trails in the
preserve, but this is the first and only
one that's dedicated to the celebration
of our cultural resources here in
Scottsdale.
And third, we recommended a 5-year
preserve improvement plan and the 2025
budget um but with uh funding from the
new parks and preserve sales tax. Uh and
then last but certainly not least, we
continued wildfire and fuel mitigation
work with the trail or uh on the trails
and trail heads within the preserve.
This included 94 corridor miles or 335
acres uh that were manually or treated
or treated with pre-emergent. Um and
this is relevant because the
pre-emergent that was applied was a key
in stopping the wildcat fire at the Dove
Valley Trail last summer in 2024.
Um and then we continued working with um
Scottsdale Fire Department on a
mitigation process. Um
yeah, thank you.
>> Is there another slide?
>> I don't.
>> Okay, so I'll take this. We didn't
expect this slide to be on here, but
I'll do my best to my best to go through
it. Excuse me. So, upcoming
opportunities, challenges, or outcomes.
Um the Rio Vi Rio Verdie Wildlife
Overpass feasibility study would be
number one on the list. Uh the study is
underway. Basically what it'll do is
establish a cost estimates based on
timing, size, design, materials,
uh fencing, drainage, a number of things
um to really help us understand what
this project wants to look like. Year
one capital improvements from the
five-year plan. I spoke just briefly
about that in the opening slide, but
basically, you know, we'll we're looking
in in year one at doing things like um
improving some of the bathrooms at the
older trail heads, new signage, drainage
that's necessary, shade areas, volunteer
space, trail bypasses, and parking
resurfacing.
Excuse me. Um number three, oversight of
parks and preserve sales tax funding.
and the 202627
budget pro process. So, you know, last
year things were uh a little bit rushed
just the way that the whole Prop 490
thing came about and we finally got into
the swing of things. Um we're we're
expecting that this year um we'll have a
lot more time and opportunity to really
dig into it. So, uh looking forward to
the next budget cycle. And then uh
finally, continue wildfire fuel uh
mitigation efforts. We'll continue
working with the fire department um you
know to coordinate efforts you know on
both our parts. Questions?
>> Terrific. Thank you, Councilwoman
Whitehead.
>> I don't have any questions. I just want
to thank staff and board members from
both and really uh city manager Kaitton.
I think this idea of bringing the
commissions forward is such a good one.
So I, you know, I tend to stay close to
what's going on on the preserve
commission, less close on some of on
these commissions. I don't understand
the work as much, but I really
appreciate everybody who spoke tonight.
So great stuff happening.
>> Thank you, Councilwoman McCallen.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Uh I just wanted to
echo what um everyone else said. Thank
you. Uh especially since Scottsdale's
greatest natural resource, you're taking
the time to protect it. I know Chair
Kuchio, you met with the fire chief
today to discuss these things. I know
there's a lot of um outside work that
all of the commission members and board
members do. So, thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Appreciate your service. Uh
Vice Mayor Dascos just
>> Thank you. And Steve, I just wanted to
say thank you for um working on the the
wildlife overpass as well this year. I
know that that took up quite a bit of
your time, but I think that
>> Sure. it it seemed like you guys were
coming to a good place together. Um, and
so I appreciate your work on that.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you for your service.
>> Thank you.
>> Anybody else?
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Appreciate your input.
>> That concludes the boards and
commissions update for updates for
tonight. And the next item on mayor and
council is item number 19, which at the
request of Councilman Graham. Uh
discussion whether to direct the city
manager and city treasurer to agendaize
a future council meeting item for
presentation discussion and possible
action direction related to tourism
event funding and the event funding
threshold requiring full city council
approval. So I will let Councilman
Graham speak to this.
>> Not Thank you, mayor. Not much to say
except I invite my colleagues to support
this uh future agenda item to just
simply discuss um
uh looking at the marketing dollars that
flow out of here and giving him another
um look from this at the city council
level. Thank you.
>> I have a question uh for you, Councilman
Graham. Are you suggesting that we
supplant the TDC's authority on this or
is there a missing uh area that you're
asking for a full city council approval,
everything that comes through the TTC?
Can you just be a little more specific
on this?
>> Thank you, mayor. Um that's part of the
discussion. You know, setting a
threshold. You know, you read that
language. Uh there's no there's no
intention to supplant this is um we've
been surprised kind of by some of the
dispersements that have been made
without council approval or even review
and so it's really just for us as a body
to review that.
So maybe I wasn't clear about the the
question, but uh for
uh manager great Greg Kate Kaitton,
don't we already approve these when they
come through on the consent agenda on
tourism development uh spending?
I may have to, madame mayor and members
of council, I may have to call a
colleague here um to assist, but I
believe when we brought forward
modifications or an update for uh 25 26
plan that was in approximately July of
this year, there was uh in an effort to
streamline approach uh a threshold that
would be more uh administratively
processed and particularly finalized by
the mayor's signature. And that was
where this item uh bubbled up uh for
consideration uh this evening and and
further concern. I'll look to my
colleague to see if I accurately
reflected that.
>> And I think you're referring to items
that are $30,000 or less.
>> Yes, Madame Mayor.
>> Okay.
>> Questions? Councilwoman Whitehead.
>> Yeah. I'm also just trying to understand
this. Councilman Graham. Um, I'm
wondering
if what we need is a work study session
or something so that perhaps the newbies
on here just better understand the
process because this is kind of wide
open and we're running a pretty uh, you
know, it's a pretty tight ship. So, I
know the public speaker brought up some
concerns about one event. So I think
what I would be more supportive of if we
just wanted a work study session just
like we did with Westworld where we
better understand the process and then
if there's a specific event that is
funded that's of concern bring that up
separately. That would be my preference
versus your request tonight. So if uh
you were open to amending it to a work
study you'd get my support. Okay. So I'm
not I'm getting a nod of no. So, I'm
yeah, I'm I'm just not I'm unsure of the
direction, so I'm not going to support
it. But thank you.
>> So, adding to that, uh I think
Councilman Clausman talked about uh
having a presentation
about the scope of some of these um you
know, the decisions that are being made.
And maybe we could join these two
together and have an overall
presentation
on uh you know the for example the notes
that the gentleman set up there and uh
just what how many of the events are
complying where's the outliers I don't
know would you think that would add to
the conversation maybe we could combine
these two. Let me ask this. Um,
so there's the 5% we're talking about,
um, the 5%
of the bed tax that the city manages.
And, um, do all
100% of contracts that are above certain
thresholds, say $20,000.
Do some of those just go through the
Tourism Development Commission or do all
those come to the council is my
question.
Um, Madame Mayor, Council Member Graham,
uh, I believe the answer to your
question is that some do not, uh, pass
the threshold and therefore come to city
council. So,
>> but no, the question is, okay, do all
above a certain threshold like 20,000,
whatever it is, come to city council?
>> Yes.
>> Oh, we have Yeah, we are getting uh,
Madame Mayor, if I may, uh, I'm gonna do
that to call a colleague and uh have
some assistance here a little deeper
past my ability to answer. Yeah, that's
wonderful.
>> And uh Rachel Spatana, thank you for
joining us. And this is kind of a
continuation of the conversation we had
maybe like before the start of the
summer break. We talked about some of
those funding mechanisms. And so was
there any portion of the
bed tax that the tourism development
commission approves in this council
doesn't see?
There is uh mayor members of council. Um
so I wanted to be clear because earlier
you said the 5% marketing that is
different than the funding we're talking
about. So there is 9% of the bed tax
allocation goes to support um special
events and so those are categorized in
different event funding programs minus a
few small exceptions. And if an event uh
funding program is less than $30,000 and
the Tourism Development Commission
approves it, um then it just comes
straight to the mayor for a signature
per the approved policy that you did in
July one.
>> Maybe. Okay. So, I'm Yeah, I think what
I'll do is I'll accept Councilwoman
Whitehead's suggestion and make this
maybe a work study so we can just get a
better handle on it and maybe see the
temperature of where their council is
going. So, I will make that change. That
was a good suggestion by my colleague.
>> I'll second it.
>> There you go.
>> All those in
>> I didn't I didn't make the motion, by
the way, but motion made.
Okay, Councilman Klasman,
>> I just want to make a just a general
statement that this was a wonderful
example of how this council does work
together when thing when there is an
interest in making sure that we are
moving forward for behalf of the
residents. So, please everybody take
note of what just happened. Thank you.
This has been a public service
announcement.
>> We have a motion and a second. All those
in favor, please indicate your vote.
and point and just point of order. So,
we're we're scheduling for a we didn't
give you a date for the work study. Is
that okay? You'll just do it your at the
next a Okay. Thank you. Thank you,
Mayor.
>> Well, good news, Councilman Clausman.
The next item is item number 20 and
another example how we might work
together to involve citizens in our
lovely city's administration.
So this is a request by me uh which
follows the uh Westworld work study
session that we had last Monday. And
again I thank my colleagues for coming
back to work pre prematurely
uh and making it an effort to hear all
of the stakeholders and there it was
primarily stakeholders very passionate
involved uh groups that do a lot of
business in our city. uh specifically at
Westworld and they've all been for the
most part here a very long time and a
number of people talked about uh having
a task force
including me. I think it's a wonderful
idea and it's not another study. Um
Craig Jackson spoke uh here at length
about you know where he thought we
should be going with this. some
concerns, some suggestions. Uh I had a
conversation with him earlier today and
he his his concern was, you know, death
by another study and that's absolutely
not uh the goal or the focus of this
proposed task force. And to uh clear
that up, uh this would be a task force
comprised of seven members. each one of
the council members having a choice uh
uh an appointment for the task force and
it would be uh limited to stakeholders,
people that are involved at Westworld,
whether vendors, uh event producers,
uh couple from the as the proposed
ordinance says, two from the equestrian
industry,
uh seven members in total, four members
from Westworld vendors or event
producers,
uh and one member of the tourism and
development commission. Although I
understand that that isn't possible
because that would be someone serving on
two different boards or commissions. So
I think that might need some revision
there. We we can hold that to see if
this this passes. But nonetheless, um
whatever the direction would be, I I
think that having stakeholders involved
would be the best idea. There's a lot of
institutional knowledge out there that
predates all of us. Maybe not Kathy
Littlefield. Sorry,
because her husband was around when we
when we did this, right? So was I. But
uh but it certainly predates a lot of
the staff. I certainly did not mean to
imply you were I just you are you have a
tremendous depth of institutional
knowledge and uh and it would of course
require it to be Scottsdale residents.
There was another um comment I heard
today that you know city staff doesn't
really they want to be able to do it
themselves. I think this task force
would would provide just such a great
advisory group that just wants to be
helpful. As you heard them all here last
week, they weren't a bunch of, you know,
just were here to complain. They were
here to be very very proactive. Uh and
in keeping I did mention someone from
the TDC uh commission last week. Um when
I when I think that's not going to be
possible, uh our friend Craig Jackson,
big supporter out there. he did offer to
serve as the chair and uh I would really
encourage uh my fellow council members
to support this idea. There's going to
be a bunch of disappointed uh
stakeholders if we reject um having
their input moving forward. All I can
say is I think it can't hurt and uh if
it's useful, great. Let's use it. If
it's not, I don't see them being any
sort of detractors or nuisance or cog in
any wheel. So, with that, I see the city
attorney is asking to chime in.
Honorable mayor and members of the city
council, I just want to clarify on what
we put on the agenda actually allows the
task force members to be non-residents
and um waves the requirement that you
can't be on um a commission. And here's
the legal justification. The charter
says members of boards and commissions
have to be residents of the city. This
is not a border commission. It's a task
force. So the council can choose to wave
those both those requirements if it
chooses to do so.
>> Okay, that's helpful. That makes sense
now. All right. Well, with that, uh, I
would like to make a motion to, uh,
impanel or situate this task force as
I've just outlined. And I would
appreciate a second and then hopefully
we can have some discussion.
>> Second.
>> Who is the second?
>> Councilwoman Littlefield. Thank you.
Thank you, mayor. Um,
I would be a no on this. Uh, the reason
is that at this time, I do not believe a
task force is needed. Westworld is not a
political problem. It is a managerial
problem and as such, the city manager is
the one with the power and the authority
to address it. The city manager has been
made aware of and is sensitive to the
issues and he is the one who has the
authority and the responsibility to deal
with the staff and fix the problems. I
have the utmost confidence that he will
do so and I believe that we should give
him this opportunity and the time he
needs to do it. A task force I believe
would merely slow down the process. I
think we have given Mr. ate in adequate
direction over the last few weeks on
what we believe needs to be done to keep
Westworld the number one top-notch horse
facility in the country.
I think we all agree on that. Also, I
would like this council to receive
regular reports on the actions taken and
the progress that is being made as he
goes forward.
The mayor is correct in that Westworld
is a very important asset to this city
and it should receive a high priority on
all all of our agendas. Action on this
issue should not be delayed and I would
like the regular reports to come to all
of us going forward on the progress that
is made over the next month or two. If
no progress is made, then I would
consider the mayor's idea of a task
force. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anyone else have any
comments? No. All right.
>> Councilman Graham.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Say, keep my words
brief or or my remarks brief. Uh, I tend
to agree with Councilwoman Littlefield
and um I think um I was kind of talking
about this with some people today, but
um I think maybe putting Mr. Jackson,
who I have a lot of respect for, who's a
tenant of a government empowered task
force over the landlord might be a bit
of a conflict of interest. And so, um
totally agree with Councilwoman
Littlefield. is um an important venue
for our city. We know that it runs at a
loss. We know that improvements need to
be made. Um
but I think a task force maybe might add
um and new elements to turning it around
and getting it operating where it needs
to be. And so I'm I'm agreeing with
council member Littlefield that um
empowering the city manager to look at
it closely
and um see if we can measure some of
those key performance indicators, figure
out where we are financially,
where define defining success and if
it's if we don't achieve that then we
should definitely consider other options
as council. So, thank you, Mayor.
>> Councilwoman Whitehead.
>> So, yeah, this is an interesting
discussion. I think that uh the reason a
task force makes sense and I and we're
not appointing anybody to the task force
tonight and so I do agree with the
concerns about landlord tenant but um it
because of the success at Westworld we
have multiple events going on the same
day uh same weekend and we have a much
broader group of people using uh the
venue the multiple venues use on site
and also there's differences in the uh
how each uh what each event pays. So
there's some inconsistencies
and of course there's inconsistencies
inconsistencies on revenue. So there's a
lot of moving parts and so the idea of
this task force is to have different
stakeholders themselves at the table um
in having a discussion on how to better
balance this and for instance is there
the what I brought up the last time is
there a way if we get all of the horse
events because even if we don't have a
representative of each horse event that
takes place at Westworld if they're all
involved can we streamline that process
so our poor staff isn't putting hay in,
putting hay out, putting manure in,
putting manure out, whatever. So, I
that's that was the vision I had and I
think that I I don't know Mr. Kaitton's
position on this, but I think it would
be helpful to have those kind of
recommendations from some sort of
stakeholder task force. And so, that's
why I'm supporting it. I also want to
mention and and Judy will have to
mention uh bring this up when we have
our next meeting at this. I think other
than other than the mortgage, I think
we're doing pretty darn good. So, when
we get that paid off, I think we're in
the black. So, uh but let's let's see
how far into the black we can get. So,
um that's why I'm supporting a task
force.
So, in closing, it sounds like we don't
have full support here enough to get
this passed, but I think it's absurd to
say you wouldn't include your
stakeholders, your biggest uh producers
of events in in advisory capacity to see
how we might make uh the intricate uh
facilities and uh um management even uh
better and stronger, especially when it
comes to big items.
which we know we need to do, which is
infrastructure. They live and breathe
it. So to exclude them seems a little
absurd. Uh and I don't see the conflict
there at all because they're not going
to be making decisions. They would serve
only in an advisory uh capacity. And
essentially what we're saying is we're
not going to we don't want the
stakeholders to give input how we can do
this better. when Greg Kaitton and I sat
in a meeting along with Judy Doyle and
uh Will, I forget his last name, the the
newer GM at Westworld, I mean, they had
such a depth of knowledge uh in
comparison to me and everybody else at
the table because they've lived and
breathed it. So to to say we don't want
that is, I believe, another step in the
direction of not listening to our
residents. My entire campaign was based
on more resident input. It is such a
struggle to get that going here uh at
times and I uh I think that's the wrong
direction. So I uh with that uh I know
there's a motion in a second. Sorry,
Councilman Clausman.
Yeah, I I just Madame Mayor with with
all due respect, I take issue with the
idea that not having a formal
governmental quasi governmental another
one structure structure in order to make
recommendations so that the actual
governing elected body gets to hide
behind the decisions of unelected of
unelected individuals is an affront to
representative democracy.
And I think that we have got to get away
from the idea is unless we have a
commission or a task force or some sort
of of quasi elected group or appointed
group, we're not listening to people.
And that's just not true. Of course,
everybody in this room would listen to
the council of Greg Jackson. the man
brings millions upon millions of dollars
and goodness into the culture and and
everything into Scottsdale. Of course,
we're going to listen to the equestrian
uh uh groups and those who bring uh the
beautiful and incredible
uh ecquin species into this city. We're
going to listen to everybody, but
another task force. We might as well set
up a citizens commission to apply to
bring up the task force so that they
appoint the task force to make sure that
it's fair. At some point the layers upon
government become a reductio absurdum
and at the end of the day this is a
manager managed council and a manager
managed city. AP apologies. A manager
managed city and I trust Greg Kaitton
and I trust his ability to appoint,
fire, change, restructure how he sees
fit and if he fails this city
then he himself is going to have the
consequences. This is a manager-managed
city and the residents are always going
to have a voice among the elected uh for
the in the ear of the elected officials
and the staff and the charter officers.
But another task force while it has good
intentions
I is not the right path forward in this
scenario.
>> That was an extremely dramatic response
and I appreciate your passion. However,
I think what you said was we don't need
the stakeholders to give us input how to
make Westworld
let's make it informal. I don't even
understand what the difference would be.
It's a temporary task force that would
interface. Yes, a task force by its very
nature has a project scope and time
duration which this one certainly could
and it's informal. It's certainly an
advisory capacity like I've mentioned.
There are no formal decisions. Formal
decision maker is not part of the
proposal. It's advisory in nature. And
we all saw the depth of knowledge from
our stakeholders that will be offered to
our staff to help them, not to hinder
them. So, while I appreciate your uh
dramatic and passionate response, uh
I'll bet you're going to vote no and
exclude the stakeholders from the
conversation based on those comments.
Councilwoman, did you have something?
Littlefield.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just would like
to add, I don't remember if I said this
or not, but if if we leave this in the
hands of our city manager, he has the
power to ask anyone and anyone on staff
to be a part of it, to answer questions,
to come to him and to negotiate any kind
of deal that needs to be done to get uh,
Westworld moving. How much lumber do we
have? Is the lumber on site? When is it
going to get there? Who's going to put
it together to build the stables? What
about the the uh audio system? When is
that going to be replaced? It needs it
desperately for all of the activities at
Westworld. Uh get a calendar of events
and a and a report established. I would
like to have regular reports sent to the
council members on things that are being
done and what's going on and what the uh
timetable is for all of this activity to
occur. And obviously it all has to work
around the events that are going on at
Westworld which will make it a little
challenging but not too much. Um I um I
would say that if progress is not seen
at Westworld in fixing these things up
then I would be quite willing to go back
and take a look at a task force issue.
But I think that the the city manager
has his his finger on the pulse of this
problem. He's been studying it and I'd
like to have him uh manage and take it
over and make it happen. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilwoman Littlefield.
Councilman Graham.
>> Mayor, I'll keep these brief uh remarks
brief. Um I don't want to belabor this,
but I want to
agree with everything Councilwoman
Littlefield said. um a task force at
this time uh doesn't seem right at this
time, but because I see that as kind of
um a little bit going around the chain
of command um letting the manager do his
job. Um but we we know it's operating at
a loss and council member Whitehead made
a comment that once we pay off the
mortgage, it's in the black. That's not
true. It's not true.
um
it's a bigger loss than that and I
wasn't even counting principal
repayments. I mean interest you know
interest costs are there but when you
add depreciation you add indirect cost
there's a loss anywhere from I mean even
Jay reported 8 n 10 11 million so um
the we do want to monitor it that's
important to this council
and
we need to define success because maybe
a loss like I've been saying maybe a
loss is okay but how how much of a loss
losses too much.
Kind of be nice to define that. So, uh,
that's my way of saying that. I like the
way that Councilwoman Little Littlefield
worded that and with with her sentiment,
I'm in total agreement. Thank you,
Mayor.
>> Thank you. We have a motion and a
second. All those in favor, register
your vote.
Motion fails.
Thank you. With that, uh, we've
concluded our business for this evening.
Thank you all for being here in the
storm and drive safe home. A motion to
adjurnn.
>> So moved.
>> Thank you.
>> No, it's off.