We can I would like to call to order the regular city council meeting of June 16, 2025.

Would you all please join me in the pledge and a moment of silence?

And to the Republic for which we stand.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you.

Marcella, can we have roll call, please?

Councilmember Conde, here.

Councilmember Garcia.

Here, Councilmember Solario.

Here.

Councilmember Weiss.

Here.

Councilmember White.

President.

Vice Mayor Nielsen.

Here.

And Mayor Panaba.

Here.

Thank you, Marcelo.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up first, we have the proclamation for Small Cities Month, and I'd like to uh uh pass it over to actual Councilmember Solario to read uh the proclamation.

Sounds great.

All right.

This is the proclamation for Small Um Cities Month, which is in June, hence why I'm wearing my small city shirt right up here.

Whereas small cities and towns are the home to millions of Americans and constitute the vast majority of municipalities across the United States, and whereas small cities and towns strive to strengthen their communities through the provision of services and programs to improve the quality of life, all citizens, and whereas the federal government is an essential partner in the success of small cities and towns is an incur and is encouraged to continue to support programs and legislation that strengthen small communities.

And whereas the state governments are partners in the success of small cities and towns and are encouraged to continue to support key programs and legislation that strengthen communities, and whereas organizations, businesses, and citizens are partners in the success of small cities and towns, and are encouraged to continue to grow their efforts to make small cities a viable choice for people to live in.

And whereas the need for intergovernmental partnership to support essential public services is important to ensure the safety and growth of small town America.

And whereas the National League of Cities President and then and the Small Cities Council of the National League of Cities has declared June 2025 a small cities month.

Now, therefore, be it resolved on behalf of the Avondale City Council and the City of Avondale hereby proclaims June 2025 a small cities month and encourage all residents to recognize this event to work together this month and throughout the year to invest in small cities and towns.

Thank you so much, Councilmersilorio.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

As a reminder, though, we'd also we'd like a picture with this proclamation, and so uh after we're done with all the presentations, it is one of the ones that we'd like to get a picture of.

I believe she'd like to share it nationally.

Yes, because not only are we a small city, even though we're stand at 90 close to 95,000 residents, but um Avondale plays a key role.

There is a National Small Cities Council that I am a part of, and I'm a vice chair of, and it's along with myself, somebody from Chadbourne, North Carolina, somebody from Grandview, Texas, and the other person is from College Park, Georgia.

So Avondale is represented on the map for small cities.

All right, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up next, we have a proclamation for Westmark Day.

I believe Jen, our director of economic development, will uh kick this off.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um, I'm pleased to be here tonight alongside our strategic partner, Westmark, which serves as a unified voice for 15 communities across the West Valley.

Um, as many of you know, the 623 Area Code was established in 1999, symbolizing the West Valley's identity as a distinct and growing region.

For the past 26 years, this area code has become more than just numbers.

It has become an identity a unifying identifier for our communities, and in that same spirit, um, Westmark has been a driving force in a regional collaboration for economic development.

To recognize as an important recognize the importance of this shared identity and partnership, we are proud to celebrate June 23rd, 623, as 623 Day, um, as Westmark Day.

Joining us this evening is Kimberly Jordan, representing Westmark.

She is available to answer any questions you may have following the reading.

So at this time, I'm gonna go ahead and turn over to you, Mayor, uh, to read the official proclamation.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, Jen.

Whereas Westmark, the Western Maricopa Coalition has been a vital reason regional organization for 35 years, uniting the public and private sectors to advocate for the economic vitality and quality of life in the West Valley.

And whereas Westmark serves as serves as the united voice of 50 communities, including Avondale, representing municipalities, businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofit community leaders committed to shaping a prosperous future for the West Valley of Metro Phoenix.

And whereas in 2025, Westmark unveiled a refreshed brand and strategic vision to reflect the West Valley as an elevated, thriving, united, and opportunity rich region.

And whereas the date June 23rd, 623, symbolically reflects the 623 area code that spans much of the West Valley and serves as a proud geographic identifier for the region's residents and businesses.

And whereas Westmark continues to be a catalyst for collaboration, innovation, and advocacy on key regional priorities such as economic development, education, workforce advancement, infrastructure, housing, and a high quality of life.

Now, therefore, be it resolved on behalf of the Avondale City Council, the City of Avondale hereby proclaims June 23rd, 2025 as Westmark Day in the City of Avondale and encourage all residents, businesses, and community stakeholders to recognize and celebrate Westmark's enduring leadership, regional impact, and commitment to the prosperity of the West Valley.

Thank you so much.

And KJ, if I might.

I'm sure there's others that have spread out to do this similar things across these 15 communities.

And just quickly, if you can just share with those and in attendance and those online, um, while I am happy to sit on the Westmark board and several other committees, uh, just briefly give uh introduction of Westmark.

Sure, thank you, Mayor and Council.

It's great to be here with you this evening, and we really appreciate your support and mayor as uh one of our board members with Westmark.

We serve the West Valley as as the whole, so the region of our our 15 communities here in the West Valley, and really work to position the West Valley for business attraction and economic development.

And so, along with that, uh, we're very heavily involved in workforce development as well, since that really underpins um economic development.

Uh, we are also always focused on legislative issues that are potentially impacting the West Valley and just keeping in the know of those of those issues as well.

Um some of those things include infrastructure, you know, education, quality of life.

So there are many ways and then lots of different uh facets that we're paying attention to and and considering in our storytelling of the West Valley and why it is such an amazing place to land or expand your business and also uh come and join us as a resident for the amazing quality of life and opportunities that we have here.

Well, thank you so much for being here tonight, and we appreciate everything Westmark does and and uh the leverage that it allows for us in the West Valley to utilize uh making a stake and making a claim on where development is headed.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All right, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up next, is we would like to recognize the committee members of the Avondale Citizens Bond Committee and our own city clerk, uh, Marcella will make the uh presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council.

Tonight, we will be recognizing our outgoing committee members of the Citizen Bond Committee who have ended their terms as of May 31st of this year.

Just a little bit of background about the Citizens Bond Committee in September of 2024, the Avondale City Council created a citizen bond committee made up of Avondale residents, tasked with evaluating future capital improvement needs, and one of their goals was to make a recommendation to City Council for a potential general obligation bond election in November of 2025.

From December through March, the committee met and they made a recommendation to City Council in April.

And in April, the City Council voted yes on their recommendation to bring forth a general obligation bond election for two bond questions to the ballot on November 4th, 2025.

We typically recognize our outgoing board and commission members at the end of the year in December.

However, since the terms of these members ended in May, we are doing this a little bit early.

Um therefore we are here tonight to thank our board members on the Citizen Bond Committee for their dedicated service to our community and for taking the time out of their busy schedules to help guide City Council on the upcoming bond election.

And as a reminder, they are all volunteers, so they do not get paid for their service.

So when I read your name, come forward.

Natasha Edmonds, who served as our chair.

Amanda Duncan Billman.

Ben Rudy.

And Nicole List.

So thank you to you all for volunteering to serve as committee members on our Citizen Bond committee.

And mayor and council at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

And as you you said it, I mean uh all you uh members here are residents who are taking time out of your schedule uh to become involved in your communities, and uh so many faces I recognize from participating in so many other committees, which just means uh you're very invested, which is which is great.

And so we appreciate your time, the effort that you put forth uh to um getting us to this point for us to go out to the voters and allowing them to speak uh their their voice at the ballot box.

So any other council members have any comments or words for the bond committee.

Councilmember White.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

I would like to thank each of you for your service to the city of Avondale.

I think in the season of change for our city administration, county, state, and federal.

I think this is a time where you have to be sober-minded coming to finance and thinking about the future of our of our municipal government and how we're gonna operate, and to know that we need to go out and ask for additional funds to make sure we have sufficient public safety and to make sure we can provide an expanded parks and rec services for our community.

I think it's a very noble gesture that you have volunteered to do this.

I know that many of you want to go on to serve, and hopefully one day we'll sit on the dais with many of you who are serving um now in different capacities throughout the city, or maybe you'll take my seat.

I'd love that too.

Because we know you're committed, and that's why I say that we know you're committed and we know you'll do the work.

So I think when the work is what matters, it's the people who make the difference.

And each one of you did that together as a team.

So thank you so much for your service to the city and to our residents.

Thank you, Councilman Roy.

Councilmember Weiss.

I want to just thank you guys.

Um, I know so many of you from all the different committees that you serve on for being ambassadors and um just your service to the to the city.

Thank you for identifying things that we should um put before voters, like looking at the list and actually paring it down and giving us um really good wording for the document.

So thank you again for your time.

Thank you, Councilmember Weiss.

Okay, thank you again for your service and your time.

We have really appreciate you.

Thank you.

Oh, okay.

Gender or unscheduled public appearances.

We do have three cards.

So if you don't mind as I call your name, if you come to the podium.

First, we have Jamie O'Dama.

Here in the West Valley.

I'm the executive director for the Sounds of Autism, and we are a nonprofit.

However, today we're here to talk to you about an epidemic that's sweeping the West Valley.

Teachers are having a difficult time.

Mayor, if anyone in this room that has a teenager, uh family member, a niece, and nephew, child, it affects you.

Mayor, we have a lot of issues with underage vaping.

And what we're asking is a few steps that you can take, mayor.

You and your council can work together on a couple things.

Um, and that's if you don't already have an ordinance or a policy that uh mandates purchasing vape and vape products from 18 to the age of 21.

Please look into that.

Work together to get that policy and that ordinance uh created.

Secondly, uh of 250 uh teenagers that were um that were surveyed here in the West Valley, 50 percent of those reported that they purchased their vape and their vape products from local retailers.

That means they're buying this stuff from gas stations, from uh convenience stores, and from uh um vape shops.

Mayor, we need and we're asking, we know the fine work that your police chief and your police officers do uh in the community.

We're asking to up and increase their enforcement of that illegal uh sales uh to our kids.

Uh the health risk to our kids is significant, Mayor, and uh we are concerned that uh vaping is a gateway to harder drugs like fentanyl.

Uh once they're on that, it's it's really hard to catch up and get them back on track.

These are great teenagers, these are great citizens of Avondale and the Westfell.

We want them to be great tax paying citizens and participate in everything in their community, but we want them to graduate from school, and we want them to stop that vaping.

If you're an adult and you know what you're vaping, you know what you're doing, then that's that's something else.

It's even bad for their health.

But as a teenager, they don't know what they're doing, they don't know what they're taking into their lungs.

It's a severe, can cause severe damage to their lungs, and uh it causes a lot of issues within their social life and in their schools and their extracurricular activity.

Mayor, we're asking if you can increase and work with your police chief uh to look at some of these retailers in the West Valley that are selling illegally to our teenagers and our minors.

It is extremely, extremely uh addictive.

Once they're on it, they're on it for a very long time.

It's very difficult to get them off.

50 milligrams of nicotine in the stick of uh vape.

Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council, thank you so much.

Appreciate you.

Jamie, thank you for your time.

We appreciate it.

And then Ron, if you wouldn't mind if we can get this information together.

Yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Okay, and um Teresa DeSante.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, and Rod Ron Corbin.

I was curious about a request made in late April by the fire department for an additional eight hundred thousand dollars about ballpark figure to cover salaries to the remainder of the physical year vacation, sell back, and one person retiring, vehicle maintenance.

Excuse me.

I also noticed that the fire chiefs will be receiving a 10% raise, which makes them one, if not the highest paid admin chiefs in the valley.

So if they're being rewarded for failing to forecast the obvious daily work that has been there the whole time.

I know you can't answer, so I'll move forward.

I understand the fire department might be transitioning to a new ambulance transportation company for the last two and a half decades has a transport company contracts, has have ended and restarted.

The company has always department has always had the option to find other ways.

Rather it be start their own, continue with the same company, AMR, or enter into a new one like Maricopa.

Suddenly, there is a great effort to assume a new contract with a new company.

Could it be that the chief of the department is related to a staff member at the Maricopa ambulance?

Regardless of conflict of interest paperwork.

This looks, walks, and talks like a corrupt duck.

The optics are very obvious.

The good old boy way is still alive and well in the Avondale fire department.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ms.

Santi.

And the final blue card we have this evening for Linda Yeager.

Hope I pronounced that correctly.

Mayor.

Yeah, and the microphone.

All right.

There you go.

Mayor.

Vice Mayor and Council members.

My name is Linda Yeager.

I reside in Lynchville Park, but I was raised, well, practically born here.

What came from California?

But my home in my heart is Avondale, has always been Avondale.

Went to school here all the way through high school.

I'd like to add to what Ms.

DeSante said regarding the little boy system.

Just for information.

Chief Adams was fired for violating the department and city policies for the promotional processes and lying.

Chief Adams sued the city to get his retirement.

Just another note regarding Chief Adams.

He was the interim fire chief for the city of Florence, Arizona in December 2020.

Then promoted to fire chief May 2021.

After an obscenity laden insult was heard over a hot mic at a town council meeting.

Chief Adams submitted his resignation as Florence's fire chief.

Imagine within months of becoming the fire chief.

Another note, Deputy Chief Ben Abidia was forced to retire for some unsavory financial practices.

I know the City of Avondale conducts background checks as part of its hiring process.

My point being talk to the rank and file employees if possible, or the applicant was or is employee.

Just saying, you would be surprised what crucial information you may learn about the applicant.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Mr.

Mayor, until uh you or Nicole cut me off.

Um our fire department did not deserve these harsh words tonight, including our chief.

Um I have been involved or aware of all the processes discussed here tonight since I've been city manager.

And our fire department is above par, not only on ethics, but our ability to serve our community.

So I'll look into the uh things brought up here tonight.

Uh if I haven't, uh but most of them I haven't, and again, I'm not allowed to respond.

But I don't appreciate uh uh our chief's integrity being attacked, uh, our staff.

It's just not true.

Thank you, Ron.

Appreciate that.

Okay, item four, consent agenda.

Are there any council members who wish to have an item uh removed?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

One moment.

Item H.

Yes.

Okay, uh will somebody make the mo actually are there any other items to be pulled?

We believe it was F as well, correct?

Yes, Mr.

Mayor, we we received a request to pull uh F and H.

Okay.

Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda minus items F and H.

Got a motion from Councilmember White, a second from Vice Mayor Nielsen.

Please vote.

Thank you so much.

Okay, Ron.

Um there's highlighted script.

Yes.

Yes.

We don't approve those consent adjustments.

We just did.

I apologize, Mr.

Mayor and Council up next.

First, we're going to hear uh about our water conservation rebate adjustments.

I believe Cole from our utility department will be making that uh presentation from our public works department.

Thank you.

Uh good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

Uh, hope all of you are staying cool in this hot weather, telling when I was walking in here today with a hairdryer in my face.

I don't know about you all.

But um, my name is Cole Peel, and the water resources manager for the City of Avondale, and today I'm going to be talking about briefly some water conservation rebate adjustments that were recommended to Council.

Okay, so before I go into the details of what the resolution entails, I did want to kind of give a general summary of what the current water conservation rebate program is for the city of Avondale.

So how it's managed is it's managed by our conservation coordinator, Amber Hughes, who's in the audience today, and she essentially advertises and processes the rebates for residents and business owners in the city.

These rebates are part of an annual amount that we get in our budget every year through the conservation budget itself.

And our water conservation program is required by state law through the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

So, how do we qualify and receive water conservation rebates as residents and business owners?

So you do have to be a resident or a business owner in the city of Avondale to receive these rebates.

And there's a couple different requirements that you have to follow.

One of the things in particular is making sure that you purchase and install these potential items properly.

So and I'll go into a couple examples in the next few slides here, but you do have to send in specific photos and receipts of when you purchase these items to Amber, who then validates those and processes those to make sure you get those appropriate rebates.

And then there's also some proper paperwork that has to be submitted to the public works department as well.

So a W9 form, your mailing address, contact info, utility billing, all that.

And then these are actually some current rebates that we offer to residents and business owners in the city itself.

So you'll look here, there's a couple different ones that we have, whether it's clothes washing machines or turf conversion, low flow toilets.

I do want to note that there are a lot of commonalities in what we offer as well as other AMWA cities throughout the valley in central Arizona, and all this information can be found on our website at the picture there on the actual Avondale conservation web page.

Okay, so the big question is what changes are happening.

So what we're recommending is essentially two separate types of rebates.

The first one is actually for our residents itself.

It would be a smart irrigation controller rebate for up to $100 per smart controller.

So you'll notice in the top right corner there's that green and white device that's called a rainbird.

That's one of the many different products that is known as a smart irrigation controller that can be utilized by the residents.

Essentially, what they would do is they would hook this device up through Wi-Fi to their phone, and they can connect and do a lot of different amazing things technologically in terms of making sure that they essentially water their logs properly.

And this is going to be a max of one rebate per household, and we are going to replace this with the man, we're going to replace the mail irrigation controller with this.

And I'll get into reasons for that in a second.

And then we're also going to offer a residential rain barrel rebate, up to $100 each for two per household.

And you'll notice in that picture there as well, in the bottom right-hand corner of one of those particular rain barrels.

So they're pretty simple, they're not connected to any of the plumbing in the home.

Essentially, what a rain barrel does is just connecting to the gutter that's coming off the home that's collecting stormwater.

It's going into that rain barrel, and then you'll notice that hose at the bottom.

They can then use that water for gardening or watering in part of their particular lawn.

And then we're also offering to our non-residential users, otherwise known as our commercial users, the same rain barrel rebate, up to $100 each, or a larger water cistern up to $150.

So the question is why are these changes happening?

And I'll focus on the smart irrigation controllers first.

And one thing in particular that I do want to emphasize is when it comes to these smart controllers, they're much more accurate, they're much more efficient, they're able to really help the residential users save water in the long term when it comes to actually irrigating their lawn.

And we've started to see a large popularity in these irrigation timers.

I mentioned other AMLA cities that have similar rebates.

A lot of these cities do in particular have this smart irrigation controller rebate already.

So we want to be competitive with those cities and also give that same option.

And we actually already offer this rebate for non-residential customers at this time as well.

And then pivoting to rain barrels and water cisterns, one of the big things with what we're starting to see is obviously being water-wise in the desert.

And when it comes to rain barrels and water cisterns, we want to allow our residents and our commercial users to essentially be able to conserve this rain water for use rather than just letting it go into their lawn or also runoff and flooding that we see often as problems.

So rain barrels do a lot of different things in terms of solutions.

They let these residents and commercial users use the water, but it can also help with a lot of our stormwater management.

And as you all probably know, monsoon season is coming in the next few weeks, so we really want to be prepared for that also.

And we've done some research on this as well when it comes to rain barrels.

The city of Tucson has a very robust rain barrel program in terms of the rebates.

So we did get some inspiration from them and also some of the other cities in the valley.

And Amber, with her experience on teaching a lot of different programs to the residents, has already been coordinating on teaching rainwater harvesting workshops to our residents.

So some of the residents are already aware of these rainwater barrels, for instance, and we're just offering this opportunity for them to use these rebates.

The biggest thing though at the bottom of the slide that I want to point out, though, is the importance of water savings outside the home.

So being in the desert, the majority of the water that a residential home uses is actually outside the home.

It's about 60 to 70% of their entire water usage.

So when Amber and I were brainstorming about these different items, you'll notice there's a commonality that both of these rebates are focusing on water use outside the home.

And also, it does help our city reach one of its sustainability targets for reducing overall water consumption per capita.

Okay.

This is kind of aside from the point, but I did want to touch on another rebate program that we have.

So the Aqua Smart program, it's technically separate from the water rebate program that we have that I just mentioned.

It's funded through WIFA grants, but essentially, this is a program that we've been working on tirelessly over the last year or so.

And just as a refresher, real quick, so residents can elect to have their water bills monitored for an entire year.

And if they save 10 or 20% on their annual water bill, we will give them a rebate back on those water savings.

And so far, uh we're really excited to announce that as of June of this month, we've had 13 residents who have been able to receive those rebates so far.

And they've either uh saved 10% or 20% on their annual water bills.

And this is uh happening very fast.

We have a lot of new residents that are going to be in this program over the next year as well.

So we're anticipating about another 113 residents that could receive these rebates.

And that's all I have.

Uh, my contact information along with Amber's is here and our Avondale Water Conservation website.

So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to take them.

But thank you so much.

Cole, thank you for the presentation.

Again, I think you know, this is just one of those areas of knowledge and education that some residents may not be aware of, and so I'm really glad that the information has been shared both online here as well in person, and I think it's up to us here on council to continue to spread the word on that knowledge.

So thank you for providing that.

Thank you, Mayor.

And we have a motion from Councilmember Connie, a second from Council Member Weiss.

Seeing no other comments, please vote.

Okay, item passes.

Thank you again.

Cool.

Thank you, Council.

Appreciate it.

Okay, Adam Mif.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Up next we have uh item H, uh, adoption of the City of Avondale Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan.

And I believe Kirk, our director of public works, will be making that presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

Uh, before you this evening is a resolution to adopt the City of Avondale public transportation agency safety plan.

But what is a public transportation safety plan or a P TASP?

So uh there's a rule established by the U.S.

Federal Transportation Agency administration that requires public transit agencies to have a uh and implement a safety plan.

So the goal of the peak task is to enhance safety across public transportation systems by shifting from a reactive stance to a proactive stance when it comes to safety and employee involvement.

The uh the P TASP is really a kind of a federal blueprint that we've adopted with the We Right program.

We ride in Transdev, our contractor already has a very strong safety program and a commitment to safety.

Um it was an easy adaptation for them to move into this PTAS format, but they do a good job so far.

So why do we need a P TASP?

All recircements of federal funding for polytransit services are required to have a PTASP.

We receive federal grants, uh 5307 grants and 5310 grants, and uh that federal funding helps us offset our cost for the Wii Ride program since the inception of November of 2022.

We write as received 1.5 million dollars in grants, and uh so having this program in place ensures that that funding will continue to flow in.

Uh, but it also uh protects the city, make sure that we're uh following the safety standards, and that we're also that we've developed a systematic approach to identify safety problems and correct them before they become bigger problems for the city.

So there's four main components to the P Test.

First off is the establishment of safety policy and declaring a commitment from all levels of the organization for safety in the program.

There is a component for risk management that helps us identify and address potential hazards, safety monitoring.

So once we identify how we track and measure our safety performance, and then finally safety training, which is preparing our staff and communicating our expectations for safety in the in the transit program.

There's some key requirements, one of them being the training.

So we have driver training and conflict resolution that we provide to the we ride drivers, basic health and safety protocols, so even things like dealing with heat and heat stress while they're out on the job or while they're dealing with customers that may be heat stressed as well.

And we provide regular refresher training to these drivers when they're when they're on duty.

Also, the PTASP establishes a safety committee, which has equal representation from management as well as the frontline employees, provides for quarterly meetings to review review safety performance, and it actually gains direct input from the operators that are in the field who really know what's going on and can help direct the safety for the for the uh GUI program.

There's two key element two key personnel in the safety plan.

One of them is the what's called the accountable executive, and that is Harold Seguenza, our assistant public works director, and the other person is the chief safety officer, which is Matt Dudley, who is our transit manager here at the city.

So, Mayor and Council.

Should you adopt the resolution this evening, the plan goes into effect immediately.

There will be annual reviews of the plan, and if things changes, we'll bring those back to council for your approval.

And we'll also be providing quarterly safety performance reports so that you know how things are going.

The bottom line is here is that this PTAS helps to keep the federal money coming in as long as it's available to come in.

It protects the city from liability and ensures systematic safety management, and it maintains a level of quality and accountability of a program that, as you all know, is already very uh highly thought of here within the city.

So we want to keep that up.

There'll be a recommended motion for you to look at in a minute, but before that, I'd like to open up for any questions.

Uh, Matt Dudley's here, he can help as well, and thank you for your time.

Thank you, Kirk.

Appreciate that.

Any questions?

Council Roy.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, uh, Kurt, for your presentation.

Um, I I very much appreciate the fact that we have direct federal funding coming here, and I think that it's important that safety is first.

So I appreciate the work our safety manager is doing as our transit manager.

I think that it's important we also share that Avondale is still eligible to get direct funding from the federal government.

So this isn't tied to MAG funding, this isn't tied directly to Valley Metro.

This is Avondale on its own, which really expands our portfolio of transit options available to our residents.

So I just wanted to um acknowledge and confirm that, and thank you for the work that you're doing to keep our residents safe and moving about Avondale freely.

Thank you, Councilman.

Any other questions, comments?

Thank you so much.

Thanks again for the presentation.

We got a motion from Councilmember White, second from Councilmember Weiss.

Please vote.

Okay.

Item passes 6.1.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, thank you so much, Marcelo.

All right.

So let's move on to the regular agenda.

Ron.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up next, we have a presentation by Marcel, our city clerk for an application for Series 10 beer and wine uh store.

Liquor license boulevard marked.

Uh good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

I am here to present a liquor license application.

We have received for a Series 10 beer and wine store for the Boulevard MART.

The proposed Boulevard Mart is located at 645 North Avendale Boulevard in Suite 100, which is located right down the street in the Boulevard District.

The applicant sought and received city permission to develop a specialty retail or retail business on the site.

However, the Avondale zoning ordinance does not permit a beer and wine store use.

The following uses are not permitted in the Boulevard Zoning District and the Park Avenue subdistrict and are not listed in the Boulevard land use matrix.

And those are a convenience store, a smoke shop, and a beer and wine store.

Also, the applicant has not paid the 250 dollar liquor license application fee to the clerk's office.

And then all required postings were completed and no public comments have been received so far.

Since this is a beer wine store liquor license that does not meet the zoning allowance, staff are recommending that city council deny the application recommendation to the state.

And since we are recommending denial, we have placed it on the agenda as a public hearing to give the applicant an opportunity to speak if they desire to do so.

So the proposed motion on the screen is a motion for denial.

So if you were to vote yes on this agenda item, that is denying the application to the state.

And if you were to vote no, then it would be the opposite.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Marcella.

Are there any questions from council?

And is the applicant here?

I do not know if the applicant is here, but um if you would like to open the public hearing, and then we can see if they are approached.

At this time open up the public hearing.

Is there any representation from your applicant?

Seeing none, I'm gonna close the public hearing at this time.

Are there any comments from council?

I will share that um, you know, we speaking for myself as a promoter for small business, small business owners.

Uh, we're not hostile to business owners, but there's just some areas in which uh the zoning ordinances don't meet the criteria, and this is one of them.

And so while uh a denial is being sought here, again, it is not uh to prevent a business from operating, it's just the type of business operating in an area in which it's not zoned appropriately.

So just wanted to make sure that I covered that.

All right, we have a motion from Councilmember White, a second from Vice Mayor Nielsen.

Please vote.

Okay, I'm gonna pass the 700.

Thank you so much, Marcella.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, item B.

Right.

Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up next, we have a presentation by Monica, our new senior planner with development services.

Um, to present uh Avondale 10 rezone application.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council members.

I'm Monica Smithy, a new senior planner with development services department.

I am presenting the agenda item 5b, a public hearing for a rezoning request for Avondale 10.

Planning application number is PL-24-0221.

The purpose of this public hearing is to review the proposed rezone or rezoning request for Avondale 10 and to consider taking appropriate action on the application.

The subject site outlined in red on the map is located about 1284 feet south of the southwest corner of Lower Bakae Road and Al Mirage Road within the Las Legus neighborhood.

The site is currently developed with two single family homes and a storage barn, and it is approximately 8.73 net acres in size.

The site is currently zoned R16 Urban Residential, which allows for single family detached homes.

It is surrounded by the same zoning district on the north, south, and west sides.

To the east across Al Miraj Road, the properties are part of the Cantada Ranch land area development, which is also a single family residential master planned community.

In terms of land use, the site is designated as medium density residential in the Avondale General Plan 2030, which allows for a residential density ranging from 2.5 acres dwelling unit to four dwelling units per acre.

The surrounding properties from all sites hold the same land use designation.

The site is part of this specific area plan for Old Town, Cashin, and Las Legas and Rio Vista.

Here are a couple of site photos.

The first photo shows the view looking southeast from the Pioneer Street, and the second photo looks southwest from Al Mirage Road.

Now let's understand the rezone request.

The request is to rezone the site from R16 zoning district to a planned area development or a pad with the underlying zoning remaining R16, but with deviations.

The rezoning would allow for up to 37 single family homes with an approximate density of four dwelling units per acre.

As I mentioned previously, the general plan allows for density of 2.5 to 4 dwelling units per acre.

The applicant is requesting four deviations from the R16 development standards.

First, to reduce the minimum lot width from 65 feet down to 50 feet.

Second, to reduce the minimum side yard setbacks from 8 feet to 5 feet, and to reduce the total minimum side yard setbacks from 18 feet to 13 feet.

Additionally, the minimum lot depth is proposed to increase from 100 feet to 115 feet.

Now let's walk through the proposed site plan.

The first is on Al Miraj Road, which will provide full movement access.

And the second is on Pioneer Street, also a full movement access point.

And this street will end in a cul de sac.

At the north end of the project, a pedestrian pathway is planned to connect directly to the sidewalk along Al Mirage Road.

There is a proposal for approximately 16.7% open space, including landscape retention areas, pedestrian pathways, seating areas, and a mix of visually appealing theme walls, block walls, and detention walls throughout the community.

This is also there is also an amenity area planned in the southwest corner of the site.

Here is a closure look at the amenity area.

It will feature totlots, swings, a ramada, a pet waste station, and a few fitness nodes for our added recreation options.

In terms of architecture, the development will offer a minimum of three elevation types, including a mix of one and two-story homes.

The house plan will be reviewed administratively and will be required to comply with the single family residential design manual.

Staff is in support of the rezone because the request will result in development that is compatible with and complementary to the existing development pattern in the area.

The project will meet the R16 standards with the requested deviations.

Also, the rezoning proposal meets the required findings to rezone to plan area development, which are listed in the staff report.

And lastly, the project is consistent with the goals in general plan and the specific area plan for the region as specified in the staff report.

The site is within the Avondale Elementary School District and the Tolison Union High School District.

Both schools have indicated that there is adequate capacity to accommodate additional enrollments likely to result from this project.

The project had met all the required notices.

There were two attendees.

The Avondale Connect platform received one comment in support of the project.

A public hearing before the planning commission was held on May 21st, 2025.

During the hearing, commissioners asked whether adequate drainage provisions had been accounted for.

And with that, staff recommends approval of application PL-24-0221.

With six conditions of approval as listed in the staff report.

This concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Monica.

We really appreciate it.

At this time, I'm gonna open up the public hearing for comments.

Marcella, any blue cards or any phone calls?

Mayor, we have not received any requests to speak.

Thank you so much.

At this time, I'll close the public hearing and open it up to comments from council.

Okay.

Uh councilmember White.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Thank you so much for a wonderful presentation.

I really like seeing the housing type that's coming to the city.

I think that we are looking to have more family residential properties that are on larger lots of land.

I know that we've gotten a lot of feedback as individuals as a group about the types of housing that we have, and I think this just adds to our housing stock.

So I really appreciate the presentation and seeing this development in southern half of Avondale to continue the upscale growth of our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Wright.

Councilmember Royce.

Hi Monica, thank you for your presentation.

And I just I echo your comments.

I think it's great that we have some homes that will be for sale in that area.

And it's nice to see some single family homes coming in.

So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Vice.

Thank you so much.

As already been stated, um, at the end of the day, we're really looking for options and opportunities for our residents, and um this uh development fits that bill.

I'm happy to see that uh this area will be built up.

And as a matter of fact, that the options in terms of elevation will be not only single but two stories.

I know that uh some of the information provided by those that were in attendance at the uh meetings.

Uh, one of them was um that uh while they love the open space that right now some folks ride dirt bikes and other things in that area, and you know I'm that'll obviously come to a stop, but what a way to develop the area and uh as a as a member of council, all I can say is I appreciate the investment uh from uh from the client from the I'm sorry, um, from the builder and developer, and uh we really appreciate it.

Thanks again for the presentation.

Thank you.

This moment I got a motion on this item from Councilmember Solorio, a second from Councilmember White.

Can I get a vote?

Okay, item passes seven to zero.

Thanks for investing in Avondale.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor Council.

Up next, we have a presentation by Rob, our budget manager, uh, on the results for biannual uh audit of the development impact fees.

All right, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council.

My name is Barb Bear and here we get a free presentation ahead of the public hearing on the biannual development impact, the impact fee audit, kind of fiscal year 23 and fiscal year 24.

So the purpose um so um to charge development impact fees on new development within the city.

The city must adopt an infrastructure improvement plan and lay assumptions.

Um as part of the um state uh statute that regulates developments.

We also must either create a infrastructure improvements advisory committee or have biannual certified audit uh completed by an outside professional.

If we do the audit, which is what we have historically likely to do, we must post that audit to your website and hold the public hearing on the result of the audit.

Um we had one finding um for the audit, which is variances between what our land use assumptions projected for growth and what the actual growth came in at.

Obviously, it is hard to predict where growth will happen uh in the city.

Um no further action is regarded on the city's behalf uh for this finding um and uh let's fill the and the city updated its land use assumptions in uh 23, which informed the 24.

So um hopefully we're a little bit more accurate moving forward with uh those projections.

But there's no further action required.

And with that, um the uh we uh have a whole uh poll the public hearing on the biannual certified public impact fee audit uh for impact fees collected between July 1st, 22 and July June 30th to 24.

Okay, thank you so much, Rob.

Um at this time I'd like to open up the public hearing.

Marcella, we receive any comments.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have not received any requests to speak.

Okay, thank you so much.

At this time, I'll close the public hearing.

Turn it over to comments from council very comments related to this discussion item.

Seeing none, thank you so much for the presentation.

We appreciate it.

Ron next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council.

Up next, we have uh a presentation by Renee, your finance and budget director for setting the physical fiscal year 2026 primary and secondary property tax levy.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Um the purpose of tonight's item is to adopt by resolution our property tax levy for fiscal year 2026.

So the chart you're looking at is um what was presented during our last meeting.

Um, our fiscal 2026 levy is being proposed for the primary at 4,336,412.

Our secondary levy is proposed at $6,045,322 for a total of 10,381,734.

Now, if you look to the right at our rates, our primary rate is going down from 0.6241 down to 0.6095.

Our secondary rate is going up.

That secondary rate is tied directly to voter approved debt, and so that is set based on repaying that debt.

So you'll see that our combined tax rate is proposed to be flat to last year.

So one of the things I wanted to note here is that what is the impact on the tax bill?

Well, when you look at a property tax bill, the amount being billed is taking the property tax rate times each one hundred dollars of net assessed valuation.

So since the city is proposing to keep the combined rate flat, then any change on the tax bill is due to the change in a properties valuation.

Now, last meeting we had talked about the truth in taxation and we had the public hearing.

Well, the truth in taxation only refers to the primary tax rate.

So I would like to take a moment to just focus on the primary tax levy.

So when we look at um how this levy is composed, um there are two parts to setting that levy.

The first is growth, and growth is new development that didn't exist in last year's tax base.

And the second part is an increase to the levy.

Per statute, it can increase in aggregate two percent each year.

And the dollar amount tied to that levy increase is eighty-four thousand seven hundred and ninety-one dollars.

Now, if the primary levy did not increase, and we're talking about that 84,791, then the primary tax rate would be equal to the truth in taxation rate of 0.5976.

And that was the rate that was published in the advertisement that ran in the newspaper.

So it is important to note that even if you do not increase the levy, it is possible for an individual's property tax to still increase due to the change in net assessed valuation.

So if we focus on the levy increase, the portion of the tax rate associated with that levy increase is one point one nine cents.

So what is the impact of that 1.19 cents to our residents?

So if you take a median home in the city with a market price of 405,000, and a limited property value of 160,000.

Now, before you is the math that occurs using that limited property valuation, the ratio for that net assessed on on residential is 10%, and we have to divide it by 100 so we can get to that formula per $100 of net assessed valuation.

Multiply it by that rate of 1.19 cents.

That means that the impact to this particular scenario for the entire year is $1.90.

Now, council voiced its concern about the impact that any property tax increase may have on our residents.

So here we've listed some property tax assistance programs that are administered through the can through the Maricopa County Assessor's Office.

The first is a senior value protection program.

Now this program applies to people 65 and older, and it offers citizens the opportunity to freeze their property value for a period of time.

It does not freeze their property taxes.

Now this program is based on income age and residency and some other criteria included in state statute, and it is one means to mitigate any increases in property taxes.

The second program is personal exemptions.

Now this is offered to eligible widows, widowers, totally disabled residents, or disabled veterans with an honorable discharge.

The purpose is to reduce the limited property value, which you saw in the prior slide, by as much as $4,748.

So this reduction can lower the tax bill, and in some cases can eliminate it altogether if the assessed value of the property is lower than that $4,000 exemption amount.

Now exemptions are based on residency income, limited property value, and also the number of family members, 18 or older, residing in the household per state statute.

And the link that is included here to the Maricopa County Assessor webpage is where citizens can find more information about these programs and also the links to apply for these programs.

Now, if we turn to the focus on the city, what is the impact of a property tax impact to the city?

If the fiscal year 2026 primary levy did not increase, then we would see a reduction to general fund revenue for that $84,791.

And we would likely need to bring forth a future budget transfer because that revenue is considered ongoing revenue.

So if you refer back to our slides when we present the general fund and our ongoing revenue and expenses, you can see that in few in fiscal 26 and in 27, um, that surplus of revenue to expenses is very tight.

So the revenue loss of $84,000 would impact the future forecast because as we talked about in the prior slide, the prior levy is used to calculate the future levy.

So the cumulative impacts over five years would be equivalent to 470,000 of revenue not received.

Now this scenario assumes that we don't increase that levy for one year.

But if we were to assume that we did not increase the primary levy each year for five years, the total impact to year one would be the same, that $84,791.

But by year five, we will have seen a cumulative reduction in revenue in the amount of 1.4 million dollars.

So and I do want to note, even if we don't increase the levy, it is possible for an individual's property tax to increase from one year to the next due to the change in properties valuation.

So as you can see, this decision does have a long-term effect on revenue, which is why going forward in the next budget cycle, we plan to have a more in-depth discussion with council on revenues and including our philosophy on setting the property tax levy.

That way we will ensure when we present the city manager's recommended budget that it is structurally balanced.

So a couple things to note with tonight's item is that the resolution does include both the primary and the secondary levy, and in order to collect property tax revenue, we are required by state statute to approve both the primary and secondary property tax levy.

Therefore, our recommendation is to approve the primary property tax levy in the amount of four million three hundred and thirty six thousand four hundred and twelve dollars, and the secondary property tax levy in the amount of six million forty-five thousand three hundred and twenty two dollars.

Now, this does conclude my presentation.

I will take any questions.

Thank you so much for the presentation, Renee.

I really appreciate the uh added information that was provided even to council members at their briefings.

And um at this time, I'll turn it over to council.

Are there any comments from other members of council?

Okay, Vice Mayor Nielsen.

Renee, I just like to thank you for the work you have done, not only for presenting it in a way that's a little bit more understandable to all kinds of people, but the idea that you've got there for the property tax assistant programs.

Those are valuable.

My mother-in-law is done that.

I think it's reduced her taxes on an annual basis by about $600.

So I appreciate you being able to present that or make it available for those.

It's just a matter of filling out some paperwork and getting it done.

I guess it's just taking that time to do it.

So we appreciate that presentation on what's available for us to reduce some of the taxes as individuals.

And if I if I may add and interject on to that point, that yes, this tool um is one that many residents may not even be aware of.

And if there are residents out there who are just made being aware, being made aware that this tool exists uh through the county assessor, um, you can seek out information through our resource uh uh department um at the community center, and somebody there will be able to assist you either with more information or to guide you through the process.

Um, but I just wanted to make sure that uh that information was provided.

Any other members of council with any comments, questions?

Okay, Councilmember Garcia.

Um I just wanted to explain my no vote again.

Um I know I really do appreciate you going through it again.

Um and I also know that like the property tax will go up because our valuations are going up as it is, and just like the city of surprise just lowered their property tax due to the valuations going up and them still making um their budget and their and meeting their goals.

I think maybe instead of raising our taxes, or I know that it's gonna be flat, so it won't actually change, but lowering it for our residents would be amazing.

So I just wanted I just want people to know because I've uh had other residents reach out to me that I will still continue to vote no on um hiring our property tax.

We just hired the utility rates, and hopefully that we could educate people on when they vote on the bonds, that we will do have to pay them back, and this will continue happening um if bonds continue to go forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Garcia.

Okay, Councilmember White.

Well, I would like to first uh thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much, Barbara.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Corbin.

Um Brene, I'm sorry, I do that to you all the time.

That's only because I love you and Barbara equally.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um Director Weatherless, I think that what we need to look at and understand is that there's so many of us who live in Avondale who have grown accustomed to this very nice lifestyle that we have here, and we have to pay for it.

And so when I think about um what's gonna end up happening if we aren't able to do this, what um somebody's not willing to give up a dollar ninety for uh you know a side of fries at McDonald's, is that really what we're talking about?

Um, we've grown accustomed to having really nice things, and our residents have asked us to provide services.

Um we serve our seniors, we have wonderful parks, we serve the homeless community.

And so um I think if we don't um understand what that cost, um, then we won't be able to um see the growth opportunity and and continue to provide that same lifestyle.

All of us here have grown accustomed to, which is why we're able to sit in these privileged seats.

So I'm thankful that you're um brilliant in this budget process, navigating and helping us understand what should happen, and I appreciate your grace when I call you the wrong name as well.

But I I definitely want to support um this levy, and I I want to be able to support your work going forward because you have helped support our city manager presenting a balanced budget to us, and that's very important because we do um we have the best residents and we live in the best city, and we want to give our citizens the best services and continue to provide that level.

Thank you.

I can just make one last comment, and that is you know, as you've just heard, uh we are all uh engaged with residents, there they share what uh their concerns are, whether it be budget related or otherwise.

And I think that um as you mentioned uh and as I've shared with uh City Manager Corbin is that in November as we start these budget uh discussions again, that it'll be a great time to have that discussion with council uh to share what we've heard from residents, what we're looking for to continue to provide services, knowing that we have to pay for certain things and kind of where everybody sit or what council sits and what the appetite is.

And so I really look forward to that discussion and uh to learn more from uh members of council and the community.

But at this point in time, um I really appreciate again the information provided because I this did a uh great job of of um providing and setting the tone for what is about to occur in terms of the vote.

So thank you, Renee, and thank you everybody who's been involved in your department with this and as well as city staff.

I do say we have a motion from Councilmember White, a second from Councilmember Solorio this time.

Can we please get a vote?

Okay, item passes six to one.

Thank you, everybody.

And Ron, if we can move on to next item.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor Council.

Oh, oh, we had to hear from Renee again, our finance and budget director talking about fiscal year 2026 proposed fee changes.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Last year with the adoption of the fiscal 2025 fee changes, the council requested that staff take a more universal approach to updating fees going forward.

So we opted to hire a consultant and conduct a fee study.

The purpose of tonight's item is to present the results of that fee study and to present the fiscal year 2026 proposed fee changes.

So let's start with what are user fees.

Fees are charges for services that we provide to the public.

The general philosophy of setting the price of fees is to recover our costs to complete a given service.

However, it's important to note that cost is not the only determining factor used when setting the price of fees.

Other considerations include requirements set through state statute, the community versus the private benefit, and whether fees are designed to incentivize or disincentivize behavior.

Demand and competition are taken into account to measure how we compare in the market with other agencies because it's important that we do not create economic barriers and make services unaffordable.

The city has a total of 764 fees.

And this chart shows the breakdown of those fees by department.

For the purposes of the fee study, we focused on the development services, engineering services, and fire and medical fees that represent 60% of all of our fees combined.

So through this process, we noted that there are many fees in the city that have not been amended in many years.

In fact, starting with the development services fees, 50% of our fees have not been updated in over 10 years.

When you look at our engineering services fees, 75% of our fees have not been amended in over five years.

And in fire and medical, over half of our fees have not been amended in 10 years or more.

Needless to say, there have been a number of economic factors that have caused the cost of providing services to increase.

Thus, a fee study was warranted.

So the city contracted with MGT consulting group to conduct a fee assessment.

The study focused on fees within those three departments: development services, engineering services, and fire and medical.

The objectives of the study were to calculate a reasonable full cost of providing fee-based services.

And the final report included things such as assessing levels of current cost recovery and to evaluate opportunities for adjustments.

It provided estimated revenue projections based on proposed fee adjustments.

It provided a means to ensure we are in compliance with state law governing user fee cost recovery.

And it included a peer city comparison to assess the market.

So the findings of this report concluded that in the development services area, we are currently recovering 85% of the cost to provide services.

So what that means is that $678,000 of costs are not currently being recovered and are being subsidized by the general fund.

Within the engineering services department, we're recovering 62% of our cost.

That amounts to a million six hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars of cost not recovered, also being subsidized by the general fund.

And in fire and medical, we are only recovering 43% of our cost to provide services totaling 120,000 that are being subsidized by other funding sources.

So in our recommendation is that we would start with knowing what our costs are to calculate what a full cost recovery pricing model looks like.

But while still maintaining our need to remain business friendly and competitive in the market, we will also take into account public benefit as well as other factors mandated by law.

And lastly, at council's discretion, we want to bring forth smaller, more frequent incremental changes instead of waiting so many years and having to catch up.

So what you're looking at here is a sample from the actual fee study that was also attached to this agenda item and posted online.

So it shows some fees for development services.

It includes the fee name, our annual volume within those fees, our current fee, as well as the amount that we would need to charge to recover 100% of our costs.

And then on the right hand side of that report, it shows the annualized revenue impact of what we currently charge and what we subsidize.

So in our recommendation for those same fees, for example, was first in this case an example of fee consolidation.

So for electrical permits.

Staff's recommendation was to consolidate them into one fee for 112, which was equal to 100% cost recovery.

In this next example for fire and medical, this report shows that our fees were recovering anywhere from 20 to 60 percent, 67% of our costs.

In this case, our staff recommendation is to increase some of our fees.

However, as you can see, we are not recommending a full cost recovery.

In this case, we're limiting our proposed fees to stay competitive with neighboring jurisdictions.

And in the final example, the fee study report also unveiled.

So our recommendation in these instances is to reduce fees to equal 100% of cost recovery.

So in total, when you look at our recommendations for the development services, we are recommending to add seven new fees, eliminate 40.

We've changed 80 and left 22 unchanged.

Within the engineering services, we're proposing to add 20 new fees, eliminate 47.

Change 58 and leave 61 unchanged.

And within Fire and Medical, our recommendation is to add 18 new fees, eliminate 42.

We've changed 54 and kept 42 unchanged.

In addition, our fiscal year 2026 recommendation also includes a few fees that were not part of the fee study.

This includes a city clerk copy fee, a correction to a court fee, and a special events fee.

So the process to change fees requires public notice to be posted online at least 60 days prior to council action.

We posted that notice on May 5th, along with the methodology supporting the new and increased fees, and it included the date, time and place of the meeting that council will be taking action on, which will be July 7th.

In addition to the required public notice, we posted the proposed fees on Avendale Connect on May 7th.

On May 22nd, we held a business ambassador event for development stakeholders, including developers, architects, zoning law firms, contractors, landowners, and housing representatives.

After the event, we followed up with a targeted email to home build to the home builders association and the Arizona Multi-Housing Association.

We posted the fees on social media on May 22nd and are here tonight.

All of our community outreach efforts resulted in feedback from only one telecommunication service provider.

This feedback included requests to revise the city's boring, potholing, handhole, and bore pit installation fees.

After consideration of the telecommunication providers proposal, staff has recommended a change to one fee, which has been updated and is included in the recommended fee schedule with tonight's presentation.

So our next steps include a social media post at least 15 days prior to council action.

We will be seeking council action at the July 7th council meeting, and the new fees would take effect on September 1st.

So this does conclude my presentation.

We are seeking feedback from council.

And at this time, I will turn it over to Mayor Connell.

Thank you so much again, Renee, for this presentation.

Before I make my comments, I'll look to councils.

Any council have any comments?

Vice Mayor Nielsen?

Renee, I've just got one question.

You started out the presentation by saying 746 different fees with the reductions you've presented to us tonight.

What does that drop that to?

You know?

I didn't I didn't do the math there.

Okay.

I mean, there was, I think there was 50 on 140 on another and 60, so that's 150, so it should drop it roughly from 746 down to 500.

I mean, that's still a lot to manage, and I guess each department can manage their own thing, but I appreciate looking into it.

And I guess that's what an audit does opens your eyes to some of those things.

I had no idea there were 746 different fees that we have to contend with, and each one of them are defined specifically.

I like the general broadness of it and just the way it was presented tonight.

Thank you.

Okay.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

Um, and and some of the issues of those fee changes were to make it easier for the customers.

Councilmember Connelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you for the presentation, Renee.

It seems like this was long overdue.

There's a lot of items that need to be um cleaned up.

And so thank you for taking the time to do all that.

How often, I didn't, I may I'm gonna miss it.

How how often do you think we should redo revisit some of these fees every five years?

Because it looks like some of them were five to ten years or more the last time they've been adjusted.

So, mayor, vice mayor, um, councilmember conde, we bring forth fee changes on an annual basis.

Okay.

So through the effort of this fee study, we do have a baseline now to know what our full cost recovery is.

So I would think that's something that we're monitoring as we move forward, as our costs change, a lot of that includes labor and labor does change on an annual basis.

So it's something that we would tend to look at each year.

Okay.

That's just a lot of a lot of cleanup on the fees, but it it's necessary.

Thank you.

Yep, Vice Mayor Nilson.

Renee, just one other one.

The data that you did, I think took in 60% of your little pie chart there for developmental engineering and then fire medical.

There are some other areas out there, I assume that have fees.

Will they be looked like in the future or is that something else you want to look at?

Where's that one?

Yeah, that one.

So, Mayor, Vice Mayor.

Um, yes, when we look at these, we would want to look at some of our other fees, but I will say that included in here at least the 10% in the green section, the utilities, that is something we've already addressed.

But yes, we would look at the rest of them.

We didn't assess this year.

Thank you.

Councilman Garcia.

When you're looking at the fees um with the consultant, how much are I paying the consultant to look at them all and why didn't we have them look at all of them this time around, just so we could save money not to do it like double, if that makes sense.

Um, I don't have the exact cost of the fee um for the consultant, but was given the time frame that we had to complete it, and in order to propose the fees for next year, we had to narrow the scope.

So we wanted to try to get the biggest thing for the buck, which was focusing on these three areas.

Okay, Mr.

Mayor, Councilmember Garcia, I also don't know the exact number, but we'll get that for council so that we can answer that question.

But uh, one other thing, so the fees uh that she already talked about the utility rates, um, that 10% you already do on an annual basis.

We've already done that this year.

Parks and recreation library fees, you've set council has set those at a range.

So though most of those fees aren't a specific number, so we're able to adjust them on a regular basis given the competitive market.

So there wouldn't have been a specific need to study those.

And the other is a development impact fees, which are done through a uh more rigorous study, and you'll be getting the results of that study later this year.

We did an update on the utility impact fees.

I'm looking for Kirk, I think utility impact fees.

So that's already underway.

So we've taken uh a look at other fees in other ways depending on um the type of fee it is and when it needs to get to council for approval.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh you know, uh, I think this first I just want to commend the team for the ambassador event.

I think if you really want to to know what's happening out there, you have to talk to the customers that you serve.

And in this case, uh, with all of the development uh and engineering folks that we work with and listening to what they have to say, I think did um a great deal of justice for us to determine how, and I like the term uh competitive because as I shared with uh City Manager Corbin, um, you know, I asked the question, I said, you know, why why would the rates not be adjusted even higher if you could get away with it?

And the response was, and it makes perfect sense is that in order to be competitive and not have uh this community jump over us to the next city, you want to be business friendly.

And I think that is uh speaks uh volumes to me in which what we're doing is asking for the development community to work with us, and in response, uh we're fair, competitive but fair.

And so I think that that balance that's been um completed here with this study and identifying areas in which we can reduce areas which we can adjust to become more competitive.

Uh I think um does the the organization just this and so I really appreciate the time that it took to do that, uh, but more important the opportunity for the community that we all work with that the organization works with to have a say and at least be able to communicate and engage and for and to me that is very important.

So thank you to everyone involved in that, Kim, as well.

No other comments.

Uh that was for discussion only.

So we move on to next item, which is summary of events, current events.

Are there any members of council that would like to share any information on past events?

Councilmember White.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Um, and thanks to the Parks and Rec department, Parks Rec and Library.

We had a wonderful Juneteenth celebration out in our amphitheater this past Saturday on June 14th.

Um it was just amazing.

I really enjoy the sprawl of the activity.

We had indoor and outdoor elements, and we went into the library.

There was book um book bookmarker making, we had pictures in there, balloons.

But I think the celebration of freedom was really um embraced by our community, and you know, to have our third annual event happen in the city.

I really appreciate that.

Um, and also had the opportunity to visit the Islamic Center that I know you guys will probably speak to, so um I will yield my time.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Councilmember White.

Vice Mayor Nielsen.

I just uh myself, Max and Tina had the opportunity last week to go visit the new West Valley Islamic Center.

A very, very nice place.

The people there are wonderful.

They're excited about getting involved with the interfaith um partnership here and doing some work with volunteerism, whatever else.

They're excited to participate in that.

And I just thought it was a real good opportunity to be there and all those who participated in that.

So thank you so much for that one.

And then earlier today, we got to go over to the senior center and celebrate Father's Day.

Yeah, we didn't dance the Metharena or anything else.

We had to do a we had a Father's Day quiz, which uh I didn't do too well on.

But it was very nice being over with them and congratulate or thank all those uh individuals who worked to make that thing happen and make it go.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Nelson.

Councilmember White.

I also had the opportunity to represent the city at the Westmark Healthcare Summit and just hear about some of the cutting edge technology and um institutions that are looking to come and do business in healthcare.

So I just wanted to thank um our economic development team for um being out at the forefront and also um participating in our sponsorship as well.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

I had the pleasure about a week and a half ago to sit uh as part of the leadership alliance for the Allafria Union High School District with Westmark as the lead convener that was held here at the VIC.

Um, and um students as part of the Alwafria Union High School District that includes Avondale and other municipalities are gonna have the awesome opportunity to attend academies, which is gonna provide um an array of education geared towards uh their career choice and career paths.

And um I can't tell you how excited I am for residents here in Avondale who will be attending these academies to be introduced to health care to entrepreneurship, uh, to many other areas of of study uh and getting that education early that could lead them to a career um that leads to either post-secondary education um or even uh CTE programming uh that leads to career opportunities as well.

And so I was very happy to be a part of that, and I look forward to all the big things that I will free will be doing with those academies.

If there's nothing else that I think council member conde had one item.

I'm so sorry, I didn't see your hand there.

Councilmember Condi?

That's okay, thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just want to just say thank you to Parks and Rec staff.

them to a career um that leads to either postsecondary education um or even uh ct e programming uh that leads to career opportunities as well and so i was very happy to be a part of that and i look forward to all the big things that our will free will be doing with those academies if there's nothing else that i think council member conde had one item i'm so sorry i didn't see your hand there council member condi that's okay thank you mayor um i just want to just say thank you to parks and rec staff um it was a couple fridays ago just out of the blue I just was on social media and you know I have a 10 year old daughter who we always have to entertain so I was very thankful that they had uh Friday night I can't remember the name of the event but it was like a beach sunset theme event at Mountain View Park and it was free and it was so great to see the they gave free popsicles to the kids water guns for the kids um and they had little uh places where they can make a craft and it was just a chill family friendly event that residents came out to and enjoy people brought their camping chairs watched their kids play run around free safe environment the staff are very interactive it was just a very um uh a free event for the community is what I love because oftentimes you have kids families that have four or five kids and they can't afford to take them anywhere so free popsicle in the park with events and activities thank you so much for Parks and rec for having that thank you Councilmember Condi for that at this time we'd like to adjourn to executive session can I get a motion got a motion for Councilmember Garcia second from Councilmember Solorio please vote okay item passes we will adjourn to executive session if you're driving home please be safe and have a great rest of the night