Avondale City Council Regular Meeting - October 15, 2025
Avondale City Council Regular Meeting - October 15, 2025
The meeting covered a Parks and Recreation presentation, public comments on infrastructure and code enforcement, a consent agenda, a discussion on transferring ADA minivans for WeRide services, a public hearing on rezoning for a fire station, and a judicial advisory board recommendation for reappointment of the presiding judge.
Consent Calendar
- The consent agenda was approved unanimously, with item G removed for separate discussion.
- Item G (Resolution 1079-0724 authorizing vehicle transfer from RPTA to the City of Avondale for WeRide services) was later discussed and passed unanimously after a presentation by Transportation Director Harold.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Paul Lemon (via written statement read by staff) expressed frustration with ongoing construction delays on Avondale Boulevard and McDowell Road, stating that work has been minimal and traffic disruption is unacceptable.
- Former Mayor Ron Drake raised concerns about: (1) a damaged wall along the SRP canal owned by individual property owners but needing city attention; (2) poor code enforcement at businesses like Walgreens at 107th and Indian School; (3) the presence of a needle disposal bin in the library bathroom, which he argued brings drug users near children; (4) water supply for 2,000 new units planned along Avondale Boulevard; (5) the "Uniquely Avondale" magazine leading with a cemetery story rather than PIR; (6) the need for more restaurants, noting Goodyear is outpacing Avondale.
- Maribel (Miltecayo) thanked the council for supporting her food distribution program for farm workers, highlighting connections made by Vice Mayor Pineda, Councilmember Malone, and Councilmember Conde, and noting $198,000 in USDA relief funds awarded to West Valley farm workers.
Discussion Items
- Parks and Recreation Presentation: Stacy, Recreation Supervisor, reported on event statistics (e.g., Trace Rios: 10,800 participants, 4.9/5 rating; Juneteenth: 400 participants, 4.6/5 rating), sports leagues (pickleball winter 201 participants, 4.6/5; youth soccer 232 participants, 4.5/5), and community center growth (door counts from 154 in January to 4,246 in June). Upcoming events include Light Up the Sky at Phoenix Raceway on July 4, 2024, and a new active outdoors fest in November.
- WeRide Vehicle Transfer (Item G): Transportation Director Harold explained that ridership has grown from 2,000/month pre-expansion to 6,000+ post-expansion, with a peak of 7,296 in April 2024. The city will receive four slightly used ADA-compliant Chrysler Voyagers from Valley Metro at no cost, reducing operating costs and providing fleet relief. The vehicles will be used for paratransit services.
- Rezoning for Fire Station 171: Staff presented a request to rezone city-owned property from R3 (multifamily residential) to OTAB (Old Town Avondale Business) to align with the existing fire station use. A neighborhood meeting had one attendee with questions about aesthetics and service interruption. Planning Commission recommended approval 6-0. The public hearing was held; no speakers.
- Judicial Advisory Board Recommendation: Judge John Burkholder, chair of the Judicial Advisory Board, recommended reappointing Judge Craig Jennings for a sixth term, citing unanimous board support, positive survey results, and Jennings' decade of service. The board's evaluation included surveys of court users and staff, plus an interview.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda (minus item G) approved unanimously.
- Resolution 1079-0724 for the ADA minivan transfer from RPTA to Avondale for WeRide services passed unanimously.
- Ordinance 2017-0724 for rezoning Fire Station 171 from R3 to OTAB was adopted unanimously after a public hearing.
- Council adjourned to executive session to further discuss the reappointment of Judge Jennings; no final vote was taken in open session.
Meeting Transcript
Thank you for your interest in the Avondale City Council meeting. I'd like to call the regular meeting of Monday, July 1st, 2024 to order. Would you all please stand for a pledge of allegiance? And I would ask you to keep in your thoughts and prayers all those who are going to be affected by hurricanes in the next week. I pledge allegiance to the fly of the United States of America. Thank you, everyone. Marcel, just to confirm, we're gonna be doing the voice hold spine again. That is correct, Mayor. And it sounds like we've added some new speakers or something because my voice sounds booming right now. Booming. Marcella, item number one. Roll call, please. Councilmember Condi. Here. Councilmember Malone. Here. Councilmember Nielsen. Councilmember Solario. Here. Councilmember White. Here. Vice Mayor Panetta. Here. Mayor Weiss. Here. Ron, item number two, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Council. We are going to have a presentation by Stacy, our recreation supervisor with Parks and Rec. Corey did want to for me to send his condolences or to sadness. He got promoted, so he doesn't think he has to attend these anymore or something like that. No, no. I told him I was going to poke him while I was here, but he uh has a pre-planned vacation, so he does he is very sad he uh doesn't get to be here tonight. But Stacy will do a fantastic job. Hello, assistant director, how are you? You got jokes. Mayor, vice mayor, council, good evening. I am here to celebrate National Parks and Recreation Parks and Rec month. Um but before we hop into that, we're gonna start with our parks and recreation updates. We're gonna give a little bit about what we've been doing with recreation um since January. First off, we're gonna go into an events recap. So the last time I was standing in front of you, I was kind of just recapping all the events that we have had thus far. Um and this one is a little bit more stats-driven. So you'll see here for each of the events, you'll see the participants that we had, the survey ratings, and then the surveys that we did receive. So we started off the year with Trace Rios in February, and we had about 10,800 participants with a survey rating of 4.9 out of five. We then had our family camp out in March with 226 participants that were registered and attended the event at a 4.7 out of 5 star rating. Hoot and Hustle was our partnership with Agua Fria High School, and that was the run on Western. We had 167 runners for that event, which that was our first time doing it, so that's a great number. And we had a 4.6 out of five star rating. And then we hopped on into our extravaganza, and we took um we had three days in March that we did this at three different locations, and we had about two thousand people participate, and we had a three out of five star rating for that one.
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