I'd like to call to order the regular city council meeting of May 20th, 2024.

Will you all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection?

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republicans, one nation undervisible liberty of Justice Raw.

Thank you.

Item one is roll call.

Julie, will you please do the roll call?

Councilmember Conde.

Here.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Councilmember Solario.

Here.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Here.

And Mayor Weiss, Councilmember Malone, and Councilmember White have excused absences tonight.

Thank you.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Vice Mayor.

Up first, we have our development services department.

Uh Jody, our director will make the presentation of new employees.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council members.

Um, tonight I'd like to introduce three new employees that we have with our development services department.

First is our new chief building official, Ben Carr.

Ben started with us on May 13th.

He comes to us from the town of Cave Creek, where he was the chief building official as well as served as a fire marshal there.

Um he has a lot of experience in plan review, front-counter permitting, um, being a building inspector, uh construction permits inspection, and also having worked in other local municipalities.

I want to welcome Ben.

Um, also we have our new front counter permitting supervisor, Dawn Jacob.

Um she started with us on April 29th, and she comes to us from the town of Paradise Valley.

She previously worked for the city of Morana, and she's got vast experience with customer service, project management, plan review, and permitting.

And then lastly, we have Carter Evans, and he also started with us on April 29th, and he's our building permit technician too.

Um he come to came to us from the city of Mesa, and he's uh previously worked as an electrical inspector and engineering inspector for Mesa and Racine, Wisconsin.

So welcome our new members of the development services department.

Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Next up, we'll have the Office of Public Safety presented by Lieutenant Hance.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council members.

Uh, my name is Matt Hince, uh Public Safety Lieutenant with the Office of Public Safety.

I have the privilege uh this evening of introducing uh a few of our uh new hires and promotions.

Uh first we have Carlos Cano, who is our newest addition to the Code Compliance Unit as a code compliance officer.

Uh he comes to us from Glendale, where he has 24 years experience and is a retired police officer with Glendale.

Uh is born and raised in Arizona and currently lives in the West Valley.

Uh next, we have uh Sergeant Paul Wilson with the municipal security unit.

Uh Sergeant Wilson has been with the city since 2016, where he had five years as a detention officer for the police department, and then was promoted to detention officer sergeant uh with two and a half years experience as a sergeant and supervisor there before he was promoted to municipal security sergeant during our competitive testing process with internal and external applicants.

And finally, we have uh Joshua Perez.

Uh he is our newly promoted uh code manager for the code compliance division.

Uh he has 12 years experience in the code compliance field.

Uh he came to us from Glendale in February of 2021, uh, where he took the senior code officer position for us.

Um from October to or from October 2023 to March of this year.

He acted as our interim code manager while we went through a competitive testing process to select ultimately him as the new code compliance manager.

Uh it was a very competitive process, and he clearly showed he had all the skills, knowledge, and abilities that we needed, and he's currently doing uh outstanding job in the position.

Congratulations and welcome and thank you.

Appreciate it.

Next up, we have the engineering department presented by our city engineer, department director, Kim.

Hi, good evening, Vice Mayor and Council.

Tonight I'm proud to introduce our new associate engineer, Raul Zazuetta.

This is his second week of work.

He reports to the assistant city engineer Elizabeth Kahn and will be working with other plan reviewers on civil engineering plan review and permits for developments, road projects, and utility projects, and other types of civil construction.

He has many years of experience in Arizona and has also worked in the private sector as a consultant doing plan review for the city of Goodyear.

He was born and raised in Mexico along the West Coast.

He's a civil engineer and a registered PE with the state of Arizona.

He likes to travel and cook.

He has a toddler and a brand new baby.

And I'm excited to welcome Raul to the team.

Welcome, Raul.

Next up, we have Parks Recreation Libraries Department presented by their assistant director, Corey.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council.

Tonight I'm excited to introduce you to three new employees joining our team.

First up, Ali Modrell uh is a recreation programmer joining us at as a as a brand new recreation programmer who's gonna be working at the Mountain View Community Center, helping us oversee the new summer camp.

Allie.

Allie has her bachelor's of science in marketing and advertising from GCU.

She has 1.5 years' experience in program development and two years of experience in marketing, and her favorite hobby is photography.

She helped us take some photos of the staff event this weekend, and they're great.

So great hire.

Second up, we have Gina Gerard, our librarian to our library one position at Civic Center Library.

Gina has her master's in libraries in information science from Ruckards University and a bachelor's in business with a concentration in marketing from Ram Rampanmo.

Ramwell College.

Rampo College, thank you, in New Jersey.

Gina joins us with eight years of experience in libraries and also enjoys photography, antique shopping, and scrapbooking.

And last up is Alexis Romo.

Alexis is joining us as our library program specialist at Sam Garcia Library.

Lexis joined the team on May 13th.

She has a background in public service and public policy from the Arizona State University, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.

She has five years of experience and enjoys spending time with her family, also enjoys thrifting and trying new restaurants as well as doing road trips.

So welcome to the team.

Thank you so much and welcome.

Next up, we have fire and medical department presented by their fire chief Larry Rooney.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council.

I'm here to introduce a new the newest firefighter, Alvin Galvez.

Unfortunately, something came up and he wasn't able to attend tonight.

So I'll go ahead and read his bio anyway.

How's that?

Uh Firefighter Galvez was born in Mexico City and he grew up in Mexico until the age of 11 when he moved to the United States.

Alan graduated from Mountain Point High School in Awatuke.

From there he went on to Chandler Gilbert Community College and received his associate's degree and his EMT certification.

Prior to pursuing a career in the fire service, Alan worked in the financial industry for eight years doing personal lending for one of the major banks not named here.

Alan enjoys seeing his family, uh listening to podcasts, watching UFC fights, documentaries, and hanging out with his dog Roger.

Thank you so much, Steve.

And lastly, we have a public works department, and uh the director of public works, Kirk will present.

Oh, big department.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council.

It's my pleasure to introduce some new employees with public works that joined us in the last couple of months.

Tonight we don't have a video, they're all here in person, so we're excited about that.

Uh first off, Adam Balowski.

He's our new water quality compliance supervisor.

He joined us on April 15th.

Adam oversees the sampling, monitoring, and reporting of our drinking water program, and also supervises the environmental coordinators and technicians that do all those sampling, uh, all that sampling work.

Uh he brings extensive monitoring and reporting experience.

He's been in the industry industry for 20 years, both the private and public sector.

He holds what uh group four certificates, grade four certificates, and all four disciplines of licensing with ADEQ.

It's what we call a four by four, which is actually an achievement in itself.

Uh when he's not taking care of the water, he enjoys playing guitar, building computers, and spending time outdoors.

Next, we have Jasmine Oropesa.

She's actually one of the environmental technicians.

She's not new to the city.

Um she's new at the position.

She started on May 6th, but previously she was our customer service rep at public works.

She worked hard to obtain her grade one certification from ADEQ and is now prepared to do our water sampling for us.

She's excited to serve the city she lives in.

She lives here in Avondale.

When she's not sampling or working, she enjoys time with her family outdoors, uh painting, reading, playing video games, and she's also a great videographers.

So if you've ever seen our award-winning lip sync videos or our new employee videos, Jasmine, the one that produces that for us.

Next, we have Tracy Wallace.

Tracy is a senior water reclamation facility operator who joined us at the end of April at the Charles M.

Wolf Water Resource Center.

So he has 23 years of experience in water reclamation in the state of California, where he retired in 2017 as a plant supervisor.

He holds a bachelor's degree in public administration, an associate's degree in liberal arts, and associate's degree in environmental sciences, and holds an ADQ grade four certification and wastewater treatment and a grade two in water treatment.

So we have lots of licensed folks on our team.

Next, we have Tommy Estevio, street maintenance worker too.

Tommy joined us on April 15th.

He previously worked in City of Surprise for 25 years, where his responsibilities included repairing and maintaining pavements and sidewalks, operating heavy equipment, and using his construction skills.

He's got a Class A commercial driver's license.

He's participated in training such as HTS Supervisor Academy, flagger certification, traffic control classes.

He resides in Wadell.

His hobbies are fishing, watching football.

He's a Pittsburgh Steeler fan and spending quality time with his family and his grandkids.

Tommy is the second EsteVio in our public works department.

He has a son that works in our water distribution division.

Nice.

And then finally we have Javier Machuka.

Javier is a street maintenance worker one who joined us on April 29th.

He previously worked at Safeway as a butcher for 11 years, where he received employee of the month twice, and his main duties were processing meats and compliance with quality inspections.

He's also worked part-time as a gardener in residential landscape, so he'll help us with a lot of the median landscaping and things like that.

He's a big sports fan in Arizona, Cardinals' Sons, Diamondbacks, and enjoys also outdoor activities and watching movies.

He lives close by in Tallison, so he'll be great when we bring him in for on call in the middle of the night.

Not to be outdone by the Estevios, however.

Javier is the second Machuca family member in the department.

His father is one of our solid waste supervisors, and he has a sister working in the court.

So Machucas are everywhere.

Please welcome our new employees.

Thank you so much for being here.

Good job.

Appreciate that, and thank you all for choosing Avendale to further your careers.

We appreciate it.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Vice Mayor.

Also, we'll be doing pictures at the end of the proclamations.

So if they could stick around and get the picture with counsel.

So we have up a uh oh, National Public Works Week.

Funny Kirk.

Hey, you're up.

Good evening again, Vice Mayor and Council.

This week is National Public Works Week 2024.

So National Public Works Week started as an education campaign in 1960 and received federal recognition in 1962 when President John F.

Kennedy declared the third week of May as National Public Works Week.

So each year, the American Public Works Association creates a theme for National Public Works Week.

And this week's theme is advancing the quality advancing quality of life for all.

Public Works contributes to advancing and enhancing our quality of life no matter where we live in the world.

This year's theme shines a spotlight on the ways public works professionals provide essential services that lead to healthier, happier, and more vibrant communities.

So Public Works, the industry incorporates many areas, included about limited to streets and transportation, water and wastewater, utility, fleet services, administration, solid waste and recycling, and incorporates city, county, state, and federal programs as well as the consulting and contracting community.

In Avondale, Public Works Rated Services are provided by the Public Works Department as well as members of the facilities, engineering, and parks department.

So I would like to recognize and honor them as well, and maybe have them all just quickly stand up since we're we got a lot of folks here today.

If you all wouldn't mind standing engineering, public works.

So you know, we all work hard.

The work gets dirty sometimes, and then sometimes we do have a little bit of fun.

So we're glad to do that.

Uh, your public works department employs 120 full-time staff supporting services 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

This week is an opportunity to provide education about the work of public works.

So we're offering tours of our operations again this year.

We had one this morning.

Um also be recognizing and celebrating and thanking the men and women of the department and the industry who really work hard to make life civilized for all of us.

So with that, you've seen the group folks that are here.

We would really be honored, Vice Mayor, if you could read the proclamation tonight.

I will, and thank you so much, Kirk, for everything you provided and everything that your department does for the city of Avondale.

We really appreciate it.

All right, so I'll go ahead and read the proclamation for National Public Works Week.

Whereas the City of Avondale Public Works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and to the public health, high quality of life and well-being of the people of Avondale.

And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services cannot be provided without the dedicated efforts of public work professionals who are engineers, managers and employees at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings and other structures and facilities essential for our residents.

And where, as it is in the public interest for the residents, civic leaders, and children in Avondale to gain knowledge and main and to maintain an ongoing interest and understanding the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities.

And whereas the year 2024 marks the 64th Annual National Public Works Week, sponsored by the American Public Works Association, Canadian Public Works Association.

Now, therefore, I Mike Pinetta, by virtue of the authority invested in me as the Vice Mayor of the City of Avondale, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the week of May 19th to the 25th, 2024 as National Public Works Week in Avondale.

I urge all residents to join with representatives of the American Public Works Association and government agencies and activities, events, and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and employees, and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health, safety, and advancing the quality of life for all.

Thank you so much.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Vice Mayor.

Up next, we're gonna recognize the 2010 girls' soccer team from Arizona Real West Valley State Championship title.

I asked Coach, come on up.

Bring the team.

They just won another uh championship up north.

Oh, just another championship.

Racking them vice mayor council members.

My name is Todd Whitney from the City of Goodyear, actually, and why am I here today?

Uh well, you just got done with budget season, I imagine, and you're probably looking where's that return of investment?

Well, right behind me is or flanking me is the return of investment.

Over the past eight years, this team has been comprised of a lot of different people, and a lot of different teams use Friendship Park as their location for uh year-round training.

Uh Real Arizona 2010 girls team trained at Friendship Park over the past several years.

Uh, they are ranked right now third in state and 20th in national rankings.

Uh, for the past two years, this team has completed uh competed against the highest levels against Peoria, Mesa, Gilbert, Scosdale, two Son and Flag staff, and I'm proud to report they've won the second cup in two years.

Um, next up for this team in uh on June 20th is Honolulu, Hawaii for the regionals, and uh I'll yield to coaches Eric Rodriguez and Devin Franklin.

Awesome.

Yeah, awesome.

Good evening, good evening.

Um, yeah, we we just want to recognize these girls and all the hard work they've done.

Um I being an Avonale resident as well.

I went to Rancho Santa Fe Elementary.

Um I also went to Western, not non-Mestern Sky.

Um I went to Wiguam Creek as well.

So I grew up around here, uh, know the area and have just you know, I spent a lot of time at Friendship Park.

Um that park has been like integral, right, to a lot of players, their their experiences and their development overall.

These girls have made that their home.

Um, and you know, we are really really honored that you know we're able to stand here in front of you guys today and and present this to you guys.

Um, you know, with that being said, you know, we are looking for any help that we can get.

You know, it's gonna be a hefty, hefty price for these girls to get to Hawaii.

Um, you know, especially bringing families of three to five to six, right?

Um, so anything we can get, you know, in terms of uh just help from everybody monetarily and you know, just support in general uh would be great for these girls.

I think they truly deserve it.

Some of them graduating this week as well, right from eighth grade, so that's also exciting.

Um so you know, doing this, having this uh, you know, kind of uh impact on the state um as 2010 players, uh, but at the same time managing other responsibilities, uh, the craziness of life, you know.

Um I'm blessed to to be able to stand here and represent them.

So we appreciate you, and um, we're very blessed to be able to lead these girls.

So thank you.

Thank you so much, coach.

So, Hawaii, are you guys excited?

Will this be your first trip to Hawaii?

How many of you this first first trip on a plane?

Sure you guys do a lot of travel with soccer.

And and you know, as uh as somebody who also was a coach, and I actually uh own or ran a football organization, uh, one that competed nationally.

I know what it's like to travel, the expense uh that comes with that, uh, the long nights at the parks, uh, parents, I'm sure the investment, uh, the long hours, the eating late, all those different things, and so the sacrifices felt throughout, not just from the players but through the entire family and um anything that the community can do to help and assist, you know, utilizing a platform such as this.

I think that that would that is great.

And so I know it would be nice if the rest of the council utilize maybe their social media platforms to provide some assistance.

Um, but um, you know, congratulations, uh, keep up the good work and representing, and I'm glad that Friendship Park um is a quality amenity that we have here in the city, uh, that you're able to utilize, you know, how many week nights a week do you practice?

Uh so the girls train three nights a week, two nights there, and then uh I have a little like kind of like private facility in Goodyear.

Um so yeah, but they're they're there two nights a week at least, you know.

Yeah, you do the numbers, it's like you know, 200 times a year.

I don't know how many times it comes out to, right?

So you know, they spent a lot of time there, and um like I said, we're very, very thankful.

Not to get off track.

I actually uh I played Pop Warner here for the Far West Jets for three years.

Uh we went national champions, yeah, Jason Kindred.

So now I don't want to get off track, but I figured you might know who that is, and yeah, so when played afterwards.

Any other members of the council have any words?

I just want to say um thank you, girls.

I'm so excited um for how far you've come and I'm excited that you guys get to go to Hawaii.

And I also want to thank the parents.

Thank you for taking the time um and dedication to keep the girls busy, you know, getting them to practice, making sure that they get their homework done and that they stay on task.

And for those of you that are graduating uh to eighth grade or from eighth grade, congratulations.

Um and thank you guys for being here to share share with us.

Councilman Nilson.

Good.

Okay.

As you heard, keep it up, student athletes, student first.

So make sure the books are strong.

And again, thank you for representing well and utilizing uh Friendship Park for your practices.

So congratulations.

And I think I have a uh proclamation here that I'm going to read for all of you.

Whereas over the past several years, the 2010 girls' soccer team from Arizona Real West Valley has held practices at Friendship Park, Avondale, has been training and competing throughout the state of Arizona.

And whereas the training sessions at this Avondale facility are extremely important, not only to the athletic development of multiple teams that train at this facility, but it provides the opportunity for many life lessons to be experienced on and off the field.

And whereas all the players on the team represent the children of the hardworking residents of Avondale and surrounding cities, and whereas the 2010 girls team from AZ Real, West Valley have secured the title of state championships for the second year in a row, battling larger clubs from Peoria, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, and Gilbert.

Now, therefore, I, Vice Mayor Pineta, and along with the entire Avondale City Council, wish to honor and congratulate the 2010 girls' soccer team from AZ Real West Valley on the recent championship victory by proclaiming May 20th, 2024 as 2010 Girls Soccer Team from AZ Real West Valley Day.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

And I think we're gonna take pictures as well after.

Yes, we have one more presentation team.

If you would come back down after that and uh get a picture with council members.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Vice Mayor, up next, we have a presentation by Eric Bay, who's like gonna recognize our Citizens Water Academy recognition.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, members of the council.

My name is Eric Bay.

I'm with Public Works.

And I'm excited to talk about this next item tonight.

And it's kind of neat that this item landed on the same night that there was the Public Works Week proclamation.

And that is to celebrate the recent success of our 2024 Citizens Water Academy.

The Citizens Water Academy is an annual event held by Public Works where we invite a group of inquisitive residents for a deeper look at water within the City of Avondale.

This year the Academy was a series of five sessions over the course of five weeks, five Tuesdays in a row.

And I'm happy to announce that this year Public Works graduated 15 residents.

And while I had the privilege of being the master of ceremonies, it's my water division staff that makes us a wonderful and successful event each year.

And I would like to highlight some of the presentations with a few photos right now.

So night one, water resources, water conservation, and sustainability.

We kicked off the academy with a little bit of a speed hump by having an unexpected and unplanned fire drill.

So the first thing that we made all the academy participants do is go stand out in the hot sun for 10 to 15 minutes.

But they were good troopers about it.

We got them back inside.

We continued presentations.

As you can see, we have our sustainability officer Kim Anderson given a presentation there in the photo on the right.

Couple photos from night two and night three, water production, distribution quality, and then wastewater collections and stormwater.

The top left-hand photo, you can see our backflow and cross-connection coordinator Santino Estrella given a presentation about our tap trailer.

Below that, you can see our wastewater collections supervisor, Mike Arichetta, and a lead operator Joseph Flores given a presentation about confined spaced entry.

Over on the right side of the screen, you can see the participants visited an active lift station site, our Fourth Street Lift Station.

And below that you can see our stormwater coordinator Tom Atkins given a presentation about stormwater and the MS4 permit.

Night four and five, the Wolf, the Aquaculture Center, wetlands recharge, and then graduation.

You can start on the top left-hand corner.

You see our water reclamation facility supervisor, a Jess Prasad, standing atop of one of the secondary clarifiers, giving a presentation to the academy about the importance of clarification in the treatment process.

And there's a Jesh right below that given a presentation about some of the laboratory work that we do associated with the plant as well.

Over on the right hand side of the screen on top, you see our aquaculture coordinator Reed Beryl, given a presentation on our aquaculture center and the tilapia that we raise to do work for us here in the city.

And then below that you can see Reed talking to the class about the Crystal Gardens wetlands on site.

And I could rave about the Academy all night long.

But instead, I would like to pass the mic over to one of our graduates, Janet Eason.

So please uh join me in welcoming Janet up to the mic.

I have my water.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for the opportunity to let me uh talk a little bit about my reaction to this wonderful class.

I have been part of Avondale for well since 1977, so you can figure the numbers there.

And this is my third academy that I have attended, and all of all of them have been wonderful.

This evening I'd like to focus on just two things about the water academy.

You gave a great review, and so I just want to talk about my feelings about the dedication of people who work in Avondale.

The employees here, um, and it's been part of every single oh my gosh, I just saw that picture.

Sorry.

It has been a part of every single academy.

They the employees seem to be so dedicated.

I thought it was in the water, but now that they have explained all the water quality, I know it wasn't in quite in the water.

Everyone seems to care about their job and also willing to share with us what they do, what they do, and what we need to know.

Under we were able to understand.

Maybe um there was a lot more that they told us than I understood, but I do know about the water resources, the conservation, sustainability, production, uh, distribution, and water quality.

The wastewater collection, especially Mike, because Mike the sewer guy gave us his card.

We found a lot of information there and the water reclamation uh facility.

The to I call it the tilapia farm over there, and then the wet line wetlands recharge uh facilities and understanding our water bill.

That was an interesting, that was an interesting discussion.

I want you to know that everything and everyone was very professional.

It was very well done.

So that's one.

Number two, as a resident, I thought maybe you'd like to know what effect this had on me.

So number one, I can tell you do not use a disposable water bottle in the first night they gave us an Avondale water bottle.

Number two, do not flush any wet wipes down the toilet.

So I have shortened my shower.

In fact, my granddaughter was over the other day, and I said, I'm going to take a shower, and came back and she said, that was a quick shower.

So I've shortened my showers.

I am much more careful about running water, particularly you know, washing my teeth and things like that when you just leave the water on.

So I'm I'm careful.

I'm strategic also about how I use water in my lawn and my garden.

They did give us during the pre um every week, they gave us something.

Water bottle was the first one.

What was very interesting is they gave us a toilet tank bank.

I don't know if you've ever seen that, but you put water in this uh in this water water bottle, put it in in your toilet, and you can save water that way, also save money.

That's what it says on there.

So there are programs.

We learned there are programs in the city that help us save water at home.

Avondale seems to have a really good water portfolio, but and and I'm I'm thinking that we have a good portfolio and we don't have to worry about running out of water, but we can't waste it.

I live in Crystal Gardens, and I learned a lot about the wetlands program.

So City Council members, thank you for your leadership.

I know it comes from the leadership of the mayor, the city council, the the city um, the I had the name here, the city manager.

It that leadership and the way that people treat us when we are in these academies or whenever we are around in Avondale, the leadership comes from you.

So thank you for the opportunity to that we have these academies.

We learn so much, and that we are you know proud members of being part of the city of Avondale.

So thank you.

Thank you, Janet.

And Vice Mayor, we have more members, uh graduates from the Academy that are ready for a photo whenever you're ready for us.

With that, I'll take any questions.

Perfect.

Thank you so much, Eric.

And uh, you know, Janet, as a former educator, I appreciate you sharing how much education you receive throughout the uh service and um more importantly the water bottle.

I admire that that water bottle.

I don't even have one of those yet, so we're gonna have to make sure that we attend the training.

By the way, Eric, when is the next class if you don't mind sharing for um the residents?

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh Vice Mayor members of the council, water academy is an annual event.

Please sign up next April.

Next April.

Okay.

Councilmember Connor, do you have anything to add?

Nope, pretty much said it all.

Just thank you guys for taking the time to attend the class and thank you to staff for doing such a great job.

Councilman.

I just want to say thank you to the public works, and particularly the water department that does the work in trying to get our residents to understand what's going on with water.

If you listen to the news today, you're gonna say here that we're completely out of water.

But if you come to where it really happens, Avondale, wherever good year, whatever, you'll be able to see and understand that we have properly planned for the future.

And I would just challenge or invite you who are participated in this, but when you hear a neighbor or you hear something on the radio, radio television, shut it off.

You know what's going on here in Avondale.

But just give them the truth, what you've seen, what you've done, what you've participated.

As the Vice Mayor said, education is important, and and as you know these things, share them with your neighbors, share them with the others.

That'll lay some of the fears that they might have rather than all the stuff that goes on around us on the uh social media and other places.

Thanks.

We'll just thank you very much.

Continue your good work and let's be on that one so we can get a water bottle lecture.

Mr.

Vice Mayor.

Sorry for interrupting.

I was wondering if we could have the whole class stand up so we can recognize them before they come up and take their picture, because I don't know that we did that.

So let's if we could have the academy, the water academy uh graduates stand up so we can recognize them.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

Thank you so much, Eric, for the presentation.

Um counsel, will you at this time join me on the floor for some photos?

And who are we starting first with, Ron?

Okay.

Can we start with the girls' soccer team first?

For those listening online, we will be taking a short recess.

So, ladies, uh girls, uh item three is unscheduled public appearances.

Julie, do we have any uh requests to speak?

Vice Mayor, nothing tonight.

Okay, thank you so much.

Let's move on to the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda.

Are there any council members who wish to have an item removed for separate consideration?

Okay, then can I please have a motion and a vote?

Got a motion by Councilmember Nielsen, seconded by Councilmember Condi.

Let's vote.

Councilmember Solario, how do you vote?

Thank you, Effort.

Sorry about that, Councilmember Solario.

Okay.

Item passes.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Vice Mayor.

Waiting for the machine to does the prompter need to show the vote.

He usually gives Yeah, we're missing the answers.

Just we for the record, we don't have the uh the yay or nays.

Can you fill in some mayor?

Looks like it passes.

Thank you.

Four to zero.

All right, Vice Mayor.

Next up is we have the strategic plan to address homelessness, and we have our direct not a director, we have what is his title?

Homeless service.

Manager of homeless services.

It's all yours, sir.

That's why you take Chris's title.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, Council members.

Uh I'm excited here to share with you a presentation uh regarding our work on the homelessness strategic the strategic plan to resolve homelessness.

Uh in 2019, the city secured a professional culting consulting service to assist us with developing a community-wide strategic plan to address homelessness.

That assessment provided specific set of recommendations that were accomplished within three years of that that plan.

Since then, all goals have uh that have been included in that plan have been accomplished.

We know this is a priority for council, and we're grateful for your support.

So I'm happy to um present how we've been doing on this next set of strategic plans.

I'm proud to be here tonight, and in keeping with the theme with our with Eric Schneer, who's from our consulting agency, Public Works LLC.

So it seems like apropos that they would be named Public Works on the night where we're celebrating public works.

Uh in 2019, we made a formal commitment to to strategically address homelessness through a partnership with Maricopa County.

That relationship has been fortified over the past five years as the city worked to establish the homeless services division within the neighborhood and family services department.

In November of 23, we uh following a formal procurement, we engaged with Public Works LLC.

And since that time, the team from Public Works has conducted interviews, small group discussions, focus groups, surveys, a public symposium, interviews with staff, yourself, elected officials, service providers, municipal partners, teachers, schools, faith groups, and individuals with lived experience.

Tonight I will present a high-level overview of the of the plan highlighting selection of the 76 recommendations and findings.

The plan itself is a 161-page comprehensive document that we will use to guide our guide our work over the next five years.

We will continue to evaluate the cost and feasibility of all these recommendations, and given the holistic nature of the evaluation, uh we will continue to work and bring back our accomplishments to you as we as we work through the plan.

Uh so tonight we're providing some background, reviewing the process, sharing our next steps, and seeking any input that you may have.

This slide captures the main points of the executive summary within the plan.

Uh the plan states that without a concerted effort to help more people stay housed and to ensure that Avondale produces and maintains a diverse housing portfolio.

The house the city could expect to spend more to reduce homelessness as the number of homeless residents will likely increase.

But I'll also provide you con it also provides context to the current crisis as well as revealing possible strategies and solutions.

We begin with a definition of homelessness.

How homelessness is defined varies depending on the funding agency.

There are varying definitions among funding agencies and cities, none of which aptly capture the scale of homelessness.

We like to talk about homes we talk often talk about hidden homelessness.

Those are people that may not identify as homeless because they're sleeping on someone's couch or on a porch or in a backyard, but it also includes families who commonly are unlikely to interface with the homeless services system for fear of losing their kids.

Homelessness population, as the population of Avondale has grown, so has the number of individuals who experience homelessness.

The number of unsheltered individuals in Avondale has increased sharply from five in 2014 to 45 in the 2023 point in time count.

The responses to the lived experience survey indicate that the top leading condition leading directly into homelessness is that they were no longer able to stay with friends or family.

Data indicates that crowded housing in Avondale is worsening, both in renter and owner occupied homes.

In addition, monthly eviction files filings have surpassed pre-pandemic levels in Maricopa County.

This slide shows you that the number of evictions in September of 23 topped out at 7,000.

In February, the earliest data, it's almost doubled that.

The response to the lived experience, whoops.

The demand for homes in Avondale is high, and we're not surprised by that.

It's a great city to live in.

Avondale has experienced a steady and rapid population growth in the last decade, increasing from 77,000 in 2013 to 89,000 in 2022.

The city's population grew 16%, which is faster than Maricopa County and Arizona as a state.

The flip side of demand is supply.

The housing supply of units in Avondale and Maricopa County has not kept pace with the increase in population.

Population in Avondale has outpaced Maricopa County while housing supply has lagged.

Part of the increased in part of the increase in cost burdened households, which means that those are households that are paying more than 30% of their income towards rent or mortgage, is that housing is less affordable.

The number of units renting for under $1,000 has dropped nearly 65% since 2016.

Additionally, between 25, 2025 and 2030, as many as 535 federally subsidized units in Avondale face a lapse in affordability agreements.

In Avondale, the home prices have increased 160% since 2013, and rent has spiked 33% just between 2019 and 2022.

In the case of rent, this outpaces both state and both county, state, and national rates.

Further, Avondale's incomes have are not raised at the same at the same speed.

Our population is growing both older and more diverse.

This are ways that are going to impact the demand for more affordable housing.

The growing aging population of Avondale will seek housing on a fixed income.

In addition, uh increasing div increasingly diverse populations, which is not something that's unique to Avondale, lead to a renewed awareness of equity, including opportunity for housing.

This graph just shows that our population is aging.

These are recommended strategies we'll present here.

The plan itself includes 67 or 76 potential action steps.

Those strategies will help us identify the highest priority issues for the city and guide our work and decision making.

We will start with ensuring that there's adequate housing for all Avondalers, address keeping people who are already in their homes in their homes, and then provide services to individuals who are experiencing homelessness so they can quickly get back on track and head towards stable, more permanent affordable housing.

It's important to note that this document is new to us.

Its findings and recommendations are new, so we will take the strategy recommendations, assess their viability, efficiency, and work towards implementation plans.

It's also important to know that these recommendations encompass a five-year period with varying implementation times.

You can think of this as a menu of solutions to guide our work over the next five years as we look at resolving homelessness in Avondale.

The first category is ensuring Avondale has enough housing.

Increasing affordable housing.

So another way to think of this is increasing the amount of housing that's affordable to everyone in Avondale.

The emphasis of this strategy recommendation is to increase housing and encourage and support access to housing that is affordable.

Key recommendations in this section are to spur housing development through prioritizing mixed income multifamily developments, assist renters and accessing affordable units, and cultivating funding for housing that is affordable through a series of recommendations aimed at generating revenue to fund housing strategies.

We want to keep Avondalers who are housed in their homes.

This means that individuals need to invest with that the City of Avondale will investigate economic policies that provide access to livable wages, provide workforce training and education for individuals to hold those jobs and support programs to prevent individuals and families from needing eviction assistance.

If a family finds themselves in the precocious space of an impending eviction, and they need to have access to eviction prevention resources.

The recommendations in this category include investing in collaborations with landlords to prevent evictions, finding new opportunities for eviction prevention funding, and participating in predictive modeling, such as the Tri-University Collaborative AZ Hack.

This uses predictive analysis to identify families that have engaged with county services and have case workers reach out to those families, offer services, and help them maintain housing that they have.

Number five is to help find is helping to find temporary shelter.

As you know, Avondale has eye help.

It is not a low barrier shelter.

So in the absence of a low barrier shelter, our partners are predominantly working providing short-term housing solutions, which leads to a lack of comprehensive case management.

The impact of this recommendation is to develop an encompassing temporary shelter strategy with policies and systems that are trauma informed and free from traditional barriers.

This is one area that Avondale is currently moving the needle as we move forward to develop the family bridge housing.

Law enforcement interacts with the unhoused daily.

Their support in our work and their expertise are crucial for any program.

So in the recommendations, they providing officers that are in the field with enhanced training to interact with individuals that are experiencing homelessness and create justice diversion projects.

We're currently working with our courts team and Phoenix Rescue Mission to provide assistance and case management for individuals who are unhoused and engaged with the court system so they can work towards diversion programs to prevent that cycle of being in the court, homeless in the court and homeless.

And finally, to bolster our resilience against climate change, we're looking to develop and adopt it, develop and adopt a comprehensive plan to deal with the hot weather that we have.

And one of the places that we've done this was actually through an initiative that was that came from the police department, the Beat the Heath program to ensure that our Avondale residents who are either on the street or don't have access to cool cool environments can get to those cool environments in the hot summers.

Moving beyond interim shelter solutions.

So once we have somebody in the system and in the shelter, providing them enough resources so that they can continue on their journey to more stable living and stable permanent housing.

This includes so the recommendation, this recommendation came almost entirely out of the lived experience survey.

So our team went out in the field and spoke to individuals that were living on the street.

This past July when we were doing the point in time count.

72% of the individuals that we talked to identified that services that provide food, clothing, hygiene kits, and showers would be the most helpful.

The homeless services division is currently actively working with to address this need.

We're exploring partnerships with local faith-based communities to offer showers and regular access to hygiene.

Additionally, the lived experience survey found that 43% of individuals experiencing homelessness report having a disability, but they have limited ability to engage with service providers.

So that gap in available resources.

Number eight is getting back to permanent housing.

Economic stability and transportation are two of the keys to support those experiencing homelessness, get back to a permanent housing situation.

The lived experience survey echoes these challenges, revealing that transportation ranks as the second most critical service need.

We will explore programs aimed at specifically serving employment, securing employment for individuals and ensuring they have a way to get to those jobs and meet their needs.

And number nine is the interdimet interdepartmental response and operations.

We will collect and report data that is accurate, relevant, and use that data to guide and planning and decision making.

Over the next several months, as we engage with teams and leadership across the city and consider these recommendations and this plan, I look forward to returning to present the results of those efforts in the form of a finalized strategic plan.

And now I'm open to questions, comments.

Thank you for direction.

Thank you for the presentation.

Sorry about that.

At this time, I'd like to open the floor for comments, and I'm going to start with Councilmember Solorio.

I skipped her a couple of times, and I apologize for that.

Thanks, Mike.

Brian, thanks for the presentation.

I can tell you that you know, I appreciate I'm sure we all do everything that everyone has done to really put this into focus and you know, um, really see the outcome from this.

I know that I personally, when I travel, uh, such as when I've gone to NLP events and such, and I'm giving the opportunity to sit at table with other council members and other folks and other state representatives, and we start talking about homelessness, because that is an issue that comes up quite a bit when you're at these conferences.

I always carry the extra card with me.

And I'm so proud and happy to share the work that you guys are doing with the sonar team with everything, the results, what you guys are seeing out there when you're doing your point in time count.

So I just want to thank you and your staff for that, because I will tell you that when we start talking about those things with other council members, and I said in state representatives, um, we are far ahead of the game, and they often say, Wow, I need to go visit, or they'll take their phone and go to the website and look and see what we're doing as a city to help with this.

So I just want to thank you and your team because I know it's it's work that's you know often thinkless, and it's uh something that's continuous, and you guys are doing a phenomenal job.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you, Councilmember Solorio.

Councilmember Condi.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Brian.

What a great presentation.

Um, there was a lot of data to look over.

Um, but what I was impressed at is things are moving forward, and we've kind of pivoted right from what homeless looked like even four or five years ago pre-COVID.

You know, for one, COVID happened.

For two, we're kind of dealing with something new with the fentanyl because that wasn't something that nobody thought was gonna come.

Um so thank you and your team for all that you guys do.

You guys do great work out there in the community.

I love the fact that you guys are out there building relationships, because I think um talking to people in the uh that are unsheltered, gaining their trust is a big thing to get them to want to come off the streets and make a difference.

Um I did have a question on is um just being in the community talking to people, and and some of the things that people talked about was you know the need for um better paying jobs.

Um, someone that I talked to was just like I kind of like where I'm at now because if I start making more money, I'm gonna have to pay for child care for my for my children.

So affordable child care was something that um someone had mentioned to me.

Um, but I said, you know, then we need to get you better job skills so you can have a higher paying job.

So it's kind of like talking to them, understanding the needs, and it kind of addressing them.

Really, case management is critical.

Yep.

And thank you for that, Councilmember Condi.

And that's one of the one of the pillars under the pillar of getting back to permanent housing.

The the city we're going to look at how do we get people back to employment, back to a place where they can sustain and be self-sufficient in their own homes.

So I it is a dense 161-page document, but those are some of the programs that our uh consultant has recommended that we look at across the country.

So that's that's in there, making sure that families can go to work and have child care.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And another thing, when we provide um utility assistance, rental assistance, any type of assistance.

Are we just giving them what they need or are we giving them the tools to kind of make sure that they could that this doesn't happen every month?

Are we giving them information on job training skills, um, connecting them with the Avondell Edge scholarships, different employment opportunities, rather than just saying here, this is for one month, but maybe having those conversations and say, here's a list of some trades that you might be interested in, kind of helping them again do that process so they don't have to come back every month for utility assistance or rental assistance.

One of the beautiful things about the resource center is that all of those things exist in one room.

So when families do come in to seek assistance, we provide those referrals.

Um it's much more successful because they're in the desk next door rather than you have to go to another building or down the hall.

So your support and having all those partners be at the resource center has really been helpful in addressing exactly what you're talking about, making sure that families receive the help that they need and then are set up in the future to possibly not need that help.

Great.

And then one thing you mentioned was um kind of volunteers or people to provide um services for the unsheltered population.

And I'm sure you already know the Interfaith Partnership Group is a great has a great pool of volunteers and a lot of volunteers that have trailers for showers and those types of things to kind of get out there and and help these unsheltered folks.

So I know that you're probably aware of all those.

The sonar team just uh received training last week for the Avondale Baptist has a shower, and so we're working through what that looks like for our team to be able to man that at different times.

So we are continuing to make those partnerships.

Um we have regular outreach at the the food bank and support the that team there with their volunteers.

So yeah, and we're actively involved in the interfaith council.

Yes, thank you for that.

And then just one last thing.

I just want to just say what you said about the bridge housing is having high quality case management.

That is so critical for their success.

You know, those home those those six homes are for transitional housing.

Um so I'm very hopeful that we're gonna get a strong case management team that can get them out of those that house those housing units into something more permanent so that we can bring other families in so they can get that support that they need.

So thank you guys again for all that you guys do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate uh Avondale's insight with the resource center.

I've been and talked to a number of other communities around there in either now the state, they they can't believe that we've got all of that in one location.

So we are blessed to have that there.

But I just have a couple of questions for you there tonight.

Well, on evictions.

What's the process to uh I I you said 7,000 plus, I think in Maricopa County.

In Avondale, if someone is evicted, does that go through the police and the police then pass it on to you?

What's the it goes through the county through the court system?

Yep.

Through the court system.

Yep.

Okay.

And that's and and Arizona has a relatively expedient um eviction process.

Uh-huh.

So there are some programs throughout the state and through county that can help families that are facing eviction, but um it tends to be a pretty uh rapid process once it happens.

So it's not that it not rags out for months and months that it can be.

Not since COVID.

No.

The other one you have one of your slides in there talked about cultivating funding or something like that.

I mean, to me, I just know that the the state has funding, the county has funding.

What other sources do you see as possibilities that you're gonna cultivate or look for?

Is there a number of recommendations within the document that we're going to bring back to leadership and see which of those make sense?

There are opportunities across at a state level and at a county level.

So uh we'll continue to look at those and see which ones make sense for the city and and make sure that we are applying and pursuing those funds.

And the other one, the enhanced job training.

I really like that.

I mean, that it's people who can see things differently and see that they really have some value or whatever else.

I think those people who are just making minimum wage or just not have the affordability.

Number one, notification, how do we get those people there?

And if they have to work every day of the week, seven days a week, how can we still get at them?

I mean, is it an evening or whatever?

Do they want to be home?

It's just something that it's tough.

It's just you know, outreach notification, but just that it that job training is wonderful, but we gotta make sure that it people who need it get there so that they can feel successful.

And I think just the last comment I had here landlord engagement.

Uh this may date me, but we still have I think it's Section 8 housing.

Is that yeah, we have about 535 assisted units in Avondale.

Uh actually think it's over 800, actually.

The 535 are the number that are set to expire if the landlords don't re-engage.

But we do have uh subsidized housing within Avondale.

Um, and we always we're always looking to build new partnerships with the housing authority of Maricopa County to develop more.

Um so yeah, those exist.

Landlords, landlords tend to be a very diverse group, so to get landlords all in one room and sort of walking at the same pace is difficult.

But uh it's a strategy that's worked across the country and even in other parts of the state that we'll look at to see if we can engage effectively the landlords in Avondale.

Yeah, that's one thing.

I mean that I I know it from again from the past there's somebody that had two houses or four houses, and you get those, but we're looking, you know a greater number of those, if there's just you know those landlords that do really want to help and come up with that.

Thank you so much again for the presentation and again, Avondale.

Thank you for the resource center.

Keep it up and keep it going.

Thank you, Cancellum.

A couple of comments that I have, and actually I had written down the cultivate funding to learn a little bit more, and you just kind of referenced um that there's many different options and looking to determine which works for us would be uh left to you and and leadership.

Um I also would like to look more at the different layers that exist with this term affordable housing.

Uh you know, a lot of the conversation and the communication is dominated by transition and whole housing and things of that nature.

But one of the earliest conversations that I know I had when meeting with a consultant was that other municipalities were utilizing uh you know um hotels, uh uh other buildings and retrofitting them to to create some of these housing.

And I think at the time when we talked, we didn't really have that kind of product here, or at least anything that we could use at the moment in time.

And so, has there been any discussion as to uh any sort of creative ideas on what we could do to establish these different layers of what is defined as affordable housing, not just for transition, not just for those who um have you know have been homeless, but for those who can't afford the $1,900 a month rents, but work, you know.

I mean, that we have different again, different levels and layers, and so I I would like to look at this, and if we can get more information from that standpoint of how we're addressing all these different layers, I think the community would benefit from it a lot have uh and not only uh a lot at stake with the answer, but more importantly want to know at least that the city is striving to achieve some sort of you know um opportunity with those different layers.

So I know that's a lot, but can you speak to that?

Um so again that the there are 76 recommendations within the plan, and several of those address that need to have a menu of housing costs, so not just shelter, not just high-end housing, but how do we establish that we have a spectrum of housing options in Avondale?

Um, and so we that's a big part of the work that we're doing right now is to make sure that we're having conversations.

I say all the time that we we we can't do this alone, we need PD and development services, and um this is a real big part of that where the rubber hits the road to get to get all of the right people at the table to make sure that we have diverse housing, uh how diverse housing portfolio in Avondale.

I will say in um the recent months we've got a contract with the county, and we're providing um hotel motel vouchers to families.

So uh we're beginning to look and expand the resources that we do have with what we already have before we have to build out new or turn to others.

So um it is we're looking at it every day.

And Chris likes to say that we talk about housing that is affordable or attainable.

So I know affordable housing sometimes can derail the conversation.

So what we're talking about is that everyone who lives in Avondale can afford to have a house or a home in Avondale.

Sure.

And um, you know, I mean it's just it's very it's complicated, and you know, and next year we'll have a new council, a new mayor, and I just hope that they continue trying to be um supportive of the different creative opportunities that you and leadership will come up with to address what we can here for Avondale.

And while we are uh you know don't have the opportunities that some municipalities have, we are well positioned to take advantage of opportunities such as uh what the other council members mentioned in regards to the resources and um and the opportunities.

So I look forward to hearing more and thank you for for the presentation.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you.

Okay.

So with that um move on to uh summary of current events.

Anything from any of the council members?

Uh Councilmember Silario, do you have anything to add?

I do not any others, any other council members?

No.

Curtis Curtis would like for me to share that um uh our daughter Daniela went and visited a neighboring city's aquatic center, and she gave City of Avondale the thumbs up that we have a wonderful aquatic center compared to the surrounding cities.

Councilmember Nielsen, anything to share?

No, no, no.

Okay.

The next item is adjournment.

Can I please get a motion to adjourn?

Got a motion by Councilmember Nielsen, seconded by Councilmember McCondy.

Councilmember Solerio, how do you vote?

Aye.

Okay, we can all vote.

Passes four to zero.

Item passes.

And for that, everybody have a great evening.

Get home safely, and we'll see you at the next meeting.