I'd like to call the regular meeting of Monday, September 9th, 2024 to order.

Would you all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

And I would ask you to keep in your thoughts and prayers Officer Zane Coolidge, his wife, and their young baby daughter.

Officer Coolidge was killed last week in a senseless shooting.

Also, uh Matthew Haney was also injured in that shooting.

We ask you to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

I pledge allegiance to the cloud of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible Liberty and Justice.

Thank you, everyone.

Marcella.

Councilmember Condi.

Here.

Councilmember Malone.

Here.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Here.

Councilmember Solario.

Councilmember White.

Here.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Here.

Mayor Weiss.

Here.

Ron.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council.

First up, we have the city manager's office, Anisa Romo, our uh management analyst, actually interim senior management analyst to introduce our intern.

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

Today I'm excited to introduce our new Marvin Andrews intern, Sandy Moshe.

Uh Sandy is a Marvin Andrews Fellow, which is a nationally recognized program that prepares graduate students for a career in local government.

She's completing an internship with the city manager's office while pursuing her master's in public administration through Arizona State University.

Prior to her selection as a fellow, Sandy led operations and outreach for Congressman Greg Stanton, led operations for our taught rehabilitative programming for formerly incarcerated man and mentored youth from a Title I school.

Sandy plans to use her experiences to advance innovative and research-driven local government that need that meet emerging needs.

So we're very excited to have Sandy on our team.

Welcome aboard.

Anything to say.

Thank you.

I'm just really glad to be here and a part of such an incredible team.

I always say West Valley is the best valley, so I'm very excited to be serving with Avondale.

And Anisa and the team in uh uh um introduced her to the Avondale uh second city hall at New Penny Cafe today.

So they were there when I was having lunch with Liz.

So it was good.

It was incredible.

I call it our satellite office.

There you go.

You already understand.

It's good to have you aboard.

Thank you.

All right, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up next, we have uh Jody Novak, our director of development services, introducing a couple of her new employees.

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

Um I am happy to introduce two of our newest employees here in our development services department.

Um, first I'll introduce Mark Byrd.

Here's our new deputy building official, which is a new position within our department to support our chief building official Benjamin Carr and overseeing our building services division.

Um Mark moved here with his wife from Fremont, Nebraska.

So he's just finished getting himself settled in here in the West Valley.

Um he worked in Nebraska for um a community that had about 30,000 residents.

He had previously worked for Cahasa Grand um several years back, so he's a bit familiar with Arizona, and he has over 25 years of experience in private building inspection services and construction management.

Um his wife and him have two children and two grandchildren.

And in his free time, he likes home renovation, Royals baseball, and husker football and traveling.

So want to welcome Mark.

So, Mark, big win on Saturday.

Are you are you were you a husker fan?

Uh yes, absolutely.

Big win on Saturday, big win on Saturday.

We're finally turning the ship around.

There you go.

There you go.

Welcome aboard.

Thank you.

And then we have a new senior planner on our team, Christina Lavelle, which also goes by Tina.

Um, we um have interviewed her and thought she would be a great fit with our planning team, and she came from Glendale, so uh we thought she's doing a lot of great projects and development over there in their mixed-use area, so she'd be a great resource for us with her experience.

She did originally come from Washington State, worked for several communities in that area for many years.

Um, and so she's been out here in 29 since 2019, where she moved here with her family.

Um she enjoys painting, spending time with her grandson and hiking the various trails throughout the valley, and I'm assuming when it's much cooler is when you're you're doing that.

So, welcome Christina to our team.

Tina, welcome aboard.

It's nice to be here.

I'm excited about joining the team.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jordy.

That's it.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor and Council up next is our engineering department, or Kim Moon, the director of engineering to introduce one of her new employees.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Tonight I'm proud to introduce our new CIP project manager, Chris Ray.

This is his seventh week of work.

Chris reports to the city's CIP division manager, Rick Carr.

We've got Rick with us tonight as well.

And he'll be working along with other project managers on CIP projects where we'll be focusing on parks projects, wayfinding, and trail connections.

He has a master's in landscape architecture and a background in municipal park planning.

He's also uh has a bachelor of fine arts and likes to paint in his free time.

He's an avid hiker and uh is usually planning his next camping trip.

So I'm excited to welcome Chris to the team.

So Chris Chris Lopez is the one back there in the blue shirt and the yellow tie.

You and him should have a conversation about camping and hiking.

Okay, just should.

Welcome aboard.

How was your first seven weeks?

It was good.

It was nice to meet everybody.

I've had a great time.

Everybody's been really nice, really, really open, and has uh just been really forward to help me and acclimate as fast as possible.

That's great.

We're glad you're here.

Next up, Mr.

Mayors are Renee Weatherless, our director of finance and budget, introducing two of her new employees.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Um I have the pleasure of introducing two of our newest team members in the finance and budget department.

The first is Emily Zenck.

She's our senior budget analyst.

She joined the city from the private sector where she was a sales analyst.

Emily has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Augsburg University and Minneapolis.

She has a master's degree in IT with the emphasis in management from Concordia University St.

Paul, and she's also a certified public accountant.

Emily joined the city to do more for the community and feel connected.

She enjoys learning foreign languages and can speak Mandarin.

Okay, so I have to ask.

But why Mandarin first?

Um I actually took it to help me study Japanese because they learn they use the same characters.

Yes.

So what language are you gonna learn next?

Uh well, I also know some Korean, but hopefully, you know, I'll work on my Spanish.

Might be helpful.

Might be helpful.

Welcome aboard.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for being here.

All right.

And next we have Vasile Smertinian.

Vasile joined the city on July 8th as our revenue manager, supervising utility billing and customer service.

Prior to joining the city, Vasil worked at ADOT as a senior division administrator for the fuel tax program in charge of HERF revenue, where he excelled in process improvement, and his team received many recognition awards.

Vasil was born and raised in Romania and moved to Ohio as a teenager and has lived in Arizona since 1999.

He has a business administration degree from NAU.

He enjoys the outdoors and running.

Well, not just running.

He enjoys ultra-distance running.

Um with his longest race, 104 miles.

And not just one time.

He's traveled the country to compete in as many as 500 mile races and several 50K races with the most recent race in May of this year in Bryce Canyon, Utah.

Wow.

First, we're going to talk about her.

Any insight you can give us to her would be greatly appreciated as we move forward.

And then secondly, have you ever run the Mogeyon Monster up in Payson?

That was just this weekend.

I uh years ago I did the uh short version of that, the 105 kilometer version.

Yeah, and prior to that I did a 35K warm-up.

Um it's on the list.

Okay.

Uh it's on the list.

It's a beautiful area out there on the rim.

So definitely looking forward to uh uh completing that one sometime soon.

We're glad that you're here.

Thank you so much.

Up next, uh Mr.

Mayor and Council is our Chief Rooney, uh, the fire chief.

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

Tonight I have the previous privilege and honor to introduce you to the two newest firefighters for our department who are already out there making lives better.

First, I have Alan.

Alan Galvez.

I'd like to introduce you.

He is raised in Mexico City and moved to Arizona at the age of 11.

Firefighter Galvest previously worked as a lending consultant for a financial institution, which I will not name because you probably lost money with them.

No, I'm just kidding.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

So I'll say Wells Fargo.

Did I say that out loud?

I'm sorry.

Uh Alan is working towards completing this firefighter probation and hopes to then go to paramedic school.

Interesting fact about him is he plays piano and has been playing since he was nine years old.

So he should be pretty good.

Are we assuming or do we know?

Has he played yet?

I just said uh he should be good.

Okay.

What stationmates will tell us.

Um I played at a few weddings.

Hopefully, I didn't play too poorly there.

So I don't know, but that's objective, I guess.

You know, you're just gonna you're giving your station mates like the reason to go out and buy a cheap keyboard just to see what you can do.

I'd be okay with that.

All right.

Um next up is uh Parker James.

I'd like to introduce you to Firefighter James, who was raised in Peori, Arizona.

Firefighter James previously worked as a firefighter in Goodyear and is currently working towards his associates in fire science.

Interesting fact about Parker, he has been a part of Avondale Fire since birth.

His mother, who is um fire captain Jen Bessie, and his stepfather who is fire captain Ryan Bessie, um, both work for the department, and uh they basically raised him here in Avondale, and so it's really excited to keep keep that a legacy going.

I was about to say, does it feel like coming home?

It absolutely does.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm super glad to be here.

Good for you.

We're proud of you.

Thanks for being part of the family.

Thank you so much.

Gentlemen, Chief.

Mr.

Mayor and Council, um, just in case no one else noticed, but as soon as the fire chief starts talking, the city attorney's office perks up and is always taking notes when he's up at the podium.

I don't know, Stan.

Right now, Nicole is listening in, just rolling.

Uh next up, Mr.

Mayor Council, is uh uh Jeff, our director of IT, uh, to introduce one of his new employees.

It's a hard act to follow the fire department.

So good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

So I get the privilege tonight of introducing um our I our latest newest member of the IT help desk team, Tanner Inglehart.

Um Tanner uh was raised in Avondale.

Um he went to uh he's lived in the West Valley all his life.

He went to Garden Lakes Elementary, Westview High School, and EMCC.

Um he worked at the Best Buy in Avondale for the last 10 years.

He worked for corporate IT for Ashley Furniture, and now he's in it with Avondel.

So he enjoys learning about technology, writing bicycles, and building things when he's not at work.

I think you and I have met before.

Probably at Best Buy, I think we have.

Yeah, I've been there, I've been there for a long time.

So if you've ever gone in, yeah.

So tell us about tell us about your time at EMCC.

What'd you study at EMCC?

Uh general studies, right?

So mostly mostly with the tech technology bend to it.

Um I I don't know.

I just like to learn stuff, so I never really went for like this is what I want to major in.

I just took classes.

Good for you.

You're you're with a great you're with a great team.

I I agree.

Welcome aboard.

Thank you.

Next up is Corey, your director of parks, recreation, and libraries.

Introduce a couple new employees.

And that's like a walk-up right there.

That's exciting.

Uh good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council.

I'm excited to introduce two new employees and a familiar face tonight.

Uh first up is Mary Sol Ortiz.

She joined our team on August 19th.

She's gonna be working on the event staff, uh, overseeing our fun Billy Morday events and all those other great activities we have coming up.

She is a recreation programmer.

Uh, she's developed an events and recreation background and joins us from Sun City West and the city of Peoria.

She has a bachelor's degree from Arizona State University in journalism.

Fun fact is she is uh proud owner of one dochin and is practicing to sing mariachi music.

Yes.

Okay.

I was gonna ask about the docs, but I'll ask later on.

We're good.

You can ask at the end in the middle.

Will you tell me where?

Uh next up, we have Brittany Garcia.

Brittany also joined our team on August 19th.

She is uh an administrative assistant in our offices.

Uh she is also a graduate from Arizona State University and a lifelong Avondale resident.

Uh, she is a self-proclaimed Taylor Swift fan and attends Zumba regularly.

Uh fun fact is she is the granddaughter of Sam Garcia, who is uh then the old town Avondale Library is named after Sam Garcia.

So the Garcia family has a long proud tradition in Avondale, and we're proud to have you on board.

We're proud to have both of you on board, but uh yeah.

It's good to see you.

And then a familiar face, Thesi Swin Swainston is joining our team as the assistant director of Parks, Recreation, and Libraries.

Her first day was last week.

She has 15 years of progressive industry experience.

She's been a dedicated Avondale employee since 2017.

She holds her bachelor's in recreation parks and tourism administration from Western Illinois University.

She is a certified parks and recreation professional and a graduate of the National Parks and Recreation Association's director school program, which is a great accomplishment.

She should be very proud of.

Stacey is also an Avondale resident, a proud parent to five rescue dogs, and used to enjoy reading and hiking in her free time.

And I'll be learning to delegate.

No, I want to talk to her now.

I want to talk to her now.

So tell us tell us about this.

I mean, you've been with us for a long time.

Tell us about this process a little bit as much as you can.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Honestly, I'm just so happy.

I when he told me I was shaking and just full of joy.

So I'm so excited to continue with the city.

It's somewhere I plan.

I'm super young, so retire in the long, you know, future.

But I this is my home and I plan on staying here for a very long time.

We're very proud of you.

Thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor and Council, up next, we're gonna have a presentation from Cheryl, your interim acting director of economic uh economic development and tourism.

I think she's proud of one of her employees.

And uh they she wants to brag a little bit.

I love to brag.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the council.

Uh tonight it is my honor to recognize Nikki Taylor, your destination tourism manager for earning the certified destination management executive certification.

I'm gonna shorten that to CDME in just a second.

So this CDME is the tourism industry's highest individual educational achievement.

The program prepares senior executives to thrive in a constantly changing environment.

The program focuses on vision, leadership, productivity, and implementing business strategies.

This certificate is a four-year-long program that Nikki completed in just two years.

Her passion for fostering collaboration and promoting Avondale, which drives economic development, makes her a true asset not only to our department but the city.

Additionally, I wanted to note that Nikki is only one of three people in the state of Arizona that holds this designation and 500 worldwide.

Please help me in congratulating Nikki Taylor for this incredible accomplishment.

So a four-year program in two years.

What does that look like?

Um, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Um, it was a lot of work, but I wanted to get it done because there's a lot of things to focus on.

Um I had to write about 75 pages for my classes and my final.

Um, so it's a big deal.

Uh, the CEO of Visit Phoenix is one of the other people who have it.

So um, you know, I wanted to be up there with big guys.

So I worked really hard and with lots of support from leadership.

I was able to get it done.

That's great.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Uh Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Next, um, I've asked Ted Flores, your assistant director of human resources to come up and accept a proclamation that I believe you'll read here in a few minutes.

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

September is recognized as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and it is meant to raise the viability of mental health and proactive suicide prevention resources in our community.

We want to start the conversation, desigmatize it, and help connect people with the appropriate resources.

The City of Avondale publicly places its full support behind those who work in mental health, education and law enforcement.

We encourage all residents to take the time to understand mental health through education and recognize that we need to take care of our mental health while we take care of each other.

We would like to acknowledge the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission who will be hosting a suicide prevention workshop in September.

They are in attendance this evening.

At this time, Mayor, I would like to welcome Alexis Perez with Touchstone Health Services and Cathy Via with Southwest Behavioral Health Services to the podium at this time to accept the proclamation.

Come on up.

Up front.

I'm gonna move back to the Mayor.

Now I'll turn it over to you so you can read the proclamation.

This is an issue that impacts all of us, whether we realize it or not.

So I want to read this proclamation.

I'm honored to read this proclamation as representative of the entire Avondale City Council and the City of Avondale.

Whereas September is recognized as Suicide Awareness Month to raise the visibility of mental health and proactive suicide prevention resources in our community.

And whereas we want to start the conversation, to stigmatize it and help connect people with the appropriate support services.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34, with more than 48,000 people dying by suicide annually in the United States.

And whereas each suicide impacts 100 additional people, including families, friends, service members, co-workers, and neighbors.

Nearly everyone has been impacted by suicide.

And whereas the City of Avondale publicly places its full support behind those who work in the field of mental health, education, and law enforcement.

And whereas every member of our community should understand that throughout life's struggles, we all need the occasional reminder that we are all fighting our own battles.

And whereas we encourage all residents to take time to understand mental health through education and recognize that we need to take care of each other, take care of our mental health, and take care of each other.

And now therefore, the mayor and council of the City of Avondale, Arizona, to hereby proclaim the month of September 2024 as National Suicide Prevention and Action Month in the City of Avondale.

Thank you all for everything that you've done.

We really do appreciate that.

I also want to take a moment and I'm sorry, Ron, I also want to take a moment and recognize everyone who was part of this effort for the planning, uh putting this forward.

I also want to take a minute and thank our city manager Ron Corbin who who uh helped with this and made this the forefront of what we're working on now.

So thank you, City Manager Corbin.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Mayor and Council.

I didn't know if our two guests would like had anything to say or any uh since we brought them all the way down here.

Please.

And then after that, Mr.

Mayor, if we could get a picture of this group with council, we would love that opportunity.

Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members, we really appreciate this opportunity to be able to represent um our behavioral health agency working on the grant um that we have with Touchstone Health Services.

We're really able to impact the lives of many youth by being able to provide multiple um suicide prevention trainings for adults in the community, and we want to continue to spread that awareness.

So again, thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you for everything that you do.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council members.

Um, just want to take an opportunity to thank you for the opportunity for Southwest Behavioral and Health to continue to work with the City of Avondale and its residents and to provide the mental health services that is needed at this um Avondale Resource Center.

So we are very excited about that and look forward to continuing to build our programming and continue providing more services.

We are proud of our partnership with you.

Thank you.

Council, will you join me down?

Yep, Mr.

Mayor, as uh we're getting ready for that.

I just want to personally thank the uh youth advisory commission for putting on their host in September.

As the mayor said, the second leading cause of death in young people.

And um uh you can make a difference, and I appreciate you guys being leaders in your schools and in your community and stepping up and helping those in need.

So thank you from me personally.

Okay, can everybody see?

Perfect.

Everybody stay there with me right over here at this camera, big smile.

Three, two, one.

Oh, three, two, one.

Okay, one more, three, two, one.

Oh, everybody look right here.

Thank you so much.

Ron, item number D, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Up next, we have a presentation from Dominic.

Um, and where it is, Stephanie.

Um, giving you an update on our public art program.

That's perfect.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

My name is Dominic DeCono.

I'm Stephanie Flood.

We are here tonight to give you an update on the public art program.

So tonight we wanted to give you an update on a couple different things as it relates to the public art program, the public art fund, some projects that we've completed, projects that we've got that are working on right now, and then some stuff that's coming up down the pipeline.

Um the public art program, we utilize a master plan.

It was most recently updated in 2021.

The plan provides direction on art project priorities throughout the city, and it helped guides us on decisions and best practices.

Um public art, it adds a lot to our community.

It adds cultural, social, and economic value to communities, and it also humanizes the environment and invigorates public spaces.

And don't take my word for it, that's actually from the American Association of Artists themselves.

This past year we've completed 13 public art projects.

We have three projects that are currently in progress.

There are we completed uh three art sponsorships that totaled seven thousand dollars that were approved through the municipal art committee.

And we also approved four scholarships that were awarded through the high school art competition that was also completed this past May.

So public art is funded in by three different means.

It's one is through the public art fund itself, and that's a combination of monies from the general fund as well as fees in lieu from developers.

Second way is through our CIP program, which is usually a percentage of the projects themselves, up to 150,000, or it's funded through the private sector, and this is usually triggered automatically through development projects that hit a certain threshold, which is usually 50,000 square feet and above.

Tonight we wanted to give you an update on the public art fund balance.

It currently sits at just under 525,000.

We currently have just under 97,000 under contract through the public art fund.

We also want to give you an update, some context on the CIP.

We have this fiscal year, we have $314,000 budgeted through the public art side of the CIP with uh $146,000 that are on under contract or scheduled to start very soon.

Okay, some completed projects that we did in 2024 are Humble Roots, which was an amazing sculpture at the Aquatic Center installed May 2024 by artist Trevor O'Toole.

Also installed May 2024 by Catitude Arts was Memoria Entre Las Flores, which is at the Goodyear Farm Cemetery.

That's a mural.

And in historic cash in, there is the beautiful historic marker, which was created by E2 Innovations and installed in November of 2023.

These are the completed traffic wraps that we've done.

They are on McDowell and Dice Art.

They cost between three to four thousand each to do.

And these have all been funded out of the public art fund.

So these are the ones that we've done over this past year.

Here's three.

Here's three more.

And those are the final four.

So in addition to the projects that we've completed this year, these are the three that we have that are currently in progress.

The first that you see on the left there is a project concept called Nexus.

This is over at the North Public Safety Facility.

This has been completed or being completed by the artist and Muller Studios.

This is actually completely expected to be completed fairly soon in November of 2024.

It is a sculpture and it was funded out of the public art fund itself.

The sculpture itself, this is if you're familiar by the Crystal Gardens neighborhood.

The concept is a crane that's in the middle of three waterways that's supposed to represent the Trace Rios rivers.

And at the base of it is supposed to be fish that are flowing out of the waterway, representing the fish in the Crystal Gardens neighborhood.

It is a kinetic move sculpture, which means that it moves.

So the top piece moves in one way and the bottom piece moves another way when it is windy and is blowing.

The second piece before you is the inspiring young minds mural that is being completed at the Mountain View Community Center.

We are expecting that to be completed shortly here as well in October.

That is a mural being funded out of the public art fund, and the artist for that is Maria Madrid Reed.

She's actually one of the artists that helped work on some of the utility art reps that you saw on the previous slide.

The last project that we are currently working on is called Confluence.

This actually originated from the call to artists that we did for the North Public Safety Facility.

This is a project that the municipal art committee really, really liked.

They just didn't necessarily feel that location was the best place for it.

And so at the direction of staff that they told us to move it to a location that they thought would be more appropriate, and so the location that was chosen was Park Avenue Plaza.

Um so this will be the central public art piece that'll be there.

That is a sculpture piece, and it is also being funded out of the public art fund.

We are expecting that project to be completed a little bit later.

That is expected to be finished sometime in January of 2025.

And lastly, we wanted to give you an idea of some projects that we have upcoming down the pipeline, and there are quite a few.

So we have the visitor and conference center.

We just completed a call to artists for that project, and we have some concepts that'll be going before the municipal art committee at the next meeting next week.

Um that project, so just some background before it.

This is the project when you um walk into the visitor and conference center on the left-hand side, the wall that's on the left-hand side.

If you remember when that building was first completed, there were some cactus that were installed on the base of it.

Unfortunately, those cactus didn't make it, and so they had to be removed.

So, in lieu of the cactus that are being there at the direction of the art committee, we want to put some really good public art there to be able to help liven up that building when you walk in.

So that's where that's coming from, and that's being funded out of the public art fund.

We have a couple of mural projects that are being funded by the private side over at Park 10, which is a development project, if you're familiar with that, over on McDowell Road on the south side.

We have one mural that's going on the side of, I'm sorry, I believe it's Cooper's Hawk, and then we have another one that's in a mixed multi-use space.

We have a multi, I'm sorry, we have a public art project at the American Sports Center.

We have three sculpture pieces that are being put in around various parts of the facility that were designated specifically for public art that is also being funded out of the public art fund.

We also have a project coming down the line where we have a parcel of land over on the corner of Dysart and Western for future public art.

We're not 100% sure what the design of that is going to be, but we know that it's probably going to most likely be a sculpture piece, and that will be funded out of the public art fund.

The beautiful groundbreaking that we just did last week and work that's being currently done over at Civic Center Park.

There is a public art project that is scheduled to be installed there.

It will be a sculpture piece, and that is being funded out of the CIP.

At the direction of the Municipal Art Committee, we are working on a project on historic city photographs.

Um so we are working on a project right now that basically incorporates a bunch of historic photographs going back to the 1970s all the way to the present day that were taken professionally to help illustrate the timeline of Avendale's history to be able to show uh from kind of like you know the early stages of Abdale to current day about what that looks like.

That is a photography medium, and that's being funded out of the public art fund.

We also have um more new box art wraps that we're working on.

That's a mixed media concept, so we would like to complete more of those box art wraps that you saw previously on some of those slides of Dice Art and McDowell.

We are working on another public art concept over at Fire Station 171.

This is quite a bit down on the road, but definitely still on our agenda.

Um we're looking at doing a mural slash mixed media concept.

This will be on along the sides of the building as it's gets completed.

That's being funded out of the CIP fund.

And then lastly, kind of tied that same project.

We are going to be doing a relocation of public art.

There is a mosaic that is at the beginning of the, or I'm sorry, at the front of that building at the detention center that's getting ready to be torn down.

Um we have at the direction of the municipal art committee um are moving that mosaic over to the substation over by Donnie Hale Park to be able to preserve that and keep that as part of the public art inventory.

And that is also being funded out of the CIP fund.

And with that, we'll take any of your questions.

For me, I love what I see.

I was on council when the original uh Master Art Plan came in.

It was Councilmember Stephanie Carlin at the time, and then Brian Kilgore could uh extended that tradition on that.

I had lunch with Liz today at the unofficial City Hall that is uh New Penny Cafe.

And when we were at Arizona Cities, uh we had a we had a meeting with Amtrak and Amtrak's plan is to move forward with their train from Buckeye down to Mirana.

And one of the things they're gonna require from cities is to build a train station.

And we're able to look at some old photos of the train station that used to be at Lichfield Road and MC 85.

And I think for the council going forward, you've got about two years before this train station has to be built.

And we've talked about partnering with Tulsa on there because it didn't really make sense for Tulison and Avondel to have two separate train stations.

But I think an art piece that would would go with that and put that in long-term planning would be pretty incredible to go along with that.

And then the second part of this was can you go back to Park 10?

And what was the what was the building that was going that?

What what building was that going on?

The mural?

I'm sorry, is that Cooper's Hawk?

Yes.

Yes.

And then the other building was a mixed-use one, and it was like a multi-level uh two-story mural.

It was actually really cool, long and outdoor standards.

And who's the tenant on that building?

I don't know the tenant on that one, sure.

I think he's making fun of me.

Oh, are you making fun of us?

Oh, sorry.

No, it's Cooper's Hawk.

So for those of us coming to Avendal.

For those of you don't know, Cooper's Hawk Winery is coming to Avondale, and this mural is going on their building.

So that's the same.

There's two murals.

Two murals, that's a big deal.

Council, can I start with you, Tina?

Do you mind if I start at that end?

Ron, anything?

No.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Dominic, for the presentation.

Um, I had an opportunity to go to the ribbon cutting for the humble roots at the Aquatic Center.

And what a beautiful piece.

And just having that sculpture there really just added to the aquatic center.

Just the colors were vibrant.

We had an opportunity to meet um the artists that did that work.

So um, but thank you guys for all the work that you do.

Um, before I got on council, I was on the municipal arts committee and it was a lot of fun.

And you get to hear and listen from different artists um bringing their vision um that they would like to see in our city.

And so um the process was was was wonderful.

I did have a couple questions.

You kept referencing social peace.

Is that what you were saying at the Civic Center Park?

Uh I'm sorry, you said it's Civic Center Park.

I thought you, yeah, I thought you mentioned you said something like social piece.

Oh, well, you're talking about a sculpture piece at Civic Center Park.

Sculpture piece.

Okay, I couldn't hear.

Okay.

Um, one thing I do have a question on a couple of the pieces that are coming up, um, especially the one, the confluence and um the nexus.

Are those two pieces gonna be lit where in the evening mayor?

I'm sorry, go ahead.

I believe that confluence will be lit.

I'm not sure about Nexus, but I I believe that the lighting and confluence is part of the actual piece itself.

Okay, nice.

I I love having the sculpture, the pieces that are lit up at night.

It's a great opportunity for people to come at night and kind of walk around.

And also too, having that art piece really art pieces in our city highlights our city, right?

A lot of times they put hashtag Avondale art, so different things like that um are important to kind of for us to promote on social media.

And um, I just want to just say thank you guys for taking the time.

Um it looks like some great pieces are coming real soon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tina.

Councilmember Malone.

Thank you for the presentation.

I wanted to find out if Confluence is um gonna be lit up, so I'm glad to hear that it is.

Um, what I do like is the inspiring um mine to love the vibrant colors, so I can't wait to see that.

Um so thank you for the presentation.

Max.

Thank you.

I really enjoyed the presentation.

Uh and the slide that went back about the historical um Avondale, the photos.

I was just wondering, will you be able to capture all of the photos?

Because I know I've seen a past photos of prior councils in Avondale.

So just kind of having maybe the historical governance as a part of that too, if you guys can find that.

And then I would love to see in one of the upcoming Discover Avondale or Rave magazines, kind of like a tour or an art walk that will then be reflected on our website so people could kind of get that new vibe.

And if people want to come and just explore our art, maybe they can do that on the trails that we're gonna be creating through Parkinson Rec and making sure not only are we connected, but they can find that joy and in art as they move throughout our city and inspiration.

But thank you so much.

Excellent, excellent work with the art commission as well.

Thank you.

That's that's already in the works.

I believe marketing has reached out to us.

And the municipal art committee had talked about it as well.

So that's definitely an idea to create um a map of all of the wonderful public art.

Thank you.

No, I'd just like to tell you thank you as well.

I know that these are the ones that you've been active in.

There's some that have been done previously that other artists have been involved with, and I just appreciate you know all of it throughout the color.

Everything else gives us an opportunity, at least you can put these things up on Facebook or wherever it is.

They know the debt when they come through here to Avendale.

I appreciate you going down uh McDowell with the idea.

I mean, there's Main Street and Mesa, they have those sculptures of different things all the way around there with the same type of thing.

We can go down there, uh McDowell.

And well, we're not stopping at the stoplight, or we are stopping at the stoplights.

We have an opportunity to look at what artists there are available.

So thank you very much for all the work that you're doing.

Thank you, Chris.

Gloria?

Vice Mayor Thank you so much for the presentation.

There's nothing better than driving down the roads and seeing uh you know some of our residents, maybe not even our residents, but pulling over to the side of the road to take pictures safely and not talking about the heart, uh, but in front of uh ones 175 and others.

But what's interesting is you don't realize realize how bland the landscape can be until you're driving down the road and something just pops at you.

Um, like several of the boxes along uh Dysert.

I know that I recognize some of those uh you know different pieces as I drove down the road, and you just realize how much it pops.

So, you know, any time that a new piece could make its way to one of our streets, I'm sure not only us but residents alike uh really enjoy it, and so we really appreciate it.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

The only thing for me is I think we've been doing this now for a long time, and I love the art that we see.

I love the I love the heart sculpture.

I think Confluence is going to be amazing when it's lit up.

I think there's a lot of pieces that you drive around the city and you don't realize them, and maybe until you drive by them a couple times.

What I'd like us to see, what I like to have us do is as we look at art, just not focus on the visual medium.

There's a sound part of art that also happens, and you can see that through kinetic pieces that involve wind chimes.

Um, certain ways that there's cuts in the road.

There, I think there's a road in California that when you drive over it at a certain speed, it plays a song as the tires go over it.

Some people may not consider that art, but I think there's differences of art that we can incorporate into the municipal art program and maybe broaden.

We've gotten our feet wet over the last 15 years in this.

We've done things really well.

I love the program.

I want to continue the program, but how do we expand that?

Because there's some people who can't enjoy the visual aspect of art, and that art should be available for all of them.

So I just like to kind of see that expansion.

Mr.

Mayor, thank you for that direction in council.

Um, that's already in the plans.

Um, we actually offer um partnerships that the commission can um sponsor to pay for visual art, uh, musical art, um plays.

We are we've been directed from a couple people in council to expand the use of our amphitheater, and we're working on that.

So we're well aware uh that council wants uh not just what we currently do, but more, and so we're on it.

Thank you for all the hard work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Ron Item E, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Next up, we have um I lost my place.

We have Mark, our aquatics supervisor uh for Parks and Rec, who is here to share great happy news.

Right, Mark?

And you can tell Mark's been out in the sun.

My tan my tan is a little bit better than it was the last time I was here.

So uh mayor, vice mayor, counsel.

My name is Mark Foot.

I am the Aquatics Manager, and I am here to share just all of the funness that we had this summer out of the Aquatic Center.

It was a great summer, and and we want to share some of the successes that we had with you all tonight.

Uh so it's just starting first off, I think our business biggest success is that over the course of the last four months since we've been open, we've welcomed in over 75,000 people through the doors of our aquatic center.

That's just a a ginormous mass of people to push through that center.

Um, and with that, our feedback has been just overwhelmingly positive.

Our Google reviews are at a 4.3 stars, and I would argue that we would have five stars, but some of those tolls and people we had to turn away were were not so happy with us, and they let us know.

But um, 95% of our swimming lessons and classes had wait lists.

Uh, we for sure were not able to meet that demand.

Part of that is that we just didn't have enough instructors available.

Um, and so uh for sure that's something that we'll look forward to in the future of trying to expand to be able to get all those people that want to participate in our classes in.

Uh, another huge success we had was our room rentals.

Um, it was for sure a program that we didn't know how was gonna go.

Um, at this point, we fill our rooms every at least every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, still to this day.

Um, October bookings opened last week, and we're starting to fill even October uh bookings for our room rentals.

So uh huge success on our room rentals as well.

Um, as you can see, our public swim attendance.

So this is just our public swim hours.

We welcomed in over 60,000 people just for our public swim programs, just over 11,000 for our pre-booking.

So that was the people that pre-booked online to enter into the facility.

We had 3,000 non-resident guests that attended as well, and just over a thousand camps and other events that we were able to host over the course of the summer.

And these numbers are really just through Labor Day.

So swimming lessons and classes and our teams.

So that's 1,500 people that were able to register for one of our classes for swimming lessons or our teams.

That equates to just over 15,000 visits, individual visits to the pool.

So a normal class would go eight times over a course of a session.

Revenues, this is really exciting for us.

And the pool's a little bit hard because we fall, our main portion of what we do falls in between two fiscal years.

So our revenue estimates for fiscal year 24 and 25 were just at 100,000 for each one of those years.

Fiscal year 24, we ended with 143,000 for our revenue.

And to date through Labor Day, we're at 86,726.

So just for our open season from April until Labor Day, we did just over 230,000 in revenue.

So we are far exceeding our revenue estimates for those times, and obviously we're continuing to operate and we'll continue to operate, and then we'll have another big push with lessons and classes and public swim next spring.

Many of you were in attendance at most of these events.

On April 11th, we hosted the state of the city with just over 200 guests in attendance.

On May 22nd, which Dominic talked about earlier, was our art dedication of the Humble Roots Sculpture.

On May 24th, we welcomed in 850 people for our first day of public swimming in Avondale.

So lots of people enjoyed that that event and were appreciative of the hard work you guys put in to make that happen.

On July 12th, we hosted our very first dive-in movie showing Jaws at the pool.

We had 345 participants.

Anybody get out of the pool.

There were for sure some people that didn't go in the water.

And so, but I think they all enjoyed it.

And then August 1st, we hosted our end of the season recreational swim meet for our swim team kiddos, which was a great event to be able to showcase some of the features that exist in our facility from electronic standpoint from our timing system, where we're able to put each individual swimmer's name up on our video board.

So it showed their name and their finish time.

So just an amazing use of the technology that was implemented and built into that facility as well.

And we can now officially say we are an award-winning facility.

Just two weeks ago, we accepted the award for outstanding facility from the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association, and we're very excited to have received that award.

We're also working with a handful of external groups.

Tolson Unified High School District.

We have three high schools that are swimming at our pool, maybe as we speak.

We are hosting our first high school swim meets this week.

We have West Point, Westview, and Toleson all swimming with us.

Toleson is in the process of building their facility.

And when it's completed, Tolson will move over and La Jolla will then reinitiate their swim team as well.

We hosted the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association, Arizona Lifeguard Challenge, where we had teams of lifeguards from over 30 different locations from around the state come in and compete against all the lifeguards in a lifeguard challenge to do bragging rights for the next year to be able to say they were the best lifeguards.

We also hosted the Michael Phelps Foundation on numerous occasions.

We even had the swim god himself visit the pool here in April during one of those trainings.

So they do an international swim instructor program.

It's a it's a swim lesson program that they run in partnership with the YMCAs and boys and girls clubs, and they bring in instructors from around the world.

We had instructors as far away as Ireland come in to do that training with them, and we hosted that here.

And we'll continue to host that.

We're working on a partnership agreement with them currently to be able to continue to host that and be their training site, their official training site moving forward.

Additionally, we brought in food trucks to to the facility that were be able to be hosted all the at all the public summon times, which was a great offering for all of the people that came to the pool, and that was very successful, and we'll look to expand that moving forward.

Staffing, I just want to just a huge shout out to all of our staff.

We we brought on 62 temporary staff this year to be able to staff our facility.

That's a total of 5,000 shifts, over 5,000 shifts, equaling over 21,000 hours of staff time to be able to run our facility for the last four months.

So just a huge undertaking from especially our part-time and temporary seasonal staff.

Um and we were just very, very appreciative.

We had a really, really good group of uh lifeguards and instructors and management teams out there this year.

Um obviously going through our first year, we learned a lot and we'll be making some modifications, those staffing plans, change around some of our positions, potentially looking at some security just to make sure that we're we're keeping everybody safe on the deck as well as in the pool.

Um, and then pushing through that many people in one facility uh really became uh uh quite a task to keep that facility clean and looking looking new.

Um, and so we'll continue to work through uh our staffing levels on the facility maintenance side as well.

And then growth opportunities again.

What this is our first summer, and we learned a lot.

And so there's some opportunities for us moving forward to just improve and do even better.

Uh night swim being one of those.

We sort of threw out night swim as an opportunity to sort of see how it would go.

We didn't know how the community would receive it, and it was one of our most popular programs.

We would close down during the week for swimming lessons, and then on two nights we would reopen back up after swimming lessons had cleared out, and we would open back up for two hours in the evening, and every single one of them was almost at full capacity, just an ex huge demand, and it was a different crowd.

So public swim tends to be small children and families normally.

Our night swims were older families, teenagers.

Um, so it was it was fun to see a different group utilizing the pool at a different time.

And so it was really, really good to see.

But we'll continue to see if we can try and expand that.

It was a two-hour session that we did, and we for sure need uh probably some extra time on there.

So we'll be doing some shifts in our programming to make sure that we can accommodate those needs.

Uh obviously, our swimming lessons, we're gonna work on um getting more instructors in the pool so that we can facilitate as many swimming lessons as possible.

That's one of our core um programs.

So we want to make sure that we're offering that that swim safety and and that water safety training to everybody that we can.

Uh, our swim teams, we were very uh conservative this year in how we operated those swim teams because we wanted to make sure that we had everything good and everybody had really great experience.

We were able to accomplish that, and so we look to expand those swim teams and really uh increase our numbers for next year.

Um staffing efficiencies.

Uh, we again learned a lot, and so we'll be doing some things with our staffing and with our hours to make sure that we're we're facilitating everything that we need to at the at the center.

Um, and then our pool booking process, again, our pool bookings were were incredibly popular and from a revenue standpoint, we're incredibly lucrative, and so we'll continue to expand our pool bookings and and it was a great opportunity for people to host birthday parties and and family gatherings.

Uh Councilmember White, I'm gonna pick on you a little bit because we hosted one this last weekend with with her family, um, and it was a great experience for them as well.

So and then fall programming, just making you aware the pool doesn't shut down.

We are a year-round operation.

Uh right now we are open up on Wednesdays and Friday evenings, as well as Saturdays and Sundays.

Our regular hours are 12:30 to 7 on Saturdays and 12.30 to 5 on Sundays.

Um, I worked this last Sunday, and when we were first starting when the Cardinals game was still on, it was a little bit slow.

Once Cardinals game got done, we filled up real good and we were almost at capacity on Sunday.

Uh we have swimming lessons two nights a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We have lap swim daily, and then we're hosting club groups.

We're working with a water polo group to begin practice this next month.

And then we have a handful of events that we'll be hosting and want to let you guys know about.

Um we are will be hosting at the end of this month, Pups Plunge, where we're gonna turn over the pool to the dogs and let the dogs go swimming for a day.

Um, and then we're going to cancel public swim.

We're gonna do some cleaning at the pool, maybe get it ready for everybody else uh to come back the next day.

Um, on October 10th, we'll be hosting our first duathlon, which is a swim and run event.

So the participants will swim in the pool, they'll do a snake through our swim course, they'll hop out, they'll put their tennis shoes on, and then they'll go run a uh a cross-country course um around the facility.

And so that's something that's new and exciting.

Where it's sort of like a triathlon but without the bike.

Um and then on November 16th, we will switch gears a little bit and move to a safety focus and be promoting CPR skills.

We'll CPR demonstrations and learning and then some games and activities for the kiddos out of the pool.

So with that, it's been a crazy and exciting season, and we're super uh grateful for the support that council showed us throughout the throughout the season, and uh with that I'll take any questions.

Mr.

Mayor, can I add two things to the presentation?

If we could go back to a picture of Mr.

Phelps, I'm just kind of curious if anybody got the invite to meet him.

Oh no, no, we did not.

Oh, I don't know.

Uh let me go through the calendar.

Well, I'll let that go someday.

You mean there was a multi gold medal Olympian in our city and in our pool.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

Wow.

Picture is nice.

Nice.

Yeah, but you know, we got a picture of their coming back.

Ron, look who's in the picture.

Oh, I I see that.

I see that.

No, no.

They've been texting ever since.

It's a beautiful, it's uh it's a bromance.

I love it.

It's great.

Yes.

Yes.

Council member Solario.

Ron, did you have anything else?

I have one other thing for turning over, and that is uh humble pie.

Um yeah, she's she's perked up.

Um so if you remember during our discussions, there's a little bit of debate, and I got direction.

Um, and so um I'm glad that we listened.

Not that I had a choice, but uh uh good job to Councilmember Solari and those who pushed back, and we uh kept it open for residents only, and we filled up and had uh waiting lists and had to turn a few away here and there.

So uh humble pie.

Um I was wrong, you guys were right, and I'm glad it worked out.

I'll take a slice as well.

So to put that discussion in, I did when when the numbers came up, I looked at Gloria.

I'm like, hmm.

Um I remember that discussion on that council meeting because I got a call from Veronica, and then I got a call from Gloria.

And I will tell you the same thing.

I didn't I didn't know how much the community would support the pool.

I just didn't, and it and not because I didn't think they wanted it, but because so many of our residents have pools.

But the people who don't, and the people who really wanted this facility showed up in droves to support it with their families.

Councilmember Shallorio.

Go ahead.

Do you want to take a request?

I will first and foremost say thank you to uh Laura Cano and the Goodyear City Council, who were very nice enough to get our whole group a tour so that we can, as she said, and many times they stated, learn from their mistakes.

So it was really nice to have the tour and do that.

Um I'm in looking at all the information.

I am so glad that it is such a huge success.

When you talk about numbers of 75,000 people in general altogether, or not 75,000, but you know, um, the 60,000 marker that shows of people in a residents going, and then I understand the reviews are 4.3, but you know, the residents thoroughly enjoyed themselves, I would say, in which sometimes we take the good and the bad, but the good in this case supersedes the bad comments, and the bad ones are more things that you can fix, like paving and cool decking and stuff like that.

A few people turned away, but you know, think about if we had opened it to everyone, how many people would have been upset that couldn't use the pool.

So I'm personally excited that you know our residents took advantage of it.

I know that as a resident myself, being here for um almost 20 years, I remember this with past councils and the mayor then who said this has been in the works for 50 years.

And I do recall calling her that day that I called the mayor, and she said, No, this needs to be for the residents.

They've been asking, she goes, I actually feel bad that I couldn't help in that time being the mayor and helping get a pool.

So thank you to the staff, thank you to everybody because it takes a village to run a pool.

I was there on Sunday at Max's um splash bash, and um it was a lot.

I saw a lot of you know, a lot of the staff out there making sure that you know that the time when it was closing and ensuring that everybody was going through the proper door because some people don't read signs, but you know, it it's it does take a village to do that.

So I'm really glad that the council and everybody ensured that we gave this back to our community and we saw the return of it, that it really was for them.

And yes, you know, we're not gonna please everyone, but it truly is such an amazing thing to see so many people enjoy it, and I'm happy that we have it for years to come.

Thank you.

Anyone else on council?

Any comments, any thoughts?

What surprised you?

Oh man.

Um, you've done this before.

Yeah.

Um the normally a new facility, the new wears off fairly quickly.

Um, you know, you'll get a burst at the beginning, and then it'll die down into uh a nice little simmer.

Um we were busy start to finish.

Um, you know, I was worried on Sunday um because I was opening um because we have some management that were gone, and so I was running that shift, and when we started opening and you know, there wasn't a ton of people there, I started thinking, oh man, we're gonna have to have conversations.

Do we need to change hours for public swim?

Do we need to modify the schedule?

It's after Labor Day, that's traditionally when you know the rest of the pools around the country end up closing.

We we're in a little bit different situation, but there's a lot of communities in the valley that don't stay open.

Uh it's unique to have a year-round facility that hosts public swim.

And so to continue to be busy from start to finish and and the residents being supportive of it start to finish, um, was the thing that I think surprised me the most.

And and I wonder if there's not an opportunity on football Sundays to somehow over free TV broadcast the game and have another food truck out there and have families come out because there are there are moms and dads who watch that football game and they're not moving away from it.

But I wonder if there's an opportunity to invite those families out and have them be a part and see what we could do.

We did movie night.

You know, you talk about Jaws, and um, I think my wife's online right now, but when we we live behind in Avondale City Hall, and we built a pool and we got the Pebble Tech, and the guy said, Don't get it too dark because you're not gonna be able to see the bottom of the pool, especially at nighttime.

And I would get done with the council meeting or at nighttime from work, and I would go there and I would put on a baseball game and I would clean the pool, and I would have to put on the pool light because the whole Jaws trauma thing, and my wife would come out and say, Why do you have the pool light on?

I'm like, Did you ever see Jaws?

She's like, Ken, really?

Really?

So I understand the I'm glad that some people were dangling their feet, but anyone else?

Mr.

Mayor, we'll we'll look at that.

Um the problem is I don't know that the cowboys are always on free TV.

Um, but we'll we'll see what we can do.

I think we're talking professional football.

My my staff and I had actually discussed it.

Uh, Mayor, if it makes you feel any better, that's all some of the folks did yesterday, was watch the game, and we have excellent facilities.

When they pay for a rental, they can go ahead and sit in that room and watch any game they want.

So we saw the Browns, and then we saw the Browns get whooped, and then we watched part of the Lions.

How much was your rental for your event?

Um I think it's uh I you you got me better on the room, but then you have to pay three dollars additional per person that comes in the door.

So you might tell them the room rate and I just need it for personal.

So weekend weekend rates, um, I believe that room, which is the smaller room, is 140 dollars for a four-hour block.

Um so that gets you the room for four hours, and then you pay for all the individuals that come in in addition to that that block.

Did you I'm sorry, Ron?

Collin paid for it, so I don't know.

No, no.

So did you cater or did the Avendale team cater?

Uh Colin catered.

Colin catered.

Okay.

Colin did everything.

Right.

Perfect.

It's it's it's just good to know.

It's good to have it on the record and for people to know because there's times where you think you might have a kids' party, but would you have adult party there?

I mean, we're just watching football or doing something or just hanging out and having friends.

Would you do that?

It was very organized.

You would sign in.

They had a sign in sheets.

Perfect.

Correct.

And then you can get a liquor license from the county far enough in advance if you plan ahead and you would like to host an event that uh provides libation, but you do have to have the appropriate licensing in order to do so, and that facility will allow it if you get the right paperwork.

To the entire parks and rec team, and I know you I know the pool team may not all be here, obviously they're not.

But thank you for everything that you did.

You took on something brand new that had never been done in the city.

Every time I was there, I saw smiles, I saw energy, I saw a willingness to help when when people needed help, and just answering questions.

And when we talk about 75,000 people, we talk about the revenues, we talk about all that.

I I think the response from our team for me is maybe one of the biggest takeaways.

And then also that 90% of the swim classes were filled.

Because when we talk about when we were building this facility, that was a huge goal for us.

How do we prevent childhood drownings, adult drownings in our city?

And to have those classes that filled is a major accomplishment, and I hope we can build on that next year.

I think the park team should all stand so they can be recognized.

I see how everyone in the audience back in the corner.

Go ahead and want ladies and gentlemen to stand up.

Yeah, yeah, you know who you are.

So I we'll do don't sit or to have a cosmore Malone.

Thank you for the presentation.

I want to say this is a phenomenal facility.

You guys do an amazing job.

I'm glad with the numbers.

I also want to challenge our mayor elect that he will have a Super Bowl splash party.

So get that liquor life.

So he needs to start getting his liquor license and all of that ready to go.

That's your February.

Wow.

All right.

Mr.

Mayor, if the cowboys are there, I'll pay.

I think that's on the right.

Can we play the Packers Cowboys playoff game next week?

Mark, uh, I just want to add one more thing uh for councilwoman Solorio.

Um the feedback online, especially, uh, even though there were there are our detractors, the residents uh overwhelmingly, if you look at our Google reviews individually, we're so appreciative of the fact that we went uh that we went uh resident only.

I'm sorry.

That it was nice to see the comments about the staff that it was well organized and the people that took advantage from start to finish.

A lot of people like the pre-registration, which is a nice piece to it.

Uh, my nephews took swim lessons there, so they enjoyed it as well.

I love it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Marcella, any unscheduled public appearances?

Thank you, Mayor.

I have not received any requests to speak.

All right, thank you.

Item four is consent agenda just for council's uh education or just notification.

Item G is going to be pulled and presented with item five B on the uh regular agenda.

That was a staff recommendation.

So um can I get a are there any council members who wish to have another item removed from consent agenda?

Seeing none, can I get a motion on the consent agenda minus G?

Second.

I have a motion from Councilmember Solario, a second from Councilmember White.

Marcel, are we doing voice vote?

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

Passes unanimously.

Ron item five A, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, I believe we're gonna have a No, I lost my spot.

I apologize, Mr.

Mayor.

So we have a presentation by Renee Warless, your director of finance and budget to talk about uh bonds and uh the future plans to move forward.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

The purpose of tonight's presentation is to discuss um appetite from council to pursue a potential bond election in November of 2025 to consider adopting a resolution to create a citizen bond committee and to adopt committee bylaws.

So just to give a little background about general obligation bonds, you'll see them um abbreviated as Go bonds.

They do require voter approval or authorization, and they must be held in a November election.

Um they are backed by the full faith and credit of the city, and we do have two credit rating agencies, Fitch and Moody's, who have rated the city's um bonds as triple A and A, which means that that tells investors that our bonds are investment grade and low risk, and that can result in lower interest rates for the city.

So general obligation bonds can be used to fund virtually all infrastructure within the city, such as streets, parks, public safety, etc.

And they are repaid through a secondary property tax.

So when you look at the city's current tax rate of um just under a dollar forty-six cents is per 100 of assessed valuation, which you would see on your tax bill.

So there's two parts to that tax rate.

The first is the primary tax rate.

That portion of the tax rate goes into our general fund, it funds operational expenses of the city.

The secondary tax rate is solely to repay any um debt or obligations of the city.

So our combined rate being uh just under a dollar forty-six means that for every hundred thousand dollars of evaluation of the house, the bill would be approximately 146.

So just to point out in our adopted financial policies, we do have um a statement that says our combined tax rate being the primary and the secondary will not exceed $2 per 100 um dollars of assessed valuation.

So when you look at our tax rate in comparison to other cities, you will see there off to the right, there's Avondale, the two colors of the chart, blue being the general obligation bond, which most cities also carry, and the orange being the um non-general obligation debt, other types of debt instruments.

So overall, the city is well placed in the amount of debt that we carry.

So in looking at where do we stand with prior authorizations that have been approved by voters?

Well, we do have two categories that still have remaining authorization.

So that means that voters have approved for debt for the city.

We have not yet issued it.

So in the case of water and sewer, we have 15.5 million, and in streets we have 9.2 remaining.

In parks, libraries, public safety, and in general government, we have no remaining authorization.

So that would need to be new authorization solicited in those areas.

So if you take a look at our current five-year CIP, what exists on the projects that have come before you within the fiscal 2025 budget?

Some of those projects are being funded with anticipated debt.

So the first is the water reclamation facility expansion.

Our estimated project cost at the budget at the time of budget was um just over 133 million.

But of that, we are intending to issue 8.5 million of that previously authorized debt that you saw on the prior slide.

That means at some point later this fiscal year, we will come back to council and request approval to issue that $8.5 million, which would fund the design of that project.

However, the remaining four projects you see listed here are currently in the CIP, these are authorizations we would need to solicit from voters.

So if we were not going to proceed with a bond election, then these projects would need funding replaced in order to proceed.

So that being the Alamar Public Safety Substation, multimodal trail for fiscal 26 and beyond, the Boulevard Police Substation and Regional Wireless Cooperative Tower.

So when you look at what we're proposing at this point, this again is the blue represents the primary property tax.

The orange is the secondary.

That's what currently exists today, and our projections out through 20 to 34.

You can see just those two colors alone.

We do start dropping off out in fiscal 29.

That's when debt gets retired.

So what this is saying is that if we do autumn if we do issue that 8.5 million of current authorization and propose an additional hundred million dollars, which would be issued in 20 million increments over the five years listed, then we can in essence maintain a consistent tax rate, and that's what that's showing.

So in fiscal year 2025, you would see the green, that would be our existing authorization.

We can issue there.

And then in 27, potentially, if we take an election out to voters and it's approved and we issue out in 27, that means that we can replace that tax rate and be able to fund additional projects in the future.

So with that, depending if if council wishes to pursue, we would propose creating a citizen bond election committee.

Um it would report to council, it would be a seven-member plus two alternates to meet with departments and identify capital needs and prioritize future projects, as well as inform the question to voters on the potential general obligation voter authorization, and make a final recommendation to council.

So in looking at the timeline, tonight's vote is not to say we are going to have an election.

Tonight's vote is to begin that conversation and develop a committee and authorize its bylaws.

So we would starting from the left, um, recruit applicants for the committee and bring back the applications to appoint members to the council.

That wouldn't be prior to November.

Um, however, the council would not be required to actually call for an election until May of 2025.

So there's a lot of time between now and then to explore and look at the projects and prioritize.

So with that, um we're recommending a motion to adopt resolution 1092-0924, approving the creation of the Avondale 2025 Citizen Bond Election Committee and the adoption of the Citizen Bond Election Committee bylaws and authorized mayor and city manager, city attorney, and city clerk to execute the necessary documents.

I think what you've seen across the Valley, and especially in the Southwest Valley, when the bond process is handled in the way that we're looking to handle it, voters get on board with it overwhelmingly.

And not every bond issue passes, not every bond vote passes.

We've seen it in some other cities.

But I think putting together a citizens committee, and I'm looking out in the audience right now at a couple people who may want to be on this committee.

Um I think it's important for the residents to get on board with this and for this recommendation to come from the residents for them to understand what is required.

What are the future needs of the city?

Well passed when council when the current council members are on this council.

We're looking decades out.

So I love the process that we're looking at.

My hope and what I asked Ron and communicated to Renee is it's up to council members to recommend people who they think would be good for this for this board.

My request is is it people who have an understanding of finances things along that line?

Um people who've lived in the city for a while who understand the needs, but it's going to be your recommendation to find people who can serve on this committee and who can serve well.

So are there any questions from council on this?

Ron, are there any comments from you on this?

I'll just add so uh Marcella will post tomorrow the openings for this position if council approves this, and and we would encourage you to encourage people to um apply.

Um I don't know that I've thought this far ahead, but we could always have the uh subcommittee of council uh recommend a list to bring forth is that what you're thinking, Marcella?

Mayor, vice mayor, and council.

Um the application that we receive will first go to the council subcommittee and staff will give their recommendations to the subcommittee, and then the subcommittee will give their recommendations to city council.

Thank you.

I have a quick question.

How many uh do we have any vacancies on any of our uh boards or commission?

Mayor, vice mayor, council.

Right now we do not have any vacancies.

We do have I want to say four or five seats that will expire in December.

Okay.

Um so in January we will have additional seats open.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you.

Can I get a motion on this?

I go to you.

I have five seconds from the motion from House Member of White, the second council member Salarian.

Marcel, you have a roll call.

Yes, Mayor.

Councilmember Conde?

Hi.

Councilmember Malone.

Hi.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Hi.

Councilmember Solario.

Hi.

Councilmember White.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Mayor Weiss.

Uh Ron Item 5B, please, including consent agenda item G.

That is correct.

So we're going to hear from Catherine, your um deputy director of planning, um, to make this presentation.

I believe, yes.

You also have Autumn from Animal Control here to help answer questions.

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

Uh, here with me this evening is Marissa Rufinelli, our supervisor from animal control.

So tonight, item 4G and 5B are proposed city initiated amendments uh to the Avondale City Code related to backyard chickens.

We will need uh two separate actions, one on chapter three and one on chapter 28, which is your public hearing item.

So Avondale's existing uh city code allows farm animals in certain zoning districts on lots a half acre or larger in size.

So the proposed code amendments respond to House Bill 2325, which was passed by the legislature and allows a resident of a single family detached residents to keep up to six chickens in the backyard.

And this bill will be effective September 14th of 2024.

So tonight you have uh updates proposed to both the city uh Avondale City Code, Chapter 3 and Chapter 28, which is the Avondale zoning ordinance.

So each of the staff reports um in your packet have the red line versions of the amendments.

Most of the proposed changes relate to the state bill requirements, however, there are some changes that we've proposed to maintain consistency throughout uh the code and others to place content in its proper location.

Um and I'm just gonna highlight some of the key provisions.

So, first um in uh chapter three, section three-sevented, there'll be a new section for definitions, and that's where we will add um the definition of backyard foul, and then we're taking two of the definitions that are already in the zoning code for foul and livestock, and so that they'll appear in chapter three also.

Next, we also have a new section uh three-26, where this is where it contains the allowances for backyard chickens.

So please keep in mind that the ability to have up to six chickens only applies to a resident of a single family detached residence.

And you um you must be able to fit the chicken enclosure in the side or the rear yard, and it became and it has to be a minimum of 20 feet from the property line.

The maximum size of the enclosure is 200 square feet, and the maximum height of the enclosure is it has to be shorter than the fence line in the smaller lots, and if you have um over an acre on a larger lot, you could have a maximum up to eight feet uh tall.

Then in chapter 28, um again, we're adding the definition of backyard foul to um to section 28-15.

Um, and it does um the definition does exclude male um foul or roosters.

We're also removing the term swine from the definition of farm animals because our code already prohibits those.

Then in section 28-33, um, we're revising section subsection G so that it uh lists that backyard foul are with farm animals, and we're also adding a cross-reference here back to chapter three.

So most of the information will be in chapter three, and then we're removing text about the keeping of livestock again as those requirements are in chapter three.

And then in section 28-133, which talks about detached accessory uh buildings.

We're removing the term foul from the language about height limitations because again, the recent state law has already specified that the maximum height of a chicken enclosure.

So all of the required notifications were completed.

Um we did uh post the uh chapter 28 uh revisions on Avondale Connect.

We did receive one uh comment in support of having our code be consistent with state law.

The planning commission uh conducted a public hearing for the chapter 28 text amendments on August 21st.

Uh we didn't have any questions or public comments offered that night, and a motion was passed uh to recommend approval of the chapter 28 changes to city council.

So staff is recommending adoption of ordinance 2026-0924 and ordinance 2024-0924 for the reasons set forth in the staff report, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

So, Marcella or Lisa clarify this for me.

So we have two items that have to be voted on.

One involves a public hearing.

Does it matter the order in which we do that?

Can we vote on item 4G first and then do a public hearing, or do you prefer to have it all done at the same time?

Thank you, Mayor.

You can do 4G first.

Can I get a motion on item 4G, please?

I'll make the motion.

I have a motion from the vice mayor, a second from Councilmember Nielsen.

Any further discussion?

Marcella.

Councilmember Condi.

Aye.

Councilmember Malone.

Aye.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Aye.

Councilmember Solario?

Aye.

Councilmember White?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Aye.

Mayor Weiss.

Aye.

Can uh let me go ahead and open up the thank you that passes unanimously.

And then go ahead and open up the public hearing on item 5B.

Uh is there anybody in the audience or online who would like to speak on this issue.

Seeing and hearing none, I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing and open up to council.

Let me let me get on my soapbox here.

And Ron, Lisa, tell me if I get out of line, but I think it I think it applies.

We are a charter city.

And the Charter City Amendment for the Arizona Constitution allows cities to do certain things that a city who's not a charter city cannot do.

And for these for the legislature to overturn or to vote on something, they have to declare that that item is a matter of statewide concern for them to uh to get involved.

I don't believe that backyard foul is a matter of statewide concern.

I just don't.

And I think there's some point where this council, along with other city councils who are charter cities, are going to have to step up and and push back on these things.

I don't have an issue with backyard foul, but I want the voters of Avondale and this council to be able to make that decision with public input and and professionals who can talk to us about this and for us to make an informed decision without a gun being put to our head saying you have to do this because someone at the legislature decided, well, I have chickens, so you all should have chickens also.

So I would my request is, and we have to vote for this, so I'll get off my soapbox after.

So I'll get off my soapbox after.

But my hope is that councils in the future take up the charter amendment discussion and decide when you put your foot down and when you push back on a legislature that is overreaching on their authority.

Can I get a motion on item 5B, please?

I have a motion from Councilmember Condi.

I'm assuming Councilmember White Malone Malone, I'm sorry.

I have a second from Councilmember Malone.

Marcella.

Councilmember Condi.

Aye.

Councilmember Malone.

Aye.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Aye.

Councilmember Solario.

Aye.

Councilmember White?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Aye.

Mayor Weiss.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Item six.

Item six, summary of current events.

Anything from council?

So the only thing that I would share is you heard me at the beginning of the council meeting ask for thoughts and prayers for Officer Coolidge.

Tomorrow, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association is holding a fundraiser at 1102 West Adams from 10 a.m.

to 9 p.m.

to raise money for his family.

He had a five-month-old baby daughter.

So if you can get the word out, whether social media or friends, and let's see how we could support this officer and his family going forward.

And it's an incredibly sad day, and our hope is that these type of uh tragedies uh are very few and very rare.

Anyone else?

I do, Mayor.

Thank you.

Yes, Tina?

Thank you.

Um, I just want to um acknowledge um Councilmember Nielsen and his wife Patty.

Um this weekend, um, they gathered over 40 volunteers.

95 volunteers to make beds for sleep in heavenly peace.

And they went to the warehouse here at Arizona Community Impact um in Avondale, and they came early in the morning.

It was little kids up to adults, they made the beds, they loaded up trucks, they went to over 30 homes and assembled beds, provided mattresses, comforters, pillows.

So all those beds went to kids that were currently sleeping on the floor.

And I just want to just say, Councilmember Nielsen, thank you so much for what you do for our community for our kiddos.

It doesn't gonna go unnoticed.

And thank you guys for taking your day, your time to go and serve the community.

Curtis, do you want to talk about that a little bit?

You've got three minutes and ten seconds.

So take the second.

It's actual 9-11 National Day of Service.

And what we had chosen to do is the church is to find a project that would benefit the community.

So we've been organizing it since you know how organizations go.

We've been doing that since last May trying to get something together.

But just the comments that were were made there.

We do we did like uh Tina said 33 beds, kids who had never had beds before.

The little kids who couldn't go out to drill and to to hammer and do other such things, they sat in the office there and actually colored cards that went into the bed bags to go out with those kids with the with the ones that delivered that, and that was kind of an opportunity for them.

There was one young man that came in, his mother forced him to go.

He came and sat down in 14-year-old, he didn't want to do anything.

Uh Patty got a hold of him and says, Come here, let me go find something for you.

Took him out, and there was a man out there who was actually putting headboards together with uh the grills and the screws.

And the man looked at that going, you know, I was at your talent show the other day.

I was impressed what you did.

You want to work with me?

So he was there, excuse me, and worked with him.

And when his mom came and wanted to go home, he said, No, mom, I'm not done with my work.

So it was impressive, and there were a lot of people that said they want to go back and assist.

I mean, there's other things that you can do there during the week, not for such a large group, but if you've got a family, you know, any number of people you can cut wood, you can put wood together, whatever it might be.

Just a great project.

And the people who were touched, uh, some of the young people went out to actually assemble the beds with their parents and with the people representing uh Arizona Community Impact, they were touched as well.

Something that'll go.

I just wanted to share they do offer that opportunity every month for volunteerism.

So you can go, so Tony tries to go and he'll make assemble the beds.

You go to the house and you it it's you just piece them together, bring your drill, and you go and you make the bed for the kids, give them a little stuff down.

But it's it's such a great opportunity to really just realize for one how blessed we are to even have beds to sleep on, right?

And to take beds to these kids that don't have beds and blankets and little stuffed animals, and there's no charge to anybody, and it's it's all done by volunteers.

So I just want to just put that out there that if you guys ever want to do that, it's a great opportunity to do as a group or as an individual.

Mr.

Mayor, uh Miss uh Councilmember Conde's husband also participated.

She she's quietly slipped out, but she was there helping, uh he was there helping as well.

Rod, do you mind if we can get that information from Curtis and from Tina and share that with the rest of council?

We absolutely because it may be a volunteer opportunity for us to really go out there and uh that would be great.

I would also remind everyone that the anniversary of 9-11 is in two days, and we have a tendency in our business busy lives to forget about that.

But I would ask you to take a moment and just remember the events of that day and how it's affected our nation and the people who are involved.

So, any other comments from council?

Can I get a motion for adjournment?

I move we adjourn.

I'll second.

I have a motion from Max, a second from Tina Marcella.

All those in favor say aye.

Any opposed?

We are adjourned.

Thank you, staff.

Be careful we get getting a