I'd like to call the regular meeting of Monday, October 7th, 2024 to order.

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

And I would ask you to keep in your thoughts and prayers those that were impacted by Hurricane Helene and those who are going to be impacted by Hurricane Milton and those in our community who are hurting.

I pledge allegiance and to report which he stands.

Under God.

Thank you, everyone.

Marcella.

Councilmember Condi.

Councilmember Malone.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Here.

Councilmember Solario.

Councilmember White.

Here.

Vice Mayor Peneva.

Here.

Mayor Weiss.

Here.

Ron, item two A, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

We are going to start with some employee announcements, and I believe Tracy will introduce our first promotion.

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

We have a lot to celebrate in the city manager's office tonight.

And so please join me in congratulating Anisa Romo as our new senior management analyst.

Anisa Romo came to the city manager's office from the finance department.

And then before that, as an ASU Marvin fellow.

And over the last several months, Anissa has been working to fill two roles.

Overseeing the day-to-day operations for management, the department budget, council inquiries, events, support, as well as providing oversight of the state of the city, Citizens Leadership Academy, AVIWIS Innovation Committee, the Marvin Andrews intern, the Interfaith Council, and the strategic plan.

And I could go on.

And we are very proud of Anisa and her hard work in our office, and we'd like to congratulate her tonight.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

So tell us about your new role a little bit.

What are you gonna be doing?

Um so I'll be moving into the senior management analyst role.

So see the administrative operations of the city manager's office, working with the budget and all that.

Um oversee our uh administrative assistant or Marvin Andrews intern, get to help with that program, as well as working with our innovation team, um, our Valley Benchmark Cities.

Um just a lot of really great initiatives throughout the city, so I'm excited to be able to take those on.

Good for you.

You have absolutely earned it.

Congratulations.

Um Mr.

Mayor, if I can add, um, be very nice to her.

She's picking your next council assistant um as we speak.

She's going through the application.

So oh wait, I don't know.

Everybody else's uh council assistant is is being she's being picked.

Next up we have Jody uh to introduce our next promotion.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Um so we won't be edgy as you know, Development Services has um acquired a great employee that came from our city manager's office, and I'm really thankful for them for allowing me this opportunity to introduce development services new business operations and strategy manager, Torrin Saido.

So he has been with the city um since 2021, where he's worked in the city manager's office, um helping initiate a lot of the programs that were just mentioned that are still underway in their office.

Uh Torrin has been helping our department since March, and you may be aware he's been helping accelerate and enhancing our processes from revenues and fee intake, building permits, applications, planning applications, creating policies and procedures, looking at our IT software improvement processes, just a lot of stuff that really needed to be overhauled or hadn't been taken a look at in um small detail in a really long time, and it's really helped us get to the leaps and bounds of where we're at, and there's still a tremendous amount more to do.

Um he's very communicative and collaborative with all of our staff and our division managers, and he's part of our management team.

He's working with finance and budget as well as information technology and contractors and really making a lot of things happen.

So when there was an opportunity to consider this position in our department and have him stay with us, um I was quite happy.

It was a bittersweet moment because he's doing outstanding stuff citywide, um, especially from the city manager's office.

But I also wanted to share that Torrin, um, not only has he been here since 2021, but he had also worked for the town of Queen Creek, the city of Casa Grand, as well as the city of Bisbee.

And he is also a Marvin Andrews fellow, so he brings that with him, having worked on his master's degree at ASU.

Um, he does have a background with his bachelor's degree in urban planning and sustainability, so I think it's a great fit over in our team with planning and uh building as well.

And so we welcome him into our department and um look forward to more of the achievements he's gonna be doing here for us in the whole city.

You know, Jody, we when um you moved up, we threw a lot at you very quickly.

And there's not a lot of training that happens there when you're suddenly thrust into the role that you were thrust in.

I am so happy that Torren stepped in and Ron saw the need to kind of give you the help and let you focus on what you need to focus on.

And it sounds like it's been a really good uh process and relationship over the last how long has it been now?

Since March.

Nine months.

Six months?

Six months.

Toran, tell us a little bit what you're buying, what you're doing every day.

I know she laid it out for you, but Jody made that easy for me.

Mayor, vice mayor, council, thank you for just at the start, everything that I've been able to experience working on behalf of the mayor and council and our management team over the last three plus years.

It's been an incredible experience, and I'm very excited to take that experience into my next role in development services, where like Jody said, it's a little bit of going home.

I came up through urban planning um in my undergrad, and so my new role, I'll be overseeing all of our business operating systems, so our uh permitting our application intake software uh or software for plan review for build uh for building inspections.

Uh, I'll be overseeing the revenue side of the development process here uh citywide, I'll oversee the department budget, and generally speaking, I'll be helping to liaise between all of our development focused departments and oversee the process of making sure that we have those relationships uh managed throughout all of our uh development focused department citywide.

So I'm very excited.

Thank you, sir.

We are really proud of you.

Thank you for doing that.

Ron, do you mind handling the uh flow of the proclamations?

Yeah, the first proclamation is going to be for National Community Planning Month, and Jody Novak, our director of development services, will uh start us off.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um, this might seem familiar to you every year, but we do like um recognizing National Community Planning Month.

We also have our uh planning division manager, our deputy director of planning, Catherine Lorbeer, and our city planning team that are here in the front row in support of uh city planning and urban development.

Um what I just like to add is Avondale is currently undergoing significant construction and development, as you're pretty aware, and the north, to the west, to the east, to the south.

Um, just some notable developments that we have are on residential or Alamar, Verde Trails, Acclaim and Park Side.

Um, so they're creating our sense of community even further.

They're adding more people that are going to be coming into our city, um, hopefully spending money and getting jobs within our community.

Uh we also have data centers that are coming in, the Hermosa Ranch Technology Campus has two components, the north and the south, and a commercial shopping center that's planned.

So that's a really exciting project near Avonville and Lower Buckeye Road that will enhance our area at that location.

And we have lots of new commercial and residential opportunities that are under construction and that have been approved by council that would be developing along the I-10 freeway from Avondale Boulevard always to 107th Avenue.

So we have a lot of new investment in our city.

We're pretty proud about that.

All these applications come through our city planning team.

There are other teams building, fire, engineering, and engineering has multiple divisions in their department that have to touch these projects, our public work staff, and so on.

Um, it's highly involved, it's very detailed.

I'm really proud of all the work that they do.

It's not easy.

Um, it can be stressful at times, but I think everybody has a passion for seeing what they can do and have their mark on on projects within Avondale.

And so I would just um like to say at this time that I will pass this to our councilmember Nielsen who can introduce and read the proclamation for us this evening.

Thank you very much.

I'd love to do that.

Uh proclamation for the community planning month.

Whereas change is constant and affects all cities, towns, suburbs, counties, rural areas, and other places, and whereas community planning can help manage this change in a way that provides better choices for how people work and live.

And whereas community planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningful and meaningfully involved and making choices that determine the future of their community.

And whereas the full benefit of planning require public officials and citizens who understand and support and demand excellence in planning and planning implementation.

And whereas the American Planning Association endorses National Community Planning Month as an opportunity to highlight the contributions, sound planning and plan implementation to make the quality of our settlement and environment.

There's a lot of words here, you know.

I gave you the most difficult one.

Oh, thanks.

Okay.

And whereas the celebration of the National Community Planning Month gives us the opportunity to publicly recognize the participation and dedication of the members of the planning commissions, city council, and the public who have contributed their time and expertise to the growth and improvement of the City of Avondale.

And whereas we recognize the many valuable contributions made by professionals within the City of Avondale Planning Division and Development Services Department, and extend our heartfelt thanks for their continued commitment to public services by these professionals.

Now, therefore, we resolve that the month of October 2024 is hereby designated as Community Planning Month in the City of Avondale in conjunction with the celebration of the National Community Planning Month.

Thank you.

Stand up.

Let's let everyone see you.

We talk about people, and in my letter to the to the staff, we talk about the heart of Avondale.

And there's a lot of people who work behind the scenes who the public really never sees.

They may uh interact with them sometimes, but for the most part, they don't know how this process works.

You make that process work smoothly.

You make this process reflect really well on our city, and you make us proud every day for the work that you do.

So thank you for doing that.

Appreciate it.

And mayor, we will do a group photo with City Council after the last proclamation.

Mr.

Mayor and Council, next up is our proclamation code compliance month, and Del Manegy, our deputy city manager, will make that uh presentation.

Oh no, you all get to come down.

Come on.

Come on.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

As you know, October is also code compliance uh month uh for the nation.

So we're here tonight to recognize our code compliance officers.

Uh to start off, I'd like to introduce your team.

First, we have Josh Perez, who's the code compliance manager.

We have Martha Ortiz, our lead code compliance officer.

We have Albert Soto, Francis Martinez, and Carlos Cano are our officers that worked out there in the neighborhoods.

Claudia Rojas could not be here tonight.

Uh but if you remember last year, uh, this team was recognized nationally as code compliance officer.

Claudia won that award as well as the state of Arizona, she was code compliance officer of the year for Arizona, and they were the co-compliance unit for the state of Arizona.

And if we can all keep a secret, this week they're going to be recognized as the uh receiving a community service award for the state of Arizona for their works with our neighborhoods and doing the neighborhood cleanup projects.

So they're they're quite the accomplished team.

And with that, Mr.

Mayor, I will turn it back over to you for the proclamation.

Thank you, Dale.

Whereas co-compliance officers provide for the safety and welfare of residents in Avondale through the enforcement of building, zoning, housing, environmental, property maintenance, and other city codes and ordinances, and whereas code compliance officers often have a challenging and demanding role in improving living and working conditions for residents and businesses in Avondale.

And whereas code compliance officers are dedicated and highly qualified professionals who share the goals of preventing neighborhood deterioration, enhancing and ensuring safety, and preserving property values through knowledge and application of housing, zoning, and nuisance codes and ordinances.

And whereas co-compliance officers often have a highly visible and interactive role in the communities while providing quality customer service and excellence to the communities in Avondale.

And whereas co-compliance officers are called upon to provide quality education and excellent customer service to the residents and businesses in Avondale.

And whereas we recognize the many valuable contributions made by the co-compliance officers throughout our country and extend our heartfelt thanks to their continued commitment to public service.

Now, therefore, by the virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor for the city of Avondale, Arizona, I here to I do hereby proclaim the month of October 24 as Code Compliance Month, and we call upon Avondale communities to join in recognizing and expressing their appreciation for the dedication and service by the individuals who serve as our code compliance officers.

Proclaimed this seventh day of October 2024.

Congratulations.

Thank you all.

Mr.

Mayor, next we have a prop proclamation on fire prevention week, and Chief Rooney will make that uh presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

I have the privilege of kicking off uh fire prevention week.

It's October 6th through the 12th.

Um we actually kicked it off on October 5th this Saturday at our fire station.

We had an open house, and I was just informed that we handed out 200 plastic helmets.

So that kind of gives you the idea of how many people turned out, the kids turned out with their parents and their family members.

So we're pretty excited about that.

It was a very hot day.

We we saw a couple of council members there, and we thank you for your attendance.

Um the goal is to raise fire safety awareness and help protect the families of Avondale.

Uh the theme this year is smoke alarms, make them work for you.

And we're very committed uh to educate everyone on the importance of having a working smoke alarm.

Through a series of uh neighborhood smoke alarm walks, Avondale Fire and Medical wants to ensure that all residents within the city of Avondale have at least one working smoke alarm.

We did this on our first walk in Old Town, and we were able to hand out 680 um smoke alarms to uh residents, and our goal is to do um 800 in cash in on October 26th from 7 a.m.

to 12 noon.

Um with that said, we would like to remind everybody to test their smoke alarms at least once a month by pushing the button on it and also replace all smoke alarms that are 10 years old or or stop working.

How's that?

And at this time, I will uh pass it over before I pass it over.

I'm sorry, I'd like to introduce these fine people that that provide the fire prevention for us.

So we have our fire marshal Scott Miller, and we have our uh plans examiner Travis Samuelson, and uh our public ed specialist, Sue Anglin.

Now I'd like to pass it over to Councilmember Solario to read the proclamation.

I will be reading the proclamation for fire prevention week.

Whereas the City of Avondale is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living and visiting our city, and whereas fire is a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally, and homes are locations where people are the greatest risk from fire, whereas home fires killed more than 2,700 people in the United States in 2022, according to the National Fire Protection Association and fire departments in the United States responded to 374,000 home fires.

And whereas roughly three out of five deaths happen in homes where either no smoke alarms or with working smoke alarms, and whereas working smoke alarms cut the risk of dying in reported home fires almost in half, whereas smoke alarms send smoke well before you can, alerting you to the danger in the event of a fire in which you may have as little as two minutes to escape safely.

And whereas the City of Avondale's residents should install smoke alarms in every sleeping room outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home, whereas residents will make sure their smoke alarms meet the needs of all their family members, including those with sensory and physical disabilities.

And whereas the City of Avondale residents should test smoke alarms at least once a month, whereas residents who who have planned and practiced a home fires escape plan are more prepared and therefore will be likely to survive a fire.

And whereas the City of Avondale first responders and dedicated to are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of home fires and home fire injuries through prevention and protection education.

And whereas the City of Avondale residents are responsive to public education measures and are able to thank to take personal steps to increase their safety from fire, especially in their homes.

And whereas the 2024 fire prevention week theme, smoke alarms, make them work for you, serves to remind us the importance of having smoke alarms in the home.

Now, therefore, I, Gloria Solerio, by the virtue of the authority vested in me as council member of the City of Avondale, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the week of October 6th through the 12th, 2024 as Fire Prevention Week 2024, and ask citizens to make sure their homes have working smoke alarms and support many public safety activities and efforts of the City of Avondale Fire and Emergency Services.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, next we have the Proclamation Domestic Violence Awareness Month presented by Patricia, our community services victim advocate.

And looks like she has some company with uh Chief and Sergeant behind her.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Um, just want to let you guys know you look very good in purple tonight.

I have to go without saying, and it's Chief Memo's birthday.

So if he doesn't know it's Chief Memo's birthday, Memo 40?

Would I hear 40?

50, sir.

Oh, okay.

I just want to say a few words about domestic violence.

Um, is also known as domestic abuse or intimate partner violence.

Uh, is it identified as a pattern of continued abuse behavior towards another person in an effort to gain or maintain power and control.

Most often, the perpetrator of domestic violence is a current or former spouse or dating partner, or a person who has cohabitated with a victim, such as a family member or roommate.

Sometimes domestic violence can also be perpetrated as a caretaker, such as someone who is caring for an elderly relative or a landlord who has used testics of power and control over a tenant.

It is not easy to spot.

It doesn't always come with bruises in a black eye.

Victims may not always be imminent danger, but rather feel controlled or an uncontrollable and uncomfortable, be forced into doing something that they don't want to, or be intimidated by their partner.

All signs of abuse.

We never want to believe this is happening in our city, but I am happy that being a victim advocate for the Avondale PD this past 10 months, I have made a difference to the survivors that have experienced this type of abuse.

The City of Avondale, including the police department, will be or has been displaying purple lights throughout the month of October, which looks very beautiful.

We disturbed we distributed domestic violence information and passed out purple swag to the attendees of the Billy Moore Carnival this past weekend.

City employees will be wearing purple on October 17th to bring awareness and honor those affected by domestic abuse.

Thank you so much, Mayor Wise, for your 10 years of service, and Vice Mayor and City Council members.

At this time, I will pass it over to Councilmember Condi for the reading of the proclamation.

Well, thank you.

So it's my honor today to read the proclamation for domestic violence awareness month.

Whereas in just one day across the U.S.

and its territories, nearly 75,000 victims of domestic violence sought services from domestic violence programs and shelters.

That same day, more than 9,000 requests for services, including emergency shelter, housing, transportation, child care, and legal representation could not be provided because programs lacked the resources to meet victims' needs.

And whereas the impact of domestic violence is wide-ranging, directly affecting individuals and societies as a whole here in this community throughout the United States and in the world.

And whereas discrimination based on physical ability, nationality, or other factors help to perpetrate domestic violence and make finding safety even more difficult for some victims.

And whereas the need for safe house continues to be rated as survivors' most urgent need.

And whereas the City of Avondale joints other with others across Arizona and the nation in supporting victims of domestic violence, as well as local programs, state coalitions, national organizations, and other agencies nationwide who are committed to increasing public awareness of domestic violence and sending a clear message to abusers that domestic violence is not tolerated.

And whereas domestic violence impacts millions of people each year, but it can be prevented.

Preventing domestic violence requires the collective voice of power and power of individuals, families, institutions, and systems, each whose number one thing adds a valuable and powerful component to transforming our communities.

Now, therefore, mayor and council of the City of Avondale, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the month of October 2024 as domestic violence awareness month and encourage all Avondale residents, businesses, schools, and hospitals to support domestic violence survivors and stand against all forms of violence and abuse in relationships.

And uh, I'm just going to turn over to Councilmember White to read our proclamation.

Thank you so much.

Um as a member of the city of the National League of Cities and Towns, uh, we want to bring attention um and awareness to Cities and Towns Week twenty twenty-four.

Whereas the citizens of Avondale rely on the city to experience a high quality of life in our community, and whereas cities and towns in Arizona work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to deliver vital city services such as fire, police, emergency medical response to ensure safe communities, and whereas cities and towns in Arizona also provide services and programs that enhance the quality of life for residents such as parks, utilities, street maintenance, sanitation, and recycling services, libraries, community centers, and recreational programs, and whereas it is important for Avondale to continue to provide the excellent delivery of services and programs that our citizens have come to expect in our community.

And whereas it is one of the responsibilities of Avondale officials to ensure open accessible government through frequent communication with citizens using various avenues and means, and whereas through participation and cooperation, citizens, community leaders, local businesses, and municipal staff can work together to ensure that services provided by Avondale can remain exceptional elements of quality of life in our community.

And now, therefore, be it resolved, Mayor and Council of the City of Avondale, Arizona, do hereby join with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns and fellow municipalities across the state of Arizona in declaring October thirteenth through nineteenth Arizona Cities and Towns Week in Avondale.

Thank you.

Thank you, Max.

We appreciate that.

I think this is the most number of proclamations that I've ever done.

On your way out, sure.

If we would take a quick break for pictures and we could view the pictures in the order of their proclamations.

I think we'll have to think about it.

We have some data that will show you what we're doing here to make the experience of homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Just a little bit of roadmap of what I'm going to talk about tonight.

I'm going to share some uh direct data impact data that we use to measure our successes.

I'll be sharing about some uh Avondale initiatives, including the work of the Sonar team that we've implemented over the course of the past year.

I'll talk a little bit about our community partnerships, and I'll end by sharing some stories, some personal stories of those in the community that have been directly impacted by the the work of the homeless services team and our partners.

Since the council approved formation of the homeless services division, we've prioritize prioritized data as a means to demonstrate the impact of this investment.

These are some of those data points.

Um that show the diversity of our impact.

This fiscal year, so since July 1st of last year, we have coordinated with police department, public works, code, and other community partners to close four encampments and ensure that everyone that was in those encampments has services.

These are individuals who are able to resolve their experience of homelessness by entering shelter, going into treatment, or going into permanent housing.

This fiscal year, the number of those such exits were 31.

And this is an addition to the adults that we talked about in the family 21.

So that's 52 households this year that were moved into shelter housing.

We also talk about our community response.

So we get Abbey WISE tickets in on a daily basis.

And so since July 1st of last year, we have responded to 120 unique AVIWIS tickets, usually within about two-day turnaround.

We have seen 105 unique single individuals that we've served either on the street or at the resource center as well.

So that's a significant increase from what we've seen over the since we started the program.

So the word is out and people know us.

I'm gonna talk about a couple of initiatives that are not specifically uh about homelessness, but they impact individuals that are experiencing homelessness at a greater degree, including Narcan.

So in March of this year, uh the Neighborhood and Family Services Department began distributing Narcan, mainly through the Sonar team and through the resource center and events.

Um since March, we've distributed 498 kits.

That's nearly a thousand doses of Narcan that are on the street that are contributing to making sure people live through overdoses.

We also manage heat relief efforts, so individuals that are living on the street are uh extremely vulnerable to the high heats that we have in the summertime uh and in October, apparently we have high heat.

Um heat relief efforts this season just came to a close, and we enhanced services that were possible thanks to you and your desire to ensure our community had cooling centers seven days a week.

So we opened up the resource center on Saturday and Sunday through the entire summer.

We're still gathering data, but I can report that we've served just under 2,000 individuals at the Arizona Complete Health Avondale Resource Center.

That includes weekends.

And to ensure that water was available to all of our residents, we partnered with police department libraries, and uh We Ride.

So we had water and ice and we ride.

We distributed just under 35,000 bottles of water this summer.

And then speaking directly about our sonar team, which is our homelessness outreach team.

Since July of last year, we've increased our presence throughout the city and neighborhoods of Avondale.

We spent 1900 hours engaging with our unhoused community members, and we've had nearly 2,000 encounters, meaning that we have talked to people face to face for prolonged periods of time for nearly 2,000 hours in that fiscal year.

These numbers indicate that the Sonar team is a trusted and integral part of the community, and the hours spent on the street are an investment in building the trust we have with those that we serve.

I'll speak a bit about we don't do this alone.

I always say that we don't ever do this alone.

We just we're we're handing out water and talking to people and see what they need next.

We couldn't do this without the community support.

So as I said before, um families with minor children continues to be one of our priority areas through partnerships with Maricopa County and a new leaf.

We've added a staff person to their Avondale team, which increases their capacity to serve Avondale families.

This expanded partnership also added the ability to place families in hotels or motels as a temporary landing.

This allows a bit of stability, bringing an increased capacity to address other needs such as schooling, employment, and it gives them a little bit of stability.

We also partnered with Phoenix Rescue Mission to expand our outreach hours.

We began to see, especially in the heat of the summer, that people who were living unsheltered were more open to engagement when it's cooler.

So early in the morning or later in the in the afternoon and early evening.

The county provided resources to us that so that we could expand that partnership and it nearly doubled their capacity to begin outreach before the sun comes up and into the cooler evenings.

Throughout most of the fiscal year 2024, we were engaged with a third-party consultant.

So we're getting out of the purple box now, sorry.

I'm pointing, but you can't see what I'm pointing at on our screen.

Um throughout most of the fiscal year, we were engaged with a third-party consultant, Public Works LLC.

Throughout that engagement, we learned so much about our community.

They were able to survey both uh housed community members and unhoused community members.

The consultants compiled this into a large strategic plan that we will be using to guide our work over the next five years.

Among those recommendations was to begin case conferencing, and I'm proud to report that in January of this year we began participating in a West Valley case conferencing.

We share strategy and resources with our neighboring cities and community partners to help residents access services to resolve their homelessness.

That's been a great partnership.

And now the fun part.

I don't oftentimes get up here to give you good news about what we're doing, so this is really important that we get to share the stories of uh those that we serve directly.

So I wanted to start with Lewis.

Lewis was um was a gentleman who became homeless after a shared housing apartment, did not work out.

Sometimes roommates don't work out.

While we were at the West Valley Case Conferencing, Sonar learned of a program through Native American Connections, which thought they could help.

We reached out to Native American Connections and they decided that they would like to advocate to assist him into housing.

He was transported that day to view an apartment which was fully furnished.

In this newly renovated apartment, he would be able to stay for two years while working with case management through Native American Connections to secure permanent housing.

The apartment that he that he was eligible for was not ready.

So Native American Connections brought him that week to move into a room at another property where he'll stay, and we just learned that he's going to be moving into his new apartment this week.

So that's Lewis.

Jack was contacted by on the street by Sonar in October of 2023.

He was using blues on the side of the road in front of Home Depot.

Blues is uh uh fentanyl.

Sorry, I was gonna say Narcan.

Blues is what is the street name for fentanyl.

He was actively using it in the Home Depot parking lot on Dysart.

We worked with him over the course of three or four months.

We built trust and eventually Jack agreed to treatment that was necessary because he wanted to get clean and have a better life for him and his child.

In January of this year, a member of the sonar team was at a facility checking another another client into treatment, and he got a tap on the shoulder, and it was Jack who reported that he was 90 days clean and he had reconnected with his son while he was in treatment.

Tammy was a senior.

Oh, I don't know what I never know which screen, sorry.

Uh Tammy was uh senior who engaged with our team living on the corner of uh the street in a in the Cash neighborhood.

She found herself on the streets of Avondale for many years, and through several engagements, the team found that Tammy had a sister in Texas who had been looking for her.

Along with community partners, the team coordinated with Tammy's family to support her transport to Texas.

Today, Tammy is sober, engaged in care, and living a healthier life with her entire family in Texas.

Tino.

Tino uh was a gentleman that we engaged at the senior program at the Avondale Resource Center.

He had been homeless and engaged with Sonar for on and off for about three years.

We assisted him in applying for different types of affordable housing opportunity, um, hygiene kits, getting his Social Security in order, and providing just support for three years for three years.

He received word this January that he had been approved for Norton Circle.

Uh in February, he moved into his own unit and he continues to be an active participant in the senior program.

And each night he's able to leave the senior program and go home to his own apartment and sleep on his own pillow.

And then lastly is Sophie and Dalton.

I said we we've really stepped up our ability to serve families.

Sophie was an expecting mother, and Dalton is her five-year-old son.

She had been staying at her family member's house, overcrowding and tension negatively impacted her well-being, and it was time for Sophie to move on.

With just two-week deadline from her father-in-law telling her that she had to move out and no other support option, she turned to the resources, the Avendare Complete, the Arizona Complete Avondale Resource Center for help.

Our team members from a New Leaf met with her and conducted a personalized one-on-one assessment to understand the obstacles she was facing and explore ways to overcome them.

She was employed in Avondale and Dalton was already enrolled in school, making a move to another part of the valley, just not an option for them.

We shifted our focus and began looking for solutions and low-income apartments throughout Avondale.

Our partner from a New Leaf suggested Hillcrest Villa Villas, which is a which is a new low-income apartment complex right here in Avondale.

Sophie had already started an application, but because she had heard that there was a long waiting list, she had been reluctant to turn the application in for fear of rejection.

Matt from a New Leaf worked with her and let her know that we should try, get on the list.

The very next day, she submitted the application to Hillcrest Villas, and in a week she received a long-awaited news that she had been approved and secured her place for her in Dalton.

Her determination to secure a better future for her family, even in the face of a tight deadline and uncertainness is truly inspiring and what makes us excited to come to work and do our work every day.

So these are just five of many stories of those of 52 families and households that have moved in, but I thought it was important to share with you so that you see the direct impact of your work.

And we've changed the names.

So I'm sure you may have heard stories we just changed names for privacy.

But thank you for letting us do the work that we do and supporting the work that we do, and thank you for letting me be here tonight to share it with you.

There are times where we don't know if the efforts that we work on, the efforts that we you know approve, if they pay off.

We can see it in certain departments, but in other departments we just don't know.

And you've given us probably the most humane proof of our efforts and your efforts and your team's efforts of what can be done when a community comes together to fight for the most vulnerable.

These are incredible success stories.

I would ask you as you do updates going forward with this council and the new mayor that you include success stories like this, because a lot of times we get questions from constituents, we get questions from residents saying, What are we doing?

We see this happening.

We can tell them now what is happening.

And I think these are success stories that have to be shared with the community because I think it does make a difference.

Council, any comments?

Tina.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Brian.

Um I'm so proud and I'm so thankful for the team, Chris, that you've developed with Edith and Brian.

Um when I got on council in 2017, these are some discussions that we started.

Um, you know, how are we going to be proactive instead of reactive?

And so these are some of the success stories that are happening because we were proactive.

And as you continue to build our homeless division, um, I'm here to support you in any way that um that I can.

I do also want to just say thank you for something that I saw when I went to the resource center.

I noticed that you guys have a freezer for water bottles so that when people come in to get water and they leave, that they can leave with frozen bottles of water.

And just that something that simple just really just blessed me to see that that you guys are thinking about those types of things.

And so I just want to thank you for one for your outreach because that's how we have we have to be outreaching to these folks because a lot of them can't make it to the center or don't know about our resource center.

So I've always felt that that was so important.

The fact that we have our own Sonar Division in still keeping Phoenix Rescue Mission is amazing.

So thank you for that.

And I'm really also thankful for the partnership with a new leaf, because if there's anybody that does um helping families um with resources and providing that support is that does it well is a new leaf.

So I'm really proud and honored that we are partnered with them.

But really, I just want to just say thank you.

I know that there's more success stories out there and keep up the great work.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Curtis?

Just if I heard you right, this is just five of uh 52 success stories you've had.

Five of many, and and not all of our success stories end in housing or shelter.

Sometimes it's a different destination, but these are just five of many.

I was just thinking if you did say 52, or there's 52 weeks in a year.

That's that's one success a week.

And that's a great accomplishment for you and your team and your group.

It's even greater that it's the one-on-one that you're out there doing it.

I mean, we can't do that.

We appreciate you and your team going out facing one-on-one, bringing back one-on-one at least once a week to our community to success and whatever it is.

Just thank you all for all the work that you do.

Thank you, council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Marcella, do we have any unscheduled public appearances?

Thank you, Mayor.

We have not received any requests to speak.

All right, thank you.

Item number four is consent agenda.

Are there any counselors who wish to have an item removed from the consent agenda for separate consideration?

Seeing and hearing none, can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?

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

Marcella?

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you, Council passes unanimously.

Ron.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

And council.

Up next is a presentation by Harold, our assistant director of public works, and a few other.

He brought a whole crew with him here tonight, but they're going to give you an update on solid waste and our recycling program.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Uh, we're here today to present an update to our solid waste and recycling program.

Uh we're going to discuss today.

Uh, I'm going to recap our previous update that happened a little over two years ago.

Uh quite surprising it's been that long, but it's been a little over two years ago since we did our last update to council.

Um we're gonna talk about what service improvements and successes we have seen uh since we implemented the uh the services or the changes since our last recap, our current challenges, and what the future of the program holds.

So the recap from our previous update.

Uh we had a consulting firm, New Gen Solution is uh new gen solution is strategies that conducted an operational study of our operations and they identified uh our identified opportunities for us to improve uh to meet our current demand.

The study was needed in response to the continual growth of our city, and the suggested improvements were geared towards controlling costs and fee increases to modest levels.

So, what were some of the service uh improvements and successes that we have conducted since then?

Uh things everybody remembers and has seen we changed our bulk trash collection zones.

Um, and that was a big undertaking as the city had not experienced any changes.

Our residents had not experienced any changes to their services in about two decades when we made these changes.

Uh and this was necessary as we needed to ensure that we provide that our zones are evenly spread in regards to the uh the home counts so that we can provide those services quickly and efficiently.

Additionally, we provided uh services on all non-major uh holidays, so we basically do not pick up trash on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, those get pushed one day over.

All of our other non-major holidays, we provide services on those days.

Additionally, we implemented courtesy pickup and container replacement fees.

Now these fees are more of let's say of a deterrent for the continuous request for either a new can and or uh courtesy pickups as a reminder to council, we do not charge uh a replacement can fee for a broken container, uh wear and tear, those are replaced, these are more so for if uh resident might want a brand new container because it doesn't smell right or it's dirty, or they may not be happy with the color, but if the if the fading of the color of the can uh but uh if the container is serviceable, we'll continue to keep it in service.

Additionally, the codesy pickup has uh fee has really helped us in regards to um going back to pick up uh courtesies and as reminders $23 for the pickup and $83 per container.

And lastly, we also did several updates to our solid waste chapter 11 code, as I mentioned earlier.

That's been many years since we made any updates to that, so it was a required, it was required to meet today's uh needs.

Some of our operational changes that we conducted, we did a 10-hour uh work days uh providing services five days a week.

We were able to accomplish that through a 410 rotating schedule with our staff.

What that meant was if one of our equipment operators had a Monday off this week, they would have next week Tuesday off the following week Wednesday, and they would continue to rotate throughout throughout the month.

So that would mean we would have about a team of of three or four individuals that would be scheduled off on any given day throughout the week.

We also hired an additional heavy equipment mechanic.

Uh these fit vehicles do require a lot of attention from our mechanics.

There's lots of moving parts, so we have to ensure that these trucks are up and running continuously, and so having that additional heavy equipment mechanic really helped with our operations to ensure these vehicles were out on the road as often as possible.

And we also implemented a solid waste management software and GPS system into uh into our operations.

The solid waste management uh uh software system is a great tool for our operators uh to be able to communicate back to our supervisors and our inspectors uh for any concerns or issues they may see out on the road and for also logging uh any of our violations for our code as well.

In regards to our GPS system, that's also been another huge success.

We have cameras attached to all of our vehicles that we're able to record.

Uh, if there ever is an incident or a concern from a resident, we're able to review that footage to be able to uh help out that customer, or if we are involved in an accident, we're able to work with our risk management team and review that footage as well.

We've also implemented uh recently the community recycling drop-off center, uh, which officially launched on July 17th, so earlier this uh this summer.

Uh and I'm happy to report that uh through the month of September, we have diverted over 2,500 pounds of recycling or 1.2 tons of recycling from the landfill.

Um it has been a great program.

Uh the community has done a great job in keeping the recycling clean.

Um we haven't had any issues with illegal dumping in the area, so the community uh has really taken to this program and it's been a big success.

So next up, I want to talk a little bit about what are our current challenges that we are facing today.

One of our largest challenges is cost, and cost specifically to our landfill and recycling uh and our recycling facilities.

With our landfill costs, they have increased by over 13% over the past three years.

As you can see, the per ton costs at our landfill site have gone up from $31 in fiscal year 23 up to $35.25 this fiscal year.

Additionally, ADEQ uh has uh has now in the process of reviewing their fees that they will be charging to landfills and to other services.

Um that will have a pretty big impact to us here in the city of Avondale.

And not only would it also have will have an impact to us as a municipality and all the municipalities throughout the state, but also to the private haulers as well.

Um it's not just uh a concern for us, but it's also to the private companies too.

Uh just recently in late July, uh Mayor Wise signed a letter of concern uh sent that we sent over to ADEQ uh expressing our concerns about the new fees that and the impact that we'll have uh to our residents and to our community.

Additionally, the recycling cost uh has also increased by over 60% uh over the past three years.

We receive we have a fixed tipping fee for per ton, it's roughly about $95 per ton, but we receive revenue back from those materials that are sold, the collections that we sell.

So the fluctuation, it changes dramatically uh every quarter because it the the market bears what that revenue we're going to be receiving.

So these costs that you see in front of you, uh fiscal year 23 of $30.85.

That is the net cost to us to dispose or to uh to dispose of that material over at our recycling center.

And it's gone up as high as $71.61 per ton, and that was in the fourth quarter of 2023.

And just in fiscal year 22, we were actually receiving a very small amount of revenue back to us, and that was post-COVID, when we had a lot of our paper and cardboard were a really high commodity that were bringing in a lot of revenue uh for not just us here at the city of Avondale, but for everybody who was collecting and processing recycling material.

Additionally, we continue to have some uh challenges with our bulk trash services.

Um of those challenges is uh with new communities uh coming on board.

Since we do provide a monthly service to all of our residents, we have to navigate through more miles uh through our new communities that we have developed over the last two years.

Um so that requires extra time and extra fuel and extra expense for our for our for our operations.

Additionally, the five Mondays in a month creates added work and it confuses our residents.

So this week is an example uh of that.

So last week was a fifth week or half a week in a month.

So uh we don't provide bulk trash services the this past week, but this week we are.

So our residents are used to a four-week schedule, so four weeks ago I should put my trash out, but on occasion uh every year we have about two to three uh additional uh weeks within within the year that will cause this confusion with our residents.

So we continue to work with our residents about their late put or early put out, um, and it kind of just goes throughout the whole month of when we have that extra week.

Uh but we continue to work with our residents, but we do have that uh that early put out issue, which also causes more bulk to be put out as residents see, oh, there's a pile, it's been there for a while.

I'm gonna go put some more out.

So it does cause some additional overtime for us when we do run into these situations.

And then also we all and also we're having uh continued misuse of bulk trash pickup.

Uh here's just some of those examples.

I I believe uh everyone has seen our big uh pink X marks on our on the piles and to include our big pink tags that we provide uh to our residents.

Not only do we market, but we also uh provide educational opportunities to our residents if they are home to be able to uh discuss uh exactly what might not have been acceptable in their piles and solutions to what they can do with those piles as well.

Another challenge that we are currently facing is our curbsite trash and recycling program.

The curb maps that we have today were established uh the since 2022 we have added more than 1700 new home builds into our community.

So that includes communities such as LMR Verde Trails, Acclaim, Roosevelt Park Phase 2.

That's about a 7% increase to our overall uh home counts that we have to now uh include into our routing services.

The current peak up schedule for both trash and recycling was last updated in 2003.

So that's uh as you can see, uh, all of our growth that has occurred, specifically in the southern portion of our city over the last several years, um, has caused an imbalance when it comes to the number of homes in each one of our zones.

Very similar to our bulk trash services where we had an imbalance of homes in our in our zones.

And Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays do require overtime to complete.

Friday specifically, um, as you can see on a reset on a recycling map, it covers just everything south of the I-10.

And the reason why we had less days for recycling than for trash, well, one, there's five days in the week, so we can't provide three days of service, but secondly, the put-out rate for recycling is usually a lot less than it is for trash.

So roughly about 60% of our community puts out the recycling on a weekly basis.

So, what is the future of the program of our program hold?

When it comes to bulk trash, we are not looking at to making any changes.

We just recently made those changes, but we're gonna continue to monitor how the growth continues to affect our operations.

We want to make sure that we're providing a quality service and on-time and be able to provide that service that our customers expect from us.

We're going to monitor what other cities have recently done to uh their bulk trash services.

Some have gone from a quarterly or a monthly to a quarterly service or a quarterly to a by appointment services.

We're going to work with our partner cities to learn from the best practices, what they've learned from the pros and cons with going to those types of services so that we're prepared into the future if we do need to make any additional changes.

And we're also looking for any and all alternatives for residents and how to be able to dispose their bulk trash services as well.

Continue to monitor that.

When it comes to our curbside trash and recycling, we want we're going to make some changes.

We want to provide curbside trash recycling and bulk services Monday through Thursday moving forward.

Sorry, starting February 1st, let me rephrase that.

All staff will be removed from the 410 rotating schedule and they will be here Monday through Thursday.

So one of the things that we learn on a rotating schedule is we will have a scheduled group off, but if we may have one or two call out sick emergencies or the case may be that does put a strain on our operations that will does require some additional overtime, or we call the individuals who might be off that day, scheduled off to see if they may want to come in for some additional overtime for that week.

So one of the our solutions is to remove us from that rotating 410 schedule and move directly to a Monday through Thursday operations so that everyone is here every day.

This also aligns with our fleet services operation.

Our fleet services are also a Monday through Thursday operation.

So if there is a breakdown on Friday, it may be a few hours until we're able to get that truck up and running again or back into the yard from wherever the location might be, which adds more time for our staff to be out in the field to perform that work.

It also redistributes the workload for recycling trash services more evenly.

Again, we're trying to find those efficiencies internally and things that we can control to ensure that we're doing everything in our part to be as efficient as possible.

So before I show the map, I want to uh give credit where credit is due and praise where praise is due.

So as I mentioned earlier, we hadn't made any changes to our solid waste services in quite some time.

So we knew making the changes that we did after our last uh update, we were probably gonna run into some hiccups and learn from from our experiences.

And so one of the things that we proposed was for our staff to provide options on what they believe would be the best solution moving forward.

And so it was led by two individuals.

Um and unfortunately they're not here today, they had some uh some emergency take care of with their families, uh, but we do have staff uh here today.

It was an initiative led uh by them.

Uh they provided several options where we looked at, I think it was five or six different maps, what were the pros and cons for each one of them?

They presented to public works leadership, and it was a great experience because it was input from all of our equipment operators uh to tell us this is what could work uh for our for our city.

So I just want to give praise and and um and credit where credit is due to our staff for coming up with this map.

So this is what the new map will look like.

We're following our bulk zones uh that we currently have today.

And again, to minimize the impact to our residents as much as possible.

So if you are in zone A, your new trash services will be on Monday, and your recycling services will be on Thursday.

If you go down to the southern part of the city for zone D, it will be the opposite.

Trash will be on Thursday and recycling will be on Monday.

One of the main reasons we made this change is because on Thursdays and Fridays when we provide recycling services, our operators normally have to go two times to the Phoenix Recycling Facility.

In the afternoon, it can take upwards to two hours to drive to and from uh to that facility.

And that just has to do with traffic, school getting out, they have to drive through school zones to get to the Phoenix Recycling facility.

And by being able to provide uh uh by being able to provide and removing that afternoon uh drive to the Phoenix uh recycling center really opens up more productivity for our team.

So in the mornings, our teams will be focused on on the recycling, uh, the recycling part of the day, and then in the afternoon they'll focus on the trash, which will go to the Glendale landfill, which is north of us, so there's less traffic in the afternoon heading up into that area.

Additionally, this also allows us to provide courtesy pickups when requested for all services at any given day.

For instance, if a resident asks for courtesy pickup for trash on a Thursday, unfortunately, I cannot provide that service because all of our all of our trucks are dedicated to recycling, and I cannot commingle our trash with our recycling services.

So what we do with by providing services uh trash and recycling every day, we're able to now accommodate those courtesy require requests uh moving forward.

Again, we're looking to uh conduct this new service starting February 1st 2025.

As always, we're going to work uh closely with our marketing and public relations team to develop and conduct all of our outreach efforts very similar to how we did uh with the bulk trash changes although one of the changes that we will make this year is instead of having a door hanger for uh every home we're proposing to actually give out a sticker uh through the mail with a letter indicating why we're doing the changes to the services and here's what the services will look like so they can place our residents can place that sticker on their can so they can see when their days of service are or if they wish to put it on the refrigerator they're more than welcome to but this is I think one step further for us to communicate these changes to our residents.

And as all and as we uh experience with our bulk trash services we are going to provide a grace period for our residents.

Again it's been a long time since we meet we've made changes so we understand that's going to take a little bit of time for everyone to know and get used to oh got to take my blank can I got to take my blue can out this day.

So there's there's going to be a grace period for our residents as we uh make these changes and they get used to them.

In summary I just want to reiterate no bulk trash changes uh no bulk trash services changes at this moment we're going to uh change our curb sided recycling schedule February 1st 2025 again these operational changes bring efficiencies to the program to keep costs down there's still some other items uh other things that are out of our control uh when it comes to our uh recycling fees and our landfill fees that we always have to continue to monitor and in the spring uh you know rate increase will be presented to council by our finance and budget and our and ours and our management team uh for further discussions as well with that I'll take any questions a lot of thought went into this yes and it's got to be scary I'm seeing nods back here it's got to be kind of frightening to look at a schedule that's been this way for 21 years and say okay how do we shake this up but I think you did it exactly right the work the the people out in the field know what they run into every day they know the problems they know the issues they know the areas they know what works I love the idea that you know Friday afternoon we're not going to get on the freeway and try and go somewhere so I really appreciate that.

I do have one question.

If Christmas or Thanksgiving falls on one of those days so if Christmas or Thanksgiving falls on you know Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday what happens to that day what happens if Christmas falls on a any one of those days I know it gets pushed back but does it throw a wrench in that schedule?

Mayor Vice Mayor and Council um I need to think because you're saying we're not going to go on Friday so if Christmas were to fall on a Friday or a Thursday well on a Friday or Thursday you'd have to push back to the next day.

Yeah mayor vice mayor council yes we would have to come in on a Friday to to conduct that work just like if we were to come in on a Saturday today we would have to push it out to the next day.

Once every seven years you'll run into that council any questions Veronica?

Thank you for the presentation Harold I do have a couple of questions you said we added heavy uh equipment um to our fleet is that correct yes okay and with that did we hire additional people to drive the fleet or are we understaffed overstaffed with I know I understand the overtime I want to know where we're at with the staffing piece.

Mr.

Mayor let me if I can interrupt Mr.

Mayor Councilmember Malone let me correct we did not add staff or we did not add equipment we added an equipment heavy equipment operator.

We didn't bring on new new trucks you brought a new mechanic on I'm sorry.

You brought a heavy equipment mechanic on we didn't add when we made the changes we didn't add a bunch of equipment we added one staff member yes but go ahead and explain the question about staffing though.

Yeah mayor vice mayor council member malone um we we've we include we we added this in the past two years we added a mechanic to uh work on all of our equipment because we had one dedicated mechanic and we needed two uh our and I'm I'll speak specifically to our side loader trucks we have 14 trucks total um and we are going to be coming back to in our in our uh budget present in our budget request for this upcoming year we're going to be asking for another equipment operator someone to actually run the trucks so from a truck perspective we are good we're not gonna ask for any more but we will be coming to to council to request for another equipment operator as we continue to not only are these changes uh needed uh but we also understand that we are going to be needing in the next few years additional staffing um also in our study that was conducted by our consultant it did all they did also provide when we should be adding new staff or new operators based upon the projected growth that we had at that time now we can always go back to our consultant to re-look at that to look at our growth today uh to help us understand when we would need more staff members as well.

Now we can always go back to our consultant to re-look at that to look at our growth today uh to help us understand when we would need more staff members as well.

Okay, thank you.

So what what what is the staff um how many FTEs do we have doing the work?

So we have uh we have on the residential side, we have eight equipment operators, and we have a senior and a lead.

So a total of ten uh on both sides of the bulk side and on the residential side.

Okay, perfect.

And how often I'm sorry, and two and and two inspectors.

And two inspectors.

Yes.

And how often are um our vehicles out of service?

Uh like our trash or our um uh heavy equipment.

Uh mayor, vice mayor and council.

Um there could be two vehicles out of service, maybe three vehicles out of service.

Um sometimes we have parts delays uh just because it's that's kind of been the nature in regards to our supply and demand for some of our equipment.

Um we keep a close eye on that.

Uh we are looking at different trucks and different types of trucks to help us with some of those issues that we're experiencing with our current trucks.

Uh, but we continue to monitor that and make sure that we're purchasing the right equipment and our fleet department does a great job on trying to keep these trucks on the road as much as possible.

Thank you.

Um you also mentioned something about the lids and stuff can call um and our uh community can call or do an IPWISE ticket so that if their um trash um I guess their trah lid is broken or their trash can is broken.

Are we being proactive and our inspectors are they being proactive and going around and looking at that?

Um in my neighborhood or in other neighborhoods as I was walking.

I had noticed a ton of uh lids that were broken.

Um so are we being proactive?

Are we trying to help them, or we're do we as a city wait for them to give us a call?

Uh Mayor Vice Mayor and uh Councilman Malone.

Um I would say historically uh we would wait for our residents uh to call to for us to uh make a repair.

Uh when I talk about equipment, uh we have noticed that some of our equipment may be a little bit harsh on our cans, causing more lids to break, and those are the things that we are monitoring.

Um in regards to being proactive, we do in our new uh uh software management software that we have, our operators are also taking photos of broken lids and containers to let us know.

We're doing inventory of uh how often that's happening and how we can be proactive.

So sometimes a resident may call us before we could be proactive.

So we're trying to find that right balance for us to be proactive and not to duplicate efforts if a resident calls in before we're able to get to it.

Um but to answer your question, it is something that we are looking at on trying to be more proactive, especially with the cans, uh the lids on the cans right now.

Okay, and I've noticed that with my CAN, um, it it broke after getting the whole entire can replaced within less than like six months to a year.

So, did we um change companies of who we buy our trash containers from?

And is it now just a little bit flimsier?

Are we saving money, or are we actually spending more money because we're having to replace all the uh broken lids or broken containers?

Mayor Vice Mayor, Councilmember Malone.

Uh that has something that we have actually noticed with our current batch of cans that we have received.

So we are monitoring each one of those broken cans that we have seen.

And um, yes, we have just recently worked on getting another contractor on board uh to purchase cans from as well.

Perfect.

Thank you for the um opportunity and thank you for the uh presentation.

Thank you.

Max.

Thank you so much, Harold.

Thank you, your entire team.

I see folks here from the team.

Thank you for being here this evening.

Um I was uh first thinking about how is how will all the changes impact employee satisfaction?

It looks like you had a study done and you made some pretty deliberate moves.

So in the collection of recycling from me, I'm a Friday person.

I think your employee satisfaction has elevated.

Um Mr.

Corbin, Harold, is that what led to these changes, some of these changes?

Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilmember White.

Uh the changes were based upon lessons learned from the original changes that we made since the last update.

Um so we wanted to ensure that our staff had a voice in what those changes would look like also moving forward.

Additionally, when we made the changes originally, our uh consultant did uh even interview several of our staff on where things can be improved, what can be improved on, and even gave them opportunities to come in and to speak to them as well.

So it was throughout every change that we made in every process that we have done, our staff have been heavily involved.

Um when it comes to uh employment satisfaction with our with our team, that's why we wanted to hear from them because we wanted to see what would work best and get consensus from our team.

Well, I really appreciate you moving to um the team being off on Fridays and only being there kind of as needed.

I think that puts them in alignment with the rest of the city, and we want to make sure they have that.

I have a couple granular questions.

Mr.

Mayor, Councilman White, before we go on a couple things I want to add, is uh the public works department as a whole does an annual employee satisfaction survey.

Their last result showed about 83% positive rating.

And I believe the survey is going out or has already gone out uh very shortly, and so they continually measure that every year.

One of the other drivers behind these changes is cost.

So council approved a two-year rate plan uh two years ago.

That's expiring now with these rising costs.

Uh we will be proposing another rate increase.

So before we did that, we wanted to once again look to see if there's any way we could be more efficient with the tax.

Well, in this case, the ratepayers dollars.

And so it was uh kind of two-fold there, really making sure that we were getting the most money or the most service for the least amount of money possible for our residents.

Thank you very much.

Um these next few questions, again, pretty granular.

I know you said you do keep the footage from the trucks when they're going by helps with um resolution.

If if in case there's an accident or a complaint, how long do you maintain that footage just so our residents kind of know?

Yeah.

Mayor Rice Mayor, Councilmember White, uh footage uh when it is retrieved, uh we hold it for as long as required by either attorneys for our risk management office.

Um we also adhere to all of the um uh uh record keeping uh laws as well.

And then the um next um granular thing, you'll be sending out stickers in advance of the February 1st change.

Um I know that I I I like stickers, so thank you.

Um personally, but I was just going to make a possible suggestion if we do any public events in between now and then.

I also like the magnets that you guys have offered in the past with the fridge because that tells me what I can and can't put into the garbage cans.

So if if maybe I don't know if m sending magnets is a cost effective thing, but maybe if there's a public engagement where we're out, you know, touching people like the trace reels or something like that, they can have that magnet fridge-wise as well.

Yes.

Yeah, magnets work.

Yeah, the magnets work.

Okay.

Harold, I just have a question for you back on the recycle.

I just want to make sure I understood it.

The numbers that were there, the 35, 52, the 49, whatever it was.

That's cost and revenue, and that's the net.

Uh Mayor Vice Mayor, Councilmember Nielsen, that is correct.

That is the net.

So we have a fixed uh per ton fee of about $95.

And then we receive revenue that helps offset that costs.

So we will get maybe $35 a ton back or $40 a ton back.

It changes on a quarterly basis from the City of Phoenix.

Um so they set that rate uh for us.

And it's not just for us, but that's how they operate.

I I just wanted to make sure I understood it, that I'm not going around and tell everybody that's 3545, whatever it might be.

The other thought just might be on your bulk trash, whatever it is.

Maybe you're on your outreach or whatever it might be, uh setting up appointments, if it can maybe be done on AVI-wise or on the website or something like that.

And if we're really going to do something like that, maybe we get it coupled with the sticker that's on here that if you have bulk and you want to make an appointment, da-da-da-da, to this particular point.

The other thing, Veronica just one of the things I've done when I've seen trash cans like that, we'll take a picture of it and put it on Abbey Wise.

The people across the street had a couple of those lids broken off, and they got back within about two days to get it taken care of.

So the means and mechanisms were there to take care of it.

And I guess just the last thing I would like to re-emphasize is what we've already talked about is your staff input years ago in my other life.

That was the biggest thing that we ever did.

We began talking to the people and getting them the feedback as to what we need to do rather than me putting the schedule.

They're the one that's going to be living with the schedule.

So thank you very much.

I appreciate that's their involvement, and that's what we're all about.

Thank you.

Can we touch on something if we go back to something here?

Because you piqued my attention, and I know you peaked Veronica's.

When we talk about risk management and the cameras that are on board.

Is there a set time that we keep them?

Or is it in consultation with our attorney?

Can we get some insight to how long?

Because PD has a state role that says you have to keep for a certain period of time.

What is our policy on that?

Mr.

Mayor and Council, the question is uh how long do the cameras before they write over themselves?

Because it's uh it's automatically rewrites over itself when it's not pulled, and that was the question.

He kind of danced around it, but I think let me re-ask it a little bit.

Just if it's not pulled, it it's not a record that we need to keep forever, so it's rewritten over.

Yeah.

Uh Mayor Vice Mayor and Council, yes.

About every two weeks it gets written over.

So again, so it gets so if I get a request, you know, uh for an incident that may happen a month ago, I can no longer download that footage.

Well, and you would hope that if there was a right, that's what you and I were looking at.

Thank you.

You would hope that someone would report that incident within the two-week time frame.

Okay, yes.

Council, any other questions?

Ron, any thoughts?

Can we see?

Can you do you want to put up the new schedule just for anybody want to take a picture of that?

Hopefully, we'll get a I'm I'm I'm um we're talking about magnets, but I honestly I can never remember when we get trash, and Sherry says, Can you just go look at the refrigerator?

Just go look at it.

All right.

Thank you for thinking everyone, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Summary of current events, council, anything?

We had Billy Moore days this weekend, Tina.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so this past week we were invited to attend the QANE's uh Kiwanas Club of Lichfield installation ceremony dinner.

Um, and I just want to just share that we received an award that evening, so it was very unexpected.

Um, the award recognizes the Avondale Interfaith Partnership, which I chair and council member Nielsen co-chairs um as being a community partner of the year.

So I just want to just I just want to drag.

Thank you.

Curtis, any thoughts?

Just one additional one uh in addition to all of these proclamations that we've read tonight.

There was another one which you read last Friday night for Mercy House.

Uh some of us attended that Gala for 30 years with Mercy House has been blessing the lives of so many people here in the in Avondale and Cash and Area.

And I was surprised between reading help homework help, back to school, backpacks, uh Christmas things, hygiene kits, food pantries, and everything else.

Uh just amazing listening to what they did.

And I think I mercy did something I would never do.

She got involved with three gangs in the days when she started this up and straightened these kids up and got them to church and got a minor down, and many of them come back and told them thank you for getting me out of the gang and get me where I needed to be.

So great opportunity last Friday night to hear what's happening in our community.

We were anything back?

Yeah, I just wanted to again thank the um the city for allowing me to participate in leadership West.

I know there's a picture circulating around with a couple council members, and I was sitting um on the dais in the Goodyear City Council chambers, and I just I'm sorry.

I I know I know that's why I want to put it in the public record because I was on their day as I got to sit in uh council member um Vicky's seat.

And as I was there looking out into the audience, I I really just had to reflect back on everything we have here in the city of Avondale.

It's so nice.

It's it's been this large for a while.

They don't have our capacity, but they have a beautiful facility over there, and as a part of leadership West, just being able to look at another music municipal area and see their government and everything.

The only thing that I think is when that might, you know, have a little bit on Ron.

But other than that, you know, we have a state-of-the-art facility here in our campus.

And GQ Square is nice, but nothing's as great as home.

Thank you so much for allowing me to participate.

Veronica.

The ribbon cutting for the new detention center, the state of the art uh facility that was able to um that's been dedicated.

I do have a question because I hadn't received any pictures.

I know that one of our council member went in with the political uh pitch uh a political shirt on, so we weren't able to post that picture.

I just want to know will the city be posting that picture?

Um, or will they be um sharing that with the council that so that we can post that on our um on our social media pages?

It's not an agendized item, so uh we can't really talk about it, but I can tell you that both the police department and the city uh uh marketing has posted pictures.

Um we posted that we did a press release today, and over the weekend and late last week, both PD and uh Pierce Group did post things on all of our social media stuff.

So there are pictures out there.

Perfect, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, this week on this Thursday, sorry the 10th, um Judge Pet Ruzmond and several elected leaders have put together um uh because of uh his spare Hispanic Heritage Month's month, an opportunity to celebrate local grassroots individuals who have had impact in the community, and just wanted to celebrate that this must be Mercy's month because she will be honored that evening in addition to uh Martina with Cash and Has Heart.

So both of them will be receiving an award for everything that they do in the community.

So hopefully we'll get to see some of all of you there.

And she was grand marshal.

Yes, and she was grandmars.

Holy cow.

That's a lot for one person for a year.

That was like three days.

I think she needs a problem.

Um Friday I had the opportunity to read to a bunch of three, four, and five-year-olds at the preschool in Garden Lakes at the church.

Um it was uh it was great.

We talked about I read a book on volunteerism.

It was amazing.

There was just a lot of excitement.

Police and fire.

There's a there's a page about what police and fire do, and they got the biggest of applause.

And then teachers got the second biggest applause, and it was just it was great.

Mercy House on Friday was uh just a beautiful thing to see.

And uh sure, I know that uh Sherry did the research and kind of wrote up that proclamation, and Sandra looked at it and kind of tweaked what needed to be tweaked, but they were it was a surprise, so they didn't know we were gonna read a proclamation, and they were just uh they were really impressed, and Mercy really appreciated it.

So uh thank you to everyone.

Anything for you, Gloria?

You had 13 seconds.

Okay, we're not going over.

All right, Mr.

Mayor, yeah.

Uh the next item is the mayor's report, and so I'm gonna um start it off uh as sometimes we do.

So um I'm sorry.

You're not the mayor.

I know, but I I'm gonna um present you with something before you start talking to give you something to talk about.

So this is your last council meeting as our mayor, and I'm not gonna steal your thunder.

I promise you, you get the last word, unless Nicole takes it, it's quite possible tonight.

But because some of us are not behaving as well as uh we should be.

But um uh we are for the community to know gonna celebrate your uh 18 years with the city in December.

Uh same time we have another elected leader who will be uh stepping down December.

So the party is in December, but I I can't just let you go quietly into the night.

So would you join me at the diaspora at the uh speakers' table?

I'll look you on.

See, this is where global oceans going.

So um, Ms.

Mary again, I'm gonna save my speech to um uh uh December, but here's my coin, and I want to say thank you, sir.

Thank you, Rob.

Appreciate that.

I have many words.

Save them to December.

I'll save them to December.

Thank you for supporting the fire.

Always, always.

Can I get a picture of you?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the detective you're nine units.

Oh my gosh, please.

Another and there's flock going.

Of course.

I just want to note that my family is crying more than I am right now.

Let's just go.

So before presentations, Mark, some of you don't even hear.

So Mike, you're gonna be the next mayor of Avenue.

And before I get into my words, I wanted to present you, so I wanted to present you with your own gabble because I think you're gonna need a gavel over the next year.

There you go.

This is not the gap I'm giving you.

But I'm gonna leave it here just in case you do need it.

I'm guessing you're guessing you might need it.

My hope is to start a tradition that the outgoing mayor presents the new incoming mayor with her own gabble and uh and base.

And I've had this for as long as I've been here.

I don't remember if this was Marie's.

I don't remember if Marie took hers, but we'd like to present you.

Oh my gosh.

Um you need me to leave that here, because I'll leave the big one here if you need to.

As a reminder.

As a reminder.

Um, I will tell you as I was writing up my comments.

I I I absolutely do not want this to be a goodbye.

I'm moving 400 feet away.

I told Marie Lopez Rogers on Friday, I am stuck in this one square block area for a while.

Been here for almost 20 years.

It's not a goodbye.

You and I will get together in December and uh and we'll say our goodbyes then.

And for me, this is just kind of going through a lot of things came flowing into my head over the last week or two weeks since I made my announcement.

I can tell you that I remember being appointed to council and going through that interview process, going through interviews.

And when I think about that day back in February of 2006, I still get a feeling in the pit of my stomach going through the interview and asking questions and and uh just going through the whole process.

I didn't even know I got selected to council because council did their what they do, and I didn't understand the process.

So I remember they voted, they narrowed it down between me and another gentleman, and then they took another vote and I got selected, and I remember saying what happened, and Jim McDonald, who was my friend said, Hello, council member.

And I thought, what?

It just happened.

But I still remember that feeling, and it's the same feeling I had when Marie stepped down and council was looking to fill the mayor's role.

And remember, I didn't want this job.

I didn't want it at all.

I just knew how hard Marie had worked, and I didn't want to be like, I didn't want to let the city down.

And Sherry said to me when I came to her and I said, Hey, they'd like me to be mayor, and it's the same thing we did when I when I put my name in for council, and you said I didn't really want to do it, I wasn't sure about myself, and Sherry said, just do it for two years.

Just do it.

And if you don't like it, you won't have to run again.

And when I put my name in for mayor, I said, I don't think I want to do that.

And she said something else besides you should do it for two years, and if you don't like it, you won't run again.

Well, that's been 18 years, and I will tell you that when I read to those little kids on Friday uh at the church, it was just it brought back all the really good things that we do.

When we heard about the homeless update today, it brings about all the really good things that we do.

Billy Moore days this weekend was incredible, and it always is.

Um, when you look at the amount of people who showed up and the dedication, there were employees who were there before the sun came up and long after the sun went down.

That was just amazing to me.

You know, over these last 18 years, I've met some really incredible individuals and people that I hope will be lifelong friends, and um with really talented, talented and dedicated people.

Um I told you in the letter how I felt about the employees, about the team, about everyone.

Tonight, I want to tell you kind of how I feel about my council.

And I've told you this before.

You are by far the best counsel I've ever worked with, and I've worked with some really good councils.

I've worked with councils that weren't always on the same page.

I've worked with councils who um weren't council members who um you know they were doing it to move up in the next level of the political rum.

I don't see that with this council.

I see people who are dedicated to the residents of Avidel who do this job because you're truly public servants.

Veronica, your passion and fight inspires me.

You fight for this community from the very first day that you got on council and you keep on fighting to the very last day.

And I I admire that greatly, and I just wanted you to know.

Tina and Curtis, your love and compassion for this community and everyone else that you run into, you guys truly have a servant's heart.

My daughter Delaney talks about that all the time.

I will tell you I find it ironic that my daughter Delaney leads the interfaith community at Goodyear, but doesn't really attend church on a regular basis.

So I'm just saying that right here.

That that seems like irony.

That was bold.

That seems like irony to me, but Delaney was texting me like every 10 minutes today, going, Are you crying?

Are you crying?

Are you crying?

As I was writing this.

I am not.

And I always tell you that your vision for what you want to accomplish and what your vision for this community is goes far beyond these chambers.

So don't be afraid of that challenge.

Okay.

Gloria, your thoughtfulness.

I've known you probably as long as I've known any member of council.

Your thoughtfulness and you're willing to volunteer.

I remember when you first came to me and you were talking about Hilton doing the garden at the senior center.

You always reached out, you were always willing to learn, you were always thoughtful in how you approach things, and I think that is just amazing to me.

Mike, it's your leadership.

It's the coalition building that you do in this city.

You know so many people.

Uh, you have so many relationships, and I will tell you if you do one thing as mayor, keep those relationships strong.

Um guys, I see great things for this council beyond what I could do.

I see you guys, your strength is working together.

Don't let anything divide you, don't let anything push you apart.

Um, I have mayors that come up to me and say, How does your council get along so well?

And I said, I will tell you a little inside story.

For the last 18 years, as we do our moment of reflection or our prayer, I say a prayer to myself, and I think you guys have heard this story.

I say, God, please bless this community.

Take ego out of my heart, put wisdom into my mouth, and don't let me screw up.

Okay.

But we work together really, really well.

For every business owner, every resident, for our employees, we've always taken the position as a council that we will never ever bring up things to this city that divide us.

We focus on local things.

We don't worry about what happens federally.

We don't want we don't focus on things that we can't control.

And we never put our employees in a position to have to defend us or explain things about us, right?

We're professionals in what we do all the time.

I will tell you that we serve those who who didn't vote for us.

We serve those who don't look like us, that don't sound like us, who don't have the same backgrounds, who don't have the same religious, political, and societal views.

Once you take that oath of office, you serve every resident of Avondale, and it doesn't matter where they come from, it doesn't matter their situation.

We take an oath, and it's an oath that I know you all take incredibly seriously.

And I think it it's what really helps us have driven has helped to drive this city forward.

I see great things for this city.

You have probably the greatest team that any council, any mayor could ask for.

Don't ever take that trust for granted.

And uh Kenny Chesney sings a song about um don't blink.

And that, and I think Ron, you know it.

And he talks about how things happen in your life and they've passed by so quickly, and if you take them for granted, it's it's a shame.

And if you blink, that you just miss them.

Don't miss your time as mayor.

Don't miss the rest of the time that you have on council, Curtis and Tina.

Veronica, you guys will look back on these days incredibly fondly.

Um Max, my hope is that in two years you run again for this office for council.

Um, I think you do incredible work.

To all of you, my letter to you said it all.

I don't want to add to it.

I also don't want to break out in tears.

But let me just say that.

Um God bless all of you.

May God bless this city, and may God bless this country.

We are so lucky to live here.

Thank you, everyone.

All right.

Jody has to drive back from Chandler.

Poor Jody.

Poor Torrin.

Torrin still lives in Gilbert.

I'm like, Torrin, oh my gosh.

Uh, can I get a motion for adjournment, please?

One second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

We are adjourned, folks.