I'd like to call to order the regular city council meeting of February 9th, 2026.

Would y'all please join me on the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence?

I believe you're allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And the coalition stands one nation under liberty and justice for our.

Thank you.

Ron, next item, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

First, we have a presentation by Kirk, your public works director, introducing a few new employees.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

I'm pleased to introduce some new employees with the public works department.

I have two here in person tonight and four more to introduce via video.

First, I'd like to introduce Sergio Mejia.

Sergio joined the public works department last week as a civil engineer.

His primary role is to work closely with the engineering and development services departments in reviewing developer projects and plans specifically as they relate to water and wastewater elements.

Since then, Sergio has worked with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in the drinking water section and engineering review unit.

His work included technical reviews of all aspects of public water systems throughout the state.

And he's actively engaged with predictive analytics for the prevention of arsenic and water systems.

Sergio enjoys hiking, backpacking, poetry, and spending time with his family.

And he and his family have lived in Avondale for the past five years, and he enjoys being part of the community.

On my right, I'd like to introduce to you Frederick Flat, Frederick or Freddie, joined the Public Earth Department as a lead solid waste equipment operator.

And his role is to lead the crew operations in the field.

He brings over eight years of valuable experience in the solid waste industry.

He started his career at the city of Scottsdale before coming here to Avondale.

And where he worked his way up.

On a personal note, Freddy's an avid camper.

He enjoys playing and watching sports.

His favorite sports team, NFL, is a Vegas, Las Vegas Raiders, and his favorite NBA team is a Phoenix Sun.

So please welcome me and join join well join me in welcoming Sergi and Freddy to Avondel team.

If you want to quiz them, they're available.

I was just thinking of a couple of questions uh in my mind right now to ask them.

True or false, short answer, whatever you guys would prefer.

Uh just joke in.

No, just welcome to Avondille and just based upon what we've heard so far.

Both of you have uh you know significant backgrounds in your field of choice.

Um I know water is important here to the city of Avenue as it is everywhere, and it sounds like your expertise and working for the state will come in handy as you support uh our city and and those efforts and uh in terms of solid waste.

You know how important that is as well, even with the recent changes to our landfills and and other things and and just as many residents that utilize our services, uh the skills that you guys both provide and present here to the city uh are gonna be important.

Um so you shared a little bit about what they like to do in terms of hobbies, but what I'd like to know about is where you like to hike or where you like to camp.

So if you wouldn't mind Sergio going first and then Frederick second, that would be great.

Um my favorite camping spot would be uh the Chiticawa Mountains, which is in the southeastern part of Arizona.

My family's from the Douglas area, so uh we have some family issues going on to those mountain ranges.

Okay and hiking, uh just anywhere uh around Arizona.

Uh in the valley, I would say my favorite mountain range would be the superstition mountains probably.

Oh, okay, interesting.

East.

Okay, well, thank you, Frederick.

Yeah, I'm thinking on Paison.

I go to Paison a lot, we go there twice a year, I'd say.

So Woods Cairning Lake area, school campgrounds, probably my favorite campgrounds.

Um, I do a good amount of camping on not too much hiking though, you know what I mean?

Especially some autonomous.

I'm done in the cigarette outside of the year.

There's no hiking funding.

But yeah, it's probably my favorite place to be.

Oh, you said Woods Canyon Lake.

I love that place.

We're going there since I was a kid.

Not too much camping, just popping in to fish every once in a while, but there's nothing like getting to the top of that rim and taking the drive into Woods Canyon Lake along the rim side there.

And just the view is spectacular.

So thank you for sharing.