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.

More importantly, welcome to the city of Avondale, and we are happy to have your expertise in being a part of the team.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Anthony Jones.

My position is a container technician, and the thing I like most about my job is being able to provide service residents around it.

My name is Chris Bergonzales.

I'm a street meeting one.

I work in the students department.

And um most about my job is the people I work with now.

We're a real uh tight group of guys.

We all like to have one together.

Hi, my name is Bradley.

Fabricating maintenance on vehicles.

Hi, my name is Michael Gerhardt.

I work as a water meter technician.

And one thing I'm about my job is all my co-workers and managers around me.

Thank you, Mayor.

Great time.

Thank you so much, Kirk.

Please pass on to the rest of them, and we appreciate them being part of the team.

Thank you.

Okay.

Ron, next item.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Up next, we have a proclamation, uh Government Communicators Day.

I believe here, your marketing and public relations director will present.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

And tonight I'm joined by uh the members of the marketing and public relations department who are here for council's recognition of Government Communicators Day, which we marked on February 21st.

Um as you know, this is our 80th anniversary, and throughout the year we'll be sharing stories and memories about Avondale's history.

And I hope you indulge me just a few moments to um share the history of the Office of Communications with the City of Avondale.

Um the city was incorporated in 1946, but it would be 50 years later before the council at the time would deem it appropriate to have uh public information office in the city.

So in April of 2000, I had the privilege of being hired as the city's first public information officer.

And at the time, Avondale's population was not quite 40,000.

Um my office was located on the second floor of a converted bank building on Central Avenue.

That was City Hall.

And when I came to work for Avondale, there was no city website.

There was no official logo, much less a city brand.

Social media did not exist.

It would be many years later when we would have our own Facebook.

Um so the only way to reach residents back then was through our local media, working closely with our reporters, um, and by holding many, many, many public meetings, which were attended by inevitably the uh five or six same people that would you know show up to those meetings.

Um fast forward to 25 years later.

The communications function is no longer the responsibility of just one person or even that of a small department of seven people.

Here in the city of Avondale, many people wear the hat of public communicator, even though it may not be in their official job title.

From the parks and recreation coordinators who share fun posts on social media about the aquatic center or the sports programs, to our librarians who encourage library card sign-ups through the humorous posts from the city manager's office that runs the Citizens Academy program, to our police department that's always out there on social media, engaging the public with their skits and their innovative um podcasts.

Um LinkedIn, sharing the word about all the things that are happening in the city.

And of course, our public uh Office of Public Safety keeps our community prepared for emergencies through Avondale Alert.

program to our police department that's always out there on social media engaging the public with their skits and their innovative um podcasts um our economic development department and our planning department they're active on linkedin sharing the word about all the things that are happening in the city and of course our public uh office of public safety keeps our community prepared for emergencies through Avondale Alert our citizens have ways to connect with us through Aviwise through Avondale Connect and a myriad of social media platforms and yes we still hold public meetings so thanks to the leadership in Avondale we are a city that believes in transparency and open communication because it is through robust communication and government that we build trust and inspire our residents to be involved the marketing department is grateful to support Avondale's marketing and communications efforts and tonight we respectfully ask the mayor to read the proclamation for government communicators day Pierre I'd be happy to do that whereas the role of government communications professions is to inform educate and engage their communities and whereas robust communication and government creates trust and inspires residents to take action and to be involved and whereas government communications create relationships and calls to action build awareness and understanding through storytelling engage and foster engagement on civic issues and use all channels to include people and critical decisions and where it's essential to have strong communications in government because it's the foundational element of living in a democracy where citizens have the freedom to make their voice heard and whereas Avendale's marketing and public relations department serves as the hub for the city's external communications to residents visitors and the business community and whereas the city of Avondale is proud and has deep gratitude and recognition for government communicators professionalism dedication hard work commitment enthusiasm and sacrifice now therefore on behalf of the Avondel City Council, the City of Avondale Arizona hereby proclaims February 20th 2026 as government communicators day in the city of Avondale and encourages all residents to recognize the members of the marketing and public relations department along with other city staff including public safety personnel who have dedicated their careers to ensure the city city of Avondale has effective impactful and successful communication strategies that resonate and are relevant.

Thank you so much and more importantly what I heard from you Pierre is that every department here essentially it becomes a team sport and prior to 2000 you know communication was really delivered by who you knew and community members and things of that nature and so the fact that this team sport has evolved to this point where everybody's connectivity uh is there and essentially is communicated upon their voice it's really nice that your department and all of those that work within it continue to refine those messages help deliver them but more importantly provide that connectivity between residents and the city itself and so I commend you all for what you do thank you for what you do it's a pleasure and if there's anybody on council that would like to add please do so if not okay Councilmember Conde.

Pierre I did not know you were the first that's amazing well thank you for your dedication and your leadership I know you have an amazing team behind you.

I see them in the audience and I know you guys do a lot of work because it shows we get a report of all the things that you guys are doing so between all the advertising and marketing keep up the great work and we appreciate all the work that you do and thank you for your years of dedication.

Thank you's gone by pretty quickly but if we if we could can we give uh the marketing uh the MPR team one more round of applause for everything they've done yes you deserve to stand up and be applauded thank you so much for being here thank you I believe we're gonna take a photo okay if council wouldn't mind joining me down below we will take a photo taken and she's right there she has to be in the picture perfect and then I'm sorry to one time

Marcella, have we received any requests to speak?

Thank you, Mayor.

I have not received any requests to speak for tonight.

Okay.

Takes us to item number four, consent agenda.

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

Councilmember White.

Oh no, sir.

I just was gonna move to accept the consent agenda.

We don't have it because our iPads are not working.

So I have a motion from Councilmember White.

Thanks.

Got a second from Councilmember Garcia.

Marcella, we do want a voice vote.

We could just say all those in favor say aye.

Okay.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, that was very quick.

Summary of current events.

Item number five.

Anybody wish to share any information from the viewers?

Mayor Nielsen.

I've had the opportunity the last week or two to uh have ribbon cutting at two of our um coffee shops down on Buckeye on lower lower lower Buckeye in Avondale, which was great.

I got to talk with the people down there and how excited they are about that one down there.

And the human being last week over on Dyser.

Had an opportunity to go down and spend some time with the people at GPEC.

Yeah, get them for amazing things that are going on with the Maricopa County and the state of Arizona.

Yeah, what was the other one?

That may be all for right now.

I remember the other one.

Okay, good job.

Okay, Councilmember Weiss.

Well, last Tuesday on Taco Tuesday, my husband and I went to Paco Madre, which is a brand new restaurant in Avondale, right next to the sports center, and it was their opening day.

We didn't even know it was their opening day.

We just happened to walk in.

They were doing a soft opening.

Great food.

We had a lot of fun.

Um I just signed up for the Fire Academy.

I see all the fire guys back there.

I'll be seeing you soon.

That was it.

Thank you.

Councilmember White.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

I had the opportunity to attend um Arizona Office of uh the Governors um kick off to Black History Month today, and I sat through an awesome um panel where we heard from the Department of Housing, Office of Economic Opportunity, and the Governor's Office of Resiliency.

So this week we're gonna have a ton of activities around um uh Black History Month, and I will be on a panel on Wednesday evening um at the Archwood Center um celebrating Black History Month.

Thank you.

Councilmember Conde.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just wanted to give a big shout out to Parks and Rec and Library.

Um our family attended the movie in the park at D Consini, and it was so cool to see so many people out there.

Um families, the kids came in their pajamas so they can stay and watch the movies.

Uh families brought blankets, their chairs, pillows from their looks like their beds to enjoy the night.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

Those are um events that really really warm my heart and makes a huge impact for families, especially those that have three, four kids.

It can get very expensive to take them to go see a movie.

And it was a good movie, Paddington.

It was such an amazing um night.

So thank you to Parks and Rec and for libraries for um for being out there and bringing so much joy and fun to our community.

Mr.

Mayor, can I amend her uh update?

Because she left out a very important topic.

Um we had pizza at that event uh that fed a significant number of our families out there, and that was directly from her uh fund, and she arranged for that.

So we may have delivered, but that was at her ask and her her financial thank you, Councilmember Condor.

Okay.

Uh on Monday of last week, really quickly, I was able to celebrate the hundredth birthday of Miriam Hall.

Um her first name was Gertrude, but she said please do not use that name.

So I apologize, uh, Miriam, uh, wherever you are, but she is a resident here of Avondale for the last nine years.

Her grandson is a council member in Michigan uh and was down here with some family visiting and were able to celebrate their birthday at Red Lobster.

So I presented her with a proclamation, which a hundred years um young, I thought was uh was a milestone that I hope all of us could re and she was with it, she was celebrating, she was feisty, so I'm sure many more years to come for Miriam.

On Tuesday, I attended a briefing from the APS CEO Ted, and he provided uh an update.

I know that we're not in APS coverage area, uh, all of us, but um, in regards to data centers and more importantly, power, um, and how they're making sure and being cognizant of the fact that uh the uh rates for customers such as data centers are gonna be coming from a separate bucket than those of the residents so I think that was pretty important uh so that the the uh costs are not being um shared with the average ratepayer.

And one last thing is I was able to work with a marketing team on Thursday in regards to our state of the city that will be coming up and uh creating a video that will highlight 80 years of progress in this beautiful city of ours.

So that's it.

Um can I please get a motion for adjournment?

So moved.

I motion to adjourn.

Okay, we got a motion from Councilmember White and a second from Councilmember Garcia.

Please vote.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, item passes.

We are adjourned.

That was a quick meeting, everybody.

Please drive safe, get home safely, and we will see you at the next meeting on the 26th.