Mayor has 602.

Would you be ready, sir?

Yeah.

Of course, you're a member of the T or the time.

Okay.

Well, I'll hear that.

Okay.

Mayor, we're gonna try this, but I'm still want to have the recorder going just as a backup, just in case, because it may crash on me again.

So far it's recording, so okay.

All right.

Good evening.

Welcome to tonight's Eloy City Council meeting.

It is Monday, February twelfth, twenty twenty four, and the time is approximately six oh three.

I'd like to call this meeting to order.

If I can get a roll call, please.

Councilmember Sutton.

Here.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Here.

Councilmember Wannawatha Rodriguez.

Here.

Mayor Powell.

Here.

Councilmember Schneider.

Here.

Councilmember Garcia?

Present.

Councilmember Tarango.

Here.

Thank you.

Um, I believe our invocation be done by Pastor Blandau.

If we can all uh stand for the Pledge of Allegiance as well.

Thank you.

Let's pray.

We do thank you, God, for the privilege of getting together for the betterment of this city we call home, Eloy.

And I just pray, Lord, that you'd be with the mayor, Vice Mayor, and all the council members that they will uh use great discernment, wisdom, insight, whatever decisions they need to make, whatever steering they need to do.

We thank you for all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Yeah.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Nobody signed in.

Thank you, Steve?

Next, we're going to go to public appearance scheduled.

We're going to have an update by our Panel Partnership, President CEO Tony Smith, the Panaw County or Panel Partnership.

So welcome, former Mayor of Maricopa and Board of Supervisors.

Well, thank you very much, Mayor.

It's great to be here with you this evening.

And Council members.

I know that the uh city clerk passed the the my brief presentation to you, so I'll just be running through that and then making some comments and then after if you have questions for me, I'll be happy to respond to those.

But for those who do not haven't been to one of our meetings or breakfasts, we're a 501c6 nonprofit organization for the economic development and prosperity of Panal County and our communities.

We have 24 board of directors that represent many of the companies that you may see on the flyer, and we have over 200 members and growing.

Our mission is all about economic development, as I mentioned, and we have several ways in which we accomplish this mission.

As I mentioned, we have our monthly breakfast events that normally have the hot topic of the day, or we feature the Board of Supervisors, the mayors, uh City Managers.

Uh we talk about whether it's water resources, we talk about transportation.

Uh we have a breakfast this Friday at uh Central Arizona College Signal Peak campus.

And Mayor Powell, you're going to be on the panel.

Uh, and that's the second of our series matching our city leaders with economic development interests within their area.

We also have, and a lot of folks don't know this, committees.

We have around eight committees in a number of very critical areas for Panaw County and our communities.

Of course, we were born in the area of transportation, so we have a transportation committee, we have economic development committee, we have business and education, which is working on workforce development.

We have health and human services that's working on housing and affordable housing.

We have open space and trails that's meeting tomorrow morning, I believe, in Florence.

And that's uh working on a trail system and recreation for our uh citizens in improving recreation.

Uh when we compete with uh states such as Texas, Colorado, Utah, California, a lot of those areas, they expect recreation and outdoor recreation.

And so this particular committee looks at preserving our open spaces and our recreational opportunities.

Uh then we also do specific projects that advance economic opportunity.

As I mentioned, we some of our key breakfast events.

We have Elliott Pollock's 2014 uh 2040 market forecast we held in December as our one of our most popular uh events.

We have transportation and Penau County in the news.

Some of the projects that we've been engaged in, uh Panell Partnership and our membership really participated in a big way in order to help with the Panau RTA Regional Transportation Authority and Panaw County in the 22 uh 2022 ballot election.

Uh lost by 2800 votes, but uh we were there pitching it with our chamber of commerces and anybody that would basically listen.

We partnered with Panau County in order to create the inner interactive map uh viewers, and that can be found from the Panaw County site when I first became president, uh, knowing my uh previous position as a board of supervisor.

I realized boy, economic development professionals and site selectors could really use some type of fancy tool that would show all the key assets in either the cities or the county.

So we partnered after about a two-year project.

They have now a very, very slick tool that is is used by economic development professionals and site selectors in order to see and turn on and turn off uh key assets.

Well, an outgrowth of that was the wall maps.

We had had a wall map that uh was about eight years old and had um wasn't as usable as it was.

So we gathered sponsors and we worked with the county and uh uh Hilgart Wilson provided us a lot of expertise in order to create the wall map.

So tonight I have the wall maps available, the the smaller ones over there, that is uh 18 by 32 inches, I believe, maybe 24 by 32, and then the large one is 36 by 48.

And if you have that place in your living room where you have that big open spot and you wonder where you want to feel that, this may be the choice you want to look at, but it's uh I left three copies of each.

And uh if you don't find what you're looking for there or they run out, please contact us and we will be happy to provide more.

We're going to be very engaged.

Uh the counties asked us to do somewhat of a repeat of what we did with the PRTA only for the half-cent road maintenance fund.

That election is going to be in November of this year, 2024.

And Panal Partnership is going to again uh help out all that we can in order to publicize and encourage people to vote positive for that.

We know that Eloy and our communities within Penal County receive monies in order to maintain your roads, and this is very, very important for every community.

We're going to do a golf tournament.

This is a uh networking opportunity.

This will be at Wild Horse Pass.

And uh we're going to uh find a local charity.

We've have uh some identified, but we're going to take the proceeds from that golf tournament and share and improve one of our uh very needed nonprofits in the county.

Then finally, we have launched our uh 2024 emerging leaders initiative.

We started it last year.

This is a networking event, and and as I was uh sharing with council member Snyder, we're looking for mid-level managers.

Maybe we we have the CEOs of a lot of the corporations engaged in Panel Partnership, but the next level down, the managers, the the ones who are emerging uh in our profession, those are the ones we're kind of targeting.

We're not doing it by an age group, we're doing it by looking for the next level leaders that are going to to be here to run our our cities and our county, and that is going to be on Thursday.

It's a lunch.

So, Mayor, that's concludes my brief presentation and update of Panell Partnership.

And again, I am will be leaving those maps.

I'll be taking the one on the easel, but uh those are maps that I think you'll find very helpful as you survey the assets in Panaw County.

And as I mentioned, I'm available for questions if desired.

Thank you, Tony.

Appreciate you, sir.

I have a question that emerging leaders initiative.

Didn't they have a dinner not too long ago?

Yes.

Okay, so it's the same type, it's the same.

It's the same thing, yes.

Okay, yeah, that was a good turnout.

Yes.

Elo is very re well represented at that one too.

If I if I remember yes, it was, yeah.

Anybody have any questions for Tony?

Dan's usually our representative for uh the Partner Panel Partnership.

He goes to the ones the monthly, I think it's it monthly, I think it is.

Monthly breakfast, yes.

Uh council member Snyder's oftentimes there, and we appreciate his involvement.

Uh Mayor, uh as I mentioned, we have a lot of committees that they're they either there for information sharing or problem solving.

And if a any one of your council members uh uh would be interested in a certain segment, maybe they're interested in health and human services, or maybe they're interested in business and education.

Just by you uh being a member of the council, you have uh we invite you to participate in those committees, and those uh are led and shared by subject matter experts, and uh we like I say try to inform regarding whatever that particular area or do some problem solving.

So thank you very much for the opportunity.

Absolutely.

Those are nice maps too.

I saw them at uh the December Yes, that was our when we brought them out for the first time.

Yep, nice.

All right, well, thank you.

Where's the uh when's the golf tournament gonna be?

It's not gonna be in the middle of the summer, is it?

It's it's in September, late September, very late September.

Yes.

I've golfed over there at Wild Horse Pass and during the summertime.

No, it's not fun.

Yeah.

So well, thank you for all that you do.

We appreciate you and the support that you've given us as the city and it's Panawell County.

So thank you, sir.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Next, we're gonna go to uh reports and announcements.

Anybody on council to start on this side?

My right side have any announcements?

No.

All right, my left side.

Wow.

Might be an easy meeting.

I just jinxed us.

Um well, thank you.

All right.

Next is my announcements.

Um keeping it simple.

Yeah.

Uh we had a great time at the father-daughter bank with my my daughters and granddaughters.

Well, missing Mr.

Tidwill haven't seen him.

We didn't see him there.

I was kind of sad because that's the one time I could see him get down on the dance floor.

So Mr.

Twell, you were missed at the father-daughter banquet.

So nice.

And also, we want to welcome back a colleague of ours, uh, former council member George Reuter.

Welcome.

Uh hope you enjoy your stay here in the sunny warm weather of Arizona.

Um, while you're here for the next couple days, it is uh it's nice to see you and that you remember us.

So we will yes, he won the power ball, he left us, doesn't care about us no more.

So, but it's a good yes.

Well, but thank you, appreciate you coming in.

So absolutely anybody else here, Ned?

David, you're up.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of council.

I'll I'll keep up with the brevity as well.

I really only have one major announcement, and that is that city offices will be closed on Monday February 19th in reservance of President's Day.

So we'll have a short week next week.

Three-day weekend for staff.

Okay, that's all I have.

Other than we'll roll into two updates that we have.

We've got our finance director Brian Wright here to kick us off with a financial report as of December 31st, 2023.

All right, thank you.

Oh good evening, Mr.

Mayor, member of the council.

Um, just to kind of give you a brief update um on the financial report for ending December 31st, 2023.

Um, some of this information we went over at the retreat.

Um before I start, I did make the uh kind of a modification to the capital project section um under Councilmember Snyder's um, you know, kind of request to kind of show what project the statuses are.

So hopefully um that kind of uh is satisfactory to you and given a better update of our capital projects.

But uh since it's not uh working, I'll just give a brief uh overcap of the the financial report.

Um kind of go over the general fund.

The general fund actually uh at the ending December 31st, 2023 has a positive variance of just a little over 2.2 million.

Um at the this positive variance is due to employee vacancies, um, some unpaid quarterly incentive uh payments that uh was paid out in uh January, not January, yeah, January.

So we have some payments that are um that affected that's the national gypsum, the ropes and and express fuel.

Uh then we also have a lot of higher than expected collection in our construction sales tax that is uh contributed to this positive variance in the general fund.

Um overall, the the city sales tax is doing is exceeding budget expectations uh through the end of the December.

It's about 672,000 above expectations.

A lot of that is due to the construction sales tax.

Um that is higher and a little more uh it's coming in a lot a lot stronger than what we anticipated due to the construction of uh uh national gypsum.

That's starting to fade off on some of our construction.

So we'll probably see that taper off in the next several months so that since that project's uh coming to a close, you know, as far as the construction phase.

Our state sales tax.

Um there are about 293,000 above projections at this time.

Um, a lot of that is due to our well, the state sales tax.

That's uh with inflation and all the higher prices collections of sales of goods throughout the state.

We're seeing a little bit of that uh benefit on that side with uh distribution from the state sales tax, state income tax is uh is a little above projections, and that's because we're getting um a little more distribution from the 15 to 18 percent of our uh distribution from the state on that VLT is actually below projections at this time, and that's due to the vehicle licensing tax on that.

All the special revenue funds are meeting budget expectations, along with our water and sewer and and sanitation funds are all meeting expectations at this time.

Um kind of hard to tell the next several pages.

Uh just show the graphs.

I did make the modification from Councilman Schneider's last uh time I did the update.

It starts with the uh fiscal years and moving in the same direction, so all the graphs are corresponding.

So hopefully that's uh um it's a little easier to read for uh council.

But uh going through just the this report is you know, overall the the general fund, the city itself is in is good fiscal shape.

Everything is meeting budget expectations.

Um, you know, yes, we do have some vacancies and they are being filled, but those also contribute to a large share of our um having a positive variance.

So overall, you know, things are looking very strong at this time, and everything is meeting the expectations that we set forth in the budget.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody on council have any questions?

No.

All right, hearing that next one, Brian.

Um, this this next one, which is our investment portfolio.

Um, usually a net gassing comes in and uh gives a brief update.

And so we weren't sure we were gonna just try this out to just provide this to council as an update um and just give it to council as something to look at, or do you or would council want a net to come in to give a formal um update of our investment portfolio?

What is council's wish on this?

Because I mean, this we just wanted to provide it, let you look at it.

Um but if you'd like a net to come in to talk about this, we can schedule this for the um the next quarter review.

And so we kind of wanted to get uh council's feel on that.

She used to come in and then we we talked uh Dave and I talked about just submitting it to council, and then but kind of want to hear what if council would like her to come back and just present present this uh information to council.

Do we need to have it done every any quarter or can we do it like twice a year?

We can do twice a year.

It's just it's just if informational update for uh ourselves, myself, and then the council itself.

So uh we can do it every six months if we'd like, you know, at the beginning of the uh the end of the uh kind of the fiscal year, fiscal year, and the beginning in the middle part of it.

So like a June and then a December or January?

Yeah, okay.

Would you guys would would that be suffice?

Yeah, I I think that's better than then every quarter.

Okay.

All right.

So what I'll do is have her come uh just I'll have her come at the end of the fourth quarter, which would be our uh at the end of June, so the first part of July on it to give how we are looking at at that point then.

Okay.

I I I think this is still good reference information.

So I don't think we need to have like I said if they want to present this to us every quarter and then have a presentation twice a year.

I think that's that would be okay.

And we'll we'll when she submits the one for in a march, we'll provide it to council in a similar format.

And if you have any questions, we can actually address it, and then I can get the answer for council at that time.

Okay, yeah.

It just looks like the is the last quarter's not been very good or the year.

I see what uh 180,000 loss in the last quarter and what 700,000 over up to that or something.

So I guess that just reflects the the rates and it's just adjusting our lot of it's adjusting our portfolio to maximize with some of the long-term gains and some investments come due, so they see the the yield the benefit to move it out for another two to three years.

You might recognize the loss right at the beginning, but then the overall the strength that builds it out for another two to three years.

Any other questions?

No.

All right, thank you, Brian.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving forward, we're gonna go to the consent agenda.

All items listed with the NASTERC are considered to be a routine matter and will be enacted by one motion and one roll called vote of the council.

There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless the council members will request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considering its normal sequence on the agenda.

So we have quite a bit.

Items A through J.

Anybody on council like to dis discuss any of these items hearing none.

Do I hear a motion to approve consent agenda items A through J as presented?

I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda A through J.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

I'll second that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Seton.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanowato Rodriguez.

Yes.

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Taranko.

Yes.

The motion pass unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

Next, we're gonna go to uh business item A.

Acceptance of the fiscal year 2023-24 annual comprehensive financial report.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor, members of the council.

Tonight uh I have uh Mr.

Joshua uh jumper with uh Heinfeld Meach, who's the audit partner that uh was overseeing our fiscal year FY2223 audit.

Uh this is the tenth year that Heinfeld has done our audit.

Um the staff within Heinfeld and Meach was very professional.

Um dealing with them ought to meet our timelines for a a successful submittal to GFOA, which is a government finance officers association association, uh, for the uh submitting our ACFR to the uh to the GFOA for the uh the certificate of excellence of financial reporting.

Um by doing this uh by accepting the audit per Arizona revised statute um section if it states that within 90 days after completing the audit um that the government body uh shall uh require the certified public account in this case Heinfeld Meach who performed the audit to present the audit results and any findings to the government body um either through consent or in this case a motion, and then that will uh meet the requirements of Arizona revised statute.

So I'll turn it over to Mr.

Uh Jumper.

He'll go through the our um letter of communication to the council, he'll talk a little bit about one of the the reports the HERF report and then talk about some of the importance of the uh the audit.

Uh before I just turn it over to him.

One of the things that uh with the audit that we did new this year, it's called the popular annual financial report, the PAFER.

Uh you can this is a more easier to understand um version of our financial statement for the reader.

Uh this is a uh form that uh was our first time doing this report.

A lot of cities do it.

It makes it really uh easy to read for the public to understand our financial statements.

And this actually can be fine found under the fine uh the city's website under the finance under budget and uh documents, and there's a it's a link and it's uh a web version of that uh PAFER.

So I'd like to mention that to council and to the public that this is a um another uh way to understand our annual audit.

So thank you.

All right, thank you, Brian.

Good evening, Mayor Powell and members of council.

Hi uh, my name is Joshua Jumper and with Heinfeld Meach, and I'll keep the spirit of the evening going by keeping it brief, but I'm happy to answer any questions along the way that you may have.

Uh so within your agenda packet, there were three documents.

So I'll the first one I'll speak to is the uh letter to governance, so uh the letter uh to you council, and there's a few different things included in there, but that letter is approximately three pages and includes some required discussion that we have to have related to the annual audit for the year ended June 30th, 2023.

Uh things like were there disagreements with management, there were pleased to report there were none.

Were there any uncorrected misstatements in the financials?

Please the report there were none.

So uh I encourage you to read the letter in full, but just going over some of the highlights attached to that are a few different documents as well.

The engagement letter, which is signed to signify the beginning of the annual audit is attached, as well as the general representation letter, which is signed at the end of the audit.

I'll get to the next one, which is the HERF Accountants Report.

And this is uh submitted to the state.

Uh all municipalities that receive HERF monies, highway user revenue fund monies from the state is required to be in compliance.

Essentially, they're spending HERF monies uh as required in law.

And so this accountants report is stating that fact that the city did indeed spend its monies uh in accordance with the law.

And then finally, the the big report, the annual comprehensive financial report.

Uh this report's approximately 150 pages.

So I'm gonna spare everyone's time and not go through it in detail.

Uh, but just note that within there is our independent auditors report, including our audit opinion.

Uh pleased to report that our audit opinion was unmodified.

So pleased to report that.

Additionally, within the annual comprehensive financial report, there's the letter of transmittal, which goes into facts and figures regarding the city.

And then I'll also just mention uh what Brian said about the popular annual financial report that does not receive an audit opinion, but again, is a more digestible means uh to understand the city's financials.

Uh the last thing I'll mention is uh what was just issued last week, but not included in the packet was the city's uh single audit reporting package.

So the report to the federal government on the city's expending of federal grants.

Pleased to report there were no audit findings this year.

That's always good.

Made my promise, I'll keep it brief, but happy to answer any questions you might have.

So this was for fiscal year 2223.

Yes, June 30th, 2023 here and so we're always looking backwards with the annual audit.

Yeah.

Is it usually 160-ish pages?

Or is this one kind of like more?

Seems like this one's longer.

Uh unfortunately, each year they there's quite a lot of required information above and beyond just the financial statements.

So to submit to GFOA for the uh award in financial reporting, they require a host of different things that uh make the the report a little lengthier.

Okay.

All right.

Anyone on council have any questions?

Let's start this side, Dan?

Let's see.

Yep, Andy.

Yeah, I'd just like to say thank you to Brian for a job well done on this whole thing.

It managed to keep it brief and concise.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

All right, here now.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

All right.

So next we're gonna go ahead and move forward and for acceptance.

Yes, yes.

All right, so do I hear a motion to uh accept uh the fiscal annual comprehensive financial report uh for year 2022-2023?

Mayor, I'll make the motion to accept the fiscal year 2022-2023 annual comprehensive financial report.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Mary Councilmember Juato Rodriguez.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango.

Yes.

The motion pass unanimously mayor.

Thank you.

All right.

Next, we're going to go to item B, conduct a public hearing pertaining to an application submitted for conditional use permit.

Dan.

Oh, this is for restaurant with the drive-thru.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of the Council, Dan Seimer, Community Development Director.

The application before you is for a conditional use permit for a drive-through at restaurant.

The rush um drive-throughs do require conditional use permit.

The property is located at the subject building of 39110 West Sheld Road.

The building is going to be converted from an existing commercial use, and the development of the property is including the adjacent property.

So driveway circulation is crosses both properties.

The applicant has submitted a site plan for to demonstrate compliance with the criteria.

They will be required to demonstrate compliance with that criteria.

And we have talked about how to do that.

So at this time we are supporting the application as it was presented, subject to the criteria outlined in the report.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody on council have any questions?

No.

Anybody from the public have any oh I got this is the public hearing, so I gotta open this up for a public here.

Hold on, real quick.

All right.

Now it's public hearing.

Yep.

Just have a question.

Have we heard from any of the residents?

Uh mayor council members here.

No, we have not.

I have.

They're excited.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're excited.

Super excited.

Yeah.

Just wondered if that would bring in more traffic in most area from most of the dividing that.

But it gives more options too.

Yeah, they're very excited.

We have uh a resident over there, Andrew.

So he's shaking his head, yeah.

So yeah, yeah, I think it's a great idea.

I mean, it's you know, did this go before planning and zoning?

Mayor, yes, it did.

Okay, and what were they their comments?

Uh they recommended approval.

Okay.

Uh believe it was a 6-0 vote.

And the only comment was is that to look at the access driveway from the accessible parking stalls to the building, which is a conflict in the use permit criteria and federal guidelines of providing the shortest access point from accessible parking to the entry, which based on the design and layout requires cross access of the driveway.

So we have competing interests here, so we're gonna have to work with them a little bit on how to achieve that, but they're willing to work with us.

Okay, it looks like they're gonna do some expansion on there as well to the building uh where they add the drive-thru app because there's not a window.

I don't believe there's a window in that area.

That is correct.

Um then it looks like they're going all the way over to where the multi-mart is, so it almost butts up to the multi-mart property.

Yes, it is set off.

I don't have a dimension on the plan, but it is set off the property and does comply with code.

It does, okay.

Yes.

Anybody do we know if it's uh connected to um the sewer lines or is it septic?

That I don't know.

Okay.

It's connected to sewer.

Sewer okay, good.

All right.

Anyone else have any questions regarding this?

As a public hearing, does anybody in the public have anything they want to say?

Hearing none, I'll go ahead and close this public hearing.

Thank you.

Um public hearing.

That's it, huh?

We're not gonna move on anything.

Okay, all right.

Well, that's it.

Public hearing closed.

We're gonna go to item C now, because I'm looking at as it would normally we do a public hearing, then we do a resolution to adopt, so but not this time.

All right, uh, item C adoption ordinance number 24-95.

Um application submitted by MECA energy.

Yeah, I do need uh Mayor.

I do need a motion and uh an action on the previous agenda item for B.

It's not an action item on that one.

B it's not it's just a public hearing.

That's what I'm saying.

We should have we should have done a uh approval by resolution or ordinance.

It does uh you do not need to act on behalf of resolution or an ordinance council can't act on behalf as an ordinance resolution or by motion Steve.

Mayor, council members, the the agenda item B that's here basically says conduct a public hearing, which you've done in there.

It it does not have on there that we would have an action.

We can on at our next council meeting, we can have a consent agenda item to take care of this matter for you.

Oh yeah, as a resolution or an ordinance.

Um I will conf I will confer with our our our plan our planning administrator to make sure that we have the right document to you.

I think a resolution would suffice, but I just want to make sure that we don't need to have a have an ordinance okay.

All right, sounds good.

All right, so we'll we'll take care of it next time.

Apologize for that, Mayor.

All right.

Next, we're gonna do adoption of ordinance number 24-955.

Item C Dan.

Sure.

Again, Dan Syward Community Development.

The action item before you is an ordinance for adoption to rezone a property of approximately a half acre from single family residential R16, downtown overlay to multifamily R3, with the downtown overlay maintaining it is to allow for an eight-unit uh multifamily development, which comes out to be approximately 15.53 units per acre.

The development will have it a little bit of an individual units, uh commonly referred as tiny homes, but the applicant will be discussing those in general.

Um the planning commission did hear the application and recommended approval anonymously.

And if you have any questions for me, I'll be happier at this time or I'll turn it over to the applicant for their presentation.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Hello.

Hello, hello, city council member, hello public.

Um, my name is Chivelle Guno.

Um, for those of you who may or may not know me, I'll just do a very quick background about who I am, and then kind of go into the project that we are hoping that you all will approve this evening.

So I am new to Eloy, I've been here for about uh a year and a half now, but very excited to come.

Um I've been working in housing and homelessness for over a decade, almost approaching two, but don't don't don't look at my age.

It it's growing up there.

And so um I used to work at the Houston Harris County Sheriff's Department.

I would work there for about seven years.

I've worked in detentions, I've worked in HR.

Um, so I've had a plethora of background, but I wanted to make sure that you all know this evening that my heart is to serve the public.

I've sat on several housing and commission boards in California in Texas, and hoping to do so here in the city of Eloy.

Um a brief background about the autumn cottages is Autumn was our first born daughter.

She passed away at five and a half months, and so we're hoping to develop these houses in her honor.

Um these are cottages, so we really wanted to emphasize indoor and outdoor living to provide a safe, stable place for families, working class families to have a place where they can live, work, and go to school.

Um, that's where my background has always been, and so we're hoping to bring that same spirit to the city of Eloy.

And so um one of the questions that I've constantly have been asked is why Eloy, and I'll give the same answers why not Eloy?

It's such a breath of fresh air.

I watched a YouTube video.

I lived in Phoenix.

I watched a YouTube video of Mayor Um Powell, and he's just saying it's like the land of opportunity, and I'm like, wow, he's so invigorated and and really captured my heart and saying, you know, this is a place where um opportunity is met, and I'm like, this is exactly where a place I will want to raise my kids.

And so that's what led us to moving to the city of Eloy.

And so as I looked into more what was going on, I realized there is a ton of development for um manufacturing plants, lucid motors, Nicola Motors, and you know, go bond, but where are people gonna live?

And so as we invite our skilled and unskilled workers, we want to make sure that we're providing them housing.

And so that's where we came in, is we want to be solution oriented and provide that solution for the city.

And so um the current condition is uh well, I'll back up for a second.

We live on a 20-acre property, zoned to the city of Eloy, so we pay our taxes to Eloy, but it's unincorporated Penell County.

And I was working with John before Dan came along, and he loved the idea, loved the project and Belinda.

They both love the project, but they were really like this is a great thing, but can you find something in the city limits?

And so we were very fortunate to find something right downtown on 4th Street, so it's walking distance from here, and we've partnered with the police station to make sure that all of our leasing has the no-crime addendum in there, um, thanks to Officer Byron to offer that suggestion.

We've conversed with various businesses downtown.

People are so excited, they want to see this housing, they want next generational housing.

And so um the property that now it sits um, there are about eight structures there.

It's zoned for R1 through six, which is a single family home, although it's been migrant housing, so there is already multifamily there, but it's been condemned since 2013 and it's been abandoned since 2006.

And so this is a great opportunity to continue the vision forward with what the downtown overlays purpose is with providing multifamily housing.

And so that's why we wanted to present this opportunity with you all today to see if we can move forward.

And I believe that the best partnerships and the best things that we can do at housing is when it is in co-step with the city and with the public government, as well as we can be nimble as a private entity to make sure that we can be the solution that our families need here in the city.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Start off with council.

Anybody on the council have any questions?

Yeah.

I would just offer that uh in talking with some of the people in the public, I guess, the residents.

The uh right away when you start talking about tiny housing, people get a little bit nervous, but then when you explain a little bit what this project's about, the fact is big used uh for infill with uh lots that are almost uh vacant now.

It's not a development where it's gonna have 500 homes.

Yeah, so which kind of like oh then they kind of back off and they recognize it's something like this is needed, and I think that generally that the people that I've talked to said this is a pretty good idea.

Yeah, we have to uh good feedback on it.

So City Councilman Snyder.

First, I'd like to say that the property there now in its current condition is nothing short of a blight.

It is really bad.

And I thank you for taking your time to invest in the city of Eloy and trusting us with your hard-earned capital and expertise.

Uh who are the core people you're gonna be looking to put in there now?

Yeah, great question.

Um, council member Sutton.

Um, so we are looking to partner with Pinau County Housing Authority to move families from the waiting list into our um into our um as residents, and so we have six three-bedroom, two two bath that are around 900 square feet.

There is an individual backyard for each of the properties.

So if we put that in the indoor outdoor living space, is about 1,200 square feet total.

And so that way it's not quite a tiny home, it's bigger so that people don't feel on top of each other.

Um, so we're aiming to work with affordable housing, low income.

Um, I've been a property manager and an owner of several properties here in Panawh County, and we only lease to families who are low income, who are in need, or who are on the housing choice voucher Section 8.

I personally grew up on Section 8 housing, and so I know how there can be a shock of some landlords not wanting to move people in because they think that automatically crime is associated with that.

That's not always the case.

I worked really hard, I put myself through law school.

I graduated in May of last year.

Congratulations.

So thank you very much.

So I'm a testament that you can be low income and you can work really hard and you can still make a way for yourself.

And so that's why I wanted to do this project is to make sure that there are kids who can be able to have stafe, a safe, stable house, can walk to school and know that they can come home and their house is gonna be there.

Um, we're gonna manage the property, we're gonna have a permanent um property manager on site, and we're gonna have a lease in office that the police officers can come and do work if they want to do paperwork, they're welcome to do that because again, to me, it's about building a sense of community.

So I attended um one of your community meetings, and you mentioned um the rent going from 1900 up to the 2200 um range, and um the the vouchers for section eight um aren't of that amount.

So you talked about uh researching uh other ways for um you resources for people to utilize to help supplement that cost.

What were some of those resources that you came across?

Yeah, so um I want to first address the first point is thank you for attending the community meeting um that we had in November.

And so I actually reached out to Penal County Housing Authority.

As I mentioned, we have properties that are already accepting the housing voucher.

Penau County for a three-bedroom, two bath allows for up to 2500.

What I was saying is that we will not even go into the 2000 mark at all.

When I did my additional research, I work with a local realtor here, Stephanie, and we came in the average price of rent in Eloy for a three-bedroom, two-bath at 85131 zip code is around 1900.

So I just wanted to say clarify.

We weren't saying that our rent would be 1900, we were saying that's the average rent for the zip code in which that the property is owned in.

And so right now we have not worked out the exact cost of what the rent would be because we're working with local vendors, local contractors to keep the price as low as possible so that way that can benefit to the direct resident so that the rent will be as low as possible.

So working with Pinau County, they already approved that if we were to do around 1800, the voucher will suffice up to 2500.

But like I said, our goal is to meet the working class family.

And if that's not the market rate, then that's not what we're gonna do.

We're gonna stick to what is needed in the city of Eloy.

So if average for three bedroom, two bath is 1500, then that's what we'll look at.

But our goal is to make sure we reach the needs and the people receive the benefit of it.

Did that answer your question?

So I've worked with Penell County.

I work with the realtor um for resources.

I went to Panau County Hispanic Council with Ralph to see if there are people that he can help play some clients.

Um I've spoken with Mary Lou at the human services um department here in Eloy.

So I've been working with the people, the CEOs, the uh nonprofits to say, hey, what can we do and how can we be a solution for the for the city and for the residents?

Thank you.

Um and what about us going like a knocking on doors?

Um I did that.

I followed the advice.

How did that go?

I didn't put my heels on, but I did go knock on doors.

It went very well.

Um, even one of the um, so I passed out flyers essentially.

I went to all the businesses to your downtown.

I went to the local people, if they were outside, I went to them, but I would not cross into someone's property.

But if they were outside, I would pass out a flyer, and it was actually one of the city development department who lives, you know, a couple of blocks down, and he's been living in the city for since he was two, and he serves on the development department, and he just was high praises on the initiative.

He couldn't be more ecstatic about knocking down the dilapidated buildings that are currently there.

And so the residents are well received.

The next door neighbors, they were already asking uh we needed help.

Um, the local church was saying, you know, they may have some contractors, but again, we want to make sure that we're working with local contractors that are licensed because we want this to be done right, we want it to be done well.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Thank you, City Council member.

Back to uh your resources, you said Penel County Housing.

By any chance, did you ever go to like the veterans and see if they need anything?

The VA.

So I spoke with a couple of veteran organization, and they referred me to speak with the Panaw County housing.

So whatever if you know a resource, we're happy to do so.

But my heart is to serve veterans, single families, families with disabilities seen or unseen.

So certainly I've reached out to people, and then if they refer me to Panaw County Hispanic Council.

Sounds like a big circle, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

But if you know someone, let me know, please.

Thank you for all your efforts.

You're very welcome.

I just have a couple questions.

I know the are these renderings just basically generic renderings of what the houses will look like.

Um, these are renderings, but I work very closely with the architect.

Uh, work very closely to get the structural engineering um down to the T.

We have a mock property in Atlanta, Georgia that has the same or similar style.

So, yes, it's renderings, but we have some actual things just out of state.

Yeah, I'm just about like the interiors.

You did mention um yards, so will those be fenced in yards?

So will each individual home have their own fenced-in area.

Yes, that's what we're looking to do.

We still have to work very closely with the planning department to make sure that's feasible, but that is the goal.

And so, along with having that indoor outdoor living space, we definitely made sure that everything's gonna be energy efficient, they're gonna be soundproof walls there, we're gonna have a community center where people can work out, they can have like a little small cafe, they can grab a bite to eat, we'll have free coffee because we want to have like the police presence there.

Um, so there are things that we're doing to create that sense of community.

Things are done it with intentionality, and so we've been very intentional about every aspect of this project.

So inside we made sure to utilize as much space as possible, storage space under the stairs, so that people would again, even though it's a small house or cottage, we don't want people to feel like they're lacking anything.

This is truly an opportunity to where they can save their money.

Um they could use it to go other places.

I've already mentioned, like I grew up on Minger meet Minger meal uh means, so I knew what it was like to be poor and low income.

And you know, there were times where my mom had to make tough decisions on paying the rent or putting food on the table or having lights on.

So I took all of those things into consideration to make sure it's energy efficient so they'll have solar, the solar parking will provide the energy for the housing to keep the cost low as possible.

Good.

So you're gonna have covered parking then.

Yes, we're gonna have cover parking.

I like that.

Um I just was looking at one of the renderings, and I see a cook top, not a stove oven.

Will there be there'll be a stove oven?

Yes, there will be a regular stove, a regular fridge.

Um we have to design custom cabinets to make sure that it fits, but yeah, they're gonna be a regular stove and a regular size fridge.

I like that.

Okay.

Um and how large is this property that all of these did I see it's 0.52 acres?

That is correct.

So this whole thing is going to be on point five two acres.

That is correct.

And so the point um a half an acre, you can have up to 10 units, but again, we're only doing it's really seven units in a community center.

Once again, the whole purpose of this is so people can have a sense of freedom and not feel crowded.

So we're only doing seven units in a community center here.

I like that.

Um you're gonna allow pets because I see you have a pet area.

So we have two German shepherds, so you know.

I like that part.

So that's I just those were my few questions.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Yeah, go ahead, Sarah.

Uh first of all, I'd like to reiterate that I think it's great that um there's interest to put something in in that part of town because that you know what what uh Mr.

Sutton said, yeah, it's it's not great right now.

So I think um having some a new development there is is a real positive for us.

Um I also wanted to um let people know that at the planning and zoning meeting, the one commissioner that does live very close to that area was really excited about this project.

Um don't live near there, um, and they were kind of on board as well, but he really felt like it was great to have an update in that area, and he was stoked.

So I wanted to let people know about that.

And then a question I had also from that meeting, which is unrelated to that first bit was you mentioned there was going to be a gate that would close at night.

Um, so what happens if there's an emergency um like that needs the police or fire or ambulance services or something?

How does that work with the gate?

Is it just is the property manager like awake all night or how how does that happen?

How does that work?

Well, yeah, we're the property manager will be hired, so that will be a part of their job is to manage that property while they're living there.

So again, that helps offset their rent to where they won't pay over 30% of their income.

So they will be available on call 24-7.

That's a part of the job requirement for them to live on site at one of the so like three o'clock in the morning.

Doesn't matter, they're there.

That's the purpose of the yes.

Yeah, or can the police have some sort of access to the gate or something like that?

Yes, of course.

Like a hundred percent.

Like I said, we're a part of the community center.

There will be a reserve office for the officers to come and do work as they please.

So basically, it'll be the Eloy police department will have a place that they can go.

So they'll have access to the gates.

I live 20 minutes from here, so it's not like I'm from out of town or out of state.

I live here.

You know, I'm a uh a resident of Eloy myself, so I'll be accessible.

I freely give out my phone number and my email address, so I'm easily available to be reached.

But yes, the property manager, part of their job requirements is to be available 24-7 on call.

One more question about the rents.

Um this is more of a comment than a question because I realize you haven't set the rents yet, and you're trying to work that out as you develop the project and the cost.

But I just wanted to put my two cents in.

Um that I think it is important um to keep these rents low.

And we were just kind of perusing on the internet and looking at um, you know, cost average cost for Eloy for three bedroom house could be 1200 to 1500, and just keeping in mind that you know that's a larger three-bedroom house.

So just you know, hoping that these costs are affordable for people, and I know it's about it's about your program, which I think is gonna be great to get you know the right kind of people in our neighborhood that need the housing.

I think that's wonderful.

But let's just do our best to keep the cost as low as we can for these tenants.

Yeah, that's my commitment.

Like I said, it's about a true partnership.

The best things about devo developing property and housing is working in partnership.

And so we were going to demolish those buildings, but we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves.

So if the wish is to make sure that we are staying within like, you know, 1500, then we're gonna try to keep the cost as low as possible without cutting corners, because that's also going to be very important.

I I like the idea of um improving the area, you know, kind of like with the the tiny homes area with with Ralph over at Penell Hispanic.

That whole area is just gonna you know blossom.

And this right here is is kind of setting the tone for holding the neighbors responsible to do their part on beautiful beautification of the neighborhood, which I like.

Um it's it's it's it's kind of small, but I can see because I'm looking at it right now where there's enough room for everybody to have you know a place of residence.

Um I I don't know, it's it's I'm kind of Sarah with the the cost of the amount of the rent.

But what if somebody isn't on the voucher program and they like you spoke of earlier about you know these guys uh working over here at either Procter and Gamble, whatever, and they want to do a short-term lease.

They don't have that means are you will you accept them if there's availability versus having just to go to the waiting list for Penell County?

Oh, a hundred percent.

Like I said, that's the whole reason why we have not set the market rate rent because we do want to make sure that it's affordable for anyone who wants to come through.

So we have properties across Panal County, so we have a management that can do the background checks that can you know move a tenant in right away for with the availability, so that's not an issue at all.

Okay, and it looks like there's two addresses the 211 and 207.

Is that are you combining it?

They're combining the dance said yes.

Yes, that is correct.

Okay.

All right.

Is that part of this presentation?

It's in the totality of the 0.52 acres.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, just with a blank slate, it's gonna look better than what it is right now.

We tried, by the way.

We put up a privacy fence around it, like a black gay, because there were some people that were like stealing whatever material is left there, and we also did a safe.

This was really cool, but we removed the bees very safely.

There was a massive beehive that was on the property, and we called in a local beekeeper to remove the bees safely, and so he's going to produce some honey, and then we can have it available for families too.

So I thought that was a really cool aspect on the property.

You can sell it and call Autumn's honey.

Oh, how cute.

Trust me, if autumn was here, Eric and Autumn would have been at the father-daughter dance.

So they were there in spirit.

Our condolences to you, sorry.

Yeah, no worries.

But it's a beautiful thing that we were able to turn such a traumatic experience into something that we're very passionate about, is providing housing for families.

What about other areas?

Are you looking at other areas for expansion?

Yeah, so our goal is to have this as a pilot.

We that's why it's so important that we get this done right, and we put the costs correctly.

So we're looking at other vacant properties in the city of Eloy as well, that we can just like take these same-style cottages and develop them, you know, put a garage there or just do whatever is needed, and that's why I keep re-emphasizing the fact that it's a partnership, so we can converse to see what other areas that you guys are interested in, want to see more housing, affordable housing, working class family housing.

So we can do that.

So our goal is this is just the first of many.

Okay.

Well, there's plenty of areas that can uh that you know, in fields that um I I think the costs are too high.

I think people are trying to sell at a crazy cost, but you know, what do I know?

Yeah, so um we're actually working with Nick Dodd, he helped to build this um the city hall as well as the police department, and so if we can do a bigger project, he definitely wants to help back to finance it um so that it can remain affordable housing for the next 10, 15, 20 years.

So if the city says, hey, we want this property to stay affordable housing to stay below market, so say market is 1500 for a three-bedroom, two bath on a high end.

Um we don't want it to go over eleven hundred, and then the re Nick Dodd and his company is willing to financially back that with larger projects.

So he's open to this area, he loves the city of Eloy.

I love the city of Eloy, so there was some serendipity there.

Um, so hopefully we can just continue to produce these properties across the city.

Okay.

All right.

Any other questions from the audience?

All right, thank you so much.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, so we're going to move forward and read by title only.

Can I have a motion to read by title of ordinance number 24-95?

So moved.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

All right.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, Mary.

Chavelle, I'm gonna try not to butcher your name, okay?

Good no, okay.

An ordinance of the mayor and city council of the city of Eloy, Arizona, approving a rezoning request submitted by MECA Energy LLC on behalf of Cheville Guno.

Okay, thank you.

Theresa and Panel County Assessors Parcel Numbers APN 40501A, consisting of approximately 0.52 plus or minus acres from R1 6, single family residential, 6,000 square feet with a downtown core overlay, DCO 2R3, multiple family residential, 10 to 24 dwelling units per acre with a downtown core overlay.

The subject parcel is located at 211 East Fourth Street between Stewart Boulevard and Sunshine Boulevard in a portion of section six, township eight south, range eight east, Gila and Salt River Baseline and Meridian Pinao County, Arizona, providing for several ability and establishing an effective date.

Just to be clear, this is just to change the zoning, not the project.

Change it from from one to the other.

So we're not approving the project right now.

It is only to change the zoning.

Okay.

All right.

Direction of the council, do I hear uh approval or move forward on adopting ordinance number 24 955?

Uh Mr.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 24 955.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Mayor, can we get a roll call, please?

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango?

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanawatha Rodriguez.

Yes.

The motion passed unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

Well, there's no need for executive session unless anybody wants to go and spend an hour in the executive conference room.

No?

No, I'm good.

All right, you guys.

Well, thank you for coming.

Appreciate you.

Uh drive safe, George.

Great seeing you, buddy.

And this adjourned tonight's meeting.

Have a good one.

Bye bye.

Thank you all very much.