Mayor Powell has six oh one.

Good evening.

Welcome to tonight's Elo City Council meeting.

It is Monday, April twenty second, twenty twenty-four.

To call this meeting to order is approximately time is six oh one.

Miss Mary, can we get a roll call, please?

Councilmember Snyder.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanamata Rodriguez?

Here.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Here Mayor Powell.

Here.

Councilmember Snyder.

Councilmember Garcia?

President.

Councilmember Terengo.

Here.

All right, thank you.

Council Member Sutton.

Sutton.

Here.

Oh yeah.

Councilmember Sutton, I'm sorry.

There's an item to be voted on.

You're going to be the first one I call on.

I'm sorry.

All right.

Do we have Pastor Umil Holt here or Pastor Kim Bundle?

I to offer this opportunity.

Anybody in the uh audience or anybody on Council like to say a prayer for invocation?

It's all stamped for a moment of silence if we could, please.

And after that remain silence for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Next, we're gonna have council uh member announcements.

Anyone on my right side, Andy?

Yes, yes, Mayor.

We have some announcements.

It's been a pretty busy week.

In fact, I had to write down all that we did.

On Friday the 12th, alongside Vice Mayor Curtis and Councilmember Snyder, we attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for a newly constructed home made possible through grant funding from the USDA rural development.

I would like to give a shout out to city staff and Miss Medina for her unwavering dedication in bringing this pro uh project to fruition and making Eloy better for everyone.

Furthermore, on the 17th, I had the privilege of attending the Arizona City Chamber of Commerce luncheon, joined by the mayor, Vice Mayor Curtis, and others.

During the event, the mayor provided insightful updates on the development and plans for the Sunland Gin Road, which were warmly received by the attendees from Arizona City.

Later that same day, participated in the state of the county event hosted by Supervisor Steve Miller.

The mayor and council members and other dignitaries were also present.

It was an informative session highlighting the progress and vision for our county.

Moving forward to the 18th, myself along with fellow council members, attended the Panel County Planning and Zonal Meeting in Florence.

I took the opportunity along with others to voice our community's opposition to the proposed solar plans on the borders of Eloy, and I'm pleased to report that our stance prevailed with a decisive nine to one vote.

Additionally, on the same day we attended the APS public notice session regarding the proposed installation of new high voltage power lines in and around Eloy.

I expressed the concerns that I have with these lines, and I'm pleased that they were very receptive to the concerns we had to the placement of these high voltage power lines.

Later that day, I participated in the airport master plan public session here in Eloy, seeing the different plans for the airport and the hangars.

It was very exciting, and we see good things coming for the airport.

Moving on to the 19th, myself and other council members attended concert in the park organized by the city.

The band outside the line delivered an exceptional performance.

And while I cannot confirm or deny reports of electoral candidates dancing on the grass, the turnout was notably higher this year compared to last year.

I'd like to voice my appreciation to Paul and City staff for the exceptional work in organizing this event and ensuring its success in the park really looked great.

Everybody had a good time.

Thank you.

Lastly, today Mayor and I met with Deacon Patton, a representative from the Panel County Superior Court Juvenile Court Services to explore avenues to address teen issues in our community.

This was the first meeting, and hopefully it's beginning of what I anticipate will be instrumental to the progress on this crucial matter.

And lastly, I'd like to thank fellow council members for their dedication and attendance at these numerous meetings for these past two weeks.

Your commitment to serving our community is truly commendable.

Thank you.

I guess that's tonight's meeting.

Good night, everybody.

Did you sleep at all, I guess?

You know, as you can tell, Andy's gonna be the next mayor, so he's doing a great job.

Um reporting and uh yeah, uh Andy is gonna be a great mayor, so yeah.

Um anybody else have anything you want to say?

I mean, do anybody walk a dog or something?

Or okay.

Announcements?

No, he thunder.

I did what he said.

Um yeah, you know, it was it was a nice turnout at the um Arizona City uh Chamber of Commerce uh event uh at Tumbleweed, and so I think there was quite a bit of people there interested in our our what's going on in the city of Eloy, and their main concern was the Sun engine exit, and so uh we provided them with maps of the uh the conceptual designs, and uh it was uh really nothing to to complain about.

You know, they just needed the information, that's all they wanted to hear, and so that we were actually doing stuff.

So they're excited knowing that we had the funding for it.

So that was that was that was a good time.

Uh yeah, myself, Sarah and um Andy, and then Matt was there and then Kenzie was there.

So good job.

Um yeah, that's it for me.

So thank you.

Anybody else on the council have anything they want to say?

No.

All right, David, you're up.

Or do you want Andy to speak for you?

Oh I can't really that's a good job.

I'm nothing against that.

Shoot.

I'm ready to give him the gavel now.

I know, right?

I'll I'll try.

I got a few things here, uh, mayor and members of council.

First off, is we've uh fully finished our water and wastewater master plan that has wrapped up.

If you recall a few months ago, we did present the preliminary draft plan to council to review, and we've used it for a few of our ongoing projects.

But uh, our public works director Matt Renscher and his team with Wilson Engineering have wrapped up that significantly, and we will be expecting that to be in front of you for final approval in May.

Uh just piggyback on events in the park.

We've got moving on to the stars on Saturday, 427.

So that'll be at 7 p.m.

It's second hand lions, it'll be in Jones Park for anybody that wants to come out and attend that.

We continue to get more employees.

We've got two new officers that were going through onboarding processes today that'll be joining the UA Police Department.

So excited to have those two additional officers in our role.

Um, the new consolidated rate and fee schedule that's part of the budget that we discussed, has been posted per the 60-day requirement.

So that is out there for the public to review and provide any comments on if they have any comments to that uh rate and fee schedule.

Good news is the hospital is getting its first set of inspections done today.

So they've got review driven by it.

There's rebar down, they've got some footings put there, so they've got their first set of inspections and they are rolling hot.

So we're really excited to get this thing underway and and built as quick as it can be built and have this brand new hospital in our community.

Um then let's see here.

We've got we got another public meeting, so a lot of public meetings lately at this time of year.

Tomorrow here at City Hall, we've got preserving our future public open house in Eloy for the Pennell County um road maintenance and improvement fund.

It'll start at 75:30 and it'll go till seven o'clock.

We'll have Dedrick Dunn and Terra Harmon with Pennell County Planning Department here to answer any questions and help that out.

So anybody that wants to come down and get good information on what the um renewing this road maintenance and improvement fund will do for our county.

It's done a lot for our city.

We've used a lot of the money that we've received for here to do chip seal projects throughout our community, but Taglia, we've used those funds for our yearly preservation projects.

So we actively put these funds to use here in Eloy.

It doesn't go unnoticed.

So when you drive down the road and you like the road, that usually can't probably came from that fund.

And then our own uh assistant city manager McKenzie Lecher will be doing is a guest speaker tomorrow at a first annual Aaron Zone Land Investor Summit in Lake Havasu City.

So it'll be wanna quick give a yeah.

So it's actually gonna be Thursday, and yeah, tomorrow I'm going to a training in Lake Havasu for the AZ Pro certification.

But Thursday, it's gonna be at the I think the Indian Delhi Palace up in Phoenix.

So we got invited to be um one of the cities that are gonna be in attendance there.

It's gonna be us and then a few from Penal County.

There's gonna be um also some from the valley as well, and we're gonna be just giving an update on economic development activities within the city as well as giving updates on kind of our growth trajectory, our recent locates and stuff like that.

So really excited to be a part of that.

I forgot about that.

I was invited to that.

I totally spaced that one out.

So have fun.

Okay.

Then um, we've got a groundbreaking ceremony for autumn cottages.

It's the small community over there on 4th Street.

That is on Wednesday, April 24th from 10 a.m.

to noon, 211 East Fourth.

So we're excited about that.

That's one of these tidy home projects that have come across council's plate.

So looking forward to getting this going.

They've already demoed the whole area.

They did that quick running through building plans and uh permitting process to the community development department right now as we speak.

So that'll be a fun event to do.

And the last thing did I beat Andy in the number of items?

No, you're close though.

Oh, okay.

Almost neck to neck.

Okay.

Um, the last item is the police chief recruitment that has gone live.

The consulting firm has wrapped up the brochure for that and has posted it on the website.

So we have a link on our website.

We've posted it on all the other major um job portals, ACMA, Arizona City County Managers Association, the League, um, several police centered sites.

Uh so it's out there again, and our own webpage.

So anybody that wants to review that brochure and see what's out there, please do.

It is live.

And that's all I have, Mayor, and members of council, unless you've got any questions for me.

Anybody have any counter questions for David?

Dave, could you send that posting for the uh police chief out to us?

The reason I ask because we're all interviewed the consultants, so it'd be kind of nice to see how they put it all all together and what oh yeah, ended up going out.

So if you would please.

Yep, absolutely, no problem.

All right.

All right, thanks.

Next, we're gonna go to consent agenda.

All items listed with an asterisk are considered to be a routine matter and be enacted by one motion and one roll call vote of the council.

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

There's two items.

Uh item A, which approval a minute from the eight 408 24 meeting, and then also be approval to enter into IAGA agreement with Penell County.

Anybody want to discuss any of these?

Uh yeah.

Item B.

Okay.

I'm with you on that one.

Okay.

So we'll have to discuss item B.

So right now, whether we're gonna approve is if approved is the mid approval of minutes from the eighth meeting.

So do I hear a motion to approve?

So moved.

Do I hear second?

Second.

Can you roll call, please?

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

I'm gonna repeat your name again.

Councilmember Sutton.

Councilmember Ronaldo Rodriguez.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider?

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Trangle.

Yes.

The motion passed unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

So there's two of us that want to discuss item B on the consent, which is approval to Internet IGE with Panell County.

Um, did you have any qu concerns on this one?

Did you want to start off?

Or there's three of us actually.

Okay.

Um if you Jose want to start off.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Brian.

So I just had a few questions about this item.

Um in regards, I guess, to B Bar consulting services.

And um see if I can get my questions in order.

So I just I guess some of my questions are was the subpar project management um inadequate communication and quality of services addressed with B Bar, and um was that just a concern that continued because they wouldn't address them.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, Councilmember Trango, excuse me, I'm battling a little sinus infection.

Uh so when it comes to the the items mentioned uh that you just mentioned over the past three, four years we've had these issues when it comes to when it comes to project management.

Um multiple occasions we've met myself, the grants specialists, if it's Rosetta Medina or the past uh grant specialist Melissa Weimer, we met with them trying to uh rectify some situations.

Uh the grant specialists had to do a lot more of the project management on those when it comes to ERRs and some other maintain going out to project sites that was not part of the staff's job is more the the consultant side.

Uh this contract that is is up May 24th.

That's the end of the the contract for B bar, May 24th.

So with that, we have two choices.

We look for somebody else, or we have to go out to bid.

And last time we went out to bid, which was I think it was three, four years ago, is that BBAR was the only firm that uh applied.

We looked at other cities agencies.

Um we've been in contact with Pennell County because Pinnell County used to work with B Bar.

Pinnell County now has taken it in-house for their these services, and with us being part of their consortium for the C D B G RA.

They approached us saying that we could, if we're looking for these services, that this is something that they would offer to us because we are in their consortium.

And so they have a wealth of expertise in this.

They also have multiple um contractors already on board.

So one of our problems is when we do a housing project.

If we don't get more than two bids, we have to go out to bid again.

We have a hard time getting contractors.

And so with that with going under CDBG or with Pennell County, they already have contractors on on call.

They've already done all the due diligence for that.

So that actually saves a lot of time and FR on our part and won't slow the project down.

So we felt uh the grant special uh preseta and I felt this is the best thing for the program moving forward is going into the IGA with Pennell County on it.

Thank you.

Um another question does Penau County manage any other cities programs?

Um actually no, they don't because they there no other the programs that uh are have the housing program that's that's in the consortium, so it's it's us, Florence, superior, and mammoth.

I think there's no mammoth, and so they don't have the the housing program.

So they offered it to us because we're in their consortium right now for the C BGRA.

Okay.

Um in regards to sorry, I have a list here.

Um did B bar do the there's a whole list of things, records maintenance, coordinate additional inspections, scheduling, make maintaining audit ready files, including monthly and quarterly reports.

Was that regularly B bar's responsibility, or was that regularly city staff's responsibility?

Well, when it comes to anything with the contract, that would be B bars.

Because there the contract is the construction aspect of it, would have would would be all B bars on it.

I guess I miss I thought this was in regards to the grants.

Yeah, that's the housing grant.

When it comes to the housing grants, the once we've once we get the applicant for the house, then the the contract um they come in and sign, and B B bar and the city representative meet with the the applicant after that inspections on the houses, B bar, so is maintaining to make sure the contractor is up to date, going through making sure it's on schedule, filing getting the permits, the drawings in all those.

So that included for B bar's responsibility verifying eligibility and manage managing individual program beneficiary files?

No, the beneficiary files is ours.

We we keep the permanent files.

And so is that one of the items that Panal County is going to be taking over?

Uh no, we will still maintain all the all the files.

If they if we need that, they could actually help out, but we don't need any help with the management of grant files.

They will they will still do just all the the housing, the bidding, the contractor, all that the normal stuff.

It's just we will keep the if there is additional service, like we lose a grants our grant specialist and they need to help fill in, they could do that.

Is there currently still a waiting list for people in Eloy?

Yes.

And um will this list still be used or are they going to be put on the county's list and will county be pulling off of their list to use our funding?

No, though they'll still be on ours, and actually with uh working with the Pennell County, there's a lot of duplications, and so uh we're actually working with them now to try to get that duplication because there's they could have one that could they could be done sooner than ours because of the wait lists.

So they'll they're not gonna be um pushed up, no one's gonna be pushed off anything, it's gonna help speed up the process and get things a little more smoother on that because Pinnell County comes in and does some housing projects outside of ours.

Okay.

Um I guess I just want to make sure that um we're not giving away a city service to a county agency, and that our citizens will still be priority to our money.

No, it we wouldn't be losing anything like that.

We would still keep the housing program, we'd still keep the everything we're doing, it's just the management of the construction side, we'd be going with Pennell County to do that versus having outside contractor on it.

Okay, and plus there's a cost savings on that.

Um Pennell County chart would charge 4,000 per home compared to the current charge.

Okay, thank you.

I do.

We have a resident in town who's currently having one her home remodeled by the county, and I believe it's the end of February.

I contacted Mr.

Mallowitz because they had not had their permits approved.

Three weeks later, I'm sitting in this office still trying to figure out what's going on with those permits.

Are we gonna be able to take care of that so that both permits are being approved on a role more regular timely basis?

So our citizens aren't having to wait to have this job done.

Um Mr.

Mayor, uh Councilmember Garcia, are you referring to the current permit process?

Well, evidently there's a delay on it, so it's probably a question for Dan.

But there's there was a delay where it was being held up.

And if we're gonna go through the county, I'd like to make sure that they're being handled in a timely manner rather than waiting for a council member to come up and inquire about them.

Let Dan speak to that.

Mayor members of council, Councilman Garcia.

Um as it pertains to our permitting, they still have to go through our permitting process because it's our it's jury it's our jurisdiction.

Um as it pertains to that particular permit.

If I just get the address from I'll get it from you later, I can check into that.

Thank you.

I um I know the family.

Um Rosa Bruce has been when she was our consultant for years, did amazing job.

Um when she passed away, we we lost a huge part of our community.

Uh her son took over, and I've known the family for many years.

Um I reached out to him today and said, Hey, you know, what's going on?

Uh to his surprise, he was never notified that this was going on.

Um, and that bothered me that if something like this was gonna happen, was there any professional courtesy to discuss this happening, or was this put on the agenda without proper the respect?

Um answering your question on that.

I didn't want to bring up to talking to Brandon because about the situation until we took it to council for the IGA.

If we were gonna continue with his services, we were gonna go out to bid anyways because we have to.

We can't extend that contract uh for that under the housing rules.

We have to procure those services.

And with uh going through another municipality, we can do that.

But this service is something that uh the grant specialists and I have talked about for a long time because it puts a lot of strain on on that position and it has for many years of the services that I've had those conversations with Brandon um numerous times about you know, not show you know our grant specialist calls, no answer.

We we do it, and it's just something that internally from a contract side, we feel that we're not getting what we what we're getting out of that service as of late.

But don't you think that's without talking to him about these issues that you and I and to me airing out dirty laundry on on the coac and not giving them the professional courtesy to let one know that this was in the even in the works.

Well, I I just felt that you know if uh going through we we want to get the contract approved, we were gonna let them know anyways that we weren't gonna approve it afterwards.

That that's that's wrong though.

We're not talking to him ahead of time to giving him not just him but his mom's legacy all these years, and we're just gonna just oh by the way, council did this.

Um, and it puts us in the bath in the seat because we're the ones approving, and not even having him or his company notified beforehand.

I got a big issue with that.

That's wrong.

It looks like we're doing dirty work here, and that's not being transparent, and that's not how this council works.

I think that communication should have been had beforehand, so he could have been up here and talked.

That's why he's here to tell his side of the story instead of trying to sneak it in under consent agenda, um, and then we look past it, and then you have a communication dialogue with them.

That's dirty.

So I hope this doesn't happen again.

Um, because that's not how we operate.

So um that uh that really upsets me, Brian.

It really does.

Um so I would like to have Brandon come up and kind of tell his side of the story if he could.

Thank you, members of council.

My name is Brandon Bruce.

I am the principal owner of BBAR consulting.

As Mr.

Mayor had mentioned, my mother was one-standing member of the community.

I've worked with the city of ULA for a very long time, 11 years now.

Uh, we've done some really great work uh as far as the OHR program.

I don't I didn't have enough time to put together metrics for you because like Mr.

Mayor just mentioned, I didn't find out about this item until about half an hour ago.

I drove straight here so I could make sure I could talk to you guys.

Um we recently did a ribbon cutting for a project that uh I did project management for, and Brian is correct.

Um we have had issues getting contractors, that is absolutely true.

Um but it was through Brian's direct uh direction that he asked me not to do any of the administrative work after I trained Melissa Weimer extensively to do that in-house.

That way you could save on those costs that came directly from him over our conversation.

So I want this program to do well.

It means very much to me.

It's something that I care about deeply.

So I just wanted to make sure that I showed face here.

And like I said, I know some of you guys have been able to see the work that we've been able to do.

I hope I can continue to do that.

As far as a cost, um uh, you know, being cheaper with Panaw County, I would gladly want to negotiate the contract if I could, if it made it more comparable or easier for our programs to work here, because I don't make a lot of money doing this.

I do it as a as a labor of love because I care about the community.

So if uh you guys have any questions for me.

Thank you.

Anyone uh council have any questions for Brandon?

No?

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

No other questions, David, Mayor, uh members of council to council member Garcia's comment about uh miss it was Mr.

Ramirez, right?

She um so we did look into that issue, and it looks like that the applicant just didn't submit her information, was incomplete at that time.

So it wasn't a uh at fault of Pennell County, it was the applicant didn't have it done correctly.

So once they were able to get that figured out and get the applicant's information correct, they it did move along through the process.

So I was just checking our notes because yeah, I was like, I thought we talked about that.

And in we did, yes.

It was just so again they everything's been as of 311.

Um it looks like the initial review was started and email to a third party, so that should be moving along now.

Or it's probably done.

Yep.

All right, thank you.

So, director of council.

Uh do I hear a motion to approve or to uh on on the agenda it's to approve into an intergovernmental agreement with Panawah County.

Now, if there's no motion to approve to Interchove, then I believe then it either be tabled or if there's no motion, then it dies.

Yeah, go ahead.

I like to make a motion to table the matter and get some more information.

Okay.

There's a motion on the table to second that.

All right, thank you.

Mary, there's a first and a second to table this until further notice.

Okay.

Mia Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanuato Rodriguez?

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton?

Yes.

Councilmember Twangle.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

The motion passed unanimously to table mayor.

All right, thank you so much.

Next, we're gonna go to business item item A, Councils to receive an update and conduct a review of animal care and control activities.

Then Eloy.

Is uh Mr.

Guani here, or are we gonna go straight to Audra?

Yeah, sure.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, thank you very much.

We've asked our partners with Pennell County Animal Care and Control, primarily Director Audra Michael to come and give an update on the statistics and the ongoing status of our partnership with uh animal care and control.

So I'd like to introduce our partners with Pennell uh County here.

So thank you and welcome again.

Yes, thank you.

Um Audra Michael, um mayor, city council members.

Audra Michael, director at Panell County Animal Cat Care and Control, and Katrina Rodriguez, deputy director.

And she put most of this together, so I'm gonna let her talk.

I might pipe in a little bit, but she's mostly gonna go ahead and talk.

Hi.

You can you can pull the microphone down if you need to.

I'm very short.

Thank you.

All right, so I just wanted to offer you all a kind of UN review of the data from 2023 for all the animals that came into the shelter, the calls for service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I can talk pretty loud.

That's good.

Perfect.

Uh, and give you all some comparative data for cities of similar size or similar population.

Um so first off, we have just the animal intakes for the Eloy Inc.

area, which I have your population on there, it'll become important with the graphs later.

And the amount of cats and dogs that were brought in.

So cats, we've took in 120 cats from the city of Eloy, 77% of them are strays, and we took in 317 dogs, 75% of those being strays.

So that's a pretty high volume of stray animals, but it's not uncommon in rural communities.

As you can see, other areas that are of similar size, like Coolidge, Inc.

are seeing a very similar trend for the stray population of sitting just above 300.

Other cities like Arizona City are a little bit lower, sitting just under 200.

And then Maricopa Inc., I like to add as an example city, because despite their high population, their city really does go above and beyond to make sure animals don't enter the shelter.

So despite there being, you know, 65,000 plus citizens, we still only see less than 200 uh dogs come in.

Uh and cats, we see very few from them as well.

Uh and then just for the rest of the year, because we don't have data for all the way till the end of the fiscal year, we have January to end of March.

We took in 72 dogs, 80% were strays, and 21 cats, 100% of them were strays.

Uh so those predominantly are injured.

Animals that we see come in for cats, injured cats, uh, stray TNR cats, uh, sick, uh, and owner relinquish, but we don't see didn't see any owner relinquishes uh this year so far.

Uh and then dogs, same consistent pattern of being in a pretty high percentage of strays.

Uh and this is comparative to the other jurisdictions as well.

Uh, you can see Eloy and Coolidge still lead the charge of similarly sized cities for stray intakes.

Um, Coolidge brought in a little more this month, but uh City, Arizona City and Eloy are a little bit under them as well.

And you guys can all have a copy of this.

She has the file.

Uh these are our calls for service.

So total in 2023, we received 987 calls for service.

Uh stray calls, whether that's uh I saw a stray dog, an injured animal, I can find an animal, it was sick, we had to set a trap or an aggressive, that's pretty much 50% of your calls with 467 um owned aggressive or owned roams, meaning there is a known owner, we have history at that address, uh, accounts for 182 of those calls, investigations, that's any neglect, cruelty, bite investigations, kennels, things like that come up for 274 of your calls, and then all of our other like smaller areas like dead animal pickup, um outreach, uh transport for citizens that need assistance, and things like that account for the smallest volume of 64 calls.

Uh and then I was lucky enough to be able to get data from Coolidge, uh, just because they're such a similarly sized city and they have their own animal control officer.

They provided me really great data for 2023 uh that they ran a little over 600 calls in 2023 compared to the 987 for Eloy, and then we have about 600 also for Arizona City, and then uh Florence is under 200 calls.

Uh so far this year we've run 179 calls for service.

Again, stray animal calls are the biggest part of that bracket with 71, owned aggressives with 42, investigations with 47, and other transports uh and dead animal pickup at 19.

And as you can see, you guys track pretty closely with data from similar size cities of Coolidge and uh Arizona City.

Um so we have citations issued for the 2023 calendar year.

This is what's you, right?

You want to take that.

Um for the calendar year of citations issued for Eloy, it was 117, and so far this year it's been 35.

So altogether about 152 citations from January 2023 until now is where we're at for citations for Eloy Inc.

All right.

Uh next, last year at the council meeting, the city of Eloy approved a pretty generous amount of span neuter funding for the community.

Unfortunately, we're still facing the same battle of no veterinarians being willing to come to Panau County.

We have one spam neuter provider for the entire county.

She has booked out three to four months in advance.

Um so far, we as the shelter have issued 130 vouchers in the 2023-2024 cycle, not including the city of Eloy.

So that's for every other county area in the whole county, half a million people.

We've only been able to issue 130 vouchers, um, but 31 have been issued for Eloy just in and of itself, uh mostly dogs, 25 dogs and six cats.

And we have 39.

I actually added four more people tonight, so 43 people uh currently on the wait list for vouchers within the city of Eloy.

And then uh fortunately, AZ Vet Direct has offered to come out here on May 13th, and they'll be offering a only city uh animal control day, and they'll be doing I think about 20 to 25 animals that day, and that is full pulled from the wait list of people that were already waiting for appointments.

And that day is completely full already as it is.

Uh fortunately, we have another spay neuter provider that just purchased a mobile.

We're hoping they're going to be willing to come down once a month.

But costs have risen again.

A spay, like I quoted you guys last year was about 225 dollars.

That price has risen to 300.

So we are able to offer fewer and fewer vouchers every year because the funding amount does not change what we get from the state, but the costs have risen.

So unfortunately, we're getting hopefully more providers, but still in the position of it's not affordable for most people, and uh the funding just doesn't go as far as it used to.

And I also wanted to say that um we have other IGs with other cities and towns, and we use you guys as an example because I think it's an amazing that you guys are willing to help out your your citizens with paying for vouchers and you know, trying to help them out because it is pretty pricey.

We've thrown this out to Superior, we've thrown it out to other cities, Coolidge, Maricopa, and so far we haven't gotten any kind of like okay, we'll do it, but we're hoping that they'll follow your guys' footsteps because I think it's great that you guys do that for your citizens.

Um this year, um, in January, we were able to get 24 pallets of animal food, dog food, cat food, cat letters, supplies, toys, treats.

We even got like livestock stuff, horse feed.

Um Katrina and I are um volunteers for the Wayne Society of the United States, more so me.

And uh they asked me if uh I would be willing to take pallets from Chewy.

And but the the caveat is that you only are allowed to use it with your your community.

You cannot use it for your own animals, and um we said, yeah, bring it on.

We didn't know what we were gonna get.

We got six pallets of cat litter, and we got a whole bunch of other weird stuff, but that's okay.

We did do a food pantry here on February 18th at the Eloy shelter, and we were able to give out three pallets of dog food, a pallet of cat food, almost a whole pallet of cat litter, as well as we had a whole entire area for people to pick through of dog toys.

We gave away crates, we gave away everything and anything we could possibly get for the citizens, and you know, everybody was really, really appreciative.

It was great.

And um, not just there, but any citizen in Penau County, if they want to come to our shelter and ask for food, we're more than willing to um help them out.

So that was something that we were able to do, and we're almost almost through the 24 pallets, so we're hoping to get another another pallet, another truckload of more food to give out to the citizens.

And this kind of shows you how much food has gone to each area, and um Eloy, of course, is the biggest one so far.

32.1 plus or a little closer for people to drive.

But we did go out to Salmon Well, and we did we are going to Superior this Saturday and doing a food bank.

But for the most part, you guys are close, very easy, and um we're definitely more than willing to help anybody that asks for it.

So you're right next.

All right, and then I had a couple feel-good stories uh for you all to hear because we get a lot of sick and injured animals, and I don't want it to just be like there's too many strays because we have some great outreach success stories.

Uh, about four years ago, I wrote the first grant called Keeping Families Furry to help keep pets in their homes through intake prevention for medical care, um, training, pet food, whatever that may be.

And it has continued despite that grant funding being long gone.

And uh Nala is a prime example of how we've continued that program.

Uh Nala was a call from a City of Eloy citizen who said, My dog has been in labor for three days.

She hasn't passed any puppies.

I think she's dying.

I don't know what to do.

And anyone who's ever taken their dog to ER knows it's a thousand dollars if you walk in and it's you know 5,000 plus for surgery.

This particular surgery would have been seven to nine thousand dollars at ER.

That's just not feasible for most people.

Uh so we asked them to told them they could bring her in and surrender her, and that if we could not find a vet to perform the service, that we would have to humanely euthanize her, but that we would do everything we could.

Fortunately, I sent out the message to every vet that I know, and one got off an ER shift at 11 o'clock and drove immediately to the shelter and performed Nala's life-saving surgery.

She got to go home that day.

And she made a bounce back killer recovery, like uh any little like pity cattle dog, only they could do it.

She's hardy, and she popped right out of surgery and went home to her family who loves her very much.

Her two other housemates are scheduled to get spayed and neutered at the next uh voucher appointment day that we have available.

And uh, these are the kind of dogs we want people to keep their pets.

We want them to stay in their home.

And while ER has to charge what they have to charge to stay in business, if we can help people, we do.

Uh, and this was a prime example of a dog who really we she was in the right place at the right time with owners who really cared about her.

Her puppies were not alive.

Yeah.

Unfortunately.

But Nala got to go home.

Positive.

Nala got to go home is very happy.

Yes.

And didn't you spay her too?

Yes, yeah.

She was obviously spayed, microchipped and vaccinated when she went home.

Um, Harriet was another example.

Harriet came in as a typical elderly um unkept stray.

She had multiple masses, she had really severe pneumonia, she was just not well cared for, and she was very sick when she entered the shelter.

Uh, we were really lucky she came in on a Tuesday, which is the day we have the vet there.

She started treatment.

She was fostered by this amazing couple in Robeson Ranch, and they ended up adopting her.

And she is a dog who would have really, really declined in the shelter and not done well.

So we were really lucky that a citizen of Eloy stepped up to foster her and ultimately adopted her and that she got to go on uh to an amazing home, and that she was lucky enough to enter the shelter system now because if we didn't have the programs we have now, she would have been a dog that absolutely would have been slated for euthanasia.

Um she had a total of six masses we had to take off, and that was a pretty complex long surgery at a GP practice, like your regular practice vet, it would have been like a $3,000 surgery.

So we were really fortunate that uh we have shelter vets now that are able to do those services.

And then we have Sybil.

Um Sybil was brought in by a citizen after they saw her thrown out of a car uh right here on the main in the LA proper.

And she was just a puppy.

She had multiple pelvic fractures and she couldn't walk.

And fortunately, a foster of the county shelter fostered her for six months while her pelvis healed because she kept refracting her pulpit because she was a giant puppy, and she would jump off the couch and refracture her pelvis.

And so six months of strict rest and healing, she was able to be spayed and adopted, and another dog that absolutely if she didn't have access to the services that were able to provide most small municipalities if you don't have a vet on staff.

I drove her to Tucson and she stayed at my house uh for a little while as well because we don't have access to X-ray at the shelter, but we make it happen.

And she went on to an amazing home in California.

They drove all the way from California to get her because they love her, but she was another amazing little injured puppy that came in and got an awesome home.

And then we have our life saving rate for the calendar year.

Um so for those of you that don't know, we keep track of every animal that comes in and every animal that goes out.

And any animal that dies in shelter custody or is euthanized counts against our live release rate.

If you hit a dog with your car on the road and it is suffering, and we have to euthanize it, that death counts against me.

It's the same way.

So everything that comes in is counted against us if they don't leave alive, no matter the circumstance.

So in all of 2023, we saw only 60 dead outcomes for cats and only 95 dead outcomes for dogs.

That includes every dog that is court mandated due to aggression, that includes every dog that's hit by a car, that includes every parvo and distemper puppy that comes in, that is the total volume.

So we're really fortunate that despite the massive overcrowding and the really tough two years animal welfare has had, we have maintained our live release rates of well above 90%, uh, which is the threshold for no kill.

And then for just the past three months, we're still maintaining the same.

It's been a little bit better than the cats have been a little bit better at the beginning of the year.

Uh, we're not quite into kitten season yet, but we're seeing the same uh pretty good trend of only nine debt outcomes for cats and 25 uh for dogs.

So we're still operating well above the 90% threshold.

And those 10% between 90 and 100 are the lives that are extremely difficult to save.

They're dogs that need a specific home that have behavior issues that need training, their animals with complex medical needs that need hospitalization, multiple surgeries, long-term fosters, uh all of that is what closes that gap between 90 and 100.

Uh and then I wanted to talk about length of stay, uh, because length of stay is really important right now.

Right now, if you were to look at just the data without length of stay, it would look like, well, less animals are coming in.

Why is it so crowded?

It's because they're staying longer than they ever have.

All across America, length of stay is up two and three times in most shelters, and for us, we're seeing extremely high lengths of stay.

So for just the Eloy ink dogs that are coming in as strays, the average length of stay is 33 days.

Our current longest longest resident in shelter, he has not left the shelter once in almost 19 months.

His name is Hansen, and he came from the city of Eloy.

And he has been there the whole time.

So it all averages out.

Yeah, puppies leave in a couple of days, little dogs leave in a couple of days, you know, highly poodles and things that are highly adoptable, they leave in a couple days, but it all averages out to a length of stay of 30 days for just the city dogs.

Uh, and then 20, about 22 days for regular shelter dogs.

Cats were really, really fortunate.

We transfer out most of our cats or they're adopted very quickly, we're really lucky in that regard, but dogs are really what's uh causing a lot of the overpopulation right now is we're seeing them stay longer than ever.

We have puppies growing up in the shelter.

They're coming in at three months old, they're staying until they're six, seven, eight months old.

And it's uh we wanted to talk about just temperature.

Yeah, I'm gonna talk about that at the end.

Um I had a couple at the end after any questions.

Um I had a couple at the end after any questions I have a couple of ideas for uh ways to improve the access for citizens within the city to reduce the amount of sick animals that are coming in which I'll talk about after we have any questions.

Thank you.

I I have a question.

What are you guys building over there?

Oh um so four years ago before the old board left and the new board came in um they did a uh consultation with somebody who flew in spent a week there um some architects um I think it was like sixty thousand dollars to have the architects come in and do like a look around to see what we needed and um it took almost four years but we finally have started construction they approved it four years ago it was four million dollars now it's seven million dollars but what they're doing is a lot of people think that we're getting more space we're not we're getting we're losing we're losing four kennels actually um but they are going to build the first building A is part of it staying and then the rest of it is going to be like a new lobby there's gonna be indoor meet and greet rooms real life rooms there's gonna be a clinic there's gonna be a pharmacy an x-ray room you know all different kinds of stuff that we'll have there and then they're giving us new kennel doors they're fixing our septic system and uh all of this is supposed to be done by October so that's the grand opening but unfortunately we are not getting more space we're losing four kennels because they're putting something in the buildings to um fix the here like it's it's so loud in there they're putting something in there and they're doing these like little turnstiles in each corner of the building which is going to take out a kennel.

So unfortunately we're gonna lose four kennels and it's been rough this year because they did shut down the first building and that was 18 kennels that we lost so we've been trying to scramble trying to figure out how we're gonna get through to October while losing four more kennels and those other 18 on top of it.

But um they have spoken about possibly doing like a satellite in Santan Valley for like maybe an adoption center or something so fingers crossed she doesn't want it I do but fingers crossed that that happens because then we can always take dogs from here and transport them to Santan which has a little bit higher population of people so that's what's happening over there.

Alright nice yeah drive by it all the time that's whatever was going on so we her and I just got to see what they were doing for the first time last week and this has been going on since February I think.

Yeah we weren't allowed we weren't allowed but we finally were like can we please see what you're doing so yeah we were able to see but it's been a nightmare sort of but it'll be all worth it once it's done.

Okay.

Yeah I I know in the past that the other meeting we uh approved a second animal control officer for Eloy.

How's the hiring process been and and are we fully uh hiredable yeah we were not having good luck with getting people hired um we've lost a couple of people to having babies and um we did hire somebody I told um the chief and I told uh Cabin Jerome that we did hire somebody from Eloy a few a couple months ago we were really excited we're like yay we're gonna get somebody from Eloy and that didn't work out too well because that person was unable to finish the background check so we couldn't hire her and um that kind of set us back.

So now we have two that are in training right now and one that's starting on Monday.

So we're gonna be almost fully staffed well we are going to be fully staffed um within the next few months because training takes a couple of months so they already know that they're gonna be here working and um yeah we're excited we finally have some help actual decent help finally so yes it it's gonna get better.

Good thank you all council have any questions left side right side Michelle what's your thoughts on the length of stay why you think that's gone up um in the country everybody is experiencing experiencing more animals coming in and less going out and that's not just us that's everybody everywhere it's Pima it's Maricopa County it's everybody and we really don't know why other than um their care maybe people can't afford it and what else okay but we think that it has to do with you know not being able to care for their animals anymore because maybe they're on hard times I don't know but um I don't think that it's because of COVID.

I think that's long done, long gone.

But a lot of people still like to say that, but I don't think that's what it is at all.

I talk a lot about length of stay.

It's one of my like passion projects in shelter data.

Unfortunately, length of stay is we're no longer blaming it on COVID puppies.

It's not possible.

The dogs that are right now in the shelter are adolescents.

They weren't alive during the COVID pandemic during the shutdown.

They didn't exist.

Unfortunately, what they are the product of are the shutdown of veterinary facilities during the pandemic.

At the start of 2020, we were about 11 years behind the span neuter curve.

Saying we were 11 years behind full-time work to get them to overpopulation status where we would no longer be overpopulated.

At this point because of the COVID shutdown, we're like 40 plus years behind.

We're in an era now where it is very unlikely we are going to catch up unless big things change and start happening.

One of those things being housing.

Pet friendly housing is incredibly hard to find if you've ever looked at any housing listing.

Almost every single one says no dogs, no cats, no animals over 40 pounds, which is mostly what we see.

Most of our surrender requests are for dogs over 40 pounds.

I can't take them where I'm moving.

So affordable housing is huge.

The fact that we have no set system to keep rents in a controlled state that aren't they're not out of control with paying $2,600 a month to live in a home in Arizona City.

It's really exploded.

Few at higher costs, there's no way to stay maintain affordable housing.

We are seeing that as the number one reason for surrender.

And it's not going to get better until people can get access to affordable housing and access to pet-friendly housing, because you're not going to stop them from getting pets.

They're just going to get them and then surrender them because people want to have companions.

And so housing is the way to the future.

The only way it's going to get better is if we really get into the nitty-gritty of how do we have affordable, safe, pet-friendly housing for citizens of especially low-income areas.

Interesting.

I think what you said makes a lot of sense.

The affordable housing and the rent, you know, public billings have now gone up and so forth.

And you know, people don't have the space they used to have.

Uh another question, I get confused.

I live at Ropes and Ranch.

Yeah, I get confused be too between what you're doing and what's going on as a valley uh in Casagrad.

And a lot of people in Robson love their pets.

Those that will know that.

They're very uh cautious of uh pets and try to help off.

But I get confused on what we do for Valley, what we do for you, and how does that work uh with you on trying to tap in the ropes a little bit more to help you out.

Yeah, so Valley Humane is a private nonprofit humane society, so they are a closed admission facility, meaning they get to choose every animal that comes in so they can say yes or no.

Um they do amazing life-saving work in the community, and we absolutely Pennell County would not survive without them.

Um but they are not an open admission facility.

Um Robson Ranch has a lot of dedicated volunteers that volunteer at Valley, so a lot of fundraising takes place.

Um Friends of Pinell County Animal Shelters and Rescues is a nonprofit that operates in Penell County supporting the shelter, um, just Pennell County shelter and the rescues uh that pull from the shelter.

And so we have done, I've actually spoken at Robeson quite a few times uh for citizens there, hoping to garner some more volunteers and some more support, and they are amazingly supportive.

If you guys have ever seen Nancy Nesbitt on Facebook about uh Robeson Ranch, she is a die-hard supporter of the shelter, and she has fostered and adopted new ones dogs and always runs food pantries.

We have volunteers from yeah, from Robeson that are amazing.

Wayne walks dogs, like I swear every day of the week he's out there walking some naughty big like 80-pound dogs.

So we would love to get more volunteers from Robeson.

I think the population uh unfortunately is like more fond of like dogs that are under 30 pounds, which we just don't have.

So a lot of them come out to the shelter, they do have super helpful for our food pantries for sharing social media, but getting boots on the ground to the shelter is hard because these are like big dogs that are stuck in a kennel 23 hours a day, and they're frustrated.

Yeah.

And we also have a lady in ropes and ranch, but she went back home because I guess she's a snowbird, but they make us the cutest little thank you cards, and they bring a big stack of them in, and they're like thank you, and there's like dogs on them and cats and kittens, and they're so cute.

And uh she went back home.

Yeah, I think I think there's probably a lot of people confused like I am, what the difference between the two.

So maybe Nayas here get somebody to start on social media to start emphasizing what the difference is.

Yeah, might you might get some better support.

We're a municipal government shelter, so we have to take everything that comes our way.

They are a nonprofit and they can pick and choose what they take.

So they have a lot of little dogs and puppies, and um their adoption prices are a little higher than ours, but um that's kind of the difference.

If you guys have a local like news that runs there, I'd love to get an article run there.

I've been trying for years.

So I would like to aren't on next door because they won't give us a county account.

So we'd have to go on there as like a personal account, and the staff don't want to put them like personal next doors up for blast.

Other questions?

Go ahead and show I think you're doing a great job, and I hope Mr.

Pibb, somebody trust me, we're we're hoping we really are.

Hopefully.

So it was mentioned we haven't been citing people, but if you could go back to that slide, yeah.

And there you go.

Because I know you're hardcore, not punitive, but I um wanted to see you have been citing people into our court.

No.

Okay in our court.

Okay, that um what court is that?

Um, that's the hearing office that we have in Florence.

It's two Wednesdays out of the month, so the officers cite into the hearings, they usually give people a couple of months.

And the main thing they cite for is licensing.

Um they give them and at large.

Um, let's say a dog breaks out of their yard, attacks somebody walking their dog, somebody gets bitten, we cite them for vicious act and um no license, and uh some of them give away their dogs after that, they don't want anything to do with them.

Um, so that's where that one goes.

So for you for your court, the ordinance about the tie-outs, that would go to your court.

And we did meet with Eloy Police Department, and we got all on the same page, and they gave us some citation books and stuff.

So that could give you some addresses, but anyway, yeah.

Yeah, and it's starting to get hot, so yeah.

Uh yeah, and there's a black shepherd in the middle of the sun, yeah, I can imagine.

Anyway, um, welcome to Eye.

I can go on a rant.

Anyway, as most people who have me on Facebook can tell, you can see my rant daily.

Anyway, um, but I thought that was part of the agreement was is even violations of our city codes regarding um uh not having um whether they're vaccinated, whether they're tagged, all of that, I thought that was supposed to also be going into our city court.

Um no, the way that the um the attorney looked at it, it was um the ARS statutes for Arizona and for Penell County, and with the exception of the tie out ordinance for you for you guys.

So if we cite somebody, they're gonna go to court.

If they get fined, then the fine will come to us as at our shelter if they're fined.

Okay, and so what if they don't show?

They get fined.

And then they go to collections and that's it.

I mean, it's hard enough for people to go to court here in Eloy down the street, let alone all the way to Florence.

Right.

And you that's why we give them so much time.

And there's some people that have been not been to court for six months because they keep saying, Can I get another extension?

But um, we're not trying to take people's money, we're not trying to make them go to Florence.

We really want them to, you know, get stuff done.

That's why we try to have clinics everywhere as much as we possibly can.

But um, go ahead.

Uh in theory, uh, unless it's a criminal cruelty investigation, they should not have to go to court uh because it all the citations are dismissable if they comply.

Right.

So if they receive a license within three months, it gets dismissed.

If they come to early disposition class, it's like doggy traffic school, it gets dismissed.

So unless you're a repeat offender with a repeat issue, you shouldn't really have to appear in court.

So it really isn't an inconvenience unless you're continually not complying with the law.

Uh nobody has to go to court for a first offense unless they don't comply, or unless it was a really serious incident, like where their dog got out and bauled somebody.

That would be a different circumstance.

But most of the citations are for your stereotypical at large.

My dog got out of the gate, they're not licensed, things like that.

And in which case they have three months to attend early dispo and get a license.

Um so there's really no reason they should have to drive to Florence unless they're a pretty serious violator of the ordinances.

And I guess that's where the contract has to be explained to me because I thought all city codes were being enforced, which means they would go to our city court.

Now our judge has the option of doing the same exact thing your hearing people are, is as if they abide by you know get everything done, then they wouldn't probably have to pay a fine.

That would be obviously up to our judge.

But I guess that was my biggest concern.

Um because again, that's what we talked about.

I think at the last hearing or the last you know, meeting was is those citations were gonna be coming to our judge.

Um it doesn't help our schools it doesn't help our citizens um if animal control officers are supposed to be working at I think you said 8 a.m.

whatever it is um if we have an issue at the school I mean I was there the other day at noon and there was a dog on campus and I ignored it because I think most people get in the habit of if if nobody's gonna come I'm just gonna ignore it.

Um and so that's a concern.

I I believe all of the communications are current most of them are coming through PD.

They send us a communication case that has the RP's information, all of the call information and then it's dispatched.

Yeah your Eloy PD dispatch is currently doing that.

Very few Eloy calls come through our call center because PV has been taking that with dispatch and then for the before 8 a.m hours it's that non-emergency dispatch line that goes to the on-call officer to respond.

Our dispatchers are in the office at 8 a.m so they should be able to just call our dispatcher and it would get written up.

Okay so I guess that needs to be put out um publicly because um peep citizens have been told by the police department you need to call animal control and they're not handling it and that's not a you problem.

Yeah I believe there was a pretty wide press release about it because we get emails even at like nine o'clock at night because I'll still be working and I'll see it and I'll call them like hey can you give me some more details so again I think that's a city problem that needs to be addressed because citizens are still being told that um let's see so the cost of the mobile provider since those costs are brisen I got a quote the other day from Casgrand Animal Hospital to neuter a male dog almost 400 was the minimum 1300 was the maximum yes that's a little standard private practice scare that's it's outrageous yeah and I'm not one I mean I just spent Friday 500 on my dogs this Friday I get to spend another 1200 to 2000 on my other dog so I get it people who don't have the money.

Yeah and so um if there's more money I know we're already doing budget but because the cost of everything has gone up I mean we're raising people's taxes we're raising their water rates I mean I think we need to make sure we're looking at that um and making sure we're um because we're doing a great service to our citizens we want them to be responsible pet owners and I know yes some people look at that and go that's a them problem but I think if we want our community to be safe if we want um people to keep those animals in homes which we all do because I'm with you I follow this stuff on social media rampant I mean it's day in day out I can't imagine um we need to do what we can to help them and so again if those costs are going up we need to look at that as well um what more we can do to help um get that mobile vet to come more often yeah because I I think if it was here in our community it would be very helpful too because a lot of people don't have transportation we know the cost of housing is outrageous um we have a lot of longtime residents here though that need to change their way of thinking in regards to animals but again and we have provided transport for several Eloy citizens the officers pick them up and take them to their appointment if they lack transport um but something that was part of my suggestion packet is we cannot apply for easy pet plate span neuter funding the Pipley committee is a state funded grant that provides spay neuter resources to every area of Arizona we can't apply for the city we can only apply for Penell County but if the city wanted to apply they could apply independently and some of that money you're already spending could be covered by the grant.

I know that Rick had applied a few times and I know that he got like $1800 one year and another year but unfortunately he was having a really hard time getting vets to come and get those fixed and I'm on the committee I'm not allowed to read anything submissions but I get to read everybody else's and um that's how I know that Rick had gotten because there was one year a few years back that he wasn't able to spend all the money but he was applying again and he sent us an email saying can I please get more can I please get more time and we're like oh yeah go ahead.

So and I even asked the committee hey uh if we're taking over Eloy can we get those funds to give to Eloy and that I don't think that ever surfaced so I'm happy to work with whoever for that application to get it in so there's additional funding for just the city August 1st is when the grant goes out to everybody and it has to be in by August 31st.

We got it for several years.

And yes, it was a matter of knocking on doors and saying, Here, do you want free money to go get your pet nuditor spade?

So that's something I'd like us to look at as well.

I mean, yeah, it it really I know Brian, you're going, oh god, another grant.

But um it really is an easy grant to manage.

But anyway, um I'm sad to see you guys losing 18 kennels.

Um, if there's ever a board of supervisors meeting that some of us should go to to say, hey, we need more kennels.

Our county has grown exponentially.

The size of your shelter has not.

And I think we've seen this in Maricopa County.

We see it in all the counties.

Um, yes, you're um having tons of people move here, but you're not making sure that our county services are um increasing as well.

So um if there's people we need to talk to, I'm more than happy to go talk to them about that because um thank you.

We need to make sure that we're doing whatever we can to improve the way of life in this county.

I agree, and I would love to be able to invite everybody to the grand opening if you guys would be interested in going.

I don't know when it's gonna be.

I just heard October.

That's if everything works out, but it hasn't been that way so far.

So yes, but yes, we would love to have you there.

Okay.

So I think that's it, other than again, I hope Mr.

Pip can I hate to see your end of the line posts because it's horrible.

Anyway, it sucks.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Michelle.

Anyone else?

Sarah?

Or hi.

I'm glad you guys are starting to get the staffing stuff resolved.

That's awesome.

Um I just wanted to tag on what Michelle was saying about the spay and neutering.

Um, and also what you were saying, Katrina, about how we're you know, 40 years on I'm not totally understanding that statistic, but it sounds bad.

Um but we're that we're really behind on on that.

So I think um, you know, David, if there's anything we can do to get grant funds that can help with that, I think that would be critical to keep the population down.

And then this might be a stupid question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway.

Um, is there any way to prioritize spam neutering for large dogs?

Because that's the most difficult to adopt, the most difficult to house.

Um, and it seems like the biggest problem in Eloy.

Yeah, it's immediately expedited.

Large female dogs go to the top of the list.

So we're already on it.

Okay, thanks.

Thanks, ladies.

Yeah, just uh a quick one uh for the food bank.

Can do the local rescues benefit from that food, or is it just go out to individuals?

Which local rescues?

Uh local Panera rescues, like the small rescues.

Yes, absolutely.

Yes.

And they also should join Cody's friends.

If not, if you don't know any local rescues who are not a part of Cody's friends, join Cody's friends.

You can buy the dog food at $64 a pallet.

It's real cheap.

Cheap.

Cody is the way.

Cody's friends.

I know one thing that the city is is lacking is a a dog park, you know, or pet park, you know.

We don't have that here.

Yeah.

No, not even that.

Just like the dog fights, the disease.

That's actually in my next thing.

Okay.

Uh dog parts are a cesspool for disease, especially in a community that has endemic distemper.

Okay.

Um, Eloy is currently the only city that has endemic distemper.

Uh, we see positive dogs from the community very frequently.

I have one in quarantine right now that I'm waiting on swabs uh for back from the lab.

Uh so dog until like there's a better population control and disease control.

A dog park is um pretty pretty and the dumping risk is pretty high as well.

Maricopa sees that pretty frequently that dogs are left in their dog park pretty frequently.

So you wouldn't recommend it right now.

No, no, that funding, I mean, there's it's so expensive to maintain a dog park as well that it's uh the spay neuter is probably more advantageous, and the dog park, like even Florence's dog park is a frequent, like a lot of our intakes from Florence as rare as they are, are from people leaving them at the dog park.

Okay.

Who didn't know?

And the dog fights and dog bites that occur at the dog park.

It's just yeah.

We used to may remember the council.

My wife and I took our dogs to the CG Dog Park quite a bit, and we stopped because our both of our dogs got sick multiple times, and like they said all that was happening rampantly.

Other my wife used to take our dog every morning and just hear the stories about dogs being dropped off.

Dog fights that had to be stopped in very interesting ways.

So I I know that they probably have their hands full, the Casagran PD with dealing with issues over at that dog park.

Well, interesting.

Okay, well, good to know.

And zoonotic disease that's transmittable to people is rampant in dog parks.

Leptosporosis being the big one, which people can get, and you can get very sick.

So I'm like, that's my anti-dog park spiel.

Sorry, guys.

All right.

No to sell.

Paul's shaking his head like no more parts.

Yeah.

And we did have a positive fox in Oracle that came back.

It got in a tussle with the dog.

Thank God the dog had a rabies vaccine, or the dog would have lost its life.

But yeah, so it's just really good to get that out there.

Everybody needs a rabies vaccine.

Haro distemper.

I was gonna see if we can partner with the dog, but screw it now.

Take it off the list.

Rosen Ranch has a dog park.

Yes, they do.

And it probably works well out there.

A lot of community members use Main Street Park as a dog park.

Already any other questions.

No?

Yeah, just that question.

You mentioned Parvo's paper.

Sorry.

Okay.

So you mentioned Parvo Distemper.

It's a problem here.

Distemper being the big one.

Um has not been as much of a hotbed for Parvo as Coolidge and Maricopa.

Those are like the part of central of Pennell County.

Um, but distemper, the only positive dogs we have had in the past four years have come from Eloy.

Um it's endemic in wildlife.

You guys don't have a lot of foxes here in the city, so it's probably just endemic in your stray population.

If you guys ever see dogs in the yard that are bouncing, they're distemper survivors.

They have a they're usually they have a neurodeficit afterward.

And then it is usually fatal.

We very typically cannot treat them.

It's too much of a risk to every dog in the shelter.

Uh we could have to euthanize an entire building if a dog comes up positive for distemper.

So we don't mess around with it if they can't go immediately to quarantine.

If we can't find them somewhere to quarantine, those are not lives that we we can't risk the other 200 dogs at the shelter.

Okay, unfortunately.

So our residents, oh sorry, releasing those dogs to be strays because we don't have a lot of strays.

We have a lot of people who let their dogs go.

And so we don't just have random dogs running out.

But they're sniffing, they go fence to fence, spreads that, and so many dogs are unvaccinated.

One core vaccine, the distemper vaccine is one of the best vaccines ever manufactured in the history of vaccinations.

It is incredibly good.

If they get one distemper vaccine, it is likely they will have immunity for longer than anything else.

So if they get one distemper parvo combo vaccine in their entire life, it is better than nothing.

Parvo, they're not safe uh with just one vaccine, but distemper is a very good vaccine.

If they can just get one dose one time in adulthood, they stand uh a much better chance.

Um, so AZ vet direct that's coming here in May.

They sometimes offer vaccination clinics.

That might be something for the city to invest in for them to do another one here.

Um we're stretched real thin providing vaccine clinics all across the the county, so we don't have the ability to offer another one here.

Uh unfortunately, the vet board has kind of cracked down.

You didn't used to need to be a veterinarian to administer a DAPP vaccine.

Um now there's some gray area where we could get in big trouble, even though you can buy it at the feed store and it seems silly.

Um, we can't go out and just do those clinics anymore with DAPP vaccines, sadly.

And and regarding those distemper dogs, are you getting them as strays?

Or yes.

Or they're or it walked into my garage.

Right.

Strays.

Right.

Right.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

That's what I wondered.

Because again, that's where or we see them um end of the neurospectrum when they're having seizures and they're really, really sick, and then people bring them in because they're afraid to help ask for help.

So we get them.

We don't get a complete story.

Um, but unfortunately, yeah, we see them.

And I think that's where um community involvement and a lot of um education goes out into the public, is not be afraid to ask for help.

Right because we see it every day on social media.

So all right, thank you.

So if you guys ever see me on Facebook commenting every time there's a litter of puppies for sale, and we can fix your dog for free.

Yes, we say that all the time.

It just seems like it's easier to just have kids.

It's I wouldn't know about that.

I have a niece and nephew, they're very expensive.

Yeah.

You mentioned foxes.

Can the distemper come from coyotes?

Yes.

Because there's a lot of you see a lot of them now, especially with how um rainy it was this spring.

Right.

There's a lot of coyotes kind of moving through Talltech, and I imagine the other areas just at dawn.

Yeah, a lot of those scraggly sick looking coyotes very well could be the vector in any way.

Yeah.

Anything else?

Anybody from the public like to just ask questions?

No.

We're all dogged out, huh?

Thank you so much.

We appreciate your.

Yeah, that's what we'll we can do more.

So all right.

Next one to item B adoption of resolution number 24-1570, authorizing officer agents to deposit transfer and withdraw monies from Western Alliance Bank.

Brian I'm just gonna turn this off real quick.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the council tonight before you is uh staff's recommendation to adopt resolution 24-1570, um, authorizing the mayor and the vice mayor, uh city manager Mallowitz and myself as the agents to uh set up a account at Western Alliance Bank, and this bank account would be just opening up currently all of our funds are either in uh first interstate bank, and then we also have investment funds in uh PFM asset management.

We have a few funds that are still in the LGIP at the state level.

Um we're just looking at diversifying our our portfolio and actually maximizing the most we can out of our investments in the local bank.

Locally, we we our accounts range from 0.25 to 0.1 of basis points.

And when we've approached them in the past, uh first interstate, they can't really match some of the banking firms out there that uh um can offer greater investments, and so we looked at this, and um Western Alliance came forward, they provided us a an option to invest with them, open up a it's like money market, but it sweeps into a FDIC assured account, and we're looking at moving five million from just our local bank at Great Western into our first interstate bank into Western Alliance to uh maximize our our money that we have in our just our savings account locally.

All right, thank you.

Anybody have any questions on this item?

Brighton percentage rate, is that a an annual rate or is that uh a uh changing rate or what's the term?

How's how's that work with the the new account?

Yeah, it'll be for one uh Mr.

Mayor uh Councilman Snyder, it'll be for one year for the 4.25 for one year.

After one year is up, we it will go out and renegotiate to either if it's higher, we'll we'll go higher on it.

If it's lower, we'll try to get the maximum.

We'll look at what it would be locally if it uh locally is above that.

But um, when we've done this in the past with it was at the time Great Western Bank before they got bought out.

Um, you know, they they have a hard time keeping you know getting us up to one percent on an account that has five six million dollars in it, so we're not earning the maximum amount.

That's just their structure within that that banking system.

I just want to be sure it wasn't adjustable rate somehow that okay.

Thank you.

So you can make we can make about 200,000 dollars off of one with that, yes.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Anyone else have any questions on this?

Yep, Andy.

No, our current bank is not willing to compete with these rates.

I mean, no, it's a lot of money walking out of the door.

No, I mean, with that that 4.25, they could not meet that that mark when I've talked to Anna at the bank, they could not meet that.

Wow, that's crazy.

I mean, that's it's some of the I mean, especially I mean, our the 2.5 right now that we have, that's in our repurchase.

That's where we have most of our money that gets swept in and out, and any time that we bring it up.

The bank's not working with they should be trying to work for us as a customer instead of us always going to them.

We're we're having to do all the work on it, and so it's you know they're not to me sometimes they're not looking out after us with what we're one of the largest accounts on it.

So we're still keeping our our all of our accounts there.

It's just we're taking what's in our savings on it that is part of it and just putting in an account to maximize that profit.

And it's more for the interest that goes right back into that can be used for other projects that we have for the city at one time.

Okay.

All right, hearing none.

Do I have a motion to read by title one for resolution number 24-1570?

So I'm open.

Thank you.

Do you have a second?

Can I get a roll call, please?

Can I do all in favor say aye?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Okay.

It was a notion of the mayor and council of the city of Eloy, Arizona, authorizing officers, agents to deposit, transfer, and withdraw monies with Western Alliance Bank.

Thank you.

Do I hear a motion to approve?

Motion to approve uh 24 days 1570 as red.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Can I get a roll call, please?

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Wannawatha Rodriguez.

Yes.

Councilmember Twango?

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

The motion passed unanimously, Mayor.

All right.

Next one will go to item C approval to enter into interrogative agreement with uh ADOT for Batabola Road Sidewalks.

Matt.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayer.

This project is a project that's funded under the Transportational Tremors project.

We worked with the Sun Corridor MPO when we established a call for projects.

We submitted this in as uh as a project to perform a scoping study and 30% design plans for a sidewalk that goes along the south side of the tagly road from 11 mile corner all the way down to Sunshine Boulevard.

This is subject to 5.7% local match, which in this case would be about 18,000, just under $19,000.

We have the funding either our streets one-time fund or streets capital to pay for this.

We do intend to meet with uh representatives of the school district to see if they would be interested in partnering with us because this will benefit theirs their students as well.

Um be happy to answer any questions.

But you said the south side or the north side of the Taglia.

The south side it would be adjacent to the drainage ditch because we have the residential properties on the north side already.

Okay.

So will we do any work along the drainage ditch?

There will be some um part of this this design is is to identify locations for sidewalk scuppers that will allow branch to get into the drainage ditch.

And so that we have that already built into the design.

Okay.

So curve and gutters and everything on the end?

Yes, sir, that's correct.

Okay.

That's like the the alleyway.

No, it's before the along the road.

Oh, it's gonna be before along the road, right?

It would be on the north side of the drainage ditch adjacent to the existing pavement on the the eastbound where where the signs are at.

Okay, because that's in the picture, it kind of looks like it's on the south side.

So I just wanted to.

And that may be just the way that the aerial came out, but the the intent is to have it adjacent to the existing payment.

There's enough light of that area?

There is because all of that drainage ditch is included within our right-of-way.

Okay.

And if if we did if through the process of this we decide and we determine that it would be better suited on the south side of the drainage ditch, we can certainly do that.

This is for uh scoping and to take it up to the preliminary design stages.

Well, the south side would be in the canal on the alleys.

It would be in the island, so there would also be conflicts with uh with the gas meters there too.

Although it would be safer for the for the kids to walk than on the north side in the road.

Yeah.

And those were all considerations that we'll be looking to do as we move forward with the design.

But what if uh we I'm just kind of like a nice pathway on the south side of the canal or the drainage where the alley is at?

What if we did a a like a asphalt?

We could we can we can certainly do that.

The the the um this at this point of the project is is just conceptual, so we'll look at that and say, okay, where's the best place for this for this for the drainage ditch for the scuppers for the the sidewalk for the curve for the gutter?

And so that we would look at that in the in the course of the deciding where the location would be optimal for this.

Okay.

I thought it was gonna be on the north side with the residential.

That's what I thought it was gonna be at, but okay.

Any questions?

Yep, Michelle.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so what is it going to tie to tie into on sunshine, or is it just gonna dead in there and help the school maybe fund some sidewalk from Sunshine?

It will operate I believe there is sidewalk already at some point on Sunshine.

Um if not we'll extend it to a crosswalk and then we'll have a designated school crosswalk where it would this the sidewalk, the new sidewalk would come in and dead end at that point, and then we would need to look at a city project to continue it further south, or another transportation in terms of grant project to continue that sidewalk.

Okay, because that's what I'd like to see is some more sidewalk on sunshine.

There's like spots, but I think it's closer down to like Fifth Street and some of those streets.

I don't think there's any sidewalk up on that north side, but I could be wrong.

But I personally I think it's just like any other sidewalk next to the roadway, as long as it's a decent width sidewalk, um, where it's planned right now is a a good idea.

But that's my opinion.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Do I hear direction of counsel?

To enter into agreement or not.

Item C.

All right.

Second.

Thank you.

Roll call, please.

Vice Mayor, excuse me.

Vice Mayor Curtis?

Yes.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Councilmember Sedden.

Yes.

Councilmember Twango.

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Wanawatha Rodriguez.

Yes.

The motion passed unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next item D, acknowledgement acceptance of the sub-recipient agreement between Pennell County and the City of Eloy.

Ryan.

Mr.

Mayor, members of the council.

Before you tonight is a acknowledgement and acceptance of the sub-recipient agreement between Pennell County and the City of Eloy for the community development block grant, project number 3.

Um to give you a little background on this uh before just uh discussion is that uh on November 15, 2022, that's when uh Pennell County came before, and we they conducted a public hearing.

And at the time, numerous projects were uh mentioned at the public hearing uh for consideration for the application that that's one of the requirements.

Um these projects that were identified were evaluated based upon priorities of fostering a suitable living environment for the community, safety, accessibility, infrastructure, and visibility to the community.

Um following uh uh the public hearing staff uh presented before council on January 9, 2023 for the installation of a lighting crosswalk at Maine and Frontier.

Um after council um accepted staff's recommendation for this lighted crosswalk, staff prepared a the application for CDBG funds that was submitted to Pinnell County on February 6, 2023 for this project.

So after the application was submitted, staff went ahead and did the uh it's called the environmental review record, and this is where we send letters to all agencies out um seeing if there's any mitigation, any any concerns with uh this project.

Uh at that time, no agencies indicated any concerns.

We submitted those to Pinnell County, uh part of the application.

Um Pennell County um just received on March 29th the full approval from HUD for this problem uh this project saying that uh Pennell County now can enter into the sub-recipient uh agreement with the city, which is before you tonight.

So this is just the agreement that's based upon the city in Pennell County for installing the signalization light at Main Street and Frontier.

So if there's any questions, I'll be happy to answer those.

Uh just the formality that's uh with Pennell County for our C C B G RA grant on that.

All right.

Uh so this is just for the beacon that's gonna be raised up the lighted crosswalk, yes.

Okay, gotcha.

What about the um is there road?

Is there gonna be any lights in the middle of the road?

Like the sidewalk?

I think uh part of that is once now that we have the sub recipient agreement, the next step would be for public works to submit any type of contract that has that work.

So I mean I would it's how Matt designs the if you want to say the lighted crosswalk or the the lights on the the ground with that that's part of the the stuff that Matt would be working with the contractor with on that.

Okay.

Anybody have any questions?

It's a lighted crosswalk.

That's what we agreed upon, not everything else that's there.

So I just want to make sure that it's going to be just the lighted crosswalk.

Yes, that's that's the only thing that Pennell County will do that's part of the that's all part of the grant, yes.

It's the wide crosswalk.

No bridge, no nothing.

I mean have you guys seen residents uh uh cross the street using the I have seen several.

I've used it and it's been good.

Okay.

I've seen both.

Um and mostly um people who are handicapped, they won't go around and walk because it's too much of a distance for them to have to go around.

It's easier and quicker for them to just cross directly.

We're the old class okay.

Okay.

I've seen several seen several using it, and including one who's handicapped, walks with his crutch in along that side and has goes around the way.

I've also seen a few people that's like what is that a unit for the wife and the water for the trees and stuff that we put up there?

They'll sit there and rest.

So it's it's getting used.

We might need a bench out there.

Okay.

Interesting.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um direction of council.

This is an acceptance, uh knowledgement acceptance of this agreement between Panawell County and City of Eloy.

Do I hear direction of council?

Make a motion to where are we at?

And come back up here to um enter into an interno, that's not it.

Acknowledgement and acceptance of a sub-receipt agreement between now county and the city of Eloy for the CDPG grant.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Michelle got that one.

Oh you want to do a roll call, you want to do a all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Make it simple for you, Ms.

Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, item E.

Consideration approval for a hundred percent market adjustment after May 4th, 2024.

Including updates to the city employees compensation salary plan for all the eligible city of Eloy employees as recommended in the recent completed and proposed employee compensation classification study.

Before we get started, I like to mention that uh my wife is an employee with the city of Eloy for pure transparency.

So I know we'll be talking about employees and wages.

I just want to put that out there that it is not a conflict of interest.

Correct, Steve.

Mayor Council members, um it's kind of a long night, so I'm not gonna spend a lot about talking about conflict of interest there.

But um basically that um they look at what is called a financial or pecuniary interest involved, and there is a an exception to it, which basically is uh class interest and matter.

In such case, if there are more than 10 affected individuals, then there technically is not a conflict of interest per se.

Um you're just looking at a job classification, you're not looking at an an individual, and what they would be receiving would be no more than what any other uh person similarly situated would receive.

Okay, so we're good.

Did you want to mention that too?

And no, who's put me on blessed?

So okay, and my husband uh also worked for the city.

Just want to throw that out there.

Yeah.

So there's no conflict of interest.

So there's no conflict of interest for the record.

All right, so yeah.

Yes.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, members council.

So this evening, uh, we're bringing forth to you uh consideration of approval for a 100% market adjustment effective uh to become effective May 4th, if approved.

Um this includes updates to the city employee compensation salary plan for all eligible um you know, city vehicle employees as recommended recently completed proposed employee compensation classification study.

Um as you may recall, um, about a month ago we had a complete study completed by um Mr.

Um Chigelov, um, who uh from HR now uh consultants.

He presented the findings to the mayor and council on March 18th, and following the presentation, which included various salary increased scenarios, the city council uh instructed staff to formulate a plan to fund all eligible city employees at 100% to market at their uh recommended market pay and proposed adjustments to employee salaries if it was financially feasible within this current fiscal year rather than waiting for next fiscal year.

Um additionally, the city council agreed to explore the funding of a four percent general increase for all employees effective July 1st, generally called a cost of living increase or cola.

Um this to assess the feasibility feasibility of implementing the 100% cost of market adjustment to the remainder of the fiscal year 23-24.

Um staff has analyzed departmental budgets with a general fund, streets, water, and sanitation based on the analysis, staff confirm adequate budget capacity to accommodate the cost of market adjustment for all eligible.

I'm sorry, that that's not correct.

It's not cost of market adjustment, but actually the market um uh 100% to market to all eligible employees.

Um the following chart, you'll you all receive the chart um where the adjustments are shown.

The general fund would um impact 50 employees, streets would impact 30 three employees, water fund six, sanitation one for a total of 60 employees, 19 of those being poly coming out of the police um department.

Total funds, including salary and benefits would be $59,558 out of this fiscal year to bring everyone to 100% to market.

Um next year we would put that into our um fiscal year of 24-25 and uh budget accordingly, including the four percent cola.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any questions, council?

I'll just make a comment.

So before everybody anybody in the city employee gets too excited about oh, we're gonna get this money, it's gonna apply to those people who were under market and not everybody.

So it's just it's gonna be very uh specific to individuals.

Mayor Council Member Snyder, yes, that's correct.

So we intend to anticipate to send out or we will be sending out notices to every employee in the city.

That's going to include um a notification that explained to them what happened, how we conducted the study, what was the outcome.

Everyone is going to receive a change in their what's called a personnel action form because every uh grade uh is going to change.

For instance, um, currently we may have a rec leader that's currently on a grade three, it's going to change to grade 101.

So all of that information, they're they're entitled to that information, so we're going to change that.

Um, some people, if they have a um, I don't believe we have anybody maybe with a uh title change, but if they were reviewed, if their position was reviewed, we're going to inform them, you know, your position was reviewed but not reclassified or or if it was reclassified, um, they're receiving a notice that says your salary is going to change from this amount to now this higher amount.

Um, if there's any adjustments of us of a prorated amount, they're going to be told what that amount is.

If they're not impacted by the market and their salary is now current and at within the market, then they're going to receive that notification as well.

We're also going to let them know and inform them that if it's approved during the budget process and if feasible, then they may be receiving a under consideration.

It's under consideration that four percent cola.

So just so that they're aware that um they're not receiving anything at this time, but that you're all in the process of considering that for the future.

Thank you.

I appreciate the uh communication, everybody.

I think it's very very important so people understand what what's happening here.

Of course.

So if they're maxed out or they're they they're at the market rate.

Um will they still be able to get the four percent cost of living each year?

Mayor PowerPoint members council, yes, of course.

Um uh employees are designed to be able to receive their cost of living increases.

Um their maximum pay does stay at the same rate, they get a lump sum.

So they get the paid difference of what they would receive in a year, but they rather get paid in one lump sum.

So yes, they do.

So it's not on like an hourly, it doesn't go on their hourly or whatever, it just goes like a like a like a bonus, I guess you could say type.

Okay.

All right.

And this is this goes in effect effective May 4th.

Correct, Mayor Mayor Powell, yes.

We may May 4th because the beginning of a pay period.

Yeah, makes it much easier.

Thank you.

And then we budgeted for this this increase moving forward.

Correct.

For the following year.

Follow fiscal year.

Mayor and council.

Yes, we are expecting to that's already been put placed in and projected into the next fiscal year.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I and this might not be the time, but I'm not sure.

I know we've talked about that four percent cost of living increase for all employees.

Um have you guys already got to the point where you know what percentage benefits are gonna rise?

Um, because I'm sure state retirement's probably gonna increase, it usually does.

Um insurance costs, do we know yet how much that's going to rise?

Because you know that quickly takes away that four percent from employees.

Yeah, Mayor, um councilmember Tarangle.

Yes, we have all that information has already been uh projected into the next uh fiscal year.

So any insurance increases, which is um I believe we came in very minimal.

It was I maybe two percent, I believe it was, maybe two and a half percent was our increase for insurance overall, and um Arizona State Retirement and Public Safety were not um very high.

I believe they were not right.

ASRS actually dropped, dropped, you're right, it did drop this year.

They always they always tend to go up, but yeah, they did drop.

So that would affect that four percent though with the employee, correct.

Okay, so it does, but it's all been projected already as far as where do you go as far as budget goes?

It's already all of those figures have already been projected into the next budget year.

That would just be my thing, you know, some of those employees that are not getting um adjusted, um they're being told they're gonna get a cost of living adjustment of four percent come July 1, but if benefits are right rising, um if the cost of those for an employee is rising, then they're really not getting a four percent.

Mayor Councilmember Tarango, correct.

And and and that is the whole um what do I want to say?

That is the entire purpose generally of a cost of living because um increases as such is what impacts um employees in their livelihood, and so you project cost of living increases like those, and so that's what they generally offset a little bit of those increases, um, whether it's in the um general population of just increases overall with your electricity or your food of costs or um just in the whole market as overall, but also the small percentages that sometimes go up, which are generally under one percent, but they do impact salaries, yes, correct.

Anybody else?

All right, direction of council I hear um motion, mayor any motion we approve the 100% market adjustment effect of May 4th.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second, we used up all Michelle minutes already, so it's a roll call, please.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes, yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanowatha Rodriguez?

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

Councilmember Trangle.

Yes.

The motion passed unanimously, Mayor.

All right.

Thanks so much.

All right.

Well, we have no need for executive session.

So I'd like to adjourn tonight's meeting.

Thank you all for coming.

Please drive safe going home.

And we'll see you at the next meeting.

Good night.

Uh next meeting is May.