We're at 533.

Oh.

All right, here we go.

Good evening, good afternoon.

Welcome to tonight's uh work session.

It is Monday, May 13th, 2024.

The time's approximately 535.

Calls me into order.

Mary, can I have a roll call, please?

Councilmember Seton?

Here.

Councilmember Wannawato Rodriguez?

Here.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Here.

Mayor Powell?

Here.

Councilmember Snyder?

Here.

Councilmember Garcia?

Present.

Councilmember Trango.

Here.

Thank you.

I'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Liberty and Justice for all.

Thank you.

Any unscheduled public appearances?

No.

All right.

Next we're going to go to our discussion item fiscal year 2425.

Community outreach program presentations.

Yes, sir.

Hello.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Perfect.

So I just briefly wanted to go through just kind of an update because we changed the process of the community outreach program.

What's up?

I mean, that's fine.

Yeah.

As long as you guys can hear me.

Everybody behind me can hear me good?

Yes.

So um just wanted to give a little bit of an update because we change the process this year.

I'll try to get through this quickly so we can get to the important part, which is the presentations from the community program partners.

So the first step here was kind of we established a review panel to increase efficiency and reduce the overall time.

Uh based on conversations that we had had staff and council.

Some of this process has taken longer in the past, and so what we wanted to do is kind of come to City Council and Mayor with recommendations of what we believe the funding should be.

This review panel incorporated city staff as well as council members to kind of get an inclusive uh combination of opinions.

The second portion here is the organizational contracts.

So this is something that we didn't have in the past, is we didn't have contracts to hold these organizations accountable for the funds that they're utilizing from the city.

So this just protects the city and it protects them so we know exactly what they're spending our funds on.

Uh and it's just good all around.

And then the last step here is the goal to reduce the budget and still support the community organization.

So at the end of the day, these community organizations, they all serve us a good use for the city and they all provide a good impact, but we also want to make sure that we're being sustainable with the budget that we're creating.

Uh as I'll show on some of the slides coming up here, you'll see that over the years we've steadily increased the budget over time.

And if we were to agree to all of the submissions that we received this year, we would be doubling our budget to what it was three years ago.

So it would have gone from what we used to use, which was 60,000 back in 2020 to over 130,000 today.

So if you guys can see here, I know the font is a little small.

The organizations that are highlighted on the left in green there, those are all the ones that are being considered tonight and have have representation in the audience right now that are going to present on basically what they're being funded for, give us an update on what their programs are, their events that they're submitting for recommendation.

And then over on the far right, you'll see the 114,500.

That is the recommended amount that the review panel kind of came to, which is a reduction from that 131 total amount.

And then as you can see on the bottom, highlighted there, that's the increase from year to year.

So you'll see from 2020 to 2021, it was an increase by almost 30,000.

Then from 22 to 23, uh 11,800.

Last year, uh good thing we kept that budget only increased by about 7,700.

And then with the recommended amount that we're proposing for this afternoon, it's gonna be an increase of 8,500.

So one of the discussions that we had within the review panel was we'd kind of like to keep that total within like an inflationary number, so keep it between maybe about three to seven percent.

Uh, we see that maybe as a healthy increase from year to year.

And then this slide just kind of goes over the reductions in their reasonings.

So out of the nine applications that we received, these are all the reductions that we recommended.

So the chamber of commerce, uh, their goal for their recommendation is to steadily pull back to the 2020-2021 funding level.

Uh, to my understanding, mayor and council might have a little bit more background on that than I do.

Uh, we originally increased the total of the chamber when they were going through the process of recruiting an executive director, and now that they have completed that, our goal is over time to slowly reduce the funding back to that level.

Obviously, mayor and council can still decide on what amount that is.

You don't have to go back to that 26,000 number, but uh we recommend to overtime slowly reduce that.

Uh, the second one over here is the Sunland Visitor Center, and then that's a kind of general cut to support the increased applications.

We've received increased applications in comparison to other years, so that's just a general reduction.

Uh the Eloy Glow, this is a new application, and then again to support the increased applications.

We suggested a reduction.

And the next slide will show the amounts.

And then lastly, here we have the Panel Alliance for Economic Growth.

And the reduction for this one was more so based on the comparator funders.

So when you compare this to Penal County and Casa Grand, which are significantly larger than us and have a much higher tax base, we were supporting the Panel Alliance for Economic Growth of 10,000.

So we recommended to reduce that to 5,000, which we believed was a um decent amount for the size of our community.

And then this last slide here just kind of goes over the review panel recommendations.

So at the top there in red, you'll see the total funding requested was that 131, 125 number.

That is a 21% increase from the previous year, which was that 106,000.

Our funding recommendation is for 114,500, which falls just below that 8% threshold we were discussing.

And then those numbers there you'll see in green uh equate to that number in green, and then the number in red is the number that, if not reduced, would total the 131,125.

And just to clarify, too, there is another organization that's been included today that wasn't included in the packets you all saw, which is going to be the food bank and the hope coalition.

Uh we did end up recommending them for their full amount of six thousand dollars.

So that's why that there's that change from the 108,500 you guys might have seen on the council packet.

So, with that being said, is there any questions on this portion or is it cool to move on to the presentations?

All right.

So, first up, we have the chamber.

So I think Andrew's gonna come up here and speak, and he's gonna rapid fire through, he has three presentations.

So it's gonna be on the visitor center, the chamber, and the globe.

And and I know that there's supposed to be a three-minute um time limit.

As long as you're not you know going overboard, you know, I'm I'm not gonna pull the gavel on you guys.

So um just be the mindset of the other people that are here to present as well.

Okay.

Hello, counselor, hello, mayor.

Um Andrew Rodriguez, the executive director of the Yellow Chamber.

Um, so I'm sorry to you guys, I asked to be first because I have to go to Conwood for a class and I have to be there early in the morning, so I'm leaving there tonight.

Um let's start.

So our board of directors has changed this year with a new uh every three years, our executive direct our executive team changes.

Our executive direct our executive team changes.

So our new president will be Dr.

Terry Aklin.

She is in the audience tonight.

And as you guys can see, we added more members to our board from last year to this year.

We added two more board members, and then our ex our new ex-official will be McKenzie.

Um the ELO chamber, what we do, and we know the ELO Chamber of Commerce promotes cooperation among businesses, trade professionals, association, government agencies, and encourage the growth of the new and existing business to enhance the image of Eloy.

At the very bottom, that's what we asked for for the Elo Chamber and seeking 46,000 for operations and marketing.

Um to be honest, we're we are okay with the with the deduction if it if council does decide to do that.

Uh it's not, I mean, it we have to do some some more fundraising, but we will get there.

Um our outreach statistics.

So if you guys see where it says cash grant uh paper marketing, was we gave out 22,500 materials throughout the whole year.

That's the same as last year.

That's our contract with the Cash Grant Dispatch.

Uh social media social media from last year was 197,000, and this year from as of the 10th was 319,000.

Our office contact from last year was at 1,107.

As of the 10th, we're at 1,668.

Uh chamber members last year were at 150.

This year we're at 176, and by the end of uh more likely by the end of the week, we'll be at 180.

Um attendance for our events went from 7,460 to 8,570 people.

With the total of all that from last year was 22,000, 228,000.

And this year we're at 352,000, and we're not the physical year's not done yet.

Our partnerships uh with the Eloy Community Services, we do the activity guide with them every single time we do an activity guide, we split the costs of the revenues that come in.

I'm sorry.

So we usually get about 700, 800, and we cut a check to the community service for seven or eight hundred dollars, and we get the other half as a chamber.

Um then they also work with us very well with the Veterans Day and Memorial Day events.

Uh all the chamber organizations that we're we do meetings, we we we do everything with them back and forth.

Uh the community give back as a with the chamber board sponsors, the events throughout the city.

Um the USDA.

Um now we're working on businesses with them to work with businesses and the community.

Um there's some programming that has to go through my board to approve it.

So we're looking at probably by the the new physical year, we'll have something going on.

Uh in the city of Eloy.

I mean, the chamber, we I sit on the downtown commission, and all we also promote any vacancy buildings that are ready to go for uh for the city.

Events that we have we participate or we do.

I mean, it's a lot of events now we do.

Um but we we take pride in our events.

Uh we are well very well attended.

Um so our next one we have coming up is Memorial Day, which we usually usually get about two to three hundred people out there.

Um then we one thing that we didn't put up there is uh the blood drive.

We're having a blood drive next in June, June 13th, I believe.

Um but we stay busy.

Our biggest thing, our biggest accomplishment was we're gonna be featured and Sonora living in the ABC 15 show segment with on July, I want to say July 19th around there, and they're gonna be coming, they're basically doing a statewide Pennell County to make mainly focus on Pennell County on tourism.

So they contacted me and then they said they will do skydive for the first half of the day, then they're gonna do the they want to do a big story on the globe.

Um so we're gonna be doing that, and uh for the second year we uh the chamber has received the community support award for the museum associations of Arizona for our museum for Santa Cruz uh historic museum.

Um these are our chamber champions, you know, next era energy, uh, exceptional health care, Cypress Creek Renewables, Savion, and Avance.

Without their help, also we we will be, you know, we'll we we get by, but with them always helping us out, we we were happy with that.

Um any questions on the chamber side of things?

Thank you, Andrew.

We talk about chamber champions.

What does that mean?

There's a fee that they pay a little bit more than on memberships, and then that fee goes for them to help offset costs on the certain events, so they can uh they can be like for instance three thousand dollars is a chamber champion.

It's already all paid for for the whole of the year for them.

So they'll we don't have to invoice them every month on things, it's already all paid and said and done.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Anybody on council have any questions for Andrew?

Okay.

Next one.

Did you want to go to the next one?

Yeah.

No, you're good, man.

There you go.

All right, Eloy Glow.

So I had a couple council members asked me to put in for the funding, and I was like, Well, let's see what we get.

You know, we're we weren't expecting a whole lot.

Uh Eloy Glows, I mean, we it's one of the premier bib events that we have in town.

We range from the past couple years from six to seven thousand people, paid people to pay to get in to the event.

So um, backstory with a little bit, let's I think it's on the next one.

Yes.

The council in the past has asked the chamber, we need to put on a signature event.

And from that discussion came down Eloy Glow.

Um, so we're we are seeking 10,000.

Again, if uh council does choose to reduce it, we're okay with that.

Um the local the glow effects from tax wise.

So if you look at all the Novembers, it more than likely doubles.

So in tax collected for the month of November for that whole for that one year was 338,916 and 42 cents.

Um that comes from the Department of Revenue from Aaron Arizona.

What year is that?

Last year.

Last year?

Okay.

Yeah.

2023.

Our primary goals is to annual revenue growth, and we'll annual attendance growth affordable for the entire family, attract people from all parts of Arizona, and we want to use our chamber members first for um vending and also for food food trucks.

Um we wanted them to step up first, so that gives them an option to be a part of the glow.

Um media marketing will we developed a state 48 shirt, which we're pretty much sold out on them.

Uh our social media has been hit 92,000 times, and it hit well, of course, it gets hit a lot more during the event or a week before the event.

Um, and the ABC 15 will be doing a segment on the glow in July.

And I think it'll be airing in August.

Um for the GLOW, as I mean, we just started getting sponsorships.

Um, we are working hard on it.

Um, we have some stuff that the board and myself were gonna be nailing down on some some items on the next month's meeting.

Well, this actually this month's meeting, so we can officially announce the glow and open all the vending and sponsor packets up and running.

But any questions on the glow?

What exactly would the money go to?

Because I know like for other ones when we give the money to uh we earmark it for entertainment or something like that.

What would what would your funding go to?

That's up to you guys.

If you guys want to airmark it to the entertainment or to on sponsor balloons, the balloons this year are $900 a balloon.

And that's just for the balloon, that's not for like the propane and everything else that goes with it.

Um it's it's up to the council whether they want to airmark it.

And there's there's several, I mean, we have um slots of you know what this cost, that costs, and stuff like that.

So we have it all the way up from 10,000 to 2,000.

So if you guys want to airmark it, just like if you guys want to sponsor the stage, you know, I mean you guys will have a stage.

Okay, for like the music or band or whatever.

It'll be the the main stage because we're done, we're only having one big stage.

Okay, gotcha.

Any questions to Andrew regarding the glow?

No, go ahead.

Will the tenants be free?

No.

It's it's gonna be reduced.

Uh we usually charge $10 pre uh ahead of time, $15 at the gate this year because it's our 75th anniversary for the chamber.

We're gonna go from seven to $750 and $10 at the gate.

Okay, thank you.

But all kids are free.

So kids under 12 years old are free.

What if we act 12?

Uh that's a lot.

That's a lot of people.

Okay.

All right.

All right, thank you.

Uh next one after that is the let's say I know the Sunland Visitor Center.

Yep.

And then we can kick them out so you can go to Cottonwood.

Thank you, thank you.

Um, before I forget begin the Sunlight Visitor Center, um, I did let city staff know that Cindy passed away a couple of weeks ago.

And so we we we take very much honor what she's done at the visitor center.

We didn't change much at the visitor center, but we are gonna be changing some some stuff in honor of her.

Um so the visitor center is there to promote the regional image of all the visitors that that come through.

Um what was interesting is always we all I always like to mention is the 1987, the Arizona City and the Eloy Chamber founded the visitor center on Sunland General, and that's where it gets the name Sunland General, Sunland Visitor Center.

Um it's we the chamber of commerce has taken over it since August of 2022.

Uh Sunland is seeking 19,800, which pretty much what they got the past couple years.

Um the marketing for us, um our biggest thing is the day trips, and that's where we're gonna be changing the day trips to Cindy's day trips because she's the one that put it all together and got it all set up with that and it's very nice because now we're teaching other visitor centers to do day trips and how how they can mimic what we're doing.

And so that's what we we came up with.

We have to name it to Cindy's day trips.

Uh the billboard that that was last year's billboard, and we are gonna be working on another billboard, um, depending on funding, and also if um myself as a chamber and the city, we can get together and start talking about the DMO, and if we can get that going, because the DMO will be available starting in August.

So um what's that?

The direct marketing.

So the city has to approve like the chamber to actually be the be the direct marketer for the city and all the events and anything else that goes on with that, and then we get we don't get funding directly, but we pay half of whatever it is.

So, like the billboard costs us 10,000, the state will pay 5,000 and we pay 5,000.

So we don't again, we don't receive no kind of funding, we just receive a discount right, and they'll send the bill to the chamber and they'll send the bill to the state of Arizona.

Um, but usually our bill, our billboard goes up in January.

This year we'll go up in the fall where all the winter visitors are here, and we'll get stuff going on that attendance at the visitor center.

Um, we had ASU come down and they did a project on the structure of the building and how it the multiple use it was in from the past from when it was a school to a jail to now to a museum and visitor center.

Um so I'm waiting for the report and the the project to come back, and then I go now we'll present it to the council.

Um within the city limits.

Last year we only had 83 people.

This year we had 177.

Um the state of Arizona, we have 1,500.

Last this year we have 2300.

Um travelers from the United States all over the United States was 5,020 last year.

We're at 9,115.

And from other countries, we had two 2300 last year, and this year we have 52.

Our current hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 to 2.

Um, our summer hours start in effect in June 30, June 3rd from 9 to noon, and it will all we'll be open those same days, but it'll just be three hours.

Um, visitor center does for Eloy.

I mean, people stop down, stop by all the time and ask where's the restaurants, even though they pass all the restaurants right there on Talltech and they still want to know where's other restaurants.

Um hotels, that's a big that's a big one that we're getting this year.

Is a lot where is the nearest nice hotel to stay at.

Um what is Eloy known for?

Um, another one or a big one would be housing, like when they want to buy land, want to buy a house, what's for sale, who's the land, who's the local realtors, and so that's what we I mean, that's what they've been doing.

And also um a lot happens when people come down.

What events are we having?

You know, what because they always travel on I 10, they want to know when can they plan in it to come through the events?

Um the visitor center is accredited by the Arizona Office of Tourism and the Visitor Center now.

We work very closely with Explore Panel.

They have it as organization now that's all the visitor centers get together every quarter, and then we talk about what's working for them and what's not working for them, and we see how we can help.

Um so the the only thing that's changed from this year is the ARP program.

We hire seniors, 55 and over, and that are on a set in set income that we can hire them, and AARP pays them.

So we it doesn't come out of nobody's none of our funding, none of our budgets.

ARP in the federal government pays it.

So right now we have two people.

One person is doing almost up to 16 hours a week.

So she goes from the visitor center a couple days and she goes to our office and works the front office for a couple days.

So that's working very well.

We were looking at probably expand that to like five to seven people after the summer.

Um landscape outside of for the ADA.

Uh we we've been getting complaints that you know, people in wheelchairs and walkers cannot go to the color school in the back.

So I mean it's it's it's it's a hard terrain, you know, it's it's a lot.

So we are putting a plan together, and we're trying to fund it ourselves instead of asking the city to because it's a city property, but we're wanting to get city blessing after we get the architect done and everything on it.

Um, and also restrooms, the restrooms in the visitor center museum are old fashioned, old piping.

Um there's sand coming up from the rest of the toilets and everything, so they need to be updated.

And again, that's something that we're gonna take on.

We're just gonna get the blessing from the city for us to do it.

Um, and then I mean again, Sunlight Visitor Center has been around for a long time, and I give kudos to Cindy's and her family for keeping that program going, and now we take on any questions for Andrew on the visitor center.

Andrew, excuse me.

Andrew, it seemed to me that even though the city owns a property that walkway back of the school in the restroom, those might be ripe for some grants.

Maybe the city could help uh you know get some grants to help do that because it with the uh government and what they tend to be wanting funding now, that's those seem like it'd be very ripe for something like that.

Yeah, and we we are looking in that and I can talk to David and them to see if the city can help us on that and too.

Whoever, I mean, we that's what we plan to do is get grants to cover that.

Um, but if we can have the city to look at maybe and they have some other programs that we don't know about.

But thank you.

I'm sorry, I forgot to ask a question about the glow when if I can ask that.

Um, what does how much does the chamber make on the glow event itself?

So I believe I want to say we cleared last year about 32,000 after all said and done.

And that was for the chamber itself after all expenses and all that.

Yeah, we usually expenses a total about 92,000 we raise and after we pay everything off.

Okay, thank you.

Um more comments than questions.

But first, um, I was sorry to hear about Cindy's passing, and really cool that you're doing a shout-out to her on the names of the day trips.

She was an amazing person.

Um secondly, I do feel that there is some confusion sometimes with the name Sunland Visitor Center, even though I realize it has a historical context.

Um something to consider for the future, just because people ask me, Oh, is that on Sunland Gin?

And not displaying they're like, I couldn't find it, I went down there, and I definitely know it's anecdotal, but I've heard that being a point of confusion.

Um, the other thing to consider, and I'm sure you're considering this as just a matter of funding and availability of volunteers, but people you know want to go there on Saturdays, right?

Maybe even more than Mondays.

But it definitely there's a lot of people driving through and tourists coming and people coming to the skydiving center, and then saying, what else can we do?

Where else can we go?

And you know, people said, Oh, there's a visitor center, but then you know they go there and oh, it's closed on Saturday.

So just something, a couple of points to consider.

Yeah, and actually, we're actually talking about that today about talking to the board and see if we can change the name to the Eloy Visitor Center because it is getting very confusing.

Even when I go to conferences, they don't they don't know that it's eat from Eloy.

They think it's somewhere else.

Um, but I will bring that up to the board.

My president's back there, so she heard.

Um especially if you're gonna do the thing where you get funding from the state and we have to you know approve it and all that.

It would make sense if it was called Eloy Visitor Center.

Right.

Thank you.

So I have a question.

How do you separate the visitor center to them from the museum?

Because they're kind of both in the same building.

So right now the visitor center employees and volunteers, they do the whole shebang.

They do the the walkthrough with everybody that comes in through the visitor center if they want to see the museum, they can go right through.

It's they we have the doors open now.

In the past they had them all shut.

So now we have them all open, so that's an easy walk through.

Um for operating reasons.

We have the visitor center is a 511 C6.

Museum is a C3, two different bank accounts, two different budgets, and uh our board sees all three of them at a meeting.

So we go through every single one of them separately.

So they're run separately, but they're managed by the chamber.

Okay.

So would that funding go to both of them into both coffers or just one?

Just the visitor center.

Okay.

And so where do you where is the money goes to the museum come from?

Oh, yes we we asked for when we do fundraisers for the museum.

Um historically they've never asked the city for funding.

Because they did their own, like Yeah, they have their own banquets and stuff like that.

And this year we did ask for funding from the county for the museum.

So we're waiting on to hear from that from the county.

Okay.

Because that's the only organization out of us that went to the county.

Okay.

But other than that, we we we do a lot of fundraisers for like the just the most recent one was the steak fry.

Yeah.

And that was a that was a big hit for us.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Anybody else?

Dave.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, on the piggybacking off councilwoman uh Curtis's comments.

Can we also look at renaming the African American school?

Something more appropriate.

Yes.

Perhaps uh somebody in our community of the descent that we could honor as part of that renaming process.

I think we had that conversation once we did, yeah.

And um, I had the lady who's the let me see if I get this right.

N-A-Dou N A C P A C from Aricopa.

But I asked her when I asked her, can I what do you guys think if I change the name from what we call at the color school?

And she was like, Don't change it.

Don't change it.

She was like, that's history.

So I was like, okay, but we can get together, and we'll get I'll get a little committee in town and we'll see.

That'd be great.

I would just I just think in you know, being culture appropriate.

Maybe we can sell that out to other folks instead.

Okay, yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Any other questions?

No.

All right, thank you, Andy.

Thank you.

Safe travels.

Thank you.

All righty.

Next up, we're going to have Ed and the Hope Coalition.

There you go, Ed.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and City Council members.

Um, Pastor Ed from the Hope Coalition, um, Eloy Food Bank.

And we've been on operation since 2018.

It was founded by myself.

I'm the president CEO.

And Rafael Balta is the vice president of the Hope Coalition.

It is a total separate entity of the church, even though it is housed in the church.

It is a tenant of the church, and I need to make that clear that it is totally separate entity.

Um I guess I got the Hope Coalition is a hundred percent volunteers.

There is no paid staff.

It runs completely from donations and grants, and um, it does have two other entities that run under the Hope Coalition, and that's the Eloy Food Bank.

Um, last year we distributed with some of the other programs that we have um over 28,000 meals last year, and some of those are the summer feeding program, which we get funding in different uh areas for that, and then we have a senior um funding that we do for senior bags and and senior food.

So all together it was 28,000, but the food bank itself was about 16,000 meals uh just through the distribution.

Um and the Blossoms of Hope is under there as well, and that's a two that's the Tool Tech School's after school program.

Uh, we did just start a small thrift store at the church.

Um, it's again it's it's its own separate entity of the church, and that's to help raise money.

And yes, it does have a business license in there in so um the grant request the way we we wrote it is because um food banks during that time of year, there's three times a year that there's a higher volume of people coming into the food banks, um, and those are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and in the spring around the Easter season.

Um typically our distribution is about 120 families per time that we do it, and it's twice a month that we do it, so that's about 240 families, and we also do about 40 emergency food boxes each and every month.

Um during those three times of of the year, we that we requested our volume increases by just around 65 percent.

So it goes up to right around 200 families that come in and um for food uh during that time.

So that's why the request was was made that way.

Um some of the other programs that we have are the summer feeding program, which is going to be starting very soon.

Uh that's for children 18 and under.

Again, the senior uh food that's for residents over 60.

They receive extra food during the distribution um at the food bank.

We do student backpacks.

Again, that's extra food for children when we're doing our regular distribution, the emergency food boxes.

We do peanut butter and jelly sandwich sack lunches for the homeless, and then we do a summer water distribution.

So some of the funding sources that we had this last year year was Next Air Energy.

We're not sure if that one's going to come back up.

Sunscapes RV Park, Sunt Corporation, Core Civic, and some other sources total last year with donations and grant work requests.

We were at $22,000, and that's with the city funding that we had last year of $5,500.

So what happens if we don't get the city funding?

We're gonna have to cut.

Again, with Next Era in the city, that was about half of what our budget was last year.

And we're working on other ways to raise money.

Like we're in talks with Andrew and them about doing a street fair and car show in October to bring people into the city again.

So other ways of doing it.

In March, we're looking at putting another one again in March to do the same thing.

And then concerts like we're putting one on here at the over at the church grounds on the 18th.

Um, and those proceeds will go directly to the Hope Coalition.

So any questions.

Thank you.

Anyone?

Yeah.

Do you have any uh gut feel of how much of your food distribution is to EA residents as opposed to maybe people outside of Eloy?

So I I'll tell you this that at least 90% of everything that we distribute is residents of Eloy.

Um we do get a few out of Arizona City and some from Coolidge, but that's so minuscule, but mostly everything's within the city limits of Eloy.

So I mean I could I could pull up a report and find exactly where it's at, but it's about 90%.

Anyone else?

Andy?

No.

I see the uh 28,000 meals.

I just want to say that it's very commendable, and thank you.

Thank you.

About how many students do you see during the summer program?

It ranges.

Um last year we were seeing about 50 students a week coming over and picking up food for the week.

Um this year we're hoping to ramp that up.

We have enough food for at least 150 students uh to come over.

So within the first three weeks, we gauge that, and if it if it you know, slow if it's really slow, then we have enough to run through the rest of the time.

So um, but we store it there at and it has its own separate area within the the food bank area where that food's stored.

So we were we're we're working with Angela and a Lewis elementary school district to make sure that people know that it's there.

So this this funding uh the request is six thousand, I believe.

Yes.

That'll go for food distribution.

Food, yes, totally food.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Got that cleared up.

Thank you.

All right.

Appreciate you.

All right.

All right.

Next up, we're going to have Penal Alliance for Economic Growth and CAREDIF.

Here you go, sir.

Thank you.

Mayor and members of City Council, thank you very much for this opportunity to be with you today.

Tell me to uh today you get a two-fer for me, and uh my name again is Jerry Stapley, and I am the uh chairman of our advisory board for the reading program.

So the two four we get for me today is both the Panama Alliance for Economic Growth and the uh and the AERP Reading Program.

So Panel Alliance uh builds uh helps build strong communities by supporting regional uh infrastructure needs, such as the uh successful uh program to widen interstate 10 and other regional roads uh and other foundational items for economic growth, such as water, energy, and telecommunications.

Uh the alliance also collaborates with economic development teams uh such as the one you have here in the city of Ulay on strategic solutions and strengthen manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and other basic industries uh for our for our county and for the and for the city.

We also work at developing our workforce through educational initiatives.

One of those is Career Expo, where we get together with high schoolers and present to them the various career paths that they can choose and that will allow them to either stay or come back to Panama County after they've gone away to university to work here in Penau County.

And lastly, is the ARP Experience Core Chief Panel program, which I'm going to talk about a little bit here for you.

And the reason that this program is part of Penel Alliance is because reading tutoring, and that's what we do is reading tutoring, is an economic development tool.

There are 300, there are not three, but 30,000 high paying jobs that exist or are coming to Banal County that will require reading and analysis skills.

And of course, Lucid is just one of those, one of those employers.

We focus on reading because first children learn to read, then they read to learn.

And being able to read by the end of third grade is really the critical milestone in a child's future success.

So children who cannot read well by the end of third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma.

They're also more prone to engage in in behaviors such as truancy and aggression only because they don't know how to read.

They see other people can read.

Why can't I read?

And so they they fall behind in their schooling.

There's a progress meter for third grade reading statewide.

Our goal for the state is to have 72% of our students reading at grade level.

The state said 46% in Penal County were 33%.

And remember that this is the crucial milestone.

This third grade reading is the crucial milestone.

So experience score in general is it's a nationwide program where we focus on uh literacy for children who are 1.5 years below grade level to become strong graders by readers by the end of third grade.

Uh so it's not for special education, it's for the kids, it's for mainstream kids that are just falling behind or taking a little bit of extra effort to to get up to the point of their of their classmates.

So we improve reading ability of students by building fluency and fluency is basically reading at the pace at which you speak.

Uh and reading fluency is a strong indicator for uh comprehension and overall reading ability.

We started in June of 2020 and began tutoring in November of 2020, uh, and we began virtually because um nobody was doing anything together in November of 2020.

We started off in Scottsdale Elementary School District with three schools, 60 volunteers, and 94 students.

And uh that was four years ago.

Our results after four years is that we've we have tutored a total of 621 students, and uh we don't have the grades yet for last school year, but uh but school year 22, 23, 73% of the students progressed an entire grade level in their readings, 73% and entire grade level.

As a comparison, when you compare us to the other programs in the AARP system, and there's there's about 45 of them nationwide.

Uh 62% of the students grew one half grade level.

So we're doing twice as well as as the as the rest of the country is doing in the AERP program.

Uh I put this in, this is our end of the year celebration for our students, and I put this in to show the bond that is created between the student and the tutor.

Uh, and that's really the key to this program is the is the students like the tutors, they trust the tutors, and they respond to the tutor, and and will and will work with them work very hard to to uh to to make the tutor uh proud of them.

And um every student I've ever tutored is just done a great job.

Absolutely a great job.

So for the future, for our next school year, it'll be our fifth year, uh, we're playing on eight districts.

Again, we started with Casa Grande.

Uh in our third year, we added Coolidge and Stanfield.

Last year we worked with Eloy Elementary, Toltec Elementary, GL Comes Unified, Maricope Unified, and Apache Junction Unified, and started tutoring in those places.

This year we we we're taking that uh that that bedrock, that uh that that base that we formed, and are going to expand upon that and really start to tutor more students.

Uh we're looking at serving 23 schools in this coming in this coming year.

We serve 13 schools last year, and we'll need between 115 and 130 volunteers.

We are we have 86 signed up so far, and we have 29 potential volunteers, and we're working very hard.

We have a staff person who's focused on on finding volunteers for us, uh, full-time recruiting and retraining and retaining volunteers to act as tutors.

Uh we do it in person and virtually.

And the reason I mention that is because if you know anybody who lives anywhere in the United States who might who like who likes working with kids and can use a computer and is comfortable using a computer, they can tutor with us.

We start in October tutoring and go all the way till April or May.

So if any of you know anybody again across the United States, let me know and we can contact them.

We we have a rural model here, but we are different than any other program in the United States in our reading program because most of them are based in big cities.

If they serve a rural area, it's from a big city to a rural area.

So they so they have more financial options.

For example, the city of Tempe, uh City of Tempe uh funds five positions for their program.

Um and um and it pays for everything for those the staff people they're they're on city staff.

Uh our cities are not large enough to be able to do that.

Um, but we do still ask our our cities and our school districts to participate in the program.

And you can see from this this chart here, uh about 20% of our funding in the blue there comes from school districts and municipalities or supervisor districts in our case.

80% comes from grants, donations, and and events that we that we might hold.

And with that, I'd say thank you very much for your consideration uh for funding uh both of these both of these programs.

And I look forward to any questions you may have.

Thank you, Jerry.

So you're looking at the reading program for 2,760 dollars?

Yes.

And had do you have a commitment from the school districts here in Eloy?

Yes.

We just okay.

So what happens if there's an Eloy child that doesn't go to the Eloy school, maybe goes to a charter school or goes to a Nova school district.

How does how can you help that child out?

We are focused on uh other school districts are again we're serving eight school districts, so they may be covered in one of the other school districts that that they're that the child may be going to.

We have focused on on our public schools largely because the the need is greatest in in the public schools.

Uh charter schools have the option of um not taking the student if they decide that the student isn't really making make meeting their academic standards, and often we'll send them back to the public school.

So the need is greater in the public schools, and that's why we focus on them.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anybody else have any questions?

No?

What's that?

You covered mine.

Okay.

Yeah.

I guess I'm confused because I saw funding from $5,000 to Penelope Alliance.

Penal Alliance, and then and then an additional funding for the reading program in particular.

Okay, I didn't see that, I guess.

Yes, yes.

So the funding for Penel Alliance would be 5,000.

Yeah.

Um, and then the reading program would be 2,760.

And that's for both uh Toltec and uh elementary?

Both both districts, or is that shared between the two?

Shared between the two.

Yep.

So you have a commitment from both school districts to do this?

Yes, we do.

How much are they putting in on it?

Uh, the school we asked the school district to contribute twice what the municipalities do.

So Teltech would put in 60, 6,000 or something like that, or it depends on the number of students they have.

I don't remember exactly how many students were looking at at each of the schools, but yes, they they will contribute uh twice of what the the city contribution is.

Gotcha.

Okay.

All right.

Any other questions?

Mr.

Stape, do you uh use a specific program in the tutoring or how is that working?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Uh I didn't I didn't really want to take a lot of time to go through the program itself, but the program uh is is is highly developed by AERP.

Uh and uh it consists of uh we spend one half hour with each student twice a week, and it consists of a number of steps that we go through.

Uh the main the main body is we work on what they call A to Z readers, and these are um these are our are uh small book small books that uh that this the student um is is tailored to to where the student is at in their in their growth, goes all the way from kindergarten up to fourth grade, and we use repetition to help them to uh to uh understand new words uh and uh repeat those words again and again uh to help to help make sure that they can keep them uh in their mind.

Uh and it works very, very effectively.

Yeah, I I had a student that went from seven words per minute to 65 words per minute.

So it can be very effective.

Okay.

I've used A3C in my classroom, so I've heard about that one.

And where is the tutoring taking place?

I'm sorry, can you print that?

Where is the tutoring taking place?

Ah, it takes place in the class in the in the school, and uh typically the schools can set aside a classroom for us.

We most of them can.

Sometimes we have to do it on in the hallway, uh, depending on how full the school is.

Uh but typically we like to be in a classroom where we can do it.

Thank you.

All right.

No, no, hearing that.

Thank you, Jerry.

Thank you very much.

All right.

And I just wanted to clarify as well, we rounded that number up.

So instead of the twenty 2760, it's just 2800 flat for them for the care diff for the reading program.

So the next four presentations, we don't have PowerPoints for them.

So they're just going to come up and they're gonna speak before Mayor and Council.

They may have handouts or anything else that they want to distribute as well.

So we will have the CDLU group come up.

McKinsey, do you have the updated coming up on our civic clerk for some reason?

The file.

Yeah, we just all had one then.

Hi.

Hi.

Yes, go ahead.

Okay.

Good evening.

My name is Latisa Triangle.

I'm the president of the CDLU Codes de Latinos Fiesta Patrias, and this is Vice President Yuvi Casaris.

Um is not only brings the recognition of the city of Eloy as their premier sponsor, but it also provides an opportunity for the city to showcase its vibrant culture and community spirit.

The event takes place in downtown Eloy, tracking a device group, diverse group of attendees from Pernal County, Phoenix, Tucson and beyond.

It is a celebration that everyone looks forward to each year.

In addition to providing exposure to the city, the Eloy Festival Patrias also has a significant economic impact on local businesses.

Visitors spend money at restaurants, shops, and other establishments within Eway.

Resulting in increased tax revenues for two days.

This signature event continues to grow annually with high caliber entertainment options, making it a must-attend occasion for both locals and tourists alike.

To ensure the success of this primary event, we include advertisements and promotional materials in our social media campaigns, flyer distribution, and poster displays around town and our local newspaper.

With these efforts combined, the Eloy Fiasopatrias will continue to be an improved, an important tradition cherished by generations, past, present, and future.

And our goal is little by little every year try to expand it further down Main Street.

So this year we're kind of expanding it on both sides, about a block.

Um trying to get more vendors, things like that.

And it's also a free event for the community and outside.

Okay.

Sorry.

And the 15, you you guys are increasing it from 10 to 15.

Would we still be able to earmark that for entertainment?

Yes.

As we did in the past, which I think has been a hit.

Yes.

With some of the entertainment that has come to our community.

Yes.

So would we still be able to do that?

Yes, it will totally go to Saturday night's meeting.

The main band?

Yes.

Okay.

And the reason why we asked for the increase is due to the increase of prices for the entertainment, especially even our DJ, but mainly for the entertainment, the main entertainment, they have all increased.

Okay.

Are you guys putting in on some of that as well?

So it's the 50 or 10,000 plus whatever you guys put in on there?

Yes.

Okay.

So a lot of like the 15 will go to the main event, but we still are going to cover the extra because there is more that will be needed to be paid for it.

Okay.

Anyone else have any questions?

Do you guys do any fundraising during the year as well?

We didn't get a chance to this year, but next year we are already planning for a Mother's Day prom to throw for um the you know, they have the father-daughter down, so we thought a Mother's Day prom would be pretty nice.

Okay, gotcha.

Well I I don't know.

I don't have any questions.

I know I'm always up on the stage dancing and trying to try and teach me Spanish on the on the room.

It doesn't work very well, but I've always thought that the Saturday, well, both Friday and Saturday nights, the entertainment's always been amazing.

And um it does pack the park, and so um you know it is one of the signature, if not this signature event for the for the city.

So um, yeah, I know the costs are going up everywhere.

So yeah, you guys do an amazing job.

Thank you.

I just can't dance no more.

I'm on still the show.

So the questions, thank you.

All right, next up we will have Rosie with EDSCI.

To the honorable mayor, council members and ladies, my name is Rosie Coriel, and I am with uh EDSEI and back to the patch.

ELOR Division for self and community improvement.

Yes, great.

BTTP is back to the patch.

We have been doing this going on 40 years now, started in 1992.

Again, 2003, again, 2014, and now 10 years later, 2024.

It takes about 10 years because there's so much work involved.

We have sent out over 412 invitations.

Now this we're here to ask our request is for $3,000, and to weigh the fees, in con service.

Uh are there any questions that you need to ask me about this event?

It is uh three days, three days event, and it's four events in the three days.

Friday, Saturday, we have two.

We have uh we're we're having things at the park, and then that Saturday night is the banquet, and then Sunday we'll have a musical uh September the first, closing out with a musical.

So this is a community-wide event.

Yes, it is.

We are calling all Elians back that worked here, lived here, went to school here, graduated here, or have contacts here.

It is open to all the cities and all the states.

It's a community-wide event for everybody.

Okay.

Questions?

Questions?

No.

You still got more time?

Oh, I have a question.

I dance or what?

I'll ask you a question.

Sounds like a great idea.

How how do you normally promote this so people really get the word that this happened?

Because it sounds like a uh a great uh endeavor.

Yes, it is, and we go through social media and uh emails and mailing out packets to everybody and word of mouth, and it's catching on.

Uh uh, you heard the phone ring a few minutes ago, and I'm sorry about that, but people are calling me all the time.

It's ready.

So that's we're doing the advertising later on.

We'll be putting it in the newspaper also.

And what type of I'm excited, I'm looking forward to seeing everybody.

All of you guys there.

So what what what type of in-kind services are you for the 1500?

Okay, so Brian had us do uh a form.

I saw it when you were you had it up there, and uh on that on that form that you all should have had received, there were in-con services that we that we submitted.

It's 1500 is what they require that's for street closures.

Was it the in-con service?

Total.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, we okay.

You guys have that, right?

Uh, just whatever he told us right now.

So roll closures, barricades.

I'll give you a copy if you need a copy.

I know there's a lot of caches on the council package of this.

Yeah, it's in our package, it's just not coming up on the civic clerk right now, so that's why we got this.

And of course, you did I say I want you guys the co-sponsor?

I think that's what we're here for.

All right, then I appreciate the invite and the speaking uh opportunity too.

So thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

All right.

Well, thank you, Ms.

Rosie.

That's it.

That's it.

Shoot, I thought I was gonna be happier.

Look at she goes, she goes, You giving me three minutes, you know I could talk.

I said, Thank you, Ms.

Rosie.

All right, next up, and I don't know, is there anybody here representing Penal Hispanic?

Ralph is unable to make it here to event this more or uh situation this afternoon, and he's not here to present.

Okay.

Did we want to just give like a brief on what they're requesting for?

Yeah, if you could.

Yeah, so the Penell Hispanic Council slash Veterans Center, they are requesting.

Let's look here.

I think roughly $2,700, and that's for the Emoy Veterans Parade and the wreaths across America.

And typically both of these events they support roughly 450 veteran families in Eloy, so they've been super successful events throughout the community for the past several years.

Um I'm obviously not here representing them, so that's all I have.

But any questions on their funding?

No.

No, thank you.

Yeah.

And then the last but not least, we have this sparrow campaign.

So Violet.

Good evening, uh Council members, mayor.

I'm the CEO and director of the Sparrow campaign, and I requested for two events in Eloy.

The first one is the Steps of Love Suicide Awareness and Prevention Walk.

This year it's going to be held September 7th at um 6 p.m.

at the Santa Cruz Valley Union High School.

I've already secured the uh facility application and the special event insurance as well.

Um this event is a community support event, the event for the family and friends of those who are lost to suicide.

This entails a short walk around the track, and uh more importantly, a vigil for the loved ones lost to suicide.

Um those that decide they want banners made for their loved ones.

Um are usually well, so this last year we had several banners made, and the city's funding helps support uh sponsor those banners.

So depending on the size of the uh um of the people attending, um, I'm hoping to buy secure some battery rapid candles, the hand size candles so they can hold during the vigil song, and the families who chose to have banners made will be able to place the purple flower at the foot of those banners.

This event also allows for the uh the organization to provide resources to the community, such as information for counseling, cycles of relief, suicide awareness, facts and suicide, facts about suicide about and how we can promote proactively start to look for signs total with the situations and causations of suicide.

This is still a developing um thing in our society in which there is no um uh one size fits all answer for the situation, and um I feel like this also allows us to network up the families who decide to show up, and we can network with them and hear their stories and together start also looking at those signs.

Unfortunately, the signs don't usually show up, or we don't recognize them until after it's too late.

So the amount that I uh specifically requested for this event was a thousand dollars, and it was it's to cover cost of memorial banner shirts and uh whichever exhausts um that amount.

The other um event is the Eloy uh uh 5K, the Heroes Against Hunger Walk Run, which is gonna be held October 12th, and um it'll be at the main street park, and the average attendance and spectator with the average attendance that includes spectators, volunteers, and participants is approximately 155 people.

So this is a community event that supports CARA, the Santa Cruz Valley Food Pantry.

This um food pantry helps many existing pantries within the city and around and the surrounding areas.

All the proceeds from this event or for this purpose.

The event also promotes a health and wellness avenue for the community as a whole, as we have participants registered from out of the state, and several years ago we had a few out of the country.

Last year the amount requested was a thousand dollars, but due to the coverage of the barricades is why it's three thousand this year.

And that's it.

That's what you are you requesting four thousand for both events or four thousand for it's a total of four thousand, but only a thousand for the steps of the love walk that covers the memorial banners, the shirts, and um the three thousand is for the 5K.

Gotcha.

Okay, that makes sense.

Anyone have any questions?

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

We got Cara?

Yeah, that's the last one up.

I was gonna ask, is there any representatives here from CARA?

Perfect.

Mayor, Council members, thank you for having me this evening.

My name is Lucy Rangel, and I am the interim director for CARA as uh our beloved Mary Lou has decided to finally retire.

I am here this evening to speak to you on uh two programs that we are requesting funding for.

Um of them is our um utility assistance and rental assistance for the city residents for the city of Eloy.

Um the other is for the Santa Cruz Valley Food Pantry.

CAR provides all the services available to Eloy and its limited income citizens.

We believe that Eloy families, their children, and elderly shouldn't feel comfortable in their homes in the summer and winter, whether their homes are rented or owned.

We believe they should have working utilities and appliance and have nutritious food and be healthy and happy.

CARA is well known throughout Penell County as an agency that is available to help when it's needed, whether it be for lack of income, food, utility or rental assistance, or during a crisis, like a power outage.

In recent years, staff has opened up its lobbies as a hydration and cooling station.

CARA has also purchased water and provides it to the police and fire departments in Penau County and other entities that provide services.

The staff works with many partners, including agencies, public officials, businesses, and above all else volunteers.

The volunteers at the Santa Cruz Valley Food Pantry donated a total of 3,129 hours to the food distribution.

In the fiscal year 2023, the agency provided all categories of assistance to 140 Eloy households that had 418 individuals for a total of 1,017, 579.

And excuse me.

Last fiscal year, the pantry provided 11,211 emergency food boxes distributed to 8500 households, then made up of 27,000 individuals.

This included 293,000 pounds of food.

Families with babies and toddlers received 99 over 99,000 diapers and households with an individual needing incontinence and supplies received over 18,000 products.

Four homes were weatherized in alloy and six home received minor home repair program.

The funding requested tonight from the city is 10,000, with 5,000 for the utility assistance and 5,000 for food products for the food pantry.

CARA staff will assist a minimum of 15 households with utility assistance with a focus on water, sewer, trash, and as the agency has very little funding for these services.

The agency will use the remaining 5,000 to purchase food that will go into food boxes, emergency food boxes, and also uh provide um food boxes for the homeless or the food bags for the homeless that have the pop top cans as many of these households to are not able to cook.

Um this amount will help 125 families and focus in on three homeless individuals that are living around the Eloy area.

Do you have any questions?

Questions?

Michelle?

Thank you.

I just have one question.

So on the um funding history, it mentions um last year you had $10,000 um requested was the award amount, but only so far $2100 of that has been spent, and we're only a month and a half away from the end of the budget year.

For the utility assistance or for their food.

Um it says for car.

Am I reading this line item right?

Right?

Yes.

Okay.

So yeah, I guess I don't know for sure, but it says we gave you $10,000 this past year, and it's showing spent as of 429 of 24 um $2,115.69 out of that.

I was not made aware of that, but I know for the food pantry portion that I have spent the total of $5,000.

I will find out from the utility assistance, because I know that we have families that have come through and have asked for assistance for that.

But I will find out.

Maybe it's something we have to you need to make sure you've requested the reimbursement back from the city back I'm not sure that we have it.

I will check with our fiscal office.

I just want to make sure if we're giving you this money that is getting to our city.

It is getting spent, trust me.

I'm really good at spending it.

I know.

Just making sure.

Thank you, Lucy.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

No?

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, Sarah has a question.

So I just see Brian shaking his head there in the audience.

So if you haven't received the request for payment and they think that they've spent it, there's obviously a disconnect there, so we need to work that out.

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor, members of the council of Vice Mayor Curtis's.

Yeah, we the amount of money that uh was mentioned is all we've gotten from CARA for reimbursement.

So if they've spent more, we have not gotten that uh reimbursement yet.

All right, thank you.

So that's all we have.

Besides that, I just wanted to thank all the community partners for coming out here and presenting on your organizations or your events.

I know it's not easy to come up here and speak in front of Mayor and Council.

Even I get nervous, so appreciate you guys.

Unless there's anything from Mayor and Council that they want to just to go back, we're total request amount is 114,000 five dollars.

Correct.

Okay.

That's if we fund everything as as recommended.

As recommended.

Recommendation, yeah, yeah, recommendation.

So yes, okay.

Thank you.

All right, well, that's going to conclude uh the work session right here.

I think we need like a five 10 minute break.

Um, do a 10 minute break, and then we'll start our um normal um council meeting.

So uh thank you all, and we'll go up to recess for 10 minutes.

Thank you.