Does anybody else have an opportunity to sign the um form to speak from the appearances?

And if it is regarding a item on the agenda, I'll give you an opportunity to speak at that time as well, too.

So evening everybody, welcome to tonight's Eloy City Council meeting.

It is Monday, September 23rd, 2024.

The time is about 6.08.

I call this meeting to order.

If I can get a roll call, please, Miss Mary.

There we go.

Councilmember Sutton.

Peter.

The mic is on.

Oh no.

Let's turn that one.

Go ahead.

Okay.

We're good.

Yes, yeah.

I swear you guys, it's normally not like this, so we just it will get better, I promise.

Here council member Wana Wata Rodriguez.

Here.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Here, Mr.

Powell?

Here.

Councilmember Snyder?

Here.

Councilmember Garcia?

Present.

Council Member Trango.

Here.

Thank you.

If we can all stand for a moment of silence and continue standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

And to which it stands.

Liberty and justice for all.

Good job.

I got that.

I got it over here, Steve.

I believe both of these are regarding the solar projects that are coming forward.

Did you guys want to speak at that time?

I'll allow you guys to speak at that time if you want.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

All right, council.

Anybody on council have any uh announcements?

Start on this side, Andy.

Just want to say, had a great time at the Fiesta Patres.

It was a really well together, well-organized event, and I'd like to give a shout out to Paul and his people for two days having that park in impeccable condition.

Thank you very much, sir.

Silvia Sarah?

Just wanted to let all of you know that there's going to be a film showing at the Tucson Film Festival.

It's called Space Cowboy.

And it's basically uh autobiography, biographical um a biography of a skydiving cinematographer named Joe Jennings.

And what might be of interest to the Eloy populace is most of the movie is shot in Eloy.

It sort of goes back and forth between past and present.

And some of the past scenes are in the 90s and 2000s in Eloy, and almost all of the modern scenes are in Eloy.

So and there are a couple of Eloy people that are in the movie.

I won't say who.

But it's about skydiving.

It's about a really cool skydiving photographer.

And I think anyone who wants to see it, it's on Friday, October 11th at 8 p.m.

at the Fox Tucson Theater.

And you can go to the Tucson Film Festival website and purchase tickets there.

All right, thank you.

Anyone to say?

Michelle?

Jose?

No.

Yeah?

Well, I must be starting to have a bad week because I've got three things in my mind tonight.

The first one, I think it has to do with the water tower.

It seems like this cheese keep pushed out, pushed out, pushed out.

And I remember about a month ago, we maybe two weeks ago, we were ready to start uh trenching, and now I think I just saw something this week that okay now we're getting somebody to maybe start trenching.

And it seems like one of the consultants we were talking to said he thinks he needs to be done by the holidays.

And it's kind of unfortunate because we just had Fiesta, we've got an Eloy Glow coming up.

We've got the uh tree lighting with a Christmas parade, and that's all before the holidays.

And I guess it really we have so many people from the outside coming to Eloy, and it really it's uh disheartening to see that we've had over a year that we we can't get this uh water tower situation resolved.

So I'm not sure where the where it is, but from my point of view, I'd like to ask staff if they could put together a Gantt chart of what needs to be done yet and present to council, maybe the next council meeting of just what the timing for these different things to be sure we can hold some people's feet to the fire to be sure it gets done before the holidays for the Christmas lighting, if that could be possible.

I know it's different entities involved.

I know we have to do trenching and some wiring, but it'd be nice to have a uh a project plan, a gant chart of just when all these things are happening, so they kind of run uh in parallel so we be sure we get those things done if it's possible.

Uh the second thing, it has to do with the 75th anniversary.

Uh in December, Eloy will be celebrating the 75th anniversary.

Uh and this should be a celebration of the public for the public for the residents.

Yet at this point in time, the end of uh September, being on council, I am totally unaware of any plans being made.

Nothing's been brought forth to council.

We haven't said anything to anybody in the public of what's happening.

I do know we have some uh displays of pictures in the lobby and hope people are going to look at those, but that's part of it.

But I think there needs to be some better coordination uh with the public, with council, so we have a true celebration, and everybody can celebrate the 75th anniversary and not just have it say, okay, we're gonna have it as this week and and well, what's this?

We don't think about it.

So could uh someone from staff uh at the next uh uh council meeting bring us up to date on what the plans are and what is happening from relative to the 75th anniversary because we are totally in the dark on it at this point in time.

And the last thing, and let me get to my I guess uh there's a uh simulation, or not simulation, but a uh a practice drill or a uh I guess uh can't think of the word, but uh we have the Indian Pacific Railroad which runs through Eloy and through a major portion of two tracks a lot of trains a day.

And one of the things that disturbs some of the people out at Robeson, the ranch where I live, is what happens if there's a derailment?

And what's the emergency plan and uh you know uh what happened up in East Palestine, uh Ohio, and so people are a little worried about okay, what happens there's a drill.

Uh what's what do I go?

Who who do I contact?

What happens?

And it kind of was brought to light when we had the power outage a couple years ago here.

We had uh a lot of people running around a lot of directions before we had the cooler heads took control and said, No, you stay put, we've got this person doing this, this person doing that.

But anyway, there's a simulation drill this Wednesday morning uh up by Robeson Ranch, uh just be this side of uh someone's in the road, uh overfield road, there's gonna be uh a simulation of a tail to uh uh rail derailment, train derailment, uh, with a possible clothing leak.

And there's a lot of agencies involved in it, uh the county uh and the border patrol and the Bayern Hospital.

But I looked down through the list of people involved in the I didn't see Eloy Police on that.

Eloy Fire was uh that how could we have a simulation of derailment across from Robson Ranch, essentially in the city of Eloy, and we don't have the city of Eloy involved.

Uh no how that could happen.

Because I could tell you for a fact with uh 1,800 homes out at Elo out at the Robson Ranch, and all the people from Eloy go in in uh on Frontier Street, Jimmy Kerr, all the way into Costa Gran in the morning.

Eight o'clock in the morning, you see helicopters and ambulances and fire trucks in that area.

There's gonna be a lot of questions.

A lot of people tend to go off the deep end.

So I would suggest that we put something out on social media, whether it be the fire department's uh website, the police department's website or someplace to let people know that this is a drill and and calm down.

But I think sometimes we do these things, we have to let people know ahead of time, because there is day and age with social media, people go off the deep end real quick and rumors start flying.

So I would appreciate if staff could take care of being sure that we do something on social media to let people know this is happening.

Thank you.

And that is on September 25th that you spoke of.

Um it doesn't say what time.

I'm sure it's in the morning.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

That was a lot, Dan.

Oh yeah, fired up.

All right.

Uh my announcements, yeah.

Um thank you, Paul, and all city staff who helped put the fiestas together with a lot of work.

Thank you, guys.

Um successful, successful weekend.

So uh that's it for me.

I'm kind of easy this week.

So yeah, Dan, you kill my bells, man.

So we are having a meeting with uh two vendors regarding our audio video um stuff.

And our next one, we went to Paradise Valley.

Now we have another one, me and Andy, um, on Monday.

So we're trying to get the resolved because this is very embarrassing uh to myself and probably to my council that we can't seem to have good working equipment here.

So hopefully we can get it done in a timely manner.

So thank you guys for being patient at least.

David, you're up.

Thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor, members of council.

Um, I'm short and sweet tonight.

The only update I really have is on the Hawk signal, which is our pedestrian hybrid signal that's being installed at Main Street in Frontier.

If you recall, it was approved a little while ago.

Um, but you know, to Councilmember Snyder's points, what's going on with stuff?

What's happening?

So we got a project schedule, a Gantt chart from the contractor.

They will be doing uh undergrounding work this coming week.

So next week beginning Monday, October 6th, they're gonna start doing several things undergrounding bore shots, um digging for the pedestals, pouring for the pedestals, and connecting poll boxes.

So we'll see some work on those corners happening right now before they start moving in with wiring, and that's what we have going on for the next about two weeks.

Got all next week and then into the following week.

Um, they'll be pulling wire and doing various activities as well.

So by the end of October, we should be doing some rewiring the of the uh the project the project schedule that was given to us was just for next week and into the following week.

So it's not a full project schedule from the contractor.

Could you get over director?

Uh could you get something further up?

I'd like to see something that when it's gonna be completed, uh so that way we have something to hold people's feet to the fire a little bit rather than say next week, next week, something go more complete.

Well, this is just a two-week look ahead.

So we have a we'll okay full complete schedule from start to finish all the way through.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

All right, all right, thank you.

Next one go to consent agenda.

All items this did with an asterisk are considered to be a routine matter.

It will be enacted by one motion and one roll call vote of the council.

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

Items A, B, C, D, and E.

Does anybody on council like to discuss any of these items?

Hearing none, do I hear a motion to approve?

So I make a motion to approve.

A, B, C, D, and D.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Councilmember Sedley.

Yes.

Councilmember Warwaldo Rodriguez.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis?

Yes.

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder?

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango.

Yes.

The motion pass you, Mayor.

All right, thanks.

We're gonna go to business items.

Uh presentation by Penell County on the half-cent sales tax used throughout Panaw County for roadways and permits, payment preservation projects.

Continuation of the existing house and sales taxes that's on our post.

Okay.

Hold on.

Mayor.

Do you mind if I interrupt for a minute?

Oh boy.

That's working on that.

Council member Slender confirmed with PD that they are having six or seven members there at the tabletop.

So I'm not sure what communication you saw, maybe it was a dated one, but they we will be there.

We will be present and accounted for.

So just wanted to make sure that that was one of the world holes.

Great.

Okay, but we'll work on social media posts as well.

You're welcome.

There we go.

All right.

And if you could just please speak loud, because obviously you can see we're having a little bit of difficulties today.

No, no problem.

Thank you very much for the introduction.

My name is Chris Wanamaker of Now County Engineer.

And thank you for the opportunity to come here and talk about this important proposition, kind of where we're at with it.

So proposition 486 is a continuation of the countywide transportation, road maintenance, and improvement fund.

So a little bit of history, this fund has been in place for the past uh nearly 40 years.

Back in 1986, it was originally passed uh by a 51% majority vote.

It was under uh proposition four hundred, it was set to sunset in uh December of 2006.

Um before that was uh sunset, we went back out to the voters again as proposition 300.

And this time it passed with 73% support.

And this current cycle is expected to sunset in December of 2026, unless the lawyers decide to renew the tax again.

So in May, the Panel County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling for the election, which places this item on the ballot.

Uh publicity pamphlets were nailed out on the 21st.

I don't know if anybody's received them already.

Um yet if not, it should be pretty soon.

And it has all the information about the history of the proposition, what the funds are used for, and of course, statements in support of or not supporting different people around the county.

Uh don't forget election day is November 5th, 2024.

So just some dates to put on your radar.

As I mentioned, the uh pamphlet went out September 24th, and then also for our overseas and military uh uh residents.

Uh they can start their voting a little bit earlier.

Uh the voter registration deadline is October 7th, and early voting begins for everyone else October uh night.

Last day to request a ballot by mail is October 5th.

And again, the election is on November 5th.

So just a little bit about the fund and how the revenues are allocated.

So the Arizona Department of Revenue actually collects the funds and then gives it to the county, county treasurer's office, who then distributes it to each of the municipalities within the county based on the form population-based formula.

So what that means for the city of Eloy.

So this slide will show you uh in budget year 2022-23.

Uh, you received about 1.6 million dollars for the subsequent uh budget year after that, about 1.7 million dollars.

And you're averaging about 150,000 or so per month from this funding source.

So some facts and data about this fund and how it's been used in your community.

And you can see there on the screen uh each budget year.

We did uh 12 and a half miles of payment reservation 2018 to 2019.

Uh and you picked in 2021 and 2022 at 26 miles.

3.1 miles uh complete overlayer reconstruction, and just some other interesting interesting facts here.

Uh seven miles of pavement marking on Frontier Street in 2022.

And this fund is also used for crack seals and uh using asphalt as far as for maintenance purposes reconstruction.

That was that was pretty quick, but it was just to give you an update.

Um there's any questions about about this or where we're at, I'll be happy to try to answer those.

And I think one thing that people need to understand is this is not a new tax, this is an ongoing tax.

That's that's right, exactly.

As said in the slide, it's been in place for nearly 40 years, and so the request is just to continue that tax for an additional 20 years, not an increase, it's just a continuation.

Okay.

Yeah, just a quick one.

These funds are currently population based and not based on the amount of roads that we have.

That's right.

So the population numbers are updated every census, or if if you have a big annexation, I think you can petition the state and they can update the numbers.

Uh I think the last time I was here, I presented a little more detail on that.

So it's population based.

Yeah.

Because we have a we have a large Eloy is extremely large with a lot of lot of roadway surface, and our population is not as condensed as other areas are.

So I think we're getting short changed.

Well, I understand that.

They use our roads.

Everyone else uses your, yeah, they drive through this community again.

Anyone else?

Yeah.

Do you have any clue at this point of where this proposal will be on the ballot?

There's a lot of things going to be on the ballot.

And you know, this could be in the last page.

Any idea where it might be just to alert people to look for it?

Uh yeah, thank you, Mayor, and council member.

I from what I was told it's about in the middle of the packet.

Um, so not near the end or the beginning.

So I don't know as far as letters are concerned, of whether that's good or bad, but I've heard about the yeah, you said the last one passed with what 73% in favor.

That's correct.

Now, what are we doing for this time out there as far as getting message out and with the public to make it to keep those numbers as strong?

Yeah, very good question.

Thank you, Mayor, Councilmember.

Um we've done a lot of public outreach, we've done some videos, we've done uh presentations at all the city uh council meetings, and of course our board for supervisor uh meetings.

I know they were at the Apache Junction Council meeting, I think it was like two weeks ago.

They actually played some videos highlighting some projects that were done with the fund.

Of course, we're engaging people on social media.

We've had a couple town halls, uh specifically in the Santa Valley area, which is where the bulk of the county's population unincorporated is.

So we really want to target that area.

And uh the bulk of what we've done.

And since the election has been called, we've we've kind of stepped back a little bit because as staff, we kind of have to remain neutral at this point, and it's really gonna be up to voters and representing I think with Andy's point.

Now I'm starting to see science, and now how come when you see science start getting questions?

And and a lot of education, you know.

Digit, I'm hearing like digital marketing is probably the best thing right now.

Um, especially if you try to mail out one of those big mailers, they're gonna get trashed like everything else.

Um but I you know I know Panau County's real big on next door and um you know, Facebook, and you can do those geofencing, so um, yeah, a lot of education because people need to understand what well how important it is, what this is, what it is and how important it is.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, and we have a website preserving penale.com, which is uh basically a history of the program, what the funds used for kind of goes into detail about everything we've done with the money over the years, and also just answer questions and highlight proud.

All right, thank you.

Do you have any uh smaller science that people could put in our yards?

You know, I it's one thing to have on the route, and I guess going through the neighborhood, we see uh campaign science, but it'd be nice if you had some campaigns or signs like this to say uh support our roads, proposition 400 people could put it in their yards.

Do you have anything like that?

Thank you, Councilmember.

So we we do not because as I mentioned we cannot advocate as as a county anymore.

Uh of course, on your own, as a politician, council member mayor, for supervisor member, you can state your opinion, but county cannot, so we don't have any of that.

I I can answer that.

Penell partnership is offering 100 of the prop 46 yard signs to be passed out at their breakfast on Friday, the 27th.

Okay.

At the Florence Library.

That can help.

That can help.

So just got that email yesterday.

So great question.

Good timing, Dan.

All right, that's what I'm talking about.

Yes, it is.

If he doesn't know, I know, you know, so yeah.

Any other questions?

Any other questions?

No.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Next, we're gonna go to item B, conduct a public hearing, consider the adoption of resolution number 24-1592.

Um approving a conditional use permit case number C UP 2024-003.

At this time, I call this uh open this up for a public hearing.

Mayor Member Council Dan Simon Community Development Director, yeah, recording as the nurse has indicated it is a conditional use permit for an ATT wireless uh antenna and facilities at the existing uh RV but tower on police station property.

Uh staff recommended approval to the planning commission and commissioner recommended approval to the council.

They ask you this here.

If you have any questions, or if you like somebody anybody in the public will have any questions regarding this item since this is a this is a public hearing.

Anybody on council have any questions regarding that?

Yep.

Do we currently have antennas on these buildings on other providers?

On the on the tower at the police department, I think we do.

Yeah.

No, it's like we already have how many more of these are we going to get?

Is there any there's other ones?

Uh other ones, yes, there are council.

Ultimately we don't want to interfere with our ability to provide incentives on the power um frequencies not issues, but it comes down to how can the how well can the existing structure be table on each application need to do their own analysis and whatever you can make it right now priority on the students with the ours that we have the ability to be co-located.

What I hope I'm not um talking about the wrong provider, but there was supposed to be a large tower um put on Osdorf a row.

This is before your time.

Is this do we know?

Several years ago there was supposed to be one.

Do you remember that?

I think it was ATT too.

So this is the only one in this area.

Do we know?

Is it remembering the council is the only ATT one in the area?

No, okay.

Yeah, go ahead, Andy.

Just as a point of concern, you brought up the weight on that tower.

Hypothetically speaking, let's say that tower takes a takes a fall over in a monsoon, which could really happen.

Do we have any plans in place to get our stuff?

We have any redundancy in place because I know our emergency comms are on that tower.

So do we have another place that we can switch over to that would kind of take up the slack if that thing goes missing?

Mayor uh we do have back end communications.

I'm sorry, Mayor Field.

Yes, Mayor, Council members.

We we do have backward communications as you that we uh is to recast a grant through the rest of the N County Radio portion.

It's just one on it.

Anybody else have any questions?

Council staff public?

I'll go ahead and close this public hearing.

Next one need to read by title only for resolution number 24-1592.

Do I hear a motion to read by title?

So moved.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Hearing a resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Eloy, Arizona, approving a conditional use permit for a wireless facility on the property located at 95 West 7th Street.

All right, thank you.

Do I hear direction of council?

I'll make a motion to uh approve item B, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

That's resolution dash 24-1592.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Sylvia.

Roll call, please.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango?

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder?

Yes.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanaroto Rodriguez?

Yes.

The motion pass unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

You're not going too far, are you, Dan?

All right.

Next, we're going to do adoption of resolution number 24-1593.

Declaring a public record for that certain document filed with the city clerk.

Dan?

Mayor members of council.

This item is the near indicated is a request by staff to create a public record of the stated document, which is declared involved related to the next agenda item.

So that we need not have to publish the entire document with reference to the resolution.

All right, thank you.

Anybody on council have any questions regarding adopting resolution number 24-1593?

If we do this and the someone is interested, and they come to the city clerk for uh copy.

Will they have to pay for that or will there be a time delay and they get that?

How readily available will that be when we do something like this?

Mayor Howard.

Councilmember Schneider, the the document is available immediately.

They would have to submit a public records request for the resolution of ordinance, and then we'll we would email it to the to the requester, or they can come pick it up.

And there is a fee for if it's a paper copy.

So it goes through a records request and then you'd pull it up and then be email.

So the time delay could be a couple days, week?

Um sir, it should be rather immediately because we would have immediate ac access to the document.

We could just pull it up on from laser fish and email it to the to the requester.

I think it's important if we do something like this that it is immediately available, you know, because uh we are trying to help everybody, but I think we have to be very responsive to anyone that's interested in because of it.

So thank you.

And transparent.

Is there a fee for copy?

If they want a copy, they don't want the email.

Would they have to pay a paper fee?

There is a charge for paper copies, but emails uh or electronic um documents we do not charge.

Okay.

All right.

Do I hear a motion to read by title?

Resolution number 24-1593.

So moved.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Okay.

A resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Eloy, Panell County, Arizona, declared as a public record.

The certain document filed with the city clerk entitled First Amendment to the Rancho del Solbrook.

See, that's why I didn't say that because I knew I was going to butcher that up.

All right.

Do I hear a direction from council for adopting resolution number 24-1593?

So moved as red.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Can I get a roll call, please?

Okay.

Councilmember Garcia.

No.

Councilmember Seton?

Yes.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanarota Rodriguez.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

The motion pass six to one mayor.

Thank you.

Next we're going to go to item D, conduct a public hearing, consider the adoption of ordinance number 24-975 approving an amendment of the zoning map case number RZ PAD 2004-018.

Dan.

Oh I'll open this up to a public hearing.

Dan.

Mayor member of the council.

This is directly related to the previous case, but it's more importantly a request to amend the existing PAD retrounte.

Do you allow for solar utility services?

Or is also utility scale solar as an allowed use in the PAD.

Staff has uh recommended approval to the Planning Commission.

And the commissioner has recommended an approval to lead to Council.

Captain is here for their presentation.

So mayor, yours or cameras over to that.

Yes, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

My name is Court Rich.

I'm with the Rose Law Group.

I'm happy to be here today on your behalf on behalf of my client Savion, uh, who's developing this project that you've heard a lot about and that we've been working on for a long time in the city.

And I want to start by thanking your staff who have worked with us for a number of years on this project, and thank all of you and the planning commission who've heard a lot about it and sat through many hearings.

So let me get started and tell you about this and try to take you through it.

One of the things that I'm most excited about is that this is where you told the applicant to put solar.

Where you'll remember a couple years ago, um, you all rewrote the zoning ordinance to try to designate areas that that you thought are where solar should be.

Uh Savion listened, um, and that's that's what they're you know, where they're proposing.

I'll I'll get into that a little bit more.

Um you may remember a couple meetings ago, that little yellow uh spot on the north.

That is uh a CUP that you approved as part of the project.

That's where the substation will go, and it's and some batteries, it's right up against uh the existing uh substation that's there, which again is why all this solar is coming to this area because there's this substation.

Let me tell you really quickly about Savion.

Um I keep telling you you're you all are lucky that you're you're getting you know very high quality uh developers coming to Eloy, and Savion's no exception.

Um they are a division of uh shell, uh large uh large energy company, uh which means they have a lot of resources, and they are they're hoping to engage in the community here and use those resources to the benefit of uh of the city of Eloy.

Um the group that's doing it, it's US based.

Uh they have 31 projects that are um currently in service or under development in the United States.

I'll tell you a little bit more about the positive impact that they're committed, they're already having, and that they're committed to continuing to have on Eloy.

So they have already established um a few years now, and I think they're doing it again this year.

They've been sponsors of the GLO.

Um, one of the cool things that we've been working on, I think it was in one of the council meetings here a few months ago.

One of the cool things that we've been working on, I think it was in one of the council meetings here a few months ago, there was a discussion about the schools, and you'll remember there was a gentleman who came up who is a contractor and talks about how you know we you don't need any skills, you can just start building these things and they'll train you on site.

Well, we heard that, and Savion heard that discussion and went and it's reached out to Crystal at the school district, and then also to Central Arizona College, which mayor was helpful to make these connections there.

And they've identified a workforce training program that CAC has, and we've been working with the high school, we're gonna do some scholarships, the high school seniors, the Savion's gonna do them.

I'm saying we, as if I'm taking credit.

Savion's doing them, I wish I I was, but uh, they're doing that, and so they're really excited about that.

That should be something that's really great for the community.

Um, and so we will train high school seniors so that they are ready to go and can be you know hired not only to work on the projects that are being installed here in Eloy, but around the state and around the country, even because there's more and more of this stuff that that's being built.

So I want to take you through a timeline just because I think it's important how we got here.

Uh, in January of last uh yeah, 2023, um you all began rewriting your your solar zoning ordinance.

Um we would have been here a year or more ago, Savion would have been, uh, but you know, you all pushed pause, so they waited, they went through that that process uh with the city and provided input, and you all redid uh the zoning ordinance at that time, and it was a five-two vote, uh, if you might recall.

And the reason I'm bringing it up is because one of the things that was you know, kind of the I don't know if I'd say it's hotly contested, but one of the things you worked through closely was exactly where this project could be located when it comes back to do what we're doing today.

And you'll remember there was a discussion about kind of what should the setback look like, and you voted on this black line ultimately, which allowed Savion to move forward as you know, it sent the signal to them that they're in the right place and they can move forward with this project.

And so they have.

Um, and since September of last year, when you adopted the ordinance through today and have done a number of things, they have submitted a completed Interconnect Connect application, not a cheap thing to do.

This is working with the utility, they've spent several million dollars on that.

Um, they've exercised more land options moving forward so they can keep moving forward with this project.

They've worked on permitting engineering, just kind of got a list of some of this stuff.

Um they worked with the the uh peacon farmers um next door also and got them to a place where they're comfortable with the project.

In any event, they've done a lot, they've been moving forward.

Um, and among the things that they've been doing is they've been working on getting community and neighborhood support.

And so I think you know, one of the things that I know they're most proud of is the planning commission.

When we went there said, go work with your neighbors, the neighbors that live there, uh, Jose and Pactorango, they're the closest neighbors that live right there.

Um Savion went, and we talked to them many, many times and worked through, listened to their issues, address them, and we have a letter of support from them.

And those are our nearest neighbors that live there.

So we're really excited about that.

Um I think you've got three other letters, at least three from other members of the community in support.

Um the Chamber of Commerce is in support.

We're appreciative of that.

Um I don't have a mention here, but the fire uh district has said that they're supportive of the project and comfortable with it.

Uh, also as Dan mentioned, not only the staff is in support, but the planning commission voted unanimously recommended.

Again, we worked with the deep farmers.

Um let me take you through a few of the benefits of this project to the city, which I think are important.

Um it's a big project, no doubt, but as a result of that, they will be dedicating road right-of-ways and doing improvements in various locations that equal up to 8.3 miles of roadway.

And so that's gonna reduce a lot of dust in the area for sure.

Um I think that's a great benefit to the city.

There's tremendous water savings on this parcel in particular because it's currently farm.

Um, and by not pulling that water out of the water table, there will be huge savings.

Um there's tax benefits to the community, uh, focused mostly on the schools, and indeed, um, the city doesn't ultimately win the biggest off of those tax numbers, but the local districts, including the fire district and the schools in particular, um, get a lot of money out of that.

I touched on the construction jobs already.

I pointed back to a few months ago when there was another guy who builds these projects and talks about how they do hire locally and work with the community to create job opportunities, not just for the local project, but to create the skills to allow people that want you to work in this workforce.

Um there's certainly secondary spending during the construction.

There's a lot of folks that'll be here spending money in Eloy doing good things, and there's the scholarship program that I mentioned also.

So I can say a lot more.

I do see, you know, we have one um member of the public I know who's here who's gonna talk against this project.

The planning commission heard um what he said and still supported the project.

Uh I I'm I feel like he's a little bit confused because at least if he says what he said before, he's gonna tell you as he did in a flyer that he put out to the public that temperatures are gonna go up to 140 degrees in Eloy if you put this in.

Well, we know that that's that's not true.

Um, in fact, if you went to Finale Partnership lately, uh, or the last one, you you saw uh you know the guy, uh professor from uh the University of Arizona who studies this and has you know measured every 10 feet away from solar facilities and finds that there's no measurable increase once you get out 100 feet away uh from a solar facility, so it won't be raising temperatures.

He claims we're cutting down three million trees.

This is farmland.

There are a few trees out there, uh, but we're not cutting down three million trees.

That's not that can't happen.

You have you have to have three thousand acres of trees two feet apart to do that.

So that's just not true.

Um he says nothing can live anywhere near solar facility.

They're growing stuff under solar uh panels these days.

Again, if you were at Panal Partnership, you heard from a professor who's doing just that.

And so um I think he's a little confused about some of the issues around solar.

I I guess I'll just reserve some time maybe to respond if if there's some confusion that needs to be uh untangled.

But I appreciate all your hard work on this and all these projects over the last few years.

Thanks again to staff and all the others that are supportive.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you, Court.

Anybody have any questions for Court at the time?

Well, I just I saw uh some of the work.

The sunshine over, which is kind of cuts this and right in half that's on both sides, is a pretty uh I guess farmers south of this site use that pretty heavily, uh, cod farmers, whatever.

Is there any uh work being done on and I should maybe ask staff this on Sunshine Boulevard in this area?

I know you're doing exhilarated roads around, but what about uh the main road uh sunshine through this area?

Any mayor, uh councilmember Snyder, I'll certainly let Dan correct me if I'm wrong, but your ordinance requires um these projects to improve any road by the way that you're adjacent to.

And so to the extent that we're uh I don't put a map slide up here, but um if if we're on both sides of sunshine, then we'd be improving the full street.

If we're if it's on one side, we'd be improving the half street in pain.

Yeah, it's right through the center.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

So that to the extent that we're on both sides, that will be a full street improvement.

I guess I have a question for Matt because he's public works.

If that is already paved um and improved, what would they have to do to that?

We'd have to look at it and see probably a surface treatment, maybe uh depending on the condition of the pavement.

Would you be a uh full reconstruction somewhere to west circle can be?

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions?

Michelle.

So you guys are actually going to put down asphalt on those roads.

So we are uh I think the requirement is chip to chip seal.

I don't remember if it's double chip.

Double chip seal is what the code requirement is.

Thank you.

Sarah.

Could you give us a bit more details about the scholarship program and how that works?

Yeah, absolutely.

Umoris.

So uh we've identified there's a program uh at CAC where they do workforce training to train electricians to work in the field and it's solar focused or something along those lines.

I can get you more information after I sit down and go back and look.

But each of those we've priced out uh how much that is to send per student.

And so I I know we've worked with um the uh the school district, and they have a program where they will award scholarships or will like get the word out to their folks there.

I know they have a ceremony I think in January where they designate scholarship recipients and give them those opportunities.

So that's what uh that's what we're working on.

Okay.

Thank you, Court.

I'll go ahead and open it up.

So two people signed up from appearances on the floor.

Um last name.

Uh-huh.

Oh.

Okay.

If you could just state your name and your address, so I'm sure one of the microphones can read.

And even though it's it's um technically supposed to be for three minutes, just be respectful to the time.

I appreciate that.

I'll be there one time because I'm presenting a lot of people.

That one property in Eloy.

The city of Eloy.

Not on the outskirts.

So I appreciate it.

A few more minutes because you're allowing him all the time.

And no one has talked on the negatives of the thing.

So I think it's fair for everybody, all the council members to hear what are the negatives of the project is.

I mean, you allow him all the time and he is the years of the project.

You have to remember he's the applicant.

He's representing so I'm hold on.

I'm giving you the opportunity for as a public hearing to state what you need to say.

I'm saying be respectful of our time.

I would have to be to the phone.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate all of your time.

First of all, and I'm representing 40 property owners that are that are requested to be personally to come here.

I'm representing every other resident Eloy that have talked to me.

He asked me to represent them because they don't have time, they're working, and they cannot come here.

I'm representing all the businesses north side of Highway and on Sunshine, and including Mr.

Jim Ma who's at 226 Sunshine.

He presented about two or three uh letters from some uh uh community members or the residents.

I am representing almost 200 people that I talked to first.

I talked to the flying J.

They said, no way a solar farm is coming here.

The city council will never approve it.

They were under the impression that the proposal was scrapped.

I did not get a chance to talk to the people of the owner of the Pican farm, it's a large corporation.

I never got a chance to go.

I talked to the people across the street, which is uh truck wash, and they said it's a very bad idea because we have all the trucks coming in and out.

So they want to build the solar farm right across the street from them.

In the morning time, the sun is going uh to the east, uh, the solar panels are going east, and then in the evening time they're shining straight into the highway, into the sunshine road, where hundreds of trucks coming down on uh Sunshine Boulevard, coming to the flying j and uh coming to the truck, uh all the other uh businesses.

I talked to the home and businesses on sunshine across from the solar, they're building solar, and everything's uh four houses and four businesses that are right across from the solar, and every one of them closes.

I talked to them, I did get a chance to talk to all of them, but I talked to them, two of them, and they said, How do you feel that solar panel is facing you every afternoon or every evening?

And I talked to the uh I sent a note, I mean a letter to all the council members how would you feel if you have a solar panel right in front of your house across the street, and a few of us live in Robson Ranch.

How will you feel if there was a solar panel solar farm on uh frontier?

And uh now everybody's under the impression that the council representing us, and I'm quite sure that the council will not approve it because of all the negatives.

So far, I have not heard a single item that uh the solar farm benefit how it benefits the city.

He mentioned that the city uh the city will get some taxes.

The city will not get any taxes, any taxes compared to if you have commercial development and if you have uh residential developments coming in, city will get at least 10 times more taxes.

Number two is he said they're gonna build about eight eight miles of uh crushed asphalt.

They're not gonna build it all for the on for the public, they're building around their own how to get to around their own uh solar.

Sunshine is only one lane road.

If you were to build a community uh a commercial or residential, sunshine, the where the city will require the developer to build at least four-lane road going both ways, but the solar farm will not do anything on sunshine, and the new developer will build uh roads and bring in the utilities and bring in lights.

So we are doing a disservice to everyone that lives south of south side of sunshine, everybody who has to pass through in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, and pass through the solar panels.

Building a solar panel will kill every single piece of uh development that is a possibility on the south side of Pelo.

And uh ideal use would be a mall, a shopping center, or a residential development.

We could greatly benefit the city of Heloy.

I talked to the uh people at every single business.

I talked to the Napa auto parts, they completely disagree with the solar farm.

They actually put one of my flights in their window.

I talked to the next door uh to the hardware store, they said if we have a development here, this will actually increase our business.

So every single business that is on sunshine disagrees with putting up a farm because it will more or less uh low lower the business versus if there is a development that comes in, it will increase the their business.

And also in new developments are coming up, this area will increase all the property values in this area on the north side of the highway, or north side of the highway.

If new development comes, city will pay attention to everything that is on the north side of the highway, north side of the highway, and you see around.

I mean, you can stand right outside and see all the different dilapidated houses.

And there is beads and there is a lot of code uh uh violations everywhere around the city.

Okay, can you hear that the wrapper about five minutes?

Sure.

Okay.

Um he mentioned that uh they're not cutting down minions that trees.

There's one square mile of trees that they're cutting down.

He already shows there's a farm.

Last time he said they were they're not cutting down in trees, and there's one square mile of trees that are almost 30 foot high.

And I sent all of you guys uh a pictures of the uh farm, the trees that they have their own side.

And they come the only thing they have done so far, and he meant he showed some pictures of balloons, and that he's gonna fly in Eloy that has no benefit to anybody.

They're flying some balloons inside the city.

What is it?

SRP and other major companies that do business here.

Uh the investment community, they invest in uh cleaning up the city.

All right, thank you.

One one last minute.

You're hold on, hold on.

Don't tell me how to run my meeting.

Be respectful.

I agree.

Yeah, I'll give you five minutes, and you don't tell me, give me one more minute.

I'm as I told you, you have five minutes now.

You've been I've given you enough time.

So thank you.

You're you may be seated.

Thank you, sir.

You don't tell me how to run my meeting.

Thank you.

All right, next I got Tom, Lizy.

Lozy, thank you, sir.

Hello everyone.

My name's Tom Losy.

My address is 4355.

Michael's Canyon Cork, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89129.

Um, I just want to thank all of you.

It's been a long haul.

Everybody's been a tremendous amount of work with this.

And uh I just keep it simple.

I would just greatly appreciate all your support this evening.

We can move this forward.

All right, thank you.

Anybody else in the audience like to speak?

All right.

Here now and I'll go ahead and close this public meeting, public hearing.

All right, next we will talk about um adopting ordinance number two four-975.

Yes, sir.

Can I have a motion to read by title for ordinance number 24-975?

So moved.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor say aye.

Uh any opposed?

It's a long one.

Okay.

In the openings of the mayor and city council of the city of Eloy, Panao County, Arizona, approving an amendment to the zoning map, rezoned to modify the existing rancho del Sobra Rolante Planned Area Development PAD.

The purpose of the amendment is to incorporate solar utility scale generation and battery energy storage system facility as an allowed use on approximately 1,584 acres of land.

The site is generally located north of Shea Road, south of Interstate 10, east of 11 mile corner road, and one half mile west of the state highway 87 Barrett Road Alignment, providing for several ability and establishing an effective date.

Thank you.

Do I hear direction of council regarding ordinance number 24-975?

I recommend approval as read.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Councilmember Snyder.

Yes.

Okay.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango.

I'm sure you're not going to be surprised, but no.

No is your answer.

No.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Councilmember wanna water the wardrobe?

Yes.

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

No.

Motion passed by to two mayor.

All right, thank you.

Next, we're going to go to item E.

Oh, did I give you a council sentence?

I'm sorry.

Councilmember Sutton.

Yes.

And just think you're going to be the new mayor.

Sorry, three months.

Alright, thank you.

Next, we're going to go out to item E.

Authorization to enter into professional service agreement with uh well-down financial service.

Brian.

So uh tonight was from the council center.

Roll in.

And roll in is uh the company that did our rate study for uh wastewater uh water uh back in 2002.

Um they did this council kind of asked staff mid-year, let's review this to make sure we're on track where we're going.

And so tonight before you is a letter of engagement, about 34,000 dollars to do a utility rate update.

And uh, I just did a little bit of a PowerPoint to kind of show you between now and then utility costs, especially with APS and they've gone up significantly, so that's one of the rationales.

Another two changes market conditions, we got a lot of you know, changes are within water regulations, a lot of developers coming in, wanting us to improve uh some of our infrastructure, we need to look at that.

Actually, our aging infrastructure as well.

Um, the third one is just like what uh council said, you know, given an update to council, where are we?

Are we on track?

And the last is more less is invest in our capital, you know, capital project costs have soared a lot of them, 25% or more.

So council, when we did this, council approved doing 100% of what was in our CIP at that time.

That is about $13 million in capital.

What is that now?

So I mean, we would like to give council more update on those uh based upon the rationale, but the current the current rate plan, uh the focus was on operational, you know, capital, like I mentioned, we uh at the time we fund over 13 million for water and wastewater, and then uh implementation of rates the first the first three years were four percent, and then the last uh the last three, that's when the rates kick in about 11% increase for year four and five because those are going to come to debt to issue the bonds for uh or what to go get either to WIFA, USDA, GATA to go get uh the rates for those capital investments.

This is just to give council again and the public a general idea of what those kind of rates look like.

Um we will be um moving into the November 1st, 2024.

So if council isn't familiar, this is kind of uh the rates for the water going up, and then this is the one for wastewater master plant or the wastewater rates.

So uh this one moving from this year into next uh the rates from 23 implementation of 24 is about a dollar seventy-four a month more increase that we'll be looking at that's going in fact uh November 1st.

But uh this is uh kind of what I just mentioned, uh what the the rates will end up looking at.

Um so overall you'll see that once we get a 2526, they go up based upon the current capital and investments that we're looking at based upon the current rates.

But I'm just uh lenient, and that's why we brought it forward is where are we at?

You know, are we on track for that nine dollar and forty-six cents?

Is it more or less based upon where we're at?

You know, at that time when uh Dan Jackson, who's done our rate study brings it forward, council can look at saying, well, look, let's just keep it, but we may not be able to do the 13 million.

We may be able to get the you know, 80% of that because capital costs have jumped up.

We want to provide that to council so they can have a formal decision of where we are with our utilities and our capital and investments and all that, and then lastly, you know, the timeline.

Um, if council approves it tonight to end of the engagement, um it's about a 90-day study period, and at that time, probably early of the um 2025.

Um if council approves it tonight, uh, in the engagement, um it's about a 90-day study period, and at that time, probably early of the um 2025, that's when Will Dan will come present to council on those of his recommendations that he's got an LV2 presentation.

After that, if council does do a move forward in amend that I rate study and move forward, we would then have to wait 60 days on implementation.

So it wouldn't be looking at until over by April 1st by the time if we had to do any of the rates.

If council says nope, we're good, we stick with that current schedule.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, Brian, this is just to review November 1st, 2024 is supposed to go up a dollar 74 for water, 329 total.

You want to review it before November 1st, 2025 to see if it still needs to go up to the nine dollars or if it's even less now.

Yes, uh Mr.

Mayor and members of the council.

What we want to do is make sure that our current rate plan will fund what we have already brought forward to council.

We know with project costs going up so much.

We don't want council like it was when we did years ago, hey, it was 100% funded, then we're coming back going, we didn't get to do 100%.

Yeah, where are we?

So council is informed.

Look, we won't be able to do 100%, like we said, because of the cost, we are only going to be able to get out of that 13 million, only about 70 percent of those project costs.

We need to give that update so council is a bit aware of where we're at, especially with the cost of inflation and project costs going up.

So what mayor?

I'm sorry if I may um to answer your question shortly.

Uh the rates are the rates.

The council voted on these rates, so for the next five years, those are what the rates are going to be.

Um they're not going to change.

But what could change is if council decides after this study that after year five you want to propose another rate increase for another five years?

So, like to Mr.

Wright's point, you know, we're gonna see how much that money that this what we would have generated out of this this five-year rate increase to Mr.

Wright's point, 13 million dollars, but perhaps we were only able to realize 10 million of that.

So the rates aren't going to change for the for the five years.

This is to show an update to potentially propose another rate increase after these five years to help fund future capital costs for the next five years after year five.

Okay.

Go, Michelle.

Sorry, Mark.

So thank you, Mayor.

Because that was my question.

You're not coming back to us to say this isn't enough, we're gonna have to raise them even more than this during this let this increase time.

And one of the options might show it, capital costs and everything has gone up significantly, is look if council wishes to still have to fund a certain level of our capital or infrastructure improvements.

It may need to jump up to this level, but if not, we're here.

But that's the information we have to present to council to say we brought forward our CIP projects, and it was at that time, the rates that were implemented would have funded everything at 100% at this rate structure with capital costs, inflationary costs, and the dynamics that have changed.

We might only be able to fund 80% of what we said, but if we still want to do 100, that additional would be up here.

That's just the information going to the council.

The council could say, you know, we want to get all this done, we want to increase it a little more, or if not, we know the next time we come back and do a rate study update.

We know we didn't ask for you know you were updated, we were only accomplishing 70% of our capital instead of 100.

It's the information that we're trying to portray back that's cost of change dramatically, especially in construction when it comes to a lot of the uh stuff we're we're looking at for utilities.

Yeah, but thinking, Brian, I I think this is vital.

I think uh you put together uh five-year CIP capital improvement program, you're you're kind of a little bit like this trying to figure out where your costs are going to be, and so you have to keep re-evaluating where your costs are.

And so I agree.

I think even though we find out that uh these rate increases are not generating the capital we need, it does give you the give us the information we need to maybe look for other sources of funds, whether it be grants or government funding or something, because we'll have the uh the background and the necessary information that go after that.

So I think keeping uh all these, whether it be with water and sewer, but other rate increases as well.

out where your costs are going to be and so you have to keep reevaluating where your costs are and so I agree I think even though we find out that uh these rate increases are not generating the capital we need it does give you the give us the information we need to maybe look for other sources of funds whether it be grants or government funding or something because we'll have the the background and the necessary information that go after that so I think keeping uh all these whether it be with water and sewer but other rate increases as well I think it's very uh prudent to every two years reevaluate them all just to see where we're at so uh yes thank you is it are we already I'm sure we are but are is Wilden or us or anybody um looking into grants um for this kind of uh infrastructure are there federal grants and are we kind of all over investigating that already or does more work to be done on that uh Mr.

Mayor was last mayor first we look for grants I mean we're we're searching for grants it's just a matter of some of the grants we're looking for you know won't replace uh the meters right now I mean or it's a walk that's a pump station we've got to get it designed gotta have some money through those rate increases for so we are actively looking at grants it's just we haven't been able to come across something that uh we've applied for that we've gotten grants we've already wastewater all right anybody else Andy no all right well let's go ahead and move forward um item e do I hear a motion to approve authorization to enter into professional services I'll make a motion mayor thank you do I hear a second second oh we'll say BC was ABB Jose Vice Mayor Curtis yes Councilmember Sedman yes Councilmember Tarango yes Councilmember Snyder Yes yes Councilmember Garcia yes one more council member one of one yes motion pass uh unanimously mayor all right thank you next one go to item F discussion and consideration of approving change order number one to contract with sunrise engineering for the design of improvements to sell engine road in Erica Mr.

Mayor members of the council uh this is a follow up with the as you know we're working on the sum of GM for approximately 60 percent design plans for the widening of some of Jan for the Article Road expansion um to to mitigate the traffic that's over there one of the things that we found in our in our design to this point is that we really have some hydrology concerns that are are have a great impact on this project right now and we're looking at that and when we originally looked at it we didn't realize the extent of the hydrology that's needed for it by some of the reports and some of the modeling we have about 1600 which in land's terms is a lot of water flowing through that area because it's it's been essentially damned by the the state tents we're looking at factors to design for that and to to mitigate that so that we won't have a road underwater every time you have um so with that with the extent of the drainage hydrolysis hydrology and hydraulics analysis needed um we didn't have that in the original scope of work because we didn't realize there would be such a big factor to that so we'll bring it to two years for approval for an additional 35 thousand dollars um with our consolent team to to do the hydrolysis hydraulic analysis hydrology analysis and getting a design index actually is going more than all right thank you this is the first change order yeah all right well I guess um we need to do it it's a bad float plane over there isn't it yeah it's very bad okay and nobody seemed to pick that up beforehand yeah I mean I'm not the smartest person in the world but uh all right um discussion anybody on the council have any ideas questions comments thank you mayor thank you Matt it's not your fault it's prior people in your position's fault if anybody knows that area and has been here long enough they would know that the issue especially behind the oil change place there the hole in the ground right back there so I appreciate all the work you do Matt I think it kind of goes back to what Dan has said earlier about some of these projects um there's a lot of follow through that hasn't been done and now you're trying to we're trying catch up so thank you Matt question go ahead Matt just uh rough of the five million dollars that uh we uh received uh any idea how much of that we've consumed or we have committed right now um I'll have to double check and send that over rough guess sorry and a rough guess rough guess we've we've completed the design that was probably about three hundred and fifty thousand um we have some of this other funding so I would say

Go ahead.

Matt, just uh rough of the five million dollars that uh we uh received uh any idea how much of that we've consumed or we have committed right now.

Um I'll have to double check that over rough guess.

All right, I think a rough guess.

Rough guess we we've completed the design with probably about 350,000.

We have some of this other funding.

So I would say number so we have the major portion of it still left.

We the bottom of the five million dollars construction.

If not, we know who to make calls to get more money.

I'll give Andy those phone numbers real quick.

All right, any other questions?

No, all right.

Thank you, sir.

Do I hear um this decision or direction from council?

Mayor, I make a motion we uh approve of item F.

All right, thank you.

Second, I'll second.

Thank you.

Mary.

Okay, council member Terengle.

Yes.

Councilmember Seton.

Yes.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Council Member Rodriguez.

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

All right, thank you.

You know, Matt, we we really don't like the word change order, so want to make sure.

Just kidding.

All right, next one go to item uh G, adoption of resolution number 24-1588.

Approving the 2024 Egulary strategic plan and corresponding policy documents.

David Mellowitz.

That's right.

Feel good.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor, members of council.

Uh for consideration tonight is the adoption of resolution 24-158, approving the 2024 ELO strategic plan and corresponding policy document.

Uh, this is a continuation from previous discussions.

Uh, one at a council meeting, second, uh, we had a work session a couple weeks back to go over what was presented in the uh in the final draft of the strategic plan.

Uh we had put this together.

It's it's been, you know, uh effort throughout the year since uh February.

But one of the key pieces that came out of the discussion of the work session was having more actionable verbs.

Like we're gonna do something, not study, not look at observe.

It's we're going to do this, we're gonna take this action.

So what we did is we went back through this entire document.

Um, we rearranged some of the uh layout.

So the biggest difference was we put project first, we put the scope second, and then we talked had those action verses ended in there.

So they have more deliverable meaning.

So as we move through this plan and we work on adjusting our capital improvement projects to meet council strategic priorities, there will be those deliverables.

We want to be held accountable just as much as council wants to make sure that we're getting these projects done and and you guys want to be proud of what we're doing for our community.

One of the other big comments that came out was just to have a more linear approach to the projects within the plan.

So we rearrange them, we set them up so that everything starts FY25 and moves down.

Um we weren't able to incorporate the third most important part that came out of council, which was more of a justification of why we're doing these projects, why why they're meaningful.

Um, as the assistant city manager McKinsey Letcher pointed out during his presentation, that the document really isn't that for that purpose right now.

So what we're gonna do is we're this is gonna live online.

Um so we'll have the hard copy, we'll have it online, and we're gonna create hyperlinks to all these projects.

So any any if anyone of you or any members of the public want to go in, look at the strategic plan and take a deeper dive in any number of these projects.

There'll be that hyperlink, they can hit it, it'll take them right to the budget page, the digital um budget book that we have that our fine instructor puts together for us, and then they can just go through it, those justification cost analysis, et cetera, et cetera, within that that CIP portion of the budget book.

Um, but but yeah, more or less.

We those are the top three major incorporated changes that we did.

We didn't touch the guiding principles.

Council felt that those were done.

Oh, I actually I'm sorry, I misspoke.

We did go into the guiding principles and we did the same in those.

We made those more actionable too.

So we saw a lot of repetition within there that council noticed in the work section and pointed out to the assistant city manager and myself.

So um uh the assistant city manager McKenzie, he went through this quite tirelessly for a whole day and really scrubbed this clean and really put in some good good action verbs, good deliverables that we can manage and maintain and hold and that we can be held accountable for as staff and then also work through with council.

But again, as a reminder, this is a living document.

It will change year after year.

Uh once approved, this will go into the hands of the directors.

We'll begin working on our capital improvement plans to match closely where these guiding principles are, and we'll see this change each year as we develop our CIP moving forward.

And then every three years we'll we have budgeted to dive into it again and re-evaluate it and pull projects out, redevelop, see where we're at, put a pulse on it, and move forward with other plans depending on what council's priorities are at that point.

But again, living document.

This is the first of many.

I'm really proud that uh from everybody.

I'm very proud of staff for taking the time to get this put together.

Um for city council taking the time to show up on a Saturday and really take a deep dive on this and give staff the leeway to work with this and present to you guys Eloy's first strategic plan.

So any questions, comments?

Well, thank you to you and your staff too for bringing this to us.

And uh yeah, it's appreciated.

Welcome.

Here's Dan.

Yeah, I'd actually like to say thank you.

I I like it.

You know, we're I've been pushing this for a couple years, so I think uh you know I like where we've ended up, uh like uh the fact that you've uh listened to some of the thoughts and incorporated those.

And I think I wouldn't worry too much about uh linking uh those projects back maybe to the guiding principles because you can do that with projects when you bring a project to uh council for approval, it's very easy as part of the description of that project to link it back to there, so it doesn't have to be exactly in the document right now, so it can work that way too.

So, yeah, good.

That's perfect.

And that's what we plan to do moving forward is retweaking a little bit of the uh council action forms so that within the summary of the project, if it links into the guiding principle, we'll we'll make mention of that so that we constantly are re um reiterating that and going back to it and keeping focus on it.

All right, thank you.

Anybody else?

No.

All right, so good.

All right, thank you.

Uh thank you.

Resolution number 24-1588.

Do I hear a motion to read by title?

I'll make a motion we read by title.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second Jose.

You can take it.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Mary.

A resolution of the mayor council of the city of Eloy, Penau County, Arizona, authorizing the implement implementation of the 2024 Eloy Strategic Plan.

Thank you.

Do I hear a motion approve resolution number 24-1588 as presented?

I'll make a motion.

We approve as presented.

All right, thank you.

I will second.

All right.

Can I go roll call, please?

Oh, tonight needs to be over.

Almost done.

Mayor Powell.

Yes.

Councilmember Seton.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder.

Yes.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanowatha Rodriguez.

Yes.

Councilmember Terengo.

Yes.

The motion passed unandemic mayor.

All right.

Thank you.

We're going to go to item eight.

Adoption of ordinance number 24-974.

Approving a revision to the city code provision regarding the city clerk being appointed by the city manager and selecting an effective date.

Steve.

Mayor, Council members.

Uh these next two items deal with the position of city clerk.

As you are aware, and as the public is aware that our city clerk of 35 years, although she doesn't look like a day over 29.

Amen.

And as a result of that, the city staff and the city council had undertaken a review of basically the function of city clerk, given the fact that we've not looked at that or ordinance of the duties for a period of 35 years.

And the council had met on August 26th and September 9th of this year in executive session to have some informal discussions.

And so we are bringing to you tonight ordinance number 24-947, which basically would be a code change to our city code, which would basically first of all remove the appointment of the city clerk from the city council.

The effective date with this would be no later than January 3rd of next year, or until such time as the city manager comes to you and it announces that that he has hired a new city clerk and when her start date is.

At that time, there would be an agenda item that I would bring to you to for your consideration to have your current city clerk to work under your direction.

So there would be some transition period, some transfer of knowledge from that office to the new city clerk.

And so basically the ordinance that is before you tonight basically would first of all would remove the appointment of the city clerk from the city council to the city manager.

And that also we did look at the duties that she at the city clerk had, and this ordinance, I think last time it was visited was about 1998, so that was about uh 26 years ago.

A lot has changed as you're aware in municipal law that's there.

And so the city manager and I looked at the duties, and I believe he also had city staff and the person your personnel HR folks look as well, and so that we had scaled down the duties, and for example, prior duties we would have had the city clerk as a financial officer, even though we have a finance director, and basically the language on there would basically be that um that she would, you know, that the duties of record keeping would basically fall to them, to her, and any other duties as they deal with regards to city clerk functions, which some of the simple things are keeping minutes of the meetings, making sure ordinances and resolutions are approved, published when appropriately, getting those in the city code ordinances, and basically making sure the city licenses, business applications, things of that nature are basically handled, and that she would have any administrative duties that the city manager thought would be appropriate to be delegated to the city clerk.

Additionally, it would give the city manager the opportunity to basically monitor and also be the person that would help basically work on a performance valuation of the city clerk, making sure that you see city clerk comes to council meeting, gets the documents, but administratively making sure that those duties, ordinances, resolutions, public notices, business licenses, things of that nature are adequately you know kept up with and everything, a lot of the behind-the-scenes functions that you don't see tonight.

That essentially is the first issue before you tonight is the ordinance change.

The following issue will be a resolution, which will be a change of our personnel policy, which will remove the office of city clerk from exempt employees.

An exempt employee basically is an employee that is subject to the is an at-will employee, which is hired and fired by the city council, which by doing that you would only have the following city employ city employees that would be subject to your hiring and firing.

One would be the city manager, city attorney, city magistrate, plus their prescribed term in the case of the city manager, subject to any contract that you would negotiate, you know, with with them.

And so your new city clerk would be subject to the personnel policies and procedures for the com for the city, and also the protections that were afforded for parties under the personnel policies.

Apologize for taking such a long time to explain this, but you had spent a lot of time wrestling over this, and we hope to try to get you a resolution and an ordinance tonight that would adequately lay this out and true, answer any questions or concerns you might have during this period of transition.

Can you repeat that, sir?

No, I'm just kidding.

Thank you, Steve.

Previously I'm getting paid by the hour.

Yes, I do.

All right.

Any questions regarding this item from council?

Dan?

Yeah.

Well, I tell him on a roll tonight.

Uh one thing I missed in here, and it concerns me a little bit is I didn't see under the uh responsibilities, the rules and responsibilities.

I didn't see the term city council mentioned once.

One of the concerns we originally had in doing this was the fact that there are certain things that the clerk does to support council.

And we some of us are maybe learning of getting some of that up.

For instance, if uh now if I'm going to go to Pennot Partnership.

Murray will send out a notice to me who's going and uh she'll make the reservations for me.

Is it me now with the new city clerk down the road, depending on who the person is, I say, I want to, would you make a reservation for city clerk?

Oh no, I'm not allowed to do that.

It's not my job description.

You'll have to do that yourself.

And so one of the things I was missing here is the fact that uh the city clerk, even though they work for the uh city manager, that it really has a responsibility to uh helping city council and facilitating some of the things that happen to city council.

I didn't see that here, and that bothered me a little bit.

Sure, council member Snyder.

Um, when Steve Cooper and I were looking at this and he presented it, the piece here that's put in the ordinance, and please you don't jump in at any point, is more of the the legalities part of the higher level functions of what the clerk is for the ordinance pertaining.

Um the last part number seven, the city clerk shall perform those administrative responsibilities and duties that are conferred upon the city clerk by the city manager, um, in addition to those and in code and so that piece that you're talking about, how the city clerk interacts with council, what it their that clerk's expectations are for handling, you know, like registration for different events or travel, whatnot, that would be in the job description and part as one of the key responsibilities of the clerk position.

So that would be listed in their job description.

I think what Mr.

Cooper is trying to do here, and what our what we were trying to do with this ordinance is keep it more of the legality part of it, the the legal part, business licenses, um, you know, public inspections, records, all that's gonna be part of their job description as well.

But in addition to when we put the job description out, we will have that as part of the key responsibilities is you know, maintaining a relationship with city council, regularly scheduling and updating calendars as requested by uh council members, um, scheduling meetings, travel.

Yeah, I'll have all that in that job description and make sure that they understand that that's that's their role.

And to Mr.

Cooper's comment, should they not perform those duties or at any point that you guys council members are unhappy with those duties being served, definitely get with me.

Let me know, hey, I'm not happy.

This isn't what I thought it was gonna be.

Um, and I can have that discussion with the city clerk up to you know doing a performance evaluation and putting that person on a PIP, which is a performance improvement plan and say, hey, it's part of your job.

This is what you're supposed to do.

This is how you need to help facilitate council relations.

This is how you need to help them manage meetings, expectations, um, correspondence.

You you can name name it from there.

But for the legal side of it, I think this is where we wanted to keep it more at that top level, and then diving into that part of it will be during the job interview and on the job application.

Say saying that, then there's there's a job description.

How easily is that job description changed, or I'm I'm just having been around personnel for 25 years, manage people, I see things happen with new people.

Once a job description is given, can the job description be changed at the discretion of the city manager, or how easy is it to change that job description once it's uh put in place?

Uh mayor, council members, it I believe I believe is basically because it's our personnel policy, it's approved by the council by resolution.

And so to answer what your city manager is basically advised you is on that is that if there were to be a change, it would come to you for consideration and discussion.

For your specific concern, as the city manager pointed out in the job description, we could come up with some language that the city clerk is the liaison on to the city council that would be in charge of, and we could fine-tune that language to make sure that you feel like it's covered appropriately.

The one thing I can assure you is the first time you call your city manager and tell them to get you some tickets, it's gonna be the last time that he's gonna he will immediately delegate that responsibility to somebody else to get get that off his plate.

No, I I think there's uh myself and others have come to a city clerk and say, Hey, could you uh look uh I've done this not too long ago uh check to see what the uh pay scales are for council members and rest of Arizona and put that together for me.

And I just was trying to avoid do we have to go back to city manager to get approval to ask the clerk to do something, and that's what west where I was headed.

I understand what you're doing here, and so putting in the job description works for me, but just as long as that job description isn't very fluid to be changed by new city managers, new clerks, etc.

That's all.

So the next job description is gonna come before council after you guys rewrite it, correct?

The job description for the clerk's already been written.

Oh, is it yeah?

It was we we've got it already.

Um we can share it with council, absolutely, and you guys can offer an input on it.

It doesn't need to come back for council for approval.

We only do that when we have a new job classification function.

So if we create a new position, we want to create a new position in the city.

Um say, for instance, a CIP manager, capital improvement project manager.

Then we would go through, we would create a job description, pay scale, do all of that, and we would come before city council for approval of that.

But at this point, the clerk job description's already been approved, it's out there.

Um we can myself and the HR director, we can make modifications working with and we've worked with Mary already, our clerk to tweak it and add some other functions.

So but we'll we'll definitely share that with you all before we send it out for publication and advertisement.

I would appreciate that.

Yeah, I mean, I think the current staff we have now and the people involved, there's no problem.

I think uh things change.

People change jobs, do people come in, and then it's when things start to that that just uh well it's not written down.

I I've been through it so many times that's why I bring it up.

Totally agree with you.

All right, any other questions?

No.

All right.

Um make a motion to read by title on ordinance number two four-nine seven four.

So moved.

Thank you.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Sylvia.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none.

Excuse me, an ordinance of the main city council of the city of Eloy, Arizona, amending and deleting language in chapter two, article one, section two-six and two-twelve of the city code regarding the city clerk, appointments and duties and setting an effective date.

Thank you.

Do I hear a motion to approve?

Where am I?

Ordinance number 24-974.

I'll make a motion to approve ordinance number 24-974.

Do I hear a second?

Second.

Roll call, please.

Okay.

Let's go with uh council member Sutton.

Yes.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes.

Councilmember Wanavata Rodriguez.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango.

Yes.

The motion pass unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're down to our last item.

Uh item I.

Adoption of resolution number 24-1591.

Approving updates and revisions to policy number 800 of the city's administrative policies and guideline manual removing the city clerk from the list of exceptions at two at-will positions from section C, eligible employees.

David, again, thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor members of council.

I don't get paid by the hour, so I'll try to make this short and sweet.

Our city attorney did an excellent job explaining what we're doing here.

The resolution number 24-151 for consideration by City Council revises and updates our city policy number 800 of the um to remove the city clerk from the list of expectations, exceptions to at will positions under section C eligible employees.

So as uh Mr.

Cooper stated, this basically is an administrative change that puts the city clerk under the city manager and can you know performance evaluations and terminate at will if needed.

Any questions on this item?

So our current city clerk won't be under this, only the new employee.

Correct.

Correct.

Okay.

That's correct.

Yes, sir.

So she'll still be working whatever we have right now.

She's all yours until January 3rd.

Yeah, yeah.

I know.

Uh all right, cool.

Any other questions, comments?

No.

All right.

We got a read by title for resolution number 24-1591.

Do I hear a motion?

So moved.

Oh, as a C our current, our current one?

Oh no, future one.

Oh they by habit.

All right.

So uh make a motion to read by title resolution number 24-1591.

Dan?

So moved.

All right.

Second.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

There are none.

A resolution of the city council of the city of Eloy, Penell County, Arizona, amending section C of policy eight hundred of the City of Eloy Policy Administrative Guidelines Manual, dated November 11th, 2021, providing for policy 800 and related guidelines to apply to the to the position of city clerk and establishing an effective date.

Thank you.

Do I hear a motion to approve resolution number 24-1591 as presented?

I make a motion to approve resolution number 241591 as presented.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you.

No, we gotta do roll call.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Curtis.

Yes.

Councilmember Tarango?

Yes.

Councilmember Sutton?

Yes.

Councilmember Wanawatha Rodriguez?

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Mayor Powell?

Yes.

Motion pass unanimously, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

And that's gonna do it, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for staying put with us.

We appreciate your time.

Enjoy the rest of your evening in weeks, even a couple days or a couple weeks.

Good night.