I thought it was on the fossil we can do.

Yeah, tastes good.

What would you like us to say?

Well, I think we're talking starting the last.

But anybody else?

You said I could invite anybody I want to walk.

Yeah, everyone's going to be able to do that.

But I'm just saying eight thirty, and it's walking around.

We're gonna walk around.

We're gonna bring through the mess that's there.

When I looked in Jason, there was dark skies.

So it's called and he keeps kept telling me I want to call him and he's on the phone with him today.

Because he was responding to my letter.

Okay, all of his responses are flown.

So we're gonna show them.

Well, what it is is that he doesn't understand how tired we are.

Okay, and this is just the starting.

So please maybe you can talk to the shares departments when you got a corner of a page and told they can put in a substation there.

No, but I think it would be a great place.

And one of the guys that's gonna come.

I have to make sure he doesn't drop the L bomb every other word, but um one of the things is that he pointed out if the city police would actually sit on Patreon along there between four and six every morning.

He said they could put a thousand five because they race there and the other questions.

No, it's no maybe good.

Yeah, I'll call them up, yeah.

So I was expecting a whole lot more people who didn't come now.

Maybe I'll come a little bit later.

Okay.

All right.

When you're ready, okay.

I'll leave these here.

Okay.

Yeah, maybe like two.

Oh, you're gonna have to give it to that.

They mentioned that we think anywhere, maybe because it's required by law.

I know.

So I have to say my three on the whole question like that.

Yeah, so it's two seconds.

So he doesn't have a problem.

Oh, he says enjoy a mile.

He says we're crossing them.

And I said I will wait last time when they come back and see what it's there.

I know this is about three.

Yeah.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to tonight's City of Eloy Council work session.

Today is Monday, September 15th.

The time is approximately five thirty-five PM.

And at this time I'll call this meeting to order.

Madam Clerk, may I have a roll call, please?

Councilmember Valdraska?

Present.

Councilmember Curtis.

Here.

Councilmember, excuse me, Vice Mayor Chirango.

Here.

Councilmember Schneider.

Here.

Councilmember Garcia.

Present.

Councilmember Golindo.

Hello.

Mayor Sutton.

Hello.

Here.

Okay.

I was really expecting a lot more people.

I hope we have a lot of people online here tonight, because I feel this is a pretty important meeting that we're about to undertake here.

So with that saying, I'll go with my prepared opening remarks.

And that's we'll start with good evening and thank you all for coming to tonight's special Eloy City Council work session.

Tonight's meeting will be divided into two parts.

The first part is about abandoned homes and blighted properties.

We will discuss the impact these properties have on public health, safety, and most of all the image of our city.

Second part of this meeting will be about the main street revitalization.

We will focus on ways to activate the many vacant storefronts along Main Street from end to end.

We will go from Circle K all the way across the tracks.

But let me be clear, this is not a code enforcement meeting.

That discussion will take place next month.

Tonight we're here to talk about solutions and the future of our city.

Eloy has incredible potential, but too much of it is being held back by what a few property owners think is acceptable.

When we show potential investors around our community, the mood instantly changes.

When they see abandoned homes and bordered up buildings, they see risk.

They see neglect.

And to an outsider, it really looks like we have given up.

And we all know that's not the case.

I've been told online in the court of Facebook that I'm trying to make Eloy into something it is not.

I'll admit it.

I'm guilty as charged.

Along with this council, I'm working to make Eloy into something that it should be.

And most importantly, something of what it deserves to be.

Many of these properties have been in disrepair for decades.

Breeding vermin, attracting squatters, and creating unsafe conditions.

Some are owned by people who live nowhere near Eloy.

Some even live out of state, and some even live out of the country.

They don't have to live with the impact of their negligence.

But our residents do.

We have to see this every day.

It's not fair that a handful of owners get to drag down the rest of this community.

We're here to say enough is enough.

Before we move into council discussions, I want to hear from you, the public.

Please share your thoughts, ideas, and stories.

But I ask you to speak respectfully.

We can agree, we can disagree, we can debate, but we must do so with respect.

Together, we can turn this around.

Together, we can make Eloy into the city it deserves to be.

So at this point in time, is there any members of the public here who would like to come up and say a few words to this council and tell us their feelings about these blighted buildings here in our community?

I have to say I'm so disappointed.

I really do.

I really do.

So with that, as counsel, let us discuss what we can do to possibly take care of this condition that is upon our city right now.

First, I'd like to go over to our esteemed legal counsel and ask.

Oh, Madam Clerk, can you put that PowerPoint on, please?

The one that says uh homes, and just let that run.

Mayor, Council members, good evening.

Um it's hard to give a discussion with regards to abandoned buildings without bleeding over a little bit into code enforcement.

I will try hard not to cry, you know, not to get into those issues.

And also um, we you know, code enforcement is done to our planning department.

And just so you know, as regards to staff, you have Mr.

Simer and you have it, you have basically two individuals that do this and work in coordination with both the both the city attorney and myself, Elizabeth Reeder, and also basically if the cases get filed in front of Judge Valdez.

What you are seeing in these photographs is not unique with the city of Eloy.

Unfortunately, it's most in central Arizona, all the communities have these types of issues where they have these properties that are there.

And part of it is based on the fact that as the mayor pointed out, some of these properties might have been in this condition for 20 years.

And there's basically an attitude that um you can get on me about this, but basically I know you go away because the last 20 years, this is you know how things have been gotten to.

Uh perhaps Mr.

Simer, when the time comes, basically can address some of this, but basically the last time I spoke to him about code enforcement matters, just to be briefly on it, that we had about 300 of them loaded into the system.

And it's not that we have 300 waiting, it's that basically we're processing them, and we get a lot of compliance.

On properties such as the ones that you're seeing through this and everything, there is a process where basically we can do a couple things on the properties.

But by that, I want to preface it by telling you basically it's going to cost you money.

And there's a question of whether or not you're going to get your money back.

But in this case, in this photograph that you can see here, basically, this is this letter, the the prior the prior slide that you saw, there was a letter of the city, which is basically one telling them that basically we're going to abate the property, where we're basically we're going to go in and clean and we're going to lean on the property on there.

Unfortunately, people go to the legislature that basically lobby to do things to basically what to exempt basically communities from enforcing matters, such as in this case, if we go in and we abate a nuisance and we record a lien on the property, we are in the order basically below the property taxes on there.

So if someone doesn't pay the property taxes and they're foreclosed on our lien basically gets extinguished.

Once there's a new property owner in place and there's still code violations there, we can certainly file suits, you know, to basically prosecute them and record a lien on the property.

One of the other problems that we run across on some of these on some of these buildings, depending on their age, is that they were built at the time when asbestos was pretty prevalent in the ceiling tile in the in basically the sheetrock joints and also the sheetrock expansion tapers there, and also you have the issues of lead paint.

If you discover those, basically we have to go in and remedy those.

Where basically we've got to go in with the people that dress like they work in a meth lab and they basically go in and basically remove and bag that and has to go to a you know to a facility that is certified to basically take hazardous waste.

And then basically we can go forward and we can then basically take action on these properties.

Our current city code for code enforcement is in section 10-30, and then I think Section E basically gives the city staff as delegated through the town manager to his representative to basically give them notice.

You have 10 days to basically abate these nuisances, or we'll go in and we'll clean it up.

We also have the ability through issuing either a citation or what's called a long form citation where we list all the allegations there, we file it with the magistrate court as a violation under uh 10-30 G of our town of our city code.

The parties come to a pretrial conference where we try to work with them to try to come to some resolution, but before they get to us, literally, this could be 60, 90 days or even longer than that, where we've tried to get and we've had no compliance involved in there.

We try to basically in this in the magistrate court to get compliance versus a fine.

If someone wants to take their chance and go in front of the judge, they could try to persuade the judge that their position is correct and basically have the case dismissed.

If they if they're not successful, they're gonna pay a fine and they're gonna clean the property like we asked them to.

We tell them basically we don't want your money, we want some compliance.

As a side effect from a lot of these properties, is that when you have a property that's boarded up, it's not a lot of incentive from neighbors to basically do things to their property.

I have been going to municipalities for over 40 years, and one of the things that I notice is that when one property goes down, it tends to pull a lot of other people down.

Neighbors are hesitant to basically go to them and say, you know, we got a problem here, or basically, why, you know, why are you doing this, or why should I improve my property because it's junk across the street.

Sometimes getting neighbors to basically go and fix their property above and beyond what they currently have does put a little guilt, a little pressure, and hopefully a little shame on the property owners to basically uh start to work on getting their properties there.

To address the mayor's comments about having out-of-town owners and everything, there is a procedure where basically we could, with code violations, basically go in and abate these properties and basically send notice to them to try to work it out.

Unfortunately, in the legislature, they preempt us a lot on the things that we can do.

And one of them, in 2023, there was this there was a statute passed which basically prohibits the city or a town from basically creating a list of residential property owners or um rental property owners in your community.

They basically tell you that you got to basically go to the assessor's office, look online to look at their classification, which may or may not be accurate because you have to report if you have residential property that it's residential property, not a personal residence, but a lot of people forget to do it or they basically won't do it because the taxes are basically greater on residential property.

So what are basically what our actions are basically this is that um I've also included in the packet some statutes from the city of Phoenix that has a code enforcement on it component on it.

The town of Superior had created one a few years ago that basically would require that basically that the property owners that have that violate this basically be notified, and if they're convicted that they're put on a you know, basically we're we monitor them and make sure that the properties are boarded up and that basically the properties are secure, and also looking at other issues that are with regards to condemnation because when you have a vacant building, basically it's you know, you can get people in there that are firebugs, you can basically get people in there that are doing things that are not you know not legal, it could be criminal, and quite frankly, people just don't have a lot of regard for basically the free use of somebody's property.

And um for and as an example, one of the towns I represent the town of Superior about five years ago, they had 98 properties that were abandoned.

Because they're working on getting the mine created there in the partnership with the private sector with resolution copper, they've gotten that abandoned number down from 98 to about 25 now.

And so what I what I'm telling you is the economy turns around and basically your city begins to grow and becomes prosperous, these properties are too valuable to sit idle, and somebody will come in and do something about those.

And I know that there's a lot of concern in the council and the community about this, but you now, as we sit here today, you've had some things that affect Eloy that have never occurred at any time in its history.

One is that you have one book, and as Robeson Ranch, which has been here 20 plus years, you now have Goldbond about to come online, and you actually have a modern up-to-date hospital facility coming up.

I think economic, you know, uh opportunities are gonna come to the city with quality jobs with that lagging is always affordable housing and new housing that's there, and the land is going to become more valuable, people are going to want to come in and look at it.

I did note on some of the slides there that some of these properties that were boarded up are actually uh the um part of the housing authority matters that were there that we certainly would be looking at, you know, the possibility of whether or not it would be cheaper to try to rehab them or basically knock them down and get them out of there.

But as you know, that's probably a whole new study session or two in itself.

I've talked a lot and said a lot.

Maybe this might be a good time for me to stop and answer any questions if you have it.

Anybody from council have any ideas, directions, or something they'd like to put out with this on my left here.

Of course.

So my I understand that that there is a lot of life in the in the city of Eloy, and a lot of these are homes that have been left to families, you know, as generational wealth, and the families just has it haven't taken over.

But what I would really like to know and see the council do something about is all of these businesses that come in and then leave and and hold the property almost hostage, like the Circle K's, the T Circle Ks are still fenced up, nothing's gonna be done with it, and nothing can be done with it without the permission of Circle K Corporate.

The Thompson Company factory is just sitting there, it's been sitting there for like 40 years, I think.

You know, the property owners there need to be responsible for either tear it down, sell it, or do something with it.

These churches, I think have great history in Eloy, and I wish it was some way we could have a perservation grant that we could apply for to, you know, if if they become if the owners offer to give them to the city of Eloy, and then we can maybe restore them.

I would like to see them restored to the position that they could be used for like uh movies that are being filmed, old westerns and stuff, and you know, I I I know that's one of the things that we talked about, but I would I would like to see there be responsibilities and and policies for both.

I think that where we should start is with a with the businesses that want to come in and expand their business, change their business, leave their business there, and don't have any responsibility or don't have any uh resource or recourse for just leaving their building abandoned, you know.

I know, you know, I know other cities, like you said, Steve, other cities have um experienced the same thing, and you know, the target does the same thing in Cas Grand.

They've they've held that building hostage because they don't want competition, you know.

Um so I would like to see us attack the businesses first and show that the community and the citizens of Eloy that we're not attacking residents, we're not attacking the people that lived here that that have been raised here that are committed to Eloy, but we do want to change the standards of it, and let's start with businesses.

Let's start with the people that can afford to do something with with their abandoned buildings here.

We're about to five thirty six o'clock.

Yeah, yeah.

Jose, you got anything you want to add to this?

Okay, Dan.

I think uh there was I'd like to call attention to the fact that UOI, Urban Land Institute had made two trips to Eloy in the last 10 years.

I think it'd been on council and did some review and had some recommendations, some ideas of how to revitalize some things.

Uh we had some ideas relative to taking uh uh almost the downtown or certain areas in the city and and designate them in certain precincts or certain uh areas and then uh tackle that little area and then tackle another little area and approach it that way.

Uh I remember there was a big discussion we had about downtown Eloy.

Where is downtown Eloy?

What is downtown?

Is it oh it's Main Street, but then okay, is that just Main Street or take a street off of that or street or just discussion around that?

So uh I think uh yeah.

I think you have to, it's a big nut.

I think what you have to do is probably take a block at a time and go about daily.

Mike.

I agree with Dan.

Um it this is a big project.

I think Steve, if if I heard wrong, correct me.

I think you said third or somebody said 300 homes that are in approximately 300 homes that are in this condition.

Um I think we've got to take it piece by piece.

Um not sure I think you can do it with the business, but you also gotta look at the these homes.

I mean, we how long are we gonna do another 20 years?

We're gonna let them this be this way.

We can't.

And I I understand that there's generational and generational, but you know, at this point, what's that worth that property?

Not much.

I mean, it's it has no use at this point.

So something has to be done.

How?

I don't know.

I think it and it and I don't think it it's our decision too.

I think we need to get a little more community um involvement, the leaders of the community as well.

And you know, we we're gonna have to have multiple discussions, I think, regarding this.

Sarah, um, I agree with some of the things that have been said.

Uh the way I see it, similar to Dan, is it has to be done in stages.

And similar to Joanne, I think that the first nut we need to crack is Frontier.

It is the gateway between our two bookends, as Mr.

Cooper said, Robson Ranch and the Goldbond facility, and it's the road that you drive on to go anywhere in Eloy, whether you're entering from the Tucson side or the Phoenix side, you drive down Frontier, and whether you're going to Main Street, Toll Tech, anywhere in Eloy, you go down frontier and you turn off it at some point to your destination.

Um, we've done some work right around Main Street with adding the trees and the intersection, it's looking a little better, but there's a lot of abandoned businesses.

There's a lot of businesses that are operational that look sort of semi-abandoned or maybe slightly questionable.

Um, there's a lot of areas next to subdivisions next to houses that could use some landscaping, sidewalks, um, even along where we put those trees.

I was driving down there just yesterday thinking how nice would it be to have a walking path along there?

Um, there's a lot we could do.

Yes, it costs money.

We do have money set aside for economic development, and I know that we need that money for infrastructure.

Um, but maybe there's a a bit of it we can carve out for some uses in at least starting with our initial gateway across Eloy and then possibly developing into the houses, into Main Street, into some of the other things that we've flagged as issues, but starting with this one section, in my opinion, would make such a big difference, and I I really am happy to have the opportunity to finally say this in front of all of you.

Absolutely, thank you for that.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, no, I think I I agree with a lot of the points that have been made up here.

Um, and I'll say it again.

I worked here for 24 years, and as a police officer going into some of these properties and seeing the same properties for now, it's been almost 30 years.

Um, look at this condition.

I'll tell you that my in-laws have a home here that's boarded up.

Um, they are deceased, but when does um those Joanne mentioned?

Um those family memories, when do we have to set aside that emotional side and realize that we are not you're not going to fix that up?

If you haven't done it in 10, 20, 30 years, you don't plan on doing that.

And so um I I believe that with some nudging from the city, um, we've done it in the past, we've torn properties down because we we've gone through the process, it cost us money, but if we're looking at economic development, if we're looking at bringing home builders in, if we're looking at that, how much is that worth to us?

And that's worth a lot in my opinion.

Um, looking for preservation grants, we knocked down the theater because nobody did anything with it.

What makes us think that anybody's going to do anything with these churches?

And that's my biggest concern is we've talked that this city council has talked in the community, has talked about that theater for years and what ended up having to happen because they continued to kick the ball down the road.

They continued to put it off and put it off, and it got to the point where it had to be torn down.

I would bet you just because a lot of these homes are boarded up on the inside.

What is the inside look like?

They're not inhabitable.

Their roofs are caving in.

Um it's a safety issue, it's a blight issue.

Um I take a lot of pride in the way my house looks and the way my property is, and it's very frustrating to me living in the area I live in when I have to drive by homes that look like that.

Um, and it gets you to the point where I would rather move out than deal with this stuff, and I'm not going away anytime soon.

So we need to do something about it.

Um again, I I get the memory thing.

I lived here in the 70s.

My mother died here in the 70s.

There's a home on 14th Street, that's where she passed away.

I get the memories, but when do we as a community and homeowners realize that that piece of wood piece of concrete doesn't hold the memory that's in our hearts?

And so we need to do something about it.

Thank you.

Well, that was extremely well said.

Well put, absolutely.

Now see, we have a bunch of people who just came in.

Would anybody like to step up to the podium and take three minutes and tell us your feelings about these abandoned and blight homes within the city?

Just come up, say your name, sir, and where you live, and let us know.

Because you got us, we're listening.

We're right here, we can't go anywhere.

I just want to my name is Don Comer.

Um I don't fairness community, but I've been in this area for 27 years.

And I've seen the same thing happening.

But what initiative or what incentive to the city?

Uh plan to help this growth the long frontier.

Is there any incentive to help businesses?

You know, fix it up, make it look nice to where people won't come here.

Thank you, sir.

Anyone else like to step up?

Is that microphone on?

Hi, my name is Richard Perez.

I moved here four years ago.

And my house was one of those homes.

So we're remote in it right now.

Down the street, the corners, there are bonds of these houses, and it's making my value look bad too.

I'm trying.

And my house is gonna look beautiful when it's done, but all these eyesores just think makes me think was it worth it?

I would like something that too.

Well, thank you, sir.

Nobody who ever buys a home should have to feel a couple years into purchasing a home.

Was it worth it?

No, ma'am, who's gonna speak?

You or the baby.

Well, apparently she may have something to say.

I want to trust that we're in a safe place, and this is community as uh her twin brother is back there.

But um, hello everyone, my name is Chivelle Guno.

I've now been in Eloy for three years.

Um short, but you can't make 20 without a day one, so here I am.

All right.

And um I love this city.

I know that it isn't physically appealing yet, but I am extremely optimistic about it.

And not only am I optimistic, I've also invested close to 200,000 of my own dollars into demolishing eight dilapidated buildings downtown Eloy with the intention of building affordable housing here.

And um, like I said, not only am I my heart, my mind, and my actions are to help progress Eloy forward, but I want to be a part of this solution.

And so for someone like me who've invested a lot of money to beautiful to the beautification of our city.

Are there any carve outs that can be done or waiving impact fees?

Because I've already invested almost five grand in just fees to build those affordable housing.

And the higher my costs are to build in the city, the more that we I have to pass that to the tenants.

And that's not my intent.

I want to build genuinely affordable housing for our working class families here.

Not everyone can afford or is welcome at Robinson Ranch if you're not over 55.

Okay, that leaves out a large demographic of able-bodied young people like myself.

And um, so that's one thing.

I want to be clear about my question is are there or can there be some type of incentive to wai fees if someone have already put in a substantial amount of money that furthers the agenda and the um overall general plan.

Trinity has something to say.

Um and I'll also add this week.

I was in conversations with Little Caesars franchise because I was thinking of franchising a little Caesars right here on Main Street.

And what they said back to me was Eloy is too small.

And I had to push back and advocate to say Eloy is not too small, and we're continuously growing, and this is a perfect place for you know to bring in new business.

And so I just want to bring to you all's attention that the appetite is there.

People are here who want to see this city thrive.

And um I'm hoping that instead of it sounding as though it's an attack on the neighborhood or the neighbors or an attack on business, we should rephrase it to it's a collaboration, it's a partnership, it's a collective effort.

So I just want to challenge ourselves to use some of those more positive and intriguing words.

Um yeah, but that's it.

I get the rest of my time.

I hope I didn't take all three minutes.

No, absolutely.

And thank you for the investment in all the hard work you've done in this town.

It hasn't gone unnoticed.

It really hasn't.

Any other residents would like to just come up for a second?

Yeah.

Hi, uh, my name is Keith Castarena.

Um both my grandparents moved here.

Yeah, both sides of grandparents moved here in the 70s, 60s.

And uh both my parents were raised here, and um and then I ended up being raised here, and now my wife and I are starting a family here.

So the hardest thing for me, needless to say, is change, right?

And so I uh my wife after meeting you, Mr.

Mayor, great to see you.

Fantastic guy.

Uh um, it's I do want to see Eloy get better and and get beautiful and stuff.

Uh, there's a lot of things when you guys were talking about the memories, you know.

I I understand that because there's there is certain things about it it's get over abandoned buildings are not fun to look at, but there is a uh home to it because oh, that's all I've known, right?

And so I do want to see it beautiful.

Um my only concern would be uh housing developments or giant buildings.

I I really like small town, and that's one of the reasons why I convinced my wife to move out here was I didn't want to live anywhere else.

And so that would be, I mean, I I am not against any change any change at all as far as making it beautiful.

I I just always get worried about you know what's if all I see is cookie cutter houses.

I don't think that's more beautiful than custom homes or or just different, you know, things are different.

Um, and then it would be nice, even the job aspect right now.

I drive to Phoenix for a job that I've been chasing after.

And uh it's not it's not too bad of a drive.

I don't mind it.

Gets me ready for the day, and then I can decompress on my way home.

But needless to say, it would be nice if I worked in town.

And so that is a good thing.

There's pros and cons to both sides.

There really is.

Like it's it's I would love to see more industry come in.

Um, I'm a diesel mechanic, and so it'd be cool to find a job as a diesel mechanic in my hometown where I can be active and I don't lose two hours a day, you know, to be with my wife and everything.

And so um it's just then it's on the other side of the coin, just me being who I am, I worry about change.

I worry, you know.

So all in all, I'm I'm excited to see what happens.

Um I um just the I've already said that, but just the only concern would be a bunch of cookie cutter houses coming in.

And and but when I was talking to Mr.

Mayor uh Friday night, it sounds like just the stuff he said, I felt I felt very encouraged.

Like, okay, cool.

Like this guy kind of thinks on the same wavelength as I do on here's how things here's the best way to do things, and to the best of our ability.

So anyway, thank you so much.

Thank you for your input.

Anybody being you're new here, you might want to say who you are.

It's a nice building, I haven't been here before.

This mayor, vice mayor, members of council staff.

Um, as you know, I've been on the council, I was on the council since 2012, and that leaves me with four terms that I served for the city of Eloy.

And every term that I served on, we always had this conversation about what we need to do with the housing and uh the buildings that were just not um lovable.

To the point where when I sat in your seat, sir, that we increased the budget to do um demolition on housing from 50,000 to 100,000.

To one of the ideas was instead of doing one at a time where it was costing more money, let's cluster them up as a package and get more bang for our bucks so we can after the owners of the property did, you know, we we reached out to them and the due diligence.

It wasn't just like a one-strike thing you're done.

Because there is a lot of owners that just don't care.

They rather just see it as a sales or a tax write-off and move on.

But we need to hold the property owners accountable, and that's something that we always had to do as a city, whether it's us as council members, as leaders of the community, and then staff, because we have to pass that on to the staff members so they can do their job.

But it's not just in our community, it's in all these communities.

If you go to Coolidge and Castle Grand on the South Side, it's the same thing over there.

But the thing with us is we're so close-knit that we want to make sure that we want our our city to look better than how we received it as council members.

That's that's one of our goals.

So it's not a bad idea to start somewhere, whether it's the residential housing, whether it's on frontier, which I think it's it's always been a great idea because that's our focal point coming into our community.

We talked about you talked about the the theater, turn on Main Street.

That's the first thing people saw.

And I got a lot of hits for tearing it down.

But you know what?

It sat there for 30 years with nothing but but bird bones in a Torah building.

Now look how nice.

It's better as it is now than it was as it was as it was before.

So I'm all in favor for doing this.

Hold the the property owners accountable.

See how you guys can raise the the budget up more money because it's gonna cost more than 100,000 to do just a couple homes nowadays with the the cost of everything, and then start from there.

But but educating the public or educating the pub uh the property owners of what we need to do is very important.

You know, I I understand code enforcement, you know, building inspectors.

I've I don't know where we're out of both building inspectors, but get them involved.

You know, red tag these places as much as possible.

Then do what you guys got to do.

I'm not opposed to any of this.

Even with the housing authority uh buildings I heard earlier, we're we're in a mess with those right now.

We have been in a mess with those.

Those don't just this came on on site overnight.

Now that we're trying to move the process along with with with the housing authority, that's gonna probably be something on your guys' table and not the housing authorities in the near future.

But that that's one thing that we'd think about.

Those buildings, those houses have been torn out or have been torn up for such a long time that people want to invest, they want to buy them.

It's not worth it.

Even these these investors that are coming into our community and they're they're buying these houses that are falling apart.

It's worth more with nothing there than what's there right now.

So I encourage that you guys do do more education, do more community outreach.

Like somebody lied on their post saying it was six o'clock today, so uh that's I'm not gonna say no names, Mr.

Mayor.

Um but uh uh but it's it's it's community involvement like we're doing right now to get in in not realizing is it's not just in the city of Eloy, it's it's outside as well to you know we have we have the county areas and corporate areas too.

Now look at those, you know.

So that that's my point of view as a citizen now, which I love I could do, we could come up here and complain.

But uh I do think it's a lot of work, it's not gonna happen overnight.

Something like this of this magnitude will not happen overnight.

So, but we need to make a strength make it strong enough so the next five years, you do have a plan, like a five-year general plan.

You know, make sure you have a plan moving forward.

So that's my three minutes.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you, sir.

Absolutely.

Anybody else like to step up?

Just say your name where you live, and we're listening.

Well, I'm Kylie Mammon.

I live right around the corner here.

Um I actually work over at Eloy Junior High as one of the educators there.

Um I've been fortunate to now make Eloy my home for my family, and a big part of that came into being priced out of Mesa.

Um, we lived in a rundown neighborhood.

I lived in a very crime-ridden area up in Mesa, and Eloy became a safe haven for my family and I to be able to move somewhere where we can afford.

However, in moving out here, I recognize that me being present here has priced people out of their homes because I've talked to people regarding their property values.

I've talked to people who want to buy a home and cannot afford to do so because of the housing market presently right now.

People want to start businesses, they cannot afford the costs on Main Street, they cannot afford to be able to start their small business that they have a found fantastic foundational idea, but because their foundation cannot get the funding necessary, or they don't have the thousands in their pockets, they're not able to get their feet off the ground.

And there are plenty of people here that have creative avenues in which to invest.

That being said, there is no place for our youth to go in this community.

We've torn down the shade structures and the parks, so there's no shade for them to go enjoy those parks.

There's not safe walkways for our kids to be walking around in this community.

There's not places for them to go enjoy and invest.

And so they end up getting themselves in positions of getting in trouble.

And these are smart, kind kids, and I work with them every single day.

And that being said, I also recognize the newer housing developments.

We need to be more mindful of who we let build here.

I am one of the products of Century Complete, and my house almost burned down a few weeks ago because of an electrical issue that was not properly zoned and was not taken care of by building inspection.

And fortunately, my husband was able to catch it, and so our home is safe.

But we need to be mindful that the bottom dollar is not going to get us where we need to go long term.

Sometimes we're gonna have to fork out a little bit at the beginning in order to invest where we need to go for the future.

So I just I ask that you keep in mind the young as well as the old.

The youth in this community love their town, but they would love their town more if they had places to go, if they had community spaces invested for them.

Cassagran did a fantastic job of investing in a rec center for their youth, and it has changed their after school abilities.

It has changed the way that their youth engage in their community in the last three years.

So I would just encourage that we keep the youth in mind because they are as much a part of this conversation as you and I sitting in this room.

So I will do that with my time.

Thank you.

Very well said, thank you.

Anyone else like to step up?

Yes, ma'am.

Just let us know your name.

It's Michelle Reeg, and I live in the North Toltec area.

And when I saw on Facebook that you were going to have this type of meeting, I thought I would come and see.

And I did that because I wasn't getting any help from code enforcement.

I was just getting excuses for why the situation at that house, which has been going on for years, is can continue.

And I still haven't gotten that phone call.

Somebody named Michelle was supposed to call me back in an hour, and uh never heard from her, and I sort of gave up until I saw the Facebook post.

And I did get part of the problem cleaned up because there was drugs being sold out of that house.

There was transients living in that house in the adjacent lot that was vacant.

There was a school bus where prostitution was going on, and um I went into the police department.

I couldn't get an officer to take me seriously.

But at one of these meetings, I introduced myself to whoever was the police chief then, and he put me in touch with somebody in the administration department, you know, a captain or whatever, I don't remember what his title was.

But he did start getting my street patrolled, and um the word came back from the fellow who called it his crew that they would leave me and the other next-door neighbor alone.

Um apparently the patrol that finally I'd never seen a police car go down my street until I started sending emails and talking to this contact I had and letting them know like where the burglars were, where they lived and where they ran to, and that finally seemed to control it a little, but the problem is still going on.

Um, the way I got the school bus where the prostitution and the transients were living, is I would call Pennell County and they would tell me what the county rules are and how Eloy, you know, would have to they had their own rules, but they still had to abide by county rules, and uh I did all the legwork of finding out who owned the place and because code enforcement would say they can't find them, but finally, after years of of doing that kind of work, that bus is finally finally gone and that lot's been cleared up.

But there's still transients coming and going.

There is an old retired elderly gentleman, although I have I think 15 or 20 years on him, and he's very severely disabled, and they're just taking advantage of him.

There's there's been RVs left there.

Um, the city at one time code enforcement did have a wonderful crew that came and spent a whole Saturday, but shortly before they arrived, the transients left, and within 45 minutes of the crew leaving, the transients were back and pushed into non-running vehicles.

Uh, one of which is still there.

There's an RV that doesn't run.

The transients are living in that.

In the last month, they've created, I'm calling them lean twos on either side of the property.

Um, sometimes they put a pup tents and sleep outside.

I think the drugs have started to come back because none of these transients, including the owner, the the elderly man whose house it is, none of them have transportation.

They're all on foot or on bicycles of some sort.

Um, but these really brand new cars are showing up, staying a few minutes and leaving, and to me, that says drug dealing is back.

There's been two fires in that house where the fire department had to come out and put the fires out.

None of that destruction has been repaired.

I don't know if they have power at all anymore.

I know they don't have water because they were stealing water from one of the neighbors, and now the water is being brought in.

They carry it in in those big bottles, blue bottles.

So it's still going on.

I haven't seen a police car go down my block in at least a year, maybe longer.

I don't want to exaggerate.

We did get some stuff done.

And I feel for that old man because he's very severely disabled.

He really shouldn't be living there.

I've had people that have been inside that building tell me that there's some rooms that don't have floors, so that's no power, no water, floors missing.

They have dogs that run loose.

And uh I just want you guys to help me.

Um I'm willing to do more work, but my neighbors are moving away.

There was a registered pedophile there who was exposing himself to me, and the neighbor next door whose kids were grade school, and when we couldn't get any, they did arrest him, the police did come and arrest him.

He was back on the the at that house the next day.

She sold her house, she moved.

And that's pretty much if you guys can't help me somehow.

And I'm gonna even at a loss, I'm gonna put my house in the market because I'm an old lady, I'm almost 80.

I can't do this.

So please help me somebody, somebody.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for bringing your story to us, really.

This is what we need to hear as a city and as a council.

These are real people with real issues that we got.

We have to do something.

Thank you.

Well, I hope somebody will contact me.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of the council.

As y'all know me, I'm the community development director.

And I am aware of your situation.

We we have been trying to get someone to help them, help them in.

But and he hasn't showed up for court three times.

We've had him subpoena has not shown up.

Um pertains to the houses and frontier.

Frontier is our major focus on code enforcement, although this is not a commercial only issue.

It's a commercial is a minimal issue as it pertains to this item.

I do agree that you know we can try to address it.

But one of the major issues that we hear about when we focus on an area only is why not my neighborhood.

Why not down the block?

Why not over here?

So focusing entirely on a single location does not address the issue.

We have to focus it on a much broader approach.

Many of the homes we talked about 300.

I can guarantee you from a building code's perspective, we have far more homes that don't meet decent, safe and sanitary, as required by federal statute.

And one of the things we have to do from my perspective is do I put a person out of a living facility and condemn that property and put them homeless, or have them stay there and have uh assist those that we can.

It's a very difficult issue that I face every day when talking with this, including the the individual that was the house that we've gone to twice and had uh community cleanups on.

Many of the homes that we've looked at, including commercial property, because some of those are commercial property on that have been shown on the pictures.

Most of the commercial properties are in much better condition.

When we do a condemnation of a property, they do have a right under under state statute to appeal that.

And it truly has to be a health safety, welfare issue before we can actually tear down a house or a building.

Most of the commercial properties do not qualify for that finding.

As it pertains to the commercial properties.

Many of the homes we did an assessment last year of about 50 homes are on um foundations that are the homes can't be saved.

Uh, having dealt with this in Flagstaff um prior to going to Peoria, there it's a considerable amount of money to try and lift these adobe homes in Dobie Church.

I would love to save them.

Because that's you know, that's history is our is our basis if we can do it.

Having been in Europe, as you guys know, for the past two three weeks.

I thought I wish I would have showed you the picture of it.

Most of the facades there are just the old facades.

The building behind them are no longer, it's not that building.

I actually saw quite a few and took pictures of those where they shore up the facade and they build entire buildings.

Yeah, they tear everything else down.

Many of the buildings that are on our list to be removed or at least reaching out to our buildings that you may not see look from the outside, but are some of the ones I have been in are beyond repair from a code from a code perspective, or they will need excessive revitalization more than what the house is worth.

Um where we can save those houses, that's where I think we should be focusing on and working with those property owners.

We can't just give under Steve would support me on this.

We can't just give money to people either.

That's against federal uh state's constitution.

So that's we can incentivize, we can reduce fees, we can waive fees, but we can't give them money.

That's a state constitutional issue.

So as we focus on some of these homes, which requires the building board of appeals to be staffed.

I'll plug that again.

We do need people from the community that are known in contracting and stuff to uh come on that board because that's really been the biggest hol-up on moving forward.

When I do condemn building, they do have 30 days to appeal that condemnation.

Only then can we go forward to the court or under state statute, remove that building, but they do need that appeal period.

Right now, that's the main reason why we have not moved forward.

We don't have an appeal process, and that's because you remember when I brought my first started coming forward with some of this.

I said, Well, man, I don't have a code, I need a code, we've adopted the code.

Now I need volunteers from Pennell County volunteers to staff that board.

The interesting thing about appeals in any type of variants, the council cannot sit on that.

Council cannot participate in those discussions because they are um quasi judicial.

How many people do you need to be on that?

Five.

You need five.

How many do we have?

One.

We have one.

One one uh volunteer.

All right.

How broad have we?

How big of a net have we cast, or how ambitious have we been trying to get the word out for that?

We've done it through a couple ways through numerous council meetings.

We've announced it, and I've gone through and myself talked to contractors that are willing to, but then they they're willing to when they sit in front of me and they want a permit, you know.

So you know, they're willing to, and then I never hear from them again.

So we are reaching out to them regularly.

I talk to people all the time.

Uh, it is on our website.

Social media media, as we know, is not the best source of for those.

So it is being as members of the council, you're our biggest advocate.

Um, but as we go back and look at some of the homes that are in the worst shape, they are actually out of state owners and out of country owners.

So Mayor, can I ask him a question?

So for this appeal board, how do they apply?

Is there an application on the website?

Yes.

And then my second question is do they have to be for me, Lloyd?

Yes and no.

Um the any of our boards can be people can volunteer for on our website on our boards and commissions as a drop-down, they can volunteer there.

They for the qualifications for the building board of uh building advisory board of appeals, mouthful.

I call it BABA for short.

Um, is that they do have to have some type of construction or construction related experience.

They just can't be anyone.

Uh no, they have to be a Pennell County resident.

So, and that was intentional uh so that we get people that are in our community and in Pennell County to see our real issues.

So Dan, do they have to be an active um in the construction business?

Can they be retired?

They don't have to have a valid current license.

Nope.

They can be as long as they have construction related experience.

They're gonna be you don't have to be retired, you can be anyone.

And it's it's good to have a broad stroke on that because we do my department.

And it's it's good to have a broad stroke on that because we do my department uh we contract with three certified building officials because I can go out and look at it, and you'll see most of these have my name on them because I am the acting building official for the city.

Uh we do get an assessment done.

And they advise me on the legal aspects of whether the building can be saved or not, like these blue ones here, they're on solid foundations.

They may be able, some of them, but most of them not.

Others, others are not uh I can guarantee you we did an assessment a year ago, we did a reassessment at in January, and I was actually shocked at how quickly in six months those houses deteriorated because of the weather.

So my only thing is like that is a particular one.

If I would see the pictures from last year to this year, uh we are actively working with the adjacent property owner who is working with that property owner, but a lot of these homes uh have beencome vagrants.

We did work with the city attorney and the judge on a recent condemnation and eviction.

Uh, people are squatting in the house, and it was one of those homes that could be saved.

So we actually secured it instead of tore it down.

Well, that was my question because that house is as you know, behind my house, and a lot of times when it was boarded up, because you I can see it from my kitchen window, and a lot of times the the board to one of the back windows was always taken off.

And so I knew there were squatters there.

But Mike, well, I guess I don't know if you can tell me or anything, but I know there's a business that's being run out of that property.

Uh I don't I know who it is.

And they're a successful business, but do they also own that property or are they just using it?

No, they're using it, and I have and I have talked with them.

They're slowly moving their stuff out, but they're also helping me monitor the house.

I was gonna say, I I mean, I feel safer because they're there, they they're they have their equipment there, there's people traffic there all the time, but I don't I don't know how safe that structure is.

I it's been there for 60 years.

Yeah, that's one of the structures that we went out that was one of the first ones we hit, and it was absolutely the the individuals has to go.

It's on a mud foundation.

So uh if I would focus where I would focus our efforts on are the unsafe homes down here on Ford Street, that particular one.

There's a couple on Frontier, even while we got some of these properties that are you're got on the screen right now, or uh are the um housing board, those are saveable, those are saveable, and that's where you kind of go with this where is this uh barrier, and then because when there can be saveable our ability to tear down as much less.

So, and I don't know, Steve, how that works in statute, but there is that appeal period that they do, you know.

There's there's this gray line between unsavable and saveable.

So you do have a tremendous amount of experience in this arena, and I'm not calling on you for legal advice.

I got a guy over there who does legal.

But on what what I will ask is your opinion.

Do you feel our ordinances could be strengthened or bolstered up a bit to help with expediting some of these?

I think Steve and I have talked about this along with the judge.

Our code enforcement um ordinance does need to be worked on.

It does need to be strengthened, it needs to be more specific, and it needs to be more inclusive.

Um we're stretching, I don't want to say stretching, but we're making it work right now.

The property maintenance ordinance is our best ally.

We will be updating that with the uh building code update later this year.

That's our best ally.

That actually goes out and tells us what is and what isn't.

And it also and it actually goes into the fact of saying how to board up a house.

Um, there are options.

Uh when I was in Yuma, we had much worse conditions on some, and I can tell you that the drug use was significantly worse.

Uh, which is called clear boarding.

And clear boarding is you removed all the doors.

You open up the windows and you put plexiglass in process.

There's about a half inch.

And if you ever meet Randy Chris, uh the building official, he's about Andy's height, about twice as wide and solid muscle.

He took a sledgehammer to then cannot get through it.

But that's about six grand at five years ago.

So I can guarantee you that's eight, ten grand now per house.

Per house.

Uh but it makes things safer because when police go in there, they don't have to guess what's behind that door.

They can just go right up to the window and look.

Um also what we found through the clear boarding process is your people that um are squatting or doing drugs in there, they don't want to be seen.

So people see in there, they can see it.

So it helps, but it's it comes at a significant cost.

And I think we can't.

I have talked with our contractors about boarding up how to do these better.

Uh we need to meet again because it's it's a cost issue.

So I think there's a pro a lot to do, and I wouldn't say just focus on one area.

We have to focus on all our areas and tackle the worst ones.

We have had a couple houses tore down.

We've had people come to us go, look what happened overnight.

And we immediately go in and condemn because we know the property when we know and get a hold of people we are working, but it's far and few between.

So I just want to get that out there where we're at on these homes.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Well, I think one thing, I believe anyway, one thing that this council would agree on that history is very important.

And if something can be saved, I would like to save it.

I would like to see it say, but somebody has to have the means to save it.

They just can't say that's history, it's gonna come, we'll save that in 20 years.

No, somebody's got to step up and make that make that commitment to save that history.

Second, I think ordinances is a good place to start.

We're gonna strengthen these ordinances and a process.

Put some teeth into the ordinances and get a process to get it moving.

Next is I think we should go stronger and harder trying to find a board of appeals of ex-contractors and very smart people who know those kinds of things.

And we would go with that, get that put together.

And I do like that clear boarding thing.

I just think that sounds fantastic.

Because if the cops pull up, they can look and say they shine a light inside, there's no hiding.

So yeah, I do like that.

And it's it's it sounds very tough to get through, and you would see right away if somebody did break into it.

So I'm all for that as well.

Anybody on council have anything they like to add?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

I have a question about the board of appeals.

So I'm looking online to see who's currently on there, and there's a few expired, but there's well, I guess they're all expired.

They're all expired, yes.

Um I know quite a few of those people on that board.

Have we reached out to them?

I mean, Roy Garrison lives here in town.

Yeah, we have tried to reach out to them.

I've only been able to get in contact once, once with one person, and I tried to contact them again, although most of them are turned out.

Okay, but so that means they can't be out of the way.

They can apply for one more term.

Um, I have not I've I try about every six months to try and reach out to people.

I I'll be the first one to admit I haven't this last six months because I've been trying to get a new board.

But I did reach out to people when I first started.

I did reach out last October and I did reach out uh whether it was email or um phone calls.

Because when we when we consolidated the board, I reached out to all the board members.

Sometimes they just don't return calls, and it's not that they don't want to, but um and in some of those, which is why we we revised them.

Some of the people don't have experience, and one of them's in Tucson.

Okay, but Mr.

Carnell spends a lot of time here in his community.

Yeah, I don't know.

That he's born and you know, raised from that's not in my opinion, that's not an excuse.

I mean, Mr.

Carnell, Mr.

Pantoja, Chacone, Garrison, Lopez.

I mean, I know the majority of them, and I'm just surprised that we just haven't been able to get a hold of them.

Um I've made phone calls.

And 99, I can guarantee 99% of them go to voicemail.

So it's it's not anything from their end or my end.

It's we've tried, I've tried a few times.

And then I had to stop because of we didn't have a board, now we have a board, and we have a new perspective.

So can we get new people?

That was my that's my perspective.

Well, I think, and this is the way I kind of looked at some of these boards, is we want people, we don't need people to agree with us a hundred percent of the time.

We want people to be open-minded, and if the city is they need to be able to tell us where they don't agree.

And if we're looking for people who are gonna be yes men, then that's inappropriate.

I mean, you I could have a whole board of yes people up here.

I mean, and that's why I I just wonder looking at the people who are on that board, um, how hard we've actually reached out to them to talk to them.

Uh am I after them every every week?

No, I'll be the first one to admit that.

Okay.

I'll be the first one to meet.

Yeah, can I try harder?

Yeah.

Um the same perspective is there are a few people that were no longer in this community.

Like I can't remember the individual name he lives in Tucson.

Well, I know Mr.

Carnell doesn't live here.

He hasn't lived here in forever, but how often is he here?

Once a month reliance.

At least once a month, Mr.

Carnell is here.

Oh, so this is the one that Maritime I've already spoken to him about Mr.

Cornell.

Okay.

And the issue was that it was a residency issue.

Yep.

Yep.

We should maybe I yeah.

I I'm just saying, I mean, Mr.

Lopez, I believe is a builder.

Um Garrison is a realtor and uh and builds, so that's why I said I just want to make sure that um we can offer we're getting people that are vested in Eloy, and I can tell you right now, Mr.

Carnell is more invested in Eloy than probably some of us up here.

I mean, truly can't question Bill's dedication to the city of Eloy.

So we'll we'll reach out to them again.

I just haven't, I'll be the first one.

I have not done it in the last six, eight months.

Okay, thank you.

Before we wrap up the blight housing, anybody else on staff?

Yes.

Um, first off, um, I want to commend your staff because when uh before when I used to drive around Eloy and seeing these abandoned homes and stuff, they're broken William windows, they weren't boarded up, there was a lot of foliage overgrown around them and stuff.

So at least I see that you know, they they seem to be secure, they seem to be boarded up.

There they seem to be the the uh surrounding grounds around them seems to be cleared up and stuff, and that makes it a a little safer than um you know, having what it was in the past.

Um so I commend your staff for that.

One of the and one of the things that does concern me as I see through these pictures is some of them seem to be have residents in them.

Um and that concerns me.

And I think that at a point we're like this this property right here, you know, probably hasn't been, you know, there hasn't been anybody living there in probably 50 years.

I know this property because my godmother lived there, and we used to have to go visit her every Christmas.

And I I remember sitting on that um on that porch and and just visiting with her as a bored little child that was wondering why I had to be there.

But um, but so I I could I would like to see that us have a discussion first with the people that are living there because you know, like you said, we don't want them on the streets, we don't want them uh to be homeless, but we also don't want them to live in a in an unsafe property.

Um and the last thing I want to say is that when um uh because I've lived in Eloy all my life, and and one of the things that just annoyed me to note in was going down Main Street and seeing the facade of the buildings, and you could you know, on a full moon night, you could actually see through the building.

There was no roof, there was no structure, there was nothing.

And then a foreign business owner decided to invest in Main Street and build a roof in one of those properties, even decided to run for city council and got elected.

Um, and now and then the rest of those buildings started to follow suit.

So that's what I was saying about having, you know, just just starting off.

Like let's let's start off and and force Circle K to do something with their property, you know, and say if you're if you're not gonna allow anybody else to start a business there, then you're gonna have to pay a fine until you allow that property to be used to be functional on our main street.

Um, and then and let's I think we should focus on like the ones that are that are our residents and you know, people that are living there, and let's let's see what we can do to help them.

I know when when I took over my mom's property, I I was trying to decide am I gonna flatten it all down and start all over, or do we preserve it?

And you know, I I know Richie Rosales has gone through it and said it's one of the most you know economic homes because of some of the structure change that we did to it and stuff, you know, the recess lighting and you know the stuff, but uh you know, the some of the changes that we made to it.

So I know that these old homes can be restored and can be functional.

So I think that I I would like to see in uh developing a policy, of course we want it to be a strong severe policy, but I think we should also look at a way to make it in a way where we're also helping the residents, helping them you know, be able to secure, like the one lady said, we don't we don't want to build a uh community where people can't afford to live, where people can't afford to build the home there.

I know that when they started I do the the homeless count.

Um and I know when we go when they were building those houses out there that weren't sold yet, the ones uh behind Food Town back there, I mean there were squatters there.

You know, the the model homes there were were being used for drug dealings and prostitutions, and you know, and before the property even got completed, it was already being deteriorated.

So I yeah, I think that there's got to be like a little balance.

Like, yeah, people like the property behind my house, it's that's been there for years and years and years, and nobody's lived in it.

Yeah, they go in and they clean the yard and they board up the windows and they do what they can do and stuff, but uh like Michelle says, at some time they have to say this this just isn't working anymore.

And to your point, councilwoman, I believe the human component should always be taken into consideration with all of this.

So on blight housing, anything else from council here?

I think we have some good direction.

I think we have some good ideas.

Okay, Jose.

I try to speak later.

Thank you, Mr.

Simer, for letting us know that some of these houses are and the process of being able to save them.

I was surprised with some of them that they're still standing even after the last dust storm that comes through because it uh those dust storms did destroy quite a bit.

And I've seen some of these that I know still hold historical value, but I think they're probably pastor deadline.

I do want to let you know know that I that while we were talking, I reached out to uh Bill Carnell, and he still is interested if he's able to serve.

So we do have that commitment from him.

Yeah, he can reply.

I I will talk to them.

We'll see him at Lions in a couple of weeks.

If you'd like to join and come join uh talk to him, we'd love to have you on board.

Sorry, I have to sell.

I think we would have to talk to the city attorney about having somebody outside of Pennell County because that is in our statute.

Thank you, Mr.

Sima.

I believe we have one more member of the audience here that would like to speak.

Uh just want to clarify some things that are heard.

Uh the circle on Frontier is being sold for 800 almost 850,000 for the building.

The property on Main Street, closest to were I don't know, it's $650,000.

And then you have Rock and Rodeo for 1.5.

1.5, yeah, he went down from two million.

Those people were willing to take a loss.

And just let the building sit there and just fall apart.

So we gotta keep that in mind too.

Cost of the buildings that are out there right now.

So just want to bring that to your attention.

Well, and and like we said, um, former power Mayor Powell, what if they were sitting on this property and then they got fined and said, you know, now they have to pay for just sitting in that property.

Maybe they'll be willing to take a loss, maybe they'll be willing to get rid of that property or sell it.

Yep.

I think we could.

All right.

Anything on blight?

We're good.

Anyone else from yes, ma'am?

Just state your name, please.

Hi, uh, my name is Thesi Ortega.

I'm a realtor in the community.

Um, fairly new.

But I just want to add some insight.

I don't know how valuable it will be or not, um, from my perspective.

As a realtor, so in some of these photos that are up here, um, like there's one, a brick one with no roof.

I currently have that one for sale, and I'm hoping that I have a buyer at a re everybody in that particular instance is willing to sell for a reasonable price, but now my fear is that the new buyer that is willing to buy it at a reasonable price is not gonna be able to rehab or save the property at all.

So I know that that's like a separate process, and in this case, it might be okay anyway.

Um, but is there any if it can't be saved, is there any incentive for this person to buy it to maybe demolish it to help at least have it not look in the condition that it's in.

Um, and then the other thing is there, so like the one cafe, I know that that owner was also willing to let it go for a reasonable price, but there was just no buyer out there for it due to the condition that it's in.

And then I also don't know if there's like a list of condemned properties, and what does that actually mean for buyers that are purchasing quote unquote condemned properties if we don't ever get to that point of tearing them down?

So I don't know, that's and then uh there are the other side that I've seen is that there people own these condemned properties and they want crazy amounts of money for them, which just doesn't make sense, right?

And so I guess it's kind of it's just it's a difficult to position to be in to try to help either side or both sides, and then I've also been in the situation where I sold a property that thought could be rehabbed and then they tore it down.

I mean, luckily I didn't get sued or anything for that.

Hopefully, not yet ever, but you know what I mean?

Like, I so there's just a lot of different scenarios that could happen with these with these blighted properties, and I mean, I'm kind of excited that I have that I can that I can help the seller liquidate, and then it'll also be good for us because the buyer did say, Hey, what would be the cost to tear all down and start over?

Or what would I mean, can we do anything with it?

And I obviously directed him to the powers that be, but that's just some of what I'm experiencing as working here.

What is that?

Uh it is a complex issue, it's a very complex issue, and no single answer fits every scenario.

But yeah, I see what you're saying.

It's a very complex issue.

Should you save it?

Should you get rid of it?

You're selling a property that's already been condemned.

Does it have to come down?

Yeah, it's it needs further explanation.

Exploration is what it really needs.

Yeah.

I have a question for you.

The the perspective owners that uh you're seeing in general, are they looking to buy these properties as an investment to render them or do something with them, or are they looking to actually uh build their own business or build their own home?

What are you seeing uh who the potential buyers are from these properties?

Um so for example, the person that was originally interested in the caf in the cafe photo that was up here on the south side of the trucks by the water tower, they did want to do a business, but obviously, due to the condition of like no roof, that it just wasn't financially feasible for them.

Um, but the the client that I have right now looking at a set of the homes that were up here, um, he wants to invest his his goal would be to rehab one of the homes and have it as a rental, and then potentially build on the other two lots so that it would tear down the one exists existing structure and then build two other homes on those other lots.

Um, but we're looking at, you know, like a 40,000 dollar price point, which is something that would be reasonable for someone either way, if they were able to rehab it or tear it down, it's not gonna really affect them because it's almost for land value, right?

But when you start getting into like rock and rodeo where he's asking, like, you know, ridiculous prices, right?

So that that's kind of where the problem lies is like I don't know that one on four street that caught fire, he's trying to sell that one for like 130, which we know is not very realistic, but I don't, you know, it's not something I mean, he got into a situation that he that that's kind of where he's at, you know.

And so if he's gonna lose money, he doesn't really want to lose breaking even is okay.

And so when people are in those kind of situations and they put themselves in those situations, right?

But he he was trying his goal initially when he bought it was he was trying to rehab it and get it back into the community because that particular house had been abandoned since I've been here in 2014.

So he did have it as a rental, he got it up good enough to where he could rent it out, which was fantastic, and now he's trying to resell it and it's kind of going downhill with him, you know, people's own financial situations, right?

So it can't change that.

But um, I don't know, there's just a lot of different scenarios that I've seen with these homes, and I'm just giving my two cents because I don't really know what is a good solution is, you know, for anybody.

Like I said, that there's no one solution to any of it.

Each each case is its own divis individual thing.

Right.

And like the twin homes on D Street, like the seller only sold them because he was told that they couldn't be rehabbed, and then when he saw them rehabbed, he was all upset.

But it's like, I don't think they got permits until after the like I don't there's just a lot of different situations that happen with these, so it's it's a hard spot, but I don't know if there's any way to know which ones are condemned or not, and then what does that really even mean for buyers?

So the ones on D Street, we that actually happened right when I first got here, and yes, we did make them get permits.

Um there's different levels of condemned legally.

I'm supposed to condemn a building if you turn the water off, it's no longer able to be habitable.

If the power's turned off, there's different levels of condemnation.

Most of the things that we focus on are really dilapidated health safety welfare.

Um, the one house that we did have people evicted from that were squatting.

The only reason it was condemned was because it didn't have power electric.

But it allowed us to board up the property and get it saved from people squatting in the house.

So there are different things.

Um we've had a handful of people that come in because I want to do this, I want to rehab this house.

And uh it was about beginning of August, I think it was.

We had some people that were looking at buying some houses, and when you when they get to a certain state, I have to have a registrant look at the building.

I just can't have a contract to go, well, I'm gonna do this.

No, you need to have you need to submit plans, you need to bring the house up back up to code.

And I do know that individual was looking at three homes, and he says, Well, I'm that's not gonna do it then.

So and that like the ones on D Street when that gets that was right when I got here when that was going on, and they had told him they had to submit plans, and he went through a lot, you know, to get those plans legal again.

So, yeah, when when a house gets to a certain point, you just can't go in and fix it.

You have to go through a plan uh a planner view process, you have to go through certain processes.

And most of the people that come in and say, I want to do this, they don't want to do that.

They just want to go in and put some lipstick on it, make it look good.

Uh but once it gets condemned, you know, that's why I don't like condemning them to get to a certain point because they are saveable.

So but there are different levels of it.

Thank you for that clarification.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Go ahead, sir.

I have a question for Ms.

Ortega.

You use the term reasonable price and selling over and over.

Can you explain to me what that means?

If a site is valued at 100,000, what is a reasonable price to sell that site?

Well, so nobody determines the value of a property except the market.

So, like, I can't say like, oh, your house is worth $500,000 if no one's gonna pay that price.

But if you have five willing and able buyers that are gonna pay $500,000 for that property, then that's it, that's the price of the home.

So it basically comes down to the market is whatever a ready, willing and able buyer will pay for the property.

And so the reason why I say reasonable price is it's it's reasonable to me that someone from the market would purchase that for that price.

So, like the rockin' rodeo, to me, that is not a reasonable price.

1.5 million dollars.

The building needs a lot of work, it's dated, although it was a functioning bar not long ago, so there's you know, there's pros to it, but I just don't see any anybody on the market paying that price for it.

And so, all in this particular case with these houses on third place, it's because it's it's really close to land value.

So, whatever kind of condition the home is in, they it could go either if if the city is gonna require them to tear them down, or if it's able to be safe, obviously for my buyer, they would prefer to save it, but if they can't, then it's not gonna be huge loss for them to tear it down.

So, in that particular case, that's what I mean by by reasonable.

So the problem is is like when like the house, this house on 4th Street.

For him, it was a reasonable price when he bought it, but then he he used hard money and put money into it, and then now when he's trying to sell it, it's not a reasonable price anymore for the market, but that's kind of where he needs to be for it to be like a break-even for him to be out of it.

And so this is where it causes problems for people is that they have a home that isn't in the best condition, and they really can't go lower than where the market dictates it should be because of the financial predicament that they're in.

And so, like some of these homes, like I don't know the story between the you know, on that one, but like um what she was saying, her godmother's home.

I reached out to that seller and they said they weren't interested in selling.

So at that point it's private property, what can you do?

You know, from a realtor's perspective, right?

But there was a little Santa Fe one next to it that I got that one closed.

I don't know how they ended up rehabiting it the right way or not.

I don't know, but um so there's just so a reasonable price is just what what the market dictates.

And so when I use that, I'm just saying based on my knowledge of some of these homes, you know what someone would pay for.

No one's gonna pay 200,000 for that right there.

That's an unreasonable price.

So that's just where I'm I'm coming up with that term.

Market driven prices.

Market driven prices, correct?

Yes.

Okay, and he in the essence of time, I think we'll move on to the stores in Main Street right now.

This won't be as long.

Madam Clerk, if you could change those PowerPoints, please.

I would appreciate it.

And I'll go with my canned little speech here first, because I'm very good at that.

So now let's turn our attention to the commercial storefronts on Main Street.

Many of these properties have been sitting vacant, yet they could be rented and activated almost immediately.

The biggest obstacle we hear about is the cost of rent.

Owning a commercial property on Main Street comes with responsibilities.

And one of the most important is keeping that property open, active, and contributing to the health of our downtown.

First and foremost, the blighted buildings have to go on both sides of Main Street from Circle K all the way across the tracks.

They are a barrier to progress and attracting new investment.

I'll be asking the city attorney whether there are any legal tools or approaches we can use to encourage landlords to rent and activate their properties and to discourage long-term vacancies that hold the community back.

But before I open the floor to public comment, I want to be clear about the city's role.

What we can do is provide incentives, support, and streamline permitting processes, but ultimately it's up to landlords and tenants to come to those agreements.

So we can see these buildings here, right?

Up and down Main Street.

There's more closed doors than there are open doors on our main street.

And I'd like us as council to come up with an idea.

So to our attorney, I know we have spoke a few times in the past, and I have this thing, I would really like to find fee tax, whatever.

Anything that's vacant for a long period of time, have them start feeling a little a little discomfort in order to motivate them to get a rental in there.

If they would rather lose money on a rental, or they can just give that money to the city that they're gonna lose.

So Mr.

Attorney, what what do you think?

How should how should we go back and forth or approach this to get something done yet?

Mayor, obviously, it's your prerogative that's there.

The the first issue that you have with regards to the issue of tax.

Um I prepared a memorandum to the council on that issue back in June, and we included it as part of the materials that are there today.

But under Arizona law, there's basically a there's two types of tax assessments that come to you.

One is the primary, and the other's the secondary.

Generally, the primary one basically is the uniform tax that is applied to all the property owners in town.

Secondary is when you're basically doing something in addition to that, if you're doing some type of a public improvement, like a park, for example, if you were gonna build a community center, those type of things that are there.

And so there is no specific way with our current property tax structure where you could have an extra tax on an abandoned property.

There are other tools that you have there, and one of those was a council presentation a few weeks.

Uh I think at our last council meeting when we had kind of what they called the finance boot camp, one of which was talking about basically having a downtown improvement district where you would have some additional, as they say, tools in the toolbox, such as being able to capture that tax increment in the downtown and to do projects to basically make the towntown more appealing, such as basically uh sidewalks, improvements, you know, things of that nature that are there.

As far as basically trying to get these property owners to sit off there, you know, to basically get off their you know what and do something about it.

I think that a lot of the properties here have been since I've been coming here, that basically they've been speculative in the sense that basically they're holding on to it, hoping that we're gonna hit the jackpot with prosperity and that they can make a killing of the sale.

And it doesn't happen that way.

One of the things that you basically could do is that you would basically, as Mr.

Simer pointed out in his presentation, we could discuss with them some type of um basically break on, you know, basically on fees with regards to inspections, things of that nature that would be captured in this district.

Um the impact fees that are there, impact fees are to pay for the new cost that's there.

So if you have an existing footprint there, I think that and Dan may correct me if I'm wrong, but basically, when you look at a building, for example, the abandoned Circle K, if someone were to come in there, they're not going to pay any new impact fees on the existing you know, square footage there.

When they expand it, they're we're gonna capture that increment that that is basically there.

So there is some advantage by buying a building like this because the impact fee isn't gonna be assessed because it's already they're either exempted or they've already paid for that that portion of it.

So when you look at situations like this, basically you're looking at trying to you know, perhaps do some type of a district in there.

One of the things is by having an improvement district, you also have the power of condemnation in the sense that basically you can acquire the property for a public purpose, build it and develop it yourself.

Um council member Curtis made a comment basically about frontier.

If you were to have, and this is further discussions for you, if you decided you wanted to have a downtown improvement district, you're gonna need to draw it out and should you or should you not include Frontier as part of that in you know that district, or basically the road on the other side of us as to you know, as part of that, you know, it's that part of that corridor.

And so you would you basically you would look at those things and basically you try to figure out what you need to do.

Um Casa Grandi had like they they basically had a main street program a few years ago, and it's had varying degrees of success.

But one of the ideas that they had was basically having the organization acquire a building, rehab it, get it up ready, get it ready to rent, then try to bring a tenant in, and then basically go to the next building and basically do that.

And so you could certainly look at something along those lines, but the problem is if they know the city's out there basically wanting to buy buildings, they're not gonna give the city a sweetheart deal.

You know, it's basically we're gonna be looking at you know 1.5 million for the circle K or something like that.

But uh what are the other things that we could basically do is monitor property taxes on there, and you know, the city could basically decide, you know what, we're gonna start buying delinquent property taxes in these areas, and then once they get three years in arrears, we could certainly foreclose on them and try to acquire the property.

I think these investors more likely than not will pay it, but if you buy a property tax lien and they redeem the taxes, the interest rate on it is 16 percent.

So there is some you know recapture of the money that's you know that could certainly be available for the community.

Would one of our tools in our toolboxes be increasing, putting a bunch of strength in the ordinance to have those buildings like the ones with the bordered up windows right here on Main Street to start in there just to get the windows looking good and have the buildings elevated to a point of attractive because right now nothing there is attractive, everything there it just looks like you know what?

So what are the feelings here from council?

Would we be interested in going to increase the ordinances to make those buildings more attractive?

Mr.

Mayor, I think that's where we need to start.

I mean, it that's my opinion is that like I said, there are a lot of businesses that are just sitting here waiting for a gold rush to be able to make a million dollars off their property, and they're not moving, and they don't care to move, and they don't want to move because they believe that we could um that it if they sit on it long enough, they're gonna make a mint.

But um, Councilmember Vidak Vidrocska and I uh were in a session at the League of Cities, and and I proposed this question like what do you do with property owners that just don't want to move their property, they just don't you know they're they're ready to move in because that one of the things they told us is you gotta have your property ready to move in if you know businesses want to come in, but if if they don't if they want to up their price and they don't want to make it feasible, and it's the property owner's responsibility because they own the property, what do you do?

And basically he said, I have no answer for you.

He said, you know, property owners have the control.

Um so I think you know, leaning a little heavy on them, leaving a little heavy on the property owners and saying if you don't want to move your property, if you don't want to take these offers, if you don't want, if you want to, you think your property is valuable enough that you're gonna sit on it, then you know you're gonna pay an extra price.

You're gonna pay an extra fine to have it just sitting there.

Dan, as uh probably a member of the revitalization committee.

Yeah, I'm thinking here that we tried, and I I see Andrew Rodriguez, and he was part of that, I think back then.

Uh if you look at the sidewalks, you look at the uh painting on the mural on the uh structures, you look at the uh roofing.

Uh that all came out of the uh downtown commission trying to do this same thing.

We even uh incentivized uh some cleanup.

We provided some money, I don't remember how much it was.

You remember that, Andrew?

That we provided so much money as a loan for people who wanted to do some painting on their front or something like that.

Uh and nobody took it.

And we extent expended it down on Frontier Street to see the same thing happened.

We had one person come forward, I remember.

The problem was they had to front the money up front and then get reimbursed afterwards.

And nobody had the money to do it up, you know.

If you want to paint your your uh storefront or you wanted to put new windows in or do something, you had to have cash to do it up front, and it was this was a reimbursement, and we worked with one of the banks to do that.

And so we tried to do some things like that.

But I think that uh having uh some kind of uh investment fund that uh could loan some of these people money.

Uh the city can't do it, but we certainly could maybe facilitate it somehow.

Uh some banks or some investors and uh uh low the interest rates are pretty low right now, and they're probably gonna go lower.

And so maybe it's a time to start uh initiating that again.

The other thing, and I'll change hats here real quick and put a business hat on.

I think back in the last five, six years, we've had small businesses open up on Main Street.

And they've lasted about a year and a half, and they've closed.

Now, why'd they close?

Uh well, it could be that the rents were too high.

Could be that maybe they didn't do a very good business case ahead of time and figure out uh they have to pay employees, they have to do other things, and so the cost uh even though their intentions were good, they just were not good business savvy people.

Uh or it could be that the uh clientele wasn't there.

I mean, some of these businesses open up and uh you know, if you come at four o'clock, five o'clock, or first thing in the morning, there's people around.

But you can't survive the business of just being open from eight to four or eight to three.

You've got to have uh evening traffic.

And if you're down Main Street and evening, there's no traffic there.

And so that's hard for a business to stay open.

That's why we don't have a restaurant downtown.

Uh, because you need to have uh something to you're gonna have uh uh clientele they're gonna from a business case.

So take some of these buildings and the owners are sitting on them, and somebody say, Well, I'm gonna buy them, and maybe it's worth this much, but I'm gonna have put some money into it, open a business, and then okay, who's my customers and how much they're gonna spend and what's my monthly expenses and and can I make a go of it?

Uh I remember the uh we were gonna have a uh distillery down front, remember the uh uh somebody would come in and was gonna put a uh a uh store in and sell liquor and so forth, and that both the building center empty, nothing's happened.

Uh that whole corner, we're gonna have a pizza shop come in.

I don't know if it's a rents or what happened there, but uh we've got to maybe um I think we have to involve the chamber board too, but we've got to work very carefully with the chamber and we're together in some of these things because it's not just us as a city because we can't give people money, but we certainly can help the chamber maybe do some things to entract some people.

So long-winded answer.

So uh that's kind of where we're at.

Absolutely.

Thank you, and and thank you for that.

And they're all very valid points.

Getting the chamber involved and getting more involved to to get some of this moving.

Anyone here on my right have anything?

Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor.

I think that's important is getting the chamber involved and because I'm assuming they call the chamber to talk about you know what's available here and what's the issue with that.

I mean, the town of Florence has struggled for years with trying to um revitalize invigorate their main street.

And I mean, I work over there and it looks like the town of Florence has finally figured it out.

I mean, I don't know.

It it's a lot of it, it seems to be because I go there to eat lunch and I go and some of those businesses aren't open at night.

Um the FUD shop shuts down at like two or three p.m.

Um, but they rely on the winter visitors, they rely a lot on the people.

Well, yeah, you have the county and the town employees and all of that, but you know, maybe talking to them and and trying to figure out what we can do about Main Street because I look at that community and I'm like, that's what I want Eloy to look like.

Um I mean, I wish I had the money to open a bar because it would be so much fun to have a place to go at night, you know?

Especially after these long meetings.

We could all go there afterwards.

Um I've been in that building.

Anyway, um I I don't know.

Uh we have to do something because I know a lot of you have lived here forever and ever.

I've been working in this town for 30 years, and looking at most of these buildings, one of those boarded up buildings right down the way from Firebird is he that building hasn't had a roof on it in 30 plus years, but it's still allowed to be like that.

That's unacceptable in my opinion.

And so there, Hodges, you know, the old pharmacy.

You have now the bank, and I'm looking, there's a broken window there, and that's still allowed to exist like that.

I mean, we have to do something.

The owners need to be responsible.

Those they come from a law enforcement background, I'm all for hitting people hard because if you're not gonna do something with it, then you need to get rid of it.

Circle K.

So now they they closed it because it's an old building, then you need to do something with it.

It's not acceptable.

That Circle K was packed morning and night, and now where do we have to go?

I mean, there's a lot of people who would walk to Circle K and use that business.

Don't tell me Circle K didn't have enough people coming in there to fund that store.

There was line, yes, the kids had to line up and wait in line.

It's unacceptable.

And we have to figure something out, you know.

I heard that the people who bought some of those businesses, yeah, they got them in.

Um the building itself got them in with low rent, but then when it was time to renew leases, they jacked the rent up.

It doesn't fly here because we see, you know, what happens with that.

So um whatever we can do, I'm all for it, but I'm not the lawyer.

I'm not uh, you know, I know what I think we want to do, but we have to be able to not have the Goldwater Institute come again, come after us either.

Um or anybody come after us.

We need to make sure we're doing it legally and we're not gonna get hit for it.

So I I believe we have a comment here from the public.

If you would just kindly state your name and where you live.

Marisella Guinea, just wanted to comment.

She mentioned that right there on Firebird, there's no roof.

The beauty school is right there next to it.

Um they jacked their prices up too to have them rent there.

So I'm newly in there, but we're not even somehow our sign got taken off from the building.

Don't know who took it off, don't know what happened to it.

It was just on the door one morning.

Um so that's kind of why I was here to see if we can maybe get our sign back up.

Where can we put it?

There's like two or three pages of what we can't do.

And that's our code enforcement meeting, which will be next month.

Okay.

And you bring that up at the code enforcement meeting, and we'll we'll take that from there.

Well, follow up.

Why is that building next to it allowed to have no roof?

Because that's affecting the school.

So that was maybe get that one condemned or do something with that one to help us.

Well, we're talking public here.

Anybody else, Andrew?

Andrew Rodriguez, the Eloy Chamber of Commerce.

Um, just to piggyback on them.

Yeah, their wall from the school is actually caving in from the from the from the roof that being there.

So they're having some structure issues there.

And I am working with uh teacher and them trying to get George and them all on the same page, and it's it's not looking good because there's a crack all the way down through their on their infrastructure on their side.

Um commenting back on some of your guys' uh questions, you guys had Circle K's.

Um, the Circle K Corporation does not own the two Circle Ks that are they're out of here.

So the one on Main Street and the one on Frontier, the old one, Circle K Corporation does not own those.

So um they are owned by another company.

So the new Circle K is owned by Circle K.

Um, so if you want the one on Frontier, that that one's up for sale or rent.

But I believe the rent is kind of high.

I think it's like I want to say the last time we checked on the an office of like 2500 a month.

Um, so that's why it's still vacant.

Um then this one right here, the last time I talked to Circle K, they still have a lot of product in there, a lot of wiring they're trying to get gutted out and stuff like that.

So that's why you see a lot of construction people still there.

Um brings up back a lot of memories from that picture right there from the Takaria.

Um the taqueria itself has actually been closed since 2007, and it's been like that since 2007.

Uh my family owned it, family sold it back to the Holmes family, then the Holmes family sold it to another family here in town.

That family does have a restaurant in town, and they always say that they're gonna do something with it, which I think it's they're not gonna do anything because I think it's competition to their other restaurant.

So I think it's just gonna sit there.

So um when you guys are talking about and doing something about it to make sure they do something with the building, that's that's the only way you guys it's gonna something's gonna happen.

Because that building has been sitting there since around 2009, just like that.

Um, since they they bought it and it's been sitting like that since 2009.

And I think if you guys are you guys are in the right path of actually saying, hey, we're gonna do something if you don't do nothing with it, or sell it to somebody that's actually actually gonna do something with it.

Um it's a prime location.

Everybody knows that that's where the parades starts.

That's why everybody went for their drinks and everything like that.

So um, but again, um from the chambers standpoint when a new business comes in, especially if you're if you don't have no business background, we're now sending you to the small business administration and CAC to go do your uh your whole background and get your things done from them.

It's a free program, a couple weeks a month.

Um, so by the time you get done, you have your all your outlook, your two year, your three year, your five year, and your tenure of your business.

So that helps them, especially from a food truck to uh uh an actual storefront before we even talk to them about a rent a building.

So I asked them for their business plan before we even start doing anything.

And I think that was like the whole key of a lot of them coming in and saying, hey, I want to rent a building.

Okay, let's get this get you going.

But a lot of them never ran an actual business, you know.

So um that's why a lot of the businesses that came on Main Street.

Well, some of it was they never ran a business, some of it is because the landlords, like the mayor you said, jacked up their rent and didn't didn't work out for them.

Um, but other than that, I mean, we are we are getting those phone calls like crazy.

And ones who come into our office, we send them on to McKenzie's way, or we send them to to the community development and say, hey, this is where you guys, this is your area.

This is not us.

We just give you the books and here's the maps, and then here's the city.

Um now from there it goes on from the city standpoint.

But the chamber itself, whatever the city will need from us, we're here to be a partner.

We're here to be an asset.

Um, we're here to work with you guys.

Just let us know what we need from you guys.

But thank you guys.

And the one second.

And there lies our vicious circle.

Our vicious circle.

Somebody comes here looking to put a business, looking to make an investment, and we send them out into the neighborhood into the wilds of Eloy, and what do they see?

They see broken down houses and bordered up buildings, and I don't know.

I'd I'd be awfully scared to invest in a town that would look like that.

Right?

Right.

So I think one of the takeaways we're gonna take away from this whole session here is the council to ask our Mr.

Dan Sima hiding himself over there.

So let's take a look at all our ordinances, especially the ones with the vacancies and up and down on Main Street.

No more boards on windows.

We want glass on windows, maybe a light inside at night time.

So at least if somebody rolls down the street at night, they're gonna see it and they're gonna see a light on inside the store.

It looks like life, because right now you could like this building right here.

That should all be glass windows.

It should all be glass windows.

And if you're afraid about windows getting broken through vandalism, make them plexiglass.

But these buildings should be lit, they should be have a sign of life, a heartbeat to them of some kind.

Does everybody kind of agree with that assessment here on council?

Are we good with that as a direction to staff?

You got anything else you want to uh I think Joanne?

So um, Andrew, do you guys do you reach out in it to like programs that help businesses?

Um, I know I gave McKinsey uh a card of a a company that in Phoenix is willing to come down and help small businesses get started.

I know there's incubator programs out there.

I know there's a there's uh uh business in in Maricopa, there's a whole system in Maricopa where they'll help you get a loan, the business loan, they'll help you get a business started, they'll help you do a business plan and stuff.

So do you do you reach out to any kind of those programs that or do you direct people that want to invest in Eloy to any kind of those programs to get kind of get them started?

Yeah, yeah, we we do have those banks, and we have people who are small business banks that specialize in those type of loans.

Then, but the first thing we do, tell them before you go even talk to a banker, you gotta get your your your uh business plan done.

And it's better to get a business plan done by the SBA because they stamp it, they certify it.

Then when you go talk to a banker, they sell they see that you went through the whole process already.

And then we also tell them, like, you know, the USDA has uh has loans, and then the their loans are very small, like percentage interest rates.

So we do have those.

We have about six programs.

Um, so anybody that comes in, like we do give it out, but it's just we don't we don't um I don't want to say we baby them, but we just we tell them here you go, you know, we don't follow through with them because that's that's personal information that I rather not get into.

But as I here you go, and then in a couple like a month or two, I'll follow up and say, Hey, how how did how how did that conversation happen?

Did you guys get through?

And like that.

But we do have the programs there.

Yeah, that's great.

And it is there been like a needs assessment done in Eloy to see what kind of businesses.

I know we had first things first come in, and they say, you know, we need child care, we need uh there needs to be good quality child care in Eloy, so we know that's one of the needs.

But what do you think?

What are some of the businesses that you think that that would thrive here in Eloy?

Um, well, we haven't had a needs assessment done professionally, but like from our board and from people we've heard is uh a sit-down restaurant in downtown area, a sit-down restaurant that and then people can because I mean we get them all the time.

We get people like where can we go eat, other than Mexican food.

You know, where's a sit-down restaurant we can go to?

A coffee shop, you know, like a regular coffee shop that like you can go order your actual coffee that which you want made.

So that those are the two, and then I believe hopefully, you know, my intentions are great that when the hospital's up and running already, that the coffee will come through now.

Because now, you know, that's usually what happens when they see some businesses like that.

Now, hopefully, a coffee shop will come through with that.

So I'm hoping.

She's one of my board members, so we're we're hoping a coffee shop will come through.

Well, if I'm allowed to elaborate on what he said about sending people to get a business plan, I apologize.

Um, my the feedback from the business owners from the end of Maine 311, 313, 315, is they've had experience with underqualified business professionals, and so they don't have a business plan.

The the like nacho mafia came and went, and they're just struggling, you know, they give them your leases to your leases, they can't fulfill those lease agreements, and so that's kind of been the problem is that they want more qualified, better qualified businesses.

So by him redirecting them to the SBA and getting that support that gives more confidence to to the owners to rent, you know, and as far as I know, even the old Hodges, like he's he's willing to sell and 311, 313, 315, and Encore.

There's just a lack of a lack of a lack of interest, period.

I don't get a lot of calls from Encore.

I haven't got a call in months for Encore, and so there's just a lot of a lack of interest, and to get people interested, I don't know what it's gonna take.

I try to do you know, direct mail campaigns to like businesses, you know, if they'd like to expand in our area from from the valley and things like that, but that's just been part of the complexity of of moving these locations getting anybody interested.

Thank you.

Sorry, um, that's all I have.

If anybody else has any questions, and again, that goes back to the vicious circle.

People are coming here to look around, and what they they look around this town and go, ah, I don't know about investing here.

Yeah, right back to the circle again.

So I think as part of this council, part of what we do, we have to make this place more appealing for people to come.

We have to make this place a place where people want to come, where they feel safe, where they feel welcome, where they feel wow, this is really nice.

Right?

Do we agree?

Michelle, you have anything.

I was just gonna say Circle K does own Main Street, Tosco Corporation, which is Circle K owns Main Street, so um, it's a parent company, so they do own their own store there, you know, maybe not over there, but it's again it's having that communication with them, you know, trying to find another similar business.

Yeah, because I know when I last time I talked to the uh their licensed lady, she said they don't own it and they're taking everything out of it because I know they took the pumps out, everything out.

Well, that's required.

I think the the fuel island part of it, but it's talking to them or like-minded businesses, but when it looks the way it does, I don't know if I want to invest in that property, you know, because Circle K hasn't put any money in that forever.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Yeah, we'll get one more here to the mic before we pull the plug on this, Mayor.

Mayor Scar, sorry.

Go ahead.

One more quick uh point.

I think Andrew would second this is um, you know, we did hear from Circle K that one of the reasons, and the same applied for Encore.

Um having qualified individuals to work at these places that they just couldn't get them.

I mean, the owner of Encore really wanted to see that business succeed, but at the end of the day, he was putting in 80 hour weeks and he just couldn't do it because he couldn't get qualified applicants from the area to work.

That was the same thing with Circle K.

Circle K needed to take all their staff and put them over at the news circle K, and they they wanted to keep it.

McKinsey talked to their representatives, they wanted to keep that Circle K across the high school because it was successful, but they couldn't get qualified staff to work at these establishments.

And I know that that's a whole other issue than dealing with blight and abandonment of properties.

But um, yeah, I just opened up a big old can on that one.

But but it is it is tough.

I mean, I mean, I think all the businesses in ELA, and not only ELA, but uh surrounding areas face getting good qualified applicants that want to work and and that could be a generational thing.

That's why I say big ol' can, but you know, Circle K's defense is they they tried, and so did Encore.

I remember I got I missed my my chicken tacos, but uh yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So wish they could have stayed, but it is hard with with the applicant pool here as well.

Thank you, Mr.

Malowitz.

So yeah, I Kylie Mann.

Um I think you're forgetting a free population that can also benefit from this.

You have National Junior Honor Societies and student councils in our school districts here that need community service hours.

You can teach these kids how to run a business.

You can teach these kids how to revitalize our main street for free.

These businesses wouldn't have to pay their workers necessarily, and these kids could raise funds to help their schools.

These kids could raise funds to help this community.

You have free systems that are already here.

You're forgetting an entire population, and it's not that they don't want, they don't know how.

In the fact with all of this, we're we're assuming that people don't want to.

When in fact they may not have an understanding of.

So I think we need to reframe the way we're looking at that.

You have an entire population that is underutilized and undervalued in this community.

You're looking for people our age, or within a certain demographic to work.

You have workers.

If that's the pipeline you're looking for, invest in business minds.

Student councils are invested in their community.

So I think you need to communicate with the school districts here and communicate with the staff because I know personally some of these staff members who work with these students and are looking for opportunities.

They can come help you revitalize Main Street for community service hours, and you get to connect with the next generation and incentivize and revitalize the pride within Emoi outside of the generic this is who we are.

They have a lot of great ideas.

And I don't know the legal ramifications behind that either.

But I think we just forgot an entire group, and it's free.

Thank you.

So thank you.

All right.

So one more.

Go ahead.

I'm like, if I don't come up now, I'm not gonna come up.

Um I get very like anxious.

That was just gonna add like that store.

Just your name.

Your name.

Oh, Belinda sure would.

Um, I know they try to open a cafe next to the laundromat, probably like two years ago now.

Um, but part of the issue I know they had there, which the discount store that was there before too was like the roof was leaking, or the dryers and laundromat, the heat would come through the walls and just stuff like that.

So that's and then they raise the rent too.

So they closed down.

And like I remember like the tacadia of the bakery on the other side of the charts down Main Street.

Like there's a lot of things that could be open there.

And um, I remember they used to be like arcade too there when I was younger, and just I just wanted like there isn't much for kids to do around here, and that's what's hard.

I'm like, I remember bits and pieces of different places we could go to, but then once I got older, like high school age, like there wasn't much for us to do.

So I don't know, just like business ideas for those places and see if someone would want to come in and start that business instead of waiting to see what somebody else wants to start.

If we like we just give like a list of ideas, what we all think would be good for the community instead of all these different random places coming in and doing what they think would be good.

But I just want to say that thank you.

You did fantastic, by the way.

All right, so I'm gonna tie a ribbon on it because we spent a lot of time on this, and I was actually pretty nervous at 5:30, even though the post said six o'clock.

I was really nervous.

So but what I am happy to see is this level of interest here from the community, and I would like to see a lot more level of interest from this community on this uh on all these aspects and subjects we covered today.

So I think our takeaway tonight will just be the direction to staff to look into strengthening up these ordinances for like anything on Main Street in the commercial area.

Yeah, there'll be windows, yeah.

There'll be lights on, no more just leaving, no more just leaving at dark.

Let's let's make it look like it's alive.

And we're gonna look too to see what we can do with these abandoned blight houses.

And the last thing I'd like to say, this will actually move at the speed of government.

My goodness.

We're working on a sidewalk now on Batagallion.

They're telling me it's gonna take three years to put in a sidewalk.

So we're not gonna see anything.

Yeah, three years.

I seen his face just light up.

Three years for that big sidewalk on batal.

Yeah, I know.

I know.

If anybody hears from the private sector, I know that's killing them.

So this will move at the speed of government, but rest assured, I'm gonna be behind it pushing it the whole time.

We're gonna have to break those norms.

We're gonna have to break those those chains.

All right.

So once again, to the public who showed up here tonight, I really appreciate it.

And please go out, tell your neighbors, tell your neighbors what we're planning to do here.

Ask them to get on board.

Let's make this, let's make this something better.

Let's make this a place where you actually want to come and you can invite people over, and they're gonna say, wow, what a nice neighborhood you live in.

Because I think that's the goal.

I think that's what we all want here.

So once again I'm gonna say thank you.

I want to say thank you to my council for coming here on an extra Monday to take care of this as long as we've been here and I'm just very quietly going to close this meeting out now.

Thank you all.

And council meeting next Monday you all can come