Or your hair turns great.

Looks like a packed house, man.

Good evening.

Welcome to the Eloy City Council meeting.

Today is Monday, February twenty-third.

The time is six PM.

And Madam Clerk, may I get a roll call, please?

Councilmember Vapaska.

Present.

Councilmember Curtis.

Here.

Here.

Councilmember Schneider.

Here.

Councilmember Garcia.

Present.

Council Member Golando.

Here.

Here.

Well, can we all please rise for a moment of silence?

Followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Curtis.

That brings us to item number five, public appearances.

Those wishing to address the city council may do so by signing in on a form provided by the city clerk.

And first we'll go with scheduled public appearances, and that will be autumn cottages.

Yes, my name is Chivelle Guno, and I am a proud, proud resident of the city of Eloy.

So this evening, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council members.

It's a pleasure to see you all, city staff, attorney.

We are really excited to present to you all Autumn Community Foundation.

It's a nonprofit that is established to build worker and affordable housing.

And of course, if we're going to start with work and affordable housing, we're going to start in our own backyard in the city in which we live.

We are proud of, and we are strong.

And so with that being said, I'd love to give you guys an update of what the foundation is doing as well as next steps, and see how we can continue to strengthen and build our beautiful city.

So we're just going to go through the community needs, a recap.

So recap for some, but it may be mean for others.

I'm very conscientious that we have some wonderful new staff members, city council members prior to when we originally presented, identifying some needs, and like I said, let's strengthen this partnership so we can continue to advance and move forward with the city.

So there are a lot of manufacturing plants in the city of Eloy, around the city of Eloy, and with anything that comes with jobs, we need somewhere to allow them to stay.

And so the state of Arizona only has 5.6 affordable housing per capita.

So that's about five wood degenerates and say six houses that are geared toward affordability and workforce in the entire state.

So recap, we actually purchased a lot downtown Eway on Fourth Street.

Um when we first purchased it.

And so there were about seven structures that were there.

If you can see way back here, there was an outhouse, it just had a toilet in a sink.

And along this, there were it wasn't, it was maybe a room with just a bed in there.

It wasn't big enough for anything else.

And so and it was zoned for a single family.

So we had to go through the full process of rezoning to a single family to multifamily, put in a lot of work.

That took a couple, that took about a year to get done.

But I pay my respect to the land for everything that came before us.

So seven of those units will be specific to workforce housing and affordable housing.

Um we have to do asbestos testing, geo testing.

We cleared everything out.

So this is what it looked like the day we closed on the property.

And here we are now.

So there will be six duplexes that will entail three bedrooms, two baths, and one community center.

As you can see here, we partner with a lot of people to get this done because nothing or no one can get far in life without the help and the assistance of others or commitment and partnership.

And so we have community partners who are willing and able and want to make sure that these come into fruition.

And so this is what it will look like.

This is a rendering.

Again, it's going to be six three-bedroom, two baths, one eighty-a-compliant with a ramp, just in case, you know, we want to make sure that we are in position to serve veterans.

If there is a capability, our goal is to remove barriers as much as possible.

The night that we had a community meeting, um, there were three young kids that were just standing outside.

And it was about 7:30 at night, very dark, and we bought pizza for the community meeting, and so we, you know, come on in, guys, come on in.

And so when those three kids came in, I thought they were siblings.

They were not.

All three were um their parents, their parents were at work, single, single mothers.

The three mothers told each of those kids stay in a well-lit area, which was City Hall, stay on the city hall premises, do not leave.

Everyone walked together to basketball practice.

The kids were hungry, they had nothing to eat, and they were just standing there for safety.

So at that time, I decided to redo the community plan and turn it into a community center and a clubhouse, a safe place that if family needs their kids to be, there can be somewhere a resource.

And then uh we put a pizza cafe, a cafe to serve $5 pizza.

You know, it's not about the money, it's about filling the need of our community.

And so that's what we did.

There was originally going to be a two-bedroom, one bath, but we scratched that and said if the community needs a safe place for kids, then that's what we're gonna do.

And that's what we did.

This is what the cottages will look like.

This is the layout.

There will be a community garden.

We are partnering with Tiger Mountain Foundation.

I'm not sure if you all have heard of them, but they are the number one community garden in the Phoenix area.

They will provide uh do all of the fresh garden so that the residents and community, this is open to the community, can come to have farm to table access to fresh produce.

Um this is the gas line, the Southwest gas line.

This originally was going to cost $13,000 to install.

And Southwest Gas is providing a grant because they want to see this done.

They are put in their action to making sure that we can provide more workforce housing and could not be more proud to partner with Southwest Gas in doing so.

APS, we're working on it, still having conversations to see if they will be able to provide a grant to weigh their um, we have to big dig trenches to get the electricity uh stabilized for all of the units.

Um, but again, we have community partners that want to see this get done and are working with us, and just continue to be a voice and an advocate and a doer.

And so a part of identifying the needs of the community.

I went to the census, the US uh census for the city of Eloy, and this is the most recent one from 2024, so it's very recent.

The Eloy residents commute about 30 minutes to get to work.

But with all of these manufacturing and new businesses coming to town, we want to be able to retain those residents so they can work, eat, sleep, and play all in our beautiful city.

Um, so we have commute times about 10 times higher than the city of Phoenix.

Um, most of the housing, and don't get me wrong, because you will see me at Rhodeson Ranch, and I'm underage, honey.

Okay, but most of the housing in the city of Eloy is specific for 55 and older, and as beautiful as it is, the median age in the city of Eloy is 40.

And to top that off, between 20 and 50 and 49, it's 46% of our population here.

Which means they do not have anywhere to go once they want to move out of their parents' house, or once they want to establish roots, and so we're losing our residents to neighboring cities.

Um we don't want that.

I I believe we don't want that.

So and that's why I'm here in front of you all this evening because I want to say, let's work together.

You all are doing a fantastic job cleaning up this city, and I know there are a lot of ordinances that are in place, you know, finding it, uh, tumbleweeds working really hard.

I see Michelle on all these social media saying, hey, let's get these gray dogs handled in Joanne, and you know, we're all putting in our collective efforts to make sure that our city is beautiful.

And so Autumn Community Foundation aims to see the city of Eloy become Arizona's trailblazer for workforce housing and what that can look like and take shape.

And so we want to partner to see how the city of Arizona, they have something within their general plan from a few years ago, and it could be outdated, but they were very relevant, called the housing element.

There were six objectives within that housing element, and one that stood out to me is the objective to incentivize new development, revitalization, protection of existing affordable homes.

Um, if we're going to have a place or city that honors that space and wanting to create more workforce and affordable housing, how can we put our actions into it?

And so these were the objectives.

Very quickly, um, I don't really want to read from the screen, but in short, identify affordable housing, promote and develop quality housing.

And as I said, we moved from rezoned it from being single family to multifamily.

We could have increased the density and made you know some five story apartment complex, but what we wanted to do was honor the space of the city.

We wanted to create dignified housing for everyone, and we didn't want to just stack it up and say, hey, this is what we you know, we're doing this because we're trying to, you know, make a profit.

Yeah, that comes, but the point is to be a solution.

And if all it takes is one person sometimes, and I was willing to do that, and not only was I willing to do that, but I put almost a quarter million dollars of my personal finances to make sure that this could come into fruition.

So with that being said, I have an ask from the city, okay.

I saw the city provided a 75% construction a construction rebate for a large manufacturing plant that has come in.

75% of their construction costs will be reimbursed back into that large organization.

And that tells me that the city does have space to provide incentives for what they want to see done.

And I attended the Panell Partnership Breakfast, and one of the main objective for the mayors across all the cities in Penal County was to provide more affordable and workforce housing.

And so if that is what the city wants, I would like to ask that the city considers and not only considers, but to put action behind their words of being committed to providing more workforce housing.

And so whether that looks like when we're negotiating when the city is negotiating with companies that come in here, maybe there's a carve out that's dedicated to workforce housing, could be one, two percent.

But some of those incentives and rebates can go into a bucket to where that people who are developing affordable housing or transitional housing or workforce housing could have access into that, or yeah, to work into the city.

Um waiving impact or public work fees, maybe it is a grant, maybe we could work with the chamber, or people can work with the chamber to do pass-through funds to where you can apply to have these fees waived in order to incentivize bringing more workforce and affordable housing into the city of Eloy.

If it's needed, and all of the cities are saying that's what they want, then these are small things that the city can do that will provide a transformative impact on the workforce housing.

Um, and that's not a big ask.

And um provide fire hydrants.

If you're doing multi-family, that's something that I learned.

You have to provide, buy and install your own fire hydrant.

You know, that's something that we we discovered, but maybe the city can work with the fire department and to just install those fire hydrants, or we can order them, or whatever the case may be.

But my ask tonight from all of you is that even with autumn cottages, we we stumbled in to some roadblocks with permitting and public work fees, and it's been great, and I have to say that yes, there's barriers that come up with development, and we know how to work through those barriers, and a lot of this is just learning lessons on both sides, and so you know, I want to be clear about that.

And so, you know, I want to be clear about that.

But if the city is in position to remove barriers, we would like to ask that they weigh those impact fees and public work fees so that we can continue on.

There is no construction without it being waived, and so that's where I come tonight and this evening to say what can the city do, or how can the city work with people who want to build and stay in Eloy to bring those housing to our great city?

And so we partner with great organizations such as Arizona Complete Health, who not only saying, Yes, we are committed to making sure that workforce housing is available in the city of Eloy and in Panawh County.

Um but the question that I continue to bump into is well, how is the city of Eloy supporting workforce and affordable housing?

And you know what I'm ashamed to say, I don't have an answer because I know that there are words in saying there's support, but I would like us to move past the work and into true partnership with action.

Um so that that's basically what I would like to have a discussion with uh the city and get the city thoughts on what do you all or how does the city see themselves partnering with people who are developing workforce housing?

These are just some projects that we have in the pipeline.

We're revitalizing a train depot in Red Rock.

We have 40 acres that is within Penau County that we can you know do affordable housing, we can do it, we can be flexible.

I wanted to do something downtown Eloy, but Casa Grand approached me and was very much so open to the idea.

And Maricopa is also very much so open to the idea.

The city said, yes, we want more affordable housing, we want mixed-use housing, and so I just find it challenging to see our neighboring cities in the city of Eloy be so open and provide incentives for development or affordable housing or workforce housing in the city in which I reside, I live, pay taxes to.

We have had zero discussion on what that looks like, and so I would like to pose that to the council.

I don't know what to do next.

I want to thank you first of all for such a great presentation.

Really very well put together.

And one of the first questions they say before they build a factory or build their business, where are my people gonna live?

And we kind of lose.

We lose on that side because we can't sign now.

The stuff you're building is primarily rentals, correct?

That's correct.

That is correct.

Uh let's just switch gears a little bit.

Sure.

How would you define workforce housing if it was purchasable?

That make purchasable, yeah, yeah.

Well, what what number?

What how would you quantify a number that would you consider workforce housing?

100, 200, 500.

Well, I I would say anything that is going to be below market rent to where they can afford to pay where it's not where it doesn't exceed 30% of their paycheck, that is defined as workforce housing.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'll try to do math in my head, and it's a really slow head.

I marry someone who's good at math.

Don't look at me.

Any questions, Joe?

I think you did a great job.

Thank you.

So, what does it look like for the city to partner?

Is it possible to waive impact and public work fees?

I don't know if we're even allowed to discuss that.

Mayor council members, um, this is a presentation, it's just a presentation.

There is not anything on the agenda that would allow us to do that under the open meeting laws in the state of Arizona, but obviously um she's made a presentation to us, and I assume that probably at the conclusion that you'll direct city staff to look at that request and basically either get back to her, get back to the council or both on what if anything the city is in a position where they would be able to do.

And then again, the issue we have some legal issues involving use of city money for you know for any you know for anything, even nonprofits to make sure that we don't run afoul with the gift clause and the state constitution.

So, with that said, I do like everything that you presented to us, and I think we'll we'll digest that as a council and staff.

If you could follow up and bullet point us on what you're looking for, kind of like from the presentation, sure, and we can answer that back.

Okay.

We just can't do it here at the meeting.

Not a problem, but I do want the record to reflect that.

This is not being asked to provide a give.

This will this is a direct for community development, which they are already set aside.

Um, and there hasn't that so I'm not looking for a gift.

I want to be very clear on that.

Um thank you.

Oh, absolutely.

And what you're doing is a gift, actually.

That's right, that's right.

But um, before I leave, I do just want to be very, very generous with this time and and show my express my gratitude because Arizona Complete Health not only did we meet the first time at the groundbreaking in 2024, but came here this evening to say these are the type of projects that we want to uh that we want to support.

And so Melissa came down who oversees community uh community giving.

Is that right, Melissa?

She came down to say, you know what, I want to show support to the city of Eloy because like I mentioned, the organization's first question is well, how is the city supporting something that they say they need?

And I want to be able to answer that.

So with that being said, I yield the rest of my time.

I thank everyone for listening to the presentation.

Thank you so much.

Shout out to McKenzie, he's doing great.

Thank you, Chavelle.

Thank you so much.

Okay, that brings us to item number two.

Eloy, Chamber of Commerce, quarterly update.

It's broken.

State your name, sir.

Andrew Rodriguez from the Eloh Chamber of Commerce, the executive director.

You have to run it, Andrew.

Is it up?

Oh it is now.

Yes.

There you go.

All right.

All right, just um again, you know, I was gonna go through.

I think I have it on running.

Hold on.

Just one minute, it's a little too fast.

So I wanted my presentation to go real quick.

Um just do it this way.

Uh special thanks again.

Um, I have my vice chairman Michael Powell here, my chairman uh Dr.

Terry is here, and my operations manager is here.

Um, I gotta say her full name, Angela Meade, because she will get upset.

Um, so again, special thanks to our chamber champions.

Um, without their help, we will be struggling.

So again, um, our chamber champions, and we did add one more.

Uh uh the process paperwork hasn't came through yet.

Um it's a big project that's actually coming from Texas to California.

So as soon as we get their ad and their logo and everything, we'll we'll put it out there on Facebook and everything.

Um so again, thank you to our chamber champions.

Um a little data for us.

Uh in 2024, we had 174 members.

As of today, we're at 223.

Uh, our office in 2024 visits, we had 1,668 visits.

At the end of 2025, we had 2,593 visits.

And our phone calls um we had in 2024, we had 834.

And at the end of uh 2025, uh New Year's Eve, because we work New Year's Eve, is 1,443.

And we keep track of those phone calls.

We're in our new system that we have now with uh Lumion.

They actually keep track of all the phone calls coming in and all the phone calls going out.

So that system works very, very well for us.

Um it's the highest numbers that we've had since I since I've taken over the chamber, and it's continually growing.

Um our next one, and a lot of you guys know this is that the ELO Chamber of Commerce in 2025 won an award in the Arizona Chamber Executives Conference, the outstanding membership is trying engagement strategy, and we're the only chamber in Arizona to receive this award.

And we're the only chamber in Arizona to receive this award.

And next year we're gonna probably bring another award.

So we're we're me and Angela are fighting for other categories.

But we were very honored to receive this award, and to beat out a lot of other chambers is it's amazing.

And especially one full-time and one semi-full-time employee.

It's it's awesome to see that it came it came to Eloy.

The Elo Glow was I bet I I want to say, you know, I think my board will be honestly.

This was the biggest one for us since we started this GLO.

The flyer itself was viewed 180,000 times.

The flyer was clicked on 74,461 times.

Total attendant event, paid people that paid the tickets, not free tickets, paid people.

6,640 people attended the event at the junior high.

Local attendance from the Eloy area was 23.4%.

Outside of Eloy, that people who came from Cassagran, Chandler, Pima County, Maricopa County, all those other counties, was 76.6%.

So it took a major, we do we had a lot of people from outside of our area.

And then also the age groups.

If you guys, I mean, I don't want to go through all the age groups if you honestly guys want me to, but that goes down the line of all the ages that were there that bought tickets and came through.

Um so this was again our biggest event that we've ever had for us.

And more likely, I think probably for the city of Eloy.

That's people came from all over the place for our event.

Um, some of the events that we're working on, and some of the events that we've done the past quarter and this quarter.

Uh we just had the grand opening of the MHO hotels.

Um mayor and council member, you were there.

Uh it was phenomenal.

A lot of people were there, and then I believe we had close to 75 people in attendance, so it was great to see that people, you know, that much people there.

Our farmers market is actually was here, and we're moving it to the visitor center parking uh um park, so we have better access and also more.

We're gonna start bringing back vendors.

So we're gonna have an actual full-blown farmers market.

Our annual golf tournament is coming up in April.

Uh, we already have uh two sponsors, and it pretty much a major sponsorship is already sold out.

So it's pretty much sold out on major sponsorships, which is great.

We've never had that before, so it's awesome to see that.

Uh the groundbreaking today, the majority of you guys were there today, and it was awesome to see.

We probably had over what 80 people there today from the state, from local.

It was awesome to do.

Uh, health and wellness fair that I Angela put that together.

It worked out very well.

A lot of people love that.

Um, we're also gonna be doing a health and wellness fair at the senior center in Taltech, and we're gonna be doing one here in Eloy at the library pretty soon.

We're putting that together.

And the senior center actually called Angela and asked Angela to put that together for the seniors, so they don't have to go out, they can just do it that day that day there.

So we're gonna be putting that together.

Um, the basketball tournament we're planning this is gonna be this Saturday, it's sold out.

We had all the teams already uh lined up.

We have more teams that we're supposed to have, so it's gonna be an all-day thing now.

We're trying to leave early because there's a boxing match that night, and now I'm I'm a boxing fan, so that's not gonna happen.

So um, but heck, it's for the city, it's for the kids, so we're gonna do it.

Um, our single and mile this year, we announced that's gonna be on May 1st on a Friday.

Um we added a car show to it.

We're gonna add some more things.

Um there's gonna be a lot more excitement this year.

We're gonna add to it.

Um we are we're not announcing the stuff yet because we're we're finalizing everything.

Um but it's gonna be a one heck of a fiesta.

Um, and I'm getting the views over here because uh Micah wants to have a beer garden, so we're gonna probably have a beer garden there.

Um why not?

Is it beer margaritas and food?

Why not?

Tequila, see there we go.

Okay, we have a tequila tasting.

Um so a softball tournament, same thing.

We're gonna have a softball tournament, and it's pretty much almost sold out.

You know, it's um it's amazing.

Um we have a lot of teams already called in, and I think we just need like what two more teams, two more teams, and we're sold out.

The brackets already almost full, and it's amazing how I mean we're getting teams from all over the place, not just local, but it's I mean, a lot of people come from all over.

Um, one thing I didn't put up there yet because we don't have a flyer set up yet, is the memorial day.

Memorial day is not we don't have that flyer up there, but we're memorial day is gonna be a little bit different.

We're gonna add some things to it, but um that's usually a big event for us, also.

Majority of you guys do attend that, but um, we are gonna be having a more somber event uh out there what we do.

Um, but other than that, I mean we stay busy, we're staying busy.

Um I'll take anybody's questions.

Well, thank you, Andrew.

Anybody on my left?

I just have a quick question.

I know we can't engage in any kind of business or anything, but how do you track the attendance?

How do you track the ages?

How do you attract um people that are from the area and people that aren't from the area?

And just for the glow.

So for the glow, because uh on the glowing when you buy your ticket, you have uh who buys the ticket and a doll or child.

Then it's also goes by when you when you go by on Facebook.

It goes the it's the uh analytics on there.

So that's how they get you on so they track you on everything, and that's how we get your analytics.

Uh-huh.

Anyway, Chase, look, the uh chamber awards you had this year.

Did you put those on the internet by shares on your website?

It'd be kind of nice to maybe for people who didn't attend to see who won uh a little bit of the background, how they won the right upside out you had that night, but just uh the suggestion might be uh post to us on the on the chamber website, might be uh good PR for the chamber and for the community.

Yeah, it's not on the website, but we did put it on our social media, and the newspaper ran an article on it.

But we'll put it on our website.

Yeah, thank you.

Anyone over here?

All right, Andrew, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that brings us to unscheduled appearances.

First, we have Jody.

Hello, Jody.

Hi.

Please state your name, the city where you live.

You have three minutes, and we can't answer you back, but there you go.

Okay, my name is Jordy Baronson, and I live here in Eloy.

And this is about the concern of the uh sixteen dollar food boxes from the farmers market.

The chamber of commerce has a contract with the scissor city to use the parking month the third Saturday every month until June to pass out the $16 food boxes.

The city took it upon itself to cancel it on January 17th and take food out of approximately 120 or more people.

Nobody should be denied food.

Is this going to be made on a going situation?

Oh, thank goodness.

They have another place that we know one or more persons are not going to take food away or break contracts.

Are you trying to get rid of elderly families and disabled people?

Because these are some of the people that use this program.

We don't want to know who did this.

I don't want to be held responsible of putting a target on one or more of their backs for taking food away from people.

For future references, talk to each other, please, and don't overbook.

That's all I have to say.

Well, thank you.

Any questions?

We can't give questions.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for addressing the council.

Next up we have Mr.

Sayed.

State your name for the record, sir, or the city.

And uh we went and saw the project, and it's a beautiful project, and we need a lot of projects like that.

My wife is donating almost 20 acres of commercial land.

We are building the same uh project similar to that one.

It's a nonprofit, and uh I am representing that organization.

It's a Muslim community center, so it's open to all the people.

So for the last five years, we have all the community members, many of the different faiths they come and enjoy.

Tonight, uh, this is the month of Ramadan, and as most of you know, then we fast for 30 days from sun up to sundown.

And tonight we wanted to break our fast with all the residents and the Eloy uh council members and the mayor.

And me and I already got the food, and I just read and broke my fast, and everybody is welcome after the council meeting or doing the council meeting and come we are right across the street uh accounts in the city hall.

We have some really great food.

So the food actually that Jesus ate.

Not the burgers or the fries, uh, Jesus ate lambs and pita bread and samosas and amazing food, and it's all free.

And we would like you to come and break fast with us and enjoy the food, and special uh invitation to the our police chief here.

And I was hoping our judge would be here.

I don't know if he's here or not.

But uh, and uh we have some differences with Mr.

Uh Cooper and Mr.

Uh Daniel Simon, they're still also welcome.

And uh there's some differences on the supper, but uh if you are a public member of the community, we are contributing to the society, and we wish for everyone to come and join us and all the parents department also.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

That's very generous of you, sir.

Very generous.

And next we have uh Tahim.

Yes.

State your name, sir.

Good morning.

Good evening.

My name is Timil.

And we are making for today, that my lady and I love pay.

And what is welcome?

And to pay also, even though we took my patches, my toys, and everything else.

And me and my brothers will pass out the food, and I and I'll see you there.

I will peek out.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, sir.

That was very well done, by the way.

Okay, now that brings us to item number six reports and announcements.

And we start off with mayor announcements.

And you know you're a mayor.

He gets around.

Come on, man.

First on Friday, February Friday, February 13th.

That's right, Friday the 13th, which felt like a fitting day for a budget retreat.

City council and city staff got together mapping out next year's budget.

We're going into a year, we will have considerably less funding to work with.

But I want residents to know that we're going to be responsible, we're going to prioritize what matters most, and we're going to make every dollar count along the way.

On Tuesday, February 17th, I met with the owner of the new plate and pallet restaurant in the former encore space.

He gave me a tour, and he may be opening as soon as this week or maybe next week, fingers crossed.

We're excited to see that new business come, and we're decided we're excited to see that building active again because that's right on the main drag coming into Eloy.

Later that same day, Vice Mayor Tarango and I met with County Supervisor Videello to discuss solar projects in our area.

After that, we attended the Solar Neighborhood meeting here in our community room.

There were a lot of good questions from the public, especially about this project, which is right near our city border.

And I appreciate everyone who showed up to learn and to speak up.

On Wednesday, February 18th, I went to the Arizona State House to speak to the Transportation Committee to ask or beg for 8.2 million dollars to pay that last portion of Houser Road.

And I'll be meeting with representatives and senators individually in the near future, next week and the week after, to keep pushing this to make sure we can secure that funding.

On Thursday, February 19th, it was another great day.

Along with Council Member Barbrozka City staff, we cut the ribbon for the new MHO Hotel on Sun Land Jin Road.

The Patel family is doing a really impressive job.

They're remodeling the rooms two at a time, and we've remodeled the lobby, and they're quickly becoming true partners with the city of Eloy, and we wish them nothing but success.

And if anybody has family or friends coming into town, I highly recommend going over to the MHO.

It's not the 300 hour casterground a night hotel.

It's not.

We attended a press conference along with Congressman Sisko Mani at Vista Grand High School in Costa Gran.

The Congressman secured one million dollars for us to resurface parts of Frontier Street.

I thanked him.

I let him know that money will be well spent right here in Eloy.

And the VistaGran football team, the Spartans were there.

They put me in the front because they were behind me.

And that I'm always in the back.

I couldn't, I couldn't get over this.

And lastly, today, we have the groundbreaking for the Panel Hispanic Council's Tiny Home Project.

I'm very excited about this.

Penel Hispanic Council continues to invest in our community in ways to help people and improve lives.

We're grateful for their partnership.

So that's about it from the mayor.

Anyone on the right.

Thank you, Mayor.

You kind of hit every uh item I had except for one.

Um you and I and our respective spouses on uh February 11th attended the uh Florence uh State of the City Address.

It was very nice event and well presented.

I was really impressed with their junior city uh council group.

Um very good program.

They um they spoke very well and elegant eloquently, and um I think we need to somehow figure out a way to have something like that here in Eloy.

Um but uh that's it for me.

Yeah, their team council, they they really got that put put together very well that city.

They do.

Okay.

Joe.

Yes, um, other than uh also attending the uh groundbreaking today for the tiny houses.

One of the things that I so appreciated for uh his Pinel Hispanic Council is the whole hearted wellness that they are working on with not just working on the excuse me, the physical health, but the mental health and of being secure and having a secure place to live and a secure place to be able to uh feel safe.

One of the things the council members are responsible for is to build a safe community, and I think that this project is well uh within the realm of us doing that.

Also, I wanted to give a big shout out to the Santa Cruz Valley Union High School wrestling team this week.

They went, they took six of the wrestling team, um, went to qualified for state, uh two got semifinals, second places, and four came home as state champions.

So congratulations to them.

Okay.

Um in the last couple of weeks I did attend the Eloy Air Park area plan.

I was a little late, just a little.

Um, but um I was very pleased with the residents who had come out to listen to Dan and his team.

There's quite a bit of for me.

There was uh meeting with some of the residents provided some of the history that I already knew that took place, but I had an opportunity to hear what the residents wanted, especially those in that area.

That was great.

I did go to the budget retreat with with the rest of the council, and I was on time for that one.

In fact, that was even early.

Very informative, and I think we have a great year coming up here.

And of course, I went to this morning's ribbon or groundbreaking event, which was a long time in coming.

There are times I would look at Ralph and Atom.

Ralph, that's not coming in.

You already dropped the ball.

Well, he didn't.

He was working hard.

And I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Uh a few years ago, we took a uh a visit to the plant that's gonna be making the homes, and it's really amazing how they operate that.

They just wouldn't let me use any tools.

But anyhow, you had a great time.

Thank you.

Okay, uh last Friday, I attended a ULI, which is Urban Land Institute uh meeting.

They have an annual Trends Day conference.

It uh is one of the largest in the country.

There's between uh thousand and twelve hundred people attend that.

And it's really a conference on the land use and real estate trends.

So you talk about the trends.

Uh it starts at eight o'clock in the morning and finishes at about 4 15.

And it's all day sessions, no breaks.

So they have a 20-minute session right away, followed by another session, followed by another session, so it's all day.

Uh they talked about things like the economy, TM's.

TMs, get this right, TSMC.

People know what I'm talking about, T SMC.

That's a big chip manufacturing plant up in.

So there's a discussion about the ripple effects.

Someone semiconductor.

Yeah, semiconductor, yeah.

So that's from Taiwan, and they were talking about that's going in and all the other side effects, like the schools, the infrastructure, uh, workforce, uh, housing, all these things rippled off of that that you really don't think much about.

You think, oh, we got this factory, we've got these jobs, and it's good to the community, but all the the impact of that.

So the chip panel discussion.

The way this works, I already have maybe three or four people, and they have a uh moderator and they ask questions as a panel discussion.

That's the way the whole day goes.

So it's really informative in that respect.

Uh, they talked about the economy, they talked about uh the retail landscape, the fact that people returning back to the office, it's not the same office anymore.

The people coming back to wanting places for child care, they're wanting a maybe a coffee bar, all these things in the workplace that didn't exist before.

So those people coming back to work, they for retail or for office space now, you have to think about what your future workspace is going to be.

It's really changing.

They talked about the energy gap.

APS was there, and some of the uh energy people talked about the need for energy in Arizona, and the factors of gap.

Uh, the future is nuclear, and everybody agreed to that, but it's 10 years off.

And so, what do we do to bridge that gap in the meantime?

And they're talking about uh natural gas and even some coal, and talking about what we have to do to satisfy the customers today till we get to that nuclear.

And nuclear is not going to be the big polyverde, it's gonna be the small nuclear plants, maybe a little nuclear facility just for an individual factory, and so that's in development, but it takes time.

The legislature's got to make some changes, uh, local zoning, all this has got to happen to get there.

Uh talked about the role of sports and how sports, we talked to big the arenas and the uh stadiums, and how those are now turning into entertainment centers as opposed to just a sport event because they're doing concerts or doing more things around that.

They talked about Salt River Fields, and more people attend Salt River Fields for non-baseball events than they do for baseball events.

So we're talking about the future of sports and what it can do as an economic engine.

Uh there was a debate which ties right into what Cheryl's talking about this evening on housing policy and the the role of state versus local in housing development.

Very good discussion.

You know, the state is trying to do away with zoning or change zoning to help the affordable housing, and yet there's some pushback there from local communities on zoning.

So it's a very nice discussion back and forth on where that's going.

So just don't have answers, but just here's the state, and here's where we're headed.

A couple things on the economy I'm going to share with you.

They talked about the economy future.

The economy is good.

Everything's looking really good in the economy.

However, nothing's happening.

Why?

Everybody's scared of what's going to happen.

The uncertainty.

So the uncertainty has got everybody sitting on the sideline waiting to know.

They don't nobody wants to make that first stretch because what happens if there's a war?

What happens?

There's all these things going on right now.

And right during that conference, we got word that the Supreme Court wrote against the tariffs, which is there was a monkey wrench into everything.

But that was a very interesting discussion about that.

And a couple things that they threw out is that AI and data centers are driving the growth.

However, they're very concerned about housing around where they go.

They're looking for sites, and the first thing they look at was our employees.

Where's people live?

What's the what's the environment around where we want to put a data center?

The uh same comment.

One out of ten jobs created in the United States.

One out of every ten jobs in the United States is in Phoenix.

Think about that.

Think about that.

The population growth in Phoenix is three times the population growth of the United States.

Phoenix, they said has overbuilt multi-family.

I've heard a lot here about Casa Grand and the apartments and so forth.

They're now saying at Phoenix, we really jumped at trying to take care of all this population coming in.

We've overbuilt it.

And so that's really good because I mean rents are going to start dropping.

And they said it in Phoenix already rents have dropped seven percent in the last year.

Which should go to help housing.

Because means talking about affordable housing.

We have to work on what makes sense.

What kind of housing could people go into?

Housing is available if we can find ways to get them into it.

But anyway, I thought that was a really good conference.

Dan Seimer from uh community development was there too.

I never saw him.

There was 1,200 people.

They kind of looked around and just you don't see each other.

But it was a great day, and I think uh I look forward to that every year because it's uh you learned a lot.

Thank you.

Sorry for the length of time.

No, thank you.

Thank you.

It's very interesting.

And one in ten, that's that's quite a number.

That really is.

Okay, it brings us to item City Manager announcements.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

How am I supposed to follow that after Dan has all this informative material and stuff?

Come on, man, you're making my job hard.

Uh, but anyways, I've just got a couple of items on my docket today.

So, first we have the summer hiring for aquatics and recreation program.

So we usually hire about 30 total positions across both programs.

Um, right now the ranges of wages are kind of ranging between $15 to $19 per hour, so actually relatively competitive, uh competing with you know local internships and other things in the area.

Um, and then these positions that are competitive with flexible scheduling, uh valuable for workforce experience, and just great for students coming out of high school or college that want to come back and just have a summer job in Eloy.

Um that's gonna be starting right now.

I believe the recruitment is open, and we are going to be starting those positions in May when the pool opens.

So following that, we also have our spring break camp, so Troy Thomas Community Center.

Uh, we're gonna be having week one is gonna be starting on March 9th through 12, and that's gonna be Monday through Thursday.

Uh week two on that is gonna be starting March 16th through 19th, so you can register online right now.

The camp hours for those are 7 30 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

And so this is for families that want to have after uh after hours and during school programming for their children.

Um if you have your working kind of similar to what Chaval was talking about in her presentation.

This allows you know, people that have families and kids that they want to put into programming, have that ability to have that here in Eloy.

So participants will enjoy group games, arts and crafts, sports, video games, and various other activities during that time.

So uh definitely look forward to having some families register in that program.

It's always one of our most successful ones throughout the year, so just that's available on our uh on online on our website.

And then the last update I wanted to provide was just on the overall nitrate systems, uh, as you all are aware that we posted several weeks ago with the elevated nitrate system uh in our system.

Um, over the last several weeks, we have been blending our water and been doing pretty much overtime of running our wells nine to fourteen hours a day, blending additional water to bring those nitrates down.

Uh based on our internal testing, we have seen drops below the threshold, but until we get our formal ADQ um basically review in April, that notice of violation is gonna stay in effect.

But the good news is from our internal testing, those nitrates have dropped, but the notice of violation will remain in effect.

So as that is still in effect, please still adhere to the parameters that are outlined on our website.

Do not use the uh faucet water.

Make sure that you're using their water bottled water or you're going to other facilities to get that water for your children or your animals as well, because it the higher nitrates can impact smaller animals as well.

And then just a reminder to all the families and residents, we do have bottled water here available at City Hall.

So if you come down to City Hall or you have the ability to contact a family member or somebody to come pick up a bottle of uh basically a case of water uh per week, we're allowing a case of water for families for you guys to come down and get it for uh four million or anything else that you might need for your family.

So um, we're gonna have that 8 to 5 p.m.

during working hours, and then just make sure that you bring in a water bill that says you are being served by Eloy, and we'll have those cases of water available.

And that's all I have, Mr.

Well, thank you, Meg, and that's really good news about the nitrates.

That's that that's tremendous news.

Okay, well that brings us to item seven, consent agenda.

All items on the consent agenda are considered routine and will be approved by a similar motion in a single local vote of the council.

There will be no separate discussion of those items unless a council member requested.

In that case, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and discussed in regular order.

Do any council members wish to have anything removed from the consent agenda?

Hearing none, I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as written.

So moved.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Galindo.

Yes.

Councilmember Valderasca?

Yes.

Councilmember Curtis.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Torango?

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder?

Yes.

Mayor Sutton.

Yes.

Thank you, everybody.

On to item number eight business possible discussion.

And action on the following.

Item A.

Acceptance of a proposal from MHQ of Arizona for emergency setup services for two 2025 Ford F-150 respond to police trucks with pricing for our book zona state contract.

Ctrl 078487 for an amount not to exceed $65,000 using funds from the one-time $200,000 state legislation appropriation to the Eloy Police Department.

Anybody have any questions on this item or anything like this move forward?

You're off the hook, Chief.

Okay, I'm looking for a motion to approve item A.

Second.

Councilmember Bandalaska.

Yes.

Councilmember Curtis.

Yes.

Yes.

Councilmember Snyder.

Yes.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Galindo.

Yes.

Mayor Sutton.

Yes.

Okay, that's going to put us into, I will look for a motion for executive session.

I will now call for a motion to enter executive session pursuant to Arizona revised statute, Section 38-431.03 A3 and 4 to discuss and consult with the city attorney, acting city manager, and city staff if applicable regarding discussion and negotiations of employment contract of city manager in order to consider its position and instruct city staff and attorney regarding the public body's position regarding discussions conducted on the city manager employment contract, city code and legal advice pursuant to ARS 38-431-A13 and four.

This executive session is closed to the public, and any council members, essential city staff and city attorney will be present.

All attendees are reminded their obligation to maintain confidentiality of the executive session discuss required by Arizona law.

And for the executive session, I would like to ask all city council members.

And the attorney.

Second.

Councilmember Garcia?

Yes.

Councilmember Galindo?

Yes.

Councilmember of Alaska?

Yes.

Councilmember Curtis.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Torango?

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider?

Yes.

Mayor Sutton.

Yes.

So ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for coming out tonight and participating and being with us here.

And we're about to go into the executive session.

We'll probably be there for over an hour.

So I think I'm just going to tell you I'll have a safe trip home.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.