Okay.

Okay, so I'm highlighted and then I'd be closing.

We got a couple of food.

And all you know, sometimes regulated.

We have a response.

I didn't know you were thinking that you just mic is really powerful.

All right, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to tonight's Eloy City Council meeting.

Today is Monday, June eighth, twenty twenty-six.

The time is approximately six PM.

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

Council Member Vladovska.

Here.

Council Member Curtis.

Here.

Vice Mayor Tarango.

Here.

Councilmember Schneider.

Here.

Councilmember Garcia.

President.

Councilmember Golinda.

Here.

Mayor Sutton.

Here.

That way we all please rise for a moment of silence.

And the pledge of allegiance that will be led off by Councilmember Bodrodska.

Got it.

And that brings us to item number five, public appearance.

And looks like tonight we have one public appearance.

Mayor, may you please just state your name in the city where you live.

Hello?

Okay.

I'm wondering if before the election you'll invite all the people who are running for office with us, you know, like the judge or on the council, will they be invited to come and speak?

I think a couple years ago that was done one time, and everybody gave a little talk about why we should uh elect them.

Okay, that's all I want to know.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And just to that point on Wednesday, we will be having a candidates' forum here at City Hall on Wednesday.

And everybody and anybody is welcome to attend.

We'll be at 6 p.m., right?

Wednesday.

This coming Wednesday, 6 p.m.

in the community room.

Absolutely.

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

And the mayor has some announcements.

I'm surprised.

On Thursday, May 27th, 7th, along with our city manager and representatives from the Eloy Police Department and Panell County.

I attended emergency response meeting at Robeson Ranch.

The meeting was organized by Robeson Ranch resident and council candidate Ross Dumfey.

The purpose was to review strategic plans and coordination efforts in the event of an emergency that would require a large-scale evacuation in the area.

It was a productive discussion, and I appreciate everyone who attended and participated.

To further that topic, I also met with representatives from Union Pacific to discuss the recent train derailment near Sunland Gin.

After hearing their response and reviewing their plans moving forward, I'm comfortable with the actions being taken and their commitment to safety.

And I thank them for getting rid of those ugly train cars that were sitting there all broken up.

On Thursday, May 28th, along with Council Members Garcia and Badrotska, we met with Congressman Juan Ciscomani and U.S.

Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, and representatives from the U.S.

Small Business Administration.

We discussed the importance of cot cotton production and agriculture in our region, as well as the administration's effort to strengthen America's agriculture and position in the United States as the world's leading cotton producer once again.

The U.S.

has fallen to number two in cotton production, and we plan on taking that back.

On Friday, June 5th, along with fellow council members, I attended the Panell Partner Breakfast with city managers from across Panel County shared their perspectives on their perspectives on I know I'm flipping papers here and challenges and opportunities facing their communities.

It was very informative to hear the different viewpoints and to see firsthand how cities and towns of Pennell County actually continue to work together to support one another and they're supporting one another in many ways, and some of those are big financial ways.

Cities actually loan money back and forth.

And to wrap up earlier today, along with council members Garcia and Snyder, and members of the Eloy Police Department, we met with the warden, of course, Civics, Sawaro Correctional for Senate Center, and members of his staff.

We had a productive discussion about the facility, its operations, and its ongoing relationships with the city of Eloy.

There was a big focus at the luncheon on the program with inmates and dogs.

It was very interesting.

You know, assistance dogs.

And they trained them right in a facility.

And I kind of told them in Elo, we have no shortage of dogs we can supply.

None whatsoever.

And we appreciate their willingness to meet and continue fostering a strong partnership with our community.

I know this was a short one.

Mr.

Vodrotsky, you have anything?

Uh no, sir.

No, sir.

Thank you, though, for the opportunity.

I also attended the Penell Partnership Breakfast.

I had to leave early because I also attended the resource roundup.

I Panal Partnership helped me to understand that we're whether a city is a big city with a high population or a small city, we're all kind of dealing with the same issues.

Roads, infrastructure, and its costs, growth, good or bad, we're all kind of dealing with the same issues.

So it's great that they're working together.

All the cities are working together.

And uh had some great speakers.

The keynote speaker was Joel Millman, and he talked about you know the the uh workforce needs for the community, um, and how you know one community support and success helps all communities within the area with growth and economic development.

So that was good to hear.

He also put up a slide that I took a picture of that I thought was interesting because he said it was the number one list of skills that employers are asking for.

Um, and I've shared it, I shared it with some of the council members.

It's communication management, operations, problem solving leadership, troubleshooting, sales, customer service, detail-oriented, lifting ability, planning, ex uh Microsoft Excels, packaging and labeling, and Microsoft Office.

Um of these skills can be achieved in our school district.

Uh some of them can be achieved by you know, training programs at Central Arizona College.

But the more majority of these skills are um developed when they're in the home.

And I think that's one of the things we need to uh just let families and communities know that the skills that they're learning are home at home are the skills that they're taking into the workforce.

So I also signed up for water aerobics this year.

Uh it was this is my second year, and the staff, the facilities, everything is great, but I understand we have a waiting list.

That it is such a popular program at the Eloy Aquatic Center that there's a waiting list.

They have 21 already enrolled.

25 now.

Um, and people are still waiting.

Uh I uh last year when I was in the program, there were uh participants from Casagrant from Coolidge from Arizona City.

They like to come to the Eloy Pool.

They love the program that Eloy provides.

So kudos to community services.

Uh they they have similar water aerobics programs in their communities, but they prefer to travel and come to the Eloy one.

So good job.

Um, and then uh the next day I attended the uh yard sale, the community yard sale.

Found some bargains, found some.

Uh one of the things I was looking for were trees, uh, but then I had to leave because I had to go to a memorial service, and by the time I came back, I had been outsold.

So still on the lookout for certain trees.

Um, and that's about it for me, Mayor.

Thank you.

Well, in addition to the partnership, Cisco Mani and Core Civic today, I did attend or attempted to attend, to be honest with you, a Naleo webinar on we redrawing power, the fight for representation after Carlos, like just the uh Supreme Court's decision on redistricting.

Uh what I was managed to hear was really great.

I did requested the webinar copy, so hopefully I'll be able to share with that with everyone.

That's it for me.

I was just like to add on what the mayor said about the uh Seguero uh meeting today.

Dr.

The Mayor talked about the dogs and uh so forth, but one of the nice things about that program, it benefits the inmates.

And so it's not only getting dogs that come from uh shelters uh that uh kind of screen the dogs a little bit to come in, but the dogs live in the cells with the inmates, and so they're responsible for walking them and the total thing, and and also it gives uh the inmates, I guess, something to get involved in to start the process of uh, I guess outgoing, if you will.

Uh, because what happens uh, and there was some discussion about that at my table at least, that there's some programs in uh Pennell County and also the prisons of what we can do to help the uh prisoners when they get released.

Just don't open the door and put them out in the street, but just kind of assist them uh helping it jobs, transportation, so they have something to do when they leave.

And this dog program is part of that.

I remember years ago they had the uh greyhound dogs that when the uh racetracks in Florida closed down, they had all those dogs, and the prisoners were involved with that.

And that was a great program.

And the uh prisoners really looked after those dogs.

And so I think the same thing happening now.

So I think it's it works both ways.

It's not even good for the dogs, but it's also good for the uh inmates as well.

Thank you.

Yeah, to further that the warden did say that the inmates involved with the dog training program went practically to zero on repaymans in trouble within the prison.

So that's a good thing.

It makes their job easier and it gets us a good product at the end.

We'll take that every time.

Next up is item number C City Manager announcements.

Awesome.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh, not a whole lot of updates for me this tonight.

Um, the only update I have is really just wanted to share with the community because I know it's an event that historically we haven't seen a ton of participation in over the years, but we're gonna be having our 4th of July event, obviously on the 4th of July Saturday.

Um, it's gonna start off with free swim from 12 to 4 p.m.

at the Eloy Aquatic Center, and then we're really gonna be kicking off with a huge event from 5 to 9 p.m.

at uh Main Street Park.

And really, this is gonna be an amped up Fourth of July event because it's going to be a combination celebration for the 250th years of independence for the United States.

So we're gonna have live music, we're gonna have water slides, food vendors, giveaways, uh specialized swag and shirts and stuff that are current commemorating the event.

So we really wanted to get some good participation there with fireworks and a lot of the activities that are gonna be happening that day.

So um keep spreading the word on this item, and then obviously the city from our perspective, we're gonna be announcing it throughout the uh the month of June.

And then obviously one of the major events that we're gonna be having that's gonna be kind of the kickstone, the kicking off of a capstone event for the July 4th moving forward is gonna be uh a taco eating contest.

So we're looking to get some pretty cool participants in that and then have a good you know competitive environment for putting together basically a taco championship belt that's gonna be passed around year after year for the July 4th.

So make sure to show up because it's gonna be good.

Hopefully, no one pukes.

Um, but we'll we'll see what happens.

We'll see what happens.

But besides that, Mayor, that's the only update I had today, and then I'm gonna pass it over to uh Sergio Beniales, our police chief, who's gonna give his monthly report.

Thank you.

Good evening.

First of all, good evening, uh, mayor, vice mayor, council members, our city attorney, city manager, and city clerk.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come up here and speak to you tonight.

It's been a couple months since I've been up here.

So I just want to give you guys some updates.

Usually I do a monthly report and cover a couple things uh from intern uh internal updates, community engagement activities, and I go over some statistics and stuff.

Tonight I'm just gonna concentrate on internal updates and also community engagement and outreach activities.

As you can see, I brought a little nice poster board in here, uh, which is the smart 911 system.

So I'll be talking about that a little bit here in a minute.

Um, some of the internal department updates.

We are actively um seeking to fill some additional vacant police department positions.

Uh three police officer positions.

We currently have 29 officers, and we currently have three lateral applicants that are in the background process, which usually takes probably four to five months, sometimes as long as six months to get people through a complete and thorough background.

Um, we currently have three active dispatchers right now, and three dispatch vacancies.

Um, that is very critical.

Um, as you guys can all imagine, trying to keep a dispatcher in a dispatch center 24-7, 365 days a year with only three dispatchers.

Um, so I've been working with the HR director, the city manager to try to fill those positions and come up with you know some good recruitment ways to get qualified personnel in that.

Unfortunately, the the hires we've had in recent past didn't pan out and weren't able to make it through the training process as it is very uh very tough and very uh stressful job, as you guys can imagine.

So I want to give with that, I want to give a special thanks to my current dispatchers for maintaining uh the great service to the community handling police and fire calls.

Those dispatchers are Amanda Viesquez, Audra Calkins, Brittany Beechum, and then our supervisor who is also a dispatcher, Tricia Wilcox.

So I just want to say thank you to them for kind of holding the fort down during these tough times with low staffing.

Um we are currently also processing two reserve officer applicants.

And lastly, we are also recruiting for entry-level police officers.

I'm happy to report that on this past Saturday, we had a um police officer physical agility test to test uh nine applicants who were testing for the police officer recruit position.

We're hoping that we can send one or two officers to the academy in the fall, which will start at the Gilbert Academy in September.

Um so we had nine, we had I think 12 people that applied initially, and nine showed up for the test.

Uh so hopefully we'll get a couple of good applicants out of that.

Uh, as I said before, getting to the background process is very rigorous, and our pass rate through a background process is 15 to 20 percent of applicants can pass the background.

And with that, I also want to uh make sure, you know, I'm thanking, you know, reiterating that the city manager and HR director is helping us a lot with that.

So hopefully we can continue and get some good uh good candidates in there.

First community engagement.

Uh community engagement is essentially building trust and legitimacy, and that's been one of my goals with the police department is to make sure I build upon that.

The month of May, the Eloy Police Department participated in or attended the following.

On Monday, May 18th, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr.

Ruben Layos' ninth grade freshman success class at the high school.

And that was really interesting to sit in like two or three periods of ninth graders, especially when they're in the last week of school.

So you can imagine their attention span.

Um but they had some interesting questions.

Um of course, the popular question, have you ever shot anybody?

always comes up.

Um so I was proud to say that I have not.

And um, so you know, the great questions though, as they came out of their shelves.

There were some great questions that were law enforcement related, and also is a lot of good community related questions that I really was kind of surprised to get from a ninth grade class.

So that was a good opportunity.

On Saturday, May 18th and Saturday, May 30th, the Eloy Police Department, in partnership with the Panau County Animal Care and Control, um, hosted vaccination clinics at City Hall, as we've been doing for months, and that's been very popular.

And I'm just really surprised at the turnout that we continue to get at those vaccination clinics.

On Cinco de Maile, Eloy PD conducted a DUI enforcement detail that was funded by the Arizona Government Office of Highway Safety, which we refer to as GUHS.

Um they also provide an annual grant of approximately $8,500 in overtime for DUI, speed enforcement, and education initiatives to reduce related injuries, uh traffic related injuries and deaths to protect motorists, pedestrians, families, and visitors traveling through the Eloy community.

Some of the upcoming GOHS activities include Independence Day, DUI enforcement, back to school enforcement, uh, which will be looking at speed and school zones, crosswalk enforcement, hands-free device use.

That'll be July 19th or August 1st.

Also doing a Labor Day enforcement, and that's September 7th.

Child passenger safety week, which will be September 20th to the 26th.

And with that, we're looking at child safety seats and seat belts.

And for people who don't know in the community who are listening right now, um, if you are under the age of eight years old, you need to be in a booster or child seat.

And if you're shorter than four foot nine, you also need to be in a booster seat or child safety seat.

Lastly, I'm happy to announce we have launched two platforms to enhance our community um communication with uh the Eloy community, the Smart 911 and VersaTerm Community Connect.

If you look up here to my left and to the in front of the city council here, uh put a poster board here that explains our SMART 911 system.

Uh, this is an app that uh for those who wish to participate are gonna have to use the SKU or text a code which is on this board here to sign up for the program.

And then they have you create a username and put some information in there to become a user with that.

Um enable emergency notifications such as weather alerts, public safety information, road closures, events, and announcements.

Users can also add profile info to include an emergency contact, vehicle information, pet information, cell number, and a cell number.

Services free for citizens, and we will also post this information on our social media outlets so people can sign up for that as well.

The Summer 191 system is a city's emergency community enhances the city's uh emergency communication capabilities.

It improves situation uh situational awareness of first responders and enhances the overall safety and preparedness of the Eloy community.

This system is provided through Arizona's statewide emergency notification initiative and aligns with the Eloy PDE's commitment to leveraging technology to improve safety.

And then lastly, I'll touch on the verse term community connect.

I believe City Manager may have covered this briefly in a previous city council meeting, but I wanted to add some more details on this.

Um the versaton community connect is a platform that will communicate to reporting parties, victims via text message after a non-emergency or 911 call is made to dispatch.

Community connect will provide the reporting party with updates on police responses, you know, meaning like the officers on his way, they've been delayed.

Also provide the reporting party with the case number, investigation updates, judicial proceedings if applicable, and also to include incarcerate incarceration and release status of the arrested party if applicable.

Community connect will also give the caller an opportunity to complete a customer survey regarding service by the handling officer, the dispatcher, and the overall service by the police department.

Community connect uh went live on May 19th of this year.

And since we have received, we have sent out correction, 509 surveys in that short time.

Approximately 130 surveys were completed.

Of that 130, when they send out the 530, I'm sorry, 509, some of those go to landlines, which they can't complete.

Um the system just records a number that's taken from the dispatcher.

Whatever numbers entered out, it will send a survey that number.

So if it goes to a landline, we will get no feedback.

But if it goes to a cell phone and they decide to take the survey, um, we will get some feedback on that.

So 130 surveys were completed, and Eloy PD has a customer satisfaction score of 4.5 on a one to point on one to five scale.

Um one being poor service and five being excellent service.

And I I wrote down just a couple of comments that I got here from that on 526, May 26th.

A comment said, We found the job site site, excuse me.

We found the job site robbed.

My guys were on standby.

Thank you for the quick response.

Uh we continued our work in a timely manner.

Another one on May 30th.

Everything was handled professionally, so I was very satisfied with the outcome.

And another one on 526, everything resolved was resolved in a very professional way.

Thank you.

So it's kind of cool to be able to see that real-time feedback and some of the comments that are in there.

And um, you know, being able to show where that service is, whether it be with the officer initial responding, where the dispatcher taking the call, or and then the overall service um to the police department to the citizen.

So that's a great tool.

Um, you know, just the fact that we got 509 surveys sent out in that short time.

Uh that was less than a month.

So I'm curious to see what that's gonna look like over a quarter over the year, and uh the real get some real-time feedback as well.

We can put some resources in department to improve service.

So, with that, I'm open to any questions you might have.

Well, thank you, Chief.

And I would just like to echo what you said to the dispatchers.

Having worked in a control center for many years, and I know what short staffing is, and it's stress.

It's stress.

You go home and you you just don't know what to do.

Your people at home, it's yeah, it's a lot.

And let's keep them, let's try to keep them as good as possible.

That's a big deal.

I appreciate that.

I'll pass that.

And your community engagement.

Um, I I love you're out there with the young ones, man.

Yeah, this is the time when they got they might do something silly.

And if we can just stop that, uh, it'll change a life with that engagement.

It really could.

So with that, all my right.

Anyone got anything?

Yeah.

Go ahead.

I just want to say thanks again for uh meeting with the city council.

You do this pretty regularly, and we appreciate your updates.

I'm sure very good information for us as well as the rest of the citizens of Eloy.

So thank you.

Yeah, thank you for giving me an opportunity to do so.

Um, I'm sorry I didn't get to make it to the uh fill the police car event at the tumbleweed, but I do have some um water and electrolytes to donate.

So I'll drop them off sometime this week.

Thank you.

We'll take all we can get.

Just have one question that maybe you said it and I didn't hear it.

These posters here, where are they located so citizens know what to scan?

Or how can they get that information?

I believe we had dropped some off at Robison Ranch.

Um we were gonna put some here in City Hall.

We also discussed putting some at the senior center, and I believe the community center.

Nobody has any the schools.

Oh, it's definitely available to them.

Hopefully, um by us posting this information on the on the um websites, our social media outlets at that, they'll get that information as well.

But we can pass it on to our school resource officer and get it out to the schools as well.

And chief, this is something we can probably use at the beginning beginning of the school year as well as parent teacher conferences when the parents are there to see it.

Kids will not pay attention.

They're not gonna sign up.

I did see the poster at the at robes center, and I went over there and just I I took a shot and I filled out the information.

It's pretty quick, it's pretty painless.

I don't know, looking forward.

And this is something we can I can send out to the superintendents as well to make sure it gets out to the school staff.

If the post office will let you, there's a lot of people that use the post office to that's a great idea.

The lobby.

I'll just go in there and put it up.

All right.

Well, chief, thank you so much for the update.

Greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Mayor Council.

Okay, that brings us now to item number seven, which is consent agenda.

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

There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member so request, in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence of the agenda.

Anyone have anything or issues with the agenda?

Mayor, um, I don't want it pulled, but I do need a clarification on um agenda item 7C is in Charlie.

Uh it's regarding approval of one-year contract extensions with the Bureau of Ertus North America Inc.

Safe Built Arizona LLC and Standeck Consulting Services.

Um, just the clarification within that subject line, it says it's a one-year uh contract extension.

The supporting documents that the eventually the city manager will sign also indicate their one year um terms, but within the recommendation and that paragraph, the dates that are in there are for two-year extension and just need a clarification from our uh director of community uh development.

Mayor members of the council uh councilman Vraska is in a kid, yes.

The date should be the January um June 30th, 2027 instead of June 30th, 2028.

So everything else is correct, it's just that put us eight instead of a seven.

So you want to make a motion to council member to approve the agenda with the correction mayor.

I make a motion to approve the uh consent agenda with the um exception of item C being clarified for the contract specifically being a one-year extension.

So here is second.

Second Madam Clerk, please.

Councilmember Valdraska.

Yes, Councilmember Curtis, yes, Vice Mayor Tarango, yes, Councilmember Schneider, yes, Councilmember Garcia, yes, Councilmember Galindo.

Yes, Mayor Sutton.

Yes.

Okay, thank you, everybody.

That brings us now to item number eight, business possible discussion and/or action on the follow.

Adoption of resolution number 26-1665, adopting the tenant budget for the fiscal year 2026-2027 in the city of Eloy for the amount of 101, 339, 705.

Mr.

Wright.

Yeah, Mr.

Mayor, members of the council.

Yeah, tonight is the uh recommendation to adopt resolution 26 1665.

This is setting the the limit for the the tentative budget.

Um you have to remember when we do the when the council passes this resolution, passing the tenant budget sets our maximum limit.

So in the next two weeks, we can't go above that limit.

That's our threshold.

We can only go down.

Um so what the process is is we will be posting in the paper, Cascarin Valley newspaper for two weeks.

It will run this Thursday and next Thursday.

At that time, um, we will be holding a on the 25th, which will be a special meeting at 5:30.

We'll be holding a public hearing on the property tax levy.

We'll be then holding a public hearing on the the budget and then adopting the final budget on the 25th.

Then on believe it is um July 13th, the first meeting in July, we will be passing the property tax ordinance that night.

Um this is I would say the 12th out of the 13 steps, if you want to say, but I mean we're this is the lot one of the last uh measures we have to do besides adopting the the final budget.

So um everything has been uh discussed at our previous budget meetings we've held.

So I'll be gladly to entertain any questions council has anyone on councils have any questions for Mr.

Wright concerning the budget?

Yes, we might have had a meeting or two going over this.

Yes, we have okay.

At this time, do we hear a motion to read by title adoption of resolution 26 1665?

So moved.

We have a second second, second, all in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed motion carries, madam clerk resolution number 26165, a resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Eloy, Arizona, adopting the tentative budget for the fiscal year 2026 2027.

Do we have a motion to approve resolution 26-1665 as presented?

So moved.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Roll call, please, madam clerk.

Councilmember Garcia.

Yes, Councilmember Galindo.

Yes, Councilmember Vadraska.

Yes.

Councilmember Curtis.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Tarango.

Yes.

Councilmember Schneider.

Yes.

Mayor Sutton.

Yes.

Okay, then that brings us to item number nine, which will be executive session.

Executive session, pursuant to ARS 38 days 431.03A3N4.

Discussion and consultation with the city attorney, city staff regarding community outreach funding programs and legal advice related to program administration funding allocation to eligibility requirements, policy consideration.

The city's position and instructions and representatives concerning the program implementation of distributed of funds.

Do I have a motion to break into executive session with all of city council, the city attorney, city manager, and Mr.

Wright?

So moved.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen of the public, we're gonna go into executive session.

I want to thank you all for coming out tonight and have a safe trip home.

And we'll see you again in probably two weeks ish.

Or hopefully Wednesday night, actually.

Hopefully Wednesday night.

And bring your questions, ladies.

I know you got them.

Do we want to go online?

No.

The executive so I got a motion to adjourn.

Salute.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Aye.

All in favor.

All in favor?

Aye.