Good morning, everybody.

The December third, 2025 meeting of the city council is called to order.

This meeting has been properly noticed and posted in compliance with the open meeting law.

These proceedings are being video recorded and can be viewed live on City of Las Vegas TV on Cox Cable Channel 2.

You could also watch the meeting live online and access other city content by visiting Las Vegas, Nevada dot gov slash connect.

The proceedings will be rebroadcast rebroadcast on City of Las Vegas TV, the Wednesday of the meeting at 8 p.m.

and also on Friday at uh 4 a.m., Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 7 a.m.

and the following Monday at 5 p.m.

This building is protected by a state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression sprinkler system.

If alarms should activate during today's meeting, please evacuate dur uh using the exits at the back of the chambers out to the mezzanine, proceed out the double doors to the terrace and down the back staircase.

For anybody that has difficulty with stairs, please check with the marshal or fire official for assistance.

Once outside, assemble on the northeast corner across the street from City Hall at Lewis and First Street.

Employees wearing safety vests or our city marshals will inform you when it is safe to re-enter the building.

For public comment related to the items on the agenda, citizen participation and public hearing items, we have available a speaker card which you can complete and submit to the city clerk.

Cards are available in the clerk's office or at the rear of the chambers.

If you do not submit a card, it does not prevent you from speaking under public comment, citizens' participation, or specified public hearing items.

If there is anyone present today that is in need of hairy hearing impaired equipment, please see the city clerk staff.

May all of those who don't appear before a microphone or in on a camera, uh, those in the room, those out of the room, those who greeted us on the way in, and those who prepared the room, may they find joy in their work today as well.

For all who are to be honored, may you experience deep joy and gratitude for the things that God has allowed you to accomplish in the name of our city so that we might flourish, and for all of those who are seeking clarity, may they find what they're looking for so that we might flourish in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Will you lead us in the pledge?

Yes, ma'am.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation.

Under God, individual liberty, justice.

Thank you so much.

We will now proceed with the ceremony.

We will now proceed with the ceremonials.

Thank you.

Okay, for our first ceremonial item, Mayor Pro Tem Knutson has the honor of recognizing our citizen of the month.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

And I'm going to invite uh Dr.

Ma to comment up to the front here.

Uh so just real quick.

So I was at a signing of a bill with the governor maybe two months ago, and Dr.

Ma came up to me and he said, I think you should make me citizen of the month.

And I I appreciate the forwardness of that.

Um but there's some things I know about Dr.

Ma that I think are important for everyone to know.

Um, so I met Dr.

Ma uh a few years ago.

Uh he was the dean of the dental school.

The dental school relies or sits in the Las Vegas Medical District.

Um, and we started talking about running.

We we share plantar fascitis.

Um, but then I started learning about all these other things that Dr.

Ma is responsible for.

He owned land in Councilwoman Diaz's board.

Uh he has a hobby of working on cars.

Um he also just worked with the state legislature on building out the first, I'm gonna get this wrong, but it's a first of its kind clinic um in the dental school to work with kids with cleft pallet syndrome, something that Nevada has never had before.

So he started something that doesn't exist in Nevada but now does exist because of his his leadership.

Um but he came to me and said he wants to be citizen of the month because he he created a new way of trapping feral cats.

And so I what he traps feral cats, gets them spade and neutered, releases them back to the wild.

So this is what uh good citizens in Las Vegas do.

And so I wanted to recognize him, not because he asked me to, but because he's a good example of what we should all be doing.

So this is this is what I take away from Dr.

Ma is if you're sitting at at home and you're thinking about all the terrible things that are going on in the world, there's wonderful things too, but you're doomed scrolling through Facebook and text and all these things.

You could be trapping frail cats and helping them.

You could be working on cars.

You could be creating uh new clinics in the dental school, you could be doing all these other amazing things.

And as humans, we have such finite amount of time.

If we focus on the negative, we end up focusing on the negative.

Or we could be like Dr.

Ma and run and trap feral cats and work on cars and build out health care for children who desperately need it.

And so uh you are a citizen of the month because you inspire me to be more like you, and I hope I can be more like you someday.

So I will turn the microphone over to you.

Thank you very much, Councilman Goodson.

By the way, the uh remote uh the cat trap, I modified a car door opener with the remote so I could watch the cat go in and click the button and the door closes, which made it really nice and efficient.

So if anybody out there is looking for an efficient way with a hundred percent accuracy to trap small animals, I'm your guy.

I'm also the guy that has probably spent uh too many years in academia.

First uh at the University of Alberta in Canada and later on at Harvard University, uh, then University of Southern California, and more recently at UNLV.

I spent uh over 14 years in higher education uh getting my various uh degrees uh done, but the time went by in a flash, and the entire time I was soaking up the knowledge around me.

And honestly, I never left academia.

The educational journey took me to areas and disciplines that I could never imagine.

I was proud to be a member of many outstanding research teams that studied topics such as Parkinson's disease, lead poisoning, toxicology, genetic mapping, bone repair, and many other health-related topics.

This work also provided an opportunity for me to travel the world and meet scientists from countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, and Russia.

Subsequent to my education, I spent another 30 years in academia, first in Boston, then later on in Los Angeles.

In 2005, I received an urgent call from UNLV to help with the accreditation of the newly formed School of Dental Medicine.

And I answered that call.

I've I'm delighted that some of them are here today.

As far as patient care, since I've spent my entire career in academic institutions, I've been a witness to the all too common problem in healthcare of unmet need with limited resources.

This too has taken me to very unique areas of the world, such as the 60th parallel between Canada and Alaska, and also to the land of which is the land of the midnight sun, and to communities in South Central Los Angeles in areas such as Berlin and Lithuania following their change in government.

Here in Las Vegas, I'm taking everything I've learned and experienced to develop clinical and techniques and systems to provide better health care.

Because patients go to an academic institution, it is not a lesser care.

I've worked to leverage technology, innovative clinical techniques to give people premium care at lower cost to the taxpayers.

If you know anyone with intellectual or development disability in need of oral health care, please pass on the message and let them know we now have a purpose-built clinic for their dental care.

In closing, I'm proud to be a citizen in the city of Las Vegas, and I'm happy to continue to serve our community through education and health care.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so I'm gonna ask Dr.

Ma's friends friends and family to come on up front.

I do have a proclamation here.

I'm not gonna read it, but I also um wanted to just let you know that I was told this this last week that I think there was a point in time where you you you were able to take in some cats and some kittens, and you actually were fostering them in your office at work because you had you couldn't do that at home as I understand it.

Um but I would just want to say the person who takes in those those tiny kittens, the person who takes care of those cats, the person who builds out the clinics in the dental school, those are the leaders you want to follow.

So thank you for leading us.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Let's go in front of the podium for a picture.

Oh, I'm so sorry, though.

For our final item, Congresswoman Francis Alan Polensky will recognize a local congresswoman.

Oh, yes.

Congratulations, and you didn't even have to run for it.

Believe me, it's no big deal.

I've been there.

Okay.

Our final item.

Councilwoman Frances Alan Polensky will recognize the local nonprofit organization.

Councilwoman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

This morning, I am proud to recognize the tremendous impact of the Max Crosby Foundation and celebrate all its accomplishments here in Southern Nevada.

Can I get the board members from the foundation to come up, please?

Yep.

Perfect.

Perfect, perfect.

Established in 2023 by Pro NFL Pro Bowl Defensive and Max Crosby and his wife Rachel.

To my right, the Max Crosby Foundation has quickly become a force for good in our community.

What began as a vision to give back has grown into a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting teen substance abuse intervention, promoting youth health and wellness, and advancing a wide range of charitable causes.

The Max Crosby Foundation understands that youth health and wellness is essential to building strong, resilient, and empowered communities.

Today we honor their dedication, their compassion, and their unwavering commitment as specifically to the well-being of the people they serve, the children of Southern Nevada.

And now we, the mayor and the members of the Las Vegas City Council proudly proclaim December 3rd, 2025, as the Max Crosby Foundation Day in the city of Las Vegas.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

First off, thank you to Councilwoman Polinski, uh Mayor Berkeley, and all the members of the City Council for this incredible honor.

I'm Bert Trembling the executive director of the Max Crosby Foundation.

So first and foremost, I'm not Max Crosby.

If you came to see him, I apologize.

But uh, but he's got uh some wonderful people representing him.

Uh Rachel Crosby, as you just met, uh, and some some folks from the Raiders organization have been incredibly supportive of the Max Crosby Foundation since we started just two years ago.

And I just wanted to mention you you heard the mission statement uh just now from the Max Crosby or for the Max Crosby Foundation.

In addition to that, uh, we're just so proud to support the community.

Uh Max has been very open about his personal story, and he is using that to help others throughout the community.

And uh he's the face behind the foundation, but I'll tell you the the the brains and the organization is right here behind me.

That is Rachel.

And uh we have a great board that works very well together.

Just last week, we uh we were at the M Resort partnering with Hope for the City.

Uh and we uh were able to provide Thanksgiving meals to nearly 400 families in southern Nevada on December 23rd.

We're going to be at a local Walmart partnering with the boys and girls clubs, uh providing uh Christmas gifts and uh uh warm clothes to more than 50 boys and girls club uh members.

Papa John's is our partner, they're gonna be providing a pizza party.

Uh Max and Rachel will both be there uh helping kids shop around the store.

And so we we really get to do a lot in the community, and I just know how much it means uh to Max and Rachel to be able to do this because the city and Southern Nevada has have embraced them so much since they moved here with the Raiders uh a few years back.

And Las Vegas is is home.

Uh I know that this is where they want to stay, you know, permanently, and we're gonna be helping families in southern Nevada for many, many years to come.

So thank you all.

We really appreciate this honor.

Uh and go Raiders.

May I hope them if you don't mind?

We're gonna take a picture up front.

Oh we're gonna have a beer from the Raiders say a few remarks about uh the Crosby Foundation.

Absolutely.

Uh thank you.

I'll I'll keep it short and sweet.

Uh good morning, everyone.

My name is Iberia Rom, Senior Director of Community Relations with the Las Vegas Raiders.

And on behalf of the team, we just want to say that we are proud supporters of the Max Crosby Foundation.

Um, they are amazing philanthropists, but even better human beings who truly care about making a positive impact in Las Vegas.

And we've been really excited to collaborate with them over the years and just look forward to everything we're going to do together in the future to create a lasting impact and really enhance the Crosby family's legacy.

So thank you for everything, and we're looking forward to the future.

Thank you to the mayor.

Thank you to the council members as well.

Thank you, guys.

So if you wonder why we're sitting here and we're not moving forward with the meeting, that's why.

So rather than starting a reconvening at uh nine twenty-five, we will restart again at nine thirty.

Yep, it is okay.

I will now reconvene the December third meeting of the city council.

We start with agenda item number seven.

Public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action.

The amount of time any single speaker is allowed may be limited.

All comments made will be cross-referenced to those specific items.

If anyone submitted a speaker card or who wishes to speak under this portion of the agenda, please come to the podium and state your name for the record.

This is your opportunity to address the council, but the council is not able to respond or engage in dialogue.

We will set the time limit at two minutes.

Is there anybody wishing to speak at this time?

I do have a card for uh McCum Kohler, if you're here.

I can't I can't read it, I'm sorry.

Okay.

Okay.

Seeing nobody, we will move to agenda item number eight.

For possible action.

Any items from the nine thirty AM session that the council staff and or the applicant wish to be stricken tabled withdrawn or held in abeyance to a future meeting may be brought forward and acted upon at this time.

Mayor Pro Tem Knutson.

Madam Mayor, I have two items.

Item 25, R dash eighty-three-2025 abeyance to the January twenty-first, twenty twenty-six meeting requested by the applicant and items thirty-one A through thirty-one B, twenty five-four, eight one EOT one and EOT two.

Applicant owners Las Vegas Rescue Mission and Las Vegas Rescue Mission Incorporated on four point two nine acres at four eighty West Bonanza Road.

There's an abeyance request by the applicant to the January twenty first, two thousand twenty-six city council meeting, and that'll be my motion.

Okay.

Shall we vote on the motion?

Nothing is coming up.

I think it's underneath there.

Just click back here.

Ah, there we go.

Thank you.

Please post.

Motion carries.

Agenda item number nine for possible action to approve the final minutes by reference of the November fifth, twenty twenty-five regular city council meeting.

Mayor Pro Tem may I have a motion to approve the minutes.

Move to approve.

Please vote.

No, it's not coming.

Okay.

Please post.

Motion passes.

Agenda item number 10.

Items number 10 through 25 are on the consent agenda, but item 25 was obeyed to a later meeting.

The remaining items are considered to be routine, are recommended for approval by the departments, and may be enacted in one motion.

Are there any items the council wishes to bring forward?

Mayor pro tem, may I have a motion for the consent agenda for items 10 through 24?

Move to approve items 10 through 24.

Shall we vote?

Please post.

Motion carries.

Agenda item.

Oh, where are we?

26.

Administrative discussion for possible action regarding the ratification of Sue Brown as director of human resources at 177,000 salary plus benefits, comes from the general fund.

Mr.

Jansen and Mr.

Zamora.

Or Mr.

Jansen.

Mayor Berkeley, uh, members of members of City Council, uh, Mike Jansen, City Manager for the record.

Uh uh with me today is our current deputy director of the human resources department, Miss Sue Brown.

And um, as you all know, um our current human resources director, Vince Amora is going to be retiring on January 8th.

So we have Vince for two more city council meetings.

But what I will tell you is Vince has done a tremendous job in building his succession plan for the human resources department and their entire leadership team.

And because of his efforts, we have a great candidate before you today to become our next human resources director.

And I'd like to tell you a little bit more about Sue Brown.

Sue started her career at the city a little over 20 years ago as an hourly employee.

And since then, she's risen through the ranks at all levels of the HR department, taking on more responsibilities at every step, from a personnel technician to a personnel analyst to a senior personnel analyst to an administrative officer, and since 2021, she's been the deputy director.

Along the way, she also earned her bachelor's degree in public administration from UNLV, Go Rebels.

Sue is greatly respected by the union leadership across all of the bargaining units, and she has one heck of a support team behind me today from the HR department.

Mayor and Council, I can only tell you for the last 20 years working with Sue directly, seeing her uh advance through the organization as a leader.

Uh it's been a joy joy to see that.

And uh I will just tell you uh for your consideration for ratification.

We've got a terrific candidate, and I will turn the mic over to Miss Sue Brown.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

Um in preparation for this day, I I prepared something in advance.

So if I may, you may.

Um, first and foremost, I want to say that I am both grateful and excited for this opportunity.

Twenty years ago, when I applied for an hourly position here at the city, I never dreamed that I would be standing here before you today.

During my time here, I've been fortunate to take on new challenges and to grow professionally and work alongside some truly incredible and very, very smart people who have mentored, supported, and encouraged me all along the way.

Thank you, Mayor and Council, for this opportunity.

I look forward to working with all of you.

Thank you to the city manager's office for your continued faith in me.

Mike, Susan, Tim, Sabra, and Rosa.

I've worked with each of you individually, and I look forward to continuing that work, and I promise I won't let you down.

Thank you to the HR team and the staff who's here today.

I know many of you are in the middle of time-sensitive work and you're very busy, and I sincerely appreciate you taking time out of your day to cheer me on, and I'm really truly grateful for all of you.

Thank you.

Next, I would like to call out Vince Samora, the turn uh the director of human resources.

Thanks.

Thank you, Vince, for your mentorship and guidance.

I have learned so much from you, and you are leaving some very, very big shoes for me to fill.

I'll be filling them in heels, but yes.

And finally, last but not least, thank you to my family, Chris, Aidan, Mason, and Olivia.

I love you guys.

And just because I know they might be watching, my in-laws, shout out to my in-laws, Steve Brown and Chris.

Steve Brown, Steve Brown and Vicky Brown.

Hello.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions or comments from City Council members?

Yes, Nancy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I've just appreciated working with you, and so look forward to working more closely with you in this new role.

And I just wanted to say I'm really struck by the fact that both Sue and Rosa are newest deputy city manager, both started with the city as interns.

It just shows again, just underscores what a great place the city is to work, and that you can actually take on new responsibilities and grow professionally while remaining here at the city.

So great job, city managers team as well.

So congratulations.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Anyone else care to say anything?

In that case, uh oh, I'm sorry, go right ahead.

Thank you.

Um, as the almost newest uh person uh on the city council, I just want to tell you thank you.

Um just how kind you have been for me and your team coming on board, onboarding uh into this new role.

Um, and I spent a long time as a classified employee at the Regional Transportation Commission, 26 years.

And no one stays in an organization that long if there's no hope for you to grow, if your environment is not um receptive to allowing you uh to be your best person, and I think it speaks um a lot to the city of Las Vegas, as my colleague said, that you can start as an hourly or as an intern and grow, and that the environment welcomes your growth.

And I just want to say that I'm proud of you.

Um I think it's amazing to see another wonderfully smart woman rising as she should because we're great at what we do, aren't we, ladies?

Yes, we are.

And and um thank you, Vince, um, for putting together a succession plan that you know is going to um do well for the city of Las Vegas.

Um that's so important for us to be able to grow and also to have succession and and and corporate knowledge move forward.

And I'm I'm really happy for you and congratulations.

Thank you.

And uh councilwoman, do you uh realize that today is our one year anniversary of when we were sworn in in our new positions?

So very wonderful working with you and everybody else on the city council.

It's been a great year.

And uh, Mr.

Knutson.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I was just gonna comment that I remember working with you, Sue, in 2012 on some very difficult issues, and you made a huge impression on me.

So I'm excited to see the impression you'll leave on on me going forward and the rest of the council, because I'm sure you've created that impression for every single one of the employees in the city of Las Vegas you've worked with.

So thank you very much, Madam Mayor.

All right, and uh Sue, I'm very anxious to start working with you.

I think I see Vince more than I see my husband.

And I will look forward to that as well.

And even though I will miss him terribly, I will look forward to working with you in the same fashion.

So thank you very much for stepping up.

And now is there a motion, Mayor Pro Tem?

With appreciation, I will move to approve.

Please vote.

Post.

Thank you.

Don't you people have to go back to work or something?

Thank you.

The worst.

He's very good at it.

Okay.

Agenda item 27.

Discussion for possible action regarding the appointment of an interim municipal court judge, department two from the following nominees.

Peter Bellin, John Lavery, and Taylor Smith.

This uh this position is for um paid 220,000 uh and five dollars and seventy-six cents from the general fund and Mr.

Zamora and Ms.

Brown.

Would you care to comment?

Good morning, Mayor and Council for the record, Vince Samora, Human Resources Director.

I don't believe I've ever been so emotional before I bring in an item to uh before you, but as we have before you today, um, I want to give you a background of how we reach this particular point in time.

As you know, and you can see on the screen here on October 2nd, 2025, you miss municipal court judge Susan Roger provided us of her notice of intent to uh retire on November 4, 2025.

Um, as you can see, our city charter section 1.160 states that a vacancy in the office of the mayor, city council member, or municipal judge must be filled by the majority of the vote by the entire city council within 30 days after the occurrence of that vacancy.

Um the direction uh for filling the judicial vacancy came from Council Mayor and Council on October 15th, where you directed human resources to conduct an open recruitment to source candidates to fill the vacancy as an interim caretaker.

Council agreed to identify one representative each to serve on initial interview panel, and council also appointed court administrator Hans Jessup to serve as the process administrator for the panel for the panel members.

Council directed the interview panel to identify five top candidates to proceed to the interview with council members, unless, of course, there was a tie and then there would be more.

The interim judge, the interim municipal court uh judge position open on October 15th and was closed on October 26th.

We had a total of nine applicants uh for and eight were eligible to advance to the panel interviews.

Interviews with the following candidates occurred on November 5th, and you can see the list of those individuals here.

The following were the initial um interview panelists, um, and each one of you um had a um a representative, and you can see their names listed here.

The interview panel identified Cedric Kearns, Peter Bellin, John Lavery, Patrick Ferguson, Austin Beaumont, and Taylor Smith as the top six candidates due to a tie in one of those rankings.

Um and they were advanced to the interviews with council members Cara Kelly, Olivia Diaz, Councilwoman Palensky, Councilman Summers Armstrong, and Councilwoman Brunei.

Interviews with the top five council, I'm sorry, interviews with the five council members took place on November 17th, 2025, and interviews were conducted in two separate rooms in order to comply with open meeting laws.

And the top three candidates are as follows Peter Bellin, John Lavery, and Taylor Smith in that ranking order.

At this point in time, I will answer any questions that you may have and/or look for a motion.

Are there any questions or comments from members of the city council?

Seeing none, um Mayor Pro Tim, may I have a motion?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just want to comment on the I think you all with human resources and the municipal court team did an exceptional job running a fair process.

I know each of us received a number of comments, texts, emails, calls about all of the candidates.

Um the top three overwhelming amount of support for any one of the three.

Um, but based on the ranking order from the interviews, I'm gonna make a motion for Peter Bellin.

Please vote.

Post.

Motion carries.

Congratulations.

We yeah, yeah.

Thank you very much, Mayor and Council.

We appreciate it.

Thank you so much, Vince.

Um Mr.

Bellin, would you care to say a few words?

Please.

Uh thank you.

I want to thank Mayor Berkeley, Mayor Pro Tem Newson, Knutson, excuse me, and all the councilwomen.

I think I made a comment when I did the interviews that uh being in private practice for almost 35 years.

I hadn't interviewed for a job in a very long time.

But it was an absolute pleasure getting to meet all of you and to talk to you so comfortably.

I know you had a lot of great options, uh, Mr.

Lavery and Mr.

Smith included, and I'm just honored and grateful that you put your trust in me.

Uh I will not let you down as a caretaker.

I understand I'll do just that.

I'll take care of Department 2 until a new judge can be elected next year.

Um finally, I want to thank my family and friends, some of whom are here today.

The things we do in life are truly legendary unless you can share it with your family and friends.

So I really appreciate this and look forward to getting to work very soon.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much.

You may take many pictures of him if you like.

Take him from the front.

That you're very welcome.

Okay.

Let me let them finish their conversation.

Okay.

Agenda item number 28.

Resolutions.

R 84-2025.

Discussion for possible action to approve a resolution regarding the sale of an amount not to exceed $90 million of revenue bond series 2026 through a negotiated sale for the purpose of reimbursing the city of Las Vegas for financing certain costs pertaining to acquiring, constructing, improving, and equipping building projects, including without limitation, a civic center project and off-street parking.

Please note this item should reflect various funds instead of general capital project fund and city facilities capital project fund and all wards instead of ward three.

Welcome.

Good morning, Mayor and City Council, Susan Heltsley, Chief Financial Officer for the Record.

I do have an announcement.

We have a correction to exhibit B that we are submitting here at the meeting.

So if I can hand this off thank you, Cheyenne.

So I am here to answer any questions.

I also have Andy Artuza, who is our bond counsel or our bond expert from Zion Bank.

If anyone has any questions, um just to recap, this bond will is the 90 million dollars that was approved in last year's budget.

We will be using the proceeds to go back into our general fund for our reserves to help maintain our bond rating.

It will also impact a lot of our CIP projects that we had to delay because of our bad lands litigation or our payment.

So if anyone has any questions.

Thank you so much.

Are there any questions or comments from members of the city council?

Seeing none, um, is there a motion?

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And I just wanted to comment uh Ms.

Halsey.

I I get comments for the last five years about bad lands and people always questioning what we're doing here at the city.

And I think this right, this action right here, it just is representative of how smart we are at the city and how smart you are and how smart your team is because we're able to weather some pretty difficult storms and still come out shining.

So thank you for that.

And with that, I will move to approve.

Shall we vote?

Please post.

Motion passes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Agenda item 29, boards and commissions.

Discussion for possible action regarding the appointment of nominee Nathan Taylor to a ward sixth seat of the parks and recreation advisory commission.

The parks and recreation advisory commission consists of 15 members appointed by the city council.

Ward six is entitled to appoint two representatives to the board.

Melody Howard occupied one of ward six seats, and she has resigned.

Mr.

Taylor is eligible and wishes to serve.

Is there a motion?

Councilwoman Bruni.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Nathan Taylor is one of the busiest individuals I know, and um I'm just very grateful that he's agreed to accept this position.

Um, because it is one of the busiest advisory commission seats that we have.

So with pleasure, I um am happy to move to approve item number 29, the appointment of Nathan Taylor to the ward six seat on the parks and recreation advisory committee.

Shall we vote?

Please post.

Motion carries.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman.

Agenda item 30.

Recommending committee bills eligible for adoption at this meeting.

Bill number 2025-39.

Councilman Knutson, would you like to have the bill read?

Yes, Mayor.

Bill number 2025-39 in ordinance to amend LVMC section 6.84.10 and 6.84.50 relating to wedding chapels to provide a definition of wedding chapel for licensing and regulatory purposes, update operational requirements, and provide further related matters.

We have to approve please vote.

Post motion carries.

Thank you so much.

Agenda item 31.

Items 31 through 33B are on the consent agenda, but items 31A and 31b were held in abeyance.

The remaining items are considered to be routine and are recommended for approval by the Department of Community Development.

Mayor Pro Tem, may I have a motion to approve this consent agenda?

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Please vote.

Post.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Agenda item 34.

Reports and presentations.

Report by Sally Dobler, uh, Chief Executive Officer regarding an update on the progress of the mayor's fund for Las Vegas Life.

This affects all wards.

Ms.

Newby.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, for the record.

Saber Neby, Deputy City Manager.

As is our custom, we have Sally Dober, the CEO of the Mayor's Fund for Las Vegas Life here with us.

We typically give an annual report of what's been going on, so I'm here to introduce her and wish her well.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Sabra.

We appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

And good morning.

And thank you for this opportunity to be able to do a kind of our state of the organization to you.

And it was a year ago that we uh did our first presentation.

I think it's important to start with just kind of giving an overview of how we work independently but collaboratively with the city.

So this is our structure.

We work very closely with everybody at the city.

So you'll see the mayor, city manager, all the deputy city managers, but in in greatest priority is with uh our deputy city manager, Sabre Newby, who is also on our board and is a great collaborator.

But also the directors and the staff, because they're the folks that are boots on the ground, they're the ones we're doing the grants with and they're executing the programs, and then of course the finance department uh as we send the funds over to the city.

On the mayor's fund side, we have a board of directors.

I'll be showing you that list.

I'm gonna apologize in advance because uh Chair John Tippins wanted to be here, and I think it's not going to be here in time.

We have an advisory committee, again, community leaders.

They were the first uh the uh the first board, actually, when Mayor Goodman brought the mayor's fund to Las Vegas as a chief executive officer.

Uh, we're thrilled that we have uh in her first 90 days, we have Gina Olmeida as our development services manager.

We're delighted to have Gina.

She spent 11 years at Toro with Mayor Berkeley.

She's got a lot of of great background with researching data, fundraising, so she's gonna really help propel us forward.

We hope our future person will be an administrative assistant that will just help us with a lot of the data capture and some of those day-to-day things.

Uh, this was actually going back to almost a year ago.

This was uh the first board of directors meeting and Mayor Berkeley's first meeting with us.

This was at UFC.

And this is our current board.

So you'll recognize John Tippins from North Cap.

Our vice chair is Will Rucker, who is the community representative for Intermountain Health.

Our officers are Ms.

Sabra Newby, Daniel Bitcherfeld, who is the senior VP of Marketing for Howard Hughes, Yvette Fernandez is our immediate past chair with UFC.

We have Heather Harmon with the Las Vegas Museum of Art.

Jonathan Jocsel with the plaza, and then one of our newest board members is Zart Zegerian with Pegasus Development.

He is a owner's rep and project manager for some of the really sexiest entertainment projects here, the new Neon Museum, some of the Area 15 with Universal.

We have our advisory committee, and as I say, this was the original board.

These are such strong community leaders that we want to make sure we retain them and find a purpose for them.

You'll see some uh some of the original Rose McKinney James, uh the MV Energy folks, Tom Thomas, uh, Marie Gotti from MGM, Gary Jameson.

Uh Dr.

Roy Ritmore was actually on our board when I came in.

He has since stepped down to the advisory committee because of his work obligations, but he has agreed to be the chair, so we'll have a strong direction there.

We've added Sam Cherry, Cherry Development, Craig Galati with Gulati Architects, and then Ken Heck of Heck.

That shouldn't be that hard.

Heck wealth management.

Uh we think this is important to give you this information.

Uh this was originally set up as a 501c9, which is support nonprofit when they uh separated this as an independent, which basically means that we would have the ability to support the city of Las Vegas and the Nevada Community Foundation.

In the past few months, we have now been granted a status update, and we're now officially a 501c3.

That will help us from the standpoint of being able to expand some of the philanthropic work that we're doing, working with vendors, and we think that'll also help propel us forward with our partnerships.

I'm gonna give you a really quick capture of what we did for our our year in 2025, and this would have ended June 30th of this year.

Uh our budget versus actual, our budget or goals was 1,035.

The actual was 1,439,000 and some change.

That means that our goals to budget, or sorry, our goalstore actual was 104%.

This was in large part to a couple of oversized statues that are sitting out in front of a city hall, but we were proud of that occurrence.

But I think what's important to the city and for future consideration as we move forward with our partnership, we granted $903,000 back to the city for projects and for programs.

And so the return on investment to the city of Las Vegas for those on the DIS that will be newer.

We receive an administration grant from the city every year.

For this last year, it was 466,000.

That covers salaries, marketing, insurance, all of our operating costs.

But the return on investment to the city of Las Vegas for that grant was $1.94.

So for every dollar we received in that administration grant, we granted $1.94 back to the city for programming.

These were our donors for 2025, and there were a lot of them.

This was in large part due to the statues and having some new donors.

I also want to give uh great thanks to Mayor Pro Tem Knutson, who did a holiday party for us that also brought us a lot of new donors, which also gave us the opportunity to be able to expose the mayor's fund to additional donors for future.

And I'm happy to provide any more information on these donors if you're interested.

But breaking it down by donor type, that means that 81% of our donors for our fiscal year 2025 were first-time donors.

That was 43% of our total revenue.

12% were multi-year or recurring donors, meaning that they renew their donations and their grants every year.

So the renewal rate within that donor group since we started the mayor's fund two years ago, is 100%.

And we're very proud of that because it shows I think we're showing good stewardship, and it also shows that the city is doing a good job executing its programs and giving our donors value for that.

We also have 7% of LAPS donors that renewed their support, which means that it may have been two, three, four, or five years since they had donated, but they donated to us again.

So we uh are very proud of that.

We did a lot last year, so I'm not going to go through all the program highlights, but this is just a little collage to give you, and I'll highlight a couple of these.

The U Street Hockey and Mindfulness Yoga Sessions, I think is an important example because we worked with two departments, Youth Sports and Youth Development, and we created a program that was in Safe Key after school, and these were in the underserved areas around Lorenzi Park.

We actually did street hockey clinics, emphasis on girls, but for all the kids.

But the most popular piece of that was through youth uh the youth development group who did yoga sessions for the kids.

And this is actually one of the kids in the middle of the yoga session to help them with mindfulness discipline.

It was so popular that the Golden Knights did renew that grant that we also almost doubled the amount of schools that are getting the yoga sessions.

Um about the middle there, the computer giveaway, that was a gift of computers from the Mirage as they were reshifting some of their equipment.

We got a cash donation from ATT that helped with some new hardware and software.

We gave out almost 300 computers to seniors, families that needed them, students, and that was at no cost.

We'll go down to strong future technology.

Uh, we're really excited about this program because we've probably had more donor interest in this program than any other program we've been working on.

It's also a great collaboration with Dr.

Milich and her team.

Um the uh donor we're missing here, which is the most recent, is Google Fiber, has made a $50,000 investment.

Uh we think there is so much potential with this workforce development, and even for the whole campus, as we start to create kind of a cradle to uh career format.

We think that this is not only going to be extremely successful on the west side, we think there's potential on the east side in Desert Pines as we start working on that.

So that's a real area of emphasis for us.

I want to point out the battle for Vegas.

That's the annual Raiders and Vegas Golden Knights softball game for charity is put on by the Las Vegas agency, and that was a connection through Daniel Bisterfeld with Howard Hughes.

There are over 360 nonprofits in Southern Nevada.

Only five nonprofits are selected to be beneficiaries of this event, and we were one of the five.

So we were able to give 25,000 from this event to use sports for the city of Las Vegas.

So we're really, really proud of that.

Um we're also uh trying to focus more on public safety as well, and we uh were able to do uh start a scholarship with the uh the fire uh department with uh Chief Gray.

We'll also be working with Chief Potts on a program that I'll be mentioning, but that just kind of gives you a snapshot.

2026 is now upon us.

I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that this is going to be a challenging year for fundraising for nonprofits.

We don't receive federal funds because we don't execute the programs, we're more of the partnership architects, uh, but it has created uh pressure with all the nonprofits uh to really look at the ways they're doing their fundraising.

Uh we are planning on really looking at some out of the box ways to be able to do fundraising because we know that going back to the standard way of doing things is not going to be effective.

So we're planning on doing uh maybe more national searching, maybe looking at a different way that we actually approach our fundraising strategy.

In terms of some of the numbers, and this is our crystal ball.

When you look at the board of directors and the advisory committee contributions, the corporate and private donor renewals will figure about 350,000, and the new initiative campaigns, these are some of the new programs we don't know are on the horizon yet, about 200.

New grant opportunities.

Gina is a master researcher, and now that we have her on board to help us identify some of those opportunities that we didn't capture before, and then work with the city.

Um private fundraisers, as I said last year, we are the non-gala nonprofit.

And we will continue with that.

Yeah, Councilman Kerr and I had a few words about that last year.

Um, but I think that the the real trend and what we can really plan on doing is creating the smaller, experiential and kind of a different kind of fundraising, and thanks again to Mayor Pro Tem Knudsen.

That was a great example of bringing a select group in, making an experience.

We raised almost $60,000 at that event.

Uh, and you compare that to what some of the other nonprofits are doing at their galas.

So we're gonna look more and more, and we'll probably be calling on all of you where we can to help us with that effort also.

And then new donor campaigns, and that's just going after some of these new donors that we haven't captured before.

Our fundraising goal on this is $845,000.

I have an asterisk on there because that excludes a big project that we're working on award for, but that's about a 5% increase over what we did this past year.

Um, it's fairly aggressive, particularly considering that part of this past year were the Goodman statues, but we think we have the plans in place and that's achievable.

I know that you know what your strategic priorities are because you just did them in the past 60 days or so.

I put the slide up because I want you to recognize that we also take the city's strategic priorities in mind when we are planning our priorities.

And these are some of our areas of focus for 2026.

So arts and culture, and we're gonna put this into an economic development bucket because when you uplift a community, you encourage investment.

Youth sports with healthcare, it's wellness, mental health, all those aspects.

Youth development and workforce is a really big bucket because it's education, uh, it's it's workforce development, and we think there's a lot of potential, and we're gonna call that economic development.

Veterans is going to be a standalone because that's gonna be a major project.

Excuse me.

And then under special projects, that's where we file the things that we think are small, maybe they're one off, we think they'll have some impact, they maybe don't go into another category.

We still feel really strongly about the pets because it's something small we can make an impact with at the homeless courtyard, and that'd be housing and homelessness.

I had talked about the public safety.

We're doing a Marshall's book with Cheap Pots that we're really excited about.

It's actually the second printing, but it's the first time that this customized book uh that goes out to third graders with special activities, is actually been sponsored by the private sector, and that will actually come out in January, and then of course the EMT scholarships.

Now that we have about two years under our belt, we are going to be doing a brand audit in January of 2026.

This is designed to evaluate how strong is our brand after two years of working as as a separate entity.

So it's how is it perceived versus how we think it's perceived?

Uh what are our assets that have the strongest recognition, advantages and disadvantages.

Uh when we say how do we stand out, competition is probably the wrong word, as much as it's just other industry partners, or compare to other like organizations, and this is not only in Las Vegas, but probably even more importantly, there's a lot of mayor's fund structures around the country.

So part of what this brand audit will do is compare us to that for breast best practices, successes, where we might find more successes.

They're a very smart strategic research and marketing firm.

When you see their client experience, you'll see they're working on a lot of great partners for the city of Las Vegas.

So this launches in January.

It's about a three-month project, three to four month project with six and twelve month follow-ups.

So we will be coming to you, and you will probably also be engaging at your convenience with VoiceBox to be giving your perspective as well.

I'm just going to highlight a couple of things that we've done.

We're proud of this because we were really happy to be the very first sponsor for that collaboration between the City of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Museum of Art.

That was a three-month sponsorship opportunity.

We felt this was the perfect example of art and culture being one of our pillars, and then the partnership between the city, the museum, and then also with the uh LACMA out of Southern Nevada or California, rather.

This is something we thought was really important to show and demonstrate.

I was really happy to see the Max Crosby Foundation come up and talk about the partnerships they're doing because we should be doing more of these for the community.

I'm going to give Arnie Stalk from Share credit for this because he sent me a text a few months ago and said, I think you should do a challenge, and I'm going to be the first thousand dollars, and then see how we can challenge other businesses.

And then Melissa Warren and Lisa Robinson from the Warren Group, we share with Downtown Alliance as our consultants, went to DVA and said, why don't you get into this?

And they put the call out to their members.

We raised $16,000 for the homeless courtyard with that community support.

And I also want to thank Mayor Berkeley because she donated a thousand dollars on the spot at the press conference.

But we need to do more and more of these things and really do these collaborations and partnerships.

I'm still on the animals because I think they're important, but this is a grassroots, and uh encourage anybody.

Uh these are actual animals at Bella and Blue.

This is an easy grassroots.

Uh, you know that we provide the basics for these animals.

It's food, water, you know, kennels, a comfortable atmosphere.

These are the things that the owners have asked for.

And these are the little things like pet beds.

It's getting cold out, sweaters, booties, that kind of a thing.

So this is a very easy social media for us.

It's also Christmas time, so feel free if anybody wants to do a good do good thing for Christmas to make a donation, and we can provide that link to you.

Uh, this is another thing that we think is kind of an out of the box uh that we think has a a lot of potential.

Intermountain Health has done this ACT prep program with a company called EdPath Boost Academy out of Tennessee.

They've done this successfully in two other states.

Airmount Mountain came to us and said, Will you be our partner in Nevada?

And they funded this with us for $100,000.

The group does specialized, customized ACT prep programming.

So they go into the schools and they identify those students that are performing well academically, but they don't know how to really take the ACT test as effectively as they could.

We conducted two cohorts.

This was a pilot program for us this year in 2025.

The average ACT testing point increase was an average of six points on the increase.

They actually gave us a very conservative number because I talked to one student who increased his reading score by 12 points.

This is at no cost to the students.

It just needs to be funded with a vendor.

The financial impact is that those participants qualified for $350,000 worth of state-funded scholarships, and that excludes the private awards.

So we think the potential for this is extraordinary.

They've shown us this year that they have the ability to really be able to deliver the results.

We're really happy is that the first cohort starts uh in October.

We've really been encouraging them in their regional search to really be looking in the city of Las Vegas.

We have five schools that are going to be represented in the city of Las Vegas and this next cohort.

So stay tuned for information on that.

Lastly, uh, our big project for the year, in collaboration with Wart 4 and Councilwoman Alan Polenski is a Nevada State Veterans Memorial Park.

Uh for those of you who haven't seen the statues, they're at Grant Sawyer.

There's 18 bronze statues that represent our military personnel from the American Revolutionary War to present.

They're in storage now.

They will be moved out to Ward 4 to the Thunderbird Family Sports Complex.

This is going to be relocating the statues.

There's some repair work on them.

It'll be building the entire park.

It'll include an amphitheater, uh, Zen Gardens.

This is really designed to be much more than a park.

This is designed to be a special place for veterans, and it is the state memorial for that.

And so we really want to find a way to honor them, give them an opportunity to have a place that's a special place for them.

But I think also to do this as a facility for education so that our young kids can go out there and they can understand that they have their freedom because of what these veterans have done to fight for for their future.

The campaign goal on this, the ask that the city has asked is to raise eight to ten million dollars.

I will tell you that because of the size of the project, uh, and because it's a very sophisticated uh project in a very challenging fundraising time.

We have engaged Charity Stevens of the Stevens group to be our project manager's last fundraising consultant on this.

Um, because she's got experience with these large projects, also because uh this is a very important project, but there's lots of important projects in the city, and they may be small projects, but they have a lot of meaning to the residents.

We want to ensure that we have the ability to have success with everything that we're trying to help fund and help the city with this year.

Uh we get our formal campaign lunch and uh launch on Veterans Day November 11th.

I'll thank the mayor again.

She contributed 25,000 to get us started on that.

Actually, as did the councilwoman uh, you know, out of her fund has donated a million dollars.

The official groundbreaking is going to be January 2025.

We are hopeful to have the governor there.

Uh if estimated completion is October 2026.

And with that, our word for the coming year is going to be partnerships.

And how do we find a way?

I met with uh Nevada State University yesterday, uh, we'll be talking to CSN.

How do we really effectively start working together, combining resources so that we can really have impact that is transformational change?

Everybody wants to do it, and we just need to figure out the best way to be able to do it.

So we'll be working uh uh with real focus on that for the next year.

And that's my presentation.

If there are any questions.

Thank you so much, Sally.

Are there any questions or comments from members of the council?

Yes, Kelly.

Thank you, Mayor.

And Sally, thank you for a very thorough presentation.

Um I I you know, like many things, I think one of the biggest challenges is getting the word out.

And it's nice to see both the breadth and depth of the work that you're doing.

I uh am really thrilled to hear about this the brand survey you're doing because I I think in the community, and this is just qualitatively, certainly not quant quantitative research, but there is confusion over what you do and you know how it relates to this the city.

So could you um, you know, you talked about the independence.

Could you just address that for a moment about how how I mean I I I see it, but I'd like to hear from your perspective the value of that independence.

Well, I I think the value of the independence is that number one, you know, from a tax standpoint, a donation to us, where the donor does not get goods and services back is a tax deduction for that donor.

So that's huge.

Uh it it relieves the city of some of that onus uh of appearing to look like they are looking for donations.

So we can be that fundraising independent.

We also have the ability to really be able to go back to the donor with accountability and impact that it's just hard for the city to do because they have so much on their plates.

So we do a flow chart that shows the funds going to the mayor's fund, going to the city, and then the impact report and accountability coming back to us and then to the donor.

And I think uh what we've seen certainly in the last few years is that there's a lot of accountability that our donors expect now.

You know, they're very specific.

We get a lot of restricted donations, and so for us to be able to say, as an independent, uh, this is where your money went, uh, this is what you intended it to, and this is what actually happened with it, I think it's a very important part of our structure.

And I love that you talk about the accountability.

You and I both share uh in our in our professional backgrounds uh a time when we represented the business community and both of our experiences, I'm sure are very similar, even though we were we were there at different times.

Um the emphasis on that accountability.

So the dollar ninety four that you talk about for the city is one aspect of the accountability, and I'm sure that when you're talking about the outcomes, uh some of them aren't financial, they're just for example, the hockey and and and and mindness and yoga.

Um, I love that to hear about that.

So I love that you're talking.

I hear you talking about the um the return on investment, the value that you bring and finding ways to quantify that.

Very, very important.

Have you considered you know, I think about that, you know, your acknowledgement that it's going to be a challenging year, and and I, you know, I'm not sure maybe maybe in the 90s when it was roaring, the roaring 90s, but um I think I think asking for donations is always very challenging, and so I applaud you and and the folks that uh lead your organization uh from a volunteer perspective as making sure you're doing that, and I and I appreciate the strategy that goes into what you're trying to achieve as you're articulating different areas of emphasis, and so um you you have a menu, if you will, to apply to to be able to offer uh something for someone who may, you know, use smorts may be very important or uh homeless pets, for example.

We all and certainly this this um uh board but this council before me has heard a lot from the animal community.

So if anybody's asked uh listening or watching us, I hope that they'll go to uh the information that you have to direct their energy now to supporting your efforts there and the homeless pets because that's terrific.

The point I'm getting to is not everybody can write you a thousand dollar check or five or ten thousand dollar check, particularly small business, right?

Um I imagine there are opportunities.

Tell me a little bit about the hundred dollar contribution or the two hundred and fifty dollar contribution for small businesses that make up so much of our community, want to support the community around them, um, but may but may be intimidated when they see this report that they're not at that level, and so uh I imagine that their their contributions can be equally as as memorable.

And I'll close my comments with that.

The question.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, and if I can respond to that, and I will say, you know, that is actually part of strategic, you know, fundraising.

Miles Dixon and I have had many conversations about this, and you know, how do you find a way that if you don't get a 10,000, how do you find a way to get uh I would have to do the math, a hundred people giving a hundred dollars or something like that.

I call them small but sincere donations.

Um, and somebody's 25, 50, 100 donation uh could sometimes be more important than a corporate 10,000 dollar donation.

So from a standpoint our stewardship, we always make sure we're acknowledging that we give opportunities when you go to our website.

Uh you can give at any level, and we're grateful for everything.

Uh we had some kids uh do a whole fundraising thing for us last year.

I think they actually raised about 46 dollars, and then their sponsor added another hundred so they could send us a check.

But what that meant for those kids to be able to do that kind of contribution.

So uh if we're really going to be a community-based partnership, we welcome the entire community.

So we we welcome those opportunities and give them more happy, and that's a good question.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Miss Kelly.

Does anybody else wish to comment on this agenda item?

Miss Diaz.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, Ms.

Dobler, uh, thank you for giving us this uh presentation.

It sounds like the city is moving in the right direction with the mayor's fund and wanting to create an appetite and excitement around giving back to the community, especially for those that need it the most.

Um I kind of saw us, you know, all the pictures told the story of how the donations are making an impact in our city, and I think there's so much that we could be doing with the support of um those that can help us move the needle forward in so many areas, and so I'm feeling optimistic and hopeful.

Um, heading into 26.

I'm not naive that economically speaking, times are gonna be harsh and tough.

But those that have some little extra change in their couch cushions that can help us get the funds together to then do something really awesome when we see a need, identify a need, and then uh make a concerted effort to fundraise to meet those needs.

I think it goes a long way, and uh that's why you know Las Vegas is awesome because we we heed to the call and we don't turn away when we're seeing the need.

So thank you for so much for uh can you thank the board for their dedication and commitment?

Because usually this is not a paid, you know, volunteer um activity, and then it does take a lot of intentionality to figure out how to lead um just uh robust and successful fundraising campaigns.

So much appreciated, and uh I'll see how I can sign up to help.

Thank you, thank you very much.

And and really to the point of the board also is that we do have a very engaged board.

Uh you I've been in many organizations, different structures, different levels of engagement.

Uh we really base our board selection on people being uh, you know, I came from NAOP that was in a complete volunteer board, completely different structure of the Vegas chamber, but I think that's really important to have that.

I think the other piece is that we were a startup, basically, when we started this two years ago.

It's almost taken us that long to even get comfortable with working with the city departments.

We're getting better and better with that, and we're really starting to see the results of it.

But I want to thank all of you, really everybody in this chamber.

Uh we would not be as successful as we are without your support, without your help.

Uh, and so we we want to do whatever we can to help you, and we really look forward to what I think is going to be a great 2026.

I'm always a glass half full kind of a gal.

Uh there are any final questions or comments by the council members.

Seeing none, this was a report only.

Thank you very much, Sally.

No action is required.

We will move to the next agenda item.

Thank you very much.

Have a great day.

I appreciate it.

Agenda item 35.

Set the date on any appeals filed or required public hearings.

I would instruct the city clerk to set the public hearing dates and appeals from the city planning commission meetings and dangerous buildings and nuisance uh litter uh abatements.

We'll do, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Agenda item 36, citizens' participation, public comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters within the jurisdiction of the city council.

No subject may be acted upon by the city council unless that subject is on the agenda and is scheduled for action.

If you wish to be heard, come to the podium and give your name for the record, the amount of discussion on any single subject, as well as the amount of time any single speaker is allowed, may be limited.

This is your opportunity to address the council.

The council is not able to respond or engage in dialogue.

Are there any members of the public who wish to speak under this portion of the agenda?

Welcome.

I wish to speak.

Um would you care to identify yourself?

And you have two minutes.

Okay.

My name is Eric Melkeza de Christ Nimrod.

You can find my um you can find my twin brother Christ appearing to the lovely Mary Magdalene after he defeated Death and the Roman's Cross in Johnter, the 11th to the 18th verse.

Jesus conquered death.

Um had a happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um this is a post-Thanksgiving thanks to you right here.

You are the greatest, yes, we're greater than you want to be.

You can float like a butterfly thing like a bee.

Like Mohammed Ali.

You're positive, powerful, mighty, and strong.

You can do no wrong.

Yeah.

And thank you for um dealing with Las Vegas and the problems and the uh you're just strong.

We're just strong.

And thank you very much.

And thank you, and have a very happy holiday season.

Agenda item number 37, uh council emerging issues.

Discussion regarding potential items for future city council agendas.

This affects all wards.

Any discussion must be limited to whether or not such proposed items shall be placed on a future agenda uh on a future agenda, and no discussion regarding the substance of any such proposed topic shall occur.

No action shall be taken.

Do any members of the council have any topics that they would like to bring forward under this item?

Seeing none, I thank you, and we move to the next and last item.

Agenda item 38.

Council members' recognition, comments but made by individual city council members during this portion of the agenda will not be acted upon by the city council unless that subject is on the agenda and scheduled for action.

Let us start with councilwoman Kelly.

I have nothing for today.

Thank you.

Oh, yes, I do.

Well I think I do.

It's gonna be a white Christmas.

Yeah, it is gonna be.

Oh, that's very there's there.

I am the I am happy to announce that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Summerliner Command is thrilled to partner with Choice for Tots to bring hope and joy and Christmas magic to children.

And um, oh, this was from our our uh I made uh I was part of a panel at UNLV uh for uh the alumni and had a great chance to talk about the value that a uh liberal arts education does for a career and so that was lovely.

Uh but back to the Summerlin Area Command.

If um you can deliver a new unwrapped toy to the summer Summerwin Area Command Station and your generosity can light up someone's Christmas.

Also join us for a festive community celebration, the Christmas Joy Drive and Classic Car Show in Ward 2, and you bring a new unwrapped toy for free entry and enjoy viewing a variety of classic cars for all year of all years, makes models, and all donated toys will be given to children in need across the Las Vegas Valley.

Um, and as always, uh, we're interested in hearing from our residents and constituents in Ward 2.

So please reach out to the office at 702-229-2420 or the email that might show up on the screen.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilwoman Bruni.

Thank you.

I only have a few things.

I just want to call attention to a couple of events we have coming up this week.

On Friday, we will be partnering with Get Outdoors Nevada and doing a native habitat maintenance day and trail cleanup at our uh Crown Jewel Park Centennial Hills Park from 9 to 12.

Please sign up or email our office, Ward6 at Las Vegas Nevada.gov.

And then the following day, we will be gathering to celebrate our annual cowboy Christmas and classic car show from 10 to 2 at Floyd Lamb Park.

Please, RSVP, Ward6 at Las Vegas Nevada.gov if you'd like to be a vendor.

And then finally, we always want to hear from you.

Please email us at Ward.

Oh, and then sorry.

Got ahead of myself.

And then next Thursday, we will be meeting or hosting our annual, or sorry, our monthly bocaditos with Bruni at our Centennial Hill satellite office Thursday, December 11th from 9 to 11.

Stop by for some warm cocoa and sweet treats.

And then the following Saturday, we will be gathering at Bradley Bridal Park from 10 to 2 and um hosting our annual Christmas with Colibris.

So come out and join us for a great time.

Finally, we want to hear from you.gov or call us at 702-229-5463.

Thank you.

Happy holidays.

Thank you so much.

And Miss Diaz.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I hope everyone had a memorable and awesome Thanksgiving holiday.

And I want to thank Mr.

Nimrod for coming back to us because we did notice you weren't here for a few meetings, so we were all hoping you would come back.

And as you can see by my first slide on November 21st, uh Ward 3 was able to host an amazing senior Thanksgiving luncheon out of East Las Vegas Community Center.

And uh it definitely was an amazing launch into the seasons of the holidays of coming together as a community and celebrating what we're most thankful for.

Uh we were able to serve over 300 seniors, a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

We had live entertainment, raffle prizes, and free turkeys.

I'm so grateful for the generous support that made it happen.

Coolville Tattoo, Centerwell, United Healthcare Medicare, and our very own Las Vegas Fire and Rescue Team who were present to volunteer and they helped those seniors uh take those turkeys to their cars and uh do and dance and everything.

So so grateful for our awesome firefighter team um out of our uh Charleston and out of our Mayfair station.

And then um I want to also thank um Christie Garnes who made sure that everything went off without a hitch and beautifully produced and curated the event for all of our seniors.

Um and so we want you to save the date for next year's.

It's Friday, November 20th of 2026.

Uh November 24th, the mayor and I had the pleasure to greet UNLV C Sun representatives.

Um it was awesome for them to come through, get a tour of our city hall, and learn a little bit more about what we do here at in City Hall and at City Level government.

I'd like to thank Ramiro Reyes with our government affairs team for helping build strong connections between the city and our future leaders that are budding at UNLV.

On Saturday, December 6th, I want to let everyone know that we have Christmas tree lightings in the arts district, and I hope that uh everyone went to support small businesses in our community um on Black Friday, so important to them.

Uh and as we continue to cross things off of our uh to get lists for Christmas, don't forget to support our local businesses.

But this is an awesome twofer because you get to presents, uh, tree lighting events and also support many small businesses that need it.

And so um Saturday, December 6th, over 20 shops will be placing trees outside their storefronts with a communal lighting at 5 p.m.

So come by, stroll around the 18B Arts District, and again, just can't emphasize how important that support for our small businesses are this time of the year.

Uh coming up, we have several events at the Carolyn G.

Goodman Plaza.

So I want to start with Saturday.

This Saturday, December 6th, we're gonna have our I want to say it's either 5th or 6th annual, Tamales and Mariachi.

It might even be the 7th.

Um, but it's been many years in the making, and it's one of my favorites because it combines awesome music with lovely eats and treats for everyone.

Um, and you don't have to slave away in the kitchen.

You can just come and buy your tamales at this awesome festival.

So hope to see everyone there.

It's happening this Saturday, 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

Then uh the following Saturday, Saturday, December 13th, there's a fiesta navideñ from noon to four, and that's when the city of Las Vegas is partnering with 98.1 FM Radio to bring the family uh lots of festive um events, holiday themed performances, music, vendors, food vendors, interactive children's games, and special appearance by Santa Claus.

And please, we're just asking not to bring our furry family members, but uh everyone else is uh welcome.

On Saturday, December 20th, from noon to two.

Don't miss the Las Vegas City Children's Chorus presenting Viva La Popera holiday spectacular.

Get ready to deck the halls with dazzling melodies.

This festive concert delivers a joyful blend of classics and fresh modern hits, perfect for ringing in the holiday season from beloved beloved carols to showing to show stopping pop favorites reimagined with a stunning operatic twist.

And I think Councilwoman Summers Armstrong is really gonna be into that event because I know she likes herself some opera.

So please um come on over again.

They're telling me to emphasize no pets.

Um parking is uh free for these events and available at 500 South Main Street in our parking garage across from City Hall.

On Saturday, December 13th at East Las Vegas Community Center.

Uh, we just want to invite everyone to our Christmas Posada and a traditional pastorella, so a little bit more Latin infused Christmas festivities.

So if you want to come and partake, it's December 13th from 2 to 5 p.m.

And we're gonna have a traditional Posada, photos with Santa, live entertainment, community booths, free champurrado and pandulce, which is sweet bread, uh, and free toys for the first 1,000 children, 14 and under that come to our event.

So um please come on over.

And I'd love to thank my supporters of the event, Radio La Campesina, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Telemundo Las Vegas, and so many other awesome community partners.

Uh have you not heard of the City of Las Vegas NPF grant?

Just want to put it on everyone's radar that um our neighborhood partners fund grant will be opening January 12th, not not uh never uh soon enough and leading up to the holidays for us to remember that uh you as a neighborhood um leader can apply for 10,000 for a neighborhood-based project.

Um, and so I just want to kind of prime the pump, let everyone know that deadline's gonna open at the top of the year and to start talking to your neighbors about what you want to see done in your community, and then apply for the money, the matching funds, and get it so that you can help us make Vegas more beautiful and awesome.

So that's it for me.

Um, you always know how to get a hold of my office, 702-229-2359 or Ward 3 at Los Vegas Nevada.gov.

Um thank you so much.

And the opportunity village um uh Great Santa Run is this Saturday as well.

So I would urge people that are attending the Great Santa Run to after they finish that to head over to Tamales and Mariachi, and uh it'll be a great day for everybody, and everything is downtown Las Vegas, so it's just terrific.

All right, um, Sandra Summers Armstrong.

Thank you so much, May.

And uh yes, I do love opera if y'all didn't know.

Studied for about three years and actually um what do you got?

If y'all didn't know, studied for about three years and actually auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera.

I didn't make it, obviously, because I'm here.

Well, it was their loss in our gate.

Well, they knew what they were doing.

I wasn't that great, but I loved it.

It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, it's wonderful to be back in town and just want to hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

I did with my family.

While I was away on November 18th, my staff, there's Julius, did a wonderful job representing our office at the opening of Hush Puppies downtown.

He was with the mayor and in great company, and she said he did a great job.

I'm really proud of just how my staff steps up.

We're so happy to have this restaurant downtown.

Uh for those of us who love catfish.

Uh, it's great now to have another place to enjoy uh right downtown Indianapolis.

Um, next uh we had a holiday lighting event.

This is an annual event that was put on, uh, started through my predecessor, and this was my first time uh being the councilwoman there, the Cox uh communications family did a wonderful job.

They had a Santa, a hot chocolate booth, we had uh beautiful singing from Western High School's choral group.

They sang some holiday songs, and we actually had some folks from the neighborhood come out to enjoy the festivities.

So we're looking forward to even more glorious um uh festivities next year as we learn how to get the word out, and we just thank all of you uh for being present.

On November 27th, we had a face bathed community health fair at Second Baptist Church.

Um they had a wonderful turnout.

My team was out again representing our office.

Um it's just lovely to see um our community get together.

They had dancers and lots of information to share with our seniors and community members, and uh just excited that um we've got uh this relationship between the city and faith faith leaders to get good information out to our community.

And on the 26th, we had uh a Thanksgiving giveaway uh with the hundred black men of Las Vegas and with Nevada Partners.

They hosted it.

That's the first slide there.

Uh Mr.

Gentry Richardson, who's the president, and Liz.

Oh, I'm gonna mess this up.

I can't think of her last name right now.

Please forgive me.

Uh, she is the executive director at Nevada Partners, and they did a wonderful job giving out meals to community members.

Uh, we were particularly um focused on our senior citizens, and we were worked with Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority to give meals to over 300 seniors at Vintage Desert Rose Senior Apartments, Bennett Plaza, Ada Brent's, Harvey Levy and Archie Grant housing complexes, and uh North Las Vegas um Mayor Gowens Brown was there as well as our fabulous mayor, Mayor Goodman, and we're just excited that the community came together to do something wonderful in the community for Thanksgiving.

Uh we want to just head to some things that are happening in the future.

Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority is doing a building naming.

We've got a couple of uh new projects happening in Ward 5.

Uh, and then we have uh Lorenzi Park Tennis, as always, is giving away uh some clinics.

We want you to bring your kids out, come out and hit the the ball.

And finally, I want to say that uh our staff is here.

We are here to support the community.

You have Nora, uh, you have Julius and Aura who and also Courtney, who's not in the picture, but who's our wonderful intern.

Please reach out to us if you need anything at 702-229-5443.

Uh apply, subscribe to our newsletter.

We have lots of inf interesting information in there, and we're just grateful to be able to serve this community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Miss Alan Pelensky.

Thank you, madam mayor.

On Monday, I filmed Access City Council with communications director David Rigleman.

We had a the pleasure of interviewing Ann McDonough and Stephanie Huey.

Anne is the West Area Director of Just Serve.

Just Serve Connects Volunteers across the valley with nonprofit organizations.

With the holiday season bringing so many opportunities to give back, we felt like it was a perfect time to have the conversation.

We also spoke with Stephanie, one of our very own behavioral health administrators for the city of Las Vegas.

Our discussion surrounded uh getting through the holiday blues and prioritizing mental wellness, building healthy routines for the new year, and providing community resources and support programs available for health and wellness.

Thanks to both of our guests for making the episode so informative.

Next up on Saturday, December 13th, we will be hosting our household hazardous waste drop-off event at Mountain Shadows Community Center, where we will be accepting household hazardous waste in structurally sound and properly sealed containers.

That list is very comprehensive, includes chlorine bleach, drain openers, pool chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, antifreeze, oil, carburetor cleaner, et cetera.

If you have any questions about what is acceptable household waste, please contact the office, 702 229-2524.

We have the comprehensive list.

It is very long.

Next up, we still have 12 children who are missing from our community.

If you have any information that could help, please contact LV MPD's missing person detail at 70702 828 311.

With the holidays fast approaching, let's work together and help bring these kids home.

And lastly, you can stay up to date with community news, our updates, and upcoming events happening in Ward 4 by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

You can also subscribe to our newsletter.

If you need any assistance, you can contact us the old fashioned way.

702 2292524.

We are always here to provide any assistance that we can.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor Berkeley.

I just wanted to comment.

Uh Councilwoman Kelly did a great job at UNLV, and she had a slide there, but she she mentioned how kind, committed, and smart the city employees are.

So I just I think that's important that we all kind of remember how kind, committed and smart.

So thank you for that.

And Mr.

Nimrod, you make everyone feel good.

That is a lost art.

So keep doing it.

Please, please, sir.

Thank you.

Um, and today is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

We recognize uh on December 3rd, it's created by the United Nations in 1992.

The day highlights the importance of inclusion, accessibility, and the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities.

It's a global reminder that our communities are stronger when everyone can fully participate.

Let's continue working towards a more inclusive and welcoming world for all.

And the Secret Santa Project will hold its annual toy giveaway on Saturday, December 20th, 2025, from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

in the Masonic Temple Memorial Temple in Ward 1 at 2200 West Musquete Avenue.

This is a drive-thru event, and children age one through 11 must be in the car to receive a toy.

No walk-ups or exchanges.

When started, what started as a small effort at Nellis Air Force Base now brings holiday joy to over 3,000 children each year, continuing the legacy of a founder, Joe Avarado.

And that's what I got, Mayor.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

And uh moment of personal privilege.

It's been exactly a year since I was sworn in as mayor.

I want to thank the city for making the transition from the Goodman's to uh my um tenure as smooth as it was.

This has been a wonderful year.

I've enjoyed working with all of our city council people.

It is so good to come to work and know you're working with people that are as hardworking, dedicated, and care as much about the city and their wards as I do.

And it's been a pleasure.

I thank you all.

Um, our leadership is remarkable.

The city is very well served by our leadership team and our staff and uh employees make all of us very proud to be uh affiliated and associated with the city of Las Vegas.

So thank you all.

It's been a pleasure, and I now adjourn this meeting.

There we go.