Thank you, everyone.

Welcome to our Mesa City Council meeting for March 9th, 2026.

Councilmember Adams is unable to attend and is excused.

All other council members are present.

With that, we'll begin this meeting with an invocation by Pastor Jose Luis Amaya at the Iglesia de Cristo, Elim Bethel Church, followed by a pledge of allegiance.

Pastor Amaya, please come forward.

Thank you.

Please stand.

Thank you, Mayor.

Nice to remember January 7th, 2025.

Remember that date?

More than a year ago.

And it's a blessing, you know, to see you, and then I was giving you a strength for the whole year, three more years to come.

You want to be full of blessings and strength.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day and for everything you have done, and for you as the glory, the honor and the praise.

Thank you for every one of uh all the members of the council and their families and also all the institutions of the city.

We thank you for this moment, and we ask you to guide him all the time, give encouraging and strength, and give him knowledge, understanding, and mainly wisdom to deal with all the necessities of this city.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you again.

Amen.

Amen.

And amen.

Thank you, Pastor.

Thank you.

Are there Boy Scouts here?

They were gonna lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance.

They're there.

Okay.

Come forward, please.

Now, if I'm correct, you're from Pac 10 and Troop 484.

Is that correct?

Or all from 484?

All right, great.

Microphone's yours.

You want to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I clause allegiance to the United States of America.

And to the Republic, for which it stands, why nation, under God, individual for liberty, and justice for all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Troop 484.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

So item one is the consent agenda.

Uh Mr.

Christopher, if you'll come forward and read the consent agenda.

What I have now currently 4B, C, F off Cent, 5A, B off consent, and 6A off consent, 7A off consent.

6A and 7A are on consent or off.

Off.

7A is off.

Okay.

All right.

The rest is yours.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

These are the items in the consent agenda.

All items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council.

And will be enacted with one motion.

There will be no separate discussion unless the council member or citizen request, in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item.

Item two, approval of minutes of previous meetings is written.

Item 3A, acting liquor license application for Zach's Cigar Bar, 7310 East Main Street.

Item 4A, approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for landscape maintenance services for city facilities for the facilities management department.

Items 4B and 4C have been removed from the consent agenda.

Item 4D, approving three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for traffic signal loop detection installment services for the transportation department.

Item 4E, approving three-year term use of a cooperative contract for pavement management services for the transportation department.

Funding will be from either the local street sales tax or the highway user revenue fund.

Item 4F has been removed from the consent agenda.

Items 5A, 5B, 6A, and 7A have all been removed from the consent agenda as well.

Mayor and Council members, these are the items on the consent agenda.

Thank you, Mr.

Christopher.

I'll uh entertain a motion to approve.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Eddie, and thank you, Miss Duff.

Please cast your vote.

All right.

It passes uh unanimously with Mr.

Adams absent.

We'll go back to 4B.

Uh 4B is a dollar limit increase to the term contract for safety and medical supplies for Mesa Police and Public Safety Support Department Citywide.

I have two speakers, uh Mr.

Reggie Brown and Noah James Reggie.

You're up first, followed by Noah.

Thank you for time.

Uh I'm gonna be speaking for a few times today, so I wanted to just review who I am with everyone and why I do this.

It's gonna it's gonna apply, believe me.

My name is Reggie Braun.

I'm a data engineer with over 25 years of data management experience.

I've worked for industries, regging from nonprofits and universities to defense contractors like Warquell Animation.

I often provide statistics on risk and gap analysis as well as forecasting trends and other insights the data can provide.

ScottConn, the city of Mesa CIO, who has many more experience than I have.

Reggie, I need to stop you.

You need to talk about the safety and medical supplies for Mesa police, not Mr.

Cohn.

I am, sir.

All right.

You need to stay on that topic, that agenda.

I just need to give my legitimate.

Pardon?

I just want to give my qualifications.

You do that every time.

We're familiar with your qualifications.

I just don't know.

I don't get a response from you guys, you know.

So I want you to stay on the topic, please.

Okay.

Uh so what I've noticed in a lot of like when I did last time with the MLB thing is I notice a lot of these contracts tend to have a lot of verbiage, which I'm familiar with, which kind of is true, but obfuscates some of the data.

And in this particular one, if we're talking about law enforcement and the um safety and medical supplies and statistics, uh, I'm trying to find it here.

What are we looking?

How much are we asking for the one-time deal?

A couple for $700,000 or something like that.

Um, this is going to be like a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars we have in the next few agenda items.

But including things like ballistic helmets and shields kind of gives me pause when we talk about the fact that we're talking about medical and safety.

It kind of makes me think more of we're talking about militarization.

Um, whether or not those should be included in this, I haven't done that much research.

But again, it seems to put a priority on the militarization.

Now, we've already talked about how successful our crime statistics are.

We've already reduced violent crime, and I am going to talk again about sexual assault.

And so, therefore, I'm wondering in this and the others, how much further we need to invest in either militarization and or single source contracts that inflate the budget.

And I'll stop there because I know I'm gonna talk more.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Reggie.

Uh Noah James, uh, you're on item 4B.

Aloha um Mayor and to the rest of the city council.

My name is uh Noah James Markham.

Um I'm from the great city of Tempe.

Um, so this item right here of 4B.

Um, I think I heard in your study session that um the wonderful Greg Staten um helped fund some of this stuff.

So um, you know, I I don't know what Noah, he did not fund any of this.

So stay on this topic, please.

He he did do he did give you some money for something, right?

That's a different agenda.

Right, but it still ties into it.

Um yeah, and so I have uh a concern about face mask.

And that sounds like what the ICE agents have been doing, is they've been putting face masks on.

I don't know what kind of face mask you're talking about.

These face masks are for biohazard when people are interacting with each other in medical situations, so that's what the purchase is for protection.

Okay.

It'd be similar to what nurses and doctors would wear in emergency room.

Hmm.

That's interesting because it that seems unsafe.

Um, especially um if you said it's it's it's for nurses and doctors.

I mean, that is something that ICE does too.

They have masks just like that too.

Um, but this I do not like because I don't trust the Mesa Police Department, especially with people with disabilities.

And this, if I I don't think you should find this if you cannot even protect people with disabilities.

Um, and so yeah, that's why I don't think Mesa, you know, I had an instant today that they did an awful job at.

And so I don't think they should have this if they can't take care of special needs people like me.

Thank you so much, Mahalo.

Uh Council, uh I'll irritate a motion to approve item 4B.

Dollar light limit increase term safety contract for safety and medical supplies.

Thank you, Mr.

Summers.

Second by Miss Go Forth.

Please cast your vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Move on to 4C.

4C, we have uh Reggie Braun is speaking on the use of cooperative contract for the purchase of 200 ballistic helmets, replacement for the Mesa Police Department.

Thank you again.

This is gonna be obviously related to it.

Now, again, we have we have great law enforcement.

Uh, we have great staff.

I mean, whenever I talk about these things, I don't want to blame the police that puts in the ground.

I'm not gonna blame the city clerk or the attorney.

My first day in military history class, my captain was very clear to us.

Enforcement, whether it be overseas or whatever, is done at the behest of the people in power.

And forgive this parlance, it is a thing that said shit rolls downhill.

When you make the priority for military and ballistic helmets, and you and we have a great violence rate, um violence crime reduction rate, and the sexual assault clearance rate is less than 12%.

There's a misappropriation appropriation of resources.

The impact that those things have, sexual assault and other things that are unsolved, I believe outweigh the need for ballistic helmets.

If for sure we are combating violent crime effectively.

Now, uh, as opposed to the also just the idea for the last one, I just want to be clear.

Uh the Avon M50, their Air Airbus LBM, uh, they're not actually only for biohazard and surgic supplies.

They're actually uh compact to fit under tactical uh face masks and helmet.

They are actually tactical field operations under that last agenda item.

These are high mobility, low profile units designed to be worn with ballistic helmets and kept agents.

So again, I'm curious why we're kind of obfuscating these things and why we're bearing them in the agenda.

Uh this is going to be a common theme with me because I have done this kind of deep dive, and it is frankly a little bit triggering.

So let's talk about $400,000 increase for some of these uh line items.

That could probably go to rate kits.

That could probably go to people who are researching cases.

That could definitely go to counseling services.

Thank you.

Thank you, Reggie.

Just to be aware, this is replacement of 200 ballistic helmets.

With that, council, I'll entertain a motion to approve item 4C.

Thank you, Miss Taylor.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Please cast your vote.

Okay, motion passes unanimously with Mr.

Adams absent.

All right, moving on to 4F.

4F is a three-year term contract with two-year renewal options for traffic management systems, video wall upgrades, and replacement for our transportation department.

Uh Reggie Braun is requested to speak on this.

Thank you again.

Uh, this is another situation where I've started getting into the details of these contracts, and I'm looking for some clarification.

Uh, as you know, in the Super Bowl ad this year, there was a severe lash back against flock cameras and an involvement with the ring.

Therefore, any kind of surveillance surveillance or traffic monitoring becomes an uh well uh freedoms and a privacy issue to everyone and especially the citizens of Mesa.

So my really simple questions is that these are uh labeled as dual use.

Does TMC data interface with federal enforcement?

And if it does, is that voluntary?

Is that done by a order, or is it somehow buried in logistics of the contract?

This is a video wall upgrade for our transportation department only.

I can't answer the rest of that, Mr.

Butler.

Do you have someone that would like to answer whether we interface with hearing part?

You stay there, Reggie.

Yes.

There's three mics.

Um good evening, Mayor, Council members, Eric Kaderian, uh the director for the transportation department.

Um so this is for our video wall, the transportation management center.

Uh we use our video feeds to to manage traffic in a real-time perspective.

Um, we do share our video feeds with the police department and the real-time crime center.

We don't know where the the feed goes after that.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

Mr.

Braun, this is yours.

Yes, sir.

That didn't answer my question.

So we really need to know since it's already shared with law enforcement, and that we do know for flock cameras, public information is your license plate as well as the person driving.

I would like to know under our rights, you know, for whether or not our data is shared with the government, how it's shared, and if it would be shared.

You don't have to answer it now.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, council entertain a motion to approve item four if through your term contract with two-year renewal options for traffic management system.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Miss Go Forth, please cast your vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you, with Mr.

Adams absent.

Okay, item uh 5A.

5A is approving and authorizing the city manager.

Is it designated to enter to a power purchase agreement, energy storage agreement with Panel Solar Project?

Uh we have one speaker, Mr.

Noah James.

Noah, if you'll come up.

Aloha Mayor, and to the rest of the city council.

Again, um, I just have a question.

Is this um Panel Solar?

Is it for Panell County or is it this?

It's the name of the company.

Oh, it's the name of the company.

So it's not Panau County then.

It's only in Pennell County, but it's Pennell Solar.

It's only in Panawh County, that's what you're saying.

The company names Pennell Solar.

But it's not in Panaw County.

It is in Pennell County.

Oh, it is.

Oh, okay.

Got it.

Um, yeah, so I love Penau County.

It's a great city to live in.

Um, because they illegally tried to put the 287 G agreement there with the attorney.

Um, you know, so um, yeah, I I really like solar.

I do like electric power.

This is really good.

Um, and yeah, hopefully this will help Pana because they are better than Mesa.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Noah.

I'll entertain a motion to approve item 5A.

Thank you, Miss Duff.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Please cast your vote.

Motion passes with Mr.

Adams absent.

Uh next we'll move on to I have 5B.

5B is approving authorizing city manager to enter to an intergovernmental agreement with Gilbert Unified School District number 41 for solid waste recycling collection.

We have one speaker tonight, Noah James.

Okay.

Um, aloha mayor again and to the rest of the um city council.

So um I really have a concern.

I you guys are I don't know if you guys are gonna be involved with Gilbert Unified School District.

Um, but you know, I love Gilbert, and that's where I live for a long time.

And um I just don't trust Mesa, you know, coming and going into Gilbert.

I just it's just seen.

You don't trust us to pick up their trash?

I don't trust you guys.

I think Gilbert can do it because I don't trust you with the 287G.

So um, yeah, I vote now.

Mayor.

I do.

All right, please hold your clapping.

Yes, just for clarity.

The uh the city limits of Gilbert and Mesa are not the same as this as the school district limits of those same communities.

So in my district, there are several high schools and grade schools, and that's what this contract is that we will pick up Gilbert School trash, but it's actually in the city of the city of Mesa.

Right.

All right.

Thank you.

I'll entertain a motion for item 5B.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Second by Miss Duff.

Please cast your vote.

Motion passes with Mr.

Adams absent.

All right.

Next we'll move on to item 6A.

6A is a zoning case, Mesa Premier RV and both stories, phase two.

Uh we have one speaker, Noah James.

That's what you requested.

Yes, okay.

And to the rest of the city council.

Um you know, I did look at this, and Mesa, it's just interesting because I don't know why we need this.

It's already owed stuff here.

Like it just I don't know.

I just don't like this.

I mean, RV and boat storage facility, just it's I don't know.

I don't think we need this here.

I think it should be something else more exciting than this.

If we're gonna use some kind of money here and Mesa, and I I reject this.

So yeah, Mahlo, thank you so much.

Thank you, Noah.

I'll entertain a motion to approve item six A, zoning case 24-01027.

Thank you, Miss Taylor and Miss Goforth, please cast your vote.

All right, the motion passes with Mr.

Adams absent.

Okay, item 7A is off consent.

That is a ordinance proposing amendments to chapters 1 through 87 of the Title 11 Mesa City Code.

I have one speaker, uh Reggie Braun.

As far as I understand it, 7A is designed to save the city money by reducing the hours staff spend on public hearings.

Right.

Correct.

Uh so let me see here.

Is this the zoning situation or is that a different one?

I'm I'm which I'm confused which one's came off the consent agenda.

This you request to speak on 7A, which is it does it cover the zoning?

Does it cover the expansion of marijuana dispensaries?

No.

Okay.

So then this is more about administration.

Uh, did you do your research on this?

I've done a lot of research, sir.

I'm sorry.

When I do this work, it's off my own time.

Normally for these kinds of three-minute talks, I charge about $1,500 to $3,000.

So I'm sorry if I haven't done the complete deal, but I'm hoping that you give me clarity that you know these well enough.

No?

Okay.

So let's just call it administrative friction and overhead.

That you're trying to reduce those things.

Um, I have been trying to get some PRRs done, which are public records done.

Um, I am finding that there's some administrative overhead in getting those uh serviced.

So when it comes to the idea that you're gonna reduce administrative overhead, I would really like there to be a uh a compliance with the ARS that says that uh the public should be getting the right to information in a timely manner.

Currently, my PR is about 70 days late.

So that's in violation of the IRS.

I would like to see that added to something like this.

That's all.

If you're gonna focus on saying that we are going to reduce the kind of time for review for efficiency, then we should at least get responses to our emails, our uh notations, the city attorney, and the city clerk, which unfortunately I've never received despite three months.

So it's about 70 to well, between 40 and 70 days.

Thank you.

Thank you, Reggie.

So these changes are administrative due to compliance with the Arizona revised statute code in the paragraph.

So these changes are mandated by our state legislature.

That's why we're doing that.

So I'll entertain a motion to approve 7A.

Thank you, Miss Duff.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Please cast your vote.

Motion passes with Mr.

Adams absent.

With that, we'll move over to the items from citizen present.

I have three speakers.

Uh the first one is uh Leanne McGelvy.

I hope I didn't mispronounce it.

Leanne, please come forward with a Della Ramos uh on deck.

Okay.

Leanne.

Hello.

You did say my name correctly.

Thank you.

Oh.

Thanks.

I'm originally from a small town in ASL from Azel, Texas.

When I was about 22, I moved to Arizona, and today I'm proud to call the city of Mesa my home.

Growing up in Texas, sorry.

Growing up in Texas, I had a very clear and firm sense of right and wrong.

In my mind, if you committed a crime, you were wrong and need to go to jail.

End of story.

But since moving to Arizona and opening myself up to new experiences and opening myself up to uh like new experiences and cultures, I realize that life isn't always as crystal clear as I once believed.

I I have public speaking anxiety, I'm sorry.

We all do, don't worry about it.

Thank you.

I've learned that Tex Mex is definitely not Latino cuisine, that the world is bigger and more complex than I realize.

So I started asking myself difficult questions.

If a parent steals food, are they a horrible criminal?

Or are they a parent doing what is necessary for their family to survive?

If a student steals a tablet to be able to do work on to work on at home to do our homework at home, like are they heading down a dark path, or are they a child desperately trying to keep up in a system that aims to keep them in poverty?

Some might say they should just use the programs available to help.

The reality is either those programs are either full, not enough funding, difficult to apply for, or getting shut down.

While learning new things, I have changed my ways of thinking.

Like, why can't why can't anyone else?

Mayor Freeman, you were a fighter fighter for 31 years.

31 years facing things others run away from.

Our community is on fire due to 287G.

This is your time to put this fire out and end this, like end it.

Like it's your chance to save our community.

Please.

Only difference between him and the people today is that he was considered a pioneer.

Some of you have financial backgrounds.

Like years, like years of financial background.

So y'all should know the economic value of having immigrants living here.

Look into the recent to me, it's recent, it's like a month ago.

Um, publishing of Kate the Cato Institute article on how much immigration helps us, whether documented or undocumented.

Wait, to everyone, I want to leave, I want to end it with this.

Proverbs 1431.

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Thank you for your time and have a good day.

Thank you, Leanne.

We'll next hear from Adela.

Adela Ramos, if she'll come forward, and then on deck is Michelle Cleveland.

Adela, you have three minutes.

Good afternoon, members of the council.

My name is Adela.

I am a junior high student here at Mesa.

I live in this community and I care deeply about what happens in our city.

Today I am not speaking from anger.

I am speaking from concern.

Concern rooted in the love for Mesa and the responsibilities many families feel right now.

Mesa already has a 287G agreement with ICE.

As you know, this agreement is supposed to only focus on people who are already in custody.

But what we're seeing in our neighborhoods goes beyond that.

And the result is fear.

Fear of calling the police, fear of asking for help, fear even when someone is a victim of a crime.

And when fear walks in the door, safety walks out the window.

I want to be very clear.

Enforcing the law matters.

No one here is asking for the law to be ignored.

But the city of Mesa should not be doing immigration work that belongs to the federal government.

Our local police should be focused on protecting our neighborhoods, preventing crime, and making sure people feel safe reporting crimes so they can be solved.

Law enforcement cannot do their job well if part of our community is too afraid to speak up.

Because when a mother hesitates to call 911, when a victim of domestic violence chooses to stay silent, when a witness refuses to report what they saw, it is not only the immigrant families who suffer, the entire city is suffering.

Mesa becomes less safe for everyone.

Abraham Lincoln held a divided nation together by appealing our shared humanity.

Martha Luther King Jr.

reminded us that there could be no peace without justice.

Cesar Chavez taught us that human dignity is not negotiable.

That is the United States that many of us still believe is possible.

Right now, our country feels more divided than ever.

That's why local decisions matter so much.

You have the power to either build trust or break it.

And if we don't act now, the damage will be deep and lasting, not only for the families who are afraid today, but for the future generations who inherit a city where neighbors don't trust the people who swore to protect them.

So today I'm asking you.

So today I'm asking you to leave with conscience and courage.

Please take action to ensure that Mesa police is focused on local public safety, not immigration enforcement.

Cancel the 287G agreement with ICE and set clear boundaries that protect the trust between law enforcement and the community.

Because a city that only protects some is not a safe city.

And a city that governs through fear loses its soul.

Mesa could be Mesa could be a city where the police and community walk together, not against each other, where safety is built on trust, not fear.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Adela.

Next we'll hear from you can snap your fingers.

Let's reduce the clapping, please.

Michelle Cleveland.

Come up, Michelle.

Good evening, Mayor Freeman, Council members.

Thank you very much for giving me this time to express the opinions of a legal immigrant, a very proud, naturalized citizen of this country.

My family waited in line in a refugee camp in Italy.

We were refugees for almost a year, hoping that the wonderful country of the United States of America would allow us the privilege of coming to live here.

There are thousands of people, millions of people over the years who have waited in line patiently.

The lawbreakers who are too afraid to call the police should go home to their country of origin where they belong.

Okay?

Just be patient.

We listen like everybody else.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Michelle.

There are so many hundreds of us, City of Mesa residents who are too busy with our daily lives, taking care of our children, and working our jobs to come here and speak.

I am a resident of the city of Mesa, unlike a lot of people who have come here to express a contrary opinion.

I believe there are more residents of the city of Mesa who believe the police should do the job of policing.

But also all your comments, all laws should be respected.

And if someone is here illegally, and they are actually the resident of another country, they should go home.

And if they break additional laws, that should be expedited.

They do not belong here.

Those of us who waited in line are disrespected.

Those of us who waited in line are hurt.

How many thousands of people that are waiting in line are not going to get the opportunity because other people jumped the line, broke the law, and came here illegally.

By supporting illegals here, you are supporting a slave class of people who are underpaid because they're paid under the table.

Thank you, Michelle.

Your time's up.

Thank you.

All right.

Officers.

We want decorum here, please.

Miss Mosley, is there anyone that I missed in this part of it?

No, Mayor, that was all of the requests for tonight.

All right.

With that, uh counsel, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Miss Gulf.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.