OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Mesa City Council Study Session - October 21, 2025

Council Study Sessions — Tuesday, October 21, 2025
BodyMesa, Arizona
SessionCouncil Study Sessions
DateTuesday, October 21, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 22:53

Transcript — Verbatim
0:03

Well, welcome to the Mesa City Council meeting study session for October 20th, 2025.

0:09

Uh Councilmember Goforth is unable to attend this.

0:12

She's excuse otherwise, all council members are present.

0:15

Item one is to review the agenda for tonight's council meeting.

0:18

I know we went over this uh agenda, council.

0:21

Are there any questions about tonight's agenda?

0:30

If not, I have one on 4A, and that's the water.

0:33

That's the drilling in the well.

0:34

Of course, I like water, I get thirsty now and then, Chris.

0:37

Sorry.

0:38

But maybe you can just tell us it shows a 4.5 million dollars uh in the cost of the well.

0:45

Is that just for the equipment, excluding the cost to drill the well?

0:48

So combine, maybe break it down between the drilling of a well site and totally equip.

0:54

Sure, mayor council.

0:56

So this is Desert Well 7, and this contract, it was a bid, so it's a bid award just to equip the well.

1:02

So we already drilled it a couple years ago, and that was a separate contract to a driller that was about two, two and a half million, if I remember correctly.

1:10

So this four and a half million would be everything after equipping, so it'd be building the site, all of the equipment, the electrical, just everything to get it to be operational.

1:21

So drilling a well and equipping it, you're talking about about six point seven million dollars today.

1:26

Correct.

1:27

Which is a big departure from if you go back to 2019, um, viewer less than half of that.

1:34

Yeah.

1:35

Well, all right.

1:38

Well, that was my question because I know that we've talked about putting some well sites on hold because of the cost to drill and equip them.

1:45

But then this is something that we have to get in here our water portfolio for well site, especially in the southeast part of Mesa.

1:55

Correct.

1:56

And so this this well actually, so this is a redrill drill.

2:00

There was already a desert well seven.

2:01

This is uh a long haws between baseline Guadalupe area.

2:05

Okay.

2:06

And so the existing Desert Well 7, it's like a lot of our older well inventory, half century old, needed to be redrilled, so we redrilled it.

2:14

Uh the good news is we're gonna get a lot more capacity than the old well.

2:18

So that's good, and it's in a good spot, it's central, east central mesa.

2:21

But then also another good part of the story is we bid this.

2:25

So engineers' estimates, they still tend to be lofty in terms of not really understanding where costs are going.

2:33

So we really worked with engineering to try to see what the market would bear.

2:38

And some of the engineers' estimates for this was approaching nine million for this, and uh, there were three bids in the fours.

2:46

So the market was very telling.

2:48

Uh, it's getting a lot more competitive, and we had can't remember how many bidders total, but we had closer to ten than we had five.

2:54

We had a lot of bidders and good contractors too.

2:58

Very good.

2:58

Are we drilling them deeper in the aquifer than they are today?

3:03

Well, it depends on where you're at in the city.

3:05

These are gonna be a thousand to twelve hundred feet deep.

3:07

Okay.

3:09

I know it takes a lot of horsepower to pull that water out of that deep.

3:12

Right.

3:13

All right, that's the only question I had on that.

3:15

Thank you for the overview.

3:18

Council, any other questions.

3:22

All right, I would just like to highlight 5C.

3:26

Uh, we had some significant rains this year and some localized flooding in Mesa.

3:32

Um this particular project in District 6, which is my district, uh, Pecos storm uh storm drain improvements.

3:40

So we had a lot of flooding along Pecos Road, too.

3:43

So this is hopefully will help take care of some of that.

3:49

Mayor and and council, yes.

3:52

Um certainly trying to stay ahead of these storms is is a challenge, right?

3:58

And we we saw that and I think Lance can you know come up and and speak to the specificity of this particular project.

4:04

I I will say, as you as you were very aware, Vice Mayor, that sheet flooding that issues that we have off the superstitions in district six have been an issue, you know.

4:13

We've been dealing with obviously for decades in in Southeast Mesa, where we've been trying to be very strategic at looking at uh improvement projects every time we have new roadways and new subdivisions coming in of trying to address that.

4:26

It's it's going to be a continued work in progress.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Engineering And Infrastructure████████████████████████████████32%
Public Safety█████████████████████████25%
Procedural██████████████████████22%
Youth Programs███████████11%
Water And Wastewater Management██████████10%
Summary of Proceedings

Mesa City Council Study Session - October 21, 2025

This study session was held on October 21, 2025, to review the agenda for the regular council meeting and discuss several capital improvement and grant items. Councilmembers also shared updates on community events. No formal votes were taken, as this was a discussion-only session.

Discussion Items

  • Agenda Review (Item 1): The mayor invited questions on the regular meeting agenda. One councilmember asked for a cost breakdown of Item 4A, Desert Well 7. Staff explained that the $4.5 million bid award covered equipping only (drilling was completed earlier at about $2–2.5 million), bringing the total well cost to approximately $6.7 million. The mayor noted the significant cost increase since 2019. Staff reported that multiple bids came in well below the engineer's estimate (nearly $9 million), reflecting a more competitive market.
  • Pecos Storm Drain Improvements (Item 5C): The vice mayor highlighted this project in District 6, following severe flooding in 2025. Staff described a 12-year collaboration with the flood control district to address regional drainage. The cost share is 60% city, 40% flood control district. Councilmembers praised city staff’s response during the storms and emphasized the importance of continued infrastructure investment.
  • Firefighter Cancer Screenings and CPR Devices (Item 5B): A councilmember acknowledged a FEMA grant for sworn firefighter cancer screenings and automated CPR devices. The fire chief confirmed the grant funds both the screenings and the purchase of devices that improve CPR effectiveness. Staff noted the devices have already saved lives.

Share Events & Conferences

  • Vice Mayor reported on Mesa’s America 250 committee planning, noting the city is ahead of others in the state.
  • A councilmember attended the Arizona Forward Sustainability Summit, where Mesa Youth Climate Action Fund grantees presented; spoke at a Rainbow Girls leadership event; participated in a walk/bike/roll to school safety event; planted trees at Guerrero Park; attended the Phoenix Pride Parade; and visited an ASU civic hackathon at the Mix Center.
  • The mayor attended the Children’s Action Alliance luncheon, the MCC ribbon cutting for a construction laydown yard, a Good Samaritan recognition for a cardiac arrest save, the College Bound Hoops gala, and a Salt River Project meeting with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.
  • Councilmember Spillsbury promoted the upcoming Día de los Muertos event at Mesa Arts Center.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal decisions were made during the study session. The regular council meeting was scheduled to follow, and the next study session was set for Thursday morning, October 23, 2025, at 7:30 AM.
  • Councilmembers expressed strong support for continued storm drainage investments, cost-effective well projects, and firefighter health initiatives.

Note: The transcript references the meeting date as October 20, 2025, but the assigned meeting time is October 21, 2025 (01:30 UTC). The summary uses the provided date.

Meeting Transcript

Well, welcome to the Mesa City Council meeting study session for October 20th, 2025. Uh Councilmember Goforth is unable to attend this. She's excuse otherwise, all council members are present. Item one is to review the agenda for tonight's council meeting. I know we went over this uh agenda, council. Are there any questions about tonight's agenda? If not, I have one on 4A, and that's the water. That's the drilling in the well. Of course, I like water, I get thirsty now and then, Chris. Sorry. But maybe you can just tell us it shows a 4.5 million dollars uh in the cost of the well. Is that just for the equipment, excluding the cost to drill the well? So combine, maybe break it down between the drilling of a well site and totally equip. Sure, mayor council. So this is Desert Well 7, and this contract, it was a bid, so it's a bid award just to equip the well. So we already drilled it a couple years ago, and that was a separate contract to a driller that was about two, two and a half million, if I remember correctly. So this four and a half million would be everything after equipping, so it'd be building the site, all of the equipment, the electrical, just everything to get it to be operational. So drilling a well and equipping it, you're talking about about six point seven million dollars today. Correct. Which is a big departure from if you go back to 2019, um, viewer less than half of that. Yeah. Well, all right. Well, that was my question because I know that we've talked about putting some well sites on hold because of the cost to drill and equip them. But then this is something that we have to get in here our water portfolio for well site, especially in the southeast part of Mesa. Correct. And so this this well actually, so this is a redrill drill. There was already a desert well seven. This is uh a long haws between baseline Guadalupe area. Okay. And so the existing Desert Well 7, it's like a lot of our older well inventory, half century old, needed to be redrilled, so we redrilled it. Uh the good news is we're gonna get a lot more capacity than the old well. So that's good, and it's in a good spot, it's central, east central mesa. But then also another good part of the story is we bid this. So engineers' estimates, they still tend to be lofty in terms of not really understanding where costs are going. So we really worked with engineering to try to see what the market would bear. And some of the engineers' estimates for this was approaching nine million for this, and uh, there were three bids in the fours. So the market was very telling. Uh, it's getting a lot more competitive, and we had can't remember how many bidders total, but we had closer to ten than we had five. We had a lot of bidders and good contractors too. Very good. Are we drilling them deeper in the aquifer than they are today? Well, it depends on where you're at in the city. These are gonna be a thousand to twelve hundred feet deep. Okay. I know it takes a lot of horsepower to pull that water out of that deep. Right. All right, that's the only question I had on that. Thank you for the overview. Council, any other questions. All right, I would just like to highlight 5C.

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