Welcome everyone to our Mesa Studies Council study session October 30th, almost Halloween time.

For roll call, Councilmember Adams is unable to attend and is excused.

Uh, Councilmember Heredia is on Zoom with us.

And uh welcome everybody.

It's got a beautiful morning in Mesa, Arizona.

I know our thank you to our acting city manager, uh, Mr.

Ken Cost is here.

And then I know our manager is uh city manager is traveling and watching online as well.

With that, um item one is to review the agenda we have for Monday, November 3rd council meeting, and we can go through that agenda.

Council, if you have any questions in uh Mr.

Reddy, if you'll raise your hand, I'll try to watch you on the monitor.

Yeah, sewer lift station.

Um yeah, Mayor, I'm I'm very familiar with it, but I imagine you all uh may have questions about 5B.

We could have the presentation on that.

Is it property?

Yeah, yeah.

Welcome water, engineering, and real estate.

Okay.

It's coming up and then it's going away.

Good morning, Mayor.

Uh Council members.

Uh this morning we're talking about a property exchange between City of Mesa and Sunshine Acres for a sewer lift station.

The location is at Higley Road and Longbow Boulevard, just south of uh, I'm sorry, Longbow Parkway, just south of the loop 202 uh Ren Mountain Freeway.

Um the city owns some parcels that are on the north side there, just south of the 202, and we're looking to exchange for a piece of property right at the corner for our sewer lift station.

Currently, there's a private sewer lift station there for Sunshine Acres on the corner.

Um looking at the Sunshine Acres parcel and maybe what the layout would be.

This is a proposed layout for our sewer lift station.

Uh it appraised, we had a third-party appraiser, appraise these properties, of course, and uh this property appraised at 462 462,000.

It's uh 21,000 square foot lot.

Uh looking at the properties, and Lance can probably talk more uh appropriately about this, but it's just a better location for some of our for the sewer lift station.

We had been looking at a property that was north of the 202 as well, and this and looking at the logistics and timing and and money.

Uh, this just turned out to be a better location for the sewer lift station.

It also provides uh sewer for uh future development in this area.

Um the city of Mesa parcels, we purchased those back in 1984.

Uh prior to the 202, we had an agreement with ADOT to uh purchase these properties from a private uh owner at that time, and these were what was left over after the 202 came in.

Um it is a challenging site.

There's really no access from Higley Road.

Uh it's depressed about 15 feet from the grade there of the street.

Um, so it appraised at 519 for uh 453.

Um it's a remnant piece, and currently we lease it to Sunshine Acres and they use it for storage.

Land exchange, it will be no money exchange um with this land exchange.

It does save the money uh for the city's insignificant time and expenses.

Um you know, the estimate of three million dollars and 12 to 18 months of time not include doesn't only include the property itself, but also the time of uh design and the sewer coming underneath the 202, those kinds of things.

Um Sunshine Acres is obviously a good asset to our city, and so that's another good reason.

Um staff is recommending that we move forward with this property exchange.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Chris, can you give uh the council a little background on why this is necessary with regard to capacity and development in the area?

Sure, good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

Uh so this lift station is just really part of a regional wastewater collections plan, if you will.

Um so everything north of Longbow all the way up to Thomas, and then if you go from Wrecker all the way to Higley, that whole area, uh, especially north of the 202, uh that has been uh until now until we can put this lift station in place and some sewer lines, it's really been stranded.

There's there's no way to get the wastewater that's north of the 202 up the Thomas.

There's that whole swath that really has no outfall.

It sits in a depressed area.

And when the 202 was built, ADOT, in cooperation with Mesa built a sleeve under the 202 that would accommodate uh wastewater gravity line.

And when development started picking up a few years ago in that area, uh one of the developers, engineers and surveyors went out there and they discovered that ADOT they used a different survey datum, that's what we concluded, and they built that sewer sleeve too low.

So what I mean by too low is that if you run a line through by gravity and just keep going south, and you get to longbow, you're too deep.

So you have no outfall.

Um so we had to go back and look at different solutions.

One is that uh recently we had one of our contractors, Garney go out and do a more extensive survey.

And what the results pointed to is we we do have some alternatives.

Um so for the for the area from 56th Street over to Wrecker, there's a lot of development that's that's eager to get in there right now.

We can do a phase one by gravity.

The sleeve is is such that we can run a line a little bit flatter, do some things.

Um I'm using some engineering lingo now, chase grade, and get to a manhole where we can have a phase one that is gravity that uses that sleeve, even though it was a little a little deeper than it should have been.

Um so we have engineering is actually working with our contractor Garney to get a price, and we might start that work here.

What do you think, Lance, within 60 days or so?

Within about yeah, a little over a month, about a month.

So that's that's the piece that doesn't involve the lift station.

So if you look from 56 over to Higgly, we do need a lift station.

So that everything, once you get to 56th Street, you're really falling off to the north in terms of grade, you're you're really going against um grade in terms of trying to get by gravity to where you need to go.

I'm sorry, Chris, both north and south of the 202 from 56th Street is what you're saying.

Both both north and south.

So we needed a lift station originally.

We were looking at something north of Thomas along Higley, but we we were working for a couple of years trying to strike a deal with the landowner, and we we could not get a deal.

It would have come down to us having to go through condemnation.

We didn't want to do that.

Um, because as we were going through that, another opportunity revealed itself, which was Sunshine Acres, actually was eager to do a split or a swap with us, which Lisa just explained, which would give us any much better property.

So longbow and Higley is actually ideal.

That's perfect because everything we can get to there, and then make the make that whole regional wastewater collection concept work.

So there's really two pieces.

There's the gravity piece I explained, which we're gonna start very soon, and then this lift station would help facilitate the other piece of it.

So then regionally, we would have no more issues with wastewater collection in that area.

So uh mayor and council member go forth the to uh in addition to what Chris has explained.

Um this also facilitates future growth in areas, even possibly west of uh Higley potentially, uh that's currently state land not annexed in the city of Mesa.

It's just generally a better site for routing.

Uh if anyone's been up in that area, you could there's a lot of uh kind of rolling terrain in that area, which makes that difficult for sewer design.

And so this particular site facilitates that best uh for the needs, and then also as Chris explained for Sunshine Acres and future uh development in that area.

Is there a main line?

Does the main line run along Higley?

Actually, the the feed into uh the lift station will feed off of both Higley and 56th.

So there is a breakup on Thomas north of the 202, where we will have uh two different runs coming down through that area.

Okay.

Yeah, just with the um cost of the two parcels.

Like what would what would be the amount that we would not do that with that makes sense?

Yeah, so Mayor and Councilmember Spillsbury, um, some of the things that they're gonna facilitate with this uh allows us to move this forward a little quicker.

There's some value in that.

Obviously, this particular site is a significant cost savings for Mesa feeding to this particular site uh has uh a lot of value in that.

Uh one of the other things that they are doing also is is accommodating us with temporary drainage easements as you saw on that uh site visit or on that uh site plan there that facilitates allowing us to run that existing uh lift station potentially um while developing a new one and then look we're working to abandon that ultimately once we once we demo the existing one.

So we just look at the different difference in cost that we're making it up in other ways essentially.

It literally is millions of dollars uh savings going with this site.

There's some existing infrastructure in place that we're evaluating on Higgly uh four force mains uh which are basically the the pipe that feeds off the lift station back to our sewer system.

Um and there's value in that too.

So okay.

Anything else, Ms.

Google forward?

No, I just like to say thank you.

I appreciate all the work you all have done on this.

It's I know it's been over several months, and um the the other options were expensive and and weren't going well, and and I appreciate that you looked around and you you found uh a great solution.

So thank you.

Well, I know the area was underserved over several years.

Uh I know people uh developers who reached out wanting to develop the area, and it's been well, we can't really do it because we don't really have sewer in the area.

And I know there's a lot of septic in the area as well, so moving forward, this will help uh facilitate again development up there.

Uh appreciate the hard work on that.

Anything else on that, council?

Well, well, Lance is here.

Um fire station rebuild uh 205.

You want to update us on that and how that's gonna go?

Yeah, Mayor, uh Fire Station 205, we're um obviously that item there is for GMP number two.

We're going through the process of uh evaluating um and and doing abatement in that area.

We hope to be done with that by the end of uh November and starting construction efforts with demo in December, early December.

Okay, great.

Uh 4F.

This might be someone else.

Uh city owned property on Sun Air, uh, the uh furniture that we're purchasing.

We're gonna talk about that, or we won't do that on Monday.

On Monday, okay.

We'll have a presentation on that.

Okay.

Council, anything else?

Kind of a short one.

Shorts good.

Mm-hmm.

Be nice.

All right, with that, then we'll move over to Mr.

Reddy.

Do you have any thoughts or questions?

None.

Thank you.

Okay.

Item two A is a presentation update on men's workforce development and strategic plan.

I'm sure there's a team for that.

Jay and Sarah.

All right.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

I'm Jay O'Donnell.

I'm the economic development director, and joining me today is Sarah Toller, education and workforce administrator, and we are here to provide an update on the city of Mesa's workforce development strategic plan.

We have uh been working in this space for quite some time.

Um I remember I've been with the city now 16 years, and it was probably 14 years ago when I was presenting to the Mesa Chamber of Commerce Education Committee about the importance of education and how it influences workforce development.

Um Dr.

Cowan, who was the superintendent at the time, was in that meeting, and I think that many of the members were sort of shocked at some of the data points that that we were providing.

But that the point was really about if if we don't focus on education and improving educational and attainment in the city of Mesa, we are going to continue to be behind in attracting high-wage, high value companies and jobs to the area.

So it was it was again, it's been a long uh process, but I think that uh we've made a lot of progress.

And just to give you an idea of some of those milestones and what this means to a community, you can see going back to 2010, how we uh the Office of Economic Development actually led an initiative in partnership with the Mesa Community College and Mesa Public Schools through a Gates Foundation grant.

And there was a plan that was developed.

Um, the goal was to really make systemic changes across all levels of the continuum of education.

And out of those recommendations, there were several things that were identified to really enhance the outcomes for students and and move the needle for educational attainment.

And back then, when we were looking at how we compared against some of our neighbors uh in the East Valley, our our figure was not as attractive or as competitive as Gilbert or Chandler or Tempe.

And so really being intentional about how we go about making sure that we keep keep competitive.

We know that educational attainment in communities directly correlates to the prosperity in communities.

It means that when you have higher educational attainment rates, you have uh increased earning potential for your individuals, even healthier individuals.

Um, it really is just so impressive when you look at the data.

And that's that's what we've tried to do over the years is focused on data-driven decision making and outcomes.

So when you look at the timeline, um, in 2016, Achieve 60AZ was launched.

I will talk a little bit more about that on the next slide.

And then following that was the Mesa K Ready initiative in 2018 that the city also led in partnership with MPS.

Um, the Mesa Education and Workforce Development Roundtable was formed in 2021, and the Mesa College Promise was launched as well.

So since then, that program has continued to grow, and we've made great strides.

The city has partnered with nonprofits and other institutions on workforce development activities, many of which we'll talk about today.

But I I think the most important takeaway to me on this slide is that you cannot have workforce development without education.

And I I also think when you're looking at this slide, we have finally not just recognized but really intentionally adopted the philosophy that education is recognized as one of the key indicators, if not the key indicator of a skilled, adaptable, and competitive workforce.

Additionally, this effort is not a one-and-done.

It takes time and commitment to partnerships that we've already established and new ones that we will establish over time, but it's really about how we focus on student achievement, early childhood education is just as important in this equation.

And looking at what isn't working and leaving that behind, and then figuring out what is working and enhancing those efforts in those initiatives.

So, how do we measure success?

Who takes the lead?

Um, I want to talk about how we measure first.

One of the best benchmarks that for us to review is the Arizona Progress Meter.

This was established when Achieve 68AZ was adopted as a statewide goal that 60% of the state's working age population would hold a post-secondary certificate or a four-year degree or higher by 2030.

That's right around the corner.

Uh, there are eight key categories that are indicator indicators for a community's trajectory for economic growth and for predicting the success of residents in the future workforce landscape, they're on the screen.

I won't read all of them, but when you look at third grade reading proficiency, eighth grade math proficiency, those are our key indicators for how those student populations will perform in the future.

And so again, this is a continuum.

So looking at early childhood education all the way through post-secondary.

Um and the slides that we have up on on the screen now, third grade reading proficiency, uh, Mesa is in green there, Arizona, the state is in blue, so you can see the trajectory over time since 2015.

Um, Mesa has uh improved certainly since COVID, and you can see the the drastic dip there on the chart.

But um, when you compare us to Chandler, for example, uh, we certainly have more work to do in that area.

And then the trend line for post-high school enrollment is also an area that we we have some work to do.

So then who takes the lead and in what lanes do we focus as a city?

We believe that with the collaboration between the Office of Education and Workforce and the Office of Economic Development, there's there's been an enhanced focus on what we want to achieve, and then also what we know we can achieve and and realistically what we can influence short-term and long term.

So again, looking at the research, the data analytics, and and looking at what other communities have put in place over time who are facing similar challenges, we do know that the city needs to be in the middle of this.

Questions, Ms.

Goforth first.

So, Jay, I you know, I agree with what you're saying overall, the the goal, how important education is to workforce development to your economic development in the city, that that line for sure.

And when you talk about measurement, I guess I'm gonna challenge you a little bit because so we started this in 2010, and our numbers are worse than they were in 2010.

So, how are you measuring, you know what we're doing in this area, you know, and at what and you say what's working, what's not working, have we got what isn't working, and what is working that we're gonna that we are gonna focus on, especially I guess I bring it up because you know, this is an area that isn't our, you know, I guess some some would argue not your traditional government um expenditures, right?

You know, and so we've said it's a priority to us and Mesa.

It's important that everyone attain and the state of Arizona has said it, they attain a certain level of education.

It's important to the future of the city of Mesa.

So I want to make sure that you know the dollars we're spending in this area are working.

So if you could sort of tell talk to me about how we're doing, what's not working, what is what what we're gonna change since we are we've we're going the wrong direction, I guess is what I would say since 2010, right?

Yeah, mayor, council member go forth, great question, and we're going to get to some of that because you're gonna see in the strategy what we are focusing on doing and what has moved the needle.

I think part of what um what you'll see too is Mesa College Promise is a key program to help move that needle.

It started in 2021.

I think the first cohort was 50 50-ish people.

Um but now they're they're enrolling 250 a year, so that's a significant achievement, and it will take a couple of years to show the results from that.

Um, and if you go to the next slide, this is a perfect segue into what we can do, because to your point, the city is somewhat of a neutral party.

We're not we're not teaching the students, we're not educating them at the district level, but we can work in partnership to help support the district, and then also to have partnerships at the post-secondary level to help train and upskill those students.

Um and so putting all of the pieces together, I think is what we can do as that neutral party.

Um, and even though we are a neutral party, we are one of the greatest benefactors of moving that educational attainment rate up because we have the most to gain or to lose as a community and seeing that number shift one way or the other.

So again, going back to the most the the more educated a community is the the better prosperity opportunities are in that arena.

So I would agree with all of that, Jay, but but my challenge here is that even with all of that our the attainment isn't hasn't gone up since we've deterred we said that as a city, it's important, it's gone down.

So what you know, I don't I guess I I would like to hear more about why it's going down and what you're gonna do differently over the next you know in the future because what we've been doing, we all agree it's important, you know, but it isn't moving the needle.

So we will get there, Mayor and Councilmember.

Um at least at least in in general.

Of course, I already have a question, yeah.

Well, I'm just looking at I'm just curious how this is a city, right?

But not the entire city has the same problem.

There are gonna be pockets that struggle more than others, others that excel.

So, how deep does this data go?

Do we get it down to the block group or the census track or school district, you know, school boundaries?

What are we doing with that?

Um, Mayor, Councilmember Summers, it are you talking specifically about the progress meter data?

The progress meter in the third grade, yeah, the third grade reading in particular.

I was just looking at that that information that data.

Yeah, it I mean, it we can drill down as deeply as to third grade classes, um, but school district and city level, all of that, but you're exactly right that um different parts of the city have different needs and different areas of support.

And to your point, council member go forth, um, it's not something that the city can own.

Workforce development, education, third grade reading.

This is not a data point that we can own, but we recognize and have gotten feedback from our school district that they need support in order to move the needle here.

This is not something that the school districts can do on their own either.

It requires a community-wide effort.

Um, you know, we know that um the highest achieving students have the support at home, but that's something that we don't have control of.

And so it's important, and we have recognized that as a city, because like Jay said, you know, we have the most to gain or lose from this because we both have the best interest of our workforce as well as our business community.

Um, and so it's important that you know, we follow the lead, um, you know, and and we look to our educators for what they need, and we provide the support where we can.

On post-high school enrollment, does that include trade schools?

Or is that just college?

Um, it includes all of the schools that we're able to capture data on.

So there are a number uh uh one of the issues with the Achieve 60 AZ initiative is that there's not a clearinghouse for every single certification out there.

Um, so it doesn't capture every single post-secondary degree.

Um, but for all of the accredited institutions, it includes that.

So not just for your universities or community colleges.

Okay, so but it's measuring consistently throughout this time period.

Is I mean, so what happened in 2000 between 2006 and 2008, where post-high school enrollment shut up pretty significantly, and then it's been flat ever since.

Do we know the reason for that?

Um I don't know that I can speak to that specifically.

I imagine that that is a point in time in which um there was increased effort um and awareness around that, and that's really when we started measuring that, but I certainly can look into that and bring that back to you.

That would be interesting because clearly that was a success.

Yeah.

As a uh uh for all of the cities, and to uh and it looks like was that Tucson?

Looks like Tucson picked it up in 2010.

Yeah, so maybe we need to dig back into that and see what it what it was that was so successful and bring that back and modernize it for for today's workforce and what we need.

All right, interesting.

Miss Fieldsbury.

Yeah, I mean I I think to your point, this is just two things you guys picked out of so many that you could have thrown on the screen.

So the data is there, there's so much of it, there's all these different um, I mean, that the list of those aren't even that's not even a full list of all the things you can get.

The the yeah, that we just are looking at a screen where there's two snapshots of two things, and there's so many factors that go into this, like you said, like it's not this is not like this is the city's fault or success, because there's so many different factors that go into this.

I mean, I don't know, I we can all speculate at certain things, and we all obviously see the COVID um impact of things.

But I would just um since I since Council Member Haredi and I have been the ones that have been on the workforce education workforce round table for the last four years.

We obviously have dug into this a lot deeper and talked through this, but I would push a little bit and say what's the alternative that we don't do it.

I I mean, maybe we're not seeing the numbers go as high as we want, but we are seeing successes, we are seeing improvement.

We we are watching the programs that we're choosing to support in Mesa with funds and with resources and the partnerships that we create with our business communities and our school districts, and and we to be fair on the round table, just so that everyone's aware, we have all of the four school districts that have cities in Mesa.

Wow, schools in the city of Mesa.

So we do have um Higley Queen Creek and Gilbert superintendents on our school district as well, because I'm I keep saying the wrong words.

I'm sorry.

On our round table as well, because those school districts have schools in the city of Mesa.

So we always talk about MASA public schools, but we're very aware that in fact, like in the entire district six are not MACE public schools, right?

So we we care about those kids too.

So we're working, we have 17 people on that round table.

We are constantly talking about ways we can partner.

What's the city's role?

We convene all of those important partners together and we support these programs that are making a difference.

We have data to show they're making a difference.

Also, if you look at all these charts, and we've we've looked at thousands of charts, the trends are very similar city, state, and nationally.

I mean, they just are.

So to think that the city all on our own is gonna make these numbers shoot high when everyone else can't figure it out either.

That to me, that's not the goal is that we I mean, we use data, like I'm not saying we don't use data, but we need to have expectations of of what we can really do as a city, and yeah, again, what's the alternative that we don't do anything?

I don't think that's the and I don't think that's what you're saying by any means to not do anything.

But I do just think it's important to keep all of that bigger picture in mind of what what we're trying to accomplish.

Definitely not saying that.

I I'm just coming at it from when my constituents ask me about this area of where we're spending our dollars and what and that that you know the benefit of spending it in this area.

What do I tell them?

You know, what that sort of data, and maybe that's just not in here, which is absolutely fine, or maybe it is, and we'll just have gotten there.

But that that's what I'm saying to you.

I it's not necessarily you need to move the needle on education.

You're you're absolutely right.

We don't educate and we don't provide the jobs, we just hopefully provide an environment that those two things can thrive and um so that that that's kind of where I'm coming from.

I can respond.

Yeah, I just want to add one comment is that you know, we're not in a bubble by ourselves.

Economic forces as far as job availability greatly um fluctuates post-high school enrollment.

And I'm gonna assume I don't know, but around 2008, 2009, we had a huge recession and there was unemployment was rampant, and a lot of people were going back to school to use their time to upskill in order to get the jobs because jobs weren't readily available right now.

We have um very low unemployment rates.

That means if you want to work with that getting higher education, jobs are more available.

I'm not saying that that I'm saying it's one of the factors, but we're not in a bubble like our efforts alone are um you know dictating the trajectory.

So mayor, council member uh Jay, why don't you move forward to the presentation?

And we will get you'll answer some more questions.

We we will definitely, and we have been intentional about what programs we are supporting because they are working.

So let's get through um the the presentation if you want to go to the next slide, just to let you know um how we have defined our mission and what we as a city can do.

So the strategy really outlines our coordinated approach, um, not just between departments within the city, but also our partnerships.

So really trying to understand our city workforce trends, but the region, because we know that the the students and employees who are being um educated in our Mesa systems are going to find jobs outside the community as well.

We'd like them all to work in Mesa, but that's not always realistic.

So trying to align those city and regional resources, eliminating barriers to education, and then building meaningful intentional partnerships across sectors.

And then the stakeholder groups that were we're really looking to target, um they all have different needs and priorities, job seekers, employers, educators, students, nonprofits, and and all of these stakeholder groups have different methods that need to be applied to reach them.

Some of them are easier to reach than others.

Um sometimes job seekers in different communities are very difficult to reach as we found over the years.

I I do want to um let Sarah talk now about those more tactical um efforts and more of our programming as a city, and then talk, she's gonna talk a little bit too about our role as uh as a convener and how we are really that center point or hub for collaborations and how we're gonna fulfill this mission going forward.

Thank you, Jay.

And I think Councilmember Goforth, this is going to speak directly to your questions.

Um, and so you know, as Jay mentioned, you know, as a city, we're really in a unique position that we are both responding to and acting in the best interest of all of our stakeholder groups.

And we also have to recognize our lane.

We are not K-12 educators.

They have their own governing boards, they have their own funding source, and so we don't direct what they do.

We really the purpose of this is to be able to support and create partnerships and be part of this workforce development ecosystem.

And so, you know, that starts with the city and looking internally.

Because we have all of these different stakeholder groups, we wanted to make sure that we are responding in a strategic and deliberate way as a city.

And so this graphic does a good job of showing how interconnected the services that we provide, and you know, based on how each of the different departments interact with stakeholder groups, they're responding in those different ways.

But we have communication, we have collaboration because we know that ultimately the effective effectiveness of workforce development is measured through partnership.

It's not something that any entity can do on their own.

So we have worked on this and kind of updated this strategic priority framework through a long process of, as Jay talked about, really looking at what we have done in the past and looking at what has worked and what has been effective and how to most effectively direct our resources.

And we've gotten input from different groups from the education workforce development roundtable, from the Human Relations Advisory Board, from our economic development advisory board to understand, you know, what they feel like we need, and from all of those conversations and the assessment of what we've done in the past, it has led us to these four priorities, which include supporting workforce alignment and growth, building intentional connections, enhancing internal workforce development opportunities, and improving post-secondary attainment.

And we felt like above and beyond just creating this strategic plan and putting it in a binder and putting it on a shelf.

It was really important to communicate it out so that all of our partner groups understand you know where we are engaging with workforce development, and then we can most effectively work together.

So what we wanted to do this morning is above and beyond just talking about these, we wanted to provide examples of how these priorities are translating into actions and the outcomes that we've seen.

So the first priority is supporting workforce alignment and growth.

And as we've talked about, you know, we're in a unique and kind of agnostic position as the city, and that we're able to see from all of our different stakeholders' perspective.

And so that puts us in a position where we can kind of come to the table as the convener.

We can bring together all of our different stakeholder groups and really like lead the conversation and have access to all of the data, provide that to our stakeholder groups, lead conversations about where there are gaps and how we bridge them.

That doesn't mean that we are always going to come to the table and implement solutions, but it does mean that we really have a responsibility to assess and provide data.

So a couple of examples of how we're implementing this strategy are number one, over the past six months, the education workforce development roundtable has spent time identifying key metrics, so different things that are important to help measure growth in the city of Mesa to align with education and workforce development.

And so from that, we have worked with data and achievement to create a public-facing dashboard so that all of our partners have access to that data and they can use it either for their individual group, and then we can use it to discuss as a group and help come up with solutions.

A second example, a couple of convenings that we have continued to bring together are number one the economic development and education partner convening.

And so this is led by economic development, bringing together all of our different education partners on a quarterly basis where economic development has the opportunity to share out data on industry growth, new businesses who are coming to Mesa, job growth, job prospects and postings, and then allowing the education partners to tell us about their enrollment and the programs that they're focusing on, and also allows them to collaborate and communicate with one another, which is not something that we see regularly in a community because with education there's competition, they're competing for enrollment.

But I think we have built the culture in our community that we recognize that at the end of the day we need to work together in order to move the needle in the city of Mesa.

So this has been a really positive convening.

And then a third quick example is a convening between economic development education and workforce and MCC in the community college district.

And that is a similar type of convening, but just allows us to really have the opportunity for economic development to share out specific data that is going to be beneficial to MCC and then allow them to talk with us about programs that they're developing, how they're differentiating from the different schools, how we can work together, spread awareness, challenges that they're seeing.

It just has allowed for a really collaborative and working relationship between our two entities.

All right, and then moving on to our second priority is building intentional connections.

So this is about building deliberate, long-lasting, strong connections that are systematic rather than just relationship based.

So just because I have a relationship with someone at ASU, we want it to be based on a system so that these are ongoing.

I think that this is really a strength for the city of Mesa.

As we have previously talked about, the education workforce development roundtable is a unique cross-sector collaboration to the city of Mesa that other municipalities don't have.

And you know, like we talked about, it really has been an opportunity to bring ideas together, but also get all of those leaders around the table and collaborate.

Also wanted to touch on, you know, how these partnerships are impacting both our job seekers stakeholders as well as our employer stakeholders.

So our partnership with Maricopa County has been really impactful in creating hiring events.

Um our partnership with economic development allows us, you know, to communicate directly with the businesses, share these opportunities.

Maricopa County has their workforce base, and so you know, brings those two groups to the table, and this has been a huge success is bringing these two parties, you know, and we have been working on industry related hiring events, we have been working on regional hiring events and really seen this as a high yielding high impact outcomes, you know, with this partnership.

And then our employer-facing partnerships, um, I think we have really seen a strengthening to that with our relationship between education and workforce and economic development.

Um we have been able to, as new businesses have come to the city of Mesa and you know, really want to focus on their new hires and excuse me, I'm just gonna take a drink of water.

Sorry about that.

Um sorry, with our employers, we have I just lost my place and my train of thoughts.

Okay, I'm ready.

Um I can think over the past month of a handful of different employers who have come to the table who are either new to the city of Mesa or who are looking to grow, who have come and said, you know, I need we need help with our workforce.

And so we have been able to go to all of our education partners and bring partners from Mesa Public Schools, from EVIT, from ASU from MCC to the table and talk with them directly about the types of jobs that they're hiring for and translate into actions for them.

And so I think that that has been you know a really positive strength to with that partnership.

All right, moving on to our third priority.

Um, this is enhancing internal workforce development opportunities.

So this priority really speaks to developing our internal workforce.

I think as we all know, um the city of Mesa is one of the city of Mesa's largest employers.

And so it's really important that not only are we focusing on strategies for our external partners, but we're also focusing on strategies for our current staff.

And so really looking at how we are growing our future pipeline to positions in the city of Mesa, but also growing and investing in our current workforce.

One of the strategies that we wanted to highlight was our employee tuition reimbursement program.

Um, and so this allows employees who are current employees in the city of Mesa to upskill, to enroll in programs that are allowed going to allow them to get a certification, to pursue other opportunities within our organization.

And so, you know, really allows us to move that educational attainment needle from within.

And you know, you can see from this data that we have employees that are participating in this, and I think that this is an opportunity that just can grow.

I also wanted to highlight in our most recent meeting with MCC, Dr.

Danielle touched on this third priority that we have and made sure that we know that MCC really wants to partner with us on this, and they really want to be a resource for our employees to enroll in programs that will benefit them at MCC.

All right, and then moving on to our final priority of post-secondary attainment, um, which you know, as Jay mentioned at the top of the presentation, and and we already have had a lot of discussion about this has been a statewide initiative since 2016 and the inception of the Achieve 60 AZ initiative.

Um we know that the job market is going to continue to change.

It's gonna continue to evolve with technology and AI, and more jobs are gonna become automated, and so it's that much more important for us as a city to kind of plug in and provide support where we can so that our future workforce is ready.

Um, and so from the city perspective, this looks like um supporting on both sides of the K-12 system.

Um, the city of Mesa as well as our surrounding communities really um are fortunate to have strong K-12 systems, and so you know, we wanna be able to support on either end.

So that looks like programs like Read on Mesa, which collaborates is a citywide collaborative, but also collaborates with our statewide um reading initiative, as well as um the Mesa Family Resource Center, which provides resources for parents to make sure that their kids are ready for kindergarten, um, as well as on the other side of it, the Mesa College Promise Program, which I know that everyone is very familiar with, but you know, a program that removes that financial barrier to allow you know our workforce to enroll in post-secondary attainment.

Um this final slide, I know that you have seen this slide before in a previous presentation, but we feel like it does a really good job of illustrating why it's so important to have educational attainment as a priority for the city.

Um, you know, it shows in this tenure projection that there is just such a wide range of educational requirements in these jobs.

And that's a really good thing for the city of Mesa.

We want to have a range of entry levels for you know our future workforce, but we also know that while some the K-12 system is doing a really good job and some people are gonna come prepared out of high school, that we also have a high percentage of jobs that are gonna need a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, and it's beneficial to us to be able to support those programs.

All right, and um just to kind of bring it back to where we started, um, you know, workforce development is something that um is a partnership, and it is only going to be effective if everyone is engaged, and the purpose of this plan to is it to is to ensure that all of our stakeholders understand where our priorities are and um you know that we can measure what we're doing and we can improve and get feedback from all of our partners so that you know we can continue to be part of this ecosystem to benefit both our job seekers as well as our businesses.

And with that, we will take any questions.

That's all you have.

Council, any questions?

Well, I'm just reflecting on everything you're saying because all of us have been to groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings, and those companies coming here are coming because of the workforce, you know, our infrastructure, everything that we're we provide economic economically through our development department.

And I think it's essential we continue to work with uh these programs.

One of the things I've always talked about is education is the foundation of our community.

We're gonna be successful if we have a strong educational component.

Obviously, I I looked at slide number three, I think it was, and Chandler's growth, maybe going back to that.

I wonder to Vice Mayor's comment why Chandler's growth kind of stayed up there and it maybe dropped a little bit, but it's still on a higher plateau on post uh high school enrollment.

Maybe we could reach out to them and figure out why that happened that way.

And Mayor, if I can just add, um read on Mesa, which is part of Read On Arizona, which is our statewide literacy initiative, um, does a lot of that work of bringing communities together and talking about you know what communities are doing and sharing that information.

So that is part of that work, but certainly um we will reach out and see if there are specific initiatives or strategies that they're using.

Great.

This chart is uh also um it we can dial down to like public schools versus charter or private schools, but this chart is is the average of it all, right?

Right, like just the citywide, yeah, yeah.

And a lot of those basis schools are in Chandler.

Yeah.

So, anyways, just thought I'd throw that out there.

That there's like uh eight of the top ten schools are basis schools, and most of them are in Channel.

I mean, a lot of them are in Chandler, so and Mayor, council council members, just to add to that, I think if you look at at the educational andtainment level in Chandler, it typically is pretty high.

So when you start with a population that already has it is already highly educated, they know the importance of education, so they're they're telling their kids there there's already a culture of college going or post-secondary education.

Um, there's already that that culture embedded into the family.

Um, so they're starting at that level to begin with.

And I, you know, growing up in Iowa, the question at our table, our dinner table was not if you're going to college, it's where you're going to college.

And so thinking about how that's different in many families, um, not just in Mesa, but the state in general.

I think it's how do you change that that culture and make sure that the awareness is embedded in the family that you do have an opportunity to go after high school to post-secondary.

It doesn't have to be a four-year degree, it can just be a certificate or an associate's degree, but it's so important to get that post-secondary education in.

Okay, one last thought.

I know that we have a lot of employees in the city, and I I'm hoping I know Mr.

Butler is listening, but internal uh internships internally within our city departments.

I hope we're still pursuing that.

I know we're we're looking into it, but I think it's important that we also participate in retention, not only of employees, but bringing new employees online through internships and decide if they want to work for the city.

I mean, as we know it's the best place to work at.

So uh I would always have you do that.

And it's like planning a seed and then you're you're harvesting in the future.

Um, if there's nothing else, council.

Thank you, ladies.

Uh, we'll move on to uh item two B presentation on building and fire codes.

We're getting a whole uh different topics this morning.

Welcome, John and Sean.

Good morning, and Sean and John.

Our fire marshal and our chief building official.

Where are we at here?

That's my time.

Yeah.

Good morning, Mayor, Council.

John Shefford, Deputy Director with Development Services and Mesa's building official.

And with me today is Sean Alexander.

Good morning.

I'm Sean Alexander.

I'm the uh division chief over our fire prevention division and the city's fire marshal.

Dave, we have a presentation on updating Mesa's building and fire codes.

Um, before we get started, though, I want to do, I want to acknowledge Chris Clark back here.

Uh he's been instrumental in helping put this together, doing a lot of the groundwork behind the scenes.

Thank you, Chris.

All right.

Um to get started, I want to kind of give some background on how the building and fire codes operate.

Um there's an international co-council that publishes building and fire codes every three years.

And the council's made up of of uh industry experts on the public and private side, and they publish the codes based on a consensus format.

And these codes regulate all new construction, including remodels.

They're not retroactive, however.

Existing buildings are not required to be brought up to the current codes, even if they're adopted.

There's a few exceptions.

Uh, for example, if there was a hospital that didn't have fire protection systems, that would be required for pretty obvious reasons.

I'm not aware of any hospitals in Mesa that don't have those, so I don't expect that to have it much impact.

So this will basically be most all new construction moving forward.

These codes have been adopted in every state.

They're pretty much universal at this point.

Most cities throughout the US, every city around the valley has the international codes.

Certain cities are on different editions of the codes because they don't all adopt at the same time.

What we're proposing is that Mesa move from the 2018 version of the code to the 2024 edition, which is the latest published edition.

And these codes are all encompassing for construction.

So when we say building and fire codes, it's really building fire, plumbing, electrical, energy code, residential, mechanical pools, fuel gas code.

There is an existing building code.

Again, it's not retroactive.

The existing building code actually acknowledges that work in existing buildings, especially older ones, can be challenging, and it's not necessary always to bring them up to the current code standards.

So it provides some leniency.

And we want to point out that the updates going from the 2018 to the 24 codes only.

Some of the benefits that this brings Mesa is it it puts us on the most current codes available.

And one advantage of that is that it addresses new technologies.

For example, battery energy storage systems.

Those weren't prevalent in 2018.

Code now addresses those and it would help Mesa to regulate those types of hazards.

Another benefit is an increase to the city's insurance service office score, also known as ISO.

The ISO score is something that insurance companies may use to determine insurance rates.

And having the most recent codes increases the score and has a potential for savings in insurance.

Right now, Avondale, Buckeye, Chandler, Phoenix, and Tucson have already adopted the 2024 edition of the code.

Flagstaff, State Fire Marshall, and Surprise are also moving to the 2024 code when we expect others to follow.

And just want to point out the codes are published every three years.

Most cities find that every three years is almost too fast a cycle, plus not enough changes in the code to make it worthwhile.

Most of the cities in the Valley are moving from the 18 code to the 24.

It keeps us consistent with the bulk of the valley.

And although these codes are all encompassing for construction, there are always, you know, kind of local needs.

So amendments are made to the codes for to serve local purposes.

Example of this is fire department connections, have a unique thread type in Mesa, and we want to make sure that any infrastructure that gets put in has obviously the right type of equipment so that when the fire department shows up, all the fittings match.

Another example is we're proposing reduced requirements for restrooms and small businesses.

I'll get into that a little bit more on the next slide, but we're trying to be kind of business friendly with these codes.

We've recognized some of the challenges that that the codes can pose to very small businesses.

And all the local amendments that we are proposing are kind of based on four primary primary things.

One is alignment with the other local cities.

In part recommendations from the development community, benefits to small businesses, and again, you know, alignment with Mesa's fire department operations.

Coming back to some of the benefits for small businesses.

The code does require separate male and female restrooms in certain businesses, drinking fountains and service sinks.

The IECC codes, as they're published by the code council, for a lot of occupancies, the threshold for these items are at 15 occupants.

We want to increase that for the restrooms to be 25 for drinking fountains at 50 and for service sinks at 100.

This makes it a little bit less burdensome, especially for small businesses or retrofits in a tenant improvement, for example.

And these numbers at 25, 1500, these are also in part consistent with some of the other cities.

So it's kind of two-fold, helps small businesses and aligns with some of the other cities.

Some of the other measures involve water conservation.

And as published by the International Code Council, for example, sinks and faucets are at 2.2 gallons per minute flow rate.

We're suggesting 1.8.

For shower heads, going from 2.5 to 2.0, and for toilets to 1.6 gallons per flush to 1.28.

And again, this is geared toward barrel conservation, but also aligns with several other cities that are making these same changes.

And these flow rates are actually pretty common at this point.

While the builders use these fixtures, they're common at Home Depot.

These aren't unique or expensive fixtures.

They're commonplace.

For example, the Home Builder Association has recommended that setbacks for houses be measured from the wall frame and not necessarily the exterior of the wall.

And that's kind of twofold reason for that.

Um obviously, if you have a setback issue, you don't want to wait till the house is completed and the exterior is done before you realize that the setbacks aren't right.

So it would make sense to measure early in the process at framing.

Uh the second part to that is you know, the walls aren't always flush.

There could be pop-outs around windows or different um, it's not a flat regular surface necessarily, so taking measurements can be more challenging.

This creates a standard early on flat face to measure from, so it makes sense.

And that's also adopted in many of the other cities that have gone to the 24 code.

Um other uh thing we're proposing to add is guidelines for accessibility in houses.

And the way this would operate is really as an optional set of rules that someone could add to their house if they wanted to make their house more accessible.

It for example, um, if if you wanted to make the house wheelchair accessible, there's certain door widths that you would need to accommodate the wheelchair.

This would this would provide options where you would have you wouldn't have to design that, it would already be a set of criteria that you could use to design your house.

And updating from the 18 to the 24 codes also increases energy efficiency.

Uh, according to a study done by the National Home Builder Association and International Code Council, there'd be around a 7% increase in efficiency.

And doing return on investment, some quick math.

The study used a 2400 square foot two-story house as a baseline, kind of what they considered an average house, and they figure the construction cost increase to be about 2400 to 3100.

That's offset by an estimated savings and an energy efficiency of about 446 dollars per year, giving an RLI of about three to four years.

Given the lifespan of a structured house, it could be 50 years plus.

That's a pretty quick uh return.

Some other significant changes are related to fire and life safety.

I'll let Sean cover some of these.

Morning, Mayor and Council.

On the fire code side, some of the changes uh that we are uh suggesting in our amendments.

Um again are to make help make some of these projects more business friendly.

Uh the first bullet point that you see there, we're changing, we'd like to change our requirements for uh buildings that are in very remote locations, as an example of restroom at a at a park or a golf course that's in the middle of of the park and separate from other structures.

There's a significant cost to run the water supply lines to a building if if uh we're gonna require that that building is sprinklered.

Um these buildings are generally non-combustible in their construction, and there's very little fuel load in them to burn.

Um we felt that it made smarter business sense to uh not require that those uh long rounds for water supplies for these types of buildings be in the in the standards that we adopt.

The 2018 version of the fire code requires a fire protection system called a firefighter air replenishment system.

It's designed to allow firefighters to refill their air bottles that we wear into a fire from inside the building.

After speaking with operations, are we felt that um the current requirement for these to go into mid-rise and high-rise buildings uh was a bit much.

Uh we would like to reduce that requirement so that it is only necessary for high-rise buildings and above.

We felt for mid-rise buildings that our normal operational procedures would allow us to refill those bottles.

Would you define the difference between a mid-rise and a high rise?

Yes, sir.

A high rise is generally defined as 75 feet or greater where we need to use our uh aerial mounted apparatus in order to access a building.

Um75 feet is about the the limit that we can get on our reach for for those ladders.

So if we can't use our ladder truck to get people or equipment uh into that building, we would like to have a uh built-in air replenishment system that we can use to uh refill our bottles for for those operations so that we can minimize the amount of downtime having to leave the building to refill our bottles and then bring them back in or to shuttle bottles uh from the ground up into the structure.

And I I understand the height issue, but we also have very large buildings that are maybe not that tall but are expansive.

Uh do we also require it for a let's just call it a horizontal uh we we do not, sir.

Though those buildings um have uh as as they get larger, they have more stairwells and entry points for us to shuttle equipment and people in and out of those buildings.

Fair enough.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Some of the other requirements that that we're seeing in this uh code upgrade uh pertain to carbon monoxide detection.

As you may know, carbon monoxide is an orderless colorless gas.

It's a byproduct of um fuel burning equipment.

And the code just has tighter um additional requirements for detection, CO detectors.

If you have uh carbon monoxide producing equipment inside that structure, it's just an added layer of safety to protect people inside the building if those say a gas, water heater, or a gas furnace were present to make sure that those people are safe in that environment.

And then one of the other uh major changes that we made um on the fire side, it refers to the construction documents that are submitted to the city for for development projects.

Prior to now, we have we the fire department, the city have only required two dimensional drawings for buildings uh to be submitted for fire operations.

As the city continues to add more mid-rise and high-rise buildings, and we continue to go more vertical.

Uh we felt that now was the time to add the requirement that developers submit 3D construction drawings.

Um in the future, we anticipate going to we we are in in the middle of transitioning to a new air pack that our firefighters wear in in dangerous uh environments.

We anticipate in the future that we will have tracking equipment on those air packs that if a firefighter declares an emergency, it will give an XY and a Z location of that firefighter.

And if a firefighter hits their mayday button, um they report back to command that reports back to command that that firefighter is 10 feet in the building, 50 feet in the air.

We'd like to know immediately is that the fourth floor is at the fifth floor, is that the sixth floor uh so that we can go directly to that firefighter who's experiencing an emergency.

Additionally, providing these uh 3D building renderings will add those to our uh truck computers so that the crews that are responding will have access and be able to view the buildings uh real time.

We have a question.

Yes, is that something that we're seeing um developers do anyways, or would that be something I I don't know how common that is in 2025?

I do I like to add this requirement is for three-story commercial buildings and up.

Okay.

So the typical one and two-story buildings that don't use 3D modeling, those don't have the requirement.

They're still required to submit the 2D drawings for the larger projects, it's becoming more common for them to use the 3D models.

So three stories and more.

And is it as significant cost as they're typically modeled as as 3D at this point in you know we could work with a developer if they were not using that kind of software?

Okay, because we're trying to target the larger commercial, which that's tended to use the more sophisticated software.

Okay.

Let's go forward.

Just to kind of I was thinking some of the same things.

What was the feedback from the development community on this one in particular?

The reason it well initially started with kind of all plans across the board, and and that didn't seem necessary if you're building a one-story strip mall, for example, you don't usually use a 3D CAD model, hence the three-story up and for commercial only, and that's kind of how we drew that line.

And that you did that you changed that because of the feedback from the development community.

Okay.

And that was that that's any other.

I mean there they were okay with that once you went to three stories and that was less than that.

That seemed to satisfy and again we we we could work with them as far as you know if if if there was a project where it wasn't practical, we can we can always work with them as it's as a city to alleviate that requirement.

Yeah.

If it was a burden, when you say commercial, is that you're also it's like multi-family you're talking there too.

That would qualify as commercial, yes.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Carry on as uh Mr.

Shefford mentioned the current version of fire code, the fire and building code, the 2018 version, um battery energy storage systems were not very prevalent back when those codes were developed.

Uh it has taken some time for the safety standards to catch up to that emerging technology.

The 2024 uh fire and building codes uh contain the latest safety standards uh specific to battery energy storage systems and will provide us the opportunity to ensure that any future projects have the latest and greatest safety uh uh features installed in these uh projects.

We have a question.

Since this is 2024 and we're already at the end of 2025, and this is such a hot topic, and technology is changing so rapidly.

Like, are we already behind from the 2024?

The the the codes have struggled to keep up with the pace of technology change.

This version that we're going to is the latest version with the latest um features in in the entire base code.

One of the requirements in this new code are listed in those first two bullet points, and that is um it we are referencing a new safety standard, NFPA 855, which has safety um guidance specific to battery energy storage projects.

We are in this version that we're recommending uh submitting to council for approval.

We are going with the latest version of NFP 855, which just came out in September.

It's the 2026 version of that standard.

So why does it say 2023?

The the um 2026 version was just became available to us in the last few weeks.

Okay, so we were going to be using the one that was 2023 by the same.

We have been yes.

So there's updates to it as technology changes.

Yes, for for these current projects that the city's discussing, we have been referencing the 2023 version because the new version had not come out in the code.

Okay, that's good to know though that we're keeping up with that because we are.

And Councilman Susbury.

Uh, one thing to add the NFPA 855 standard that addresses the best system specifically.

Our intent is to keep up with that code, maybe not update the entire fire code every time addition, you know, every three years, but we do plan to keep up with the 855 every time a new edition is released.

The the other um major safety change regarding best projects is that second bullet point.

And the fire code and NF NFPA 855 require that the components in these projects pass the latest independent laboratory testing to ensure that the cells, the the units and the and the modules, uh, if there is a problem in one of those cells, that it is less likely to spread from one cell to the other to uh lead to these thermal runaway events that we have seen happen across the country.

Many of these uh major fires that we've seen at at uh utility scale best projects across the country were installed prior to these standards being in place.

Some of the other Mesa specific amendments that we're making to uh Bet or for best projects, um, and this is a novel amendment.

No other jurisdiction is doing this, but this is what we came up with after uh looking at some of these projects that that we're considering right now, and that is to ensure that if one of these containers on a on a best premise does catch fire, that we can get uh our fire apparatus in close enough to actually put the fire out.

The we're trying to minimize the number of people that we have to uh put in a forward position very close to these containers because there is a fire and explosion risk.

Our goal is to uh fight these as vehicle mounted operations to the to the best of our ability.

The only way we could do that was to ensure that we could get vehicles close to the fire.

And so we've added additional requirements on the fire apparatus access roads, which will essentially allow us to take a larger premise and break it up into what we are calling a rays, but essentially it's it's uh uh taking a large, for example, 14-acre project and bringing it breaking it up into neighborhood blocks.

So that should there be a fire that uh does spread from one container to the next, it will hopefully have a built-in horizontal separation to keep that fire contained to to the smallest area possible and not allow it to run across the entire premise.

So our our our apparatus access road requirements were twofold there, Ms.

Spielsbury.

So this the road is for the actual fire trucks to get in there, but does a it also acts as a perimeter for the fire to not cross, hopefully.

It does.

In order to put the road in, there's a 20-foot separation requirement.

Okay, and so is the can these updated fire code changes apply to the that current one that's being built right now?

The current project that uh is under construction did come through for site plan review.

We did not have these requirements at the time, but the provider was very um interested in working with with our division to ensure that we could get apparatus access in there.

So it doesn't look exactly like what we're proposing in our current code, but it does allow for us to meet the goals of being able to get apparatus into uh the current property and uh conduct firefighting operations if possible.

So any moving forward though would have to follow.

That is correct.

Okay.

Um and the final requirement we put in there was that on at least one side of these arrays, these blocks of 300 by 300 feet uh of containers, is that on at least one of those sides that it's actually wider 26 feet so that we could get one of our ladder trucks in to do aerial mounted operations if we needed to.

Um sorry.

Sean, how do you how do you put out a fire on a best system?

I mean, is there a way?

It's a good question.

They every site is different depending upon the hazards that are there and and the chemistry of the batteries and the arrangement of the facility.

Generally, our practice when it comes to a fire at a best facility is to allow the container that is on fire to to burn to essentially burn up the hazard and make the hazard from all that stored energy inside that affected container to burn up and go away.

And our operations are just gonna be designed to spray water on the surrounding containers to prevent them from getting enough radiant heat to uh to to spread from one container to the next.

So if if fire has already started inside one container, we are our standard practice is going to be to write off that container, let it burn up, and protect and try and prevent the fire from spreading.

Sorry, we were distracted by a dinosaur.

What is that?

That was going outside as well.

T-Rex, I don't know.

Have you have you considered uh firewalling some of this as well?

Or is the distance gonna be sufficient?

It's a very good question, Vice Mayor.

We we talked about many different options when it comes to these.

Uh we did talk about um fire barriers of some kind, either a fire blanket or uh masonry wall, some type of configuration like that.

But when we actually started looking at some of these sites that we were proposing these on, um it actually turned the site into a bit of a maze.

And it I believe, in this just my personal opinion, that that would have created additional risk to firefighters trying to navigate through those containers on the rare occasion that we do have to put firefighters on the ground for either a life safety rescue, or if we have to extend a portable ground monitor, which is it's basically just a fixed appliance that sprays water, and then we we back away from it.

We didn't want there to be barriers to allow us to stretch those monitors uh through those containers.

Um so yes, we did consider it.

Uh we chose not to go uh that direction with these amendments.

Yeah, that that's a good point.

And I didn't know also if putting in some hard barriers would also echo the sound more from the cooling fans because another part of different part of the code is going to address uh sound issue for neighbors to make sure that it's not loud.

All right, yeah, that's a good point.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um covering our public outreach, um, back in May of this year, we introduced kind of the 2024 code update to the development advisory forum.

The advisory forum is made up of local architects, developers, home builders, and we presented to them back then, and then again another forum on September 16th, and then uh open public meeting on October 2nd.

And the coordination with stakeholders um has resulted in the home builder association, SRP, and the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project have all written letters of endorsement supporting Mesa's adoption of the 24 codes.

Go forth.

So excuse me, that it seemed like you did a lot of outreach.

This is sort of the area that I'm particularly interested in because obviously this is you know gonna be a significant could be significant changes for builders and developers and um and I don't have the expertise to know what's we you know we should um deviate from and revise a little revise down a little bit some of the requirements that are in there, like you've done for small business and things like that.

So anyway, um when you sent out the when you communicated with the development advisory forum, did you get a lot of feedback?

Did you take the feedback?

How much did you incorporate?

Can you just talk a little bit about the public outreach and how that interaction went and what you took from it and what you didn't maybe?

Sure.

Most of the feedback from home builders and home builder association, several architects.

Uh, there hasn't been a tremendous amount of uh residential outreach.

Um turns out people aren't that interested in these codes.

I don't know why they're so exciting.

But that was the primary feedback that we received.

And we've also talked with some of the other jurisdictions, looked at what they've done, again, trying to align with them, so trying to make a consensus, and and most of the feedback has been general that they appreciate the consistency that that helps you know with development, obviously, is particularly the home builders.

But that we didn't really get any any feedback that that stressed like a heart burn over over this this code update.

There was any real opposition.

Okay, on the commercial side either.

Either side.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Our tentative timeline is to come with introduction on December 1st.

Action December 8th, which would lead to an effective date of January 8th, 2026.

And you know, coming back to our recommendation is to adopt the 2024 codes with local amendments.

We've touched on some of the highlights for the amendments, the forthcoming ordinances and council report will outline the full scope.

A lot of information here.

Thank you.

I I want to circle back to the ISO rating and how important that is for our city.

Can you just expand on that?

Because it does affect our most people don't know our homeowners' insurance based on our ISO rating, so the higher the rating.

What are we rated now today?

We're we're mayor.

Uh we are currently an ISO class two city, which is the second highest rating.

Um one of the things that impacts ISO scoring is if you get if your standards get much beyond that two code cycle six-year period that Mr.

Shefford described.

Um to the to the insurance industry, uh, that's a sign that the city is not keeping up with the latest safety standards.

And so going much beyond a six-year cycle can have actually a negative impact to the ISO score.

The city is actually going to be going through their reassessment of their ISO rating uh schedule for January or February of next year.

Uh it's one of the reasons why we're pushing for a January implementation date.

Very good.

We've been all of us have had a lengthy conversations on that.

And I think there's some uh good things in there.

I know in the on the modules of the batteries themselves, uh there's a 10-foot separation between module to module, from what I understand, and and having access to those modules to make sure that uh you know fire access is is critical in case there is a uh a short, I guess, and fire in a module, but then you know, mitigating that and making sure that our neighborhoods are businesses are safe to that point.

So that's a new uh part of this um I the rating that we have our IBC C.

So just one thing.

I didn't see the Mesa Chamber of Commerce on here.

Have you have they been involved?

Would you would you just check and make sure that they're involved?

Check, yeah.

We we did quite a bit.

I I don't know the full list.

We've had uh some of the email changes.

If they've been in the grade, if not if you could just reach out to them and make sure that they're aware.

Absolutely.

All right.

With that, no other questions.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you.

Next, we'll move over to item two C is to take action on board and committee appointments.

We have one uh appointment that Mr.

Bryan heard to the housing and community development advisory board.

Is there a motion for that?

So moved.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Miss Spielsbury.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye, Mr.

Aye.

Thank you.

Motion passes.

Acknowledge item three is acknowledge and receipt of board minutes and approved city council minutes.

Is there a motion to that?

So thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Miss Spielsbury.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.

I thank you.

Motion passes.

Next is current events and conferences attended.

Council members, do you have anything you wish to share?

Miss Spillsbury, we'll start with you.

First of all, I think we made this meeting way too easy for you, Mr.

Cost.

We didn't throw anything hard at you.

Um, I had the opportunity to go speak to a group of junior high and high school kids from Mays Public Schools.

They're just started their new um round of hacktivate.

Um, and that was really great to talk to them.

And then Councilmember Goforth and I and our husbands attended the Polaris, the Polaris Academy um fundraising gala at the post that evening.

And they are a school that is just for autistic kids and doing really great things in our community and expanding, and it was great to support them.

Appreciate that what they're doing.

Um Friday, I attended a ribbon cutting for America First Credit Union.

It's on the corner of Baseline in Greenfield.

And they're a new bank in the district.

They have one out by gateway.

Um they were re recently recognized as the top credit union for small business administration lending in the nation.

So I think we're really they also um contributed money to our Mays Public Schools Foundation and the United Food Bank.

So they are a great partner to have in our community, and I think um with our small businesses, and I think we're really lucky to have them and appreciate um having them in Mesa for a second location.

Um Sunday, a whole bunch of us were um at the Dia de los Muertos closing ceremony, which was just amazing.

I I wondered if we'd have smaller crowds this year, and they were huge.

It was a way bigger crowd for the closing ceremony than it was even last year.

So um just want to say thank you to our Mesa Arts Center and our um entire arts um team that that helped with that, and it was a great success.

I don't know, I haven't seen any numbers on how many people we got out there that weekend, but um it was incredible, um, really beautiful weekend celebrating that um culture.

And oh, yesterday I attended the Halloween boo over at the Red Mountain Library and loved doing that.

I only did my witch cackle a couple of times, so I think I only made one kid cry this year, so um, but that that's always fun.

So thanks to our library systems for doing those events as well.

Anyone else?

Miss Gilforth.

Sure.

Uh Scott, I'll let you talk about Friday morning that um the ribbon cutting, but I did want to mention I was out of town till last night, so I missed the Red Mountain and the Cackle and the Crying.

I've seen it all, I saw it all last year.

But um, I did attend the um haunted hangar at Falcon Field, which was an excellent event.

Oh, along with council members.

Vice Mayor Summers came with his grandchildren, which was fun too.

But it was a great event, lots of people.

I went last year.

It was well probably double the amount of people this year than last year.

So thank you to Falcon Field, thank you to John Zelanka, he did a great job of putting a table together for me.

So that was a lot of fun to see all the people out there.

And people came from everywhere, far parts of the valley, including East Mart.

Yeah.

You got to hold a baby too.

Oh shakes.

My grandbaby that would have been worth going by.

Yeah, yeah.

She'll be around.

I'll pass her around.

Yeah.

Uh districts, you know, a lot a lot of exciting things are happening over at the Mesa Gateway Airport and Arizona State University, a few things that happened.

Uh, Zenergy, that was a huge ribbon cutting.

Uh Zenergy is an advanced manufacturing of cooling systems.

We we cut cut the ribbon on their first project, which is 400 jobs in engineering technology and assembly.

They are already working on their second phase, which will add another 500 jobs, so as many as 900 jobs in total from that one company.

Uh it was a heck of a surprise.

I was expecting the usual ribbon cutting, and there were 200 people in an audience with a stage, and it was pretty uh they they did it up.

Uh yeah.

Uh we might have mentioned it already, but nearby Flight Safety International uh broke ground.

I think the mayor might have mentioned this before.

Um but some stats I wanted to bring up.

The facilities designed, it's only a hundred jobs, but it's quality jobs, but it's designed for to handle 2,000 clients a year.

Each one will require one to two reservations for hotel room uh nights a year spanning one to three weeks.

This is going to be another huge component of improving our hospitality and and restaurants in there because we we are in desperate need of more uh hotel rooms uh coming out to the to Mesa and particularly Southeast Mesa, and I am going to let the mayor talk about the ASU polytechnic one.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, let's do that.

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna go through my list and then I'll I'll defer to Miss Duff.

But you know, we welcome the mayor of Wymas here and her uh team here, and that was uh pretty awesome to see her and her team.

She comes up every year, so we're thankful for them.

Uh also uh we were at the MCC Hall of Fame celebration, Miss Duff and I for that announcement.

We received Mesa receiving an award.

Uh I did speak with uh Governor Hobbes and President Crow about the grand opening of the ISTB 12, a great uh AI uh technology uh facility.

It's about a 200 million dollar project with about a hundred million dollars worth of robots going into the facility.

Uh it's gonna be awesome out there.

Went to Abel Steele's 50th anniversary.

They're one of our longest uh steel manufacturers in Mesa, Arizona, and I thank you to Ben from Economic Development being there.

Went to the Mesa Cemetery Tour on Saturday.

I missed the uh Falconfield haunted house because I was scheduled somewhere else.

But I I was invited to the Mesa Powwow at Riverview, so a Native American Pow Wow was going on a Saturday and Sunday, went both times.

I took uh former uh House Representative Matt Salmon with me.

He was impressed on Sunday.

And then we had the Mesa Business Builder Small Business Event at the post uh uh I think yesterday, I can't remember all the days we rudder together and got to speak at our small businesses in our city.

It was quite well represented there.

So I appreciate our small businesses being there.

Uh Jay and her team did an awesome job there.

And all in there and miss stuff.

What would you like to add?

I have a couple.

Um I'd like to add last Friday and I did the welcome for the Swana, Arizona.

So Swana is a solid waste association of America.

They actually had their convention here in Mesa, the convention center of all the um Arizona entities, uh cities across the state.

I was glad to welcome them.

Saturday, of course, the Dia de los Mertos.

I went to the breakfast as well as the mayor was there, and we announced the altar winners.

Also in the lobby of the Mesa Art Center was a remembrance for Mr.

Mesa, uh Phil Austin.

And um that was a wonderful um tribute to him.

We lost him last December.

He's still very missed in our community.

There's also another beautiful uh altar that was by our sister city of Guaymas, Wymas, I should say.

Um I appreciate uh those um contributions to make it extra special this year.

And of course, we had the closing ceremony on Sunday.

I don't like to tell people that we have the largest Dia de los Muertos festival in the United States, so it's highly regarded.

We've received an award for it.

Um so I'm very proud of this festival and um recognize that tradition.

On uh Saturday night, there's the opening of Casa Capal.

It was on South McDonald in the old Lamb's shoes building.

Um there's a street festival along with it, um, extending the celebration of Latin arts.

Um they have a huge uh variety of local artists' goods in inside the building, and they use the old uh the shoe uh shelves, if anybody remembers Lamb's shoes to display the items, so it was really nice uh to see that.

Um it was actually created by another local business, Republica Impanata Lou.

Um is an expansion of a business uh from those that family of the Republic of Impanada.

So glad to have them expand in downtown.

Um Monday night I held a micromobility and parking plan public meeting as well attended, maybe around 35 people or so were in attendance.

I wanted to thank everybody who showed up and contributed their thoughts and ideas.

Also, thank you to Jimmy and Anthony Anthony from the urban transformation um department for conducting the presentation and also to our transportation team.

Um, Eric Goodarian, uh Sabine King and Adeline.

Umgratulations to Mesa's public information and communications department for being recognized at the top honors of excellence and transparency storytelling and community engagement with the communications team of the year award, the Copper Anvil by the Public Relations Society of America Phoenix Chapter.

Very proud of the work that our team does in telling the story and in being in integrated with our community.

And that's about all I have.

All right, Miss Filsbury.

Yeah, I forgot, sorry.

Um last night was the Be Kind People Project Fundraiser and um Gala over at Gamage over at ASU.

And in as part of their program, they highlighted our new opioid awareness campaign that we're partnering with them on.

And it was just amazing and awesome, and the whole crowd was just totally impressed with that.

Mesa is taking the lead on this in Maricopa County, and I just felt so proud of our city and the work that our staff has done to make this happen.

It's Be Aware, Be Healthy, Be Strong Mesa.

It's the first program that Beekind People Project has done around opioid awareness, and they showed some of the programming that they're going to be doing for the kids, and it's just really powerful and really beautiful.

And I um we we got um acknowledged and also a fun announcement that I think we'll we'll save for Monday night.

Um but I I'm just super proud of what we're doing.

I our council um just as an example of how when we work together.

Sorry.

Our council decided a priority for us was to put some of these opioid settlement dollars towards our youth and prevention and awareness and education around this really important topic.

And um, I'm just really grateful that our city council decided that we were going to make that a priority, and that that then is come into fruition.

And I just think of the thousands of kids that are going to be impacted by this.

And I feel really proud.

I feel really proud of it and grateful that we did this together.

And um it's it's just incredible.

And thank you to Lindsay and your team for doing all the work behind it.

Thank you.

Oh, okay.

And then one more thing.

Because before you get to that, Julie.

Can I just say thank you to Julie?

Thank you for spearheading that, making our youth a priority and ensuring that a lot of that, those funds do go towards our youth and educating them and and really trying to make a dent in this issue.

And you've been the spearhead of that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that.

It's important to me personally.

Um and then Saturday is gain.

So getting Arizona involved in neighborhoods is this Saturday.

I think all of us will be out.

I think I'm we're gonna try to hit like 10 or 12 different neighborhood parties and hopefully not have too many things thrown at me.

And that was supposed to be a joke.

Okay, and then um, but I I appreciate all the work that our public safety and and different, you know, city departments put into arranging all of the visits and all of the people and um going out with all of uh of um us as well to go visit all of these neighborhoods and um anyways it's always a great event.

Great.

Thank you for representing.

Was Ms.

Duff with you?

No, she wasn't able to make it okay, very good.

Well, thanks for representing us.

I know this is gonna be the only dollars that we spend towards that.

So and we'll be getting other settlement monies.

Moving on, uh, Mr.

Coss, could you give us an update?

We have a Mesa police officer that was shot in the line of duty.

Can you give an update on him?

And then after that, uh schedule the future meetings.

Yeah, mayor council.

Um, the officer is recovering at home.

Um, did not need surgery, so we're thankful for that.

I think it's just a stark reminder of the dangers are men and women from both police and mesa fire medical face uh every day.

Really appreciate.

I know uh Chief Butler appreciates the outpouring of support from mayor and council uh to the officer, but um he's he's gonna make a full recovery and uh hopefully get back to duty soon.

Yeah, myself and the vice mayor had an opportunity to visit with him yesterday, so it was uh he was still a little under the influence of some pain medication, but I I hope he remembers it as coming.

I don't think he will.

We'll remind him but his team was there, everybody.

We'll remind him.

We'll give him a couple pictures of you guys to make sure that he knows.

But no, it uh it was a very dangerous situation.

The officers performed uh in an amazing fashion.

It could have been much, much worse, uh, you know, based on the suspect's actions.

So we're thankful for the heroics by the officers out there on that day.

Well, also thankful for pure support for him and his family.

Uh I've reached out to the uh inner mayor for Queen Creek, and they live in Queen Creek, and so they're willing to offer support, as you know, whatever they need for the city.

And we appreciate that.

And their city manager as well has reached out to Mr.

Butler offering support, so we would appreciate our sister city over there and our neighboring city and and uh appreciate that.

And um thank you guys in the spirit of uh you know the world series, and I'm pitch hitting for Mr.

Butler that you did take it easy on me.

You could have thrown me some sliders or curveballs, and no, I can't root for the Dodgers as a diamondback fan.

So if there's a Dodger fan in here.

Um but and thank you for pointing out gain.

Uh that's a big night, and you know, our public safety partners and so many city departments will be out there.

Um, so appreciate everybody and and uh you know putting that on and hope to see a lot of people out there.

Dia de los muertos was awesome.

I was there for both days, so I'm I'm glad that we talked a lot about that.

Luis and his staff and every uh city staff member that put that on and and put so much work into it.

Very well attended, and and I thought it was great.

Um, we'll get back together uh for study session on Monday, November 3rd at 5.15, followed by council at 545, and then the next study session will be November 6th at 7 30 here in this room.

Great.

Well, hearing nothing else, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

It's over.

Thank you, Miss Goldforth.

Ms.

Duff, all in favor, say aye.

All right, we're adjourned.

Thank you.

Have a great rest of the day.