Welcome to the Mesa City Council study session.

For March 5th, 2026.

We know someone's had a birthday today.

All members of our council are present.

Vice Mayor, congratulations with the birthday.

Item one is to review the agenda we have for our Monday, March 9th council meeting.

Let's go through that agenda, Council.

If you have any questions, uh obviously we know what to do.

It's pretty simple agenda.

Most of it's about procrument.

Thank you, Ed and your team.

And some uh zoning text changes.

Mayor.

Uh Vice Mayor, glad to have you back instead of on Zoom.

It's uh it's good to be back.

Thank you very much.

Feel a little bit better.

Item 4E uh is procurement contract for pavement management services.

I think this would be a good opportunity to uh because I get a lot of questions about how we select roads for uh either upgrades or a slurry seal or how we repair them.

So perhaps we can get a brief discussion on what this is and and how you go about selecting which streets and get repairs and when good morning, Mayor and Council.

Uh Vice Mayor, we love nothing more than talking about pavements.

So we're we're happy to be here.

So do I explain.

So um with me I have um our street superintendent who oversees our our paving program, Craig Brisboy.

Um, and and so we'll just quickly go over what's in item 4E, and then we'll also get into our pavement management strategies and hopefully what's changing uh with this software that we're asking to be procured.

So uh just the the council item is for two things, um, and it's over a three year period.

So the first thing is it's a new pavement management software for us.

It's gonna help us modernize and our data collection and analytics.

And then also we are going to be getting laser-based or or or LIDAR uh surveys on all of our roadways over the next three years.

Um this first year we'll be doing all of our residential and local streets.

Uh next year we'll be doing collectors, and the last year we'll be doing our trials.

Um all of this data that we're gonna be doing through the automated survey will be able to be automatically uploaded into the new software, which will help with um our pavement management treatments or or forecasting what what we need to do.

And I I think especially what we're excited about is not just looking at the next fiscal year, uh, but we'll be able to forecast out multiple years uh for our pavement maintenance.

Um and so those that sit on the audit and finance committee, this is one of the outstanding items that the transportation department has as part of their audit was to upgrade this software.

I believe I talked to you a couple months ago uh about this was coming, and and so this is this is here.

Um so that is that's what's on the agenda uh for Monday night.

I think as we look at uh what our pavement management's strategy is, we we look at what's called our pavement condition uh index, and it's a it's a rating scale from zero to 100.

Um we have some pictures here to hopefully kind of show you what different numbers are.

Uh we we try to keep our pavement condition at 70, uh or that's what we want our average to be uh through throughout the city.

Um so as of right now, what we do uh for both our collector and residential streets.

We have pavement management technicians that are out visually inspecting our roadways each uh year, and we do those visual inspections.

They they assign a PCI number to that.

Um our arterials are actually we we do use the the um automated survey method for our arterials.

That's why it's on year three uh of our plan here.

We we've already done that in the in the last three years.

Um our current software that we have can we we have to manually input all the data into it and it will, you know, and then we have to decurrent determine our forecast with it.

So with the new software we're getting a lot more automated forecasting, um a lot better data management for us that that we hope we we can um use to really plan out the the next few years um in advance.

Eric, do you have yes?

Do you want to answer your question?

No, no, go ahead.

Okay.

Um so the treatments that we use in the city of Mesa, uh, and we'll compare it to kind of what what's in the standard industry.

current determine our forecast with it so with the new software we're getting a lot more automated forecasting um a lot better data management for us that that we hope we we can um use to to really plan out the the next few years um in advance eric do you have yes you want to answer your question no no go ahead okay um so the treatments that we use in the city of Mesa uh and we'll compare it to kind of what what's in the standard industry you'll notice that we have four bullet points for pavement treatments uh standard industry is typically a fog seal which is a a really um thin layer of asphalt that that coats the top of the asphalt we typically apply the uh a fog seal anywhere from one to three years after a a roadway is is brand new and it's really to preserve the the roadway and and keep it new it kind of preserves the the the top part of the asphalt uh we have a seal coat which is different than then uh in a lot of the industry um that we can use we can't use it on arterials because it creates it the the materials in the seal coat um are are too slick for higher speed roadways uh for for stopping conditions so we use the seal coat on residential streets and and collector streets but we found it it's a a very good mid-level product to be able to uh fill in the the cracks that start on on I'll call them medium aged roadways right newer medium age roadways to to preserve them the traditional slurry seal which is uh you know a quarter of an inch of of asphalt on on on top of a roadway will fill in cracks and then um what what eventually we have to get to the mill and overlay um which is where we have to come in and and take off you know anywhere from one to three inches of pavement and lay do lay down new pavement um if you were to not do any sort of maintenance on on a roadway at all uh a roadway will last here in Arizona about 15 years and you'll have to go back and do the mill and overlay we know that for a fact because uh out on Meridian Road um near Elliott we thought the county was maintaining that roadway for a long time and the county thought we were maintaining that roadway for a long time um and it it got to be about 20 years old and and we realized that it was our roadway and we needed to go back and do a mill and overlay.

So we we we feel pretty good about that industry standard if you're if you're doing um you know typical industry maintenance uh a roadway should last 25 to 30 years um we're we're seeing we're hoping uh through the the research that has been done with with our program that we're expecting our life of our pavement in our neighborhoods and on collector streets to last 40 to 45 years.

So we're we're really trying to extend out the the the life and this next slide will will show you why we want to do that.

Here just the treatments I I talked about but looking at at the cost um you know the the the seal treatments are much cheaper than going back and and doing a mill and overlay um you know and especially that seal coat it's almost the the same price it's a diplomation process it takes a little longer to to put down fog seal you can just spray down and let it dry and you're done seal coat we have to uh you know apply and and spread out very similar to the slurry seal um but but also here's the life expectancy uh of each of these so um we're hoping with the new software that we have that the this will um you know our our maintenance program will be able to to target the areas um that that we need to I will also highlight um there have been a few neighborhoods I know we've had conversations both in the vice mayor's area and council member heretia's uh district that with the the fiber that came in we've had to postpone some neighborhoods um that that were scheduled you know all the way back to 2023 we're getting around to those neighborhoods starting to get back to those neighborhoods um but you know I think with with the new software and giving us an automated version to be able to forecast out multiple years will help us with with our maintenance program so with that I'll take any questions we'd love to do a deeper dive but also know that asphalt's not for everyone so you know how are those uh patches holding up with the uh seals holding up for the fiber installations um I think so far so good um and I think you know with any sort of asphalt product I think you know if you can't get five years out of it it's not not not really you know worth anything so I think really the the true test with with um what what's happening with the fiber will be over the next uh it probably starting in 2030 and kind of those next five to ten years okay but so far good very good thank you Mr.

Radio I have a question on 4D okay all right Mr.

So mill and overlay, you come in with the machine, you take off an inch or two, and then you lay down new asphalt.

That's what that means.

Correct.

I'm just trying to remember, I'm thinking of the residential streets I've lived on since I bought my first house in 79.

And I I don't recall on the residential street us coming in and tearing off that top code.

I've you know, we they've come through and filled the cracks and then uh sprayed the emulsion down, but maybe I just don't remember.

Do we uh over the course of the last 40 or 50 years?

Have we gone over every residential street and mill and overlay those?

Because I don't recall my streets ever having that done.

So council member, I'd I'd say lucky you.

Um first of all, right?

Okay.

Um I we we could go back and check our records.

Uh you know, we have we have 20 million dollars set aside each year to be able to do a mill and overlay program that we work with our engineering department to go and do, and the the majority of that is is going into to neighborhoods to do.

So if my street was in in better shape than the average, we may not have needed to do it.

Is that so it's done on a need basis?

Correct.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Just I'm just trying to recall back and say, because I I know what that looks like.

Sure.

Yeah.

And it's rather disruptive.

So okay, thanks.

Thanks.

No, no, no, no.

I'm not gonna tell him where I live.

Ms.

Goforth.

Eric, can you clarify?

So is reconstruction the same as mill and mill and overlay?

Um not necessarily.

So mill and overlay is um mill and overlay is just taking off the the pavement and putting new asphalt down.

When we talk about reconstructing a roadway, and this is usually our arterial roadways, it's not only removing the asphalt, but it's removing the road base that's underneath and putting new road base in.

Okay.

Um and compacting that all again if we need to, and then putting new asphalt down again.

So reconstruction is is probably an another level um below mill and overlay.

And that's in the normal course.

We typically just look at doing reconstructions on our arterials that have heavy traffic that have a lot of uh truck traffic is in heavy vehicles are are really what um degrades a roadway and and the sub-base that's underneath the asphalt.

Thank you.

Just to follow up, I know that within the last couple of years we bought you equipment for doing this type of work, not necessarily on our arterial streets, but maybe residential streets, and has that brought down the costs at all per square yard if we are doing the work that we have to in-house.

Uh, you know, we've got you uh asphalt lane machine, tractors, that would that would be correct, uh mayor.

Uh it does it does take down the cost about half of what we would have our contractors do.

And we've been pretty successful on finding isolated areas of the city where it's uh we've had to mill out sections of roadway and replace the asphalt, for example, out on Higley south of Brown, we milled out the curb lane southbound and replaced it with a new level of asphalt out there.

So uh for us to do it was substantially cheaper than having our contractors do a mill and overlay.

And I think that was the oversight that we would be able to reduce our costs in in-house and be able to get to projects where the contractor might be delayed and and so forth.

So I think um I think it's it's always our we're always looking for projects that that we can bring in-house.

Um typically they're smaller in scale things that we need to get done quicker that that we can do, and and and we're doing that.

So it's the the larger scale operations when we're doing a quarter, uh, it's called a quarter section, those those things that we give to to engineering and on arterials that um we we're still you having the contractors do.

Oh good.

How about an eighth section instead of a quarter section?

How about North Center Street, north of McKellops there, northbound?

That is that is an alligator-backed uh asphalt, I'm sure you're trying to two in about two months, you'll see some work out there.

Awesome.

We've got to come up.

And so yeah, I was gonna let the council member bring it up, but he and I had the conversation of week ago.

Any comments?

Uh I have one question for you.

All the construction that's going on over at Balvista and Southern, the big intersection.

What people have asked, like what kind of road construction is this?

Because they've had the millin overlays done in their residential areas, and they're seeing, you know, we're taking out enormous amounts of the street.

I think it's like 12 inches down or more.

Um and I've told them there's various things going on.

We've got pipes that are being renewed underground.

We've we're pulling out old fiber.

Um what how could I best and most sequencers describe that?

Especially since people are listening right now and they live in that area.

Sure.

So uh council member Taylor, I would I would say that um on the engineering website they they have active CIP projects, and there's a description.

Um, but what's happening with at Valveston Southern is one, it is a roadway project, but there are utilities involved, which are I was underneath our roads.

Um, and and that's that's the work that they've probably seen.

Uh the utility work always gets done first.

Um, and so that that's why there's been I'll say digging, you know, deeper down than just in the asphalt.

Um and there is new road base going in because uh Valvista is getting widened to three lanes in each direction between the freeway and um north of uh just to just north of southern.

Um so that's being widened.

There's some additional turn lanes that are getting put in put in at the intersection also.

Uh I'm glad Lance is here to speak on what the what the utility work is that that's happening.

So that was filibustering into Landscape.

Eric was gonna cover there, so um uh mayor, uh council council member uh uh Taylor.

The uh movement of a lot of the soils beneath the the asphalt there is treating um because we have clay in that area, we're treating that with lime, uh, which change it changes the actual chemical composition of of that and hardens that up.

So it's not typically where a lot of areas in in the city where we probably have more alluvial type, alluvium type soils that are easier to use as a base.

Uh these type of soils need to be treated uh so we don't have that swelling or expansion that happens typically with clay.

So it takes a little bit longer because we have to treat it and wait.

It takes a little more effort.

That that is an area where we do have clay similar similar to uh a lot of areas like Downing Gilbert, for instance.

So just for the public to hear it, that's major road construction, quite different from what we're talking about here.

Correct.

Okay, great.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Okay, any further questions?

Mr.

Rudio on this stage.

Yeah, 4D I think Eric, you maybe can answer that.

Um how uh expansive is the uh the signal loop detection piece uh throughout the city.

I think we all have been stuck in some intersections that maybe take a little too long to change or uh but I just uh just trying to understand how is it every intersection that we have signal loop detection or certain single uh intersections that we have?

So Mayor, Councilmember Heredia uh talking about traffic signal loops and and detection.

So um we have about 508 traffic signals right now, and with that we have a few different forms of detection.

Um probably split mostly between the these induction loops that what the contract is for and video detection.

Okay.

I think we've actually over the past three years, we've gone back to a standard of uh of induction loops because they're the they're the best at detecting vehicles.

I think we've run into some issues, especially in the months of March and September, uh, with the east-west facing cameras, they get washed out um during um sunrise and sunset because the just where the where the sun is and in the horizon at that point.

Um and so I think any newer signal construction that we're doing uh are we would prefer to put in loops.

Um this contract is is to really fix and replace loops that usually get broken that are already out there in our system.

Okay, so it's really an OM contract for us for with this.

But uh we're always investigating new technologies and new products that are out there right now.

Loops seem to be the best thing, except when they get cut, then we have to go in and cut the pavement to put new ones in.

So there's trade-offs for for the detection systems we have.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, thank you.

Thanks.

Council, any other questions?

I know on uh 5A there is a presentation available on our uh purchase power agreement for solar and battery energy storage.

Would you like to hear a little bit that from Mr.

Boucher?

Yeah, he's Mr.

Richet and Deb are uh prepared to come up and tell council a little bit more about that project.

Yeah, that would be helpful.

Maybe see if that meets some of our goals in our utility electric utility.

Thank you, Scott.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

Um, Scott Boucher, I'm the energy and sustainability director here at the City of Mesa, and I'm joined by Deb Ferraro, who's one of our energy resources coordinators.

Um, you have on the agenda for Monday a uh power purchase and energy storage agreement.

Um if you recall in October of 2024, we presented to council about this opportunity with the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative.

Um this utility scale solar and battery storage project, and council approved a resolution authorizing us to negotiate with APCO on this deal.

And you set some limits uh for us at that time of 25 megawatts of renewable energy at no greater than $30 a megawatt hour, and then 20 megawatts of energy storage capacity at no greater than $13 per kilowatt month.

Um since that point, negotiations have been completed.

The EFCO board has approved this final agreement, and we are here today to present to you some of the details of that agreement, and then on Monday you will be voting on that final agreement.

And in addition to that, Mayor, as you mentioned, um, this also helps us move forward on our goals of having a reliable, affordable, and sustainable electric utility.

Um, and so honestly, we're we're pretty proud of the work that's been done and uh working with APCO.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Deb, who will get into a little bit more detail.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Council members.

Um Deb Ferraro Energy Resources Coordinator.

Um, Panal Solar Project is really a unique opportunity for the city of Mesa.

It is a 25 megawatt solar power project, and that is accompanied with 20 megawatts of best storage battery energy storage system.

Uh, this is a 20-year agreement that is estimated yeah, a lot of best experience.

BTSD right here.

Uh it's a 20-year agreement to start in 2027.

And it's important to note that the power coming in through this project is located where Mesa is able to transmit it through our existing transmission contract to be able to get it to our Rogers substation, where it then feeds into our electric service area.

Um, Mesa is one of 10 participants in this project, and it's our very first utility scale solar project, so that enables us to benefit from the economies of scale and obtain solar power for much less than typically we would be able to have access to since we're going into this project with a lot of other players, so to say.

The total project is 400 megawatts of power and estimated 400 megawatts of battery storage.

So, as part of Mesa's integrated planning process, our integrated resource planning process, our IRP, which we prepare every five years.

It gives a 10-year look forward of Mesa's resources, how we plan to procure them.

Part of the planning process requires us to reach out to our customers to get their feedback and what's important to the customers of the City of Mesa when we go to procure power.

So, as part of our 2024 IRP process, we included a survey out to Mesa customers to identify what was important to them when we procure power.

The three most important criteria to Mesa customers are cost, reliability, and sustainability.

So this project meets all three of those.

So this demonstrates quite frankly the wide range of prices that we purchase power at.

So this is our current power contracts, and it's priced by megawatt hour, and it's split into the different categories of power that we procure.

So up at the top is our first utility scale solar project at $29.63 per megawatt hour.

Now that would provide 21% of Mesa's total power.

So it's more power than some of the other categories that you'll see.

The next category is the other solar projects in our electric service area.

So this consists of the eight solar projects, including one outside of the parking of this building.

The new four projects that were just completed over at our 6th Street or West Mesa area, including CK Luster and Solid Waste and T's portation, and then also the library.

So this is all eight of ours.

This demonstrates the least expensive of those eight, which is the ICE rink, and the most exp, or pardon me.

Other way around.

The most expensive, which is our ice rink, and the least expensive, which is transportation.

So there's quite a range there with $93 versus $278.

Now, in scope of APCO, APCO is 21% of our product or all of our power portfolio.

Those other solar projects in our ESA are 2%.

So in terms of quantity, there, you know, this is just to demonstrate pricing and how much it varies.

We have RMS purchases, which is our resource management services purchases.

So that is where we do not have enough power and we need to purchase spot power, WAPA or Western Area Power Administration purchases on our behalf.

Then we have our monthly bilateral and our traditional bilateral are the next two categories.

Bilateral contracts means we are contracting directly with a counterparty.

We have negotiated a master agreement with them with the assistance of our legal team and and their our counterparties legal team.

And then we are able to do direct trades at a certain cost per megawatt hour.

So traditional bilateral and monthly bilateral are uh varying in terms.

The traditional bilateral tend to be longer, where we might go out for a few years' worth of summer power or for a few years' worth of base power, which is 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Those monthly bilateral, Mesa hasn't done this up until November of 2025.

But we started procuring very small amounts of monthly power in order to fill in the gaps, and we did it through a reverse auction process where we were able to utilize forward pricing and cap the cost per megawatt hour.

And we specified the most we would pay, and then all of the counterparties were underbidding each other.

So we ended up getting some of the best pricing that we've had in terms of bilateral trades through this reverse auction process.

And then the bottom category, legacy legacy hydropower, we have two different hydropower contracts, and these are excellent pricing as well.

So this is just to demonstrate what our current power contracts are costing and the wide variety of really the diversity of resources that we have to meet the power needs of Mesa customers.

Very good.

On the spot power buys, uh, what do we use?

About 90 megs to 100 annually, somewhere in the we cap at 90 megawatts on the hottest day when everyone is utilizing their air conditioning.

Yes.

We have been trending upward though, and we do have room in our transmission to meet our forecasted increase in growth.

And do we pay more on the spot power buys when during those times of need?

It really depends.

So in the last year pricing, which was shown on the last slide, we got good pricing.

Um we can't purchase the further out you purchase power, the higher it goes because there's so much uncertainty in it.

When they're doing spot power purchasing, they're looking at what our current load is and weather dictates a lot of it.

It's a lot warmer this year, so we're people are putting their air conditioning on a lot sooner than expected.

So when we're purchasing to balance out, so we meet the demand, it's typically very, very short term.

So we have gotten good pricing.

That has not always been the case.

There has been times where the market has gone a little bit crazy and prices went up so much that it wasn't really a reasonable expectation for us to pass that on to our customers, and that was when we utilized about 20 million in ARPA funds to subsidize the cost.

That was as a result of market volatility.

So we can't dictate what market prices are.

It just so happens that this past year we were lucky with those RMS purchases, but again, they were very short-term purchases, like instantly because power can't be stored.

So we knew that we needed it, or WAPA helped us know that we needed it, and they purchased on behalf of the RMS group.

Prior to them, WAPA purchasing power through the RMS group.

We also do energy trades among the RMS group.

Sounds like you're like stockbrokers almost.

Can I just say I met with Scott and Deb, and I was after the presentation, I was like, you guys are geniuses.

And this is for anyone listening, this is for the five square miles of Mesa.

So I think some I want people to know this is not all of Mesa, but kudos to both of you for doing such a great job at basically playing the shifting game to underbid, I mean, to get multiple negotiations through WAPA, and I think when we look at the solar option, um, so other people can also hear this.

Mesa is not building a solar farm.

We we are not going to install a ton of solar.

We are literally just purchasing it from Pinel County as part of our portfolio, correct?

And this is gonna offset higher costs because we can lock it in at that rate.

So for people to understand that's a locked-in rate for a while, is a is pretty big deal because after you explained how expensive those can get too, you know, Deb walked me through the cost of long-term purchases, and generally they tend to be exceedingly expensive.

So this was like just a big win, in my opinion.

So thank you so much for walking me through that very detailed discussion.

Council Bamber Taylor, thank you, Mayor.

Do you want to finish your presentation?

Yes, please.

You got a pie chart there.

So some additional benefits of the Panal project are really reliability, which was also very important to customers, uh, our power customers here in the city.

So this is long-term power, so it's a 20-year contract, so that helps to contribute to overall security for our power resources.

Um, it helps to add more diversity to our portfolio.

This is consistent pricing, so we are locked in at that price for the entire term of the contract, 20 years.

And then also another thing worth mentioning, and like take a deep breath relating to Bess.

This is our first problem.

It's in Penal County.

It is our first battery storage project here in the city of Mesa.

And by taking the solar energy that we create from the solar panels and then storing it in the battery, we can utilize that stored power at times when power prices are higher.

So when everyone is coming home, the sun is setting, the ovens are turning on, the laundry is going, the air conditioning is running, and we start getting close to our peak, then we're able to utilize this stored power to shave off some of our peak demand, thus saving us even more money where we would have had to purchase power through one of our other various ways in order to meet the needs of our customers.

So battery storage really gives the city of Mesa a lot of flexibility because it is dispatchable, and also it helps to increase grid stability and reliability because it's during those peak times that we can specify that we want that energy discharged.

Great.

All right.

So these are two pie charts that show our renewable and traditional power in terms of our whole big picture for our power portfolio.

So the one on the left is fiscal year 25 to 26, and that shows the proportion of our different power contracts and how that contributes to the whole picture.

So looking on the left, we are at City Solar is 1% here.

This was before the downtown two solar projects were fully operational.

So the pie chart on the right showing 2% is when they're producing at their full potential.

Um, similarly, customer solar on the left is one percent, whereas on the right it's two percent.

There's been an increase in customer solar and more planned.

Um bigger chunks of the pie or hydropower is 18% of our portfolio.

So that is consistent between fiscal year 25-26 on the left, and then looking forward when APCO was already in place, fiscal year 28-29.

Um, 15 uh 15% is our SRP renewables project.

And if we were to move forward or when we move forward with Panal Solar, that will provide 21% of our portfolio.

So the gray area are our other contracts, so those bilateral long-term that we do through traditional RFP process, the bilateral uh reverse auctions, and the RMS purchases.

So on the left, we have 35% renewable, and then pulling Panal into we will hit 57% renewable, and sustainability was the third most important criteria when we surveyed the city of Mesa electric customers.

So again this demonstrates how Panell Solar checks all of the boxes and requirements for our customers.

This demonstrates Mesa's projected load and the resources that we currently have or that we'll be starting during the time frame.

So this is Penal Solar the top shows if we were not to move forward with Penal Solar, the bottom shows Penal Solar meeting the needs of our projected load so with Penal Solar we we are set for for now and moving into 2027 if we were to not move forward with Panal Solar, we would be looking to purchase power to fill that delta between the green line which is our resources and the blue line which is our load projected load demand Vice Mayor you'll be happy to know this is not a battery question.

Yes so um we're getting about yeah 18% from hydrop power so we're we talk a lot about the drop in river Colorado River water levels and what that's going to mean for our drinking water but it also supplies power so what are we doing preemptively to account for that potential hopefully we don't hit deadpool on that.

Mayor council member summers so that's an excellent question thank you.

Built within the CRISP contract if there is not enough water to generate the power that we are entitled to through our contract we get replacement power so WAPA purchases on our behalf replacement power to compensate our other Parker Davis project they just started WAPA just started a new program in 2025 called the Voluntary reduction program so rather than just automatically giving us this replacement power to meet what our allocations are we get the option of whether we want replacement power or we can take money in lieu of replacement power.

So what we do is we evaluate the total dollars per megawatt hour that they would be willing to give us in lieu of receiving power that they would purchase on the market.

So we utilize that to further benefit Mesa's customers where we take a look at forward pricing and if the forward pricing is less than what they would be willing to give us we take the money so that we actually have a gain and benefit our customers yes yeah okay I just good to hear that there's a contingency plan hopefully we don't drop to that level because that's going to be a disaster but the fact that you have a contingency plan with our partners is good to hear.

So it's not driven by any other ideological or other other factors it's that that is what our customers demand and as part of that means a diverse portfolio of all of those options is is good.

So I mean we use every option uh available to us as part of that portfolio and and I think that serves our customers and our ratepayers um so you know so highly because of that diversification of resources oddly enough I do have a battery question I was curious to know do we know where the best storage is going to be contained?

It's going to be co-located with the project in Ponao County on the same plot great thank you Mr.

Adams did you have a question?

I do thank you mayor um let me let me lay a little basis for where my question's coming from so um there have been uh and I would use um long distance telephone and cellular costs have pretty much dropped over time you know what what used to cost 80 80 dollars a month now costs maybe half that so as technology advances the reason I I I lay that foundation I think this is a great rate that's been negotiated what just under 30 dollars how confident are we and and what is our basis for assuming that as technology advances and perhaps cost reduces that we'll still think over 20 years that that that's a good price.

How confident are we in and what is our basis for assuming that as technology advances and perhaps cost reduces that we'll still think over 20 years that that that's a good price?

I mean, I understand inflation, all that, but you can find examples in the world of technology where cost has been rapidly reduced, drastically reduced.

So, and I'm not questioning this.

This is a good deal, but I'm just I want to understand the basis that we felt comfortable committing to a 20-year solid firm rate.

And are we just uh anticipating that costs will continue to rise and the market will continue to rise.

I mean, this is a commodity.

Yeah, probably changes several times a day in peak hours.

Yes.

So give me a little bit of an understanding of how we how we got comfortable with that 20-year commitment.

Mayor, council member Adams.

So um, with this, I think what you're seeing, I mean, what what I have seen in the 17 years that I've been doing solar projects for the city of Mesa is that we have seen just that.

The price of solar has come down significantly in the last 20 years.

Um in this project here is the result of it.

This is the lowest price that I have seen for a solar project um in the time that I've been doing this.

And so it's a combination back to what Mr.

Butler had talked about also of the diversification.

This is an opportunity to secure what is our second lowest priced um contract besides the legacy hydro, which I think we'll all agree there's not going to be legacy hydro projects that come forward ever again.

Um that this is the lowest price right now besides those projects.

And so it's a combination of looking at today and the fact that this helps significantly to reduce cost, increase liability, meet sustainability goals, um, but it also gives certainty for us going out into the future of what those costs are going to be.

When you do look at the commodity cost, both with with natural gas, with with um solar, it you will see the energy, you know, it's gonna go up and down.

Um we don't try necessarily to always hit the bottom of that curve to find the cheapest energy.

When Deb talks about those one-month contracts that we've done, those are great to fill in those tiny gaps that you see when you know our resources and the demand don't match, those are good to fill in, but that's not a way that you're gonna be able to effectively manage the utility because if you get caught in one of those spikes, all of those costs are going to be passed on to our customers.

And so it's really trying to find a combination of how can you lock in a low price and how can you create um you know certainty on what those power costs are going to be going forward.

That's where I'm I'm confident with this that in in 20 years now.

Can I tell you for sure that 20 years from now this will be the absolute lowest contract that we have?

No, I I can't tell you that, but I can tell you in today's market, this is a fantastic deal for us.

And um, you know, with a solar project, you're not gonna be able to do a project like this unless you commit to a 20-year deal, because the the solar installer is not going to install it and then say, okay, you can drop out of this in two years.

They need to be able to have that certainty in order to get their financing so that they can actually make the project happen.

Okay, thank you.

I I just wanted to hear the logic of your thinking as you as you arrived at this, and it makes sense to me.

Okay.

Thank you.

I I'd like to just um tack on to that just a little bit.

Uh as we all know, nationally, there are um we are challenged to come up with an enough power, and even in our own backyard, SRP and APS are trying to double the size of their power, just to anticipate what's on the plate right now.

So um SRP in our area has uh for new large industrial projects are about a five three to five year, about a five year waiting period for power right now.

We don't have enough power.

They're trying desperately to try to come up with power.

It's a net national issue about power with the um especially AI and data centers and all that kind of stuff.

The issue of power is not going to be solved quickly.

I mean, there's a 10-year horizon now, and that's just based on what we know now.

So I I am not feeling like we're in a position of stability in our power prices.

Um we have a war, so we'll see what that brings.

But um, I know that there's just so much more demand than supply on the market, and uh so I'm so glad that we're securing the resiliency to go forward and having that available here in Mesa Power is great demand.

Thanks.

Ms.

Go for it.

Just a quick clarification, Scott.

So the the contract we can we commit to purchase this amount of power, a certain amount.

It's not an option, it's a it's a commitment.

So to Rich's point, I mean, so that locks in the price and locks in the commitment to purchase.

Okay.

Well, this is electrifying.

But I tried to talk about it.

Can you with WAPA, we need to make sure that's Western Area Power Authority who delivers that power through that hydrogen, and they consequently have done a marvelous job for decades.

You know, there as you say, there are legacy hydro projects in in the western United States, so that power generation.

The other thing I always challenge you, Scott and your team and Scott, Mr.

Butler, is you know, our city solar is 3.7 megs as as disclosed.

Are we looking for other opportunities to add uh solar to our grid?

Then on top of that, we have other city-owned facilities where we could put solar and then integrate that with the other utility provider and sell that power or do some wheeling on the electricity to allow us to pay for that versus having the second party contractors.

I won't put that out there, but you you know I always like solar.

Yep.

Mayor, that's something that we look at.

So you know, once this project gets approved on Monday, the next thing we do on Tuesday morning is start looking at what contracts are coming off and how are we going to fill in for those and moving on to that next project.

Um, but definitely that's something that from a resiliency standpoint of looking at is there more ability to either store and or generate power within our load bubble, which is in within our five and a half square miles.

Um that's the next portion of then looking at.

But this project here obviously changes what that would look like.

And so once this is approved, then we start planning out on what the next the next projects would look like.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Fair enough.

But you know, again, we have other city-owned properties that we could integrate into some resource planning too in the future.

So I'd I'd encourage you to look at that.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

We we definitely do.

I know Scott and engineering um take that opportunity anytime that um either we're bringing in a new facility online to look at opportunities or as we um look at at just additional uh parking lot space or other things where we need shade.

Um it's it's certainly easier in our own electric um service territory area to get the ROI on that.

It's uh outside of that in SRP area, it works, but we have to, it's not quite as uh immediate of the ROI on that, so we have to evaluate um all of those potential projects.

But but we hear you, yeah.

And and that's certainly our goal as well.

Well, we could do like Dr.

Chandler did in the early 1900s and build a hydro plant there by the Mesa Kessry Club.

That's where we bought our first electric company in 1913.

So we have the ability to do hydro if we work with our other water provider, but not doing that.

So, yeah, thank you.

So the 3.7 megawatt is all solar generated, is that correct?

For the city solar?

Or city solar, yeah.

Yes, all city.

Okay.

All right.

Great conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh council, a little break, or ready to move forward.

Otherwise, we'll move into item two A, a presentation and update on the Sun Air renovation.

Okay.

Okay, everyone, we'd like to reconvene our study session.

So items item two A is a pre-session uh presentation and update and discuss and receive an uh a presentation discuss and receive an update on Sun Air Renovation Project and the associated off the streets program.

Thank you, Candace, Lindsay.

Gisani.

Thank you.

And assistant chief.

Thank you, Chief Stern.

Good morning, Mayor Yeah.

So, Mayor and Council, and you've just done my introductions for me.

So yeah, we do have a team here to talk to you this morning.

Um, one of the things that we're gonna talk about is one of the city's crisis response programs, which is our off the streets program.

And uh we'll kind of walk through.

And we'll kind of walk through, I'm going to give you overview of what we're going to cover today.

So we're going to kind of walk through three different areas.

One is homelessness data and what's going on in the region.

So kind of an overview of that.

Lindsay will give back to you.

Josani will go into our program, the Office Streets program, and how that works.

We also have assistant chief here to talk to our partnership that we have with the police department as well as there's many other departments that we partner with on this particular program.

But the main one is the police department.

And then I will go into our current location and the move into the sun air location that we've been working on for the last three years.

So we'll start with uh with Lindsay.

Good morning, Mayor and Council Lindsay Belinke.

I'm the community services deputy director, and the programs and services that we're talking about today fall within that department.

So as we talk about uh this topic, we do like to provide some context and some data related.

This is the Maricopa County Homeless Trends Report.

Uh the most current data that they're providing is from calendar year 2024, but I will include some 25 data as well in this discussion.

Um this is showing that in the calendar year of 24, there were for every 10 people that were finding housing and exiting homelessness, and this is for the entire county.

There were 19 new people experiencing homelessness that are entering the system for services.

There was also a significant number of new people entering the homeless homelessness each month, which continues to be the case.

In 2024, an average of 962 new households per month experienced homelessness for the first time.

And in 2025, we know that shelters and bridge housing programs and other services continue to have long wait lists, and there it is difficult to meet the demand at this time based on the number of people in need of services.

This also provides a breakdown of people experiencing homelessness in the county for one month in December.

It's showing the number of singles and couples as well as families, more than 15,000 people in that one month in need of services, and we know that 18% of those individuals were from Mesa.

So this is showing the number of shelter beds available in Maricopa County.

So this does include all of the all of the different cities involved in the county and the shelters available within each, and that totals 4,898 beds for the region.

Um again with a much higher number of people in need of services.

And 296 of those beds exist in Mesa today.

So that includes the East Valley Men's Center, we know is on a county island, but does serve many people in Mesa due to its proximity.

Um we also include the Off the Streets program in this count.

So we currently have 163 beds at our rented facility.

Um and then we're happy to include also the Family Promise program, which is providing beds for up to eight families right now in Mesa.

Um we just wanted to include that total there.

That's about six percent of that of that top number for the region.

We have about six percent of shelter beds.

Uh, we did unfortunately lose 74 shelter beds in the last year or two, and that includes the iHealth program, which specifically served single women, as well as the La Mesita program, which served families and has transit transitioned um out of shelter services.

So, with um if if the off the streets beds were to be removed from this count, that leaves 133 beds available for Mesa residents, and predominantly those are for single men at the East Valley Men Center.

We also are including here um some loss of services, so the emergency housing voucher program, uh, the Mesa Housing Authority provides manages these vouchers.

Uh so 76 vouchers remain in 2026, and those are being the funding for that is being removed, and so those will no longer be a resource for Mesa residents.

Um those folks are being placed on our housing choice voucher list.

Um so they are being provided other opportunities, but they're on the wait list, um, and just they will be at risk of of becoming homelessness, becoming homeless without an alternative.

We are also showing uh anticipated housing voucher loss due to federal funding changes and reductions for Mesa.

So this is a cut that will impact the whole county and the region.

Um but we know that 205 of those are Mesa-based individuals.

And these are significant because they come with wraparound resources.

So these are provided to folks that are chronically homeless and have a seriously mental illness diagnosis or some other significant disability, and are traditionally harder to house.

So if we're losing these services, these folks are becoming at risk of homelessness.

It may be an impact to our homeless population.

Um, the wraparound services that come with this type of voucher is really helpful, and it just helps to keep people having some significant circumstances.

It has a there's case managers and other things involved.

So that type of support would go away if these vouchers go away.

Um again, it's not that's not definite, but based on everything we're hearing and seeing, we anticipate those would be lost as well.

I just wanted to also mention there is additional data that we've reviewed in the past about high eviction rates and and other impacts.

We are not reviewing all of that today, but there are backup slides, so those are included in the presentation for those interested.

There is more information in those slides available with this presentation.

We did want to talk about the regional government efforts as well.

So like Mesa, many other cities have chosen to invest their ARPA and CARA dollars into homelessness related services and shelter.

Um we'll be talking about that with this slide.

And many of these have have chosen, um, although ARPA dollars are coming to an end, they many of these cities are choosing to continue their services and have other alternative funding, a lot of it general fund they're choosing to move forward with that.

So looking at this, we have Phoenix represented.

This is not all cities in the county, obviously, um, just the ones closest to us we wanted to talk about.

Um, but certainly other cities are doing this as well.

City of Phoenix has 700 city-owned shelter beds.

Uh, we know those are over three properties that they have chosen to purchase during with their ARPA dollars and or construct.

So they plan to continue with 700 city-owned beds, and that is funded through general funds.

Uh, similarly, City of Tempe has city-owned properties, and um this says 160 shelter beds.

We know once they um open a new facility that is under construction, they will be they will have 240 city-owned beds.

Um, similar to Mesa, they have purchased properties that are formerly hotels and and being created into social service properties.

And I believe they have general funds dedicated to that or other types of funding unrelated to ARPA.

Uh, City of Chandler does not own their rooms, but they do have rented shelter beds that they're investing in.

And so again, um, this says 53 beds, but we actually heard yesterday that they are up to 72 shelter beds that they're funding, and that is with their general fund.

They also are funding um city staff members that run this compared to our program where we have a contracted uh nonprofit that helps us, they're actually investing in in city staff to operate those shelter beds.

Uh, City of Gilbert is included here.

They do, they don't have an investment in beds, but they we are seeing them become more involved.

They have heat safety, they do have an investment in street outreach, and um yesterday they hosted an event in which City of Mesa, Channel Chandler, Tempe, and Gilbert, um, rather than have our own resource fair and events, we decided to collaborate, um, really pool our resources and have one event where we could all transport people in need of those services to and from the event.

Um, Gilvert graciously hosted that, and it was very successful among shelter services and other opportunities.

Um, there was also an employment fair.

We had 11 employers show up to that event, and over 100 people come to try to gain employment through that event.

So it was very successful, and we were happy to collaborate with all of these agencies.

We do collaborate with them uh year-round, and um, our teams really work with their teams really to make sure that we are serving Mesa residents.

So, with we have a Tempe Chandler Gilbert resident come to us seeking shelter.

So if we have a Tempe Chandler Gilbert resident come to us seeking shelter, we work with the other teams in the other cities to say, you know, this person needs services.

They originally came from Tempe, for example.

Here's a warm handoff for you to help them through the process and get them connected to services.

And likewise, they do that for us, so that we are all really trying to meet the needs of our own residents and take on our fair share of this burden and provide services to those that originated from our cities.

And so we've we've really become collaborative in that way and talk a lot about that type of thing.

We consider all of these services as Mesa's critical response model.

So police, fire and medical, emergency shelter really is a place for us to safely get people off the street and out of a dangerous circumstances, and for to allow our program to triage and understand what their needs are, get them connected to the next safe place as quickly as possible and into services.

Similarly, we have our mental and behavioral health service that is through the contract with Solari.

That service started with ARPA dollars and they have has been very successful and is continuing after ARPA.

All of these systems really work well together.

We can help relieve that burden and just help everybody in need through this specific model.

We've shown you before.

This is showing our current services and all of the different entities really working together.

From an individual perspective, you can enter the system from many different ways.

The orange cogs in these in this demonstration is really showing the programs and services that are available.

These have been stood up and created based on the needs of our community.

And it's also showing the blue, which is our city departments, which are all very impacted by homelessness and how the city responds to that.

And of course, our partners in community partners and the faith community that are a big part of this as well.

And as we see services available, it allows those departments, their role in this process to shrink and not be as significantly impacted.

Similarly, if any one of these services were to shrink, it would create a bigger burden on our police, our parks, our fire department, and we would see those, their impact and their role grow.

So we really try to work together to make sure services are available and that they're all working for the different departments.

That's a significant piece of this puzzle.

Not only are the services available for the people in need, but they are really created and we do a lot of hard work to make sure we have good contracts that take into consideration the citywide perspective and the impact on police and making sure that their work these contracts not only meet the needs of the people but the needs of our police department to meet them in the field and alleviate them from the social service aspect from parks so that people are not camping in parks from our libraries so that we can serve people in need and allow the librarians to be librarians and not social service agents.

Over the last five years, we have learned a lot of lessons.

As we have invested in these programs, we've also just made them better and make them work better for the city.

So our lessons learned here are we know the city will have to pay for homelessness, unfortunately, just based on the fact that it continues to be a significant issue that is impacting all the cities in this area and and really nationwide.

We know that we we can pay for services and have them available to those in need and having them work with our city in an effective way.

Or if we if we pull back from that, we think there will be a significant cost associated with homelessness, still having impacts on our parks and our police department, our fire libraries and other other entities in that yard, as well as impacting neighborhoods and businesses that we're able to serve by having a lot of these services in place.

You want to go to the next slide, that are all working towards this.

And so on the left, we used to work in silos.

And all of the agencies doing this work as well.

And so through the last several years, we've been able to really create a more collaborative approach.

So all of our city departments are no longer working in silos.

We're working really well together to address this issue.

But also working closely with our faith community and our community service providers, so that we're all working together to address this goal, and we feel the city as uniquely positioned to look at that from the citywide level.

And make sure these cities, these services work for our residents as well that are not homeless, um, but maybe impacted by homelessness if they're going to a park or if their business is impacted.

So we've really built um a lot of these services with that in mind as well.

Um and this is showing just that we um really strive to divert from higher cost systems, um, that the services provided, including shelter, are lower cost than um a lot of the other higher cost um systems that would be impacted if these services did not exist.

Um we partner daily with our police department, and so we have Dom here today to really kind of talk about that, the impact of homelessness on the department, um, and how we collaborate together.

Good morning, Mayor, Council, Mr.

City Manager.

Uh, I'll reintroduce myself.

We're 10 slides back.

So, in case you forgot, I'm Dom Sterlin.

I'm one of the assistant chiefs here at the Mesa Police Department.

I oversee our professional services bureau.

Kind of switching gears last night I was at our public safety training facility with Class 62, our new recruits, uh, with for some field problems, so a little bit different hat this morning.

Um part of this current assignment, I worked a lot of years in our central patrol patrol district, which is where I kind of connected up with our community services team.

We've worked together for a long time on projects and directives, and we've worked collaborative collaboratively to make Mesa a safer, more desirable community.

So thank you for allowing me this opportunity to talk to you guys this morning.

Uh I'm gonna begin talking about our police department, our partnerships.

You're gonna hear a lot of the same language that uh Lindsay and her team have already talked about, um, and the and the challenges that we collectively face.

The Mesa Police Department's primary objective is clear through our strategic initiative.

We want to reduce crime and increase citizen safety.

Our mission of relentless crime fighting is a pillar of pride within our police department, and that certainly remains our priority.

Uh, public safety is our foundation, and our community deserves our focused energy on that task specifically.

Homelessness, as we talked about, presents uh complex societal issues and challenges, but when those behaviors impact our public safety, the businesses, the parks, uh bus stops, uh light rail, critical infrastructure, uh, enforcement really has to become uh necessary at that point.

We can't stand by and just allow criminal activity, some of the violent behavior, just the nuisance violations to go uh unchecked or unaddressed.

The impact of homelessness on our first responders, including police and also fire, uh, is great.

We all respond to dispatch calls, we initiate proactive work uh to address the various elements presented by this particular population.

That includes includes criminal, non-criminal um, and just medical-related events.

The number of those contacts vary from west to east, but they're occurring everywhere and they're happening all the time.

We know that.

Uh, for the PD, we're we respond immediately with our focused evidence-based approach.

Some of you have been to our crime fighting meetings.

Uh, we don't just talk about crime, we talk about issues that are happening in certain areas of the city.

I had an opportunity to talk to our uh patrol commanders, and they kind of gave some some uh statements in terms of where these these spots are, but we can respond to them immediately with our respective teams, our bikes, our community action officers, uh patrol officers, uh, et cetera.

Yeah, I've seen some changes in the law uh that's impacted how we've addressed some of the cases uh regarding homelessness.

We've had Martin V.

Boise, and then we've had some more recent legal decisions that have come through.

Uh but for Mesa PD, we've always worked to lead with services, certainly.

Uh, always treated people with compassion, dignity, and respect.

Uh, but we found, however, not everybody's open to that, and some people are service and service resistant, excuse me.

Uh, the option for those that are violating the law is to arrest them, uh, respond to community court, one of our partners, of course, uh, or jail, and then perhaps they consider other options that are provided to them.

Uh important note that those who are open to services, um, elderly, our veterans, our single parents, children, families, uh, we have to be able to guide them and support them and seeking out resources, undoubtedly.

Uh, this isn't a new approach, uh, even before 2018 uh with the police department, even me a thousand years ago as a patrol officer, we were constantly looking for for workarounds, uh, looking for options for those who are suffering from alcohol, drug uh detox, homelessness.

Um, and we would be creative in those efforts before we ever had dedicated services like we have now through the the city's efforts.

Uh I I believe our police department is first class at problem solving.

We've heard council talk about the community action officers in our districts.

Um, some of the amazing things that they can accomplish, and that that certainly is true.

Uh the struggle really becomes when our patrol officers are presented with complicated human service issues that ties them up for hours on end.

Uh, and I think Lindsay talked about that a little bit.

Uh officers spend time navigating systems that they're not familiar with, and that ultimately leads to uh to taking time away from fighting crime and provide some of those the offenders the opportunity to victimize our community.

Um that being said, again, some of the similar language, we don't operate in isolation.

Uh we don't work in silos.

We work in partnership with the offices of homeless solutions, other city departments, uh, our courts, transportation, certainly, the fire department, parks and rec, uh, even Valley Metro is you're aware, sometimes our CAOs ride on the bus, uh, they lie the light rail, and they partner with even outside city entities to be responsive to the needs of the community.

Uh, we work with our friends at the library, uh, making sure we're aligned with council direction, and we continue to be responsive to our community needs.

Uh I believe one of the most critical slides that we just went through, that the COGs, the gears, uh, that struck me the first time I saw this presentation, and it still strikes me.

Uh essentially saying that, you know, collaboration, one-team efforts are are, I mean, it makes sense.

Uh, a multi-tiered national, uh local challenge that we're all facing throughout this country.

One example I thought of is with our main library here in uh central district.

Uh been concerns from staff that have led to PD involvement, um, some education on both sides for us to learn about the library, library to learn about what our uh philosophy is, uh follow up with our downtown engagement team, resource allocation, and then lastly, you know, community community action officer or officer follow-up.

So it's a it's a total team approach.

One thing I think is important, we've talked about this before.

Uh we can't arrest our way out of homelessness.

That that doesn't make sense.

Um and it's also not reasonable to think that we could or or should provide a bed, a free bed to just anybody who wants a bed.

Uh it makes no fiscal sense in that in that side.

Uh police officers, we know are not the subject matter experts on homelessness.

I'm sure some of them will tell you that they they are, um, maybe.

Uh, but we rely on the recommendations of support of Lindsay and her team.

Uh, and that's why we meet regularly with the other members of that uh homeless strategy team, uh, just so we can all partner together and share some ideas on best practices.

Uh we support the street outreach, the off the streets program, the shelter coordination that we've uh talked about, the heat relief efforts, and diversion from those higher cost systems like jails and emergency services, and we do believe that's a more cost-effective approach uh rather than siloed approach that perhaps we've had in the past.

Uh the multi-tiered model that I've referenced, combining enforcement along with that resource allocation, is much more effective and more cost-efficient than enforcement alone.

Uh for the Mesa Police Department, we we believe the officers need the tools and options besides just arresting when responding to homeless-related calls, and in some providing those options certainly strengthens our public safety outcomes and then overall improves our quality of life for the entire city of Mesa community.

Thank you.

Council, any questions so far?

Commander Sterling, I just wanted to clarify.

Do you feel um without the support that we're supplying have at the Windamere currently and proposed Sun Air, not having those supports within our city would compound the issues that your officers were is just more of the same?

Mayor, Councilmember Duff.

I think there are always gonna be struggles and challenges.

Um we're always gonna need to have a team approach to whatever those issues are.

So specific to your question, I I do think it would complicate matters for the police department because to my point before us spending time not having those resources available, whatever those resources are, are gonna take a time away from our primary model of enforcement and fighting criminals breaking the law.

So there would be an impact on a percentage side.

I don't know what that looks like, but yes, I believe there would be an impact not having those resources.

Thanks.

Any other questions?

Chief, real quick, in your experience, uh, is this the opt of streets program?

Is this one of the better programs, or is it is it is it a program that you've seen here in the city of Mesa that has at least helped police officers to identify a solution, be that short term or long term, but help in us combating this issue, because as you stated, homeless is not, we're not gonna end homelessness, right?

It is not a city of Mesa, it's not a region, but it's a it's a whole country issue.

But is it in your experience, your uh years of service?

Is this an issue that our program that we've developed here?

Is it a uh a good program what you've seen in the past here?

Mayor, Councilmember Heredia, yes, uh, there's always room for improvement, and really the point that I'm getting at with our multi-tiered approach that we've all referenced is we can always do better, and that's the police department that's services regardless of what those services are.

But we need help.

Uh again, police officers aren't social workers.

Um I mean, we have where that hat at points uh sometimes, but the more time officers are spending there, perhaps crime is happening, which is our primary focus.

So I I do believe I I don't have any measurable data to say X is better than Y, but I can say from my experience it has been helpful, and when there have been hiccups, we've met regularly or talked, uh chat at Texas, whatever, in terms of getting a solution if there are problems in the field that come up through us.

Thank you.

Mr.

Adams.

Good morning, Chief.

Morning.

Thanks for your service.

Um I'm curious.

Um, I would imagine that in your professional career you interact with chiefs and law enforcement organizations throughout the country.

Yes.

In your experience and in uh conversations with other law enforcement professionals in other communities.

Um are you aware of programs that might exist in other similar municipalities that are not primarily taxpayer funded, but perhaps funded through uh not for profits, um faith community organizations or or other similar organizations, or are they all at the burden of the taxpayer?

Mayor, uh Councilmember Adams.

I I don't have any specific programs that I can speak to.

Um I don't have that information.

I do talk to other chiefs, other uh police professionals.

Uh everybody has a little bit different of a model.

I would say for the city of Mesa with the resources that we're given, um, with the collaboration with the teams that exist currently um in conversation.

I feel like ours in general has been more successful just in in conversation, but I've never compared program to program in other agencies in Arizona or um nationally, but it is a national conversation, certainly.

Okay, thank you.

All right, carry on.

Uh Mayor and Council, I just wanted to mention um we we do have some ways of tracking how we support the police department, and through those methods, um, for the last calendar year, we were able to support the police depart department with taking 22 referrals into our shelter and our case management programs.

Those are just the ones that we've documented.

We know um that offers officers establish relationships with um the staff at the Windermere as well as staff in our case management, and they have kind of their own workarounds to that.

So we are unfortunately not able to document it all.

But uh we did, I just wanted to mention that and also mention that these photos are showing officers um at you know, with our case managers and at shelter, interacting with clients um and helping them to get there.

So we are able to provide emergency cots if an officer encounters someone such as the gentleman on the bottom that was sleeping on a park bench um and needed connection to services.

He is a senior and we were able to assist him.

Um and he just needed a little time to get back on his feet, get employed and exit our program.

So there's a lot of examples of that, but just wanted to throw that out there.

Uh good morning, Mayor and Council.

Um, once again, I'd like to introduce myself again.

My name is Jasani Goodman.

I am a human services administrator with um the community services department.

Um thank you so much for allowing us to be here today to share about the work that is happening that serves the most vulnerable in the community.

Um I'd like to uh direct your attention um to um first I'd like to start with the picture on the side.

Um that is uh a family that um has received services, uh Mesa resident family um who, you know, the father um had lost his job, um, had never in a million years thought that he would be experiencing homelessness with his family, however, he found himself in that situation after he had lost his job.

Um but thankfully a program like this existed in order for him to be able to have a place, a safe place to stay with his family.

And now he is working towards securing his job, which he will start in this month as an electrician, and hopefully that will help him catapult his life back into housing and be able to sustain that, hopefully moving forward.

So the Off the Streets program has five plus years in the homeless services space.

It does focus primarily on Mesa based residents.

So these are individuals who have a prior address in the city of Mesa.

It did come about as a result of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, Martin V.

Boise, as well as through COVID funding that basically was there to assist individuals that were impacted by the pandemic and provide them a safe place to quarantine, get safe, or be safe, I should say, and be able to transition to permanent housing.

Currently, right now, at the moment, we operate 85 rooms out of the Windermere Hotel and Conference Center.

The program supports, as others were saying, public safety.

It works in collaboration hand in hand with first responders in order to receive direct referrals into the program.

So as you know, patrol officers, community action officers, and others are encountering individuals that are experiencing homelessness throughout the city of Mesa.

They have a direct line that they could call to be able to place someone into a program like this and into the program directly, I should say.

As well as it supports our community court, which is a homeless diversion court.

So individuals that are going through that court that are actively experiencing homelessness often receive directives during through through the court asking them to secure shelter placement to hopefully help them end their cycle of homelessness.

A program like this is leveraged in order to be able to assist them to have somewhere safe to stay, so that way they could work towards the other directives that are provided to them.

We also have a good neighbor policy that helps us to not only maintain good collaboration with the surrounding community, but it also helps to promote community care.

So as concerns are brought forward, our team works to address those concerns to be able to uphold the good neighbor policy to the best of our ability.

And last but not least, um the shelter serves families, women, and seniors.

Um and those are the population populations that are primarily served through off the streets today.

The Off the Streets program requirements is basically this is a structured program.

Um so individuals that come here, um, this is not just a hotel room where folks come in and just have a place to stay while they find and navigate the services on their own, but it's rather a structured program.

It could go up to 90 days, does not mean that individuals stay for all 90 days, but it could be up to 90 days.

Um it has case management services.

Those case management services are required services.

So individuals that are coming into the program do agree to participate with case management to work towards removing the barriers towards ending their homelessness.

Um it also case management is also used to assess positive progress in the program.

So as I was saying earlier, up to a 90-day stay that is determined based off of that household or client, individual client progress towards ending their homelessness.

Um so as progress is determined, uh their length of stay can be extended.

Uh the zero tolerance drug policy is also something that we uphold in this program.

So uh individuals are not allowed to have drugs on the property, nor are they allowed to use drugs on the property.

We do have a zero tolerance policy that we enforce, so as individuals violate this policy, they are exited from the program.

There are also regular room checks that are conducted through our partnered agency to ensure that the rules are being upheld, as well as just for general safety of the clients in the program.

Um there is also a closed campus, no walk-up referrals.

So if individuals walk up to the campus for whatever reason they are directed to Phoenix Rescue Mission, which is another partner agency, and Phoenix Rescue Mission will assess them to see if they are a good fit for the off the streets program.

So no one walking up to the facility will enter the facility as a program participant.

There's also a 10 p.m.

curfew connection to housing and employment services, medical care, substance abuse mental health treatment as appropriate.

And then lastly, there's a connection to Mesa Public Schools more specifically.

So those that are considered to be which all are that are residing in this program, McKinney Vento families.

So those students are connected to those supportive services.

You know, um the affordability of a rent.

As of March 1st of this year, um, if a program like this were to not be in existence, uh 30 families would be displaced and ultimately end up back on the street.

Out of those 30 family units, there's 57 children that currently reside in the program as of the beginning of March.

Forty-three are seniors and 64 individuals that are survivors of domestic violence.

Currently, right now there are 16 families and 18 individuals that are on the wait list for this program specifically.

These individuals and families that are on the wait list have all been assessed by Phoenix Rescue Mission and deemed to be appropriate fits for this program.

Um what that means when they are assessed, it means that they are asked questions on whether they are a prior resident of the city of Mesa, meaning that they have a prior address.

It also asks them questions on whether they have any ties to Mesa, like are they a part of community court in Mesa?

Do they have children attending a Mesa public school?

And do they also have medical care that they might be receiving specifically here in the Mesa area?

I would also like to share with you all that um 16 families, 18 individuals just on our wait lists prioritizing Mesa residents.

If a program like this did not exist regionally, there is a uh emergency shelter wait list for families where up to a hundred and ninety plus families currently are waiting on the list regionally through to receive family shelter services.

If a program did not exist like this, those families that you see there, 16 families would ultimately end up on that list awaiting shelter among um up to 190 individuals or sorry um households, and the wait could be up to 16 to 18 weeks.

Um I'd like to um share with you that um in our um program we have served 489 unique individuals as of calendar 2025.

Um the average length of stay is 70 um days.

Um, as you can see there, there's the percentage of what um we have seen um from veterans, domestic violence families, and seniors there on the right.

Um we have a positive exit rate of 86 percent, and since the inception of the program, there has been 3,289 um individuals, unique individuals served as a result of this program.

I'd also like to direct your attention to the pie chart at the bottom that shows that the primary reason for homelessness of the individuals that are coming into this program at 52 percent is financial and employment related.

We have a question.

I have a question.

So 489 unique clients, does that include children too?

It does.

So when you say 76 families, a family is one unit, right?

Um uh so a family when we're talking them about them as units, yes.

Um when we are looking at this um chart here, um, we are looking at them as unique individuals.

The reason why.

So 76%.

So one child is counted as a family.

Um essentially because they part they make up a family household, yes.

So family's one unit.

So I I'm curious how many actual families is the percentage.

Um what as a as a unit, the family.

Yeah, we can definitely do that.

In this moment in time, we can tell you that there are 30.

Yes.

Any other questions?

There are not, go ahead.

Okay.

Um the next slide um can show you the exit destinations by category.

Um so with these exit destinations, I do want to point out that one of the largest ones is um homeless shelter.

Um homeless shelter is actually a very important exit destination because a lot of the individuals and families that we serve have a very high needs, high acuity needs, which means that um they often have a lot of barriers, whether those barriers be medical, um uh uh you know, mental health, um, all sorts of different reasons.

Um, but um often they exceed the a lot of time that they um are allowed to stay in the program.

So we make connections to other shelter programs to help uh extend that stay so that way they could continue to work towards um uh ending their homelessness.

Um I would also like to um share with you that uh 66 percent of um individuals that exit the program, or I should say head of households that exit the program, um, do not um within a 12-month period um uh access um homeless services again um within a 12-month period.

You might be wondering about the other 34%.

Um the other 34% um could be all sorts of different factors.

If they were if the reason um for homelessness was because of a DV situation, it's possible they might find themselves in another domestic violence situation, which could result in once again experiencing homelessness.

Um if it's due to medical needs, um that's another reoccurring um possibility.

Um, or if they were able to secure permanent housing, but that rent went up and they are living on a fixed income, that can also cause displacement and could potentially lead to someone re-entering um homelessness again.

They could also stay within the system um through the continuum of care model, right?

So they may still be receiving services by design due to their housing plan question.

Can I ask you clear so so the 48% go on to another homeless shelter?

Uh yes, uh-huh.

Um in that as I was saying, um, the reason for um uh you know them re-entering or or I should say going to another shelter is because the a lot in 90 days was possibly not sufficient for them because they have multiple barriers, so they needed to be reconnected to another shelter to help them extend that.

Um if that occurs, is that still considered part of our success, right?

Um if it yes, um if if if that is something that occurs, yes, because it's not a re-entry into homelessness once again, but rather a continuation of them being able to receive um services, which is considered to be a positive thing.

Carry on, Mayor.

Oh, Mr.

Adams.

I want to thank you.

I want to make sure I understand.

So a few slides back, you displayed a percentage of success.

86%.

So that 86% includes the 49% who remain in shelter?

That's considered a successful exit.

Um mayor and council, um, yes.

Um as of right now, um, that is our understanding of it.

We could definitely work to just double check that information, but that is the way that we understand it today.

Yeah, mayor and council member Adams.

Um so we do consider that as a positive exit because they are going to the next.

It is part of their journey.

So homelessness is extremely complicated.

Um we would love everyone to have this be their only stop and end up in a in a end solution, but with emergency shelter, um, that is not the case typically.

So can you go to the next slide, please?

Um this shows you a variety of places where people exit too, and shelter is continuation of shelter is is common because they are continuing to establish employment um connection to all the different resources that they need in order to be successful and and enter into the next place on their housing path, which may be their own housing um that they're self-sufficient with, it may be uh bridge housing or other programming, and so it just varies depending on the individual.

It may be uh bridge housing or other programming, and so it just varies depending on the individual.

But it is not uncommon for people to exit to another place of that nature in order to get services and continue their path.

Okay.

Well, I think what was confusing to me is when I see an 88% success rate, and am I mischaracterizing that?

That's the success rate.

Is that what you describe it as?

Correct, yes.

Okay, that tells me they're they're out of the service cycle until you provided this information.

So I think I think we need to be really clear on how we present these numbers, because when you tell me a program is 88% successful, and the purpose of the program is to address homelessness.

I'm assuming 88% of those people are back into self-sufficiency.

And it sounds to me like that may not be the case all the time.

I may not be the I may not be the sharpest guy here, but that's how I would read those numbers if I were not as familiar with what we're talking about here.

So I think we need to be really careful how we present these numbers, because I don't think we should have to drill down that hard to find out whether the person is really out of the program, off of assistance, and back into self-sufficiency.

And when I first saw that, I thought, boy, that's pretty good, 88%.

But now I'm learning that's maybe not the case.

So I don't I don't expect an answer, that's just a comment.

Well, you know, 86% that are no longer homeless, they are working through the solution.

They are not in the street or in the parking lot or whatever.

They are working, they have shelter in a safe environment and working towards solutions.

I think when we say homeless, we mean people who don't have any shelter.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I appreciate the clarification.

I'm not I don't want to debate that right now, but I I found the numbers to be a little less than crystal clear, Mr.

Reddit.

I think you just to reiterate the continuum, right?

Like what we're talking about here at the off the streets is the emergency side, right?

Emergency immediate housing, right?

What Raw explaining, trying to figure out is all right, we play that part as far as emergency shelter, and there's a longer process, right, to remove somebody from the situation.

Everybody's different, right?

So it's we're talking about this program being the emergency sheltering up to 90 days that we can help somebody identify how do we then create that self-sustaining process, right?

So I just also to clarify like we're talking about emerging this program being the emergency side of a media shelter, right?

Like it's not like the end all be all that you get to this program and then you're not a homeless person.

No, no, it's like everybody is different.

Everybody takes out it might be somebody that can get a job in 90 days, and you know that's that's uh that's great, and now they have an apartment, right?

But it's not everybody, right?

So it's the the program that we're talking about is the emergency immediate need of sheltering somebody that needs that shelter, right?

That wants that shelter, right?

So just thank you.

Um mayor and can and council member Adams, I think that that's correct, right?

This is this is emergency, this is crisis response.

And so this is an emergency shelter, and that next to is really stabilizing that family unit, that senior citizen.

It's under it's kind of an think about it as an intake.

So we know that um they're in crisis and they need assistance.

We do qualify them for whether they are a fit for the program because it is a program.

Um they enter into the program and then the case manager works with them on what are your straps of progression and where what are your goals for the end of our 90 days?

Um, or sooner, hopefully it's sooner, right?

Um, but it may be going on to some type of a bridge housing, right?

So bridge housing is still considered a shelter.

So on that on that path, it would still be bridge housing would be shelter, but they've now moved into the next step.

It's not emergency anymore, now it's bridge.

Now it's uh some type of a bridge environment.

Maybe they're gonna be there for a year.

Maybe they half a part of their rent is very low rents they can save up so they can eventually do the two months and the utility deposits and those types of things.

Um coming out of a 90-day emergency shelter does not give them the financial ability to go in and sign a lease at that point.

And so this is really that intake that um triage, if you will, what is the path for this particular family or for this particular individual?

And that's what this um this program does.

And then we do the warm handoff.

It's not at the end of the 90 days, okay, good luck, right?

Um it's where is your next step?

What is the next step for you?

And we're gonna bring those people in and work with you and move you into that.

So a positive exit means they are continuing on their path.

I appreciate that clarification.

Do we track, do we track and I thanks for that perspective?

Do we track the percentage of success beyond the 90-day emergency housing?

In other words, from the day someone enters the emergency program to the day they become self-sufficient.

Do we track that success rate?

Uh Mayor and Councilmember Adams, we are working on what we can track is if they enter into the system again, because it is a regional system, so we can track whether that individual entered into the system here in Maricopa County.

Um if they don't enter into the system, we can't guarantee that because they could have gone out of state, they could have gone out of county, that type of thing, and we wouldn't know those information.

But we would know if they enter our system here in Maricopa County.

Not necessarily Mesa, but Maricopa County, you know.

We all use the same um software.

So the the same intake.

So that way we're coordinated.

It is a coordinated effort across the region.

That's good.

So with the data that we have, understanding those limitations, do we know what that success rate is, or is it a number that we don't track?

We're still working on that, uh working out the details of that.

Um over these last, I'd say probably five to six years in the region, the region has grown and matured and really understood the data we need to collect and what we need to report.

Yes.

And we do work with, we've been working with um Evan Alred and his team, his data analysts, to look at they've been our link to the region and understanding that data speak to data speak, if you will.

Um, you know, we want the data, but we don't know what to ask for necessarily, and so they're the ones who are working with us to make sure that as a as a county as a region that we're able to do that type of reporting.

So I believe that they're still working on that.

Okay, because I I don't think we've looked at any of the numbers outside of our own internal, just because we don't know how clean they are.

Um, and so we want to make sure that we are talking apples to apples when we do that kind of reporting.

But that is that is the goal.

The goal is to have these type of a long-term.

We know we met their emergency needs, and we mo we know we successfully got them on to the next step.

What where are they 12 months from then, you know, two years from then and so forth?

Um that's what we're trying to do.

That is one tool that we can use to see if they re-enter the system here.

Good.

I think that's important, and I I I like data-driven decision making.

Yes.

So as that develops, I would hope you would bring that information forward.

Yes, I guess I don't think it's quite ready um yet, but we have been working on it, and we and we continue to work on those types of tracking mechanisms.

Well quick, can I think Joshani, you mentioned some somewhere 60 percent or 65 percent of the data that we can track are not entering the system, or it did I miss uh understand that?

That we that we currently have, right?

Mayor and council, yes.

That is correct.

What was the percentage of it?

That was 66 percent within a 12-month period.

So are not re-entering the system?

That are not re-entering, yes.

That data from that we're from that system.

Yeah, okay.

Sorry, yes, thank you.

Mr.

Butler.

Mayor, um hear you though.

I I know there's been a couple of comments from from council about maybe we can provide some greater clarity on how we're describing um some of this, and we can we can work on that because we we wouldn't want people to feel one that we're uh misrepresenting this information, but two, um, as has been alluded to, the fact that you've stabilized someone and gotten them out of a park where they're not going to be, you know, trying to to do an encampment, or that they're not under an overpass, or or whatever the case may be in that situation is a positive development, even if that is getting them into uh another shelter after that period that they've been stabilized.

But to your point, that's not um what I think the community or any of us would define as the ultimate goal.

Uh it's like you're saying, Councilmember Adams, that some kind of permanent situation um of self-sufficiency is that ultimate goal.

So we can we can um look at how we're articulating some of this to make sure that um we are measuring this, as we said, it is a positive, and so that's what that's what that number is meant to reflect, that is a positive step, but it is not the final step, and it's not mission accomplished at that point.

Well, that's uh that's a fair feedback, I think, for I appreciate that because you know, when we're talking about making decisions that involve uh uh fiscal matters, I think I I would not want to be making decisions one way or another based on incomplete data.

I'd I'd rather have as much complete data as we can, because at some point in time you're talking about expenditure of public money.

What's what's the return?

Are we getting a I mean there's a big difference between a 20% success rate and an 80% success rate, just pulling numbers.

I'm I'm glad Councilmember Heretia highlighted the 66%, because uh, you know, I like to make decisions like that based on hard data.

Thank you.

And and 40%.

I want I don't want to ignore the 40 percent who are in housing on this pie chart that do have housing.

So that is, you know, significant.

We can't ignore that that's not success.

And I I think part of the context too, Mayor and Council is um especially at the time that some of this was happening, and we were seeing in other communities, and we we saw in communities across the country and some locally where encampments and other um situations like that had dominated um a park, and it was a it was a public health hazard at that point, and it was requiring a lot of police time and intervention, and you and there was the feeling, of course, from this council that you know, just from our public spaces and our rights of way and other things like that, that that was something that was not sustainable for our community, either for those individuals or for the residents who um might have had to interact with situations like that.

So that's why the ability to get people off the streets um was something that council um really felt was important to get them in some kind of situation that didn't involve them sleeping on a park bench or setting up an encampment in an empty lot.

And that that was uh as we got into this, that was kind of the narrative and and some of the thought process.

I know that uh and and many of you were uh involved in that that narrative uh but if you can just visualize that, Councilmember Adams, that that was really some of the thinking too that we were seeing happening in other communities, and and we're certainly getting the feedback from residents that they did not want to see that overtaking public spaces or empty lots uh within the city of Mesa.

All right, carry on.

Uh um, and also um Mayor and Council, um, you know, you all have also suggested some really great um, you know, um uh program models for us to look into.

And so that's what this slide here captures.

Um so our um team has been able to explore some of those um uh examples, um, and one of those being Family Promise, um Eden Village and Other Side Village, um, which is in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Um our team has been able to meet um individually with each of these entities um in order to be able to learn more about their model.

Um so as you could see there, um some of those models are bridge housing, um, much as was as what Candace was sharing, which is a little bit different than what emergency shelter is, um, as well as permanent housing for the other two um uh models.

Um family promise does serve um families with minor children, and the other two serve um single individuals, um, but do not allow uh minor children um in the program.

Um the bridge housing is up to 60 days of length, and uh whereas permanent housing obviously does not have a cap.

Um family promise um does receive some government funding, um 12 percent of government funding, um, but otherwise um private donations and grants.

Um Eden Village um here in Mesa um private donations and grants, and Other Side Village in Utah um is um funded by client rent um as well as a large percentage of what is considered a social enterprise.

Um social enterprises basically like um they're they're diverse ways of generating revenue.

For example, um Other Side Village has a moving company, a grocery store, a catering service, and they utilize the participants in this program to operate those services.

Um as well as other um community grants.

Um, but they do receive city um contribution through the providing of land Mr.

Yeah.

So with all these three uh examples per year information, they all receive some sort of government funding, right?

Um not all on the list, no.

Um I think they get like 400,000 from Axes, Medicaid, from you know, it's it's government funding, right?

So I think there's there is uh I think at level of government funding that that I doing some research on each one of them, get some sort of funding from the government, right?

Um I would agree, yes.

It I guess you could be you could consider that possibly indirect revenue, right?

Um so yes, um that that would be considered more indirect in some of those ways um that that you were um explaining.

Um but yes, um as you can see, family promise is it does receive some government funding, or for instance, other side village in in Utah, um, you know, they receive the the land from um the city in order for them to be able to to construct that project.

We also looked into another one that was suggested for us to look into, which was um in the city of Greensboro, um North Carolina.

Um and uh that's a uh pallet homes.

Um right now at the moment they have 30 pallet homes.

Um I will say that that program is um uh basically the planning for that uh program was provided by the city as well as the funding is provided by the city, and the oversight of that program is also provided by that city.

I think just to reiterate the point, you know, for uh as I've been in council and you know I've served on Posit Crystal, uh you know, local food shelter here board um several years uh and then just uh serving initially on the human services uh MAG Council uh when I first got on on council and looking at uh models like housing first in in Denver, you know, in Salt Lake City, in California and other states.

I I can't remember any program that didn't have any government funding.

I think what's important from what I learned was that government funding actually like multiplies many of these times the funding that is available, right?

Uh from faith and and uh private donations and and other philanthropy work.

I think that's something that I've seen at least for my experience that most of these programs, if not all that I can remember.

Maybe there's a couple programs out there that I'm just not aware of, but most of them has some sort of government funding attached to it, either land or direct, HUD, you know, you know, tax dollars are tax dollars, right?

When we're talking about tax dollars, and we gotta understand that that's that's government funding, right?

They're you know, cities and others.

So it just wanna make that point that at least for my experience that that's been um kind of a constant that there's some supportive keys from government that is provided to I mean amplify the resources, amplify the the services that are there, and so just uh as we discuss this topics, that's that's an important uh aspect to how we all have kind of a shared responsibility in this, right?

So uh in and trying to make figure out solutions to this complex, not uh necessary uh easy way to metric this issue and get the RI that we need, right?

So um, but it is just a complicated nexus that I think it has a shared responsibility between uh a lot of the factor, a lot of the players that um unfortunately, you know, we as a city have had to deal with, right?

Like it or not, right?

So as explained by PD and and other uh uh facets that we we talked about in this presentation, so and oh I'm saying Mayor, I just like to notice that we we do like to we do like the council to come to us and tell us about programs that you hear about, right?

So you do travel across the country and you are exposed to a lot of different programs that maybe we might not have the exposure to.

And so and so we do like it when you do come back and tell us about different programs that we can look at.

When we had the meeting um with the other side village, um it was very um it was very creative, right?

It was a very it seemed like a very good program, and we asked a lot of questions about how did you start, where does it go?

Are there other entities who want to do this type of thing?

How do we create those partnerships?

And so we're gonna continue to go down that path of looking for these types of programs.

Um it's a different demographic and it is permanent housing versus emergency.

So it is different than our office use program, but we need both.

We need all of these programs because we have we have different demographics with different needs.

Um so we are excited about the other side village program.

Um and we are going to continue to pursue what that would look like here in Mesa and who those who those partners would be to try to do something similar to that.

Ms.

Go Ford.

I just have a question about um is House of Refuge similar to what these are?

Our current one of our current facilities.

Uh uh Mayor Council, yes.

It's a wonderful facility.

It is.

And that was again at the um was Luke Air Force Base.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

And so those types of things, Williams Air Force Base.

Wrong side of the other thing.

Mesa Gateway down here.

Williams.

Williams Williams Air Force Base.

Yes, I went on that base.

Yeah, so that is Williams Air Force Base.

And so that was part of that the very large, right, of how to re how to reuse an Air Force base, right?

And so there's a lot of different players.

And so they're actually in some of the old housing, right?

Um is what they used for that particular program.

And that would be a great the bridge program where that might be a next step for one of our emergency shelter families, right?

Um, if there's capacity uh at House of Refuge, that would be a step that would be counted as a successful exit from our emergency program and entering into their transitional program.

You have a question.

Yeah, well, we we donated the land, right?

We became the owner of the Air Force base, right?

The land, and so we provided the land.

And House of Refuge is a regular um name that I see on our community our funds that we give out.

They they do receive ongoing um government resources, right?

The city in Mesa is quite common to see them on the list, um, as well as other grants that they get, so they are not a hundred percent private for sure.

Yes, they they are um they are a great resource in our in our community um for family.

I don't know.

Any model that is completely as Council Member Heretio saying, I don't know of any model that is completely outside of government funding.

I don't know of any.

I I really don't.

Um, I have the mic, I just want to mention family promise.

I just became aware of that just recently.

I think it's just new.

Okay, about a week ago or so, and it's a single family home, and they anticipate to be able to turn serve about 60 people annually.

So it's just single family home.

I appreciate that they're at least we have something for emergency for families.

Um and then Eden Village is 21 units that are under uh uh construction for those who are chronically homeless, um, and they um serve a wonderful need.

Is we just need everything, we need everybody, everything on the plate to be able to tackle this.

And I don't think we can just say this is the solution or that's the solution.

We need all entities and all models to be able to you know help our our residents.

Mr.

Adams Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Um, just a couple of points of interest.

Um family promise has been around a long time.

I don't know about their involvement here in Mesa, but Ted Taylor, who um is the CEO there, I've known him for 20 years, and they are they are active throughout the valley.

I think they're they're active.

Yeah, yep.

And uh, but they're they've been around a while, and the model seems to work well.

Um you know, uh the point of clarification.

Um my understanding of uh the other side villages operation is their their project is being developed on what was the Salt Lake City landfill, which uh it it stopped being used as a landfill in 1965, and it was essentially an undeveloped or an undevelopable piece of land that my understanding, I could have misunderstood the presentation, um, is is leased to the other side village for I think it's a dollar a year, long-term land lease.

Uh not sold, not given.

So, yeah, what's the value of that?

Um one could argue that it was an unusable piece of land, and uh and uh they had to do quite a bit of improvement, bringing a lot of topsoil, uh, mitigate some of the problems you might uh assume would be present with a former landfill.

So I'm appreciate council member heretti, you're bringing up the fact that in one form or another uh tax money is tax money, and yes, all of these receive some some form of support.

I think the uh I think maybe the point of discussion is on on the ratio private to public, but yeah, I acknowledge that all day long.

Thank you.

All right, we'll carry on.

Thank you.

All right, as we move into that, that was an overview of uh of the Office Streets program and what we've seen over the um five to six years that we've had it in place here in the city.

Um we kind of gave a little bit of a history about where it was, where it was going.

Um as we go into the next one about so three years ago, we started looking for how to make it more efficient, how to make it more effective, as we always do with all of our programs.

And we had the opportunity with the ARPA funds, ARPA funds came out from the federal government, and really the goal of those ARPA funds was to create resiliency in the communities for the next emergency, whatever that was.

So it was COVID before, what is the next one?

We don't know what it looks like, um, but how can we be more resilient in our communities?

And so we looked at our off the streets program and figure out how can we make our office use program more resilient.

Well, the way we can do that is not to be reliant on leased spaces, but to actually own the spaces so that we had control of that.

Um so three years ago, the council approved the purchase of the old um grand hotel to convert and to move our office streets program to that particular location.

Um that would give us a city-controlled site, a little bit more control over our financials as well as the physical location.

So this slide here really just kind of shows what is the difference between the program as we operate at Windermere and the program as we move it over to the Sunair location.

Um the essence of the program will remain the same.

All of the things that Josani talked about with the the length of stay, the rules that would go through it, the program management, the case management, the on-site staff, um, on-site police presence, all of those things, no walk-up, um, all of those things all stay the same.

So the program in essence stays the same, regardless of what site we want we would operate out of.

Um, what changes?

What's new when we go to the Sunair location?

Um, we do actually have control of the campus today.

Um, when we move into when we move into Sun Air, we are the only ones on that site.

We don't have the there isn't the ability for someone to just walk through the campus the way we are at Windermere right now.

Windermere is an is open in the fact that there is no block wall or any wall around the site.

So the buildings are open to anybody walking through the campus.

We do have a vulnerable, as we talked about, population.

So we have a lot of children, as we said today, currently 57 in the program.

Um we have uh senior citizens, um, and we have um those who are fleeing domestic violence.

So it's a very vulnerable population.

So we would like to secure the campus a little bit more.

We do achieve that by moving to the sun air location.

Um the other things that we've done that we're able to do because we own and control the site, is that we do have limited rooms at Windermere that have those connecting doors between rooms, and that is difficult for our large families.

So there are there's only so many rooms that we can use for large families.

If there's only a single adult and children, we can't divide them into two rooms unless they have that connecting door.

One of the things that we have done at the Sunair location during our remodel is we have actually made all of the rooms able to open to the room next door to it through staff.

Um staff has the keys.

So if we have a large family, we can accommodate them.

There's no family that we need to turn away.

Um right now we do have some large families on our waiting list at Windermere because we don't have the specific rooms that would allow them to have that connecting with the minor children.

Um so we've made that change at Sunair.

So we have a lot more flexibility with who we can take in and how we can configure the rooms to make sure we can accommodate everybody.

Um we've also made sure that all of the rooms are ADA friendly.

We do have our ADA specific rooms, um, but we've also made sure that every room is ADA friendly.

Does it have the access?

Does it have the egress?

Can you get around the furniture?

Those types of things.

Um cameras have already been installed at the exterior, so as soon as we took possession of the uh property, we put up the cameras that are tie into the real-time crime center.

Um and those are on the perimeter of it.

Once we actually have a certificate of occupancy, we will also add C C D TV cameras to the internal campus common areas, and also on our hallway.

Um the sun air location also has interior hallways versus exterior access to the rooms.

That does help everyone involved.

It helps our our police officer who's on site, it helps our staff, it helps us to control who might be able to have access to those rooms.

Um all entry to the building would actually go through the lobby, so only those participants in the program are allowed.

Um the current the current rule now is no visitors unless they've been approved.

The Windermere location makes it difficult to enforce, although we still enforce.

But with two doors to get into every room and rooms in all different locations, it's harder.

At the Sun Air location, it's one access point to the main building.

There are very few rooms that actually have doors that go out into the common areas.

Everything is usually in the larger building.

Just as a reminder, the purchase and the renovation were fully funded by those ARPA funds in order to increase the re increase the resiliency of this particular program for us.

And so right now we have uh two different contracts.

One is for the lease of the rooms at Windermere, and the second one is for the case management, which our current nonprofit partner is CBI, uh Community Bridges.

Um moving over into Sun Air, we will now not be dependent on that lease room rent or rate, and then we will have control now over that.

We will which are currently in the middle of an RFP for a vendor to go over to the Sun Air location.

So it will be a new contractor or new contract.

Um we don't have the final, we're finalizing those right now, but we do have quite a few nonprofits who have put in for that for the case management, as well as the property management for that particular site.

So we're in our final selection process right now, and we'll know that in the next few weeks, probably most likely, um, who our selected um contractor would be, which is a nonprofit again.

One of the things we're always looking for is to partner with the nonprofits who are the subject matter experts.

Um the city is the subject matter expert when it comes to coordination, when it comes to contract management, when it comes through oversight, quality control, and reporting.

Um that's what we are very good at.

That's what we are good at coordinating with our different departments here in the city and providing that kind of one-stop shop.

If there's a problem, it comes to it comes to this team, and they figure out what we need to do about it and who we need to contact.

Um it's what we're really good at.

Um it's it's really what our role is in this.

And then our role is to find those the best subject matter experts for the program that we're trying to put in place.

And that's what we're doing right now with our RFP going through that.

Let's see.

Let's go to the next one.

At the time that we um at the time we that we purchased the hotel to do the conversion, we did do go out with some surveys to to see what it is that the community was looking for us for our role to be.

Um at the time, 48% of the residents um saw homelessness as an issue in Mesa.

This is in 2023.

And at that time, 71% of the residents um believe that the issue of homelessness was the city's responsibility to address.

Um, and so that's where kind of where we were when we started this process.

So that was back in 2023.

We did do a lot of community involvement.

We worked with the neighborhood around the Sun Air location.

Um, based on the feedback that we had from a lot of those sessions, um, some improvements came to mind that that needed the neighborhood needed, um, and we were not aware of at the time.

So we did come in and we um we increased some street lights.

They were an old county island that annexed into the city, so they came in with kind of that county level quality of of number of street lights.

And um, and it is that's what they came in with, right?

And so that's what so we inherited that.

Um, and so we did see some of those issues, some of those issues around um street lighting.

They had lighting on uh the east-west streets and not the north-south streets and different gates, and they have alleys.

And so we looked took a look at all of those, and we did those improvements in the probably within the probably six within six months, I would say, probably after those were identified.

Um of the things we couldn't do, they don't have sidewalks, which is typical in a county island type of neighborhood.

Um, sidewalks were cost prohibitive and also would have narrowed their streets and would have affected their on-street parking.

So there's some things that we that we weren't able to do based just based on on the usage there.

Um, but we do um we continue to do that.

We continue to reach out to the neighborhood.

The neighborhood is is not forgotten, is very important um in this whole in this whole area.

Um, and we do anticipate continuing to do those, and we do have the good neighbor policy in place that was put together with the neighborhood in mind, uh, making sure that they have a single point of contact just like we do at Windermere, but a single point of contact at Sunair.

If there is any issues that they feel that we need to be aware of moving forward from there, we have a caller question.

Candice real quick.

Uh as far as our remember the conversations, how how is uh the actual the hotel kind of conditions there?

I think uh when we were discussing this, I there was some uh maybe problems around you know, cost for service, drug activity, like other motels that we see, you know, we you know, West Mesa has plenty of uh like old motels and hotels and um lighted areas, right?

So just uh remind me again on the conditions that the Grand Hotel was and some of the issues that we had there.

Um Mayor and Councilmember Heredia.

Um I don't I can't talk on specifically to that to the motel, but it is um that particular area all along Main Street, both north and south in that area, does have challenges.

Um has challenges with um calls for service, has challenges um with the different areas and the blight that you talked about.

So there are a lot of properties that are just not been maintained over the years.

Um that is the type of type of area that that is.

We have many of those across the city.

This is not the only area in the city that's like that.

Um, but that is what what was what was there.

Um there was a lot of it again, it was a hotel, so there was a lot of of transient activity because that's what a hotel is.

Um the hotel itself, when we took it over, had the good bones that we were looking for, had this had the site that we were looking for, but had not been maintained um in a very long time.

And so there was that was part of the renovation was to go in there and kind of redo some of that.

Um we did find that there were some folks who were living there permanently.

Um, but probably maybe that's not really the point of that hotel, but there were some permanent um residents that were there when we went into that.

So, yes, this wasn't um this isn't the new part of town that we decided to go in and take over, you know, a brand new hotel.

This is really a redevelopment project as much as that is um um you know, a project for this particular program is really redeveloping this site into uh a very nice, a very sturdy, a very um it looks so much better um than it was when we took over ownership of it.

Yeah, perfect.

And Candace, since we had the Windermere and we've been running that program five years there, we haven't had any issue.

Everybody's worried that if we have these services, it's gonna end up being some encampment compound, unattractive, dangerous um spill over.

But yet we don't experience that at the Windermere.

So um I just wanted to state that you know, we've been running a great program without the ills that people are worried about.

In addition, remembering back to 23, there was overwhelming support uh citywide that we did something about the homeless situation, that we find a solution, and this of course isn't create solve every problem, but it was a positive step and having that transitional point of moving people into a positive path.

And people were very excited overall.

So I keep on hearing our our voters were against it.

At that time in 23, an overwhelming majority wanted this and thought it was a good move.

Among the neighbors around there, I remember it was three neighborhoods we had multiple meetings with.

Two of them were very supportive.

In fact, one of them was a senior development, and they said, how can we help?

Can we do backpack drives?

How can we be involved in supporting these families?

And one was opposed.

And we've made them uh improvements, like you said, and the good neighbor policy.

So I don't want to think like we were going against anything at that time in 23.

It was a positive step to solving some of the problems we have.

All right, and I maybe Mr.

Butler, you can remind us uh just recently uh we had a study session, a strategic study session where we pulled Mesa residents, right?

And one of the top three issues I think was homelessness.

Right.

Affordability was we don't even have to go back to 2023.

It's currently still uh issue that residents still want us to find solutions on.

And we're gonna follow data.

Let's look at that data as well, right?

People are telling us that one of the top three issues is how do we find solutions to homelessness, right?

Right now, not 2023, we'll when you know you know, the majority of folks were asking us to find solutions, even now, right?

So I don't know if we have or just share that data that we polled that were was presented by uh um high ground.

Um but can you can you just mention that piece that we got that information from?

And council member, you're exactly right.

I mean the community, um the community is definitely concerned about the homelessness issue um that that they see, you know, with their own with their own two eyes as they're as they're driving about the community, and and I think that was reflected, like you said, it was it was up there in the top top three.

I think uh inflation affordability was was number one, maybe housing.

Yeah, um there, but there was the uh top priority slide, which is a little bit different than the slide you're referring to, but still that it there it was it was a big priority of of the community and what I've heard from all seven of you is we've had conversations about this.

I I and this isn't a political you know answer.

This is the I mean all seven of you want to address this issue.

I think we're we're trying to coalesce around how we address it, not if we address it and what that flavor, you know, looks like but but you're right.

I uh the community is expecting something from us.

No, whether that's something is partnerships with with uh NGOs and others, whether that is uh moving forward as as uh initially envisioned, uh if it's um land donation and capital models like maybe we saw in Utah, where and then you're out of the operating side, those are those are all things, and as Candace said earlier, it's probably all of the above in some way, shape, or form, um, along with private investment and private philanthropy um playing its role as well.

And so I think I think that's what we've got to balance.

But I I do think as reflected in uh the polling is that the community expects something though.

They're expecting some action on this.

I'm sure they don't care um exactly um all the tools that are there, they just want to see something effective that combines all those resources and doesn't put it all on on the burden on on one particular area or the other, uh, would be my guess on that.

I I think if I may, Mayor, um I'm glad you brought that up, Mr.

Butler, because I I do think that the the vast majority of our community wants the issue addressed.

And the key question here is how uh I think there's something wrong with anybody who doesn't see someone on the streets and doesn't feel a sense of compassion.

Um that's that's a natural human reaction.

We want to be helpful to people.

We don't want people here in our community suffering.

The only counterpoint I would offer here is it it's the question of how and what's most effective.

Um I think when someone answers a survey and says, Yeah, I want you to do something about this problem, he's not necessarily saying I want you to spend 13.2 million dollars to do it and operate a hotel.

He's saying find a solution.

So I I'm glad you brought this up, because I think that is the crux of the matter.

What is the best and most effective and fair to everyone involved, means and method of doing this.

And yes, times have changed since 2023.

There were different issues on the table at that time.

And I think I think everyone involved in previous decisions approached this with a charitable heart, good intentions, and uh and a strong effort to solve the problem.

But I think the key, the key discussion today is what's the best way.

So thank you for that.

Okay, carry on.

All right, uh one of the last thing I'm gonna kind of kind of put up here.

I'm gonna talk about two things real quick before we go into the next section.

Is one of the I do want to say, as we're always looking at as our programs at how we can make them more effective and more efficient, um, and still accomplish the same goals, right?

Um so one of the things that as we move over to the Sunair location is we are changing the demographic slightly from our current windomere location.

Um and that was part of those conversations with the community, with the council, and part of our good neighbor policy.

And so as we go over there, we are going to focus um the program, the office streets program when it moves to sun air, we'll focus on the most vulnerable of our population if they are all vulnerable.

Um but we're gonna highlight the most vulnerable, and those are our families with minor children, our elderly um individuals, and then our uh folks who are fleeing domestic violence.

And so the single single men who do not fit into one of those categories um will no longer um be in the program as part of this, and we will be relying on our East Valley Men's shelter and other non um of our partners in the community for that particular demographic.

Uh, when we move over here.

This particular slide is just to show you how um how we how really more efficient this particular location is compared to the one that we currently are.

Uh we feel that this program is very, very successful as we've identified and defined on moving folks into their next step.

And we are working with a 3.6 acre property with no walls or containment and with rooms that have doors and access to them from multiple points.

And so I believe that the team, both police department and our and our boots on the ground over there are doing a fabulous job at containing this program and making it successful it is at this particular location.

But there are challenges to that.

When we look over to the Sun Air program, it is on 1.3 acres.

And just to remind you, this is so this is oriented north.

And so the only entrance that will be open will be the one that goes out onto Main Street.

There is a gate to the south, and there is a gate to the east.

Well, will be out of off of Main Street.

And so this will really make sure that only our participants are on this campus and that others are not allowed to come in unless they are pre-approved to come in.

So whether it's coming in to provide transportation to services, caseworkers, those types of things, all the ones who are supposed to be on the site will be on the site.

And anyone who is not supposed to be on the site will not be on the site when we move over to the Sun Air location.

As we go through real quick, we've kind of talked about a lot of these, but what was the timeline on the history of Sunair?

So we did close on the property in November of 23rd.

Before closing on that, we did, as part of the purchase price, we did accept $4 million from Maricopa County as part of their ARPA funds.

That was approved through council through an IGA.

During that part of that IGA, we approved to take the funds for the purchase, and at the same time said that we would operate it as an emergency shelter for a minimum of 10 years, or we would need to repay those four million dollars back to the county.

So that's still in place at this time.

Construction began in January of 25, and we are expected to end at the end of this month.

We might bleed a little bit over into April, but we expect our certificate of occupancy either the last week of this month or the early in early April.

Where would we go from there?

We do again, I mentioned that RFP that we have for our provider to partner with a nonprofit to do the actual operations, boots on the ground for the Sunair location.

And we would complete the construction.

Once we have certificate of occupancy, the last the last step is to actually outfit when we have control of the site again is to outfit those rooms with the furniture and the supplies that are necessary for return key operations.

We would do that between April and June.

At the same time, we would contract with our new nonprofit provider to do that, and they would need that time to ramp up for their staffing to make sure everything is set before we would take our first participant, which would be sometime in the summer of this summer, was when we could actually open the doors.

The police presence is not just at that location, but the police presence would be actually doing the perimeter as well as going through the neighborhood that is just to the just next door to this particular location.

So I'm only sure I think there was a uh somebody had said something that the police officer never leaves the front.

That's the police officer actually does patrol.

Um so anyone who's assigned to that is on site but also patrols the the adjacent neighborhood.

The next one is just an overview, just to as a reminder of where the costs went, and so it is uh the contracted cost was 13.2.

Um and then we have the furniture and the uh fixtures and equipment that would go up.

Everything in the acquisition and construction is ARPA funds, and the furnishings for it to be turnkey are with the ARPA interest.

So ARPA interest is interest that we accumulated on the ARPA funds as they were sitting in our account before we spent them.

So it was funds that we would not have otherwise had if we had not had the ARPA funds sitting in our in our bank account.

Um when we move from when we look at the financials of moving from Windermere to Sun Air, um, it does it is a cost savings to the city and to the taxpayers when we move from Windermere to Sun Air.

Um the costs are up there, it's a it's it's uh less per room when we go over there, and again, these are costs that we know and that we control versus costs that we're relying on a partner and leased rooms where the rates could change on a year to year basis.

When we move over, we do go from 85 rooms currently at the Windermere, and we will go down to 64 rooms.

But because we're able to configure the rooms with the furniture necessary to accommodate all of the families, we will actually only reduce by five beds from what we have going from Windermere to Sunair.

And again, we'll have that flexibility.

One of the changes that we are making in the program is because we do have the cost savings moving from Windermere to Sun Air, we are actually instituting a food program, which we do not have at Windermere.

So right now at Windermere, they do have to leave the campus in order to get their own food to use in their rooms.

And so at Sun Air, because we do have the cost reductions, we're able to supplement that with two grab and go meals per day.

And so that is the estimate of what we think that will be.

But once we get in there, we would have a better idea of what the actual needs were because we do know that the children go to school and would have those opportunities for breakfast and lunch at school.

We were asked to look at alternates to if we did not use the Sun Air location for the Office Streets program, what are our options or what would be the impacts to that decision?

So one is to was explore making Sunair facility available to an emergent as an emergency shelter, but making it available to a nonprofit and the city not providing any of the funds of the 2.5 million.

And so when we look at that, that would have to do with the feasibility of we would go have to go out for a new RFP.

The RFP we did came with a budget because we were purchasing services, and that's how that went out was for the purchase of services, and we gave them the budget available and could they do it within this budget.

We would need to go out again for whether it was a request for information to see if we had any nonprofits who were even interested in doing this option, and then we would be expecting them to show us the same quality that we expected from the RFP we've already done, but we'd also be expecting to see financial stability on their part that they could financially take on a burden like this on their own.

And so those would be things we would be looking for.

Um but we we would have to go out again to find that information.

We have done some uh casual conversations with some of our our nonprofit providers.

We know them all in the community.

So far, we have not found anyone who feels like they have the capacity to take this on themselves.

Um there could be somebody out there, but so so far we haven't seen anything, but that would be our next steps if that was a decision that the council wanted to look into.

Um, one of the concerns would be a loss of possible coordination of our services.

Um we do know that we could put that as part of the requirements.

We don't want to make the requirements too burdensome though, that we don't have anybody who would be interested in doing it.

So it would be a balancing act of we would still require reporting, we would still require the same eligibility to enter the program, those types of things, and put the operations on their side.

So we would still require those types of outputs to make sure that we have some oversight into the program.

Um what we would lose a little bit more would be the staffing itself, it's their operations, so they would be running it as their operations, and so like we do, we have other facilities that we lease for the dollar a year lease, something like that to nonprofits.

Um, our foster 360 is one example where we do have a city-owned facility that we renovated with federal funds, and then we lease to them to do the foster 360.

It's a lease, um, and so we don't do oversight into that particular program.

Um we would save the operational costs of the 2.5 million dollars that's currently in the budget.

Um, so when Brian presented the forecast to the council last week, and we were looking at that general fund forecast, that forecast does have the $2.5 million in general fund in each fiscal year already.

So moving to Sun Air does not increase the costs that are in that forecast.

Um, so but this would then decrease those costs.

Uh the police presence would remain, um, and so that is we are intending to continue to cover that with city funds regardless of who is operating or paying for the Office Streets program.

Um, that is required as part of the good neighbor policy.

The other one we were asked to look into is what would happen if we sold Sunair and we continue to uh operate the Office Streets program at Windermere.

Um so there's two different things that would happen.

Um, first I'll talk to the operating side.

So as you saw, we do have cost reductions when we move to the Sunair location.

If we stay at the Windermere location, it would continue to be that $3 million per year for us to keep the 85 rooms.

That would be today.

So that would be an increase to the budget for next year of that $500,000, which is not currently in that forecast that Brian showed you last year, uh last week.

So that would be on the operational side.

So there's two different pieces that we want to talk about on this because we did receive funds from Maricopa County, that is through an IGA.

So as of right now, based on the terms of the IGA, we would need to return four million dollars to Maricopa County.

That doesn't mean that we can't continue to have conversations with the county on what they would like us to do or what that means going forward.

But as of today, that's that is the terms of the IGA.

The nine point, roughly $9.2 million.

Um, we're saying that the we have the possibility uh that the U.S.

Treasury recaptures up to the full $9.2 million.

Um we would need disposition instructions from the Treasury.

Um we do have different um, we have history with HUD dollars, and we know how HUD dollars work.

And usually if we're doing that, if if a project does not move forward, HUD dollars are usually returned on a one-for-one basis.

Um, but there's also other uh disposition of of assets using federal funds that also possibly would allow us to return just what the proceeds of the sale were.

And so um, but neither one of those talk about ARPA dollars with the Treasury.

And so um, so we have the best case scenario would be that we return to the federal government exactly whatever the sale proceeds are of the of Sun Air.

Um, and the worst case scenario would be we would have to return the entire 9.2 million dollars regardless of the proceeds.

So those would be our two kind of best case and worst case scenarios when it comes to the sale of the property.

Um just as uh while we're working on that, if we were uh if that's council's direction that we would prefer to sell and and return the funds back to the federal government.

We would have some expenses while it sits um while it says vacant.

Um we do have we still need to maintain the property and we still have some additional insurance, our insurance is actually higher if it's a vacant building versus an occupied building, so those types of things.

Um we need to look at the timing of the sale versus the reimbursement back to the the federal government.

So those are all things that we would continue to have to look into.

Um the other item that we do have on the operational side is that by continuing at Windermere, it does put us at risk for any type of a mixed hoteling legislation that comes through the state.

We have not had anything approved at this point, but it has been introduced almost every fit every year coming through, and that will depending on what that might look like might put us at risk for whether we can continue at Windermere based on what might come to the legislation at that point.

Those are the those are the two main um items that we were asked to look at.

So as we've gone through this, we've really I know this was a lot, that's a lot of information.

Um but we know that we also know that there are folks who, while the council is well versed in some of these items, we know that there are residents who might only see this one particular meeting.

And we want to make sure that we're always giving the full background so everybody knows what we're we're looking at.

Um we write are now right now on track that we would open up Sun Air this summer.

Um we would um realize the savings and the operations of the $500,000, which would put us in line with next year's budget.

Um of the other things I do want to bring up is that since we have started this funding process for this, and we've since last year's budget to now, um, we have identified some one-time federal funds that we can put to apply to the operations of the Sun Air budget.

And so it the eligibility of the $2.5 million, $1.7 of that has been identified to be eligible for home ARP dollars.

Home ARP dollars are um they are an ARPA sister, if you will.

They are ARPA funds, but they came through HUD, they came through the home funding.

Umright we came to council three years ago and asked to use those funds for bridge housing, hoping that we were going to leverage a public uh private developer to come in and we would use them as gap financing.

It has not come to fruition over these years, and so we can, however, um redirect those funds to um emergency shelter provision, and that would offset the $2.5 million by the 1.7.

Um, so that would be a net $800,000 to the general fund for the next three years.

And then during that time, we can continue to look for um private public partnerships, we can continue to look for sponsorships, donations, um, all those types of things.

Um I do feel when we move to the Sunair location, we will have a better opportunity because we own it for grants for sponsorships, those types of things that would offset general fund.

Um, but I do feel it's harder in a leased environment than it is in an owned environment to get folks to do that.

Is that it?

I think so, Mayor.

Thank you.

Questions, comments?

Candace, you can you reiterate so I'm understanding you said that there would be a potential net of 800,000 dollars over the next three years for this program that we can run in Sun Air.

So is that correct?

Or so Mayor and Councilmember Heredia, it is so by moving from so at Windermere it costs us um three million dollars a year.

Um moving over to Sun Air, we're able to decrease it to 2.5 million dollars and are able to add the food portion of the program.

So enhance the program and decrease the cost.

Um so the net costs are right there, then the cost is 2.5 million dollars.

Um Brian Richel and OMB have that in the forecast.

So it is included right now in the budget, um, the 2.5 million.

We have federal funds that would cover 1.7 million of the 2.5.

And so what would that would do is it would reduce reduce the general fund contribution to the program, and then the net difference would be only 800,000 instead of the 2.5 million.

Okay.

Well, enhancing program that we're currently have at Windermere and keeping police officers or firefighters available to send folks that are having emergency needs as far as housing, like families that their housing burned down, uh, you know, just a case of example.

Um that happens, you know, maybe once a week or once a month, right?

That you know, I think one in a district we have.

I don't know if they they use the Windermere, but we did have one family from the apartment fire that we house it.

And I think we partner with MPS, they constantly call us that they have families that are in need of housing, umestic violence survivor, you know, victims, right?

And so just wanted to clarify on you know the most vulnerable folks that we're talking about.

We're looking to actually be less costly than what we currently have while still supporting the the network that we still will have, right?

That the needs are still there, right?

Like as far as homelessness, it's not will Mesa pay for homeless solutions, right?

We're already paying for as response, right?

For from firefighters, from police, our community courts, and libraries, our parks, right?

It's already there, and so I think I think as just a responsible governance piece, right?

I think that's important to know that we actually save money while providing better services in in the next three years, right?

And you know, we can look at opportunities on how we further partner and maybe hand off more of this work with nonprofits, our faith community, um, and and and look at that those those those strategies in the next three years.

But just want to reiterate that point if um I'm understanding that piece to what you're saying right now.

Yes, and Mayor and Council Baredia, thank you for bringing up the faith communities.

Um we have had quite a few folks who have reached out to us over this last year asking how can they assist and how can they help?

And we have actually asked them to to it's more difficult at Windermere and we if we could wait till we move to Sunair and really kind of put together some programs.

So we are hoping I I have been talking with a few a few of those church communities, and you know, if they want to come in and provide food, well, every day that we have them come in and provide food, then that saves us off of the budget that we have for that.

And so we would continue to look at those types of partnerships.

Um so we would have the the stability of the program would be there, but then we would continue to look for how more how much more can we um decrease the reliance on general fund by looking for these other partnerships that either save either have savings to what we planned on doing or increased revenue through sponsorships and donations and those types of things.

I have a question on the 1.7 mil.

Uh is that transferable to Windamir where we're participating today?

Yes, for emergency shelters, certainly.

It'd be both Windomir or Sunair.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Butler, do you have a comment?

And Mayor, I know that there had been some interests stated both this morning and then just through conversations about trying to understand the capacity, and Candace alluded to this during our presentation, the capacity of the NGO non nonprofit faith community to operate a facility such as this.

One of the options that could be on the table is the city to do an RFQ to see if we can bring in a partner to help us operate the facility.

But certainly we could understand better what the capacity is from the NGO community to play to play a role in this.

And they it, you know, they might be able to bring some creative ideas or solutions to this as well, if that is of interest to council, that's one option that could be on the table as well.

Mr.

Butler, it's a question to that point.

So but if we if we move from Sun from Windermere to Sunair, are we saving money in the short term as we you know look at those types of solutions?

I I think I heard we are we save money if we move from Windermere to Sunair, right?

And so we could certainly minimize the impact that's going to be transferred to the general fund away from ARPA dollars by um by completing this move to Sun Air.

Um the flavor of the money has been federal funds up until this point.

As Candace alluded to, it's in our budget forecast, and we've accounted for the fact that those funds are running out and that it would become uh a city obligation uh for that.

But right now, as as as was stated, we are spending $3.1 million a year for our current program.

This program would would uh cost $2.5 million a year before you apply those those credits for the next three uh fiscal years.

Plus I would say, you know, if we move away from it, we would have to pay potentially nine million dollars, if not 14 million dollars, 13 million dollars, right?

And more immediately.

That that number we would have to work on.

Um you're exactly right.

So we we yeah.

It's as clear as mud working with Treasury right now on on this because you know they they never want to answer a hypothetical.

Um it's uh especially about a program that is a one-time program, it's hard enough to get answers to questions from federal agencies about long-standing programs.

But since ARPA was obviously a a one-time program stood up um during COVID, it I think they're grappling with this too.

They're we're not the only agency for for different reasons, and obviously not all dealing with homelessness that have approached Treasury just to try to get an idea of how they will look at this, and they are being cautious as you might expect of a federal agency on how they're responding to that.

So it that that's some of our hesitancy of of trying to say uh a precise number.

I think we've felt comfortable as we've looked at um federal law and and precedent saying up to nine million of the federal of the federal funds um that would are in question.

I I think our IgA with the county is a little bit more clear, but we we could there's even complexity in that that we'd have to to work through as well.

So I we're just being careful.

We want to answer that question, but we don't want to misrepresent an answer right now either, because there's a lot of unknowns at play as well.

Well, council, we've had a great discussion um with staff and internal discussion.

So I think uh haven't heard much from this side and that this, you know.

So I think overall we'll have uh discussion now from council.

Yes, uh that's what I'm getting to is Ms.

Taylor, this is your district, and like to hear from you.

So I'm just gonna go through a series of questions as I was listening first before saying anything.

Um a couple of things I noticed is you said that you did do a feasibility study.

What were the not-for-profits that you spoke to that you you had a conversation with for your feasibility?

Uh Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, we didn't do a feasibility study.

These are casual conversations because they work with them on a daily basis.

Can you list who they are, please?

I cannot.

Okay.

Um I don't know those casualties.

I was not involved with those conversations, that was deaf.

Okay, great.

Um, what does it look like if we stop using the window mayor and do not use the sun air?

What would that look like going forward?

So Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, I think I need to understand what do you mean what what that would not look like?

I do think that Josani talked about who are in our program today, and those that those resources would no longer be available to those families and to those seniors.

But would we be transferring them to other shelters outside of Mesa?

Is that what that would look like?

Or with the county, because there's a lot of other shelters countywide, there are other shelters East Valley wide.

My question is in more of the nuanced detail if we stop that contract with the Wendom Windermere, we sold the Sunair, we had a different idea for it.

Just what does that look like for those individuals that are currently at the Windermere?

I'll let you guys take that.

Um councilmember Taylor, Mayor.

Um, so to help to answer that question, um, they would go on the list that I was sharing about earlier, the regional list for families.

So um those uh 30 families would go at the end of that list of 190 plus families currently waiting.

Um, and that wait list at the moment is anywhere between 16 to 18 weeks.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I noticed that in the slides, the total cost for the windermere and the sun air both had a little notice at the bottom that said it did not include the cost of public safety.

Do you have an estimate of the annual cost to include public safety that you can provide for us in the public?

No, that we have so mayor and council member tailor, that would be it is the um one officer there on a 24-hour basis.

And so we'll get you that number.

But we can get you that I don't have it, it's embedded within the PD budget.

Okay.

Do we currently have only one officer at the windowmere?

My understanding is we generally have two officers stationed there, especially in the evening.

Mayor, Councilmember Taylor, there's one.

We start at six in the morning, we go until 2 a.m.

So it's actually a 20-hour coverage.

Uh what happens in those cases if there is an issue, they actually call another officer off the street to assist them with whatever the issue may be.

Uh so I don't know if that that answers.

That's very helpful.

Thank you.

And then following up on that, actually, thank you for your service, by the way.

Um, in terms of the window mayor currently, I know it's gonna be a different demographic, but there will be some individuals that would transfer over.

Can you give us an idea of calls for service for that area?

I recently drove by and um I was told by the officers that I was with that they do have quite a few, but maybe you could give a descriptor of like the types.

Mayor, uh councilmember Taylor, it it it varies.

Uh, we always have a call for service regardless when there's an officer working an off-duty job.

So, in essence, there's always a call for service occurring at that location just due to the fact that there's an Oscar there working, rather than whether they're handling crime, handling uh property, anything like that.

So the call, the the types of calls, um we've done a cursory look.

There haven't been uh reported violent crimes in that particular in in that specific location, but we've also taken a larger look at that grid, the whole neighborhood.

Um I think we have an opportunity maybe next week to look at that a little bit more in more granular detail, just because there are a lot of nuances to the data that we've been looking at.

So uh there are our calls for service, absolutely.

Um they vary.

Mayor counsel to that point.

Um what the chief's talking about.

I he uh in in response to a question from councilmember Taylor, um the the department's done a deeper dive into uh the crime analysis around the windomir right now.

I know uh Chief Butler and the chief, I believe, are are meeting um with councilmember Taylor next week, but we can certainly share that information um with all the council once once all of that is.

I think the public is also looking for that.

Um cost of insurance.

That's something that I was curious about with the Sunair, and I was hoping maybe you could explain.

Would the city pull out an insurance policy on it?

How how does that work and what is the general cost of basically covering liability for that location?

Uh Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, that's it's probably better a better question for for Jim.

Um but yes, it is a city, if it is a city facility, so we would hold the insurance on it.

Yeah, Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, yeah, we had to pull out a separate policy because of the nature of that facility is different.

Our normal carrier um uh do not does not cover it, and so we had to pull out a separate policy.

I don't remember the amount, um, and maybe Candace knows the amount, but uh for she was correct, uh uh a vacant building as much on a on a on an insurance basis.

It was probably the most expensive insurance policy we have on just sort of a square footage basis.

Um carriers don't want to to insure uh vacant buildings.

Is that cost included in the 2.5 million for the budget?

Everything for uh mayor and council member tailor, yes, everything's all inclusive in there.

So whether it's on the contractor side or whether on our side, we've taken taken that into consideration.

Okay.

And then Jim, I had a question in terms of just the legal side of owning an entity like this because we wouldn't be leasing it out.

What does that look like from the city's perspective of potential lawsuits or just from a legality perspective?

Um, could you give some description about how we would manage that?

So, mayor and council member taylor, uh the the additional word of entity on I was I was sort of um not certain about in your question because it won't be a separate entity within the city.

Um so there's always whenever you own any physical asset in which people are on, there's always the possibility of additional claims.

Um I'll say this I I'm not aware of any individual claims that are coming out of the windomere for running the service.

So the service itself is not generating claims with the city.

Um is it possible that we'll get a trip and fall or some sort of aspect on the facility, and that could result in a claim?

There's always that kind of possibility with any sort of physical asset that the city has, and people are on.

Um generally those sort of trip and falls don't generally don't result in larger claims, but occasionally they do.

Okay.

It is an additional exposure, that's why I was asking.

Um, and then our libraries.

I just have a quick question.

Somebody asked me why do we use some libraries but not all libraries in terms of helping with the off the streets program?

And would this mitigate basically pulling everybody out of our libraries as a shelter?

That I I guess I'm a little confused about that part.

Um I think you were listed a couple times.

Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, I think are you are you talking about so in our main library?

We do have one of our street outreach from our Phoenix Rescue Mission is actually um stationed there.

Right because that is um for a demand area, right?

So people can go there and receive resources.

Um I don't believe we have them at the other libraries because we don't have the same demand.

Got it.

Okay, so it has based on demand.

Has it do with yeah, coordinating through Phoenix Rescue Mission the best use of their time and where they should be.

Now, anywhere in the city, um Phoenix Rescue Mission will go to someone anywhere in the city, and so a police officer in patrol who comes across somebody will call Phoenix Rescue Mission and then they will travel to that person.

Okay, helpful.

Thank you.

Um so some things that just came to mind when we were having this discussion.

I think it's really important to remember that government's role is limited.

Um it is a similar city's primary responsibility to provide core public services.

This includes public safety, roads, water, basic infrastructure.

When we move into the homeless shelter area, it is considered a social service.

Historically and practically, these belong to charities, churches, and specialized not-for-profits designed to provide personal care and support.

When a city runs a shelter, it can become a taxpayer-funded bureaucracy.

Unfortunately, this is just the truth that we have to address.

They tend to be slower to adapt, more expensive to operate, and we can't necessarily account for inflation over time, which we've experienced in other departments alone.

We also have to consider the fact that we have budget cut discussions coming up, and yet here we are potentially asking to add on something onto our annual budget going forward.

Crowding out community compassion.

Something I've also considered is when governments take over charitable work, oftentimes we find that private charities, churches, and local volunteers, they might they might want to continue contributing, but they do take a step back in volume.

This is assuming the problem may have already been handled by a larger entity.

Running a special services shelter can make a social service decision a qualifier.

How long they stay, what services they receive, that goes far beyond the proper scope of municipal governance.

It is something that we have to consider as a council and as residents ourselves.

So I am speaking for district two specifically.

That is my role in my job as a representative.

I've received a lot of opposition to this particular project.

If I were to receive a lot of support, it might look a little bit different.

I am going to say that I appreciate the entire presentation and the charitable hearts that are behind this.

I agree with Rich Adams.

We must consider when we look out that people around us do need help, but it is also our responsibility as individual residents to reach out with our own hands and offer that assistant and make the phone calls, ask Phoenix Rescue Mission to come pick someone up.

I did it downtown about three months ago, and they were extremely attentive.

Um I also do want to note one thing.

I did a little bit of research.

Um House of Refuge, their last 1099 uh through the IRS, I was looking over it.

It does not state that they did receive HUD funding.

I'm not saying they didn't, but that was a great example that council member go forth brought up.

They have done very, very well receiving a lot of private uh funds to operate, and I was extremely encouraged by that.

Um thank you.

I wanted to thank you sincerely for looking up House of Eden and contacting the other side village.

I visited them when I was in Utah.

I was exceedingly encouraged by the the both of them, but particularly the other side village.

And I do think that there are some wonderful options that we could look at for serving our homeless community going forward.

So I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Comments from council any further.

I just want to give some reality check to.

I have to start with um a Monday evening.

I I served uh dinner at Pasa de Cristo, and I saw two families with young children.

And uh one had an infant, uh, the other had a one-year-old, a girl about eight, a boy around uh 12, the husband.

And I watched uh those kids and I kept asking myself, you know, does that baby have the appropriate food that it needs tonight?

And where will these families sleep?

And the the answer I couldn't shake at the time is we didn't, we don't have the option.

We have a waiting list at the windomere.

That family, the one particular area of five, and even the one with the infant.

I don't know.

Where we I don't know, I I assume it just go to the street.

We don't have an option.

Um the family promise is the first time we've had a family shelter, emergency shelter up until that time, none.

And I it just opened a week ago, and it'll handle a few families.

But as we know on the windomere, there's a long waiting list.

And then another woman walked in, walked in alone, and she was very feel fearful, kind of frightened, and it kind of brought me back to the time.

How many times I have received phone calls from our nonprofit leaders or a pastor saying they have a domestic violence victim and they need to find shelter right then and there.

I give the numbers we have, but most of the times they don't have an option.

Um I have um kind of a community friend that she fell ill, was hospitalized, couldn't work, fell behind on her bills and rent, um, had the medical bills, even with insurance that didn't cover it, sold the car to try to keep things going.

Um the um government marketplace for insurance.

It went double tripled.

She had to give that up.

She currently doesn't have a car.

She's not getting her chemo medication, and she's like suffering, and now she's got to choose, I guess, medication or shelter.

She's reached out to the state.

She's um working the best she can.

She makes two money to receive any assistance.

So it's just a matter of time.

She and her sons will be without.

And she is not well.

I keep thinking of mothers who are paying rent, doing everything right until her husband becomes violent, and she faces the impossible choices to stay in danger or take her children and walk out with nothing.

She cannot go back to her family without putting them at risk.

She has nowhere to turn.

Again, with her friends, it's the same thing.

We're the 37th largest city in the country.

And to say that we have no part in this, this is someone else's problem, lean on our nonprofits and and uh churches isn't even compute in my mind that we can give up this model.

I couldn't sleep since Monday night, and you know, it's been many nights just thinking over and over, looking at the demographic.

We serve three or four hundred people.

And I was if I had to give a wild guess, maybe 10% look like maybe they had some mental or drug problems, but the vast majority of people were just people who just ran out of options and they're hungry.

Most of them don't have a home.

Um I live in downtown.

We see a lot of people, and the people you see on the streets, you're thinking, oh, that's that's the face of homelessness.

If you really start paying attention to schools with cars in it and parking lots with cars and people hidden here and there and everything, this is mass.

We have over 5,000 people in our home in our city without a home.

There's no way that we can ignore this issue that has grown exponentially over the years.

Um that's why I think it's very, very important that we keep this program going.

This transition into the Sun Air.

Let's keep this program.

This some model comes out that we have to construct, and it takes three, four, five years, or finding some way to shift, we can at least have the appreciation on the on the property and and wouldn't have to pay back as much.

But just abandoning at this pro at this point without a solution is putting compounding the problem of more people on our streets.

Um, you know, our nonprofits due to federal cut and federal funding.

Um they are downsizing the programs, they're laying off people.

Um they don't have the capacity to do more.

We've um federal costs.

I have some statistics.

Oh, here it is.

Umy to 90 percent of nonprofit homeless funding comes from the government.

The urban institute founded in 2024 that charitable donations, charitable organizations would need to quadruple their giving just to offset the federal cuts alone.

Um I wish, I wish we had nonprofits and and churches that had a surplus of capacity and funding to help out.

They are doing amazing job with what they have, but the reality is right now we have record evictions, a record number of homeless individuals, and federal cuts.

All this really kind of started as far as the ARPA dollars and stuff with COVID.

And at that time, we were struggling on how how to address all the needs of our family of our our city.

People who were weren't working and food and everything.

Everything seemed to fall apart.

Um, but we did something remarkable.

We came together.

We didn't retreat into our separate corners, city government, nonprofits, faith communities.

We all came together.

We decided this is not going to happen on a watch.

We're gonna find solutions.

And we created together Mesa, and we saw a slide on this, and how before we were working in silos, and then we started working together, and we started um addressing ways to serve every resident in our city, whether they had a home or not.

And we have built on the conviction that no single entity can meet this need alone.

Only together we could do it.

So approving Sun Air is honoring that covenant.

It is Mesa living out, not just talking about what together means.

In that chart, we cannot just remove ourselves and just say, well, nonprofit and churches, this is your responsible ability together, Mesa.

That was convenient for a while while we had funding, but now that we have expired all that funding, we're we're going to just get out of this when we have all these cutbacks.

In our slide, 52% lost their homes to economics, job loss, medical debt, one emergency that erased every safety net they had.

30% are domestic violence survivors, mothers and children who fled in the middle of the night with nowhere to save to land.

These are not people who gave up.

They are neighbors who sample simply ran out of options.

And I hear it's not the city's job to worry about this.

We have an entire housing department whose purpose is to ensure that people in Mesa are housed and safe.

We have with the responsibility for the housing policy, development.

We have a balanced housing plan with a huge shortage under 50% AMI.

We have a subsidy for attaining housing.

So how can we say that housing people is not our job?

If you don't have a, but if you don't have a home, we can just erase that responsibility.

We as a city are responsible for figuring out the complicated situation of housing in this inflationary situation.

And to say to those who say leave it to churches and nonprofits, our together Mesa partners are among the most dedicated people I have known.

They show up every single day with compassion that humbles me.

What we as elected officials are unwilling to carry ourselves together.

Mesa works because every partner carries their share.

Today's decision is how the city carries ours.

And here's the biggest budget truth we all face.

We are funding the crisis.

The only question before us is whether we fund this solution.

I'm not asking for more spending.

I'm asking for why is there more humane spending that treats causes, not just symptoms.

The infant I saw Monday night that deserves to grow up in home.

A frightened woman deserves safety.

Let's lead with compassion.

And let's be the Mesa that we have always promised to be a city that keeps its word and commitment to our community.

We're in this together, Mesa.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Duff.

Anyone else?

I'll just make a point.

One other point that I, you know, I know I spoke uh quite a bit on this topic.

Uh I do care quite a bit on figuring out solutions that make sense that are reasonable, that realistic thing.

What we're doing here is that, right?

And especially the slide with regional government efforts.

I remember when I first came on council again, um we have and we still have an ongoing problem of our other neighboring cities not doing their part and getting that to do their part.

And I feel when Mesa leads on something, like our community courts.

We we're seeing a we're like ripple effects on that end, right?

We're seeing our our our city um next to us uh having some sort of court functions that are helping on house, right?

No longer are they dropping off homeless folks at Havelina that was part of my district.

Um, but they're they're trying to figure out this as solutions, right?

So uh I think you know, on slide four that was shared uh in the presentation, it is again uh this this issue is a regional effort, and we yes, we do need to have other cities and and other partners help us with, but I feel like when Mesa leads, right?

I think we see uh uh an increase of opportunities so that we can lessen the burden on all of us, right?

Because there's a shared, again, going back to that shared responsibility, especially on this issue, uh, that's something that uh is definitely a difference from 2018 that I was here to 2026 now, um, where we see more efforts being done based on, you know, I would say some of the leadership that we showed on doing community corps and navigators and you know, shelters, right?

Uh with the Windamere.

And so it it is an important.

I want to be a leader in things, not lessen the work that we have done that staff, experts, police, fire been telling us this program is working, is helping us identify some solutions, maybe not all, maybe not immediately where they are self-sutaining, but some solutions to take people and families, the most vulnerable in our communities to some sort of relief that are not essentially taxing our services and other means, right?

Because it we do have, like Jen said and others have alluded to, you know, the these issue impacts a variety of different areas and services that Mesa and other governments and other facilities provide.

So I I just wanted to make that point because I think that's a critical component to how we get to tackle some this issue, right?

Is a regional effort, and and I want to be a leader in Mesa, and Mesa has been known to have you know innovation and and and being compassionate, right?

But also being uh having a responsible governance and being practical in reality, right?

And so let's make sure that we keep that Mesa going and be in that sense of a leader in the reason that other cities can look up to us.

So thank you, Mr.

Redia.

I I'm gonna lead out.

I know it's been a long discussion, and I appreciate all the passion and thoughts and comments.

Mr.

Smith, I I reached out to you a few days ago, just the overarching of our city charter, what that enables or disables us to do.

Does it how does it work on regarding uh the social services programming, our city contributions?

Uh right.

Give us your legal uh oversight.

So, mayor and council, I think uh it's important to note sort of the the the concept of a charter.

A charter is very much like a constitution, it's a much higher level document, and it's not intended to provide direction on the very specific aspects of how you govern a city.

And so the charter does not address social services or funding social services or how to handle homelessness.

And so for the the members of the public that thought that that was this is sort of a charter issue, that's not where the charter provides direction on, right?

The charter enables the city to engage in all lawful activities, and whether whether the city funds us or doesn't fund that, that's up to the city.

It's a it's a lawful activity to fund this.

Um but ultimately the charter isn't doesn't answer it one way or the other.

In fact, the charter is very high level, even on as to budget and financing.

It's very you know, it's a very short as far as that.

So it does not get to a level of providing council any direction as to whether to do this, not do this, and it doesn't obligate the city to do either what to do it either way.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you for that oversight.

I'm gonna make a proposal here, council, and I've given this a lot of thought since we've delved into this conversation quite a few years ago.

And I'm you know, I want people to know we are involved in that homeless housing already with Windamere, East Valley Men's Shelter.

We we have uh through policy helped uh new leaf with a nine plus million dollar addition to our East Valley Men's shelter to provide additional support there for them and that organization, and we'll continue to do so.

We also negotiated to have uh beds available at the East Valley Men's shelter as needed, 50 percent of those beds to Mesa based on our needs and then also regional needs as well.

Uh as well as Windermere, I I like having I'll just say Wendomere for now as temporary housing because it provides assets to our public safety community and allows us uh them to interact with you know the different organizations.

We have Phoenix Rescue Mission, CBI, and uh Solari as well, even on the 911 side providing mental health care.

But with that, I I think I know this may not be popular with all council, but I would still like to kick it over to our city manager to help.

Uh we've had a lot of discussion out here uh on an appraisal of the property, uh also the repayment uh component.

We really don't know that.

Also the uh other, you know, if we have to repay the county at all on on you know the four million.

There's a lot of things out there.

I'm not in favor of moving transitioning into Sunair at this time until we have everything buttoned up.

And I we have time to do that because we are uh meeting our homeless obligations now.

It's interesting that we found 1.7 million dollars to be directed towards Sun Air when before I didn't find that as an option uh for reducing our cost to Sunair, and then I asked the question could that monies be used towards Windermere?

And the answer is yes, so we appreciate that.

And the overall cost, we know there's some cost differentials.

So council, uh I'm I'm just gonna make it out there if you're willing to allow uh the city manager to negotiate some more for us.

I know it may not be popular with some, but I think we have some time.

We're in the process.

It's not an emergency situation to shift gears and go right into Sunair and spend additional funds.

That's where I'm at.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Butler, uh we can have council discussion, uh either yes or no.

Uh if we have a majority direction, then we'll move that way.

Mayor, council, you you oh, I'm sorry, Mr.

Adams.

J just quickly, I I appreciate all this discussion today, and it is a humanitarian issue, and it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Um I'm in agreement with the mayor at this time, and I would point out that my recollection is that the decision in 2023 to move forward with Sen Air, I believe that was a 4-3 decision.

So not a not a 7-0.

So there was some discussion and disagreement at the time.

And I think there is still appropriate discussion and exploration and examination of options that can still be done to achieve this this objective.

Mayor, I was just going to add that um we've council's given some good feedback today and some good good thoughts that we can look at moving forward on this.

We we do we do have some time.

We have um the arcadollars um budgeted through the end of the calendar year um as as council had expected, so it was only going to be half a year of funding uh that we would have programmed in into the budget.

And so by saying that, I mean we've we've got through the end of the calendar year that we can we can make some decisions on this.

So it's not to rush council in into something.

So we not that we want to take all that time, but I'm just saying we we have some time that we can explore what um different partnerships look out look like, um, go back and um try to understand some of our obligations under Treasury a little bit more um while continuing um the operations that we have currently and so we'll we'll do that and um if if that's the direction of council and then try to come back with some concrete options that council could could choose from at that time.

We could actually save money though if we transition into the Sun Air, even while we explore other options.

I mean save we can you know assign the R the R dollars we can save a $500,000 by just getting that also I think first of all, I think this is like a one time and forever to ever have these funds available to do something remarkable.

It was a a COVID situation that created that, and hopefully we'll never have it again.

But these kinds of funds are not readily available anytime in our near future, I don't think.

Um but also I think once we if we're occupying it, and for whatever reason we decided we wanted to give the money back to the federal government so they can fund the war or get more ICE agents, whatever, whatever we decided we want to give them back to say that we actually use the property to for the purpose that it was intended, gives us a better point of asking for forgiveness of some kind without I think to say that we built it and we never used it for an intended purpose is a a weaker case in trying to ask for any forgiveness, whether from the county or from the federal government.

I'm just asking for directions.

So we still haven't spent the 750,000 for the um FFE, right?

So mayor and council member go forth.

We have spent part of it, we have not purchased the furniture.

The furniture that goes into the rooms, but there are other equipment um that we are still moving in that direction.

It's the furniture that we have so but to Jen's point, we we would save the half a million, but we still not probably after we've had to spend um how much more do we have to spend on furniture?

Well, the 430,000 for the furniture is within the budget.

Um when we move into next year's budget, we don't have the three million dollars in the budget, we have 2.5 million dollars in the budget.

Okay.

So we may have to that would be a program to what we budgeted.

Yeah, and mayor and council member go forth, and there are risks with that that we would have to look at as well because now you're you're entering the mixed hoteling area, and so that's that's where we would have to have those conversations to bring back new information for you about what that would look like.

Yeah.

Right now we have all of the room, there are no rooms available to the public at Windermere.

Yeah.

And so as we release rooms, um, that changes the dynamic for the owner.

Um, and then that also puts us at risk for mixed hoteling.

So there's just more information we would have to get to see what that would look like.

Okay.

Um I'm sure, you know, hopefully nobody is surprised by my position.

I'm I've I'm staying consistent.

I've I voted no the first time.

Um I didn't think it was um an asset that the that we as a city should be purchasing.

And so I I'm I'm gonna stay consistent with that.

So I I would I would um welcome uh mayor's suggestion, and I would like to reiterate that this does not mean a you know that that we don't think the city plays a role in homelessness.

I think Rich made that point as well.

We absolutely do.

It's just how.

Um, and there were three of us that said this is not how, that there are um reasons that uh this you know this we don't think that the city should um should be in the business of owning and uh and fully funding the operating of the shelter.

Um it's not a part of part of our core service, and because it's not you have to be you have to have some flexibility and to be an owner, um it doesn't provide us that flexibility, and I think the point is made because here we are three years later, still talking about, I mean, it's not even it's not even online, and if had it not been within perhaps on the scope of government, it it might have moved faster.

And I think the point is made because here we are three years later, still talking about I mean it's not even it's not even online, and if had it not been within perhaps on the scope of government, it it might have moved faster.

So that's where I stand on it.

I I would welcome um Mayor's suggestion.

Thank you, Mr.

Redia.

No, I just want to reiterate you know, the option here.

Yeah, and I think you know, we we all want to try to figure out what's the best course as we move forward, but we are having the option of something that costs more than what could cost less does.

So the option that was given, just want to reiterate that it's gonna cost us more to keep the wind and wear going than rather going to the sun air and having a program while we still figure out solutions to this issue moving forward.

I just want to reiterate that piece as the information that is shared that we're gonna pay more for this work that I think we're in agreement to to keep going and not uh pay less for this for this work.

So thank you at that point.

Vice Mayor.

I just like to remind the city manager that he asked for this job.

He does that a lot.

I do that a lot, yeah.

Um just try to piece together a lot of what I've heard today, and there was a statement made that this isn't about really whether we should, it's about how.

That was in my area.

That is not acceptable.

So unfortunately, we're gonna have to figure out how to do this.

With uh with the windmill, but my concern is if we fumble a transition at all, we're gonna lose Windermere and I'm sorry, Sunair is what I was referring to.

And we're we're forcing our hands.

So one suggestion has been I think there's multiple paths that I think you need to look at from what I've heard.

How do we keep the windomere going so that we have some discretionary time to figure out the transition if we're having to go into a wind into a sun air condition?

Can we look at that?

We had 1.7 of the 2.5 covered.

Is there a possibility of finding grants or other models so that we are not spending local sales tax dollars, local general fund monies for the operation?

I think we have a C C D meeting coming up.

Perhaps that's something we could look at for our for the funding recommendations coming forward, and how long can we do the transition?

Because I've heard a number of cases where we say we want to transition.

We've seen three interesting models.

How do we transition to a system that is operated by the private or nonprofit faith-based section, which maybe going out to an RFQ would be good.

Um finding a way to get this off of our books using pastor grants, because that's what we've done in the past, right?

So C DBG, home, ESF, ESG.

Have been, you know, this is monies that have come to us and then we have dispersed them.

So we've done this before.

Can we stick with that model so it's not coming off of our locally generated tax?

So we basically keep that same model, and then perhaps transition this off to a whole new model, maybe something that we've seen before, so that we're providing that service without having to fund it locally and maybe finding other ways of generating revenue specifically for that.

So if it's gonna, if we're gonna kick it back to you, did you make more nuts?

I'm trying to lighten the mood a little without overly lightening the mood.

Um I I think finding finding that bridge, like just I want you to buy us some discretionary time if if there is a way to find a bridge for for that, so that we have a model that I think all of us can say, yeah, this is this is really gonna work for the community.

Um for everybody.

So we what's our discretionary time in trying to find out?

Can you and that's what we can go back and and and try to see.

We we do, as I was saying, have a little bit of time to figure this out.

That's why we don't need to rush a decision today.

I've also heard you know looking at strategic partnerships is a good idea, but also leveraging our federal funds and other um non-general funds is is certainly a preference I'm I'm hearing from folks, and so let us take that back and um try to structure some options that council could consider that takes into account uh that direction.

That'd be great.

I think there's a path here.

It's just it's a really foggy path right now.

So if we can get some clarity and burn it off.

One thing though is we we can't we can't lose the wind in the mirror right now because we need that service provider.

Okay.

Uh mayor and council and city manager.

Um you had mentioned we have ARPAD dollars for the calendar year.

We do have contracts that run through the calendar year that encumbered ARPA dollars.

We are anticipating we will run out.

Um we can fund our contracts there through the fiscal year, and then we have a little bit more maybe for a month or two into next fiscal year.

So it will not take us through the whole calendar.

Okay.

All right, that's for you all to figure out.

Okay.

Thank you.

I think you have your direction.

Thank you, everybody, for weighing in.

Uh, thank you for the presentation.

Next, we'll move into item three, a knowledge of the receipt of board minutes.

Is there a motion for that effect?

Thank you, Mr.

Adams, Mr.

Heredia.

Uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Uh I'm gonna dispense with next occurring events and conferences attended.

Uh Mr.

Butler, can you share scheduled meetings?

Yes.

Mr.

Mayor, um, following this meeting, we are scheduled, though the the chair may look at timing.

We're scheduled for an audit and finance um committee meeting immediately following this, but I'll I'll work with the chair uh uh to determine that if that timing still sticks.

Uh we will have a study session on Monday at 5 15 p.m.

followed by regular council meeting at 5 45.

Uh just to note, and it did go out um to your staff uh a few days ago, but we are canceling the study session on March 19th.

Um several of you will have just gotten back very late the night before from Washington, and um, you know, a grumpy council is not a fun council, so we'll uh let you get caught up on on this time zone, and uh and so because of that we'll count cancel the the March 19th study session.

No, I'll be fine.

The vice mayor will be fine, but so with that said, item six is to convene in an executive session today.

Um Falconfield Airport, and is that you want to continue with that today?

Is yes okay, great.

Is there a motion to go to e session?

So thank you, Ms.

Taylor, Mr.

Summers.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right, we'll go to the E room.