Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for being here this morning.

We appreciate everyone.

We'll get started this morning.

I think Miss Taylor is going to be joining us by Zoom.

I don't see her on yet, but she probably will be joining us.

Welcome to the Mesa City Council study session for April 16th, 2026.

Councilmember Taylor's participated by Zoom.

Otherwise, all other council members are present.

Item one is the review of the agenda we have for Monday, April 20th council meeting.

Council is go through that, and if there's any questions, we have staff on stand to answer.

A lot of grants.

So with Monday, we do have an executive session along with that.

Yeah, this will be right, Mayor.

We'll start at three o'clock on Monday.

We'll have a special council meeting, which is an executive um session to discuss the development, and then we'll start the study session at 4 30 p.m.

on Monday.

On Monday, okay.

All right, Councilman Ms.

Duff.

Um so the study session, I mean the things that I I bookmarked that I didn't know if we wanted to discuss or not.

I don't really have issue.

But um 5S, the um purchase of the one West Main.

5T, which is the Christman Road project.

I don't know if Councilmember Summers, I'll leave it to him if he wants to bring that up.

And then uh 6A, and I hope these numbers held.

6A on the hotel at Longbow.

I know I received several emails um on the concerns about that project.

Not enough, Councilmember Goforth might like to talk about that or not.

Yeah, some of those that one's introduction as well.

So uh ordinance, so that'll be another couple of weeks after the end of the great Jen would like to, but not this time.

Okay, got it.

Yeah, no problem.

Okay.

Okay.

And and Mayor and Councilmember Duff, I will just say on 5T, which is um Chris Monroe.

Uh, this is just we're entering into an agreement with ADOT so that that portion of Crisman could be constructed while State Route 24 is being constructed.

And so it's we do this from time to time just to make it easier on the construction aspect.

So that's all that is.

Is um uh I believe it's north of the section north of the 24.

South of Williamsfield.

South of Williamsfield, north of uh State Route 24.

Okay, okay.

Oh, this is not the one.

No.

Okay.

So therefore, I don't have anything on sound unless we're just getting stood out to me.

Council, anything else?

Okay.

Well, hearing that, uh, we'll move on then to item one is the review of the agenda.

We we did that.

Item two A is the presentation and private direction on the Mesa Police Department's budget.

Thank you.

Chiefs and team.

Okay, well, perfect.

Thank you.

Perfect, thank you.

Thank you for having us here today.

My name is Dan Butler.

For those of uh you that may be watching that don't know who I am.

I serve as the police chief for the Mesa Police Department, and I have my executive team here with me today.

We're super excited to present our budget.

We've been working on this budget since November of last year.

Uh so my team consists of Chief Nesbitt, who sits to my right, um, manager Chris of York, Chief Tim Walker, and then as we go through the presentation, other team members will cycle up through.

Um, Chief Spicer, Chief Sterling, Deputy Director Phelps will also be coming through, and finally, uh Jeff Cutler, who is the assistant chief over our investigations bureau.

Um, as we go through the next couple of slides, we're gonna highlight successes overview of crime, safety, and present our proposed budget.

The slide that you see right now captures what we do and why the Mesa Police Department exists.

So we exist to provide professional policing that prevents crime while creating a safe and thriving community.

Everything that you see today, our priorities, accomplishment, and budget requests is built on this foundation.

Um every dollar that we talk about through this budget presentation aligns with our city priorities.

Uh, with that foundation in place, let's move into our top priorities and objectives.

These priority objectives come from our strategic initiatives that were developed many years ago with the Mesa Police Department.

They can continue to be our guiding principles as we move forward.

Um I will highlight a couple of them as we go through, and if there's any questions about the rest of them, uh please feel free to ask.

Um strategic staffing.

Uh we hire, train, and retain the best candidates.

None of our goals are possible without the right people.

We're investing in focus market recruitment, employee wellness programs to attract and keep top tier sworn and professional staff in a highly competitive national marketplace.

Um, exceptional organizational effect effective.

This this is really about our leadership development, how we identify and build not only sworn, but our professional staff members, getting them prepared for the next levels of leadership within our organization.

That is incredibly important to us.

Succession planning is one of the top priorities that we have as an executive team and an organization.

And then finally, uh community engagement.

Um we continue to deepen our partnerships with community businesses, nonprofits, the stronger relationships, um it just it means better crime prevention.

It means more trust in our community community, and it means more eyes and ears out there with our community members that help us continue to be the safest major city of our size in the nation.

Yeah.

Um highlights and accomplishments.

Yes, sir.

I know.

I'm already just two slides in.

Yeah.

Um I do appreciate on the cover that uh about preventing crimes that are fighting crime, you know, preventing it from even um occurring.

On that note, I just wanted to emphasize on the on the second slide, reduce crime and increase citizen safety, the initiative to increase traffic enforcement to reduce fatal accidents.

And I just want to emphasize that um a lot that can happen to prevent these um uh speeding and and hazards is street design improvements, which I know you don't design the streets, but I I must contribute that the street design improvements such as uh traffic calming and narrowing lanes, adding uh pedestrian infrastructure, offer a proactive, sustainable approach to safety that intuitively prevents dangerous driving.

Conversely, police enforcement is reactive, often inequitable, and generally fails to create lasting safety changes, making physical design a more effective, equitable, long-term solution to traffic fatalities.

People will always drive as fast as the streets allow.

So I appreciate your enforcement and everything, but I also want to encourage former transportation department looking at those hot spots, and I believe that they do that we continue to look at our street designs and make adjustments as well as look at and future ongoing developments and redoes of our streets and looking for those opportunities so that people are traveling in a way that is safe, whether it's speed or you know, potential hazards that could be there.

So I just want to put that out there.

Okay, thank you.

Because it's related and I'm passionate about that.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Before you start, uh, Miss Taylor is joined us at 0735.

So she's with us.

Okay.

Thank you.

Never leaves you, does it?

Pardon 24-hour clock never leaves you.

No, it doesn't.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Um, so as we move through, um, you know, we we wanted to take an opportunity to just to highlight at a very high level the the great work the men and women of the Mesa Police Department do.

Um you have heard about our crime reduction strategies, you've heard about our efforts in the past, and we're gonna go over those again as the presentation moves on.

Uh, but we do want to highlight is some of the accomplishments that we had in 2025.

Um in 2025, there are 26 human beings in the city of Mesa that are alive today uh because of the men and women of the police department, where they took action and saved their and saved lives.

Uh 13 additional members of our community that are alive today because of the Narcan tool that we carry and we uh deployed as well.

And three of our members received the Medal of Excellence.

Now these awards, they represent the officers who stepped up beyond their normal job, beyond the call of duty, um, in critical moments to save people's lives.

This is burning people being burned or pulled out of burning buildings and vehicles.

Um these heroic acts, every one of them is what they do every single day.

And it's really, really important that people understand that they're not just going out there and doing what they're asked to do, they're doing more.

They're putting their lives in jeopardy to ensure that community members are saved.

Um, in the center photo that you see up here, that's actually body warrant camera of one of our officers who received a life saving medal for this action right here.

And that's and then it's also about community engagement.

Um, you know, I spoke a little bit earlier about how community engagement helps keep our communities safe, but last year, formal community engagement events, and this isn't just our officers stopping by schools and engaging with children in the schools as part of their day-to-day activities.

These are the formal events that the Mesa Police Department puts puts together.

Um, and there were 429 of them.

Uh we had 54 game of gain events last fall, and then 127 of our community members went through our citizen police academy or a community engagement academy.

Um so from soccer games and with neighborhood kids, basketball and neighborhoods, um, to our popular citizens' academy and gain outreach, our officers are out there in the community building relationships every single day.

They're not just feel-good events.

We're not just doing them to feel good about it.

They prevent crime and trust through these partnerships.

Um also these these highlights that I just spoke about, they demonstrate the high return the citizens of Mesa get on their investment in public safety in the Mesa Police Department.

Uh, the budget we're presenting today will help us sustain that level of excellence um for our community and our community connection.

Good morning, mayor, vice mayor, counsel.

You the next two slides are slides you have heard me talk about already, but they are important slides, and I do think um we need to continue to emphasize this information.

So building off of Chief Butler's opening statements, the Mesa Police Department delivers professional prevention-focused policing that directly contributes to a safe and economically thriving city.

Mesa has the lowest NIBERS group A crime rate in 2024 among comparable uh major cities that we analyzed at 44 crimes per 1,000 residents, Mesa stands apart from peer jurisdictions, even in spite of our continued population growth.

Mesa recorded 22,475 total group A crimes in 2024.

Now, while we had a minimal increase of point point seven percent from 2023, uh that's essentially flat given that our population continues to grow.

I want to highlight that for group A property crimes, we saw 10.6% decrease, and what that's demonstrating is effective prevention and suppression strategies.

And then for group A persons crimes, we did see an 18.6% increase from 2023, but it's primarily driven by specific offense categories that are being directly addressed through targeted enforcement, something like our heat operations.

That is specific target enforcement, which would drive up the reportable crimes, but it's coming with arrest attached to it.

The overall stability of total crime combined with significant property crime reduction reflects operational effectiveness and responsible stewardship of resources.

The outcome reflects discipline strategy, data-driven deployment, accountability, and strong community partnership.

I can could you just repeat that about the the increase.

Right.

We we show an increase in persons crimes, and part A crimes are a group A crimes as we call them now, are broken up into property and persons.

And there's more, we highlight violent crime, but there are more crimes that belong to that uh group A person's crime.

And so what we notice through the CompSTAP process that we have every 28 days is we have targeted enforcement operations, and something like um, you know, the heat operations that we're actively doing operations to seek out the criminals, that's going to drive those crimes up, right?

So you'll see later, uh, Chief Walker will talk about violent crimes and the reduction in violent crimes, but you're also gonna see other categories with proactive activity that drive up that crime status because of the initiatives we're doing to fight those particular types of crimes that sometimes go hidden.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Of course.

Can I this is Councilmember Taylor?

Can you hear me?

We can't.

Go ahead, Miss Taylor.

Hi, thank you.

I was just curious.

Could you just give a small thank you for your presentation?

Um, do you mind giving just a couple examples of what a group A crime is?

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmember Taylor.

Yes.

So a group A crime includes homicides, rob uh not robberies that I stand corrected.

They moved that to property crime, ironically.

So it's homicides, aggravated assaults, assaults, aggravated and uh assaults and assaults for domestic violence.

Um it includes um, let me look real quick so I can get you a comprehensive.

I do have that document with me.

Hang on one second, so I can be clear.

It also includes rapes, and then it includes human trafficking, and it also includes criminal sexual contact.

So what the FBI did is we have ARS statutes, right?

That's what we charge.

But then the FBI takes those ARS statutes and puts them into specific NIBERS codes, and so that's how they get classified uh for UCR data for the FBI.

Well, I understand.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Of course.

And you're saying that you just saw a slight increase in those because we've been actively pursuing them more.

So it's are you saying it's kind of flushing those criminal activities outward?

They're just more exposure to them.

Uh mayor, vice mayor, council member Taylor, to some degree.

It's not solely based on that.

What we're pointing out is some of our proactive activity is what drives our uh crimes up because we are encountering uh people doing crimes prior to being reported.

And so, in a um in a heat operation, right?

So a um a human exploitation operation, we create the operation, we draw in the criminal activity, and that results in a crime um documentation as well as an arrest.

I see.

Okay.

Thank you very much for explaining that.

Of course.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um, so this next slide you have seen before as well, uh, year over year, but this is our comparative crime data.

Now you might notice that I talked about the number 44, and I want to point out that I clearly see the number is 43 on this graph.

So um what that shows is the 44 number comes from Arizona DPS that we report month over month, and that data gets updated as our process improves.

Um, like we charge us or we charge a certain ARS statute, and then it gets updated into a NIBERS statute.

So sometimes you might have a little disparity, but it's just slight.

This data we directly pulled from the FBI UCR database so that we could show the comparisons and we didn't want to offset it or change it.

So this comes straight from that website, and it can be reproduced.

And so what we're show what we're showing here is when we are measured against similarly sized cities across the country, Mesa's crime rate is significantly lower in every reporting year that's shown here.

While other jurisdictions report rates ranging from approximately 70 to 100 over 160 crimes per 1,000 residents, Mesa remains at 44.

And this performance has been maintained during sustained population growth.

Our approach emphasizes focused enforcement, proactive patrol, technology integration, and strategic resource allocation.

How do you choose which comparable cities?

So what we did here is we picked cities with populations.

If you see the red line, populations from 500,000 to 650.

Because it's important to make sure we're not comparing ourselves to two small of cities and then two large of cities because the city personality is different and the dynamics are.

Well, we picked, I don't know off the top of my head totally how many cities, but these are the cities that we generally compare to.

We we usually stay with the same cities.

The only city that dropped off this time is Virginia Beach because they their population uh changed, and so we didn't add them to this slide.

But generally what happens is our CompSTAT analysts go to the UCR database and then they collect that data and say, okay, what cities populations are similar and what cities look similar to us and you know operate the way we do, and how can we compare that data to them?

Is that um size range a designated range for reporting?

Is that why we choose that five to six fifty?

Um mayor, vice mayor, council member go forth.

I think we just pick that city to show even some larger cities um have there we are still in comparison to them, but we don't want to go too small because we often hear from citizens, right?

How do we compare against Gilbert and how do we compare against Chandler?

How do we compare against Tempe?

We have to say, you know, Mesa is so diverse, right?

Even different regions of Mesa look different, and they're not the same.

And so we wanna we want to make sure that we're talking about similar type cities, and so we just came up with that range to present a picture that we think is um it is depicts the stuff that we do as uh law enforcement.

We could change it at any request if you want it to know a particular city, we can go into this FBI database and pull whatever data needs to be pulled.

That's helpful.

I I wasn't sure where we got that size category.

So thank you.

And it makes sense what you're saying, but as far as comparison, it should be, it shouldn't be to a city half our size.

I understand.

Thanks, ma'am.

Go ahead.

I'm done.

I'm gonna step away.

Chief Walker, the answer.

Yeah, good morning, uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

Uh this slide represents how we are creating a safe and uh thriving environment.

Uh violent crime, as you see up there, is a combination of all robberies, rapes, aggravated assaults, and homicide.

Uh in 2025, the Mason Police Department realized a reduction uh almost uh 14 percent um in violent crime.

Um this is due to our sworn of professional staff's commitment um to our crime fighting model and dedication to reducing violent crime across the city.

Um the reduction um can be attributed to the increase in on view activity and mission-directed community engagement.

And one of the things that we always look at when we uh the questions always asked how do you do it?

Well, what we do is we have a violent crime initiative where our crime analysts uh work with our uh operations lieutenants working with street crimes, gangs, all our other units to work on focus areas where we they look at the the data and they have a mission directive, go out there and work on certain areas.

And when they focus on these areas, there's either one we prevent the crimes from happening, or two, um, we are there to uh arrest people that are about to commit the crimes, um, or we uh catch them in the act.

And one of the two of the examples that we have is uh we our on view prohibitive assessor offenses increased by 31%, um, and we the weapon violations are uh uh increased by 19 percent.

So basically by focusing on certain areas, we're able to increase our arrests, which I as just Chief Nesbitt said earlier, that kind of raises our rates for the person's crimes.

But on the good side is we arrested those people beforehand before they prevented crimes, um, and that's how we were able to reduce our violent crimes throughout the city.

Mayor and counsel, may I jump in just real quick on that?

I just want to emphasize the point that Chief Walker just made.

Um what we see every time we see an increase in proactive police work.

So the men and women of the police department going out there and actively seeking out criminals uh committing crimes.

We also see a corresponding decrease in all of their crime types.

So what what Chief Walker is talking about here is the efforts of the men and women last year, the proactive police work was up, and correspondingly crime dropped down.

Now, and you heard Chief Nesbitt talk about other crime types that we can actually drive crime the societal crimes up, like drug possessions that'll show as an increase in that crime site.

That's because of the work that they're doing out there.

So um I do want to credit the men and women of the Mesa Police Department and the members of the community that help us every single day and engage with us for this reduction in 2025.

It was a significant reduction in crime.

Can can you give us those examples again of the types of crimes where the arrests went up that translated into an overall decrease in crime?

You said it, but I can't remember.

Yeah, it's uh prohibitive possessor offenses, so that would be a prohibitive possessor of someone that that is not allowed to have a firearm if they're convicted felon or something like that.

And so we if we find them carrying a firearm, they can be arrested for that because they're they're prohibitive assessor.

So those are usually your um people that are um have a criminal record, and we assume through our our focus efforts on our research, they might be going to commit a crime again.

And so if we stop someone, um, for example, that's a hippie addressor and they have a firearm on like a handgun and they're not supposed to have one, they can be arrested for that.

And so essentially, if you look at the violent crimes, aggravate assault, homicide, usually those are gonna be committed with a firearm.

So if we find someone for a violation and they happen to have that farm, they can be arrested for another failing where so we're basically in a sense of preventing a crime by arresting them before they get be able to do it.

So I'm kind of coming full circle now that we've been through a few slides.

So a crime and an arrest.

So you your arrests go up, but how tell me again how how do you define the crime?

So I'll jump in.

Um in what you're reporting.

So the the reporting mechanism, so it used to be a UCR-based mechanism.

It was something that the federal government created in the 30s or 40s, and forgive me my memory, you know, for when it was created.

Um I I've lost it a little bit.

But um, it changed in 2019 um to a different reporting mechanism, and they changed the way that they want us to report crimes that occur to them.

So the intentionality of that was for them to try to understand why crimes occur in communities as opposed to in the past, it was a crime occurred.

This is the very strict definition of why the crime occurred.

Now they're trying to figure out well, what is it that's actually causing crimes in society?

And I hope we get it figured out because I mean there's people that argue about that all the time.

So as crimes are occurring, you know, an officer goes out, takes a report after the fact, or um, they could be out there looking for a crime type, like we talked about a prohibitive possessor.

That is an individual who has been convicted of a felony that is not allowed to profess possess a firearm.

Well, what we know in policing is a large percentage of the time, not absolutely, those individuals that have been arrested for felonies for violent felonies multiple times, they're going to commit more violent felonies.

So if we know who they are or know the area that those crime types are occurring, we'll be in that area, making contact with them.

And if we find that they're in violation of the law, we arrest them for that category, the prohibitive possessor category, before they can commit a robbery, an aggravated assault, or a homicide.

Um so that's what we're talking about when we are in the right areas where crimes are likely to occur, targeting the individuals who are likely to commit crimes, it prevents the crimes from occurring after the fact.

Okay, thank you.

You know, mayor, and chief, correct me if I'm if I misstating any of this.

I but leading up to this, over the last few years, most of the categories within violent crime had been falling already.

We were seeing um market decrease and homicides and and others.

It was aggravated assaults, I believe, that were staying stubbornly high.

Um, you know, and you could speculate the reasons for that, but um but the it really didn't tell the story, these numbers because one category within that was remaining high.

But we were seeing most violent crime throughout the city falling the last several years, with the exception of aggravated assaults that continued to stay high, and now that has finally started to taper off.

And so um these the stories good about 25, but if you broke down some of these categories within violent crime the last several years, there's also a really good story to tell about the decrease in all those other categories.

Well, uh, you know, I I want to add that over archingly, I think that we're highlighting all the great things that our police department's done.

But one of the foundational things I think is COM stats.

Calm stats helps drive your mission, I would I would assume everything you do out there on the streets and and the proactive enforcement with patrol, your detectives, your heat units, you know, when you uh get with other agencies, multi-agencies, and do enforcement for the city of Mesa or for the East Valley, we're there at the table.

And I think that's so important that we understand the stats that drive the stats kind of drive the mission, but the the just being proactive in everything that we do to reduce our violent crime, and as it drops, it's so important that uh we're doing that probably today.

I remember being on council for a few years, that we're doing it with less patrol officers, or you know, we want to keep it at a certain level, but we're we're doing policing even better today than we were a few years ago.

I mean, Mr.

Cost, would you agree to that?

I mean, you're I mean, he started it, you know, and so and we just we just want to make sure that your teams, your your professional staff and your sworn officers know that we stand behind you, and we haven't even got to the numbers yet.

We're talking about highlighting, you know, all the good things.

So, you know, when you're out there for hate, drug sales, robberies, all the uh the crime a in person and uh what was it before your violent crime, person and proper crimes per thousand residents, and when you relate that between the 500 and 650,000 population, we're among the lowest other than Virginia Beach, which they dropped off, but they have an extremely low.

I think everybody carries a gun there, right?

In Virginia Beach.

Uh being a military town.

But I just want kudos to you, everything we're doing.

We're reducing our crime, we're listening to our community residents.

You're out there proactively in our community.

Just even the little things like uh e-bikes, you know, we all of us counsel, we get emails about e-bike enforcement.

You're out there talking about it, and thank you for doing that.

So let's get to the numbers or whatever is next.

Uh Mr.

Walker, were you done?

Yes.

Okay.

Passing the torch.

Uh thank you, Mayor and Council.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak.

My name is Aaron Spicer.

I am the assistant chief over the operations support bureau.

Uh this is a really busy slide.

So as we unpack it, I just have a couple things that I'll talk about, and we can break down exactly what you're seeing here in this in the uh in this slide.

Um I wanted to point out as you'll see our traffic collisions.

Um, this is an area we have experienced challenge over the past few years.

Um the graph is uh we're about a five percent increase in total cry uh crashes uh year over year from last year.

Um while the uh fatalities increased slightly this year, which fatalities is the um red line at the bottom there.

Uh you'll see that we saw double digit decreases in the from the years prior, so 22 and 23 um were respectively higher than 20 uh five.

In response to our uh rise in collision citywide, uh we've taken uh made significant strides in enforcement and education.

Uh um incorporating a data-driven uh data-driven uh deployment strategy, our traffic uh uh activities, which is written warnings and citations by our total police department staff increased by 22 percent.

Uh that is significant um with the biggest percentage being written warnings.

So this also uh illustrates our commitment to correcting behavior before it leads to more serious consequences.

Um along the lines of impaired driving, our impaired driving arrests have increased by eight percent in the past year, and I'm gonna repeat this stat twice.

27%, 27% over the last two years.

So our officers out, uh resting DUI and impaired drivers.

Uh to support these efforts, uh, both on the on the um uh enforcement for uh citations, uh uh also talk about uh adding six motor officers or traffic officers to our uh traffic unit this year.

So um we we dug down deep and found some staffing where we could shift uh those bodies to really uh tackle this, um tackle this issue.

Uh we did that in January, and in the first full rotation, we saw a hundred percent, almost a hundred percent increase in the total enforcement work by those uh by those staff.

So um kudos to that.

Uh in addition to uh the much needing staffing ads, we also added some educational programming.

Um and these are these kind of run the gamut of things from uh pedestrian safety, motorcycle safety, which includes helmet use, uh visibility and pair driving, e-bikes, speed and inattention, all things that contribute to uh higher collisions and incidents on our roadway.

Uh just want to talk briefly about our partnerships and um I think Councilmember Duff talked about it earlier.

Uh participation in the uh quarterly um engineering or uh we call them monthly coordination meetings with uh that is a kind of an all-hands-on-deck approach where we look at things like you talked about like roadway design and light timing cycles, things that we not may not be able to impact necessarily, but things that do make a difference.

Um I also want to highlight the work um from our partnerships from GUHS, Mesa Fire and Medical, and uh Valley Wide Task Forces also are non-governmentals, uh, which uh well, we host civilian motorcycle safety courses.

Um again, while it's difficult to identify one single factor, we we look at um we we really look at a holistic approach based on the the three E's we call them the engineering enforcement and um education.

So our focus is simple.

Uh it's safer streets for everyone in Mesa.

Um and then for the for the um for the presentation here, you can we broke it down um you can see where the the red dots illustrate where a fatal collisions occurred, uh, and also the corresponding chart to the left.

So I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Ms.

Duff.

Um do you have a breakdown of the fatalities or crashes?

You know, I'm sure you break them down and saying of the fatalities, so many of them were um in vehicles or you know, were they pedestrian bicycle motorcycle?

I know that's usually in one category.

I think there are about a third of the deaths on the streets is from that outside of the vehicle type of thing.

Yeah, you know, some kind of breakdown in in where the deaths are occurring.

I do.

Um, and uh that's a great question, and it's something that um we do track uh we track year over year.

I do um and uh that's a great question and it's something that um we do track uh we track year over year so um the issue of um pedestrian safety uh and motorcycle safety seems to be a reoccurring theme year over year uh that's why some of our educational really that's why we put a lot of educational and enforcement efforts into those particular areas um you know uh again i to say that there's one single causational factor but you know uh particularly some of the west side areas where we more have more uh foot traffic uh and uh the downtown district and then the west district uh you know we we tend to have more uh foot traffic and sometimes those lead to more pedestrian type incidents but um and then just maybe a side note um this year in 2026 is already the same trend is kind of continued um along those lines so we have ramped up some of our increases have been focused on those those issue areas or problem areas yeah I think looking at you know what categories and if they're increasing decreasing um and being able to take measures accordingly um is key I know the Phoenix area in in general is not very good if you're a pedestrian or bicyclist you're probably is very I think it's worse the worst in the nation sure um I have concerns also as we're populating gaining density in West Mesa that we are aware of when it these numbers are slipping are getting worse and what we can do to prevent them.

Well yeah and and it's highlighted on the slide we we actually did have a decrease of pedestrians uh particularly on uh when comparing 24 to 25 and then obviously it's too early to to decide this year but um it is an issue that we that I would say we've been tackling um through a bunch of different strategies and yeah and then uh as well as you know the traffic if it's red light running or if is it you know three-way incidents we don't calculate right because that's not our property I'm sorry what was the on the freeway the accidents those aren't calculated because there's not Mesa City and Mesa property no we don't I don't have that these are just in the interior of the city right you know if they're speed related if they're red light you know related or yeah and then to the to that point you know with our um we usually about mid year we get a really comprehensive analysis and I know our transportation um folks also share information when we really look at the what are the causational factors you know is it inattention is it speed is it a particular intersection is it all of those things and then as those things come out we're able to make adjustments and um we talk about the the we always talk about data driven approaches um in traffic is no different um what we do in traffic is we for particularly for like enforcement activities we look at where the crashes are happening on a on a several month period and also on a on a daily and weekly basis and then we overlay where we're our enforcement activities at so we have kind of two separate maps and we overlay where we're doing those activities at one of my concerns as far as fatalities is um I've asked for the data in the past I don't remember the exact numbers and stuff that like when you look at homicides and and and fatalities on our streets it's very equivalent and you know so it's just a an area like ah you feel like the the ones on the streets you know what can we be more aggressive more you know prevent I know you're doing a lot of work but I just want to emphasize like it's death on our streets is very very unfortunate it's not intentional it's just things that happen and how we can you know be more effective or while work together in various ways of understanding what those are and how we can prevent them.

Sure and I think too to to your point I think the education piece of it is is hyper important to that where we we look at putting messages out when we see things like we talk about safe crossing which is using the crosswalk where you know vehicle drivers are expecting to see foot traffic and especially in some of those more dense areas.

Chief uh miss Taylor you have a question.

Hi thank you.

I was just curious to know when you say you you offer well I have two questions.

When you say you do education you offer education are are is this more at the gain events are you doing this throughout the the city like how how is that provided and and where are you holding these sessions to to give people more information around how to just be safer drivers in their local areas and around our city.

So um multiple media we will go through media outlets.

We just launched what we call a monthly minute, which is focusing on uh the first couple iterations were motorcycle safety, motorcycle awareness.

So um if it's social media on a video platform, uh we also do in person.

So I would say um any way we could get the message out, um, that's the way we that's the way we uh prefer.

Thank you.

And then my other question was uh when we're looking at the numbers, particularly for just traffic accidents in general.

Uh I'm I'm guessing that you you're trending in your your data analytics and your your your collection of information as to whether or not if you have just more police presence in certain areas, um maybe motorcycle cops or just traffic officers that are posted for a while.

Uh do you see a pretty drastic decrease in traffic incidents for an extended amount of time in those regions after someone's been present physically?

Yeah, I think I think to that point, yes.

I mean, uh as I mentioned before, we track uh when we look at um, I probably should have mentioned this part of it.

We also look at the after effects.

So if we um do what we call a wolf pack where we bring a lot of um traffic resources to an area, we tend to see that um that the traffic calming, the message gets out.

Um, and you know, one thing that we had done um particularly to um the electric vehicles was what we call the um the operation in district six, where we uh focus really heavily on that on the educational standpoint, and uh we did see um some behavior changes.

I don't know if it shifted to another area, but um to answer your question, I think that's an accurate statement.

We moved it north.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And could could we say that that's a preventative measure instead of having a reactive presence there?

Um, does the Mesa police force offer the preventative measure of just wolf packing in certain regions to kind of just remind people of your presence and of the need to obey traffic laws so that we we can be um preventing future incidents just by having more presence in an area before those incidents could occur.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, uh obviously traffic resources are are finite and we deploy them as strategic as we can based on that data driven, but but you're correct.

Um, you know, and interestingly, uh we we write considerably more warnings than we do um than we do uh citations also.

So, you know, um I think that piece of the educational piece um is also beneficial, but so what you're saying is you need more police officers on the ground.

Council member, I I will take as many police officers as you could give uh as you allocate.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you for answering my questions.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mr.

Redia.

Um I think this uh in line with Councilmember Taylor's uh uh questions around like free figuring out what's the what's the uh the issue that's causing these and uh how we are deploying our resources to that.

I wonder if this is something that we're looking at how like we aggregate more of that data and be proactive in other ways, especially specifically with PD and maybe transportation, you know, using AI to uh maybe aggregate and analyze a little bit better and then uh figuring out other preventative pieces if it's you know example of uh red lights or uh turn signals or if it's uh speeding or um so you mentioned uh Chief Weisser on the data-driven pieces.

Are we looking at those kinds of opportunities to also further uh enhance our our um deployment uh of our resources here for this?

Yeah, I I think we've been exceptional over the years at um using technology as it you know relates to doing our job better and uh being more efficient, you know, whether it's cameras and parks or um you know, um leveraging the real-time crime center or drones or something like that.

So um I think it's always something we're looking at um on a really on a monthly daily basis.

Uh are we looking at like aggregating better the data?

I I know we looked at traffic uh uh incidents uh recently with Ian and and others uh and it it seemed like it was little um hodgepodge uh uh as far as the data being collected by PD and maybe uh transport like traffic and so trying to figure out like what's what's a way a better way to aggregate and maybe analyze that that information better to involve maybe different departments as well in that in that uh mission that we have to you know lower the uh traffic uh incidents in our city.

Yeah, I and I think that's exactly the the the traffic coordination, the main mission of that traffic coordination meetings, uh transportation coordination meetings.

Uh it has transportation, PD, Mesa Fire Medical, PIO.

Uh so everybody has a little bit of a role in it.

Um, and that's the purpose of that is to get the group in the in the room and talk about issues uh that you know, whether they're roadway design or roadway enforcement issues, we can all share information about what we're doing and then you know adjust our strategy accordingly.

Okay.

And just a follow-up, maybe for later as far as data.

Do you have specific uh with the the dot red dots?

Is there a specific like table that you have of what was what cause these these uh accidents in these areas?

Don't have to share right now, but maybe for reference as far as what are these kind of look like as far as what what happened.

Yeah, each each yeah, there's a significant amount of data between be he uh behind each red dot.

Um the things that I may not be able to say, especially as it goes later to 2025 would be something like impairments.

Uh frequently we're waiting on lab results or something like that to come up that takes more than three or four months normally, but um there is significant data between behind each red dot on the map.

Okay.

Mayor, Mayor Freeman, Councilmember, uh, Councilmember Duff.

What we can do is um we can get we can produce that data and get it to you.

Uh includes stuff like uh you know where it's happening, time of day, uh, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, electric motorcycles, and you know, get as much information as we can.

Um, some of the software solutions that we've um have have come across council in the in the past six months um are designed to collect capture this data.

So we are looking at solutions.

We're in the process of bringing them on to help capture all this data.

So when we get together, all the experts get together with city transportation, the police department, we can have a little bit better of a storytelling, so perhaps we can attack this issue from a city perspective uh much more effectively.

Perfect.

That works.

Go ahead, Visco for it.

So you so you you will get the data for I I'm just really pretty much interested in what happened in my district on those dots.

If you can if I could get that specific information in the I mean, somehow Vice Mayor already knows every dot and what happened.

I not every dot, there's like three, I don't know.

Oh, well, but there are I would like that information, please.

Uh I know you all do have done a lot of enforcement, and I really appreciate it, especially in district five.

There's been some hotspot speeding areas that you've really attacked, and and so thank you for your efforts.

But we only have so much manpower, and it's kind of like whack-a-mole.

I mean, you you said a you sit there and people slow down, you leave, and they speed back up.

So it it you know, I appreciate the the three-pronged approach approach of engineering enforcement and education, but I have to agree with um council member def that you know, unless we make significant changes uh on our roadways, all the you know, we we can never have enough manpower for enforcement.

That's way too that's way too costly.

So we do have to be serious about some of the changes.

And I know the safe streets for all is gonna make some um left-turn only signals, which I think will be very helpful and and and help with safety, but um I would like to see us really really look focus in on what we can do to our roadways to make them safer long term without police manpower.

I'm also interested, you know, you you you gave us, and this is not just from PD, but it would be a you know, citywide.

So we know where we stand as far as crime the crime rate.

Where do we stand as far as the traffic?

I'm I'm curious.

Cities that are similar to us is for I I don't know, is 40 high?

Is 40 low?

I I have no context for that.

Do you have a little bit of insight?

And if not, can we get that, Scott?

Can you tell us what like how do we compare to other cities our size as far as our traffic collision fatalities and accidents?

C PDF mayor's a lot to that question though, too.

I'll just if I can interrupt the conversation.

City, not every city our size has the type of medical infrastructure either that we have.

So having a level one trauma center can really drive down those numbers of increased survival rates.

Whereas, you know, the number of paramedics in the community, the trauma centers, that type of thing are really starting to positively impact these numbers as well.

But it's really, I think that the speed is the other issue with it.

Because let's face it, that in it's not just Mesa.

The entire valley, when you look at some of these other cities back here, Milwaukee, uh, I I think an arterial street in Milwaukee is probably two lanes wide.

Yeah.

Right.

Whereas in Arizona, when it went the first thing I noticed when I came to Arizona when I was shipped here in the Air Force was one, how well uh manicured the freeways were, and two, how how wide the streets were.

Um because they a street, an arterial street in Arizona, to Jud's point.

Looks like a freeway where I where I came from in western New York.

So I think there's a lot of factors that kind of fall in line here with impacting uh the fatality rate, no pun intended.

Yeah, but uh that's fine.

I I and I understand what you're saying about fatalities, but accidents in general would be interesting.

And and I don't think you you put your head in the sand that that it's a different um landscape in the Midwest or the East.

I mean, it is what it is, but there are things that we can do to improve it.

Yeah, but we we do have to focus on the problem here.

So the solutions in Milwaukee or Rochester, New York are not a good idea.

Okay, but you can say the same thing about crime fighting.

So we do have those numbers.

So anyway.

That gave you 30 seconds to Mayor and Councilmember go forth.

Um to answer that question, there's I guess there's a two-fold to it.

Um, yes, on an annual basis, um we get a publication from the um, it's called the Arizona Motor Craft Vehicle Facts, and it basically breaks down jurisdictions and causational factors and things like that.

Um for 2025, uh, we don't anticipate that to come out until like mid-year, because this aggregate, right?

Um and year over year, other cities um surrounding cities, and again, I don't want to compare us to you know a much smaller jurisdiction, but um there have been uh similar increases in other cities uh surrounding cities, but I can get that data and and uh get that back to you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you, Mayor.

J just a couple comments.

I think one of the things that we do here that is really uh good is we have that delay between between the red light and the green light of a few seconds, and that doesn't exist in in many other cities.

It certainly doesn't exist anywhere in North Carolina where I frequently go.

So I think that's a great thing.

We've done it for years, and and obviously you should continue it.

You know, I I I think Mesa PD does an outstanding job here.

Um this is a difficult situation.

Um anyone can drive around our city, and you can you can pretty much identify what I think is the primary problem.

We have some idiots behind the wheel who don't belong behind the wheel.

Okay.

Folks who think they need to drag race at every stoplight, uh, folks who think that 30 miles an hour means 55.

Um so I think you've got a great challenge here.

I think for the resources you can you can put to it, you're doing a great job.

Um my only suggestion would be, and we've talked about this before, uh, there are probably intersections where the accident rate is much higher than others, and we've got some great people in transportation who can probably study that flow, that timing, whatever's going on there that I'm not smart enough to figure that out, but but somebody is why are we having a higher incident at this intersection versus that one?

So uh I think it's good that we continue to analyze this stuff.

I love the data-driven approach that you use, and uh just uh you know, I would just say thanks, doing a great job.

I want to end with this hearing from council, Mr.

Manager, city manager.

It might be best that every quarter or every six months a report is sent to council about fatalities, what drove the fatalities, and that way that council member can work with police department and kind of get a um understanding of how we can work better in each respective district.

So I I think if you sent something out quarterly instead of annually, that council could digest the information because we're talking about data.

And data's gonna drive the mission.

And I think having that info is you have it.

If if things are delayed because of a BAC, well, okay, uh, I get it, but at the end of the day, we can there was a fatality there.

Yeah, mayor, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, absolutely, we're happy to happy to do that for you.

Is that okay?

Just go ahead.

Yeah, um, mayor, council, absolutely.

We'll um I'll work with the chief and figure out the right cadence to to get that to you more frequently.

And um and you're right.

I mean, this is a national this is a national issue.

All right, the whole genesis of the state is safe streets for all program was the fact of a national trend toward um these kind of issues occurring uh in communities all across the country.

So we're um you know, we're we're trying to deal with it.

Obviously, the valley, the way the valley's developed, and and the way our street network is also presents some challenges that you've all um discussed.

There, there certainly are things that we do.

They're very PD is very proactive of working with engineering uh in transportation on um coming up with uh solutions on uh areas that they see as hot spots and trouble spots, and of course, transportations looking at mid-block crossings and hawks and other things that can help the pedestrian experience.

There's also, I mean, as council member Adams alluded to drivers who are making bad decisions, there's pedestrians that are making bad decisions.

We probably see it every day.

I know I do as I'm driving around, um, and that's a huge part of the problem as well.

And so um you're right, that doesn't mean that we throw up our hands and do nothing, and we're not.

I mean, as as the the chiefs have alluded to this morning, but um we do you know also have to hope that human behavior is is changed, and that is something that's very hard for anyone sitting at this dais today to to try to um to change, but there's certainly things that we can do and and should do uh to try to bring this number down.

Okay, I would also think um in the AI world, there are probably some softwares that are coming about and and in time, you know.

We don't want to jump into the first thing, but at the time that it makes sense that can evaluate our traffic flow, the average speeds, the volume, the complex, um, and take the the data from all the the accident reports and everything, and you know, can consolidate so you have a full 360 of volume when time uh how you know what kind of collision.

I would think that in time we could have this consolidated view, which is right now there's so many factors that can play into an area or and uh I think look for that opportunity.

I know in traffic management, there's some AI opportunities again, has to be at the right time, the right product, and doing the right work that we need.

But I think there's on the horizon some ways that we can really um dive deeper and understand um citywide, you know, what is happening with our traffic.

And I know we're talking about PD, but I it it does we're kind of getting stuck on this slide, but you know, we're up 330, you know, accidents, and and that's not reflection of PD, I'm not saying that at all.

It's uh about uh traffic management and understanding it more.

So thank you.

Okay, where did we leave off at?

Who's next, Chief?

It's gonna be me.

All right, well, good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, Chrissa York, the fiscal manager, and I'm gonna go over some budgetary figures with you this morning.

Um I've arranged this by bureau so that way it's not as busy of a slide, and I'll kind of go through what is rolls up into each of these bureaus and then go over some of the variances you'll see within that.

Um the executive services bureau that encompasses both our chief's office and uh fiscal management area, and you'll notice that within the current fiscal year, 25-26 and uh revised budget as well as the year and estimate.

It's a higher than the other two outliers.

That's because we have um OM for our PD headquarters that's currently being renovated.

So there's nine million in there, and we'll be carrying over those unused funds to next year too as the um renovation continues.

So that's what's driving up the current year figures there.

Um the strategic initiative bureau, it includes community relations and our planning and research areas, and then operations is where our patrol districts are housed, and that area really um highlights the year-over-year impact from our merits and benchmarking.

So if you recall from fiscal year 24-25 into 25-26, we had the 10% plus um benchmarking, so that increased the current year's budget, and then we also have the merits going in to next fiscal year.

The operations support bureau now is a large bureau that encompasses many, many activities.

It includes our metro area, which has our aviation unit, the fusion center, real-time crime center, our SROs, um, the park rangers.

Um it also includes our holding facility evidence and municipal security.

And then it additionally includes communications.

And from the variance you see from the 46 million from last fiscal year to see the drop into the current fiscal year and next, that's due to the splitting of 911 and dispatch.

And so that's that's accounting for that decrease there.

It encompasses human resources, which is our hiring unit, technical services, which we refer to as PDIT, our criminal justice information division, which was previously known as records, and then also our training uh division.

Now, training is the area where the recruits are expensed to.

Um, the variance you see from 2526 into 2627 is expected, and that represents the unfunded portion of our officers and training as they go through the academy.

We have a slide coming up down the road that will discuss more of this pipeline that we have.

Um, but this this um variance is expected, and that's that's what we anticipate.

And then finally, within Professional Services Bureau, again, you'll see a higher figure for fiscal year 2425.

That's because it previously encompassed forensics, which is now part of the Mesa Public Safety Support Department, and so that is no longer reflective in the 2526 figures or the 2627 figures.

And then finally, the total line between our current year revised budget and our year-end estimate.

That variance there is due to our net projected overage and personal services, which is a combination of many ins and outs.

Um, it includes some of the negatives in there via our annual vacation payout, our um separation payments when employees separate and they get their unused vacation, and then also that unfunded portion of our officers and training, and then on the flip side, some of the positives coming in.

Uh, we have some sworn and civilian or professional staff vacancy savings.

Any other questions on that, or we'll jump into our budgetary reductions?

Mr.

Adams.

Uh I I do have a question.

I'm sorry if I didn't follow you closely enough.

On your professional services bureau, you're going from what's your project at 62.1 down to 49.5.

Help me understand again.

Where did that 11 end up going?

Our officers and training.

So we have, and like I said, we have a uh a slide coming up where we have a pipeline where they're in unbudgeted positions, however, they are um partially funded, and so this is because it takes 11 months to get an officer, about close to a year to get an officer through training.

Um, that pipeline allows us to start hiring people, getting them trained, our officers, so that way when we have anticipated attrition and known separations, we can try to correlate that as closely as possible, fill those vacancies.

So you have folks in the pipeline that haven't hit the expense line yet.

Correct.

What expense line are they hitting while they're in?

Training.

So they're they're part of our our training unit.

We hire them in our our prep program, our police pre-recruit program, and then we all the way through the academy into field training, they are expensed to training until they are fully solo on the street.

Okay, so do you anticipate that number staying around 50?

Or is that gonna jump back up next year when we look at it when they're on full full pay and benefits?

Yes, uh, Mayor Visemor Council Member Adams, they they run us close to about 10 million per year, depending on how many we are hiring, and we are budgeted for close to four million for them.

So they do account for about six to seven million of our annual overage.

But again, we have savings in our sworn vacancies that help offset um those expenditures.

Okay, thanks for clarifying that.

Don't get me, I'm not complaining about that.

I think you need to be as staffed as you need to be, but uh I see how the numbers work.

Thank you.

Next slide.

All right.

So going straight into our expenditure reduction.

So our general fund target reduction um was 4.4 million.

We're proposing a 1.7 million reduction for next fiscal year of uh 2627.

This is kind of a high-level summary of those um different areas it's hitting, and our future slides will kind of go into more depth for the the bottom four.

The top one is we uh propose to eliminate our recruit signing bonus, which would save us 315,000, and then we have reductions in expenditure, some civilianization, and then professional and sworn staff reductions, which we have additional slides on to discuss.

All right.

And the sworn staff reductions.

Yes, sir, yes, Mayor.

Okay.

Great.

Go ahead.

Okay.

So our expenditure reductions, they consist of the following three items, which is uh the elimination of our psychological reviews for professional staff, and then a reduction in our project management services as well as in any new CC TV requests coming in.

And that totals 237,000.

All right.

What's the CC TV requests?

What is that mean?

New requests coming in.

Go ahead.

Good morning, uh Mayor Council Dom Sterling uh here.

In terms of that reduction, uh, we're looking at 150,000, and that's coming out of our PDIT uh budget.

And what we're talking about, this isn't related to any of the flock or other technology.

It's just we're saying that each respective uh department will have to fund their own uh purchase of the CCTV.

So it's not gonna impact anything that's already installed for city currently, it's not traffic cameras, it's not photo radar, it's nothing that's city infrastructure.

Okay.

On that, what is can you give me an example of a project management reduction?

So a couple of examples, uh uh Vice Mayor, recent examples that we have there are projects that were funded through the allocations that we're talking about.

Uh camera installations of MC, uh, we had those, and then we had some enhanced security measures at communications.

Additionally, in this uh cut, some other examples were uh a server for live 911 for the real-time crime center, monitors and computers for the real-time crime center.

So those are some examples of what uh would get other areas would have to purchase all right.

Thank you.

Uh civilianization.

Um historically, we have been very successful in implementing the civilianization within the police department.

And um we were able to identify an additional three sworn positions that we feel would benefit from civilianization, where basically you take a sworn position, um, we would eliminate that position, create a civilian one to perform those same duties.

Um the impact would be a plus three on professional staff, minus three on sworn, but what would save us so net FTEs are the same.

However, we are seeing 152,000 uh savings if we civilianize uh community engagement detective to a community engagement coordinator, a special event sergeant to a management assistant one, and then a hiring detective to a hiring coordinator.

All right.

Moving on to our professional staff reductions.

The FTE count is 6.5.

These are all vacant positions, currently vacant positions, and it includes a uh part-time non-benefited firearms instructor, uh, three park rangers, two civilian investigation specialists, and a police investigator one.

Any questions related to this?

So, right now we're not filling those positions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Carry on.

And then our sworn staff reductions.

Morning, Mayor Council.

Um Chief Jeff Culler over the investigations bureau.

So these three positions sit in our special operations division, which is in the investigations bureau.

These three uh crime gun intelligence detectives was a program we started uh back in 24.

Um, the original intent was to have three detectives, three professional staff.

They'll collect and analyze um shell casings and guns and then develop leads for detectives to go follow up on uh the original intent was to have these three detectives do all that.

We have not um we're in the process of hiring our professional staff, so they they haven't come in on board yet.

So the detectives have been filling in the role of the analyst work with our bringing on the three professional staff, the detective the uh and the same time this is they're doing the they're doing the analysis work, that those cases, those leads are being sent out to detectives around the around the city.

So the functionality will not change.

The detectives will go back to other assignments within special operations, professional staff will come on board, do the actual analysis um of those casings and provide the leads out to detectives around the department.

So, in essence, the functionality will stay the same, just those detectives will not be fully realized and do we being a self-contained unit of of uh um investigators of these crime gun leads that are developed through our our NIVIN process.

Okay.

I have a question about that.

This is council member Taylor.

Um so are you saying that the change between the professional staff coming on to take this position and the detectives going back out into the field?

That change in salary is what's creating this reduction.

Mayor, uh Vice Mayor Council.

Um we those positions are already funded.

Those three positions already funded, it's already in our budget, and this is straight reduction of three sworn positions.

So those are already accounted for.

So it wouldn't be an offset this count this amount.

This amount is actual reductions of three sworn positions.

But is it a reduction of three sworn positions?

They're already filled that we're putting professional staff in.

Is that what you're saying?

I guess I'm a little confused.

Well, in essence, there are three positions.

Um, one is already filled, two are in the process of being filled.

They're already budgeted spots.

So when the bring we bring those on, um that work the detectives are doing will not be done by those professional staff.

And then those detectives through the reduction will be reassigned to some other other functions within the special operations division.

Okay, I got it.

So you're just saying those three detectives is the reduction here.

They're not losing their jobs, they're just moving outside of what the gun, the crime gun intelligence.

Is that right?

Yeah, Mayor Councilman Taylor, that that is correct.

That they have there's other vacant positions within the special operations, they'll move into those positions.

Okay.

Correct.

Correct.

That's correct.

So you're backfilling, and then you're moving them out, yes.

Uh the original intent was to have uh have those detectives do the in-house investigations, but we have never been able to do that, so we we are sending them out to detectives around the and that'll continue on.

Okay, okay.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate it.

All right, next slide.

All right.

And then our budget adjustment request consists of a vehicle for a mid-year um lieutenant position we added.

So that has a one-time cost of 75,000, and then the ongoing cost.

Mayor, vice mayor, counsel, uh reminder, Dom Sterling, one of the assistant chiefs here.

Uh, I'm gonna talk about what we've already brought up.

Um, Miss York has talked about this pipeline slide.

Uh so we are already a little bit familiar with that.

So, with the support of city management, city council, we've been allotted 125 positions beyond what we've been authorized for the 845 that are used as a pipeline to recruit for um and train the police officers to fill the budgeted positions as they become available.

This in turn keeps the department's uh vacancy rate at a minimum.

It typically takes close to set it eleven months or a year for police officer to become fully trained.

And so having this pipeline provides for the projected timing of the police officers to reach the full stat uh solo status with our projected attrition.

We want to lead this uh slide, however, with uh recognizing thanking city council and city leadership for supporting this approach that we're talking about, and and really Miss York's uh foresight on this.

And we've been able to strategically overhire police officer recruits.

That decision's been critical to our success and clearly clearly demonstrates your strong commitment to public safety.

The financial strategy has allowed us to stabilize our staffing levels, and what we're seeing now is actually a decrease in those pipeline numbers.

That's the blue line that's going down here.

Uh, and that's a positive indicator, even though it's going down.

Means we're successfully keeping pace with uh the projected attrition.

When we look at the trends from 2021 through the current fiscal year, both our pipeline and our authorized sworn staffing is steadily increased.

At the same time, our pipeline is expanded from 60, as you see to the left, uh, to a high of 90 in 2024, and that's largely in response to the anticipated retirements and the drop program completions that had started in 2019, so five years uh forward.

That number is now projected to decrease to 57 by the fiscal year 2027.

And those numbers indicate that we're leveling off and reaching the capacity for which we're currently authorized.

Um again, to me, uh to us, it's a positive sign.

Overall, the morale is high, our culture is strong and positive.

Our employees value working here because they have the tools and the resources they need.

We've talked about that, both in the field and through the expanded wellness support.

They find their work's uh rewarding and appreciate their elected officials, city management prioritize public safety for this community.

It's also important to go back in time to recognize the role of our city's residents uh from 2018 when Mesa voters approved the public safety sales tax increase that's dedicated to police, fire, and medical services.

That investment has directly supported the progress you see today, and it reflects a strong community support for public safety across your respective districts and the city.

Those positions are highlighted on the bottom, those are the white numbers above that yellow uh line, and they reflect the 84 public safety sales tax funded spots uh from that vote back then.

Uh assistant chief cutler's already talked about this, but uh regarding our most recent assignment for uh reviewing the budget, we did conduct a careful analysis of what we had and the proposals reduction of the six sworn position, which will bring us from 845 to 839 for fiscal year 26-27.

To accomplish this, we've talked about the reassignment of the three detectives into existing vacancies and converting the remaining three positions into professional staff roles.

Uh city city support of our overhired strategy.

Uh this this pipeline has allowed us to maintain stability, manage our attrition, and build a strong hiring pipeline over the past several years.

Because of that, we're effectively reducing crime and increasing citizen safety and engagement with our community.

We understand the reductions come with the impacts, but we remain committed, of course, all of us are here to reducing crime and enhancing our public safety and serving our community.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I you know, we you brought up the public safety sales tax, and you know, we have increasing costs in our public safety areas.

Is there any talk that we are we talking about maybe the sales tax uh public safety sales tax increase or anything, you know, in the future because you know it's it's important to continue to support our public safety personnel, and that's a citywide initiative.

What are your thoughts on that, Mr.

Butler?

Yeah, mayor and council um as as and I appreciate everything that PD has done to play their part in helping us um dig out of this hole that the legislature created for us.

And so you know, as we've talked about, we've made a lot of progress and we're seeing positive trends uh as we look at the forecast on that.

One of the challenges we have though is you know, getting getting out of that hole and getting back to the black is really maintaining status quo, right?

Maintaining what uh what we have here with more incremental growth occurring after that.

So um we're definitely gonna have some challenges, I think, to keep up with um a city that's continuing to grow and expand without um some additional resources long term to that.

We'll also talk about um Mr.

Cost is gonna be here on Monday as part of our study session to talk about as we're wrapping up our um process um that that went really well with um public safety um labor representatives and um it is in order to stay competitive.

We have um that that presents financial challenges to us to to make sure that we have the resources that we need to make sure that we are treating and our our fire and police personnel, our sworn personnel, um, and our professional staff, but in particular on the MO uh MOU on the sworn staff competitively um with our peer agencies, and so we'll talk about that a little bit more on Monday, and and you can you'll visibly see uh the financial impact that just staying competitive has on um on the general fund and on our ability to provide these resources.

So, mayor, it it definitely um is going to be strained in the future if we don't have uh some additional revenue at some point.

Yeah, that's what we call benchmarking, right?

I mean, as we benchmark other communities and it's just a factor in uh keeping personnel here, especially our public safety personnel.

Absolutely.

With that, uh Mr.

Redia.

Real quick, um I know we uh back in 2020 we were worried on the uh the drops uh as far as the amount both in fire and police, uh the anticipated drops there.

Um do we feel I know we've gone through quite a bit of hiring over the last five years.

Do we feel uh it's balance uh throughout the uh the agency, the department as far as having enough folks that can kind of move up the ladder um because I don't know how much you can move up, you know, uh uh recent graduate to a lieutenant or sergeant, right?

And so do we feel confident in having enough folks that can uh um move up the ladder of uh retaining command there as you know, Chief Butler, you have like what 30 years?

You started at like 10 years old, I think.

Um everybody else is like everybody else is uh also uh I think in that in those 20 years but uh but uh just a question and then my other point what's uh what's the balance?

What's the the percentage of uh civilian to um uh what is it called sworn?

So can you talk a little bit on that?

Absolutely, mayor.

Um council member Heretia.

Um, you know, a couple questions there.

So you know, you many of you have heard us talk about creating a police department that is unique to other police departments in the nation.

Overwhelmingly, um, our police department is more balanced, and we have non-sworn members doing jobs that in other traditional police departments sworn members would do.

Um the goal has been since uh 2018-2019 when Mr.

Cost was the chief of police, um, 60 a 60-40 balance.

So 60% of our workforce is sworn, and 40% is non-sworn.

Um, and what we propose today keeps us in that exact range.

So as we went through this process back from November, we made an effort to balance the way that we compress our organization, but making sure that we continue to provide the levels of service that we need to provide for our community.

So we are staying at that.

Um, circling back to your original question, um that you talk about retention and you talk about succession planning and leadership development.

Um, why you see 57 on this slide from our pipeline is because more people are staying.

Um, where we had a significant number of people enter drop in 2017 and 2018, um, that's what really impacted our recruiting efforts, even though we were still getting much better than everybody else applicants.

We were hiring people at a better rate than any of our comparable cities in the state.

Um, because so many people elected in those in those years to enter drop, we were losing people on the top end.

Um the extension of drop helped keep people as well for us, so that helped a little bit, but now that those extensions are falling off, and we don't have the large number of people that have entered in the mandatory drop retirement program.

So it's helping us, and that's why we go from 82 to 57, because we know the people that are here are choosing to stay longer, they're choosing to continue to work as opposed to retiring as early as they absolutely can retire.

Um succession planning has been and will continue to be our highest priority.

Uh what we do as an organization, what we have been doing for six or seven years now is identifying training that develops our human beings so they're ready to take next level leadership.

Um we have budgeted through our budget every year going back seven years, 200,000, and then we track every leader in our organization what command schools they've been to, what further education they've been to.

Um every one of the assistant chiefs has in their annual performance review a requirement for them to individually sit with people and mentor them on career development.

And that involves what are you reading, what are you doing, what are your career goals?

Every one of the assistant chiefs that have been up here get measured on how effective they are at developing the next generation of leadership.

So it's incredibly important to us.

And and mayor, uh council member, maybe I can just add to the chief's comments as well is that um, you know, one of one of the great things about drop is the predictability of knowing the numbers, right?

And that uh both on the police and fire side.

We can plan our academies, we know what the numbers are because that's a date certain.

What we saw after COVID um was that unexpected um uh departures for uh especially on the police side of just the environment that was that was happening uh nationally at the time and policing and other things like that, but I I that has stabilized, and so now we're back to a situation with planned drops, of which the chief and his team and also on the fire side um can do a great job of planning for that when they know that there is a a date certain that a vacancy is gonna happen, and um and then as as was alluded to with the overhires and being able to get people on board early, uh we try to make that a seamless transition when we uh can predict and expect those drop positions are going to become vacant.

I have a quick budgeting question on so you have a maximum number of sworn personnel in the department.

How far below that are we?

Mayor Vice Mayor and one of my chiefs can correct me.

Uh my last update on that, we had a four percent vacancy rate.

So half of what a lot of the comparable agencies in the valley have.

So about 30 something it is about 30 something.

Um 41.

40, yeah, 41.

30 to 40.

What what's what's really cool for us is that pipeline, right?

So even though we may not have those individuals in the seats at the moment, we have you know 82 people higher beyond what our allocation is.

And that's a testament of your support.

That's a testament of Mr.

Butler's support, and then our community support, because that's not an expensive, uh, but it's absolutely essential to us being as effective as we are.

Well, as I said in the past, uh it's non-negotiable for me.

I want to make sure our public safety personnel, sworn and professional staff are up to our standards, meeting our our policing needs in our community.

That's what our residents expect.

So with that, did you have the floor?

Well, I was just gonna uh just so I can understand.

So the 845, so for instance, for June 2026, 845 sworn and 82 is on top of that.

That's the pipeline that you're talking about.

Okay, yeah.

And so then we assume a few will retire out of that.

That's why.

Okay.

I just thought that's what you were saying, and then I just wanted to clarify.

Thank you.

Yeah, since uh Mayor um council member go forth since 2014.

Uh Chris and I worked together in 2014, and she came up with the spreadsheet that we still use to this day.

And what it does is it maps out people that are eligible to retire, it created an equation of how many people unexpectedly retire every year.

Generally, it would be, you know, historically it was like 17.

Um, what Mr.

Butler, you know, and it was a great point that you brought up, Mr.

Butler.

What he brought up is, you know, post-COVID, we saw uh that number go from 17 to 27 to 42.

So it was significant, and I think it's a direct reflection of you know, perception of policing at the time.

Uh, but those numbers have dropped back down.

So we track when people have to leave because they're in drop.

Um, we track how often they actually stay, like what we know in our organization is when a member enters drop, generally about year three, if they stay to year three, then they go all five years.

But 50% of them, and this is probably a year and a half old now, 50% of them in the past by year two, they're like, ah, I got enough.

I'm good, I'm I'm I'm ready to go.

So um, but those numbers have stabilized and it's and it's much better off.

And it's you know, it's a testament to to the leadership of this team and how um and and previous leadership and how the organization um this community and everybody feels about them.

They they feel happy to stay.

Well, one other thing that's helped is uh two-year extension and the drop.

So a lot of personnel, both fire and police have chosen to stay an extra two years because they've figured out, you know, maybe I wasn't ready to leave in five years and financially whatever it might be.

But that's been to our benefit, yeah, mayor.

But then after seven years, you do have to leave.

None of you are in the drawing.

You are okay, Chief does it.

All right, we have one more slide.

Can we wrap it up?

Yes, so that will be me.

Um I get the opportunity to talk about overtime trends and fiscal stewardship.

So over the past three fiscal years, you can see that overtime has steadily declined across both sworn and professional staff.

And I'm just going to point out what's on the slides.

So we see 217,000 hours.

So we're talking hours, not dollars here.

So 217,000 hours in 2324 for sworn and 50,000 hours of overtime for professional staff.

You can see the drop down to 170 175,000 for sworn, then 43 uh thousand for professional staff.

Now for 2526, we are actually projecting, right?

Because the year's not over.

The numbers we use were from back in December.

And in December, we stood at 75,100 for sworn um overtime hours and 18,000 for professional staff.

So that puts us on track for this 147,000 hours to uh 35,000 hours for professional staff.

So you can clearly see that we are making efforts in uh reduction of overtime.

But these reductions, it's important to point out that they are not accidental.

Um, they are deliberate reductions.

They're results of intentional management uh controls implemented at the first line supervisor level, so your sergeants that are out there managing the folks, and then it is reinforced at the lieutenant and the commander's level.

Uh it's enhanced review, tighter control processes, smarter scheduling, and better alignment on to staffing operational needs.

Um this leads to significant uh improved efficiency in the deployment of our resources.

So this reduction has d has occurred despite ongoing staffing pressures, increased call volume because we do have that happening, um, expanded special of expanded special events and um and other rising operational demands that come out of that.

And so while the department has absorbed these demands that are placed on the police department, uh we continue to deliver service, high quality service, reducing overtime uh reliance, demonstrating strong fiscal discipline and operational oversight.

There are things that are beyond our control when it comes to overtime.

If we have um a critical incident, if we have call outs, if we have protests or civil unrest, if we have um politicians arrive in our city, right?

Those things are beyond our control.

The marathon, you know, we just it is it's demands to be a big city.

This this is what happens in big city, but we are still implementing um a very uh uh controlled paying attention to where we're seeing our overtime, what we're doing about it, how do we manage it, while maintaining service levels where they need to be.

And so our commanders put together reports every month for us, those go through the assistant chiefs of the affected bureaus, the assistant chiefs then put a report together, then that comes to me.

Then I take all that data and I put it together and I give it to the chief, and then the chief sends it on up the chain to show that we are paying attention, and that is the most critical piece of managing over time.

Um referring back to slide 13.

I just had an overall question on the park rangers.

We're eliminating three vacant positions.

I know that the park rangers were an issue a while ago, but is the vision for that um organization moving forward because obviously we want to make sure parks are safe and usable for families.

But with this reduction, that that's a little bit concerning.

Of course, thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um mayor and counsel.

Uh speaking to the park rangers.

So uh if you would recall, in about two fiscal years ago, we actually added four park rangers, and um the intent at that time, obviously there was different rank structure at that time.

Uh, but when we added the park rangers, um uh it was a supervisor and three park rangers.

Uh and the intent was to put one of the rangers in the real-time crime center to do the business associated with the parks with the increase in the cameras that we had to coming on board with the parks, um, then add a supervisor, and then really uh two park rangers to tackle um what was referred to as the inner city parks.

Really, that's uh some of the higher density parks or larger parks on the west side.

Pioneer, you know, those kind of park read park.

Um so with the transition uh to PD uh and uh earlier later late last year or mid-last year.

Uh obviously uh we uh well what we did was we converted the supervisor position to a sworn.

So we added a Sworn supervisor, which really covers that position.

And then um frankly, the real-time park ranger never materialized.

I'm not sure what was behind that, but uh since then we've now have 24-7 scheduling in the real-time crime center.

So really, I guess those two positions are I don't want to say they're not needed, but they're not needed.

Uh and then with the uh with the uh inner city parks, uh a couple of things that we did.

We did some schedule adjustments to um we don't need them here till one in the morning, right?

Um we looked at how the schedules and then how they were deployed.

Um we we deploy and uh for lack of a better word, it's an east-west central kind of deployment where we have uh park rangers that are uh holistically responsible for different areas, not just one inner city park, if that makes sense.

So um I guess to your point, uh, with with the uh continuity of operations and then some of the things we looked at also was uh increases in the unsheltered uh through some of the data sources that were available, uh and then recent data would suggest that um there is less unsheltered folks um that are uh in and some of the utilizes some of the parks.

So um with that um we feel very comfortable.

I feel very comfortable that uh these are vacant positions.

We're in the process of hiring uh our additional park ranger staff, but with the addition, I think we um you know, and also with technology too.

Uh we we you know we have now cameras in a lot of these parks.

Um I don't know that there's the same need that there was two or three years ago.

And again, if we need to pivot, we could always pivot.

Uh, but uh speaking to the park ranger reduction, that's the best explanation I can give you.

Yeah, so basically there's been a change in some of the organization where some of these positions aren't needed anymore because it's been absorbed by the police department, and we have opportunities for new technologies, at least in my district.

My concern is with uh some of the parks out there.

The um let's just say that the uh Wi-Fi signal isn't the greatest for getting connection to cameras uh the parks, and that's something I think we need to work with IT.

Um and as chair of public safety, I might I might want to have a presentation on park crime, which direction that's going, the park rangers, and maybe even roll I IT into that and uh make sure our parks are being safe.

Yeah, mayor, um vice mayor, as uh Chief Spicer just alluded to though that we're not this doesn't in any way diminish our commitment to the safety of the parks.

It's it's some efficiencies that came from actually um the park rangers being underneath the police department, but also as we work to fill some of those vacancies.

Um we didn't fill those positions until uh the chief and his team felt that um the training uh the revamp of the program was completely um uh completed and underway, and they were in a good situation then to go forward and fill um some of those remaining vacancies.

That that's gonna take a while to fill those vacancies and and because of everything that was mentioned about these, we felt that it was um acceptable right now to be able to take these these positions, but we'll continue to monitor.

We might have to add, you know, one or two positions back in the in the future, depending on need.

So um we know that this is something we may need to pivot on in a few years after we've been able to fully um hire up the program and then just see how that coordination uh is is going and and the efficiencies that have been gained from that integration inside the police department, but we're gonna continue to monitor that, and this is important I know to to everybody um that we make sure that our parks are safe.

Um well on that, real quick.

I I appreciate that that you're you're capable and you and um that you do just pivot.

I mean, sometimes things, you know, we we think we go down one path and it's just not working out, and it's not a big deal to pivot.

And I'm I'm glad to see that that we do that, and um we are still nimble enough to do that.

So appreciate that.

Um and then on your overtime hours, so thank you for your efforts on that.

That's this is impressive and great to see.

I just wonder if do you have a target you're trying to hit that you want to share if you don't want to share uh vice mayor, councilman will go forth.

I I we are budgeted a certain amount of time for overtime, so it would be great to meet that budget, but the reality is um we have demands, and as long as we're not fully staffed and still looking at like what our numbers really should be, and that's always a nuance.

Like, how do you really tell how many sworn police officers you need to effectively impact crime and safety and you know make the city the best it can be for its citizens?

So um we're always you know looking to stay within budget, but we do uh run a little bit over.

Chris, do you want to mention what our budget is?

Um yes, our our current budget is 17.3 million for overtime.

The thing, one of the pressures we do have on that is that an overtime hour in one year is not the same cost as the next year as you know, benchmark and and and add merits.

So that is one of the challenges we're we're working within.

So the hours compared to dollars, so we look at hours because that shows efforts, and dollars are going to be what dollars are going to be, just like the city manager mentioned, we have to stay competitive, we have to deal with inflation, all of the things.

So dollars may shift, and we constantly work with OMB to you know look at the So how much over budget are we projected to be?

So for overtime, Mayor Vice Mayor Council Member Go Forth.

We are an overtime about three to four million over budget, which historically that's just very impressive for us.

I mean, it's it really is kudos to exec staff and what Chief Nesbitt was talking about, where it's it's gone down to the you know, it's that's that's huge for us.

Right.

I mean, I've I've been here for these three years, and I have watched, and I we we do appreciate your efforts on that.

I know the council said please work on that, and you went and you did it, and we appreciate that.

So thank you.

Yeah, that can't be um under overstate enough, um, Mayor and Council that I mean this represents millions of dollars of savings that um PD has been able um to effectively manage.

And so kudos to the chief and the whole executive team command staff for making this a priority.

And um Chief Nesibitz's right.

I mean, we're we're we are responsive and reactive to a lot of situations that are outside of our control and events that are outside of of our control and and um public safety is number one, so we're gonna have the proper staffing to make sure that those events are safe and and those individuals are safe when those and when situations arise.

Um but there are things that the chief and his team have put in place to make sure that the overtime we can control uh is done responsibly, and that there's checks and balances and accountability down to the sergeant level um of understanding that.

And so I I appreciate that culture change um and the emphasis that the chief and and the command staff have put in uh that have made a huge difference in in this.

Okay, okay, I have a question on when we're spending a lot of money on overtime.

Do we analyze the fact that we can hire personnel to backfill the amount we're spending in overtime?

In other words, can we make savings by I'll use the word overhiring, and then those individuals fill backfilling for for overtime issues.

Like, okay, I come from the fire department, so rovers, you know, telestaffing, those type of things to reduce costs.

And do we I guess we haven't even reached our maximum capacity yet on the fill, but uh I you know, maybe that conversation for me may or offset that.

Yeah, mayor, we we definitely look at that in situations where um it's not situational.

The problem is as you're as you're describing in fire, we have a little bit of a different dynamic um when it's critical staffing and we have to um have overtime in order to fill um a position to be able to staff adequately staff a truck.

Sure.

In this situation, it's you think of spring training.

Um we're not going to hire the number of officers it takes to manage um the traffic and crowds at spring training for one month out of the year, right?

And and so we pay overtime for our officers um to uh have that duty to go out and and staff.

And you you'd see that if there was a protest and we needed to call in more people um, you know, then that's then we're paying overtime uh for that.

So it it's a little different.

I mean, not that there's situations and there are some things, and PD does look at that if it makes sense to um to actually hire someone versus pay overtime, but a lot of their um overtime costs are more related to events and and situations or um critical incidents that occur and they need to hold over uh that that staff um that past their their normal shift mayor vice mayor um members of the council.

One one of the other things that we do is the concept of the rover pool.

Uh, you know, you you and I, Mayor, have had that conversation a number of times over the years.

A few years back, uh, what we did is created a system that um requires every member, every sworn member, detective, whoever, to have a patrol proficiency ride along in patrol.

So essentially we created a rover pool by having a policy that we've had for a long time that requires every year all the detectives to bid for a week on patrol, and then they go out and supplement patrol, offsetting overtime impacts as well.

So it's we kind of create a rover pool.

What it does is it gives the detectives connectivity with the young members of our police department and then gets them up to date on the technologies that we have in the vehicles.

If they've been a detective five or six years, technology changes, they get used to doing that again.

Um, and it just builds relationship and camaraderie, and then uh intentional byproduct is it helps us a little bit with overtime, it helps us with safety because there's more men and women out there serving the community in case something you're really wild happens.

Um, and it's just it it's a really nice program.

So, in essence, it's it's the rover pool that you talked about, and that's one of the ways that we drive this this overtime down.

Good.

All right, thank you.

And Mayor, I was just going to add, we're constantly looking at our deployment resources, and every time we have recruits coming out of the academy, where do we put them?

Uh Chief Walker will look at what's happening in the city related to calls for service, and then we are able through technology to better deploy resources in that manner, and then we're we what monitor caseloads and we monitor call-outs and all of those things that we're trying to, you know, better stabilize uh the resources that we have.

Great, thank you.

Mayor.

I have one question that I meant to bring up earlier is um and previously we looked at the solving crime stats, and we didn't then, but I just wanted to mention it.

I know when we did before, it's quite impressive.

The num the um crimes we're able to solve the percentages are are quite impressive.

And so um are they static or I assume with technology and other offerings we're able to be better and better at uh solving crimes.

Um mayor, uh council member Duff.

Um, you know, if you recall in 2024, you know, specific to homicide investigations, we had a hundred percent solve rate, clearance rate.

Um 2025, my last check when I asked about it's been a couple months.

We're in the high 80 percentile, which is a little bit off from 2024.

But then when you really compare it to national average, where the majority of agencies around the country are at about a 50 percentile, uh, we're actually quite adept at making a huge difference for the victims of of homicides in our communities.

So those solve rates there are they're really important to us.

Um, you know, what it is is justice.

Um and you know, our role in commun creating a safe community is trying to prevent crimes.

Um so we have that thriving safe community, but also seeking justice for those individuals who become victims of crimes.

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, first, these these reduction in overtime hours that you display here are very impressive, and I it it it says to me that PD heard council's concerns, so I think this is well done.

I I'm just gonna echo the comment the mayor made uh a few minutes ago from a very simple standpoint, it would seem to me, and I've never managed a law enforcement uh agency, so I don't have that expertise, but it would seem to me that there's a there's a delta somewhere between paying overtime hours and hiring additional full-time staff to where uh this balances out, but I'm not gonna second guess that because I understand your uh your application and deployment of overtime hours, but it might be something we would continue to look at, you know, where if we're gonna spend the money, maybe if we had the additional sworn staff who could focus on traffic safety when they're not at the Cubs games or whatever.

Uh again, not trying to second guess your management of this issue, but I do I do have the same question, and maybe that's something we can continue to explore as we as we go down the road.

So thanks.

Okay.

Is that it?

Before you leave, Miss Taylor, do you have a question or or thought?

Uh yes, thank you.

I just well, first of all, I wanted to thank everyone uh for giving such an extensive and complete present.

She must be any smart.

You you broke up, Miss Taylor.

Or the Starlink is it working.

You might be back.

Okay, can you hear me?

We can.

Yeah.

I'm so sorry.

I might have to jump off if I had a family member call me.

Um but I wanted to say thank you for your presentation.

And I just wanted to confirm a couple things as I was listening.

Number one, uh, we are not fully staffed, is that correct?

We're not at maximum capacity.

That that is correct, Miss Taylor.

Okay.

And then my other question then was um I I definitely appreciate the reduction.

I I've seen in the overtime hours, I'm equating that to cost in my mind.

But would you tell us it out of the the number of officers you currently have staffed or sworn officers?

How many hours does that break down to on an average per officer per week?

Are they working like an extra 12 hours a week, 18 hours a week?

Do you know?

Uh Mayor, Councilmember Taylor, I I don't think I know that answer.

Um we we can try to figure that out for you, but um it varies.

Some some members work more overtime than others.

Um some members choose not to work any overtime if they if they could avoid it.

Um so uh we we could try to break it down, you know, with the number of overtime hours, then just create an average for sworn, and that would give us about you know, an idea of what it would be.

Uh but we do monitor, we monitor how you know members that are high overtime earners, um, not necessarily for the public perception aspect of it, but for wellness, you know.

What I don't want is people working every waking moment of their days and then burnt out by the end of their their careers and you know have it negatively impact their family or their health.

Okay, that's kind of where I was going, so you preempted my thoughts.

Thank you.

I just I appreciate their willingness to do it.

I know you all are probably very carefully managing their the officers mental health, if you will, along with you know, the number of hours they're working, because some people are real hungry and they get excited, but as you were saying, they can burn out in the long run, and we don't want our police officers to feel exasperated before they end their their career, a healthy and fulfilling career.

Um thank you for answering my questions.

Thank you for the wonderful presentation.

I I do need to um hop off this call, but I just I'm very proud of Mesa's public safety.

Um I'm very proud of our police officers, and I think that you know, rewarding excellence is is something that we should all do in our lives, and I just see a lot of excellence happening with our public safety.

So thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Ms.

Taylor.

Okay.

I'm gonna be hopping off the call.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Thank you, Ms.

Taylor.

Thank you.

Miss Goforth.

I I just want to also say thank you.

Thank you for your professionalism, your dedication to the city, and your dedication to innovation and looking for new ways and being flexible when the environment changes.

So I too am very proud that uh we have such a great group of men and women serving our our communities, and I know our community is proud too, because I hear it all the time.

So thank you.

You it's an understatement to say you have a hard job, both sworn and unsworn, and it's not something that you just turn off at night.

So we all are aware of that, and um it's a hard thing that you do, so we appreciate everything.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh the one thing I didn't see is your overall budget, and then how that breaks down, you know, on the re the reductions and everything.

So what's your overall budget cost, Chris?

Do you think 290?

Was it 290?

Yeah, yeah.

Do you want to go back to that slide that shows that?

So you're all what is this police department's budget?

Our total budget.

Did I miss it?

Is yeah, it'll be 290 million for fiscal year 2627 prior to carryovers and um, I imagine some additional Yeah, and salary increases that we'll talk about today.

All right.

All right, great.

Thank you.

Well, that's the end of the slide deck.

So mayor that was a perfect segue though, but I I can't I'd be remiss not to thank Krissa and her her staff.

Um this budget is larger than a lot of city general funds and in the valley, and uh, and so we're very appreciative of the work that Chris and her team do to support um and support all of our police department.

That's a heavy lift every year to try to wrangle this budget.

So appreciate her and her team.

Great.

All right, we'll take a little recess here and reset for the next presentation.

Thank you.

Go back to work.

Oh, you don't want to convene?

I'm sorry, I missed that.

I mean Deborah.

All right.

Next is item to be a presentation provide direction on an overview of the fiscal year 27 through 31 capital improvement program.

We have Brian and Chris.

All right, Brian, it's your good morning, Mayor and Council.

Uh Brian Richel, the Office of Management and Budget Director, along with me is uh Chris Lynch, who is the budget coordinator over the capital improvement program.

And what we'll be going through is our capital improv improvement program that the city does for the next five years.

So for fiscal year 27 through fiscal year 31, but just a reminder that in the budget process, the council only adopts the first year.

So as part of the budget, it's only the first year.

The right the rest of the last four years is just a plan, and we can um prioritize as we go through that plan.

But it's just to remind everyone that just the first year is actually uh adopted as part of the budget, even though the uh the council does adopt a um a plan, a five-year plan.

So an introduction to the funding plan, as I mentioned, it is a plan, and internally we go through it.

Uh we we plan out eight years.

Um it aligns infrastructure projects with the city goals.

Also, what we look at is unfunded projects, um, and what they do is they remain as part of the plan, but we still have them in there so we don't lose sight of them.

And as funds become available, then we can move them back into the plan.

So what we do is I mentioned a five-year plan is what is presented to council, and it is adopted by council, and this is per the city charter.

So per the city charter, the council must adopt a five-year capital improvement program.

So the first year, as I mentioned, is funding is uh appropriated as part of the annual budget.

So some of the CIP funding sources that I want to briefly go over is on the utility side, we have the utility revenues, those are the um the fees and charges for the utilities.

Also, utility revenue obligation bonds, and one of those is an example is the capacity fee.

And then we also have a utility taxable obligations, and that is we have one issuance out there, and that is for was for the expansion of the CMC steel, and that was for the uh gas line related to that.

On the non-utility side, we have local revenues, our sales tax, uh, and then also what we have is regional awards and also some grants.

Uh, and then we also have the general obligation bonds and excise tax bonds that we that help fund our capital improvement program.

The the one thing that we also do at the city is very key is looking at the operations and maintenance.

So when we look at a capital and uh a capital uh project, we also look to see if there's operations and maintenance that will um that are tied to that capital uh project once it's finished.

So when we do, we look at for instance a fire station, we look at the staffing that is needed for the fire station for libraries, the staffing for those, or a utility um plant expansion.

We also look at the surrounding area.

Do we have landscaping that we need to maintain, or if it's a parked, is there landscaping or any um park renovations that we need to do, any uh park equipment that needs to be done.

And then we also look at the one-time expenses, furniture, fixtures, equipment that go into a building or part of a park, and then also with staffing, there becomes vehicles.

So we kind of take a look at that, and that's inclusive of all the operations and maintenance for a capital project.

So our current CIP challenges, as we've mentioned, this kind of goes with all with the operations, too, is the rising labor costs and continued cost pressures across commodity services and contracts.

Inflation is moderating, but uh the prices remain elevated and have not declined.

And then also keeping up with growth while maintaining current infrastructure.

So we know there's certain parts of the city that are growing, but we also have certain parts of the cities that we need to maintain.

And so balancing that growth with that cost, uh, we take a look at those uh current challenges with those along with the cost and inflation.

So want to highlight some of the utility capital improvement program projects.

So first we'll start off with completed utility projects that were uh completed this fiscal year, current that we're in fiscal year 25-26.

Uh the central reuse pipeline is a major one that um just finished and now is uh uh flowing water down.

Uh also the Harris Drive um water main improvements.

This was big because this pipeline was also was installed in 1979, but it extends under the 60 freeway along Harris.

So it was key to be able to replace that.

So if anything did happen, um we weren't flooding the the freeway or anything like that.

So it was key to be able to replace this one.

Um we also have McDowell Roads and McKellop Road uh in there as transmission lines.

This was key because we wanted to replace these lines before an emergency did happen.

So with water resources being able to go out and um take a look at these pipes, we're able to fix it before something does happen as part of the operations and maintenance.

And then also we have uh Falcon Field has um some transmission main lines that are going there, but also Hohokam irrigation service on the energy side.

Uh some of the highlights is the LG gas line construction for us.

The construction is is done.

We're just waiting for LG to give us the go-ahead to start supplying the gas, and then also new services.

Um, we have here this the CPLC residence on Maine, which is right there off of Maine and Country Club.

This was key too because these upgrades, it was new services, but it also helped out with the re reliability of um power to uh three of our facilities, which is one is PD headquarters, MG, and then also forensics.

So doing this project also helped out with um those facilities.

So current some current utility CIPU projects uh going on.

Some of them I wanted to highlight was one is the uh the Clausen Gate station, and this is a gas-related.

What this does is it'll help support LG's uh gas demand, but also the future growth of Magma, because we know that the southeast part near Queen Creek and Sandan is growing, so that'll help out with those.

Also, the uh transform 17, the design for that is going on right now.

Um, with water resources, we have, of course, you know, the signal butte um water treatment plant um on phase two.

But then also we have uh new ground wells that we're currently doing down in the Southeast Valley to help um provide um another resource of water for the the Southeast.

And then I want to highlight some joint um CIP projects that are going on right now.

Just kind of emphasize that um a lot of these projects aren't done in silos of the departments, they do work together and to see um if there is uh one department that needs a construction project done under a street or anything like that.

They coordinate with transportation and water and energy, and so the smart metering is going on that should be done by the end of the calendar year.

But then also Broadway Road is a good example of that.

We have transportation, we have water, we have energy resources, all three of them working together on the Broadway Road currently.

Some utility projects that were looking to begin construction next fiscal year, so that would be coming up in this um uh coming up fiscal year budget with water resources.

We have the greenfield uh water reclamation plant, the aeration basin concrete rehab.

Uh we also have a couple of projects with the uh Northwest water reclamation plant, um, Broadway Road, the sewer relocation uh near the uh Union Pacific Railroad tracks, and then we also have the baseline interceptor sewer uh and then a couple of other rehabilitations of sewer improvements, and then also a lift station.

On the energy side, one key one is they've been looking at this for a few years now is the K the 69 KB looping.

This helps with redundancy, and this is in also in coordination with SRP.

And then also we'll be doing uh a gas line project at the um intersection of country club and southern.

And then also we have some new services that we're looking at at Club and Maine, and also at the AC Hotel.

So these are capital uh capital fee projects.

We just wanted to highlight um with the adoption that council did of the capacity fee.

We wanted to highlight some of these that we're currently working on.

So the signal butte is a huge um the expansion of Signal Butte, but also the East Mesa water interconnect pipes.

Um that will uh project set is going on, also new ground wells and collection lines, uh, new lift stations, some new pumps and new service lines.

And why I wanted to highlight this is it was key due to that these projects were um we're looking at probably in the next coming up fiscal year of these projects of probably over close to 150 million, 180 million.

This was taken out of the operating and off of the um off of the rate payers into the separate capacity fee and is being funded by the capacity fee.

So this was key to hide.

I wanted to highlight these that we're able to do these and relieve the rate pressure on the current rate customers.

Uh quick quick question, Brian.

Sorry.

The e the um what's the East Mesa water interconnect pipes?

So thank you, uh Mayor, Councilmember Goforth, and um we do have representatives from the other departments if uh I don't get it completely right back to the other.

And if you're gonna talk about that next, you we can wait.

Joe will uh describe it a little better than I can.

See if we need this microphone.

There we go.

Okay.

Um mayor, council member go forth.

The this project is to add some capacity, so it's basically upsizing a pipe that we have that will help us transfer water between zones of the city so we can ensure, especially as we face potential reductions on our Colorado River supply, so we can ensure we can move money uh money.

Water water is money.

Water is money.

So we can move water between zones and ensure we can have uh basically getting water to our brown road water treatment plants so we can distribute it to customers that are served that by that plant.

So we're each uh each zone that you're referring to is a different plants zone.

Or how do we how do we get too much in the weeds, but I just curious to be able to do that.

Essentially we we try to gravity feed water when we can, right?

So wastewater plants tend to be built at the lower elevations in the city, and water treatment plants tend to be built at the higher elevations in the city.

And then we want to be able to move water uh throughout the system as best we can.

In this case, we have a smaller pipe that constricts our ability to move water uh that we think is really important for us uh to get to the more northeast part of the city, and so this is an important project to get that completed.

And I'm actually planning to come speak to your office about this project in the coming weeks.

So okay, good.

I thought maybe I'd just forgotten, so I I didn't know.

That's good.

That makes me feel better.

That maybe it wasn't that we had been um briefed on it yet.

So thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Next slide.

So mayor and council, this slide shows uh future utility projects that are that are needed.

Um this is uh part of the the uh the forecast.

So I just wanted to highlight a few of them.

Um the Brown Road water treatment plant, um, the main switch gear and transformer uh is a significant project, but also the um SRP CAP interconnect facility, which you may um have been heard uh referred to as the SCIF.

Uh that's being able to move, and that is pictured um up there at the top, uh moving from the the South Canal to the Cap Canal.

Uh but then also energy resources has some trans uh the transwestern gas station uh construction, and this is key because what this is gonna do is this is working with Transwestern, and it would be a new 516 mile expansion um pipe from Texas to Arizona to help with the future growth of the gas line.

But then also we have um a few other projects, um, the Bella Vista Road high pressure upgrade, Clausengate station as part of the uh the LG expansion, and then also the construction for um Transform 17.

As mentioned, we are under design.

Um this would be the construction part of it.

And then on the solid waste is the east-west Mesa service centers.

We've um presented this to council a few years ago about um the uh renovating the east and west mesa service centers and um helping out with solid waste and moving um some of the solid waste fleet over to the east side um to help out with uh their drive time and making it more efficient and effective for solid waste.

That was a key project.

Then also a uh a transfer station uh we're looking at over on the east side of the of Mesa, and then also the materials recovery facility, the MERF that um we're working with um still working with Gilbert on.

So those are some future projects that were needed um that are still uh um we're looking at putting into the plan Brian.

Before we leave that, uh Scott, is there any time frame that you're looking at on the last, especially the East West Service Centers and the MERF?

I mean, when you say Gilbert, you know, intergovernment relationship.

Yeah, on the mayor, on the East and West Service Centers, um, we'll actually part of that discussion we'll we'll have in just a few weeks as we talk about potential bond um projects for uh this fall because there's some things we need to do on the on the west side uh service center in particular to to jump start all of this, and it's um you you've got to tackle one before you before you tackle the other.

And so we'll we'll be coming back to you here in just a few weeks to to share a little bit more on on that side and on the um on the MERS side.

Um I know Sherry's I'm not sure if Sherry's here.

Oh, you are income come on up.

And so we're um we're we're gonna have some make some decisions on that and come back to council soon.

Sherry's been getting back up to to speed on on everything, and uh we're I think we're scheduled to have a conversation about this, and um, and then we'll we we know how urgently some decisions need to be made on this.

It's about potential partnerships, public private partnerships we've um we've talked about, and then and so we're gonna explore those those options.

But Sherry, is there anything to add to to that point?

No, I think you covered it.

Okay, thank you, Sherry.

You're welcome.

Always love to be validated, so you know thank you.

Great.

All right, next slide.

Bye, Sherry.

Thank you, Mayor Council.

Just wanted to show some utility lifecycle purchases that are also as part of the plan, um, vehicle replacements.

We do that every year, but then also some pumps and motors, um, fire hydrant uh replacements, and then compliance lab equipment, along with um plant equipment for the uh water and wastewater plants.

So some of the lifecycle that aren't considered as big capital projects, but we look at every year and need to replace every uh so often.

So that does it with the utility capital improvement program.

Now moving into the non-utility uh capital improvement program.

And what I wanted to do with this slide is is kind of uh explain, go back to uh when the city treasurer was up here presenting on the general obligation bonds and the issuances.

What I wanted to show here was the general obligation bonds for the the past few uh elections back to 2018 and 2013.

Wanted to show the first column is what was authorized.

So what the voters voted on and how much um they authorized the city to go out for is the first column, and then the second column is what's been issued through calendar 26, and why we have calendar 26 is what the um the city treasurer mentioned is what we look at is when we issue, we normally issue in uh the May-June time frame, and what we do is we look back at the first six months to see what actual expenditures there are, and then we look at the future six months to see what we're planning to do, and we issue for that.

So that's why we do it on a calendar basis.

So as you see, the um, and then on the right-hand side is what is issued.

And so to take into one of the questions that was asked was about and clarifying about well, when we authorize, do we issue?

No, we don't.

So, as you see, when we get the authorization, that just means we have the authority to be able to go and and issue bonds for our capital projects.

We don't issue bonds until after those the construction starts and those projects start going.

And so that's when we issue the bonds.

So that's why you'll see a discrepancy between what's authorized and then what's issued, and then the percentages.

So with the non-utility projects completed this fiscal year, as you see, we've got the Northeast Public Safety Facility, the Gateway Library, um, Reed Park, and some non-playable turf conversions on the transportation side.

We had the gateway library um pedestrian hybrid beacon, um, the eastern canal um shared use path and signals at Brown and to uh Broadway, and then also the loop 202 Red Mountain Shared Use Path that from uh a power past Thomas Road.

So those are some of the non-utility projects that are completed.

Now the current projects that we're going on is a little longer list that we're doing.

We have just highlight some as fire as you're well aware.

Fire station 224 is under construction.

We have the uh Department of Innovation and Technology.

They're finished, they're doing the citywide fiber phase two.

Also, we have the fire station 205 rebuild fuel tanks within the fire stations.

Um we are uh replacing and and um taking out on some of those.

We have PD headquarters going on down on the parks rec and commercial facilities.

Uh they have uh a big project of the the cemetery, the SRP canal relocation, and this is kind of a domino effect that would lead to other uh projects within the cemetery for expansion, and then also the Eastmark Aquatics Complex that is under design, and then also the Red Mountain Aquatics Complex is under design.

And then, as you know, a few a few of those transportation of Albista Drive, Pueblo to US 60, also the Ellsworth Widening, and also the Ray Road connection to Ellsworth.

So wanted to highlight some of those projects that are currently going on.

Some of the projects that we're looking to start construction on in 26-27.

Uh the arts and culture, the MAC lighting system replacement.

This is phase one.

So this is for the main theater only.

They're gonna replace the lighting in there.

Uh we're also looking to go under construction for fire station 223.

Um, also we're looking at um fire station restroom remodels.

So what the city is doing is looking at those restrooms in some of the older fire stations and remodeling those.

Uh and then Falcon Field has some um road construction going on, then transportation is looking to start uh a few uh projects, especially the Southern Avenue at Country Club uh drive roadway improvements along with the uh the gas improvements.

Uh transportation is also looking at widening road, um the Warner Road widening from mountain into Meridian, and that is key because there is a a new K through 12 school going on right across the border there.

ALA is putting a new school, so the traffic will be picking up at that intersection.

Uh and then also we have multiple dog park renovations going on and also some um playground renovations improvements, and those playground renovation improvements are associated with the 2024 bond issuance.

So they're in design, but now we're looking to go into construction with those uh in this coming up fiscal year.

Some future non-utility um projects that are needed.

Um so the MAC lighting, we're doing phase one now.

However, there are some future phases that would do the rest of the campus that we're uh looking to do.

Also, uh fire admin building um renovation.

We have some renovations at some of the the libraries, the Dobson Library, mainly uh the main library, north lawn redevelopment.

Also, as I mentioned, with the uh parks rec and commercial facilities, the cemetery operations building, and the cemetery southwest building um expansion.

So that is key to the um relocation of the canal first, and then they can look at uh doing the the these two.

Uh also is some amphitheater upgrades, and then also Dobson Ranch Lake 6 rehabilitation.

And one of the big ones down there also is the deferred maintenance.

Um we know that um when um parks uh came up, and I believe Tony came up also, who is the director over the um facilities management, is we have we are consulting with a group right now, the Gordian group, to go through all of our assets and and and look at all of the conditions of our assets, and then once we have that, we'll be able to see uh how much of deferred maintenance we need to do, and we'll be able to hopefully start planning that out in the future years of being able to catch up with that deferred maintenance of our existing um facilities and some of the lifecycle uh projects uh that will be that we'll be doing is uh we continue to do a computer replacements, also vehicle replacements, uh as I believe we talked about before, police and fire radio upgrades and replacements uh in this current fiscal year.

They've that we have, I believe, is about nine million dollars uh for the PD radios, but also PD has some technical service replacements, equipment, um fire has some apparatus replacements and equipment, uh the MAC has some equipment replacement also, but then also some aging city facility infrastructures we're taking a look at, and then transportation has some end of life infrastructure replacements that are going on.

So these are all the life cycles that we do take a look at every year.

It just comes up uh every five, ten, fifteen years, depending on what it is.

We have that, it's not a major it it's not considered a major project, but it is something that we we need to continue to fund.

And with that, uh any questions.

Wow, thank you, Brian.

Blue right through this council.

A lot of projects were definitely a lot of construction, CIP, future bonding projects.

Uh we're we're on the move.

This city's on the move doing a lot of different things.

Um I don't really have any, I mean, I could get in the weeds on some, but I know that we'll wait to the individual departments come up and talk about water, you know, projects and things like that.

But okay.

I have a quick question, maybe not that quick.

But we we talk a lot about deferring some of these projects and deferring maintenance on existing infrastructure, but on slide five, it says inflation is moderating, but prices remain elevated and have not declined from prior increases.

At what point do we say that we have to move forward with a project or maintenance, even though the costs are high, because typically we don't see that much of a decline in in costs.

Yeah, Mayor and Council we're constantly evaluating that.

Um and and you're right.

I you're you're I think you're referring to when um we pushed out some of our, especially on the utility fund, pushed out several projects because of heightened price on those, and and um because of the capacity fee, we've been able to bring several of those projects back in.

But as we look at um a lot of these projects, some are growth related, as we we see with the fire stations and and some of the utility side of things, others are um that basic bread and butter.

Um we've got to keep up our existing facilities, keep our apparatus um uh uh up to date and current, and so we have um, as we talked about as the mayor alluded to as well, that we you know we've really tried to put a focus now on the deferred maintenance side, and and I say that in the large um um scope because the east and west service centers that we already talked about are in desperate need and it has a ripple effect through all of our services when when fleets not adequately sized and we can't service our solid waste trucks and we can't get solid waste trucks out on the field, and when they're overcommitted and we don't have the bays to then get our police cars um adequately serviced, it it has a ripple effect throughout utilities and public safety, and it's um part of that is just antiquated facilities that we haven't done as good enough job as we should have on keeping up on.

So um I I appreciate council's support on the realization that we're gonna have to tackle some things that aren't necessarily the most sexy of projects because it's you know the bread and butter of what we need to do to maintain operations as a city, and you know, as I speak to groups, I mean no one no one enjoys well, maybe the mayor and vice mayor do, but no one enjoys cutting the fire station ribbon more than I do.

But if we're not maintaining our current assets and and facilities, then we're not doing right by our customers, and we're not doing right by our employees, and so that's uh a real emphasis that we're gonna continue to monitor moving forward.

Ms.

Goforth.

I appreciate that and couldn't agree more, Scott.

Um so what is it that we're approving today?

And where I mean, so you I think you said we're only approving the year one.

Uh one year, I guess, the annual um capital improvement plan.

Is it sort of somewhere in a nutshell or is it all these slides?

The the to begin, the current, the I guess I'm I'm asking where where's is this the full list of the the budgeted CIP projects for the next year that we're we're approving?

Yeah, so mayor, council member go for thank you for the question.

Um what we you're approving would be the fiscal year 2627.

So in this presentation, it would be um mostly if not all of the construction that is starting.

Um the the projects that we highlighted in for starting in 2627, but also attached.

Um I'm sorry it was late last night or yesterday evening attached is the five-year CIP um the the uh list of all of the CIP for the five-year capital improvement program.

What will be coming back to in um adoption in June is the one year of the the first year of that fiscal year 2627 for the adopted budget.

Can you do that?

So that five-year plan has everything by category, not by year.

So if we can we can pull that out, that would be great.

Yeah, so this is yeah, we can we can do that in uh a a couple of weeks when we finalize the budget of everything that's going on, but we will definitely show you that one year of what that capital, what the one year is, but then also with the plan, but we can isolate that one year to show you what the capital improvement and life cycle would be, the amount would be.

That would be great.

Because I know some of those they span over multiple years.

Right.

Yes.

Right, correct.

Yeah.

And so, but what what is it that we're voting on the number for this year?

Um the five year plan is helpful too to see what what our future looks like as well.

But if you could pull that one year, that would be great.

Thank you.

Yeah, and again, I don't maybe I don't want to beat a dead horse on this.

You you are approving the five-year plan uh per the charter.

That is that is the requirement.

But what to your point, what you really want to focus on though are those projects that are either currently ongoing, uh, that are under construction or those that are planned to start construction in the next uh in the upcoming fiscal year.

And it's in the budget.

And that's in the budget, yeah.

And that's why the OMB can isolate that and just make sure that you're aware of those projects that we expect to start.

Great.

And I I I assume it's it's a bunch of it's all these, but if we could see it with in the format of the five-year plan, I like that format because it but um sure.

Yep, thank you.

Well, on that too, what one thing we're spending on is the indoor rec center in council district two, and we haven't had that conversation in a while, but I know there was some concern about its location and so what yeah, well 4.5 million for 2627.

So what what was the decision of council on that particular project?

Yeah, I uh so Brian, I'm not sure what that 4.5 represents.

But we we haven't made a decision to move forward um on that.

That is something that we want to come back and have a discussion um in the future with council about the best use of of those funds.

Um and so um I'll do do you happen to know what that 4.5 is that's here.

Do we want to roll that into a discussion when we talk about the parks budget too?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I I don't want to put Andrea on the spot because she's uh she's here.

She's she's probably not yeah, yeah.

Um, did we?

Uh mayor and council, that's right.

The we have not brought that discussion back for council.

So one thing just to identify anything that is when we say adopted, so when Brian's talking about adopted into the budget, that's just the capacity for that.

That's not the actual approval to spend.

We'd have to come back to council with the project and the whether it's pre-design or design work and 4.5 million dollars to me would be the design work for that.

Um but we haven't had the conversation to move forward, and we haven't had the conversation at the final location.

So so Vice Mayor, I think it was probably just programmed in under the belief that w at this stage we would have been under design of that if it were moving, if the if it was still the green light to in council's endorsement to move ahead with the previously discussed location, but I I know there's been a great interest, not just from council, but by staff to reevaluate some of the thinking around that and and so we'll we'll come back um to you with that.

So bottom line is we won't be spending that 4.5 million that's but it will be in the budget in the event that we decided to move forward, right?

Okay.

But we still have to have that conversation.

Absolutely.

Correct.

And mayor and vice and vice mayor, that's that's exactly and that's exactly what um the right the budget is a plan, and it gives us the capacity to move forward if we so choose.

It does not require us or commit us to move forward on any particular project that has not come before council.

All right, very good.

Mr.

Adams.

Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh so to to the earlier question about the the the current year versus the projection.

Isn't that your second 32-page attachment?

Isn't that what you have there, Mr.

Ruby?

Yes.

Mayor that shows the current plus then the the other four.

Correct.

Mayor, council member Adams, yes.

The the attached um document that it was in legislatar to this presentation does show what we are looking at budgeting for current budgeting for fiscal year 26-27, but then the four years after that is just the plan.

So, and is um uh deputy city manager Kennestraw mentioned is that this just gives us the capacity to do it.

It doesn't mean that we would need to move forward with it.

It that's council decision and city management decision on that.

But yes, if the fiscal year 26-27 column, that is where we are looking for.

The one thing that this does not include just yet, and we're working through that process is any carryover project expenditures.

So this this could go up depending on if the project is currently going, and then we need to carry over some because they're they don't think they're gonna spend as much, so uh we would have carryover within the fiscal year 2627, but this is what we're looking at.

That column.

Okay, so then to answer council member goforth's question, you would you would supplement this document I'm referring to with any carryover.

Yeah, so this is just the the first version.

So when we go to adopt uh council uh considers this for adoption in June, we will have a finalized version, and so that would that would coincide with the budget.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure I was looking at the the the same thing here when I when I scrolled through here.

Um and just to clarify, all of the funding that we're talking about here, these are all voter approved measures, correct?

So voter approved.

Mayor council mayor council member Adams, it's a mixture.

So some of the projects are um capital uh cash funded from the general governmental fund.

Uh some of them are gonna be cash funded through utilities, and so uh a majority, yes, would be general obligation bonds, voter approved or through uh utility um the the bonding through utility of the obligations, but a major uh some of it is gonna be cash funded for these that are listed in this project.

And it does it does show this this uh document that is attached, does show the different funding sources that are part of those projects.

So it will show if it's a general obligation and which series it is and when it was authorized, and it also will also show if it's uh a capital or a uh uh cash funded for it will say capital fund.

Well, your your detail is as usual very good, and I just didn't see it.

So thank you.

Okay, thanks.

I think where we're gonna catch a lot of Alches on the deferred maintenance once the consulting is done, then we're gonna have a set up a maintenance schedule based on all that, you know, and I'm not gonna use perpetuity, but for quite a few years to figure out how we're gonna stretch those dollars.

All right, thank you.

Next slide or is that it?

That's that's it, Mayor Council.

Thank you.

Right, you're off the hook.

Thank you.

Thanks.

All right.

Uh next is uh to see a presentation for a direction on the water resources budget, presented by Joe and Chase.

I know Joe has his team here with him.

All right, good morning, Mayor Freeman, members of the council, Joe Judice, Water Resources Director, uh joining me, Chase Carlyle, our enterprise deputy director.

And uh in the audience, I've got uh a few of my amazing team members here.

Uh Jesse in particular has been really outstanding in helping me, and Stella is here.

She is the brains behind all this.

So I really appreciate all her hard work.

Um I'd I'd be remiss if I didn't uh thank my predecessor, Chris Hassart.

Um I have the luxury of joining an amazing team at the water resources department that he has led and a department that is operating incredibly well, and I'm I'm very thankful for that.

So our water resources department to public purpose is to responsibly utilize Mesa's water supply and provide water and wastewater services that maintain affordability, safety, and reliability, aligning with our priorities of quality development and a thriving community.

And our our budget priorities align with that public purpose.

Uh I want to take a moment to highlight some significant accomplishments, some of which you've already heard about today, uh, our central Mesa reuse pipeline.

Of course, our citizens know because Valvista Road was experiencing some disruption for some period of time as we constructed this 10-mile pipeline.

But um really an amazing investment by this mayor and council in in the future of Mesa's water supply by um expanding on our exchange agreement with the Heela River Indian community, whereby we're able to provide them traded wastewater that they can use to irrigate their fields in exchange, they give us their higher priority Colorado River water that we're able to treat and deliver to our residents.

So really outstanding, and being that this is a budget presentation, it's also important to highlight the fact that um because of the way their rights are secured, we're able to purchase their Central Arizona project water at a lower cost, about 25% actually of what uh our costs are.

So it also serves us financially as well.

We know that water is a precious resource, and we should be leading by example.

And this truck's already shown that in one year's time it's going to save us two million gallons in water.

And so as we replace other trucks in the future, we'll be continuing to make investments in this type of truck.

Additionally, not only have we learned it saves us water, but it's also a more efficient operation for us.

We're able to save about 30% of the time.

So we're basically 30% more efficient in our sewer line cleaning with this truck.

So it's been an outstanding investment.

Also looking to the future or the present.

We're implementing AI technology to help us in our sewer line inspections.

So again, we inspect our sewer lines regularly because we're looking to find problems in the lines that need to be fixed before they leak, right?

We want to protect the environment.

We don't want to have sewer line ruptures.

In in the traditional past, we'd send cameras through, we'd sit down and we'd just go through the arduous task of watching that camera footage and looking for problems.

AI technology helps us dramatically expedite that review time.

It finds the problems and points them out to us, so our staff don't have to spend the inordinate amount of hours going through the filming.

The technology really helps us through.

Another that's been another great investment.

And those two investments have helped us uh identify that our costs of doing some of this work.

We can now insource it because we can do it at a lower cost than some of what our contract expenses are to do the same work from prior years.

And then third, this uh amazing joint project we have with uh gas and electric utility and business services uh to invest in smart metering.

From the water resources perspective, just highlighting uh a few major benefits this provides us.

First off, it's more efficient, so we're um able to get meter reads without sending out uh a large workforce of staff to collect meter rates, so that's saving on some resource time and cost.

But additionally, residents can get much more real-time access to their water consumption.

They may find leaks.

We can help them find leaks more quickly.

And that's important to help them keep their bills down if there is a leak, but also to preserve water, right?

A precious resource for us.

There's been a lot in the news lately about the Colorado River.

I think the mayor just did another interview yesterday uh with ABC 15.

Uh, appreciate your leadership on that matter.

And uh Chris Hassart, my predecessor was here a couple of months ago just to give you guys an update on our water portfolio and what's happening up with the Colorado River.

And I will be back again soon as we have as more certainty as we get some certainty.

Um I wanted to take a moment at least to acknowledge that and then talk a little bit about what we at the City of Mesa have been doing with our own operations and how we can lead by example in our water conservation efforts.

So uh Eric was here before you a couple of weeks ago now, presenting on the transportation budget, and he mentioned this, but uh I want to give the transportation department so much credit for the program they've been doing to change out uh turf in the right-of-way with uh low water use plants.

That's helped save um quite a bit of water use.

The parks department similarly has been making significant investments, and uh I want to acknowledge also our uh sustainability environment department for helping them secure resources through WIFER grants, et cetera.

So, you know, we're out looking for where there's resources financially to help the city make investments uh in water conservation opportunities.

Another example of that is uh I kind of like akin this to Dave Ramsey's all all always on the radio.

If you know about him talking about household budgeting and how important it is to prepare a budget, well, water fluence is essentially a tool to help our departments budget their water use.

And I know our parks department's been using this uh significantly and it's been helping them manage their their water consumption.

And then uh I don't want to leave out our facilities department.

They've also been looking for opportunities to invest in whether it's low water use fixtures in our buildings, but also a simple example, but one I think that just shows how you can make little differences.

Um we have ice machines so that our employees during the hot summer months can have access to ice to keep their water cool, et cetera.

We changed those out recently from uh water cooled ice machines, evaporative to air-cooled, and that's saving quite a bit of water.

So it's every little thing matters, every little investment matters.

As I mentioned, our public purpose, we highlighted three key outcome areas affordability, safety, and reliability, and so I want to share with you some of the KPIs that we've been measuring along those lines.

From an affordability perspective, um, we took a look at EPA publishes a national ranking of a standard, basically saying that a family of fourers water median household income shouldn't exceed four and a half percent to pay for their water and wastewater utilities.

Okay, so we took that benchmark and we said, how do we look here at the city of Mesa?

So if we look at a family of four and our median household income, our water and wastewater utility rates come in around one percent.

We feel really good about that.

We didn't want to stop there.

What about maybe our most vulnerable?

How how does this impact them?

And so what this green line represents is um a single earner family making minimum wage.

What would that be as a portion of their household income to pay for their water and wastewater rates?

And so we feel that this represents that, and this is really important for us that we continue to be an affordable utility.

Uh that's an important value for us.

The next uh indicator we want to talk about is uh a safety indicator.

So this is a measure of sanitary sewer overflows.

Again, I had talked earlier about our sewer cleaning program.

A lot of that is to prevent this type of uh event from happening.

The uh national average uh sanitary sewer overflows is about a little over eight per quarter.

The city of Mesa set its own standard.

So we set a standard for ourselves that we want to be below two, and our actual is represented by this green line.

So we've had three hiccups in the past three years.

Um Jesse would want me to point out to you that one or two of these were because of a contractor's error, not by not because of our own failure.

So uh we still account for it, but uh he takes the point is it's a point of pride for our department that we really uh manage these very well.

Someone else hit our stuff.

Or drop something in the line that blocked it up and caused an overflow, yes, while working on it.

This is where we go.

Another really important uh measure for us is the reliability of our system and water loss or unaccounted for water are uh is an important measure for that.

So let me just just define this quickly and then I will describe what the 16% line represents.

So system water loss and unaccounted for water are kind of two things essentially.

Um water loss is leaking pipes that we need to prevent from leaking.

Unaccounted for water can be a couple of different things.

We fight fires, and we don't, we're not tracking how much water is coming through the hydrants.

So it's we know it's being used, but it's not accounted for.

And then in our meters, you know, they're designed to capture and track every drop of water that goes through, but they're not perfect.

So there is um some amount of water that goes through a meter that's not fully measured, and so that's unaccounted for water.

The 16% number here uh or line, that's the national average for a water utility of our size in terms of system water loss and unaccounted for water.

The state of Arizona recognizes we live in a desert.

And years ago said, hey, that's you know we need to track this.

This and we need to have an expectation that our utilities, public or private, are doing a really good job of managing water loss.

And so they've set a standard for us that we need to be at or below 10%.

This is where Mesa tracks, so we're doing really well.

One quick note I'll highlight is we had a really good declining trend.

Um, and it kind of lines up with the advanced metering project.

Meaning, as we were going in and changing out meters, we were also seeing some drop there in water loss.

So we believe, and there we don't have proof, but we believe there may be some association with just unaccounted for water as we got newer meters in place.

All right, I'm going to turn it over to Chase to go through our budget.

All right.

Thank you.

So our department uh separates its budget into two main areas.

The first is water, and then the second is wastewater.

This summary slide shows the proposed budget for our the water side of the house.

So if you look at the uh the column on the right, that's the proposed budget.

You will see that it is increased uh from this year's budget by 6.4 million.

The main driver of that is the uh signal butte water plant expansion that is coming online this next fiscal year.

So there are five additional positions and associated costs that are built into that number.

Uh some other increases that we are seeing are in our commodities, so our chemical and utility costs.

Uh as stated earlier, we are seeing uh the c the cost inflation leveling out, but they it is not necessarily lowering.

But we're also seeing that our uh the cost to maintain our to to service our system as it grows also contributes to that growth.

And then uh we are uh proposing an additional one million dollars for our water purchases.

Uh uh that's the what the raw water uh category is.

And so those are those are the main drivers of of the increases for the water side of our house.

Looking at wastewater, uh you can see that it just has a quick question.

So I d I think you said it, but I just want to um maybe you just say it again.

These are also going up because we are treating and distributing more water.

Correct.

Okay.

As the system grows, it requires more chemicals, more electricity.

Okay.

Uh the CMRP, we actually you know have added utility costs for that because we have to pump the water in some areas.

And so it is it's associated with the growth of the system.

So I don't know if you do it in a unit scale cost somehow.

I mean, that's probably not rising as much.

I mean, it is a little, because can what you said, chemicals and and things are going up, but not it not as really reflected on this.

This is more about capacity growth increasing.

Okay.

Do you do it by a smaller unit?

So we can, it would take a little bit of work.

Um, but we do have a lot of data and we know how much how much you know how many pounds of chemicals we're using uh to treat the water that's coming through.

So we could probably come up with a number we just don't have that today.

Pretty complex.

And and I and by unit I mean yeah, water treated or and and distributed.

Because it I guess the distribu distribution doesn't include the treatment.

You separate those two out.

Yeah, we do separate the distribution from the treatment.

Okay, anyway, I I don't know if you need to do that.

That's a that's a lot of work, but I just wanted to clarify that this is not just about increased cost but increased capacity.

Correct.

Thank you.

Yep.

And then on the wastewater side, you'll see on the right hand side that column column furthest to the right.

Uh our proposed budget is 50 million dollars.

This is just a 700,000 dollar increase from our current budget.

Again, the main drivers of this are our commodity costs.

We're using more uh more chemicals in the uh in the collection side because we have to dose the the collection with uh uh chlorine.

Odor control, yeah.

For order control for odor control.

Wanted to make sure I got the very important a very important factor.

Wanted to make sure I got the chemical right.

And then also this includes the merit increases uh for personnel.

So but overall the costs uh increase on this side are minimal.

So then uh also included in these uh numbers are three enhancements.

Uh I'll talk briefly about them.

You you know about all of them.

We've talked about them in the past, but the first is the Bartlett Dam feasibility study.

Uh our share for next year is 144,000.

What this project will ultimately do is uh help enhance our long-term system reliability and affordability.

Uh this study is expected to be completed sometime in the middle of next year.

Uh, the second one is 97,000 for the SRP CAP interconnect facility technical review.

Uh, this is different than the item that's going to be on your agenda for Monday for your consideration.

There is an IGA for your consideration on Monday related to the water quality impacts of what the SCIF will be that we are proposing that we enter into with the town of Gilbert and the city of Chandler to look at our facilities and see what the impacts of this water exchange that the SCIF would allow would have on our facilities.

But what the SCIF ultimately will do is it will allow us to move uh water in between on project and off water off-project uh to help make sure that we can get the water where we need it to be.

You might want to explain this clarify all the time.

Let me just clarify, it's not so much on project off project, because that has a very uh broad broad it's a definition and it's able to move water between the CAP, the Central Arizona project canal system and the Salt River Project Canal system.

So for example, water that we might get from Bartlett Lake in the future or through Roosevelt Lake that we have already in our portfolio, we would be able to move it from the Salt River Canal system into the CAP canal system so we can get it to treatment plants such as the Brown Road Plant or the Signal Butte plant and deliver it to customers in that part of the city.

So that's really project water.

Some of that would be off-project water.

Correct.

It would be off-project water.

So that could go anywhere in our it can go anywhere in our city, right?

Yeah, it would be good.

But we still have the parameters of on project and off-project.

It's just that the these additional sources are coming, are able to use off off-project, even though they're SRP.

Right.

It's the the NCS water, the non-confirmation conservation.

It's just think of another bucket of water that's available for our utilization.

How come they're not restricting it to on project?

I was just curious.

Longer conversation.

Okay, sorry.

Mayor Councilwember go forth.

Essentially, the legalities of what's on project go date way back to the formation of the Bureau of Reclamation's SRP district and landowners.

The landowners are in titles for the land.

And then finally, the third enhancement is related to some unfunded mandates that uh we still have from the federal government related to the lead and copper rule revisions done with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as well as PFAS analytical services for a total amount of $251,000 or almost $252,000.

And uh that funding uh comes from the environmental compliance fee uh that uh is charged to the customers on their bill.

Before we leave the slide, I I just want to I was in Washington DC last week and talked to the Department of Interior about the importance of building Bartlett Dam and our participation and the necessity of getting that the NEPA and everything done timely so we could get that dam built.

And so they will see Miranda's got her marching orders on that.

So we're working on the federal side to make sure all of us are a player in that'll allocate a certain amount of acre feet of water, another bucket of water once the dam is built.

Thank you.

Sorry, uh just sidebar conversation.

It's all right, Mayor.

I think at this point we are here to take any questions you may have.

Ms.

Duff.

Yeah, on the lead and copper and the PFAS.

Isn't there any grants if this especially since it's mandated from the federal government?

Are there any grants that would pay for the testing that we have to do for the reporting?

No.

Yeah, I don't um Mayor, Councilmember Duff, we have not uh identified any grants.

This is truly one of those um here's a new here's a new rule, you need to go do it.

All cities across the the United States need to do this.

Um we have mostly completed our analysis.

That's the good news.

Um I think we have a on the lead and copper, we have like a few percentage left to complete.

It may take a little bit because there are more most complicated um assessments to be completed, but we've we've mostly done all the work that's required.

The other good news here is that the assessments are showing that Mesa's in a really good place when it comes to these concerns.

So these are concerns about contaminants in our water system, right?

And so thankfully Mesa uh is not discovering a PFAS issue in our groundwater table that's going to impact our wells uh in any significant fashion.

And from a lead and copper perspective, perhaps we we benefit by being in newer city, and and most of the plumbing was constructed without lead and copper in in our in our city.

So we are in really good shape there too.

This is not a uh Detroit Michigan situation here.

So that's good.

I had I had originally had some concerns around the um Mesa Gateway Airport since that was prior a military um airport, and that we're digging a lot of wells around their groundwater wells, but we're in good shape.

We don't have the PFAS concerns in the water.

Yeah, mayor, council member Duff.

Correct.

Uh we in fact that was one of the first places we went to go check, right?

So that you know that's a uh a concerning area because firefighting foam at airports was a concern, but we have not discovered impacts in any of the groundwater in in that area, so we're in good shape.

Thank you.

So I have I have two more, Joan.

Is um obviously you know I'm big on whale sites and access our water portfolio, especially in our grusp area, and how we're going to uh get that water pumped out.

I know we have some well sites in the area.

Salt River Project is building or has built four to five different wells in that area.

So do we have a well drilling plan structure to help get those get that water access to our water underground water uh portfolio there?

Yes, uh Mayor Um heard you have heard you loud and clear on this one.

And yes, we do.

We actually have uh some site control on a site that uh we are actively collaborating on that would be uh uh an excellent site for a well to be able to recover our our stored groundwater, and we have two other sites, two other existing well sites that we are uh investigating to reactivate that would also help us uh in that in that end.

So we are that is a priority for our department.

Okay.

I know we can always trade water or wells, you know, with with Salt River Project.

So I I think that's a priority to get that uh infrastructure in for our future needs, especially if we're gonna experience any cuts.

Uh on the conservation side of it, this might be a little sidebar, but what conservation level are we at now for our city?

We are currently at stage one.

Stage one.

And what would trigger stage two?

Well, we have a uh a plan that has a very variety of triggers and uh reductions in our water portfolio.

So from the Central Arizona project, depending on uh what the federal government decides and and how that's gonna impact Mesa.

Um, you know, there could be a level of reduction in water supply that might trigger a level two, and we'll be back to talk to you about that if that's turns out to be the case.

Okay, maybe by October 1st we'll they'll figure that out, right?

I think before then.

I think we'll know before then.

And I think we can hopefully be back before you maybe in August to talk about this.

All right.

Sooner is better.

All right.

Council, anything else?

I just had one question.

Well, how many FTEs are in the water resources department?

We have 318.5 FTEs.

Okay, thank you.

All right, gentlemen, you're done.

Thank you.

With that, we'll move on to a motion, the receipt of various board minutes.

Is there a motion?

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Fall in favor say aye.

Aye.

There's no one opposed.

It passes unanimously.

Next is current events and conferences attended.

Council, do you want to share what you've done this past month?

At least a week.

Miss Duff.

Sure.

I'm sure you have a list.

Yeah, last Saturday I went to the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum for Family Day.

I appreciate that they have these uh craft events for the family to enjoy.

Afterwards, I went to the celebrate Mesa at Pioneer Park.

Um I know you were there, Mayor and uh Councilmember Taylor.

Yeah, I don't think I don't know.

Council Member Taylor was there.

Yeah, and we gave out some t-shirts.

It was very, very well attended as the best celebrate Mesa at Pioneer Park that I've seen.

Um it's probably record attendance.

Um that night I went to Coop Stock as a concert fundraiser for the Alice Cooper Solid Rock Team Center.

We have one here at country near a country club in Maine.

And um, so hopefully that was successful.

It supports the uh solid rock teen centers across the valley, including here in Mesa.

Um the week prior, I attended ribbon cutting at the teen center for naming rights.

Um and uh Robert Shippy contributed like a million dollars to Solid Rock, so thank you to him for continuing the incredible work for a free um after school program for teenagers for music and art and dancing, photography, all led by professional level uh teachers, so they um can have that experience.

Um Tuesday night I went to the Cubs thank you dinner for for the um Mesa Ho comms on their 75th anniversary.

Councilmember Gulf was there, the mayor was there, very good attendance.

The Cubs are actually celebrating also 150 years this year as a team, and 75 of which are at the spring training here in Mesa.

Um yesterday was bike to work day.

So um we had employees and residents all join us down center street to the city plaza where we had some breakfast and a good DJ and uh thank you to the transportation department for putting that together and all the other city departments that contributed and had their um tables out there and giving out information on our city services.

And it's beautiful weather, and uh we should all ride a bike more.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Duff.

Mr.

Adams, anything?

Mr.

Edia Ms.

Go Forth.

Sure.

Um I also uh participated in uh bike to work and council member Adams, I guess.

He's not gonna doesn't want to talk about that.

Sorry.

He he left me in the dust on his bike.

Oh, yeah, no, it was it was a great event.

I was uh I was impressed.

I think we got more motor officers uh escorting us than the the president might if you came to Gateway Airport, but no, it's a great event.

Yeah.

Escorting or chasing.

Yeah, that was great.

Um and then of course uh the the Cubs Appreciation event for the Hohu Camps was great.

That was there there are so many um wonderful people involved, the Hoho Cams and that give their time, and that was a great event to to meet people and talk to them about what they do.

Um I I had the opportunity to speak to um the Red Mountain Ranch Social Club last week, which was great.

There's they're a large group out there, some that live in Red Mountain Ranch and in the other areas, and uh spent about an hour speaking with them about things going on in District Five.

Um I also went out to Los Sendas and Um with Tyson Matheny and a couple of other of the um firefighters who are talked about firewise in uh the neighborhood of Los Andes, and we also went to Madrid.

I think I've talked about that a couple times.

They're really they're spending a lot of time out there, um, which has been fantastic.

Tyson and his team to to get up there and um ensure that the the neighborhoods and property and people are safe in in case of a a wildfire in the area.

Um took a couple constituents on a tour of the Northeast Public Safety Building, so thank you to those personnel out there, especially to Commander Rash, who did a fantastic job.

They the residents really enjoyed it and spent a lot of time.

They get to hands-on gear in the truck, the whole the whole the whole spiel.

So um thank you for doing that, and I hope they enjoyed it.

And then the last thing, I um participated in a ribbon cutting at the one at Signal Butte, which is a new multifamily um development, and it is it is really beautiful.

It is more, as I said, at the ribbon cutting, more than just a place to live.

They created a community out there.

So if you're looking for a beautiful um community, rental community, it is really nice.

They have pool area, cabana, rooftop lounge, speakeasy.

They it it's really a great place.

So um I think that's about it for now.

Uh other than Coop Stock.

I didn't see you, Jen, but we were there too.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's always a great event and and raises money for a good cause.

So thank you.

You had left, and then she came with Yvonne.

Oh, I'm gonna add that I was in DC last week with um uh about 20 mayors and at the White House talking directly to all the different departments.

It was uh I thought very good.

Uh Vice Mayor and I attended the Sky Bridge Hotel Groundbreaking there at uh Mesa Gateway Airport.

Addition uh hotel going there.

It's a Wyndham brand, and uh they should be done what they say, 14 months, I believe.

Uh Tuesday was a communications regional conference at the post public information officers 3 C M A slash A I O A, whatever that means.

Communications uh departments they all met all throughout uh Arizona as well as out of state.

And last night I spoke at the Mountain View High School National Honor Society induction ceremony, and uh they inducted uh quite a few students here at Mountain View into their National Honor Society.

Okay.

With that, Mr.

Butler, the time is yours.

Schedule our meetings.

Well, thank you, Council.

I I mean maybe there was motivation with the breakfast burrito this morning.

I mean, you guys powered through this.

We uh we were worried that we were have to bring in lunch, and look at this.

It's only 10 45, so so well done.

Um but uh we'll uh we won't let you off the hook too easy.

On Monday, uh, as alluded to earlier, we will convene a special council meeting at three o'clock for the purpose of an e-session discussion, and then we'll start the study session at 4 30 p.m.

We'll have a budget presentation from energy resources uh as part of that, and uh Mr.

Cost will um give an update on our MOU uh status and um to that point just just be checking your agenda today when when the updated agenda comes out.

We should have we should be adding out a few items.

One will be the uh reappointment of some of our city magistrates who uh have been cleared through and recommended for reappointment through the judicial advisory board.

So those will be added later today for your consideration to Monday's agenda, and um we also plan to have one or or two uh mous uh added that um you could hopefully review this weekend, and then Mr.

Cost will go over that during uh the study session presentation on Monday, and of course uh can Ken would be available to answer any questions that folks may have after they have a chance to review that.

Um so with uh with that mayor, just a reminder that the state of the city is next Thursday morning.

You would have to remind me.

Yeah, I know your staff has not forgotten.

So um a week, a week from today will be study session.

So um I mean it will be the state of the city.

So looking forward to that with no study session.

So thank you very much, and we'll see you uh back here on Monday.

Thank you.

Mr.

Butler, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Can I mention just a couple of things I'm excited about?

Well, you had your no, I know, but tomorrow there's the active Arizona Summit here at ASU Mix is about active transportation.

It's on from eight to three.

Please register to get in.

That should be good.

And uh we'll there'll be a ribbon cutting for the um paddle court.

I don't know if you have a paddle ball.

It's paddle ball courts.

The paddle club, I don't know, it's just called right over here at Rebson, Robson and Main Street.

Yeah, on Robson and Maine, and it's finally gonna open, and it's Saturday morning.

All right.

So are you gonna are you gonna take a paddle ball now?

I will when I have time.

I don't know.

I got another six months or so.

Very good.

I'll orientate a motion to adjourn the seat.

I had a motion from Ms.

Duff, uh, Vice Mayor.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.