All right.

Hopefully she'll join us shortly.

So welcome.

Thank you for your patience.

I don't know who you're waiting for, but uh you're all here.

With that, welcome to our Mesa City Council study session for April 20th, 2026.

Councilmember Taylor will be joining us.

Otherwise, council member go forth or participating by Zoom.

All other council members are present.

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

I know we went over this previously, Council.

Are there any other questions for staff?

Anyone?

Mayor, um Yes, Miss Goforward.

Mrs.

Galicia.

Yeah, we had um a resident ask some questions on 4B.

So if we could have Lance come up and talk to us about the about 4B and in particular the CMAR or CMAR, I'm not sure how to say it process, how we how we chose Wilming, and we determine the contract price for those CMR services.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Uh council member GoForth.

Appreciate the question.

So uh Wilming is one of our um contractors that was selected by a CMAR, construction manager at risk.

Uh this follows uh our typical process with Title 34, uh how we've gone about procuring uh groups to do construction at times.

Um this particular project uh we solicited back in uh October of 25, uh went through a process of pre-submittal, uh solicited, put that out to the to the public.

They had some time to look and evaluate what we had on there.

Some of the things that we evaluate are the experience, uh the criteria, uh maybe their understanding of the project.

Um if they're Mesa firm, the uh they get a certain amount of points.

There's other things that we evaluate, like the amount of workload that they have, the ability to do the work, and then obviously um understanding of the project.

Uh so there's a number of different things that we do use to evaluate with that uh as an effort with that.

We also go to um bringing a panel together that helps uh to uh uh individually evaluate that.

We come together and and weigh that out uh with those efforts.

Uh ultimately uh uh we shortlist that to a group that we interview with, and then in that case, uh we'll go through interviews and then make a final selection.

Thanks, Lance.

How about the the contract price?

How do you determine that?

Is it a percentage of the overall?

Uh that that's probably uh thank you, Mayor, Councilmember Go Forth.

That's that's one of the things that we evaluate.

There's several things that we do evaluate when we go through that effort.

Um percentage of the contract price.

Typically, when we go out with a uh request for qualifications like like one like this, we'll give a general range because we don't have a set dollar number.

Obviously, with this particular project, we went to the to uh bond for a certain amount.

And so we gave a range there for when we went out to solicit.

Uh that's never fully defined until we uh identify a GMP uh guaranteed maximum price with with that that effort.

Um we evaluate uh some of the things like the allocation of uh rates, um maybe uh different things like what type of individual works on that project for pre-construction, are the hours allocated?

Have have we defined the scope for what we want to identify uh for the project?

So several things are evaluated with that.

The percentage of construction cost is just a small portion of that.

Typically ranges anywhere between uh somewhere between maybe uh maybe three quarters of a percent to a percent of the overall construction cost.

Um of the other things that we the look at and as we do with uh pre-construction is we we uh lock in a CMAR uh fee, a fee for that contractor to do that.

That typically sits within a close range.

We look at that, we measure that and and uh evaluate that as part of the pre-construction services contract.

So when we do come forward with the GMP, uh that that CMOAR fee is is set as part of that.

And mayor council, I'll just add, um, as Lance stated, we we see with projects that have a lot of complexity.

This is a great partnership that we're able to do with CMAR because um we're we're able to have uh the person ultimately building it there with us as we go through the process and finalizing design and and giving those um helping us through the process and saying, you know, if you did it this way, that could you know be more effective.

And and it's just uh a much more collaborative process when you have projects with complexities um associated with it, and and so engineering's done a great job, and it attracts the who's who of folks in the industry who are willing to be partners with with the city um because of because of that.

So um it's a very useful tool for especially complex uh projects.

How long is um this plan to uh how long will it take for the CMAR services plans?

Okay, uh Mayor, council member go forth that if uh you're you're asking specifically about uh how long will this take to negotiate a guaranteed maximum price?

Or how long will we be be in pre-construction services?

Pre-construction services.

Okay, for for this this particular one, right now we are approaching um uh starting to ramp up design, which is the appropriate time to get a contractor involved.

They become part of that process where we vet out different things.

Um that can vary for this particular project.

Uh we have a little bit of time with this project, obviously, before we start construction, um, but we'll be working through some of those questions that need to get answered with the technical complexities of communications for this 911 center.

Um, so yeah, that there's we we have a bit of time for this on this one.

And how much um how much was the total amount of the bond for this project?

Yeah, authorized bond or not, Jania?

Yeah, mayor, council member uh go forth.

This uh if I recall the bond on this was 54 million okay.

So um when I ask about time frame for pre-construction services, that's what this contract is for, correct?

As well as the negotiation negotiation of the guaranteed price.

And you're and all in all, how long is that gonna take?

Am I understanding that correct?

That's all under this this contract that we're approving tonight.

Yeah, no, that the this uh contract tonight is just for pre-construction services that leads up to a guaranteed maximum price.

Um so and how long is this contract supposed to last?

The work under this pre-construction contract.

I yeah, mayor, council member, I I think you view it more as you're paying for a service, not a set period of time.

So it could, you know, it could take six months or it could take two years.

Now, hopefully, you know, we we try to keep these projects on schedule, but um this is basically procuring the service until they complete the work and we get to uh a GMP that then we would bring back to council for their consideration.

Okay, I know I understand that.

So we don't we don't really have a set time frame for how long we think this is gonna last.

Lance, we have a target.

We have a target date for for when we'd like this to be completed.

Uh we have an overall schedule for the overall program for this for this particular project.

Um, but you know, there's some flexibility there with that with with other things within the site that we're looking at right now.

Yeah, and Lance, do you recall off the top of your head?

We're we plan to start construction.

What what's our target date on that?

Um I haven't year out.

Yeah, so we're we're I I think about a year, a little over a year out right now.

So and and uh mayor and council, as you know, that site also we've been working through some um challenges with uh the adjacent fire station on just um making sure that the site is is uh ready to be developed, and so um we could see some of the same issues here uh as a joining um as an adjoining property, but we'll continue to work through that and and the work that we're doing now to mitigate those issues on the fire station will just you know help as we move over to the communications building.

Do we want to have people start working on that issue now so that we don't end up with a delay long delay?

Yeah, mayor and vice mayor, they the good news is they already are, and um and one of one of the things we'll make is the contractor that was selected for the fire station um through a competitive process for uh for this as well.

So they do have the synergy now of as they're developing both sites and working with us that we're looking at efficiencies, looking for ways that shared infrastructure or other things can cut down uh on the cost of of these two projects.

So when you have one contractor in these two projects, it's actually really helpful for this site.

Thank you.

Miss Goforth.

Anything else?

Lance, I have a question on the design of the 911s.

How far along are we on design?

Yes, so mayor.

Certain percentage, I'm assuming.

Yeah, Mayor, we're just stepping through 30 percent at this point.

Okay.

Well, I think one of the benefits of the CMAR is the general contractor can assemble a subcontractor crew and then get things all in line and look at cost savings so it can make the uh construction project more fluid and and get it done timely and then tie it in with our fire station uh 223, right, Mr.

Adams in your district 223?

Yes, sir.

Yes.

All right.

Mayor, can you hear me?

I I can now.

Okay.

I have one last question.

Go ahead.

Lance, um, once we negotiate the guaranteed next price, do we continue to pay a construction management fee?

Yeah.

To the contractor.

Mayor, council member go forth.

That's that's part of the GMP is a percentage of the overall construction cost.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

All right.

Council, Ms.

Duff.

Yes.

Um, I wonder to ask Council Member Go forth.

I received uh a couple of emails on item six A about the long next use developments, and if she's satisfied.

Yeah, Councilmember Depp, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, so tonight is for introduction only, but next week I will be pulling it from consent and for discussion.

That's right, we discuss that.

Thank you.

Uh-huh.

All right.

Anything else, Miss Gilforth, Miss Taylor.

Uh, this is Ms.

Ch this is Councilmember Taylor.

I would like to pull item five E.

I'd like to vote on that separately.

Can we please pull that from the consent agenda?

Item 5E as an Edwards.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Duly noted.

All right.

Hearing nothing else, council, are we ready to move on?

Uh item two A is a presentation of parade direction on the Energy Resources Department.

Uh Mr.

Boucher and your team.

Thank you, everyone.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Council.

Um, Scott Boucher, I am the energy and sustainability director here at the City of Mesa.

I'm joined by Mr.

John Petroff, who is our senior fiscal analyst, and we're gonna go over our budget for today.

Oh sorry about that.

So first I would I'd like just to say um thank you for to everybody in our department for their help in putting together this this budget and also just the day-to-day operations both the the both utilities, the electric and the natural gas utilities, making sure that we're we're meeting our public purpose, which our public purpose is the energy resources department exists to sustainably procure and deliver natural gas and electric power through a safe, reliable infrastructure with predictable affordable prices aligning with Mesa's priority of quality development and a thriving community.

Um we'll jump into a little bit about that.

So as far as stabilizing and reducing costs, really what we're looking for is predictable low cost energy um for our customers.

So there's predictability in what those bills are gonna be, and we're trying to get that at the lowest cost that we can.

Um also ensuring we're meeting the reliability of for both of those utilities, and really that's done with people.

Uh and it's not just the people, but it's making sure that they have the education and the training and the equipment that they need in order to be able to do their jobs uh and making sure that we're providing that that reliable uh electric and natural gas service.

Um with that, talking about those folks, we do have some opportunities within the department.

We've been doing succession training, trying to develop the next leaders, um, both within the department within the city, uh, and then doing cross-training where we're really trying to build more depth within the organization that folks are knowing what other folks do, more crossover between the the natural gas and the electric folks, just making sure that we're building depth within the organization.

Um what that does is really it helps us build a resilient utility and making sure that we're ready for the future and that we're able to provide that safe and reliable power.

Uh a couple of ways in which we have um reduced costs and stabilize cost for the electric side specifically is um we have done we have chatted about it here before with our reverse auctions, and this is where we go out for short duration contracts to fill in places uh that we need energy, and we've been very successful in in lowering the cost per megawatt hour for these short duration contracts anywhere between 20 and 90 dollars a megawatt, which is ends up being savings that the customers see directly on their bill.

Uh we've been participating in what's called the Parker Davis Voluntary Reduction Program.

And so what we do is we work with WAPA to see if there's um other energy sources besides the Parker Davis project that is available to us at a cheaper cost, and if there is, then we take that power and we leave the Parker Davis uh energy there, trying to save some of that water from having to go past the dams in order to generate electricity.

So that's been a project that just or a program that started in July of last year, and it saved uh about $600,000 so far for our customers.

Uh really been working hard to make sure that we increase competition for our power contracts by increasing the number of counterparties that we're enabled with to trade power with.

Uh and really this is all part of what's considered hedging strategies to try and reduce our market exposure as much as we can to get back to those predictable low-cost energy supplies.

Um the natural gas side, very similar in what we're doing with the hedging uh in fixed price contracts that vary in terms anywhere between 10 years and and one year.

Uh but also we we've recently it'll start in May of 2000 uh May of 2026, where we're gonna be participating in what's called a pre-prey program that is available for municipal utilities that will actually save us 10 cents per decatherm on our base loads that we serve on a daily basis.

And that equals out to be we're anticipating that's about 164,000 in savings that we'll see once that program goes into effect in May.

Next, we'll talk.

So there really there's there's two associations, the American Public Gas Association and then the American Public Power Association, um, that really help us when we're measuring to our counterparts across the country.

These are the two organizations that we look at.

And here's a couple of awards that we receive from those.

Uh there is the SOAR Award, which I'm gonna check my notes again here.

So it stands for System Operational Achievement Recognition.

And then in addition to that, we have the APPA RP3 award.

Really, what these are looking at is your system integrity, um, your reliability, safety record that you have for the utilities, workforce development.

They're looking overall at how are you performing as a utility.

And we are uh silver lever silver level designation uh from APGA and Platinum on the APPA side.

Also received a 2025 uh certificate of excellence in reliability, which means we're in the top 25% of public utilities across the nation as far as reliability, and then an APPA safety award at their highest level, which is the diamond level.

Here is one of our KPIs that is the system average interruption duration index, aka SATI.

Um, and what this shows is really the time that customers are out.

So it it levels it by the number of customers and the amount of time that they're without power.

Um you can see our target, it it is a rolling tenure average.

You can see we missed uh a couple of spots with our target, and that was we did just have some some outages.

Uh one of them was an underground fault that we had some trouble actually being able to locate.

Um the underground utilities are great.

Folks tend to like them because you don't see the utilities, but sometimes that can make it more difficult when we're trying to find faults to see where the issue is.

Um but we were able to track that down, and then just some other where we've either had trees come in contact with lines or cars come in contact with poles, and uh that can sometimes take out uh electric customers for a duration of time.

Um but when you look at this SATI index in comparison to our counterparts here in Arizona, you can see that uh the City of Mesa scores very well on that Sadie index.

Now it is a 2024 one that we're showing.

We won't get everybody else's SADI information until after the summer of this year.

Um so next year when we present to council, we'll be able to show you our our 2025 numbers.

But I think what this shows is that reliability is strong within the the utility.

Uh we have stable performance, and it's a it's a situation where the investments that need to be made within the utility are known.

It's not uh something where we have to work on everything associated with the utility because we really do have a very reliable electric utility here downtown.

Um the next measure that we have is the gas emergency response time.

This is in the Mesa area.

Uh our goal is to respond to these calls uh in less than 30 minutes, and we are achieving that 95% uh plus of the time that we're able to respond to these calls in in less than 30 minutes.

And the the top five calls are typically gas hits, fires, carbon monoxide, uh pressure issues related with the gas, and then of course gas odor calls that we receive.

Uh this is one where you look back on staffing.

We've had you know some longer response times previously, because the the folks that go out on these calls, uh, their training takes approximately a year before they're able to go out on their own on these types of calls.

Because as you can imagine, you get called in the middle of the night.

There's all sorts of scenarios you might be running into.

You've got customers that um you know really want answers.

Sometimes they're having to actually evacuate their home.

You're dealing with the fire department.

So there's a lot of training that goes into making sure these people are able to actually um handle the jobs when they are called out by our customers.

You can be trained in how to handle the fire department.

They do work very closely together.

Uh and here's a slide that we have on resiliency, and this is just showing first on the left hand side the the portfolio, the energy portfolio for our electric utility, which is 57% renewable.

You can see it's in several different contracts, so we are hedging.

It's not all of them into one contract.

Uh, these are the especially on the renewable side, those are low-cost contracts that we have.

And really, when you look at it with that low cost, um diversified portfolio, local production that we're getting from some of our solar.

That's really what we're looking at when we're talking about resiliency.

Being able to produce some of that energy within your load bubble, having the reliability, and then having the um, you know, diversity within those contracts that we're not dependent upon just one contract or one provider of power for us.

Uh the other one is an exciting one.

This is actually uh 16% of our solid waste fueling was fueled with gas that was made at our Northwest Water Reclamation Plant uh as of December of 2025 uh through March of 2026, which is is pretty cool.

Uh really back to that resiliency again.

Here is a product that was being flared at one of our wastewater treatment plants, treated more as a nuisance than as a as a resource.

And um, we've been able to now clean that up to natural gas pipeline standards and utilize it in our in our solid waste vehicles.

Um with that, I will turn it over to Mr.

Petrov to talk about the financial side.

All right, good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

Uh a review of uh the 24-25 fiscal year expenditures for the electric OM or operations and maintenance and gas operation maintenance.

Uh electric was under budget about 464,000.

Gas uh was under budget about 275,000.

Uh the reasons for that were vacancy savings for both uh areas in our department.

Um moving on to the 25-26 year end estimate.

We anticipate electric to finish about 400,000 under budget.

Again, that's due to personal services savings, uh fleet cost savings, and then some material costs we did not uh expend in the in our transmission and distribution maintenance activity.

Uh on the gas side, we're projecting about 200,000 below budget in 2526, and that is due to vacancy savings, and then uh we have less than anticipated costs for the fiber to the premise project.

Uh moving on to our proposed budget for 2627, uh, electric operations and maintenance.

Uh that budget is increasing about 300,000.

There's a one-time or sorry, a one-time payment every five years for the AMI outage software.

So next year we have that payment.

Uh and then we're also including the the merit the proposed merit increases in that increase.

On the gas side, uh, we're increasing about 300,000, and that is due to merit increases and then uh fleet cost increases.

Moving on to our the energy supply for 2425, uh electric supplies were about 600,000 below budget, and gas was about 3.2 million below budget for the this current fiscal year.

We're anticipating uh the electric supplies to be right around budget, and gas will be about 6.1 million below budget.

Uh the reasons for that, uh the warmer than usual winter we've experienced, and then some of that supply contract Scott mentioned, and then which includes the contract pricing and lower market prices we're seeing.

Um for 2627 uh electric energy supplies, we're proposing 23.3 million.

Uh that is lower than the current year's budget due to the reasons Scott mentioned.

And in 2627, we have the gas supply budget at 16.1 million, uh a little bit lower than the 2526 budget, but we anticipate higher costs for that year with a more normal weather we should expect next year.

Um that's that for us.

Moving on to our reductions, so total reductions in the energy department, uh just over 263,000.

Uh we are we propose to eliminate the college intern probe program would be a savings of $50,000.

We can reduce our locating temps due to the fiber project uh wrapping up.

That'll save about $113,000.

Um in our electric transmission and distribution maintenance with those vacancy savings we're seeing, we can absorb if there is overtime, we feel we can absorb that uh $40,000 savings there.

And then as far as uh an offset for new revenue, uh we are planning to increase our the retained revenue from our developer deposits two percent, and that should uh account for sixty thousand dollars in increased revenue.

And the uh the slide here is just a summary of what I just mentioned, uh showing the additional income, the reduction amounts, and then the total, and that's all in the utility fund.

Council, any questions?

Miss Goforth, Miss Taylor.

We'll start with you first if you have either question.

Uh this is Councilmember Taylor.

I I do not have any questions right now.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anybody at the dais?

Good.

No questions, Mayor.

Thank you.

All right.

Scott, I I think you failed to really say all the cost savings you really negotiated between you know the Parker Davis.

I know you gave us some numbers between electric and hydrology, high uh hydropower.

Uh-huh.

I think you should highlight that and you know what you're saving the customers along with my question is how many years have we had our electric utility?

Can you get that off the top of your head?

1917?

Yeah.

197 years.

Just for the record.

You've updated since I think we purchased it in 1913, somewhere in there.

But you can correct me.

But for well over 100 years, we provide utility services electric to our customers.

And you have about how many customers in on the electric side and how many on the gas?

We're getting close to 19,000 on the electric side, and we're closing in on 80,000 with uh the natural gas.

So I think that's a real testament of our resiliency and our departments meeting the demand, looking at cost saving measures, and I think you you need to highlight that in your next presentation if you can remember, you know, just showcase.

I think that should be appreciative, not only to the employees that work so hard.

But my question is are any of the other energy providers poaching our linemen and gas people?

Um that is always something that we're we're dealing with, is trying to stay competitive in a market that frankly doesn't really compete as much on the city to city basis is what maybe we do with public safety and and water and solid waste.

Um our competition is more Southwest Gas, SRP, APS.

Um we've done well.

We've had support from the city manager's office of making sure that we're able to keep up with um you know some of the salaries and being able to meet those.

Um but it always is something that that does come up.

Um there is a difference.

There's some, you know, I can give you examples.

Our our natural gas welders, if you want if you can uh weld on a natural gas pipeline and you're willing to travel on a regular basis, meaning almost all the time, you can make a a lot of money.

That's not something we're gonna be able to compete with technically, you know, typically.

We're we're getting folks that want to work here in Mesa, want to go to their home each night.

They appreciate the benefits, they appreciate the um consistency that we have here.

Um so it is, I mean, pay is always gonna be something that that folks are looking at, but it's also trying to provide uh a workplace that people want to be and they want to have a career here.

And that's really kind of the succession planning and trying to do more training to give more diversification is to give people those opportunities here.

I think that's where we have an advantage as being a little bit smaller.

We can provide uh more well well-rounded opportunities for folks to advance.

Very good.

I think retention is a key.

I just want to make sure we're competitive in the marketplace and retaining those key employees that we need so much.

Council, if there's nothing else, then we'll move on to the next item.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you very much.

Okay, Mayor, I just would like to say thank you to Scott and his team as well.

You always do such a great job, Scott, and your team, and um, with that goal of providing reliable and and affordable service to our customers.

So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, they're electrifying department.

Uh with that, we'll move over to titum item two, be a presentation and provide direction on two memorandas uh MOUs, one with Mesa Police Association and the other with United Mesa Firefighters Association.

Ken costs.

Wow.

Imagine that.

Yeah.

Almost calling chief.

Well, mayor, I don't know how I'm gonna follow that joke.

But that no, just don't gaslight them.

Good afternoon.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

Ken Cost, one of the assistant city managers.

I currently oversee uh public safety.

Um quickly, I just wanted to go through the process of the memorandum of understanding that will be in effect from July of 26th to uh June of 2029.

Uh just wanted to acknowledge um that this has been going on since the beginning of the year, uh, these conversations and everything we've been doing.

Um really appreciate the work of the budget office, our human resources department, um, our legal department, everybody is has had a hand in this on the city side.

And then I want to recognize uh Trevin and Sierra and and their team are are here today from the United Mesa uh Firefighters Association and then from the Mesa Police Association, Glenn Pearson and his team as well, along with some executive and senior staff.

Um just really appreciate working uh with these folks.

They represent uh the men and women of our public safety departments with you know a lot of pride, and they also I can guarantee to the membership uh they speak up on their behalf uh uh quite seriously, and they're very well prepared.

So I just wanted to acknowledge that today.

I'll go through uh quickly because I know we're a little bit tight on time.

Um so when you talk about compensation, I'll start with the fire department.

So with the fire department and the police department, um we look at the market cities, and as we talk about public safety being one of the top priorities, if not the top priority for the city, um, you have to be able to benchmark and see where you're sitting with the other cities, and the other cities have helped obviously drive the market, and we look at the market.

So, as we talked about compensation um to retain and to recruit uh our public safety officers and firefighters personnel, uh we need to stay competitive.

Um we have very little turnover to other departments in both departments.

You don't see a lot of people from the police department, the fire department trying to go to other agencies.

This helps us retain and to recruit our future public safety members.

So we did the average analysis for um uh police and fire, and so on the fire side, we looked at the other market cities, and what we agreed upon was a market adjustment for uh the rank of firefighter, engineer, and captain at 3%.

And then for the firefighter engineer and captain, they'll all be eligible each year of the MOU for a 5% merit increase.

So that will represent uh three straight years of merits, and then uh this current year you'll see that 3% market adjustment for our firefighters to get to either at or above the market average of the other firefighters, engineers and captains, depending on on each of the areas.

Any questions?

How does it rank uh among our valley cities?

Where do we fall in that case?

Well, the the one thing we have the ranks, and that's one thing I was prepared to talk about today is the ranking, for example, okay, um for the firefighters that they would be ranked at number two.

Um, but the top out they would be ranked at number four.

But when you look at the percentage compared to the other cities, and this is kind of the answer to police and fire, you're plus or minus one percent, and in some cases 0.9%.

So this market adjustment you would see this year stays competitive with the market, especially the average, and then as you'll see uh in the couple slides, we'll do uh benchmarking again next year as a city, and and then the third year will benchmark or will have a market adjustment up to three percent um to make sure that we stay competitive.

So I think what you'll see is there's not much between like first place and sixth place.

We're looking more at the market average, make sure that we're competitive.

And the other thing to remember is any compensation package is more than just the dollar amount, it's also the benefits that you receive.

And so that's one thing that Mesa really leads in is the benefit package that we have for our police and our firefighters and all of our city employees is more than competitive.

When you just look at just the wellness center and and medical for life, and you know, things I could just go on and on, and our packages include that other cities just can't compete with.

So when you take that and you combine that, that's a whole separate category in and of itself.

Thank you.

Okay, for the police department, the same analysis for the market cities.

Um that adjustment to get them to uh market average is three point three percent for the officers on the front end of the sergeant's salary is three point three percent, and on the top out end for the rank of sergeant is a four percent adjustment.

And the officers and sergeants will also have that that uh five percent merit increase over the the life of the MOU.

Part of this part of the compensation will be a another market analysis or benchmarking in the spring of 2027, and that will go into effect July of 2027, and then effective July 1st of 2028, there'll be another salary adjustment up to but not to exceed three percent of the current benchmark cities.

So similar to what you're seeing this year, but obviously with the the two adjustments in the first two years, um, it could be up to so it could be as low as zero, um, but not to exceed three percent.

Someone just touch on just a couple of the things that are in the MOU.

Uh for the police department, patrol incentive pay.

Um, it's important that patrol incentive pay is there because that is the backbone of your police department.

That is where in a department that is very young in age, most of our officers that are in patrol have five years or less um on the police department.

So when you're young and age like that, you want to encourage our veterans to stay on the street to be trainers to train them to uh mentor them, and this incentive helps people stay connected to the street and keep the uniform on, but but get compensated for it.

So that's a really important portion of this.

Uniform allowance is obviously part of their compensation package, just like everything else now.

Everything's more expensive from vests to tools to the things that they need just to do their job every day.

And then the special assignment for advanced training in aviation.

Aviation clearly is not just our uh helicopter that you see, but it's also our drone program and other things that they contribute to the safety of the city, and they are pulled in a lot of different directions.

But our advanced trainers uh for the police department um are critical as well because they establish the baseline and the training for such a huge department.

And for our fire personnel, the incentive pay for those that test out toward the top tier of their medical evaluation, they get incentivized for that.

Now it's already a department that that's that uh focuses in on physical fitness uh for a lot of reasons, but this is this is a uh uh a bonus or an incentive for people to get to that top tier level, and it has shown uh data-wise to improve that, and it's a great program for them.

Uniform allowance for recruits.

This is this is something I'm really glad that they brought up.

The recruits will graduate from the academy and they wouldn't get their uniform allowance.

Uh so they don't have that proper uh incentive, if you will, to go out and go get new clean, you know, fresh new uniforms to come out of the academy.

So that was a good ask.

And then the cancer screening that um uh the fire department did go over in the budget presentation that is so critical to the lives of our men and women that put themselves in danger every single day, and that will continue.

Ken on the uh fitness incentive pay or we tracking that for reduction in injuries.

We are okay.

I'd like to see those numbers at some point.

Yeah, Vice Mayor, Mayor, we will we'll provide that to you.

Perfect, thank you.

Okay, now let's segue into public safety is expensive.

Um, and we know that running a city is expensive, especially in a time like now.

Um, but uh Brian's up here just to share the budget impact of what you're seeing today with the MOU and into the future.

Thank you, Brian.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, uh Brian Richel, the uh Office of Management and Budget Director.

So what I wanted to show here is with just the general governmental fund, um, the top chart is what we presented to council for the proposed budget.

And as you notice, we I highlighted uh two areas.

The the uh goal was to get um positive net sources and uses, and we were able to meet that goal through the uh proposed budget.

With the bottom one is the proposed with MOU.

So all I did was isolate the proposed budget and added the impact of the MOU.

What you see there is that the net sources and uses goes negative with in night in fiscal year 2930.

So we go from a positive 1.8 to a negative 8.4, and then in your fiscal year 3031, we go from a 13.7 positive net sources and uses to a positive 3.4.

The other significant uh impact that I wanted to show you was as um Mr.

Cost mentioned is in um 28 is another adjustment.

So if you see in fiscal year 28-29, we go from a negative 22 net sources and uses to a negative 32 uh net sources and use.

So that's a 10 million dollar impact because that's when that other benchmark adjustment uh uh is impacting too.

So at the end reserve balance throughout our forecast, the impact is about a 40 million dollar impact.

So we go from 160.9 million dollars in ending fund balance to 121.

So throughout the forecast, this MOU has an impact of about 40 million dollars to the um general governmental fund, and that is just remind council that is on top of the um benchmarking that the city did last year, which was about 20 million dollars ongoing for public safety also.

So total throughout the forecast of those two benchmarks is about 160 million dollars to the forecast.

So, mayor, council, um a few things on that.

Let me first start off by I want to thank Ken and Hirschburg, the city attorney's office, uh human resources, others who worked very closely with this.

Um I was in Ken's seat leading this effort three years ago, so I I know all the work that goes into it, and I appreciate that.

And I and I sincerely appreciate our partnership with the United Mason Firefighters and the MPA.

Um they've been great partners.

And the way the system works and it's intended to work is that we don't agree on everything, but we find a way to come together and and compromise and do what's um in the best interest of our employees, and so I appreciate their partnership with that.

Um it is it's a healthy process, and there's nothing more rewarding than at the end of this to be able to say that and and to um appreciate that they they understand our constraints, we understand their concerns, and and Ken and his team uh working on this were able to, I think, put together something that um we can all feel good about because as we said, this is the market, this is market-driven, and so we've got to stay competitive with the market because if we're gonna say public safety is our number one priority as a community, then we have to invest in that to make sure there are well-trained officers and firefighters, uh, stay in Mesa, choose Mesa, and uh have a good career in Mesa.

And and in doing so too, ensuring their health and safety, and that's what we do a lot through these incentives and through also um our cancer screenings and other um proactive measures that you know we want to make sure that that these officers and firefighters are taken taken care of.

So um switching to the to the point about the budget, you know, we're talking about something, yeah.

I mean, broken record on this as well.

You know, we're we're three years out, you know, when when we highlight the FY29 and 30.

A lot's gonna change, and those numbers will change, and and we've shown you all that data to show how those five-year forecasts change.

I'm not worried about this, but what I do want to highlight is you know the it it costs money to stay competitive.

It costs money uh to be competitive with those neighboring communities that uh that are trying to recruit our folks and and and trying to um you know present themselves as the employer of choice in these professions, and we want to continue to recruit and retain the best and the brightest into Mesa Fire and Medical and Mesa PD.

And so um we're gonna have to uh continue to find ways to be competitive and and that comes that comes at a burden on what we on the general fund and and on the public safety uh sales tax fund, but um it's too important not to make these investments in our employees.

So with that, mayor, um we'll be glad to take any questions that you may have.

Counsel, uh let's start with uh those online.

Uh Miss Goforth or Miss Taylor.

I don't know if you can hear me.

I was having some microphone issues.

Can you hear me?

This is Councilmember Taylor.

We can.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um I've I've listened to the presentations and I I very much appreciate all the work that everyone's put into these different presentations for our public safety.

And I met with the Mesa Police Association, and I appreciated the time that they afforded me and Sierra and Trevin.

And um I'm very grateful that the work of the work that they're doing.

And I currently don't have any problems with these MOUs.

So I really don't have any further questions.

I asked the majority of them at our prior meetings.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you, Miss Taylor.

Miss Goforth.

Hi, thank you.

I don't have any questions either at this time.

Appreciate all the work um put in.

Uh, you know, uh as Scott mentioned, this puts us another year out on our net sources and uses.

But as we've said, our residents have said public safety is our number one priority, and um it's it takes uh decisions like this to make sure we we maintain the level of um safety in our community that our residents expect and that we we expect as well.

So thank you to all the all uh members involved in this.

Thank you, Miss Goldforth.

Anyone here at Dis?

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um thing that would be helpful, um, and I know Mr.

Richel, you generate a lot of these charts as we go through the budget.

It would be helpful to see, and I know that there are improvements from what we were projecting last year at this time to what we're seeing here.

If if we could have that comparison to what this looked like last year as we were projecting those years out, I think it would be evident that the work that you've done to get us to a balance quicker would show up here.

Uh that that would be a helpful comparison, I think, for for all of us to see that there's you know, we've obviously um I have no questions or issues with the MOU.

You know, good work.

I think there is no question in my mind the level of dedication and professionalism of our uh fire and medical folks and our sworn officers and police staff.

I can tell you, having spent some time in the passenger seat with a number of our officers, we're not overstaffed out there.

It takes a while to get from here to there.

And um, so I I have no questions about the value of what what we're receiving here.

But it would just be a helpful comparison, I think, that would show that compared to what we were projecting last year to what we're projecting this year, we've made some progress, even outside of this necessary increase.

Not to do it now, but maybe next time we talk about this.

Absolutely.

Mayor and council member will be coming back on uh April 30th for kind of our budget wrap-up discussion that morning, and and Brian can have those numbers.

And and you're right.

I the men and women throughout uh the city of Mesa who have put in a lot of effort to um to do the things we need to do to find efficiencies, to find cost savings have done tremendous work.

We've talked about the fact, and it can't be stated enough that over these last three years of looking for that, we've saved 56 million dollars uh from the general fund by finding those efficiencies and belt tightening, and that that needs to, you know, be screamed from the rooftops because that is real dollars that we're able then, you know, to make sure that um we're we're controlling our spending and and living within within our means when all these unexpected circumstances hit us all at one time, but this still it's a very good trajectory, and like you said, it's still much better than where we were last year, so we're making a lot of progress, and that's why three years out, I'm not worried about a a small swing.

I'm not worried about a small swing.

There'll be other things that influence it, but it's just to show that the trajectory we're on is right in line with council's direction that they wanted to see um that happen sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

You know, I I've been thinking a lot about this.

Having been there and been a firefighter, one of the things I want to make sure that we're competitive, like I mentioned at the energy discussion budget, that we're we have retention, we're retaining our best employees or all the employees, both uh police and fire.

Um the reason for that is you know, recently we've had firefighter and police memorials.

We've had a couple of firefighter deaths here this past year, and what I want to make sure that our health and wellness and peer support is being facilitated in these MOUs to help make sure our public safety personnel are taken care of in times of need.

I know that comes at a financial cost, and and we're willing to do that in the benchmarking and everything that we do, but as I've said in the past, uh public safety is non-negotiable as far as I'm concerned, and I want to make sure that we're meeting the expectations.

I know there's uh there's some uh bartering, I guess, going between both the labor unions and the city to make sure that we have the right costs for everything to meet the needs of of our personnel.

So I appreciate that.

I think this is one of the shortest uh budget presentations we've had.

So uh thank you with that.

Uh gentlemen, you're excused.

Next is item three is to acknowledge the receipt of various board minutes.

Is there thank you, Mr.

Reddy?

Thank you, Vice Mayor's a motion for that.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you, Miss Goldforth.

Aye.

Thank you.

Uh I'm gonna suspend uh that passes unanimously.

I'm gonna suspend next current events and conferences attended.

We'll carry that at a different meeting.

Mr.

Butler, could you share schedule the meetings, please?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I'll be brief too, in the interest of time.

But this Thursday, of course, is the state of the city.

So looking forward, no pressure, Mr.

Mayor.

We're looking forward to your uh presentation at the Mesa Convention Center on Thursday morning.

Uh we'll be back here then a week from Thursday, April 30th at 7:30 a.m.

for study session.

Just wanted to highlight really quick.

Uh this is National Volunteer Week, and I know there'll be several activities that many of our departments are putting on.

So, and Mayor, I know you'll have a proclamation coming, I believe, later this week on that.

So we just want to recognize all the great work that our volunteers do for the community.

And then just to completely embarrass her since she's back there, uh Jay O'Donnell was just named the Arizona Economic Development Professional of the Year by her colleagues at the AAED.

So it came the same night that the Boeing Company was recognized for all of its outstanding contributions to economic development and job creation in the city of Mesa with an award, and Mark Gaspers was there to um accept that award on behalf of the Boeing Company.

So we got uh two reasons to celebrate uh that that night with those two outstanding awards.

Great.

Thank you.

I'll intertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, Mr.

Reddy.

Thank you, Mr.

Adams.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.

Thank you.

And