Mesa City Council Study Session August 17, 2026: Updates and Approvals
Mesa City Council Study Session - August 17, 2026
On August 17, 2026, the Mesa City Council held a study session to review the agenda, acknowledge board minutes, and share updates on recent events and conferences. Councilmember Adams was excused; all other council members were present. The session concluded with a unanimous motion to adjourn.
Consent Calendar
- Board Minutes Acknowledged: Councilmember Heredia moved and Councilmember Taylor seconded a motion to acknowledge receipt of board minutes. The motion passed unanimously, with the Mayor and Councilmember Adams excused.
Discussion Items
- Review of Meeting Agenda: The council briefly reviewed the agenda for the upcoming evening's meeting, with no additional questions or follow-up.
- Current Events and Conference Attendances: Councilmembers provided updates on recent community events, conferences, and city activities:
- The Mayor highlighted a first-responder breakfast at Summit at Sunland Springs, honoring 16-year-old Leah Jackson, who self-taught CPR at age 10 and performed CPR on a collapsed Wisconsin National Guard member. Brigadier General Brian Anderson and his command staff presented her an award. The Mayor, a veteran and former firefighter/paramedic, emphasized the importance of immediate action in the chain of survival and noted the council would vote on communications equipment and Lucas devices (mechanical CPR devices).
- Councilmember Duff attended the Arizona Forward Water Rising to the Challenge forum, discussing impending cuts to Colorado River allocations, and participated in the grand opening of 233 East Main Street, including Crust Italian restaurant, Nightingale speakeasy, Bambolinos (coffee/gelato/bakery), and Unscripted by Hyatt, with 20% off reservations for the first year. Duff also attended a paramedic graduation, a roundtable on the federal Road to Housing bill (incentives for affordable housing and CDBG dollars), the ASU Morrison Institute Summer Policy Summit (covering water, housing, data centers, air quality), and the Mesa Film Festival.
- Councilmember Taylor attended the cones with a cop event at Chick-fil-A on Power and McKellips, thanked the Mesa Police Department and organizer Don Blake, and recently visited the United Food Bank, where Niagara Bottling donated nearly a million bottles of water for their summer million meals program; the food bank has fed over a million families this summer. Taylor also attended the Arizona Forward Water Symposium and toured the Boeing facility where Apache helicopters are manufactured, expressing awe at the process.
Announcements & Future Meetings
- The study session scheduled for the upcoming Thursday was canceled so councilmembers could attend the Arizona League of Cities and Towns conference at the Arizona Biltmore. The next study session is set for Thursday, August 27, 2026, at 7:30 AM.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to Approve Board Minutes: Passed unanimously (with Mayor and Councilmember Adams excused).
- Adjournment: Motion by Councilmember Taylor, seconded by Councilmember Go Forth, to adjourn the study session passed unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Good afternoon. Sorry, we we were starting a little late. We didn't have our name tags. We don't know who we are if we don't have those. So welcome to the Mesa City Council study session for August 17th, 2026. Councilmember Adams is excused. All other council members are present. Item number one is to review the agenda for tonight's meeting. I know we went through this agenda previously, but there are there any additional questions or follow-up? Wow. Seeing none. Item number two is to acknowledge the receipt of board minutes. Do I have a motion? Motion from Council Member Heredia. Second from Councilmember Taylor. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously with uh Mayor and Councilmember Adams excused. All right. Well, at our last meeting, I think we were pressed against time, so we couldn't get through things, but today we have a little bit of time. So current events and conferences attended. We have a few minutes. Who would like to start? Somebody went to a conference. All right. I'll start then. So on uh Wednesday, we I uh attended an annual breakfast at Summit at Sunland Springs. They do a celebration of the first responders. Police and fire comes in attendance there. Uh so they they host a breakfast for all the first responders. The crews rotate through uh and get to meet uh uh with the folks who are at the summit and better circumstances than they would otherwise have to attend. Uh today, uh there was a big one today. So today we met uh with the fire department, members of the police department. We have a young lady in our community that we celebrated uh 16-year-old Leah Jackson. Uh she taught herself CPR at the age of 10, watching videos and practicing on a teddy bear. Uh unfortunately, there was a member of the Wisconsin National Guard who was visiting our community who collapsed. Leah went immediately into action and began CPR. I gotta tell you, if you saw this young lady, she's a tiny framed young lady, and the soldier is giant, and the fact she did effective CPR uh just showed a lot of leadership and what it means to be in a community to be safe. Because I tell you, this touches me in a couple ways. One, I'm a veteran of the military myself, as it is a tight-knit community. So the fact that she took action like that, my wife is also a veteran of the military. She grew up in Wisconsin, so we had that connection. By the way, my wife outranked me, I'm legally obligated to tell you all that. It was in our wedding vows. Um but you know, in addition as a firefighter and a paramedic, uh, uh, you know, I've been on many a calls like like this where no one takes action. Maybe they call 911. But when you show up on a call and somebody's doing CPR, you look at that and go, we have a shot at this one. And so for her to take action like that was absolutely 16 years old to teach herself CPR was act absolutely incredible.
openpublica.com