Good afternoon.

It is Wednesday, October 15th.

Thank you for joining us.

I'll introduce police chaplain Bob Fessmeyer for the invitation today.

Thank you for being with us.

You're welcome to join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, Almighty God, protector of our protectors, and the preserver of our community.

We thank you for those who represent us as individuals to protect our community and lead for the purpose of a healthy community and city.

For all those your established authority is responsible for.

Thank you, Mayor.

Members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items.

Comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council.

General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item should be made during the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda.

The city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations, claims, or litigation.

Additionally, any member of the public who appears before the council in their capacity as a lobbyist must as required by Phoenix City Code disclose this fact before addressing the council.

The city code states that speakers must express their comments respectfully and courteously.

Use of profane language, threats, or personal attacks on members of the public, council members, or staff are not allowed.

Such comments are disruptive and unrelated to the council's business.

Any person who violates these rules may lose their opportunity to speak further and could be asked to leave.

Thank you so much.

We'll begin with boards and commissions who play a very important role at the city of Phoenix.

Do we have a motion on boards and commissions?

Yes, I move to approve mayor and city council boards and commissions nomination.

Second, we have a motion and second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay?

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

We have several commissioners here for the swearing in storemony, and I'll ask them to come forward.

Please raise your right hand.

I state your name.

Aye.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution and Laws of the State of Arizona.

And the Constitution and Laws of the State of Arizona.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.

And defend them against all enemies.

And defend them against all enemies.

Born and domestic.

Foreign aid and domestic.

That I will faithfully and impartially.

And I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office of.

Discharge the duties of the office of.

State your office.

According to the best of my ability.

According to the best of my ability.

So help me God.

So help me God.

Congratulations and thank you for serving our city.

And now people behind the back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for doing this.

Congratulations to our commissioners who will serve on such important boards and commissions.

We appreciate your advice to the city of Phoenix.

We next go to the liquor license portion of our agenda.

The City of Phoenix provides an advisory role to the state of Arizona on these items.

I'll turn for a motion.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to say I'm very embarrassed, but my neighbor was nominated and it's now on the parks board, and I didn't recognize him because he had a hat on.

Had a cowboy hat on.

I don't think we're seeing that.

Anyway, I move to approve items two through 23, except item eight.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, nay.

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

We'll next go to item eight, which is a special event liquor license for the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association charities.

This is in District 7, so I'll turn to Councilwoman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just have a few questions for the applicant.

Afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Um the mic on.

My name is Daryl Criplin.

I'm the president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association Charities.

Thank you for being here, Daryl.

Didn't really get a chance to touch base on this beforehand.

Just a couple questions.

Who is PLE and who you represent at the city?

The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association represents the line level working police officers and detectives of the Phoenix Police Department.

Thank you.

And what is your role with PLE?

I'm the president of PL along with the president of PLE charities.

Okay, thank you.

And are you also an officer in the department?

Or no.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes.

Thank you.

I recognize that this is an event where you're gonna have many guests.

Officers might be in attendance.

Um is that correct?

It's actually a closed event to former plea board members as we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of PLE.

The only active officers will be members of my board.

Okay.

And they will be off duty.

Okay, thank you for that clarification.

Um will it just be beer and wine, or were there also be uh hard liquor there?

Beer, wine, and spirits.

Okay, thank you.

Um is there a cap on the amount of drinks event cores will be served?

Well, no, there's no cap, but we have obtained a professional bartender um who will monitor that, and the average age of our guests will probably be in the neighborhood of 70 to 75, so I don't imagine there will be too much overconsumption.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um, and what steps are being taken to ensure that the attendants um are enjoying the night and that there is no driving under the influence from um after the event.

Well, members of my board will be in attendance.

We will not be drinking, and if we see someone who we believe is impaired to a point where they cannot drive, we will arrange to have them taken home.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um okay, thank you.

That was all my questions.

So good to meet you.

Um and thanks for answering my questions.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilman Robinson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um President Crippling, can you give us a little bit of an idea of the types of things that plea charities?

What do you engage in?

What is your purpose?

So plea charities was designed and created to support the men and women of the Phoenix Police Department when they're injured or sick, but in addition, we do several community type events, one of which is uh shop with a cop every year, which last year we served 275 children.

Uh we help with the CW7 back to school drive.

We assist um community members as our members bring needs to us.

For example, we helped a elderly lady put a new air conditioner on her home during the summer months a couple years back.

We've provided funds for the Salvation Army to buy a commercial size refrigerator, um, anything that our members bring to us.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor, for the time.

Thank you so much.

Councilwoman Stark.

Yes, I will move to approve item eight.

We have a motion and a second roll call.

Yes.

Hodge Washington?

Yes.

Pastor?

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

There you go.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Thank you.

Thank you.

City Clerk, are we ready for ordinances resolution, new business planning and zoning?

Yes, Mayor.

Vice Mayor, do we have a motion?

Yes.

I make a motion to approve items 24 through 114, except the following.

Item 30, 31, 33, 37, 39, 42, 45, 51, 56, 67, 70, 85, 99, and 106.

Noting that item 41 is as corrected to note that the letter J is located in council district 5.

Item 47 is continued to November 19th.

Items 103 and 114 are continued to November 5th.

And can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comment?

Yes, Mayor.

And members of the council also excluding items 61, 109, and 110.

That's items 61, 109, and 110.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Roll call.

Yes.

Hotch Washington.

Yes.

Pastor.

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

Yes.

O'Brien.

Yes.

There you go.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Councilman Stark.

Do we have a motion to suspend the rules to take item 99 out of order to be heard at this time?

Yes, I make a motion to suspend the rules to take item 99 out of order to be heard at this time.

Second.

Motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

Councilman Stark, would you introduce item 99 and our special guests?

I sure would be happy to.

And so today we are doing a historic preservation overlay on the Sunny Slope Presbyterian Church.

The church now houses a school.

Why don't you guys wave to the council?

Here's the students from Franklin Phonetics.

Proud to have them, proud to be their councilwoman.

They are here today to help get yeah, keep waving, you're on TV.

They are here with uh along with a couple other uh speakers to talk about why they value this historic preservation overlays.

So thank you, Mayor, for allowing me to introduce it.

Wonderful.

Well, we are so excited to have the young leaders here as well as leaders of all ages.

We'll be again a public comment with Julia Taggart, followed by Cindy Franklin.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman Double Star Debo Stark for that wonderful introduction.

Um the Sunny Slope Presbyterian Church is where the Desert Mission used to be.

Um and the Desert Mission is actually celebrating a hundred years in 2027.

It was the first ever world food bank.

Um and it meant so much to the community when the Desert Mission burned down.

There was limited funds because of World War II.

Um so they decided to build a church, and they built the Sunny Slope Presbyterian Church, and from 1949 until 2016 it was active.

Um in 2016 because of low attendance.

Uh, they had to sell the building, uh, and they were able to sell it to the Franklins who have preserved it for the past close to a decade now.

Um and it's just it means so much to everybody in Sunny Slope.

It was where they got married, where they did their first baptism.

It has so many memories to people, and we're very thankful to have it have historic preservation overlay of all the properties, not just the sanctuary for the church, but what used to be be the McCain Chapel and the learning room.

So we're really happy to have the Franklin Fanatic School come here and be able to meet City Council and see what a local city of Phoenix public meeting is like and give a public comment and see you know that their opinions and their voice does matter.

So thank you for taking the time to let them do this field trip and take a photo of the mayor and councilwoman Deborah Stark and to do their public comments and you know see the beautiful city of Phoenix in action.

Thank you, Julia.

Our next speaker will be Cindy Franklin, and she will be followed by Emma.

Thank you so much for allowing us to be here.

Uh my name is Cindy Franklin.

I've been an Arizona public educator since 1981.

Thirty years ago, the State Board for Charter Schools allowed us to open a charter school in Prescott Valley.

And after we became a blue ribbon campus, uh we decided to open a second school in Sunny Slope.

This community is where my husband grew up.

I did my student teaching in Washington School District, and we were so thrilled to be able to rent from Sunny Slope Presbyterian Church.

Unfortunately, the church closed, but we were able to secure financing to preserve a building, and we are very grateful and hopeful that you will preserve this wonderful place.

Founded the Desert Mission, and we hope to be able to continue the legacy of community service.

Uh along with me is our fifth and sixth grade class from uh the Sunny Slope campus, and we have three speakers who were chosen to make uh say a few words.

So come on up.

Wonderful, and I'll maybe call you up one at a time if you don't mind.

We'll begin with Emma.

And Emma will be followed by Selena.

Hi, my name is Emma Hello.

We are fifth and sixth graders from Franklin Phonetic Primary Charter School, located in Sunny Slope Arizona.

Our class is here today because our school is getting recognized for its historical preservation.

This means that our school is protected because it is an important part of our local history.

Thank you, Dr.

Franklin and Mr.

Franklin for all that you do.

Great job, Emma.

Selena is next, and our final speaker will be Mason.

Hi, my name is Selena Montes, and getting historical status meant that our school is pretty old, but still really important, and is one of the only buildings and sunny slope used today today.

A long time ago, our school was a mission church.

People used to get married, attended church services, and even attend school there.

I'm sure that the many people who found help at the mission many years ago are glad to see the building being used.

We are so happy that this recognition will allow us to make our school look good and fix up some of the things that have aged on the building.

Now that we have this preservation status, we can improve our school to keep it a part of history for years to come.

Maybe one day our children and their children will attend school in the very building where we attended our superintendent recently shared with our class that he too went to kindergarten in the same classroom.

We are learning into this day.

Thank you so much for helping out a wonderful school.

Well, thank you.

Thank you to all of the students, but a special thank you to uh Selena Mason and Emma for the wonderful testimony.

Councilwoman Stark.

Thank you.

And so with that, and again, I thank all the students for being here.

You did a terrific job.

I am make a motion to approve the request Z 68-25-3 and approve the uh accompanying ordinance.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Would anyone else like to comment?

Councilwoman Pastor.

I just want to thank uh everyone that has uh put the overlay and put the effort in to do the overlay to preserve uh at least some piece of history.

Uh we're known for uh not saving, and uh I think it's a responsibility of all of us to save some history.

So thank you for the purchase and thank you for doing that.

Councilwoman Hodge Washington.

Thank you, Mayor.

I also want to say congratulations on the receiving the overlay, and I want to give a special shout out to the students for coming out and participating in our civic process.

You guys did awesome, and you kept your comments within the two-minute mark, which you can teach some of the other speakers to do the same.

But great job.

Well, we think we have some future community leaders here.

Councilwoman Hernandez.

Thank you.

Uh, I just want to congratulate uh everyone involved in this, but especially the three speakers.

Y'all did way better than I ever did the first time I ever did public comment.

So good job and kudos to that.

I think I was in my 20s before the first time I spoke at a public meeting.

So your future looks very bright.

Roll call, roll call.

Hernandez.

Yes, Hodge Washington.

Yes, yep.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark, yes.

Waring.

O'Brien.

Yeah.

There you go.

Yes.

Oh, sorry.

I'm sorry, I think it's a baby.

All right.

Can uh congratulations and thank you for celebrating our history.

And then uh it has come to my attention that items 109 and 110 should have been in the and should we give a you are welcome to stay for the meeting, but we're happy to pause if you are ready to go.

Wonderful.

Um thank you so much for being with us.

Bye.

Uh it has come to my attention that items 109 and 110 should have been in the omnibus.

Uh so uh councilman Hodge Washington.

Do you have a motion to take items 109 and 110 out of order and hear them now?

Yes, please.

Yes, I so move.

Second, all those in favor, please say aye.

Any opposed?

Aye.

Uh we the uh 109 and 110 are related, so we will hear them together.

Uh, we did have the uh applicant here, but given they're they're only folks registered.

Would it do they still need to speak?

They were I guess somewhat speak if necessary.

No, uh, councilwoman, do you have a motion on 109 and 110?

I move that we approve motion um items 109 and 110.

Second we have a motion, a second.

And would that be with the adopted ordinance and resolution?

Thank you.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

We're lucky to have yes, you keep us in track.

And the applicants hearing that you're comfortable with the motion.

We go forward, right?

Uh all the uh roll call.

And on this?

Yes.

Hadja Washington?

Yes.

Pastor?

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Warin?

O'Brien?

Yeah.

Gallego.

Yes.

They pass 8-0.

Wonderful.

Congratulations.

I think we might have saved you two hours.

All right.

Uh next is item 30, which is a payment ordinance claim settlement.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 30.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Councilwoman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just had a couple comments on this before we vote on it.

This was a huge tragedy that could have been avoided if officers had taken the time to identify who they were chasing before shooting the individual.

And we know that officers not taking adequate time to work.

The process was directly addressed by the chief recently.

Mayor, members of the council, councilwoman Hernandez.

And if if the chief would like to come and speak to this, he's welcome to.

But what I can tell you is that he has laid out a plan to have officers be retrained on time, distance, and cover, which is essentially what you're talking about, taking the time to assess the situation, um, keep as much distance as possible while taking cover and and having time to make sure one we're identifying the correct individual or individuals, and that we're assessing the situation and developing a plan of how to address it.

Chief, would you like to add to that?

Yes, thank you.

Uh Mayor Gagwook, members council, Councilman uh Hernandez correct everything uh Ms.

Bay said is correct.

In addition to that, we're reinstituting training for our ICAT training, just again communication training.

That'll be done for all personnel by the end of this calendar year.

The training is base talked about the time distance and cover will be done by the end of this month.

Um, in addition to that, we're also I met with every one of the precinct commanders and administrators last week personally, sat down, explained my expectations for them moving forward, and I then asked them to go back and speak directly with their lieutenants and their sergeants to explain our expectations.

So expectations are slowing down, taking time, communicating at the scene amongst officers on scene, making sure the left we we all know what we're doing, uh what we're gonna do next and how we proceed, because again, in situations time is our friend.

We have time, we have time to discuss, time to talk, time to come up with a plan because again, our our our we always want to lead with less lethal if possible.

We actually want to leave with communication if possible, and then less lethal.

Um so that's what we're doing now.

Uh we're making a concentrated effort in doing so.

All right, thank you, G Matt.

And just a follow-up on that.

Um, so there the officers are gonna be retrained on ICAT, right?

They've been trained on this before.

Um, I guess for me, how confident are you that it is gonna make a difference once the retraining happens on this?

Mayor Gagel, members of council, councilman Hernandez.

We started the training.

We're not completed with yet, so we're we're still finishing up the rest of the department, and that will be done by the end of this calendar year.

But it's an ongoing training's ongoing.

We're always gonna look for ways to improve.

We're always gonna look for additional training opportunities.

We'll continue to work.

I just had an email conversation with with uh PERF last week who who designed ICAT talking about possible refreshers down the road, but we're always looking at increasing our level of training and our competencies for our officers.

Okay, thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much.

Roll call.

And on this.

Yes.

Hog Washington?

Yes.

Robinson.

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 8-0.

Item 31 is a public hearing on the proposed Rancho Grande annexation.

We will open the public hearing.

We do not have anyone here to comment.

We will close the public hearing.

We will have a vote at a later date.

Next, we go to item 33, which is the early intervention system contract.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 33.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, have a few questions on this.

Um, I know we did get uh quite a bit of or some information on this in the policy meeting in September.

Um, but from then to now, just came uh have a few follow-up questions.

Mayor, members of the council, councilman Hernandez, we have uh members of the police team coming down to uh discuss led by Commander Will Joe.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um my first question is how did the department choose this contractor and on what merits?

Mayor, vice mayor, members council, councilwoman Anna Hernandez.

Uh so we went through an RFP process for this.

We had two vendors put in.

Uh benchmark analytics came out on top in pretty much every category.

And I know that some of the information this vendor or this program has been you can you just confirm it's been utilized in other cities around this?

Yes, ma'am, it has.

Okay, thank you.

Um, what indicators of potentially problematic behavior does the early intervention system detect?

So this is a system that's proprietary.

So unfortunately, we don't have a full list for you.

They have 91 variables that are going to be used.

Uh some examples that we're going to be including in this one that were not in our current system will be calls for service, arrests, citations, overtime, off duty, uh proactive stops, things of that nature.

So we'll be expanding from internal affairs data to many more indicators.

Okay, thank you so much for that.

Um and what happens if the initial intervention conversation with the supervisor um indeed indicates that there was problematic behavior?

Um, how is that going to be addressed with the officer?

Uh yes, ma'am.

So if there is an indication of problematic behavior, we'll have a referral process.

If there is a root cause that's identified when the supervisor has the conversation with the employee, they will set up a plan, an intervention plan that could be training, it could be wellness based.

Um it's a variety of different things.

Uh hopefully that answers your question.

Yes, thank you so much.

Um another my next question is if this process is proactive and not punitive, um, what does discipline look like if the if that problematic behavior um behaviors are identified?

Yes.

So if there if there are any behaviors that pop up that are out of policy or some somewhat some sort of misconduct, we have other avenues for that.

So that would go through professional standards.

Um there are other avenues for that.

The early intervention system is gonna be purely proactive.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um and do we know yet what the benchmarks for the system to be successful are going to be?

We won't know until they fully integrate with our with our uh our databases, um, but we're expecting it to be at least 80%, which is a massive jump from our current system, which is about less than 5% accuracy.

So we would expect it to be around 80, but we'll know more once we actually get it implemented, which could take 12 to 18 months, but we will know at that time.

So 12 to 18 months from when it is implemented?

From when it is from when the contract is signed, it'll take 12 to 18 months to become a live system for us.

Okay, thank you.

Um and is there other specific data that we will be gathering um from the EIS?

Um, so some of the things that we're excited for, we'll be tracking critical incidents.

Uh the vendor has given us examples of other things so we could be tracking burnout and things like that that are much more wellness focused.

And at the end of the day, that's where our goal here with the system is is to provide resources to have happy healthy officers.

Okay, thank you so much.

And then my last question is just as we gather the data, right?

We the if the EIS um is built and implemented, um, will the data that's gathered through this be publicly available, or how will the community know or have access?

Like what what is gonna be the availability or path for community to know um results of this?

Uh so my understanding is that data would be available for now.

Um we're working with legislation to potentially protect some of the wellness-based information just because we want people to be able to be vulnerable about what what they're going through and to give them that space.

Um, but yes, the the data would be technically publicly available at probably more of a macro level, hopefully not at the individual level to again protect their privacy when it comes to these types of interventions.

Yeah, okay.

No, thank you for that.

I think it's important to guard private information.

Um, but there needs to be a path created that the community can feel confident that if they ask questions or they need background, like that is available to them.

So um, thank you for that.

Um that is uh all my questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Uh we'll call uh several colleagues here, and then um Mr.

Harris, if you want to come to the on-deck circle, you are our public comment on this.

Okay.

And then uh Councilman Hutch Washington has indicated we will hear from you first, and then we'll go to Councilman Hodge Washington, followed by Councilwoman Pastor.

Mr.

Harris.

I just wanted to come up here again in this uh say that I don't understand why you're gonna give another 3.5 million dollars of Phoenix Police Department again.

When you already have 1.2 billion, why can't they take that 3.5 from their own budget already?

Um also you're gonna implement another policy and another uh mechanism of tools to try to find out who's burned out, um, whose problematic officers when the community for years had brought you names of officers, badge numbers of officers, and yet then you guys have still done nothing.

Um those officers are still officers, and they're still out here shooting and killing members of the community, particularly the officer who killed Jacob.

He shot two people since Jacob.

He killed one person before Jacob, and he's still an officer.

So I mean, what is this new system gonna change?

It's just gonna point out that there's a problem that we already know is there.

Question is you're saying, well, the police are going to police the police again.

They're gonna have data to say, yes, this is a bad officer, but they're gonna do nothing about it and put them right back out there on the field and kill somebody else and continue to do what they do because there is no accountability.

So that's why I say we keep giving money away.

We keep giving taxpayers' money away to these police officers, taking and not giving money to the fire department who deserve it.

Instead, you want to give it to officers who are taking lives and not saving lives.

And it's just disgusting that that continues to happen and there's no checks and balances for these bad officers.

So I mean, you guys need to stop just throwing money at a problem, a throwing money at a problem is not gonna fix the problem.

You need to get rid of these problematic officers.

You need to start holding these officers accountable.

Like I said, you still have an officer like Christopher Burts on the force, and he's not the only officer who's had multiple shootings.

If you want to know who has the multiple shootings, is simply reach out to the Arizona Republic.

They keep that database already.

Thank you.

Councilman Hodge Washington.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you.

I just had some follow-up questions.

Um, I'll start or one of the questions that was raised by the speaker.

Can you share which budget item, which budget the proposed funding would come from for this um contract?

Um, mayor, members of the council, uh councilwoman Hodge Washington, yes, it's gonna come from the police budget.

Okay, thank you.

Um I had a couple follow-up questions.

Um, one system has been used by a number of other agencies.

Can you tell us a little bit about tell us the names of those agencies it's been used by Mayor, Vic, Vice Mayor, members of council, uh, councilwoman uh Hodge Washington?

So we do have a list that we were provided by the vendor.

Uh we have nine.

So we have Nashville, Baltimore, Detroit, Puerto Rico, Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Albuquerque.

And if I heard you correctly, you said our current system um identifies or detection rate is closer to five percent.

But with this proposed software, this proprietary data uh propriety software, it would hopefully increase our data to about 80%.

Is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

So that's that's the true positive rate, which would be the rate at which when we identify a potentially at-risk officer, that that officer does have some sort of adverse event within the next 12 months.

So this software that we're proposing would, like you said, would jump it from 5% to closer to 80%, potentially more.

We'll find out once we actually get this implemented.

Thank you.

And the jurisdictions that have used or utilized as benchmark at this juncture, have they seen it, have they experienced a decrease in their use of force incidents?

The the vendor provided data on that.

That's that shows that it does indeed drop use of force.

Um, we would like to do our own research to just verify that.

But from the vendor, we have heard that yes, it has dropped.

And do we have an idea of what that percentage has looked like?

Let me pull it up for you.

So we're showing a 33% decrease in use of force activity.

Have they also experienced a uh decrease in complaints regarding their officers as a result of the early detection system?

Yes, ma'am.

So we're seeing a reduction of 48% from citizen complaints.

So based on the data that's available, I know it's a proprietary system and we don't have all of the information.

But it seems that this system would allow us to identify some of the officers that whether or not you want to characterize them as a bad apple or someone who is likely to um not follow our policy.

This would give us an opportunity to identify them before the action occurs.

Is that the thought?

Yes, ma'am.

That's what we're expecting.

And um, I just want to follow up.

So walk us through the process a little bit more.

Um if an individual has been identified as score and whatever that risk score assessment is that we flag and we use for determination.

What are the next steps?

So go ahead.

I see.

Yeah, so just to clarify, we'll have 12 to 18 months to fully flesh out what this policy is gonna look like.

Um but we would anticipate and best practice typically um would be we would notify the chain of command, which would be which would then cause the supervisor to meet with the employee uh to determine are there any risk factors there?

Is there any underlying issue that we can provide resources for?

Is that like I said earlier, is that gonna be training?

Could that be wellness?

Um, and then provide those resources, and those will all be documented on some level.

We'll have to figure out what that level of privacy looks like, but we would have documentation that those conversations are being had and then intervention, at least the conversation is being had.

And we would ensure that there's policies that in that continue to foster some level of accountability, both on the supervisor and the officer to ensure that those conversations have tangible results that show that the information is being heated, correct?

Yes, ma'am.

Um the other thing I just wanted to point out is that this is a program that has been approved by the Department of Justice as uh that would help bring cities who were under DOJ investigation into compliance.

Is that correct?

Yes, ma'am.

The nine that I listed are all would well fit in that category.

Okay.

Um so thank you for that.

That's those are my questions, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Pastor, followed by Councilman Waring.

Yes.

Um I would actually like to know what what is considered the risk factors.

So the risk factors would be the variables that are being used.

So those would be the 91.

So that would include the incident level information, so calls for service, number of arrests, number of citations, they're all gonna be at that individual officer level, but it could be any sort of data type that fits that officer level for those incidents.

So I don't know what 91 means.

So there's so what we're gonna be using here is a predictive model.

So we're gonna have multiple inputs, which would be the variables, which would be the things that I'm listing, and we're gonna essentially calculate those to determine which and the outcome will be adverse events, which will most likely be miss, you know, out-of-policy events.

So taking these 91 variables for each individual officer, when we combine them, it'll give us a predictive score or a percentage or the likelihood that someone will do something out of policy.

And the 91 variables are essentially just the individual data types or the the yes, the the data that's gonna be used to actually fill out that model.

You had stated that uh 48% um decrease in complaints.

What uh what has caused that decrease?

We would we would have to check in with benchmark, we'll need to do a little bit of additional research into that.

So the the 48% we got directly from benchmark during the RFP process.

Okay, so we don't know what caused the 48% to go down.

At this time, no.

Okay.

Um we just heard an example right now, uh a true live example.

Um I'm not sure how to approach this question or how to ask it, but um I guess I would be very um I would like to see with this new system, this predictor model, uh, what if we place this example in that, what that looks like Mayor Vice Mayor, members of the council, uh councilwoman Pastor, I appreciate the question.

I want to thank all of you guys for uh hearing hearing about the system and um and voting on this.

Um when it comes to situations such as the one that was just discussed, um, what we would like to do and when we look at the system is it's a tool that the city can use and the department can use and supervisors can use where we're raising the level of awareness across the board from the line level officer all the way to the supervisor.

And what I mean by that is that we are now implementing or providing a tool for supervisors now to engage in conversations with officers that might not have happened in the past.

And when they engage you in this conversation, it raises the level of awareness of the officer and the supervisors themselves about the fitness of the officer to go out today to perform their duties.

Um, if we're provide we our goal is ultimately to provide the best version of the officer every day and every call uh for every incident.

So then the supervisor can have that conversation.

The officer now has that ability to have those discussions uh with the supervisor.

Thank you, Councilman Waring, followed by Councilman Robinson.

Thank you.

I think this is a question mayor for maybe Jeffrey Laurie.

So the three and a half million dollars, if we voted no, it's part of the police budget, right?

It doesn't get used by parks equipment or fixed platforms or anything, correct?

Mayor, members of the council, councilman wearing that is correct.

Okay.

So voting if it failed, then the three and a half million dollars would I assume be rotated back in to pay for typical police purchases like bullets and uniforms, pay for recruiting new officers, paying for the officers themselves if we can recruit.

Mayor members of the council, councilman wearing that money currently is appropriated within the police department budget.

If this item were voted down, the council does have the opportunity to redirect that money elsewhere, but otherwise it would just sit in the police department budget and it could be repurposed for another item within the department.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman, is that all your questions?

Councilman Waring.

I mean, sorry, Councilman Robinson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Jim and I get mistaken for one another all the time.

Um what I want to mention, and this is serious.

I I just made a little joke, but this is a serious issue.

Someone dying, regardless of the situation, it's tragic.

It always has been.

Now I'm gonna speak with over 35 years of law enforcement experience.

What this is, and Commander Jowell just mentioned it, this is another tool to allow the police department, the city truly, but the police department to identify any deficiencies in a police officer.

And they can come about a you know, very a myriad of ways.

And what we should always look for are ways to better ourselves as an organization.

You know, in the last couple of years, we've implemented the civilian review process through OAT.

So we have an outside agency because the public wanted an outside agency to look at police conduct.

So we have an outside agency independent of the police department reviewing that.

That I see as a plus, I see it as another way to hold the organization accountable.

Um I look at the fact that most recently, just a few months ago, we entered into an intergovernment agreement to have an outside law enforcement agency review every police officer involved shooting.

The Department of Public Safety, not the Phoenix Police Department.

Department of Public Safety comes out and investigates from a criminal standpoint each and every one of those officer-involved shootings.

Over my ex with my experience, or during my time as a police officer, I've been out on more than I care to think about officer-involved shootings.

The reality is they happen.

What we need to try to do the best we can if we're trying to connect officer behavior to officer-involved shootings and other misconduct.

If that's what we're trying to do, we need to ensure that the police department or OT or whatever other organization within the department or within the city is helping to hold the police department accountable because it's about accountability.

This particular program, as was mentioned, you know, what we had before had a five percent success rate.

We're about to jump up to what was 80%?

Yes, sir.

An eighty percent success rate.

That's a step in the right direction.

It really is.

And police officers at times, as a commander was saying, sometimes they're exposed to things that stick with them forever.

That is the reality.

Sometimes a police officer will act out, maybe not knowing they are acting out.

Not that it's an excuse, I'm not making excuses for anybody, but it's good to have a tool that's available to help us hold those folks accountable.

And from an accountability standpoint, over the years, the Phoenix Police Department has had the use of force board with citizen input.

Police department has had the disciplinary review board with citizen input, and I will say this not something I am proud of, but it's a reality.

I chaired our disciplinary review board for 17 years.

I have the distinction of, again, not something I'm proud of, the distinction of having recommended recommended more officers to be fired for their behavior than anyone else in the Phoenix Police Department over the history of the Phoenix Police Department.

So I chair that board for so long.

If there's something we can put in place to allow us not to have to go that far, that would be a good thing.

And when it comes to, like I said, trying to make that connection between officer behavior and officer involved shootings, this may help us when you look back on an officer's behavior, or if there's some early warning signs and there's some connection between that and officer involved shootings, again, it allows us, it allows us to address that issue before it becomes a bigger, a more tragic problem.

So just wanted to make those comments because there is a lot going on.

Police officers are asked to make split second decisions and some really tough situations.

And like I said, having been there, it's a tough way to go, but I hope that we are in a position to put a program in place that would help us help identify and help officers who may be teetering on that edge.

So with that, Mayor, thank you for the time.

I appreciate it.

Councilwoman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just want to provide a little bit of clarification for the public on just one item that was just mentioned, which is OAT, and it being sometimes it can be a little misleading calling out an independent department, because the reality of what happened is that when under Mayor Gallego and Council in 2020 approved the OTA ordinance to the ordinance to implement OAT, um it was built in a way that there would be independent investigation authority.

What happened after that vote was that PL, which was just here earlier for a liquor license, lobbied at the state legislature to strip the city of Phoenix OAT department from independent investigation.

So I want to be very clear with that because saying that OAT as an independent um department, while yes, they are independent, because of the lobbying at the state legislature by plea, they can only review things after they happen.

So I want the public to understand that piece, because that's very important in the broader conversations we're having.

Um, I I also want to be clear that I'm not I don't ever want to discount the role that our officers have in performing their duties, but we also have to have a very honest conversation of what about what is happening.

Since the middle of August, since Chief Giordano took over or has now filled the role to be the leader of the police department, we have had 10 officer-involved shootings.

That comes out to about one per week.

And at least one officer from this year has been involved in two of those shootings.

So I I'm a little uncomfortable that we are going to say that that's progress due to all the reforms we've instituted as a city.

To me, that's a crisis we're in.

And those are red flags.

Just earlier, before this council meeting, there was also a press conference demanding that the department address that culture of violence that we are seeing on the rise.

And these officer-involved shootings, I would put them as an epidemic again.

It's it raises serious flags for me over whether something like this software is going to be effective because ultimately there's still a piece missing, which is the accountability.

What is happening after these incidents happen?

And we have I have yet to hear what is truly going to get to the accountability piece.

We're trying to prevent officers from shooting and killing people.

And that has not been worked on.

So we can keep pushing reforms like this, but ultimately, and I've said, and I know I'm gonna be a broke broken record during my tenure here, but if we don't truly address accountability, how are we truly gonna see change in officer behavior?

So this is I struggle with this because there is a need for a software like this to prevent incidences from happening, but without the accountability piece, I just question the true results in the change that we're gonna see.

So if we're not gonna make sure that there is accountability when officers um fail policy, because look, they're human, they have bad days too, we all do, but we still have a job to show up and do.

We do as elected officials, and so do our officers.

So it's just we can try prevention, which I would be great.

I'm great at supporting, but without accountability measures like this, I just don't know if they're gonna be successful.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you.

Roll call.

No.

Hodge Washington?

Yes.

Pastor?

Yes.

Robinson.

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Wearing?

Yes.

O'Brien.

Yes.

I apologize, O'Brien.

Yes.

Thank you.

Gallego.

Yes.

Passes 7-1.

Next, we have item 37, which is professional services for Oracle Environment Contract.

Do we have a motion?

I move to item 37.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

So this item is a contract with a professional service vendors, not a direct data center license.

But it really shows how much we are spending in IT.

This eventually will be close to 23 million dollar contract for services related to Oracle.

Oracle provides very important services to the city of Phoenix that have been very valuable to our employees.

They also own data center, or they invest in data centers in our regions, one of which has been somewhat high profile in the impact it has had on its local neighborhood.

The city council unanimously supported a text amendment earlier this year that considers various health and safety concerns related to data centers.

As we pursue contracts, I hope that we will seek partners that prioritize community benefit, reasonable noise mitigation, and a balanced energy portfolio that incorporates clean energy to the maximum extent possible.

Well, we this is just one contract.

We have many contracts that are at this magnitude, and so we can be an important mover in this marketplace.

Roll call.

Yes.

Hodge Washington?

Yes.

Pastor?

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien?

Yes.

There you go.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Item 39 is armed, unarmed, and event security guard contracts.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 39.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Councilwoman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just have two questions on this item.

Maybe Jeff and Lori can take them and then decide who can answer who can answer them.

How is the private security firm engaging unsheltered folks that are in our parks overnight?

Mayor, members of the council, councilman Hernandez.

These contracts are supporting what our park rangers do in the overnight hours.

So they are assigned to specific parks that have higher activity levels in the overnight hours, and and hopefully will help to you know maintain um the park closures over the overnight hours and then addressing issues that may arise.

The individuals are really just engaging with folks to let them know that the parks are closed and to ask them to leave.

They're not intended to you know engage beyond that point, they're really just letting folks know this park is closed, you know, and and we need you to move on.

So that's the should be the extent of the engagement.

If there are continued issues beyond that, they do have the ability to contact park rangers, and if necessary, if there's you know criminal activity happening, they can contact the police department as well.

So they have other resources available to them, but their primary role is really to maintain that park security overnight and our parks are closed overnight, and so they're just in enforcing essentially that park closure.

Okay, thank you.

And thanks for clarifying that.

I my follow-up question was going to be um if they're not officers or park rangers, uh, what what protocols are they following?

But so are they just gonna be overseen by the park rangers to whatever parks they're assigned to?

Mayor, members of the council, councilwoman Hernandez.

Um, I'm not entirely sure what their reporting structure is, and if there's someone from parks who can answer that, um that would be great.

But essentially they are um managed under a parks um contract manager, um, and and then they are provided their responsibilities, their duties, and they're held to account for what they're asked to do under the contract.

Cynthia, if you're able to expand on that.

Sure, good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council, council member Hernandez.

In terms of the role of the security guards, Lori did a great job summarizing it.

They're just one additional tool for us to have extra eyes in the parks right now.

They're at 12 third, I would say 12 parks plus a rotation of three parks downtown.

So this is not adding additional security services.

This is just making sure we have the funding allocation that we need to maintain the level of security services that we've had for the last couple of years in terms of overnight security.

Okay, thank you so much.

Sure.

Thank you.

It's our goal that the parks to be a real amenity for people who live nearby, and I think this can be an important call to make sure that we're letting people who live by our parks have a good night's sleep.

Roll call.

And then this, yes.

Hodge Washington, yes.

Pastor, yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 8 0.

Item 42 is the acceptance of an easement for water purposes.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 42.

Second.

Motion and a second, noting that councilwoman Pastor will not be participating in this vote.

Roll call.

Hernandez?

Yes.

Hodge Washington?

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Warren?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 70.

Item 45 is public outreach and community engagement services contract.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 45.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Councilwoman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just have a few questions on this one.

Not sure who can councilwoman Hernandez.

We actually have Brianna the Les Res Transportation Director that's going to come up.

Thank you, Jeff.

Also, I just like to point out that the Dodgers are up to zero.

And then else.

Really?

That's what we're doing.

It's killing some time here.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Brianna.

Just have a cute couple questions on the on this piece.

We are continuously hearing from community that they don't know about our events or opportunities that exist.

So this is a huge concern of mine, right?

Our community engagement is very uh is a priority to our D7 office.

Um and I wonder want to understand how we are checking the engagement strategies of these vendors.

Um is there a criteria that we as a city use to identify um the effective strategies for engaging diverse communities from these vendors?

Uh mayor, members of council, um, councilwoman Hernandez.

In regards to this contract, we work very closely with these vendors to identify the strategies.

Um, and so I think that's something that is a work in progress.

Um, I think we see some communities that really engage related to our projects, but I think we're needing to identify new and improved ways to engage.

And so those are some of the things that I think we can work closely with the council offices to get feedback from you guys in terms of what strategies work.

Sorry, I have a tickle my throat.

Oh no, sorry about that.

Thank you so much.

Um, and I guess part of that strategy building and right feedback that we can provide.

Um, I want to make sure that I guess how are we assuring that the vendors are engaging a diverse community, right?

Like working class parents, youth, Spanish speakers, um, non-English or non-Spanish speakers.

Um is that worked into the into the or do the vendors have a plan around that?

Uh so mayors, members of council, councilwoman Hernandez, we do work closely with the vendors to um make sure that we're doing dual language.

So we typically have Spanish and English for a lot of um the information that goes out.

We have interpreters that attend our meetings, um, and we work closely with them to make sure they're implementing whatever strategies that we've outlined.

So it really is a collaborative, although they are the vendor and they're responsible to execute some of these things.

City staff is there step by step, making sure that we're in that we're having the uh public engagement that we we need in this uh city.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um and then just my last question: how does the city track and grade the effectiveness of the outreach strategies?

Uh so I think there's a long obviously this QVL list is very uh long list of vendors, and so we we do try to work with various ones to determine maybe some of the strengths that they have on their teams that maybe are partnered with some of our specific projects uh that align with you know, maybe the communities we're serving or certain strategies that we want to implement.

So I think there are those opportunities that as we work closely with them, we we identify their strengths and make sure we partner them up with the right projects.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Roll call.

And on this uh yes.

Hodge Washington, yes.

Pastor, yes, Robinson, yes, Stark, yes.

Warren?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Next is item 51, authorization to apply, accept and disperse funds and enter to agreement with the Arizona Department of Water Resources Arizona Water Protection Fund grant.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 51.

Second.

Motion a second.

Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just have two questions on this item.

Welcome.

Thank you for checking from environmental programs.

Thank you so much.

And I know water is super critical to the city.

I know that that's one of the biggest priorities for um for you, Mayor.

So I think we all understand that.

Um, just quick two quick questions on this.

Um, how will this grant and the data it funds influence um future water planning or land use decisions across the city of Phoenix?

Thank you, Mayor, Council members, Councilmember Hernandez.

Um yes, so this is really all about understanding water that we don't necessarily control.

We don't control the water that's coming into the river.

Um, it's about understanding the flows from stormwater from dry weather flows that are coming into the river to evaluate how we can use that for the habitat restoration that's in the river.

What we don't really understand the quantity, and so it's hard for us to plan around that and how we can utilize that best to achieve the goals that we have as a city and the river.

Okay, thank you so much.

And then just um my my next question is can we ensure that there is a community update or public forum held after a year of after the first year of data collection, um, especially in any districts that can be impacted by by some of these studies?

Thank you.

Um Mayor, Council members, Councilmember Hernandez.

Um yes, uh public outreach is definitely part of the plan, especially because this is really part of a larger feasibility study that's going on, uh, and there will be quite a bit of public outreach associated with that feasibility study, and this data will feed into that.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you, and thank you for the work you're doing on behalf of Rio Reimagined roll call.

And on this, yes.

Hodge Washington?

Yes, Pastor?

Yes, Robinson?

Yes, Stark?

Yes.

O'Brien.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Next is item 56, artist design and construction oversight contract for the 35th Avenue and Grand Avenue Overpass Public Art Project.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve.

Second.

Motion and second.

Councilwoman Pastor.

Yes, I'm just excited that this is happening and that it's it's on our agenda today.

It was going to be a on a future agenda, but I'm glad it's it landed the way it landed in and to be able to see what is happening on 35th Avenue in Grant.

So appreciate it.

Wonderful.

And Mary Lucking, our artist has been a very big partner of us at the City of Phoenix.

Roll call.

Oh, we have a speaker.

All right.

Item Diane Barker.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Diane Barker, I'm in District 7.

And I uh approve of this.

However, I've done a little study.

Remember, Mayor, when you were at Meg in this project, this is a huge project.

Total almost going on 400 million dollars.

And this is in our project for 100 million.

But today, this is just the tip of the iceberg, which is going to come on the changes for this area that's been traffic jam and very polluted area for years.

This has all the components of, you know, the the buses have been going around there on Indian school.

We've got the uh trains, we have freight, we have cars, trucks, you name it, probably even, and they want to put in all this infrastructure.

I would say it needs to be a major transit stop also.

So now I looked at funding.

I spoke with Mr.

Crawley, he was interested because this is around Maryville, an area he grew up, and he said, Well, are they putting Prop 400 money in there?

Because Prop 400 at least, if they're gonna run the light rail on that new above bridge, he said that they can only use that light rail money for maintenance.

So anyway, I looked in the CIP of the streets, and they took me to page 33, and I saw nothing in regards to the arts for the funding of this hundred thousand.

So I'm asking my councilwoman if I can get your staff to look into this.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Pastor.

Who is here to speak about this?

Welcome, Carrie Brown from the Arts Team.

And Carrie, the question is about the funding.

Where is the funding coming from?

Yes, Mayor, City Council, and Councilmember Pastor.

Um, this funding is included in the public art plan that was approved earlier this year.

Um, the funding is for design and construction oversight, so we are combining efforts with the project budget to enhance these uh fence features.

So I can confirm it is not pro 400 money.

That's yes, yes.

Go that's where I wanted to land.

Okay, thank you.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Maybe just tell it's uh a gateway project, so maybe do a two sentences about what it's gonna be.

So the artist has not started work just yet.

We've had preliminary conversations with her to discuss um what the project should talk about, respond to.

Obviously, this is a major roadway.

There are a couple of neighborhoods that it does provide a gateway to, so the artists will be working um with the design team to develop those concepts as well as um establishing some community engagement activities as well.

Wonderful.

All right, roll call.

Thank you, Carrie.

And on this, yes, Hodge Washington.

Yes, Pastor?

Yes, Robinson, yes, Stark, Waring, O'Brien.

Yes, there you go.

Yes, passes 80.

Next up is our item 61, the 2026 Downtown Enhanced Municipal Services District Budget Assessments and public hearing date.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 61.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Diane Barker.

Did she leave Diane?

Diane, did you want to talk about DPI?

Okay, do you mind going around the back?

Yeah, yes, we are.

Do you mind going around the back?

And then we have uh definitely and RJ available to speak if necessary.

So if anyone wants to hear from them, please indicate verbally to me.

Okay, thank you, Mayor and City Council, and we are on the item that is the downtown Phoenix Partnership, the five million dollars, and there's a hearing that's coming up.

Okay, so having lived downtown for you know a dozen years, and really supporting downtown.

I have a shirt that says, what do we do on Monday?

I mean, it it's in regards to Meet Me Downtown.

150 times I came down to walk run, support the retailers during that period.

So I'm very interested in the goals of the downtown Phoenix Partnership since we started.

They've doubled the amount of their assessment, you know, that comes in through the city.

It I remember when it was two million, it's five.

I've read some of their goals, and they're good.

I see the trees coming up.

But the alert is now the traffic and the people.

And people come out of convention centers.

Some of them have corporate apartments.

I've talked to them.

They're walking, you know, on the street.

And we have all of this, and I'm for multimodal transportation, but not chaotic.

You know, we have brought in like the cars.

We've caught cars, muscle cars that rev up their engine, and it's got to be 24-7.

And it scares people that are passengers.

And you know, I look to see people violate the crosswalk, and the muscle cars and other cars do.

I would say, you know, in looking in my experience, uh, a quarter to half of the time, people violate the crosswalk.

So I mentioned this to councilman Robinson in the safety committee.

I think Jim Waring was on that of my concern, the growing concern of even our deliveries that will be automated.

Uh so that's my concern.

Thank you so much.

And uh appreciate our partners uh at the downtown enhanced municipal services district.

It was a big week for downtown last week, hosting WNBA finals, while we also hosted multiple events, including Semicon West.

Uh one of our small businesses told me it was their best week ever, uh, particularly with Semicon West customers, and so we're so thankful to the ambassadors who helped connect our small businesses with the great downtown businesses.

Thank you to RJ and Debny who are here with us.

I do not see anyone who has questions for you.

Uh you're available to speak if necessary.

Do you have anything you want to add?

All right, roll call.

Hernandez, yes, Hodge Washington, yes.

Pastor.

Yes, yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 80.

All right.

Uh, item 67 is public record request system RFP through ITS with the fire department.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 67.

We have a motion and a second.

Uh Orla, the floor is yours.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, the city's asking for additional money to help facilitate public records requests.

I've been battling the city to obtain public records since February of 23 after learning of dangerously long fire department response times.

Some of which resulted in deaths of citizens.

After showing city manager Barton and city attorneys proof in various forms that the items I was requesting existed.

It took an internal investigation and audit in nearly two years for only some of that info to finally be released to me.

I told Mr.

Barton on several occasions I felt some of the records I requested were either being slow walked or held back under the direction of fire department attorney with Salisbury.

The info I did receive solidified my concern for the community and first responders.

I believe with record records being requested by the public do not suit the narrative of the city, or if it exposes public safety underfunding, endangerment, and so forth, that it will be withheld or denied.

I'm aware of at least three current lawsuits against the city of Phoenix pertaining to the release of public records, and I'm sure there are many more.

There seems to be an issue of the city not wanting to release damage information.

Not to mention there are news reports that state city manager Mr.

Barton was under investigation.

The public has a right to know why he was being investigated and have access to those public records.

I hope that when the new city manager steps in, he will solve the fire response time crisis that's taken place since the last time he was in position.

And I hope that obtaining public records is much more attainable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Roll call.

Yes.

Hodge Washington.

Yes.

Pastor.

Um I'm just thinking, processing what the woman just said.

Um, yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Item 70 is an authorization for amendment to city code chapter 11.

This is related to the emergency operations plan.

Will the city clerk please read the title?

Item 70 is for ordinance G7421 and ordinance amending the code of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, Chapter 11, sections 11-1 through 11-7, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

We have a motion.

Yes, I move to approve item 70.

Second.

Motion and a second.

Thanks.

This has been a lot of work for our emergency operations team, and there's some language changes.

So we've had two types of emergencies.

We will now very clearly just declare an emergency.

Very relevant this week.

Our neighbors in Tempe have declared an emergency related to the storm damage.

Any comments?

Roll call.

Yes.

Hodge Washington.

Yes.

Pastor?

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark?

Yes.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Item 85 is the small business enterprise program.

Will the city clerk please read the title for 85?

Item 85 is for ordinance G7437 and ordinance amending section 18-113A of chapter 18, Article 6 of the Phoenix City Code relating to the small business enterprise participation program to extend the small business enterprise program.

Thank you.

Do we have a motion?

I move to approve item 85.

Second.

We have motion and a second.

Thank you to our small business team for making sure that we get the great flavor of our local businesses as well as the important economic impact.

Roll call.

Hodge Washington.

Yes.

Pastor?

Yes.

Robinson?

Yes.

Stark.

Waring?

O'Brien.

Yes.

Yes.

Passes 80.

Next we go to item 106, which is an amendment to the city code and ordinance adoption, a rezoning application related to the southeast corner of Central and Broadway.

Do we have a motion?

I guess I'll turn to Councilwoman Hernandez.

It is in her district.

Since it's in your district, I'll let you make the motion.

Oh, thank you.

Caught me on guard there.

Um Broadway and Central.

106.

106.

You probably okay.

I move to approve item 106.

And the related ordinance.

And the related ordinance.

Second.

You're first.

All right.

We do have a speaker on this item.

What?

Letitia Ruiz.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

My name is Leticia Ruiz.

My husband, Fernando Reese was wanting to be here, but he's on his way back from Peru from submission work.

So I am here representing him and myself.

AZ Kids Mills, Espiritu Schools, Mary's Ministries that does the Saturday food banks.

We live in the neighborhood, you could tell.

We're a quarter of a mile from there.

And we are in agreement with the zone change.

We want it.

But we also want to make sure that we don't have a downtown scenario with super tall buildings, and the community is not being served in that way.

We are a neighborhood community.

We don't have any.

But we want something similar to that.

We know that we have uh some needs, housing needs, of course, but we also have the community to think of.

Uh we do the every Saturday we do uh food bank, food banking, and our business is on uh or where we distribute this on Cody office central, and our cars go all the way around from Cody along second street and along Corona.

Corona is the street right next to uh just south of Broadway.

And so you could see that there are huge needs in that neighborhood.

We have a school, an elementary school that has a lot of traffic in the morning, on and on and on.

So just to be cautious about how much we do there, we want to be involved.

We want to give any support that we can.

We also would like to see uh that we not just look at that corner, but we see the rest of it in particular the Ed Pasco Center, it would be a beautiful cultural center.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, and and thank you for your family's uh coming to planning commission and and being involved with the process.

Councilman Hernandez.

Thank you, Mayor.

And yeah, I I thank you so much for to for the speaker for showing up.

Um been in conversation with a lot of the community members down there.

Um I'm really excited for this project.

I think this is a really important, and it's it's a big deal that we're voting on the zoning change.

Um, this is gonna be like an opportunity to really deliver on what the community's vision was for South Phoenix.

Um and now with the investment of the light rail, you know, now open and functioning.

Um, this is gonna have great potential of what that corner on Central and Broadway is gonna be.

Um so I'm really excited to see uh how we really bring the community's vision to life and really deliver on things that that community needs.

So um I also agree with you that uh Ed Pastor Center would be an amazing cultural center in D7.

Uh so definitely agree with you on that.

But yeah, just I'm super excited for just this opportunity to work on this um and really deliver for the South Phoenix folks on Central along with the light rail and just delivering on some housing needs and how collectively, right?

That that area is gonna look.

So um just really excited for that.

Wonderful.

And this is uh exciting project.

We've gotten a lot of input from the community, included through our transit-oriented development process that we want to move forward.

Uh people really wanted the the front of this project to be towards the light rail project and and be very much public-facing as opposed to like way behind a big parking lot that's right on the front of the street.

We got a lot of input that we want to celebrate the small businesses of Phoenix, and so I'm hopeful as we as we have a development partner that we can have small businesses at the forefront of this project.

Um I think we have more than a hundred pages of public input, so I will spare everyone from summarizing it.

But the public has high standards for this project, and that seems more than fair.

Councilwoman Pastor.

Yes, thank you.

Um, we do have a South Central plan, transit plan.

So uh just to note that that uh many many voices were part of that plan, and and we blessed it.

I don't know, I want to say several years ago.

Um, and so that would be a great guide uh of how uh South Central uh would like to be built and looked at.

And I'm not sure of I can't remember because I was intimately involved, but I'm not sure in that in that space, it also talks about height, and so uh we can use that as a guide.

I have a copy of those in my office on my bookshelf.

Wonderful.

Roll call.

Hernandez, yes, Hodge Washington, yes, Pastor?

Yes, Robinson, yes, Stark, yes, wearing O'Brien.

Yes.

There you go.

Yes, passes 8-0.

Wonderful.

So we would now be at 109110, so we only save them 90 minutes, but still uh somewhat helpful, uh, hopefully.

And I think with that, we move on to the final portion of our meeting, and I'll ask the city attorney to endure um introduce that portion.

Thank you, Mayor.

During citizen comment, members of the public may speak to the city council for up to three minutes on issues of interest or concern.

However, the matters addressed must be within the jurisdiction of the Phoenix City Council and on which the council has the authority to act.

The citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes.

The Arizona open meeting law allows the city council to listen to comments but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the issues presented.

However, council members may respond to criticism.

Uh thank you.

And I should have said uh in the council meeting today, we directly entitled 160 units of housing, but that doesn't include items like the one we just did, where there will be significant housing, but there was no specific unit number yet.

So moving forward on that, we'll begin with Jarrett Moffin.

Uh Jarrett will be followed by Janae.

Thank you, uh Mayor and Council.

And it's good to see my neighbor, Miss Ruiz, and and everyone that project there on uh Broadway is very exciting and it's just loving the way things are coming coming together.

My house is on the very end of Central, so I see the light rail every day and look forward to uh the changes that are taking place.

Um I do have uh petition to submit to the clerk.

So if someone would like to come and get that, that will be fine.

I learned a lot in the last week uh myself and uh staff and secretaries about uh public versus privately owned streets and kind of the hodgepodge that we got going on.

Uh so it'll uh learning curve there.

Um so I'd like to uh uh submit this um and in the spirit you know of the petition and a conversation that took place earlier in the meeting.

Um want to be brief because I do have to go, but uh want to encourage the city council um uh especially uh council and uh Robinson and and my own councilwoman uh Hodge Washington to uh you know continue to reach out.

I don't think the city has yet formally established a relationship with our historic black colleges and universities that have a record number of graduates now in criminal justice studies and other areas that have expressed an interest, at least when I've been there, uh in uh not only working for the city but joining our our police department department and public safety operations.

I think that's a great resource.

I don't think it would cost the city anything to engage in a relationship with them directly.

I was just at uh Langston uh University in Oklahoma and had a very robust discussion with people there about the benefits of uh uh joining our uh police department here and being employed with the city of Phoenix.

So with that for once, you know, I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Janae is next, followed by Diane.

Mayor and council members, my name is Janae Vandekirk, and I'm a ticket agent at Phoenix Harbor, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

I enjoy my job and I enjoy working at the airport.

Last year, our airport broke records for total passengers in a single year.

Business is clearly booming.

A lot of that was thanks to American Airlines.

But the working people who are the backbone of our airports and keep the planes flying, don't see any of the benefits.

Quite the opposite.

I'm struggling, and so are many of my co-workers.

We struggle.

Most of us have second jobs.

Some can't even afford to pay the electricity for their apartments, and because of that, choose not to run the air conditioners during the summer, thus impacting their health.

And then even worse, some of us are living in homeless shelters.

The workers workers at Sky Harbor are the very definition of the working poor.

It's heartbreaking and it's wrong.

Mayor and council members.

There is more to life than merely existing.

I'm asking that the mayor direct our city manager Ed Swarkar and our aviation director, Chad Makowski, to conduct an economic impact study of our airport.

This time, that study should provide details about the needed wages and benefits of our airport workers, including contract workers such as myself.

Most recently, we conducted our own economic impact study through Arizona State University.

It determined that a wage of $25 an hour for contracted service workers would help build a stable, experienced workforce who see airport service jobs as a good paying careers.

They should be.

Thank you for that.

Diana is next, and then Roland.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Diane Barker, I reside downtown, but half of my life I've lived in the valley, and I lived in seven different cities.

Most of that time, I didn't use a personal automobile, so I learned an awful lot about other modes of travel.

Um I firmly believe that people can have an experience like I've had, and you can save some money, and you can put it, you know, into having a roof over your head, which is really important because that helps you have a job.

Of course, mobility, most people think you have to have a car to keep a job.

I'd say in the greater Phoenix area, we're blessed with many ways of getting around, and I've never lived in a place that shares more of many commodities.

You don't go hungry in Phoenix.

Uh so I'm not here just to complain.

I know I've brought concerns.

I really am concerned.

You know, years ago I came to visit my parents.

They were retirees from the Air Force, and um, they lived in a bedroom community.

I said, I want to go to Phoenix.

People said, Well, why do you want to go to Phoenix?

And I always wanted to go to Phoenix, and now I'm seeing Phoenix grow up.

And uh, I'm just thinking about what this winter's gonna be like, and I think that, you know, geez, if we don't have the air traffic controllers, the government shut down, you know.

Uh, people are gonna bring their cars.

So, mayor, what I want to say is you know, we've been to Meg and seen a lot of problems and this and that, but I think Phoenix can lead us into a good multimodal.

And if everybody's gonna bring their car, we'll have big traffic.

But I'm here to say if we don't watch out where we're going, we could end up there, but we can resolve this.

Thank you.

Roland Harris will be our final speaker.

Thank you.

Um, I just want to say uh I wish I was here last week or the last meeting in person.

But uh first of all, I'd like to say that give a quick reminder to the city council, and we what you guys' job is.

You guys were brought and voted into your office to be servants of the community.

Um preservation, I've only seen three city council members doing that for their districts.

That's district one, district two, and district seven.

District one and two, their constituents want more policing, and they vote to give funding to more police.

Their councilwoman comes and votes against it.

For every other district in here, you I've never heard of any of your district or constituents saying they want more funding to police.

They do want more crime prevention, but crime prevention does not mean more police.

It means funding more programs for people, funding more programs for homelessness, drug addiction, and youth.

That's what crime prevention is.

It's not putting more police in there to kill us.

So I say that you guys need to start hope holding your oath to your seat that you were voted into and start doing this.

Now there was a secret vote, or I wouldn't even say a vote to bring Ed Zerker back.

There was a comment made by the mayor that said that they got the best candidate.

You're absolutely right.

You got the best candidate if you want the Phoenix Police Department to be the most violent police force in the country again.

You got it, you hired the best chief police.

If that's what you want, is this to be the most violent and most deadliest police force in this country again?

Because that's what we're on pace to do.

And the short amount of time that you decide to bring Ezerker back, there's been almost six police shootings.

In the last two months, it's been 10 police shootings, six people killed.

So that means there's now six more families like mine.

I lost Jacob almost seven years ago, and nothing's changed.

You guys need to start realizing that you are the problem, and you need to accept it and say we're gonna make a change to this.

We sat up here and you and Councilwoman Pastor asked the gentleman from the police department straight up question.

What is this system going to do to prevent more families from multiple police officers killing members of this community?

He talked in circles, could not answer that question directly.

So that should serve to you and this mayor and to the city council to say, hey, obviously, we still have no accountability.

So I asked you to stop giving money away and start doing something.

And for a city council member to say that the police violence wouldn't affect them, and being a person of color may not affect you directly because you were a police officer, but your family looks just like us.

And to the police, they look just like one of us.

So if they'll kill one of us, don't think they won't kill one of your family members as well.

We are adjourned.

Phoenix Housing Director, Titus Matthew, to say a few words.

Good morning.

I'm not sure if I can top Councilwoman's speech, but I'll try.

So it's a ashamed mentioned, my name is Titus Matthew, I'm City of Phoenix Housing Director.

And it's a pleasure to be here this morning, especially because this has been an interesting project because this is the first time, actually the second time in the city of Phoenix, we did a tri-party deal where we bought school district line from Isaac School District in partnership with City of Phoenix and the Phoenix IDA.

Uh, worked very closely to get this deal done, and then with the council approval to finalize the deal.

In addition to that, City Phoenix Housing Department provided a million dollars in home funds and 22 project-based vouchers.

So I just want to give a shameless plug.

For those of you working in the federal lobbyists, make sure you work with them to increase our housing choice voucher program and the numbers because that's lacking in Phoenix.

And make sure the home funds is continued at the federal level.

But this project is transforming the neighborhood, as councilwoman Pascal mentioned.

And also what I'm highlighting as the councilwoman mentioned, uh, she's very competitive, and I'm trying to make sure that we get the most number of fural housing units in her district before she leaves.

And so I said I committed to that, and we're gonna be doing that, and we got another project coming up called Central in Columbus, close to downtown.

So that'll be another beautiful project we complete.

But I want to thank everyone for being here today, and I want to thank our partners, Isaac School District, the Phoenix Idea, once Algado and his team, and all the other partners being here to the USU's Development Corporation for being here and doing this project from Denver.

I think this is your first few projects you've done in Phoenix.

So congratulations to all of you for doing this.

I also want to thank the Department of Housing, Ruby Dylan and our team for partnering with us and working together to figure out solutions, especially in these times where.