Good morning.

Welcome to the November 12th, 2025 Economic Development and the Arts Subcommittee.

I'd like to call the meeting to order and turn it over to our city attorney, David Benton, to explain public comment.

Morning, madam chair, members of the subcommittee during citizen comment, members of the public may address the subcommittee for up to three minutes on issues of concern to them.

The issues being addressed, however, must be on subject matters that fall within the jurisdiction of the subcommittee or upon which the subcommittee or city phoenix may act.

The Arizona opened media mall permits the subcommittee members to listen to the comments, but prohibits members from discussing or acting on matters presented.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, sir.

And this morning for um interpretation, we have Elsie Duarte.

Would you please introduce yourself?

Yes, thank you, uh Madam Chair O'Brien.

My name is El C Duarte, and I will be providing Spanish interpretation during today's session.

I will now take a moment to address our Spanish speaking audience.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Elsie.

Um then our next agenda item is called to public, and we have one virtual person uh online, Jenny Ann Sumner.

She's not on.

Okay, we'll come back.

You guys will let me know if she comes back on when or gets back on.

Thank you.

The next uh agenda item is approval of minutes from October 14th, 2025.

Do I have a motion?

I move to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Um, any nays.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Um item number two on our agenda is light rails impact on economic development and community visioning.

For this item, we have with us Marcus Coleman, our light rail administrator for the city of Phoenix.

Joshua Bed Benerek, planning and development director with the city of Phoenix.

Oh, Marty, I'm gonna apologize.

Marty Zeke.

Oh, yay, from with Valley Metro, and then Eric Johnson with the deputy who is the deputy director for community and economic development.

Thank you all for joining us this morning.

This item is for information and discussion.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee, thank you for having us here.

Um it's an honor to be able to present to you today on an important topic of economic development that has been spurred by our light rail project.

Today we have Josh Benarick, as you stated, um, who will from our um from our planning development department who will talk to us about our planning around uh public transit and high capacity transit.

Also some of the community efforts that we go through to make sure that these projects are done with the community and done in a responsible manner.

Um we also have Marty Z from Valley Metro, who will talk from a regional perspective, who will give us information that really shows what we've seen around our light rail system from a regional perspective and some of the benefits that we've been able to observe.

And then finally, we have Eric Johnson from our community economic development department that will give specifics for the city of Phoenix.

Um, is really dive into some of those details of projects that we've seen, some of the results that we've seen from this investment that we've done throughout the valley, and then also some of the critical opportunities that we have identified to help us to continue to grow our economic development footprint around our light rail system.

And with that, I will hand over to Josh Bonari.

Thank you, Marcus.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

When we talk about transoric communities in Phoenix, we're generally talking about the neighborhoods, businesses, and properties within a half mile on each side of the city's light rail system.

Trans-oriented communities are designed to encourage investment near light rail stations that is compact, accessible, and mixed use, helping to maximize the investment in light rail and enhancing ridership.

Phoenix has 11 transit-oriented communities spanning from South Central to the New Metropolitan District and from Sky Harbor Airport to Desert Sky Mall.

Eight of the communities have City Council adopted policy plans, while staff is hard at work finalizing plans for the Metropolitan Capital and I 10 West districts.

All the TLC plans are done in collaboration with the community through hundreds of hours of workshops, meetings, and surveys.

We have seen tremendous support and subsequent investment in the TOC areas, thanks in large part to the ownership the community has of the plan and its vision for the future.

All of the TOC plans focus on six planning elements land use, housing, economic development, health, mobility, and green systems.

This holistic approach to planning results in robust discussions with the community and a comprehensive policy framework that guides investment in each of these impactful areas.

The TOC framework has developed around the community answering three key questions who we are, what we want, and how we get there.

Focusing on these questions allows the planners and the community to develop a vision and strategies centered around the community's unique characteristics, needs, and ideas.

To give an example of how the approach has guided investment, I'll spotlight what has occurred in the midtown and uptown TOC areas north of downtown.

Using the adopted policy plans of properties have been uh dozens of properties uh have been rezoned to the walkable urban code, millions in public investment have been made to enhance the community's pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

Park Central Mall was completely transformed, and more than 6,600 dwelling units have been added to the area through 63 rezoning cases since the plan's adoption in 2015.

I'll now turn to Marty Zeke with Valley Metro.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee, I'm excited to talk to you about some of the regional investments that we've seen throughout our rail system.

So we currently operate a 35.5 mile light rail system across the primary business districts of all three cities that rail operates in, Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa.

With the opening of South Central, we were excited to return to our 12-minute frequency and have seen great ridership as a result.

When you look at the return on investments from a regional level, uh similar to City of Phoenix, Valley Metro captures investment with the industry standard of a half mile around the light rail system.

We've observed the following investments within that half mile corridor.

All three cities have experienced significant redevelopment across their sections of light rail.

The development has been across all sectors and is primarily private sector.

Since the inception of rail, we've seen over 50,000 residential units built, with almost 10% of those being designated affordable rental units.

And finally, we've had over 6,500 hotel rooms also open along the system, which has been a great boon.

In terms of the numbers and what that actually looks like, we've seen a capital investment of just over $4 billion onto the actual infrastructure for the light rail system and surrounding community improvements.

This investment has come from federal sources, regional sources, as well as local sources.

With that $4 billion in investment, we've essentially seen a 500% return on investment so far, with just over 20 billion dollars in investments made along the light rail system.

It's important to note with this fact that this investment is continuing with upcoming projects underway in all three cities.

As we see those projects come to fruition, the return on investment will continue to increase across the system.

And also important to point out on this uh of that 20 billion in investment that we've seen along the light rail system, over 16 billion of it has been private sector.

When we look at the breakdown of investments, it's been primarily residential.

Over 60% of the investments along the rail corridor have been new residential projects.

There's also been strong commercial interest, over 30% of the total.

And then finally, educational investment is significant along the light rail system as well.

A couple big examples include Creighton University's health science campus at Park Central, as well as ASU's significant growth in all three cities.

ASU has grown its downtown Phoenix presence since Light Rail's inception.

The Tempe campus has grown, and ASU has also opened a new campus in downtown Mesa for the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.

As you look at the rail system overall, Phoenix has seen the lion's share of investment, 12 billion dollars in counting.

Tempe has seen 7 billion in counting along its light rail and streetcar portions.

And then Mesa has currently seen 1 billion.

All three cities are seeing that number continue to grow.

And then finally, before I hand it off, just to talk through some other aspects of how light rail has benefited the region economically.

We have seen investments grow in terms of populations as well as jobs.

So since the light rail system opened in 2008, we've seen essentially 50,000 new housing units open up.

In terms of the numbers of workers employed, that has also grown by over 27,000 workers in the light rail corridor.

We are over 286,000 workers that are captured within the light rail corridor between the three cities.

And then finally, in terms of the numbers of workers living along the light rail corridor, that has also increased by over 20,000 since rail's inception in 2008.

And with that being said, I will now hand it over to Eric Johnson to talk through Phoenix specific investments.

Thank you, Marty.

Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

As you've seen in the prior slides, a significant portion of the economic growth that's happened along the corridor has been happening in Phoenix.

And this all starts with the investment that City Council has approved and supported, which begins with the almost $3 billion worth of capital investment, which is a combination of local, regional, and federal funds, including T2050 and our proposition 400 funding.

These funds have pried the baseline for us to be able to see private investment that has come along the corridor.

Specifically within Phoenix, we've seen over $8 billion of private investment capital come and follow along with our investment into light rail.

This has shown us a roughly average of uh return of approximately three dollars of private investment for every dollar that's been coming into the city.

So that's obviously been a very good thing for us to see, and we've seen that continue along the extensions that we've been working on.

As Josh was mentioning, transitory community planning is critical to our infrastructure planning.

And for economic development, that sets not only our baseline of what we want to see from an economic development perspective, but it helps show the uh community and the council vision for what they want to see along our planning corridors.

Uh, as a result of these planning efforts, we've seen uh and investments we've seen approximately 12 million square foot of restaurant retail and other commercial space come in along the corridor.

We've seen over 25,000 residential units coming into Phoenix, and more importantly, over 10% of that has been in affordable units coming along the corridor.

As well as probably for our tax perspective, it's most important that we've seen new hotel rooms coming in, which helps support our uh tourism and our convention industry.

And so those hotel rooms are critical to the success of the light rail and to our downtown economy.

When we want to look at a few of the specific project examples, uh, want to start kind of going from east to west.

Phoenix Rising is a great example of an entertainment and sports facility that has been constructed on the former Greyhound site.

We're excited to see them uh come back into Phoenix and uh have their facility there at our station at 38th Street.

Uh, next is a multifamily residential example, which is uh VB on 12, which is bringing new residential units into our East Lake neighborhood.

Moving into downtown, uh, we're very excited for the very soon to open uh Central Station project, which hits almost all the check boxes for a transitory community project.

It's a mixed-use project, it's a public-private partnership, it's going to be home to our new transit center as well as uh rental residential units, uh, student housing, office space, retail space, and we're very excited for that to uh be opening here in uh the very immediate future.

Next, moving north on Central, we have uh the Park Central Mall uh redevelopment.

This has been an exciting project that's been worked on for a number of years.

Uh as Marty mentioned, uh, we're very excited that Creighton University chose that as a location to bring a new educational partner into Phoenix, but it's also home to new residential units uh at reactivation of retail and office space, as well as those important hotel units.

Uh more another hotel being built at Park Central.

Uh, moving along Calmback, we were excited to give an example of an adaptive reuse project, which is the Rise Hotel uptown.

Not only was bringing new hotel units, but also ground floor retail space to the light rail corridor.

And next, I want to highlight um Ski Terrace, which is on 19th Avenue, just as you head north from Calemback.

This is a new uh rental residential but affordable housing project that has been built along the corridor.

Light rail has been a key part of our economic development strategy, and it has been a huge multiplier as we look to do business attraction and business development along the corridor.

The probably the most important part of that is it shows the city's commitment to building that infrastructure in that area.

That commitment and uh contribution to infrastructure investment has helped attract the businesses to and economic development and uh the capital investment to sorry, the capital investment to the corridor, and our certainty of putting the light rail in those projects helps us bring that attraction to those locations.

Connectivity and multimodal options are not only important to our residents and the citizens uh along the corridor, but it's one of those critical options that our businesses are often looking for to provide their employees an option of how they get to and from work.

So having uh the nodes at the different light rail stations has been critical to our opportunity to attract certain kinds of businesses.

The proximity of light rail to our high value and and interest uh high interest venues along the corridor has been a critical success on multiple levels.

Not only does it provide alternatives for people to get to and from these events, but it also helps people choose alternatives to how they do what they do before and after those events and helps generate a significant amount of restaurant and retail connectivity.

The increased density with housing that comes along the corridor also brings uh the opportunity for our retail and restaurant providers to see those increased demographics along the corridor, which attracts them into those spaces because they get to see more turnover at lunches and dinners and breakfast.

As we look at large and mega events, light rail has been a cornerstone of our ability to attract those mega events to the city.

Upcoming, we have the women's uh NCAA Final Four coming, but also to smaller local and regional events.

These uh special events and festivals, light rail has been a critical compart component of moving people along the corridor, but also attracting them to the before and after events and helping us attract them to those smaller uh activities that help generate a significant amount of uh tax revenue for the city.

And when you combine all these, we definitely see light rails being a key part of our economic development attraction effort and our ability to generate new income into the corridor.

As we move to the future and we're looking forward, uh there's a lot of exciting projects that we want to highlight, but I'll narrow it down to just a few of them.

First, we want to start with the Metropolitan, which is just beginning under construction.

Um we're excited to see this mixed-use project come at the new current end of line.

Uh it will have residential retail commercial space as part of the project.

But we're very excited to see this be that cornerstone of the end of line and bring new economic development and vitality to this area.

And of course, it's a small renovation redevelopment project.

Um as we look to projects where the city can have uh a significant amount of more control over what's happening, and we're being proactive on our planning efforts as to what we want to attract.

We look at several uh future requests for proposal sites.

Uh the first I want to highlight is at our western gateway into downtown, but also that connection point to the Capitol Mall area is 7th Avenue in Washington.

We're excited to have the three blocks that the city controls over there, approximately four and a half acres of land.

But use those properties uh to help not only provide a mixed-use residential retail opportunity, but also be iconic projects for that gateway into downtown.

As we're looking at the South Central Corridor, Central and Broadway, we're partnering with neighborhood services to connect to uh not only to light rail but connect to the neighborhood with new housing alternatives.

It's currently a site that's under rezoning right now, so we're excited to see this move forward in the RFP process.

Um as we've mentioned, Light Rail has expanded out to the metropolitan.

With that, we have several parking rides along the 19th Avenue corridor.

We're excited to look forward to activating those parking ride sites as new uh redevelopment opportunities in particular locations such as um uh uh Montebello site, um, which is uh one of our key locations because of its proximity to libraries, commercial space, and so we see that as being one of those great opportunities for pushing new economic development along the corridor.

And finally, uh thanks to uh the city council and our community support of our 2023 uh Geobond program, uh CD was able to move forward and acquire land along the Rio Salado area.

And so we have a new property, uh, approximately 30 acres of land uh that will be our cornerstone of economic activity, uh expanding economic activity along the Rio Reimagined area.

And so we're looking forward to starting the planning efforts on all these sites to uh create new economic development activity as we move forward in the future.

With that, I'll hand it back to Marcus.

Well, Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee, once again we thank you for allowing us to be here.

As you can see through the presentation, we have lots of good stories to tell around Light Rill and this economic development impact, um, all with starting with the community and how the planning takes place through the planning and development department, Valley Metro also working with our partners, our federal partners to make sure that we can bring these projects to fruition.

Um, and then finally through our community economic development department that executes on that plan.

And so um, with that, we'll take any questions that you may have.

Council members, uh Councilman Robinson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

More than a comment, anything else, um, exceptional presentation.

Thank you very much.

You know, it's always good to see how the parts, you know, how the puzzle comes together.

And I think that's what this truly represents more than anything else from trans and economic development from planning and all the things that's going on in transit, both in the light rail and with the transit system.

So I just want to take the opportunity to thank all four of you for an excellent presentation, and I would say keep up the good work.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Robinson.

Councilman Pasteur.

Um, I actually have a lot of questions.

Um, the first is that when light rail is looked at or has been looked at, um it's always a space and time as to where we're gonna place it and why we're gonna place it there.

And uh correct me if I'm wrong, but really where that starts, the heart of that conversation really starts with community.

Madam Chair is member of the subcommittee, uh Councilwoman Pastor, yes, that is correct.

It all starts and begins with the community.

And when it begins with community, there is a lot of phases that happen, and I have participated in many of them.

And uh, and the phases begin with, well, what do you think about this?

Or we're looking at this.

Where could uh the possibility of economic development be?

What do you vision in this space?

Um then there's basically a plan written with community in the city, and I guess Valley Metro, but really with the city.

But the commitment is coming from the city as to working with the community and Valley Metro then puts the plan and works with planning and development and all the pieces that come together.

Am I correct?

Yes, Councilwoman, you are correct.

Um, our planning and development department leads most of our TOD or TLC processes that really define how that community's vision is expressed, not only throughout the light rail project and our high capacity transit projects, but also the whole visioning and land use for the corridor.

Okay.

I don't think that we anticipated how much impact light rail would have made or makes in the central corridor.

Um in the central corridor, the impact of I might say 20 years, 15, 20 years.

We are now seeing the uh the fruit of all that labor making it happen as to what we talked about in the past.

And the reason why I'm saying that is because what hasn't been highlighted because it's not there yet, there are eight more projects that have been planned and zoned to go up from Osborne just to Camelback.

And the density that is going to be built in that space and the people and also the businesses, because what when there's density in people, there's demand for businesses, and all the labor that has been placed in planning and zoning of having the bottoms uh uh set up so that people could walk or come down in their building to have a coffee or shop.

Um, those were that was the vision, and the vision is now coming to fruition.

And so the reason why I'm going down this road is because it takes a long time to get there, but we have to get there in order to stamp what we stamp today is what the generations are gonna feel and impact.

And so I think the reason why uh another reason why I'm going down this way is because we have to be patient through this process.

Um, it's very easy to say uh, you know what, this isn't worth the investment.

Uh this isn't where we think economic impact's gonna be.

But I think the proof is in the pudding as of today.

It will be very interesting to see and watch the growth that's going to happen on South Central.

We see the growth that is happening and on the north line.

That all took planning and time to be placed in difficult conversations.

But ultimately, in the end, who approved all of that was the community and the voters.

And we made that commitment to make it happen.

So I want to thank you for this presentation because it demonstrates all of the economic impact that is being felt, and that's further going to be felt because I think we we've gone beyond what we thought.

And uh and I'm looking towards uh what the future looks like on the future line.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Pastor, and and I think maybe to put a little bit of a finer point on what she was talking about, right?

The voters passed this three times.

Um, and yet we still hear concerns about the cost and the money of light rail.

Uh, however, you all just showed us uh significant investment, a significant return on our investment.

And you might want to compare it, one might want to compare it a little bit to the five dollar roasted chicken I can get at Costco.

Um, because I know they're not making money on that chicken, uh, but they're making a lot of money on my basket, or even if I don't take a basket, I still walk out with more than I came in for.

So, what would you say to folks who still um believe that right light rail is not a good investment for our city?

And and I'll let any of you address that.

Um Madam Chair, what I would say is that light rail was not intended to be the end all uh for transit options within the valley.

Light rail is a tool, and this is one of our transit options.

It was I always intended to build upon our bus system, to work with our bus system, to also work in conjunction with our express system, and now soon to be our bus rapid transit system.

So it's for individuals that would question the vitality of light rail or whether we should continue to move forward with light rail.

What I would say to them is light rail has helped us to expand throughout the valley and enhance our efficiency of our system.

So light rail, our system does not work as efficiently as it currently does without light rail.

It is not built to be independent of other transit options, it is built to be in surplus with those other transit options.

And so this is one of the tools that make sure that us as a valley can serve all of our constituent base.

And I see Eric poised to chime in as well.

Yes, man.

Chair and members of the subcommittee, I would add on to what Marcus was saying, which is and and actually what the subcommittee mentioned, which is unfortunately like economic development takes time to come to fruition.

But all these groundwork that we lay, we can see the examples from all that work that started back in 2004 and see that multiplier effect.

And so while light rail is not the one item that makes or breaks a project along the corridor, it has definitely been a significant amplifier of economic development along these corridors.

And so to build that infrastructure and show that commitment that council has so great done it with great forethought of looking to the future of our corridors, you know, that infrastructure investment helps draw in this economic development, and we do see it come.

It just takes a few years longer to get there, but is definitely multiplied our activity and increased our density, which not only increases additional tax revenue to the city, but it also shows a better return on our investment of infrastructure because you have that density, and so more people are using the infrastructure that we've built, and so it's really on a lower cost basis for us to invest in those areas.

Yeah, thank you.

All I would um I can speak directly to the metropolitan and know that right, that wasn't the only factor, but it certainly was a significant factor to have the light rail um be there, and and that is nearly a billion dollar investment in an area where it was long, long overdue and and revitalizing that area.

So thank you all for the presentation today and the hard work because as councilwoman Pastor says, right, it does not happen overnight.

We have to roll up our sleeves and keep working the plan and uh for the community members and our our visitors.

So thank you all for your hard work and this presentation.

Councilwoman Pastor.

I think one of the things that was missing in the comments was that light rail provided access.

Light rail provides access throughout our whole city in areas that didn't have access.

And light rail, where bus systems were all use South Phoenix, uh where bus systems, people relied on the bus systems, which at some times can be um time consuming to use to get to work, to get to school, to get anywhere.

The light rail now in conjunction with the bus system is working at the way it's supposed to be working and moving people in and out from South Phoenix to North Phoenix and to downtown.

That access was not available in the past.

It is now available today, where we are seeing the numbers that are necessary, or we didn't predict.

We predicted numbers, but what we didn't predict were the numbers were going to be higher than what we expected.

So I think in the conversation of light rail, ultimately it's access to communities that don't have access.

So thank you.

Thank you all.

Our next agenda item is Phoenix Sister Cities update.

For this item, we will have Eric Johnson, our acting development director for community economic development.

Rita Marco, the president and CEO of Phoenix Sister Cities.

And Joseph McEwen, our international relations administrator.

Thank you for joining us all.

Good morning again, manager, members of the subcommittee.

Sorry, I'm just rotating chairs around.

You get to hear me talk way too much today.

We're happy today to present to you some updates and uh give you an overview of some of the activities that have been happening with Phoenix Sister Cities the past year and what we're looking forward to do in the future.

But also we're here to ask for your approval and recommendation, recommendation of approval to enter into a new five-year contract with two Phoenix Sister Cities because we're coming into the last year of our current contract.

So to continue all this great work, we need to ask for your recommendation to continue those efforts moving forward.

And with that, I'm gonna hand it off to Rita to talk about all the great activities.

Am I on?

Yes, there we go.

Thank you.

Uh good morning, Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

Thank you so much for seeing us today.

And I want to give special thanks to the Vice Mayor and Councilwoman Stark for asking for this presentation on what we've done over the last roughly five years or so as we look toward the next five years.

There we go.

So okay, this is different.

It's not the same presentation.

So we're gonna wing it.

So we uh have hosted roughly seven outbound delegations or seven outbound delegations over the last five years, including one to Taipei in 2019, and most recently to Prague uh this past fall.

All of our outbound delegations include a business component.

And in the case of Prague, which you can see in the bottom uh photo, that included uh presentations to the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Industry, a group of startups uh hosted by Czech Invest with the idea of welcoming those businesses here to Phoenix as they look to launch perhaps U.S.

operations.

Um, over two days in Prague, we visited with more than 200 people.

So it was a robust uh two days, as the councilman will remember because he was with us in Prague.

It's the jet lag.

Um, our other recent outbound delegations have included an invitation from Grenoble, which is the photo on the left to celebrate with them the 80th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis in World War II.

And then on the right, we visited with Catania, and this is actually a photograph of the mayor of Catania hosting a meeting for us with the high tech industry in Sicily, including semiconductor and other advanced manufacturing.

Again, the notion being that every time we travel to one of these destinations, we look for those opportunities for us to connect in every way possible arts, culture, youth, and business.

Other outbound delegations recently have included C1, Himeji, Ermusillo, and Ennis.

We also welcome inbound delegations, including two from the EU.

This is actually a photograph of the trade ministers of the EU coming to visit with us, and then we also welcomed a group of EU leadership separately.

Um we have had three inbound delegations, trade missions really from Calgary, Canada.

The initial one was consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, but then the last two have been tech.

And these are all really about again introducing the Phoenix ecosystem to businesses that may want to locate here.

We've also had two inbound trade missions from Prague.

One was focused on semiconductor and funded by the EU.

It was a study to where the second one, and this is the photograph that I'm most pleased about.

I went looking for this one because I like it so much.

We had a tech group come in from Prague, and this gentleman was actually introducing his exoskeleton technology at Banner.

So again, opportunities for us to work with our sister cities around business and economic development.

We welcomed one new sister city in the course of this five-year period, and that was Suwan, South Korea, and that was in 2021.

Since that time, they have come to visit us three times, and we have been to visit them once.

So it's been a robust relationship.

Most recently, we helped foster a relationship between Aju University in Suwan and ASU, between their law school and Aju Law School, and that has resulted in an MOU to continue the relationship of exchanges that we started between law students focused on international relations and international law.

We've worked on a number of bigger events.

This is actually a photograph of the first El Grito that we worked on with Council District 5, and we did it for two years.

It was an opportunity for us to highlight our relationship with Hermosillo, Sister City Hermosill, and particularly to invite businesses from Hermosillo and community groups to join us for the celebration of El Grito.

In particular, one year we had a group of women businesses from Hermosillo at El Grito.

And then, of course, as the Vice Mayor knows well, we have worked together on the double 10 celebration, so double 10 for those who may not know, is the national day, the annual holiday of Taiwan.

And so this year we welcomed about 5,000 people to join us at ASU West and to celebrate Taiwanese culture.

It is also reflective of our work to help welcome DSMC, its suppliers, and their employees here into Phoenix.

And so that started in a very small way a number of years ago with a picnic in the desert in July.

Perhaps not the best way to start, but they had arrived and we wanted to make them welcome, and has grown into uh double ten.

We have also done more things in light of perhaps helping people adjust to being in Phoenix, including, for example, providing a list of Mandarin speaking physicians so that those employees, when they arrived here on the ground, would have someone to talk to in the middle of the night when their kid was sick and in their native language.

We have hosted a number of business development events.

So we've completed two Phoenix Global Forums.

This is where we invite international CEOs to Phoenix to talk about topics that are important to us, advanced manufacturing, biotech, and medical advance, energy, water, heat.

And we will host our third event May uh next year, May 11, excuse me, May 12 and 13 of next year.

The focus of these events is really to broadcast to the world opportunities here in Phoenix.

So we see this as our foreign direct investment event.

Prior to that, we had actually hosted two trilateral trade conferences focusing on the relationship between Canada, U.S.

and Mexico, including one done in the heart of the pandemic in 2021, where we had to pivot from an in-person event to our first virtual trilateral trade conference.

And then we also host on a regular basis our Global Lynx Business Luncheon, which allows us to introduce to the community, the business community, topics we think are of interest and importance.

So in this case, we welcomed U.S.

Trade Representative Ambassador Tai.

We also hosted an event with Sam Fox, and it was the first event at the Global Ambassador done for a nonprofit.

And then last year we welcomed a group gentleman to talk specifically about advanced air mobility and what that might mean here in Phoenix.

This year in February, we will be welcoming Matt Simaglia and Dan Hart to talk about advances in technology, quite frankly.

Last but not least, and perhaps closest and dearest to our heart is our youth and education exchanges.

Over the past 30 years, we have welcomed more than 900 students to Phoenix, where they were home hosted by families here, and we have sent our teenagers overseas uh to be home hosted by families in our sister cities.

It is really the heart of what we do is these real relationships that develop over the course of years as these people continue to be in touch with each other.

And one of my favorite stories is one of our students recently graduated from college, and he and his family went to visit their hosts.

Now remember, this is from when he was in high school in Catania to celebrate his graduation with them.

And I just want to acknowledgewoman Pastor for her support for our scholarship program this year.

Thank you so much.

So, what's next over the next five years or so?

We'd like to continue working on developing new sister cities affiliations.

We have been approached by the honorary consul of Portugal to look at a sister city in Portugal, and we've been started talking with Braga, which is just outside of Porto.

Braga is a tech center and a startup center in uh Portugal.

And Portugal has a really robust, advanced um perspective on reuse uh and recycling.

So I think that's a uh meets our needs in another way as well.

We've been talking to Montreal or started to talk to Montreal.

Um Calgary has suspended its sister cities program, and so while we don't divorce our sisters, we're going to mothball that relationship and look at something else in Canada because it's essential to us to have a partner in Canada.

At the advice of the honorary consul of Australia here in Phoenix, we have also been looking at Sister Cities, potential sister cities in Australia, and we have learned that perhaps Melbourne is not interested in us for whatever reason that may be.

But we are looking at cities that are Melbourne adjacent because we think, especially with the relationships geopolitically around quad, around scientific advancement, particularly in AI and quantum computing, that looking at relationships in Australia would be very important.

We continue to explore Cape Town, South Africa.

Um they put their program, their sister cities program on hold for a while.

And so we paused and now we are reinvigorating that conversation with the hope of having a solution and an answer soon.

And then we continue to explore opportunities in India.

It is difficult to pinpoint the appropriate city because we have such a large Indian community here in Phoenix, and everybody wants their hometown to be our sister.

So it makes for a difficult decision, and we're going to find a way through this path.

We'll find a path through this.

Then we will also continue with our business attraction efforts, particularly around foreign direct investment, and looking at perhaps doing a smaller, more focused effort in future years around attracting companies, specific companies, and specific industries.

Mostly what they need is an address, a space to work out of, and then some technical support, which we also provide for them.

And you see here Starlux Airlines has been in our space at Galvanize as they have started to get their operation off the ground here in Phoenix.

Currently, we have we have two Taiwanese companies, two Canadian companies, and perhaps one from Hermosillo that we're just talking with now.

In terms of significant anniversaries, we have several upcoming 50 years will be celebrated in 2026 with Himeji Japan and Hermosio Mexico, our oldest relationships.

Himeji will be in the spring, Irmosillo will likely be in the fall.

And then we look forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary with Taipei Taiwan in 2029.

And with that, I give it back to Eric.

Thank you, Rita.

And before I conclude our uh our presentation and our request to council the subcommittee, uh I'd first like to recognize that uh we're very sad to uh be seeing uh Rita leave us after seven amazing years just on the Sister Cities project, and we're grateful for the the years of service being a great coworker and how she's helped transform Sister Cities into being a part of our economic bullet department.

So we're very sad to see her go.

And we want to obviously say thank you for her time.

But also we're excited to bring on uh you know new faces.

And so we're excited to bring Joseph McEwen on.

And so he will be stepping in and jumping first into all the great stuff that Rita has been doing with her team.

And uh we're excited to see where the future will take us.

And so with that, I need to get back to the official business of asking for the subcommittee's recommendation to uh enter into a new five-year agreement with Sister Cities.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um do we have any questions or comments before the motion, or do we want to get straight to the motion?

I was gonna do a moment.

Hey.

Okay.

Councilwoman Stark.

I do.

Thank you, uh, Madam Chair.

I I too wanna say thank you to Ria Marco for all she's done.

She has run a terrific program and has done so much for the city of Phoenix.

We truly are gonna miss her.

Having said that, uh, I do think this is an important program.

Clearly, we have been very successful interacting with our very city cities, given the great semiconductor that is going to be built in district one.

I think that we have done significant um progress with some of the other cities as well, getting them interested in what we're doing in the city of Phoenix.

I can remember when we were in Prague, and Councilman Robinson, you probably remember this as well.

They were most interested in Waymo and what was going on with Waymo and how it worked, and they are now investigating the program as well.

So I I think that um I will support when he asked for a motion.

I will support this because I think it really does provide significant economic development to the city of Phoenix.

And again, Rita, we're gonna miss you.

Thank you.

Second.

Not sure she made a motion.

Do you want to actually make the motion?

I make the motion for accepting um item number three, Phoenix Sister Cities update.

Or not update, but approve their approve the contract.

Okay.

We have a motion for approval of contract.

Second.

And a second, and then council then Robinson.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, you know, Councilwoman Stark stole some of my thunder, but I wanted to thank Rita also.

Had the um the privilege of going on two sister cities trips with her to Catania, Italy, and then to Prague and a few other places.

And simply put, uh simply put, it was an ex an exceptional experience, and it's because of the leadership and the stictuativeness that Rita puts into these particular programs, because you get out of what you you get out of these programs what you put into them, and clearly a great deal is put into them.

You know, we talk about arts, arts, youth, culture, and business, you know, and every one of those trips.

And I I jokingly say that if you go on one of these trips with Rita, you're you're gonna work the whole time.

There are things to do.

So I remember we were in Catania, everyone else is sightseeing, having a great time.

I'm in a suit going to meetings after meetings, cursing Rita under my breath, but in a good way, in a good way.

But because they all turned into something.

And that business component is critical.

And I can't tell you how many times I've been thanked by businesses here in Phoenix and specifically my council district, who have been the benefactor of the work of Sister Cities.

So Rita, for that, thank you very much.

Um, Eric, everybody, great presentation.

Joe had a chance to meet you at our house the other evening.

You have some big shoes to fill.

And um, not in a mean way, Rita, but you know, um you have some big shoes to fill, and I'm sure you're up to it.

But thank you, Vice Mayor, for the opportunity.

Councilwoman Pastor.

Well, Rita, it's never a goodbye for us.

Um, I've enjoyed our working relationship, but I also have enjoyed our friendship.

And of course, all the goodies that you always know, my favorites that I get, uh, especially when she's cooking and baking.

Uh, the other piece is that uh Rita and I got to know each other when I went on my um, I can't remember.

Give me the name, Rita.

The trip to Chengdu.

Changdu.

And that took us, we were gone for 14 days.

There were long 14 days of working.

But the most uh incredible piece about it is that once the delegation left, Rita and I continue traveling uh because I wanted to go to the Great Wall.

And she wanted to go along.

Well, we talked about it and said, okay, let's go together.

And that's really where we enjoyed our time exploring and shopping and eating and meeting one of the exchange students that that uh met with us and and took us out to dinner and told us about the experience that was happening that that he had and and what he was doing with his life uh in China.

But the most impactful piece for me also was Mondo.

Mondo was a 16-year-old uh Hispanic out of South Phoenix that was traveling with Mike Rankowski.

Um he was mentoring Mondo and his sister, and Mondo has surpassed what I ever thought he was going to do.

That trip made such an impact on him that he went on to school to study.

Um to study business, world business, but also learn Mandarin and is now returned to China on a scholarship and is over there continuing his education and working.

That's the type of impact that I believe Sister Cities makes on students in the city of Phoenix.

Not only does it make that type of impact, it also is they recognize that there's a world outside of Arizona, that there are people outside that are doing the same type of things, but now exchanging their ideas and exchanging their language, exchanging their culture, which is most important today in the United States of understanding culture, people, and language, and how we all are collectively intertwined.

So, Rita, I want to thank you.

Um, you put your passion and your heart in into this.

Um, and Joe, welcome.

I'm excited.

So welcome.

Um, and thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Pastor.

And thank you for the presentation today.

I think it was important for people to understand.

I was recently asked um, you know, at the mayor's international, actually, you know, how does Sister Cities really impact Phoenix?

Why is this a thing, a good thing to do?

Why should the citizens be behind sister cities?

And so um, I think this presentation told a very good story.

It doesn't tell all the great stories, but it but we would be here for um probably days.

So we don't want to do that to folks, but but it was important to me to highlight uh the important roles Sister City makes and and what Phoenix has done with that, done with that relationship because we do it differently than other cities.

We connect the the cultural and the arts and and all of that that friendship piece to the economic piece and put it in a great big package, which I think is so important.

Um, build those relationships and then help business people on both sides to um prosper and the and the citizens and the communities from from both areas.

So my first experience really with with Rita had to do with um the double 10 celebration and which she talked about how big it is now, but we started with about 200 people inside uh a smaller ballroom at ASU West Valley.

And needless to say, we don't fit in a ballroom anymore, we don't even come close.

Uh so I'm so grateful for your mentorship and your leadership, your passion for uh Sister Cities and the City, and I'm thankful for what you've grown our program into.

I'm incredibly sad you were leaving us, but super excited for you and your next adventure.

Um welcome, Joseph.

We look forward to working with you.

But uh thank you, Rita, for all you've done.

And I know you've got a little bit more time with us, but I I don't want to miss this opportunity.

So 26 days.

Not that she's counting or anything, folks.

I'm afraid to ask her if she knows how many hours.

So I'm gonna let that.

So having said all of that, um, thank you.

We do have an action item.

So all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

I any nays?

Hearing none, the vote passes unanimously, and we will move on to our next item.

Thank you, uh, all to all three of you.

Item four is our employer developed registered apprenticeships program memorandum of understanding.

And we will get to hear from Eric Johnson again and Lisetta Hogans, our deputy community and economic development director.

We also have Deb Furlong, Business and Workforce Operations Manager.

This item is for discussion and possible action, noting that Councilwoman Pastor is recusing herself for a possible conflict of interest.

So please take it away.

Good morning once again, Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

Actually, I should highlight that this presentation is going to cover both items four and five.

So we will be asking you for two recommendations at the end, but it's more efficient to do one presentation for this.

We are excited to talk about uh apprenticeship programs and uh talk about the uh significant actions that we've done over the last couple of years to create some new uh opportunities for workforce programs, but also to highlight how these have helped us address a lot of the changing needs in our workforce community and our business needs to train up our workforce.

And so we've been creative and responding to the changing environment, and we've uh worked on creating these new employer developed apprenticeship programs, which I should also note that are different from the city's standard apprenticeship programs.

These are employer based rather than working through the city.

We're the sponsor of these programs.

And to present on this, I'll hand it off to uh Lisetta.

Thank you so much, Eric.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee.

It's a pleasure to be here with you this morning.

I'm gonna first kick it off by just kind of describing what an apprenticeship is, why they're so effective, although we know that you all are very familiar with them just to kind of give us a little bit of education.

So an apprenticeship program is structured as a structured training model that really combines classroom instruction and hands-on paid work experience.

Um, during classroom instruction, it's actually called related training, related technical instruction, um, or IT RTI.

We like to acronize acronym everything.

Um, apprentices receive a minimum of 144 hours of classroom learning per year.

Um, RTI is paired with over 2,000 hours of on-the-job training or OJT, which is hands-on paid work experience.

What really makes apprenticeships an effective model is that it follows industry-defined standards and includes mentorship from experienced um individuals that are in the field.

It ensures that apprenticeships are not only learning theory, but that they're also applying in real-world settings.

It's guided by someone who has already mastered the craft, and so that's why we find it to be a proven workforce development strategy that really builds both on the technical skills and the workplace readiness.

So I'll dive a little bit into why apprenticeships.

Um, so we know that you're familiar with um, like I said, the effectiveness of the apprenticeships for employers, though, they create a skilled talent pipeline that's tailored to their specific needs.

Um, this reduces recruitment and training cost overall for them and improves employee retention.

Um, it really boosts productivity and delivers a high return on investment.

For the apprentices themselves, the benefits are just as strong.

They earn while they learn, um, they have valuable on-job experience, and they also really get uh that hands-on mentorship and they earn industry-recognized credentials.

So this model really helps us to meet the workforce demands while creating equitable career pathways for our city of Phoenix residents.

And next I'll turn it over to Deb Furlong, who will um share with you about how we all got started with this and more details about our apprenticeship programs.

Deb.

Thank you, Lisetta and Madam Chair and members of the subcommittee.

This initiative began with strong federal momentum.

The White House designated Phoenix as a workforce hub in May of 2023, due to this council's investment in workforce initiatives in utilizing their ARPA funds and recognize the city's potential to lead in this space.

During that time, the City of Phoenix Business and Workforce Development Board identified an opportunity to fill 67,000 skilled worker positions in advanced manufacturing and semiconducting coming to our valley.

And with that, in January in 2024, the City of Phoenix Workforce Board became the first workforce board in the nation to sponsor registered semiconducting apprenticeship program and the first to register a semiconducting apprenticeship program in the state of Arizona.

TSMC stepped up as an industry leader, being the first employer to partner to develop the apprenticeship program in semiconducting.

And since we've built a collaborative ecosystem that includes oops, our sorry, our education partners, the state apprenticeship office, and industry intermediaries.

Together, we're creating a model that supports education and training, leads to industry certification, and offers clear career progression.

Apprenticeships are portable, nationally recognized, and built on mentorship, making them a powerful tool for economic mobility and workforce resilience.

So how did we develop it?

I mentioned the intermediary.

When we began this phase, we partnered with the National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement, NICA, which serves as a Department of Labor Apprenticeship Intermediary and Advanced Manufacturing.

NICA has been a huge help with guiding the structure of our apprenticeship program to ensure it meets the federal standards and aligned with our industry needs.

And with employers, this part we just really want to highlight you need leadership to that says this is an okay thing, but it's the commitment all the way down.

So meeting with leaders, but also meeting with all of their supervisors and frontline staff to really develop something that was going to be good for them.

And just as importantly, we work closely with our education partners, Northern Arizona University, Australian Community College, and Rio Solada Community College to align curriculum and credentials and support the students.

Through this process, we quickly found that Australia Community Mountain Community College offered many of the classes we needed.

And where we found gaps, our educators, employers, and the NICA team in the city of Phoenix work together to build the education needed to support the on-the-job training component of the program.

This multi-partner collaboration is what makes the program strong, scalable, and responsive to both workforce and economic development priorities.

So what did we develop?

We've made significant progress in developing registered apprenticeship programs that align with high demand occupations and advanced manufacturing and facility operations.

Our first program, Industrial Maintenance Facilities Technician, launched in April of 2024, and it focuses on the maintenance and repair and machinery of equipment.

This program spans 12 to 18 months, includes that 2,000 on-the-job hours and about 150 of the related instruction hours.

The program serves as a foundation for our stackable apprenticeship and continued career growth within the organization.

In September 2024, we actually expanded our offerings by adding two more registered programs.

One being the Manufactured Technician Equipment Tech, focuses on operating and monitoring production equipment, and that program is 12 to 18 months with 2,000 on-the-job hours and about 195 education hours.

The program spans two years and offers 4,000 on-the-job hours and 330 hours of related training instructions.

These programs not only align with industry needs, but also provide clear progressive career pathway.

We're in the process of developing our SLUV sub-floor technician apprenticeship, a stackable program that builds on the facilities technician.

That first one that we did, we we walked in never wanting to leave them there with this plan to grow.

With those pieces in place, we launched our first cohorts with our business partner TSMC.

Our first cohort was we just we went small.

We started with those eight facility techs.

We actually worked with incumbent workers to learn a little bit more about the program.

And that was funded by the Department of Labor's AZQUEST, which is the Department of Labor's National Dislocated Worker Grant through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act and partnered with our human services department in funding that.

This last cohort, we did 18 facility, 18 manufacturing, and 10 process techs.

These early cohorts launched using informal agreements and temporary funding sources while they helped us build momentum and demonstrate all that we could do.

We now need to ensure our long-term stability.

That's why we're here today to share our progress and ask for your support in moving this program into a fully integrated city-supported workforce solution.

And with that, I'm gonna pass it to Liseta that's gonna share a little bit more about our sponsorship.

Thanks so much, Deb.

So, as a registered apprenticeship sponsor, CED really plays a crucial role.

It starts with employer outreach and connecting with businesses to share training standards that are already developed or actually working with them to adopt new standards.

This helps create consistency across the region and lowers the barriers to entry for employment.

Next is our partner coordination.

We couldn't do any of this without our partners.

There's lots of moving parts to that from education providers to employers and other funding partners.

We also provide mentor training to the employer partners because we want to ensure, like Deb shared, there's a lot of first-level supervisors, second-level supervisors that we're working with.

We want to make sure that we're coordinating with them and providing effective mentorship training so that we can offer technical assistance and help them support their apprentices efficiently.

Record keeping is another key responsibility that we have in all of this.

This is really why it works so well for our employer partners to be their program sponsor.

We work with them to track on-a-job training hours, the related instruction hours, working very closely with them in the education partners to ensure accurate documentation.

We also handle all the compliance and monitoring.

A lot of employer partners have been very thankful of this because it alleviates that for them on their side.

It's really built into our program design and what we do in workforce.

It makes it easier for employers who want to participate in the registered apprenticeship programs, but may not have the staffing or expertise to manage their own administrative role.

And finally, we provide direct support to the apprentices, helping them to register for classes, answering any questions that they may have, troubleshooting challenges with our education partners, and our favorites celebrating their milestones with them.

So our role as a sponsor is really about making the process seamless for both the employer partner and for apprentices, and of course, maintaining the integrity of the program.

Next, I'm going to jump into the roles of the education provider and the employer.

So starting off with our education provider who offers the related training instruction.

We were able to move quickly, like Deb shared by already coordinating with our eligible training provider list or ETPL.

That really allowed us to launch the instruction quickly without delay.

But as the program evolves, we're shifting more towards formalized MOUs with our education partners.

These agreements really go beyond basic eligibility.

They really define the shared responsibilities around related training, instruction, performance tracking, outreach support, and long-term collaboration.

So this level of coordination is really essential for us.

Entering into the employer role, employers are at the heart of the apprenticeship model.

We couldn't do this without them, of course.

They provide rural world experiences and make this training so effective.

So their primary responsibility for delivering on-a-job training that aligns with the program standards that Deb mentioned.

This includes exposing apprentices to tools, processes, environments that they'll need to master their role.

We also want to make sure that the employers are aligning the best mentors that they have, experienced professionals who really guide apprentices day-to-day and answer questions and model best practices for them.

Like our education partners, employers also participate in performance tracking, helping us to monitor apprentices' progress, provide feedback, and also ensure that their learning objectives are being met.

So, as the community and economic development department, we'll continue our role in being this sponsored for our registered apprenticeship programs and the advanced manufacturing.

And of course, we want to be able to expand those programs as well, providing coordination, oversight, and support across all of our partners up to this point.

We've successfully launched and managed apprenticeship cohorts by leveraging our existing education partnerships and informal collaborations with employers.

This approach allowed us to respond quickly as I shared.

So now we're looking to take the step, the next step, which is to formalize our partnerships to ensure consistency, accountability, and long-term sustainability.

And then that includes establishing our formal MOUs with our education partners to really, like I shared before, clearly define their roles.

Also, we're working to identify additional partners to enter into structured agreements that oh, I'm sorry, I went too fast, huh?

I wasn't looking at the screen.

Um, we're working to identify um our additional partners to enter into structured agreements with within that outline responsibilities for on a job training and mentorship with our employers, and also these agreements were also help us to pursue additional funds with other entities.

And so, as we shared your support is key to help us move forward with this.

And with that, I'll pause and turn it over to Eric for recommendations.

Thank you, Lisette and again.

Uh, we're asking for your recommendation uh for approval of two different actions.

Uh, the first uh item number four is the approval to enter into uh memorandums of understanding with our education providers, and then uh item number five is to authorize us to enter into employer developed registered apprenticeship uh program contracts with businesses and other entities.

Uh, with that, we were happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Okay, so we're going to do um item number four on its own, and I would entertain a motion.

So moved.

To approve.

Oh sorry.

So we have a motion and a second, and and I have just one question.

Where can you tell us where the funds for the program come from?

Yes, thank you so much, Madam Chair, for that question, members of the subcommittee.

So, as um Deb had shared initially when we kicked this off, we were able to leverage um funds through what's called the Arizona Quest Grant.

It was a grant that was provided to the state of Arizona um through the National Dislocated Worker Grant from Department of Labor.

And so that's how we were able to kick it off with our first cohort of eight.

Um, after that, we were able to receive funding from the semi-foundation.

Semi-foundation received funds through the Arizona Commerce Authority to expand and develop apprenticeship programs across the state.

And so we were able to leverage their funds.

Um, currently, the the FTE, the staffing of managing the sponsorship is all being funded through the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act staff that are in currently in CED.

Okay, thank you.

Are there um any other questions?

Councilman Robinson or Councilwoman Stark.

Okay, then um noting that councilwoman Pastor is abstaining or recusing herself for conflict of possible conflict of interest.

Conflict.

I'm not abstaining, I'm having a conflict.

Sorry, yeah, I said the wrong word, recusing for possible conflict of interest.

Um all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Um the motion passes unanimously.

And so now we will go to item five, which is the approval to enter into contracts with employers and other entities that will participate in employer developed registered apprenticeship programs and provide funding to support these programs for total aggregate value not to exceed $650,000.

Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

And a second.

Are there any questions on this item?

Councilman Pastor?

I have a question to David.

This is four and five are tied together, right?

No.

I just want to make sure.

Okay, that's why we separated them.

Yep, absolutely.

Any other questions or comments on these items?

Okay.

Um, all those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Um, motion passes unanimously.

So, congratulations and thank you all for your time and and your hard work.

Um, do we still have Jennian on line?

Okay, so we're gonna go to public comment, and we are going to hear from Jenny Ann Sumner.

Gini Ann, the floor is yours.

Madam Chair, members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity.

I respectfully ask for your help and obtain an update on the refurbishing of the public art in the old cross-cut canal park from McDowell to Thomas Road.

I contacted the original artist and supplied his and other contact information to the arts and culture department.

I understand some investigation occurred and costs became a concern, though the cost was never shared.

I suggested a more inexpensive and practical option of repairing the concrete and painting.

So I think it's appropriate to refurbish.

Thank you so much for your comments.

Um and if I can get an update on the status of this.

Thank you.

Um are there any uh uh no other public comments, correct?

Excellent.

Any future agenda items requests?

Okay, hearing none.

I just want and just want to double check with Councilwoman Stark.

You're good.

Okay.

Then we Yes, I am excellent.

Thank you.

Then we are adjourned at 1116.

Thank you all.

City of Phoenix came up to us.

They wanted to look at