All right, good evening.

I'd like to call this council meeting on September 2nd, 2025 to order.

Madam Clerk, please conduct the role.

Invocation, sir.

Prayer first.

Oh, there it is.

Uh well, tonight we'll be led in the invocation by Garth Wigman, sir.

Let's pray.

Father, we come to you this evening.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Thank you, Lord, for your goodness and your mercies towards us.

We just thank you, Lord, for your blessings upon us individually and upon our city.

Father, we just thank you, Lord, for your mercies towards us and your blessings.

God, we just come to you now tonight.

We thank you, Lord, for our board, our city council.

God, we just give you thanks, Lord, for what you've done for us in the past.

And now, Lord, what you're going to do for us in the future.

God, we just ask now tonight that you would bless this council.

We ask, Lord, that you would give each one of them wisdom.

God, understanding.

Thanks, Lord, that you would bless each one.

God, we just asked, Lord, that you would uh give them direction and wisdom.

Lord, as we as they consider the issues and the at hand, we just thank you, Lord.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, sir.

Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Mayor Sarder.

Present.

Vice Mayor Hastings.

Here.

Councilmember Haney.

Here.

Councilmember Greenberg.

Here.

Councilmember Duffy.

Here.

Councilmember Melton.

Present.

Councilmember Chad.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have a quorum.

All right.

Thank you.

So tonight we're going to get led uh with the Pledge of Allegiance by the Freedom Traditional Academy National Junior Honor Society.

Um Ms.

Crow, did you have somebody do you have some words you wanted to say?

The principal of Freedom Traditional.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Amy Crow, and I am the proud principal of Freedom Traditional Academy.

We are a K 8 School in the Dysart Unified School District, and we are committed to fostering an accelerated and rigorous academics, as well as responsible citizenship in our students.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Mursada Karlovich, and I'm a sixth grade teacher in the National Junior Honor Society Advisor of Freedom Traditional Academy.

Over the past four years, I've had the privilege of working alongside these incredible young leaders.

Our NJHS chapter is deeply committed to serving our community.

Some of the service projects we are especially proud of include our annual canned food drive benefiting the Bali View Community Food Bank and our snacks for first responders initiative where we donate treats and thank you guides to our local police and fire departments.

Last year alone, our students collected more than 1,600 food items for the community, an accomplishment that reflects their dedication and compassion.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here this evening.

All right.

Thank you.

Yeah, let's do it.

You guys want to come up and get a picture?

Some people need how you do that.

Thank you.

No, I'm going to stand uh speech.

No.

All right, you guys ready?

Oh, go ahead.

I'm Ronzi, go ahead.

Just a moment.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

That's my favorite part.

So uh Tanya from the library, do you want to come down and join us, please?

The librarian.

Appreciate you.

How are you?

Good, thank you.

Yeah.

So tonight we have a proclamation library card sign up month.

And it's a big deal.

And the cards were made by surprise residents, right?

The kids?

Yes, we have a contest every year to design the content design the library cards.

We have a whole bunch of new ones this year.

It's exciting.

Okay.

So I'm gonna go read the proclamation.

Uh, from the office of the mayor, whereas libraries serve as a community hub, welcoming members of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to learn, connect, and grow.

And whereas libraries support the development of children from story time to college and on and or career planning as they foster literature and technology literacy and a love for both learning and reading.

And whereas libraries contribute to a strong local economy by providing access to technology and training and training critical to the success of job seekers, entrepreneurs, and students.

And whereas libraries are the cornerstone of democracy by promoting the free exchange of information and ideas for all.

And whereas a library card offers a gateway to creativity while empowering people to explore passions and interests and the pursuit of lifelong learning.

Now, therefore, I, Kevin Sarter, mayor of the City of Surprise, to hereby proclaim September Library Card Sign Up Month in Surprise Arizona, and encourage everyone to visit a local library and sign up for a library card.

Thank you very much.

We just want to thank the City of Surprise and especially Mayor Starter for this wonderful proclamation.

National Library Card Mont happens every September across the country.

So this is a very big deal for libraries.

And we're so excited to be welcomed in by the community and make this event a success.

So thank you.

Thanks.

Okay.

You all want some of the Ashley with her schnazzy shoes.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Got it.

Ashley, you good?

Never know.

Oh, one more.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'll let you take the topic.

Display it proudly.

Oh, we will.

Thank you.

Yep.

See you tomorrow.

Fetch up.

Okay.

We're going to the library to, you know, do some fun stuff.

Mayor minute stuff.

It's exciting.

Okay.

So the next thing is our community champions.

And uh, there's three people that I wanted to recognize specifically for this.

It's um the epic business networking group.

And you guys can come up here if you'd like.

Um, and while they're coming up, I'll say a couple of things.

I met um really all three of them through the campaign process a little a year and a half ago or so.

And uh just continue to learn um, you know, what great people they are about their their business networking group and all the support that they provide for um just local businesses uh trying to just make it here in in the city a surprise.

And so um they started what in 2020.

2020 during COVID, which was a critical time for everybody and for them to work through that.

I know you've hosted um campaign debates, uh, you've hosted mixers, all sorts of things, and and even before the West Valley and all these other chambers, and I know economic development does a great job, but I wanted to thank all three of you for what you've done for our community and just to see where this is community has grown even the last year with business, business support.

It's because of your effort and and your passion for for doing all that.

So I wanted to give you a community champion award.

Congratulations.

It's so so in the army, like you shake hands and you give it to them, and you do it with a shake like this.

Oh it's uh it's okay.

Sometimes I just try to sneak it in anyway.

Okay, here we go, sir.

I'm very familiar with these.

I appreciate you.

Okay, let's uh come up here, get a picture with council.

Um did you guys want to sing anything?

Do you want picture first to speak?

Yeah, definitely.

You're ready.

Yes, I'm gonna get all of you in it.

Okay.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Right.

Yes, sir.

He's got a speech to give.

I just want to give a uh a quick thank you to council and mayor.

I I guess I should have said mayor first, right?

Mayor and council, and then also economic development, who has supported us, supported us during this process and come to our events and met business owners and things like that without them.

Um, you know, I don't know if we would really have made it or not, but uh we appreciate a city that loves to have small businesses in our city.

So thank you, Mayor and Council.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

Wingaroth, City Manager Report, please.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um, several months ago, Councilman Haney shared his uh, I think a passion that he has and a desire that all of our surprise residents, in particular children, know how to swim.

And tonight, Parks and Recreation Director Holly Osborne will provide an update on our swimming lessons, including the progress that's been made to address weightless challenges and ensure more children in our community have access to these important programs.

Holly, good to have you.

Thank you.

Whoa, that was fun.

Thank you, Mr.

Wingenroth.

I always have to make an entrance.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I wanted to really introduce my team who's gonna be doing this presentation tonight.

They have good information.

I think you're gonna be pleased, but I also want them to get the credit because I know that they have worked so hard to get this done with your support.

Um so I have Casey Peterson in the green.

She is our aquatic manager.

She's been overseeing everything aquatics from the new facility to the hiring, staffing, um, operations, swim lessons.

And then I have Paris Johnson, which some of you may look familiar to.

Um, Paris Johnson, formerly a different last name, um, not in witness protection or anything.

She got married.

So sorry, I need to clarify.

Um, she is our recreation coordinator and um specifically in swim lessons.

Paris came back to us because she is uniquely qualified.

So Paris started with me when she was 16 and worked at the Aquatic Center manager of swim lessons.

She then went and got her elementary education and special education degree.

She became a teacher, and then she became a mom.

Um, and then she became a preschool teacher.

And then uh we got her back because she was very interested in being able to focus on swim lessons.

Um she's also a member of the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Arizona.

So she comes with a wealth of information.

So I'm going to let her do all the speaking because this is this is really all for her.

So take it away, Paris.

Thank you, Holly.

And uh thank you, Mayor and Council members uh for having me today.

I'm not the best public speaker, but I am very excited to share a lot of good news on behalf of the Surprise Aquatics Department and specifically some lessons.

So since I have been on board, we have really, really focused in on all of that.

Um, like she said, the coalition of um of Arizona and the drowning prevention side of aquatics.

It's what stems or is what drives us and everything that we do here at the City of Surprise Aquatics Department.

And that also includes a lot of the water safety statistics that we really focus on impacting and changing and reducing as far as these numbers.

So we do see here that drowning is a leading cause of death in ages one through four.

Uh, we also see a higher risk in the autism community and anybody that's on the spectrum.

But we also see an 88% risk reduction when students do have access to swim formal swim lessons and water safety education.

We know that drowning is 100% preventable, and that's our goal to make that impact and to make that change.

Um, so our mission and my mission specifically is to create a safe, supportive environment where swimmers can develop water safety skills, improve their technique, build confidence in the water, and um, you know, have that lifelong love for swimming.

Um, you know, with the growth of the city of surprise, we have seen that we have had limited pool space and you know, not enough staff, which meant fever swim lessons that was accessible to our community.

And we saw a significant increase in our waiting lists over the last couple of years.

Uh, last year specifically, we had uh just about 1,800 students registered for our swim lesson program, but almost 2800 of those students were on our waiting list.

Um, and so you know, we saw the need for swim lessons and the supply and demand was not there.

So, with the support of council members, um, we were able to implement some pretty significant changes to our swim lesson program.

Uh, one of those being um hiring a full-time swim lesson coordinator.

That is me, and that is my role.

So I was able to jump right in and um really focus specifically on the swim lessons and improving it from um the outside in.

And we also opened our beautiful facility Oasis, where we were able to expand a lot of our room for all of our programming and um really open up honestly triple the amount of space for swim lessons uh this year.

We also created a new streamlined registration system with our active net registration.

Uh we introduced an evaluation and sorting process uh where students were able to get evaluated on the first day of swim lessons and be put in the correct level from day one, which was so huge for us this year.

And then we were also able to enhance our staffing.

We have now four over 40 swim instructors.

Um we enhance their training.

I was able to make changes to the curriculum and provide much more equipment.

So thank you, Council members, for supporting those changes.

And with those changes, we saw significant, significant results.

Registration, like I said last year, we had only had 1800 kids that were able to access swim lessons.

This year we were able to provide 3,755 students with swim lessons just this year.

That waiting list went from uh 2800 down to 259 people on our waiting list.

Um and to just kind of dissect that a little bit for you today.

Um 153 of those waiting list participants were actually in the spring before we even implemented any of those changes.

So really after we made those key changes, uh we saw in the summer only 84 people on our waiting lists.

And those included Saturday participants, so Saturday swim lessons, our private swim lesson program, and our adaptive.

So our actual group swim lessons during the week was zero people on the waiting lists.

Um right now we just entered our fall lesson um season.

And right now we do have 22 people on our waiting list.

But again, it's for this uh Saturday swim lessons and again adaptive and um the independent private swim lessons.

Um so now with that data, we do see a need um and a goal for um us moving forward.

Um those numbers are amazing.

We are just so excited to share them with you.

Um but beyond those numbers, we're also just really excited that families have a greater access to swim lessons with those three new locations and multiple times to fit any schedule.

Parents can now register multiple students at the same class time, which is huge for those families.

Uh and uh students are being placed in the right level from day one.

But most importantly, we're seeing that these kids and these teens and these adults are learning how to swim.

They're building confidence in the water and they're having so much fun.

Um, so I am just so excited to be able to share that with you.

This is just the beginning.

I have so many ideas and so many so much more uh that we want to do for the lessons.

And just to include a couple of those for you tonight.

Um, some of those goals do include providing the community with more water safety education.

Um, also certifying and training more swim lesson instructors, more swim lesson instructors mean more lessons, uh, which is still we want to provide more access.

Uh, we also want to expand our adaptive swim lesson program, our private swim lessons, and add additional Saturday lessons.

We saw from that data prior that that is now a need.

Um, and so that is something moving forward that we would really like to um make some changes.

So again, thank you so much for your support.

Thank you guys for having me.

It's truly an honor.

I'm um thrilled to be here.

And if you guys have any questions, I'd love to answer those for you tonight.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilman, did you want to say anything?

Bryce Mayor Hastings.

I don't see them on the low.

We've kind of come a long way, you know.

I mean, I was so I used to work at the City of Surprise, started in 2010, right?

And um, you know, you're getting old when you start using the back in my day line, right?

And so, like it used to be for swim lessons in 2010, like there was no online registration.

And I mean, the line would be out the door at 7 a.m., people would be camping out like it was like a new movie premiere or something just to get lessons.

And there'd be so many students, you know, or so many kids waitlisted.

And I think we we've all been on the side where we see those devastating stories about um children, especially, you know, younger children, but all of them when they there's a horrible accident that happens and a child, you know, drowns in the pool.

And that could be anyone's child.

And so I think in in Arizona where it is summer, six, eight, nine months out of the year, we have responsibility, it comes back to safety.

And you know, I have to thank Councilman Haney for this.

I think that you know, he really spearheaded this thing.

I think obviously part of the time, a lot of the time I was elected officials, we use our own experience.

And so we worked through that, we got it.

Um, but also too, like it's it's a great, you know, lifeguarding swim teaching.

I mean, that's where I discovered my passion uh to become a teacher, um, et cetera.

But thank you to all of you know our lifeguards.

Uh you guys are busy in aquatics.

I mean, obviously you have sports and tourism now, but it used to all be combined, and then you have you know, recreation.

Duffy worked on like the the sports recreation side, then you have the aquatic side, and then you have like tennis.

You have so many your hands in so many different pots, and you guys do such a great job.

So I'm grateful that we could we could do this and provide uh more lessons for the kids, and thank you, Councilman Haney.

Your support.

Yeah, thank you.

Go ahead, Councilman.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Paris, first of all, excellent presentation.

I know you said you're not the best public speaker, but you killed it.

So speaking of um and I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to say.

Um, but you really covered all of it.

I think all of us here in this room has at one point or another turn on the news and you see the absolute devastating news that we lost a child.

And you said it, it's one of the leading causes of death between what one and five years old.

And what makes it so tragic is that it's 100% preventable.

And uh Jack mentioned it, we got our start in aquatics, and that's when I kind of started understanding the importance of water safety.

Um, but then as a firefighter, it's the worst call we've ever gone on.

Those are the ones that stick with you.

And like I said, it's heartbreaking because even as we talk about it tonight, the reality is next year a family's gonna lose their young child to something that's 100% preventable.

And for you guys, and and props to Holly and your vision and your leadership at Paris, this doesn't happen without your passion.

It really doesn't.

And for you to be passionate about it, joining the drowning prevention coalition, looking at the swim lessons and how can we make them more accessible and streamline the process and make sure we're not serving as a barrier.

A vision is just a vision, but it's your passion that has really made this what it is.

And when I see these numbers, at first I saw that's almost 3,000 kids that don't have access to something that could potentially save their life.

And because of the work that all of you have done, we now got that number down, and hopefully it's gonna continue to go down.

And um, it's something I'm very, very passionate about, especially now, you know, becoming a dad and and and just you Google drownings in Arizona, all you see is drownings are on the rise.

But here in Surprise, we're doing something about it, and I just can't thank you guys enough for the work that you put in and and Bob for your leadership on this because this this stuff matters, it really does.

And um, I'm proud to know you all, and I'm also proud that we as a city were able to step up, and I look forward to see what you guys are gonna do in the future.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

Um, no, we can clap for that.

Absolutely.

I couldn't say it any better than either one of you, so I'm just gonna move on.

Uh, thank you so much.

Presentation skills are spot on.

Um, and thanks for all that you do.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And she did come in and practice.

So, like we did.

I'm like, you gotta go.

It's like it's intimidating coming down here under the hot lights and you guys on your pedestal, and um it's well, literally, you're up there.

But it's it's uh it was good, and I'm really proud of her and my team because she's worked tirelessly on this, and I think it's the best for the city.

So thank you very much.

But I'm also not done.

I also have to introduce Shelby.

So you guys can um without further ado, I would like to bring up Shelby so she could bring up our youth council and talk about them.

Shelby, fun fact while she's walking up, was just honored with the Parks and Rec full-time NVP award, which is an annual rec award we do every year.

So I couldn't do anything without her.

She is absolutely amazing.

Sorry, Shelby, I don't know where you are.

Here you go.

I'm gonna stop talking.

Thank you, Holly.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Good to see you all.

I'd love to introduce you to the two youth council members up on the dais with you tonight.

First up is Maddie Mies.

Maddie is a junior at Paradise Honors.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Madeline Myers.

This is my fourth year on the Surprise Youth Council, and my seventh time speaking on Dais.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak this evening.

Recently, a few of the youth council members were given the opportunity to attend the LACT youth conference.

One of the highlights of this experience was getting to network with other youth counselors, other youth councils, and meet new community leaders.

This year, a few of our youth council members are assisting in planning the West Valley Youth Summit for later this fall.

We're excited to bring other councils together and strengthen our leadership skills.

Additionally, the youth council is excited to be planning and attending lots of events this year.

We will be supporting Parks and Recs at their upcoming backyard backyard bash on September 26th and Fiesta Grande on October 11th.

We hope to see you there.

That is all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have one of our amazing new members, Miss Mila Witt.

Mila is a sophomore at Shadow Ridge.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Mila Witt.

My name is Mila Witt, and this is my first year on the Surprise Youth Council and my first time on Dais.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the League of Arizona Cities and Towns conference along with my fellow youth council members.

While we were there, we learned about how to build a personal brand and also had the chance to network with other youth councils from across Arizona.

It was a great experience, especially as a new member, because it gave me a better understanding of the impact youth councils can have in their communities.

I am currently a part of the outreach committee.

And in the upcoming months, we are planning a street cleanup event.

I'm excited to take part in this project and to continue learning and growing through the youth council.

I appreciate the chance to share my experience with you this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mila, and thank you, Mayor and Council.

Okay, thanks.

Well, you didn't you both did a great job with the um League of Cities and Towns.

So it was my first time as mayor there, and the was a prey to flags.

It was pretty cool to stand next to all of you of representing the city of surprising you.

You guys did a phenomenal job.

So thank you.

That's all.

Okay, perfect.

Madam Clerk.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, good evening, Mayor and Councils.

Not very often that I get to stand on this side.

Um, so tonight I'm just excited to give some updates on my passion that you know I'm all uh always thinking elections.

So some new statutes that have uh been approved by the legislature and will be in effect coming soon, along with my partner in legal.

We create a presentation for you with a high-level overview of some of those changes.

And so we're gonna turn it over to Jeff and he's gonna start the presentation.

Tree to sign.

All right, mayor, council.

Thank you very much.

As Christy mentioned, this is a high little high-level overview.

I think the intent of this, as you guys all know, is to kind of touch base on what the league produces every year, and it's the new reports, the new laws that come into effect.

I know I had a brief conversation with the mayor about this a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things the mayor brought up was well, we see that, but does the members of the public see that?

So this is a high level on that.

It starts, and the impetus is as Christy mentioned, we're gonna focus on the campaign things.

Although you will see I threw in a couple of other things that I thought might be relevant for your guys' attention.

Mr.

Murray, can you use the microphone, please?

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Usually I talk so loud that anywhere near the microphone.

Um, so we'll kick this off.

Again, high level, it's more of a heads-up awareness.

Some of the new laws may in fact have no impact on the city of surprise.

Others, if they if there is any impact, any substantive impact, it might be months, years before we know what those are.

We've broken it down into kind of categories.

Um Christie's love is campaign finance changes.

And then as I was putting this together, I found myself kind of in the Jeopardy mode.

I'm not really sure why, but so we've got all about the bots, we've got complaint dismissal timeline, we've got reports, reports, reports.

And then we go to the next one election changes, nominating procedures, and recall procedures.

And anybody for 100.

I hope one of them is a daily double, but I'll say that.

Exactly.

Oh, and so I found myself doing this, and I thought, uh, I don't know if this is gonna hit or not.

So off we go.

Um so that's Christy's passion.

And then, as I mentioned, I threw in a couple of things just so you guys, this is kind of my present from me to you.

I didn't want you to go without some of the other things that may or may not have an impact.

So we've got open meeting law changes, committees and subcommittees, business license issuance.

That might be an issue.

Um, notification of applicable model city tax code, miscellaneous.

Stanley Kirk Burrell.

Huh.

We'll get back to that.

All right, campaign finance changes about the bots, complaint, dismissal timeline, reports, reports, reports.

So this was an amendment to ARS 1693.

Um the overall title of that statute is campaign contributions and expenses.

So uh don't be fooled.

This is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

But it tells you what the legislature has been up to.

This is like in a nutshell, right?

Submit evidence that the individual who's submitting a complaint is an identifiable human being.

That's fantastic, right?

New laws so that we know we're now we're now in the age where people that are not human can submit complaints.

So that's the big one there.

I threw in some actual law.

It's really not that exciting to read, but it just shows you the legislature is now looking at this kind of thing.

They're recognizing AI, they're recognizing bots, and they're trying to uh account.

So there's got to be evidence that it's an actual human being.

Comments, the motivation behind this, obviously, limiting AI and bots.

We anticipate the state election manual and the league will provide further guidance.

Um we're gonna await guidance, we're gonna update our complaint process internally.

I think Christie's already working on that, and we're gonna consider using online submittals for verification platforms.

And interestingly, as I was standing in the back between meetings today, I got a request from the police department too about online submittals and other ways to ensure verification of complaints.

So this is it's happening and it's happening in more than one area.

Dismissal timeline.

Again, another amendment to the same overall thing, campaign contributions and expenses.

Um, again, not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

Um complaint that is filed pursuant is this section is deemed dismissed if the filing officer does not resolve a rule in the complaint within 180 days.

I had a lot of questions for Christy.

Christy gave me some blank stares and some really good answers.

So this is one of those things that I think is gonna have to play itself out.

I think we're also gonna uh we've seen it's gonna shorten the timeline for the complaint resolution and maybe just get some resolution.

There are some officers that just ignore these things altogether, and so I think the intent is to actually give everybody a hard deadline to get in there and try and get an answer resolved.

Um, we're expecting the Secretary of State to provide guidance on that, and we'll update our own procedures documents.

Do you want to add anything?

No, you're good.

Okay.

Reports, reports, reports for 300, Alex.

Um, again, not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

It changes the reporting dates for candidate committees and campaign finance reports.

It adds annual reports and post-election reports, and it shortens the time frame to file PACs and pre-election reports.

I'm not even gonna try and go through all of that, but just so you know, I printed a copy of what the statute looked like before that.

I think C, if it even existed, was one sentence, and now it's three, four paragraphs.

So this is something obviously the legislature took real interest in and wanted to further define and refine how this process works.

Uh, we're gonna update the candidate handbook.

We're gonna send courtesy notices to all candidates and PACs regarding the annual report that will be required.

Election changes, nominating procedures, recall procedures.

Very simple.

Writing candidates need to write in sooner.

It's kind of that simple.

We changed it from 40 days to 60 days.

The benefit of this is current law allows a candidate to file a write-in potentially after a voter has voted on their ballot.

So this hopefully takes care of that issue.

So the legislature, as everybody knows with elections over the last uh couple of cycles for the general election.

These these are all things that are on the top of everybody's mind when it comes to election stuff.

It adds time for the county to process and ensure the list of qualified candidates.

Recall elections.

I like that one because I added I added a little thing.

Um I need more time, but I'm definitely interested.

Well, we'll see.

So it updates the timeline for recall elections, including all those things, um, gives everybody more time for the recall from 90 to 120 days, moves up the date for filing the nomination petition.

But the last bullet point is kind of the one that gets me.

Also adds language clarifying that a statement of interest is required to be filed before collecting signatures for a recall election.

And then you can see the statutory language, any nomination petition signatures that are collected before the date of the statement of interest is filed and before the date the recall application prescribed by section 202.1 is filed, are invalid and subject to challenge.

So the legislature has gone out of its way to clarify that if you collect those signatures in advance, you're gonna have a problem with your signatures.

Generally good for those following reasons.

I don't want to read all that to you, but it does provide clarification, the requirement to file a statement of interest before collecting the signatures.

We've already updated Chrissy's on it, taking care of that, off we go.

Open meeting law.

Go ahead and discuss.

The open meeting law does not apply.

Say what?

No, seriously, I didn't hear you.

So you guys have probably heard about this.

So this is what the league's synopsis of this particular law is.

Open meeting law does not apply to an exchange of communications among a quorum of a three-member advisory committee or subcommittee that involves a discussion or deliberation about a matter before the advisory committee or subcommittee.

And then this is the italicized and underlined and bolded language I added that's that's from the league, but a little bit different than what the statute says.

But only if there's not more than one member of the public body on the advisory committee or subcommittee.

Now the league has interpreted that to mean that if you have more than one member of the public body, then the open meeting law applies.

But if there's only one member of the public body on your three-member panel, the open meeting law does not apply.

You can also read that language to say any committee or subcommittee may not include more than one member.

But the league has not interpreted it that way, at least not yet.

So I wanted to point out a couple of our provisions in our own code.

We we address the mayor may create committees or subcommittees or working groups in section two-40, and then in tech in section two-66, the open meeting law requirements apply to all meetings of the mayor and the mayor subcommittees.

So this would in fact change that if there was only one member of the public body on the committee or subcommittee.

But most of our committees and subcommittees have two members, et cetera.

So I think we still want to comply with the open meeting law just to be safe.

Um working groups, that's in the policy and procedure manual.

And then so I said the impact on surprise is likely none.

Business as usual, if we've got more than one member on the committee or subcommittee, let's apply, let's comply with the open meeting law.

Business license language issuance, requires municipality issue a business license and provide notice of any model or local option selected from the model city tax code.

Again, a whole lot of blue new language, but basically the legislative focus is on giving anybody related to the tax or anybody subject to that tax plenty of notice as to what's coming.

So no more springing the a new tax on them, no more springing a new charge on them.

Now we're mandated by the legislature to give them notice.

Um three different statutes.

So it's in 499 15, it's in 9836, and it's also in the tax statute 426054.

Now, your bonus points.

I know you guys have all been thinking about this.

Who is Stanley Kirk Burrell?

The great philosopher and poet.

He once said you can't touch this.

All right.

So you guys know who it is now, hopefully.

Um I threw this out there because Christy wanted you guys to be aware of this, because you guys may be getting phone calls or questions, etc.

The Arizona legislature has done everybody a huge favor now, and political flags are now flags are now considered political signs.

So they fall into all the same categories of political signs within the HOA and what they can and can't mandate, what they can and can't regulate during the time periods of what they can and can't do.

So now, flag was left out before, but as of September 26, 2025, you can hang your political sign, which is also a flag.

And so if they come and take it during the wrong period of time, you can tell them.

Stanley Kirk Burrell says you can't touch this.

Um things that are reminders and maybe upcoming pursuant to my soon-to-be quarterly speeches down here, social media, media use policies, council policies, rules five and six, those are things I'm thinking about.

I've also got some other ideas from you guys, but for now, that takes care of the clerk report, even though I'm not the clerk, but she's the clerk.

Thank you.

Uh, Vice Mayor has something to say.

I just wanted to I appreciate you making city government is a little less boring with your presentation.

Okay, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, thanks for that presentation.

Yeah, obviously, the it's the law is right, like the laws that go into it's like 90 days after the legislative session.

And so there was uh a lot of ones that just went in.

I do like the one, you know, so for those of you don't know, can't I mean candidates have to report, you know, campaign finance.

You have to report as a candidate who's donating to you, what you're spending money on, you know, transparency.

And the way it was before is if you're in like a four-year term.

So say, like, you know, you got elected, you know, uh August 2024, first year.

August 2024.

No, but if you so you then you wouldn't have to obviously you file these reports during an election year, but you didn't really have to file reports really at all during the other three years when you're actually in office.

And so I do appreciate kind of the transparency just across the board, even with like you know, the business license tax.

I mean, we obviously have a truth and taxation notice, and so I think that's kind of more of the similar type of stuff.

So, but it's good to get uh that recap.

I actually kind of find that like topic of stuff interesting and weird like that.

And honestly, Jeff, great presentation.

You might uh give Holly and Andrea from the finance days a run for their money if you're not careful.

So thank you good point.

I just uh councilman Greenberg.

Couple questions, Jeff.

That 499.15.

Can you throw that back up there?

You mentioned something about two tiered what you're asking, you're asking me about technology, Councilman Greenberg.

Well, I'm gonna get there.

Right, right there.

There, right there.

Number two at the bottom.

Um, yeah.

What tiers are they referring to?

Uh you know what?

That's a great question.

If Andrea left us, she didn't want to stick around.

And I don't think Sandy Sandy Simmons is here.

I would I would be remiss if I tried to answer that now without a little more research or a finance expert to try and answer that question for me.

Um back to the beginning.

Is the legislature defined what those acceptable evidence is to determine whether or not a human or not is submitting a complaint?

No.

Not yet.

Not yet.

We're all anxiously awaiting the um guidance from the state.

So there's been we had the our league conference.

It's kind of just open up in the air right now about what constitutes the verification and how to determine that it's a human.

Okay.

Chris Chrissy Christ.

Uh troop troop uh 194, real quick.

I just want to say thanks for coming in.

I appreciate your civic engagement.

Hopefully, you'll you'll come back.

Thank you.

And lastly, since I was the president of our little 17,000 person HOA regarding political flags, is there a size limitation on these political flags?

I don't think it was identified in this round of the statutes.

I don't.

Okay.

I I I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

They defined flag.

Actually, what they did is they changed the definition of political signs to include flag.

Like any flag.

Well, I think it's I think it's a flag for the passage of an ordinance for the passage of a candidate.

So I think it's a political flag that is now considered a sign.

Okay.

But I just think we need some clarification of that because we have a few HOAs in this uh city.

And you know, you can get flags that are the size of a billboard hanging on somebody's house.

So I think that those regulations may already be in the statute for both the condominium associations and the regular homeowners associations.

Okay.

So this is this is not brand new.

All it did was expand the definition of political sign to now include flag.

Okay, so I know we have quantity and size, so that won't supersede what's in HOAs.

Okay, right.

And so in a few years you'll have Greenberg signs waving all over.

Not a chair.

That'd be fantastic.

No way.

Two is all about it.

Vice Mayor, do you have anything else?

Yeah, I'm I'm talking too much as usual.

But the last thing I'll say is, you know, when I taught civics class for a long time, and you know, we talk about bill of law process, how Senate, president, or you know, governor.

What they don't talk about is the actual last step is when all the uh legal experts get to figure out what these politicians were were were talking about when they pass these.

You got to kind of interpret what the law means and of course make sure to line to the constitution stuff.

So obviously, we're gonna it's gonna be uh we're gonna continue to learn with this, but appreciate it again.

Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate um I don't see any other questions or comments, but thanks for uh I think continuing to sharpen the sword for the the council up here.

It's important that we uh we get the information and and do the best we can with it.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

Anything else, madam?

Um that's all said, Mr.

Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Chris.

Okay, there's seven items on the consent agenda.

Any questions from the council or request to pull an item?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

Oh, I'm intensity.

No, you did that.

That's unanimous.

Yes, vote mayor.

Okay.

Thank you.

Please read item number nine.

Item nine, consideration and action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control on application number 353487.

Requested by Bachri Micah Chaliby.

And I'm sorry if I messed that name up.

Cindy's Mini Market number two for Series 10 liquor license.

Cindy's Mini Market number two is located at 1544, Breeswood Street, surprise, 85378.

Okay, this being a public hearing, I'll open the floor to the public.

Madam Clerk, can anybody submit a request to speak?

I did not get a request to speak on this item.

I'll close this item to the public.

Are there any questions from council?

If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Can I get a clarification of the license number, City Clerk?

Uh application number 353487 for series 10.

Okay.

So it's not 337514.

No.

Okay, just want to clarify.

Is there a clerical error?

Is it showing on the report?

I need to there's two there's two ID.

There's two application numbers on the on the I just want to know which one we're using.

Three five three four seven.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Uh Mr.

Mayor uh Mayor, I would recommend approval of application number three three seven five uh three three three five three four eight seven to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control.

It's been moved.

Can you get a second?

Second.

All right.

Please cast your vote.

That's a unanimous pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item 10.

Item 10, consideration and action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control on application number 352173 requested by Maria Danielle Burgess for Circle K number 9596 for a series 10 liquor license.

Circle K 9596 is located at 16180 West Jomax Road, 85387.

Is it?

Two different numbers again.

Huh.

It looks like the staff report and that council um agenda are different numbers.

So we'll go with the agenda.

Yeah.

Not the not the staff report.

So this being a public hearing, I'll open this item to the public.

Do we get a request to speak on this item?

I did not get a request to speak on this item.

I'll close this item.

Are there any questions or comments from the council?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to uh recommend approval of application number 352173 to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.

Second.

All right, please cast your vote.

That's a unanimous pass vote, Mayor.

Okay.

We'll move to the non-public hearing side of the agenda.

Please read item number 11.

Item 11.

Discussion pertaining to the potential division of the Veterans Disability and Human Services Commission into two commissions, with one focusing on veterans and the other on disabilities and human services.

Good evening, Seth.

Good evening, Mayor.

The council.

It's a pleasure to be here with you tonight.

Um I'm going to be joined by our brand new chair of the Veterans Disability Human Services Commission, uh, Chair Michael Tree.

And uh this item in front of you tonight is to talk about and it came from came from council.

What about uh splitting our current veterans disability human services commission into two, creating a veterans advisory commission and a uh disability and human services commission?

But before I get into the presentation, we have several other uh VDHS commissioners here.

So I'd like to just uh recognize them.

Vice Chair Julie Kent Partridge, uh Alison Wisnowski, John Billchik, Chuck Manuel, Olivia Fryer, and Dr.

Gwen Maxfield.

If you can please stand or wave or throw something at me.

All right.

Very good.

So uh some quick background unless Councilmember Haney, you want to say anything before we get into the high-level overview.

I'll let you go first, and then I'll jump in.

I don't want to spill any time.

Yeah, nice.

Meaning to put you on the spot.

There you go.

So just some quick background.

As you know, the Veterans Disability Human Services Commission was established in 2018 by the city council.

They held their first meeting in 2019.

We had a member of the public come and ask council to create a veterans commission, uh, former council uh commissioner Stephen Hansel.

And from that uh feedback from council, we talked about having a lot of similarities between veterans, uh, individuals with disabilities and basic human services, like finding jobs, finding uh quality housing, that type of thing.

And so the council submitted and uh put this into their code.

The the purpose of the commission was to promote the quality of life, accessibility, and equity for all residents of surprise, including those who are veterans or who experience disabilities through cooperation with surprise residents and any veterans, disability, human service organizations that serve the residents of surprise.

Not going to read all this, but this is what the uh the council gave the um VDHS commission as their um duties and responsibilities, primarily again as an advisory to you uh commission.

Um they bring forward uh different topics, ideas, and they're voice, they're supposed to be the eyes and ears of our veteran community or individuals with disabilities and those in the various human services circles.

The commission's been working hard.

I think they're more active commission instead of advisory, um, and they've done all of these things the past few years.

So they've uh established the first VET FEST.

Um now this upcoming year will be the third annual Vet Fest.

Um through their leadership, they created the mayor's disability round table.

Um so there's not that's one of the many round tables that the city has.

Uh the veterans uh mayor's round table is another one that started.

They initiated a community legend award, which will be coming up September 16th at the Golden Rule uh breakfast to recognize individuals from the community who are uh organization of the year, volunteer of the year, um, youth of the year, um, and kind of a community legend.

So I won't spill the beans.

You'll have to come to the breakfast on September 16th to see who wins.

Um, our parks and recreation team uh invited the VDHS Commission to identify a grand marshal for the past several years.

And so they just nominated um a hundred-year-old uh World War II veteran who will be uh hopefully accepting tomorrow um the official grand marshal duties.

Um but uh thanks to the Parks and Department, they gave uh the commission that opportunity to solicit and to review all applications.

Um very important to our team in human services is um this uh commission currently hears our our HUD consolidated plan and annual action plan.

So every year we have to bring forward an annual action plan.

They hold a public hearing, and they they hear uh presentations on our on our HUD grants, and then it goes to you as counsel for final approval in and as a consent item.

So this is one of their formal tasks that they do.

They established a challenge coin for the commission to thank again, individuals representing any of those spaces, veterans, those people that are uh helping individuals with disabilities, um, recognize them privately and then share it with the public at their next meeting.

Um, they've established a resource satellite hub in partnership with our our library.

So there's a table out front.

This is kind of working.

Um we've got a lot of nonprofits that we've invited to uh to have uh space at the at the front uh lobby of the surprise regional, and many of our nonprofits were excited to go, but they can't keep their consistency level.

So, but our goal was to expand resources to um individuals in our community that need it.

So that was an initiative led by the commission.

Um MSW Volunteer Coordinator, this is something that they've been uh seeking and uh uh through public funding.

They set up a transit working group because they identified transportation and transit issues as a as a lead barrier to connect veterans and individuals with disabilities to to services and a few other things, uh not a few, but there's a lot of things that they've been working on.

So currently they meet the second uh Wednesday of every month.

It's on live TV.

They sit in the seats where you're seated now because of accessibility opportunities.

We want to make sure people who can't make it here in person can still engage with the Veterans Disability Human Services Commission.

They created their own strategic plan that was council approved in 21 and just amended it uh last year in 24 with three key areas that they wanted to focus on.

And those were making resources known, uh, bringing resources here, making them known through education, and then accessibility of resources.

So the concept came through uh councilmember Haney, and I believe uh it was because the vast majority of applicants to this commission were veteran focused.

And so there's a there's a trend that they were seeing, and in an attempt to invite other residents to volunteer to join uh our surprise family, um the idea came up in as the subcommittee.

We just talked about subcommittees, subcommittee on boards and commissions with uh council members Greenberg and Milton as well.

So the concept is uh establish so sunset, the veterans disability human services commission, and then create two new commissions the Veterans Advisory Commission and a disability and human services advisory commission, each with uh same uh number of uh commissioners uh to meet at least quarterly, and then um tonight we want your feedback and direction on the purpose.

If if you want to go forward with this idea, what are the purpose of those two new commissions, the powers, duties, responsibilities, because the code will then be uh updated and modified.

And so this item uh uh was brought in uh to the Veterans Disability Human Services Commission.

I'd like to turn it over to Chair Michael Tree to share their their feedback on on the idea.

Chairman, good evening.

How's it going?

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to have this discussion.

Um, in our last meeting as a commission, uh, we did discuss some of our concerns about sunsetting this and dividing into two separate commissions.

Um, as we do support the idea, um our major first concern that we'd like to address is the timing.

Um we don't agree on doing it now.

Um, to do it now to sunset, and we haven't started the hiring process for the new commissions, we haven't started any of the planning for the new commissions.

We go forward, we sunset this, there's a gap of time, and for us, our Super Bowl was coming up at in Vet Fest.

And so if we do this right prior to Vet Fest, and then we try and set up two new commissions, we still have the hiring process.

We are going to lose time to be able to plan Vet Fest.

Um, and then along with that, we have November and December with holidays coming up.

So, with that being said, we're losing time again to be able to provide the best possible event for the community, the veteran community, um majorly.

Um so we don't really like the timing of doing it now.

Um, I know the first question is gonna be so when is a good time?

We feel like after Vet Fest is the best time to sunset and stand up the new commissions, and we would like to do it in a way that it's a smooth transition.

This gives us time to be able to go through the process.

And I know there's the legal aspect of this to be able to hire people and all.

Um, but to go through the process now and have those commissions ready so when we sunset, we can smoothly roll into the new commissions and start setting them up.

But again, we'd like to do it after Vet Fest.

Um, we want to be able to provide the best possible event for our veterans and with Vet Fest as that fast as it's growing.

We do not feel like as a commission that sunsetting now, leaving a gap, and then trying to pick back up, we're going to lose time to be able to plan that.

So I don't know if there's any comments or concern for this first point that we have.

Um, I just want one point of clarification.

We just uh start a new position for the uh veteran, I think coordinator, right?

Which is a hired position.

These are all volunteer positions uh selected um from the selection committee.

But uh councilman Chuck, go ahead.

When do the when do the commission dates start?

What are their terms start?

Um mayor, council member Judd, all of the uh existing commissioners have different terms, and so as the new uh commissions get set up just like the last one, they'll be set up with different terms, and so everyone has a little bit different.

So there's no there's no uh official start um uh planned at this point for the new commission.

It's whatever the council decides.

And so I mean, are we at the point now where we're just we're talking about this, or is there been any sort of transition plan put into place?

No, um, so mayor, council member judd, this items uh was meant to be on work session, and so it's just concept.

So is this a good idea?

Is this where you want to go?

And then if so, how would you like it to be set up?

And then we can then um use your direction to put uh our plans together and bring you forward uh what a solution looks like.

And we we had 11 commissioners when we first started this, didn't we?

And we paired it down to seven at some point.

Yes, council member, only because they um we didn't want to say goodbye to any of the existing commissioners.

So it was the only commission that had that many members, and so I think uh to bring us back into consistency with all the other boards and commissions over time, they uh um through attrition brought it back down to seven.

When is Vet Fest?

April.

April.

And so like would be a good date to have two new commissions start because I mean, from my perspective, ideally you've got your seven new commissioners lined up, ready to go, their appointments are in place, they're just waiting for when their first meeting is gonna be.

And so, I mean like August 1st, July 1st, or in there.

Vet fest is on the 11th.

So once we go through Vet Fest, that would be the best time.

Well, because we will already have our our final meeting um prior to Vet Fest at that point.

And so then we can go ahead and sunset and then start to transition into the two separate so like May 1st.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

I mean, I don't think we're are we in a rush to do this.

I don't think so.

I was I was gonna ask uh good Jeff, like what's the legal requirement to fill these positions if we move in that direction?

Um what's the timeline to like if we take action and I vote for it?

Is there oh just discussion?

Okay, and so yeah, those are my thoughts.

Um that's I mean, I'm good with I think it's a good idea to split it up, get the two commissions going, and uh and just take our time and make sure we slide into it smoothly.

I agree.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to provide uh some clarification.

I don't want to cut you off at all.

Um I appreciate you coming up here.

I for me personally, I don't see any reason unless there's some limitations on why we can't.

My whole goal is not necessarily to uh create additional challenges for the commission that's already existing.

You guys do incredible work.

Um kind of what this says is my my hope is by splitting it, we'll be able to offer more opportunities for folks to serve.

We've got a talented group of people in our city that are itching to serve and make our city better.

Um so absolutely, I I want to work with all the current uh commission members so that we can make sure that if this is something we decide to do moving forward, that it doesn't uh create a hindrance to the stuff that you guys already have planned.

And so I appreciate you coming up here.

I know there's probably some additional feedback, and I'm taking notes up here because that's what we we want it to be where um we do that if we decide to move forward, it it's with your support, and we're we're addressing the concerns that you all have because these are valid and the vet fest is your Super Bowl.

And so that I would the last thing I'd want to do is do anything that would negatively impact that.

So um I'll let you keep going.

And we totally agree.

We we totally agree that splitting this up into two different opportunities um a great idea.

It's just we have some concerns first and foremost, the timing of it.

Um we want to be able to provide the best vet fest that we possibly can, and this thing's gonna continue to grow.

Um, and with that being said, once there is the division, um, a part of our discussion is having the two commissions still work a little bit together for things like Vet Fest and some of the bigger ticket items that we are tasked to um work on.

So as much as we do agree with the division, we just want to make sure that it's done in a smooth transition and we don't lose any opportunity.

Um next would be our meeting frequency.

Um, I know from the early discussions, it's been suggested as quarterly.

And as a commission, we don't feel like that that gives us the best opportunity to meet and provide the best what's the word I'm looking for.

I just went advice to council, yeah.

Yeah, the the best, the best uh input, feedback, experience.

There's words all over the place.

Yes, yes.

So but to be able to the best quality um oh, this is terrible feedback.

Anyways, I'm gonna say the word service.

Sure, mayor he's a fellow veteran.

I'm gonna go with him.

Uh just we don't feel like that's the best gives us the best opportunity to meet and discuss and have organization organizations come in.

Uh, we would like, and I know Seth is not a big fan of this one and him and his team, and we appreciate them wholeheartedly.

We would like to continue to meet monthly, however, we don't want to overstress the city.

We don't want to overstress Seth's team.

And so we've also talked about maybe other every other month.

Um, especially when it comes to the planning and organization of events like Vet Fest.

If we're only meeting quarterly, that does not give us a lot of time to meet as a whole for these type of events.

That means we're only gonna meet, you know, once or twice prior to something like Vet Fest and some of these other meetings.

So that's one of our other concerns as we discuss this division.

One second, Councilman Melton had a comment.

So are you kind of proposing almost between these two commissions when they split every other month, you'd basically alternate so you would meet, you know, James.

And that would maintain something similar to what we already have, the month-to-month um meetings.

But if we kind of did something along those lines, yeah, it would maintain the same, it wouldn't put in extra stress.

It would be kind of the similar that we're working with now.

It would just be flipping each other.

So currently you meet month to month, every month, every month staff-wise, if we do every other month, you're used to the frequency of meeting every month.

They would just we just have the commissions then alternate.

Correct.

Okay, sir.

All right, yes, perfect.

Thank you.

That's good.

Councilman Greenberg, do you have a comment?

Yeah, thanks, Bear.

Um how many?

I'm just curious, how many of the current commission are gonna want to be on the new commission?

All of them.

So there it's gonna basically the way it's been presented to us, the the current commissions, commissioners are going to have the opportunity to choose which direction they want to go in.

No, that's what I'm asking.

I mean, you got two commissions out of one commission.

So we we need more people.

Correct.

And that's a part of the process that we're discussing as bringing more people on.

Right.

So I just want to know how many who are on the current commission are gonna split.

I mean, how many we gonna end up with on each commission?

So how many holes do we have to fill?

That hasn't been determined yet.

Okay.

So that's your hands.

As a whole, I think everybody has their idea of where they would like to go.

Um, but we haven't discussed that as a whole, as you know, because we had our meeting last month.

That's the first meeting and discussion that we've had as a commission.

Um, and there hasn't been a lot of discussion on where each individual would like to go.

I think there's a fairly good idea, but either way, I believe it's gonna have to be seven more people are gonna have to come on if we're gonna maintain that seven.

Yeah, I just wanted to have some kind of continuity.

So at least we get a couple people.

Oh, absolutely.

There's gonna be each commission is gonna have some lack of better terms, old heads from the prior onto Okay, that's good.

That's all I want to know.

Councilman Tuffy.

Thank you, Marit.

So I'm all for splitting it.

That's what everybody seems to want to do.

Um I also don't think there's any rush to do it, which is why waiting until Vet Fest is over is perfect.

So you guys can figure all that logistics.

I don't think that's what you're asking us to figure out who's going where.

I mean, we're not doing that.

We just want to know if we're okay with splitting it, which is absolutely okay with doing.

And then we have plenty of time because we don't want to interrupt.

We're finally getting getting the point.

We might be able to go outside soon.

So there's events coming up, so we don't want to ruin any of that.

And I know how much you guys care about Vet Fest.

So we don't want to interrupt that at all.

So I have no problem waiting until that's over, and then you guys, as these meetings come on, you guys can figure out how you're gonna split it and take your take it from there.

Okay.

The only reason why that became uh one of our main concerns is when the information was provided to us.

Um, it was suggested that like October was gonna be the target date or month to start the division.

We have too much stuff coming out.

Yeah, we can have a idea.

Yeah.

Yeah, mayor council that we said uh at earliest it could be October, but it doesn't really matter to the staff.

Uh we can support and just we want to work on veteran and human services.

That's not it.

It's just more about um capacity.

So that was our our big concern.

Doing doing two meetings a month would be a hardship on HSCV, trying to do what I can to protect our limited staff.

But if we do once a month or quarterly, um, we we can absolutely do that.

And we want we want to work on this.

We just the more capacity the better, right?

Thank you, Mayor.

A little experienced thirty on a commission.

Uh and obviously every commission is different.

So what I would like to see is, you know, first off, there's a good chance, and I'm hopeful the majority of you will end up on one of these two new commissions, whenever that is.

And I'm just to say like I'm okay with waiting, there's there's no rush.

Um I would like to have the commission, obviously, there are going to be new commissioners, um, make that recommendation on how often they meet.

Either you, I don't know if you're able to pass it in your commission or you recommend it to us.

Um whatever is most because it's it's a it's efficiency is important too.

Now, I know on the arts commission we met, you know, once a month, and we had you know jam-packed agendas every month.

And so it it justified, in my opinion, you know, having staff there.

We works the budget.

Um, then you have other commissions, you know.

I think um, well, I won't I won't say which commissions be last, but then you have other commissions who meet uh less regularly, who have less of the agenda and so on.

I think um, well, I won't I won't say which commissions be less, but then you have other commissions who meet uh less regularly who have less of the agenda and so on, and obviously, too, like the the veterans, and this kind of brings my next point, but the veterans and disabilities um, you know, commissions might, you know, obviously they're gonna have different goals, they're gonna be different groups of people and stuff.

And so I want them to kind of make that decision based off of staff advice.

Um it's it's really easy to say, like, you know, like I mean, too, like you guys meet every month and you've got stuff going on, that's great.

We want to just obviously make sure there's stuff going on.

The last thing I'll say too is um I love the idea of splitting these up.

I really do.

I work in education in my other job, the one that pays the bills.

Well, a little more at least.

And too oftentimes special education or students who are disabled get grouped into the same category.

They get grouped into, they get put with this group and that group.

And even amongst them, just because they have disabilities, I mean, every single student is different, but every single disability is different too.

And what I had heard, and I can't remember who it was from, but as far as this commission goes, there were people.

I mean, I don't know if it was the official reason they were getting not on the commission, but they were a veteran, oh, but they weren't disabled, you know.

And so it's like, oh, and they, you know, or they were disabled, but they're not a veteran.

You know, obviously, anybody who's served our country, whether they've been disabled or not, and again, I'm not saying that we that's like a factor, but it's a it's two kind of different categories.

And so um, I think they both kind of deserve that attention.

And whatever, you know, the meeting schedule is gonna look like you know, the best for for you guys to succeed.

Um, you know, whether that's you know, the vet fest or you know, other events too.

Um, but it would be exciting, you know, too, if if we do the more frequent meetings, you know, maybe you know, offering more, you know, events for our veterans as well.

So it's definitely a balance um with staff time.

We appreciate you being, you know, honest with us too.

I don't know if you had one more bullet point over there or if you were still doing it.

I've got I've got I think uh one or two.

We should probably let you finish.

But I think we've got, I mean, we've kind of covered, I know the mayor is gonna keep the round tables.

I don't I they're not going anywhere, so there's not any real discussion there.

And then the next step for the current commissioners, uh I know that we've got we'll have the opportunity to choose which direction we would like to go in.

I know that we're gonna have to reapply per, you know, the city codes and everything, we're gonna have to reapply.

Um, so unfortunately, uh we're not a big fan of having to do that, but kind of it is what it is.

Um, something I also would like to bring up, and this this came up in our discussion um prior to this meeting, is I'd like to see for the mil the veteran side to add in some active duty.

So instead of just calling it the veteran advisory commission, calling it the military and veteran advisory commission.

We're right next door to an active duty base.

Um they work, play in our city, um, they live here.

So I don't want the name to seclude the active duty side and the National Guard, all the folks.

So if moving forward, we could look at maybe the military and veteran advisory commission for that side of things.

Um councilman Mountain.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, so just for the public to understand what's happening up here is because this body veterans issues and disabilities issues, while there are overlap, they are unique issues.

That is why we are talking about this about splitting the board.

No, there's no hurry.

We're gonna get to it.

We're not gonna solve the logistics up here tonight, but that's where we're going.

So just want to understand for the public to understand what we're talking about.

Michael, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

And thank you, Seth.

Yeah.

Um, I I agree.

I mean, having uh seen you guys in work, uh the there's so much going on with the round tables.

Each group has their own special um, you know, thing that they want to focus on.

I think having the commissions separate are a good thing.

Um, I so I support it, especially with the uh the veterans and military.

I think that's a smart move because more airmen live in surprise than any other city in the state.

Yes.

Uh and plus we have, you know, we're we're building a National Guard base here in the city in a few years.

So I think it's important to have that that connection to the uh currently serving service members.

If you have anything else, yeah, we're good.

Thanks, Mayor.

I just want to make you guys, is there any other concern?

Okay, because no, and this is this is good, and I'm glad you guys are here because this is not necessarily intended to subtract opportunities or what we do.

It's just we're a growing city, and um, what we have all found being up here is we're looking at policy on a very macro level, and we really rely heavily on our commissions to make sure that no one gets left behind.

And you guys play such a critical role in that.

And so if we say we value commission and commission members, it's important that you guys have a seat at the table.

And I knew um when this idea kind of came about that there's a lot of unknowns, there's a lot of uncertainty.

And so um, Seth, you and your team and you and your fellow commission members working through this with us with an open mind.

Um I appreciate that in bringing those concerns because they are valid concerns, and I'm really excited about this.

I think we have a large group of folks that are that are ready to serve.

Um, and that was one of the things that we found being on this committee is it sucked having to turn someone away that was super talented because we were trying to figure out how we can kind of have the ratio be equal in this.

And and then I was like, why?

If we have enough opportunities for people to serve and there's a need, and if we can make it where we're not just destroying our our staff members, then I think we should do it.

And so thank you for coming up here.

Thank you guys for attending.

Uh, this is a great discussion.

I'm excited to see how we progress forward, but I think we have to do it in a way where both committees are able to be successful, and the key to that is to make sure we do that slow, smooth approach.

Um so I look forward to doing that and working alongside all of you guys.

So thank you.

Appreciate it.

Oh, the word I was looking for was product.

Figured it out.

I got it.

Thank you.

I appreciate you coming in.

So thank you.

All right, I'll now conduct the call to the public.

Madam Klerk, do we get a request to speak on non-agenda items?

Uh yes, Mayor, I have quite a few.

Okay.

So I will be calling people in the order that we receive the request.

Majority of them were online, so we'll go one at a time here.

The first one is Kasen Snyder.

Ah, thank you.

As you're making your way to the podium, uh, when you get here, please state your go ahead.

Uh your name and crossroads for the record, please.

Um, I'm my name is Kasen Snyder, and I live on West Watson Lane.

Um, Mayor uh and council members.

Uh I'm speaking to you today to talk about the intersection of West Tacoma Drive and Northwitch Field Road and how we could improve the safety for both pedestrians and motorists alike and improve walkability in the area.

Um I've been a resident a resident of surprise for about five years now, and I'm currently a senior at Highland Prep.

Um, I bike to school every day, and uh uh on my way to school, I have to cross North Lichfield Road.

Um, and that's always been a huge issue for me, and I'm sure a lot of other people.

Um Lichfield runs through a coma, which is the street that uh I and many others use to get to their locations.

Uh Lichfield is only a mile away from Ashton Ranch Middle School.

Um, there are no stop signs, traffic lights, or crosswalks uh at this intersection that allow you to cross through Lichfield.

Uh, in order to cross Lichfield, you must uh make your way to either Greenway or Wadell and cross over.

Both of these are about 2,500 feet from Lichfield and a coma.

And if you plan on making your way back to a coma, that's an extra 5,000 feet of distance, and that's a full mile.

Um the walkability of this area is very important uh because it's next to a middle school.

Um like it's a completely this area is completely within walking distance of Ashton Ranch.

Uh, but with this like large detour around Lichfield, it's not anymore.

It's a another full mile.

Um also uh because of this large detour, they might choose to jaywalk.

Um our community is no stranger to traff uh to tragic and deadly traffic accidents.

Um and they happen very frequently here.

Um, and so it's important to uh to um uh try to uh like to uh build infrastructure that will help to protect them.

Uh nobody wants children walking through the dangerous uh commercial or the com the dangerous commercial area of Waddell uh during rush hour traffic, which is what they're going to have to do uh if they can't get through this through Lichfield.

Um it's very dangerous.

Uh yeah, yeah.

Uh this could help save some people, like if we put a traffic light here, it could help save some people's lives.

Um, and it's just a traffic light and a crosswalk for uh an intersection that desperately needs it.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate you coming up and bringing it to our attention.

Um, Mr.

Wingroth, can you work with Eric and go with this gentleman?

Okay, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Next, I have Linda Varns.

Linda Varns, are you here?

Linda.

Was it an online request?

It was an online request.

The topic was for we ride.

Or there did she provide any comments?

No, sir, that's it.

Okay.

Linda.

Let's move to the next, please.

Uh next I have Quintus Schultzka.

Good evening, sir.

Hello, good evening.

Mayor and Council, I'm Quinta Scholska, live in the Sierra Montana neighborhood.

I have copies here for well.

This one goes in Mayor Sarge.

And then this is copy for each amount.

And you can even distribute them out, but it's fine.

Yeah.

Those can be distributed after, but just for reference there.

One of them is just an article, um, editorial opinion that just got published in the Surprise Independent here that I wrote.

And we'll probably share parts of that here.

And then the other is um, yeah, another thing I'll reference in my remarks.

Um I'll just start with the the shot heard around the world on April 19, 1775, marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

But the seas of revolution, as we all know, and our liberty started years prior in places like Faniel Hall and the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston.

A movement in our city of surprise started up some years ago that led to greater citizen involvement in city affairs and council meetings than had been seen before.

It was written in a desire to make life better for the citizens of surprise, whether advocating for sound place building developments in our neighborhoods, or the related unsafe traffic that was snowballing in the Northwest Corridor along Grand Avenue.

That was participation involved into addressing other topics of concern like inflated budgets and municipal sales tax increases.

And whether you agreed with the opposition or not, it was exciting to see this level of engagement.

And it it led to a lot of good.

As the results came in, our citizens felt this um in this last election a year ago, their citizens felt a sense of hope and that the voice of the people would be better heard and heeded in council chambers.

However, not even a month later, there was an interruption heard around the world uh in these council chambers that put our population of under 200,000 on the map with national and international attention.

The interruption itself wasn't so unexpected, but the refusal to listen, the assumed authority, and the pursuant force against that speech captured the attention and empathy of millions of freedom-loving people within days.

The alleged speech crime, complaining that one of the highest paid officials in the entire Valley or City Attorney might not be so deserving of another big salary increase.

The enforcement, that's what placed permanent traumatic scars on one of our citizens, and impelled a freeze on the voices of many others, even in this very room.

Thankfully, in the following weeks, surprise citizens and others did speak up.

They came and it got their attention.

Um, and this one I handed to the for the the mayor and the city attorney to look at.

Um I've been following the case that's currently in um the works right now.

Um James Jellison, you may or may not be aware.

Also a town attorney in the town of Saurita, which I know because I lived in Tucson many years.

Um has been involved in for lack of a better term, uh, was physically in the path of an incident that's eerily similar to what happened here.

I just want to close by saying just as in the revolutionary war that was long costly and many times extremely discouraging, so too will the efforts to make our voices heard take more time, more energy, and many, many more moments of discouragement.

But as Samuel Adams said upon hearing at the Battle of Lexington that day, I hope we too, the citizens of surprise can collectively wake up and say, What a glorious morning for America.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next I have Nathan Madden.

Good evening, sir.

I I think there's an issue with the um microphone, so if you try not to touch it, I think if it's stay still, Virginia will it not be so static-y.

Okay.

Somebody did something.

Oh, community champions got him.

Sorry.

That was me.

Go ahead, sir.

All righty.

Can you hear me?

Um yeah.

Go ahead.

Uh good evening, mayor and council.

Uh, my name is Nathan Madden.

I'm a resident of your neighboring city of Buckeye.

Um, also the uh current second vice chairman of the Arizona Libertarian Party.

I've come to speak on behalf of libertarian residents in your community.

Um, as libertarians, we naturally support the abolition of uh licensing requirements for any businesses to operate.

We believe that the market already regulates businesses effectively enough through competition, consumer choice, and reputation.

Additional government oversight rarely improves these natural controls.

The facts are straightforward.

Cities with fewer regulations see faster business growth.

More jobs and generally better revenues through economic expansion and not increased fees and taxation.

When barriers are removed, businesses naturally choose locations with less red tape.

Few recent examples.

And the data shows that their economy is growing faster without it.

Ultimately, this isn't just about paperwork.

Every dollar spent on licenses is a dollar not spent on growth.

Every hour spent on regulatory compliance is an hour not spent serving customers.

Every delay and opening costs costs this city potential jobs.

You have an opportunity to make surprise one of the easiest places to do business in Maricopa County.

The choice is yours.

Continue with unnecessary regulation and hamstring your economy.

Or embrace a proven path to prosperity.

Let's choose growth.

And in the words of your economic director.

Bring on the jobs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, I have Ruth Aliciano.

Ruth Beliciano.

Was that an online request?

It was an online request with a question about an independent environmental impact study.

Okay.

I will go ahead and uh I guess read the question.

Into the record, please.

Um the question was has an in independent environmental impact study been done.

That's it.

Was there any other specifics?

No, that's that's the sentence.

Was there okay?

Well, uh, was there like a title to it?

It just says I would like to address council and it attaches it says agenda item, which is a selection in the drop-down menu, and the topic says has an independent environmental impact study been done.

Okay, thank you.

Next is Misty Morris.

This was also an online request.

Oh, thank you.

Good evening, ma'am.

Hi.

I live in Wadell, just on the border surprise.

And we have some concerns as a neighborhood, as a community about the data centers and the electrical plant that's going in, and not sure what surprise can do about that.

We do all of our we basically we live right on the border, so everything we do is in surprise.

And we we have some concerns because there's over 200 acre lots in that area, very close within a half mile of the data centers and electrical plant going in.

And we've been there for 20 years, and we have wells, and already our wells are being very like a lot of pressure on our wells to keep provide us with water with all the plants that have gone in, all the warehouses.

And now with the new data center and the electrical plant, we are very worried about what the effect it's going to have on our ability to have water.

We don't have any city water, we only have wells.

So I don't know what can be done.

We're just coming to surprise to see if there's anything that can be done.

There's a lot of things that we're afraid of.

We have a lot of concerns about the noise factor.

It's it's less than a half a mile from my from my front door.

And our kids and I personally have special needs grandchildren who are over all the time.

And special needs children cannot have a constant roaring, they can't function.

And I just I have some I have a lot of concerns.

I'm fearful about our equity in our homes.

I'm fearful that we've worked all these years to beautify our homes and somewhere we want to leave our children or at this point.

We don't think our equity is going to be there anymore because this historically, when you look up these things, when these data centers go in, property values tank.

And we have we we don't know if we have any recourse.

We don't know, we don't want to move.

We want to stay right where we are, but there's you know, at least 200 families that are desperately in need of some support or guidance of what we can do to try to stop this, or or we don't know if we can or what we can do, or what if we have any rights.

And the water is a big thing because we cannot live there without water.

You know, so and as you know, there's farms all around us, or at least there were farms all around us, and as a rule, everyone shares.

If one well goes out, farmers are sharing with other farmers and families, and if our wells go out, the neighbors we all share with each other.

But at this point, we really feel that our wells have been taxed so much from the factories.

And I know that that we're being told that they're gonna have water supply, that they're being guaranteed water supply.

Well, the groundwater is our water supply.

And when they drain it more, then ours goes down, and we don't have the ability to have water for our families.

So that's my main concern.

And I don't know what if any any direction you can give us to try to protect our families and what we can do.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um, the um are you which project are you talking about specifically?

Because you're cara.

Okay.

Just want to make sure.

Sorry.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

We're gonna try to get a microphone down here.

Yeah, we're coming right now.

Who's the next person?

Christy.

Next, I have Destiny Hearst.

This was an online request.

It's on.

It's on.

Okay.

The mic, the microphone will be on when you come down.

Destiny.

They relieve any remarks online.

Uh, yes, it was related to Project Bacara concerns for environmental safety for the common public living near the five-mile radius of proposed natural gas plant and noise adherence with surrounding 20,000 residents.

The additional dangers to living near a natural gas plant.

We will become residents in Wadell late September and within two miles of the project.

That's it.

Next is James Ellis.

This was also online.

James, are you here tonight?

Did he provide any comments?

Uh, yes.

It was for call to public.

And I'll read the statement as we reflect on the one-year anniversary of a surprise resident having her first amendment rights violated in August of 2024.

We are citizens and myself were shocked and in disbelief that something like this occurred in the city of surprise.

This situation is what you would see happen in an autocratic communist country, certainly not the United States of America or even the City of Surprise.

Let's not forget our brave men and women who fought and died since 1776 to protect our God, given freedoms and our US constitution as Americans and citizens of surprise cannot get complacent when it comes to protecting individual rights.

The city leaders of surprise, elected and non-elected, need to reflect and hold values close to them every day.

So history will not repeat itself in a dark way ever again in the city.

Thank you for your time, Mayor and Council.

Sincerely, James Ellis.

Thank you.

Next is Cheryl Packham.

Good evening, Cheryl.

Yes, please.

We can hear you.

Is it working?

Yes.

Okay.

Um good evening, uh Mayor, member of the council.

My name is Cheryl Packham.

I live at the Bell and Eastham uh cross streets.

Um first I want to say a love seeing the civic engagement.

People come in and speak up again.

It's wonderful to see.

Um I also want to um start by saying tonight that I really enjoyed the work session presentation.

Um it was great to hear the continu the conversation continue on the business licensing, hearing the amazing new plan of economic development.

Um I also love seeing the recognition for the Epic Business Connection group tonight.

Uh that was that well deserved.

And another great example of how the council and is uh celebrating our business community and the people who are working hard to put it together.

Um in the economic development presentation, I caught a small change in wording that I think can make that's gonna that's making a big impact in the way I'm viewing the the proposed strategic plan, and it's the use of the word local business.

Local business is I think what we all mean when we say we want to support small businesses in our community.

I think changing that verbiage and using local business as that term is really gonna make a big impact for what we really mean when we're trying to make that impact.

Um during the business license discussion, I heard clear desire from the council to support the small business community.

Um the question came up how do we define a small business?

I'd like to offer that word.

Let's define the small businesses you guys are trying to help by calling them local businesses.

You want to help the local business community, much easier to define.

What is a local business?

Someone from our town from our city starts a business.

They live here, they're a resident.

Easy to identify.

Um, Parks and Recs already does this in their model as we're talking about business licensing.

Um, Parks and Recs has a residence fee, and they have a non-residence fee.

It seems like it's a simple model to adapt with business licensing.

Um celebrate local.

It calls out the prior priority in the strategic plan to support local business, and most importantly, it encourages residents to reach out for support instead of filling like a business license as an obstacle from keeping them getting started.

So on that note, when our local businesses thrive, our whole city becomes an even better place to live, work, and play.

And I'd also like to finish by saying my husband and I are both uh disabled veterans in our community.

I think separating the uh veterans and disabilities human, whatever big long names commission is a fantastic idea.

I think that will allow both um uh communities of people to receive even more attention in our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, I have Eric Bowler.

Good evening, sir.

Evening.

I'm Eric Fowler.

I came all the way from Chandler to talk to you guys tonight.

Uh good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

My name is Eric Fowler, and I serve as the chair of the Maricopa County Libertarian Party.

I'm here to encourage the city of surprise to build on your thoughtful discussions about reducing or eliminating the business license fee program, which is one of the highest in Maricopa County.

I appreciate the council's openness to ideas like waiving the first year fee for small businesses or scaling fees based on business size.

From a libertarian's perspective, these steps align with promoting free enterprise.

And I'd like to offer some additional thoughts on how we can get further by addressing the government scope and empowering the private sector.

Let's begin with the involvement of various city departments in administering this program.

The city slide showed a collaborative uh effort of finance managing application intake reviews, workflows and fees, community development handling, planning zoning, building safety, and code enforcement, and the fire department overseeing fire prevention reviews and inspections for sectors like commercial zoning, child care, and assisted living.

While very well intentioned, this multi-departmental approach can create inefficiencies.

The program isn't breaking even due to all the staff time needed for compliance enforcement and out-of-scope services.

For small business, compliance with multiple tax and fee schemes from various municipalities often means spending valuable time on paperwork instead of growth.

As libertarians, we value limited government, and streamlining streamlining some of this bureaucracy could ease the burdens on entrepreneurs while respecting their freedom to operate.

Adding to this, the city's business support initiatives, such as the Spark Surprise and EMIC developments, uh recruitment and partnership efforts efforts resemble something like central planning.

They use taxpayer funds to steer the economy through goals like bringing on the jobs and curating downtown infrastructure.

From our viewpoint, government shouldn't decide which businesses or into industries uh belong locally.

That's best left to entrepreneurs and the market forces, not public resources spent on speakers and mentorship.

A collaborative way forward.

Let's reduce the fee while trimming the departmental involvement and partner with the local Northwest Chamber of Commerce through a public-private arrangement.

This could shift support services to voluntary market-driven groups that deliver them efficiently, reducing costs, and uh reducing the direct government role without losing momentum.

In conclusion, by reducing or eliminating the fee and pairing it with some focused downsizing, we can foster liberty, efficiency, and a thriving economy.

I commend the council for bringing this up in earlier discussion.

Uh for the earlier discussion report about the business license, and I urge you to keep prioritizing freedom and innovation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, I have Angel Gomez.

Hey, good evening, sir.

Good evening.

Good evening to the council members and the public.

My name is Angel Gomez.

I'm a resident of Mountain Visitor Ranch, uh, a resident of Arizona since 2018 and specifically surprised for the last couple of years.

I'm a student at ASU.

I actually work in the mission critical industry as well.

Uh, like many, I've grown to care and love the community that I live in and look forward to raising my uh firstborn child here pretty soon.

Uh in surprise, which is a large factor behind this call to the public.

I'm looking to bring attention to the proposed development of Project Bacrett, as many others, a 700 megawatt natural gas power plant that plans to generate electricity with the use of 18 natural gas fired combustion turn by turbine units.

This project comes with concerns from the general public with further with further hazards and concerns identified by Luke Air Force Base representatives, Arizona Fish and Wildlife, and also potential violations of the Maricopa County zoning ordinances that are in place.

The impact goes beyond financial impacts, as were previously mentioned.

The project will have on surrounding property values.

The environmental impacts hold the most concern.

Natural gas power plants, similar to Awa Freya, also located here in the West Valley, emit over 100,000 tons of CO2, nitrous oxides, and methane emissions every single year.

Not only is this dangerous for our general population, but especially for developing children.

This project is being proposed within the immediate vicinity of multiple schools, K through 12, and over five different surprise neighborhoods and many other cities, home to thousands of local homeowners that have invested their future and the community and into the community of surprise and encompasses many more residents as the rate is widened.

Alongside these concerns, we are requesting further information and clarification on the actual environmental and community impact that comes with this project.

Until the impact of this project is fully understood.

We are unable to support this project that holds more characteristics of a power plant than it does a data center.

We need clear numbers indicating how much of our resources, including our water, energy, and electricity is required from our utility services prior to continuing.

To be clear, we as residents must support innervation, and we do, and new technologies that support modern lifestyles, which are all possible while preserving the environment for our upcoming upcoming generations, specifically our children.

We are not here to say no to every iteration or every single data center.

However, as it currently stands, this project cannot be supported or allowed.

This project will literally cook our area and its surroundings through its 24-7 combustion of natural gas and emission of toxic pollutants and ultimately interfere with the lives and health of the general public.

A guaranteed focus on sustainability, efficiency, and productivity is necessary for these projects in our region through the use of renewable energy sources.

It is no longer financially or environmentally responsible to attempt to solve new problems with outdated solutions and tools.

Lastly, if I may, just a huge thank you to our community development director Lloyd Abrams, who reached out on behalf of the city of Surprise for clarification and copies of reports once available.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, I have Rebecca Maffey, online request.

Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and uh City Council.

My name is Rebecca Massey.

I live up in District 1 at approximately grand in the loop 303.

For many of you, you may be thinking of this as just another Tuesday, but for me, it's far more than that.

Uh today marks the 365th day since the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a civil suit on my behalf against the city for violating my rights when the then mayor Skip Hall ordered my arrest at this very microphone for criticizing city officials.

That night has gone on to change my life.

I've endured trauma, mental health struggles, and issues, including which were that required me to take a leave of absence from my job and impacted my pay.

Family and financial stress, lasting harm to my reputation.

And it's not just me that this has impacted my three children, ages 11, 9, and 4, have all felt REPL effects, as has my husband.

I'm here today because as of yet, there's still been no accountability.

Skip Hall was able to continue serving out his lame duct term.

Former Chief Pinya was able to retire on a pension paid for by the taxpayers.

Former city attorney Robert Ringo was allowed to finish his contract remotely, also on taxpayer dollars.

And um, based on sources that I have, it was for reasons unrelated that the city chose to keep quiet to avoid further scandal.

The arresting officer Steven Shernikov, who slammed me into the wall just back there in that hallway and then forced me down to the ground, never even faced a single investigation.

In fact, Benny Pena even released a video that was recorded and distributed approximately a week after my arrest, condoning the actions and encouraging that this was the standard operating procedure.

Fanny Pena then goes on to state that Chernikov executed the mission with quote speed and precision that night.

Even when Watchdog Group Judicial Watch demanded answers, the city manager Bob Wingenroth refused to respond to Judicial Watch's requests for an investigation and outright ignored them and did not even respond, much like the attorney general and the as post did.

Four of you sitting on the dais tonight could have spoken up.

Instead, you all stayed silent and silence in the face of abuse is complicity.

All I can do now is pray that my family finds justice and that residents see this corruption for what it is, and that no one else suffers in the way that I did.

I'll leave you like I did last time with a quote from Dr.

Ron Paul, which is real patriotism is a willingness to challenge government when it is wrong.

Thank you.

Next is Alex.

Alex.

Good evening, sir.

Thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate it, Mayor.

Vice Mayor, Council members.

It seems that I'm always behind sometimes, especially on projects that are coming through, such as the BNSF hub, which you know, growing opposition continues to grow out there.

But these data centers that have been coming here, it um it's quite concerning from the research that I have been doing.

These data centers, um, and and one of them was praised by our president President Trump, who showed a superimposed image of this center uh on a map of Manhattan, and it covered the island of Manhattan.

That's how big it was.

It doesn't even give uh justification of how I can explain it, but you have to see it, how big this these centers are.

And um uh he was praising it, you know, and um uh I forgot the name of the company that I that was doing it uh that big, but um uh these centers use three times the amount of electricity, and mainly to keep them cool.

You know, uh heat is an enemy to technology.

One of the things that they have to do is they have to have specialty um AC units to keep these centers cool.

Uh, I think below like 70 degrees, and they're building it out here in the desert.

Um, they use twice as much water uh in these communities that that are popping up everywhere.

Uh the citizens are saying, take care of our water.

This is the water that we use every day that we need, that our plants need, that our pets need, you know.

So um the these centers are gonna be using uh this water, and and out here in Arizona, we had a water fight for I don't know how long it's been, but uh all the time.

Um, these these centers are just uh not community friendly from what I've researched.

I'm all about technology.

We have Amazon here.

We have autonomous cars, and those are gonna be using AI technology.

They're gonna be using um, you know, um uh Wi-Fi and and and all those types of technologies.

But at what cost, Mayor?

At what cost are we gonna have these centers that produce these uh high decibels of sound, and that we need to take care of these communities.

Uh I know sometimes it's hard, especially when the money starts to flow from these companies, and in the immediate future, that might bring bring us something, you know, with construction and and and immediate jobs, but what about the future?

What about our students that are just coming up?

And as we saw here with with our Boy Scouts and our our high school leaders, please, mayor, vice mayor, council members, think about these centers and how detrimental they're gonna be to our community.

Thank you.

Next is Teresa Christensen.

Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening.

Sorry.

This never gets any easier.

I've done this in probably a couple of city councils.

Good evening, Mayor.

Um, council members.

I was sent to you as a solution.

Um, Nicole Yazi sent me.

She evidently um has had conversations with you and wanted to present your solution.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Teresa Christensen, and I'm the founder and CEO of Bright Beginnings Preschool and Childcare.

I'm not from Surprise.

I'm from the West Valley.

I'm the only member of Westmark as an early childhood education representative.

I don't know if you guys have heard about Westmark, but I'm the only early childhood education representative.

I'd like for that to sit in for a second.

Surprise is one of the fastest growing cities.

You already know that too.

What you don't know about me is that I've spent 28 years in early childhood education.

I have made this my career of choice.

My passion and my drive is all things children.

Zero to 12 is where I spend my day happily.

What you also don't know about me is that I know how to create childcare ecosystems.

I work with workforce development and economic development, and I've kind of taken this project on for multiple cities.

Child care access right now in Surprise is like a desert.

West Valley remains a child care desert, and that means that parents are forced to make insurmountable choices.

Leave the workforce, travel long distances just to find safe and reliable care.

We've seen in cities like Goodyear and Glendale and Peoria, how leadership can change this by treating child care as a critical infrastructure.

And that's where I come in.

I'm not a big box chain.

I'm just a partner trying to help after three decades of experience, creating sustainable community-driven childcare ecosystems in cities that will help serve and strengthen the workforce of tomorrow.

So my ask tonight is simple.

Open a conversation with me.

I can teach you what you need to know to help your families grow.

Your communities grow and to become stable.

Explore opportunities to align child care with surprise economics development and workforce readiness strategies.

Consider ways that Surprise can or the city can support small, sustainable childcare centers, which keeps the cost low while meeting the needs of these families.

Surprise has the opportunity to lead and grow as quickly but wisely, ensuring children and families are at the heart of that growth.

Thank you for your leadership in considering my ask this evening.

Thank you, ma'am.

Um, it's a it's an important thing.

Um I'm gonna have you, if you don't mind, and I appreciate you coming in.

Uh Janine uh Cherkovich is our director of economic development and Kirsten is uh my assistant.

So can you talk to them, Matt for and we can set up a plan to discuss it, please?

I'm here to help, sir.

All right, thank you.

Okay, final speaker, Kevin James.

Were there additional requests to speak?

Sorry, I submitted online probably around 11 o'clock today.

Okay.

If you if you just want to go talk to the clerk and then we'll get a setup.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening.

Kevin James One 85th and Grand, I guess, Parkview Place.

I come here tonight uh for two reasons.

The first being relatively simple request.

When you call the the city, you get a uh numeric menu and it says, please press whatever number.

That's great if you've got a touch-tone phone or you have sight.

I'd I would ask you tonight to think about where you'd be if you had to close your eyes and press pick a number.

It's kind of difficult.

There are phone systems that will say press or say a particular number.

And I think you'll find when you look at that, a lot of sighted people will just say the thing rather than keep moving their phone down and back.

So my ask tonight would be the you make arrangements to find a preliminary estimate of time and installation of what it would do, what it would take to do that sort of system.

And I would also ask that you put that dollar amount in a percentage of the city's annual budget.

My second reason to be here tonight is of course we ride.

And I had a nice conversation with my representative, the vice mayor, followed his recommendation to talk to the mayor.

And I'm sorry we haven't been able to connect.

I'll use that as a polite way to say it, because I don't like to promote things without knowing how to pay for it, because that's always the big problem.

My thought is with you had all these police officers coming on, which is fine and budgeted for the whole year, but they're coming on throughout the year.

That change between budget and actual would pay to reinstate We Ride and actually add the extra van that they were borrowing from Peoria often.

So my second ask would be some way to take a look at that and see how that could happen.

I'm happy to be involved with the city's transportation plan, but when you go through that, it will be two years before that plan gets implemented.

So even if we ride was part of that, it's two years off.

So I'm asking for a compromise because politics is the art of compromise, and it is an art and it is compromise.

So my ask would be that the council or committee take a look at how to make that compromise.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, sir.

Okay, Holly, come on up.

Yeah, I'm the last fine.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Long day.

Hello, my name is Holly Tomachoff, and my husband Jack and I live in the Acre community, uh, just south of Peoria between Bullard and Lichfield.

We're neighbors to the Justice Brothers Orchard to the west and Copper Canyon Ranch, the north.

We have four young children, ages eight to one.

And although we've only lived in our community for a year and a half, we've lived in the West Valley our entire lives.

Most people recognize the name Tomatov from Tomataff Farms.

Uh, but our history is so much deeper.

John F.

Long, who developed Maryville, named it after his wife, Mary Tomatchov.

My late grandfather was a chief at Luke Air Force Base, moving his family across the country to Maryville, where my father met my mother.

One of the first jobs my mother ever had post-high school was as an accounting specialist for John F.

Long.

And since she's committed her career 36 years to a school district in Maryville.

Our family of six is a family built on history and fate.

And we have roots here and are deeply invested in ours and the surrounding community.

I also have several of my neighbors in attendance today.

One of those families here tonight runs an in-home child care where minus my youngest daughter, 100% of the children left in their care live in surprise homes.

Another neighbor is opened two thriving bakeries in surprise, moving into their home just one month after opening their first location.

If you haven't treated yourself to a pop-tart from Boyer Bakery, you're completely missing out.

Boy, right.

Another one of our neighbors farmed and grew up on the land that we now call home, and two others built their dream homes nearly 20 years ago, where they have raised their families in the walls of those homes.

They also have roots and are deeply intertwined with the surrounding community.

If this hasn't convinced you that we're invested in the city, let me just say the church my family attends, CCV is three minutes from our home in surprise.

The school my kids attend Monday through Friday is Rancho Gabriela, also in surprise.

The stores we buy our groceries, home project supplies, chicken feed, fuel, and clothes we wear, all located in surprise.

The gym that my three kids played basketball at this past summer was the Ottawa University Face Arena, which is five-minute walk from this room.

We may not be surprised residents, but we definitely feel like it.

Living on unincorporated Maricopa County land, we have no one willing to speak for us.

And so I'm here today to ask for your help to stop Project Bacchara from building a 700 megawatt private power plant and data center less than a half mile from our homes.

As the closest home to the proposed building site, I'm terrified, angry, and at a loss.

When I wake up and step out of my home to enjoy the quiet of the morning, I envision a future.

My children developing life-altering health conditions because I allowed them to live next to this environmental monstrosity and being stuck in a home that I can't afford to sell because it's dropped 15% in value.

Tacanock, the company responsible for this proposal, is slapping each and every one of us in the face.

They don't value our surprise neighbors enough to build a sound screen on the north side of the property.

Instead, relying on Justice Brother Trees to save them any financial responsibility.

They gave the disturbing response during the virtual August 14th meeting that they feel constant or confident that the noise from the generators won't be an issue because Luke Air Force Base is also loud.

They're using wind reports from Sky Harbor National Airport, completely ignoring our unique air powder next to the white tank mountains to convince us that the poisonous emissions from their generators won't affect our health.

And they're also replying on environmental impact studies around the country and world that have nothing to do with our Arizona Desert and Farmland.

This company doesn't care about you, me or kids.

They just care about the money that they can put in their pocket.

So again, I not only ask, but I plead for your help to stop Project Bakra, not only for the benefit of our small neighborhood, but for the safety and well-being of our surprise residents.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So I just wanted to, you know, say thanks to all the residents that came out, even the residents of the county, um, and to voice your concerns regarding this project.

Uh you know, while it's is located in Mary Copa County, you know, we're and it'll go through the county board of supervisors in the Arizona Corporation Commission for review process.

Uh this council has zero authority uh over the future of that project, and I have concerns about the implications of our residents.

And so I, along with other staff members, attended that uh public out uh the public meeting to hear firsthand the project details uh being provided.

It's my understanding the staff across several of our departments are awaiting the final reports of several studies and then and review them and then provide feedback.

So uh the city is kind of in a in a in an interesting spot with BNSF and this particular project.

It's not in our planning area, but our resident it will impact our residents, and we are listening.

And um, we're gonna advocate for our residents in in every way that we can.

So I appreciate you coming in and voicing your concerns.

It helps um inform our decision and solidify uh which way we're gonna go forward.

So thank you.

Yep.

So with that, I will move to the city council reports.

Um we go in the same order every time, but I always feel like you're gonna switch it up on me.

I can hold on, hold on.

We'll go six first.

Oh, all right.

Oh no.

Oh no.

What do I do?

Who knows?

All right, thank you, Mayor.

So I was also at that project back meeting, and there's or whatever back rep meeting.

And uh Lloyd's doing a good job of keeping after these guys, getting the reports that we need and and trying to really understand what our impact is is here.

But as Mayor said, we don't have much say.

All we can do is advocate.

Um, we had Arizona League of Towns and Cities here a couple weeks ago, which is why all seven of us played hooky from our council meeting.

Uh it was it was a good event.

It was great to connect with a lot of our colleagues that are experiencing some of the same problems that that uh that we're having that with with growth and and so forth.

But the one of the cool things that I got to do while I was there was I got to tour the local water treatment plant over there, and they're doing advanced water purification, something that I hope that we can do at some point, but it's an expensive process.

They produce water that's so pure and so clean, they actually have to add minerals back into it to make it palatable to drink.

Um, so it's it's it's gonna be a great process once we get there, but it's not cheap.

We have a long ways to go in that.

That's all I got, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Mountain.

Oh, caught off guard, I'm sorry.

No, keep it in the toes.

Nothing other than um, I do have a I'm getting back into my community meetings over this, took a break over the summer, but I'm having another one September 10th at Coddy Lakes.

And that's all I have.

So over to my uh councilman, District 3, Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Sarah.

I think I have is uh meet and greet Saturday and speaking with Councilman Jedd based on his low inventory.

I guess we're back at Total Wine so he can fill up after our meeting.

So we'll be a total wine this Saturday at 9 a.m.

Thank you.

Dolphy drank everything.

That'll happen.

Uh Councilman Greenberg.

Thanks, Mayor.

Councilman Judd said everything I was gonna say.

Um, I don't have any district meetings this month, October.

I do.

I'm gonna be having our auditor come in and talk to my uh two district meetings, which is usually about a hundred people between them because she's wonderful, and they might actually like to hear how carefully uh the city oversees everything regarding money.

So she will be there for that.

That's all that's smart.

Councilman Annie.

Thanks, Mayor.

It's better be good all that's a prep type you had.

I know I had so much I took notes actually.

Earl flustered me with his flex on how many people attend his meeting.

So it all started in 1994 when I was born.

Okay, Jack.

Uh I just a few things, uh, kind of busy month, but really good month.

I got to go out in the community.

Um, I got to meet one of my residents for coffee, which was awesome.

Um, and then we taught my mayor and I joined.

Um, and then we taught my mayor and I joined we serve and we were able to kind of discuss some things with the group of realtors, and then I just um had another group I chatted with uh today.

And one thing I always like about chatting with um our folks in real estate is a lot of times they're the first contact uh future residents have with what's going on in our city.

And so um all of obviously a lot of growth is happening in the Northwest surprise.

So I decided to give them my newsletter.

So hopefully when they attend their first community meeting, they won't be as fired up because they'll have some information.

And so um I really enjoyed meeting with them.

Um I want to thank everyone who attended my last community meeting.

We didn't have a hundred people, but we had 30 to 40, maybe.

Maybe we'll say 15 will round up to 100.

But um, I want to give a shout out to ADOT, uh, MAG and City staff.

It was a late meeting, but we covered a lot of uh important topics, including additional access points for the Northwest area, um, some of those long-term solutions, the 155th uh traffic interchange being one of those.

Um, I know those residents left, but one of the things uh that I found in district one is advocacy really does matter.

So I know it can be at times uh frustrating with this with this project going on and um not being in surprise.

Uh your voice still matters, and there's mechanisms to to make that voice heard.

And and I do look forward to helping support those residents that have those concerns because they are valid.

Um, and then I just want to give a shout out to your back, so now I can restart my report.

Um, I want to give a shout out to our economic development team and our community development team.

Um, we had a uh meeting with a resident who was facing a challenge, and almost instantaneously, as they're describing the problem, they went to work to try to give them a pathway to success.

And it was really, really cool to see something that not a lot of folks can see.

But uh when we say we support small business, when we say we exist as a service organization, um it really is on display, and a lot of times people don't hear about it.

But um just kudos to you.

That was really awesome to see.

Um, and then I have to get one last shout out to our parks and rec team.

Um, the swim lesson um and the reduction of kids on our wait list.

It cannot be overstated how huge that is.

It is it is amazing, and and it wouldn't happen without Holly and her team.

And so I know our goal is to have zero kids on the wait list ultimately, and I think our goal should have uh be to have zero drownings and surprise.

And so if we work together, we can make that happen.

So with that, that's all I have, mayor.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Vice Mayor, do you have anything you came back?

Did you want to grab a snack?

No, absolutely.

Um, no, I I mean, honestly, with the project Bakara, I think there's there's been obviously some information shared on social media.

Um, and and so we want to make sure that even though that area is an end surprise, that we get you at least, you know, obviously people took time to come to the city council meeting tonight out of their nights or and and sat here for a few hours to speak about it.

We want to make sure that their voices are being heard and that they're getting, you know, obviously the facts as well.

I think sometimes you know, we hear things from different areas, and sometimes things get misconstrued and obviously want them to be able to um kind of understand what's going on.

And our supervisor is Supervisor Lesco.

You might recognize her name.

She was in Congress, state Senate, State House, all sorts of stuff, and she's a great representative too.

And so um it sounds like the city is working together to put together kind of like a one page on that.

I mean, obviously, it is you know, it's it's by our city, it does does affect us, and so we should definitely be you know involved and uh vocal about what's going on.

So thank you.

Um went to the league as well.

I mean, it was a great time.

I was able to join the uh Central Arizona project coalition for mayors to make sure that the Lower Basin is securing its share of the Colorado River, which I think was important.

Um really I'm just I'm extremely proud of this council, the way that we're represented at the League of Cities, the way that we represent our residents uh with the support of the staff, Bob.

You guys are doing an incredible job.

And this is I think uh exactly what government's supposed to look like local government.

So I appreciate everybody's effort on that.

Um I did skip something on the agenda that the vice mayor pointed out was future agenda items or other business.

Anybody have anything for that?

Vice Mayor.

I got one.

Uh yeah, so obviously, and uh we had a good discussion today about the business license uh fee reducing that and um some potential next steps.

And so I think we're on the right track.

But I know last time we kind of talked about it, it kind of like stuff happens and things come up.

And so I would love to see um, and I am on the next action item on the next council agenda um to a few of us discussed, you know, cutting that initial business license fee in half.

But the mayor, councilman Judd brought up some good points about, you know, maybe some some other options too.

Like obviously that's kind of like the central part that we had kind of maybe talked about, but also other options as far as maybe at that meeting to you know the waiver process.

You know, if somebody brings a unique business, you know, to surprise, does Janine have the authority, or you know, they're bringing something to surprise?

Or you know, they're bringing something to surprise.

Can we take a look at that?

And obviously, too, the mayor's concern about, you know, well, you know, Walmart's probably gonna be okay paying, you know, the full amount.

What about the local kind of smaller businesses?

Right.

Um, so action item kind of on the reducing the initial fee in half, but then also to like maybe some options or some next steps from that, and so we can kind of keep this momentum going.

So second.

Yeah.

Okay.

Sure.

Awesome.

Okay.

With that with all you guys.

Separate.

No, no, for sure.

For sure.

Okay.

No other agenda items.

I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn.

All right.

All in favor?

Second.

Aye.

All opposed.

We are adjourned.