All right, good evening, everyone.

I'd like to call this regular city council work session to order on Tuesday, September 16th, 2025.

Madam Clerk, please conduct the roll.

Mayor Starter.

Present.

Vice Mayor Hastings.

Vice Mayor Hastings, are you on the line?

Thank you.

Councilmember Haney.

Here.

Council Member Greenberg.

Here.

Councilmember Duffy.

Here.

Council Member Melton.

Present.

Council Member Jet.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yep.

Forum.

All right.

Thank you.

Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God and divisible with the liberty and justice for all.

Okay, let's move on to item number one, please.

Item number one overview of the Baccarap part.

Good evening, Lynn.

Mr.

Abrams.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Um.

So the Project Bacra is a project located in the county.

Um, their location is approximately at Bullard and Olive.

It's approximately a half mile south of the city limits.

So the orange line there is our city limits.

And you can see the developments that are close by.

It consists of two um two-story data center buildings, totaling about a million square feet.

It has the eighteen natural gas fired combustion turbine, basically jet engines that are set up for the power generation.

It totals about 700 megawatts.

I've been able to pull down from county as you can see.

They've uh asked for a military use permit, which is required for anything located in that that military zone.

Um what they're asking for, along with um being acceptable to Luke is a variance to the zoning regulation that's there for the building height and the parking requirements.

So current currently under county zoning, the building height would be 40.

They're asking for 48 feet, plus then you have the 72-foot stacks that go along with that.

When we saw the project come in, we looked at it and we went back to counting and asked for the following reports air quality reports, noise study, ground fishers, the subsidence and transportation impact fee.

Also knowing the proximity of the location, we're gonna have the first response to it.

So we wanted to make sure we it was an emergency management plan coordinated with us as well.

Next steps for for the project is finishing up the agency review, which is currently going on.

This they're in their second review process based off of the feedback from us, county as well as Glendale.

And then from there, once they get through the review process, the next step is the planning and zoning commission hearing and then the board of supervisor hearing.

With that, I can hopefully answer any questions.

Okay, Councilman Melton.

Hi, thanks.

Uh thanks, Lloyd.

Um there's a lot of studies that are the developer will have to do.

One of them, of course, would be the hydrology study.

Uh if, and just so I understand this is a process question.

In performing the hydrology study to because our resident concerns that their water usage, uh, they will be the initial fill of their closed loop chiller system will be from Epcor, but for their other plaudal uses of this, you know, day-to-day use will be from drawn from wells.

That's your understanding, correct?

That is my understanding.

And so the residents can some residents have concerned, well, hey, if we're gonna draw water, what's that the impact of other residents, you know, residents nearby who are on who are drawing from wells, and of course, hydrology study would be would be issue or you know, could performed.

And I believe correct me if I'm wrong, the city of surprise would have if there were uh an issue with the type of the hydrology report studies showed impact to our residents, we would be notified if that's if that report depending on what they're applying for, and I'll defer to Michael on this if I get this wrong, but we'd look for well impact waivers to make sure what they're doing well-wise, if they had to drill, didn't impact any of our production wells.

So and with us having that service area, it's it's basically to make sure that there is no impact to us in serving our our residents.

They'd also being that they're looking at EPCOR and Epcor service area, the same requirements for them.

Okay, so so I'm sorry, go ahead, Mike.

Good evening, Mayor.

Um, so as part of the list of requirements, I think perhaps to speak to your concern and maybe some of the residents' concerns, we can add in there a well impact analysis.

And really, that's the first step to exactly what Lloyd mentioned as it relates to us requiring the well impact waivers.

Um that would just be a report that they would do to ensure that their potential drawdown of any of their wells wouldn't negatively impact uh any of the exempt wells that some of the surrounding neighborhoods might have, EBCOR might have or the city might have.

Okay, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thanks, Michael.

And last question, and you I don't know, I don't know who knows the answer to this.

Uh, who's constructing the natural gas pipeline?

And where's that being drawn from?

Is that from Southwest Gas?

Is it do we know?

I do not know.

If I had to presume, I think because of the propane natural gas that's directly to the west of them, they may be coordinating with them, but I don't have that information.

Okay.

I thank you, Louis.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Lloyd, no offense, but why are you presenting this?

Just came.

Did we ask?

It was a request, and based off of already engaging with county and going back and forth trying to get information not only for our own residents, but I have also gotten questions from county residents.

I just felt it was my due diligence to go find the information and be able to come back and present it so that you've had the information that if you had questions, the biggest thing is for anything that we have questions and we want input, is to make sure we get that input back to county to the county planners so that they can add it to the case file.

So did we ask the project team to I did reach out to ask them if they could come present or ask answer questions tonight?

They had a previous engagement and said they couldn't be here.

They are holding an open house on Thursday, the 18th, as well as then they have us another virtual uh meeting on the 23rd.

Okay.

And then as far as the you talked about fire department.

Why are we the first ones to have to go?

Uh SBAC is Glendale, they're named twice surrounding this.

Yeah, based off of the mutual aid agreement, we'll be the first responding unit.

We've got the closest units to that, other than Luke that may be responding, but for the most part, where the location is of fire station 308 would be right down the block.

So you're at Cactus and Lichfield, and this is basically at Olive and Bullard.

Is that because Glendale doesn't have anything over there?

That's because Glendale at the moment does not have a fire station out that way.

No offense, Nick.

But it's like, why are we always on the hook?

You know what I mean?

Okay.

Thank you.

That's a good point.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Lloyd, thank you.

I mean, we've I've I've got a lot of correspondence about this.

We had a lot of residents that are really concerned about this, and we were really hoping that the project managers would come out and present.

And we really appreciate that that you've stepped up and gathered all the information for us.

Can can you go back a couple of slides?

And what I'm looking for is the list of requests that surprise is made about the project.

I just want to highlight those again.

That I mean, this is stuff that that we're waiting for before we can take an official position on this.

I mean, I mean, we could take an official positioning top you want, really, but I mean thus far it's been a very data-driven council, and this is the data we need to determine what impact this is going to have on our community.

Um, I had asked a few residents to send me some questions in, and I and I hadn't gotten them, but when I asked for that, they hadn't scheduled the Thursday community meeting.

So I think there's a there's an in-person meeting on Thursday, right?

Correct.

And then I think there's a virtual one next week also 23rd.

On the 23rd.

So there's still a couple of different ways for residents to engage and uh and get more information on this.

And and uh I know you and your team have been keeping an eye on this, and you'll keep us apprised of any changes on it.

I mean, this is this is half a mile from my district, so we're really interested in what's happening out here.

Um, do we know anything about what kind of sound they can make?

I mean, we've got we've got some stuff fairly close to our border that's pretty noisy already, with just sort of a low-pitched hum over one of the Red Bull or ball or someone over there's got something going.

Um I'm a mile from it and I can hear it.

So I can't imagine what 18 jet engines are gonna sound like.

So do we do we know anything about what sort of sound mitigation can be required not to come into surprise?

Mayor, Councilman Judd, not specifically.

I can speak from just experience.

You can do certain things around a test cell when I was stationed out of Luth to minimize it.

It still has a sound that exceeds normal range based off of just doing some basic research and knowledge of some of that.

Um, those jet engines, when they're fired up, they they average between 85 and 90 decibels.

So you figure that's running, you got 18 of those, plus it's running 24-7.

It's gonna produce no noise, and that's one of the reasons we wanted to know what that was, what that noise study is.

What they presented in their first neighborhood meeting was in line with just oh, well, you've got the noise contours that are quantified in statute that shows that we fall within the 80 and 70 d decimals.

Um, so there shouldn't be no impact.

Um, but the aircraft, when that was done with the F-15 with their dual engines, and they weren't done.

I mean, that's an average um over day night.

This is not straight 24-7 running, and it's not 18 aircraft at one time.

So, and today the noise is I'd say lessened because your aircraft are single-engine aircraft and they don't produce that same noise that the F-15 did.

Well, and we like most of us like the the F-35 still flying over in the F-15s when they did.

Um, but it it makes a loud noise, you know, you can't hear for a moment, but then it flies away until the till the next one comes in.

We're good with that.

We like that.

Uh and I had the same concern when they asked that question at the meeting.

They said, Oh, don't worry, uh, jets fly over all the time, we're quieter than the jets.

We're quieter than the jets.

Yeah.

But again, the problem being that the Jets aren't running their engine over the house 24-7.

Yeah.

And being stationed out there, I do know that the base over the years has sunken 19 feet from one end to the next.

So that was a concern of mine.

You had that with vibration, ground fishes, and subsidence, whereas the safety factor and what does the studies show so that we know, you know, it's safe or what the issues may be.

And then the air quality is still a report that's not been published out there on the website yet.

Um, I'm trying to get a hold of that to see what that says.

But that air quality, when you do those stacks, the reason for those stacks based on my research is to disperse that um concentration of uh emissions so it's not stagnant or down at ground level.

And based off of that research, that's why they're 72 feet tall is because they have to be one and a half times the height of the buildings.

So if they're proposing a 48 foot tall buildings, then those stacks have to be 72 feet in height.

Okay.

And the all that air quality that's regulated by Maricopa County and I think the EPA as well, but primarily Maricopa County.

Okay.

Um, there were some questions also about.

I know when they gave the virtual presentation, they had a they put a wind map up showing the the general direction that the wind usually flows.

And there was some there were some questions on where that data came from, how up to date it was, where they actually did the study.

Do we know anything about that data?

Haven't been able to confirm that, but living three quarters of a mile to the west of this location and having a flagpole that sits out in front.

Majority of the time that that flag is flying to the northeast, not directly east.

So I have concerns as well.

Okay.

And I mean that blows right into our community and El Mirage.

Yes, sir.

Um, okay, that's all I have for now.

Thank you, Lloyd.

I'm sorry.

Councilman Greenberg.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, being the data geek that I am, I'm gonna avoid that for the moment.

Just regarding the noise study, do they have any similar developments built somewhere that we could actually go and stand there and hear what it sounds like?

Uh not aware of any, sir.

So I'd have to do some research on that as well.

Okay.

That'd be nice to as much as I like to look at numbers, it'd be nice kind of thing to go and see for ourselves how loud something like this really is.

Well, if you look at um, if you look at the noise contours that we have around Luke and the ACAS study as well as the J Lu Sunny study, you'll see at the southwest corner of the base, you'll see a little bulb out.

Well, that's the location of a test cell.

So again, it on its own, it you know it makes a sound versus just the aircraft taking off and landing.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you, Lloyd.

I kind of echo uh Councilman Duffy's sentiments of I think it's what you were basically saying is we appreciate everything you do with the projects that pertain to you know that fall under our jurisdiction of the city.

And so I know it's an extra lift to ask you to come and present about a project that's being heard in the county, but it's important.

One of the benefits of us here as city government is we're the closest thing to to the residents.

And so when they have a concern, they're gonna come to us, and rightfully so.

And so I appreciate you taking the time to do the research because whether it's in the county or not, it does have an impact on our residents.

Um and it sounds like there's still a lot more questions and answers with this.

And uh, you know, that shouldn't be your responsibility.

It should really be the planners and and the folks that are associated with the project to make sure that they're answering our residents' questions.

Because just because they're with not within the county doesn't mean they're not going to be impacted.

And a lot of these issues that I've seen increasingly being brought up with social media, or I'm sure the co the concerns that they're bringing forth um to the county, they cross jurisdictional boundaries.

And so it's important that we still have a seat at the table and um hopefully um, and I'm sure you guys are are if you do get those concerns or there's inquiries, you're able to kind of help them navigate that process.

Can it because if a resident is concerned, it can be kind of challenging to know who to reach out to to get their their concerns answered.

And also, I think you guys do a really a really good job.

But as you go further up in government, sometimes that that response is delayed.

And if you're concerned about a project that's impacting your neighborhood or your home, and you're not getting the answers that you feel like you deserve, that can be frustrating.

And so I know it's not within our jurisdiction, but uh, I hope we're identifying it uh different opportunities for us to be able to help facilitate um the efforts of our residents to have their concerns heard.

Mayor, Councilman Haney.

County's been great feeding inf information back and forth.

In fact, as you see in front of you, they provided that from their perspective of what was going on with the project so that you had their update as well.

So it's been a great partnership back and forth with County.

And to your point, it's critical that we make sure we stay on top and are on the same page with one another.

Yeah, thanks.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, obviously this project kind of I got it got brought up to me by someone I haven't spoken to in years that I went to high school with.

And at first, when I heard Project Burkara, I thought like maybe that was like the new code name, you know, for BNSF.

So it kind of just kind of snuck up on everybody.

And then obviously, you know, it's not in surprise technically, but you know, we can't just say, oh, well, our our border ends here.

And so, you know, obviously it affects us uh still.

So is there anywhere, you know, obviously residents are trying to you know scramble and find out information about this.

Um, do we have any sort of like hub on the website?

Maybe you already spoke about.

I know, like when obviously it was this is a little different, but like when COVID is going on, there is like a place to, and again, I don't want us to spend like you know a ton of time, but just like kind of links, you know, when the next meeting is, um, you know, where where is the next meeting, you know, type thing.

So I think it's at Sierra Montana on Thursday or something.

Yeah.

Correct.

Yeah.

So it's Sierra Montagna for uh what time is it?

Chris, do you know?

I believe 4 30 to 6, 4 30 to 6 3 3 3 3 30.

Yeah, Sierra Montana.

And then if if residents do have questions about this, um, what's what's the best place to go?

Um, do they have a website?

Is it supervisor lesco?

So the the best place to get the information is off the county website under planning and development, go down to search permits, and then inside the search box, just put um MCP 2202507 and hit the search button.

It'll bring up the project information that they have online and they can see what was submitted for first, and then we're waiting on the second submittal with all this information that we've requested, Glendale's requested, as well as county.

Absolutely.

I appreciate your work on this, Lloyd.

I apologize that you have to come up here and not not defend, but you know, present on something, you know, that you don't have a ton of information on.

But I think it is our responsibility to you know get the information to residents.

Um, obviously, we got my constituent Jason Stone, who also happens to uh do a little other work in uh I think with uh your valley independent paper, but you know, so he'll help us with that, but just like kind of getting the information out there so residents know.

I mean, there's so much stuff flying around.

It's like, is this true or is this true?

You know, what does it sound like?

You know, so just I mean, if we could maybe even identify as we figure out things, like have some play, I know we don't like use Google Docs, that's like the education world that we we use it a lot, but just have kind of some landing page for people, you know, to go to with even just like a bunch of like links like hey, you go here for this, go here for that.

Doesn't have to be super, you know, intense.

So thank you.

Just an idea.

Yeah, I don't I don't think it's a bad idea.

My my only concern is that residents will get confused that it's in our jurisdiction potentially, but I think a link might be something disclaimer.

Yeah, easy.

This is not a not a surprise project, but we do need to advocate for our residents.

Um, we've gotten a lot of emails, a lot of uh phone calls.

I don't know what came up in your community meeting when you were out there.

Uh, what's the timeline on some of these studies to get back and how long, you know, once we get them back, how long do you think it'll take to analyze and and have an informed decision?

Mayor, I I don't have any idea of it's all driven by the applicant to respond back to county and then county to notify um each of the jurisdictions.

Okay.

All right, thanks.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

And and Lloyd, thank thank you for this from Glendale.

I'm looking at it here, and they've got a section on the back on the last page, and it and they talk about uh public outreach.

And Glendale says since the applicants first open house on August 14th, so a little over a month ago, uh they've received they've only received eight opposition emails.

I've got more than eight to me, right?

And so I think it's important that we that we let residents know that the proper people to appeal to with their opinions and their concerns about this is the county.

Right.

They they need to send those the emails matter, right?

I mean it it's right here.

They received eight opposition emails.

I guarantee there's a lot more than eight people concerned.

Uh Mayor, Councilman Judd, yes.

We've gone ahead and said, I think we've got 11 that came in total.

We sent those over, but it is important that the opposition letters go directly to county so that they can have them having them come to surprise is great to let us know and we'll forward them over to county, but it's more important to go directly to the county.

Yeah, so if you're concerned, contact the county.

Um Supervisor Lesco represents that area.

You can also, if you wish, contact her.

And then I believe as this as this moves further along, um, there's a chance they'll have to go in front of the Arizona Corporation Commission, which will be another opportunity for residents to reach out and make their concerns known.

So I think it's important that that our residents are aware of this.

We're we're gonna advocate, um, but it's important that they advocate for themselves and something that's important.

So thank you again, Lyd.

I agree.

Councilman Greenberg.

Do we want the emails to go to Daniel.johnson at Maricopa.gov.

He is the county planner that has this case.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

All right, so no other uh comments or questions.

Uh Lloyd, I appreciate you coming in.

I know it's um this is outside of our jurisdiction, but the information is important.

I like everybody said up here, it's um our residents are definitely uh not happy with it.

So we gotta make sure that we you know have the information and and help advocate any way that we can.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item two.

Item two, Flock ALPR camera system overview.

Good evening, good evening, Chief.

All right.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I appreciate you uh letting me come up here and speak about this.

Uh I just want to say too, it is a complete honor, be the chief police, the city's surprise, love the city.

Uh, and saying that, too, there's a component to where you got to look at the technological advances that our society is having and how that could impact the safety of our citizens, bring justice to the citizens that we have that are victimized within our community.

Uh and so we have to look at all the different programs that are available to us.

And Flock ALPR is one of those.

And so, what I want to do is just give you a brief overview of what that program is, and then answer any questions that you may have for me, okay.

So ALPRs are cameras that are primarily within uh traffic intersections that capture license plate images of vehicles that pass by.

Uh, there's no uh individuals that are captured inside these images, it is just license plates and vehicle descriptions as they go by.

Um, what's unique about those things too is so the officers that are on the streets as these vehicles that potentially have some involvement with public safety concerns as they travel through these intersections and those images are captured, officers at times, depending on what the crime is, may be alerted to a public safety interest, for instance, like Amber Alert, those type of things.

Uh another thing is maybe that vehicle is involved in a homicide investigation.

The other side of that too is so the network that Flock has created with these ALPRs throughout the valley, throughout the state, throughout the nation, if something happens in Scottsdale, for instance, that that data could potentially be shared with us to keep our officers safe, to keep our communities safe in case a like I said, suspect comes into our into our communities and we can respond accordingly.

So this is kind of a timeline of what this looks like.

And so uh as we uh obtain more Flock cameras uh for the ALPR purposes, uh we work with Flock to assign, okay, hey, this is a good intersection to uh put one of these ALPRs up, and then um Flock will go and install those cameras uh on our behalf.

Once those cameras are installed and they go live, they begin capturing images of vehicle license plates as they go by.

Again, what that uh means to us is that we will get real-time alerts from the officers, detectives, dispatchers, and analysts uh that have access to the Flock system.

So again, if a crime occurs within the city of surprise and it has a public safety interest, our analysts can go inside the program itself, upload a license plate number, for instance, one two three ABC, and then see where that vehicle was last at if there was an ALPR camera at the intersection.

Uh, these are specifically for investigatory use only.

Uh again, uh the the use outside of that for public safety interest is not something that we uh that uh we we support at all.

It is specific to public safety.

Uh we have policies in place to mitigate those kind of things, and then Flock as well has audits in place to make sure that these incidents don't occur where you have somebody misusing the system itself.

Uh and then also that so on the back end, so not only do you have the investigation that's occurring, but prosecution at the back end.

And so we use these images and this data that we have to ensure good prosecution, a good case for again victims that we have within our city to make sure that they're bringing that we bring in justice to them.

Uh obviously privacy concerns or something of uh of noteworthiness.

Uh and so the the images that the ALPRs are capturing, they're stored for 30 days on an AWS Amazon Web Service system server.

Uh they have all the same uh uh encryptions that the FBI asked for that C just asked for.

So any kind of national database that that has any kind of requirements for any kind of encryption, they're on board with that and they're complying with those things.

There is no personal tracking that's associated with that.

Again, this is not an individual that we are looking.

The ALPRs do not capture individuals, they capture a license plate.

That's it.

There are investigatory safeguards, like I said, that are in place, audits that are in place, and policies that we have at the surprise police department.

And then uh limited use again, public safety.

And so these aren't some that so these AOPRs that we have would not be used for traffic uh violations, those kind of civil defense, it would just strictly be public safety criminal.

And then uh I think this is noteworthy, especially to hit on too some of the success stories that we have.

And so uh recently there was a residential burglary series that occurred in in our city, uh, dozens and dozens of of vehicle burglaries and residential burglaries that occurred.

And so, with the use of tips that we had from our citizens and the use of this cameras, we were able to capture license plates of people of interest and then go investigate further.

And so I'm I'm happy to say too that we made two significant arrests from that, able to get property back to our victims, and just uh again, a great story for this system.

Um the next one that I have here, very tragic story.

But again, when we're talking about bringing justice to the victims that we have within our city, uh that this is definitely noteworthy where family members were concerned about a mother had not heard from them.

Uh officers responded out to the residents, noticed that uh the mother's vehicle was gone, using the information about the mother's vehicle.

They plugged that into the ALPR system, found our suspect in wiki up, and then also found uh the decedent, uh unfortunately.

But again, bringing justice to these families.

That's what we're looking for here.

And then uh probably the one that you probably heard most of, uh, I believe this is about a year and a half ago, one of our local McDonald's here, uh individual uh attempted to murder one of the workers inside of that restaurant.

Super, super tragic.

Uh suspect got away, jumped into a vehicle, stole it.

But again, I mean, what did we have at the time?

We had a vehicle description, we had a license plate.

And so what did we do?

We plug that into the Flock system.

And then luckily, one of our partner agencies, one of their sister agencies, was able to get a hit on that vehicle and was able to apprehend that suspect, Scottsdale Fashion Square.

And so that that incident in particular, you think about that individual, he was wanted, I believe it was homicide in New York City as well, gone to Florida, committed a couple different crimes, and then ended up in our community.

And then with the help of this program itself, and uh we were able to apprehend him, and I mean, God knows what he would have done if we didn't apprehend him at that moment.

And so these are just a few few instances of the success stories that we've had with this system.

But again, there's also the safety concern when it comes to our officers too, knowing what's around the corner potentially.

And so uh there was another incident too where there's an attempted or excuse me, an arm robbery not too long ago, where the ALPR systems was able to pick up on a license plate that we had associated with our suspect, officers were able to strategically surround an area and then apprehend that individual successfully without any kind of harm.

And so, again, success story after success story with this with this program.

And with that, I'll take any questions that you may have.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chief, thank you for coming to present this today.

We we had a resident that was concerned about the the privacy implications of it.

And and one of the questions they had was was you know, this didn't come to council for approval.

And before I ask, I don't even know if I'm gonna ask that question.

I I think we have council has given you a mandate to keep the community safe.

We and we've we've instructed you and we've given you a budget to to get the tools and the technology you need to to make our community safe.

So, in your opinion, does this system make our community safer?

I think Councilman Judd, uh it absolutely does, and again, you have to look at from a technology standpoint.

Every single industry throughout this nation throughout the world is advancing through technology and law enforcement's no different.

What I will say is anytime that we are that we do try to incorporate any type of new uh technology, I would recommend that.

Hey, let's as a law enforcement body, let's get out in front of it.

Let's let the citizens know what we're intending to do with this program, what the use is, the safeguards behind it.

But yeah, absolutely, this program helps us keep safe, not only for the citizen standpoint, but from an officer standpoint too.

Okay, and I appreciate you coming here to help shed some light on what these actually do and and how they can be used.

And and now, if someone were to misuse it, there's penalties in place.

What would happen if an officer, for example, I mean, there were some there's some news articles that suggest that officers in different jurisdictions were misusing the data.

So if that were to happen, what kind of penalties could we potentially expect?

Uh so it could lead up to termination from the surprise police department.

Again, it would be a case-by-case basis.

But again, the privacy of our citizens is near and dear to us, and it's a major concern.

And so, yeah, if there is if there is misuse that will that will be looked at.

Uh and definitely, again, like I said, it could lead up to termination within the surprise police department, depending on the circumstance.

Okay, and you mentioned there are safeguards in place to help prevent those types of things from happening, or at least discover them if someone thinks they're being sneaky about it.

Yes.

Okay.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just have one question to follow up on Councilman uh Judd's question.

So there's how many people uh officers, uh staff in the surprise police department have access to the system to just go in there and input whatever they want.

So if if my memory serves me right, and I might look back at Gina here and uh she might have to answer this for me.

But uh if my memory serves me correctly, all of our officers, our detectives, analysts, and dispatchers do.

And so when you're looking at the totality of the number, I would I would venture to say, and again, this is an approximation.

I'll let her answer.

Yes, she's running out here.

IT security.

Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, members of council, we actually have four members of our police department that work in our real-time information center that actually have full access.

They are the only four that actually can look up everything and anything.

All of our other police officers can actually enter in hot list data.

Incident occurs, you enter in that license plate number, you have information, and then hot list, that's what we call it.

Any other state or agency in the nation can actually pull that hot list information, and that's every officer can do that.

You can put in hot list information, but only four have access to the entire system.

We actually run audit controls as well, and Flock runs audit controls as well, and they look for abnor abnormal entries, and then they notify us.

We have not had any at this point.

So you have to have a reason to, as one of those four to be in the system to uh get the information.

Like you can go like it's a need to know.

Yes, sir.

Actually, before you put any information in, when you go into the system and ask a reason.

That reason is logged.

See, we own the information for this city.

So we go and we can look and we can see your reason.

So you have to actually enter a reason in before you actually do the research.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

So one of the questions I was gonna ask is who does have access?

So that was answered.

But does it tell you who which one of the four is looking?

Yes, it does.

So let's move the kind of thing.

We badge in to get in the building.

Yes, correct.

And it'll tell you how often they're looking.

So you can, if somebody really is looking at it when they're not supposed to, it'll tell you exactly who it is.

Yes.

And then they'll ask why are you doing that?

Yes.

So how often does it like does that report like do they send like a monthly of who's accessing it, or just if somebody accesses it?

They let you know who did it.

Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, members of council specifically, Councilmember Duffy, yes.

We could actually on demand go in and we can look.

And there is actually a unit within Flock that actually looks at those 24-7.

It's actually an actual division and audit division.

We can actually run audits.

If you ask for an odd, we can run it in seconds.

We're looking at it constantly.

And it does tell us specifically who's logging in, who's requesting that data.

Okay.

So you said that it's on the information stored for 30 days.

So this question came up at our meeting.

If you're driving to work every day the same route, is that camera taking a fixture your license plate every day so you'll never come out of the system?

Potentially, yes.

Okay.

Okay.

How many other cities use this?

Do we know?

Gina's expert on that.

She has all these networking connections.

And uh, yeah.

I can tell you.

Every state with the exception of one.

20 billion plus plate reads per month.

49 states, 5,000 communities covered.

4,800 connected law enforcement agencies, to which we share with quite a few of those.

And we can share our information as well.

So that example of the McDonald's example.

So Scott still uses some.

Which camera caught?

Was it even in our city that caught that?

Uh I'm not sure.

I'm not too certain.

Because I'm trying to remember the story now, because I remember he was parked in the parking garage at Fashion Square.

And I, if I remember, was planning to do something like that again.

That's my understanding as well.

Yes, but I just don't remember if if they said which camera got it.

Okay.

Councilmember Duffy, that was the Scottsdale.

Okay.

We put in, we went in, we said we want to search for this license fight number.

It said why.

We said involved in an attempted homicide.

It was just picked up at this certain location.

Okay, so it did ask you why you want to look at it.

Correct, yes.

All right.

Thank you.

Okay.

Councilman Melton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Jay.

So as you as we've seen, uh as technology improves and uh computing power gets more powerful and storage abilities increase, and AI recognition becomes more sophisticated.

Uh it's a we we find these useful tools, tools for another tool or toolbox for criminal justice.

It does present concerns on privacy and uh and civil liberties.

And we I think we do owe, we are obligated to to be respectful and and to um to do our best not to run afoul of the civil liberties of our residents and in that spirit, and I know we have beaten this to death, but I'm gonna bring it over time.

There is the in this what is amounts to a mass surveillance system does have it does have restrictions.

It does have um as you noted, we we do not keep the information forever.

Uh it it is I think it's appropriate, 30 days.

That seems pretty appropriate.

And more importantly, is the access to this data.

And we've beaten this to death, but I'm gonna say it.

I want to ask, I want to get delve into a little more, and that is to access this information.

There must be some nexus that must exist.

And I think it's important that the public know that, and if you can maybe speak to that, what kind of situations would satisfy the Nexus to pull data?

Uh so we touched on a couple with the examples.

Yeah, uh, but again, it's a public safety nexus.

That's what I I phrase it as because again, you look at amber alerts, um, silver alerts, and then also potentially kidnappings, homicide suspects, uh burglary suspects, theft suspects.

I mean, so those are the typical crimes that we're that we're looking into.

And then even the the more minor ones too, where I mean, uh the the typical citizen, they're they could potentially get involved in a hit and run accident, and so they deserve justice as well.

And so this type of technology helps us find those suspects, and again, um bring justice to those victims.

With there in last question, would there be any circumstance?

So if there was um a request to pull data and to observe data, but the they the stated reason did not meet this the standards that we would that we that we hold for to satisfy a criminal investigation nexus.

What who would catch that?

You're uh miss the mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, members of council specifically, Councilmember Mountain, that would be the flock team, got a team as well as our team.

So we would see those requests and see the stated reason for the yes, sir, absolutely.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Gina.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Councilman Greenberg.

Thanks, Mayor.

What do you think the chances are that the cases you mentioned would have been solved as timely as they were without this technology?

Uh so that's hard.

If you're a gambling manager, I mean it's just an ethereal thing, but is there anything better out there that could have helped uh your investigators solve this, or is this really the end all be all for tech right now?

So I mean it's a great piece of technology, absolutely.

And so do I think it had some significant significance behind us apprehending a suspect?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Okay.

So better than like a psychic or a crystal ball.

Okay, that's all I need.

Thanks.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Chief and Gina.

Uh, thanks for thanks for putting this together.

You know, I think that you you said something to me when we talked a while back, and it was, you know, you're always chasing technology, right?

I mean, obviously, technology has come a long way.

And it always, I remember talking to my dad growing up, and I was like, like, didn't you think?

Like, you know, back when we always joke like you have black and white TVs, he's not that old, but um like it gets it gets better, but it's it's been getting extremely advanced lately.

You take a look at some of the things like AI as a whole, it's kind of scary, you know, when you when you when you think about it.

And so it's good to ask questions.

I think it's it's generally good to question your government.

Um, I don't think it's a bad thing.

I think transparency is important.

Um how much uh this specific program costs was it like a hundred twenty thousand or something?

I mean, like at the capital cost, obviously there's a little bit ongoing, but do you know do you have the numbers on that?

I do I'll turn that over to Gina as well.

She was involved in that.

Perfect deal.

Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, members of council.

We actually pay approximately three, I don't want to say approximately $3,000 per camera.

Okay.

There's an inflation fee of 300.

And there's software that we pay approximately 15,000 plus tax.

So we're using that software, and it is an annual fee, sir.

Okay.

So obviously that's like, you know, thousands of dollars.

Like that's a lot of money.

Obviously, in the city budget, we have a nearly one billion dollar budget.

The police budget itself, if I got the numbers correct, are is about 56 million.

And it sounds like, and I calculated based off 120,000, but it sounds like maybe even less um than that is spent on this.

So it makes up about what, like, I think I calculated outside and it was like 0.002.

And I had to like think like, is that one 100th, I'd like to go ask a math teacher or something.

Like one 100th of a percent.

And it's and it's saved lives, you know, objectively.

Yes, sir.

Now, obviously, it's a balance, you know, between safety and freedom.

I used to teach government and civics, and you know John Locke talked about like the I believe it was John Locke, it's been a little bit, but talked about the idea of a social contract con contract, right?

Where we have you know freedoms and there's there's specific, you know, freedoms like that maybe get sacrificed for the greater good.

And I think those should be few and far between, but like, like, hey, we we all agree generally not to commit murder.

Yeah, is that a you know, is that a freedom that you could say, you know, you're giving up?

Yes, but it, you know, it's obviously makes society better.

Now that's obviously, you know, a different example.

But I think that part of our job um is to maximize our the bang for a buck, and that's like one aspect of what we do.

And so it's a relatively small amount um to spend on you know something that can save lives.

So when is this type of technology used?

Because I would say if hypothetically, if we were, you know, showing up at someone's door to say, hey, you know, we got you earlier today to, you know, change we you change lanes without a blinker, you know, type thing.

Like obviously that would be a little bit of like, I mean, I don't even know what the term, like obviously not okay in my opinion.

So when we talk about using these flock cameras, um, what are situations that we would use them for?

Obviously, murder, like just kind of bigger, like what is there a protocol in place, like where we you know, so yeah, the Spice Police Department does have a policy in place that a guideline or that outlines the specific crimes or instances that we would use the ALPR system.

So again, like you touched on a homicide would definitely be one of those.

Uh I mentioned before, like silver or amber alert, those type of things, kidnapping.

Yeah, absolutely.

And um, you know, I think that it's obviously showed it can it can catch murder.

So uh what type of protections are in place, right?

So if I'm an officer and I want to access the database, right?

Is it just like a computer?

Like, do I have to enter my badge number?

Do I have to give a reason?

Like, like what what is the uh, you know, I think some people think that maybe like we just have it like you know pulled up and it's just like on a big screen and we have all these photos, but in reality, it's a little bit of a process, right?

Yes, sir, Mr.

Vice Vice Mayor Hastings.

We use a two-factor multi-factor system, something you know, something you have, something you are.

Those are the actual password requirements that you have to enter into this cloud-based system.

So there's passport protected times too.

Okay, and we have access, like we can see who's accessed it, you know, when, it's like search history, stuff like that's all on there.

So there's you know, accountability.

Because again, like you there are stories of where you know bad actors, and I don't think we have any in surprise.

And frankly, that there's you know, a ton in Arizona and the country, but it does happen, you know.

So obviously having that layer.

Um so on the Flock website, it says that the user specifically, so like in this case, the city of surprise determines who has access uh to this data, whether it's shared specifically, whether it's shared just automatically, kind of like an automatic, maybe automatic aid system like fire does or something.

And I think some cities do that.

So for my understanding, we do not like have an ongoing sharing going on with anyone, correct?

It's a case-by-case basis where like if we have someone, like an obvious horrible situation, like you know, the amber alert, you know, obviously, someone's on the loose, then we would of course share it, but it's not something where someone can just log in and see, you know, what cars have gone on Bell Road today or something, you know.

Partially correct, sir.

Okay.

We share with all law enforcement agencies in the state.

But again, they put in the hot list item, they put in the search criteria, they state the reason why, and then they're allowed to proceed.

Okay.

So obviously how you access that is not just like kind of like a uh, you know, some people scroll on Facebook and they're just kind of going through stuff.

It's it's a bit of a process.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

They have to have the actual same same qualifications to log in on their end as well.

No, absolutely.

You know, I think this kind of, I mean, really just kind of comes down to if you trust police officers or not.

And I hear a lot of people say that like, you know, I support police or I mean, we talk about this with small business, right?

It's like, oh, you know, I I so you know, I support police, but right, there's always like a butt, like, oh, but I don't like this, but I don't like that, you know.

And so um, for me, I have zero years, zero days of experience as a police officer.

Now, obviously, an elected official, we have to represent constituents and you know, ask questions.

But I don't think it's healthy to, and obviously, like there are stories of you know, one or two officers in you know a different state, you know, maybe maybe taking um advantage of it.

But I feel like police is the only profession where one officer can make even a hint of a mistake or be accused of a mistake, and society judges the entire, you know, law enforcement community as a whole across the country as you know, bad, which I which I don't agree with.

But I don't think we should make decisions based off of like, you know, a few bad actors.

Um so, anyways, um, we we say in our strategic plan, and we ask our police officers, and I think it's not on the police serpent on the fire fire truck, always there, always ready.

And we say in our strategic plan we want police to keep us safe.

And so we're very limited on the council of what involvement we have.

Obviously, we have a city manager, he delegates to you know, staff, and you guys run the day-to-day options.

And this is one area where we can not even just assist, but not you know, ask questions, but not um like get in the way of you know saving someone's life.

And I I don't I couldn't live with myself if there was somebody on the loose, like right.

So that you mentioned it.

A person went into McDonald's on Greenway and Reims with a knife, went into the woman's bathroom, already a problem, takes a knife and stabs the woman in the neck, you know, how many times leaves, is on the loose in surprise.

And for us not to be able to use all the resources at our disposal to catch this person.

I mean, I couldn't live with myself if I had set policy now, obviously it's a balance, right?

But that made it like if if that was you know reflective of policy we made, that is something you know we affect.

So, anyways, I do think that transparency is important.

I think a lot of cities did implement this, and I looked at kind of what other cities did.

A lot of them, it didn't go to council is kind of it obviously was included in the budget, part of the budget process.

And I think it kind of became a little more political kind of after the fact.

So I think this is still important.

You know, I think it's good to, you know, tell residents, you know, kind of what we're doing and and to ask questions.

But ultimately, we appreciate all the work you know you guys are doing.

And Chief, I think you've you've done a great job so far.

Uh and it's gonna continue.

So, yep.

Councilman Haney.

All right.

Uh Chief, thanks for your presentation.

Um obviously, my perspective kind of comes from public safety, and we're in two different avenues, obviously.

Uh, but I have noticed a change even since I've been on, and it hasn't been that long of the technology available to us, tasked with keeping community safe.

Um, and I can tell you when before I even started, we were doing charts, EMS charts on paper, and then we switched to iPads and electronic systems and some of the old timers wanted to chuck the iPads out of the trucks, but we got them there.

Uh but I what I notice is the way we do business to keep our community safe has changed dramatically over even the last couple of years.

The way we're resuscitating patients, the way we're documenting those treatment efforts, the way your officers are not only keeping each other safe, but our community safe has changed so much.

I do believe, and this is the benefit of community meetings, uh, is that this is a good question.

No piece of technology that we in the public safety field utilize should ever be above scrutiny.

If it is a great piece of technology that is truly going to keep our residents safe, then we should be able to ask questions and have this presentation.

So I I appreciate you both, you too, Gina, of being able to be up here and uh answer a lot of the questions that I had I crossed out with my colleagues asked.

Uh I think overall, the resident, a resident that doesn't really know about the technology or the safety of the said technology.

Their concern is if you we're all human beings and we are not without flaws.

Firefighters aren't without flaws.

Police officers aren't none of us are without flaws.

And so I think we always go to the worst case scenarios.

We have this piece of technology that identifies license plates.

It doesn't invite identify who's driving the car, correct?

It just identifies the license plate.

Correct.

But I think the very real concern, what's your worst case scenario?

If I have someone that does not like me that has access to this technology, my concern would be are they going to use that technology to harass me and issue a traffic violation?

And so I appreciate you clarifying what this is.

Because when I when I heard your presentation, my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is this technology will be utilized uh really for life safety matters?

It's not going to be those petty offenses used to harass a resident that maybe spoke up against an officer or law enforcement community as a whole.

This technology is really utilized as another tool for you and your officers.

One, to make sure you guys make it home to your families.

Um, but two, to make sure that everyone that's living within our community that visits our community is able to be safe.

And if God forbid something happens, you guys have the resources available to bring justice to those families.

And so I really appreciate that.

Just bear with me for a second, because I want to make sure I didn't leave out any questions that may not have been answered.

Um I guess my only question that hasn't been answered, and you kind of mentioned it.

So the company itself is able to perform audits, but we also have the ability to perform audits.

And so can you talk a little bit more?

So is there multiple different um agencies that are able to perform these audits?

So there's not just one agency that we're just a hundred percent trusting.

Councilmember Haney, that is correct.

Okay.

Our flock partners, they perform the audits.

The police department does not perform the audits because that's a conflict of interest, and we have to segregate those duties.

So it would be the four IT administrators who run the audits.

And we're off we would be notified by the flock partnership of some type of abnormality.

Okay.

And so essentially, anyone that would potentially be accessing that piece of technology to do ill will against a resident, they're not going to be performing an audit on themselves.

We're gonna have different safeguards to perform that audit.

Absolutely correct.

And that's we're not limited.

We can do that whenever there's a suspicion that that's occurring, correct?

Yes, sir, Council.

And then, Chief, just so my I'm understanding correctly, you already have a policy in place that if we have um an instance where this technology is being abused, that that will be dealt with.

Yeah, so that would be a violation of that policy if they weren't using this program within the criminal justice nexus.

Okay.

Uh okay, so that was I think that was pretty much my only question.

I do I really do appreciate this.

And it's been mentioned before, anytime we're utilizing technology, um, there's always a risk.

I know when we had my daughter, we had pretty it's our firstborn child.

So we had every piece of technology available.

We monitored our breathing, how often she blinked her eyelids, everything.

And then what comes up is also the concern is who who can abuse that technology in a harmful way.

And so there's always a balance.

But what I always come back to is, you know, in my other job, the community and the elected officials of that city trust me to make decisions that are gonna keep the community safe.

I don't have uh, you know, a city council member or mayor or city manager sitting on the fire truck asking why I'm going offensive or defensive in a structure.

And I think it really still applies here to you all.

I think we should scrutinize the technology.

We should ask the questions and we should make sure the safeguards are in place.

But at the end of the day, already we are trusting you and the men and women who protect our community, whether it's 2 p.m.

or 2 a.m.

to make a split-second decision to either save a life or to take a life in the preservation of safety of all others around them.

We already trust you to do that.

And so again, we can scrutinize the technology, but if we're able to trust you guys to use lethal force potentially to save our community member, we should also make sure that we're trusting you to utilize every piece of technology available.

Because the last thing I think any of us want is if God forbid someone takes someone's child and we had this opportunity to have this technology to track that person down and we didn't utilize it.

I think that's something that we're all gonna lose sleep over.

So thank you again for your presentation for being so informative on these questions.

So I have mirror thanks.

Thank you.

Councilman Greenberg.

Really quickie, just for those who are just joining us.

Um, Gina, so people don't think that you're like this IT lady who loves people out with Microsoft Word and Outlook.

Can you remind everybody what your credentials are in the IT world?

I am actually the chief information security officer for the City of Surprise.

I am a member and a member of the Homeland Security, Cybersecurity Task Force, and I'm a member of the UASI's Homeland Security Grant Committee.

I'm the chair of that committee.

Thank you for everything that you do.

Thank you, Sick.

For sure.

Uh Chief, I have a couple questions.

Uh, who's the decision maker on the criteria to pull the license plate information on the level of crime?

Is it like a working group you have?

Is it best practices?

How do you develop that list of crimes that meet the criteria to pull the information?

Uh sorry, you're asking, so who would be running that?

Well, who's who's the decision maker on figuring out what the criteria is, what the level of crime is to pull that information?

Like a felony, uh misdemeanor.

So it is best practices.

So we're a part of Calia, that's our accreditation.

A lot of times we lean in on them for those best practices.

Okay.

I appreciate it.

No, I think there's a balance between you know safeguarding our city and you know, privacy.

And I feel like you know what you presented tonight demonstrates that there's uh a lot of safeguards in place.

And I think by and large, residents support the police.

I think they support empowering the police to do what they have to do to catch the bad actors in our city.

And I think we have to uh do everything we can to make sure that we have a safe city.

So I appreciate you coming in and presenting, Gene.

I appreciate you.

And I don't see any of the questions or concerns.

So thank you.

Thank you all.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item number three.

Item three, presentation and discussion regarding the water resource management department strategic plan.

Good evening, Mike.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council.

Um, as the clerk mentioned, this item is associated with an overview of the water department strategic plan uh and really and how it fits into supporting the council's recently recently adopted strategic plan.

So getting going here, um, our mission statement is we exist to provide safe, reliable, and affordable water, wastewater, and stormwater service through the care and admiration of each other.

Um, water, wastewater, and stormwater are the three enterprises that make up the water department.

So uh overview of the department.

We currently serve about 90,000 residents um water service, and we insert we serve the entirety of the city wastewater service with the exception of Coyote Lakes.

The water department's made up of uh just over 100 full-time employees, and we're broken down here into these six different divisions.

And so um up top there, water operations and maintenance, uh, pretty self-explanatory.

We we uh operate, maintain 22 different well sites, seven different water supply facilities.

And that also includes the water distribution system as well.

On the wastewater side, we take care of uh four wastewater plants, four lift stations on the water resources and water and the environmental side, as you know, the water wastewater industry is very heavily regulated.

So this is the team that makes sure that our water supply, water demand is in balance, and that from regulatory perspective, um, we check out.

We have a division that focuses on electrical instrumentation and controls.

And really, without them, we would need um three times the amount of employees that we have now.

They handle everything from low voltage to high voltage to all of our programming of our SCAD and network and infrastructure.

And then we have our wastewater collections team.

They're responsible for managing and maintaining the thousands of miles of sewer line that we have uh out in our community.

And then we have business services that are responsible for really all of the financial forecasting, the accounting, budgeting, procurement, the management of our proprietary uh software systems, um, et cetera.

So the water department's strategic plan and priorities are outlined there in those four four bullet points.

And those are derived from our council approved policies along with our water and wastewater water resource and infrastructure master plans.

So, really what we've identified is you know, how can we take our uh strategic priorities and nest them within the within the council's uh identified um strategies specific to water.

So this study council adopted a strategic plan that has four elements that are pertinent to water.

And so what we've done here is we've identified those.

So um council strategy 7.1 is to continue to support a resilient water supply to ensure current and future needs are met.

And so what we've identified here are two department specific goals or strategies that we're going to do to do that.

So this first point here is we currently have a policy that requires us to maintain minimum water portfolio balances.

So one of those uh is that we need two times the amount of um renewable supplies than our current demand.

So right now our annual demand is 10,000 acre feet a year.

So that requires our portfolio to have 20,000 acre feet of renewable resources available.

And that same policy then requires us to have 15 times our current water demand in long-term storage credits or some sort of paper water as well.

The next bullet point there identifies that we're going to work with the development community to secure all the water rights that may be associated with the property.

And then if and when appropriate, we would also work with that developer to convey rights, perhaps if that development was not included in our designation of assured water supply, or perhaps it's an annexation outside of our service area.

7.2 is promote water conservation.

And so the two goals that we've identified here that support that are really focused on utilizing and leveraging technology.

So that would be through our AMI system through the hydrant AI that we walked through a couple weeks ago.

And then the second department goal here is really focused on education and outreach, really just continuing to pour into that and to invest in that.

Council Strategy 7.3 ensure the city is positioned to maintain a safe and sustainable water supply.

And really the gold standard of that is maintaining the city's designation of assured water supply.

And that designation of assured water supply is really our water budget for the next 10 years.

So we had it updated in 2022.

We'll go back before the state in 2032 to ensure that we have the water appropriate for current customers, committed customers, and our customers that are in the plan 10 year planning horizon.

Council strategy 7.4 is plan responsibly to meet the needs of continued growth.

And really our compass for that is updating our water resource master plan every five years to ensure that our water supply and our projected water demands are in complete calibration.

So those are the uh the initiatives and goals that we we believe will help fulfill the council's strategic plan.

And some key projects and initiatives for fiscal year 26 as it relates to achieving those goals and strategies are outlined here, and you can see what uh strategy they're associated with there in parentheses.

So we just kicked off our water resource master plan uh this past June with a completion date of fall of 2026.

When we last did this update in 2021, we used the city council uh kind of as our water resource committee.

We would come back with big milestones and deliverables.

So we intend to do that uh with this go-round as well.

We're in the process of working with our partners in IT on connecting 10 of our water supply facilities to our fiber optic network.

Oftentimes well sites and water supply facilities are the first things out there when there is no fiber connectivity.

So we're going back now and to connect those.

That's the you know, in terms of reliability and cybersecurity, that's the uh the a great standard.

We're working to deploy 60 hydrant AI modules, um, and this is really critical for obviously front lines of customer service and really reliability and safety of the water distribution system.

We're working right now with EBCOR to design and implement two uh interconnects.

This will interconnect uh pressure zones, not only getting like district one connected across Grand Avenue, we'll also uh incorporate uh a water connection to uh EBCO water east of Rancho Mercado and then into Sun City Grand, providing redundancy.

And then water conservation initiatives here, all the text there identifies that we're we're really setting setting a high bar for fiscal year 26.

We've increased each of those by 15%.

So we're really trying to again uh get the message out there and promote the water conservation initiatives that we have to offer.

Um, some challenges and opportunities.

So as many of you are aware, the uh the post-2026 Colorado River negotiations are underway right now, and really what that means is the rules that regulate the Colorado River are set to expire at the end of 2026, and that could come with some potential reductions uh for municipal and industrial customers like surprise.

Um another challenge that we're working through right now are rate study assumptions.

So we have a five-year rate study that we're beholden to, and um that's a study that's made up of assumed revenue, assumed expenses, um, and so we work hard to ensure that we're continually keeping in balance with that.

Um another challenge that we're working to again overcome through efforts and conversations like this.

There's ever-changing local and federal water resource and water quality rules.

The goalposts are always getting moved on water quality, and that's great.

It's just that the utilities have to adapt and plan accordingly.

Um, and then operator staffing, not many high schoolers wake up and go, you know what, I want to be a wastewater operator when I grow up.

So we're working really hard to get the word out there of what a great industry this is and what a great career path uh it can be.

And then some opportunities, uh, you know, really in support of all the challenges that I've mentioned.

This requires regional partnership and projects.

And uh surprise has a seat at every one of these tables that we're working towards solutions on.

Um and it's really caught created some great uh energy and relationships.

There's a lot of creativity, there's a lot of energy associated with okay.

If our if our water supplies are being constrained, what are we gonna do about it?

So we're talking about you know, cool ideas with advanced water purification, uh desalinization plants in the Sea of Cortez, raising the Bartlett Lake Dam, importing water from the Harquahla Valley.

So you know, despite some some Colorado River concerns, we're we're confident that we're gonna come come out with some good solutions.

Um just like we heard from the police department, the water department is technology focused.

We're not thinking about what how we were operating the system 15 years ago.

We're looking how we're gonna be operating the system 15 years from now.

And the great thing about kind of our size as a city and our size as a department, you know, we're we're respected at the table when we're talking about all these regional partnerships, but we're still nimble and responsive enough to you know make a house call if somebody wants their bill explained or wants to understand uh water quality concerns, you know, within 30 minutes we can be there.

Um and again, another great opportunity uh for some of the challenges I discussed or grant opportunities are really coming out uh in full force, and so we're we're we're positioning ourselves to uh pursue those this fiscal year as well.

So with that, I'll uh take any comments or questions regarding our strategic plan and the support of yours.

Okay, appreciate the uh presentation.

Uh, Councilman Melton.

Okay, thanks, Mike.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I really am proud of you guys on your conservation efforts.

Um my own neighborhood has reached out to your department.

Uh we're trying to figure out, you know, working through an audit and and how do we how do we you know uh help out and reduce our um reduce our consumption.

So um that's just this is one example of what you guys are doing, you know, educating us, big big communities, how we can reduce water cells.

Thank you for that, and I'm very proud of you guys.

Thank you.

That's all I got.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, thank you, Mike.

Now, I truly believe that the surprise water resources team is the best team in the state when it comes to water.

You've done a fantastic job of bringing talent, keeping talent, and just building a great culture of water professionals in our city.

So great job, and thank you very much.

Uh, there's a couple, I have a couple of comments here.

Um the first one is the the hydrant AI module.

What is that?

So we've affixed um essentially computers to hydrants throughout the city.

The first deployment was here at Civic Center, and the next one's gonna be in the Mountain Vista community.

And those are listening and looking for uh changes, so specifically noise.

Um the water distribution system should be at a certain tone, and it changes as is demand ebbs and flows.

Um, but it can help us detect leaks and breaks, and it already has.

And so that is a tremendous water saving measure and cost-saving measure.

Um, and it's also uh a great tool for us to know when water could potentially be stolen from stolen from uh from a hydrant.

And then also more importantly, um, we didn't have any dynamic water pressure monitoring.

So if if we lost water pressure, water pressure was low in Mountain Vista, for example, we'd rely on the call center.

And so now with the hydrant AI, that's tied back into our SCADA system.

And so we get an alarm now, like we get an alarm for any other you know, magnitude of reasons to you know, respond out there to figure out what's going on.

And is it attached to the outside or something internal?

It does.

It looks like uh the hydrant has a backpack on.

It's like a little gray box.

Something solar powered.

Uh they're battery powered, but they're lithium batteries that last supposedly 15 years.

Wow.

Okay.

Um, and then advanced water purification, you know, something that I that eventually we're gonna get into that.

We're we'll we'll be forced to.

Um, and so and I and I appreciate you including that in your plan here.

And and I just want to just keep talking about it, keep reiterating the you know, keep planning for this.

And and as we're building, it's really expensive to get into right now, and it'll get cheaper as time goes on.

Um, but could continue positioning us for that as we're building our treatment plants, uh being mindful of being able to, you know, convert those over or add the extra space so that we can do advanced water purification and and uh make our water supply even more resilient.

Yeah, and to that real quick, the the water resource mass plan that we're working on right now is going to have a feasibility component that incorporates that because as you mentioned, the South Plant with its proximity to our Rancho Gabriela water supply facility would be a perfect test case.

So when we're back to talk about that um as one of the milestones, that'll be probably the focus of the conversation.

Okay.

And then to answer one of your questions, the the answer is 36.

And you said how many high school students wake up every morning and want to be water operators.

Excellent.

We have 36.

Great.

Love it.

Thanks, Mike.

All right.

Any other councilman have any questions or comments?

That's good.

No, seeing then.

Uh Mike, I appreciate uh your professionalism.

I appreciate your department.

You guys are rock stars advocating at every opportunity and doing everything that you can.

So we appreciate it.

Um thank you for your presentation.

Yep.

That I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Second.

One second, all in favor.

Aye.

We're adjourned.