The first city council meeting of 2026 began with an invocation by Ray Grimm and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Boy Scout Pack 400. The council recognized community champions, received reports from the city manager, youth council, and clerk, and unanimously approved commission appointments, a downzone rezone, and an annexation resolution.
All right, good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the city council meeting January sixth, twenty twenty-six to order. Tonight we'll be led by Ray Grimm for the invitation. Heavenly Father, we praise you, we thank you, Father God, that we get to live in a great city of surprise, Arizona, Father God, and I pray as two thousand twenty-six kicks off that you give our mayor and council wisdom to lead our city for this year, Father God, give them the guidance they need to make wise decisions for our city. We pray for our police officers that are on the streets, God, that you'll protect them and give them wisdom when they have to make split second decisions, Father God, and for our firefighters as well. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks, Ray, for uh coming in. This is the second year in a row. It's been the first meeting, and I appreciate you doing that. That means a lot. Councilmember Jed. Here. Thank you, Mayor. All right, thank you. So tonight we have a Boy Scout troop or Pac 400 to help lease in the pledge. Boys, if you don't mind. Yeah, good kid. Are we gonna take a picture with the with the pack? Okay. I'm always so hesitant with this microphone. I broke it one time. Good night. Okay. We'll move on to the next phase. So one of the things is mayor that I like to do, we had community acknowledgements in our agenda, but I think for me it's about community champions and bringing in people that really represent the city. And so tonight we have the Shadow Ridge, uh Thespian True, but I don't want to get that wrong. Uh come in. And so if you guys want to come up here while I'm while I'm talking, but they won an award, it's an overall superior rating from the Arizona Thespian organization. And so a lot of times, yeah. Good job. Good job. So a lot of times when you know we bring community champions up here, it's been sports teams that have won a state championship and those types of things. But I think it's important to recognize all community champions. So when I heard about your award and how significant it was for you know your for theater, it was just it was an incredible thing. So I want to come up here and personally thank you. You know, thank you for representing the city. Thanks for doing a great job. It's your play was what the diary of amp rank. And the next step is did you already perform at the Arizona State Thespian Conference? Not yet. When is that? The 19th. The 19th. So the 19th, they'll be performing at the Arizona Thespian State Conference in front of over 3,000 students and and parents and everybody else. So congratulations. Did Janae, did you want to say anything about the significance of the award? I don't think I did it justice. I don't want to put you on the spot either, but okay. Or Gemma. Yeah, I'll let Jimmy.