All right, good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to welcome you all to the regular city council work session on Tuesday, February 17th.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mayor Sarder.

Present.

Thanks, Mayor Greenberg.

He is excused.

Thank you, Councilman Haney.

Here.

Councilman Beffy.

Here.

Councilman Melton.

Present.

Councilman Hastings?

Here.

Councilman Shep.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have quorum.

Thank you.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible for liberty and justice for all.

Madam Clerk, please read item one.

Item one presentation and discussion pertaining to surprise police department programs.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

I am here with our PD department, our police department.

Um, to share with you uh our police programs that are offered here at the city of Surprise.

So I'm going to kick it off with our budget.

Um they're FY26 general fund um operating exp expense budget is fifty-six million dollars.

And as you can see here, that is broken out between patrol, criminal investigations, office of the chief, agency support, and tactical support.

And they will um later on go into what each of these mean and what they what they do to offer um the city and our citizens.

Um our patrol, you can see here is thirty-five percent of that fifty-six million.

Um and then it goes down from there.

With that, I'm going to pass it over.

I'll let uh Sergeant Hernandez be in charge of the clicker there.

Uh so before we dive into this, uh first off, thank you, uh Mayor Council.

Good evening.

Appreciate you letting us be here.

It's absolute honor for myself, and I'll speak for for Rick.

And uh I'm sure he has the same sentiments, but before we dive into this, I'll let him introduce himself to you and then we'll get going.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Um my name is Sergeant Rick Hernandez.

I've been with the uh department since uh 2010.

Uh, I have been a sergeant since 2018, and uh during my time and my years as a sergeant, I've happened to serve in each of the uh divisions that we have within the department, uh, which as you can see there, we have a patrol division, our criminal investigations division, our tactical support division, and our administrative support division.

So I'll start with our patrol operations division, and so the police department's a little bit different than I know uh Holly last meeting had opportunities to talk about revenue, bringing in money, and then re diverting that into the different programs really just because of the the nature of law enforcement we really have are just the different divisions.

And so how do we allocate the funds that you provide to us, right?

And so the big piece of the pie, and Sandy touched on it already, uh patrol.

And so that's the bread and butter law enforcement, obviously.

It's in the black and white cars that you're seeing, responding to calls for service.

Uh so roughly in 2024, we responded to uh approximately 45,000 different calls for service.

And so there's uh I mean a lot of opportunity for us to interact with the public, a lot of calls for service that we're going to.

Um what I'm excited about this presentation too is that we get to highlight some of the the unsung heroes law enforcement.

Uh, three of those being, again, uh SROs, jail transport, and the animal control.

The SROs, we've spoken about that at length several times.

And so we have one lieutenant that oversees that program, two sergeants, and then we have about 14 SROs right now with us.

Uh jail transport, we have four jail transport officers.

They provide round-the-clock coverage for us.

And so, as we're making arrests or people need to go downtown to be booked into jail, they do that for us as well.

And then we have our animal control.

And so uh we have a partnership with El Mirage, and so not only do we service ourselves with the Sprise Police Department and the City Surprise, but we also reach out to El Mirage, and so as they call in for animal uh animal control issues, and we respond out and support them.

Oh, of course.

It's touchy.

Uh so mayor counsel, uh, the the folks that you typically won't see.

We have our forward-facing folks, which are going to be our patrol.

Uh that's what most of our uh community members are going to interact with.

Uh when an investigation has its initial investigation, it's been then then reviewed by the patrol supervisor.

Oftentimes those are going to be forwarded to our specialized investigators.

Um, I'll explain some of these wonderful units here.

So you're gonna have your property crimes unit, those are gonna be the detectives that are going to be handling uh your larger shoplifts, your thefts from vehicles, uh, residential burglaries, our special victims unit, those are gonna be specialized investigators that are going to deal with crimes that uh relate to children, uh, your sexually motivated crimes, your violent crimes unit, those are going to be your aggravated assaults, things that might include uh serious bodily injury, uh neighborhood response unit is the NRU.

And so those are going to be large felony crimes that are going to have a big impact on communities.

So if uh somebody has uh a possible home in their neighborhood where there may be drug sales, these that's going to be the unit that will take care of that.

Uh in addition, the neighborhood response unit has a lot of our specialized detectives that are assigned to various task force, uh such as the DEA, uh U.S.

Marshals.

We also have our crime scene techs.

Uh, those are probably the most essential things when we have our large-scale crimes.

These are the folks who have that specialized training to come through, uh, extract that evidence, whether it be DNA, fingerprints, uh document, whether it be photographs or videos, that crime scene, because we only get one opportunity to collect all that evidence.

And then uh the last portion there is our victim advocate unit, and those are uh some sworn or not sworn, those are going to be some of our professional staff and volunteers.

These folks are going to deal with our victims of crime, and they'll can start from the moment the crime occurs, and they will offer assistance and resources to them all the way through uh the criminal proceedings.

All right, our third division is going to be the tactical support division.

Uh, as you can imagine, it makes up some of the the lesser known aspects of law enforcement, and so our canine division or unit in particular.

We have one sergeant that oversees that unit.

We have several dogs, uh, several are patrol, some are EOD, and some are narcotics, and so we have a good mix of uh uh canines and what their uses could potentially be for us.

We have our SWAT team.

I'm sure some of you have probably seen the demos that we have.

Uh, we recently acquired uh another piece of armor, so uh armored vehicle.

So now we have two armored vehicles for our operators.

There's about 20 operators that we have, um, and then two sergeants that work with the with the team as team leaders and one lieutenant that oversees that.

So from that as well, we have a full-time component.

Considering how litigious law enforcement is, obviously, there's uh an aspect of needing training, making sure our equipment's up to speed, making sure that we're just uh whole when it comes to the administrative work.

And so those four operators, along with the sergeant, make sure that we're we're keeping up to all of our training in uh all the administrative work that we're uh tasked to do.

Our motors are very popular, obviously.

A lot of the different council meetings that we go to, uh, a lot of things that are discussed are traffic related, right?

And so our motors, uh not only are they proactive, but they're reactive.

When you receive a complaint, forward it down to me.

We can respond appropriately, and we'll get the officers where they need to be, and that way we can spend some quality time in those areas of need.

And then uh last but not least, with the the tactical support divisions are real-time information center.

And so this is the brains behind the operation.

And so they're able to not only help with proactive work, and so identifying so where the burglaries happening, where the theft's happening, uh, and then diverting the technical support division where they need to go.

But then we also inform our patrol officers: hey, this is an area where you need to spend between two and three a.m.

on Mondays through Wednesdays, that's where you should be.

And so this is where the brains of the operation really takes place.

And then moving on to our agency support division.

Uh you're you're gonna have probably what I feel is the heart of our police department, uh, where folks don't see our patrol officers out in the road.

But if they make a call to 911, it's in coming to that dispatch center.

Uh, as Chief already mentioned, we're taking annually about 45,000 calls for service with our dispatch center.

Um, when that happens, uh it's staff anywhere between four to six communication operators uh from answering phones, inputting calls, or uh providing the returns that officers in the road in the field are asking for.

Our records unit are going to be our professional staff.

Uh, they'll man and staff our windows uh for any folks that are coming in who have been victims of crimes or have to handle some of the things internally.

But the things that we don't typically always see are going to be the records requests that will come in for defense attorneys, prosecutors, media members.

They will be the ones that will go through redacting uh pages upon pages of reports, reviewing body camera, editing body camera, making sure that uh some of that sensitive information isn't released uh and properly redacted.

Uh, we also have our professional standards and training.

Uh that's a group of individuals that make sure the officers uh conduct is above reproach.

We're making sure that the officers are responding with uh both national and state level expectations, uh, providing quarterly training, uh, and it's a continuous operation, making sure our officers are up to date, uh, both in uh equipment, uh laws, and policies.

Our community uh relations unit, and you folks probably see Sergeant Galaz and his folks quite often.

Uh, but those are the folks that are the uh folks that are usually engaging uh our community members, whether it be our church members, our um volunteers quite often are working with our uh community relations unit to provide services.

Uh and they're the ones that usually will be the faces that you will see reading uh in schools and making those contacts.

Uh we have our wellness unit starring uh Kismet, who was a dog that was abandoned here locally, uh and has gone through quite a bit of training and is helping, and that's something that uh has been important to Chief uh is making sure that all of our officers and professional staff and we forget about them sometimes when it's talking about wellness, uh our dispatchers hear some pretty horrific things.

Uh, as we talked about with our records unit, they're having to sit there and relive those things over and over that the officers experience by redacting them and reading those reports and making sure we have a robust wellness team to make sure our officers and professional staff are taken care of is essential for our department.

Uh we also have a number of professional staff members, and these are gonna be the folks that are writing policies, working on finance, budget, uh, your public information team that will do some of your social media.

Uh, those folks are are not necessarily always solving crime, but they're a big component of our department.

And anytime we have anything whether it's uh taken in by patrol, this an initial investigations, uh criminal investigations, which sometimes we're impounding thousands of pieces of evidence.

Uh we all have our wonderful property and evidence clerks that are handling maintaining those uh pieces of evidence, and then again, making sure if they are going for judicial proceedings, that they are presented and ready and that chain of custody is being followed.

And then last but not least, our wonderful volunteers, most of us know as the Citizens Patrol award-winning group of folks, uh save the city almost 750,000 annually in the uh amount of volunteer hours we see, and most of our community members are used to seeing them at our large special events such as spring training.

All right, so those are the divisions that we have within uh the police department now.

I want to touch on um some of the the success stories that we have.

And so, councilman Haney, I thought you get a kick out of this one.

And so um, as you can imagine, councilman Haney gets beat up regularly about 163rd and Grand Avenue.

And so we thought that would be hey, let's take advantage of this, and then show the community that we can impact uh traffic in this area.

And so on the 10th and 11th of this month, uh we had our motor units, about 10 motors every day for about 12 hours for the two days, so 24 hours, complete total time that we spent in that area, have extensive traffic enforcement.

And so what we what we found and what they accomplished during that time is they had roughly 330 traffic stops that resulted in about 300 traffic citations.

And so uh again, it's the behavior that we're trying to change um because it's a it's a dangerous intersection, as you all well know, it's highly traveled.

And so if there's an opportunity for us to correct some of that behavior and to make it safer roadway, then we're gonna take that.

And so this was a good opportunity for us.

But again, uh one of the success stories we wanted to share.

And so a lot of this, again, just to show the the path of how this gets to us, it could go to a councilman who gives it to me, who I send it down to my lieutenants.

Uh, but then also the My Surprise app is a phenomenal tool as well.

And so I highly encourage everybody to get the app and then to send those concerns up uh up through that app because we get them, we review them.

And then we have had a lot of success stories with the submissions that that we've uh gained through that, and then able to direct our officers where they need to be.

And again, it's a quality of life thing for our citizens.

And if we can improve their quality of life, um then we're gonna jump on that and take advantage of that.

But I wanted to share this for you.

Councilman Haney, you're welcome.

And I'll tell the motor officers that, yeah.

More videos to come, councilman.

So uh so one of the good traditions, mayor, council that uh the police department has established is our annual toy drive.

Uh and this is something that is done by our community relations unit led by Sergeant Galaz and and his group of officers.

But uh they will station uh areas for donation throughout the valley uh and throughout our city.

And we use our volunteers, uh, we use our citizens patrol folks to go around and collect those donations.

And you can see our community is very generous.

Uh, you had a total of 165 family members uh that were able to come to what we affectionately call Toy HQ, and that equates to 548 children who their holiday Christmas season was improved.

Uh, but this isn't just so much about a handout.

This is about things with dignity and respect and officers being able to make a connection with the community.

So as we we look at this, it becomes a partnership.

And we as the police department don't have that ability to always go out and know those families who are in need, and often they're not coming to us.

So we work with Seth Dyson and his team at uh HSVC uh to help identify those families who uh are looking for some assistance during the holiday season.

Uh once those families are identified, Sergeant Galaz and his team goes through, they actually will sort and they will place on shelves by age groups.

So you will have infants, toddlers, uh preschool age children, chill children that are you know eight to ten years old, your preteens, we all know how it's difficult they can be to shop for.

But they come in, they bring them in, there's a nice welcoming area, then they're led with an officer who's in full uniform and they're allowed to shop.

They're they're not handed a toy that they might not be interested in.

If they have an interest in dolls, there's a whole room full of dolls.

Uh for the older kids, there's bikes, there's scooters.

We make sure that they have the proper safety equipment when they leave.

But when they leave, they are leaving with dignity and respect and a good connection with uh your police department.

That being said, we'll take any questions that you may have.

Okay.

I just want to start off by saying thank you.

Thank you for what you guys do.

I mean, I've been at this for a year, and just the professionalism top down is just incredible.

I mean, every event that we go to, you're there to support.

Um, there's a lot of stuff that happens in the city, and you react to it, you're agile.

And so I just really just want to say thank you for everything that you do.

Um, we're going through the budget cycle.

What, Chief, do you need from us to help you do your job better?

So as you've all seen, right?

There's growth that's happening within the city.

And so growth that's happening within the city.

And I saw the the MAG uh presentation that happened a couple weeks back.

And so that that kind of stuff's eye-opening.

And so uh I'd be remiss to say that obviously the staff is gonna be a significant concern for us.

And so that is that's something that that I'm quite fortunate with with city management.

We're working alongside them, Sandy and the finance team.

We're finding ways to be proactive about so how do we prepare for the future and how do we future proof the spar the surprise police department?

And so obviously, staffing is going to be one of those big big issues that we're gonna have uh in the future as the city continues to grow.

Uh, not only from industry coming in, but you know, more importantly, probably residential in that North sector for the city.

But yeah, I I again I can't I can't tell you enough um how appreciative I am about the relationships that we have with the finance team with city management, the other directors and the other uh the other entities within the city.

Yeah, perfect.

We have a great team.

Thank you, Chief.

Councilman Melton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thanks, Chief.

Warms my heart that Kismet is still part of the team.

Looking forward to the Seamers career goes.

That's awesome.

Two quick questions, and I believe I heard 45,000 calls fielded to our dispatchers last year.

Does that is that right?

Was that the right number?

Yeah, that's that's roughly the the number that we have, correct?

Is that consistent or typical of a city our size?

Do we know?

So uh there's there's a lot that goes into that, obviously.

And so I feel I'm I'm happy to sit up in front of you and say that we have a very safe city.

Of course.

Right.

And so you have other neighborhoods or other cities within the valley that probably can't say that.

And so I I can't give you numbers specifically, but what I will say is that you know, considering uh the amount of residential that we have, the businesses that we have, the roads that we have, the growth that we have, I think that we're probably right on par, if not lower.

But again, yeah, without having to compare and contrast, it's hard for me to say that.

Okay, thanks, Chief.

Yeah, and number two, how many FTEs do we have dedicated the crime scene unit?

So right now we have uh we have a crime scene supervisor that we're hiring currently, and there are three other crime scene um specialists that we're hiring, or we have one currently, and then we're hiring two others.

Copy that.

Yes.

So okay, thank you.

Appreciate you.

All right.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh you guys obviously did an incredible job on 163rd Avenue.

And it pains me to say this as a firefighter, but I have to get prosper props is definitely needed.

Um, and one of the things you guys always say is, you know, it's your police department, and we really kind of saw that um on display uh in the small examples of 163rd Avenue, but there's a lot of things that you all do that the public doesn't even realize that you're doing every time you know someone reaches out, hey, we have a speeding issue on this, or there's a and I think there's a couple of instances where we've had some folks concerned about an individual kind of wandering in their community, and the amount of resources and effort that you put in to try to locate and resolve that was very impressive and very much appreciated, not only by myself, but but the resident.

But uh, I just want to thank you guys for what you you do.

And and you know, you really view your guys' department and the officers associated with it as a tool to help serve the community better.

And a lot of that has to do with the relationship that you all have formed with the community.

I had you out for a community meeting, um, and just to see the the reception you all got.

And we were talking about speeding, and I never would have imagined in a million years that I would get kudos for you all pulling people over for speeding and issuing tickets.

But um, I think that's a testament not only to how desperate people are for having our roadways and our communities to be safe, but also the manner of professionalism that your officers exhibit.

I there was one Facebook comment you didn't put in there.

I hopefully you guys saw it, where an individual actually got pulled over.

He outed himself and said he got pulled over.

Um, and but was very complimentary to the officers that pulled him over.

And and that just shows that um you guys are doing a great job with the community and making us safe, but also making sure that these residents feel that you know we are all on the same team.

Um and so I want to thank you guys for that.

Obviously, as we continue to grow, especially in that north area, there's gonna need to be some significant investments um within not only your police department, but also the fire department.

I think we all look forward to having those conversations and doing it in a way that um continues to push us forward and keeps up with the growth, but at the same time, understanding all the other different challenges that the city is facing.

But have to give you guys uh your your kudos.

And then also I just want to, as a disclaimer, please either if you're a resident watching, email me, talk to PD, use the app.

We don't see all the comments, so just because you put it on Facebook doesn't mean you're gonna get a response.

But I uh guys, I have to do that because they're like, hey, I put it on that comment.

Um but it but it is you guys do a great job.

And and also I've been very impressed with your social media presence of of getting that information out um quickly to residents and in a way that's easily digestible for them.

So they're they're not concerned about the safety of their family.

So overall, awesome job.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

Councilman Hastings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chief, thanks.

You know, you you guys are so uh popular in the community, but it's because of the work you guys have done.

Um, you know, we have an SRO at the school I work at, and and we love having SROs, but there's there's also a lot of them, and those come from your department.

Um and obviously, like you said, the the city is is growing, and we are catching up in a lot of ways, especially with public safety.

You know, last year we hired a I think it was uh, you know, there was like 15, I think it was officers, but there were some sergeants, lieutenants, right?

And I mentioned this at the last meeting, but do we have any idea?

I know we're like starting the budget cycle as far as like a range goes.

I know like we're not like what we're like looking for, and that's maybe like more of an anterior question.

She's probably like giving you the stink eye over there.

No, but like like I I think like we really need to like I've said this before, but I'm just gonna say it again.

Like I really need to ask for what we need and and work from there.

You know, I I really want us to be looking at uh where it is if I I mean I don't know how many I'm just this is just kind of obviously I like to wing it up here, but you know, we hired about 15 last year, but I don't know what normally, like normally it seems like we hire about six firefighters a year in a ramp up for like a station, but like what is normal for a surprise in a hiring year?

And you weren't the chief then, so that's a tough question.

But I'm curious to know like what that information is.

Like how many do we typically hire in a year, you know, compared to like last year.

Yeah.

Right.

So I think the fire department takes a really good approach to this where they say, hey, this is the number that we're gonna shoot for every year.

So what coming into this position, um, I I think one of the things that we have improved on is being more strategic in the way the operation runs from the business side of things.

And so if we're trying to run this uh organization, not only from a law enforcement capacity and obviously enforcing crime, making sure the roadways are safe, that kind of thing.

But I think the citizens deserve a Fortune 500 company when it comes to the business side of law enforcement.

And so we've been very strategic in trying to outline.

So, what does the future growth look like?

What does that look like for us?

And so we have we have a framework of where we think the police department can go, just depending upon what the finances say.

And so again, I I can't stress enough.

I think that everybody here um from city management on down sees the need that we have for public safety.

And um, and everybody's on board with that.

And so, but again, it's it's very tough.

I didn't expect you to say like 23 or something.

You know, um because we don't really answer questions directly if you're no, but um no, in all seriousness, like I mean, and I would say like just I think with that comes uncertainty with I mean, things could change anytime.

And it's like you have this plan, and maybe we do have like a short-term or long-term plan.

I don't know what that looks like, but elected officials change.

Budgets change, God forbid we have you know, another like a recession or something, right?

And then you can't you're like, oh, we're gonna do five this year, and then but we were gonna do this many this year, and then that doesn't happen.

So I know you guys take that all into consideration.

But um, thanks for the help with uh speeding on on Bell Road and I know the patrol on North O'S Branch um Boulevard.

I think they're picking it back up again, so we got to keep them guessing, but Chief, I think a good um, you know, way to plan ahead is through our uh post safety master plan.

When are we expecting that to come out?

So that should be come to completion pretty well, I take that back.

Uh right around May-ish, I believe, halfway throughout the through this year, and then the third quarter is when we should really get some good idea what uh what that looks like.

So, and then uh that obviously be given to you to see what they come back with.

And so we've had really good conversations with them.

Uh, we've given them a lot of data.

They've seen a lot of the things that we've seen as well about the potential growth that the city has uh and again how to future proof this.

So that'd be a roadmap for us to project out those things.

Okay, yeah, chief.

Thank you so much.

Sergeant, thanks.

Appreciate you guys.

And um, there's no other questions from us.

All right, thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item two.

Item two, presentation and discussion pertaining to public works programs.

Hello, good afternoon.

So here we are.

Um, I'll come sit down with you in a second.

I'm just here.

Um now we're going to switch gears and and discuss one of our internal service functions, which is public works.

So again, as the city grows, um and we hire more officers.

Our public works fleet department has to maintain those vehicles.

Our public works um facilities has to maintain any new buildings that we put in.

So Kristen's here to um walk through with me what their divisions look like and what's um within each of those.

So they have their fleet facilities, engineering, and business administration.

Um divisions, but within each one of those, there's a form of administration, um, which is necessary for budgeting um personnel, all of those things, hiring within our engineering, uh, which is 19% of the 14.7 million budgeted for FY26.

Um, we do recoup some revenue there through plan review and permitting.

It's it's not a hundred percent, but we do uh recoup some revenue there as well.

Uh again, these are their divisions.

And then I just wanted to speed up a second and um show you what that recouping uh looks like for their engineering division, permitting um 76% of the revenue collected is collected through uh permitting, and then plan review is 24% of their 7.3 million budgeted.

And with that, I'm gonna have Kristen explain to you guys more of their department.

Good afternoon, Marion Council.

Okay.

Okay, so Sandy just mentioned that we have four divisions in our public works department.

So that includes engineering, fleet facilities, and solid waste.

Um, solid waste operates as an enterprise fund, meaning that it's fully funded by customer rates.

So because of that, we're gonna focus just on our general fund divisions today, but I did want to give them an honorable mention before we move on to the other three.

All right, so the first stop on our tour of public works is engineering.

Engineering supports all new development from initial concept to final development of a civil project.

Projects can range from a single commercial site to master plan communities to major roadways, and our customers include private developers, it can be utility companies, and it can be our own capital improvement project teams.

We partner with other departments pretty closely, like community development, transportation, water resources, just to make sure that all of our projects are safe and compliant and follow all of our standards.

And so a lot of the responsibilities on the development side do overlap between those different departments.

But engineering, you can really think about it.

It's anything that's outside of the building envelope from the ground and below.

So that includes site grading and drainage, it can be utilities, the roadway itself, street lights, uh right-of-way infrastructure.

So basically anything that's not a building is considered a civil plan review.

So here you'll see just a really basic development process from concept meeting, plan review permitting inspections.

So as Sandy mentioned, each you know, we have uh a revenue that does come in for that.

So along that process, our plan review and our permitting does see revenues that come in for plan review and inspections, and those offset our expenses for the engineering division.

But what is that fund?

So engineering, there's a lot that they do behind the scenes.

Um we have uh an administration and development review, field services, dry utilities, and land survey.

So starting off, I'm just gonna give you a brief overview of just what just a little sampling of what these different divisions do.

Our administration and our development review team.

Um this is where the projects are routed, standards are enforced, and problems are prevented before they reach construction.

This team sets our citywide engineering standards and policies.

They review all of the civil plans.

So again, that includes includes site design, utilities, drainage, right-of-way upgrades.

And so last year, this team reviewed nearly 9,000 different civil plan review sheets just last year alone.

This team manages all of our permits, they're part of the development agreement review process.

They manage our financial assurances as well.

And um, again, they conduct heavy coordination amongst all of the departments, developers, and external agencies.

This team's also responsible for ensuring compliance with federal programs like FEMA.

So we're their main point of contact for projects that involve that.

Um, moving on to our field services team.

This is our quality control team that protects the city from any long-term infrastructure failures.

They inspect all civil construction in the field and make sure that what's actually built in the field matches those civil plans that the design review team reviewed.

Uh, they ensure compliance with city standards and safety requirements, and they oversee all civil construction, including testing of water lines, sewer lines, and fire lines.

And then they conduct uh final inspections, making sure that all of the projects complete according to plan before they turn all of that infrastructure over to our operations teams like our transportation and water resource group.

Our dry utility team reviews and inspects a dry utility project.

So that includes our telecom, fiber, power, gas lines.

So that's what a dry utility is.

They regularly coordinate with those different entities and providers to avoid conflict and service disruptions to their customers.

And they manage all of the associated franchise and utility agreements for those different divisions.

And they also oversee the street lights and our SLIDS, so the streetlight improvement districts.

So if something's wrong on survey, everything built on top of it is wrong.

So it's an important group.

So they gather and create and maintain survey data and legal records.

They provide boundary topographic and control surveys, and they also ensure compliance with national survey standards.

So engineering is really just not about just reviewing plans.

They set all of our standards, they manage risk, they protect our investments, and they make sure that growth happens the right way.

So any questions on engineering before I move on to the next.

It's way more than I thought that they did.

This is a small sampling of what they do every day.

It's a great team.

All right, moving on to our fleet department.

So if you guys have had a chance to go out to our public works operation facility, PWAF, you've seen where this group works out of.

Our job is to provide reliable and safe fleet of vehicles for our customers.

So who are our customers?

It's pretty much every city department is our customer.

Fleet maintains over 1,000 different pieces of equipment and vehicles across the city, and that can range from a parks and rec weed eater all the way up to a fire medical ladder truck.

So that's police cars, fire trucks, you know, you name it.

If it has wheels and an engine or moving parts, fleet is involved in that.

And so fleet ensures that these vehicles are safe, reliable, and ready 24 7.

So what happens between or behind the scenes with Fleet?

All right, so they have many responsibilities that include vehicle lifecycle oversight, maintenance, parts, fuel management, and administration.

So this is a highly technical workforce that does critical safety, safety critical work.

So when departments like police and biomedical and transportation show up ready to serve, fleet has a part in making that possible.

So they the fleet administration team, they oversee the life cycle of a vehicle.

So that includes acquisition all the way through replacement of that vehicle.

They manage vendor contracts, purchasing warranties, and disposal.

They oversee the city's fuel operations, which includes fuel orders, tracking and audits.

And they also manage our vehicle tracking software, which helps monitor performance of those vehicles and cost management.

And they support overall departments in making data-driven decisions when it comes to fleet decisions for those departments.

Our parts team members manage a high volume of parts and inventory to keep those repairs moving.

They coordinate with vendors and dealerships on a daily basis to minimize the downtime of these vehicles.

So each month, this department orders purchases and receives on average of 4,000 parts a month to keep our operations running.

And then we have our maintenance and repair team.

So they perform the preventative maintenance and repairs for hundreds of city vehicles.

They provide emergency response for our safety critical vehicles.

And actually, this year we just started our service hours.

We just expanded our service hours and started a new swing shift.

And that's really helped us improve our turnaround times and produce or enhanced our customer service.

So adding that swing shift has meant less vehicles waiting in the field and out in service.

So it's been a great program to have.

Okay, so last stop is our facilities team.

Facilities works across the entire city to keep our city facilities safe, clean, and operational so that every department can serve both of our employees and the general public.

So when the lights turn on and the HVAC works, and your buildings are clean and open for business facilities is behind that.

So facilities supports nearly 70 different buildings and growing, and we provide maintenance and custodial services for those facilities.

Our customers are both the community using the facilities and the various city departments.

Our team supports over one million square foot of building space and manages the maintenance of nearly three million square foot of landscape area.

So buildings include city hall, our police and fire facilities, libraries, rec centers, water and public works facilities, many of which operate on a 24-7 basis.

So behind the scenes.

So facilities work is constant.

So if a building is open or used by the public, our team is involved in that.

Our facilities supports the entire city and includes custodial staff, skilled trades, and administration to support them.

So the custodial team, they perform on a daily and weekly basis.

They clean hundreds and thousands of square feet on a daily basis and complete nearly 1,000 different custodial tasks in a single month.

Our facilities maintenance team conducts both preventative and reactive maintenance across all of our buildings.

And they do a wide number of things.

They do HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing, flooring, painting, drywalls, doors, parking garages, our parking lots, and site lighting.

So they do um they do a ton of work.

They support 24-7 operations of the city and includes on-call after hour support and emergency response.

And then they also have an administration team that supports them.

And this team manages our vendor contracts, our invoices and purchase orders.

They're in charge of the management of inspections, warranties, regulatory compliance, and they support and plan for new buildings coming online and the care of existing aging facilities as well.

All right.

So in closing, we do a lot of work that's behind the scenes.

So we're not as as visible as our PD partners, but we love to be behind the scene to make sure that they have everything that they need and all of our other city departments to do to do their jobs.

So development continues across the city.

Vehicles start every morning and respond when needing needed, and our buildings are clean, safe, and attractive and functional for our customers.

So with that, I'll uh leave it open to any questions you might have.

Okay, thank you.

Um again, I just want to say thanks.

You guys are the unsung heroes of the city.

I mean, it's uh there's a lot going on, but if there's something that doesn't happen, you know, we'll be the first to hear about it.

So all the tra everything you guys do.

But I do have a couple of questions.

Uh we talked about police and fire and their growth and their master plan.

How do you integrate as public works with the fleet maintenance, all those things with their master plan?

So, what we've started to do in the last several years is when a department requests a new employee that has a vehicle.

Um, we have labor hours that are a part of that vehicle.

So we'll start to collect part-time hours.

We do the same for facilities.

When a new building comes on, we'll have part-time hours for different types of staff, whether it be HVAC, custodial, what have you.

And then we gather that part-time dollar and we hire part-time as we go, and then as we accrue hours, then we can convert those over to full-time.

So that's how we accommodate pretty much with the entire city growth to keep up with the keep up with that.

Thanks.

So our public works operation facility, the PWAF is in the southern part and eastern part of our city, but our city's growing north and west.

Well, I would assume we're gonna need a second PWAF in the near future.

Yes, definitely.

So that's part of a larger plan in the outer years.

Um as we grow, really, the the future is more towards the 6303 area.

So that'll likely be more the center of town in the future.

So, yes, a future PWAF two would be ideal, and that's likely where we would house our solid waste facilities because that's near the landfill.

Yeah.

Because right now they have to go from what Peoria and our cactus and Lichfield all the way up to district one.

Right.

We're essentially at the very south end of surprise, and they're going all the way up through.

So if we can ideally and strategically center ourselves in the middle of surprise, that'll be the best bet.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Councilman Melton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

About so seven, 70 buildings we have about, and some of them are 24 operation, some are not.

A lot of them have a lot of them are on occupied during the off hours.

And so about maybe six months ago, I took a look and looked at our and from then we have all these buildings have building management systems, automated systems to manage their HVAC loads, lighting loads, and all this to make sure that we're optimizing that we're not that we're using energy efficiently as possible.

And uh about six months ago, I took a brief look and it looked like you guys had the tools you needed.

And as about six months ago I took a brief look and and it looked like you guys had the tools you needed it didn't it looked like you guys were okay and had the software needed had you and your and your staff had a pretty good grasp on what they needed.

Is that still the case?

Are you still okay right now?

Any tools you need or yeah so we are definitely ahead of things compared to some of our other partner cities as far as some of the tools that we use and the software to monitor um but we're always keeping an eye on any new technology that we could use there's always new things that are out to make sure that we're running more efficiently with what we have.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you so you're okay for now so we're okay right now but we are we are looking at different ways to um and programs to make sure that we're running our operations efficiently great that's one of here.

All right thank you.

Councilman Duffy thank you very Kristen I just wanted to take why I have you here it's because it's fresh but I wanted to say thank you for opening your doors to councilman Judd and I and the group of residents that came out and toured your facility and actually made the presentation I mean everything you hit on is what people asked you what you talked about and you took us through every step of it.

So I appreciate you doing that and your team was great.

They answered a ton of questions and then anything we can do to get Eric out on a Saturday was a big plus and then also you're you're let it you're gonna let us on Monday I believe so hopefully if you we thought I break it you buy it type situation you're gonna let us use some of this equipment and learn how it works.

So I appreciate that we're gonna get to do that but the fact you let residents go through and they saw everything even with the slides the traffic lights everything so I just appreciate you doing it.

And it was just because you're right here it just worked out that you did a presentation right after we were there.

So I appreciate it.

It just worked out that way just we had a really fun time and um thank you guys for coming out and hosting the residents we had a great we love showing off public works because again it's always kind of the behind the scenes and people don't see it.

So the more we can show off the better and we're excited to host you guys to show you more of what we do.

Awesome thank you thank you that's it all right madam clerk please read item three item three presentation and discussion pertaining to the FY2026 financial status report through December 2025.

And again you guys are stuck with me all right so uh we're just here to talk about our financials through the end of December so our first half of our fiscal year.

Again our categories um are for our sources our revenues uh local sales tax intergovernmental um mainly consists of our state shared sales tax and income tax with our vehicle license tax charges for services are um basically what uh Holly touched on uh two weeks ago with um program fees and then with what Kristen talked about tonight for permits and um planning our primary property tax our franchise fees our transfers in and others so going over those categories we are overall ongoing and one time at a 1.2% um positive uh our local sales tax and our state shared sales tax through today um or through sorry through December um we're doing really well based on um what we had anticipated through December um again these are all timing and as the year progresses uh you know things will uh uh level out our primary property tax and our franchise fees are a little were a little less than what we anticipated and then our one-time charges for services and our other category which is our interest um were also a little less um I mean percentage wise it looks big but based on the numbers a little less than we anticipated through December but it is definitely a um a moving target as we go through the fiscal year for our uses or or our expenditures those are our personnel supplies services capital and our transfers out so for our general fund uses we are a bit under um in utilization uh through the end of December again timing um personnel we we were actually able to onboard additional people that we uh weren't anticipating to be able to onboard so quickly through the first half of the year our supplies and services those lag a little bit because a lot of our services are contract related so it just depends on when those contracts are are finally uh sent out and then our one time transfers out um we're a little less than we anticipated and those go to our asset replacement our um

Um, personnel, we we were actually able to onboard additional people that we uh weren't anticipating to be able to onboard so quickly through the first half of the year.

Our supplies and services, those lag a little bit because a lot of our services are contract related.

So it just depends on when those contracts are finally uh sent out.

And then our one time transfers out, um, we're a little less than we anticipated.

And those go to our asset replacement, our um, I'm sorry.

Those are net zero.

I apologize.

A total overall grand total.

Um, we are a one point six percent less overall, including our transfers out.

Sorry about that.

Um, and with that, any questions or comments?

Council.

Seeing none, I appreciate your presentation.

Thank you.

Move to adjourn.

Sorry.

It's been moved and second, all in favor.

All opposed or adjourned.