I thought the next day.

All right, good evening, everyone.

I'd like to call this uh regular city council meeting on Tuesday, February seventeenth, twenty twenty six to order.

Tonight we have an invocation from Pastor McLean.

Pastor, if you want to lead us in the vacation, please.

Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given to us here in the city of surprise.

We thank you, Lord, for all the good gifts you give to us, especially this city.

Lord, we pray that this day you would keep all of us safe, especially our police, fire, and emergency personnel.

We ask you, Lord, that you would bless this council, the mayor, and all city officials.

Let the decisions we make today be pleasing in your sight and would lead this city to be an open, loving, and caring city for all who live and visit it.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor.

Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Vice Mayor Greenberg.

He has an excuse absence.

Councilman Haney.

Here.

Councilman Duffy.

Here.

Councilman Melton.

Present.

Councilman Hastings.

Here.

Councilman Chad.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have quorum.

Thanks.

So tonight we have the Riverview Bear Kudas to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

So go ahead and take it away, please.

Did you have anything you wanted to say?

Perfect.

Come on up.

With me are Madison, Mayana, Isabella, and Shreya.

We are a group of members committed to leadership, service, and representing the voices of our peers.

We hope to continue learning how local government works and how we can contribute in meaningful ways.

Thank you for your time and willingness to listen to student council leaders like us.

Thank you.

Great job.

Can we take a picture together?

Yeah.

Okay.

Council can join us.

Are we standing?

You guys want to come on us on the street like going down because they know it irritates them?

We should just disclosure.

Yeah, it's me.

Awesome.

Bruno Mars over here.

All right, we're gonna take two here.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

Perfect.

Mrs.

Davis, you have a city manager report.

Yes, Mayor, Council members.

We have two items.

First, I would like to welcome Glenn Stark from Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW, post 285.

Well, that's the first.

Mr.

Mayor, Madam City Manager, Council members, I want to thank you for allowing us to come before you once again.

Uh I just did some math, and this is the 12th year that we've done this presentation in front of the city council.

And hopefully there'll be at least 12 more.

Might not all be me, but we will do it.

For those that don't know, my name's Glenn Stark.

Um the past commander of Nikki D.

Bacon, VFW Post 285 here in Surprise.

VFW or Veterans of Foreign War is a patriotic fraternal organization made up of approximately one and a half million American combat veterans.

And one thing we know as a group is commitment to committee, our community, and our country.

And there's another group that has these same ideas as we do.

And that's our public servants, our police officers, firefighters, EMT, and dispatchers.

We're here tonight to present an award to one of these from Surprise.

One up there front.

Yeah.

And Kim Acres, who's president of our artillery also.

Well, his honor is our honor to present this award to Chief Battalion Chief Lewis D'Angelo for special recognition of his demonstrated exceptional leadership and coordination.

Uh while serving uh within the Surprise Fire Medical.

Operation, he's been involved in uh numerous operations and his professionalism, performance, and collaboration.

It's always been a credit to the department and example exceptional leadership.

And with that, we want to present Ms.

Award.

And we thought his wife was going to be here.

So we brought some flowers.

He'll have to take home.

Sure.

Uh let me make one comment before we take photo.

Uh, this award, what we do with these then we'll take this nomination.

It goes forward to our state, and if they like it, it goes forward to national.

Last year, our police officer of the year, Carlton Williams, who was involved in the hostage situation with the little baby about a year and a half ago.

He has been recognized as the national VFW national law enforcement officer of the year.

Unfortunately.

Yeah, and give it up to him, but unfortunately, he's no longer surprised PD.

Uh, we have made arrangements.

We're going to go downtown, he's now in Phoenix PD, and we're going to make sure he gets his award.

I just wanted to let the city know that one of their own was uh recognized nationally.

Nationally.

One more Haney.

Let's go, buddy.

Come on, Haney, front and center.

Step into my office.

All right.

Right here.

Thank you.

Oh, do it.

Do it.

One more thing.

One more thing.

One more thing.

Well, why don't you do that?

We're former chief hasn't gotten former Chief SP.

Oh we did we bet what this was?

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Yes.

All right.

I got I got the rest of them.

Thank you so much.

Former Chief Espie was a winner of our golf tournament.

The uh next December if they can come get it.

Hey, thank thank you to the VFW.

I'm a I'm a proud lifetime member of your organization.

You guys do so much in the community.

I think it's an awesome way for veterans that have been in combat to come together and uh and continue their service.

So thank you for coming in here.

And next we have Shelby to introduce our members of the Surprise Youth Council.

Thank you, Andrea.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'd like to introduce you our two youth council members on the dais tonight.

Speaking first is Miss Peyton Anthony from Highland Prep.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

It's a pleasure to address you guys again.

My name is Peyton, and I'm currently serving my fourth year on the council.

I'm pleased to announce that the Surprise Youth Council will be attending the National League of Cities Conference in Washington, D.C.

this year, where four of our members will represent us.

We are honored to have this opportunity to meet with state representatives and national leaders.

We look forward to bringing back valuable insight and ideas to share with the rest of the youth council.

Additionally, the SYC recently participated in the Backyard Bash, hosting a throwback trivia game that was enjoyed by all.

It was entertaining to see everyone, those born in the 90s, challenged by some of the questions and heartwarming to watch the children participate, often the parents whispering the answers.

Once again, thank you to the council for your continued support.

We are excited for the opportunities ahead.

Thank you, Peyton.

Next up we have Olivia Vaughn.

Olivia is from Paradise Honors.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Olivia Vong, and this is my third year on the Surprise Youth Council.

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

This semester, our committees are actively developing several projects.

The events committee, for instance, is planning an early Mother's Day event called Memories with Mom, where mothers and their families can enjoy an afternoon of snacks, drinks, and crafts led by youth council members.

Keep an eye on the surprise website or our surprise youth council Instagram page for more details.

I would also like to share that the Surprise Youth Council recruitment is now open and applications will be accepted through April 3rd.

We encourage interested students to apply and take advantage of this opportunity to serve our community and grow as leaders.

Lastly, happy lunar new year to those who celebrate.

That is all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Olivia.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Okay.

I really appreciate your support at the uh the backyard 90s bash.

I don't know where you got some of those figurines, but they were like throwback from what was a dinosaur one.

I couldn't, I couldn't guess.

Dinosaurs.

Yeah.

The show.

Oh, nothing.

Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah, it was tough.

Yeah.

Um we're recruiting for youth council.

Peyton, you've been on for how many years?

Four.

Four years.

What's your what's your favorite thing about it, and why would you recommend somebody to do it?

I think meeting so many people through it, just with my community.

I meet everyone from different demographics.

Um, my favorite thing is going out to see other youth councils and to see how passionate they are about their communities and what they can accomplish.

I mean, Florence, I believe, they said they set up their own teen summit.

We have our own as well, but there's blew me away.

I was it was very enjoyable.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

What's your favorite part?

I think Peyton kind of just said it perfectly.

I don't think I have anything to add there.

Fair enough.

All right.

Well, thank you both for serving.

Uh there are no madam uh secretary.

You have an agenda item.

I do.

Thank you, Mayor.

Just real quick um election update.

On February 6th, there was legislation approved that moves the primary election date up two weeks.

So now our primary will be July 21st.

Uh, this change affects a lot of dates in the election timeline for candidates and political committees for their reporting and filing.

The website is currently updated with all of the pertinent voter information and the candidate information if you'd like to visit us.

It's the prize az.gov slash elections, or you can contact the clerk's office.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

There are four items on the consent agenda.

Would any of the council members like to pull one for clarification?

Councilman Melton, I see you requested to speak.

I had a question for the for our uh city clerk.

Oh, go ahead.

So the just move up.

So Chrissy, that means uh mail out ballots would go August what they go uh 27 days, and you're catching me, I believe it's June 24th, but I don't have to check the date.

Yes.

27 days before.

Okay.

All right, right around the corner.

Copy.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I'll entertain a motion for the consent agenda.

Oh, that was in that was in stereo.

So I'm gonna say Councilman Duffy, it's over here.

I'll give it to the senior member.

Okay, you should.

That's gonna be good.

It's been seconded by uh councilman Judd.

Please cast your vote.

Not senior by much.

Senior and that's a pass vote, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item number seven.

Item seven presentation and discussion regarding the VISPAS Montana's annexation, case FS25-0291 in accordance with Arizona revised statutes 9471A3.

A public hearing is required to be held after filing a blank petition within the last 10 days of the 30-day waiting period.

Ms.

Sexton, good evening.

Oh, good evening, Mayor and Council.

Item number seven before you is a blank petition.

It's titled Vista Montanas, and it's case 25-0291.

The project is located south of the CAP Canal along the Dixoleta Drive and when 79th Avenue Roadway Alignments.

The annexation proposal is for two parcels that are consisting of 5.57 acres of land currently located within Maricopa County.

So this is the existing boundary as it exists today, where the purple is the city of surprise, and that the roadway alignments are located within Maricopa County.

And this slide is a more zoomed-in view of the area showing the two parcels of land and they're for right-of-way only.

This is what the proposed boundaries look like if the annexation is ultimately approved.

So the intent to annex was presented to the mayor and city council on January 20th.

The next day, January 21st, the blank petition was filed, and that began a 30-day waiting period to gather the property owner's signatures.

Tonight, a hearing is being held for the blank petition, and it must be held within the last 10 days of the 30-day waiting period.

And today is day 27 of the waiting period.

After the 30-day waiting period, the applicant has one year to obtain the signatures to complete the petition, and the final annexation hearing will be held.

So this concludes staff presentation.

I'm available as well as the applicant with any questions.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

So this agenda item requires a public hearing.

I'll open this item to the public.

Madam Clerk, do we get any requests to speak?

I did not, sir.

Okay, I'll close this item to the public.

Council, any comments or questions?

Hearing none, I will entertain a motion.

No action.

Oh, that's right.

I was on a roll.

Um Madam Clerk, we're gonna call item 10 out of order.

Uh please read item 10.

Are we not voting on item?

It was just presentation and discussion.

I was on the same thing.

I was on the same page as you, Madam Clerk.

Okay, item 10 consideration action pertaining to approval of fiscal year 2026 budget amendment.

Moving budget in the amount of 100,000 from general contingency to the tourism fund.

Project N59130 for the Big 12 Baseball Championships resolution 2026-25.

Good evening, Ms.

Pettis.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Uh tonight we have a Big 12 Conference Baseball Championship Tourism Fund request.

Before I get started on the presentation, I do just want to introduce our guests.

We have Scott Draper here from the Big 12 conference, and then we have Anthony Barkowski from Rev Entertainment.

So just a little bit of background.

So the Big 12 championship will be a five-day single elimination tournament showcasing the top 12 baseball programs from the conference.

The winner will earn an automatic birth in the NCAA tournament.

And this event will be a partnership with both the Big 12 and Reven Entertainment and the City of Surprise.

This is really just a great opportunity to showcase the city of surprise on a national stage, drive tourism-related economic activity, and build a foundation for future collegiate and professional events.

So as you know, anytime we get a tourism fund request, we first look to the council strategic plan to see what it aligns with and if it aligns.

And so, really from this event, it looks at strategy 3.2, 3.3, and 3.5, just expanding recreation and sports tourism in our facilities, um, cultural cultivating environments for residents and visitors to enjoy arts, culture, and entertainment, and then also identifying opportunities for public-private partnerships to continue to improve the quality of life for surprise residents.

We also look at the tourism strategic plan.

Um, and this really focuses on focus area one events and entertainment and focus area two marketing.

So, really, we look at attracting professional event partners through the tourism fund, working with third parties to add event and entertainment opportunities and increasing our tourism-related room nights, as well as looking at strategic collaborations with key partners to expand our uh target demographics for tourism and the marketing.

Um so this event is estimated to bring about 40,000 in attendance across the five days, and about 50 of that 50% of that is expected to be from outside of Phoenix Metro area.

Um, estimated to have about 3,500 hotel nights, and then an economic impact of 3.5 million dollars.

Um, we will also um have national coverage on ESPN platforms and the Big 12 conference will execute a comprehensive marketing campaign with regional and national reach.

Um, they have over a million combined followers on their social accounts.

Um, and then also from a community standpoint, we'll engage local uh youth programs, military discounts, we'll reach out to Luke Air Force Base, and then local businesses will benefit from the increased visitor traffic.

Um so anytime we get a tourism fund request, we look at the guidelines that's already been approved by council, and then we bring it to um the tourism subcommittee.

And so this is what has been approved by the tourism subcommittee.

So category one hotel nights uh for every 100 surprise hotel room nights um that is verified, they can receive 2500 in reimbursement.

Um, in attendance for every 2,000 in total attendance, they'll get 2,500 in reimbursement, and then event days and seasonality, um, a max of 12,500 based on their event numbers of days and when they're hosting, and then uh 25,000 in operational support.

So, with that, um, each year not to exceed 100,000 dollars, and again, this is all reimbursement-based, and for um as you remember, the tourism fund is a dedicated fund that comes from the hotel tax, so this is not part of the general fund.

This is dedicated fund that will come out of where the reimbursement will come from, and those reimbursements can be used for facility use fees or any event marketing that contains surprise Arizona.

Any questions?

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, this is exciting and fantastic.

Thank you very much.

Um, but real quick before we get into want to hear more about what you guys are doing.

Um, can you clarify a little bit about where exactly the money comes from to fund these types of grants?

Because it's not from our taxpayers for the most part, it's coming from hotel bed stays.

And so can you expand on that a little bit?

Yes.

So the tourism fund comes from our transient lodging tax, so it really comes from hotel tax and overnight stays, and so it's really only a tax that comes onto visitors, and so then it's then again used to attract visitors.

So it's really just a dedicated fund that can't be used on anything besides tourism related things and marketing.

And so it's kind of funding its own type of event.

So we really look to events that will reimburse those funds with hotel nights.

Okay, excellent.

And do you guys do you want to tell us a little more about what uh what you're up to here?

Go ahead.

Yeah, sure.

First of all, thanks for having us.

Certainly excited to be a part of the surprise community.

Um, our partners at the Texas Rangers uh certainly brought us here.

Uh and we're we're we're pleased to be part of their family and pleased to be part of uh the community here.

Big 12 conference is uh is a is a uh a conference that has evolved over the last four or five years.

We are now 16 strong, including uh Arizona State and Arizona here locally.

But uh specifically about baseball for us, uh we have 14 members from around the country.

Um, and we are the second leading uh attendance uh college conference in the country, only behind the SEC.

So passionate fans, they travel, they'll be here.

Um I think you got a taste for that this past weekend for what college baseball can be and is uh is to um the college baseball community.

So super excited to be here.

Thank you for um the support and thank you for all the things that you you're doing for us.

Look forward to building a long-term home here.

Well, and and for for my part, thank you for bringing this to surprise.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Councilman Melton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh yeah, I agree, Councilman Judge.

We I told you this uh uh all three of you, the residents Lysal talked to are extremely excited that a collegiate tournament is gonna come the surprise.

This is this is really amazing, and I'm just so grateful this partnership happened.

So this is really a kickoff of that partnership.

And certainly as we get closer to the event, we've got a big 12-day um being hosted by the Texas Rangers at Surprise that will uh be in the community more.

So from now until then and from then uh in March until our our time here in May, we're gonna work hard to make sure that we get on the consciousness of everybody here in surprise.

Thanks, Scott.

Thanks, Anthony.

Good to see you.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to see how exciting this is.

When I saw this come across, I was like, this is what we this is what we needed.

And this is kind of a testament to our relationship with the Texas Rangers and why it's important, and not only them, but Kansas City Royals for something like this.

And to have my alma mater, Arizona State.

There's a few of us here up here that went Arizona State.

And we won't mention the school down south.

But to have them playing here is is huge.

And if if anybody saw this past weekend, I was floored by the attendance at that college baseball tournament.

So it's and that was February.

So it's anything like that.

This is gonna be a great thing.

So I just want to say thank you and I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, and I'm not gonna say much more than my colleagues did.

I I agree.

I'm just excited that you know we have this partnership.

I'm excited that we get to highlight all the good things that are happening in the city of surprise and do it on a national scale.

So thank you so much, Kendra.

Thanks for all your hard work putting all this together.

Um, I will entertain a motion.

I'm waiting for it to load here.

Uh I move to approve resolution 2026-25.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, visit read item eight.

Item eight, consideration action pertaining to approval of the Mesquite Mountain Ranch 5 development agreement resolution 2026 14.

Amazing.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

This item before you is the development agreement for the project known as Mesquite Mountain Ranch Five, coming to you via resolution 2026-14.

The subject site, which encompasses approximately 265 gross acres, is located south of Deer Valley Road between 231st Avenue and 223rd Avenue.

The existing zoning is planned area development.

There's an associated rezone application that's currently underway that should be coming before you next month.

So within the development agreement outlines uh the owner's obligations for the development, which include their proportionate share of two traffic signals on Sun Valley Parkway, one at 227th and one at 219th.

It also includes roadway improvements, so they will be required to improve 227th Avenue from their southern edge of the development south to Beardslee Road.

And then for Deer Valley Parkway, they'll have to dedicate roadway right away for the road.

Um, I have an exhibit later in my presentation that will help show that better.

It's shifted south of the standard section roadway alignment.

They'll also have to design and construct the half street improvements and provide two travel lanes from 223rd east to 219th.

On the water side, there's a recharge basin that is known to be needed in the spa three area.

They will have to either pay the development impact fees for this, or if it is determined that that recharge basin is needed prior to their development, they'll have to pay the proportionate share based on their acreage to get that put in.

And then on the wastewater side, they'll have to either pay for capacity in the existing treatment facility, or if there is no available capacity, they'll have to participate in an expansion of that facility.

So this exhibit shows the regional transportation network for this area.

The site is shown there in yellow.

You can see 227th that I mentioned previously is shown in the in the green going north-south, and then Deer Valley shown in red going uh east-west on the north side of the of the property.

Um I want to highlight the existing rural residential community to the northeast of this property.

Um that will uh kind of come into context here in a second.

So Deer Valley Road, um, because of those existing rural residential developments, there was a need to preserve their existing access, but also help to kind of buffer this development from their existing rural residential development.

So the roadway alignment for all of Deer Valley has been shifted to the south within their project.

And then you can see in the pink area is where it will start to shift back north as it approaches 219th Avenue.

So the section in green is where they're required to do their half-street improvements, and then the section in pink is where they'll have to do uh minimum requirements to meet two points of access.

And then on the left, uh they'll have to construct the full width of 227th within their development boundaries, and then going further south, they'll have to add some additional improvements to ensure that there's two lanes of travel in in either either direction going down to Beardsley to the south.

So some provided motions here for you to either approve or disapprove the uh development agreement for Mesquite Mountain Ranch 5.

And with that, I'm available for questions.

And Jeff Blyley, a representative of the project, is also here as well.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Melton.

I have Trevor, I have a technical question.

If it's you don't have to answer it now, if you can if you want to answer offline, it's fine.

But with my question is regarding the impact fee options with respect to the recharge basin and spa three reclamation.

There's options, they have a couple different options to take.

Is that formulation?

Is that an existing thing we've had, or is that an innovation that occurred from the negotiations of the last time we uh negotiated impact fees?

Yeah, so thank thank you, Mayor, Councilmember.

Uh, it's it's not an option per se, it's based off of what is needed at the time of development.

Okay.

So they're they're required to do um something to help create that off-site regional infrastructure.

If the recharge basin is needed when they go to develop, then they'll have to do that one.

Um, otherwise, if it's not needed at that time, it's just the the development impact fee.

Okay, okay.

Okay, okay.

And then then again, that formulation has we always done that way, or is that is that an innovation from the last time we negotiated the impact fee schedules?

Is that make sense?

Um so you're asking about the calculation for the impact fee itself?

Yeah.

Not not the not the trigger for which one is needed.

Let's do that.

Boyd's coming in.

I think I think you could answer it, Chairman.

I have faith.

Mayor council.

Um, I believe it's new, it hasn't been done because it wasn't thought of when the new impact fees.

I but I'll go back and double check and confirm that for sure.

And if it wasn't, then as we move forward, it would be something that would be added into the plan.

Copy that.

Okay.

If they pay the impact fee, then it's straightforward.

If they um build a facility, they'll get credit for that impact fee.

Understood.

Thank you, Lloyd.

Thank you, Trevor.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Mayor.

No, I I appreciate uh the presentation.

The the rural urban overlay.

We talked about Deer Valley Road and offsetting that.

Is that part of this?

Like I know it's it's there, but was that overlay meant for this?

Like that's why we did it.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

So it's it's kind of in tandem with that.

Um we knew that through our outreach processes with the rural community, that that was kind of one of the the concerns that they had.

Um, so through this process with both their rezone and the development agreement, we knew that that was something that was needed.

Okay.

I just want to thank the developer for being willing to work on that.

And I know it's extra money to build that road and offset, but to preserve their way of life is also important.

So I appreciate that.

Uh councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I had a few questions um and then also a few comments.

So I'll start with the question.

So when uh will these obligations that you reference, when will they be completed?

Are they required to be completed prior to the first certificate of occupancies issued?

Yeah, so thank thank you, Mayor Council members.

So it I guess it depends on which obligation we're referring to.

The the roadway improvements, the physical improvements themselves would obviously obviously come at the time of development.

Okay.

Um, as far as the the water and the wastewater stuff, that would be determined prior to approval of any site plan or final plot.

So um, I guess my question would would center more so around those roadway improvements.

Will those be completed prior to we we have folks living there?

Okay, we've had some issues in other communities.

Okay, and then they're they're per okay.

So then the 219th Avenue and Sun Valley Parkway, they are contributing to that traffic signal, but that traffic signal is obviously much needed.

I'm looking at the go to transportation over there.

Uh that's already in the process.

So um, okay, and then that was my other one.

And then just please correct me if I'm wrong.

So most of that traffic from that development will feed into Sun Valley Parkway, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

Um I think those are all the questions that I had.

I appreciate you answering.

I do have a few comments, and it was mentioned there is a community of the north, and and uh those folks have been extremely engaged in every zoning case.

It represents why it's so important for your for folks to get involved because they have worked with with this developer.

Um and and I I appreciate um them making some changes based on that feedback, and I would encourage continued uh conversations with members of that that community to make sure that um as the project moves forward that it's not impact negatively impacting that community that's already there.

And and mayor mentioned it, and I think it just highlights the importance of, and I know um community development and and and everybody involved has been working extremely hard on that desert rural overlay, and I think this just highlights we just we got to get that to the finish line um because it's gonna be so important to make sure that those folks that have chosen the rural lifestyle aren't having uh too many impacts as as the development continues to go.

Um so I do appreciate that.

I I really like how we're doing um these development agreements out in the public eye, transparent, everyone's well aware of what the obligations are um so that folks know what's going on.

The one of the biggest uh concerns that I have from residents is is development paying for itself and what exactly does that look like?

And so now we're able to really highlight this is exactly what this developer is required to do to make sure that they have the infrastructure in place to support their development.

And what I really like, and I I appreciate some of those numbers, but I bet if you put some numbers on that roadway improvements, there'd be a lot more zeros.

Uh, this is now money that the city is able to direct to other resources and continue to provide services for residents.

And so uh thank you for your presentation and for answering the questions.

Uh this this is good.

So that's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks.

I will entertain a motion.

Should I drink water in between that?

Uh I move to approve the Mesquite Mount Ranch development agreement resolution number 2026-14.

Second.

It's been moved and segmented.

Please cast your vote.

It's passed vote, Mayor.

Thanks.

Please read item nine.

Item nine, consideration and action pertaining to the approval of a resolution for the intent to annex for a portion of the project known as desert trails.

Okay, FS25-0856 resolution 2026 15.

All right, good evening, Miss Carney.

Good evening, Mayor.

Council.

Uh the item before you is the intent to annex for the Desert Trails Annexation application.

Case number FS250856.

The site is located generally um northeast of South Sun Valley Parkway and 219th Avenue, just west of the Ford Proving Grounds.

This annexation is being requested so that the applicant can dedicate the 55 uh feet of required future right-of-way uh per their uh development agreement.

The development agreement for desert trails.

Here's a closer look um at the subject parcels in relation to the current city boundaries and this is what it would look like um if the annexation were to be approved.

So tonight is the first of three meetings.

Um the next step would be filing the blank petition and then coming back forward uh to you for another public hearing, um, and then uh a final hearing uh for ultimate consideration approval.

And then a final hearing for ultimate consideration approval.

And that concludes my presentation.

The applicant and I are both available.

If you have questions.

All right.

Seeing none.

Appreciate the presentation.

I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve resolution number 2026-15.

Second.

It's been moved and segment.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number 11.

Item 11 consideration action pertaining to the approval of a cell tower lease agreement at the section 10 pocket park resolution 2026 18.

Mr.

Meachum, good evening.

Evening.

Evening, Mayor, members of the council.

Uh, here tonight to present the uh ground lease at the Section 10 pocket park for a potential cell tower location.

Um just to orient where we're talking about this would be the first um ground lease on the west side of US 60 and North Surprise.

Uh provides a strategic location in this area.

There's the closest tower is the one that is on the ground lease at Desert Oasis Water Facility, which is about two miles away in suburban areas.

That's about the max distance you want to be away from a cell tower, is about two miles.

And as it continues to develop about one mile.

Um, so this provides a really uh important infill in the gap in cell service and capacity in this area.

Um, this is our fourth ground lease in North Surprise, located at the northeast corner of 183rd Avenue in Norwich, uh Norwich Drive, and worked with uh Holly Osborne and her parks and recreation team to locate this to give them maximum flexibility for additional uh park facilities at this park in the future.

Um zooming in a little bit.

Uh it's at the southwest corner of the of the park.

Uh it would allow for multiple providers to be on this tower.

Um, and it's a 40 40 foot by 40 foot enclosure, has its own designated driveway as well as a parking spot, so we don't interfere with any traffic flow in the area.

Uh terms of the agreement, it's a 10-year term with three optional uh five-year periods.

Uh rent is $2,000, so it will net the city about 24,000 to $33,000 a year with a 3% annual increase until this is terminated.

So that is the main highlights of the agreement.

Um, just to give a quick overview of of some of the other activities that we're trying to do in North Surprise.

Um, Desert Oasis has been constructed.

It is operational.

They're going through uh radio radio frequency RF testing and honing honing that in, getting the signal dialed in.

So um while it's operational, it takes one to three months to really get that honed in and dialed in.

Uh we've executed ground leases at Rangeville Mercado and Fire Station 304, and tonight presenting the Section 10 pocket park and just showing some additional activity that we have in the area to really try to fill in the gaps in service in this area.

And because I get asked about this from from other council members, I put this in there.

Um we are searching out other opportunities.

There is additional opportunities surprise foothills, rescue oasis, and around downtown surprise around City Hall.

Um, in addition to this, we are working uh with a couple different companies for uh small cell deployment, uh, one of which would provide 50 nodes and what would be kind of called developed surprise.

Um so we're working macro towers down to small cells to try to improve service and in surprise and bring that capacity that we need.

And so with that, I can take any questions.

Okay.

Councilman, any questions?

Councilman Haney.

You know me, roads and cell service.

Um Brad, thank you for this presentation.

And and just for context for uh folks maybe tuning in or those of you out here that maybe haven't really understood kind of where we got to this point.

Originally, this was brought forth to the city uh because a lot of folks in the northwest area were dealing with lapses of coverage.

And at first, it everyone deals with your call dropping here and there, but for those in the northwest area, what was really happening was they were not able to reach their loved ones during an emergency.

We have instances of folks trying to call 911 and they can't get out.

And then so if you've ever had a call 911, it it seems like it takes folks forever to get there.

Now I imagine not being able to get through.

And so uh this is not typically something the city takes on.

Um however, we look to see well, what can the city do?

And one of the things we identified was using city-owned land to place the infrastructure needed to improve the overall service.

And and Brad, thanks to you and and how hard you've been working on this.

We went from pretty much no towers other than the ones already existing to we're looking at about what, five additional towers over time here.

Um significant.

And I think increasing the overall density, opening up those lines of communication to improve cell service, not just in the Northwest area, but to continue to identify sites throughout the city is gonna be critical as we continue to grow.

Um, what I would like is us to continue those conversations, not only um with other municipalities and try to look at it more from a regional perspective, uh, but also to see if we're able to talk to uh the private sector, specifically the development community as we continue to grow, have them to start kind of thinking of do they have areas in their development where they can place a tower because it it I think gone are the times where where we look at this as a simple luxury.

It's it's really almost like a utility and it needs to be starting to consider like that.

I think there's very few people that have a landline.

I know some of the folks uh uh are in my district have actually gotten a landline due to the lack of quality service.

I think my grandparents, you guys still have a I still memorize that number.

They still have a landline, but um for the most part.

Uh I think we really need to start looking at it from a different lens, but also with a regional approach.

So maybe we don't have any more um city-owned sites that are advantageous to put a tower, but other municipalities might.

And so I think just increasing the overall connectivity of the valley will will help everybody.

So, but thank you for your effort on this.

This is exciting.

This is really good for those those folks uh south of Grant and North Copper Canyon area.

They've been asking for this.

And so I appreciate you showing them some love on that end of the of Grand Avenue.

And I look forward to seeing what you do in the future.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well said.

I will entertain the motion.

I move to approve resolution number 2026-18.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

Thank you, Brad.

Well, Brad.

Thank you, Ms.

Brad.

Oh, you got a round of applause.

Good thing, Brad, you guys can call them using your cell phones any time of the night.

Eric, you might have some competition and transportation over there.

Um, so we're gonna move on to the public uh call to the public.

And I I know there's a lot of people here to speak, you know, about the ICE facility, and we're here to listen, uh, just like we were the last meeting.

But I just wanna reiterate that you know, in this chamber, we're gonna treat each other respectfully, we're gonna listen.

Um there's no shouting from the audience or or cussing or all those things.

We're, you know, we're here at council, we're gonna listen and we respect your opinions and um we're gonna go through it.

So once you get up here, please state your name and your crossroads for the record, and we'll go through um everybody that wants to speak.

Um, if there's anybody that hasn't had a chance to sign up to speak and they want to, uh, please take the opportunity now.

There's some papers in the in the back of the room.

Um, at this point, we're not gonna be accepting any more requests to speak because we're we're calling the public if you haven't done it yet.

Um, we'll have to wait till the next meeting on March 3rd.

So, Madam Clerk, please read the first uh name.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, first speaker, Lisa Everett.

Madam Klerk, here we had a few more names so they can get prepared.

Yes, sir.

Um the next couple of speakers will be Georgia, Spillers, Alex, Chris, and Aidan Garcia.

Okay.

And we have some seats up front if you wanted to sit and wait for your turn.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

And this is not directed at you.

Uh, I just know that the media has watched what people are saying, and I hope that they are listening to what I'm about to say.

The state of Arizona has 2800 ICE detention facility beds.

The question is, why do we need another detention center in our state if we are quickly deporting people who are here illegally?

The answer is we are not deporting people quickly.

What works on paper often does not work in practice.

On paper, we are supposed to detain an individual, take them to a detention center, homeland security contacts their country of origin, a passport is provided, and the person is deported.

But that is not happening.

Many countries are not cooperating with the United States and sending a passport.

That means countless people whose only crime was walking across the border, are being detained indefinitely, violating a Supreme Court decision from 2001.

Zavitas v.

Davis.

We are supposed to be the shining city on the hill.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws, not violating our own laws.

The punishment does not fit the crime.

The Supreme Court decision states that a detainee cannot be detained more than six months unless deportation is imminent.

Many detainees know that their deportation is not imminent.

And they are languishing in these facilities indefinitely.

At this time, there are well over 18,000 habeas corpus cases that have been filed by detainees.

Many of these detainees were picked up while at their monthly immigration check-in.

These detainees are trying to become a citizen.

They've spent years, sometimes over a decade, and tens of thousands of dollars to be in our country, only for them to be picked up by ICE and put in detention.

Most of these people were paying their for their own housing, food, and medical care.

And now your tax dollars are paying for those things.

Tell me, is this what we want for our country?

We have a solution, and it is in committee right now in the House of Representatives.

It is called the Dignity Act, sponsored by Republicans and Democrats.

We need to pass this now to stop the insanity.

To people who have said to me, and behind my back, Lisa is not even a real Republican.

I want you to know I am a Christian and a human first.

And those require me to be empathetic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Georgia Spillers.

And there's if there's some people in the back there standing.

There's some seats up here if you wanted to come forward and sit down.

Good evening.

Is there a clock to watch?

Uh yeah, the clerk will set it in a second.

Did you say your name and crossroads?

My name is Georgia Spillers.

Bell in Reims are my crossroads.

Thank you.

Laws are a good thing.

A society has the responsibility to create and enforce laws.

When enforced, laws prevent anarchy.

I don't want to live in anarchy.

I want to live in order.

And that necessitates an ordered country with an enforced border.

Borders and immigration enforcement are historically recognized.

The Treaty of Kaddish, circa 1259 BC, is the oldest known treaty to include a border delineation.

And ancient China from the third century BC has the first account of enforced travel documents.

Currently, if you enter Singapore illegally, you will face up to two years in prison and a $4,000 fine.

Russia, basic illegal entry, four years in prison, aggravating circumstances, up to 15 years in prison.

India, up to five years in prison and a 5,000 to 11,000 fine.

Pakistan, up to 10 years in prison.

North Korea, maybe only one to four months, but also possibly execution.

My point is that countries have laws regarding who enters and how they enter.

It's not a free-for-all, and it shouldn't be.

Our federal government is responsible for creating our immigration laws.

Deaths which could have been prevented.

I hope you're familiar with the names Lake and Riley, brutally murdered while jogging on her college campus by an illegal alien.

Molly Tibet stabbed to death by an illegal alien.

Rachel Morin, raped, bludgeoned with rocks, and strangled by an illegal alien.

Kayla Hamilton, strangled to death by an MS-13 gang member.

Jocelyn Nangray, only 12 years old, raped and strangled to death by two illegal aliens.

The time limit prevents me from reading the lengthy list of those killed by illegal aliens operating vehicles, but just two weeks ago, four more people were killed in a crash by an illegal alien from Kyrgyzstan.

These criminals do not have a right to be in our communities.

They endanger citizens and legal residents.

We don't want a Minneapolis situation here, and there's an easy way to avoid that.

Don't interfere with law enforcement as they enforce the laws.

Law enforcement agents are removing criminals from our neighborhoods.

It is much safer for me, my family, and my neighbors if those criminals are detained securely as they await deportation.

And that is why I support ICE having a facility to do so.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I like to read a couple more names also.

Next in line would be Kayla Bishop, Eric Merrill, and Diane Eden Giordano.

We do have some seats in the front if anybody wants to come forward.

Thank you, Mayor.

Alex at uh Waddell and Hunger and 75th Avenue.

Um, Mayor, Council members, I want to express my kudos for the small investment to our tourism fund.

The tourism subcommittee, chaired by my great councilman Duffy.

Um by Ms.

Kendra and Councilman Hastings and Haney have taken a small step for our city to become a sports tourist destination.

Making our city a destination for sports and other entertainments will bring tax revenue that could exceed into the millions.

I hope that my fellow surprise can see that this investment is a well use of our city budget, and that as we grow, we can continue to make investments in sports and entertainment.

This weekend, I did see fans wearing their Oregon State fan gear and a few Michigan fans too.

So I know that this investment will also pay off.

With that, Mayor, I just wanted to say we are a city of laws.

We are a state of laws, and we are a country of laws.

So when we ever break the law, should we not be punished?

This facility is not the first of its kind, nor will it ever be the last either.

Many, many um presidencies have used facilities like this.

Why haven't they made a big deal about it the last few times?

Because nobody interfered with them.

They were quick, they were fast, and it was done in a professional manner.

And that's what I believe that our ICE agents will do.

That's what I believe that this administration is doing as well.

So I support them.

I support our fellow law enforcements that are willing to take up that armor as well.

Mayor, this is gonna be a time of challenge for our city, but I know that this council is there to meet that challenge.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Is Aiden Garcia here?

Um, Kayla Bishop.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Kayla Bishop, and I'm fortunate enough to have just purchased my first beautiful home here in Surprise with my boyfriend on the crossroads of Belroad and Reims.

Recently, the surprise council sent a letter to Christy Gnome and the DHS.

This letter requested clarification regarding the 70 million dollar warehouse purchase on Sweetwater Bone.

While many of us have expressed gratitude for taking the time to listen to us, this letter does not accurately reflect the sheer anger and fear that was demonstrated from your constituents last February 3rd.

So the question is did you really even listen to us?

While this could be a good start, the letter is monotone and it shows this council is too scared to take a definitive stance.

We don't need a letter stating Christy Nome, please answer our questions.

We need a letter that says we strongly oppose this atrocity, and here's how we will fight back.

You can't keep shrugging your shoulders claiming there isn't anything that you guys can do.

Here is a list of other cities and mayors that actually are doing what they can do to fight back or even make it difficult for ICE to function properly.

Number one, Kansas City's council just imposed a five-year moratorium on detention facilities that are not run by the city.

This bans permits, zoning, approvals, and licenses.

I am aware it varies state by state, but I digress.

Number two, as we have seen, ICE sat around in neighborhoods in unmarked cars waiting for their moment to kidnap who they deem fit.

The mayor of Minneapolis signed an executive order that bans any law enforcement from camping out in city-owned parking lots, garages, and think it lots.

These areas would be marked as restricted.

Number three, the mayor of Chicago signed an executive order stating the same exact thing.

He also encouraged private businesses to voluntarily refuse ICE.

Number four, newly introduced this month in February 2026.

Seattle council members are proceeding to utilize emergency legislation that would ban new detention centers or jails within city limits.

This would prevent federal immigration enforcement from opening new sites.

The Department of Homeland Security posted on social media, and I quote, you will not stop us.

This administration will not be intimidated.

So why are we so intimidated?

We are here in person standing up for our community, and that will not end.

We will show up to every meeting, even if it is just 20 of us.

We will protest, we will call, and we will not go silently into the night.

You guys spoke of transparency and what can the city do?

So my question is right back at you.

I want you to carry this weight with you every time there's a kidnapping, a child that has lost their mother, schools being shut down to protect their students.

Remember that you guys are the ones who sat by and remained complicit.

It is not enough to say that the city of surprise was not aware of the purchase.

Now you're aware, so do something about it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

I'd like to call a couple of more names before the previous two.

So the next one is Eric Merrill, if you're here.

Then Diane Eden Giordano, Kelly Wright, Amanda Kaminskis, Gary Hudson.

Please come forward, state your name.

Good evening, sir.

Mayor, counsel, my name is Gary Hudson.

I've been a resident of Mountain District for over 25 years.

My property has value because a prize is a beautiful, friendly city with a diverse population.

In the past, a prize government posted the city surprise celebrates tremendous contributions of the Hispanic community to our community to the state and the nation.

With this ICE facility will come masked agents arresting our Hispanic neighbors at our grocery stores, out of a city and sports event next door at our courthouse and targeting children in our schools.

Are not illegal neighbors.

The worst of the worst are ICE agents who violate their constitutional rights and human rights.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Thank you.

Out of the last group, if no one else is coming forward, I'm gonna call out five more names.

I think we have one, Madam Clerk.

Oh, thank you.

Come on up.

Just come on up and state your name if I've already called you.

My name is Diane Eden Giordano.

Location is Reims and Grant.

Mr.

Mayor, Council.

I moved to surprise in 2004.

And I'm deeply disappointed as a resident here.

The planned ICE detention center surprise raises extreme concerns for all residents, as was shared by numerous speakers in the prior meeting.

My view at this time raises two critical concerns.

Trust and safety.

Now we add, watch what they do, not what they say.

Voting requires earned respect and trust.

I remain deeply disappointed and bewildered and alarmed.

Why?

So many resources available to elected officials in Arizona in surprise, report they were uninformed by the federal government's planned purchase of a warehouse detention center.

Anywhere in Arizona or surprise, considering the daily comments that come out of DC and ICE activity.

Research and reporting shows resources are available to investigate, vet, and study.

One resource that I found is a citizen-led group co-founded by a 24-year Air Force veteran simply tracking public information and publishing a map detailing location targets, a summary which shows where houses bought, warehouses canceled, targeted warehouses for sale, and all the associated costs attached to it.

Several U.S.

states and elected officials have either prevented or are in the process of proceedings and community planning to prevent ICE facilities.

I found 11 states currently.

Peaceful protesters are we the people.

I'm one.

Documented evidence from court rulings, plus citizen videos show ICE agents have proven they can't be trusted and they use unwarranted violence, language, and intimidation on people.

DHS has proven no trust based on the Minneapolis experience alone, plus many others and the lawlessness brought.

Who will be the next to die at the hands of lawless masked agents in the streets?

Is surprise ready for the trauma?

Destruction ICE will bring.

For me, it's a real question for all elected officials specifically.

How is surprise preparing to manage the chaos?

People and residents expect trust and safety.

Surprise has been a promising, growing community and good place to live.

Now for me, watch what they do, not what they say.

My hope prevent, not react.

We need elected officials to engage with a proactive plan to identify solutions to prevent this detention center from opening.

I believe we the people are waiting to hear elected surprise officials address the questions.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, do you want to read a few more names?

Yes, please.

Alexa Coulter, Brooke McNeil, Alexandria Mowen.

Thank you.

Please state your name.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Amanda Kaminskis, and I work near 37th Avenue in Greenway.

I stand before you tonight in strong opposition to the proposed ICE detention facility.

First, this facility poses a direct threat to our community's well-being.

ICE has a documented nationwide pattern of providing inadequate medical care in its detention facilities.

People have suffered and died from neglect in facilities, just like the one proposed here.

So we want to bring that model of care or lack of care into this city.

The answer should be a resounding no.

Second, this is an economic anchor we do not need.

Studies consistently show that large detention facilities depress nearby property values.

This facility would jeopardize that investment and stall the positive growth.

But tonight I need to speak from my heart about a more immediate danger.

I work just five minutes from the proposed site.

I am a caregiver for a high needs, autistic, brown-skinned girl who has a history of escaping her home, as well as behaviors that could be misunderstood by ICE officers and increased police presence in the area.

Her safety is my responsibility and my deepest concern.

This facility will not operate in a vacuum.

It will attract protests, counter-protests, and a consistent, heightened presence of police and ICE officers.

Our quiet streets will become a zone of tension for a vulnerable child who may run.

A child who, in a moment of panic, could be misunderstood by armed officers.

This environment isn't just disruptive for her.

It is potentially lethal.

We are talking about bringing a national flashpoint into our neighborhoods, right next to our families.

The way ICE treats immigrants in detention is reason enough to say no.

But the turmoil it brings outside its walls, the risk to our children, our peace, and our community's character as an even more urgent reason.

Surprise has a choice.

It can choose to be a community that prioritizes safety, property, and the well-being of every resident, especially the most vulnerable, or we can choose to host a massive detention center with a troubled history.

I urge you to protect our community, stand up against this facility.

Other communities have stopped detention centers.

Let's not be surprised by the harm it will cause.

Let's be proactive and let's say no.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Oh, thank you, ma'am.

Please state your name.

Oh, okay.

Please say your name.

Yes, sorry.

Okay.

Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Alexa Coulter, and I live near Grand and Reims Road.

I was here two weeks ago to speak to the council about the planned ICE detention facility, and I'm back again this week to express my grave concern on the matter.

For context, my background is in education and public administration, and so I come to this conversation through the lens of a citizen who shares a passion for community and also a thorough understanding of the relationship between structures that oversee public governance.

I acknowledge the council's recent letter to Christy Noam and DHS regarding the planned use of the facility as well as its impact on local infrastructure.

While this was a step following the property's uh acquisition, I am here to urgently recommend the council move toward contingency planning directly within our community.

As I stated before, ICE is above the rule of law, and with that, our city government must be prepared to shift its focus from planning for public governance to planning for public crisis.

The term public crisis cannot be overlooked in this dialogue.

There are people in our community and neighboring communities who will be unjustly profiled and targeted by ICE.

Again, this is not conjecture.

It is the reality in cities that have already been impacted by ICE operations.

We know ICE will cause significant disruption to school safety and student learning.

In the Minneapolis area, local news outlets are reporting increased absences of 20 to 40% in school districts heavily occupied by ICE.

Additionally, several districts report ICE uses both school bus routes and parking lots in their enforcement activities, and some districts have canceled school days after expressing concern regarding student safety.

We also know ICE operations will prevent people from accessing food safely and securely.

In January, nearly a hundred food shelving organizations in Minnesota signed a letter emphasizing the chaos and violence ICE inflicts on their local communities, making it harder to get food to Minnesotans in need.

Healthcare providers in impacted areas have also expressed sincere concerns about people who feel unsafe seeking medical care, whether that be for emergencies, illness, or chronic condition.

A physician recently stated they have never seen this level of chaos and fear in health care for patients and for healthcare teams.

These are the realities we need to be preparing for.

The immediate and long-term impacts ICE activity will have upon vulnerable marginalized people in our community.

And so I am here to ask candidly what local planning is currently taking place to ensure people who are now unsafe in our city will safely have access to their most fundamental needs in a public crisis.

I think it would be convenient to say the supremacy of the federal government ties your hands when there are options directly within your control that still allow you to lead in these circumstances.

The council can build regional or local task forces to evaluate and plan for access to necessary public services, host district meetings to foster communication and support with local aid networks.

You can coordinate resources to help to strategically plan for safe, supportive community care.

Because while a letter is a start, it alone will not be enough to protect the people living in your jurisdiction.

And so I'm calling on you to begin leading local organization efforts at the community level now, as this preparation is vital to the safety and humanity of the people in your care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Members of the city council, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Brooke McNail, and I'm a longtime surprise resident.

My major cross states cross streets are Reims and Greenway.

I am here because our city is facing a decision that will have lasting consequences for children, families, and public systems, and we cannot afford to treat it as abstract or distant.

The McKinney Vento Act exists to protect students experiencing housing instability.

It ensures children can stay enrolled in school, receive transportation, and access support when their lives are disrupted.

In our city, these services are already stretched, already reactive, and already responding to crisis.

The planned ICE detention facility will significantly increase that crisis.

When parents are detained by ICE, families often lose housing immediately.

Children are displaced overnight.

Some stop coming to school altogether.

Others suddenly qualify for McKinney Vento services, not because of economic hardship alone, but because a parent has been taken away.

This is not a theoretical.

Cities that host detention centers see increased student homelessness, higher demand for emergency housing, greater strain on school transportation systems, and significant mental health impacts on children.

And it is local governments, school districts, housing departments, nonprofits, and city budgets that absorb these costs.

McCannivento is meant to stabilize children after trauma.

A detention facility introduces trauma at scale.

While this council may not control federal immigration law, you do control whether our city becomes an active site of family destabilization.

You control zoning, contracts, partnerships, and the message this city sends about who is safe here.

Approving or enabling this facility is not a neutral act.

It is a decision that will increase student homelessness, overwhelm already limited school supports, and force educators and city workers into permanent crisis response.

I urge you to consider the full impact, not just on policy, but on children sitting in our classrooms right now, whose lives will be permanently altered by what happens here.

Cities are judged not by what they permit, but by who they protect.

Please do not make our city a place where children lose their homes and their parents at the same time.

Please choose to protect families, students, and the stability of our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

William O'Lear, Sam Cooley, Tyler Perry, Callie Overs, William Buckingham.

If I have called your name, be prepared to come forward.

Please state your name.

Well, my name is Alexandria Moen.

And last time I forgot to say my cross streets.

So they are Bell and Bullard.

I'm not going to be as eloquent as I was last week or as most of the people have been tonight.

Quite upset.

I just wanted to say don't let false um false equivalent pulls to your ethos do anything.

When people use the names of people who have been hurt or people that have been uh killed or murdered uh by these criminal illegal aliens, they're using these names in vain.

These people uh and their families haven't necessarily agreed to have their kids be the poster for anti-ICE or pro-ICE.

They don't want that.

And I think using that is wrong.

I also think the letter that you guys sent was quite uninspired.

It didn't really have, like everybody said, it was flat.

There was no bias there.

And that doesn't represent the people here.

I know we have some people on both sides, but if you look around the room right now and if you hear everybody talking, seems like we're mostly on one side.

And I'd love to see Jack Hastings and Jeff Murray pay attention because it's so demeaning and so belittling of the people coming up here talking to you, and you're not even looking at me right now.

Tells me everything I need to know.

Thank you.

Tells me everything I need to know.

At least the people on this side have been paying attention.

So that's all I have to say.

Yes.

Thank you.

Again, I'd like to stress that we're gonna respect people in this room.

I don't I know we feel a certain way.

Um but as far as shouting from the crowd, I would like to have you not do that so we can continue listening to everybody here tonight, respecting everybody's time.

Good evening, ma'am.

Hello, my name is Samantha Cooley.

I'm not a resident of surprise.

I live on 17th Avenue in Thomas in Phoenix.

I drive an hour here to get here today.

I drove here two weeks ago, and I will continue to drive here.

I have gone on ice rapid responses.

I do mutual aid, I take food and clothes and diapers to families who have lost someone to being detained.

I am seeing the effects of what is happening with the ice raids and the taking of people, and they're not the worst of the worst.

That's three percent of these people.

So I think that we really need to focus on the cost of what it's going to be to your city.

Um, in Eloy, they have the 1500 bed facility right now.

And I go out there every Sunday and we play music outside of the facility so that the detainees can hear music and have a little joy in their life.

And as we go out there, we always see an ambulance and a fire truck parked right outside the detention center.

The reason why they're parked there is because they want to get there as soon as they get a 911 call.

There are repeated calls throughout the day to the Eloy fire department and ambulance because people are having heart attacks because they're not given their blood pressure medicine.

They're having seizures because they're not giving their seizure medicine.

Blood pressure medicine for 30 days is about $2.

And seizure medication can be as low as $11.

So the fact that ICE is withholding this medication and core civics specifically, their private prison company is disgusting.

And they're passing that expense on to the city of Eloy.

The city of Eloy has 20,000 residents, and they're paying for an ambulance to take people from these facilities and drive them to Casa Grand to a hospital in Casa Grand, which why does Casa Grand have to bear the burden when they could be giving medication to these people for dollars and pennies a day?

Um there just was a man who is in there choking on his tongue, having a seizure.

These prison guards refuse to treat him or help him.

He had a family member there.

The family members said, I don't care, I'm going to help him.

The family member saved his life, and then in turn, he was punished and sent in sent to solitary confinement for 30 days.

I again asked the city a surprise.

Do you have the hospital capacity?

You have a ton of seniors around here that use these hospitals and count on the ambulatory service.

Do you also have the budget to afford this added expense that you will be taking on?

Should you allow a concentration camp to be built here?

Thank you.

Thank you.

If your name was called, you can move up to the front and be ready to uh speak after this gentleman.

Hi, good evening.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, council.

My name's William O'Lear.

I live on uh Citrus near uh Citrus and Waddell.

Why are we building this or allowing this to be built here in surprise?

Is it gonna bring us revenue to surprise?

Is it gonna give us a dollar more of revenue?

Is it gonna improve our quality of life for the citizens that live in surprise?

Is it gonna make us safer?

I don't believe so.

I think it's gonna jeopardize our communities, especially our citizens of color.

I think it's gonna make their lives in jeopardy.

You know, people talked earlier.

They mentioned earlier that uh they want people to obey the laws.

You know, obey the law.

You know, it's a misdemeanor to come in this country undocumented.

No.

I'd like ICE and DHS to obey the law.

They're the ones that are breaking the laws every day.

My eyes did not fail me when Renee Renee Nicole Good was murdered.

My eyes did not fail me.

When I saw Alex Predi murdered.

Are they obeying the law in this land when they won't even let the city of Minneapolis and the state investigate these murders?

They're denying them access to the evidence.

I mean, it's it's unbelievable in the United States of America.

That other individual talked about different countries.

I don't want to be like those countries.

This is the United States of America.

The only Western democracy that has a constitution that is the law of the land and should be lived and breathed every day by everybody.

Excuse me, one second.

You know, Missouri, Texas, Massachusetts, and other cities have been very successful in preventing these detention centers, you know, from from being built in their communities.

We need to do that.

Do you have the will to do that?

You have the power, but do you have the will?

You know, in at least 4,421 cases, more than 400 federal judges have ruled since the beginning of October that the U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding people illegally as it carries out these mass deportations.

Illegally.

Thank you, sir, and even less evidence.

Thank you, sir.

Doing so would result in chaos.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, Vincent Hernandez, Tina Mullika, Cynthia Fox, Rosalind Mellinger Rocho.

Thank you.

Please state your name.

Um, my name is Callie Overs, and good evening, Mayor and Council members.

I spoke last meeting on behalf of Dysart students as I'm a student there, and how this detention center is half a mile away from my school.

And tonight I come here disappointed.

I thank you and our attorney general for trying to communicate with the DHS and resolving unanswered questions.

However, like others said, is not enough.

I'm disappointed that there is no true urgency or care on how this will affect the students at my school.

I'm also disappointed in both my school district and school to school administration for their silence.

I understand their job isn't to speak politics, but they took an oath, like you guys to protect their students.

In no way have they ensured our safety against uh potential violence from ICE.

Meanwhile, my school administration made a post about Valentine's Day gifts not being allowed with hashtag safety first and the message.

However, when it can came comes to the real safety of students near a detention facility and ice agents, that concern is completely absent.

This problem is even more alarming because many Dysart students do not have bus transportation due to our uh financial problems.

Those living within two miles of school must walk, which means many students will pass this detention center every day, and it's gonna expose them to the dangers of whatever this ICE detention center brings to them.

Um regardless of how anyone feels about ICE, we must look at the facts.

No one wants to go to school or live near a detention center that our president claims is holding rapists, murder, sex traffickers, and gang members in a warehouse that was never built to be a secure facility.

What happens if one escapes?

How will I prevent detainees from entering our bill our schools, uh neighborhoods or businesses?

What about all the vehicles coming in and out all the all hours?

The constant media attention and weekly protest.

Is that really wants?

Is that really what surprise wants and needs?

What about detention or detainees who are U.S.

citizens or a court court ordered to be released?

ICE often just opens the doors with no plans for how they get home.

Many of these people aren't even from the state.

Are they just going to be released into our community?

If every detainee is a true criminal, how is that safe for students regarding how it's only half a mile away from my school?

As a senior, I feel guilty knowing I will graduate and leave behind younger students who will who still must face this reality.

I shouldn't feel guilty about this.

The Dalton Powers should feel responsible.

Instead of enjoying their high school experience, students will now be carrying fear daily.

Politics and division have distracted people from something we should all agree on.

The safety of students is not partisan.

It is a civic duty.

For many students, this is personal.

We deserve leadership and not silence.

So tonight I'm asking for action.

Work with our senators and representatives at the federal level and examine city codes and zoning laws.

I hope I don't have to return here because of continued silence from those in charge.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You got it.

If your name was called early, you're more than welcome to move forward and be ready to speak next.

Good evening, sir.

Yeah, my name is William Buckingham.

Uh I live uh well in my cross streets or Mountain View and Reims.

Uh I am a re Arizona resident, but uh I'm a snowbird that goes back to the Minneapolis area during the summer.

And I was back there a week, and uh within within that week, all of a sudden I was told a shelter in place.

And some wacko uh went to we had our ex uh speaker of the house and her husband, two in the morning.

They came uh masked in what in a police car, what looked to be a police car, knocked on their door and killed them both, and then went two miles away and uh two in the morning, knocked on the door in a police uniform, masked a police you know, police car out there and shot uh our state's uh ICE state senator and his wife.

Uh, fortunately, the state senator each one took eight bullets and they survived.

Uh I did send you uh you folks a letter expressing uh my concerns.

I just do, you know, will highlight a couple things here.

Uh one is uh candidly, I don't agree with them politically very much, but uh I thought Paul Kosar wrote a good letter.

And uh I think you know that letter is something to build on.

I suggested certain things in addition to that.

Uh I think there's the concern, and I'm not an attorney.

Uh, but uh there is the supremacy supremacy clause of the constitution, but there's also the 10th Amendment that gives state and local governments certain rights here.

I think the other uh let's let's try to be realistic here too.

Uh hopefully there'll be a change in administrations in a little less than three years, and there may be a totally different philosophy.

Uh, at that time, they would may go for the uh worst of the worst.

They may also decide to throw the book at employers.

Uh, candidly, I'd like to see a few a few employers jailed.

And I think that would be a much less expensive and traumatic way uh to deal with this situation.

I guess there's gonna have to be at this facility significant renovations uh to it if they renovate it.

Uh, and let's say three years, what are they gonna do?

Are they gonna tear out all the toilets and all the showers to bring it back again?

Uh, there's also somebody had mentioned the I think the McKinley Vento uh bill that would uh come into play.

So at any rate, thank you.

Thanks for hearing us.

Thank you, sir.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening.

My name is Vincent Hernandez.

My cross streets are 83rd and Bethany.

So, according to a report by the American Immigration Council, there are about 73,000 people in ICE detention as of mid-January.

Uh, the beginning of 2025, that number was at 40,000.

The beginning of 2025, the percent of people in ICE detention with no criminal history was at 6%.

December 2025, that percentage was at 41%.

According to the same American Immigration Council, in January alone, already six people have died in detention.

And this nation has seen two fatal shootings happen in Renee Good and Alex Predi at the Hounds of Ice.

The controversy lies in this detention center and why it should not go up.

To protect this country, ICE does not need this facility.

Their use of lawlessness and fear tactics show that what they need is accountability, intense oversight, and an actual productive operation.

The people are mad.

You see it in the student protest.

And you and in all of the protests happening in the state, plus around the country.

Like leadership, buy-in starts from the top and trickles down.

And when this fails, this country fails.

I silently brought bought this facility, and if it goes up, it's only gonna allow racial profiling and social injustice to go up as well at the taxpayers' expense.

This building and agenda is backed by an organization claiming to be after the worst of the worst, but at face value, we've only seen at-large arrest, resulting in a lot of non-criminals in detention.

This facility is about a menacing organization operating like a street gang, trying to incite fear.

And if it goes up, it's gonna create more costs and it's gonna impact a lot more than the city of surprise.

All paid for it with our tax dollars.

So to clarify, ICE does not need this facility.

What they need is to be held accountable for the way they operate instead of trying to build a thousand beds to fill.

So everyone here that showed up does not operate in a vacuum.

Per their website, ICE reports 31 people died in their custody last year.

It's clear this organization, along with this possible building stems from a systemic failure that has proved more recently and over the last year that it's set on devaluing this country, even at the expense of harming us, the people that live here.

So to close, I ask that you all support to stop this shameful overreaching and to not allow this building to go up.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Hi.

My name is Rosalind Mellinger Durasher.

I live at Cactus in Reims.

I want to thank the mayor and the council uh for listening to surprise residents' concerns at the last meeting and for communicating them to DHS.

Since then, I've driven past the ICE warehouse right down the street, as I'm sure many of us here have.

The first thing I noticed was the sheer enormity of the warehouse.

The next thing I noticed was an open dirt lot right next door.

Then across the street, I saw a chemical facility.

And a little further down, several large available warehouses.

Driving south on Dysart, I saw that there are available empty warehouses and land for miles.

This led me to wonder what's to stop DHS from expanding here.

DHS has gone from detaining roughly 40,000 people, as the gentleman said before in January of 2025 to over 73,000 people now.

As we know, they're buying up these kinds of warehouses all over the country to round up and imprison even more people.

We seem to have an ideal location for continued expansion here in surprise.

Reports from people have who have been inside these camps around our country indicate human rights are regularly violated.

People are being detained for longer than the law allows.

And U.S.

citizens and documented immigrants are being hurt and traumatized in this process.

These are the same expected conditions for the people who are detained and kept in the surprise warehouse right down the street.

As a community, we simply cannot allow hundreds, if not thousands of people, our neighbors who have not committed a crime to be held against their will without due process in this warehouse.

You are the elected government.

You are the law and order and a representatives of our city.

You must not allow illegal imprisonment of human beings here in surprise.

We need you to demand oversight and transparency.

And you need to actively stand in the way of the use of this facility to detain people until you get it.

If you don't, you're co-signing on the atrocities that are sure to occur in the surprise warehouse right down the street.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, will you read a few more names, please?

Yes, sir.

Um, the next five.

Marco Sabrett, Leo Menkowitz, Eric, Erica Williams, William Murphy, and Donna Baronski.

Madam Clerk, can you get a how many more people we have to I have one to me for?

For the next one.

Seven more?

Okay.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council.

My name is Tina Malica.

I live at Bullard and Cactus here in District 6, just two and a half miles from the future ICE detention facility.

As a 25-year resident of surprise, I've watched it grow from dirt roads with just a few stores and restaurants to a booming city with multiple entertainment and retail venues.

My children have grown up here playing sports, working at the pool, attending our public schools.

I appreciate that six of you sent a letter to DHS that asked many of the questions that your constituents raised at the last meeting.

And deeply disappointed that one council member voted to do absolutely nothing.

Unlike, excuse me, unfortunately, the letter still states that the city cannot interfere.

So unlike Attorney General Mays, who is investigating this as a public nuisance, the council is seems to be choosing the path of least resistance.

At the last city council meeting, I spoke against the facility and appealed to your sense of humanity.

If the facility comes to fruition, the ice presence in surprise will increase.

As I mentioned, there are nine schools within a three-mile radius.

So the prospect of local, so if the prospect of local citizens and young children being arrested in our city, or the impact to our environment, traffic, public safety, and infrastructure does not move you.

Tonight I appeal to your economic side.

Newly released DHS documents reveal that the federal government plans to spend an estimated 150 million dollars to retrofit the warehouse on sweetwater.

Once the building is retrofitted, it will essentially be unavailable for any type of private use.

Many people have spoken about the McKinney Bentmo Act, so I won't repeat that.

Basically, it's 24 acres of prime job creating land that will be lost forever and decades of non-tax paying drain on our city and its residents.

As a federal property, they will pay zero dollars in property taxes.

A private warehouse on this site could bring hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in revenue.

That's lost revenue for schools and city services and an undue tax burden on the residents.

The existence of this detention facility will, as many people have said, lower our property taxes to them in the many neighborhoods that surround it.

So I ask again, how are you coordinating with the Surprise and El Mirage Police Departments in the Dysart School District to protect our neighborhoods, our schools, and our students when ice come?

Will you commit to a permanent moratorium before you leave for your DC trip instead of waiting for a possible meeting with them?

And have you conducted utility audits to see if the water and sewer lines can handle 1,500 people in that center?

As many of the people here have stated, we do not want a nice facility here.

This is a beautiful city that I have raised my family in.

It will be an atrocity if we allow it to be here.

I thank you for your time.

And apparently in two weeks, I'll be coming back with statistics on crime rates of citizens versus illegals.

Go ahead, sir.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

It's good to come before you again and watch democracy in action.

I do appreciate it.

One young lady that spoke just before I did stole my thunder because, like her, I've looked around the let me back up.

My name is Ted Murphy.

I live in the neighborhood of Reims and Greenway.

And I spoke at the last meeting, but as I drive around surprise up to 303, down to 303, trying most of the time to stay in the speed limit.

Not often.

Anyway, we won't go there.

There are a lot of warehouses out there, Mayor, members of the council.

And my question to you, one question is no one told this selected body that this warehouse was coming, or this facility was coming.

So what makes us believe that this isn't the tip of the iceberg?

It is.

It is.

We've seen this around the country.

I don't know what acronym they would use to describe what they put in uh surprise, but we do we want to be the Alquitrup, Alcatraz uh what they call it, down Florida?

I don't think so.

It's crazy, folks.

And sometimes you know you listen to these folks, Mayor, and I do appreciate the letter that you sent.

At least you uh got uh, we hope some response from elected officials on the national level.

That's more than we ever got.

We've called every one of them, talked, tried to talk to them, went to one's office and it was locked.

I shook the door and uh thought it was the wrong place, shook the door again.

Young man stuck his head out the door and said, Can I help you?

And no, I just come around rattling doors, but that's an elected official, and we want some answers.

Seriously, folks.

I don't mean to be flippant, but at some point in time you have to say, you know, no matter what we do here today, the bottom line is it's between right and wrong.

It's right and wrong.

What's right for our children, what's right for our grandchildren, what's right for our great grandchildren?

What's right for that person down the street that we don't even know?

And mayor, you had a and and council members, you had a presentation here about baseball.

I believe they call it the Big 12.

Love baseball.

When I grew up in the state of Mississippi, we didn't have anything but baseball and basketball.

But fast forward five years, and that's the thing I want to put out here in surprise is fully manned, fully housed.

How many folks are going to want to come to surprise to a tennis tournament, to a baseball tournament, to anything?

I've been at In N Out Burger and had folks ask me where the surprise stadium was because they were here from Kansas City, wanted to go to see the Kansas City Royal play.

How many folks has that going to continue?

Mayor, I gotta tell you, I don't think so.

I don't think so.

Again, I appreciate everything you folks are doing, but at some point in time, we just have to simply say, not here, not now, not ever.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Thank you, sir.

Madam Clerk.

Has she read anybody's name that hasn't been up yet?

Sir, go ahead.

Madam Clerk, if you can read a few more names supposed coming up.

Yes, sir.

So these are the last seven.

Nick Olet, Daniel Peterson, Jessica Reed, Tim Reed, Maureen Miller, and Paul Revere.

If your name was uh called, you're more than welcome to move up front and you're ready to go.

Good evening, sir.

Okay, good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Leo Mankowitz.

I uh been living here in surprise almost 20 years.

Uh I live near um the Greenway in Lichfield, and I have had the uh distinct pleasure of serving on this city council for a short time back in about 10 years ago.

Uh concerning this uh particular warehouse, I am concerned about the impact on the community, the immediate neighborhood, in terms of just the sewage and the public services and utilities.

This was definitely not zoned as a detention center, nor was it zoned to store humans.

It was designed to store goods.

Will men and women be separated?

Will children be separated from adults?

Will actual criminals be separated from general population?

I would say the surprise police department could do a much better job at that than these people that run these kind of facilities.

Will there be showers, food services, medical services, judicial services?

Due to its proposed size of 1,500 people, it'll probably be designated as a processing center.

How many judges and courtrooms will it have?

Will they allow surprised citizens to go in and visit?

Disease outbreaks are much more common today than ever before, largely due to mismanagement and misinformation at the federal level.

Is there a plan to deal with that?

The 10th Amendment to the Constitution dictates the federal government cannot usurp the police powers of the state unless there's a bona fide emergency, which this is not.

It is merely promoted as such.

Most of the people being detained are not the worst offenders.

Many of them turn out to be American citizens.

Cases where states and cities challenge the overreach of ICE are proceeding successfully through the legal system.

Pima County has acted to prevent detention centers from being established there.

Surprise can be a plaintiff, not just a defendant.

Immigration and customs or ICE follow the mandates of Project 2025 and are set to create a gulag here in America.

All the most infamous concentration camps in Germany and Poland are known by the small town where they are located, such as Dachau, Treblinka, Belzec, and the tiny Polish town of Oshensim, known forever now by its German name of Auschwitz.

Is this the legacy that you want to leave for the town of surprise?

Because that will be your legacy if you let this happen and it gets out of control.

Thank you for your comments.

Mayor, I have one more name that uh we didn't call, but they submitted a request.

Okay.

Um after this batch, the last name is Hannah Rabowski.

Just making sure everybody knows.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Erica Williams, and I um across streets are El Mirage and Grand.

All right.

Um, good evening, Mayor and Cal Simmons.

Um, I stand here today to urge you to take every lawful step to prevent the property from becoming a 1,500-bed ice concentration camp.

This is one of 23 mega warehouses purchased by DHS throughout the U.S., some plan to hold up to 10,000 people.

What we have to consider is that this warehouse sits directly across the street from a residential subdivision and is within immediate proximity to multiple schools, including the school my 12-year-old attends.

Placing a large high security detention facility in this location would fundamentally change the character of our city.

It will bring protest and it will bring heavy enforcement action.

I am going to focus on names.

Names of Americans killed by ICE and CPB.

Asians lied on, these people were lied on, called domestic terrorists for simply exercising their First Amendment rights.

Citizens like Maramar Martinez, a US-born woman shot five times by an ICE agent.

Thankfully, she survived.

Then there's the Americans that were murdered.

Renee Good, shot in the head by an ICE agent called the domestic terrorist.

Alex Predi, shot in the neck and in the back multiple times by a CBP agent for trying to prevent a woman from being pepper sprayed was called an armed gunman.

And then there's Keith Porter Jr., a father of friend who was doing what so many Americans do every new year's when the clock strikes 12.

All were killed by DHS agents taxed to detain undocumented immigrants, yet these officers, whether on duty or off, use what can only be considered as a cess of force, deadly force, and took the lives of contributing members of our society.

We do not want this in our city, in our neighborhoods.

We don't want it.

We don't.

And you all should not allow it.

You should work with Attorney General Mays to ensure that you take every single legal avenue that there is to prevent this from occurring.

I talk to people every day for at least six to seven hours a day in the job that I do.

People who support this and people who do not.

And the people who do not continually live in fear.

Fear of being detained by ICE, fear that they will die because they did not comply.

I urge you all to read Martin Niemuller's poem, First They Came, and I'm gonna try to read it as fast as possible.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came from me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Stana Bronsky.

Good evening.

And we, my husband and I live at Reims and Belle.

I have prepared remarks, but everybody has been so eloquent tonight that I am just going to abbreviate what I wanted to say.

Trying to get transparency and information for the community.

But it was a first step, and I think that we need to do more, and that you need to do more.

One of my personal philosophies is hope for the best and plan for the worst.

Applying that to this situation, I see it as we're hoping in hoping for the best.

In the planning for the worst, I think that is exactly what you all are planning to do with trying to get funds to ameliorate some of the negative aspects and costs that will undoubtedly come from this facility coming into surprise.

Working in concert with the attorney general and the other cities that have been mentioned that have had success is really important.

And while I respect that not everyone has the same view as me, and that there are people that have different views, um, valid views.

I'm not trying to denigrate them, but the potential for community fear and the historical proven actions that have happened in other cities, most recently, obviously, Minneapolis, but so many other cities.

It just can't be ignored.

It's incumbent upon this council to use everything, every available resource to protect the character and safety of surprise.

And I urge you to take this, take a stand for the community.

Practically, I think the next step is for the council to make a stand to pass a resolution saying that you oppose this facility coming to surprise.

And I came up with about five potential pros for this to come for this facility to open up in surprise, but I had three pages of comms.

You know, I just don't see it.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, I have one additional name.

Uh, Christine Sienna.

So if I've called your name, please come forward.

Good evening.

Hello, Mayor Council.

My name is Maureen Miller, and I'm in District One.

I am at 163rd Avenue in Grand.

And I want to start by letting you know that I'm a Phoenix native, and I'm a proud product of the public school system that I grew up with here.

My neighborhood schools were ethnically diverse.

We were educated that the United States of America was the melting pot.

That was the big saying back in the day.

And I recall growing up to be very proud of this.

Additionally, my children were taught the importance and value of diversity and acceptance.

However, we have the technology to effectively man the border.

Separating mothers and families from children is heartless and no answer to the issue.

People following the process for asylum must be allowed to do so.

Ridding our country of the worst of the worst should require precise investigations.

Yet we are seeing racial profiling and random violence as the criteria for rounding up people for imprisonment or deportation.

From what we have recently seen from the CBP, I am now questioning the tactics that may have been used at our southern border for a long time.

We should be ashamed and embarrassed as a country.

And if we allow an ICE detention facility into our city, we will share in that shame.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I'm in the next.

Are you sure?

Okay.

Good evening and hello, everyone behind me.

My name is Hannah Grabowski.

I have lived in the valley for 11 years and in surprise for the last seven at Waddell and Reims.

I am a university professor, researcher, and published writer here in the valley.

I work in the humanities and social sciences.

I have taught undergraduate students who have come from surprise high schools, which has always been nice.

In my teaching, I stress critical thinking, media literacy, rejecting colonial epistemologies, and I uplift public facing scholarship and activism.

I also talked about Arizona history, including but not limited to the Japanese internment camps of the 1940s and the reason why we have Indian School Road.

How the federal government kidnapped Native children.

This council's letter to quote you, the honorable Christine Ohm is begging to be added to such curriculum.

Myselves and teachers are like, we'll cite your letter, and we will ask, why did the Surprise City Council prioritize anticipated traffic concerns in the phase of a concentration camp?

What were those timelines of the redevelopment and operational use of the surprise ice warehouse and its genocide?

And our students will ask us wow, bureaucracy and ego was so strong that they submitted to fascism.

They only rolled over after one week.

Just what is the equivalency of human beings to home property value?

Last meeting, we all asked for transparency, which unfortunately I don't expect to receive 100%.

So instead, I will offer you transparency as a constituent.

Should you stay complicit in this matter, you will not be forgiven.

You will be ashamed, and you will not have a job.

And to my neighbors, we are powerful.

Let us feed each other, house and host each other, teach and read with each other, care for our children.

Our relationships matter, and we need to sustain this energy as we move forward.

We can live differently.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi there.

I just want to applaud you all for still being awake and being here.

I've never spoken.

Um, and I'm really, really excited to be here.

I feel really strongly like everybody here.

Ma'am, can you say your name in Crossroads for record, please?

I guess so.

Thank you.

My name is uh Nikki Olet, and I am in grand at uh Bell and Reims.

Thank you.

Little too excited.

So I came to uh surprise with my little kids back when we only had one McDonald's and no movie theater.

We had to go all the way to Arrowhead.

Um, I've seen surprise grow, and I remember going in and getting my surprise t-shirt when we uh were going to build a house up at Desert Oasis, the first little housing group.

Love the family values, love all the things that surprise has cultivated.

It's it's not a coincidence that we are focused on our families, and people know that we are a safe place, a good place to raise children.

Well, surprise is now famous.

We are known nationally, not as the most livable city, not as the area of the lowest crime, not as the area of great schools, but because we've got a detention facility here, and that we've said so far there's nothing we can do about it.

I just want to remind everybody that we got midterms coming, and I may be Pollyanna, but the tide's gonna change.

So any money we put in to that facility, any jobs that we start to make are gonna go away.

I think, like really quickly.

Um again, that might be Pollyanna.

But the um the thing that I want to offer.

I'm a retired uh nurse, and I was in charge of the infection control of all of the cancer treatment centers of America facility and the Adelante health care that we have here on Bell, the nine different clinics across the area.

I will volunteer to help create a stack of paperwork with rules and regulations about what the health and hygiene uh services need to be within that facility.

I will roll up my sleeves.

I will work with any of you, all of you.

Uh, I just ask that surprise really make a stand.

We don't want to be famous for what we're being famous for now.

I believe we can be the most livable city.

This has grown into an amazing place.

Let's keep the controversy.

Let's keep ourselves on the right side of history.

Thank you so much for letting me speak tonight.

It's been a real pleasure.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone else that requested to speak?

Um did you sign up?

Yep.

Please step forward.

I have one to add.

Uh William Spillers, I say it right.

Good evening, sir.

Paul Revere, uh Perryville and 10.

Uh, I brought some Supreme Court case law defending the First Amendment, as well as U.S.

Law Code Title 18, Section 241, Conspiracy Against Rights, 242, deprivation of rights under color of law, and 245B2, federally protected activities.

I'll leave that with you guys.

Uh speaking of this ICE, this DHS ICE facility, and uh who and what is DHS and why was it formed?

Uh there's a catalyst event that directly caused the Patriot Act, which virtually shredded the Constitution and established DHS uh that we all know as uh 9-11.

There's overwhelming and undeniable evidence that Israel, Jews, Israel loyalists are the ones responsible for 9-11.

Michael Cheratov, who's an Israeli Talmudic Jew, drafted the Patriot Act, which was prep past a short six weeks after 9-11 2001.

DHS was established in 2003, which consolidated 22 federal agencies and birthed ICE.

Michael Cheratov was the second secretary of DHS, also founded Cheritov Group, LLC, and profited hundreds of millions of tax dollars from the TSA airport surveillance and body scan machines.

Every single secretary of DHS was either a Jew or a Jew loyalist slash Zionist.

DHS was directly with worked directly with Jewish refugee NGOs like Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, International Rescue Committee, and Refugee International, et cetera.

DHS paid Jewish NGOs directly with US tax dollars to import foreigners from throughout the world.

Under former Secretary Mayorcus, who's a dual citizen with Israel and a Jew, the DHS imported over 80,000 refugees after the Afghan withdrawal, not including millions of migrants from elsewhere.

Mayor Chris's impeachment was dropped due to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories known as the clergy plan, when there's literally a 177-page UN document titled Replacement Migration.

Immigration is the tool of the Zionist-occupied government in order to justify the full establishment and implementation of a permanent authoritarian surveillance police state.

And they are utilizing the Patriot Act and Palantir as a weapon against the American people.

ICE receives their training policies, procedures, protocols directly from the IDF.

ICE's hundreds, if not thousands of IDF foreign military members operating within the agency.

Did you?

Apparently, we should be talking about how the Dow is being as how the Dow is up.

But I'd like to talk about fertilizer being down.

And the tree of liberty is really.

Madam Clerk, we had one more.

Um, yes, if I've called your name, please come forward.

So we might have two more.

Ma'am, go ahead and state your name.

My name is Christine Ciana.

Um I live at Reims and Greenway.

Um, thank you, Mayor and City Council.

Um, I also happen to be running for Arizona House of Representatives.

I'm still gathering signatures, but I'm already over my number.

But ma'am, please don't use a chambers to promote your campaign.

Yeah, I'm not.

I'm just saying.

But um I happen to live 2.7 miles from where this facility is going to be.

And I'm out there knocking on doors in Sun City Grand and several other neighborhoods, and their biggest concern right now is this facility.

It is their number one fear.

I'm going to be speaking at in Sun City Grand on the 25th, but that that is one thing that a few weeks ago when we started this, we didn't know anything about it.

It we were blindsided.

All of a sudden, we find out right before this uh meeting on Tuesday, uh, the last meeting that this facility was happening.

So I didn't have enough time to prepare something at that time.

But I have at this point.

Um several people are upset about the data center, but if that wasn't bad enough, um this huge warehouse is extremely concerning, especially after seeing video and stories about children suffering in these facilities.

There are reports of people dying too as a result of being held in ice internment camps.

They are human beings being trafficked from other cities and states to situations described as inhumane, overcrowded, filthy, and without proper access to food and water.

A New York Times investigation has revealed widespread reports of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and a lack of access to basic medical care in U.S.

immigration and customs enforcement ice detention centers.

According to the report, some detainees have gone days without shower, sleep on bare floors in overcrowded rooms, and lack of consistent access to medications for chronic illnesses.

In some cases, detainees have been held for extended periods in temporary processing centers, not designated for long-term stays.

They claim this is going to be a 1,500 bed facility, but if overcrowding is an issue, how many people are gonna fit in this seven football field size warehouse?

Lawyers and advocates also report detainees are being denied um their medications subject to solitary confinement or held in temporary facilities with limited access to food and hygiene products.

They're packing people in there as if they are say sardines, said Mark Rosenbaum of public counsel.

It's a horror show.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name's Williams Fillers, Crawl Streets is Reims in Paradise.

Moved out here in surprise in 2000.

Had a home built here.

I served 30 years in the U.S.

Air Force, defending these people's right to speak.

Risking my own life as far as beds and everything.

There's a thing called hot bunking, like they do in the military.

I was in Turkey.

I've traveled many different places.

The first rule when you come to this country, is come legally.

You have already violated the law when you come across the border.

You don't have to commit another crime.

You're already a criminal.

They talked about only 14% are violent criminals.

Well, 14% is 54,000 violent criminals.

The facility out here will help us get those criminals out of here.

If the border had not been open for four years, we wouldn't have 10, 15, 20 million illegals in this country.

They would have stayed over there.

They could have applied for entry like it's required by international law.

You go to the first country that is safe and you apply for entry.

We have been a country of immigrants.

I have a grandson-in-law that is a policeman in Glendale.

He is Hispanic descent.

But he came here ill ill uh not illegally but legally.

He is a U.S.

citizen.

I'm not a racist.

If you come here illegally from Europe, you don't belong here.

Pack your bags.

Accept the 2,000, $3,000, whatever they give you to leave, and you can apply to come back.

You go to the hospital.

You get free medical care.

I'm having to pay for my medical care, even though I spent 30 years in the military.

I don't get it free.

My disability is offset from my retirement that I earned after 30 years.

I still pay taxes, but I it's not free.

It's the cost of the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

And thank you for your service.

I um that's all we have, right, Madam Clerk.

Yeah, I don't.

Yeah, I just wanted to tell everybody I appreciate your your candor, uh, your respect for everyone that spoke here tonight.

So thank you.

I'll move on to the future agenda or other business.

Did any council member want to add anything?

Hearing none, I'll move to city council reports.

Does any council member have a council report they want to say?

Nobody.

I move to adjourn.

So we move and second, all in favor.

All opposed or adjourned.

For any athlete, you have to have passion for the game to find success.

And here at Surprise Stadium, it's no different for the team that takes care of these fields where their passion is on full display.

Before there can be a single crack of the bat or cheer from the crowd, there's this.