All right, good evening, everyone.

I like to call this regular city council meeting in Tuesday, April 7th, 2026 to order.

Tonight we have one of our planning and zoning commissioners to lead us in the vacation, Miss Lisa Everett.

I recognize that there are many different faiths in the room, so I'm going to pray in the tradition of my faith, and I encourage you to silently pray in yours.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight with humble hearts, asking for your presence in this place.

We thank you for the opportunity to gather as a community to speak, to listen, and to serve.

Help them seek truth, act with integrity, and always place the good of the people above all else.

May they be open to your direction and attentive to the voices of the citizens they serve.

We pray for all who are here tonight that every voice be heard with respect, and that every word spoken may be guided by grace.

Remove anger, division, pride, and replace them with understanding, patience, and spirit of unity.

Father, we lift up our public safety personnel, all police officers, firefighters, and first responders.

Place your hand of protection over them as they serve to protect our community.

Grant them strength, clarity, safety, and all they do.

Lord help us as citizens to act with dignity and respect.

Remind us that even in disagreement, we are called to treat one another with kindness and compassion.

We place this time, these decisions, and this community in your hands, entrusting your guidance and your will.

I pledge our own.

And it's your republic for which it stands.

One nation.

Under God.

I'd like to introduce to you.

This is um Ava Lucero, and she's been in our club the entire time she's been at our school and eligible.

And uh she would like to give you uh some information.

She is our current president.

Uh we are the Interact Club of Arizona Charter Academy.

We are sponsored locally by the Surprise in Sun City West Rotary Club.

As a club, we participate in volunteering events with our school, the city, and Rotary International.

We are a middle school club that includes students from the ages of 10 to 14 or 5th through eighth grade.

We are a student-led club, but we have a teacher supervisor, Miss Robertson.

We have been active for over 10 years, and we have 45 members and 20 recurring and participating members.

Some of the volunteer events we as a club, we have participated in numerous events over the years, but we have some events that we have done frequently.

For example, dog toymaking, crutches for Africa, MLK Junior Day with the City of Surprise, Food Drives, Veterans Day Parade, and Purple Pinky.

We are sponsored by Rotary International.

So sorry.

A global humanitarian service organization that supports and funds Interact clubs across the nation.

This organization is in charge of many volunteering events over the years, such as Crutches for Africa and student exchange programs.

They also oversee many events and opportunities for teenagers, such as scholarships and camps.

And tonight we would like to make a presentation to the council members and the mayor of some of the dog toys the kids made.

This project was created by our club.

It is now done by many clubs out of the COVID time, and the kids made them on Zoom, and they're made out of t-shirts and tennis balls.

And it turned out to be a little bit of a fundraiser for them.

But then we are now going to be going to the Humane Society to present them to the animals that are there.

And that's really exciting for the kids.

Purple Pinky is an event where they raise funds that go directly to polio vaccinations in other countries where it's still an issue.

So we try to do a lot locally and at the school and globally.

And we appreciate you asking us here tonight.

Absolutely.

Well, thanks for all that you do.

Would you mind if we got a picture together with the council?

Okay.

May we make our little presentation to each of you.

Yeah.

Of course.

Now these are council members, right?

Yes.

There's your dog toy.

Now let's make us dogs.

One of the kids.

Thank you very much.

I love the college.

A little dog to make dog toy.

So we're not chewing on these.

Yeah.

How is your dog?

Do you find the money?

Thank you.

Well, let's I'm gonna go down there and take a picture with them.

Yep.

Oh good.

That's all my pain.

That's true.

Really?

She said it.

Oh, you did.

Oh, sorry.

Of course.

Yeah.

Stealing.

Still looking at it on your way back.

Oh.

You would do that.

Johnny's eating it.

Sound effects are like that.

Okay.

One, two, two.

Now you get smoke with this.

Well, there's no way around it.

I figure one point here tonight.

Thank you.

Okay, so we have a community champion tonight.

And if you know somebody that's done an amazing work in the community, you want to recognize them, you can go on our website and we'll present them with the community champion awards.

So tonight we have Dresden.

Uh Lemoyne.

If you you and your family want to come up.

So Dresden recently got his Eagle Scout.

Uh earned his Eagle Scout, right?

Do you want to tell us a little bit about your project?

It was a flag retirement collection box.

So people have a place to put their flags that need to be retired.

And the VFW and the troop can help uh properly retire them.

This as well.

It's one of the challenge coins.

So thank you.

All right, so now we have a couple of proclamations.

Sure, the right ones up first.

Water.

And I think we have a special guest tonight.

So if Aquabella wants to come up and join me today, proclamation.

Yeah, we can cheer her on.

Busy.

She'll make her way down.

Hey Aqua Bella.

Come on up.

You want to come around on this side?

Were you gonna say some words too, Aqua Bella?

Oh, you are she doesn't talk.

I'm aquabella.

You're leaving me hanging.

All right, high five.

All right, so proclamation office of the mayor, whereas water is one of Arizona's most vital and precious resources.

And whereas Arizona is an aired state where water is scarce and the population continues to increase our demand for water.

And whereas all citizens of Arizona and visitors should use water more efficiently and practicing a low water use lifestyle in a way that each individual and business can help ensure a long-term sufficient water supply.

And whereas water education is a cornerstone to any comprehensive water conservation program, and greater awareness of water issues can be gained through community education, action, and celebration.

And whereas the City of Surprise water resource management department offers residents free landscaping workshops, water conservation materials for indoor and outdoor water use, landscape efficiency rebates, and encourages water conservation this month and every month.

And whereas the water resource management department is committed to delivering high-quality potable water and managing its water resources to meet the needs of its current and future customers.

Now, therefore, I, Kevin Sarder, mayor of the City of Surprise, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as water awareness month.

Yeah, let's let's uh give the proclamation.

Aqua we'll come all come to you.

All right, here we go.

You hold one side, I'll hold the other.

You got it.

And you want to say a few words?

Yeah, okay.

I'll take that from you so you don't drop it.

All right, thank you, thank you.

Well, good evening, everybody.

My name is Sandra Hobot of the water conservation coordinator for the city, of course.

This is Aqua Bella, she made her um debut tonight.

So I just wanted to look, you know, uh, water awareness month is actually a statewide thing.

We celebrate it here and surprise.

We have monthly activities every weekend.

Uh so we had our Xeroscape tour last week.

This week we have Noelle Johnson, the AZ plant lady is coming to do heat proof gardening, and then we have a master gardener the following uh week on the 25th to do um low desert watering and landscaping for your garden.

And then we have Dave Pratt, who is our irrigation specialist.

He's gonna talk about watering in the desert.

He puts the fun and irrigation functions.

So if you haven't seen him, it's really great.

Gotta love the fun and irrigation functions.

So that's what we're doing for this month.

Also, an exciting thing, Quell, you hear me talk about it every year.

We are turning that into an online class.

If you have landscapers that you work with, please let them know about the Quell class.

It's qualified water efficient landscaping.

It is a free class that the city supports.

It is a professional certification.

We want to get all the small landscapers trained to do water efficient landscaping.

So it is a professional certification.

So tell them, have them reach out to us, and then we'll get them enrolled.

It starts on April 14th.

So thank you for your time and have a great night.

We have one more proclamation.

And Seth, we have somebody from your department coming down.

Adam.

Mr.

Adam Lane.

Glad we coordinated our shirts tonight, Adam.

Thanks for being here.

All right.

Proclamation from the Office of the Mayor.

Whereas the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Fair Housing Act, and the Fair Housing Amendment Act of 1988 ensures full and fair access to housing opportunities.

And whereas shelter is a basic human need where shelter is denied, the quality of human life is greatly diminished.

And whereas most people do not deny equal access to an enjoyment of housing because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or family status.

And whereas the City of Surprise recognizes and values the efforts of those who seek to identify and eliminate barriers to full and fair housing opportunities.

And whereas April is designated as National Fair Housing Month.

Now therefore I, Kevin Sarter, Mayor of Surprise, to hereby proclaim the month of April as fair housing month.

Okay.

Swing this one.

I will be here with this.

Okay, I think.

Yeah, whatever do you want to all right.

Um Mrs.

Davis, do you have a city manager report?

Yes, Mayor and Council, thank you.

We tonight we have Shelby to announce our youth council.

Thank you, Andrea.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

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

First up, we have Cadence Sarder.

Cadence is a sophomore at Shadow Ridge High School.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Kane Sarder, and I'm a sophomore at Shadow Ridge High School.

This is my first year serving on the Youth Council.

As a member of the outreach committee, we focus on strengthening the surprise community through connections and service.

Over the past few weeks, my committee has been working on a project, painting river rocks, with the goal of placing them in the surprise park to spread positivity through the community.

Looking ahead, the youth council will be at Vetfest on April 11th, where we hope to see all military families as we recognize and celebrate April as the month of the military child.

We will also be assisting at State of the City on April 14th at 6 p.m.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve my community and speak tonight.

I hope you all have a great evening.

Thank you, Cadence.

Next up we have Riker Yeager.

Riker is also a sophomore at Shadow Ridge High School.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Riker Yeager.

I'm a sophomore at Shadow Ridge High School.

This is my first year serving on the Youth Council, and I'm also a member of the outreach committee.

Through the youth council, I've had the opportunity to be more involved in the community and see firsthand how important it is to create spaces where young people feel connected and included.

We are excited to share that another Nerf battle will be taking place at the Subri at the Surprise Regional Library on April 17th at 5 30 p.m.

And we hope to see many families there.

Additionally, applications for the Surprise Youth Council are now closed.

We received a large number of application applicants, and we can't wait to select and see the new members be sworn in next month.

That is all I have.

Thank you.

That is all I have, Mayor and Council.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks.

Well, youth council, I appreciate you being here.

I appreciate all the things that you do in the community and helping us as a council implement our vision, and you're a huge part of that.

So thank you.

Mr.

Davis, do you have anything else for the city manager report?

Madam Clerk.

Yes, Mayor, thank you.

Just a quick update on elections.

So our official candidates are listed out on our website.

Yesterday was the deadline to file an election contest at five o'clock.

And I'm happy to say there were no election contests served to the city.

May 22nd is the next upcoming deadline, which is for write-in candidates.

That will be 60 days before our primary election.

And our progress magazine is very lovely, included a section about our election deadlines and dates for everyone to follow and information about our passport photo booth.

So thank you.

Thank you.

There's one fun fact about our passport booth if you wanted to share with everybody.

Oh, I would love to.

So our photo booth is very busy, and it is so busy that the vendor has let us know that we are the busiest photo booth in the entire United States.

Thank you, sir.

That's it.

Do we get a second one?

We get a second one, right?

I'm hoping.

I'm waiting for the official notice that a second one's coming.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for the report, Madam Clerk.

There are eight items on the consent agenda.

Would any council members like to pull one for clarification?

I'd like to pull item number three, Mayor.

Item three.

Okay.

Are we gonna pull that for future or we want to have a presentation?

Uh presentation.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Let's approve the consent agenda.

So we'll have items seven items excluding item three.

I'll retain a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda, excluding item number three.

Second.

So we move and seconded, please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

This item is for Desert Oasis parcel 14B.

It's an intent to form a slid.

So I can go over a brief history of what a slid is and then why this one is a little different.

Okay.

The way that we pay for the energy and maintenance of streetlights for our collector roadways and our local roadways is through secondary property taxes.

We call it a street light improvement district.

To form a district, you need a majority of the property owners to agree to be in that district.

And slides were first, they first started to be formed in surprise around the 2009 timeframe.

This was around the same time that this parcel, Desert Oasis Parcel 14B was formed.

So 14B is the purple parcel in Desert Oasis.

It's about 84 lots.

So when this project was first platted, I don't believe the slid process had started.

So it kind of just caught it right in the middle where the slid wasn't formed.

Typically, um our normal formation process occurs when a parcel is developed when it's one parcel owner.

And then they form that streetlight improvement district before they subdivide the lots.

So you have a 100% agreement of the ownership because it's one parcel owner who goes in.

So when the lots are sold off and subdivided, um, that makes our slid process a lot more complicated.

And because now that instead of one owner that we need a signature on, we need a majority of the property owner.

So 50% plus one of the property owners need to sign a petition to say that they want to be in a streetlight improvement district.

So this particular one, the city's actually been attempting to form a streetlight improvement district for nearly 15 years.

While they were developing the land and they were selling the houses, building the homes and selling the lots, they paid for the street lights just on their behalf.

Once they sold off all of the lots and the developer left and handed the parcel over to the HOA, they stopped paying that bill and the lights were de-energized or turned off.

So these residents were left in the dark.

So we you know, we up to the effort in getting the petitions for this.

We reached out, we went many different methods.

We sent letters to the homeowners to educate them on what the slid was and how to join one.

We asked the HOA to get involved, and they helped reach out to the residents.

At one point, council member Haney and I went door to door to educate the residents on how to form the petition.

So we're very fortunate that we've required all of the required signatures to form this slid.

And um, and we can move forward with the majority petition process.

So what that means when you have more than one owner on the majority petition process is there's two different steps you have to have.

So tonight's agenda item is the intent to form a slid.

So upon approval, if you move to approve this item, then we move forward with um public notice in the newspaper to let residents know that we're forming that.

And then on May 5th, you'll see another item that's the actual formation of this.

So if that is approved, then we can move forward with APS with energizing.

Get the lights on for those residents.

So with that, I'll open up to any questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I just I wanted to pull this item because uh originally when it was brought to my attention, it was because residents were literally left in the dark, and there was concerns over their neighborhood just being completely dark while everyone around them had lights.

And so um, through our conversations, we were able to figure out how did this happen and where do we go from here?

And and I I want to thank you.

It was it was very warm and we door knock, you met a lot of lovely people.

Um, but it has been a very long and challenging process, and I appreciate the residents' patience on this.

And I'm very excited that we are one step closer to getting those lights back on for those folks because this is something that is extremely important to them.

And and so thank you for your effort and um hopeful that the council supports us forming this slid and we can move forward and hopefully this never happens to another community again because it was a very big headache for the residents and also just getting them to where they need to be.

So it sure was.

Thank you, and thank you for your efforts that made a big difference.

Thank you.

What you do for your district is incredible, and they're um they're lucky to have you as a representative.

I'll entertain a motion.

All right, I move to approve resolution 2026-26.

Second, it's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

All right, sorry.

Pass vote, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

Please read item number nine.

Item nine, consideration and action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control on application number three eight one zero seven zero, requested by Joanne Karen Feinstein for first watch number one one seven two, located at two three three five zero north 163rd Avenue.

For a new series 12 liquor license.

Okay, do we have a presentation on this?

No, sir.

It's public hearing.

Uh, this is a public hearing, so open this item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak on this item?

We did not, sir.

I'll close this item to the public.

Council, any questions?

Councilman Haney, I will entertain a motion.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is weird for district one.

We're bringing a restaurant in.

I'm not making a motion for a new roadway or a cell tower, so buckle up.

Um, I move to recommend approval of application number 381070 to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Please read item number 10.

Item 10, consideration action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control on application number 381218, requested by Maria Danielle Burgess.

Located at 16256 Jomax Road, surprise 85387 for a new series nine liquor license.

I'll open this agenda item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

We do not, Mayor, but I'll let you know the applicant is here if you have questions.

I'll close this item to the public.

Do the council want to hear the presentation?

I'll entertain a motion.

I move to recommend approval of application number 381-218 to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's passed vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number 11.

Item 11, consideration and action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control on application number 385875.

Requested by Timothy James Wigginseller for Turquoise Wine Bar located at 14462 West Elm Street.

Surprise 85374 for a new series 7 liquor license.

I'll open this item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

We did not, Mayor.

This items closed to the public.

Council, any comments or questions?

We'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve or recommend approval of application number 38575 to the Department of Liquor License and Control.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a passed vote, Mayor.

All right.

Thank you.

Please read item number 12.

Item 12, consideration and action pertaining to recommendation to Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control on application number 386 101, requested by Timothy James Wickenseller for Turquoise Wine Bar located at 14462 West Elm Street surprise 85374 for a new Series 10 liquor license.

I'll open this item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

We did not, Mayor.

Sideums closed.

Council, you have any questions or comments?

Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Yeah.

Uh one question question.

Christy.

Um, this is the second one for the same thing.

So you want to clarify why we're doing too.

Also, is Tim here?

Elm Street's like right behind us.

Did you want to?

I mean, you don't have to, but do you want to come talk about your your place open up real fast?

I mean, give you a shout out.

Sure.

Yeah, coming up, yeah.

All right.

So Elm Street is kind of this this new road we're kind of building building back here at City City Center building out.

And so we're doing two liquor licenses specifically because I think you guys have a bar, but you also want to talk about your place.

Yeah.

Yeah, it allows um individuals to leave uh with bottles either opened or unopened as we have a wine membership.

Okay.

I encourage everyone to come and enjoy.

After this meeting, you might, I mean, who maybe you'll have some takers.

Are you open since we're voting on it?

Are you open at like 8 p.m.?

I'm just kidding.

All right.

No, I'm you guys can stay as late as you want.

No, no, we appreciate it.

We appreciate it.

I always want to highlight the stuff that's going into city center.

I know a lot of us have seen um this place really start to fill up, so we're super excited about it.

So thank you, sir.

I'm excited.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Um, so I move to recommend uh the approval of application number 386101 to the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number 13.

Item 13, consideration action pertaining to the rezone of approximately 264.9 gross acres for Mesquite Mountain Ranch PAD to residential low density R1, residential medium density R2, and open space conservation OS1.

The proposed rezone is located south of Deer Valley Road between 223rd Avenue and 231st Avenue.

Good evening, Mr.

Wessler.

Good good evening, Mayor Council.

Uh the item before you is a rezone entitled Mesquite Mountain Ranch 5, uh case FS24-0765.

Um, this item was previously heard on the March 3rd City Council meeting and was continued to tonight's meeting.

Uh before I begin, I would like to um ask whether or not the mayor and council would like to hear the previous presentation or whether they would prefer to continue where we left off at the previous meeting.

Council, do you have a preference?

No, we'll continue.

I do want to say though, before we get too far into it, there's some reserve seats up here that were for the students.

We could take those off if people need to come in and sit down.

There's some people in the back there standing.

So let's if you want to come in and sit down at the front, you can.

So let's go ahead and move forward with the presentation.

Sorry, just to clarify, you want to hear the or just continue.

Just continue.

Okay.

We remember.

I don't want to close one.

I can't get so as you're aware.

Um, there were multiple concerns and recommendations that the that were raised during the March 3rd uh city council meeting.

Um first there was a concern about the overall unit count and density of the project.

Um council had requested that the density be reduced to three dwelling units to the acre.

Um a stipulation was added to the ordinance to cap the unit count um for the rezone to 860 units.

Um next, there was concerns regarding the density along the northern portion of the project adjacent to Deer Valley Road and uh the rural residential overlay.

There were requests from council to have the portion of the project north the five west wash rezoned entirely to R1 and have all those homes north the wash be restricted to uh single family homes.

Um stipulation has been added to the ordinance to rezone the entire north portion of the wash to R1.

Um, the applicant has also agreed to restrict the first row of homes along Deer Valley Road to single story homes.

Lastly, concerns regarding the open space uh provided within the wash, and the council had requested the wash be expanded beyond the 150 foot wide corridor.

A stipulation was added to the ordinance that required the that requires the wash corridor to be uh an average uh width of six of 300 feet and a minim and a minimum width of um no less than 250 feet along the wash corridor.

This slide depicts the updated land use map showing both parcels one and two north of the wash corridor as R1 parcels.

And this slide shows the updated uh open space map uh again with parcels one and two updated with the R1 zoning district.

Lastly, before concluding my presentation, I would like to quickly go over the obligations of the uh development of obligations at a developer per development agreement that was approved on council on February 17th.

Uh the the developer would be required to contribute their proportionate shares of two traffic signals along Sun Valley Parkway at 218th Avenue and 227th Avenue, uh provide roadway improvements along 227th Avenue and portions of Deer Valley Road, as well as dedicate the right of way required to shift the Deer Valley Road alignment south further onto the Mesquite Mountain Ranch property.

Um lastly, that the developer wouldn't need to pay the applicable fees for the SPA 3 recharge basin and the SPA 3 water reclamation facility.

That concludes my presentation.

I'm available for questions.

Um the applicant Jeff Bliley is also here and would like to address the council as well.

Thank you.

We'll hear from the applicant and then any questions.

Uh thank you.

Uh Jeff By the 701 North 44th Street.

Hold on one second, sir.

This is a uh public item.

So I'm open to the public.

Madam Clerk, do we gonna request to speak?

I did, Mayor.

I have two.

No, I don't know if you want to do presentation first.

Uh two.

Yeah, we'll go yeah, go ahead.

Have them go first.

Yeah, yes.

I have Michelle Staples and Kimberly I forgot how to say your name.

Ferris.

Rowstick.

Hello.

Good evening.

If you can say your name and crossroads for the record, please.

Absolutely.

Michelle Staples, 223rd Avenue and Adobe Road out there in that desert rural overlay area by White Tanks.

So, first, thank you for listening.

Thank you, Nick, for all of your hard work.

Thank you also for listening to us.

And thank you, Mr.

Murray, for taking the time to communicate with them.

Um thank you for revising the Northwest parcel from R2 to R1.

Uh, we'd like to see the offer of the first row single story revised as this could depend on the orientation.

It could be 48 feet or it could be 120 feet using the smallest available lot size of R1, which is likely.

We'd like to see the first two rows reserved to single story to allow us to maintain our view of the white tanks that we have enjoyed for years out there.

So that is it.

So thank you.

Appreciate.

Thanks for listening.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Uh rural residential overlay area.

Um, thank you for again for listening.

We appreciate everything concessions you guys have made.

Um, and thank you all for your hard work.

Uh, Nick, um uh Mr.

Judd, much appreciated your conversation last time.

Um, and uh Mr.

Murray as well, your work.

Um, so uh we do have one additional request, which is that uh we'd like to see an equestrian trail, if possible, if it's uh engineeringly uh uh feasible uh to put in that uh wash corridor.

Um we are a rural community with livestock horses.

Um all of our roads are private roads, they're privately maintained, they have no sidewalks, they have no medians.

So when our um horse riders and horse walkers go out on the roads, they are literally in the road, no bike lanes.

Um and they are sharing those roads with traffic.

Um we have seen over the last couple of years um uh an increase in uh careless neglectful traffic in our area.

Um lots of city drivers unfamiliar on sharing the road with livestock with horses.

Um and um because of that um uh we are concerned about increasingly dangerous situations where those drivers are speeding, uh scaring those horseback riders and walkers, uh, and increasingly risking injuries and potential fatalities.

Um a rider thrown onto asphalt or a horse rearing out of control is not a pretty site.

Um Arizona law requires vehicles to stop to slow down to await instructions from that uh horse owner.

Um but most of these people don't know those laws or understand that.

Um and as the traffic increases, it's just gonna get worse.

So having alternate ways to get out to the desert trails that we're currently getting blocked in from would be uh very helpful.

Um surprise 120, which is on your next agenda item, they're putting in an equestrian trail, and they are the first developer that's surrounding us that agreed to do that for us.

So we'd like to see something similar from this development if possible.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Jeff, go ahead.

Uh yeah, Jeff Fly, 701044th Street.

Uh, thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um, yeah, here back uh going over the item we went last time, just to recap, uh the property has the zoning on it currently uh that allows for quite a bit of basically the same amount of density, plus or minus about 100 units.

Um the council approved the development agreement about three or four weeks ago, and I can go over.

I think Tanner did a good job of going over that, but it really requires this development, provided the zoning case gets approved to do a lot more infrastructure than would be required without the Sony case.

Uh there was no development agreement requiring any additional lanes on 227th.

Uh they'll be they'll be having to build many miles of off-site 227th.

There's no obligation to contribute to the traffic signals, they'll be doing that.

They'll be building Deer Valley Road over to 219th, and most importantly, with regard to the desert roll overlay, they've agreed to take on that additional ride-away to the south.

That really creates an additional buffer between us and the desert roll, which again without the zoning case would not be there.

We'd be building it on the section line, and and that's just where it would go.

Um, so uh since that meeting, we've we've gone over the uh we heard what the council was talking about the last one.

We've uh as you know, we came out of the planning zoning commission with the recommendation for approval on a cap of 975 units.

We've agreed to reduce that down to 860 units.

Uh we also agreed to change the piece north of the wash to R1, so it's all R1.

They're up adjacent to uh Deer Valley Road.

And we've agreed to the single family, the single row of single storage.

Now I'm hearing now that they'd like more.

Um we prefer to leave it that way.

I mean, the grade does drop as you're going towards the wash.

And again, you have that 150 plus feet of ride away between us and them.

So between that, the single store, you wouldn't get to the next row of houses till probably 250 feet, 300 feet.

And it's it's sloping down towards the wash because the wash is the lowest point.

So we think we've really accomplished that by committing to the same the first row being the single store if the intent is to try to preserve view corridors.

Um with regard to the wash, uh the current PAD does preserve a wash, and it and the current PAD requires us to preserve 150 feet of the wash.

Uh we've agreed to up that to 250 foot minimum, 300 feet across as an average.

Uh we think that's a football field in length that would provide uh the the wildlife corridors.

Um, if you take a look at the wildlife quarters, how you get there, the way the only way to get to this wash is to cross Sun Valley Parkway.

And the only way to get across Sun Valley Park with is a box culvert that's about 52 feet wide.

And that leads you to another crossing of the CAP canal that's 62 feet wide.

So we're providing five to six times that width through the development for the animals.

So uh I think we've addressed everything that we heard at the last meeting, and I'm hopeful that we can uh get this approved tonight.

Happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council, any commons or questions?

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Jeff, I know you talked about the wash.

Um but I always mention as far as the equestrian trail being able to connect.

Is that something that's that's feasible?

Well, the the wash requires a regional trail in it anyway.

Yeah, that's and so correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the regional trail has basically a 10-foot multi-use path that would be similar to an equestrian trail already included in it.

Okay.

So I believe there's a walking path and a multi-use path.

Now we're gonna get to the next case, it's gonna talk about another equestrian trail.

I don't know how they're gonna connect necessarily.

At least there is an equestrian trail because this that is not a regional trail in surprise 120.

This regional trail goes through the wash corridor kind of in a diagonal up towards the CAP canal, and then it wraps the next regional trails up like near the CAP account wraps around.

So okay.

And you're saying the the single story, this the that first row, the grade drops.

Because I think there was a concern about what's the height going to look like for those those units.

But we're saying with the grade drop, it should still preserve that view that that those residents.

Yeah, the the next closest house to where we'd be would, you know, if you take the right-of-way, which is you know, we've offset it.

So then if you take R110, we're giving plus there's another 35 plus whatever's on that's 150 plus feet.

You got the depth of our lots, they're at least 125 feet wide.

You've got the depth of whatever their lots are, assuming they're right on Deer Valley Road.

So I mean, with with all of that, you're well over 400 feet away from the next house and the wash being the lowest point through there, you know, it's that's the lowest point because of the wash.

Okay.

Um a few comments.

I want to first thank Kimberly and Michelle and and your community for their they're always so engaged in projects that pertain to their neighborhood.

And I've always really appreciated them coming out and speaking and and not only identifying you know the challenges associated, but also um working with everybody to try to come with up with the solution.

And and I always say, you know, the folks in surprise aren't aren't necessarily against development.

We just want smart growth.

You want to make sure that there's something that integrates in the community, especially these folks have been out here for so many years.

And so that desert rural overlay um I think is so important, but also making sure that we're engaging those conversations with those residents to make sure that um this development can fit into that community.

So I appreciate one their level of engagement, but also for you and your clients' willingness to to come back and and to really hear them out and make sure that we can make those changes for them.

So um, and then you you mentioned and I know we covered it.

That development agreement is pretty significant.

It's bringing significant amount of infrastructure into an area, and I and I know all too well one, how expensive infrastructure is, but also the challenges associated when we don't have that infrastructure before the development.

So I believe everyone should have an opportunity for homeownership.

And I know that's what you guys are trying to do, but we need to make sure we're doing it responsibly and safely.

And so I appreciate your engagement without this process and for bringing this back and letting us make those changes.

So I have mayor, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

So, real quick, Jeff, Mark, I want to thank you guys for the changes you made on this and for you know, including um more corridor than you than you legally had to.

I do really appreciate that.

Um, we're not gonna get big mammals moving back and forth through there, but that ship has sailed at least for that part of the white tanks.

We still have the other side of the white tanks where that's going.

But we do appreciate your willingness to work, your willingness to preserve and and the the fact that you got the residents to come back out and thank you says a lot too.

Um what does it take to make an equestrian trail?

What's the difference in the in the substrate that has to be laid down?

It's it's usually just kind of a DG type trail, kind of a natural trail.

You don't you don't put a whole lot down.

I know we're talking about an another equestrian trail uh over in Spa uh two, and I think it's gonna be about 10 feet wide, and it's just kind of a DG trail on on natural.

It's whatever, and the the city has a has a regional cross section uh in an adopted one.

We'll be building that cross section, so whatever the city requires of it.

But my understanding is kind of a natural, you might supplement it with some DG.

Okay, it's not paved.

Okay.

And and so the trail that's going in will support equestrian traffic.

Yeah, the the trail that runs through the major wash through the site is gonna have two, it's gonna have two paths in it.

It's gonna have a it's gonna have a hard surface walking path and then a natural DG trail that you could use for equestrian.

Just side by side.

I don't know what the separation is off the top of my head.

Um hopefully side by side.

It there's a cross section.

I don't know.

They're side by side.

Yeah, I mean, if you put if you if you have a wildlife corridor and you put trails all through it, it kind of becomes not a wildlife corridor.

Yeah, we have to we have to keep the trails outside of the 150 feet in the middle already.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Hastings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Tanner.

A couple questions for you.

Is that okay?

Could you um pull up the slide with the development agreement for us, please?

Thank you so much.

So back to the slideshow.

Sorry, am I the wrong one?

I just see the call of the okay.

Okay, awesome.

Could you um briefly just talk about kind of the rezone as it relates to development agreement for those are who are kind of like new to development or new to the process?

Like how do they go together?

Um thank you, uh, Councilmember Hastings.

Um, so the the development agreement is essentially a tool that's used by the city to make sure that any any extra uh any infrastructure improvements or or fees beyond what's the minimum required in our code is being captured, and that we have a mechanism to make sure that those obligations are carried out through the re um after the rezone process.

So absolutely.

So it's contingent on the rezone passing, correct?

So if we so if we vote no on the rezone, then you don't you don't get to pick the best of both worlds where you get the development agreement.

It's based off the development going through.

Correct.

Got it.

Okay, no, understood.

I think this one, and I totally support the development agreement coming before the rezone.

I think this particular case.

Now, obviously, we're kind of new to the process, but having them at different meetings, right?

Because we had the development agreement two meetings ago, you know, passed unanimously, and then we get kind of the rezone, and then you're looking at it without the development agreement.

You know, and so I I think that I don't mind the development agreement going first, but I think they definitely need to be you know concurrent at the same meeting, in my opinion.

That's just that's just me.

Um, that's kind of feedback for Lloyd.

But I appreciate the work, you know, Jeff has put into this as long as you know, as well as the um the council advocating for this for this area.

I think you know, we know the city is gonna grow out.

Um we know that we're behind and we know that there's growing pains up there, but I think this helps, you know, future proof and and really helps put some infrastructure in that north area that's that's really needed.

So shout out to Councilman Haney um for his advocacy and work in this area too.

When he's not knocking doors to you know put street lights up, he's um I mean doing this stuff.

So, anyways, thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Oh, thank you, Mayor.

Um what the letters DG mean?

Good.

Decomposed granite.

So you've heard that a few times.

I just wanted to everybody knows what it is.

It's like what is a quarter minus?

So it is.

Okay, that's all I wanted to say.

Thank you.

Um I just want to thank the developers for working through this.

No, last meeting you were very frustrated, and they got a lot of debate about what it could be or should be, and we came to a great solution.

So I appreciate your willingness.

The council's advocacy.

It's it's just I think this is the way that local government's supposed to work, and when it works, it's it's a great thing.

And so that's what I see tonight.

See no other comments or questions, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-06.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number 14.

Item 14, consideration and action pertaining to a rezone of approximately 120 acres.

From rural residential RR to residential low density, R1 and community commercial C2 for property generally located at the northeast corner of Deer Valley Road and 227th Avenue.

Ordinance 202608.

Ms.

Sexton, good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Item number 14 before you is a rezone for a project titled Surprise 120, case FS24-1433.

The project is generally located at the northeast corner of Deer Valley Road in 227th Avenue.

The current zoning of the project is rural residential.

The zoning to the north is R2 to the east, rural residential with a desert overlay, surprise foothills PAD to the south, and R1 and C2 to the west.

So tonight, the proposed zoning before you for the project is R1 and C2.

The journal plan land use designation is neighborhood with some open space to the south of the project and a rural residential overlay to the east of the project.

A big portion of the project is located with the zero to six dwelling units, contour lines with the smaller portion located up in the northeasterly section, which is zero to four dwelling units per acre.

This caps the number of dwelling units at 714.

The next slide will show you the lotting plan, and there's approximately 370 dwelling units shown.

So this is a conceptual lotting plan.

It divides the parcels into A, B, C, and D.

ABC are residential lots with the sizes shown.

And parcel D is the commercial site.

Additionally, to accommodate the desert rural residents to the east of the site, the applicant agreed to 150 foot buffer on the eastern side of the project.

The applicant has provided a conceptual open space plan.

There'll be active open space, an eight-foot community trail plus an equestrian trail located within that 150 foot open space buffer area on the easterly portion of the site.

Please note that access into the project is shown and there will not be any east-west connections through the site, only north-south connections.

So this is the overlay over overall roadway network.

In the development agreement, the project will be responsible for their proportionate shares of the traffic signals along 219th Avenue and 227th Avenue.

Primary access to the site will be 227th Avenue from Sun Valley Parkway with secondary access provided through 219th via Sun Valley Parkway.

This developer has coordinated with the adjacent developer to align Deer Valley Road southward to protect the existing rural residential development north of Deer Valley Road.

An outreach meeting was held on February 27th, 2025 at Willow Canyon High School.

There were 13 attendees.

It was advertised according to the surprise land development.

Some of the questions and concerns that arose during the meeting were the commercial site, access and density.

The planning and zoning commission recommended approval to the mayor and city council, subject to stipulations A through C.

And this concludes my presentation.

Jeff Bliley's here to represent the applicant and would like to speak on the project as well.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

This item's open to the public.

Did we get any request to speak on this item?

Yes, Mayor.

I have both Michelle and Kimberly again.

Hello again.

Michelle Staples, 223rd Avenue and Adobe Road in the Desert Rural Overlay.

So I wanted to just bring up again the same concerns held at the community meeting about the commercial site on this, so close to the desert rural overlay area.

This concern was also brought up during the PNZ meeting as one of the members asked why there need to be a commercial site there, as well as being so close to the rural community.

There are plenty of community of commercial plans on Sun Valley Parkway coming, let alone 303.

And more houses were in that area where the commercial is supposed to be.

Fine with that.

Build more houses there.

That's fine with me.

So thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Kimberly, did you want to come back up?

Hi, me again.

Um I wanted to say thank you for listening to the community feedback when we met in February of 25 and ensuring a buffer zone between the development and the community along 225th.

Uh additionally, for being the first to uh add an equestrian trail, uh a documented equestrian trail to help us continue enjoying our rural lifestyle.

And just uh as an offside DG is not an appropriate footing.

Um, I did provide all of those required footings to uh uh tanner in the planning department that you can reference.

Um, DG causes abscess in horses.

Um these may seem like some small concessions, but they do make a big difference to those of us that are living in that tiny desert oasis that's being surrendered, surrounded by the suburban world.

Um, what I am a little surprised to hear is that it is now 700 and some odd units.

What is it?

Okay, because we were told somewhere between three to four hundred.

So I hope that's still the case.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so that's all I have to say at this point, but thank you.

They've they've worked really well with us.

I appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

Jeff, go ahead.

Uh Jeff DLile again.

Uh, to start uh just address the comment we heard there.

Uh I think when Chris Venker presentation, she was pointing out the maximum number of units that would be allowed under the graduated density concept.

We are planning around 370.

So, as she said, three to four hundred units is what we're planning.

So it wouldn't you saw the conceptual lotting plan showed 370 lots.

We'll come nowhere near 714.

Um as far as the trail, we're happy to accommodate you know whatever the trail needs to be for equestrians.

It's again that's fine.

Uh, just a little bit on the project.

Uh this project um the development agreement was approved back in December.

Uh again, it did agree to add this 150-foot buffer to provide additional buffer against the the folks over there who technically the desert rural overlay doesn't exist yet, but we've already honored everything that is a rural overlay is going to seek, which is that 150-foot buffer with the equestrian trail.

Another key point is that uh even though the city wanted initially, they didn't want any east-west connectors going into the site.

So there'll be no traffic coming from 227th through the site into their site.

And the road on the on our eastern boundary, which is 224th or 223rd, I can't remember which one it is.

That won't even be built.

So there'll be we really are restricting all the access into the site.

As for the commercial, uh the planning department, most of everybody thinks commercial is probably appropriate at that location.

Uh Deer Valley Road is planned to be a you know major parkway type of arterial that's going to carry a lot of traffic in the future.

Uh 227th isn't is a major arterial road.

So you have uh what will be a major arterial to major arterial intersection.

Uh yes, there are some uh commercial opportunities down Sun Valley Parkway back at 219th, but the projects that we, you know, the last project you just approved, and and the kind of the sister project of that, both called Mesquite Mountain Ranch, they have no commercial in them whatsoever.

So the only commercial on 227th, the first piece is this piece.

Now the project surprise 320 on the west side does have a kind of a sister camp companion commercial parcel.

Um so we think long term it probably makes sense to have a commercial piece here.

It's uh I think it's a 15-acre piece.

Um 10, 10 acre piece of commercial.

So it's it's really just accommodating sign of that neighborhood commercial type uses.

It's certainly not a even a grocery store size type of commercial piece.

So um it's a long-term hold.

Uh I we just think it's probably good planning to have it there.

But again, you're not gonna see any commercial there for probably a decade or so.

Uh, but it's again, it's kind of at the council's wishes.

I mean, frankly, we could probably make it work without it, but I think it's probably in the best interest to have some commercial at an intersection like that.

Um that's all I have.

Happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Council, any questions, comments?

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so I had a question, but also I know Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong.

We the development agreement, we voted on this.

What was it in December?

Can you just recap what was in that development agreement?

I just in the same spirit of what we did for Mesquite Mount Ranch.

And this project is much smaller than even the last project.

So uh it's it's situated on the same 227th.

So they're obligated to build 227th all the way down to Beerswood, just like you had the last project.

Uh in all likelihood, this project will not precede the mesquite mountain ranch.

Mesquite mountain ranch will go first.

You know, see it kind of just natural progression to the north.

But if they did, they would have to do the additional 227th improvements.

They would also have to build the improvements out to 219th uh on Long Deer Valley for the secondary access.

Uh, they are contributing both to the 219th and the 227th signals, their proportionate shares, uh, as well as doing their half street adjacent to the property.

So, and then they have the same obligation to contribute to the the um spa three um water um recharge project, uh if if Michael needs that before the impact fees get paid.

Okay.

And so most of the access then will go out to Sun Valley Parkway.

Is that correct?

Yeah, okay.

I'd say almost 100% of the access is gonna go down 227th straight to Sun Valley Park.

Okay.

So crazy things happen in District One.

So if God forbid something happens on Sun Valley Parkway, where do residents go?

How do they get out?

Yeah, as if there was something happened on Sun Valley Parkway again, they'd be able to come in off at 219th or 227th.

So assuming it was to the if it was west of or east of 219th, they could still get down 227th.

And you're right, if it was entirely blocked, they would have to go west around on Sun Valley Parkway.

Um if the accident was on their side, they could go the other direction.

Uh but from a so that there is an opportunity since Sun Valley Parkway does go both directions.

It's way out of the way, I get, I understand.

The the other project that you approved last year or two years ago, time really does fly, uh, is the Desert Trails project, which I think is the annexation is the very next item on the agenda.

They have been working, as you know, their very first phase is to build Deer Valley Road from their project over to 183rd.

Okay, as well as uh through the wash, uh a low water crossing through the wash.

So that'll provide secondary access through that project.

And that project is well ahead of this project.

And they're yeah, they're in final plating right now.

So if Sun Valley Parkway is shut down, and it could always happen.

Um they do have a north-south connection, then that'll allow so they're not just trapped and having to go all the way to the 10.

They can go and utilize that.

They can use the deer the Deer Valley connection back over to Grand.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, and then I know and I appreciate you working with with the residents again on this project and with the concern of the commercial.

Uh you said it's gonna be more like neighborhood commercial.

We're not looking like a big box.

Right.

10 acres, you can't isn't even big enough for a grocery store.

Okay.

So you're you're looking at inline shops, you know, the gas station, smaller type, just the neighborhood type of use is there.

And with that desert rural overlay, are will that also protect, you know, just with as far as like what it's little things, but like the lighting associated with that commercial parcel.

Yes.

Okay.

Um, and then the last thing, and I know it was mentioned, but um I want to kind of be on record is I do want us to go back work with the residents on what they suggested, so we're not putting anything down that could cause harm to the horses on the trail.

So I know in the grand scheme of things, it may seem small, but it's a big deal, and so that's something that we should absolutely.

Yeah, we're open to whatever they suggest.

Okay, all right.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

So another questions or comments.

I'll understand a motion.

Councilman Jack Hastings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, where'd Tanner go?

He's gone.

With Lloyd here.

Well, anyways.

I got I got Trevor on Trevor's anyways.

Well, sorry, sorry, I didn't see you like literally standing right in front of me.

I apologize.

It's been a long day.

Um, okay.

So again, another example, and I just mentioned of you know, development agreement approved in December.

And you know, obviously it's it's just not, I think, fresh in residents' minds or ours.

But um, you know, when I first got on the council, you know, like I mean, there is some concern, right?

There is high density apartments, you know, getting approved at like every meeting with no development agreement.

And so I think we pumped the brakes a lot on that.

Um, a special thanks to members of the council, specifically councilman Haney.

Um, I definitely like the direction we're heading in with where it is like the low density.

Um, one question I have though.

We talk a lot about R1, R2, R3, which is essentially low, medium, high density.

What we don't talk about a lot though is C1, C2, C3.

Could you talk about so this one is is is gonna be it's gonna have a corner of so it's R1, which is low density, and it's C2 commercial.

Do you have any broad examples of what a C2 commercial could be compared to like an example of a one or a three?

So um thank you.

Um thank you, Mayor and Councilmember Hastings.

One second, please.

Madam Clerk, can you put the projector of the item back up on the screen, please?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good call.

There we go.

So C2 is usually like Jeff Mr.

Bliley had mentioned is inline inline tenants.

So you have gas stations, you may have like a little strip mall of maybe uh dry cleaners.

C three is bigger where you have your big box retail where you have higher or something like that.

Right.

And just saying in heavier commercial.

Okay.

Um C2 is mostly neighborhood commercial where it serves the neighborhood.

Okay.

So it's it's specifically for just to service this area.

Obviously, there's a limited stuff up there.

I'm not as familiar with it as Councilman Haney is.

What would you what would an example of a C1 be then?

I don't even know if we've ever seen like a C one.

It seems like C2 is so I guess C2.

I haven't really seen a C1 in a long time, actually.

But um, I think it's more it's not as um, you don't you know you're good.

I'm gonna talk to Jeff.

Is Jeff is still where's Jeff at?

Is he hiding?

Okay, come on up, Jeff.

I'm kind of curious too.

No, because I think this could be asked these questions, you know.

So like our R1 is is that low density?

So what type of commercial, in your opinion, could we expect?

You know, so you said it's gonna be years down the road, but like what do you?

I mean, it could be anything from we could tell like storage, which nobody likes storage, but also reuses it.

So um, yeah, what do you think?

Fortunately, there's a you guys zoned a piece just south of here for sub just for storage.

So there's a there's a big site that's no more.

We have plenty of that, yeah.

Okay, I don't have the zoning code in front of me.

It's C1 is typically not very popular because it has it's very limited in uses.

So C2 is gonna allow more of the type of uses gonna the service type uses, gas station, nails, salon, barbershop, restaurants, you know, fast food restaurants, probably using with the condition of use permit, um, that type of use.

And most type of retail uses.

So you're not gonna have like a full-on, because I get the concern, like it's rural residential, and all of a sudden, are we gonna have like you know, like we drive past, like, you know, I uh represent Lichville Waddell, like, you know, safeway fries, you know, Sonic, talk like this whole power center, and you have like you know, ranches next door, like obviously it's a concern.

So we're gonna we're not gonna see stuff like of that quite a level in C2 typically.

Not on 10 acres is really gonna be the limiting factor.

Could you put a grocery store in?

Yes, that would be the only thing on the site.

Yeah, so it'd be more of like a neighborhood market type thing.

You'd you'd really see some type of smaller scale retail grocery store, maybe like an Aldi's type grocery store because you're gonna want some you're gonna want some associated shop space.

And so that's really what you're gonna see.

Yeah, very well could be.

I I I very envision like a gas station being on the corner.

Yeah, I mean I like that's what's gonna smell.

I like the idea of residents, you know, having options near them and not have to take 1630 in grand.

So just my two cents.

Thank you.

Thanks.

All right, so you know other questions or comments.

I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-08.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number 15.

Item 15, presentation and discussion regarding the desert trails annexation.

In accordance with Arizona Revised Statute 9-471A3.

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

Good evening, Ms.

Carney.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Uh the item before you is the public hearing for the Desert Trails Annexation.

Uh case number FS 250856.

The 10-acre site is located northeast of Sun Valley Parkway and 219th Avenue, uh, just west of the Ford Proving Grounds.

This annexation is being requested so that the applicant can dedicate the 55 uh foot of future right-of-way that was uh required as part of their development agreement.

Excuse me.

Uh here is a closer look of the subject parcels in relation to the current city boundaries.

And this is the city boundary once we would annex that 55 feet.

Here's where we are in the annexation process um following the intent to annex meeting um held in February.

Uh the blank petition was recorded on March 11th, and that kicked off that 30-day waiting period.

Uh tonight, the public hearing is required to be held within 10 days within the last 10 days of that 30-day waiting period.

And there's no action required tonight.

Uh once they obtain the required signatures, uh, the item will be presented to you again for final consideration in another city council meeting.

So this concludes my uh presentation, and the applicant is also here to answer questions.

Okay, thank you.

This item is open to the public, Madam Clerk.

Do we get any requests to speak?

We did not, Mayor.

Hearing none, uh close assignment of the public.

Council, do you want to hear from the applicant?

I'll entertain a motion.

Oh, it's just discussion.

We're good.

All right, thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item number eight uh 16.

Item 16, presentation and discussion of the Grand Avenue Corridor study from the Maricopa Association of Government.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Good evening, Ms.

Toss.

Roll one.

Bear with me.

Well, I'm up here with great news today.

The Grand Avenue Corridor Study is final.

Um, just some little background.

We started conversations with MAG probably in the fall of 2023 to initiate the Grand Avenue Corridor study to really enforce the need, the emergent the emergency, the immediate need along the Grand Avenue corridor from loop 303 to SR 74.

Um the project actually kicked off in the spring of 2024.

Um, after a variety of different public meetings, the study was finalized earlier this year in MAG policy committees approved it um last month.

So without any further ado, I'll kick it off to John Bullen, assistant executive director with MAG and Bradley Williams, special projects administrator with Meg as well.

Thank you, Mayor Charter.

Uh, members of the council, we're thrilled to be here today to give an update on our US 60 corridor study.

Uh at the end of the presentation, I'll talk a little bit about next steps and what uh you all can expect and your residents can uh expect moving forward.

Um but before I get to that, I will turn it over to Brad to go through the study.

Thank you, John.

Thank you, Mayor, and members of the council.

It's a pleasure to be here to talk to you again.

It was uh few months ago, I think, when we shared with you where we were with this the project.

And what I'd like to do today is just a few reminders of things that we talked about then.

I add some detail, and there's some work that's been done since that meeting uh that's included in the final report.

So uh the purpose of this study, and I'll remind you it's a very broad for a corridor study, it's it's very broad.

And the reason for that is that uh there isn't a lot of road infrastructure in this area yet.

And if we're planning how roads are going to connect to Grand Avenue to US 60, we need to know where those roads are going to be and when they'll um when they'll be built.

So that's why it's such a wide area, and we've sort of been looking at the future for this entire area.

Uh we want to identify the transportation improvements that are needed and some sort of timeline on when they would be needed.

Uh so quickly, a bit little bit of background.

The uh uh participants in this project included the city of Surprise, the City of Peoria, um ADOT, uh the State Land Department, Maricopa County, and we also included BNSF.

Uh and the reason we did that, we're treating BNSF the same way we treat any proposed development in the study area.

We're assuming it's going to be there so that we don't have to worry about under planning.

And so that's what we've done.

Um I will add that BNSF was uh gracious enough to give us their detailed information on their trips where they would be, and we incorporated that into the study.

We did not address the issue of how any roads that are built would cross the railroad, whether they would be at great or elevated.

Uh, this is not the appropriate venue for that.

There are other venues that um would would do a better job of that.

So we just tell you what what is needed, and we don't think about what the elevation would need to be.

Uh and as uh Jody said, uh the project is now completed.

Uh on the 25th of March, our regional council accepted the report, and it is now the full report is on our website.

Uh and uh a lot of the information I'll be sharing with you is also available on the website.

So some of the key findings, um, just I think one key finding here is that uh why is it that the interchange at the 303 and US 60 is so crowded?

And as we talked about uh in the previous meeting, it's a long distance away from Grand Avenue before you can get to another place to get to the 303 from the north and the west side.

So everyone that's been moving in here has only one choice.

They have to use that interchange, and we can see what uh impact that has had.

Uh and I will remind you that uh when we're looking at the the densities, the uh diagram on the right is uh got a bunch of gold dots on it.

Each of those dots represents 15 people.

So 100 dots is 1,500 people, a thousand dots is 15,000 people.

Uh and if you look at the box in the bottom right hand corner, um that's basically between Reims Road and Bell Road.

Uh and you look at how dense the dots are in that area, and then look at the dots north of the 303 along Grand Avenue, and you see the density will be as great or probably higher than what currently exists.

And the diagram you're seeing on the left is just showing what the land use looks like there.

So by the year 2050, we'll be seeing development that looks similar to what we see on the left side.

And with that, we'll come uh frequent signalized intersections, unsignalized driveways to things like restaurants and uh medical facilities, et cetera, and uh with reduced speed limits in that area.

Uh we made some recommendations, and the most important one and the most urgent one is how to deal with the interchange of the 303 and um US 60.

Uh, we talked about the fact that several improvements have been made, they're now finished, and things are better than they were a couple years ago, uh, but we know this is only a very short-term fix, and things are with all the traffic growing, it's going to be back as bad as it was before soon.

And so to be prepared for that, we're we're now started designing.

ADOT has started designing the new interchange at 155th Avenue, which is about a mile east of Grand Avenue on the 303.

So that design project is already underway.

Uh now, last time we showed you this diagram, which is showing the interchange of the 303 with Grand Avenue and the 163rd Avenue intersection.

Uh, and there were some questions asked, and and there was some wondering how well is this going to work because there still are some traffic signals.

So, what I'm going to do is provide you with a video so we can see what the computer is telling of us about how well this works.

So, what we're looking at here is the system and the video will be for the AM peak hour.

In the AM peak hour, the heaviest movement is uh wanting to get south and east on Grand Avenue to go south on the 303, either from 163rd Avenue or on Grand Avenue itself.

So if you look at the far left, you'll see we're 163rd Avenue.

When I start the video, the cars are going to be moving very fast.

You won't be able to follow a car.

But what you can do is look at the queues to see how many vehicles are queuing up there at that location.

And I will remind you that this is an elevated intersection.

The cars that are on Grand Avenue are down below at grade.

So they don't stop at all.

And also all the blue vehicles that you see are heavy trucks, cabs with trailers on them.

So I'm going to turn on the video and you can watch the cues and see how they start and how they then disappear after a while.

So as you're looking at 163rd Avenue, those are a lot of cars that queue up there, but one signal is all it takes for them to get through.

So there's no queue that builds up.

And even if you go to the east and you can see where we have the elevated intersection at the 303, again, a lot of vehicles and a whole lot of trucks, but they get through with one cycle.

And so everything is moving quite well.

So now I'm going to move to the PM peak hour and we'll look at the same thing.

Now for the PM peak, the primary movement now is coming northbound on the 303, wanting to turn left to go either west on 60 or to 163rd Avenue.

And in this case, at the far right, you can see two ramps sort of paralleling the 303.

Those are the the off ramp will be split in two.

So the one on the right goes up to the existing westbound Grand Avenue and takes that all the way to 163rd without stopping.

If they want to go on 60 to the west, they will go through the elevated intersection.

And what happens here is the trucks want to go west on the 60.

Not very many trucks want to go to 163rd.

So the people going to 163rd will have very few trucks going with them.

Now we can see what the queues look like in this case.

And certainly you can see there are a lot of trucks in the system, but the system is designed to handle them and it's working.

So just let it flow a little bit and you can see that there are no cues that don't disappear with each cycle when the light turns green.

All right.

So a few other things we talked about.

There are eight locations where we can have a place to have an intersection, what four leg intersection, so that you can turn right, you can turn left, and you can go across Grand Avenue.

And these are important locations that need to be protected.

And as you are working so well with developers, I'm sure you can work with them to help protect these locations.

At the northern end, the study finds that this can maintain a rural environment even up to the year 2050 with much lower density development.

But the number of vehicles and the number of trucks is growing very rapidly.

All of the red dots that you see are locations that currently have access to US 60.

By the year 2050, nearly all of these are going to need some sort of safety action, whether that's a signal or something else that has to be dealt with.

So safety is the primary focus for the northern part of US 60 in this area, and that will be a challenge.

And they have to do with sequencing.

So here what you see on the left is where the higher density of development is expected to be in place by the year 2030.

So we're looking at 2030, and again, all those dots represent people, 15 people for each dot.

I've drawn some circles because what we have here is we have pockets of development, but there aren't roads connecting them to each other.

There are very few.

And the challenge for you is going to be to find ways to get these developments connected to each other over time.

And that's going to be a struggle.

On the right, those all those red circles and ovals are showing gaps where the roads don't continue to go through.

And so the challenge for you is going to be to find a way to get roads connecting, filling in those gaps over time.

By the year 20, oh, and so that's the challenge is just to do that.

And that's going to continue even up to the year 2040.

So this is an illustration.

It does not give you details on which of those roads need to be built, but it's just making the case that you're going to be facing this difficulty going forward.

By the year 2050, most of the general plan roads are going to be built, and most of those gaps will be filled.

And so what we're looking at here in 2050, you can see the roadway system in green is telling you it's working fine.

But there are some that are definitely going to need more than is currently in the general plan.

And specifically, those are US 60, which we I think would all agree it's going to need to be widened already, needs to be widened.

And this goes up to about 23rd Avenue.

And Sun Valley Parkway, Bell Road.

As we talked about the last time we we spoke to you, that's a real challenge that's going to require its own corridor study to figure out what to do in that area.

So to uh sum up, uh the um recommendations that we're making are going to help improve access to loop 303 from the US 60 and to other interchanges in loop 303.

It's going to help um to build access from Artrio Streets to Grand Avenue.

And the access management plan is going to help to make a straight both safer and also uh more efficient for people going forward.

Um so with that, I'd like to uh turn it back to John.

Yeah, thanks, Brad.

So uh just to reiterate what both Jody and Brad had indicated.

Uh the study has been accepted by the MAG Regional Council uh back in March, uh, which is really a tremendous step forward, even though it's a planning study.

Um it's a very critical step forward in terms of establishing a vision for that area uh and and really establishing needs and a prioritization.

Uh and and in particular, what it helps do is helps really inform some of the big regional investments uh that are made in partnership with ADOT.

If you can go to the next slide, Brad.

Uh and so uh just to provide an overview of what is in the Prop 479 plan today.

Uh, we have uh there are three major improvements around the area of US 60 loop 303.

Uh, there's of course the new interchange that Brad had spoken about uh at loop 303 and 155th Avenue.

Uh there's uh funding for improvements at 163rd and uh Grand Avenue, and then of course the ultimate system interchange uh at uh loop 303 and US 60.

So where are we at with each of those?

As Brad has mentioned, uh we have fully funded uh the interchange at loop 303 and 155th Avenue.

Uh this is essentially being fast tracked today.

Uh in fact, uh this is a project where ADOT had started the study uh concurrent to our study in recognition of the need that was out there.

Uh it's in final design today, uh, and it will be ready for construction in fiscal year 2028, and we do have funding to uh for ADOT to actually construct those improvements in fiscal year 2028.

Uh that's a really important step because we need that interchange in place before ADOC can construct the ultimate improvements at US 60 loop 303, uh, because that will require closures, and you need to provide some sort of alternative access.

Uh we are in the midst of updating our program as we do every year.

Uh the study, as I had mentioned, really provides an important foundation because it provides a vision for what's needed in that area.

And so, as part of our freeway program update that we're taking through today, uh, we're we're recommending uh essentially operationalizing those improvements between Deer Valley and Loop 303.

Uh and so, as part of that update, we're gonna combine those into one single project.

Uh so Brad had mentioned everything working as a system together.

Uh, and so we've identified funding for that uh and looking to program construction early as early as possible in phase two.

So that's between 2031 and 2035, uh, with funding for the initiation of design, some of the right-of-way activities, some of the utility work in the coming years.

And so that really gets that project queued up.

Uh, but one of the points I wanted to emphasize if you look uh at those two projects combined, uh, what it essentially amounts to is that there's more than half a billion dollars of regional investment slated for that area within the next decade.

Uh so obviously tremendous problems out there.

Uh, the study really provides the foundation, uh, the solutions to go about tackling those.

Uh and it also serves as the basis for more than uh half a billion dollars worth of investment over the course of the next decade.

Uh so with that, we're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mayor, and uh very grateful for our partners at MAG and they bring this.

Um I was one of the voices who was skeptical of the signalization uh on some of the on that on the 6303.

Having seen the video, it just occurred to me one of the engineering challenges that is faced is going from grand northbound at 303 is a sharp turn.

So I I now see and I understand what's going on there.

Uh so I remove my objections.

I think the plan is brilliant, and I am grateful uh whoever designed this.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um is the 99 million in future dollars or today's dollars?

Uh um uh mayor council, that's in future dollars.

Okay, same with the 462.

That is correct.

Okay, thanks.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I was also one of the ones that kind of couldn't believe you were still gonna put a light coming off the 30360.

Did you go back?

Did anybody even discuss a flyover?

And did you compare how they would work against each other?

Or was it just a funding issue?

It uh thank you.

Uh Mr.

Duffy and uh mayor and members of the council for that question.

Um it wasn't um it wasn't a cost issue in the design.

Um we had another alternative that ended up having a big loop ramp that had to be elevated over the railroad tracks to uh move some of it and and it created other issues with weaving uh because those would have more ramps, freeway type ramps coming into the space, and we needed as much room as possible uh to prevent short weaves that would create new new problems.

Uh and so this uh this solution actually worked um probably better than if we had everything unsignalized and had a bunch more ramps in there.

Did BNSF give numbers on how many trucks they did they tell you anticipated trucks coming off that 303 to get to their facility?

Yes, they did.

Um, and in fact, that changed over time as we were doing the study and they were doing their um discussions with the county and other and ADOT and others.

Uh, so that they provided not only the number of trucks, but um what streets they would be using.

And so we put that right into our models directly as they told us about it.

Okay.

So I mean, I think the more warehouses that keep going up, the more trucks are gonna come down there.

So I hope I'm not an engineer.

I hope I'm wrong.

And I hope you're right, and I hope I apologize to you someday, but I still think there should not be a light coming off the 303 to 60.

That's all.

Anyone else?

Councilman Haney.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

I gotta tell you, I wish I could just have that simulation just as my screensaver and just that's like the stuff I've dreamed about since I took office.

Um, I will say if we could slow the speed down a little bit, we have a speeding problem, and you're gonna give our police chief's already plotting where he's gonna put his motors over there.

Um, but no, I I appreciate this.

I have to give a shout out to um a lot of unsung heroes.

Um, we're seeing the final product of this study, uh, but what we're not seeing is a lot of the work and passion um and commitment that went into getting us to this point.

And so first I have to give a shout out um to the residents who continuously stay engaged.

They attended so many meetings, they offered suggestions.

Um despite being frustrated with the current state of the infrastructure there, they could have easily not shown up, turned turned their back and said no, but they showed up, they offered solutions.

Um we just had a committee meeting uh the other day, and this gentleman said, you know, if you're gonna come with me, come to me with a problem, either give me a solution or at least have an attitude of a willingness to solve the problem.

And so, and that's really what our residents did, and I can't thank them enough for their willingness to stay with us on this.

Uh, we still have a long way to go, but we're a lot further than we were when we first started.

Um, second, I have to give a shout out to you gentlemen.

Um, you've come to numerous community.

Every time I've asked you come to a community meeting, even in the beginning where you were wandering into hostile territories.

Uh, you guys showed up, you were empathetic, you were understanding to the frustration.

Um, and a lot of residents commented how they finally felt like someone was listening.

And so um it's nice to know that we have great partnerships and that we have a friend and you guys in these organizations because it it goes a long way, knowing that if there is a concern, we're not just getting that dismissive answer.

We're actually um being heard and and and moving forward.

I got to shout out Jody.

Um, you mentioned some of those interim improvements.

So when we first got in, it was okay, what can we do now and what can we do?

Obviously, the long-term solutions.

And and Jody has worked tirelessly down at the legislature to find innovative solutions to secure funding for those interim improvements.

And it may seem such a small little drop in the bucket for our state budget, but it's made significant impacts in people's commutes, getting kids to schools, um, making sure that they people can make doctors' appointments.

But the simulation pointed it out.

As we continue to go each year, the significance and the overall effectiveness of these interim solutions decreases significantly.

Um, I don't know, and I'll talk to anybody on how I can stress how critical these improvements are to this growing area.

I've I've seen people say how important it is.

We have a housing crisis.

We need people to get into homes.

Okay, great.

Then invest in the infrastructure to support that.

People should not have to sacrifice their quality of life and the quality of life of their neighbors in order to uh obtain homeownership.

And and right now that's what they're being asked to do.

And so I I really appreciate this study because it finally gives us a playbook of what needs to happen.

Now we need to work with our partners, and that includes BNSF.

Do you have the courage to actually help us get this to the finish line?

303 and 155th is gonna have a significant impact.

Is there anything that is being done to hopefully expedite the next phase, which is the 303 US 60?

And that might be a question for Jody.

I'm so happy you asked that question.

So earlier this session, um, we spoke with Senator Shamp, who sponsored Senate Bill 1204 for us.

It was a 5.5 million dollar appropriation to accelerate the design and environmental studies for loop 303 UX US 60 to help with that timeline and get that ultimate system interchange done sooner.

Unfortunately, it passed through the Senate.

Um it went to the House and it was not heard in house appropriations.

So it's effectively dead, but we have warriors down at the Capitol with Senator Frank Carroll and Senator Janae Shamp, and also Speaker Montenegro.

So we're hoping that that 5.5 million will be included in budget conversations.

And Jody, with that study, what does that do to the overall timeline for the 30360?

I'll defer to John Bowling on that.

Yeah, I think it's fair to be uh say uh a lot of people really focus on the construction aspect and they say, okay, when is dirt gonna turn?

Uh really in terms of timelines, some of this what we call the development work.

Uh so the initial study, the initial design, the initial environmental work, uh, the right-of-way.

I that's really what compounds and ads time.

So the sooner we can get money to start that work, the sooner the project is ready for construction.

Uh, what we generally find uh is that if it's ready for construction, uh dollars usually go towards uh projects that are ready.

So getting it queued up and ready really puts it in a position to move as quickly as possible.

And I know we see 2050, and then a lot of people see 2050 and they assume we're just saying, hey, now we great, we have a great study.

2050 is when you're gonna see the improvements.

That's not the case, correct?

No, as I had mentioned during our uh uh proposed uh freeway program update as we're taking that through the process.

Uh, we're actually proposing to initiate construction on the ultimate improvements between Deer Valley Road and Loop 303, sometime with construction starting sometime between 2031 and 2035.

We haven't quite dialed in on the year.

Um, but it's fair to say within the next decade, everything will have started.

Okay.

And mayor and councilman Haney and John.

John, I think it's fair to say that because we were successful with getting the appropriations to accelerate the design phase of loop 303, 155th last year.

That's why the timeline was expedited.

Yeah.

Okay.

And the last shout out I would like to give is obviously my colleagues up here.

The they've been incredibly supportive.

Obviously, the Northwest area, some can consider that no man's land.

Um, but they understand the need.

They understand we've got folks who are it's not necessarily a matter of just sitting in traffic, and you guys know that very well.

You've heard the same stories that I have.

It's people that have to reschedule doctors' appointments.

We've got classrooms with empty desks for at least the first hour of school because they can't get to school.

Um, there's so many underlying issues there that is just negatively impacting the folks who their only mistake that they made is they decided that they wanted to come and live in the city and raise their family, and that just should not be the case.

And so I appreciate the work that's being done.

Obviously, um, there's still a lot more to be done.

I know my residents, if if we got the plans, they will happily give up some of their weekends.

If you give them some beer, maybe and some pizza, we'll start building this thing and get it get it done.

So um, but thank you for the work on this.

I'm excited for this report.

I'm excited to see um that there's different ways that we can help expedite this moving forward.

Thanks, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

I appreciate all your hard work.

Um, I appreciate the Mag Regional Council and their hard work on all this as well.

Um Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Madam Clerk, please read item number 18.

Item 18, consideration and action, approving a fiscal year 2026 budget amendment.

Moving budget in the amount of 500,000.

And capital improvement project P54190 within the general capital project fund, the asset replacement project A54010 within the parks and recreation asset replacement fund.

Resolution 2026 48.

Ms.

Osborne, good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council will work on that.

My presentation is shorter than our whole um intro.

So I'm here today with some good news, I hope.

So parks and recreation.

I'm asking to do a budget amendment.

Um, the Oasis Swim Center that we just built almost a year ago was budgeted at 35 million dollars.

Right now we have about a million left.

We have money that we want to put in.

We're doing our one year walk.

We have some more bleachers and things that we want to purchase, but we should have some savings.

I'm asking to move some of those savings so I can do another project, and I'll give you a sneak peek.

But there's I'm not asking for any more money out of the budget.

I'm just moving it from one project to asset replacement.

So just a reminder.

This is our beautiful new um rescue oasis.

Um, our surprise aquatic center was open in May of 2004.

Many of you have been there, spent several summers there.

Um so part of our asset replacement project we've done this year is we have reinvested.

We've changed our slides, we've added new play structures, new features.

Um, redid the decking, so it's really refreshed.

But when you do things that are really cool and new, then you look at the other things that you didn't budget, like the fence that's behind it or the light poles that's behind it.

So we're done for this year, but we would like to make some small adjustments for next year.

So that's basically what my request is.

Um, should you have any questions?

The gentleman from District Five.

What number is?

Thank you, Mayor.

Holly, this is this is awesome.

Uh, go back to the pictures of the pool.

I don't know if everybody's um so the public hasn't seen this.

Well, we started swim lessons today.

Okay.

So the public is a limited amount of the public has seen this.

Okay, yeah.

So I mean, this is this is a redesign.

This is awesome.

And I I love the fact, I love your creativity because you know, it might be easy to I think sometimes there's a mentality that strikes where it's like a spender lose it where people are kind of like if they don't spend money, and I see this across like I won't get specific, but the fact that like you're being proactive, you have extra money, and you're like, hey, I want to move it, but I want to use it for a different project versus just like finding something to spend it on for like this year, I think is awesome.

And I think that's that's what people love to see in government is proactive thinking.

I love this design.

Um, obviously it's it's come a little ways um since uh 2010 when I was when I was out there um getting sunburnt because I don't I don't really tan.

Um, but it looks phenomenal.

So happy to support this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Haney.

I swear this will be quick.

Did you get rid of the the buckets?

Yes, we did.

Uh scandal.

We have there are new buckets in there.

You know what I'm talking about.

Those things are.

Um, what we have that I didn't have pictured because it wasn't done.

Um we have a whale tail that's where in place of the bucket.

So the whole theme is under the sea.

If you can't tell by the fish and the nautical, um, so there's and where the buckets were, there's a big giant whale tail.

Okay.

And the coral.

Yeah.

I see there's room.

I know the theme was uh the fire department for the latest swim center, but there is some room for an uh fire truck kind of water display here too.

If you wanted to add that, I don't know.

We if you if we will think about it.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter.

Yeah.

The theme though.

So it's right.

So if they change their colors to orange, then we can do it.

Oh, okay.

Just yellow.

Okay.

We there's no yellow in here either, though.

Yeah, yeah.

All right, that's a lot.

Thank you, Holly.

You're welcome.

Any other council members?

Holly, I appreciate your savings on the the Oasis Swim Oasis project.

Uh, this is for next FY for the next fiscal year.

We're gonna start this year with some of the things and ordering and getting the POs in place.

We're gonna start this year with some of the things and ordering and getting the POs in place, but as soon as we close down yes and no, I guess we want the money will carry over for the asset replacement.

We've started some of it.

We want to continue working out in the summer, but we're gonna stop most of the work.

And the so the pool is done.

This is for fencing and lighting.

The most of the pool is done, and the concession stand needs to be redone too.

Okay.

Is it a need or a want?

It's a want, sir.

Okay.

So let us know next fiscal year.

I mean, we have, and I'm glad Andrea just walked back in, but we're talking about the budget.

But I know we're gonna be short on state shared revenue.

Uh there's a lot, I mean, the police are coming up and asking for some more money.

Uh there's a lot of things that are going on in this city, and it is putting $500,000 towards a want the right decision when we have other decisions to make.

And I'm and I support you in everything that you do, but like fiscally responsible, like is it is this the best decision for that money moving forward?

And I'd ask, I'd defer to Andre on that.

So I can caveat that this is one time dollars as opposed to ongoing dollars.

So this money wouldn't be able to fund people or personnel.

Um, so our asset replacement is a bucket that carries over, but it's for one-time projects in nature.

So we're not gonna this $500,000 is not a recurring $500,000 that you're ever gonna be able to fund anybody with.

But I completely understand if this is not what the council wants.

That's why it's your decision.

But I mean, it could be used for like a one-time street light at Choya in Reims.

It could.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Very specific.

Okay, thank you.

Sandy, I didn't I didn't I didn't see you over there if you were sitting somewhere else.

Okay.

Um this does help the finance, finance is in support of this, only because we transfer funds from the general fund into these asset replacement funds and from our general capital fund into the asset replacement funds.

So doing this alleviates our need to transfer that money, so the money can be utilized elsewhere.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Jack Hastings.

Thank you.

Now uh mayor brings up you know some some good points, right?

Like we're trying to hire, you know, some some police officers do a couple things, and it's a it's a capital expense.

But you know, to put to play devil's gavet uh advocate, obviously, you know, you could have you know kind of rushed it through, tried to get it done in this year, so you didn't have to you know come to us.

And so I I appreciate you kind of going out on a limb and trying, and we'll see what the council decides.

But you know, it was originally allocated for this pretty much this parks and recreation spending asset replacement to this, and we're just yeah, it was originally allocated for the essentially just kind of moving because obviously we operate in fiscal years, which start in July for whatever reason.

I always like to think of it as the school year.

So okay, cool, perfect.

Thank you.

So another questions or comments, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve resolution 2026-48.

Second, it's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

Go get that concession stand.

Thank you.

I've seen it, it needs to be redone.

It's in the that's a pass vote, man.

Show you my revenue goals next.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please do it item 19.

Item 19, consideration and action pertaining to approval of a fiscal year 2026.

Budget amendment by moving budget and the amount of seven million dollars from the general contingency to the police general fund.

And the fire med and the fire medical general fund.

So for covering increased operational expenses in personnel and supplies budget resolution 2026-49.

Chief, good evening.

Chiefs, good evening, good evening, good evening, Mayor and Council.

I appreciate you guys having us here.

Uh quite the honor because I have my esteemed colleague uh Chief Spurlong next to me.

And it's always hard to back up uh Holly with these presentations, but if there's something we could put a fire truck on in the police department to help with this, then I'm happy to do that for you.

All right.

So um what we'd like to do again, this is consideration for a budget amendment.

Um public safety package that we have in front of you here.

And so what we'd like to do is go through a little bit of the background and then um present also where these funds are gonna be allocated after the after the fact.

And so um police department in in particular is seeing quite a significant amount of attrition.

Um, this year in particular, but then also the significant growth that the city has had.

And then so when uh Mag had just come up and they presented the projections with the population growth.

We're already prepping and planning for that in particular with the with the police department.

And so um overtime is is uh a way that we lean in on maintaining service to our residents, and then so as we continue to hire, we continue to grow at the uh at the police department over time to maintain those services is significant.

Police department's also seen a number of events that have gone unplanned for that we did not project for, and those things happen.

And so with that, we have to reallocate some resources, and again, that costs money as well.

And so with this package, not only is there an overtime uh component to it, but there's also a uh equipment component to it as well.

And so uh the police department, we have a number of IGAs uh um that we lean in on with uh with our sister agencies around the valley.

Uh what we are trying to do though is to become self-reliant on some of these uh some of these things, and so with this package, this will uh help us with that as well.

I'll turn it over to you, Kevin.

All righty.

So before you we have workforce stabilization and future readiness.

So what that literally means is that we are doing strategic hiring to address attrition, much like what Chief Beecher just uh mentioned, and prepare for future service expansion in the form of fire station 310.

In 2026, we've actually already hired 20 recruit firefighters to proactively address attrition and position the organization for future service expansion.

We've increased the number of firefighters trained as paramedics in Haztex.

We've been very bold with this.

We literally have 21 firefighters right now that are attending advanced paramedic training.

So this is in addition to their 24 hour shifts, and so you can imagine that this has a very significant cost, but we absolutely need these specialties, and it takes us over a year to train a paramedic.

This is a 1400 hour class.

So these men and women are working and then also going to school after the fact, and there is an associated cost, but we do not have a choice.

We need paramedics.

They are vital and they are a precious commodity.

So we like to grow our own, and we we are really training a lot of them.

Um our hiring pipeline and our specialty trainings are strong.

We are very bold with this.

Like I said, we've already hired a lot of people.

We're trying to stay ahead of this.

Some of this is a little bit of one-time makeup, but some of this is kind of who we are now.

We are just becoming a larger organization, and we have to be very front of mind.

We had more people leave last year than we had planned on.

We had about six that were on the books to leave, and we had 12 leave.

A lot of them were paramedics, so you start to see the trend here.

Also, aging workforce, increasing call volume.

We don't have any slow stations anymore.

So we've seen an increase in workplace injuries, things like that, knees, shoulders, surgeries, et cetera.

The second piece that has a pretty robust financial impact on us is training.

And we really cannot skimp on the training.

So it says investment in workforce development.

So uh specifically what that means is that we have taken a lot.

This is a new initiative for us.

So we have been very bold, and we've started to do in in-house training programs.

Uh we call them the career development courses, and specifically it's to give our people nationally recognized certifications.

So this is the absolute best practice in the fire service, and we are leading the Valley of the Sun, and we're stepping forward because we cannot skimp on the people, and we absolutely have to make sure that they are highly trained, that they're effective, and that they're they're ready to go.

These are also gonna become requirements for future promotions.

So these classes that uh we're having our people attend will also be the requirements for when they go to promote for engineer and captain.

And ultimately, it's just gonna ensure that our workforce is highly trained, well prepared, and ready to serve the residents and visitors of surprise.

And with that being said, uh the police department's gonna be asking for uh 2,350,000 in overtime and then 750,000 in supplies, and then the fire department's asking for $3.9 million in overtime expenses.

And with that, we'll take any of your questions here.

Uh, we also have a number of uh our finance members here if uh if there's any specific questions that come up about that.

Okay, thank you.

Uh about a year ago, maybe some change, we sat down as a council and went through our strategic plan and our number one goal in that strategic plan of supporting public safety.

So I'm 100% on board.

I appreciate everything that you do, the sacrifices that you make, and if it's if this money helps the police and fire departments grow, train uh equip those police and firefighters that um serve our community, I'm all for it.

Councilman Hastings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Wholeheartedly support this.

Um support what you guys are doing support law enforcement, fire department.

Um chief spur long.

Um so could could you go over all fast to um differences between so like on an average truck, you know, how many firefighters are on there, and then when you talk about paramedic, what are things that a paramedic can do that a firefighter is not trained in?

Uh mayor, vice mayor, councilman Hastings, that's a great question.

So a paramedic is an advanced level of training.

And so just to kind of give you a little bit of context.

We traditionally trained eight paramedics a year historically.

So now we have more than 21.

So this is a very bold statement for us.

Um more specifically when you look at the difference between an EMT and a paramedic.

So an EMT is is I believe 110 credit hours.

So it's 110, it's a seven credit hour class, but it's 110 uh hours to to complete that.

So now conversely to that, the paramedic training is 1400 hours, and it takes one year.

So it is uh a crash course.

EMT is kind of a crash course in basic first aid and very simple stuff, but paramedics, they can literally start IVs, they can shock your heart, they can give you medicines, and it is our highest level of training, and it's it's one of the hardest ones to retain because these people are extremely valuable.

So we we put a lot into them and we don't want to skimp on the people.

Uh as far as like our configuration on the fire trucks, so every fire truck has four person staffing.

So typically a captain, an engineer, and two firefighters.

And then the ALS component of that is that out of those four, two, a minimum of two will be paramedics.

So it it starts to add up.

We we have 59 people a day that we staff.

That's 59 people in forward locations, and about half those have to be paramedics.

I mean, a lot of the calls, like what percentage of calls do you get that I mean, I assume not every single one you go on is you know, we call you guys firefighters, obviously that's that's part of the job, but I mean, how many what percentage roughly of your calls would you say involve putting an IV in?

You know, I mean, like, you know, medical medical calls, right?

No, it's off the top, yeah.

Yeah.

So, Councilman Hastings, to answer your question.

We you can kind of do some quick math.

Yeah.

About 10% of a population, so that's kind of the quick math for how many calls you'll typically run.

So if we have 170,000 people, we give or take run about 17,000 calls.

And then specifically to narrow it down, I don't know the exact number, but uh it's roughly 75 to 80 percent of every call is medical in nature.

So when you talk about how many times are we going to be starting an IV or treating a patient or transporting them, it's significant.

It's eight out of 10.

So it is it is the heaviest lift of everything that we do.

So if you have, you know, four firefighters on a truck, you don't have a paramedic, and you have to put an IV in, it's a life or death situation.

Firefighters can't, they're not trained to do that, correct?

Uh I mean, like they are they?

I mean, I so the fire, there's sorry.

I think my colleague has a little experience.

My understanding is a basic life saver in advance.

Okay, so basically, well, I'll let the tag yeah.

Okay, do you think that's right?

Yeah, I I know a thing or two.

So each truck has four four firefighters, which they go to the academy, they can fight fire, they can pull you out, all that stuff.

Two of those firefighters, every firefighter pretty much in the valley has to have at least uh EMT certification.

Two of those firefighters on the truck are paramedics.

So every time you call 911 and you see a fire truck in the the pretty much the valley show up to your home, two of those firefighters are trained to be able to provide you advanced life support.

Okay, so obviously we're getting in the weeds a little bit.

But the point I'm trying to make, and we'll talk about police in a second.

I have talked about police, is that it is a life or death thing.

Now, um obviously, you know, like we we've got to get you the support.

Um, chief, on your end too, um, appreciate the work you you've been doing.

Um it's it's not an easy job.

You know, you come in, you know, both both of you I mean, come into different situations, and you've gotta you gotta figure out what's next.

Um I will 100% support this amendment.

That being said, it's it's also a lot of money.

We gotta pay our guys and gals, they're keeping our city safe.

This is the number one priority.

But I'm also gonna reiterate that this is not sustainable.

And we have to get you guys some manpower.

I mean, if if there's this much overtime going on, I get a sense that it's kind of being voluntoled, which is a term we use in education.

I'm not sure if anybody's familiar with that in their job.

But in all seriousness, I think we have to really take a look.

I know it's gonna be a tough year.

I know state shared and there's different things going on, but we have to really prioritize um getting people in and uniforms qualified to do the job, and it's gotta be all hands on deck.

So I will 100% support that, and that's been my direction to our city manager.

Of course, I'm one of seven.

Um, but thank you so much for coming, you know, and doing this.

This is kind of the situation that we're in, and it's not necessarily you guys, it's just kind of like where we're at as a city where we're growing, and if we maintain the status quo at the rate that we're growing, like that's that's a decline, in my opinion.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.

So thank you.

All right, thank you.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, gentlemen.

We spent a bunch of time going over this last night.

So I want to review a little bit of what we what we talked about.

And it is it's a really big number.

And the biggest challenge, at least for me, and is we have to do a better job of planning.

And and you guys have got some plans in place.

I know we've had some unexpected expenses come up with demonstrations and things that were carefully staffing and managing.

Um, and overtime, I don't think overtime is necessarily a bad thing.

I mean, a lot of times it's cheaper to pay overtime than it is to try to hire, train, and retain, you know, you know, more people.

Plus, a lot of times your guys want some overtime opportunities.

Some, not all, not too many.

Um, but importantly, these kind of things need to be baked into the budget.

So we shouldn't have to come mid-year and say, okay, we've got a seven million dollar shortfall.

Um, again, it's a big number.

So a couple of questions.

The the first one is is what percentage of your payroll budget does the overtime become after this amendment.

I'll let Sandy answer that question before.

So for police, mayor, uh, vice mayor, council members, uh, councilman Judd.

So for police, their overtime budget with this amendment is sorry, here.

With this amendment, their overtime budget is eight eight point two percent of their personnel budget, seven point four percent of their total budget.

That's and that's public safety combined with those two.

Just PD.

That's just PD, okay.

Um, fire is 16% of their personnel budget and 14% of their total budget.

So in this, we are working on uh to your point, Councilman Judd, getting uh PD's overtime built up.

Getting the budget amount for their overtime built up.

And so 16% for overtime, is that healthy?

Is that too much?

What do you think?

Um at this stage of the game with the growth, this is healthy.

Um with unknown growth, who knows where we're gonna end up.

Okay.

And you guys, you were talking about you have some plans to sort of get ahead of this.

Yeah, so I'll talk about the police department here real quick.

So right now, as it stands, we have 27 positions that aren't doing the job that we have hired them to do.

Now, when I say that, that means uh we have recruits in the academy, and then we also have vacancies that we're filling.

And so uh this upcoming Thursday, we have 11 recruits coming to the academy, but then also we have to train them on FTO, and so that's built in another basically 20 weeks where they won't be solo.

And so uh on top of that, too, we have five laterals that we're working on hiring, two more that are in the academy, and then we're building up to send eight more to the academy, hopefully in May, if that's the case.

And so again, it's a slow buildup, but again, maintaining that service level is where we're really coming into uh where we need that overtime.

And so uh there's there's things that are happening internally as well, where we're trying to shift a couple different things, but getting that manpower increased where the the 27 positions that we have currently are doing the job that we intend them to do is is gonna be critical.

And I think that's probably where we're going to see the most impact when it comes to overtime as well on the PD side.

Okay.

So from the fire side, uh very similar.

We have a lot of lag time to identify, advertise, test, select, background check, and then train.

It takes us the better part of a year.

So what we did this last hiring cycle was be very bold.

And we looked at every single PCN and we literally dredged the bottom and even did some strategic hiring with overhiring.

PCN.

Um I'm sorry, personnel control number.

So that is what identifies them as an employee.

That's their six-digit number that we have to have to hire somebody.

So we right now have been very bold and already hired 20 people.

So we have 12 that are in the fire academy right now.

They're gonna graduate on April 24th, and then we have the next eight that are encumbered.

They're redshirts, they're running around, they're training every day, and they start the academy on May 18th.

And then very quickly, we actually are going into another hiring season, which will start in May, June, July, and hopefully we'll be able to, you know, start this cycle over again.

The exact number of people that we're gonna hire moving forward is still yet to be determined.

It'll depend on budget, and but uh want to just continue to try to stack the deck as much as possible because uh more people are going to leave.

That's just the fact.

We have 22 people that are in the drop.

So that gives us a lot of information that tells us that they are actively planning on leaving.

And then the unknown is that sometimes they leave you know sooner than what they tell us.

When you say leave and in the drop, you mean they're they've they've initiated their retirement uh plans.

Yeah, Councilman Jen, that is correct.

So when you enter the drop, the deferred retirement option program, they have essentially retired and they can stay for between five and seven years.

So we have a uh kind of a gentleman's agreement of when they're going to leave, they tell us, and we track it very closely, and we utilize it when we get into budget time because we will strategically hire overhires, specifically if we know that they're leaving.

So where you put two people into one PCN.

But we really try to avoid doing that for obvious financial costs.

It's it's expensive.

So uh we try to use that technique lightly, but but yes, we've got a really robust pipeline, and we're going to continue to be, you know, have our finger on the pulse of our organization, and we're just going to try to hire.

I mean, I I don't take this lightly in any way, shape, or form.

I know the Chief Beecher and I we we both we don't like to come up here and tell you that we overspent or that we need this money, but but this is imperative.

This is the only way that we know how to do this because if we don't do this right now, we're gonna be in a world of hurt.

So whoever's running this place five years from now, they're gonna be behind the eight ball, and then you're gonna have station 10 opening, and this will be compounded.

So some of this is one time, some of this is right sizing it, but some of this is who we are.

It just is.

We're just a bigger organization now.

So we definitely don't take this lightly.

We want to plan appropriately, and we appreciate all of the support that you guys have given us.

And as we move forward, I mean, we're in budget season.

L.

We'll be approving a new budget here in a couple of months.

Um, hopefully we'll get this sort of dialed in so we're not having the same conversation, you know, one like this next year in April that we've we've got the right budget to bounce in there.

And uh and things are going to plan.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Chase.

And 100%, this isn't something that we should take lightly.

And I don't think you you guys do at all.

Um, you know, the city that I work for, one of the things we always say is, you know, when they call, we go every single time, no hesitation.

We don't ask questions, we go and we go help them out.

And that's really what the men and women of both of your departments do.

And um to make sure we maintain that level of service for not only their residents, but anyone who comes in our city and what they've come to expect.

Sometimes these things happen.

But when I look at this number, and I I think it's been mentioned of making sure we're planning, and I I think there's steps being taken to really try to plan as we continue to.

I mean, we've seen study after study of the explosion of growth to get these departments caught up to to that growth.

But it does take time.

We're we're training highly trained individuals who are essentially tasked with saving lives.

And so we need great people that can integrate within the community, but also the people that we want showing up to our families' emergencies.

And so that means testing processes, that means sending them off to training, um, sending them off to hazmat school.

That allows us as a city, when someone calls 911, they don't just hang up on the person and say, sorry, we we don't know what to do.

If they don't know what to do, they're gonna send either the police department or the fire department to help try to figure that out.

And um, but when I look at these overtime numbers for us up here, I I see the importance of making sure that we're working with you all to plan because overtime can be considered a benefit, absolutely.

But as someone that's been on the receiving end, overtime is great unless you don't want to work it.

And when you're exhausted from the night before, and then you're expected to work another shift, that starts to impacting in a negative way your home life.

It starts impacting um a multitude of things.

You have sleep deprivation, increased exposure to carcinogens.

And so um we all anyone who signed up in public safety signed up because they want to help people and they want to help the community and they're gonna show up for their community and they're gonna show up for each other.

They make sure that um the squad cars, the the fire trucks, ambulances are staffed, and that the citizens don't ever realize that they're that this is going on.

Or we as leaders need to work with you to make sure that we're minimizing the overall impact that it's having on your your members, and I think that's the conversations that we're going to have because obviously it's been mentioned state shared revenue.

What does that look like?

Um, and all obviously our city as a whole exists as a service organization, but there's only so much money to go around.

And so I appreciate you bringing this forward, being transparent on why it's why um it's needed.

And I think we have a lot of conversation that uh me and my colleagues gonna have up here on on where we go moving forward.

So thank you guys.

Any other questions or comments from council?

I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve resolution 2026-49.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

Thank you.

Madam McClerk, please read item number 20.

Item 20, federal advocacy trip debris.

Good evening again, Miss Toss.

Good evening.

I'm here before you with Miss Andrea to provide a briefing on our Washington DC trip that occurred last month from March 15th through March 19th.

So I'm gonna provide a trip overview, talk about the federal priorities, our congressional engagement, uh, military and regional coordination, uh, our federal agency meetings along with the key takeaways in our next steps.

So trip overview.

Um, six of our city council members uh traveled to Washington, DC to advance our city of surprise priorities.

We focused on federal funding, partnerships, and long-term infrastructure needs, coordinated meetings with congressional offices and two federal agencies.

So, what are those federal priorities?

The build grant, which um MAG referred to earlier, specifically, we were requesting support for loop 303-155th traffic interchange.

Um earlier this year, we submitted a build grant request through the US DOT for the full amount of 25 million.

So MAG had mentioned that 99 million was for the loop 303-155th traffic interchange, and that is just for the traffic interchange, which is 303 and 155th.

But the City of Surprise is responsible for the three arterials associated with that traffic interchange, which is 155th Avenue, Pinnacle Peak, and McMickin Way.

So if we do not get this grant, we'll most likely not be able to do all three arterials.

We'll have to do a phased approach with doing two arterials first and then doing uh the third arterial down the road.

Um we also requested support for our congressional directed spending request.

So Congressman Abe Homeday is um submitting an earmark for a police command vehicle in the amount of 2.75 million.

Um, we also requested a uh Circle City water infrastructure improvements through Senators Kelly and Gallego's office in the amount of $2 million, and then also through those same offices, Spark Surprise to help with our new business incubator.

Um Councilman Chris Judd also attended with the West Valley delegation, some meetings at the Pentagon and with the West Valley lobbyists that supports Luke Air Force Base to talk about Luke Air Force Base mission sustainability.

And then we also had meetings with the U.S.

Department of Transportation to further um talk about our growth and the need for federal funding.

And then we had a meeting with the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security, Immigration, and Customs Enforcement.

So the build grant, it's uh loop 303, 155th Avenue.

It's a critical corridor supporting rapid residential and economic growth, as you're well aware.

It's a key freight and regional mobility route.

We have serious public safety concerns due to congestion and infrastructure gaps.

Our residents face it every day, and they have for years.

Um we're looking for strong alignment with our our federal partners, and we're focusing on safety, economic development, and the quality of life for our residents.

So, what was our congressional engagement?

We had meetings with most of our Arizona congressional delegation.

We personally met with U.S.

Senator Ruben Gallego and with Senator Kelly's staff.

We met with Congressman Paul Gosar, Abe Homeday, Andy Biggs, Greg Stanton, and we met with the staff of Juan Siskamoni, Eli Crane, and um Congresswoman Ansari staff, and then we did meet with Congresswoman Gravalva.

Um, in those meetings, again, we we advocated for the build grant support, congressional directed spending, federal partnership on infrastructure and public safety, and we reinforced the urgency of infrastructure due to our growth in North Surprise.

Our federal agency engagement, U.S.

Department of Transportation, it's probably pretty self-explanatory to the residents that live north of 30360.

We highlighted the competitiveness of our grant application.

We emphasize the regional and national significance of that project.

We highlighted our explosive growth since really 2010.

We stressed the impact of the pending BNSF intermodal facility and its impact on the already overburdened transportation infrastructure in North Surprise, or shall we say non-existent transportation infrastructure and North Surprise.

And then we accentuated the need for more federal funding to help us mitigate the concerns there.

Our last meeting was with the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

We discussed the proposed facility located at 13290 West Sweetwater.

That meeting, it was my role I felt to ensure that City Council and Management had accurate information and that the city's prepared for operational impacts.

So we gained insight into operations, coordinations, and timelines.

It was important for everyone to establish a point of contact moving forward, which we hadn't had up until that point.

And we further identified the need for an intergovernmental agreement or otherwise legally binding agreement for what was discussed in that meeting.

So our key takeaways.

This facility will be utilized as a short-term processing site as a later step in the enforcement process.

The facility will be utilized for single adult individuals only.

More information is anticipated as newly confirmed DHS leadership conducts ongoing reviews of policy contracts, operational briefings with DHS and ICE senior staff.

I believe it was the end of March when the new secretary was confirmed.

There's also a new deputy secretary.

So overall, DHS ICE consolidation plans are in progress.

The intended purpose is a processing center for 500 to 1500 beds.

What they stated in that meeting was that they plan to use 542 beds.

They plan to have 250 detainees per week.

The average length of stay, this is short term, will generally be three to seven days before the transfer to a mega site for the remaining duration of their removal proceedings.

The mega sites they stated were located in El Paso and most likely and eventually in Salt Lake City.

There will be parameter fencing and secure celly ports, lobbying and waiting areas, intake and screening areas, detention housing and dormitory areas, mailroom storage and laundry, indoor and outdoor recreation zones, private meeting rooms for visitation, overflow space for interagency use, clinical and medical stations, fully staffed 24-7 with secure areas for some for pharmaceuticals.

DHS ICE overhauls currently in process.

They're currently looking at 31 to 34 processing sites.

HR1 that was funded later in 2024, funded these facilities through fiscal year, federal fiscal year 2029.

They're looking at a hub and spoke model.

Mega sites are anticipated to hold up to 100,000 beds.

As I previously mentioned, the closest ones in El Paso with one expected in Salt Lake City.

You mean 10,000?

I'm sorry.

There's a yeah, I'm sorry, 10,000.

Take that away.

Garter World is the selected contractor for operations and maintenance of the facility.

ICE will be on site at all times.

Federal Protective Services will be the primary responding authority for parameter security.

Contracted security will be responsible for security inside the facility.

They're expecting to spend 13 to 17 million dollars in capital cost.

An EPA in environmental analysis will be provided with site plans and they'll be shared in the future with the city.

Individuals that are there will always be in federal custody and released to their point of origin.

DHS uh confirmed that they will not conduct unwarranted roving patrols in surprise and surrounding areas.

Activities will be limited to targeted intelligence-based operations.

They will not enter schools, senior centers, or places of worship.

She's going to continue with the presentation.

If you can't control yourself in the galley, I'll ask you to leave.

Thank you, Mayor.

The facility will be secured with a 12-foot tall fence with inward-facing spikes to provide additional provided security to the community.

There will be opportunities for surprise elected officials and leadership to tour the facility.

DHS does recognize that there will be an increase in calls to surprise public safety departments based on a national analysis.

They anticipate 10 calls to those departments per 1,000 detainees.

Financial compensation and infrastructure.

They're looking at some type of reimbursement, upfront reimbursement to offset the property tax losses.

DHS is committed to providing all engineering and site plans to the city.

They did state that they will be in compliance with NEPA.

Community engagement and administrative caveats.

There will be a community relations board with representation from Surprise that will be initiated to provide oversight and coordination.

That community relations board will meet on a quarterly basis and it'll be initiated once the facility is operational.

And that's all I have.

If you have any questions or comments, Councilman Milton.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you, Jody.

Before I get to my questions, I do want to sing your praises.

There was, I went this trip last year to fight for those transportation dollars.

And this year we went, but this year we had a wider audience, and it was because of you, you amplified surprises voice.

So this year we're dealing with the obviously still dealing with uh getting uh fighting for money for transportation issues for the residents up north.

Um but we're also on top of this, we're confronting uh water issues and you know the cap negotiations and trying to get money for circle city improvements.

And uh and on top of that, of course, now we're confronting this ice facility, which has graced our lives.

So this year, yeah, I was able to speak not just with my representatives, but I got to speak with Congresswoman Grohalva and and staff from Congresswoman Anzari, Democrat lawmakers who I otherwise never would have had an opportunity to speak with there uh to listening and and and hear us from the from the West Valley perspective.

So thank you for that.

And I also want to thank you for, I know you took a lot of you you did a lot of the legwork to get that DH meeting.

I did not think we would get that meeting.

I really didn't.

I I did not think I would get a meeting with with DHS or ICE.

But you working with Congressman Gosar and Governor Hobbs made it happen, and I I really appreciate that.

As you noted in your presentation, ICE made a lot of promises.

Great.

One that stuck out to me was um when I was in this room uh speaking with uh the DHS officials.

I I told them um, you know, I'm not here, we're not here to be adversarial.

I'm not trying to be hostile, but I can't have ICE agents in my community.

I can't have them in the senior center.

I can't have ICE agents in the Dyser Community Center.

I can't have them in our schools.

I I you know, you not without warrant, but unless you have a warrant, I can't have ICE agents knowing about um in the OTS.

And so it's my surprise, they agree to that.

So oh, we won't do that.

Okay.

So I I told this to my when I came back to the valley.

I told my residents what I learned.

And they're like, all right, sure.

Okay.

So, which is why I've been straight, I've been asking about this written agreement.

How do we get this in writing?

And so my first question to you is uh, how do we memorialize this?

How do we memorialize all these promises into an enforceable agreement?

Yeah, do you have can you speak to that, Jody?

Maybe uh yes, I certainly can.

Well, first of all, um Mayor Starter took a proactive approach, and we had a teams meeting with Congressman Gosar, who's actively trying to help us incorporate everything that we wanted, such as what you mentioned, into a legally binding agreement.

And those were some of the things that we stipulated that we wanted into that agreement.

Um I know that we did have a conversation with ICE as well, and they're looking at putting together an IGA that would include some of the infrastructure and ancillary services.

Um Congressman Goser is actively working with ICE to see what they're willing to put into another agreement that would include um formalizing the community relations board, um, the the roving um conversations that we had.

Um there's one other thing in there.

Hold on, let me look.

What was the other thing, Andrea?

Right.

Uh so all the promises.

I get it.

Um so my follow-up question that is uh a lot of these, you know, El Mirage and Surprise.

We're we're kind we're so connected.

We're so uh they are our cousins, man.

They are they are so close, those car communities are so closely knitted, and uh the Dysert Community Center, for example, is in the El Mirage boundary.

So, does this IGA how do we how do we protect those assets in El Mirage?

Can we do that with our IGA?

Or do we do we need El Mirage to work with us?

Can you maybe speak to that?

Or mayor, Councilman, it's definitely something we consider and look at.

Uh yeah, you can have a multi-jurisdictional IGA if that's what we want to move forward with.

Okay.

All right, I appreciate it.

Um I thank you very much.

Um, you know, there's a there's a reason why I can't have ICAGents knowing about and across on the side of Grand.

And we can talk about it later, but um, I really appreciate any, you know, whatever we can do to get this promise memorialized.

So thank you, Councilmember Melton.

Councilmember Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Jody, thank you very much.

There was a lot of legwork put, you know, to go into this.

You had us there for four days, and you and our schedules were absolutely packed, so so much so that my that my wife and I had to stay a couple extra days to actually see some of the stuff around DC.

And it was it was really cool.

So and and I was also surprised that the DHS meeting came about.

You know, they had some they had some uh storm scares the first day where they were there and the whole world shut down for what is what was equivalent to a 10 minute monsoon.

Um and then when they rescheduled it, they said nine o'clock Thursday.

That's the only thing we're gonna give you.

And so unfortunately we couldn't all make it.

We had other obligations we had to get to, but I'm I'm thankful that uh mayor and uh a couple of of our councilmen were able to go to the meeting.

And I have a lot of concerns about these plans.

And you know, first and foremost is the fact that they wouldn't put anything in writing, right?

It's it's easy to say we're gonna do all these things, and especially in the position they're in.

I mean, when we had that meeting, they didn't have a boss.

Gnome had been publicly uh removed from office, and they were in the middle of going through the confirmation hearing hearings for who would eventually become uh Secretary Mullen.

And so any promises they made, they probably couldn't hold on to anyway.

And we asked them for a few things.

I mean, they they told us they had a NEPA study and that they were in compliance with it, but we're not allowed to see it, right?

I I don't think they weren't allowed to see it.

It wasn't available yet, and they would provide it with the site plan that was the so they have it, but we can't see it.

I mean, that's that's what I got from the report, right?

That they had to get approval before we would be allowed to see it, but they do have it.

Um and then they also you didn't mention water.

You would you told us how much water they were planning on using at full build out?

At FOBA, they did estimate the water usage.

Uh that is still forthcoming with their final site plan that they did mention.

Uh if the 1500 estimate, if it's 1500 beds, they had the estimates.

Again, they said once they if and when they do the infrastructure improvements, that site plan would identify that with a more definitive amount of the engineering report that would come.

With the 542, if they are moving forward with just the 542, which is what they communicated to us at that meeting, that would be a different water amount that would be determined uh based on whatever side of your site plan that'd be evaluated with.

So I think more information is forthcoming on exactly how many people and what that looks like and what the impact would be with the engineering and site plans.

You gave me a number.

I mean, when you when you gave me the V.

269,000 GPD if at full build out.

So I think that's the that's the estimate that was provided.

So I don't see Mike Boulet here, but I I can tell you that the highest water user in surprise currently uses 80,000 gallons per day.

So these guys are talking about using up to 270,000 gallons of water per day.

And this is this is the same government who is who is actively removing our water rights from us, different department, right?

And so again, I have a problem with that.

A couple of months ago, well, a few more than that now, you know, the Surprise City Council, we did pass a high water user ordinance.

We say that if you're gonna use more than 100,000 gallons of water per day, well, you first can't.

Second, you have to come to council to get permission.

And so, do we have any idea how that would actually work with these guys?

I mean, do we just have to give them water?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I believe I don't.

So I'd probably either refer to Jeff on that question or say we need more information for the settlement to determine.

Yeah, I think we need more information before you determine how would we proceed, depending on what the ask and the operational impact would be.

Yeah, just think we just we need more information to know.

And to be clear, I'm not getting after you on this.

No, yeah, I know.

I'm just you know, I'm I'm sharing information that we've gotten from these conversations, and obviously, if you don't know, you don't know.

Don't don't make it up.

Yeah.

Um and so we've got some, I've got some other problems, and it's nice that we can actually talk about the facility publicly now.

I mean, we've had a couple of interviews to where we can where we can talk about what our feelings are on it, and I think it's a terrible location for a for a federal detention facility.

Um I hate that everyone's trying to politicize it.

Please don't.

Please stop.

That's not what this is about.

Um I hate that everyone's trying to politicize this and making it a some left and right type thing.

I mean, for me, this is a developer who wants to put a detention facility in the middle of surprise.

The the landowner happens to be the federal government at this point.

We have organized zoning laws that we're required to follow that we're required to establish.

I mean, there's a state law that says every 10 years you'll make a general plan, right?

And there's state laws that say you will have zoning.

There's state laws that say if you want to change your zoning, it has to be a very public process that the public can participate in.

And we have those there to protect our community, protect our interest, and to have orderly uh growth.

Smart and orderly growth.

And the place that this is going is the immediate North Departure Corridor from Luke Air Force Base.

And if you remember, many if you guys have lived here very long back in the 90s, Luke Air Force Base, they were on the chopping block.

The government was going through, they were getting rid of military bases.

And uh I think that's about the time Williams got closed down.

Yeah, it was because of BRAC.

And Luke Air Force Base was also on that list because of their proximity to a major metropolitan metropolitan area.

And so, in response to that, our state passed a bunch of laws to protect the mission at Luke.

And and we see that when we go through our zoning cases.

You know, we see there's a there's a band around Luke Air Force Base where you can have zero dwelling units.

And as you get further out, you can have a few more dwelling units.

And the areas that are the um departure corridors and the landing corridors, those are higher risk areas, so they're they're longer and they're very well defined.

And and one of the rules that the state put in was that you cannot have overnight stays in those departure areas, and that's the area around Uptown Alley and all those all those places there and all the warehouses.

That's all we conveniently call it the crash zone because that's where the jets are taken off.

If something catastrophic happens, that's that's where it would go down.

And so to protect the mission at Luke, you can't have churches, you can't have schools, you can't have apartments.

Um you can't have a hospice care facility there.

You can't have anything that involves overnight stays.

We've got uh just a great big RV sales uh outfit over there, and they wanted to put a campground next to them.

Can't put a campground, campground involves overnight stays.

You can't have anything that involves overnight stays, and if we were to start doing that, if we were starting if we were to find a way, we'd be we'd be violating state law, first of all.

But if we were to find a way to allow overnight stays in there, we would be jeopardizing the mission at Luke.

And when Luke goes on the chopping block again, as we go forward in time, and they start looking at the numbers and the overnight stays.

Having a detention facility with overnight stays of up to 1,500 people makes it that much more likely that we lose Luke Air Force Base and all the airmen that are attached to it.

This is at this point in time, it's a three to four billion dollar a year economic engine.

I I believe I there's a stat that says about 22% of the airmen that are that are stationed there live in surprise.

They're part of our community.

When Luke first announced the F-35s, everybody in the community, this is before any of us were on council, but everybody in the community was was pretty happy about it, except for one small town here in the West Valley, and they came out with with a with a resolution against it.

The next election cycle, everybody who signed on that resolution was voted out, and the new group came in and they were in support of it.

We love our Air Force base, we love Luke.

And all of our rules, all of our building and our development, we we do it in such a way to protect Luke.

It is my opinion that allowing this facility to go in directly impacts the mission at Luke.

Obviously, Luke isn't gonna come out and say something like that because they work for the same administration, that would just be career suicide.

But looking at how we do things and how they comment on things, this jeopardizes the mission at Luke.

As a fiscal conservative.

I I know you want to go on your uh do any other council members want to bring up an item or talk about it.

I want to give other people an opportunity to talk as well.

There's almost a talk.

I'll start up after they go.

No, go ahead.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Uh, where was I?

I don't know, actually.

I don't know either.

Um so again, protecting the mission at Luke is is extremely important.

Man, you really killed my train of thought.

I just wanted to make sure everybody had a chance to talk.

Yeah, so and there's a lot of people who are thank you very much.

So being fiscally responsible, something that's near and dear to everybody's heart, right?

Whether it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on.

We want to be fiscally responsible.

And we've had a lot of conversations tonight about how we're spending our finances and how that's going to affect us in the future and how we're going to pay for things.

We've got a federal government spending our tax dollars to put in a facility that by some estimates they're going to be into for up to $750 million.

If the contracts are executed fully over the next three years, get $70 million to buy it.

The contract at face value was $313 million with options in it that boost it up.

So if the government three years from now has an administration change, which is usually what happens during presidential elections and cycles and and administration trimming out, something different is likely to happen to that facility.

I mean, it's already driving me crazy that we've got a temporary facility that we're spending that much money on.

So if we don't find a way to stop this now, we're saddled with this thing forever.

If we don't find a way to protect our zoning, and it is zoned that way, and we keep talking about zoning, and the first thing that comes up as we talk about zoning is people talk about the supremacy clause.

They say, well, the supremacy clause, you can't do anything because the supremacy clause.

The supremacy clause exists to deal with conflicts in federal law and local law.

If there's a local law and a federal law, both trying to regulate the same thing, federal law is the law of the land.

One of the questions we asked them was what specific federal law is conflicting with our local zoning laws that allows you to use the supremacy clause to say you don't have to follow the zoning.

And they gave an answer that was fairly nebulous at best.

It said, well, it's close enough.

It's an industrial area, so it's close enough.

We have a policy that says if it's close enough.

Is that right?

I wasn't at the meeting.

I'm going by what you told me.

The they quoted the supremacy clause is really is what they referred to.

Yeah.

They they quoted the supremacy clause and provided that information.

Okay, and so they didn't give us how they get to activate the supremacy clause.

And of course, the supremacy clause being part of the constitution is the law of the land, but so is the 10th Amendment.

The 10th Amendment says the states have rights.

The Constitution only has the power that the 13 initial founding states gave it.

So the federal government just doesn't get to come in and walk all over the states based on the supremacy clause.

Um they can say that to scare us, right?

They can have a meeting with us and tell us everything we want to hear and say you can't do anything anyway, supremacy clause, right?

They can have a meeting with us and say all these great wonderful things that if they were to come true would be amazing.

But they could also be shining us on to get us to shut the heck up so they can get far enough along, so we no longer have the ability to stop this.

And one of the things with Did you want to say something?

Well, I was gonna say I remember the other piece that it was the supremacy clause, and they said the evaluation it did include because they're gonna have some training areas, they're gonna have things other than just the dormitory of the bed area, they're gonna have other training conference room, uh, some other inner agencies.

There was other aspects of it that fell into the zoning.

So there was a portion of the fellow.

So sorry, that's the other part.

I knew there was two pieces to it.

Supremacy cause and other portions of it.

That was part, that was the other portion.

Sorry.

What I and what I took from their view of it is they said, well, it's an industrial area, industrial uses are fairly close to uh what you would need for a detention facility, and and so it would qualify based on on our analysis.

Um, but I part of that when I listen to that is I don't believe that they understood our no overnight stays clause that comes from state level and the local level.

So I think that's you know, something important that we absolutely need to protect.

Um, but going back to the supremacy clause, again, if they don't have a way to produce a law ordinance, so some act of Congress to say, and Congress doesn't usually deal with zoning, right?

They don't traditionally deal with zoning, so it's unlikely that they have an actual law that deals with zoning.

That's a local ordinance.

So the supremacy clause most likely wouldn't be activated with that.

But we do, I've also heard the argument to say, well, this is a law enforcement action, right?

As a law enforcement action, we can't interfere.

And I disagree with that also because this isn't a law enforcement action.

This is a building action.

This is a contractor building a building to do something.

This isn't, we're going out and doing some sort of law enforcement action.

We're building a facility.

That absolutely falls within our purview of zoning.

Um as I was going through looking at the 10th Amendment Supremacy Clause, I came across something called the intergovernment intergovernmental cooperation act.

And what this is, it's I don't know if it has any teeth, um, but it requires federal governments to at least work with local governments when they're going through these processes, right?

And also if there's some sort of adverse decision, a decision that goes against our zoning objectives, that they would have some sort of record that we could review or contest.

So we know they didn't reach out to us.

The only way we talked to them is because we happen to be in DC and Jody just browbeat them into a meeting.

And that's the only way we got there.

Um I was we're gonna end up going to an e-session later on tonight, and that e-session, we're gonna talk about some what some of our legal options are to see if we can protect our zoning.

And and honestly, for me, I was hoping we could take action tonight.

We can't take action tonight.

And the reason we can't take action tonight is is completely my fault.

And the reason it's my fault is I didn't start reading through the agenda until Sunday.

And I realized on Sunday that this was a discussion only item and not an action and discussion item.

And so council members have until Friday to change the agenda for stuff like that.

Um and so to fix that going forward, I'll be adding a couple things at the appropriate time tonight.

One of them is gonna be I'm gonna bring this item back as an action item at the very next meeting, if I can get a second on it.

And I'm also gonna change or see if I can get changed the policy that says council members have to have this changed by Friday.

We just have to get it changed 24 hours ahead of time, like it used to be.

Um but those are a couple things for for later in the meeting.

And if we were to take action, what I would encourage my council members to do is empower the staff to do what we need to protect the zoning in that area to protect the mission at Luke, whatever it takes.

That would be where my discussion would go, and that would be the kind of action I'd want us to take.

I'm not interested in any sort of toothless declarations.

I want something that has a real chance of having success, and I want to protect the mission at Luke, and I really want this facility to go where federal detention facilities should go, which is out in rural areas and wide open space with big fences, trucks driving around them, large defensible rural areas, not right next to houses.

Thank you.

Do any other council members have comments or questions?

Hearing none, I'll move to item number 21.

Item 21 presentation and discussion pertaining to the rezoning process.

After now, do you want to clarify called Republican?

It's how much of the item that we just heard was not it was a non-public hearing item.

So if you signed up to speak to that, it was a non-public hearing.

If you want to speak, we'll have to call to the public after this item.

Council.

I'll kick it off and we're gonna tag team.

So I'll go through what it is, our authority, but gives us the authority for zoning.

Council's role.

I'll turn it over to Trevor who go through the process and then Mindy will finish up with the compliance, and then we're here to answer any questions.

The authority for zoning and rezoning comes from state statute nine-s 462, which gives the authority to municipalities to regulate land use by ordinance, establish zoning districts, amend those um regulations as necessary to promote public health safety and the general welfare.

Role of council, council's discretion to approve, deny, or continue the request.

The standards that are used are typically looking compliance with the general plan, including the character area, the goals and the policies, as well as then staff recommendation staff's analysis and planning and zoning's recommendation.

Ultimately, council has the final decision when it comes to rezoning.

It's your your decision at that point.

That I'll turn it to Trevor.

So the rezone process goes through the city's design review process, which starts with the concept review meeting.

So that's our pre-application meeting where the landowner or the developer presents their conceptual development plan, and all the city reviewing departments provide their preliminary feedback.

That is followed up with written comments as well as a submittal checklist and instructions for how they can proceed to the design review submittal.

Upon a fully complete design review submittal that then gets routed to all the departments for a staff review.

And then simultaneously, the application materials get sent to external agencies as well.

That goes through a few different iterations of staff review comments and in responding to those comments.

Simultaneously to that, the applicant is required to hold a public outreach and notify the public at least 15 days prior to the meeting to present their development proposal, answer questions, and gain uh feedback.

Once public outreach has been completed and staff um comments have been addressed, we will then schedule the project for public hearings with the planning and zoning commission and city council.

The commission will give a recommendation to council, and then council will make the ultimate decision on the rezone.

So this list of documents is a standard submittal requirement checklist for a rezone.

Obviously, if there's site specific uh uniqueness, we would modify this as necessary.

This is why, upon completion of the concept review meeting, um, we give them a development specific submittal checklist.

So within the rezone document, um, we require maps of the site that include existing zoning, their proposed zoning, um, what the general plan land use designation is, they'll provide conceptual site plans or lotting plans and a narrative to explain the request, their justification, their proposed development, as well as how in what ways it's compliant with the general plan.

We'll also require them to provide a legal description and depiction that gets attached to the ordinance and uh describes the boundaries that are being rezoned.

The water report and we've started report as well as the traffic impact analysis, gives staff um the information needed to determine what's required from an infrastructure standpoint for this development to be able to be built and function properly.

And then occasionally we require the environmental inventory plan and report.

And this is typically for our um far west, far northwest um properties that have not yet been developed out in our desert areas to ensure that there's no um environmental environmentally sensitive features on the property that need to be accommodated for in development.

So when is a rezone required?

Um, if if the property owner, the developer wants to um bring forward a development and it is not a permitted use under our zoning code under that uh current zoning district, one of the pathways forward for them to be able to construct their development is to be able to request a rezone to a zoning district that does allow what they're proposing to do.

Again, our our LDO, our land development ordinance, the zoning code outlines the allowed uses for each of the zoning districts, but we also have throughout the city different planned area developments that also either refer to different um older iterations of our code or have within the PADs themselves specific uses allowed.

All of our rezone applications have to be in compliance with the general plan, and as I said previously, part of their application has to kind of justify why they feel that they are meeting the general plan.

If they if the requested zoning is not in compliance with the general plan land use designation, they do also have the option of requesting a general plan amendment.

So just to quickly overview the general plan itself, um, it's set up with the character area approach, which does allow for some flexibility.

But we have neighborhood, commercial and office, employment, and open space character areas, and those allow for a variety of different developments within each.

So all retire all entitlements are reviewed against the general plan, especially uh rezoning applications.

Um we review them against the goals and policies as well as the land use map.

Um a requested zoning needs to be in compliance with the character area of that uh property.

If not, uh, there are possible amendments.

So we do a staff initiated um comprehensive update of the general plan every 10 years as required by state statute, but applicants can also request amendments subject to the amendment procedures in the general plan as well as state statute.

So there's two different uh categories, minor versus major amendments.

So upon you know, receiving your the zoning that's required for the development to move forward, other next steps that could be required include any additional entitlements that are needed to build the development, whether it be a conditional use permit, the site plan for single family residential that would be plotting.

There's civil permitting, which typically goes in conjunction with the design review process.

Um, and then building permitting can be done at risk concurrently with design review.

Once permits are issued and construction begins, there's inspections throughout the construction phase and ultimately uh a certificate of occupancy for the building.

Um, and then additionally to it for commercial developments, getting a business license for that business.

And then they can open and operate.

I'll hand it over to Mindy for compliance.

So land that is subject to our development codes must comply with um approved zoning and other entitlements.

They must also comply with um applicable codes.

So all of our uh international building code, the fire code, zoning code, municipal codes.

Uh, they also must comply with any development agreements.

So non-compliance may result in progressive action in accordance with the surprise municipal code.

So when we receive a complaint about a possible violation, um, staff always inspect the property.

So we lay eyes on this on the property to assess the condition of the property.

If the property is found to be in violation, written notice must be served to the responsible parties.

So we issue a notice of ordinance violation with a compliance period.

That compliance period is typically 15 to 35 days, depending upon the nature of the violation.

If compliance is not achieved by the deadline provided on the notice, civil citations may be issued.

Um, if civil remedies fail, the case may be referred to the city prosecutor's office to evaluate potential criminal prosecution.

And then lastly, reversion to prior zoning may be considered if applicable by statute.

So that concludes our presentation.

If you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right, thank you guys for this presentation.

And zoning is always a little bit of a tricky one.

I mean, I've got I've got a bunch of houses in my district that buttons right up against an industrial area.

So anytime an industrial user comes in, uh, people get really upset and ask us to change the zoning for them.

So is it possible for the city to go in and just change someone's zoning on them?

Yes, it's a yet you got houses, you got vacant industrial lots behind them.

Can the city go in and just force change someone's zoning?

I mean, it's an easy question.

I know we all know the answer.

I mean, under the statutes, yes, we can for those reasons.

I identified based on um state statute there as far as what our authority is.

But that'll also open us up to a Prop 207 if we diminish the value of the property in doing so.

So basically, we would almost have to buy the property to make it happen.

Uh without um facing a Prop 207?

Most likely.

Yeah, because I mean the Prop 207 is going to get the value right.

And so it's so it's it's legally we could do it, I guess, but it's prohibitively expensive.

So why would you do it?

Correct.

Now, and so let's say we had one of those users, you know, in that in that same area, one of the landowners comes in, and uh, you know, for that there, it's it's all commercial, it's all and they just decide to start building apartments there.

Right?

Developer just shows up one day, doesn't get permits, starts building apartments.

What do we do?

Then we'd start the compliance process there that Mindy went through.

So we'd start with a notice of violation.

We'd then, if that was still not in compliance, we'd escalate that to citation.

Then through the courts, we would go through that process to possibly criminally um charge.

And I mean, if it was a business, how would that work?

If it was an LLC doing it, do you go after the contractors?

Who do you go after?

So if permits weren't issued or anything like that, we would not issue permits, we'd hold them back.

We would not approve business license.

We would, you know, at that point do a you know, stop and put a hold on the construction.

And I mean, what if we I mean every once while you hear about these people claim to be like sovereign citizens?

So, what if you have someone like that who comes along and decides we're just gonna not get permits, we're gonna ignore the local officials, we're gonna start building and do whatever we want on this parcel.

So at the end of the day, we'd end up in the court system.

Okay.

How long's it take to go through a rezon?

Rezone on average, depending on how quickly the applicant um addresses comments from staff and it meets the criteria to bring it forward is typically about uh 120, about 120 business days, 90 to 120 business days.

And and the reason it's it's long like that is to give public time to find out what's happening and comment on it.

A lot of it is the time requirements to make sure there's uh enough public notification for each one for the neighborhood meetings, the planning and zoning meeting and city council meeting.

Okay, very good.

Thank you very much.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good my district I've been flooded with rezons for years.

And one that's very controversial.

And I think the reason it went in is what my question is gonna be.

So if a project is brought to council and a certain idea or neighborhood or whatever that project was that they wanted to put in, was the reason that got zone changed.

And that dies out, and that land just goes vacant.

Can council move that back to the zoning it was before?

So under statute, there is a reversionary clause there that goes hand in hand with a the um schedule of development.

So through the ordinance and through the adoption of that rezoning, if that's all put together, then yes, council has that authority if the developer doesn't move forward based on that development of schedule to revert to zoning.

Again, it has to go back through the same public process of acquiring the zoning.

Is there a time frame that it has to sit vacant?

No, just the developing it gets back to what's either in a development agreement, what's in the zoning ordinance that set that so do we have pieces like that now?

Um today, I'd have to go back and look.

I don't believe we have any left that had that reserve reversionary clause in their ordinance.

Okay.

If we do, let's find out.

We'll do that research.

There's one that I really wish we'd have done that with.

Correct.

So thank you.

Do any of the council members have comments or questions?

All right, thank you, Lloyd.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So we're gonna move on to the public comment section of our meeting.

Um we have a lot of madam clerk.

How many speakers do we have?

74.

74.

And so I would ask that if you hear something brought up from a different speaker to in order to get there as many people as possible.

If you could refrain from that particular topic, if you want to bring up a new item, you're more than welcome to.

Um, because we have additional business uh after this call to the public, we're gonna cap it at well.

I'm gonna cap it at one hour for a public comment section, and then I'd ask you to return on April 21st for our next council meeting so you can continue to with a public comment.

So, madam clerk, can you please call the first uh five people?

Yes, sir.

First, I want to call up Ruthie uh Goldcorn, did I say your name, last name right?

And then uh let me get my other list here.

Representative Mariana Sandoval, Annalise Ortiz, and then there's two more Heather Olsen and Amanda Kamiskis.

That's our first five.

Good evening, ma'am.

If you could say your name and crossroads for the record, please.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Ruthie Goldcorn.

I own a consulting firm, no barriers, disabled access, and consulting and advocacy services.

I represent the interests of cross disability and civic engagement.

And I have been saying since we found out about this 70 million dollar public expenditure, local control, local control, local control, zoning, zoning, zoning.

Additionally, I called the United States Access Board because I know that prisons have to comply with the Architectural Barriers Act, not the ADA, the ABA, and there are specific restrictions under the ABA, and the city has authority of that as well.

So I'm not going to go through all of my comments.

Thank you, Councilman Chudd.

Um, but I also come from March Air Force Base.

I lived there for over 30 years, and I was very active with the city in the expansion of warehouses, expansion of what was deemed inappropriate development.

So this is not something that is new to me.

And I appreciate the opportunity for all 74 of us to address this issue.

This has to do with our safety.

This is not a surprise issue.

This is not just about Arizona.

This is national security for people to live freely, as the Constitution demands, and for the feds to come in like this.

It screams from decades before.

And we've been through this.

It's not new.

Um, but we stand up and we say no, and you have the right to say no to protect the city of surprise, the people who live here, and all of us who live around the area and have our kids come to your city to play and to learn and to recreate and to develop.

And I appreciate the fact that you at least are willing to listen to everybody.

And please understand local control, local control, local control, zoning, zoning, zoning, which is what I have been saying since this thing started a few months ago.

You have the power.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Representative Mariana Sandoval, are you still here?

I see you.

There you go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Um, for the record.

I'm Senator Annalise Ortiz.

I represent the people of Maryvale and Glendale and Arizona's 24th legislative district, and I am here with the two co-chairs of our legislative Latino Caucus.

All of you have in your email a letter signed by the majority of our Democratic caucus, 38 state legislators from all corners of the state.

You can read the entire thing in your email.

I won't read it tonight, but we want you to know that we believe there is no compromise that should be made with DHS to open this facility.

The only acceptable option is to stop it from opening at all costs.

We have examples here of other cities who have done that.

Howard County, Kansas City, Missouri, other places that are leading through legal action to protect our communities, and we trust that you have the power and a smart legal team who can do the same here.

We thank you for your service, and we really want to emphasize that this is about human beings, friends, family, and neighbors who will be traumatized, hurt, and killed if they are allowed to hold people there, and they will not hold them for the three to seven days.

We cannot believe that because they're violating that right now, holding people for much longer, and violating people's rights, holding more people than they initially said they would.

They are lying.

And you have a state legislative delegation who will have your back.

People from all over the state are watching.

Please do the right thing.

Thank you.

Can you turn off the noise and we can just continue with the meeting here in the chamber?

Thank you.

If you can speak over every time, okay, thank you, Mayor and Council members.

For the record, I'm Catherine Miranda, and I represent legislative district 11.

Um, just looking at the presentation and having this discussion just sets a sadness in my heart.

I mean, I can't believe we're having a discussion about detaining people.

So let's remain with our humanitarian hat on.

Um, I want to thank each and every one of you members for making a public statement, starting with council member Duffy.

You said that the city was told what it wanted to hear by DHS.

And thank you for that observation.

It's true.

They lie.

Councilmember Judd.

Thanks for your public comment.

We all heard your public comments.

You said you were gonna ask tough questions, and I've witnessed you you have, and I thank you for that.

But tougher demands are better.

You have the power to say no.

And thank you for bringing up the supremacy clause.

Um I don't want that to scare you all.

And the supremacy clause that says that federal law supersedes state law, and it makes you feel like you as a council have no power, but you do.

You you spoke about zoning, zoning, zoning.

I would stick to that.

File a lawsuit, get with our attorney, uh, Chris Mays, but do it immediately.

But keep the humanitarian piece uplifted about the people, because that's even more powerful than zoning.

And council member uh Greenberg.

Thank you for your public uh comment in your in your constituent meeting.

That's powerful.

You oppose this facility in your constituent meeting, and I thank you for that because you went straight to your people and you gave them hope.

So thank you for that, councilman.

Councilman Melton.

You are demanding DHS commitments in enforceable writing.

Remember, this administration makes the rules, they lie.

You need to demand with your voice.

We have no more checks and balances, there's no more rules.

So anything in writing.

Remember, there's no more checks and balances in our nation, no more rules.

You have the power to make your rules and protect your community.

Thank you, Councilman Melton.

Councilman Hastings, thank you for your opposition.

Please let your opposition be the reason of be a humanitarian reason and not logistical reasons.

You did make a public comment that your reasons to oppose is logistical.

Keep in mind the humanitarian reason.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Haney, we haven't heard from you yet.

We'd like to know where you stand.

Your time's up.

Thank you.

I was gonna get to you, Mayor.

That's okay.

I appreciate it.

All right, you do have the power though.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Heather Olson and Amanda Camasquez.

Whichever order you want to come.

Go ahead and come down.

My name is Amanda Kaminskis, and I work at 137th Avenue in Greenway.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor and Council members.

I am wearing a mask, not to hide my face, but because I'm immune-compromised.

The last time I stood here, I asked you to speak out against this facility.

That request has not changed.

But now the justification has.

We are being told that this is acceptable because it is smaller, because it is short term, because there will be tours, but none of that changes what this is.

Built to hold 542 people, not capacity, people.

And those doors, and once those doors open, we cannot say we did not know.

We already know what happens in these facilities across this country.

Abuse, medical neglect, people disappearing behind walls with limited oversight.

Calling it processing does not change the reality of confinement.

And I need to bring this back to what I said before, because it still matters.

When she runs, she does not process commands the way officers expect her to.

In a calm environment, that risk is already frightening in a high-tension environment with armed federal agents nearby.

That risk becomes something I cannot ignore.

A frightened child, an officer on edge, a split second misunderstanding, and she is just one child.

There are others, children, elderly residents, people with disabilities, families who chose the prize because it felt safe.

And now we are being asked to accept it.

This to accept it because it is smaller, because it is temporary, because it might be allowed to walk through and say it looks fine.

That is not accountability.

That is optics.

You cannot tour fear.

You cannot observe trauma through a walkthrough.

And you cannot make this acceptable with better messaging and money from the feds.

But your voice is not tied.

And what you are choosing right now is not neutrality.

Every time this is minimized, every time this is framed as manageable.

Every time you choose not to push back publicly, you are helping to normalize it.

So I'm asking you again, will you officially stand against this?

Because if you choose not to stand against it, then don't call it inevitable.

Call it a decision.

And understand that this community and history will remember that decision.

Thank you.

Natalie Lopez, Walter Thorndike, Maureen Miller, Lisa Brinkman.

Go ahead and go to the center.

And when you get to the podium, please remember to state your name in Cross Street.

Good evening.

Can you say your name and crossroads for the record, please?

Hi.

I have questions about the statements made by the mayor specifically after the meeting with DHS about that press conference last week or so.

Mayor Sarder, you stated DHS is committed to timely and consistent coordination with the city moving forward.

My question is why exactly are we assuming that this is an administration that we can trust?

DHS assured you a high standard of care for detainees.

Honestly, on what grounds?

Are we willing to ignore reports of other detainees being denied medical care, being sexually assaulted while in custody by agents, staying for longer than promised?

Why are we assuming that this new facility is now going to be any different?

I don't want ice here, period.

Whether they're doing it the right way or the wrong way, I don't believe it should exist.

Not here, not anywhere.

And frankly, I think your constituents want to know how you feel too.

We've heard some comments from some council members already, so thank you for um sharing your thoughts about that.

Um, but if you are willing to welcome DHS with open arms, you should say that.

Um, your administration should be proud of surprises come up.

Um, but if you stay silent, um that isn't what you're going to be known for.

That legacy is gone.

You're going to be the administration that got played by DHS and let them build a death camp here.

Um, Phoenix banned ICE from staging on city property.

Um, Mayor Kate Gallego has called ICE's behavior unsafe and un American.

Um, so you can no longer throw your hands up and say that nothing can be done.

Um, what kind of city do you want to be?

Um, when you collaborate with ICE, you co-sign racially profiling your neighbors.

You contribute to a culture that escalates to their murder.

You can continue to tell us that you're going to listen to us because every meeting you get an overwhelming amount of people that comment that they do not want this here.

But is there a plan to match the beliefs of your constituents?

Because at this time, the burden of protecting one another falls on the people if you choose to stay neutral.

A frequent comment spoken about today in the items discussed regarded um surprises families, quality of life.

For things like zoning, a street life, um, public safety, the aquatic center.

We should be able to recognize the detriment to surprises quality of life if this facility comes here.

And that's just not a surprises level.

We're talking about Arizona nationally.

Um, I agree with workshopping protecting zoning.

I agree with the concept of a legally binding agreement, but truly the city council should work towards banning ice from staging on city property property, unmasking themselves, and doing whatever they can in their power to stop this from happening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Can you say your name and crossroads for the record, please?

Walter Thorndike.

I'm a Phoenix resident.

We've heard people refer to this surprise detention facility as the concentration camp.

Uh, but others see that comparison as apples to oranges.

So I'd like to share an anecdote about historical analogies.

And it takes place in 1952 when an American journalist named Milton Mayer traveled to Germany to write a book about how ordinary Germans justified their collaboration with the former Nazi regime.

Most of the Germans that Mayor interviewed did not feel responsible for the inhumanity of their government.

Some claimed to have joined the Nazi Party in the belief that they could make things better by partnering with the authorities.

Almost all of the Germans interviewed felt they had been judged unfairly.

One of these Germans made an analogy to the U.S.

wartime detention of Japanese Americans.

Now Milton Mayer, the author, like everybody else had a job and a family.

And the detention of Japanese Americans without due process seemed wrong, but it also seemed like somebody else's problem.

And so the German says to him pointedly, so you did nothing.

And the comment obviously bothered Mayer.

Later in the book, he admits that as an American, he is, quote, guilty of national hypocrisies, whose only justification is that the Germans were so much worse.

He goes on, but that but that does not make me more godly than them, because a difference in degree is not a difference in kind.

In other words, when we blame a vulnerable group a vulnerable group for systemic problems like crime, inflation, or cost of housing, we join the ranks of every other society that would rather punish a scapegoat than admit its own failures.

A difference in degree is not a difference in kind.

It's called They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1933 to 45.

And there's a lot in here that feels familiar, but there are also important differences.

According to Mayor, pre-war Germany did not have a culture of calm, consistent insubordination.

But we do.

It runs deep.

It's part of our DNA as Americans.

And I hope if this facility goes live later this year, that you will accept the calm, consistent insubordination of your fellow citizens.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening.

I could stand up here for hours and talk to you about the immigration process that I went through with my husband.

He's from Guatemala.

It's heinous.

But that's not going to move the needle.

So according to Mayor Sartar in your recent news conference, um, a news reporter asked you how you wanted surprise to be remembered.

And you said I don't want people thinking of surprise as a place where we oust our fellow residents during city council member meetings, um, which happened last year.

That shouldn't represent surprise.

But you're okay with being known as a city that imprisons immigrants and residents and U.S.

citizens.

ICE contracts with four-profit prison companies like Core Civic and the Geo Group to run their prisons.

ICE has stated that in two in 2026, they're re-engineering their detention model to shift towards converting large-scale commercial warehouses into mega centers, capable of holding up to 10,000 detainees, which you already know from your meeting.

I think everyone here would agree that past behavior is indicative of future behavior.

And every city where ICE has a prison, because that's what it is.

They have barred federal congresspeople from entering for oversight and welfare checks.

They have had deplorable conditions for detainees, dumped people that decided they decided not to detain into the streets, violated detainees' civil rights, and allowed crimes like rape and murder to occur inside their facilities.

Does any of this sound like a secure facility with cafeterias and meeting rooms for families or any of the other empty promises you received while in DC?

I listened to a national news interview with a Canadian man who's been detained by ICE.

And he's been imprisoned for four months.

He stated the conditions are so deplorable that he considers now about killing himself because he can't stand it anymore.

If DHS was going to turn around their approach, they would have signed the agreement with you before you left DC.

Please stand up for your residence and your city and for humanity and block this operation.

Councilman Judd, if it takes the local Air Force facility to do that, by all means, use that.

Once this warehouse is operational as a prison, it'll be almost impossible to stop.

Please pursue Attorney General Chris Mays's offer to file a new nuisance lawsuit.

Thank you so much.

Good evening.

You say your name crossroads for the record, please.

My name is Maureen Miller.

I'm at 163rd Avenue in Joe Max.

And I don't have a lot to say.

I won't take my three minutes, but I want to make sure that I'm on the record after this recent slate of developments.

And leading with facts.

And I think that's a great idea if DHS had proven themselves to have a good track record on this area.

I don't believe they have.

We're supposed to feel better now that we've been told that only single adults will be in the facility, and we're gonna cap the bed at 542, and they're gonna be housed in a short-term processing center, and they will not, and ICE will not operate in schools, churches, or senior facilities.

Then I don't feel like we've gotten information.

You say where you're not getting these immigrants from, but where are they coming from?

Are patrols increasing at Sky Harbor or other areas of the city?

Where will these folks be coming in from before they get shipped off to this prison?

Um you also mentioned that there's not gonna be any immigrant releases into the surprise community.

But until you um prove that ICE and CBP are apprehending the worst of the worst, that's what we were told, the worst of the worst.

Until you can approve um prove that they are the ones that are coming into these facilities, the immigrants are not the problem, in my opinion.

It's the Ice Guns and their tactics that there are the problem for safety.

Once again, it is not the people that you're detaining.

And I wanna know if you're if this if you're seeing this through, do you have the intention to push for ICE ID display or unmasking?

Because it's time, long time.

And then the other comment that was made was that transportation will happen discreetly to minimize community impact and disruption.

I really feel like this is code for keeping things covered up and to really avoid more negative press.

As of the last meeting, I had mentioned up here, and I said I felt like this council had already acquiesced to this decision.

I am so emboldened to hear some of the other comments that I've heard from some of you tonight, and I'm grateful for that.

But despite the good that we have in surprise, this facility will be a stain on our city.

Common decency and humanity are gone.

You are complicit in this, and we by association will also be complicit if this goes through.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lucas McCaw or McGuff.

Alyssa F.

Sevio.

Hallie Overs.

Elijah or Dona.

And Maureen Mandel.

You could just come to the center, and when you get to the podium, please state your name.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Lucas McGoff.

I'm in a resident of District One at Grand and 163rd.

Uh, mayor, vice mayor, city council.

Uh I have been a resident of surprise for six years now.

And it's kept up with this title as the fastest growing city in the U.S., but we are starting to be known on the national stage for something much darker.

I want to acknowledge our city council for actually stepping up to serve our community.

And I am in no way envious of your current position as the Trump administration is breathing down our necks.

And another city council meeting where hundreds of your constituents are showing up frustrated, angry, scared, and yet determined in the face of all that.

Mr.

Mayor, I saw your press conference addressing the meeting with DHS.

And we're being asked to trust an administration that has murdered Americans in our streets.

Actively jailing defenseless children.

And have gone back on all of their campaign promises.

Not to mention this building is being bought and sold by faceless individuals who don't live in our community and who will never feel the impact at the damage this ICE detention center will actually cause.

We're at an inflection point here in surprise.

This is the defining moment of our city's future and likely to be the most important decision of your political career.

It's been reported we have had a 40% decrease of snowbirds return to Phoenix this past season.

I've no business owners that have personally been impacted by that.

And we're already in an economy that's actually struggling severely.

And what if we just hold our ground for at least the next two years?

Mr.

Judd was speaking to this.

Because in two years, we will have a new presidential cycle.

In two years, we'll probably see this DHS secretary change over and over again.

In two years, this might fall right off our plate as a failure of the Trump administration that they want to forget.

But more importantly, in two years, we could save our city for the next two decades and hopefully much, much longer.

So I'm asking you to not focus on forever right now.

Focus at least on the next two years.

And if you do your your part, we will do ours to vote in a new administration that will turn this hellish situation around and maybe make your jobs a little bit easier.

So please give yourself the gift of holding your heads up high in the city you serve instead of fearing ever being called out to defend what you failed to do.

Don't let this asshole administration rob you and your family of that.

Thank you so much for listening.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Alyssa Esteville, and my cross streets are Bowler and Cactus.

I want to begin by thanking Councilmember Melton for meeting with residents and the committee and the OTS to address concerns.

During that meeting, I provided a list of questions and asked that they be taken to Washington, DC.

Today those questions are still unanswered.

Mayor, I've been at every council meeting since February 3rd.

I also watched your recent talk show interview where you said the majority of people you've spoken to support this detention center.

So I'm asking you directly, who is that majority?

Because the majority of people showing up here are against it.

The majority of people protesting in the city are against it.

You also stated that your concern is to make sure that people, whether they are your residents or not, are safe inside the facility.

So are you acknowledging that there is a possibility that residents could be targeted or even detained?

You also said, and I quote, I don't think it's our place to fight.

I don't think it's our place to fight it, and it's too early to say if it's a nuisance.

Mayor, it is absolutely is your place.

Leadership is not about staying neutral when your community is asking for protection.

Leadership is about action.

And right now you are choosing not to act.

We are watching, we are paying attention, and not knowing is no longer an excuse.

Saying the city can't act isn't true.

Other cities have taken clear steps from cutting utilities to openly stating that ICE is not wanted in their community.

Mayor, not once have you opposed the ICE detention center, and your actions have spoken louder than your words.

It appears that your focus has been on making DHS comfortable and profitable for the city of surprise and convincing residents that everything will be fine.

At best, you seem disconnected from the reality of what this administration's decisions have created, since you seem to believe in their false promises to you.

At worst, it could appear that you simply do not care.

We have seen the outcomes of what happens when ICE is involved.

The fear of your residents is in your hands.

The potential deaths, the violence, the discrimination, the racial profiling, the targeting of communities, and the feature, the future of surprise, all of this will be on your hands.

Council Member Hastings, you released a statement saying you do not support the ICE detention center.

While that is a start, and although some may question whether it is connected to your upcoming re-election, I encourage you to act on your words.

Show us, prove to us what you will do to oppose the detention center.

At the last meeting, someone said, Let's make surprise great again.

When has surprise not been great?

I will end with this.

I urge our leaders to consider the long-term impact this decision will have on residents, families, and the values we claim to uphold.

I am not here to explain why we do not want the detention center in our neighborhood.

As a native of surprise, we have made our reason clear time and time again.

I am here to tell you, mayor and council members, that we see your actions and we are paying attention to it speaking up.

We will plan, we were organized, and we will advocate to ensure that those of you who choose not to take a stand and support their community are going to be voted out.

Also, DHS lied to you.

DHS said they followed with NEPA when the same act was repealed by the same admin in January.

That lie to your mind.

Thank you.

Good evening.

If you can say your name and crossroads for the record, please.

Good evening.

My name is Elijah Perez Carolona, and I live on Wadell and Bullart.

I am a senior at Dysart High School as well as the student body sports questioner.

Today I'm here speaking out toward the ICE facility.

You have not pushed back on.

This facility has not yet been constructed or in act, but yet my members in my community still feel unsafe or comfortable in their home environment.

Our students at Dysert High School, regardless if they did nothing wrong, are terrified of being taken away from their families and getting their educ education shift from them simply because of your Hispanic.

ICE has not had any history of being kind, nor just to the detainees.

How would it feel if your student or child was taken was to be taken from you and thrown into cages as if they were animals?

My fellow classmates have begun to ask for rides home, not come to school, and even transferred to online school.

This further ships children of their right to an education.

Students should not have to burden their education out of fear.

This is how this is not how our children should be feeling towards their own community.

Many times because we are students and unable to vote.

Yet our voices are overlooked and left behind.

But don't forget, we are the future of not only the state, but this nation as well.

My fellow classmates, Callie Overs, Carmen Wilson, Dana Cigueros, and Grace Brennan.

We are the voice of the students who cannot speak up for themselves at Dysart High School.

There are over 20 schools, as you can see in his poster, which is only 18.

There are over 20 schools within three miles of this facility.

Fellow students, uh, other schools who also also who also feel for their own community.

We as a collective are scared.

We asked for the simple request of a three-mile buffer zone out of the worry and care for the children's students you vow to protect.

And we asked that you do this to be and we asked you to do your part of protecting students.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Firstly, I want to thank council members, Chris Judd, Jack Hastings, and Nick Haney for responding to my meeting request.

I look forward to our conversation on Thursday.

That said, I need to be direct about my frustration with you, Mayor Sarder.

Mayor Sarter, on February 25th, I personally asked you for a meeting with you and the council members.

You said yes and gave me an email address to follow up.

You knew to expect that email.

I emailed you a request for a meeting on February 28th.

I never heard back.

I then reached out to you and every city council member member on March 15th, and the only people who responded were Chris Judd, Jack Hastings, and Nick Caney.

It has now been nearly two months since I asked you in person.

I still have not received a single reply from you.

The only conclusion I can draw is that you are avoiding me.

And if you are avoiding me, you're avoiding the students of Dysert High School.

You choose you chose to take on the role of student safety coordinator at my district alongside serving as mayor.

That is not a ceremonial title.

It is a responsibility.

You participated in a video with the school district highlighting an emergency preparedness exercise.

Yet you are ignoring a real ongoing threat that students are living with every day.

While I was receiving threats in the comments, including someone hope or someone expressing hope that I would get shot, another moderator stepped in.

On March 25th, I messaged message you and the group admin the comment that was made.

The group admin responded and removed the person.

You said nothing and you did nothing.

You do not have the backs of these students.

You are not fulfilling your responsibilities, not as mayor and not as safety coordinator.

I'm deeply disappointed, and so are the students at Dysart.

To the council members who responded and agreed to meet with me, thank you.

Your willingness to show up might me more than you know.

I also understand you may not be able to respond at the moment, but I would greatly appreciate knowing whether each of you would be willing to publicly support my petition for a three-mile buffer zone.

I ask for you guys to reach out to me as you all have my email address.

Lastly, stop trying to cooperate with DHS and ICE and give them pushback instead.

Thank you.

My name is Maureen Mandel, and my cross streets are Bell Road and R.

H.

Johnson.

Ma'am, hold on one second.

Yeah.

This Madam Kirk, if you pause our time.

So sorry.

Sorry to interrupt.

Hey, real fast.

I just wanted to see if the Chief Beecher could follow up regarding uh the threat she had mentioned.

Um, and I'll just say, regardless of your sides on the issue that, you know, like we've all stated, um, that's I mean threats, things like that, regardless of what side you're on, where you're coming from, completely unacceptable.

Thanks, Chief.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Um, my name is Maureen Mandel, and my cross streets are uh Bell Road and R.

H.

Johnson.

Um, my comments were mainly taken because of the press conference that the mayor held.

Um my first question is I saw the uh video online, and why were comments cut off?

Nobody was allowed to make a comment.

If you value communication and transparency, that should have been there.

Next, um Mayor, you've made comments about your frustration about the transparency and the communication with uh the federal government.

And I understand that frustration and lack of transparency.

But DHS and ICE ignored all requests for involvement from city officials until the residents of surprise, the people in this room, and the protesters in our streets rose up to demand that no detention facility be built here.

Only after these actions became a national news item, and state and federal representatives exerted pressure.

Did DHS consent to a meeting with city officials?

DHS and ICE officials clearly do not value transparency, communication, or the well-being of surprise residents.

They only care about the optics and the declining public approval ratings.

You say you are studying the impact of this facility, but such studies are useless once this facility becomes a reality in just a few months, even by modest estimates, which are suspect numbers.

Supposedly 500 some and some people will be processed per week.

This roughly equates to 26 to 28,000 individuals, most with no criminal record, who will be removed some from removed from surprise in the surrounding area in a single year.

You are choosing to ignore and minimize the inevitable economic disruption, the devastating impact on families, local institutions, our resources, and our city's reputation.

These can only result in a negative outcome if ICE takes hold here.

You say you have listened to the overwhelming opposition voiced at council meetings, yet you take no action to stop this.

It is dismissing and it is patronizing.

Furthermore, you state the city's responsibility is to protect the community.

But the truth is you have no authority to stop DHS and ICE from doing whatever they want.

Thank you.

Um I do I do have two requests to speak.

Um go ahead and come up, please.

Mr.

and Mrs.

Dunbar request to speak.

Thank you, Mr.