All right, good afternoon.

I'd like to call this special city council meeting on a Tuesday, June 2nd to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mayor Sarder.

Present.

Ice Mayor Greenberg.

Councilman Haney.

I am here.

We are echoy today.

Councilman Duffy.

Here.

Councilman Mountain?

Hither.

Councilman Hastings.

Councilman Jack.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have quorum.

Okay, thank you.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for what just stands.

Item one, consideration and action pertaining to the city's intent to levy primary property tax in the amount of point five five three four for one hundred dollars of assessed valuation and secondary property tax in the amount of point three eight eight zero for one hundred dollars of assessed valuation and setting the property tax adoption for June 16th, 2026.

Resolution 2026 88.

Good evening.

Good evening.

So I am here tonight for our special meeting.

And number three, to adopt the final budget for City of Surprise.

And with our um posting dates, May 13th and May 20th, and uh the surprise independent and Phoenix Independent newspapers.5534 and secondary at.5534, well below the average of point seven zero.

This year we wanted to give you an idea of the difference between the rate that I just spoke of and the tax levy itself.

The City of Surprise chose to keep the rate the same at 0.5534, which equates to a levy of 11.49 million.

4.36 million less than the maximum allowed, or 38% less than the maximum allowed.5534 per 100 of assessed value.

What does that actually mean?

If a home's market value is $550,000, the limited property value is approximately $300,000.

The county then takes that value and converts it to an assessed value, which is used to calculate the primary property tax.

For this example, that tax is $166, which is utilized and broken down accordingly for these specific divisions and departments.

The secondary property tax is a dedicated repayment for our general obligation bonds.

It is staying at the rate 0.3880 per 100 of assessed value using that same equation that I showed on the last screen.

It is only 116 annually on the property bill, property tax bill.

This is only used for bond repayment.

With that, we go into the public hearing.

Okay, thank you.

I'll open this agenda item to the public.

Madam Clerk, do we get any requests to speak?

We did not, Mayor.

I'll close this item to the public.

I don't see any questions or comments from the council.

I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve resolution 2026-88.

Second.

It was uh moved by Councilman Duffy and seconded by Vice Mayor.

Please cast your vote.

Yes.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number two.

Item two, consideration and action pertaining to the city's intent to adopt streetlight improvement district.

Property tax levies and setting the property tax adoption for June 16th, 2026, pursuant to Arizona Revised Statute 48616 resolution 2026 89.

Okay.

So our street light improvement districts that we uh commonly refer to as SLIDS, they are special taxing districts.

They are used for costs associated with electricity for street lighting.

They are shared costs for a direct benefit.

There may be a different rate for each district, depending on the number of homes expenses for that district.

The SLID property tax is also found on the property tax bill, and it is separate from the city's primary property tax.

We currently have 142 total SLIDs with a total levy amount of 2.3 million dollars.

With that, I'll open this agenda to the public.

Madam Clerk, do we get any requests to speak?

We did not.

I'll close this item to the public.

Council, do you have any questions or comments?

Seeing that, I'll entertain a motion.

Uh move to approve resolution 2026-89.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Thank you.

Please read item number three.

Item three, consideration and action pertaining to the adoption of the city of surprise final budget for fiscal year 2027, resolution 2026 87.

Okay, and my final item is presenting City of Surprise Final Budget.

Uh we're here tonight for the adoption.

We are required to do this 14 days before the property tax levy adoption on the 16th.

Tonight sets the final expenditure limit.

And again, we are meeting Arizona revised statute compliance.

For fiscal year 2027, for all funding sources, we are anticipating $681.6 million in revenues.

The 40% of revenues going to the general fund is the main fund that we utilize for our city's operations.

For our general fund, local sales tax and state shared make up $72% of our total general fund revenue.

The final fiscal year 2027 budget is one point zero one billion dollars.

Taking out transfers gets us to our expenditure limit of 966.

You can see that we are investing a lot into our capital project funds.

Our capital projects are one-time funding, mostly funded by construction sales tax.

And they also um attribute to our asset replacement program.

Oh, I I apologize.

The general fund is at 28% of the citywide budget, narrowing in on the general fund operating, we are investing 50% to public safety with the remaining spread across the rest of our departments that help operate our city.

We are under the average of one point nine million per 1,000 residents at 1.6 million.

This is this places the city of surprise as the second lowest city in the West Valley.

As you can see here, the final adopted budget is eight point eight million less than the tentative.

This is due to a final review of all of our capital projects and their anticipated carry forward into fiscal year 2027.

And I can entertain any questions or comments.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Clerk, I'm gonna open this item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

No, Mayor.

Close this item to the public.

Uh the council won when we did the strategic plan a little over a year ago, and we really focused on what was important for each one of us as individuals, but focused on what's important for the city.

I think we gave that to staff, and then staff ran with it for this budget.

And I think it's budget we can be proud of.

Uh we're short, uh, well, not short, but there's revenue that we uh just don't quite have.

And so we had to make some really tough decisions.

And I think it speaks to the staff's um commitment to being fiscally responsible with our residents' money.

So I wanted to thank Ms.

Simmons uh and all the directors for their input.

And Andrew, this is your first full budget.

So moving forward, this is on you to execute.

I have 100% confidence that you will be able to do that.

So I just want to say thank you.

We have to approve the resolution 2026-87.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

Okay, thank you.

All entertaining a motion to adjourn.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

All in favor, voice vote.

Aye.

All opposed or adjourned.

Get like five-minute break.

The bathroom was blocked up.