All right, good evening, everyone like to call this regular city council meeting on Tuesday, June sixteenth to order tonight.

We have invocation from uh Marcy.

If you could leave us in the invocation, please.

Our dear Father in Heaven, we love you and we praise your mighty name.

Thank you for the abundant blessings you have bestowed upon us.

We thank you for this great city and the leaders you have put in place to lead and guide in such a time as this.

Father, please bless this city, every person that lives here, every business with open doors and those to come.

Protect our first responders and the leaders called to serve.

Give them your heart for this city and its citizens, your mindful of ideas and solutions for the future and for now, and your wisdom to lead humbly.

We ask you to break off any stronghold of the enemy that creates division, and invite your spirit to guide the citizens and the leaders to be gracious to each other with open ears and hearts to each other's points of view.

We thank you, Lord, for all you have given us and pray that we will look to you for the final say in all things.

In Jesus' mighty name, Amen.

So tonight we have the City of Surprise Aquatics team, all of our lifeguards that are keeping all the kids safe for the summer to lead us in the pledge.

So if you all join us and they'll lead us in the pledge.

One nation under God.

Individual liberty and justice for all.

Madam McClerk, please call the role.

Mayor Sarder.

Present.

Vice Mayor Greenberg.

Here.

Councilman Haney.

Here.

Councilman Duffy.

Here.

Councilman Melton.

President.

Councilman Hastings.

Here.

Councilman Jet.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

We have quorum.

All right.

Thank you.

Councilman Hastings, if you want to join me down on the floor.

So we typically do uh community champions.

It's been schools, uh teams that have won state championships.

Uh we had a gentleman that led karate uh and did national championships.

So today this is our first individual uh community champion.

It was nominated by councilman Hastings.

So he knows this candidate, uh this lady probably better than I do.

So I'm gonna let you lead this presentation and give her the community champion.

So here you go, councilman.

I'm sure you know all the stuff on the card already.

Absolutely.

Great being here tonight.

Thanks, guys, for being here as well.

Um, so I decided to nominate Christine Pritchard or Christie Pritcher for the for the award.

Um, she's a district five Kingswood Park resident.

Um, she served on the DISAR governing board for I couldn't figure out if it was three or four terms, but uh such uh yeah, four terms.

Um she actually uh was the one I found a picture, and she's the one who handed my handed me my diploma, but I also had the chance to teach both of her uh daughters as well.

Um when I taught at Valley Vista, sorry, I didn't mean to like throw this like a throwback.

Um, but you know, she she's responsible.

She's she's in a lot.

I mean, she helped.

I think we think back to back when the Vista was performing art center, but opening that up and um just working in the community, um, serving for for this long and um as an elected official, especially as a school board member, um, give me back to education.

We just really appreciate the work that you've done, helping start the SRO program, um, supporting teacher pay incentives, um, you know, and also kind of shaping into what's become our continuous improvement plan that the schools go through.

So um, I wanted to nominate you and and the uh when the mayor asked for nominations, and I don't know if it'll be uh, you know, necessarily a regular thing, but I couldn't think of anyone better than you.

So um, congratulations and hope you'll accept this uh certificate.

So thank you.

Come on, let's do it.

The pledge presenters, and you guys can go home.

We gotta do it.

They wanted an individual.

We got them.

Thanks for the one.

Stand for this one.

This one's we're standing for.

Okay, okay.

You almost got the words right.

Okay, we have seven.

Oh, hold on, one second.

Let me get my let me give my bearings here.

Mrs.

Davis, do you have a city manager report tonight?

Uh yes, mayor and council.

I do have a brief update on uh regarding the proposed DHS ICE facility.

Uh our government relations team, we do continue to be in contact with DHS headquarters and ICE uh individuals themselves to ensure the city has the most current information that is available.

Uh they did receive their full federal funding on June 10th.

That is something that they've been furloughed and with however at this time there's no new developments that has been provided that are impacting the proposed facility at the City of Surprise.

So we have no new information or any additional information.

However, we are working with Senator Kelly and Congressman Gosar's office to create a website with information and appropriate contact information that can be shared with residents to provide information sharing, inquiries, all of that.

And that was actually going to come directly from our federal elected officials.

Putting residents in contact with the federal officials since it is a federal matter, making sure they get the information directly from them.

So we're working on setting up that website.

So we're waiting to receive those.

Once we do get that information, it's finalized with the Senator Kelly and Congressman Gosar.

We will we'll have them available on our website and then we'll post a social media uh release as well just to inform so people know that that's available and ready to go.

So we'll put that on social media so everyone knows when it's ready.

So uh with that, uh that is that is all the update I have for that.

All right, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Madam Clerk, do you have a report?

Um, I do have a few items for you this evening.

Um, first we have five individuals who are up for recommendation to continue serving on some of our commissions.

And what I'd like to do is go through the voting for each one and then afterwards um administer the oath.

And before we do that, I'd like to give our nomination committee chair, uh, councilmember Haney a chance to speak.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

I will make it brief.

I just want to, you guys have heard me say it multiple times.

I'm just extremely thankful that we have so many uh talented and qualified residents with the heart for service that are willing to step up, give up some of their time to make our city better.

So thank you for all those who applied, those are who will be nominated tonight, and also those um who interviewed with us, and I want to thank my uh fellow committee members for the thought that went behind each one of these appointments.

It's it's been really fun to serve alongside them.

Thank you, councilman.

Madam Clerk, you want to read each item and then we'll do a vote for each one?

Yes, sir.

Okay, please go ahead with item one.

All right, item one, consideration and action to approve the recommendation for reappointment of Gwen Maxfield to the Veterans Disability and Human Services Commission for a four-year term expiration, June 30th, 2030.

All right.

I move to approve the recommendation for reappointment of Gwen Maxville.

Maxville to the Veterans Disability and Human Services Commission for the four-year term expiring on June 30th, 2030.

Second.

Madam Clerk, can we do a just a voice vote on all these?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Uh all those in favor with the voice vote.

Say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion passes.

Please read item number two.

Thank you.

Item two, consideration and action to approve recommendation for reappointment of Julie Kent Partridge to the Veterans Disability and Human Services Commission for the four-year term expiration, June 30th, 2030.

All right.

I move to approve uh the recommendation for reappointment of Julie Kent Partridge to the Veterans Disability and Human Services Commission for the four-year term expiring on June 30th, 2030.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

We'll do a voice vote.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Item three, consideration and action to approve recommendation for reappointment of William Conium to the Board of Trustees for the four-year term expiration on June 30th, 2030.

Go ahead, Councilman.

All right.

So I move to approve the recommendation for reappointment of William Conium to the Board of Trustees for the four-year term expiring on June 30th, 2030.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

We'll conduct a voice vote.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item four, consideration and action to approve recommendation for reappointment of Richard Jesson to the Judicial Selection Advisory Commission for the four-year term expiration, June 30th, 2030.

All right.

I move to approve the recommendation for reappointment of Richard Jensen to the Judicial Selection Advisory Commission for the four-year term expiring on June 30th, 2030.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Item five, consideration and action to approve recommendation for reappointment of Connie Bowers to the audit committee for the two-year term expiration, June 30th, 2028.

I move to approve the recommendation for reappointment of Connie Bowers to the audit committee for the two-year term expiring on June 30th, 2028.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

All in favor, aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Thank you.

And if my appointees would come join me at the podium, I'll administer your oath.

Okay.

Congratulations.

Okay.

Raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I state your name.

Do you solemnly swear?

Do you solemnly swear?

That I will support the constitution of the United States.

Support the Constitution of the United States.

And the laws of the state of Arizona.

And the laws of the state of Arizona.

That I will bear true faith.

That I will have true faith.

And allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same.

And defend them against all enemies.

And defend them against all enemies.

Whatsoever.

Whatsoever.

That I will faithfully and impartially and partially.

Discharge the duties.

Discharge the duties.

Of the position of the position of.

State your commission.

Veterans.

I hear by a test.

I hear by a test.

To abide by all official ordinances.

To abide by all official ordinances.

Policies and procedures.

Policies and procedures.

Of city of surprise.

Of the city of surprise.

According to the best of my ability.

According to the best of my ability.

Either so help me God or so I do affirm.

Either so help me God.

Either one.

Which one?

Which one do you want to say?

I'll say.

You're officially sworn in.

Thank you and congratulate you.

Okay, and then you take part with you.

Thank you.

He'll be in the background there.

Charles, raise your hand.

Congrats.

Just get that unruly Jeff out of here for it causes trouble.

I'm getting him out of here.

Yes, you have your phone on the black board.

All right, madam clerk.

You have uh item number six.

I do, sir.

Just real quick.

Uh our city primary election is coming up.

It's also the state primary election.

Next week begins the um activity for in-person voting to start here at City Hall.

So we'll be doing our election setup at the end of the week.

On Monday, June 22nd is just a reminder that it's the last day to register to vote if you are not already registered.

On Wednesday, the 24th, the ballots will go out in the mail.

So if you're on the um active early voting list to automatically receive a ballot, you will, unless you are a non-party.

You have to make a designation to the county.

And then of course, primary election day, July 21st.

So all the information is on our website.

You can get your locations, um, polling locations, and we will be here at City Hall.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, madam clerk.

There are 17 items on the consent agenda.

Would any councilman like to pull one for clarification or have any questions?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

Thank you.

That's a pass vote.

Thank you.

Please uh read item 24.

Item 24.

Consideration action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control on application number 397255.

Requested by Scott Ori Strillett for Southern Steer Butcher, located at 16853, North 100 45th Avenue.

Surprise 85374 for a new series 10 liquor license.

Do we have a presentation?

No, public hearing.

No presentation.

I'll open this agenda item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

I did not.

I'll close this item to the public.

Council, do you have any questions or concerns?

If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Mr.

Swanester.

I move to approve application number 397 255.

Um to the Department of Liquor Licensing Control.

Second.

Did you have a question, Councilman?

Okay.

It's been moved and seconded.

Please cast your vote.

We got a head on this.

That's a pass vote, Mayor.

All right, please read item number 25.

Item 25, consideration action pertaining to recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control on application number 398456.

Requested by Maria Danielle Burgess for Circle Case store number 9628.

Located at 1400 West Peoria Road.

The prize 85379 for a new series 10 liquor license.

Thanks.

I'll enter open this item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

I did not, sir.

I'll close this item to the public.

Council, you have any questions or comments?

If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Is the applicant here?

I don't believe she is.

She did not are you here.

No, sir.

I don't see her.

Well, I mean, it wouldn't be a council meeting without a uh circle K coming in for a liquor license question again.

I mean, what have we had?

Five of these this year already.

Six.

Six.

All right.

Let's see.

The number is my computer 20 with my computer to load.

Okay.

For the application number.

Uh move to approve recommendation to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control on Application 398456.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded by Vice Mayor.

Um, please cast your vote.

Thank you.

That's a pass vote.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please read item number 27.

Uh 26 26.

Consideration and action pertaining to recommendation to Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control.

Application number 389022, requested by Lyndon Paul Roberts for Park at Surprise.

Located at 14630 West Parkwood Drive, surprise 85379 for a new series 7 liquor license.

I'll open this item to the public.

Do we get any requests to speak?

I did not.

I'll close this item to the public.

Was the applicant here?

Did they want to say anything?

They are not here.

Okay.

Council, do you have any questions or comments?

I'll entertain a motion.

I will make it because it's taken 18 months for me to get something on the regular agenda item in district two.

Um, so I actually went and visited the park, and it's uh independent and assisted living in a memory care facility that's beautiful, and I never even knew it was hidden back there.

So I went wandering around to check it out.

And at their bar, which isn't open yet, says maximum of four alcoholic drinks per resident per day.

But they do have memory care there, so I'm not sure who's gonna be keeping track.

So motion to approve application number 389022 for uh the park at surprise.

Second, it's been moved and seconded by councilman Duffy.

Please cast your vote.

That's funny.

I didn't have any.

Thank you.

That's a pass vote.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, Madam Clerk, I'm gonna call one out of order.

We have some uh item 28.

Uh we have uh well we're we'll see how that action item goes, but I wanted to give uh let's read item 28.

Got it.

Consideration and action pertaining to approval of an employment agreement for appointment for the city auditor pursuant to surprise municipal code section two one seventy.

Okay, thank you.

Uh this is a non-public hearing item, so I won't open this one to the public, but I do want to give uh one.

I want to say thanks to Councilman Judd and the entire uh uh your committee for for coming taking us to this point and and going through all the applicants and finding the best one for the city of surprise.

I'll give you some time if you want to say anything about the um auditor.

Yeah, I mean we had a lot of great applicants, and I think that uh I think we hit a home run with one that we settled upon and and big thank you to Councilman uh Greenberg, my colleague on that on that committee, and we put her through a handful of interviews, and I'm and I'm happy that she's accepted our offer and that she's here tonight and uh shortly after we take a vote here, and hopefully we all approve, then we'll have a new city auditor.

So with that, I move to approve the appointment of Kathleen Davis as city auditor effective August 3rd, 2026.

Okay, it's been moved and second.

Please cast your vote.

That is a unanimous yes vote.

Congratulations.

Congrats.

Do we not have swear in or anything special like that?

I feel like that we should.

I know.

There isn't really for the auditor, but she could take the I could give her the same oath.

That would be fine.

I'll make her certificate if you want.

I don't want to put you on the spot, but did you want to did you want to say anything?

Please.

So thank you, Mayor and City Council.

I am honored by the opportunity to serve as city auditor for the city of surprise and look forward to serving the residents of surprise with integrity and independence and to help strengthen transparency, accountability, and public trust.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item 27.

And 27, Maricopa Association of Government, MAG update presentation concerning the North surprise traffic interchanges.

Good evening, Ms.

Toss.

Good evening.

Thanks for coordinating this presentation.

That's important and appreciated.

Really happy coming in to be here this evening.

You know, we've had a lot of wins, especially over the last five years, whether it be at the regional level or the state level, um, with the support of our um local municipalities or our state legislators.

And um this year, we've had a lot of success over the last six months at the regional level, with many thanks to Councilman Haney and to Mayor Sarder.

Um, Councilman Haney, you always talk about advocacy and action.

And I thought as we conclude this fiscal year with this meeting, um, now is the best time to talk about the wins that you've both achieved at the MAG level.

So I'm gonna defer to John Bullen, assistant executive director for MAG, as well as Velvet Matthew, who's our freeway engineering manager to talk about what we've been able to achieve over the last six months.

Thank you, Mayor Sarder, members of the surprise council.

Happy to be back with you uh here today uh to give an update on regional transportation investments.

Um do want to send uh regrets on behalf of the executive director, Audra.

Uh she would traditionally be here uh joining us today, but unfortunately she had a uh scheduled conflict with a different city council uh in our region.

But uh certainly uh a uh much different presentation um here to give today than uh the one I first gave uh several years back with a lot of important progress that has been made.

Uh and with that, I'll turn it over to Velvet to go through specifically.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Thank you for having us.

Um today I'll be presenting an update on two projects specifically, the US 60 Grand Avenue from Deer Valley Road to Loop 303 and the Loop 303 at 155th Avenue traffic interchange.

Um, but first, before I get into details, I want to give a brief overview of the project development process um and basically talk about how project goes from a plan to construction.

So MAG, in our role as the Metropolitan Planning Organization, is in charge of planning the regional transportation plan.

Um, and that is funded in part by our Prop 479 half cent sales tax.

So MAG completes planning studies and technical analysis in order to identify needs and gatherers input.

Um, another way to put it, we look at projects at the 50,000 foot level.

Um, once we complete our planning studies, uh the recommended funding for the recommendations or part of them will be contemplated by our MAG Regional Council.

Um, and that for freeway projects is done through our freeway lifecycle program.

Once funding for a project has been identified, then ADOT can begin the scoping and environmental phase of the project.

And this is where they'll look at a project at the 10,000 foot level.

Um they will do technical analysis as well as consider multiple alternatives, and then that is all in order to consider what are the potential impacts as well as project costs.

Once that phase is complete, Ada will then begin the final design process.

And this is where the engineers get into the weeds.

Um they look at projects at the the the 30-foot level during final design.

You will see that they will acquire right away, as well as determine potential utility conflicts.

Once the plans are complete and uh clearances are received, the project can then be advertised for construction.

So once ADAC gets a responsive bid, they'll eventually award that contractor or that project to a contractor, and then you'll see them turning dirt.

So that was a brief overview of the development process, and now I'll go back to our projects.

So MAG initiated the US 60 Grand Avenue Corridor Study, which spanned from the loop 303 to State Route 74.

And you may be familiar with this as it was managed by my colleague Bradley Williams, um, who presented the study to you guys earlier.

So the corridor study was initiated in February of 2024, and it looked at several different improvements.

Ultimately, the study concluded with several recommendations, and it was accepted by the MAG Regional Council in March of this year.

Um, in the core in the study limits, there were actually two previously programmed projects.

So as part of the fiscal year 2027 free-way lifecycle programs, those two projects were combined into one.

This was approved by MAG Regional Council last month.

So the new project has been named the US 60 Grand Avenue, Deer Valley Road to Loop 303.

Not only did it combine those two projects, but it also extended the limits to Deer Valley Road.

In addition, the construction funding was accelerated many years to fiscal year 2031.

That's a great win for the city.

Also, for the loop 303 and 155th Avenue TI, construction funding has been identified for fiscal year 2028.

So now I go into a little more details about each project.

So starting with the Loop 303 and 155th Avenue TI.

As part of the US 60 corridor study, um, it would became obvious that another access point was needed along loop 303.

So ADOT initiated the interchange analysis study back in the spring of 2024, and they looked at four different alternative locations.

The study was completed a year later, and with extensive um evaluation criteria and feedback from the public.

The study recommended that the loop 303 and 155th Avenue TI be the selected location.

So after that, funding was programmed for the new TI, and that is currently again in fiscal year 2028.

Now here's the schedule for the project.

As you know, the studies have been completed.

ADOT started final design at the beginning of this calendar year.

Um during final design, you will see concurrent right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation efforts.

Um ADOT anticipates construction or design will be complete in the fall of 2027 with construction starting in the spring of 2028.

Now going on to the US 60 Grand Avenue, Deer Valley Road to Loop 303.

Again, just uh taking that a history walk.

Um, there were two projects originally in the program, and they have now been officially combined into one project.

And again, construction is currently programmed in fiscal year 2031.

Here's the concept that you guys are probably very familiar with.

This is the concept for now, and obviously it will um be looked at and evaluated further as the project goes into scoping and environmental.

So ADOT is currently in the process of um procuring a final design consultant.

They anticipate that the scoping and environmental phase will start later this fall and then be completed in early 2028.

Once scoping environmental complete, final design can begin, and that's approximately around the summer of 2028.

Again, during final design, there will be right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation efforts.

And eventually construction is planned for the winter of 2023.

Now, please note design is complete in 2029.

And so we will be looking for other funding opportunities to potentially advance construction even further from 2031.

And so looking ahead, we know that congestion and delays will get a little bit worse during this time of project development and construction.

But in the end, these solutions will provide the relief that is needed in the area.

Now I'll hand it back to John.

Thank you, Velvet.

And just uh I think this slide does a really good job of summarizing where we've been, where we've come from, uh, and where we are looking forward.

So uh really at this point, just two years ago, uh we had no dedicated funding.

Uh while we had identified funding potentially as part of a plan, uh, it was contingent on voter approval, uh, which we ultimately got in November of uh 2024.

Uh projects in the plan uh included US 60 at 163rd grade separated.

Uh that was programmed for phase four of the plan.

So sometime between 2041 and 2045.

Uh uh new interchange at 303 and 60 again was also identified, but funding wasn't programmed until 2041 to 2045.

And then a new interchange uh with funding program between 2031 and 2035.

If you compare that to where we're at today, uh obviously there's been uh a significant amount of progress.

Um I think a lot of that is attributed not only to uh the the technical process, the feedback we've heard from the public, uh, but there's a lot of people that have worked tirelessly on this effort.

Uh Jody, of course, Andrea, um, uh Eric, uh, a lot of folks here at Surprise, and then, you know, certainly Mayor Sarter and Councilmember Haney, uh working with your colleagues at MAG uh for approval.

And ultimately, what we saw or where we stand today uh is that we've seen acceleration of that new interchange along loop 303 um from what we call phase two, so 2031 to 2035, all the way up to 2028.

Uh, and then uh perhaps even more significantly, we've combined those two projects, extended the limits, uh, and we've extended that more than 10 years uh currently scheduled for construction in 2031.

In total, we're looking at more than half a billion dollars worth of investment going to the Northwest Valley within the next five years.

So uh certainly a monumental accomplishment.

It's gonna take some time to construct the project.

Uh certainly there will be continued frustration as Velvet had mentioned.

Um, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Uh so with that, I'd be happy to answer any question.

Thank you.

That's good news.

Council, Councilman Hayes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh John, I want to thank you and your team at MAG.

I think the relationship that uh we've been able to develop since I've been here, but also just your relationship with the city.

You really are an advocate for us um in those regional meetings, and and it I cannot stress how much of an impact that has had.

And you mentioned it and Jody's humble, but it it really has been a team effort in collaboration with Jody, Lloyd, Eric, Andrea, your team, the support of this council, um, but also our residents and their engagement.

And I wanted to kind of ask you a little bit about that.

So obviously, these are major infrastructure projects that this area has been long overdue for.

Can you tell me a little bit how did we engage the public?

Was it just surprise focused?

Was it did it kind of outstretch a little bit further than that?

Can you elaborate a little bit?

Yeah, uh, great counsel, uh, great question.

Uh uh, Mayor Sarder, members of the council.

Uh, so certainly as part of the MAG US 60 uh study, public engagement was a primary focus.

Um, as you know, we we came to a number of your meetings.

Um, we we reached our far and wide.

Uh, we had a total of three public engagement, certainly while we targeted the study area, um, encourage our partners, whether it's Maricopa County or others to share that beyond, uh, given uh I think the the priority that these improvements are from the public too.

Uh number of media outlets picked up on the stories, advertised that.

Uh, certainly had our share of engagements there.

Uh ADOT initiated their own study as well, as Velvet had mentioned, uh, looking at the different uh alternatives there.

Um, they had several rounds of of engaging a broad list of community stakeholders.

Um, similarly, a lot of uh uh news outlets picked up on that.

And so I I think in the end, we're really pleased with the amount of public engagement we got.

Uh, I want to say that the the total number of respondents to the ADOT study was around 1500 or so um at some of our public meetings.

We had uh a couple hundred people show up, which is really significant for planning level studies.

And thank you for that.

Cause I think the big thing is when we're having these projects, it's important to get that engagement of folks who are going to drive that road every single day.

And I always tell the residents that I get to represent is um obviously there's modeling done, but it's also important to understand, you know, from the perspective of the greatest drivers we have from district one, but also the not so great.

Um, and so to make sure we're factoring that into those infrastructure solutions.

And so it's encouraging to hear that there was um really an extensive outreach effort that pertained to this.

And so with those meetings, and and I was able to attend a few.

Was there any feedback from those who attended those meetings about um wanting to, you know, potentially delay the project, or did they feel like the pro the process was rushed at all?

Uh Mayor Sarra, Councilmember Haney, I I think it's fair to say from my respect uh perspective that the the feedback we got was all can you go faster?

Yeah, okay.

And um, and I appreciate that.

And I and I know whenever we're having this project, you know, I I like to talk about it wherever, wherever I'm going, just because it's an exciting thing.

Like you said, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

We now see movement.

Um, even if it there see those projected timelines, they don't necessarily understand how far we've been able to expedite those, but also that things are being done now.

Um, and I think a lot of times when you see, well, why is it taking so long?

Now we kind of have more of an explanation.

So I appreciate that.

Um, but let's say worst case scenario.

If this was to be delayed, 155th in loop 303.

What kind of impact are we looking at?

Yeah, uh uh Mayor Sarder, members of the council.

I it certainly we touched on it during our our presentation earlier this year.

Uh fortunately, with some of the in-term improvements, we've been able to band-aid the problem.

Uh, but the band-aid only goes so far, particularly with the amount of growth that we're seeing.

And so not the not too distant future.

Uh, we're gonna be back to conditions that we saw a few years ago just because of the sheer volume of cars.

And so that delay is only gonna compound the problems uh and and lengthen out those delays and lengthen out the challenges there, uh, which in part is is why you see the funding schedule the way it is, uh, just simply because of the importance of of these projects.

Okay, thank you.

So, and I and I'll wrap up and I appreciate my colleagues' patience on this, but this is a big deal.

I I appreciate the partnership that we've had.

I've appreciated um how much you guys have uh engaged our community to and and how much our community's actually shown up.

I've been on some of those meetings and uh times that we wondered if the AC was on because it was so packed.

Um, but it's good and it's important.

I think they offered a lot of um useful suggestions that really would only come from someone who lives in the area and drives in the area.

And so uh I look forward to working with you in any other type of way that we can expedite some of these uh solutions.

I think the conversation moving forward has to be how can we make this go faster?

Um, anything that would serve to delay this would cause significant impacts to my residents, negatively impact the quality of life.

Uh, you're talking about uh increased response times.

It the list is just overwhelming what a delay would do.

And so I look forward to working with you to do the complete opposite while keeping the community engaged.

And Jody, thank you so much for your help on that.

You're really the unsung hero of this.

So thank you.

Okay, you know, councilman have any other questions or comments?

I just want to say thanks for your effort.

I mean, I've been in office for a little over a year and a half now, and what you've done has just been incredible.

Uh Jody, I want to thank you as well.

I know councilman Haney uh did that, but uh your efforts down at every level of government trying to get this done and passed.

I know there's residents that get engaged at every point in the process, and I did I would I would hate to see that this project have anything happened to it because we've been so engaged with people trying to be so open, so uh getting feedback.

And then we we decided on it on the 155th, and that is in line with you know the Deer Valley and 60.

So I just want to make sure that we're we're moving that forward.

And there's a lot of other departments that also had a hand in this as well.

I mean, from water, I mean you every every time we're up there talking, uh, there's different aspects of this plan and of this uh thing that uh I'd like to give kudos to the rest of the staff.

So I think water communications, uh, transportation, uh, just to name a few.

So I just uh thank you for coming down here.

Uh I know it's towards the end of the fiscal year, but thanks for all that you do.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, please read item 29.

Item 29, consideration and action levying primary property taxes at a rate of 0.5534 for 100 of assessed valuation and secondary property taxes at a rate of 0.3880 for 100 of assessed valuation for fiscal year 2027 within the city of surprise resolution 2026 98.

Good evening, Miss Simmons.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Hopefully, the computer will work tonight for me.

Okay.

So per Arizona resi revised statute.

We have met all the requirements and postings.

We also held our text level public hearing two weeks ago on June 2nd.

So this presentation covers items 29 and 30 on the agenda tonight.

Two weeks ago, I went into depth on the primary and secondary property taxes that we are keeping at the same tax rate as fiscal year 2026.

Primary at 0.5534 and secondary at.3880.

With the proposed levy for primary at 11 million,490,400.

And the proposed levy for secondary property tax at 7,283,000.

If there are no questions and comments, this item is ready for voice vote.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council, you have any questions or comments?

I'll entertain a motion.

Roll call vote, sir.

Maybe we'll have to get a motion on a second.

I move to approve resolution 2026-98.

Second.

We moved and seconded.

Madam Clerk, please conduct a roll call vote.

Thank you.

Mayor Sarter.

Four.

Vice Mayor Greenberg.

Or councilman Haney.

Yes.

Councilman Duffy.

Four.

Councilman Melton.

Aye.

Councilman Hastings.

Yes.

Councilman Chad.

Aye.

Thank you.

That's a unanimous pass vote.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Please read item number 30.

Item 30 consideration action levying an amount not to exceed the maximum rate of $1.20 for $100 of assessed valuation for each street light improvement district within the city of surprise during the fiscal year 2027.

Resolution 2026 97.

So as the screen in front of you is going crazy.

Let's try that again.

So same as the primary and secondary property taxes two weeks ago.

We held the levy hearing for our street light improvement districts.

And Mel's gonna get me going here.

Oh there.

No, back to there.

Go back to one more.

There you go.

Thank you.

See, Holly, I have a team too.

Okay.

So the um our streetlight improvement districts, the special they are special taxing districts.

Um the levy amount that is to be adopted tonight is two point three million for a hundred and forty-two slides.

If there are no questions or comments, this item is ready for voice vote.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Simmons.

Council, you have any questions or comments?

Hearing none, I will entertain a motion.

I move to approve resolution 2026 97.

Second.

So moved and seconded, madam clerk.

Please call the uh a roll call vote.

Thank you.

Mayor Sarder.

Four.

Yes, Mayor Greenberg.

Four.

Councilman Haney.

Yes.

Councilman Duffy.

Four.

Councilman Melton.

Aye.

Councilman Hastings.

Four.

Councilman Judd.

Aye.

Thank you.

That's a unanimous yes vote.

Please read item 31.

Item 31, presentation and discussion pertaining to the FY 2026 financial status report through March 2026.

Good evening.

I think we're up to speed here.

So tonight we're here for our financial status report through March.

Um again, these are delayed due to timing of us receiving uh sales tax numbers.

So for our sources categories, we go over our local sales tax, our intergovernmental, which is mostly state shared sales tax, charges for services, primary property tax, franchise fees, our transfers, and others.

And as it's going through, um, I'll I'll talk about it.

Let's see, one more.

There you go.

For general fund revenues through March, local sales tax collections were approximately 4.6 million above budget estimates, and intergovernmental revenues, primarily state shared revenue, were exceeding budget by about 1.8 million, partially offsetting these gains, franchise fee revenues were approximately 700,000 below budget with declines across all major categories compared to the same period in FY25.

We are also seeing a decrease of approximately five million and one-time charges for services, one-time charges for services and other revenue categories.

Despite these decreases, overall general fund revenues remained about 600,000 or 0.3% above budget through March.

This works much better.

Thank you.

Um here's a visual graph of those same numbers.

Again, um each category is reported on separately, but an overall of 0.3% above budget through March.

Moving on to our expenses.

Uh Councilman Hastings has a question or comment.

I just had a quick point.

Um if you could go back the one slide.

Awesome.

No, I just I know a lot of time we get these, and there's not a lot of obviously we go through it regularly, but I do like the fact that, and again, most of us are from familiar with this, but that the majority of our funding comes from local sales tax and not property tax.

Um, obviously, and and just to note that, you know, do we have but does sales tax is that include food or groceries?

No, we do not have a food tax.

Okay.

And I think we're one of three cities.

And I saw on the last slide it was uh a chart.

I I won't make you put it back up there, but I would love to like kind of see it too, maybe when you're done with this one, just to kind of compare it.

Because I think a lot of the time when we talk about, I feel like it's still related to this, but when we talk about these rates, you know, we say like 0.388 zero.

You know, there's like okay, you know, what it what is that compared to other cities?

Right.

I'd love to see that.

Okay, yeah.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Councilman.

So for our uses or our expenses, we report on personnel, supplies, services, our capital of one-time purchases under 100,000, and our transfers out.

General fund expenditures remain below budget through March.

Personnel expenditures were slightly below budget by 300,000.

Services were approximately 1.6 million under budget, supplies were 600,000 under budget, and capital expenditures were 300,000 under budget.

As a result, total general fund expenditures were approximately 2.8 million or 1.5% below budget through March.

And again, here's an idea of what that looks like in a chart form.

With that, I can entertain any questions or comments.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Sandy.

A couple of questions on the revenue side of it.

We've got um a decrease in our charges for service income and our franchise fee income.

Can you do you have details on why that is for those two categories?

Yes, Mayor, Councilman Jedd.

So the charges for services um, the charges for services category, there is not a decrease, but the franchise fees.

There is a slight decrease of 700,000.

And in the franchise fees, the it's APS, all of our utilities relatively um are actually uh lesser franchise fees.

And also within that category is our business license fees, which we had reduced down.

So what are the charges for what's the difference between the charges for services on top versus charges for services?

The charges for I apologize.

Yes.

So the one-time charges for services, so total budget for charges for services.

We'll go to this slide, um, is 29.3 million, and we're at 26 million.

A lot of that is our permitting and inspections.

So are we seeing a slowdown in the in the number of people coming through asking for permits?

Yes.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

We knew that was coming.

Okay, so any other questions.

Uh, Ms.

Sims, I appreciate uh your report.

Thankam clerk, please read item 32.

Item 32, continuation of the June 2nd, 2026 work session for the presentation discussion and public comment pertaining to a proposed zoning text amendment to the surprise land development ordinance to establish a new battery overlay zone related to battery energy storage systems.

I want to say good evening to you all, and I appreciate you coming back and continuing the conversation from our last work session.

It's an important uh city code that we're trying to implement, and there's a lot of questions and concerns.

So Trevor, I'll let you uh lead it off.

Thank you, Mayor Council.

Uh yes, the purpose of this item is to continue our discussion from the June 2nd work session on the battery energy storage system zoning text amendment.

Staff was able to get through our presentation, but obviously um we ran out of time for council discussion, so we wanted to open that back up.

Um I believe at the time we were discussing the uh separation from um the best to existing residential.

So we have this exhibit shown here to kick off those discussions, and I'll turn it back over to you, Mayor and Council.

Okay, thank you.

Can we go back to where we start talking about the standoff distance made with the 1500 and go through a couple of slides to make sure we're all on the same page of what we're looking at and discussing?

Yeah, so this was our slide that showed the 1500 foot uh buffer distance from a best facility in comparison to the 100 feet in blue there, and then a different exhibit to show the differences.

So you have the best property line in the dotted the perimeter wall in the red with all of the equipment in the in the battery cabinets contained within that perimeter wall.

The text amendment as written has a hundred and fifty-foot setback from the from the property line of the best facility to the perimeter wall.

So that's contained within the site itself.

And then um this is uh beyond the property line is where the separation distance comes into play.

So this is showing a hundred foot separation from best property line to existing residential dwelling unit for a total of 200 feet from the best perimeter wall to the existing residential dwellings.

Okay, thank you.

Do we have the slides that depict where these potentially could go based on their um the setbacks?

So I think it was vice mayor had asked um Mr.

Abrams to develop this map and give us an idea of what uh those standoff distances would be.

And so when I'll probably let uh Mr.

Evans, are you gonna run through this of what we're looking at?

Mayor and council, yes.

So I'll first start off with when I did the buffering.

The only thing we really have to start with is an address point.

So we filtered that down just to residential dwelling units, and then for there I applied a buffer through the sophomore.

First one first layer shows in yellow.

That's with a hundred-foot buffer.

So you can see how much white area within the purple boundary of the city limits is available today under that scenario.

So the white's what's available if this was the 100 and 100 foot buffer.

That's correct, sir.

And the yellow is existing homes.

The yellow would represent your residential, existing residential with that hundred foot buffer.

Good.

Thank you.

This is what it looks like with a 500-foot buffer.

Thousand foot buffer.

And what staff brought forward with a 1500-foot buffer?

For existing residential.

For existing residential.

Okay.

So everything that was white is still available for the battery injury storage.

That's correct, sir.

Just want to make sure.

Can you flip through those again, please?

So I think the the goal tonight as a council is to provide recommendations or some input to staff to then carry that forward to planning and zoning and then come back to council for final approval.

That is correct, sir.

Okay.

So what's really the the question and the setback?

Yeah, what staff needs direction on is the distance on the setback as well as then on the um residential commercial um solar roof uh component as far as what uh what that megawatt is.

I think staff's recommended based off of the feedback from the uh stakeholders is to start with that 500 or five watt megawatt.

Go ahead.

Five megawatt.

And then the last item for direction is currently if a property is zoned, BPI one as an accessory use, a conditional use permit would allow for a best to go in, still staying with the same standards, or whether or not council would like to see that back as part of an overlay instead of a conditional use permit.

Okay.

Thank you.

And Trevor, what is what's the staff recommendations right now for all those?

What is what's on the table for your recommending to council the setbacks?

Can you outline those for us, please?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council.

So for uh what we brought forward to commission and council for the work sessions, the separation that we brought was the 1500 feet um separation from a best facility to an existing residential dwelling unit.

Um we had um we had no exemption for commercial um type applications accessory to an existing business.

Um that was something that came up during the planning and zoning commission, um, where they had directed us to look into that as to how we can um create an avenue for that.

And then um for the accessory we currently have it drafted so that it would require a conditional use permit within those uh industrial zoning districts.

Okay, all right, thank you.

I think that's set the stage for the conversation.

Councilman Melton.

Thank you, Mayor and just I'm why one more time here.

Uh on that 100, you you have you have let's say a hundred foot buffer, 100 foot setback.

Is that taking the account 150?

Is that actually 250 feet?

And the what's shown is just a straight 100-foot.

But then you would add that additional 150 foot to the to that.

So you'd get that 250.

Copy that.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

So the the the 250.

So for those looking at the screen, if we adopted 100 foot, it would actually be 250 feet based off the 150-foot setback from the perimeter wall.

So it's more analog to the maybe the 500-foot buffer that display that Lloyd has shown here.

Just so it would look more like that.

That's more that's really what a hundred-foot buffer might, a hundred foot setback might look like based on the 150-foot setback from the perimeter wall.

Clear?

Okay.

Thank you, Lloyd.

All right, my question, uh, I'm gonna throw it to the panel.

Obviously, the biggest uh division here is the or the biggest hurdle, I guess, is the setback.

Staff is recommending 1,500 feet.

So my question to anyone on the panel is there any scientific or safe or basis of safety for that 1500 foot setback?

Is that based on anything?

Can you support that 1500 foot setback with any science or safety best practices?

Awesome.

Uh thank you.

Uh again, it's good to be back.

I appreciate the time.

In reference to your question, the code that we are operating on for training is a hundred feet.

That's with facts data and the technical committee that writes the code.

That's the uh standard we are operating by, not 1500 feet.

Thank you.

If you if you wouldn't mind stating your name and your organization for the record, so we all I'm sorry, apologize.

James Caulfield Fire and Risk Alliance.

Thank you.

And Sipan Dallas out of Arizona Technology Council.

Great to see you all again.

Uh again, the codes and the standards that we see today in a majority of jurisdictions across Arizona, uh, as well as the wet Southwest is based on studies that have been done by the National Fire Protection Association.

I remember that was a question we had last time.

Uh there was a lot of questions about what do these acronyms mean?

What are these organizations, et cetera?

So uh just a side note.

No, I I was thinking about this last night, woke up early this morning and kind of got to thinking about explaining what these organizations are.

So National Fire Protection Association is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1896.

So for a hundred and thirty years, their goal has been to eliminate death, injury, property loss, and economic loss caused by fire and other hazards.

They do this in three ways.

They develop codes and standards, they do research and education, and they do advocacy.

And the way they develop their codes, for instance, the 150-foot recommendation we see with the separation requirement is through the work of technical committees that make up the association.

So there's over 250 technical committees that make up the National Fire Protection Association.

Some of these are air conditioning committee, automatic sprinkler system discipline committee, handling and convening of dust vapors and gases committee.

And on these committees sit 10,000 volunteers from across the world who are subject matter experts in fire.

And these include individuals such as architects, engineers, first responders, manufacturers, insurance professionals, and subject matter experts.

And these committees do their work over the course of a year.

They commission studies, they meet regularly, they discuss hey, what about this?

What about that?

They they get into the details and the nitty-gritty.

So the National Fire Protection Association is a real organization that is consumed with this topic that is working daily to ensure that public safety remains number one.

And that's what I also want to comment on.

As we know, on April 19th, 2019, the battery energy storage system industry changed because of a fire here in Surprise, the McMickeon fire, where four individuals, members of the surprise fire medical rescue services, were injured.

It could have been because of that, Mayor, real quick, just to give them their respect.

There were members of the Peoria Fire Medical Department's hazmat team.

Okay.

Well, thank you very much.

Mayor, Commissioner Haney, thank you for explaining that.

But regardless, first responders were injured that day.

Since the system that caught that had a thermal runaway event that day was a system that was installed in March of 2017, so 25 months prior.

That system, when it was installed, there were no codes.

There were very few regulations, there were very few ordinances, very few standards to explain how these are installed and how these are monitored, how these are engineered.

In the nine years since, we have seen immense progress made.

And that immense progress has led to a lot of great statistics that I want to highlight.

Since from 2018 to 2024, there has been a 98% decline in best failure rate, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.

But at the same time, there has been a 25,000% increase in battery energy storage system development in the same period.

So we are seeing more and more of these come online all across the country, especially in Arizona, because they are so critical and they are so important to infrastructure.

They are like sidewalks, street lights, highways.

We need these facilities in our communities because not only do they add to energy resiliency, but they add to economic development.

Despite all that, I want to make clear that public safety still remember remains top of mind.

And a lot of progress has been made to ensure that thermal runaway events are minimized.

And James, if you want to jump in to explain.

Can uh James just one second?

Councilman Judd.

Sorry, I was a while ago.

Um do you want to let I mean I've got some questions?

Do you guys mind if I interrupt you and ask what I'm actually worried about?

Okay, good.

So do we have any battery facilities and surprise currently?

Was McMickan ever rebuilt?

Not to my knowledge, no.

So we don't have any.

Um Judd, no, we do not.

Okay.

And we had a community meeting last Saturday, and we we had a bunch of residents show up.

And and you guys had mentioned last time that we really don't want to miss out on this battery craze.

So we asked all of our residents, how many of them are really worried about us missing out on this battery storage infrastructure boom that's about to happen.

And not a single person was concerned about missing out on this.

And so it begs the question for me is this something we actually want?

I mean, why would we why do we want this?

These battery facilities come in and the failure rate's extremely low, but there still is a failure rate.

So there's there's still gonna have to be public safety responding to them.

The spots they occupy could aren't they're not gonna generate any revenue for us, are they?

Let's see who's this for Sandy, I guess.

Sandy still in here.

And probably answer.

Andrea?

So are the so we just went through our revenue update.

And would battery storage facilities fall in any of those categories?

I mean, are they gonna fall under franchise fees at all?

Do it for an overall, we didn't look at a specific storage.

So a lot of this is generalization, but in general, they run on the lower side.

They do produce property tax, they will have some sales tax there on the lower end when it came to the city.

What kind of sales tax we have?

No.

So that I would I would have to defer, but if there's utility tax, depending on what they're doing there.

Because I would I would expect there wouldn't be because I mean you're you're buying power from APS to be put in a battery, we're not gonna tax it twice.

I hope.

Tax on the charge.

Right, we're not gonna tax it when we charge it and take it back out.

Right tax it on the charge, not the charge.

Right.

So it's it's not gonna, it's not gonna turn any any sales tax revenue.

Well on the charge, on the charge side, not the discharge side.

Okay.

Small.

So nothing extra, nothing big.

Okay.

And so it's not bringing in, and I mean, we just went through a public safety master plan earlier, and it looks like we're gonna need a few hundred million dollars to even come close to to tackling the the public safety challenges we've got coming the next five years, right?

So as we have things coming in our community, ideally we get sales tax out of it.

Sales tax revenue.

That's our property tax, doesn't amount to anything.

As Councilman Hastings pointed out here a couple minutes ago, our property tax revenue was here, our sales tax revenue was here, right?

There's just not much to it.

So these going in occupy commercial sites potentially where we could have retail coming in where money's changing hands, the economy's flowing, and then we've got a little bit of that coming through to help pay for our public safety problems.

Um, on top of that, I really really, really don't want to see these battery facilities used as infill projects, right?

So I like having a larger number of feet put in place so that they aren't showing up as infill projects.

And then since we don't have any in surprise already, why are we trying to put a one size fits all package together?

I mean, I'm perfectly happy as is as this technology matures and and moves forward of just doing this case by case.

Having, you know, if you have a battery project, you bring it in, we evaluate it on its merits, and then we approve it that way.

Instead of trying to put something in, some sort of cookie cutter approach in, and then sorting out what the repercussions of that are gonna be.

So is that something we've looked at or something we can do?

And I'll do uh Councilman Judd, counsel, I'll defer to uh our city attorney if I go sideways to correct me.

But yes, I think that's something we could take a look at um and see.

Um, but then I think any best facility coming into the city at all would have to come back then through that process as a whole.

And then at what point it's all all gonna be discretion, then at that point, there's really hardly any standards unless we keep um the basic standards of that 150 from uh property line to the wall and then the facility inside that.

But it's it's an option and direction that we can take back and take a look at.

Okay, I mean, I would like that better than an overlay.

I mean, I I agree, I still think we need some sort of some sort of framework, some sort of consistency.

Um, a developer should know beforehand how their case is gonna go before they come before us.

Yeah, the the overweight overlays uh an attempt to keep the underlying zoning in place.

Um again, I think most of the other jurisdictions they specify a specific zoning as primarily I one, i2 or i3 zoning where they allow it.

They just don't blanket allow it across everything with an overlay.

Um Buckeye uses a conditional use permit for ag and residential right at the moment.

Okay, okay.

So I guess just to recap to give you your direction, I'm I'm in favor of not a one size fits all.

I'm in favor of much larger buffers, so I don't have to deal with the infill part of it.

I'm also in favor of having if we end up doing a one size fits all with large buffers, having a pathway to allow us to consider on case by case basis whether or not to let them outside, you know, let them do it within a smaller border, right?

So let's say we set it for 1500, they can come to council and we can give them a waiver.

All right.

And I think that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Duffy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'm gonna, because you guys are talking about the accident, and you've said you know, technology is so much better.

So for people that don't know, can somebody explain how that exploded and why it doesn't do that anymore.

Yeah, thank you, council members.

Ben Clough with APS director of renewable generation.

So the technology of McMicon at the time, without getting in too much details, the battery chemistry was NMC, McMetal Cobalt chemistry that was there.

Um, it was an occupiable building.

So if you think it's an open building that has racks in it that has a door that you're able to walk into, has open space that you can work around inside of it.

Um, when batteries go into thermal runaway, they off-gas.

Um they're gonna off-gas carbon, they're gonna off-gas CO2, they're gonna off-gas hydrogen, they're gonna off-gas other stuff.

That open void within the building allowed that gas to build up within there.

Um we don't exactly know you know what the constituents were or what the buildup level, but it is believed that it went above the explosive limit.

Um, so it was super saturated, if you will.

And then as the door opened up, it allowed that mixture to turn over, allowed oxygen to come into it to get the mixture that was appropriate with ignition source in there, such that you had um the pressure event that came from it.

The technology the way it is today, there's now use LFP in the battery chemistry, so it's not as volatile, it's more stable.

It takes a lot more to get it into thermal runaway.

The enclosures and containers are also non-occupiable.

So they're small, smaller closure and containers, 20 to 40 foot, like think of a con X box type, but it's completely filled with batteries.

So there is no door that you can get into it.

So there is no risk of do you need to go inside to see what's in there or if there's a person in there, anything like that.

The space in there is only enough space for the electrical connections between the batteries, um, some PLCs, some control bars, some computers, some other stuff to run it.

So that volume of space where you can build up gases, um, mixtures of those gases is significantly less in that space.

In addition to that, through all of the codes and standards that they talked about through National Fire Protection Agency, underwriters laboratories, which you see a lot of your household products.

There's a whole bunch of codes and standards that have come into play of how to monitor that.

So um fire detection, CO detection, hydrogen detection, active ventilation systems, deflagration systems, those all fall under an NFPA code, 6869, 855, UL9540, 9540A.

Like there's a series of you know, UL and NFPA stuff that governs how all of this needs to be built.

So in addition to the setbacks, there's a bunch of technology specific items that should also be required on these sites that we're an advocate for that should be followed on all of them.

All of that comes together.

Um, and then also the learning with the first responders since that event of how do you respond to these?

Um, where should you stage at?

Where should you set up, should you approach them or not, based upon the conditions that you can see in the enclosures is what's drives that.

If we draw some parallels to other things that we understand, if you look at NFPA, I think it's section one, and I'm not familiar with all the sections out there.

So if I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

But section one is like your general fire protection, you know, your fire sprinklers in buildings, your fire alarm systems that people are familiar with, you know, your NFPA 70, um, 70E is your electrical cord, NEC, a lot of people refer to it as how do you wire house?

How do you wire a building?

There's a bunch of those standards.

So those same standards that are you know generally adopted across the industry to ensure buildings are safe, gas stations are safe, the setbacks on those are safe, have now been put in place for these battery enclosures.

Um so we're a firm advocate of you know, standing behind all the industry, the technology, the advancements of testing and everything that went into building these codes from the resident experts that were in there.

So that's a little bit about how these systems are different now than they were when McMicken was built and how they're built differently, tested differently, um, and approached differently from response standpoint.

Hope that answered your question.

If you're I just wanted to finally explain just to you know the story, what you just said doesn't always come out.

So I just wanted everybody to know what happened, how it happened, and how I how would there's not walk-in facilities anymore?

It's gonna fall.

One more comment, then I'll let you expound upon it because you've you're you're in that line of business.

If you think of it, if anyone's familiar with um any other kind of container, right?

So pressure vessels.

So I've worked in the steam industry for a while.

If you look at pressure vessels or fuel tanks on vehicles of people working in their garage, like an empty um gas tank you're gonna work on your vehicle or a container in your garage or whatever, are actually more dangerous when they're empty or have a very small amount in it because you have that open space where you have the air vapor that can build up into it.

When it's full, the risk is less because you don't have that enclosed mixture that can happen.

Think of the same with the batteries.

If it's completely full of batteries and enclosed and there's limited open air space and volume, the potential risk of an explosion or a pressure event like that is less because that volume is consumed by solid objects versus being open space.

So it's trying to draw a parallel of comparison to things that we're more familiar with.

James, Councilman Milton.

Did you have something?

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Uh Councilman Judd asked the question to the effect of do we want this or something to that effect?

And I would like APS or somebody on the panel to explain the social value of these things and why is why is why is infrastructure important?

Why is grid stability important?

I'd like them to speak to that.

I just had a little bit more to add.

If you don't I apologize, thank you.

Um, Councilman, just so you're aware the other day.

Um, first of all, I thank my team because we put together something and understand that McMickan is very close to home.

And we had a call with Councilman Hastings, and our office uh prepared a document which was shared uh with with the council of the board, and it's a two-page document, and it gives a lot of information of McMicken versus now, and it highlights areas as far as design, chemistry, product listing, suppression systems, hazard mitigations assessment, fire department training and emergency response planning.

We understand that that was a very big topic that wanted some clarity.

So uh just a real quick thank you to Councilman Hastings because he put the fire departments uh on the front line, and I appreciate that.

And your concerns were them and coming from a firefighter's perspective.

I appreciate that.

So that is available for your review.

Um if you wanted to take a little bit more information, but we broke that down because we understood that you wanted some more clarity from the the then to now.

So council Melton, I apologize.

Thank you.

And Mayor, uh Councilmember Melton, I'll jump in about the question about value.

Uh, we are seeing a lot of companies want to come to Arizona.

Uh is my mic still on or a lot of sorry.

Uh we're seeing a lot of companies relocate to our state.

And we are seeing a lot of companies relocate specifically to the West Valley.

They want to be here uh because of the economic opportunities that are here, the workforce that is here.

If we want companies to relocate here and keep setting up operations here, we need to have a resilient energy grid.

You need to have redundancy with batteries.

You need to have an all of the above approach to energy and battery energy storage systems are one component of that mosaic of energy that is needed to sustain economic development.

Mayor, council member Melton.

I'm Jessica Perry.

I'm obviously not Tim.

Um I'm filling in for him this evening.

So I appreciate being um your flexibility.

But to Councilmember Melton's point, I just wanted to add also it is very important to APS to have these systems on our um grid.

They allow us to charge when the power is not being it's demanded during that lesser used hours earlier in the day, and then we can deploy them during our peak demand.

And so that plays into making sure that we have reliable service for these companies that are looking to locate in the West Valley.

I'd also like to point out that these systems are quick to put onto the system versus adding additional generation where it it takes years to plan, permit, and construct.

And so this is another way for us to ensure reliability for our customers.

And I'll add one thing, uh Mayor, Councilmember Melton, and this goes to council member Judd's point about you know the tax revenue that these generate.

Granted, it may not be a lot, but the companies that relocate here and set up operations here, the advanced manufacturers, the tech companies, et cetera, they are job creators, and they do create a lot of jobs on site, which can contribute tax revenue to this growing city.

And again, I was here for that first meeting about public safety plan and all that is needed.

We want to have companies relocate here and set up operations here so that we can't have funding for public safety and first responders, et cetera.

Thank you.

Councilman Hastings.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, I've learned more about batteries than I ever thought I would need to.

It's got me second guessing everything.

And I was like, you know, there's one on my phone.

Um, and obviously there's differences.

Lloyd, do we have a good comparison chart with other cities of what we're kind of looking at as far as like what other cities have done?

I know we had one last time.

Do we have one handy?

Um I will say, like, I think even with the comparison charts, like, and when I when I talk numbers, my goal, if I'm a homeowner, like I feel like the number we should be talking about, like when we set like a hundred, or a hundred or fifteen hundred, it's a it's a big gap.

But it should go from we should be measuring from the property line, a property someone owns, paid for, maybe paid off, and the battery, the potentially hazardous or new technology, whatever you want to call material, right?

Because I know there's like, oh, there's 150 here, and it gets kind of confusing.

So I feel like for the purpose of at least what I'm saying, I feel like that's kind of where I'm coming from.

So looking at this, and it's changed a little bit since last time.

Um, the most restrictive looks like it's it's Mesa with a thousand feet.

The next closest comes, I mean, obviously, there's us.

Um, we're in the, you know, we're kind of looking, sorry, this is my first time.

Mayor seeing the updated one.

Yeah.

Councilman Hastings.

All right.

So across the top, the purple color shows the cities that are in progress.

And then the yellow or gold color are the ones that have already adopted.

Okay.

And I guess my question too is when we when we set this number, right?

Is it's the number, but does that mean I guess like you could set the number, but it's like, all right, you know, we set whatever 500,000, whatever it is.

Does that mean just like free rain?

Like, obviously, like, or is it are they going to have some sort of check?

Like, are other cities are we proposing a rezone or conditional use permit, or is it just like free rain, I guess, right?

Because is this is this number setting the ground rules, like to what they can apply for, or is it like, you know, once it's done, it's done.

And you know what I'm saying?

Does that make sense?

So at this point, what we're setting there a staff's recommendation is from existing residential, which is the 1500 feet.

We set and outline the standards that it would a best facility would have to meet, primarily meeting all the NFP 855 standards.

Um, but it sets that where they can go.

So it gives them clear direction of which parcel land they can look at.

Everything um right now comes back to council as a zoning action.

It's an overlay zoning action.

Yeah.

So we're okay, go ahead.

At the moment, under the current text propose, then your um accessory best facilities, ones that support other primary uses, would be a on business park, industrial land would come back as a conditional use to planning and zoning.

Okay.

And so really either they have to go through a rezone, even if it falls into because it would be we talk a lot about commercial residential, right?

Commercials, the fun stuff, residential.

I mean, hey, homes are homes are fun if you live in one, right?

I don't know if you anyways, traffic we could talk about.

But um, industrial is the use we don't talk about a lot.

Um I mean, like ballpark, I just I feel like we don't talk about it a lot, but there's certain areas in the city.

Um, you know, do we have a high percentage of industrial zoning in surprise?

Today we do not.

Okay, so we don't have primary industrial zoning, is the landfill is one zoning district, but that's fully encompassed by waste management.

And then down what we call our railplex is industrial zoning.

So if we if if the you know, and some council members have, and obviously your guys' uh record, like there's the recommendation of 1500.

So pretty much us setting that.

So it sounds like there's gonna be some vote on each facility either way, whether it's if it's zoned properly, they'd have to do a conditional use permit.

If it's not zoned properly, they'd have to get a rezoned, and they would have to come and make the case before us and have residential meetings, et cetera, correct?

Correct, sir.

Okay.

So if we set it to 1500, hypothetically, um, someone who had one that was like 1400, which is still a really far way away, they wouldn't even essentially be able to apply, is what we're saying.

That's correct.

Okay.

So when I first have a meeting, I asked, I was like, you know, I want to learn about I don't know if I necessarily wanted to learn about the technology, but I need to learn about you know this technology because you know, there's obviously we've had I appreciate you addressing um the incident in Mick Maken Dam.

And I want to, you know, be a safety, like that's number one.

We're also business friendly, right?

And you mentioned obviously like the facility itself versus the message it sends versus like businesses who may be potentially um set up shop here.

But um the city is at least starting or recommending 1,500 feet, and that is based off, I think what Chief SB said is the evacuation zone.

So I want to I want to refresh on that and get to that.

And then PNZ planning and zoning was basing it was came down from 1500 to 100, which is a drastic difference.

Um 1500 is five football fields, and 100 feet is like to the back of this room, right?

So that's uh that's a big, like, I mean, big gap, literally.

So, but planning and zoning based it off of 100, and that is what the NFPA, which was talked about, but also the IFC.

I think it's the international fire code was behind us.

So I'm glad you answered what the NFPA was.

Um, I wanted to ask if maybe James or someone else could touch on the, I mean, international fire code sounds like pretty like the international fire code, but kind of like what that is as well, because they both they both recommend 100.

Is that correct?

100 feet.

Um, what is the international like fire code?

That sounds like a silly question because it seems pretty straightforward, but yeah.

Yeah, so so they're they're both codes.

Um ultimately the at the end of the day, what what we look for is we look for consistency, um, especially when it comes to safety.

So they're both codes, they're both standards.

It all is specific to which one you would like to follow and or adopt.

Um, but ultimately that the takeaway, although they're different names, the response we're seeing from the setbacks are still consistent and the same.

So there may be some differences.

Um, and again, the international fire code is very large, as is NFPA as well.

Uh, but what we take away from that is two different organizations, similar to there was another subject matter expert on your call with us that was aligned with our recommendations as well.

So again, two separate agencies ultimately saying the same setbacks.

Yeah.

So they're sure.

Oh, I didn't know.

Sorry, I thought you were.

Absolutely.

And obviously, they're different organizations.

So I just want to differentiate because I know they're both fire related, but different, obviously, a little bit.

Mr.

Tim.

Mayor, council, if you don't mind if I add a little bit to that too.

Um, the International Fire Code 2024 was adopted by the city of surprise.

And that is what sets provides developers, what is required to build in the city.

Okay.

The NFPA.

Even though it says international, it this is what we adopted, but it was based off of I think other guidance as well.

And we the IFC correct similar to NFPA is made up of a bunch of professionals that set these codes.

The NFPA is um woven within the IFC, and that is how you comply.

So the IFC and the NFPA kind of work together.

Absolutely.

Um then can someone speak to the 1500 feet evacuation zone.

Um as far, I mean, again, it sounds straightforward, but I just I want to kind of like quantitate like what these things are that we're talking about.

Sure.

Sir, with uh mustache, I'll never be able to grow.

Go ahead.

Thank you, councilman.

Appreciate it.

So the 1500 feet, as we talked briefly about last meeting, is referencing what we took from the emergency response guidebook, which is for uh hazards.

They're it's real time.

Um, it's a real-time workbook that we're able to go through as responders for what we'd use for evacuations.

So what we were factoring in with that 1500 feet was a catastrophic failure.

So we talked a lot about safety and um I think highlighting what the IFC is, what an FPA is is a good start.

Uh that 1500 feet again is is really anticipating a catastrophic failure of um something that has a cascading event from cabinet to cabinet from battery to battery.

Uh, while that that type of failure is not common, it's something that we we want to anticipate because you never know.

So it wasn't common, yeah.

To your point, it wasn't common when it happened last time, right?

That was the latest and greatest.

So I get where you're coming from.

Yeah.

And I think the 1500 feet is we want to, we wanted to talk about that again, anticipating a catastrophic failure, but we want to factor in the input of our stakeholders, uh, having APS here, having third parties here to talk about this, going to planning and zoning, talking with the council.

This is this is how we come together and come up to an agreement on what we feel is safe for the city, which uh I think is something that we we tried to talk about last time and hopefully we can get into a little bit further.

Is that's what we're trying to set right now.

So again, the 1500 feet, anticipating a catastrophic failure, uh, understanding that the minimum setbacks set by NFBA are what they are.

Um, I do want to mention really quick that just for clarification, the international fire code is a code, uh, NFP 855 is a standard.

So we look at those differently.

We I we adopted the 2024 IFC that references in our local amendment, the 2023 edition of NFA 55.

So the code outlines what you can do, it outlines the requirements.

855 tells you how to do it.

So that's kind of the difference between that code and standard.

And um, I think what I asked you guys too, because I was like, well, hold on, were these, you know, this 100 foot recommendation?

What has it been updated since this new phenomenon of battery storage, right?

Was this old and then all of a sudden battery storage is new, they haven't updated yet.

So it has been, they both have been updated since then, or how does how does that work?

You see what I'm saying?

Because if it wasn't, if it was just grandfathered in, that's not really a recommendation.

Yes, the the NFPA code is updated every three years.

So there is a current new edition that was just adopted, the 2026 version, which is the latest and most up-to-date.

And that was 100 feet.

That is, and then uh I would like to add some more context, but sure, happy to continue to answer your questions.

Yeah.

Um, I I did share another document with with the council.

Uh I don't like when events occur, but what that does is it gives me an opportunity to analyze data.

I'm a I'm a pretty data-driven person.

So within this packet that I had provided to you, there were um several events, fires that have happened and the monitoring that we had conducted and the data that was found, I I highlighted.

Uh, but ultimately, um, you know, there was consistent readings with there was no risk to public health.

Um, there's a significant amount of information provided.

Again, uh, I I give credit to my staff real quickly because we we wanted to have this prepared for you because you did bring up a lot of these concerns, and we wanted to come back to support what we're saying, not only with code, um, but also past events and other uh other events that have occurred and what what we've seen in the industry to where we land on that on that hundred feet.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

No, and I wasn't super to be honest, and I think I mentioned it like pleased with the original presentation.

I think everybody was on a little bit different wavelength of what we were looking for.

And the one thing I mentioned, you know, in our meeting is I was like, you know, I want a resident when they watch this meeting or a firefighter, when they watch this meeting, I want them to know and feel safe, right?

Because a lot of the time, you know, perception is reality.

I've got to explain this um to people.

And I'll and I'll wrap this up.

But I guess what it comes down to is I guess is with the setback, what is the goal to prevent?

Because if if the goal is to prevent smelling smoke, well, then 1500 is not enough.

Because I remember that you know the landfill fire just happened.

We smelled that down by Cimarron Springs on Greenway in 303.

Obviously, that if we're trying to prevent the smell, like that's that's a difficult one.

Um so I feel like, and and I to credit Council Haney with some of this, as far as like, you know, I feel like there's a difference between a facility going in next to someone's house who's there, who might live there for longer, who might try to sell their property values.

And then as far as like residential, that's proposed, like going forward, and then also commercial.

And I mean, to be honest, like I fall back on the numbers.

So is as far as I mean, and when I look at to me, when I look at this chart and I look for an outlier, I mean, I feel like fifth to me, 15, I get we're being extra safe.

1500 is five football fields.

And again, that's just what I use as reference, but if you were standing on a football field, well, it's pretty, you know, pretty far when you when you're on the field, five past that.

Um, I do feel like to me, and again, it's like it's the safe, of course, statistically, the further away you are from any sort of danger, statistically, the like, you know, the more you know, safe you're gonna be like I get that.

I do feel like the 1500 is is definitely overkill, in my opinion.

I would like to see um a minimum of from existing residential, um, you know, like five, 500 feet.

I mean, 500 feet.

Like if I own a home, I think 500 feet, like I wouldn't want to really, at least, especially while we explore um, you know, this new technology.

And I think we can always make changes later.

I think from you know, commercial, and that's from existing residential.

I think from commercial, like the current, you know, setback.

I think the 100, 150 makes sense.

Um from planned residential, it's one thing if someone is moving into it, then maybe like you do 200, you know, 300.

You're a little, you know, a little extra careful.

But again, if somebody moves in at that time too, some time will have passed too, and I want to revisit this.

Um, as far as existing residential, I do feel like it should be, you know, maybe a higher number.

Um, and I don't know what that number is, but I I definitely think it should be uh for sure under a thousand.

I mean, a thousand feet, 1,500 feet.

No other city is even considering this.

The only highest city that's close is Mesa.

And the next one to like the next closest one to that is good.

You're at 300.

And so I'm a big proponent of, you know, obviously we have a history, we had an incident that happened, and we won't don't want to discredit that, but also using facts to make decisions, and that's just kind of where I'm coming from.

So thank you.

Thanks, Castle.

And again, that would be subject to a rezone or C UP as well.

So it's not like they would just get to build whatever they want within that, they'd still have to come back.

Now I'm done, I think.

I'll give you a sec.

Oh uh Councilman Haney.

Does anyone need a stretch break or um I I appreciate you guys being here?

I do have some questions, obviously.

Um, and I know at the previous meeting there was a reference of a test that was conducted where you actually lit one of these, is it just one singular battery or was it the whole cabinet?

So the test that was conducted, there were actually three cabinets um to ensure that there was no propagation.

So one cabinet container um was purposely set on fire and without intervention to ensure by co or the testing standards that there was uh the fire marshal had said no no propagation from one container to to the next.

Yes.

Okay.

And where where was that test conducted?

That was in Arizona.

Where specifically was it?

I kept, I guess was it I think it was on a college campus.

I don't recall the where it was on a college campus.

How close was it to residential when you guys tested it?

I'm not sure.

We we didn't set up the uh the test, we were just there to observe.

Okay.

Do you know by was it was a nearby neighborhood?

Was it far away?

Best guess.

I wasn't too familiar with the area.

I mean, we we were there to uh to conduct the test, do do some some air monitoring, do a plume study um that that's referenced in in the good year.

So pretty much just to collect data and to be able to attest to what the propagation, if there was any, what that looks like.

Okay, uh I believe there was a question as if if there was a video or I had said that I had to observe it.

Um so there is a video, I believe, and it is proprietary to the manufacturer.

Um, and ultimately at the end of the day, when you do have these developers come in, um, it's almost like buying a say a pickup truck.

So that may have been a Ford that we were testing.

But if a developer comes in and they're gonna be using a Chevy, um, there's different again, the manufacturers have different standards.

Um ultimately that's testing is done to determine spacing, you know, for when they develop it.

So uh again, I unfortunately I I can't share because it's not my video.

Yeah.

Um, but it was done under the supervision of other first responders, city officials.

Um, I'm sure if you would like to follow up and get more references, they we could we could provide that for you.

And so you said uh it was conducted, the test was conducted at a college campus.

Was it outside?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, and was it a college campus within Arizona?

You said Arizona.

Correct.

Okay.

So I mean, at the top of my head, I I don't really, at least the college campuses that are coming to mind now, I don't believe there's any, if you're not remembering kind of off the top of your head, it wasn't that close to residential.

Would it be safe to say that the test was conducted uh more than 250 feet away from residential?

I honestly, so I I travel once a week all over the world.

Yeah.

And for me to remember No, and I appreciate you being honest and not trying.

I'm just trying to listen.

I'm a firefighter just like you.

Yeah, I I can attest to certain things.

If I had an answer, I'd give it to you.

If you if you and I sat down and looked at a map and we got the college that we were at, and I could cladly do that with you, we could tell you exactly how far we were from the the campus itself from the closest residential to any of your other exposures, which again, happy to do.

I just don't want to tell you something that I don't know.

And I and I appreciate that.

And I I'm not trying to put you on the spot.

The purpose of that question was more specifically is we keep referencing because this is really a conversation about how close we want these next existing existing residential.

And so my question is if if the test that was referenced to show how safe it is wasn't done near by existing residential, at least within the proposed 100 feet, then I guess I would question the application of this test to be referenced for us to try to make a decision.

And that's kind of the point of that question.

Um, and I do want to move on.

And I and I know that the McMican incident was mentioned.

Would it be safe to say at the time of the McMican incident?

The all of the things as far as mitigation strategies, the technology being utilized at the time that was thought of to be the safest.

Is that wrong for me to assume?

And that's a question for any anybody on the panel.

Yeah.

Yeah, I wasn't on the design team that designed all of that, but you know, safety is paramount for APS.

So I think it's safe to assume that we incorporated all the known safety standards, you know, and everything that we could at the time to build the system.

And if there was ever an issue where you thought a site potentially was not safe, that site would not be operational.

So I is that is that wrong to kind of assume that at least.

No, that is correct.

I mean, we operate several of these sites already.

And if we get any indication that makes us believe, you know, something is not correct in it, you know, we shut them down, we put them in a safe mode, we investigate, ensure it's safety and come back.

It's no different than you know, if you got a check engine light on your car.

Yeah.

I mean, you could drive it, it's not recommended.

The same thing.

If we get alarms and indications there's something there, you know, we take measures immediately to ensure that it's safe, investigate, and then move on from there.

Okay.

And mayor, council member, just want to add to that.

Um NFPA 855 was published August of 2019.

So that was four months after the event.

I understand that.

Yeah.

But what my point is, even before that was considered a safe site, right?

Essentially it was.

But it was known at the time, right?

Um, and this might be James, and I think we both know the answer to this, right?

Worst case scenario, because that's been referenced, is we're we're trying to plan for worst case scenario.

You and I have arguably one of the best jobs in the world, be because we're had the ability to help people out in those worst-case scenarios, right?

Would we I think we can agree that in the fire service, a Mayday on the fire ground, that's a worst case scenario.

I had one last week, yes, or two weeks ago.

Yes.

And for those who don't know, maybe do you want to explain what a Mayday on a fire ground consists of, really?

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Um Mayday is uh it's it's the worst day you can imagine.

There's there's a firefighter that's either in danger or unable to help themselves, and it's pretty much all hands on deck, and uh everything stops, and the priority is is that firefighter.

That's the worst day.

Yes, I agree.

And and so on that McMicken incident, if I remember correctly, and Chief Aspie, please correct me if I'm wrong, there was a total of three Maydays.

Is that correct?

Okay.

And that's our worst case scenario.

I don't believe anyone on the panel, anyone that was involved in designing that facility thought that that could happen.

That was the worst case scenario.

And I have to credit the industry after that incident happened.

You guys act exactly how I would hope you would act.

We scrapped it, we went back and you said, hey, how can we make these safer?

I absolutely agree with you that the technology has evolved.

My point is my line of work, we have to operate in what is the worst case scenario and how can we plan for that.

I appreciate the involvement of in NFPA 855, but correct me if I'm wrong on this.

NFPA, this goal is really to recommend a minimum standard for safety, but it does also mention the fact that local jurisdictions would it anticipates that because they don't want a one-size-fits-all approach.

And so for me, when we're talking about um these distances, I don't believe that a one-size-fits-all approach is applicable in our city.

I know Mesa was mentioned and they had that a thousand feet.

So I think that's telling.

Um the buffer, what we decide will also give us an opportunity to allow this technology to continue to evolve, to continue to get safer, because I do believe five, 10 years down the road, this technology is going to involve evolve.

And I do think it's going to be safer.

But I also have to consider the folks in our communities.

One of arguably one of the best investments that someone makes, one of the biggest investments they make is when they buy their home.

And for these folks that are already existing, they're in their homes, they were never made aware of a potential site like this going in compared to if we're talking about um houses that aren't currently existing, at least they have an opportunity to be aware that this facility might be nearby.

They can acknowledge that and understand, depending on what the buffer is, if something catastrophic happens, they may have to evacuate because they're pretty close.

I'm not I'm not interested necessarily in, and I know councilman Hastings is just repeating what's been said of smelling smoke.

I'm more concerned, and I know there's the plume study mentioned, and if if I understand correctly, and you guys are the experts, so please jump in.

The plume study does consider a multitude of factors, but it's really contingent on when the plume study is conducted, right?

It's how windy is it, or am I wrong on that?

Please allow, because I I'm not an expert on it by any means.

No, no, you're you're you're pretty much spot on.

So when we and I'll reference that chart up there.

So they have 350, and then it's obviously 150 feet with that plume study.

So what that plume study does is it recognizes those constituents.

Um I'm just gonna kind of back up two steps.

This is where we look at the training.

So with McMickan, there was no training at all.

It was this is coming in your backyard.

Good luck.

Um now with codes and standards, training's mandatory yearly.

But within that training, the second step of our response tactics training is community air monitoring.

And we're doing that because we're gonna set up downwind and we're gonna see if we can recognize any of those three prevalent gases.

And you're very familiar with carbon monoxide um rises and dissipates.

So that is done.

Community air monitoring is done second after setting up your exclusion zone, because we wanna show not only to our community that it's safe, but also to the constituents who you answer to that if we're not seeing any of those gases at 150 feet, we're obviously not gonna see it at 350 feet because they rise and dissipate.

So um to kind of touch on why that plume study takes place, you're right.

We'll never be able to mimic the the environmental conditions.

Um some places wind blows east to west, some places it's north to south.

And what what the wind's gonna do, you and I both know it's it's always the worst case scenario, right?

Murphy's law.

Uh-huh.

Um, so so we plan and we train by code and standard to to familiarize ourselves and we follow those steps um to ensure that we are keeping our community safe.

And then again, to kind of go back to the numbers, that's that's where we're getting these numbers from because of what past events have occurred.

But I went off a little bit, but that that's where that plume plume study comes into effect.

So yeah, no, I appreciate that.

And I I think when I when I consider this, obviously 1500 is where we evacuate.

We know if if you're evacuating someone, it's 2 a.m., they've got a newborn.

Um, maybe they have someone who um has some issues getting around, it is challenging to get someone evacuated.

It is challenging to get an able-bodied person even out to listen to you.

And so in the event in the worst case scenario, and we're trying to evacuate those folks, that that presents a lot of challenges.

And I think it's important that we one embrace the technology, but also have a conservative approach and allow the technology to continue to evolve and continue to be safe out of respect for those residents.

And so for me, you know, when I when I look at this, and I think there's there's a reason why if you look at some of these city comparisons, no one really, everyone seems to be kind of all over the place because it's really what kind of risk is is that city comfortable with managing?

Because none of us here can say with an absolute certainty that something catastrophic will not happen.

We can't.

And so at this point, our point is okay, what's the level of risk?

What's the buffer we wanna give to allow folks if that are already here, they already have their homes, the opportunity if needed to evacuate.

And for me, I'm comfortable if we to come down from 1500.

I'm I'm looking at Mesa, a thousand feet will give us a buffer.

And then let's let the technology evolve.

Um, I've taken up a lot of time.

I I wanna pass that on to my colleagues, but that is just my initial thoughts, and I appreciate you being responsive to the questions.

Vice Mayor.

Thanks, Mayor.

Uh, that was the one that asked for the video last time.

I wish we could.

That's okay.

Yeah, and uh, and I figured it's out there because I used to shoot and direct stuff for UL.

Um, I'm gonna jump around a little bit here because you made that Ford Chevy uh uh comparison there.

Um so I think it needs to be um discussed as to who's making the batteries.

Obviously, there's not one manufacturer of batteries out there.

There's probably from what I've been able to tell about a half a dozen different manufacturers of batteries.

And is every, you know, I I want the Laborgini of batteries, not the Ford or Chevy of batteries.

And obviously they're not all created the same.

So is every one of them providing uh UL9540A test results, uh, not only the individual modules, but as well, but the entire uh structure that they're being placed into.

Uh yes.

So I would to your point before I continue, I would have much prefer the Lamborghini model as well.

Um, and when we talk about manufacturer, that is a very good question for a developer.

Um, you know, I can answer a lot of the questions ultimately the developers that come before you that want to cite these projects, they're the ones making those determinations as far as what you what manufacturers they are gonna be utilizing.

But it does fall back on the testing that has to be conducted and passed.

So we can say that does have to occur.

Um, but as far as something universal across the board, it's very developer or site specific, which is um a little out of out of my realm.

Uh mayor, vice mayor.

We are seeing these developers adhere to the UL9450, 9450A standards because of insurance purposes.

Uh you know UL stands for underwriters laboratory.

That's what it stands for.

And you know, they establish the standards to measure risk and prevent property damage and damage to life.

So they are taking the initiative, all of them, all of them that are our Arizona Technology Council members that we are aware of to adhere to these mandatory standards because they need to adhere to them to get insured.

So they are they are doing that.

Mayor and Vice Mayor, if I could speak for just a moment uh to follow up on the 9540 topic.

We at plan review uh request all of the UL 9540 test results.

Now, Vice Mayor, you working for UL, you understand that UL writes the test method.

They tell you how to test it.

UL does not necessarily perform the testing themselves.

Any OSHA nationally recognized testing laboratory is able to do the testing.

Now they have to do it to the UL9540 standard.

Uh, but some of them do things better than others, as with anything.

So what we do is we actually review the 9540 test results, and we see exactly how they tested the batteries.

So Councilman Haney referenced the test that James referenced.

Um, those tests are done often and they're tested to 9540.

The issue with 9540 testing is is they're often done in perfect environmental conditions.

They're done in a building, air-conditioned building, often back east, which is where a lot of the NRTLs are located.

They do not mimic the environmental conditions we see.

Now that's not discounting the purpose of 9540 testing.

It's just an anecdote, but that is something that that I want to point out.

But the 9540 testing, that is something that we will review every time a project comes in.

I can tell you what the site looks like in Northbrook, which is where they do it.

It's a hundred by a hundred feet of concrete, the largest unobstructed elevator in the world where we would build sets and then burn them down.

Lovely place.

Um I thought you told me last time that you weren't using any suppression systems, but then earlier you mentioned that you are using suppression systems inside the boxes.

Uh I'm sorry if that was it was misunderstood.

So our goal is we don't we don't perform fire suppression.

We provide you know asset or exposure protection.

Um so if if I had misspoke or it was misunderstood, there there is no um fire suppression or agents that are being utilized um in these in these containers or cabinets.

Okay.

Um I am all for energy resiliency.

I don't want surprise to turn into the place where all these best facilities want to go to um with councilman Judd as far as not putting these anywhere near houses.

We have lots of room up in somebody's district um where we can put these where they're you know where they're far away.

I had your second agenda item.

Yeah, there's nowhere to put them in district two.

Um so I mean this doesn't really affect me that all that much, but it does affect people who are existing, you know, they have homes and they don't want these things popping up next to them.

We've had enough things popping up in places where we don't we don't want them.

Um suppression systems.

I know the technology's changed.

Uh I think that's good enough.

Uh I guess I'll just end with we are not a tech hub.

Surprise isn't a tech hub.

I know some guys have made references to that.

I I don't know that we ever will be a tech hub.

We might be the place where people live to work in the tech hubs, which are pretty much you know, pieced.

Um because we're we're running out of space anyway.

Uh lithium ion have to okay.

That's good enough.

Thanks.

Thanks, Vice Mayor.

I want to thank you for your time and expertise.

So it's the second time you come in.

The second time we've had a very long conversation.

I understand the needs for power, the growth.

I think with that growth comes jobs, which is important to the city of Surprise.

Um, you know, we we appoint the city manager and she, you know, she hires the directors and they hire their staff and on nearly every other agenda item that comes through her.

I I generally defer to staff because there are experts.

And if our fire um experts are saying it's 1500 for uh the reasons they're saying it's something that I that I'm gonna have to respect.

Um I do I did tour a facility yesterday, and I I appreciate um uh one of our commissioners setting that up.

Uh and I it's uh a company that's not in surprise, not trying to come to surprise, and it was just the the guys that worked out there, and we had a conversation, we toured it, we saw it, we opened up the containers, there was some sort of fire suppression in it.

I I'm not an expert, but um, I asked one of the gentlemen, the the foreman of it, I'm like, what if you had to make the decision to how what's the standoff distance from this facility to an existing residential?

What would you say?

And he's told me 1500 feet.

And so that's another thing that just kind of adds to you know what our our fire experts are saying.

So um that's my take on it.

I do respect the industry.

I know that we have to have that resiliency and power.

We that's the way that Arizona's gonna grow.

We added that uh, you know, the chips to our our C's that make up our our state here.

But um I do want to make sure that we protect our commercial.

Uh that's something that you know I learned on planning and zoning.

Uh that's something that we have to make sure that whatever that's gonna develop to that that is gonna be what uh what the city wants.

But uh, I do want to give the industry some guidance.

So I think that's where we land.

But I also want to allow for you know, uh a rezone or a conditional use permit because there are some places.

I know there was a company that came and talked to us uh a few days ago, maybe last week, about where they're going, and they said, well, no matter what you you know decide, if you do 1500, it's not gonna impact us.

So I think in those instances, there's gonna be places in the city that for us are a no-brainer to say, hey, you know, absolutely go there.

It's it's in the middle of the desert, it's you know, buy a uh uh power station.

Uh it makes sense.

So I think we just need to find that balance between the standoff distance, uh, but for me it's it's 1500.

And I also I don't know if I said it already, but I want to make sure that there's a block wall uh around that facility.

I know um it's probably the the channeling fence is probably the preferred for the whoever is building it, but uh when I drove up there, you could see the the containers just above the wall.

I thought it was kind of ugly.

Um I stood on the other side of the wall with the traffic.

I couldn't hear the you know, the the buzzing.

What was it, Councilman Mountain?

The generators that were inverter was buzzing.

Uh but I walked around the facility and and you could hear it on the other side of the wall.

So I just don't want a resident that owns a home uh to have this be put in there near their backyard, and they're sitting there trying to enjoy our beautiful weather and they hear this this buzzing.

So that's why again I would defer to the 1500 feet.

Uh Councilman Mountain, did you have anything?

Oh.

Your name was on the board.

I wanted to give my two cents.

I just asked one last question to staff.

What's the setback for gas stations right now?

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

There's not a um zoning setback for gas stations.

Um I'm not sure if there's a specific setback and fire code for another underground fuel tanks.

Um, but from a zoning standpoint, there's not specific setbacks from from like residential per se.

I see.

So there's hundreds of fires a year on fire stations that have a lot more thermal capacity than a battery storage, and we don't have a setback for gas stations.

The the on-site setback would just be the standards for the um that zoning district, and then there's use-specific standards um specific to uh gas stations within those zoning districts, but it would just follow basic standards.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, mayor, I think the uh I think I'm outnumbered here, but yeah, the setback 1500 is I think way excessive and unnecessary.

Um that's where I'm at.

I think it should be much closer to the industry standard of 100.

But I'm probably outnumbered here, so thank you.

Make it respect that, councilman.

Thank you.

Uh councilman Hastings.

All right, nothing lengthy this time, of course.

I mean, you never know.

Umloyd, what's so I know the mayor mentioned there is a project that's going forward that does meet the 1500, which I again I don't support the 1500, but there's a project that's been going through that um supports or sorry, that meets the 1500 foot requirement.

And again, just want to stress again, this is just the feat to be able to apply to go somewhere.

You know, and but um I'd like to, what's this soonest?

I mean, obviously, we have to have summer um summer recess.

Um, is it 30 days from now?

I'd like to, and I'll ask for an action item during the time appropriate.

Obviously, the numbers are probably gonna be there's gonna be some different options when we do take action, but I would like to get something on like can we take action in August potentially?

Mayor, counsel, councilman Hastings, if we get cleared direction from council as far as the separation distance and everything else, or a consensus to that that effect, then we can bring that back to P and Z.

We and then back to council.

The hope would be to get it back on August, but the likelihood is more like September to be honest.

Um again, we've got advertising and posting requirements to make sure we hit.

So yeah, and I I would just say in closing that, and I just urge my colleagues just to work with us to find I would say a middle ground where it completely opposite ends.

And I mean, 1500 again, it's it's it's higher than any city that is doing currently.

And I get like maybe 100 is like is is too far the other direction.

But I mean, and I so anyways, when I ask for the item, I'll just I'll ask it, you know.

Obviously, generally there can be different suggestions, but I really hope like, and I get it's new technology, it can be scary.

I encourage everybody to kind of like study up on the issues, and I hope that we can find some sort of middle ground, also too differentiating between like residential that's there and stuff that's like already zoned industrial, you know what I mean?

And I agree with Councilman Judd's um point earlier, too, like where it's like, do I want to give up commercial for battery storage?

Well, absolutely not.

Um but if something was zoned for, you know, I know and this is just hypothetically, but like high density residential, for instance, gonna cause a bunch of traffic.

I mean, I don't know, that's a different conversation.

So I hope that we can we could work to be flexible, bring something back, and I'll ask during the the appropriate period um in August to vote on something, and hopefully we can find something by them.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh the gentleman from district three.

Thank you, Mayor.

Lloyd, so some of the cities are doing case by case.

Why are they doing it that way?

It's you're not showing it here, but there are other cities.

I think Phoenix is one of them.

Havendale in Glendale.

Mayor, council, councilman Duffy.

We looked at just a few cities in the area.

We when we started this two years ago, there was nobody on the books, and I don't know why they do it on a case by case basis.

Um I'm assuming at this point they're relying on um NSP NFP 855 and the their codes um to evaluate.

Um, they also are probably in most cases putting it on hard zoning.

So zonings coming through a zoning process that's for industrial uses.

If we did, if we kept it at 1500 and somebody wanted to go away from that, they'd have you could they can still apply to do it.

It would just come to us for no, correct?

They could come into the city apply.

Um, it would be staff would could not give any kind of recommendation of it meeting our codes, which typically then doesn't bring it forward.

But the statute allows an applicant to go ahead and put move it forward to council.

So it's they could they could technically do it.

Okay.

I've never seen where that has occurred in my 26 years here with the city.

Okay, but they can.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think from staff's perspective, if and from a separation distance, if we have a solid number to start with, and then we can always readdress it in the future if need be.

But the concerns I've heard tonight is one staying up with technology, recognizing, and I think we all do recognize that technology has changed due to the McMickan incident.

Um, and having something that we can bring forward, because we have basically we've had three inquiries to this type of technology to the grid scale connecting in the city in three different locations, all three adjacent to um power line corridors or a substation.

Um so I think if we can have that, if I understood and listen to council, you want to see all of that come back for council's discretion to give approval on.

So I think we do away with the CUP and everything comes back as a battery storage or yeah, best facility overlay.

Can we also find out why the other cities are doing some of them are doing case by case at the end of the day?

That we can reach out and try to find and get that answer, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Judd.

Okay, so can we get if we start, let's say we we bring this back and we and we set it for 100, and we don't like 100.

How hard is it to go from 100 to 200 later?

Easier to go from 1500 down to 100 than it is to go from 100 up because you create non-conforming uses at that point.

So can we just get something on the books and let's start big?

We can make it smaller, but please include a waiver process.

So someone could come in and they say, you know, let's say let's call it 1500 or 1000, whatever one settles on here.

And I'm sure you get head nods from us here to figure out where we need to be 1500 to 1000, whatever.

But have a waiver process.

So if someone has a use that works, they've got a good business case for it.

They can bring it forward and say this is only 750.

And this is why we think it works.

And there's a path forward that doesn't put them non-conforming.

Is that something we can do?

Yeah, that's something you do, but I think then when you open that box up, you're gonna see that as the application every time.

Okay.

But it's still easier to make it smaller than it is to make it bigger.

So let's start big.

Let's get a number from us tonight so we can get something on the books, because there are some projects that are waiting to move forward.

Okay.

Councilman Haney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Lloyd, you mentioned there's three projects that are looking at it.

Out of those three projects, if we move forward with the uh the suggested setback, how many of those projects would be able to comply?

One single.

Okay.

And then these other two, are they close?

Other two are close.

Uh one's along the city limits.

So if we um added some language to where it's only um current residential dwelling units within the city limits as where we take that distance from because it's adjacent to county.

County has already established their setback.

We could make two of those work at this point.

The second closest one, how far away are they from existing residential estimate?

Um, I'd say they're probably about three to five hundred feet to the south of them.

Okay, so and the other one is 1500 feet, and then the second one is like three to five hundred.

Okay.

Yeah, I think it's it's yeah, it's I don't have a it's yeah, yeah.

The I don't know exactly where on the property they're gonna locate it, and I don't know exactly how far from the property across the 303 to the closest resident.

Okay, and this what we're talking about right now is only applicable to existing homes.

So if if one of these facilities saw land, district one or other places, but most likely further west, and there's no homes around it.

Are they able to construct their facility?

If they meet that 150 foot setback at that point, yes.

So they can meet the 150 setback if the and then when those homes come in, are are there they would have to notify those residents purchasing that home essentially?

Uh the resident under from my understanding under the current uh public uh records that you do for real estate, yeah.

Under that they would the resident purchasing the home would have to do their due diligence around them to identify whether or not they wanted to live that close to a best facility.

Okay.

Um Mayor, I just have one comment.

I I understand of the there's why we would want to do almost explore the case by case or um almost like a waiver system just because um, you know, we talked about not wanting a one size fits all approach and to give us some of that discretion.

Um my only concern with that is if we're gonna do that, then what is the point of having the 1500?

Because if I'm on the industry side, then I'm always going to ask for a waiver and and see.

So then I guess I don't understand why we would set the minimum.

Um we listen.

But I do see I do see the value of I because I don't like a one-size-fits-all approach.

So I do see the value of looking, but I do think for for the folks that are considering facilities for our residents, it might be beneficial for them to at least know where the minimum is so that they know um kind of where we're at.

So makes sense.

I mean, I I I say 1500 because we have the one applicant that would meet that already.

So maybe there's another applicant that would say, let's put it here at 1500.

Do we want to do the extra stuff?

Do I have to get an exception and just move forward?

Give some some guardrails, councilman Hastings.

Yeah, and I don't maybe we can just discuss like because obviously we can discuss it more now, but if you're agenda item, and uh councilman Judd mentioned like having a set number.

I mean, I would ask, and I mean, I still think I mean, can you can you maybe this is a question for Jeff?

But can you have a couple different options?

I guess if we did an action item, for instance, um, and and if for those who want to start at like the safest and you know, come down.

I still think a thousand is is pretty dang high, you know.

But can you have a uh a potential motion to like have options?

Like, you know, sometimes there's like different op like options of motions like 500, 1000.

I mean, personally, I don't want 1500 to be an option, but it sounds like it's it's going to.

But can we can we word something flexibly just so we can take action on this when we come back?

And do we just kind of leave it open-ended and not necessarily have a set motion we're gonna vote on?

Because when we come back, it's you know, the end of June, July pass, things could be different.

We could feel differently.

Um yeah, is that possible?

Yeah, okay.

We could have three motions if they want to go stand up.

Yeah, can the council agree we'd like to see it back for action one way or another?

But I understand what you're saying.

Yeah, I think it's up to us.

It's just it's kind of setting that number.

Um, you know.

You know, everyone's really fifty.

I'm pretty generous.

I mean, I think if it were for me, like I'll go to fourteen hundred.

No, I'm there.

Um, I think I think I mean I understand what you're saying, Councilman Judd.

I don't want to sit up here and have a uh auction, but um I think Mr.

Abrams, you have another point to make.

Yeah, mayor counsel.

How about we do this?

We'll take and we'll set below.

So we'll take the planning and zoning recommendation of a hundred.

We'll bring that back.

If you're good with everything else set.

We'll bring five hundred.

And Councilman Haney, I heard you say thousand, and we'll bring those three numbers back.

We'll bring those to P and Z.

We'll take P and Z's recommendation and see where they're at and bring that back on the on the small scale residential commercial.

We'll come back with five megawatts as in the code.

And then we'll do away with the C U P.

We'll bring everything back as a overlay.

Does that work across the board?

Um, it's a good starting point.

Yeah.

Just want to implement a haney go ahead.

So I know we like we have that project that it sounds like everyone at the the the max uh the fifteen hundred, there's a project that already meets that.

That's correct.

Um, and so if we if we move forward with this, will we be able to vote on it in August?

Then if we want to.

You don't have to make the all that work, we'd have to sort of put this together very quickly.

Okay.

Um get the ledge edit taken care of, have the three different options there, and then bring that to get it advertised, get it to planning and zoning, and then from there, hopefully make that August fourth.

Okay.

I'm good with the three options presented, at least from from my standpoint.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Trevor, you're good.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right, I'm gonna continue the uh reconvene the regular city council meeting.

Madam Clerk, do we get any uh requests to speak on an unagenda eyes item?

Yes, Mayor.

Um, let me call the first three names.

Brian Shoal Jeremy.

I can't read this very well.

Bay wear.

Possibly Bayware, Jeremy.

And Autumn Johnson are the first three.

If you can make your way to the podium and state your name.

Just gonna keep going.

The next three John Scott, Brennan Quigley, Mary Becker.

Good evening, sir.

If you could uh state your name in Crossroads for the record, please.

Yes, uh thanks for letting me speak.

And I live here in surprise.

And what I like to talk talk about is the Quran and the potential for having mosques here in surprise.

The Quran is not really so much of a Bible as it is a handbook for a group of uh people that that like to kill people.

It's it's essentially a death cult.

If you look at the history of the Muslims, and you look at uh how they've done things over the centuries, this book instructs them to kill anybody that that won't get along with them, either pay money or convert.

That's your choice.

Um some of the figures I've read now, 270 million deaths as a result of uh Islam since the year about 600.

270 million.

There's uh 240, almost 250,000 just attributed to Islamic terrorism since the 1970s to this point.

So it's really not a religion of peace.

It's really not a religion at all.

It's a death cult, and I'll be back to speak on it another time, but I wanted to start out that way.

Thank you for the time.

Was Mary here go ahead.

Good evening, ma'am.

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

I'm Mary Becker.

This is my husband Don.

See, you have the rolling down Mary Becker show again.

Um thank you for having us tonight.

Um, it's been very weighty discussion so far.

Um we live in Happy Trails, which is we live with the other old folks out there on Bell Road near Cotton Lane.

So thank you again, and to all the supporting staff here, and to the people here in the chambers tonight because in two weeks we get to celebrate the founding of this great country.

We are 250 years old, and we need to know that we are not a democracy.

That word is nowhere in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, nowhere.

We are a constitutional republic, and there is a huge difference.

Our constitution is 250 years old.

The average lifespan of any other constitution for any nation is about 17 to 19 years.

I'd say we've exceeded that.

But they also called them Bible-faced Yankees, and many of the pastors encouraged their congregations and themselves, went out to fight for freedom.

Of the founding fathers, there were 56.

27 were ministers, and many of the others were either elders or were part of a church and Bible believers.

So their ideas and the underscoring of it underscores the role of faith in shaping our American Republic with our views on liberty, governance, and the role of virtue in public service.

During the revolution itself, there were several miracles that happened that gave us victories in untenable circumstances.

And that is why we are where we are.

Next three speakers, Marsha Hill, Alex, Diane, Eden Giordano.

Thank you, and I'm Marcia Hill.

I live here in Surprise.

And thank you for this opportunity to speak and thank you, Councilman Hasting on liking my idea of the veteran speaking for the 250th anniversary, and the families that have ancestral accounts of the civil and revolutionary war.

So I appreciate that because you you did point me in the right direction, and because of all that, uh my partner is the surprise library.

So that's exciting.

But now just imagine that we are at our respective churches or places of worship.

Our pastor steps to the pulpit and says, Today we will read from the holy book a few verses.

But the verses he opens to are not our Bible.

They are from the Quran.

He reads Surah 8.

When thy Lord spake unto the angels, I will be with you, therefore establish ye the faithful.

And then the next verse, Sarah 47.

When ye can counter the infidels, strike off their heads till you have made a great slaughter among them, and of the rest make fast the fetters.

For those believe not in God and his apostle, verily we have got ready the flame for the infidels.

And my favorites, Sarah 4, men are superior to women.

Virtuous women are obedient, but chide those whose refractories ye have cause to fear.

Remove them into the beds apart and scourge them.

By now you've probably most likely left your church.

These are not isolated or hidden verses.

They are part of a foundational text of Islam.

For the past several decades, many of us have been told repeatedly that Islam is a religion of peace.

That is simply not true.

The object of this way of life is to convert to Islam or kill the unbeliever.

Its growth has come through the principle join us or die.

It is not merely a religion, it is an all-encompassing cult of much death.

Over the years, we have seen many videos of Evans openly declaring that they will overpower America and take it over.

Look at what has already been happening in Texas.

Well, oh boy, I didn't talk fast enough.

I practiced faster.

But thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening.

But there are two departments that I believe, and if I may be so bold, that we should raise their budgets.

The first is the economic development under the leadership of this Miss Janine.

This department can increase our revenue, our dividends threefold.

And from the uh presentation that she gave, it's paying off really good and seeing our budget, it's excellent.

The second is the sports, tourism, and art uh department.

Under the leadership of Miss Kendra and the best councilman here, Councilman Duffy.

Uh, they will bring no names and bigger events that will make the city of surprise a national and international destination.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

It is great to be an American at this time.

It is one of the best nations that we have ever had.

250 years of learning of what we need to do to become better people.

Mayor, it is great to see foreign tourists come out here and document their time here and say what an awesome nation we live in.

And I hope that everyone can get to see those videos because people that are coming from Europe, from Africa, from uh, you know, other nations where they do not have the kind of uh freedoms that we have, they are documenting it, and it is great to see.

Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, go USA, and I hope that you win the World Cup and bring it home this year.

Happy birthday, America.

You're only getting better.

Thank you very much.

Good evening.

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

My name is Diane Eden Giordano, Reams and Grand.

For me, I've come in here or most meetings since January.

Words had no value until they're backed up with actions and the behavior that support them.

And I'm very disturbed that we don't see it.

I walk out of here and I get an attitude that there are people in this room who think they're better than everybody else.

Their body language speaks very loudly, and they don't show the respect.

They don't seem to value the opinions, and they don't take action.

And there's lots of people out there, and as an independent voter, if they put those ideas together and work with them, it could benefit the common good for all people.

And that's not happening.

The tone, the character, the behavior, and the decorum starts at the top.

I have 50 years of work experience.

I started my own business.

I work with a Fortune 500 companies.

Leadership starts at the top, and for surprise, you're the top.

The decisions and the choices come here.

And when you tell people you don't have a choice, everybody has a choice.

We come to voice these concerns.

We call the county officials, state officials, and the federal officials.

And we call them many times a day to voice these concerns.

Make no mistake, voters expect elected leaders with character traits that benefit all people.

That means empathy, perseverance, and trustworthiness.

When actions and behaviors by top elected officials are disrespectful and despicable, the c the people out here start mirroring that.

Respect is earned, it's not demanded.

Trust is earned.

For me, it's watch what they do, not what they say.

Restoring a societal environment for the common good of all people brings that.

We, every single person have a choice.

Each of you are elected leaders for surprise and for surprise.

It begins with you.

Thank you.

Ann Benheim, Jeremy Helfgott, Brittany Bishop, Jennifer McCann, Taylor Bowen.

Can I take all their time?

No.

How many sections do you want me to read?

Take all of them I need.

It's the all-boy band.

Hey.

It's uh, oh, pardon me, Ms.

Davis.

Uh, my name is Ann Bentheim.

What a surprise.

I live in surprise.

I live in your district.

Five blocks from the prison.

Six blocks from the chemical plant.

I've lived there since 19 or 2014, and no one told me that damn chemical plant was being built six blocks from my house, by the way.

All right.

Mayor Sarder, members of the council, good evening.

While you met in your work session this afternoon, many of us were gathered outside this building because there is an emergency you keep refusing to put on your agenda.

The federal government attends to lock away as many as 1,500 people inside a warehouse on Sweetwater Avenue in one of the worst spots in this city to come.

We came here to make certain you hear on the record what was shared outside earlier.

Across the road from the Ice Prison Warehouse stands at Rincam, where hundreds of thousands of pounds of industrial chemicals are stored.

Federal law treats Rinchem as dangerous enough that the company must file a public risk management plan describing what various chemical releases would do.

One of your constituents read it cover to cover.

Have any of you?

Ridden Cam.

Oh, good.

Rincam modeled what happens when something goes wrong, and not only the worst case scenarios.

In one of the plausible scenarios, a single equipment failure produces a ground-hugging cloud of hydrochloric acid.

Uh that drifts almost three miles at toxic levels.

Tens of thousands of people live inside that end point.

I'm one of them, just so you know.

You may find that good.

I don't uh more than 73,000 across surprise in El Mirage.

And even where we stand tonight is in the hazard zone, which extends to the businesses north of us on Bell Road near Grand Avenue.

This is one of RinChem's plausible scenarios requiring every mitigation factor to go well.

What about Rincamp's worst case scenario for the same chemical, the same volume, but with mitigation efforts hampered, perhaps by RinCam's own tanker trucks, blocking multiple fire hydrants on Sweetwater Avenue, as we've seen them do many times.

That hazard zone extends more than twice as far.

At that range, a quarter of a million people across the West Valley fall inside the toxic zone, reaching across the 101 or the 303, depending on the wind directions.

We did not invent those figures.

They came straight from RinChem's own federal filing.

By the way, the Constitution is not 250 years old.

It was adopted in 1780.

Thank you, ma'am.

The history lesson was free.

Madam Clerk, who's the next person to speak?

Jeremy Helfgott was next, and I'm he asked me to speak on his behalf.

Sir, you're not Jeremy.

I'm gonna have to ask you to sit down until your name's called.

We have allowed people to speak on others' behalf.

I'm gonna have to push you to sit down.

Who's the next name, ma'am?

Okay, I'll doubt Madam Clerk.

Who's the next name?

Oh, there were Jeremy Helfgott, Brittany Bishop, Jennifer McCann, and Taylor Bowen were the names I called.

Good evening.

Good evening.

First of all, um, shame on you for not letting him speak.

Uh I did that in place for my sister just a couple weeks ago.

And you guys let that happen, but not Brent.

Anyways, uh, my name is Brittany Bishop.

I live near Bell and Parkview.

Mr.

Mayor, you're the safety coordinator for the DICE Art School District.

It is the mission of the Dice Art Unified School District District's Transportation Department to transport students to and from school in a safe, efficient, dependable, professional, and courteous manner.

But what about those same principles for the students who walk or bike to school?

There is an additional danger for students walking or biking past a potential detention center.

Ice presence is responsible for education disruption and a decrease in student attendance.

In order to combat these issues, I'm proposing to launch a walking bus project for DICE Art schools.

A walking bus is similar to carpooling without the car.

There would be a group of children from a neighborhood accompanied by adult volunteers to walk to and from school safely.

A variation of a walking bus can also be a bike train.

Certain logistical logistical details are needed.

Like how many participants would dictate the number of uh adult volunteers needed?

Who will participate?

How often will the walking bus operate?

What time will the children meet the bus?

Does each child participating get picked up from their home?

Or is there a meeting bus stop?

All should be coordinated per school for the best safety measures in their area.

The walking bus project would aim to aid students within the walking distance of their school, arrive to and from school safely.

I would propose Dice Art High School, Dice Art Middle School, and El Mirage Elementary to be the starting grounds for launching a walking bus due to the proximity of the potential ICE detention center.

If the projects work in those schools, why not expand to other DICE Art schools?

There are added benefits to a walking bus, like exercise and community bonding, as well as the safety aspect.

Walkingbus.org has more information on how to start a walking bus.

As safety coordinator, I hope this is a safety action plan.

You can consider applying for the upcoming school year to DICE Heart.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Jennifer McCann.

My cross streets are cactus in DICE art.

Um, I am here to ask you again to fight against the proposed DHS facility in surprise, but I am going to deviate a little bit from my prepared notes because I'm so disgusted with the xenophobia that we're hearing, the racism that we're hearing.

The last couple of meetings against um, you know, mosques coming here.

It is just abhorrent, and I'm sick hearing it.

It is so disgusting.

So I had to throw that out there.

Um, but I've spoken a few times coming to you as a community member and a mother, but since you've heard from me already a couple of times, um, I'm gonna use this time to read an article that was posted last week on Fox 13 in Utah.

And as you'll hear, they're experiencing really the same situation that we're experiencing here in surprise.

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County against the US DHS and immigration and customs enforcement over a warehouse being converted to an immigration detention facility.

Sounds familiar.

The filing uh claims that the actions of the government agencies have been cloaked in secrecy and that the hidden process violates several federal laws, which I know we felt here as well.

The warehouse facility is located on the city's west side near Salt Lake City International Airport.

The agency purchased the warehouse for 145 million dollars, with the intent to house up to 10,000 people and send inside the mega detention center.

Since the purchase was discovered, local leaders and residents have protest protested the location and purpose of the detention center, with multiple rallies having taken place outside the warehouse.

Protesting the location and purpose sounds familiar, but let's keep going.

Um, Mayor Aaron in Salt Lake City has avowed legal intervention as far back as March regarding the DHS and ICE detention center.

That's a little different.

According to release by both the city and county, the detention center poses environmental, economic, and public health issues that leaders claim have not been addressed by the federal agencies.

Again, very similar here.

That seems familiar too, but in surprise, these sentiments are coming from the community, but not necessarily from the council.

Among the concerns addressed in the lawsuit is sewage system capacity, water consumption for the thousands in the facility during a drought, wear and tear on nearby roads, and traffic emissions.

Um, there's more in the article.

I highly recommend you read it, but in my time, you should let Brent speak.

Thank you.

Yes.

Taylor, are you here?

After Taylor, I have Brent Peak, Joseph Ramsey, and Jonathan Kayla Bishop.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Taylor.

I live in Coyote Lakes at Coyote Lakes Parkway and Bell.

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak tonight.

I've spent more time at this podium addressing this dais than I spent addressing my public speaking classmates back in college.

Before I get started, I want to address a concern that many residents keep sharing about the camera being turned off during public comment.

I am grateful that I am grateful the camera is turned off because I've seen with my own two eyes Photoshop screenshots of constituents standing at this podium, altered in disparaging ways, posted to the Facebook page of a man sitting on this dais right now.

I mean, I will not name publicly out of respect.

I appreciate you not allowing that to continue, Mayor.

For the past several city council meetings, I've attempted to verbalize concerns about the ICE facility in hopes you were ignorant to them, or in hopes I might get through.

I've addressed the dais and elected officials who should identify the best interest of constituents as a core driving principal in their decision making and voting.

If you hold town hall meetings, you've spoken to me one-on-one in the past couple of weeks.

I've expressed every concern I can verbalize because I do not want to sell my house and give up on the city of surprise, but you're leaving me no choice.

The willful ignorance and denial of the city council blows my mind.

We are about to become home to the next Delaney Hall series of events.

I believe my words have fallen on deaf ears, like your words fell on deaf ears when you sent that letter.

Mr.

Judd is the only representative on this board that appears to have any care about the future because the coming disasters will be taking place in his district.

The hell that is about to unfold in the city of surprise will unfold in his backyard.

I am done talking to this dais.

I am now addressing the folks behind me and the people listening to my voice on the live stream.

We are not stuck with this city council.

Last week, residents in the St.

Louis suburb of Missouri, I'm sorry, in a St.

Louis suburb in Missouri, voted to remove every incumbent on the city council.

Over half the members were removed over a choice to not oppose data centers.

I think it is time for something similar to happen in surprise.

The council will neither oppose data centers nor DHS.

Recalling Mayor Sartre requires 7,100 signatures.

That's a big number, but we have 173,000 residents.

It's doable.

Going after Vicemair Greenberg, 1,750 signatures.

Mr.

Haney, 1700.

Mr.

Jedd, 1150, Mr.

Duffy, 975.

Mr.

Hastings, 940.

Mr.

Melton, 760 signatures.

Those are the numbers that will create a ballot measure to take these men away from this position.

I think it's time that we connect penalty with non-action.

Mayor and council members, please protect your positions today by making better choices.

Neighbors, please hold these men accountable.

If they do not speak for you, take their voice away with your signature and your vote.

This is a democratic republic as we have been reminded tonight.

And this is how it is intended to function.

Recalls are safeguards for what we are facing today.

It is time we act and we take the city back from these men who would sell it to the highest bidder without any regard for how we do.

Good evening.

You can state your name and crossroads for the record, please.

Brent Peak.

I live in North Phoenix.

I'm going to continue Ann's remarks.

She talked about the end point and distance, and I'm going to talk about the schools in that distance.

Consider what lies within Rinkem's plausible endpoint of 2.7 miles.

Dice Art High School, Dice Art Middle School, other campuses full of children every school day.

According to RenCham, a cloud of hydrochloric acid that can reach a cage on sweetwater can just as easily reach a classroom on Dysar Road.

There is no worse point, worst case scenario for the ICE warehouse that does not include our local schools, including Dysot High School, Dice Rut Middle School.

Thank you, Mr.

Haney, for talking about worst-case scenarios tonight and plume models and all the stuff that we have been begging you all to address.

Campuses full of children.

The people who cannot run, hydrochloric acid is not an abstraction.

It blinds, it scorches the lungs near the source.

It is lethal.

If that cloud arrives, the rest of us can get in a car and drive away.

A person locked in a cell cannot, and the ice prison offers no refuge.

A standard warehouse breathes in the outside air.

It sucks in the cloud.

It pulls it in through its own vents and carries it room to room within minutes.

There is a word for that type of facility.

Anyone want to say it?

Short of gutting and rebuilding that structure to laboratory gray containment, that structure does not shelter the people inside.

And you know it.

You know it.

It seals them in with the poison.

Two weeks ago, your own fire marshal told a reporter plainly that no one, not DHS, not Garter World, has contacted this city about how to respond to any of this.

No coordinated emergency plan, no shelter strategy, nothing for the firefighters and medics that surprise would send in first, not unlike what happened in 2019 with the battery facility.

Your emergency planning still assumes that everyone can evacuate on their own, and that is a fiction.

Your plan is faulty.

For hundreds of people behind locked doors, your plan doesn't work.

Mayor Starter, this next part is for you.

A short time ago outside this building, we called on you by name to break your silence on the issue tonight, and we are inside now to repeat that call to your face.

Your day job is safety coordinator for DICE Art Schools.

The very campus is sitting in the hazard zone are the ones you are paid to protect.

If our reading of Rincam's plan is mistaken, you are the one to tell us.

You've had two months to do so.

And I urge you tonight to respond to these comments as you have the right to do instead of hiding behind ceremonial silence.

If we are wrong, tell us.

And if we're not, the people you protect by day and deserve to hear you, they deserve to hear you say so right now, out loud, on the record, and not hiding behind open meeting laws and just sitting there.

Joseph Ramsey Ann Johnson or Kayla Bishop.

There's a couple people before me, right?

If they haven't come up, you can come up.

Okay.

Okay.

Good evening.

A couple notes.

Number one, freedom of religion is part of what makes America beautiful, regardless if you share the same beliefs.

So for 4,000 to 10,000 recognized religions exist.

You're not gonna agree with them.

Move on.

Number two, you shared hours of concerns you had about batteries.

I wish this passion was applied to the chemical facility.

Woo.

My name is Kayla Bishop, and I live at the crossroads of Bell and Reims.

February 3rd, 2026 is a night that the people of Surprise are unlikely to forget.

It is a date that will likely be referenced in articles, books, and news reports for years to come.

For those who don't immediately recognize its significance, it came just four days after the residents of Surprise, the nation, and even our own city council learned about the 70 million dollar DHS purchase.

Hundreds of protesters appeared outside City Hall.

More than a hundred speakers stood at the podium begging the council to provide their constituents with a sense of security.

News stations and reporters flooded the rooms with cameras and notebooks, which you guys love so much.

That's why the cameras are on.

February 3rd was exactly 132 days ago.

Thousands of detainees have been held for more than a hundred days.

I would like you to imagine a 10 foot by 17 foot cage, which would be a little corner of this room here.

A cage that size should have an occupancy of 21, yet 40 of us are piled in.

Visualize that after that city council meeting on February 3rd, you have not left this building.

Terrifying to think of, isn't it?

That will be surprised soon.

Sadly, it's not just a meetup scenario.

It's the exact reality that was observed by three of our Democratic U.S.

representatives during a surprise visit to the ICE detention center in Mesa, Arizona.

These people are treated as if they're not human.

Perhaps that's why society labels them as illegal aliens.

But we should stop using language like that.

History has shown that dehumanizing labels can make it easier to justify mistreatment, and that's a dangerous path to grow down to go down.

Amongst these people who have been detained more than 100 days, is a 71-year-old grandmother who was just released three days ago.

She was in ice custody at the Eloy detention center here in Arizona for over 10 months.

I think the community was definitely safer knowing this dangerous 71-year-old who was taken while washing dishes at a local restaurant was off our streets.

The elderly population are being booked into ice custody at significantly higher rates, as are the children.

According to the Marshall Project, under previous presidents, there was a daily average of 24 children in custody.

Since Trump took office, the average daily amount of children in custody went from 24 to 226.

Enjoy your break.

Not everybody has that luxury.

Natalie Batista, Callie Overs, Cindy Bray, Jason Chavez.

Okay.

Good evening.

Natalie Bautista, Greenway Road, and Cotton Lane.

Mayor and Council members, uh, this will be my last in-person comment within these chambers for a while.

In a few weeks, I leave for Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

I should be leaving my home, excited to serve my country, but instead I'm leaving here full of worry for my family and for my community.

Since February, I've been consistently attending these meetings to listen, to speak, and to plead for action.

I've spoken with many of you directly, as well as with local law enforcement, and have reached out to state and federal legislators.

I've done my part as a nurse, a volunteer, a canvaser, a rapid responder, and have helped to bring rapid response trainings into our community.

But it's not enough.

We need your help to keep our community safe.

Myself and countless others have been asking for transparency and action for months.

I'm so heartbroken that this council continues to redirect us elsewhere.

That is not meaningful representation.

We elected you to advocate for us and to use every tool available to represent and protect us, not to deflect all responsibility, and especially not to speak down to us when we come to you for help.

City policies, emergency preparedness, and public safety planning are within your authority.

Several Arizona legislators reached out months ago offering assistance and support, and the City of Surprise has not utilized their help.

You could be working together to adopt their policies and safety plans that would help protect our community, but you continue to choose not to.

It has many of us questioning your ability to represent us as well as questioning your legal counsel.

Yes.

Since February, I've been growing up.

Since February, I've seen growing hostility in our city being normalized as patriotism and just politics.

I have personally experienced harassment, including being threatened with ICE and racially motivated taunting and slurs.

Day laborers working in the city have experienced wage theft and harassment.

I've stood here for months now warning you that your silence and neutrality would only enable further escalation, and now we're living through it.

And it will only get worse if left unaddressed.

Though I may not be here physically for uh the future meetings, my commitment to this community does not end when I leave this room.

I will remain connected to what happens here, and I will continue to reach out to all of you because it is your duty.

My family and the community that I have built within these chambers will always keep me invested no matter where I'm serving.

I stand here today still asking for the same action I've been pleading for since February.

Implement safety plans and staff trainings for our schools tailored to the unique dangers posed by DHS.

Adopt city policies similar to Phoenix and Tucson to protect the community from violent, unlawful DHS operations, be active collaborators in establishing emergency planning and safety risk concerning the Rincom Chemical Warehouse and uh and even the Crescent Crown uh alcohol distribution warehouse that's surrounding the neighborhood, the schools, the detention facility, and please establish regular DHS updates for all future city council meetings.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hey, Murray, wake up.

Good evening.

I'd like to use my time today to refute the district's claim that they have met all legal requirements in regards to safety procedures in schools.

The safety coordinator did not meet Arizona's guidelines.

Arizona guidelines require three lockdown drills, one before fall break, one before winter break, and one before spring break.

The past school year started July 31st and ended May 21st.

We had one shelter in place drill March 13th and one lockdown drill, April 27th.

The entire freshman class or news students wouldn't have had known what to do if a real life-threatening emergency were to occur because not one person in charge prepared them.

On April 25th, I emailed the surprise city council on the lack of drills at Dysart High School.

Coincidentally, the one and only lockdown drill happened two days after emailing them.

Preparing students through one drill is not even meeting the bare minimum.

If you truly wanted this district and its students to feel safe, then you should at least be meeting the state's requirements.

In fact, knowing that there is a chemical warehouse right next to schools and not even performing a hazmat shelter in place is reckless.

Me and this community demanding accountability on the mayor, who's also the safety coordinator is not a personal attack.

When I met with the mayor, I asked if there's any safety procedures once the detention center opens, in which his response was no.

The safety coordinator of Dysert School District has not upheld his job.

He should not be in this position anymore.

Instead of proving to us that he's fit for the job, he continues to prove the opposite.

People who claim that I'm wrong, please prove it.

For people like Lisa Everett, who wants to be in charge of students to sit there and say that I didn't know what was going on when I was the one sitting in the classrooms and she wasn't.

Show me the proof that I didn't, I don't know what I was talking about.

Show me the proof that I don't know how the real world, real world works, and show us the dates of the drills.

I also want to point out the fact that a 17-year-old girl can stand up to all this, but not seven grown men together.

And as for a quick update on my three-mile buffer zone, Senator Mark Kelly's DC staff reached out to me today to schedule an in-person meeting on June 29th.

Thank you.

My name is Cindy Bray.

My cross streets are 151st and R.H.

Johnson.

I wasn't really planning on addressing this, but it did come up a few times tonight.

I'd carry the my pocket constitution that was my mother's, and now I don't have my mother anymore, but I have the constitution, and I just feel the need to remind people of the First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting that free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the people to peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

There's some people who seem to be a little forgetful of our first amendment.

Additionally.

Part of the evidence in her case came from research done by ordinary residents of our community, work that the city should have done and did not do.

Her conclusion was clear.

Not after the retrofrits, not after empty assurances to this council.

Never.

And it is your leadership that can prevent that.

Good evening.

Hello, uh, my name is Jason Chavez.

I live in Navidad.

And for tonight, I just want to ask a very basic question as to what are the responsibilities of just being a politician in general.

I would think the major responsibility is to be a representative for the people, but the council members I see in front of me do not seem to actually want to represent the people at all, especially in concerns with uh communicating with you know other governments, such as the state government and the federal government about the big moral blight that is in the sweet water and dies are crossroads of that detention center.

And I do call it a moral blight because I have seen it affect just the morality of the residents here.

My friend who spoke earlier, Natalie has been constantly harassed by the people of this city, and it is because that just the mere existence, the mere probability of that detention center going up is emboldening the wrong kind of people to do that.

And this is not a future concern.

These are current concerns, but I do recognize that, but it does seem that a lot of the times that you view it as not even a future concern.

You don't even address it, but I do know that is this is not true because it seems that you are more concerned with the um with the public unrest.

It could it could that the public unrest that it could occur through with due to your due to you actually talking about this or just a general West Valley with the West Valley Mobile Field Response Team, which is about pulling the police resources in case uh if I'm reading this correctly, in case of civil unrest, there's also mentioned about how they need to do this while prioritizing First Amendment rights.

It does not take a genius to realize that this is for protest.

You guys are gearing up for protest.

So why are you not gearing up for the possibility of a huge fire breaking out?

Because we spent an hour here talking about the battery plant, and I actually do appreciate that conversation.

And this is just a conversation that I wish would also apply to the ring chemical plant.

Because you know, I've I've been there.

I see just a whole bunch of tankers of chemicals going over there, just a bunch of trucks going in there, and it just will be a huge explosion, and I do not want to see the surprise to be known for that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Judy Mickles, David Israel, Liz Demeter, Alyssa Este Villo, Roz Melling.

DeVio, Raz Melling.

Good evening.

You say your name and crossroads.

Ariane Renning with an E, not an A, silent.

Uh Hello, I live in North Phoenix off Bell and the I 17.

I'm pretty disappointed in you guys, to be honest.

The attorney general had to stand up for your community.

The high schoolers of your community had to stand up for your community.

Well, you allow DHS to steamroll them and their concerns.

In the meantime, the stop work order has been lifted.

And DHS is still building a concentration camp in your backyard.

Meanwhile, you've kept mostly silent.

We don't expect you to do the impossible to single-handedly win an unfair fight, but we do expect you to try.

We expect you to use every measure you can possibly pull to prevent this from happening.

And you haven't done that.

You haven't put up a fight at all.

You've let them walk all over you.

I would hope that you can change, but you haven't haven't been giving us very high expectations.

I'd like to draw your attention back to the nondescript warehouse, currently for objects that will supposedly be in prison hundreds or given how other detention centers have been run, more likely thousands of immigrants, most of them guilty of no crime, aside from being in this country illegally, the goalposts of which change from week to week, especially during this administration.

We all know about the RenCam, the Renchem Chemical Storage Facility.

It holds tens of thousands of gallons of potentially hazardous chemicals at any given time, and they don't have a safety place and safety plan in place under current conditions.

Well, they do have it for current conditions, but they don't have it in the case that there's a warehouse full of people right across the street who have no freedom of movement.

They can't escape.

The concentration of people in that warehouse could lead to hundreds, if not thousands of deaths in the case of a chemical leak.

Just this year alone.

Chemical leaks in other chemical storage facilities have already caused multiple fatalities, and that's people who could run away, people who had evacuation plans in place.

You might argue that the wardens of the ice facility would evacuate everyone in time, but you only need to look at the facility that Gardewold has been running.

Alligator Alcatraz to know that that's not true.

Their food is rotting, their water is unsafe.

The people there were being medically neglected.

That is the exact same thing that would happen here.

They would let thousands of people die in that warehouse, and you know that.

You only have to use your common sense to know that.

A conson a concentration camp cannot be put in that warehouse.

It does a disservice to everyone, destroys your reputation, and puts thousands of people in danger.

Thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Liz Demeter.

My cross streets are 36th Street in Campbell, and I'll be continuing Brent's remarks.

You all will tell us, as you have before, that federal supremacy ties your hands.

Washington may control who is detained and where for now, but it does not ring your fire department, your evacuation routes, or the safety of the children in our schools.

Those responsibilities are yours alone, and they are exactly the ones at stake here.

The authority you keep saying you lack is the authority you already hold.

You do not take our word for the danger.

Attorney Chris General Chris Mays has already taken the federal government to court over this site, warning that dropping a mass detention center into a chemical industrial corridor invites a mass casualty event.

Part of the evidence for in her case came from research done by ordinary residents of this community.

Work this city should have done and did not.

Her conclusion is clear.

This location will never be fit to hold human beings, not after retrofits, not after empty assurances to this council.

Never.

So we keep asking the questions the mayor refuses to answer.

When the cloud reaches the ICE facility, what's the plan?

When it crosses the Dysart Road from Surprise into El Mirage, what's the plan?

When it settles over Dysart High School at dismissal, or worse, when buses aren't there to evacuate students, what's the plan?

No acceptable answer begins after people are already locked inside the warehouse or after the school year begins.

Until those answer questions have a real answer, you must call for a halt to the work in on sweet water.

We have three demands.

One, an independent risk assessment paid for by the city and beholden to no one, not DHS, not Garden World, not RingChem, spill built specifically around chemical exposure and whether evacuation is even possible.

Made public at a future council meeting before a single person is housed there.

Two, a shelter in place plan signed off by an independent engineer able to speak to the ceiling of an occupied building against RenCom's chemicals.

Or straight admission that this site cannot be made safe enough.

Three, Mayor Sarter.

In his DI start role, we'll tell families on the record before classes resume, before classes resume next month, whether the district's emergency plan even accounts for a chemical release and whether he believes it would protect those students.

We will in next meeting or in the one after until we will return next meeting and the one after until this fight is won.

We did not ask for this battle.

We will not walk away from it.

Tonight, the choice in front of you is simple enough to fit on a sign.

Classrooms over cages.

The same toxic cloud that would reach those cages would reach our children's schools.

Classrooms over cages.

Say it again.

Put it on the agenda.

Vote for it.

And then we might give you some peace.

Until then, we will be back.

Go ahead, sir.

Mayor Sarter and esteemed council members.

My name is David Israel.

I live in Peoria in the neighborhood of the trilogy.

Um you've heard a lot of different points made tonight about the safety of RinCamp.

And most more importantly, the safety of our students in our high school, middle school, and other schools in the area.

Um please take these emotional pitches to heart.

Please give them a lot of thought and consideration.

Um we don't want surprise to be known as the northern version of Dilly.

Um, we want surprise to continue its uh to have its reputation of being a destination for families who want to um create a new life and a better life for themselves.

I'm not gonna just repeat other things people have said, but again, please give a lot of consideration to what we've shared with you tonight.

Thank you very much.

Hi, I'm Ros Melling DeRocher.

Um, I just wanted to.

Oh, I've lived at Cactus and Reims for 22 years.

Um, just uh don't want to repeat what everyone else has already said.

Uh I have already come and spoken from my heart uh about how uh people are being treated in these facilities.

The thought of that happening two miles from my house makes me want to cry.

It's sad.

It's terrifying that this is happening in our country on a mass scale, and no one is doing anything to stop it.

I do know what's happening.

Yeah.

You know, we've all seen it.

And nothing that we have said has made you jump into any sort of action.

We need to see that our community is represented, and we need to see you step up and say something and do something to stop this from happening to our city.

It's discouraging month after month now to see that you have it.

You haven't come up and said, we don't want this here, and we're gonna do something about it.

I'm sad.

It's 22 years of living in the city and loving this city has been destroyed in these first four to five months of knowing that you won't stand up for us.

Please do something.

That's all we're asking.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Alessa Esteville.

My cross streets are bulletin in cactus, and I have lived here for 36 years, my entire life.

I am here today to ask why the residents of Surprise have not been receiving updates regarding the detention center operating in our city.

The 90-day hold was lifted some time ago, and since then we have heard very little.

Last we heard an email was sent to DHS.

Where is the update on that communication?

Where is the update regarding the attorney general's lawsuit against the federal government government for violating the National Environmental Protection Act?

Have you bothered to check in on that?

The detention center is actively hiring, and it is reasonable to assume that ICE agents will soon be present in our community.

While some may believe they will not be patrolling our neighborhoods, the reality is that there is no guarantee they will follow the expectations or requests made by the city, if any.

Mayor, we are still organizing and we are still paying attention.

The crowds may have gotten smaller, but that does not mean people have stopped watching.

Residents across the prize and surrounding cities are paying attention, and your silence on this issue will be remembered.

While I'm here to continue opposing both the detention center and the data centers because of their potential impacts on our community and environment, I am also here to collaborate, connect with residents, and keep them informed.

I am asking the city to put DHS and the detention center back on the city council agenda on a regular basis.

Residents deserve ongoing updates, transparency, and accountability.

If any communication has taken place with DHS, then the public deserves to know what was discussed and what the city's current position is.

We should not have to rely on rumors or speculation to understand what is happening in our own community.

Mayor, I represent an organization called Voices for Change AZ here in my hometown.

And we will be hosting community meetings to provide education, training, and information so residents understand their rights and to have access to accurate resources.

We will continue keeping the community informed about which public servants are speaking up and using their voices.

Mayor and council, election season is approaching, and residents will remember who stood with the community who fought for transparency and who chose to remain silent.

We deserve answers.

We deserve updates, and we deserve a city that keeps the residents informed.

Thank you.

Are you either of you here?

Okay.

We'll move on to other business and future agenda items.

I'm here.

Please don't.

Good evening.

Why does he wake up?

Why is he asleep?

I don't know.

Maybe he didn't miss.

Maybe miss dinner.

Sugars lost.

All right, my name is Judith Cornell.

I live at the 10 in the 303.

And quite honestly, I'm jealous of everyone who came up here tonight and had a beautiful statement written out, but it doesn't seem to be impactful.

I did take the time today to write something, but honestly, it doesn't feel genuine anymore because I'm very angry.

So sorry, you guys, but fuck it.

I'm just gonna tell you what's really going on.

You don't care.

Um I'm disappointed in you, I'm disappointed in you, I'm disappointed in you, I'm super disappointed in you, disappointed in you, disappointed in you, disappointed in you and you for sleeping today.

Wake up.

You, if you're not seeing what's going on in the news, you're choosing to be blind to it.

You're choosing your privilege to not have to watch what's going on, that families are being torn apart, that the things I've observed in the impacted spaces that I'm constantly in, they're devastating.

They make it hard to control the tone of my voice because I'm so upset about the things I've had to do, the things I've had to tell children, the the places I had to be in to accompany people in these moments where their families are being destroyed.

This DHS Center is gonna be opening soon.

They haven't given us the direct time, but we know it's soon.

And everyone here is asking for safety plans and for you guys to take action to make sure people are safe and residents are safe and children are safe.

But I don't want that.

I don't want it to open.

It should not be opening in this community.

This is a community for families.

When I first moved to Arizona, on the signs in surprise, there were silhouettes of families on there.

I don't know if any of you all remember that, but it was there.

Now you're opening a center to rip people apart, to rip families apart, to tear children from their parents.

And they're saying, DHS is saying that they're not gonna tear families apart, they're not gonna put children in these spaces, they're lying.

And when you went to Washington, DC, Mayor Sarder, you left here with a mission of not letting this go forward.

And when you came back, you are a different person.

And it makes me question what they put in your pocket, to be honest.

I'm tired of this.

I've been coming here for months.

I've been dragging my parents here for months.

I've been talking to my friends, my family, my coworkers, everybody that I can about your lack of action, and it's enough.

Do something, goddamn it.

It is too fucking much.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Um I just wanted to talk about the priorities on display by this council, that it is no coincidence that communities and children affected by toxic fumes.

Can you say your name and record for the uh or name and address for the record, please?

Karina.

And uh I'm from my copa.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks for the interruption.

Ma'am.

Yes.

Did I call your name?

Uh I signed up for it.

I don't have your name on the list.

May I speak?

There was one person that was not present.

That's up to Mayor.

Letter speech.

Can I restart the timer, please?

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I wanted to talk about the priorities on display by this council.

There is no coincidence of communities and children affected by toxic fumes and where prison warehouse for ice currently being planned are connected by a common thread.

For all the good this charade does, I might as well speak honestly.

This council does not care for the people affected by this.

In fact, it expects them to bear the brunt of disease and brutality for the sake of profit, reducing lives to abstractions like data and numbers on a sheet that says everything is okay.

And you're a good public servant because you submit to directives set up by crooks and profiteers.

I just wanted to take this time so graciously granted to say you're falling in line with our great country's rich legacy of abuse and cowardice, disguised as concern and patriotism.

Of Japanese internment camps, of native boarding schools, of treating the poisoning and incarceration of vulnerable communities as an acceptable sacrifice to your benefit.

Congratulations on your lack of morals and insight.

Thank you for your time.

Does the uh council have any other business or future agenda items?

I signed up to speak.

We're done, sir.

Thank you.

My name's on the list.

But she hasn't called you.

The public comment time is done.

Thank you.

My name is on the list.

I registered all right.

I'm not gonna argue with you, sir.

You can spare three minutes.

Can you know?

I didn't see a sign.

Council, do you have any other future agenda?

My name is Jeremy Perraza.

I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Do you have council?

We have we do have future agenda items.

Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, we're waiting.

Can we just just let him just give three minutes, please?

Yeah, yeah, just three minutes.

It's up to you.

I mean, he's already standing there.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

My name is Jeremy Perraza.

I come to you from Glendale.

My cross streets are 67th Avenue and Bethany Home Road.

Why did you get in the middle of the day?

Before the current administration, ICE's net favorability rating among all Americans was 16.

It's now negative 13.

Uh 2025 saw 32 reported deaths inside ICE concentration camps, with 20 already reported this year.

That means it's already on track to be the deadliest year in the history of IC.

Um, a bloodthirsty federal entity that was formed on the basis of 9-11 xenophobia.

These deaths are just what was reported, by the way, not what we know, uh what we know about.

Um doesn't account for the ones that we have not heard of.

Behind those walls, innocent people deprived of due process have been subject to severe beatings by guards.

Sexual assault, solitary confinement, full body shackling, and intense heat, violating even the UN convention against torture.

These people have been suggested subjected to unsanitary conditions, forced to sleep amongst dirty toilet water, immersed in fumes of fecal matter and urine, inhaling desert dust and poisonous construction particles, denied access to basic hygiene supplies and medical care, and of course, being served undercooked or moldy or frozen food with little to no water to accompany it.

These are the apparent conditions that this city council wants for your constituents living and working in surprise, who will be undoubtedly swept up for the color of their skin.

You also seem to want your constituents exposed to toxic chemical disasters, the fumes of which will blanket surprise, blow down to where I live, and of course be sucked into the warehouse's vents in a concentrated form where they will suffocate, permanently disable and kill the human beings held inside against not just their will but ours here tonight.

As Brent pointed out, that those are gas chambers right out of 1930s Germany.

Um Kevin, as the safety coordinator for the for DICAR schools, it is not is it not your job to keep people safe?

Who is this fence writing helping, Kevin?

Why are you squandering city resources and tax dollars for a concentration camp?

Why aren't you building public housing, schools, hospitals, cooling centers, solar energy?

Why can't you pick a side and say to everyone here that you wholeheartedly support the concentration camp?

That DHS has you by the balls and that you kind of like it.

How does someone with so much power become so weak?

Like everyone here for our collective safety.

I demand the same things that Brent has.

Number one, an independent risk assessment paid for by the city, accountable to no federal entity.

Number two, a shelter in place plan developed by an independent chemical hazard safety engineer.

And number three, that you, Kevin, will stand on record in front of the families at the DICE Arts School in your role as safety coordinator and tell them directly whether the district's safety plan includes a chemical release evacuation contingency that would protect every single one of those families' kids.

Thank you very much.

I do, Mayor.

I just want to know we did a we did a lot of talks about what happens if a battery storage facility blows up.

We've heard about the data centers.

Can we do one on like a if a catastrophic event does happen at that chemical facility?

Can we can we do one?

We've talked about the other two, and it's it's a good point.

I mean, there are schools right there.

So what happens?

That's all I'm asking.

It doesn't have to be quick, but I want to throw, not something that we just throw out here.

Okay, thank you.

Any other items?

Oh, that wasn't an answer.

Does any of the council have a council report?

No, nothing.

One quick thing.

Go ahead, councilman.

If I if I can.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

She doesn't have to.

So it is our last counseling of I guess the fiscal year.

Um, I wanted to thank Sandy and the finance develop uh department for their hard work and dedication developing the budget uh we approved at our last meeting.

I know that balancing the city's many priorities and needs against projected revenues is no easy task, and I appreciate the thoughtful approach taken throughout the process.

You know, surprises are really fortunate.

We have an exceptional workforce that works tirelessly, um, especially lately, um, on behalf of our residents.

Um, in today's competitive job market, it's essential that we continue to support and retain these dedicated employees.

That's why I'm especially pleased to announce that we're able to keep benefit costs relatively stable for employees while enhancing important offerings.

Um, this includes expanded counseling and family planning services, as well as updating our bereavement leave policy to explicitly include leave for miscarriages and stillbirths.

This new policy would mean that women who suffer miscarriages at any point in their pregnancy would be eligible to use bereavement days or time off to recover from their loss.

Miscarriage is one of the most common complications of pregnancy.

It occurs in up to 20% of known pregnancies in the United States.

Stillbirths affects roughly one in 175 births, which is about 21 cases in the US a year.

You know, this issue is especially meaningful uh to me because I have personally experienced this type of loss and understand firsthand the emotional and physical toll it can take on individuals and families.

Uh, during such a difficult time, employees should be given the space to grieve without the added burden of worrying about you know their leave benefits or getting back to work.

And so lastly, I'll say that I think that these enhancements, along with the other things that we've done over the years to support our employees, reflect our commitment to supporting employees through some of life's most difficult moments.

When employees feel valued, supported, and cared for as individuals, they're better equipped to succeed in their roles, which which ultimately benefits the residents we serve.

So I want to thank everyone who played a role in accomplishing this as part of our budget process, specifically our city manager, uh Andrea Davis.

Um of all the things I've I've had the pleasure of playing a part of um during my time in the city of surprise.

This is this is definitely up there, and I feel like it's the right thing to do for the people who for women who go through this.

So thank you.

I'm sure I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed or adjourned.

We said we'd never break the three-second rule.

We'd never make a separate dinner.

And never do that.

We'd never let them sleep in our room.

And never become a minivan mom.

Hey, Chris.

Um, okay.

Well, I'm not at my desk right now.

As parents, we say never a lot, but never happens.

So when you say you'd never leave your child in a hot car, no, it can happen.

Before you leave the car, always stop.

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

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

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