City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the Superstition Vista Community Facility District number one special meeting of July 21st, 2026 to order and ask everyone to put their cell phones on silent. Roll call.

Chairperson Wilson.

Here.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder.

Present.

Board Member Cross. Here. Board Member Heck.

Here.

Board Member Johnson.

Here.

Board Member Nessar. Present. Board Member Seller.

Here.

You have a quorum, Your Honor.

Thank you. Consideration and approval of minutes of special meeting of May 19th, 2026. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chair?

Yes.

I move that the minutes from the meeting of May 19th, 2026 be approved as presented.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Board member Nessar?

Yes.

Oh, I didn't hear the comment.

Sorry, yes. Board Member Johnson.

Yes.

Board Member Cross. Yes. Board Member Heck. Yes. Board Member Seller.

Yes.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder.

Yes.

Chairperson Wilson.

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Public hearing on the feasibility report of Superstition Business Community Facility District Number 1, Assessment Area Number 8. Janet Gould.

Good evening, Chairperson, Board.

My name is Janelle Gold with Hilltop Securities.

Can you hear me? I just wasn't. Again, good evening. My name is Janelle Gold with Hilltop Securities. On your agenda is item number two, three, and four, which I would speak to together if you're amenable to that.

Yes.

And so the first item is the public hearing. And these will need to be taken individually. So just a note on that. This is for a new transaction for special assessment revenue bonds. And the revenue bonds will be for a segment of the Peralta Road project. It's 139 lots. And those 139 lots will be assessed at $5,000 per lot. The construction on the project is complete. So the first item is the public hearing. AND THAT PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE PROJECT AND APPROVING THE FORM OF THE FEASIBILITY REPORT THAT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD FOR REVIEW. THE NEXT ITEM ONCE THAT PUBLIC HEARING IS CLOSED, SO THAT'S AGENDA ITEM NUMBER THREE. THAT IS THE RESOLUTION THAT WILL APPROVE THE FEASIBILITY REPORT, AND THAT INCLUDES A DISTRICT STATEMENT OF ITS INTENTION TO CONSIDER ISSUING THOSE BONDS. AND THE BONDS WOULD BE $695,000 IN TOTAL, AND THAT COMES FROM THE 139 LOTS TIMES THAT $5,000 PER LOT ASSESSMENT AS REFERENCED EARLIER. AND THEN THE FINAL ITEM, AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 4, IS THE RESOLUTION FOR THE APPROVING THE ASSESSMENT DIAGRAM. SO THAT ASSESSMENT DIAGRAM WAS PREPARED BY THE DISTRICT ENGINEER. IT INCLUDES A MAP OF THE LOCATIONS OF ALL OF THE ASSESSED LOTS. AND IT ALSO INCLUDES A DETERMINATION OF THE BENEFIT, THE PUBLIC BENEFIT THAT THOSE ASSESSED LOTS RECEIVE FROM THE PROJECT. AND THE ENGINEER DID CONCLUDE THAT THOSE LOTS WILL RECEIVE A PUBLIC BENEFIT EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN THE AMOUNT OF THE ASSESSMENTS THAT WILL BE PLACED ON THE LOTS. SO THIS IS SIMILAR TO KIND OF ASSESSMENT DISTRICTS ONE THROUGH SEVEN THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY DONE. AND WITH THAT, I WILL PAUSE FOR ANY QUESTIONS.

All right. So this is a public hearing. Would anyone like to speak on this right now? Any discussion from the board? So I'll now close the public hearing. And we'll now move for a consideration of resolution number SBCFD1-2026-008. Yes.

I move that resolution number SBCFD1, 2026-008, a resolution of the District Board of Supervision's Vistas Community Facilities District, number one, relating to the approval of the feasibility report for the acquisition and financing of certain improvements benefiting the district, approving the prior giving of notice of hearing relating to the feasibility report, declaring the District Board's intention to acquire the improvements described in the feasibility report, forming an assessment district, determining that special assessment bonds may be issued to finance the costs and expenses of the improvements, declaring the improvements to be of more than local or ordinary public benefit, and that the costs of the improvements will be assessed upon assessment area number eight, and ordering the public infrastructure projects performed be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Board Member Cross?

Yes.

Board Member Nesser? Yes. Board Member Soller?

Yes. Board Member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Chairperson Schroeder? Yes. Board Member Heck? Yes. Chairperson Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

OK. Consideration of resolution number SVCFD1-2026-009. Do I have a motion?

Your Honor?

Yes.

I move that resolution number SVCFD12026-009, a resolution of the District Board of Superstition Vista Community Facilities District Number 1, approving the levying of an assessment and assessment diagram for assessment area number 8 within the district be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Board Member Heck? Yes. Board Member Cross? Yes. Vice Chairperson Schroeder? Yes. Board Member Nesser? Yes. Board Member Johnson? Yes. Board Member Seller?

Yes.

Chairperson Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

I don't know. Okay. Okay, we're all done. I will adjourn this meeting. Thank you. Thank you.

Excuse me.

I'd like to call the City of Apache Junction City Council meeting of July 21, 2026 to order and ask everyone to put their cell phones on silent. The invocation will be led by Councilman Nassar and the pledge by Councilman Heck.

Heavenly Father, we humbly seek your guidance as we discuss the agenda tonight. May wisdom, justice, and righteousness guide our decisions. Grant us strength to serve our community with integrity and compassion. May our leadership be a source of stability and peace, fostering a society where all citizens will thrive. We ask that you protect all of our military personnel and bring them home safely. And please protect all of our first responders who serve and protect our community. And keep in your prayers Assistant Chief, City Chief Johnny John. He's having surgery on Monday. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call.

Mayor Wilson?

Here.

Vice Mayor Schroeder? Present. Council Member Cross?

Here.

Council Member Heck?

Here.

Council Member Johnson?

Here.

Council Member Nusser? Here. Present. Council Member Seller?

Here.

You have a quorum, Your Honor.

Thank you. Consent agenda. Reminder, all items in consent agenda will be approved with one motion. If a council member wishes to remove an item for further discussion, the request must be made prior to or before approving consent agenda. and it will be moved to new business. Do I have a motion for a consent agenda?

Your Honor?

Yes.

I move that the consent agenda be accepted as presented. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Vice Mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Council Member Nassar? Yes. Council Member Heck?

Yes.

Council Member Soller?

Yes.

Council Member Johnson? Yes. Council Member Cross? Yes. And Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay, regional and government updates. Does anyone have any from the council? Yes? Yes.

I had the opportunity to attend the Pups and Popsicles event at the animal shelter this past Saturday. It was very, very well attended. Many folks were there looking for adoption. Others were there to take a tour and kind of see what's going on with the animal shelters. At the same time, I had lengthy conversations with Commander Beaton and Lieutenant Painter, who are responsible for overseeing the shelter. They have put in a tremendous amount of time in planning and looking forward to how they can make some changes and how they can support the supervisor, Kennedy Carter, and the staff there. I was very impressed with their enthusiasm and their desire to really see the The shelter really thrived now. And so I just want to give a shout out to Commander Beaton and to Lieutenant Painter and to the chief as well for having done this because we all recognize the shelter is a high profile item in this city. And I think Saturday we had the opportunity to see this is a great operation. And we're going to see the best of care for the animals there.

Anyone else?

Yes. I just want to thank the community for coming out today and casting a vote. It's been a great day to be an American and do your civic duties. So thank you to everybody that voted.

Brian, do you have anything? I guess not. OK. City manager's report.

Thank you, Your Honor, Bryant Powell, City Manager. I have a couple updates tonight, sharing that we had over two inches of rain over the last few days and wanted to thank everybody involved. And this includes private property, public property, and doing all they can to keep the drainageways open. Our Public Works Department has been super, super busy and prepared to keep that open and keeping everybody safe. This is a picture of and was out on social media from the Sunte. and the Sun Project progresses very well there near Tomahawk and the freeway. Maybe we could show a few more pictures, but this is what we call self-build, and their own company is able to build it. And we just wanted to share this update with the community and with you all. And we're very, very excited to be able to have and celebrate 40 years of the Apache Junction Public Library. And it's their birthday, and we hope that the public will come and that you all will come Cake, games, trivia, music bingo, and library history and more. And if my report has this, Matt, do we have the ability to show some other great clip on our library garden that Channel 15 did recently?

Public Library is adding to its collection of attractions and we got you a first look of the garden.

It is an outdoor classroom also kind of mixed with a botanical garden experience. So we have our main attraction being our demonstration raised garden beds. We're going to use the seeds from our seed library to show our patrons how to successfully plant them in our Sonoran desert climate. And the goal for that is to be able to grow these vegetables, save the seeds from them, and the seeds will go back to the seed library to go out to new customers. So it's a full cycle of learning and life. In addition to that, to go along with those beds, we have a greenhouse because lots of plants need to start off in the greenhouse before they're transplanted into the garden beds. And then we have a shed back there. Right now we've got lots of soil in there just waiting to be put in the beds when it's time. We have an amphitheater over here that can see about 50 people. And so we're gonna do gardening workshops, educational programs, story times, music festivals. We're gonna do everything possible out here because it has the best view of Apache Junction and that is to our east to the Superstition Mountains.

Quite the views outside. And I mean, it's no secret that our summers are pretty hot, right? Triple digits. But you guys have a lot of things planned also for the cooler months with some of the programming using the amp theater outside. If you were to go into more of kind of the mission of the library, how does this new spot add to it?

So our mission is always to connect to our community. It's on the side of our bookmobile. It's in our mission statement. We want to be able to connect our community to all of the offerings that we have in the library and to each other. So this is going to be a great space where people can come out and experience something totally new. learn something new, be inspired, hang out outside, have a snack, bring some lunch, and that's what we're all about, lifelong learning, discovery, and connection.

Your Honor, thank you for allowing us to have a few minutes to be able to share that great project. As a reminder to the community, these funds that were able to fund this are made available through your efforts in budgeting process, savings from our one-time sales tax, which is generated from our new growth in the city. So we're able to spend some of these dollars in this area, something that we've been looking forward to having in the library, and that concludes my report tonight, Your Honor.

Mr. Mayor, Council Member Soler got disconnected, so if you'll give me a moment to redial him. We just need a second.

All right, we got you back. Sorry about that. Okay.

All right. Public hearings. Presentation, discussion, and public hearing consideration requests for continuance of the case number P-26-4-PZ. Nick. Nick.

Thank you, Your Honor. I'm Nick Leftwich, Principal Planner of the City of Apache Junction. Following up on the Banyan Apartments P26-4-PZ rezoning case, a couple weeks ago we had a work session where we had noted the applicant had, following their Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing, at which point the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended or forwarded a recommendation of denial. The applicant wanted to take the time in order to address the concerns and and to revise their plans in order to better address the community comments and the planning and zoning commission concerns. And at that time, they asked for more time. The dates that were requested and presented at the work session had conflicts with the Arizona League of Towns and Cities Conference and the council retreat. And so following that, we coordinated to make sure that a new schedule could be proposed. And so currently, for the council's consideration tonight, there is a request to continue the case P26-4PZ, the city council work session of Monday, August 31. And the formal public hearing will be Tuesday, September 15, 2026. As part of this revision process, the applicant has noted that they are holding another neighborhood meeting. And they will have the plans prepared so that we can provide it to the council prior to these meetings.

Any comments from the council? Okay. Since this is a public hearing and it's been scheduled, we have to complete the public hearing. So I'll now open public hearing. There's a five-minute time limit with a one-minute warning indication by the yellow light. Please state your name and address for the record. Anyone like to speak on this? And I don't see any movement at all. So I will now close the public hearing and ask for a motion to continue it. Your Honor. I ask for a motion for continuation.

Your Honor, I move the request for continuance of case P-26-4-PZ to September 15, 2026 be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council Member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Schroeder? Yes. Council Member Nesser? Yes. Council Member Cross?

Yes.

Council Member Heck?

Yes.

Council Member Soller?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes for continuance to September 15th, 2026. Okay.

New business. Presentation discussion of resolution number 26-31. Chief? Yes.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I am Sergeant Edward McGuire from the Police Department Traffic Unit. For your consideration tonight, I present to you the DUI Abatement Council Grant. This is a grant we apply for annually and have a successful history of utilizing. The police department has increased DUI detection and enforcement with the help of grants like this one. So far this year, AJPD officers have made 155 DUI arrests. For reference, there were 175 DUI arrests made in all of 2025. There were six fatal collisions within the Apache Junction in 2025, and impairment was a factor in all of them. This grant provides funding for the DUI enforcement overtime and is reimbursed through the governor's office of highway safety. It is a recommendation of staff that the mayor and council approve the acceptance of this grant funding. Thank you.

Any comments from the board? I have a question.

I'm just kind of curious as to how much the enforcement overtime costs per year. The overall enforcement costs per year? The enforcement overtime expenses in the last year, how much was that?

So I don't have that information on the top of my head right now.

I see the chief already moving.

I don't have that answer specifically either, but it's something that we can look under that.

I'd just like to know how closely this covers it.

It's a fraction of the cost to do the enforcement. Luckily, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, they've given us several grants throughout the year that have been well over $100,000 for multiple years. This is a new grant that we were awarded. So again, it just shows that their faith in the Apache Junction Police Department and the efforts that we're doing in enforcement for DOS. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Any other questions?

Nope. Okay, thank you. OK, presentation, discussion, and resolution number 26-35.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, members of city council. My name is Tom Parker. I'm the lieutenant over the criminal investigations division with the Apache Junction Police Department, where the units of these three resolutions fall under. Just to let you guys know, these resolutions are 2632, 2633, and 2635. It's a part of the Vehicle Death Task Force, the Gain Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission, as well as the Arizona Child Abduction Response Team. The Apache Junction Police Department has existing partnerships with each of these organizations. These agreements are renewals. They're not new. They are renewals for the purpose of the established partnerships. The Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force, which is also known as the VTTF, is a statewide multi-agency unit led by the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The mission purpose is to apprehend criminal offenders, traffickers involved in stolen vehicles, and related crimes, including stolen vehicle trafficking, parts theft, border-related vehicle thefts, chop shops, and recycled metal thefts. The Gain Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement, which a lot of people refer to as GEDM, is a statewide multi-agency unit that's led by the Arizona Department of Public Safety as well. It's the deter criminal gain activity through investigations, arrest of prosecutions, dismantle gain-related enterprises, deter border-related crimes, disrupt human smuggling organizations, collect, analyze, and disseminate gain and illegal immigration intelligence, and provide anti-gain awareness training to communities and schools. The Arizona Child Abduction Response Team, which is also known as Arizona CART, it's a specialized multi-agency group of professionally trained individuals to respond quickly to involved cases of misleading abducted children. The purpose and importance of this program is designed to ensure a rapid and comprehensive community response to child abductions. of endangered missing children instances. A significant percentage of these abducted children that are harmed within the first few hours of abduction highlight the critical need for immediate and coordinated action through our research. And because of that research, CART is instrumental throughout the state. CART provides a structured approach to reduce delays in notification, decreasing the likelihood and increasing the safe recovery of the child. THESE RESOLUTIONS AGAIN ARE RESOLUTIONS 26, 32, 26, 35, AND 26, 33. IT'S THESE THREE AGREEMENTS THAT REFLECT THE REALITY OF MODERN POLICING. THE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS, VEHICLE THEFTERINGS, GAINS, AND TRIBAL DEDUCTION CASES DO NOT STOP AT OUR CITY BOUNDARIES. BY PARTNERING WITH THE ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND NEIGHBORHOOD AGENCIES, Apache Junction significantly expands and continues to investigate our investigative capabilities while minimizing the cost to our taxpayers. These agreements allow us to provide a higher level of public safety that we couldn't achieve just by us alone. So these partnerships are extremely important. Do you guys have any questions? Any questions?

Yes. Do these officers work? here in AJ or do they get shipped out or assigned to other areas of the state for that matter?

So to answer your question, Council Member Cross, is we have one officer that's assigned to the Vehicle Death Task Force and one officer that's assigned to get them. So they are our subject matter experts for our area. So they focus on a lot of our crimes that come across here. Or if crimes are occurring in Phoenix and there's an Apache Junction connection or a crime pattern starts in that area, we're ahead of that curve by having that knowledge base out there. Because anything that happens in the bigger city kind of starts going to the outside outskirts. we're already ahead of that game, which is why these positions are extremely important. And we've had these positions for years. And as you guys know, I've been here for 30 years. They bring a lot of value to our community, again, by saving taxpayer dollars. So that's your question. They work within the state based on what those needs are and also resolving our crimes. So if we have a vehicle that's stolen in Apache Junction, it may end up in Nogales. It may end up in Flagstaff. It may end up somewhere else. Well, because of where that lead is, we're able to actually do either recovery and make an arrest based on the partnerships that we have with these other agencies.

Thank you. Anyone else? Yes.

Good question then. So, um, these are all resolutions. They're just, they're just being renewed, correct? Yes sir. Okay. Um, and the only commitment that the Apache junction police department has is assigning one of its officers to each of those, each of those task forces. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. And just also remember that both of those task force 75% of their salary actually comes back to the city. So the city's paying a small fraction of that as well. They supply vehicles, equipment, and additional training for those officers that the city does not have to pay for. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, all of these will be on your August 4th consent agenda.

Presentation discussion of parks and recreation fees scheduled.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Liz Langenbach. I'm the Parks and Recreation Director for the City. I wanted to just give you a quick bit of background about our Parks and Rec fees, and then I'm going to turn it over to Riley King to discuss the staff and Parks and Rec Commission recommendations for updates to our fee schedule. Just as a reminder, we are required by law to review and update fees every five years. The last update was in 2021. Parks and rec facilities and our programs and events, they're funded by multiple sources. Fees are a very small fraction of that. The vast majority of all of our parks and our programs and events, they are funded by the general fund city sales tax dollars. These fees represent a small portion, and we'll talk a little bit about our philosophy of how we come to the fees. Because sales tax dollars pay the majority of operating costs, we do try to make sure that there's plenty of free access in our parks as well as in programs. So a lot of our events are free. There's plenty of amenities for people to use that are paid for by their sales tax. We really want to make sure that everybody's able to use our facilities, our programs, despite their income level. So we have a lot of different safety nets that we'll talk about before we get into fees. Historically, the city's fee philosophy has been to have nominal user fees associated with mostly things that are exclusive use. So if somebody wants to use a Ramada exclusively, for an event or a birthday party and nobody else can have access to that area, there's a fee associated. Somebody wants to just show up to the park and play or have a picnic, there aren't any fees associated with that. And so that's always been kind of the historical guiding factor as we look at fees. Our approach to this study, based on your guys' feedback as well as our Parks and Rec Commission, was to raise fees that either hadn't been increased previously in the previous study or fees that needed to be closer to the cost of what it costs for us to do it. While we use the market to benchmark on the average, we also try very hard just to think about what is our community able to afford? What is our demographic and what does that need to look at that might be different from some of the cities that we compare to? As I said, we do have a safety net for those who can't afford fees. We have a very robust scholarship program for anybody that lives in our area that qualifies. That is almost 95% funded by the Lost Dutchman Marathon. Additionally, we have, and you'll see that in your red line, already city council approved fee strategy for youth-serving nonprofit organizations like the Little League, 4-H, all of those. They pay a fraction of the nonprofit fee, and that is to help to offset some of those costs. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Riley. She'll go through your guys' packet and tell you about the next steps. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Riley King, Parks and Rec Management Analyst. As Liz stated, I am here to walk you through our proposed fee change. Just a little background of how we've done our fee study. So as Liz stated, every five years we have to look at our fees. It's state statute. We have brought this to our Parks and Rec Commission many of times, as you can see. I also brought it to you guys in April to kind of give you a brief introduction to us coming back here. And then on June 3rd, our Parks and Rec Commission approved our fee changes. So just as a reminder, these are our market cities that we use to look at the market and then the per capita income of those cities. We looked at that so we could kind of see where we fall into that income. Also, I do want to state that some other cities were used for specialty fees like the rodeo grounds because not all of these cities have a rodeo grounds that we can compare to. SO OUR FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT RENTAL RECOMMENDATIONS ARE THAT WE ARE GOING TO TRY TO UPDATE SOME OF THOSE FEES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN CHANGED IN OVER FIVE YEARS. AND SO THE INCREASES WE'RE LOOKING AT ARE THE MGC RENTAL FEES, SPORTS FIELDS, RAMADAS AND OPEN SPACES, OUR PERSONNEL FEE, ALCOHOL PERMIT SINGLE DAY, AND THEN OUR RODEO ARENA AND PREP. And then we also are looking at new fees for our new amenities out at the rodeo grounds. So our new big pavilion, dry camping fees, our RV and space hookup fees, portable stalls, and stall bedding. And then for our facility entry and passes recommendations, we're recommending an increase for MGC memberships by 10%, but keeping our daily passes the same. We are recommending no aquatics changes as they were just recently changed in our last study. And then we're doing no changes to our recreation program and activity ranges. We feel like those ranges still fit what our program needs are.

So I am going to show you

Are the actual fees for you guys? No. Thank you. I'm so sorry. SO THIS WAS IN YOUR GUYS' PACKET FOR YOU TO REVIEW. BUT HOW IT KIND OF WORKS IS WE HAVE THE AVERAGE MARKET RATE IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST COLUMN. OUR CURRENT RATE IS GOING TO BE THE SECOND COLUMN. WHAT WE ARE SUGGESTED TO BE CHANGED TO IS THE NEXT COLUMN. AND THEN ALSO THE NON-RESIDENT FEE THAT WE HAVE AND THE COMMERCIAL FEE THAT WE HAVE FOR FACILITY RENTALS. AND THEN WE ONLY, THE ONES THAT ARE IN YELLOW ARE THE ONES THAT WE ARE RECOMMENDING CHANGES TO. THE ONES THAT DON'T HAVE ANYTHING, WE'RE REQUESTING THEM TO STAY THE SAME. AND THEN I WANTED TO POINT OUT THAT OUR NEW FEES ARE LISTED DOWN AT THE BOTTOM FOR THE RODEO GROUNDS. WE DID HAVE SOME FEES FOR THE RODEO GROUNDS, BUT NOW THAT WE HAVE NEW AMENITIES, WE WANTED TO ADD IN THOSE NEW FEES FOR THOSE. And then these are our equipment fees. So some of them we're recommending to get rid of. They're not highly utilized. We feel like we don't need those fees in our fee anymore. And then when you get to our program and activity fees, it's a little different because for programs and activities and memberships, we don't have a non-resident resident rate. It's just one fee for everybody to use. And then as you can see, we're not doing anything, recommending any changes to our pool. It'll be our multi-gen center entry and memberships, but we did leave, we are recommending that we leave our day passes the same. So our next steps, I will answer any questions you may have. and then we can bring back changes if necessary. After that, we'll post our fees and our fee report for the 60-day waiting period for a public hearing, and then we will come back to a public hearing where you guys will have the chance to vote on our recommendations. So at this time, do you have any questions? I can answer for you.

Yes. On page two of the recommendations. Yeah. The fee for electrical service on the south side is $150, and for the east side is only $125. Yes. Why the difference?

So the east side has the, I'm going to say it wrong because I'm not an electrician, they have the 50 amp. So they can hold larger, so food trucks, stuff like that. The other side has just 20 amp receptacles, so those are the smaller ones. So it's using less electricity.

So if it's a 50 amp plug-in, we're charging 150. If it's a regular 110, I assume there are 110 or 120 volt on the south side as well. Because I don't remember when we had a booth set up, it wasn't a 50-amp circuit there.

So the 50 amps were not put in yet.

That's what I thought.

As of Lost Dutchman days, or as of when we halted construction, our 50 amps weren't in yet. When we picked up construction again, that's when they put the 50 amps in, so they are in now.

So everything on the south side is a 50-amp circuit?

Everything on the east side is a, I'm sorry.

Everything on the south side is?

On the south side is, yes.

But my question, I guess, then, is everything on the south side, 50 amp circuits, it wasn't that way at last Dutchman Days. Yeah, if you could, please.

Yes.

And then will vendors still be able to utilize generators, or are we going to disallow them altogether?

Yes, they'll still be allowed to. Well, it'll be up to the event also that's hosting, so we're not going to tell events that they can't have people with generators. If you're coming out and if Las Dutchman Days is hosting an event and they want to allow their vendors to have generators, we won't stop them from that. But if they decide on their own that they want to not allow generators, that would be their decision because it's their event.

Yes. Sidebar question. In the multi-gen center, you talk about reserving the multi-purpose room.

Yes. What room is that? That is the big room, yes, where we serve the seniors lunch on the left-hand side as you were to walk down the hallway. It's the largest room we have.

I thought that might be it, but I've never heard it described.

Yes, it's where the employee breakfast is.

Yeah.

Oh, now I know where it is. Anyone else? Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, presentation discussion of city art and public places program.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. My name is Erica Hernandez. I'm a planner on staff. This is a public art update. I am expected to do this maybe once or twice a year. I'll be talking about the projects that have completed and then our progress on the current projects we're working on right now. Just as a reminder, City Council approved the creation of the Public Art Commission and the Public Art Program in September of 2019. There was growing sentiment in the community and with City Council to create or to install more public art in the city and to create a funding source for public art so that public art wasn't being paid for by public dollars. I'm sorry, tax money. JUST A FEW PACKED DUTIES INCLUDE DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATE PLACE FOR PUBLIC ART, OVERSEEING THE MAINTENANCE FOR ART IN THE PROGRAM, AND SERVING AS A RECOMMENDED BODY FOR THIS COUNCIL FOR DESIGN APPROVAL, ENCOURAGE PUBLIC ART ON PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT. NOW, OF COURSE, THE PURPOSE OF IT IS TO CREATE A SENSIVE PLACE THROUGH COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DESIGN TO HIGHLIGHT THE CITY'S DISTINCTIVE ATTRIBUTES. THEY ALSO ARE TO COLLABORATE AND CREATE PARTNERSHIPS WITH ART GROUPS, ARTISTS, AND THE COMMUNITY, AND CREATE CITY AND NEIGHBORHOOD LANDMARKS, LIKE THE RUN ABOUT. I KNOW THERE'S QUITE A BIT OF DISCUSSION ABOUT HOW PUBLIC ART IS FUNDED, AND I JUST WANT TO ASSURE EVERYBODY THAT PUBLIC ART IS FUNDED THROUGH AN ART FEE PAID BY PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS THROUGH THE BUILDING PERMIT PROCESS. THEY MUST PAY THE ART FEE BEFORE THEY RECEIVE THEIR BUILDING PERMIT. AND DOWN HERE, I HAVE A TABLE FOR YOUR REFERENCE FOR WHAT THAT ART FEE WOULD BE. AND AS A RESULT, CURRENTLY THE BUDGET IS NEARLY $640,000, AND WE'RE GOING TO USE A BIG CHUNK OF THAT FOR THE RUNABOUT. HERE ARE SOME PROJECTS THAT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. THE LIBRARY BANNERS. the 350-foot verge mural, the three dog sculptures at the Dutchman Dog Park, the perforated vinyl window wraps for the MGC in the front of the MGC, and the traffic cabinets that were wrapped. We have here the spiral design on Phelps and Apache Trail, Coyotes on Winchester and Old West Highway, and then the Apache Junction High School traffic wrap on Ironwood and Southern. The artist roster RFQ closed on January 15th. 33 of the 39 artists that applied for the artist roster were chosen to be on the artist roster. This is available for the public, for private development, and for staff to use as like a directory. So the artists that are on the artist roster can be used by anybody if they're looking to implement art. And I'm going to go through these images pretty quick. These are images from the applicant's application package. And we've got some light-based sculptures here, animal sculptures, exterior wall installations. There's a number of different kinds of art that these artists are capable of. We've got monuments, monument signs, street art, more metal designs here, mosaics, sandblasted art, and terrazos. And a number of muralists are on the artist roster. And you can see they have all different styles and different aesthetics. And then examples of traffic cabinets. Now that brings us to our current projects. These are the traffic cabinets that the city owns. And here highlighted will be the next traffic cabinets that will be wrapped. Paige Reser was chosen as the artist to design the Veterans Memorial Traffic Cabinet. This cabinet will be replaced this fiscal year. So Public Works and IT understand there's a priority for this project, and so they will be replacing this one first. Paige Reser has already been informed that this traffic cabinet will be replaced, and I sent her the new measurements for the cabinet. She'll be working on that shortly. The artists for the other four cabinets have also been notified that they've been chosen. We have two confirmations currently, and I'll be working on those agreements soon. Those locations are Ironwood and Baseline, Ironwood and Radiance, Ironwood and Ray, and Idaho and Broadway. Fausto Fernandez was chosen as the artist to design the sandblasted art at the library garden. He has agreed to do the project. And here is an image of the finished library design. And you guys all saw the video earlier today. It's pretty great. We expect the image to be somewhere in this area, along with a quote chosen by library staff by Cicero. If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. and PAC was actually pretty excited about this project. And that brings us to our last project that we're working on right now, which is the roundabout. The RFQ closed on April 30th. Karen Yank was chosen as the artist to design the roundabout art out of 113 applicants. She has agreed to do the project. We are currently coordinating with ADOT I expect to see a design, initial design in September and then hopefully an installation by fall next year. Here are just some images of the roundabout. ANNOUNCEMENTS, STAFF IS CURRENTLY WORKING WITH THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT TO CREATE A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT FOR TRAFFIC CABINETS, SO LIKE A BOILER PLATE AGREEMENT WHERE WE CAN PLUG AND PLAY THE ARTIST NAMES, THE LOCATION OF THE TRAFFIC CABINETS, AND THE DEADLINES, JUST TO STREAMLINE THE PROCESS FOR EVERYBODY. THE PUBLIC ART PROGRAM ALSO NOW HAS AN EMAIL, A DEDICATED EMAIL, SO ANYBODY CAN EMAIL PUBLICART, PUBLICART, at apachejunctionaz.gov if they have questions about their applications, questions about the process. Actually, anybody can just email this email address and ask any questions about public art. It is monitored by several people in the development services and we'll be happy to help them if they have any questions. And now I hope that you will all discuss your visions for public art in the downtown.

I HAVE A COUPLE QUESTIONS REAL QUICK. I TALKED TO PAIGE ON THE PHONE REGARDING THE ONE NEAR THE VETERANS PARK. AND SHE HAD MENTIONED THAT THAT CABINET, I BELIEVE, IS BEING REPLACED. SO SHE WASN'T SURE HOW SHE COULD WORK ON HER DESIGN UNTIL SHE KNOWS WHEN THAT'S BEING REPLACED.

THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTION, COUNCIL MEMBER JOHNSON. I DID SPEAK TO PAIGE. I SENT HER THE NEW DIMENSIONS FOR THE CABINET. SO SHE SHOULD BE WORKING ON THAT PRETTY SOON.

Okay, I told her she needed to get the dates.

We don't currently have a timeline for when the cabinets will be replaced. That will be the first one.

There's a monument that's behind the focal point wall, which is I think in some easement property or whatever. Is there any plans for our art to actually get that moved to someplace that's in downtown? I mean, I hate to see downtown not, I mean, this has been there forever, as long as I can recall, and it's kind of hidden now behind the wall.

From my research of this monument, there is an easement there for that monument specifically. I can't remember the group that paid for that. I think maybe Brian does.

The Don's Monument. We could probably ask Liz to come up and give the latest, but they have said and indicated as late as a few months ago that they have no desire to move it.

But I mean, the monument is not where it can be really seen very well. I mean, I'm just saying, you know, if we have some places to put some art, we also have this monument that most people don't see because it's behind a wall. You know, it'd be kind of a waste not to reestablish it someplace.

They need to just tell us it's their dons, and they've had it there forever, and that council members before, and maybe you guys can be successful in working with the dons to see if they're ready to move it or not. I mean, things change.

I don't know if you have talked to any of the dons recently, but. I think some of the initial reports we've gotten back is that if you start moving that old monument, it may not be salvageable. Right. And so I think the talks kind of stopped there. and they didn't want to touch it. That's what I'm recalling is some initial talks about actually relocating it. But we can circle back and double-check those assumptions.

One other thing I wanted to bring up. I brought this up to our city manager before, but there are some places, like there's been the decoration on the wall at the park. There's been decoration on the tax building. I mean, is the tax building, did they pay for that art or did the city pay for that? They paid for it. They paid for that? And any of the other private businesses that are in town, if they have a big wall or big building, do they have?

They pay for it.

If they want to volunteer it to the city for a piece of art, can they do that?

Certainly we would entertain talking to them about it.

The largest block wall in the city, and it's on Apache Trail. And they would be more than willing to donate that space for anything that the city would like to utilize on the main drag of town.

So that's a little twist on it. What the difference is, is when they decided to paint this, they just did it on their private property. I think what you're saying is there's a current private property person that wants us to come paint or beautify their property.

If the city wants to have something on Mainland because that's the Apache Trail and that's the only big wall that could be painted with a mural in downtown.

We'll have to look at that legally on how that works. Now when we have new development come in they are required to either pay the fee or like the verge they can do it on their private property and That's how that one went. But this one, they did it because they wanted to beautify it themselves, and they paid for it. But we'll look at that also as well.

I think they might have to dedicate that section to the city. It would have to be public property.

Maybe they would want to dedicate it. I mean, that's a negotiation that we could work on it. Maybe they would dedicate it to the city.

Because, I mean, we already paid for the walls. If something happens to it after you guys have it, it's your problem.

Okay. Anyone else?

Yes. Yes. Okay. Something I want to throw out to you guys. So the next project is the Roundabout artwork. And as we've seen, our artwork has evolved over the years. Can we go two slides forward on this thing? Yeah, I'm asking. This is the sign for our downtown area when we get to Idaho and Main Street. It's a little lackluster. What do you think about moving that to the roundabout and getting something in that spot that's more grand, that screams more downtown?

I think that would be really nice because the roundabout is... just seen by people going in and out of 88. But Idaho and the trail, if we could upgrade art at that corner, because that's going to be a pivotal spot for our downtown. If we're going to redevelop and we're going to really, really, really knock it out of the ballpark to try to do a downtown, we've got to have something really special at this corner. I'd love to see that budget that we had for the artist be at Idaho Road and Apache Trails. and move this as a good landmark out to the roundabout.

And essentially the roundabout is bringing you into downtown. I agree. So that particular piece of art would make sense.

So a couple thoughts. We would really want, I would recommend that folks who understand scale and size and scope be able to measure what this would look like on the roundabout. Yes, yeah, yeah, and if that's involved right right right and my my recommendation would also be is to consider this Because we are down the process of doing an RFP and could get some ideas from the Arts Commission to look at your vision I think the vision they're giving is you want some more pop in the downtown you want some more art coming in that key area and maybe look at an and discussion meeting Where else could this go if it didn't? If it looked just like, for example, architects and scales might come back and say, this is just going to look too small on a roundabout. Maybe it's better at another place in the downtown or around the downtown and get this at another spot. Because I think what I'm hearing is this section, Idaho and Apache Trail, really needs to pop for you.

Well, I mean, we have the 10 acres. And then there's promise of negotiation for the six up at the road. or at the very least, kind of a co-op to make the 6th and the 10th kind of blend together. So there is a plan for the future for our downtown area. And so we want to brand it as something when you go down there, you're like, I've arrived. I drive by this daily and I barely even notice it. I mean, this picture actually does it justice the way the sun's coming through it, but If you were just to pass down by it, you wouldn't know it said welcome to downtown Apache Junction without really taking the time to look through it. And something that is, and like I said, what the artwork that we're evolving into, it's colorful, it's different, it's not your average, you know, lasered iron.

Everything else we're doing is eye-catching, and some of these have just, they might be a, they're a sign.

Mm-hmm.

but it may not be the sign that says, hey, this is special here.

Understood. Certainly, I think the great thing about this discussion is you're providing great vision about what you're wanting in terms of the downtown and getting a little bit more. And I think it's great. You've got a system in place with your arts commission and the community working together. It's only been in place four years or so, and you've got $600,000 in the bank account. To be able to do some great things, you're already starting to see it. Yes, certainly we'll get looking at that and keep working the roundabout in a way and look at this area. And then maybe there are some ideas that are going to come up to you all as we go forward. I feel like it would fit on the roundabout.

Your Honor? Yes, sir. I think that the roundabout deserves to have something very three-dimensional so that when you're looking at it from any angle, IT SAYS SOMETHING OR IS SOMETHING. YEAH. SO, AND IT NEEDS TO BE, YOU KNOW, QUITE LARGE SO IT'S A STANDOUT PIECE. AND I GET WHAT YOU'RE SAYING TOO. IF, YOU KNOW, IF THERE'S A WAY TO MAKE THIS STAND OUT BETTER OR MOVE THIS TO ANOTHER LOCATION AND MAKE THIS LOCATION ANOTHER BIG STANDOUT PIECE.

Mayor? Yes. I agree. We need something that really stands out and really says Apache Junction. Something really, really unique. I agree with Vice Mayor Schroeder and council members on that. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. All right. Now move down to the call of the public. I would like to remind everyone to call the public as a courtesy and not required by law. It's a time for the public to express requests, communications, comments, and suggestions. Requests and speak forms must have been completed and handed to the city clerk before the end of the city manager's report. All issues shall be presented in a professional matter without personal attacks. Underneath the open meeting law, the council cannot engage in a discussion upon the issues presented but may respond to criticism and may direct staff to follow up with the speaker directly and or place the matter on a future agenda for council's discussion. There's a three-minute time limit with a 30-second warning indicated by the yellow light. And I have a couple of them here. Donna Carr.

I want to go back to Resolution Copper for a minute. And that's when they say that they're lining the dam, they're lining the ground, eventually the lining will give out. and the Gila River wash will end up sending water down to contaminate the Gila River. Now, someone had mentioned to me the other day, back in the 1970s, the Ford dealership, they had to do a recall on over a million cars. Well, they found it cheaper that the value of you dying in your car to pay for that life of the person who died was cheaper than to recall all the cars. Now, you think about that when the billions that they're making at Resolution Copper compared to the lives that will be lost when the dam does eventually leak. The other thing I was going to say is, John, I bet you're going to do really good with your surgery, and I don't bet to lose. On the good side, though, is good luck with your surgery. And that's all I have to say tonight. Thanks.

Thank you. Uh, Cindy Campton?

Thank you for allowing me to speak again regarding the commercial-sized building masquerading as a barn dominium next to Good Shepherd Horse Rescue and Learning Center. The recent storm unfortunately demonstrated exactly what we were concerned about during the planning process. During the rain, water from the neighboring property flowed directly onto our property. It entered our horse arena, then poured through our barn like a small river. Two horse stalls were flooded, carrying bedding, manure, and debris out of the stalls through the property and into the wash and the street. The photographs that I have show exactly where the water entered our property and also the commercial size gutters on the building where there's at least eight also shows the water just minutes after the rain started flooding smoke tree. Water exited the west edge of their property and flooded the area around our trash bin before racing down the side of our property. The force of the water washed away some of our quarter minus rock that we use for footing and erosion control. At the same time, water flowed out the front entrance of the neighboring property directly on a smoke tree. Within minutes, the street was flooded. This was not simply a heavy rain event. It demonstrated what happens when a large commercial-sized roof that's approximately 5,000 square feet that has no meaningful on-site water retention, instead of slowing, capturing, or managing the runoff, the stormwater was discharged directly into the neighboring properties and public streets. I asked that the City Council also consider the consistency of how public safety standards are applied. During a previous discussion, there was a significant concern about a commercial building that I believe is a thousand square feet smaller than this one because it did not have adequate access to fire hydrants. This building is larger yet it also appears to lack adequate access to fire hydrants while at the same time there appears to be no effective storm water retention system to manage runoff generated by the site. Both fire protection and storm water management are public safety issues that deserve the same level of scrutiny. Good Shepherd Horse Rescue is home to nearly 30 rescued horses, hundreds of volunteers, and educational programs for children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. We have spent significant time and resources into improving our property, creating proper drainage, and protecting it from flooding. These efforts should not be undermined because runoff from a commercial sized property has nowhere else to go. I respectfully ask the council to take action to protect neighboring property owners and the public. First, I ask that the city allow us to reclaim the easement along the east side of our property so we can continue to implement improvements to help protect our rescue. Second, I respectfully request that the owners of the neighboring commercial-sized Barndow property be required to retain a qualified civil engineer to conduct a professional drainage and stormwater analysis and implement any necessary corrective measures to ensure that runoff is retained and managed on their property and then discharge into neighboring properties. This should not be a taxpayer's expense. The recent storm was not a theoretical concern. It's a real-world evidence of what happens when stormwater is not adequately managed. And we have invited Title I schools onto our property this fall, and we have to delay this because now we have to replace footing and clean up the flooded areas. We want to continue to make AJ proud of us and try to set a gold standard, and I thank you for your time.

And I have some pictures for you guys.

Okay, any comments from the council? Can we look into this further and find out what's going on, please, and report back?

Yes, we'll definitely be looking into this.

Okay, I was going to make the same comments. Anyone else? Okay, I will adjourn this meeting.

Thank you.