City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, we'll call this meeting to order. This is the City of Buckeye regular and special council meeting for June 2nd, 2026. We will start with the invocation led by Dr. Rodney Pearson from Faith, Hope, and Love Church, followed by the pledge led by Councilmember Hustis. Please stand.

So just before we pray, I do want to recognize the importance of this time. Being able to come together, the first Juneteenth celebration took place 161 years ago. on June 19th, 1865, it marked the day that the Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the end of slavery more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. And so we are glad today that we can come together and that we can pray on this day together. Father, we certainly are grateful. that we live in a city, a diverse city, a city, Lord, that represents more than political interests, more than racial interests, more than ethnic interests, but a city that comes together concerned about the interests of the people. And as we come together tonight, we pray, Lord, that the business that's conducted here, not just tonight, but every time this people come together, that they are fully aware that the responsibility to the people is to be unbiased, to be without preferential desires, but to be concerned about how our people, the needs of our people in this community, how they are met. I pray for our mayor. Pray that you bless him and this team, this administrative team. Bless them with great wisdom and insight to know not just what they are to do from a physical perspective, but also from a spiritual perspective. And Lord, I pray that you would just open our eyes to see the diverse community that served here. Open our ears to hear what the desires are and what the needs are. And then, God, open our minds so that we can flow with wisdom and flow in such a way that the people in our community would be blessed and honored because of the work that is done by this team of leaders. Pray your blessings on them. I pray your blessings on every person from the top to the bottom that everything that we do, everything that's done here is done to your glory and for your people. In the name of Jesus, we do pray. Amen.

Would you join me, please, in our Pledge of Allegiance?

Okay, thank you both. Can we have a roll call, please?

Council Member Yonker?

Here.

Council Member Berry? Here. Council Member Hagestad? Here. Council Member Beard? Here. Council Member Hustis? Here. Vice Mayor Goodman is absent. Mayor Orsborn?

Present. Thank you very much. Item number two is comments from the public. Members of the audience may comment on any non-agenda item of interest. I have two speaker request cards. We'll start with Mr. Preston Meek. Got three minutes. And the lights will light up there. Green means go. Yellow, go really fast. And then red is three minutes.

Thank you. Preston Meek. Good morning. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Preston Meek. I'm a Buckeye resident living at 25373 West Heathermore Drive with my wife and our five-month-old son. We moved to Buckeye because we believed it was a great place to raise a family. Unfortunately, since September of 2025, we have been dealing with ongoing issues regarding the neighborhood property at 25379 West Heathermore Drive. The property contains six large dogs and has been the source of persistent concerns, including excess animal waste, leading to strong odors and large number of flies and other bugs in our adjacent property. well as repeated barking throughout the day and night these conditions have significantly impacted our ability to enjoy our backyard and property to its fullest extent as owners after attempting to resolve this matter directly through the blue hills hoa i've begun contacting the city of health department for buckeye which then referred me to the chief police and code department within buckeye i've spoken directly with chief of police robert sanders who's been extremely helpful and empathetic to the situation i've worked closely as well with the buckeye code enforcement for nearly six months Throughout that time, I've documented the conditions, provided photographs and videos to both the Chief and Code Enforcement Department. Despite citations, court proceedings, and fines, the same issues continue to this day. The repeating barking appears to violate Buckeye City Code Sections 10-1-2 and 6-1-7, and more recently, the dogs have been aggressively running towards the shared wall and attempting to jump it whenever my family's outside, creating legitimate safety concerns. However, my concern tonight is larger than our single property and I feel families are suffering from similar civil issues like ourselves and are stuck in the same cycle. The question becomes whether Buckeyes current ordinances and enforcement tools are sufficient when a property owner refuses to comply over an extended amount of period of time. especially now that Buckeye and its growing population have outgrown many of its old codes and ordinances. I've also learned that Buckeye does not appear to have a specific ordinance addressing excessive animal waste impacting neighboring properties unlike other Arizona cities such as Phoenix, which has their own animal waste removal laws, specifically Section 27-12 in their own ordinance system. As Buckeye continues to grow rapidly and markets itself as a family-oriented community, What steps is the city taking to address outdated code violations that harm families like my own and others? And secondly, what is the city doing to handle the growing problem of residential dog breeding operations that negatively affect surrounding residents and animal set health? I know you guys are extremely busy, so thank you for your time and consideration tonight.

Thank you for coming and speaking. We can't address that. It's not an agendized item, but... Chief is in the back.

It sounds like you've had plenty of conversations with him, and maybe that's something that we need to talk a little bit more about. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Thanks for coming up. Next, Paul Revere.

Could I request an additional question?

Yeah, we'll give you an extra minute. Cool. I appreciate that.

We'll just start off, no hostility, but these are the facts. Buckeye police were sent to the AZDPS Their academy training, the AZDPS, has a long-standing relationship with GINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, and participate in their law enforcement exchange program known as LEAP. LEAP was created to facilitate training between U.S. law enforcement and Israeli security and intelligence. Buckeye Police swapped out its tech for Axon, from Axon, for Motorola Solutions, Inc., which means, you know, body cams, dash cams, radios, etc., Gregory Brown, Chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is heavily invested in Peter Thiel and Alex Karp's Palantir. Motorola maintains an Israeli subsidiary, Motorola Solutions Israel Limited. Motorola specifically recruits and employs Israeli intelligence from IDF and Intelligence Unit 8200. Flock cameras are being placed on public easement throughout the entire town, city, under the guise of safety, as well as the entire country. And we're always told to follow the money, so... Andreessen Horowitz, A16Z, is the lead investor in Flock, as well as the SkyDO drones that Buckeye has had since 2023. Andreessen Horowitz also specifically recruits Israeli intelligence for early-stage startups. Both of Ben Horowitz's grandparents were Russian Jews, dedicated members of the American Communist Party. Buckeye City Council approved a $1.5 million six-year contract with Brink Drones, founded by Blake Resnick, a Peter Thiel Fellowship recipient who used those funds to start Brink. Aaron Price Wright actively invested in Brink and then became a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and spent a significant portion of her career at Palantir. City Council also approved a $525,000 DHS drone to receive seven drones from the DHS. who get their drones from the DoD. And the DoD contracted with Israeli drone company, Extend, who specialize in, and I quote from the Jerusalem Post, one way close quarter combat kill drones. Carbine is an Israeli cybersecurity and cloud native emergency response startup that provides police and 911 dispatchers the software used throughout the state of Arizona and the entire United States. All of these companies are tied to Israeli military intelligence, Palantir, and Jeffrey Epstein. They're operated by the same Jews that designed the explosive pagers that are currently conducting genocide right now as I speak. the Jews that did 9-11, as well as the Jews behind COVID bioterrorism. And I have all the receipts on that as well. I've gone in person to set up a meeting with Sheriff Jerry Sheridan three times, and I haven't received a call back, but that made all too much sense after Sheriff, former Sheriff Joe Arpaio told me that Sheriff Sheridan traveled to Israel as a veteran. I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath goes to the grave with me. And nowhere in that oath does it mention asking local government representatives or law enforcement for permission to do so. The actions of those of you who are sworn by oath from this point forward will indefinitely determine whether each of you are domestic enemies of the United States or not. Buckeye is now officially notified of guilt of these felony crimes under U.S. law code title 18 section 241 conspiracy against rights 242 deprivation of rights under color of law 1621 general perjury and 2381 treason. People get hanged for treason. Let's not do that. Thank you Mr. Rivera. I'd like to leave this with you guys if that's okay.

Okay, on to agenda item three, awards presentations and proclamations. We do not have any for tonight. Item four is consent agenda items, new business. Approval of items on the consent agenda, all items with an asterisk are considered to be routine matters to be enacted by one motion and vote of the city council. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member requests. This section may include the approval of minutes from previous meetings. Council, for the consent agenda, what is your pleasure?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve consent agenda items 4A as in Adam through 4D as in David.

Second. I have a motion for approval of the consent agenda and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And then opposed. Consent agenda passes unanimous. Onto item five, the truth in taxation, primary property tax levy public hearing. This is non-consent. 5A, council to hold a public hearing and take action, a roll call vote on the truth in taxation TNT primary property tax levy for fiscal year 2027 equal to $18,208,644. All right, gear up.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Keith Fallstrom, I'm the CFO for Buckeye. Tonight I'm going to talk about the Truth in Taxation, which is required by the state constitution that allows the city to increase its primary property tax levy by 2% plus new construction. And for that, the limit then for the city of Buckeye for fiscal year 2027 is an increase of 2%, which equals $357,396. And the truth in taxation process requires this hearing in order for us to increase that by that 2%. So some numbers. Excuse me. current or for fiscal year 2026, the property tax levy is $16,678,998. Because of new construction, it would increase by $1.2 million. With the 2%, that increase would be the $357,400. So the new amount that could be the maximum amount the city could levy for fiscal year 2027 is $18.2 million. So if we did not have the hearing and we did not increase the tax by that $357,400, the tax rate would be $1.5262 per $100 of net assessed valuation with the truth in taxation with that increase of 2%. The property tax rate would be $1.5568. So a home with a assessed value of $100,000 would pay with the proposed tax levy of $155.68. So this next slide shows how the property tax levy has increased each year. That is because of the 2% increase and the new construction and the tax rate is decreasing each year. So this year the tax rate is $1.60 and next year With this increase, it would be $1.5568. Combined, there's both a primary property tax and a secondary property tax levy. Combined, it is 225. You'll see the primary property tax levy, the rate goes down each year, and the balance is the secondary property tax, which is used to pay for debt service for the general obligation bonds. And then you can see the cost for a $100,000 home. The property tax levy does decrease each year. However, that is based off of the assessed value staying the same. Most homes do increase in assessed value. And with that, I'm available for any questions.

Okay, questions from council? Not seeing any, so this requires a public hearing and then a roll call, but we'll open a public hearing. Do we have any speaker request cards for item 5A?

There are no speaker request cards.

Okay, then we will close the public hearing. And council, what is your pleasure on agenda item 5A?

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion. Can we do that, or do we need a roll call?

Yeah, we'll do the motion, and then the vote will be roll call.

I make a motion that we would approve Agenda Item 5A as an item.

Second. Okay, I have a motion for approval and a second on Agenda Item 5A. Can we have the roll call vote, please?

Council Member Yonker?

Aye.

Council Member Berry?

Aye.

Council Member Hackestad? Aye. Council Member Beard. Aye. Council Member Hustis.

Here.

Aye. Vice Mayor Goodman is absent. Mayor Orsborn. Aye. Motion carried.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Keith. On to item number six, special council meeting 6A, council to convene into a special council meeting as required by ARS title 42, sections 17101 through 17108. And we'll need a motion from council and a vote to go into special council meeting.

So moved, Mr. Mayor.

I'll second that. I have a motion to go into the special council meeting. A second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

And opposed. And we are going into the special council meeting. 6B, council will hold a public hearing, take action on resolution number 53-26, adopting a final budget, setting forth the receipts and expenditures and the amounts proposed to be raised by direct property taxation for the various purposes for the fiscal year 2027. Keith, you're still up.

This is the first. almost the final step for adopting the budget. This is the final budget. Next time there will be the adoption of the tax levy. Just a recap of how we got here. This is the final adoption of the final budget, but this process has been going on for a while. It started off before I got here three months ago. There were a lot of meetings internally with staff with a kickoff, projections and presentations to the executive, and There was one-on-one meetings with city council. The city manager recommended budget presentation at a council workshop. Last meeting, the tentative budget was adopted. And tonight is the adoption of the final budget. So I just wanted to reiterate that this has been a long process. So we are just going to, I'm going to cover the changes from the tentative budget that was presented two weeks ago or so to tonight. There are a few. So one is The final budget is moving the passports process or that function from the clerk's office to the finance department. This is with the remodel of the first floor of city hall and this will provide some more coverage because utility billing is already there. That includes both a position and the costs associated with that function. Next is the Harkwa Hila debt service and the tentative budget was mistakenly included in general fund contingency. This moves it out of general fund contingency so we can pay that debt without coming to you again. And then the other two items is a higher education feasibility study within economic development. The tentative budget included $75,000 for that study. The contract is for $100,000. And then also the Contract for the airport development lead generation services is 65,000 the tentative budget had 50,000 so we want to fully fund those contracts So the contingency would be reduced by the six million one hundred eighty four thousand dollars There will still be more than a little over three million dollars left in contingency to be allocated If needed throughout the year And so tonight, there is the Truth in Taxation hearing and the adoption of the final budget on the 16th would be the adoption of the property tax levy. And then we would have a final budget for fiscal year 2027. And with that, staff recommends approving Resolution 5326 for the budget in the amount of $765,436,200. With that, I'm available for any questions. Okay, any questions from Council?

Not seeing any, this also requires a public hearing, so we'll open a public hearing. Any speaker request cards for item 6B?

There are no speaker request cards.

No speaker request cards, so we will close the public hearing. And this does not require a roll call vote. This is a regular vote. Council, what's your pleasure on item 6B?

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we approve item 6B as an employee.

Second. I have a motion for approval on agenda item 6B. And a second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? 6B passes unanimous. Thank you, Keith. I know, actually, thank you to all staff. That's a mountain of work. This is the tail end of that, and we appreciate everything that's gone into bringing the budget forward. Very excited for the next year. On to agenda item 6C, council to hold public hearing and take action on resolution number 28-26, adopting the final budget for the attached streetlight improvement districts. The slids for fiscal year 2027 beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027 by the governing body of the slids. This does not require a presentation. We have the, it's part of our packet, the SLID information. We do need a public hearing on this. We'll open a public hearing for 6C. Any speaker requests?

There are no speaker request cards.

Okay, so we will close the public hearing. Council, agenda item 6C, what is your pleasure?

Mr. Mayor, I would like to make a motion to approve agenda item 6C as in Charles.

Second. I have a motion for approval on 6C and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed. And 6C passes unanimous. Council will now need to reconvene into regular council meetings. We'll need a motion and a vote to do so.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion we reconvene into a regular council session.

Second. have a motion to reconvene in a regular council meeting in a second all in favor say aye aye and we are back into a regular council meeting item seven public hearings non-consent new business 7a council to hold a public hearing take action on ordinance number 16-26 extending and increasing the corporate limits of the city of buckeye by annexing approximately 3.5 acres generally located 220 foot north of the northeast corner of Rainbow and Broadway. And Joseph, you're up.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. Case PLZM-250087 is the Rainbow 461 annexation. This case is a proposed annexation for approximately 3.5 acres located on the northeast corner of Rainbow Road and Broadway Road. It is one of four properties that comprise just a four parcel county island. The city's jurisdictional boundaries completely surround these four properties. The proposed annexation is just for the single northernmost property within this existing county island. The subject property is currently farmland. It does not have any structures or residences on it. This is the second property or meeting for this particular case that was first brought to you on March 3rd earlier this year. The general plan has this property and the surrounding parcels slated for neighborhood land uses. The existing zoning within Maricopa County is Rural 43. That means that once this property is brought into the city, it would initially have the R143 zoning destination, which is the most comparable zoning to the county's current zoning. The applicant, with their narrative for this case, provided plans for a larger project that will commence after this parcel annexation is complete. The subject parcel is part of a larger plan a residential development covering approximately 460 acres. Beyond preliminary details within the project narrative, no additional plans have been submitted to staff. It may be likely that the subject parcel will, at a later date, come in for a rezone. to bring the zoning to a more comparable zoning to the rest of this larger grouping of properties. But at this time, there are no other plans in with city staff. So this is purely just for the annexation of that singular three and a half acre, approximately three and a half acre property. All applicable state statute requirements have been met. If you recall, there was one person that came to speak at the previous hearing, following that hearing, staff did receive a singular email. Both those individuals expressed concerns that relate to future development of the greater area, such as infrastructure drainage. Those types of issues will be addressed at time of rezoning site plan planning and they're not specifically germane to this subject annexation. As such, staff recommends that council conduct a public hearing and adapt ordinance 16-26.

Okay, thank you, Joseph. We will first open a public hearing. Do we have any speaker request cards for 7A?

There are no speaker request cards.

All right, no speaker request cards. We will close the public hearing. Council, any questions on agenda item 7A?

I have a question. The people that came in that had an issue with it, they're on the hard corner, they're unincorporated county, their concern was irrigation access to their properties. Do you know if that has gotten any traction to be able to be resolved, or is that the item that you were gonna resolve at a later date?

Yeah, Mayor, Council Member Yonker, that is correct. That issue is something that would be resolved at time of site plan plat development. That's not something that has been discussed or resolved at this time.

Okay. So we're still aware of it and we're still working towards a resolution to not cut those people off. Okay, that's all I have. Thank you very much, Joseph. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, Council, what's your pleasure on agenda item 7A?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve agenda item 7A as an item.

Second. I have a motion for approval of 7A and a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? 7A passes unanimous. Thank you, sir. Okay, item number eight, comments from Mayor and Council. Any comments tonight? All right, I'm seeing none. Oh, we almost got through it. Okay, go ahead.

I'd just like to thank all of those involved in our Memorial Day event at the cemetery. A lot of time and a lot of effort was put into that by a lot of different departments. And I'd like to thank all of those that were involved. I've checked and asked around. I don't think I found one person that was disappointed. in the event at that time and at that place i was talking to development today and they haven't heard anything so again i'd like to thank all those that were involved in putting out the time and the effort and the patriotic committee and all city employees that were involved so that's all i have mr mayor thank you

Yeah, thank you, Councilman Hustis. And that event gets better every year. And it was extra special by Sergeant Major Ruiz, who we got to welcome back and then actually put on a short presentation here, presented him with the key to the city, which was really special. For those of you that don't know, grew up here, most of his grown-up years were here, went to Buckeye Elementary, on to Buckeye High School, and then went on to join the Marine Corps. He is the sergeant major in the Marine Corps. That's the highest enlisted, he is the highest enlisted guy in the Marine Corps, right next to the commandant. So that is a really, really big deal. And the fact that we get to have him come back, be the speaker at the Memorial Day Ceremony, and then present him with a key to the city, thank you to Janine and Christine for the small ceremony that was here and the reception that we had in addition to the work that was done out at at the cemetery, just an incredible event, and so fun to see. He's a really, really big deal in the Marine Corps, but it was so fun to see him interacting with people that either grew up with him or knew of him, and there's such a... There's such a pride having somebody like that from the city of Buckeye. And we're super grateful that he was able to find time. You can imagine being the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, he's probably a pretty busy guy. And so to have him find the time to come back and do this, and then he went on to do some other really special things during the day, meeting with other people, police and fire, I think he did some work at the high school and so it was just a great memorial day all around. Okay, that's it for comments from Mayor and Council. City Manager's report and summary of current events.

Just a couple things, Mayor. It is summertime, so that means it's the summer of road closures in the city of Buckeye. We are at, our PMO staff is really monitoring, especially the Verrado, the Yuma closing is one of the major ones. Monitoring the traffic that goes on, we've already installed additional signage in that area to help with the traffic flow. And then if anybody was downtown today, notice that the work did get started on downtown Monroe on the restriping as well. So we are making progress on all these roadway projects and trying to get them done as quick as possible so the traveling public can enjoy the cooler temps in the fall. That's all I have for tonight.

Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Doug. Item 10 is proposal for future agenda items. Any from council? Not seeing any. Item number 11 with nothing else on the agenda, we are adjourned.