Mayor and Council - Regular Meeting

Mr. Mayor, it's time. I'd like to call this regular meeting to order at 6 PM. Let us stand for the pledge of allegiance and then stay standing for the invocation by Reverend Marco Antonio Basulo from Immaculate Conception Church.

Pledge of Alian. God, indivisible, with liberty for all. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with gratitude in our hearts for this opportunity to gather as community leaders. We ask for your guidance and wisdom as we make decisions that affect the lives of our residents. Grant us clarity of mind and unity our purpose that we may serve with integrity and compassion. Help us to listen to the voices of those we represent and inspire us to work towards solutions that promote the justice, peace, and prosperity for all. May our discussions be fruitful and our actions reflect your love within our city. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen. The Lord be with you. May Almighty God bless you. The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Reverend, can you uh tell us about uh Reverend before you leave uh could you tell us about uh what are your hours your services are just so the community can know?

Yeah. the children for different data. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do for the community. You're much appreciated.

Item number four, roll call, please. Mayor Jose Grihalva here. Mayor Protemper Ray Shelton present. Council member Melissa Rodriguez. Council member Jose Montano here. Council member Gustavo Duraso. Council member Maria Dilman here. Council member Richard Aosta, right? Deputy City Manager Luis Pedrosa. City Attorney Dennis Vitz Gibbons present. City Treasure Alejandro Martinez here. Thank you.

Uh thank you. And um Council Member Rodriguez and Council Member Duraso are excused. Mr. Belosa, since you're taking the city manager's place, feel free. We can have a mic. No. What did you do? Just kidding. [laughter] Um, item number five, events updates. Hello from the aquatic and recreation departments. Here are a few of our upcoming events and updates. Join us at Raul Castro Park on Tuesday, March 17th for a St. Patrick's Day themed art in the park. The youth session is from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. and the adult session is from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. On March 21st will be a day of peace at Raul Castro Park starting at 11:00 a.m. This event is free and open to all ages. Join them to relax with family and friends while you do your favorite activities. The city of Douglas proudly presents the first amateur boxing event at the Coochis County Fairgrounds. Get ready for an action-packed day with 28 elite bouts. International pride is at stake. Weigh-ins start at 7:00 a.m. Doors open at 12:00 p.m. The first fight starts at 1:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door. Or you can purchase yours online. Lace up and join us for the 8th annual Dhill Run and walk on Saturday, April 11th, 2026 at the Airport Park and Border Air Museum at 7:00 a.m. Choose your challenge. The fun run is $5. Conquer the D is $15. The 5K is $30 for a solo run or $25 for a team. Proceeds benefit the Border Air Museum. Stay after for the continuation of the Road to America 250 at Airport Park with a color fight. Scan the QR code to register. The Aquatic Center men's restroom is still undergoing renovations. So far, the plumbing has been redone, the drywall has been installed, and the tile is set to begin on Thursday, March 12th. If you would

like to get more updates, please email or call us. Thank you from the aquatics and recreation departments. We hope to see you soon. Hi, welcome to the Douglas Public Library. We hope you can join us in the month of March for activities for all ages. On Mondays, we have relaxing activities from 2:00 to 5:00. Tuesdays, we have our steam club at 3:30 p.m. with different activities each week for kids. Wednesdays, we have movies for kids and teens at 300 p.m. with free popcorn and juice. Thursdays, we have story time at 11:00 a.m. for the little ones. We will read books, sing, dance, and we also have playtime afterwards.

March 20th is our paint party for adults. You can call or register on here at the library. All materials are included and we will have tutorials available. Pick up a book at the front desk for our book club and join us on March 30th for a health presentation given by the University of Arizona Cancer Center. See you at the library in March. Thank you.

Thank you. Item number six, mayor and council member updates andor reports. Mr. Um, couple things. First of all, I want to congratulate Chief for his retirement. I think this last meeting. So, I want he's served with the Douglas Police Department for just about 30 years. So, I want to thank you for for your service to the community. And also, I want to He's not here, but I want to congratulate Lieutenant David Rose. He's Uh he's he'll be retiring I think at the end of next week. So uh he's been in serving our police officer or serving the with the police department for 25 years. So total uh loss of 55 years of experience these two guys leaving next couple weeks. Thank you. With that said, uh we had community uh questions for the candidates for chief police this past week. U we had two two final candidates and those two final candidates uh excellent candidates both of them. So who whoever selected big shoes to fill but they'll try also uh last week we met with the equipments uh via Zoom. They're the people that are buying the property around the airport and they're ready to to get going to sign the contract. So that that's that's big news for for everybody for the development. Thank you to them for for investing. That's all I have. I mean,

I'll take I'll gladly take that title, too. So, Chief, you've been you've been serving for five years. 55 years. Five years,

Mr. Shelton? Yes. I was president of police for all these years and it's like my class and my children an exceptional student there and uh I've known his parents for another and so good luck in whatever endeavor that you might take from this time off. Okay. And uh then next thing is the arrow. I I think u I don't know how many people know this. This is a big plus for Arizona by taking them over and and doing all the things that they're going to be doing. Also another thing is golf course uh our new golf almost has that 18 hole back where it needs to be. So, uh, you know, to me, this one of the key things that, uh, we, uh, you know, the city needs to have for recreation and there's so many men and women that use that course and they're still interested in golf. So, uh, congratulations, uh, to all those that have been backing the golf course. And that to me is about all I'd like to say. So,

yes. Yes. Yeah. A lot of kids are into it. Uh I don't know if you know this, but the high school uh golf team, you know, we have uh all the teams from Tucson coming down. And now to have a a a neat campus where all what 18 holes are open is going to be a big plus. And uh so that's uh you know that's going to be a big plus for Doug. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Uh this also with the golf uh Safford is bringing 30 golfers uh coming Saturday to play against Douglas. So that that'll that that's that shows the the quality of work that's being done done out there. Uh we spent a lot of money in the back line to get it going. That will hopefully be open uh maybe late summer. So uh just wanted to let you guys know that people are are starting to notice come down. So that that'll that just opens up more doors for for this different opportunity.

And here we go again. They had the Kerazosa tournament just past yes uh weekend and well attended and people from all over the state uh were there to participate. There was 18 teams so a lot of people 70 golfers so they a lot of them spend the weekend here so uh I think that golf course big asset.

Thank you Mrs. Dilman. I attended the author playwright performance and that was based on the book Rolito, the first Latino governor of Arizona. It was at the visitor center. It was very well attended. It was very informative. It was good and I learned a lot about our governor, our past governor. He was very resilient. He never let no be in his vocabulary and uh he just was a very very amazing man and um we should have more events like that I feel in this town and also we should include the school students we should maybe have done an extra performance for the students because it was very informative and I think it's part of their learning as well so I hope we get to see a lot more of those types of events. I also want to thank Kasa Corason Independent Living Suites. Their staff was gracious enough to host the mayor and I for a little visit and a little tour. Um they're coming along really nicely and their vision is is I like their vision. we need uh other choices on places to live as we get older and um know that it'll be like home because those suites are really really comfy and home and homey. So um I can't wait to when they finally open and and when they really really get off the ground. So I commend them for what they're doing and that's all I got. Mayor

Mr. Costa.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. uh in the end here you know first and foremost thank you chief your service to this community and uh personally you know we had discussion that we had thoughts and most recently what's going on I want to thank you for this matter that we have out there u you know David Rose as well It is a buddy of mine. You know, we play ball together when we were young. Uh, you know, that's again combined together. That's your service. And, uh, you guys are truly going to be best. So, and on top of that, we did I did attend the chief of police candidates this past Monday, right?

And, uh, there are two candidates, I think, we're ready for them. We were the city hires again. again. You'll be missed. And uh that's a lot. Uh again, going back to the golf course, I I do uh out there. I do talk about supervisor out there and man, he's out there doing what it's going to take to get that golf course to where we need it. And most like mentioned, it is great for the because we got visitors coming in and uh the more tournaments we have out there, it's going to help our community and you know just it's doing great and I know the mayor council talked about the country club in the south kind of mixing it up with uh so we're working on that and uh and I also attended it was uh it was fun it was entertaining just like said, I wish you could take that to the school and provide that history lesson. Uh just a lot of history as to what none of us seems to be back in the day. What her bill was initially and his mom was actually uh brought a lot of current citizens into his world here. That was beautiful. I sat next to a lady stroll this herself and her husband also brought up to buy her the T sheep farm. Now I realize why he was known as public farm. And I if I recall he was six years old when the first governor of Arizona came to visit Douglas and uh he went to back in the

day street park. He lived there pretty well and uh very poor. He used to walk barefoot to get to school and get to wherever he wanted to go because you know they couldn't afford shoes pair of shoes like we do nowadays. Either way, just the the the history lesson and he sat there and listened to the first governor of that page and uh look at what it end up bear. And I think one of the most interesting facts that evening was uh the presenters, the gentleman that played actually wore a suit that was given to him by the and uh to me I I just left home with some books. I took some volume from the school library. I mean it it was a great presentation, great history lesson. Again, we do need more uh events like that to help us, but I think we need to advertise. I think there was a few attendees that night. But I think I think our school children, our youth would benefit from the history, but it's great just the perseverance that he that he had. So a true true um gentleman and not only true but that was natur.

Thank you. I'll bore you with a few things here. Um met with um a group uh that wants to bring housing opportunities to Douglas. Low income. I mean not low-inccome, affordable housing, but they're not low income. They're just affordable. So when they told me, hey, you know, our houses are, you know, even bulletproof, the first thing I thought was, we need to get them to the IDA because I asked them, do you do bulletproof warehousing? So they said, yes. So I just want everybody to know when when business or companies like that come here, I always try to push them to every group, every resource that can help. It's not just keeping it to ourselves uh within the city. Um and the Raolito playright, I'm not going to repeat everything that was repeated is really good. Um and they loved it here. even talking with um Joseon from Casa La Cortura, he wanted a few books so then he could take them to AP2 and then showcase the books. So um we're getting the attention of Douglas all around and it doesn't cost us anything when we use our residents, our citizens, our our constituents here to do it for us because they want to. We should take advantage of their passion. So thank you Mr. Kinones and Laasa Corta which is right on the corner over there if you ever want to visit it. Um, we hosted a SEO executive meeting. Um, we also, um, I took advantage of, um, just, uh, giving them flyers for the boxing event, which I will bring up right now. Uh, they were all excited. They're all going to basically promote it in their community. So, hopefully we have a really good crowd for that. Um, I went I attended, well, it was recorded, but, um, I signed up and then watched it later because it was a webinar uh, for an ICE downtown revitalization. had a lot of good stuff in it. Um things like uh you know uh business owners want a one-stop shop when it comes to zoning and permits. Someone who knows all the qu all the answers to the questions, not going to different departments and all that. Just making it easier for them. Uh they all basically talk to the merchants

at that time, put them in a room and say, "What did you want? What don't you want?" And also equally important that I don't even think we've even all talked about was who do they want their neighbors to be? Because the city shouldn't be picking out their neighbors. the the uh stores that are going to be there. Uh the merchant should have a say. Um an interesting part um that uh uh as far as I think it pertains to me and and everyone up here is uh an employee says they work for a council that's pro business, but basically they handcuff business with regulations. I think we need to have a more open mind. Not saying we don't, but I think we need to now put ourselves in the business's shoes every time uh we make decisions. um continuous conversation to get data from merchants. If merchants are against uh a certain thing, that's where the data comes in about what they wanted, what they didn't like. Um they need to be alongside like-minded retailers. It's either big chains downtown or small businesses. You can't really have both. Um marketing the vacant buildings and working with realtors, brokers, and property owners. Uh having their own um basically their own identity. All ideas should be on the table. Uh there was one in from uh Tempe. There was another from Dallas. Then one of them said, "We we had a theater downtown that activated the whole downtown because you're going to have the foot traffic uh with the with the university there." Um work with the facades on grants on what merchants want. Uh, and also I if there's a parking problem, the city should bring a parking lot and to accommodate people, not reserve a specific parking lot, but maybe have it online where they can buy a parking space for a certain amount of time. So, if there's like an Energized Douglas downtown, you could buy the parking already and say, "I have something reserved for me. I don't have to be looking around." So just thinking outside the box that conveniences the ICS is a very good um just a resource uh for for local municipalities. Um had a

chat with the mayor Tilanthros. 13 individuals went good conversations. Mrs. Delman was there too. Uh good conversation. Um I also got a message from the secretary of state about the mobile business service. They want to come down here. Um, and they basically said, "When can we?" And I thought, "Well, if you want the most participation, why not Douglas Days?" Because also the Secretary of State wants to come down and he loves Mexican food. So, I told them, "This is where you want to go. You you don't want to go eat it in Phoenix. You want to eat authentic Mexican food here." We also had a a media rel uh interview with not interview just a meeting with the Vicky Males media relations team who um is giving a very generous donation to the Boys and Girls Club to the point where they're naming the Boys and Girls Club after the foundation and they wanted just to know about Douglas. They didn't know anything about Douglas. So once we talk about our city very passionately, guess what they say? What I see on the news isn't true. So they want to come down here and [clears throat] and hopefully spend a few days. Uh thank you, Dr. Stevenson and Clawson for inviting me to read to their students. Um, lots [clears throat] of good ideas from the students. I try to read even though I can't see as well, just read as fast as I can so I could get their input. And I want to give a shout out to the to the young man for two years in a row wanting a Taco Bell next to his house. Specifically, a Taco Bell. Um, Kasaka with Mrs. Dilman. Uh, very good, very friendly staff. The owners were great. It looks like a great environment. uh anybody. They also have a floor for anybody. You can have the uh seniors down in the first floor, second floor. It's basically open to everybody. They said you can I think uh for a specific uh flat rate, you can get your laundry done. You can get two meals. And then she seemed excited. They can also look after people. So, I mean, you know, Rudy, she might you might commit yourself to there because why don't you They said they take care of you all. She was excited.

Sh. Uh yeah, chef with his own uh hopefully a restaurant coming to Douglas soon. Like to thank Danva. Uh I was the keynote speaker for the Hispanic Chamber Mixer. Uh in that um mixer uh there was a u Yasmine who asked me for an interview today. Uh so there was an interview in Phoenix talking about the commercial port of entry, how we're moving along. So it's it's very good that Douglas is getting our name out over uh just in general. Uh so I did want to make two announcements with the boxing. We do have a new flyer because yesterday we announced we're going to have um uh the the um interim uh WBC champion Jesus Ramos Jr. Elmono come for a meet and greet. So if you have a ticket, you can meet and greet him, get a picture with him for free. He's coming to me uh to see our community and hopefully um this isn't the first and the last time he comes. Uh he'll enjoy our community for sure. And I want to thank Cesar Dusco because he came down personally walked down uh gave flyers out on a certain day when we were in in in Awapeta for the press conference. He had his friend do the same thing. Um there was media out there to the point that it got to I I think to Mexico City. So I mean we're really activating everything. People we have um I think 28 bouts were announced as I said that now we have 37 pending. And we have boxers from Texas, from New Mexico, from all over Arizona, from Las Vegas coming down. And then Mosio, um, Awapeta Ngales and Cana, I think Kane has three or four. So this is really an international affair. Ceetta is talking about doing it twice a year because we're already getting so much attention for it and so many boxers. I'm getting messages of, I didn't know about this. Can I sign up? And, you know, we've been telling them, let's see if we do one. The plan is for October. So, we already have interested parties from different parts of the whole world wanting to come down here uh to to box. And I also wanted to show this because I

thought it was pretty neat. Sasar gave me a WBC calendar for 2026 and it has the pictures of the boxers up here. I know you can't really see it. And then it has the the dates. And I thought, how neat would it be if the city would do something like this where we would give our constituents maybe put Mrs. Dilman's picture up here, wrestling or boxing. You can photoshop me hitting me. Okay. Um, and maybe give them out to our constituents, mail them out so we could tell them what days we're going to we're going to pick up the trash, what days our holidays, what days uh city halls closed. I mean, to inform them, inform them. Our seniors love these types of of calendar. So, I'd like to direct staff budget season's coming up. Let's discuss it. Um, I'd also like to just um announce unofficially there's a new business that was uh a new business owner that bought the property where the old Fonta bar is on a Avenue uh wants to set it up like a little Changarito will be meeting with me I think tomorrow. I always tell businesses don't worry about me, you know, don't worry about the city. We should be accommodating you. But we're going to uh talk about that I think this week. And there was also another business meeting with a new business uh wanting to do a shuttle service from the border um and then basically take them like in a golf cart uh that's uh that that they could do use on the street, right? Uh and take them to Walmart to take them to Ross and then take them back to Mexico so they don't have to walk. So um lots of just buzz uh with the city that in a year you we didn't even think about all these things popping up. But I'm very thankful for everybody that's had a hand in it. And this is just one year out of three, at least with me up here. So, let's keep this going. And um thank you all for for your updates. And item number seven, uh read proclamations. We have two this month. This one is for autism awareness month. Whereas autism is a developmental

disorder that affects communication, behavior, and social interaction. And whereas autism spectrum disorder ASD is a condition that impacts individuals of all ages, races, genders, and socioeconomic backgrounds. And whereas the prevalence of autism has been increasing over the years with an estimated 1 in 36 children in the United States diagnosed with ASD according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And whereas individuals with autism have unique strengths, talents, and abilities that contribute to our communities and society. And whereas early diagnosis, intervention, and support can significant significantly improve outcomes for individuals with autism, helping them reach to their full potential. And whereas raising awareness about autism can foster understanding, inclusion, and acceptance of individuals with autism in all aspects of of life, including education, employment, and social interactions. And whereas advocating for policies, services, and resources that promote the well-being and inclusion of individuals with autism is crucial to creating a more inclusive and equitable society. And whereas autism awareness month is a time to promote education, acceptance, and understanding of autism and to show support for individuals with autism and their families. Now let let it now therefore let it be resolved that I Jose Gihala, mayor on behalf and on behalf of the city of Douglas Council, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as autism awareness month and urge all citizens of this community to join in raising awareness about autism, promoting acceptance and inclusion and supporting individuals with autism and their families. And we don't have to worry about that in Douglas. We all know each other. We all accept each other. That's a unique part about our city. we that's what we should be promoting uh when it comes to our city. Uh the next item is uh proclamation national child abuse prevention month. Whereas in federal fiscal year 2022 4.3 million reports were made to child protective services.

And whereas child abuse and neglect are a serious problem affecting every segment of our community and finding solutions that requires input and action from everyone. And whereas our children are the most our most valuable resources and will shape the future of Douglas. And whereas child abuse can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects that have lasting consequences for victims of abuse. And whereas protective factors are conditions that reduce or eliminate risk and promote the social, emotional, and developmental well-being for children of children. And whereas effective child abuse prevention activities succeed due to the partnerships between child welfare professionals, education, health, community, and faith-based organizations, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and families. And whereas communities must make every effort to promote programs and activities that create strong and thriving children and families. And whereas acknowledgement and collaborating together as a community to increase awareness about child abuse and contri contribute to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment. And whereas prevention remains the best defense for our children and families. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Jose Gihala, mayor, and on behalf of the city of Douglas Council, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month and urge all citizens to recognize this month by dedicating ourselves to the task of improving the quality of life for all children and families. And if we see something, say something. We're all our brother's keepers. Thank you. Item number seven, that was item number seven. Item number eight, I do have Coochis County government [snorts] updates and the one time I put her on the agenda, she's not here. So, I'm pretty sure next month she'll be on the agenda and she's going to talk about everything she did in the last two months. But, uh, Kathleen, apologize for not being here, but we'll keep her on the agenda because the government uh, the Coochis County updates are very important and our relationship with the

county is very important. Item number nine, persons to wishing to address the council in writing or verbally on any item not on the agenda. And we have a few. We're going to go in the order the clerk gave me the the papers. Um, first one is Mr. Eric Braverman. Excuse my back. I really don't like putting my back to the people when I'm talking. Um, I just want to talk about tourism for a second. One thing we can sell today is tourism.

Mr. Braver, Mr. Braverman. Mr. Braman, when you address the council, please look at the council. You're addressing the council. Who's Carl Rockwell? Yeah, it's important that you look forward at the council when you address council. Well, who's Carl Rockwell? No, no, no worries on Mr. You have three minutes. Your your your time. Uh like the attorney said, address the county.

We have tourism. We've handed in a day in Douglas program over and over again. It'd be cheaper to execute and get returns of maybe 10 people a day. We didn't have one tourist today. Not one tourist. We got the best weather, safest place. We have a port where you don't need a passport with more shopping and restaurants in the whole county combined. We have our car world, the cultur center, the gadston, and the last subur museum which is the number one tourist attraction even according to the Herald Review two years in a row. This is how hard it is to get tourists down here. This councilman in the last few days looked me right in the eyes and said he doesn't come to our museum for personal reasons and that he doesn't need to tell me what they are. So, you can imagine how hard it is to get tourism and tourism dollars down here in investment when you have your own councilman who's never been in our museum that's been open for three years and says something to us like that while we're trying to talk about the um streetscape which totally affects tourism in every way. Two petitions against this. Two petitions. No one's even even come into our building to talk about water drainage and how that would connect to the streetscape. None of these things. But if we can't get our own council people into our tourist attractions, how are we going to get anyone else? Because you have personal reasons, right?

I'm addressing you, Mr. Back and forth in the C of the

Well, he said he said he had personal reasons for not coming to our museum and he doesn't have to tell us what they are. And if he doesn't like my smart mouth, he could ask me to stand out on the sidewalk while he checks it out. We need we have something we can sell today. Our beautiful downtown, the tourist attractions, the port, the weather, the restaurants, but we give money to all these other things. I was raised on a golf course. I like golf. I can play three stick. But our museum brings in 10 times the people the golf course does. That's just math because we do the tourism research every week to month. We just had the worst February in four years and we're talking about a golf course. Golf course is not inclusive. It's exclusive people. Not everyone plays golf. Most people haven't. Thank you.

Time. Thank you. Think about it. Mr. Aos, you were mentioned.

No, no comment. Um, next is Ian Pedrick. Good evening, mayor and council. I'm Ida Pedro and I reside at 1815 East Fifth Street. I'm a merchant and a resident of Douglas. I'm not going to tell you how many years. I would like to express my concern regarding the reaction I received at the last council meeting. My intentions are not to create division within our community. Totally the opposite. It is essential that constituents are able to share their views without being spoken to inappropriately. Such interactions discourage open communication and may deter people from attending city council meetings. As a community, we must work together, not necessarily agree, but it is important that we cons consistently respect each other's opinions. Thank you very much,

Rosa. Bermudeas. Rodriguez. Rosa. What did I say? Rodriguez, I don't know why it I saw BZ and I thought and sorry I No, I'm apologizing. I butchered your your beautiful name. No worries.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Well, I'm Rosa Rodriguez from the Boys and Girls Club. Just letting you guys know we have an update. We have 38 kids right now. We only can hold 50 spots, so we're getting there. And then, as well as our grand opening is March 23rd, so you guys are invited at 1 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club. And then also any donations. We are a 501 C3 or 3C. I always mess up the C3. And so any donors, we're here to accept those donations to help the kids out from the community. Thank you. Thank you.

Miss Lana Duffy. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, city council members, and Douglas community. My name is Lana Diffy. I operate Two Flags Computer for over 20 years. As an antique collector, I find that other people don't always have the same affection for such things. Uh, I was thrilled to find an unusual item some time ago, and it was made of iron, about a 6inch handle, and at the bottom of the handle hung a series of metal chains. The vendor had no idea what it was, so I got it for $12 instead of 20 that it was marked for. When I showed it to my grandmother, I told her that I had paid $12 for it. Lana Marlene, you have lost your mind. You have wasted money. She explained that it was a pot scrubber that you used on cast iron frying pans and she had used it as a kid. So, one man's trash is somebody else's treasure. Douglas is like that for me. So many of So many only see the junk and I see the many treasures that are ignored or overlooked. City council once had an opportunity to claim the railroad tracks but voted to decline the opportunity due to expense. What a difference our rule that one ruling would have made to our present day. My concern is whether our old buildings have been investigated to see how secure the structures are currently. Most of the buildings are over a hundred years old. So, this concern needs to be immediately uh attended to before we start with the jackhammers. Allison Armstrong sent out an email with pictures to [clears throat] all the city council members that she had emails for with regards to her expensive her experience renovating the 917G Avenue. Um I can forward those to you. If you didn't get

them, let me know. her building did not have a foundation that we would measure up to our definitions today. Another concern is G Avenue with only two lanes. Um, can our fire truck maneuver that that space? Uh, can that be verified by the city by the fire department? Uh it would be helpful to have people from who did the design explain to us like we're 12 what this is what did they do it with with the plan. Sarah Vista has already done the bumpouts and slim down five uh Fry Boulevard towards the fort entrance and the public is very unhappy with it. It's created quite a bottleneck. How about we take Fifth Street and use the money there? Is that an option? I see people trying to cross from McDonald's over to the Walmart side. The traffic won't stop for them. Somebody's going to get hit. I'm a nerd. I am all about change, progress, b uh beautifification, but I presently do not understand the benefits of this project. We have a beautiful town, but our reputation is still with the drug tunnel back in May of the 90s. Businesses come, but not because we have wide sidewalks and skinny streets. We don't have a smelter. We haven't been a smelter town since ' 87. We are not relevant in this day and age and bumpouts don't help with our lack of revelence. Let's get together and bring that Douglas together. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Vince.

Thank you, Miss Liffy. Um, Lizzie Pedro Gobos. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Lizzie Pedro Bas. I reside at 2912 Barcelona Drive. I'm standing here tonight on behalf of over 350 petitioners, local business owners who share grave concerns regarding the proposal of G Avenue. Two of the the impacted buildings on G Avenue are owned by my husband and myself. First, I want to thank the three council members who provided the opportunity for the citizens to attend the street cape showcase. However, I must note there was no opportunity for a Q&A session. I strongly believe that the dialogue should have occurred before the council approved this design. Based on the feedbacks I've gotten from constituents, I have the following concerns that I'd like to bring to your attention. What's the negative effect of the emergency vehicles attempting to cross access the three blocks that are going to be impacted? There's been no public discussion regarding the historical trolleys. also located there. They're about 18 inches, I believe, in the asphalt. What's the plan for them? Well, wing widening the sidewalks ne will widening the sidewalks negatively impact our city's historic parade route. I believe it is. That's a big tradition in our family. I'd hate to lose that. What specific machinery force will you will be used to change these curbs? Will the vibration impact the surrounding structures? These historic buildings were constructed over a hundred years ago and in an era of horserawn buggies. Many of these structures are old, lack the modern foundation. Is a city prepared to

accept the litigation or face the liability for the structures damaged by the constructions? Nobody's ever asked us. And we own two of those properties. Properties like 917 and 911G Avenue have external overflow stream directly into the sidewalks. How will the design affect and or how will they accommodate this? I hear I've heard the grant money has been approved. We have to spend it. We're not required to spend the money just because it's available. That mindset is just about spending money, not necessarily what's the best interest of G Avenue. The city must invest wisely just like we have to and that's what my husband and I have tried to do. We've invested our money into this. But invest in Douglas is a survival of is in the best interest of the survival of existing businesses. What if they fail during construction? There is no future to invest in them. The previously suggested temporary lowcost pilot programs using paint and planters to me they're more relevant now than ever. It allows us to beautify our downtown without committing to irreversible multi-million dollar expenses. These options were never given due consideration with one last me at our last I just want to mention one thing that our last meeting I watched on on online as a leaders as leaders of our community. I would like to think that we should hold ourselves to a higher level of decorum. I understand and appreciate that apologies were made after the meeting, but the disrespect was done in public and I would hope that the apologies would also be done in public. Thank you,

Diana Pek. Good evening, council. My name is Diana. Um I am here and um on behalf of Douglas Market, I just wanted to give you an update. Uh we've been having hosting the Douglas Market every uh Friday for the past two weeks on 10th Street. Um we're currently going to be there from 3 to 7 if any of you would like to stop by. We have around 25 vendors who have participated in both weeks and around 150 people who have visited both weeks as well. So the first uh the first couple of weeks have been going pretty well and we just hope to uh be able to spread uh through word of mouth. Um I want to thank um the ladies at through the recreation center for helping me uh as I learned through this process and also of Dave from the visitor center. He's been a help as well. And just the community members who have uh shown interest and want to see this market succeed. Uh I would like to thank them now in front of you as well. We are currently hosting a book drive in benefit of the boys and girls club. So um this Friday and next Friday we will be collecting um books in good to nude condition from K to 12th grade students. If anyone is interested we'll be um receiving the books there during market hours um 3 to 7 once again. Okay. And that's everything. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Diana Lamar. You're going to get a rousing ovation after your speech. Oh, everybody's getting one. Really?

Hello, council. My name is Diane Lamar. I live at 1303F Avenue. Um, just a couple of uh kind of random things really. One is a followup on the commentary about the streetscape uh from the last meeting and this one as well. It it strikes me that with all the feedback that the council and the staff are getting that it really reveals an inadequate um discussion with the community that just seems obvious at this point whether you know that was obviously it wasn't intentional and so I I would hope that there might be a way to reverse that a bit and perhaps hold a sharet, which is a very common thing to do in municipalities uh for things of this nature. That allows for really uh creative and robust discussion with various parties um so that people can get answers to their questions and really uh present their ideas in a atmosphere that they will be listened to. I I bring this up also because it it uh it's come to my attention more than once and I didn't ever inquire about this, but I believe it was in December of 23 that the council staff um the mayor council and staff went um held a retreat and they uh held what is referred to as a a strategic planning retreat and one in which it was held to have in-depth discussions about the streetscape. Um, I

believe that that may have broken open meeting laws and since the council and staff had an opportunity to have that kind of discussion and retreat, it would be wonderful if that were also provided for the community. Um, another thing I just wanted to mention is in terms of consent agenda, it would be really great once in a while. I understand consent agenda and that it moves things along and and I appreciate that, but uh sometimes there are items on here that would just be nice to get a little more information about. As an example, the sewer vector truck, I don't really know what that's about even by just reading the agenda item. And so if there can be a fluid way to remove things from the ag the consent agenda that would be really helpful. Um uh lastly, I I don't know how to get a response on this, but there was a recent executive session, uh where the council went into a meeting to discuss I may have the name wrong, strategic innovations or strategic technology. And uh I I think the community is kind of curious what that business is. Is it a data center technology company or what? So just putting a name doesn't really give us much information. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh just an FYI, Miss Lamar, um if you have any questions on anything on the consent agenda, feel free to reach out. We can discuss it in my office um if you have questions. Um item number 10, discussion decision on approval of consent agenda items. Item A, expenditures for the month of February 2026 totaling 3,342,5949. Meeting minutes for February 2026. Request for qualifications bid award to Native Network, Inc. for formalization of multip municipal internet service provider ISP and tower leasing management programs. Item D, resolution number 26-1721, resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas, Coochis County, Arizona, authorizing the city of Douglas to accept grant funding and enter into a subgrantee agreement with the state of Arizona Department of Homeland Security for a reimburseable grant fund allocation in the amount of $32,700 for equipment under Operation Stone Garden fiscal year 2023 grant program award reallocation. Item E resolution number 26-1722 a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas Coois County, Arizona authorizing the execution of the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Douglas and Coochis County to provide certain election supplies and services for the city of Douglas primary election scheduled for July 21st 2026. Item F, resolution number two 26-1723, a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas, coaches county, Arizona, accepting grant funding from the water infrastructure finance authority of Arizona for well number 18, equipping and transmission line replacement project in the amount of $2 million and authorizing the city manager to execute all necessary documents. Item G, resolution number 26-1724, resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas, Coochis County, Arizona, authorizing the city of Douglas to enter into a reimburseable grant agreement with the Arizona Department of

Transportation, A DOT, in the amount of 534,3 534,37 to assist in meeting the city's required match for the Save America's Treasures Grant awarded by the US Department of the Interior National Park Service and authorizing the city manager to execute all necessary documents. Resolution number 26-1725, a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas, Coochis County, Arizona, ratifying and authorizing the city of Douglas to accept grant funding from Best Friends Animal Society in the amount of $600 to attend the Best Friends National Conference. Item I, resolution number 26-1726, a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas, Kois County, Arizona, authorizing the execution of an intergovernmental agreement between the city of Douglas and the Coochis County Community College District regarding the extension of utility services and backup well. Item J, resolution number 26-1727, a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas Coochis County, Arizona, authorizing the donation and transfer of a sewer vector truck the city of Awabita Sonota to be used to protect the environment and public health in the shared border region. Item K, authorizing a license agreement amendment between Family Healthcare Amigos and the City of Douglas granting a non-exclusive license to use a portion of city-owned property to locate an additional conx box for agency related storage at the cityowned parcel 409-13-190. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items? Mayor,

by Mr. Aosta, move the mayor agenda items. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Mr. Mr. Augusta, second by Mr. Shelton. Any discussion hearing? None. Roll call, please. Council member Montano, yes. Council member Shelton, yes. Council member Dilman, yes. Council member A Costa, yes. Mr. Mayor,

yes. Motion passes. Item 11, discussion decision on approvals. Item A, second reading of ordinance number 26-1228, an ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas, Coochis County, Arizona, amending section 10.08.010, 010 section 10.16.020 and section 10.19.010 of the Douglas Municipal Code relating to parking establishing severability of components of ordinance and establishing an effective date thereof. We have Mr. Rockwell uh virtually. Mr. Mayor, our engineer, Mr. Rockwell. Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes. Yeah, I'll turn I'll turn the uh video on too. Uh yeah, this is Carl Rockwell and uh this is an ordinance uh to um uh put some of the decision making in our our traffic control in the hands of of uh the city engineer and the uh city manager. Um uh we uh currently we have to any kind of uh traffic control change we have to go uh to Miriam council and it takes uh takes two readings and uh we we feel we can um we can affect these uh changes uh much more u efficiently by by having it the approval go through um uh the city engineer and then the the the city manager. Thank you. May I [clears throat] have a motion to approve the second reading of ordinance 26-1228?

Mr. Montano, move that the mayor and council approve the second reading ordinance number 26-128. My number and I have a second. Second.

Motion by Mr. Montano, second by Mr. Aosta. Any discussion? You know, since we're giving administration a lot more pull on doing this so it doesn't come to two readings, I think we need to I don't know if the nice way is to direct staff that before they make any parking decisions, they need to consult the businesses because maybe, you know, if you need a handicap parking somewhere, [clears throat] maybe they need it by the school instead of in front of the gym. So, I think there needs to be uh a lot of communication with this um because if it doesn't work, then we're going to have to bring it back up uh when it comes to council and and and um you know uh just but we need better communication from staff when it comes to that just because of the downtown situation and the main discussion is parking. Uh so we we um we need to be more um thinking about the businesses. Um, any other discussion hearing? None. Roll call, please.

Council member Montano, yes. Council member Shelton, yes. Council member Gilman, yes. Council member A Costa, yes. Mr. Mayor, yes. Motion passes. Thank you, Carl. Thank you. Item number 12, presentation, discussion, direction on item A, flock safety automatically. Automatic automated license plate reader ALPR program. Chief,

good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Um, at the direction of the city manager, Anna Oro, as requested by Mayor Grihava, um, we are here tonight to present information on the automated license plate reader program within the city of Douglas. And this is a result of recent concerns that have been expressed by Douglas residents about the ALPR program um with specific concerns raised regarding the vendor flock safety. So this is intended as an informative discussion um hopefully to clarify how the system operates, safeguards, and how data is used. So, by way of some background, the uh police department was selected by the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to receive $194,178 in funding under the borders security funding uh grant program to implement the automated license plate reader uh program in the city. The funding opportunity uh was was presented to mayor and council for acceptance during the December 13, 2023 meeting under resolution number 23-1575. And just by way of clarification, the presentation to mayor and council was the funding opportunity. Um it did specify that it was for automated license plate uh reader technology and during the meeting a representative from block safety who was the preferred vendor attended the meeting virtually and was able to answer questions from mayor and council uh during that time. Um and the motion was accepted the motion was passed to accept the funding um by a vote of 7 to zero. Understandably that was a different um dis at that time. I know that we have new members uh with us here now. So with the acceptance of the funding, the grant performance per period began October 1 of 2022.

Even though the award wasn't officially given to us until the end of 2023, there was about a year delay. The uh period runs through September 30th of 2027. So following the approval uh by our mayor and council, the ALPR system became operational on or about July of 2024. The police department maintains uh the ability to allow or deny access to the system to other partnering law enforcement agencies, which includes limiting the allowance of uh limited access. To date, uh the department has limited access to local, county, and state agencies only. On December 9th, 2025, access was further limited to only those agencies within the state of Arizona. And then lastly, the department is able to enable a transparency portal which is a public-f facing um application which explains what flock safety is, how the technology is used, what it is and is not uh or what is and is not detected and then highle usage data from our agency. So for discussion purposes um I did list some pros and cons that have been voiced both locally and um across the nation basically when it comes to automated license plate reading technology. So, some of the pros are real-time alerts that are sent to officers via SMS, EML, um, or app for stolen vehicles, missing persons, violent offenders, runaways, and as an investigative tool. Flock safety uh, has the additional technology for vehicle fingerprint. It allows uh, for officers to search when

the license plate information is lacking. So, if a witness to a crime, a victim of a crime, is able to tell us that it was a black SUV, but they didn't get the license plate, the officer has the ability to query um the system to try and find a vehicle that matches based on that description. The officer then has to further um track down and clarify that that is actually the vehicle that we're looking for. And that vehicle uh fingerprint identification uh includes dents in the bumper, um bumper stickers, maybe a decal on the window, things of that nature that help us to um narrow our our search for that vehicle. There are safeguards um with the technology. Our department has policy that limits access to use by officers who have been trained on the system and it's restricted to a law enforcement purpose only. It does require a department report or a case number to be entered and access is individually tracked and audited. Flock provides the license plate image. officer um is still required to query the plate through the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System, which has its own law enforcement purpose only restrictions and the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System is also subject to audit by the Arizona Department of Public Safety. There are approximately 50 agencies throughout the state of Arizona that use the flock system. data autodeletes after 30 days whereas the audit trail for access and use is permanent. Some of the cons and again this is based on on information or uh concerns voiced by by residents is the software does use artificial intelligence or AI. It does

operate within the system and I know that there is public skepticism on advances with the AI. The hardware, software and servers are leased to agency users. We do not own them. Um, Flock does this so that they can maintain the systems and keep them operational. I know that there's still concerns surrounding that. There's also uh comments concerns regarding the definitions and data use and licensing within the Flock agreement. and you have those highlighted in the uh attached agreement. And even though I mentioned policies previously, uh I I do recognize that policies are not absolute. Policies can and and do get violated, but we do hold those folks accountable when that does occur. Um, it's not necessarily a con, but I did list that our termination of the agreement is under review by our legal folks, um, pending whatever direction mayor and council elects to do um, this evening. The additional con is we do have a balance of $100,916 remaining on the grant. So if the um direction is for us to pursue termination or not renewing the agreement um we may forfeit that balance of funding or we may be able to ask for an alternative uh automated license plate reader uh technology but lastly not knowing if that technology will also be met with the the same or similar skepticism. So with that, I do have uh Miss Lily Ho with Flock Safety joining us virtually on the uh meeting. So if Mayor and Council have questions of her directly or if you have um members of the audience that want to address the the DAS,

thank you, Chie. May I have a motion for I don't need a motion presentation discussed. Um, I do have it here, Miss Clerk. Now that I caught you at the perfect time, you right here it says for a motion. So, but it's a presentation. No, Mr. Mayor. It will be direction. Yes.

Um, we do have a member from the audience. Um, and I'll have her speak and then if there's any questions we can Lamar, you're going to get two two ovations.

Tired of me. Um there is so much information out there that I've I really appreciate uh Chief Fallen and I'm sorry he's leaving but there's just been inadequate discussion on this topic and it's pretty can be pretty complicated. I really encourage the council to uh look at eff.org ACLU. There are many many resources uh and uh let me just read this. There's there's so much to convey. Um Flock is building a dangerous nationwide mass surveillance infrastructure. They're associated with Palunteer. Automated uh license plate readers under ordinary circumstances present a significant threat to privacy. As long as long-term vehicular location data can reveal very private details about a person's life, including what meetings a person attends, what doctor's offices they visit, where they worship, and even where they sleep at night. Unlike red light cameras or speed cameras that are triggered by specific violations, ALPRs photograph every vehicle that drives by and can use AI to create a profile with identifying information that then gets stored in a massive database. Flop's nationwide ALPR data sharing model has been or has made local ALPR data available to virtually any law enforcement entity who wishes to access it. Because Flock's default contract gives them an unlimited worldwide license to use the ALPR data. And because Flock does not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent inappropriate use or sharing of the data, law enforcement from virtually any

locality, state, federal agency, or foreign government can access the data. In addition to government uses, Flock has contracts with several private entities including HOAs, Lowe's, Simon Property Group, FedEx, Kaiser Permanente, and even individual homeowners. Um, taking advantage of this growing nationwide network, Flock ALPR system is now being used to target members of vulnerable groups. Law enforcement in Texas recently used Flock's ALPR system to investigate a woman seeking an ab seeking abortion care in Illinois. And a recent report revealed ICE has access to Flock's nationwide ALPR data through local police departments despite not having a formal agreement. There is so much to discuss about this and uh we've recently Sierra Vista has stopped the use of flock cameras. Flag staff um I've got a list of 50 other cities throughout the country that have done the same. I believe our own board of supervisors have expressed great skepticism about using the flock system. And I just urge you I really urge you to um look into this and uh really contemplate the use of this system. It um

t thank you.

Told you told you you were getting one even a standing ovation in the back. Thank Thank you. Thank you. Um council any questions for flock mosta uh ask a couple questions here first chief based on your experience with block has it been very useful to your department

uh Mr. Mayor, Council Member A Costa, since we've implemented the uh the program again back in July of 2024, I believe we've received about 10 um alerts for stolen vehicles that were coming into the community. Of those 10, I would say we recovered five of the vehicles. The other five made it into Mexico before officers could intervene. Um we did make a couple of arrests in connection with those vehicles. Um, most recently we did have a shoplifting case out of Walmart where Walmart surveillance system was able to identify um a couple who had gone into the store, stole merchandise on their system, correct? And it's not flock affiliated. Um, and then their parking lot surveillance captured the image of the vehicle as they were leaving the parking lot, but it wasn't enough to get uh a view of the license plate. But again, using the the fingerprint technology, we were able to query um the vehicles that match that description at that given time, came up with a possible plate. Um, it came back from outside of of the Douglas area, but through our record management system, which is shared across Coochis County, all the Coochis County agencies are using it. The officer was able to see that there was a prior contact with that vehicle in a neighboring jurisdiction. So, the officer contacted an officer from the jurisdiction next door, um, asked if they recalled the contact with the occupants or with the vehicle. Um they did and that contact was captured with the officer's bodywn camera. So the officer was able to share the body warning camera um video and was able to confirm that it was the same uh couple that was involved in the shoplifting. So without that technology we may not have

have been able to solve that. Thank you. Um, next is just a comment mayor.

Uh, and I agree with, uh, I think our privacy is being invaded by cameras and it's just not a problem here. It's nice country. I believe that uh, and it even happened to me because I was uh, visiting Natalie where uh, on my Facebook page, they knew the hotel was staying. I mean, it just How did they know it? And she mentioned her research out there. So to me it's a concern. It is concern I think our her privacy is being faded by now companies even alternative technology might that read likes might also do this. Uh so that's just my opinion tech.

Thank you. Any questions for Flock? Yes. What is your opinion? Uh, Mr. Mayor,

Mr. Mayor, Council Member Shelton, it's a tool. It's a valuable tool. Um, I understand the concerns that are behind it, but I'm one opinion of a public that we're uh trusted to serve. So if I don't have the trust of the public behind the technology, it makes my uh job a lot more difficult. So again, I do see the value in it. I do appreciate the value of having that tool, but if it is at the detriment or loss of trust from the community that we're serving, then it may not be a tool we want to continue to use. But again, that's the whole purpose of having this discussion this evening is to gauge if if there's no trust in this technology, is there trust in an alternative? Um because again, it's something that we can use. And I and I know that not everyone's been a victim of a crime um in their lifetime. Not that that would change their their opinion of it, but having the ability for police to be able to solve a crime quicker through that use of technology, it's it's helpful for us and all our track. You have they can track you. I agree with that. And one good thing about Were you aware that Sir

I I am aware. Yes, sir.

What other flag staff? I believe Flagstaff, Sedona, um, within the state of Arizona are the the jurisdictions that I'm aware of. And and I was just going to say we're we're really just talking about the company right now. We're not talking about like even Miss Lamar said, there's other companies that have the technology. We're just talking about a specific one here with Block. Correct. Um and and there was also I think Supervisor Gomez did two months ago maybe say that there was um a possibility that that the that they could be selling the data to uh others, right? So is is there an answer to that?

Um hello. Yeah, we can hear you. Go ahead. Great. Terrific. Thank you. Hello, mayor. Hello, council members. My name is Lily Hoe. I'm the public affairs manager for the western region of the United States for flock safety. Um, thank you for letting me speak. Um, we do not sell data. We are not in the business of selling data. The data is completely owned by the customer and your agency is in full control of who they choose to share their data with. Um, I also have a brief presentation that's about 5 minutes to help describe what the flock technology is. Um, if you guys are interested in having me present that.

Yeah. Well, we have we we have you here already, so feel free.

Okay. Thank you so much. One second while I share my screen. I'm requesting to share screen. All right. Um so about Flock Safety, we started in 2017. Um our current CEO is also the founder. Um it started because he saw an uptick in crime in his community and showed law enforcement agencies some video footage from his doorbell camera and law enforcement officers told him it wasn't very helpful. Um he dug into it and found that license plate reader technology has been around for decades, but the software wasn't very good. it wasn't very affordable and it wasn't useful as a tool. So, he went out as an engineer to create our license plate readers. The first customers were HOAs in communities. We started selling in neighborhoods. Um, and the first neighborhood was his own HOA. And from there, we u saw that there was a demand in law enforcement agencies because a picture of a license plate provides an objective actionable piece of evidence. Uh one of your speakers mentioned that we had lost uh close to 50 customers. Um this is true. I think there's about 30 customers who last year um stopped or ended their flock contract. But at the same during the same time period, we had an additional 950 customers uh new customers who chose to trust flock. We are in over 6,000 communities in the country. um with this technology. I mean this is a situation nationwide where law enforcement agencies are facing restrictions in recruitment and retention and retirement as well. Uh these technologies allow police officers to do their jobs better and solve and

investigate crimes uh as a force multiplier without taking away any of without replacing their jobs. What it is is it's a device that's mounted on a typically a a municipal pole 12 to 14 ft high and it's facing a public roadway and it takes pictures of the rear of a license plate. Um we bring in databases uh from the NCIC. It's an FBI database as well as Nickmick. Uh that's the Amber Alerts. And then your officers are also able to create a custom list. So stolen vehicles or vehicles involved in a crime that your officers would like to investigate would be put on this list. And as soon as a vehicle on any one of these lists drives by one of our cameras, your officers would be notified within seconds. Um this is an image very typical of what you would see um from our data. It is the rear of a vehicle. It is not the front of the car. you do not see the driver. Um, our platform is not integrated into anything like the DMV database or anything else. Your police officers have to do additional leg work um to look into who the car is registered to, for example. But this image captures uh the license plate, the state, and the make and model of the car. This is where our AI technology comes into play uh that we call the vehicle fingerprint. Oftentimes in a crime, the victim may not um may may not even see the license plate, if not recall it at all, or perhaps they may recall a partial plate number. In place of that, your law enforcement officers can look for the make and model of a car and any characteristics like like your chief said. Perhaps it's a it's a white truck with a bumper sticker. Um that can be placed in addition to or in place of a license plate. [snorts]

And we are built with privacy in mind. Uh we don't have any personal identifiable information in any of our data from these uh license plate readers. But we do treat the data with the sensitivity as if it does. Um our data is stored on the AWS .gov cloud servers. Everything is encrypted end to end. We are FBI just certified SOCK 2 and we have all of the cyber security certificates um and go through all of those protocols as well. Um our data is never sold. It's just we're just not in that business. Um and the customers own all of the data. Um and the data automatically deletes after 30 days by default. This is the transparency portal which uh indicates uh the prohibited and use cases um and who your agency shares with. It also provides a permanent audit trail as well. We have a permanent audit trail. So that means any officer who's searching for anything their search reason and why is a permanent record. Um this is the offense type dropown. It's a feature where um for search reasons your law enforcement officers would have to put in a reason for search and these search reasons are pulled from neighbors. So you know it could be arson, it could be something else. Um and uh a case number for the reason for search and this is done so that there's just we're eliminating any version of unacceptable search reasons that could be vague. We had seen in the past when it was a free form version of a search reason, sometimes officers would put an investigation something very vague and and not um not good enough for stakeholders. Additionally, it helps your agency with data analytics.

Again, we do not sell your data. It is just not what we do. Um the sharing agreements that your agency chooses to engage in is entirely up to your agency and I believe you are sharing only within the state of Arizona. Um federal access again this is if you choose to partner with federal um agencies that could be if it is within your city or um state laws and policies to do so. customers may do that. Um, but it's entirely up to you who you share with. And here we've got many case laws supporting um, ALPRs. Um, and it's time and time again the courts have upheld the use of ALPRs as evidence. Most recently, we had a case in um in Norfolk, Virginia, and they had about 175 of our cameras um in in their town. And the court ruled that the cameras just do not when when used appropriate, the cameras do not quote do not approach the level of tracking that would amount to something unconstitutional. and that the tracking that 175 cameras in clusters does not track the whole of a person's movements nor does it provide an intimate window into where citizens drive, park, visit, linger, sleep or patronize. Um it is not we would this is not a mass surveillance. We cannot follow anybody uh in perpetuity. Like for example, like council member mentioned, your cell phone is actually tracking your movements. Uh this is just a picture of a rare of a vehicle in a very specific

point in time and we do not have any PPI or PII information on any of the data. It is just a picture of the rare of a vehicle. Uh we have terrific partners. This is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who runs the Amber Alerts. We found over a thousand missing people with our technology and hundreds of children as well as mothers against drunk drivers. The vast majority of drunk driving cases, uh there's no evidence at all. There are no leads. Um the NAACP chapter of um of Oakland has endorsed us because they believe that our technology helps to reduce bias in policing and it helps remove the subjective judgment. Instead of looking for a person, your law enforcement officers are looking for a specific vehicle. Also want to address the ACLU. The ACLU chapters vary um in New Mexico. The ACLU is a very strong partner to Flock. They spoke on our behalf for legislation um very recently and are big strong supporters. in Arizona. Um there's just a lot of case studies around the crimes that we've been able to solve. But I'll say most recently there was a triple murder in Utah where the vict where the suspect drove through Utah and Arizona and Colorado. Um and that was a triple murder and he was found within hours using our cameras. Um and in this situation, this one was our first stranger and stranger abduction of a child. we were able to reunite this child with his mother within 6 hours. Um, so thank you so much for the opportunity to present and give an overview of what our technology does and does not do and I'd be happy to address any questions you may have.

Thank you councel. Any questions after that presentation? Have a question. Mr. Montana, I if you say that the the information is not being sold, how do you knows that it's getting out uh just because of like some of the concerns from our audience, from our residents that they they believe that that those information is out there.

Yes, some agencies have um made their audits audit reports public information and there are organizations who have been trolling our uh transparency portal websites for agencies that have been posting their audit trails. Um there have also been um places in the state of Washington specifically where they have very loose uh public records laws and some agencies have made these uh made these public record requests on behalf of the people who have asked for them. So these this this is data and audits that are have been made public by the agencies and they are presented as if it was a data breach and they are presented as if it's being sold. that this is all information that was willingly released by the agencies.

Anything else, Mr. M? [clears throat] I just have comments. I I I agree with the chief pulling that this is a great tool as a crime solving tool, but I also agree with some residents that there's a huge concern with with this uh privacy Mr. Shelton.

Dennis, you want to make a comment? No, Mr. Mayor, I I I don't know much about it. I saw one of the slides uh that showed uh Cassandra Police Department, and I know I've heard um that they felt the uh flock uh cameras were significant. I was telling Chief Fullen this earlier today. Uh they thought their cameras were significant in helping them solve a two young teenagers that were murdered in town about two years ago. I didn't see that on the slide. I was trying to look at that, but uh I know I've heard that from this police department up here that helped them locate the car that was actually in Tempe or Mesa and then they were able to follow the car and figure out exactly when the car was at the site of the murders. So, I I have heard uh um I have heard that from the Cas Grand Police Department. That's the only thing I wanted to add. Mr. Mayor,

that's a very that's a very lawyer answer, Dennis. Come on. He he wanted something clear. Um 100 question. How many cameras we have?

Mr. Mayor, Council Member Shelton, thank you for asking that. We have 12 cameras. How many? 12. 12. But understand that in some of the locations, they're they're primarily focused on the routes of uh ingress coming into the community and some of those locations require a camera pointing in each direction.

Well, here's my two cents. I think [clears throat] just the reputation now that all this is getting um even if they you know like they said they don't sell the data but as uh the two supervisors said there's other companies that offer the same thing that don't offer apparently the intrusiveness that the reputation that block has been getting. Um I'd like to direct staff to look into terminating the agreement. That's one. And to do it in a way to pres preserve the grant funing. Now, if it's okay with Dana Lamar, that'll come at a next meeting at least for a vote where you can or would you like to say something right now?

Thank you very much. Um, I appreciate all the thoughtfulness that you all are showing. Lamar, could you lower the mic just so we could hear you better? I'm sorry. No, no, no.

He's taller than me. Uh thank you for your thoughtfulness in considering this uh matter. I I want to suggest that we are intelligent enough to know that we should have some healthy skepticism about information coming from surveillance companies when they are trying to sell a product. Um and also there's got to be a balance and it's wonderful that it's been a helpful tool. No doubt about it about it. We want to find stolen cars or missing children, but it comes we can't sacrifice our fourth amendment rights um for that. In addition, there are a number of crimes that have been committed with the use of flock data and whether it's sold or there's a data breach which has occurred. Uh it's dangerous. Um, I would love to know the relationship uh that flock safety has with Palunteer. And I would also like to suggest that they've gotten a lot of um negative feedback from the entire nation after the Super Bowl ad came out which emphasized uh the use of uh Ring. If you have a Ring camera, it can connect into these um you know other surveillance um tools. Um they portrayed it like you know a great tool to find your dog and got a lot of push back about that because obviously it's not just about finding your dog and I'm a dog lover. So, um there are also statistics that show that um where is it at? About 97%

or less than 97% of um uh stolen cars have been found. That's nationally, so we're doing better than that. But there's just so many questions. Um, uh, there's a lot of private information that gets scooped up. People have, um, their places of worship. Um, do you want to know? I mean, and I know this is scary, but it's real. Uh, information when your 16-year-old daughter is home alone. There's so much information that it's uh you know it's a little scary and there are zero state and federal guard rails um on how this data can be kept securely and who has access to it and for what reasons they have access to it. Um so again I appreciate your thoughtfulness and I I really urge um us to think very carefully about this. Thank you so much.

Thank you. three times. Um, I'll allow it, but you got to sign a paper. Is that okay? That go ahead.

Name and your uh residence and Yeah. Uh, I'm Wolf Gang Paradox, uh, 1201 East 11th Street here in Douglas. Um, it's just something I noticed about saying Flock is not selling data. Uh while that is very technically true, I think it's pretty obvious that they're using that as a oh we're definitely not selling your data because what they're doing is selling access to it, right? They have customers as they've mentioned lots of customers which means anyone they have this huge network and anyone with enough money can then buy access to that network. you know, different governments, foreign governments, private citizens from anywhere. Technically, they aren't selling data. They're selling the access to the entire network, which arguably is worse. So, that's a a very interesting way of of dodging the selling data things without actually uh showing that no, your data is still getting spread everywhere. It's it's just they're selling access to it.

Thank you. [snorts] Um that is patently false. Um private customers such as HOAs and companies can are customers of ours uh for example Lowe's. Um but they do not have access to law enforcement agency data. Thank you.

Thank you. And don't be a stranger. I think this is the first time you came to a meeting. We always like this room filled up with opinions. Um, but like I said, it's just the reputation now. So, uh, we'll bring it up at the next council meeting. The direction is to direct step into looking into terminating the agreement and then the second direction is to do it in a way where we preserve the grant funding. Thank you. Um, item 13 will go to city manager. Good evening, mayor, members of council. Uh be giving the city manager report. Um few updates on our infrastructure. Uh the Munchchi little league field shade project uh over the concession stand um will be uh internally taken care of by our public works staff and should be ready before opening ceremonies uh which is later this month. Uh so they they have been working on um in partnership with the little league. our race grant, our $23 and half million dollar raise grant for commercial streets. Uh public works completed an inventory of all the commercial street corridor sections that included sidewalks and street conditions um that are uh not ADA accessible or there's deficiencies and submitted it to ADAT for inclusion into the project engineering phases. Under the Chino Road Alignment, uh bids have been received and will head to the transportation board on March 20th for their approval and award to the uh lowest most responsive bidder. If approved, the contractor will start construction within 30 days. Our asphalt plant uh final footings are scheduled to be poured next week. the

footings. With the footings poured, a crane will be scheduled for midappril to lift and place all of the major AC plant components into the permanent locations. Uh we have the downtown revitalization expo. Uh staff is preparing this event at the request of mayor and council uh to bring back anformational meeting regarding regarding downtown revitalization. Although no date is set yet, it is intended to be a comprehensive approach to historical preservation, committee searches, uh, brownfield funding updates, business loan resources, possible tax incentive programs, public private partnership opportunities, facade grant applications, preservation easement opportunities, and more. House Bill 2716, referred to as vacant/abandon property. The city has worked since last summer to submit legislation to the state to require property owners to be accountable to vacant parcels. This leg legislation would have mandated regular registering of contact information and check-in with the city on the condition of their vacant buildings, plus other requirements. The bill was supported by a group of cities and towns that include Douglas, Superior, and Globe. Last week, we learned that House Bill 2716 will not move forward for lack of interest in committee level hearings. Staff will continue to work with legal to determine if there are other options to pursue. On March 17, the SBDC will host uh BIS 101, learn the building block success using the business model canvas. The seminar will be at the Coochis College Douglas

campus from 2 to 3 p.m. And if you need more information, contact our economic development department. We also have flyers in the back and the uh seminar is free of charge. Thank you very much, Mayor Thank you. [clears throat] Item 14, future agenda item request from mayor and councs. Is there any? Mr. Mayor, before um you go on item number 14, I think you wanted to go back to the call to the public section. I'm going to do that before the journal. So, it's going to be after 14. Okay. Um any [clears throat] item, mayor, Mr. Montano?

Uh yeah, we had that uh that ex the showcase uh meeting or whatever call it last week and we had a lot of uh positives and also negative. So what I think uh I would like to direct staff to figure out a way uh for Douglas residents to vote on the current sign and uh so I would like the the the actual residents of Douglas to vote on it. Uh so that we can proceed for further if we need to uh readjust. [clears throat]

We'll move that to the updates because this isn't a future agenda item, but um yeah, we'd [clears throat] like to direct staff to do that. Um with me, we I don't know if council saw their email. We got an email from um Ally, uh the owner of the art studio, and she brought up and and the reason this is important, number one, because now it's a public record. She emailed us. So, it's there uh about the sidewalks uh that she had an engineer and a local contractor basically say, you know, if you touch the sidewalks close to the part of the building, it's very fragile. So, now we're talking liability from the city. So, I think we need to have this as as maybe a discussion um possible direction change on it. Maybe giving it more time um because we don't want any liability. We don't want the city to get sued because there was changes to down or to the sidewalk and now um god forbid a building fall. So um whether it's one month or two months depending on how long we have to get the information, but I'd like to have it in a regular meeting where people know, not a special meeting where it catches people off guard. There's no others I did save to come back into the c of the public because I think there's a Mr. Greg Fen that would like to say a few words before we close. state your name and your residence, please.

And if you can email that statement to me,

right? [laughter] Again, thank you uh Mr. Mayor, members of the council, and thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening as this will be my final appearance before you in my official capacity as your police chief. Please do not schedule any special meetings later this month. On March 30th of 1997, I reported to the Tucson Regional Police Academy to begin my training. We were instructed to arrive the following morning in business attire. Trousers, a button-down shirt, tie, and dress or athletic shoes. We were not authorized to wear our uniforms for the first three weeks of training. It was during this time that we were educated about the privilege of wearing the uniform. the readily recognizable symbol of law enforcement. We came to learn that it represents command presence, calm in the face of chaos, professionalism, integrity, trust, and ultimately authority. This lesson would repeat itself throughout the course of the 17week academy as we committed a violation that stripped us of our privilege and revert us back to business attire. Throughout my time with the department, I have worn my uniform with pride, knowing what it represents and recognizing that it comes with the trust of the community I have proudly served. That the privilege to wear it must be earned every day. After 29 years of service, have to respectfully correct you, uh, Council Member Montano, almost 30, but listen, 29 is not almost 30. Um, 13 years in the capacity of chief. It is time to retire. In the words of Dirty Harry, a man's got to know his limitations. It has been a tremendous experience, one that I will carry with me the rest of my days. I am sincerely grateful for the men and women who come to work every day

committed to doing the best job possible. I am equally grateful for the leadership that I have followed throughout my career. It has always been a family first atmosphere with the only comments made during a hardship being, "Take the time that you need and let me know what I can do to help." You all are my family as we spend onethird of our day um each week together. It is beyond professional acquaintance and know that I carry all of you with me as family does. This is just one of the many things that makes our community special. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities that were afforded to me. The most valuable being the opportunity to provide for my family, my greatest legacy. For the sacrifices they have endured and their unconditional support. This career would have been impossible without it. I am eternally grateful for never having had to use my service weapon in the line of duty. I have had a number of occasions to point it at somebody convincingly, which did the trick. I am equally grateful for the ultimate sacrifices paid by others in our department, Ray Rios and others in our profession. Their sacrifice shall never be forgotten. I leave this profession the same humble person I was when I started with a few physical scars and many more below the surface because what has been seen cannot be unseen. I too will carry these for the rest of my days. We have accomplished many great things during my time in service. Notice that I said we as this is a team effort. A team that extends beyond the walls of the police department and includes every member of the city staff and the community at large. As I have said, it takes a community to police a community and you all have answered that call. It is the desire of every person in a

leadership position to leave it better than you found it. I can sincerely say that you are not in good hands. You are in great hands. Hands that are far uh better than mine. I ask you to please keep our first responders in your thoughts and prayers as I will. Continue the family first atmosphere and continue to support our first line workers because while you provide the vision as mayor and council, it's their backs that bring it to fruition. Thank you all and God bless you.

Thank you, Chief, for your years of service. Thank you for your family because they we we we lent you to us, right? Thank you for missing all those birthdays, special occasions, holidays to protect our community. You're deeply appreciated and you're welcome anytime. And for the record, the person he pointed the gun at was not me. I know that there's some people that were looking over here, but thank you, chief, for everything. Item 15, adjournment. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? I make a motion we adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Mr. Shelton, second by Mrs. Dilman. All in favor say I. I. Any nays? Eyes have it. We adjourn at 7 7:47. Hey, Mr. Mayor, one last thing.

That Hey, Jesus Ramo Ramos is from Caster Grand. You didn't mention that. What happened? What was that? Jesus Ramos is from Cassandr. The light featherweight champion. Who's coming to Douglas? Oh, that's right. Yeah, you missed it. You gotta come, Dennis. You got to come to the boxing. I know, Mr. Mayor. We could bring We're not paying you to have fun. Okay. All right. But he's a great kid. I'm glad he's coming down. Have a good night, you guys. Thank you, Dennis. Let's see.