Mayor and Council - Special Meeting

Okay.

I'd like to call this special meeting public notice to order at 540. Roll call, please.

Mayor Jose Grijalva.

Here.

Council Member Aida Pedrego. Present. Council Member Jose Montaño.

Here.

Council Member Gustavo Durazo. Here. Council Member Ray Shelton.

Present.

Council Member Maria Dillman. Council Member Richard Acosta. City Manager Honor O'Keefe.

Present.

City Attorney Dennis Fitzgibbons.

Present.

City Treasurer Alejandro Martinez.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you. And both council members are excused. Item three, persons wishing to address the council in writing or verbally on any item not on the agenda. Do we have anyone?

Not for this meeting, Mr. Mayor.

Item four, discussion decision on public hearing. A, the purpose of the public hearing is to allow public participation regarding the drinking water and wastewater collection infrastructure west expansion project. Mr. Pedrosa. All right.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, you're up.

PB, Lupita D Montoya, i'll start it up there. PB, Lupita D Montoya, i'm just pulling it up here is do we have the presentation, please. Well, they pull that up. I'll go ahead and get this started. Thank you. This is a public hearing notice of public hearing for this project.

Anything else?

All right, we're having a public hearing for a project that extends potable wastewater collection from city limits to Cochise College Douglas campus. It extends wastewater from State Route 80 and Kings Highway to the Border Patrol Station. The project entails the extension of water and sewer lines along the north side of State Route 80, a utility bridge crossing over Whitewater Draw, and the construction of a new production well site at the Cochise College, including a reservoir of booster pumps and associated potable water well equipment. So we have been talking for some time about how we've worked with NADBank and I'd like to recognize that amongst our distinguished guests here today. I'd like to welcome Francisco Morales Quintero, project manager from NADBank and Juan Carlos Gonzalez Gomez, our new project manager on the project. We've been working with NADBank for a very long time. I'm going to say almost four years just trying to get us to this, what we call Beef Money Border Environmental Infrastructure funding that we've been working initially through a PDAP grant and now we're here to fund the $8 million that continues for our wastewater corridor. Are we close to getting? I apologize for the slides. So this is really a public hearing to accept or to announce the beef monies for phase one of our infrastructure phasing plan for the West Douglas Utility Project. And we'll have some diagrams here shortly. Here we go.

to the next slide.

All right. This is the phase one that includes the water and sewer from Copper to Cochise, it's not on my screen anymore, to Cochise College and from State Route 80 to Border Patrol. So when we look at it from this perspective, to discuss drinking water and wastewater infrastructure on this phase one portion, up to not quite to the water campus. It's just short of that, but this captures that entire red section. Next slide, please. Yes, Mr. Hufford, let me go through the slides. And if we haven't captured that, I'm happy to come back and answer that specifically.

Okay, thank you for the question.

One back. Okay, here we go. So this first phase for water and sewer includes 29,000 linear feet of water line, 18,700 feet of sewer line, the new water campus at Cochise College consisting of a new potable groundwater well, and 400,000 gallons of booster pumps and college backup water. A utility project that we would draw, which I believe is related to the question just asked, but we can go into more detail. And then pressure reducing valve at State Route 80 in Kings. Next slide. The Beef Grant consists of, as I stated, $8 million towards the construction of Phase 1. The State Route 80 utilities expansion is underway. Construction of the Whitewater Draw Sewer Crossing Project, which connects 15-inch Sioux Copper Avenue and crosses to the south side of State Route 80. building a utility bridge to span and connect to sewer on the west side of Chino Road. The project just closed bidding and recommending construction contract award. The next phase is State Route 80 sewer extension from the north side of State Route 80 to Puzzy Ranch Road on Kings Highway. This consists of trenchless crossing across State Route 80 and 12-inch PVC sewer line. Next slide, please. This goes back to the phase one discussing here. You can see where the pressure one reducing station is. And the green section is actually the water campus. We don't quite get through the full section with this funding. So today's hearing is specifically about . money covers for purposes of the public hearing. We can make available other information beyond that under separate provisions or separate reporting, but today's public hearing is focused only on the . Next slide. And the phase 1, just in summary, of course, we're sponsoring this. The estimated cost overall is 24.6M dollars. The beef portion funds 8M dollars. We have already incorporated in the past. Army Corps of Engineer money, ARPA money through the state of Arizona, and WIFA money. There is statewide, a state revolving fund that's mentioned there is pending, which actually has not been enacted or considered at this point, but is a potential opportunity. And the expected results here are eliminating untreated wastewater discharges. The population benefited by the monies, the $8 million is a $21,000 number in terms of a unit value, because it extends out to the areas that are current state and existing in that area. That means our new residential hookups that to be installed are seven, the wastewater connections, 50 drinking water distribution lines installed, 5.68 miles. And I think I left out seven are drinking water hookups. The new wastewater connection lines install 6.74 miles, new sources of water supply, two new drinking water storage tank, one and elimination of potential wastewater discharges, a million gallons per gallon. Is that her day is 0.15. So again, this has to be focused strictly on phase 1. If money's for the purpose of this public hearing, it is a multi phase project, which consists of both drinking water and wastewater collection. for the west expansion along State Route 80 with connection to city infrastructure, something that for years now of working on this infrastructure project for the west utility corridor is now something we can touch and feel and it becomes a tangible entity. Is that the next slide, please? Very good. So with that, Mayor, members of the Council, I will introduce the public hearing and open it up for any questions. My staff is here to be recognized to take care of any technical questions as well.

Thank you. Do we have anyone from the public wishing to address?

Not at this meeting, Mr. Mayor.

Public hearing so they can ask if there's anybody in the audience that wants to address this, then we can have you. This isn't this isn't actually a call to the public, so feel free to speak up. And we'll give it a few minutes. We have two more minutes unless somebody wants to speak.

Any comments from our friends at NatBank or our partners before we close our hearing? Just want to thank them again for the partnership and for the continued guidance to get us to this point on the process that's required, which has been a tall order, but we appreciate all of the guidance. Thank you.

Mr. Alfred, can you come up really good so it could be on the record and then everybody can hear you?

I would just like an update on the well and how that construction is going.

The Well Country College?

Yes.

I'm not sure that we can share that, but I will invite my technical team because we are contained to a future phase. Yes. Okay. Carl, may you approach? Mayor. The engineer, please.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'm Carl Rockwell. I'm the public works director. And the question was how we're doing on the well. I believe it's phase one and it's called well 20. It's a well that's at the college. And we've actually just in the last day or two, we've completed the phase one part of the well, which has taken the well down to over a thousand feet. installing the casing, and then doing the various tests, both the physical test, how much water it's gonna pump, and also taking samples for the quality. We haven't concluded all the test results yet, but it's looking pretty good. I think we're gonna get about 1,000 gallons a minute, which is what we had targeted for. And so far the, uh, the quality looks really good too. I can't I can't tell you exactly what the, uh, results are. However, the, the, uh, the, the sand part of it looks like it's dropped down to about. Uh, 3 by if I got this right 3 and a half parts per 1Million as far as sand goes, which is which is really good. Also, there's wells in the area that were monitored as we did at the 24-hour test. And we found very little effect in pumping our well at various rates continuously for 24 hours. The nearby wells, both the one in the college and the nearest one on the ranch there, dropped very little. And that's something we look for. Right now, we're going to apply for the... through ADQ for the status as a domestic well where we get permitted by the state and within the AMA, the active management area for this becoming a production well for the city of Douglas.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else before we adjourn? Hearing none, do I have a motion to adjourn?

Mayor?

Mr. Montaño?

I motion that we adjourn this special meeting.

Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Mr. Montaño, second by Mr. Shelton. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? We adjourn at 5.56.

Thanks. Cool.

Hello? Can anybody hear me?

Can anybody from the city hear me?

Did the meeting already end? Let's stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance and have the invocation.

Who's giving the invocation? Pastora Lucia Cortez.

I pledge allegiance.

Thank you, God, for this moment. Gracias, Dios, por este momento. Venimos ante ti presentando esta sesión en el nombre de Jesús. Tu palabra dice que por la bendición de los rectos, nuestra ciudad va a ser bendecida. Así es que oro porque cada persona en este lugar podamos practicar la rectitud en todo lo que hagamos. Gracias por la oportunidad. Pedimos tu bendición. También pedimos por cada plan Thank you, Pastor. Can you tell us where your church is and what time is your service, please? Estamos en la calle 3, el número 300. Y tenemos el domingo a mediodía nuestros servicios. Hoy tenemos con mujeres, el grupo de mujeres a las 7. El jueves en Radio Manantial se reúnen los varones. Y tenemos el Kid Club para los niños y también para los jóvenes.

Muchas gracias. Y muchas gracias por lo que hace por la comunidad en nuestra juventud. Que Dios les bendiga.

Gracias.

Item number 4, roll call please.

Mayor Jose Grijalva.

Here.

Council Member Pedrego. Present. Council Member Montano.

Here.

Council Member Durazo. Here. Council Member Shelton.

Present.

Council Member Dillman. Council Member Acosta. City Manager Honor Akifo. Present. City Attorney Dennis Fitzgibbons.

Present.

City Treasurer Alejandro Martinez. Here.

Thank you. Item number 5, events update.

Hi, this is what's happening at the Douglas Public Library in the month of September. As always, you can pick up a calendar just like this one here at the library, or you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram so you never miss out on any of our activities. September is library card sign-up month, so all children and adults who sign up for their first library card will receive a prize from our prize bin. We also have all of our regular weekly activities, such as Mondays, We have Brain Break, relaxing activities, coloring, puzzles, board games, and more. Tuesdays on 3.30 we have our STEAM Club. We will be making snacks, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, the start of fall, and learning about how to save money. Wednesdays at 3 p.m. we have our movies for kids with free popcorn and juice. You can come enjoy a movie at the library. Thursdays we have our story time for the little ones at 11 a.m. We will read, sing, dance, and have playtime afterwards. We have our fall paint night for adults and teenagers accompanied by an adult on September 18th. All materials are included. To sign up you can call or come by the library before then. We hope to see you here at the library this month in September to celebrate Library Card Sign Up Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and so we can see you here for all of our weekly activities. Bye.

Hello from the Recreation Department. Join us on Saturday, September 12th at Raul Castro Park for the Fiestas Patrias from 7 p.m. to midnight. There will be a beer garden and live music. You won't want to miss it. The 102nd Cochise County Fair is coming up from September 24th to the 27th. Wear your boots and show up for the country nights and carnival lights. Get ready! The Mexican Baseball Fiesta is right around the corner. On Wednesday, September 30th at the Copper King Stadium, the Naranjeros will take on the Yaquis. Buy your tickets now on Eventbrite or get physical tickets at the Aquatic Center. General admission is $15 and box seats are $20. Join us for the Downtown Expo 2026 on Thursday, October 1st at the Gadsden Hotel. This is a community-focused event created especially for downtown businesses, merchants, property owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone invested in the future of downtown Douglas. Thank you from the Recreation Department. We hope to see you at each of these upcoming events.

Join us at the City of Douglas Aquatic Center for our fall aquatics programs. The 8th Street Park Pool hosted its final open swim during Labor Day weekend, marking the end of our summer season. Thank you to our wonderful staff and community who made this such a memorable and safe summer. The Aquatic Center will be available this fall for lap swimming Monday through Friday from 5 to 8 a.m. and 6.30 to 8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 7 to 10 a.m. Our relaxing therapy pool is also available during all lap swim hours. Adult swimming lessons are currently in session at the Aquatic Center Monday through Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. Session 3 will end on September 10th and session 4 will start on September 14th. All levels and ages 16 plus are welcome to join our adult swimming lessons. Looking for a low-impact workout? Water aerobics classes are also available at the Aquatic Center Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6.15 to 7 p.m. These will be available throughout the entire month of September. All programming is subject to change or reschedule depending on weather conditions and tentative Douglas High School swim meets. The Aquatic Center will be closed on the afternoon of September 10, 2026 as we host the first DHS home swim meet of the season. Feel free to give us a call with any questions or concerns regarding our City of Douglas Aquatics programs. Our number is 520-417-7346.

Thank you. Item six, Mayor and Council Member updates and or reports. Mr. Pedrigal?

Yes. August was a very busy month and very productive. Focused on listening to your needs, planning for your future, and advocating for the Douglas at the state level. Here's a look of what we've been working on in the community. Local rehabilitation needs. I attended a recent coalition meeting at the Boys and Girls Club. and it was discussed a lot about overdoses. But the main thing that I took from here was the need for our community to have a facility locally here for people, I'm sorry, thank you, for people who need recovery. Right now, people refuse recovery, not because they don't want to get better, but because it causes them to be transferred to Benson or Tucson, which creates a hardship for both them and their families. So it's not cost effective. So we're hoping that something can be here locally. The mayor and I also went to the senior citizens at DARC for a meet and greet. And that was very, was really nice. The mayor spoke with the constituents and asked, what can the city do to help them? And one of the things that they asked, these were their requests, and they were very clear. They want music, exercises that pertain to their age group, and games, classes for better cooking methods, And one that I could really understand is workshops on how to use their phones. So they, because they can't rely on somebody else and they don't know how. They also, the big, the one is affordable housing. A lot of these senior citizens said affordable housing, the rents were way out of their range. Then The DAR manager, Mr. Carl Molden, was very nice when we discussed with, he said that he would be willing to help if the city can come up with some assistance, that they would provide some of the services that the senior citizens were asking for. Investing in our youth. And I really want to give a big shout out to the TRIO Legacy Celebration that was held at Cochise College. Mrs. Tillman and myself attended this, and I can't tell you what an honor it was to hear these young students talk about how the TRIO program was incredible, providing the students with not only financial aid, emotional support, and educational guidance, but the That was really neat. But all of them, they all gave different speeches, but each and every one of them said that because of all that they received, they want to give back to their communities. So we heard powerful speeches from students whose lives were changed by this program. Their shared goal of playing it forward is proof that investing in our youth creates a stronger and a resilient Douglas. And let me tell you why, because many of those work for Cochise College or around the community. Also, several of the city employees went to Arizona League of Cities and Towns. There was 85 towns and cities represented there. And I took a class, I did several, and I want to speak, especially one that was really close to me was the census. the importance, if you know there's going to be a lot of changes this year in our census intake. So it is imperative, and I can't tell you how important it is, that we make sure that everybody in our community is counted. With all these, they expect a lot of issues because of ice and all the other things going on, and especially in the rural areas like ours. Remember, this is how we get our federal monies for our schools, our police officers, for our roads, many things. So it affects not just a few, it affects each and every one of us. So we want to make sure that everybody is counted. And they're saying the important thing is the cities need to get in front of this. We can't wait till it's right the time. The city needs to prepare. in advance for these things. Then I attended one with smart growth communication. We learned strategies for managing rural growth without losing our small town identity. The biggest key in success for keeping was making sure our citizens are informed. And that's one of the full things that I really feel that it's really, really important. We need to keep The community informed, and that's a difficult situation here because we don't have a newspaper. But it's going to take each and every one of us to do our job to make sure that everybody knows. They talked about securing grants, another workshop, which is very important, especially for a community this size. We have a grant writer, and I hope we start using her to all her potential. Because there's money out there. We just need to go out and get it. Then the other one, one of the workshops that I went to is about... How do small towns go about hiring city managers? The conversation was a lot of it talked about how expensive it is if we go outside to hire somebody to get us, you know, the city manager. But I came back with what are the best practices for the city council and the city manager relationships. We need to have a strong relationship between the city council and the city manager to ensure that our local government operates correctly. And as I said, it was a very busy, there was a lot more, there was a lot more workshops that we attended, but these were the few that I thought you'd like to learn about. Thank you.

Mr. Montano.

Hey, this is going to be a long meeting, so I'll keep it short. So I talked to a couple of constituents and address their concerns. Last month, I said that I took Luis and Ana, the city manager and deputy city manager around my work to show them some of the concerns that I've some of the constituents have voiced. And I'd like to thank them for already starting to address some of those issues that we discussed. So this past weekend was the 91st Labor Day golf tournament. I think it's like the second longest golf tournament in the United States. So we had 130 golfers. Uh, that's a great benefit to Douglas to have all these people come. We had a, uh, one of the local restaurants took a cart out there and they did very well. Uh, they, they, some of them stayed in the local hotel. So, uh, the, like, I just like to keep golf, uh, kind of in the forefront because it's a big deal for retirees, especially retirees. They come down and they want to play golf. There's no golf course. They're not going to come. So that'll bring more people down to Douglas. People do fundraisers, football teams, cheerleaders. The Douglas softball teams was out there also selling food. So they did very well also. So then as far as, This this. September 11th is coming up and I just like to invite everybody to the Douglas fire department ceremony at 9 o'clock there in front of the of the fire department. So, if you can attend, please do so. So that's all I got. So.

I was recently contacted by Giovanni Enriquez. He's the director of the Instituto Municipal de Deportes de Agua Preta. He wanted to talk about regarding some sports and recreation development opportunities taking place in Agua Preta and also to involve Douglas with it. We had a good conversation about the youth sports, recreation, and how these types of activities can strengthen the relationship between the Los and the Volcrita. There are also a lot of opportunities worth exploring, particularly those that benefit our youth family on both sides of the border. Also, big kudos for the Public Works. Every pothole that I've sent them, it gets covered within 48 hours, especially with monsoon. It just rips our streets apart, and that's it. Thank you, Mr. Shelton.

yes i'd like to thank our street workers for doing an excellent job on the sidewalks and not only that the ones that they're starting to prepare i've had a lot of comments on the library so um people are really enjoying going to the library taking their children And so that's like three different occasions this past month. OK, as many of you know, we have a number of United States Marines here. And I've talked to several of them. And they say they really love Douglas and how they have been accepted and treated. And then the last thing I know Jose went over this, the golf course. I was out there the last day for most of the day, not golfing, but just seeing how it went. But the number of local people thanked us. for revitalizing bowl number nine, or I guess 11 through 18. And then, so that's something I think is one of the chief things that we need to hold on to and get people down here to stay in our hotels and come. My wife, plays every Tuesday in Sierra Vista. And now the ladies, now I think not this Tuesday, but the following Tuesday, 10 to 14 of them will be coming down to play on the golf course. Anyway, that's all. God bless all of you out there, and thank you for coming.

Thank you. I want to congratulate the Douglas Public Library for their streak of best customer service. I've asked staff to book breakfast for them, like we usually do. And as a huge thank you, they do a great job. they don't have uniforms and they don't have any polos. And this is something they've asked every breakfast I bought them and staff still hasn't. I think we should take care of them, especially a safety issue in a place like the library that, you know, they go and they talk to people. You don't know if they work for the city or not. So that's the least we should do for them. Again, if you didn't hear the news, Cattle Crossing is now open in Douglas, first in the nation, only in the nation so far. We're getting the attention from the federal government. Thank you to also Madam Supervisor over there. She'll give us a briefing on the county activities, but this partnership has really put Douglas on the map. So I thank you and I appreciate you. We also had Sky Islands Border Day. It's about a few entrepreneurs or business people from Cervista. It helps out because right when we mentioned we needed marketing, he brought in a marketing person. He's going to see the presentation today about what Douglas needs. Also with the AZ League, I want to thank the Secretary of State of Arizona. I had the opportunity to be part of a video for a Get Out the Vote campaign. Also at the League of Cities, talked to an investor who's looking to bring housing. And also when I told him we don't have... Armistead here. He says he could try to bring telemedicine, basically build a little community in our community with amenities there, sort of like what we see with the Coronado courts there. So he's trying to what we're talking about, bringing something like that here and expanding housing because it's deeply needed. Council member Petrigo and I also took a modular housing company around Douglas and showed them basically where they can set up, what kind of housing. They asked us, you know, they could do basically not tiny homes, but a little bit bigger than tiny homes and really big homes. And we basically told them, we need you, whatever you want to bring, we're here to support you. And also took a trip to Mexico City to visit the microplastic manufacturer that's looking to partner up with Douglas on our recycling plant. He has a contract with a very large chain that we have here. He makes dustpans and what we saw here, you know, Number one, they don't waste plastic. So if they're going to make buckets and, you know, they cut the plastic out, they use all the scraps to make new buckets, new mops, new. He even told me, and I feel embarrassed doing this, but he promised, made me promise that I was going to bring, even bring like the plungers. And they told me, make sure that people see what we do over there. They recycle tires, any type of plastic. So that's why, if it smells here, it's because of that. It's just shipped right out of the... uh the uh the machines but he employs around 200 people each person has one machine so he's trying to replicate that down here he's trying to move down here he came to douglas he loves it it's a quiet little town uh so we'll welcome him thank you all item seven uh reading of proclamations the first one is national diaper week awareness whereas Diaper need, the condition of not being able to afford a sufficient supply of clean diapers to keep babies and toddlers clean, dry, and healthy can adversely affect the health and well-being of children and their families. And whereas national surveys and research studies report that nearly one in two families struggle with diaper need and forty eight per cent of families delay changing a diaper to extend the available supply and whereas a daily or weekly supply of diapers is generally an eligibility requirement for babies and toddlers to participate in child care programs and quality early education programs that enable children to thrive and parents to work and whereas many parents struggling with diaper need report missing an average of five days of work each month due to insufficient supply of diapers and whereas without any enough diapers babies and toddlers risk infections and health problems that may require medical attention resulting in medical costs and parents may be prevented from accessing child care needed to go to work or school thereby destabilizing the family's economic prospects and well-being and whereas the people of douglas recognize that diaper need is a public health issue and addressing diaper need can lead to economic opportunity for the state's families and communities and improved health for children thus ensuring all children and families have access to the basic necessities required to thrive and reach their full potential, and whereas Douglas is proud to be home to trusted community-based organizations that recognize the importance of diapers in ensuring health and providing economic stability for families and thus distribute diapers for families through various channels, and whereas through their important work of addressing diaper need, diaper banks play a critical role in supporting families, improving infant health and well-being, and advancing our local and state economic growth, now therefore i jose grijalva mayor and on behalf of the city of douglas council do hereby proclaim the week of september fourteenth to the twentieth as national diaper need awareness week in the city of douglas arizona and i thank the aforementioned diaper banks their staff volunteers and donors for the unwavering service to their communities and encourage the citizens of arizona to donate donate generously to diaper banks diaper drives and support those organizations that collect and distribute diapers the families struggling with diaper need so that all of douglas's children and families can thrive and reach their full potential and i have a plaque here if anybody Well, the individual who made the diaper awareness was Ms. Diana Lamar, and she can't be here. So I'm going to invite the next best option in Mr. Helfrich to give you this, the proclamation. And thank you for all the awareness you do for our community.

Mayor, I just wanted to add, she's not here because she broke her wrist.

The second proclamation is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Whereas domestic violence is a preventive public health problem affecting all communities, regardless of age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation, and whereas more than 10 million adults experience domestic violence annually in the United States, according to a survey conducted by the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, And whereas domestic violence is a pattern of coercive control and abusive behaviors in any intimate or familial relationship that are used to gain and maintain power and control over another. And whereas domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 to 44. And whereas one in four women and one in ten men experience emotional abuse, isolation, economic abuse, using children, tech abuse, sexual coercion. And whereas between 2009 and 2023 in Arizona, 1,543 people lost their lives due to domestic violence, according to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. and whereas by promoting healthy, respectful, and nonviolent relationships, communities can help reduce the occurrence of intimate partner violence and prevent the harmful and long-lasting effects of intimate partner violence on individuals, families, and communities, and whereas Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month provides the opportunity to enhance the education, prevention, and intervention efforts around domestic violence and support organizations that provide advocacy efforts, services, and assistance to victims, Now therefore, I, Jose Grijalva, Mayor, and on behalf of the City of Douglas Council, do hereby proclaim the month of October 2026 to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And if we see something, let's say something and protect each other. We are our brother's keeper. Next proclamation, Hispanic Heritage Month, Mes de la Herencia Hispana. Whereas for more than a century, the city of Douglas has embraced a diverse culture interwoven with the Mexican culture, and whereas the Hispanic community is a dynamic value part of our city and a vital contributor to our economy with an entrepreneurial spirit, a strong work ethic, and an unwavering belief in the american dream and whereas hispanic culture shapes the city of douglas community and influences our art literature music food faith family values thereby enriching our people and whereas the purpose of hispanic heritage month is to recognize the countless contributions of hispanic heritage people to the united states of america many people of hispanic heritage serve as civic leaders politicians educators innovators health care professionals first responders scientists athletes artists religious leaders and more and whereas hispanic heritage is interwoven into the city of douglas and reflects a beautiful array of distant distinct culture in our community. Now, therefore, that I, Jose Grijalva, mayor, and on behalf of the city of Douglas, Arizona, do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month, Mes de la Herencia Hispana, and call upon the citizens of Douglas to celebrate the talents, culture, and spirit of Hispanic heritage. Like I've been telling people when I go around, if you want to come see a taste of Mexico without crossing the border, you should come to Douglas, Arizona. PB, Jorge Boone. : item eight and just as a transparency issue because we have usually everybody in the audience at this time i've moved up the city manager reports, so the Community can know what city managers been up to Mrs or Kiko.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. I'll start off also with some recent trainings and then go into policy priorities. Mr. Pedroza and myself attended an ad bank summit in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to hear from industry leaders from the entire border community, but more so from the southern Texas border. It convened subject matter experts on issues at the border, the new tariffs affecting manufacturing and water use. It was eye-opening to see how Texas has such a vast system of resources that help it attract industry from workforce development and real estate preparation to working with local governments on meeting the needs of the industries. The use and availability of water is a front and center topic as it is along other sections of the southern border, which also requires the agriculture industry to be at the table as they are major users, 70% of water along the border for that respective area. Besides great panelists, we also heard from the Mexican consul to the United States and the U.S. consul to Mexico, the governor of Nuevo León, and the mayor of Ciudad Juarez. Overall, a very productive conference that gave us a glimpse into the mega region and how we can position ourselves for future industrial attractions. Again, as was stated, we attended League of Cities and Towns Conference. And a little context to Ms. Pedrigo's comment, I encouraged our mayor and council to attend seeking a new city manager training. Training is so important for, especially offered by the Arizona State League, to determine what our best practice is to pursue that. just in planning for city managers that will future retirements. So that is always very important as is just continued training for both management and our elected officials. Also, as for our policy priorities, our infrastructure continues to move along. The NAB Bank Beef Fund allocation today was a result of many years of work with our partners in San Antonio, $8 million for that project to advance our water and wastewater utility line. Also, we have so far 7,720 linear feet of sewer pipe installed and nine manholes, 11,014 linear feet of water, and the contractor is working on a modification for future customer stub outs for our growth opportunities. We continue to be challenged by the need to close still this funding gap. That's part of what we... just focus on day in and day out to try and gap that and get that fully committed. Our IT team did finalize their deployment of high-speed internet for the Cochise County Fair later this month for their gates, designed to streamline admissions, reduce process delays, and significantly improve the overall guest experience through more efficient point-of-sale operations. Well 18, during the week of September 8, the well was run on and off for testing purposes, getting the motor and valve set correctly and flushing accumulated sand. The flushing was directed to the street. This is the one on Causey Park, 15th Street Park. The well will be an added source to our water supply within 30 days. Also, great job to our staff because we've been working on so many projects. additions and enhancements to our water distribution system. Well 20, as we heard during the public hearing, is moving along and initial construction is 100% complete and Stantec is doing final design on the well phase and pumping test. We did receive 100% plans this week for our next phase of golf course capital improvements for the front nine. We had so many comments and compliments on the recent Labor Day tournament on the back nine. We will be putting the front nine project out to bid soon. uh we did find as we advance some of our wells we end up with other issues and other wells our well nine has a major deterioration to the well shaft and when removing the pump and performing uh the downhole video the shaft was deformed with no chance of rehab or lining so the recommendation is to drill a new well in the same vicinity as um you know just be able to use the long-term aqua friendly area so always Our challenges ebb and flow throughout. Downtown revitalization. An information session for the downtown streetscape will take place September 29th at 5.30 at the Visitor Center tentatively, but more to come on the venue. There will be a pre-recorded information session to continue to deliver technical clarifications and allow for questions and or comments. Council has met with J2 and all of their stormwater engineers for thorough questioning and answer sessions and are closer to understanding the need for some of the changes due to ADA compliance, storm drainage requirements and for with changes. But we are looking at a few alternative on those faces. And also there's necessary safety for safe backup because angled parking was such a big criteria and important part of our public input. Also, a downtown expo will take place at the Gadsden on October 1st. We have flyers back here that I encourage folks to take with them. There is a QR code to register. The downtown expo is an effort to provide information to not only community members, but building owners and visitors. and others for overall downtown revitalization. Our architects on the downtown streetscape will also be present to continue sharing their information on that project. But this is in response to direction given by mayor and council after a petition was filed earlier this year regarding some of the challenges to the design, more specifically to the turning lane situation. So Council did direct staff to provide more facts and information, not just on the streetscape, but for overall revitalization efforts. So we've turned this into basically a resource fair, and hopefully it's the first of many, and we encourage participation in that. On our managing growth and annexations, the city will begin a 60-day notification period to agencies for the major general plan required for our west annexation. We have been working on this diligently for over two and a half years, maybe even longer than that. This is a very, very rigid process full of bureaucracy and just red tape between so many different laws that are and interactions with those that are either abutting the area that we're annexing or conditions placed by some of the large corporations that may own property along the way. So that amendment is to conform to general plan zonings with a recent rezoning of this parcel to general commercial will allow us the next steps to enter into that pre-annexation agreement and kick off our first phase of west annexation process. And that's a huge part of the staggered annexation plan that's in place that has been in place for a few years now and that's what staff has followed not one before the other but simultaneously at the same time on many of those efforts streets and roads at the airport and airport the asphalt gas lines are being installed the control booth is ready to be hooked up to all of the plant wiring the adeq permit has been obtained and the scales need to be calibrated the gates and aggregate bins need to be built, but commissioning can be scheduled once the gas is there and available. Chino Road realignment project is moving along well. Chino Road will be closing starting September 14th for about 40 days. There will be a detour and signage and public information going out to make sure that that's clear to our community. The detour will be on 9th Street, and we have started that information being distributed. Our curb, gutter, and sidewalk work is underway on 9th Street at Cochise Avenue near the Ballard Events Center, and that's about half done. The citizen pay curb, uh is underway also that program under van buren south of 15th street we do have airport security fencing projects underway uh as of october 5th that's through a grant and airport pavement preservation design work with kim lee horn as a consultant is underway as well The new radio transceiver on the runway light controls is scheduled to be installed this Friday. And that's great for the airport. We have other capital improvements scheduled for the airport as well. Just a few other quick things. Planning and Zoning Commission meets September 17th at 5.30. They will discuss the zoning code amendment and a minor general plan text amendment. The Douglas Transit Advisory Committee will meet September 17th at 10.30 at the transit office. You may have noticed a big rig in the alley of C Avenue between 7th and 8th streets. This rig belongs to a Southwest gas contractor inspecting lines for corrosion. They do have all of their right-of-way permits. Also, our abatement process for sunspots, particularly in the swimming pool area, letters have been mailed with all the Q&A, both in English and in Spanish, and we have extended that abatement period to allow for a better understanding of what the process is under Douglas Municipal Code. And we have secured the swimming pool with temporary fencing and deployed mosquito tablets for mosquito larvae and contain that if that has been an issue with continued rains. We are also researching title reports for the property because it has become a complex issue with multiple, I think it's 81 parcels co-owning the swimming pool. So we're working through a lot of that with legal. Also, as was stated earlier, we invite the community to our 25th anniversary of 9-11 remembrance ceremony Friday, September 11th at 9 a.m. at the Douglas Fire Department. And we have several flyers that will be available again as you leave. Thank you.

Thank you. Item number nine, governmental updates. Supervisor?

Yes, good evening and thank you for giving me this opportunity to give you guys an update. First of all, we have to be really concerned with West Nile virus. It has been shown up in Sierra Vista. There's quite a few cases and there's quite a few cases of mosquitoes throughout the county because of all the rain. So please take your kids and yourself, use off, you know, before you go outside to prevent the mosquitoes from biting you. This is, it's been pretty serious up in Sierra Vista.

I

And we had quite a few cases last year because of all the rain and the health department, county health department acted real quickly and we were able to kind of get ahead of the game. So all parents and people, please, when you go out for sports, make sure you put on off or anything that will keep the mosquitoes from biting you. Something that's really good news with the county bought an animal shelter right there by across from Huachuca City's City Council. This is going to be about, I think it's a little bit about two acres. It's going to be great because it's a central location for county dogs when we find them. This should relieve pressure from Benson, Wilcox and Douglas. People will be easier to locate their animals at a central location. And the key about doing this now, interesting, I always get my peers always say, hey, somebody's got to do something about it. So I took the animal shelter thing up. And what we're going to do is make sure that all of us in the county, all the dog shelters, are going to be using the same software program. We're going to have quarterly meetings with the city of Douglas, Wilcox, Benson, and the county. And the sheriff is going to be running it out of his office. There is quite a few... Great employees. The animal control officers are unbelievable. They're really good at what they do. And this is going to make it so we're all talking to each other. We all know what the other people are doing. We'll be working together as a county instead of individual. municipalities because the county has igas with both benson wilcox and douglas we want to make sure we're able to take care of these animals and get them adopted um we are aware that we can't be in no kill shelter because it's just it's just not it's just sometimes impossible to fulfill that but we'll do the best we can and it's really exciting because uh as they say everyone's going to be talking we'll be having quarterly meetings we'll all be on the same page which is something different has been happening before. One thing when you're talking about libraries, I have to give a shout out to Margaret White. When we were writing the white paper for Secretary Rollins for the Screw Worm Distribution Center at BDI, won all the USDA and there were some researchers and they had a US University of Arizona gotten a grant to look at the economics of what happens when you have a screw worm. They needed some background history and there wasn't any they could find. So they went to our head library district. I always forget her name, but she contacted Margaret White and she did an astounding job. I think actually part of her work to show that we had done this before that we were able to closely eradicate the screwworm was another one of the reasons they decided to have it in Douglas again. So her work was great. She gave them, and of course, Cindy Iostick, so much information that they're even maybe gonna use one of the mascots, one of the little mascots they had back in the 60s and 70s as they decide to open it. So update on the Screwworm Distribution Center. We are now talking to the aviation company that has been hired by USDA to start to deliver the flies to different localities. So I'm excited about this. Having this group distributed here probably will bring about 50 jobs. We're looking at now another aviation company. Also, the bigger plan for BDI, which if people don't know is Bisbee Douglas International Airport, is the staff and I are going to be working on a master plan. In Thatcher, there's 60 businesses at their county airport that are working out of that. The county has 2,800 acres. We already have... a company that is doing uh filming we have a company that is actually refurnishing warbirds and now with usda being in there this is really huge for our area and it's going to make us put us on the map and with the cattle pin opening up you know i want to assure the ranchers and stuff that even though there's eight cases in sonora they're south of here there's a very very There's three different steps. If one cattle is found, if they're herded to the border, the whole, once it's crossed over, they're tagged and monitored. There's vets here to make sure that nothing comes across. And they're also doing a lot of great work in Sonora also.

So it's exciting news. I, of course, didn't have anything to do with opening the cattle.

PB, Lupita D Montoya, I think, having the school of distribution and the cattle pins opening up just makes really good common sense, and we need to get on it as soon as possible, so hopefully the next time I come up to you. PB, Lupita D Montoya, groundbreaking ceremony for the school distribution Center at PDI um. The other thing I want to let you all know that I gave out of my community enhancement funds $5,000 to Cochise County Fairgrounds to help them with marketing. The Cochise County Tourism Board never did market the county fair. It's one of our largest events. I think just when it was 100 years old, we had over 53,000 people come and visit. so this is really key to take something that is really beneficial to the county and just help it along so hopefully in the next two or three years i can establish a good marketing plan with them give them some money and some help in making sure they market themselves so tombstone does a great job if anybody looks at the tucson news they always have commercials it's not that expensive so that's something that uh accounting would be doing um interesting you mentioned annexation The one thing I want to make sure that the council understands, I get a lot of complaints from people in the county who don't unfortunately want to be part of Douglas. And the system that's been done for the past two years is that the staff will go and talk to five different people, get three people to say yes, And then that's it, majority rules. You're taking it by piece by piece. And then the people who didn't want it, the other two, don't even know about it because they don't get notified. And then they call me, and there's really nothing I can do. I would say I understand your annexation, why you want to annex. I would say you need to do it fairly and transparent. and open and do it more broadly. So you're not just doing it piece by piece. I know that in Purtiville, Mr. Green has a couple of houses signed, has people sign a little documentation saying, if I buy this house, I'm in favor of annexation. So I'm giving a heads up to Purtiville. Everyone has to be open and transparent. If we want to get rid of the corruption kind of reputation we have, we have to be open and transparent. And that starts here at the city, and it starts at the county. So just as city council members in which we, the people who live here, elect you, we hold you all responsible, I would like to tell these people that the city is going to look at and making it more transparent and inviting people to the table and taking it piece by piece. So thank you. I have to say, thank you.

Thank you supervisor item 10 discussion decision on approvals item a 1st reading of ordinance number 26 dash 1243 in ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas coaches, county, Arizona, adopting the document filed with the city clerk entitled. 2026 amendments to title 2 by reference to a mental 2 of the Douglas municipal code relating to the rules of conduct for council meetings, establishing severability of components of ordinance and establishing an effective date thereof. It was supposed to be an emergency, but I do not have enough counsel for this. Mr. given was going to talk about it, but I'm just going to bring it up because I'm the 1 that messaged you all. So there was a meeting where we had constituent come up during the call to the public. In the back of the call to the public form, it said that there are certain things you cannot say. So, when I tried to enforce those rules. Legal then message the clerk, then message me that said, you have to let them talk. You can't censor them. So, the day after the meeting, I said, then why do we have these meetings that we can enforce these rules on? So this is the whole reason why it is why we're having this. The reason it was by emergency, because it goes in effective immediately after the boat, which then we're going to have the, the. Call to the public, so we wouldn't have to worry. But since I do not have any. Enough counsel for an emergency, we will do it as a 1st reading and then the 2nd reading, we will, we could do it by emergency at the next meeting. But this is basically, we can censor people just because the municipality passes an ordinance doesn't mean that we overwrite state law. And this is basically what it was for. Dennis, did I miss anything? This is strictly because there was also a post on Facebook and I just want to make sure we're not limiting the time for the people. We're just basically eliminating anything that goes against ARS, correct?

Well, I mean, Mr. Mayor, everything you said, I think, is correct. And when we do a call to the public, it's considered what they call a limited public forum where council can put some reasonable restrictions on like three minutes, they can vote for three minutes, things like that. But because you're dealing with First Amendment issues, there's always some types, some things can be, you don't wanna limit anybody based on their speech. unless somebody's up there threatening somebody. I mean, threats are not protected by the First Amendment. Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. So there's certain things that can be regulated. But for the most part, when you're dealing with a call to the public, unless somebody's being disruptive to the meeting, you got to let them speak during the three minutes.

Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the placement of ordinance number 26-1243?

I move that the Mayor and Council approve the placement of ordinance number 26-1243 on its first reading by number and title only.

Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Mrs. Pedro, second by Mr. Montano. Any discussion?

Mayor, or Mr. Fitzgibbons, what type of comments were made that were protected under the First Amendment during that meeting that Mr. Huffman stated?

I'll answer that, Dennis. It was basically naming people. The ordinance said that we couldn't name staff. We couldn't criticize staff, which First Amendment applies to that. Mr. Braverman?

And Council Member Montano, I wasn't actually at that meeting. Another attorney in my office, Nick Cook, was at that meeting.

I just question it because even though it is a First Amendment right to speak your mind, we also need a way to keep disruptive behavior or profanities from being said in the setting. I mean, I agree that the First Amendment protects a lot of it, but there's also got to be some type of limit on the profanity or disruptive behavior that's occurring when there's a business trying to be made. And I'm not trying to question this, but I think we need to maybe discuss this a little more.

As Mr. Fitzgibbon mentioned, Mr. Montano, we can regulate obscenities, we can regulate threats, but we cannot regulate them saying certain employees or certain council members and this, this. That's freedom of speech. We can get sued.

Yeah, I agree with that. but the the paper that was given to me with the crossing out above of certain things that are being taken out that is what it's it's removing the obscenity part and that so i i don't agree that that we should uh remove this without further discussion this is the discussion and that's the first reading okay you still have second reading sounds good okay i think uh

Complete city council needs to just sit down and go over this before, you know, this is sort of a, let's change everything. I think we need to bring some good common sense into this and make sure we're doing the right thing.

Dennis, your legal opinion?

Well, I think it's, you know, these calls to the public can be difficult because, I mean, especially when you look tonight in your audience, you have a lot of younger people in your audience. And if so, if somebody came in and started using foul language and things like that, you know, I mean, even what remains is the mayor can always say, listen, I'm going to recess the meeting for a minute. I'm going to ask those parents that want to remove their children from the meeting, because obviously you have a very colorful way of speaking. but I don't think young children need to hear that. And so that's one thing the mayor could do. But as long as the person's not being disruptive, and don't get me wrong, Council Member Shelton, I know none of us like to hear that language, but as long as they're not being disruptive, the people have a right to speak. It's also where we've seen in some council meetings, especially when you get into the obscenity issue, you know, Some people will bring books from the city library that have very, very specific language in them talking about, you know, sexual acts or something like that. And really the only thing the mayor can do at that time is really say, ma'am, or to whoever's reading it, I'm going to call for a recess. I'm going to allow parents that don't want their children to hear this to be removed from the room. But I mean, it's tough to say that they can't say that when they're reading from a book in our library. I mean, so, you know, these are tough issues and a lot of council are trying to do it. I think the way this was written before was, you know, we asked that they refrain from that. And I think the mayor thought he was put in a difficult position because if they have a right to say it, I think really the main thing he only can do really is ask for a recess to allow parents of underage children who don't want to listen to that type of talk to leave the meeting room.

So basically we can't censor them. They can say it as long as they're not threatening us, as long as they're not being disruptive. We can't censor them. And then just to remind you all, we did raise our hand and say we defend the Constitution. also the city charter and also the state of Arizona. So this is our legal advice. If you all don't wish to take it, that's up to you all. But I'll leave that as far as the discussion goes. Roll call.

I have another question.

Roll call. I called roll call.

Council Member Pedrego?

Yes.

Council Member Montaño?

No. I think we need to discuss it more.

Council Member Durazo?

No.

Council Member Shelton?

No.

Mr. Mayor?

I'm going to vote no to bring it back up because again, this is putting the city in liability. If somebody goes up there and says, you can't say that, they can sue us and everybody in this room pays for it just because politicians up here get their feelings hurt. We knew what we got up here for. So motion fails, excuse me, but this will be brought up again at the next meeting. Item 11 person solution to address the council in writing or verbally on any item not on the agenda. We'll start with, we'll start with the little one. Did they leave? We'll start with the little one so they can leave really quick. Recognition of plaque for the city. I love that you put all three of your names because we have somebody else.

So we are here a couple months ago, we were here because we were trying to see if we can get some community funding for a trip to Lake Tahoe, Nevada. These girls, as well as several others that aren't here today, they weren't able to make it, made it to nationals with their dance teams. It was three different groups. It was a group of eight, 10 and 11 year olds and two duets that they were both over 12 and over. And we were able to get funding for the trip to be able to make it to Nevada. Obviously it was a very expensive trip and they made it to national. So it was a pretty big accomplishment for them. At Nationals, our group, which is this age group, which is the 10-11 group, was able to get high gold, which is pretty astounding, as well as both other teams, which also got high gold. And we wanted everybody to know just what a big accomplishment it was and how thankful we are for the support that we did get from the city, the mayor and the council. And yeah, that's why we're here today to present you all with a plaque that we got for the city and for everyone here in appreciation for helping us in July.

Here's a bigger question. Did you girls have fun?

We'll take a photo. Is that okay?

Yes.

Next up, Mr. Braverman. Oh, we're going to before you go on really quick. I'm going to keep these at three minutes. Usually other people are really fast, but we're going to go three minutes for everybody that time for the public.

All right, two things. All this stuff is really great that everyone's talking about, but without an economy or tourism, nothing happens. The Last Supper Museum, one of the number one tourist attractions, just experienced the worst June, July, and August in our four-year history. Please start putting some funds into tourism and some economic development instead of losing 27 businesses. Second, no one's ever used profanity in here. No one's ever used profanity in here ever. It would have been me. Third thing I'd like to say, the Circle K thing sounds real fishy over at the high school. Someone involved with the... school board owns that property, apparently, and they wanna put a Circle K, you don't? Well, they still wanna put a Circle K next to the high school and change the zoning, and Circle Ks always bring down property values, and all it offers to the kids is bad food, too much sugar, cigarettes, cigars, vapes, and beer, and Mike's Hard Lemonade type of stuff. How that benefits the city, I'd really like to know. I'd really, really, really like to know. I have a nice time.

Thank you.

No one needs to sing profanity here, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Braverman. Lizzy Boss?

Good evening, Mayor DeHavilland, members of the City Council. My name is Lizzy Boss. Thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to speak and to ask a few questions. First of all, the last time I was here, I mentioned that I it's game and that birdies that are going to be affected into the state nobody's asked me my opinion or even come to talk to me, which is disheartening now that's just one. I will attend the next meeting for that and see hopefully maybe I changed my mind I don't know, secondly. Um, I've seen some comments on Facebook regarding the sale of a property on San Antonio. I've asked some questions and haven't been able to get any answers. So that's why I'm here. I'm not sure who attended their is toward council members. Are they representing? Are they representing a couple of people? Are they going to represent the community? Because that's not. Not sign an NDA again. If you can't tell us what you guys are doing, then you're representing us. My other question is this. Does anybody here have a conflict of interest? Is this more of the buddy system that Douglas is famous for? I'd ask each one of you to answer that question. Put this in public. I want to know, is there a public of interest? The lack of transparency is the problem here. This might be a wonderful Is this going to be good for the community to be safe. The school is nearby.

Is how is this gonna Be safe.

We don't know because you guys aren't telling us. Nobody is. I can't get an answer. 30 seconds remaining. I'd at least put it out there in public. Thank you.

I'm going to butcher your last name. Julian Come up here, Jillian. That's why. Oh, Jillian. I thought it was Jillian.

Oh, okay.

Because I was like, was I calling you the wrong name this whole time? Jillian, how do you pronounce it?

Warhowitz.

Warhowitz?

Yes.

Warhowitz? Warhowitz, yeah.

Hi, my name is Jillian Morhowitz. I am a small-scale farmer here at Douglas, and I'm also the COO of the local co-op. I just wanted to really thank the city of Douglas the mayor and the city council members for supporting the Douglas market this year. It was off to a slow start, but in the past couple of months, it really has picked up in momentum. And I just wanted to share with you guys how much wonderful feedback we've gotten from the community. And so we've been able to, through community enhancement funds from the Cochise County Supervisor Gomez, we've been able to bring our produce bus to the market every month and provide produce vouchers through various... community organizations like Pinal Hispanic Council, Community Health Associates, Arizona Border Alliance, and Council Member Dillman has also been able to give produce vouchers to Migrant women and children that she works with through the school district and that has been able to provide a fresh food access to. Douglas city members residents that needed the most, and so that alongside of a program we've been able to create at the blueberry CAFE wellness para todos. has been able to really expand fresh food access. throughout Douglas and we've also through the Arizona farmers market nutrition program have been able to bring in just under a thousand dollars of fresh produce vouchers to the community members specifically with participants and our senior seniors out here in douglas and with this momentum that's been happening with the douglas market we would ask that we could continue to collaborate during the holiday season and allow us to continue running the market through the holidays and keep the momentum going and continue supporting our small farms and also our food access programs that we've been able to pick up and really grow these past summers. Thank you.

Thank you. Julian.

And I knew it was, I knew your last name was Gonzalez, but I was like, was I calling you the wrong name?

Yeah, no, it's just easy to remember, right? Thank you guys. I just wanted to, I'm a small scale farmer. I have my ranchito outside of town. So I have the best of both worlds. I come in and out of town. I have just as many friends out of town as I do in town. So thank you guys for the opportunity to build out this platform. And like this man was saying, We need more money. We need more opportunities to get some money. The people of Douglas have the skills. They have the ganas. They just need the platform. They just need the opportunity. And so I'm not thinking about myself. I'm thinking about the future me, the next me, the person who needs $20, $40, but can't drive to Sierra Vista. And what better way to work together through the winter when that's when most people come to Douglas. So why not highlight all the cool stuff that all the vendors and all the people that are actually making stuff? Because there is grants and we could reach out. That's not what I want to do. Why not cultivate what's in Douglas already? Right? good food. We have good people and we have hardworking people that have the skills to do it. There's just no platform for them to exhibit those, to show off those skills. And so it's been slow, but I'm trying to look out for the person next year, two years from now, the younger person who has that idea and now there's a platform. And so if your skills are that good and you can sell and you're good with people, you can make money and you don't need to look outside. So let's cultivate what we have in Douglas before looking outside. Thank you. Thank you.

Let's go the third one, Douglas Market. Come on, Diana Pacheco. And I mean, just as an FYI, we could have said that you guys are a committee, but I know that you all did different things. So that's why I had the three of you talk separately. So go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Diana Pacheco. I am from Douglas, Arizona at 333 F Avenue. And I also came to talk about the Douglas Market. I wanted to give you guys some update about the events we've had over the summer. We've had a superhero market that was successful. We've had a couple of different children's markets. And real quick, at our first children's market, we actually got in the middle of a monsoon. direct staff i don't know if i can name them by name or not thank you to nikki de la torre and her small team they were really great even though it was pouring pouring way outside and um the park had flooded they got completely soaked and helped out all the vendors to make sure everyone had left sound safe and sound before they left so i'm very grateful and i was really happy to see their dedication to the vendors so shout out to Nikki you're great and also to the rec staff and the business staff they've been reaching out and really making sure the market has everything we need so thank you to you guys it's been really great and to the council members as well we've received your support for the market several times so thank you for that and whoever would like to visit us we are every Friday at the Castro Park, 4 to 8 p.m. We are constantly having events, live music. A couple weeks ago, we have a Zoomathon that was really successful. Next week, we're having a Norteño Zoomathon, so whoever would like to join us, you're all welcome to. Thank you. Oh, real quick. And I also want to thank a couple of our community members who are also our volunteers because without him, we couldn't make it as successful as it has been. Thank you to Avery Villarreal from the Cochise College and thank you to Alba Pacheco from the House of Hope. You guys are great.

Thank you.

Thank you. Tiffany Silva.

Good evening. My name is Tiffany Silva and this is Ariella Pahn. We're also here from Douglas and kind of along the same lines of let's keep our talent in Douglas. I'm a nurse and I am supporting diabetes education and I feel like Douglas is lacking strongly. So I really want to put on community classes, community walks for the elderly, you know, so that they feel more comfortable. Somebody is younger that, you know, can help them out. And, you know, so I'm really trying to, you know, diabetes, because that hits very close to There's so many talented people here. There's nurses, there's CNAs, there's doctors. There's so many people here. Why is our healthcare system looking like this? I do not understand that. So one of my goals is to just really try our best to get funding we already are working with border alliance group i already have um my own grant accounts trying to find anything that we can do with the community because unfortunately the elderly especially they just don't have the funding to pay for yeah for classes like that and i just don't want to come in and say hey I want to teach diabetes, but you're going to have to pay me. I just don't like that idea because we are a community. And as a community, we should be healthy together. And I want to change that. And I know Ariella is also very, you know, willing to.

I just need to add something. She said diabetes. coaches county um we are on the board of the arizona diabetic um it's the education um committee and so yeah we're just looking for hopefully some funding or a place with your guys's help Yeah, to help put out these things for the community. And of course, we'd add into the community, the need for something special, like training for CPR, first aid, for teacher, or bus drivers, thing like that. So we have our eyes open.

We want to 30 seconds remaining.

Thank you. And we will meet with other people, you know, other committees that are already active and working, you know, food, huge deal, you know, all these things.

I'll grab the Douglas Market.

Yes, always.

Mayor?

Well, we have your information.

We're going to, I'm going to direct Alma, our city clerk, to reach out to you all. And then you have Kathleen there to see how we can partner up.

Say something. They're going to be at the rooster's nest on Thursday, Thursday, September the 18th at 6 p.m. That's going to be a great opportunity to meet with her. I'm sorry.

There's no back-to-back talking about the public. I was going to find a way to slip that in, but I couldn't. But thank you. We'll coordinate on that and make sure that we market your events too. Save the best for last. Susan Ann Kramer. Oh, wait, no, I have another one. Where did I have? Jenna Salchow. Yeah.

Best for last.

A dear friend of mine.

Hello and good evening. My name is, oh yeah, okay. My name is Jana Selcha and I live at 1563 San Antonio Drive in the Apple White neighborhood. I've lived there for 40, I've lived in Douglas for 45 years and I've lived in that neighborhood for 37. I watched and rewatched last month's special board meeting regarding the zoning for a new Circle K store to be built at the corner 15th and Florida. I'm a little concerned at some of the incorrect information from the Circle K representatives. No, the school board members were not informed of this possible build. No, there has been no opinion from the collective board of which I am a member. And I only speak for myself. School boards do not give opinions collectively or as individual school board members. were incorrect and misleading, made possibly to persuade a positive vote. And that is my opinion. As a community member and a resident of the Applewhite Edition, I do not support nor do I want a convenience store built at this location. Traffic on 15th Street is already very congested from Douglas High School, Joe Carlson Elementary, Omega Alpha, and Huber Middle School. Parents and students flowing into the parking lot of a convenience store before school, at lunch, and after school, plus during special events would only make it tremendously worse. Parents are parked bumper to bumper along 15th Street and Florida Avenue to pick up their students, which is the targeted location for the store. Pardon me. Traffic pulling into the store's parking lot will create a tremendous traffic chaos. I can only imagine the number of accidents that will ensue. I am always in favor of new commerce for our community. I love Douglas. I counted seven gas stations and a new one is soon to open at the corner of Pan American and Highway 80. There are two Eastside stores that already sell food items and other items which would be sold by the Circle K. There are many properties already zoned for this type of business in town and some are currently for sale. There has already been one... 30 seconds remaining. Pardon me. Okay, scared me.

Do you want me to stop?

Okay. There has already been one reading of the Circle K project, and very few people seem to know about it before our last council meeting. Until yesterday, I've only heard one person say they support the project, and this person does not live in the neighborhoods that will be affected. Please take some time to consider the information I've shared with you. The consequences for approval may not be favorable for our community. Thank you.

You know, you know, Susan and Kramer, the best for last.

I don't know about that. And Kramer and 1250 East 9th Street here in Douglas. And I just want to say I wanted to thank the council and the city for allowing me to attend the the conference that the good cities. league of cities and towns and i'm not going to hash what she had said um about uh workshops or two um i do think was uh it was also really helpful to find out that there are a whole lot of small towns and cities in arizona that we may have seen their names but we have going on there and HA getting to talk with people from different cities it's amazing are going through the exact same we are they're facing the same challenges that Douglas was it was really. and it was really helpful and I got some good insight so that when I do end up sitting up there with you all, that it will help me and it should help the city of Douglas. Thank you.

Thank you. She's already doing work and not getting paid for it. You're in those class. Item 12. Oh, that's right. Go ahead, but next time, if you could do one for each, because when I usually separate them, when you put them for two items, so if you could, Mr. Helfrich.

Steve Helfrich, Studio Architecture, 1303 F Avenue.

I just have a few.

One is, can we get some . I understand the need for Spanish, and I understand the need for English, and the invocations, I think, should be translated. If you're going to do it in Spanish, please translate it so that the people that do not speak Spanish are not left out. And I think that's an ongoing basis for everything. There was something about the charter, about the call to the public, the 30-minute limit. Am I correct on that? That you're going to limit the call to the public to 30 minutes?

You want to take that, Dennis?

If you're talking about what I said, I said that Town can put reasonable time, place, manner restrictions on call to the public. And so like a speaker has three minutes, that's like a reasonable time, place, manner restriction during call to the public. That's what I said, three minutes. I didn't mean 30.

Okay, because I did read in the package that there was a 30-minute limit, and I would like to just say that I disagree with that.

And I think you're correct on that. I don't mean to interrupt your time, but that might be something we take a look at.

Well, you know, it's eight people to speak. I've been to council meetings where those go on for three hours, but that's what you have to do. You have to listen to everybody.

Uh, I think we need years. Uh,

I think that the idea of recusing yourself as far as council people with connections, personal or company-wise, I think you should take that seriously. And if you have a relationship with an applicant, I think you need to recuse yourself. And then finally, I think that the food city decision and the the circle K decision will change the development direction of this town for many, many years. I think they're very, it's very important that it's remaining. I think it's very important that we take our time and really discuss these two issues because it will change Douglas. It will change the talent up there.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm Dennison said was mentioned the 30 minutes. If you couldn't send us a message later because I did ask if we changed anything besides the IRS when it comes to speech unless that was already in there you can let us know so we can.

Yeah, Mister Mister mayor he's right that's in the code already at the call but we weren't changing it yeah yeah it's part of the code we weren't changing but there's a section in the code that talks about call the public can be limited to 30 minutes.

Thank you. Item 12, discussion decision on approval of consent agenda items. Item A, expenditures for the month of August, 2026, totaling $4,400,000. $4,404,450.52. B, meeting minutes for August 12th, 2026. C, liquor license 010 for all subs number 102511. D, bid award to KENG Construction Inc for the West Douglas Utilities Expansion Whitewater Draw Prossing. Item E, authorizing the approval of the City of Douglas Surplus Vehicle and Equipment List in use of the public surplus online auction platform. f resolution number twenty six seventeen fifty one a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of douglas coaches county arizona authorizing the execution of an intergovernmental agreement between the city of douglas and state of arizona acting by and through its department of transportation as a designated agent for the city of douglas contribution of five million seven hundred seventy thousand dollars towards the construction of james ranch road to connect the douglas land port of entry with state route eighty Item G, resolution number 26-1752, a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the city of Douglas to enter into a reimbursable grant agreement with the Arizona Department of Transportation in the amount of $198,000 for phase four of the installation of security perimeter fencing at the Douglas Municipal Airport as part of ADOT's airport development program. And then item up for the addendum that was sent out on the 8th, item one or item a one a this resolution number 26-1753 a resolution of the mayor and council of the city of douglas coaches county arizona authorizing the city of douglas to ratify the entry into an amended into an amended intergovernmental agreement between the city of douglas and the Douglas Unified School District number 27 for purposes of providing Douglas Police Department, DPD, reserve personnel to fill two school resource officer positions within the district in the city of Douglas. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items?

I make a motion that we approve the consent.

Do I have a second? Second motion by Mister Shelton second by Mister Montaño and any one I don't have discussion here it's been sent a roll call please.

And some of the go yes and some of them and I know yes and some of the rest of yes and some of the shelter yes Mister mayor yes motion passes item 13 a discussion decision on approvals.

I am a invitation for bid for sale of real property owner for city bidding building bid award is a people.

Yes, Mayor, members of the council, The city issued an invitation for bid for the sale of the food city building. The city purchased the building in 2022 with the intention to attract a grocer to operate out of the building via a lease or purchase. There have been various efforts and interests, but nothing feasible has moved forward on a grocery store operation. As a result, the mayor and council directed staff to open the bid for the purchase of the building without the restriction or just a grocery store. Since the new bid opened on July 22nd of this year, the city received one bid from BF&S and Inc. owned by a local business owner, Mr. Carlos Fernandez. The BF&S proposal includes the purchase of the building for $400,000 initially, which the price was later revised to $475,000. The plans to utilize the building for their corporate offices, light assembly of small electric motors using precision tools and shipping and receiving. The proposal states that BF&S will invest $1 million in the building over 12 to 24 months. Improvements are proposed to the production area, shipping docks, admin offices, the cafeteria, facade improvements, parking lot improvements, landscaping, and a new modern building paint scheme. They will hire 75 to 100 employees for this facility and increase their employees in Mexico from 500 to 800. About 50 to 75 employees will be direct operators and about 25 to 50 will be technical, supervisory and administrative positions. Positions will be full time equivalents with benefits and the bid states that be FNS is open to a deed restriction on not selling the building for at least 6 years. We have several. also that being a land discussion, Mayor and Council have requested, and we have a potential opportunity here to answer all that in executive session. So I put that back to Mayor and Council.

You mentioned going to executive session. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the bid award for the sale of the former food city building?

I make a motion that we approve this.

Well, don't we need the questions that we asked the city manager to get back to us before?

My recommendation is consideration of executive session first.

Items not on the floor to ask.

What's that?

The items not on the floor to ask for a discussion into executive session.

Well, we can ask during the, we can ask for an executive sessions, right?

Dennis? Yeah, you can, but the item's not on the floor. She wants to go in there before we talk about this item and it's placed on here. Is that, is that, you're muted.

I can't hear you, you're muted. You're muted.

Dennis, you're muted.

You're muted.

Sorry about that. I was having a great conversation with myself. Sorry. I understand the mayor. The mayor is saying we need a motion and second to discuss the item. At that point, he'll entertain a motion to go into an executive session. I think that's what I understood from the mayor.

Yeah.

Thank you. And I think at this point, we have a motion from Councilmember Shelton to place it on the agenda to be discussed or to approve the bid. And then if we get a second, then we can take the motion to go into executive session next.

Mayor, I second.

Motion by Mr. Selton, second by Mr. Pedregal. No executive session, roll call.

Councilman Pedregal? No. Councilman Bramantana?

Can I ask a question, Dennis?

No. Yes. It's roll call. I just called roll call, Dennis. There's no discussion.

I can't even vote if I can't even discuss what we're gonna vote on.

The vote is on the bid award.

It's presented. So Dennis, would you explain a little bit of- There's no discussion during a vote roll call.

Correct, right?

Mr. Mayor, I thought we placed the item on the agenda to discuss, I thought.

Well, I had a motion. I had a second. And before they wanted to go into e-session, as the charter says in section 17 and page 11, at the request of any member of the council, a roll call vote shall be taken. I called roll call. Roll call. If anybody chooses not to vote, then it's a yes vote. Ms. Clerk?

Council Member Montano? Yes.

Yes.

Council Member Durazo? Yes. Council Member Shelton?

Yes.

Mr. Mayor?

I want to explain my vote. And I want Dennis to be hearing what I say. My vote is based on the following reasons. With the city manager and council signing NDAs on the sale for a city-owned property, I believe I cannot act in my fiduciary duty to the public because the city manager, who serves at the pleasure of the full council, including the mayor, has withheld critical information from me due to the agreement, and it could be seen as subverting the authority of her superiors. Therefore, I cannot legally and ethically weigh the pros and cons for my constituents. I did not sign one because I believe it creates a conflict of official misconduct and malfeasance and prohibits me to act solely in the best interest of the public, which would have been different if the circumstances were for economic development in a fully private transaction. Furthermore, we have repeatedly addressed this item in executive session where we are given a strict legal admonition, warning us that knowingly depriving the public of information violates our duties and carry severe penalties. an NDA that hides information in a public property transaction from the taxpayers directly contradicts that admonition. Also, meetings with counsel either one-on-one or in groups by the city manager to discuss secret information through the NDA may violate Arizona open meeting law. there may be a violation of public records laws also because the ndas nor any other document that may be of relevance are unavailable for requests some which were signed at city hall by the direction of the city manager to staff to make copies and sign them in a meeting orchestrated but not public on her calendar for a public record by the city manager and the bidding party as confirmed by staff I'd like to add from what I've gathered, our city attorney didn't sign one and was not aware of any NDAs that were signed at that time. With both council and the city manager possibly withholding, knowingly withholding information from the public and the agreements themselves causing a conflict in this vote, I'd like to direct the city attorney to take this item and vote to the open meeting law enforcement team for possible open meeting law violations and the Arizona attorney general for possible conflicts By everyone that signed, including any other staff also record resignations are also welcome. There is no discriminatory. This is not discriminatory toward the bitter or the type of business. But under the circumstances, I have explained the mayor must vote. No motion passes. May I it's items on the floor. There's no discussion. After the vote, thank you. Item B, second reading of ordinance number 26-1237, an ordinance to the mayor and council of the city of Douglas Cochise County, Arizona, rezoning parcel approximately 1.68 acres of land located at the southeast corner of 15th Street and Florida Avenue from multifamily residential MFR to general commercial and amending the official zoning district maps, establishing severability of components of ordinance and establishing an effective base thereof. Before that's even read, the city did not do its due diligence, correct, Dennis, on providing a notice that we needed to do. So we are officially tabling this item until we provide the notice for the October meeting. Is that correct?

Yeah, I'm involved in these conversations, but my understanding is the city, we request that we table it for tonight so that we can do additional notices.

Thank you. Item C, second reading of ordinance number 26-1238, an ordinance to the mayor and council of the city of Douglas Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the purchase of real property with assessor parcel number 409-27-00270, approving the purchase from Cochise County and authorizing the mayor and the city manager to execute all necessary documents, establishing severability of components of ordinance and establishing an effective date thereof. Ms. Urquijo?

Yes, Mayor, members of the council. The city was notified by the county that parcel 4092700207 is under a tax lien with the state of Arizona and may be acquired by the city for a nominal fee. It was to be utilized for flood control purposes. This small parcel, .01 acres, is located over the concrete culvert located on Washington Avenue between 4th and 5th Street. The city is in the process of acquiring surrounding parcels from DUSD as a land swap that provides ability to perform flood control maintenance and possible construction within these future city-owned properties. Under ARS 4218303, the county may receive an offer from a city property held by Arizona State as a tax deed if the property property will be used for transportation or flood control. So a nominal fee of $10 for the purchase of this parcel to the county is what was agreed to or discussed in our first reading so that the property may be conveyed to the city and retain it for flood control purposes. I do have maps of that available if anyone is interested, but this is a second reading.

Thank you, and I have a motion to approve the 2nd, reading of ordinance number 26, that's 1238.

There this is I moved that the merit council approved the 2nd, reading of board. It's number 26 dash 1238.

By number and title of the 2nd, 2nd. Motion by Mr. second by Mr. any discussion. Hearing and please.

Council member. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Title 2026 amendments to Title IX by reference to amend Title IX of the Douglas Municipal Code relating to urban camping, establishing severability of ordinance, and declaring an emergency. Ms. Urquijo. Well, no emergency because we don't have... No emergency. It'll be the first reading.

And I think this is mine, Mr. Mayor.

Oh. Go ahead, Dennis.

Okay. Thank you. Members of Council, we brought this to you before in... And since you discussed this item, I think Acting Chief Lomali had some really good changes to the ordinance because he felt the ordinance, the way it was originally written, and I think he's right, would have prohibited certain conduct that we don't want to prohibit. We don't want to prohibit somebody who's tired, they're driving, they pull off to the road, they're not blocking traffic, and they just want to sleep for a few hours. So we don't want to prohibit that. So what you'll see in this new ordinance is something that's much more defining camping to show someone who has an intent to stay there for a while. And so we've redefined camping to show that. And then the additional changes for the most part to this ordinance come in section 9.38 regarding camping. And really what we're trying to get clear here is You know, if the police have a domestic violence incident and they're trying to separate the parties, typically they make one party leave the house. Well, they might not have money to go to a hotel, but we don't want them to go back. And if that person goes and sleeps in his car in a parking lot, we don't want to prohibit that. And so I think these changes that Acting Chief Loma Lee has inserted into the agreement are really good changes. And I think captures what we're really trying to prohibit, which is somebody who has the intent to set up and stay in an area that's not designated for camping, is not designated to create a shelter like that where they try to live for days. That's what we're trying to prohibit. But if somebody just needs to be there for one night or something, they're not blocking traffic. They're not creating any problems. They're not creating any type of nuisance. We don't want to prohibit that. So those are the main changes we've done since the last time you read this ordinance.

Thank you Dennis may have a motion to approve the 2nd, reading of ordinance number 26, that's 1239.

Mr. federal, I move that the Mary council approve the 2nd, reading of ordinance number 26 dash 1239. By number entitled 1, the 2nd, 2nd.

Motion by Mr. federal second by Mr. Shelton. Any discussion hearing on roll call.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Shelton. Yes. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Motion passes.

Next item, first reading of ordinance number 26-1241, an ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Douglas Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the acceptance of donated real property from Heater Investments, E401K, PSP, consisting of 2.02 acre parcel of land known as a section of Old Chino Road in the city of Douglas Cochise County, Arizona, establishing the availability of components of ordinance. Mrs. O'Keefe, please.

PB, Lupita D Montoya, Yes, this is a first reading GSA is expanding on The existing rolling Castro port of entry is part of the two port solution to the West and must reroute a city sewer line that was crossed along the old China road realignment, partially owned by heater investments in corporation and. Mrs heater overseas currently the company and agreed to donate the section that is handed to you in the map highlighted in yellow before.

Do we have this on the screen to show everybody. I don't think it's fair that we're seeing it and the public doesn't. You can pass this.

We can make sure that we place copies back here to get that. Or if you can scan it or send it, Luis. While they bring it up, I can keep going, Mayor. That's okay. Yeah. They can see that.

And we can do that for the next two, please, because I have a map for the next one as well.

They are in the packets for at least. Thank you. So that might be easier at least. So as part of Ms. Heater's willingness to donate this section to the city for the installation of the sewer line and for the section to once again become a city right-of-way, the old Chino Road alignment was exchanged many years ago for existing Chino Road. The Heaters retained ownership of that section, which now GSA needs To use this path to reroute the new soul line, the section of right away also is an access way to our city wastewater treatment plant and asphalt plan. Although there is an access to the city from international Avenue, the access is more convenient and provides an alternative access point when there's flooding along the international drainage channel that flows into Mexico. Mrs. Heater has agreed to donate this section as she was interested in the development of her surrounding property with the installation of the new sewer line, which will have stub outs to her two parcels and a potential public right-of-way and improvements constructed by future development. The other section of the old channel is owned by Freeport McMoran. City will seek similar donation and or easement for the sewer line and to secure the remaining section of the right-of-way. Staff recommends the acceptance of the land donation. The acquisition of the property provides the construction of the new sewer line and future access way to city facilities and potentially future roadway for development. So first reading and you have the map and we should have it up shortly here.

While we're waiting, may I have a motion to approve the placement of ordinance number 26-1241? Mayor. Mayor. Mrs. Pedrigal.

I move that the Mayor and Council approve the placement of ordinance number 26-1241 on its first reading by number entitled only and declared.

Decline emergency, number titled only. Do I have a second? Second. Motion by Mr. Pedrigal, second by Mr. Shelton. Any discussion?

So Mary, this is on the screen now. It's not highlighted in yellow by curses, but it's the book did column in the middle that kind of has the notch out to the top right. And that's 2.062 acres.

Any discussion questions from Council? Hearing none, roll call.

Council Member Pedregal. Yes. Council Member Montaño?

Yes.

Council Member Durazo? Yes. Council Member Shelton?

Yes.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes. Motion passes.

In honor of the Mayor and Council of the City of Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the acceptance of donated real property from Heater Investment Inc. 401K, PSP, consisting of a 2.062-acre parcel of land known as a section of Old Chino Road in the City of Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, establishing several components of ordinance and establishing an effective date thereof.

May I have a motion to approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 26-1241? I'll make the motion. Do I have a second?

I second.

Motion by myself, second by Mrs. Pedregal. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Council Member Pedregal? Yes. Council Member Montaño?

Yes.

Council Member Durazo? Yes. Council Member Shelton? Yes. Mr. Mayor?

Yes. Motion passes.

In honor of the Marion Council of the City of Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the acceptance of donated real property from Heatery Investments, Inc., 401k PSP, consisting of a 2.062-acre parcel of land known as a section of Don Chino Road in the City of Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, establishing several ability of components of warnings and establishing an effective date thereof.

Thank you. Next item, first reading of ordinance number 26-1242, an ordinance of the Mayor and Council of the City of Douglas-Gorchis County, Arizona, authorizing the sale of vacant parcels of land located west of the existing Rowell H. Castro Port of Entry, with assessment parcel numbers 409-09-067, 409-09-06B, 409-009-070A and a section of 409-09-071G to the United States of America pursuant to terms entered into by the parties establishing severability of components of ordinance and no emergency. Ms. Riquijo?

Yes, the General Services Administration, acting through the United States government, is expanding the Railroad Range Caster Port of Entry, again, as part of Two Port Solution. This is evolution towards the initiation of that project. They've been working with us for a few years now on looking at the property that they need. They've made offers so far on those four parcels as they need to as part of that expansion. So on your map, they're not colored on the screen, but the arrow there is pointing to the four in yellow on your map is what this ordinance is offering as far as those parcels. So the sale involves the long term, long parcel T, which is where the arrow, the very long, long one to the right, right here. And then just over to the left, a bigger column, parcel R, all of that section. So we're west of Pan American there. And then up above west, the city of Douglas parcel there where the arrow is, that's the 409, 09067 and then just left of that is 0668. So those are the four. On your parcel, you have some future sections under consideration that are not for discussion today. I just wanted to lay out that we do have another phase Of properties being evaluated. Also, for sale for the same reason for expansion, and those fall to the East for today's ordinance only addresses what I've highlighted West of Pan American.

Thank you may have a motion to approve the placement of ordinance number 26 that's 1242.

Mayor move that the mayor and council approve the placement of ordinance number 26 dash 1242. On its 1st, reading by number and title.

Do you have a 2nd, so I got Mr. second by Mr Shelton any discussion.

Mayor, I just have a question. Is that the current market rate for those parcels? Or is there anything to compare to Mr.

Mr. Pedro, sorry, you've been in those conversations more. Can you provide an answer to that?

Yes, could you hear me? I said you have the floor. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Montano, to answer your question, GSA uses what is called as a uniform act. They have to follow market rates as they go in and appraise those parcels, and that's basically with the federal process they have to follow. Good.

Thank you. Thank you. And we take what they give us or they just take the land. So let's just be kind of thankful for that. This was supposed to be an emergency because they wanted it expedited. So like I told staff, because it's very important to the port, maybe just have this one item later on for an emergency once we have everybody, maybe through Zoom or something, just this item, nothing controversial. Any other discussion? Hearing none, roll call.

Council Member Pedreiro? Yes. Council Member Montaño?

Yes.

Council Member Durazo? Yes. Council Member Shelton?

Yes.

Council Member Mayer?

Yes. Motion passes.

An ordinance of the Mayor and Council of the City of Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the sale of vacant parcels of land located west of the existing Raul H. Castro Port of Entry with access to parcel numbers 40909067, 490906B, 409.09.07a and a section of 409.09.071g to the United States of America pursuant to the terms entered into by the parties establishing several ability of components of ordinance and establishing an effective date thereof.

Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the first reading of ordinance number 26-1242?

Mayor?

Mrs. Pedrigal?

I move that the Mayor and Council approve the first reading of ordinance number 26-1242 and place it on its second reading by number and title only. No, no emergency. Do I have a second?

Second. Motion by Mrs. Pedrigal, second by Mr. Shelton. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call please.

Councilmember Pedregal? Yes. Councilmember Montaño? Yes. Councilmember Durazo? Yes. Councilmember Shelton? Yes. Mr. Mayor?

Yes, motion passes.

An ordinance of the Mayor and Council of the City of Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona, authorizing the sale of vacant parcels of land located west of the existing Raul H. Castro Port of Entry with assessor's parcel numbers 40909067, 40909068B, 40909078B, 0A and Section 40909071G to the United States of America, pursuant to the terms entered into by the parties establishing a set of components of ordinance and establishing an effective date thereof.

Thank you. Next item will be to make it official, item 13B. Do I have a motion to table it for the next meeting, regular meeting in October? This is the Circle K rezone.

Mayor, I go.

Do you have a second? Second. Motion by Mr. Federico, second by Mr. Shelton. Roll call.

Council member federal. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Mr. Mayor yes motion passes item fourteen presentation discussion marketing presentation. Do we have it ready? She's been working on it, so miss Smith.

I can recognize us both to present, but she can initiate most of them are slides.

Sounds good.

Good evening, Mayor, Councils, members of the public and staff. In response to Mayor and Council's interest in strengthening our city's marketing and communication effort, I am here to provide you with a marketing and communications presentation update. So with that, let's get into it. Next slide please to provide some overview and context for tonight, I wanted to provide these items, the goal is to share the city's current role as it relates to marketing. Sure, the city's current state provide you with some insights and discuss some challenges and opportunities and at the end i'll open it up for discussion for mayor and Council. Next slide please. So the role of marketing municipal government can really be structured around three, four areas. It's communication, and that's essentially keeping people informed on any city business. The other item is promoting, telling Douglas' story and showcasing what we offer. Some examples, as you can see in the picture above promote, we have our Douglas tours, and it really highlights all our amazing museums that we have. Some examples are the Last Supper Museum, Mark Carr World, of course, the Gadsden Hotel, Border Air Museum, Casa de la Cultura, the Williams House. But it's also more than that. It also covers our city services. What city services does the city have? And then also share what updates we have for the city as well. And then engagement. So That essentially is creating opportunities for the community to participate and connect. This is one example of community engagement. The picture that you see above engagement is probably one of the better engagement events that I've seen. That was the RERC conference, and it really brought different members of the community together to discuss all the opportunities that we have for Douglas. Next slide, please. So this slide was really to show you the multifaceted approach in an ecosystem. So when you look up at the top, community events are essentially the events that we put, the flyers we put out, our community calendar that I'll go over in a couple of slides, the flyers that we take all downtown and make sure that each business has above or at their place. And then you also have our digital and social footprints, all our social media pages. And I'll touch that in a later slide. We also have our media and public relations or press releases that we get out. These are pretty important. For some, they might just look like any typical news, but a lot of these pieces of information I send out to our investors and people that are interested in Douglas because what we want them to see is what we told them that is coming is just that, and it's official in a press release, and then it has cited material like money coming from ADOT and port of entry updates. Also touching on economic development and tourism, these two topics are gonna be external. These are what's going out outside of the community. These are our perspectives packages that we put together, our data that Marin Council takes to ICSC and presents. And then again, some of the media that comes out in the form of press releases or social media updates. And then on tourism, we have a reaching arm. We do have... co-op and print ads. And some of you might be asking right now, you know, where have you seen these? And it's just that, I kind of explained, it's really that external focus of sending this information out because the idea is really to get heads in beds. We want people from outside the community to come in. But again, all within the ecosystem, it's all important to go back to those three initial goals that I mentioned is to communicate, promote, and engage. Next slide, please. So in this slide, we wanted to share how marketing works today. So essentially our departments manage their own social media platforms, each producing content, aligning with social media policies and best practices. You've probably seen most of them on social media and I'll get to them in a bit. Police and fire each have their public information officers. So they have somebody that's trained and handles specific public information that goes out to the public. A lot of our in-house materials like flyers are also produced by our departments, promotional material, information material. We use platforms such as Canva. Can't think of the rest off the top of my head, but we use different platforms that help us easily now create the flyers. Prior, there was like Word and PowerPoint, but things have also evolved. City Police and Fire issue press releases. There are, to supplement some of these efforts, at times we've contracted with project-based consultants. These can be in the form of graphic designers, marketing firms, specialized consultants. I'd also highlight our key regional partnerships. The Arizona Office of Tourism is a great resource here. We've been able to get our designations as a DMO and a NAVIC. I don't know if you remember from our last tourism update, but we became a Arizona Visitor Information Center. So we have our own page on the Arizona Office of Tourism website, which is really great. We also leverage our Cochise County Tourism and Economic Council, CCTC, to assist us with leveraging marketing opportunities. And I did want to...

Mr. Braverman, let the presentation follow. If you'd like to comment, you can always get a speaker request form, but you are not on the floor. Mr. Braverman, that's your first warning.

Thank you. I'd like to continue. Just recently, if you recall in some of your updates for the week, CCTEC, through a partnership, we were just awarded $49,381 in matching funds. That means the Arizona Office of Tourism is going to match that amount, and that's going to help leverage our marketing opportunities. Um, opportunities and again, this is, uh, this is a great announcement. The city as well being a demo. We also applied and got a smaller amount, and this is to help focus on our local attraction. So we really can hone in. on specified messages such as like our car world, the Last Supper, all these incredible museums that we have in our own specialized ad and then for the CCT EC component is going to really focus on regional and and again, I have a lot more in the slide that I can I can speak to.

Next slide.

Okay, some examples of the print ads I wanted to show you. I mentioned before, I realized some of you might think like, what have we seen or not seen? So these are just a few of the ads. The ad on the top left is the Arizona RV Travel Guide. This is a print and digital marketing with continuous circulation for RV travelers. If you can see in that ad, I know it's hard to see on the screen, but it really speaks to Slaughter Ranch, Last Supper. I see Gaston Hotel, Border Air Museum, Art Car World, a lot of other really great areas in Douglas, as well as the Sandhill Cranes that have been an attraction seasonally. And then we've heard medical tourism. So we got an opportunity to kind of showcase a little bit about that. And you can see that on the bottom right of the ad that's on your left of the screen. To the right top of your screen, you'll see an ad that we did for Tucson Guide. So Tucson Guide offers a magazine. And I believe it's digital as well. So we're in the pull things to do section for Douglas. And so this is one of the ads that we work to put together to showcase what Douglas has to offer. The bottom left is a True West magazine. This is a print and digital ad. And this area is to highlight Arizona's rural destination, specifically for those that are looking at history. So again, this is part of the funding we received with AOT. So they have these vetted magazine and they speak to why we select these specific ads and what's available to spend the money on. And on the bottom right, and that speaks to the regional focus, this is a German ad. I can't tell you what it says, but I know it says Douglas Bisbee and Wilcox. And it is a digital marketing ad that allows somebody in Germany to click on, and then it'll allow them to reach CCTC, Douglas, Bisbee, Wilcox. And these are people specifically booking to travel to Arizona.

Next slide.

Okay, on this slide, you'll see probably what you see if you're on social media. These are all these social media Facebook pages that we have listed. At the top, we have City of Douglas. We have four social media pages, or three if you count Facebook and Instagram as meta. City of Douglas has Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The Douglas Public Library has both Facebook and Instagram. The Visitor Center and Border Air Museum has Facebook, Facebook, Instagram, and a YouTube channel. The fire department has Facebook and Instagram. Police department has Facebook and Instagram. Recreation, Facebook and Instagram. And Public Works is probably the only one, at least right now, that has just the Facebook pages. But these are examples and wanted to showcase all our departments and the incredible jobs that they do and putting all this information out. We do, like I mentioned before, it's a cohesive approach, but we all have... different types of messages that we get out to the community with the city of douglas page being the uh the hub around all of them so all major events and notices go up to the city of douglas facebook page next slide i wanted to offer this slide to really show that we have more resources resources than just facebook and instagram these are two uh web pages that the city offers the one to your left is the city of douglas website and if you're looking at this uh this slideshow, you can click on these hyperlinks and they'll take you directly to the page. But I wanted to focus on three things on the City of Douglas website. To the left circle, you have the notify me section. So if you're not yet registered and you're curious to see what events, what job openings there are, when's the next council meeting, anything like that, you can go notify me, create an account, and then select. So I really keep track of how we put out events and they come to me in the form of text messages because that's what I selected on there. And so I see any time our staff puts out any special events or any news, they go directly to me through via text message. You can select if you want text message or an email. To the bottom where it says upcoming events, this is where we have our community calendar. And again, we've heard community feedback on we need to do more. We need a central page. I know there's more work to be done, but we do have this opportunity right now through the calendar updates where we have all our events. My staff, I've We work to make sure like anything that comes out, it is on that calendar. It's not perfect. We're still working through things that get through the cracks or events that come out late, but we really try to put everything as much as we can on there. There's also another function. If you're planning an event, you can submit an event and then it'll be on this community calendar. To the right of that is Engage Douglas. So if you're not aware, we have our projects page. That's a list of all our projects. A lot of them you heard today on updates, but we also have a grant section. So you can see all the grants that we are working to keep the information available on our website. And then on the right is our tourism website. So Explore Douglas is a website that we were able to initiate and keep through the Arizona Office of Tourism. We got some funds to help match, and so we have this website. On the top, it says day, eat, events, free Douglas tours, things to do, gravel cycling, which has been a really big thing in Arizona, but specifically for Douglas as we look at the Borderlands gravel bike race and all the tourism that it offers. services, and then an Arizona mural trail. So this is stuff that we try to stay on top. I did speak with my staff today on doing some updates. There's some information that needs to be added and removed, but it's always a constant job to stay on top of that. And again, these are hyperlinks. So if you click on them, it'll take you to our page so you can check it out. We also have, as mentioned in the earlier slide, is we have contracted expertise. So to supplement marketing efforts, we don't have one dedicated person on marketing. The city periodically contracts with graphic designers, marketing firms, other specialized consultants, These are engagement. These are project specific and we are activated as needed to support initiatives. So some of the examples that I have on the screen, both digital was used for tacos and tattoos and the Luis Coronet concert that was done a couple years ago. AG Works is a is a company that we use frequently. They provide us with artwork. We've used them for Vision 2032, America 250, and Douglas 125 commemorative coin, and other design projects. So they're really easy. It's on demand. This same organization helped us with our community guide. And that's basically a printout of everything that you need to know in the Douglas community. Orange 142 was used for the boxing event, and they were able to send out geofence-specific targeting for people to come to this event. Navi Retail, this is one of the presentations that was brought to you a few years ago. This was our economic development consultant that helped provide data from... from what our retail trade area looks like. And so again, those are like external stuff that we send out and they've been able to provide that. And then Placer AI, so that's through CCTEC. Placer AI is an analytical software that really for each event, and it's been a religious practice of ours, like Douglas Days, 4th of July, it does have constraints, but this is through the partnership with CCTEC for every event we have, We send them to them, we give them our geofence, and they provide us with an update. How many people were in attendance? How long did they stay? What businesses in Douglas, and they're usually your bigger type chains, what businesses were the most visited by these people? And I can tell you with the Cochise County Fair coming up, Walmart does really well. You have Circle K doing well. A lot of the fast food chains do well. I know some of our restaurants do well as well, but that's information it gives us. Another example is a borderland gravel bike race. We know that people come and they spend like one point, I can't remember the point number amount of days here. So the idea is how do you get them to stay here longer? How do you get them to stay here that extra point to make it two days versus them coming a day and a half or less than a day and a half. So that's kind of how that should be utilized. Next slide. So marketing and communications comes with its challenges and opportunities. Nationally cited, this was cited by most cities, is there's no dedicated capacity. There's a lack of comprehensive and no marketing formal plans. We do have our internal kind of guidance and plans, but there's nothing really set in stone that helps guide us. And then there's marketing gaps. We'll kind of get into those in a little bit. There's also opportunities for every challenge. I know that there's opportunities and the city does or tries to do a good job on capitalizing on that. So digital is not cost effective. You really can post almost for nothing. It'll take staff time to post your content onto any of the social media pages. Yesterday, we had a small business workshop that really talked about Google pages and how to get your information out there. Douglas, we know from past studies, Douglas, through social media, primarily Facebook and word of mouth is very powerful. So if we figure out how to leverage those two with a balance, we still need more work to do. You never really could capture everybody because you always hear. I didn't know about that. So. there's many ways uh that we need to work to make sure that the word of the information is given out to to everybody uh continue to level uh leverage key partnerships or develop others um and in a couple slides we'll go over some contract marketing and future fte allocation next slide please Okay, so we were able to contact other cities and see how they run their marketing and communications program. Bisbee, interestingly, has done a lot of changes more recently. They have contracted the marketing firm. I think they're called the Gordley Group. And more recently, they're recruiting for a seven board tourism marketing committee. Tombstone, I had a wonderful conversation with the city clerk. She's really passionate about Tombstone. Tombstone, I know Supervisor Gomez mentioned they're really good at that. And that's because they know what they market. They have the resources. They really utilize the Chamber of Commerce. I was surprised to hear the city clerk say that. They both hand in hand together. They work on this and they work to put tombstone in many ways, TV ads, print ads, digital ads. They're working on sports tourism right now. A lot of great things, a lot of key points that they mentioned, but you can tell that their program is developed. They do have a really, really good budget. So that's another consideration. Will Cox, they do have NFT for a community engagement specialist. She handles primarily their website and social media pages. The city manager does assist on some of these aspects. And then they also have a chamber of commerce that provides some marketing. Sierra Vista, there's a tourism program manager with a specific role. There's no one dedicated person. So they're similar to Douglas. They really have a cohesive program, department-led. They do have various funds that are allocated to departments. One of them is like an example they use is like tourism has like their line item, but so does economic development. And they use that for retail recruitment and port, spaceport information that they try to market out. And then Winslow, they contract their chamber of commerce. They use their bed tax to fund this support. And this, I think this contract ends about next year. So they're considering on doing potentially bringing that back in house. But it was just an initial conversation that I had with the city of Winslow. And then wanted to share that to Sun also. So some of the trends go both ways. Some are hiring marketing firms and some are bringing it in-house and some are kind of a balance in between. Next slide, please.

So I can... blend in some information here. I wanted to go, I don't have to go back to the slide, but also mention that one thing that we're pursuing is alongside the Notify Me apps, we are looking at an app to be able to bring in an emergency notification system for our community members. And I'm trying to get the specifications of how that works. And because one of the challenges have been on notify me, you have to register to be able to link in. You get really great alerts, but the registration portion is what we've, you know, kind of, it ebbs and flows when we try and market that. But I'm trying to see if there's a way that just automatically picks up, you know, the cell phones or utility bills or something to, quickly expand our entire community into an emergency alert system and be able to just link in with approval. So that's another piece that we're looking at. Great presentation and great work, Ms. Smith, on all of these things. guidance has really been to focus on this is an umbrella. This is a multifaceted approach or requirement to really, really market a community. And we do have gaps as many cities do. We've been looking at different firms. This is one example of one that we're kind of looking through and assessing right now. And with our permission, we were able to You look at some other trademark over overriding features. I just wanted to give an example. So they focus on story scaling, which are all of these items together to include a virtual CMO, a marketing officer, chief marketing officer to include mayor and council marketing names. I was very specific that there are certain gaps that we need to hear from council on what it is that they're seeking from advertising. I mean, you can read through everything, brand building, whether it's content creation, whether it's in the weeds or whether it's overall some of our very special events or even spinning off of what we're already doing. So these are very, very broad, but they're very effective with some of what we've been seeing through their work. They are available for piloting as well. I don't know if there's anything beyond this. Do you have another slide?

No, hi. Next slide.

We also are looking at one that is not as overreaching, but we are looking at something that's focused on humanizing government through the website and features for the community. It is a blend of AI. So we're looking at that as well just to bring different ideas and on how to take that next step to make it comprehensive because it is and has to be multifaceted and we do have some gaps. So one of the things she mentioned earlier was, you know, FTEs into the budget. This current budget, we just don't have that capacity. But we do have some opportunities to pilot some things the rest of the fiscal year using one-time monies. And this is one example, a few examples that we've been looking at to at least pilot, get your feedback. So I'm looking forward to some of your ideas and opening that up.

Thank you. Any discussion? Mr. Pettigo?

You know, I hear this and I think it's very nice. Thank you very much. Nice people. But we're still not addressing the issues. Tourism needs to start at home. If the community is not aware of the activities that are being provided throughout the city, and I'm talking about all the things that are available locally here at home for us, That is where we need to start, home, and we're not doing it. Right now, the meetings that I've had, and I didn't want to mention out there, but that was the first thing they complained about. When we go to meetings, we don't know what's happening in our community. And we learn about it later. And I tell social media, social media is not the one and only best that we can provide. I'm saying, and I've said it over and over again, our water bill is blank. We know way in advance of events that are occurring. Why can't we use this side? And you know, we have everybody's address, why? Because everybody has to pay a bill, water. They could get informed. I think we're doing a great for outside, but do you know how many people don't know about his business? When I go to meetings, I tell them there's this, there's this, and you already know who I am. I'm high energy, so I tell people. But at the meeting again with the senior citizens and the mayor was there. No sabemos. Then I went to the meeting over at Boys and Girls Club. Same complaint. Why? They complained. We have all these services here in Douglas and the city of Douglas. That's what they said. I'm the city of Douglas. They don't know. Who provides this, who provides that? There's a lot of different entities in our community working to provide the field spots for our citizens, and we're not promoting them. If we don't promote from within, And I really think that's where we need to start, too, locally. We have a lot of businesses here. And I'm not talking like for myself. I'm talking about businesses that there's going to be a new business opening up. We should be helping to promote them. Why? Because it brings taxes to our community, functions, activities.

You know all the activities we've had at the park?

Many people find out afterwards or when they're passing by. And I hear this and it saddens me because I feel like I've asked and asked. We have to find a better way within our community. We start there. And then I agree. Yes, everything. But social media is not the only key.

Right. Thank you. And if there's any ideas on those specific things, we're open to them. I mean, this presentation is... Mr. Braverman. Is an opportunity.

Can I say something, please? I have to agree. I have mentioned that before. We need to put stuff on the water bills. And we're talking... When our Mr. Howard... the voice of KDAP. I mean, how fortunate we were to have that. How fortunate we were to have the Douglas Dispatch where everybody got a paper. You know, I do take the review and the herald, but We used to have so much, not only here, but it's other towns in the Southwest I know of, their newspapers are gone also. And I think that would be a very good idea if we could incorporate that with the build. That way everybody gets it. And I have mentioned that. I don't even know since you've been here, but I have mentioned that before. Any other?

Yeah, and you can sign paper. Yeah, go ahead. Can you say, just so you could be on the record, because there's going to be people online saying we can't hear you. Mr. Braverman.

Ms. Gomez and I were... By the way, my name is Tanya Duarte. I'm a resident of Douglas. And Ms. Gomez and I were just on our phones to try to find the websites and everything that Jennifer was pointing out. On the city website on our phones, it took like seven clicks to find it. And I can't even tell you what I finally clicked on to find it. So most travelers... are on their phones. So if the website is designed for being on your computer, it's going to miss a huge demographic of people. So I don't even know how I found the upcoming events, but we found it eventually. And so if it's hard for me when I'm looking at what I'm looking for, it's going to be impossible for the tourists. And those are the ones that everyone, especially the residents, should be able to be like, I'm going to go to the city site and see what's coming up in the next couple of weeks. And it should be that easy. When I typed in the search box, events, it pulled up an event from 2017 on top of the list. So there needs to be some configuring of that site so that the newest things are always on top of the list, 2017 things. So just some quick suggestions, because we were trying to find everything. But then we couldn't find it.

One of the things about the human raising government app platform is exactly what she said. I could come into the city and say, where can I buy some ice cream in Douglas? And it kind of pops you into those areas. But what it does is we may not even have that on there now. So it helps us think through what to add to that so that it's an AI connection into anything on your website. But it also creates for us the need to fill that gap that you just described. And it's very real. And there's more. There are more gaps out there. Thank you.

Thank you. Just a quick comment. I feel like a lot of this is what we're doing, but we also have to cater to the public. It was just mentioned we're going to have an expo about the downtown streetscape from 9 to 4. A lot of people work from 8 to 5. And I feel like the people that are small businesses that open up their shops weren't taken into consideration. I feel like City Hall was taken into consideration because we get in at 8, we have an hour to get ready, it starts at 9, then we have an hour to take everything down, and then we get out at 5. Why didn't we have it around 11 to 7? That way there's more people that can go. When three council members had an expo or, you know, that town hall over there, more people went to that one than to actually go to the other ones here because they were out of work at that time. So I think we need to start catering to the public, not what City of Hawfield is comfortable. If our staff has to come in one or two hours late that day to get out one or two hours later, we should be fine with that if that informs the people. We need to find out what, and how do they get to places or where this place is at? For our elderly, it's important to how to get there too, because we can tell them, oh, they want ice cream, some fish free. What does the bus stop there? How do I get there? We need to accommodate them on that. We need to stop thinking. And this is what I told Mr. Pedro when, you know, the first town hall that we had, I said, take yourself out of your mindset. Put yourself in whoever you're talking to. If you're talking to youth, put yourself in their shoes. Elderly, put yourself in their shoes. Teenager, put yourself in their shoes. We can't keep thinking, like, if I like it, it's good. Because my interests are not their interests. So I think we need to be more open-minded to that. But this is another thing because we did have this discussion. This is why this was brought up. There was a remark on having staff do this. And for active council members that have town halls that need flyers, that's very difficult for us because we cannot give staff direction. So if Mrs. Pedro goes and says, I need a flyer by tomorrow on this event, guess what? We just broke the charter because we can't be telling staff what to do. It's different when somebody's contracted. So that's why it's very important to keep, maybe have somebody contracted so we can give them direction, but also so then maybe she doesn't have to go to coaches in the community all the time. And not only so she can say what we're doing, but also somebody to take notes on, oh, this is what they're doing in this place. This is the event that's happening. That's how we get all these community events in one calendar. Because like Ms. Duarte said, not a lot of people know how to use it. How are you going to put your event on the calendar? But again, this is why, And I'll be honest, this is why people lose faith in government, not because we're not transparent. Because you just had two council members say, we brought this up a long time ago. When did we pass, Mr. Pedro said, was it an ordinance or a resolution on the water bills? And because we were going to switch to a different system, that we're going to put announcements to it, then we get to it, and now we can't put announcements because a third party prints it out. That's not being transparent with the public. I think we need to have every council member have a town hall, go to their constituents and say, how can we get the information to you? That's how we find out how to do it. Not in a meeting right here, because this is just, this meeting gets filled up when there's something on the agenda that's relevant to the individuals in this room a lot of the times. We need to go out to them and rent. Anybody else? Thank you for the presentation.

Wait, there's...

Speak into the mic, please. Jillian. I'm just going to call you Jillian because I forgot how to pronounce your last name already.

Sorry about that.

One thought that came to my mind was it's really awesome that we can see the events that are happening, but if there was also a way for either global community organizations or small businesses could also

relay their events and yeah to the city and then also be a part of that like people if this is going to be a point where the city is going to relay information or events have that ability to the community a simpler way for a community calendar yes thank you