City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, crazy. Heat. Heat.

Welcome to the Goodyear City Council meeting. We're excited to have you be a part of this important public process. Tonight, you will have the opportunity to address city council on both non-aggenda and agenda items. You must fill out a speaker request card in order to address the city council. The agendas and speaker request cards are located in the back of the council chambers. Please drop your completed card in the tray next to the blank speaker cards. If the meeting has already begun, please hand it to the city employee at the back of the room. You may check the I do not wish to speak option on the card. This allows you to let council know your opinion without having to speak. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, please contact a staff member if you need any assistance. [music] Public comment on a non-aggenda item will take place during the citizen comment portion of the evening. These are items that don't appear on tonight's formal agenda. The city clerk will call your name when it's time for you to speak. At that time, please approach the podium and tell us your name for the record. You'll have a maximum of 3 minutes. The timer is on the screens visible from the podium. Note that you may also choose not to speak if other speakers before you have said what you wanted to say. Shouting, cheering, and loud noises will not be tolerated, and violators may be removed for disrupting the meeting. Goodyear city council meetings stream live on Facebook, YouTube, [music] X, and online at goodyearaz.gov. Follow the city's social media pages so you don't miss out on all that's happening in Goodyear. Thank you for coming to this meeting and being an active part of your city. And remember, it's a great time to be in good year.

Like to call the regular meeting to order for February 2, 2026. Um, everybody marked present. Is everybody here? Yes, mayor. Okay. Thank you very much. Please join Vice Mayor Hampton in the pledge of allegiance and invocation. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for today. Thank you for bringing us over here safely. Lord, I just uh we thank you for our vibrant community, for the bonds that connect us, and for the opportunities to build a better future together. We honor our police officers, our military personnel, and all who protect and serve, asking for their safety and strength. We're deeply thankful for our city staff whose hard work enriches every corner of our city. Grant wisdom to our council members that we may lead with compassion and foresight. May we look forward with optimism, foster economic development, a prosperous city, and a thriving future for all. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Uh we have one communication item tonight. Uh items to receive a 2026 spring training preview if you would just go ahead and introduce yourself for the public.

Good evening, mayor and council. Bruce Kman, ballpark general manager. And with this beautiful weather that we're having, it feels like we're already in the middle of spring training. However, it's just a few weeks away. I'm joined up here this evening with by John Brown, uh, assistant general manager of business development, and he's going to talk about all the great things that we have in store for the 2026 spring training season. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Mayor and Council. I am pleased to be up here this evening to give you our 2026 spring training preview. And I'm also proud to introduce an event that will take place before our season begins at the ballpark. This season, we've teamed up with Major League Baseball to bring the Desert Invitational to Goodyear Ballpark. This will be on February 13th and will feature a double header with the first game being Kansas State taking on the University of Iowa at 100 p.m. And then our night cap will feature Penn State University and the Air Force Academy at 6 PM.

So that'll be a good preview to our spring training season, which will then bring us into our schedule. I also placed before meeting a uh schedule magnet so you can follow each and every game of our spring training season. But this year we'll feature 30 games in 30 days. There'll be five popular night games that return to the ballpark this year. And then with this season being a World Baseball Classic year, we'll welcome Cuba to our ballpark for the WBC game this season. So we're very excited about our schedule. and mayor and council, we're pleased to bring you some updates on some renovations that you'll see when you enter the ballpark this season. The first when you walk through our gates will be our new left field landing area. And I'm pleased to put some renderings out here for you. They'll look very special come opening day, but this is our new group area of the ballpark. It'll feature 40 seating for 40 to 120 people in a group. And when groups aren't occupying this section, we'll have it being for sale on an individual game day basis. So, this will be one of the first things you see when you walk through the gates this year. And then this season, we're lucky to enhance and renovate our suites at the ballpark. We're proud to give you a first sneak peek of that. This year, we featured more countertop space for food and beverage um storage and presentation. And then we upgraded our seating in there so it's all leather seating and we opened up our suites to make it a more comfortable setting to watch a game in. We're very proud of this. And then of course we had to update our TV size and make our TVs quite a bit bigger up there.

And then we're always enhancing our food options at the ballpark and this season's no different. On your left you'll see our Desert Heat burger which will be at our Burger Topia concessions cart. And then on our right, we put a healthier kind of food option in with a ballpark bowl. So those will be uh on sale with all of our ballpark classics throughout the stadium. This year we return three popular giveaways at our ballpark. We start on opening day on February 21st where we'll put out a schedule magnet that's also a frame. So, you can remove the schedule uh magnet and have a picture frame uh that you could put all your ballpark memories in. And then our St. Patrick's Day popular giveaway returns. That's our pint glass featuring both the Reds and Guardians on that. That will be on our St. Patrick's Day evening game. And then to round out the season, we have an ace stress ball that we'll give out featuring our ballpark, our favorite ballpark mascot, Ace. Kids run the bases and our senior stroll return this season. Um, kids will run the bases beginning on Saturdays starting on February 28th and then our senior stroll days will be February 25th and March 4th. Many great ballpark ticket promotions come back at the ballpark this year and we're proud to also present first responder days. And then all citizens and fans who want the most up-to-date information on spring training can go to goodyearbp.com. They'll have our full schedule, information on tickets and groups and everything a toz on Goodyear ballpark will be there. So we're a couple weeks away and we're ready to play ball.

That it. That's it. That's it. All right. Play ball. All right. I was waiting for another giveaway. [laughter] Well, well, thank you. Anybody have any questions? Play ball. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Now, it's time for members of the public who wish to address the city council on any non-aggenda items within the jurisdiction of the city of Goodyear. Any cards? No, mayor. Okay. Thank you. City clerk, please read the consent agenda items 2 through six by title only.

Item two, approval of series 11, hotel melt liquor license for holiday in suites. Item three, approval of the first amendment to the intergovernmental agreement IGA with the city of Glendale for landfill disposal services. Item four, adopt resolution number 2026-2506 authorizing participation in the Maricopa Home Consortium and approving an amendment to the home consortium agreement. Item five, adopt resolution number 2026-2507 approving declaration and reservation of exclusive and perpetual access and facilities easement. And item six, adopt resolution number 2026-2508 authorizing the submission of an application for the Arizona Department of Homeland Security grant program for $244,100 for the metering kits and accessories authorizing for the Goodyear Fire Department to purchase two advanced metering kits and accessories authorizing the city manager or their designate to execute all documents relating to the grant award and authorizing a budget transfer to allow for the expenditure of the grant if grant funds are awarded.

Do we have any speaker cards? No, mayor. Thank you. Uh, anybody on the council wish to remove an item?

Seeing none, can I get a motion and a second to approve items two through six? See that on the board. A motion and a second. Go ahead and open the voting. Passes 70. Thank you. Uh we have one item on business to call the 2026 election. You coming down if you would go ahead for the public um introduce yourself. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of the city council. My name is Jasmine Pernano, city clerk with the city of Goodyear. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you this evening. The item before you is a resolution providing notice and formally calling for the city's 2026 candidate election. The city is scheduled to hold its next regular election on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 for the purpose of electing the mayor and three members to the city council to four-year terms. Adoption of this resolution provides public notice of the upcoming election and authorizes staff to initiate the necessary election related actions. The election will be conducted in coordination with the Maricopa County Elections Department as part of a countywide consolidated ballot. The city is charged 50 cents per registered voter for a consolidated election. Funding for election services will be included in the city manager's recommended fiscal year 2627 budget. Under the city charter, if any candidate receives a majority of votes cast at the primary election, that candidate will be declared elected and no general election will be held for that office. If needed, the general election would take place on November 3rd, 2026. Candidates may obtain nomination packets from the city clerk's office. Nomination

papers must be filed between March 9th and April 6 by 5:00 p.m. in order to appear on the ballot. To participate in this election, voter registration deadline for the primary election is by 11:59 p.m. on July 6 and by 11:59 p.m. on October 5th for the general election. Now, you may recall in 2024, the primary election date was moved up by one week to allow sufficient time for the county to process automatic recounts and comply with federal deadlines for mailing ballots to military and overseas voters. While that change only applied to the 2024 election, the same timing concerns remain. Legislation is currently under consideration which would move the primary election date up by one week. However, since the agenda was posted last week, the legislature has proposed an amendment that would move the election date up by two weeks to July 21st, 2026. Should this change become effective, petitions with the August 4th, 2026 date will be grandfathered in and the date for filing nomination papers will shift by two weeks. The resolution before you authorizes staff to comply with any election related changes enacted by the legislature, including changes to the primary election date without requiring any additional council action. Additional outreach will occur through publications, updates to the city's website, in focus newsletter, as well as social media posts. A communication plan will be implemented to provide regular updates to our voters as the election date approaches. All election information will be provided in both English and Spanish in compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act. And staff's recommendation is to adopt the resolution tonight, providing notice and calling for the 2026 election. That concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any

questions. Any speaker cards? No. Mayor. City clerk, please read the resolution number 2026 25509 by title only. Adopt resolution number 2026 259 providing notice and calling for the 2026 election. Council hearing motion and second to adopt resolution 2026-2509. I see a motion and a second up on the board open for discussion. I see one member, Council Member Campbell. So, Jasmine, I have to ask this. Do you know what the number of votes needed for a candidate to be elected outright or they would not be on a runoff?

So, it would depend on uh the number of votes cast for that office. So, there would be a formula um dividing the number of open seats by that and then divided by two to to figure out what the majority would be. That's fine. That's what I thought and someone asked me today and I said that's what I think it is but I'll ask the expert and she can tell me. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Uh the only question I have is you'll update uh council if that ballot or if that change ever goes through and and when the uh actual uh things have to be turned in and when the election actually is. Yes, mayor. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Uh oops. Go ahead, Councilwoman Gillis. And you will update you you'll update all the individual candidates as well so that they're very well aware of what's going on. Absolutely. Everyone. Thank you, Councilwoman Gillis. Everybody who's filed a statement of interest that is currently gathering signatures will also be provided with these updates. Great. And you don't have any idea on the amount of time when we should know about this. The expectation um right now it sounds like the legislaturator's intent is to get it to the governor's desk by the end of next week. Okay, great. Thank you.

Good, good discussion. Anything else? See nothing else. Open up for a vote. Passes 70. Um, does the council have any comments, commendations, reports, or current events, uh, or requests for future items?

Oh, go ahead. Thank you. I'd like to ask your indulgence for just one minute. I want to share a tale of two cities. A tale about workplace emergencies and about what happens when seconds truly count. Many of the Goodyear firefighters know part of my story. Before I moved here, I was a manager at an organization where an employee collapsed at work. We called for help immediately. We called again and again, but that took over 40 minutes for emergency responders to arrive. That employee did not survive. That experience never left me. It stays with me. Fast forward to recently, a wife, a mother of two, my son's college classmate, who is also my sorority sister, and she's also on the Junth planning committee, became seriously ill at work, and she works here in Goodyear, and obviously she also lives in Goodyear. Within minutes, Goodyear fire and police were on the scene. minutes. Because of their speed, their training, their commitment, she received the care she needed. She still faces a serious condition, but with surgery, she's expected to be fine. She and her family asked me to share their heartfelt gratitude for this city. Two cities, two emergencies, two very different outcomes. And the difference was not just luck. It was response, readiness, and a culture of service that our

Goodyear first responders embody every day. To our police officers, our firefighters, our dispatchers, and every member of our public service family, thank you. You don't just respond to emergencies. You change outcomes, you save lives, and you give people hope. Thank you. Thank you for that. Uh, go ahead, Councilwoman Gillis.

Thank you, Bonita. I agree with you 100%. We have the best. Um, I would like the city manager's office. I'd like to address this with them. We've had a lot of constituents lately that have been asking me about the interim positions and why we have so many. And I would like a policy information on those um in the next couple weeks if possible. In fact, sooner if possible so I can get back to these people and let them know what our policy information is on the interim positions. Thank you. It is in policy and I will get that to you. Anything else? Yes, mayor. Go ahead.

So, city manager, this one's easy. They're painting my my uh traffic signals as I come out my gate and they've got the turn lanes or turn signals or turn whatever blocked off because they're going to paint around it. Do you know how long they're going to let it dry before they take them off so we know when the green arrow is? I don't have that information at my fingertips, but I'll get it for you. Okay, that's great. Thank you so much. Anything else? Well, then let me go to the U manager. You got anything for us? No, mayor.

Oh, that makes it kind of quick. All right. Next meeting will be February 9th, 2026. Don't go anywhere. Vote may be held to call an executive session for the following. Pursuant to ARS 38-431.03 3 A1 and 3. City council will meet uh for discussion or consultation of employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, demotion, dismissal, salaries, discipline, or resignation of a public officer, appointee or employee of any public body regarding appointment of an interim city manager. Can I get a motion in a second? I see a motion in a second. Any discussion? Oh, let's vote.

70. Where are we going? Right over here. Right. See y'all there.