City Council - Regular Meeting

The budget and CIP adoption meeting on Tuesday, June 9th, 2026 at 530 p.m. We'll now have an invocation led by Chaplain B. Evans, followed by the College of Allegiance led by Don Benton Bender with the Disabled American Vets.

Well, good evening, everybody. It's good to see you all back. This is nice. Shall we bring our whole meeting to the Lord tonight? Heavenly Father, we just love you so much, and we're so grateful, Lord, that we're here in Lake Havasu City, the most beautiful city in the whole universe, I think. And you've brought each of us with our gifts to use, not only tonight, Lord, but in the future and for your plan, which is always perfect. Lord, we just lift up our council members tonight as they have to make decisions. And I know that they pray for your wisdom. They know your word says, ask for wisdom and I'll give it freely. So we just thank you that the wisdom of the Lord will come forth tonight in any decisions they have to make. And Lord Jesus, we just give you all the praise and the glory. for not only our city, which we love so much, for the coming election, which, of course, is here upon us already, and just because we know you and you know us and you bring your goodness into our lives. So we give you all the praise and the glory in the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I want to thank you for allowing the disabled American veterans to speak for just a second. Anyone that's a veteran that has a service-connected disability, please feel free to stump by and see us. We're at 2001 College Drive. next to the entrance to the old courthouse, an outside entrance, and you can call for an appointment at 928-855-0356. We file claims for veterans. We also provide transportation to Prescott, Phoenix, and we're now offering transportation locally to the clinic and to VA community care appointments. So please give us a call if we can help you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Don, and thank you for the work you do in our community.

The number is 928-855-0356. And against 2001 College Drive. And we have an outside entrance next to where you went in to go to the courthouse before. This has got the big DAV logo above it. We have service officers on Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays from 9 to noon. And the ladies are in the office five days a week from 9 to noon. Any other questions? Thank you very much.

Thank you. Item four on our agenda is the roll call. Ms. Williams, if you'd please call the roll.

Council members Nancy Campbell. Here. Jenny Koch. Here. Jim Dolan. Here. Cameron Moses.

Here.

Michelle Lin. Here. Vice Mayor David Diaz.

Here.

Mayor Kal Sheehy.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item five is our consent agenda. Would any of the council members like to remove any of the items for separate discussion?

Mayor?

Council Member Koch?

Motion. Please. Move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

I'll second. We have a motion from Council Member Koch. We have a second from Council Member Moses. We are ready to vote.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Thank you. Item six is correspondence, communications, petitions, the announcement and the city manager report. Item 6.1 is to announce vacancies on Lake Havasu City boards, committees and commissions. Ms. Williams.

Mayor and City Council, this item is to announce vacancies on Lake Havasu City Board's committees and commissions. The following is a listing of the current and upcoming vacancies. Board of Adjustment, three upcoming regular members, two upcoming alternate members. Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, two upcoming regular members, one upcoming student member. Planning and Zoning Commission, one upcoming regular member, two upcoming alternate members. the deadline to submit applications for the upcoming positions has passed it was on may 29th however anyone interested can submit an application for any vacancies that do arise and we will keep it on file for up to one year thank you thank you item 6.2 is our city manager's report good evening mr knutson uh good evening mayor good evening council i might not have a visual tonight but i still have a manager's report i'd like to present uh the council

Starting off with congratulations to Mark Perdida on his retirement after nearly 25 years of dedicated service to Lake Havasu City. He joined the Public Works Department in 2001, and Mark has made a lasting contribution to the maintenance and upkeep of our community's infrastructure. We thank you, Mark, for your years of service, hard work, and commitment to serving our residents, and we wish you a happy, healthy, and well-deserved retirement. I'd also like to recognize City Hall volunteer Candace Grass for reaching an incredible milestone of 1,000 volunteer hours with Lake Havasu City. If you walk into City Hall, she's the one that's sitting at the desk, in addition to all the volunteers that sit there. For the past four years, Candace has been a welcoming presence at City Hall, making a positive impact on residents, visitors, and staff alike. Her achievements also highlight the importance of contributions to our 447 city volunteers, who generously donate their time and talents to support programs, events, public safety, parks, and services throughout our community. Thank you, Candace, and thank you to all of our volunteers for your dedication to Lake Havasu City. And yes, I said 447 active volunteers we have at Lake Havasu City. Thank you to all of them. I'd like to also recognize our human resource director, Dr. Bobby Kimmelton, on completing a six-month employment law master class through Penn State University. and the Institute of Business Management. In addition to completing the advanced coursework, she continued her postdoctoral research on PTSD and public safety personnel and its implications in the workplace. Her dedication to professional development and employee well-being continues to benefit our organization and our community. Thank you, Dr. Kimmelton. We recently recognized Cancer Survivors Day with a proclamation honoring the millions of individuals who have faced a cancer diagnosis with courage, strength, and resilience. To further show support and raise awareness, the London Bridge was illuminated in purple, serving as an attribute to cancer survivors, their families, caregivers, and all those who were impacted by the disease. Today, more than 18 million cancer survivors live in the United States, and this recognition highlights the importance of hope, support, and continued awareness. June is National Scleroderma Awareness Month, an opportunity to raise awareness and support for those living with this rare autoimmune disease. In recognition of World Scleroderma Day on June 29th, the Lennon Bridge will be illuminated in teal to help bring attention to this disease and show support to the individuals struggling and impacted by this disease. Before Open Swim begins, oops, one second. Over at the Aquatic Center, summer is in full swing. In addition to our popular open swim class sessions, we're offering the Calm Before the Waves. It's a new program and it's some dedicated time. It'll take place on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's in the mornings where families can enjoy the shallow end, water toys, and a water slide before the wave pool begins. It's a great opportunity for younger swimmers to build confidence in the water. and for families to enjoy a more relaxed pool experience before the excitement of Open Swim gets underway. So that's at 10 a.m. to noon on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays this summer. And lastly, I'd like to share some news about some significant investments, in particular in our parking infrastructure this fiscal year. We are working on some projects now, but would want to bring it all together and talk about the completion of improvements and maintenance at 14 parking lots across the city. As part of this effort, we completed improvements at Dillon Dog Park and created a new free downtown parking area on Swanson near Acoma, expanding parking opportunities for residents and visitors in the downtown. In addition, we've completed preservation and maintenance work on 12 other locations throughout the community. Several of these projects are a great benefit to the community. We had crack sealing that was completed at the Sarah Park ball fields on Capri Lane, Grand Island Park, and the Pacific Water Tank site, as well as Rory Park, and we'll continue some work at Rory Park as well, too. I thank you for the patience that's out there right now as the city has been applying an H. A. 5 seal coat treatment. It was applied throughout the community, but it's also applied at some of our parking lots, including at State Beach, Avalon Park, Cypress Overflow parking lot, Jack Hardy Park and Dick Samp Memorial Park City Hall. We've got some rumors of people getting lost in our cracks, so we're working on some of those improvements. including some massive repairs, cracked ceiling. We also worked out the police department parking lot and underwent a complete replacement with new concrete and asphalt. We're also working on the community center and hopes of getting that tucked into this fiscal year. These improvements help clean our public facilities, keep them safe, accessible, and well-maintained while reducing the need for more costly repairs down the road. So a little bit of money spent now is well worth it. Thanks for all the patience from all of our residents as continued work happens on Coma Boulevard. And again, the HA5 and ship sealing that's taking place all throughout the community. On Coma right now, we've paid from 95 South up to Saratoga. And striping has been completed up to about Jamaica Boulevard. We made probably some progress in the last day or two beyond that, but that's where we're at. bringing that section closer to final completion. The next phase of the project will continue east from Saratoga Avenue to Daytona Avenue. And so that's the next phase. And we'll continue to work up Okoma until we reach Highway 95 on the north side. So again, thanks for everyone's patience. In the end, we'll have a safe road we can all be proud of for many, many years to come. And with that, Mayor, that concludes my report for this evening.

Thank you, Mr. Knutson. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to item seven, which is our public hearings. For each of the next eight items, we will have discussion among the council, then we'll open up a public hearing. If anyone would like to address the city council on any of the items, we encourage you to do so at that time. After the public hearings, there will be a call to the public. That will be an opportunity for citizens to address the council on items not on the agenda. But again, if you're here for one of the items, we encourage you to do so during that item so we can have a two-way conversation, because we can't have that during call to the public. Vice Mayor Diaz also asked for an adjustment to our agenda, so we're going to move item 7.8, which is the partnership agreement with the Havasu Freedom Foundation for the Charles James Kirk Memorial Bench Project up to under 7.2. So we're going to hear item 7.1, 7.2, then we'll hear item 7.8, and then we'll continue on with item 7.3 and continue. We'll start with item 7.1, which is a series 12 restaurant liquor license for Amigos Berea Tacos in Lake Havasu. We'll turn it over to Ms. Williams.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Keith Turner has applied for a Series 12 restaurant liquor license for Amigos Burrito Tacos, Havasu, located at 55 Lake Havasu Avenue North. All posting requirements have been met, all fees have been paid, and no objections were received. The location is properly zoned for a Series 12 liquor license. I'm happy to answer any questions, and the applicant is also in attendance to answer any questions from the City Council.

Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from members of the Council for Ms. Williams or the applicant? Seeing them, we'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Would anyone like to address the City Council on this item? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and bring it back to Council for any discussion or a possible motion. Vice Mayor Diaz?

I motion to recommend that the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control approve a series number 12 restaurant liquor license for Amigos Birria Tacos, Havasu, 55 Lake Havasu Avenue North.

Second.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Diaz, a second from Council Member Campbell. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none, we're ready to vote.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Thank you. Item 7.2 is a series eight conveyance liquor license for Nautical Water Sports Center, 1000 McCulloch Boulevard. Ms. Williams.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Craig Reynolds has applied for a Series 8 conveyance liquor license for Nautical Water Sports Center located at 1000 McCulloch Boulevard. All posting requirements have been met, all fees have been paid, and no objections were received. The location is properly zoned for a Series 8 conveyance liquor license. Happy to answer any questions. And again, the applicant is in attendance to answer any questions from the City Council. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. Are there any questions from members of the Council for Ms. Williams or the applicant? All right, this is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address the City Council on this item? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing, bring it back to the Council for any discussion or a possible motion. Mayor? Councilmember Dolan?

Motion? Please. I move to recommend that the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control approve a Series 8 conveyance liquor license for Nautical Water Sports Center, 1000 McCulloch Boulevard.

Second. We have a motion from Councilmember Dolan, a second from Councilmember Moses. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none, we're ready to vote.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Thank you. Now we'll go to item 7.8, which is a partnership agreement with the Havasu Freedom Foundation for the Charles James Kirk Memorial Bench Project. Vice Mayor Diaz, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

Yes, this is a project that hopefully we'll partner on with the approval of the Council with the Havasu Freedom Foundation. And to start our presentation off, I'm going to have the Vice President of the Havasu Freedom Foundation, Mr. Russ Muscari, present to the Council.

Thank you very much, Mayor, council members, the city manager, attorney, and clerk. Appreciate your time this evening and you in the general audience. Let me start off by saying that the Marine Corps League and the Havasu Freedom Foundation, local organizations are very, very supportive of freedom, and that's what we're all about. And so I'll start this presentation with that remark. GARY MYERS, OUR PRESIDENT, COULDN'T BE HERE, SO HE ASKED ME TO STAND IN FOR HIM. GARY MYERS STARTED THIS ORGANIZATION CALLED THE FREEDOM FOUNDATION BACK IN 2008 AND IT WAS RENAMED LATER TO THE ABSOLUTE FREEDOM FOUNDATION. had a ceremony for the wounded warriors back then. It was attended by a local actor, Michael Bean. And you can go to our website, HavasuMemorialWalkway.org, and you'll find a lot of clips and videos on that website. And that's one of the presentations that's on the website. And I came to Havasu in 1999 after I retired in December of 1998. So I'm a resident, been around a while. So when I first became acquainted with the walkway, walking that path up and down the walkway, I was amazed at the comments and the pavers. And when Gary Myers, who was then president, the chairman or the president of the foundation and he had the vice president or vice president at that time was tracy jones from radius central they asked me to join them for a little discussion in november of 2018 and the walkway got off to a great start in 2008 with the launch of the wounded warriors And it got two or three years very strong, and then it languished for quite a few years. And so they asked us, the Marine Corps League, to team up with them to see if we couldn't reinvigorate the walkway. And we have. And in the June of 19 was our... 2019 was our first collaborative ceremony and it was Navajo Code Talkers and we are very happy to say that since that time we've had a lot of groups and people and individuals that have, I'll mention a list of those momentarily, who have supported the walkway. And we're very grateful, Cal, to you and the city for your support of that walkway and the military in our community. I'm gonna be 91 here in a couple of weeks and a couple of days, in fact. And I've had a great life, and I wanna tell you, I've lived in a lot of communities during my lifetime. I've never had one that I've enjoyed as much as this, especially the support that we see for the military organizations and we veterans. We're grateful for that, and we loosely say it, but I mean it. We are the most patriotic city in the country, and I've seen that from my personal standpoint and appreciate your support. So Gary and Tracy convinced me we should become partners, and we did. We got into an alliance in that November 2018. And since that time, I've learned a lot about the walkway and a lot more about the community. And excuse me, I forgot to mention, I have some support back here this evening. You board members, please stand up for me. I have a few. Freedom Foundation board members, please stand up for me.

Ron Silva.

Okay, sorry. Alan Albert and Gary Hedick are our board members, three of our board members on the Freedom Foundation.

Sorry, ladies and gentlemen.

But anyway, to recap the walkway a little bit. Over the years, the walkway has been recognized as, we have recognized people in groups who have served in our community and outside of our community. And that's veterans and special groups. The Campbell family, for example, and sort of shocked Nancy, I think, in March when we had talked to a member of our detachment And he told me that there were quite a few Campbell family veterans. And I said, we should put together a list and see if we can't get those papers in a walkway. There are 26 Campbell family members. in our community, or not in our community, living and dead. And they started in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, up through Afghanistan. So I worked with, collaborated with the Campbell family member who put this together. So we have 26 Campbell family stones memorial in one place. ORGANIZED CHRONOLOGICALLY IN ONE SECTION OF THE WALKWAY. AND I THINK NEXT YEAR WE'RE GOING TO PUT A TITLE ROLL, THE CAMPBELL FAMILY VETERANS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. WE GOT TO HIGHLIGHT THAT A LITTLE BIT MORE. SO THE COMMUNITY SHOULD SAY THANK YOU, VETERANS. Anyway, those projects that we've worked on since we collaborated, Woodward Warrior Project, Blue Star and Gold Star Families, Navajo Code Talkers, First Responders, the Havasu Bearded Mustache Group, the original Havasu Pioneers, Healthcare Heroes, Educators, Graduates, Alumni, PACE, the Patriotic Americans for Constitutional Education. I think that's a great local group that we should get behind as a community. And we are, our detachment supports every one of their ceremonies that they award. They have an award ceremony every year. I think this year they had three or four schools that participated in the program. This is an after school project that teachers volunteer to do the teaching. of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of Bill of Rights, and we should, as a community, really get behind them. car clubs of Havasu, special family groups I just mentioned, of course, the Campbell family, and veteran families. There are also 76 moments of freedom. Before the walkway started, I think Gary or someone put forward to ASU a request for a list of some moments in history that are significant, and they came up with, they generated a list of 76 moments occasions or incidents or history events, historic events that we are now trying to keep up with. If you walk the walkway, you see two foot by two foot white papers called Moments of Freedom. And students here in our high school write those and award $500 scholarship if their essay is accepted. And walk through the walkway and you'll see those memorial, those history pavers. I think that's a great addition to the walkway. Because it's such a good fit, a founding theme of our military sacrifice for freedom, board members of the Havasu Freedom Foundation proudly announced unanimously they endorse the Charles James Cork Memorial Bench and its installation with proximity near and around the Havasu Memorial Walkway. So we're glad to support that effort and look forward to it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Russ. I hope I'm as sharp as you and I'm 91 years old. That's amazing. And now we're going to call up the artist of Virgil Bendito.

Thanks, Mayor and council members. I'll just give you a little... little read here. Following Charlie Kirk's tragic assassination, many members of the community expressed a strong desire to establish a permanent memorial in his honor. Early discussions centered on commissioning a bronze statue. However, the projected costs associated with the monument, site prep, landscaping, ongoing maintenance, proved to be significantly higher than anticipated. To provide a meaningful, enduring, and physically responsible tribute, I've developed an alternative concept, the Charles Kirk Memorial Bench. This public memorial will be installed in partnership with Havasu Freedom Foundation, creator of the Havasu Memorial Walkway along the Bridgewater Channel, where the bench will be prominently located. The project extends beyond the installation of the bench. It includes landscaping, beautification, and enhancements along about 100 foot stretch of the walkway, creating an inviting space for reflection, remembrance, and community engagement. These improvements will provide lasting value to residents and visitors while requiring only a fraction of the cost of a traditional monument. And this will be completely privately funded, no money from the city. The proposal has received overwhelming support from community members, local stakeholders, and various foundations. More than a memorial to a single individual, this project is intended to honor the enduring principles upon which our nation was founded. inspired by the Founding Fathers' commitment to open discourse and freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This memorial is neither political nor religious in nature. It is intended as a nonpartisan civic tribute to the principles of free speech, civil discourse, and the constitutional freedoms that unite all Americans. It will serve as a place where residents and visitors can gather reflect, engage in thoughtful conversation, and remember the enduring importance of the right to speak freely. In keeping with Charlie's spirit, the memorial carries a simple but powerful message. Keep talking. Thank you.

Thank you and thank you everybody that came out today. I appreciate it and has been a long haul to get to this point. Several times over, I felt that our freedom of speech was being stifled for something that we believed in that was so beautiful. The part that I love is the keep talking, but we're gonna continue to fundraise in this part. And we'd hope to for generations to come to have scholarship funding for under the name of Charlie Kirk, which is pretty much to say keep talking for generations. The more funding that we receive, obviously it's all privately funded and volunteers coming to the table to build this. And in return, we hope that we carry a legacy for decades under a scholarship fund under the name of Charlie Kirk. But thank you all for coming.

Vice Mayor Diggs, do you want to talk about the slides that have been going in front of us or is that Council Member Campbell?

I will, if you don't mind. So let's start with this one. This is basically this piece of property. There were several locations we looked at, and I believe that there was a purpose in the end. When the Freedom Foundation came to me and said, right in front, right here, in front of a city parcel land that is just dirt and cut off stumps and has not been maintained, is where we're putting the Freedom Memorial for Charlie Kirk. And all the dirt from there just dumps onto the walkway and makes a mess. And it would be really nice if somebody would beautify that location. And so this is where you're going to see if you want to just kind of go through. So basically, as you can see, what we love about the bench is that's actually a cut out of Charlie Kirk in the background, which I believe represents all of us that have lost somebody in their life, we it's still there, it's present, we feel them. And we we come together with that. So if you'd like to go to the next slide. This is the location in question. This is a city parcel piece of land that's right by the casino boat overlooking the channel. And so when they showed me this parcel, it was inevitable. This is the location. This is a great place to sit and look over the channel. And we're looking into certain kind of paint that will glow in the dark, but we're working that out. So if we'd go to the next slide, as you can see there, there will be some alterations and changes to this image. We will work closely with the city and the city has been very generous to help us up to this point, give us some concepts and some ideas. But we probably will be moving it a little bit. But in the meantime, you get an idea of what it looks like. The images that we love, we picked multiple colors because we go back to what we tried to say. It's all of us talking. We did not want it to be political. We wanted to say we as a community have always talked. We need to keep talking. So if you go to the next slide, you'll see the other half of it. So back one. So you'll see now what it looks like and the children and the different colors and somebody sitting on a rock reading a book. So thank you, Virgil. Thank you to the Freedom Foundation. Thank you for everybody that came together to work this far. And now it's up to the council to make that decision. Thank you much.

Thank you. And then if I could turn it over to Ms. Gary, just because what we're talking about is partnership agreement. So if you could just talk a little bit about the legal perspective of that partnership agreement.

Just a couple things regarding the partnership agreement. So under the agreement, it outlines the responsibilities and expectations of each party. Under this particular partnership agreement, the city is going to allow the Havasu Freedom Foundation to facilitate the installation of the display, as shown in the exhibits and what you've seen on the screen. The city will be responsible for the maintenance of the bench, and then the city would be responsible to relocate the bench in the event the city needed to relocate it. The partner agrees to install the bench as shown on the exhibits, and then also to remove or take possession of the bench if the city can no longer display it and the city can't relocate it onto another city parcel. So in that event, the agreement just directs where the artwork will go. As far as that, the term of the agreement continues on unless other party terminates with 30 days notice. And then the city will ensure the artwork and the memorial project.

Ms. Gary, that's exactly the same agreement we have now with the Havasu Freedom Foundation for the bricks. As far as the language is the same as far as the city maintains, but they maintain the- Yeah, so, okay.

So it's different. So those agreements are different. So it's hard to compare that particular agreement to the partnership agreement today, or the walkway.

I guess I want to clarify, so the maintaining of the bench, some people said, why is the city going to spend money on maintaining? Well, they're really not, because it's really just pressure washing and cleaning. And we have a company that they're going to be working with, it's already announced that he would, pressure wash as needed at no cost to the Freedom Foundation.

So that's really the maintaining of the, but I- So the city would be responsible for anything, if it's damaged, if it's vandalized, if something needed to be replaced or corrected, we'd have to work with probably the artist and just trying to figure that, but that would all be the city's responsibility.

And just one last thing, when Charlie was assassinated, UNFORTUNATELY, OBVIOUSLY, THREE DAYS LATER THERE WAS A CANDLE LIT MEMORIAL UNDERNEATH LONDON BRIDGE TO SHOW YOU HOW MUCH THE CITY IS BEHIND THIS. BACK THEN WE HAD 3,000 PEOPLE SHOW UP IN THREE DAYS. IT WAS PACKED DOWN THERE. THAT WAS THE ESTIMATE THAT I GOT FROM THE NEWSPAPER, HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE DOWN THERE. AND IT WAS NOT POLITICAL. IT WAS ABOUT FREEDOM OF SPEECH. AND I'M GLAD YOU BROUGHT UP ANN CAUCIMIRO WHO CREATED THE PACE ORGANIZATION, TEACHING KIDS ABOUT FREEDOM. AND THERE'S GOING TO BE SCHOLARSHIPS INVOLVED, I BELIEVE, COUNCILMEMBER CAMPBELL? Yeah.

Mayor, and the final comment on that is we are partnering. That doesn't mean we're just gonna abandon the responsibility. We want the PACE children to be involved in maintaining it, keeping it clean. Obviously, the civil organizations that are working with the city, I'm sure, will be very supportive on anything that may or may not happen with it. So I did wanna put that in that there is a huge partnership, as you can see, no different than we do with the Freedom Walkway. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, any comments or questions from members of the council before we open the public hearing? All right, we'll go ahead and open the public hearing. We did have folks sign up for it, so we'll go through the folks that signed up first, and then we'll open up to anyone else. So we'll start with Mr. Harvey Jackson.

Mayor and Council, it's unusual for me to come before this group because even though I sat in Cal's seat about 20 years ago, I've always told representative government sometimes. And of course I've gotten paid through the years, but there was some concern given to me that this might not be a unanimous thing, a godmother and apple pie proposal. So I felt rather than There'll be people who do that. I think I ought to just address the council and what this is all about. It shouldn't be about politics. And I read the papers and I see that some of you, because one person is for something, it seems like some of you are just automatically against it. That should have nothing to do with honoring a person who was assassinated promoting Republican beliefs. Now, I hope I'm the only one that interjects anything about politics. And it isn't going to be the politics in the traditional sense. Every one of you came to organizations that I either attend campaigns, you all swore two things. And those are two things you have to do to get elected in this community. You all swore you were a conservative Republican. Those are the two things. Now, what did Charlie Kirk do? Charlie Kirk advocated those viewpoints. better than I could because he would go to campuses that by nature were hostile to those attitudes. But yet he would engage in a dialogue and usually successfully, at least in the sense that there was a dialogue. So what are our criteria in Havasu for naming parks? Winter Park, which is tells the only one that might have been here back then was named for a person who was killed in service for his country in the military. We have the skateboard park and again it's part of a park and again named after in this case a resident of We have an exception probably to where I'm going here or have been, which is the C.V. Wood Aquatic Center. But C.V. Wood was Old Man McCulloch's right-hand man and had a lot to do and in fact probably had the idea for this community, period. Then we have the Dick Samp Park. Dick Samp, I, and Chuck Langerbeld at a part of the founding of every park in this community, and I think that holds true today. I may have missed newer ones. Okay, now, so we have certain criteria for naming parks or portions of parks or something that is displayed to the public as sort of an honorarium. And at least in this community, Charlie Kirk All of you told the public when you got elected that you were for that criteria. It bothers me. Well, hey, it bothers me I have a timer. I don't usually have that. It bothers me that there might be some question about voting against this. Who forces the principles advocated by Charlie Kirk and virtually everyone in this community knows who Charlie Kirk is but the four people I named that have portions of a park or a park named after them I doubt if anyone and again I'll point to Cal because I'm looking at him but Cal and I can remember any of that so I would hope you live

Thank you, Mr. Jackson. The next speaker is Mr. Kolbosch. And then we'll open it up to anyone else that would like to address the council on this item.

Mayor, council, thank you for bringing this to the public. Charlie Kirk, I attended his memorial in Phoenix. It was unbelievable. It's amazing. I've never seen anything like it. Totally respectful, totally honoring. I've never seen anything like it. Charlie was a member or a resident of Arizona. He wasn't a son of Arizona. He was born in Illinois. But he was an Arizonan. And I think it's totally appropriate for us to have a memorial to this Arizona transplant like so many of us are who made arizona his home and had national implications in what he did he extended his microphone to those who totally disagreed with him expecting to have a conversation with them and he was cut down by a coward and we should honor his sacrifice that he had the courage to be able to stand in front of those who hated him and engage them in conversations This is a great American trait, and it's totally appropriate for Lake Havasu to honor this man. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council on this item? If you'd just state your name for the record, please.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I am totally in favor of this. My only concern probably goes to the city attorney. It is projected to be built out of steel. Is that a risk for burns? And are we gonna be liable for those burns? Is there some other material perhaps? That would be my only concern, would be steel and heat, unless it's coated with something magic. Thank you.

Ms. Gary, from a risk standpoint,

The project has been submitted to to our risk pool for consideration. They have expressed some concerns we are, we are purchasing additional insurance to ensure that the project is covered, and that we have insurance coverage.

Thank you. Mayor. Council Member Campbell. Can I say too, the bench itself is made out of a resin. So it won't be, you're not sitting on metal. That was kind of false information going about. And the rest are normal figurines. If you go to many parks around the world, you'll see figures that are made out of metal, like the kids running. The artwork will be built here in town locally, which is nice. And it will be, it's commercial art. It's common in a lot of parks. What you're seeing right now is just a 3D rendering of what it's gonna be. But we have talked about corners and edges and how we can make it as safe as possible for the citizens. But thank you for loving the piece.

Could you make your way back to the podium and let us know what's your name? Okay, did you get that Ms. Williams? Okay, thank you. Would anyone else like to address the council on this item?

Good afternoon. My name is Emiliano Torres. I'm a resident. I'm a disabled veteran. My father was a disabled veteran. My son is a disabled veteran. It's too soon to be putting up a memorial for someone who is not a veteran, not a resident, and he is a political figure. You may not want it to be a political figure. You may think he spoke for free speech. But I would say more he was an effective debater, not a free speech advocate. So I do not believe the city should advocate for something that is appropriate for the entire community.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to address the city council on this item? Yeah, please just make your way to the podium and state your name for the record.

About the fees and the cleaning, just like an adopted highway, sorry, my voice is gone. If there was a quarterly fee for somebody to sponsor it, like a business, or a monthly, and the plaque goes in and it's changed three or four times a year, I think a lot of businesses would want to support that. And not just for this bench and memorial, anywhere on Lake Havasu City, If there's a what their tourists come in over the weekend or snowbirds in the or the full time residents and they see a plaque, it's a full circle of appreciation and businesses would love to have their name there. The city would like to have the benefit of the cleaning and the passerbys would like to support the full circle.

Councilmember Campbell, do you want to talk about that? In our packet there looks like there still needs to be money fundraised for this project, is that correct?

Yes, absolutely. We didn't start fundraising at this until we got approval. There's been a lot of steps along the way to get to this point and we're just waiting for the council to approve. As soon as the council approves, we will be reaching out to the community and the funding will go through the Freedom Foundation and They have a separate banking account specifically for the Freedom Foundation. And our goal is to raise guesstimates that are going to definitely change. I have to thank Virgil Venditto again and all of his hard work on getting as close to the estimates as we possibly can. It will be built here in town. at 10 day doors through Ryan Bassaro. And we have already a lot of community members that want to donate their materials, concrete, metal, some other items. So again, the total number, we don't know anything after that. Those funds will go to scholarship funding and we will have a plaque there that will offer any tourists that come to visit that they can actually donate to the cause. And that's where we're saying that we hopefully will have maintenance. We'll be able to partner, be good partners. I love the direction that gentleman just said. Very much community involved. So hopefully that helps.

Thank you. Mr. Wisdom.

Good evening, Mayor and Council and audience. Mine's a little simpler idea. Kids love to... put money in a jar. But there are containers that have, when you put money in it, they go back and forth and they do funny things. And kids would love to do that. And I thought if we could incorporate something like that, people who may not give dollars, but might give money to the kids so they can put money into the hopper, would help pay for the maintenance of the display. And Charlie was a wonderful man.

Thank you, Mr. Wisdom. Wait a minute, I'll say to address the council. Yeah, please.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. I just wanted... Oh, it's Bonnie. I just wanted to remind you that the Commons is a bunch of metal... Poles, steel poles everywhere. I was over there today because I enjoy it. And the poles actually, they must have the right kind of paint on there because the poles weren't that very hot, not nearly as hot as the concrete benches.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council and our families. I wasn't prepared for this, for the Charlie Kirk, but the Holy Spirit told me to come up. Definitely for this, God created us in this world. And he created us to speak and share how he made us what we stand for. And I believe Charlie was that man at this present time in our time of generation. And I know that God would love for us to have this piece of artwork and what honorable for us to have it here in Lake Havasu City, paradise as we call it, right? And I know that we would have a lot of volunteers, a lot of donations because here in Lake Havasu City is about Jesus and Jesus dying on the cross for us. And Charlie spoke about that. He created us. And I know the Holy Spirit is here with us all, and he would love to have that peace for us to walk by. And I love that about the change thing, because what do kids like to do? You just want to put change and throw it in the fountain, right? So anyways, that was a side note. But thank you for your time. I would love to be part of Charlie Kirk's memorial area. He's an amazing man. He speaks of Jesus. Thank you.

Thank you. Does anyone else like to address the council on this item?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Patrick Willett, resident. As the gentleman was saying, time. I don't think there is a time for this anywhere. You never want to see anybody murdered.

So to put this up would be an honor for this city. Charlie Kirk was an awesome individual. And people that come up here and want to put him down, I just don't understand why. What are they afraid of? This man did nothing wrong. He opened his head, he opened his mic to everybody, just like this is, an open mic. We can come up here and we can support him, or we can sit there and be quiet. But to dishonor a man who was murdered, I just don't understand it. And I hope every one of you vote for this project. Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to address the City Council on this item? All right, seeing none, we'll bring it back to the council for discussion or possible motion.

Mr. Mayor. Yeah, Council Member Dolan. I'm gonna stick my head in the lion's mouth on this one. I'm for the bench. I like the bench. I watched Charlie Kirk before he was assassinated. I like the guy. To say this is not political is political. big white elephant, no, the event, the bench, I'm totally for it, but the two people that are spearheading this thing to have their own campaign to take over the majority of the council are telling us, telling people on the internet, oh, the council's not conservative, they're all liberal. I've had people tell me, oh, Jim, I didn't know you were liberal. I'm like, I don't know, I've been a Republican my whole life. What makes you think I'm liberal? Well, maybe you should watch, and maybe we shouldn't be lectured on how we vote on this one individual topic because We're council members. You should judge us on us on our conservative values on how we vote on things that come up before the city. Are we fiscally conservative? Are we raising taxes? What are we doing? And I think all of us up here have shown that we are fiscally conservative. So I, I, I don't think the bench is political, but I think the movement, let's be honest, you have your four people to take over. I can tell people, you shouldn't have seven people. We don't agree up here, and that's good. You want seven people not on the same page. But putting this together is political. And so for people to come up and say, well, you need to vote for this if you're a Republican, I don't need to be told how to vote. I'm going to vote with my heart. And if my heart says vote for it, I'm going to vote for it. And if I'm not, I'm not going to vote for it. But I'm not going to be intimidated by somebody telling me how I should vote. Like I said, I like Charlie Kirk. I love the bench. I think it's a perfect place for it. I love the Freedom Foundation. I love Gary Myers and Gary Hedick and the whole group that put it together. I think this is the literally perfect place for this. And I think it's great that the community is all coming in and all those people came in to do that. That's awesome. IT IS POLITICAL ON THE OTHER SIDE, AND I COULD NOT IGNORE THAT WHITE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM THAT I SHOULD BE TOLD HOW TO VOTE BECAUSE I'M A CONSERVATIVE. I'M GOING TO VOTE CONSERVATIVE THROUGHOUT THE THING IF I'M FOR IT. IF I'M NOT, THEN I VOTE. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS. SO I GET TO NOT BE IN AN ELECTION THIS YEAR, SO I GUESS MAYBE I GET TO SAY THINGS LIKE THIS. SO I HAD TO SAY MY THOUGHTS. I'M A VOTE YES ON THIS. I THINK IT'S GREAT. THANK YOU, GUYS. THANK YOU FOR THE ARTWORK. I THINK IT'S AWESOME. THANK YOU.

They don't have any questions or comments. Miss Gary, when it comes to vandalism or maintenance, that's going to be completely on the city. So we're going to get something turned over to us from the artist and we'll develop it from there. We take over. I think I heard you say it's a true partnership. That's not the agreement says. What's your view on. like if there was something that we had to replace or we realized it was a hazard potentially, those types of things, what's that look like for us?

Well, first we have an agreement that says at any time, 30 days, either one of us can cancel it and it can be removed. Yes. So we do have that in there. I always looked at it as the partnership like we have with the Freedom Walkway right now. There's liability responsibilities of tripping, whatever may happen, the bricks get damaged, the city is actually paying for those bricks to even be installed. As for the partnership that we have, I think maybe if we need to add some verbiage in there that says if it gets vandalized or damaged, that the partnership agreement would definitely support The vandalization or the maintenance, I mean, we can obviously add something like that to the agreement. I thought it was in there just like the Freedom Walkway is kind of the same way that we are all working together with that. The city's helping putting it in and so on and so forth. It's a big collaboration with the community. That's the way I looked at it.

Can I just do a quick clarification on the walkway because that keeps coming up so that's an MOU and a lot of the walkway isn't on city property so it's on private property so under that agreement the foundation is responsible for all the administration the ordering of the bricks they're responsible for if any bricks are damaged they have to provide the new bricks the city agrees to store the bricks once they are given by the foundation and then we agree to install new bricks like twice a year so that's those are the agreements underneath that MOU and But as far as maintenance and liability, any part of the walkway not on city property has nothing to do with the city. So in the sense, when I say that they're different agreements, they're very different because this project, the memorial, is completely on city property. And the way that it's been negotiated at this point, the partnership didn't want to take any type of maintenance responsibility. If there's further negotiations and there is some willingness of the partner to take on some of the responsibility for vandalism or replacement or something like that, we can certainly. I mean, the city's open to that, just to the negotiations to this point in time, it was that the city was going to maintain it completely.

What is the difference between the other memorial benches that we put around the community? They get broken. I've seen bicycle riders jump off of them and all of that. What is your agreement with a typical memorial bench?

There's no agreement for the memorial bench program. So that's a completely separate program. I mean, we could certainly have done that. Someone could have done a bench for that under that program, but that is a completely different program. Someone purchases it, it goes to the cost to install it, and there's no agreement with that person. So there's no expectation on either side. It's just part of the program.

Memorial benches are all on public property as well. So they're in our area. When someone purchases one through that program, it covers the cost of the bench and the installation of the bench and then the bronze placard. But it's one size fits all. You couldn't purchase one and say I want it to be vibrant colors like the display we saw today. So that's the difference.

I agree, but the end deal is pretty much it's a memorial bench. That's what we're putting into place. That is... It's a memorial bench and we're having contracts and partnerships and we don't even ask those people to come back and maintain them. What happens if one of those memorial benches get broken or somebody gets injured on them? Nothing.

The city would be responsible.

Okay, so I think that's kind of where we're at today. Really, it's a memorial bench, it just looks a little different.

Are there any other questions from members of council or comments?

Yeah.

You know, I really enjoyed the presentation. And to be honest, I mean, if you want to get anything done, send a Marine, right, Nancy? We just get a roll of Russ Muscari up here and it'll get done. And to be honest, if this was the Russ Muscari Memorial events, there'd be a line out the door of people supporting this. I appreciate you, I appreciate all the Marine Corps coming and getting behind some things. I share some of the same views of Jim. I love Charlie, I love what he stood for, freedom of speech. But this is undoubtedly, it's a political, this is a political movement, it's a political thing. And so it's been really hard for me. I've struggled with this quite a bit this whole week. I've called a lot of different people, gotten a lot of different perspectives. Some of you might be in the room today, but this has been one that I've truly struggled with because I believe that political things shouldn't be put on public property. However, Nancy made some good points about we already have memorial benches and all that stuff. I was wanting to see, I was wanting to strike maybe a compromise where maybe the foundation, I mean there's obviously an outpouring of support. There's a lot of people who want this. And so if the foundation would be willing to take on the insurance and the costs of maintaining Moving forward, that way it can, you know, it truly is something that the citizens want. And that could be a compromise on this situation. I'm just throwing it out there. I still don't honestly know. You know, if that doesn't get, if there's nobody else who agrees with me on that, then, I mean, I honestly still don't know how I plan to vote on this. I'm still weighing the options. Thank you.

First and foremost, you'll hear if the press release moves forward. I was on a trip to Portugal with my husband when Charlie got killed. I was shocked and amazed. Everybody on that ship from all walks of life were staring at the TV and were discussing the death of Charlie Kirk. And what a complete, loss of a human and how unfortunate it was just because he wanted to speak his truth. So some may be calling this political. I took this very emotionally, and I was compassionate about it. And what I did, because I was on a ship, I reached out to my dear friends, Carolyn and Virgil Venditto, local artists in this community, musicians as well. And I said, how do we do this memorial? Unfortunately for me, I wasn't at the event with the 3,000 people and the candlelight vigil because it happened within three days. But through the whole trip and the whole vacation I was on, he was a top topic never did i hear this is political or never did i hear he deserved to die i never heard any of that i really did this through the heart of this gentleman that was the same age as my children that were at campuses trying to talk and communicate that's why one of the biggest takeaways we had in the medallion that we do based on the funding we get says keep talking And so I'm a little offended up here that I'm being told this is political, this is a movement. I left there changed after the death. I came back and said to my artists and designers and builders, how can we build this? I didn't run into the Republican Party or conservative parties and say, we're gonna do this right now and make a movement because it's political. Every different person statue is a different color for a reason.

May I make clarifying remarks?

Councilor Moses?

Nancy, I should clarify this because I did not mean it to come off like that. I don't necessarily agree with what Jim said as far as towards you. Charlie was political. The movement was political. That's what I meant. I didn't mean local politics. And nothing in my statements that I mean to allude to that. So I apologize to you for that. We all felt a certain way when that happened. I truly, truly feel you too. I was beside myself that our nation had come to this. So yeah, I just want to clarify that to you.

So to Council Member Moses' question earlier to the foundation, is there any appetite for taking on the insurance expense and the cost to repair it? Okay, so there's no appetite for that. Just want to get the question answered before we hear that. YEAH, PLEASE, MR. MUSKET, IF YOU COULD GO TO THE MICROPHONE.

FROM THE STANDPOINT OF MAINTENANCE, WE GET AN ONGOING SUPPORT FOR FUNDS OR REQUESTS FOR FUNDS INTO THAT SEPARATE ACCOUNT. WE ARE A 501C3, ANVIL SUPER FREEDOM FOUNDATION, SO WE'RE SPLITTING THE MONIES FROM OUR ACTIVITIES IN THIS ACTIVITY. And so I would support and promote ongoing donations to that fund, to that account for maintenance, and keep things going on that basis.

Did you have a question, Councilman Moses? Can you clarify that for me, Mr. Muscari? What do you mean by that? So you are willing to do the...

I'm willing to support the ongoing raising of funds for the separate account and we use the funds. What funds don't go to election or construction of the unit will go to scholarships and there'll be a reserve hopefully for maintenance for that bench out of that account. What other than the Freedom Foundation account? The Freedom Foundation account, the monies that we raise, the profits that the foundation in London Bridge, the Marine Corps League and the London Bridge Rotary Club split the net proceeds at the end of the year, leaving a reserve in the account. We take those funds where we want to go as a Marine Corps League fund. to our interest in our organizations and people that we support in London Bridge Warrior Club, can we swim in scholarships and exchange programs to students going to the UK? We take the monies 50-50 and do what we want with them. So we don't have any, there's not any slack in our budget.

I didn't think you did. No. You know what I mean? I don't think the Marines got any slack there, right?

We watch the monies like a hawk. In fact, the condition for me to get involved with the Freedom Foundation originally, no hanky-panky. I don't want to impugn this ego on my cover, and we will not be part of any mischief.

I expect nothing less. Is there a Charlie Kirk Freedom Foundation? Do you guys have your own foundation?

They do. They're taking it on.

You're going to have your own branch.

We're going to have them build it.

And so that foundation, are they able to fundraise to keep up with maintenance and insurance? At this point, the support that we've received is pretty big. Sounds like businesses are going to be monthly. You know what I mean? Yes. That was a great idea.

I don't know why we're so stuck on this because if we were to build a pool or a splash pad or the aquatic center, we are at risk every single day. Even my artists went by and looked at some of the benches that we had that are made out of gable boxes and they're far more dangerous than what we're talking about right here that the city has put on their property to move forward. So is this political or is this something we really want to do?

Emma, I'm just proposing this as respect to the people who maybe don't think like I do. As a compromise.

The last comment will be, we're 501c3. We are apolitical. We are not political as an organization. We look at this as freedom of speech. We look at this as the ability to live within the restraints of the Constitution and the amendments, and that's how we look at it.

Can I add one thing? Yes, please, Vice Mayor. We have the information up here, but I don't think everyone out there has it. But the insurance we're talking about that the city is going to pay, for this annually is $57. It's $4.75 a month. I'll write a check for that.

I'll give you a check for that.

I just want to make that clear because there's been some misinformation that, yeah, so just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that because you guys don't have that information.

I got that covered if you need it. Thank you very much. Thank you.

You're welcome. All right, unless there's any additional discussion, entertain a motion.

I would just like to clarify something. I don't think that the memorial is political. Charlie was a great guy. I think the Havasu push of people and people out on the internet, these people aren't conservative, they're liberals, they're doing that. It's part of the local politics and I think it's being used and I think it's kind of disgusting. We're all care for the community and I don't think anything with you guys has to do with political,

Yeah.

Yeah. No, I agree. And this is city stuff. And I think we should focus on city stuff. But like I said, to try to be guilted. And if you're a true Republican, you're going to vote this way. That's not the way I roll. So just wanted to clarify that position. I do, like I said, I don't think this local memorial bench is political in any way. I think it's great. And I just want to thank you guys for your hard work.

Vice Mayor, do you like to make a motion, please? Okay, I move to approve the partnership agreement with the Havasu Freedom Foundation.

Second. You got it.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Diaz. We have a second from Councilmember Dolan. I have additional. Any additional discussion, Councilmember Moses?

Yeah, so is this going to include the maintenance and or upkeep of the?

No. It does not.

Okay.

YEAH, THE AGREEMENT, SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A PROJECT, BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL ACTION OF THE COUNCIL IS THIS EVENING IS A PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT. AND IN THE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT, THE RESPONSIBILITIES ARE OUTLINED OF WHAT THE CITY'S GOING TO DO AND WHAT THE PARTNER IS GOING TO DO. AND COUNCILMEMBER MOSES WAS ASKING A CLARIFYING QUESTION BASED ON THE CONVERSATION THAT WE JUST ENDED THAT YOU'LL BE RAISING ADDITIONAL MONEY TO HELP OFFSET COSTS FOR MAINTENANCE AND THAT TYPE OF STUFF. THAT'S NOT IN THIS AGREEMENT. THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT CAN'T HAPPEN.

And that's what I mean. I keep hearing that everyone's okay with that, but then it's not in this motion, correct? No. We're not going to put it in the agreement?

No. But I will add that there is a lot of people that have raised their hands and want to do something, but they wanted to wait until this agreement got over the finish line. So I don't think we're having any issues at all.

Think about pickleball carts. Same kind of thing. People came to the table, helped fund the pickleball carts, and in the end were responsible for them.

All right, we have a motion from Vice Mayor Diaz. We have a second from Council Member Dolan. We are ready to vote.

Motion carries six to one.

Thank you. Well, now we'll resume back to item 7.3, which is resolution number 26-3916, adopting the five-year capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2027 through 31. Good evening, Ms. Olsen.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This item is related to the five-year capital improvement plan that we have been discussing at various budget work sessions. And as soon as the item comes up, I'll launch into this. This is required to be adopted prior to adopting the tentative budget. And so that's why this is on for adoption prior to the final budget adoption. So since we have met with council, we have made three changes based upon council direction related to the CIP. The multi-use fields, we moved that forward. We put $1 million into FY27, the upcoming fiscal year, so we can start the planning and design process if it's appropriate. And then in FY28, $6 million, the remainder of the $7 million was added. The Rotary Park splash pad funding source was modified to be general funds. And the north area hanger development funding split had to be changed in order to accommodate the change in the other funding. So now for FY28, there will be $800,000 for the north hanger development funding with the remaining 500,000 for FY29. The total of the five-year plan, so for all five years, is a little over $197 million. There's about $55 million in grants, and that includes about almost $36 million for the second bridge. The FY26-27 total is just under $97 million. Almost $41 million of that is in grants, including funding for the second bridge. And then all projects under this five-year CIP plan are funded as shown. We did place an attachment in the packet so that Council could have a revised CIP summary. So you could see the summary of the projects with those three changes made and we attached the revised project worksheets to that handout as well so that you would have that updated if you wanted to insert those into your CIP workbooks that you received in April. Before you get your final budget after adoption, you'll get the full booklet with the revised capital. But in the meantime, you would at least have the current information. So the proposed projects for FY27, this is just a summary by category showing the totals for each in FY27. So that's the FY27 totals only. So you can see that they're lumped together by category. Drainage, a little over 4.7 million. You can see the total parks projects, wastewater, water projects. So that's just a summary in a different format for everyone's review. And then the next few slides are just the five year CIP projects by project categories showing the individual projects within those categories and the funding available for each year within the five year CIP. So you'll see on this airport project, for example, the north area hangar development, you now see that split where we have moved the, for FY28 and 29, we have moved, split it between the two years instead of having the full 1.3 million in FY28. And then I'll go through these rather quickly because you have the details. They were in the packet and the packet's available online as well. So that shows all of the drainage projects. These are the general government, including the parks and recreation, the public safety projects. Again, here you'll see on this list, this reflects the multi-use field change. By moving the million dollars up to FY27 for planning and initiation of the project with the remainder to be spent in FY28. And then the Rotary Park splash pad remains in FY27, but now has the general fund as the sole source of funding for that project. This shows a list of the street projects over the five year time frame, including what's listed for FY27. Wastewater projects, quite a long list. That's for the full five years as well. We did want to point out, we put some asterisks on there. The projects planned for the last three fiscal years do assume a rate increase sufficient to result in about a 5% increase in revenues. IF THE RATE OR REVENUE INCREASES DON'T OCCUR THESE PROJECTS WILL BE CUT BACK OR REDUCED IN SOME MANNER SO THERE HAS TO BE ADDITIONAL REVENUE FOR THAT THOSE PROJECTS TO REMAIN ON THE LIST FOR THE WATER PROJECTS WE HAVE THE SAME SITUATION JUST AS WAS SHOWN FOR WASTEWATER Waters is planned for the last three fiscal years, assumes a rate increase sufficient to result in an 8.5% increase in revenues. And again, if the increase in revenues doesn't occur, then the projects will be reduced. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Mayor, for council discussion and questions.

Thank you, Ms. Olsen. Are there questions or comments from members of the council for Ms. Olsen? Mayor, I just have a quick question. Council Member Lynn?

Can you go to the street projects? Those are the only two projects that we're gonna be working on in 26-27, is Acoma and Lake Havasu Avenue? That's the only two?

In addition to the second bridge, it'd be Acoma and Lake Havasu Avenue, yes. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions or comments from members of the council?

Vice Mayor Diaz? Yeah, and I'm gonna, I'm going to say I'm probably going to vote yes on this budget, but I just want to voice my concerns very much like Councilmember Dolan was saying last time. I'm going to voice some concerns here. I have a question. So when we met at the workshop and the splash pad became all of a sudden a top priority, we said that we're going to have to probably put on the back burner the police, public safety, equipment storage. of $1.3 million in order to pay for the splash pad that was $1.5 million. And now I see that they're both in the 26-27 budget. So where did we find $1.3 million out of it? Did I hear that right? We weren't going to do one thing. Or we could do the splash pad if we didn't do the PD swords.

I think that was during the discussion at that work session. That was some of the discussion that we could move the PD improvement to do that. But then Mr. Knutson and his team were able to go to work after they heard the entire DISCUSSION THAT COUNCIL HAD AND THEY MOVED THE HANGER DEVELOPMENT. AND SO THE HANGER DEVELOPMENT IS WHAT MADE THAT PUZZLE WORK. IF YOU ALL RECALL, THERE WAS A SPREADSHEET UP AND WE WERE MOVING THINGS AROUND.

THAT WAS MY OTHER CONCERN. WE WERE MOVING THINGS AROUND KIND OF.

JUST SO YOU COULD SEE WHERE IT WAS AT. I KNOW. THE TEAM TOOK THE INFORMATION AND BROUGHT IT FORWARD AND WE HAD THAT WORK SESSION IN MAY. AND NOW WE'RE HERE FOR THE TENANT OF ADOPTION.

OKAY. AND THEN I REMEMBER, I MADE A MOTION BACK IN I think at the same budget meeting we had, or this was last year, when we said I would like to, we went to executive session, and I said we would do the, I mean, came out here, we made a motion to move the outdoor pool to CIP to put it on hold for this year, and now it's five years later it got moved. So I'm just concerned how that, I mean, I don't know if we had any previous discussion about that. I know we had a couple of work sessions, but. Who made the decision to take it from the motion that I made that was seconded and we voted unanimously on it to move it to 2930? When did that discussion happen? I know it popped up on our screen at the last work session, but.

THAT THE LAST TWO WORK SESSIONS BUT YEAH BUT WHO DECIDED TO MOVE IT FIVE YEARS FORWARD INSTEAD OF THE NEXT YEAR SO WHEN WE WERE DOING THE UH THE PUZZLE PIECES IF YOU WILL WE HAVE SO IT'S A FUNDED CIP SO WE ONLY HAVE SO MANY RESOURCES WHEN WE'RE MOVING THOSE THINGS AROUND THE DISCUSSION WAS UH IT WOULD WORK IN FISCAL YEAR 29 TO PUT THIS OUTDOOR POOL BUT I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND ALL OF MY COLLEAGUES ON COUNCIL THIS IS A PLAN. SO SIMILAR TO HOW WE HAD THE FIELD DEVELOPMENT WAS IN YEAR FIVE LAST YEAR, AND NOW IT'S MOVED UP TO YEAR ONE AND TWO. AS THE PRIORITIES MOVE FORWARD IN THE COMMUNITY, THAT CAN ADJUST ON BUDGET DISCUSSIONS NEXT YEAR WHEN THE COUNCIL IS DISCUSSING WHAT THE PRIORITIES ARE. SO POTENTIALLY THE SECOND POOL CAN MOVE UP TO FISCAL YEAR 28 AT THAT POINT OR SOME OTHER POINT. BUT THOSE DISCUSSIONS WE HAD COUNCIL INVOLVEMENT DURING OUR planning session in January, and then through our two budget work sessions that we had, one in April and one in May.

Yeah, and I guess I have to, I guess we have to verify for future reference, like who, when we say the priorities of the community, we take a survey and say the priority of the community wasn't to build the second pool and the athletic fields leapfrogged five years prior. I mean, so you say the priorities of the community, but then when did that We take a vote on that to the community. Tell us we want fields. That's our number one priority. This move to this move to $1 million. Well, that's what we're doing right now. Vice Mayor Diaz. So we I guess I'm just saying there's something and I'm probably I'm saying I'm going to vote for this budget because we have to get a budget approved. But there's still something wrong in the process. There's just too much moving around in numbers. I know we say we vote on as a council. We had two meetings and this and that, but we just Something is not right. I haven't got my finger on it yet, but I just wanted to voice it. And then the other thing, we had the water and sewer, the IDD we got rid of a few years ago, and then we had a water and sewer company, third-party company, come in here and give us an analysis to raise the rates, and now we're saying we could get all these done if we raise the rates again, but if we don't raise the rates, we're not going to get these things done. I thought that's the reason we raised the rates in the first place.

What Ms. Olsen said in fiscal year 28, it's assuming a 5% revenue increase. So those will be discussions that the council will have when that time comes. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, Council Member Campbell. I won't be voting for this CIP, and the reasoning for it is I'm a planner. Just like I thought of a Charlie Kirk bench, and it took me almost eight months to get to this point, a lot of boxes to fill. You know, Mark, before we get there, why? Well, we just paid $250,000 for a master park plan. And I'm waiting for them. Now that we paid for it, we should get it and we should follow their direction. But we're now just dropping splash pads over here and fields over there. Does anybody know how long it's going to take before we get that report? A year? Or, well, Bonnie, does anybody else? Bonnie probably knows, but does anybody else know? Mr. Knutson?

Mayor and Council Member Keble, Ms. Toye has been listening. It's a 12-month process.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Bonnie Toy, appreciate you. But in the meantime, so we got 12 months, nothing's gonna happen with any of these splash pads or anything at this point. We have 12 months, let's wait for the report. Let's put all that on hold, but no, we're dropping it in there. And then when we do that, we give the citizens the idea that it's on the planning and it's in the budget, no different than the pool. And then we confuse them all and then they call us. the number of phone calls I had to call and say, what happened to my pool? You guys said that you're just putting it back. And I'm like, just trust me, I guess. I don't know what's happening. So it's very confusing. I think we wait for the parks program. I don't know why we have to spend this amount. Let's put it aside and wait for the parks study to come back. And the other thing that when I first got elected, I was saying water mains and roads. I don't even care about roads now. I care about the water mains that are breaking all over the community. We received a study three years ago. I just now got the information. They said the study wasn't worthwhile. I think if we paid $110,000 for it, I'm gonna believe the study. I think it's a good study. It lets us know that we have 411% higher water main breaks in our city than the national average. That's very concerning to me. So to say that we are gonna put in literally this two, I think I posted it, $278 million budget, that's approximately 3.6%. We're gonna spend on, I don't know, about four miles of water mains and some asphalt to put over the top of it cuz you have to. We are way behind guys, we need some planning, we need a long term plan. I just feel like we're grabbing things and we're really reactive. But our infrastructure, our water mains are serious and Give me a dirt road if you guys are going to say, oh, she's only saying that because she wants to sell asphalt. I would rather our water mains working other than selling asphalt, to tell you the truth. So that's my point. I'm looking at it again for all these years now. It's almost five years later. We're in worse shape on our funding. We're spending $100 million more, and we're putting less on things that I think are a priority. So it's a no for me. I don't know what that looks like for the, I've already talked to city manager. I've talked to Jill. I wish I could just rubber stamp this, but I can't.

SO WHEN IT COMES TO WATER MAIN, WHERE THIS BUDGET, WELL, NOVA MAKES SURE WE DON'T DO ANY OF THOSE THINGS, BUT BEYOND THAT, THIS BUDGET HAS $4.5 MILLION FOR WATER MAINS. WE'VE DONE $3 MILLION THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS PRIOR TO THAT. WE DO HAVE A PLAN. THE COUNCIL HAS ADOPTED THE WATER PLAN, THE WEISS WATER PLAN, AND THIS IS WHAT THE PLAN IS. SO WHEN WE WENT AND DID THE RATE STRUCTURE, WE DID AN OUTLOOK OF 20 YEARS, WE DID AN OUTLOOK OF 10 YEARS, AND THEN EVERY YEAR WE DID A FIVE-YEAR CIP PLAN. I think Mr. Cullet addressed the study that you referenced at our last work session and why city staff went with the plan that they have in place, which takes care of these water mains. But a no vote on the budget is a no on all of the priorities of the city. This is what we're talking about right now is the CIP specifically. We also then have the operating budget. So the operating monies, when it comes to water, a fund specifically to water, and then there's an enterprise fund specifically to wastewater, and those are paid by rate payers. They're not subsidized by general fund dollars at all. So it's important that we have that information out there.

You're absolutely correct, but the situation is this. So 20 years ago, we had a sewer issue in our community. We didn't expect to raise the rates on sewer that much to be able to cover a $300 or $200 million project. We had to think about it and see how we're going to do this. And I think we're right here with these water mains, because like I said before, you're talking about, can the Public Works Department tell me how many miles of water mains we actually have? Not to mention the lateral service lines, something close. Kim? And by when they break like this, this is my biggest concern right now. If I miss a shower, that's one thing while they're repairing another water main. I'm really worried about our industrial area and I'm really worried about some of our, you know, the restaurants, commercials. I mean, I saw one the other day. We showed up at Montana Steakout and they were all sitting there going, I'm sorry, the water main broke down there and we got to cancel all of our reservations. That bothers me.

Yeah, we, of course, never want to have anybody out of water. Our goal is to provide 100% reliability. That's a goal, but it's not a reality, obviously. The specific question asked for was how many water main miles, about 500 is the answer to that question. 800 of total water service area miles. That includes those service lines. About 300 miles of that is old asbestos concrete pipe. So that's that 50-year-old pipe. That's the stuff that doesn't do so well, but the pipe we even have more problem with is our 4-inch PVC pipes that are in our cul-de-sacs. Those are jobs we were attacking day by day. In fact, recently, the water staff themselves took on a 300-foot repair and replacement all by themselves to make sure it was an area that was causing problems, and we did it on our own. Now, we can't always do that. We can't take our entire water staff for two days to do a water main job, but when it's important, we can. And there is a plan. We did address it at the last session with our use of AI. We have been looking at and have a model that we're testing to make sure it works before we debut it. But we see where the mains are and where we're attacking. We have a plan that is going to attack all the problem areas, so not just the old areas. And I want to be clear about that. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's bad. The problem are areas like pressure fluctuations. And some of this is not just going to be solved with new mains. Some of it is going to be a bit of a system design change where we're looking at pressure relief stations so that we can better manage pressure within the system. The city has grown. There have been changes from when the original water models were put together, when the original thought process was put together. All of that is being addressed now. And it's not piecemeal. It is the entire system we are looking at.

Thank you, and I always appreciate your expertise. I can sit and listen to you for hours. You probably wouldn't want to listen to me, but I enjoy listening to you. Depends on the topic. The topic is going to be this. 300 miles of older pipe is what you're saying here. How many miles are we getting with that for 4 million?

That'll be probably around three. Depends on the areas, because what really boils down to is it... Three miles. Yeah, it's about a million dollars a mile. You have to basically account for it. It's about a million dollars, roughly speaking.

300 miles. of old pipe, we have three, we're doing three miles this year. It's a hard, we got to figure it out. I mean, be it, it's not going to be this way. And I don't believe that the rate players can, we cannot raise the water rates enough to catch up with this.

And as Mr. Cullen mentioned, they're using new technologies and AI technology, just because it's old pipe doesn't mean it's bad pipe. And so when it comes to the modeling, they'll be able to identify the areas that need to be addressed.

We're still highly underfunded.

Mr. Mayor.

Council Member Dolan.

Amen, I agree, we're totally underfunded. This is what I mean by this is political. How are we gonna pay for this? The man up here, he's our staff. He's the one that runs the department. We have no plan. We don't have anything. We don't have enough money. We don't have this. No, I think you're doing a great job, and it's so wonderful, and you're doing everything you can. But what are we doing? We want water mains to be repaired, but we don't want our rates to go up. The city owns a nonprofit water company. We pay for that. If the city wants to say, let's do all 300 miles and replace this, our rates are gonna go up. Where do we think this money is coming from? This is such a political thing of what we need is when I get in there, I'm going to cut money, I'm going to save money. Our budget is online. You can go through and be like, I'm going to cut page 87, number three, number four, number five, then say that's what we're going to cut. But when we spend more money, we need to raise it. And it's going to be taxes or it's going to be fees on the water bill. And then we complain 5%. Oh, my God. Could you imagine if we only got a 5% increase on our utility on our electric rates over the years or Internet and all the other thing? And we're kind of bickering over 5%. No, we need to raise. That's where it comes from. It's not up to the taxpayers to pay for our water lines. It's up to the users. That's why we have separate funds. It doesn't come from taxes. It comes from. So like I said, if we're gonna have these conversations instead of like, we need more roads. Yes, the person that puts the roads in and puts the water mains is saying we need more roads and her four people are out there saying we need more roads. CAN WE JUST BE REALISTIC ABOUT THIS? OUR RATES WILL GO UP IF THAT'S WHAT WE WANT. IF WE WANT MORE ROADS, UNLESS WE GO TO A STATE LEGISLATURE AND THEY GIVE US MORE MONEY, THEY GAVE US $30 SOMEWHAT MILLION FOR A BRIDGE THAT I DON'T THINK WE NEED. I WISH WE COULD SPEND THAT ON THE ROAD, BUT WE CAN'T. AND WE NEED TO BE THANKFUL BECAUSE WE GOT FREE MONEY FOR A BRIDGE ON OUR MANMADE ISLAND. GREAT. BUT, LIKE, CAN WE JUST BE REALISTIC IN THE FACT THAT IT'S GOING TO COST MONEY? IF WE WANT TO SPEND MONEY, WE HAVE TO GET IT FROM SOMEWHERE. Can we just be specific? If someone says we want to cut something, then let's cut something, then let's manage. Let's just not shoot from the hip leadership. Why do we have this staff? We have 400 people out there, but we bag on them up here all the time. You guys are hiding reports from us, and I have this top secret report. And when are we going to get this plan? Okay. Thank you, Tim. That was a great explanation. I appreciate that. Why? Did you hear him, though? Yes. He says we had a plan in the last budget meeting we had. We have a plan. No.

the point is too is where is the what are we going to i am actually working on grant funding and other things perfect okay i am actually going above and beyond and the job of careful here we go let's just start let's talk about just talk just be nice right we're going to go to council member lane holy mackerel mr mayor yes um my concerns are more about the process and and what we've done so oh my goodness years ago i know we put into place in our little books here

AND THEY TALK ABOUT OUR PROJECTS, AND THEY TALK ABOUT THE PROJECT STATUS, THE PRIORITY, THE COMMUNITY RESULT. SO THIS IS WHERE I'M UNSETTLED WITH IT. I'M LOOKING AT WHAT PRIORITIES ARE. SO I'M GOING TO LOOK AT THE OUTDOOR POOL, WHICH WE PUSHED BACK, SO I DON'T THINK IT'S THAT CONTROVERSY RIGHT NOW. AND WE HAVE PROJECT STATUS, NO CHANGE NECESSARY, ONE TO THREE YEARS, COMMUNITY RESULT, FIVE, GREAT COMMUNITY TO LIVE IN. THAT'S WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. AND THEN WE CAN GO TO A ROAD. and we say project status, no change, priority necessary, one to three years, community result, reliable, infrastructure. So I know we're comparing apples to oranges here, but it says right in here there's a reason we prioritize things, and we prioritize them whether they're essential, necessary, or desirable. And the problem is is we've moved some things around here, and some things, and they're not specific projects. There's some things that we moved that are essential, And we move them back and put in things that are desirable. And so there was a reason we put this together years ago. I can't remember when we did it, but we did it years ago. So this was a roadmap for us to follow, and I just feel we went off on that. So I have to vote no on this, and it's not for any specific project. It really is not. If someone wants to think it's a splash pad, it's not, because according to this, it's a necessary thing. SO IT'S NOT. BUT THERE ARE SOME ROADS IN HERE THAT ALSO SAY NECESSARY. AND WE'VE PUSHED FORWARD FIELDS THAT ARE NOT NECESSARY. SO TO ME, I'M JUST THE PROCESS WAS PUT IN PLACE BY STAFF, BY US YEARS AGO, AND WE SHOULD FOLLOW THAT. AND WE DIDN'T DO THAT DURING THIS BUDGET SESSION. SO I HAVE TO VOTE NO ON IT JUST BECAUSE OF THE PROCESS.

So when it comes to what we have here, you were mentioning some road projects, which road is funded through HEERF, and we've been subsidizing it through the general fund as well. When you talk about parks and airport, that's general fund, so we're able to move some of those around. We wouldn't be able to use road money on park amenities. All of these priorities are not a surprise to any one of us. And if any of my colleagues and council are acting surprised today that this is how this is presented, I will remind you we had a planning session in January. We had two budget work sessions. This has been available for us. The splash pad has been in the five-year CIP. The pool's been in the five-year CIP. The water main's been in the five-year CIP. These are not surprises at all. We've been talking about these for years. But you need to do you. But I just want to make sure that we're talking about two different funding sources. But if you're going to have a fully funded CIP plan, the funding sources that can be used for certain projects have to be identified. And if we need to move a project based on priority from a community need, council direction, whatever that may be, it has to be in a fund that can be moved. So are there any additional questions before we open the public hearing?

Just a point of clarification. You mentioned that funding from the HEERF, just for those two projects that we're talking about. Obviously, HEERF funding is the $6 million, and it pays to pay for the whole department itself. Staff, salary, trucks, vehicles, all of that. And then probably the pavement preservation, some other things, parking lots. Maybe it's doing that, updating that. But let's... the elephant in the room again, we have been taking the vehicle license taxes and putting in the general fund for way before I showed up. And then now we're just giving it like a million here, a million there. I still think that we need to look at the overall budget and figure out what we can do. And if it means being able to help additionally through grant funding or bonding or whatever we need to do, I would believe that the public works department would agree that the funding sources that they're getting right now is not going to be enough to keep up even if we raise taxes i never said i didn't want to raise taxes i'm just on water rates we need to look at this again can somebody please answer to me why do we have the why did we why do we have these in the five-year plan these parks projects without getting the actual master plan the park master plan that we did mr knudsen i i

Mayor, Councilmember Campbell, mayors of the council, put as succinctly as I can, this is the best that staff can do based on the conversations that are occurring amongst council. We listen intently during the budget work sessions, we listen intently during the annual planning session, and we do our best to put together a plan that reflects the overall picture coming from council we go down the line and say okay what about splash pad okay what about ball fields what about this this project some members of council are going to disagree with other members of council on what the priorities are for the the the cip and the other portions of the budget as presented those are conversations that have to occur amongst council It looks this way because this is a reflection of the conversations amongst council. So I would highly encourage the members of the council to have conversations about what priorities are and come to a consensus, and so we can address the needs of the community.

Thanks, Mayor Diaz. Mr. Knudson, when we get to the Rotary Park splash pad, before we commit to Rotary Park, I hate to say commit to Rotary Park, but Is there a possibility that the council can get a side-by-side comparison of looking at the splash pad at Rotary Park or refurbishing and upgrading the one at the Aquatic Center? I mean, like a cost analysis and infrastructure in place at Aquatic Center for a splash pad versus brand-new infrastructure for a splash pad. Just so we could compare apples to apples all the way down. And one of my concerns, and I'm talking about concerns, is that, Rotary Park splash pad, but I don't remember us as a council ever saying that's the place we want the splash pad put at Rotary Park. Who decided it's going to be at Rotary Park? That's the final final.

So Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council, certainly what the direction, the will of the council is what staff will implement. We can have these conversations. We talk about splash pad so we can present to council, work session or otherwise, some information or otherwise with alternatives to what would best match up with the needs of the community. Council can, we can go out and have conversations with user groups and so forth. I know the parks master plan is a bit of a hot button topic to talk about, but part of that process is us literally going out and talking to the user groups and trying to identify what the demand is for our amenities throughout the community. Whether they're soccer fields, ball fields, splash pads, outdoor pools, we're gonna engage similar to what we did with the general plan, Meeting after meeting, inviting users in, and have interviews and conversations about what that looks like. Now that we have a, if adopted by council, we have a CIP that's going to say $1.5 million for splash pads, for a splash pad. Now staff will get to work, roll up our shirts, and say here's some options that council consider for moving and advancing that ball forward. Ball fields. These are conversations that... We're talking about July 1st, less than a month. So myself and the staff are having conversations of what that looks like. We don't have a site located for ball fields. Sarah Park, Buena Vista, I'll buy the airport. Maybe over at Avalon Park. other conversations, maybe with other folks out there in other locations, I'm trying to assess and determine what are the alternatives for the council and the public to consider and where our future ball fields and ball field amenities should take place. It's the, if council says we don't want to have ball fields in the CIP, then staff has zero conversations. If council wants to put ball fields in the CIP, now staff gets to work and said, okay, here's some, we need to put together the information for council and for the public so the council can make the best possible decision. And that's what, if council says we don't like splash pads, we want to put them in year three, then we're going to wait and hover and wait for that decision to be made. As soon as it's in the budget, that's the gun firing in the air, hopefully not at me, as the starting line and the race and the hard work that commences at that point.

And I appreciate that answer because I just want to make sure that the council is the one that is helping You and the staff decide what's the best feasible possible place to put these these new items and I appreciate that.

Thank you Public hearing Would anyone like to address the City Council on the CIP budget that we're considering this evening? If so, just make your way to the podium and state your name for the record

My name is Pam Swenson, and I have a couple of questions, probably more than one. First, with regards to this splash pad, it says on the CIP Rotary Park. And if there's going to be further discussion with regards to a location for a splash pad, I recommend that the name Rotary Park be removed from it and it just be called splash pad. because I happen to know that there was further discussion with users with regards to various locations that was not taken into consideration by the city. The city made the decision about Rotary Park, not the users. So if you wanna put it in the budget, then Rotary Park needs to be removed from that line, the name on that line. You can keep the dollar amount in there, you can save splash pad, but remove Rotary Park. Another thing is I kind of resent the hostility that went on about the infrastructure argument. I happen to know that there is a known life expectancy for any infrastructure. And when you build something, you know that life expectancy when you build it. And you should plan ahead for that life expectancy. A life expectancy for a new water line is 50 to 100 years. That's with current product. Old product, it's less because they were not built the same. So I work for roadway design engineers and I know this. So by saying that our budget is great, this is the way we've done it, JUST BECAUSE THINGS HAVE BEEN DONE THAT WAY DOESN'T MEAN IT'S THE RIGHT WAY. EVERYTHING IS REACTIONARY AND NOT PROACTIVE. AND ALL OF THAT MONEY FOR THREE MILES OUT OF 300 IS RIDICULOUS. I THINK IT NEEDS TO BE A DISCUSSION THAT THIS COMMUNITY IS COMPLETELY AWARE OF, WHAT WE NEED, WHY WE NEED IT, BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO BE CATASTROPHIC IF THESE LINES GO. AND THEY'RE GOING TO GO. WE'VE GOT MORE AND MORE BROKEN LINES ALL THE TIME, AND IT'S NOT GOING TO STOP. SO I THINK THAT THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE DISCUSSION WITH REGARDS TO HOW TO ADDRESS THIS WITHOUT IT BEING THREE MILES A YEAR BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A HORRIBLE CITY STRUCTURE, OUR INFRASTRUCTURE IS BAD. AND I AGREE, I'D RATHER HAVE A DIRT ROAD THAN FAILING WATER. YOU NEED WATER TO LIVE. AND IT'S THE SAME THING WITH THE LIFE EXPECTANCY ON THE ROADWAYS. WE ALL KNOW THAT THERE'S A CERTAIN LIFE EXPECTANCY AND YOU NEED TO PLAN IN ADVANCE for maintaining those structures and not wait for them to fail. So those are the two things really that I was kind of concerned about. And I think that the city needs to address the water line issues far more aggressively than they are. Thank you.

Anyone else like to address the City Council on this item?

Hello, my name's Dave Johnson, and I just had a couple of questions as well. So Jess, you said that the budget reflects the will of the council. Is the council not wanting infrastructure maintenance?

Mayor, Mr. Johnson, that's a question for the council.

Okay, so I just did a little quick math and some Googling while I was sitting back there watching. For an average, for cities across America about our size, if it's a newer city, they spend anywhere from 5 to 20% of their total budget just on roads. They do another 15 to 20% on the water mains alone. With this budget, we are spending 3.16%, so we're already way low on that. And then when you get into the 2027, it is 0.92%, like less than 1%. So I guess my question is with regard to that with all the other cities across America, we're at 5% to 20%, and we're at less than 1%.

How does that make sense? Mr. Johnson, the math you're doing, we don't know. We need to verify the math you're talking about. So if we're talking about an enterprise fund from water or wastewater or our operating budget or our CIP budget, you're lumping this all together.

The CIP budget with regard to roads, we're spending 0.92%.

OF THE TOTAL BUDGET. THE TOTAL BUDGET. SO IT WOULD BE FROM THE CIP BUDGET. AND WE NEED TO COMPARE THAT, MAKE SURE IT'S APPLES AND APPLES WITH OTHER COMMUNITIES. SO IF YOU WANT TO SHARE YOUR MATH AFTERWARDS, I'D BE HAPPY TO TAKE A LOOK AT IT.

I WOULD HIGHLY ENCOURAGE EVERYBODY TO DO THAT RESEARCH, BECAUSE IF YOU JUST ASK GOOGLE, IT'LL TELL YOU WHAT CITIES SPEND ON THIS STUFF. AND IF YOU CAN LOOK AT WHAT WE'RE SPENDING ON IT, IT WAS RIGHT ON THE SCREEN. SO I MEAN, IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. ANYWAY, I WOULD SUGGEST DOING THAT. THE SECOND QUESTION I HAVE IS, JESSE, AGAIN, WHAT HAPPENS IF THIS IS A Let's just say it doesn't pass. The staff goes back to work and now addresses the council to find out why it doesn't pass, and now you have the true will of the council.

So, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Johnson, a state statute clearly outlines the process for cities and towns to adopt a budget, starting with the first step here, which is the adoption of the tentative budget, which identifies a number that's submitted to the state. If approved, I'll get there, if approved, It comes back before council for the final adoption, so there's another step here. If it's not approved by council, I'll be waving my arms and saying, okay, that's great, but I need to know what you want to do for a budget. We can't just say no. The council would have to determine what those changes would be to make it acceptable to the point where council would pass it. If no budget is adopted, And I think we get into late July with extreme situations, and some cities and towns have done that. And there's a lot of history and stories out there for those that are interested. But we get to a certain point where there's no money that can be spent by the city. So there's some similarities, some not. But we talk about a government shutdown in terms of what can be spent and what's not spent. You can get to a point where you get to that, get there. I think it's been a lot of years, several decades since the city got to that point where funds weren't available as of July 1st, but I know some cities have gotten into August and try to make that corrective action.

So to take what you just said, if they say no to this, you'll be waving your arms saying, I want to know the will of the council to know what they want to change. But it doesn't just stop everything. You can then amend it and change it to the will of the council. The council represents the people. I can tell you just from my own personal experience for not bringing into politics but talking into a lot of people, a lot of people are frustrated with the roads. And I think everybody up here knows that, so I think it should play a larger role in the budget. So I would ask for everybody to do a no vote and then reestablish priorities, as you like to say, and add a little bit more money to the infrastructure to try to at least bring us up to the bottom of the national average. And I'm not saying we have to go start building racetracks or anything, but the bottom of the national average would be better than nothing. less than 1%. So, anyway, that's my two cents.

Thank you. All right. Would anyone else like to address the City Council on this item?

Hello, my name is Chad Nelson, and what a hard job it is to put this together. The only thing I would request of the council, the future councilors, and the mayor is to put together a task force to see what we can retain from the state. We're the second most visited place in Arizona, next to the Grand Canyon. We have huge trucks with huge boats, huge fuel tankers that use our roads, cross our roads. The state gets a massive benefit of the tax dollars that come to our town, and they steal it. Do we all agree on that? Okay. So that's my only request, is to put together a task force to see how we can retain those dollars and possibly apply it towards the roads. There's no question that, and infrastructure. There's no question it needs to be done, but LET'S FIND SOME NEW WAYS TO DO IT. OBVIOUSLY WE NEED THE MONEY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO ADDRESS THE PLEASE?

GOOD EVENING AGAIN.

I HAVE A QUESTION. WHAT IS A CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN OR YOU'RE CALLING IT A FIVE YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN?

So it's our CIP, it is the items that are reflective of capital investments within our community, and we adopt a five-year plan each year. And so this year, the five-year plan, it goes through the five years, but with a focus really on next year, fiscal year 27.

Okay, this part is not, is this an actual budget, or is the budget different?

So this is the CIP budget, and then our next item, it will be our operating budget. Okay, then I have- The whole budget, excuse me, the whole budget, which will be inclusive of the CIP and the remaining factors of our budget.

Okay, first question is, I noticed that on there, you talked about the street section. There was something on there about doing work from Willow Avenue until Sabino Drive, and I was just curious what that entails.

So that would be a road project that we'll be doing. We're doing a coma, and then we're also doing from, is it Willow to Sabino?

That's what it said, yes.

Yes, so that'd be a road project.

I was just wondering what kind of road project, because sometimes medians get thrown in without people realizing it. You told me back in 2018 that one day the Lake Havasu Avenue was going to be medians all the way through, so. When I saw that on the budget, I was just curious.

It's like Havasu Avenue, Willow to Mesquite Avenue is the project for next year that we're talking about. I believe, is that a mill and fill? Yeah, that's a mill and fill, so that would be a replacement of the road.

Okay, and then what happens, the time frame from budgeting the item to prepping the project, so that it is ready to be approved by council. So now you're putting these, you're calling it the CIP, but just because it's in the CIP doesn't completely mean that it goes immediately to get done, and it doesn't immediately, in between, things change. For instance, today, oddly enough, I found $40,000 that are, I don't know where you put it. Well, not 40,000, $36,123. At the city's website, there's a place where it says capital projects. And one of the capital projects that you guys are working on right now are the shade canopies down at the commons. And it says on there that it, Merrill, CONSTRUCTION ARE DOING THE SHADE CANOPIES AND IT SAYS THAT THEY WERE DOING SEVEN OF THEM. AND I THOUGHT, OH, WOW, SEVEN. AND THEN FOR WHATEVER REASON, I DECIDED TO GO LOOK AT THE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA FROM SEPTEMBER 23RD AND IT SAYS THAT THE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING EIGHT SHADE CANOPIES. AND EACH SHADE CANOPY COSTS $36,123. AND SO APPARENTLY YOU GUYS MUST HAVE SAVED THAT MONEY. AND I WAS JUST WONDERING HOW WOULD YOU FIGURE OUT WHERE THAT WENT?

THIS IS THE FIRST I'M HEARING ABOUT IT, SO I'LL TAKE A LOOK AND I CAN ANSWER.

IT'S ALL ON THE WEBSITE.

OKAY, YEAH, PERFECT. YOU'VE REVIEWED IT TODAY. I HAVE NOT. SO, YEAH, THANK YOU.

Good evening, my name is Dr. Keeley Lundeen, and I'm a mother of soon to be three, and I married into a family that's owned a wonderful business here since the 60s, as many of you I've talked to have known them. I prepared some words for tonight, and I'm a little bit frustrated about what I'm hearing instead, so I'm going to diverge from this. I've spoken with many of you throughout the last few weeks, and I've emailed all of you multiple times. I appreciate all of your answers and being willing to discuss this flash pad for future families and kids in this community. What I'm frustrated with tonight is that this flash pad still seems to be a stoppage of almost a $200 million budget. $1.5 million seems to be an issue for some people on the council. And maybe that's just an easy point to bring up that priorities and needs need to be addressed differently and may be ranked by the community with this survey. Where my frustration lies is I've asked multiple times to all of the council members and mayor if any comparisons have been done about renovating existing splash pads or building a new splash pad. All answers said that those costs and budget projections could not be done unless the splash pad remained within the budget. CITY STAFFERS ALSO SHARED THAT VERY PRELIMINARY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A SPLASH PAD WILL BE PART OF THE ROTARY BATHROOM PROJECT, AND THAT IS GRANT FUNDED. SO WHILE THERE IS NOT A SPECIFIC GRANT FOR THE SPLASH PAD, THERE WILL BE SOME STATE MONEY USED FOR THE, I THINK A PUMP ROOM AND RETAINING WALL FOR A POSSIBLE SPLASH PAD AT ROTARY PARK, AND I BELIEVE THAT'S WHY IT WAS INDICATED THAT WAY IN THE CIP. I personally and many of the mothers in the back don't love this location for the splash pad, frankly. Being right in the channel is a little bit challenging. I have twin toddlers. Keeping eyes on them is hard. I do believe the aquatic center is a better location. However, in order to have that discussion, as many of you have said, it has to remain in the CIP. I will continue to advocate for this as many of the Families and mothers in the back will as well. So if you do revise the CIP and do not approve it today, we will still be hounding you with emails. I'm grateful for all of your attention and focus on this, but I'd be more grateful to have a safe place for my kids to play in the water. The lake has drowning issues, pools have drowning issues for young children. So I do believe a splash pad is a great option for our community and way to benefit. Thank you.

Would anyone else like to address the City Council on this item?

John Wisdom. Listening to these conversations, when you have your planning meetings, Do you invite people like that one lady to come to your meetings and explain to you what's going to happen if you do this? It doesn't seem like anybody's paying attention. We seem like we're in a very critical area. We need 300 miles and do three miles a year. That doesn't pencil out very well. What about the state? Does the state give us any money? Do we get money from the state for the highway? I know they came in and put the center dividers on 95. I wonder how much money they spent for that. And it seems like there's a fog in the area. Nobody's paying attention.

Thank you, Mr. Wisdom. Yes, our planning sessions are open to the public. And not only do all of our boards, committees, and commissions are invited, but so is the public.

Good evening.

My name is Maddie O'Dell. I am a parent here of almost four and a half, so we've been here for about five years. And we absolutely love this town. It's where my family wants to be. We just enjoy it so much. We feel so grateful that we live in a place where people come and vacation. It makes us feel like we don't need to vacation. And with that being said, a splash pad sounds so wonderful for the young families here in this community. The concern with Rotary Park, I don't know if a lot of people have been there, especially March, April time, spring break, colleges, right in that area is quite a disaster, especially for young children. There's some safety concerns, especially with trying to keep children kind of enclosed in an area. Loud, very vulgar music, drinking, drugs, that particular area is where a lot of people gather. So there's a lot of concern with that location. I do really love the idea of the Aquatic Center. It is such a fabulous place. My children adore going there. I'm so grateful for hearing about this new initiative of having the open swim time earlier. We'll be there tomorrow. I'm just really excited about that. The outdoor space at the Aquatic Center is not utilized in a way that I think it can be. I think it would be absolutely wonderful if we could find some sort of a cost analysis between that Rotary location and improving that splash pad, potentially putting a pool there. It's an enclosed space for families. There's already infrastructure set up. There's employees, lifeguards, small fees for families. It's very affordable. We really appreciate that. So I would love to maybe consider maybe looking back at the aquatic center and seeing if there's something that we can do there for the families. So thank you.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to address the council on this item?

No, I've spoken to most of you. My name is Alex Coletta, and I'm a local mom here, and I'm also the organizer of the Lake Havasu Splash Pad Initiative. I'd like to start by publicly and sincerely thanking Mayor Sheehy, Vice Mayor Diaz, Councilwoman Lin, Councilwoman Koch, and Councilman Moses, the Assistant City Manager, totally going to botch his last name, but Anthony, and city staff who have all taken the time to speak with me over the last several weeks. Something that has stood out to me throughout this process is how responsive, accessible, accessible, and willing to engage all of you have been. Whether through phone calls, emails, or meetings, I have always felt heard. And I know the moms in the back that are here with me have as well. And I truly appreciate the time and effort that has been invested in discussing this project and answering questions from the community. Another thing that has stood out to me has been the level of community involvement surrounding this initiative. In just a short time, we have almost 600 members of the group. Residents have joined the conversation, shared ideas, and even dedicated their personal time because they care deeply about the future of Lake Havasu City and the opportunities available for our local families and children. The support, positivity, and willingness of residents to get involved has been truly inspiring to witness. To many of us, I know there's been, I'm a little discouraged too, just as Dr. Lundy said, the splash pad being such a contention of a huge budget is discouraging. But to many of us, the splash pad represents more than just a recreational amenity. REPRESENTS AN INVESTMENT IN OUR FAMILIES A PLACE FOR CHILDREN TO PLAY DURING OUR LONG AND HOT SUMMERS AND IT IS A HUGE OPPORTUNITY TO CONTINUE MAKING LAKE HAVASU A COMMUNITY WHERE FAMILIES WANT TO LIVE WORK AND GROW REGARDLESS OF TONIGHT'S OUTCOME I DO HOPE THAT THESE CONVERSATIONS CONTINUE AND I JUST I PLEAD THAT IT STAY IN THE BUDGET SO THAT WE CAN'T CONTINUE HAVING THE CONVERSATIONS OF HOW WE CAN EITHER fundraise the money together or get the splash pad built. And please, please, please take our feedback. Let us work with you guys as moms. We're a big group. We're small, but we're mighty. And we want this for our kids and our families. So thank you guys. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council on this item?

Chanel Sunshine, I am very much Nancy. Thank you for bringing the water issue. It is a huge issue. I think for a lot of us citizens here, we are tired of seeing repair after repair and then re repairs and we need to address our future. But in the line items, I did see a bathroom and absolutely need a bathroom in Rotary Park. We know that. I'm told by some girlfriends, I'm not a walker, but that they don't even have full-time porta-potties there. And in seeing that $355,000 that's been allocated toward that, does that include toilets, fixtures? Is that bid of $355,000, does it include plumbing? Are we able to even plumb on that side?

So that's, it's not a bid, it's just a budget right now. It would include a full functioning restrooms with running water and flushing toilets.

So you put that much money into the budget for something that may not even be reality. It might be a $500,000 bathroom.

Yeah, we use our engineer's estimates, so we have staff on our team that this is what they do for a living, and they do engineer estimates, so we have a good idea of what the cost may come, and depending on not taking into account sometimes market conditions and some of those fluctuations that may occur, but we do have good estimators that work on our staff.

It's just one line item, and I do appreciate if the council would vote no on this budget and go back line item by line item and see where We could do as a taxpayer and as a water, paying my water bill, I don't mind paying more for water if we're not facing these problems. And you can show to us as citizens that we've got a plan. What's the plan?

So we do have a plan, and we're happy to share that plan with you. And this conversation, we've already done line item by line item. This is the very end of the budget conversations. We've had lots of conversations already. Yeah, sir?

My name's Mike Alpine, resident. Seems like water seems to be the topic tonight, so I'll just pile on the water topic. One thing that I keep hearing about is all the water main breaks, and that's a fact. Even last week on the way home, three houses down from us, a four-inch main had broken and flooded out the street, and it looked like a I call them mini monsoon storms. I used to think everyone was just draining their pools, and now I'm finding out that we're having water mains break all over the place. So I guess when we're talking about budgets and money, how much money is it costing us to fix what gets damaged, the lines that are being repaired? How much money is that costing us as rate payers that isn't being talked about? And where do we get to a crossroads where we say, a 5% increase in the cost of water to offset how much money we're spending now repairing

So that analysis is part of our rate study. So when we do a rate study, we look at, we take a large window to see what that's going to be, what capital improvement projects that we may need to be, and what funding would be required to achieve those goals. And so that's what Ms. Olson had mentioned, that we would start having those conversations in not this budget year, but the next budget year.

Okay, with that said, what if we start, God forbid, start breaking mains on a, beyond a daily basis, THE 5% INCREASE IS YEARS DOWN THE ROAD. IS THERE SOMETHING IN PLACE TO INITIATE THAT INCREASE SOONER THAN THAT IN CASE WE HAVE TO PAY MORE MONEY OUT OF RATEPAYERS?

SHOULD THAT OCCUR, THE COUNCIL CERTAINLY COULD TAKE ACTION AT THAT POINT, BUT THE ACTION WE'VE TAKEN RUNS THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 28. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO ADDRESS THE COUNCIL?

How much was this building estimated to be built for, this facility that we're standing in originally? You said we have estimators that estimate the project.

So this building was actually built on a guaranteed maximum price. And so when the contract was awarded, we knew what the guaranteed maximum price was on the building. Any savings that would have been achieved would be returned back to the city.

Like I hear that the estimate originally was like a 3.8 and we ended up somewhere around between 10 to 12 million on finished final project.

There's a big misconception that you can have cost overruns like that. When you budget in municipal government, we can't spend any money additional than what's in the budget. So we had lots of different iterations of this particular facility. We looked at renting facilities. We looked at building on the city hall campus. We looked at purchasing this building, which we did, and renovating it. So this building came in under budget with the guaranteed maximum price.

Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Gabriel Suarez. I just wanted to talk about, I guess, one common denominator of everything we're talking about, whether it be the splash pad or the streets or the water lines or the water itself, money. Money runs everything. Money makes the world go round. I was wondering if, and I'm sure you do, but having some type of group that just brainstorms other ways to generate money other than raising taxes because there's a lot of, I mean it's a retirement town and it's a vacation town. But it seems like a lot of retirees that live in the city are either living social security check to paycheck or you know whatever the case may be and just a small increase in water or a small increase in sewer would affect them greatly. Just wondering if there's any other ways whether it be through the state of Arizona or through the federal government or through maybe the city generating businesses that generate money for the city. I mean people come to the city building multi-million dollar homes and the only reason they do that, many reasons, is to make money. People come to this town and they bring businesses with them and the only reason they do that is to make money. So and there's so many ways to make money in this town other than raising taxes. I mean, I'm a retired police officer from California, and I came here to retire because I love this town and I can afford this town. But there are thousands, tens of thousands of people that live here, older people who can't afford to live here, and eventually they're going to die or they're going to have to move one or the other. But just trying just to brainstorm ways start a business to generate money specifically for the city in order to offset costs to the residents now i don't know when exactly the second bridge excuse me was approved or my own belief why i was approved because i would think that the city council and decisions made here are to benefit the majority of the residents of lake havasu My own personal opinion, and I might be wrong, that second bridge is only going to benefit homes, people, and businesses on the island, and people from California and maybe Nevada who come here on weekends. That's really, for the majority part, the only people that that second bridge is going to benefit. And what is it costing the city? I mean, think about it. If we didn't have that second bridge going up, what the city could do with that money whether it be streets whether it be uh the sewage whether it be a splash pad whether it be more i mean that amount of money that went towards that bridge that i feel and again i may be wrong mostly benefits people that don't live in this town to me was a little absurd but then again like i said i don't know all the ins and outs and everything But if we could find a way to somehow generate money so the residents of this city

doesn't have to come up with more money i mean that would that would be great that would be great just an option thank you mr sores the second bridge money is direct appropriation from the state of arizona only to be used for a second bridge so there are no local taxpayer dollars we'll be using for and we can't use the money for anything other than that but we also have a robust grants department that is always seeking grant opportunities Ms. Olsen, in the beginning of her presentation, talked about the grant funding that we have budgeted in our budget, even though we don't necessarily have the grant identified at this time. So anyone else like to address the council on this item? All right, seeing that, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to council for any final discussion or possible motion.

Mr. Mayor?

Yeah, Council Member Dolan?

Like I said, if we're gonna vote no, I think we should, okay, what do we wanna cut? What do we wanna move around? Cuz we've been working on this for a while. One thing that I would like to see is if the, with the splash pad, I would like to see we remove the name Rotary. And that gives us the opportunity to put it wherever, to all the moms out there. There's a reason why, if people wanna push this off onto another year, it means it's not in the budget. Anything that's in next year goes into our budget and we approve in the budget. Anything year two to five is the goal that we'll do that. So if we want to see it done and you've been told that people are going to support you, then we'll see how they vote when they vote that budget. So I would like to see it change from Rotary. And like I said, remove Rotary name from the splash pad so we can look at other options so we have the funding for it. And then we can look at some of the other issues of where it might go.

You want to turn that into a motion? We can have a motion in a second. We can have additional discussion.

I make a motion to accept is due to adopt resolution number 26-3916, adopting the five-year capital improvement plan for the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2031 with renaming the splash, removing the name Rotary from the splash pad.

I'll second. So we have a motion from Councilmember Dolan and a second from Councilmember Moses. Additional discussion, Councilmember Campbell.

Yes, I totally agree with so many people in this audience today, and we need to be more creative. We don't run out and get taxes. When a call to action is what I'm asking you guys right now, you can call your Congress and your legislators right now. on a massive transportation bill that actually expires September 30th. On that transportation bill, another transportation bill will go into effect for five years. Two things that are massively wrong with the previous transportation bill out of the federal government is back in 2009, the previous administration decided to change the way we modernized our funding. That's why a lot of our roads are going bankrupt. They took the census of 2000 And moved it forward and just gave us a little bit of money year after year after year. Fast forward to a high growth state like Arizona, I asked MAG to figure out what just transportation funding we are losing. The closest data showed $198 million. And we're not good at our census to start with. And we went back to 2000. So right now this transportation bill may be approved September 30th, August in that time. The current legislators are not gonna plan on modernizing it to fast growing states. There is a lot of grant funding out there, but you have to have a collaboration and communication to get things to work and move forward. I believe there's grant funding for roads and infrastructure. I believe there's grant funding for water main breaks. And the other thing that I found out as I was digging into grant funding, there is this Protect Act that had $800 million in it. And it's for extreme weather conditions. We found out Lake Havasu City is an extreme weather index. How do we start fighting for that money? So we as the council and the staff and the amazing grant writers that we have need to collaborate, give proper direction on what we're fighting for. I would ask everybody on this council right now to be writing letters to their legislators to help get this funding back to our communities and back to our state. So when I was sitting here going, she's just mad because she's not selling asphalt or doing water mains. It's just ridiculous. It's just poor communication. times 10 up here. We could all do a better job collaborating. There is a lot of federal funding out there, but the way you do it is you communicate, you collaborate, and you get to your legislators and you have great conversations. So me voting no on this today is a strong statement. It's a direction that says we up here can do better job. And if you really think when we do that 5% increase, your three miles a year in water mains is enough for you, because that's what it is. It's another 3 million in water mains. You pay another 5%, you're going to get three more miles. Or do you want legislators that are really going to work really hard for you? So think about that when you get out and vote, I guess I'm going to say, or figure this out. We have to work together. And I'm just very disappointed that there's this whole conversation about politics when it shouldn't be politics. We should all be fighting for our money. But instead, we can't even communicate up here, as you can tell.

Are there any additional comments? All right, we do have a motion and we have a second. We are ready to vote.

Motion carries, five to two.

Thank you. We'll move on to item 7.4, which is resolution number 26-3918, adopting a tentative budget for fiscal year 26-27. Ms. Olsen.

Thank you, Mayor. This next item, as the Mayor just mentioned, is the adoption of the tentative budget. State statute requires that we adopt a tentative budget. It sets the cap, the maximum amount of dollars that the city will be able to spend when we bring back the final budget. It cannot be higher than the tentative budget that gets adopted. This tentative budget has a grand total of just over $300 million for the FY27 budget. This includes all funds, all funding sources, including grants, legislative appropriations, etc. And it does include the entire CIP. So the CIP is folded into the tentative budget adoption numbers. As I mentioned, we can change anything within that amount after the adoption. But once it's adopted, we cannot go any higher than that dollar amount. The tentative budget has no changes from the operating budget that was presented to you in May. But the changes to the CIP that we mentioned earlier were made. So highlights of what's in the tentative budget. We've discussed these at the budget work sessions, but this is just a summary. Property tax rate remains unchanged. So the rate is remaining the same, but since assessed valuation has gone up according to the county records provided to us, that results in a little bit more revenue, $318,000 in more revenue due to the AV increase. And then the new construction that has occurred accounts for about $124,000 of additional revenue as well. Again, we have included just the step increases on the classification dates or what the equivalent of a step increase would be of about 3.5% for the employees on their classification date anniversaries. We did not provide any kind of cost of living adjustment or an adjustment to the tables in the ranges of any kind just due to lack of funding. Health insurance rates have been increased by just over 10%. For pensions, the Arizona State Retirement System has a slight decrease from 12% to 11.98%. PSPSPRS is Public Safety Personnel Retirement System rate increases. On the average for fire departments, the increase is approximately 2.6%. And for the police department, it's approximately 6%. We do have ten additional public safety positions included, six for fire and four for police. There were many requests for additional personnel, but due to the limited ongoing resources or ongoing revenues, we were able to only show funding for ten additional public safety positions, including one part-time reclassification from part-time to full-time. So for services and supplies in the capital, We do the capital budget is two points or I should say services, supplies and capital is $2.4 million lower than it was for the FY26 proposed budget. The supplementals have been included. These are things that are over and above the base budget and supplemental approvals we had to prioritize as typical. the ongoing maintenance and infrastructure needs, the majority of which are roof repairs, HVAC repairs and replacements, generator repairs and replacements, and some very old vehicle replacements. So for the tentative budget adoption. Throughout the process, we have tried to have very conservative revenue projections, conservative yet reasonable. We don't want to short ourselves when there's potential additional money coming in, but we don't want to over budget on the revenue side as well. So we strive to be very prudent in our forecasting for that. We also believe that this budget reflects responsible spending. We diligently monitor the expenditures to ensure that city funds are utilized appropriately and efficiently. We have included annual contingencies. Again, there'll be $1 million for the general fund contingency. And then water, wastewater also have small contingency budgets. Actually, I believe water might have a million and sewer might have half a million. And then budget stabilization reserve for each of the funds, we have budgeted for those to be at their policy amounts. The table that's included on this slide, we just wanted to once again show and reflect the current year, the FY26 budget to actual. Though there are many factors affecting the totals such as carry forwards and one time expenditures, the city has consistently spent less than what was budgeted. This is just a sample showing the amounts for FY26. You can see the difference between budgeted and actual. And with that, I'll turn it back to you, Mayor.

Thank you, Ms. Olsen. Are there questions for Ms. Olsen, for members of the council? Yeah, Council Member Lynn.

Thank you, Ms. Olsen. On the step in wage adjustments for employees, what is that total increase this year?

I don't have the dollar amount, but it's 3.5% for each employee on their anniversary date. So it's not a full year of 3.5%. Like if you were hired in December, then you won't get your 3.5% until December. So it fluctuates throughout the year.

Can you remind me how we came to that? We're doing that every year?

Yes, we have been doing that.

Can you just remind me? I don't know how we did that. Can you remind me why we came to that, that we're doing that?

It was part of the wage structure that council adopted several years ago, and we adopted it again during the class and comp study. We had the open ranges for non-public safety, and then we have the step ranges for public safety. And we have continued on the open ranges to allow a 3.5% increase. We don't have step increases, but we have what would be an equivalent on the public safety side step of 3.5%. We've applied that to the open range system as well.

And that never maxes out, so every employee will just.

Until they reach the top of their range, they won't get it any higher than the top of their range.

And I know this is probably a crazy question, but are they ever going to reach the top of their range? Because every year, like minimum wage goes up, people, you know, wages go up. Are they ever going to meet that?

Yes, because in particular this year, we're not moving the range. We didn't have the funding to actually move the range. So the range is remaining the same. Some of the employees are moving up in the range. Some employees will be at the maximum range. An employee who might be near the top now, they might be eligible for three and a half or their step increase equivalent. But maybe they're within 1% of the cap or the end of the range. So they will only get up to the maximum of that range. They might only get a 1%. Okay. Increase.

Can you give me that number? I'd like to see that.

Yes, we will get you that number.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions from members of council?

Mayor?

Yeah, Council Member Campbell?

Can you go back to the previous slide? One thing that has confused a lot of people is we put the second bridge into her funding, or the streets. And it looked really great and I had a bunch of people calling me going like, what are you complaining about? You got $40 million in streets and I'm like, minus $35 million bridge. So this one here says, where am I at? It said 35.6 million budgeted, but it was 17 million. Does that include the bridge in there or what is that?

That includes all expenditures in the street fund bridge and other street projects.

So what in that number? Okay, I already know the number, never mind. So we're going back to that.

It's a small amount for the bridge in that 17 million. The bridge is a small portion at this point.

Okay, but I know what the number is. You can all see it on the IP of what we're using that for, correct? That's where we're at. And again, we talk about these capital improvement projects, but they do come out of the general fund too. So okay, I just wanted to verify that, and I just wanted to get that out there again, that it looks bigger than it is because they put a whole bridge in there in our street funding. Thanks.

Are there any other questions or comments from members of the council before we open the public hearing?

Vice Mayor Diaz? In the private sector versus I guess the public sector, To get any kind of a raise, you have what they call a performance review. So if there's an employee that's just not doing it, do they automatically get the 3.5% also, no matter what their performance is, their job performance? I'm just asking that question.

And I can have Dr. Kimmelton address that. She's here. I'd love to have her address it. We do have evaluations that occur for the employees.

In the meantime, too, I can speak to that. Mayor, Vice Mayor Diaz, we had conversations a couple years ago, and I talked about the conversation with regards to merit pay. I think I talked about that for a little over a year, and that was based on our first common class study that was shared. So we talked about the fact that we have rock stars within the organization, and we have staff, public or private sector, that are very content with punching a time card, right? And how do we reward the rock stars within the organization to a different and better level than the clock punchers. These are obviously just very vague terms and I'm trying to have a conversation there. But we talked about the concept of merit versus steps. We also had a lot of conversations that took place at the council meeting with our good friends within the public safety associations and how important to them that step increases are. And right or wrong, there is an interpretation there that step increases are guaranteed and wage increases are not. It's not the case. A step increase is not guaranteed just because we see a map leading in that direction. But we've had conversations along the way, two different common class studies and conversations along the way with how our personnel system is created and how we implement that and how we maintain that and work through those items. So we do evaluations, lots of conversations amongst the staff and make sure that every employee is properly evaluated so they know what their expectations are based on their supervisor's perspective and create conversations throughout the year between supervisor and employee. But right now, the city has done a step system Far longer than I got here. I don't know if anybody knows the history on that. I'm looking kind of towards the team. But we probably have a step plan within Lake Havasu City going back 20-plus years. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was further than that. But we had conversations in previous years with MeritPay. It's a tricky one. But, yeah, it certainly is an option, certainly a possibility.

Thank you.

Bobby, you're safe. He answered it. I'd like to have the police chief and the fire chief come up real quick, both of you, if you don't mind.

There's four more and you could get the whole executive team.

No, maybe I will. Maybe I will. So the fire has six and you had four police chief, right? In this current budget? Current budget. Yes. Can you explain those positions, what they are, and how you're staffed right now?

Sure, so the four positions that police department is asking for the civilian patrol support positions. So we're calling the police service technicians is currently what you see in your budget book. Those are in hopes of building two things, one building a pipeline for possible future police officers. But the need right now is filling those positions where they can go out and delayed type of calls for service, frauds, delayed crashes, delayed theft cases where it doesn't take a police officer to take that report and they can do the initial investigation. And if it leads to a potential arrest and a police officer can take it over. So a really important piece for us with recruitment challenges.

Sure, Mayor, Vice Mayor, thank you for this. This feels like stepbrothers right now. Yeah, the six individuals positions that we have are firefighter paramedics. You have a upcoming agenda item that hopefully will get approved. uh for station seven and those the personnel are going to be for station seven i already have the it would be a total of nine for that station i obtained those three already one when i went through the safer grant when we obtained our con so these are the additional that have the appropriate staffing for station seven thank you very much thank you all right are there any additional questions before we open the public hearing all right this is a public hearing but i would like to address the city council on this item

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I actually think, I don't know who the question is to, but in the city manager report, he said that you guys had 433 volunteers.

447, I believe I said.

447. And then I was wondering how many actual employees the city has in total.

Around 500.

Okay, so technically our city is run by almost 1,000 people?

Mayor, members of council, there's a whole lot of caveat associated with that too. We also have part-time, seasonal employees, and so forth. So yeah, there's a lot of nuance associated with that conversation. Yeah, 447 volunteers, about 500 full-time employees, and then we have seasonal lifeguards, seasonal positions, part-time employees as well too.

How many part-time employees?

All right, Dr. Campbellton, I'm gonna need you on this one. 200 part-time positions? That includes the seasonal?

Thank you. And then how does the raises work for people who are not actual employees? Does the council get raises? The city manager or the judges, the attorneys, do they get raises also? And how does that work?

So each of, we have contract employees and so they would get compensation adjustments based on the contract. And council is on CPI.

Council is in the CPI budget?

CPI, the Consumer Price Index. It's a math calculation that is done on an annual basis.

When was the last time you guys had a raise? I'm just curious.

Well, we make a stipend. I don't know that, but last year there was a CPI increase.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Keely Lundeen again. I just wanted to come back up and share kind of my original thoughts for tonight, this evening. We're really grateful to everyone for the continued conversations and wanting to be good stewards of public funds. At the splash pad initiative meeting that we had about two weekends ago, there was a lot of discussion about trying to get community donors involved or maybe a usage fee if it is associated with the aquatic center or a different location for the splash pad. And that would be included in this tentative budget for next fiscal year. And I hope that goal is still, we all have that goal. So just seeing the estimated actual expenses made me think, I hope it comes in a lot lower for a splash pad out of public funds. I hope it's zero. That being said, might not be, but that's the goal. And that's what all of us wanna try to do and reach out to different organizations and community donors. There's a really big push for that on our end even. So I appreciate just the engagement with everyone, and yeah, a little more happy, thank you.

Anyone else like to address the council on this item? All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to council for an additional discussion or a possible motion. Just a comment? Yeah, Council Member Moses.

I think what gets lost in a lot of these is just how much work and budget and you know we've had a lot of conversations but I've always enjoyed Jill's presentation and she does such a good job of being conservative with her with her forecasting and so thank you for always being so fiscally responsible but with that I'll make a motion please move to adopt resolution number 26-3918 adopting the fiscal year 2026-27 tentative budget second

We have a motion from Councilmember Moses, a second from Councilmember Koch. Is there any additional discussion? Yeah, I would just like to echo Councilmember Moses' comments to Ms. Olsen and your team, the entire executive team. Lots of work goes into this, and we really appreciate the care, commitment, and dedication that you all put into this to be able to have presentations that are easy to read and available for our residents to engage in and be a part of. Thank you so much. This is a budget that we can be proud of. There's no debt financing proposed. There's no tax rate increase. It balances the needs of the community with the amount of resources that we have. So again, thank you to the entire team for all of your work. With that, I think we're ready to vote.

Motion carries, five to two.

Thank you. All right, item 7.5 is resolution number 263920, adopting and submitting to the voters of Lake Havasu City for ratification at the November 3rd, 2026 election, the 2026 Lake Havasu General Plan, shaping our future. Mr. Gilbert.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Unlike the at the last meeting of planning commission, I'm just going to do a brief introduction that the consultant team that the council hired in 2024 or five is going to make the presentation today. But what I would like to start out with is this has been a long process that started in 2024. So it's been coming up on year and a half, two years by the time the vote is held November. And there have been a lot of individuals in the community that have participated in the process. And I want to thank the council, the mayor. I want to thank the planning commission that was involved, the steering committee that was put together as a community who guided the overall process. I want to thank the members of the technical advisory committee who provided the technical expertise for the portions of the plan as they were prepared and reviewed. And mostly I want to thank the thousands of residents of the community who participated in some way in the process. Whether that be going to the website and filling out surveys, whether that be attending the workshops that were set up and run by the city and its consultant team. Whether that be attending various events around the community where we had tables set up such as Truckapalooza. And we had swag out on the table, handouts for people and we could talk to them about the plan. And also whether you were in attendance at some of the dozens of little group meetings that we had with different organizations around the community who invited us in to speak to their members. So there's been a lot of participation by residents of the community. And I've been in the planning field since the 1990s and this has been a very, probably the best turnout that I've seen in a general plan process in my career. And there's been a lot of expertise on the part of our consultant team. I would like to thank them as well. And it was very easy to work with them. They came up with great ideas and AGAIN, THE PROCESS WENT A LOT SMOOTHER THAN THE LAST TIME THAT I WAS IN SUCH A PROCESS, WHICH WAS ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO IN THE COMMUNITY OF MISSOURI. SO EVERY CITY IN THE COUNTRY PRACTICALLY DOES THIS AT SOME POINT. AND I JUST WANT TO THANK EVERYBODY WHO'S BEEN INVOLVED. AT THIS POINT, I WANT TO TURN IT OVER TO TERI HOGAN OF LOGAN SIMPSON DESIGN INCORPORATED AND HER TEAM, ARE HERE TO MAKE THE PRESENTATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL.

ALL RIGHT. EXCITING. THANK YOU, CHRIS. AND HELLO, MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL AND EVERYONE ELSE. IT'S BEEN ALMOST TO THE DAY 14 MONTHS BEFORE I STOOD BEFORE YOU AND GAVE YOU A KICKOFF MEETING FOR YOUR GENERAL PLAN UPDATE. SO I AM SUPER EXCITED TO BE HERE TODAY TO PRESENT TO YOUR GENERAL PLAN UPDATE EVERYTHING THAT CHRIS SAYS I ABSOLUTELY CONCUR WITH. a top-notch city. This is a testament to you, to your staff, to your planning commission, all the folks that Chris mentioned about this process. So very, very excited about the process. I only have about a three-hour presentation, so I hope that's okay. We'll go real quick, but I do want to get through a few backgrounds. Some of you can give this presentation at this point, but I'll go real quick, just kind of lay the playing field. We'll talk about the community engagement and that summary of that, the plan content, which is in your packet, as well as the process to get the comment in the 60 day public review. And then I'm gonna turn it back over to Chris and he'll go through the next steps in the motion. Right, fair enough. Okay, so we all know what a general plan is. I think we can repeat it at this point. It's your 30,000 foot policy document, the vision for your community, the blueprint for growth. It absolutely is not a capital improvement plan. We don't even talk about that anymore. It's not regulatory in any shape, so it's not zoning. It is a policy document. Most importantly, it's your community's future vision for the future. So this is that triangle that we talk about. Your general plan is the foundation of all your planning documents. Everything is implemented from that point. All your regulatory documents, your capital improvement plans, your site plans up into your built world is an implementation of your community's vision. Topics that are included are statutorily required. You're just under 2024, just under 60,000. So you have them all. So there are 17 topics that you can see on the screen, as well as the elective elements that were important to the process into the community. You can see those as economic growth and education. All of those are included in your general plan with goals and policies. WHY DO WE UPDATE THE PLAN? YES, THE STATUTE TELLS US WE HAVE TO DO THAT EVERY 10 YEARS, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, YOUR COMMUNITY WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT YOUR PLAN WAS IN CONCERT WITH YOUR COMMUNITY'S VISION AND VALUES, AND THAT'S WHY WE WENT THROUGH THIS FULL ALMOST 18-MONTH PROCESS. OKAY, THERE'S YOUR SCHEDULE THAT WE SHOWED THE WHOLE TIME. YOU CAN SEE THE WE ARE HERE. THIS IS WHERE YOU'RE AT, STAR. FIVE MONTHS, ALMOST 18 MONTHS. WE'RE AT THE CELEBRATION PHASE. went through Planning Commission twice. Chris will tell you, unanimous recommendation from Planning Commission, awesome. And if council were to adopt tonight, it will stop and it will go on the ballot in November and the citizens will have a chance to vote on this document. Okay, participation has been fantastic. As Chris said, I've been doing this for a long time as well. These are fantastic numbers. Awesome. Over 27,000 engagements, we count a lot of different ways. But these are people that actually do something in the process, they go to the web page, they open up a questionnaire, they come to a meeting, We know there are some redundancies built in this because we had a lot of people coming to all different things, but they were all various different touch points. And you can see those on the screen, and I won't go through those, but you can see there was a lot of participation, nearly 45%. On top of that, we know that there's a larger awareness out there. Typically, that's about double that amount of people that were actually aware of the plan process. So really great numbers. We heard a lot of things from the community. I've shown this before. This is what built your plan in terms of the theme areas and bringing all of those elements or topic areas together. I'm just going to quickly go over these, but you can see balanced growth was important. We took a look at your mix of future land uses, herd, obviously shoreline access, open space preservation, very important. All of that's built into that. CONNECTED COMMUNITY. WE'VE HEARD A LOT ABOUT UTILITIES AND PUBLIC SERVICES, STREETS, OBVIOUSLY. PROSPEROUS ECONOMY. EXPANDED HEALTH CARE TO THE EXTENT THAT THIS PLAN CAN LOOK AT THAT AS WELL. FAIR SHARE TO DEVELOPMENT COST. PRESERVATION OF YOUR RESIDENTIAL AREAS IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT. I'LL TALK ABOUT THAT IN TERMS OF YOUR FUTURE LAND USE MAP AND HOW WE ADDRESS THAT AS WELL. AND THEN HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT, AND THAT GOES BACK AGAIN TO YOUR OPEN SPACE AND YOUR ACCESS TO SHORELINE AS WELL AND YOUR IDENTITY IN THE ARTS AND RECREATION. AND THANK YOU, CITY MANAGER, TOO. You were out, but I wanted to thank you as well. It's been a great process. Okay, 60-day review. We just went through that. That's when the pencils go down. You can see the time frame. We had a lot of people look at the document. So you could see we had almost 900 people look at the document. We had, I think it was 32 people make 86 comments. I'm gonna talk about those just generally. You have all of those comments in your packet verbatim and how the project team chose to address those. So you can see all of the nature of those comments. By and large, these comments, I always love this part of the process because it really, it reconfirms a lot of things, but it also, it also reinforces the priorities in the plan, and that's exactly what it did. We had a lot of people that wanted fingerprints on the plan at this point, and we took that, and you could see all the little changes that we made. We were glad to do that. We think that it made the plan a better plan for sure. We also took the opportunity, Mayor, to educate folks. If it wasn't part of the plan or was a master plan, we got to be people pointed in the right direction. So great, great part of the process, very excited about this. You can kind of see the breakdown here in the pie chart if you like. as well as the comment types. So lots of questions, clarifications, suggestions, some edits, but all by and large very good comments. Okay, so what changed from the last plan? We publicized this at the community open house too, so I'll just kind of summarize this. We went to a simpler land use framework. And what do I mean by that? That's the most visible aspect of your general plan, and I'll show you a picture of that. You had 16 categories. So these are future land use categories, not zoning districts, but your zoning has to conform to that. was a lot and so we talked as a stat as a project team and decided to convert those into seven future land use categories that makes a much cleaner map for you. We also updated that future land use map and one of the very most important things that we kept hearing from Planning Commission, from your staff, from this body as well, is we do a lot of general plan amendments and we really shouldn't be doing that because we have a lot of stable areas and that's that residential areas and a lot, but we go through this process called a plan development and every time we do that, It triggers a general plan amendment. We have to go through this and there's an expense to people and a time and all that kind of stuff. So we immediately right size that. So took it, looked at the plan and then made all of those stable land uses what they were. So residential or whatever they were, they became that land use and that took up that took care of like 80% of the plan. So that was great. And then we refresh the goals and the objectives or what we call policies. And we went through a whole process. You guys were involved in this planning commission, the steering committee, the attack, and we did a big plan audit. So we looked at your existing plan and we didn't start over. We looked at all of those goals and policies and the actions and we said, okay, are these good, bad? Do they need to be tweaked, thrown out? Are there new things? And we went through that process and that's really how we came up with those and then took it through the public process as well. So there's three things in updating your plan. Here's, this is the mapping process. And we had some questions about this during the 60 day review. People wanted to really see what we did. So we put this in your appendices so we can kind of see where we went from 2016, all the 16 categories to the 17 categories, which is what's before you. And then we went a step beyond that and took all of your, millions of zoning categories, zoning districts, and we match those to your categories, which means it's much easier when somebody comes in and says, I want to rezone to something. What does that match to in your future land use map? So it's a good little tool in there. Here's your existing future land use map. You can kind of look and see what the colors are and all the different categories. And then this is what your map looks like now. I will say a couple of things about this map. Again, these are future land use categories. It's not zoning. But when zoning, as you know, when zoning comes to you, it has to conform to this map. This map is in the plan. We have a zoomed in version of the island area because it's much smaller. This map will also go on your GIS database so people will be able to zoom in and out and that sort of thing. So it is a static map in the plan, but it will also be high res and that sort of thing on your system. OK, I like to do this Apple Apple comparison and sometimes it gets me in trouble, so hopefully not tonight, but we did. We we only have so many land uses or so much land area and we have to do a mix based upon what we're hearing from the community. So I'd like to kind of share with you how that changed and in a lot of ways I'm going to say right now. it didn't really change a whole lot we changed some of the category names but i want to go down this and just kind of show you on the left hand side you can see all the 16 categories on the right in the middle you can see the seven categories and then i'm going to show you kind of the percent decrease Right off the bat, commercial, you know, 60% decrease. You could see everything else increase from that. So what does that mean? Okay, so your employment goes up by 5%. So a lot of what we found in some of your existing categories, we put those into your mixed use categories. So there was a little bit more flexibility in that. So you can see your mixed use went up by 25%. We heard a lot about we need some higher density residential. We're not sure you want to you know, highlight it, but we need that. So that also increased by 8%. These are areas that this is not market guys, this is not something's coming to you right now. This is just making that vision. Neighborhood is pretty much the same, a little bit of a decrease, but it's pretty much the same. Parks and open space 15% increase and then public utilities are public and semi public 99%. So overall, it's all 100%. You didn't have a change in your planning area, but your land use mix changed slightly. Okay, what's in your plan? And I'm almost at just about a couple more hours. These are your themes. Just for the benefit of the public, all of the 17, 18, 19 topic areas are embedded in each one of these five themes. And that's all I want to say here, except for each one of your themes also has what we call an aspirational statement or your vision statement. This is a vision plan. Where does the vision come into play, Terry? This is where it comes into play. So we broke down all of these topic areas into kind of mini vision statements and vetted that through the public and through you. And each one of these areas have vision or aspirations. They're all color coded as well. It's kind of cutesy. All right, then we have vision to action. You guys know what goals, objectives are your policies. So your goals are your overarching theme-based, and then your objectives are how to get there. This helps your planning staff. It helps your development community. When they come in and they want a proposal, yeah, does it match the map, but does it meet our goals and policies as a community? And you can see how those are written just in the balanced growth. There's a bunch of them, but you can see how those look. OKAY, AND THEN LAST THING IS IMPLEMENTATION. WE TALKED A LOT ABOUT THIS THROUGH THE PROCESS. THERE'S LOTS OF WAYS TO DO THIS. WE WENT THROUGH KIND OF A SYSTEMATIC ACTION PLAN. YOUR PLANNING STAFF HAS THAT VERY SHORT-TERM, MID-TERM, LONG-TERM. WE'VE TALKED ABOUT THIS. WHAT WE ENDED UP WITH IS WE WANTED TO SHOW WHAT THOSE IMPLEMENTATION TOOLS WERE, WHAT THE ACTIONS WERE, WHAT COMES NEXT. AND THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS THAT COME NEXT. YOUR REGULATORY TOOLS. ALL OF YOUR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS THAT WE WERE TALKING TO, THOSE COME OUT OF THIS PLAN. LONG-RANGE PLANS, LIKE YOUR MASTER PLANS, YOUR WATER MASTER PLANS, YOUR PARKS MASTER PLANS. YOU TALKED ABOUT THAT TONIGHT. A LOT OF DIFFERENT COORDINATION. YOU HAVE A LOT OF PUBLIC LANDS, ARIZONA STATE LAND. SO A LOT OF THAT COMES INTO PLAY. AND THEN ALSO YOUR MONITORING. So Chris and or Jeff will stand up on an annual basis and kind of let you know what is the status, how was your plan implemented. In that section, you also have your amendment criteria. So this is not set in stone per se. There's a process for people to amend that. So there's criteria in that section as well. And that's how that's built as well. Okay. that's all i have folks i'm going to turn it back over to chris and i will stand for questions but i just wanted to thank you again it's been such such a pleasure uh to be in this community and um i'm excited again to be at this point in the process mayor and for that i'll turn it back over to chris thank you mr gobert uh thank you mr mayor members of the council um

I guess the major point I want to stress, which is a concern that we've heard from residents in the community on this process and in particular focused recently. The general plan is a long range guide for the next ten years till the state requires a new one to be put in place and that's for every community in the state. It does not change zoning. So whatever zoning is in place today on your property, which is what grants the entitlements for development, is not changing. That doesn't change any of that. If someone were to come in with a plan, however, it would have to match the general plan or that adds an extra step in the development process for that developer. When he comes in for a rezone, it's like, no, it doesn't match general plan. So now you have to do a general plan amendment. If it's a large development, Then it would have to go through a major general plan amendment, which is a very difficult, long process. We've had two of those in the last two years, and they take about eight months to go through. So there's a significant burden for projects that come in based upon changing the general plan, which is not a bad thing. It's just that it's important to point out that if you have a zoning on your property today, we are not changing that. The second thing I want to bring up is a big focus of the steering committee and of staff following the approval of the project on the island back in January was ensuring that the preservation of our shoreline for the future was accomplished. There's a lot of land surrounding the community and on the island itself that's Arizona state land and For those who are interested in our next Planning Commission meeting, we will have a text amendment put forth to the Planning Commission for review, which takes what was worked out with the State Land Department down in Phoenix to increase that buffer, protection buffer, as you saw in the general plan here. It's kind of a vague buffer around the island. So we reached an agreement with the state to increase that from the current 15 feet to 75 feet. And that's being presented to the Planning Commission at its next meeting with a set of other changes to the island body beach and the mixed use channel river walk districts which impact the island. So we want to point out that's a big change that took a lot of work with the State Land Department because Proposition 207 from 2006 made it very difficult for the state to give a whole lot without getting something in return because they were mandated by that proposition passed by the voters to ensure that they get the fair market value of their property. And so that made it challenging. But I just want to point out that that indeed has taken place. So on next steps, on May 20th, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended by a vote of seven to zero for the city council to approve the 2026 general plan. And on the next step, if adopted, the general plan will be placed on the November 3rd ballot for voter ratification. So the voters will have the final say on adopting this document. Mayor, Council, that completes what I have to add to what our consultants provided in the staff report.

Thank you, Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Knutson? I apologize for the interruption, and I appreciate Mr. Gilbert and the update and all the hard work that's been done on there. I just want to correct the record a little bit. We have not reached an agreement with State Land on 75 feet. We're in ongoing conversations with State Land, hoping to reach a threshold that our residents will be happy about But we are moving towards the preservation of shoreline on the island and other areas in the city. But that's an ongoing conversation. So that's our goal, and we hope to get there.

All right, so the general plan, some of the big wins, as we heard, is the shoreline piece, the community engagement component of this, and then also the land use designations make it much easier going into the future. So I would like to thank the development services team, Mr. Chinaman, you and your team, I have put a ton of work into ensuring this. So thank you for doing this. 14 months is a long time to engage with that many residents and making sure that we get the voices of all of our residents heard so that we understand exactly how we're going to move into the future. So thank you for your efforts on that. Council Member Lind, did you have a comment or question?

YEAH, I'M REALLY HAPPY THAT THIS IS DONE. I WAS ACTUALLY PART OF THE FIRST GENERAL PLAN THAT WE DID 10 YEARS AGO. AND I REALLY WANT TO ENCOURAGE OUR COMMUNITY, BEFORE THEY GO VOTE ON THIS, TO GO AND LOOK AT IT. BECAUSE I AM LOOKING AT THE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND LOOKING AT THE THING, AND WE HAD 27,000 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS. BUT ONLY 831 RESPONDED TO THE QUESTIONEER. ONLY WE HAD SEVEN COMMUNITY MEETINGS AND ONLY 383 PEOPLE SHOWED UP. And we had 86 comments on the public review draft. So yeah, we had 23 drop-in events. We had 23,000 web page views. But that doesn't give information on what we're getting feedback. So I really want to encourage our community to go read this, because the last 10 years, we've had an enormous amount of people coming back with property and wanting to change the way they wanted to zone things. And if this is put in place, I really want to eliminate that happening as often as it was happening. So it is on, are we going to put this out like somewhere so our community is able to see this? Like how they can access it?

So you're looking at infographic, I can just see where are you, where's that? Is that on a website you're looking at it or in our packet? It's in our packet. Yeah, perfect. Yeah, perfect.

OK, just so people can go and view it, because to me, I'm not going to vote. I'm going to be honest. I didn't go through 115 pages. I didn't do that. I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't. So for the community to go and vote on something, they really need to read it. It's not just a document like, yes or no, we need a general plan. Read it and make sure you agree with it.

Yeah, Mr. Tueneman. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Yes, this will be on our webpage, and the link to the document will be on our website. Okay, thank you.

I just really encourage people to go and read it.

There also will be copies available in the Mojave County Library as well, and the City Clerk's Office.

Perfect, thank you.

Are there any other questions or comments?

Yeah, Vice Mayor Diaz? Can we go to slide 19? So at the very end, it says the Lake Havasu City supports rezonings that are in concert with the community's vision, articulated through its future land use map and integrated goals and objectives. So one of the complaints that I get out to the community all the time, and it happened when I was on the Planning and Zoning Commission also, is that we, I think it was a, It was a product of the last general plan, the 2016 general plan, was not as thoroughly thought out and well done as you did this plan. So one of the complaints I get is, and I guess this is going to be a challenge to staff or maybe some kind of an ask, that they say people go and they buy land, they know we have it zoned a certain way, and then after they buy the land, a week later they're in front of your office trying to get it rezoned. So I'm hoping that this is really going to eliminate A LOT OF THAT THAT WE'RE GOING TO STICK TO OUR GUNS AND SO WE'RE NOT GOING TO ALWAYS GET STAFF RECOMMENDS YES STAFF STAFF RECOMMENDS YES WE'VE GOT TO MAKE SURE THAT BECAUSE THEN BECAUSE BECAUSE THEN THE VOTERS TELL ME THEN WHY WHY DO WE HAVE A GENERAL PLAN OF EVERY TIME SOMEONE BUYS LAND THEY COME IN AND GET IT REZONED AND STAFF RECOMMENDS YES SO I'M GOING TO TAKE YOUR WORD FOR IT THAT WE'VE GOT AS MUCH INPUT AS WE WE RECEIVE I AGREE WITH COUNCILMEMBER LYNN THAT WE'VE GOT TO UNLOCK THE MAGIC WAND SOMEHOW AND GET PEOPLE ENGAGED BUT THAT'S MORE That's more the fault of the community. They like to complain, some of them, but they don't come to the meetings and get all the, and you guys did a great job getting it out there on the website, doing the, I saw you at the public houses, public open houses. I went to them myself. I've got my picture on it. It was interesting. But we have to make sure that we're not so easy to rezone after the voters vote on this, and if they do in November and they approve it, that we don't, Make it so easy to then abide the land and then come in and try to get it rezoned and get it approved.

Vice Mayor Diaz, this is just the land use map. I know, I know. So the underlying zoning remains. So just because the general plan has this, there's an area actually on Cabana. We've engaged with a lot of folks over off of the Cabana in the northern area of our community that currently is zoned agriculture preservation. That zoning is still agriculture and preservation. In the current general plan, the 2016, the land use map shows housing, and the current one, the 2026, it shows housing. So if someone were to purchase that land from the Arizona State Trust land, and they wanted another use other than agricultural preservation, which you would assume they would, Every property owner has the ability to go through a public process to ask for permission. It doesn't mean it has to be granted, but they have the right to be able to go.

But you have to admit, we have a lot of land that was zoned certain ways that people come in, they buy it, and then they're right in front of our staff trying to get it rezoned.

Sure.

I just want to make sure that this plan, and I think it's a good plan. I think it's a good plan. And I just want to make sure that we alleviate, because it happened a lot the last few years. And that was one of the complaints from the citizens. Sure, I appreciate that. Thank you. Council Member Campbell?

Mayor, thank you. I stayed out of the process because I was unhappy that there were so many developers in the process last time. And I am still kind of the developer hat too. I look at things that way and I thought I'm just gonna step completely out of it and let you all do your work. And I think you're doing a great job and I guess cuz I wasn't part of every part of it. Some of these say we are increasing high density. I see how you've condensed a lot of these zones and I appreciate that because you don't need that many. That's crazy. On the high density, does this incorporate any heights? Like does it increase heights in certain areas? And the other question would be my big concern back in 2016 is when they took the downtown area and they immediately said, we can go up four stories here and we want commercial and we want residential and we want. And I kept asking, I think my very first meeting with you, I think was, what does that even look like? How do you put four stories in downtown when you have a bunch of individual parcels that are 25 foot wide? Does that mean one's gonna be down here and one's gonna be up here and one's gonna be down here? And does this incorporate any of those concerns that I was really concerned about?

Mayor, council. Unfortunately, that's really contained in the zoning code related to the heights. But yeah, you would get that in McCulloch District right now with the heights. If someone came in and built, they can build. I can't remember the height. 60 feet. 60 feet, but it could be next to something that was built single story. So you still get that, but that's contained in the zoning code. But what this really did is we looked at all those zoning districts and looked at these new seven land use categories and matched them. So that's where you're seeing a lot of those percentages is with those conflicts between the general plan and the existing zoning layer. That's where a lot of that percentage got pushed one way or another is from those conflicts. We fixed all those conflicts through that. We call it a crosswalk exercise.

I saw that a little bit here, but does that mean no other heights, like where it says high density, what is the high density height right now? Does it vary from zone to zone?

Yeah, it depends on zone to zone. So we have like our residential multifamily, RM, that's 30 feet. We have a mixed-use neighborhood, which I believe is 30 feet. And we do have a 42-foot height in our CHD and our SGD. So those are the downtown areas. The residential can go 30 foot. The commercial can go up to 60 foot in the downtown area. There's some Southgate district down on the south end that can go up to 30 feet.

And how do we fix that 60 foot issue on downtown? I just don't see that ever to be feasible. And I know what she just said, which was right now, nobody's doing anything, nobody's done it. As long as you pull the plan, then you probably would be able to do it. But we were able to do this, which was and say, you get to keep your zoning, you're already grandfathered in, that's fine. But how do we do that? I don't know how to do that. would be through a text code amendment to the zoning code through the development code okay so that text code would look like we have changed our minds because of due to traffic and you know congestion or parking or whatever the council decides if actually we can come together with a good conversation um and then we said hey you know what is um what is like River Dave's building. What is the height of that?

That's downtown district, so that would be, they could go 60 feet. I know, but what is like his building right now? Oh, that's two stories, so it's probably 30 foot tall right there.

Okay, so something like, would it be unreasonable to say later in a text code, to say, hey, we want to bring that down to 42. just in case you want to do something. And we do a text code change on that. We all vote on that. And then anybody that goes and gets a permit will not be able to do 60 anymore. We'll be down to 42. And that would be something really important that I would like the rest of the council to consider what I'm saying, because it's not feasible what we have right now.

So from just a historical standpoint, that the council back in, I believe, 2008-9 timeframe, it was post-RUDAC. So when RUDAC came in and helped master plan that downtown area and that corridor, that is when the council at that time decided to change the text amendment for the heights in that downtown district. So if the council wanted to have that discussion, I'd be separate from this.

I mean, this is not- I just didn't know if it was in this or if that made a difference. And again, Roodad had us backing in our cars too. There's been a whole lot of things Roodad in that downtown did not ever accomplish since then. So later conversation, I hope. Thank you so much. I appreciate all your effort. You guys did a great job. And thank you to the community that pretty much did my work for me because I didn't really want to be involved in the process. I really wanted it to be a citizen's initiative.

Is there any other questions or comments? Yeah, Council Member Moses.

Yeah, I just wanted to be clear because I got confused and I heard Nancy alluded. I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. So when we change the general plan, you know, the map over the top of the existing zoning, those zonings are grandfathered in. They won't have to come to Council for a master plan amendment.

Mayor, if I may, what we did is we matched the future land use map to the existing development that's in the area. In other words, they match now, so you don't have houses underlain by employment land use category, which didn't make any sense. Over off Jamaica and Chamaueva, we had a large area of existing commercial. That was completely single family, low density, single family, and it didn't match. So we fixed all those to match up with the actual land use because the buildings aren't probably going to go away anytime soon. So after doing that, that cleaned it up, and that's what shows for the increase and decrease, especially in commercial, is the areas got cleaned up to represent what was actually built with the assigned land use, and it represents that today. So when someone comes in to develop on a vacant lot, that vacant lot is where we brought into play the expertise of our consultants in identifying areas for future development on vacant property, not where it's already developed.

Okay, and I appreciate you guys taking special consideration for that. Cuz I remember we've done a couple things on council that had unintended consequences for landowners and I thought that was. completely unfair. And so I really appreciate you guys making sure that this general plan put into effect those existing landowners and not making them have to go through any undue procedures or costs kind of deal. So thank you very much. And by the way, I had a long flight. I read it. It's not that bad. There's a lot of pictures and appendices. It's, don't let 115 scare you. It's probably more like a 60 pager. Thank you.

Any additional comments before we open the public hearing?

One last comment that I just got. That one location that we all were getting emails on, I spoke to several people about it. That particular, they call it the wildlife refuge that they love there. We go back to it.

Combat, I believe. Cabana.

Cabana, thank you. I knew it was a C word. This, where, okay, right there. In that, it says neighborhood low density, neighborhood high density is right next to it, right? Is that, and is that really small lot sizes that they're saying? Like if that, it went to auction, yes? It's owned by State Land, and it's, if it goes to auction, and somebody buys it, it goes really high density right there along the, it's not along the lake there. And according to this high density, what I'm getting, and I didn't, research it completely, that makes it a really small, like almost mobile home size, correct?

Mayor, council, that area is actually sailing hawks. Okay. That high density area. Okay. And I went through a plan development, so I believe it's zoned something like RMPD or something right now. Okay. So that was matching that zoning. So the neighborhood low that you're speaking of is Arizona state land, and category for that is agricultural preservation, which requires a minimum size of one acre lots. And single family dwellings are actually an accessory used to the agricultural piece of that zoning district. So if it went to auction, someone bought that today, and they didn't want to do agricultural there, then they would have to come back and request the zoning, rezone on that piece.

And this general plan, and I understand that most all the land in Arizona prior to being sold by the state is all under agriculture for most people that don't know that. So it's not like they really expected that, that's just was a broad pen. So on that particular area, how did they identify? So that goes to agriculture, what it's saying though, it's agriculture now, excuse me. If it gets rezoned in that area, is that high density or is that just normal residential?

Right now, the future land use map, if adopted and ratified, say neighborhood low. So that means that like if they came in and wanted to do an R one zoning district residential, like most have as soon as our neighborhoods, it would be low density residential. And that's what it is today in the 2016. That's what it's going to remain in the 2026.

So where am I hearing this information that this is, they can put 3000 homes in this area, and that's not going to ever work. And I tell them you got to sell the land there's it's a long way away. I know how long it took to get DL ranch up.

I can't speak to where that's coming from.

Okay, well then you'll speak to that. Thank you much.

Any other questions or comments before we open the public hearing? All right, we'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Ms. Willett, you signed up so we can start with you. Yes.

I'm Kathy Willett, I'm a resident on Cabana Drive, that's center of the wash. And so the reason why you have all these letters from the neighbors is that they're being proactive. We know that we have some behavior that's indicative of a developer interest in there. There's been business suits in there. They have graded dirt roads. They have people meeting out on the hilltops. So that is why our neighborhood is proactive in this. WHEN THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT LOW DENSITY, WE'RE TALKING 488 ACRES IS THAT PARCEL. SO SEVEN HOUSES PER ACRE IS, I THINK, IF I WANT TO DO THE MATH, 3,000 AND SOMETHING HOUSES. SO THAT IS WHERE THAT INFORMATION IS COMING FROM. THE PARCEL IS CABANA DRIVE AND THEN IT FLOWS OUT IN A WASH OUT TO LONDON BRIDGE ROAD AND THEN OUT THROUGH THE LAKE. rare lake view property for any developer to want to develop there. There's not too many lake views left that's like in that parcel. But the issue with that parcel is that it is the actual drain for Crosswind Peak Mountain. I mean, we're not talking around, we're talking the drain. So it had flooded in 88 or 89 with almost three feet of water, wiped out London Bridge Road, wiped out the entrance to Cabana Drive, And so that is our concern, is that somebody wants to develop on that land, and it shouldn't be developed on, it doesn't matter, it's the drain for the mountain. So you shouldn't be putting 3,000 homes in it, for sure. And it doesn't matter what paperwork has been submitted for reducing it from a high-risk flood zone to a low-risk flood zone, because you're not gonna command Mother Nature to follow your computer simulation. And so that is why the concern and why our neighborhood is jumping forward. Because of that, we think that there's interest in that property and it's gonna be coming very soon. And so that's where you see us being proactive. And so I'm just coming here to object to that parcel, not to your planning, your 2026 plan. but that we will be following you and watching you. And we are watching that state site every single day. And we will be objecting to anything that isn't a right for the community there. So I want to thank you. Did any of you know that it was the natural drain for the mountain? I don't even know if anybody on the steering committee realized that that is that. And the chances of it flooding again are 100%. 25, 50, or 100 years, Mother Nature is going to cross that mountain again and it's going to flood.

Okay, well, thank you. Thank you for that update, and I appreciate your emails and our conversation.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure you had quite a few.

I did. That was fun. And I was chasing it around, trying to figure out what was all going on.

And I appreciate that if you haven't been down to Gold Dress Drive, where the wash entrance is, all you have to do is walk 50 feet in there and just imagine 3,000 houses. How are they going to get out of there? There's only Highway North Palo Verde or the London Bridge Road. And you just have to go down there and see. And all you have to do is turn around. And look at the wall of houses that's going to take an onslaught of construction carnage to understand what is going on with some type of big ten-year development there, or three-year development, or five-year development. So thank you for your time this evening.

And just to let you know too, in the mining business, we're always looking for washes. And the state usually puts a big notice on it that says undesirable property, because it's considered a wash. Cuz you're right, a development is gonna have a hard time building there. I don't know how the state has recognized it as that. And again, that would be up for to make those decisions, but miners look for undesirable properties that are washes.

I just don't see developers looking at it going, oh man, that's a nice piece of property and nobody's going to build it in front of me because it is London Bridge Road and the lake.

And we have no interest in a mine there, okay, either.

All right, thank you so very much for your time today.

And also just for your neighbors that are watching, all of those things they would have to come into if they wanted to rezone the property. Yeah, I know you are. They'd have to come through. We'd have to have buffer zones, all of the things. But I really applaud you for protecting your neighborhood and advocating for it. So thank you for being here tonight. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the City Council on the general plan?

Mayor, if I may add a last piece of information that we learned. When we met with the State Land Department on June 2nd, we did ask them what their active applications were within our city limits, because there are some outside in the county. And the only one they have at present is the piece to the west of the foothills. So they don't show any interest yet in the piece of land that Ms. Willett's referring to. Now, it could be for sale any time, of course, but at present it's not.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council on this item?

Mayor, City Council, I just wanted to make a random suggestion based on what Council Member Lynn had said in regards to getting the word out so everybody can read it. On your Facebook page, the city's government Facebook page that people do like to go read, you are able to pin posts to the top of the page. So the first thing they're going to see when they scroll to your page will be that post. Like River Scene Magazine has like three different things that are pinned to their page. One of them is from like 2022 or 2024. So if you pin a post about the general plan to the top of the Facebook page for Lake Havasu City government, people will be able to see that first thing and they'll be able to go read it and be engaged.

Thank you.

I had a quick question, Dave Johnson.

I had a quick question for the council because we got one saying that he ran it and one saying that he didn't. How many people here actually read the whole thing? One.

I've read it. And also been very involved in the process as well.

Again, like I stated before, I was very disappointed with a bunch of developers having their opinions in it. And being a developer, I stepped out and wanted it to be a citizens initiative. So I did not read it all the way through. I hope you did. I have not. Okay.

I have some friends that were on the steering committee.

Yeah, and I really trusted the steering committee and the community and what they were doing. And I was looking forward to this presentation today because sometimes when I get the presentation and then I read it, I process it better.

Second thing, just so you know, there is already a business on McAuliffe, which I'm actually a huge fan of, but they are building up. Actually, I think they're going to be all the 60, which I'm not going to spoil that guy's plans. He can talk to you guys about that later if you want to know it.

I did want to give you the opportunity.

I heard from my friend on the steering community that they put some very strong language in to protect Muddy Beach in the future. Do you have

We did take shoreline preservation into consideration, and through this process, the shoreline preservation, we looked at our Island Body Beach zoning district, which covers Island Body Beach. As Mr. Gilbert said earlier, we are coming back with that zoning text amendment as we work with state land. 75 feet is the number that we've negotiated up to this point. It's not set in stone, but we are coming to Planning Commission here June 17th, actually, present that to the commission and then bring it back to council in July. So through this process, yes, that's how we are gonna protect that area. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Hogan?

Mayor, I will add to that. And that is true. So that's implementation down into zoning. In addition, on the future land use map, we have that buffer area. And so he's correct, the steering committee, that was really something they drove home. We heard that, we put that buffer area in there. There are many goals and policies that also speak to that. So there are teeth within the policy document that speak to that issue. And then there's the implementation of into your regulatory document as well.

Thank you.

Mayor.

Mr. Moses. Can I ask you a question?

So if we approve this tonight, And then the public finally reads it. What's our process after that? It's just voting yes or no, or are there amendments we can make in between then and now? I mean, what does that look like? Or has the work been done?

The work has been done. Mr. Chairman, do you want to address that, or Ms. Hogan? Or Ms. Gary, actually.

The action tonight is to adopt it. So once council adopts it through the process, then it's sent to the voters for ratification. So after this point, the timeline, this is it. So hopefully, we've already addressed any changes that anybody wants to make. And this is the final document. I don't hear any concerns or anything that have been expressed yet. So hopefully, this is it and it'll be adopted by council and then it goes to ratification.

IN OUR PACKET WAS ALL OF THE COMMENTS THAT THE PUBLIC HAS MADE AND THEN ALL OF THE CORRECTIONS. THEY RESPONDED BACK TO ALL OF THE FOLKS THAT MADE COMMENTS ON WHAT ACTIONS WERE TAKEN TO ADJUST THE PLAN.

OKAY. AND MAYOR, IF I MAY ADD, THE STATE REQUIRES 120-DAY COOLDOWN FOLLOWING ADOPTION BY COUNCIL OF THE PLAN PRIOR TO THE GENERAL ELECTION. THAT WOULD, THE PLAN WOULD BE CONSIDERED THAT.

All right, we still have the public hearing open. Would anyone else like to address the council on this item?

President Pat Willett, what happens if you guys approve it, it goes to the voters, and they vote no, and it goes down? Then we're where we are. That was the question.

Yeah, great question, Mr. Will. It would go back to our 2016 plan, but is Ms. Gary wanting to answer that?

That's correct. We would retain the 2016, and we would have to come back to the drawing board and figure out what and why it wasn't ratified by the voters and keep going until we get something adopted because it's required to be updated every 10 years by state statute.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address the city council on this item? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing, bring it back to council for any additional discussion or possible motion. Mayor motion. Vice Mayor Diaz was gonna make a motion.

I move to adopt resolution number 26-3920, adopting and submitting to the voters of Lake Havasu City for ratification at the November 3rd, 2026 election, the 2026 Lake Havasu General Plan, shaping our future. Second.

We have a motion from Vice Mayor Diaz, a second from Council Member Moses. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none, we're ready to vote.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Thank you again for all your work. We appreciate it. Item 7.6 is ordinance number 26-1380, approving amendment to the general development plan of the planned development for 5699, Highway 95, come together project, track 2396, lot A3-1, to reconfigure the residential housing building locations and parking. Good evening, Mr. Kearns.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. One moment. So the subject property is located at the shops at Lake Havasu between the movie theater and Walmart. In October of 2025, Council approved a plan development amendment to allow multifamily residential a 32-foot building height and an exception to the residential covered parking requirements. In February of 2026, the property was split to separate the movie theater and the multifamily project into separate properties. This was one of the required conditions of the plan development rezone. The project has come back to the council due to the applicant making changes to the approved general development plan. The changes being proposed are reconfiguring building locations. The applicant has stated the changes are to enhance ADA accessibility and improve the overall site layout. The proposed amended general development plan has approximately 20 less parking spaces than the existing approved plan. The parking will still be part of the existing shared parking at the mall. After the project's completion, there will still be approximately 547 parking spaces more than code requires. The project will still have 102 units that will consist of six buildings with a mix of one bedroom and two bedroom units. The requirements and conditions from ordinance 25-1373 that was approved in October will still be required. If this item is approved tonight, it will only amend the general development plan for the previous ordinance. This item was heard at the May 20th Planning Commission meeting, and the commission voted to recommend approval with a vote of seven to zero. This concludes my presentation. The applicant also has a presentation today, or a video. Thank you, Mr. Kearns.

Hi, my name is Chad Nelson. I'm representing the development. Yeah, if you could go ahead and cue the video. Thank you.

Thank you.

For millions of Americans, housing has become the difference between stability and stress. Teachers, nurses, first responders, the people who make our communities work, they're not asking for more. They're asking for something that works. this is the missing middle and for many it's not just hard it's becoming impossible not because we don't care but because the way we build hasn't kept up with the way we live at come together we believe process, so we ask a different question. What if housing were built as a system, repeatable, precise, and designed around real lives? Instead of reinventing every building, we created standardized designs that can be approved once and used many times. New apartment homes are ready to be lived in within a few months instead of taking years to complete. Instead of chaotic job sites waiting on materials, components are precision cut, labeled, delivered in exact sequence so crews build without delay, waste, or guesswork. Instead of long, uncertain timelines, apartments are assembled in controlled environments near the site, cutting months, sometimes years off delivery. The result? Lower cost, without subsidies, without cutting corners. Apartments designed for real lives. Built to exceed expectations. Delivered when communities need them. But here's the truth. This doesn't happen alone. It takes suppliers who believe consistency beats complexity. Developers willing to rethink the old playbook. Cities ready to say yes to smarter, safer, repeatable solutions. and partners who understand and impact scales when systems align if you supply materials components or systems help us standardize what works if you are a landowner or developer build faster with less risk if you're a city or community leader deliver housing your workforce can afford And if you believe innovation should improve lives, this is your moment. Join us. Partner with us. Scale with us. Make a difference. Be the difference.

Thank you for playing that. I'm excited to be back here. Obviously, we've come a long way. We're actually permit ready within a few days. And just like Trevor said, we've already gone through the process. We're just, we're moving a building. And this started with a electrical easement that even though we had zero comments from Unisource, they weren't comfortable with one of the easements. so we listened to all of you all of your feedback we listened to the community's feedback people still felt like you could enter into this apartment complex and it wasn't didn't feel like a complex people wanted more ada accessibility so we went from We changed the parking space layout and created more ramps. We went from six staircases to 12 staircases, adding more accessibility. We widened the pathways for the fire trucks. So all the feedback that we took the negative and we turned it into a positive. and it took us another three months to uh to make this happen so um so there's more parking more ramps we added uh some bicycle parking spaces um the north and south landscaping bars are create more of that that community or that development feel to separate it um We actually improved separation in the buildings for fire. If you go back to the old one, which we'll toggle back and forth if you don't mind, Trevor. But the four buildings on the bottom, we actually separated them a little bit better for fire. And Lake Havasu City Fire is really happy with the changes that we made. You can go back to the new plan. Balcony the the buildings five and building six is which what we're changing. They're the two on the right those used to be Twisted the other way and the balconies faced each other And this way the balconies actually faced the lake on both buildings So that's a huge improvement. I think Let's see One of the big things, and again, we've already been through the process, but I just wanna remind the public that we are using underutilized infrastructure out here that was made for a lot of different developing, but mostly what's being built out on the north side have been storage units. So we're utilizing that infrastructure. We aren't getting any funding from the city or the county or the state. As you saw in the presentation, there was a lot of different brands that come together to make this happen. That's how we are controlling the costs is everybody's contributing to build this. Some of the questions that came up in the last meeting, I don't really need to address it, but I will, is the company that is GOING TO BE MANAGING THE PROPERTY. THEY ARE CALLED RENEW. AND THEY REQUIRE A CREDIT CHECK. THEY REQUIRE A BACKGROUND CHECK. THEY REQUIRE RENTAL HISTORY. THIS IS NOT LOW INCOME HOUSING. THIS IS FOR THE WORK FORCE. And Renew will utilize local subcontractors and people to maintain. And they'll be working with the builder for any extra parts like flooring that they might need or plumbing parts. But there will be a lot of local companies use as well. The property is privately owned and it's governed by CC&Rs. The building owner will actually have to pay what are called CAM fees, and that contributes to parking lot maintenance, security, and a lot of other things like that. And the CC&Rs do not allow unauthorized vendors to use the parking lot to sell things or have a business out there. If someone was to do an event and have let's say a food truck or something like that, they would have to go through the property owner in order to do that. And that's about it. Is there any questions from the council?

Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Are there questions from members of the council? Council Member Lin?

You were talking about ADA compliant. Are there elevators in any of these?

No, no. There's a lot of first floor units, but it's staircases.

Okay, I didn't see it, but I should ask you. And then the second thing is, have you actually seen a project like this? Have you visually seen it? And I'm just curious if, you showed the pictures and everything. I'm not against it, I'm just curious if you saw it and what they look like?

In the presentation, you saw some actual buildings that we have put together and taken apart over 60 times.

Where else do they have developments like that? In Phoenix. They do?

Yeah, in Phoenix. They actually have actual developments like this. If you want to visit one that is completing and operating, they did one like this in Baghdad for the mines, and it's really cool. It's really cool how they put it together. It goes up fast, and it's very efficient.

And I know I'm going to ask you this and it's kind of a goofy question, but I mean, they're of good quality. Like it's a good quality product that you're going to put out there.

Yeah, these are of the best quality. And I left a presentation for you guys and you can scan the QR code and you can see the interiors. They're amazing. We're using... Great cabinet companies. Really nice flooring. And these come with TVs. They come with blinds. They come with washer and dryer. And you can see the whole front of your door is all windows. And they're high-quality windows. I hope so.

In my mind, I'm envisioning like an Ikea-type thing. I'm like, I don't want to see that.

No, no, no. It's Marsh Cabinets. Okay. Again, very, very high quality stuff that's built to last. When this is built, this will probably be... Everybody that we're talking to is subcontractors and fire. The summit fires who we're working with on the actual structure, and they're like, I would live in this. This is awesome. This is high quality. All the frames are made out of steel. All the wallboard is fireproof. It's great insulation, great windows. All the lighting works through a low voltage system. So it's very efficient. So I think this is gonna be something that the community is really proud of and something that we hope to replicate again in the future.

One more question. And there's still no covered parking, right?

There's no covered parking. Thank you. Because, yeah, in covered parking, this is my opinion, covered parking is part of the reason why you're not getting more multifamily developments in this town. Cuz it just costs a lot of money to do that. And your workers, they go to work during the day, and you're covering their cars at night. So it doesn't really make sense.

Vice Mayor Diaz? Mr. Nelson, is there a HOA here?

They're CC&Rs, and they're called CAM fees, and CAM fees work exactly like an HOA. So everybody has to abide by certain rules, and they have to contribute for security, for, you know, if there's... people wreaking havoc around there. So if there's any vandalism, things like that. But really, if you've been out to the shops, you haven't really seen any of that, have you? They do a great job out there. And they're going to continue to do a great job. But that's what those fees cover.

Thank you for walking me. I visited you. I think you and I walked the area. You explained it to me. So it was really impressive. And the same amount of units by just changes around, you just turn buildings around the same amount as 102?

Yeah, there's no changes to the unit count. We're literally making it better based off of all the feedback. And that's what we want. We want this to be a great development that everybody's proud of that we can do again. And just so you guys know, that lower landscaping bar there, that There's still additional parking for the movie theater. That's not the movie theater parking. So that's something I heard tonight. And there is still parking for the movie theater there.

Thank you. Are there any additional questions before we open the public hearing? All right. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Thank you. This is the public hearing. Would anyone like to address the city council on this item?

Well, everybody always talks about workforce housing, and I got to tell you, that's the guy that's doing it. And I actually think that this is going to be a huge benefit to that mall that's been struggling ever since I lived here. Because if you park 102 families or more right there, you know, now your movie theater is going to succeed. Maybe we wouldn't be losing Northside Grill, you know. So I applaud Chad on his efforts. I think it's absolutely awesome. My only concern about it is I know there's going to be a lot of kids that are going to be living in these. I wish there was a park closer for them, but. Other than that, I think it's an absolutely awesome project.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address the City Council on this item?

Good evening, my name is Miliano Torres. I'm a resident and homeowner. And to answer Councilmember Lin, I have seen schools built with this approach. They're wonderful. I've seen where they've been built quickly, the teachers love them because they have control, the construction is nice. In fact, they clustered the buildings so there was a space in the middle and they put a roof canopy over that center vacant space and made the cafeteria and the general meeting area. It was wonderfully planned. This development does none of that. Manufacturing housing on a budget is not new. The need for affordable housing is critical. Unique solutions are needed, situating this development behind an established shopping center on mall property, ignoring code and future impacts is not a solution. The project entrance will face the Walmart loading dock and require snaking through a mall parking lot. These homes will also be attractive to weekend visitors and snowboards cuz they may find it desirable because of the lighted RV parking and boat parking and mall security cuz they can park off the footprint because it's shared with the mall. The market will ultimately determine who lives in this development, not the job title. One of the issues I have with this, major issue I have with this is dual status of resident, customer, visitor. Status that will be difficult to determine, particularly by law enforcement. You can't trust or cite for loitering if the individual is a tenant. And there will be no rationale for proving your status. HOA can define conduct, but only on the property. HOA rules are not permanent and not enforceable by city code. Any promise made tonight is not binding. The current or future property owner can rescind the proposed parking reserve for tenants at any time. The city will have no power to enforce HOAs, which could result in the development not meeting code. Issues that planning should have addressed and resolved prior to approval. Other commercial properties may see this unique application as an opportunity to do the same on their property, particularly since there is no established definition of a ratio of tenant to customer parking. Required or property mix of uses, residential and retail. Covered parking no longer required with no justification. There have been warning flags to this development, first the exception for the parking and now for the modification required by utility. There is no dedicated public access to assure access surrounding the property. THE LIMITATION TO THE DEVELOPMENT'S PROPERTY LINE IS ARBITRARY. THE PROPERTY IS PROVIDED BY THE PROPERTY OWNER WHO IS PROMOTING IT AND HAS PLACED THE LIMITATIONS WHICH APPEAR TO BE BUDGET INDUCED. APPROVAL TONIGHT WILL INDICATE CITY CODE IS DRIVEN BY BUDGET. OTHERS WILL SEE THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO REDEFINE CODE TO MEET CONVENIENCE AND NOT LEGAL DEFINITION. Rusted parking, van height limitations, setbacks, anything else a future developer or property owner or resident may be able to justify. Your vote tonight could not have come at a more pivotal time. With election in just a few minutes, you'll be able to demonstrate that everyone, developer, landowner, homeowner, resident, is treated by the same rules and code. Code should not be a suggestion with no one group receiving privileged treatment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Torres. Anyone else like to address the City Council on this item?

President Pat Willett, I agree with him. When I looked at those pictures in there, it looked like a connex box with a glass window in the front of it. It didn't look really appealing. My theory was also, what's the occupants level? How many people can live in one unit? Is it only two adults? Is it four kids, two adults? Is there going to be an occupancy level for that? And the schooling, there is no school out there. And like Dave said, there's no parks out there. It's not really suitable for any type of family. And then you stick it behind the mall. And like I was saying, there's a big old empty dirt lot right over there in front of Dillard's that nobody's even developed. Why didn't you just put it out there away from it's still utilizing the same situation? Or was it because of the land that the guy had right there? And like I was here a few weeks ago, somebody said it was a dollar bot. But it just seems really odd that, like I said, not really suitable for families. There's no kids. There's no schools. The closest school is going to be kids are going to have to drive all the way down to North Palo Verde and turn into the school down there. So it just didn't seem real feasible. I mean, there's so much land in this city where the developer, I was talking to him, he said he was trying to get a parcel for years and he couldn't get it. but then all of a sudden this opens up and it's a green light, that's all.

Mr. Willett.

Good evening, again, Gabriel Suarez, and I don't agree with the last two speakers. The city needs housing like this. We definitely need housing like this. I mean, you talk about minimum wage, you talk about people, you know, have three jobs and they can't afford to live here. The fact that they are building this outside of the center of the city is probably the best thing they could do because nobody wants something like this built in the middle of the city. They don't want it near their house. But now it sounds like some people don't even want it where Walmart is. You know, we need it somewhere here, and at least out there, you know, any type of environmental impact report isn't going to greatly affect residents here. Like, I remember roughly a year ago, there was a condominium complex going to be going up on the north side of town off of McCulloch, close to Chimuewe. Was it Delta? Well, so far, I'm glad it hasn't gone up. A location there would affect that area greatly. Traffic, parking, everything. And like I said, this city needs locations like this. And it would best be suited in an area like that where technically it really wouldn't affect traffic. It wouldn't affect a lot of the things that it would affect if it was close to the center of town. So I commend him for choosing that location. THAT SHOULD BE IT. THANK YOU.

I'M WONDERING HOW MUCH THIS COSTS. EVERYBODY HAS A DIFFERENT IDEA, BUT AFFORDABLE IS HOW MUCH ARE THESE? IS IT REALLY AFFORDABLE OR IS THAT JUST ANOTHER LET'S THROW IT OUT THERE IT'S AFFORDABLE AND THEN EVERYBODY SAYS I CAN'T AFFORD THAT. HOW MUCH ARE THEY?

THANK YOU. ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO ADDRESS THE COUNSEL ON THIS ITEM?

Good evening, Taylor Harrison. I did not intend on coming up here. But affordable housing is something I'm really passionate about. And actually, throughout the campaign process, I'm finding out all of our community is passionate about it. So first, Chad, thank you. This project is actually really heartfelt and really good. The last speaker mentioned a good place for it. Well, I wouldn't want these next to my home. I'm sure most of us wouldn't, but they're behind the mall. They're not obstructing any other residents' views or anything like that. It's good placement. It's infrastructure that's being underutilized. And modular developments are very cost-effective, and they're built kind of in a factory setting. So in some cases, they're built better than stick-built homes. So I would encourage you guys all for a yes vote tonight. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening again. Or is it morning yet? I was just curious if I understand it correctly. Wasn't this project already approved? And the only difference between the prior approval and now is the placement of the two buildings. And does that actually, is there, what is he, changing as far as develop, he's not asking for a rezone or development change, correct? Or just the layout.

Yeah, so great, great point, Ms. Toye. What this was approved with was a planned development. And so, you know, people ask, how are we going to have certainty that they're going to build something that was presented to the public and to the council that was approved? This process that we're going through now shows that if you want to make any alterations or any changes, you have to come back before THE PUBLIC BODIES. SO BECAUSE IT WAS A PLANNED DEVELOPMENT AND THEY WERE CHANGING THE LOCATION OF THE BUILDINGS, THEY HAD TO GO BACK THROUGH THE PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION AND BACK BEFORE THE COUNCIL FOR CONSIDERATION TO MAKE THAT CHANGE.

WILL THE GENERAL PLAN THAT'S BEING ADOPTED TONIGHT, WILL THAT HELP PREVENT SOME OF THIS?

IF YOU COME THROUGH A PLANNED DEVELOPMENT AND YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THAT PLANNED DEVELOPMENT BEFORE YOU'RE DEVELOPING IT, YOU WOULD HAVE TO COME BACK THROUGH THE PUBLIC PROCESS. That's how our residents get certainty that what they're presenting is what is going to occur.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else like to address the council on this item? All right, seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to council for any discussion or possible motion.

Mr. Mayor?

Yeah, Councilmember Dolan?

Just a little discussion, just wanna thank you guys. This is how we get affordable housing, is you get rentals. only other ways that people like well that's not fair the government you don't want the city government to get in and do stuff that's where dei and equality and all equability all that comes in where we're using tax dollars to this is how it happens is developers coming in wanting to invest in our community and like i said it's for some of those that ask with vacation these are rentals these are like i said the californians are not going to come in and buy a one or sign up for a one-year lease. These are gonna go to, that's how they are affordable. If they're too pricey, they just won't rent. So I just wanna thank you guys, and like I said, hopefully, rentals is what we need, and it's definitely the starting point, so I just wanna thank you guys for doing it. I love the PED process. I know we talked about things coming back changing code and stuff. That's why I love the PDs that, you know, hey, this is what we're going to build. And then you guys change your mind. Well, no, you can't. You have to come back and say, hey, this is what we're going to build. And we do that. So great process. Just want to thank you for what you're doing. Council Member Lynn?

Yeah, I just want to clear. They are rentals, right? And the property owner, he's the landlord.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you. That answer was yes for those not in the room. Any additional comments or we'll entertain a motion? Council Member Moses?

Thank you to the development for bringing this back and making it all work. This is a huge key to the success out at the mall in general and then of course our workforce. I visit this area quite a bit and Don't see an issue with this. So with that, I'll make a motion. I move to adopt ordinance number 26-1380, approving an amendment to the general development plan of the plan development for 5699 Highway 95, come together project to reconfigure the residential building locations and parking.

Second. I have a motion from Councilmember Moses, a second from Councilmember Campbell. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none, we're ready to vote.

Motion carries seven to zero.

Thank you. And then our final public hearing of the evening is item 7.7, acceptance of the construction manager at risk and guaranteed maximum price for the construction phase services of fire station number seven project. Mr. Foggin.

Mayor and council, it is a pleasure to be here. You may be wondering why I am presenting this. This is usually where you would see one of my project managers or the capital programs manager. It just so happens that our project manager for this project, Phil Porter, is on vacation. And no sooner did I approve Jason Hart's vacation, and he walked into my office and said, guess what? You get to present. So it's a privilege to be here tonight and actually present a really great project. With me tonight is Tim Donahue, who is with Wilmay Construction. I'll be turning the mic over to him for part of the presentation. But just want to give some acknowledgements. A lot of work has gone into getting the design and getting this project to you. I want to thank the council for giving us a budget in which to do this. Manager Knutson for being supportive and encouraging us to get this through. For the city team, Phil Porter, as I mentioned, is project manager. Jason Hart is his supervisor. I want to thank Chief Palafas. for his part in it. He's been with the team the entire way in helping guide and get the facility to what will be the best usable building for the fire department. I ALSO WANT TO THANK THE PROCUREMENT, JILL OLSON AND HER TEAM AS WELL. A LOT OF WORK HAS GONE INTO THIS. PEARLMAN ARCHITECTS, KEN POWERS, WHO'S THE LEAD ARCHITECT IN THE PEARLMAN TEAM. WILMAG CONSTRUCTION, TIM DONAHUE, WHO I'VE ALREADY INTRODUCED, IS THE EXECUTIVE PRE-CONSTRUCTION DIRECTOR. AND WILMAG HAS BROUGHT A NUMBER OF PEOPLE TO THE TABLE THROUGH THE DESIGN PROCESS AS WELL. So I just wanted to make sure to remind everybody the need for fire station number seven. There's a section of the city that is underserved. Fire study that was completed January of 2023 showed this location needing improvement. basically improvement with the fire station because we were not responding as quickly as we should be or could be with the fire station. So leaving 11,800 residents underserved. So that was how we got to this point. So fire station number seven project, as you can see on the picture, a vacant lot. A vacant lot is actually on McCulloch and Sloop. And again, Pearlman has created, developed the design. We identified Wilming Construction, and they were selected as the CMAR, the contractor for this project. The fire station design is now complete. We are at 100% ready to move forward. And we've negotiated with Wilmang for the construction services. So the construction phase services that Wilmang will provide for us, they will complete the permitting. site work, the facility construction, hardscape and landscape, and then finally the project closeout. And I'll turn the microphone over to Tim to talk about the project details.

Thank you, Ron. Good evening, council members and mayor. Yeah, this has been a labor of love, you know, over the last few years to get to this point to provide you with a facility that's going to last a testament of, you know, a 50-year, 60-year lifespan. You know, we've done our due diligence over that period of time to come in with a concise FIRE STATION THAT WILL MEET THOSE NEEDS AND GROWTH, AS CHIEF HAD MENTIONED, YOU KNOW, WITH THE HIRING THAT'S NEEDED AND BEING BROUGHT INTO THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR. THIS WILL BE JUST OVER A 12,000 SQUARE FOOT FACILITY. THREE APPARATUS BAYS THAT WILL BE FACING THE MCCULLOUGH SIDE. THAT'S WHERE ALL THE APPARATUS TRUCKS WILL BE PULLING OUT OF AND THEN A LOWER APT BAY FOR FIRE RESCUE EQUIPMENT. A number of eight beds, dorm beds in this facility, just on .77 acres of a site. We're looking to start construction, as Ron had mentioned, in July time frame with an 11 month duration for that construction time frame. So a couple other things we wanted to point out too, with the growing needs of this, this will meet all guidelines for the health and wellness of the firefighters, be in a state of the art facility, both for when they come back from their calls for the decon requirements of coming in and the decontamination for their health and well-being, also providing them the quiet zones in the building for their dorm rooms, having those rooms for silent downtime, also having a fitness facility in the building for them to be able to spend their time there and having their open room space. So it'll meet those NFPA guidelines. It also, as Rhonda mentioned too, it's needed for this area and the growth within the western area of town. Meeting those requirements of ANY CALLS OF COMING IN UNDER THAT NINE TO FIVE MINUTE TIME FRAME, YOU KNOW, GETTING THOSE CALLS OUT IN A TIMELY MANNER FOR THAT. ALSO HAVING THE FLEXIBILITY TO MEET THE FUTURE GROWTH AS DEMANDS AND OR ADDITIONAL NEEDS ARE FOR THIS FACILITY. SO AGAIN, APPRECIATE YOUR TIME FOR THIS AND LOOK FOR THIS TO MOVE FORWARD AND WE'RE EXCITED TO BE A PART OF THIS PROJECT. THANK YOU.

THANKS, TIM. SO JUST FINISHING UP, THE FIRE STATION PROJECT, SO THE CMAR NEGOTIATED GROSS MAXIMUM PRICE FOR THIS PROJECT IS $8,200,000, $2,150.59. And just want to make sure to point out and listed that out the gross maximum price. So the contractor will basically build this building for that amount. Any change orders that are made to this project will have to come from the city. ANY COST SAVINGS BELOW THIS WILL COME BACK TO THE CITY THAT GO UNSPENT AS FAR AS THE CMAR CONSTRUCTION GOES. THE TOTAL PROJECT COST FOR THIS PROJECT IS JUST UNDER THE $9 MILLION BUDGET THAT WE WERE GIVEN. AND THE PROJECT SCHEDULE, AS TIM INDICATED, BASICALLY 11 MONTHS WITH A START DATE OF JULY 2026. AND WITH THAT, WE WOULD BE HAPPY BETWEEN TIM AND I, I THINK WE CAN ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS FOR THE MOST PART.

THANK YOU, MR. CLOGGEN, AND THANK YOU, MR. DONAHUE. ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL? COUNCIL MEMBER LIN.

I HAVE A QUICK QUESTION, AND IT'S NOT MY QUESTION. IT'S A FRIEND THAT CAN'T BE HERE TONIGHT. AND HIS QUESTION IS, IS THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, WILL THEY BE PROVIDING THE ARC FLASH STUDY FOR THIS PROJECT? WOW. THAT'S NOT MY QUESTION. I'M ASKING IT.

Yes, part of our QAQC program with the closeout requirements, we will be providing that to you folks. Yes.

Thank you.

Are there any additional questions before we open the public hearing? Vice Mayor Diaz?

This is a long time in the making, so I appreciate all the hard work. I know, Chief, I've seen this in your office on your board. Every time I walk by there, it's up there, you're talking to people. Do we know, guessing, not exactly, but it's probably more of a question for the city manager. But do we know on average what the annual maintenance costs when you add up electrical, water, sewer, food, everything to keep this thing going on a regular basis? Is this a ballpark?

Yeah.

While the chief makes his way here, food they pay for themselves, so food's not included in a firehouse. No.

Sorry about that. THE FIRST YEAR UTILITY COST IS GOING TO BE ROUGHLY ABOUT 26,000 AND OUR SUPPLIES FOR THAT STATION IS ROUGHLY ABOUT 15,000. AND OBVIOUSLY WITH GOING RATES AND STUFF, WE PROJECTED 27, 28 TO ROUGHLY BE JUST SHY OF 28,000 WITH SUPPLIES STAYING AROUND THAT 15,000 MARK. SO WHEN WE DO OUR BUDGET PLAN FOR THIS, We encompass everything in regards to the operating costs because this is going to we're bringing on a new facility and we want to make sure that we incur all the costs. We have all the data. I've been working on this since I started. I'll never get Council member Lynn. I wasn't even here two weeks and it was like we're station seven. And you know what? This is a historical moment for all of us. AND THIS COUNCIL TO THIS IS A LEGACY THAT WE FINALLY COMING TO THE FINISH LINE TO STARTING THIS PROJECT DOING THE GROUNDBREAKING WE ALREADY GET THE BUDGET FOR THE PERSONNEL THE RIG IS GOING TO BE COMING IN 2027-2 SO IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT CELEBRATION AND IT WAS NEEDED THE STUDIES SHOWN THAT IT'S BEEN NEEDED FOR 19 YEARS SO IT'S FINALLY GETTING DONE. I APPRECIATE THIS OPPORTUNITY. I APPRECIATE WORKING WITH THIS TEAM, TOO. APPRECIATE CITY MANAGER KNUTSON FOR PUSHING US THROUGH AND GETTING US THROUGH TO THE FINAL PORTION BECAUSE WE NEED IT. THIS IS A COMMUNITY PROJECT. IT'S A COMMUNITY STATION. and it's fitting within the neighborhood. That was the design. It's a basic station that's going to service Lake Havasu City. So I know I go on. It's hard sitting back there while they do the presentation, but they did a great job.

Well, I know I got a little overzealous with the food, but maybe Michelle then will provide some good food there for the guys once in a while. Thank you very much for bringing this, and we are definitely going to – appreciate this when it's done and we're looking to start moving some dirt over there and a lot of people have been asking for it so I appreciate all your hard work on this.

Are there any additional questions before we open the public hearing? All right this is a public hearing but I would like to address the City Council on this item.

Good evening, again Emiliano Torres, resident. Looking forward to its completion, and most importantly, I'm so glad we're properly referring to it as Station 7, not the other name that was being used.

Thank you. Always been Station 7 since I've known, but. Mr. Torres, what was-

The developer in the Foothills promised a location for a fire station, and everybody expected the fire station to go up there. And everybody's been in an uproar because where's our fire station? Then this station was gonna be built on, what is it, a coma? And people are disappointed, but I think they're coming to terms with the fact that this is the right location. And we're looking forward to it.

Thank you, Mr. Torres. All right, would anyone else like to address the City Council on this item?

Questions that came up today. One of them was that you came on the radio, the city manager, and said that this works out to about 1,000 per square foot today. Did you say that? No? Okay. And was this put out for a bid for contractors? Okay, that was a question from the audience. And what is it? I think that's all they wanted to know was was it put out for a bid and is it 1,000 per square foot? That seems expensive. But obviously very in favor of a fire station. Sure. Yeah.

All right, does anyone else like to address the City Council on this item? All right, seeing no one close the public hearing, bring it back to council for additional questions or comments or a motion? I want a motion. All right, Vice Mayor Diaz?

I'm honored to make this motion, by the way. I move to approve the construction manager at risk Construction services contract and guaranteed maximum price in the amount of eight million two hundred and two thousand one hundred fifty dollars and fifty nine cents to Wilming Construction Inc and authorize the city manager to execute the contract with Wilming Construction Inc Motion from vice mayor Diaz.

We have a second from council member Lynn. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing number right about

Motion carries, seven to zero.

Thank you. All right, item eight is our call to the public. This is where citizens have the opportunity to address the city council on items within the jurisdiction of Lake Havasu City. As I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, we can't have a two-way conversation, but we can listen intently. If anyone would like to address the city council during a call to the public, please make your way to the podium and state your name for the record.

Good evening. I'll be quick. It's late. We all want to go home. Years ago, we had... I believe it was called a lobbyist for our county and our area that would bring all the up-to-date legislation introduced, all the funding and all the wonderful things available to us. I don't know what happened to that, but that sure was a great resource. And while we're naming things, let's think about naming something after Dean Barlow. I just wanted to say that because he contributed an awful lot to our community, an awful lot to our community. So I look forward to those conversations. Good night, everybody.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. On Smoketree and Swanson, there's planning and zoning brought forth or passed for development. that includes a stoplight, and I know that that's not on the agenda tonight, but the traffic study that was required for that development was from 2018, and our traffic, the vehicles have changed, we have bigger cars, we have bigger trucks, we have e-bikes instead of mopeds, and the events that happen on McCulloch that often closes McCulloch Boulevard, which is right next to Swanson and Smoketree. I do not understand in my thought process how a traffic signal will be safer than what is currently there. I believe that you may need the crosswalk sign that is over on Acoma and Pima to be brought to that instead of a traffic signal. And I really thought about waiting until the item came up to you, but I think you could probably start looking into it now before that even comes up, because I think that's a really important issue, because it's based on old traffic study, maybe a small little one. And if you watch the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting from last week, they thought I was genius.

I would also like to address the City Council during Call of the Public.

Hi, Pam Swenson again. I'm up here tonight to talk about the public bathrooms at the Commons. When this development, this project was brought forth to all of us, we were led to believe that those bathrooms were for public use all the time. It has just now come to my attention that these bathrooms are locked. And the intent is that they will not be used except during events, which is 10, 20 times a year. I think that the residents of this community have been misled by this development when it was proposed, when the addition of the bathrooms was made, and why they're not. being used. What I've heard is the reason that city staff has determined to call this a gathering place rather than a park. And so because of their designation, they don't deem it necessary to have public restrooms there any longer. AND I FIND THAT THAT'S NOT APPROPRIATE FOR THIS LOCATION AND THAT IT WAS NOT WHAT WAS CURRENTLY WHAT WAS DISCUSSED AND APPROVED EARLIER. I LOOKED UP, YOU KNOW, WHAT GATHERING PLACE MEANS AND A SYNONYM FOR GATHERING PLACE IS A PARK. SO WHY THIS PARTICULAR LOCATION DOES NO LONGER HAVE PUBLIC RESTROOMS, I DON'T KNOW. I just find that it's confusing to me, and it's confusing probably to a lot of other people, why these restrooms are no longer open on a daily basis. And not being able to be used by the public, because that was what we were told that they were gonna be. And I don't understand why this designation was changed, and I think that we're owed an explanation for this. Thank you.

Would anyone else like to address the City Council during a call to the public? All right, seeing none, we'll close the call to the public. Item nine, our current events. Are there any council committee reports?

Mayor, just on the Chamber of Commerce, we have the upcoming candidate forum at the high school 530. Bonnie, am I correct? Is it 530 on the 17th? Yeah, I think so. And by the way, there'll be vendor tables for any of the candidates that you guys can set up outside if you want.

Thank you. Any other council committee reports? All right, item 10, future meetings. Our next meeting is Tuesday, June 23rd at 5.30 p.m. That's a regular meeting and also our final budget adoption. On Tuesday, July 14th at 2026 at 5.30 p.m., we'll have a regular meeting and also our property tax levy adoption. And then on Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 at 5.30 p.m., we'll have a regular meeting. Item 11, any future discussion items? Item 12, we are adjourned. Thank you for being here. Be kind and we'll see you next time.