City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the city of Maricopa's city council meeting. We're glad you're here because your voice matters. If you'd like to speak tonight, please start by filling out a speaker card at the council chambers entrance and turning it in to the city clerk before the meeting begins. On that card, you can let us know if you want to speak on a planned agenda item or during the general call to the public. Please keep in mind that all comments are limited to three minutes or less depending on the number of people requesting to speak. Personal attacks and political speeches or threats are inappropriate in this forum and will be grounds for ending a speaker's time at the podium at the discretion of the mayor. We also ask that audience members refrain from applauding or showing disapproval of comments shared by fellow community members as every person who addresses council has the right to speak and not be intimidated. It's important to note that due to Arizona's open meeting law, council members cannot respond or take action on topics not listed on the agenda, but your comments will be heard and entered into the public record. Can't stick around for the full meeting? You can always catch the replay on Facebook or YouTube where this meeting is currently being livereamed. Want more details about tonight's agenda items? Scan the QR code on your screen or visit www.mmaricopa-az.gov/aggenda. Thank you for joining us and getting involved. As a final reminder, please silence your cell phones and electronic devices. The city council meeting will begin shortly.

Hello and welcome to this evening's regular city council meeting dated April 7th, 2026. At this time, I will call the meeting to order. I would first like to invite up Pastor Doug Monday of Calvary Church of Maricopa for the invitation and then Council Member Noir, if you would give our pledge of allegiance, that would be great. Please rise if you're able. All right. So, I don't see Pastor Monday and so we'll just do a moment of silence if you will. Thank you very much to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Council Member Noir. All right, that will take us to the call to the public, please. Vanessa,

Council Member Ghetto, present. Council member No, Council Member Leman here. Council member Marsh here. Council member Wade here. Vice Mayor Man Freddy here. Mayor Smith here. Madame Mayor, we have a quorum. Thank you very much. That takes us to section 3.0 and we have two proclamations this evening. So, council, if you would like to join, you're welcome to, but I'll meet uh the audience down at the podium.

Everybody's going.

All right. So, our first one is for Earth Month. And I know that we have a representative from ED3 and we have a representative Brad Follet who would like to come forward and um for this proclamation reading. Hopefully we have someone from ED3. Oh yes, please come forward. Thank you very much. Whereas Earth Month was first celebrated on April 4th, 1970 to inspire an appreciation for our world's national resources through conservation and protection. And whereas the celebration during April marks an annual review of and commitment to the principles of that first Earth month. And whereas Earth Month marks a renewed commitment to environmental stewardship and the implementation of sustainability efforts. And whereas the city of Maricopa strives to promote sustainable practices and policies. Now therefore, I, Nancy Smith, mayor of the city of Maricopa, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as Earth Month in the city of Maricopa and encourage all residents to implement practices designed to preserve and protect our environment and shape the future of our environmental security, not just for one day, but every day. Thank you very much both of you. Can we get a picture?

Uh thank you, mayor, council members. Uh in reply to this, you know, we've been doing this for 56 years, but we're here locally, but doing work globally. In retrospect, we wanted to give something to the city, but also to the citizens of Maricopa. This is an environmental progress award. I know we're behind schedule, but this is for the city and for the citizens. Thank you very much, Brad. You're welcome. I appreciate that. Thank you.

All right. Our next one, I'd like to invite up our Relay for Life crew. You can see that several of us remembered to wear purple. Um I love celebrating Relay for Life and fighting cancer and so I love when this group comes forward. All right. Whereas the American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based volunteer voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy, and service. And whereas the lives of many of the citizens of the city of Maricopa have been affected by cancer and thus they have been drawn to support the continuing research that will find a cure for the disease. And whereas Relay for Life is a community event, a community uhwide event that generates support for families who have suffered the death of loved one because of cancer. And whereas the survivors walk during the Relay for Life event celebrates with those who are living with cancer or survivors of cancer and offers them hope for continued health. I'm sorry. Y'all know I'm a cancer survivor, so it touches me. Um whereas the luminaria ceremony honors the memory of loved ones who have died of cancer as well as those who are cancer survivors. Now therefore, I, Nancy Smith, mayor of the city of Maricopa, do hereby proclaim that the Relay for Life event held on April 11th, and may the citizens of Maricopa support this event with great enthusiasm so that a cure for cancer can be found.

Thank you so much. You can tell it's an emotional event. I have several up there up here crying. So, they joined me in this celebration of life and fight for cancer. Thank you. America.

Yes, I agree. All right, that'll take us to the report from the mayor and council. Council members, who would like to go first? Right here.

Okay, council member Marsh. It's been five weeks since our last council meeting. Um, first I want to congratulate Quinn Konold's team on their very successful 2026 Wild West Music Festival. They hit all the marks with the help of their vendor SLE. This event has become an important re regional event. I'm looking forward to the next Wild West Music Fest. On uh March 10th, uh I attended a Panel County Water Augmentation Authority board meeting. We're still concerned about the federal government's lack of support for Arizona getting its fair share of water from the Colorado River going forward. And I have an update on that. Governor Hobbs sent uh a communication to the Trump administration pointing out the strategic importance of Arizona in producing important military technology like tomahawk missiles. So if you want your missiles, don't leave Arizona out. I I hope that uh Governor Hobb's letter will change their opinions. Uh, also on 310, I had discussions with staff regarding ebikes, e- scooters, etc. I've seen young children on city streets and sidewalks going quite fast with no helmets, no protective gear, no tra no driver training, no I'm afraid they don't know the rules of the road and accident avoidance techniques. We need to protect these kids and educate them and their parents. If we do nothing, we are enabling these kids to become deadly projectiles in a battle they can't win against cars, trucks, and semis on our roads. Just picture a little kid on an escooter on the 347. Um on the 19th, uh I met with a company named Wing. uh

they propose to pilot their system of drone package delivery with our local Walmart that's coming soon on the 24th uh panel partnership govern government affairs meeting uh we discuss bills being pushed through the state legislature some of them are important to to uh Maricopa on the also on the 24th we had an intergovernmental meeting here in this building between uh our city or in the library uh between um our city council and the Octin tribal council on the 26th. Um, I was on the panel county board of adjustment in in Florence and several cases of approved varian variances went through and they're making small progress on updating the county zoning code, but um I urge the supervisors to uh give that priority. And the 27th through the 20 29th of course was the Wild West Music Fest. Um on April 6th uh the panel partnership water committee meeting uh the topic was water banking. That is when the cap has more water than they could use than their users can use. They can bank it in our aquifer and they're doing that occasionally. This morning uh at Global Water, the economic development team presented a technical presentation by global water on the history and development of Maricopa's water and wastewater systems with a tour of the wastewater processing system. It was good information. Well done. Thank you, Global. That's about it. Thanks.

Thank you very much, Council Member Marsh. Council member Wade. Thank you, Mayor. I just had just a couple of things. small things. One is uh I had an opportunity to present certificates of uh participation from uh from be awesome to the junior students in their program be awesomes. Uh it was a space camp that they had ironically it was done the same day that the rocket ship went off to Mar to the moon. So we got a chance to talk a little bit about that. But it was just it's great dealing with the young kids. One other thing I had one other thing I lost it but uh yeah just

Thank you very much council weight council ghetto.

Thank you madam mayor. Um I just like to report the week of March 16th was an important week for our city. Uh we had a delegation go to our uh our legislators and uh representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington DC where we are able to present over the course of about 11 different meetings. um the issues that are facing here in Maricopa. Um everything from 347 to to fuel blends to to our aquifer to the um the flood plane solution. Uh we we had a lot of great conversations with our federal or and some of our um inter let's see the tribal groups um conversations there. So, it was very very helpful to move a lot of these projects forward to help build these relationships that are very valuable in in helping our city accomplish the goals that we need to accomplish. Um, so I'd like to thank staff and their preparation for that and allowing us to to be a part of that and u having such a great opportunity to to represent Maricopa very well in on the federal side. Um, Madame Mayor, I believe that's all of the report I have for today. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Council Member GTH. Council member Wade has one additional item.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh I just wanted to mention the um Maricopa uh program of the deputants. Uh this is a program where young ladies and young men are taught to be young ladies and young men taught to be respectful and helpful for each other. Um it it was a seven-week program and different things happened over the seven-week program. They were learning, you know, how to conduct themselves, how to be gentlemen, how to be young ladies. uh they the talent port portion where they displayed uh talent uh for the group and they they had some really great uh great talent. I think the the best one was a four-year-old young lady that uh was a singer and dancer and she she actually won the whole program. And then u this weekend they had their coming out if you will. Young men and women dressed in white and black form wear. uh a very nice uh meal and they got a chance to uh do a walk together and it was very very uh appealing to see these young men and young women conducting themselves in such a way and I didn't want to miss that. So thank you madam appreciate it.

Thank you council member Wade. Council member no

thank you mayor. As uh council member Mar said a lot has happened since our last meeting which was um five weeks ago. That's why my list is so long. I was trying to figure that out. Uh I was able to read to the students at Santa Rosa school right after our last council meeting and uh for read across America week and that was quite a delight. When I walked into the second grade class, they were in the middle of taking their first spelling test in cursive. So, I know you know rumors are always abound that kids aren't learning cursive anymore, but they are in fact learning cursive in Santa Rosa school and they were taking a spelling test in cursive and I can tell you that their cursive was better than most adults cursive. So, um I was truly impressed uh with their cursive skills. Um, I was also able to attend a tour of the uh new Alma Ferrell Innovation Academy uh with the MUSD bond Oversight Committee. And that school is going to be phenomenal and I'm really excited for all of the new students who are going to attend that school this coming July. Uh they've got a lot of great programming. It's really focused on careers and helping kids determine what career path they want to go on. on and there's going to be a lot of hands-on opportunities for them and a lot of opportunities to work together and so it's really exciting. It's going to be one of a kind um K8 right here in Maricopa. It's really innovative and I'm excited for everyone to be able to see that. I think they're planning on doing a ribbon cutting in May. Um but I encourage everyone to check that out because it it really is innovative and part of the bond that the community passed for our students. I was also able to attend the Boys and Girls Club Dancing for Our Stars event, um, which I've been to for several years now, but it's always a great event. Uh, there was a lot of, uh, phenomenal community

members from Maricopa that danced in support of that event to raise funds. Uh, Mandy's from Mandy's Wine Bar did phenomenal. I think she was in the top three. Uh, you had Angel Raymond. Um, and then of course I'd be remiss to mention uh Richard Jackson from Maricopa Fire who actually won the event. And if you know Richard, yes, he won the dancing competition. So when you see him, let him know that um now you know we know he has dancing skills. Um but it was it was really great. his team raised, I think, $28,000 for the Boys and Girls Club, which is really fantastic and a really important program here for our community. And I encourage you to attend that event next year. It's really fun watching our community members dance uh for these kids. And then I was able to attend uh Add's Miracle Foundation Light the Night event and that was an event to talk about pedestrian safety and uh traumatic brain injury as a result of folks who are involved in uh pedestrian vehicular um accidents and it was really informative and it was a really great opportunity to bring people together and to talk about that issue especially in light of what we've been discussing here as a council and just to get more insight into that. I've also had a lot of people reach out um when I solicited feedback on uh pedestrian and bike safety and I really appreciate all of your comments. I have compiled all of the comments whether they were on social media or to the to my email and put those together and gave those to Chief as Chief Goodman is also soliciting comments. And so we're kind of uh coalesing all of our comments together to get a feel for what the community uh you know how the community feels about that issue. But it's definitely something that we have to address and I appreciate everyone. I was also able to meet with one of our local residents about bike safety and uh he had a lot of great information. He had a

PowerPoint presentation for me that he put together. It was phenomenal and he has biked over 2500 miles a year in Maricopa. So this guy's an expert. He really is. I truly believe he's an expert in um you know our sidewalks and our streets and pedestrian and bike safety. And so it was really great to get his input and chief I'm going to share that with you too. I have that PowerPoint. Um but again anybody else please continue to reach out to any one of us and chief is collecting those as well. Uh the Octin joint meeting I thought was a really great opportunity to meet with our neighbors uh the Ochin community. They gave us this fantastic presentation about what they have going on and it's really exciting. They have a lot going on. They are doing an extensive renovation of Southern Dunes and I'm really excited for when that's completed. They're going to have uh quite an event center for weddings and different types of uh gettogethers and they're redoing the restaurant and so I'm really looking forward to uh that opening. But um it was great to hear that and all of the other things that Auction has going on. Uh this week is Arizona Tech Week uh as part of the Arizona Commerce Authority and City of Maricopa hosted a presentation on power And that was on Monday morning and I attended that and it was really great to hear from the major power companies here in Arizona and ED3 about uh you know power and what it means the future needs for power what the plans are to make sure we're meeting the demand um you know obviously there was talk about data centers and what that means and it was really great to hear from all of the power companies SRP APS and ED3 about how they are analyzing any potential data centers and how they are all very much aware of making sure that if a data center is coming to them for power that they want to make sure that whatever the data center needs are, it's not going to

impact the residential and commercial users of power and that um the residential users are not going to bear the burden of the costs and the infrastructure for the data centers. and they've all really changed their policies and updated their policies to make sure that residents are protected. And so it was really great to have that information. And then um forward thinking, we have a budget meeting on Thursday, April 23rd here in these council chambers. Um which will be great. So if you can make it, it's at 400 pm. And then I see Judith in the back. I think she'll probably talk about the Maricopa Arts Council town hall and the call to the public, but I did have that in my notes, Judith. Um, and so that'll be after the budget meeting on the 23rd. So, you can just go from here on to there. It's what I'm going to do. It's a great plan. And then finally, uh, the Be Awesome Youth Organization is holding a Kentucky tea party fundraiser on April 25th, which sounds like a lot of fun. So, I encourage everyone to attend that. And that's all I have.

Council Mayor Larman. Thank you, mayor. I wanted to thank our city staff and our committee members for a collaborative effort in coming up with having these business hard cards created um bringing awareness to our committees. And so, it's one business card with a QR code that takes you to our city page that highlights our committees. So, if you're interested in more information about them, what they do, responsibilities, duties, or applying to serve on a committee, um there's cards in the back on your way out. you can grab one um and use this QR code. I did want to just remind everyone um it's getting hotter outside and the library serves as our cooling center. Um so if anyone is in need of air conditioning, water, please feel free to um go to our library and receive cooling center services. Um, I also want to thank the police chief for hosting a bike rodeo on April 24th coming up um from 5 to 7 pm at the library and I will be in attendance. I will be very excited to see our young people um learning bike safety and the appropriate ways to ride their bikes. Um I want to thank our city um in partnership with in Maricopa um for this amazing event section in their magazine. I was looking over at this weekend and it's pretty comprehensive from toddlers to seniors, all different types of events almost every day of the month. Um, and I noticed, for example, there's an inaugural movie in the park, um, which is on April 25th, um, at 7 p.m. And so there's just tons of different activities going on. And so I just wanted to highlight that and thank our city for bringing awareness to all of these events. Um, I got to attend the Aridland Land Agricultural Research Center um at the A

UFA A Center on March 18th. They're such a pride point for our community. They have a beautiful campus, a lot of science happening over there. And so I got to hear some scientists do some presentations um about the best grass, the best way to water um water efficiency and it's really amazing to have that in our city. They do national and international collaboration um and so there's just a lot of good work going on over there. Um, I happened to be at the community center for birthday bingo this last week and I want to It was a lot of fun and it was a packed house. Um, they were celebrating all the April birthdays and I want to thank Brenda Campbell for doing a great job over there with her leadership. Um, and I happened to run into a gentleman named Sean Hamilton with the Hospice of the West. And I I literally wrote down notes when he was talking to me because um some of the comments that he made, he travels all around to senior centers. He does programming and presentations. So he is very familiar with all of the senior centers in our region. And these are some of the comments that he made. Maricopa Senior Center has the best energy of all senior centers in our region. They have the highest attendance in their events and they have the nicest facility of anywhere in our region. And um Brenda told me that our last lunch and learn had 90 participants and I was like what? They are packing that place out. They have amazing events there, all different varieties. And so I'm just really proud of how our city is serving our seniors. Would you guys um join me in just giving a hand to Brenda and our staff at the senior center?

And did I mention that it's all free? You know, so the senior's open senior center is open Monday through Friday with amazing programming and it's all free for our community members. Um I was able to attend this morning at Global Water um a really amazing presentation about water conservation and uh one of the things that caught my attention is that our community members are doing amazing an amazing job about conserving water. Um they were reviewing some records of how many people participate in water conservation and how much water our community members are saving by um buying appropriate um appliances that conserve energy and water and also by changing landscaping um and saving water with irrigation. And so our community members are being proactive and mindful about their water use. Um, and we are I don't know how they collect all this data, but the city of Maricopa stands out um regionally in the amount of water that we as a community center, not global water, and they are doing a great job, but specifically our participants in their program are doing an amazing job of saving water. So, I was really impressed by that. And Global Water offers a rebate program and an incentive program for people to do that. And they they were just really surprised how many people qualified for both of those programs. I attended Paws and Claus on April 4th at Pakana Park and it was a huge success. I can't remember if they had 70 vendors or 90 vendors. It was one of the two, but there were a ton of amazing vendors there. There were turtles and snakes and puppies and all kinds of critters that you don't normally see. Um, and that was a lot of

fun and it was just a beautiful day. So, I commend our chamber for putting on an amazing event for families to come out and just have a great day. Um, I also want to thank our staff for all of their hard work on Wild West Musicfest. That is an amazing event to put together and it ran really smoothly. And so I just want to thank our staff for all of their efforts. And I believe um our firefighter who won danced to the song I love big trucks and I cannot lie. Is that true?

Chief is saying yes that's true. So I thought that was maybe one of the reasons why he won was he picked a really great song. And then lastly I just wanted to also echo council member Wade. I was able to attend the debutant ball. It's a black tie event. It's for our youth um and their families. It's so beautiful to have young men and women walk into a room. The men all these are young men by the way, high school students all pulled out the chairs for the young ladies. All the young ladies sat down. Just a lot of chivalry in the room. And what I think hit me the most was the fatherdaughter dance. All the dads were asked to come up and all the ladies were in white ball gowns. Um and so just to see the dads um dance with their daughters on just a really beautiful evening celebrating our young people and their individuality and all of their creative strengths. So thank you so much mayor for the time.

Yes, Council Member Lurman. Thank you. Vice Mayor Manf Freddy

being the vice mayor doesn't have the privilege of saying everything. Um when everybody was talking I'm like well check that off. check that out. Check because we, you know, attend a lot of the same stuff. Um, one of the first things, uh, to go over is, uh, let's see, uh, central Arizona governments, we had a regional meeting that came in and we talked a little bit about transportation and transportation funding as well as um, what's happening at the state level regarding transportation funding. So, it was a good meeting. Um, I got a really great um, opportunity to meet some really cool people. Um, Rene Renee Chavez opened up his new State Farm office here in the city of Maricopa. And somebody asked me, they said, "How many how many insurance agencies do we need?" And my answer was simple. As many as they're going to hire people. And I think he has four or five full-time employees from the city of Maricopa now working at his office right there over by Walmart that were previously driving up to 347 and going somewhere else. So, I love that. Um, any job in the city of Maricopa is a great job for the city of Maricopa. We all attended um, I don't know if everybody, but we attended the Wild West Music Fest. I had a great time. Um, the greatest part of it was seeing Quinn almost fly away while holding down a tent. That was fun. That was Sunday evening. I think James was holding one down with us. And it was a lot of us just holding tents as the as the wind came in. It was nuts. But that ended the Wild West Music Fest just as his song was ending. So, it was pretty cool. Um, but it was a memorable ending and it was a memorable beginning. I think all I saw was people having fun and having a good time. I think family night on Friday was a success only because it was packed with people um and they had a great time at it. So, I loved it. Our staff does a great job um making sure that people get there and have a good time. I just um had a meeting earlier today for regional

transportation um for RTC and um we talked a lot about her funding and how the old days of her funding sweeps might be coming back sometime in the near future and something that we don't ever want to see. But we um we submitted a letter to the governor as well as the leaders of the house and the senate to say hey hands off and hurf is our our highway user revenue funds. It's the money that comes from gas tax, right? So that's the where you get gas tax money and it's spent within the communities. It's split up, right? And in the past, there was a time where they just kept sweeping that money away and using it for state funding issues, um shortfalls, and the the cities weren't getting the money, which meant that a lot of the maintenance was deferred within cities and counties. So, we got to make sure that our HERF money still continues to come to the cities and counties and that we can take care of our roads because if we don't do that, then we wind up with broken roads that have to be totally replaced instead of repaired over time. So, anyway, look up HERF and send a letter to your um representatives and say leave her funding alone even if you weren't planning to take it just to get it in their mind. Um, and then we had a cool meeting that I talked to folks at A DOT as well as the governor's office and it was an AOT listening tour and it's something that we're going to be doing uh the A DOT's doing and they're going around and talking to city leaders and talking about what's important within your community. So, we're planning something coming up in the next few months where maybe we'll have a town hall style for the entire city to come and talk about transportation and then we'll bring that information to A DOT in a listening tour where they come down and they sit and they just that's what it is, listen. They listen to what's important to us and having them come to our community is always a good thing. Um, funny story. Um um Council Member Lyman mentioned the Ridesafe Maricopa

and it's um maricopa-az.gov ridesafe. I was talking to somebody on Sunday at the um farmers market two three weeks ago two weeks ago and we were chatting about bike safety and you know it's a big thing now because it's story is written about it. We've had a council meeting about it. So, everybody's starting to talk about bike safety. And she says, "You know, where I come from, they have a bike rodeo." And I'm like, "I'll talk to the chief about it. Before I can talk to the chief about it, a bike rodeo came out." And they were talking about a bike rodeo. And this young lady, she posted a thing online saying, "Council or vice mayor Freddy, he's so fast. HE GETS EVERYTHING DONE." And I had to go on there and be like, "No, I haven't even talked to him yet." That was all planned in advance. I had nothing to do with it. But the cool part is it's coming up on the 24th, but right now up until the 17th, you can submit if you have a kids and kids can do um they can submit a poster. There's a poster concert uh contest going on. Ride safe Maricopa poster contest. Um what does Riding Safe mean to you? And you the kids can draw a poster. I It doesn't say kids. I guess anybody could draw a poster and bring it in, drop it off to MPD andor email it to MPD traffic.gov. It's on their Facebook page. So, go to the Maropa Police Department's Facebook page. Create a poster. Um, I know that we have very a lot of artistic folks in this community as well as sitting here. So, that's a good thing if you can do that. And I noticed something while I was sitting here and it's not many communities that have this. We have an election coming up and I'm not saying vote. I'm not saying any of that. What I'm saying is all seven candidates that want to serve you on city council are sitting here in this audience or up on this dis. That is a great thing to have everybody involved in showing up. But

not only that, in our c in our um uh audience today, I see two former vice mayors, a two former council members. they're just here because they are involved in our community still. This community is probably one of the most involved communities I've ever lived in and I'm proud of it for that. So, thank you everybody for being here and I'm done.

That's a great observation. I appreciate you saying that. So, you can tell that all of us have our own passions and then we all attend a lot of things together. There's a lot going on. And I read so often on Facebook that there's nothing to do in the city of Maricopa. I'm telling you, if you can't find something to do, call me, call one of us. We'll hook you up with something to do in the city of Maricopa. So, just as an example, I attended the Black Maricopa Chamber of Commerce gospel and jazz concerts held two nights in a row. And I'm telling you, it was fabulous. And actually on Sunday, too, it was fabulous. It actually rejuvenated me because it was such great music. A lot of the music was from uh artists that were outside of the community, but a lot were from inside the community in several of our churches as well. Uh just a total blessing. So, next year when that comes around, really consider that because I think you'll feel very refreshed and uplifted. I also attended the concert at the Mike Ingram Heritage Park. What a beautiful night. And I'm telling you that new location for having concerts in the park, as Council Member Lurman mentioned, a movie in the park. Come out and take advantage of it. It is a great opportunity to connect the community to come and listen to great things, watch great movies, and just be a part of the community. It's so important, and that's actually what makes the city of Maricopa, the city of Maricopa, so special. So, please consider taking advantage of some of these things. So, um, Council Member Ghetto mentioned the DC trip, and I want to tell you that Council Member Getth and Council Member Wade were troopers along with our innergov, Katie. Um, they went to 10 or 11 uh, meetings in a 10-hour period, and Katie sent me a picture of after their

last meeting, walking out of the Capitol when no one else is around, and they stayed until six o'clock at night in order to get all of these meetings done. I wanted to have that picture up here because it's a fabulous picture of them walking out and you can kind of like be like, "Oh my gosh." You could tell they just wanted to go back to the hotel. But I am so proud of them. They actually talked about things like 347 sharing the good news and all of our representatives in um DC were happy to hear that. We talked about self-administration of projects. when we submit for funds for a project, we want to as the city of Maricopa be able to self-administrate that because you can get more done for the money that they give you. They're really interested in that prospect. Um, we talked about fuel blends. If you understand the city of Maricopa is actually in a district within the met Phoenix metropolitan area that requires fuel blends during the summer, which are more expensive. and we talked to them about coming up with different options that makes that more economical for our residents here. That's why you see the difference between Kessagrand and the city of Maricopa. Kasag Grand is not in that district and so that's the difference if you've ever wondered why. Great conversation there as well. And then we also talked to them about appropriations for a hazmat vehicle for our city of Maricopa. and that has met vehicle will be really important to us but not only to the city of Maroba but to the region as well and they seemed very excited about that aspect. So great meeting. Thank you both for all that you did and thank you Katie as well. So I also attended the wings and Walmart drone delivery presentation. Oh my gosh. Huh. Yeah, that was so exciting to hear what this company named Wing is doing in partnership with Walmart. And if they

decide to go forward in the Maricopa in Mar in uh the Walmart in Maricopa, it'll be the first in the state of Arizona. It's pretty exciting and pretty fun. I might have to ask for permission to put that video out there because Yeah, the videos live on their YouTube.

Oh, perfect. I'm going to put the video out there. So if you're interested, take a look at that. Pretty phenomenal. Love the council to councsil meeting with Akchin. There was great collaboration. A lot have already spoken of that. Um I also attended the greater Maricopa business association panel discussion on economic development along with supervisor Vidiello and our legislators. a great opportunity to talk about what the city, what the county can do, what our legislators can do to make doing business in the city of Maricopa or in Arizona in general a lot easier. So, it was a great conversation. I thank them for that opportunity. Wild West Musicfest, I think the best ever. And let me tell you, I'm I don't even understand rap music, but I just enjoyed watching our community have fun and have a great time. and it was packed. I just love that aspect of it because, you know, country is not for everybody. Um, every genre is not for everybody, but I just, even though I don't even understand a word they're saying, I just enjoyed watching our community enjoy it. Um, the Heritage Academy Auditorium ribbon cutting. So, if you're not familiar with this, what a phenomenal new asset to our community. So, if you ever have anything that you're interested in in regards to performing, I'm thinking of having our state of the city there next year. I haven't asked them for permission yet, but it is such a new phenomenal um facility in the city of Maricopa. That's the heritage academy. And let me tell you what talent they had. They did some performances for us. Amazing talent in those kids. I also attended the Carefree RV storage ribbon cutting on Australia Parkway. If you have an RV and you're interested in a wonderful location, they offer so many wonderful amenities. But one of the things I took away was the owner was talking about how wonderful it is to do

business in the city of Maricopa. They are a small company as well and they um were excited about the fact that the city of Maricopa met all of their needs in terms of question after question. They were telling us that they had we need another meeting. We're not sure we understand this. and the city of Maricopa met all of their needs, helped them through the permitting process and just talked delightfully about some of our staff. And so I thank our staff for doing such a phenomenal job with that. Um, but again, if you have an RV and you want a place locally to put it, that's really a fun place. Um, Arizona Tech Week, as Council Member No spoke of, was a wonderful opportunity to talk about power and water. And so I thank very much Josh and Christian and the economic team for putting that together. It was really fun to have people from different perspectives talking and then also people from different parts of the state and even outside of the state to attend and talk about power. It's quite a challenging topic if you haven't figured that out as is water. And then I want to remind you Relay for Life event this Saturday. I believe it starts at 2 o'clock at Desert Sunrise, Desert Sunrise High School and go and just check out what they have going on. You know, it's a great opportunity again for community. I'm just going to be emphasizing community, community, community because it's such an important vital part for keeping our community s so lovable and friendly. And then lastly, I want to thank our staff. They put this article in the in Maricopa article in a magazine, the latest one. And this is all about key steps in the budget process. So if you feel like you don't understand how it works, things aren't transparent, you don't understand how to get involved, go to this version of the inmopa magazine and come to this page and tear it out like I did. And it'll

give you all of the information that you need. It even has one of these QR codes that takes you directly to the budgeting page. Thank you for doing this. I think it's a great piece of information. And that's it. All right. I was told up here I need to give three minute time limits to everybody, but I haven't incorporated that yet. Yeah. Put the time couns uh city manager, it's your turn.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Um quick report tonight. I've got it set up in a way that we can hit each of our strategic priorities as things that we've done in the last few weeks. Um, it won't be like this every time, but I thought it was kind of a a cool way to structure it today. So, with that, we'll go to the first one. Our first strategic priority is transportation. And to give a quick update on State Route 347, we are holding monthly project meetings with ADOT and the ADOT project team. uh still continuing through the final design processes, but I think the cool thing is that we're going to start seeing work on this project in June. Uh at the May state transportation board meeting, they anticipate approving the contract for the first phase. That first phase will be resurfacing. So really um trying to make the roadway a little smoother uh than it is today. And that will prepare it for the widening. And so we'll actually see some of that work taking place that will prepare us for the actual widening. But this is the first start of that project and so expect to see that in June. So again, uh on this slide we have the new project logo. So we'll begin to see that in in more locations and then a reference to the project website at a doot.govsr347. So a recommendation certainly to to go visit that site for further updates. On the next slide, we have our second strategic focus area, which many of you have discussed, uh, job creation and business development. There's nothing better than when we can bring people, uh, to our community and show them the great assets that we have. Certainly, that's with our partners at Global Water, ED3, uh, and and all of our uh, many utilities and and infrastructure that we have uh, going and and expanding and improving every day, but also uh, just how beautiful our community is. I had the opportunity to host the city management board from the state of Arizona here in Maricopa a couple weeks ago as well and almost to the person

they commented how beautiful and clean city of Maricopa is. And so it's just a neat thing to hear people from Paradise Valley or from Phoenix or Tucson or Yuma or what have you um all mention how how beautiful and and a special community we have. And certainly we get to show that off when we get to bring people into our community and and talk about all the great opportunities for future job development. And uh it's just a great opportunity. So um I won't spend any more time on Tech Week, but it's been a great opportunity for us to to talk with with many great people and get them interested and increase the visibility of Maricopa within the state. Our third strategic priority is intentional growth. So I'll start here. I I used this slide last month I believe as well. So just to provide an update here a little bit in terms of where we are on permits for new residential units. Uh to date we have about 372 uh I think we might have gotten seven single family homes today. So we might be up to 379 or so. Uh but that's about a,000 or 1100 uh new residents once those units are built and become occupied. So, just for for context of of you know, sometimes we say, "Oh, we're in a real housing shortage and we're not building. We're still building. It may have slowed down a little bit from where we were in the past, but certainly still seeing some some growth." And with our next slide, you'll also see that it's not just residential growth and and we see this around the community as well. If we can go to the next slide, uh we also see a lot of commercial growth. And so right now you see on the left this is Buffalo Wild Wings in the Stonegate area. On the top part is a picture of the Starbucks that is being built over by Home Depot. Also in that Stonegate area just to the west of that Starbucks will be some burrows and that's starting as well. Uh and then on the bottom picture there you see uh the area at Southbridge which is Aldi and Einstein Brothers Bagel and Panera Bread and and some of those great uh local shops as

well. And so really excited to see not just residential growth, but that commercial growth that will bring sales tax dollars that will help keep people here um and spending their dollars here as well. So great growth there. Focus area number four is uh quality of life. And one of those great projects that we're continuing forward on is the fieldhouse at Copper Sky. As you can see from this drone picture, uh all of the metal sides are up now. the roof on the inside or the ceiling on the inside is nearing completion and we're getting closer and closer. So, looking for a late fall or sorry, a late summer, early fall completion date for that. And as we we get closer, we'll begin to to get some of those dates together to have a community celebration when that happens. So, looking forward to to bringing that asset online as well. Our fifth focus area is uh becoming a destination city. As many of you have mentioned already, Wild West Musicfest brought a tremendous amount of people to our community. We'll have reports on that in in coming weeks or months. But, uh, it also is an opportunity to, um, allow our small businesses to shine. Both the vendors as well as those that are here in the community at large that may not have been able to participate at the Wild West Musicfest. When we bring people to our community, they bring their dollars and they spend them at our our local businesses as well. And so, uh, great opportunity to infuse dollars within our economy and and have a greater reach even beyond the festival itself. And then finally, as as we'll hear in in just a few minutes, um, public safety is is a hallmark of our community and as one of Arizona's safest cities, we want to keep focusing on that. and uh Chief Goodman will give the annual report today that really talks about how some of the strategic investments that we have made into the police department have really produced some cool results. And so I won't harp too much on that today, but uh I'll let I'll let Chief

take take the credit for all the great work he and the officers are doing there. So that's all I have tonight. Happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you very much. Uh, city manager bidder, I would add to the 347 conversation how I'm excited that it's starting in June just because, but also because school is out, so the traffic is somewhat reduced on 347. It gives us an opportunity to understand how construction's going to work. They're going to try and keep two lanes open at all times. And so, it gives us a little bit of practice before school goes back into session um three months later. And so I'm excited that they're starting in June. I think that's really important. Council, any additional comments, questions. All right, that'll take us to the call to the public at this point. I do have six maybe seven cards. I need to ask Ron six. Oh, I I didn't even think about that. Um, I do need to ask Ron and Jerami. Don, I think you need to talk or would like to talk during the public hearing for the reason. You want to talk during the call to the public and not during the public hearing. Okay, perfect. Then I have seven cards. All right, we will start with Bill Griffin. Please approach the podium. You have three minutes.

You never said push buttons. They just said, "Come up and talk." I'm sorry. Thank you very much. 19 years ago, my wife, my family moved here. We've watched the city grow. We've always been a part of of something as it was going along. Um, in 2024, I was unanimously appointed by the board of supervisors as the constable for the Western Panal County Justice Court. So, I do a bulk of my work here in the city. Um, I want to thank the chief of police and the members of the police department for their support and the things that I've faced. Uh, it's been exciting. I spent 25 years in law enforcement, retired, moved here, went to work for the Department of Homeland Security, uh, retired again, worked for the school district for a while, retired again. So, it's just been a one retirement after another for me, but it's been enjoyable. Uh, I've met a couple of you. We've talked about some of the things that the constable does. I'm grateful for in Maricopa. I've sent two letters in, and they've come out the past two months explaining what the constable is, what he does. Some people see me in my uniform and they think I'm either with the sheriff's department or the dog catcher, but they're not sure which. Uh, so it's been a pleasure. It's a pleasure serving. I want to keep on serving. Uh, yes, it is election time and I up for I'm up for election. So, thank you very much for all that you've done.

Thank you very much. Any questions? I'm ready. No, we're not able to do that. Sorry. Thank you very much. All right. Our next person will be Tyler Shoot. Please come forward and you will have three minutes. Hello.

Hey, good evening. Uh my name is Tyler Shoot. I represent uh the FourStar Group Incorporated and the Moonlight Community. Um one of Maricopa's newest master plan and uniquely themed uh communities. Uh situated on the west side of town just east of uh Southern Dunes. Um, I'm excited to share uh we'll be hosting a grand opening event um in collaboration with our uh uh Moonlight Homebuilders as well. Uh this celebration marks the completion of Moonlight's brand new amenity center, otherwise known as uh Twilight Park. The public is welcome to attend and explore Moonlight's celestial themed amenities including a pool, pickle ball courts, volleyball courts, ramada, fireplace, walking trails, flex fields, open space, and many other features. That said, it's my pleasure to extend a friendly invitation to the council and city staff and the Maricopa community. Join us for an event-filled day featuring complimentary food, a DJ, model home tours, and a special gift for the first 50 guests. This celebration will take place on Thursday, April 16th, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at Moonlights Twilight Park, and that's located at 46770 West Eagle's Landing Place in Maricopa. And then for more additional information, um, event details can be found at our website, moonlight-az.com. Additionally, uh, flyers are available outside of, uh, council chambers for anybody that's interested. I appreciate the time and we look forward to welcoming you to this exciting community event. Appreciate it.

Thank you. All right, our next speaker card is Judith Zamont. Judith Good evening. Good evening.

Excellent. Um, I'm here tonight as one of four co-directors of Maricopa Arts Council to announce two upcoming arts events. But before I do that, I want to ex express special and very true appreciation to the officials of the city of Maricopa for responding to an emergency that arose last week with um one particular arts event and turning turning pages and being inventive to the greatest extent to really make another arts event come true. This is meaningful to the vast well of creative talent that lives in our city. We have accomplished writers, actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists, architects, people who are creative in every realm including teachers and um the more advanced students. So there needs to be an outlet for this um work of the soul to come forward because it is part and parcel of defining the city of Maricopa. I thank the mayor, the city officials. I thank Quinn Connold and especially Brenda Campbell who have all been instrumental in solving a major artistic crisis. My two events are coming up in April. They are both free. They are open to the public and they are events that are of longstanding. The first is on April 23rd, Maricopa Arts Council's Artist Town Hall. This is an event that happens once per year. This will be the 15th time it's happened. Um, it began in 2013 and it is a time for the artist community to come together, express their suggestions, their ideas, their

complaints, their strategies for something new in the arts in the city and to make their mark. It's a chance for them, every one of them, to stand up, speak aloud, and come and add their ideas to the big idea pad, which is now in its third edition. Almost everything that's in those pads has in fact been realized in the city of Maricopa. Over the years, I it this will take place at the library in the afterwork hours on April 23rd, 5:30 to 7 o'clock. It is free and it is really for the city's creative community to come together and connect. The next night, April 24th from 7 to 900 p.m. at the community center will be the grand opening of the fifth abstract art gallery in the city of Maricopa. This gallery has changed its location over time. Um, it is temporarily coming to rest at the community center and we say thank you. Everybody is invited. We will give out three cash prizes to the winners of the worldwide contest going on right now to vote for the three winners. Our first art abstract art in 2022 um had 874 votes that came in from 11 different countries around the world. Only artwork by Maricopa artists is allowed to be in this contest. Maricopa is making it smart through the arts. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Our next speaker is Tina Dugan.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. I'm here tonight to give a shout out to two staff members, Derek Shear and Wes Moss. We had a lighting issue in Glenn Wild Homeowners Association and they were instrumental in us being able to solve it. They came up with ideas, suggestions and helped to give us a resolution to the problem and working with Ron uh we believe the resolution has been reached and everything has been taken care of. But we truly appreciate them taking the time to help us with our issue. Thank you.

Thank you very much Tina and Judith. I just really appreciate you when you bring these wonderful pieces of information and feedback. I I appreciate that so much. We take all feedback, but I really appreciate when it's positive feedback. Thank you. All right, our next speaker is Peg Chapidos. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Professional Firefighters of Maricopa, IIAFF Local 4561 and the Maricopa Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 78. I'm here to announce a first ever in Maricopa. We are doing a candidate forum that is public safety focused. Wednesday, May 6th at Leading Edge Academy, the questions will start at seven, but the doors will open at 6:30. We have invited all seven candidates to participate and we've given them time to have a table of information. So come and meet them, talk to them and then also hear the questions which will be posed by the various unions. If we have time, we're also going to be accepting questions from the floor. Um, we're going to be talking about things that are public safety focused, emergency response, city growth and future planning as it affects public safety, staffing, equipment, and training and resources available, especially mental health, physical health, well-being, that kind of thing. Budget priorities as it affects our departments of public safety. Um, we're also going to give each of the candidates a time for an opening statement. Right now, we're thinking of dividing the two groups. So, the three incumbents would have their shot. the four newbies would have their shots separately, but it should be an interesting evening to talk about things that matter most to our quality of life here because as we continue to grow, we're seeing a definite increase in call

for services. There's an annexation factor that's coming into play here. City is going to be changing. We're also going to be getting our own ambulance service, which is going to be a gamecher here. So, we're inviting the public to attend. Again, this is Wednesday, May 6th, 7 PM. Doors open at 6:30 at Leading Edge Academy on Porter Road, right next to PCO Park. We hope to see you all there and thank you for the time.

Thank you, Peg. And I encourage people to take advantage of this. Um, especially I love that you've split out a topic because these things get so crazy in terms of how many questions, how many topics can you cover. So, the fact that you break it out into a topic such so important as public safety is wonderful. All right, our next speaker is Ron Anerami. Thank you, mayor and city council members for the opportunity to speak today. I respectfully ask that you reject the resoning request for Sunrise Ranch, the 12.9 12.94 acres coming going from medium density to high density. There's a growing concern among Maricopa residents that our city is experiencing an overbuild in high density housing. While these may not be apartments, they are still highdensity homes and an overall impact on our community remains the same. It is also unclear what's driving the need for the resoning at this time. Current market conditions do not indicate a shortage. There are no meaningful waiting lists for rentals and the housing market is experiencing longer selling times and price concessions. In the document I provided, according to the city of Maricopa's website, there are already 8,850 homes in the construction pipeline. At the allowable density of 24 homes per acre, this resoning would add approximately 310 additional highdensity homes. from the city of Maricopa 2025 housing needs assessment update and I quote multif family housing to support police, fire, teachers, nurses and other critical services service providers in Maricopa. Absolutely. We totally need this. Okay. Is 100 100 police officers,

75 firefighters and 500 teachers. That's a total of 700 units. also from the housing needs assessment and I quote an estimated there's an estimated 2,144 units are considered vacant or 8.4% of total inventory. Additionally, this report states the city of Maricopa has also identified several multif family rental communities currently under construction totaling 2,637 units. There are an additional five more uh apartment community's plan and approved that have not started started construction yet totaling 863 units. Further from this report, according to CoStar, the stabilized vacancy rate currently stands at 15.4% and overall vacant vacancy, excuse me, is 27.9%. I'll say that again, 27.9. Taken together, this data does not indicate a short-term need for additional highdensity housing. I respectfully suggest the city develop a clear datadriven plan outlining how many highdensity homes are actually needed over the next 5 to 10 years. Currently, even in the draft general plan, there are no specific metrics defining the optimal risk of housing types. For these reasons, I respectfully ask that you reject the reasoning request at this time. If approved, it is easy to foresee a future where residents ask why, and the response will be, there is nothing we can do. It's private property. They've complied with the zoning code.

Thank you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. All right. And our last speaker card is Tori Anderson. Mayor Smith and Council, I have some amazing news for you today. You can get your dirty boots out of the closet, throw on your favorite pair of blue jeans that are soft and comfy, and join me on June 27th at 6 PM at Duke's Roadhouse. And this will be our first annual Dirty Boots and Dollars fundraiser. Where is the money going, you ask? Well, I will tell you. I am here on behalf of the Open Arms Vocational Living Center board of directors. What this foundation and this nonprofit does, we are a 501c3, so all of the money is obviously taxdeductible, but the money goes to help our aged out young men who are aging out of foster care. We've had several this year that are seniors and they aged out of foster care and uh families said bye-bye. They're still trying to commit, trying to get done with high school. So, we've scrambled. We've helped those young men out, but it is time for us to build our own facility. Um, as you know, I'm already with Against Abuse, which serves our young women. We do have several young women in our shelter here that are still in high school. So, this is an important um dear to my heart opportunity for us to come together. It is going to be at Duke's Roadhouse again on June 27th. We have sponsorships available at $500 and $1,000 which do come with tickets. Tickets are available at $100 per person. You can go to our um Open Arms Vocational Living Center Facebook page, click the QR code, and purchase your tickets. We only have a hundred

available. It is going to be a very small group for this first event so that we can find out what works and what doesn't work and make it even better next year. So, I hope that you will join me with your dirty boots so you can get your red ones out. Anamarie, uh your favorite soft blue jeans. Come out. Uh Roadhouse is going to uh wrangle up some cowboy grub for us. We're going to have raffles. If you would like to donate a raffle item to our raffles, please text me or email me at to o r i l andersongmail.com. Um, so I just hope that you will be there with us and uh start this inaugural event that is going to benefit our young men here in the city of Maricopa. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, that is the end of my speaker cards. Would anyone from the audience like to approach the podium? Yes, please.

Good evening. My name is Julia Gussy. I'm a retiree here in the city of Maricopa. I come here as a former council woman and I just had a statement that I'd like to present to you all. As the individual who originally initiated the naming of Cesar Chavez Lane in the Heritage District, I felt a responsibility to comment. In light of the serious and ongoing allegations, we must ask ourselves whether this name still reflects the values of our community. I have always been an advocate an advocate for women and I have stood firm in believing survivors even when it was difficult and close to home within our own city of Maricopa city council for over 15 years. I have also advocated for female veterans particularly around issues of military sexual trauma. I understand how difficult these cases can prove can be proven to be and that is why it is so important that these women and are heard and believed. To ignore these concerns now would be hypocritical. This is not only about erasing um our history. It's about ensuring the names we honor represent who we are today. Our public spaces should reflect the values of our community and uplift those who embody them. As part of this discussion tonight that you all will have, I would respectfully offer alternative names for consideration such as Erenia, which means heritage in Spanish. This would honor the identity and the history of the predominantly Latino community within the district. And another option would be Veterans Way, a name that reflects all who served our country at a time when our military continues to be engaged in Iran currently and we have already lost 13 service members. With um no possibility of we don't know

how many more possible casualties we'll have, this designation would stand as a lasting recognition that our city values the sacrifice of our veterans. I respectfully ask that you move forward with thoughtful consideration, community input, and commitment to selecting a name that reflects the integrity, the respect, and the values you all we all have for for our city and want to uphold for future generations. Thank you. Would anyone else like to approach the podium and speak? Seeing none, I will close the call to the public. That'll take us to consent agenda. This evening we have consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.6. I have no speaker cards for consent agenda. Council members, do you have any questions, concerns, issues? Seeing none, do I have a motion?

So moved by Council Member Wade and seconded by Council Member Lerman. One last chance for comments, questions. Seeing none, please vote. I'm waiting for two more. One more. Who are we missing? All right, that's a 70 vote. That motion passes. That'll take us to regular agenda item. We will start with uh item 8.1 uh which is a presentation from Chief Goodman on the Maroba Police Department annual report. Good evening, Mayor and Council. The purpose of the report is not simply to review items from the past year. It is to demonstrate how your continued investment in public safety translates into real outcomes for our community. Over the past several years, the council has made deliberate investments in personnel, technology, training, and infrastructure within the police department. Those investments are producing measurable results, enhanced response capability, stronger investigations, and deeper community engagement. More importantly, they allow our personnel to perform at a high level that our residents expect and deserve.

What you will see throughout this presentation is a simple concept. When the city invests in public safety capacity, the community receives a return in safety, service, and stability. In 2025, the patrol division handled 30,04 calls for service. Of those calls, more than 20,000 were citizen generated, meaning our residents rely heavily on our officers to resolve issues affecting their daily lives. Officers also generated nearly 10,000 proactive contacts, demonstrating that MPD is not just reactive. We work proactively to prevent crime and address issues before they escalate. Over the course of 2025, MPD documented almost 29,000 incidents, completed almost 6,000 police reports, and made 2,135 arrests. The city experienced a 2% decrease in crime per capita, which is meaningful which is which is a meaningful public safety outcome in a rapidly growing city. All of this demonstrates that the city's investment in patrol staffing and operational capability is producing tangible public safety results. Over the past three years, the city has invested in expanding our traffic unit. That investment has allowed us to build a specialized enforcement capacity, including three motor officers and a traffic investigator who is also a motor officer. In 2025 alone, the traffic unit issued 2,428 citations, which accounted for 57% of all traffic citations in the city. Directed enforcement allows us to focus on the behaviors most associated with serious collisions: speeding, reckless driving, and aggressive driving. Traffic enforcement is one of the most effective

tools we have to prevent serious injury and fatal collisions. Investment in the traffic unit is directly contributing to safer roadways for residents, visitors, and our businesses. I'd like to take a moment to recognize one of our community re to recognize our community resource navigator program, which is the only one of its kind in Panol County. The statistics speak for themselves and assist in positive outcomes for the police department through connecting those in mental health crisis with the right resources at the right time. The city invested in strengthening our criminal investigations division by supporting staffing and investigative resources. In 2025, C handled 475 assigned cases, many involving complex or serious criminal activity. As a result of organizational improvements, detective case assignments increased 23% and criminal indictments increased 67%. These outcomes reflect both investigator productivity and prosecutable case quality. Our civilian investigator completed 290 supplemental reports, 84 digital forensic examinations, and performed significant investigative support functions. Over the course of 2025, CD personnel dismantled a large narcotics distribution operation, removing fentanyl, methamphetamine, and firearms from our community. They also located two of the longest missing juveniles in Arizona, returning them safely home. Additionally, detectives solved a multi-state identity theft and fraud scheme, demonstrating MPD's capability to handle complex criminal investigations. Our investigate our investments in investigative capacity lead directly to crime disruption,

offender accountability, and victim justice. Evidence management is a critical but often unseen component of policing. Without the proper collection and storage of evidence, criminal cases cannot be successfully prosecuted. The property and evidence unit maintains over 7,000 items in active storage supporting criminal prosecutions and court proceedings. In 2025, staff completed a comprehensive review of evidence dating back to 2007, resulting in the lawful disposition of over 8,000 items. Proper evidence management protects case integrity, reduces liability, and ensures successful prosecution outcomes. Our dispatch performance remains exceptional despite growing demand. In 2025, the emergency communication center handled 75,713 calls, representing a 9% increase in call volume. Despite the increase, our dispatchers answered 99.45% of 911 calls within 15 seconds. That is staggering when you really stop and think about it. This significantly exceeds the national standard of 90%. Integration with school panic alarms ensures immediate notification to dispatch when a school activates an emergency alert and a partnership with Maricopa Express Transit allows dispatchers to see real time GPS and video during emergencies on transit vehicles. A PRN, also known as part-time as needed dispatcher program, introduced experienced part-time dispatchers when we needed them and improved staffing flexibility.

These improvements demonstrate that investments in technology and staffing translate directly into enhanced emergency response capability. Youth programs strengthen the future of policing and community trust. In 2025, the police department's cadet program operated at full capacity with a waiting list. Each year, our cadets travel to Chandler, Arizona to compete with other cadet programs from throughout the United States. This year, our cadets competed against more than 40 teams, most of which were from California and most of which were from very large agencies. And they brought home several awards. Programs like this build leaders of the future while strengthening community trust today. They also create a long-term recruitment pipeline which is critical in today's law enforcement environment. MPD remains competitive in a challenging hiring environment. In 2025, MPD received 267 recruit applications and 55 lateral applications. Our recruitment efforts resulted in 10 new officers hired in 2025. I am very proud to report that our department has maintained a 92% retention rate of sworn personnel over the past three years which is remarkable uh given our modern policing environment. Retention protects the city's investment in training and experience as each officer represents years of training, certification, and institutional knowledge that benefits our community. People always love our K9 program, so I'll talk about it for a minute. One of the additions to our team in 2025

was police K9 Rico. Officer Ordonius's inexperienced police officer and K9 Rico stand ready is new additions to the unit. Rico recently completed narcotics detection certification and is a valuable force multiplier in serving our community. While I'm always proud of our K9 unit and the other specialized units within the police department, those teams could not exist without the men and women who tirelessly patrol the streets of our city to make it safe each and every day. In 2025, MPD hired nine recruit officers and one lateral officer, strengthening our ability to serve a growing community. Each of these officers went through an extensive hiring process that includes written testing, oral boards, fitness testing, background investigations, and psychological and medical screening. We are very deliberate and intentional about who we entrust with the responsibility of wearing the MPD badge. Of the over 300 applications we received in 2025, only 3% were hired. Once hired, the investment continues. New officers complete academy training followed by months of field training with experienced police officers before they are fully prepared to serve independently. By the time an officer is ready to patrol on his or her own, the city has invested well over a year in their development. The return on that investment is a highly trained professional who will serve this community for years, often decades, responding to thousands of calls, protecting victims, and solving crimes. Ultimately, these new hires represent more than new personnel. They represent the future strength, professionalism, and leadership of the Maricopa Police Department. I cannot say

enough how proud I am of the dedicated team that makes this possible. The commitment from our city council, the executive team, and all the city departments to support our hiring efforts make results like this a reality. Strong relationships remain a core priority in investing in our community. MPD continues to invest heavily in community relationships through programs like shop with a cop department tours, the ever popular chillin with the chief ice cream event, community events, HOA meetings, and parti and partnering with nonprofits. These programs strengthen trust and transparency between law enforcement and the community. Trust is a foundational element of effective policing and community engagement helps us prevent crime, resolve problems early, and maintain Maricopa as one of the safest cities in the state of Arizona. The outcomes you see today are not accidental. They are driven through intention and teamwork. They are a direct result of strategic investments by this council, the executive team, and the dedication of the men and women of the Maricopa Police Department that I am honored to serve. As our city continues to grow, maintaining this level of service will require continued strategic investment. But the return to our community in safety, stability, and quality of life is clear. And with that, I'm glad to take any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. I will also add to what you say in regards to your responsiveness and that of the officers that answer questions for me as well and I'm sure for the rest of council. You're very responsive. You're very responsive to the public and uh I mean how many chiefs give out their personal cell phone number? I just don't know of anyone else. Not many. Yeah. Not many. Um, so I thank you and appreciate you and your staff for being so willing to handle community questions. I there's a couple statistics that you gave. Let me give you a little bit of background. Just this week, I received an email from a resident who's very concerned, not willing to leave the house at night, not willing to go out to our stores at night because of what they read on social media and what they read on the media uh pages. And so I'm gonna put you on the spot after I repeat these statistics in terms of what would you say to that person because I think your words speak volumes in regards to how safe our city is. So forgive me for putting you on the spot, but I want to repeat in terms of criminal incidences. You had 60% criminal indictments on those cases. Did I interpret that correctly?

So those are 67% I believe the statistic was. Yeah. for our criminal indictments and those are the cases that get investigated by our criminal investigation division. Very good. Yeah. It represents a high a high not only clearance rate but a solving rate. Our commitment is not just to close cases. It is to make arrests and to uh give give vict give justice to victims.

That's wonderful. Um the second was a two ca p 2 2% decrease in criminal activity per capita which is important because as the city grows we know that unfortunately some crime comes with it but when you can pay so much attention that you re decrease the per capita crime happening in our city by 2% in one one year to me that's amazing and it says a lot about the safety of our community and then 99.45 four or five% of 911 calls are answered within 15 seconds, which you said is an exceeding national standards. Pretty impressive. Okay. So, I do my version of helping residents understand that our safe our city is one of the safest. Now, I'm asking you to do your version. What would you say to that person who wrote to me this week in regards to their concerns?

Well, first and foremost, I hope you connect me with that person. I will do that. Please Well, I tried, but I'm going to actually do it directly by just sending it to you. That's fantastic. All right.

I love having conversations directly with our community members to address their concerns. Uh that specific, you know, do a specific answer to their concerns. I would say to our community members who are concerned about, you know, safety, I would say look to our events, look to our parks, look to the way that our city is activated both day and night. Activity in parks and attendance at things like the Wild West Music Festival and attendance uh to community events such as the upcoming bicycle rodeo or even ice cream with the chief speak volumes. Last time we did ice cream with the chief, we had close to 300 people through the room in the library in a 90minute period. My cops were slinging ice cream like crazy and could probably get part-time job at BaskinRobins if they if they wanted to. They don't need to, but I say it tongue and cheek. You know, our our community is very safe and I live here. You know, my in-laws live here, my family members who live here, my newly married daughter lives here. And none of us uh have any concern about going to parks or walking around at night. And I invite uh anyone who has concerns, please get in touch with me. Let's discuss your concerns uh individually and I'm happy to provide any context that they could possibly need.

That's perfect. And community, he is responsive and I take I challenge you to take advantage of that for sure. Uh Vice Mayor Chief, thank great presentation. Always a great presentation. I love reading it. I love seeing it. I love hearing about it. And one of the first things we spoke about at the Wild West Music Fest is I seen you across the park. I walked over. Um I said hello and I said, "Anything happening?" And you said, "No, nothing." Um no worries, no no criminal activity, no arrest. That was just good. And when you can bring together that many people in one small area and have nothing, that's always a good thing. No

zero incidents for all three days. Yeah. So to have zero incidents on those days and and also the the copal cultural and all the events we have, they're so safe. And you know, sadly, people hear about crime and they think it's a rampant thing. But most crime, correct me if I'm wrong, most crime in the city of Maricopa is domestic crime. Um, a lot of it at least is domestic. Is that accurate? A large number of our results are between people who know one another. They're either domestic partners or they're friends who have become enemies and they're frenemies and uh sometimes they go back to being friends. Yeah.

But yeah, we do not have a ton of violent crime that is committed where the people involved do not know one another. That is a rarity here in the city of Maricopa.

So, um I feel safe in our city, my wife feels safe in the city, our kids feel safe. Um, and you know, I just, it's a testament to the hard work of our officers and the work that they put in, except this one guy. Um, earlier yesterday, my wife texted me and said, "Hey, tell him to put a hat on because he was outside. He didn't have a hat on and he's a bald head. I'm not going to say his name." And, um, so I texted him and I said, "Hey, you got to put a hat on." He's like, "Yeah, I know. I know." But um, other than that, you guys um, and I was joking right there. I was just playing around. But um they're great guys and ladies and they do so so much hard work and the community policing part of it really does pay off. It's the ability for them to talk to people. It's the ability for people to talk to them and just have conversations and then of course it's the work done in our schools and the police resource resource officers and the work that they do. I had a great opportunity to speak at um Maricopa Wells Middle School and we were doing a career day for eighth graders and talking about careers and stuff like that and one of your officers was able to talk at that at that event and just give his history and what what's happening and all of that. But I got to stand with him and chat for a little while and we talked a little bit about what's happening in the schools and you know when I was in school the biggest thing was fights and things like that. Unfortunately, in our schools, the biggest thing is there's vape pens. Um, but it's just just it's the crimes we're seeing in the city of Maricopa are not the the the crazy rampant just robberies and burglaries and stuff there. They happen, don't get me wrong, but it's not that craziness. It's mostly domestic stuff. And our officers are doing a great job. Our whole staff is.

Thank you. And we work hard to solve those crimes when they happen. Yeah, you know, we recognize that a residential burglary or somebody going through your car is very personal. It's traumatic. It's traumatic. And so, we work very hard to solve those crimes. And thank you to the council and to the executive team for giving us the tools. Yeah. To solve those crimes. It's deeply appreciated.

A lot of people don't realize I live in Maricopa because of that traumatic situation. And my ho my home in Phoenix was broken into when I was at work and they came in and out of it a few times and they emptied everything of value. Everything. Even the Bratz game in the PS1. My daughters were very upset about that. But they took everything and it was like we're done. And we started looking and Maricopa was became our home. So we love it here and we love the work you guys are doing. Yep. Thank you.

Also one other thing. I was in a car accident recent, not recently, year and a half ago, right here in the city of Maricopa. And the coolest thing was we didn't need a police officer to come out. Someone else came out, a young a young man came out and he took a report and the report worked that went through the insurance. All that stuff happened. And that was one of the things you mentioned uh in your stuff here was able to have nonsworn officers doing some of the stuff that frees up sworn officers to do the more important work. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member No.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Chief. I really appreciate all of this fantastic information. Uh, I have a question for you, but before I ask my question, I just want to commend you and your staff for all of the public outreach you've been doing. Um, it's incredible. I think you're really responding to the community and the needs. Um, you know, just the business watch, the um the bike rodeo, the videos, the motor Mondays. I mean, it's all really fantastic stuff to get the community engaged and to really inform the community. And um, they're doing a great job. It's it's well produced and well done. So, and the poster contest that uh Vice Mayor Man Freddy talked about, I'm excited for the results of that, but I love what you guys are doing uh around the community and for the community. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um can you talk a You and I talk a lot uh but can you and I know the answer to this, but I want you to tell the community about um your uh strategy on solving cases, not closing cases. and and that's a big deal obviously with in light of the recent um results and the stuff that happened before you were here but you are bringing a fresh new perspective to Maricopa and so I'd like you to talk a little bit about that.

Yeah. So, um, when we looked at the way that we go about investigating our crimes within the criminal investigation division, we we realized that we need to shift our culture a bit from a culture of simply closing cases to a culture of solving cases and putting bad guys in jail and giving victims the justice that they deserve. And it's reflective in the numbers. The numbers are a lot higher than they were last year. It's not a reflection of crime being out of control, as the vice mayor alluded to, because it's not. It's a reflection of our detectives looking at a case and thinking to themselves, I can solve this case. I have the technology. I have the ability. I have the training to solve these cases. I made it a priority as we restructured our criminal investigations division to ensure everybody had the same baseline of training so that our detectives are all speaking the same language. I made sure to have our supervisors go to supervisory courses for leading a criminal investigation division. I said leading, not managing, leading because it's all about the culture. It's all about solving those cases and running out what I running out the ground balls. As I like to say, your coach told you in little league, run out every ground ball because you never know what's going to happen. I tell my detectives the same thing. Run out the ground balls. Don't worry about working too much, working too little. If you have a lead, I want you to pursue it tenaciously until there's no leads to pursue anymore. And then and only then will we not close a case but perhaps suspend the case. That way if we ever get investigative leads later, we can just reopen it. So it was a complete restructuring reorganization of criminal investigation division and

uh you know I'm really proud of their their results. Um they've done some really amazing work over the last year. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Council member Yep. Council Luren,

Chief, thanks so much. You and your department go way above and beyond, which is well indicated tonight in your presentation. So, thank you. I just wanted to highlight already what you talked about, but your community resource navigator program where people are not further traumatized when they're in having a mental health episode. And so, that is an amazing program and like you said, it's the only one in Panell County. So, it's a big pride point for our community. And then I just want to also thank you for empowering and supporting our business owners who you're teaching how to protect their business and protect their customers and provide the highest level of customer service possible and the partnership that you're offering our business owners so that they feel confident in how to handle any situations that might happen in their business. So, thank you so much for that.

Yeah, thank you. It's been a lot of fun partnering with our with our businesses and more to come on that in the future. Thank you, Council Member Lairman. Council Member Ghetto.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Chief, again, just wonderful. I just want to echo my my fellow peers here and their comments. Uh, your department is phenomenal, and I a lot of that is honestly, and I don't, you know, want to take the the the compliment, but, uh, your leadership has been phenomenal for these last several years. Thank you for what you've been doing with our department and the the challenges that you've had face on and have owned and have helped resolve. It's it's just great work all around. And so I'd like to just thank you and your department for some some great work this this next year. One of the things too that I really enjoy about Chief Goodman is that he's not satisfied with the status quo. He's always looking ahead to what are we going to need tomorrow? What are we going to need to make sure that our our city remains one of the safest cities in the nation. And he's not afraid to advocate for that and to ask for those things that he needs. And so I'm glad that you're on our side and we're partners in this together. And if you would please just extend our gratitude to the men and women on your department um for their phenomenal work and all that they do to keep our family safe. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. It's truly a team effort and I really couldn't stand up here today without the support of the council, the executive team, but also the fantastic work that the men and women of the Maricopa Police Department do each and every day. I sleep well at night knowing that uh those men and women are out there protecting us 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

So, Chief, one last question, and I'm putting you on the spot again because I didn't give you advanced warning of this. Um, and it's normally in your presentation, but a lot of people talk about crime in apartments. And in past performances, you've past years, you've shared that the crime rate in apartments is actually significantly less than the ratio of apartments to homes. So, do you have that information at the top of your Okay, that would be great. I I have it in my back pocket.

Okay. And uh I think last year less than 1% of our calls for service came from multifamily housing and this year it's crept up to a whopping 2% of calls for service uh that come from our multifamily housing. Yeah. So it has increased a little bit but it's 2% 2% 2% of a population that is do we know off the top of our heads what our population of apartments might be to residential? Uh about six percent.

Yeah, that's what I was gonna guess. Six, seven percent. So it says a lot. Oh, there I go again. That was three times tonight. Stop it, Quinn. Uh so um yeah, so 2% compared to 7%. I'm gonna go with 7%. Um that says a lot to pe it says a lot to me and I I reiterate it over and over and over again to people as they constantly complain about where the crime comes from. and it's not proven in the facts. So, I appreciate that. Any last additional information? All right. Thank you very much, G. Thank you.

All right. That'll take us to the next agenda item, which is item 8.2, resolution 26-07. And council, I want to let you know at this time, the applicant has asked to continue this agenda item. And so we will ask for a vote after we do the public hearing. There will be no presentation this time around because of wanting to continue this. Um however, we will hold the public hearing and I also want you to know that if you we do have one speaker card during the public hearing. Anyone else in the audience who would like to come forward can do so. And then we will also allow for um comment cards to be turned in when the applicant comes back. Uh we won't have another public hearing. It's not required, but we will allow obviously for comment cards, which we do on all agenda items anyway. So given that, I will open the public hearing. I do have one speaker card, and I'd like to invite up Tina Dugan. She's like,

"Good evening again. I would like to say that I am against this u minor general plan land use amendment. Um we're going from medium density to high density. I think Ron and Gerami's comments were spoton. The other thing is we have a new general plan that's going to be voted on. This area is also medium density residential there as it currently is. I think it needs to be left. Our vacancy rate for multifamily housing is high and at this time I don't think this is in the best interest of the city of Maricopa. Thank you. Thank you very much. Would anyone else like to come forward on this topic? Yes, please do.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Uh Rich Vidella, resident of fear of Maricopa. Um, I also am against this. Uh, I look at this and say we have about a 30 to 40% vacancy. I don't know why we would want to put more out there. The traffic on 237, 238 I should say, is bad as it is. The road is bad as it is. I just don't get why we would want to change this. Housing I'm no problem with. If it was condos for sale, I would be 100% for it. They would be a little bit cheaper. But again, if these are going to be apartments or condos or duplexes for rent, I think we're going to be bringing down the values of housing that's going to be coming next door to that, which is that beautiful sun. What's the name of that one? Moonlight. So, I'd hate to see that get diminished by that. And u I was just actually speaking with that gentleman and he says that they're considering putting apartments there, too, which I'd be 100% against, too. We don't need more apartments today. I think it's something that we should uh walk back and look at it maybe at a future date. But uh again, I just wanted to put my two cents in on that because again, we have too many apartments as it is now that are are uh vacant. So that's all. Thank you.

Would anyone else like to come forward on this public hearing agenda item? All right. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Council, as I indicated, we have a request from the applicant to continue this agenda item. So, I'm going to make a motion to continue as requested by the applicant. I have a second from vice mayor. Any additional comments, questions at this point, mayor, I want to clarify that just means that we'll be taking it up at a future meeting.

Yes, that's exactly. Thank you for that clarification. I appreciate that. Any additional comments, questions? All right, please vote. All right. I'm missing one vote. I can't get to it. Do you want to vote verbally, Council Member Marsh? I vote yes. Yeah, just turn your speaker on and indicate.

Yeah. Okay, they got it. You're voting yes. Okay, so that motion passes unanimously and that motion carries. That'll take us to item 8.3. Same thing here. I do have a request to continue. So, I will make a motion to continue as requested by the applicant. Do I have a second? A second by Vice Mayor Man Freddy. Do I have any questions, comments? Seeing none, please vote. And I vote yes. This one's not working. There it is. There we go.

All right. That is a unanimous vote and that motion carries as well. That'll take us to item 8.3 which is um an some information about addressing Good evening, mayor, members of the council. Rick Williams, uh, planning and zoning division manager before you this evening, uh, bringing, uh, before you, uh, case number ADD 2601, which is a street name change request. And, um, it is the city of Maricopa that is the applicant. uh more specifically West Caesar Chavez Lane. It's approximately 554 linear feet of of public rightway. Uh the request before you this evening is in accordance with our SNAP guidelines which was which are is an acronym for our street naming and addressing uh procedures. And according to those procedures, ma'am, that were adopted by council, uh staff is seeking direction this evening on initiating a prospective name change for this location. Uh just to give you a little uh details of the timeline that we have before us this evening, um uh staff stands ready uh anticipating your your direction. We will move uh quickly to initiate uh the process which is notifying property owners that are adjacent to that rightway uh in writing. We will also uh post newspapers in the ads both the monitor and uh the Kasa Grand uh dispatch uh with the notification as well as well as post uh both ends of the uh rideway as well. So, we'll post signs out there on the rightway. Um, once

council is actually able to consider this would be the earliest would be May 19th. Uh, then dependent upon the action given that evening by council. Uh, notice of decisions of the property would be mo would be notified the following day and essentially is 30 days for that resolution to uh go into effect. So those are the u you know it's a very tight timeline. However, I feel confident that we can we can meet those if so directed. Uh but we seek uh mayor and council direction this evening if so be.

That uh concludes my presentation. Ma'am, I'll be happy to answer any questions that y'all might have u and take. Thank you very much, Rick. I have no speaker cards. Council, are there any questions or comments? Yes, Council Marsh. Yes, we have a legal tradition in this country that you're innocent until proven guilty. But I'm going to vote yes on this to honor the people who have come forward accusing Caesar Chavez. Additional comments, questions, seeing none, please vote. I already motion to approve.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I skip motion? All right. All right. Do I have a motion? Council member, uh, Vice Mayor, we're not using the buttons for motions. I know I do. Oh, all right. All right. It's gone. It's gone. Do you make the motion? She did. Okay. Motion. Council member No makes the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Seconded by Vice Mayor. Additional opportunity for comment, questions. Seeing none. Please vote. How's this playing with the screen? It's not up yet. Yeah, it's not updating. All in favor say I. I. I.

Any opposed? That motion carries. All right, that'll take us to agenda item 8.5. And this is a presentation regarding the updated city website. And I believe Luis. Yeah, very good. Thank you, Luis. Right. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm very excited to be here this evening to showcase the uh updated and new City of Maricopa website. Uh just to give you guys a little glimpse of our timeline, this project began in the summer of 2024 when we started collecting data using our Google Analytics tool. uh as well as we solicited feedback from our internal departments as well as uh members of city council and we've taken all that feedback into consideration. Some of the feedback we received was a uh you know utilizing a new search engine uh having an updated and more robust uh calendar and also an easy way of accessing information. All of which have been implemented in this new website. So we created the business case over in uh January of 2025. uh and decided to continue with our incumbent provider Granicus. The current tool that we use, it's a product called Vision and they have a much more robust and upgraded tool called Open Cities uh that definitely provides all of the need uh resources and uh software upgrades that were desperately needed for our website. And we signed that contract with Granakus uh on uh July right after budget was approved. And we kicked off the project in August. And uh after uh some uh meetings and implementations they uh went over some training with us and we are finally handed over the reigns to edit the website uh on fe excuse me February 26th of this year. So since then we've been going in and tooling the website making sure it uh

represents what our current website offers as far as information goes but also all the upgraded features and things were implemented correctly as we were promised. Uh so to go align with the upgraded design, we want to make sure to tackle the strategic priorities of accessing the quality of life. Uh so we want to make sure the new site was reliable and modern. So it's the uptime uh was increased as well as sleek new look with animated buttons. Uh we also want to give our users quick and easy access to information uh as well as accurate access information the with a re uh redesigned and well uh robust search engine. Uh definitely uh with the new upgrades we have free control to uh change any of the elements of the website. We did not have that before. Our homepage was very static. We couldn't uh make any changes on there without Granite's uh approval and uh utilizing upgraded contract. That would cost them money. In fact, uh to even move our current search engine, it would have cost the city approximately $4,000 just to move it to a different part of the homepage. Uh but with this new open cities tool, we have that access to do that as we please. we have uh uh free reign to design and upgrade and uh move the uh homepage and have it uh showcase and do whatever we like. Uh and finally, one of the most important aspects is the compliance with the new ADA laws going into effect on April 24th of uh this year. Uh so uh you may you guys know uh city of Maricopa has grown quite a bit and so any city over a population of 50,000 or more uh has to comply with one of the upper tiers of the ADA compliance. Currently we're on tier one but now we're moving up to tier 2. So this new site not only matches that there's a wonderful new feature that will not allow us to publish any

new information on the page unless it meets that compliance. So we can always ensure that that compliance is met with our new website. So you guys are familiar, this is what our current website looks like. The left is our desktop version and the right is our mobile version. Uh our a big issue we have is on the mobile version of the site. It's actually a separate website that we have to manage. So anytime we make any major changes to the homepage or updates, we have to update the mobile version as well, which causes uh quite a bit of extra work. And since uh 40% of our user base is on mobile, it's important to have that uh updated and have that information accessible for them as well. And so this is what our brand new homepage looks like. uh it's been uh toolled and redesigned uh based on all that data that we received especially using our Google Analytics tool and uh making sure that we're hitting all the uh uh uh correct uh uh uh data sorry we're making sure that we're uh accessing uh getting their users ease of access to information based on some of the heating maps that we've seen from what our current users are currently looking uh looking for um it allows us to edit and tool a little bit better. Currently on our homepage, we have a revolving video that we cannot uh we can change the videos we like, but we can't uh remove it or put something else, but now we have the access to have a rotating sliding banner uh with uh wonderful images or we can swap it out for video for doing advertising for some of our citywide events or any other programs we have going on. Uh here are some of the uh uh upgraded pages. Uh you see they're much more colorful. They are more aligned. The buttons are animated. So when you highlight over them, uh there's our updated mayor and council page. And this is what our homepage city calendar will look like. It's a lot more

uh robust. It's more than just uh text and the dates. There's uh we can highlight and feature whatever our future events would like uh we would like to showcase. So we can pin those to the top uh and have those stand out so we can make sure our community knows about some of the bigger events going on. Uh and our mobile page is now uh 100% uh compon uh streamlined with our desktop. So any changes we make to the desktop automatically happen on our mobile page. So basically you can uh stretch a desktop page down and it'll showcase what it looks like on mobile. We have the on the top right that hamburger menu that you can click on to drop down to see uh you know departments and all those things. Those uh buttons that you saw on the previous page are stretched out with ease of access for uh touching and our city calendar almost looks identical to what it does on the desktop page. Uh as I mentioned before, our homepage is completely customizable. All those buttons right there are easily swapped out with whatever we have going on. So, if we have something we need to specifically highlight, like a major event going on or some public notices that we want our uh community to see, we can have those right there uh just below the uh uh uh landscape slider where all the images are. And of course, we have a new way to showcase our videos. It'll be right on the homepage as well. we can highlight whatever the uh most uh engaging or popular video is there and have a trio of videos as we've upped our video production quite a bit over the last years. So there's always something to showcase there for our community. Uh one of my favorite features, I know one that's been uh asked for quite a bit is our new search engine. Uh the search engine uh is has a wonderful new feature that we can actually help control where

the search engine goes. So, if somebody searches for parks, we can actually go into our parks page and on the back end, let them know whatever words they type, whether it be parks, uh, playground, slides, whatever they type that in, it will direct them to that page over, uh, as you guys can see here. Also, we have the, uh, autofill that's, uh, we don't currently have on our website that whenever you type that, it'll showcase where that highlight whatever word you're searching for, wherever it exists on our page today. And uh another fantastic new feature is uh pop-up banners. So whenever we have uh some sort of announcement that we need to make a priority announcement for our community, they're colorcoded depending on the level of priority and they will exist at the top of the page that we can utilize as needed um and inform our community uh as things go on. Uh this is a wonderful new tool. There are upgraded uh calendar of events. We can create uh certain labels, label them based on where the event is happening or what type of event is happening, color code them uh based on whatever colors we choose and have them pop up on our uh city calendar here. And there are uh sorted so you can uncheck or check based on what type of events you're looking for. And something we don't have is you can search for events by phrase, keyword, or date. So if you're looking for something to do a specific time frame, we can do that now. And they're uh also sorted by categories. All our events will have specific categories they'll be set to. So it's a really ref refined and robust way to search for events in the city of Maricopa. Uh as well as events, our news is uh news section is uh been upgraded as well. the search and uh category select features also available. Uh one feature that was uh pretty uh critical for us as well is our news archive. Uh currently our archive only goes to about uh two

dozen stories and then they get put into pushed into a back hidden archive that you can't actually see on the site. It's searchable, it's findable, but you can't actually s go through it on our website that uh on Open Cities that's no longer the case. all of our news content unless we manually expire it still exists on our page. So, we are to coincide with the new ADA laws. Uh we have worked with Granicus and are planning to launch the new website on April 21st at 900 a.m. Uh the transition will be a 100% seamless. So, if any users are currently on our website and they're accessing information and they hit the back button right at 9:01, uh they will go back to the new page uh and they won't lose access. is they won't hit a 401 404 error. Uh it'll all be completely seamless and it'll seem like uh you know they were just popping around a new page. Uh and our the previous version of our website will still exist on the back end for an additional 30 days. So if there's anything that we missed or anything we need to find or highlight, we can still access that archive for an additional 30 days after April 21st.

And I'm happy to field any questions or comments you may have. Thank you, Elise. Council, any comments, questions? Yes, Council Lurman. Thank you very much for the presentation. Um, I was wondering if customer use patterns or trends from the old page was used to help design and prioritize this page.

100%. Absolutely. So, we looked at uh the Google Analytics. We looked at uh our bounce rate, how often people are hitting a page and then when they leave that page, how many clicks it takes for a user to get that to that page and uh more importantly the stay on rate, how long are PE or our users staying on each page and how long they're accessing that information. So all that information was sent to Granicus and their information team to help us design this website. So, uh, we originally had, uh, 224 pages on the current city of, uh, Maricopa website. Uh, they migrated about 120 of them. So, a hundred of those pages had to be manually migrated. Uh, not including the news archive. Uh, so with that, we were able to kind of streamline and reduce that page count to just about 170. So not only is we have gone uh we reduced that count where all that information is uh living but there are also less pages so it takes less clicks for users to access that information.

Very good. Additional comments, questions. Yes, Council Member Nor. Thank you for all of the hard work on this. I think I'm excited about the new website. I think it'll be um much more user friendly for our residents and even for myself. Um, I just want to make sure I understood you correctly because I think it's one of the most exciting things about the new website is that we'll be able to make changes as we go. If you know we roll this out and we and we get resident feedback that, you know, it's hard to find it's still hard to find X, we can make changes. Um, whereas with the previous website, we weren't able to do that. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes. That's really exciting. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, Council Member Marsh. I applaud your effort on this. That's awesome. But my wife is the UI critic in the families. I'm sure she'll be in touch with you. Thank you, Council Member Marsh. All right. So, yes, Vice Mayor.

I've been through this actually over the last year and a half of changing a website. It's a pain in the butt and every time you think you have it perfect, this something pops up. So, the great thing is what council member mentions, you'll be able to fix things on your own instead of worrying about calling in people to pay five grand to fix one small thing. I noticed if you go when you went the slide back, my question was going to be, well, is the report a problem still here? And I seen it on one of the slides. So, we're good because I send people to it all the time. And by the way, on our website, there's a little link. All you got to do is click it and you can actually report a problem anywhere in the city of Maricopa. It picks up a little map. You put your little drop on it and you can write anything you want about the problem and our staff gets that. So, and it stays connected to you.

Use that feature, please. Thank you.

Yeah, it stays connected to you too. I use that all the time as well. And what I mean by that is once you report it, it gives you a status of what's happening. So, on my list, I had fix a problem. I did not see it there, but I'm glad to hear it's there. I had the newsletter. I did see that. City meetings and agenda, CIP and budget. But my question is, is there a way to create an easy button that says resident favorites? Because all of these that I just listed are resident favorites. Like I'm constantly getting questions about who do I tell about a problem? I constantly get a question why don't I get the newsletter? How do I get the newsletter? What is your CIP, your capital improvement plan? What is your budget? Just think about whether there's an ability to do a resident favorites so that it's easy to get to the things that are most visited by our residents. Um because searching sometimes is easy if you know the keyword and if you don't know the keyword, it's not that easy. Um, but anyway, there might be a business favorites, too, because if you look at how it's spread out, you you're combining business with residents on a lot of the different pages, which is fine, but it just seems like there's probably favorites that you can get to really easy. Just something to consider.

Oh, absolutely. In fact, those task buttons that you saw on the homepage, the one I mentioned that are upgradable and customizable, we have access to to change those as we see fit. So, if something does come up and we notice a trend, hey, a lot of users are requesting to access this page or we're noticing a lot more hits on this page or a lot of searches for that page because they're not able to find it easier, we can change those buttons and make sure they have quickest access to it. Okay, perfect. Perfect. Just going to add something, mayor and council. Yes, those buttons, as you mentioned, those are the resident favorites and we have the ability to adjust those real time. I just want to mention, which buttons are you referring to? the uh the buttons that are on the homepage. On the home page, yeah, go back to the homepage cuz I might I might

The reason we selected those is because the most visited residents don't really care about permits and licensing and one of the most viewed pages. What? One of the most viewed pages by residents by people visiting our website. Oh, interesting. Okay. All right.

And again, we have the ability to change that over time if that dwindles and something else and we can we have more buttons that can be added. But a couple of things that are hard for Luis to say for for himself is that that I wanted to mention is that this has been a herculean effort by Luis. He especially with these news articles, he has been manually migrating hundreds of pages and he can barely see straight, but he's done a phenomenal job. Um, and as we go live with this on the 21st, as he mentioned, we do expect it to be seamless. There always are issues, so please be patient, bear with us, but we do want to hear feedback and change things accordingly as it needs to be done. Uh the page, as he mentioned, is meant to be modern and um revamped yet still something that won't throw residents that they it's still familiar in ways that they can get to the information that they still need. That's the key with government pages especially. You don't need them to get too flashy. You want people to be able to access information easily. So, he's done that a phenomenal job of building that way. But your feedback will be very important and we thank I just wanted to thank Lu.

Luis has done a great job. If he was the primary resource here um but to all staff who helped I think it's a great job. Um I just am curious you know regarding the ease of getting to information but um I'm going to trust you. We have a lot of keyboard warriors in the city of Maricopa as you know. Where would you like the comments to come to when they have suggestions? Report a problem. Uh, they could just go to Louise. Oh, just go directly. Yeah, it's really going to depend on the question, but there depending on what page you're looking for. If you've got a question about development services, you're going to want to address it to them. Uh, okay. Yeah. Mayor, council. Uh, sure. And we'll just forward it over to

Luis. Okay. That sounds great. But as as individual topics come up, by the way, as you mentioned, if we need to put a banner across that says, "Hey, we would really like to know information about you know, bike laws was a recent topic. If we wanted to put some kind of a information over there, we can put that across our page and say here's here's where you'll solicit that." Um, we did before previously when we wanted to engage that um that widget was something that took a lot of work. Did they charge us extra for that? I don't remember. Additionally, it was when the ballots uh had the snafu with the county and we were able to put a banner there, but it took working through grant because now we'll have the ability if we need to do something like that. I love that. So, we have a lot more flexibility to handle it ourselves.

Very good. Council member Lairman. Um, are the favorites the same as frequently asked questions? Is that the same thing or is that different? Where's that? Where is that? Um, I'm sorry. Favorites. Um the favorite button is Oh. Oh, you mean the task buttons down here? Yes. Is the same as frequently asked questions or is that separate? That's separate. So, yeah. Yeah. Frequently asked questions would be a resource that we have where common questions are listed with answers that pop down and these task buttons are the most commonly or most uh heavily hit links on our website that we wanted users to have quick access to. Perfect. So, you offer both? Absolutely.

Awesome. Thank you. Very good. Uh, vice mayor man popped in my head when you were talking just now. Um, with the pages you went from 200 something pages to 107. I understand that because I went from I think it was like 300 to like 50 um on our website and what will that solve the problem of where I have faced it and people have asked me when's Copaultural and I typed in Copaultural and I gave them the date from the 2004 Copaultural and they were like that's stupid. that's not it.

I'm like, sorry. Um, and then I had to go back and type it in and find the 2026. So, pages wise, will you be just having a Copaultural page and then every year update it with the stuff for Copa Cultural instead of a 241 125 126 one because when you searched it just this week right now, if you search it, they just and they don't come in order or anything. So you got to guess um which one to click and then check them all um just to get the information on the current one. Just saying.

Um so the events pages have definitely been modernized. So on our current page uh our archive is still searchable much like our archive news stories even though you can't find or access them. Uh with the new page uh the new events when you they come up after the event uh passes the those pages expire. Thank you. Very good. That has been that has been confusing. I totally agree. Yeah. I've given the wrong date and that doesn't work over well. That doesn't go over well. Yeah. Believe me, I I feel your pain. I've been working on this site since I started here. Yeah. Very good. Okay. Last opportunity for questions, comments.

All right. Thank you, Louise. We appreciate that very much. Everyone, go out and try out this new website. Let us know how it's working. All right. That brings us to the end of our agenda. This meeting is adjourned.

Thank you for doing the DC tour. Oh, you're welcome. It was it was a lot of fun. It was a busy day. I worked there for 16 years. I don't need to go back. You know the ins and the outs. Juan, I'm glad we