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 chamber's 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. In accordance to state law, city resources and facilities may not be used for election-related activities, including discussions of candidacies, vote solicitation, or campaign events. 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 live streamed. Want more details about tonight's agenda items? Scan the QR code on your screen. or visit www.maricopa-az.gov slash agenda. 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.

Good evening and welcome to this special meeting for June 16th, 2026. I call this meeting to order and we will move directly to roll call. Vanessa, please.

Council Member Ghetto. Council Member Knorr.

Present.

Council Member Learman. Here. Council Member Marsh.

Here.

Council Member Wade. Here. Vice Mayor Manfredi. Here. Mayor Smith.

Here.

Madam Mayor, we have a quorum.

Thank you very much, Vanessa. All right, this evening this is on the budget and this is a public hearing. I have no speaker cards this evening on this topic. I will open the public hearing for anyone who would like to come forward to discuss this item. All right. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Councilmembers, the presentation is the same that you received in the last city council meeting, so no changes there. Councilmembers, do you have any questions or comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve by Councilmember Wade and seconded by Councilmember Marsh. One last chance for opportunity to speak, ask questions. Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. I will close the special session. I will open the regular meeting for June 16, 2026. And at this point, I'd like to invite Pastor Roger Thompson from Calvary Church forward. And he will give our invocation. And I invite Councilmember Learman to give the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise if you're able.

this. To God, to the God of heaven and earth, it is with love and gratitude that we come to you this evening. Lord, we want to pray for this community as Paul told Timothy to pray for those in leadership over him there in First Timothy. And so again, with gratitude, Lord, we come before you and we pray for this meeting and the issues on the agenda. Lord, we pray for our city council members. Give them wisdom. We pray for Maricopa's citizens, families, and children. that they're safe, and that their city would prosper within the family and community. Lord, we pray for our police and our first responders. Protect them, Lord, please. Bring them home to their families safe every night. We also want to pray for unity, for peace, and for justice for our citizens, God. May we stand unified and seek you, God, for blessings and direction. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.

and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

Alright, that'll take us to roll call Vanessa, please councilmember ghetto councilmember nor Councilmember Learman here councilmember Marsh here councilmember Wade here Here madam, maybe we have a quorum Thank You Vanessa that takes us to proclamations acknowledgements awards and presentations of this evening We have none. So we'll move on to the report from the mayor. Yes councilmember Marsh. I

Well, it's been two weeks since the last meeting, and there are more political signs up all over the city, more than any previous campaign season since I moved here, and I'm sorry I didn't start a sign manufacturing company. On Friday, June 5th, the Pinal Partnership had a breakfast meeting featuring the city managers from the biggest cities and towns in Pinal County. Our city manager did an awesome job of representing our city. He came off as smart, well-informed, and focused. So yay Ben. Oh, there's no Ben. On June 9th, We held a memorial celebration of life for my wife, Cynthia. Over 100 people attended. It was a great event. If anyone wants a link to the slideshow, send me an email. On June 10th, we had an ADOT listening session at the library. About 30 of us spoke and ADOT listened and took notes. I feel it was much more effective than complaining on Nextdoor or Facebook. Also, on the 10th, the city council got a briefing from our Washington, D.C. lobbyists. That's always interesting. And on June 11th, I participated in a citizens working group meeting hosted by Ivanhoe Electric. They are developing the Santa Cruz copper mine in Casa Grande. It's on the south side of Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, west of the Cactus copper mine that's those big tailings on the north side. The ore body is at around 3,500 feet underground. That's below our aquifer. That's why Jake Lenderking from Global and I are participating in this working group. We want to make sure that the mining operation doesn't pollute our aquifer. That's where we get our drinking water. They recently spent $65 million buying a tunnel boring machine, 30 feet in diameter, 500 feet long. It's like the one that Elon Musk uses to do underground highways in California. 30 feet in diameter. That's like that. They're going to drill down through our aquifer and line the tube with 16-inch thick concrete pipe. and go all the way through our aquifer, come up underneath the ore body, pull all the ore out between now and 2051, and it's gonna be a real neat operation. If you want to learn more about the Santa Cruz mine or have any questions for Ivanhoe Electric, I'm passing out some information cards that have a QR code on it. You can contact the mining company. You might also check into investing in Ivanhoe Electric because that's a huge ore body. On 6-15, I attended a senior advisory council meeting and Ron Smith announced a senior expo on September 26th at the library library and the focus of this session is going to be avoiding Falls so write that down 926 26 at the library Coming up tomorrow 530 to 730 p.m ADOT is hosting an open house right here in this room. The topic is of course the 347 Come learn what ADOT's final plans are That's about it mayor. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilman Wade Thank you, ma'am.

I just want to recognize the organizers of the Juneteenth celebration that was I just want to compliment the organizers of the Juneteenth celebration that was conducted on Saturday. It was very well done. It was very well organized, well attended. The food was good, and the vendors were very helpful in the subject, at least the ones that I talked to helped me with a couple of things. So I want to thank them for conducting that Juneteenth ceremony and look forward to Juneteenth 2027. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you Councilmember Wade. Councilmember Knorr.

Thank you Mayor. A couple of things I wanted to report on this evening. I was also able to attend the ADOT session at the library last week which was really a great opportunity for us to give feedback to ADOT on things that they could do better and they were asking for that they said give us the good the bad and the ugly and you'll be proud. We were very honest with them and they also seemed very open to our thoughts and to our concerns and so I thought it was very productive and hopefully will lead to some great improvements. And I just want to reiterate, we can do this again tomorrow night. We can all come here and hang out from 530 to 730 and talk to ADOT again about the 347 improvements. I believe that's also going to be live streamed. And so you could also join virtually. But it'll be a great opportunity to learn about the improvements on the 347, what that's going to look like, what it's going to mean for you and your family and travel, and how to make the best of it. And so I highly encourage everyone to participate in that, whether in person or virtually. I was also able to attend the Cultural Affairs and Arts Committee meeting yesterday. And we've got a great group of local residents who participate in that committee and make art beautiful here in Maricopa. And they really are the reason why we have such amazing art offerings here in Maricopa. A couple of those include the library. There's always a gallery going on at the library that includes local artists. and currently the theme is landscapes and it's really beautiful so I highly encourage you to go check that out and that changes quarterly so they have a different theme every quarter and local artists will present their art it'll be juried by the committee and then it is put up in the library for all to see and we truly have amazing artists here in Maricopa so I encourage you to check that out and then also at the community center I had the opportunity to see last week the abstract art display that is currently up in the community center and that really is amazing and also again all local artists and so I highly encourage you to check that out. Also at the community center if you want to check out the abstract art you can also catch a movie on Friday. They are doing a movie for Juneteenth to celebrate Juneteenth. Brenda informed us of that last night. And so I think that's a great opportunity for everyone to celebrate such a special day. And that's all I have.

Thank you Council Member Noor. Council Member Lehrman.

Thank you for the time Mayor. I want to wish the Army a late happy birthday. Their birthday was on June 14th. And I would like to thank Maricopa Police Department for continuing their education for our youth and our residents regarding the campaign with our new e-bike scooter code that began on April 21st. Our police officers are out talking to our youth and they have handed out 54 free helmets. So for those of you who are saying we need to educate our youth we are out there doing that. So thank you to our officers for doing that. The summer reading program is in full swing. It's going on from now until July 25th. Our youth are encouraged to read 20 minutes a day. And I just want to feature some events that are going on. On June 19th, there is Drawing with Janimal. On June 20th, it's Arizona Rick and the Balloon Cowboy. June 25th is Papa Hugs Children's Music Show. June 27th is Didgeridoo Down Under. and teen adult painting class. And then on July 27th, you are able to register for the robotics class ages 10 through 13. That starts on August 10th. Also there is a lunch and learn community center at the community center on June 18th from 11 to 1. And the topic is emergency action and alert. And then I just want to thank everyone who supported the fourth annual Trey Lehrman seven on seven and big man competition. We raised the most money ever over two thousand dollars for football scholarship football camp scholarship. So thank you for those of you who donated to that.

Thank you Mayor.

Thank you, Council Mayor Lehrman. Vice Mayor Manfredi.

As we're repeating some of the stuff other people said, on 610 we had that listening tour. And the listening tour, just to give a little bit more information on it, they're going around, the governor's office is going around the entire state of Arizona while they hired a crew to go around the entire state of Arizona and get some information about how they can make what they do better, how they can plan forward better, how they can move forward better. So we had a conversation with them. It was Quinn and Katie and our team here in the city of Maricopa. And they said, we'd like to come there for a listening tour. And we were like, great, we'll fill up a room. And they're like, no, no, no. So but we had about 20, 25 people. And I know we could have had 500 or 600 people if we really wanted to. But it was more of a private event where we were able to really just have a discussion with them so they could bring that information back. But our staff here in the city of Maricopa does a wonderful job of making sure our voices are heard. And if it's not Katie and Quinn and everybody else putting that information out there, working with ADOT, bringing them here and having these conversations, You don't know what's going to happen, right? So it was great having it here. And then tomorrow, like was mentioned, there'll be a discussion about the future on the 347, what's happening, where it's happening. So make sure to come back here tomorrow night. I think it's 530 right here in this chambers. First come, first serve, but it will be online too. So I think this holds, I think the sign-in backs is 153 people. So, you know, be here early. Today I had a really good time. I went to a meet and greet at the senior center or community center, and it was supposed to be a car show, but we didn't get enough cars to show up or to sign up. But then today when we showed up, there was a bunch of cars there. They didn't sign up, but they showed up anyway. But the car show portion was canceled, but we had lunch. And the communications team did a great job. Quinn was cooking hot dogs and bringing chili together and mac and potato salad. It was really fun. It was a celebration of Father's Day. And one of the questions to win a prize was, who's the oldest father here? And a gentleman raised his hand. He was 96 years old. And then not the same guy, but the question was, who has the oldest child? And someone raised their hand, and I think it was 64. Their child was 64 years old. And then another one was, how long you been married? And these were questions for the fathers that were there. And someone raised his hand, and he said, 50 years old. And then his wife said something, and then they won a prize. So she said, he can go get the prize for me. and he went up there and got the prize and got what she wanted, and I said, and that's how you stay married 50 years. You just do what you're told as a husband. But that's about it. Thank you so much, and moving on.

Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. All right, so I would like to just address a little bit on Juneteenth. It was a well- functioning event and I really enjoyed the music the food lots and lots of wonderful people and vendors I see our library people here I purchased two books on Juneteenth while I was there I'm donating them to the library and then I also received a book from an organization that want it's a great book and It's for elementary students that says, let's vote. So it's a great book and I'm donating that to the library as well. So great opportunity to gather some information and put some information in our library. Regarding the ADOT listening tour, I just want to talk a little bit so that it helps you out in terms of items that I shared. I mostly focused on the P2P process. That's their process and to be honest with you, P2P, I don't remember what it stands for, It's their process for identifying which projects are funded and in what order are they funded. Over the last three years, we have done a great job helping educate not only the State Transportation Board, but even ADOT in terms of their P2P process. Coming from Motorola, which is the king of process improvement with Six Sigma, I don't rest in terms of processes. Constantly referring to how they can improve their process so that, in essence, 347 could have ended up on the five-year plan much sooner. But anyway, just to give you a little bit of an idea, growth. We all know how fast the city of Maricopa has grown. Growth is not a factor in their P2P process. So we talked a lot about how that needs to be in the process because not only is Maricopa growing, but there's lots of other areas within our state that are growing at that rapid pace as well. economic development vitality. Currently, they measure economic development vitality by how many semi-trucks are on the road. Well, we're like, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. No, it's not only how many semi-trucks are on the road, but how many people are using the road In our case, about 76% of the people who leave our city use 347 to get to their jobs so that they can be responsible for gadgets and that type of economic development. So it's people as well as semi-trucks, so educating them along that path. And then safety. Safety is viewed in their process at different ways depending on if it's a new road, it's an expansion road, whatever kind of road they're looking at doing. But the point being, safety is safety. And when 347 is one of the 10 most dangerous roads in the western United States, that should say something to you. Just because it's an expansion, it still should be weighted heavy. And then I had 11 items but the last one that might be of interest to you is air quality. They aren't taking into consideration if a road is at max capacity in the morning and the evening then you're polluting our air because of the fact that we're not moving vehicles because we need those roads maintained added to developed new roads so a lot of important points that we talked about and as I said we've been working with them for the last three four years on this so hopefully this listening tour takes it back so that they actually incorporate some of those have you noticed part of the construction coming up on 347 have you noticed the DPS officers out there Pretty cool. Every time I'm on that road now, I see somebody pulled over. I see DPS monitoring. Like that is part of the benefit of heading into this construction is that they have and will have dedicated DPS officials out there maintaining as much control as they can. And so I find that very exciting, people who like to dodge in and out and go really crazy fast. Maybe you don't find it so exciting, but I find it very exciting. And so that's really good. I do want to encourage you to come tomorrow to the ADOT open house. It's not really a complaint session. It's a find out the facts. So if you want to find out the facts about how this construction project is going to come about, the timeline for it, any of the other elements that they are going to share with us, you can either, as people have said, tune in online or come here and hear all about it firsthand. I encourage you to do that. I think it's going to be very informative. And that's the end of the mayor's message. That'll take us to the report from the city manager, Matt.

Yes, Mayor Smith and members of council, thank you for a couple of minutes of your time tonight for one very quick update that I think will be very popular in light of all the conversations you've been sharing tonight regarding the 347 widening and improvement project. So if we can go to the next slide, please, just to go back in time real quick, a little over a year ago, The public meetings and open houses that we were having for the consideration of the commuting corridors half cent tax One of the images that was shared with our residents is this image right here? An image that allowed them to understand how the funds be used how the funds could be tracked And there would be complete transparency around what those funds were being used on so we have one very exciting update I know council members have shared this site in the past if you go to our city website it's called the building better Road site and We encourage people to do so. It is updated on a monthly basis. If we can go to the next slide, we have a very cool update to provide. As you can see, we are tracking the revenue on a monthly basis. There are two new revenue items at the top that took place during the month of May, the first of which was the receipt of the $20 million in funds from Pinal County for their contribution to the 347 project. The second was the receipt of the $30 million of our revenue bond We were able to bond against the commuting corridor sales tax and receive $30 million immediately. That $50 million resulted in a payment on May 28th to ADOT for the SR 347 widening project. We are now fully committed, fully in. And the very cool part about this website now is you can see the footnotes underneath the revenue section. We actually have links to all of the relevant documentation for each of these transactions. So the intergovernmental agreement with Pinal County, the intergovernmental agreement with ADOT, And the revenue bond documentation for two thirty million dollars all easily accessible via the website right here So our residents can go see those documents if they want to as well But our first expense for the community corridors fund is now on the board and we wanted to go ahead and share that with you real quick

thank you very much matt appreciate that and just for another point of clarity uh... a lot of people were concerned that this is going to be a slush fund this tracker is going to prove to all of our residents that's the money and the funds are being used for Transportation so it's a very important document To give a factor of trust to our residents. All right, that'll take us to the call of the public I do have three speaker cards. I'll call those first and my first speaker card William I'm going to invite you up because I'm not going to butcher your name if you will introduce yourself when you come up, please. I

Good evening. My name is Williams Warankin and good evening Mayor and the rest of the council members. I recently moved to Arizona from California and currently live in a 55 plus community locally here.

Excuse me, could you speak into the mic?

My apologies. So I would like to discuss several items for your consideration. As Maricopa is growing approximately 5% per year, I hope city government is taking steps to bring some of the following items to Maricopa. Growth unfortunately sometimes lags behind with infrastructure that needs to move along with the growth. My suggestion is that three more large national brand supermarkets like Winco, Albertsons, Kroger be invited to come and possibly join Maricopa as it grows. As a shopper, I hate to walk into a supermarket and find the shelves empty because the other residents beat me to it. The other few items are three more gas stations would be welcome, maybe some name brands like Mobil, Shell, just anyone that has top tier gas because I'm tired of having pings in engines and the more affordable gas sometimes isn't top tier. So the other items would be to suggest to the council that they consider tax incentives that are structured over several years, anywhere from five to 10 years that might incentivize businesses to come and join Maricopa and continue with the growth of this community. With 5% growth, and I think is the 17th largest city growth in the country. So congratulations to the city of Maricopa for doing a great job. The other things that are on my wish list for the community and for the city is that you bring also some restaurants. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of fast food. And though I cook, I certainly want to welcome an opportunity to have a more upscale restaurant here similar to what you find in other neighboring cities like Chandler, Gilbert, and so forth. Of course, schools. I see there's a lot of apartment buildings that are being built, and I think there's probably roughly about, by my estimate, anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 new apartments that are going to welcome in new residents. And as far as the gas stations, Please finish your sentence. Right now, we're getting gas from California, I understand. California is shrinking their gas production, and I think Texas would be a much better location.

Thank you very much, William. Josh, would you please raise your hand? William, over there. Over there is Josh. He's our economic development director. And I would love for him to answer some of your questions. I would love to talk to you at some point about the gas station, because it is kind of complicated. So all right, very good. William, he's waiting for you if you'd like to. Yeah, very good. OK. All right, next is Taro with Little Whiskers Animal Rescue.

Good evening mayor, vice mayor, council members. So we are here this evening to share with you our deepest concern regarding the welfare of the stray animals in the city of Maricopa. Maricopa is one of the fastest growing communities in Arizona. Yet our animal welfare welfare infrastructure has failed to keep pace with more than eighty three thousand residents an estimated thirty four thousand five hundred pets no local animal shelter nor a dedicated trap neuter return or TNR provider serving the region. We are confronted we are confronting a crisis that can no longer be ignored. According to the Maricopa Police Records Department, there were 856 animal-related calls in 2024 and 804 calls in 2025. Calls included 557 animal problems, 155 barking dogs, 52 vicious animal cases and 45 animal cruelty cases. In 2025 alone, Katrina Rodriguez, deputy director for Pinal County Animal Control, reported 195 dogs and 131 cats surrendered from Maricopa. The city already pays the Pinal County Animal Shelter $400 a day for day one for six animals, plus $35 per animal. This could be benefiting a local shelter rather than outsourcing. For years, residents have appealed to city leaders for assistance, only to be told the responsibility for providing animal shelter services lies within Pinal County. Meanwhile, the problem continues to grow and local resources remain overwhelmed and residents frustrated as animal welfare concerns continue to escalate. 13 cat colonies have been identified within our community, yet only four are currently receiving treatment through local nonprofit organization, Little Whiskers Animal Rescue, as well as community residents. When we sought assistance from the city to address these colonies it was recommended we seek funding from H.O.A.s and local businesses to cover the costs of TNR services vaccines or vaccinations and other necessary medical care. Grant opportunities are extremely limited because we do not operate from a brick and mortar location but rather out of the homes of our volunteers and fosters and local pet stores. In the past 12 months, Little Whiskers assisted 913 animals, approximately 95% of which originated in the city of Maricopa. It also receives an average of two to three owner surrender requests and 10 to 15 stray animal requests every day, ranging from abandoned litters and injured cats to stray and abandoned dogs. Just go here.

Yeah. How much more do you have.

I can go fast. Yeah.

We better close it off at this point. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah. He said next time sign up two of your people. All right. I appreciate that. All right. My next speaker card is Tanika Drake.

Hello, good evening, Madam Mayor and Vice Mayor and Council. I just wanted to come up here and talk about health services and programming. So last year I put on the Ignite a New Start Reclaim Your Power Summit. And this year, I'm going to be doing it again. And earlier this year, I was going to put on a health fair. And I ran into some major barriers. I was unable to do that. There were challenges with the amount that it costs to host that. And if I want to do mobile units, That's not happening. So I said, OK, well, I can't do the health fair in April. Let me try to do it for October. I'm still running into barriers. So I was like, OK. So I'm working on my community health worker certification. I've gone through the modules and all of that. And one of the things is to bring services to my community and I'm running into barriers. So I'm hoping the city can be able to make it easier for those not just nonprofits but community members such as myself to be able to bring those services to our community since we don't have a lot of those services when their mobile units come down or when people want to come down and partner with us. Sometimes they run into barriers as well. And if I go to South Mountain Phoenix they're like oh you can come over here we'll do it for free. I was like, really? I don't want to take those services from this community up there because they can do it for free at that library. I don't live there. But if they're willing to, sometimes people will go. And we already have leakage of money and all that stuff going out. I don't want to do that. I want to keep it right here because I'm a resident. I live here. I don't live there. And so I'm hoping that the city can find a way to bridge that gap so we can come together, bring services to what our residents need, community members need, And some of the things that I'm finding out now, some services that we have, like the Navigators, I didn't even know they were here, but they've been here for a year, and it'd be great if we could have partnerships like that for all of our residents to be able to access, because there are so many different services that are here, that are outside of our community, and nobody knows about them. So my ask is just that the city would make it easier or find some way to make it easier for those people like myself and other organizations to bring health services and programming to our city so our residents can benefit from those and we don't go outside of our city to somewhere else because I live here and those residents live here too.

Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Matt, who would be the best person for her to connect with?

I can talk with her real quick.

Okay, that'd be great. Just get the details, figure out if there is, okay, perfect. All right, that's the end of my speaker cards. Would anyone else like to approach the podium? Please, come forward. Ah, you guys learn fast. Please state your name.

My name is Brittany. I am the founder of Little Whiskers Animal Rescue. I'm probably familiar to a lot of you, as I bug you a lot, so I'm sorry. I would like to finish off where we left with our letter. The demand for animal welfare services is undeniable. A community pet microchip scanner was recently installed by Little Whiskers And within the past three months alone, it was scanned 58 times, either reuniting animals or knowing that there was a scanner in place. That does not include animals that did not have a microchip, and we do have resources for them at that kiosk to avoid going to shelters and local rescues. The residents of Maricopa have done their part. They have reported concerns, volunteered their time, donated their money, supported local resources, and gathered more than 10,000 signatures seeking relief. The question is, what can we do at this point? We urge you to take immediate steps towards establishing animal shelter services in Maricopa and to provide our community with a clear plan for addressing the crisis. We are requesting a meeting with the mayor and the council to seek a solution and continued inaction is not a solution. We'd also like to announce the official launch of our new project called the Maricopa Shelter Project, which is going to be founded by Little Whiskers and supported by the community. And we hope that we can get the city on board. And I think it's time. I think we're overdue for the animals that need us in Maricopa. And I can say on behalf of Little Whiskers, we're exhausted. between cats, dogs, even if you're not an animal person, it's the humanity that you're supposed to do for the animals in your community. Cats can be a nuisance, dogs can be a nuisance, which we help in all different matters. It's not just adopting and taking them in. There's a lot that goes behind the scenes, so we'd like, if possible, to sit with all of you and show you our plan and go through and see what we can do to help the community.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to approach the podium? Yes, please state your name.

Of course. Why would I pass the opportunity up? I am Tori Anderson. So Mayor Smith and council, thank you for allowing me to be here tonight. I'm here on behalf of Open Arms Vocational Living Center. Just in case you didn't know, we have a fundraiser on June 27th at Duke's Roadhouse. It starts at 6 PM. We still do have some tickets available, but I wanted to make sure that people knew that if you were on the fence about purchasing a sponsorship, Now is the time to mosey on over to our Facebook page, which is Vocational, Open Arms Vocational Living Center. Click on that link, and now is your opportunity to purchase that sponsorship. Or tickets are $100. So it's an amazing event. The funds go to our building funds for our young men who have, some of them aged out of foster care and are currently homeless on our streets. They are under the bridges, they are couch surfing with friends. Last year we had 20 young men. In January we took care of a young man who Against Abuse helped with because he was homeless, honors student, already admitted to college, already had his dorm paid for, and yet he wanted to make it to the next three months so that he could graduate with his other friends and students. And it's, you know, this would give young men like that an opportunity to thrive and become leaders in our community. So I hope you'll join us on June 27th at Duke's Roadhouse at 6 p.m. Again, you can text me at 520-560-3665, and I can send you the link, and you can purchase those tickets that you have been on the fence about. Now is the time to do it, and I look forward to seeing you. And of course, it's Western attire. So I hope that my clown shirt gets the attention. So thank you so much for your time. And I wanted to again thank the council because you have all supported this event and it is dear to my heart as a mother of sons. So and as a former student teacher and board member I know the impact of these homeless young men against abuse does take care of the young women. We take them into shelter. And that way, they're able to continue their education. But we don't have anything for the young men. Those are our future fathers, future leaders. And so now is the time for us to be able to start that building fund and have a building that will be safe, warm, and teach them some life skills and the vocational skills they need to build their own tiny home, which they can then live in. So that's the ultimate goal here. So join me June 27th at Duke's Roadhouse. We will have a few tickets available at the door, but I'm only going to reserve a few. So other than that, we are set to sell out. So get your tickets or your sponsorships now. And again, you can text me, 520-560-3665, and I can send you more information. So thank you. Perfect timing, right?

That is perfect timing. All right, would anyone else like to approach the podium? seeing none i will close the call to the public that'll take us to the consent agenda items this evening we have seven one through seven dot fourteen and i do have a request from myself and council member lehrman to pull just for conversation item seven dot nine and seven dot eleven so council if you don't mind if we start with those two because i think we'll put them back into the full consent agenda So 7.9, I'd like to start with that one first. And is that the, is that Chief Goodman? 7.9? Yeah. Okay, perfect.

Good evening, Mayor Smith and member of council. I'm Mark Goodman and I serve as your police chief. So thank you, Mayor and Council Member Learman, for giving me a heads up in reference to the item that you wanted to pull and some of the questions you had. And so in anticipation of that, I put together a very short PowerPoint that I think may help bring context to the IGA or the renewal of the IGA, and then hopefully answer some of those questions. And of course, at the end, I'll be available to take any questions that you may have. So just for context, I wanted to give some broad overview about some animal control statistics and Little Whiskers was spot on with their statistics, 2024. We had 856 animal control related calls, 2025, 804. So for a total of 1,660. The annual, the average annual shelter costs for the police department out of our budget has been around 17,000 to 18,000 per year for the last two years. So the costs have been very consistent over the last two years. Our current shelter resource is Pinal County Animal Care and Control Facility located in the city of Casa Grande. So part of the IGA that we're asking for consideration of approval this evening, it does have a new fee structure. And I highlighted some of the key changes. So for dogs, on the first day, there's a $115 fee. That went up by $35. The daily maintenance fee is $35. There was no change there. The quarantine fee in the new IGA will be $250. That's actually a $50 reduction from the IGA that we currently have in place, and the owner's surrender is $25. There's no change to that in the new IGA. For cats, the first day is $85. That is an increase of $50. for the new IGA. Daily maintenance is $15, no change there in the new IGA. The quarantine fee in the new IGA is $225, that is a $75 reduction from the current one. And the owner surrender is now, it will be $15 and that's a $10 reduction. So there were some increases and some corresponding decreases. The most significant change in our new IGA puts a 50% city responsibility for the care of animals that are injured or require veterinary care or other necessary services in cruelty, neglect, or abuse cases. And so I went back historically for the last two years to see what these costs may be, because we don't know what these costs are going to be year over year. There may be times when we don't respond to any of these calls, and there may be times when we respond to a number, an unknown number of these calls. So the last two years, we've had a total of two cases that fall under this category, and in those two cases, we impounded a total of three animals. We didn't pay for the care because it wasn't in the IGA at the time, but moving forward, we'll be responsible for 50% of those costs. We're gonna track those costs related to those items. And then if we need to do a budget increase moving forward, of course, we'll look at about doing that. So based upon our analysis, it's our belief, the PD team's belief that our FY27 budget is sufficient based on our current usage and the fee schedule. The fees do not increase over the life of the new IGA agreement. There's no large fluctuation expected under normal impound activity, and there's no separate cap. What we get charged is based on volume and case type. Those are the main variables. So MPD, animal control, we only respond inside the city of Maricopa. We don't go into the unincorporated area. We don't go into the county. It has to be in the same geographical area that our police officers would respond to. So that's the incorporated area of the city of Maricopa. Shelter costs in Curtin Pinal County are tied only to Maricopa animals. So we're only paying for the animals that we end up taking over to the shelter. And in the three years I've been the police chief, we have not had any discussions with Pinal County in reference to moving animal care and control facilities or the ability to have facilities farther west into Pinal County. Of course, we're always open to those conversations about ways to improve the service with Pinal County or nonprofit partners who may be interested in engaging in that. And with that, I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you very much. Council Member Lehman, I'll let you go first. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chief. I appreciate that information and the update on the fee schedule. If you could go back to the fee schedule really quickly, please. Is a 48-hour quarantine required when we submit an animal?

There are different quarantine periods based upon different scenarios. We try to work with animal owners to try to do self-quarantine of their animals so that we can avoid any fees whatsoever. We've been pretty successful with that. We only take the animals there for quarantine in extreme cases where owners are unable to care for their own animals and do a quarantine. A good example is like an animal bite. If an owner is able to safely keep his or her own animal, we're going to help them do that. So the animal doesn't end up in the shelter to begin with.

Okay. That was my question. So you're saying it is not. Common that a dog would be five hundred dollars for a 48-hour quarantine that could happen, but it would be unusual It could happen.

It would just depend on the totality of circumstances But we really try to work with the owners and other parties to try to avoid, you know those types of fees For everybody involved.

Okay. Thank you very much Thank you. OK, so you've answered some of my questions. I wanted to know how is this different than previous years and you're saying it's pretty stable. You also answered. Is there a cap and there's not a cap in regards to how many animals you take to the animal shelter? What would you do if the fees for quarantine and such exceed the amount that you have budgeted? Do you have? How would you handle that?

Well, I don't foresee that happening based upon the historic. Simply stated, I would work with our finance department to move existing funds within my operating budget to make that happen.

Very good. That's what I figured you would say. And how do you ensure that the animals are actually from the city limits? Is there a way to do that? Or it sounds very difficult to me, but it's based on whose home you go to, where you pick the animal up, that type of thing?

Well, we don't respond to locations outside of the incorporated borders of the city of Maricopa. Of course, animals don't recognize borders, and so they may wander into our city. And so what we try to do first is reunite animals with their owners. And so recently, the police department purchased brand new scanners so that we have the ability to scan animals that we come across within the city limits to see if we can reunite them with their owners. If not, I know that Luke Sicardi, our animal control officer, has relationships with Little Whiskers and some other nonprofits and some other community members who are very passionate about this topic. And so we really do make an effort to try not to use the shelter. The shelter is a last resort for us. It's available to us if we need it, and that's why we have the IGA, so that if we need to use it, we can, but we try to avoid it if the possibility exists.

Very good. Alright, let's talk a little bit about Pinal County Chief. When did you take this under your direction? The animal control? How long has it been?

It's I became the police chief in January of 2023 and it has always been under the police department. Very good.

So so I love the fact that you're open to discussions because for whatever reason we have had conversations with Pinal counties. supervisor Vidiello and the county manager and the animal control department. Last I remember two years ago, we talked about them walking away and doing some research in terms of what can be done here in the area. I'm just saying area because Western Pinal County has a serious need for animal control. They were going to go off and do some research. I did not hear back, but I know that Council Member Lehrman has set up a meeting so that we can continue those conversations. And so I would love to include you as well. I think that's going to be important and I apologize for some reason you weren't included two years ago when we had those conversations. I think it's very important and I think it needs to be some type of a partnership. I'm not sure what that looks like. It could be with a nonprofit. It could be a lot of different scenarios. But I do feel like we need to continue that conversation. It's very important to our residents. The reason I bring this up is because July 1st Santan Valley Takes over responsibility for so many of the things that the county has been covering So to me that says hey it frees up money Bring an animal shelter over to the west side. So Supervisor video you already have my thinking in mind but That's where I'm coming from because we all pay the same taxes for animal control in Pinal County and I would like to see west side Pinal County benefit from the taxes that we pay without having to travel an hour to two hours to get to an animal shelter. Okay, so thank you for being open to that conversation. Additional comments, questions? Yes, Council Member Lehrman.

Chief can you describe the strain I don't mean to use that word in a negative way at all but can you describe what it takes for Luke to travel to Casa Grande and the time and expenses and that kind of thing.

Yeah, this is just about an hour drive. And then he has to do a warm handoff with someone at the shelter. And then we do have some challenges sometimes on the weekends with trying to deal with animal control issues that may arise. We made an effort to cross train our police service aides for weekends so that we can respond to some lower level animal control calls for service so that we can better serve our community members. but it just can be sometimes a little bit of a logistics challenge. And so, you know, we're pretty well versed at overcoming challenges. That's what we do at the police department. And so, yeah, it can be, it can sometimes be a little cumbersome, but that's kind of where we're at right now. And we do the best with the resources that Pinal County has.

Thank you. Council Member Knorr. Thank you, Mayor. Hi, Chief. Thank you for this. Do we know what the justification was by Pinell County for these increases?

No, I don't have that information.

Okay. And is this a standard fee rate across the county for all jurisdictions or is this specifically for Maricopa?

No, it applies to all jurisdictions. It applies to all jurisdictions? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. But they didn't give any justification for their increases? Because they're like pretty substantial.

Yeah, I can't opine as to why they raised the rates at all. I don't have any information on that. I don't want to speculate.

I'll ask my supervisor.

Thanks.

Very good. Thank you, Council Member Knorr. Council Member Marsh.

Chief, in the stupid question department, this sounds like a cat and dog operation. What do you do with exotic pets like owls and snakes and kangaroos and tigers and so forth?

We handle them with care. Thank you.

All right. Any additional comments, questions? No. Uh, okay. So we'll put that one back into the consent agenda. Um, at this point, I don't think we have any council members who want to pull it for a separate vote. That'll take us. Thank you, chief. Thank you. Thank you very much. That'll take us to item 7.11, which to me is a success story, which is why I pulled it. I'm sure it's why council mayor Lehrman pulled it. And, um, this is regarding the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Maricopa and Pinal County for Arizona at work. And oh, thank you very much. I wasn't sure who was going to speak on that one. We'd love to hear all about it and what benefits it brings our residents.

Well, good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. Do you guys have any specific things that you wanted to ask about? Just the benefits.

I thought it was worthwhile for our residents to be able to hear what exactly this brings. And I think it's a super success story in regards to a partnership. Or you have a different name, I think, for partnerships. But yeah, I think it's a super- The list of services.

What was it? The list of services that are provided.

The list of services is what we're looking for, yes. Okay.

So the purpose of this agreement is to establish the library as an Arizona at Work access point. So Arizona at Work, they provide several resources to job seekers. They have, let's see, I want to make sure I get all this right. So they have resume writing assistance, job search assistance, career development coaching. They can help identify and remove barriers to employment, and then assistance with filing unemployment insurance, things like that. They also help with VA and disabled, helping them establish resources and finding work. very prominent in that actually with Arizona at Work. It also gives the city of Maricopa a chance to be on, they have a website, the workforce development website and everything. It gives us a chance to be noticed as an access point. So it makes it simple for job seekers and unemployment issues and things like that to be solved and they know where to come to get it. gives them access to computers, which a lot of times they might not have. That's a big part of it. Very good. And will they have posted hours, or is this on appointment only? No, we're going to start with some posted hours. We've established, we're kind of establishing a trial in the fact that we want to see how well this does before we go crazy. So we're looking at a couple hours a week. They will have a dedicated career coach come in and be available during those those hours. The appointment situation they are Arizona at work is working on expanding their ability to do that. They don't have a huge range of that right now. I think it's just a matter of workforce that they just don't have that many. But this, it gives the opportunity for the community to just walk in.

Very good. Councilman Lehrman additional questions?

Thank you so much Angela for your work on this project and thank you to Supervisor Vitiello because I know he also worked on this project so thank you so much for bringing this to Maricopa. We all know in the room it can be difficult to find a job in Maricopa and so Arizona at Work what they do is they partner with companies who are looking for employees and then they match employees looking for work. They're an amazing company. I'm very familiar with them and so I'm very grateful for this project to be coming to Maricopa. I think it'll be a huge win for our community. So thank you very much.

Absolutely. Thank you. Any other questions?

Yeah, thank you. Any additional questions, comments? All right, thank you very much. OK, so we will put 7-11 back into the lineup of consent agenda items. That's 7-1 through 7-14. Do I have a motion? So moved. So moved by Councilmember Learman and seconded by Councilmember Marsh. Last opportunity for questions, comments. Yes, Vice Mayor.

The gentleman that spoke a couple minutes ago he left though, but the on this consent agenda is Buffalo Wild Wings and some boros Putting in applications for their liquor licenses And if you haven't noticed their work is starting on on Buffalo Wild Wings and some boros Which is makes really good Mexican food. I used to eat when I was up in Tempe and I was already across from them and So those are two restaurants coming to the city of Maricopa. So we are working really hard to bring restaurants and shopping and grocery stores and all that stuff to the city of Maricopa. And I'm sure Josh told that gentleman everything about that. But if you have any questions with it, reach out to Josh. He likes talking to people.

Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. That was a perfect opportunity to pull in his comments and to share some interesting things that are on consent agenda associated with his comments. Okay, seeing no additional comments, questions, I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. All right, that'll take us on to our regular agenda. Tonight we'll start with item 8.1. This is a resolution dealing with the request to amend fee structure. And hi, Rocky, and hi, how are you? Very good. We look forward to your presentation.

Yeah, glad to be here. Rocky Brown, Parks and Recreation Director, and with me I have Misty Bitter, our Recreation Manager. We're actually going to present on 8.1 and 8.2 because they both go together. But we are here for new rates and policy adjustments, and it's very exciting because The Fieldhouse at Copper Sky is getting ready to come on board. So we have just a quick couple of little updates on that. Is it on? There you go. There we go. Okay. Yep. So the Fieldhouse at Copper Sky is that big building north of the multi-generational center that is getting closer and closer to opening every day. We've got some progress photos. These are actually a couple weeks old, but I think my most exciting day was when the basketball hoops came in, and they are now all installed and up there. We have all the HVAC systems and the roof infrastructure done, which was very important because we needed to get those lifts off the concrete so we could install the flooring, which actually just started today. To the right there, we have a lobby, we call it a tournament lobby, and that's going in nicely, all the mill works going in for the tournament desks there, and then we've also been prepping to pave the parking lot, so we are entering the home stretch over the summertime, and we're getting excited about opening it for the community. With that being said, we need to establish some rates and fees for the facility. While we were doing that, we reviewed our last resolution and saw that some stuff maybe had fallen off, or there were some other new amenities like Mike Ingram Heritage Park that we also wanted to include and get that in our resolution. And then tweaking some of our policies to kind of make our places more inviting to the public. With that being said, I want to turn the time over to Misty, because Misty and her team did a lot of research on the fees and rates that we're going to present to you, and she's going to walk through those with you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you guys so much for having us. I get to focus on sharing all the research and planning that did take place behind the scenes. And as we prepared for this facility, it was to not only help determine the recommendations that Rocky is going to go over today, but to help us understand all the things that this facility is about to bring to our community. So as we were preparing, we wanted to make sure that we approached it with intention, right? Not just from a financial and a court rental point of view, but from a community point of view and a long-term community point of view. So before these recommendations were finalized, the recreation team did spend a significant amount of time researching comparable facilities throughout Arizona and the US and we actually researched more than 25 comparable facilities everything from other municipal facilities to private indoor sports complexes we looked at school gymnasiums and in doing so we made sure to evaluate the well, the rental rates, of course, but we also looked at membership options, day pass options. We looked at peak versus non-peak hours of operations, staffing options, basically every aspect that we could think of to help us get a really good understanding of what successful facilities are doing well versus what some of the challenges are that they might be facing. And honestly, one of the biggest takeaways that we found is that there really is no one size fits all model. A lot of the successful facilities tend to adjust based off of their own community demand, as well as their own program priorities and opportunities. So we wanted to make sure that our facility remains accessible and valuable to our community. So in doing that, while we did take a look at competitiveness and sustainability, we made very sure that our resident access, community usability, and our youth programming would remain front and center. And one of the exciting things that we wanted to share with you guys today is that the doors aren't even open yet, but the community demand is already there and it's growing. So Taylor Yon, she's our reservations coordinator, she's already had conversations with several outside organizations who all want to know what this facility is going to do for their programs. She has schools reaching out for their sports programs. She has club organizations reaching out. She's had conversations with people wanting to run camps and clinics for our youth. And that's all, of course, in addition to our own growing rec sports programs. So what that early demand is telling us is what everyone here already knows. This facility is about to fulfill some very important needs that our community has. Now, in addition to that, behind the scenes while we were developing or preparing operationally, the coordinators over membership, athletics, and reservations have all been working very closely together. They've been working to develop the program structures and schedules. They've been working to develop staffing plans and basically focusing on workflow operations because we obviously wanna make sure that when we open on day one, we're gonna do so as organized and user-friendly as possible. A few other things that we would like to mention is that, oh, let me go back one. This one right there, oh, there it is. So the reservations coordinator has also been working to develop the allocation guide for this indoor facility. She's been collaborating closely with our athletics department and their goal is to create a shared success plan. So what that looks like is a success plan that will offer the resources that our own recreation sports program need to be able to continue to support their growth while at the same time being able to offer some resources to these outside organizations to come into this quality indoor space and be able to offer that program to develop theirs as well. With that, we're going to go ahead and also note that we've already presented the draft fees to our Parks and Rec Advisory Committee. That was back in March, and although they did have to answer some clarifying questions, we actually didn't get any negative feedback or pushback. The required 60-day public posting has also already been completed, and we've also reached out to several of those outside organizations to help get as much feedback as we possibly can. Now, I've talked quite a bit about successful facilities and what that looks like, And we're excited because for us that has come to be so much more than court rental fees and extra court space, right? We're talking about the opportunities that this facility is about to bring to our community. The ones I've already talked about from our own youth rec sports programs to be able to continue to support the growth that they're doing successfully. the opportunities for these outside organizations to have that year-round space to be able to develop their programs as well. But we're all getting excited about the bigger picture, right? The bigger picture of the opportunity for youth development programs. The opportunity for these sporting events and tournaments to be able to come in and what that's going to bring to our community in activities and visitors and that community exposure. So we're getting really excited for the economic impact that that's going to have on our local businesses and our local hotels and restaurants. And we know that the Fieldhouse of Copper Sky is positioned. It's going to become both a community asset and a regional destination for recreation. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and pass it back to Rocky.

Right, let's go ahead and dig into some of these fees. So the first spreadsheet you'll see up there is our proposed fee for the field house at Copper Sky. How they're laid out from left to right is the local business rate or the base rate is on that left column. Our nonprofit and resident rate is the middle, and then our business rate is on the far right. And by policy, that's 200% of that base rate fee. But as you can see, we have one kind of classroom space over at the field house, and that's comparable to our classrooms over at the Copper Sky MultiGen Center. And so we've kept that rate the same as what the multi-gen center is. I will say these are new fees. Nothing is increasing. So that is not a headline. We're not increasing any fees, just establishing new ones. You can see that if you're an adult group and you're a resident, you're looking to rent a basketball court, it's about $50 per hour. if you're a youth group it would be 44 per hour that places us very competitively with all the research we've done we have a couple other columns there down below that show what other places nearby are going for on that hourly rate and we've tried to be very strategic as a new facility to come in as competitive as possibly and be as affordable as possible especially for some of these groups that are looking to get a new start and a new location and do things like that Just for a frame of reference, if you're looking to do a youth tournament and you want to reserve all four courts, it'd be about $177 per hour. That's about as affordable as anywhere in town. Some of the other places that like the Kroc Center, which is a big tournament facility, they're charging for three courts, $200 an hour. The Marana Recreation Center has three courts. They're about $250 per hour. And that's the same construction company and designer that did our facility. Previously, if you wanted to rent the two courts at the multi-generational center, it was $250 an hour. So you're actually getting four courts for much less than what we used to charge for just those two courts indoors. Couple other things we'll just note at the bottom. If we have a big tournament coming in town and they're using the whole complex and all four courts, we pass on all of our direct fees, so that's why there's a $35 staff fee. We want a staff position in that gym just for crowd control and to monitor things, so we've noted that. And then the other thing I want to, I'd explain and talk about is a gate fee. This is something similar when I used to work in Gilbert, we rolled out at Cactus Yards. So why gate fees are important when you get into the tournament business and this is for tournaments only. This isn't for our Saturday City of Maricopa Youth Leagues, the volleyball and basketball. This is just the tournaments. Tournament promoters will come in and they will kind of charge whatever they want to unless you have something established. It's very common to pay 10, 15, $20 per day to go to some of these big tournaments. My wife and I once traveled to Florida for a cheer competition and it was $50 per day per person for four days. If you don't establish something, the tournament promoters will go and just kind of charge whatever they can because they got you. And that really actually reflects poorly on the facility because when that person comes to the door and they pay this huge fee, they jump on and leave a Google review at the Fieldhouse of Copper Sky. I can't believe how much they charge and we just don't want that to happen. The other thing we want to do is when a tournament comes to town, we want to make sure our local residents that paid taxes to build the facility don't have to pay to enter. So they'd be exempt from any gate fees that a tournament promoter would put on. Something we did at Cactus Yards, our local Gilbert residents loved it. Even if they were coming to some big national tournament, they didn't have to pay to get in because they're a local resident. They just show an ID or pull something on their phone with their address. and then it also wouldn't apply to those participants that are walking in that are playing in the games the referees things that it would just be for those out of town visitors we want to keep it very low five dollars is pretty much the lowest you'll see if you go to a tournament and we just want to be able to control that and make sure the image of our of our facility reflects positively for everybody that comes and visit even if they're coming from out of state Now, that being said, with those new rates we're proposing for the multi-gen center, we want to match those fees up at the field house. And so we're actually lowering our gym rental fee at the multi-gen center to match that fee. And just how courts work, the basketball court is the biggest square footage. So that starts with the highest fee. It shrinks down for volleyball and shrinks down for pickleball. They just take up less space. So we've kind of just tried to scale them properly. But these fees just match the field house fees, which are actually lowering what we've been charging at the multi-gen center. So memberships, we get asked a lot about memberships. Copper Sky MultiGen is obviously a membership facility. So what are we going to do when this field house comes online? Because we fully intend to offer times of open gym volleyball, open gym basketball, open gym pickleball. So what can we do? So we've just decided it's just easier and best that if you're a Copper Sky member, you can access the field house at no extra cost. It's just included with your membership. If you just are a basketball player and you want to just go play basketball at the field house, we've basically taken all the multi-gen center fees and cut them in half and they're half of what the multi-gen center fee is so if you just want to use that facility is great by establishing these fees it's also not going to limit us from programming or offering like a free youth night or things like that we just were trying to balance the two facilities and get them to be cohesive all the notes on the side those are all just existing policies for membership at copper sky right now we just want to just line them up and make sure people have access to both facilities in kind of a fair and equitable way. All right, a few other kind of cleanup items that we saw. Back in 2019, we had a fee for our DG path or the running path around Copper Sky Park. We also used to have a disc golf fee to use our disc golf course. Those fell off over time and we'd like to bring them back and just try to maybe attract some big runs or races or even some disc golf tournaments. That's becoming very popular right now and people have reached out to us about it. And since that fee dropped off, we haven't been able to help those people out. These two fees, if you decide to do a disc golf tournament, we're not shutting down the entire park. Same with the run. You don't get exclusive use to the whole park. You just kind of have to work around whatever, like soccer games or events could be going on. But we'd hope to attract some of these things. We're actually, you guys approved an item to improve our disc golf course. We have a sponsorship that was lined up. And so we're hoping with these improvements and suggestions for the community, we can attract some of those tournaments to town. Another item that was on the 2019 resolution that somehow dropped off was we had a parking lot fee. It wasn't very clearly defined. It was a small parking lot fee and a large parking lot fee. We've actually kind of refined that and defined a small parking lot. It's five to 125 spaces. A large parking lot fee would be 125 plus. That would pretty much be that south lot at Copper Sky. It's pretty much our only place that's that big. But this would be great if somebody wants to put an event on maybe a car show We have people that will run out the parking lot to do like motorcycle training classes Obviously, we're not going to do it when other big events are going on but we just want to give people the opportunity to rent this space that they're seeking out from the city and These rates all match what the past 2019 rates were so they're not increasing. We're just basically reestablishing them and And then this is a new program that we came up with. So I know if you're aware, but right now food trucks, totally legal. They can take one parking stall. If you go out to Copper Sky on a Saturday or a weeknight, you'll see them set up. They set up shop in those stalls. We love it. They can continue to do that. It's great. But some of the times we go out there and we're like, this is probably not the best experience for the food truck because they're using that one stall, but they can't stage their lines. They're usually trying to park next to like a tree well. and people are dodging branches and things like that, and we're like, hey, we love having the food trucks here, and they're totally fine, they can keep doing that, but what if we made a better experience and identified a couple good locations throughout the park where they could maybe take up a few stalls, be right next to the soccer fields, or be right next to the entry of the new field house that's coming online, or maybe right by the aquatic center, and we can... basically create these vendor fees spaces for them with this vendor fee where they can use those places and give a better experience for them and kind of get some more notoriety. Also that food truck thing limits to just food trucks. So we have other vendors, maybe they want to come and sell sports equipment or some other arts and crafts. This would be something that they could set up and we think would be beneficial to everybody that use the parks. A couple other things, just cleanup items. The Ramadas at Lakeview Park weren't on the last resolution. We have two Ramadas over there, so we just wanted to get those added in. These rates match the existing small Ramada rates. Same as Mike Ingram Heritage Park. We obviously have an amphitheater there and a Ramada. We basically priced the Ramada, sorry, the amphitheater at Mike Ingram Heritage Park at the same rate that the amphitheater at the library has. They're about the same geographic size. We just thought they would line up nicely and be about the same rate. And then we added the Willow Art Studio. That one just didn't have a rate established prior. Doesn't mean it's gonna get rented out all the time. We just wanted to clean that up and make sure that got included in this chance that we brought. Okay, so for item 8.2, we had a couple policy revisions. This one is just basically a cleanup that we were able to previously, if a large tournament was coming to town and we thought it would be a good economic impact for the city, that we could give it a better rate, basically the resident rate. Now we're finding with some of these interests that it's not just sports tournaments that want to come to town. So we just wanted to add some language that said sports tournaments or other bookings. We have interests from martial arts and wrestling and some of these other things would be more like an event. And so we'd like to be able to extend that to them. Rock and mineral gem shows are really big and popular. So we just want to be able to see if there's a good opportunity for the city. We have an opportunity to offer those same things that we're doing for our tournaments. And then the other revision, this is just, we've added that red to the end that says this section does not apply to nonprofit organizations. Previously it did. So what we were limited to before a nonprofit was able to basically come in and do one fundraising event per year where they could charge an admission fee for it, but they were only allowed to do it once. Well, that was really limited to them. If they want to do something over or more like, more times than just one time in a calendar year. So we've kind of excluded that, and then residents still have that that are just normal renters, but if they start doing fundraising events over and over again and they're not a nonprofit, they'd probably shift to our business fee. So this is just kind of a cleanup to make sure we have lots of nonprofits that wanna come and do an event and do fundraising throughout the year, so we wanna give them that opportunity. Sorry, that's a lot of information, but just to kind of summarize, so we have our additions to Copper Sky to match the Fieldhouse additions. We've also done those membership adjustments to make sure that those two facilities are in line, added on Mike Ingram Heritage Park and these minor policy adjustments. And with that, we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Wow, great job, Rocky and Misty. Council, what questions, comments do you have? Yes, Council Member Marsh.

Rocky, you did all this work, your team did all this work, and you did your regular jobs at the same time.

We have a very, very good team at Copper Sky. Misty and her team and some of the coordinators that are here work very diligently on this.

This is a lot of very detailed work. Congratulations on it.

Thank you, Council Member Marsh. Council Member Learman.

Thank you so much. This is so exciting for our community. I'm thinking of all the groups that are really excited about this coming. So thank you for all the hard work you're doing. I know it's just going to be amazing. So there is not a snack bar in the Fieldhouse. We're going to have food trucks available. Is that what you're saying?

Mayor, members of council, yes. So we have concessioned, concessioned, sorry, vending machines basically by our same provider that's in the multi-generation center. But, you know, a vending machine only has kind of small candy bars and things like that. So we'd like to have

Food trucks there especially for people that are there all day Saturday Sunday for a tournament and they can't get away because their kids might have games going back-to-back We want to establish some places where these vendors could said I don't hate the food truck idea I think it'll be great and I'm also just envisioning pop-up kiosks for non-food items flowers other things that parents can buy their athletes after a tournament day and So I'm excited to talk to you both about that opportunity as well. And I just want to thank you again for all of your hard work. I know it's going to pay off and be amazing for our community.

Thank you, Council Member Lehrman. Council Member Knorr.

Thank you Mayor. Thank you Rocky and Misty. I want to echo what Councilwoman Lehrman said specifically about the vendor changes that you've made in this proposal. I think you really thought we're forward thinking and trying to incorporate the community and the needs and how can we really make this the best for everybody for our small businesses for the folks that are attending these events who want to have to be able to buy things or be able to go shop in the parking lot while they're waiting for their child's game or whatever it is. So I really do like how creative you were and thinking about all of the different aspects and how we can really utilize our city facilities to the best of our ability, you know, in incorporating our community and our businesses. So I'm so pleased with those changes. So thank you so much for that. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Councilman Renard.

Yes.

Oh, he's asking when is it scheduled to open?

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, we are targeting late September.

Late September.

Yep, late September.

Very good, very good.

And we will get an official date out as, we're basically nervous, the flooring's gotta go well, it's going very well, but in case something pops up, we're tentatively planning September.

Very good. So Rocky and Misty, I want to definitely give accolades to your team because this is above and beyond what I was expecting in terms of rates. You have done a great job thinking somewhat out of the box from what we've done in the past and offering a lot of opportunities. First, I really applaud your work with the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee. The fact that they approved it and saw all of the evidence that you provided and you worked your way to an agreement with them. I love that because those committees are our way to connect with our residents. Their duty is to go off and connect with residents. And so I love that they were buying into the concept. Point of clarification, I love that you're protecting our residents. Is that like during a tournament and parents want to come watch their child who's in a tournament, they will not be charged a fee?

Mayor, yes, that's correct. So if you're a Maricopa resident and you've basically paid to build the facility, even if it's a big national tournament, you can show us your ID and get in for free.

I love that because I saw lots of heads shaking here and out there in regards to how much it cost us as parents and grandparents. to go watch these tournaments. It's crazy and it's a daily fee. So thank you for protecting our residents who do pay for this facility. I had one question in regards to, and it wasn't on your slides, but I saw copper, bronze, and iron and I had a hard time figuring out how I'm supposed to interpret that. Yeah, if you have a great answer, I'd love to hear it, but you didn't bring it up in your presentation.

Well, those are the different membership tiers for Copper Sky. So like Copper is like an annual membership where they probably get the best deal. Bronze goes a little bit down from that, and then Iron is like a monthly membership.

Okay, that helps a lot because I did not pick that up in the presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you for re-upping on the senior, veteran, and youth discount rates. I love that. Let me see what else. I love the new policy in regards to nonprofits being able to do multiple fundraisers. Thank you very much. When we first went through that and talked about one event, it was easy to understand why we would want to start with that, but I love that you've improved on that policy. Thank you very much, and I love that you've worked out understanding that for tournaments, a base rate is a good way to start. or actually handle each situation. So thank you. Just so much above and beyond what I expected to hear tonight. And so I want to congratulate you as well. And hopefully I'll congratulate you with a passing of this. But thank you very much. Any additional comments, questions? Yes, Council Member Noor.

Thank you, mayor. I do have one more question. Can you bring up the rates? I just have a question about, so we have different categories and so there's a business rate, but there's also a resident and nonprofit rate. So let's say I am a resident business owner. How does that work?

Mayor, vice mayor, members of council, that's a good question. So here would be a resident business. Is that what you asked about?

Yes, like, because it says, so let's just say multipurpose A, the dry room. The resident and nonprofit rate is $35 an hour. Yeah. The local business and base rate is 54. But like, let's say I own a business, but I'm a local resident. can I pay 35 or do I get penalized and I have to pay $54 just because I'm a business owner?

I guess it would be what your intent is. So if you're going to use that room for business purposes, like you're going to charge people to come in and do like a, informational session or something like that, then you're connecting business on site. If you're just running it for your child's birthday party, then you're a resident and you're obviously not doing anything business purpose-wise. So it just depends on the purpose. And we would ask people that if they're coming in to do that. Hopefully they're always honest and saying, you know, I'm showing up here to make money off people, but I am a resident, you'd pay that rate. But if it's just, you know, a gathering, a meeting, something non-business related, you'd pay that non-resident, or sorry, that nonprofit or resident rate. Okay.

I think, yeah, I think maybe if we can have some more clarity around that, I think it would be helpful. Because I do want to make sure that our residents are getting the benefit of the resident rate. So, yeah, just some more clarity around that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman or vice mayor.

Great job. I love it. The center is going to be a wonderful addition to our city. Something I've talked about in the past is something that was just kind of discussed. Having proposed resident rates and business rates drives me nuts. I run a business here in the city of Maricopa. I rent libraries sometimes, I rent some stuff sometimes, and I pay a business rate, but it's for not business. It's for business, but I'm not charging people to walk in, but I'm still paying a business rate for providing a service to the city of Maricopa. And it's a free service, but I'm still paying a business rate, even though I'm a resident. Even crazier, I pay a higher tax rate as a business to the city of Maricopa, yet I'm paying a higher price just to use the same room as someone else. which drives you crazy sometimes. So for me, I would prefer just a, and I've said it before, Rich has said it before, we've talked about it, I'd prefer just a resident rate and a non-resident rate, in my opinion, I've always been that way, where we can have just a resident rate and a non-resident rate, and if you're a resident and you have a business, you pay the resident rate. If you're a non-resident and you're coming from out of the city and you're throwing a tournament here in the city, you just pay the non-resident rate. I don't like actually giving discounts to organizations that are coming from outside the city into the city. I think they should pay the non-resident rate. They're not paying property tax here. They're not paying a lot of stuff here. So discounting them doesn't make sense to me. What makes sense to me is understanding that a local business here in the city of Maricopa that wants to rent space should pay resident rates. I know, I'm sorry. Just like cold water on everything everybody's talking about.

No, Mayor, Vice Mayor, that's, honestly, our fee, we just followed the current structure that's there for all the facilities right now, and it's, when I came back, I went, wow, this is a very complex chart. of fees so that's actually something that we plan on adding to the scope when we do our master plan for the parks and rec system is to look what other cities have structured it and then come back with some suggestions of the mayor and council on how other people do it because as much as you're an expert on this, imagine somebody calls you on the phone to talk to reservations and we have to explain how the six different fees work and structures and that's Taylor's job right now.

One of my employees actually made that phone call recently. We're hosting a thing next week, and she came to me and said, this is how much it costs. And I'm like, I don't think it costs that much. I think it's cheaper. And she's like, no, we're a business. I'm like, ah. So I had to pay the business rate to rent a room for four hours. And I'm a resident here. All my employees are residents here. But we're still paying a business rate, which is higher than anyone else would pay, for the same room. And we're not charging a door fee to come in. We're not charging money to come in. We're offering a free service to the city of Maricopa. It would be like charging the at-work people to come in. They're offering a nice service. So I think when you look at it that way, Now, I can understand, I do understand that if a business was coming in and they're hosting a large tournament or something like that, I can understand maybe a different free, but the reality is, if they're a resident here, they're paying property taxes, they're paying their taxes here, they're paying their... their their license fee for their cart or a truck or whatever it is you know it's already there so it's baked in to me so I would prefer when you talk about the parks master plan that we simplify it simplify it and bring it to two fees you live here or you don't and that's the fee you pay In my opinion.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, we've actually had those conversations. Thank you. Yeah, that's a great idea.

Yeah. So, Rocky, as you go into that public survey, I think it's going to provide a lot of information. One word of caution, and I can see actually both sides, you don't want businesses to consume our rooms because they're so affordable and they're making a profit. So I don't know if there's a difference between a profit event and a nonprofit event but a service to the city. I'll let you get into that in the survey and we'll figure it out as we go. But just a word of caution. But I actually don't have a worry about that because if I'm correct the rooms are currently not used to the max anyway. So you know I would love to see them use as much as possible without interfering with city

And I agree with you on that one is that we don't need, not we don't need, I don't want to see a business come in and take residency there where they're running their business out of there. I'm talking about events and renting out a whole space or whatever for a one-off event here and there. But I don't want to see a business come in and say, this is my room for the next 30 days. We're not doing that. But the ability for businesses to host events is really cool. And it's something that we should be doing here in the city of Maricopa more of because especially in the city of Maricopa, where businesses have small stores, small places, small buildings and offices, because this just doesn't exist. So having a place where they can come in and do something really cool for the community, like a health fair, or something like that does make sense, and it should be falling under a non-resident rate, which, by the way, I'll pay for the health fair when it comes up. You just tell me the price.

Look at that, Tanika. We found you a solution. I love it.

So we do have to make sure that small businesses here in the city of Maricopa have the ability to do this kind of stuff.

love that's a great discussion you guys it goes back to the work that you've done and that you're still doing so thank you very much one question that came via text just to make clarification the Ramada's are free if not in use and that's very important for our residents to know and understand if they're not in use they are free for your use Would imagine that would be true for a pickleball court or anything that you can walk on that. No one's using Okay, very good. I think that's a good Okay, any additional comments questions? All right. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve motion to approve by councilmember nor do I have a second? seconded by councilmember Marsh last opportunity for comments questions and All in favor, oh, do I have one?

My only additional comment is I'm in favor of approving it, but in the master plan we're gonna look at simplifying it.

Yep, very good, very good. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries, congratulations. That'll take us on to 8.2, which again, Rocky, is that you? Or do we just, same presentation, we just vote on it? Okay, any comments, questions? Because it is a similar topic of what we've all discussed. All right, seeing none. Move to approve. Move to approve by Vice Mayor. And seconded by Council Member Lehrman. Last opportunity for comments, questions. Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? That motion carries. Awesome. That'll take us to item 8.3, which is an annexation discussion, and Rick Williams is our presenter. I have no speaker cards, Rick.

thank you madam mayor members of the council we have a procedural request for you this evening uh... more specifically titled uh... annexation twenty six oh one and what the request is is in accordance with uh... section of our zoning ordinance that requires the city council to initiate any annexation process coming before you to start this evening and in the future. So to be a little more specific about it, we're looking at a subject site that is on the southeast portion of the city, just south of Maricopa-Casagrand Highway. That big, backwards, F-looking shape that's grayed out there would be the Anderson-Russell PAD, which has been in existence since about 2004. And then you can see the hashed out rectangular piece right below it, which is the subject site that we're talking about this evening. Now, again, more specifically, it's generally located a mile south of Maricopa Castle Grand Highway. It's 79.02 acres in size and the parcel number there as well. As I stated in the opening statement, according to our ordinance, staff would require direction from council to initiate the annexation procedures as we move forward. Now, as you can see there, it's a rather lengthy process and I won't go into each one of those, but it's governed by Arizona revised statutes and there's a very specific set of requirements and sequences that you have to meet in that. This would be the formal initiation of that process should you support it this evening. And with that, we're recommending that you do initiate the process and direct staff to initiate the process. Mayor, that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Excellent. Thank you, Rick. Council, questions, comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion? So moved by Council Member Lehrman. Do I have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Wade. Last opportunity for comments, questions. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. That motion carries. Thank you very much, Rick.

Thank you, ma'am.

All right. That takes us to our last item, which is a presentation from our Chief Potassi for the Fire Medical Department.

Yes, good afternoon, Mayor, Council. I always say this is one of my favorite presentations I do all year.

It's one of ours too.

Great opportunity to talk about the great department that we have and kind of take a little journey looking back and a little sneak peek looking forward as well. So last year was a busy year for the fire department. As we see all of our calls for service increased as well as we had a 20% total calls for service increase. And one thing that we're doing now and starting to track more regularly is not only our calls for service, which had an increase from 6,500 calls last year to 6,800 calls this year, but our total calls for service, which is the amount of apparatus needed to respond to a service call, has gone up almost 20%. So we're seeing a steady increase in our calls for service. The other thing I'd like to point to on this slide is our 90th percentile for response times. So we're currently at nine minutes and 14 seconds for 90% of our calls coming in under that mark. So 90% of the time we're gonna arrive on the incident under that mark, 10% of our calls are above that. And in our circumstance, as we've talked about in our past, we haven't built a new fire station since 2013. So it's currently been in our CIP plans for as long as I've been a fire chief to add new fire stations as well as my predecessor. So one thing we want to look at before we get into the timeline for a new fire station is the reason why we have a 90th percentile at a nine minute mark. And if you look at the color coded areas, each color code on that map is that fire station's fire protection zone. So starting on the left side, you have the red zone, which is station 575, the yellow zone, which is 574, and then you have the green zone, which is station 571, which is pretty much from our northern boundary to our southern boundary. Station 572, the fire protection zone, is in orange. So strategically, over the last three, four years, we've been looking at our location for our next fire station, developing the data and trying to come down with a a pinpoint accurate data-driven decision. And station 573 is slated to be in that green zone. And we've already acquired the land for it. It's at the intersection of the Sonoran Parkway and Porter Road. And looking at the data analytics, we are going to cut 571's fire protection zone in half. So that station will have a direct impact on reducing that 90th percentile response times drastically. What does it look like to plan for a fire station? Well, fire station is one of the big projects we have, as you're all well that we're also bringing ambulances online, and we'll talk about that for a moment. But it's a multi-year process looking at our capital improvement plan, but we've already begun the groundwork to work on that. So in this fiscal year, our goal was to acquire land for that station, which we have done. It was city-owned property. It's nine acres, which is more than enough for the three acres we're going to need for the fire station with room for future expansion down the road if we need warehouses, training annex. We have a lot of room for growth, potentially bring in our police partners for some opportunity for that land as well. So we have designs and permits which are going to come next, land prep, which that area we need to bring a lot of infrastructure to do that prep, and then the construction side. As the excitement of our department and the growth of our department, one of our biggest handcuffs right now is hiring firefighters and onboarding them in any length of time. So we are still in the infancy of staffing up for our ambulance service. We've hired our first 12 firefighters. Next fiscal year, we have our second 12 firefighters for the ambulance service. And then we have six firefighters in the following fiscal year just to fully staff the ambulances. Fire stations require 15 firefighters as well. And we're limited on the capacity of how many new firefighters we have coming online at any given time. And so as you see, as we're finishing off our CON hires in the 2027 beginning of 28, then we can start staffing up for a new fire station. So really anything that happened before that, we'd have a beautiful building with no firefighters to staff that. And so I just wanted to show this Gantt chart. We purchased the engine this year, engine 573. That's a three-year build-out. So we are looking very good, if we don't have any interruptions to this plan, on putting on station 573 will be online in 2029.

Chief Patasi, just a point of clarification, because I think it's important for our residents.

We have the training that's required to start this program. Every firefighter is going to get