City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Thank you so much. We have a packed day today, including a joint meeting of the board of supervisors and mayor and council, which I'm really looking forward to. that starts at 12:30 for those of you that are in attendance and and watching at home. Uh, also I wanted to welcome our city clerk, Marissa Stler. Uh, it is her first meeting that she's running for us, so I'm excited about that. Um, I trust that you will lead us in this meeting and um, really keep us on time,

Marissa. Keep us on time because we're talkers over here. So we are going to start uh with item one. Item one is a public power in Tucson options and opportunity. At the request of myself and council member Schubert, uh we've requested that we have a conversation um on um public power in Tucson. So Mr. manager, I know that you have a presentation for us, but I also want to remind the community that this is a conversation that mayor and council have been having. Um, again, a little bit of the history of the work that we're doing in Tucson as mayor and council. Uh, we've been working for the past, uh, five years on a climate action and adaptation plan. And in that climate action plan, Tucson Resilient together, uh we requested, mayor and council requested that we take a look at the uh possibility of public power in Tucson. We have a we invested in a um review and hired a consultant and uh the possibility is there. there's some uh things that we have to consider especially price uh but uh am happy uh I'm happy that mayor and council have been leading in that in that direction and um also we've been having an a conversation as a community with uh the city of Tucson and our chief resilience officer uh about a possibility new franch franchise agreement with T. Uh the community brought to mayor and council the idea of

adding an energy collaboration agreement. Uh this is an idea that San Diego and other cities have been talking about. Uh, an energy collaboration agreement is critically important for me to make sure that we meet the city of Tucson's climate goals and it also defines uh investment by our um energy utility company in our climate action work. So, as of now, unfortunately, because of the Trump administration cutting funds for uh sustainability and climate work, uh one of the possibilities to be able to add funds for our Tucson Resilient Together plan is through the energy collaboration agreement. We've been having conversations with the community, some of you which I see here in the audience and um uh we have been able to um really uh put together an ECA that could potentially lead us in the right direction, creating a bridge uh for the city of Tucson while we take a look at the possibilities of public power in the long term. So, with that, uh again, uh this is uh something that mayor and council have been working together on. I did request that council member Schubert bring this conversation because public power is something that we're all seeing uh the community have. And I wanted to make sure that we presented the facts and figures to the public and then um also present the possibility of mayor and council continuing this conversation, our Tucson resilient

together action plan and uh making sure that we have a path forward. So with that, uh, Council Member Schubert Schubert has requested that we see the, um, the presentation first and then have a conversation amongst mayor and council. So, Mr. Manager, the floor is yours.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Um, the mayor summed it up pretty nicely. We've been working on these matters for a number of years, including uh, outcomes of the Tucson Resilient Together Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Um so today we're providing the overview as requested on public power opportunities in Tucson. Uh the presentation will be given by uh Fatame Luna who's our chief resilience officer who's present online and so she'll be presenting remotely and uh joining me here at the table is Michael Katzaro our energy manager for the city. So um with that um we'll we'll provide the overview and then uh we'll look forward to the conversation here uh with the council. So, uh, Michael has the remote and Fatima, you're online, so I will turn it over, uh, to Fatima Luna.

Honorable mayor, members of the council, can you all hear me? Okay. Yes, council member, we're we're hearing you fine. I mean, well, thank you.

I just gave you I just gave you an unwanted promotion as council member. Well, uh, thank you, mayor, and, um, members of the council for the opportunity to present this update on public power in Tucson. So, this study session is intended to outline the available options, what would be required to pursue them, and the trade-offs associated with each of them. So, this is not a recommendation. It's a landscape overview to support your discussion. Um, next slide. Uh I think it might be it might be the previous one. Sorry. Okay. So um these conversation is driven by community interest. So, we are consistently hearing concerns about uh raising energy costs, a desire for a more long-term rate certainty, interest in aligning our energy uh supply with climate goals, and a broader interest in local control. So, that's um so today's discussion is grounded on on those priorities. Uh next slide, please. So before we um start talking about the options, it is important to level set. So and under Arizona law forming a municipal utility requires voter approval. So if the city were to operate a utility, we would need uh governance, staffing, uh billing system, procurement system. So essentially building a regulated utility from the ground up. So we would also need to procure wholesale power and so depending on the pathway there could be um interconnection or territorial disputes with T. So as uh some models using other cities uh such

as community choice segregation um however this is not u currently authorized in Arizona. So in short there are pathways but none of them are simple. Uh next slide. So there are four distinct uh models to consider. First is community choice segregation. Uh a municipal utility serving city- owned sites, a municipal utility serving new development, full municipalization within city limit. So each of these uh varies uh dramatically in terms of scale, risk, uh capital requirements and then timelines as well. Next slide. And so um in states where it is allowed, community choice aggregation enables the city to procure power on behalf of residents uh while the incumbent utility continues operating the grid. So um this could be a tool for accelerating renewable energy procurement and therefore advancing our city climate goals. However, as I mentioned earlier, uh community choice segregation is not currently legal in Arizona. It is on Tucson's legislative agenda, but until uh the state law changes, this option is not immediately available to us. So, this is more of a uh long-term policy consideration than an operational one at this moment. And so, next slide. and Michael is going to walk us through options two and four. I mean two through four. Michael,

thank you. Fatima Michael Canaro. I'm the energy manager. Um I first option I'll go over is the existing city facility. So this the premise here would be we form a public power opportunity. Michael, can you put the mic closer to you so we could hear you?

You bet. Okay. So for this we would use an existing city facility like a rec center um or another municipal facility that has some generation at it in order to form the utility. So we'd both act as both the utility and the customer. This would be a controlled low-risk environment. It would support in resilience infrastructure because there would no doubt be batteries and some other things associated with it. Um and it would allow internal testing of some of the utility functions like billing, procurement of power and those things. For option three, this would be looking at a new development. Um thank you. Um this utility would be formed specifically for a new subdivision, district or campus. The infrastructure would be built from the ground up. It would avoid um the acquisition acquisition of existing utility assets which is is a benefit and would be designed to scale with the development. Some of the strengths of this is that we know that at 5 megawws this can be sort of financially viable. um that would be about 1,300 to 2,000 homes or 20 to 40 acres of commercial development or industrial um or a single large industrial customer. Uh the limitations of this is identifying the location any service territory conflicts that would arise the legal environment and then obviously the upfront capital that would be needed for the fourth option is full municipalization. This was the subject of the GDS study from last year. Um the city would become the retail provider for the entire territory within the city. We'd have full control over rates, resources, and planning. Um this has obviously the largest long-term impact.

Um and the full study again can be found in the materials. Um and it's about u and and that's a very thorough report. Um some of the characteristics or challenges with that is the asset valuation that was articulated within the report. I think we estimated between 1 and three billion. T has recently said their assets are worth four. The condemnation and litigation could last several years. There's significant political, legal, and operational complexity with doing that. um and less than 10% of efforts to um fully municipalize from an existing um private utilities at about 10% for cities and municipalities. Uh it would require significant upfront capital um and we'd need voter approval uh to do this as well. And back to Fatima for uh this last slide. Thank you, Michael. So, separate from uh these public power options and also at your direction, Mayor and Council, last year, city staff held uh seven community town halls to gather input on what residents would like to see in an energy collaboration agreement between the city of Tucson and TE. So, that feedback directly informed the draft of the energy collaboration agreement that the city and TE have negotiated. So these agreement is tied to the potential renewal of uh TP's franchise agreement which will ultimately require border approval as well. And so the draft uh ECA or energy collaboration agreement and franchise agreements are expected to be released for public comment soon. and DP is also coordinating uh three community meetings this are next week and uh we also have a

tentatively uh scheduled study session for March 17 to provide um more of a deeper review and discussion and so with that um with that overview we're happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Yeah, thank you so much Michael Fatima for the presentation. I want to go back to option four. for a second. Um, we did the energy sourcing study. Is what you've added in option four characteristics on that slide. Option four. Option four. The next one. There you go. All righty. So um the option for characteristics I think is the the following slide. Okay. Can you uh can you tell us where you got this information? Was this from coming from the energy sourcing study?

Honorable mayor. Yes. This is from directly from the study itself.

Okay. Can you or the city manager Fatima uh dig in a little bit more here? because when we hear the community talking about public power, uh some of the input that we are getting is that we take over TE and so I know that uh the energy sourcing study quotes $3 billion, but explain a little bit more in terms of the con condemnation litigation uh lasting several years, examples of other cities that have tried tried to purchase the infrastructure built by the public utility. Any anything in addition um to provide more information to the community about this particular option.

Honorable mayor, members of the council, and I'll also invite Fatima to uh add what she's heard from the community. We've certainly heard interest in community choice aggregation independently and also along with full municipalization and along with moving our carbon goals and along with uh rateayer protection. So it's not been an all constant and all items input. It it's a pretty big bucket and lots of input across the board. Having said that, um, as far as examples of utilities that we can point to that have been successfully moved into municipal model, there's a table in the report. It has about six examples. Only one is of the scale of a Tucson. It's it's in New York. It's about a million customers. The rest are 2,000 to to 20,000 customers. So, they're pretty small scale compared to us. That coupled with the track record is something that that gives me pause. When we look at the scale, whether it's three billion or four billion, just for context, the entire city of Tucson right now holds about $1 billion worth of debt. That's between our water utility, our pension obligations. So, we have about 1 billion worth of debt. It cost us about hund00 million a year to service that debt. at a $4 billion debt. That that is um something that would be well beyond the scope of anything we've attempted before. So that that doesn't mean it's impossible. That just means it's it's a fundamentally different approach than than something we've attempted in the past. So in order to for city of Tucson to move in the direction of uh purchasing the uh private utility that is providing us energy right now it would cost us anywhere from three to$4 billion. That's what you're saying. That is correct, mayor, as the acquisition

cost, but there would be a millions of dollars of additional cost to have the expertise, the legal advice, the actual uh people on hand to to initiate it and and probably legal costs that that that are above and beyond that. And um you also asked, and I I didn't answer in my initial answer, uh these can take up to 10 years, these types of efforts. And so, uh, $3 billion, let's just say it's $3 billion to purchase the private utility infrastructure. Um, we would have to pay about $300 million a year on top of the hundred million that we pay now for debt.

That is correct, mayor. However, we would have the revenues ultimately from the uh the electric utility in order to help finance that on the back end. So, it wouldn't be resting on our current finances. It would just be layered on top and we would have the new assets to pledge against it and we would have the new revenues and then we would have to go out for voter approval to um be able to do that.

I believe that's correct. I will defer to the city attorney on the legal question. Thank you, mayor. Um, ju just for uh context, we would actually have to go before we raised any of that money because we'd have to both get approval from the electorate to uh allow us to go forward with it. What we've ultimately would be a condemnation and also we would have to uh uh float the bond as well for the initial um outlay before we would move towards um acquisition. Correct. Acquisition. Correct. When when would the voter approval happen?

It would have to happen before we we would we could proceed uh with in uh instituting the condemnation or the in the proceeding that would uh be the litigation that would ultimately acquire the assets. So, um it would have to it would have to be a um carefully cra crafted step by step to get to the um to the voter. Correct. Okay.

All righty. Um appreciate it. I know that a a lot of us have talked about community choice aggregation and um that's something that the state legislature prohibits cities around uh the state from doing. It's something that we're pursuing and it's in our legislative agenda. Uh it just seems as though sometimes um you know we it's a continuous fight against our state legislature to move forward in a direction to protect uh our working families. I I think that as I hand over um the item over to Council Member Schubert, it is good that we're having this conversation. I, as I said, I requested the council member bring this item to the table so that we can present the facts, clarify, and then make a decision as to where we go as a mayor and council. Um, it is devastating the stories that I hear uh when it comes to uh utility services in our city. I've spoken with many uh working families that get $400, $500 electric bills every summer for four or five months. And what that does for the choices that they have in front of them, right? Um they need to pay their mortgage. They have expenses in medication. Uh many times what I confront is elderly, retired individuals that are receiving social security and receive about $1,000 a month, have to pay their rent and cannot pay a $250, $300 a month bill, electric bill. These

are the people that we encounter when we when we do our uh distribution of heat kits that maybe some of you have helped us with. Uh especially seniors that live in uh mobile homes in areas of our city that um we see a lot of vulnerability, lowincome communities, especially in mobile homes. they turn off their ACs or their coolers because they cannot pay their electric bill and uh that we are seeing more and more of and it is electric utilities and those payments are becoming more of a burden to working families in our community and throughout the country. And that is something that I have kept in my mind uh for a long time. I mean I served ward one uh for 12 years and we started talking about climate at that time. But when I became mayor six years ago, um we declared a climate emergency and we declared a climate emergency with goals of creating our Tucson resilient together climate action plan and Tucson and mayor and council moved that climate action plan in record amount of time, 14 months to put it together and it it is all of you that participating and putting the goals in that climate action plan and 80% of those climate action goals we are either working on uh and have completed. This one in particular is something that um we it has been harder right because of the complexity of the issue. uh it has

been harder to confront but the day-to-day the working families the seniors that are living paycheck to paycheck they don't have much choices um and some of the innovative work that we are doing here at mayor and council and at the city of Tucson with our new um chief resilience officer and our energy manager uh we're doing yman's work uh with the American Rescue Plan dollars that we were able to put in um and uh put to work. This for me, this one in particular is complex because it it for me it's it's $4 billion, $3 billion, whatever the funds out there that people are saying uh the private infrastructure company costs. Um it's something that is not uh available to us right now. I feel as though we have so much need in terms of infrastructure, parks improvements, investments that one of the things that we uh started talking about with T and the community was the energy collaboration agreement. the energy collaboration agreement. I see it as the possibility of a um a good result for our community and continued investment in our climate action work. Uh but I I want to make sure that we have a good conversation with with our uh with our colleagues on the council. I want to see what you're thinking, Council Member Schubert. So, just um seating you the floor and uh see what you're thinking and what you're bringing to us uh to the table.

Thank you so much, Madame Mayor. And um I really appreciate where you left off with your comments, centering the working families, the folks living to paycheck paycheck to paycheck, um elderly people on fixed incomes who are looking to us to ensure that they're getting the best deal and being served um you know, equitably. and um and that they have what they need in order to thrive. Um and I want to thank the people who are in attendance today because it's pretty unusual to have a 10 a.m. study session that people are actually at. So, thank you so much. Um I want to um just begin I want to pull us away from the scary conversation about billions of dollars and the legal realities that we're facing. Um I want to acknowledge that those those fears are real and it's important to go into this conversation with our eyes wide open. But first, I want to pull it back and I want to acknowledge why we're here today. Um because when um when the grassroots uh organizing effort for public power first started in earnest in October of 2023, this was a pretty marginal issue that not many people were paying attention to. And now it's on a study session agenda and it's a part of everyday conversations here in Tucson. So, I want to acknowledge everyone who has spoken up for a publicly owned utility. Um, everyone who has attended listening sessions, shared their stories about TE rate hikes, knocked on doors, and signed the petition for public power. Um, so far nearly 1,600 people have written to the Marin council thanking them for the feasibility study um and rejecting project blue and asking asking us to move forward exploring public power. Um, over 300 have signed the petition in just the last two weeks. So, that is something that we must pay attention to. Um over 4,000 people also signed the initial petition in support of public power. Um so the the reason why we are here is to serve um our

constituents and to be um stewards and representatives of um what is being brought to us. Um and it's important to have the facts and to um to sus out which which avenues we should pursue and which ones are maybe longer term. Um, so as a body of the city of Tucson, we are responsive to residents. Um, between voting down the TE franchise agreement the first time it was on the ballot, between all the all the comments and all the feedback we have received about um the rate hikes about project blue, um we have heard loud and clear that tonins prioritize um climate resiliency, affordability, um transparency and accountability. Um, so as we're moving forward with this conversation about really complex um, scenarios with pros and cons, I just hope that we can keep it grounded in the families that are being affected by these choices and in what's going to get us the best deal in terms of affordability, um, accountability to the public, um, transparency and, um, energy resiliency, cleaning up our grid. you know, what is going to get us to our goals the most quickly, get us to net zero the most quickly. Um, so I have a motion all queued up and ready to go. Um, but I really do want to um take the opportunity to hear from my colleagues um about what where you all are at. I just I I know that from the W six office we we hear from people literally every day asking us to please take this topic seriously and to please um look into um all the pros and the cons of the different places we could go. Um, I hope that this conversation can help us get to a point where we have a clear road um, a road map to um, a future in which everybody feels like we

are all on the same page, that we are being served um, by a utility provider that places people above shareholder profit. Um, that people can afford their bills, they can expect predictability and accountability. Um, that if we have large energy users, we can hold them accountable. that we can clean up our grid and clean up our air. Um, it's going to take all of us strategizing together. This is a really heavy lift. Um, so I want to open the floor to my colleagues to hear from you. Um, and then I can make a motion later on. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Schubert. And I just want to remind all of us that the mayor and council uh joined Attorney General Maize in intervening in TP's rate case to help safeguard affordable electric rates in Tucson. And so uh appreciate again, Council Member Schubert, that you've um uh added the this conversation to uh to the table. It's nothing new. It's something that we have been dealing with and thinking about and doing work on for some time, but I did want to make sure that I opened it up for my colleagues on the council and see what you like, Council Member Cunningham.

So, let's start with the the model itself. And the model itself for as a core value to me isn't the best model. In other words, it's a model that we have that dates back into the 1880s. Um, where, you know, there were 8,000 people in Tucson, give or take, and the power companies actually only did street lighting, and that was after the gas lamps came down. Um, and really what what the what Tucson Electric Power provides and how it's provided probably didn't start until 1943, but I wasn't really sure about all the source material. Uh, fortunately, the Tucson Historical uh, Foundation has all of the articles written about Tucson Electric Power in 187 volumes uh, in a in a collection and the the Arizona Historical Society has them. This is a synopsis of part of it. In 1943, the Federal Light and Traction Company, the controlling owner at that time of the Tucson Gas and Electric P uh power company, offered to sell the utility and the Tucson Rapid Transit Utility, which was our previous street car, to the city, and the city declined. The cost was for $9.1 million. The city of Tucson then went to voters to issue $ 8.5 million of bonds to purchase both the Tucson Rapid Transit and the utility and the voters rejected them. The city filed a condemnation suit against the power company a month earlier and the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against the city in 1946.

So there is some historical pref u precedent on what we're talking about. Ultimately the company was sold to a company in Denver that ran the utility before it and it became Tucson Gas and Electric Power. The gas portion was sold to Southwest Gas in 1979 and a holding company uh Unisource was set up in 1998. Part of that charter was that Tucson Electric Power be publicly traded. It is currently publicly traded. It trades at $77 a share on the Toronto Exchange under the company Fortis. These are all facts. These are things that are undeniable. to purchase Fortis which has a lot of other holdings. Their estimated total valuation is in the 30 and$40 billion because they own different power companies around the world. So we could try a hostile takeover allad secret of my success Michael J. Fox and try to raise for $35 billion and buy for us and and that is an option. I'm not saying it's an option I'd be behind. I'm just saying that that is an option. Another option is to issue bonds only for distribution and buy it back wholesale. Again, I have a tough part with that because some of that may come under the CCA provision, but more importantly, the FERC doesn't set those wholesale rates. TP does. So, we'd be buying a company from T we'd be buying an asset from T that we'd pay them for to buy power from. And I don't know if I'm good with that yet. if there's a financial model. So, let's go to the second part after the core value where I think we should still have public power because there's a reason that their stock has gone to $77 a month. The second part of this is rateayers. For me, this is all

about the rateayers. This is all about not having the rates go up. You said it yourself just now. We literally have people struggling to pay their electric bill. We have people in shelter who can't get a new apartment because they have a utility debt that we're trying to rehouse. Those are the bigger issues here. Um it does not make sense for us to have to pay. So as everybody knows, I've come up I proposed our own renewable enterprise that could compete. A little competition never hurt. It allows us to do some things outside the box. It would be a very small experiment to kind of shake things up and see what happen. I'm going to start there and I'll probably submit the memo. There's a couple other things. We want to have all our ducks in a row before we really talk about tree at this table. In the meantime, uh I've got some questions for some the TE people that are here because I think it's important that we understand uh what we're actually trying to take on. So, I'd like to invite I don't know if it's which TE person is Joe. Joe Joe Salscowski is coming up.

Mr. Attorney, we could make I'm just making sure that we can we can move into questions. Uh sorry, Mayor, if the if the council is is willing and able to or wanting to do that, they can. Okay. Mr. Sagowski, you could join the Hi mic. Joe, how many residential accounts do we have in the city limits? Um, before I answer that, thank you for the opportunity to talk. Joe Sowski from Tucson Electric Power. Um, Mayor Councilman uh Cunningham, uh, we have, uh, T serves 414, 317 residential customers as of the end of 2025.

And that's the whole region or just in the city? That is the whole region, our entire customers. And then you've got commercial customers, too. Uh we do as of year end uh TE served uh 40,166 commercial customers and when we did our study was that to purchase the entire operation for the region or was that just for the people in the city limits?

The study was focused on a proposed acquisition of just the distribution system within the limits of the city of Tucson. So even if we purchased the system, you guys would be still operating everything outside the distribution system and outside the city limits under the under the proposal that was studied. Yes. So you'd still be operating distribution as well.

We would be operating distribution outside of the municipality whereas the city would operate presumably the city utility would be operating. you'd have all the infrastructure in place to run the distribution and then we'd have to also run distribution alongside of that.

So the to answer I would we would there would need to be some work done that wasn't really addressed in the study to separate the system. Our distribution network was developed to serve the entire region. uh we have substations within city limits that support service outside city limits and vice versa. So if the city were to move forward as proposed in that study, there would need to be some additional engineering to determine the best way to separate those two systems and then some construction work, quite a bit of construction work. I would suggest that would be necessary to essentially erect uh a boundary where none exists such that the city could serve a city utility could serve its own customers and TE could provide distribution service to the customers who remained

and that would be a pretty significant capital investment. Yes. Uh moreover, I need to understand this. So we'd still be operating distribution, but you'd be interested. So that would create some unintended redundancy.

Uh there would uh there there would be a lot of redundancy between uh the city utility that would be stood up and uh Tucson Electric Power. Um as the presentation notes, the city would have to develop the capacity to operate its utility. that would involve uh employees as well as equipment and facilities uh training uh crews. Um and uh some of that all of that really would duplicate capabilities that TE already has and would need to hold on to to serve its uh remaining customers.

So by having to do all of those things along with purchasing the distribution power, what I'm worried about is that may affect rates adversely. And so I don't I need to be able to know that if we were going to make this move, rates would stay the same or go down. And if they I don't think that can be guaranteed based on what Mr. Salowski is saying. Council member Kenningham, I'm going to open it up for others on the council, please. I I we're have five minutes on the item. Two more questions. Based on all that information, would you be able to recommend that we issue the debt to uh purchase the utility? Honorable mayor, members of the council, based on what we know today, I could not recommend that we issue the debt. I'm done. All

righty. Uh, any others? Councilman Lee and then Vice Mayor, Council Member Aarakas, Council Member D.

Thank you, Mayor. I will be as brief as as humanly possible. I want to thank the mayor and council member Schubert for bringing this to the table. I know it's something we hear often and I think it definitely deserves a conversation. So, my gratitude to you both for bringing this conversation forward and to the team's work. I know you took some really complicated uh ideas and helped boil it down into something that brought us here today. Um, as Council Member Schubert said, you know, during the Project Blue uh conversations last summer, I made a lot of phone calls to people across the political spectrum to really get a sense of how folks in W 4 wanted me to to bring their voice forward to the table. And I heard consistently across the political spectrum that affordability around energy and the risk to to uncertainty around their electric bills was a top concern for tonins across the political spectrum. And so what I've heard is that what we're doing now is not really working for people and small businesses um who are are really struggling to get by. And I know a lot of people have a fundamental issue with um people making mill hundreds of millions of dollars of profit off of hardworking people that require air conditioning to survive in this environment. So that is a very very real sentiment uh in this community and beyond government. Um to council member Cunningham's point, competition is a way how of markets being able to help protect consumers around affordability by having some competition. And I did hear consistently that there is a desire for competition. And we kind of went down that road with our fiber to the premises program where we opened up and created an environment for more fiber internet providers to come to Tucson to drive down prices and make things more affordable for our residents. Um what I find interesting is the concept for option three of new development. um just probably being in Ward 4 and seeing houses going up uh you know neighborhoods of 1500 homes at a time or a lot of state land that could be um used for large highwage long-term job employers. I see potential there. Um I also want to look at what's actionable for today and I'm curious what the motion is going to be here. But it looks

like a couple of these options would require voter approval which mayor I think you mentioned is $800,000 to a million dollars to put something on the ballot. And I'm also thinking um the last few things that we've put in front of voters haven't gone so great. So I'm wondering if a communitydriven initiative to get signatures and refer something to the ballot might put something in a better position to succeed if it were to go in front of voters versus the city putting anything on the ballot. Um, so those are just my initial thoughts, but there is one piece that I also want to talk about because when we talk about affordability, I know um, TE does have a lowinccome program that often is surfaced, but in doing some research, that's 20 bucks a month for a discount. So, when we're talking about people having hundreds of dollars of an electric bill in the summer, I really think that, you know, as we look at our our negotiations for um franchise agreement and whatnot, I think there's a lot of opportunity to do more than $20 a month for the low-inccome program. Um because with rates continuing to increase, $20 does not go very far to address affordability. So, those are just some of my thoughts and thinking about all of this. Um but again, thank you for bringing it to the table and we'll see where this goes. Vice Mayor.

Um, thank you, Mayor and Council Member Schubert, you know, for elevating this and keeping it in front of us. I think it's important and as um council member Schubert um mentioned earlier, um this has been, you know, uh top of mind for a lot of our community members um especially the ones engaged in coming to um Maring Council meetings, caught the audience, um being part of the um the organizing that's happening around data centers. Um so um mayor I also wanted to thank you you know for your leadership through Tucson Resilient together to have us here having this um conversation. Um as mentioned by my colleagues you know cooling is is not a luxury here in the desert. It's a public health necessity. Um we hear all the same things and we we're we experience it ourselves right with these rising energy costs um putting a real strain on our families, our seniors and our medically uh vulnerable residents. And I hope that that's something we continue to track so that we can continue to um address um this uh you know this this this approach of trying to to mitigate uh heat debts in our community. Um so I I think it's important you know that we continue to um engage in this conversation with with urgency and a lot of discipline. And um I think my my only concern is um trying at this moment is directing staff to develop a detailed road map around full mun municipalization. Um uh um and acknowledging that this type of work would require outside legal counsel and subject matter experts and none of that is currently budgeted. um our study session memo uh made it clear that further exploration of these scenarios would require these external expertise and voter approval under state law. So we know that that is not a small lift um and that this generational infrastructure deserves thoughtful

structured process. Um I also um want to make sure that in this conversation it's not just a staff deliverable. We have a commission on climate, energy, and sustainability that exists precisely for these complex long-term policy explorations. Um, and I want to make sure that as we're examining public power options that this process uh be transparent, very public facing, and rooted in community engagement from the beginning. Um, as as mentioned again by my colleagues, um, we're working on guard rails for large water users. Um, and I think it's also important that we're thinking about guardrails for large energy users, particularly data centers. Um, and if we lack meaningful public leverage or control over our energy systems, our ability to regulate these high demand users in the desert environment, um, could be structurally limited. So, this is part of a long-term conversation as well. Um, and I I think it is important that we, you know, center equity because we want to avoid creating a two-tiered system where wealthier residents can opt into cleaner, cheaper energy options while low-income and medically vulnerable households are left behind. Um, so I want to make sure that that equity analysis is embedded from the beginning in any public process and not something that we include at the end. Mayor, thank you,

Council Member Vargas. And then Council Member Do.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member Schubert, for bringing this to the conversation today. And I too think we, you know, moving forward, we'll need a clear road map and to continue the dialogue. Um, you know, this this is a challenging conversation for our community. Public power sounds like an opportunity for our community to have more direct control, but it is difficult and costly and will take years. The benefits of public power are decades out, and our community members are facing high costs now. So with that said, um community choice aggregation could potentially get us better negotiating leverage to procure a greater share of renewable energy, but enabling legislation from the Arizona legislature would be required. Um I understand community frustration with potential rate hikes along with our Tucson community strong values around climate action and adaption. And our office too receives many phone calls from our constituents needing assistance to cover their bills. And those phone calls aren't stopping anytime soon. Um, but if we stay the course with T, we must maintain that our commitments to our residents and our businesses, ensuring that our frontline communities who are often the most impacted by both high energy cost and climate risks are not left behind. Our goal is affordability along sustainability for everyone in Tucson. And I love the idea of including more of our commissioners as our vice mayor shared. Um if the goals of pursuing public power are to advance climate action, economic resilience, and equity centered policy in Tucson, the costs and risks associated with establishing a municipal electric utility are extreme. Additionally, from what I understand, TE currently employs about 1,500 of City of Tucson residents, about 100 W 5 constituents,

and I know um I've heard that they enjoy working at TP and that this is um I I'm just curious to know what how those jobs could be affected as we explore various options. I also have a couple questions. Um, what are sources for funding for Tucson Resilient Tucson climate action implementation? And then is funding through the energy collaboration agreement potentially a significant source of funding to achieve our long range climate action goals? Thank you,

honorable mayor, council member Rahas. Uh, currently we are coming off of the initial funding for the implementation of Tucson Resilient Together. Um, a lot of that was one-time dollars and um, we've actually consumed most of that. Um, the energy collaboration agreement, which is not finalized and is not released yet publicly, at least the negotiation to this point, has included um, some significant funding uh, for climate action by the city that would be provided by TE. That's of course assuming that it would come to fruition. So, um, our next in investment in climate beyond the investments we make as part of our Prop 101 and Prop 407, we do a lot of climate investment as part of our voter approved initiatives, but as far as like a base budget goes, that would be the next source of funding for climate action in Tucson would be through the energy collaboration agreement. That would be uh via shareholder um funds through TP.

That's correct, Mayor. Okay. Council member Dah.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks to my colleagues, Miranda, for bringing it forward, mayor, with your support. I really liked what the vice mayor said. I like public power. Um and I want to give a comparison. Our neighbors to the north have two large electric utilities, Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project. One's privately owned and one's um a public utility. Um APS customers paid 24% more than SRP customers in 2022. I mean that shows me that public power can create lower rates. Um, I also know that Salt River project came about because of an act of Congress with lots of federal investment and was an afterthought to the building of the dams that farmers needed that also happened to produce electricity. So, it it had a different sort of um life story than what we have here. I agree that we're not in a position to even do the preliminary foundation work. And I've told this to my friends. Um, you can lobby us a lot, but the budget realities of the city of Tucson this year, next year, maybe the year after means that we're not going to come up with what we need to really start the process the way it could be started. I encourage you to continue to ask us to do it and to find ways to find that support. Um, it's also a political decision. I mean, I think all of us read read the the political environment and we're not getting votes uh for for measures. I mean, maybe the RTA next will pass um and and our and our losing streak will will turn. Um so to do an investment of up to what $10 million towards a vote um that will cost a million dollars when we don't see the complete public outcry. We see informed people. We see people who have done the research and elsewhere it is beneficial

but um the genesis needs to be um thought out very carefully. Um I think we can take steps. My colleague uh council member Cunningham has an intriguing um proposal. We've talked about some other small um uh steps. Uh and I I have a question I'd like answered later. The acquisition of utility assets for small development. you came up with five megawws. I'd be interested in what the costs are with lower megawws. Um uh the idea of regulating large energy users in my mind that's outside of our purview. That's Arizona Corporation Commission, but I'd like to ask uh the city attorney to give us an answer. Not today. Um can we incorporate that when we're talking about the large water users or AI and data centers? Um, so that's pretty much it. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Dah. I I I don't see it as one or the other. I see it as um us, the city of Tucson mayor and council and our community participating uh with this process that will take a long time. Um it it shouldn't be no, we're not going to do it or yes, we're going to jump in and spend $5 billion and purchasing uh the private utility infrastructure. Uh the ideas and creativity that have been put at the table by um our team um and the community uh are something that we have to pursue immediately. I love the idea that the vice mayor has brought that we sit down with our commission on climate, energy, and sustainability and have a conversation about what is possible in building a road map to what's good for Tucson. Um, and that could mean uh starting slow and um uh really about how is it that the city of Tucson can provide our own um operations, our own energy to our own operations. possibly even as councilwoman uh Lee said, think about new development and us as customers ourselves like Tucson Water, we we consume a lot of electricity, but it's not for us to be able to say yes this or no that. It's about being able to hold hands as a community and working through our uh climate energy and sustainability commission and finding the steps that

are appropriate for us. Um we bring up the idea of purchasing um private infrastructure. To be honest with you, I'm not interested in purchasing TP's infrastructure. I'm not I don't want to spend 10 years and the possibility of $4 billion. Uh it just would be an exercise in futility. I want to do it our way, Tucson's way. And I would start um small uh creating a plan or a map. Uh and in the meantime, right, we have some realities to uh to have to deal with. We have the realities of an expiring franchise agreement this year with Tucson Electric uh power. We have the reality of the work that has been done by the community already, right? They've given us incredible feedback. I think uh we all received um a thick pile of paperwork of the input that the community has given us on the possibility of an energy collaboration agreement that will uh request funds from TE to continue investing in our climate work and weatherization programs uh for our residents, especially lowincome and vulnerable. able residents um that will help them bring their utilities um lower. So um looking forward to what ideas you have and then for us to be able to contribute to your motion, council member.

Thank you, Mayor Romero, and thank you colleagues. Um really appreciate hearing from you all. Uh I feel hopeful in hearing the common themes that we are all prioritizing that piece about um affordability and um being accountable to the rateayers and centering the families that are affected by these rate increases and by um our energy delivery system now and into the future. Um I appreciated Nikki making the point that she's talked to people across the political spectrum who all also share these priorities. I think this is an opportunity for us to hold hands as Mayor Romero says. Um I don't like to think of this as a as a hostile takeover. I think that this is about all of us partnering together and having our shared priorities being serving the families of Tucson. And I also think it is important to make the point um we got in a little bit of a culde-sac with council member um Cunningham about um jurisdiction and TE service boundaries and how that interacts. Um so that's an important point. We aren't the only ones who are affected by TEP's operations. There are also people living outside city limits. Um, there are regional stakeholders as well. So, I think that's an opportunity that we should all reflect on and see how we can bring people together. I also hear from, you know, council member Brahas and and Mayor Romero about um the energy collaboration agreement being an important bridge for our um climate resiliency work. Um, and I don't see this conversation or discuss discussing these options as being at odds with that. And I certainly don't want that to be the case. Um, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, uh, thank you so much for bringing up the importance of um, acting both with discipline and urgency um, through a thoughtful and structured process um, that really does center equity. So, you know, I want to say that whatever options that we pursue, we have to make sure that we're not leaving people behind. Here in Tucson, electricity

isn't optional. Increasingly, it's necessary for survival. We barely had a winter this year. Um, at a recent energy affordability session, a resident on Social Security disability told us his budget bill TE payment jumped from 169 to $328 a month for a 700 foot condo. Um, and I believe he's also on fixed income. That's before a proposed 14% rate hike is decided by the Arizona Corporation Commission. A hike that Chris Ma has argued could be far lower while still protecting reliability for rateayers. At the same time, TE's parent company, Foris, Inc. continues delivering strong returns to shareholders. Um, according to the attorney general's expert testimony, the proposed rate increase could amount to $148 million in annual transfer from Tucson families to shareholders. the families we're talking about that are on fixed incomes um you know trying to support their families uh are elderly or differently aabled um and really depending on energy to um help them survive. Our responsibility ultimately is to Tucson residents, especially those most vulnerable to extreme heat and rising costs. We need to explore long-term options that align with our climate goals, strengthen economic resilience, and ensure that no one is left behind. Um, this motion is about laying the groundwork to decide which energy pathways are truly worth our time and our energy in both the short and the long term. And I mean, I I don't ever want to give the impression that I think that any of this is going to be easy or that it is just a matter of political will and making the decision to go forward. Um, this is a complex terrain that we're navigating on and I think it's important to go in with both eyes open and not let fear of the unknown dictate our action. Um, okay. So given rising T bills, the medical

necessity of cooling in Tucson's climate, and the opportunity to align our electricity supply with Tucson's climate resilience goals, I move that Maron Council directs the city manager to return within 90 days with a public power update that includes the following. Number one, resilience hubs. A plan for a low-risk pilot that could include a combination of forming a small city-run utility that serves one or more city-owned properties or new developments. I request that this plan include a prioritized list of city-owned properties that could serve as small-scale community resilience hubs with estimated costs, savings, and community benefits. and a description of how this could possibly lay the groundwork toward a future municipal utility. Uh number two, municipal utility options. Um additional opportunities to explore municipal utility models for existing city facilities andor new developments. Number three, municipalization roadmap. a high-level roadmap for potential full municipalization of TEP's system, including an overview of the valuation process required, cost analysis of potential impacts of the purchase price if TEP expands its existing infrastructure to serve data centers, um B all the legal and C all the legal and financial considerations. C, opportunities for collaboration with regional partners and other municipalities within TEP's service area, and D, a strategy for building broader stakeholder buyin. And then number four of my motion is equity and accessibility analysis. An assessment of how each explored model, which includes micro grids or community choice aggregation, if it ends up getting enabled by state law, would impact lowincome residents in medically vulnerable households with

recommendations to avoid creating uh what Vice Mayor Santa Cruz said is a two-tiered system. We don't want to leave our most vulnerable behind. And I also appreciated um mayor and vice mayor's um flagging that we should be consulting with the commission on climate, energy, and sustainability on on these options. I think that's awesome. I'm all for that. And then um finally ongoing reporting a proposed semiannual reporting structure to the mayor and council to provide updates on resident energy costs, local energy use trends, relevant state legislation, progress on resilience hubs, and any other emerging public power considerations. And I just I want to add that I hear you all here that we're not hot to trot full steam ahead for taking over TE. I get it. Um, but, uh, I think that it's important, um, to have all of our cards out on the table and to fully explore all of these options in good faith and do it transparently and and so that the public can understand and not just have to take our word for it that something's not a good idea. Um, so with that, that's my motion.

So, there's a motion. May I have a second? Motion dies for lack of a second. Is there any direction? Well, mayor, I would like to make a substitute motion. All righty. Um, or just a motion? Okay. The the second the first motion died for lack of a second.

Um, I, you know, from our conversation, I would like to move that we bring our commission on climate, energy, and sustainability to take the lead on the this process that Council Member Schubert kind of laid out. um that investigates our long-term options that align with our climate goals and the explor exploration of long-term opportunities for a public power option. And I want to just include um those updates that council member Schubert mentioned that the city manager makes sure that these these are regular reports to Maring Council so that he can keep us updated on these resilience hubs um and reports on the nexus of public power with Tucson resilient together. um our climate action and adaptation plan um and updates from the Commission on Climate, Energy, and Sustainability.

There's a motion. May I have a second? I second. There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Councilman Lee, just super quick to confirm what the vice mayor's motion is. Um I I was concerned about the 90-day timeline for that work and if it was possible since this isn't the only thing that you guys are working on. So, yours doesn't include like a 90-day, right? It's just to come back. Okay, perfect. That's I just wanted to clarify and my question is the most of the work will be done by the commission not staff.

Yeah, the conversation should continue and I would encourage uh council member Schubert to use this language and make sure that it goes over to the uh commission on climate energy and sustainability. In terms of the resilience hubs, there's a lot of significant work that we are doing that already. So that is ready information really. Um and then of course the the energy commission um the climate energy and sustainability commission can continue that work. I I really want to make sure uh that our resilience hubs are well thought out and geographically um imagined. I would say in throughout the city of Tucson, there is one that we've paid special attention to, the one that we're including um with the conversations that we've been having the last 18 months with TP. This is the Donna Ligins. Donna Ligins is a resilience hub that we've already had conversations about um and are working in partnership with with uh ECA uh and the community NAP. So the motion um is to continue this conversation with our commission on climate energy and sustainability. Anything else that you all any clarification

uh for clarification of this item? This item is independent of the tree item that I'll be bringing to mayor and council in the next month. All righty. So, there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Wonderful conversation. Thank you all so much. Really appreciate it. All righty. So, we move on to item two. Thank you all here. Really appreciate it. Looking forward to working with continue working with you. Thank you. What is it? Oh, we have to. Okay, that's true. Oh, we still have a little bit of time. No. Do you Do you think we can do this in 20 minutes?

The item two budget, which is basically the insurance, the health insurance. You think we could do it in 20? I think we could. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. All righty. So, item two, time has been set aside for an update of the fiscal year 2026 budget and discussion of the fiscal year 2027. Mr. Manager,

thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. As we continue our journey on the budget this year, we're at the point where our uh it's time to talk about the employee benefits, namely health care and related items. And we have an employee benefits committee that works with us year round to wrestle with these items. And um we have an update for you here today. I I want to make it clear you could act on this item today if you get if you had clarity and you want us to move forward. That is helpful to us. But we actually could have that decision made on the next meeting on the 17th. The reason we need it in March is so that we can start with open enrollment by May and get effective communication to the employees and then we also include it in the manager's recommended budget. So um we feel uh we have a a good proposal for you and recommendation. It came from the benefits committee to me and I forwarded it to you without changes. So, um, with that, I will turn it over to assistant city manager and chief financial officer Anna Rosenberry to give you the highlights.

Thank you, city manager. Thank you, mayor and members of the council. Um, I'm, as has already been stated by the city manager, I'm here presenting the manager's recommendation for our health benefits package for fiscal year 27. And I've been assisted by Linda Kyle, our benefits administrator in the business services department. Linda and I um get to work with the employee benefits committee throughout the year as the city manager described on this topic. This committee includes representatives from all of our labor groups as well as non-represented employees. Um every meeting is attended by our health benefits consultants and sometimes attended by representatives of other service providers. The committee met 10 times this past year to bring forward this recommendation to the city manager. And I'm happy to tell them I was happy to be able to tell them that the city manager was moving forward with all of their recommendations to you today. As many of you are aware, we um self-fund our employee medical benefits. We don't purchase insurance. We pay our own medical and drug claim costs through our self- insurance fund. and we work with selected vendors to provide services and and um medical networks um to our employees to access their health benefits. This self-funding has many benefits to us in this program. We avoid profit taking by an insurance company. It's easier for us to predict co cost increases from year to year because we're not playing in the insurance market. um we retain plan savings from year to year and we're able to more easily make changes to our benefit plan designs as we see fit. The committee also looks at comparison employers and what they offer their employees

um and suggested and encourages employees to attend education and open enrollment sessions through all the channels that they have with the employees that they represent. Um the committee also helps us figure out ways to increase employee wellness participation in our programs. They've and we've got some information that shows they've been very effective for us in the last about 18 months in response to how much medical costs continue to increase each year. The committee has really been key to expanding the reach or the participation that we've seen in our lowest cost plan. Um over the last couple of years, we've opened that plan to retiree participation and we've considerably increased education that we offer about that plan as well as the benefits of health savings accounts themselves.

Yep. Oh, thank you.

Yeah, sorry. Um this slide contains a number of the strategies um that the benefits program has been using over these last years. Um for the first time in five years, we solicited proposals recently for medical, prescription, wellness, dental, and the employee assistance plan services. And some of your committee members served on that proposal analysis team as well. Upon the committee's recommendation this last year, we rolled out nocost employee memberships at city recreation centers and like I said we've significantly increased the number of employees participating in the motivate me wellness program in the last 18 months. The committee was really critical for us in identifying some of the roadblocks that they saw um for participation and we were able to make some changes that positively impacted how many of our employees are participating in those important wellness and screening um activities. If as many of you are aware, we offer three different benefit plans. um when we talk about uh medical and prescription benefits and each employee every year during open enrollment gets to select which plan they'd like to have for the coming 12 months. We have the network plan, the health reimbursement account plan called HRA plan and the health savings account plan called the HSA plan. All of these costs have diff excuse me, all of these plans have different costs and different benefits available when you enroll. The network plan is our highest cost plan. It's what you would call a platinum or in the old days was called a Cadillac plan. It has a very high level of coverage and it has a high

cost. The HR plan is an older style reimbursement account plan. You don't see many of these plans anymore offered by employers and we'll talk more about that in a minute. And then we have our health savings account plan. This is a high deductible plan with a health health savings account. It's the lowest cost plan. The differential if you do the math on these um the network plan in total costs about 60% more 60% more than the health savings account plan and the HR plan cost about 25% more than the health savings account plan. Since 2023, we have been making a concerted effort to educate employees and uh retirees about the benefits and the costs of these plans so that they can make a choice each year at open enrollment. And we have successfully moved the needle. If you look back at our enrollment in these plans in 2023, again, that highest cost plan had enrollment of 2thirds of our employees and the lowest cost plan uh made up less than 25% of employee participation. This most recent year, we've seen a dramatic change. the health savings account plan, the lowest cost plan, now has more than half of employees enrolling in it. And that network plan, the high-cost plan, um now has enrollment of of right around 40%. The health reimbursement account plan continues to shrink. Um the reimbursement account itself isn't as advantageous for most employees as a health savings account plan. And a lot of our education focuses on describing um how a savings account um can meet a

lot of needs uh for people going forward. The recommendation of the health benefits uh program for fiscal 27 is as follows. And if you read in the memo, um, we talk about how our total estimated cost increase that the committee and the city manager are really grappling with for the coming fiscal year was an increase of 11.2 million um, in plan costs for fiscal 27. The request for proposals process for new service agreements are expected to help us avoid um, approximately $6.4 4 million of that cost increase through better pricing arrangements for the city and for employees. Um in addition to uh the RFP savings, we have a number of changes that are recommended. Um there are changes to the network plan design changes and the network plan really sees the most plan design changes this year. There's recommendations to increase the deductible, increase the maximum out of pocket, increase co- insurance and and increase co-pays for medicals and prescription drugs. This is done because the network plan is expected to run as a at a deficit for this plan year and we need to make some changes to the plan design um to mitigate the losses that the plan sees. On the health reimbursement account plan, we are um recommending a plan design change to eliminate the contribution to the reimbursement accounts. In those type of plans, only the employer can contribute to a reimbursement account. And um the recommendation is to eliminate that reimbursement account

contribution from the city for this year and all future years. And I'll talk more about what the uh committee and the manager are recommending regarding the future of the HR plan in just a minute. um for the health savings account plan. I think this might be now the number one question we're getting when it comes to what are you suggesting for um plan changes for the coming year. Will we be able to afford to keep the enhanced health savings account amounts? Um and yes, we will. The recommendation is based on the financial performance of the health savings account plan, we can afford to increase or excuse me, to keep the increased health savings account amounts for the coming year. We're recommending doing that. Um, we're also recommending that we continue to frontload the city's contribution to those savings accounts. That's an important cash flow feature for people who participate in that plan. The recommendation does include premium changes. These uh premiums are the amounts that come out of paychecks or monthly amounts that retirees pay to enroll in the plans. Um the premium changes that are recommended are a premium increase of 10% on the network plan and 5% on the health reimbursement account plan. And again because of the positive p financial performance of the health savings account plan for the third year in a row we are recommending no increase in that premium. Uh participants who are currently on that plan and stay on that plan for the coming year will not see an increase in the amount that comes from their paycheck or is paid as a retiree in that plan. Um, a part of the recommendation does include a uh increase in the city's cost to the program of $1.1 million.

And then the recommendation included two kind of future year items. One, as I alluded to with the health reimbursement account plan, the recommendation is to plan, how do I do this without saying plan too many times? Okay, let me start over. I just want to call attention to the time. We have 10 minutes. Okay. So, we we need to hurry it up because I want to make sure that we have time for questions.

Got it. Um I think as you read the memo, we're recommending phasing out the H plan as well as making changes to our basic dental plan that's offered next year. We would be doing education about both of these topics this year. Uh our information includes uh the changes that employees would see per paycheck. Those amounts would range from zero to $19.83 per paycheck depending on plan enrollment. We also contain amounts uh that would be saved by switching from the network or the HR plan to the health savings account plan. And we continue to move forward on our important KPIs. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the reminder.

Thank you, Anna. I really appreciate it. Uh I just want to thank you and your team and then of course the employees that participated in this. I know that they met a lot of times more than 10 times to help us come to this recommendation. And so I know that all of the labor unions participated in the benefits committee uh meetings and this is the recommendation that they've uh given to us. So any questions? Councilwoman Lee and then Vice Mayor and then Council Member Do.

Super quickly. Also wanted to thank the benefits committee for all of their work on this. Um, two things that I want to just point out. I've been talking to Lara quite a bit about the rec center membership option. I'm really uh hopeful we can get that number up. I don't know who says this, but they say that the heaviest thing to lift at the gym is the front door. You know, I don't know who says it, but it's kind of brilliant, so I stole it. But Tim is fake laughing. Um, no, but anything that we can do to reduce friction and make it easier for people. I know it's complicated. I sat down and I understand the process and the tax implications and all of that. But if there's anything we can do to make that continually better for employees and get them in the door for preventative health reasons, I think that's awesome. And lastly, I think last year you all did uh some education work and talking about prescription alternatives. I know I've talked to you, Anna, about that. Um I saved a lot of money on a prescription recently just by using Good RX that was free. And I know we can't recommend other things, but the idea of using alternatives versus our insurance, it can actually save us money and save the plan money. So, I want to make sure we're still doing that and getting people in the spirit of competition and driving down prices. How can we do that ourselves?

Mayor.

Yeah. Um, thank you, uh, mayor and for the presentation. And I, you know, I appreciate um y'all working really hard to secure, you know, more affordable option. Um having, you know, uh high quality benefits for our city staff and retirees. Um really encouraged to see the significant migration to the HSA plan. I think it went over 50% and so um that's really encouraging. And then also frustrating that our um what we're putting into our insurance continues to go up even though um we're using I mean we were told that if we relied less on the HMO plan um that our insurance costs would be more affordable and that is not happening. Um, so a a couple of questions because I know right there was a protest filed with with Sigma and um I'm just curious um about some of the the things that they're saying because they're saying that a 6.4 million in savings is only based on the fiscal year 27 projections. Um is that the case or are we kind of reflecting like over, you know, over time um doing some contract term modeling that helps us get to that number? Okay, honorable mayor, vice mayor, we will look to our attorney and because this isn't actually an an RFP that's still in dispute.

However, what I would say is the the 6.4 million, I think it's correct to characterize that is a savings against what our estimate would have been. However, the RFP um has landed in the the least cost option of the submitters. Okay. Um, and so I guess maybe yeah, not to like get then into the back and forth of that. Um, but city attorney, so you're reviewing these protests and you're confirming, right, that our process is defensible and we used all of our procurement responsibilities. That's correct, Vice Mayor. We we have a process for dealing with these kinds of dis disputes handled within the procurement division and they're used to doing doing that and they can do it very well. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council member D. I'm reflecting that right after we talk about public power, we're talking about how we're having to do health care for our employees where every other civilized country has national health care and that's where this should should lie. So I'm I'm wistful. Uh I have a question but it doesn't need to be answered now is as we migrate to Blue Cross Blue Shield which has a great reputation but I wonder if the people the doctors and specialists we see will be roughly the same or will that cause much disruption among our staff. But even even with that, I hope we can give them direction to proceed further uh to proceed as they they request. Do you need a motion?

Honorable mayor, council member Dah. A motion today would be helpful. Um it could delay till the next meeting, but today would be helpful. So moved. All righty. So there is a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Council member Cunningham.

So a few things. I have the same concerns that the vice mayor brought up about the process and um the switch. Uh it seems that the the process that we have is very fair and totally within the law. It also seems that again like all processes that sometimes different agendas can be man manipulated. I'm not saying that happened here at all. I'm saying that it concerns me that that c that the potential is there to happen. Again, it's just tweaks to every process. Two, my big thing is about an off-ramp. And my biggest piece about an off-ramp is that I want this I'm happy that we went out to bid to kind of put some leverage in the idea that we could lower our rates. I like that. But anybody who bought Direct TV with the NFL package in the '90s remembers that you get it for $79.99 a month. one year and then the next year it'd be $129.99 a month and I hate that. So I really think we should build into our model an offramp and an option to rebid every year. Uh I know that creates some work for us but it also creates some leverage for us that I think is pretty important. The second thing I'll say is, and the real reason I want the off-ramp, is that every it's not a big secret at this table, though the public may not know that we're working I'm working for an idea that we can bid our the management of our fund of our of our health insurance fund with the county and the school district concurrently. And I think by doing that, it opens up a myriad of possibilities to even develop a singlepayer option for children universally in Tucson. And so that's kind of my my working theory. Um there's some research to be done and some eyes to be dotted and teas to be crossed, but the bottom line is is that that's why I'm so specific with this on-ramp and I want to

be able to so as much as possible within the negotiation. Please tell me how our off-ramp and renegotiation process works. Caramel Mayor, Council Member Cunningham, the contract is being negotiated on a one-year term that could be renewed up to seven years. So, it does have an annual opportunity for us to either continue the contract or do an RFP and replacing of it. It also has a built-in three-year um market check on on the pharmaceutical side. So, I I believe it it achieves those outcomes you're looking for. And on the speaking of the RX side, the county and the school district right now utilize a specific RX provider. Is ours consistent with that or does RX provider have some consistency to be consistent with them? Uh flexibility to be consistent with them? Jesus. Honorable mayor, Council Member Cunningham, under our RFP, the um in this case, Blue Cross Blue Shield would be the provider for the health care and um prescription and wellness. So, it's it's all unlike the other two where the pharmaceuticals are done by a different um company, ours is all bundled. That's that will work. I'm uh I I I just I'm good with this. Thank you.

All righty. Any other uh questions or comments? I think we did it. We did it in 20 minutes, y'all, with the motion on the floor. Um yes, clerk Stler. I I got it. So moved, but I don't know what that means in terms of was the motion to direct city manager to proceed with the health benefits recommendation. Yes. Thank you. So we have a motion and we have a second. And if there's no further discussion, then all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. What we're going to do right now, we're going to take a break um and then head over to the Puma Association of Governments building. We're going to have to finish the study session when we return from the joint meeting. And so, uh, we're going to, uh, recess, attend the joint meeting. And by the way, um, there is lunch waiting for us at noon at the PAG building. And then from there at 12:30, we'll start the joint meeting. So, let's go to recess and then have a good joint meeting with the board of supervisors.

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Heat. Heat. N. afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, I'm Mayor Rahina Romero and this is the second of the mayor and council and board of supervisors joint meetings which I'm very excited about. Um I'm here with my colleague and chair of the board of supervisors, Jen Allen. Jen, did you want to add an opening?

Also, just a welcome. I'm very excited for this second meeting. Um and look forward to a productive conversation. All righty. So, this is the meeting uh the joint meeting of the board of supervisors and uh mayor and council of the city of Tucson for March 3rd, 2026. The meeting is called to order. May we have a roll call for the city, please? Council member Cunningham here. Council member Dah here. Councilwoman Lee, Council Member Braas here. Council member Schubert here. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz here. Meromero here

and uh we will do roll call for the board of supervisors. Supervisor go. Supervisor Christie here. Supervisor he present. Supervisor Scott here. Chair Allen here. That the record shall all puma county board of supervisors are present. And now we will stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Righty, we move on to item three. And item three is land acknowledgement. And I would like to um as has become tradition uh do a land acknowledgement prepared by Puma County. On behalf of Pima County residents, we honor the tribal nations who have served as caretakers of this land from time in memorial and respectfully acknowledge the ancestral homelands of the Tonomotam Nation and the multi-millennial presence of the Pasuayaki tribe within Pima County. Consistent with Puma County's commitment to diversity and inclusion, we strive towards building equal partner relationships with Arizona's tribal nations. Item four. So, Chair Allen and I wanted to just do a little bit of an opening and setting up the scene. I would say um this, as we said before, is the second of the Puma County Board of Supervisors and Mayor and Council um meeting. And this these meetings are uh hopefully going to be um quarterly so that we can at least have four a year. And our intention is to find solutions, mutual solutions that we all agree on um on issues that are bigger than one juris one jurisdiction can handle, right? These are um issues that um both our residents are mutual residents because city of Tucson residents are Pima County residents. And so, um, we, uh, started in our first meeting talking about the, uh, homeless crisis that we see in our

streets and how the city and county has been working together to find solutions that that work for our community that we can all invest in and uh, make sure that we follow up. So these meetings is a continuation of the conversation that we had in our first meeting the first time around. Uh we will have presentations on the work that we've been doing together and then uh we hope that we can save item seven to open it up for comments, questions um you know and and all of your input in it. So, I just wanted to say that again, we're very happy to be here. Thank you to the Puma Association of Governments and the staff and the executive director, Mr. Michael Ortega, for uh opening this space for all of us to make sure that we have um all of the necessary infrastructure to make these meetings happen. And so I'm I'm very happy to u uh give you the floor, Chair Allen, and uh help us open up the uh the items with your thoughts.

Well, thank you and and I would want to echo again thanking uh everyone at PAG for letting us use the space. Um and then also for the staff because as you know as is clear we are all hopping in from other meetings and coming this and going back and so I know that our clerks are are you know it and tech comms are scuttling from location to location today. So very much appreciate your uh swiftness and and agility in moving from meeting to meeting. Um, I also want to thank the mayor and supervisor Scott uh for bringing together the first joint uh city county meeting and getting this ball rolling. I appreciate your leadership in doing that and um looking forward to helping continue those throughout this year. Um I think as as the materials that we've all got show, um there is uh so much that the city and that the county are both doing to make sure that our residents all feel safe and secure um in the place that they love and they call home. Uh to provide meaningful resources and support for people struggling with substance use disorder, mental health issues, and to address the housing affordability crisis. Right? We understand as evidenced by the complexity of the plans that we have in place that there is no single fix, right? Because at the root of it all is humans, right? And we are all complex little beings. Um and so therefore the problems and the solutions are are complex and require um kind of not a one-sizefits-all and systems thinking. And um I think this is evidenced by seeing that if you you know you squeeze the balloon on one side, right, it pops up somewhere else. Um people in washes and bike paths because they're there because of an affordability crisis, lack of lower low barrier shelter and traditional housing beds, insufficient behavioral health and

treatment options. Right? Folks have been moved from city parks and washes. Um they end up on the loop. they get moved along again and then the cycle continues, right? And this is why exactly why meetings like this and collaboration um and systems wide actions are so essential. So I appreciate that when people in this room come together to talk, right? That's when policy change happens, right? Because we are all privileged to be policy makers. So our task is today is to do just that. talk to each other and maybe a couple of other things. Uh we should listen to the updates and listen for where city and county collaboration is and isn't working. Listen for duplication, right? Because normally that's a bad thing. And ask questions to understand if what we're doing is really working and are we making complex systemwide change or we just squeezing the balloon. Ultimately where we want to land at the end of this meeting is that we identify opportunities that we can create sort of a force multiplier effect because we are collaborating and playing on our strengths. So with that I look forward to the discussion and the presentations

and uh our staff flipped a coin and they coin decided who was going to present first. But if you think about it, just to follow up on on Chair Allen's um uh opening statement is that since we met the first time, uh there's a already a lot of work that we are escalating and not just continuing but escalating in terms of the partnership on I think that as we hear from the presenters um what we were thinking of is Write down your questions, your observations, your commentary, and let's open it up uh in item seven to open up for your questions. But what Chair Allen and I had talked about is think about as you ask your questions towards the end, think about what is working, what are the what are the um partnerships and the programs that we're leading together that are working and then how do we take action together on the gaps that exist. So with that, it is my pleasure to introduce our assistant city manager, Liz Morales, to present and give an update on the safe city initiative.

Thank you, Mayor Romero, Chair Allen, to our distinguished uh electeds in the room. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Um yes, last time uh Stephen and I were able to present, I shared the roll out of our safe city uh initiative. Um, and we're moving beyond just the individual efforts and building a system and and now are building a system around what is working. That means formalizing deployments, strengthening pathways to treatment, pivoting proven models like Star Village and aligning our work more closely with county partners. Safe City is no longer just a coordinated response. It is becoming a structured framework built around measurable outcomes. Thank you.

Did we have a um slideshow? Thank you. For a PowerPoint. Yeah, that was loaded. There we go. Need a city one, please.

Is it Is it one after the other? We're getting it there. Thank you. Sorry. Turn to my apologies. Yes. Yeah, we didn't actually receive a copy of that. Yeah. All righty. It looks like they didn't receive it. So, all of you should have a copy of the Safe City Initiative update. Yeah, it's right in front of you. We will do that. You can follow you can follow Liz's presentation there. Thank you. So, in just talking about building a system around what works, um, next I'd like to talk about the policy guidance. Oh, there we go.

There it is. Yeah.

Yeah. Still on, not on presentations. Okay. Thank you. Next slide, please. So, um I'd like to first talk about our safe city task force which was uh established in November. Um we have um a very broad representation and very broad and diverse across multiple sectors along with community members who bring lived and professional experience to the table. Over the course of the four meetings to date, the group has engaged in indepth briefings and dialogue built to share uh to have shared understanding of key city departments, our programming uh services and all things that we put under the safe city umbrella. Um the task force also served as a forum for policy review and feedback. For example, um in December, the city attorney's office provided an overview of the drug loitering ordinance and the associated treatment uh pathways to treatment. And then we had our uh director of trans uh transportation and mobility, Sam Credio. He presented on our transit safety and security action plan incorporating the members questions and input which we were able to deliver back to mayor and council. Each member contributes a distinct perspective and area of expertise. Together, the task force plays an important advisory role in strengthening the safe city action plan and ensuring the policies reflect thoughtful cross- sector insight into these complex challenges facing our community. Next slide. I'd like to speak for a moment around deployments, which is something we share. We've been able to coordinate and do some incredible work al along the loop, but we've also expanded it throughout the city. Um, our Tucson Police Department has used these targeted deployment strategies to

address areas with chronic nuisance activity and quality of life crimes in direct support of the safe city initiative. In 2025, um TPD conducted 13 focused deployments along the Santa Cruz uh rel corridors, the loop, South Park and Aaho, 12th and Irvington, South 6th Avenue and I 10 and other high impact areas that we have located through data and community concerns. These deployments are intentional and data driven. Encounters are tracked to monitor connections to services, identify repeat contacts, and assess behavioral change over time, ensuring that the efforts are not only enforcementbased, but that they are also outcome f outcome focused. A key component of this strategy is deflection, redirecting individuals to treatment and supportive services instead of booking when appropriate. While deflection is prioritized when feasible, we know that not every situation uh meets the criteria. Um in a um we've had two additional deployments. So, for the total of 15 deployments we've had since we started, Tucson Police has made over 360 contacts, resulting in 328 arrests, 1,097 total charges, including 332 misdemeanors, 68 felonies, 345 misdemeanor warrants, and 24 felony warrants. But at the same time, these deployments facilitated 29 shelter placements, 26 detox acceptances, 15 medica um medical assisted treatment referrals, and the clearance of 53 encampments, demonstrating a balanced approach that integrates enforcement with diversion, treatment, access, and neighborhood stabilization. Next s slide, please. I also now want to talk about our star

village which um is operated by prima vera foundation and old pueblo community services provides uh uh supportive services. It is funded by the city of Tucson on city of Tucson property and it opened officially on October 15th as part of our uh again uh to support a important critical gap in the emergency shelter and stabilization system. In just over 120 days of operation, the program has provided safe, structured shelter and supportive services to 73 individuals, serving on average 23 women and non-binary individuals on a daily basis. Star Village continues to focus on stabilization, trust building, and service connection for individuals with complex needs. since its opening. Uh, of those who are who have left the program, we've been able to put four into permanent housing and eight have been able to go on to other um, uh, h temporary housing opportunities. Um, one of the things Star Village is already demonstrating is that models like this can improve public safety without requiring a police intervention. Um, I want to share one uh crime stat that we received from our Tucson Police anal uh analysts unit. Um, we looked at the onem radius of Star Village and if anyone knows it's around Grant um and

Stone, thank you. Um, we looked at the four months prior to opening Star Village and four months since its opening. Um we had a total incident of 1,0 months prior to this opening and since its opening we've had 633 incidents red a reduction of 34% of uh police incidents. So already demonstrating again this is uh an important fills an important gap but also helps address an area that was already experiencing a lot of concerns of criminal activity. uh loitering from nearby residents. I also want to talk about how the multid-disciplinary outreach team um which is comprised of professionals from Al Rio health community services and our our city's uh housing first program. Our we call them the MDOT team. They connect people in encampments to medical care, behavioral health services and ultimately permanent housing. And for Star Village, they conduct uh field outreach Monday through Thursday, every morning, first thing in the morning. And they they they uh cover the onem radius around Star Village. And uh they also have coordinated bimonthly cleanups uh and outreach events. They put a beautiful tent out front, allows for residents, neighbors, volunteers to come and it really uh builds trust with the residents that are staying in Star Village. and they all help with uh the bimonthly cleanups. This consistent consistent presence is strengthening the community. Um it's building relationships and increasing neighborhood invol involvement. Next, I'd like to speak on uh the city under safe city. We're really doing an an emphasis to strengthen pathways to treatment. if we can on the next slide. There's been some really important work

happening between the city and the county um and you know a few months ago with the thanks to uh Councilwoman Lee uh really saying what can we do around an ordinance our city our city attorney Roy Lusk put together a draft ordinance um around how do we address what other tools can we have to address the open air drug use after um review and stakeholder input We have pivoted from an ordinance to really looking how to strengthen uh and better utilize existing tools that we have and this includes improving charging documents. Thank you to Puma County Attorney's Office for working with our team um which will allow our police officers to submit um charging documents to ensure cases are complete, consistent, and positioned for meaningful intervention. Post arrest uh pathways are being clarified and strengthened so individuals are more consistently connected to the appropriate treatment and services. In addition, we are currently underway looking at how we can coordinate and work together around high utilizer strategy focus on identifying individuals with repeated public drug use arrests and chronic system contact. This includes structured cross agency data sharing uh between the city and the county partners. so we can understand patterns and intervene earlier. Outreach and engagement efforts will be coordinated to ensure consistent messaging, service navigation and follow-through. We want a clear consequence framework to be implemented that really ensures people are being um directed hopefully to treatment instead of um uh prosecution. Um, we believe this approach reflects the city and county alignment to ensure with enforcement, courts, behavioral health providers, outreach teams that we're working from the same playbook.

Treatment remains the preferred path. However, continued harmful behavior will result in progressively deeper system engagement, reinforcing that accountability and care must work together. Next slide. So you you all received both through the sid your clerks. Um but today I I wanted to provide you a paper copy of the safe city draft. It's still in draft the action plan and um this will provide us again a framework to to have long-term impact. Um the action plan outlines and proposes clear priorities, roles and coordinated strategies across departments and partners. It has defined strategies that's paired with measure measurable metrics to ensure accountability to track progress and to guide continuous improvement. The next step for this our task force will be very actively working on this document to provide us guidance and and input. We also will have a public engagement process that will launch this spring so that our community can tell us and say did we hear them? are we hitting the the issues that they're they're dealing with. We want to um strengthen transparency and build shared ownership of this strategy. And so we are committed to transparent reporting and regularly sharing data, outcomes, and lessons with all of you to to be able to demonstrate that we are having measurable progress with our safe city initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Liz. And I just wanted to add that, you know, in mayor and council and and our team at the city of Tucson, um, we actually are proud of being a an organization that, uh, you know, is innovative and tries different pilot programs. Uh, we try things. If things don't work, we pivot. Um, and it's something that we're very proud of that we're continuously uh piloting and uh expanding the pilots that are working for us and those that are not, then we put them aside and then we pivot to what is actually working. So, I'm proud of of the draft safe city initiative action plan. You are all invited uh to participate in the community engagement opportunities. Take a look at it. This is a draft and I'd like to call it a living document uh where we continue adding to our safe city initiative as we move along. Chair Allen.

Well, you will him rookie air. It's like on Zoom, right? You're on mute. Um you also have two documents. One is the one puma initiative and then a slide deck that is an update on the one puma initiative. And with that I will pass it over to deputy county administrator Steve Holmes who will walk us through the update one pima. Thank you, Chair Allen, uh, Honorable Mayor Rometo, our wonderful board of supervisors, our city council members, and, um, of course, our county administrator, Jan Leer, and our city manager, Tim Tom. Thank you all for having me today. Um, I begin this presentation kind of, um, really delivering in this spirit of both partnership and in and solidarity with the work that we've been doing together for quite some time now, right? And it's it's a a lot of what you'll see today uh is rooted in a lot of the work that we discussions we've been having collectively. Right. this um although we're presenting um puma the one puma initiative as a as a wonderful document that brought coherence sponsored by our um our supervisor Kano and I thank you for that because it it did bring some coherence around how we are working and how we're thinking about the work but equally important you'll see how this really dovetales a lot with the conversations we've had um ongoing um I will start with I think I can do this okay these are the priorities ority areas that um you are shared in your document starting with loop cleanup um strengthening our public health and treatment access, expanding treatment and diversion programs, stabilizing housing and preventing homelessness um and supporting impacted neighborhoods and small businesses. These are the frameworks that actually uh was driving today's presentation and which I'll share uh in greater detail kind of our status update.

Um, on December of 2025, our our board of supervisors took action to really contract outside of just what we had inhouse to actually do our cleanups. Um, and this was really sparked a lot about in our partnership of our deployments, right? As we were working our deployments at that time, Chief Kasmar was getting a hold of us, hey, can we work and coordinate this work together so that as we're coming in, you guys are coming in and cleaning up, right? So that there's visibly this not only just partnership, but this but a signal to the community that we want to make sure that we're actually cleaning out those areas that are have been a great concern. Um and the issues that that have been driven a lot of this work. Um to date, uh you see we've we've we've allocated about 85 tons. Um, that's a lot of stuff, right, that we've pulled out of there and about $100,000 that's come out of our budget to really try to continue to make sure that our county asset is clean for the people that want to use it and continue to use it. Um, we have a continued investment that's part of our budget this uh upcoming 27 year to make sure that this is um expanded and that we make sure that visibly we know that as we're um engaging our deployments that we're cleaning up after those as well. Um and an equally important uh we have a loop survey that um that was launched in February 26 to been to get feedback from our participants on the loop to let us know about what they feel about the loop, what how concerns about safety issues that can actually lead to better um just outcomes, but more importantly better experiences for those who want to take their um families out there in a ride or a walk or whatever they partake in. I think I got this pretty almost. I'm going to point at every one of you and to see which one to see what which one goes. If Andreas, if you can go to the

next slide, I may there. Oops. There we go. I may I go backwards. um in our our public health and treatment area. I think one of the things that's super important, you hear a lot about it today with our uh health department under the um direction of Dr. Cullen. Um, one of the discussions we had as part of our joint metro um, metro justice meetings was to really look at documents that we had between our jurisdictions um, that had a lot of overlap but weren't really synthesized into kind of a real full gap analysis. Um, so you hear a little bit about how those documents were all synthesized into some potential policy recommendations and some outcomes that would be great for discussion around this table to see where investments need to be made um to improve on some of those gaps or try to fill some of those gaps. Some of those are not jurisdictional issues but are statewide that um are going to require a lot of collaboration around policy and um quite frankly a little bit of influence from those around the table. Um, one of the things that we're proud of is our our heat collaboration during season of heat. Our health department has quartered a lot of efforts in the summer. We are a hot place and as such we deal with a lot of concerns around people who are unhoused or are dealing with the heat. Um, we've had many efforts that are collaborative. I know as part of our our budget that's next year, we're looking at a division within our health department to actually deal with environmental issues such as heat as well. And so that's to be um determined how that actually um develops, but it's it's actually rooted in that idea of look at some of these environmental issues that we're facing and how we can begin to have the health department assist in those in a more formal way. And then lastly, really looking our legislative priorities, which are super important as we begin to look at uh how's accesses actually supporting our folks who need additional help. Um um right now we're dealing with a lot of issues with uh just health care

in general and how people can afford those that are willing to actually go through treatment, are they able to even um afford the the services? And then lastly in here, one thing that we will be doing as part of these gaps analysis is we're looking at um a longer term uh injection of people that leaving the jail who have actually are in Matt services. One of the issues that's come up in some of our gap analysis, people are leaving and not going filling their prescription, right? And so that doesn't help if people are leaving the jail having gone through Matt services and then are back out in the streets really, you know, trying to deal with their addiction, right? And so, um, this long acting injection actually lasts for up to 30 days. And so that's something that we believe will be a gamecher in this space as well. Under our priority three, um we all know about the transition center that's been a partnership. Um we are actively recruiting all positions to begin operating seven days a week um in April 1st. Uh that's um we see some great movement and hiring so that we can make sure that 7 days a week things are operable. That has been a concern from our courts that you know they want to make sure there's some parody in the way they work with clients. But um having it open seven days a week is going to be a a big big step for our community. Uh no pun intended. I'm moving on to steps and that um which is our supportive treatment and engagement program services. As as you recall, part of our metro um justice meetings have been discussing a lot about how do we make our our um specialty courts more effective, right? And so I've been engaged in conversations with our county attorney's office, in collaboration with pre-trial services, in collaboration with our our our public defenders to really look at what resources need to be there to not only support more better outcomes, but equally important, what are some system improvements that have to happen across those areas so that we

have um the outcomes that we need. We we serve just under about 868 people a year. um in that program we have or or at least are qualified. About half of those people end up kind of actually participating and then about half of those actually complete the program, right? And so so we we can do better, right? And how do we do better is is a coordinated effort between the courts um and our county attorney's office to get better outcomes in that space. Um and equally important is our drug alternative to prison program, our drug court. We met with with our presiding judge um and who said that you know if we want to make this better we need another surveillance officer. Part of our our um investment in the courts as part of our puma or one puma initiative is to look at supporting our county attorney's office with additional attorney um next year along with a surveillance officer for the DTAP program. And so that I think will continue in the spirit of improving our our um our specialty courts that are reside under um our jurisdiction. Um I going to go through this quickly. A lot of you have this information. Um these are just the current status of our opiate settlement funds. I think it's really important. We've received just a little over 30 million to date. It's actually 31 million, but we have non-poolled jurisdictions that receive money as well. So once that money goes out to Oro Valley and Sawarita, we're left with about 30 million. This is how it's broken down based upon the one uh agreement and jurisdictionally percentage of of how that's doled out or pulled. Um and equally importantly, you can see here that the efforts that we worked on with the um with the uh ROSAC committee that $8 million of ongoing um three-year commitments to our RFPs, which I'll go into more detail, are um are in here as well and have been um

already allocated. I have to note there's we are scheduled to re receive $126 million out of this settlement, but that's over 18year period. What the problem is we do not know when those funds come in. Um this allocation the last time we received money was I believe August of 25. And so this is why when we're looking at allocations we want to be really sure that money is actually coming in because it's not a predictable kind of income stream that we're getting. This is to date. This is what our ROSAC committee approved um as part of the um last um RFPs that were were approved. As you can see here, I'm going to go into greater detail because that's this is super important. Th this is what actually got funded and what remaining funds after RFPs were allocated. We have had conversations with our ROSAC committee to see what we want to do with the additional 1.7 that's there. They have been the ones that have been guided a lot of our discussions. As of now, the they've only approved 300,000 of the 1.7 to actually um resubmit the RFP for mobile match services, which was unallocated as you can see from this chart. They felt it was super important. So, roughly about 1.4 million um is still being discussed by the ROSAC. Um there are members that want us to reissue RFPs. As you know, there were a lot of our um community organizations that did not receive any money. they were kind of disqualified from from it and they would like to see us kind of go back out and um and do that. We will update both uh boards um to make sure you're aware of what decisions are being made in that space. I do know um uh Liz and I have been collaborating around maybe looking at a continuum of services for people leaving the steps program um and seeing if we can house them in maybe another unit. That's another place where I think we can have uh great impact. I I have to note too one of the concerns around the safer center in in here. The

safer centers particularly has If I can if I can pause you for a minute. Can someone Can you use the other mic next to you cuz that one seems to have um failed. So you can turn it off. How's that? Better maybe. So Mayor Romero, just as we've been talking discussing the safer center in particular 2.2 2 has been allocated for this for a sixmonth pilot. I have to know is it me? Mine is working just fine. Mike, you got you got cheap mics. You need uh better mics. Okay. How's

Can we try another one? Maybe. Uh Kevin, can you hand them your mic? Maybe could turn it off. Yeah, a little better. So maybe when I'm sitting. Huh? Is there interference with the clicker?

All right. Okay. As you in this allocation of 8 million, this includes $2.2 million that's been allocated to the safer center for the next three years. I just have to note that even though it's a pilot, we haven't determined whether we're going to move forward with this or not. There is still money allocated in this budget for that if we find success in that program. And I just I just want to note that because I think there was some confusion over what was allocated because of the six-month pilot. I just want to bring clarity to that. So 2.2 is allocated in this year and in the following two years. Um and I'll I'll end with these last two slides. Um briefly just very proud for what we've been able to accomplish in the housing space and collaboration. um 20.9 million in for 28 affordable housing projects have been allocated that that really makes up eight 1,857 units of affordable housing for 30 years, right? That's that's huge impact as we continue in that. I know five of these projects are awarded funding sites from the city of Tucson. Um thank you for your continued work in that space. Um 10 the 10-year strategy plan for funding of 250 million over 10 years. Thanks um Supervisor Hines bringing that forward. I think that's going to really be an impactful uh policy for us in the over over time. Um our board actually allocated additional $3.5 million this year from our traditional 5 million to really look at um keeping people housed. As you can see here, we have 649 total households that have been served for weather repair, rent, mortgage housing that were not just affordable housing, but really supporting those that were housed and need additional support. Uh, and then lastly, we we continue to work on a a sheltering dashboard that's we're looking kind of early April. I'm trying not to set a timeline because there's a lot of of people that need to play

together, right, to get this data, but really is looking at a a shelter dashboard and working with TPCH and uh serial to really get that going. So stay tuned for that. Um and then thank you for our investment with supervis um our silver lake mission community really looking at budget considerations for neighborhood re revitalization that goes in hand hand in hand with the work that we're doing um and then this is just really showing the partnership that continues to be regionally for us um particular we participate together with our safe city task force our implementation meetings um our safe city deployments our metro justice meetings and then including our other jurisdictions who have been really supportive and making sure that we're coordinating services for those that are uh in encampments, individuals that are unhoused. So, I will end with that. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Uh Mr. Holmes, I just wanted to thank Pima County. I know the transition center, uh Kate Vesley really participates in our safe city deployments, um every time we have them. They're they're happening once a month. I wanted to thank um Liz for your presentation and I want to especially thank uh my colleague uh Supervisor Scott that um really in my work as mayor with the chair. I've I've had the pleasure of working with three three Puma County Board of Supervisors chairs now. and every single chair that I've worked with with we've advanced uh in the partnership between Pima County and the city of Tucson with Chair Girhalva. We decided to pull our money together, our opioid uh funds together and created a plan and strategy on how to get that done with Chair Scott. we were able to put the Metro Justice team together because in the work of uh Unsheltered um and the opioid behavioral health crisis that's happening on our street, the justice system is a big huge part of it. So, it's the justice system um and also the the housing, right? Shelter, low barrier shelter. So, um, TPD is the one that, you know, uh, interacts with the sheriff's department and then the individual in interacts with the courts and all the services that are attached to it. So, uh, thank you, Supervisor Scott, for your work on that and I'm looking forward to advancing additional work with Chair Allen. I also want to thank Tucson Police Department and our uh community outreach and resource engagement or core officer team as well as community safety, health and

wellness, our Puma County justice services, Puma County uh or our public defenders office in the city of Tucson, our uh MDOT team and every volunteer and nonprofit organization that works in our safe city deployments. Um and then I know um uh Mr. Holmes that you finalized your presentation with the regional collaboration slide. Uh the county administrator's office, the health department and justice services are represented in the safe city task force. Um as well as in the safe city implementation meetings, the county administrator's office as well, health department, justice services and office of housing opportunities and homeless solutions. they all participate in our safe city conversations and in our safe city task force. So, um just wanted to add that and uh wanted to see chair if you wanted to invite uh both our city attorney and our county attorney to add uh to the conversation in the presentation that we just had. And I believe it was Liz that talked about our joint efforts in the justice system um and wanted to see if uh county attorney Laura Conover and Roy Lusk wanted to add to our work together.

Sure. Thanks, Madame Mayor. And I'm I'm happy to hear from Mr. Lusk as well. We've been doing a lot of work together since the last meeting. And as the countywide executive and executive of of any of the stuff that we're talking about here today and at the last meeting, um I'm I'm feeling very optimistic about where we can go from here as long as it all continues to align with um prosecutorial policies at the Puma County Attorney's Office as approved by the county. since last time. Um, I I wanted to give a a lot of grace and room for the city to explore a possible ordinance. Um, I wanted to to allow the city time and space to to do that. But instead of waiting while that research was conducted, I'm really thrilled that um, previous Chief Chad Kasmar and and Mr. Lusk and I um charged ahead on a renewal and expansion of the county attorney's office ongoing threat of harm, which is our our overall um training. uh in early December, I personally delivered the the the ongoing threat of harm training to uh over 80 regional law enforcement uh about how we could improve the information in the hands of the prosecutor at that very first hearing, which really goes to the heart of everything that the city and county have been talking about and and and maybe trying to get at with that ordinance. If we can improve who we are focusing on at that first hearing and get better outcomes at that first hearing, um, we can go so far. It took, uh, time to turn that into four bullet points because you got to memorize four bullet points out on the street when you're a street level officer. And that got delivered in early January. Distribution has gone out. I I am thrilled to say that our prosecutors our prosecutors who are running that those initial appearances are already

reporting um tremendous success. Um and and so much thanks to the Tucson Police Department uh for adding information that we need in that hearing that happened so fast post arrest. Um what I and then and then I'll end here by saying that so much work together with Mr. Lusk, former Chief Kasmar. I I think with former Chief Kasmar, it's going to be smooth sailing into working together, continuing through the county, and then it is with tremendous um excitement um that an absolute pro uh within the department has now been promoted as chief and Monica Prietto and and so I think it's a a point of real optimism about where we can go from here. Um and I'll be here for questions. Mr. us.

Thank you, honorable mayor, members of council, members of the board of supervisors. Um, I I will echo what uh Miss Conover has already said that we've had lots of good positive conversations about how we can use the existing tools that we have. Um, obviously I'll I'll applaud also um uh Council Member Lee's uh insistence that we explore those tools and ex and and and to to use them in a better way to make sure that if we didn't go with the ordinance, we went with something that was effective. Um, and I'll also applaud the membership of the mayor and council to uh encourage us to continue to think outside the box and also work with our our wonderful partners at the Puma County Attorney's Office, which we've done. And I want to uh also thank uh Miss Connor specifically about providing those tools uh as we're um addressing what we would call the highest utilizers of the criminal justice system and focusing on putting the right tools in the right hands and making sure that we're being efficient with the resources that we have. obviously always asking for more resources, but but of course um understanding that if we are focusing on what we need to do with the the folks that we're getting into the system with our specialty courts, uh with our our substance substance use uh options for treatment, all of the things that the mayor council and the board of supervisors have have put into place to allow someone to make a better decision and then utilize those tools to make a make themselves a better life, then we're going to continue to go down that road.

So from the work, the work that has been done with the city attorney and the county attorney side, I know that we have improved charging documentation. We have clearer post arrest treatment pathways and then we also have coordination developing a high utilizer strategy which is something that we didn't have before. And so the work from our first meeting to here uh we've been able to work even with the safe city task force to explore the open air drug use um ordinance and it was because of the safe city task force that we did a strategic pivot and said I everybody felt as though the best pivot was to strengthen the existing legal uh tools that we had and we're just going to have to continue making sure that we're that we're coordinating on that side. Chair Allen, do you want to include anything else or move on to the next item?

Um, I am anxious to hear the safer center update. So, I'm happy to keep moving on on the agenda. So, I think next we have a presentation by jointly, right, by Dr. Tell Terry Cohen um the director of Puma County Health Department and I believe Liz Moraves as well.

Thank you, Chair Allen. I will just start by saying we don't have any slides to share, but we're gonna speak on what is the latest. So, Dr. Coen will start us off.

Yeah. Uh, good afternoon, mayor, chair, members of council, mayors of the board of supervisors. Thank you. I'm Terry Cohen. I'm the med uh the health director at Puma County. We're going to talk about safer, but before I do that, I want to go back uh to some of what uh Steve Holmes presented in terms of the ROSAC, the regional opioid settlement committee. And and we don't have slides. We we have shared this in the past so hopefully none of it will be a surprise to anyone that's in the room. As you are aware, as the mayor discussed, we did make the take the opportunity to pull funds from four jurisdictions. This is very unique in the United States. It remains unique. The vast amount of jurisdictions where there was a large city and a large county separated their funds. I am proud that I'm a member of the ROSAC committee where we were able to blend these funds so that the decisions are made conjointly. There are six members on ROSAC and uh the city has some the Puma County has one, the city of South Tucson and the city of Morirana have representatives on that committee. I want to just briefly go out over these spending priorities because Steve shared with you what we had spent the uh 8 million designation on. It was to address the continuum of care for recovery services for opioid use, implement strategies to support schools and families. We heard repeatedly in the last three years how critical prevention was in order to address and stop hopefully the opioid situation that we had. Support pre-arrest and postarrest diversion and deflection. And we'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about safer. And then really convene a wide array of community stakeholders. And I have this presentation and then I have another one. In the second one, you will see we come back to that conceptual model of how do we do an integrated

strategic approach for a regional plan. You saw what the $8 million was spent on. I would just remind you that part of that was for safer. The original set aside uh for safer sobering alternative for recovery was 2.2 million. The we did a competitive RFP in the community. The amount awarded was 1.8 million. Do you want me to just keep going? Yes.

Okay. Okay. So, uh, safer started was stood up January 1. I will share with you that the first two weeks when we were in process. We had no admissions. There are multiple reasons for that. You may be aware that we did an award late in November. We gave the uh the procurement the procurer which was CBI community bridges four weeks to stand up. So they did as aggressive a model as they could. We worked closely with them, the city worked closely with them. Multiple people were at the table to try to ensure that they could address what the needs are. If I step back a second, what's important to note is this idea is not new. It is an idea that has been implemented in many communities throughout the United States called sobering recovery centers. We are using the name safer. There actually is a national collaborative for sobering centers and we are part of that. The Pima County Health Department is part of that. When we designed the RFP, we took what we believed were best practices that had showed success and we'll have to talk a little bit about what success means from other communities. So we made certain decisions. For instance, the vast majority of sobering centers keep people for 48 hours. We made a decision that the the per uh community bridges could keep people up to 96 hours. And I will say uh as a an aside, we have a verbal commitment to keep people more than that. The reason for that is how difficult it is to get people into care. So, you can imagine it's a Friday, it's a three-day weekend. Now, you're at Monday. The person may or may not have Medicaid. They may have fallen off of Medicaid. We may not have resources available. So, we made the decision to in the RFP include 96 hours. We also know that made the decision, as many of

you know, to include pets. Uh, this has been a known concern with many people in the past when they have sought treatment that their pets cannot go with them. So both of those plus some other services were offered.

Um thank you Dr. Colin. One of the things I wanted to share um is some of the the elements that I think that make it uh also very unique and and different for our community. Um being a 247 low barrier access to stabilization. It has also served as a deflection point for our first responders, our and our outreach workers, our police officers, reducing unnecessary emergency department visits and jail bookings while promoting person centered care. The center focuses on trauma-informed care and peer support and and have a they have a no wrong door approach which meets the individuals where they are connecting them to ongoing treatment and recovery services. They take walk-ins. But I will tell you about the referrals for a minute. We uh our TPD core that we just spoke a little bit ago has been actively through our deployments, through our other outreach efforts. Um we've done about 44 referrals there. So they're it's actively being used by by our um police and our outreach. The the what makes safer different is that it doesn't it's they serve people regardless of insurance. Most other treatment facilities detox require insurance. This has no no requirements. So someone comes in you that whole piece of eligibility is taken off the table. It it's aimed at a therapeutic environment. Um it emphasizes dignity and safety and comfort. Um one thing I learned is they don't just do recliners. They don't have recliners. That's a big deal. I didn't know they had they have a place for people to lay down and sleep where they feel comfortable. they have their some space for themselves. They have comprehensive services that include

screening, crisis stabilization, withdrawal management, initiation of the MAT treatment, the medicated assisted treatment, and uh nlloxxen distribution. Um, and it's innovative because not only with the pets, but people can bring their personal things. Um, a lot of places you you just come in with what you without your personal belongings here. there's storage opportunities for them. With 15 beds, they're typically serving anywhere between 10 to 15 people. And um and they what I think is really valuable with community bridges is that they can transition people into other any of their other uh treatment programs when once they know what a person needs. Some that that particular uh safer may not be what they need at that moment and they have already demonstrated to move people where they need to. Um and now we will soon see that steps program will uh be providing referrals as as Dr. Coen uh or Steve had mentioned earlier. Um one of the things I think is important is that the safer team is going to be produced u status reports. Uh I just talking to Brian Aller, we're going to be able to hear in the short uh term some information what's coming out and I'll I'll leave that to Dr. Cohen, but I just want you to know that um we are very very happy to be part of this and want to thank um the health department for including the city from the get-go of how we can work together, how we can do referrals and really trying to track people as they go through.

Perfect. So, let let me share some data with you. I I want to be very clear. This is very preliminary data. It's why you do not have a data report. If you'll recall, it closed for the first two weeks. We have about six weeks of data. I'm going to give you some numbers that we are curating. Obviously, all of us want to ensure that this is a wise investment and that it proves to be effective. And like I stated before, what does effectiveness mean in this situation? What we know is looking at the national data, if 15% of people that c that seek care in a sobering center end up being referred and stay in some kind of treatment afterwards, that is considered a success. So I I don't want anybody to be taken back by the numbers I'm going to share. I also want you to know that this is temporarily mediated. So some weeks we appear to be doing really well. Other weeks we have very few people going into treatment. That is not to be that that's not unexpected because there's not a control mechanism of who gets referred there and or who elects to stay. So since January 1st through February 21st there have been 113 admissions. Uh between in January there were 47 admissions. 30 were male, 17 were female. That's the other thing is that there are men and women and non-binary individuals accepted into safer. The RA age range was 24 to 79 with an average of 41. Um we had like I stated no admissions that first two weeks. Admission referral sources are are multitude. We still have work to do here. Some of it is from the CBI 23 hour unit, which is why you get this reference to the recliners because if anyone has been in CBI, that's what happens when people go in for 23 hours.

They're not given a bed, they're given a recliner. Um the transition center has been a source of referral, the city of Tucson police, um Cashew, and other people that have self-reerred themselves. As Liz stated, there's no wrong door. Anybody can self-present. They are evaluated. There are firm criteria about who gets admitted and who and who needs to get referred. Obviously, we want to ensure that people are safe. CBI however has lots of experience in the medical arena as well as the psychiatric arena has on staff as a requirement for the safer center comprehensive clinical care which means people for instance that have hypertension can get their hypertension treated put under control and still stay there. The same is true for psychiatric com uh psychiatric disease that may present if an individual has that and they're not deemed appropriate for safer. They can then transition into the CBI psychiatric care model so that they can get care there. Um I do want to share with you some recent data to just kind of illustrate this issue of if you ask me what will happen this week. I don't know. In the week of 225 to 221, there were 14 people that came in, seven people successfully transitioned to a behavioral unit. That's 50%. However, if we go back to the week of February 8th to February 14th, we had three of 17 people go to treatment. So, it just gives you a sense of how critical it is going to be for us to assess this as we go forward. And to talk about that briefly, I'll talk about the evaluation component of this. Written in the RFP are multiple metrics that are being reported on. We also have required that there be an evaluator, an external objective evaluator. Uh CBI has chosen uh a division at the University of Arizona which is actively involved in that. They also are required to do a PI,

a performance improvement quality improvement plan every month. some of those plans uh the the first plan we've only seen one which was for January resulted in a real uh the moving of the door for where people could enter into safer the inclusion of what we call the prepare questionnaire that is a social determinance of health u objectively validated questionnaire so that we can get additional information about individuals specific situations. It's critical for us to have that in order to do any predictive modeling of do we go forward? What do we go forward with? What is missing? In addition, we are collecting qualitative data for discharge. Obviously, we if three out of 17 people are transitioned into treatment, there's 14 other people that have left not in treatment. Some are some are going home, but many people are not. And so, what is the difference there? Is there something we can do to encourage people to choose to go to treatment andor support them during that cycle that period when they leave? And the other thing we have not done is uh specifically yet is the outreach to health care centers. Remember one of the goals of this is to try to ensure that our health care system can do what it needs to do. When people go to the health care system that have a substance use disorder, it may not be the appropriate place for them. It may be if it's an acute overdose, but our hope is to decrease some of the burden that we're seeing on the health care system by enabling the health care systems to refer directly into safer. So I I I think what's important to note is we are so supportive of this model. We hope to be able to prove that it is effective. We are working with many metrics as well as the external evaluator and right now we are in the area where we are collecting the data looking at what

we're seeing and hope to be able to because we have this continuous quality improvement model and CBI has really been a great partner figure out what we should do differently so that we can get better outcomes. I just wanted to add thank you so much for the report. Really appreciate it. I'm I'm I'm data nerd. Um I like to do policy and make policy based on data that's proven to work. And so, uh, when we first, the city of Tucson first started talking about safer center, um, and being able to, uh, use opioid settlement funds, we looked at the data of how it was helping other cities. And so, uh, other cities have done it, but we have never, right? This is something new that we're all trying. And I just want to make sure that I um pay special attention and really thank the ROSAC committee as well as the board of supervisors and mayor and council for willing to try something different that we've never done in order to be able to have better data and better result for the community. I've gone to safer center. I don't know if uh all of you have. I would highly highly recommend that each and every one of you go visit it. I know that safer has been uh in our partnership with CBI has been uh very effective. There is a warm from our safe city deployments and um our nonprofit partners that are there, TPD, um uh justice services, all of us. Uh what I've seen because I've I've been to a safe city deployment as well is that um the goal is to connect people to the

resources that they need. Those are the safe city deployment goals. And um from those deployments, we have either nonprofit partners or police officers that when uh individuals are asked and they say, "Yes, I I I need, you know, I I need detox." Um a police officer can go drop off an individual at Safer through a special door. uh and it's a warm handoff from the police officer to someone that works at Safer and that individual is helped within 5 minutes. That's the difference that SAFER creates when it comes to our police officers. the the the other option what we were doing before was either dropping individuals off that needed detox treatment either to the Pima County Jail or our police officers would have to go to an emergency department. that emergency department. It took hours. If any of you have gone to emergency rooms, it took hours upon hours for a police officer uh to be able to leave that individual there. So, this is saving us um uh booking costs and jail costs and really moving people towards the real uh services that they truly need. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate that that report. Chair Alen, I don't know if you wanted to move to the next item.

Chair chairs, is it sorry? Okay. May May I just really quickly say one thing? Yes. I guess I started anyway. So, I just I think it's important after hearing that um just to acknowledge that it is not typical for any of the 3,69 counties in this country to have a Dr. Cullen. Uhhuh. And I So, um, just it's no, thank God for you. I mean, like she got us through the pandemic really well and we're just really lucky to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisors.

So, I think it is appropriate then to in looking at our next agenda item and around the sort of unique incredible skills of uh Dr. Cullen um digging into this gaps analysis um and and I will just say right if you sort of think about where we have gone we have had reports around both safer city one puma right broad like complex and looking at the complexity of responses we've heard about a pilot project where we are digging in piloting something that is that is fairly unique um and now I think the the question still is right like we know we're not doing enough But in order to figure out where to do more, I think we all always come back to this question of where are the gaps? What do we need to be doing more of? And so I very excited to hear the presentation of the gaps analysis that has been put together by Dr. Cullen and the health department team. And

yes, thank you. Um I I do want to say one thing about safer. So a lot of eyes are on us for this. I was just at the big city health coalition, 35 largest public health departments in the country, people who are like, "So, how's that going?" I'm like, "Give me a little bit of time and we'll figure it out." And thank you, Dr. Hines. Uh, does the slide deck come up or do I need uh there is a slide deck? Hopefully, maybe not. Do you have that, David?

We're trying to find it, Dr. Cullen.

Yeah, I can go without it because I think you guys all have a copy. Well, you have the full large document. Uh, and I will give you a synopsis of that and we will go from there and hopefully David will be able to pull that up in the back. Okay. So, I do want to say that the uh and I really appreciate Dr. Hines saying that. However, this was not my idea to do this. It was at a Metro Justice meeting. Um, Supervisor Scott, I'm looking at you because you were the one that suggested that there's a lot of stuff out there and maybe we should figure out how to pull it all together. I glibly said, "Oh, I can do that in three weeks." Well, three months later, and thank God he gave me grace to say, "You're never going to get that done." Despite using our because I was like, "I'll just use some AI." Okay. So, I do want to put out here that we did use a little artificial intelligence on this. I did not specifically pull up all of these myself.

Here it's coming. We got the um the presentation as well.

Thank you. Uh oh, here. Perfect. First purpose and scope. Okay. So, we looked at over 20 documents. The exact number is 24. This includes many of the things you've already talked about. safe city one puma prosperity initiative uh strategic plan any document we could get a handle on we started with documents back from 21 and went through August of 25 there have been so for instance there was an update on the safe city document that's the updates are not included in this analysis that we did what we specifically were looking at what were the plans and strategies that been identified by multiple stakeholders to address the opioid response in Puma County. We elected to compare these recommendations through what is a known public health framework, which is policy assessment and assurance. That's the the triple leg stool that we talk about when we talk about public health. And you're going to see that we've then used that as we go along. We looked for what had been identified by the individuals that wrote these documents of strengths, gaps, and opportunities. It's important to note we did not ensure that what had been identified as a strength gap or opportunity by the person that wrote the document was accurate. We assumed that if the document had been there and all of these had been published and pushed out through the community that they were adequate and that we could use them. So there were 10 thematic items. Thank you so much. identified. You can see these here. What's important to note is these are very similar to the thematic item areas that we saw with ROSAC. ROSAC an independent group of people looking at what is the best way for us to uh solve what are the issues related to opioids and people came up with these thematic areas. These are also many areas that have been funded through the set aside

from ROSAC that we talked about earlier. You can go you if you have the opportunity you can go through your large document and look at them specifically. Ah you guys are doing it back there. Thank you. These are the strengths that were identified. Field-based harm reduction outreach efforts are scaled and consistent. What this means is that they were scaled and consistent throughout the delivery model. So not if Pima County was doing it well, if the city of Tucson was doing it well, if the city of Morirana was doing it well. This is what we saw consistently out there that there was coordinated engagement between partners and the jurisdictions and that that was gathering momentum and we see that specifically in the work that we are doing with ROSAC and that government and investment commitments are helping drive substantial change and sustainable change. I want to talk just briefly about this. You'll recall uh Mr. Holmes mentioned the opioid settlement dollars uh the over hund00 million dollars that is there and also mentioned that there's been no additional funding that has come in through August. Now that other funding is in the queue but it's not in a queue that we control. It's in the queue of the individuals and the organizations that had settlements given to them in order to address the opioid situation. So this is really in my opinion helping drive sustainable change. I'm not sure we're there yet and we're going to see that as we go through. Next slide. So um the next slide is the gaps and these are gaps that if you recall what Steve presented when Mr. Holmes presented for the ROSAC dollars some of them are addressing this right transition points continuity of care. Now remember this is individuals that had written documents. We pulled the documents together and they have said that some of these have not yet

started or they've been initiated but they are yet stable. I think that I I would agree with that assessment that there's a lot of work being done in this area but we still need to move that work through so that it becomes foundational and really instituted in our delivery system. Structural integration shared infrastructure is in early stages. capacity for stabilization and straight step down care and early stage. Let me just comment a little. When we asked people, we went back and we said where are you with these recommendations and we asked the individuals that had written the documents and or been involved in the documents. Early stage means it started. We're worried we don't know how we're going to continue it and or there's greater need than we have been able to meet at that time. youth prevention work and coverage. And I already talked about that briefly, but a huge component that we hear repeatedly, workforce sustainability. This we know is a major gotcha. The workforce sustainability in this area in behavioral health and substance use disorder in primary care, in the integration of behavioral health into primary care, in the initiation of medicationass assisted treatment is sorely lacking. There's lots of efforts being done there. Obviously, many of those are with healthcare training, behavioral health training. Not really necessarily within the purview of the health department to make this happen, but the recognition that workforce initiation sustainability is critical needs to be highlighted. And then policy, policy and reimbursement alignment. You saw heard this briefly when we talk about Medicaid. as we as the looming Medicaid cliff happens and as disenrollment is happening and reenrollment will require a six-month reenrollment and or work. This is a a high concern for us. What's important to

note is that behavioral health and or substance use disorder may exempt you from the 80hour a month work requirement. That is a state decision to say what does it mean to have a behavioral health condition? What does it mean to have a substance use condition? Lots of policy work left I think for us to do in conjunction with you. Next slide. Um so the opportunities now these are opportunities that came up once again from the the documents. Remember the documents now are six months old, five months old. Things change rapidly in there. development and implement a unified regional opioid response plan. As part of that, formalize government structures to strengthen and inform efforts. What you've heard today prior to my uh speaking is lots of efforts that are going on. So th this this um recommendation was throughout most of the documents that we saw and I think there's multiple ways this can be approached but it was a high priority issue that was identified and then policy actions which I just talked about. The policy actions however are not just with Medicaid there are multiple other policy actions that need to be addressed. Next slide. Um the next slide that's governments and policy remember policy assessment assurance assessment accelerate data interoperability. For any of you that have been at any of these meetings you know the data data data the ability to share the data the ability to reconcile the data the ability to know my data is the same as your data is out there. This is being worked on. So I don't want to take away from the amazing work uh that the city of uh Tucson's doing the other jurisdictions Pima County is doing. But we're not very far in it and the further we can get the better off we would be and the same will be for a shared evaluation framework. This goes to uh a

question that I have been asked. Um Chair Allen, I think you have asked this myself when we have presented what the uh allocations were for the different parts of the ROSAC, the 8 million. What is the evaluation? What are you doing? Can there be an overarching shared framework? We do not have that right now. That does not mean that can't be done, but it was pointed out as an important component. Next slide. And the next slide is the assurance which is really and you guys have heard this a lot too this interim shared referral system. This is a data system that would allow whoever was on the other end to know if a bed was available, what insurance that bed took, how I could get somebody there, can my animal come, can my family come if that's needed. Pilot transport and step down capacity linked to sobering re-entry. I think that part of the transition center is starting to look at this stabilize and standardize youth prevention. As you know, there are multiple youth prevention opportunities, some of which were just recently funded from the ROSAC uh SOAP uh settlement. However, the ability to see what is going to work and standardize is important. And finally, workforce, which I've already talked about. There is a there is a last slide here that I that we just put together that you don't have, but I want to share with you. related to the limitations of this study because if you uh elect to discuss this I just want to be clear this reflects a point in time it does reflect the use of AI lots of human intervention on this but we did rely on co-pilot which is the AI tool available at the county um it's not exhaustive I'm sure there's are documents out there that we didn't know about that we couldn't find that there was variation in detail and quality across the source documents which we tried to reconcile. Perhaps we missed some things in there. Actually, I'm sure we did. That that recommendations may

overemphasize early engagement and harm reduction and under represent long-term treatment and stabilization. And the reason for that is the immediacy of the need is for early intervention and something I can do right now for you. But what we know is treatment and sobriety and recovery are a journey. They don't happen quickly. The resources tend to fall off, however, fairly quickly for individuals that need them. And the opportunities, these opportunities are not prioritized. They are lists that we put together into a public health framework that we believe can be used to for discussion. And with that, I thank you for the opportunity to present to you. Thank you, Dr. Cullen. Um, this is uh this is incredibly helpful. U I we are going to pivot now to some questions. Um I have one very quickly and I I am I'm curious for those who are involved with the justice working group to which then has some some subgroups within it and I'm I'm curious around the the and this might be too um early to ask this but I'm curious around the justice working group which which of these areas around the uh the opportunities or the gaps do you feel that the justice working group is kind of digging in on, right? Just in terms of thinking about which which areas are we already kind of addressing through some existing structures and that's kind of for anyone.

Chair Allen, thank you for the question and mayor Romero if I leave anything out because we've been working on this together for um uh the last year or more. Uh there are four working groups that were established by um our metro justice system partners principles. The first one looks at the operations of our of our courts and includes uh collabor increased collaboration not only uh within uh the court system uh but also between city and county attorney and and also uh TPD and and PCSD. The second group and we heard an extensive presentation from them at our last meeting uh has to do with data. Uh as Dr. Cullen was saying during in her presentation uh we deal with uh significant siloing uh in the area of data. uh and it's really been the focus of that group to try and bring the two governments together in terms of all the different uh data sets that we have and the ability to be able to share them together. It really has been those two groups, Chair Allen, that have gotten the greatest attention. There are two other groups. One dealing with the transition center uh and the fourth one uh dealing with deployments uh deployments that um Miss Morales made reference to during her presentation on on the safe city initiative. But we have found that it has been those first two groups that have needed the most uh time, direction and u uh and and grace really uh from the uh from the principles who who are part of the group. Mor Romero, did I leave anything out?

No, I think you've been super thorough. I don't know, Liz or Steve, if you wanted to add anything in terms of the Metro Justice Groups uh work on it. I think you did a great job. Thank you so much. We are going a little bit over time. We're at two, but we do want to make sure that we open it up for questions, comments, suggestions, etc., etc. So, um, if that's okay, Chair Allen, we can open it up and then, you know, start from the from my left hand side, um, and see if, uh, Councilman Lee, if you wanted to add, and then we'll just go down the down the row if you'd like. All right, I get to get the party started. Okay. Well, thank you to all of our colleagues and all the presenters today for all this wonderful information. Um, a couple things that come to mind and I I hate that I have to go first because I really love to hear what you all have to say before I start, but this book is huge with all the gaps and it just feels like to me that we have a good opportunity to realign so we're not so scattered. There's like hundreds of things that are initiated and kind of spinning out there and it feels like it's a great opportunity to kind of reenter and and restructure what those are. Um, in preparing for this meeting today, I had a lot of notes together and I talked to the county attorney yesterday and I threw all that out the window. Um, and no, no, it was it was for good reason that I threw what I was thinking out the window. Um, so great great communication there. Um, I I submitted a newsletter out to the community yesterday. We had our own retreat last I think it was last week and my whole entire conversation was around core services and we've been talking extensively about the budget deficit that we are um facing and that sparked an idea for me here when I when I think about our relationship right now um I feel like we're we're two friends you know and we just lost our job and we're kind of going broke and you all are solid with a good job and you just

got a raise and we go out to dinner and we finish eating and the waiter brings the check and we have that awkward moment like who's going to pick this up? And I I feel like we're kind of there right now because just to be completely honest, we are really struggling and we're going to have to have really difficult conversations about programs that we have built that are above and beyond core services, responding to 911 calls, filling potholes, keeping our parks maintained that we're going to have to have support from the county to help us carry because we won't be able to carry that weight. So, um, everyone is doing a lot. I'm just kind of putting it out there. My colleagues might disagree a little bit, but I feel like our capacity in some of these spaces is going to be extremely challenged in the near future. And I know that the partnerships and the work together is going to have to continue and strengthen for us to all work together and keep addressing the community concerns that we all hear every day. So, that's just what I'm thinking. Um hopefully, you know, for what it's worth, that's a horrible analogy, but that's just kind of what it feels like right now, you know, and I just wanted to be honest about where where I'm at and really concerned about our budget and our ability to keep moving forward. Um so,

are you thinking um funding outside of opioid settlement funds? I don't know what specifically the answer Yeah, I don't I don't know what the answer is. I'm just thinking about all the work that we're doing with our outreach and everything where we're kind of intersecting with behavioral health and mental health and substance use disorder and it's not in our scope and we're going to have to have hard conversations about what we offload and what we scale back and really going to need to lean on the county for partnership in those areas. Thank you, Councilwoman. And I think that's for us to think about in terms of how we continue partnering as a city county.

We've met before, right, Supervisor Christie?

Uh thank you chairs. Um all these an anal uh analytics of treatment are are very impressive and of course it's a it's a very important piece of the whole picture but a lot of the programs and a lot of the treatments and a lot of the the wraparound services and things of that nature were promulgated and the impetus was because the community was fed up and the business community was fed up with crime and the motive motivating factor in most of these programs of course is treatment but it was also the abatement of crime. I I see no analytics about how these programs have impacted one way or the other crime in our community and crime in our community was what created really these these demands for some sort of action. But all I've seen is treatment. What about what effect it's having on crime in our community? Thank you, uh, Mayor, uh, um, Supervisor Christie. Um, that is a an item we can certainly, um, bring to the next meeting. We have seen incredible work by our Tucson Police to do um, the work around enforcements. I think there's some opportunities to talk about um, where we've seen crime reduction. We have seen crime reduction in in various ways whether or not we can point it directly to safe city but in general we are seeing reductions in crime throughout our city but I'd like to bring those some of that analytics back to you at our next joint meeting so that we can understand how some of this work I think the star village um demonstrates um that that kind of work did bring down um crime in in that neighborhood. So

and I know that uh Tim would like to add to that. Thank you. Thank you, honorable mayor and chair. And to your point, can you pull the mic closer to you? Thank I don't want to pull a Steve Holmes here. U but in the in the safe city action plan, we do have key performance indicators and metrics. Two of them directly go to the questions you're asking. We have one about gun violence in viva zones and we have another about Suntran safety incident rate. So we actually not only can bring you know tangible evidence of of crime uh stats and things uh generally but we actually have two of our key KPIs are directly in that space. Thank you

Madam Chair. Thank you um Mr. Ter. But those are just two parts of of the criminal situation. The two very important ones but just two. There are many more categories, many more areas of criminality that are really affecting the livelihoods and the quality of life of the community in Pima County. And it's really important for I think if this is going to be a success and if we're going to uh tout all of the treatments and all the programs and all of the great recovery things, which is very important, that we need to do it in the context of why it's there in the first place. it's because of crime. So, I would encourage that we get a lot more involved with what impact this is all having on the overall uh criminal aspects and criminal activity in our community.

Yeah. Uh, Supervisor Christie, we're getting really good data from the Star Village radius data that is proving that incidents and that includes all kinds of crime coming down 35% and that's f in the first five months of uh creating the star village. The other piece of crime that I think we have to really talk about is our Viva sites which are holistic lots of work from TPD to uh to our uh housing first coordinators to our own businesses and neighborhoods. We are seeing in some Viva locations 80% uh gun violence reduction and crime reduction. And so I think that um it's important that we make sure that we all empower ourselves with the information that is being provided and your point is well taken make sure that those pieces of information in terms of crime reduction is also shared with the community. And let's not forget um Matt uh your honor the uh burglaries, assaults, thefts, autothefts. K there's a whole host of categories and and I know you're you're talking to Star Village, but that's just one little square mile. And how many people did it did it uh serve? What 80 90? And the criminality element is much more pervasive than

crime in the city has been going down uh as well as homicide. So I think that crime stats as a result of these programs. Absolutely. In the last in the last few years, crime has been going down in many areas uh of uh of our stats in the city of Tucson. I think we need to make sure I don't have the percentages in hand. Uh but what I can say is that in many areas of uh of the city of Tucson, crime is going down, including an almost 20% reduction in homicides. So, I think those percentages and that information should be made available to you all and the public.

Madame Mayor, Chair Allen, and Supervisor Christie, I appreciate the question and we have all of the countywide stats and I'm happy to help in advance of the next meeting. I also just want to toss out just a time check issue. Um, time is not on our side. Uh we so roughly we've got about you know if everybody takes an equal amount of time about two minutes two and a half minutes per person just sorry council council member.

Well thank you chair and thank you mayor um I just had a question a follow-up question with the data specifically with the safer center. Are we collecting the data of where are where are these neighbors coming from? Are they originating from Tucson or from the state or another state? Could would that help determine kind of like where we're going to focus on in terms of um resources. Chair Allen um um Councilwoman, yes, we are collecting a series of data. It's it's broad and all the demographic data including kind of where they're from will be part of that analysis. Supervisor Cono.

Thank you, Chair Allen and Madame Mayor. Colleagues, I'm really grateful for the opportunity for us to be here this afternoon for our second joint meeting. And I just kind of want to take a step back and applaud the work that local jurisdictions are doing to work together, particularly Pimac County and the city of Tucson at a time when all of the investments that we've talked about today, um are a combination of funding, a little bit of federal, a little bit of opioid, but for the most part, local taxpayer dollars that we are investing. And that is a statement that I start with because I don't see the federal government coming to support our work. I don't see our state legislature coming to ensure that access treatment is expanded and yet here we are looking for solutions. So I welcome all of us to the solutionsdriven table and I know I'm sitting at that one. Uh I want to thank our county staff, our equipment operators, navigators, sheriff's deputies, librarians, doctors, nurses, justice and health partners. They're all doing incredible work with professionalism and with humanity. The district 5 office introduced one puma in November for a simple reason. People want to be able to take their kids to the river path without stepping over trash or needles. And they want to know that when someone is in crisis, we don't just push them somewhere else. We actually take care of them. So I'm proud of our board for adopting this plan 4 to one because we agreed results matter. And you've heard about those results that we are delivering. Let me break that down for the people watching at home. Next year, we're putting real resources behind two diversion programs. One at the Superior Court, the Supportive Treatment and Engagement Program, and two, the drug treatment alternative program with our county attorney. $350,000 each going to both of those programs in the year ahead. If diversion works, and it does, we should scale it so that fewer people cycle back into jail. Second, you've heard about the progress

on the loop. I was out there yesterday morning. Since December, the county and contractors have cleared almost 100,000 lbs of trash along the Rito and the Santa Cruz. That's not a talking point. That's a safer, cleaner public space. And we're doing it responsibly and with navigators, by the way, when we are clearing out those spaces so that we can get access to services. I know my time is getting limited and so I'll say the transition center going from 5 days to 7 days in the coming weeks is a handoff point that is going to be super critical because people don't only need help Monday through Friday. 7 days closes the weekend gap and we have had over 2500 people since the transition center was created three years ago come into our transition center to have that handoff which is critical to this discussion. the innovation that we are talking about incentivizing our housing providers to expand shelter access, pet friendly options, providing showers and bathrooms and basic hygiene amenities so that that's not on our streets is the right thing to do. And last but not least, Pimac County has invested this year alone almost $10 million in affordable housing. The private sector is not doing this. The federal government is not doing this. The state government is not doing this. And we are going to do it to the tune of $250 million over the next 10 years because we need as a region to build 6,000 homes per year to be able to keep up with supply. That's one puma in plain terms. Diversion that works, corridors restored, a real handoff to services, and smart innovation that removes practical barriers and housing at scale. And this is all happening because of the meetings like we are having today and most importantly on the county side because of our 7,000 employees who every day do their very best. Thank you.

Thank you so much Council Member Schubert.

Thank you so much um Mayor Romero and Chair Allen and everybody who's here. Really exciting to be here at my first joint meeting and I've loved the conversation. I'll keep it brief. Um, you know, throughout the conversation, there's been comments sprinkled in about, um, you know, the savings for, you know, for example, reduced bookings, reduced incarceration, reduced utilization of emergency services, 911 calls. Um, I'm curious to know like the quantified and specific fiscal impacts of these investments that are that are research and data driven because there are savings. It isn't just about the expense of launching the service. The payoffs are way more than that. So, um I think part of making the case to our constituents should be um outlining how much we're saving um not only in terms of people's literal livelihoods. Um but I know that compassion doesn't move everybody. So, what money have we saved by not throwing people in jail for being addicted um to fentanyl. Um and then just to just to plug um the anybody who hasn't gone to the safer center for a tour um the W six team and I went and it was really really impactful. really stuck with me to see the real people that this is impacting. And I know that it can seem really small given the enormity of the problem that we're facing, but we have to start somewhere. It's like the starfish thing, right? Like you find somebody and you help them and it lasts their whole lives and it affects their communities and their families and their loved ones. We have to start somewhere and I'm grateful to be here with you to do that work. Thank you.

My turn. Yeah. Thank you, chairs. Suggestion for next meeting, shorter, fewer presentations because we all want to talk more and this is this is frustrating and I'm just going to talk on one of 10 topics that I thought I could share with you today. I want to thank Can you make sure that you just speak a little bit closer into the mic? Yeah.

Thank you. Um I want to especially thank Supervisor Kano and all of you for doing the loop. Um the section of the loop that I'm most concerned about north of wall Walmart from Tono Tadai to Stone was an area where a bicyclist was stabbed and killed where it was known to be unmanageable open air drug um police. Um my office provided extra money so that we could have bicycle cops which proved really successful but they had to be there all the time. after the deployments, after everybody focused attention on that area, um TPD was able to continue to to deploy people there, not using overtime, just regular time, and kept it has kept it safe. I think this is a model that's working, and I'm so proud that we were able to to uh cooperate on it. Look forward to other possible cooperations. Thank you,

Supervisor Hines.

Thank you. Um and great to be here. And I would echo uh echo the comments of uh council member doll. It'd be great to be able to have a little more discourse because we don't really do that very often. So I will try to get through all of this um in my like 90 seconds. Um but no, in in hearing council member Lee uh and and the real budget situation going on with the city of Tucson, I do think there are some ways we can work together um where we kind of already have. Um, and I'm looking, this is not super related to what we were talking about earlier, but looking at um, kind of aligning development community feedback um, budgetary concerns on the city side and also in talking with our own development services folks. Um, I think it would be great for us to explore looking at just the building group side of things, like that's the permitting process and that's inspections and stuff. um and making it look a little more like the health department because that's basically the county um doesn't touch like zoning, planning, land use, all of that stuff. But our building codes are quite a bit alike. They're very very similar. And um we've had collaboration in this department before. We had during COVID there was a huge backlog of permitting. That was something that the the departments worked together on to fix that. And I just think it'd be great for frankly efficiency in government. uh potentially taking a four to5 million line item off of the city of Tucson budget um and taking out some uncertainties there. Uh we did it with libraries. I would love to see a working group come together to talk about this more because I think it's something that we could do together that that might help um the whole community and maybe even speed along projects that we all care about like affordable housing. So, thank you,

Council Member Cunningham. And along those lines, one of the discussions that I thought about is the Ringcon station uh that deploys about 14 deputies during the day helping us shag a few calls. Look, a lot of this is accessibility. Um there's a big handoff piece and I like to think things about what's going on on the ground. So the way I do that is I go onto the ground and find out what's going on on the ground. Well, okay. Uh we have a person. They're under the influence. they are either unresponsive or they are acting unpredictably and we somebody calls police and police show up and police say well we'd like to have cashew come uh but it's 7:00 at night and we don't have a service deployed why not and then the discussion is well what are we going to do are they going to go to jail are we going to take them to kino to be cleared if we take them be kino to be cleared where are they going to go after that and ultimately especially at night the person ends up in jail where we don't want them to go. We have to think pragmatically about each case. Right now, my office works with people who walk in and we try to get them through CBI, through detox, through shelter, and to working. We try to facilitate that. And it's all hands- on deck. Everybody should be pitching in on that at that level if they know how to do it. So, I'm thinking about some of the things that we we brought in today and I'm thinking about how do we have them seven days a week and how do we have them at least 11 to 12 hours today. That's way more important. If I can if my police officer if our officer responding officer can do iPad court that instant and also have a social worker respond that instant and we can start a case plan that instant. That's a lot more efficient and in immediate. That's better for the court system. that's pedal for the social services. The the worst thing you can tell

somebody who's ready for help is well, hang on, hang in there and we'll have somebody call you in a couple days. And that seems to happen way too often. So, I'm thinking about I I appreciate the report. First of all, now I don't mean to sound harsh at all because the work that's being done is amazing and you guys are cutting edge and you're really trying. We've got to think about we got to be way out of the box here. I want to be able to do iPad court, social services, and and public safety response all in one move in one hour. And maybe we're there. Let's find out. Right now, we're totally underresourced and that's because we don't have any money. So, I think there's some other discussions there. Sorry for going over my big fat two minutes.

Supervisor Scott.

Thank you, Chair Allen. And uh thank you to both you and Mayor Romero for your leadership in organizing and facilitating this meeting. I want to extend uh special thanks and welcome uh to council members Barahas and Schubert uh who were not with us uh at our first joint meeting because they were not yet part of the council. Very much looking forward to working with both of you moving forward. Uh there's really three areas of focus that I wanted to ask us to consider. Going back to the question that was posed by both Chair Allen and Mayor Romero at the beginning of the meeting, which is how do we address gaps? I think we've gotten a great overview of what's working uh and also some opportunities of where we uh might do some further work, but there's three specific areas where I'd like to uh see us look at some of those gaps. First of all, the metro system, the metro justice system working groups uh have always been structured with the intention of offering policy recommendations to this body uh that could be followed up on by both the city council and the board of supervisors. So, I'm hopeful that in future meetings we get some specific policy recommendations from those working groups that we're able to bring to the table to discuss here. I am not saying that in any way to be critical because I know from my conversations with uh both Mr. Holmes and and and Miss Morales uh that all four of those working groups have needed more time and more direction uh from the principal groups in terms of how to move forward. But Seth, that's something I'd like to see us focus on. uh at one specific example, the courts group is looking at expansion of uh DTAP and steps which are mentioned in both uh the safe city and the one puma initiative. Secondly, we know that for

people who are chronically homeless, especially if they are involved in the justice system, those who are resistant to the acceptance of services and shelter are the ones with whom we have the greatest difficulty and they are the ones whose public behaviors often cause the greatest concern for the for the public at large. I don't know that we've talked enough as two governments. I don't know that we've looked at enough examples from other governments as to how uh we can build our success in terms of addressing people who are uh service and shelter resistant. The last one is with regard to our local continuum of care uh our local HUD required continuum of care, the Tucson uh Puma uh coalition to end homelessness as they are going through the strategic planning process. And both Mayor Romero and I have talked about this uh several times, not just amongst ourselves, but with TPCH. the priorities and emphases of the two jurisdictions that are represented in TPCH need to be given greater weight uh and and and greater authority. I have talked with people who've been involved in continuums of care in other communities and they're astonished to hear uh that both the county and the city are often in a uh minority role uh with regard to the operations of TTCH. Uh, having said all that, I really look forward to these uh, meetings moving forward. I know we're going to stick to that quarterly schedule and and thanks for this opportunity.

Vice Mayor Santa Cruz.

Uh, hi, Mayor and Chairwoman. Um, again, thank you for everyone who helped shape all these plans that we discussed today. I really do appreciate the coordination across the city and the our county partners. Um, and I just have three points that I wanted to highlight as it pertains to safety in our community. I just wanted to keep in front of us that when we talk about violence prevention, we also need to include traffic violence. While fatalities remain far too high, we also have many residents each year who survive crashes but live with lifech changing injuries. These injuries affect our families, our jobs, our housing stability. So, as the city develops, we've started to developing our our own high injury network map. Um, I'd be interested in how the county might also align infrastructure and prevention efforts regionally so we can address one of the most prevent preventable forms of harm in our public spaces. Um, second, I want to um also reaffirm that prevention starts early. Um, I would like to see a stronger integration with youth programming um, school with our school partnerships that include parents. um how are we working with our school districts and afterchool programs for behavioral health supports um youth and family engagement and even traffic safety education as part of this broader effort to interrupt cycles of violence. Um the earlier we intervene with education and support, the more we can prevent harm before it happens. And finally, I just wanted to highlight the safer center um pilot um because as we all know, addiction is a disease and we need to continue treating it as such. Um, we also know that recovery is not linear. It can take multiple attempts and long-term support and the safer uh model with their no wrong door approach to help stabilize people and connect them to medical treatment is critical. Um, especially if over the long term we want to um uh we want to save money from um incarcerating people knowing that that is not the proper treatment for somebody with a disease, a chronic disease. um the people seeking treatment are part of our families and our

neighborhoods. So, I'm proud that we're investing in programs that meet people where they're at and support recovery. So, again, thank you for this time. Uh thank you to my colleagues. I appreciate your feedback and input and all of the all of the concerns and questions that you put together here. I know that we are um that we're taking notes. Uh, and uh, I think that our city manager, Tempture, our county administrator, John Leer, we meet as chair and mayor and city manager and county administrator, what is it, twice a twice a month. And so, we're going to make sure that we follow up on these uh, questions and comments and and concerns that we bring up. In terms of gaps, I think that um one, I appreciate the partnership with Puma County. The investments that the county government and the board of supervisors are making in affordable housing in our region are absolutely important. And I I had the pleasure of joining a safe city deployment um just this past week. Uh and it had amazing presence of Pima County. And uh I was able to be uh do a ride along and look at how we treat with respect and dignity the individuals that we approach on the street. Uh offering offer them the treatment that they deserve. And in my conversation with both the city of Tucson uh staff, Justin Hamilton that does our housing first, our our officers, um I ask them, you are the front line. You are the ones that are seeing this day in and day out. And I want to hear your impact. What are the gaps? That was my question to both

Officer Bonitez that I did a ride along with and to Justin Hamilton and other nonprofit partners that were there. And what they said is that because of our safe city deployments and it is it's a holistic approach. It's offering services and at the same time it offers accountability to those that are breaking the law and committing crime. And but the goal is treatment. Um Justin and our nonprofit partners said people are accepting our services at 50% rate. And as Dr. Cullen said, that doesn't sound wonderful, but before we started our safe city deployments, the acceptance rate for treatment was less than 10%. And so it really is working. But what they said especially the nonprofit providers are okay once we take them to the safer center or the wildcat what's the longterm solution for uh sobering facilities that are longer term right after the 96 hours at safer where do we connect that person we do not have enough low barrier shelter and um we ask on the city of Tucson on side that the board of supervisors really contemplate the investments in your affordable housing investments into low barrier shelter and transition um housing. And so that I think is a huge gap that we both together we have to provide solutions for. Um, I know that the city of Tucson is applying for funds from the affordable housing funds from Pima County for the Wildcat House. That's a low barrier shelter that is housing not just individuals and and couples, but

children uh families that are uh unsheltered. And so we are applying for uh $1.1 million for the next five years, I think 10 years, uh so that that affordable housing funds can continue making sure that we have low barrier shelter connecting individuals um to that option. And then we're also applying for crayf towers. the city of Tucson needs gap funding to rehab the crayfra towers that we're applying for funds from the from Puma County. Um and then the other question that officer Bonitz asked like in terms of policy um he said are there any other jurisdictions in the region both Pima County Sheriffs and police departments in Morirana Oro Valley and Sawarita that are doing our um similar to safe city deployments right having a holistic approach to offering those services to unsheltered individuals in their communities because that would really lighten the load that TPD has to carry when it comes to unsheltered homelessness and how to provide uh uh services to um to the people that are, you know, on our streets, unsheltered, suffering from behavioral health or mental health. So, I would post to you what can the sheriff's department do? Uh how can we have that conversation with our sheriff? And in terms of budgeting, uh how can the sheriff uh department be uh funded to participate in safe city deployments uh in the outskirts of the city of Tucson or offering a second deployment uh because we have once a month

deployment, safe city deployments with TPD. How can the sheriff's department be of assistance uh to a um a method frankly that is working and that is really showing tangible results to our community. Uh we hear it from businesses, we hear it from neighbors, uh we hear it from friends and people that you know I find at grocery stores saying how our safe city initiative and our safe city deployments are showing tangible results. So I guess that's my piece in terms of how we work together to fill the gaps. Well, just to close us out, um, first of all, an enormous thanks. Um, this is, uh, it is an impressive room to sit in, to hear both the commitment, the creativity, and then also the unique perspective that each person brings and the lens, right? I appreciate the focus on integrating utilizing the justice working group and and pushing to come up with more policy recommendations in this space and thinking about the integration of youth and adult and working through our schools and afterchool programs. Um I think just because I like to end meetings on time and we're already a minute over. Um, I will just say that I look forward to the conversations after this meeting and thinking about how do we answer some of the questions and get the data and research that has been asked for. Um, how do uh how do the the mayor and I continue to have conversations about sort of moving some of this forward and and also the conversations amongst ourselves to continue to move the conversation forward. So with that um deep appreciation for everyone being here. Thank you county attorney for being here um and um I look forward to the next meeting in a quarter and definitely

heard the feedback about less presentations and more conversations. So thank you all so much. We really appreciate our meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.

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our study session. Uh thank you so much. I think that was a great joint meeting and hopefully we can continue the conversation um in a solutionsoriented way with the Puma County Board of Supervisors in Puma County. Now we'll resume with item three. Time has been set aside to give the mayor and council an opportunity to give um any updates on state and national legislation and regional committees. I know that we have a presentation um by uh Laura Dent that will uh start us off and then we'll ask and see if you have any input. So, Mr. Manager, Miss Dent, thank you honorable mayor, members of the council, it's great to see you this um afternoon. Uh I'll just share in the interest of time a few brief updates. I have shared reports and materials on um state and federal news of the day. Um but locally, as you know, Puma County voters will decide Proposition 418 and 419 this month. Election day is March 10th, which is one week from today. And today is the last day recommended for voters to get their ballots in the mail. I know many of you have been doing um community education around this topic. Uh the past week was crossover week at the state legislature. So, lawmakers were very busy voting on bills that they moved to their uh opposing chambers. Out of about 2,000 bills that were introduced this session, around 500 of those have made it to their opposing chambers. So, that's not a cap. Those are going to continue to move, but about shows how um the universe of of issues and conversations happening at the capital is starting to narrow. Um, I've shared some updates around a few revenue bills and water bills and elections bills as they directly relate to the city of Tucson and happy to answer any questions on that. And on the federal side, we are seeing progress on a revised 21st century road to housing

act. Uh, the bill has strong bipartisan support and white house backing and the Senate is expected to continue discussing that this week. So, it'll take some time for those negotiations to happen. It will um impact and make affordable housing construction and eligible use of um CDBG funds um more applicable at the city and permanently authorize CDBG disaster recovery as well as a reauthorization of the home program. So um we'll keep you posted on updates on that front, but that will conclude my report.

Thank you so much. We I just have some questions regarding the uh state legislative session and I know that there were some bills advancing that were uh that we discussed the previous time we took an opposition too. Are there any updates in terms of those bills that were felt very anti- city of Tucson?

Uh honorable mayor, members of the council, uh yes, there have been some um bills that have moved forward. Um, some of the revenue bills we discussed that were uh, you know, a major priority and concern not just for Tucson but for jurisdictions across the state include HB430 and HCR 2052, which would create a freeze on rates, fees, and revenues for jurisdictions for 5 years. Um, those bills have cleared their committees and are awaiting further consideration in the House. Um, so we'll keep monitoring those and let you know about progress on that. Um in terms of bills that have moved forward, we have seen HB2328 um clear the House of Representatives. That is a bill that undercuts Tucson water in particular and differential water rates. Um so that did pass and has u moved to the Senate. And um we also saw a bill pass that we opposed SB 1055 uh which would force the collaboration of local law enforcement with um ICE and CBP. that has cleared the Senate and moved to the House. So, um some kind of monitoring that we're keeping in place on revenue bills, but those are some of the bills that have um proceeded into their opposing chambers.

Thank you, Council Member Doll. Quick question on the bill on differential rates. Does it just affect Tucson or does it affect the other municipalities that have differential water rates? Honorable mayor, members of the council, council member Doll, um the carveout is for counties with a population greater than 1 million and less than four million. So that would be FEMA County and municipal jurisdictions and and um municipal water corporations within that jurisdiction. So us follow-up question, Roy, is that unconstitutional? You mean as part of a as a special law

as it unfortunately they they tend to do it all the time. It's something we can look into, but um they can set geographical boundaries. They can set sort of limitations between population. They just have to create a rational basis for it. But we can take a look. Any others? I think that there were some that uh regarding Tucson. I mean, they're not saying Tucson, but we know it's Tucson Tucson elections and putting it on um the ballot on how we conduct elections.

Uh yes. Uh STR 1027 is a referral that has been proposed in the Senate that would require all cities and local jurisdictions to go on an even year schedule. So kind of um re-upping a conversation that has happened many times before um that has um cleared some of its first committees and it awaits further consideration in the Senate. So it has not moved to its opposing chamber just yet. So it hasn't passed. That's right.

Okay. Any other questions? All righty. Anything in in addition? All righty. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate the update. We don't need an a vote or direction on this item. We're just going to move to item four. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda for today's regular meeting? Hearing none, we move on to item five, future agendas. Uh does anyone have any items for future agendas? Council member Barakas.

Sorry, I going back to number four. Uh during item two, which includes appointments to boards, committees, and commissions, I did invite some of our W five BCC appointees to join us. Um some of them will be here for the first in the in the chambers for the first time. So, I'll be just sharing a very brief remarks during that item and we'll be recognizing them just to stand up. Well, thank you so much. Uh if there's no further items to be included, then we are adjourned, your honor.

Yes, council member Cunningham. Uh one I'll everybody knows it's coming, but I'll try to get the tree memo out this week or next week. Um I'm going to be missing the night agenda. Um but I wanted to make a couple community announcements right now if the council can indulge me for 30 seconds. Mhm.

Number one, uh, congratulations to the Sarro High School Guitar Orchestra. They're having guitar fest tonight. Uh, we actually fund that at award 2 with ARPA funds and they have 135 kids in that program and they're doing their guitar symphony tonight and hence I'm going to go to that as their special guest which I'm really excited about. to uh also tonight the meeting is going to get out early and for the first time in a long time Tucson High School Tucson High School um is a 6A school and very rarely do we have a 6A school in the state basketball final four and it's in it's Tucson High. Congratulations to Coach Langford and the boys. Uh that's a good that's a good ball club there and good luck to them in their endeavor. And then finally, uh, I want to congratulate with my tie Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona basketball team on their 36th conference championship in 40 years, which is a few more than ASU. So, congratulations to the University of Arizona.

That was a wonderful senior night last night. Um, and the presentation of the trophy for their work this season has been incredible. So, we're riding on a high with the University of Arizona with our uh youth sports here in Tucson. So, thank you so much, council member. Other than that, we are adjourned. We are reconvening for a regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. See you everyone. Heat. Heat. Hey.

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I mean, I I hate to interrupt the amazing conversations that are happening at the chamber, but we are going to start our council meeting, but I love that you're all having a good time and talking and catching up. Um, I think that's uh what we should do at public squares. So, thank you all for coming. Appreciate that you're interested in municipal government and what we do here. Uh we will um call this uh session to order and we need to go to roll call. Council member Cunningham absent excused. Council member Dah here. Councilwoman Lee

here. Council Barahus here. Council member Schubert here. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz here. Mayor Romero here. We have a quorum before we go to item two. who the city attorney will go over the rules of decorum for mayor and council meetings. Mr. Attorney,

thank you, honorable mayor, members of council. Arizona's open meeting laws provide that members of the public may attend and listen to the proceedings during tonight's public meeting of the mayor and council. Arizona law also allows the mayor and council to enforce rules and procedures for public attendance of the meeting to ensure orderly behavior and to prevent unnecessary interference with the public meeting. Here are the rules that apply. The rules require decorum and orderly conduct by the members of the audience. No person attending the meeting shall engage in conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting, including any statements or conduct that interrupts the persons who might be addressing the mayor and council or that disrupts the discussions of the mayor and council. The mayor has the authority to ensure compliance with the rules of orderly conduct. If disorderly or disruptive conduct continues after a warning, and this is that first warning, the mayor may direct the removal of persons from the chambers and or re recess the meeting itself. If disruptive behavior makes it necessary to declare the chambers, the persons who disrupted the meeting will not be allowed to return to the chambers for the remainder of tonight's meeting. As a final note, please be aware that interfering with or preventing this lawful public meeting from being carried out in an orderly manner not only violates the rules of participation, but also violates the title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Before we go to item two, I'd like to welcome our brand new uh city clerk, Miss Stler. Miss uh Stler is it's her first meeting today and we're happy to welcome her as our new city clerk for the city of Tucson. She did not know I was going to do that, but she keeps us in order and as well as the entire uh city of of Tucson clerk's office. We have so much to thank them for. So, welcome aboard, Miss Clerk, and we're happy to have you. Item two,

invocation, pledge of allegiance, and appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. The invocation will be given by Jacqueline Loun Peters, Eagle's Wings of Grace. And after the invocation, I ask that you remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you, Father God. We come before you asking for your wisdom and for your consideration of all the issues that are before us to help and continue growing our city to be healthy to the best of our abilities, remembering all the needs of the homeless as well as those who are affluent. Please help the Guthrie family through this very difficult time and hopefully someday they'll find peace. We ask for blessing and peace as we continue forward in our work in Jesus name. Amen.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. All righty. We are going to item uh 2C which is uh the proclamation and then we move on to 2D which is the uh board's committees and commission. So I I would like to proclaim March 1st through the 6, 2026 to be Peacecore weeks in the city of Tucson. And yes, we have a lot of Peace Corps participants. What I'd like to do, if possible, I'd like to invite my colleagues on the council to join us over towards where the podium is. And then I'm going to call all of the individuals that are here that have participated in the in the Peace Corps and um are doing amazing work here in the city of Tucson. So uh let's join at the podium and then I'll call you all by name so we could recognize you. All righty. If I may ask all of you here for peace for peacecore week to join us and I'm going to call you all by name. Those that are here, if I don't call your name for this, please join us. I'd like to recognize a ecto rico from

clinic. He's the clinic director at clinicistadi saloo Bye Hollingsworth housing community development director an shaneka Steven Addison Eric Dresser Chris Ellner Lisa Floren Monica Mueller Lena Porell uh Alisa Beth Po Podisk um Rose Roas Sarah Sherman Taylor Simmon Simmons Kylie Wzac and Georgia Ellers. Uh any others that have participated in the Peace Corp, please come join us. Uh this is a happy occasion. And to all the participants and those that promote the Peace Corp, thank you all so much. Many of you work with the city of Tucson, are leading uh clinics for uh for individuals that are vulnerable and need the investment. You're doing so much working in social services, working in government. You're doing so much to continue the tradition of the Peace Corps and uh investing in your community. So, thank you so much. So, we're with that uh with the power of the city of Tucson and the office of the mayor, I'd like to declare March 1-6, 2026 to be Peacecore Week in this community. Do you want to So, to my colleagues, if you want to get closer, we don't budge. We don't bite. Uh whereas March 1st marks the 65th

anniversary of the Peace Corps established by President John F. Kennedy through an executive order in 1961. And whereas Peace Corps volunteers have served in 160 countries applying critical communication, leadership, and problem solving skills to tackle global challenges. And whereas 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the Paul D. Coverdale Fellowship at the University of Arizona, which supports graduate students to pursue degrees while serving with local government, nonprofits, community groups, and vulnerable populations. And whereas the Coverdale Fellows program has brought hundreds of returned Peacecore volunteers to Tucson to contribute more than 400,000 hours of service supporting lowincome children and families at 150 partner organizations such as Kasa Alas, Clinica Amistad, Awe Experience, Ishkashita Refugee Network, Tucson Clean and Beautiful, and United way, generating an estimated economic impact of $9.3 million. And whereas the city of Tucson continues to be home to hundreds of RPCVS fellows, including city employees, elected officials, board, commission, and committee members, and Desert Doves group members who live, work, and share a vision of local commitment and impact. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, do hereby proclaim March 1-6, 2026 to be Peacecore Week in this community and call upon the residents of Tucson to acknowledge

Peacecore volunteers for their many contributions to the cause of peace, collaboration, and community impact. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona, uh, to be affixed this third day of March, 2026. Congratulations, everyone. Thank you so much. Would you like to say something?

The mission of Peace Corps is to promote world peace and friendship um, in communities around the world. Peacecore volunteers do this in uh 60 countries currently and have served in over 100 countries worldwide since its inception. But Peacecore volunteers don't stop serving after those two years that they spend abroad. When they return to the United States, they help other Americans better understand about different people and places all around the world, thus fostering mutual understanding and world peace on our part. And that service doesn't stop. It only continues for the rest of our lives as we have seen with many of the return peacecore volunteers who support our community in many of the ways that the mayor just mentioned and many more um that you may not even know about in our community. So, thank you very much to mayor and council for recognizing Peace Corps and our contributions to our community. We look forward to serving our community uh well into the future and hopefully many more of our young people will continue to serve uh in the Peace Corps and make our community and make America proud. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council, uh, everyone in attendance uh, for this welldeserved recognition. Uh, my name is Hector Rico. I'm the clinic director at Clink Amistad. We're a free uh, nonprofit clinic here in the community. Um, and I just really want to echo the gratitude that we have for all these uh returning Peace Corps uh volunteers uh not only for what they do uh you know at global scale but also what they continue to do here in our local communities. Um you know we've been fortunate enough to have dozens of returning Peace Corps uh volunteers at our clinic uh many through the Coverdale Fellowship program. Um, and they just bring so much, you know, new perspectives, new ideas, experiences, skills that have really strengthened our organization that have really helped us better serve those underserved in our community. Um, but over the years,

they've played essential roles in helping our clinic uh grow and thrive. Uh, for example, they've served as our clinic managers, um, leading our operations. uh they played a big role in implementing our diabetes prevention program which continues to um you know produce positive health outcomes for our patients. Um they've also collected and analyzed data for our uh annual reports to the community um and really just led so many other meaningful um quality improvement initiatives at our clinic that um have really improved our clinic and in turn our community as well. Um so again just thank you to all the returning Peace Corps volunteers who continue that commitment um here in our local communities. Uh thank you also to the staff of uh at the University of Arizona for uh the Peace Corps and Coverdale program staff at the University of Arizona uh for coordinating these uh important partnerships. Um, also thank you Mayor Rometo and this uh council for uh recognizing their impact and supporting their efforts here in the city of Tucson. Um, and again I just continue make uh I look forward to continue making our clinic a home for these volunteers. Thank you so much.

Lena, would you like to share? Where's Lena? There you are. Would you like to share Sure. Um, hi everyone. I just wanted to thank again the mayor and council for recognizing PeaceCore and um that every day I work with lots of Peacecore volunteers here at the city and throughout the community and we're doing such great work. So, it's really an honor to be uh recognized like this. So, thank you.

And then Rose, thank you so much. Thank you, mayor. and thank you for acknowledging this day for Peace Corps. I am the very proud program coordinator at the Coverdale Fellows program on campus and we could not do this without you. So many of our return volunteers come to Tucson to um continue their education but as Chris mentioned to continue working with underserved communities and without the city of Tucson this could not happen. So many of the RPCVs stay in Tucson and throughout their education at the university. They they continue working with um local partners such as Puma Community College, East Kashita, Literacy Connects, and they just it just makes me so proud to be here and to have the fellows recognized. Um thank you so much. This means a lot to so many of us and to the community. Can we take a picture please for posterity? Picture for posterity. Let's give peace a chance. Everyone squish in.

Stand sideways. really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Item 2D is appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. And let's read the title and then uh allow for council member VA has to read her appointees.

Great. Um item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. City managers communication number 53 dated March 3rd is received into and made part of the record. Before we make a motion, I'd like to allow council member Barahas to recognize her appointees.

Thank you, mayor. Yes, I would like to speak about our W five appointments. Uh serving on our city boards, committees, commissions is an important is an important way for our community members to contribute to the city with policym and to reflect the perspectives of different geographic areas and issues throughout the city. These roles are worth celebrating publicly. They include important responsibilities and ideally our thought partners in guiding the work of us mayor and council. One of the reasons I ran for office is because I wanted to increase the representation and visibility of W 5 residents across our local uh governance. BCC's play a strong role in Tucson and I have seen how they have an even more visible presence in our communities across the US. We could bring more of that energy here inside here beginning with strong recognition and consistent communication with those who serve. To our city clerk's office and our new city clerk, Merca Stler, I look forward to partnering with you to making our BCC's even more meaningful. To my W five constituents and for everyone watching online, consider this as my commitment to maintain that communication between the W 5 office and our BCC appointees. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome our W 5 board committee and commission members, some of them, to city hall today. Can you please stand so we can recognize and thank you for your commitment to serving our community? Willie Blake, 2018 Parks and Connections Bond Oversight Commission. And if we could hold the applause for the end, Lizzy Golden, Art and Community Design Committee. Um, public Joseph Rocky Ria Jr. Commission on Climate, Energy, and Sustainability. Ronnie Reena Convention Center

Commission Tucson Lovely Gatner Economic and Workforce Development Selection Committee. Paulie Parks Environmental Services Advisory Committee, Rhonda Kendrick Monz, Historic Commission, Tucson Pima County, Balencan Relations Commission. And if you all you can wave too so everyone knows who you are. Jenna Lazana Independent Oversight and Accountability Commission. Jose Romero Commission on LGBTQ plus Valerie Lane Planning Commission. Dito Romero Small Minority and Womenown Oown Business Commission. Fana Will height small minority and womenowned business commission. Malia Malia Flores Tucson Transit Advisory Committee. And if there was anyone I'm missing. If not, let's give them a round of applause.

And I move to make the to approve the appointments of the report. Second. There's a motion and a second. Congratulations. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your willingness to serve. We really appreciate your time, your effort, and your caring for the city of Tucson and all of the work that uh because of you all we do at mayor and council at the policy level. Thank you so much and congratulations. So motion second. So with a motion and a second, is there any further discussion on this item? Just if before you leave, come see our W five staff. Thank you. Thank you all for being here and hope you come back.

Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Let's see. Now we move on to item three. Item three, mayor and council report, summary of current events.

City manager's communication number 54 dated March 3rd is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow for members of the mayor and council to report on current events. These are to be current events of activities within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any council member have anything to report at this time? Yes, I see some uh head nodding. I will uh ask Councilwoman Lee to see if you have any um reports, summary of current events. Councilwoman. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, no announcements tonight. Thank you.

Okay. So, we're going to start with Vice Mayor and then come down the deis.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. So, um, February 21st, I had the honor along with, um, council member Barakas to participate in the commemorative hike celebrating the life and legacy of Lorraine Lee, someone who was incredibly special to not only each of us, but also um, Tucson. And so we gathered at the Lorraine Lee Hidden Canyon Trail um not just for a walk but to remember her spirit, her leadership, and her deep love for this land and our community. We got to share blessings, reflections along the trail that were a powerful reminder of how much um she gave to Tucson. And I just want to give some love to council member Barahas and having the foresight of creating Rainasu Hike to um bring women um in our community together and to um continue being good stewards of our outdoors. So, thank you, Council Member Barahas. Um, and then on February 25th, um, the W one and W 5 office co-hosted an RTA next uh, Q&A session to help neighbors learn more about the proposal of the 2.67 billion transportation plan and what it could mean for our community. I want to thank everyone who showed up and asked um, questions and stayed engaged. Um, these joint sessions matter. They help keep our neighbors informed and connected to the decisions shaping our city. and I'm really looking forward to hosting more of them together in the future, council member. Um, and then this past weekend, I was really encouraged um having the opportunity to spend time with Congresswoman Dele Ramirez from Illinois's third district. Um, I left that time feeling deeply inspired. Um, Congresswoman leads with clarity, courage, and a deep sense of responsibility to the people um who sent her to Washington. Um, she carries carries her community with her, their struggles, their hopes, their values. um and it was just a reminder that leaders don't just appear in Congress, they get there because communities show up for them. So, it was um such such a blessing to get to spend time with her as as some

of y'all also did. Um so, this coming Sunday, March 8th, is um International Women's Day and I have the great pleasure um to uh co-lead the monthly FUGA ride out of the W one office with Council Member Miranda Schubert. We will be leaving the W one office. Um uh we meet at 9ine and we usually leave leave around 9:30 and we'll be heading to the W six office. Um so we're celebrating International Women's Day and um inviting the community to bring your moms, your daughters, your sisters, your commanders, and your friends um that were writing for the women who built this city, for the girls um who are rising into power and for every mu who refuses to be sideline. So that's at the word one office, 940 West Alamemeda Street. And then um Thursday, March 12th at 9:00 a.m., join us for the South 12th Avenue celebration and cleanup. Um join the mayor's office, Ward One, and Ward 5 to celebrate the recent completion of the Green Storm Water Infrastructure Project on South Avenue, and take part in a community cleanup. Um we'll come together to care for this corridor, connect with neighbors, and recognize the impact of this important investment. We're going to be meeting at 520 West Drexel Road, which is a northeast corner of 12th Avenue and Drexel. Food will be provided. Thank you,

Council Member Dah.

Thank you, Mayor. Two items. Um, but first, an advertisement. All of us have newsletters. The mayor and all of us. Some of them are monthly, some of them are weekly. If you you can go to the any of our websites and sign up to get them. If you don't like them, you can turn it off. but they have lots of announcements of things that are happening citywide or locally in our ward. I I want to mention two things. Um March 14th and 15th is the Tucson Book Festival at the University of Arizona. You don't even have to read to go and enjoy it. Um there's places for kids. There's a science area where there's all everybody who does science on campus has booths and you can do things and see things. It's great with kids. It's a time when you're on campus, there's food. Um uh you can explore some of the things that are in campus that are pretty neat. One I want to point out is the uh um African-American Museum of Southern Arizona. It's a little treasure that um displays in very interesting form the history of African-Americans and how important they they were and are to Tucson. It's not open all the time. It'll be open on Saturday from 10 to 4. If you can't do it during the book festival, it's open on other days, too. I encourage you even though I'm a little late for um Black History Month. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, council member. Council member Vakas.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, our W five fiesta open house was a huge success. Thank you to all the 400 plus community members who joined us as well as you, Mayor Council Member Schubert, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, and I know from your office, um Michael Slick Edmmonds for being there. Um, and to all the W five vendors and entertainers who helped make it such a wonderful, positive celebration. Our W five team looks forward to welcoming the community into our office for more events and collaborations. Um, as our vice mayor shared on February 21st, I was glad, so happy to join uh the mayor's team and you, Vice Mayor, for a hike along the Lorraine Lee Hidden Canyon Trail led by the University of Arizona Student Culture and Engagement Hub and faculty uh connected with the AsianPacific American Studies in collaboration with uh my amazing Reasu Hike. It was beautiful to see over 100 hikers join us to remember and honor Lorraine Lee's legacy. Thanks to the Capuli for the blessings offered, to the Lee family, to the close friends, and to Dr. Jacqueline Barios, Kenny Wong, Kenny Importante, and all the student workers from the University of Arizona for organizing this powerful gathering. coming together with the community to remember, to be inspired, and to honor Lorraine Lee's legacy was a powerful, memorable experience. Uh last week, one of my favorite weeks of the year, Rodeo Week, we were proud to participate in the 101st LaSa de los Vakeros, including the Tucson Rodeo and the parade. As the great great granddaughter of Tucson's original Vakerto, it is an honor to serve the community where these timehonored traditions continue to thrive. And shout out to my nephew and my or my niece and my brother for participating

in the rodeo again year after year. This past weekend, our office partnered with the Sunnyside Foundation in Ward 1 for cleanup in the Sunnyside neighborhood. Thank you to everyone who volunteered. These Southside cleanups focus on tackling the heat vulnerable areas across Tucson and help keep our neighborhood safe and welcoming. Please save the date for our next Sunnyside Foundation cleanup, Sunday, April 12th. The location will be announced soon. For the month of February, I enjoyed reading to students for love of reading and yesterday for Dr. Seuss day. Thank you to the following schools for opening their doors and classrooms at Reetta Elementary School, Holiday, Miller, PBlo Gardens K through8, Cavitt, Gygo Primary, Alvivara Elementary, and Cracto Elementary. And thank you to all the educators, the staff, principles, and of course the students for inspiring a love of reading. I was proud to join the Tucson Fire Department in celebrating the new Tucson Fire Station 14 funded by voter approved Proposition 101. The new station replaces the 50-year-old Liberty Avenue facility and strengthens emergency response for our growing community, especially here in W 5. Thank you to the station 14 crew for your service. Together we continue building a stronger, safer, more connected community. Lastly, please don't forget to vote for Propositions 418 and 419. Your voice matters and together we will shape the future of our city. Please return your ballot as soon as possible to ensure it is received by election day, March 10th. This election is countywide and there are no polling places or voting centers. So, you can drop off your ballot off um at a ballot dropbox or return location uh or return to a ballot replacement site by 700 p.m. on election day. If you want more information, please visit puma.vote. Thank you,

Council Member Schubert.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, my current event report is going to start with a traffic violence report, which I started um at the last meeting, but I'll have these regular report outs of current statistics about what has happened since the last meeting just to kind of have a running tally um of how we're doing on tackling this really important issue to community members. Um, last week I only included fatalities, but um, this week I've included some injuries. Um, and just a little note about that. I mean, at the W 6 office, we had a conversation with our local TPD officers about what kinds of reports we want to receive and what we want to be notified about. And when we talked about car crashes, um, immediately we realized like, oh, no, we don't necessarily want to receive the the just the injuries because there's far too many. We would just get texted all the time. But I guess I've reflected on that since then and thought, you know, I shouldn't deemphasize um serious car crashes where there are injuries. You know, like many others in Tucson, even on our own council, you know, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz personally experienced the impacts of having a traffic related injury. And you know, sure, it's it's great that the person, you know, didn't lose their life, but they may be facing extensive physical therapy and recovery, um expensive medical bills, lost wages. So, all of that is to say, I'll be reporting on serious crashes and fatalities in the coming weeks, and I'm just going to be focusing on whatever's happened between meetings. So, on February 18th, um, a pedestrian suffered serious injuries in a crash. On February 20th, a 29-year-old man was found by the side of the road and transported to a local hospital. He had multiple injuries after being hit by a car. Um, on February 22nd, a woman died after she was hit by a car. That was a hit and run. On February 24th, a 56-year-old died from her injuries after

being hit by one of the vehicles that was involved in a two vehicle crash involving speeding. She was actually found lying in cacti on the side of the road by emergency responders. Um, and this crash on February 24th was the fourth fatal pedestrian accident in southern Arizona in less than one week and the sixth that occurred in February. On March 1st, a tragic crash at the intersection of East Valencia and South Country Club on Sunday claimed the lives of three young adults, two 20-year-olds and an 18year-old, all of whom were declared dead at the scene. Another passenger, a 19-year-old, sustained life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized. And another thing happened on March 1st. A pedestrian also suffered life-threatening injuries after being hit by a car that was going approximately 35 mph. he was transported to the hospital. Um so it's my hope in future meetings that at some point we'll have a meeting where maybe there's one or no no no car crashes. Um okay so uh moving on with my current events report in past events on Saturday February 21st I attended the AO Chico Pollinator Garden neighborhood cleanup and planting event. The pathway that we were working on that morning was the product of a just communities Arizona community safety incubator project, a grassroots initiative that lets neighborhoods develop their own approaches to creating safe connected spaces without relying on traditional security measures. So that was a really nice morning out with the neighbors. On Sunday, February 22nd, I joined Jobs with Justice and Branch 704, our local National Association of Letter Carriers chapter at their fight like hell rally. Um, also in attendance were Congresswoman Otita Graalva and Senator Pria Sunduration. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with our local letter carriers and support their call for a fair fair contract. We also at the W 6 office um the W 6

office has been engaging with the proposed parking fee changes. Um, so we held a parking listening session on February 24th at the coalition space just off of 4th Avenue and we really appreciated the opportunity to get together with local business owners, residents, and community leaders to discuss key concerns and ideas for improving parking and experiences around 4th Avenue in downtown. Also on February 24th, uh that night I co-hosted an energy rates town hall with Tucson DSA in order to give constituents an opportunity to share how TE's and proposed rate increase would impact them. So we really appreciate everybody who came out and shared about that. On February 26, um as Councilwoman um Barahas mentioned, Kylie and I were honored to ride in a wagon um during the 101st annual Tucson radio parade. the only non-motorized parade in the entire country. And then um also shout out to the UA Wildcats who beat the Iowa State Cyclones last night, clinching the Big 12 Conference Championship. We wish the Wildcats a wild and exciting March Madness, which kicks off with a conference tournament this weekend in Kansas City. Um so congratulations on incredible season. And then upcoming upcoming current events for W 6. A public meeting regarding the proposed alternatives for the Alamo Wash Greenway project will happen at the W 2 office tomorrow. That's Wednesday, March 4th from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. For anybody who would like to provide comments about the proposed parking fee changes, we have a parking listening session that's virtual. That's happening on Thursday, March 5th at 6 PM. I also wanted to share that Attorney General Chris Maize has been um seeking public comment about the TE rate increases. Um there's several upcoming sessions coming up on March 19th, March 23rd, and April 1st. Reach out to the W

6 office if you need that information. And then uh we're really looking forward to co-hosting the Fuga ride from the Ward One office to the W 6 office on Sunday, March 8th for International Women's Day. It's going to be a nice ride. We I can picture the route in my head. It's very low pressure, very easy. We'll definitely go down Third Street. That's my one of my favorites. Um so we hope to see you all out there. And again, that's going to be the morning of Sunday, March 8th. Thank you so much. I love the uh the way that we're going to se celebrate International Women's Day. Uh really love the uh fuga rides that are that are organized. And um I was, you know, scooching over to tell um Council Member Schubert that way I'm going to celebrate International Women's Day is waking up late in my bed and having breakfast in bed. Um but I totally admire the way that you are all um really leading on that ride which is really important. I too had the wonderful pleasure of uh spending some time with Congresswoman Deia Ramides from uh Congressional District 3 in Chicago. It was really amazing to be able to have that time one-on-one and be able to like huddle up and and and work and plan and and share ideas uh on how to make sure that we're representing the voices of our community. Well, Congresswoman Adalita Grihalva was also there. Um Attorney General Chris Mazize was there. And it's pretty amazing how we all see each other and in a matter of seconds we start talking about how we collaborate and make sure that we are doing more for our communities. Um, I want to personally uh

recognize uh that at that gathering we celebrated a legacy award for a woman that has impacted our community uh for decades here in Tucson. And that was uh councilwoman uh Karen Ulik who is my friend. She's my mentor. She opened doors for me and I believe deeply that because of her and other women uh council members, you see a majority uh of women in council. Um and uh being able to have like three Latinas and two queer women and moms and uh it it really is something that um council member Karen Nulik really helped shape. and then of course her policy issues that shape W three and later W six policies that represented um two sonins very well. I want to also recognize Naomi de la Rosa who was is here tonight on a separate issue but Naomi was recognized as a rising star. Let's recognize her. And uh you know, vice mayor talked about the women shaping um our path into the future. Uh we have, you know, the past and the present and um the leaders that are now leading us that are young people. It's really exciting uh to be able to have that in our community. Uh thank you so much. It was amazing day with so many other women leaders and our allies. Again, I wanted to mention that today is the last day to mail your ballot. There

we're in the middle of an election in Pima County. So, make sure that if you don't mail your ballot by today, you turn in your ballot in person on election day, which is March March 10th. I know that there's going to be several voting sites throughout the city and the county. March 10th is election day and polls close at 7 pm. You can also find a secure drop off box uh throughout the county. I think there's one at 240 Southstone Avenue at the recorder's office or you can find further information at www.recorder.puma.gov gov to make sure that you are either taking your ballot with you um from now to March 10th or turn it in on election day which is March 10th. Also, I want to invite the community. I want to encourage everyone to join and provide mayor and council your input on finalizing land use rules and regulations for data centers here in Tucson. March 4th, uh, Planning and Development Services Department will be hosting a virtual meeting from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Another in-person meeting on March 5th at Ringcon University High School from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. There was one there was a previous meeting that took place at PBLO High School that my daughter attended. Uh so these meetings are being done geographically around town to make sure that people have the ability to attend them and give your input. You can register for both of these events at tucsonaz.gov by searching for data cent's unified development code amendments. Back in uh August of last year or was it

June? Um we uh had in front of us of mayor and council the possibility of approving a data center and at that time I asked my colleagues on the council to support uh direction to update our zoning requirements and we put a moratorum on data center development in the city of Tucson. Well, we cannot live with a moratorum on data centers forever. We do have to work on uh creating land use codes that will protect our community and will finalize permanent rules and regulations to make it hard for data centers to come to the city of Tucson. I am personally very disheartened by uh misinformation being spread online. Uh these community engagement sessions are meant for the city to continue working together with community and your input to establish strict land use rules and regulations including a process that requires an extensive formal zoning review, a neighborhood meeting, and explicit mayor and council approval. Um so uh please make sure that you are actually getting correct information and skip the misinformation as to what people are trying to tell you that data centers are lurking for approval in the city of Tucson. This land use code process is uh the process to make sure that we provide permanent rules and uh that we um really make sure that we have maximum security and protection for our community. So if you feel strongly about how many square feet of space should trigger these rules and regulation, we want to hear from you. We

want to hear your perspective on noise standards, water use, and other issues that data centers often bring with them. We want to make sure that you are part of the decision-making and that you give us your input. So, we must uh put a process in place that is predictable, clear, and protects our precious desert water resources and our um our community. I want to ensure that any future development is aligned with our community's input, environmental stewardship, and long-term commun community sustainability. On that note, that is the end of our summary of current events. We move on to item four, city manager report. Summary of current events. City manager communication number 55 dated March 3rd is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow the city manager to report on current events.

Thank you, mayor. Two things for tonight. One is just a reminder that the 22nd Street Bridge replacement project is underway and 22nd Street is currently closed between Tucson Boulevard and Cherry Bell Avenue, including access to northbound Aviation Parkway. And eastbound turns from Aviation Parkway onto 22nd Street are not permitted. So, please look out for detours. Please be careful in the area and please look forward to a couple of years from now when we have a new uh connection across um those features at the 22nd Street Bridge. The other item is a point of personal privilege. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge my wife Christina and today being our 25th anniversary. Thank you. Every year I celebrate my birthday with the start of a new fiscal year, July 1st. And uh occasionally I get to celebrate my anniversary with you folks. And um the fact that we've lasted 25 years shows uh that she is uh the patience uh uh patience is a virtue and I'm the luckiest man in the world. Thank you for that time.

Congratulations, Mr. Manager. And um we really appreciate Christina for um you know sharing sharing you. All righty. Item five, liquor license applications. City manager communication number 56 dated March 3rd is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, please read the liquor license agenda. Your honor, on the evening's agenda, we have three applications for new licenses, five applications for special events. All applications are in compliance with city requirements. An appropriate motion will be to forward items 5B 1 through 3 and 5C 1-5 to the state liquor board with a recommendation of approval. May I have a motion, please? So moved.

Second. There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you, Miss Clerk. Item six, consent agenda. Um, Miss Clerk, do you have any announcement for item six, which is uh called to the audience?

Yes. Uh, at this time, any member of the public is allowed to address the mayor and city council on any issue except for items scheduled for a public hearing at the meeting. Call to the audience will last for 30 minutes and speakers are limited to threeminute presentations. The green light will turn on when you're called to speak. It will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining and it will turn red and beep when your time is up. After that time, please conclude your comments. Miss Clerk, do we have any requests to speak? Yes.

We got we got a fair amount, a big pile. I'm going to try and um run through these as uh as much as we possibly can during the allotted time. And uh if you all are here to speak to call to the audience and you hear someone else say what you were thinking uh please make sure that you uh cut it short if you can but you do have three minutes and you can use them all if you want. Um but if you want to allow for others to sple speak please uh make some room for them. So our first speaker is Bruce Plank. Uh good evening uh madame mayor and council members. Um I was here earlier visiting with you during your study session and I'm mostly wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to fully consider the range of options that have been presented um regarding municipalization of power or various other alternatives. I think this is a very very important decision that to be made for all of us and I think it's great uh appreciate particularly uh council member Schubert and uh you madame mayor to get this on the agenda and the discussion this morning was very interesting. I'm very much looking forward to the report from CCEES and continued involvement and uh I think again it's really important to have continued public involvement. So, I'm hoping there are plenty of opportunities for hearing u public hearings on that. And I would be remiss if I didn't say that there was note in there that the franchise agreement and the energy collaboration agreement will be coming up very shortly. And I'm hoping that that will get the same kind of thorough

consideration, public comments, public hearings, and so forth as you outlined for the municipalization ideas. So, thank you. I look forward to see what happens on those other things. Thank you, Mr. Plank. Scott Hancock, he's not here yet. He's on his way. We'll try and call him up. Uh Everest Sip, I believe it is.

You can introduce yourself.

Okay. Hi, my name is Everest Sip. I am here to talk about public power. True public power. Not a competition to TEP, but ownership for the people by the people. Having public power, public ownership in Tucson would be a lifesaver. Electric bills would be on average 15% cheaper. Tucson would be able to invest what now TEP gives to rich investors back to infrastructure in underinvested and overwhelmed neighborhoods. These same families, working families, would see better service. In Arizona alone, SRP, a publiclyowned power company, serves Phoenix, and they rank lower in cost for monthly monthly bills and are more reliable. 10 to 13% lower cost and top 10% for reliability where TE is maybe in the top 25%. And this is even with the Phoenix summer heat. Tucson needs this and we need it now. Waiting and kicking the can down the road only sets us up for failure. Please have more courage. Go big and help my friends, family, grandparents, school, community center, library all save 10 to 15% off their budget. Now,

thank you for participating. Karisa Sip. Karisa Sip.

Sorry, I wasn't ready. I will make it quick. Got to find my speech. Uh, first I want to thank uh, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz for keeping the public power conversation going. Miranda, thank you for also introducing it and being in the conversation. Um, I want to thank you for your time today and your work on the behalf of the community. The decisions before you regarding our energy future are complex and they are consequential. They are central to our climate commitments and to the long-term resilience of our city. That is precisely why I'm concerned about the process we've seen so far. We want to make sure that not we by inviting only for-profit power providers to the table. The discussion I don't want it to be narrowed to what truly is there. We can't have forprofit without the people there at the table at the same time. I want the council to have the ability to fully evaluate all viable options on behalf of the residents particularly at a time when climate stability and infrastructure resilience must guide every major policy decision. Energy policy today is climate policy. It determines how quickly we reduce emissions and how effectively we transition to renewables and how prepared we are for extreme weather, grid disruptions, and rising cost. A resilient community is one that has control, flexibility, and accountability built into a system. Public power is not theoretical. It is an operating successfully in major cities today. These systems demonstrate that community ownership can support ambitious renewable targets, long-term infrastructure planning, and rate structures designed for stability rather than shareholder return. There is a clear examples of successful power, public power in Winter Park. The city manipulized the system in 2005 after purchasing the local grid for process energy, citing reliability and accountability concerns. Since then, the city-owned utility has reported the improved reliability and strong customer satisfaction. I'm going to get I'm I'm not asking you tonight to go with public power. I'm just asking you to give it a shot. Don't

shut the door now because we need a climate solution. We're hot. I rode here. It's 90° outside and I'm riding my bike around and it is hot. I mean, I can't bring water in here and I'm dying and I'm about to leave to go get some water. But I can only imagine. Okay, there's water. I didn't know that. Yes, we don't want you to pass out. But I mean like this is the situation for a lot of neighborhoods. And so what we're asking for is that 10 to 15% reduction in financial and then that is grid stability. I think it could be your best option and we don't want to close the door. You can't close the door because it will become more expensive for us to do the right thing in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Sarah Roberts. Hi, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Sarah Roberts and I'm a longtime volunteer with the Josephina Workers Center and Arizona Jobs with Justice and the Tucson Rapid Response Network. And I know that we've uh all probably been aware of several violent and abusive incidents that have happened in our community and in many other communities, but here too. Um stops and detentions by ICE agents and unidentified masked in unmarked cars. So actually I'm here to speak out in support of the administrative directive on property belonging to or subject to the control of the city. um that directive would um say that the it may not be used or as or in connection with the staging area, processing location or operations base for unauthorized civil law enforcement actions, including civil immigration enforcement. So, I just want to say I'm fully in support of this and I want to thank you for considering this and urge you to approve it. This is about keeping our parks and public spaces safe for our community members, for all community members, and for building trust with the city and with local law enforcement. And in addition, this item relates to to the plan Tucson's social environment goal um which says uh a community that is healthy physically, mentally, economically, and environmentally. That's what we would like to see. I also urge you to monitor and keep record of when and if this directive is violated and to find an an enforcement mechanism

to address this. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Roberts. I believe this is Gerilyn Lzanna. Oh, Jenna. Good evening. Hello.

Hello. Um, all right. Time's going. All right, madame mayor and city council members. My name is Jennaline Lozana. I'm a retired veteran and a resident of Ward 5. I'm here to discuss RTA Next Props and you know 418 and 419. So I understand why some of our leaders here and you know people in the city are critical of RTA next and I think we should be cautious about how we make these major decisions. However, from where I sit, working in underserved neighborhoods all over Tucson in senior health care, the one thing they all have in common is that seniors in our disabled citizens um and community members need transportation. And I can say that the need for transportation and keeping it free is critical for their public health and safety. So, it's important for us to understand that just how many people use public transportation to just get around for doctor's appointments, grocery shopping, seeing loved ones, going to the pharmacy, fitness classes, and building community. And not everyone has someone to drive them around like when they can't can no longer get around or afford a car or afford gas. Free and safe transportation supports our opportunity for dignity and independence. having to pay fair will be devastating for them. This population um you know is making really tough choices between medicine or food and then we're going to add you know reliable transportation. So no one in here could ignore the unpredictability we're living in during this time. Federal decisions on funding have slashed grants, even impacting places like our school for the deaf and blind. Medicaid already took a hit and we know that Medicare and Social Security might not look the same or exist as we know it. It makes me uncomfortable denying people this

opportunity and to extend the this really impactful benefit that we have while living in our beautiful city. So without raising taxes, this plan also addresses the public call for more security in our transit system. From what I see, it also, you know, addresses urban sprawl. And I know there is some comment on that, but I don't think we can overlook that it includes safety and ADA transportation benefits for our Tono ODM Nation uh and Pascoyaki reservation members. See, 30 seconds. I'm going to use it all. Urban sprawl is something we can't control. And for the lack of a better phrase, RTA Next is not a magic bullet, but affordability is a nationwide problem. And without lower prices for purchasing a home in the city of Tucson or anywhere, people will continue to seek homes outside of city limits. I know it's not perfect, but it's something we can actually control. And um you know, I'd love to see the city of Tucson approve this measure. Thank you. Three seconds.

Thank you so much. Patricia um Barrell, I believe it is. My name is Patricia Bowly. I'm a Tucson resident and um I'm speaking about um banning urging city council to ban all data centers. Please ban any and all data centers within and intersecting with your jurisdiction whether referred to as a data center or not for the following reasons. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity, water, and fossil fuels and pollute the air and water and increase noise pollution. Data centers are a major threat to our environment and climate and exacerbate climate problems. Data centers increase the cost for community members, including for working families and other residents such as seniors and persons with disabilities. Although one or more data centers may promise to offer a benefit of more reclaimed water in the future, there is no guarantee of such and Puma County cannot afford to take any risk pertaining to our limited water. Even if Pima County has been using less water than allocated, situations could change at any time, including the amount of water allotted and or available to Puma County. Proposed data centers have been shrouded in secrecy, which raises so many suspicions that if more were known by the public, there would likely be much more public outcry against such. Also, secrecy often shrouds wrongdoing. Democrats have urged investigation of commerce secretary for boosting AI data centers that may enrich his entire family. What are the other potential conflicts of interest financial and or otherwise do proponents of the data centers have? Data centers may be subject to a potential AI bubble from

which they may likely be economic and fallout and problems. Data centers have grossly overestimated the potential benefits and grossly under estimated the potential risks and or harms. Data centers including any data center for cloud computing or cloud backup are often developed for the purpose of artificial intelligence. And there are so many problems and concerns with AI such as its lack of conscience, lack of empathy, ability to implement cyber attacks for which defenses aren't ready and accelerating at dangerous speeds. AI safety experts have departed from AI firms with dire warnings about catastrophic safety risk. Therma drone footage shows Mus AI power plant flouting clean air regulations. AI tends to exasperate human biases. AI seems to undermine medical education and medical doctors may never learn vital skills. Construction, development, and or hosting of data centers risk potential expensive lawsuits. Other local within USA have made significant progress towards banning data centers in their jurisdictions. For more information, please refer to my letters and emails dated July 27th, 2025, December 14th, 2025, and March 2nd, 2026, each with citations. Please ban data centers. Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Thank you, ma'am. Mary Damp Mary Damp.

Thank you. Um, hi Mary Damp, building community in Tucson. Last Saturday was the Tucson Peace Fair and Music Festival. Concurrently, my country's president declared war on Iran. I'm whipsawed between hope and despair. Said president wants to shoot people like me in the knees and label us domestic terrorists. Look, lock us up in expensive but poorly run prisons owned by his friends. My president reveres power, money, and dominance. I prefer human connection, compassion, and care as defining social eth ethos. Peace is cheaper, healthier, more sustainable, and more fun than war. Now, stop rolling your eyes. I'll bring this to a city level now. I'm old. I'm poor. I'm female. I have no power, little money, and no dominance. Honestly, I believe if we all collectively adopt the mindset that contributing more in life than you take out leads to healthier, happier, more sustainable, and more fun society than you get when everyone is competing to take out more than they put in. A strong social fabric is woven with relational threads. Strong social fabric reflects lots of cross-cutting ties formed by friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors. Weak social fabric shows few and faulty human connections. It's characterized by isolation, despair, and

fear. not fun or beneficial for any but a few elite strong men like Jeffrey Epstein. At 3:33 a.m. on this third day of the third month, there was a lunar eclipse, a blood moon. Now, in astrology, eclipses are high stakes cosmic plot twists. I roll ready. In numerology, three represents creativity, community, self-expression, and social connection. Maybe my president will overcome his aggressive winner take all doggy dog, be a user or be a loser attitude. maybe become more like our compassionate, creative, capable city council. Diverse and mostly female, too. Huh? Ugly or Yeah. Thank you for investing in Santorita Park and um Armory Park. Thank you for your service.

Thank you, Mary. Seth uh Wide or Whitey Seth Wide Wide Whitey Wide Wide. Thank you for the opportunity to address you uh this evening. Um, I'm uh here today to um thank you first of all for uh continuing the conversation on uh public power and uh as a uh native Arizonan and also a uh member of the Rolledo neighborhood um I would like you to consider um uh taking over TE and uh I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Evacario D. Ever carry your tongue? Ever carry your tongue? Good evening. My name is Eva Kariel Dong and first of all, I want to thank the mayor and city city council for being proactive. I feel that evil things are happening in our country right now that are causing fear, mistrust, and confusion. And I feel this directive of administrative directive that we're going to be talking about today goes a long way in addressing what is happening in this country, but also in Tucson. First of all, I feel that you've done a really good job of um planning the directive, of working on a directive. you're um the directive cannot be, you know, put you know, put down because it's not doing what it has to be doing as far as federal and state laws. And also, you've um had it come through your city attorney and so you saw and made sure that it was all going to be done properly. Um I really like this directive because it has a lot of consistency for the people that are going to have to implement it. It's uh tells them exactly what they have to do and how to do it. And it gives them a lot of training um in order to to do this. Um our our employees are really needing training right now when it comes to these things that are happening. They're hearing about it here and there. They hear what happened in Minnesota, but they're also hearing what's going on here in Tucson. So h having them, you know, see this directive and get some training on it, I think, is instrumental. We've been doing that at the public schools. Um making sure that

they have training on what to do if a situation should arise at their schools. So I truly appreciate that you you know you're going to have the training for for um the employees. I think that this is going to go a long way when it comes to also helping to build back trust in our community. You know, a lot of the things that are going on they see on TV or they hear about and the trust that we have gained for our city government and for our police department is starting to wayne only not because they're not do doing what they're supposed to be doing, but because of what's been happening out there in the news. Um we, you know, I feel that our our TPD um when I've interacted with them or seen them, they're doing a fantastic job. Why? because most of them are from uh Tucson. They're they're born and bred here in Tucson and they have the same mentality of Tucson of we need to be there for one another and protect one another. Um I know a lot of them. I I shook many of their hands as they came across the graduation stage back in the day and they're very good people but and they had a lot of trust from the city and the residents rather. But now things are h are happening where people don't know can we go and tell them can we say anything and that becomes very dangerous for our city. It became becomes dangerous because things that should be um talked about things that should be um you know called for as far as the police are concerned they're not they're not happening. So, I truly appreciate, you know, this thing that this um directive and I um really hope that it it goes through tonight because I think it does nothing but support our city. Thank you.

Thank you. All righty. We have Reyes Suarez. Thank you for having me on this fourth day of illegal war with Iran. Um, had a hard time deciding what to speak on tonight. There's so many terrible things happening. It feels like I'm being drawn and quartered. I just read we killed around 500 Iranians so far in this war. Um, but right now I want to get started with the law. um law in general, not any specifics, but the capital L law. The purpose of the law was always to shape society to those who wrote it. But it wasn't really until 1215 when the Magna Carta was implemented that it shifted the balance between the rulers of government and royalty to the people it constrained. It essentially means that no one is above the law. Now jump to modern day. We have a president who believes the law is only meant to constrain his enemies and to which he and his group are unfettered. We have ICE agents who are violating so many amendments it begins to question what even is the purpose of the constitution if it won't be defended. First amendment. ICE agents have violently shut down peaceful protests and denied people's right to document. Second Amendment. Alex Petty was shot while carrying his gun. They used his right to carry as a reason for violence. He did not brandish or even threaten him with his weapon, but they shot him dead in the ground after it was stripped from him. Fourth Amendment claiming an administrative warrant is a basis for breaking and entering a home for arrest without even exigent circumstances as well as unlawful seizure of people's documents, money, phones, and jewelry at these detention centers, and they don't get them back. Sixth Amendment, the right to speedy trial. Denim Moradis from Maryland was held 28 days when they wrongly claimed her birth certificate was falsified. Eth amendment, cruel and usual punishment. Nuro Lam was a 56-year-old blind refugee from Myanmar

who was shot five miles from his house in freezing weather in Buffalo. He died from exposure. Ninth Amendment violation of non-inumerated fundamental rights such as parental rights as in the abduction of Liam Konjo Ramos refusing him to stay with his mother and taking him into detention with his father. The 10th amendment, violation of states rights to sovereignty and the punishment of sanctuary zones. Those are just the first 10. How many further violations must we suffer before our own police stop treating ICE like fellow law enforcement and instead treat them like the criminal conspiracy and secret police that they are? Kasmar in a meeting with the community defense task force the day before he resigned stated that he was directed by his superiors that his goal is to make sure the the police do everything in their power to make sure we don't turn out like Minneapolis, not charging those who are violating the law. In essence, this means that we must duck our heads and shut down those who are trying to get accountability, not arrest those who are actively and blatantly violating our rights. And because of that, I name him and his superiors cowards. You don't duck and hide from fascism. You meet it head on and you tell it no more. You resist actively in all forms. As Desmond Tudel, who fought aparthide in South Africa said, "Silence in the name of injustice is complicity. Vanessa Ggo Luhan. Vanessa Ggo Luhan. Um, good evening, Buenes. No. My name is Vanessa Ggo Luhan. I'm a resident of Ward One. uh work for my family's legacy businesses um in ward five and ward six

and I'm here to talk about my support for RTA next prop 418 and 419. Um I am a a ride leader for a local uh mobility justice group. Uh I'm also a um instructor for bicycling um teaching kindergarteners um first graders and second graders to ride on the southside. Um so it's with great pleasure that I speak to you why I'm supporting Arte next. Um I will begin by saying that um there's a meme out there that says I used to be in Laay. Clearly I have not left the gay. I'm in there more now more than ever. Um, and it means so much when we talk about investment in these streets because when I'm taking families, um, littles and elders on rides in the street, um, we quickly notice the gaps and, um, the lack of infrastructure, particularly in the south and west side. Um, so when we talk about investments, there's some places that just cannot wait. uh 22nd Street. Um 2009, I was there at Sanorita um Santa Rosa Center with other legacy business owners of 22nd Street, residents, customers of 22nd Street talking about uh what our street would look like, and we put a lot of time and energy. Years later, that project couldn't come about. Um and we've been patient. Um, as a someone who works right next to the railroad and that train on 22nd, I'm very patient. Many days, right? Many days and afternoons trying to reach work and trying to go home. And I know many of my neighbors and residents are the same. Um, but when it comes to investment, we can only have patience for so long. In the hottest city in the country, I serve some of the most vulnerable in our community. Some of those um come directly from Santaorita Park and from the from that area. And we know what we're talking

about when I mean vulnerable. Um, and when we're talking about the hottest days on 22nd Street, um, where it's where it begins the heat island effect, right, starting on the south side, um, it really really means life or death. Um, I've lost I I've lost count. Um, we're talking about deaths on the streets. Thank you so much, Council Member Schubert, for bringing that to attention. And I've lost count how many of my neighbors and customers have lost their lives on 22nd Street because of lack of infrastructure, lack of improvement for decades. Um and we can't wait. So I know many folks um are on the same topic, right? Like how do we make our streets safer, better, what's for our best interest? Um so I know that when I talk to the other side who's against RTA Next, we know we're talking about these communities as well. So this is why I had to come and say I need to vote for RTA next. Um because it's not just about me, it's about these vulnerable communities. It's about my customers and um the folks of the most vulnerable.

Thank you, Miss Rayo. Thank you. Thank you,

Paul Stapleton Smith. Paul Stapleton Smith. Thank you, Madame Mayor and Council. Uh Paul Stapleton Smith, uh proud resident of Ward 4, very grateful for the work that this council does and um I'm really taken with the comments that we've already had, but regarding city directive and uh the control of city property, that that directive was uh as as our sister Ava said was uh enormously thoughtful and very insightful. So, I commend this mayor and I commend this council uh who who has worked so hard and diligently. Um, of course, I'm a member of jobs with justice. Most of you know that. All of you up there know that. And and if I may, because Ava said so much, I also want to address city staff here. I understand I'm addressing mayor and counsel, but I commend this staff. I know more than a little bit as a union organizer and as somebody who supports working people what you are uh uh embroiled in now and and and likely will be again. This federal government has brought some of the most dangerous practices both from policing standpoint but as we continue apparently we're building concentration camps all across this country. That's not an exaggeration but our staff is going to have to carry out this directive. I have no doubt that it's going to pass uh and that it must pass. We elected you to be the fierce, wise, and compassionate, but really effective people that we need in these times. And I know that you've hired this staff to do that. And and again, in fairness, I really admire the position that you didn't ask to be in, but all of us now are forced to be in. And so, I thank this uh mayor honestly. uh you have astounding governance going on in

this time and in this town where we have such cruelty and such danger in communities across this country. So, thank you with that and thank you to the staff. We're going to back you as just as we have your backs uh on this on implementing this directive as we go forward. Thank you. Thank you. And we've run out of time, but I'm going to do two additional speakers. Uh, Kimo Washington and then our last speaker will be Timothy Deng.

Thank you. Thank you for your time. Um, good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Kamika Washington. I'm from, uh, Ward One. And last week, uh, the Tucson Parks meeting commissioner, uh, Kathy Dong had shared that she refers to Rudy Garcia Park by its former name, uh, Rodeo Park. She said that changing the name does not erase history. She also mentioned that when she drives by Rudy Garcia Park that she sometimes wonders, who is Rudy Garcia and then looks up the name. And that is exactly what I'm asking for today. Imagine driving by Mission Manor Park and seeing an aquatic center named for someone you do not know, Ocean, Washington. You might ask, "Who is that?" And you would look it up. You would learn that Ocean was an innocent young man shot and killed. Right there at Mission Manor Park. Right there where we walk in holding our children's hands to go swimming. Right there where families come to laugh and cool off and where cement would cover the place where he took his last breath. Can we make it a place of joy? Ocean has a young daughter that will one day play at that aquatic center. What would it mean for her to see her father's name honored there? Not as a reminder of tragedy, but as a reminder that his life mattered. And I'm asking you to consider adding Ocean's name to the aquatic center. It would honor Ocean and all the lives lost in our city to senseless gun violence. It could include a message or a memorial that educates children and parents about gun safety and the real dangers our communities face. At Mission Manor and many schools in Tucson, children participate in active shooter drills.

But what happens when there's a drive-by shooting at a park, a place where children are supposed to feel safe? We often honor people in our lives for their accomplishments. For example, Rol Grahalva has over 50 years of service during his life and in elementary school was bearing his name since 1987 and a park adjacent to that. And in death, his name will also grace a federal building. We see parks and public spaces named for members of our community. I am the daughter of Bill and Roxan Washington. Both my mother and father each served on the Tucson Police Department for 25 years. My father retired as a captain in 2009 and my mom retired as a detective in 2019. These are Ocean's grandparents. My son is Ocean Washington. Ocean was known as a peacemaker at St. John's skate park. He practiced BMX there and mentored young children, learning how to ride, skateboard, and scooter. He encouraged them to help to keep up practicing, and he built community. And Ocean was tragically killed on October 18th, 2021 at Mission Manor Park. Construction on the aquatic center began on what would have been his 25th birthday, where he took his last breath. There now stands a dumpster. I'm asking the city to consider honoring Ocean by naming him on the aquatic center. Let us make this a place one of joy. Let us remember his life and let us advocate together to help stop gun violence in Tucson.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Washington.

And our last speaker is Timothy Dang. Hello, Mayor, Council. Uh, I'm Timothy Dying. I'm a Tucson resident. I'm just here speaking on my own behalf. Um, I'm here again to encourage you to adopt the ACLU's draft executive order regarding politically motivated federal investigations. Um, I understand you're busy with proper city business and that federal foolishness is making that more difficult. I appreciate what you're doing to handle that foolishness as much as you can with what you're already doing, but I'm going to ask you to keep doing more and to address this particular problem, especially because there's already a solution on the table. The problem is that the federal government might decide at any moment to launch a criminal investigation of a Tucson nonprofit, charity, or activist group, which it views as a political problem, and it would call that domestic terrorism. When that happens, federal agents, maybe the DOJ, maybe a joint terrorism task force, maybe the IRS, are likely to call Tucson city employees and request information and cooperation. Tucson can't stop a federal investigation, but Tucson doesn't have to voluntarily assist in politically motivated investigations either. The already drafted ACLU executive order provides a framework for city employees to say that seems politically motivated. We're not going to help. Um, I've sent each of you an email today with relevant links. Um, it seems simple enough. So, I'd appreciate if you discuss it with each other and move it forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much for all of those that came to participate with mayor and councel. We're moving on to item seven, consent agenda. Reports from the city manager on the consent agenda are received into and made part of the record. Miss clerk, you are requested to read the consent agenda.

Item A, approval of permits. Item B, city vehicles annual approval of exemption of certain city vehicles from bearing identifying marks. Item C, fiscal year 2026 through 2030, transportation art by youth public art funding. Item D, amendment to intergovernmental agreement for transportation funding between the city of Tucson and regional transportation authority of Pima County for the Grant Road at Union Pacific Railroad underpass project. Item E, subboard agreement with the city of Tucson and Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, Inc. Item F, comprehensive financial policies amendment for general fund reserve amounts. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? Hearing none, we do need to go to roll call.

Uh, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I, Councilman Doll, I. Councilwoman Lee, I. Council member Baras, I. Council member Schubert, I. Maromero I. The item on the consent agenda is approved by a vote of 6. Item eight. Policy prohibiting the use of city property for civil law enforcement operations. City manager's communication number 64 dated March 3rd is received into and made part of the record. Uh what is the council's pleasure on this item? Madame mayor, I move to authorize and approve the administrative directive.

There is a motion. There's a motion in a second, a couple of seconds.

Um, thank you all so much and those that came to participate in this particular item. Um, this um policy as we are moving it and we have it in front of you today. um was an item that both the vice mayor, vice mayor Santa Cruz and I uh brought to the table and um really was in preparation uh for the possibility of having um the federal government and ICE agents uh being sent to the city of Tucson. This is something that I have been thinking about deeply uh since uh Trump was elected and took office in January of 2025. In the conversations that we have been having as mayor and council, we've had um communication with the city attorney, the city manager, our emergency manager, our chief of police to prepare ourselves with an a strategic action plan for the possibility of either seeing uh the military sent to the city of Tucson or uh in the case of Minneapolis have uh thousands of agents sent to the city of Tucson. I've been having conversations with my fellow elected officials on every level of government, including our uh Congresswoman, Congresswoman Grihalva, as well as Attorney General Maize. We recently had a conversation between um Mayor Ggo and I along with the governor to talk about this and prepare ourselves to the possibility of this. Uh

Arizona is um a politically viable state I would say in this election in this year. And uh there's a lot at stake. Um and I would say I would venture to say there's a lot at stake for Trump and the Republican party. And the reason I say this is because I really feel that Tucson and Phoenix will be targeted. Uh it's not a matter of if but when. And so being able to prepare ourselves. We do have a internal strategic plan uh with our emergency manager, our city attorney and all of us. Um, and we also need to make sure that we're preparing our community. Uh, we have a know your rights website in English and Spanish that I requested the city manager to put forward uh for our community to see. We're in the process of uh translating it to different languages here in Tucson. I've done many um messages to our community on my social media pages, both in English and in Spanish. I'm working with community organizations uh to really talk about who's doing what and how will we react as a community to um to when we see escalated efforts by the federal government and I ICE agents being sent to the city of Tucson. Um, this particular item, um, was something that I wanted to make sure that we,

um, instituted in our community because of uh, the time that we're living in, the fear and chaos that is being created, bringing safety and certainty for Tonins is important to me. And uh we're using every tool possible to protect the safety and dignity of every Tonan. So I wanted to start with that and I wanted to make sure that I invited the vice mayor uh to add anything if you'd like to vice mayor. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Yeah, thank you.

I mean, I really, you know, wanted to um give my thanks to the city manager and city attorney for bringing this back to us um following the direction we gave um back in January. Um I think mayor you you covered you know all the reasons why this is important. We also heard it from our cod of the audience. Um I I think it's it's important um that um that our residents see um public spaces as safe spaces for them to um engage with their neighbors, with their families. Um, and when those spaces no longer feel safe, um, it, uh, creates a lot of distrust and fear in our community. So, we want to assure our community we're doing everything within our jurisdiction, um, to make sure folks are taking advantage of accessing city services, whether it's our parks, our libraries, um, even though the libraries are in the county and they're going through their own similar process as the one that we are, but specifically even in reporting crimes. We don't we want to make sure that um we're not undermining public um safety in our community trust. Um so with this directive, we're providing clear guidance for our departments and employees. It establishes protocols for identifying city controlled property, posting signage, and ensuring that requests from outside law enforcement agencies are routed through the appropriate channels. It also maintains compliance with the law. Um, this directive makes it clear that it's not interfering with lawful judicial warrants or criminal law enforcement activities, but ultimately this policy is reinforcing that city spaces exist to serve the public and their intended community uses. Um, so our parks facilities, public spaces should remain accessible and welcoming to the people who live here. So again, I appreciate um you your work, mayor, and my my colleagues here on the dis um for supporting this measure and for our city

staff um for putting this in front of us. Um so with that, mayor, can I move minus we have a Yeah, it's been moved. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. It's been moved, but it is time for discussion and I see I see the city attorney like raising his hands. So, uh Mr. attorney.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mayor, Mr. Counsel, just a quick uh adjustment to some of the language. Just to make it clear, um uh that the ultimate authority for such requests made by law enforcement agencies would be with the the city leadership. Um I I've made a a slight change to uh B3 under the civilian leadership or city leadership responsibilities. I can read that into the record if if it's okay with the with you, the mayor. Uh, the city manager shall approve or deny any requests from local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies to engage in civil law enforcement of any kind on controlled city property consistent with this directive. And upon conferring with, which is the change, the chief of police of the Tucson Police Department Police Chief, the police chief shall serve as a central contract for local, state, or federal law enforcement agencies making such requests. for each request. The police chief shall gather enough information to determine the impact of any proposed operation on city property and its use. And another change here um shall provide such information to the city manager with each request.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Also, I I want to clarify as well our city of Tucson um selective staff is also being trained. So, we are training our staff in terms of how to react uh and how to act when there are confronted with the possibility of having ICE agents on city of Tucson property. So, that training is happening and also we find it really super useful to make sure that we are prepared uh when um when this happens. So, any other comments? Council member D. Madame Mayor, I think I need to accept that as a friendly amendment. Is that right? Read your the reading in the what I read into the record.

Yes. If if you don't mind. I don't mind. I accept. And who second it? Second. Yeah. All righty. So, um, read into the record the changes. Any other comments? Council member,

I just wanted to say that our vote sends a clear message that Tucson is committed to protecting the dignity, safety, and rights of our community. I'm incred incredibly proud to stand alongside you, mayor and vice mayor, who introduced this legislation to take this step along with my council colleagues and our city attorney, city manager, and the rest of the city leadership team for crafting this policy and voting to support it. I'm proud to live in a community where we stand up for our neighbors and come together to protect our civil and human rights. By establishing clear policies for any federal request to use city facilities, we are affirming our responsibility to govern with transparency, compassion, and accountability. This action reflects our shared values and our belief that local government should work to build trust, not fear within the communities we serve. Standing together, we are doing what is right for our Tucson community and nation. Thank you.

Thank you. Any others? Council member D. I too appreciate the work of staff and thank you um vice mayor and others for bringing this to us. Um my weekly newsletter on Fridays we have a regular feature we call icebreaker because what we learn about what's happening in W 3 and in the community we want to put out there. It was a it's a good pun. Better one was the penguin at at the uh no kings rally was saying that Tucson melts ice. Not bad either. Proud to be voting for this. Any others? All righty. With that, I believe we need to go to roll call.

Council member Dah. I. Council member Schuert. I. Council member Barahas. I. Councilwoman Lee. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero. I. U. Motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you all for your work. Thank you for coming and thank you for your continued work that you all do. Item nine. Item nine, annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year end June 30th, 2025. Audit results.

City managers communication number 63 dated March 3rd is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read resolution 24079 by number and title only. Resolution number 24079 relating to finance, accepting fiscal year 2025 independent audit report and demonstrating compliance with ARS 411494. All righty, Mr. um Mr. Manager, did you have a presentation for this item?

Thank you, mayor. Uh no presentation, but we do have uh a member of Forvvis Mazars, which is the independent auditor for our um ACTUR that you're um hopefully going to take action on tonight. And she would like to make a few comments about how awesome my staff is. So, if you wouldn't mind joining us at the microphone. Thank you.

Good evening, Madame Mayor, Council. Thank you all so much for allowing me to be here tonight. I won't take up too much of your time, but I do just want to hit a few highlights. So, the annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2025 is finalized. It was finalized in December. Um, and I'm pleased to let you all know that the city received a clean, unmodified opinion on your financial statements. So, that is the highest level of assurance that a government can achieve and uh the city did receive that. I also want to point out a few other things that we did not identify any audit adjustments or any audit findings. So for a city of your size that is excellent and kudos to the team uh that works on the financial statements. Couple of other things I also want to point out. Uh the governmental accounting standards board that is the governmental uh board that sets the policy that you all have to follow as a governmental entity. They have been very busy over the last several years issuing pronouncements. And so the city did implement two standards this year. And so for you as a city council, all you need to know is that you're up to date and in compliance with all Gazsbes that have been issued thus far. And then the last thing that I want to leave you with is so in the the thick book, it's 200 pages. I don't expect you all to read it cover to cover, but there's a few things that I want to point out. So the management's discussion and analysis is about 15 pages. It's a really, really good snapshot of what happened during the fiscal year. So I highly encourage you all to take a look at that. And then another thing that I want to point out is the city has uh received the prestigious certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for 42 consecutive years. So I do a lot of these presentations across the country. This is one of the longest standing trends that I have seen. So that's just a testament uh to the business services department on your excellence in financial reporting. So that's my presentation tonight. we are done a very clean audit. This is our second year working with the city and

we're very happy um to be a partner with you all. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much for your work. And I know that you also personally interviewed mayor and counsel. I did.

Uh to make sure that you asked us like what is it that I should be looking at and that opportunity to be able to give you input um from a perspective of a you know, mayor that I've been mayoring council. I've spent 18 budget seasons here and I deeply understand our budget. Uh for us to be able to be given that opportunity, I really appreciate it as well and kudos to our staff for um the clarity of how we present our budget. Um and 42 years, right? 42 consecutive years of of achieving the excellence in financial reporting.

Thank you so much. Thank you for your work and thank you to the team for your amazing work. Anna Rosenberry, Mr. Manager, they're pointing at each other. I know that we have uh Angel, thank you so much you and your team for continuing the tradition and having 42 years of excellence in reporting uh in our budgets and uh financials. Thank you. Y thank you. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Mr. D. Madame Mayor, I think it's appropriate that I move to pass and adopt resolution number 24079. There is a motion. I second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we do need to go to roll call. Council member D. I. Council member Barahas. I. Councilwoman Lee. I. Council member Schubert. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I, Mayor Romero, I. Resolution 24079 passes by a vote of 6. Item 10. Item 10, notice of intent to enter into a sight specific sales tax development agreement with Costco Wholesale.

City managers, communication number 61, dated March 3rd, is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read resolution 2477 by number and title only. Resolution number 24077 relating to economic development, adopting a notice of intent to enter a tax incentive development agreement with Costco wholesale for a new retail warehouse and associated fuel facility located at 9748 East Old Veil Road, making certain findings with respect to that agreement and adopting an independent economic analysis relating to that agreement. What is the council's pleasure? Mayor, I move to pass and adopt resolution 24077. There is a motion. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. Let's go to roll call. Councilwoman Lee. I. Council member D. I. Council member Barahas. I. Council member Schubert. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero. I. Resolution 24077 passes by a vote of 6. Item 11. Adjournment.

Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 at or a little after 5:30 p.m. Thank you all so much. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Baby, hey.