City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hey everybody. Everything.

Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Hey. Everyone, thank you so much for um uh attending and getting here to the study session. of Tuesday, April 21st. Um, just having fun. Uh, so we're going to start with item uh, one, item one, time has been set aside on the prosperity initiative. I have uh, lots of wonderful things to say. I know that Lena's coming up and Mr. Manager and uh,

if you'd like to open up the item.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Joining me here at the table is Lena Prell with our housing and community development department. And Lena is our lead uh for the prosperity initiative for the for the city's actions and activities. And um she has a presentation for you this morning with an update. And while we've presented to you kind of a draft of an action plan, um we're not seeking a decision on that action plan today. We we want to do some additional outreach to other departments and other areas of the city and at a future meeting we'd be bringing back to you an action plan for adoption. But for today, we just wanted to give you an update and a snapshot of where we are. So with that, I turn it over to Lena.

Thank you. Uh thank you, honorable mayor and council. I'm here today to give the annual update on the prosperity initiative and what uh the prosperity initiative team has been working on over the past year. But before we get to that, um, I want to kind of go back and remind us all what the prosperity initiative is, why it's important, and how we got here. Okay. So, the prosperity initiative is focused on breaking those cycles of intergenerational poverty in Puma County. The goal is to ensure every child grows up with the skills, tools, and resources they need to achieve economic stability. It's really about using those strategies that we know work to help families move out of poverty. There are two key parts of the initiative. First is that collaborative effort between the city of Tucson, Pimac County and our community partners with the community coalition for prosperity and uh it's to address those root causes of poverty and build long-term community wealth and second it's the actual set of uh evidence-based set of policies that can be implemented specifically at the local level. So overall it's both a partnership and a practical roadmap for expanding opportunity and improving outcomes for families. And what we mean by intergenerational poverty. So intergenerational poverty is when a child who grows up in a family with income levels below or near the poverty level continue to experience that poverty into adulthood. Studies show that children who are born into families with incomes below or at the poverty level are twice as likely to remain in poverty than children who did not grow up in poverty back. Um and looking at local data we can see that poverty remains persistently high in both Tucson and Puma County. The blue line at the top uh shows percentages of people living in below the poverty level in Tucson from 2018 to 2023. And it's consistently higher than both Pima County and statewide rates. And even these numbers don't tell the full story. We know that many more people are struggling um especially as wages haven't kept pace with the rising cost of living.

And poverty in Tucson does not affect our community equitably. black or African-American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaskan Native and Asian residents are more likely to live in poverty than white residents. Children actually experience the highest rates of poverty of any age group with about one in four children living uh below the poverty level in 2023. And poverty is concentrated in specific areas. So where you live can greatly impact your opportunities. Um but we also know that poverty in Tucson didn't just happen. It's the results of decades of inequitable investment and opportunity that passed policies like restrictive zoning or racially exclusive housing covenants and uneven public investment limited where people could live, work, and build their wealth. So there are systems, not individual choices that shaped which neighborhoods had access to jobs, housing, schools, and infrastructure. And over time, those inequities have compounded, leaving some communities carrying those heaviest burdens of poverty generation after generation. and how we got here with the prosperity initiative. Just going to back up a little. So, in 2020 uh22, then council member, now vice mayor uh Santa Cruz invited Bonnie Bazada to speak to mayor and council about pandemic era poverty uh leading to the creation of a city county task force. And the working group developed goals, conducted research, held over 180 small group meetings, and with more than 800 community members, and by December of 2023, the full report was complete. Um, and mayor and council adopted the prosperity initiative in January 2024 and directed staff to begin that implementation. And why it's important, why we're talking about it. We know that poverty does hurt everyone, not just those affected. It drains our local economy by billions of dollars each year and lost productivity, increased health care costs, and more. And children suffer the most. So research shows growing up in poverty severely limits a child's ability to thrive as an adult, especially in their health, education, and income. And these are the 13 policies that were adopted back in January of 2024. And

we've now organized them into these four buckets of housing, jobs, health, and education. And on top of that, we also have these three cross policy strategies. and we think of them as the umbrella that connects and supports all the previous 13 policies. And so kind of going up to today, um we'll just go over what we've been doing over the past year. And 2025 was a busy year. So we met with you all in January of 2025 um and came out with this work plan. And I'll walk through some updates on each of these items. So for work our work plan updates on communication website and data we created highle policy explainers for each policy and cross policy strategy designed for social media and trainings. They're all available on the prosperity initiative website. Uh the city prosperity initiative website which was requested by Vice Mayor Santa Cruz shares updates and houses all policies summaries technical briefs at prosperity.tucsonaz.gov. And we have an indicators dashboard in development showing baseline data for regionwide prosperity initiative. uh indicators and I'll go a little more in updates on that in a little bit and we know that region regional collaboration is key part of the initiative. So the city county work group meets monthly with the city of between city of Tucson and Puma County staff to align efforts and share best practices. And the city county community coalition for prosperity work group also meets monthly bringing together all of those staff to coordinate efforts, address our gaps and make sure that we're sharing our best practices. And uh we've held 30 workshops over the past year with city departments, division, and ward offices to introduce the prosperity initiative and its importance. In these sessions, we discussed how the initiative connects to department work, including programs that are already advancing the prosperity initiative policies. An updated policies and practice scan was created and uh included in your materials today, showing all aligned work the city does

that's aligned with the prosperity initiative. An internal city workg group has helped with implementation of the initiative priorities when developing the city's prosperity initiative action plan. The three city workg groupoup meetings have been held since November of 2025 with representatives from all departments and the work group will continue as the action plan moves forward. And for the actual action plan, so we've created this action plan to translate the adopted prosperity initiative policies into actionable steps for the city over the next three to five years aligned with Puma County and the community coalition for prosperity. The focus is really those city uh specific departmental responsibilities and cross uh departmental coordination to ensure community engagement, measurable impact and accountability are all achieved. And then these are the uh prosperity initiative policies that the action plan focuses on the most. Um we can't focus on all the policies. So we really tried to narrow down what is cities already what is the city already doing and working on where could we grow a little um and then in the next three to five years reassess. But our actual action plan goals uh we have first creating inclusive safe and healthy and opportunity rich neighborhoods by strengthening safety youth access cohesion and services in high need areas. Second, addressing the root causes of poverty through housing stability, housing mobility, workforce access, health care, childare, and financial resilience. Third, expanding economic and community mobility, improving education to career pathways, um, and supporting small and local businesses, and enhancing job opportunities. And fourth, ensuring equitable and accessible city systems by streamlining our services, centering equity, improving engagement, and using data to drive decisions. So, just our next steps before um happy to take any questions and feedback. Our next steps including uh meeting with department leadership uh like the city manager said to review the action plan

and the actions each department is responsible for. We'll return to mayor council with a final action plan late summer, early fall. And by that time, we also hope to have a policy indicator dashboard ready for your review. So, happy to answer any questions and greatly appreciate any feedback. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you so much, Lena, for doing this incredible work. Just want to um recognize the work that you have been doing in partnership with I know that you've given presentations and uh feedback sessions to mayor and council offices with the council members present. Um I know that you have been working incredibly well with Pima County and and the community coalition for prosperity. uh appreciate all of the work and I do want to um start by recognizing um the uh vice mayor, vice mayor Santa Cruz for uh really the vision to bring this to mayor and council and um working with Puma County and Bonnie Vasada when when you know she had this project and bringing it to us because it really has created an umbrella of um putting a a structure to be able to do this work and embed it into our systems. And so I would say that we appreciate the incredible work that you've done uh that you did with Bonnie uh to get to this point and uh this work is really reflected. I'm really happy to see the city manager and our assistant city managers and our department directors and our teams uh taking the prosperity initiative and running with it and embedding it uh in the work that they do uh in their departments. And I noticed that our budget memo, it reflects the um interest in putting together a budget that uh embeds the prosperity initiative in it. It embeds prosperity

um economy uh equity into into the work that we're doing. So um appreciate you all for for doing this. I'm encouraged about the draft action plan. As a matter of fact, I took the plan with me, the draft action plan with me uh to Boston. And so I had a fivehour uh plane ride and I put a lot of input into that draft plan. I would highly recommend that you all do the same, right? Put your thoughts and ideas into it. For me, um the prosperity initiative reflected a lot of the work that we are doing already, right? creating the equity office also uh brought by Vice Mayor Santa Cruz to our table uh was a initial piece of uh looking at our systems um with a new lens and really recognizing as a city that for generations, decades, uh we had so much stacked against some in this community. And even though because of right, because of racist covenants, because of redlinining, because of so much, there had been um the removal or the e exclusion of some in our community. But now what when we think about the city, we see um poverty at higher levels than the county and the state. And um when we put things together, I usually that's one of the reasons why our Harvard Bloomberg

goal is to pair economic development and economic mobility to us bringing down uh the percentages of poverty. When I started as a a council member, poverty in Tucson was at 24%. and we've been able to bring it down to 18%, but that's not good enough. We need to continue going. Um, and so I would say that throughout the city of Tucson, there are pockets of poverty and areas that need um investment um to make sure that we are working throughout the city of Tucson. was one of the things that I noticed that I think we need to focus on mapping as well to make sure that we find the pockets of poverties in every um part of our city because there are and pockets of need. So that was one of the reasons why we uh created the second thrive zone which is in the 29th uh street area that's in ward 4. um that we were considering other areas for Thrive Zone if you all remember in W 6. Uh there's pockets in WI 3. There's unfortunately unfortunate right that is everywhere in our city. And so we have to make sure that we're putting all of the pieces together to um to work on this issue. So anyway, I I um one of the biggest questions I had when I took a look at the draft action plan was how are we engaging other regional partners? I know that we're partnering with Puma County and I know that we're partnering with the uh community coalition for prosperity, but how is it that we're

engaging for example the chambers of commerce? How are we engaging the business community? How are we engaging the school districts and the community college and the University of Arizona to leverage additional resources to uh create this coalition that we need to work on such a big issue which is reducing poverty. I guess that's the biggest question for me.

Yes. Thank you, honorable mayor. Um we are that has come up in almost every meeting we've been in is how we are connecting with the University of Arizona Puma Community College, our school districts, our chamber of commerce and um through the community coalition they've been doing some engagement with that and I think uh conversations between the city uh the county and the coalition is that all of us together should be in those conversations together. So that's something we'll be focusing on this coming year. I'd be happy to help convene. Um, what mayors do, you know, one of the things that we can do is convene. And so I would be more than happy to convene with, you know, my colleagues on the council to bring our uh partners to the table, very specifically the uh business community and university, college, and school districts to have a conversation about how they can all own this initiative. Um like I said, to be able to leverage additional resources at the table. Any questions, comments, observations? Vice Mayor?

Um, thank you, Mayor. Uh, this item means a lot to me. Um, this work, like you said, started with conversations with Bonnie Basata about how we build safety nets for our families here locally, and it's been gratifying to watch it take a life of its own. Um, moving from a a regional research effort into an actual city action plan with goals, timelines, and accountability structures. um because that's exactly what we hope for and thank you for challenging us to also take a pen to the plan to make sure um that uh all our input is captured. Um we know um as as you mentioned that Tucson's most resilient and most resourced our neighborhoods are who we are centering in this work. When we're talking about housing mobility or fair free transit, our uh having equity in our park systems and our workforce part pipelines, we're talking about the daily realities of our constituents. And we want to make sure that we keep that in front of us. Um I um appreciate the three- tier framework um the continue the near-term and the future investment. um so that we're not just um cataloging what we're doing um but we're naming the gaps and acknowledging um what requires new funding and some structural change um and I am proud that our city you know has has a a document a living document such as this one um to continue this work uh so the only thing you know I want to I want to make sure that as we're moving towards adoption that that doesn't necessarily mean implementation and so we know that this plan plan is only going to work if we have not only the interdep department coordination but as suggested that we fund a program coordinator position that helps um make that possible. Um and I know that um for this fiscal year it's going to be a challen it's a challenging budget year but I just want to make sure that in the meantime um this isn't just assigned to a staff member who already has 10 other priorities on their plate. the city

manager if there's an opportunity to reconfigure an existing position, whether it's through your office or the office of equity to absorb um this function. Um I I would appreciate that if we had a little more more clarity on that um so we know who our go-to person is. Um, the other thing I just wanted um to add and I know that I've uh talked to you about this um is that the community deserves to know this work is happening and also be able to track whether it's making a difference in their lives. So I want to make sure that we're developing a public-f facing messaging campaign that does two things that it educates residents about the prosperity initiative. Um what it like what it is and what programs and resources are available to them right now. And then second also invites them into the accountability process um when the data dashboard launches this summer. That that's an opportunity for residents um to not have to wait for an annual report to the council um but that they're seeing that transparency um in in real time. So I hope that that's something we can take into consideration as we move forward. Thank you.

Good good um feedback. Any others interested? Council member Schubert.

Thank you. Uh yeah, I'd like to echo um Vice Mayor Santa Cruz's comment about the prosperity initiative coordinator position. Um seems like a critical investment in order to continue prioritizing in this important work. So I would I would be supportive of that and I was also relieved that um the high priority programming um that's listed in the priorities um and practices scan document is retained in the budget because that was going to be a thing. you know, it's like a great plan unless and it's a question of implementing it and putting money into it. So, um I think it's great that our budget is serving as that moral um document. And then, you know, when I was looking at the policies and and uh practices scan, um there's a lot of stuff under parks and recreation and this is really timely with budget conversations about how important these programs are to our residents. So, just looking ahead to 2028 when Prop 407 um expires and we start talking about putting together a new plan. Um I think we should be doing that with the prosperity initiative in mind. You know, our new whatever it looks like, the new parks and connections. Um, and I think those are all of Oh, um, yeah, the other my last comment, um, in section two, improving the quality of life and opportunity in high poverty areas. Um, Ward One's, uh, visionary participatory budgeting process was listed as one of the city initiatives, um, that supported that goal. So, I just wanted to take the the opportunity to express express my interest in expanding um that model hopefully citywide eventually, but you know, as a W six office, we'd like to follow suit.

There's council member Warakas. Thank you, Mayor and Vice Mayor, for putting this out to us. Um, and thank you for presenting. I would just like to uh express my gratitude to you all and making sure that all city departments were included in this work. And I'm also curious to know if you saw any reoccurring themes and if there were um certain perspectives that emerged. If so, how were these uh differences addressed?

Thank you. Um yes, there were quite a few reoccurring themes. I think the number one theme was about workforce and job quality. Um throughout the departments there was uh a great want and need for more um guidance on workforce guidance on increasing making sure we're hiring um folks from the community from these high poverty areas and that we're investing in those communities. I'd say that was out of all of the things discussed was the most across the board. There wasn't really any huge differences among the things. A lot of the times again it was the same things coming up over and over. Any others? Councilwoman Lee,

just a super quick question and and also gratitude for bringing this forward and for all the work that you all are doing. It's amazing. Um, just a question for the city manager kind of teeing up the budget conversation. I agree we need to figure out how to continue to have a point person and keep this work moving forward. I'm just curious when we go to implement the idea of a coordinator role when we're laying people off and and park staff is being impacted. How do you see the allocation of this work? Um just with all of the hiring freezing and the layoffs that were, you know, not layoffs, but the non-hiring piece. Sorry, I don't want to freak anybody out. We're not laying anybody off, but you know what I mean. Just with the position and the work. Honorable mayor, members of the council, uh Councilwoman Lee, uh we do have some vacancies in um some of the areas of our city manager's office that we've been holding for a period of time in order to look at this work and what we need to do moving forward. So I'm confident we can bring within our existing headcount and existing funded positions even in FY27 um the rearrangement of workforce that would allow us to give the prosperity initiative the emphasis it needs including continuing um support from HCD and other departments Lena included in that. So um again clarifying no layoffs and um we do have vacancy management as an active strategy. Having said that, I do have some positions that we've been kind of holding strategically for the postbudget discussion for where seeing where mayor and council's emphasis areas are and how we apply those vacancies to address that work.

Awesome. Thank you for clarifying and again, no layoffs. That was a misstatement on my part.

Any others? All righty. I just again wanted to um my deep appreciation to Vice Mayor Santa Cruz for really bringing to the table uh such a visionary um concept and putting the prosperity initiative because um and pertaining to the question uh from council member Schubert, we have been putting and instituting a lot of this concepts to work already, right? our housing affordability strategy for Tucson that we started I always forget 22 um really um pinpointed the focus and investment in affordability and housing stability which is huge when it comes to uh making sure that children and families and individuals have stability in their in their housing and um the viva sites the violence interrupt ion programming, the community safety, health and wellness program that we started six years ago. um you know all of this work really kind of came together under the prosperity initiative umbrella and um even the you know American Rescue Plan dollars that we put to work in partnership with Puma County um in hiring youth summer youth employment uh program opportunities in the zip codes of highest poverty. the Thrive and D05, the 29th Street Thrive Zone, Grant and Al Vernon locations. We were very have been very deliberate as a mayor and council to target um the areas of highest need and where we see the lowest incomes and um uh high violence and gun crimes in

our community, including our tree equity score card, right? we uh based it on the areas of highest need and so but but the prosperity initiative itself brings much more coordination and um puts it all this work under one roof. um areas that we can still do a lot of work in, right? There's areas of improvement that we need to uh continue working on, but um a lot of this work we have been putting it to practice and I do see that our budget even our budgeting process is instituting the prosperity initiative. So very happy with the update, looking forward to continued continuous improvement and continuous investment in in this work and um you know looking forward to the continued work with Puma County, our school districts, the university, Puma College and the business community in this. Thank you Lena. Great work. Righty. Right on time. We're We're keeping a good pace today. All righty. The second item, item two has been uh set aside. Time has been set aside to for a presentation and update on fiscal year 27 2027 recommended budget. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Joining me here, our assistant city manager and chief financial officer, Anna Rosenberry, and our director of business services, Anel Ozalam. We've been working feverishly together, including inputs from all the directors of our departments who are here, and I appreciate their attendance and many members of the business services department to bring you, drum roll please, a balanced recommended budget. Thank you. uh we'll be here all week. Um having said that, it is a ch it was a challenging budget as we expected, but it is a from our perspective, from staff's perspective, a workable budget that we do believe met uh the direction and emphasis that you've provided to us over the last few months, if not longer, that is in alignment with your overall policy objectives. Um and that is is doable. So we do have a presentation for you on the recommended budget. Uh at the end we remind you of the path ahead. You don't have any action scheduled for today. There are public hearings and public engagements that are ahead of us before you ultimately look at final budget adoption in June and there's there's several touch points along the way. So this is um sort of the middle of the conversation, but it's the start of the real detailed evaluation of the budget that would be brought to you for FY27. So with that uh we're going to navigate through. So um there is one change to this slide um from what was in the materials. There was a stray bullet from last year about a budget survey that we did last year with the public that should have been deleted. We are planning to do that bud communitywide budget survey this coming fall along with our detailed deep dive that we've

done. We started last year with the housing equation last fall and we want to do another one which we'll formulate with you and talk with you before we launched that. And when we do that deep dive which was very helpful and meaningful for this year, we also recognized it really focused on one or two topics. And so we want to couple that with a broader community-based survey that would be happening in the fall. But for this year, we did the housing equation fall budget engagement. That was um we got a lot of positive feedback from the community about how they were able to engage with the information but also with the leaders of the the of the departments um the folks who actually do the work. We did have our third employee budget town hall. We went virtual this year and we ended up with over 600 employee inputs to the survey that accompanied that budget town hall. We'll give you we've given you a preview of that. We'll give you the final of that on the May 5th um presentation. And then we did have a joint meeting of labor and executive leadership. We meet with our executive leadership team regularly. That's our department directors. We also meet with labor regularly, but rarely do we bring them all together. And we've done that in the employee budget town hall before, but it really is is a it's 600 people. It's a it's a different conversation when you have 60. And so when we had the labor unions and their leadership along with our department directors and other um city managers, we had a a very productive conversation that did fundamentally affect what we brought to you as a as a um recommended budget. Through that we were able to avoid some of the more dire cuts to services and in place we did enhanced vacancy management which is uh vacancies that we control beyond just what normally happens through attrition. We have VA vacancy savings that we budget for regularly. But this is to

actually give the directors more tools but they also have to come up with more savings throughout the course of a year. But they're given a lot of autonomy on how they go about doing that. So, that uh was an effective meeting that fundamentally affected the budget. Uh with that, I'm going to turn it over to um Anna to talk you through some of it and then I'll be back at the end.

Thank you. Thank you, Tim, mayor and council members. Um as as you recall um we we had a lot of difficulty um responding to economic concerns that occurred during this fiscal year in fiscal year 26. Um and as you're aware, we developed a spending plan um and have been monitoring our projections on how we're going to end fiscal year 26 because it is the starting point for the budget that that were developed that we have developed and is in front of you. Um if at this time last year we were presenting and you were adopting a a budget that within the general fund was anticipating um receiving uh $776 million in revenues to fund our our general fund operations. Um but we were quickly observing as we got into the early parts of the fiscal year uh that those revenues weren't coming in as we expected them to do. And we have since then revised our projections for our current year down to $733 million in the general fund. Meaning that we have had to respond and adjust in the current year to a loss of $43 million in revenues within the general fund. Um and our projections for completing this current fiscal year. Um as I mentioned, we did that not on the fly but in the moment. We were working with department heads um and other program leaders within the organization to develop a response to those uh revenue shortfalls. It we called it spend planned adjustments that we enacted this fall. Um we project that for fiscal year 2026 we will end oper we had projected that we will end operations with a deficit of

1.6 6 million and we have a projected year-end available cash balance of $80.4 million. Those projected year-end results are much better than where we thought we would be um at the time that we were um working on the spend plan. So, we have, I think, actively managed our spending um to better align uh what we're spending with the revenues that are coming in. And that is all the all to the credit of our department and program managers who have had to do that this fiscal year. So this is a very simple way to summarize all of the pages and all of the work that we have done. And this is a pie chart that that shows you um the fiscal year 27 recommended budget has uh a recommendation of expenditures in total of $2.55 billion to fund our operations across all of our programs, departments, and funds. Um of that $2.55 billion, um twothirds of it will fund operations. There's an additional 28% approximately 30% that will go towards capital and approximately 5% that will go towards debt service. Um this simple pie chart is derived from all of the details that are shown in your exhibit two which are the state forms um giving you details of revenues for the organization and expenditures by both department and by fund. um as well as a nearly 40page um narrative that we have prepared in the memorandum that's attached to this item. So people who would like um to dig into the details and the numbers, they can

look to both of those um items attached to the materials today. As you're aware, one of the difficulties that we have been keeping an eye on and addressing is what has been um the the change in trend for collection of local sales taxes that we had seen um in the recent past six years I would say. Um why has why have local sales taxes been such a concern and issue for us? Why do we keep talking about this? As you can see, um, since fiscal 2019 through 2024, we had been experiencing, um, an upward trend in collections, uh, uh, pretty predictable upward increase in local sales taxes that are a significant portion of the city's budget. And it was in January of 2025 that we really started to see um, a rupture in the up upward trend. We saw a decline in sales tax collections occur starting in January of 2025. And you can see um our actual collections, that last blue bar for fiscal 25 um at $315 million for the year was the first year um out of that six, yes, sevenyear period where we did not see an increase. We actually saw a decrease in those collections. So again, a break in a trend. Um, and we are projecting for the current fiscal year that we are in right now, fiscal 26, that's the yellow bar, that we will collect in total even less than we collected last year in local sales taxes. And this fiscal year 27 budget that we have recommended for you um predicts a slow recovery in these

local sales taxes. Um, knowing that our budget is developed based on that, we'll be keeping a close eye on how much we're collecting. This information comes to us on a week-by-eek basis, although there's a fair amount of noise um in that weekly data, but we monitor it closely. You have also seen and we have had a lot of conversations about our state shared income tax revenues to the general fund. This is another um revenue source for us where you can see um we had experienced years of upward trend in collections into our general fund and um fiscal year uh 25 really again broke that trend. Uh that was primarily related to related to coming from um the state policy to implement a flat income tax. Um and you can see how our um collections continue to be much lower than our what we were on trend to collect. We received this information about how much this revenue source is expected to be from the state. Uh the revenues are actually coming to us two years after they're collected by the state. That's um how these revenues flow for the budget that we have um recommended to you. We're estimating that fiscal 27, the first green bar that you see there, uh will be collections of 116.6 million. Um and then we are keeping a close eye on fiscal 28 and the issues of uh state of Arizona income tax conformity with federal income taxes. An important element of recommending the

budget is also um to establish the property tax rates that will be imposed on property taxes for uh properties within the city limits of Tucson. Um there is information within the state forms themselves that you give more details about property taxes. Um but we wanted to call to your attention that the fiscal year 27 um property tax levy for primary property taxes plus the collection of primary property taxes that are related to involuntary tors paid by the city in total um will bring into the general fund. Well, in total to the city, um, $20.77 million and that rate that will be applied, um, is slightly lower than the rate that was applied for fiscal year 26. Um, again, there's more detailed information regarding the property taxes found within exhibit 2. This table of total general fund revenues for fiscal year 27 gives you more of the details um of how we were uh planning um projecting to collect dollars to fund our fiscal 27 spending plan within the general fund. We talked about a number of these items already. Um it incorporates the change in um local sales tax that we're expecting to see as well as a state shared income tax um and an uh other sources of revenue within the general fund. I think what this table again can show you is the amount that we are um planning to receive for fiscal 27 within the general fund for revenues. that 758.757

million is less than um what we were expecting to receive at this time last year when we were developing the fiscal 26 spending plan. That has been a difficulty for us in developing this year's budget. Um although granted it is more than we are expecting to receive in total by the end of this fiscal year. So again, that is something we want you to be aware of. Um, we're expecting to receive more than we project we'll receive uh this year in the coming year. So, we've got to monitor that and make sure that that's actually happening as we get into fiscal 27 regarding the general fund expenditures and their projections. We talking revenues now. We're talking what we're going to spend the dollars on. Our recommended general fund budget expenses total $758.4 million. We plan to use $39.2 million of fund balance. And this fund balance will be spent on items that um we've talked about as as investment plan items, carry forward amounts, and planned one-time expenditures. We are projecting that at the end of fiscal 27 we will have an operating surplus of $350,000. Um so operationally balanced current revenues are supporting current expenditures. I think the city manager has a comment he'd like to make.

Barely more revenues than expenditures. Um, and we will have a um ending cash available balance in addition to our rainy day fund. Beyond the rainy day fund, we expect to have $19.2 million. Um, these items that are discussed on this slide are also presented in that five-year financial forecast that we talk about a lot. It is exhibit three of your packet. Um, this is just the summary for fiscal 27. As you know, we use that five-year model to show, okay, based on this spending plan, how are things looking into the future? Um, in general, that five-year financial forecast shows us that for fiscal 28, the year after this year's budget, we still have operating deficits and some deficit cash positions. But I think I feel like and I believe the city manager feels like um all the work that we've done this year on this year's spending plan gets us to within a manageable uh distance of solving those those budget issues for next year. Um but you can see years three, four, and five of their financial that financial model. We still have more work to do within our specific proposals for fiscal year 27 is a recommended new policy and and we've gosh we've covered a lot of topics and issues um with you at this table in the last couple of months. There were a number of items within what we called a menu of options uh that we presented to you last time. Um and there is a

recommendation to fund the following fiscical year 27 priority projects and programs by using fiscical year 26 rollover savings from the mayor and council offices in lie of programming new spending on these items. In total, these items amount to approximately $950,000. And the s the suggestion for the particular programs are funding of the DVF tap in partnership with Puma County, funding year two of Star Village operations, funding the nonprofit discounts at the Tucson Convention Center, and a funding affordable housing development fee incentives. I'll jump back in here with uh as we bring this to a close. One, some of the highlights is year two of the employee investment plan is fully funded. That is the most significant spending addition to this year's budget is an investment in our employees. The safe city initiative is in is is supported with additional peace police officers, sworn police officers funded. Uh the city pensions, both TSRS and PSPRS are funded at their appropriate levels. We continue to have robust employee benefits funded. The transit system is funded and as we go from 26 to 27, even with full funding and a fair free status, if you stay in that mode, we actually have a $5 million reduction to the general fund transfer from the general fund to the transit fund. We uh this will be the toward the end of the investment plan and substantial completion would occur in the next year or two. So that's on track for those investments you've made out of fund balance that accumulated over a number of years. There are no losses of critical programs or drastic service

cuts. Uh especially including that policy that we recommend if you adopt that for this year you will retain three items that would have had a cliff on them. Star Village was funded for one year. DVFTP had a grant that went away. These are things that we'll be retaining that would have been first on the uh cut block because they were never funded out of the general fund. And even though we spend all this time talking about the general fund, we have the Enterprise and Special Rubber Fins, two-thirds of the budget. They're all on track and they're all um doing well financially. So, as we look toward where we're headed, um, we do have current activities that are part of that spend plan. That spend plan that we did in the fall was not just a one-time get out of jail free card. That was a new mode of operation. So, we still have a hiring frost for filling vacant positions, not a freeze. With if you adopt this budget and we do the vacancy management, the frost would be transition from the city manager's office saying no to the directors having the autonomy to fill the vacancies that they think are the most critical at the time they think they're critical with a target that they have to meet. So, we would not be imposing it top down. It would be at the department level. We have to do the revenue tracking and expenditure tracking on a frequent basis because we are balanced by a razor's edge. We are still doing the initial steps of the compensation plan implementation which you've yet to adopt. We presented it to you at a previous meeting. We've included the compensation plan in this recommended budget. Ultimately, when you adopt the budget, you adopt the comp plan. But we're doing the groundwork to be ready to hit the ground running with the first set of compensation that would

be in uh late June, early July and the market and 4,900 adjustments which is pay placement for individuals would be in October and we are preparing for uh May 5th which will will be a public hearing on the budget uh based on your input today. So with that, we look ahead. May 5th, we'll have another study session, but you will also be that evening having that first public hearing on the 27 budget. May 19th, another study session because you just can't get enough of those. But then that night, May 19th, would be tenative budget adoption for FY27. And when you adopt the tenative budget, as a reminder, you're adopting the spending cap. the details can still flow all the way up till June 9th when you would have final budget adoption and a final public hearing. That public hearing is on the truth and taxation and budget as tenatively adopted and then you would ultimately adopt the final budget at a special revenue meeting which happens right there. You go from one meeting to another meeting come back and then in June uh 23rd we do the tax levy adoption. So that's the path from here. We look forward to your feedback and input as we move forward.

Thank you so much uh Mr. Tamir and all of you for the presentation and the incredible work done. one. Um I really want to thank you for being so deliberate about including um of course our department directors, but um management and and city of Tucson staff as well as the labor groups that really have to also as us, right? They have constituencies like we do uh in their in uh city of Tucson employees. And so in listening to them and being making sure that they are part of the conversation that I I truly truly appreciate um it's taken a lot of work to get here and I I've seen you firsthand uh how you all have been putting this work but also to my colleagues on the council that have been very clear on you know the priorities um and putting at the table the the priorities priorities of their residents and the residents of the city of Tucson. Um, this budget really reflects, as you put it in your memo, right? I I I did read the what is it 47 pages uh that you shared with us. I usually do my homework. Okay. Um, and it really does reflect the policy objectives that mayor and council have been seeking in terms of equity, sustainability, prosperity, and our economy and centering uh the investments that we are doing in our employees. This year alone, we are investing $18.1 million in our employees. And we have had this trend happening I

would say for the last 6 years and bringing our employees to market and you know that that floor moves on us uh but we try and chase that floor uh in terms of market pay. We are also fully funding two fire stations that had been on the menu of possibilities of having to close. Um for many of us, we did not want to see that happen because of the urgency um nature of having fire stations available to our community. I have sent letters to both President Garamela uh at the University of Arizona and to Governor Hobbes and Director Ryan Thornell uh from the Arizona Department of Corrections for us to start working with them uh on funding strategies for both Fire Station 3 and Fire Station 6. President Garamela indicated that he had received my letter and was going to uh commence the conversation with his chief of staff and his team. And um Governor Hobbs also indicated that she was in receipt of the letter requesting the state department of corrections to help fund um fire station 6. Uh we also see uh that none of our parks or neighborhood centers or pools um we're not closing and we're going to keep free for our community. Um pools in our city are part of our uh cooling infrastructure for families and children and um being able to have the classes and access to the pools is important. Uh we know that public safety is top of mind for many Tucson residents. So we

have secured a community oriented policing services grant, $6.3 million from our federal partners uh to support recruitment and staffing across our police department. And I talked about this during my report to Tonins that uh our my goal was to um hire 50 additional police officers, expand our safe city initiative and continue investing in prevention intervention efforts and we have that. Um so really good budget. Thank you so much for thinking innovatively and creatively and working with our department directors in um you know in in in the needs and priorities of our community. So any comments or observations? Councilwoman Lee. Thank you. Well, I just want to echo all of the amazing work that the team did and to all of the executive leadership team and folks back here. You all seem to have your teeth and everybody looks good. So I don't think you knock knock knock knocked anybody out during this process. So, I I know it's been a lot of work that each of you have done and I just want to share my gratitude for that. Um, Tim, I love delegating the decision making to the directors. I love the autonomy that exists with that. So, I really love that and I'll be interested to see how that works out for you all next uh budget cycle. And mayor, to your point about continuing to prioritize investment in our teammates is utmost priority. Um, I do have a couple questions in terms of flexibility after we adopt the budget. Um, for example, we did do some cuts to non-perm folks in parks and we've often had from our little league teams, we've heard concerns about the conditions of the fields and whatnot. And there's kind of an issue brewing with the combination of the reduction of of non-perm staff and the maintenance levels with the increase of park fees. So, there's some

some tension brewing there. My question is, as these things move forward, if we start to see more of an impact and we need to pivot and put more investment in a certain place, are we going to have the opportunity to do that? What's that going to look like if we start to see that some of these cuts are having more of an impact than we had anticipated? Honorable mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Lee, um yes, we retain quite a bit of flexibility during the fiscal year to make adjustments on spending in order to address emergent problems. And specifically with the parks and wreck, and you brought up the role of non-perm, which is non-permanent employees. A lot of our parks and recreation operates off full-time staff, but also seasonally and for certain roles, it's non-permanent staff. And so there's a pool of capacity there that's used to really move that non-perm investment to where it needs whether it's greenskeeping, whether it's rec centers, whether it's lifeguards, things of that nature. One of the things that wasn't highlighted in the presentation, but when we did the we worked with Director Hamway on how to approach parks and wreck for next year. And part of the discretion we we gave director Hamway was in addition to the vacancy management opportunity. We also gave her the opportunity to identify some of her full-time positions that she thinks she could hold for a period of time, but we would not take it as savings. we would translate it into investment in her non-permanent capacity. So there's about $330,000 of spending capacity that she retains, but she can use it where she needs it when she needs it through using non-perm employees. And that does mean we'll be holding some of these full-time employees vacant for longer than we would or maybe for the even the full fiscal year. But to get to that very outcome you were um stressing there, we are giving not just the flexibility on

how to meet their target, but in specifically in parks and wreck, the flexibility to use a more nimble non-permanent resource where needed when needed in lie of locking in on some of the full-time positions.

Perfect. Thanks for explaining that. Um and then my other you you kind of talked about it, Tim, in the fall when we go back out and have these conversations for the next fiscal year. Um, I definitely agree having a more broad budget conversation and I really appreciated the monopoly money um ex exercise you put it through it really makes things visual and so hopefully we can have more of a broad conversation um and not one that's specifically focused on a topic. Thank you for that. And I will uh hype myself. There's a new video where we use Jenga blocks. It is now uh it's either available or will be available uh starting uh today or tomorrow. Um and it's 20 minutes of me. So it's fabulous, but it it actually takes the full budget and explains it yet again using Django blocks um in order to kind of explain how it all works. That's going to go viral very fast. So, I look forward to see

just my friends and family have put it at 10 views. Any others? Council member Cunningham,

a few things. Number one, uh I I I ran behind this morning, so I didn't get to talk about the prosperity initiative, and I want to congratulate uh some of the work that's already been happen. in the Tucson MSA uh frequently rigged uh at the bottom with their peer cities and the number of persons uh living below poverty and that uh number has significantly reduced over the years. So among our peer cities, we're we're actually doing performing pretty well. As a matter of fact, in our metropolitan statistic area, we're about even with the city of Phoenix, which wasn't the case 10 years ago. So, uh there's some there's some really good data for us for that. Uh that brings me to the budget and what I'm I'm super excited that we're going to be able to balance uh that's very that's very promising news. But there it isn't all sunshine and roses. I know it's a great moment and everybody should be happy and it is that's important. But I still think we have some uh concerns with staffing in different departments. We have uh we definitely have uh issues um with filling positions. Um and we have some issues with service delivery uh including response, emergency response, including uh uh park maintenance, including uh the prosecutor's office. we have some retention and some some things of that nature where we want to have competitive pay for our employees. We want to make those numbers and we want to to meet them. I was just curious um one of the things that I that we used to do with the budget was we used to get a really good estimate from year to year

on how many full-time employees we had in each department and how many part-time employees we had from each department. And I don't really want to have to request that. I think it's important to know how many people we have and what our staffing pieces are. Um, and even even more so an aggregate uh a breakdown or aggregate average per department per employee. I think that's really important to know when we factor in RE which is the employee related expenses uh that include pension and include uh uh health insurance benefits uh plus our end of what we pay on payroll taxes. I think it's important to know kind of how much we're spending and how we're measuring up to other cities uh and stuff like that. So, we've got some pieces with we have a swirl still in fire where we've got folks that are promoting out of engineer and to captain and if they go back to step one, they still have a pay uh they have a lower pay. So, they have to get move up a step. But then we have folks that because steps were frozen for a while are stuck in step one and probably need to be bumped. So hopefully we can remedy some of those things this year. And it looks like if you're not because we have a big jump from step seven to step eight to top out in certain parts or on certain classifications in fire. there may be a different way we want to do that and take a look at having uh having the step as opposed to the in other words have the big increase to the job as opposed to the step. So there may be a flip to do that next year. And I think that'll be pretty important. Uh to do everything that I think some of the folks want to

do is a little bit ambitious this year at $2.5 million price tag, but there there might be some savings and stuff we can actualize over the year and work on some strategies to get to that. I have a couple questions. Um I was wanted I wanted to know in this budget how many PCNs we had for 2026. That's uh uh personnel numbers, personnel control numbers. Uh I want to know how many PCNs we had for 2026 for commission police. Honorable mayor uh council member Cunningham uh for sworn or commission sworn police um for FY25 last year we had 842 authorized not filled because we've been lagging behind on filling it. For the fiscal year we're in, it's 878 authorized. And for the recommended budget for next year, it's 911. And for the first time this year and into next year, our recruitmies are showing more full of Tucson police than others. We've had a significant increase in recruitment applicants, people successfully making it into the academy. So we've actually had more robust police officer recruitmies in the most recent years and we project that to go through the next year and running sufficientmies to try to get to that 911 number.

No, again super important to understand that. Uh my my hope was to get to 912. Can we can you give me the same numbers for fire please? Honorable mayor, members of the council, I do not have I was anticipating the question on fleece. I do not have the number of

No, that's my fault. It came up yesterday. I didn't prepare you for it. So, it I want to get those as well just so we have them. And we probably want to get some understanding of where our um some of our attrition is. Uh we've got our natural attrition, but we are starting to see just a bit of an uptick in people leaving for other departments. So, I want to be really careful on on uh where we are on those PCNs. Honorable mayor, council may we'll get you those numbers, but I will I will acknowledge that last year going into this year's budget, we did add 14 firefighter PCNs. The challenge is the attrition in fire has been faster than our ability to onboard and and um train new firefighters. So, they've not actually seen the benefit of those additional 14. We will get you the numbers. And I will also round out by saying been working very closely with Tucson Firefighters Association and Tucson Fire Command Association in order to look at those um promotional uh disincentives that you mentioned earlier. And we're still working even as recently as this morning uh to try to get to the right outcome even yet in the fiscal year budget.

It it we're not that far apart. I don't think I think it's actually really manageable. It's just it does come at a cost and we just have to understand what that cost is going to be. The other the last piece is is that I was cons I was wondering I was curious about our number of groundskeepers and how many we have per park. I wanted to see I know we have 237 full-time people in in in parks and and uh they make do with they make do with the least, but I just wanted to see kind of what our model was and how we can kind of maximize uh that we have someone on site at every park every day. I think that's a good goal to have. um I think we already do for certain functions but uh having having someone through the week there to be able to to check through I think will help us with our service delivery uh in that department. So those are the pieces where I'm seeing some things that are part. Finally, the last piece is I think there's an opportunity to stand up long-term savings if we do an in-house uh fog seal unit within within um within street uh within uh DTM. Um, by having it inhouse, especially just on residential, we can do a lot of preventive maintenance on our residential roads, kind of renew at least one-third of them every year, and we won't have to continue to bond out for mill and fills and for for long-term maintenance. So, I think we could preserve that pavement. I know we have somewhat of a pavement going, but I think we'd say we'd have some cost avoidance in house. So, those are some things with the budget that as we think about the budget moving forward, and I'd love to see if we could find revenues to have those opportunities to do.

I'm glad that you talk about um being able to do more. Um, Council Member Cunningham, because your 912 is was my 911, right? My goal was 911 as well as Chief Prito's goal for uh police officers within the city of Tucson. We could absolutely do more, but the city of Tucson has been faced with the Doug Ducey flat tax. This year alone, the uh budget that we are putting together for 27, we should have received $152 million if the Doug Ducey flat tax would not have passed. Instead, we received $116 million. So, could we do more with more money? Absolutely. I think we all want that. Uh unfortunately both the federal government and the state government have been taking from cities and towns throughout the state instead of giving. And if they further continue taking from cities like Tucson, we will see another $7 million according to our budget and finance departments if the state legislature passes their conformity to the big beautiful bill. And so we're still in a place, Council Member Cunningham, that because of what the federal government and the state government are doing, we can receive way more. So I mean, yes, absolutely. Let's dream and let's make sure that we are continuously improving the services that we are providing our residents. But when

the federal and state governments are cutting off our feet and tying our hands behind our backs, there's very very very little that we can do. Anyone else want to speak? Council member um Doll. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, I appreciate your comments. You and my colleagues covered

Mayor, I appreciate your comments. you and my colleagues have covered all the questions and comments that I had except for two things. One, very good job. I mean, this was not an easy task and it's great that the city takes the length of time that it does to come to what I think is a pretty good solution at this point. But to the public, we're not done yet. Um, we heard a lot um over the last couple weeks when there was a menu of items, some of which my colleagues and I didn't agree to, but it was on a list and we heard from people who would be fairly concerned about fire stations closing or u community centers closing. I think there's still time for the public to be involved and I encourage anybody who's following us to look closely at the budget and give us some suggestions. Maybe there's some ideas that we can can incorporate if not this year, maybe down the road. Um, great job. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, council member. Anyone else? Council member Shu.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, so yeah, echoing the praise from the other members of the council. Thank you so much. Um, really appreciate the um the proposal that we have before us and the way that our priorities have been preserved. Um, just really leaning into that evidence-based decision-making and using the data to help us decide. Um, and just thinking about the amount of money we have and the amount of money we don't have. One place my mind is going is uh making sure that we're not incurring more long-term costs by making cuts. Now, um, one example I'm I just wanted a little more clarification about the status of TC3. Uh, there was a remark at at the meeting this week that there wouldn't be any layoffs um, but the reduction um, in funding would result in the reduction in services. And just as far as programs go, I think it deserves full funding because of the way it reduces upstream um costs. So just curious for more clarification about that. Um as well as um the funding status of the 311 program, which also in my mind is another pragmatic um intervention that reduces um future costs.

Honorable mayor, uh Council Member Schubert, taking 311 first. 311 remains fully funded in this budget. What we were able to do was u reduce the general fund contribution to 311 directly based on the services that 311 provides to some of our special revenue funds waterf um and we did that very thoughtfully. We didn't just go by total call volume. We went by call volume in those areas that was resolved with one call at 311. It's not a savings to the department if they end up 311 answers and forwards the call. But if 311 resolves the call, we quantified that and that allowed us to reduce the general fund by about 125,000 if I recall, but the program is still fully funded now with the special revenue funds contributing as they traditionally do to a service that they provide. Um, regarding TC3, it's been a kind of an interesting one. We do not expect to have to have any layoff or loss of anybody's job. What we're expecting is that we can reduce the general fund funding to that program by combining it with other programs and looking for efficiencies with community safety, health, and wellness and other investments that we have in the budget. So, we're actually challenging the fire chief and the team and our community safety program director, Brandy Champion, to look at what are the synergies and efficiencies that we've not taken advantage of there in order to preserve the highest level of service we can, but avoid some of the duplication that I do believe exists in the system. So, while it's a reduction in the budget, I do not see that as a necessarily a reduction in service. I see it as a challenge for us to resolve and find ways to do uh the work putting

the work right work in the right hands as the mayor says repeatedly. This is a classic example of that. Thank you so much. And I realized I was saying upstream. I meant downstream costs. Just a clarification. Any others? Uh vice mayor. Okay.

Uh thank you, mayor. I also want to start by recognizing the city manager and the team for the significant work done to reduce our budget deficit from 16.8 million to a balanced budget since our last meeting in April 7th. So appreciate the meaningful progress we've made in a very difficult um moment. I'm also um thankful to see the recommendation to keep our public transit system accessible by keeping it fair free for so many working families as we um spoke about earlier during the prosperity initiative um who are weighing rising um electric and grocery bills against prescription medications. This isn't an amenity for them. It's a lifeline. I also um want to acknowledge um that you're recommending the 300,000 from our council offices carryover to fund year two of Star Village pilot. Um it has been um a a pilot that we know is working in helping support some of our most vulnerable unhoused residents um by having a safe sleeping site for them and wraparound resources. And so I'm very thankful that we're continuing that work. Um, I also appreciate the creative thinking around the loaning of the portable showers. Um, and I just want to make sure that we're keeping track of it, too, because I think even though we purchased it, um, we want to make sure it's being put to use. Um, finally, um, as we were talking about the uh the hiring frost and you mentioned giving, you know, department directors kind of the uh the this the say about what is urgent and not. I just want to make sure that we are continuing to apply an equity lens um on on this approach um because some departments, you know, serve some of our most vulnerable residents and a uniform frost doesn't account for that. So, I just want to make sure um that we're thinking about the human impact as well. So, um some of my questions are um you mentioned doing

that budget 101 video and when will that be available um to the public? I think, you know, we've been asking for a long time about how do we make our our budget um more accessible um and educational to the community so um they have a sense of how it works. I am also uh wondering about the strategies that our HCD and the county are deploying to address the housing choice voucher weight lists um given the significant reduction in federal funding from this administration. So, just um we get calls constantly about folks having been in line for five plus years and and not not even hearing from folks about where they're at. So, I'm just curious how we can um keep our community informed. Um Gabriella was reminding me recently when we were on on the bus that there was an unhoused u mother who's been on the wait list for five years. And so when we're talking about um you know, I think we're working really hard on building affordable housing um but that the supply alone isn't the answer. We need to figure out a way um to to fund it as well. Um also concerned, my colleagues already talked about parks and wreck and wanting to make sure that we continue just doing the basic maintenance. Um especially with our public bathrooms, we constantly get calls about um bathrooms not being locked up at night and things happening during the night and then not them not being accessible in the morning for um park users. So wanting to make sure that um we are um keeping our public bathrooms um functioning. Finally, I we haven't received an update on our youth employment program. So, I'm wondering where do we stand on funding and operations? Um, given, you know, this budget environment, um, but also our emphasis on the prosperity initiative action

plan. Um, I I just want to make sure that this program isn't quietly falling through the cracks. And then um finally uh city manager um I you know was encouraged by the like the creative um ways that y'all were thinking about cost savings and I want to continue um having that conversation year round. We don't have a city comproller that can help um point out some of those deficiencies. Um but I want to see that not just during the budget season when we're scrambling. Um, can um, we keep asking these hard questions? Are certain functions still necessary? Are we recovering costs appropriately for the services we provide? Are we holding on to outdated systems that cost more than they're worth? I remember council member Cunningham raising our phone system as one example. And I think that's the kind of institutional habit we need to build, just regularly auditing legacy systems and identifying technology upgrades that can generate long-term savings. Um, I'm hopeful that um, well, I believe that innovation shouldn't be a crisis response. I'd love to formalize that process so that we're um, surfacing these opportunities continuously just rather than waiting um, when we're facing a deficit. Thank you.

Thank you. Any others? All righty. Uh, thank you so much for the incredible work that you've all put into this. The department directors are all um also part of my appreciation and the work that you're all putting into this. Uh, I do know that we have budget information sessions we should all be sharing right with our community. Uh virtual sessions will be Wednesday, April 22nd from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Friday, May 1st from 9 to 10:00 a.m. Also, there's going to be inperson uh information sessions. April 23rd at UD Doll from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. April 28th at El PBLO Recreation Center um from 6:00 to 7:00. April 30th at Donna Ligins from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. So, um, if we can all share that information so that people can, uh, be able to not just enjoy the wonderful video by our city manager, but also participate in, um, in these sessions. Thank you all so much. Much gracias. So, I was just informed, Mr. manager and and colleagues that um there is food waiting for us. Uh we can enter executive session or we can have our mass transit conversation uh first. Whichever executive session. Okay. Um there's some hungry bellies in here. Uh so what we can do is um um get a motion to go into executive session.

So move, mayor. There is a motion in a second. All those in favor of going into executive session, please uh signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries and our clerk will be read the item. Item four is notice as an executive session quarterly discussion/update on non-disclosure agreements and is being held pursuant to ARS section 38-431.0384.

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So, there's a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favors of returning to study session, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. All right. So, we move on to item three. Right. Is it five? Oh, okay. Direction. You're right. Item five. What is the council's pleasure for item five? Madam Mayor, an appropriate motion would be to proceed as discussed in executive session and continue to update the mayor and council on non-disclosure agreements entered into by the city of Tucson. There's a motion. Second.

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. Okay. Now to three. Thank you. We move on to item three. I just want to make sure that I say hello and welcome back Mr. Sam Credo from parental leave. Um, you must not want to be here.

How much sleep did you get last night, Mr. Credo? All righty. So, time has been set aside for continued discussion and direction relating to funding for mass transit. Mr. Manager,

thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. And as as a reminder to the mayor, since we're doing this item after exact session, I would ask that we also move item nine up to be after item three since it's very related content. If you'll indulge that, that'd be great. So, uh, we are here to give you an update on TR mass transit funding. Uh, you've already welcomed back to the table, uh, director Sam Credo, Department of Transportation Mobility. uh but giving him a slow acquisition back into the role. We have deputy director Andy Beamis who's been working this issue u for several months with uh working with leadership and all of you. So uh without further ado I would turn it over to Andy Beamis to give a brief overview of the of the item.

Thank you Tim. Thank you uh mayor members of the council. Thanks for having me. I'll be talking today about an update on issues related to funding for mass transit. I'll give an overview of recent past actions that mayor and council have taken uh to save costs and increase revenues for transit. And we'll discuss new funding available for transit in the RTA next plan along with some recommendations for changes to the RTA procedures as they relate to fair credits and how they fund um transit service in the city of Tucson. So over the past year, mayor and council have implemented a series of cost savings measures like the elimination of route 22 and minor service changes across the Sunran system together with taking action on on uh new revenue generating activities like increasing the public utility tax, the trans transient occupancy tax, and the visit Tucson contribution to uh transit. Together, these actions are anticipated to net approximately $10.1 million uh in support of public transit next year. Um, additionally, on March 10th, voters approved, as we all know, propositions 418 and 419 uh which will extend the financial support for transit over the next 20 years with the extension of the half cent sales tax for RTA Next. Those collections began on April 1st. Um, in addition to continuing the funding for the existing transit services that RTA pays for, there are some new transit categories in the RTA next plan, and those include funding for street car operations for the Stone Avenue bus rapid transit project uh for transit safety and security investments and uh a special carveout for South Tucson transit. The current IGAs for RTA funded transit service are in effect and will remain in effect through this fiscal year. So there will need to be new IGAs uh in moving into FY27. Um and we do have some recommendations to incorporate changes into future RTA

transit uh IGAS. So first current IGAs require that the city provide fair revenue credits u to the RTA for the estimated amount of fair revenues lost on RTA funded service. uh that policy has not been applied consistently across the region. Um and as long as fairs remain free in the city and regionwide, um the RTA should cover the full cost of those RTA funded services as they've been doing outside the city of Tucson. Um, additionally, RTA uh should contribute to the local match requirements for transit capital investments and bus um vehicle purchases to enable the transit services uh to happen. And then finally, you know, we'd like to continue working with Mary Council, with the Tucson Transit Advisory Committee, with the PAGR RTA Transit Working Group and other relevant PAG RTA committees and the general public um to develop an updated service plan over the coming years uh that identifies opportunities to reinvest RTA Next funds in high efficiency and high productivity transit services to maximize the RTA Next benefit to the regional community. specifically looking at, you know, possibly express routes and others that have lower productivity and lower efficiency. Um, in your materials, we've also included information about uh wrership and revenue estimates associated with different possible returnto fair scenarios that were requested as well as preliminary results of an economic analysis and crime and code enforcement impacts of the fair free policy. Um, and with that, I'll conclude my remarks and happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Mr. Bemis. I think for me it's um I'm going to have much more questions in terms of the detail and minutia of our relationship with the RTA and their fair credits. Um but first I think um

I just want to express um gratitude first and foremost for um our city manager and your entire department of transportation mobility team. The work that we have done with Sunran and Teamsters and Tucson Police Department on safety and security is very important for me that we continue that work. the $2 million that uh we are receiving or is it two and a half million per year two and a half 2.5 million

2.5 million per year for safety and security that is very important that we continue working with Suntran TPD you know DTM and uh teamsters and I know that there's some representation from the teamsters today I really appreciate your partnership um in those conversations I know that We have a representative from the teamsters uh in the safe city task force. Very important that we tap into those funds immediately and put them to work. I know that mayor and council approved half a million dollars um for safety and security. But um it was kind of a bit of a of a bridge and gap funding until we saw if Prop 418419 passed. I would love to be able to make sure that we revive that safety and security action plan and put it to work immediately. I've talked to the city manager and I think at this table about how important I believe the um they could whatever we want to call them, right? ambassador, safe city ambassadors or um Sunran ambassadors to make sure that we're connecting people that need resources to the resources that they need and um and that we continue working a safe city deployment style of um security measures so that we can connect security which would be TPD or or the uh Sunrans uh security contracted security company uh to the services that are available. So when we do safe city deployments um I would love to be able to model something like those with our transit system uh to make sure that we you know that we are connecting those that need the help to the resources

those that are committing crime to um to the accountability that that they have to face. Um, I also want to talk about the financial burden that the city of Tucson has been um carrying for other jurisdictions outside our city limits. Um, it's about time that we address the imbalances that the past executive director of the RTA had put on us um, very unfairly. charging those credits uh to the city of Tucson and not charging it to Oro Valley, Sawarita, Pima County or Morirana um really c has been costing the city more than $2 million a year. So we really need to go back to the table to uh work with um Mr. Ortega, the new executive director at the RTA to redo the intergovernmental agreements that we have with them uh to really clarify and clean up that imbalance of the city of Tucson having to carry uh those funds for other jurisdictions. The other piece that I want you to expound on is the maintenance of effort. I know that the city of Tucson and every jurisdiction including Pima County entered into a maintenance of effort back in 2006 um that every jurisdiction including Puma County, City of Tucson and Morirana or Valley Sawarita uh entered a an agreement saying that they were going we were all going to maintain the effort in terms of funding transit. Well, the city

of Tucson's maintenance of effort has grown to $65 million, while Puma County has kept their maintenance of effort in 2006 levels, which is $7 million. And every city in or every town in our region has kept the ma same maintenance of effort funding that they had in 2006. I think that is unjust and inequitable. And so we've got to address that at the RTA as well. So I know I've touched on a few issues. Can you also talk about the infrastructure that is needed to be able to charge fairs again and why the city manager is recommending that we stay fair free until we figure out the infrastructure?

Thank you honorable mayor. I'll start and I invite the team to jump in. Uh regarding the fair collection infrastructure, there is a system on board the the coaches that would allow us to go back to fair collection. And whether it's collecting some fairs or all fairs, the system needs to be operated as a system. And in year one to return to fair collection is about a million dollar cost to operate that system regardless of the revenues that are coming in. And then each year after that under the current system is about an $800,000 cost per year. And the state of our system since it's it's aging and is going out of service soon to continue fair collection past 2028, there would need to be a one-time $6 million capital investment into the fair collection system. So we've accounted for that in the numbers that we've presented in the memo about what it would look like under different scenarios uh to return to fair collection. now and then recapitalize the system in 2028. And so you see that only under the most robust fair scenarios do we actually make money make more money in than out um the covering the cost of collection. So on the one hand there is a cost to collecting fairs and on the other hand is who should bear the cost of operating that fair collection system and so I think those are valid arguments and discussions to have with the RTA. With that u Mr. Mr. Beis, do you have anything to add?

Yeah, thank you. Honorable mayor, did you want me to expand on the maintenance of effort and um fair credit relationship right now? Okay, happy to do so. So, um we'll start with maintenance of effort. You're absolutely right. Um this is part of state statute and the enabling legislation for the regional transportation authority. requires that jurisdictions maintain their level of investment in transit at the same level that they were investing in in 2004 adjusted for inflation every year so that RTA funds are supplementing transit service in the region not supplanting investments in transit. Um in your materials you have a graph showing that what our maintenance of effort requirement would be adjusted for inflation and then you see our investment that is el considered maintenance of effort contribution well above this year it exceeds the maintenance of effort requirement by $32 million. Um the other jurisdictions also have maintenance of effort requirements. Morirana and Puma County pay uh maintenance of effort funds to the RTA and then the RTA uses those funds to both deliver the transit services regionwide and also reimburse us for transit services that we provide outside city limits. Um those uh jurisdictions have been making their required maintenance of effort contribution but nothing more. As we all know the cost of maintaining the same level of service goes up over time with inflation with the cost of labor and fuel and all that. So the city's been absorbing that cost providing that services across the city. Um whereas the RTA has been absorbing that cost for the service out outside the city. Um moving to fair credits. So right now uh the city of Tucson pro pays for and provides the uh transit service including the service uh in the RTA one plan and then we seek reimbursement from the RTA for the trips the additional nights and weekends and frequency that the RTA is paying for. Um, as per the current policy and the agreements that we have in place, we deduct an amount uh

from what we seek for reimbursement. That would be an estimate of what fairs would have collected had we been collecting fairs and that's been in place since 2020. Um, so that isn't in place outside the city. Uh, the RTA has picked up the full cost of providing transit service uh on Sun Shuttle and Sun Shuttle Dialeride in Puma County and unin outside the city limits.

Thank you, Andy. Well, I just I just wanted to also include um that this March 17th of 2026 was 6 years since the mayor and council decided to go fair free and um it was actually credit to the teamsters that um came to Mary and council and said let's not charge fairs because of the because of co 19 we had to keep the transit system going um and they didn't want to charge fairs um because of the proximity issue. So, but mayor and council um have continued to invest in fair free transit. I know that you included um additional um review uh economic review of who's using the system and how the fair free system has been helping working families. But I I wanted to um um thank my colleagues on the council um Vice Mayor Santa Cruz for consistently bringing real solutions to the table to help fund our transit system. Um, and I also want to give credit to the passage of Proposition 418 and 419, the RTA Next, um, for also relieving our general fund of um, about approximately $5 million uh, in transit related investments that will alleviate the pressure to our general fund. So, with that, I wanted to open it up. Um, Vice Mayor, if you wanted to.

Uh, thank you, mayor. I think I I share this sometimes and I think it's always a good reminder about why I've been such a proponent of keeping our transit system accessible. Um, I grew up riding the bus um, as a kid and especially when I was 12 years old. Um, if I did not have enough money to pay for fairs, I had to walk. And so that meant I'm going to summer school at Pister. I live in little town and I'm having to walk to wherever my dad was working at the time to get a ride back home. I felt like that makes our young people even more unsafe. Um, a couple weeks ago, um, we took a a bus ride with veterans just to the VA hospital and to, you know, talk about transit and I would say that over 30% of the folks on the bus were on mobility devices um, needing assistance to get around. So you get to see um in real time the people um that are using um the bus to to get to um doctor appointments, to get to work, um to um get groceries. Um it's been, like I said earlier, a lifeline. U mayor, as you as you mentioned, returning um to fair collection costs is going to cost us more than it earns us um in every realistic near-term scenario. and Tucson's fair free system is generating measurable economic writership and equity gains that make it worth protecting. We've done the hard work on the budget. We have 10 million plus in new revenue and savings secured um with 12.65 million more coming in fiscal year 27. Um so this is not the time to reverse course on a policy that's been working. Tucson is um the only major western city that recovered and exceeded prepandemic wrership and over 71% of our writers are lowincome. Fairf free isn't just uh popular for the people that use it. It's serving the people who depend on on it the most. 96% of new jobs created in the

last four years are located along transit corridors. 90% of new housing and 87% of new residents are in those same corridors. and transit is helping drive Tucson's growth. Returning to fairs does not address safety and the data is clear on this. The post-pandemic crime spike happened on transit systems across the country. Regardless of fair policy, systems that charge fairs saw the same surge. It was a wrership denominator problem. When fewer people rode, the ratio of incidents per rider spiked. Um, for example, in New York, from one major felony per million rides to nearly 10. What actually reverses that trend is bringing more riders back. Philadelphia also saw 34% drop in serious crime alongside a 16% wrership increase. Minneapolis saw similar results. More riders means more eyes, more community presence, safer systems. Fairf free is a safety strategy. A fair box is not. What stops concerning behavior is what we're funding now. dedicated security staff, incident data systems, and targeted interventions through the transit safety and security action plan. Um, nationally, as we know, locally, transit crime has been highly concentrated. A small number of stops account for a disproportionate share of incidents and risk spikes at specific times of day. Tucson's transit safety and security action plan is built on that logic with targeted deployment incident data systems and interventions at the stops and times where it's actually needed. And I feel like that's been a smart evidence-based policy um that we've been implementing. So even as um crime numbers improve, the fear of crime keeps people can keep people off transit um and that's worth naming explicitly. safety perception can be a writership barrier that compounds itself. Um, so we have work to do on showing the community um that are that

we're looking out for their safety as they're using our our transit system. So I also wanted to um uplift an idea that came out of a conversation with council member Dah last week that I think has real potential. Um, he proposed creating a bus stop adoption program similar to our existing adopt the park and adopt the street programs where community members, businesses, and organizations could take ownership of the upkeep and stewardship of a local bus stop. Given the condition of some of our stops and the resource constraints we're navigating, feel like this kind of community partnership model could be a meaningful way to fill gaps while also building neighborhood investment in our transit system. And I would love to see staff explore what that could look like for us. Um, I support the city manager's recommendation. And so with that, mayor, I want to make a motion. I move to direct the city manager and staff to work with the regional transportation authority to develop a transit planning and funding strategy for RTA next that aligns with current city transit priorities, including federal grant cost sharing, establishing cost sharing arrangements with the city for required local matches on federal grants that benefit the regional transit system, including awards under the low to no emission vehicle program. The fair credit policy update. Updating fair credit policy as outlined in the maintenance of effort agreements with unincorporated Puma County, Morirana and any other jurisdiction where fair credit policy was applied since 2020. And express route efficiency audit auditing writership of RTA funded express routes to identify efficiencies that can result in cost savings and or increased frequency or expanded service hours.

Seconded. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this motion? Um, Councilman Lee and then Council Member Cunningham.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, for me, one of the ways I've always approached difficult decisions like this, whether it's personally or professionally in my career and especially in this role, is trying to be as data informed as possible. It helps me think clearly, focus on the facts, and strip out emotion or assumptions that can often come up with these complex issues. Um, so one of the challenges in this particular decision and in this job in general is that we often are asked to make these really significant decisions without clear or definitive data. In this case, we asked our staff last year to go through the process of the Title Six equity analysis and analyze potential impacts of reinstating fairs. staff brought back multiple scenarios, including a conservative option that was projected to generate about $ 8.5 million in fair collection while maintaining free transit service for those who needed it the most. That analysis and those assumptions behind the analysis was challenged and there was a desire to understand whether there was a measure measurable economic benefit associated with the fair free policy. So, an additional study was commissioned at a cost of $20,000 focused specifically on identifying and quantifying potential positive economic impacts. When I learned we were commissioning that study, I asked a series of questions to better understand what was actually being studied, what data we were using, and whether we were looking at the issue comprehensively. Specifically, if we were going to try to quantify potential economic benefits, I wanted to make sure we were also looking at the other side of the coin and considering potential negative impacts of a fair free policy that we've heard raised over the years, including concerns about crime, retail impacts, and overall system experience because if we're going to make a decision of this magnitude, we need to look at the situation holistically. The draft version that's in our materials of the study that was recently uh sent to us included a number of data points. property tax, sales tax, and other indicators. But it also makes clear in multiple places that it does not establish a causal relationship between fair free transit and those

outcomes. It describes the analysis as associative, not causal, and notes limitations in the data, including the information is not detailed enough and does not fully account for other contributing factors. The same limitation applies more broadly. We've heard concerns over the years about issues like crime, retail impacts, and overall system experience, but the data available today does not allow us to definitively link those outcomes to fair free transit either. We need to apply that same standard consistently. We can't conclusively tie positive economic impacts to the policy and we can't conclusively tie negative impacts to the policy. So, while the study presents information, it also makes clear that we don't have a complete or definitive picture of the impacts of either side of the equation. we're not looking at something that proves a benefit or disproves concerns. So there in lies some of the challenge that I have in navigating this decision. At the same time, we still have a very real challenge that we need to tackle. Uh staff did amazing job balancing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which is critical, but a broader issue hasn't gone away. Right now, we're subsidizing transit at about 9% of our general fund. Even as a as that starts to come down, the level is significantly out of alignment with peer cities both in Arizona and nationally and is not a sustainable position long term. That means we're continuing to direct tens of millions of dollars of our general fund into transit which directly impacts our ability to invest in core services. So while we're working through uncertainty on the data side, the underlying financial challenge is still very real and we have to move forward toward a more balanced and sustainable model. So to me, there's a huge piece that is missing from the conversation. Since we suspended fairs back in March of 2020, we have not gone back out to the community in a broad and intentional way to ask how the community wants us to move forward. As a council, we've set a precedent and placed a high value on community engagement, whether it was for Project Blue or even how we're going to rename the Caesar Chavez holiday. And

we've made sure to go directly to the community to ask for their feedback before taking action. And I feel like that's what we're missing here. We need to hear broadly from as many tonins as possible. Not just anecdotal feedback, but real structured input from across the community. That includes fair free transit advocates, the teamsters, users of the transit system, our business community, neighborhood and community groups, institutional partners, our city employees, writer experience and safety advocates, public safety stakeholders, and anyone else that our colleagues feel is important. We need to present them with the options we're considering. continuing free fair policy or looking at option D or E which both have the potential to generate revenue into the general fund. We already have engagement happening around town with the budget town halls and other community conversations so we can build this into that work and also create additional ways for people to participate. At the same time, we should use this process to better understand what options exist that reduce the general fund pressure in a significant and sustainable way. If the data isn't definitive, then the community's voice becomes even more critical in helping us guide this decision. We may not have perfect data, but we do have a responsibility to address an unsustainable funding model. So, for me, rather than forcing a decision in the absence of clear data, I think we need to take a thoughtful approach. And with that, I um actually do have a substitute motion to put on the floor. Uh I do agree with the vice mayor's direction on the RTA piece, but I will offer a substitute motion. Um, I move to direct the city manager to take a couple of steps around the long-term sustainability and policy direction of our transit system. First, over the next year, work with the RTA to identify and move forward a long-term strategy to improve the financial sustainability of Tucson's transit system. Second, within the next 90 days, conduct robust community engagement to get direct feedback on fair free transit policy and future funding options and return to the mayor and council at the July 21st study session with community feedback

recommendations based on that input and a range of options to reduce the general fund subsidy subsidy over time to a more sustainable level consistent with peer cities, including any legally available options such as partnership opportunities, funding strategies, or fair-based structures that would allow the city to quantify system value and support those investments. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any continued discussion on this particular motion? Council member Schubert.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh thank you, Council Member Lee, uh Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, um and and also to staff and the years of work that has been done. Um six years to be exact. Um, and six years ago, you, Madame Mayor and Vice Mayor, inspired me by taking the visionary step of making fairs free during the pandemic. And it turned out that that delivered an enormous benefit to the people of Tucson to the point where we've the mayor and council has continued to affirm commitment to making transit universally ac accessible. Um, universal access to transit in fact is an assurance and a certainty that we can provide in a time of extreme uncertainty. This should be the function of local government. Um, we're facing rising costs. People are um are looking at losing their benefits, losing food stamps. The most vulnerable people in our communities are going to be hit the hardest. Um, so frankly, just to be candid, I think it's a waste of time to continue to um threaten to reinstate fairs when we know that 71% of the users of the system uh qualify as low income. Um, having a universally accessible transit system should be celebrated and also properly marketed. Um, that's actually never happened. We haven't really given uh our system a chance to um fully express the potential of being fair free. Um the signage is confusing, the maps are confusing. Um I know that we're doing a lot of work with the federal grant that we just received to improve our bus stops so that so that users of buses can have clear information about um routes and times and what to expect. The only real link that I have seen between fairs and safety has been that not charging fairs has been proven to be a safety intervention. and vice mayor also brought up a lot of really um qualif you know compelling um information about safety in the transit system and wanting to get more riders on the buses and that

that will create more safety than a lot of these other costly measures. Um it also links with our prosperity initiative policy 8 prioritizing transportation options to connect vulnerable communities to job and jobs and resources. Um, so how can we make decisions that support our transit system and not weaken it? Well, we can move forward from talking about fairs and focus instead on making evidence-based choices about investment. Um, the ambassador program pilot showed real promise. We need a public campaign to get the word out. Um, and it's just a fact that has been continually proven by um, research and case studies that more writers mean safer experiences. Um, I don't view this as a political issue. So, I really appreciate Council Member Lee talking about data and um and wanting to lean into um the information that we can gather when we have really hard and impactful decisions before us. And it's true there are some things that remain unknown. I think you know, Professor Nelson does make some leaps when it comes to some of these intangible financial benefits when it comes to fair free and being able to link those. However, there are some things that we definitely know thanks to the hard work of staff. We know that um the most feasible options for reinstating fairs aren't going to make us money. Uh the only one that actually makes money is the option that is the least likely, which involves going back to 2018 fairs and assuming that we won't experience a dip in wrership um or that we don't have 71% of people who are going to qualify for free passes. um it doesn't pencil out. Uh it's not going to help balance the budget even if it does pencil out. However, I I share the interest in making sure that what we are doing with our public transit system is sustainable and practical and pragmatic. So, I look forward to um continuing that discussion and grounding this in fact um and moving forward if we're going to

have any public input. I think it's really important to ensure that bus riders and the people most impacted by the system are the are the voices that we are sure to bring to the forefront because there are a lot of impressions out there about the transit system. But um some of the strongest opinions I've heard from have been from people who um don't ride the buses themselves. Um, so that's a little bit hard when I think that our ethic should be to ensure that the people who are most impacted by the decisions that we're making have a voice um in the process. But just to end on a positive note, I Tucson's leadership is to be celebrated. Our wrership went up. Um, we have a stronger transit system than other transit systems that continue to charge fairs and experienced a drop in wrership. There are systems out there that are charging fairs, but bus drivers often don't enforce or collect them at the moment of boarding because of safety issues. Um, so we're also we're also improving working conditions for bus drivers and operators not having to worry about handling money or having to enforce um who can get on the bus and and who can't, making a smoother um boarding experience. And uh I think that we need to free up our resources to focus on the important work of improving the system for riders and making public transit a system that everybody can use, not just the people that rely on it. Um and don't have cars, which is actually a lot more people than most would imagine. Um and you know, of the 3.4 4 million new writers that added to the system between 2019 and 2025. 2.7 are attributable to writers between the ages of 25 and 54. So we have a lot of milestones that we've reached over the last six years. And I think it's time to tell the story to the public about that and get more people riding the bus and to put aside the topic of talking about

fairs anymore. Any others? Council member Barakas and then council member Kane.

All right. Thank you, mayor. Well, this is, you know, something that a lot of families and stakeholders, writers, um, bus drivers, business owners have constantly, you know, reach out to me in our office. Um, because public transit is essential, you know, across the city and many of our W 5 residents do rely on it every day to get to work, school, essential services. But we do owe it to our community to deliver a transit system that truly serves everyone. And it must be reliable, safe, and financially stable. Without a consistent funding strategy, service quality declines, safety concerns grow, and the very people who rely on transit the most are impacted. Ignoring the need for a long-term plan risks undermining the access we're trying to protect. So, I would like to engage with our residents and really hear from our community how we could um better strengthen this system. You know, I I do think we need to do some type of accountability just like when you have, you know, when you get on the road, you have your driver's license, just when you go out and you check out a book, you have a library card. I do think we need something in place because um we do really need to think ahead and we need to make sure that our residents have the the opportunity to express how they feel when it comes to public transit. Thank you,

Council Member Cunningham.

What we have is we have a conflation of core values. Um, I've actually said in the past that if we had more and more people on the bus in a higher percentage, then it should be free. Uh, but the biggest piece we have right now is we have a situation where we've got some unpredictable behavior on the bus and it's highlighted. Whether or not statistically it is causing the type of problems people say it's causing doesn't mean it can't be ignored. And that's why going out to the citizens and collecting some information I think is important. There's a couple other things that I want to make sure people understand. First of all, I've got the 25 numbers. Do we have numbers on the total transit budget and the general fund transfer for 26 yet? Do we have estimates? Honorable mayor, members of the council, working backwards from 27, I believe the uh recommended budget has a general fund transfer of 63 million approximately for FY26, the year when I believe it is approximately 68 million. Um, we do have this data and we'll see if we can get you more precise numbers as we speak here. And then our total our total has run anywhere between 100 to 110 million. And but I want to make sure people understand that not all of that is Suntran. Some of that is Sunban, Sun on Demand. There's different programs that we have. And people have got to understand that I'm not ever going to advocate against the investment we make into Sunban or or um even Sunlink. Uh I think that those investments are fine. Um, I'd love to have an option where even if we kept the fairs free, we'd still have a way to give out passes or something so people who need to get a free pass can get one. But at the end of the day, we just need more information. Uh, one other thing about the fairbox.

So, there's a capital outlay that we need to change fair boxes. I remember when we did parking meters a few years ago, we changed to digital parking meters and we had the vendor collect money until they were paid. So, is there an option to do something like that with with the fairbox vendor or is that just um out to pay to pay it back initially so we don't have to outlay cash?

Thank you for that question, mayor, members of the council, council member Cunningham. That's not a question we've posed specifically, so I don't have an answer right now. I think that may be possible. I also just want to note that the cost for replacing the fair boxes is likely eligible for uh FTA formula and discret competitive grants. So it would just be the local match portion that would need to be paid for possibly also eligible for RTA.

So it's a it's a it's a cash management piece to that and that's fine. My but again for me even going down that road is a different is kind of a different discussion but I think it needs to be had. I will say this, prior to 2019, before COVID, we averaged around $40 to $50 million of general fund transfer into the transit transit investment. And then when while CO was going and on, it went all the way down to 20 million because we were receiving a lot of federal grants because we'veii continued the program, which again it we can argue the value and nonvalue every time, but now we're up to $68 million last year. So, we've increased it another 23 million. And so, when we're talking about that priority, for me, it's hard because we're now looking at raising pickle ball fees, which we've gotten some discussions about. We're looking at raising some league fees, some um we raised taxes on hotels. We did all these things for for this kind of sacred cow for the free transit piece. And for me, I don't know if those are the best use of the dollars. That's there's a little push back there. Look, it's okay to disagree with people. All right? But that's kind of where we we find ourselves. We're at this discussion point this year. Our budget's balanced and I'm not sure that there's will to in initiate fairs at this time. But what I'll say is is that whether or not um we want to get some of the other things we want to do, whether we're going to reinvest in h housing and unhoused, which again is while it's not directly related to free transit, it's become a symptom to every discussion we have, whether it's parks, police coverage, uh emergency response, pools, whether whether or not the pools will be free. every single discussion comes back to well what about the unhoused and how do we deal with it. So it's we have to conflate all these issues together and kind of think about them holistically. I think going out to

the community and getting the feedback that that that council member Lee's motion has is is kind of a good is a good step in this process. The two motions do pretty much the same thing except we're getting some extra input and I don't think anybody's going to have a problem with that. We're still going to go back out and get our FTA money. We we're still looking at a reduction of almost 10% from the last from this from the 68 to 63 uh in the general fund transfer. And that those are good things. Those are things that the city manager and the mayor's team should be celebrated for. But at the end of the day, when we're really taking a look at what our priorities are going forward, I think having this discussion with the community is important. Uh, I just wanted Council Member Do, did you want to include anything? All righty. I I just wanted to thank you both, uh, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz and Council Me uh, Councilwoman Lee uh, for the conversation. I might ask you to re reread your motion because it is long. Um, I too make my decisions based on on um, evidence and facts. Um, and you know, there is there's room for us to disagree and that's and that's not just acceptable, but we should bring bring disagreements to the table. Um, I think it's healthy and I think it brings the different and diverse perspectives of everyone in the community. Um, what I can't let go of though is those in the community that try to use fair free transit as if it's the root causes of fentinel use and crime in our community. That I will not accept

because the root causes of fentinel use are much more complex. The root causes of unsheltered homelessness and crime are much more complex and we cannot um we cannot um use the excuse of fair free transit for what's happening not just across the country. It is happening across the world. mental behavioral health issues, substance use disorders and uh the causation of people becoming unsheltered because of those issues and other very complex issues is happening throughout the world. I just came back from um uh Harvard and and Cambridge talking with 44 other mayors that are from around the world. And it sounded like the same discussion we're having here with mayors worried about um fentinel and drug uh issues and mental behavioral health issues mostly in the unsheltered. Uh so whether it's Athens, Greece or Medida Yucatan in Mexico or um places as far as Brazil, the same thing is happening. And so this is much bigger than laying all blame on fair free transit saying that um we keep hearing that charging fairs would produce about $8.5 million. By the way, $8.5 million. Many people think that that will absolutely cure all of the issues that we have when it comes to funding for the city of Tucson. It's not and it's not

$8.5 million that we're looking at because if we do start charging fairs again, even if we do the fair uh the free lowincome and youth and elders, that will bring in $6.5 million. If we go back to the 2018 fairs, um it would be $9.3 million, but that's nobody is is asking for that um at this table. So, um I think that we can absolutely engage the community. I think at this table we've talked about um dedicated funding sources either for public safety or transit or other um investments that will alleviate help alleviate the general fund. What I would like to do I would like to have both, right? I would like to have both conversations. Um, but what I would like to do is make sure that we vote um to give direction to the city manager to do all the work that he wants to do with the RTA, clean and clarify intergovernmental agreements, make sure that we do all of what he's presented in his recommendations. And then I do want to be able to have a conversation about um priorities and what Tonins are willing to um convin continue investing in and whether it's a dedicated funding source for transit or trans or public safety or let's have those conversations. Um can you read your motion again, Councilman Lee?

I sure can. So the motion is I move to direct the city manager to take a couple of steps around the long-term sustainability and policy direction of our transit system. So the first piece mayor is what you're talking about over the next year because I think Tim you said you wanted a year to work with the RTA to identify and move forward a long-term strategy to improve the financial sustainability of Tucson's transit system. So that includes all the components in the vice mayor's motion as well as what you said mayor. Second, within the next 90 days, conduct robust community engagement to get direct feedback on the fair free transit policy and future funding options and return to mayor and council at the July 21st study session with community feedback, recommendations on that input, and a range of options to reduce the general fund subsidy over time to a more sustainable level consistent with peer cities, including any legal legally available options such as partnership opportunities, funding strategies, or fair-based structures that would allow the city to quantify system value and support those investments. So basically letting our partners like the UOVA, Puma, TUSD invest in the system if we have a structure for them to do that.

Did you have Yes. Yes, your honor. While I'm I'm the seconder of this motion, so there's one piece. From what I understand, we've been emailing each other about the July 21st meeting as being the joint county meeting. No, we have a scheduled mayor and council meeting July 21st. And then I think the one that we um are looking for um joint meeting with the board of supervisors is July 23 or the 30th. So there's an option there. Thank you, your honor.

I I'm I don't feel comfortable with just having a 90-day conversation. I think that we're in the middle of a budgeting season. I I I think it should be a longer conversation um to explore all the pieces that you have in front of us and sometimes it takes more than 90 days. Um so I think that we should we should um in tandem work with this coming year in tandem with the RTA discussions that we're having. Mr. Tomier. Yeah. Honorable mayor, council member Lee, if I might offer if it'd be acceptable and and we end up with this motion moving forward that we could certainly do as much work as we can on both aspects, the RTA discussion and the community dialogue, give you a reported 90 days, which may be centered around those three areas, the feedback, recommendations, and options, but leaving us the opportunity that if more work's necessary, we could get feedback from you and then and then set a new target. If if that's acceptable, I think that's workable.

Mayor, I like that because it's iterative. We can see what what we've got so far, what direction we might want to give at the 90day mark. I kind of like that, especially since there's a bit of an update as to what's going on, especially with the RTA, right? Uh vice mayor and then council member,

I just wanted to say that I'm not in support of this second motion. Um, I think it's disingenuous coming from a council member who has consistently said that they're against um, fair free transit and that they wouldn't vote for a budget that continued to have um, fair free. So to then um pivot to say you want to do community engagement and hear from other people and specifically um speaking about project blue to me sounds like trying to create a campaign um against fairs and not actually having a real conversation about the needs of our transit system and having it focus on how do we make it better. Um it's just trying to you know buy some time. Um so I do not support the motion. And I feel like it's disingenuous and we can have the conversations of how we need to improve safety, but the transit users need to be centered and as we know these folks are not going to go to a community engagement meeting. So what we need is intercept surveys speaking to um people on the on the bus um about how we can improve the system. And that's all I want to say. Council member Varakas,

do we have a timeline of when we want to execute the the ambassador Sunran ambassador safety program? I um me uh mayor, members of the council, council member Brahas, as soon as possible. Um I wouldn't give a date as to when we think we'll be ready, but we've started those conversations um with our community safety, health, and wellness team um and our H uh housing and community development department. We'll be putting together a budget. We did ask to your earlier point, Mayor um the executive director of the RTA for pre-approval to begin spending uh money on things that are the new funding elements of the RTA next plan. And we did, it's actually in your materials for the next item. Um we did get conditional approval to do that uh for this item. Some of the others were unconditional like the funding for Sunlink. Go ahead, start spending money. You'll be reimbursed at such time that we get an RGA together. With this one, it was sort of conditional. Yes, we can fund things, but we need to coordinate with our other stakeholders to understand how much of the transit safety and security funding in RTA next will go to support Sun Shuttle, Sunshide, City of Tucson, and under what categories. So, we're putting that uh proposal together with TTAC and with you all to take to the RTA and say here's what we would like to do based on our transit safety and security action plan. It's a long-winded answer. My hope is that it's over the next several months that you know we do are thinking about doing some internal staffing per your conversations on this in the past. So we'll need to recruit and that kind

but we can start now. Okay. You are working on putting it together.

I just know you know when it comes to public safety people see public safety and define it differently. So if there's a way that we could also tie that into these community engagement endeavors um you know and we could think very robust of getting on the bus doing those surveys or doing a roundt dedicated uh focus group conversations you know just like what we did with Tucson Nortes. I do think we have to do um a diverse range of conversations you know where it's not a a one-sizefits-all model and we really do have to meet folks where they're at. But I would like to start that conversation with our constituents of how what they would like to see this ambassador program look like. Thank you. Is that pertaining to the motion council member in in terms of um as the vice mayor had suggested that we need to make sure that we center the writers. I'm looking at the at the rider demographics and um street car ridership rose the most amongst the younger age 18 to 24 but bus ridership rose substantially among riders between the ages of 25 to 54. That tells me that these are people that are working. These are these are students. um and it accounted for 80% of the growth. So I want to make sure that we have a thorough discussion with the people that are being that are using the bus, right? that are using our our transit system and um seeing the demographics um and wrership trends. Tucson's bus ridership gained the most among western

metropolitan areas with populations over a million. I don't want to lose that momentum, especially in a time where a gallon of gas is 469 and where workers right now workers are the ones that are hit the worst. um with inflation, with the cost of food, with the cost of rent, uh with the cost of gas, all of this is affecting um workers, people ages 25 to 54. Um and disability writers. Um I mean it it we've got to be very thoughtful in terms of how this conversation goes because if we go to our um you know if if we go to just general community I have seen very clearly that many people stuff the meetings right many groups say okay there's going to be this um meeting Please make sure that you show up and you tell people that the fair fair freeze are causing the fentinel problem in Tucson and it's causing all crime. It is. There are definitely biased opinions and biased groups that really stuff the opinion polling that that is done if we are not deliberate about how we have conversations and whom we have conversations in our community about um about the future of our bus system. And I know that um when we were in the middle of the 418419 campaign, there

were people that were advocating against 418419. Why? Because they didn't have enough funding for transit. And so we've got to make sure that we're out there really working with stakeholders so that we can bring facts to the table and we can make decisions into the future not based on biased um opinions but facts. So, um just wanted to ask um Councilwoman Lee, did you want to instead of a substitute motion um add your uh direction to the vice mayor's motion? And did you vice mayor want to put both together? No. Okay. Um so, I think we're going to have to go to roll call. Madam Mayor, if I may just briefly, I believe there might have been a friendly amendment to the substitute motion related to the reporting

uh that I heard from is that accepted by the motion? Yes. 90 days for a report back and then we'll evaluate from there. Is that accept acceptable to the second? Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham. Hi, Mr. D. Mrs. Lee. I Schubert. Nay. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Nay. Mayor Romero. Nay. Um, substitute motion fails. We have the original motion um at the table. Now we vote for the original motion. Any further questions?

Mayor, could we hear it again?

Okay. Um, the motion is to move to direct the city manager and staff to work with the regional transportation authority to develop a transit planning and funding strategy for RTA next that aligns with current city transit priorities, including federal grant cost sharing, establishing cost sharing arrangements with the city for required local matches on federal grants that benefit the regional transit system, including awards under the low to no emission vehicle program. Fair credit policy update. Updating fair credit policy is outlined in the maintenance of effort agreements in unincorporated Puma County, Morirana, and any other jurisdiction where fair credit policy was applied since 2020. And express route efficiency audit auditing writership of RTA funded express routes to identify efficiencies that can result in cost savings and or increase frequency or expanded service hours. Is that okay? Council member Schubert,

I just have a procedural question because I seconded it the first time, but um I want to um propose a friendly amendment to add putting a moratorum on um discussing reinstating fairs until April of 2028. That's a friendly amendment. Do we have a second? Uh yes. Oh yes. Okay. So, your friendly amendment is saying, "Let's put a moratorum. Let's move forward. Let's talk about other things about buses, not the fairs anymore." Okay.

Council member D, I have a question on whether we can um tell future um discussions at mayor and council not to discuss an item. Is that uh Roy is that possible? I think that would be a concern may mayor that we bind future councils. All righty. So would you reconsider your motion, your friendly amendment?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm still willing to support it without the friendly amendment. I just want to express that it creates such a sense of uncertainty having this hanging over our heads and I think it holds us back from moving forward with solutions and planning and strategy when we're just kind of stuck in the same place. So I understand procedurally and legally why that might be untenable. I hear you. I listen um

first and foremost I am not against having planning efforts in the city of Tucson uh to make sure that we are bringing in stakeholder and community input. I I I want to I believe in that. Um, I think that we have to move first uh with the recommendation by the city manager and then have a longer term approach. I I don't like to make um important decisions um without really taking a look at how we plan ahead. And so that's why I voted against the substitute motion. I I want to um plan we we need to make sure that we're planning on and based on budgeting and need. So um the original motion stands there's no friendly amendment accepted. Um Mr. Le

sorry mayor I I think uh we need to withdraw the friendly amendment officially. Sure. I withdraw the friendly amendment. Okay. Thank you council. Original motion stands. Okay. Um, roll call. Question. Councilman Lee, just a quick clarification for Tim. Everything in the motion is specifically what you asked for direction for. Is that correct? This is just telling you what you wanted us to give direction on. Honorable mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Lee, that is correct. Okay. I support giving you the direction to do that. All righty. Roll call. Mr. Cunningham. Hi. Mr. D. Hi, Mrs. Lee. Hi, Miss Barakas. I Schubert. Hi, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Hi,

Mayor Romero. I motion passes. Uh 70. All righty. We're going to keep Andy maybe and Sam here. We're going to move on to item nine. Let's see. Let's see. Item nine. Time has been set aside for an update on activities of the PAG regional council and the RTA board on the delivery of the 2006 RTA program and RTA next plan. Mr. Manager. Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Uh, Director Credio looks like he's gotten up to speed during this study session. So, I will turn it over to Director CIO.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, and good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of the council. First, I do want to say thank you for the warm welcome back. Um, the parental leave benefit we provide our employees is a tremendous benefit to our employees and I thank you for your support and u very blessed to have the time with my family. So, thank you very much. Lastly, just a huge shout out to our team at DTM who really carried the water for these last several weeks and months uh on some very big rocks that we had for an organization. So, they did a tremendous job and my thanks to them. Uh this item is our continued discussion and direction on items related to RTA. It is going to be a rather quick update. I know that you've had a more robust update while I was out on the projects. We did provide uh a schedule on this on the material for this item. Um but more specifically, I want to talk about two things today. One is some of the pre-authorization dialogue that uh Deputy Director Beimis mentioned in his remarks on the last item. There was a letter from the city manager sent to the RTA uh asking for pre-authorization on uh several fronts. I do want to just report back on a few of those. So you have that uh information. The first is on First Avenue Grant to River. That is a 2006 RTA project. Um we are moving forward with a 30% milestone on that project and um do expect to establish a new or amended IGA as that progresses into final design. We did receive pre-authorization to keep moving on the Stone Avenue BRT project, also known as high-capacity transit, RTA number 46. Uh, also moving forward uh with pre-authorization on the street car operations. As you know, there's $2 million annually in the plan for street car operations, and because sales tax collection began on April 1st, we want to capture some of that uh revenue April 1st to June 30th. Um there are also um transit operations which uh on the previous item we talked a lot about and we did receive some direction on that. So we will be working very closely with the RTA on the um current IGAS um and also moving forward with the future IGAs

and how that affects the transit allocation um in the RTA plan. Also uh we do have a safety and security action plan. Now we have a funding source for safety and security regionwide. So again, working with the RTA and the various stakeholders on being able to uh allocate and implement those funds. Um and then uh almost done here, there are two Drexel Road projects, uh Drexel Road project 8 and 9. We did receive pre-authorization to move those projects forward. And then lastly, which really comes to the crux of what we're asking for today, is we received pre-authorization to move forward on the funding allocation for pavement rehabilitation for arterial and collector roads. That was a major win for our community in this plan and uh but we uh we do need some direction from you all because um we do have to allocate those funds or program those funds rather and what we'd like to suggest is that we utilize some of our existing oversight bodies to help us with the programming of those funds. First off, we're asking that the complete streets coordinating council help us program the RTA um next safety, ADA, and active transportation element projects. Um they're already doing a wonderful job and helping us oversee uh not only Prop 407, but also the Prop 411 safety funds that are allocated uh in that plan. And then lastly, we're looking for the Independent Oversight and Accountability Commission to program the recommendations for the specific uh pavement rehabilitation element. Again, this group has been doing a wonderful job helping guide us actually all the way back in Prop 409, if you can remember. This group has been working to um help us oversee the expenditure of those funds and we really believe they are uh suited best suited to help us um define the projects that would be allocated for that pavement rehabilitation uh element and we are ready to um get after it really quickly. In fact, there's a meeting tonight of the IOAC and so we'd love to return to them with some good news. Uh with that,

mayor, uh that concludes our remarks and happy to answer any questions as long as you tell the tell the IOC that we have to put Silver Bell on that list. No, W three gets finest priority. Come here. Um no, people were coming with 418 419. People were coming up to me and saying, "Will this finally take care of silver bail road?" Um anyway, but we do have a really good opportunity to combine some of this uh pavement um preservation or what's the actual language that we use Sam? Payment rehabilitation rehabilitation with

pavement rehabilitation for arterial and collector roads. Yeah. with 411 with 411 um bike ped improvements and um making sure that we have also layer the ADA improvements that we have to do. So we have good opportunities to really take a look at the projects that we have in front of us and then and use some of the RTA next funds. Um so do you need a motion? All righty. So um may I have a motion? There's a motion seconded. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item hearing? None. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. All righty. Easy peasy. Thank you so much. That was easy. Great. Okay. We are going to go back to item six. And let me know, by the way, if you all need a little bit of break. Uh, we're just going to I'm just going to continue moving on. Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Sam. Welcome back. All righty. So, item six. You see photos soon, Sam? Yeah.

All righty. I have requested that uh this item for mayor and council to receive an update and presentation on the efforts to support the UN unsheltered homelessness work that the city of Tucson is doing. Mr. Manager, honorable mayor, members of the council, joining us here at the table is our community safety program director, Brandy Champion, and um who's been doing a fantastic job in this space and as as you've done in your previous roles. So, we really appreciate you stepping into kind of the full umbrella of all of this work and we look forward to your update, including we have a guest speaker today. So,

we will we will turn it over to you. Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council. It's my pleasure to give you an update today. So, the safe city initiative as it relates to community safety, health and wellness, and housing first continues to uh focus on collaborative outreach and engagement, um shelter access for folks, housing stabilization and behavioral health and treatment connections by combining um resource and services, some environmental cleanups, sometimes enforcement when needed. Right. um and targeting our high impact areas. These efforts also focus on connecting people to pathways to get off the street and into stability. All of the different programs that we do, our regional collaboration is growing. Um as you know, we're focusing on uh working a lot with our county partners, a lot of our nonprofit uh partners, and we have a really strong collaboration with Tucson Puma Collaboration and Homelessness. and I'd like to have Cat Davis come up to the podium um and introduce herself and give you an update on TPCH actions.

Hi, good afternoon. Um thank you so much for having me today uh honorable mayor and council. Um so I have some really exciting updates for you today. First of all, just this morning the data summary from the 2026 PIT count was released for public review. Um this count was conducted in shelters on the night of January 27th and um the street count and youth count were completed on January 28th. Um before we get into the data, I just want to thank the nearly 400 volunteers who made this possible. Um since 2022, overall homelessness has remained relatively flat and this trend continues into 2026. Um this year 2,130 people were counted in 1785 total households. Um this is a 4% decrease from the 2025 total numbers. Um but these small year-to-year variations are to be expected with the point in time count as it is more of an estimate than a complete census. Um so future years will help us determine whether this is really um a sustained trend. Um the same night the point in time count is completed, the housing inventory account also occurs. This is a count of all available beds and not only um the emergency shelters but also transitional housing, safe havens and permanent housing across our community. Um the housing inventory count reflected a loss of nearly 200 emergency shelter beds this year. This reduction is largely due to two major causes. Um, one is a reduction in funding from the Arizona Department of Housing that had previously funded 117 shelter beds through um, hotel vouchers. Um, the other is um some beds that are temporarily unavailable due to shelter renovations and they should come back into service later this year. Um because of the changes in bed availability, the point in time count

does reflect a decrease in those uh counted in shelters for the first time since 2022. Um however, in 2026, 861 individuals were counted in shelter and the housing inventory count reflects 881 uh available emergency uh shelter beds in our community. So, this indicates an incredibly high shelter utilization rate. Um, we're pleased to see there weren't any significant increases in the point in time count, but we still face many challenges as state and federal funding um, decreases and priorities shift. Um, second, I want to share some information on a recent rental assistant program that TPCH coordinated. Um, we were awarded $185,000 by the Commission on Equitable Housing and Development as directed by mayor and councel. Um, this fund uh funded a rental assistance program that was quickly distributed to the community in partnership with the community investment corporation. Um, so the program began on March 19th and the funding was depleted by April 7th. Uh, this reflects an average of $9,000 distributed per day. 97 households received funding averaging $1,855 per household. This average aligns with other um rental assistance programs TPCH has coordinated in 2023 and 24. The average monthly income of all applicants was just over $1,100 per month. Um though many uh people reported no monthly income at all. Um on the application, we also asked how quickly a household would become homeless if they did not receive funding. Um and the average length of time was reported to be 4.4 weeks. Uh while this funding is potentially life-changing for those 97 families, the incredibly fast distribution of this funding reflects the deep need in our

community for additional homelessness prevention funding. Um our homeless response system is only able to serve 30% of people who request services each year. Um and so homeless prevention also um provides relief to a system that is extremely overburdened. Um lastly, in 2025, mayor, council, the board of supervisors, and the community all requested more accurate shelter bed availability um and uh public information. So, this uh was incorporated into the TPCH strategic plan and our executive coalition began co-creating a better system. I'm excited to announce that the new shelter dashboard will be going live later today. This effort wouldn't be possible without the Puma County GIS team and um University of Arizona's Southwest Institute for Research on Women who diligently collected and visualized the shelter information. Um this dashboard will include the mapped shelter locations, bed availability, and quick filters for shelters that have any sobriety requirements or accept pets. Um once you click on a specific shelter, additional information will pop up um about um how to access beds and other details. Um this will be updated multiple times a day. Um and it will also tell you on the shelter card when the last update occurred. Um in addition to shelters, um the Pimac County Libraries and Transition Center, the Southern Arizona VA, and the Sunran bus lines will also be shown on this map. Um, it'll also connect to the Puma County Health Department's cooling center map. And so, as those cooling centers come online this summer, that data will also appear on the shelter dashboard. Our hope is that this um will not only provide better information to our community, but also to the navigators, outreach workers, and shelter staff that are working within the homeless response

system. So, for the next month, we'll be piloting and training folks how to use this uh new tool, and we'll continue to make iterative improvements. So, thank you so much for all your time today. I'll pass it back to Brandy. Thank you, Cat. Honorable mayor, members of the council, I'd like to invite uh Tesa Tolman next, chief executive officer of Primava Foundation. We've hit a six-month milestone on Star Village, and she'll be giving us an update.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor and council, and a special thank you to Council Member Dah and Vice Mayor um Santa Cruz for all of their assistance with Star Village. Um so, we're going to talk today a bit about the six-month update. Um in general, we feel it it's a huge success. It's definitely met a need that there was a gap. um it's being met, but of course we're also revealing all sorts of other things that we know that this is just one additional intervention and um it reveals other interventions that might need to take place. Um next slide. So um for some of you who may not have visited Star Village yet, I just wanted to give you a basic view of the land and um there's a lower portion and upper portion tell you what's involved and um also uh what sorts of supplies and services are available to the women. So the capacity is 25. Um we remain at capacity. Um very seldom do we go under capacity but it fluctuates between 23 and 25 individuals. Um we have kept one tent as an overflow tent in the event that some emergency happens and absolutely someone um should be housed within the village. So the lower level the box car container is where the intakes take place. Um our staff goes in there um they do all of the interviewing the paperwork and then um the individuals are oriented if they're going to stay the night. Um there are rules that are uh up front in the beginning at the lower level intake lot. Um there are a couple of uh porttot um as soon as you walk into the lower level. There's also three mobile shelters. That's the lower middle photo. There is an ADA accessible shower and that's on your right hand side. um

immediately we are able to distribute water um distribute snacks supplies um and get folks ready uh for going up to the upper level which is the next slide. So there are a couple slides here that show you what's going on in the upper level. Um so we have three tents like large military tents. Um we have the porto potties for the residents. We have another box car container. Um and then we have the individual tents. So um in the upper leftand corner you're looking at the dining center which also serves as the programming tent. So any services that come on site to starve village um they're able to meet with the participants in the dining hall. Um they have their own refrigerator with a bunch of notices of various um programs and services that they can receive. They have a library there. They have a microwave. they have water. Um, and in in some cases, people just, uh, sit there and, um, uh, just share conversation. There's also games, um, and things that can keep, uh, the residents busy as well if they're not, um, receiving income or receiving services at the time. Um, it is airond conditioned and heated um, during the seasons where it needs it. On the lower left hand corner is a picture of the donation tent. Um this is going to be turned into an additional respbit tent as the hot weather has already started here in Tucson. Um in the middle lower are the uh porto potties. We also have an additional one that staff utilizes 247. Um on the right hand side that is the respbit tent. So there are 10 cs in that facility. Um it's simply CS and an air conditioner. Um so that's what the

donation tent on the lower left is going to turn into very soon. They're getting it ready and moving the donations out now to accommodate for that upper right hand hand upper right hand side is a photograph of the 25 tents. Next slide. Um on the upper level we also have a dog run. There are currently seven dogs um that serve as companions to our residents who are staying with the residents in their tents. Um we do have a couple of rest areas and we just put up another umbrella when I was at the village a couple days ago um due to some donations that we're receiving now for water rest shade campaign that we have going on. So the women can sit under the shade um and they can relax out of the sun. There's directions um restrictions are posted in two places on the upper deck for residents um to be reminded of the rules and regulations. We started a program. I spoke to a church and there was a church member that came up to me and said, "I'd love to start a garden program in the village." So that's um one of the the garden bins on the upper leftand corner. Um on the upper right hand corner is another box card that serves um for case management to meet with the residents and also for Primma Vera staff um to attend to whatever needs the residents may have. Um they also can receive supplies up there and there's another refrigerator and another microwave as well. Um the dining center on the last slide also serves as a house meeting place. So every week um the women have house meetings and they vocalize what it is they may need or what adjustments might need to be made depending upon their individual needs or um assistance they

may have moving forward to getting permanent housing. Um and also to you know make it more convenient for like job looking for jobs. So internet was one of those um requests and we were able to get internet for the individuals. Um there's the pet run with pet run uh restrictions and rules. Next slide. And these are some of the individual resident tents. Um, so as you can see, everybody's um stylizing their tents, putting their names on them, u little genderos, uh, little decorations um, for the tents. Next slide. So, it's been an iter iterative process. We've certainly um, had to make adjustments depending upon weather um, depending upon the needs of the residents and tents and electricity have been too. um the city and and thank you to um city manager's office in particular Liz Morales who's been a wonderful uh person that we've been able to obtain some more electricity as the needs has have increased. U we were experiencing blackouts in the beginning. We no longer have those issues. We went from little blue dome tents because we thought that would be the most climate uh friendly um during our warm months, but we've actually found that no, the residents are like, "We'd like to stand up and put on our clothes." Um so we through donations we um changed the tents out to now standing tents and um the women are much more comfortable, able to stand and get ready for their jobs or programs or services to go out for the day. Next slide. So I did a little chart of kind of how we look at who's been at STAR. Um so there have been 82 residents who have received intakes. Now there are some

individuals who may have taken an intake, went up to the upper level, said this is not for me and may have left. Um but we count them because they did receive services. So when they came in and had an intake, they may have received water, they may have given referrals, they may have gotten snacks, blankets, you know, whatever that might have been. So about half of the residents, this is a a beautiful statistic that I think is so important for us to know is that about half of the residents are the originals. So either they've been there from the very beginning or they've left and come back for one reason or another. And then in the people who have left, which is about half of the residents are always rotating, um there are various places that they all have gone to. So about 25% of that 50% are getting some sort of housing, whether it's temporary shelter, which we actually believe going from the safe outdoor sleeping space to a temporary shelter, is actually a step forward. um because this is a gap for some who may have been on the streets, you know, upwards of 10 years. Um so there are a lot of adjustments being made. So what that also signals to us about the originals that 50% is that they've been there since October or November. They have needed six months to transition and they still have not transitioned. They all have a pathway to permanent housing. That's not the problem. There are other things that are standing in the way as barriers for them. Obtaining identification. It takes up to three months to obtain your birth certificate. Um identification um things that you know maybe there was an eviction previously on the record. It takes a while to clear those things up.

Um get the money in order in order to be able to be housed moving forward. Next slide. And I do have to account my staff for all these beautiful posters and colors and um how they really make it feel like home for the one up for the residents.

There we go. So like I said, 82 residents have been served. um about 50 50% or a little bit more um are still there and have been there or returned. Um there have been a couple of residents who've returned because um it was temporary shelter was too much for them and they needed to come back and make some more adjustments before they're ready to move on with um housing stability. About 21 residents a month participate in work. Um a number of the residents also participate in the homeless work program. uh which is with OPCS. Um they also participate in the cleanups that happen um with the community and with um council member Dah with some of the primma vera staff with OPCS and all residents have a pathway to permanent housing. Next slide. So the services they have case management on site, they have supportive services on site, medical services on site provided by by El Rio. They have access to medication, access to referrals. Um you know we come to the table with 44 years of experience working in community and working with individuals who are in the unhoused community and the shelter community and safe and affordable housing community. So over those years we have expansive uh referrals and uh various organizations that we work with. Um I have to say that this is has to be the most collaborative project that we've ever worked on. People are coming from everywhere wanting to participate in this very novel way and they've taken ownership of it. Um weekly resident meetings or resident advisory council. Um the community food bank by and large uh provides most of the meals. Um and there's also well-being on the site, gardening, uh weekly work program and

empowerment programs. Most recently, the University of Arizona um women gender studies um has been interested in coming out and being involved with empowerment programs for the women, which I believe is going to make all the difference. All of these pictures are postings. One is the library. There are notices regarding all the services that are going to be on site and available. Um we have married this with our outreach, our mobile outreach team and our transportation services. OPCS also has their transportation services involved. So everything doesn't have to happen on site. However, we do believe in the you know helping people where they are, meeting people uh where they are model. We do um provide transportation for folks to go elsewhere. Um and so that's what all these other notices are about. Next slide. Volunteers. So you know while Primma Vera has it um has the village staff 247 um OPCS does case management during a portion of the day um uh during the week. We additionally have 333 total hours by volunteers. 156 total hours in meals teams. So those are folks who either donating the meals or coming in and serving the meals for the women. Of course, we have all these beautiful items. I've there's two churches that provide um in our women's shelter and now Star village with handmade quilts and um I had the pleasure of speaking to one huge there like hundreds of women that make these gorgeous quilts and they bring them and uh really make it special for the women um building community within Star Village. Next slide. So, these are some of our residents and I can I don't know how much time I have left and I don't know if we have time for this but no time. Okay. Anyway, uh

three of the five women um have been placed in permanent housing. Um there are two the bottom right and the middle. They're both waiting on housing, but they they're it's the identification on both of them that's that's holding things up, but they do have a pathway towards permanent housing. Um, and that's Snoopy in the upper left. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our update.

Well, I just want to thank you, Brandy, and Cat and uh Tisha for the incredible work. I uh Prima Vera has really stepped up and and worked in collaboration with O PBLO community services as partners. Appreciate the incredible work that you're doing. I just want to um report to my uh colleagues. If you haven't been to Star Village, I would highly recommend that you attend that you see the work that they do. when I went uh one of the residents told me that she had voted for me and was super super savvy about politics. So we had a you know polit political conversation but um we also have the um the interest of the governor governor Hobb's uh staff tour star village on Friday April 17th my office um was represented in the tour and um really happy that she's showing interest and and offering support for writing letters of support for for federal or nonprofit grants. So, she is a fan of Star Village. Happy that we have this uh here as a as a city as a service. Also, um we had safe city connect sessions which I attended one at the Donna Ligan Center and basically there were three in-person sessions, one virtual session um many concerns and questions revolving around public facing dash dashboards for crime treatment availability and prosecution rates. Um people were also

asking about long-term um and low barrier housing, continuum of treatment. There was a lot of questions in terms of treatment uh transit safety. Many of the people wanted to make sure that they participated, right? They wanted to participate in their neighborhoods involvement uh with the city of Tucson. There's going to be a safe city deployment on Wednesday, April 29th at 8:00 a.m. This deployment will focus in the east side in W 2 and we're we we will be addressing public safety concerns while providing outreach and environmental remediation. Um just wanted to share that with you all. um because it it was um just incredible for me to go to Star Village, experience the work that's happening there, attend the safe city connect sessions and attend a safe city deployment where we had uh video alternative to jail. We had nonprofit partners there. Our um TPD partners are incredible and again safe city deployments are to connect people to the resources that they need and at the end of the day this is not to incarcerate but to connect people. I'm really impressed Brandy with the percentages of acceptance of people um accepting resources. I I believe before we had about a 10% acceptance rate. Now the acceptance rate for services is 58.6 almost 60% of the individuals that participate in safe city deployments accept services to whatever it is right

either housing intake detox services shelter placement um or medically assisted treatment. So, thank you so much. Five tons of debris removed. That's incredible work. Um I do hear from many business owners, many residents that they can see tangible result with our safe city deployments and um really appreciate the work being done. I just want to open it up for um the colleagues, see if you have any other questions, comments, concerns at all. Council member Dah and then Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Star Village is a huge success and it wasn't just um your efforts, Mayor and the Vice Mayor, and and my support, but all of the wards contributed to that and will continue to contribute it under the current budget proposal. Um it's changing lives. Um, and a shout out to to I have a staff member who on her own time volunteers there once a week and so I'm getting some really good in in direct reports and um it does not did not have we haven't had a single complaint from neighbors since it's been operating. There was concerns that it would bring in more homeless and it hasn't. It has taken the most vulnerable from that area and elsewhere in the city and brought them into service. So, um, let's all pat ourselves on the back.

As a matter of fact, um, according to TPD, uh, one mile radius in the area has seen a reduction in crime by 34%. So, this pilot program is really teaching us a lot. And I love the um that we are changing, you know, and and and and pivoting wherever we need to pivot to make sure that we're providing the right services. Vice Mayor, and if there's any others, Council Member Vahas, I also just wanted to take a moment to thank staff for other work. Um so thank you Brandy and your team um and Prima and OPCS um for this partnership where we can um really help um meet this gap. I am interested in how we help support with the birth certificates and the IDs if there's any way that um uh like you're y you'all are probably already working with the homeless ID project but yeah what other resources do we need to bring in so folks aren't having to wait so long um for that. So, thank you for highlighting that. So, I um we talked a little bit about um the 24/7 um staffing that's there and how the the space is controlled. Um I heard a rumor going around the city that we've been having a lot of calls for service there. And so, I don't know if you could speak to um um if you could speak to that um because we want to, you know, make sure folks know that it's a safe space for women to be. Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, we I'm not directly aware of any calls for service. I know that um ACM Morales got some information from TPD about the reduction in crime. Um I do know that uh Prima Vera has been a good uh tenant and neighbor there checking the area, sending their outreach teams to the area just as as well as we do for our our cityrun shelter. So um very important

and I know that they're doing that work. um we can see it in your area when we're there. So, I think um Liz could probably answer that. Uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, Santa Cruz, we have the list of uh calls for service um and I'm happy to share that with with the council. Can you tell us what those calls are related to?

Yes. the and I sorry I don't have them readily available but any calls that we've had some of them were mental uh behavioral health but very few um medical related and some calls for service at Primava themselves instituted but I would not categorize them as a high level of calls for service at Star Village and we knew there would be calls for service but they're related to staff calling for support and assistance. Yeah. Well, thank you. I just wanted to make sure we clarified that for the public.

Yes. Thank you. So for for medical services or mental needs, mental behavioral health needs. Okay. All righty. Any others? Council member Lakas. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Brandy and team, for that awesome presentation. Moving forward, um can you share a little bit about what other wraparound services the city should have on our radar besides, you know, the identification or the eviction um prevention type stuff? like what what else do the women need to get them um out back in the community?

Honorable mayor, Council Member Baras, I believe that life skills is a big thing. Life skills, um job readiness skills. people are um have are coming from a place of crisis, right, that are experiencing homelessness and they're not um adept in how do I ren myself back into um society to the work life um or um connecting with benefits that they might need. Right? So, um, something that's been, I think, largely defunded is Soar, which is, um, the access to social security and, um, disability benefits. Um, that's a big thing for people. Um, having to navigate those systems is just really tough for people and those type of wraparound services, case management services, which we are doing um, in community safety and housing first. um we just not are we're just not scaled and most of our nonprofits provide those and that's why we want to connect with our nonprofit partners like Prima Vera Community Bridges um things of that nature

Bradley I thought that Puma County offers those services don't they offer that for at the Jackson Sullivan Employment Center for the unsheltered honorable mayor yes they do um Sullivan Jackson does have uh that and Puma County one stop of course has um job readiness and things like that. That's why it's important to have a really good um suitcase of resources for case managers. Do they come to the site though? Do they come to Star Village? Um I'm not sure. Maybe Tisha. Oh, she left. Okay. So, I can get that answer for you. And and

I mean it would be wonderful for Puma County to continue partnering with us on pilot projects like this one. I know that Jackson Sullivan um employment center uh works very specifically. They and I'm not sure if they receive federal funds to work with unsheltered. Um but I wonder if they travel, right? Um if they go to where the need is. I want I wonder if we if we should ask

and mayor uh certainly we want to make those connections. I think OPO community services could also um because they're providing the daytime case management wraparound services what they're doing is they're developing case management plans and connecting them to the needed services. So we can confirm that they have that partnership with the county but I I I have a lot of confidence that they're making those connections. I was going to ask that if what the gaps were um because Tisha did

say that um she did say that there are gaps that they want to fill and as we learn right this is a pilot that's what pilots do they teach us new things and um we need to pivot when we do uh so that we can provide those services onsite to help to help transition the individuals to wherever they um wherever we can connect them to much more um permanent housing options because that was the whole idea of Star Village to connect them temporarily while we prepare them to go into more um permanent housing. So, thank you so much for your uh presentation. Great job. Thank you for everything you do. Excellent work. We are going to move on to item seven. Uh time has been set aside for a quarterly report on the implementation and progress of Tucson Resilient Together. Mr. Manager,

thank you honorable mayor and members of the council. Joining me here at the table will be our chief resilience officer, Fatima Maluna, and our energy manager, Michael Kotzaro. They'll be handling items seven and 8 as a team. Um and it is time for our quarterly update on the um actions under our climate action and adaptation plan. Tucson resilient together. And uh we are always happy to provide this update and and very proud of the leadership that you provide and the investment that you provide for us to actually literally move the needles on our objectives here. So with that, I turn it over to Fatima. Before Fatima starts, I just wanted to acknowledge and congratulate that the city of Tucson received a Arizona Forward Chris Cordia award in recognition for our tree center program which is in partnership with environmental services um and Tucson Clean and Beautiful. Congratulations. just really appreciate all of the incredible work that's being done on um building you know urban forestry workforce development and using uh the principles of a circular economy. So uh we are leading as always uh not just in the state but nationally when it comes to climate work. So congratulations on receiving the Arizona Forward. I always like it when we receive the Arizona Forward Chris Cordia Award and Phoenix is also nominated uh for something. So, we usually tend to win. Um anyway, great work. Thank you and congratulations.

Thank you, honorable mayor, members of the council. So, this is the third quarterly update for this fiscal year on the implementation of uh Tucson Resilient Together. And so I have uh five categories uh with updates. The first one was clim uh climate leadership. So I was going to mention the Chris Goran award and um it really goes to show that the work that both like the mayor's vision through like Tucson militant trace initiative and also like the strong work that the urban forestry program manager Nicole Gileled environmental services and our partners at Tucson Clean and Beautiful have been doing um to bring these uh project to life. And so just as a a side note, so the tree center located at the Los Riales Sustainability Campus has the capacity to grow out 7,000 trees each year. So uh it is also a learning space for youth and volunteers. Uh it supports the circular economy concept that the mayor mentioned turning our greenways to mulch to um compost and then trees that you the the trees that you see across the Tucson community. So, it's a welldeserved um recognition for the city of Tucson and the and the team working on this. Um in terms of in the energy space, uh we focus on supporting the final phase of engagement for the ECA. Um and so you all adopted that LA um early this month. It seems like a long time ago, but it was early this month. Yes. So, our next step is to develop the implementation strategy and making sure that um um you know the strategy. so that we guide how these potential investments can deliver the results that the community is looking for. Um u for heat resilience, we hosted our third annual Southern Arizona heat summit early this year. So particip participation has grown from about 140 uh participants the first year to 240

this year. And so it has significantly increased in just three years. Um this year we had strong support and new partnerships with the uh Arizona Community Foundation supporting youth um participation and also youth project um implement youth le heat resilience project implementation. And so we're looking forward to that. And we actually received an email from a credit union wanting to be a sponsor for next year. So it's it's gaining momentum. So we're very happy about that. Um this uh year we also launched our heat awareness efforts earlier as you saw like we had a record um the earliest ever 100 degree day uh in March. And so our efforts were launched early in partnership with the Red Cross uh the Pima County Health Department. Um and so through the Red Cross heatwalks we are reaching residents directly into their homes. So, we're focusing on vulnerable uh communities and so far there have been six heatwalks uh visiting over 900 homes. Um so, it's really impactful. Uh we have volunteers from across the board and the Red Cross uh is a wonderful partner in this effort. Um we also have a full schedule of heat events um including Loia Nights, heat assembly event, distribution events. So, overall we have about 30 schedule. So, if you want to participate in any of them, you're welcome to do so. Um, I just want to give a shout out to Karina Martinez, uh, who is here in the audience from my team and also Telmaanes because they wrote a grant for the Puma, uh, for, uh, Pima County and received it and that's how we're able to have the heat relief supplies that we need uh, to spend our work this summer. So, um, very grateful for that work. Um, in terms of community engagement, we continue to show up at events across the community.

We share information about the city programs. Uh, and also these help us to continue uh, strengthen our relationships and partnerships across the community. Um, I do want to mention one of our partnerships with the Arizona Community Foundation. Um as part of this work the uh the city's heat work and also our partners at Tucson Clean and Beautiful um was featured in a short documentary that is called Raising Together and Belonging Beyond Borders. And so this documentary really highlights the climate work that is happening across the state and the intention is to basically position our region uh for investments from philanthropy. So really bringing attention that um Arizona is ready to receive these funds. Um and so yeah, we look forward to uh hosting a screening here in Tucson. So I'll keep you posted on that. Uh for naturebased solutions, uh our urban forestry program continues to implement the Grow Tucson grant. We will have a full update on nature-based solutions the next in our next uh the next time we share an update. So I'll let Nicole share those um updates with you all. So looking ahead as we move to the next quarter, um we are fully focused on our heat response efforts on the ground. Uh we're also continue to advance the donor leggings uh resilient hub and developing the emergency protocols needed to support it. Um we're also going to continue working with you to implement the uh heat resilient projects that we committed to. Um, and we're also going to be preparing our annual report that it's now going to be on a fiscal year cycle. Um, so a little bit of change there, but um, it works so that we're aligned with the city in all departments. Um, and so lastly, I also just want to take this opportunity to recognize my team again, Karina Martinez and Nicole Gillette. They are um they

would be receiving the Draman impact award from the um um University of Arizona at the end of this month. Um and that showcas their partnership with the UOVA in providing opportunities uh hands-on opportunities for student students to uh learn um about the work that the city is doing and also provide really like practical projects. So they're being recognized and I just wanted to share that um you know it's welld deserved. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Any questions or comments for Fatima on this report? I also wanted to thank TMA Magayanes, Karina, Nicole, yourself, um, and then our our nonprofit partners, uh, the Red Cross and others that are helping us with the heatwalks. They're so important. And uh we are really seeing Pima County I believe Pima County Health Department is also a really great partner um with our uh heatwalks and it's just to give information and um resources to the community um to make them aware of heat and how heat can kill. I know that our uh heat related deaths went down for two years in a row. Not sure if we're doing that great this year, but um I know that we we it really made a difference. So, thank you for that important work as well. So, if there's no questions or comments on this update, then we can move on to item eight. Let me read it into the record. Item eight. Time has been set aside at the request of Council Member Cunningham to discuss the Tucson Renewable Energy Enterprise. Council Member Cunningham. Um, thank you, Honorable Mayor, members of the council. So, this item is a discussion of of the Tucson Renewable Energy Enterprise or TRE, uh, which is brought forward by council member Cottingham. Um and so Michael and I will tag team these items. So very high level at its core, uh tree introduces the idea of neighborhood scale solar pair with shared battery storage. And so instead

of one home um installing solar panels on its own, you could have a cluster of homes, coordinated solar installations, and a shared battery system that reduces peak demand and can provide limited backup power. Uh so this motor remains connected to the existing grid. Um it does not replace it. Uh and also adds a layer of local generation and resilience. Um so over time these type of systems could also connect to broader approaches like uh virtual power plants. Uh so providing like benefits for at the grid level um and also serving local communities. Um so right now we know that access to uh uh rooftop solar it's an event so high upfront costs financial challenges various for renters and multi family housing means that adoption usually tends to uh favor higher income households while um benefits are needed u most elsewhere. So the proposal outlines a municipal financing approach uh where the city helps facilitate uh access to lower cost uh financing similar to a green bank or improvement district model. Um so staff evaluated the concept and identified three potential pathways forward. Um so each with different levels of complexity and risk and I'll let my

Can I introduce the item? Yes, sure. It's just but great job. It was awesome. Um, so the idea started because we had this discussion about public power throughout the city

and my number one piece was the rateayers. We uh faced a number of different rate cases throughout the last decade and the cost of people's utilities specifically electricity had gone up. Uh one of the things that we found is that the incentives that uh used to exist both federal and state have been revoked and there are less and less opportunities for people to purchase solar. So uh I asked my my question was okay what alternatives were there? And originally I was in the pie in the sky idea that we could just build a bunch of off-grid neighborhoods. And I still don't quit on that by the way. like that could happen in the next 20 years depending on technological advancements with um um uh green green hydrogen batteries with with augmented solar panels. I mean there's all these different things that can happen. But what we do know is if a group of neighbors could purchase all of their solar panels at once and receive some type of favorable financing, then the cost to do it uh is decreased. The cost per kilowatt hour they can produce is decreased. Also, if they can pull their resources and purchase batteries within their system, they can sell their excess power at different times of the year when the prices are higher and take advantage of a program called VPP or virtual power plant in which you uh because you have stored battery space on your property, you have a better opportunity in recouping your costs. You cannot do those things without capital. You can't do those things without being collateral collateralized to get loans to do it. So this idea evolved into the idea that we could facilitate that for different groups of neighbors.

Different clusters of neighbors, no matter where they were, could form either a municipal improvement district or they could self- finance. They could do it through their HOA. And we would help them do that. We'd also help maintain and monitor that system through a third party like technicians of sustainability or something like that. So that's kind of the that's the impetus of tree which she covered. She kind of went through that and they're going to tell you your options now. Thank you so much.

Great. Um I I think you did a nice job laying it out. Staff kind of identified three potential pathways forward. The first is sort of a green bank model where we take and we provide um some financing uh for systems but this would be sort of on an individual uh meter approach. The other option the second option we identified was sort of a coordinated systems on city controlled sites where we have land that we own contiguously with multiple pieces of property with individual housing units. We could build a demo at a site like that. that could be feasibly possible. And then the third I think we've talked about before would be sort of going with a full-blown municipal utility option. Um, and so those are the three basic outlines in terms of how this could move forward in the current regulatory environment. So with that, I'd open it up to questions. One of the things about the forming municipal utility, we risk violating the ECA and the UC agreement. However, the franchise agreement expires that then it becomes a it may become a relevant discussion. For now, it's not a relevant discussion. So for me, I'd like to move that we create a position either within uh Tucson Water or Environmental Services uh because that it's within a they're both basically acting utilities uh that would work uh in conjunction with their with this team and they would facilitate a pilot and try to facilitate the first neighborhood that could potentially be the first tree neighborhood. And that's that's it. That's that's the motion. That's that's what we want to do. We want to establish the Troy program, but establish it as a pilot.

I'll second that.

All righty. So, there's a motion in a second, and I appreciate it, Council Member Cunningham, for bringing this forward. Um, I think that, um, the Tucson Renewable Energy Enterprise race is an important conversation that we are hearing more and more from our residents that they want to be able to have access to renewable energy, affordability, and and uh, resiliency in um, basically in a world that the climate is changing in. At a high level, I think this proposal reflects a real interest from the community um in being more directly engaged in the energy transition. Um the idea of working at a neighborhood scale I think is important that we do. I think and I'm going to um request that you think about the idea of withdrawing your motion only because of this. I I think that we are really putting together real concepts including the ECA. Uh we're sending a lot of work over to the Commission on Energy and Sustainability. We have an amazing team right now uh led by uh Fatima Luna, our chief resilience officer and I think that we have to put an implementation plan if the ECA and the franchise agreement are approved by voters. we're going to have a lot of work to do and I would like to make sure that we have this particular program, the tree program as part of the work and the implementation plan that both our team and the commission on energy and sustainability are going to work on. Um, and to be able to put a

strategy together and a work plan together is important to know how to divide the work amongst the people that we have right now. Will we need a new employee? I think we will. Um, but I think we're putting the cart before the horse right now. Um, so I I don't know if I'm speaking out of out of turn. Mr. Manager, what what are you thinking? Uh, thank you, Mayor, members of the council, Council Member Cunningham. Um, I I am sensitive to what you're saying about the potential transition into the ECA and the franchise agreement and how this relates to that or or doesn't. And we I think it was clear from you, we don't want to conflict with that. Um, I do have a uh project manager in the city manager's office that could certainly be tasked with um setting up a pilot and putting some framework around this. Um, I I like you, I'm a bit reluctant to add a position at this point in the in the year, but I do have um some folks that this could be a major assignment of them, even maybe their primary assignment. Um, if that would be an acceptable outcome, and that would put us on the path of getting to go right away with exploring the ideas. Um, and it's actually not even somebody at this table, so don't worry, Fatima, I'm not adding to your list. Um, it'd be Stephen Addison is one of the project managers in my office that I think could actually take this and advance it.

I will my I will amend my motion to add the kickstarting of the tree program to Stephen Atakin's tasks and or whoever is in his position from here on. And that's my amendment. I accept the amendment. Okay. Thank you so much for reconsidering that because I think that we have a incredibly prepared um team right now and um lots of work that we need to do to prepare for hopefully, you know, the approval of a of a franchise agreement and an active ECA. Um Council Member Do.

Thank you, Mayor. Um with that adjustment, I'm going to support this. Um, it occurs to me that there's an organization that maybe we could partner with on this, uh, Solar, uh, United Neighbors. It's a nonprofit based out of Phoenix, but they do a lot of work in Tucson. They set up co-ops, um, and they're skilled at creating proposals for solar and getting the cheapest um, but uh, best person to implement that. They've also taken money, I think, through the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and um taken proposals from nonp profofits and put solar on those. So, I I think they have some skills that might blend. So, I I would encourage Stephen to reach out to them. I also think that um that there's maybe a role uh for consultation with our uh commission on energy uh climate and energy because we have some skillful people who are producing pretty good reports at no cost to us. Um, so, so I would certainly think that we could bounce ideas off of that, off of them. Uh, thank you, mayor.

Thanks, Paul, for bringing it up.

Yeah. No, I I agree. Any other comments, questions, observations? I guess I I have a question about um if we can, as we're thinking about these projects, right, and we're thinking about tree, uh, how do we deal with equity? So, how do we, you know, h how do we uh think about renters versus homeowners? How do we make sure that the ma model is accessible to renters and accessible to low-income communities throughout the city? So, I I guess that's a big question I have. So, and and for me that's the biggest piece is that we can't really I don't even know if we can get this model to work in the first place until we actually facilitate one. That's kind of the pilot piece. But ultimately, whether it's um co-op owned buildings or low-income homeowners and in in low-income neighborhoods, we we could even facilitate it with a grant program within the city. So, there's a bunch of stuff we can do later. That's why but I want to get it established so that that program is available and I can't create a I can't create a a program that can be subsidized that doesn't exist yet. Right. So

well we we do have a solarization program that we partner with TFS the techni technicians for sustainability and city um that we do already. I think that's why I I I'm interested in putting all of this work including tree and a possible implementation plan for the ECA uh to have our commission on energy and sustainability think about all of these things. The other piece that I was thinking about is the um uh funding piece of it and if there's any possible partnership that we can have with the city of Tucson Industrial Development Authority. They I think they were putting into work a green bank that we encourage them to and so is that a possible partner that we can bring to the table? There's a lot of pieces that could possibly work if they're working together. Um, Mr. Lusk,

Madame Mayor, Council Member uh Cunningham, I just wanted to um introduce uh an opportunity uh to partner with a another city in Michigan that we won't name because of our prior history, but um they they are actually going asking these same questions and are dealing with the same issue. it might be helpful to to discuss with them how we might how we might how we might uh uh learn from their from their pathway as well.

So yeah, the Ann Arbor, we can say it. I mean, look, we made the final four. I'm good. I I I I already adjusted my psyche with that. um their model is kind of where we want to go, but but because we already had the ECA, we didn't really need to to go to that point on this specific program. This specific program is just set up. So, we can try to pilot one neighborhood. If we can see that, see how that works, we can probably glean quite a bit of information on how to either use use a solar grant subsidy, a solarization subsidy, whether or not we want to uh ask Solar United to facilitate the loan piece, or we want to have like the way I see this playing out, it's going to be it's not going to be one sizefits-all. It's going to be an HOA is going to want to do something very specific. A new development is going to want to do something else. A but there are old school Midtown and westside neighborhoods with homes that are 30, 40, 100 years old and having them having that mechanism for an MID and having their own mechanism is something else. And so I think they're all going to be different. In some instances there'll be there'll be premeter batteries. In some instances that we may even see a battery energy storage system which is known as a best kind of looks like a shipping container with a bunch of batteries in it and a little air conditioner on top. A a battery RV. But the bottom line is is that it's not one sizefits-all. And that's why this is kind of really more conceptual. But what it does is it lays the groundwork so that if we ever do need a public power arm or something that can compete or keep in check our municipal partners, our municipal energy

partners, it it can be there and it can serve that course too. So that's the whole idea of the concept. I think it's really good. I'm willing to start with the city manager's person and kind of delegate, but I'm pretty sure that as we get through started on the first project, it'll evolve a little bit and that's fine. All righty. Any others? Council member Schubert.

Thank you, your honor. Um, yeah, I mayor. I I appreciate the way that you're um looking to situate this conversation within our existing efforts and make sure it's folded into conversations that the CCEES is going to be having about energy delivery and our grid and and all of those related um topics. Um to be quite honest, I still don't really understand how micro grids work and tree sounds kind of like a micro grid. So, I just I guess I'm just trying to say this PowerPoint is helpful, but it feels like a very high level overview of some very complex decisions that we would have to make. I'm I'm concerned about the equity piece too, especially since we just talked earlier um about the prosperity initiative um and just thinking about like we do have groundwork and we need to like use the groundwork that we have already laid um and further complexity that you know it's not a one-sizefits-all system which is good. I think that's true, but it just means that it's complex and we need to be careful about how we're how we're proceeding because I've heard a lot about these alternative um systems like uh you know sort of city-run green uh municipal uh run utilities um being very inequitable because they're only accessible by um privileged residents who can already afford to pay into things. And I just want to make sure we don't um fall into the same pit pitfalls um and you know uh perform the same mistakes. And just thinking about how this fits in. I'm also curious about how we're going to pay for it. That's why I think it's important to think about like city of Tucson IDA and green banks and other it needs it needs we need to think it through. And um I appreciate the motion and and you bringing the program. Any other questions or comments? If not, can we clarify the motion again, please? The motion is to task the city manager's

office or the person that they designate to fold the tree program into our existing efforts uh and try to initiate at least one pilot. Okay. And the second is good. All righty. So, all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you, Council Member Cunningham. Thank you, Fatima, Michael. Thank you. Really appreciate it. I'm going to give us a little five minute break so we can stretch our legs. Uh, yes, absolutely. And then we'll be back in five minutes and continue on with the items. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Hey.

Hey, hey, hey. Heat.

Heat.

Hey, hey, hey.

All righty. So, we're moving on to item 10. And I just want to make sure that our presenters are here for item 10 and then I'll just call it because I think we're all here. So, item 10, time has been set aside for direction regarding an 8-year GPL incentive request for the proposed development of a hotel project located at 45 North 5th Avenue. Mr. manager. Thank you, mayor. And when we hear the word moxy, my mind immediately goes to Mike Chakowski, so I'm going to just pivot straight to him.

I'm glad you weren't charged.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Romero, members of the council. Thank you very much for all of that. I appreciate the uh the moxy that you do have on this council. item before you today is request for an 8-year uh property tax abatement, the GPLET program uh with Depot Plaza Hotel LLC. Uh this is the first step in the process. Uh with your direction, we'll be requesting the application fee $5,000 and a third party economic analysis and bring those results back for a future council meeting. Um just for reference, project location is the vacant lot. We're all very familiar with it. The asphalt lot above the depot plaza parking garage. immediately east of and I had put just the MLK building and then I I've been referring to it as the new MLK building but I'm getting to be the old guy now so it's no longer the new MLK building but so we all know it uh on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Tulle Avenue yes two avenues do intersect site has been identified for development as we all know for the last several decades uh Depot Plaza Hotel intends to construct a six-story 137 room Marriott branded Moxy hotel we've discussed that the Moxy brand is a new brand of Marriott hotel designed to get their visitors out onto the streets exploring all that we have in downtown Tucson. Uh under the property owner has completed the initial required consultation with my team and the attorney's office and conducted a neighborhood meeting. They have initiated the framework for the community benefits agreement with the downtown neighborhood association, the two surrounding building owners. We are attempting to connect them with the Py Allen neighborhood association hopefully and we continue those conversations so that we can finish the the outline for the community benefits agreement which will be brought to you with the economic analysis. Um and with that I'm happy to answer any questions you have. I have Brandy Haga Blackman here representing. Scott Stitler sends his regards. It is his wife's birthday today. So I guess he that takes precedent over a council

meeting. Well, I just want to make sure that I I hand it over to Council Member Schubert. I know that this is in W six, so go ahead.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Mike. This project has been a long time coming. Uh the site was actually originally earmarked for a hotel back in 2004, more than 22 years ago. So, I'm excited. Um for those who might not be aware, the settlement agreement binds us to that initial intention of having a hotel hotel development on the lot. So, I just wanted to say that. Um, in terms of community engagement, I've really appreciated how the developers are engaging intentionally with the community. Um, our staff joined one of their community meetings which was attended by neighbors. Um, and that included many residents from the MLK apartments, uh, one of our W six public housing sites serving older adults and individuals with disabilities. The residents raised questions about safety, accessibility, and public space. We've been in touch with the developer and they confirmed they're making a good faith effort to address those concerns. And as Mike mentioned, I'm also working on making sure that Py Allen is connected and um has a has a has a voice in that process. Um I also think that this hotel is going to be a great addition to our downtown area in addition to activating a space that hasn't been used at all. Uh its location will give guests proximity to our amazing local restaurants, bars, and shops. And being close to the street car line will allow people to explore beyond that immediate area. And it also helps move us move towards some of our visit Tucson goals to establish more downtown hotel rooms to draw conventions and larger groups. Um so given this background, I feel comfortable moving the project forward. Um and I would be comfortable making the motion to direct staff to proceed with the next step in the incentive approval process for the proposed project at 45 North Fifth Avenue.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I do. I I I I I've sat at this table um since December of 2007 and have seen this particular piece of property not been able to be activated. And there is a lot of wonderful things that we have seen throughout the years in our downtown. Um, and this particular piece is an important piece for the continued development and activation of our downtown, but it's also important for the types of conventions we can attract to our convention center. Um, I believe that there needs to be continuous improvement and development. uh not just in our downtown but throughout the city of Tucson, but you know, downtown is the heart of our city. It has tons of history and um it's a it's a place where we can all come together and celebrate our heritage, our our history, our culture um and all of the wonderful locallyowned restaurants in the area, especially on a transit line. So, it is um I'm really happy to see that um this space is being finally we're coming into like tangible movement on the construction and development of this site. I had the opportunity to meet with Scott Stitler and Rudy Dabdu and the entire team

just to talk about, you know, just to talk about the Jeepled and and their plans and what the Moxy uh means to that particular area. And a particular interest to me was the conversation coming from the development team about the community benefits agreement and what um they're willing to do to activate the space and build community spaces for the MLK uh apartments and and the um the rest of the area. So looking forward to, you know, the the work ahead and um it's important that we specifically note that reactivating this space and being able to grant the possible G-plit will be so much more beneficial um than that lot remaining empty. So important work, really amazing ideas um with how the Moxy will look and what it does and what it will do for um construction jobs and permanent hotel jobs to add to our local economy. So I'm glad to hear that we're moving forward with this. Any other comments or questions about this? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you so much, Mike. Really appreciate it. We move on to item 11. I have requested this item for city staff to provide an update on the Bloomberg Harvard city leadership initiative. Uh Mr. Manager, I'm just going to hand it over to you and then I'll add my commentary after the presentation.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. And um I know you will have plenty to add to this item because um you're the one that brought this um overall process to the city and and to our team. Uh here we have with us uh Diana Alicon from the city manager's office um who's one of the project managers for this and Eric Garcia from the mayor's office who's our innovation lead on this project. And we're excited to give you an update on where we at. Um you've heard us mention it, you've heard us refer to it. Now, we'll give you a little bit more insight onto where we've been over the last several months. So, with that, I'll turn it over to the team to make the presentation.

So, members, sorry, it's on. Uh, my name is Diana. Oh, keep it pressed. Keep it pressed. You are on your green. Yeah. All right. You've previously worked with me with um in my role with W 6 council office and is a pleasure to be here under my current role as project manager for the city manager's office. Um here's Eric Garcia is my innovation lead and we are excited to share the process and the update of this nine-monthlong innovation track and how we came to be here today.

Next slide please. So, uh, this is a very very exciting project because each year the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, uh, invites a cohort of 45 mayors, uh, from around the world, so not just nationally, to participate in this flagship program. And as part of this experience, uh the city team is applying re uh innovative methods here in the region to improve economic opportunity and reduce poverty. And we have a few terms that we're going to try to be kind of clear with just because they're a little jargony. So when you see uh the design creation of the aim statement, that means uh the research. Uh if you see ideiation, that's mostly brainstorming. And when you see the word prototyping which will be uh said a lot later on in this presentation it means the evaluation and testing of these ideas. Next slide please. So initially uh Marro had intended to apply for this initiative at the beginning of her first term but unfortunately due to co um some of these things got tabled and mayor decided to apply once things got settled and she applied again in January 2025. Correct me if I'm wrong, mayor, but I think that's the correct date. And Tucson became selected as one of the participating cities, which is very impressive because it is a competitive process. And the easiest way to think of this project is think of a big consultant that usually a lot of cities or counties hire to provide technical support and innovative training for a

lot of these complex urban challenges that we're going through. Uh, but they do this for free. So this is funded entirely by Bloomberg Philanthropies and this initiative also teaches all of the staff to be able to have these projects later on hands-on and to work on these uh different innovative initiatives. So we don't have to always hire those big consultants. Sorry, let me switch.

You can do it for you.

Yes, please. So, as part of this um as part of this program, uh Maromero participates on on-site projects at Harvard uh that were also some projects that uh city manager and assistant city manager have been able to attend, including our chief of staff, uh Charlene Mendoza. So, not only is it the on-site programs that we do here, but it is also executive training for our executive leaders here in the city. And the core team led by uh Diana and myself have led weekly workshops and we've had three two-day site visits as well as interactive classes. And the other 45 cities that are participating join some of these classes, too. So, we get to join in on them and kind of learn from their uh cities as well. So what you see right here up on the there we go the aim statement. Uh so basically at the beginning of our program our core team decided to workshop what we were going to make our mission uh and we led to this. So the original aim statement as you see on the board is that by 2035 we will work with partners and residents on a shared vision to reduce poverty to below the state average by expanding equitable access to economic security so that Tucson is a safe, affordable and resilient community with opportunity for all. So the reason we came up with this aim statement is because when Maro chose this specific track it was rooted in the fact that Tucson had some of the highest poverty rates in the state of Arizona for the longest time for a very long time and currently at 18.9% of the city's population compared to the 12% of the state population we want to lower that and mayor had expressed that although we had made great strides in

the last seven years to bring that number down from 25 to 20%. It's still going to take a lot of ingenuity, a lot of strategizing and regional collaboration and research to continue to bring this number down. So when we refined our aim statement, which is still very similar to the first one, uh we made sure to refine it based on the research that we saw from our interviews and our ideation sessions to which show the understanding that economic security comes from interrupting the cycle of poverty and that it takes time. So, let me go to the next one. And this is from a previous uh op-ed that Maromero had uh added to the Arizona Daily Star. Um the problem is that we also have to recognize that poverty is also tied to Tucson's economic development and the types of economic opportunities that are available to Tonins. So although there are many obstacles that can deter folks in vulnerable economic conditions from escaping poverty, it can't happen without jobs and quality jobs. So, even before this project, we have heard from thousands of community members, and I'm sure you all have as well, who have expressed through many community town halls hosted by the city that there is a need for more jobs and economic growth in Tucson, but industries that match the community's values, industries that are ethical and sustainable in both longevity, environmental friendliness, and success.

Thank you, Eric. Tucson. um the our problem focus um what the problem is and it's a problem for and um it is a problem because Tucson doesn't have diverse jobs. It's making it very hard for many residents to achieve stability and a good quality of life. Um it pushes people to leave leaves people vulnerable residents behind increases economic hardship and limiting the city's future growth. our innovation team. There's there's everyone. Next slide. Or I guess you can leave it on there if you want. Yeah, it is. Um it it's a core team made up of a cross departmental um leadership and subject matter experts. We have representation from equity, housing, economic development, infrastructure, and communications. It combines strategy, data, and implementation. It's a team that is positioned to drive equitable and citywide impact.

And can I mention to uh Diane and I have talked about this a lot. It is such an incredible team. I think that it really helped me appreciate, not that I didn't before, uh, how talented our city staff is in all departments and how prepared everyone is and how easy it was to work on such a big project with people that have such incredible skills. So as you can see on this uh diagram, our first stage involved workshops between our BH9 coaches and our core team to define the aim statement like I mentioned before and to brainstorm who is most impacted by in Tucson. Then we expanded our focus to design portion of the project and we broke down each of these impacted groups and determined how they are affected by this problem that we identified, how they contribute to it and where the gaps currently exist. And our team then began to analyze secondary research after coming up with five questions to keep our focus guided on accomplishing the goals of the impact statement. And this research included, you know, what other cities are doing, what other economic plans, Tucson and Pima County and other cities in the state, uh, Phoenix, uh, or other cities that are very similar in both population size and demographics to Tucson, what they have been doing and how they have been able to combat poverty. So, it was very much informed by lots of research, secondary research combined with the research that we did ourselves. So we then conducted interviews with stakeholders which was the next step in the process from across the region and this was everything from some of the members that live in our viva sites and our thrive zones to other elected officials uh in the county in the city and this region. Uh so it was very eye openening to get perspectives

from two very very uh different groups and after the interviews we conducted the ideation sessions that we mentioned earlier which included the stakeholders that we interviewed uh and additional folks to brainstorm in person choosing some of the ideas and data points that we gathered from these interviews providing feedback building on these ideas and then adding more additional input. And currently we're on the testing phase of our prototype um which I mentioned earlier is kind of like the uh evaluation of these ideas to stakeholders that are closely related to the two ideas that we came up with which we'll mention in a bit. So uh this past week and a half we have been going to Viva sites and thrive zones. We have been talking to Tucson business owners, uh, regular business owners, small business owners, and even students from the Eller School at the University of Arizona, Eller College, and they have been providing input on these two ideas that we came out of. Uh, we were able to pick out of the eight after we uh, synthesize all of this data.

Next slide. These these are the lists of um different stakeholders that we had reached out to. 50 um stakeholders were identified and and engaged with. 45 we had in-depth com uh interviews that we completed. Um we intentionally included a diverse voice and lived experience um stakeholder. And it's and the way that it is done is everybody kind of puts their input as to who they would um think we want to hear from and uh we design it's designed to ensure that no perspective is like overlooked or that we have a good mix of people engaging. So, oh, and one of the things that I didn't mention my last slide is after gathering this feedback and ideas, we will develop a portfolio that will be presented to all of you and this mayor and council um to potentially use and take these ideas uh and maybe implement hopefully in the future. So, in our synthesis um we did a lot uh like I'm I'm not even joking. We have thousands of data points and we worked on this uh newish platform called Miro. I'm not sure if any of you have ever used it. It's basically like Excel on steroids but with sticky notes. So, it it does kind of uh help you channel that creative process a little bit, especially me as a teacher. Uh this very visual and and easy to use and follow. And as I mentioned earlier um we gathered all this data from our own data points and then we went through the series of synthesizing and breaking down this data into themes. So it's big thematic research and compartmentalizing them and by relevance the secondary

research prosperity initiative identified patterns and then we narrowed them down to ideas that incorporated all these insights. I will mention the ideas near the end so we can get through the slides first. But there's eight of them and when we decided on a prototype, we only picked two which I'll mention in a second. So in these ideation sessions um which is the brainstorming sessions that we had here in the city, we held both internal and external. So some of you and your staff might have been there to participate in it. And basically we divided it between two days and we had two rooms where people could interact with these boards uh these sticky notes and see some of the previous ideas from the interview. So they weren't coming in without any sort of blank slate. They they had stuff to work with but they could also add their own ideas and suggestions for poverty reduction programs or economic development pro um projects. So this was intentional inclusion to be diverse in terms of the voices and lived experiences that folks have, excuse me. And it was designed to ensure that no perspective was overlooked. And we did have exit surveys afterwards for the respondents that attended the session. And we found it to be very valuable um because based on the feedback we saw that the process was very effective and the folks that participated had very positive feedback and we're very excited to actually do it again. There's a lot of people asking that if we had any other ideation sessions similar that in the future that they would love to participate because people love giving their opinions.

They wanted it to be longer which is crazy.

Yeah. what we've learned, our main findings, I'll just uh summarize, is that um everybody agrees we need to build a shared vision uh for Tucson's future and invest in infrastructure to support it. Um attract and grow uh good paying jobs while strengthening key local industries that's like mining, aerospace, agriculture. Um, expand flexible, accessible work options uh to support residents and retaining young professionals. Next slide. Promote sustaining sustainability and green jobs as part of Tucson's economic growth. Expand training, education, workforce pathways through schools and apprenticeships and flex flexible programs. And the other one is uh improve quality of life and community safety while supporting small businesses to grow. Those are the things that I mean it was from all the stickies um and theming them. That's we kept hearing it over and over.

Next slide please. So through this data analysis and prototyping um a very very big and almost serendipitous advantage that we have and has been helping us and have had since this project started is that just about at the same time that we had our starting point uh the Urban Institute which is an organization that specializes in economic and social policy began doing a parallel project with local first Arizona and they're also working on an economic development uh strategy and research for Tucson in our region that is very similar to ours except their focus is specifically on green jobs. So where this benefits us is that one they have been incredible and extremely collaborative and they have shared and have promised to continue sharing any future data to help us inform our research which is basically serving as a way to provide us with amplification for outreach because you know we're never going to have enough people to interview. But this way when you have an organization that's interviewing the people that you miss oh my god it's it's a data frenzy. It's incredible. And when we combined our findings with the urban institute, our secondary research, our preliminary findings or their preliminary findings, um interviews that we held, the ideation sessions and we synthesized thousands of these data points, uh we ended up refining them to these eight ideas uh for you all to consider. Uh we picked the two ideas to prototype based on a matrix of considerations which um ever of these ideas scored in the highest uh of these considerations were chosen to be the ones that Bloomberg Harvard coaches would help us prototype. So they're not the only ideas that we're going to prototype. They're just the

ones that we're going to test out uh with their technical assistance. And we want to reiterate that the prototyping is not implementation. Uh ultimately out of all these eight ideas and all these data points that we generated uh you the mayor and council will get to choose from these ideas. Uh once we are done prototyping and evaluating them and deciding um whether or not you would want to implement this uh or if you want to implement anything from this project at all. So the current two ideas that we are prototyping are one a public scorecard uh mechanism where businesses would basically be graded on their ethics as a small business here in Tucson. So, we would have a dashboard that the city would control and these businesses would be able to voluntarily participate in and if they do and they score high, uh, they could potentially be or qualify for some sort of city incentive, uh, publicity or other sorts of benefits that we could brainstorm that the city could give them. And also, uh, encourage them to build up their workforce if that's something that they're struggling to do. And if these businesses were to not get a high score in their public scorecard, we wouldn't necessarily put them on blast. That's the last thing we want to do. We would help them get to the green area over 80% which we would consider to be a very good passing score so they could succeed and thrive. And then the second one, um, and Diana, you can speak to it more if you'd like to. She's been working more closely to it.

It did change a little bit. Uh at first it was um helping a small businesses with like making you a concierge uh through the permitting process, how to open your business. Um and then through more ideas and feedback, it it did shift. And so what it's changed into is how do we help um for example our residents at Viva like what what hobbies do they have? Is there something that they can start making money and do that? You know, can they tailor? Do they want to do nails? like how do we help them be an entrepreneur, start their own business?

And we also want to reiterate that again none of these ideas and data points will be wasted efforts because there's thousands of them like I mentioned and then there's the eight ideas that we picked to be tested for the prototype. They're all they can be mixed and matched by the city in the future if needed. And the two that we chose for are simply just because we have that assistance from Bloomberg Harvard to kind of train us because the great thing about this project is that it is training our core team here in the city staff to have the tools to do this work independently from Bloomberg Harvard in the future and to continue to develop these skills and then to prototype different projects. One of the best parts is also that the um is getting to work with people from around the world. Um we have sessions um we share ideas, we learn from each other. It's been very eye openening to see the different perspectives and how it it sparks new ideas us for them solutions. Um we've given them stuff that they've that we've done maybe in the past and they're just working on now. And um just also the process I I I it's so invaluable to learn this process and be able to um know that you can you can use it for anything. You can use it for you know it's such a great way to get um a vast amount of feedback from people in a very short amount of time. Doesn't need to last 9 months but it could be done faster. Yeah. And uh you might have seen it, but uh our mayor was able to present at Harvard last week uh in front of many Harvard professors and other mayors around the world and to showcase Tucson and some of the things that we're doing here and to provide ideas for some of the stuff that other places are experiencing for the first time. Um, I know the part that I uh saw was my favorite was the mayor explaining how us as a city can maneuver heat and our climate issues and still be

able to have a very important and thriving uh economic landscape.

Thank you so much for presenting. So, we did apply uh for the city leadership initiative last January, January 2025. And um as Diana and Eddie uh both mentioned, the city of Tucson was chosen. And what I liked about this program is that one, and I've learned this from Tim Tamir, we had to pay for none of it. uh was it has all been funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and it's not something that just the mayor alone goes through it. We had to include the mayor, my chief of staff, the city manager, someone else, you know, an alternate to the city manager. So, Christina Swallow has has been going through this process with us. And then we had to have a project lead um and a project manager and a whole team uh within the city of Tucson. The manager helped select the group that ultimately joined us to go through this process. It has really been um nine months worth of work and interviews as you said and the Bloomberg Harvard team really uh push on selecting uh prototyping or piloting right the projects that we have under our discretion to be able to move forward. I think that's why the team selected the scorecard and the small business micro business concept for the Viva sites and throughout the city. But there are eight other or six other um ideas that ultimately were collected based on um what the

stakeholders in the community gave uh feedback on doing. um in my being able to attend the um Harvard graduation, they called it a graduation because that was the um end of our training for me as the mayor. I just came back from Cambridge and Harvard and I did participate in a couple of uh forums. But it really what I learned from this last um um opportunity that I had to go to the Harvard campus and really um learn from pro professors from the Kennedy School of Government, from the Harvard Business School and so many other uh departments was that this really is just the beginning And what Bloomberg Philanthropies say and the Harvard uh center for cities, what they encourage us to do is to continue lean leaning in on the resources available to not just mayors but cities. So, as an alumni um of the I brought some really nifty stuff that I'll share with all of you, but the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard is that they have so much research and resources for city and that as we continue working on the innovation work because they put us in different tracks. There was the in innovation track, there was the collaboration track, there was the data um track. They put us, they selected our track for us, the innovation track. Um but there is

additional work that we can do. all of you, your team's city staff can attend Harvard on behalf of the city of Tucson and get training on different pieces of what you all need. For me, what I see after this opportunity is that um I would love to be able to continue on the economic development track. there's continued training that we can do as well where as well as the collaboration track and the reason that I applied for this program and I felt that it was necessary for us to approach the issue of economic development in our city is because for decades I have seen that the economic development ecosystem in Tucson has been siloed and that all of us are not working together. Puma County has a strategic plan. Some corridor had a strategic plan. Each and every one of the chambers had a strategic plan. The city had a strategic plan. None of these strategic plans talk to each other. And so ultimately my goal with this work and picking the economic development as a key priority for the city of Tucson is to have a much more cohesive collaborative approach that um aligns our goals as closely as we possibly can with Puma County and other stakeholders in our region. And that's why I thought it was wonderful to be able to have the urban institute do um similar work with labor groups and uh

conservation, sustainability and green groups to be able to get the input and all of us share this information so we could get to a point um that is much more collaborative in our city. So I see this work and the work that was done and the training that our staff received as helpful for us to put put it into action uh to continue moving forward in terms of econ an economic development strategy that makes sense for tonins um but that will continue moving us forward to create high wage long-term jobs in our city. So, um I wanted to thank everyone, the city manager, Christina Swallow, Diana, um Eddie from my office that really helped with the work and then of course each and every one of the core team members for um going through this process and I'm hopeful that we can continue um you know continue with the collaboration track and with the economic development track and bringing in um the stakeholders in the community that we need to make sure that are part of the table and part of the discussion which is Puma County, uh the University of Arizona, our business community, Puma Community College, um labor and other voices uh to to make sure that we that we move forward with our key priority with our what is it? ambitious, impactful um uh what is it?

Measurement.

Measurement uh to be able to to uh get to a place where we are hustling in terms of economic development, but we're holding hands and moving our not just our city but our region forward in job creation and bringing down at the same time with the goal of bringing down poverty in our city. So happy to share all of the information. Again, like I said, this work is not just mine, but all of our cities and you all have the same opportunity that my team, my staff, and all of us do to connect ourselves to the center for cities at Harvard University and get the training um the focus training uh that we all need. So, thank you so much, Mr. Manager. I don't know if you wanted to add something or Christina, if you wanted to add something to the conversation.

I I think for both Christina and myself, it we're just grateful to you for um applying for the program, bringing resources to Tucson, uh not just through Harvard, but also through Bloomberg and their partners. These are these are opportunities, but they require us to meet them um and and and be open and ask for the help. It's there if we are stepping forward to receive it. So, that's a door that's wide open to us. And then also the uh Diana, Eric, and the team. Um my main benefit from it while we had a focused issue to work on and I think we're going to get some good outcomes from that that help us as we're at this inflection point with how we want to approach economic development in Tucson. It is more so for me the learning that the team which from is a from across the city organization them going through this as a cohort has now created a dozen or so new leaders of the organization who will carry these lessons forward and pay it uh forward to their colleagues and those that they work with and apply it to new challenges uh every day. So, um I'm just I'm more grateful than anything for the work that you've all done, uh the leadership that you provided and for the opportunity it's given to our to our um key staff members who who got to engage.

And the work is not done. Um again, this is just I wanted to make sure that you all got an update and we're still in the process. There's still eight ideas to are being prototyped and your input and uh direction is going to be important to as to where we put our focus in and how we continue and move forward. So the process is still ongoing and um your input is important to the process. So I don't know if you have any questions or comments. Council member D. Thank you, mayor. Thank thanks to you and and the staff that's been involved in this. This is an incredible program and an incredible opportunity and aligns with something that's happening in W 3. So, two years ago, I formed a little nonprofit called Friends of W 3. I'm no longer directly connected with them, but they're raised money. A year and a half, they raised $28,000 for little small programs in W 3. uh things you could imagine uh traffic calming in one neighborhood um helping an Afghan women's group get swim lessons because they had some special needs. They're the fiscal sponsor for friends of Danny Lopez Park. I envisioned them helping neighborhood associations and helping good projects. But what's occurred to them that a big help for people in W 3 would be appropriate economic development. and their chair um has a lot of experience in business and business consulting and he's taken upon himself with an intern to start surveying businesses in W three and looking for opportunities for how the city can be more helpful and he's already found some pretty interesting stuff. So I kind of laughed when you had the list of major industries in Tucson and included agriculture and mining. We have maybe 10 small farms and we have no mines in the city of Tucson but around us we have that and what we have yeah and we need to look regionally but what

we are going to concentrate on what's happening in Tucson however in both of those areas we have some emerging industries because we're the UN's uh city of gastronomy there's a lot of interesting things happening with secondary things you do with farming with food our restaurants are burgeoning um bario breads uh is using local locally grown wheat from Morirana to produce the most delicious bread. Mate is a a national wholesaler is hidden in w three from from one person they now employ more than 20. So the secondary uses of foods and we have some great sources with Mexican produce and with the um winter vegetables that come out of Yuma that process them and make them you know like monsoon chocolate taking cacao but making it into something that's delicious. So that's one opportunity that I think we we could really exploit. Now mining, we don't have mining, but we have the world-class gem and mineral show. And in Thrive in the '05, the development um the only development that's happened that's outpaced our affordable housing, which is incredible in transforming motel and restaurants into more usable space has been um companies that sell minerals. They have wholesale warehouses and also showrooms throughout W Word three, they're kind of hidden. I I know they exist in some of your wards as well. Um I don't think we're doing enough to promote that. And in one of the interviews um Nigel Brooks had with with one of the owners, they're having trouble finding staff. I mean, there's an opportunity there for uh good paying jobs. There's some of them are seasonably, but some some of them are not. So, I'm I'm excited to be involved. Maybe I'll finally go to Harvard. And in heaven, my father, you finally made it to Harvard. like like our mayor has done. Thank you, mayor. Thanks for this program. Looking forward to working with you all.

Honorable mayor and uh council, just to make a quick clarification, thank you for the input, by the way. Uh the reason why we added uh both agriculture and mining into the presentation is both in the secondary research that we did from previous uh economic research uh projects here in Tucson at the University of Arizona uh Puma County and from the interviews that we conducted and as well as the urban institute. Uh what we saw is that a lot of folks expressed that them and their families and their grandparents were able to escape um poverty and to climb uh upward social mobility because of the opportunities that they had uh with mining and it came as a surprise to us too uh given the ethic of environmentally friendly jobs that are usually being asked for here in Tucson. Similarly with agriculture and I think that there was so many uh data points there that even through the filtration it still um was was available and and looking right at us. So I think what folks also did express is that if there were to be instances of bringing mining back to Tucson, uh they would hope that it would be in a much more ethical, environmental, sustainable way, which I mean is a problem and has been a challenge for for many places across the country. Uh but that is the reason why we mentioned it was just very prevalent in both ideiation and research. But agree uh with a lot of the other points that you gave from war 3 though. Those are a lot of very very big gaps that Tucson needs to fill. So thank you.

What are the other six concepts that came out?

Honorable mayor and council. I thought you'd never ask. So the first idea is sustainable growth and work for force pathways. And we hyper synthesize these. So uh we can give you the ideas in depth later if you'd like. Uh, and this means grow Tucson's economy through sustainability and green jobs, expand education, apprenticeships, and flexible work pathways. Oh, my battery just ran out of my laptop. Thankfully, we have Diana's and improve quality of life, safety, and small business growth. Idea number two is the employer scorecard that we talked about and the uh earn and learn pipeline. Um, idea number three was innovation districts uh mobility and corridors. So to develop microindustry districts with shared space plus digital infrastructure, expand transit connected hubs to drive jobs, tourism and development, and then activate more cool corridors with mixeduse walkability and local business support. Idea number four was community power network to build neighborhood-based connections to jobs and city services, straighten local hiring pipelines through trusted community partners, and to simplify permitting and ensure inclusive communitydriven growth. Idea number five is a tum Tucson impact exchange uh to create a sort of digital marketplace rewarding businesses for community impact track contributions like local hiring, sustainability and reinvestment and to offer incentives and offsets to drive participation and accountability. Idea number six was small and legacy business support which is the one that we mentioned earlier. Idea number seven is food hall incubators. So to expand lowcost spaces for culinary entrepreneurs and this actually ended up developing more later on to just any type of entrepreneurs. So it can be anything from a nail salon to even a boutique, barber shop, whatever it may be to launch and grow to support transition from cottage food and food

trucks or maybe even online selling to have that brick and mortar and then straight into Tucson's local food economy and local small business pipeline. And then idea number eight is advanced manufacturing uh and values aligned economic development and growth. So to attract firms in semiconductor, EV, solar and advanced manufacturing uh position Tucson with emerging supply chain innovate in innovation sectors and to prioritize sustainable lowcarbon and water efficient industries and to attract the quote unquote big fish industries that align with community values and deliver high ROI. The reason I wanted to make sure that we talked about that as well is because those are that's based on the input received from the community and the stakeholders that were interviewed. And so those are I all ideas that we can you know think about and possibly prototype in the future. Um it was important I believe for the Bloomberg Harvard staff the the trainers that we prototype um ideas that we can work on immediately on our you know on our own as a city. Uh but I I I think that it's important to uh to you know tell this the whole story. I guess for me my my big question is uh the urban institute and their input. Is this melded into what we have so far or is it something that they will present to us as they uh continue their work?

Honorable mayor and councel. So so far the so the urban institutes project is uh a much longer timeline than ours. Um they will probably go in well deeply into the year but in their preliminary findings uh they have shared that so far there's a lot of uh need for labor in terms of the trades a lot of folks uh asking for jobs such as HVAC and to increase apprenticeships pro apprenticeship programs and training to be able to get those trade skills. So in a way it does align. We did see that in uh the research and a lot of the impact or the feedback that folks were giving us. But we will probably start to get some of these bigger chunks of research from them um late June, early July. But we do meet with them uh at least once or twice a month. So we we're keeping track of it, but it's a little bit slower. So, as that comes in, we'll be updating um you all.

Any other questions, comments? Righty. Thank you so much. Thanks for the incredible work and I we continue to uh uh want to hear from you. Okay. So, that was item 11. On to item 12. Um, I have requested this item for discussion and presentation regarding the funding impact survey results conducted by the community foundation for southern Arizona. Um, Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. We have a guest speaker with us today. We are bringing up the PowerPoint and I'm going to arm her with the actual remote. The power. Thank you so much. Great. Generally that direction.

Okay, sounds good. I'll come to you for advice. Well, uh, honorable mayor and council, thank you so much for allowing me to spend some time with you this afternoon and share, um, information about the nonprofit sector and the status of, uh, philanthropy in what's kind of a one of those interesting times. So, first, a little bit about the community foundation for southern Arizona. We've been around since 1980 and our mission is to build a thriving southern Arizona through philanthropy. We do a lot of things, but a simple way of explaining is we mobilize private charitable capital for public good. And we do that in a whole lot of different ways. Uh some of which you'll hear about today. Uh I do want to hearken back to 2020. uh when we worked together, the city of Tucson was um a wonderful partner with the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona during um sort of the height of COVID when a lot of nonprofit organizations were in danger of just um suffering such a a revenue uh shock that they were not going to survive. And together we distributed um 1 point almost $1.2 million to nonprofits serving tonins impacted by CO 19. And that was a terrific uh partnership and and one we we really think is a great model for for other types of partnerships down the line. Um so I want to frame the information I'm going to share with you which comes from a specific survey that we did in in um partnership with the um community coalition for prosperity and we did it in the fall of 2025. So it's recent but it's it's a snapshot in time. But before I get into that data, I just want to frame things a little bit because the nonprofit sector has traditionally not talked about itself very much. We're kind of um the people who have just kind of get on with work and don't don't toot to toot our horns too much. And so it can be kind of invisible. Um and so I do

want to talk about it as an economic sector. Um it's a major economic driver in Arizona. It generates about 5860 billion in annual revenue in the state. It's a big employer. Um, and it is, uh, 200,000 workers in the state. It's the sixth largest industry, and that is larger than the construction industry. So, if you think about where the nonprofit sector sits, that can be somewhat surprising. Uh, in the Tucson metro area, nonprofits employ over 42,000 people, generate 5 billion in annual revenue, and hold 13 billion in assets. So, this is not collectively this this is a significant um part of our economy. Um in the city of Tucson itself um the uh number of private employment uh percentage of private employment of the nonprofit sector is second only to Portland compared to our peer cities that the MAP dashboard at the Eller College tracks. So we have 10.4% of the private employment workforce in Tucson is nonprofit workers and that is something that's uh quite high and above the US average. also want to frame this from a really high level. So what's you're going to see happening here in Tucson is um affected by and mirrors what is happening nationally. Um and I want to just point out a few things that are part of the picture. So, one is that no surprise I think to anyone here, we have a K-shaped economy where in general over the last many years, affluent Americans have been getting ahead and less affluent low-income and asset households have been falling behind. We're also currently in a volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous environment, a VOUa environment. And that is um, you know, something you only have to read the notifications on your phone every day to to experience. Um, uniquely in the American history, we're also experiencing the largest

intergenerational transfer of wealth that has ever happened. So, by 2048 is estimated that uh $124 trillion will pass from baby boomers, mostly to their heirs, but um a good chunk of that about 18 trillion is anticipated to pass to charity. um layered in there's this new tax law from the federal government that's come into effect um in 2026 which has completely rewritten incentives for charitable g charitable giving. Um the most notable changes are for charitable giving are that um nonitemizers who so the vast majority of people who file their taxes don't itemize. Um and nonitemizers can now claim um a bit of a tax benefit. Um and that will be really important for people who are not such high income to get some benefit now from being um able to make their charitable donations. So that's a plus. Um there's a lot of disincentives unfortunately for higher net worth people and corporations to give. And so this is really changing um how nonprofits need to think about their fundraising. Um and then of course unprecedented changes in federal funding for nonprofits is having um it it was an earthquake and it's still we're still having uh tremors and and I'll get into some of the effects there. So the nonprofit impact survey um was our attempt at the community foundation to understand what is going on um because it there's nobody tracking this. This is, you know, when when a certain large uh percentage of the funding for a sector goes away um or is now coupled with um requirements that maybe you can't meet in terms of um civil and and criminal liabilities attached to certain funding um what what happens. So, we wanted to try and uh take a pulse. We put out a survey kind of like in an if they build it will they come question and they did um over um 135 I think 140

um nonprofits unique nonprofits completed it um and we really wanted to understand the the impacts of policy ships policy shifts on the nonprofit organizations and their service recipients nonprofit jobs and try to anticipate the funding environment for 2026. So this was done in fall of 25 um and uh see how things hold up. So we did see some pretty high level themes emerge from the survey. Um in that time again snapshot in the fall federal government funding restrictions were already creating operational strain and um you'll see a little more as I go on how that happened in a ripple effect. Um the most um affected organizations were with budgets over half a million dollars because those are large enough to potentially receive government funding. The grassroots organizations mostly are operating purely on private donations, volunteer time and so on. Um we did try and track um some of the service disruptions and saw especially in the comments very uh significant disruptions to service. Um, and we do um see that nonprofit safety net as uh under extreme strain and fraying. And as I sat here this afternoon, I heard a lot of mentions of how nonprofits are partnering with government and business. And I just think it's really important to bring to your attention the ways that this sector is under significant strain. Um, so where are the uh respondents? Uh, the vast majority were in Puma County. Most of the locations track where we have populations. And so most of those are in the city of Tucson. We did hear from the other counties in our southern Arizona service area, particularly Santa Cruz County, where we have um a strong presence. Budget sizes. Um you know, we had kind of across the board everything from very small um grassroots nonprofits with budgets under 100,000 to the largest

nonprofits with budgets over two million. um the population served. Again, you know, we weren't sure who would respond, but it was very across the board, um elders, children, people with disabilities, um uh people of all identities, people with diseases and illnesses and so on. So, it was very uh very um representative of the causes that and demographics of nonprofits across our region. Um so, the funding composition I think is important to think about. Private donations are the largest share um of funding for nonprofits. Local and state grants nearly 19% of funding. Federal grants only 8% earned income. Um so this would be things like um uh merchandise uh uh renting out space on in their buildings is 13% and then endowment or investment 4%. So although the federal government share is relatively small, 30% of nonprofit respondents in Pima County are government funded, um you you're very aware that federal government and state and and municipal government grants are are very linked. Uh so that the impact was starting to compound already. Um we also saw that um about 44% of respondents indicated that they are already feeling impacts. um about 19% weren't sure and uh we also had about 15 to 20% indicate funding layoffs and the reason why that's not a single number is because many of them said no layoffs when they answered that question but in their comments they kept talking about layoffs so we tried to um I think they weren't sure whether it was a layoff or just they didn't replace a position. Uh and we did see uh some larger organizations up to 60 LA staff were either laid off or had been um let go without replacing that that position.

Um we certainly saw impact on uh reduced programs and services specifically to human services organizations. And then thematically where policy shifts have impacted programming um the themes emerge were for immigrant and refugee communities, LGBTQIA plus communities, women and children, low-income families and rural communities all were u most impacted. We also wanted to know that's the supply side in terms of the capacity of nonprofits. What about on the demand side? the people who are using services. And again, we we expected um that the de demand might be much higher in certain areas such as the ones that I just described, but they were people across these cause areas actually identified heightened demand um from food and basic needs all the way to cultural and arts programming. Um I think some of it is just uh a lot of uncertainty and the economy, people feeling like um families and individuals were stretched and they started to reach out and use these services. Uh we also asked a subjective question which is what how concerned are you about the continued impacts of government funding cuts? So, um, I actually had the dashboard up when the survey was going and so I was watching the answers come in and it was sort of ding ding ding very very very concerned. So that that was a you know concerning to me just to see that happening in action. Um the scale is 0 to five. Um five being the most concerned. you know, although it wasn't the same across all these areas. Um, so first responders, for example, is is close to five, whereas um, news, media, and journalism is is one of the lower ones, but the levels generally are pretty high across the board. So, where does this leave nonprofits? Um, and I wish I had a happier tale to tell, but I think part of my role here

is just to tell what we're hearing from the communities we serve. um exhausted and strained uh a high administrative burden with low staff. Um one thing about uh nonprofits is they don't typically operate with large staffs or a lot of um redundancies. So as they're laying people off and not being able to replace positions, um they're simply not replacing those people and and the workload is just getting higher. Um there's underserved community members. there is a sort of moral injury to people who are positioned to help people who are coming to them for help and they're unable to provide that help and so it's causing um a real reduction in morale um among nonprofits and they're also worried you know do I have to find another job um and I will say anecdotally you know we've grown and and advertised some jobs we're just inundated with uh resumes so um impacts beyond government funding I do want to talk about um the sort of sense if you imagine if you're leading a nonprofit, you're looking to how can I continue? How can I do my good work? Um my usual sort of consistent sources of funding are the federal grants, state and local grants. Are those there anymore? Will they be there? What decisions do I need to make about the future? um corporations and foundations um especially early on were tightening the belt on giving and um were uh actually kind of going to to the side of being more cautious and then individual donor confidence same. We're taking a wait andsee approach uh in relation to funding. Now this isn't universal. Some went the other direction, but there was definitely um kind of that human I don't know what's going on. It's very chaotic. I'm just going to freeze. And so there was a lot of freezing um especially among individual donors and families. So despite all of that, I really want to

celebrate our nonprofits. Um I've talked extensively to nonprofit leaders, nonprofit professionals, donors who are supporting them. Um they they're being smart, they're being savvy. Um they're committed. They have really tried to figure out how to be flexible and adaptive to while still meeting their grant guideline. uh reporting while still um delivering services. They're cross trainining. They're trying to be um redundant and prioritize things with layoffs. But there is a point where they can't continue to do that. Um there is really good although you know challenging strategic planning happening um of especially scenario planning. So essentially a lot of nonprofits are saying okay here's our core services. Here's what we're going to need to sell. We'll sell this building. Um we'll stop this program. we'll get down to that core and then hopefully we'll be able to get into a rebuilding mode and hold on to our core mission. Um, I do want to shout out the community foundation's own center for healthy nonprofits which supports nonprofits with free and lowcost capacity building. We're launching and we have slots available for a program called Ascend, which actually is a both a leadership and a financial um personal finance course for um nonprofit professionals to help them hopefully stay in the career of that we hope they will stay in in their nonprofit sector. Um and I also believe the current moment creates opportunities for collaboration such as we've heard a lot about today. So what do nonprofits need? Uh they need general operating support. That was a really clear answer. Um I'm very pleased to say I I heard um the Homeless ID Project mentioned we just granted them um a general operating support grant like a week ago. Um and so I'm really pleased to be uh able through our community foundation um to provide general operating support, but the more they're trying to pivot and be flexible, the more flexible funding helps them.

Um, and I think when we put the survey out the it might have been one of the first times that that these groups had actually been asked to share what they were experiencing. So, um, I'd never seen an Excel spreadsheet fill up with words uh, faster and more than this one. Uh, there were just voluminous comments um and and I one question we asked is what would you like policymakers and funders to know? And these were some of the answers. Um, trust us to do the work rather than mandate how we do it. We're worried about persecution and working on hot button issues. General operating supports the hardest to obtain. Um and then you know very seriously people are dying, rights are being taken away. Silence from funders and officials is complicity. Um so what can you do? Um anything that you have within your power to streamline applications, reporting, anything nonprofits um are are interacting with you about, you know, with so uh so much on their plates, the the less they're spending on paperwork. even though it's certainly necessary, the the easier the rest of their work will be. Uh making city spaces available at a nonprofit rate and I think I saw in the budget there was a consideration around that for um uh at least one property and thank you for that. Um and leading conversations with about the sector with residents and other policy and lawmakers really I'm here for awareness. Um I don't know how much uh you you typically hear from this sector as a sector as opposed to independent you know like around housing or around any other key issues environment but this sector also is partnered with business and with government most critically and if uh it kind of folds then that's that's one of the legs of your three-legged stool. Um so that is all I wanted to share but I'm more than happy to provide answers to any questions or take any comments. Jenny, thank you so much for your presentation. I really appreciate you coming to us and and talking to us about how nonprofit the nonprofit sector is

feeling. I uh to this day appreciate our partnership during COVID and how we created we are one Somoso um and were able to activate funds almost what was it almost $1.2 2 million dollars uh to make sure that our nonprofit sector survived the pandemic. And so um I remember that time as chaotic and but we really kind of you know put the ideas together

and uh we couldn't have done it without uh the community foundation. So really appreciate the partnership. Um I know that there are increased demand for services right now and decreased budgets and that's uh unfortunate that we are seeing such a cut in funding from the federal government to uh organizations that really tend to help the most vulnerable

children um youth in crisis. seniors, uh people with disabilities, um people with mental behavioral needs,

etc. So, uh you know, these services and assistance like eviction prevention, shelter, uh utility assistance, these are not extras. These are essential services that people need to survive. So, um I know that the nonprofit community really appreciates your work and the efforts of the community foundation. I am really interested in exploring how the city um and other private partners can make uh spaces that are empty available

to um to the nonprofit community and be mindful of how we, you know, h how we group the services. I've always admired that the historic Y

uh has like this nonprofit hub uh and they keep the historic Y active. And so um I'm looking forward to uh continued kind of brainstorming or ideation as we learned today uh of how we can we can work together especially in these difficult times. So, um, I'm just going to open up for my colleagues to see if they have any questions or comments. Member Vakas, thank you for that presentation. I'm always interested to see what um, you know, our local nonprofits, what they're doing, where they're serving. I'm curious um, just cuz I do notice like somewhat of a philanthropic desert, South 22nd Street. Um, I'm curious to see on a visual on a map where our nonprofits one are located and

the zip codes they serve and if it correlates to the same if they are truly community based and then with that too I would love to see a breakdown of the types of nonprofits that we have in those um on that map. So if it's focused on like social services or you know arts and culture related academics and I'm also um I would like to explore you know how we could collaborate with our remote nonprofits because I also know that a lot of our nonprofits don't have facilities. So if we can make it um an easier process for them that would be something I would like to see. So thank you.

Any others? All righty. I know that you gave this presentation to PE the Puma County Board of Supervisors. I did. What was the feedback there? What you know what are the types of actions that uh they have an appetite to to do?

Nothing specific came up, but they were very open to the information and I think would certainly be um available for for continued discussion and partnership. I definitely got that idea and um thank you also for that comment. Um, we were working a lot with the map dashboard and that's where some some of these slides came from. Um, so I I can actually uh propose to them what you just said. So, and see if we could get something whipped up. Yeah. Um, and and you're right, there's um that a lot of nonprofits went remote during COVID and um, you know, it's certainly a good cost savings. On the other hand, there's some challenges um, you know, of just holding the team together and also um, for um, working with donors.

Yeah. And I guess this will be my last question because we do have to move forward the other items, but I've always wondered about um philanthropic organizations and how we can attract more of those, you know, funds into Tucson. Is there a specific like approach that the community foundation has a strategy for?

Um yes, actually. So, one of the things that sort of two I can think of sort of two ways to answer that and probably more with more time, but the first way is to actually um help the people who are already here who care about our community become more aware and more engaged in giving. And uh that's one of our key um strategies. We also recently worked on a study for second home owners and how they give in their second home community um and how to engage them. And that's something that we think is important. Um so that's one way and and we have a lot of strategies for that. Another way is national philanthropy. Um so it really is cause-based in my experience. Um so for example, we're we're currently the recipients of a fair amount of funding from um the MacArthur Foundation and from Press Forward and some other national funds because of our um local news initiative. And so that is an area where those national philanthropies are interested in investing in local areas. And so we put our hand up and and there's that natural partnership. So I think it's where those partnerships exist where we're uh whoever we are whether it's community foundation, the city of Tucson or whomever is on the ground um in an area that they want to um work with. And I will say and I've been working with national philanthropies for most of my career. So it's been more than two decades. Um they have made some changes. They used to just think wherever they were in New York or Cambridge or wherever they are like they could tell us all what to do and it would work. There's a lot more understanding that you need to partner with people locally. So that is a strength that we can bring.

Excellent. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate the incredible work that you're all doing and looking forward to our continued partnership. Agreed. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All righty. So, let's see. We move on to item 13. Um, time has been set aside for discussion direction relating to matters pending in front of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, honorable mayor. So, joining us here at the table um for this item uh Stephanie Zamora from my office will um lead the discussion on the Pimac County and local matters. And then when we go to item 14, uh Laura Dent, our and our government relations director is here to go to the state and national levels. With that, I turn it over to the team for Puma County and other local. Your manager, um my report included updates from the Puma County Board of Supervisors and the town of Sarita. Relatively short this time around and I'm happy to answer any questions that may arise from that. Thank you, honorable mayor.

Any questions, comments? We are trying to plan a joint meeting with the Puma County Board of Supervisors, FYI. So, if you haven't responded to the clerk's office um doing a little poll of your availability in July, please please do so. uh really important in working with Chair Allen. We've been talking about um how we continue working on unsheltered homelessness um and the opioid settlement work, but also how do we go upstream and do um some prevention work around the prosperity initiative. So looking forward to that discussion in our joint meeting. Other than that, um item 14. So item 14, time has been set aside for mayor and council to receive an update on state and national legislation and regional committees, executive orders and direction to any associated uh litigation. And I see Miss Dentist here with us. Good afternoon, Honorable Mayor Romero, members of the council. I'll just share some really brief updates with you today. At the federal level, Senate Republicans released a budget resolution to fasttrack an immigration enforcement bill. Uh this would move through budget reconciliation. So, it would allow the um passage in the Senate with a simple majority versus a filibuster. Proof majority. Uh the proposal includes about 70 billion for ICE and Border Patrol respectively. You'll remember that there's been a deadlock around DHS funding for some time. Uh my understanding is that the Senate has started voting today um to begin the debate on the budget resolution. So um we should see voting continue through this week. Uh at the state level, floor action is slowing down. Traditionally at this point in the legislative session,

budget negotiations are picking up. You may have seen uh Governor Hobbes last week uh issued a moratorum on signing new bills until GOP leadership comes to the table with a budget proposal that would counter her proposal to move negotiations forward in earnest. So, there are still a few bills that the city has weighed in on that we're waiting for votes on around preeemption, um a few other items. So, we'll keep you posted on that. But that does conclude my report. Uh, thank you, Laa. I really appreciate it. Um, first I would like to say congressional action on immigration enforcement without pairing it with sensible bipartisan reforms is a step in the wrong direction. And um, Congress never ceases to amaze me. Uh, on a related note, I did see that a 1487 uh, possible complaint, and I'll have Roy explain a little bit more, uh, has been filed against the city of Phoenix, um, and Pima County. This is in response to their policy blocking federal agents from using city property uh, to plan or carry out immigration raids. Um, I want to make it super clear the city of Tucson passed a similar um gave sim similar direction to our city manager and um I and I'm sure my council colleagues stand by our people and we stand by our policy and of course we won't be intimidated by the state legislature uh when we're trying to protect our residents. So, um, Roy, did you want to kind of dive in a little bit on on that 1487 complaint?

Sure, honorable mayor. Thank you, uh, members of council. Um, so on March 30th, Phoenix received a complaint from, uh, the state senate, uh, through an SP 1487 complaint. That complaint alleges that their adoption of a similar administrative directive to what we we adopted in January of this year uh violated um ARS1-1051 which is not commonly known as SB1070. Um, I've read the complaint and and have conferred with the uh Phoenix city attorney and we both are are comfortable in what has been passed by both the city of Tucson and by um the city of Phoenix and uh we fully support uh Phoenix in in their uh uh response to the uh 1487 complaint and I've read that and and and concur uh as well as I've also read uh Pim County's uh response to their 1487 complaint and and they passed similar legislation earlier this year. Uh I have I've read that compla complaint and the response and I believe the response adequately addresses the issues. Um we have received an inquiry from uh the same senator who who um uh filed both complaints. Um we anticipate that there will likely be a a 1487 complaint for us and we're more than willing to um respond and we believe we we're appropriately u following the law. I think it would be appropriate to work with Puma County and the city of Phoenix to see if we can coordinate absolutely a response to those concerns or complaints and uh see how we approach together um the attorney general.

Absolutely, your honor. And we've been in conversation already and we'll continue and the city of Tucson will continue to support the two offices as as well I know they they would do for us. Thank you. Um, and LA, I I um I have a couple of thoughts, a few thoughts on state level action. Uh, today I saw in the front page of the of the paper an article about SB1 1431. I know that the city of Tucson took a a position in opposition. 1431 is yet another preeemption bill that undercuts cities and our ability uh to set standards for housing developments in our community. We've all been doing this work together. The city of Tucson and mayor and council have been leading on housing affordability um and changing land use codes so they can be tools for uh creating affordability from le legalizing ADUs to the community corridors tool uh to our embrace of middle housing citywide. We understand the need and are advancing local solutions. SB1 1431 would block cities and towns from requiring everything from garages, paved driveways, backyard patios, safety lighting or fencing of new homes. This will will result in lower quality homes and assumes that savings generated by home builders would trickle down to everyday residents. I think this is naive and I think this is a bad idea. Um, I want to recognize Senator Lauren Kubie who said it best and the story is in the paper today. Uh, this bill broadly preempts local building standards and imposes a onesizefitsall mandate. Cities and towns should retain

the ability to require thoughtful design and shared amenities. I agree with her and underscore that here in Tucson we are opposed to this bill and um I think this get this bill is um uh guised under affordable housing but um when we build affordability it goes further by the way this bill also preempts cities from having any type of design standards um any even including trees into the building of these homes. It is putting affordable housing at a a a very um concerning place to me because they just want to undo any type of standards that cities and towns attach to be able to build affordable quality um housing in our community. So, I just wanted to bring that up. I also wanted to bring out an issue um that uh we wanted to discuss. Uh earlier this year, Tucson elected officials, including all of us on the city council, petitioned Governor Katie Hobbes to halt the planned um April 29th, 2026 state trassland auction for 160 acres near Veil Ti to Copper World. Um, several years ago, we sent a letter to the cap board raising concerns about how mining in the Sanoritas impacts our groundwater quality and regional water supplies. Recently, uh, Puma County took a position formally opposing copper world mine and I would like for us to consider taking similar action at the

city level. We have we and we were all looking for this before. Um, we've put out letters in support. We all thought we had passed a resolution, but I want to make sure that we consider a resolution uh taking similar action at the city level. So, I welcome feedback from our city attorney and I know that uh some of us on the council wanted to make sure that we added our voices to that. So, um I'll open it the floor to my council colleagues, but I do want to hear first from our city attorney um to give us some guidance in terms of what we can do to make sure that we uh codify

Sure. a position.

Sure. C uh mayor uh and council members, it's it's uh it's appropriate to to pass a resolution. The last resolution that was actually passed by the mayor and council related to this related to this item was a general resolution uh adopting uh opposing federal legislation in this area related to the Sanoritas uh and other uh sensitive public lands. So if if the mayor council decide that they want to specifically oppose this project itself uh as well as the upcoming uh state land trust um auction, I think that's an appropriate measure to take. I did want to open up to my colleagues on the council to see if you all want to jump in. Council member Schubert,

thank you for bringing this up. I've been wondering about this all week. Um really concerned about the land uh state land trust sale auction happening on the 29th and want to make sure that we're united and expressing our disapproval of that. Um I would love to be a part of an official resolution codifying our opposition to Copper World. Um and as well as calling on Governor Hobbes to exercise her authority to halt or withdraw this parcel from the April 29th auction. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Any against? Motion carries. Uh Mr. Lusk. Thank you, mayor. Uh we'll proceed with that uh resolution. Although the state land sale will happen before our next meeting. I don't know if you want to add an additional motion to draft a letter as well on behalf of mayor council. Yes, we actually all added our names to an effort that was um put together by the Save the Scenic Sanoritas. So, we all added our names there. I mean, it's it's public, but I would I would um be happy to write a letter on behalf of mayor and counsel taking this official position against the auction. Do you want to have a motion proposed for that? Do I need a motion? I would think so. Yeah. Okay. So, move. So, moved.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Um, any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Anything else that we wanted to touch on? Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Uh, Miss Dent, thank you so much. Wonderfully done. Appreciate it. All righty. So, we move on to item 15. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda for today's regular meeting? All of them. I know that we had one over from the city attorneys.

Uh, thank you, your honor. Um item 7G uh the consent item between uh the IGA between Pum County and the city of South Tucson and the city of Tucson uh has been requested by Pum County to um uh continue for a period of time for the parties to work out uh some differences. So 7G correct.

All righty. Thank you. Anything else? So we move on to item 16. Does anyone have any items for future agendas? Seeing none, study session is adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting is on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. And let me see, we will start um our regular council meeting at 5:45. Thank you. Hey.

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Okay, we're going to get started, everyone. We're going to get started, everyone. Council will council will stand in session. Thank you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Let's go to roll call. Council member Cunningham here. Council member Doll here. Council member Lee here. Council member Barahas here. Council member here. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. Um she is on her way. Mayor Romero here. Before we go to item two, the city attorney will go over rules of decorum for mayor and council meetings. Mr. Attorney.

Thank you, honorable mayor. 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 required to quorum 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 counsel. The mayor has the authority to ensure in 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 recess the meeting itself. If disruptive behavior makes it necessary to clear 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 Title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Item two, invocation, pledge of allegiance, and appointments to boards, committees, and commissions.

The invocation will be given by Reverend uh Dioro Mendulsa, St. Bellamy Byzantine Catholic Church. After the invocation, I ask that you remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Gracious and sovereign God, we gather with purpose and humility as we lift up our mayor and city council. We ask that you grant them wisdom and guidance that they may lead with integrity, honesty, and fairness. As Socrates taught, the unexamined life is not worth living. So may these leaders continually examine their decisions with clarity and conscience. And as it is written in the Epistle of St. James, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, and it will be given. Bestow upon them discernment to distinguish right from wrong and the strength to bring order, stability, and prosperity to all they serve. Lord, we pray for unity and collaboration among these leaders. As Aristotle observed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. May they work together in mutual respect, seeking not division, but harmony, guided by wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Let their shared purpose reflect the truth of King David in Psalm 133. how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. We ask that they may be strengthened in service and integrity. Inspire them to lead sacrificially within the law for the good of all their constituents. May they carry their responsibilities with courage and humility. Remembering the words of Pericles who said, "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. Let their leadership be measured not by power but by service as taught in the Gospel of

St. Mark, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. We pray for the welfare of this community, the city of Tucson. Guide the council and righteous decisions, and bring joy and purpose to their duties. Let truth prevail in their deliberations and justice flow freely as declared in the book of Amos. Let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream. May their work uplift every neighborhood, protect the vulnerable, and build a future marked by fairness and opportunity. Finally, we lift up their families, their spouses, their children, and all who support them behind the scenes. Surround them with peace and strength. Grant them wisdom and how to encourage and sustain one another. As Plato wrote, "Good people do not lead laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. May goodness, love, and mutual care anchor these families, sustaining those who serve the public each day. This may this council be united in purpose, steadfast in service, and guided always toward the common good. Let their leadership reflect justice, compassion, and wisdom for all. Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation for all. Thank you for those beautiful words, Reverend. Alrighty. Now, we're going to do our presentations. As always, um I would love to invite my colleagues on the council to join me for the presentations. Uh our first presentation is uh proclaiming the city of Tucson's ongoing and steadfast partnership with Puma County, which by the way, we have both chair Jennifer Allen and um and uh our colleague Rex Scott here from the board of supervisors. Uh and we also have partners in the nonprofit sector and the community coalition for prosperity in attendance. Uh I will read everyone uh down there. So I'll I'll invite everyone there. The second proclamation would be for um food cycle and composting and food waste reduction program. And then our third uh proclamation is an award of appreciation and rec recognition presented to Scott Blades in honor of his retirement from uh Taihan after 30 years of dedicated service and meaningful contributions to our LGBTQ uh community. So our first one is the prosperity initiative and my colleagues want to join me. I'd love to have you. read in um personally Pima County Board

of Supervisors Chair Jen Allen, Supervisor Rex Scott, uh Jeannie Greyel, project director at the Community Coalition for Prosperity, Brook Gillum, deputy director of the community uh coalition for prosperity, Jenny Flynn, CEO of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. Venicia Kerr, CEO of United Way of Tucson in Southern Arizona. Bonnie Bazada, professional advisor to Supervisor Allen and architect of the Prosperity Initiative. Steven Eddie, Tucson Electric Power. Eric Schindler, um, Coalition for Prosperity Education Working Group co-lead. Elizabeth Casy, associate v vice president at United Way of Southern Arizona. Sheri Martin, executive director of the water center for system thinking. Miles Chandler, program manager with cradle to career. We have an amazing and distinguished group here. Uh Noah Garrapy, former employee at community um safety health and wellness and now representing uh cradle to career. All righty. We have a proclamation. Yes. Beautiful group. Beautiful group.

All righty. Who wants to be the holder? Uh Supervisor Alan Bonnie. There you go. Alrighty. So, um, so happy. I think Josephina Cardinas is here, too. Where's Josephina? Hi, Josephina. I'm sorry. I I saw you here and not over here. Um, thank you for joining us. Josephina knows me since I was like what,

21? Yeah. Little baby. Little baby and working in the community. All righty. So, oh, and of course, we have our very own Anna Rojo. Where's Anna? Anna, join us. I know you're taking pictures, but Anna has been my lead at the mayor's office for the prosperity initiative and has been an important key and part of this. So, thank you for joining us. So whereas the city of Tucson is committed to building a community where every family has the opportunity to thrive economically, socially, and civically, and where conditions and where the conditions that per perpetrate generational poverty are identified, challenged, and dismantled. And whereas Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz initiated the development of a comprehensive policy response to generational poverty, recognizing the urgent need for coordinated cross- sector action to address its root causes within the city of Tucson. And whereas the Tucson mayor and council adopted the prosperity initiative policy framework on January 9th, 2024, marking a historic commitment to evidence-based integrated policy strategies for addressing generational poverty in our community. And whereas Puma County, the city of Tucson, and the Community Coalition for Prosperity have entered a meaningful and enduring triparty partnership to jointly develop and implement the Prosperity Initiative, a comprehensive evidence-based framework for addressing generational poverty across our region. And whereas the city of Tucson, Pima County, and CC4P collaboratively co-created the

prosperity initiatives, vision, mission, and guiding principles, establishing a shared ethos that bridges government and community-based leadership across jurisdictional and sectoral boundaries. And whereas the vision, a community where every family prospers, serves as the north star guiding the city's policy development, program design, and resource allocation decisions in partnership with our fabulous partners, Puma County Board of Supervisors and uh CC4P. And whereas the guiding principles co-created by all three partners prioritize authentic community engagement, evidence-based approaches, addressing systemic inequities, and achieving measurable social and economic returns for Tucson's most vulnerable families. And whereas the city of Tucson recognizes CC4P as essential backbone infrastructure that supports cross- sector alignment, facilitates shared accountability, and ensures that the voices of community members experiencing poverty remains central to all decision making. And whereas the city of Tucson commits to upholding the co-created guiding principles in its ongoing work across housing, health, education, and workforce development, particularly in engaging historically marginalized communities and addressing the root causes of poverty. And whereas the city of Tucson pledges its continued commitment to the 13 integrated policies and cross policy strategies of the prosperity initiative and to the sustained partnership with Puma County and CC4P that makes this work possible. Now therefore, I, Raime Romero, mayor of

the city of Tucson, Arizona, on behalf of mayor and council, do hereby proclaim the city of Tucson's ongoing and steadfast partnership with Puma County and the Community Coalition for Prosperity in the implementation of the Prosperity Initiative and call upon our residents, institutions, and leaders of Tucson to join us in our shared commitment to a future where every family in our community can prosper. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 21st day of April, 2026. Congratulations, Supervisor Allen. Will you grace us with a few words? Well, I I will say that I am absolutely riding on the coattails of amazing work that has been done by the vice mayor, by Bonnie Basata, community partners, uh previous members of the board of supervisors. So, it is it is it is an honor to to follow through with that work and support it. Um it absolutely takes all of us working together to combat poverty, uh generational poverty, and to build wealth. Um I every time I want to regground around the importance of the prosperity initiative, I always go back and look at wealth concentrations in this country and remembering that 1% of this country holds 30% of the wealth. And when you drill down even farther, I think it's for every dollar that a me the median white household has, a Latino family has 19 cents. And the wealth gap between the median white household and African-American families is a

difference of eight times. Right? So the gap is tremendous across the board and it drills down impacting some communities more than others. So all that is to say the work is so important and it is such an honor to be able to be part of it and share that commitment with everyone here and those across our community. Thank you very much. Did you want to add something? I should uh

Yeah. Offer an elected official a microphone. Are you kidding? I I would like to acknowledge the fact that this proclamation that we are accepting from Marin Council tonight and the proclamation that we gave to Vice Mayor Santa Cruz this morning at our meeting. Uh neither of them would be possible. All of the progress that we've made up till now, all of the progress that we're going to make moving forward would not be possible uh without the intellectual leadership of Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I just want to acknowledge you for getting us started on this path. Thank you so much,

Jenny Grabble of the uh Coalition for Prosperity.

Thank you all so much. It is really an honor of a lifetime to be amongst all of these incredible community leaders um leading this collaborative effort with the non-governmental sectors in our community. We are joining together in hands with our business community, with our extraordinary nonprofit community, with our philanthropic sector, um tying in faith-based communities because it takes a village to raise our children and our families and to create a prosperous future for all. So, we are deeply deeply honored to be here today acknowledging this partnership in this way and um just thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you all so much. Stephen Eddie with TP. Is Stephen here? Oh, Wendy.

Thank you so much. We're honored to be a part of this program and we truly encourage everyone that can contribute with their time, talent, and financial resources, especially the business community to step forward and join us in this effort. Important words. And Bonnie Basata, the core core architect of this work. Yes,

I am completely unprepared for this, but I I you know, I cannot tell you what an honor it is and to really have been able to to to work and really again, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz is the is the person who got this in motion and to have given me the trust and our group to really get this off the ground. But it it it takes all of us in the community and it's it really has an incredible foundation now with our city, our county representation and all these um uh non-governmental uh organizations working together. So, uh it's a generation I say it it's um it's cathedral thinking. It's going to take generations of work to make a difference. And you know what they say about you know if you if you you should have planted a tree 20 years ago. Well, let's start planning it now and we can all work together and really make this effort move forward. So, I'm so honored. Thank you so much.

And finally, um, Venicia, would you like to say Venia Kerr, CEO of United Way? I'm sorry. Put her on the spot. It's It's okay. I'm like, where do I where do I stand here? Okay, perfect.

Is this okay? All right. Wonderful. Um, I'm Oh, there we go. I am really pleased to be here representing United Way of Tucson in Southern Arizona. And what I will share with you is a portion of what you heard already and which is that first we are really honored to be a part of this initiative and to have the role of convening and being not only a supporter but a convenor of this work. We are also extremely thankful that we have uh received this proclamation. So, thank you so much for this. And what I will leave you with is something that you have heard, which is that the need is great. And what we also understand is that it is going to require more than one organization, more than one entity, more than one person in order to address the needs that we're seeing within our community today. It is going to require all of us working together. It is going to require collaboration and partnership in order to address the most pressing needs within our community. When we think about poverty, poverty does not happen by accident. And we know that it is going to take intentional work in order to address the issues that we are facing within our community. And so all of us have a role to play in supporting the people within our community to ensure that they can thrive.

Thank you. And finally, can we all take a picture? I know it's going to take some time, but please squish in that and look that way. I don't want to be behind. I don't want to be

It's Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. Maturing.

Thank you. Thank you. All righty. We're going to continue with the honors here. Um certainly not least, uh we have uh we wanted to recognize businesses enrolled in our voluntary freed cycle program. um they demonstrate a a strong commitment to sustainability and food food rate waste reduction. The two businesses being recognized tonight have distinguished themselves through exceptional participation in consistent adherence to program standards. The city of Tucson composting and and food waste reduction programs are a bold initiative designed to drive our community towards a more sustainable and resilient future. Organic materials comprise over 51% of municipal solid waste in landfills. Reducing food waste is one of the easiest and most effective things we can do to fight climate change. another uh nature-based solution for uh a changing climate in our world. Since 2024, our partners have helped to divert over 1.5 million pounds of food waste.

City of Tucson has distributed uh 2.8 million pounds of compost back to the community. Recognizing these businesses is essential as the success of the food cycle program depends on active and reliable engagement from our residents and commercial business partners. So our guests for this recognition tonight um are of course Carlos Deator, director of environmental services. I I saw him earlier today. Come join us as I call your name. Pat Tapia, environmental service administrator. Lisa Rotello, planner at environmental services. Lisa Tarpley, PIO at environmental services. Nancy Kluj, a president and CEO at Reed Park Zoo. Colin Davies, uh, manager at Raging Sage Coffee Roasters, Trevor Led Better, director of sustainability at the University of Arizona, Nat Shaw, compost cats at the University of Arizona, and any others willing to join us today. Okay. Um, our first recognition is to Nancy and Reed Park Zoo. There you go. So, award of appreciation and recognition to Reed Park Zoo. On behalf of Mayor Romero and the residents of the city of Tucson, we proudly recognize Reed Park Zoo in the large business category for its outstanding participation in composting through the city of Tucson's commercial food cycle program. Last year, Reed Park Zoo demonstrated an exceptional commitment to sustainability by diverting more than 200 gallons of food waste each week, maintaining very low contamination levels. These efforts play a vital role

in reducing methane emission in support of healthy environment which sets an example for our community. In recognition of their achievements, we present Reed Park Zoo with this award for leading the way in composting excellence with the food cycle commercial program in 2025. Given under my hand and seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona this 21st day of April, 2026. Congratulations. All righty. Our second recognition is to Raging Sage Coffee Roasters. Thank you so much. On behalf of Mayor Rahina Romero and the residents of the city of Tucson, we proudly recognize Raging Sage coffee roasters in the small business category for its outstanding participation in composting through the city of Tucson commercial food cycle program. Last year, raging sage coffee roasters demonstrated an exceptional commitment to sustainability by diverting their food waste each week while maintaining very low contamination levels. These efforts play a vital role in support of a healthy environment, strengthening the success of the food cycle program. In recognition of their achievements, we present Raging Sage Coffee Roasters with this award for leading the way in composting excellent with the food cycle commercial program in 2025. Congratulations. Thank you so much. And then I did want to invite Director Deator to say a couple of words if you'd like to uh say something. Mayor. Uh thank you uh members of the council. So this is an example where policy is put into action. So this is an example. It can't be any clearer any any more notable than that. We couldn't do

it without our partners with your direction with UFA uh Compost Cats and obviously some of our business partners. So can't thank them enough. It's a lot of work. Uh and so just can't thank them enough for for their efforts and and their ongoing support of the programs uh that we continue to to deploy uh out there in the community. So thank you for your guidance and direction. uh as we move forward with these climate action initiatives. Thank you, Mayor. Nancy, would you like to say a couple words?

Honorable mayor and members of the council, I want to most of all just thank you for supporting this program, uh which really helps our climate and uh also helps people as well. At Reed Park Zoo, we compost our animal um food, all the trimmings that we have. We have buckets at every lunchroom. Um but I the stars of the show are our elephant herd who generously contribute um threequarters of a ton daily of compost to to help our community. Um uh we also enjoy participating in teaching and offer space for uh our community to um learn about composting. And we're so fortunate to live in a community that cares so much about our climate. So thank you so much. We greatly appreciate it.

Thank you. Um, I would just like to say thank you on behalf of the Raging Sage for, uh, you know, presenting us with this award. Um, it means quite a bit. I'm also incredibly grateful to Compost Cats for all of their hard work that they've done. Uh, and thank you to the council members as well for, um, uh, creating these opportunities and like creating a system where this can actually happen. Um, I've worked in the restaurant industry for my entire adult life and the raging sage has so far been the only place that I've worked at that has actually had any sort of environmental composting program. And, uh, I'm incredibly grateful that the dozens of eggshells that I go through per day are actually getting put to good use. So, uh, just thank you very much.

Anyone else? Lisa. Yes.

Um to mayor and members of the council, thank you all so much for the uh for recognizing the work that we've been doing here. Um uh the university has been working with uh the city of Tucson for I think 12 years now. Um and so the partnership that we have had has been uh crucial to growing uh the the food cycle program from what was just food cycle commercial uh now to food cycle at home and food cycle at schools now. Um, and so to be able to see that growth over that period of time has been incredibly exciting. And to be able to do that while involving students at the university, uh, and working handinhand with the community has been, um, an incredible opportunity. And I only look forward to, uh, seeing what we can do from here. So, thank you all so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you to all. And the last thing we need to do is a picture. Get in. Come in both sides. Look out. We like each other. We can be close. Yeah. Squish in. Squish in. We all smell our

Thank you. Thank you so much. 17.

All righty. And this one I would love to uh call Scott Blades up. Jess, any family, friends that want to join him up here, please join him. We have a big Yes. All the contingency. Yes. Oh my goodness. So, you're going to have to hold this one. Look at how pretty it has the state of Arizona.

All righty. So, award of appreciation and recognition presented to Scott Blades in honor of his retirement from Tihon after 30 years of dedicated service and meaningful contributions to our LGBTQIA community. I'd like to welcome all of the friends and family and co-workers that are joining us today. On behalf of myself and my colleagues on the council, we thank you for all of the incredible work that you have done for our community in a super important um area uh of the work that is needed for us to advance equity and justice for all. And so on behalf of Mayor Raa Romero and the residents of the city of Tucson, we proudly recognize Scott Blades for more than three decades of extraordinary civic leadership, compassion, and unwavering dedication to supporting individuals and families living with HIV. Through your vision and commitment, what began as a simple act of care and companionship grew into a powerful communitywide movement. As founder and longtime executive director of the Tucson Interfaith HIV AIDS network, you brought together faith communities, volunteers, nonprofits, and partners to ensure that no person would face their journey alone. Under your leadership, thousands of volunteers have contributed countless hours of service, providing meals, care packages, and vital support services that have improved the quality of life for people living with HIV across southern Arizona. Your work has strengthened awareness, reduced stigma, and built a more compassionate and inclusive Tucson. In appreciation of your lasting contributions, we honor you

and celebrate your remarkable service to our community. We hereby proclaim this day, April 21st, 2026, as Scott Blades Day in the city of Tucson, Arizona. You didn't know that one, huh? given under the hand my hand and the seal of city of Tucson, Arizona this 21st day of April 2026. Congratulations. Do you want to say something?

So, it has been the honor of my life to serve this community through THN. Um, and I know you're here with these folks, uh, and 20 more that didn't make it, who were outside, um, who didn't make it in, but, um, I know you're here celebrating me and my decades of service and the impact I've made, helped make, but really it's the people here and so many thousands of others um, who have been the heart and soul of Than, our care partners living with HIV, some of whom are here today, uh, our volunteers, our faith communities, our donors, our businesses, um the clergy, the lay people, uh the nonprofits, the business folks, the donors. Um we do this work together, right? So many people think that um HIV is still like the old days. uh when we started when we were helping people to die. Fortunately, things have changed and today we're able to help people live well and that's what this amazing team of people have been doing with Tihon for so many years um giving their hearts, giving their time, uh giving their love and support, making a difference. So, I want to acknowledge um Kim and Ted and Kelly and Jerry and Ed and Becky and Claudia and Denise and Tim and Magda and um Lupita and Gibb and Tina and Don and Don and um Dan and my sister Paula, my sister Kim, Lady Cat, uh John Gavino, all the people outside that didn't make it in, my amazing husband Jess Loya. Um, thank you for making this impact possible. Thank you for this award, uh, this recognition to all of the mayor and council members. I appreciate it greatly. Um, and I don't know what my next step will be after

retiring from Thihon. Uh, but you can you can count on me. Commissions and committees. All right, sounds good. We'll keep fighting. We'll keep fighting. Thank you. Um, Tim, Tim, do you want to say something? So, Tim and then Lupita, I think I had you listed. I don't know if I'm surprising you.

Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mayor Council. Thank you, Scott. I just wanted to say that I have been a care partner or a client with Tihon and I have known Scott for at least 30 years and this man has made not only an impact on my life but on our community not just the HIV community or the LGBTQ community but our community in Tucson as a whole and our state. There's no other program like Tihon in the world and there's no other man like Scott Blades. Thank you. One more.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. Uh, a I've been associated with Tihon as a care partner since 2001. In that time, not just myself, but I've seen Scott open the eyes of this entire community, not just to HIV, but the LGBTQ, but to hatred, to stigma. He he has knocked down doors. Um I said it earlier and I will say it again. There is one little blurb from scripture that most defines this gentleman and that is um love thy neighbor as you love thyself. This is the embodiment. I true wholeheartedly believe he has made an impact on my entire family. Not just my wife, not just my three kids, my sister in Albuquerque, my father, my mother, and uh alls I can never say is thank you for your time. Thank you for your patience with me and with everybody else.

Uh thank you, mayor and councel, for acknowledging my husband, Scott. And Scott, um remarkable. As I said, you know, I hope to grow up to be a fraction of the man you are. And I'm just so proud of you. Um, and I've just se watched you nights, you know, personally handwriting letters, um, being at people's bedside when they're transitioning from this world, letting them know that they're they were loved and that they were seen, validated, and just all the work that you have done. I'm so proud of you. So, congratulations. Now we're going to take a picture. Squish them, please. You sure?

Good. Thank you

committee. Item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. City manager communication number 110 dated April 21st is received into and made part of the record. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? All righty. Hearing none, we move on to item three. Mayor and council report summary of current events.

City managers communication number 108 dated April 21st is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow 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? All right. We're going to start over there with the vice mayor. All right. Thank you, uh, mayor for the opportunity. Um, I was honored to join the Sierra Club and community partners on Friday's Arizona Clean Energy Roundt at the Tucson Small Business Center. I want to thank all the folks that um, showed up. Uh we especially got to talk about the challenges for small businesses in our community with rising energy costs. I'm especially grateful to Elenia Gillard, the senior campaign organizer with Beyond Cole, Sierra Club for facilitating this conversation and our state representative Stephanie Saw Hamilton and Betty Bie for their leadership and insight at the state level. Um, and so again, just want to thank um the organizers for creating a space for honest dialogue and um uplifting community voices. Uh, we look forward to continuing that work. Um, I just wanted to do a quick plugin. Um, today I'm celebrating my daughter Sik Mella Red Lightning who turns 11. She is Mikoras and she inspires me every day. Um, and then, uh, couple weeks ago, mayor, um, you and I were proud to participate in the ribbon cutting of the Desert Dove Apartments, the first affordable housing development in Ward One since I've been in office and a Yes in God's Backyard project located in Midville Park on Tucson Southside. This project reflects strong collaboration across community public partners in the faith communities to expand um access to safe and stable housing. I want to thank

um the Desert Dove Faith Community for this vision to make this project possible. GHK Properties for their partnership and a special thanks to Christopher of GHK Properties um for coming to Tucson and and helping us campus in support of this effort. And then finally, um, join myself and council member Selena Barahas for the fifth annual Da Nes at Mission Manor Park from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. This celebration is all about making our children feel seen, celebrated, and surrounded by love. Enjoy free food, music, activities, and our crowd favorite, the hose down, um, by our Tucson uh, firefighters. Um, as we create joyful memories together, and we look forward to celebrating with all of you. Thank you.

Thank you. Council member Cunningham.

So the on April 4th, Arizona went to the final four, but believe it or not, that wasn't the only final four going on. Uh here in Tucson, Male Center actually hosted the men's and women's wheelchair basketball tournament. Um it generated some significant um it made a significant uh contribution to the economy. But that aside, it was actually really cool to be able to host that event. I wanted to give a shout out to Pete Hughes from the University of Arizona adapted athletics to getting it off the ground and making it happen. It was a tough climb to get selected as a host city and the community came together to do it. Uh Chris Desbro from my office actually had a big hand in doing some of the event planning as well and I know they had a great time attending the games. So congratulations to University of Arizona Adaptive Athletics on successfully hosting the wheelchair basketball final four. wanted to thank the DM50. Uh the DM50 is a group of civilians in Tucson that uh supports the efforts of the the United States Air Force here in Tucson. They had their annual picnic and car show uh last week and it was attended by about 4,000 people. It was a pretty incredible site to see all the airmen and it was interesting to u talk to some of our service m members who've been stationed here some for just a couple months and some for many years and get their perspectives about Tucson and uh I think there's an opportunity to have more efforts have them integrate into what we do here. Uh, I also want to congratulate the Tucson Wright uh T therapeutic writing of Tucson, excuse me, the therapeutic writing of Tucson. Uh, this is a equin social service program that works with uh special needs children and they they just uh were able to add on to their facility out in W 2 and they held their annual horsing around event and raised $30,000. I want to congratulate the Tucson Fire

Department bombber softball team for winning the city softball tournament. I got to play on the city manager's office team. Uh a spot opened up. Thank you, Kevin D. Um and it's actually a really great event to all the city employees who participate. I see it as an event that will build camaraderie and I think it's something that's really special for all of us. Uh last Wednesday I attended the United Cable Poly Southern Arizona and their workability program. Their workability program is a program that takes folks with special needs and allows them to uh work in the community at um at a fair wage at a w at at a at a inclusive wage. And I think that's a really exciting program. But what's interesting about Tucson is that we actually have 1,800 participants in that program, which is much higher for most of the cities our size. It's a $23 million influx to our economy. And celebrating that at United Cable Pulsey was pretty special. I'd like to my to encourage my colleagues on the council to consider creating additional uh internships through workability uh for people with disabilities in partnership with with UCPA. It's something that we could we should have been doing already, but it's an amazing opportunity. Um, congratulations to the Tucson Fire Academy graduates of 252. We added 30 new firefighters. Um, congratulations to Koi who was uh named Soul uh firefighter super boot. He was named the best the best recruit in the cycle. So, congratulations to him. Uh, and congratulations to all of our firefighters, our brand new 30 firefighters. And speaking of that, we had a 15.2 acre fire in Wu last week along the wash. Um, and it probably

could have gotten out of control and burned some of our houses down, but we had an incredible response uh from the fire department who had it under control within about an hour. It actually smoldered and burned all night for the next about 36 hours. and we had wilderness crews on site that whole time. So, I wanted to acknowledge the firefighters who were able to do that. I want to give an up an update on Fort L pool. I talked about last week how Fort L pool or last meeting how Fort Lool has a leak and we couldn't find where the water was going and we took the risk of cutting the pool open to try to locate the reef. And we did we did find the leaks. We drained the pool and investigated where it was. They found it. They're going to patch everything up and fingers crossed we're going to be able to get that pool open this summer. So, thank you for the parks team and everybody else very very happy with um with with our parks department and getting the uh Fort Lool salvaged. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member D.

Thank you, Mayor. Tomorrow is Earth Day. Um the first Earth Day was 1970, 56 years ago. I was in eighth grade and I started celebrating them. Then I remember one of the images that was so crucial to our celebration of the earth and wanting to protect it was the first image of earth from astronauts in the Apollo program. The earth rising over the moon gave us a sense of we are on this earth together throughout the throughout and I was thought of that recently when there were new photos of earth from a new set of astronauts who went on the other side of the moon and showed us how precious our planet is. Well, my friend little Sammy Sarro has come with me to encourage you to celebrate Earth Day some way, especially with kids. Get out in nature. We have a beautiful sonor and desert that we want to protect. There's lots of different events. I'm going to announce two in Ward 3. Um, join me and the mayor on Friday at a cleanup in the Dodge Flower neighborhood near Alberon and Grant Road. Friday from 9 to 11 at the wing starting at the Wings of Freedom Apartments at 2425 North Haskell Drive. And then something unusual and if you haven't done this, I encourage you to try it at the Danny Lopez Park. Um, the friends of Danny Lopez are doing a biob blitz. They're inviting everybody, children, all ages, all abilities to join them in inventorying all the different species of plants and animal around the lake in that interesting riparian habitat. Very unique vegetation, interesting plants and animals. All you need is a smartphone. They'll show you how to download the app. You don't even know have to know anything. You take a picture with your phone and it suggests, "Oh, that's a bird." And it gets registered and and will be important as we go forward in understanding what's happening at Danny Lopez Park. So again, happy Earth from me and from little Sammy Sarro.

Thank you, Council Member. Uh, Councilman Lee, never possible to follow that. And I have no announcements tonight. Mayor, thank you. Council member Vakas.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to take a moment to ground us in both the progress and the responsibility we carry as a community. In Ward 5, we are seeing both the progress we've been working towards and the moments that remind us why this work matters so deeply. On April 10th, I had the opportunity to attend the historic groundbreaking just down the street from our W 5 office at Larott Village, a new 120 unit workforce housing community coming to 860 East Irvington Road. Projects like this matter because they move us closer to making sure more Tucson families have access to safe, stable, and attainable housing. This village will offer below market rate homes that reflect the real needs we continue to hear from our community. This progress is possible because of strong collaboration between partners like Tool Design Group, Puma County, the Arizona Department of Housing, and many others committed to expanding housing opportunities across our city. And I want to thank you, Mayor Romero, for helping move efforts like this forward. I also want to recognize and acknowledge the G family who entrusted this space for development. This place holds deep meaning in our community and today it represents continued investment in the future of Ward 5. This past weekend we celebrated service and commitment at the Tucson Fire Department family night honoring the 30 new firefighters who have officially joined the ranks. My war five team and I were grateful to stand with them and their families during this milestone. Congrats to all our new firefighters. I want to take a moment to celebrate one of our own. I would like to offer a huge congratulations to our Ward 5 intern Amy Aldama from PBLO High School. She has been recognized as a recipient of the Victoria Teresa Arias Memorial Foundation scholarship, receiving $40,000 to support her college education. We are so proud of her and excited to see all that lies ahead. This past weekend was another example how preparation, service, and community

care show up across our city. I attended Chispa Arizona's preparing for the summer heat event to learn more about the efficiency Arizona rebate program and other resources available to help families prepare for extreme heat this summer. I also had the opportunity to present alongside Fatima Luna, our city chief resilience officer, and I'm looking forward to continuing these important conversations. This weekend, we have so many fun events, and I would love to see you all there. On Saturday, April 25th from 9 to 10:30 at the Yao PBLO Activity Center, Mini Ponder Rosas is hosting an emotional intelligence session for families and daughters and it is free to sign up. Also on Saturday, as our vice mayor mentioned, I would like to personally invite you all and your families to join us at Mission Manor Park from 10 to 1 to 1 pm, ward 1 and ward 5 are coming together to host a free family-friendly event with food, music, resources, and interactive activities for kids. I'm excited to partner with you, Vice Mayor. I have attended for the past four years alongside my family, my two younger daughters, and now I'm honored to be part of bringing it to life among um along our teams. Looking ahead on Saturday, May 2nd from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Please join us for story time at the Children's Peace Garden at Manuel Heretta Junior Park. This event is in collaboration with Valencia Library and the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association. We look forward to gathering with families in the park for learning, connection, and joy. That same day, we are also eager to attend Fiesta in the Park, the grand opening of Julia Keane Storm Water Park from 10 to 2:00 p.m. at Park View Park. We'll be joining Flowers and Bullets, Puma County Flood Control, and the Julia Keane Neighborhood Association in Storm to Shade for this community celebration. Before I close, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a heartbreaking loss in our Tucson community. We extend our deepest condolences to the family and

loved ones of three-year-old Anna Garcia, who tragically lost her life in a high-speed crash at Valencia Country Club Road on April 10th. Many of us have deeply been impacted by this loss. Her parents, Manny and Bri Garcia, along with her older sister, Emmy, and her newborn sister, born just days after this tragedy, have shared their grief with the community that came together to honor their daughter at a candlelight vigil at Silver Lake Park this past week. A place where little Anna actually took some of her first steps. This moment calls on all of us to come together to grieve, to support one another, and to continue advocating for safer streets and safer spaces for our families and our youth. We must show up for one another and keep building a stronger, more connected community rooted in care and accountability. I do not want to witness another family endure this kind of pain again. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Schubert.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Barahas. Um, we're going to stay in that space of talking about the impact of traffic violence on our communities. Um, so the last time I made a report was at our April 7th meeting. Um, and as I was making it that report, I didn't realize that there were multiple other fatalities that had occurred the same day that I didn't report on. Um, so it just underscores the fact that this is an ongoing situation. So on April 7th alone, a 37year-old and a 36-year-old both died within minutes of each other in separate locations. Uh, one was a cyclist, the other was a pedestrian. A 25-year-old motorcyclist also lost their life. There's also a four vehicle crash that same day near Vale on the I 10. Um, one of the vehicles rolled over. Three people were trapped inside until other people stopped to get them out. on April 10th, as council member Braha so beautifully paid tribute to um Anna Garcia, uh three-year-old member of Flowers and Bullets. Um and it's been beautiful to witness the way the community has come together to support her family. Um TPD said that the 22-year-old and 16-year-old drivers were street racing when they caused a crash that split another vehicle in half. Uh this only happens when vehicles are going at very high speeds and uh you know as council member Ra has said we we need to take action here on the council to um prevent these deaths from occurring. Um I will look forward to collaborating with my colleagues on the council to enact proactive datadriven interventions to make our roads safer. Also on April 10th a pedestrian suffered serious injuries. We had a hit-and-run crash on April 10th. Uh on April 12th, a 23-year-old was thrown from his pickup truck and died from his injuries a few days later. Um pedestrian deaths are up nearly 300% for this year compared to the same time in 2025. These summaries only reflect the reports I've been able to locate in news outlets

and don't capture the full scale of how dangerous our roads are. The other thing that happened when I was making my traffic violence report at the last meeting was my wife and her friend were literally witnessing a cyclist getting hit and partially rolled over by a car on 6th Avenue near downtown. When the paramedic lifted up the back of the cyclist shirt, my wife could see the tire marks. So, I came home from the meeting and heard about this. Um, fortunately, several bystanders stuck around and held the driver accountable. Um, he was speeding. These things don't happen unless you're speeding. Um, so just these reports are in an effort to underscore the responsibility that we have on the council to do everything that we can to prevent traffic violence. Moving on to um upcoming events, um we hope that you'll help shape the future of transit by weighing in on route changes. Sunran is propo proposing route and service enhancements to routes 489 102x 104x 108x sun on demand along with the new route 124x and new centran bus stop sign design. These recommendations are all a part of the 2024 comprehensive operational analysis study and we have to we have to approve those recommendations here on the mar and council um in order to take effect in August. So we we really want to hear from you. We encourage writers and community members to attend a 1-hour session and provide feedback on the future of Suntrans transit system. Um information is in the W 6 newsletter or you can reach out to us for details. Um also don't forget we're holding um five budget information sessions. The city of Tucson is presenting the city manager's recommended budget to the community. Um again that information is in the W 6 newsletter. You can reach out to us for that information. And finally, we hope you can make it to our special cleanup event in celebration of Earth Day. That's happening tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8:30 a.m. We're going to meet in the northwest parking lot of PCC's 29th

Street Coalition at 8:30. Bring your friends, kick off the day with Ward 6, and uh pick up some trash in the 29th Thrive Zone. Thank you so much. That concludes my report.

Thank you, Council Member Schubert. So, as an update, I I you know, was too honored to be at the candlelight vigil of Anna Garcia with their entire entire family and it was devastating and um we wanted to make sure that we had an update. I know that Councilwoman Lee uh and the entire mayor and council uh requested investment um on uh drag racing on our streets. Uh we put forward about I believe about $900,000 to um really empower our police department and deploy as much as we possibly can uh to prevent these tra uh tragedies. Um, and as a result, Councilman Lee, Council Member Barakas, and I will bring to the mayor and council an update uh of the progress or lack of of of this issue to the May 5th um study session. We will be discussing that and other um possibilities of making uh to make our streets safer. Uh so as you said, Council U Member Schubert, it's about acting and uh making sure that we make our streets safer for all. On a lighter note, I want to congratulate our newest 24 police officers who will serve our communities with dedication, integrity, and heart. Thank you so much to our Tucson Chief of Police Monto, the leadership from uh Arizona Game and Fish, Oral Valley PD, Ngales PD, Casag Grande PD, Morirana PD uh for their

partnership and commitment to public safety across our region. I want to congratulate our newest officers, 24 new officers, um for their um commitment to serving our community. uh with courage your actions will be a light that inspire others to believe in the good of public service. So congratulations to class 253 for becoming our newest members of our public safety family. Uh with that we are moving on to item four city manager report summary of current events. City manager's communication number 109 dated April 21st is received into made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow the city manager to report on current events.

Thank you, honorable mayor. I think you all covered many of my notes for tonight, but the one that I'll uh still present for the evening is just an announcement that the city of Tucson broke ground last week on Amazon Flats, which is a 59 unit affordable housing community with one one-bedroom apartments that will expand access to quality housing in Tucson. This milestone marks another major step in investing in the historic Miracle Mile corridor. Uh my many thanks to the mayor and members of the council that joined us for the groundbreaking celebration alongside our partners, community leaders, and neighbors. Amazon Flats is located at 11:35 West Miracle Mile, and it's the second project on that site. The first was the transformation of the Amazon Hotel Motel into a 30-unit permitive supportive housing project, which opened last September. Construction of the 24.4 4 million development of Amazon flats is expected to be completed in fall of 2027. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Item five, liquor license applications. City managers communication number 114 dated April 21st is received into made part of the record. Madame clerk, are there any liquors license applications to be approved at this time? No, your honor. There are no liquor licenses on this evening's agenda. I think that's the first time I've ever witnessed no liquor license applications in the city of Ducson. Um, October 2015. I'm just kidding, your honor. Item six, call to the audience. Madame Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes. At this time, any member of the public is allowed to address the mayor and council on any issue except for items scheduled for public hearing at this meeting. Call to the audience will last for 30 minutes and speakers are limited to three minute presentations. The green light will turn on when you're called to speak. It will turn yellow when you have 30 seconds remaining and then it will turn red and beep when your time is up. At that time, please conclude your comments. Righty, our first speaker is Megan Hughes.

Turn green. Does it turn green? Oh, good evening, Mayor Romero and council members. My name is Megan Hughes and I'm a Tucson resident. I'm the president of Tucson Area Pickleball, a 501c4 nonprofit that originally worked with the city to build pickle ball courts that would be free to all. Now, the parks department is proposing that a management company charge fees for the UD Doll pickup courts. Marilamero posted yesterday to say that you have difficult decisions to make. We get it. You have to decide how to spend shrinking tax dollars. So why shouldn't pickle ball players at UD Doll pay to help fund amenities at other parks? Why should pickle ball players get to play for free? And the answer is equity. Numerous other recreational park amenities at UD Doll. The dog park, splash pad, botchi courts, walking pass, playground, and more are all provided free of charge. No outdoor recreational activity that we're aware of is charged for recreational play. Imposing fees solely on outdoor pickleball users raises significant concerns regarding fairness and equitable access to public recreational resources. In the interest of equity, parks could charge a fee to park at UD Doll. That way, everyone shares the burden. Parks and Wreck is selling their proposal as a way to recover costs, but there are almost no costs at the courts. So, you're asking pickle ball players to fund other amenities at other parks that they don't even use. TPRD is offering free play at two different parks that only have three courts and no lights. Three courts are not enough to have community play and obviously the courts can't be used at night. UD doll is unique. I urge you to go item by item in the notice of intent

to approve each of park's suggested fees separately. Some of the fees and increases are needed to truly recover costs. Pickle ball is not one of those amenities. Why does this matter to each one of you? Winter visitors who come to Tucson specifically to play pickle ball at UD Doll spend money and rent lodging in every ward in the city. Players at UD Doll live in every ward in the city and vote for all the council members and the mayor. You represent us all. There are over 2500 members of the UD Doll pickle ball Facebook group and we are an involved group. I emailed you a position statement from TAP last week. I ask you all to read it before you vote no to pickle ball fees June 9th and help TAP work to find a solution that will make everyone happy. Thank you.

Thank you.

I think Leonard Leonard Finkele. Good evening, Mayor Romero and members of city council. My name is Leonard Finkele and I live in Tucson. I'm a board member of Tucson Area Pickle Ball, TAP for short. You may not be aware of who we are or what we do, but we were a major impetus to building the pickle ball courts at UD Doll Park. As the city did not budget any money for maintenance, TAP stepped up and spent approximately $55,000 for maintenance and upgrades. We were recently discussing with parks and wreck another $40,000 plus in maintenance and upgrades. I distributed sheets to you detailing these expenses. We also propose using private funds to build the six new courts at UD Doll Park. That would take the burden off the city. Should the city decide to keep pickle ball at UD Doll Park free to the public, TAP is willing to assume the responsibility and financial burden of improvements and upkeep of UD Doll pickle ball courts. Should you decide to charge a fee, we shall resend our offer for the latest improvements. I won't discuss how charging fees at UD Doll will destroy the culture we built over the years. I'll leave that to others. I will show you the charging fees will be a money loser instead of a profit center. Parks and Rex proposed a fee of $3.50 per court for one and a half hours. That will eliminate the major draw of open play. Whether it be that change of culture, unaffordability for some, or the anger and resentment of others, the pool of player will be a small fraction of what exists today. There are 14 entry points to the courts. To control the flow of people would require some type of barrier or fencing that could cost between 50 and $100,000, plus replacing the $40,000 that TAP was

willing to donate. For seven months a year, the pickle ball courts at UD Doll are full about six hours a day at $3.50 per court. That equals $35,280. In the afternoon, the courts are dead. Obviously, there'll be some off- peak play and additional revenue, although it's difficult to speculate how much. I would venture to say that with a fee structure, the courts would almost never be full and often empty. The five months of the off season would be a ghost town, including staffing 16 hours a day, paying for the fencing and all the additional maintenance. It will be difficult for a management company to make a profit. It's not a rosy picture for any management company, the city, or our pickle ball community. Why risk all of this when TAP is ready to cover the costs at UD Doll Park for pickle ball? Thank you for your time. I hope you'll consider our offer. And thank you, Congressman, uh, excuse me, Councilman Cunningham, for your support.

Thank you, Hector Mas. Hector Mas.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm here today to speak on behalf of myself and my colleagues at Suntran. I am a coach operator and would like to speak about unsafe workplace transit practices and how they create dangerous environments not only for workers but the general public. When transit safety takes a backseat on the bus, the danger does not stop at our doors. The danger extends into our streets, our communities, and our homes. Unsafe practices like the absence of security on board the bus, poor maintenance schedules for our equipment, failure of our support systems to follow safety protocols, rush route schedules, and a lack of proper training puts a public at direct risk of harm. For example, a majority of the ridership on Sunran city buses are the unhoused, many of whom suffer from addiction and or are mentally ill. I state this by my own observation and lived experiences. Many of those unhoused passengers utilize the transit system as mobile shelters and as a means to engage in illicit activities, especially as it relates to obtaining and abusing fentanyl. The bus is a congregate setting for people in crisis where there is no present trained in crisis management. This puts drivers and the public at risk. When workplace safety fails, it is a public who pays the price. A safe workplace is not only a worker's right, it is the employer's responsibility. While the city is not our direct employer, you are responsible for public safety. You are responsible to uphold the rule of law and maintain order. Assaults on drivers are still too common of an occurrence. Approximately one month ago, a female driver was attacked at the end of the line by a male passenger. This was an act of sexual violence. This was a driver at the mercy of a man who meant her harm. She received no assistance from Suntran or TBD as she waited vulnerable at the scene for over 30 minutes. Do you know why this happens to Sunran drivers and

not Sunlink operators? They have an enclosed cab while we have a sneeze guard for protection. We are about We are about as safe as the bagels in this um bakery at Safeway. We all deserve to feel safe whether we are on the road, at work, shopping, or simply walking through our neighborhoods. Safety must always come first because in this case protecting workers means protecting the community. We are telling you we are not safe on the bus. I ask you today, why won't you believe us? Why can you not hear our voices? Mayor and council, at what point is enough enough? I stand here before you to remind you that despite all these unfortunate events, you still have dedicated public servants that move this city day in day out. But there comes a time when we all reach our breaking point. That time is now. So, I implore you to um take action. Safety should not be a topic that gets lip service from time to time. It should be a focal point in every aspect of our community that includes public service. There can be no prosperity without our health, well-being. This lawlessness cannot continue in the city, Tucson. And thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Merc. Lenel Sana. Lenel Sana.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. I have to get my glasses on so I can see what I wrote. My name is Lenel Serran and I do live in Tucson and I'm here to speak about UD Doll pickle ball. UD Doll pickle ball. you might think is just a place to play pickle ball and it's more than that. It's a real community hub. It's built around connection. And what makes it so unique is it's welcoming, meaning open play. People come, you don't have to have a partner. You don't have to have a foresome. You can be all by yourself. You can be old. You can be young. You can put your paddle up in the rack and you can play pickle ball. And you're not just playing pickle ball. You're you're making a friend. You're meeting people. You're connecting and this simple dynamic of playing like that breaks down barriers. You can be it brings people together of all ethnicities from all wards from all ages. We have kids playing. We have high school kids playing which I'm hoping he'll speak to you. We have seniors playing. We have an 84 year old woman playing with us. So talk about safe family places. Pickle at UD Doll is one of those places. It's the village that that woman was talking about. Players aren't just competing. We celebrate birthdays. We celebrate um when someone finishes chemotherapy. We celebrate all these moments. And we also support people when they lose a loved one or a spouse. We're that village. We're that community. And that's what makes UD Doll pick such an a unique place to have in Tucson. And UD Doll is also one of these places that I've talked to so many people from out of town. They come to UD Doll specifically and to Tucson specifically to play pickle ball here for their winters. And so they're they're spending money in the the shops and the hardware stores and

our restaurants. So it's not just pickle ball. It's not just a sport. It's actually an economic advantage for Tucson to have UD doll pickle ball. People are spending money here. they're really being um you know a good economic feed for for Tucson. Introducing a payto-play system would fundamentally change all that. It would break that system. It creates barriers for people. Families with small children, they can't pay. I mean, we saw we see fathers taking their three kids and they're teaching them how to play. Um and politics right now, it's dividing us. It's so divisive that people feel isolated. Kids are on their phones. This is a place where people talk. We teach kids how to be respectful, how to be friendly, how to it promotes friendliness. It promotes communication and and in a time with social isolation. UD doll pickle ball is the solution to that. It's not a problem. So, please work with Tucson um area pickle ball tap to come up with a solution because it's the best thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Patricia Patricia Burell Patricia Burell Patricia Patricia

Bowerley. Yes. Thank you. Sorry I couldn't I didn't hear. Sorry I couldn't read. I couldn't.

Okay. Um, please continue funding Armory Park Senior Center and its variety of activities, including exercise classes designed for aging well. I am a 60-year-old longtime Tucson resident with a variety of cognitive spatial visual pro visual processing, short-term memory and visual motor coordination disabilities, a variety of psychosocial disabilities and two different physical disabilities who depends upon the Armory Park Senior Center to help provide me with physical functionality, mental well-being, cognitive stimulation, social support, entertainment, and quality of life. Our Marie Park Senior Center is a lifeline for many of us seniors and actually helps to save us and our community with very expensive health care costs and more disabilities with focus on prevention maintenance and improving. The variety of activities that Armory Park Senior Center offers include specially designed exercise classes, sign language classes, games, arts and crafts, entertainment, meals, and dining time together in addition to field trips. Armory Park Senior Center also provides a variety of wellness classes and activities. Armory Park Senior Center also has at least two volunteer instructors, one of which has been volunteering tai teaching tai chichi a second day a week due to popular demand and has been garnering attendance of approximately 20 seniors with a variety of aging issues per session. And that's just merely one of the fabulous activities that Armory Park Senior Center offers. The center helps Tucson residents look forward to instead of dreading becoming a senior. If Armory Park Senior closes center closes, I would personally likely have to sacrifice much needed sleep and medical appointments in order to attend exercise classes at another center since I depend upon public transportation for both my mental and physical health. I want to avoid sacrificing sleep and medical appointments. The public Sunlink Street car and most public buses seem to stop

at Ronstat Transit Center, which has restrooms and is in walking distance of Armory Park Senior Center, making the senior center more accessible and equitable for more people than any other center in Tucson. Armory Park Senior Center specializes in staff and volunteers who are trained, experienced, knowledgeable, and interested in working with seniors. Thus, Army Park Senior Center is an irreplaceable service to our community, should be considered indispensable, and receive high priority for funding. Please also refer to letters emailed months ago, and more recently by me and other Army Park Senior Center members to Tucson City Council and the city manager and the two different petitions about the need for for continued funding for Armory Park Senior Center. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Sally fixes. Sally fixes. Sally fixes.

Sally, you'll tell me how how you pronounce your last name.

Doesn't seem this. Okay. I'm here. I don't have a speech. I'm not prepared for this. So, I'm just going to speak from my gut. We have people that are living in the parks for free. They are riding our buses for free. They're sleeping for free and transporting their drugs on our buses and in our streets for free. Why do we have them riding for free? I pay for my transportation. I pay to work just to do my transportation and to live in my place. So why shouldn't they have to pay fairs? I don't think that it's fair that they are writing for free. That we are providing them and making easy for the people out there that don't want any help to live for free. And I'm paying for that. We're all paying for that. You know, we wasted so much time. I'm not saying we're wasting time, but we did waste a lot of time with all the conversation we had earlier. And we're limited on what we can speak now. And that's not fair to us because this meeting was supposed to be here so we could tell you what we feel and what we think we should be should be done. And if you notice a lot of them are gone. Nobody seems to care what they're what we're doing in our jobs. So I think we need to bring the fairs back and we need to let pickle ball be free. You say what we need to work together. Well, this is unity. We're all united here. This is working together. So, I think that's what we should do.

Lola wing. Lola wing. Lola wing. Lola wing. Somebody gonna take them.

Thank you. Uh all of a sudden my I'm too nervous, but I'm going to do my best here. My name is Lola Wing. I'm um Oh my god. Hold on a second. Okay. I live in Tucson and I say greetings Mayor Rao Romero and city council members. I am the president of the Armory Park Senior Center Club number one that has been operating in Armory since 1959. Today I bring these letters to your attention written by elders who attend the center. Some of us live in the three or four senior housing complexes right in downtown area and nearby. You may have seen us scooting down two or three blocks to the center in our wheelchairs. Others walk or ride their bike there. Some drive or travel by bus or sun van. I especially want to draw your attention to feedback from those who, after having gone to other centers in Tucson that offer activities for seniors, choose Armory Park Senior Center as their primary home away from home. What makes our center unique? It is the only center in Tucson that is designated solely for elders so that we can be among folks of our own age group. Many of us go daily and don't forget a number of us regularly support businesses in the downtown area during the day and late afternoon. We are able and disabled. We are Chana,

Latinex, Hispanic, Tono, Atam, Yaki, AfricanAmerican, Chinese, Thai, Japanese from the country of Georgia, and Anglo. We represent a mix of poor, workingclass, and welloff folks, ages ranging from 50 to a recently lost 97year-old young one. I come here today because I believe if the city if the Tucson City Council would only listen to our stories, you will do the right thing. keep Armory Park Senior Center open without raising fees so there continues to be a safe space for our city's elders to gather downtown with each other and enjoy socializing and participating in the thoughtful variety of activities offered by the staff and volunteers some of whom are elders and others who are studying at the University of Arizona. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss H. Emory Johnson. Emory Johnson. Henry.

Um, good evening. Um, Mayor Romero and council members. My name is Henry Gmerson. I have lived in Tucson for 5 years and one of my favorite activities to do is pickle ball. I live in Indian Ridge just 5 minutes down the road from UD Doll. And oftent times as I lifeguarded and I got off of work, I would go play pickle ball with my friends. Um, I am currently a full-time high school student. I have a 4.0 MR straight A student at one of the top rank high schools in the nation. And this is such an important issue to me that I'm taking time out of my day to study for my finals to speak on this um enacted fee. Pickle ball is not just a sport to me. It is a place to stay active and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The majority of my friends, whether they be from school, work, or neighborhood friends, will often join me in big rounds to play. over the summer in the past. The full courts, the friendly chatter, and the sound of pickle ball is something that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Not only do I see the UD Doll pickle ball courts as a place for me to stay active, but a safe place for me to meet new people and to learn a different sport. I'm a swimmer, so obviously learning a ball sport was hard for me, but but this gave me the opportunity to do so. I've met many kind people, old or young, who have taught me how to be a better person in and out of the game. I become close with a lot of my friends through pickle ball and this sport focuses on sportsmanship and working with other people. It is a quick sport to pick up and for everyone of all ages and all playing levels to enjoy. Enacting a fee on these courts will not only decrease younger players but discourage attendance and high numbers. On many nights that I have played, there have been well over 50 people. The courts have been full. There have people have just been coming and coming and coming. By starting a fee, individuals will not only stop playing, but connections that are so easily made here will decrease. I have seen kids as young as 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 playing with their parents, playing with individuals who order who are older than them. And these kids are learning lessons that they can carry into their adulthood where they may not be able to do elsewhere. Prohibiting something that is so easily accessible will only bring negative

consequences. My own mother who has a doctorate in physical therapy and who has been working in her field for 27 years to rehabilitate individuals back to their original mobility had also some things to say. She states that the importance that everyone has access to free and fun exercise is most important to the mind and body. In placing a fee prohibits individuals this will negatively impact us no matter who. All socioeconomic statuses are able to participate now and in a time where people are struggling in our economy. This will limit recreational fund, pushing individuals back into isolation. Having access to free exercise is important, and restricting this access will only negatively impact our community. I urge you, uh, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, Council Member Cunningham, Council Member Dah, Council Member Lee, Council Member Bahraas, Council Member Schubert, and Mayor Romero, please listen to us. Listen to our voices, and listen to the people here. Whether it's someone new to the game or someone who's been playing for 10 years, the pickleball courts are not only a place where I have gotten better better at pickle ball, but where I have met friends, maintain an active lifestyle, and made lifelong memories. Thank you.

Thank you,

Emory Johnson. Emory Emory Johnson to the mayor of council. Uh my name is Emry Johnson. I uh live in Tucson. I uh work for Sun Van. I'm the chief union steward there. Um here to talk about uh reinstating some fairs. Um actually our disabled um passengers are uh being underserved here because of that because of the lack of resources. disabled community have delayed medical care, delayed cancelled doctor's appointments, the day programs, uh they uh they're late for work. The caregivers and their parents are leaving early because we can't get there in time. Naturally, we're underst staffed, but our equipment is subpar. Our radio systems been there since 1996. It's an analog system. Our Hold on one second here. The passengers are being more aggressive now. The PCAs are being more aggressive now with this free fair issue. Some of the issues that Sunran has is starting to bleed over the Sun Van. It's actually depleting the resources for everybody. all our day programs that

we uh deliver to the schools, everybody's paying overtime because we can't get there in time. Uh there's a 48% increase of ridership since 2021, around 500,000 rides. Now, we need to restore the rides, the fairs. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know why if it's a big deal, why would everybody we have even how I'll say it like this? Our passengers are asking for to pay fairs so they can get better service. We have five electric vehicles, one charging station. Takes one hour to charge a battery to go make it go 10%. So we have five vehicles. Maybe we can put two or three on the road at one time. That's it. We got to be more efficient than that. Thank you, Nero. Nero Vasquez. Let's go. Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Jordan Euro and I'm 13 years old. I'm here today not just speaking for myself, but for my teammates, my friends, and a lot of kids

in our community who may not feel comfortable standing up here. I spent a lot of my time at our local parks and fields. It's where we practice, where we grow, and where we learn teamwork and discipline. But what I've experienced there is always not safe and not always right. At 13 years old, I have already witnessed drug use at our parks. I have seen things that kids should never have to see, including public nudity. These are not rare situations. They happen often enough that many of of us expect it. I along with others have younger siblings who I worry about when they need to use the restroom. the situations they may be exposed to that shouldn't be normal for any child. On top of that, the condition of our fields is poor. I've watched my teammates get injured because the fields are not properly maintained. Uneven ground, unsafe surfaces, these are things that can be fixed, but they haven't been. We come out to play sports to stay active and out of trouble, but instead we're put risk. I also want to talk about our families. Many of our parents work long hours just to make sure we can be at practice on time. Some of us are raised by single parents and grandparents often step in or even coaches and friends in our organization to step in to help us get us where we need to go. It takes a lot of effort and sacrifices just for us to be able to play. That's why it feels unfair to see costs being increased on youth programs. Programs that are trying to help kids like me stay active, stay safe, and stay focused on something positive. At the same time, we see adults being allowed to ride city buses for free. And while I understand that people need help sometimes, it's hard to understand why more support seems to go towards adults who have choices while kids and families who are working hard are being asked to pay more. As a child, as a child, I don't have the option to go out and get a job to help my family. I rely on my adults in my life, and they are already doing everything they can.

So, when costs go up, it doesn't just affect programs. affect kids like me even get the chance to participate at all. We're not asking for special agreement. We're asking for safe parks, maintain fields, and fair decisions that support youth and families who are trying to do the right thing. Please consider what these decisions mean for kids like not not just today, but for our futures. Thank you,

Donna Lambert. Donna Lambert. Donna Lambert.

Am I waiting for a light? Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm here tonight because our community needs help and we don't know what else to do. We do not feel that we have been properly represented by the leadership at the Arizona and Multiple Disabilities. These students thrive in this environment. If they are placed into traditional public schools, many will face isolation, bullying, and the loss of specialized support that they rely on every day. That is not an acceptable outcome. We also want to emphasize how much this location matters. This campus is deeply connected to the neighborhood around it. It doesn't just sit there. It contributes to and reflects the culture of this community. We are in a historic culturally rich area that represents Tucson's Hispanic community and our students are part of that fabric. Relocating the school to Earl Valley would disconnect our students from a community that reflects who they are. The demographics there do not match the de demographics of our school and that matters. Our students deserve to learn in an environment where they feel seen, represented, and connected, not isolated or out of place. We love this location. It is accessible, close to the freeway, and central for families that travel from all over the state. We are also concerned that many of our most vulnerable students, including those from minority backgrounds and tribal communities, are not being fully protected or prioritized in its current decisions. These voices deserve to be heard and respected. ASDB has a long history of success. Its graduates have gone to the UVA. They've done incredible things like Galedet University, Arizona State University. This school is one of Tucson's most important investments investments and yet it's quiet community that rarely asks for anything. We are not just here to raise our concerns. We are asking for solutions. Whether that means advocating at the state level, helping preserve this campus, exploring partnerships, or even creative options like using a portion of the property to help fund restoration. We need leadership and we need support. We are

also seeing the loss of programs like music and art. To each of you individual, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, the school is in your ward. Council member Dah and Council Member Cunningham, you have all shown that you care deeply about children and your communities. We are asking you to same to extend that same advocacy for our students. We hear the commitment to supporting the disinvested and underserved. Our children are among the most vulnerable in Tucson and we are asking them to include them in that commitment. Please help us protect the school, the community, and our children. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Christopher Milk. Romero. My name is Christopher Mills. I reside in W 6 and today I represent myself alone. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to express my full support for fair free transit. I would like to suggest making this a permanent policy, a permanent fixture of public policy as our sister city Albuquerque has already done. Personally, I believe that no barrier public transportation is the safest place for me to be on our city streets. I am a 26-y old born and raised eastider and I work as a two a Sunran coach operator as a part as part of the teamsters union local 104. More so, I ride the bus every single day. My career and transportation choices are informed by a desire to navigate the city safely, sustainably, and humanely. I grew up with my mom and stepdad in the Hillrest at Winggate subdivision of Ward 4, an isolating and inconvenient development just across the Fredi Golf Course from the Puma Community College East Campus. Every weekend of my youth, I would spend visiting with my dad. His presence in my life brought me face to face at a very young age with the negligence, traffic violence, and road rage condoned by an exclusionary and antagonistic policy of car- centered public infrastructure. He often encouraged me not to wear my seatelt. He was a reckless driver who would weave between lanes, chase EMS vehicles to beat traffic, and take turn lanes at high speed um to travel straight through an intersection just as the light turned green. He would also chuck pennies at other drivers to intimidate those he thought were in his way. And he would cat call or body shame women on the sidewalk. My mom bought me a car at 16 years old to get me through

high school and university. Her support allowed me to succeed, but I felt the pressure to adhere to the driving norms of those around me and made mistakes that still shame me. It wasn't until I lived on campus at NAU when I began to have my first memorable experiences riding public transit. As a student, rides um excuse me, as a student, rides were provided free to me and it was a safe and convenient way to get between classes. In my senior year, I attended a study abroad program in Costa Rica where I was astonished by the multitude of people walking through colonial era cities as well as their extensive track traffic clogged highway system. But I also took my very first train ride on a day that I will never forget. I learned how to navigate our transit or excuse me, jumping ahead. Shortly after graduating in 2022, I took the opportunity to become a local bus driver. I learned how to navigate our transit system from an insider perspective and eventually moved into the historic Armory Park neighborhood to take advantage of the full range of transportation services our city has to offer. All of my transit experiences have come from my adult life. While I don't know what it's like for a young person, an elderly person, someone with a disability, or even veteran bus drivers, I do believe that by riding public transit, I make transit safe. You can make transit safe, too. And so, again, I'll ask you to free the bus. Make it permanent. Celebrate it. Ride it. Get accustomed to it. Make it part of your day. I'm asking you to free the bus and I'm inviting you to ride with me every day to ride your bus.

Please free the bus. Thank you so much. Curtis Curtis Simpson Curtis Simpson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm Curtis Simpson. and I lived in ward 4 in Tucson. And for the past 5 years, the pickle ball courts at Morris Ud Doll Park have been completely free and open to everyone. They've become a welcoming community hub where people of all ages and skills come together to play, socialize, and stay active. Now, the city is proposing to turn UD Doll into a managed location and start charging 350 per court for 90 minutes of play beginning in July. That may sound like a small amount, but for many regular players, especially retirees, families, and newer players, it quickly adds up and creates a barrier. We've already seen what happened at Kino Courts after fees and reservations were introduced there earlier this year. While some dedicated groups adapted, casual drop-in play dropped off and some longtime players stopped going altogether because they no longer wanted to plan ahead and play to pay every time. UD Doll is different. and it's one of the most popular communitydriven pickle ball spots in Tucson. Hundreds of players recently packed a public meeting to voice strong opposition, chanting, "No pay to play." Many worry that adding fees and management will turn this vibrant, inclusive space into something less accessible and ultimately hurt the community that we've built here. We're not against contributing to maintenance. In fact, the local pickle ball groups have offered to help resurface courts, provide windcreens, and assist with upkeep. We simply ask that you keep UD Doll's courts free and open so everyone can continue to enjoy them without financial or bureaucratic hurdles. Please listen to the players and reject the proposed fees for Udall Park pickle ball courts. Preserving free public access will keep pickle ball strong and healthy in Tucson. And thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. Maharia Mabini. Maharia.

Good evening. Good evening, Honorable Mayor Romero, Vice Mayor, and members of the city of Tucson Council. My name is Mahariah Habibi. I am a proud Tucson resident for the past 25 years. And I'm here uh on behalf of the International Rescue Committee, one of the refugee resettlement organizations here in Tucson, serving Tucson since 1997. I'm here to thank you on the different initiatives that you have supported our communities um including the prosperity initiative and also your investment in the 29th thrive project for your and for your continued support of refugee families in Tucson. Your community improve, sorry, your community approved investment through the 29th Street Thrive Zone, including dedicated funding for refugee support in partnership with our organization, will have direct and and meaningful impact on families rebuilding their lives in our community. We're especially grateful for city's intentional efforts um to build trust between refugee communities and local government to directly address fear and uncertainty and to strengthen the capacity of community organization whose clients needs are rapidly increasing. I also wanted to take this opportunity to provide a brief update um on current refugee needs. As of March 1st, like many other Tucsonans and Arizonans, uh many refugee households have lost access to SNAP benefits due to federal policy changes under HR1. At the same time, refugees are facing significant barriers um to employment due to misunderstandings of their employment authorization through um some of the employers um as well as increased fear driven by shifting federal policies. Um, as demand for assistance increases, our capacity

to respond has become more strained. Like many other uh nonprofit organizations, we're also seeing a growing need for legal services to help eligible refugees adjust status to legal permanent residents, which would allow families to regain access to benefits and achieve long-term stability. In response to the immediate need following the government shutdown and the implementation of HR1, IRC working in partnership with other refugee serving organizations, community food banks with support from a Puma County and city of Tucson has coordinated approximately a dozen food distributions serving an average of seven uh 740 individuals per distribution. We're grateful uh for your leadership and for your continued partnership um in ensuring our communitydriven investments like the 29th Street Thrive Zone um strengthening stability, opportunity, and well-being for refugee families here in Tucson, Arizona. Thank you.

Thank you so much,

Ben Lucero. All right. Good evening, uh, Mayor Romero, Council, City Manager, Tim Tmer. Um, for the record, my name is Bento. I'm the president of AS Local 905. I'm here tonight to express our sincere appreciation for the elevated funding for dedicated towards a general fund for employee compensation. On behalf of the hardworking men and women who keep the city running, I want to thank the mayor and the city manager, the mayor, and the council for your support. This investment is more than just a line item. It is a vital lifeline. We are currently navigating a period of unex unprecedented inflation where the cost of providing a for a working family has skyrocketed. By prioritizing these funds, you are sending a clear message that the city of Tucson employees are valued resources. Specifically, we encourage to see the move away from the temporary tier program like those created for our sw and environmental services since the pandemic. While those pro programs helped helped us stabilize during the crisis, transitioning to a sustainable market-based structure is what we truly what will truly help us retain and recruit the skilled operators we need. Furthermore, we are finally addressing skill-based programs, skill-based pay programs that were in some cases 20 years outdated. Bringing these job classifications up to current market value is a massive step in correcting years of stagnation. We recognize that as we entered the

second year of this three-year compensation plan, not every every classification is whole just yet. However, the progress we've made is significant. We are grateful for the momentum and we are looking forward to continuing our work together to ensure that every single classification from our field crews um labors all the way to the people that are taking the phone calls as customer service reps to closer to brought to or closer to market value. Thank you for your leadership and your part partnership and investing in the people who serve the city of Tucson every day.

Thank you, Mr. Ducero. And we're coming to our two last speakers. Usually we dedicate about 30 minutes to call to the audience and we've been going at it for 50 minutes. Um so the last two speakers are going to be Robin Steinberg and Robin Mardo. Good. Let's see. Good evening, Mayor Romero and council members. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you regarding transit fairs. I thought if RTA next passed, reinstating fairs would be off the table. I was disappointed to learn that this is not the case. Though I do understand that this year's budget presents significant challenges. Fortunately, the city manager is not recommending reinstating fairs and I hope you will follow his lead. I know that almost all of you supported RTA next. Some of you were quite vocal in your support and were concerned about what would happen to transit if it failed. I have to ask, what do city voters get for the next 20 years of paying sales tax, if not at least a modest transit system? There are those who say people should pay for what they use. That's very fair sounding, but it fails to take into account that bus riders already subsidize, excuse me, subsidize an automobile driving infrastructure that they hardly use. One day within just a few hours I passed by two major crashes just last week in my neighborhood a driver ran a stop sign hitting a motorcyclist. All of these events

brought police officers, community service officers, fire trucks, etc. Who pays for all those police hours? I'm sure it is not covered by liability insurance. And I doubt that those who have gotten rich from promoting car dependency do not chip in. All over the city, neighborhoods apply for grants to install speed reducing infrastructure. We all pay taxes for these car necessitated improvements even if we don't own a car. Meanwhile, the drum beats to reinstate fairs. This would require an investment in a cumbersome infrastructure to essentially tax those who rely on transit. Some people think that charging people to ride will improve safety. While I do support the city's current efforts to improve safety, charging to ride will not help. Underlying this idea is the notion that charging to ride will eliminate the riffraff and will create some boutique transit system more attractive to those with the ability to pay. I resent this essentially classist view. More importantly, this view negates the reality of what is going on in this country and state where more and more people are being impoverished, losing their housing and experiencing mental health crisis. Unfortunately, it falls to local municipalities and taxpayers to deal with these problems. And even with the current situation, Anna Garcia and her mother would have been safer on the bus than driving on streets where we seem to have been given up enforcing traffic laws. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

Thank you, Robin Mardo. And you'll be our last speaker.

How are you? Good evening, Mayor Romero, council members. I was here to adamantly speak about keeping neighborhood centers off the discussion for budget cuts, but we have been assured that they are off. And for all of those who think that's a good idea that um showed up tonight, I know we would have had at least a hundred more people here. And so we thank you for that, for understanding the importance of um these programs being looked at as mandated services because they really are. And speaking of parks and recreation, I want to acknowledge my mentor, Donna Leens, being here to speak on behalf of neighborhood centers. So I will speak on your behalf, I hope. Um, I started working for Miss Ligans when I was 16 years old under parks and recreation and had 38 wonderful years. So, good to see you, Donna. Um, I but since I am here, I want to continue to talk to you about congregate meal programs. I was here a year ago to discuss with you the fact that in two weeks time uh congregate meal programs funded by the older Americans act were pulled from five centers which they um served one-third of the daily nutrition requirements for our elders for one year. Many of you some of you council members and we appreciate that have been able to sustain some meals in some of those centers. However, the idea of sustainability I is not um cannot be guaranteed. The older Americans act was funded in 1965 to asssure that older Americans were had the services that they need. These older

Americans funds for congregate meal programs under title three have not been cut. We need to make that clear. We keep being told that well, you know, all programs are being cut. We've lost this funding. We have not lost these funding. We haven't had these this funding in the city centers for over a year and I still have can't understand or fathom where that funding is. Of course, that's not city funding that comes through Puma Council on Aging. Now, I know that Puma Council on Aging is proposing a new program called um community lunches. The community lunches are um collaborations that would offer nutrition programs in centers that provide um physical space, nutrition, staffing, programming, and a sense of belonging, wraparound support, and fiscal responsibility. That's exactly what neighborhood centers did, what community centers did under parks and recreation for over 40 years and did it very well. I would ask you to please urge the director of parks and recreation

to make sure that we're in this round of questioning for the community lunch program, which I'm told that we're not. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone that came to speak with your mayor and council. We appreciate you very much. Item seven, consent agenda. Reports from the city manager on the consent agenda are received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read the consent agenda. Do you want to remove the item? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you could read it all and then remove remove the item. Okay.

Item 7A, approval of minutes. Item 7B in our governmental agreement with the Pina County Elections Department to provide elections related services for the city of Tucson elections. Item 7 C amending chapter 20 motor vehicles and traffic relating to speed limits on various roadways within the city limits. Item 7 D amending Tucson code section 20-138.2 to reduce speed limits on various bicycle boulevards within city limits. Item 7E lease agreement with the city of Tucson and Penelopey's Pizza East LLC for property located at 400 North Toll Avenue within the historic depot building. Item 7 F, extension of intergovernmental agreement with Puma County for wastewater billing services. And item 7G, intergovernmental agreement between Pima County, City of Tucson, City of T South Tucson for fire and emergency medical services.

All righty. May I have a motion to move the items on the consent agenda with the exception of Yeah. The motion could include a continuence for item 7G um to a time to be determined upcoming regular meeting. So moved. There's a motion. May I have a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, we need to go to roll call. Council member Lee I. Council member D I. Council member Cunningham. Hi. Council member Barahas. I. Council member Schubert. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I.

Mayor Romero. I. The items on the consent agenda are approved by a vote of 70. Item eight,

public hearing, city of Tucson fiscal year 2027 annual action plan, HUD program year 2026. City managers communication number 119 dated April 21st is received into part of the record. This is the time and place legally advertised for a public hearing for the city of Tucson fiscal year 2027 annual action plan HUD program year 2026. This public hearing is scheduled to last for no more than an hour. Speakers are limited to five minute presentations. Do we have any speakers to speak today?

All righty. So, um, if there's anyone in the audience wishing to speak on this item, hearing none, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? So, moved, your honor. Second. There's a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Um, all those in favor of closing the public hearing signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. This public hearing is closed. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution number 24108 by number and title only.

Resolution number 24108 relating to public housing approving the proposed city of Tucson annual action plan program year for fiscal year 2027 HUD program year 2026 authorizing and directing submitt of the same to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and declaring an emergency. What is the council's pleasure? Mayor, I move that we pass and adopt resolution 24108. Second, your honor, there's a motion and a second. Got any further discussion on this item? Hearing none. Let's go to roll call. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Council member Schubert. Hi. Hi.

I council member Lee. I did I get everyone except the mayor? Okay. Mayor Romero, you missed me. Council member Dah. Hi, Mayor Romero. I resolution 24108 passes by a vote of 70. Item nine, reszoning ordinance adoption TP NT 06230026, Center East Center, East Speedway Boulevard, RX12C1, W2. Council member,

your honor, this is actually the old war II office that we sold to Desert Christian to acquire our current office at uh 7820 East Broadway. This is part of the um not part of the sale, but it it's kind of an afterthought to it. There's some protests about some of the traffic issues, but when it was designated RX1, we built a east side city facility there, so it's been acting as a commercial place forever. Anyway, so there's a couple of protests about traffic and the recycling center which has been removed. So I'm comfortable moving the item. Second. All right.

So I do have to read um the title as part of the record. So city manager communication number 107 dated April 21st is received into made part of the record. This is a request for ordinance adoption to reszone 1.06 06 acres of a 12.82 acre parcel from RX1 residential to C1 commercial. The proposal is the conversion of the former city ward 2 office for administrative and professional offices with site improvements for parking, landscaping, fencing, and walkways. The subject side is the east is at the east of Pantano Wash, north of Speedway Boulevard and west of nor Pantano Road. The city manager and zoning examiner recommend approval of the resoning request. Is the applicant or representative of the applicant present?

Madame Mayor, members of the council, I'm Rory Junman, 5983 East Grant Road, representing the property owner. Are you agreeable to the proposed requirements? We are, mayor. Thank you so much, Rory. All righty. Madame Clerk, you are requested to read ordinance 12241 by number and title only. Ordinance number 12241 relating to zoning amending zoning district boundaries in the area located at 7575 East Speedway Boulevard 2,000 ft west of the Speedway Boulevard and Pentano intersection in KT PN623-000026 Center Speedway Boulevard RX1 to C1 and setting an effective date. So now we can do the motion to um approve the request for resoning.

Your honor, I move that we pass and adopt ordinance 12241. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this hearing? None. Let's go to roll call. Council member Cunningham. I. Council member Lee. I. Council member Bar. I. Council member Dah. I. Council member Schubert. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero.

I. Ordinance 12241 passes by a vote of 71. Item 10. Reappoint of magistrate AK Mochi Vera and fixing compensation. City managers communication number 117 dated April 21st is received into and made part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read resolution number 24101 by number and title only. Ordinance number 12248 relating to city magistrates reappointing a Kate Bochi Vera to another four-year term as city magistrate for the city of Tucson fixing compensation and declaring an emergency. I have a motion please.

Your honor, I move to pass and adopt ordinance 12248. Second. There there is a motion and a second. Uh any further discussion? Congratulations, Judge Vera. Congratulations. Um let's go to roll call. Council member Dah. Hi. Council member Lee. Hi. Council member. Hi. Council member. Hi. Council member Schubert. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Roromero.

I. Resolution 24101 passes by a vote of 70. Item 11 amending compensation for city magistrates effective May 3rd, 2026. Ready. City manager's communication number 121 dated April 21st is received intern made part of the record. Madame clerk, you are requested to read ordinance number 12248 by number and title only. Ordinance number 12249 relating to the city magistrates amending ordinance number 12248 reappointing a Kate Bouchi Vera to another four-year term as city magistrate of the city of Tucson fixing compensation declaring an emergency. Madam the council's pleasure.

Apologize madame mayor if I may be heard just quick real quickly. Um we we were reviewing and with the help of judge clo we we found an error in the uh ordinance 12249. If I could read that into the record before the council proceeds. Okay. Yes. Go ahead.

Thank you. Um in section one this uh it should read that section two of ordinance number 12248 is amended to provide as follows. The above named city magistrate shall be compensated in an annual salary of $182,45760 um instead of what's what's there which is $185,2320. That's the change. All righty. Thank you so much. Really appreciate the change. Uh so just to make sure um item 11 is 12249. Correct. Okay,

that's correct. All righty. So, uh we have a motion. Not yet. Get a motion. May I get I move to pass and adopt ordinance 12249. Second. With amended changes. With amended changes. With amended changes. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this hearing? None. We do need to go to roll call. Council member Lee. Hi. Council member. Council member Schubert. Council member Schubert. Imber. Council member Bar. I. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz. I. Mayor Romero. No.

I. Uh. Ordinance number 12249 passes by a vote of 70. Sorry everyone. We're having technical difficulties up here. Item 12, adjournment. Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on Tuesday, May 5th, at or after 5:30 p.m. Thank you. You guys remember that thing where you try to unlock the door while the other person outside trying to open it and you can't get the door unlocked? That's what happening. Everybody was at the same time. I think when more than four microphones are on, some of them cut out. Okay. So, if we can turn our microphones on, thank you everyone. Have a wonderful rest of your even