Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors officially calls this meeting to order on May 20th, 2026 at 9.30 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room 119 located at 2150 North Congress Drive, Nogales, Arizona 85621. At this time, would you please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr. Brian Vandervoort. Okay, let's move to item B, adoption of agenda. Manager, Mr. Manager?

Mr. Chair, there's four changes to the agenda. Under the consent agenda, item 1A, please remove. Item 3 and 4, remove from the consent agenda and add them to action items. and remove item six, please, from the consent agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. I move to adopt agenda and remove item one from consent agenda. 1A. 1A and item six and move item three and four to action items. and allow chair to deviate as needed.

Do I have a second?

Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries. Call to the public. We have two slips. First is Mr. Brian Vandervoort. And for those of you who are coming up to the call to the public, if you would please state your name, your address, and please remember that you have three minutes. Thank you.

Thank you and good morning. My name is Brian Vandervoort. I live at 31 Saddlehorn Road in Tubeck. I wanted to speak to the two items on the consent agenda which the county managers referred to, the IGA between the city and the county for the county library, and the proposed design and plan for the Oso Wash Project. I wanted to speak to these items because they are both so important to the community, so The IGA, as you may notice, is only for one year. This is really an extension of the existing one. It's not a rewrite or renewal. I think the purpose of that is to allow more conversation within the community with the city to really expand and redefine the role of the library. It will also give, and this might be a little bit more of a new thought, perhaps controversial, it will give both entities the possibility to discuss the creation of a library tax district. There's a lot of benefits to doing that, and I think it needs exploring by both city and county governments. It would remove the expense of library from your general fund and put it in a dedicated tax district. When the county runs up against spending limitations, you would remove maybe 400, $450,000 from your general fund. And this is a benefit to the county. The expenses to the citizens would remain exactly the same. As far as the Oso Wash, this is a very complex issue. There's so many players. As the administration of the county knows, there's the international players in Mexico. There's four or five entities here on this side of the border, and they're trying to get them all together and work together. It's the opinion of some people that if the United States is proactive, the United States being the county, EPA, IBWC, if they're proactive, then will the individuals, the entities across the border do anything? If we begin to create a infrastructure for the existing issues, and there's an expansion of residences in Mexico, will the expansion then overflow what we designed today? There's a whole bunch of things to talk about, and I'm really glad you've taken them off the consent agenda, and we'll open up to greater discussion. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Next we have Ms. Pam Lemke.

hi i'm going to be brief i'm pamela and i live in tubac and my apologies in advance that i'm going to have to leave after i do this because i have something else to go do but i just wanted to thank you for uh addressing the situation in oso wash and even having it on the agenda and since this is the approval to fund the design what i'm going to ask the county to seriously consider doing is once there is a design and the different entities have been involved in feedback and looking at all of that I would really like to see a study session here at the county with the International Boundary Water Commission and I would like to have that open for feedback and answering public questions about how the situation is going to be addressed and managed because Brian, Ben Lomali, and John Combo and myself were all talking about this. This is critical issues for the county moving forward, so thank you.

Thank you, Pam. Any other folks wish to make a call to the public? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move to Item D, Current Events, Board of Supervisors. And I'm going to turn to my left, and Supervisor Maleta.

Mr. Chair, thank you. Good morning. I have a few items to report. First and foremost, I want to congratulate all the mothers and wish them a happy belated Mother's Day. Also, I want to congratulate my son for graduating with his Bachelor in Arts from Arizona State University. I got to attend the graduation, and Harrison Ford was the keynote speaker, amazing speaker. He got an honorary doctorate from Arizona State. Wonderful graduation. I really enjoyed it. I had the honor of attending, thanks to Superintendent of Schools, Ms. Donnelly, and Chief Deputy Muñoz, I attended a presentation by Patrick Robles representing Aelita Grijalva's office, and basically this was in Rio Rico, One of our instructors, Miguel Grijalva, who's a great artist that's been doing a lot of murals throughout the city and county, had a couple of his students enter the first annual Congressional Student Art Competition. There's 1,200 students that were in the competition, and Emily Ramirez got honorable mention, and Chanel Bernal got third place overall. So congratulations to our Rio Rico High School students. also May 15th Sheriff Hathaway hosted the Santa Cruz County Peace Officer Memorial and in my opinion this was in all my 17 years that I've been at the county this was the best memorial we've ever had our National Anthem was sung by a young student from Cunamundi, Roderick Garcia, I believe. Did an amazing job. Wow, was it amazing. Also, we had another student that played taps, ROTC Senior Major Ray Felix did an amazing job as well. And our keynote speaker, retired three-star general Jeffrey Scott Buchanan, also had an amazing message. He did a great job. And Supervisor Davis read the proclamation. Thank you. You did an amazing job as well. So congratulations to the Sheriff's Office. It was an amazing ceremony. Today we will be traveling to the small counties meeting this evening, and then tomorrow morning we will have our board of directors meeting for all the county supervisors in Phoenix. I want to also congratulate all graduates from Santa Cruz County. I know this week's graduations, transitions. Congratulations, good luck, and God bless to all.

Thank you, sir. Vice Chair?

Good morning, everyone. So first of all, my daughter received the perfect attendance today and received principal honor roll for the first time. It's taking place right now, so I couldn't be there because I'm here. But I know in the future she may see this video, so I just want to say that I'm very proud of her. I attended the Nogales International Film Festival. It started last Wednesday and it lasted until Saturday. It took place at the Gawk, the Oasis Cinema, and they showed movies right at the border. They had a movie playing and people from Nogales, Arizona were watching it and people from Nogales, Mexico. They also had a lot of events on Nogales, Sonora. So basically I was able to attend, not only as a supervisor, but they showed a film I did that I finished in 219, 389 miles. So it was nice to see it again, and I think it needs like a part two. So hopefully I could do like something in the future. It's basically I traveled the Arizona-Mexico border and tried to – create a story from from inside out you know from people from the border so it was really interesting to see it in a lot of people attended so congratulations to the film festival it was really really really nice Like Mr. Molera said, I was invited by Mr. Castillo, the Sheriff's Office, to read the proclamations during the Peace Office Memorial Ceremony. It was a beautiful event. I'm truly thankful for being invited. So if you want to invite me next year, I'll... Just kidding. We rotate, but it was nice. Also, yesterday I met with Jordan Toyos and an intern from the Senator Ruben Gallegos' office. A few months ago, we started a conversation. The county manager and myself, we went to Phoenix, and the idea was to bring Senator Ruben Gallegos down to Nogales, to Santa Cruz County, for a town hall and to meet the community. So that idea seems like it's getting closer. So hopefully soon we'll have... Good news, but I think it's good to try to bring Senator Gallego and everybody, Congresswoman Adelita Dijalba, Mr. Mercalli, everyone. So, I mean, at least it's, this one is getting closer. Yesterday, also, I got to attend the Rio Rico High School transition where 180, huh? and 180 eighth graders, right, are going to do that transition. I want to thank the superintendent, Mr. Verdugo, the teachers, the community. Even though that's not my district, they always invite me. Like, they invited me last year. I'm going to attend to the graduation. So it's just an honor to go to district two, you know, and at this ceremony. So spread the message if you can. you know all those people there you know and tomorrow the county manager and shannon hall we're going to meet with uh... the arizona commerce authority authorities film and digital division and with Mr. Matthew Earl Jones. So Matthew Earl Jones is the person in charge in Arizona to try to stimulate the film industry. And Santa Cruz County became part of that film community already, so we wanna be part of that. So we're gonna have a meeting where we can see and try to promote Santa Cruz County, try to promote the border, As you guys saw, there was a television soap opera done by Univision and Televisa in Tubac. If I'm correct, 80% was filmed in Santa Cruz County, in the beautiful Tubac, right? So the idea is to keep promoting film industry. I'll have more updates on the next meeting, but we want to have a seat at the table and see how we can help to promote film industry, Santa Cruz County, collaborate in Arizona and Mexico and Sonora, and just keep attracting more film industry. So those are some of my updates.

Wonderful. Thank you, sir. I want to say thank you to Colin and Shannon, and I know Chris had a hand in it. The comprehensive plan, community kickoff information, I was able to make two of those in Rio Rico and in Patagonia this past weekend, and you talk about efficient and effective, so thank you to all those folks who... We're part of that, including the community, I think is paramount. The deputy county manager, Young, and myself had an opportunity to visit the Sahuarita School District. More importantly, take a look at PEEPS and the program that is run down, or excuse me, up there with the children age three, three to five. three to five and it's something that perhaps as an early action item in the CPBA that may be something that we take a look at replicate perhaps if not bring it back and make it our own something similar so that that was very eye-opening and interesting always like to talk to our neighbors to the north I also had an opportunity to attend the Santa Cruz County Peace Officer Memorial Ceremony. Hats off to the law enforcement for a job well done. I was at my Samba meeting this past, board meeting this past week. Yes, during that time frame, while I was on the road to Phoenix, I also took part in the Rural Water Working Group. A lot of discussion regarding the CAP, and we're hoping that things work out in the southern basin in our favor. We'll see what happens there. Yesterday, myself and County Manager Jesus Valdez attended the Port Authority meeting, very informative. We talked about what's happening within the county, and I have a real quick synopsis of one of the things that we discussed. Yesterday, CTMS transition ceremony, thanks to SCVUSD35 for the invite, and looking forward to tomorrow's Rio Rico High School graduation. And with that, I'm going to very quick synopsis. We received word just recently that Santa Cruz County, through federal funding request, made it through the first portion of receiving close to $5 million. 2.85 for the West Frontage Road, Peck Canyon enhancements, and that was on behalf of Senator Kelly, Senator Gallegos, Representative Grijalva. And then another 2.1 million for Camino Ramanote roundabout safety improvement studies, and that was from Senators Kelly and Gallegos. This is just the first step. has to now go to the Senate Appropriations Committee, so we are cautiously optimistic that when we go to D.C. and we lobby for Santa Cruz County, it comes to fruition, and this is the first step in making that happen. And with that, I will turn it over to County Manager Mr. Valdez.

Mr. Chair, members of the board, Supervisor Davis, myself, and Chris Young had an opportunity to meet with Senator Gavaldon and directly to talk about the contamination coming from south of the border. We talked about Nogales Wash and some of the grants that we're applying for. and also wash. I think Senator Gargadon was instrumental in getting the IGA to us. It had been lagging, and she wants to help, and she wants us to keep her informed of everything that's happening. Also, Supervisor Davis and myself and Colin met with Council General Ward. She's also very interested in the wastewater processes and treatment facilities that they have in Sonora. She wants Sonora to upgrade them and she's putting a lot of pressure and she wants to also help. So we'll get her more information. That's all the updates I have. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Before we move to section E, Colin, I know there's one more comprehensive plan community kickoff. It's a virtual. When is that again? June 3rd, 530. Thank you. And do we have that out on the community is aware of that if they? Thank you. So those of you who are here or listening, if you're not able to take part in those, very, very informative moving forward. We certainly invite those folks. Or if they were already at one and want to come again and add their two cents, that would be fantastic. Yes, sir.

Also, June 4th, Colin will be hosting a Santa Cruz County Contractors Forum here for all the contractors. That's great. Good, proactive work. We appreciate it.

Wonderful. Thank you, sir. With that, we'll move to Section E, Finance, Cash, and Investment, Expenditure and Revenue Report. Ms. Maria. Yeah.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board. For the cash and investment report, in the general fund, we have an overall balance of 26,897,502 with an invested amount of 16,870,057. In the road fund, we have an overall balance of 7,231,865 with an invested amount of 5,217,970. For the flood control district, we have an overall balance of 3,575,519 with an invested amount of 314,473. For the jail district, we have an overall balance of 9,470,660 with an invested amount of 4,482,032. for a total overall balance of $72,689,322 and invested amount of $29,044,976 with an estimated end of month balance of $14,461,952. Thank you. Supervisor, anything, any questions?

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, members of the community, just wanted to provide an update. At last meeting, I provided you our quarterly report on revenues and expenses. At that time, the property taxes hadn't come in because the quarter had cut off. But I just wanted to bring you an update on where we're at on the property taxes. We've collected $16,409,268, which is about 91% of our projected budgeted amount, which it's a good amount. I believe we still have until the end of June, and then we also have our two-month accrual budget. So we typically collect about 95, we average about 95 to 96%. So we're doing well right now with 91%. I just wanted to provide that update.

Thank you, sir. Any other departments who wish to present? Good morning, sir.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, Vice Chair, Supervisor Molina. I just wanted to give a quick update on a request that Supervisor Davis made some time ago over a donation page for our animal control department. Due to the rebranding and stuff like that, we're still finishing touches on it. But if we scroll down to the very bottom now, as of earlier this week, we added a donation link here where people could come and click on... Click on the link and folks will be able to donate via credit card, right, on top of all the other options. We will be getting with Shannon to get some press release out and some flyers out for that purpose. I'm not sure if you guys have any questions for me, or I think we also have Jose here on how that's gonna function.

Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Mr. Valdez. Yes, sir. I will match whatever Supervisor Davis donates.

Okay.

No, but overall, like, thank you. I know that I kept insisting on this button.

Should we do it now? Should we? I mean.

Yeah, let's start with $200. Okay, okay. Okay, well, you know. I'll put $200.

We'll try it. Okay, very good. We'll put another $200, right? I too will match. very good well i was not expecting that but um thank you Well, I'm sure Animal Control appreciates that. And, again, I think they're trying to keep their no-kill shelter status for that department. So I think this is going to go a long way for that. So, again, we'll go out and promote it to make sure the community is aware of their efforts and how they can help. So thank you. Wonderful.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Mr. Reina, would you want to add anything?

Good morning, Mr. Chair and everybody here. Thank you for that donation. And anybody is welcome to. We need that. It was a long time coming. I wanted this particular thing to be on our website or, you know, from a long time ago and it was impossible and had so many obstacles and finally it's here. And I want to thank everybody that was involved. Mr. Davis, thank you. Juan, Shannon, everybody that contributed to this. It's going to help us tremendously. We recently went to an event in Sonoyta, and we were able to obtain a really good amount of... donation we got five thousand nine hundred dollars which will be used for sterilization to keep our you know no kill shelter you know status going um these uh sterilizations you know are going up in price and you know we need all the help we can get and thank you so much this is going to be a great help for us thank you sir thank you thank you again thank you

Any other departments? All right, we'll move right into F, study session. And we'll start with number one, Southern Arizona Regional Broadband. Oh, there you go, I apologize, 2A. I apologize, Deputy County Manager Chris Young. 2A, update on early action community investment agreement by the county management.

Good morning, Chair Fanning, Vice Chair Davis, Supervisor Molera, County Management, people in the public, thank you for being here. I understand the excitement of the button, and that's why you skipped over my part, but that's okay. I'm here as we said we would. Every month we're going to do an update for the community investment early actions. And so I'm here to do that. And I know it's not one of the early actions, but I do want to mention that the town of Patagonia will be having a listening session tonight in Patagonia for the Patagonians. and they will be using a template designed by Colin that we're gonna be using also moving forward which will allow people who want to comment on the CPBA and the protections, specifically the protections part of it, there'll be a format to kind of focus in on what they really want us to look at. So that'll be coming out first tonight and then probably on the CPBA website or our website moving forward. When we look at the early actions, just the update, number two, the independent emergency services audit, SOBE did a great job of meeting with emergency management leadership, so we now have that scope of work approved. So the next step is to do the RFQ process, so that'll be coming out pretty quickly. The Patagonia flood control study phase two, that already went through an RFQ process, and so we're gonna be able to start that right now. The purchase of a county mobile health vehicle for the county. We received that list of items so we'll be able to start those purchases now also. And just to let you know, the reason why we can do it now is because in the last CPBA meeting, these things were approved by the four signatories. The next item, which Supervisor Fanning mentioned, the Creative Strategic Childcare Plan for the entire county. One thing that needs to be noted is, first things first, with the help with the U of A, they do a very impressive needs assessment study. So this scope of work is more of an implementation strategic plan than an actual data research study and so this one probably will not go out for RFQ because since it's just an implementation study, it shouldn't be over $100,000. We obviously will go through the proper procurement process that's needed for items under $100,000, don't worry Mauricio. But since it's more of an implementation strategy than an actual data assets type of thing, we're probably just gonna stay with going out for bid and not doing the RFQ process. We're still working on the NBE, the Countywide Parks Recreation Open Space Master Plan. We're still working on that. What we decided is we want to make sure that we're using the existing NBRE study that the University of Arizona already created and was well received. So we want to make sure that we're launching off of that. So we're meeting with people from the U of A just to make sure that we're utilizing that information and not, first of all, not repeating things and also taking the momentum from that document and creating some type of strategic plan using that information. As far as the item number 15, the housing strategy, that scope of work has been approved so that RFQ will be coming out shortly also. And those are the updates. Any questions?

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Colin, for formulating that checklist, if you will, for the protections. Like we've said in a previous meeting, that is number one on our mind right now. So thank you for making, for streamlining that. Okay, we will now head to F, Study Session One, Southern Arizona Regional Broadband Feasibility Study, Pima and Santa Cruz County, presented by Juan Balderas, Chief Information Officer with Santa Cruz County, Michelle Simon, Director of the Office of Digital Inclusion with Pima County, and Consultants Lisa Barat, Lena. Lena. Okay, Lena. And Joseph Kafari with Kim Lee Horn. Kim Lee Horn. Thank you. One.

Good morning again. I promise I'm not going to sell you anything this time. I want to thank you guys for the opportunity for the team to be able to present this. They've been working hard in gathering this data. And I want to take a few minutes before they come up and share some of these with you. I wanted to stress the importance of what this data is going to be able to help a region like us. I thank Michelle for including us in this. It was a grant that we jointly applied for, but It's the collaboration, again, between us and Pima County has been strong in the sense that we've tried to do similar things in the past, but we're just a smaller county, a smaller department. And I think this has helped us, again, be able to go a lot further. the project is going to, we're going to be able to, again, use the findings to go after not only funding, right, but be able to identify areas that are in greater need. And, you know, we see Santa Cruz County as PRETTY MUCH THE ENTIRE COUNTY AS A RURAL COUNTY, BUT THERE'S POCKETS, AGAIN, THAT ARE IN GREATER NEED THAN OTHERS, RIGHT? SO AGAIN, WANT TO STRESS FROM MY POINT OF VIEW THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS STUDY. SO I'LL TURN IT OVER TO THEM.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, Supervisor. Thank you for having us here today to talk about the broadband gap and feasibility study.

There's a clicker. There we go.

Oops. Oh, there we go. Oop, I went too fast. Okay, so our agenda for today, well, we already did some introductions, but we're gonna talk about the project significance, funding overview, and then dive into the vision goals, objectives of the project, and some of our deployment priorities. And then we'll talk a lot about public engagement's a big part of this project, so we'll talk about our strategies and feedback that we've been receiving. And then we'll talk about where we're at right now, which is the market analysis and the gap analysis, and then we'll close it out with next step and key takeaways. Do I point? Do I point? Okay, there we go. Okay, okay, perfect. We did some introductions already, but you know Juan Valdez, your chief information officer of Santa Cruz County, Michelle Simon, the director of the Office of Digital Inclusion. I'm Lena Barrett, the project manager from the consultant side, and then I have with me our public engagement manager, Joe Kufari. Next slide. So actually, I'm going to turn it back to Juan and Michelle just to talk about the significance and overview, and then I'll take it back over from there.

I think next slide. But again, I think I kind of already led with the importance of this, right? The data and findings that are produced from this study are gonna help us shape our priorities and our asks to legislators and how we try to apply that funding to projects that we see in need, right? Again, we've... In the past, we've gone out for funding opportunities, and in some instances, we've been successful. In others, we haven't because we haven't had the data to back it up. And this is, again, gonna significantly be able to help us not only identify the need, but also understand our community a lot better. Kim Lee Horn has already been in the community, talking to the community with help with Shannon. We've put out some flyers for people to take surveys. And I think they're going to do some more outreach. But again, just wanted to emphasize the significance of this project. And I'll turn it over to Michelle.

Good morning, chair, supervisors, county staff, and manager. I really appreciate your time to have this conversation today. I am the director of Pima County's Office of Digital Inclusion, so what does that mean? I focus on broadband expansion, digital literacy initiatives, and helping people to have access to the devices and tools they need to be online safely. And just like Pima County, Santa Cruz County has areas where the broadband infrastructure is either non-existent or very poor, but we can't make decisions and we can't move forward unless we know where we start from. And so that's the purpose of this broadband gap and feasibility study. Additionally, Pima County wants to be a very good neighbor because this is about the entirety of the region, not just for the benefit of Pima County, and Santa Cruz County has a wonderful place in my heart. My husband, Hector, was born here and raised here, and my children graduated from Nogales High School. I learned to speak Spanish here, so it is great to be home for a presentation. With funding, the sentence there says funding today is not covering short-term or immediate needs. Pima County received a $30 million reward from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to build a 134-mile middle-mile ring that will help us to get internet service providers to go to some of these rural communities, but that is a long-term effort. It is not something that can be implemented quickly. The state has had smaller pockets of money through their broadband development grant funding, but that is also for Middle Mile. And then our regional digital opportunity fund that comes from the feds also focuses on middle mile infrastructure. It's really not about that final mile piece. This funding that we received from the grant is actually from the USDA Rural Utility Service. And it is a broadband technical assistance grant. It allows us to do a feasibility study and help the area and identify next steps and provide data and information so those stakeholders who make those important decisions can have the right information and move forward for the benefit of our community members. And most recently, the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Project Awards through the state. I'm sure you've heard tons of things about that. The deployment funds have been issued. NTIA is still trying to determine what they're gonna do with non-deployment funds and what the state can use that money for. So the state of Arizona received almost a billion dollars in B deployment funds and the various project areas that have been identified. I believe Mediacom received the project areas for Santa Cruz County. But the monies that have been awarded are only for deployment. And that's only about half of the money. So there's about $450 million that Arizona has been allocated that cannot be used at this point. until NTIA makes a decision as to how that will move forward. They are leaning towards public safety and that is very helpful because in this day and age, internet is required to make sure that 911 services are working properly and that our constituents can reach those first responders when it's necessary.

Okay, so we got the opportunity to work on this project, so I wanted to just start with giving you an overview of our scope of this project. So we started with the needs, vision, goals, and then a big portion is the community engagement, getting feedback from the community surveys and all that. And then the second part of this is market analysis, right? Reaching out to internet service providers, understanding what infrastructure they have, where they're wanting to grow, and how much cooperation or how they're willing to work with the counties in this project. And then the next part is the gap analysis. So now we're looking at, we know where all the existing infrastructure is and we wanna see where there's gaps, where there's needs, right? We pair the community engagement with the existing infrastructure and we see where the needs and gaps in the community. And that'll help us lead to the conceptual design, so a high-level design, costs, and then recommendations, as well as how does, you know, when we're implementing strategies, what is a financial model, right? What does that look like? So that's kind of the overview of our project, and so we'll dive deeper into all the different pieces. Next slide. So just a quick overview of where all the communities, like I think Juan or Michelle mentioned, it's rural parts of Pima County and Santa Cruz County. And the next slide shows just the zoom in on just the Santa Cruz County. So you can see all the way from Amado down to Nogales and then all the way to the east to Elgin. So that's all the communities that we're looking at. Timeline for our projects, we started back in the fall with the needs, vision, goals, and then dove right into the community engagement, and you can see community engagement takes up the majority of our schedule, so we want to make sure we're continuing to get feedback from the public throughout the life of our project, and then incorporating that feedback into our study. We've done the market surveys, reaching out to the internet service providers, also some asset mapping, and right now, You can see where we're at. We're at the gap analysis stage. And then moving into late summer, we'll go into design cost, financial projection, and we'll finalize the report end of the year. And then you'll see the little circles, sorry. We did put together a technical advisory committee as the key stakeholders from Pima County and Santa Cruz County. And we had our first workshop early on and having our second workshop here soon. And so we're trying to get input from key stakeholders within both counties, make sure that we're aligning where our vision and what we're trying to do with this project.

I should not click, I'm sorry.

OK, so vision goals and objectives of the project. Next slide. So we did have our first workshop, and we wanted to get input from the advisory committee. And so this is what we came away with as the vision of this project. So I will read it so everyone can hear and think it's important. So all community members will have equitable access to affordable and reliable high speed broadband internet to successfully participate in our democratic society. Next slide. And then out of the workshop came these three main goals and objectives. The first is to increase service to underserved and unserved communities, which is something highlighted in the grants is what we're trying to focus on here. The second one is improve the standard of living for all community members. And the third is return on investment, not only for community members, but also for internet service providers, seeing how we can make things more desirable for them to expand in these areas and improving the ROI for them as well. excellent um continuing on to deployment priorities um out of the workshop we found these are the main focus areas that we wanted to look at so you know public facilities 24-hour open and non-open community centers homes businesses future development we want to make sure that if there is future development we want to account for that as we're trying to connect broadband to those areas And then anchor institutions is an important one. We consider that libraries, schools, hospitals, and then major roadways. We talked about 911 service, but just cell phone coverage and gaps along the different roadway segments throughout the community. And then this is what came out of the workshop, but also hearing from community engagement, these focus areas were very much aligned with each other. Some challenges, and I won't go through each of them, but obviously lack of infrastructure is a big challenge. Currently there's a big lack of broadband infrastructure throughout the county. There is low density of houses and businesses, so that, you know, the lower the density, the less likely people, you know, ISPs will want to go to those areas because of the lower return on investments. obviously working with different agencies there's different processes in place that can be prohibitive and then obviously there's just different terrain there's a mountainous terrain so harder to build and just a little more costly when we're building okay I'm gonna turn it to Joe to talk about public engagement awesome thank you Lena next slide please

All right, so we don't know what we don't know. We can analyze the data, we can have sub-consultants do a whole bunch of analysis, but what we really want to understand is what is the community experiencing or what are they not experiencing throughout the process here. So we showed you those geographic areas throughout Pima County and Santa Cruz counties, and so each one of those locations, we are directly engaging with those community members. Thank you, Shannon, for a lot of the setup for our attendance at those community events as well. So we started off with a community engagement plan and really setting the stage of how do we target these certain areas and these certain audiences. Whether we're engaging in Oro Valley, the very northern part of Pima County, or all the way down in Nogales, there is differentiating factors for those communities. So having that community engagement plan to kind of drive our approach really sets the stage for success. To date, we have about an estimated 450 in-person conversations at these community events, and those are at festivals, interviews, doing some town hall presentations. We really want to focus on going out to the community instead of asking them to come to us. It's a lot more effective to engage where people already are. And then we have some fun activities throughout which we'll get into here as well.

Next slide.

So you can see that we've been on the road starting in October 2025 and really kicking it off with a community provider forum that Pima County Office of Digital Inclusion hosted. And so this was bringing a lot of larger stakeholders, internet service providers, people who were actively working on internet projects. Excuse me. Moving into the Three Points Community Festival, Amado Chili Cook-Off, Oro Valley Festival, the Santa Cruz Valley Citizens Council, which some of you city managers and supervisors were in attendance for that as well. the rio rico community days and then we will be moving into some other geographic area locations patagonia is on that list as well we just need to identify a community festival working with shannon of how to engage with that community as well next slide please So largely, we're asking people to fill out a fairly quick survey, largely asking questions. How do you use the internet? How do you want to use the internet? But more importantly, what are your stories? Tell us a personal story of why it is important to you. So Michelle highlighted that 911 access. And I believe we do have another slide on that, so I'll save that. But we came up with a fun activity of draw how you use the Internet. So we're asking people to kind of visualize it for us. Obviously, we're getting a lot of social media. Netflix is a huge one, YouTube. But we also have heard from pastors, online religious education they use for their sermons. A lot of refugees we're hearing from getting their college degrees or that online schooling online. And then one of my favorites was we had a she was like a four year old girl or something. She drew a Disney princess because she loves watching Disney and engaging with her family on that. So wide spectrum, but I think visualizing it and then also having that attention grabbing aspect for people walking by, you know, what's going on here just to draw them in. Next slide please. So as of this morning we have 312 English survey responses and 11 Spanish responses. And largely the breakdown there about two thirds of those responses coming from Pima County and a third of those coming from Santa Cruz County. Looking at the top uses, that's the question, you know, one of the questions that we're asking, so the email messaging phone calls, banking finance, then just the general browsing aspect. The top challenges and really what we're interested in in these studies are those weak and unstable signals. It's not reliable for people at their homes or facilities. The costs are too high. We're hearing that, and of course, they're only rising, right? And then the lack of service providers, which is really that competition aspect to drive down those prices and create a sustainable market for that. Some other things that we've heard are definitely the customer service aspect. It's a little hard to get a human voice these days on it. It's a lot of AI, which is also internet on the other side of it. So as people move into this modernity of our society, internet usage is becoming Michelle puts it eloquently, it's almost a human right at this point and something that needs to be accessible to all. Next slide. The top locations lacking that existing internet connectivity would be those public facilities. So the parks, those major roadway corridors, and those community centers. So that's, like Lena mentioned, some of those deployment strategies and those locations are going to be playing into this. Looking at some of those personal stories, which we're going to be highlighting in subsequent community engagements and presentation stuff, the internet is my livelihood. Without my phone, I cannot work from home, and they cannot monitor their glucose to manage the diabetes. This person has those sensors, which goes to the phone, which then they can track for health purposes. With the rising cost of gas and child care, having stable internet to work at home helps me avoid buying that gas to drive into the office and allows her to pick her children up after school. So having that familial aspect to it as well above and beyond the social media and the streaming. Next slide. Thank you.

All right, thank you, Joe. So then moving into the market analysis and gap analysis. Next slide. So we kind of mentioned the market analysis, but the idea of this was to call or interview internet service providers, get information from them of what they're currently providing, the rates, the download speed, all of the information that they can provide to current users, right? And then also understanding where their existing infrastructure is and where they are planning to to expand. Not all of that is disclosed. A lot of them don't want to disclose where they're planning to expand, but we tried our best to get as much information from them as possible. So some of the findings, obviously, is there is limited last mile fiber. And just to explain last mile, that's basically fiber to the home. That's what last mile is. And then Michelle earlier talked about the middle mile, which is basically connecting the last mile, basically connecting communities. That's like the long haul fiber is the middle mile. and the last mile is the fiber to the home. So I just wanted to make sure to differentiate that. So some of the findings, there is limited last mile, especially in underserved, unserved areas. And then there is a lot of communities that are lower income. So obviously price insensitivity is a key aspect here. We already see some gaps in the communities of Patagonia, Elgin, Coquina Springs, but there are some communities that have higher adoption rates just because of their economic advantage. Go ahead, supervisor. What is it? Okay, okay, okay, yeah. Is that, that's, yeah, but it's, so it's a different, because 2BAC was one of the ones that had the actual better broadband adoption, but that one, maybe the economic advantages are different? Okay, that makes sense, yep, okay. Yep, thank you. Next slide. And then as we're looking at the market analysis, we're looking at all the different technologies out there. So obviously fiber is the best long-term solution, very costly. There is cable DSL out there. It is limited, but it's out there, but it is also aging infrastructure. And then lastly, just wireless and satellites. While it is a good option for rural areas, it does have reliability issues. So again, fiber is always the best long-term solution. Similar challenges I talked about earlier, but rugged terrain, low population density, just the costly nature of the infrastructure. Out-of-the-market analysis recommendations are to deploy scalable technology and using those anchor institutions we talked about because that's what the community said that those are areas that they would like to see more reliability and connectivity. Then promoting open access models. So open access models is someone builds it and maintains it, but keeps it open for different maybe Internet service providers to either use it or lease it, and so it creates that competitive landscape when you have an open access model. So that leads into partnerships, which is something we're looking at as part of this project too, is how do we get strategic partnerships with ISPs or with utility companies to see how we can overcome some of these infrastructure challenges. And with that, looking at leveraging state and federal funding that Michelle was talking about earlier. Okay, next slide. All right, and then the gap analysis, we're currently in the middle of this task right now. And so what we're doing with this one is we're trying to basically see where, looking at demographics, where there's currently internet provided, what type of internet is provided. We're also looking at where basically there's existing infrastructure that, you know, either Pima County is building or ADOT and just seeing how we can connect the dots and see then where is the lack of infrastructure, right? So where's the gap? So this is the point of this that we're trying to build a map of seeing really where the gaps are and where also looking at the cost to get to those areas and where would there be better ROI or where we can spend some time prioritizing infrastructure. And so really the outputs, what we're trying to get out of this is the framework for the design. So we're gonna be doing a high-level conceptual design and then costs for those deployments. And then just really looking at the type of technology that can have longer lifespans, see long-term benefits, and just that long-term reliability as well. Next slide. So as we're finalizing our gap analysis, we will summarize into a memorandum, and then that'll help us move into the design cost portion of this, which we'll have more maps showing where we're kind of coming up with priorities and projects, and then as well as the costs associated with those projects. We'll be looking at financial models and deployment models as well, and putting all those implementation strategies into a final report, which we'll hopefully have done by the end of 2026. All right. And then I'm going to turn it to Michelle and Juan to summarize and wrap up.

Change the slide, please.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

You know, basically, we're trying to come together to make sure everyone has access to the internet. That's what this is about, right? Knowing where we are so that we can make some strategic decisions for internet access, making sure that people know how to use it and they have the tools and devices they need. It's foundational to economic development in a region. It really is. Every, that one slide, I don't know if you caught it, 92% of all jobs require some kind of digital skills. And that's from just being a cashier to, yes, with the AI boom, right, having to understand how technology is working. And the more we ignore the infrastructure issues, the greater the digital divide becomes, okay? So it's very important for us to be armed with the data, to be armed with what our constituents are telling us, to make good decisions and get that information, get the internet connectivity out there.

Yeah, and I just wanna emphasize the fact that we want public feedback, right? In our county, sometimes we struggle obtaining that, so we're here also asking the board to help us, you know, advocate for folks to either take the surveys, you know, attend some of the functions that you guys will be at in future gatherings, because it's ultimately, you know, each community is different, right? Everybody needs different resources they use the internet differently, right? So we wanna actually capture how they're using it, right? A business uses it completely different than a household with school-aged children. So we really wanna understand that. And again, we thank you again for the time, but we'll be coming back with whether it's in a, Public forum or me personally reaching out to you guys for for that support.

We really appreciate it Thank you any questions gentlemen Yes First of all, thank you. Thank you for partnering up with us. We really appreciate it. This is a real critical issue here and I know we've we've Mr. Valdez has been working really hard, and we've had our little hiccups, and I think this is a great plan. I think you guys are doing a great job, and I personally appreciate what you all are doing. Are you done with the public engagement? Are you still doing it?

We're still in the midst of doing that. Honestly, public engagement will probably go almost all the way till we do the final report.

Because we're due to have our outreach with our communities. That's great. So when we do, we'll definitely reach out to you guys so you guys present.

Absolutely. We would love to participate in any kind of town hall activities that you have going on with your constituents.

Absolutely. And lastly, I personally would like to see you guys come and present your final report to the public here in a similar format. That would be great.

Awesome. We can do that.

Thank you again.

Good morning. So this broadband gap and feasibility study, one of the goals is to have the data to access to that funding, right? Like those grants and funding?

So the data will help support your efforts to get funding, absolutely.

So after this study is done, are there more studies or basically this is it?

That study will help define how you go after funding, whether it's federal, state, foundational, or whether you decide on your own, okay, in our budget, we find this is important, and with our own infrastructure efforts, we're gonna dedicate $100,000 to X, or whatever that might look like. With the report itself, it will have recommendations for different technologies, right? So how do we capture that low hanging fruit so we can make the most impact with the least amount of money? What kind of technology should we deploy? So we're not gonna study this to death. This is the start so we can take some action. Now we have a tremendous amount of information. There are GIS maps and Lena referred to a tool that will be there. So there will be a dashboard that literally will lay out, this is what Santa Cruz County looks like, here's where the gaps are. This is the return on investment or value to internet service providers. And so what that's gonna do, particularly if it comes out with a, this is a negative impact for an internet service provider, it will arm you with the information to say, okay, if we work with them in a public-private partnership, can we get you to build over here? And so it'll arm you with that kind of data.

Mr. Chair, just real quickly, I think this is gonna be a great tool for us to take to our senators, our congressionals when we go to Washington D.C. or just meet with the congressionals. And in a joint effort with our colleagues from Pima County, it'll have a lot more leverage.

Right. And just really quickly to piggyback off Michelle. You know in the past we've kind of gone after grants and we've used some of our you know ARPA money to to fill in some of those gaps right. But in essence we were we were kind of I don't wanna say guessing, right? But we were, okay, which community do we think needs it the most, right? And sometimes we would start a project and we were doubling up on existing infrastructure that was there. So this is gonna help us identify what's there, right? Where does it make sense to move next? And again, use that data to emphasize those communities.

So I saw in the presentation that there's communities with like broadband gaps, and they said Patagonia, Elgin, Kenos Springs. I'm just curious, what's the situation in Nogales? How is there internet access?

Internet access at its best. The reason you don't hear us say we're talking about Nogales, the broadband technical assistance grant has a focus on rural and remote communities as defined by the USDA Rural Utility Service. So certain portions, census tracts, don't qualify necessarily for us to evaluate. Doesn't mean we don't have the information, doesn't mean that we won't provide a comprehensive review of that, but this particular study is about the rural and remote areas, and we can show you those census tracts. So right downtown Nogales is not part of the evaluation, but that doesn't mean we're not considering that as a whole.

And I'll let you talk about that.

Well, and just to add, like when we're connecting, so if we're planning for middle mile connection down to the communities surrounding Nogales, Nogales will benefit from that, right? So really those long-haul middle mile, that's where the cost is. So if we're working to be strategic, working with someone to get down to that area, that's going to benefit Nogales.

Last question. So I know this is in the future, right? And in order for this to happen, we need to implement infrastructure. So how do you guys envision the infrastructure? Would it be like a lot of towers? I mean, any idea how that would look throughout the county?

So that will be recommendations. Internet service providers tend to be... Aerial deployment tends to be a bit easier for them, but if we're talking about infrastructure that is climate resilient, that really needs to be underground. But fiber deployment underground can be costly, so that's why this report will kind of lay out the different technologies that might Be available and in some areas due to the terrain satellite may be the only option So then we have to look at the affordability issue Low earth orbit satellites the competition's getting a little better the download upload speeds are getting better and how they're working on that, but the price is very high and They run special promotions to get you to get the internet, but then all of a sudden the bill is $120 a month and you have to do all these things. So we will have to look at a plan associated with affordability more than anything when it comes to those kinds of things. So that's what this report will entail. It will have that kind of information so that we know what it will look like for your county. And those are the decisions that you will make because for us, I'll just give the example of the Middle Mile project. That 134 miles is entirely underground. It is not on poles because the size of the cables and the amount of fiber that we're putting in, many of the utility poles are in disrepair and couldn't handle that level of weight. We get a microburst or two, where are those poles? They're on the ground. So it causes internet outages, things like that. So it's very important for us to make sure that if we're putting in the infrastructure that it works and it works all the time. So those are some of the considerations that will happen in the report.

Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation, very eye-opening, very informative. My only question, and it's going to go to Collin, Juan, and so forth, is there any way that we can connect the comprehensive plan to this? Are there any connection points that can be discussed?

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question. Part of the comprehensive plan goals is, one of them is infrastructure, which this would fall under that. So I'll get with Juan and try to overlay, obviously very interested in the studies that they're, surveys and studies that they're doing, and we definitely want to interface it with a comprehensive plan effort.

Agreed, thank you. Well, thank you so very much for the information, and we look forward, hopefully at the end of 2026, to going through the same presentation and hopefully have a lot of good information and answers.

I have another question. Have at it, have at it. Okay, so just to be clear, so I saw that the public engagements to try to get information, Are you guys planning to do one in Nogales or not, because it doesn't qualify, or you plan to have one in Nogales? I mean, it's because that's my district.

Yes. Yeah, no. We had targeted a few events in Nogales, the Nogales Half Marathon and a couple other ones, the International Bike Ride. Unfortunately, those did not come to fruition at the moment, just scheduling-wise. But we are looking for those additional opportunities. So coordinating with you and Shannon as well to find those events as well. But in general, for those community events, we're looking at those destination kind of events where people are going. So the Rio Rico Community Days, having those draws from community members from Nogales. We do have a question on the survey asking people where they consider themselves from. And so we can get you that data to see how many numbers have come from Nogales to date already.

That's good, and we'll talk about it because I have an idea. That sounds great. Okay, thank you. Mr. Chair?

Yes, sir, go ahead. I have an idea as well. Fourth of July.

Fourth of July is phenomenal in Nogales, absolutely.

I mean, a lot of people are out. That would be a great idea.

And I will let you know that we have put a couple of ads in the Nogales International to get people to participate in the survey. That was during the month of April. So we continue to look at ways to do that as well as we're working on radio spots. So we did one in Green Valley. And so that will cover the Nogales area as well.

Have you guys reached out to the city of Nogales? Yes.

We haven't reached out to the city of Nogales directly. I mean, this has been a countywide effort, so we could definitely contact the city of Nogales as well.

Thank you. Once again, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay, we will move to F2. Government 101, Roles and Responsibilities of the Clerk of the Board in the Elections Department by Alma D. Schultz, Clerk of the Board, Elections Director and Staff. Alma, the floor is yours.

Good morning everyone. Um, I have a question for everyone and this is how I'm going to start my presentation. Um, what is clerk of the board and elections? And so when you think about that, can you picture something? Yeah, just picture something for me. Okay, next slide. That is what I picture. For clerk of the board, this is what I picture. Coordinating meetings, deadlines, and agendas, and schedules that can sometimes feel like herding cats, because I need to herd all my cats, right? And make sure everyone's going to be there, yes. I said all of these, right? So that's what I picture with clerk of the board. And then next slide, please. And for elections, this is what I picture myself. There's all kinds of preparation for election day. A lot of people just think it's one day. It really is more than one day. It's a lot of preparation that we do. but we always overthink. And so the night before election day, I don't sleep. I stay up because even though we're prepared, I still overthink about anything that can happen, right? Anything that can go wrong. Very good. So that's what I picture for elections. Next slide, please. Okay, very good. So I'll go over the clerk of the board and elections. Hello, my name is Alma Delmar Schultz. I am the clerk of the board and elections director for Santa Cruz County. And chair and members of the board, thank you for this opportunity to present. Next slide, please. Statutory authority, the clerk of the board is a statutory county officer appointed by the Board of Supervisors, by you and only, right? I was appointed in April of 2021 as the clerk of the board, and I also serve as the elections director for our county. Out of 15 counties in the state of Arizona, only three counties have their clerk of the board and also serve as the elections director. Okay, very good. Clerk of the Board is pretty much the official record keeper. I keep everything that the Board of Supervisors approve during these meetings. I keep record of everything according to the retention period. Okay, very good. And then I also administer and oversee any election operations in compliance with Title 16. Very good. Next slide, please. This is our organizational structure. We have a deputy clerk of the board. Her name is Nicola Brenner. She's amazing. Ivana Garcia, she's an administrative assistant. She just barely started in that role. And Danitza Mendoza, she's a temporary receptionist switchboard operator. They're all three amazing ladies. I couldn't do my job without them. And I'm very proud about Danitza. She actually works with us, does her best, and she goes to school. And then I'm very proud about Ivana that she just started in this role. and of course about Nikki, because I can't do anything without Nikki. Very good. Next slide, please. Operating procedures. So for a clerk of the board, we use the Attorney General Agency Handbook, Chapter 7, Open Meetings. That's a resource that we use for open meeting law compliance. That one can be found in our... on our website under the Board of Supervisors. So if anyone wants to look at that, take a read at that, or you're having like an election day, night preview, you can read that and it'll be fun. Okay, very good. And then we also have the elections. Oh, can you go back? Thank you. And then as far as for elections, we go by the Secretary of State Election Procedures Manual. That one is updated every two years by the Secretary of State, and that one is also on our elections website, and it's also on the Recorder's website as well for any information.

Very good.

Next slide, please. Okay, so what are the major services of Clerk of the Board? So it's creating those agendas, right? You have one in front of you probably for today's meeting. The packets, which are all the documentation that are included for those agendas, any action items, and any memorandums to the board. Minutes, those are the minutes that I'm taking every single meeting. Resolutions, ordinances, and public notices. We also process liquor licenses, bingo application, and firework applications, which are very exciting because you know there's going to be fireworks pretty soon, right? And then we're also the main contact for public records requests as well. And then, so once we receive a public records request from the community, we delegate that public records request to that responding department. And then we track that public records request to make sure that it gets fulfilled in its way. And then we also scan and preserve any historical county documents, including any early year minutes. We started scanning those into our system so that way they're easy to access at any time that we need them, okay? Some new improvements that we've had since April of 2021, since I started, we did implement Civic Clerk. That's a software for the creation of agenda creation. We wanted to do this because we came out of creating an agenda on a Word document and started doing it on a software, and it improved accountability by allowing departments to add their own items onto the agenda, and it increased transparency because it has a better way of adding the packet onto the website, and then the public is able to see every document there, including resolutions. We have them, once they're signed and approved by the board, we have them actually public-facing on that site as well. for the public to see. And then for the public records request, we made that one more effective and efficient by providing an online form so that people who want to do a public records request, they can do it at the convenience of their home and not have to come into the county, but they can do it at home and do their public records request on the online form on the website. Okay, very good. And then next slide, please. Okay, so now I'm going to talk about elections. One of the major things that we do, as I mentioned, it's election day that we oversee. We have to create the ballot, and we have to proof it in order to have a final ballot. That's the time where I close the door and I say, please don't bother me, pretty much. because I need to make sure that every single thing is correct and that every single race is on the appropriate ballot precinct. And then we also perform logic and accuracy testing with the state and also the county logic and accuracy testing with our political parties. And then we also canvass our election. And then we have 13 vote centers total for elections, so we need to make sure that all vote centers are up and running smoothly for election day. And then we also have poll worker recruitment. We recruit over 100 poll workers, and we have to train all of them so that we know that it'll be a smooth election, okay? And they have to learn how to use our systems as well and our procedures. So every year we have to redo our handbook for the poll books. We change based on legislative changes, right? Because the law keeps changing on elections. It's one of the hot topics that always keeps changing it. So it keeps changing my handbook. And so every year I have to train my poll workers on something new. For instance, for this 2026 election that coming up on the primary, there'll be early ballot ID verified. So those individuals that have their early ballot, it's election day, they still haven't dropped it off. They can go drop it off, present their ID. They have to present their ID and then it can be considered ID verified and it's ready to tabulate. It's in lieu of signature verification. Okay. Very good. So that's a new thing that I have to train our poll workers. The other thing that I'm very proud about is that we recruited over 25 new student poll workers during the recent special election last year. So that was amazing that we're getting more participation from students. We're actually going out to the schools and having like little like a little lemonade stand type of thing for poll workers to get students to come over to participate. And it's great because we hope that once they're registered to vote and they're 18 already and they can vote, they should exercise the right to vote. Right. Very good. And then we've expanded, as I mentioned, on that hands-on training, so that way our poll workers can actually get hands-on training. They actually work with our poll book in front of them, and they actually go through scenarios where if they have a power outage as well. So many different little things that we... that I overthink of as well and we all overthink of that could happen wrong and we try to train our poll workers what do you do, how do you react to this type of thing. Being proactive is what we want to do and that's our way of being proactive is by training our poll workers how to react to certain situations. Very good. Next slide, please. So that's a picture of the hands-on training, as I mentioned. We set it up for every election. We have poll workers coming in, and then they have the poll books, which are electronic rosters in front of them. So when the voters come in, they can check in on the roster with the poll worker. And I do really want to take the time to say thank you to all our poll workers in our community. They are amazing people that they show up every election, and they help. And then we also get new poll workers as well every new election. they're amazed by all the election process. You know, we have some poll workers that are not very, that's at the start, at the beginning of the training, they're not very confident in our elections, but once they've gone through it, they're very confident in them, and they appreciate our election process. So I encourage anyone who has not volunteered as a poll worker, I encourage you to please participate in our election process. And next slide, please. OK. So I do want to talk about our voting equipment. When I came in, we had older tablets and also older poll books. I mean, that's the same thing. And printers. And so what we did is we used to carry them in like suitcases. every single item used to be carried in different suitcases. So what we did is we created a cage model where it carries the printers. It carries everything inside them, including the pull books. Even the pull books are being charged within the cage, and then the cage connects to a backup battery as well. So that's something that we created in order for it to be more efficient and effective on setting up both centers. Back in the day, it used to take us about until from 7 a.m. all the way till 7 p.m. to set up vote centers, 13 vote centers throughout the county. With this new improvement, we've been done by 1 or 2 p.m. Okay, very good. Next slide, please. OK, this is another equipment that's coming up this primary election. We upgraded the accessible voting device, which is just a marking device. It does not tabulate votes. It's just a marking device. And so on your left side, you'll see the older version that we had. And for this new election, we're going to be using the new express votes units. I know I'm very excited about it because the older one that we had was very, very slow. It tested your patience completely. But this new one, it'll be way faster. It'll be easier for the voter as well. Okay, next slide, please. Okay, so important dates to remember. Remember that primary election day is July 21st of 2026 this year, and then the general election is November 3rd. Make sure to exercise your right to vote on those election days, okay? Another important thing that we're going to be doing this election cycle is we're relocating from the Nogales Recreation Center on Hohokam, and we're relocating to the Santa Cruz County Provisional Community College building. So we're pretty excited about that, and we're hoping to get more participation. And then we're going to continue using the Americana Hotel, which they have been so gracious in providing their location to us, and we're very grateful to them, in place of VFW. OK, very good. And I added a QR code so that you may stay informed. Please visit our official elections website. You may see more details, more updates, what's going to be on the ballot. We even post our sample ballots there. I also want to stress the fact that independents do get to vote in the primary election. I want to make sure that everyone is aware of that. If you are registered as an independent or no party affiliation, you can vote in the primary election, you get to choose a ballot. In this election, you get to choose either a Democratic, Republican, or a No Labels Party ballot. Okay? Very good. Next slide. So whether it's board meetings or election day, none of it happens without teamwork. Next slide, please. And so that's my team that I appreciate and I couldn't do my job without. And another team members that I have also is the Recorder's Office. So Anita, if you can thank you for your help always and your team as well. You guys are part of our team. And also the maintenance, the sheriff's office, the county attorney's office, the finance department, IT is also involved. Community development also helps. I mean, I think almost all department helps with elections and with our board meetings. So thank you all so much for all your help. Next slide, please. And that was the clerk of the board in elections. Any questions?

Gentlemen?

excellent job thank you we appreciate what you do what your staff does your attention to detail uh it's very much appreciated thank you you're welcome well yeah the same because you know that you're very effective we know that you're very effective and this starts way before the election not only that day and a little bit after so just thank you for running this it's very successful thank you

Everything I've seen, everything I've witnessed, everything I've heard from others, not just in our surrounding community, but throughout the state, is that your knowledge base, your work ethic, your team is second to none. It's something that could draw negative attention to our county, but instead it does exactly the opposite. something that we can be very proud of. So whether we're talking about Alma, Nikki, Ivana, or Danica, you guys are an incredible team, and we say thank you. And I know how many hats you wear. Maybe I don't. I think I do, but I don't. And that's very much appreciated and very impressive. So thank you so much for a very informative slideshow.

And I thank you for allowing me to continue serving my community as the clerk of the board and elections director. And I thank my community for allowing me the opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Chair, one last thing. Please. I'd like to see the manager use her format for all the other presentations. Well noted, sir.

And if you want to know how much work she puts into it, just a sliver. After this meeting, she's got a stack over there of everything that we have to sign. So she has to be incredibly organized, and she is at that. So thank you again. So with that, we are going to move to, although item G does not have any action items underneath it, We are going to move as designated at the beginning of this meeting, H3 and H4, as we're gonna pull them from the consent agenda, and we are going to move them to G, action items. So with that, I'll start with number three, discussion, possible action to approve intergovernmental agreement, number EV26. with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, ADQ, for the Oso Wash, in parentheses, Brickwood Canyon Ecoli Remediation Project, including phase one engineering and design services, with reimbursement of up to $20,000, effective through May 19th, 2027, and an estimated county match of $16,220. With that, Mr. Young.

Good morning, Chairman Fanning, members of the board, community. Thank you for allowing me to speak towards this. The situation at Oso Wash isn't new, but it is getting a lot more attention now for many reasons. At a 30,000-foot level, what's happening is a water treatment plant in Nogales, Sonora is over capacity, and so the contaminated effluent is crossing the U.S. border there in Oso Wash and Brickwood Canyon. It's been doing that for a while off and on, but now it's gotten pretty bad. Unfortunately, Mr. Vanderbilt left, but together with ADEQ and the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, they've been recently been doing testing, and it's getting pretty bad, so we need to do something. And so by the suggestion of county management, we look to see what we could do on our side of the border to mitigate some of this. And so what this is, is this is a concept design, so it's 15% of what we would wanna do. The final project is about $2 million, so we would use this to go after further funding. And what this IGA is, the total cost of this 15% design is $36,000, and Joaquin and Claudia from ADEQ have been, along with Ernest, one of our consultants, have been working very hard on this. And basically what it is, is ADEQ would be giving us $20,000 and then we would also put in $16,000 to make the $36,000 so that we can get this going so that we have something to use to look for further funding. So that's a 30,000 foot view of what this IGA is, Oso Wash on a larger scale. There's a lot of players involved, a lot of layers to it. And kind of what we saw with Pima County, there was something that she wrote that they had on the slides was continued consistent coordination And realistically, that's what we need for Oso Wash with our friends at the government level and also both state and federal, but also, you know, Nogales, Mexico. So it's an opportunity for us to get a win here and then maybe move on to even bigger projects like the Nogales Wash because a lot of the same people are involved. Gentlemen, questions?

I just want to thank you for working on this item because it's a very delicate issue and very complicated because it involves, it's international. But I thank you and hopefully we can really, I think some very important comments were made earlier about making sure whatever we do is designed to where if Mexico grows, our infrastructure will be able to handle it. That was a good comment.

Definitely.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, so has there been any communication with the Mexican authorities? I know in one of the meetings there was.

Yes, so at a growing water smart workshop that we had a couple months ago, UMAPIS was there. So was ADEQ, and so we were able to actually have a group chat in WhatsApp where we can communicate back and forth regarding updates on the project. So there is communication. We are working on getting a stakeholder meeting going within the next couple weeks to discuss this further. From both sides of the border, sorry.

And is this wastewater project, the idea of it would be like to do something temporarily or like to fix the actual problem?

No. So what this concept is, so Nogales, Mexico has some plans both from federal funding and local funding to mitigate this situation. What we want to do on our side, what this is, is the gabions with copper. so that you know what would end up happening is once the water the fluent gets across the border you're spreading it out so that more sunlight hits it and then as it goes to the copper that also helps with with cleaning the water and so there'd be a few of those located on city of nogales land because what you have is you have private land right where it crosses And then all the land around it is from the city of Nogales. So we would place this project on city of Nogales land. They're part of the conversation also. They've been in meetings also.

So just to follow up. So then it goes through private property, city of Nogales, right? And then counties. So who would own and maintain this project?

That would be something that we'd work on. I think we would probably offer to help maintain it moving forward. County manager might be able to help with that answer.

Mr. Chair, members of the board, so right now what we're looking at is a flood control project, right? Our hope is to mitigate the contamination. If it escalates to something more than a passive system, more of a treatment facility, I'm not sure what space we have in that based on statute. So this DCR, it should give us three concepts of what it would take to mitigate the contamination. If it's something beyond that, we may have to ask our partners or the city to run these facilities. Just for your information, thank you.

Go ahead. Another question. How come this situation is not dealt at the source of the problem?

At the what? At the origin, at the source. At the source?

Yeah. In Mexico, where it's taking place, like to avoid the wastewater running down the...

I don't know why it hasn't been taken care of earlier. I just know that we've been told and given updates that they are addressing it.

Next question.

Next question. So based on the information and the conversations we had with Mexican authorities or the U.S. consulate in Mexico, would you guys still recommend to move forward with this, even based on the other information that we have?

Oh, for sure. Yeah, we definitely have to be good stewards of our water courses, and this is the first step. At least we'll have information that you guys could decide on. So I commend Chris for doing all this. It's a wealth worth project.

And to add to that, like County Manager mentioned, we may have to do something bigger. But like I mentioned, we all have to get in the same room multiple times to decide how we're gonna deal with this. Just like with the gap analysis with the broadband, that's how we have to deal with situations like this internationally. We all have to be at the table and we have to be working together. So this gives us something to pick apart. It's something that we can all look at, see what it is, critique it, whatever, but have the conversations that we need to have to find a solution.

Thank you.

Thank you. I would agree that doing nothing at this point is counterproductive, and this is a first step in making something happen. I had two questions. They were both answered, but I want to confirm. First of all, the city is involved with this?

Yes. The former city manager was in one of our first meetings that we had towards the beginning of the calendar year. And so I know that Mayor Maldonado is informed of this also. I can't speak towards the council, but I know that Mayor Maldonado is informed of this also. And also the interim public works director was at the most recent meeting. So the city of Nogales is involved.

Okay. And then my second question, I believe, was also answered. We're looking at future meetings, and I know that we're trying to put something together with all stakeholders who would be affected by this in the future. That would include federal, state, county, city, as well as in Sonora, the Mexican side of the line. Exactly. Yeah, whatever we can do to expedite that and get everyone at the table. For starters, I think that's a great idea.

Agreed.

Thank you. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

So moved.

I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll move to vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries. Thank you, sir. And we're going to move to former consent agenda item number four, now action item number two, discussion possible action to approve the amended and restated intergovernmental agreement with the city of Nogales for library services previously approved on May 4th, 2021 to extend the term for one year with a new expiration date of June 30th, 2027. Mr. Young.

Yes, so throughout this year, we knew that this was coming up and we were going to have to renew this IGA. And I believe in March, we had it on a possible agenda item for a joint meeting with the city of Nogales. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that meeting. And so the response we got from the city of Nogales is they do not want to change anything with the IGA. which is great, I mean, Danita and her group and the board, they do a great job, so no complaints here. But it's very important, at least I feel, as a county, there's a lot of, our community's growing, it's changing, and so we need to make sure that if we're gonna do another long-term commitment for our libraries, we're getting it right. And so the reason for extending it a year instead of doing the four-year term once again is, At some point, we need to sit down with the city of Nogales and have a good dialogue about this to make sure we're sharing the same objectives and goals in our community. Mr. Vanderbilt mentioned some other options that we could talk about also. But before we sign something long-term, my recommendation is that we have that dialogue with the city of Nogales. And it can be at the beginning of 2027, just to make sure we're all on the same page regarding what we want to do with our libraries.

Sir? Yeah, I'd like to visit all options, Sonoyta, Rio Rico, the whole library process. That would be nice, maybe via study session down the road.

Exactly, I think that would be best.

Thank you, sir.

Sir? So yeah, so basically you mentioned it's the same agreement, right?

The exact same agreement. I think that's half a sentence that's changed.

So in that, the original agreement was in 2021, correct? Correct. So is there anything from the county management or legal that you guys would have liked to have included in this new agreement or basically works?

I don't think we could say that would be premature. I mean, there are a lot of ideas. Obviously, you know, we've become very close with the town of Patagonia, and we already support their library at a certain level also. But we just want to make sure with the change of leadership here, right, and the different things that have happened in our community, It would be premature to say things that we would like to see because we want to make sure that we speak with the town of Nogales or the city of Nogales and bounce those ideas off them before we, you know, try to implement something that may not be best for the community.

So we'll try to get together.

I hope so. I hope so. In the near future.

And that kind of segues into my statement. Yeah, I would suggest a study session. And once the dust settles, in my opinion, just another reason for us to sit down with the city council and discuss. This is just one item that could be part of that discussion. that meeting if it ever happens. Like I said, I know things are up in the air right now, but once the dust settles, I'd like to continue to attempt to sit down and meet with the city council along with the supervisor and team.

You're here.

Agreed.

Move to approve item four, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, sir. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I will move to the vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you.

And with that, I believe that item H minus number six, the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus number six?

And item A. I apologize.

And 1A is also removed. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstention? Motion carries unanimously. And with that, we'll move to item I. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved to adjourn.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously, 11-13.