City Council - Regular Meeting

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[Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome to the city of Maricopa's city council meeting. We're glad you're here because your voice matters. If you'd like to speak tonight, please start by filling out a speaker card at the council chambers entrance and turning it in to the city clerk before the meeting begins. On that card, you can let us know if you want to speak on a planned agenda item or during the general call to the public. Please keep in mind that

all comments are limited to 3 minutes or less depending on the number of people requesting to speak. Personal attacks and political speeches or threats are inappropriate in this forum and will be grounds for ending a speaker's time at the podium at the discretion of the mayor. We also ask that audience members refrain from applauding or showing disapproval of comments shared by fellow community members as every person who addresses council has the right to speak and not be intimidated. It's important to note that due to Arizona's open meeting law, council members cannot respond or take action on topics not listed on the agenda, but your comments will be heard and entered into the public record. Can't stick around for the full meeting? You can always catch the replay on Facebook or YouTube where this meeting is currently being livereamed. Want more details about tonight's agenda items? Scan the QR code on your screen or visit www.mmaricopa-az.gov/aggenda. Thank you for joining us and getting involved. As a final reminder, please silence your cell phones and electronic devices. The city council meeting will begin shortly. Thank you all for being here this evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting September 16th 2025. At this time I would like to take a moment of silence. After the events of this week, let us take this moment of silence to acknowledge the need for unity and peace in our community, state, and nation. Please take a moment of silence.

Thank you. We do have an invitation tonight, but I'm not seeing Pastor Rusty Acres. Is he here? Okay. Given that, we've taken a moment of silence. So, I appreciate you doing that. I would like to turn it over to Council Member Ghetto for a pledge of allegiance. Please stand if you're able. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Council Member Ghetto. That'll take us to a roll call. Vanessa, please. Council member Gle,

present. Council member No, present. Council member Leman, here. Council member Marsh here. Council member M here. Vice Mayor Wade here. Mayor Smith here. Madam Mayor, we have a form.

Thank you, Vanessa. That'll take us to proclamations, acknowledgements, awards, and presentations of which this evening we don't have any. So, that'll move us on to the report from the mayor council. Any comments, questions? Yes, Council Member Lerman. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to wish the Air Force a happy birthday on September 18th. Uh yes, September 18th. And then I also just wanted to let you know that we have a planning group getting ready for October for domestic violence. Um Maricopa Police Department, City Council member, um Hope Women's Center Against Abuse, Dove's Network, and the Artmobile. Um all got together and we planned a really exciting month of October with many events that you can get involved with. Um we are going to the mayor will do a proclamation October 7th. So, we just encourage you to um look for that information. We'll have it available for you on October 7th, but look for that information and please participate in those events.

Thank you, Council Member Luren. Council member Noir. Thank you, Mayor. Quickly, I just wanted to thank our local American Legion Post that put on a peace and unity and patriotism event on Sunday at the Veterans Memorial by Copper Sky. It was a beautiful tribute and ceremony. Um they had a somebody singing the national anthem and God Bless America. They had pipes and it was just a great time for everybody to come together and celebrate uh peace and unity and it was really a great reset as um from the events of the week. And so I thought it was fantastic that our American Legion did that and just wanted to thank them. That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Nor. Council member Marsh.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, on September 10th, the General Plan Advisory Committee met online. The committee is headed by Rick Williams. There should be a first draft of the uh, general plan update available in a couple months for all of us to review and comment. On September 11th, there was a Medicare workshop at the senior center. The presenter was extremely knowledgeable and pizza was provided. I added a $100 gift card as a door prize. That went over well. Um on the 15th, the senior advisory committee met. Staff pre presented an action plan for the coming months for the committee. Uh the committee and staff are working on the plans for the senior info expo scheduled for the third Saturday in January. That's January 17th, 9:00 am to 12:00 noon in the library. Looking ahead, uh there's a lunch and learn this coming Thursday at 11 at in the senior center featuring a presentation on dementia. There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. On the 20th, uh the 18th annual Kids Day is at Maricopa Wells Middle School. That's uh Saturday, September 20th, 10:00 a.m. to 4 pm. Let's see. On the 23rd, Tuesday, at 8:00 am, uh in front of the museum, the Mike Ingram Heritage Park, uh ground breaking will occur. Uh it's early, but come if you can. And then um October 15 through 26, stage coach days happens in Maricopa with events and and activities all over the city in Pana Park, the library, the

community center, achin circle, the museum, and citywide. And that's about it, mayor. Thanks. Thank you very much, Council Member Mars. Council member Man Freddy,

thank you so much for the time. Um it's been a crazy couple weeks. Of course, we've all lived through it now. But, um, on September 11th, um, the mayor, city manager, and myself were able to do a presentation before the chamber of commerce where we got to talk a little bit about transportation, what's going on with the 347, understanding where the money is coming from, how we're spending the money, the timelines, and all that stuff. Um if you weren't able to make it to that, just feel free to um you know, show up uh on the 18th for my Facebook live I do every um once a month on Thursdays uh the third Thursday usually, but uh we'll have a Facebook live and you can ask all those questions again. And then I'm not competing with the um annual kids day, but on the 20th at 10:00 a.m. adults, don't bring the kids. Um, you can if you want, but adults can come over and we're going to have some donuts and just a full open discussion. People can ask whatever questions they want. Um, and it's just an opportunity for people to ask questions what they want to know how about anything including up to transportation. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Man Freddy. Vice Mayor Wade. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it. I just wanted to recognize the cadetses at the cadetses at Miracle High School for their flag raing ceremony on the 911. Um there was probably 80 kids there that are interested in being a part of that program and that's that's really that's very very good and happy about that. But they did a great job. I just want to make sure that they were recognized for their efforts.

Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. All right. So, a couple of the things I want to speak about tonight is the youth council. We had our first kickoff for this year and it was packed with youth and it was really, really exciting. I want to appreciate the staff for everything that they've done to put into it this year. Um, something new is that the youth council will have committees that they can volunteer for and it's a variety of different committees like how can I serve and joining that committee? what do I need to know to share about the city then joining that committee I mean a variety of committees and they were very excited about it so thank you staff for a job well done and thank you for our youth I love the fact that the room was packed and I was energized when I left there and speaking with many of them um in terms of since our last city council meeting we I've had probably 50 to 70 hours of communication with various residents various authorities on the global water discussion and we'll speak more about that later. Um myself, Council Member Manf Freddy mentioned the chamber breakfast. It was really quite wonderful because not only did we have the opportunity to share about transportation, but we opened the floor to other questions as well and we got a variety of questions and we provided some very wonderful interesting answers. Um so, uh it was really quite a lovely experience. So, I appreciated doing that. I attended the Veterans Memorial flag raising as well. At six o'clock on Sunday was the time when the flags went from half mass to full. And I really appreciate our veterans for holding this special opportunity. It was last minute. So I'm sorry if you weren't aware of it, but um I'm appreciative that they made me aware of it and the rest of council and it was a lovely experience. They had a um person who sang several wonderful songs and then the flag raising itself

and they talked about peace and unity and that's very very important at this time. So important always but we've had a hard week. Chief Goodman and I spoke at Community of Hope Church and this was last Sunday so it's before what happened um in the week on Wednesday. Little did we know how pertinent it would be. We were asked to speak on what would our community be like if we all lived by the greatest commandment. And you don't even have to be of Christian faith to understand that. You can be really of any faith, any belief system, but to know that the greatest commandment is to love everyone and to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. What would our community look like if we all took that into consideration? So, it was a great conversation. And I really appreciate the chief coming to Community of Hope Church to do that as well. We did two services and the people that were there left I think inspired in terms of how they can help and how they can love other people. It was really quite fun and fascinating. But I leave you with that to ponder how would our community change if we all lived by the greatest commandment. I'll let you ponder that. So given that it takes us to the report from the city manager, Mr. Bidder, please. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. Two, excuse me, two things tonight. First of all, our fall citizen leadership academy will soon be kicking off. That is October 15th for the first meeting. Applications open next week. So, on the on Friday the 26th, applications will be open. So, if you're interested in learning more about the city, um if you're uh wanting to learn how nuts and bolts work, even have our local utilities participating in that. So, uh, certainly encourage anyone and everyone to apply for that. The second thing, just echoing a little bit of the sentiments from from Mayor Smith

as well as some other comments. You know, what we do as the city is we we try to make everyone in our community's lives better on a day-to-day basis. And it's so encouraging to work with our staff, whether it's um our firefighters that answer phone calls of people in medical distress or our uh public works crews that are filling potholes to make it one less stressful uh issue on the drive home or even working with uh the city council as as you all have dove into learning more about u an ecoli issue or a global water um concern that may have popped up. It's fascinating to watch how many hours are put in to learning more, to growing, to becoming better, and to making our community better. And so, just just a a thanks to all of you, to our staff who inspire me on a day-to-day basis as I get to watch and and participate in a little bit of making our community better every day. It's awesome to watch. Thank you.

Thank you, city manager. All right, that'll take us into the call to the public. I just want to remind you that um you will be addressing the council and not the audience and you will have three minutes and then all speaker cards that are appointed to an agenda item will be given that opportunity to speak during that agenda item. So given that I do have four speaker cards for the call to the public. I'll call them up and uh we'll start with Dr. John and May. There we go.

There it is. There we go.

We say it again. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh we are here uh I know uh Council Member Marsh and Manf Freddy both have mentioned it uh but we're here about Kids Day and Kids Day Maricopa is uh health safety environmental awareness for kids in Maricopa. We have 100 activities for them. Everyone is there to teach children something in a very fun way and everything is free to them. Uh it's uh free food, free drinks, free toys, and we have everything and anything possible about uh all sorts of safety and health things. Um, you know, we have PD out there, we have FD out there, we have the sheriff's department, uh, we have demonstrations of, uh, karate, dance,

learn with Aloha, DPSA. Uh, and then we're gonna have, uh, Big Red from the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah, he'll be doing pretty good, I hear, right now.

Yeah. And so, uh, we'd like to offer to anybody still if they'd like to participate, they can come there and, uh, have a booth. It is free to have a booth. People can sponsor if they want, but uh, we'd rather just have you there teaching children as, uh, best you can. inspiring our youth, kind of giving them a direction, learning what inspires them, whether it's to be a firefighter with our amazing program or the police department with our cadet programs. So, that's what kids day is about. It's the 4 club. It's learning about baby goats and bunnies and just whatever makes them happy and inspires them and kind of with be awesome. What an amazing program teaching our kids how to be above the influence and that is what kids day is about. We work with the sheriff's department. Um, drug awareness. Um, you know, in today's society, it's it's a lot of pressure for our children. And so with

breaking up. Yeah. So, it's just um project aware. It it's one of those uh events where we just try to come together uh and teach them, but uh we also have all the resources as well. You know, uh we have a lot of indigent families that are around and we'd like to make sure that they are helped. Uh

they're getting the needs that they're getting their needs met. So whether it's vision and hearing screenings with the Lions Club or you know and we're very thankful for our Maricopa Rotary. We've had a great partnership with them for many many years. They and the Smith Foundation without their support. We couldn't cover the cost because we're all community service and it's an an entirely free event and all the funds that we raise through all of our sponsorships. Thank you Vince Manfred. I mean, um, Henry Wade and Vince, actually, everyone here, we are very thankful for all of you. You have participated and made a difference in our community, and I'm we're just so thankful for you. I'm so glad that you are here with us.

Yeah. And uh, as our city council, the event is held at Maricopa Wells Middle School. It is on this Saturday, the 20th. Saturday, from 10 to 4. Saturday. All right. Uh, we do have posters. Um, and uh, if anyone would like more information, we'd also like to share the following Saturday. All right, we have to bring it to a close. The Maricopa Police Foundation Golf Tournament, Saturday 27. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for letting us

Thank you so much for your presentation. Before I go on to the next speaker card, I did mean to indicate if anyone has handouts, please give them to our city clerk, Vanessa, or you can also give them to Chief Goodman. He said he's happy to collect them as well. We did have someone follow that process. Thank you, kids day, and we appreciate the handouts. Okay, that'll take us to the next one. Tori Anderson. Hello. Hello,

Mayor Smith Council. Thank you. Um, Tori Anderson. I'm here tonight on behalf of Against Abuse Incorporated. Obviously, domestic violence month is coming up in October. And so to kick that off and to be part of it is we are doing our 20th annual, can't believe it's been 20 years, our seeds of change gayla. All the proceeds go to our Maricopa Women and Children's Domestic Violence Shelter and Sexual Assault Programs. So, every dollar we raise stays right here in the city of Maricopa, which is a lot to be said for this community. So, thank you. It is October 18th at 6 PM at Harris Ochin Ballroom. I did leave you all invitations. I think I also mailed them to your homes and I mailed them to the city council. So, it's been covered, but I do have extras if anybody would like them. Um, but I just want you to know that everybody's invited. Tickets are selling fast, so they need to go online at seedsofchangegala.org to purchase tickets, get additional information. Harris is offering a reduced room rate for that night for those that would like to stay there and play. Um, and so you can purchase that by Thursday, but it is available for a reduced room rate. And all that information is also on the website at seedsofchangegala.org. If you have a specific question that you would like to ask, whether it's to get involved or sponsorship or how can you help, you can email me directly and that's t o r i l andersongmail.com. So, let me know if you have questions, concerns, want to get involved. But I look forward to seeing all of you. On October 18th at 6 PM, we're going to do our Christmas tree auction. I've got 20 businesses in Maricopa that are donating fully decorated Christmas trees. Some of

them are pretty amazing. Um the the craftiness is coming out in the city. So, just that alone is worth coming to look at and to see. We also have an additional 40 trees that will be on sale that are not decorated. So if you need a Christmas tree for one of your extra rooms, this is a place to get it cheaper than Walmart and the money stays here. Goes right to the shelter. So that's another opportunity. We will have a silent auction, live auction, and raffles. So I will see you on October 18th at 6 PM. Get dressed up. Thank you. Thank you very much, Tori. That'll bring up our third speaker, Robert Clo Club. I always say it wrong. Sorry. Okay, good.

I wrote it down so I hopefully I timed it. I could keep to three minutes. All right. Very good. We'll start now.

Very good. Mayor Smith, Vice Mayor, and Councilman Council members. My name is Robert Clo and I live in Glenn Wild. As many of you know, I dedicate a great deal of my time to this city and county. Maricopa isn't just where I live. It's my home. And like many in this room, I work hard every day to make it better, safer, more livable place for our families and our future. So, it's fitting and a bit ironic that tonight's agenda includes a discussion on customer service from one of our local utilities. Because I recently experienced firsthand what lack of customer service looks like, courtesy of another, ED3. Let me be clear. I understand the city doesn't directly control ED3, but as our elected representatives, you do have influence. You do have their ear. And when a company's policies or lack thereof put your citizens at risk, you are in a position to demand better. Last month, my wife and I made a mistake. Like many families, we split responsibilities. She handles the household bills. I handle the business bills. And in this case, the electric bill fell through the cracks. It happens. In over four and a half years, we've never missed a single payment. But this one time, we did. Unfortunately, that one time happened while I was attending a conference representing our city and our county and my wife was taking her 93-year-old mother on a once in a-lifetime cruise to Alaska, something she has dreamed about since she was a little girl. And that's when 83 cut off our power. Now, I'm not here to complain that they shut shut it off. That was on us. I'm not even upset about the surprise $250 deposit or the $600 in spoiled food. What I'm furious about is this. Not one word. No text, no email, no call, nothing. In a world where I get alerts about packages, dust storms, and everything in between, ED3 couldn't send one simple notice before cutting power in triple-digit heat. We only found out 10 hours later when our daughter stopped by to feed our dogs after she got home from work. If she hadn't, who knows how long it would have stayed off. And let's not forget, 83 has no after hours customer service. Once they flip the switch, you're in the dark. literally and

figuratively until the next day. And then it happened again the very next week on the day of our next bill was due because of a miscommunication on ED3's end. Still no notice, no call, nothing. And unlike APS and Tucson Electric Power, ED3 has made the intentional choice not to protect residents by avoiding shut offs during extreme heat. They could adopt that policy, but they've chosen not to. Now, imagine this didn't happen to me. Imagine it happened to my mother who's on 247 oxygen ventilator. Imagine it happened to a neighbor with that had to have their insulin refrigerated or other medical conditions. Imagine a family with an infant. Imagine a family where losing a refrigerator full of food could be the difference between eating that week or not. In 2024, we saw over 600 heat related deaths in the Phoenix metro area. This isn't a customer service error. This is a public health hazard. All of this could have been avoided with one automated message. Just one. So tonight, I'm asking this council to use your influence and leadership to demand better from 83, require modern customer communication pro protocols, require an after hours emergency response, especially in the summer, and require the public safety comes before bureaucratic convenience because next time someone's my life may depend on it.

Thank you, Robert. Appreciate the information.

All right, that'll take us to the next one. Tena Drake. Okay. Good evening, mayor and city council. Uh, thank you guys for allowing me to be here. Uh, I'm here because I'm going to be putting on my very first inaugural event. It's a book launch and a community summit. And of course, as um some speakers and you guys have shared earlier, domestic violence is coming up in October. And so, I am a survivor and an advocate of domestic violence. And I have a book that I'm going to be doing. And so at this event, I'm going to be giving that book out. So the tickets do cost, but that's one of the things that you get. And also, there will be refreshments. And the mayor has graciously agreed to just be there and and share. Um there are one in four women that are affected by domestic violence and one in seven men. And when we don't speak, we allow that to continue to rise and to raise and to continue to go on because domestic violence, it grows in the silence. When you don't acknowledge it, it continues to grow. So my thing is that we have a lot of beautiful people that provide services in this community but sometimes when somebody's going through something they don't know where to get the services from. That was my experience when I was going through that. There was no way for me to know I am not knowing where the services are. So if you are a service provider in this community and you want to come I am encouraging you to come and provide those services. Show that this is what I do. If you're going through the situation this is what I provide. There's no charge for the service providers to come and share that information. If you can't be there, give me the literature and I will give it out. I have some people that are coming from different parts of Phoenix to show that what they do. The 100 black men will be showing the mentor of the young men that need that. And I as a mother am always trying to figure out well where is another service for somebody else that's going through something. So if you are interested there are tickets as well and October 18th is the date. It's going to be a very busy day because

that's stage coach days as well. But I really think that because domestic violence is so prevalent and sometimes people don't speak about it and me running into a lady that was just dealing with that at Sprouts. Um I'm hoping that this will be something that people want to get behind and want to support. So I do have flyers. I will give some of those to where they're supposed to go. But if you want some, I do have some and it is on Eventbrite. You can just look it up. And it's called Ignite a New Start. Reclaim your power. rewrite your story. Thank you guys for allowing me to share.

Thank you very much, Tena. Appreciate the information. All right, that opens the floor up to anyone who was not able to turn into a speaker card for the call to the public. However, if it is agendaized, we will ask you to wait for comments to that agenda item. Is there anyone that would like to approach the podium? All right, seeing none, that'll move us on to consent agenda. Tonight we have consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.14. Council, do you have any questions, comments, or would you like to pull something? Yes, mayor. I'd like Sorry. Yes, mayor. I'd like to pull 7.2 for discussion.

7.2. All right. And anyone else have any comments, questions, pull additional items? Seeing none, do I have a motion that includes polling item 7.2? So moved. So moved by Council Member Man Freddy, seconded by Vice Mayor Wade. Any additional comments, questions? Very good. All in favor of approving consent agenda items last 7.2 say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Very good. That'll take us to consent agenda item 7.2. Council member Manf Freddy, you have the floor. Before discussion, I'd like to go to executive session for discussion with our legal team regarding 7.2.

Very good. Do you have a motion to move us into executive session? So moved. I have a motion to move into executive session. Council member Noir is saying yes to a second for that motion. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. We should be back shortly. Thank you very much.

Do we have to have a motion to pull us out of E session? Yes. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to resume our regular meeting and pull us out of E session. Second. Very good. I have a motion and a second to pull us out of E session and return to regular session. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Very good. That'll take us back to item 7.2. Council member Manf Freddy, I will turn it over to you. Mayor, regarding 7.2, I'd like to make a motion to approve 7.2 with one stipulation that is a one-time payment for the purchase and not a carrying of the note. Council, any questions, comments?

Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second to approve item 7.2. Madame Mayor, this is u council member Freddy. You want to be paid at close of escrow. You don't want to be paid two years later. You want to be paid at close. Okay. Right. Paid at close of escrow. The motion is to pay at close at full amount at escrow. I have a motion and a second by council member Noir. Any additional comments, questions. All in favor say I.

Any oppose? That motion carries. All right. That'll take us to regular agenda item 8.1. 8.1 will have a presentation from Casey Norman. Oh, it'll actually be Derek. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh members of the council, Derek Sheer with the uh development services department uh planning and zoning division presenting 8.1 uh which is uh abandonment ABDN25-00002 uh also with resolution res25-37. This is a request by the city of Maricopa to abandon a segment of rightway along uh North Maricopa Road. portion to be abandoned uh includes an approximately 350 foot long portion of North Maricopa Road between West Honeyut Avenue and West Alterara Parkway. Uh this is right at the intersection of on the southern portion of the intersection of uh West Honeyut Road and uh Honeyut Avenue, excuse me, and um North Maricopa Road. The abandoned portion of Public Rightway uh will be subsequently acquired by the adjacent property owner uh Desert Cedars Equities LLC without compensation. If I might include that uh this item 8.1 is in conjunction with item 8.2. We do not have a presentation for 8.2, but I'll describe uh what that is in this presentation. Uh on the screen you see the area to be abandoned. Uh when AOT uh put in the overpass, they realigned uh Maricopa Road. Maricopa Road used to be almost directly north south. uh AOT decided to redesign it and do it as an offset intersection where you know we have the offset north south road uh that makes it rather difficult for legal right turns on red and things like that. So what the city is proposing is to put it back into a linear north south. So, we're abandoning this portion here highlighted in yellow. And then what we're going to

do is bend uh North Maricopa Road heading northward to the to the west a little bit so that it lines up into a uh cross intersection. Uh a typical intersection where it's a easier to traverse for vehicles and also for people. Uh as required by the city code, uh notification letters uh were mailed out to local utilities on August 12th. Uh signs posting uh The signs were posted on the site uh on the 12th by the city. And then today we have the uh council hearing. Uh there were no public comments received at the time of the staff report and notification report is it available as exhibit B in the packet presented to the council. Uh staff supports the abandonment request as satisfies that the portion of rideaway uh that's being abandoned is not identified for any improved plan transportation needs. The city does not have any future plans to improve or use this portion of the rideway in question and the existing conditions are not serving any transportation purpose. Uh therefore, staff recommends approval of resolution 25-37 for case number ABDN25-00002 subject to the conditions of approval set forth in the staff memo and as amended by the mayor and city council. Now, I'm happy to answer any questions uh council may have.

Thank you, Derek. We'll first go to the public hearing. This is an open public hearing. I don't have any speaker cards this evening for this topic. However, if you would like to speak, please come forward. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Council, are there any questions or comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve item 8.1? So move. So moved by Council Member Man Freddy. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Council Member Marsh. Any additional comments, questions? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. That'll then take us on to 8.2, which as Derek indicated, the same presentation is valid. Council, do you have any comments, questions?

Motion to approve. Thank you. Motion from council member Ghetto, seconded by council member Manf Freddy. One additional time for comments, questions. Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council. Yes. That'll take us to item 8.3, which I believe is Josh. All right. Good evening, Mayor Council. Um, this is actually very related to the last two agenda items, so you're going to see some of the similar slides. Um, this is an intersection participation agreement. Um, we're talking about this intersection here, as Derek just stated, uh, is, um, not the most efficient of intersections. Um and the proposal let me note uh currently the land highlighted in green is owned by the city of Maricopa. The land highlighted in orange is owned by Desert Cedars Equity. Um the proposal will switch the existing conditions which is on the right to what we would like to see on the left which again is uh much better for traffic flow in area. Um what this intersection improvement will do um as well as u realigning the roadway um we'll also get an additional fourth leg of the traffic signal replacement of all of the existing traffic signals with an addition of uh camera ability um new curb gutter um turn lanes um intersections and updated street signs. So basically a refresh the whole intersection um that of course will improve traffic flow, traffic safety and better access from the whole area. Uh the um proposed agreement before you um is with Desert Cedars Equity. Um again, the property owner that was on the uh highlighted in orange. Um the city would reimburse for half of the improvements. That whole project is over $2 million. Um potentially um if approved, uh the city would reimburse u that development for 50%. And with that, questions. I know that was pretty quick going a little bit more in depth with what David just going uh Derek just going through.

Yes. Council questions, comments. Council member Larman, you said a new right turn lane. Is that an additional right turn lane? Uh additional Madame Mayor and Council Member Leman. Yes, that is an additional um you can see in the highlighted. Thank you. And I have a question. Will is it at a certain amount that we'll pay.

Uh correct. So, we will pay half. Anything addition uh to that would have to be approved by the city. Um there is potentials in there based on overruns, things like that the city would have to agree to. At this point, we've already worked with the developer um very in-depth on looking what those costs are. They already in construction. We expect that will be very close to what it is. Um anything beyond that we would have to approve. Very good. council, right? Yes,

council. Um, Mr. Bowman, thank you for your presentation and that is a very wellused section of our city and it involves the high school. What's the timing on this project and are we taking into account the traffic flow patterns that we'll need to use that street pretty regularly during school days?

Yeah. Um, Madame Mayor, uh, Council Member Gatle, um, definitely we know that there is going to be concerns with traffic flow at the time. Um, as with any of these projects, we know that it will get better when it's done. There will be a short period of kind of pain point at this time. Um, they are currently under construction on the uh the larger of the development. Um, and very quickly we'll be starting at intersection uh improvements. So, thank you. Very good. Anyone else? Council questions, comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion on item 8.3? So moved by Vice Mayor. Do I have a second? Second.

Seconded by council member Ghetto. One last chance. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

That motion carries. Thank you very much, Josh. All right, that'll take us to item 8.4. And I believe Matt is our speaker for 8.4. Uh, Madame Mayor and members of council, thank you for a few minutes of your time. Uh, my name is Matt Kazowski. I'm deputy city manager and chief financial officer for the city. Uh we wanted to introduce you to a transit feasibility study. Uh one of the things that has recently changed for the city um is that we previously for our transit program received funds via something called a 5311 program through ADOT. Uh given our growth, we are now eligible for receipt of funds under a 5307 program through the federal government uh through the FTA. uh the Maricopa Association of Governments or commonly referred to as MAG is actually our metropolitan planning organization for the transit program. So uh as a part of this both ADOT and the FTA have recommended that we do a new transit study. The last one was performed in 2018 and is considered outdated. Uh so we will have Wendy Miller from MAG come up here and give you guys an update on the transit kickoff study process which is just beginning. uh with the intention of coming back somewhere from 12 to 15 months from now to give you guys a wrap-up on how that process has taken place. So I will now turn the microphone over to Wendy. So thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Smith and city council members and Mr. Vizleski. Thank you. I'm the transportation program manager at the Maricopa Association of Governments. And I'm also joined tonight by Patrick Stone, deputy transportation director and our project consultant. Ma'am, would you bring the mic closer to your Yeah, there you go.

and our project manager uh with Kimley Horn, Chris Johannis. I'm pleased to be presenting to you tonight on the transit feasibility study for the city of Maricopa. And just to review the agenda that we'll be talking about tonight, a quick overview of the project purpose and goals, the overview of the scope of work, and a runthrough of the project schedule. And first, I was going to give a little bit of background about the FTA funding, but Mr. Kosloski beat me to it and explained that. So, um, basically the only thing I would add to that is that the FTA funding for transit purposes are for small urban areas are eligible for capital and operations of transit for the transit system, uh, purchasing buses, transit furniture, uh, constructing bus pullouts, operations of the system, transit vehicle and facility maintenance costs, and staffing of drivers and transit support staff, just to name a few. The project purpose is to help create a connected city of Maricopa by providing residents and visitors with greater mobility and access to opportunity. The goals of the project include benchmarking against peer systems to highlight where Maricopa is excelling and where additional effort is needed to improve. The study will leverage input from city staff, stakeholders, and the public to define where the system will evolve or expand to best respond to the community's needs. The study will aid in determining what opportunities are available and what the return on those investments may be through public and stakeholder engagement. The objective is to gain meaningful input and to highlight the benefits of the system through clear messaging. and we'll touch on the scope of work. Uh

the project includes six phases. Project management, public and stakeholder engagement, existing conditions and best practices, a market analysis, route and service recommendations, and a final report. We are currently in the project management phase. Um the components include the kickoff which uh we kicked off the project on August 19th with a meeting and a service area tour of the transit services here in Maricopa. The project management plan draft is currently under development which will provide a blueprint or roadmap for the project. The project management project management team consists of the city of Maricopa staff, MAG staff and the project consultant. The public and stakeholder engagement piece of the study is a very big key piece of this study. The technical advisory committee is formulated and it's a group of subject matter experts who meet throughout the study to pro to review and provide feedback on key phases of the study and help determine preferred alternatives. The project website will be established for residents and stakeholders to learn about the study and the schedule, review outreach materials and engagement opportunities and view the study documents. A total of six stakeholder interviews will take place to be conducted with various Maricopa staff, local businesses, and other key groups identified. And the project team will engage the community both virtually and in person throughout the study to gain valuable feedback on the current system, transit needs, and the proposed alternatives. We'll do an existing conditions review and best practices study. First, we review any previous plans. Uh the city of Maricopa completed a transit study

back in 2018, and that's where we'll begin is where that study ended. We'll pick up and start with from there. The team will also develop an updated socioeconomic profile for the Maricopa urban area, evaluate system metrics, the fair structure, infrastructure inventory, and so forth. The best practices assessment will identify potential strategies for improving Maricopa's transit system based on national best practices and uh the review of pure systems. We'll conduct a market analysis to identify populations that are most likely to use transit based on demographic and socioeconomic data. origin and destination data will provide context to understand where additional transit connections can be beneficial. And those feed into a transit gap analysis which the team will analyze where the gaps are in the urban area, including locations where existing transit may be underperforming, where there is no current transit where it's needed, and then where areas that are being served that still have a greater need. Which leads into the route and service recommendations. We'll be developing a list of multiple alternatives for consideration and based on those inputs will identify a preferred alternative. developing or conducting a financial analysis which includes funding projections, revenue and expenditure forecasts and developing an operations and capital plan for those identified recommendations and providing short, mid and long-term implementation recommendations. And this will help the city plan wisely with the resources available as a city grows and the needs change. And then there's the final report.

Maricopa will receive the final report document. All the data created and collected throughout the study for use by the city and for MAG for future purposes. The report will provide options and opportunities for the city of Maricopa to implement transit services and facilities that are right sized for this city in the short term and can be expanded as the city grows. And then I'll touch on the schedule here. The study is expected to be completed over a 15-month period. The kickoff meeting, as previously mentioned, was on August 19th, and it is anticipated to wrap up the study in October of 2026. If you can see on the schedule there, the project management piece that spans the entire part of the project. The team is uh ongoing and and working on that the entire time. And then the biggest part is the community and stakeholder engagement pieces. If you'll notice in the green, the uh technical advisory committee meetings are part of the engagement process and that's the group of people that gives us the recommendations and they are meeting uh several times throughout the study September, November, December, January and then again when we're pulling the final recommendations for the report. And then the public engagement pieces, um, we have them scheduled, uh, next month, October, coming up and in January and February. We're developing a survey to collect residents views of existing transit services and how it could be enhanced or adjusted. And we plan to engage with the community at stage coach days. So, we're very excited to come and visit. Engagement number two, plan for early in 2026. We're seeking feedback from the public on proposed alternatives for route service adjustments. Again, both virtually and in person opportunities. And then those existing condition and market analysis pieces which are held in the beginning, those are wrapped up to inform the route and service

recommendations which then go into the final report. And we anticipate bringing that final report back to the council um in fall of 2026. And with that, thank you mayor, council members. That concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions. Thank you very much, council. Any questions, comments? Yes, Council Member Lurman.

Um, thank you very much. I'm really excited to hear about this study. Our community has changed significantly since 2018, especially the east side of our community. And so, um, we're really excited to hear the results of your study. I'm really happy to hear you'll be at stage coach days. Um, from what I understand, our biggest users of the transit is our seniors and our youth. And so I'm really hoping that some of these engagement opportunities will be really friendly towards those age groups. Um, and I'm really excited to get their specific feedback since they're the ones who seem to use it the most.

Thank you, Mayor Councilman Leman. Um, we do have plans to reach out to senior centers and the schools to gain some feedback. So that is included in the plan. Thank you. Very good. Anyone else? Yes, Council Member McGhett.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Uh, Miss Wendy, thank you very much for your presentation. Just a question. We have the final report coming in about 13 months from today. Um, can you explain and help clarify for me what is the relationship between the federal federal dollars that are available for this service and the transit study? Do we need to wait for a completed study in order to qualify for those funds? And the reason why I'm asking this question is our residents are clamoring for additional expanded services today. If we were to wait for 13 months, is that what we're being forced to do or are we able to act before we have the final report?

Mayor, council member GTH, thank you for the question. The Federal Transit Administration funding is already available. This funding source started for the city of Maricopa starting in 2024. So there are access to those funds. The transit study was already funded with those funds to begin with. And so the transit services that exist are already being funded that way. So the transit study is going to lend us towards that and and help inform future transit investments. Very helpful. Thank you very much for the clarification.

Very good. Anyone else? Council member Ghetto, I appreciate that question because I'm happy to see on your presentation that we're looking at other routes, potential routes. We do have parts of our community that are not um available to access this service and I know that in your review on routes, we'll be looking closely at that and I'm sure you will gather that information at stage coach days without a shadow of a doubt. I'm sure you'll gather that. So, thank you very much and thank you for the presentation. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

All right, that'll take us to item 8.5. 8.5 is a presentation uh from global water and it's an important topic and I'm glad to have global water here and I'd like to introduce first Chris and then if he's going to pass it on to our other speakers, he'll introduce them. Make sure your mic is on if you would please.

Apologies. Good evening. Uh, mayor, vice mayor, council members. My name is Chris Kger. I'm Global Waters Chief Operating Officer. Uh joining to joining me today are a couple of my colleagues. Uh behind me you have Mr. John Corwin, our vice president, general manager, and then also Mr. Rob Cuda, our executive vice president of engineering and environmental resources. Thank you for the time this evening. Uh we've split this presentation up into kind of three parts. So part one is kind of current status, latest and greatest. The second part is kind of the the frequently asked questions we've received in the past week two or three that we thought would be helpful to provide more facts and detail on. And then the third set is the last slide kind of next steps and lessons learned. We definitely thought some things went well, but there's definitely opportunities for improvements in our process and the way we can be better as an organization. And so with that, I'm going to hand it over to John. All right. Thank you, Chris. Uh, Mayor Smith, Vice Mayor Wade, Council members. Uh, as Chris said, I we really appreciate the time tonight to present um and provide some information, hopefully answer some questions along the way as well. So, Chris kind of went through the agenda, so I'll I'll hop right into it. Um really part of uh wanted to update on the current status of where things reside and you know I think put simply the water is safe. We are in compliance with uh you know the drinking water rules. Um I I think it's important to point out you know ADQ themselves have said the the issue is resolved um and and the water is safe. Additionally, you know, we have pulled additional confirmation samples both um well at the original site. Uh those original two confirmation samples came back negative for E.coli. We've since

pulled a third sample at that location as well uh which was also negative uh or non-detect for for E.coli as well. So, three samples at that site in addition to many other additional samples along the way as well. Um one thing that ADQ also said this was not a public health crisis. if it was they would have involved department of health uh the state department of health also county entities as well. So I think that's important to point out. Also um September uh to date we've pulled a actually the number is now 39 additional samples that have all come back non-detect uh through the middle of September. We we do pull about 90 samples or we do pull 90 samples per month specifically related to bacteria throughout our distribution system. So we will continue to do that as we normally do and that is just a subset of samples that we pull. Um we we monitor other constituents as well and I'll get into that here in a few minutes. So as far as drinking water regulation goes, a little bit of background there. I think it's important to highlight the, you know, the rules are really um generated by the Environmental Protection Agency, but they delegate their authority down to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Some counties in Arizona actually are the primacy agency, but in Panell County, ADQ is the primacy agency for drinking water and water quality. So, we we follow those their rules. Um there's there's actually quite a few rules and laws that that uh govern drinking water, wastewater as well. Um some of those include clean water act, safe drinking water act, the groundwater rule, some of those apply in the situation as well. And so, you know, we are heavily regulated, lots of prescribed protocols to how to handle these types of events and we we did follow those. Um and again, ADQ is the the primacy agency in

Penell County. as you know the city is not the regulator in you know the city of Maricopa when it comes to uh potable water. So I thought that was also important to highlight. So a little bit about how the drinking water rules are applied in this situation. So again, there's a very prescribed and extensive protocol when when it comes to sampling and the approvals for our sampling plan. And then also should there be a a detection of um ecoy as as there was in this instance. Um in addition to the bacteria sampling that we pull, like I said, we we pull a lot of other uh constituent samples for other constituents. Uh and just to name a few, those are, you know, arsic, nitrates, lead and copper, uranium, um fluoride, and and many others that that are part of that uh that regulatory process. Um on a annual basis, we pull well over a thousand water quality samples. Again, a lot of those are the bacteria samples that we pull on a monthly basis throughout the distribution system uh around the city. And again, all of this is governed and approved by the Department of Environmental Quality. So again, we have a thirdparty regulator that oversees it, approves our plans and our processes, and then they also consult in in instances like we had with the uh this this water quality event. Uh I wanted to also highlight a little bit about disinfection and how that process works since it's applicable in this this situation. So we do use um kind of the common term is chlorine, but it's sodium hypocchlorite. So that's obviously a very common uh chemical used to disinfect in the the water industry. Uh disinfection's been around for over 100 years. Obviously it's a very important health aspect to potable water. We have an element of that called for four log disinfection and again that's a regulated element. So, we have to disinfect to 99.99% of all bacteria and um and viruses. And

that's done through a calculation based on the system components that we have. Tank storage, baffling, contact time with the chlorination. And so, we're required to chlorinate to a minimum of 0.8 parts per million. We our our chlorination is always well above that, typically in the range of 1.5 to 1.7 parts per million. So, well above the minimum. Um but at a at a you know kind of a medium we feel obviously if you start getting the chlorination too high people uh are not a fan of that as well. So we we try to balance at medium but we are uh in a very healthy range when it comes to our disinfection levels. Um you can use the the kind of the example of a pool as well. Obviously we everyone disinfects their pools using chlorination. It's a very effective means to kill bacteria. You know pools are open to ambient uh contaminants. um such as bacteria and viruses and so you know obviously chlorination does is very effective in that application as well as it is in drinking water. So chlorine is very effective in in disinfecting water. Um it's been a practice that's been around for well over 100 years and and again in our August sampling we had the the one anomalous sample that uh that did detect E.coli coli and so you know we feel with the the chlorine residuals and the the operations being kind of in a normal state uh that that that sample was potentially anomalous. So Chris highlighted a little bit some of the the things that we've done since the event. U obviously after the event we we provided the public notice. Since then, uh, we also posted some additional frequently asked questions to provide additional information or, um, you know, questions that we've heard from customers. So, trying to get that information out there so people have have that those answers. Uh, we emailed actually every customer in Maricopa, not just the customers that were affected by the event, just so everyone had that information should they be interested.

and um the the stats there on the right show of the the emails that were sent out effective delivery rate and then actually 73% of those emails were open. So we feel like that's a very very high click-through rate when it comes to email notifications. So we felt we felt good about that. Um we've also offered to meet with various customers that have had concerns. Some have taken us up on those offers, some have not, but we felt that that was important to hear concerns of customers within the community. And then actually we've added some additional frequently asked questions about things that we've done more recently over the past week as part of our um audit of the system as well. So that those those uh FAQs were were posted today. So last slide on next steps and lessons learned. Um, so again, you know, there's elements of this this situation that are very black and white and that's the the rules that ADQ and the EPA have prescribed and obviously we will always follow the requirements as set forth by our regulators um when it comes to sampling protocols, resampling notifications, but there's other things that we've heard from the community that we we certainly want to take into account and consider and and find way better ways to to go about uh the feedback that we received. um one thing kind of thinking larger than just this scenario specifically, but there's there's other scenarios uh natural disaster, train derailments, uh other things that can happen in the city. And so we think we want to look more broadly than just what happened um recently and you know working with the city's emergency management team and the other stakeholders that that participate within that emergency and management element is something that you know we're committed to. uh we are involved in that but but finding ways to have more discussions and and uh ways to to approach those type of scenarios. Uh one positive lesson learned, we've talked about it a little bit, but we took a number of proactive samples during the event that we didn't have to take um but we did take because we we felt it was

the right thing to do. And those additional samples that we took all came back negative and it helped us to resolve the situation more rapidly than other than would have otherwise been the case. And so, you know, that was something that we worked with ADQ on and and were able to bring a faster resolution to the situation. Uh, we are also based on some feedback from customers looking at are there ways that we can shorten some of the windows of our sampling, the actual sample itself. you can't do the sample uh analysis any faster, but are there ways that we can shorten some of the timelines to get it to the lab faster and maybe labs staying open later in the day for us uh in an event like this so we can we can deliver those samples and get results in a more expeditious manner. Um and then lastly reviewing the you know the the way that we did reach out to customers and uh we we've definitely heard the feedback there. um you know certainly posting FAQs more rapidly that probably would have helped but also that there's been a number of people that have brought up the the topic of a precautionary notice. Is there a way we can do that? And I think again this is where it's probably not as as clear and uh black and white as you know the EPA's description of the the notification requirements. But we do think in instances where everything's operating as expected, our chlorination's good, there's no operational upsets, you know, that may be a scenario where the precautionary notice isn't necessarily warranted because there are cost and benefits to doing that. Similarly, if there there are known issues, our chlorination maybe uh is not working as expected, there was a large main break, that might be a scenario where we would consider a precautionary notice because, you know, there's there's something anomalous going on and and we think that that would be the right thing to do. So, so that's that is again we're open to having that conversation and dialogue and considering better ways to quantify when we we might do that type of pre precautionary notice. So with that, um,

that is the conclusion of the presentation and happy to take any questions if we're going to do that at this time or if we're going to wait.

Very good. Thank you, John. Thank you, Chris. Uh, council, I am going to move forward with a statement and then go on to the speaker cards. I have two speaker cards and then at that point I'll open it up for global I'll ask Global Water to come back to address the speaker cards and then I'll open it up to the council. Is that okay? That'll work out great. So, um, again, thank you Global Water for coming and doing this. It's very important. Um, I actually learned a lot from this presentation, um, as I have from other things. I kind of, um, I'm I I like to call myself the mayor that tests things. Like when we talked about transit earlier, I've gone out and tested. So, uh, Council Member Lurman actually invited me, test the transit system. Let's see if that shuttle shows up on time. Um, because we care about the community. I also obviously care about transportation in regards to our safety on 347. So, I know more about a lot of things than I ever thought I would. Now, I know a lot more about water and I appreciate that. Um, after the last city council meeting, I did my own due diligence um after speaking with uh several residents and I promised these residents that I spoke to that I would carry their comments forward to both Global Water and other entities that I spoke with. So, I appreciate your willingness to do that as well, and I followed through on that due diligence. Um, the organizations who have the oversight, the expertise, and are qualified to determine many access um aspects of this incident, those entities such as yourself are authorized by the state to ensure all water is safe in Arizona. So I wanted to speak my testing is I wanted to speak to an unbiased person in each of the organizations. And so my main organization where I get most of the information as most of you are probably aware is ADEQ the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

whose mission I think it's important to know what their mission is to protect and enhance public health and the environment in Arizona by ensuring that healthy drinking water is provided by public water systems and by controlling current and future sources of surface and groundwater pollution. I also had a conversation with ACC, the Arizona Corporation Commission, whose mission is to power Arizona's future by ensuring safe, reliable, and affordable utility services. Um, I might have to follow up on ED3 with them. Just just letting you know, I heard. Um, and then lastly, the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to implement and enforce federal environmental laws in Arizona. So, as I indicated, my primary source of information for the comments I'll be making tonight is ADQ since they are the first level in of enforcement as I see it based on the research that I did. So, a couple things that I learned and then I'll follow up after we hear from our speakers and then you answer the questions. I'll follow up with some more along with comments and questions that council members have. But the primary thing that I learned from ADQ, this is not a medical health crisis. you put that in your presentation. I wanted to reiterate it because it came to me from an unbiased third party which is responsible for the quality of water. If it were a medical health crisis, Arizona Department of Health Services would be involved and most likely panel county health services. That's important for us to know. If it were defined as a crisis, it would kick in several emergency teams, which do exist, including Maricopa's emergency management team. And for additional purposes, just so you know, our emergency management team practices these exercises on a regular basis through table talks. In fact, one of these exercises is planned with

Maricopa's incident command emergency management team this Thursday. And that's been planned for quite a while. had nothing to do with this incident. So, um if it was considered a medical health crisis, it would kick in all of those emergency units. And then I'll share some more information that I find very important for our residents to know and understand as well that I um acquired from ADQ. So, at this time, I'd like to bring forward our speakers. Our first speaker will be Dan Wilson. You have three minutes, please. I'll go fast. That's all right. Take your time.

Madame Mayor, members of the council, city staff, thank you very much for your time this evening. I'm Dan Wilson. I've lived in the house we built in Acacia Crossings for more than 21 years. I'm here tonight to seek her help addressing a life safety concern that involves global water from whom you just heard. On the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend, I was asked by a neighbor if I had received a notification from Global Water. I had not. I asked my neighbor if they wouldn't mind relaying the message to me and discovered that Global Water had suffered a positive E.coli test 4 days earlier on the previous Tuesday, but that not to worry, a secondary test returned negative and the matter was considered closed. I found this interesting because I had never been notified that the matter was open to begin with. I called Global Water, spoke with a lovely woman who told me that Global Water had sent an email to its customers to inform them of this second test, which is great except for the fact that many of us long-standing residents here signed up before the good Lord invented email or before such time as Global Water solicited that information. This meant we never received a word about any of this. And had it not been for a conversation with a neighbor over a backyard fence, my family would never have known about this at all. But that's not the biggest issue here. Global Water then told me their initial positive test came back on Tuesday. The allclear notification came on Saturday, four days later. In the interim, Global Water maintains they followed every step required by DEEQ, including the flushing of lines, hyperccllorination of water, and the upstaffing of their call center. The one thing they didn't do immediately was the one thing that could have saved lives, notify the public. They waited four days before notifying any of us. During those four days, like you, we drank their water. We made ice cubes with it. We swam in it for four days. We bathed our children in it, fed our families with it, watered beloved pets with it. All the while, unbeknownst to us, Global Water had a positive indication that E.coli may have lurked in that water in water supply. This is really problematic as E.coli can target a really wide audience. In 2000, an

infiltration of E.coli into a small town water system was quickly discovered, but not before killing seven people, one of whom was a toddler. At least 2,300 people were sickened, which was more than half the town's population at the time. Hundreds of them still suffer from medical conditions like septasemia, kidney failure, and worse. That particular outbreak was discovered in Walkerton, Ontario on Wednesday, May 17th of 2000. The water provider did not notify the public to boil their water until Sunday, May 21 of 2000, at which point it was too late to save seven people. Four days. Sound familiar? Even today, if you Google Walkerton, Ontario, that E.coli Eco outbreak that killed its residents as the top result. Criminal charters were filed. Provincial law was changed. Proceeds from a class action lawsuit exceeded a billion dollars. Town officials were voted out. Commercial businesses fled. Seven residents were buried. That's not what I want from my hometown, my family, or 80,000 of my closest friends whom I share 347 with. We got lucky this time. This was presumably a false positive. We may not be lucky again. I ask that they notify people the first time a test is done next time. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much, Dan. And I think you'll probably be hanging around, but I have some um lessons learned that I think will meet your needs. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. And my next speaker, last speaker is Terry Yoshi. Please come forward. I was told there was no three minute limit on this. Okay. Move the microphone towards you. Okay. There you go.

Good evening, Mayor, city council members. Um, you know, we talk all around this problem here and uh I met with Global Crossing. and they were kind enough to have me over and um one of the first questions that Chris asked me there and it's very astute is what's do you have a problem statement? Okay. And I think it's pretty uh pretty sharp on him. I turned it around on him. I said yes, but first I'd like to hear what your problem statement is. Okay. And I'd like to know with the city councils what is the problem statement here. Okay. I don't think you have a grasp on what the real problem is here. And that's why I'm here. And it's a problem when you look at it that way. Um from the global water perspective, we've heard many times beginning on 8:30 the problem has been resolved. Okay. Everybody's buying that. Has it been resolved? Depends on how you define the problem. We're back to what is the problem. From the city of Maricopa's perspective, we're not getting a whole lot except hey, it's global waters problem. It's their issue. They're responsible. and everything they've done is uh you know they've been in compliance with all EPA and ADQ rules and regulations. That's fine. Still that is not the problem. If you look at this you know it it's about um really the overarching nature of this problem is a health hazard.

It's a health hazard that a large portion of the community has been exposed to according to the map that was distributed. Get that? It's a health problem. Okay. Are we clear on that? Is anybody arguing it's not a health problem? If if they aren't, then I want to know who's responsible for the overall health and safety of the residents of Maricopa. Who is that? I'm getting flak from uh Councilman Man Freddy and because of the hate or whatever he feels is coming at him. We have citizens that are very concerned that the city is not looking out for their health and safety. Guess my time is up. I'll have to come back next time and speak some more.

Thank you very much, Mr. Yoshi. All right. Global Water. I'd like to give you an opportunity if you feel that there are points that you can make based on our speakers. That would be great.

Good evening again, uh, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I'll work backwards and just hit a few points that I think are relevant to the comments made. Uh, first one, working backwards from Mr. Yoshi. We we did meet with Mr. Yoshi and we actually took some of his comments that he made to us and we're actually looking to see if there's some things we can change our processes internally to make it better in the future. So, we haven't resolved anything definitively yet, but we're taking that feedback and saying, "Hey, is there something we can do here?" So, that is something we actively took away from a a a good discussion that we had. And we also offered uh as we have if there are other small customer groups that want to meet with us to talk in person, we're absolutely willing to do that. Uh two other points just worth mentioning. Uh the first one is we mentioned the slides but I thought I'd mention here for additional context. So as we mentioned obviously the city does not regulate the water quality but that's not unique to Maricopa. For example, the city of Chandler doesn't regulate their water quality. City town of Gilbert. So there's really no city entity that does that whether it's a municipal provider or a private provider. All of that is done at the uh federal and state level. So just some additional context for other communities. They all are operating under the same parameters that we do and that's actually across the United States. The kind of rules that got us here are actually based on decades of experience that landed us in some of the rules and regs you saw John site too. And then uh addressing Mr. Wilson's comments, we were in uh very constant communication with ADEQ the entire time from the first moment. And at no point did they say, "Hey, we recommend that you issue some kind of precautionary or some kind of advisory notice." And a big driver for that is there were no other

independent data points that suggested there could be something greater. So, for example, uh we didn't have a large main break in the middle of the city that was causing pressure issues. That could have been a compounding issue. Uh our operational equipment with our chlorine treatment that you saw a whole slide on was operating as expected. And so, we were in constant communication with them. There were no other data points that would seem to indicate we should do that. That said, we are taking a step back and saying for the next time, is there something we can do differently? and we're going to figure that out and do additional research on our end so it's not um so we're looking for those opportunities for improvement but just some background on all the discussions we are having with our regulators

very good thank you for the clarifications Chris council I would like to just give you a little bit of the information I received in addition from ADQ it may help answer some of your questions and then we'll go to a general conversation if that's all right so a couple things I'm going to start with the posit positives first and then I'll end up with some lessons learned. When I spoke with ADQ, I wanted to address lessons learned and they were very open and honest and again I want to state that I spoke with a very unbiased person who wasn't there to protect global water, wasn't there to protect the city. He just gave it to me straight in regards to what their mission statement is and how they protect Arizona. So in the 20 year just some facts in the 20-year history of global water, this was the first and only E.coli coli positive. Another bullet. This one was impressive to me. Global water takes 90 samples a month. This is in the 90th percentile of all water companies, whether they be municipally owned or privately owned. In the 90th percentile of the water facilities that take the most water samples. That was important to me. The fact that we're in the 90th percentile is to me very important. I wouldn't want to cut it any shorter. Maybe a 100% would be good. I don't know. Anyway, in regards to communication, um I do want to reiterate something that Global Water indicated because it came from this unbiased person at ADQ. Communication between Global Water and ADQ was exceptional. Global Water and ADQ were in communications every day. ADEQ indicated that they wished more water facilities communicated as well as global water with ADQ. And so that communication is very important to me. The fact that they are used and touted by ADQ as being an example that other uh facility owners can follow. The media was alerted.

There's been questions that I received. Why didn't you notify the media? Well, Global Water did notify the media. They alerted the media on August 30th. Media communicated quickly and then repeated several days later and updated information several days after that. So, let me just give you the four that I'm aware of and I searched high and low. On September one, Maracopa Monitor posted their information and the um qual the global water alert. On August 30th in Maricopa posted the same alert on September one in Maricopa. Repeated the alert. They didn't have to, but they repeated the alert trying to get out as much communication as possible. and on September 5th in Maricopa updated the story with more information on the timeline. So media was alerted. So all of those who have that question that's very important to know and to understand. Next from ADQ, Global Water followed the process and all instructions that they received from ADQ. An additional point, Global Water's first email commu communication to users went out August 30th. I've had some questions on not very many people received those, not very many people knew about it. When in fact, I'm very thankful Global Water attached a notification. They were able to identify that 74% of those emails were opened by the users. That's huge. Do you know how many businesses that send out notifications marketing wish that 74% of people opened up those emails? Like that's pretty impressive in my mind. It just shows you that our users know how important water and water quality is. So, I applaud our users as well. Global Water offered a 24-hour hotline. ADQ was impressed with that. Global Water responded to requests for meetings. They

were also impressed with that. Global Water updated its website with facts as new information became available. Global Water sent out a followup to all users. So the first email went to the impacted area and global water learned quickly that we all communicate and so it gets confusing. If not everybody gets the email then it's confusing. So they sent out an update with a link to all of their other updates and to their FAQ. Um they sent them out in masses on the 8th and the 9th. 73% of those were opened. Again that's an impressive number to me as well. And according to ADQ, Global Waters immediate chlorine flushing was important and per process. So what comes after that? In my opinion, there's some lessons learned and I wanted to share and other council members may have some lessons learned. You've seen the lessons learned from global water. We actually duplicate on some of them. And maybe I have one that's slightly different. So, the city's lessons learned as the mayor and I'm sure as other council members, you all did your due diligence and you wanted to know what is the city's responsibility? How do we help? So, per ADQ, the best way for the city to help is more communication. We all hear the more communication the better. More communication is good. And so, what does that mean for the city? the city can help to reach out this communication in other avenues that people who maybe don't follow our media, aren't looking at the right location in their email list, don't realize their email is incorrect at Global Water and they need to go fix it, don't So, what are other avenues that the city can help? So, my suggestion is to repost global water notices on our website's public notice web page. And we actually did a test of what that would look like. If you go to

our public notice page, you'll see the um global water communication posted. We just did that today. That's a lesson learned and I appreciate that lesson learned. We would repost global water notices in our newsletter pointing them to the public notice that's on our website. And so that's important also because we have a lot of people who get our newsletter. Again, it's an email. You have to open up the email, but it is a uh another way to communicate. and we would repost global waters notices on our social media. In talking to ADQ, they felt like that was pretty good process. And if others have ideas, I'd be open to them, but to me, this is three additional ways to get the word out. So, there are also some lessons learned in global water. I may have something on here that you hadn't considered um in my conversation with ADQ. What lessons learned for global water, but they did include some of them. So, one of the main concerns in my discussions with residents was why couldn't I be notified immediately when global water found out? Because I am health compromised. I totally get that. I'm a cancer survivor. I'm health compromised. Totally get that. And so, and I had my conversation with ADQ. They suggested they do have a template for a precautionary notice that as soon as Global Water is informed of the possibility there's a template from ADQ that they could send out. It is not required. So it is not a step that Global Water missed but it is available and I appreciate the fact that Global Water said that they would look into that. That would be one of my suggestions. My second lesson learned for Global Water is to communicate to all residents because we do all talk. Um, you know, I may, in fact, I do I have a sister that lives in another area. She may not have gotten the notice

because she wasn't in the first area notified and then I start talking to her and she's like, "What? What? What are you talking about?" So, all users in the city of Maricopa should be notified. That would be my recommendation. That may have been on your list. I'm not quite sure, but um provide city council immediately with all public notifications so we can follow my lessons learned for the city and then I talked to Chris about adding some type of a thermometer in the type of the communic some people told me that they are more visual than textual so they're like could you put a thermometer 1 to 10 or you know 0 to 120 degrees like we have here in Arizona telling me how serious this is if it's not according to Arizona state a health crisis tell me where it is and what I'm to expect. So, that was one point. And then what you have on your um lessons learned is an FAQ. And it's not a bad idea that your FAQs be updated as needed. Like they don't go away just because they're not there's not an incident. Um let me turn the page real quick. Uh that's it. So, um I think some really important things in the conversation from ADQ and maybe our other council members had similar conversations with residents and other entities. What comments, questions do you have? Yes, Council Member Man Freddy.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for the conversation. It's uh greatly appreciated to have you come into the council meeting today and chat about chat about this with us. Um I had a ton of questions I've written down. Um I've been working through questions for the last five, six, whatever days it's been. Um and I think everyone's been answered actually. Um one of the things was how many other times has E. coli been detected in the water supply here in the city of Maricopa. And that was one of the questions I had. I haven't gotten an answer for that one, I don't think.

No, one time. So, this is the first time ever it's been ever. Um, and then, um, how many tests do you do? 90, which is in the 90th percentile. That was my questions. I mean, these are the questions I had going into this. And then of course one of the other questions I had is um what lessons have been learned and what are we going to change going forward and you've addressed them the mayor's addressed them and I had some recommendations which have been all been part of what we've been discussing you know and my my my biggest suggestion to you is just more communication that's always going to be better is get out in front of everything and as quickly as possible and I understand coming out and just saying there's ecoli in the water at the first test might be a bad thing because you can cause a panic almost. But um so maybe for im immuno compromise or something like that. And a lesson I take from it personally as a council member is people um people want to know more and more about every single thing that's happening. So when we get out there and we chat with them, it's a good thing. But it was one of the one one thing somebody said to me was if your family was at risk, you would have said something. I'm like, I I brushed my teeth that morning. I drank my pills that morning with the water in my bathroom and I showered in that water, too. So, it's like we live here in the city of Maricopa. Our families, our pets, our ourselves are all um your customers here at for global water. So, you know, um understood more communication, chat with us, talk to us, tell us what's going on. The mayor as as she mentioned it too, that's an important thing. But once once again, I want to thank you for coming here today. It's not a lot of companies that will come before um uh the public and and tell the story and come out and you know tell us what they did wrong or right, what they're going to change in the future. So, it's a good thing to have. Thank you.

Thank you. Other council members? Yes, Council Lman.

Um thank you so much for being here tonight and doing your presentation and answering the community's questions. We really really appreciate it. Um, and I always thank Global Water for all the ways that you serve our community. And the fact that this was one incident in over 20 years, I think is a pretty significant statement. So, thank you for the ways you serve our community. And although this city is a completely separate entity from Global Water, as a council member, I am to represent our community and sometimes to be their voice. And so, um, I know I already talked to John, um, but my preference would have been definitely to do a precautionary notice or an advisory so that people had a choice of how they bathed their children and what water they drink, um, what water they gave their pets while you continue to gather information. Um, and then you did three repeat tests that all came back negative. So, it was very quickly resolved. But I know um I talked to John about moms with newborn babies. They're already freaked out about everything and then to hear I just bathed my newborn baby and possibly contaminated water is terrifying to a new mother. Um and so again, as much information that you can provide our community members as quickly as possible uh would be my preference. So thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Lman. Council Member Marsh. Yeah, I I did not receive an email, so maybe you got my email wrong. Um, but in the prescriptive guidance area, how long should you boil water and during what hours or days in the in this past cycle should I have boiled water? Um, how long should should I have flushed my hot water uh line to get it through the the water heater tank? Um, and how long should I have flushed the cold water line and on what day should I have done it? Uh, a after you test clear or or when? Um, just curious. And I I could have asked chat GPT5 those questions and gotten pretty darn good answers, but I'd like to hear it from you guys.

Very good. I like those questions. Uh, Global, who would like to present? Is the button on? Is it still on? Oh, there you go. Okay, there we go. Okay. Um, just to make sure I have your question right. You're asking essentially how long should you flush uh after the the notice that we delivered? Um, you're asking kind of for clarification on that. Is that correct? Okay. Yeah. So,

I know it's different for the hot for the hot water and the cold water because of the tank.

Yeah. And I I don't know that there's an exact prescribed flushing amount of time as it in terms of minutes, but you know, you're you're going to want to flush it for for a good probably 10 minutes to ensure that whatever the the the capacity of that hot water tank, you know, that you're emptying that out and then flushing all that out of your your system. So, it is a little bit dependent on the size of your house and how long it takes for, you know, the water to to move through, you know, the pipes in your house. So, you know, 10 to 15 minutes of flushing should be sufficient. Additionally, things like disposing of ice and and things like that are also recommended in in a scenario like this. So, hopefully that answers your question.

Yeah. And uh boiling drinking water. Uh when should you do that and for how how long do you boil it to get rid of Ecoli? Yeah. So, in this scenario, it was not a boil water notice. We were we were not advising boiling the water, but if you choose to boil the water, you're supposed to bring it to a a rolling boil for I believe it's five minutes. Three minutes. Um yeah, so 3 minutes at a rolling boil is how long you're supposed to boil it um to to sufficiently u kill the bacteria or virus. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Marsh. Council No.

Thank you, Mayor. Quickly, John, I just want to follow up on Council Member Marsha's questions just because I don't want to cause pandemonium. If we if we were needing to flush our hot water heaters or boil our water, uh DHS and Panel County Health would have told us that, right? I mean,

yeah, the the notice did advise to, you know, if you had stored water from prior to the event to dispose of that wa water. Um, it was not a boil water advisory. So, there was not we were not advising to boil the water, but it the the notice did talk about if you chose to take that precaution, it gave advice on how to do that. So, it was not a boil water advisory, but it did have some information on there if you wanted to take that additional precaution.

Great. And then I have a follow-up question as well for the man who spoke. Um, first is Global looking at I mean, I can't understand anybody not getting information from Global because like three times a week I'm getting a notification from Global. But um our resident back there said that he didn't get the notification. Are you and because he signed up 21 years ago, I mean that does make sense. I mean I think my emails changed since 21 years ago. So are you looking at maybe reaching back out to residents and getting updated information for future communication?

Yeah. Uh Mayor Smith, Council Member No, I think that's a a great u thing to look at. We we do have protocols when people call in. our standard uh process is to ask them for their their information just to make sure it's correct. But obviously a lot of people don't call in. They they use electronic means to communicate or pay their bill. So I think that there we we should look at it an opportunity to do some sort of outbound campaign. Um it becomes a little difficult if we don't have the right phone number or email. How do we reach them? But but there there have to be ways to do that. So, we will look into that and see if there's opportunities to increase our uh customer contact information and it also ensures it's it's accurate. U similar to council member Marsh, it sounds like you didn't necessarily receive the notification as well. So, we want to do that.

Fantastic. I think that's great. And I just want to um thank you for being here and thank you for being responsive. Um, you know, I know that this is a difficult situation and it's obviously our first time doing this because Global hasn't been in this predicament before and um, but I appreciate that Global is always willing to answer the phone, always willing to respond, always willing to meet with constituents and always really open and transparent about your processes. And um, you know, we only live in Maricopa, right? So, we only know global water because you can only have one water provider. But I can tell you as a native Arizonan, uh, that we have one of the best water companies in the state in terms of private water companies. And you can research that too if you'd like. Um, go out and look at um, other private water companies that exist and serve other areas. And I can promise you that none of them live up to the standards um and the customer service that we get to experience with Global Water. And um and so for that I'm very thankful. I do think that with anything there's always lessons we can learn and I appreciate you guys being open to that and I look forward to you know hopefully there's not a next time and so these lessons don't ever have to be implemented but if they do um I appreciate you being willing to um you know progress forward and make changes necessary um so that our residents just feel comfortable. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you councilor. I actually added yours to my lessons learned to do an update for email addresses because I Yeah, you're right. He stated he signed up years a decades ago and so hopefully, you know, that's as simple as that is. Uh, Vice Mayor Wade,

thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm just impressed with the way you handled this situation from the beginning to the end. When when it came time for us to get information, you were on it so that we could understand the situation. uh global water of course was it's no surprise that they took the actions that they take to make sure that our citizens are safe and healthy and that goes that's been going on for 20 years. We had an incident there. We have more incidents on the 347 than we do with water. And it's important. I'm I'm not undermining it. It's important. But I think that the city handled it very well. That portion which we were responsible for. I think if we look at what we're responsible for, we handled the situation very well. I know I felt confident when I I was talking to the mayor about the situation and what we what we could do and how we could benefit from working together to make sure that our relationship is stay solid because it is a solid relationship. So

thank you madame mayor for doing this and I appreciate you John. Thank you. Thank you. Uh council last opportunity. Very good. I want to end this item reminding you that in Global Waters FAQs, they provide the telephone number for their resources and for ADQ. And so I encourage you if you would like to step out and talk to ADQ, then please move forward to do that. Um, at that point, that's the end of our presentation and thank you very much for being here. That concludes our city council meeting for this evening.