Council - Regular Meeting

Can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Pledge of 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.

Roll call.

Mayor Gerardo Danaya.

Present.

Vice Mayor Juan Castillo.

Present.

Council Member Miguel Villalpando.

Present.

Council Member Luis Galindo. Council Member Jesus Roldan.

Present.

Council Member Lorena Delgadillo. Present. Council Member Martha Gonzalez. Present. Mayor, have a quorum.

Thank you. We'll move on and call to the public. Anybody from the public want to address council? There's none. Andrea?

I'm sorry, no, there is none.

We're going to move on to consider agenda. We have one item. approval of letter of commitment from the Yuma County Improvement District to accept the Orange Grove Rancho Mesa Verde Improvement District sewer capacity and extend the commitment period to maintain the utility development fee of $1,798. And if there is a rate adjustment in utility connection fees, the increase will be no more than 5% through December 31st, 2028. Does any member of council want to remove this item for discussion? Is there a motion?

Make a motion to approve consent agenda as stated.

Second. Vice Mayor Castillo, seconded by Council Member Roldano. All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion carries. We have a Two presentations. The first item is oath and soaring ceremonies for Police Officer Hector Valdez, Police Officer Chase Hasty, and Animal Control Officer Ruben Arreguin to be officiated by Honorable Judge Edna Lugo.

hi hi They are through faith and allegiance to the saints and defend them against enemies, born and domestic, and then faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of animal control officers with the best of my ability.

Congratulations. Welcome. Family, they want to come up and take a picture with the officer who's going to move out. Are they here? Yeah, you guys first, and then...

One more, yeah. Here we go.

One, two, three. Another one. One, two, three. Thank you so much.

So you want more 123 Thank you. I'm going to have you both raise your right hand and you're going to repeat after me. Hi, say your name.

Can I have Mr. Valdez's family on standby?

One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Thank you.

Mayor, I just want to point out that Officer Valdez was, I think he won for getting the highest score in all of his class for all the officers. Yeah, I was going to tell his firearm, but I was going to wait until he took the picture.

Ready? Ready?

One, two, three. One more. One, two, three.

Thank you. Can I have Officer Hasey's family, please?

And like the chief mentioned, he was the best shot of all the cats.

Can I get one step closer?

One, two, three. One more, one, two, three. Thank you.

And welcome and we're glad to have you. I don't know if you want them to sit through the meeting or? No, you don't have to sit through this meeting. So yeah, you guys are welcome to leave. If you want, if you want to hear me speak for another hour, that's fine. Item 6.2, Presentation of Draft Imagine Somerton 2032 Strategic Action Plan.

I just got a presentation I want to set up.

where's the usb andrea Okay, Mayor, Council.

Good to be back. Thank you for the opportunity to walk through the final draft of the Strategic Action Plan. I wanna just take a few minutes to walk through the process. I think the community engagement and the staff engagement, and obviously the time I had to spend with you some of the councils was really important in forming this process. A lot of it was about getting people's ideas about what they wanted to see for the future of the city and the community. So there's a lot of ideas in there. The most recent piece that we did, which only finished on Friday, was the prioritisation survey. And hopefully most of you took that. And I want to walk through the process and then get to the list of actions that were identified by the community. But then I really want to talk to you about the things that I think have surfaced as the highest priority, because they're the things obviously you may want to focus on going forward. Just as a little background on this, we deliberately designed this. The request was to design the process as a very much a community driven process and staff driven process. So we put a lot of effort into being able to try and engage with the community and the staff. We had a whole series of stages and engagement opportunities for people. We did publish a stakeholder engagement report. And I think that is with you. It is a really nice summary actually of the sentiments that came through from the community discussion. I don't think there'll be much in there that would particularly surprise you, but it's good to see the way the community is looking at certain issues and what's on their mind as important. And we did publish that and pull that together because I think that becomes the sort of factual base of the community voice that helped inform the strategic plan. So when people in the community are talking to you about the strategic plan, you can point back to that engagement report and sort of highlight where community input was received. I do want to do just a thank you to the Parks and Rec Division. James and his team were really helpful in terms of helping host events. We did some stands at greater days and so on. They're as much as possible trying to provide that opportunity for community input. We also held a think tank and a community open house that was over a couple of nights. A number of you went to that. We had a great big map of Somerton on the table. People could put their ideas on that. I thought it was a very effective process. People were able to put their sticky notes. You can see there in that picture of people making comments on the map and highlighting various parts of it. I thought it was a really great interactive piece. In the data, when you get a chance, you can look through this. There's obviously a lot of charts. We've tried to do things to talk about the themes that emerged and then what's the evidence base for those themes. So where did that come from and what does that mean for the planning? So here you can see that what residents valued the most about Summerton were things like the small town feel and identity, no surprise in that. The community spirit and belonging, safety and low crime, the family orientation and so on. And then of course, some of the things that they were concerned about, and this, I want to just spend a moment on this because we want to make sure that the Strategic Action Plan picks up those areas of concern that people had. A lot of this is really around growth and the economy and the services or amenities in the community. So people talked a lot about wanting to see grocery, retail, shopping, parks, recreation, youth amenities, jobs, economy, business opportunities, growth management, housing, downtown appearance, infrastructure, and so on. The usual sort of high priority issues on people's minds. And again, we went through the process of looking at the number of times we heard those issues, what the evidence base for it is, what the planning implications. We also did some background research. This report too is with you. It's what we call a situational analysis. So we're really trying to do a little bit of research at the start, really to understand the context for the community and looking forward. I just pulled out a couple of pages here that I just wanted to share with you because I think they're really relevant to the strategic action plan and the priorities that emerged. So we did a cross study with a series of peer communities that were provided by city staff. This one I found really interesting because I think this is strategically really important for you as you think about planning for the future. This is looking at the land size comparison of your city relative to those other peer communities. And obviously your relatively small land area, and that has important implications when you think about planning for the future. And we want to talk about that when we get to the actions. um you also have a very in this case you have a actually a higher than others um owner occupancy versus rentals you know and so that drives that very strong sentiment to a to a sort of family community family values um home ownership um in fact if you look at things like commute patterns you obviously have a big cycle of people coming into work people leaving every day. One of the things we did hear a lot from people in the community was that people would be keen to see more job opportunities here. And I think a lot of people don't mind commuting either in or out, but if they could, they'd probably prefer to be able to live here and work here. And I think this data supports that. There's a lot of opportunity to think about that local job growth. This is some work that looks at what is called a livability index. And it's actually a really interesting score. Again, it compares Somerton with your peer communities. The green is the ones that you do well at, like a better than sort of average of the peers. And then the reds are the ones where you're below the average of the peers. So housing and neighbourhoods you score well at. And that's probably not a surprise because there's been a fair bit of attention on that. um over time but some of those other components transportation environment health opportunity uh score a little lower and again we want to think about those as we think about the strategic action plan anyway so we did all that community engagement work that background research we also did sessions with staff so we did uh some full day sessions with the directors. That drew all the information into what we call the strategic pillar framework. And I know I've got a chance to talk to a number of you about this when we have one of our sessions. But if you think of what are the core things that people are wanting you to focus on going forward, that comes down to these five topics. So what's on people's minds is about preserving the small town character, and community spirit. I should say that there's a really important subtext on this that I think which is worth thinking about as council is that staff in particular call this out is that you're really at an inflection point from being a small town to a growing city. And that comes with a mindset change. So we had some really interesting discussions and debate about How do you manage that small town feel where people feel like they belong, but you have that sort of growing infrastructure, you have that commercial development, you have that residential development. Now as a council and a staff and as a community, you have to think a little different when you're sort of a bigger growing community than a small town. Although people like that character, so that was the point of that pillar. The recreation parks and quality of life, that's a really important topic for people. I think people sort of feel that you do that really well and enjoy that, appreciate that, but would like to see that sustained and perhaps expanded. And the next pillar, which is one I think where there's opportunity for growth in the strategic action plan is growing economic opportunity in the vibrant commercial districts. A lot of discussion in the input that we had from in-person discussions with the community or the surveys or staff sessions. You're really at that point as you grow, thinking about the downtown core and those entrance sort of corridors as you come into town. You've got those developments that are occurring on the west side and so on. This notion of these commercial districts, I think that's really on people's minds. People are really sort of feeling like you're underserved commercially for the size of your population, probably because it's so easy to go to Yuma, but people want to see that sort of investment here. The next one is that investing in infrastructure, mobility and community appearance. Some of that is just basic government, good due diligence, you know, your right infrastructure. But the community appearance kept coming up as something that people saw as the future, thinking about the action plan. And then the last one, which is one I want to come back to and talk a bit about at the end, which is managing growth and preparing for the future. So again, people, I think, are seeing that you're poised at that inflection point and it's time to put extra effort into thinking about how you manage and guide that growth. And that comes down to your land area and annexations and infrastructure, all those sort of things. So five pillars, and I know I had a chance to talk to some of you about that. There is a core to this too, this sort of strategic foundation. People did talk a lot about this responsive, transparent and community-centered government. You know, there was a kind of little, not a red flag, but there was a little flag that went up that people were saying, you know, we want to really make sure that our governance, our interface is really strong. I think people appreciate that open process that you have and they sort of want to see that continue. I'm Just going to flick through these. In the report you'll see under each one of these pillars, we built out from the input, we built out a series of action areas and a whole bunch of ideas that were gathered from the community and the staff sessions. So you can go through each one of those. You know, for example, expanding recreation parks, quality of life, you know, parks and public spaces, recreation facilities and so on. I mean, it's a little bit of a daunting list of ideas that people came up with, right? But that was the job was to go out and ask people, what did they imagine? What did they wish for the future? And what we got was the sort of long list of what people look for. You know, same in the growing the economic opportunity, the infrastructure, managing growth and so on. But what we have done in this latter stages, so after we gathered all that, you know, that very extensive list, right? We wanted to prioritize that because we wanted to make sure you had a chance to see if you had all this choice in front of you, what are the things that people are saying are the most important, because that's what you want to think about in that shorter term, you know, next sort of three to five years. So we send the prioritisation survey out to council, boards and commissions and senior staff. And I want to just, I'm going to walk through this data. So this is not in your, because this survey only closed Friday night. We had five councillors complete the survey. I didn't actually check to see which ones were, which were the councillors that did do it, but I could look at that. The city boards and commissions, so that was the planning and zoning parks and rec, we had nine commissioners complete that, and we had seven of the city staff complete the survey. I'm gonna sort of talk a little about this, but then we have a handout that we wanna give you as well. I wanna walk you through is that one of the things that came through in the prioritization process, the problem we have is that everything's important, right? And everything people want. So that's good news in a way, because it means that the ideas that came up sort of got good legs, but then we have to sort them out a little bit. So if we could hand this sheet out to council, please. And I'm just going to, I'm not going to go through the whole thing, of course, but we had the four actions under each of the pillars. So there's 20 of the sort of high idea actions that came up, right? In that prioritization survey, we asked you to score those on importance. So, you know, a scale of one to 10, one being not that important, 10 being highly important. a sense of urgency about how quickly we need to move to act on it. And then a question about what level of investment would you be willing to see for that particular action area? And the color coding, the lighter the blue, the lower it scored. The scale I had was low, medium, high, and very high. The dark blue is the very high. And they're ones that scored over 9. So that means basically everybody who took the survey scored 9 or 10 to get a score of over 9. And the red arrows down the side are the six or seven actions that I picked out that I think seem to be the highest priority. And I wanted to just talk to you about those because I think that's the area that the focus should be with the staff going forward. How we got to those seven was we took the three that were the highest in importance. So there was the action 2.1, which is around parks and public spaces, and then 5.1 and 5.2, which is about strategic growth and land use and housing and complete communities. So they all scored above nine on that importance, right? So we pulled those out. And then the next ones were the ones that scored high, so above eight across the board. So that was the business growth and investment, the entrepreneur and workforce development, the downtown and commercial districts, and the infrastructure of public utilities. And that gives us this set of sort of high priority actions. The challenge here a little bit is that everything scored pretty highly, right? So, I mean, if given the choice, I think everybody would do all of it, right? But that's not really realistic. So what I'm trying to do in this exercise is just tease these out a little. I want to just go through each one of these and I'll just give you my sort of narrative on it or background and then obviously love to have some discussion and get your reaction to it. So the first one, The parks and public spaces, and you could probably roll the recreation facilities and programs in with that, right? I mean, that is a really important issue to people in this community. It comes up high in the survey and the community input. It was something that is not seen as super urgent because you already have a Great program on what I imagine it's already happening, but clearly one of your highest importance in terms of topic areas. Going down the list, I think the next three are really interesting. And these are all in the pillar around the growing the economic opportunity and the vibrant commercial districts. So the three were the business growth and investment, entrepreneurship and workforce development, the downtown and commercial districts, really, I think all come out as scoring higher across the board in terms of importance, urgency, and the level of investment that people would be willing to see in those topic areas. And the investment's always one of those kind of, you know, it's a sort of a reality check, you know, could occur like it's important, but are we willing to put the money in it? If it hits both all those then then I sort of bring it to the top. And I think that's a little bit of a sort of a really reflects where the community is at and thinking about economic development and your commercial spaces that that that comes up and scores high by you and the commissions and the staff. And then 4.2 also sort of jumped to the top because it scored high across the board that infrastructure and public utilities that's really just a very basic sort of city city foundation that's your job really to do that. The 5.1 is particularly the one I wanted to call out, which was around strategic growth and land use. And this action is talking about guiding future development through coordinating planning that aligns land use, infrastructure, housing, and economic development while protecting the community character. Scores very high on importance, high on urgency, not quite as high on investment. This one I called out because this is one where there was a real difference in the scoring between council and staff. So staff scored this one actually much higher. It comes up as really high anyway, right? But they scored it relatively as the top issue. and I think that reflects that the staff are seeing this kind of growth pressure and and really feeling like there's a need to kind of get future planning in place to be able to better navigate the path forward right so you know less sort of being reactive and really thinking and laying out that roadmap for the future that was a very strong sentiment from staff and you can see it comes out but across the board in the survey, and then the housing and the complete community. So what that ends up with, so that narrows it down from those sort of 20 ideas to these seven focus areas. And we'd love to have some discussion, get your reaction to this, This is the last piece of the planning process, and this is what we want to recommend in that draft plan. But these are the priority areas that get flagged in the strategic plan as we look out to 2032. More than enough work in there, and there might be a few other things you can sneak in there as well. But this really targets those community amenities of your parks, a big focus, probably a bigger focus than you've had, on the downtown, the commercial gateways, commercial corridors, those things. And then obviously really leaning into this managing your future growth, thinking about strategic growth and land use and how your housing stock needs to evolve. So that's what I wanted to share with you. That's where we sort of got in the process. I feel it's starting to get some really strong focus here in terms of the top priorities coming out, but I'd love to have your comments, reactions, or questions. So Mayor.

Any questions or comments?

Mayor, I have a question.

Well, I guess my only comment is just looking at these categories, I feel that this council and aligns with those priorities. And I'm glad that the survey showed that.

Yeah, I think that was my rate of it too, Mayor, is that talking to you, and I talked to a number of you in small sessions and at various events, is that you more than most are looking to the future. You can see what's coming because you're dealing with people knocking on the door and you can see the development pressure coming. I think the sort of big difference between the community sentiment and where you're thinking as leaders, both as council and staff, is the community is very focused in on that community experience, small town feel. That's sort of where the community's lens is. Your lens, quite rightly, I think is more into that, but we need to be thinking about our economic development, our growth, and we need to be thinking about our future planning. So I think there's a gap there to close or an education piece to talk about the community about why that's important. I think the community understands the economic piece because they'd love to have another supermarket and they'd love more jobs here. But I don't think they're really thinking about that future planning, right? And I think that's part of your job, if I could suggest as council and staff, to obviously educate the community about, you know, you're adding population, you're adding housing developments, that puts pressure on resources. So Mayor, I do think it aligns with where your thinking's at, but I think there's probably a gap in understanding between leadership and the sort of average person in the community. Not unusual, right? But I think it's worth acknowledging that there's probably a little bit of that gap there.

So like your recommendation would be just to kind of ensure that our community gets that information that's pretty much missing within that gap. Because obviously... I mean, we're kind of seeing the picture, but we're not relaying that to the community the way maybe we should to fully understand for them to fully understand, like, for example, our why.

Yeah, thank you. And if I could expand a little on this, just my sort of personal professional view, right? So take it as you want, right? So I think there's a really important role here to be talking about the future in a slightly different way, right? I heard it in the staff, this sort of, this tension between, you know, the best little town which you have there, the sign there is on one of those walls, right? You know, there's this notion that you're no longer this little town, right? There's this, I think there's this, you're this rapidly growing town and you're becoming a community of some heft or some, sort of resources. And I think it's a really exciting time. I think it's a really exciting conversation to have to talk about, you know, the impact of the school, which is really still coming online, right? And how that changes your community, you know, and to get the community ready to be thinking about, we need to expand our square mile footprint because we need a little bit more space to allow these developments, you know, to start to educate them why, you know, investing in and pushing on annexation becomes important. Because if you don't, and you get a resistance from your community, that slows you down, right? And then opportunities may go past you, right? And so I think that's really important. I think the other thing, just from my observation, that is really important, I think it is time to invest more in that strategic, thinking about the long-term growth like that sort of you know what's our what's our pattern over the next one two five years you know have you know rolling that out so you can put your your city manager and your staff to work and and they know that they've got some confidence in that direction so that they can invest their resources and build those areas so I think there's two things there right but definitely talking to your community about how you see this future and how exciting it is I think it's really important because At the average person level, they're much more concerned in things that are very close and sort of to them, you know, their backyard kind of stuff, right? But you're the people who are the, you know, holding the bigger vision for the future.

Mayor, if I may.

I think the area that we need to have more conversations and be more strategic as far as I feel that that's the area that probably gonna be the hardest to achieve, but it's the 3.2, the entrepreneurship and workforce development that we've basically been for the past years, you know, bedroom community to Yuma. So it's probably something that as a council, we haven't really, found ways to strategically invest and grow our workforce development. Because the other areas, I feel that we have paid attention to it and we've put our focus, it's more tangible, I guess, but the other one is more... of I guess we need to really start looking and see like how can we start attracting more

Yeah. And if I could, I think the lens there is really your small business development. You know, it's the people who are going to start the new restaurant or the store or, you know, it's that sort of entrepreneurial component. You know, as we know, those businesses might employ three or four people, right? But you add them up and that becomes, you know, a bunch of people. I mean, what the data say, you've only got 300 people who currently live here and work here. So there's room on that, right? But I think that whole lens, that entrepreneurial workforce development, really has got a strong small business overlay on that. Because I think you're right. I think some of your corridor, your commercial districts, your entranceways, but you've got, you know, they're big chains. They're big kind of investors that are coming in, building, you know, hotels or fast food outlets and so on. The piece that's probably missing is that small business nurturing.

Yeah, but, yeah, we're going to need to, you mentioned... um annexations and we have uh currently uh plans for a sewer line up to four miles east of this so it's going to be important to start looking we've talked about annexation but to start working on it so when we get that capacity so good thing we have a new community development director that's probably listening

Yeah, and Tamir, if I could sort of add to that too, because that topic particularly is one that you do have to plan for and lay out in your own minds, right? You don't want to show your hand too early, right? But you don't want to be reactive. You want to be very strategic when you're thinking about annexation, when you're at the point that you're at, right? Which is when growth's coming, you're pretty much maxed out already, And each play is a big play, right? It's like it's a new sewer line or it's a parcel of land. You've got to be investing. So thinking about that investment strategy, how that lines up with your growth plan becomes really important.

Any other questions or comments?

No, if I may.

Okay.

Hello hello online but we're having some technical with the muting be able to speak for work on that.

We'll give them a minute if not we'll move on.

Mayor, if I could too, if I can just do a call out. I just really want to appreciate the staff because I got the opportunity to work with a number of your staff, your city manager and senior staff. And I have to say, you've got a really impressive suite of staff here. And when I had the chance to spend some dedicated time with them, I mean, I think they really drove a lot of the deeper thinking in this plan. We got good stuff from the community, but the the deepest strategic thinking really came from your key staff. So I just, and I'm somebody who works in a lot of different places, right? I do want to just acknowledge and compliment the staff and appreciate their support. So thank you.

And you were here one of the hottest day in March. You were here for that. That's it. I think it's been hot every day. Isn't that here? We're just talking about that day.

I remember meeting you there. Thank you very much.

No. We're going to move on to new business. Item 7.1, discussion of possible action to approve resolution number 2026-010, resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Somerton, Arizona, canvassing the returns and declaring and adopting the results of the primary election held on July 21st, 2026. and certifying the facts requiring an automatic recount, authorizing the filing of a petition in Yuma County Superior Court for an order requiring the recount and providing for an effective date.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, Andrea Moreno, City Clerk. This resolution canvases the returns and declares and adopts the results of the City of Somerton primary election held on July 21, 2026. Based on the certified election returns received from Yuma County, Gerardo Anaya received a majority of the votes cast for the Office of Mayor and is declared elected. For the Office of City Council, Jose Moreno received a majority of the votes cast and is declared elected to one of the three council seats. The remaining two council seats were not decided at the primary election. In accordance with Arizona Revised Statutes, Lorena Delgadillo, Juan Castillo, and Victor Lozano have qualified to proceed to the general election. The fourth candidate to advance will be determined following the completion of an automatic recount. Certified results indicate that the vote margin between the fourth candidate, Brian Lopez, and the fifth place candidate, Mireya Brand, falls within the statutory threshold requiring an automatic recount under Arizona law. Therefore, this resolution also authorizes the filing of a petition with the Yuma County Superior Court requesting and ordering directing the recount to determine which candidate will advance in the general election. Mayor and Council, staff is requesting the approval of this resolution.

Is there a motion? So moved, Mayor. Motion by Councilman Roldan. Second by Councilman Gonzalez. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. item 7.2 discussion of possible action to approve the rescheduling of city council meeting original schedule for Tuesday, August 18 to Tuesday, August 11.

Mayor because of the leagues of city conference. We're requesting a change that to the 11th. So everybody can be in attendance and be able to participate in the conference if they would like to their emotion.

Make a motion to approve the rescheduling of the City Council meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, 2026 to Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

Motion by Vice Mayor Castillo.

Second, Mayor.

Second by Councilman Roldano. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. 7.3 discussion of possible action to approve ordinance number 2026-004 an ordinance of the mayor and council of the city of Somerton amending chapter 5 magistrate article 5.4 jail services recovery fee section 544 municipal court fees of the city of Somerton correlating the municipal court fees providing the repeal of conflicting ordinances providing for severability providing for penalties and setting an effective date.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Sena Lugo, City of Somerton Magistrate. So we're here today Request approval on updating our municipal court fees and a creation. We're requesting a creation of a municipal court technology fee. The agenda item report says it beautifully. It sums it up what we want to do. The fees historically were last updated back in 2011 and before that 1999. So we have big gaps on these fees that we need updating. We also need that dedicated technology fee. It provides sustainable funding for essential systems, enhances public access, and aligns with best practices. We use a lot of technology now, especially with, for example, our video courts for in-custodies. We have our online payments and all our technology that we use now, filing, e-filings. Our records are also all online. The current fee schedule has remained, like I said, unchanged for over 15 years. We're not keeping up with inflation. And this wouldn't be, we're not profiting from these fees. We're just keeping up with any type of court function, any court process. We have the proposed fees right now. We have the municipal court enhancement fees, which was $30. We're asking for $60 to be updated to $60. The default cost recovery fee, which is $40. Now we're asking for 60. The warrant cost recovery fee is 125. Now we're asking for 150. The deferred prosecution, cost recovery is 200 now, and we are asking for for it to be updated to $300 the technology fee is would be, we would be asking for that to be a $20 fee. And these are all services that the public uses so it would We would not be, I guess, using the general fund as much. The public would be paying for this when they either pay a ticket or if the court issues a warrant, we have that warrant fee assessed. If they default in their payments, like for example, they don't show up for a traffic hearing, there's a default fee there. And it's basically just... Also fees that would align with the other city courts, San Luis and Yuma, we would be comparable to them as well. Is there any questions so far regarding those fees?

When you say we're comparable to our neighboring municipalities, can you elaborate on that?

Yeah, sure. Let me grab my chart here. I do have that.

I knew you would ask that.

Councilman Castillo. I knew it. Of course, we knew it. Let me find my table here. So we want to compare to our neighboring cities. We don't have certain fees that, for example, City of Yuma has. They have, for example, DUI fees, blood analysis fees. We don't have those things.

But for example, I mean, why wouldn't we have them if the others do have it?

I don't know. That's a good question. Yes, we can look into that. But they have minimum fees. For example, the default judgment fee, they have a minimum of $25, but they can go higher because they have those additional fees. Somerton is at $40, San Luis is at $50. They have a minimum of a $50, Yuma $50 warrant fee. Somerton is $125. San Luis is at 150. Their deferred prosecution in Yuma is a minimum of 50, and Somerton is 200. San Luis is already at 300.

So when it's a minimum, what would be the average of, say, a warrant cost recovery?

Well, what I've seen is, again, 125, 150. This is when being here in our town and covering San Luis for about three, four months. Theirs is 150. So I would see that average in that ballpark figure, 125, 150. All courts have technology fees. We're the only one that doesn't have a technology fee. And we rely a lot on technology. So that would be an important fee to add. And that's for maintenance, maintenance of our equipment, our licensing with our programs, any type of training that we need for technology. So that would offset on the general fund. I mentioned also the deferred prosecution. That's on the defendant. That's a really important fee. That's a great opportunity for the defendant to have that opportunity to he's offered the deferred prosecution 12 months, you're crime-free and you're not getting a conviction. And they're paying that fee. That's for their own benefit again. And that takes time to process. There's paperwork, there's pretrial conferences, things like that. So that would offset again on the cost. And again, it's all... it's the actual users paying those fees. They're benefiting from those services, so they would be paying those fees. I think an increase would be more than fair. They're reasonable, they're targeted, support both accountability and access to justice. And again, that dedicated technology fee provides a sustainable funding for essential systems and enhances public access, aligns with their practices. I know Councilwoman Gonzalez, you had asked for us to have a... A laptop for the for the lobby. For people to come in and either. file their petitions for orders of protection or even make their payments there. we only take cash or money order. So a lot of people want to come in and pay with their card. So we would have that as well. And the fee would help maintain that laptop. So we're looking into that as well. So again, these fees are more than reasonable. We'd be keeping up with inflation. We haven't touched those fees in 15 years. So it's more than reasonable to approve these cities. I would ask that the fees would be approved, we have the proposed ordinance that your legal department assisted with in reviewing redacting. So we have all everything ready to go. We just need your your yes on this.

Any other questions or comments? I have one.

Yes. I would also add, Judge, to if the fees hadn't been looked at over 15 years, it's kind of scheduled in, I don't know, maybe every three to five years. Yes. Just to make sure that we do keep up with them. Because then once we have to increase the cost of anything, then it kind of seems like, oh man, we're drastically changing it. But the reason is, the why is because it really hasn't, I mean, if it hasn't been looked at in 15 years, then of course we have to take some drastic measures to make sure that we keep up. And I mean, at least for me, I mean, the less we take from the general fund, I think the better, as long as we stay within a reasonable parameter. Yeah.

Yes. And if you when I mentioned the increase on the fees, it's pretty reasonable. It's not like we're going from, you know, the forty dollars for, let's say, for the default cost recovery from 40 to 60. I mean, it's twenty dollars in the last 15 years. I think it's very reasonable. And I do agree with you, Councilman or Vice Mayor Castillo. we need to be maybe every three, five years, whatever it is, but I think we can't be ignoring and leaving a 12, 15 year gap on these fees. I completely agree with that. So that's something that me and my court administrator are going to be scheduling and making sure we get that done.

Maybe we look at our city fees every yearly or so maybe at that time.

Okay, we can do that. That's not a problem.

Any other questions or comments?

I have a question, Mayor. Yes. That technology fee, is it comparable? I think it's a very minimal fee. Is that comparable to Yuman Sanui?

Over sample, Sanui has a $15 fee. And Yuma looks like to have a $10 fee. I think 20 is pretty reasonable for us. I thought we could go up.

Pretty high compared to others.

Well, we use technology a lot.

I won't give a 20.

All our in-custody is our video. We recently had a nice little update that IT with the county helped us and Christian here at IT and for the city also helps us a lot. So we rely a lot on our technology. And so do the our the community when they come in, make their payments, or we have, you know, people coming in and filing their their orders of protection. And we'll have that that laptop in the nice and bolted down in the lobby. But we're going to have it there. So Any other?

Mayor, for me? Yes. Judge, really quick, I just, so you can let the council know. These fees, they have to wait the 60 days to take an effect, or are they gonna be in effect? I wasn't sure because of the state statute with- We have to, I think there's a waiting period. I think October is when- The 60 days, I think. Legal, if you're on the line, can you?

Yes, Mayor, Council, can you hear me?

Yes.

Yeah. So you have before you tonight, the ordinance, but then we've also posted where we would be, if you want to proceed, do a notice of intent to adopt these fees. And then there would be a public hearing on October 6th. And if council approves it, they could go into effect after that. So right now it's set up that you could go forward with the ordinance. That'll get us updating code. And then just know that delayed collection wouldn't happen until October.

Thank you for mentioning that.

No problem, just here to help.

Yes, thank you.

Mayor, I have a question. Yes, .

Oh good, you guys can hear me now. Yes. Judge, on the $20 fee for the technology, is that gonna be on every transaction or how is that gonna come in play?

Yes, so the fees are, once the ordinance is updated, we send it to the AOC, to the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts, and they do our fee sheet based on our new fees. So we would get a new fee sheet as well after that's all approved.

Yeah, but what I'm trying to get to is that I'm trying to find a, if there's going to be specific transactions that are going to have that $20 fee or is it all? Oh, all transactions.

All transactions will have that fee. Yeah. Like the fines will have that added to the, any fine will now have that additional $20 to it.

So it's only strictly to fines?

Well,

How about if somebody pulls a marriage license?

No, that's different. That would be a whole different, yeah. It would be for the fines, uh-huh.

if I'm not mistaken.

No, marriage license would stay the same. I think it's $98 if anybody wants to get married. $98 after five.

Are you trying to tell us something, Councilwoman Villalba?

We're going to read into something.

That's just a certificate. There's another piece. No, that would be for the fines.

That's why he didn't run. He wanted to get married. No, no. But he wants to get married.

I got my robe.

I'll keep you in mind, but it won't happen anytime soon.

OK. Any other questions or comments? Is there a motion?

I make a motion to approve ordinance number 2026-004.

Vice Mayor Castillo? Second. Second. Councilwoman Gonzalez, all in favor?

Aye.

Me opposed motion carries, thank you. I'm 7.4 discussion of possible action to approve the award of contract of yourselves city special events in response to request for proposal for fiscal year 2027.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. James Jones, Parks and Rec Director. This is a request for qualifications for special event beer sales. It was posted on June 15, 2026 and officially closed on July 2, 2026. We had one submittal from Somerton Rotary. It was posted in the Yuma Sun for three consecutive days as required. I do want to state that the second paragraph here is not correct. It was misread. Staff did compile a list of nonprofits using the groups that come to our Parks and Rec Commission and a state website. At that time, we couldn't process who had their nonprofit status, who did not. We also did not have correct contacts for everyone. So we felt like it was equitable not to reach out. That was an internal conversation that we had within staff. So we wanted to be fair and equitable. So we did not reach out. So we just posted it. At that time, we did have three groups that did come back and reach out to me in regards to the RFQ. We did meet with two of those groups individually. We did... i'll talk about that the council's direction would be to keep the money within somerton because some of these groups do work with other municipalities or other groups outside of somerton um and i do state that they those groups did not submit the one group that did submit would be was somerton rotary club and we reviewed their submittal and they had everything their non-profit status the insurance and the most important thing, they did have experience in this area. Staff is recommending that we award the 2000, the fiscal year 2027 contract for the special events. That'd be Greater Days, UTV, and 4th of July to Somerton Rotary, or we can do whatever council directs us to do. Any questions or comments?

Mayor, if I may.

Yes.

That's to me that's when I first read the this item on the agenda that they reached out to to other organizations. I mean, posting it is great. But staff has known which organizations have have typically in the past have have Have requested or have submitted and forever reasons, one might have been one or two might have been a Might have not qualified. I just don't understand why they wouldn't reach out to some of these organizations, but yet they're willing to reach out to others. You know, quite honestly, I didn't even hear about it. I didn't even know about it. And so might have they sent me an email to notify me? Yeah, but I probably overlooked it. And that's part of the problem that I feel that we need to do better at putting out these RFPs and RFQs. We do post videos all the time on Facebook. Facebook is a great tool to let some of these organizations know or people within those organizations. But it just seems like they're just selective of what they want to post on Facebook. But real important stuff like that kind of gets left out and ignored. So... That is my biggest concern, that not all these organizations were properly informed.

Good evening, Mayor and Council, Jasmine Similio, Economic Development, and I also oversee communications. There is a new feature in our website under opportunities, excuse me, business opportunities, bids, and all vendors who are interested in getting direct emails every time we post RFQ or RFP, they will get notified. So they would just have to subscribe. And as soon as we post something, they will get notification in their email that something's out for bid from us.

That's a new feature.

And that's a new feature that we just incorporated this fiscal year for this exact reason. So we have bundle.

I feel that we have, you know, some recurring events and we give staff the chance to, this is the type of stuff that I would like to see in some recurring events. I tell Louis, let's keep it short, but if you're going to say one item, it's probably something like this that affects certain nonprofits in the community and so just for staff, stuff like this, make sure to add some recurring events that Because then, you know, it might seem that we're favoring one group over another. And, you know, usually those groups are not vendors. They're nonprofits. So they're probably not going to look at our website. So let's be more talking about strategic and because, yeah, that we have our, like I said, when we have our summer recruiting events, it's not just stand here because we need to say something, be strategic about it, and make sure that this type of stuff gets conveyed to the public. And this can be the public forums, if some of those nonprofits come and they like it wasn't a public forum, at least it's online, it was somewhere current events. And again, the website is a great tool. So you know, so I can understand where Councilman Villalpado is coming from.

Mayor, I have a comment, I also want to make a note that the city of summertime page is not accessible through the Google so if you Google city of summertime our page does not come up, and so we need to look at that as well, and so. In our website isn't updated either.

Mayor, if I may, we're actually looking into that. We had a resident that brought that to our attention about a couple of weeks ago, and we've been working. So there is IT economic development. We are currently trying to figure out why that is the case. But yes, we have identified that's an issue.

Yeah, we just heard that one of the things is transparency. So we need to be transparent with the public as far as that. And the website, if they can't find it, then. Mayor, if I may.

Yeah, to touch bases on that Google search, I actually, when I need to pull up something, I actually have to go to City of Somerton City Hall in order to get the little planet logo in order to click on it in order to get into our website. So yeah, it stopped working a while back. I want to say about three months ago, I noticed that I couldn't access it. But I just kind of figured a way around it. But to me, I would like to hopefully, if everybody's willing to consider, give it another 30 days. I know the UTV is coming up. I feel comfortable with awarding the UTV to the chamber, but I would like an additional 30 days, see if there's another organization out there and they post it accordingly in our website and Facebook and see if there's any other organization out there that's really interested.

questions or comments?

You know, as far as for me, I mean, I understand the concern, but it has already been posted and it's gone through our processes. You know, I just think maybe it could be like an area of opportunity, you know, but I just say leave it as is.

Even though we've Mention that in disclose that it wasn't properly advertised or for the lack of better word.

I mean, these are events that we constantly have and and for these you know nonprofits or or vendors, I mean they. you know, if they're really interested, I mean, they can seek out and get that information to make sure where the process is at. At least for me, I mean, that's how I feel. I mean, it's, you know, with that new feature that Ms. Samudio mentioned, you know, they're going to get that automatic email. But I mean, to me, I mean, every nonprofit should be responsible to ensure and try to get which events they want to, you know, put an RFP on this. I just kind of feel that, I mean, it's their responsibility to ensure that everything goes through. At least for me, if not, then I kind of feel that we're, I don't want to say the word begging, but like, hey, we need this or we're like following them step by step. I mean, everything is posted there. I mean, they should know what to do. I mean, I don't think we should be guiding them every single step of the way.

Well, we should be at least disclosed where the information is at, which wasn't disclosed. And that's the problem. I agree with you. We shouldn't be babysitting them. We shouldn't be holding their hand. but it is our RFP, it is our RFQ, and we do have to provide proper public notice. And when we're not doing that, then that's where the transparency that the mayor was talking about lacks.

I feel that it was the same issue last year that where council felt that it was, there wasn't proper, I guess, communication or, and we extended it another 30 days and turned out that, I guess, the rotary was the one that ended up getting the three, but it was similar concerns last year. And then again, we go through the same thing. Yeah, it's, like I said, it was on our website, but it wasn't, I felt that we could have done more and we opened the window to this type of comments, you know, that you know, and I fully understand where Councilman Villalpando is coming from.

Oh, question. Yes. James, did we contact the voter?

Did we contact any? No, this is, I think it's just because it's the habit. They, we do this every, every June. They just kind of know it's coming up. But we got, we got the upper hand. He's in the voter.

He knows on the RFQ they're coming now.

Yeah. The city is actively a participant and part of the Rotary Club. So how are they not going to know?

I understand that. We've been doing that for a lot of years. But just my... You know, last year we did the same thing. We opened it up more. We found out things that, you know, whoever was applying was not in, you know, the paperwork where they're supposed to be submitted. So now we have to be checking if they are, if they're not, or, oh, I'm sorry, you know, we're going to open it again because you didn't apply or whoever didn't apply. I just think that, you know, for this year, just, you know, we did what they're supposed to do. They applied. Now we're penalizing somebody else for, for this so I mean I know this group and they've done a lot of things for Somerton you know other entities that get it you know I don't think they do as much as this group does for for our city for our residents for our seniors you know things that they've done for partial recreation for many years so I mean I think maybe yeah for future reference yeah you know what from now on have a list like Jasmine said, or maybe like Jim does, you know, have a list and send it to everybody else and go from there. But I think, you know, this year just give it to whoever applied and got it done and go from there. Because if we're going to do another 30 days and then the same people or other people do it and these are the best, you know, then do another one. Okay, no, you know what, do another 30 days. But for everything, I think it's just, and you know this is done and okay you know we was we didn't you know i feel like you know like i think you said a councilman like you're trying to babysit and i think that's not you know that's there you know if they want to be part of this you know they also need to you know this is not it was done last year at the same time so why not call James or call whoever and find out, hey, when are you guys doing this? And go from there.

That's why. Any other questions or comments? There are motion.

I'll make a motion to approve the award of a contract for beer sales at city special events in response to our request for qualifications RFQ for fiscal year 2027.

Motion by Vice Mayor Castillo. Second by Councilman Roldano. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

No.

So three and three. What happens?

It doesn't go anywhere, Mayor. So what we go from here is we can look at other options, because we can't move forward. So legal?

I was going to say you can make a second motion. So one, we can look at other options, but if there's another motion to even approve one event or limit. So you do have time for a secondary motion, Mayor and Council, if there is any desire and a majority is in agreement.

So I would like to make a motion to approve the first two events and then, you know, after the next calendar year, put out the 4th of July for qualification.

Second.

So motion by.

I just have the next two events would be.

It'd be UTV in greater days.

So that'll give us ample time. Yeah.

So motion by the mayor, second by Councilman Villalpando. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

No.

Motion carries.

Yeah.

Summary of current events. HR, Terry Trujillo.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members, Terry Trujillo, HR Manager. I have two updates for you. I just want you to know that HR began their 2026 annual employee evaluation process, excuse me, their evaluation process on August 3rd. Employees have received their evaluation form and will have until April 14th to complete their self evaluations. Supervisors will then complete their evaluations between August 17th and August 31st. The second one that I have is we have police officer testing. HR will be administering the next written examination for police officer positions on September 21st. Candidates who successfully pass the written exam will advance to the physical agility test, which will be held on September 22nd. Thank you.

What did you say the dates were for the evaluations? I'm sorry, I missed it.

The evaluations, yes. For employees, it's August 3rd through the 14th. And then from there, it'll go to supervisors from August 17th through the 31st.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, we have Jasmine Samudio, Economic Development.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Jasmine Samudio, Economic Development Director. Really quickly, this Saturday is the grand opening for the Sunset Clinic in our west side of town in our Parkview Commerce Center. It will be at 9 a.m. in the morning. It would be a pleasure if you can join me. I will be there. I would also like to inform you that today, I had the pleasure to meet with Congresswoman Grijalva's team and we presented Somerton's community profile, growth and opportunities and our needs. And it was a pleasant interaction with the team and their interns and a lot of new faces that have never seen Somerton. So it was very nice. The third thing I want to mention is on this coming Tuesday, I will be representing Somerton at the GYDC and Mexicali EDC MOU signing. And I will have a tour of several industrial facilities in Mexicali. Thank you.

Mayor, we have Rosana Douglas, Public Works Director. She's on the line. She's at a conference right now.

Rosana? Is she on?

I don't know.

Rosanna? Maybe she's having technical difficulties. I just want to bring up, and I can go ahead and read them, the pavement preservation, working on Somerton Avenue and Madison on the street. We have traffic control. It's extended to August 7th. We're finishing up, finalizing some striping. They're preparing for the annual cleanup. So that's, They're working on the logistics and including the new subdivisions, uh, adding to the route. Uh, so that that's going to be coming forward. And, uh, we'll be bringing back, accessing the possibility of, we do have a mini transfer station that we set up with the direction from mayor and council. But now that we have the new transfer station open up, I think the grand opening is tomorrow, about possibility switching that over, but we'll have that, CONVERSATION WITH MAYOR AND COUNCIL, BUT THAT'S AN IDEA TO CONSIDER NOW THAT RESIDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO GO DOWN TO COUNTY 19 AND DISPOSE OF THOSE MATERIALS THAT WERE A CONCERN BEING LEFT IN ALLEYS, ROADWAYS, DIRT ROADS, AND DIFFERENT AREAS AROUND SUMMERTON. SO THAT'S ALL WE HAVE, MAYOR.

I don't have anything, Mayor. Thank you. Councilman Gonzalez.

We have the Yuma County having their vaccine clinic this Thursday. It's earlier than normal, but I guess it's because of the beginning of school. It's this Thursday at 3 PM at the Cultural Center, 3 to 6. i also want to um i guess recognize paramedics diego vasquez and daniela mendoza i read the chief's report um they um and and it goes back to that community feeling and and going a little bit above and beyond um they went to a call of a stranded motorist and um he didn't want to come back with them but they felt that he did though they brought him back to at least to chevron to get some some drinks and and have him feel better because um he was stranded and it was pretty hot um so i just wanted to recognize them for that um i also wanted to ask on um the exercise equipment at pericone how are we doing with that we're still missing some

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Councilwoman, the equipment that is missing is broke. I saw your email today. We're going to look in that program to see if we can replace it by using that grant. But at this point, what we have that's still workable is out there. Okay, thank you.

Councilwoman De La Rio.

Um, I attended the wine field meeting on behalf of the vice mayor this past Thursday. Um, I'm so glad it's virtual because I wouldn't be able to do it in person, but, um, I did attend in his behalf. And I also wanted to ask Louie, um, if we can look into marking of the street on Jefferson. Um, I know when they re paved it or they did something to the street, the markings, they never came back to do the marking or it's, there's no markings that you can't tell like, you know, where the turning lane is at or anything like that. There was a close encounter last week. And it was me driving on my side. And I guess the car didn't realize that was she was on the wrong side of the road so um and it's because it's not marked it's not marked so if you could look into that um also i wanted to thank the chief i don't think we said it last month but um for inviting us to the graduation ceremony of the officers um it was my first time that i had been there and so um to witness that was really really really cool so thank you so much for inviting us and that's all i have

Mayor Mrakas, I want to.

Mayor Mrakas, I cheap price and we do want to welcome back for the school, you know, so thank you for for for taking the time and attending and I don't know if I need to someone else in the city, and I. the partnership within the school and the community. Councilwoman Delgado, thank you for attending that YPO meeting. That was my first day back at officially at work. So thank you for going. For the League of Cities, I mean, I will not be attending that when I celebrate my 45th birthday with my family. know we'll be doing that one um i won't be able to attend tomorrow for the the south transfer uh the ribbon cutting tomorrow i mean it is at 8 30 but it is a first day of school for our students so uh thursday is always organized chaos we're gonna be there but i'll make sure to be there on uh saturday for the sunset ribbon cutting for that for the clinic

I want to just thank the Office of the Clerk for all the election work, for keeping all of the candidates informed. And I know there's two other candidates here, and I just want to say that You know, this election season, it was, you know, compared to other entities, it was very respectful and everything else. Yes, four candidates, but yeah, see them in public because yeah, they've been here, but that's what, I guess, separates Somerton from, you know, some of our neighboring communities, just the respect that we ran with and just our ideas.

And so again, thank you for all your work.

And the League of Cities, let's take the opportunity to network with our legislators, especially now that the state funding is scarce. And one of the priorities when we went to the Capitol was... that the Highway 95 funding, we didn't get it, but we can still just start asking, keep asking them. And also the, you know, one of the conversations we had with Senator Dunn was on the supermarket and he was the one that gave us the lead on, you know, hopefully talking to one of the chains. We have an executive session. We have one item. It's an executive session for discussion and consultation with the city attorney for legal advice regarding potential development agreements or other mechanisms for coordinating with developers in future residential subdivisions within the city. Is there a motion to... Going to executive session. So motion by Councilman Delgadillo.

Second, Mayor.

Second by Councilman Roldano. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carried.

Thank you.

you

Thank you. No, no.