Health and Human Services Commission - Regular Meeting

The city of Apache Junction Health and Human Services Commission special meeting of 03/09/2026 to order at 03:02PM. Pledge of allegiance. Roll call.

Chairperson Brennan?

Present.

Vice chair Danford?

Present.

Commissioner Montgomery? Present. Commissioner Kryselik?

Present.

Commissioner Smithson? Yay.

Oh, there

she is.

Commissioner Mikeland?

Present.

And commissioner Wood has informed us that she does have a conflict of interest, So she will not be serving on the board as long as the decisions are being made for the applicant funding. So we probably won't see her for the next couple of meetings.

You know, just a protocol question. She couldn't abstain from whatever organization she felt that there was some potential conflict and have input on the others?

I don't think so.

Okay.

No, because whatever decision she makes is going to affect the other group, her group too.

And she works with two organizations, two of our applicants. So, you know, it's Yeah.

I know.

A tough spot.

See, that was even more than when I had a new leaf only as my concern. There you go. Okay. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I will so move.

Second.

I'm sorry. Who seconded? Second. Okay. Thank you, Sandy.

Okay. Roll call.

Commissioner Montgomery?

Here.

So we are voting on the

consent agenda and the motions I'm sorry, the minutes from February 23.

Yes.

Thank you. Vice Chairman Danford?

Yes.

Commissioner Kraselik? Yes. Commissioner Smithson? Yes. Commissioner Meikland? Yes. And chair chairperson Brennan? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. It is in any old business that we need to review?

We have no old business.

Good. We're gonna go on to the current business. Okay. New business. Okay. Interview of applicants for health and human services funding for fiscal year '25 I beg your pardon. 2627. I wasn't going back to the past. Alright. Okay.

The only thing I have to say is you all have a scoring sheet. If you wanna use that today or after the meeting, just to put your notes on there to kinda help you make your final decision. Right. And you've all seen the applicants' packets. I don't have anything else to say if you've got any questions beforehand. Otherwise, we'll just start going down the list.

I have one one tangential statement. It's been made clear that in our last meeting, much of the dialogue was indiscernible. Apparently, the auditor didn't pick it up. And so one suggestion was made that perhaps, at a minimum, some of the questions that were generated during that session might be in the future printed and sent to the respective entities.

So in the future, I don't foresee that problem being again because we had to be out of this room. It was that room is not set up for, public meetings, period.

Right.

So it's not really designed for that kind

of

recording. This was just because we had new audiovisual equipment installed, and so this chamber was off limits for that two week period.

Okay.

It's a great suggestion, but I I don't think we're gonna have that problem in the future.

Alright.

This is home.

This is home. Okay. And we'll honor that.

All right.

So we'll move forward in the order

in which they are on our agenda.

Do you want me to call them?

Or You can.

Oh, okay. New a new leaf. Really, it's Kafka. Yeah. And who knew that he was gonna show up?

Good afternoon, Chair Brennan, members of the commission. My name is Dana Martinez, and I'm the director of domestic and sexual violence services for a new leaf and I also have Larry Grubbs who is our director of government contracts and grants. So thank you for allowing us to be here today to talk about our proposal and answer some of your questions that you had regarding that. CAFA is a program of a new leaf and it has been operating in Apache Junction since its inception in 1998. Our shelter program, which most people are familiar with, is a 16 bed facility serving about 80 individuals a year.

Most of those individuals served are not Apache Junction residents because typically in a devious situation, it's safer for survivors to seek shelter outside of where their abuse occurred. Our DV outreach program, however, is a less known program, but we serve a lot more people and it's where that we serve the bulk of our Apache Junction residents and it's the program that was included in our application. Generally we serve anywhere from seven it's 50 to 75 Apache Junction residents in that program and while we know we have the capacity to serve more the primary issue is making people aware of our services. We continue to do outreach and events here in Apache Junction to make sure people are fully aware of what we what other services we offer besides the shelter and how we can best support survivors. We've also cultivated ongoing relationship with the Apache Junction Junction Police Department, who are generally the first responders in a DV situation.

We have monthly meetings with them, and we've provided them with access to our twenty four hour hotline, where they can call for help when someone's in need of a serious TB situation and needs to get out. And most recently, Sergeant Reed, their training officer, has started providing tours at our shelter and our outreach program with new officers as part of their training program. And since these tours have started, our officer referrals have already increased. I do feel it's important to mention that over this last year, a New Leaf as a whole, including my division, has experienced significant funding cuts. As a result we had to cut positions from our programs including our DB outreach services and our shelter programming.

We cut one and a half full time equivalent positions in a program operated with only seven. And that's why we had to start requesting additional funding from cities that we operate in, such as Gilbert, Mesa, Glendale, and Apache Junction. And that will help keep our programs running and serving a very vulnerable population. I do recognize that there were concerns about how we manage funds to ensure that the funding is going to Apache Junction residents. Being that we are located in Apache Junction, our outreach center is not a confidential location and is available for people to do walk ins.

Additionally, we capture information about where they're living so that we can ensure that Apache Junction funds are supporting Apache Junction residents. And our database helps us track this information for all the reporting we do for cities to ensure that city dollars go to those city residents. Excuse me. Regarding the funding fundraising efforts, while the amount provided in the application was the average for the three years, I do have the most recent events that were listed. The With One Voice, which is an event specific for DV and was held in October 2025, the funds raised at that time was a 137,572 and our camaraderie gala gala which was held in March '25 we have another one coming up in March That was actually our largest fundraiser we've ever had, and it was $1,100,000.

One thing I do want to mention is that we have seen a decline in funds raised as donors are weary of the status of the economy and the uncertainty of the last year. So we are really challenged with our fundraising efforts. The operating budget for the DV outreach program. You requested to know what percentage of that total budget was request for $20,000 is 3.24% of the total DB outreach budget. In regards to the case management information that was provided, while it is important while we do case management services it's also important to understand that our funders require that we do not mandate services and that all services provided are entered into voluntarily federal and local laws require strict confidentiality of client information Therefore, our funder driven outcomes of increased knowledge of community resources, knowing how to plan for continued safety, and improving feelings of safety and well-being are generalized in order to maintain safety and confidentiality.

And while we are mandated reporters, we do report when it is necessary. We just leave a lot of that level of detail out in our narratives that we have put put in our applications and in our reports in order again to maintain confidentiality of our survivors. We did indicate that partial funding of $13,500 would be acceptable, and with that we would apply sixty six percent sixty six point three percent of that to the salary. While we do have flexible financial assistance through our DES DV funding, those dollars are only able to go directly to the vendor that's providing those services and not to the client. The financial assistance dollars we requested would go directly to the client through generally through gift cards.

Regarding the discrepancy in the budget numbers listed, the ERE should have been $20.14 dollars instead of 21.04 And just to provide a couple of highlights, just wanted to let you know that we did move into a new building that has allowed us to save money. It's easier access, and we have more parking available for people that come on-site. We also were able to start a virtual support group for DV survivors, and we've been getting very positive responses from the group members. And I just want to highlight a success story of a mother that we served from Apache Junction. Due to the domestic violence she experienced, her injuries required quite a bit of time for her to recover from.

As a result, she fell behind on her rent and was unable to provide gifts for her children during the holidays. Our outreach staff was able to connect with our donation center in Mesa to provide gifts for her and the family, and through our financial assistance program, we were able to pay her rent to keep her in her home until she was able to return to work and start paying her rent for herself again. Larry, do you want to do we have time to make a few more comments?

Okay. Sure.

Thank you, Dana. Thank you, commissioners, for allowing us to address some of your comments and concerns. I was able to hear the audio in the video, and I did just wanna come and address a couple of things. One is the size of a New Leaf. Right? New Leaf is big.

It's

huge. It's huge. And we do a lot of things, but a New Leaf isn't big in the sense that Walmart is big. When a purchase is made at Walmart, that dollar in revenue can go to any Walmart store. A new leaf is made up of, you know, individual local programs that really do depend on the local support of those communities to continue to operate.

We can't take a dollar from surprise and apply it to the operations at CAFA. So we really do depend on that local support. And not only because of the contribution and and the the the way it gets us to that total budget that we need to operate. But not every operational dollar or not every awarded dollar is equal when it comes to nonprofit organizations. A dollar from a local organization or a local municipality like Apache Junction really does go a long way to leverage federal funding because we have match requirements.

So Dana mentioned the total budget for DV outreach is about $600,000. We do get a significant VOCA award, that's the Victims of Crime Act award, from DPS to help support that program. However, we can't access any of that money unless we get a 20% match. So every dollar that we get from a nonfederal source that can go towards that match amount, which is about $70,000 alone, will then allow us to access that federal funding. So without $10,000, without $20,000 from local resources like the city of Apache Junction, we could potentially lose out on and not be able to earn revenue from those federal sources to the tune of, you know, $40,000 for a $10,000 award or $80,000 for a $20,000 award.

So the fact that we're here from a large organization like a New Leaf and that everybody's here today just demonstrates that these these funds are critical to all of us, and that includes a New Leaf as well. And with that, I'm we'd be happy to answer any questions that you have.

So, Dana, there are a couple of questions. One is that you you referenced the the the sort of story by Frank, and there was concern that that had not or hopefully had been reported to Child Protective Services. Was that the case?

I can't speak to cases specifically, but I can say we are mandated reporters, we do report to DCS when it is required. Yes.

The irony of the case presentation was that it was deemed that the male parent was of minor concern about the environment and therefore was allowed to to return there. And the child that was being abused was removed. How did that happen versus the abuser being removed from the environment?

Again, I can't speak to specific cases.

Right. I we're we're speaking

yeah. What I can say is that a lot of times we work with people who have already left the situation, but haven't taken steps to get legal custody or go through the legal process to gain custody of their children that they are concerned about. And so that's one of the resources we provide as we have lay legal advocates who help survivors navigate those confusing civil court processes like protective orders, custody, and divorce. And a lot of times while we help them navigate that process, it is really up to the judge to make those determinations based on the information that's provided.

Okay. And we used to have a parameter in our applications that talked about metrics of success. And that would include, I'm hoping, recidivism in this instance. So can you give us any indication of what the recidivism is like? How many individuals that have been victims of domestic abuse are re abused within the year, within two years?

So we don't track recidivism. I can honestly tell you we have tried to track that for many, many years. I've been in the DV services field for over twenty five years, and that is a real struggle for us. So we don't track it in general. It's just not something in our world that is being that that we're asked to track or that we need to track.

We just know that domestic violence is a really difficult situation to get out of, and some people struggle. Historically, in my time in domestic violence world, we've said that the average time that somebody returns to their domestic violence situation is seven to 10 times. It has increased to nine to 12 times. It's just really hard. There's a lot of barriers and a lot of challenges for people to get out of those situations. So, again, one of the reasons why we don't track, but also because we know it's difficult to get out of a DB situation. And, we're here to support survivors no matter where they're at in that journey.

And then my last one. When someone is translocated to a a shelter where they have greater anonymity, etcetera, are there any arrangements made for them to pursue any sort of vocational or other training that might help them avoid recidivism and be more self reliant and self sustaining in the community?

Absolutely. A lot of the work we do is around that, is around helping them understand what are the warning signs, what are the red flags to be aware of, how to avoid these relationships, not only the current one that they're in, but moving forward in the future. And then we also have wraparound services. We work with workforce development programs to come into our shelters and provide that information. We refer out if they can't come in. A lot of the case management we do is around that specifically, around that sustainability and that self sufficiency and moving forward with a violence free life.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?

I have a question.

Sure.

So one of the things you stated when you first came up here was the fact that you do have a shelter here, but a lot of the residents from Apache Junction go to other areas. Logistically, how does that work for our Apache Junction's residents? Is there like do you have like a relationship with different areas to track our our residents that need shelter, but it is not safe for them to stay in Apache Junction?

So, typically, when a client when somebody comes into a shelter, then they are considered somebody in that city because they're living in a new city. When I say we serve 50 to 75 clients Apache Junction residents a year, that's through our DV outreach program. We serve maybe one, two, three people a year in the Apache Junction shelter, and that's typically because their abuser is no longer in the city, and it's safe for them to stay here. But most of our services are providing those outreach services for people who are living in Apache Junction. And like I said, maybe they've gotten out of their DV, but because we know the trauma of domestic violence lingers and it it it impacts survivors for many years, they're still needing help and with resources and that's where we're serving the bulk of our Apache Junction residents.

Okay. So.

Thank you kindly. Mhmm.

Any other questions? I have a question. So your ask is 20,000. And then you made comment that thirteen five would be acceptable. May I ask a little bit about your ask and where you see those funds going to and kind of the difference between the 20,000 ask but the $13.05 being acceptable?

I'm gonna

let you ask. I'm You're more of a budget guy than

I am.

Yeah. It it it just

comes down to what I said before, and that is that every dollar counts. Right? If we just look at that $71,000 match amount, $20,000 would get us a good portion of the way there with looking for additional resources to cover the rest. $13,000, also a meaningful amount, would help us with that match. And, you know, the primary thing that we're looking for is to to fund staff positions.

So so we're talking about people here as well. And the difference between, you know, $13,000 and $20,000 when it comes to a position isn't that much. But when you when you factor in that match category again, you're going from, you know, $40,000 of leveraged VOCA funds up to a $100,000. And now you're talking about two or three positions. Positions. So, yes, we can do it, and we will do it for $13.05 or whatever you decide. But 20,000 would help that much more, certainly.

Thank you for your answer.

No other questions? All right. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank

Apache Junkin Community Development Corporation. Miss Evans.

Good afternoon, doctor Brennan and commissioners and staff. Gail Evans, chair of the AJ CDC. We just went from domestic violence to trash. That is a leap that I could not have imagined. Anyways, I apologize I could not hear the audio clear enough to understand the questions that the board had, but I will do my very best to answer anything.

Thank you.

I I have a couple questions.

Sure

thing. Maybe comments. Gail, you know, I think the corporation is I work on several projects, and the work you do is invaluable. It really keeps the city, helps us keep the co people who have issues, you know, cleaned up. And there are veterans and seniors that really, really need this service.

They do.

And your group is made up with volunteers. They're not like paid staff people. Thank you. Huge to me. So my question is, if you ask for 7,500, could you do more work, more code cleanup if we were to give you more?

Absolutely.

That's all I need to know.

And, you know, we recently just did a cleanup. It's kind of interesting in the last few years that we've done this and gotten bigger. And the current staff in co compliance has been the most helpful of any of the past assistance and that they've provided. But what we've noticed is we are now getting second and third generation of people in a household that they inherited and don't have the ability financially, mentally to take care of the properties. The latest one we cleaned up, this, she wasn't a senior, but she definitely had some mental type issues.

She must have had a 150 bug bites on her legs.

Agreed.

She kind of hinted to me, well, know, if we get these weeds cut down, I'll get rid of the roaches that keep biting me. Roaches don't really bite you. It had to have been a severe bed bug type scenario as because our group goes out more than once typically, And this is in a much older single wide mobile on its own lot because we only deal with homeowners. She had seven dogs. You know, we see more than what code sees.

You know, they go out, they see the weeds. Yes, that's an issue. But as I have a kind of detailed list of interview questions that I give to everybody, including, do you have any, relatives that live nearby? You know, any buddy that checks in on you. Do you have any weapons in the house? The police told me to ask that one.

Good question.

You know, this particular woman shared with me that she does have a therapist that she works with. How much she's really sharing with her living condition. The last day that that I showed up because we took care of her weed issue. But unless you spray, they're just gonna come back. So I was managed to find somebody that would give us a break on the chemicals because we're not trained in doing those kind of chemicals.

And we're all volunteers and mostly senior citizens. And I don't want to be myself inhaling stuff that I don't know what it could do to me. She said, you know, I'd love to invite you in, but the smell from the dogs is just too great. And I'm like, I really appreciate that, but we're not allowed to go inside anyways. We're strictly outside.

We know for a fact we'll be back because she just doesn't have and and she said she was treated like a princess growing up, that her mother never showed her how to do anything. And I think she just didn't have the capacity to learn how to do anything. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Had she not inherited this from her grandfather, I don't know where she'd be. But the property has more issues than just the weeds that we were sent out for.

And so what we've started doing is because we're there sometimes several times, including to code compliance, the other issues that we've noted with the property. Because we try to get the mental health, help that someone needs. And co compliance now works with the health department. I guess there was one house that had over 100 rats. You know, so it's unsafe for the people that own the properties. It's unsafe for the surrounding neighbors as Unsafe

for neighbors, yeah.

Yes. And, we have a lot of really caring volunteers on our board. And I have to thank Sandy. She shows up all the time. It's not sexy work by any means.

It's kinda dirty.

I always say I'm the trashiest woman in Apache Junction. And I don't know of any other city that has us. I have not heard that yet. But one of the reasons as a group, when we started back, I said, so what what happens to the people that are code cases and don't have the money to clean up their yard? They don't have the mental capacity or physical capacity to clean it up.

And in the past, they take them to court. Mhmm. Well, if you don't have the money to fix this up, you certainly don't have additional funds for a court case. And a lot of them wouldn't know what to say anyways. So it's a very odd niche, and the need is growing more and more as it is in everything.

Your statement was quite revelatory. I had not realized that you weren't allowed to have access to the interior of a structure.

I came up with that because I didn't think it was healthy for me coming out of surgery because I had spine surgery in January to go in that environment. I could have, but I didn't think it was it would be wise for me

Mhmm.

Because my incision still hadn't know, we have to protect ourselves as much as we can.

That wasn't meant as a criticism. That was just meant as it would seem that because of an aged trailer, that that likely has all sorts of problems internally with plumbing, with maybe even the kitchen, whether or not.

And it's one of those ones that had a roof built over it, and it's about ready to collapse on top of it.

Oh, my goodness.

So, you know, if we had more funds and what we've done in the past is we search out local businessmen, say, can you help us with this? You know, we can supply you some help if but we need your, like, AC help. We've had windows replaced. You know, we try to do what we can, but it's limited. We did just receive a grant from Pinnell County for smoke detectors.

And these Superstition Fire used to give out smoke detectors, but they were the regular battery kind. And the people kept calling the fire department a year later, wanting someone to come and replace the batteries. So what we applied for are the LEDs. So they should last ten years or more. So we're always looking to do something more.

Just like I think we've had three or four cleanups now along baseline. And we chose baseline just because it's on the way to I can't call it the dump. It's the It's the dump. What's the writing? Yeah. Landfill.

Landfill. Landfill.

Landfill. It seems to suffer the worst of all of our roads. And every time, I'm just amazed at the number of people that come out and help. And it's only for a couple of hours. It's never anymore. But something, if we're not doing it, there's nobody else doing it. So

relative to this woman and her bites Mhmm. Was she referred for medical care?

Because she said she was with therapy and had some other physical issues, I did not pursue it.

Okay.

And nor did she tell me who her therapist was. You know, and with HIPAA

Right.

I don't want to Violence. I don't want to pry if someone wants to tell me how they're having issues. We try to do what we can. That's why they send me in first because I get to do the initial interview because some people are not receptive.

Oh, absolutely.

You know, we've been thrown off properties where they were hoarders. Hoarders? Yes. Because of our website, we're getting more calls that aren't code cases. And really should be. This woman wanted her weeds pulled. Well, you couldn't pull her weeds. And I said to Tom, Kelly, I are the two that go out on the initial interviews. I said, why are we going in her backyard? Because code is only allowed to see what is out front.

And he said, well, she called us about this, and a neighbor complained. So I figured, well, someone must have seen over the fence or something. There was no way we could pull any weeds for all of the hoarding that was in the backyard. And, you know, we're talking about a 40 yard rollout and how, you know, we can get the volunteers here. But, you know, what you want to keep here, you have to put out of sight because we're not going to be responsible.

Oh, well, no, I wanted to keep that. Well, as she talked and talked more, she didn't want to get rid of any of it, just the weeds. Well, that's that won't work. You know? Her door her back door was completely blocked.

She goes, well, that door doesn't open anymore. And I kind of looked around and because there was stuff all the way up against the door she couldn't open it because of the hoarding so we try to get everybody in that we can but most people don't know this too super Superstition Fire Department does not most do anything residentially except put out fires. They don't do anything with code cases or one house had like a 150 wood pallets that he was gonna do something with. Investigating that. Well, why isn't this part of the fire department's issue?

And that's part of their contract with the city is they are not involved residentially unless it's a fire, which confuses me, but many things do.

Well, you keep Apache Junction so much cleaner than it would be, organized days where people can come to the dumpsters and bring their refuse, and they certainly do. I feel like a large percentage of that would end up in the washes, in people's front yards, in abandoned deserts. So the service that you provide is amazing. It's really amazing. And I urge you all, volunteer.

One of the things that I've been trying to raise enough funds for, too, is a 40 yard rollout for Donna Public Works for just tires. I mean, the little town of Coolidge has a rollout that people can bring their tires to. And I understand it becomes a employee issue because someone has to make sure they're only putting tires in and there's no they're not supposed to have the rims on them. I get that, but one lady that we went to do a cleanup on, I said, just out of curiosity, where did all these tires come from? Because that always confuses me.

It's because most people don't have tire changers at their homes. And she said, oh, my son keeps letting his friends bring them. And she would only call me when he wasn't at home. So, you know, it's multiple facets of why properties end up like they do.

In in regard to your detailed narrative of costs, when we're looking at q four of the fiscal year of 2025, you have AJ Parks and Recs at $64.19 98. Can you tell us a little bit about that? That's your largest expense for the year, Well, it

we had a fund for focal point improvement. And when we first started with Make a Difference Day, I mean, we strictly met there. We were re lettering the bricks from the veterans and doing different things there. That money was just for the focal point improvement. So rather than us sitting on it because Parks and Rec were working on the focal point improvement, we decided to just switch it over to them and let them use it. Okay.

Thank you.

Sure. And we did switch from calling our yearly event, Make a Difference Day. That was a national event that kind of fiddled out. And it was always in July. Well, we couldn't do it in July because it's just too hot.

So we tried doing it in October and about baked everybody, the last one in October that we did. And I don't want to ask volunteers to come out when it's one hundred and four and pick up trash. Mean, we do a variety of things. But so that's why we moved it to January. We also thought we'd have more winter visitors perhaps might be willing to help.

It went really well. I feel really bad because I had my surgery January 5. And I was on medication that I thought I was in full blown dementia. It was horrible. And I tried to resign, and they wouldn't let me resign. But, you know, we have a great volunteer board, and they just picked it up and ran with it in my absence. I feel really bad about that. But I really like the community service day title as well because I think that's easier to understand for most people.

Well, thank you very much for for defining what the $6,419 was about. Mhmm. That that that really was sort of an interesting

Well yeah.

Notation, and it didn't make sense in all of the other stuff. Mhmm. But what you're saying is that had been allocated, apparently. And that was just simply given back to Parks and Recs to do the focal point.

Right. Mhmm. And and I guess Parks and Rec had worked with one of our past board members who is a master gardener that when they did the silly mountain yearly cleanup they just called it make a difference date but it wasn't our organization they just used the name

I don't care.

We have so many nice board members, even though we are required to only we're not required. Well, yeah, it kind of is. Where you can only serve so many years and you have to leave the board, they still call in on our Zoom calls and still continue to help. I mean, that's really dedication.

Community.

Yes, absolutely. And we need more board members and people that can have good backs, not like mine.

I have two questions. My first question is, tell us a little bit about the processes and procedures for PPE, for personal protective equipment. Are people bringing their own? Or as part of your ask, like, how do you guys protect yourselves? You mentioned smells and bugs and potential bad, sharp things. How does that work into your ask today One to cover your protect

of the first things that I do when I go out there initially is I look for the sharp things because some places we can have our youth volunteers come out, but some places I I I wouldn't do that. Throughout the years, Ace Hardware has just donated an amazing amount of safety vests, gloves, all kinds of shovels, all kinds of different equipment. Chemicals, we won't do. And if and as a board, we voted, if it goes over a 105, we don't do anything. We just don't want to risk anybody having heat stroke out there, no matter how early you try to start.

Plus the snakes.

So, like, do you mandate your people wear gloves and masks to protect themselves?

Yes. And and they have, a liability waiver that they sign. So, you know, we whenever we especially have a big cleanup, all of that is brought in a trailer that we've made, and, we just hand it out.

So are they required to wear them?

Yeah. You know, and required.

You want to?

Yeah. You want to. You wouldn't want to do any of it without it. Usually, the helmets aren't the big thing because it's the bending over and picking up and putting into the rollouts.

Okay. And then my second question pertains to you had mentioned there's a couple places you go back to. Is there any kind of an educational moment to these homeowners that instead of us coming out every three months or whatever to clean your mess, there's some teachings on how to not make us come out and do this work because it would prevent to me. Then you where's it coming from? Like, where does all this stuff come from?

So what I've done is I provide a letter that says, okay, your code case is now cleared, and it is your responsibility from now on to keep your property, you know, neat and clean. But you know they don't have it to do that. And that that's one of those sad things where you you're just kind of stuck. You know, there's one property. They called us a year and a half ago.

And there's a couple of cars, a boat, all kinds of stuff. He inherited it from his father, and the man that inherited it has a severe heart condition. He was gonna call this. We told them to put some stuff out every month for Republic, make a pile. They'll come and they'll take some they don't have the capacity to do it, both physically and mentally.

You need to call either Goodwill or Purple Heart to come and get this stuff out of your carport. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna do that. It just doesn't happen. It's just that follow through they don't have.

So so do you guys have a limitation on how many times you'll go back to the same house?

No. If it's a code case, we'll go out. The only time we won't, well, one lady was drunk at 9AM, and we're all out there to clean the property. And she just stood at the front and just was belligerent. And I said, not willing to do this.

You know, I cannot subject volunteers to verbal abuse when we're trying to help you. But it was another hoarding kind of a situation. And, you know, the city has just left for taking them to court. It's kind of a vicious cycle. We do not go out on rental properties at all because we feel it's up to the landlord to take care of those properties.

We only do the homeowners. So when we have, like, the community service days, renters can utilize the dumpsters as well. We don't stop them by any means, but we personally don't go out and clean anything if it's a rental. Okay.

Thank you for your answers. Sure.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Alright. Azura Vida.

Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Kimberly Shu. You did have a couple of questions. I did see the video and listened to it. I also sent a previous email addressing some of those questions because the the questions that you had were not in our narrative or even in our ask.

So to be clear on a couple of those, we have not asked for any capital improvements. We have nothing to do with windows. And then we have nothing that has holistic case management. So I'm just going to kind of dive right in and give you an introduction of what VITA is. So for many working families in Apache Junction, filing taxes can cost around $500, which may represent a week of groceries or a utility payment.

Because of that cost, many families either delay filing or miss out on valuable credits like the earned income credit. Azura Vida program removes that barrier completely. We provide free IRS certified tax preparation so families can receive the refunds they've earned. Last year alone, our program helped return over 6,000,000 back into local households, money that goes directly toward rent, food, transportation, and savings. We're here to ask for a partnership with the city of Apache Junction.

Today, I'd like to share how expanding access to these services can benefit more residents of Apache Junction. For those unfamiliar, VITA is an IRS sponsored program. Think of it as high quality, secure, and completely free tax preparation service. We serve households that earn 70,000 or less annually. The key is quality. All our volunteers are IRS certified. They are trained to navigate the complex tax code to ensure every neighbor gets every dollar they're legally entitled to. It's a national program, but its impact is deeply local. And for the city like Apache Junction, the need is particularly acute. Why Apache Dunk A Junction?

Why does VITA matter here? Well, let's look at who we are in Apache Junction. We're a community of over 41,000 residents. Our median household income is just under 61,000. While this is a solid number, it means that half our neighbors are living on less than that, right at the threshold where a single unexpected expense can cause a crisis.

But the most telling statistic is our median age, 53 years old. We are a community with a significant population of older adults, retirees, and vets living on fixed incomes. And statewide, Penal County has a poverty rate that needs some help and attention. So our impact let me tell you what we accomplished just this past tax season right here in your community. This year, our program prepared a 168 individual tax returns, But these aren't just numbers.

They represent a 168 households. Because of our work, a 132,928 in refunds came back to Apache Junction. This isn't just money. This is money spent at the local grocery stores, utility bills, and on main street businesses and coffee shops. We also saved our neighbors an estimated 84,000 in tax preparation fees, money that would have left our local economy for a corporate software or a commercial social social preparer.

Who are we serving? 82% of those we served were over the age of 60. That's over a 130 seniors in the community who got help navigating their retirement income, Social Security, and pensions without getting charged a fee. The average adjusted gross income of the people walking through our doors was just $27,749. These are the working poor, the retirees on fixed incomes, and the families who need every dollar just to get by.

Council members, this is where I want to let you understand that this is not just a social service, but it's an economic development. When a senior on a fixed income or a working family saves 4 to $500 on tax preparation fees and gets a $2,000 refund, that money doesn't go to, like, in some savings account in the Cayman Islands. It goes replacing a worn out tire. It pays water bills. It buys school clothes, and is spent at the local diners.

By injecting over 200,000 combined refunds and savings directly into the pockets of Apache Junction residents, we are fueling our local sales tax base. We are keeping our neighbors financially stable, which reduces the strain on emergency services. To run this program effectively, to pay for software, licensing, insurance, training materials, and site operations, Our projected budget because there was a missed typo on there is $323,550 We are actively seeking grants and corporate sponsors to cover the vast majority of this. Tonight, we're asking the city of Apache Junction for a partnership and some investment. Compared to the $132,928 we directly returned to the constituents,

This is

a small investment with enormous return on investments. For every dollar you invest, over $8 is returned to our community. So in conclusion, when families cannot afford to to file their taxes, they lose access to critical resources that help them stay financially stable. Through the Azura Vida program, we remove that barrier by providing free, accurate tax prep preparation and financial guidance for families who need it most. For the residents of Apache Junction, this means saving hundreds of dollars in tax preparation fees, receiving the full refunds and credits they are entitled to, and bringing those dollars directly back into the local community.

Programs like this create a ripple effect. A single tax return may help a family pay rent, fix a car needed that's needed for work, or support a student applying for college through the free application for federal student aid, which is FAFSA. With your support, we can ensure more Apache residents have access to these services. And I open you to any questions that you might want to ask of me of how I how we run VITA, what is it, and why did I mention so many cities. Because I am in charge of the VITA program that is in the East Valley, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa.

And we serve a lot of Apache junctions, and we would like to do more. We're always trying to get the word out through marketing and just word-of-mouth, and we would like to help more Apache Junction citizens so they don't have to travel to Mesa, Chandler, or Gilbert.

What percentage of your clients are actually AJ residents? There you go.

Last year so the way we track this is through the software that is it's an IRS software it tracks by zip code. So we two fifteen people who were from Apache Junction last year. And with that being said, we would we're always looking to help more. And those that we have helped, we also run the summer program. So a lot of our our sites that we run during tax season are just during tax season.

But the site that we run-in Mesa is run all year long, and we help people with back taxes. We help people who have IRS letters. So with those, we see a lot of people come in who have seven years of back taxes that need to be done, which they could never afford to do. And we're the only place in the state of Arizona that has tax software back over ten years.

May I ask, you do not have a Apache Junction location though that people can come to to get their taxes done?

No. We are looking for partners. We go we we have been seeking with senior citizen community centers and local libraries Because

the one

of our expenses is that we must provide computers unless we partner with like we have like I kind of showed in our narrative, some of the people that we partnership are community colleges or libraries because they have computers, and that way we're not having to have that extra expense of the computers that we have to provide. But, yes, we are actively seeking because there you might have one location, or there was a couple of years ago, and it was run by AARP. AARP takes appointments only, whereas we do walk ins. And if AARP's appointments are filled up at the December and January, they're all gone.

Have you sought a collaboration with the community colleges in these various sites as well as Arizona State University? Or Yes.

So what was the name of the last one that you just said?

Arizona State.

Yes. We are currently working with ASU. A lot of their students come and actually volunteer to help during the season, which we love them.

So But so because, you know, Mesa has a couple of other universities too. I think they have Benedictine University.

Yes. We work we work with Benedictine. So we work with all of those different communities, colleges to get the word out and to recruit their volunteers. We also have locations at their campuses. So currently this year, we are at Mesa Community College at Red Mountain. We are at MCC Dobson and Southern location. We are nearby ASU at a Tempe Community Council area. We are at Gilbert Community College, all three of their locations. So and and we're at five different libraries.

Okay. And I didn't see noted whether or not if someone has an audit that they're accompanied. Is that true? Or what happens in that situation where someone is called in to have an audit review of the documents that your organization has prepared?

So we have what is called within scope. The type of of tax returns that we do have certain parameters. We do not do rental properties. We do not do a loss on a schedule c. We don't do business ones.

So the limitations on those that are more difficult or would possibly be audited is limited just through the way that we have things that must be in scope, not only financially. And the only reason we have a financial cap services on with VITA is because of the way we are funded. AARP also has VITA, but they do not have a cap on the income that they serve. And the reason why is because they are funded completely different than we are. We are funded through cities who want to have an impact on the moderate to low income people that they're trying to serve.

So, if they were to get audited and they had a letter, we are there for them, and we walk them through their programs. And we also work with, a legal action community with lawyers who help them also, and they are low income, free taxpayers advocates.

So, these people volunteers, like your CPAs and your

lawyers? So, everyone, except for a handful of people, are volunteers that come out every year. Our volunteers this year, we have a 134 volunteers. They are retired CPAs. They are accountants. They are also people who are just interested and love numbers, and they dedicate so many hours prior to every tax season to get certified. Every every single volunteer has to take the tax classes that the IRS offers, and they get certified. So everyone is a certified IRS agent.

So, I apologize. Explain a little bit more about the ask. You're asking for 15,800 and what are those funds to be used for?

So, they are used for training materials. They are are used for certain expenses that do happen to have happen with this with most of our sites, they do not charge us. They give that free gratis. It's a gift in kind. But, like I said, at some of the sites, there are computers, there is software, there is volunteer management, there are supplies in order to just do the tax season that we must purchase.

There are some things that have a lifespan, and then they get rotated out into where we have to then once again purchase. So, those the monies that we are asking for go towards those things. A small portion of it does go to stipends or mileage that some of the site coordinators get in reimbursement for the mileage that they do for for that.

But currently you do not have a space in Apache Junction? Is that what I am understanding?

This year we do not, but we are talking to several different people and trying to get something for next year.

Okay.

Regardless of funding, we really believe in our program and feel that it is something that Apache Junction can can use.

Thank you.

You.

You're welcome.

Alright. Alright.

Did anybody want if if they have questions or anything, did you want any business cards or any

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Okay. I'm gonna make a tangential sort of announcement. Because this room has a future op occupant at five, we're gonna have to try and go through this a little bit more judiciously.

We're starting

Chair Brennan?

We

do have until 05:30.

Okay. Oh, we do. Okay. 05:30?

Yeah.

Okay. And and, again, I'm not trying to rush anybody or cut anybody short. It's just we need to be cognizant of of our limits.

Talking less sounds good to me. I'm a little nervous. Okay.

This is Boys, Girls, and Youth Football League.

Yes. I am here on behalf of Black and Gold Youth Football. I'd first like to thank you, doctor Brennan and commissioner members. Thank you, Amy, for the great communication that we've had through email. I was not able to hear the audio, but Amy was kind enough to provide me with the questions that you had for me. So I hope I'll be able to answer those for you today. Perfect. A little bit of history on us. Black and Gold Youth Football is a feeder team for AJ High. We teach our kids how to how to tackle.

A lot of kids start in high school, and they've never tackled before. It takes two to three years before those kids really get that dialed in to where they can tackle and not hurt themselves and not hurt their opponents. Cactus Canyon no longer has a tackle football program. They switched to flag football a year ago, so we are now the driving force to get those kids ready for high school football. A couple of years ago, we were struggling to score, to to score points.

I know in the fall twenty four, our ten u team did not score at all until the last game of the season. Fall twenty five, we scored in every game. We made a bowl game, and we won it. We teach our kids the value of hard work. And exercise and playing sports is more important now with technology taking over.

Too many kids sit and play Fortnite, Minecraft, and they're becoming obese. And they're just not learning the learning the value of exercise and eating properly. And and kids that play sports, studies have shown, generally get better grades. They stay out of trouble more because the coaches are on their butts.

All of

our board members, all of our coaches, all of our cheer coaches are all volunteers. No one gets paid anything. We just put in our time for these kids. This year, we're doing spring ball for the first time in about a decade. We just had games over the weekend. We play our home games at Field or Davis Field. Our away games can be anywhere, Flagstaff. We went to Yuma last year. Wow. So we never know.

We play in the Arizona Youth Football League. So it's a well run organization. I'll get to to these questions that you had there. As to only Apache Junction kids playing on our team, probably 90 to 95%. We do have a couple of kids that either have split parents, you know, so they spend time in Mesa and out here. We do have one kid that we just recruited from Santan. His parents graduated AJ High. They live in San Tan. He does not like their program out there. He's a heck of a kid.

He's gonna be play d one. I don't ever wanna limit kids on our team from pulling from outside cities. Gilbert stole several of our high school kids this year. I wanna steal some of theirs. So I wanna build this football program back up. I want our kids to walk through the halls proud to wear these colors. How is our organization set up? We're a not for profit, five zero one c three. We've been around for thirty years. I'm working with Cammy Garcia to try to get all of our history.

I'm new to the board, but I believe having your history is extremely important because you gotta know where where you've walked. We do have a full board with seven members on it, president, vice president, treasurer, sponsor coordinator, me, secretary, a silent board member. We he only votes when we need something on a broken tie. How do we determine who gets scholarships? It's quite easy.

If a kid needs scholarships, he gets it. Same with our cheer. I didn't get to play high school sports. My parents did not have the money. I don't ever wanna tell a kid, you can't play because of what's in your mom and dad's pocket. So the way that we determine that, we ask the parents if you can afford, even partial, and so be it. If they can't, that's my job to bring in money so that that kid gets to play football. Cost of expenses and budget concerns. I did send over a ledger through Amy. I'm sure you guys have seen that.

We have various expenses between equipment. The league fees, each team is $4,750. We're running two teams right now. We're hoping in the fall to expand to a third and maybe fourth team. We're not running cheer right now, but we do in the fall. That's $1,500 per team through the AZYFL. Our uniforms for football cost approximately $10,000 a year. The kids get new uniforms once a year in the fall. Our cheerleaders cost around 8,000 for them. Same thing. They get new uniforms each fall. We want our kids to look sharp. Look good, feel good, play good.

Mhmm. Mhmm.

That's the motto. If you need more from me as far as our our budget and and and all of that, I can provide that through emails. And then I just mentioned how many teams we have right now. We're running two. We have a 10 u and a 12 u. We will definitely have a ten, eleven, and 13 u in the fall. We're hoping to have enough kids to also have a 12 u, and we might even do an eight u. We did not we haven't done spring in forever, and we had a huge influx of kids. We have 31 kids on one team, 28 on the other. We were just hoping to get 20 kids on each team.

I think it helped us that Cactus Canyon shut down their program. These kids are thirsty. They wanna play football. They wanna play football for us. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

You sort of answered a couple of my questions. I was wondering how you arranged because you have an age range of six to 13.

We do. We have a six to 13. They age out after 13. The cutoff is they're they if they turn 14 before July 1, then they can't play.

Okay. So what I was concerned with, how do you segregate the teams? So what's the age range per team?

So the way that it works, I'd mentioned 10 u and 12 u. So those are the kids that are 10. So they'll be nine, 10, or 11. And, the league has that cutoff date. Like, my son, he barely makes it to be on the the 10 u because of his date. So 10 u means 10 year olds. 11 means 11 year olds. 12. So on our 12 u, they're almost all 12. We have a couple of 13 year old kids. I think we have one 11 year old.

So as much as you include six, etcetera, you have no six and eight and nine year olds?

Not right now. We just don't have enough to field the team. We have one six year old. He just turned seven. He does not play in the games because he's too small. He practices. He brings a lot of energy to the field. He's a great cheerleader for us.

And

when he breaks off a play in practice, the kids lose their minds because he's literally this stall.

So you've asked for 20 scholarships to be provided by the funding. And how's that allocated between players and cheer?

So the cheer, I didn't ask for anything for cheer on this one because we were I didn't really know how the commission worked on this. It's kind of this was a last minute Hail Mary. I I noticed the thing on one of our coaches saw it on Facebook.

That's right.

And so next year, I'll be I'll probably ask for cheer. We weren't we're not running cheer right now for spring. I didn't realize when I applied for this that these funds wouldn't become available until towards the end of the year. But that's fine because, like I said, we're going to expand. We're gonna go from two teams to, hopefully, four. You know? I do believe fully that we'll have three teams because we're starting to get we're getting hot. So Our ten year barely lost this game this weekend. It was and sometimes the striped guys don't really help. No. Let's all leave that there. But our our 12 youth team did win. So we came out of the weekend one and one. We felt pretty darn good about that.

So how many games do they play per season?

Eight games. And then if we make the playoffs, you can have up to three more games, or you can qualify for a bowl game. So last year, we qualified for a bowl game.

Okay.

And we won them both.

So are your teams strictly by age, not size?

Strictly by age because that's how the the league works. The AZYFL goes by age.

Okay.

So we do have some pretty darn big 10 year olds, and then we've got some small 12 year olds. It's it's all when you get into high school, that's what it's gonna be. Right now, the high school, I believe they're only gonna have a varsity team this fall. They're trying to get a freshman team going. Last year, they only had, I think, 26 kids.

So one of our jobs is to recruit kids and get them wanting to play football and get them wanting to play football at AJ High. Not going to Gilbert, not going to Santan, not going to Posten Butte, Combs, all of our competitors. But all of those other teams have strong feeder clubs. So that's what we want to be. We wanna continue to be a strong feeder club, grow, teach these kids. We play it. We do our practice at Prospector Park. Parks and Rec is awesome with us, painting the field, doing everything. They keep the field nice and clean for us.

Man, why did you only

ask three nights a week right now.

Why did you only ask for 6,000?

I didn't wanna be greedy, I guess. I don't know. It was just kind of a number that I came up with. Obviously, warm funds always help. We did just spend all of February helping out all around town. We helped out with the Lost Dutchman Marathon. Following week, we did parking for the youth rodeo. And just this last weekend, we did bleacher cleanup at the rodeo. It was a lot of work. I went through a lot of sunscreen. I learned that you want to put that stuff on about once an hour. I'm still peeling. So the first week, I had, like, bacon. My forehead was so burnt. It was just it was crust.

It was wow. This is crazy. But it's worth it. Like I said, we teach our kids the value of hard work, and we'll get funds from that. They'll that will bring money in right there. So we're very appreciative to to have those opportunities, and I think we did a really good job. Those cars, I have such a more of an appreciation for parking lot people because nobody listens. Stop. They keep coming. Oh, come on up. No. They want to park wherever they go. But I took some pictures, and we got it. Those bumpers were all the way down. We had a superstition. Our AJ Mounded Rangers. Peter Heck was there. He said, I have never seen the bumpers look

this perfect.

Wow. You guys did a great job. So that'll be ours next year too.

And you are new to this position?

Yes. I just came on in November. My son played. He started playing last year in July with him. I used to work with the minors basketball team, doing sort of the same thing, trying to bring in money. So they they they approached me and asked if I'd like to be on a you know, take a board position that they'd never had before. Usually, was just whoever does this, but we said, let's have one person handle all the sponsors. So they brought me on in November, I'm happy to be able to help them.

Very nice presentation.

What's that?

Very nice presentation.

Thank you.

Are are you Todd?

Yes. I'm Todd.

Thank you for acknowledging in your application your handwriting. Although we were able to read it, And that was nice that you recognized that.

I work with Sandy. I'm a respiratory therapist. She's a nurse. We work together. So as you work in health care, you start writing really scratchy. I don't see anybody that works in health care that has good penmanship. I found some papers of mine in some video games a few weeks ago. And I'm like, woah. I had cheat codes and stuff. I'm like, I had perfect handwriting. Now I can hardly read it myself. You.

Yeah, understand. I found some notes that I had in medical school and neurology. I said, who wrote those? Yeah. Well, thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your time, everyone.

Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. Kiwanis Club. Where we This is boys and girls.

Skip boys and girls.

Oh, I did. I'm I beg your pardon. I did. I'm sorry, Jeff. I'm sorry, Jeff. Yeah. I was trying to do a return to sender quickly. Here you go. Boys and Girls Club.

They were similar names. I did the same thing when I was looking at it. Well, hello, everybody. Thank you all so much for having us here. My name is Liz Byrne. I'm the VP of Regional Impact for Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley. My role is to work with all of our clubs that are outside of Maricopa County. So about a year ago, we opened up a club in Kingman. I also work with our Yuma branch and obviously the lovely community of Apache Junction at our Superstition Mountain Club. In a nutshell, the mission of Boys and Girls Club is to enable all of our club members to reach their full potential.

And we do that through targeted programs that are surrounded around academic success, good character and leadership, health and wellness, and workforce development. But we are here specifically to talk about the Superstition Mountain Club. Our Superstition Mountain Club in Apache Junction operates on an annual budget of just under $500,000 a year. That budget supports about two fifty club kids each year. It's what we call them, club members.

And 60% of those are Apache Junction residents. We charge $60 a month for our youth that attend the club. So a youth would be somebody the age of five to 12 and only $30 a year for any of our teens. That anyone 13 and up, it's just $30 a year to come to our club. So that's one thing not everybody understands is we serve, all school aged kids, so five to 18.

In that annual budget, about $380,000 roughly goes directly to salaries and benefits for staff who work on-site at the Apache Junction Club. These are youth development professionals who provide daily supervision, homework help, mentoring, enrichment programming, and safe out of school care. The city's the city's $30,000 request represents roughly 6% of the that branch's annual operating budget. If awarded, those funds would be restricted exclusively to the Superstition Mountain branch and used to support the local staff delivering clubs directly in that branch. We do know one of the commission's priorities is ensuring that city funds stay in Apache Junction.

I want to be very clear that any funding from the city that is allocated to this branch is allocated specifically to this branch and supports programming and staffing only here in this community. The Superstitious Mountain Club provides structured supervised programming after school during the academic year and full day programming during school breaks and summer. Youth receive academic success support, participate in STEAM activities, build healthy habits through sports and wellness programming, and develop leadership and workforce readiness skills. Every member also receives daily meals and snacks, some kind of cool local programs that we're running right now. We're running Girls on the Run.

Don't know if you guys have heard of that program, but it's with an organization called Girls on the Run, and it's enabling girls to grow their mental health and grow their physical health while also growing their self esteem. So it's about connection with girls. In addition, we have a LEGO robotics club that's very big at our Superstition Mountain Club. They just recently won a little drone competition. And we also have a partnership with Taro's Health, where we have a we call them a wellness coach.

So this is somebody who's a behavioral health technician who's actually trained, who actually works directly in our clubs to provide trauma informed care and to intervene if any of our club members are in distress. We have some great partners. Apache Junction Unified School District, they bus all of their schools to us. We also partner with them for our meal program. We work very closely with Cactus Canyon Junior High, and we're providing some enrichment programming specifically for those students right now.

We also work with the local fire department and police department on some program opportunities. But, really, in practical terms, what I'm trying to share is that our after school program is structured, standards aligned with academic support and clear accountability, and we are not simply just supervision or babysitting. The program also strengthens family engagement by incorporating literacy and education focused opportunities for parents. You may have also noticed that we operate 31 clubs statewide and host larger fundraising events. Each club, including Superstition Mountain, has its own operating budget that must be fully funded every year.

So that $500,000 operating budget, that's specifically Superstition Mountains. Our organizational operating budget is about $28,000,000 So It is very confusing, like my colleagues at Annuli for one chapter of a lot of different organizations in the state. Our local fundraiser, Yesteryear, put on by Ms. Connie Vandriel. I imagine some of you guys might know her.

She's the head of our board here in Superstition Mountain, raises roughly $40,000 annually. Sometimes we do a little bit better. And those funds stay entirely in Apache Junction. Other organizational fundraising efforts basically just help close the remaining gap between what we have to use to run the facility versus what we actually raise here locally. Finally, we referenced an independent economic impact study conducted by the Seidman Research Institute at ASU.

We partnered with ASU approximately every three years to conduct this analysis. And the most recent study was funded by the Steele Foundation to ensure independent evaluation. In 2025, the study found that for every $1 invested in Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley, so our entire statewide organization, $14 and 79 and is the return in social and economic value and sexually generated through that $1 investment. So this is through higher graduation rates, increased workforce participation among partners, and reduced long term public costs. While that study measures statewide, those outcomes do include youth served at the Superstition Mountain Club as well.

And finally, at its core, this request is really about ensuring that our 250 youth and teens in Apache Junction have a safe place to go after school, receive academic support, build positive relationships with caring adults, and develop the skills they need for long term success. And finally, on a personal note, I was a club kid. I grew up at a boys and girls club, and, you know, it was one of the most transformational experiences of my own youth development. I feel very passionately about serving club our club members in all communities, but the Apache Junction Club's a very special club that really these kids deserve everything we can give them. So we really appreciate you guys considering us at all for this request, and I am open for any questions you might have. Hopefully, I answered most of them.

You know, I'm gonna ask my

Mhmm.

Annual question. How many people are graduating from high school?

So if and I will share our economic impact, report with you. Ninety five percent of our college, or sorry, high school seniors graduate in our organization. This year, we have four graduating from Apache Junction.

Four of how many that are in that group?

Four of the they're all seniors. So a 100%.

Seniors a 100% of those are graduating.

In Superstition Mountain. Yep.

And do you know what? They're gonna continue on with?

Two of them, I think, are gonna go to tech school. They're very interested in STEM and welding and those types of things. One, I know she wants to go to, I think, ASU or a local community college. And the fourth one, I have not asked personally yet, but I I imagine the state's the state school.

Okay. As as you reveal that, you start with a five year old and you go on. What's the attrition rate as they progress?

I'm sorry. I didn't miss the first part

of your question.

Because you start with five year olds and you go to 18, what's the fallout rate as they progress?

That's a great question. So with the the bulk of our membership is typically that middle elementary school. So some some parents will bring their kids to the club at as early as kindergarten, but the majority of our kids are probably second to fifth grade. Middle school is tough. They get a little too cool for the club sometimes, so we're really working very hard. It's actually why we're partnering with Cactus Canyon to offer more middle school programming specifically for this community. But a lot of our club kids will actually come back in high school to be involved in more of our leadership programming. So I'd say it kinda goes, like, in a wave like this. So middle school gets tough, and then high school, they just come back to be leadership, wanna do some resume building type things for college. Those so but but that bulk is, that age group right there.

Okay. Great. And then you give stats on what sort of improvement you have both in reading and math. And that's good. I mean, because, actually, Apache Junction High School does not rate well for graduate, completion. It's eighty three percent. And so, and, sadly, males drop out more than females do.

Mhmm.

So I've and the other question that was asked is about affiliation with EVIT. EVIT promotes a good alternative for those individuals that don't wanna go on to formal academics at Arizona State, U of A, NAU, what have you.

I actually believe, one or two of those high school seniors actually go to EVIT. And so they, and that that sparked their interest in in STEM and STEAM and and kind of technology programming. We don't currently have a partnership with EVIT with the club specifically, but I agree they're a great organization.

Okay. Thanks.

Just so I'm clear on this. So you had mentioned that there's like a $60 fee. Yep. Is that monthly, annually?

So it's it's $60 a month for youth. So if your age is five to 12, it's just $60 a month. And that includes any school out day that we're open for, any early release day. We do cater to the AJUSD school calendar. In addition, if there's a break that month so if it's winter break, your costs are covered. For teens, we we intentionalize making it less expensive. So a lot of I mean, when I was a kid, my parents didn't understand why I wanted to go to the club when I was a teenager. So we make it so there's no real barriers in cost. We also offer financial assistance. So if a family needs help, so if they can't afford $60 for their four kids or whatever it is, we have a very easy form, and we we can do temporary, financial aid where kids can come for free.

It's it's, like a financial burden type document. And then we also have, just just annual or or monthly financial aid where you just pay, like, a tier of of what we what we would charge, like, $15 a month.

So is this orientated towards any income family or is it low income or is it anybody could apply for this?

For the club or for financial aid?

For the club itself.

For the club it's there's there's no barriers. It's if anybody in the community can apply to be at the club.

Okay. I think the question that she was asking is, are people that families that have lower resources, are they subsidized in any way so that $60 a month for a family that's really living on the margin is gonna be tough?

Yeah. Actually, you all subsidized a little bit of that last year. So scholarships, was part of your generous gift last year. We do, in a nutshell, any we don't turn any family member away. So it just comes out of our operating budget. So so any club member, family that that can't pay, it just comes out of our our existing operating budget. I'd say right now, roughly 25 percent of our families are on some sort of financial aid at that club.

So is this orientated for childcare, for working parents, or not necessarily working parents?

The majority of our families, specifically at the Superstition Mountain Club, are working parents. A lot of single parent households, single moms, single dads. But we have a pretty diverse mix of working professionals that attend the club. We do a parent survey every year, and about 95% of our parents that were surveyed said they appreciate the club because it allows them to work. So it really is during those hours after school where if they're working at nine to five, they can't get their kids till 05:30.

Thank you. Yeah, of course.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright, Jeff. I'm not gonna fumble this time. Kiwanis Club.

Good evening. It's kind of weird being on this side of the podium given my history with the Health and Human Services Board. I'm Jeff Mitchell. I'm one of the president of the Kiwanis Club of Apache Junction. And I'm just here to make a ask because as you all know, fundraising is a difficult thing for nonprofits.

We were making the request of $2,000, which would represent about 33% well, exactly 33% of our current budget for 2026. Some of the things that we do well, to summarize, it's just we're helping the kids in Apache Junction. So if something has to do with the kids in AJ or just the children in our community, they know that they can come to Kiwanis for help. It's kind of a diverse set of things that we do. We just finished our signature project, which was the kids day at the rodeo.

So this year, we actually took nine children from four families. Last year was 11 children and nine adults from five families. I think there's an illness going around because a lot of people canceled right at the last minute and couldn't make it on Sunday the first. But, again, we take the kids behind the scenes at the rodeo. They get to meet the different people there, see the animals, have a lunch. All that's donated. We are a volunteer organization that helps out The Salvation Army, so we do bell ringing. We were able to raise $678 for bell ringing contributions, fourteen volunteer hours. We have a special education program where with the kids, they have what they call stars at the AJ High School. And the special education kids, when they do good behaviors, they get rewarded.

They can then approach and get rewards like Gatorade or Oreo cookies or something like that. And those costs for that, those we help pay for that because usually teachers are funding the canteen, but we would pay $500 a year towards funding that canteen and stocking that program for the kids in the high school. We give out student of the month awards. We did four of them in 2025, two outstanding male students, two outstanding female students with gift cards to Walmart. We helped out with the school supply drive, which was a huge event attended by hundreds of families.

We also packed 72 backpacks for which were given away by families at Salvation Army. So when they need school supplies, can go there, get a backpack with all the basics for schools. Literacy is important. We gave away a set of books to the different schools for Peaks Elementary, Avalon Charter, the Early Learning Center, and Peralta Trails. So they have books that they can give to the kids in the library that teach things like anti bullying and and how to identify predatory behavior from adults and things like that.

So keep our kids safe. We do Black and Gold comes to one of our meetings every year, and we sponsor one kid from Black and Gold Youth Football, which is a $250 cost. We do attend the New Leaf Domestic Violence Walk. They must have walked out, but they we attended that event last year. Stand Up AJ is a youth coalition teaching kids how to avoid peer pressure and drug use. They have events at the MGC. Most recently, there's an event coming up, which is like a lock in, an overnight event for the kids. So we're gonna provide the food for that for the kids there. We have a district project with Sunshine Acres helping out there. It's called a day of play, so we just enjoy games and activities with the kids there.

They're all coming from orphan households. Trolls teddy bear run with superstition Harley Davidson, we raised 56 teddy bears to give to the hospitals around the area, And then we also donated to support the Salvation Army on a roof repair project in 2025. That was kind of a one time donation. So as you can see, these are all things that would help our kids. I think the goals that we have moving forward is to do a key club in the high schools. We had a meeting with Doctor. Popularto and with Lisa again, the principal, to talk about that. So there's some positive momentum. Obviously, we just need to make sure we have those in our budget to provide those opportunities for kids to do more service and leadership, which is one of the requirements for graduation of our high school. So so that's just kind of a summary of what we are.

I'll kind of open it up for questions because this is the first time that the Qantas Club, I think, has ever asked for funding from the coalition.

I think you did a great job summarizing everything you do for the kids of Apache Junction.

Outstanding.

So where specifically would funds you're asking from us go?

Yeah. One of the questions I got was a very important question because I didn't know black and gold was also applying. And they were like, we wanna avoid redundancy. So if you give to black and gold and you give to Kiwanis, and then we're giving to black and gold, we're kind of outstepping. So we can earmark that so that none of the funds will overlap with what Boys and Girls Club's already doing or what Black and Gold's already doing.

Because the kids that came to our signature project were actually referred by the Boys and Girls Club, So we had those families coming to us for that project. So it's pretty internal it's pretty easy internally to do that. But I think I included a copy of the budget for the $6,000 that we plan to spend this year, and it kinda outlines all the different activities. But if it if it was something that would be a concern, we can make sure that none of the funds that are given by the by the Health and Human Services Commission will go to any redundancies with those other organizations.

Okay. Thanks.

Yep. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you very much.

Alright. NASCAR.

Okay. I'm a bit new to this, so have mercy on me. So at NASCAR Inc, we're a voluntary day center for adults who are diagnosed as SMI under Access. For those who are on Access, they come to our day center and they receive services like group therapy, life skills, smart recovery, and so on. For this grant, I was recommended to apply for this from applying for our community development block grant in Prescott and Casa Grande.

So I was under the impression it was similar. So I had applied for capital improvements, building renovations that were needed, not quite sure that it was the Health and Human Services Commission. So when I had gotten an email that there were concerns that the application was for capital improvements, me and my boss got together and we put our two brain cells together and said, you know, it's a Health and Human Services Commission. They cover health and human services. And we knew immediately applied for, which is that this year, very intensely cut those who are non Title XIX SMI.

There are certain people who have access not through being low income, but through being seriously mentally ill. The designation is through access itself. And they had coverage for all mental health services they needed through that non Title XIX SMI coverage. This year, they cut it. They cut therapy services.

They cut life skills. They cut most of the basic things you would think someone with serious mental illness would need. And because we make our income on insurance billing, we in turn had to cut peers, and peers who have been there for a decade. Almost all of our peers at our Rising Star Center have been attending for over a decade. And we recently lost we lost three of them that want to come back, and over a dozen who had been attending, they would attend once a week, maybe even just once a month, could no longer attend because of this huge, huge access cut, which is heartbreaking.

It's a way of targeting the most vulnerable people. So in hindsight, that's what we wish we had done our application about. But we were recommended from the Community Development Block Grant, so we were under the impression it was for building renovations. In ideal, we would apply for funds to cover those non Title XIX and to give them a chance to come back to our center. They've been attending for a decade, and we had to turn them away.

It's heartbreaking. And it's a day center where they attend entirely during the day. That's why it's a voluntary day center, but we provide mental health services. So for these people that have been turned away, they have lost their days. This was the center they went to. This is where they got help. This is how they had stability. And now they have nowhere to go because their insurance has altogether been cut through these huge non Title 19 cuts.

What are your hours?

Our hours are 9AM to 4PM. For the peers, we for those who come in before 4PM, we usually don't have them out the door until 5PM, but no one comes in after four p. M. So it's nine a. To five p. M. Weekdays.

And that's weekdays, right?

Yep, just weekdays.

Not inclusive of holidays within the week, though, right?

Nope. No holidays, no weekends.

Okay. And no weekends?

No weekends.

But because it's outpatient service, and I really need to retreat, though, what REBA is funding you?

We are funded through what we bill to access.

We Which REBA, though? There are three Oh. Yeah. Which regional behavioral health entity?

For Rising Star Apache Junction, it would be

shoot. It's Mercy Care.

It would be Mercy Care, wouldn't it be? Yeah. And that's who we bill to for our services.

All right. All right. And you had an alliteration that I didn't know. What's LMI stand for?

Low moderate income. It's a HUD term. So because we are recommended from the Community Development Block Grant, you have to specify if your target group is low to moderate income.

So since you have, as your other population, predominant population, SMI

Mhmm.

I would assume unless, because in 2010, the state really did modify who was SMI, and a whole bunch of people were thrown off of rolls. Is

Yes.

Is that what you're telling me happened now?

Yes. This year, they had those same cuts. Actually, NASCAR used to have quite more locations. And when they made those cuts in 2010, I think they lost two or three locations. I'm still newer to now I've lived through that. But this year, they once again cut SMI. They did not kick anyone off of the SMI designation, but they cut their services. They do not receive therapy. They do not receive life skills. Many even lost their case managers. They lost the basic services that the SMI was supposed to provide for them, which is almost strange to think because it creates a redundancy. They're insured, but they have no insurances for their mental health care even though they have this insurance from being designated seriously mentally ill.

So what about medication monitoring? Is that equally

compromised? Still have their medications covered in medication monitoring. We're just a day center that does therapy, so we have nothing to do with that. But that is about all they have left. It's literally just medication coverage.

So the consequences of those cuts, have they manifest themselves already in the world? Okay. So what happens to the individuals that have been impacted by that? Do they drift off and then

We have three peers at the Rising Star Center over here where we're trying to find some alternative funding to bring them in because they've been going here for a decade. But the answer is, it's just we have no way to bill, so we have to turn them away. And it's a very tight knit circle in these centers. They go every weekday, all day, and they have been going for over a decade. So apparently, on Wednesdays, the peers will actually cut their day in half and go out to those peers who have been denied coverage and will go spend the day with them and take the lessons of the day with them to them.

So they are essentially kind of trying to take the service to them in a friendly way because we've had to turn them away. They've had their services cut through Access. So we still have contact with them because they've been going for so long, and they want to return. And we're trying our hardest to seek out alternative funding, hence why me and my boss were like, I can't believe we didn't think of this. So if we could find some alternative funding, we already know who we would immediately bring back and then just bill to that grant money for their services. So we have contact with them, and we try and keep track of them. We don't want them to drift off. But at the same time, we can't provide literal services because their insurance has been

And you've revealed that you submitted 62,400 for capital?

Yes. For the capital employment.

How would you amend the amount that you wish to have now?

Honestly, their billing is pretty high. A given patient going five days a week probably is about 800. And they go our attendance is really, really consistent. So I would not have to understate saying maybe once a week. So you multiply that, and you get 40,000 a year per person. We have three that we are looking to bring back if we can find some alternative covers. So that would be a 120 for just those three. And oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

So instead of $62,400 it's $120,000 now?

Which would be to cover the insurance. That was that's why I was like, you know what? Next year, we know what we're gonna go for because sadly, we don't think this coverage is gonna come back next year in 2027. It looks like they're just trying to cut off people who are SMI, which is

just So in light of that, and in in light of understanding that you've now asked for more than we have entirely to allocate, what do you think could be purposeful? What would be the not necessarily. What would be functional as a sum for you all to to to request?

So we have three we wanna bring back, and it's about 800 a week. So 9,000 could bring them back for a month until we look for further funding. And this is because we know they attend all week because you bill by the service on a given day. This is I'm pulling this number from knowing they will attend every weekday because they have for a decade.

But if access has been cut, that's a legislative issue. And you're not going to get any remediation of that until the legislature's back in session and probably not until midsummer, if you're lucky.

Yeah. I know. That's where it's even hard because the number is so high. For just three people, that's how much money the insurance covers them, $2.10 on the weekdays every week. And then on top of that, when we have a peer, they have very consistent attendance. If they attended once a week, obviously, it'd be a fifth the cost. So, yeah, it's going to be a lot of money to bring them back. But anywhere you start is worthwhile.

Yeah, that was my question. I know that they've been going for a decade. And I think it would be helpful if they could return. I think they would be happy if they can go twice a week or three times a week.

Exactly. And that's something we would work with, too, for whatever funds we got. If it were allocated for that specific purpose, that would be what we would look at. Would it be best, could we bring these three people back just once a week so they're still involved in Rising Star? And then there's several other people who were going just a week, would they return? And we could bill it to this grant. So for whatever funds we received, we can allocate it on an as need basis until we figure it

out better. How many Apache Junction residents do you have at this location?

We on a given day, they have five to 10 people. Some attend once a week, some attend once every two weeks. So we generally say 50 to 80 will attend the center in a given year because go every day for the full amount of time. Some go once a week. Some are more eclectic in how often they go. So we say fifty day a year, attend the Rising Star Center.

Thank you.

Alrighty. Thank you very much.

Alrighty. Thank you.

Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Alright. Eric. Holy fruitcake.

Just wanted to make sure you're ready.

We're always ready

for you. Yeah. Thank you.

Well, good afternoon, commissioners. I am Eric from the Superstition Community Food Bank. I'm the executive director there. I know we have a new commissioner, miss Montgomery. So I'll give you a little bit of background about the food bank. In '19 oh, well, I know Alyssa and I know Sandy, but I don't know miss Montgomery. So I wanna give them some information of the food bank. In 1981, the city manager of Apache Junction realized that there was a need in the community. So with a $500 grant, they started a food pantry. In '83, we incorporated, so we've been around for about forty three years.

In that time we went from helping a dozen families back in the old day to 45,790 individuals last year which is roughly 18,000 families. Out of that 18,000 families or 45,790 individuals 62% of them are from Apache Junction which is roughly 26,000 of the individuals that come to the food bank. Our food bank is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and we give food between two and four p. M. You will see a line of cars in the dirt parking lot across the street.

That is our back lot. They can come to our food bank twice a month. They do have to register and they do have to meet a minimum income requirement that is set by Arizona Department of Economic Security. If they meet that that requirement, they will be put into a system called link to feed and all the food banks and pantries, are typically part of that system. So if, a client, missus Jane Doe goes to Salvation Army today, she will have to wait seventy two hours before she can go to any other food providing agency they can come to us twice in a month but they still have to wait seventy two hours between visits between any agency so the reason we do that is because we give about 30 to 35 pounds of food per person on a visit.

So if you're a family of four, you're getting a lot of food. You're going out of there with a grocery cart full of food. We give dry goods and then we give, store food rescue, which is our truck going to grocery stores every morning and picking up the stuff that's gonna expire and needs to be gotten rid of. So that includes meat, cheese, eggs, dairy, bread, desserts, deli, know, you get some chicken wings so it includes all the stuff that they the stores need to get rid of and we have to turn it within a day so that's what we do. I've invited the commission to come out many times, and some of you have and I appreciate that.

We are asking today, for 75,000 to fund three different programming programs, emergency food program, our holiday meal box program, and our student backpack program. In the past you guys have given us funding Most recently, we were awarded 70,000 last year. We've already gone through that. And the reason we've gone through that is because in October, when the government was shut down, they announced that SNAP benefits were being discontinued through the through the shutdown and overnight, literally, this was announced on Thursday. On Friday, we saw a 30% increase in clientele.

So within two weeks, I spent $14,000 on buying dry beans, dry rice, tuna, peanut butter, pasta, and spaghetti sauce. 16 items, $14,000 just so we can keep up with the with the demand. And I know that we do serve other cities. People come from Superior. People come from Queen Valley.

People come from Gold Canyon. People come from San Tan Valley and people come from East Mesa. But the majority, like I said, 62% is from AJ Proper and that's all around us. Our holiday boxes are exactly what that is. It's a mailbox that includes the protein, the turkey, the Christmas ham, the Easter ham and then some hot dogs for the fourth of July.

So we try to give them a little bit of food to keep festive. It's really when you're down on your luck, it's even more depressing when you don't have food around the holidays. Many of our holidays are food centered. And so if you don't have a turkey for Thanksgiving, guess what? You're even more depressed.

So we try to bring a little bit of that dignity back by offering the holiday boxes. We give 300 for each of the for each of the holidays and that seems to be adequate. I don't think I need to raise that. Even last year on Christmas, we were still trying to find families to reach that 300 number and I just think our community has done a better job with supporting those in need especially around the holidays. Churches are doing holiday boxes.

The schools are doing holiday boxes. So I don't think they're all funneling to me for that anymore, which is I'm grateful for. Lastly, our student backpack program was started just a couple of years ago when a donor walked through my door and handed me a check for $20,000 and said, want you to start a backpack program. So I can start it but how do we sustain it? And so that has become the question.

And so last year you guys graciously gave me $20,000 and I was able to get grant money and put in a little bit of food bank money to make sure that it it developed and it is sustainable. This year, I'm asking for the same amount or you guys can allocate how much you wanna give me. And, what I don't get from you I will continue to ask for grant money and to try to raise the money and provide for the program. My, goal for last year was to add two new schools to the program. Unfortunately, Avalon Elementary School, which is a Excalibur school system school, not an AJUSD school.

They had administration change and so in that shuffle, we got put to the back burner. I'm sure that this year now that they've had a new administration under their belt for a year we're gonna be able to walk in there and offer the program and hopefully we'll be able to move into that school as well the other school that we did not know about was the classical center here in AJ that was just opened last year. I've already had a teacher reach out to me from that location and say, hey, we've identified some students. Is there any way we can get the program here? So I know that 100% we're gonna be able to get the program at that location, which means if we add Avalon and and the classical learning center to the other three schools, then we're gonna have five schools in AJ and the budget for that is gonna go up.

Obviously the target is moving because until I know that we've added those schools, I don't know what the budget is gonna be. But any help would be appreciated. I did watch the video.

Thank you.

So I was able to watch the video I did not hear it quite as well but I will go over some of the questions you asked. Commissioner Danford asked, did the food bank extend the backpack program to all schools? Not yet. That's the short and simple of it. You've heard my explanation.

But we do plan on hopefully having all five schools aboard here shortly. Does increased giving to the student backpack food program free up funds for other programming? The short end is no. Because we're increasing the program then we're increasing our expense. So until we know that the program is finished and we're not gonna expand it anymore then I don't know what money is I'm playing with.

If that makes sense. But I'm also always constantly seeking additional grant opportunities to help offset expenses for this and our other food bank programming. How do we determine who receives a backpack? Students can be enrolled in the program in several ways. They can self enroll, parent or guardian may enroll them, and a teacher or school staff member may enroll them if they identify that a need is there for that student.

Commissioner Montgomery asked, how do we educate parents about how to get additional food from the food bank? And, we participate in as many community events as I can physically get to. And on really from October to April, my dance card is full with AJ events. Whether it's the chamber holding events, parks and rec, you name it, we are there. And that's just in trying to get the word out that the food bank is in town and we're here to help.

Specifically for the families already enrolled in the backpack program, the enrollment form has our website address on it. In addition, we collect email addresses from those that want more information on this program. So if you go back a few pages, you will see what the enrollment form looks like. It's this little one. And there is a box that says, would you like additional information on local food resources?

Yes. My email is this. And so we will send them an email and let them know these are days, times, this is the documentation you need, these are the income requirements you need to fall below. If you don't meet it here, here are some other local resources that you may be able to partake in. Our emergency food program. How do we determine who receives food assistance? Clients need to first, go through a registration process. So we're not just giving food out to anybody that pulls up. They have to register. We get all their information.

We get all the demographic of everybody that lives in their household. We get a household income. If they fall below that household income, then we can help them. And if you turn, it's going to be a form hrp ten twenty three a it looks like this this is the income guidelines and then behind that is going to be the application that they fill. So if you look at that form, that's the application that they will all need to fill out in order to get assistance from us.

Almost similar to the lunch, what they fill out for free and reduced lunch.

Yeah, probably. I mean, it's probably all through the same system, right? Arizona Maybe. Yes. Clients may visit the food bank seventy two hours or twice in a month. I also put that there. What impacts have federal cuts had had on our clientele? Of course, we've talked about access and snap being cut tonight. After the government shutdown, our increase was 30% and that has not subsided. So I'll say that again.

We have been running 30% higher volume since the October. We don't see it coming down because they've reduced, they've made the application process a little more difficult, the requirements are a little bit more difficult now to qualify and there's not enough people processing the applications to catch up on everybody that is has applications in queue. If that makes sense.

But if you made note but I don't see it specifically referenced, I asked about the, you know, the USDA because that's what was used to deal with the elderly. And you and those were the people that really have been not necessarily marginalized, but they're put on a waiting list format where other people aren't necessarily. So how is that compromise of that group?

So we actually we have a 140 slots on our elderly program, which is CSFP, which I didn't ask for money for, so I don't really speak to a lot of that. We had a 140 slots, but they've recently given us 10 more slots and we've just found out this week that those on the program, so a 150 seniors at our center, will be getting fruits and vegetables included with their boxes for the next three months. So there is a little bit more being given to us at least because they know that the need is so much out here. But realistically, that is a capped program. I can't increase it.

They have to give me more slots in order for me to fill. The only way I can increase that if I'm hitting a 100% every month giving those boxes out and I continue to grow my waitlist. So unfortunately, have to keep putting people on the waitlist for them to recognize that I have a need and then they'll give me more slots if we're doing our job at the food bank And I did receive an award last year for being 100% for the whole year on handing out those boxes. So we are doing what we can to get more slots.

So how do the people rotate in though?

People unfortunately pass away.

Okay.

People get put into an assisted living center and so they're no longer living on their own. Their food is provided for them. So they get put off the list. Maybe aunt Mildred married up and she no longer needs to be on the list, so she asks to be taken off. Or if they miss two boxes in a row, then they get removed from the list automatically. So they do have to come consistently in order to stay on that list.

Do they get audited periodically on their income? Like, as if they get a better job?

The way Arizona works, this is all self declaration. So we we cannot ask for them to provide us income statements. We have to ask them, does your household make below this amount? And if they say yes, then they qualify. Yeah.

Do you deliver food in any aspect?

So we don't deliver food. What we have done is we've partnered with the Air's, Parks and Rec. Mhmm. And Parks and Rec has a shuttle van, and they will pick up the the people that are well enough to get picked up and go to Parks and Rec for senior programs, and they will bring them by the food bank, and we will make them a box loaded onto the van, and then the van driver helps them unload it at their house. So that is a way that we've been able to help those marginalized. I wish that we had the funding to buy another van to get the insurance on it and to do a home delivery, but that is a far stretch dependent, you know, with what we're already currently working with.

Thank you.

So, Eric, I have a question because I don't know how this works. And I realize it's not part of the grant you're asking for. But what about the homeless people? Because I think Apache Junction has, like, 96 documented homeless. How do they get food from you guys?

So homeless can come to us, and some of them are living out of their cars. We ask them, do you have a means of refrigeration and cooking? They will say yes or no. And then depending on what their means are, we will give them commodities based off of that. So if they can't refrigerate, then they're getting a lot of pantry items. If they can refrigerate, then they can get the full, you know, meal deal. Same thing with, homeless that are on bike or walking up. If they can carry it, we'll give it to them. If they can't, then, you know, then they're going to walk away with maybe just a meal for that day. But we do give food to the homeless.

Yeah. It just depends on their situation, what we give them.

Do they have to register too?

They do have to register. Yep. Everybody has to show us a photo ID and proof of residency and then we go from there. So yeah. Back to the USDA. So 500,000,000 was cut from food banks. You can see that that's about 2,000,000 pounds of food cut from Arizona directly. So we were we were obviously part of that, and so that put a little bit of a damper on us. Commissioner Montgomery also asked about how our community partnerships work. How is the food delivered or distributed?

I believe that's what you said because I could barely hear. So with CAFA and Youleaf, we provide holiday mailboxes to families that are recognized as needing them. Their case worker or social worker will proxy for them and come in and pick up how many boxes they're going to distribute. So like for Christmas, I believe it was 18, and they got a turkey or a ham or whatever and then all the fixings for that mill. We've also partnered with their shelter.

So we've given their shelter 10 birds and all the mashed potatoes and whatnot, and they'll cook it at the shelter and then serve it to the folks at their shelter. The way we partner with Parks and Rec is with the Home Bell seniors that I kind of met spoke about. And then at the summer program, we also offer the backpack program to all the students that go to their summer program. We do the same with Boys and Girls Club with their summer program and then Apache Junction Police Department department, their shop with a cop program, we partner with them. We actually take our big truck to the multi gen center and we hand out the turkeys and the mailboxes out of the back of the truck when the cops are getting back with the kiddos and so it's kind of a fun and festive thing.

They're getting toys and presents and then they get the meal for the whole family. So we like being involved with that And then with the school district, we partner with them in two ways. Obviously, the backpack program is one of them. The other program, that I'm not sure you know about is when their hourly employees their hours are cut during fall break, winter break, and spring break, that check directly following those holidays is really short. And so we get a, total of how many food boxes we need to give to those hourly employees.

So right now, I already know that we need 48, for March 27, which is the Friday that they get paid from spring break, which we're in right now. So that is the second way that we're helping the school district, alleviate that. I don't know that that you know? It's kinda like the working poor. Right? They have a job. Their hours are just cut for those weeks. And what are you going do? Find a part time job to work for five or six days or eight days? I mean, it's kind of hard to do that.

So we help out in that respect as well. In summation, we are grateful for whatever total you decide to give us, with the increase in need. Your jobs are not easy at this point because all of my colleagues are definitely worthy of receiving funds as well. It just goes back to, you know, people need to eat. It's like a basic food, water, shelter.

And

so if you have any questions, I can answer those.

So in the summertime, I appreciate that there are places out where people dispense water, but one of the big absences are electrolytes. Do you include electrolytes over the summer with the water?

So with our volunteers, we certainly do because we don't wanna be calling the ambulance for them out in our parking lot, and it's happened before. But with our with our homeless, because they're the ones that come seeking water, we will ask them if they want, you know, a watermelon electrolyte packet. Most of them only want water. They don't want anything crazy. But, yeah, we we offer it. You know, we do get those donated to us. So we offer what's donated.

Okay.

I have a question, back to the backpacks. So you said that there was an administration change in Avalon.

Mhmm.

Are you specifically the one or is it one of your, people that handles the backpack program with the schools?

There are only two full time employees at the food bank. So what if Myself you and my assistant. Okay. And my assistant handles things at the food bank so that I can be out doing things like this. So I fully run the programming at the

food bank.

So were you and you had no discussion with Mike McCord?

So I had discussions with their previous administrator. They handed it off and then they said, we think this might be too much for us to chew on this year. Let's table it. So it got tabled. I'm sure that I'm sure we can now that everybody's been in place for a year, I think that we'll be able to walk in and and offer the program and because I know that school has students that could

benefit from it. Absolutely.

I know. As all schools do.

Yeah. So also with that program, I think last year you had asked for I'm I'm running dry here. I I thought it was, like, 50,000 and then 20,000 on top of that, or is another number of 20,000 on top?

So it was 42,000 was our estimate.

Okay.

And then you guys gave me 20,000.

Okay. Okay. So we gave you 20,000. Okay. So if we did that and we doubled that, which is what you asked for, would you be able to pick up two or three more schools?

I'll I'll always pick up two or three more schools. It's just

I want the guarantee. I don't wanna give you the extra money if you're not gonna pick up the school.

Yeah. That's what I'm saying what I'm saying.

In in the in the statement here that you have Mhmm. It's a two way street. Right? I need to have the school willing, and then I need to be able to have the money. Okay. So yeah, if the school is willing, we will pick them up.

Okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

Alright. How many schools in AJA are we talking about in total?

There's only well, there's six if you count Prep Academy. What is the name of it?

Imagine. Imagine.

Imagine. So there's six if you count Imagine Prep, but they're like k through graduation. So we're talking the five elementary schools. I've tried with Cactus Canyon. They honestly think that the students will dispose of it before it ever gets home.

And Karen Warhouse who was at who is the nutritional specialist at the high school or for the district. She told me that they tried it with these the high schoolers, and they were finding that the food was just thrown away before it even made it home. I mean, it's not cool to pick up a bag of food, right, when you're in high school? So the way we spin it is we call it the snack club in the elementary schools, And everyone everybody wants to be a part of the snack club. So that's how we get the elementary students to join it.

Yeah. And imagine prep is six through twelve.

Is it six through twelve?

Yeah. Six through twelve. So I don't even know

if

that would

be Yeah. So we'd be on the same

wouldn't be viable.

Yeah. We'd be in the same boat as a junior high and high school.

So if we were to give you more money this year for the backpack program, how could that enhance or improve the program?

Well, we'd be able to add more schools.

Would we be able to add more students per school? Or is that number already defined?

It's so last year with four peaks, we had a 150 on the list. This year at four peaks, only have a 127.

Okay.

So, I mean, it's gonna ebb and flow. Right? So some of those students may have graduated to Cactus Canyon, and now we have a new group coming in. So we don't ever know what the enrollment is gonna be, but we wanna be able to offer it at all the schools. Okay. Okay.

Thanks, Eric.

Thank you, Alright.

Evie, I know you've just been bated breath Mhmm. Waiting to address this. Do we have any liaison reports?

No report, your honor.

Oh, perfect. Okay. So in light of that, I adjourn this meeting at 05:15PM on the I do have a question, for her,

for Abby.

We're shutting down from today.

Our next meeting coming up in a couple weeks, is that where we're gonna actually do the scoring and determine the amount? Yes.

That is correct.

The twenty ninth. K. Okay. So we continue on. I adjourn this meeting at 05:17PM on the tenth of of March two thousand twenty six.