Town Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us. The meeting is now called to order. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Here. Here. Here. Here.

Forum. Here. You. As a reminder, this meeting is being streamed live on the Internet and will be archived on the town's website for future viewing. The first item on the agenda is our study session. Items on the study session are scheduled for discussion among the council staff and their designees. Votes will not be taken on any of these items at this time but may be scheduled for an action later in the meeting or in a future meeting. Members of the public are asked to hold their comments until a call to the public is scheduled to begin shortly after six p. M. Public comments will also be invited when the agenda topic is placed on a future agenda for action.

There is one study action tonight, one study item regarding the update on the Mockingbird Lane improvement project. Following that item, we'll take a break and go to the community room to meet with the Phoenix Country Day School for their art show, which will be awesome. And with that, I will turn this over to Sam. Are you gonna be presenting? To Sam, and he'll be item twenty six zero three three.

Good afternoon, mayor and council. I will be, providing an update, for the Mockingbird Lane 56th Street to Imbegordon Roadway and drainage improvements. And over

I'm sorry. Sam, could you speak a little closer to the microphone? Hard to kinda hard to understand. So

today's presentation overview, we will start with describing the CMAR construction method, then we'll move to project progress update, then the GMP guaranteed maximum price update, then project schedule, and ending with cost and budget. Project location, I think everybody is familiar with the location of the project. Mockingbird Lane from 56th Street to Imba Gordon Road, then Imba Gordon Road from Mockingbird to Indian Bandwash. This slide shows the where we at with the significant roadway capital improvement project process per town resolution number 2024Dash17. We are at item number eight.

The staff and consultants have finalized the project documents and it's now at a 100% plan and we're bringing this to council's update. So the CMAR construction management at risk method of construction, we will, just a refresher. The this project delivery method involve the selection of a contractor based on qualifications. Once selection is made, two separate contracts are then negotiated and pursued with the CMAR. The first contract is the for the preconstruction, services.

And in this contract, the contractor starts first by preparing the initial price and this price is a starting point. Then the owner and the contractor will negotiate to reach a final price. And once this agreement is reached, this price will be called the guaranteed maximum price, GMP. The second part of this construction method is the construction contract with the GMP as the price. The contractor will then perform the work for this price.

Some project updates. In June 2025, the project consultant, Kimberly Horn, submitted the 100% design plans, specifications, and engineers' opinion of value, which is known as engineers' estimate. The estimate was slightly revised upward to 14,778,000. As far as utilities, the coordination remains ongoing. Utility providers are finalizing their relocation plans.

We do have many utility lines in this corridor. So a few of them are ready to start relocation. In fact, they have obtained permits from the town. Some of them are right now at the bidding process, looking for contractors to start doing the work. The city of Phoenix where owns the water lines in this corridor, and they have asserted their prior rights to existing water lines within the project limits.

So any relocation for those lines due to conflicts will be the responsibility of town. The town will have to participate financially in that relocation. Also, as a final update, the flood control district has modified the project funding participation formula. This revision resulted in a reduction of their contribution from approximately 9 millions to approximately 8 millions. And this recalculation of the formula or changing the formula was due to funding constraints for the food control district themselves.

GMP update. In October 2025, the contractor submitted a draft guaranteed maximum price in the amount of $20,432,835. The town reviewed the GMP and initiated a negotiation with the contractor providing detailed comments and proposing revisions to the contractor's cost structure. There were many back and forth, many intermittent submittals. And in January, the contractor submitted a revised final GMP of $17,490,768 So this is their final price.

There will be some slight modification that are due to anything that has been added after this GMP. One example was the cost of purchasing meters and installing meters for our irrigations from the city of Phoenix, approximately $33,000 that was learned after this number was obtained. There will be a small revision to reflect that change. Moving to project schedule. You see the CEMR preconstruction services contract was signed in November 2024.

Moving down the line, we are now at the final GMP stage that was obtained in January 2026. Next council action will be the GMP construction contract. Pending today's direction from the council, we intend to bring the construction contract to your final approval, the second meeting in March. And we anticipate the construction to start for the actual project in May 2026. Construction duration, six to eight months.

Move to cost and budget. The first table is the guaranteed maximum price. As you can see, the combined cost for the roadway and the drainage improvement is $17,490,000.768 I'm sorry. $17,490,768. Out of that, about 9.5 millions will be cost to town, and the flood control will will contribute almost $8,000,000 to the project.

The second table shows the CIP budget. The FY 'twenty six already approved and adopted budget gives us a total of $6,000,000 to complete the project for that fiscal year. And we are anticipating the approval of $13,000,000 in FY twenty twenty seven for the completion of this project. The combined total would be $19,000,000 As you can see, there is a difference between the GMP, which is the cost to complete the construction versus the $19,000,000 and that would be for the allowances for construction allowances for the other costs during the construction phase, such as construction administration, material testing, post design services, and some contingency. That concludes the presentation and if you have any question, I'll be more than happy to address them.

Thank you, Sam and Shar. I know you're here too to answer questions or if we have some. I open up to my colleagues. Thank you for the presentations. It's been a long road to get here and, appreciate the the hard work and the and the presentation. With that, questions or comments from the council? Council member Leibman.

Thank you, mayor. I have a very small question. Did you mention that the extra above what the last price we looked at was for mirrors? 30 some odd thousand dollar for mirrors?

Water meters. Water meters.

Meters. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Alright. Other questions? I I have one question. I was gonna ask you about the timeline. So six to eight months is what you're forecasting?

That is correct. From the actual construction of the project. Of course, the utility relocation could start as soon as we get today's blessing. There will be some small construction for the utility relocation such as Cox and APS.

Thank you. Other comments or questions? Councilmember Randin Keller.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Just so I understand, so the process was that we sent this out for bid and Aikengartner came in with the top bid or how did that process work?

So this construction method was the we we selected the CE Mark construction method which which is basically selecting a contractor based on qualifications. And once that contractor is selected, we begin negotiation with in order to reach a total price for the project. It was not a low bid project, so we select them based on qualifications.

Okay. I was just curious because it seems like and I have nothing wrong with Aitken Gardner at all, but it seems like we do a lot of projects with them. So I was just curious what the bid process was is if there was one. So and I haven't I have no reason to not like their work, I'm just curious. The other things I know when I looked through the schedule of costs on page it's below the or it's in the GMP.

So I'm not understanding where it says unit cost and it says, like, traffic control allowance, a 170,000, 100% town funding allow allowance amounts. I'm I'm not understanding how that's if you go to the the other, attachment in the agenda.

Yeah. Do we have the attachment?

It's number it's the yeah.

It's GMP summary.

Yeah. It's in the GMP summary. Yeah. Number three page number three on the GMC summary.

Yeah.

So I'm not understanding how how this all

So so generally, the there's a price and there are there are two projects involved, the roadway and the drainage. The reason they are broken down is that the roadway is totally the town's responsibility and the drainage will be split between the flood control district and the town.

Okay. Okay. I see. So the the quantity is point two one, so you multiply that by the $170,008.80 and then you get the $35.08 84, which is our cost.

That is correct.

Okay. I wasn't understanding that. I do have a question on off duty police officer allowance. Do we always go to our officers officers first? First?

That is correct. Okay.

I saw sweeping allowance. Are we gonna be do we need to spend that money on sweeping when we have two new sweepers that just got named?

Yeah. So so there the there's a sweeping cost plus an allowance. And the allowance is only if the town authorized the contractor to use extra money just in case we have complaints, we have some kind of situation where we need to allow them to use this extra money to the sweepers beyond what was originally predicted for the project.

Okay. And then my other question. So when it would went back to the funding. So this year in 2026 is it was 9 am I right? 9,000,000 or 6,000,000?

6,000,000.

Then the following year, it'd be 13,000,000. And that would mean that we would not be able to do any other CIP project between this year and next year. Is that correct?

Well, we we we we it all depends on the other cost and I don't have the rest of the you know, the CIP projects right now

in Yeah, we front of would pretty much be maxed

out. Yes.

Yes. That would be a conversation for Leslie as far as what we're allowed to spend next

fiscal Exactly. Right. Yeah. You're right. Okay. Well, I might have more questions after I hear from my colleagues, so I will yield from here. Okay.

Thank you, council member. Other comments or questions? Councilmember Moore.

Thank you, mayor.

Sam, can you Andrew, are you can you, go through what the history of this project was and when it first started when it on the PCIP? Do you do you know the dates of that? I think it's interesting

to point out At the very bottom of the the entire history is included. List now. Or at the bottom of the presentation as well.

Thank you, mister mayor, council member Moore. I if you look at page two of the staff report, it begins in March 2021. But this project actually hit

the CIP five year plan in

2018.

2013.

Okay. That may be we have our report beginning in 2018, but okay.

I mean,

I for clarification, can you check on that? I I thought it was 2013 or 2014 when Mir Scott Lamar was injured.

We'll certainly double check that.

And, Sam, on some of the I just got some other questions on, since we have a final GMP number here, you've mentioned that there is water meters missing from the contract. And can you confirm if the water line relocations is all within the contract and also all the dry utilities that you've potholed and done since you have a 100% plans? Are all those within the GMB as well?

Almost all the utilities will be relocated, you know, and they will be paid for by the utility owners. The exception is the water lines, Phoenix water lines. And as I indicated, they have asserted prior rights, which means we have to pay for that, pay for the relocation. All the cost is included in the 17.5 millions.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, councilmember. No. I'm not done.

Sorry about that. Still have questions. On slide nine, can you go to the slide nine and have some questions on that as well? So I I do understand the first spreadsheet we have, the cost and the split between us and flood control district, which is on the right hand column. But when you look down below and it's with how you're budgeting these numbers, you have in there, the full amounts being paid by the town and excluding the $8,000,000 that flood control district is, contributing.

So I I called Andrew and asked him, and he said that, typically, flood control pays their portion after the work is done. Is that can you confirm that?

So for this project, this the relation is governed by an IGA that was signed in 2022, I believe. And the way the terms of the IGA is once we sign a contract, for example, the construction contract, we will invoice the flood control district and they will reimburse us about 65% of their share once we invoice them. The remainder will be paid to us after the conclusion of the construction. So it's paid in two payments. The first one is at the start of the contract and the second one, the balance is paid after the conclusion of the construction.

Okay. Thank you. So if they don't pay in time and we have going into our budget here and you come in with a full budget that takes us to our expenditure limitation, those funds that we received from flood control will not be able to be used or allocated in that year. So to me, that would make, a lot of sense for you to be looking at this project doing a a bond on it or some financing so you can use that money when it comes in from flood control district instead of putting it towards our general funds and increasing general funds, and tying our hands to that money in year '26, possibly '27 since they're not gonna be paying. Has has staff considered that?

And that would be a question for you, mister Chang, since we talked about that.

Yeah. Thank you. I as you know, we've had a couple of conversations, with counsel, and we had our representative, mister Reeder from Stifel here talking about bonds kind of at a larger level. In terms of how it might be utilized, I think we were building in time during the budget process to have counsel, if you so choose and have consensus, to give us direction if bonding for all or part of a capital project is something that counsel wanted us to pursue. So we're ready to have that conversation.

I see your point, that in this situation, given the fact that we can't we can't utilize the flood control district contribution as a way to reduce our overall expenditure. In this case, it's not one of the recognized exemptions. So it's nice that we get contribution because it reduces our cost, but doesn't reduce our sort of expenditure limitation exposure. So there are some, you know, there are some arguments in that instance then if we have a concern. And I hesitate a little bit because staff, Leslie and her team and the rest of us are still putting together the, manager's recommended budget that will come to you in March.

So until I see all the numbers, what the operational numbers, what the capital numbers are gonna look like, I don't know exactly how close we're going to get to the expenditure limit this year. I don't have the full total yet. We haven't had that conversation internally quite yet. We will very soon. But if in fact we are kind of up against the limit more so than we hoped or anticipated that having a a robust discussion about bonding capacity would be certainly, I think, a a short term solution and one that we feel like based upon the information we've gotten so far from mister Reeder would be one that would that could potentially make financial sense for the town depending and, again, there are arguments on both sides, and we're certainly, you know, the decision not decision makers, but we we would, you know, provide you any information you need to fully be informed before that decision was made.

But as regards to this project, yes, this project is certainly a very, very large one in our capital plan and might be amenable to part or full, you know, contribution through bonds. Hope that answers your question.

It does. And, Mayor, do you plan on having that study session so we can look at that?

We are.

So we can utilize. Okay.

Thank you. The

the last thing I have is the the number, doesn't true up for me. So you have the contract amount, which was the load the if we were looking for cost savings at $17.01 80 Mhmm. And then what you put in there was a contract amount of $17.04 or something. So out of the suggested deletes, it's not listed in here in your presentation what ads and deletes that you decided to go with and what we're supposed to be looking at that I that I can see at least.

Yes. So

I mean, there's like, for example, you have in here removing the San Diego buff color in the concrete, which is an ordinance of ours. So you it's it's one of the things that can't be removed administratively. So has that been added back in? And

The the list you you're referring to, these were suggestions by the contractor. We did not of course, we did not take those suggestions except for the the first one, which was the doubleheading construction, which speeds up the construction and saves us about $400,000. The the remainders were were all something that we were not going to delete from the project.

There there's I'm sorry. Something that you're not interest you did not take out. Is that what you're saying?

That that is correct. We did not take these suggestions except the first one, the the one that saved us $400,000 and expedited the project.

So in here, there's a remove root barrier protection, which is $55,000. Is there a bunch of trees that are that you have concerns about root balls and even concrete? Is that a concern?

Yes. So so this is these are the trees we are planting in the chicanes. These were very important part of the project. Okay. Also, underneath those chicanes, there are water lines that belong to the city of Phoenix, and they do have a very specific requirement that we have to keep trees or other improvements away unless we provide root barriers. So that that's that's the cost.

Yeah. That explains it. Thank you. That's it. Thank you.

Just just for clarification purposes, we're looking at overall page number 37 in there, and this was the second page of a letter from Aikengartner to Sam dated January 14, and they made a number of recommendations called additional savings is selected. It's in a table. In green. In, yeah, in green. So you see that number. And what Sam just to summarize, the only one that we agreed to was the double crew heading. We already have the project coming in, I think, a reasonable time. The rest of those are staying in the project. So we're not removing the colored concrete, the root root barrier stays in, the boulders stay in, the water by, and the contingency stays. Just to be clear.

Thank you.

Council member Thomason.

Thank you, mayor. Mister Kayak, you probably answered this question already, but back to the waterline waterline relocation. What is the expected cost of that? And is that the difference between the 17 and a half million and the 19,000,000 that we've budgeted?

The approximate cost of the water relocation is about $1,900,000.

Okay.

This is not the difference between the the the budget and the combined construction cost. The difference between the budget and the combined construction cost is some contingency plus additional construction phase activities that are needed such as construction administration, concrete and other testing, and post design services provided by the consultant.

Thank you. So, where where are we accounting for the $1,900,000 cost for water line relocation?

It is now included as an item in the contract. It is completely included.

Alright. Thank you.

Other questions. Councilmember Pace.

Thank you, mayor. Couple of things to follow-up on. So when we look at that, PowerPoint nine and you look at that, the flood control district, the 7,900,000.0. So how much of that will come in at the beginning and how much will come in after the project's is done? Done?

You had asked me this about half.

About half? Fiftyfifty? Yes. Okay. And so the follow-up of that, we may not get that until so if this project's gonna go '26 and '27 to finish and we think it will be finished in '27. Is that correct? 2027?

That is correct.

So we may not get that other half, 4 or $5,000,000, 4,000,000, until '28, it's possible?

It is possible. You know, they are good in reimbursing. It usually takes them thirty days to to pay us back. You know, I I don't know how their situation is going to be in '27 and '28.

Sure. No. That's good to hear. So what what if things went as planned with construction, you always have to add. But when do you think in '27 the project would be completed even with contingency time approximately?

Yeah. So about October, November. Okay.

So thirty days is going to roll. Okay. So it'll still be in our fiscal year. We're in We've plenty of time.

Yes.

Oh, okay. And then we can just budget that for other CIP projects as we manage our budget, correct? Correct. Yeah. Okay. That's fine on that. And then in the past, for the city of Phoenix on in in your report, it indicated that they're having us pay for their utility relocations for Phoenix. Is that been traditionally how it's been done in Paradise Valley, is that new?

So the the waterline, it it on when it was installed, and that's how the prior rights kind of is inherited. If they have installed it before the town was incorporated, that's the ground for prior rights. And then I'll let Donna Toney chime in if there's any

No. So before 1961, May 1961, 05/24/1961, the town was incorporated. Then so prior to that is when if they had them installed, we have to take care of it.

That is correct. That's the the basic of Yes.

Understood. And then in your report, you also indicated that in the beginning, at some point, the flood control district was gonna pay 9,000,000 towards it and then it reduced by a million dollars to 8. Can you remind me why? Or was that just budgeting or was it what was the reason?

So just like all other government agencies, flood control district discovered that the cost of construction is more than doubled and they have decided to, you know, kind of spend the deficit between projects. And they have changed the formula at the beginning was they will was that they will contribute 65% of the drainage portion of the project. Then they revise it so that they will pay the 65% for the original commitment, which was the 7,000,000 at the at the very start of the project. Any amount over 7,000,000, they will begin reimbursing at 50% instead of 65%. And when you add up all the numbers, it ends up about being about a million dollar less for the town.

Okay. And in this project, I had some residents. There's an HOA on the street who called and wanted a bunch of information this week. So thank you to Mr. Ching helping me out on that. But we don't have a second sidewalk being installed. That was voted down. And so it's just no second sidewalk, correct, on this project?

That is correct. Okay.

Right now they're starting to actually mark some of the utilities behind some of the homes even now. Correct? Because I had a lot of them calling me because they're starting to mark. If you know are you aware of that? I mean

Yes. As I indicated, two of the utilities have already obtained plans to start relocation. Yes. And then we basically right now, we're just holding them up until we conclude this meeting and get your blessings.

Okay. Awesome. I

believe it's Crown Castle and I believe Cox Communications.

Ah, okay. Those two are doing it. Alright. No. That's fine. And then if

and

maybe mister Ching, this is a question for you or maybe Leslie if she's not here. But if our expenditure limitation is passed and our capital accumulation fund is passed with the voters on July 2026, when would we see monies come in from that for purposes of CIB budget planning? CIP.

You said July. I think I think the election won't be called until November. Right?

Yeah. Okay. Sorry.

November was

20 the vote. Was correct.

Yeah. No worries. '26.

Sorry.

So as I understand it, the effective the effective point at which those two would then become, you know, be implemented would be starting with fiscal twenty twenty eight, which would be 07/01/2027.

07/01/2027. Okay.

Good. For

both. This is super helpful. Thank you guys for the great work. I love the presentation, the details, the the numbers that Ellen's always going over next to me, the spreadsheets. She's always got them up. No. I think you guys put together a nice package. I think it's good for the residents to see. I like the PowerPoint. I like the project history at the end, the pictures, the chicanes. I think it really helps people see and refresh what's gonna be what's gonna be there. And I like the addition of the GMP summary of the detailed work. So thank you. I yield. It's very exciting to get done.

Thank you. Council Member Bowling, just make sure if anybody else has Council Member Thompson, go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to applaud the double teaming. I love the cost savings but more importantly I like the shorter construction time. So thank you for that.

Alright. Councilmember Brandon Keller.

Thank you, Mayor. I just had one additional question. The 7.5% construction fee, is that normal? I know it's a reduced it 1%, but I'm just or 100 basis points. I'm just curious.

Right. We from from the start for for probably the the past year, we've been negotiating with the contractor and then this number started like 9 and a half and then 8 and a half and at the end at 7 and a half. So and it's it's a it's I believe it's below industry standard.

Okay.

Yeah. The industry standard is is eight and a half or so.

Okay. Very good. I just wanted to I just knowledge, personal knowledge. Thank you.

Vice mayor.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you for all that information. Great questions and answers, from my colleagues and from staff. Thank you. It it actually helped clarify a lot of things and a lot of the questions I had have already been asked. To council member and Dean's point, I just want to say thank you for, employing the infrastructure mavens. It sounds like they made a a bit of a difference there. You know, by my math, which, you know, is what it is, they get 3,000,000 and then, again, we the 1% contingency can be additional savings if things were to go awry.

That is correct. Yes.

So so that's a significant savings. Thank you for doing that. The the second question I would have there is would it would it be would you be able to share what we paid for the infrastructure Maven services to save that amount? Because I I like that model. I I wonder if we could apply that to other situations where negotiations where it could be helpful to have more negotiations.

Yes. We we do have infrastructure made in on a separate contract. We have them review all our all the construction estimate that and the contractor bidding that we get. We we have them review all of those and and

So it's

it's an overall pot that we pay them every year or is this with specific to this project, did we have a dollar amount attached to it that we pay them? I'm just curious.

There are two contracts with them. One is specific to this project and paid from this project's budget. We do have a second contract that is used for all of our CIP projects for the purpose of reviewing estimates and recommending reduction and negotiation.

Okay. And then for this project, do you have a specific number? If you if don't, you I'm not gonna push it. I'm just curious if you did.

Are you looking for the specific number for that they charged for the service?

Yes.

Yes. I have it here. Just give me a second.

Yeah. I know. Yes.

It's $32,000.

I'm sorry?

$32,000. It's a great return on investment. So thank you. And we haven't spent all of it yet. So Yeah. You very much.

Yeah. I yield.

Awesome. One more call for questions from the team. Well, Mishkaya, thank you very much. Is there anything further you'd like to discuss?

We just like to know, utility companies are waiting for our go ahead. Contractors waiting. In fact, they have already started ordering material at their own cost, at their own risk. So we would love to have your blessing so we can move forward and prepare the final contract and bring it to you on March 26 next month so we can officially start the construction of this project.

That's the that's the schedule. That's the plan. I think that's fine. I know there were a couple of questions. I know council member Morris about the timeline. It'd be good to have that solidified just for clarification and looking back on the project because I know it's been it's been a long time since we started working on this, but I appreciate that. So unless you need anything else from the council, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good. Consensus to proceed. Yes? Okay. Yep.

Thank you.

Oh, alright. But that pretty much concludes the study session. That went fast. If there's nothing else at this point, we could take a break and then reconvene with the Phoenix Country Day School art artists in residence that are there that are on-site today, and we'll welcome them. And then we'll regroup for the executives or for the for the business meeting at 6PM at the dais.

Thanks, everybody. Alright. Well, good evening. Thank you very much for joining us. The town council meeting for 02/26/2026 is now called to order. Would the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Stanton, here. Vice mayor LaBelle?

Here.

Council member Andean Keller? Here. Council member Liechman? Here. Council member Moore?

Here.

Council member Pace?

Here.

Council member Thomason? Here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. We're gonna begin on the next item with the pledge of allegiance and I would like to invite the art students that are here from Phoenix Country Day School to please come up to the the front of the dais here. Come on up and and we're gonna ask we're all gonna stand with you and we're gonna turn our backs and look at the flag and we'll ask you to lead and then afterwards, I've got a thank you for for you and for giving the pledge. And then and then we'd ask you to stay for just a few minutes because during the presentation, just have a a nice surprise for you. With that, take it away.

Well done. Well done. Now come on up. I've got a a pledge pen for you each for there you go. For viewing the flag.

You guys

Oh. Oh.

Yeah. We got You can collect them. They are collectibles. Absolutely. Okay. There we go.

They're not limited. Go.

You can be one of

the few of the same guys too.

You can sell them.

Pretend they're like Olympic pins and you trade them. Yeah. Well,

so those that may be watching at home, we invited the students from Phoenix Country Day School and representatives from the Paradise Valley youth youth group to come forward and lead us in the pledge because right now, we are holding the student art show here at Town Hall which features the artists from Phoenix Country Day School and we are gonna be holding that. It'll be I think it's till March 15. Is that it? Mister town manager? Yes. Okay. You could come in

March.

And during town hall hours, go and visit the art and get to see it and and enjoy it. We really help you stop by. It's absolutely staggeringly cool, and we're grateful to Phoenix Country Day School. And speaking of Phoenix Country Day School, we started our day to day with Phoenix Country Day School because council member Leitman and I were honored to be there to announce and unveil the names of our new street sweepers in Paradise Valley. Last summer, we had the idea of to create a contest with all the fifth graders that attend schools in Paradise Valley, and we had a great response.

And those names were then aggregated and put on our website by our IT department and open for a survey to people to vote. And they selected these names. And today, we went to Phoenix Country Day School where both students were there. And council member Leitman and I were were present when we announced this. And we've got the we've got the sweepinator, you can see there, and we've got dust bucket.

And both of these students had no idea that they had received that recognition until this morning. And so you'll see these around town. They're out three or four days a week and the I gotta say Public Works did an amazing job to adhere the names to them and keep it under wraps and today they actually unveiled it. So thank you Isaac and your team at Public Works. You and Chris Martinez and the whole group just really did a great job and we're grateful for it.

Now, when you see them, you'll now know where they got their names. They got them from two students from Phoenix Country Day School fifth graders. And, actually, the young man that is in the picture right next to council member Liebman, turns out that he his favorite toy was always a toy street sweeper. And, he loved it. And, his mom told us that today, maybe about a month or so ago, were kinda going through stuff and figuring out what they might repurpose the toys to some kids that may enjoy them. And she said, are you ready to say goodbye to this? And he said, no. I gotta keep this. Sure enough, he's now named the Street Sweeper. And so they're gonna put the name of that Street Sweeper on his and he'll keep it on his trophy shelf.

So thank you PCDS for making it a wonderful day in the town of Paradise Valley, starting the day and now ending it with the opening of the art show. So thank you very, very much. Alright. We don't have any presentations this evening, but I would like start this meeting with a moment of remembrance and solitude for the loss of a a wonderful town resident, a incredible volunteer for the town who served as mayor. He served in multiple capacities on different committees.

He was an artist in residence with his beautiful art and his photographs that he that he shared with us, and he's presented many times. The last time I got a chance to speak with mister Ed Lowry, mayor Ed Lowry, at our volunteer appreciation event, and it was just he's just such a wonderful, kind person. And I know we all had love for him and his lovely wife, Patsy, and their family. So I'd ask for a moment of silence for mayor Ed Lowry. Thank you.

Alright. Moving forward, we've got a call to the public. Call to the public is an opportunity for residents to address the council on matters not on the agenda. In conformance with the open meeting laws, the council may not discuss or take action under these items raised. However, the council may respond to criticism after all public comments have been made. Ask the staff to review the matter or ask it to be placed on a future agenda. Speakers are asked to state if they're a town resident and ask that they limit their comments to three minutes. If you'd like to add address the council, please fill out a speaker request form. They're located at the lectern at the entrance to the council chambers. Once completed, please hand it to our town clerk, and we will call upon you in the order that we receive them. Mister town clerk, are there any calls to speak?

I have not received any requests.

Alright. Anyone in the audience? Alright. Next up is the consent agenda. The consent agenda items on the consent agenda are considered by the council to be routine and are normally enacted by a single motion. If a member of the council or the public would like to discuss an item, it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. Would the town manager please summarize tonight's consent agenda?

Thank you, mister mayor. Two items on tonight's consent agenda. Item 26 dash zero four seven, which is approval of the minutes of the town council meeting of 02/12/2026, and item twenty six dash zero five one, discussion and possible action to approve a contract with Selectron Technologies Inc for building inspection relay select text, I think I'm saying that correctly, and automatic results notification. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Would a member of the council like to remove an item from the consent agenda? Alright. Not seeing any. Would anyone in the audience like to remove an item from the consent agenda? Not seeing anything, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Mayor, I move we approve the consent agenda as submitted.

Thank you, council member Thomason. Is there a second?

Second.

Seconded by vice mayor. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. Alright. Next up, public hearings, and we do not have any public hearings tonight, so we'll move on to action items. Action items, tonight, we have the, statement of direction for the, Phoenix Country Day School intermediate special use permit amendment. And staff presenting that will be George Burton.

But I would ask if if it's alright with the council if we do an abbreviated presentation as we went through that, or if you would, we could do the the deeper presentation. Alright. Mister Burton, please provide the abbreviated report.

Thank you, mayor. Okay. Good evening, mayor and council members. For action tonight is the statement of direction for the intermediate amendment for Phoenix day school. And this consists of three improvements. They want to renovate their existing baseball field, add a new wellness center next to it, and add two additional two additional information signs. And this does qualify as an intermediate amendment, does require the statement of direction. And again, the baseball field is just revamping what's there. On the left hand side is the existing aerial photo. On the right hand side is the new proposed site plan, matches that existing layout.

They're just replacing the equipment. And then they're gonna also be doing a new wellness center building that is compliant with their SGP guidelines. Meets all setback height and open space criteria requirements. And it's gonna be placed next to the baseball field. It'll be used for different classes, but also have locker rooms for the teams and a concession session during the sporting events.

The last item is the digital information signs, which they will have one sign placed in each parking lot. It's basically a large screen TV mounted on a wall. It will provide parents with information when they drop off and pick up their children. And these are showing the locations of those two signs. And just some photo sends of what they'll look like.

The statement of direction including the packet is identical to what was submitted and reviewed at the work study session and it's broken down into six sections. Basically identifies the commission shall evaluate the design and layout of the wellness center and the impacts to the surrounding neighbors. In terms of the baseball field, should look at any noise impacts, any applicable mitigation factors. Commission shall also take a look at setbacks and heights in terms of lighting on the Wellness Center Building and also the location of the digital signs. Next is landscaping.

They shall evaluate the landscaping on the west side of the Wellness Center Building. And then fifth is lighting. Take a look at the lighting and photometrics that were provided for both the wellness center and the signs. And that's kind of carried over to the number six item, the lighting impacts may have on adjoining properties. So the action for tonight is approval of SOD staff is recommending approval. If it does get approved, they'll go on to commission for work study review on March 17 and April 7 for recommendation and back to counsel by April 23. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Burton. Any questions for Mr. Burton? Not seeing any questions. Anybody in the audience who would like to ask any questions or speak on the item? Alright. If there's no additional discussion I'm sorry. Oh, please. I'm sorry. Please.

Mister mayor, members of the council, my name is Alex Hosmar. I am with Rose Law Group and an attorney representing PCDS here today. We just wanted to get up here and just express our appreciation for the lively participation, questions, and the efforts that have been put forth by counsel and staff, and we just look forward to continuing to make this project something that's transformational for PCDS and something that the town is also proud of. And just on a personal note, speaking as a town resident growing up and as a proud alum of PCDS, we're really looking forward to this project and are excited for the potential that it'll bring. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Any questions? Thank you for stepping forward. It is PCS day clearly today. So I think you're the right space for that. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Alright.

If there's no further discussion, I ask if there's a motion.

Mayor, I move we approve the statement of direction for Phoenix Country Day School Intermediate Special Use Permit, s u p 25 dash o six.

Alright. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Thank you. It's been the motion was made by council member Pace and seconded by council member Leitman. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Alright. And with that, I would say all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Motion passes. Thank you. Next up is future agenda items. The town's future agenda is subject to change, and the public meeting schedule is available at wwwparadisevalleyaz.gov, and click on meetings and agendas. Are there any items on the upcoming agenda that the town manager would like to note at this time?

I'll just note as a change that has already been apparent, I guess, because it would have happened today, is that we have moved the interviews for board and commission vacancies to April 9. It gives an opportunity for us to receive more applications and more interest. I'll also note, although it's not strictly a council agenda item that we do have dates and times for our two community budget forums. The first will be held on Wednesday, March 18 from 05:30 to seven right here in council Chambers. And right now, we are tentatively planning for the second one on Wednesday, April 15, also from 05:30 to seven.

We may have a conflict with the board of adjustment on that date. So if we do, we'll be over in the community room for that one. So it's an opportunity for staff to present the budget, run through our our slide deck on on this year's proposed budget, and to take questions from the public on anything related to municipal budget and finance.

Outstanding. Thank you. We're looking forward to that. Thanks for giving those dates scheduled. With that, I'd ask if any council members would like to make a motion to add an item to a future agenda item.

Alright. Not seeing any. With that, I think we we're moving quite a quick quickly tonight. So I would ask for any council, mayor, and then town manager reports. Any reports from my colleagues?

Council member Leitman.

Thank you, mayor. This will be very quick. I am pleased to be the council liaison to the Arts Board, and I would like to recognize what a fabulous job they did with setting up and coordinating the arch exhibit for PCDS and for putting on the really nice opening reception and encourage anybody who's listening or watching this later to please come down and see the art and reach out to the commission the people on the Arts Board. They put a lot of work and thought and effort into this and the artwork is fabulous. And one more thing, on April 12, the Arts Board will be hosting a tour of three artist studios in Paradise Valley and watch their spots are limited.

It's open to anybody. So watch The Independent or the manager's weekly newsletter to be sure to sign up because that will be a lot of fun. I've been to those three studios,

and

they are each fabulous in their own way. And we will also meet the artists. So thank you.

Thank you, council member, and thank you for serving as the liaison to the Arts Board, and and what a great night tonight was. So congratulations to you and the Arts Board. Other reports from council? Councilmember Moore.

Thanks. Thanks, mayor. Just a couple, announcements here that our police officers had, at Temple Solo Solell yesterday, the community helper day where officers brought police cars and discussed police work with the kids. They'll be doing the same thing, at the Christ Church School on March 3. And, then March 4 is coffee with the cop, and our officers will be discussing ways to keep your property safe in an overall department's community program. So they'll have an overview of that as well. So

Outstanding. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Other comments from council? Councilmember Pace.

Thank you, mayor. Our resorts are doing great. Lots of activity, lots of investment, and lots of fun. They're being very engaged on marketing because of some of the dip in international travel. But, they're working hard and getting a lot of new conferences and things like that. And, I have little report on the Ritz. We've got some new news. They've gotten $32,000,000 in financing.

And they

have at the time that they had filed for reorg, they had 80 villas being built, 44 closed, 29 were pending. They now have sold 10 more for totaling nearly $42,000,000 So they are now moving forward and we'll continue to stay watching and and look forward to that moving forward. And that was in the Phoenix Business Journal. So I'm repeating things not in attorney client privilege session. I am reading from the business journal for everybody to have a little report on that to know where it's at.

So it's good to see that that's moving along in some way. We hope more. And just a little report on that. There will be an adventure we're gonna be starting from the experienced Scottsdale side. We're gonna talk about it next month after our meeting, and we are also working very hard on the policy committee Experience Scottsdale.

We'd ask all of you to support the TIA for the tourism improvement district, which is no tax to any particular no one I should say no one has to do it. It's a choice throughout the state of Arizona, and it would really help for competition for some of our rural areas who would like to have that option as a tool to fund for bringing tourism to their areas and is a choice by each community, so it doesn't have a one size fits all. So Experience Castile is supportive of that. Arizona lodging is supporting that. Lots of lobbyists, legislators, industry, and more across the state are understanding that.

So if you could go in on your RT, what is it, request to speak, and say yes to that, that'd be great, and talk to your legislators and and help get that passed. We would be greatly appreciative. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Other comments? Vice mayor?

Just wanted to follow-up on the arts group and the volunteers for the youth group who helped out with that today. And I wanna say thank you to council member Leitman for being a wonderful arts board liaison. The youth group will be having a a mock trial on March 18 at the courts that they so generously brought to us and offered to do. We anticipate a big turnout for that. So, so far, the youth group has met with the police department and had a tour with them.

They're helping out with the Arts Board tonight, and they will have an opportunity to visit the court and have their mock trial. So, I'll check-in, but I don't see why we couldn't be a fly on the wall. And anybody out there who is a Paradise Valley high school student, no matter what high school you go to, if you have any interest, you could reach out to the town manager and get the information for the independent youth group and and the the work they're doing and get in touch. So that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, vice mayor. That's a great group. It's moving along well. They were the the first faces that I saw when I got there to the office tonight, and they certainly have not done anything but what they promised, which is helping promote the Paradise Valley brand. So thankful for that, and thank you for your support leadership on that.

And with that, I would I would say that my only comments are are tied to mister Ed Lowry and the legacy that he left behind. He and his lovely wife, Patsy, and their family have been instrumental in so many milestones for our town. And, I don't think any of us could thank him enough for all that he has done, and his memory will live on, and we're just grateful that we had the chance to have his leadership and have his kindness and compassion. And, he will be missed. And with that, I'll turn it over to the town manager.

Thank you, mister mayor. I'll just note, sometimes when changes happen within a building, they can be significant or they can be subtle, but also still significant. And I don't know if you've noticed, but on each of our meeting rooms, the boardroom, over here at the Goldwater Room, and at the community room, we have little digital they look like tiny Kindles, if you will, up on each of the entryways. And what they show is who reserved the room, who reserve who has the room next, and it's a it's you can even scroll through it. It's a little device that our IT folks put in the budget and have for users to have a better experience in booking and kind of knowing, you know, whether or not their reservation is up on the schedule while they're here.

So it's easy to read. It has that e ink, you know, which is which is very easy on the eyes. So it's very unobtrusive, but it's also very informative. So I kudos to James Bailey and his staff for for thinking of that to make that experience here in the town and the use of our rooms in the town a little more user friendly. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for that report. Always process improvements, and they're greatly appreciated. With that, if there's no more comments, I would ask that the next agenda meeting the next scheduled meeting is for 03/12/2026 right back here. And I'd ask if there is a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Moved by council member Pace. Is there a second? Second. Second. Seconded by vice mayor. All those in favor?

Aye.

Have a

great evening. Thank you.