City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hope everyone's good. Uh we're starting up the study session um meeting of mayor and council Wednesday, February 18th. And we have a semi-long executive session. So we're going to start with exe executive session. Uh, Miss Quirk, the executive session is noticed as Colorado Colorado River water interstate negotiations and supply contracts and is being held pursuant to ARS 38-431.03 A3 A4 and A6. May I have a motion to go into executive session? Second.

There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Okay.

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Motion to return to study session, please. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Any against? Motion carries. All righty. Wood is the council's pleasure for item two. Honorable mayor, members of council, an appropriate motion would be to proceed as discussed in executive session to author authorize the mayor, city attorney, and the city manager to file and/or join comments on the draft Colorado River environmental impact statement, and two, enter into all negotiations necessary and desirable for one, an in-state response to the current interstate negotiations and any possible reductions, including in-state mitigation and corresponding compensation. two, supplementing sub supplementing central Arizona project water by contract and three, obtaining a state land cap allocation to add to our current contract.

Your honor, I'd like to move this motion and let people know that Tucson leads the way on this stuff.

There is a motion. There's a second. Any further discussion? Um, I just want to congratulate the team um that has been working on this diligently for many, many years. Our city manager, Tim Tamure, um our Tucson water director, John Kimick, uh Chris Avery on the city attorney side, and many, many, many, many others. I know. Um but um thank you so much for your hard work in protecting the water resources of Tucson. So um any others? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I.

I. I.

Any against? Motion carries. All righty. Now we move on to the next item which is item three. Um time has been set aside for an update on the 2026 budget and discussion on the fiscal year 2027 budget. Um before I send it over to you, Mr. Manager, I'd like to thank you. Um Assistant City Manager Rosenberry for bringing us an update today. uh each meeting from now till June, we will be discussing and studying our budget and making decisions for fiscal year 2027. I want to remind everyone as mayor and council, we did take action in October of this past year to make adjustments from our estimated budget uh to better reflect the actual budget that we are seeing now. We continue to see our revenues impacted by the federal government by the Ducy era flat tax and federal tariffs. So having upto-date information is important. Um we can have additional discussion after, but Mr. Manager um the floor is yours. Thank you,

honorable mayor, members of the council. Thank you for some time today to bring you chapter 2 of the FY27 uh budget. Uh this is not the two towers. I I started off with the whole Token Lord of the Rings thing. I'm probably going to drop that after this meeting because it's it's probably not holding together. But having said that, um we do have a brief presentation for you. Um joining me here at the table is our assistant city manager and CFO, Anna Rosenberry, and our director of business services, Angel Ozalam. And we do have uh the materials we'll cover in the form of the slideshow. Um so with that, if we can bring up the slideshow, um we'll have uh uh Anna take us off and we'll tag team the uh the effort here in just a moment.

Great. Thank you. So, mayor and council, the the materials that we prepared for you for this study session conversation are focused primarily on the city's general fund. As you recall, we've got a budget of around $2.4 billion, but over 23 of that um is not flexible general government type of funding. It's money that is goes into restricted or special revenue funds that are earmarked for specific efforts. Um so onethird of the city's budget um is uh included or comprised of the general fund and that's our most flexible general government portion of the budget. and and frankly it's it's the most difficult portion of our spending plan to put together because there are so many numerous demands on that source of funding within the general fund. So, of the $2.4 billion, we're going to focus our conversation on how to um develop a balanced plan for about onethird of that within the general fund. As the mayor already touched on, and you are well aware, in October of this past year, the city manager presented some spending plan reductions to you um because of our need to revise our revenue projections um within the current budget within fiscal 26. Um, and even after those reductions were made, we still expected to have an operating deficit of over $25 million in our current year and an available fund balance position of negative $10 million projected um, if our revenue situation didn't improve during this current fiscal year. And it was clear to us, we talked about at that

time how we would need to monitor our revenues, monitor our spending, and do some more work to bring forward to you some solutions within the current year budget um to not end in those deficit positions. Um within the memorandum for today, table one shows a number of additional items that we're putting forward for discussion. Um the first two items um are items that um we haven't incorporated into our five-year plan here. So they're not in our bottom line yet as we project, but we wanted to present to you as options within our current budget year um for spending reductions. Uh item one relates to public safety pension amounts. Um, our fiscal 26, our current budget includes some pay ahead amounts that the general fund had planned to transfer into our 115 trust for public safety pensions. This is money that's beyond what's required by the pension system. Um, and we were trying to um simply pay ahead on our p public safety pension obligations. It's recommended now in light of our revenue situation within the general fund that we forgo making that extra contribution in fiscal 26 and that would be a spending plan reduction of $7.6 million. Item two is um from within the manager's office. Um we you have given us updated direction and strategy regarding public the public drug use approach and impacts on our city court. We've got a bit more on this item coming on a future slide, but there would be a there is um a spending reduction of $1.5 million of one-time funds in the fiscal 26 budget

that could occur as a result as a result of that um revised strategy. new strategy. Um, and so between those two items, we could see spending reductions of a little over $9 million in the current fiscal year that we we would like to and recommend incorporating into our future models here um as we as we develop the budget. Item three and item four are suggestions um to put on the table for changes um and possible incorporated into incorporation into the fiscal 27 budget. Um number three itself, it relates to the workforce development grants. It's a recommendation to not solicit for these 2-year round of grants. That solicitation normally takes place in the springtime about now. We would be putting out to the public a solicitation for two years worth of grants. Um if we were to postpone or freeze that program for now um we could achieve savings of $600,000 in fiscal 27 and another fis uh 600,000 in fiscal 28. Item four is within housing and community developments funding within the general fund. Um and that's again a similar suggestion to forego the general fund portion of the PIP grant program in fiscal 27 um and 28. Uh there would be savings um of $1.4 million in each of those years. Um again, the city manager is asking for some feedback from council members on items three and four as we bring forward a recommended budget for fiscal 27.

Another area that we wanted to update mayor and council on as promised was um information regarding our funding for public safety pensions. Um there's a number of pages within the memorandum that give you a lot more detail um on how the city's police and fire pension works. Um, we fund our pension system with payments to the public safety uh pension retirement system as well as contributions contributions into a Tucson 115 trust that is dedicated to public safety pension funding. So, we've got those two areas uh where we have resources available um to satisfy our public safety pension requirements. There's two messages that we wanted to give you in particular. Um, on a year-to-year basis, we try to track on how are the investment earnings of the statewide public safety pension system tracking, what what investment earnings are being achieved there. Um this uh for the end of fiscal 2025, so the year ending this past June 30th, the public safety retirement system had annual returns of 11% which is really great news. Um they uh project that they'll have returns of 7.2% a year. So they um they they achieved earnings beyond um what their regular expectation is. That's good news for all of us that participate in that plan. Our own Tucson 115 trust annual returns were even higher um than the state system. We achieved a 12.66% return on what the amounts that we have invested in our 115 trust. So all of that is really great news as we strive

to um accumulate dollars to pay current and future pension obligations within these systems. The table that I've included here, table three, shows those combined asset amounts as well as the liabilities that we have on the books within those systems. And if you take and compare the assets that we have and the liabilities, it shows you our unfunded liability, the amount that we're we continue to work to um find assets to fund. Um, and we have a uh key performance indicator, a KPI that we're tracking on as to how um is that funded status improving. And I just wanted to point out to the mayor and council, we established that KPI about this time last year uh with the work that we did um with uh some actuaries and and investment analysts. And um that KPI for June 30th was we were trying to hit the 71.4% funded status mark and we actually achieved a little better than that. So that's great news. We achieved nearly 73% funding status within the program. So um it is it's uh it's a good news in a number of different areas in funding our uh police and fire pensions.

Anna, do you have the KPI from 10 years ago? Um, no I do not. Well, um, we'll save additional questions till the end of the presentation because there's definitely a lot of commentary I want to add.

Right. Okay. Um next I'd like to talk in particular about the work that we have been doing to um get into the numbers and we give you a lot of numbers in this memorandum um about development of the fiscal 27 budget. Um this during this conversation we have not provided our full five-year plan. There's a lot of columns on the spreadsheets that we gave you, but they actually look at fiscal 25, which was our last fully completed fiscal year. Um, fiscal 26, the year we're in, and fiscal 27, which is the budget we are working to develop. Um, when you get additional versions of this from here on out, you won't just be seeing the year that we're looking to develop fiscal 27. We'll be looking to project our spending plan even further five years into the future. But this year, because we've got um not this year, for this study session, because we've got um such uh issues and areas of concern within the development of the 27 budget, we haven't provided that projection yet. We're not in a good spot to do it yet. Um but you will be getting this as a five-year forecast um in the future. Um the memorandum itself gives you a lot of details about um how the fis the fiscal 26 projection is being developed in particular six um six highlights um and then a number of um items related 11 items related to how the um fiscal uh 27 forecast is projected. top line for us um revenues are not expected to grow much in fiscal 27. That is the projection that we're developing. We've

already talked about how fiscal 26's revenues are coming in lower um than we projected and lower than we budgeted in the current year. So, we're developing this plan with the concept that we're not expecting revenues to grow much in the in the coming fiscal year 27. um in developing uh our current fiscal 26 uh status as well as the plan for 27, we've incorporated the cops grant. Um that's a Department of Justice grant that will give us and uh allow us to add up to 50 police officers and we've got a plan to get those officers added in fiscal 26 and 27. there's a local match requirement um as well as a need to equip provide the equipment for those officers and we've been working to incorporate that into our spending plan. Um, we wanted the mayor and council to to be aware. Um, as we had been working on the 2526 budget, there were amounts within the general fund that now total a little over $35 million that have been um allocated earmarked for the support of our Prop 407 projects. When we look at how our actual cash will be spent at this point, we are not expecting to need that money in fiscal 26 or 27. And it's likely that we're actually going to need that cash towards the end of the program in fiscals 29, fiscal years 29 through 31. So when you look at our bottom line in fiscal 26 here, it's a positive number. And a big part of that um positive number is because we've removed that $35.4 million from spend the spending uh

projection in 26 and it needs to be added in years 29 through 31. Um as you are well aware I think all of you know we we've been talking about it a lot. I it's a very important part of the development of fiscal 27 is um year two of a three-year plan for investments in employee compensation. We um as we develop this budget and the difficulties in balancing it, we continue to include the money that is needed to implement year two of the employee compensation plan. So you'll see there's $14.4 $4 million included in the general fund. That are the amounts uh that current estimates on what is needed for year two of the compensation plan. Um our development numbers also include $15 million in pay ahead amounts for public safety pensions. Uh even though we are just making a recommendation to make a cut to the 26 amount, um that's still an important piece of what uh we recommend mayor and council do and plan for in paying off those public safety pension obligations. So we're trying to incorporate pay ahead amounts in the fiscal 27 budget. Um, we've also planned in fiscal 27 to increase our capital fund within the general fund to a total of $8 million. Um, in fiscal 26 was the first year that we established this amount and that was a $4 million amount. We're trying to build up to a total of $20 million a year in the general fund for capital. um trying to do that uh in incremental amounts uh and get to that $20 million

amount in fiscal 30. Um we've also met with directors and uh departments about reoccurring and one-time unmet needs that they have within their base budgets. Our development numbers here show a $10 million amount uh kind of placeholder for reoccurring unmet needs and a $5 million placeholder amount for one-time unmet needs that we're trying to work into a spending plan.

I'll just jump in for a couple quick comments before we leave this slide. One is that the fact that we're moving that money to future years for Prop 407 does not signal that we're behind on Prop 407 or we're delaying Prop 407 or we're not delivering Prop 407. It actually is we are pulling the next round of bond debt as early as July, which is the infu which is the voter authorized funding is this bond debt that we take out and then we pay back. the bond debt coming in July means that we'll have the cash infusion we need such that this general fund can go back into reserve. So it it's not signaling anything wrong with 407. In fact, it's signaling everything's right with 407 and our next bond issuance. Um knocking on wood market holds would be as early as July. Um we showed you the KPI on PSPRS. We still want that to be an annual conversation of the pay ahead, but because we exceeded the pay uh the KPI for last year, that's why the 7.6 million reduction for this year is is warranted, but we're including it as 15 for next year when we bring you the balanced budget. I expect that number to change from 15 million to something that starts and ends with a zero, but we'll we it's still an annual conversation to have with you. And then regarding the uh um the unmet needs, the directors did a great job of literally putting just the bare bones on the table of how much their budgets would need to change in order to just break even on current level of service. And they their numbers totaled close to 27 million. We've got 10 plus 5. those numbers will go down, not because those aren't necessary needs, but there's a number of ways we can address it, including some of those are one-time capital needs that our directors are accustomed to. There's never a budget for that, but we

established the general capital fund. So, some of these things that they requested as unmet needs will actually be part of the general capital fund now that we have it. So, just three little explainers there that uh 407 is on track, PSPRS is ahead of the game, and the unmet needs um are actually working their way into our our uh financial plan.

Okay. So, um the next three slides have the tables of the financial plan. Not because I think we're going to talk about every number here, but I wanted to um draw your attention to a couple of those numbers. Um Tim and I as we're as we're looking at bringing forward forward a balanced budget, we're particularly focused on um two of the numbers that I have circled here. And this is the projected operating surplus or deficit. Um as we've already talked about, I'm showing those numbers circled for fiscal 26, our projection for this current fiscal year, and then fiscal 27, how things are developing. um for the coming budget. These are this expresses what are our ongoing revenues versus our ongoing expenditures. Um we we want this to be a positive number. Um and it's not looking positive um the way things are sitting right now. And so again, this particularly it shows you the difficulty that we've got with our um our base budget. Um the way things stand right now, we've got way too much spending for the amount of revenues that are coming in. We need to continue to work on these areas so that we have we have um structural balance. Uh current revenues can support current expenditures. The items that come below those operating lines are mostly one-time monies. Uh that's our investment plans u amounts and then carry forward and onetime dollars. Um you'll see for the fiscal 27 forecast, we've really um reduced the amount of investment plan items. Uh at this point, we've got the voter promises for collector the collector street program

and public safety um investments and then transit capital and choice grant matches. So federal matching amounts. Um, but that's basically all the investment plan items that that uh we've worked into the forecast at this point. Um, and then I'll show you one other number. So then when you get to the bottom of this financial plan, bottom right hand um is our projected year-end available fund balance. And that number um should not be that negative. Uh right now everything that we've got on the table we would be in a negative67.5 million position for available cash in the general fund. Um and so we've got just indicates that we've got a lot of work to do here in the next couple of months as we look to bring you the recommended budget that is balanced within available resources um for presentation to you on April 21st. So, um, we wanted to talk a little bit about some of the details of the safe city initiative. Tim, did you want to talk about these?

Thank you, Anna. So, honorable mayor, members of the council, um, with your emphasis on the safe city initiative. We do track a number of things that are related to those efforts, which are holistic, intersectional, and cut across our whole community. Specifically, you've given us recent direction to um adopt and implement a transit safety uh security and safety program. There is $500,000 allocated to that. That is onetime money. That is for approximately a year's worth of work. This is something that we will have to determine what level of effort moving forward and how to budget for it. And I will say that the outcome of props 418 and 419 would influence um whether funding is available for that um outside of the general fund. Um we do have the uh continuously evolving um uh approach to open drug use and enforcement. And the fact that that 1.5 million of one-time dollars is not being recommended to be deployed at this point is not a reflection of a backing away from holding people accountable for open drug use. It is a reflection of the evolution of the conversation with the county and the county attorney's office. These are actually court cases that should be processed through the county and we are now at a point where we believe more of those court cases will be properly adjudicated in the county court system. Therefore, we don't need to stand up a a pretty significant expansion of city court. It does not mean we're not doing the enforcement. It means we're actually enforcing it and the correct court will be handling those cases. We do expect that as the county absorbs that additional work, they might have a further conversation with us about perhaps partnering on funding some of their effort, but it would be significantly less than us taking it on on our own.

And just to jump in into on that particular point, it also does not mean uh the expansion of community court that we had requested previously. Correct. As part of the safe city initiative, correct? the the previous expansion of community court is still in place. Okay.

And then the last piece which has a lot of detail to it, but that cops grant is a significant um uh investment in additional um officers on the on the streets of Tucson. It is a great opportunity to leverage federal dollars to help us ramp up into that new number. Um assuming uh you accept our new chief later this evening uh we'll be working with our new police chief Monica Prietto on um all the strategies around recruitment and retention of our officers. And um I will note that we've seen actually higher numbers of applicants and not higher numbers of successful applicants in the form of receiving offers from the city for our upcoming at least the next one if not two which means that all of the investments you've been making in our employees are paying off in the form of a bit of retention but also making uh working for the city continuously to be more and more attractive. So, uh, kudos to you all for that. Um, and then I turn it back to you, Anna.

Thanks. The, uh, last portion of this that we wanted to touch on briefly, um, was the work that the that we have done on health benefit costs for the upcoming year and a lot of work in particular being done by the employee benefits committee. Um, we intend to have our next study session be a full recommendation from the committee, well from the committee to the city manager, city manager to the mayoring council. So, I won't spend a lot of time on these items. I just wanted to say that the committee has been working um on this 111 million estimated cost increase coming our way for fiscal 27. Um that's the amount that they have been looking to problem solve and find ways to address through um a number of measures. Um they've been looking at new vendor agreements. We did um a large bidding of the package of medical, prescription, dental, wellness, and EAP agreements that uh you know result in spending of about $80 million a year for the city on these programs. Um they've also been taking a look at plan choices and plan design changes um that will be a part of uh the recommend the recommendation that comes forward. The committee has been um seeing a number of details and um implications for unblending um retirey monthly premium amounts um as well as continuing um to step into self-funding of our dental program. There are two areas that we've talked about uh multiple times in the past that the the committee um hasn't admittedly hasn't had a lot of time to discuss in a lot of detail. And I think these will be um the beginning of the work that they consider after we get through open enrollment here for next year. And

that's the creation of a basic health plan, a different plan choice that that might be an even lower cost option um than options that we have now. That's something we've discussed in the past. We didn't get to make a lot of headway on it this year um as we worked on those new vendor agreements. um and then continuing to try to identify the lowest cost prescription drug options that we can offer um our employees and members of the plan. So, we'll continue work in those areas and again you'll have a a full detailed recommendation for uh health benefits for next session. And um I'll post the budget calendar here. None of these dates have changed since we spoke to you last. We're working towards that recommended budget on April 21st. That's everything we have for you, Mayor. Thank you so much, Miss Rosenberry. I really appreciate the presentation. Um, I just wanted to comment on your very second page of the memo in the budget uh that talks about Pchip general fund allocation and workforce development grant uh from general fund allocation. And I understand that we find ourselves in a very very difficult uh position in terms of our our budget. Um but I really believe that it's it's important that we keep general fund line item for PIP and nonprofit organizations especially during these um times. uh this particular federal administration, the Trump administration, is really going after a lot of the safety net programs

um that serve our most vulnerable in our community. And so I will really take a um definitive stance against uh cutting our PIP funding from the general fund. I would love to see a list of the nonprofit organizations that receive funds uh from Pitrip and our general fund. And I'm I'm just it's giving me this conversation is giving me flashbacks of our last economic downturn

with a very very different coun mayor and counsel. Um and at that point uh there was so much um push uh on mayor and council to eliminate the general fund allocation for non nonprofit organizations. At that time we were funding uh from general fund. I'm thinking it was like3 million or $4 million. And one of the things that we asked to do was to um not get rid of the line item. And you know, it took a it took a a cut. It took a devastating cut. Um but uh we didn't undo it. and when we were losing 60 $75 million at that time, I think we can hold on to it um during this time and try and figure out how we work um you know to make sure that we preserve the this these funds. So, I I just wanted to start off like that. Um it's yeah I mean we're going to we're going to of course make uh some concessions but I I think it would be uh a big mistake to remove the PK funding and the workforce development funding from our from our budget. One question that I have is um a few questions. Uh when you talk about Proposition 407 support um and moving it to fiscal years 29 through 31, you are talking about selling bonds to fund our parks and recreation and connectivity projects in the city of Tucson. Correct.

Honorable mayor, members of the council, that's correct. The Prop 407 is primarily funded through that voter approved bond program. These dollars are additional dollars set aside by the mayor and council to make sure we have successful delivery because the overall cost of the program is likely to exceed the bond the authorized bond amount because of the cost in construction costs. That's correct, ma'am. Okay. Uh but when you say we're going to sell bonds, it's we're going to the market to purchase bonds. Um right. I mean that's correct. We are buy bonds, not selling. Yeah. Yeah. No, we're selling them.

We sell bonds the debts, but they're issuing they're purchase we're purchasing money basically. Okay. So, uh when do the 407 bonds expire the the initiative? I believe the current year is 2028 is the length of the program, but we can uh issue the debt up to that point and then expire and then use the dollars uh for at least three years after the we issue the debt. So we can borrow up till 2028 and still use it through 2031.

So we don't have it's not as urgent because I I thought it was going to be 2027. So it's not as critical urgent um for mayor and council to consider another election for park parks improvement um to the voters. That is correct, mayor. Um the the 407 project program while it had a a beginning and an end as far as the program itself, there's no urgency to to renew it at this point because there's plenty of work to be done. uh even beyond that date.

Okay. So, we don't need to go out um to sell an initiative to the voters until maybe 28 for for the needs of the parks and recreation and connections. That's correct, Mayor. Okay. Just wanted to clarify. And then on the 15 million in pay ahead amounts for public safety pensions, um that you still have it in the 27 budget. Just wanted to ask We don't need to absolutely necessarily include that 15 million in pay ahead for the PSPs. Correct.

That is correct, mayor. That'll be one of the very first refinements we do as we as we move toward a balance budget.

And then in terms of the capital fund, um you've budgeted $8 million and 27. It's is that a similar um issue that we can look at the 8 million or are you recommending $8 million? Um I'm just I'm just trying to figure out how much exactly um we absolutely need need on the cap capital fund. Honorable mayor, members of the council, currently the recommendation as we build the balance budget is an $8 million um allocation to the general capital fund. We have allocated now projects that consume the 4 million from the current fiscal year plus some of the unmet needs that I alluded to and we will show you a full description of all unmet needs. they are beginning to con u be allocated to the 8 million but the that if those are if the 8 million is cut back then those projects would be cut back as well but we'll show you explicitly everything that's in or out

yeah I mean I want to make sure that we're not you know salivating for funds when they're already being put to use that's why I ask about the 8 million versus could it be less uh just based on the needs I would love to be able to see that list. You we've received it before. Um but I think that it's important that we hear from you all what is absolutely necessary for the expenditure of that capital fund. Okay. And then the other piece that I wanted to ask more of an explanation, I understand it, but I think that it's good for the public to hear is on the investment PL plan piece. There is a public safety equipment vehicle apparatus and facilities. There's a 24.9 almost $25 million for that one for fiscal year 27. And then there's a $4 million collector street program for fiscal year 27. That is not flexible um spending. Can you explain why? Yeah. Um, yes, Mayor. The collector street and the public safety investment plan items were amounts that were um promises made to the voters at the time that the city was um asking the voters to consider Prop 411. Um so at that time um the mayor and council um said to the community um you know as a part of um us or you approving um amounts for neighborhood streets, we would have resources available within the general fund to make ongoing 5 years of investments in collector streets um as well as public safety equipment.

And those promises were made in what form? The truth and taxation. You can go ahead,

honorable mayor, members of the council, that was in the truth and taxation. So it actually became a mayor and council adopted promise and when the voters adopted prop or approved prop 411, it became as as written uh a commitment to the community just like the use of the tax dollars. So it's a written commitment that voters approved along with proposition 411 through the truth and taxation. So the 4 million and almost $25 million for public safety equipment um is not flexible. This is something that we have to expend. That's that's correct that it is not flexible and the the 28 or the 25 million or whatever becomes the FY27 of the public safety the actual commitment to voters was 90 million over 5 years. That dollar amount shown gets us to exactly 90 million. And then on the collector street portion it's 4 million a year plus from the general fund plus 11 million a year of HERF dollars. So it's actually $15 million a year over five years is the is the collector street portion. And so the HERF funds are encumbered in the same way that the general fund is.

Okay. All right. I I'll open it up for questions. I just wanted to make sure that we um clarified someone and had some questions. I'll I'll start start with the vice mayor. I I feel like the mayor covered a lot of um uh what I was kind of thinking also not zeroing in and um these line items for a lot of our nonprofits who we've done a lot of work to get them to um address a lot of our unsheltered homelessness needs. And so I also do not want to um get rid of that. Um let's see. Um, in that same vein about um this 5-year investment plan, what when is year five of that commitment? Honorable mayor, members of the council, FY27 is essentially year five. The So there you'll see that the investment plan once we're done with these public safety and and collector streets, you'll see that kind of drop off. It's it's no longer a commitment past that. Although to the spending the full 90 million and the full what turns out to be 75 million on collectors that'll be budgeted until complete. So you might see it lingering for another year or two, but there's no additional dollars owed to or allocated to those programs. Is there any kind of swapping we can do knowing that after fiscal year 27 we won't will no longer have those commitments um to kind of help us with the budget balancing?

Honorable mayor uh vice mayor, the answer to that is yes and I'll explain why in in two ways. one on the collector street side, depending on the outcomes of Prop 418 and 419, that could be an additional U arterial re reconstruction component could be qualified toward collector streets. And then also once we no longer have the four of general fund plus 11 of HERF, that 11 of HERF, $11 million per year of HERF actually becomes now more flexible in how we'd use it for needs of the community. The other thing is a as we build the general fund capital fund and if we continue to fund it that now becomes the funding source that we've traditionally relied on going to the voter every time.

If we build that capacity then we actually have a fund we can use flexibly on whatever the general fund capital needs are. Okay. Thank you. Any others? Councilwoman Lee.

Thank you, Mayor. Um well, just as as um passionately as my colleagues are with Pichchup funding, I am just as passionate about not jumping to cut the the public drug use funding. And here's why. Uh while we did receive the memo from Chief Kasmar on January 20th in lie of a study session item where he indicated progress with the county attorney's office, um I spoke to him before he retired and dug a little deeper in what actually we need to do to keep moving forward because there is some work that needs to be done. So, uh, Kevin, I brought a prop today. It's just paper, but I brought a prop. Um, in talking to Chief Kasmar, what I understood is that he and the county attorney agreed to take a process that is currently done for the felony interim complaint form. This is currently filled out on a PDF file on a laptop and then it is attached to an email and it's sent over to the jail. So, it's a bit clunky of a process. So what they agreed on as an important next step is to either purchase or create likely purchase a system where TPD as well as other jurisdictions. So this is not just for us to do. It's something I think we need to talk to the county about at our our joint meeting, but a system by which our officers can input this directly into a piece of software. It zaps over to the jail automatically. and somehow this is an impediment to the capacity uh and the ability for these cases more of these cases to be charged, you know, prosecuted in the proper court. So, this is an actionable item that we're going to need to start working on to understand how to get this done. And this could be a multi-month process. But in talking with the team and speaking on on court capacity, one item that became visible to me yesterday, and I know council member Cunningham is really passionate about this too, is the uh alternative to jail video court pilot that we're working right now with OD. So what I understood from talking to the team yesterday is that there's only about two hours a day, Monday through

Friday, where this capability is online and it's not the same time every day. So when our guys and gals are out in the field and they have an opportunity to use this system and quickly get someone in front of a judge for their initial appearance, it might not always be an option. So, in order to truly measure whether this pilot is something that we want to continue doing, the recommendation that I would like for us to explore and possibly use some of this funding is to scale court in such a way that there is a judge available during those core hours Monday through Friday, so that whenever our folks are out in the street and they come across somebody, they have the opportunity to sit them in front of a judge for initial appearance right there. So, I think that's an opportunity that will address public drug use and other public safety issues in our community and allow us to really kick the tires on this pilot and see if it's something that we want to do citywide. So, I just wanted to put that on the table before we quickly swipe that $ 1.5 million because there is still a need. And mayor, when we talk about agenda for our joint meeting, I would really like for us to consider if this is something to talk about. So yeah, eventually phase two would be scaling up beyond the Monday through Friday from from talking to the team, but for now

weekends and evening hours. Yes. So I just wanted to put that on the radar before we swipe those funds. I would like to maybe work with Judge Clothes to evaluate what it would cost us to have that capability for a full uh Monday through Friday 8 hour capability for the team. Anything else, Councilwoman?

Oh well, yeah, on that note, I don't want an AI judge, Kevin. We're going to stick with human in the loop here. Uh, one thing though that that is just a side note as we're looking at the budget. When we had our parking conversation, it came up about uh the cost of parking for our employees downtown when they come to work and the amount of money that we're giving them to offset that. And I would really love in this budget cycle for us to figure out a mechanism whether it's that they expense it every month so it's precisely what they're being charged or we evaluate that. But um it makes me sad to think that our folks are having to spend a lot of money out of pocket just to be able to park to come to work. Yes. So just a random

uh Council Member Cunningham, it looked like you wanted to jump in. Council member Dah, Councilman Barakas.

Well, thank you all for this informative presentation. I just want to re um reiterate my request for a one pager and some social media graphics to help our to help us communicate this information to the public between now and the May 5th public hearing. I want um if the materials can can show the information about what makes up the total budget and what makes up the general fund, you know, would be really helpful to help clarify and communicate along with some materials depicting the impact of the reduced uh state shared revenues and other changes to revenues would be helpful and just I think that um providing this information to the community will really help when we're communicating with our constituents. Thank you. Council member Schubert.

Thank you. Um, thank you so much for the, uh, thorough overview and for all the work that your team has put into the budget research and projections so far. Um, and I appreciate my colleagues, um, coming together at the table to have um, some pretty difficult conversations. Um, we know that the budget is a moral document and I hope that we can effectively put forward a budget that prioritizes our most critical needs and most effective strategies to address them. So, I'm I was happy to hear um Mayor Romero and Vice Mayor Santa Cruz um highlight the Pchip program. I feel the same way. Um, you know, I'm really driven uh by thinking about um what the greatest dangers to our residents are right now and how we can ensure we're investing money to address those needs directly. And um you know, I mean, the PHIP program is research driven. Um it gets at um all of the different things that are threatening our residents right now. Um thinking about the the fact that our roads are really dangerous. We've already had at least 14 fatalities so far in 2026. Um, it's also clear that having people living outside are constantly on the move without consistent shelter is incredibly unhealthy and dangerous, a situation that at least 2,200 community members, which is a low estimate, face every single day. And it's clear that the cost of living and being able to afford um lives that offer safety and stability is hurting too many Tonins with nearly one in five living below the poverty level. Um, so I just that's kind of what I'm carrying into these discussions as well. And I know that we're in a very tough situation with deficits, but um it becomes even more important in these moments of scarcity to um to be valuedriven, to think about things like um like Council Member Lee um wanting to um prevent present practical alternatives to jail and getting people through the system more quickly. Um, I love council member Braha's suggestion about um public

facing um content so that our constituents can understand um that we only really have control over like a third of the budget but what is the thinking that we're taking into these um conversations you know not just looking for cuts but seeing some of these investments like like Pchip um and some of these other research proven um interventions um you know in transportation housing community development, workforce development, um that these are generative and these are going to be the things that make us more resilient um as a community. And I I also really agree it's important to understand um the impacts of anything that we do cut before we cut it. So, I'm looking forward to seeing the list of nonprofits and just digging in a little more to um into what it would mean to take away that funding. Um, and then just want to put continuing fair free transit um, on our radar um, as we're going into these discussions um, because I know that we're looking for ways of making money, but I think it's important that a policy we've had in place for six years that we fully understand how that's how that's um, impacted Tucson. Um, for example, we need to know how much it will cost us per dollar collected to charge fairs again before making any decision. and I I haven't seen a price tag for that yet. So, um you know the other the other part is that we need to understand the impacts of um value added tax and other revenue associated with transit like increased um sales taxes. Um there's other ways that we have benefited economically from accessible transit. Um Tucson uh unlike many other most other cities over the pandemic um didn't experience the same hit in writership because um the mayor and council led by mayor Romero was visionary and decided to invest those ARPA funds in transit in helping our

most vulnerable community members. So we need to figure out a way to track uh the value added t tax and the other revenue associated with access to fair free transit. Um right now our cost benefit ratio um in Arizona for transit is uh 2.21 which means that we're gaining $221 in benefits for every dollar invested in our system. I don't want to take something like that away. You know I I can't think of a lot of other things that are doing that for us. Um, a study conducted in Kansas, um, found that the annual economic impact of continuing to suspend fairs raised regional employment by 24 to 83 jobs, increased economic output by 4.2 million to 13.8 million, and also increased personal income in the community by 1.3 million to 4.6 million using their economtric uh, forecast model. I can't think of anything else concrete right now that would be increasing people's personal income and making it cheaper for them to live. So, just want to plant the flag again for our transit system as we're going into these difficult budget conversations with a very real deficit. Um, but just really needing that comprehensive analysis of anything vital to the community um that we might be looking at cutting. Thank you so much.

Um, Council Member Cunningham and then Council Member D. So, a few things. Uh, number one, uh, whether we do trans, uh, free transit or not free transit, there's still some things we can do on the bus for efficiency that can probably actualize savings. I I don't I'm looking at some of the routes that we have and we've gone through in our office and kind of taken a look at them. Some of them wind around. Some of them don't actually go all the way to where the end of the line should be. There's actually some expanses in expansions in some routes that I'd like to see, but also some routes that probably we don't we we we probably shouldn't use or should be very incremental during specific times. Um the other thing I'll say about transit is I still think there's a big piece of paratransit that we're kind of missing an opportunity on where we can have service delivery uh and enhanced paratransit for individuals who are either full paratransit but also people who are who are not wheelchair bound but still need paratransit and so I I I still think we're missing the boat on a couple of things there. Number number two is I'm gonna come back and talk about uh um procurement and I think the procurement office and meeting with them a couple times they have the best intentions and best practices in mind but I think we can be innovative and I don't really want to do a full audit on every single contract we have but I think we should definitely be able to evaluate our quality quality control and what value we're getting from through our contractors, our consultants, and through uh our pre-curement practices, especially in some of our one-time projects. I think there's some actualized savings, not

only in one-time capital money, but also sustainable money that we can uh forego in. Uh and and so th those two are are pretty lowhanging fruit. We also have some one-time money included into the expenditures in this budget that's part of that $26 million deficit for this year. And I think we can kind of as you present next time, why don't we back that out? And the reason I say that is is that I'm more than happy to drop one time money for onetime money. I don't want to in uh really to me as I read this and I'm looking this first glance I haven't brief we haven't had a private briefing on it but I I think that 26 number is more like a 22 number right now it looks like we blended some one times in there maybe I'm wrong but as I see it I think there's opportunity to back out some of that one time and we're really looking at 2021 plus we've got some measures coming in that haven't come to fruition with how we're going to advance some of our new fees that we voted on. Um, all that being, so I have some questions about that. Where is this factoring in whether we change uh fees for next year? You you guys aren't project when you guys did these numbers. You didn't make any of those projections yet, did you? Honorable mayor, members of the council, the general fund revenues that the mayor and council enacted just a couple of months ago are projected in this projection. About half of it for FY26 because they were enacted midyear and about 8 million in next year's projection. So theyffected.

We also we also have parks going out to look at their fees that haven't hasn't been enacted yet. Correct. Anything you've not enacted yet is not in there.

Okay. So that brings me to the last part. Speaking of, and this is all your fault, Tim, from our meeting yesterday, um we have some water and irrigation projects that we spend in parks and I think there's an opportunity to have some of that cost shared with the water enterprise fund that'll give us some relief in the general fund and part of this budget. We have multiple capital projects going on with irrigation in uh in the parks through not only 407 but our ongoing upkeep and I think some of those if they are related to conservation and they're related to saving water and a better efficient water I think there's some opportunity to to to actualize some savings in a couple of those projects. I think we did this before with some projects that were

Yes, we did. Jesse Owens Park lots of money in water.

Yes, Jesse Owens Park, which we talked about yesterday into my meeting with with Tim. That's why this is all his fault. So, I'm taking a look at that and I'm thinking uh if we kind of make that a little bit I don't want to do that all the time. We can't literally go back to the well every single time we have a budget deficit. But, uh you see what I did there? But the bottom line is I think there's some opportunity there with uh you know 2 or 3 million maybe a million or two over the next 3 years. So when you really start thinking about it for at least this fiscal year we're banking we can bank back about 15 of of that 26 that's down right now. And if we can do that that 67 number becomes a 58 number and that's a lot more manageable once we get under 50 million. So those are my thoughts today. Um, I'd love to meet with some of the department heads and some teams. I've also got some um things we can take a look at with our shifts and our shift work where we may be able to um a provide a better service delivery, but b um maybe even save some money on on how we how we how we deliver that service. So, those are some things off the top of my head. In the meantime, uh, Angel and and Anna, you're doing an amazing job as far as keeping us surprised and being real, very realistic about what we what we have in store for us. So, thank you.

I appreciate the solutionsoriented um, commentary, Council Member Cunningham. Council member D.

Thank you, Mayor. Just want to talk a little bit about Pchip because it's a different sort of process. Um there is a list available of who are currently funded and I think it's important when you look at that list there's a column that says where that money is coming from only some of it is general fund some of it's CBDG uh either which is either a nightclub or a funding source some of it comes from environmental there's other sources it's a two-year process and it's a process that involves some stakeholder meetings getting together and making recommendations when I was first here the recommendations came right to us now there's a little bit of time for us to give our um

feedback and experience. Um some of these are groups that we've supported for a long time and we kind of need to support them because they're our partners and uh I think that's all I wanted to say about Pchip is to to set the stage. Oh, and but to emphasize what's on the list you're seeing is what's currently this year and last year, but it may not necessarily be for the next two years. I just wanted to um also uh commend you, Mr. Manager, and your team. And I want to also thank Lorice Walker and the department leaders that led the effort to hold budget town halls this fall. Um, I'd love to be able to hear from Lorice and the team to talk to us about what they heard from and they did one around they tried to do one in every ward and across the city. And so I would love to be able to get that input uh from the budget town halls. I know that we had um my office organized a a youth uh budget town hall. I would love to hear what they also had to say uh about our budget and and their priorities as well. We're about to have a retreat with mayor and council to talk about our priorities and how to establish those priorities into our budgeting process. Uh that's why we wanted to have it early on in the budgeting conversation so that we could try and establish those priorities that we all bring to the table. Uh but I really like to hear what the budget town halls um you know the conversations the priorities that our community brought to the table there. So um wanted to I saw some hands over there. So Councilman Lee uh go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a super quick follow-up question uh to Council Member Schubert's point on the study that's being done. Tim, um on the 11th, 7 days ago, I sent eight eight questions to the team about that study, what was being done with it, what the estimated time to completion is on that just so we have it at the table when we talk about this conversation. So, I haven't heard anything back. I did ask also that we look at the other side of the coin and any costs associated um with retail theft and other issues that the community has been talking about. So, we're looking 360 degrees at the economic viability and what we want to do with the transit fair. So, do you have any idea on when that's going to be completed so that we actually have that in front of us?

Honorable mayor, members of the council, you'll So, uh, council member Lee, you'll get the answers to your first three questions by the end of the day. We actually had those yesterday. Um, they should have gone out. They'll go out by the end of today. The other questions are in development because they related to the scope of the work. that's in discussion and um we will bring that forward to the full council. Perfect. As soon as we actually have that information to share. Um I'm expecting that by um the first meeting in April roughly would be a time when we would start having some of this information to to review. So it would be uh prior to me presenting you a budget, but not not by much, but certainly before I present to you a budget.

Perfect. It would be wonderful to uh h make sure that the the questions submitted by um mayor and council to you all regarding the budget. It would be wonderful to get the answer all of us get the answer so that we are are all on the same page. Um, you know, in terms of in terms of transit, I would also love to know how much does it cost to gear up charging for for fairs, right? Because it's it's important to know, do we have the machinery and technology necessary to do it? If not, how much is it going to cost to, you know, start gearing up? Um it might, you know, we we might have to move in a direction of especially if Prop 418419 don't pass. We're going to see not just us not collecting the fairs, but it's going to be a $35 million hit to transit. Um in a time where the budget for our city, we find ourselves in a what $67 million deficit right now. uh without the additional work that we still need to do. And in terms of solutionsoriented um I think you know I welcome ideas in terms of how to um uh cover the whole in our budget def deficit. I I welcome people sharing my colleagues on the council sharing how we're going to cover a whole $67 million and a potential $30 million cut to transit. So, um any others wishing to be heard? Uh, Council Member Schubert,

thanks for um bringing up RTA next because I I mean when we're talking about the budget, that's one piece, right, of the of the revenues and expenses that we're sustaining. And it is hard sometimes in these conversations to not think about the $20 million per year that passing RTA Next would leave us doing um subsidizing, continuing uh to subsidize um transit for the region. Um, a solution that I've been hearing more and more about from constituents, um, has been coming up with our own proposal. Um, and that could involve other regional partners who want to jump in with us. Um, but something that we could control ourselves and that would reflect um, what voters would actually want to support. So, I've been hearing lots of people saying, you know, I just don't I don't feel the plan reflects my priorities, but I do very much believe that our system needs um, investment. So, um I just want to say that um I believe that that is something that we should try to pursue um and not not assume that we know what people think, but put it to the voters. That is a good suggestion. The only problem with that is that it really is not based on reality um of the loss of uh $30 million immediately to the to the system. And so if there and I think your question previously to trying to fund or find bridge funding and I don't know if the if the letter was included in uh today's uh in in today's items um how how can we cover our $30 million hole immediately to um the transit budget. I think that that's a answer we have to um find and um

elections cost money and so will where will we find the $800,000 a million dollar that we need to put it on the ballot when we have a $67 million um budget deficit. So if you have any ideas please write them down and share them with all of us besides an election.

Thank you so much. Yeah, I've been spending an unhealthy amount of time debating about this lately with folks. Um, and I I appreciate you pointing out the very real risk of um the pain of a of a funding gap. Um, but my understanding is that other towns within the within the region could vote to raise their own sales tax to fund transit if they decided that was important to them. Um, and I also I also think that, you know, if we if we move quickly, we can minimize that pain. Um, but I have argued with people um, constituents who, as you know, W 6 has really engaged constituents who get really nerdy about this stuff. And um you know uh what they what they say to me is that um the pain of a a few months or even a year um compared to 20 years of something that they don't feel supportive of, you know, is an easy decision for them to make even though in the short term it would be hard. I I believe that um it would be important to offer our regional partners the opportunity to pay into the system that has been benefiting them and that Tucson has been subsidizing for a long time. I'm not going to continue debating. Uh we could do this outside of the chamber. Um but a 30 plus million dollar hit will involve layoffs. So, um,

I'm not going to I'm not going to vote for a budget that lays off people that keeps the bus free. I will not. I just want to let you know that right now. I mean, those are the realities that we need to bring to the table. That's why I'm saying, "Hey, um, bring me some realistic solutions and uh, we should consider everything. We're not we're not I'm just I'm just saying we need to make sure that we bring solutions to the table." um as opposed to um the honorable mayor may if I may we we do have this on the agenda the RTA next discussion so if we can

maybe we can move on to that item uh the next item if there's no more commentary or questions the next item is the large water users we can continue on with the with the RTA next discussion if you'd like um however you'd like. How are you feeling? You're good to go. Okay. All righty. So, as we move on to the next item, we have the large water users uh item as requested. Time has been set aside to consider and receive information presented by staff and the ad hoc committee and to provide policy direction as appropriate regarding potential next steps for large quantity water users. Uh Mr. Manager, can you uh start this item?

I would like nothing better. Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Joining me here at the table, our water director, John Kamik, and our chief resilience officer, Fatima Maluna. They have been co-leading along with our consultants the discussion with an ad hoc group of um community members and subject matter experts looking at potential updates or revisions to the large water large quantity water users ordinance that you've already adopted. So I just want to stress you have an ordinance on the books. So you have uh the community has protections against a large water user coming in presently. this the challenge was should that ordinance be uh amended or adopted or evolved uh to better suit Tucson because we did uh quite honestly bring that forward pretty quickly in order to just stake uh plant our flag as as uh council member Schubert might have said. Um so with that I will turn it over to Director Kamik and our chief resilience officer. Thank you, honorable mayor, uh members of council, as as the manager pointed out, um Fatima Luna, our chief resiliency officer, and myself uh were directed in August of 2025 uh after the initial adoption of the large quantity water users ordinance, ordinance number 1218, uh to put together a um lead an effort of uh communitywide stakeholders uh in this area that were be interested in the use of water uh that may come to the Tucson region in the Tucson water service area that would be considered a large quantity water user and to look at the ordinance that was adopted in August of 2025 to see as a manager stated any potential refinements or revisions uh that may s with uh the input of our community and then bringing that forward

to council. So, between the months of October and December of 2025, um Miss Luna and myself with Southwest uh resources, uh a non-biased facilitator, um we ended up having um four meetings uh with community stakeholders from a broad spectrum uh across the community as well as as uh SWAC members uh representing your offices uh were also invited to participate um as well. Uh we originally thought it would it would be done in two meetings. It ended up taking four. Uh but um in short uh it was all very very good healthy discussion uh we believe uh considering um in discussion of not only the ordinance itself but how the city of Tucson and Tucson water um are prepared u essentially in the future to be able to to handle a potential large quantity water user coming to our area. and now having some guard rails in place to help give uh the real strong conservation ethic that would be associated with that and the expectations of our community. So, uh of interest what came out of uh the process u just to summarize some key policy um discussions is there there one of the items that was talked about quite often was the threshold level. The threshold level currently in your ordinance is 10,000 ccf month and that's a monthly average. Uh anyone who comes to the city as a large water user would have to disclose their intent of the water and how they would use it and if that average ended up above 10,000 ccf a month on average then it would trigger the remainder of the ordinance including water conservation strategies and planning associated with that. So there

was discussion uh on that level was uh there was some some within amongst the group who wanted to potentially change the level or review the level and all that but there was not a real consensus of of making a change at this time at that level. Uh another discussions that were happened were related to the water conservation plan itself. Uh there was discussions on what does a water offset actually mean? Is that just water offset for portable use? Would water offsets be required for recycled water use? uh the good healthy discussion in those areas as well as as many members of our stakeholder community saw that um and let's say an industry just using an industry as example that made an investment to the reclaimed water system of the city of Tucson that would be considered an offset where some others in the room see the reclaimed water system and the future of reclaimed water system um to be to have to require the same level of offset if it was drinking water that someone was on. So, it's just different philosophies moving forward, but all in all, good good discussion on there. Um, some of the other items that came up uh as staff tried to maintain a non-bias um role in in letting the community talk amongst themselves uh on the ordinance. Uh but we did see the flexibility. They recognize the flexibility that a water conservation plan um is something that can be creative either technically or scientifically and and would help the community in the long run if we keep it uh broad enough where people can bring maybe new ideas that haven't even been discovered yet in the water industry to help save and conserve as much water as possible and allow that to be something that council can negotiate uh at the time of adopting a plan. A couple other

items related to um this um was um the review and the administration of the ordinance itself. Making sure that there's enough clarifying language in the ordinance for the department and the chief resiliency offer officer to be able to make sure people are within compliance. and and there's uh and there's there definitely is room to provide that clarity um in some future changes going forward. Um now before I summarize, I want to um turn it over to uh Miss Luna and have her give some thoughts on on how she saw this stakeholder process.

Honorable mayor, members of the council, the only thing that I would like to add is that the ad hoc committee really uh was a very valuable experience for the group. So bringing together different leaders from uh the business sector, environmental groups, water uh professionals at the same table, share a meal, sharing their perspectives, having to listen to each other's ideas. Uh it it was not a a straightforward and so it really provided them with an opportunity to listen to each other's um concerns when it comes to environmental, financial or even legal considerations. And so from my perspective, that was very valuable. it gave them a glimpse of what you all experience as a mayor and council having to listen to diverse perspectives and having to make a call um based on the community feedback. So I just wanted to share that much because I I do see that as a very um valuable outcome of this process.

Thank you Fatima. Yeah, and I concur with Fatima. So it was very interesting to have these meetings. It was very enlightening um to see all the different people at the table having like Fatima said having food together and and agreeing to disagree and being polite and uh and receptive to hearing different people's views. So it was it was a very worthwhile experience for multiple reasons to do this. So um in summary, uh we did get a report out from Southwest um decision resources just a few weeks ago. It's part of the package. uh we did distribute it to council. Um we have been in the process of doing follow-up meetings with all the offices to go through um the elements of uh the u discussion that occurred there. uh we are not at a position to recommend any changes now because I think we still need to work um my recommendation is we we still need to work with the offices u to come up with some clar particularly clarifying language to make sure that there's uh the proper guard rails and and boundaries on some of these areas where that we saw was uh was unclear to the stakeholders maybe as a whole and wanted to make sure that there's given some direction on that uh but I still think it's a work in progress address and um we don't have any pending applications right now. So, we do have the time to thoughtfully uh go through this and work with all of your offices individually and come up with a with a with a grand plan at the end of the day. So, with that, uh honorable mayor, members council, take question.

Thank you so much, Mr. Kim, Miss um Luna. Um, I just wanted to remind all of us one of the reasons why we uh adopted the large water users ordinance immediately uh last summer was because we wanted to create guard rails for the community in terms of large water users. Um, the large water users ordinance uh was presented to us by uh Councilman Lee in our investigation and research work um that happened last summer in terms of how other uh communities in Arizona were preparing themselves for large water users. Uh and so I just wanted to thank Councilwoman Lee. We did a lot of talking to each other and comparing notes and comparing what other cities were doing, a lot of research that we did. And uh all in all, we all felt because we passed the large water users ordinance unanimously um that we needed to um immediately take action and then refine it. And that's what our community wanted as well. And so uh we wanted to make sure that you know that that um the different stakeholders in our community provided feedback and input. It's been it's been a you know a long um process to get different stakeholders to the t table. months and months of work that many people really dedicated uh to coming in, sitting down, speaking with each other. Um sometimes, you know, having long conversations with people they didn't agree with at all. Uh but, uh I think it was a good exercise. uh

the community were was able to give us um uh input and in us doing our work as mayor and council and as a uh Tucson water in the city of Tucson. uh we can close a lot of loopholes, clarify requirements, you know, make sure that we have a process for ensuring enforcement um and again make it um a living document as we continue to learn uh from the needs of our of our community. But also the previous conversation we had in executive session informs right us uh doubling down on making sure that we have a clear policy for our business community uh in terms of what we as a city of Tucson and Tucson water expect uh in terms of responsible water use. I just want to uh thank you again uh Mr. Kimick, your team at Tucson Water, Fatima, uh, and your team for investing all of this time. Um, I just want to also add that this ordinance, um, contrary to what some say is not a barrier to growth. uh this ordinance is uh really planning ahead uh on responsible water use and and attach economic development, the right type of economic development um to to water use in our community. So, I want to thank um everyone that participated in it. I too believe that there's some additional work that we uh as a team, mayor and council need to do to uh define um uh the ordinance and refine it some more. And so um really

want to hear from my colleagues on the council. So we'll go with Councilwoman Lee and then come back with the vice mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. Um you did a wonderful job, mayor, of opening that up. And again, the idea was how do we protect our water without putting us at an economic disadvantage for creating jobs. So, I also want to thank the staff. You guys put an amazing diverse group of people. It sounds like group therapy when everyone got together and and that is amazing. So, really appreciate all of the the folks who took time to sit in one or a few or all four of those meetings. And as you said, mayor, two things are true at the same time. We just had a conversation about the future of the Colorado River and our need to protect our water. And we also know when the Eller College did their economic outlook lunchon earlier this year that the city lost jobs two years in a row and we were the only city in our amongst our peers to do so. So we have a very real need to create jobs and create the right type of jobs for Tucson residents and find that balance. Um John has been really gracious with spending a lot of time with me to helping me get smarter on this topic. And so I want to throw an interesting problem opportunity on the table as we think about this. And John can say this much better than I can. So if I mess up, John, please jump in. But when we look at our overall system and we look at the reclaim water, we have 14,219 acre feet of water that flow out of our urban system every year past Tricco Road. And for normal people, that's 4.5 billion gallons of water a year on average that leave our system. So to me, that's kind of an issue. If we can solve for that and thinking through as we're doing this work with the large water users ordinance, how do we capture that 4 and a half billion gallons of water? Obviously, some of it will go to advanced purification in the future, future recharge projects, but there's still going to be a significant amount of water that is leaving the urban system. So, how do we capture that? How do we make it useful? And how do we put that to work to get the best, highest paying good jobs as possible with those with those drops of water? So, as we think about that, I just wanted to put this on the table for us to consider as part of the conversation. How can we add

the right type of customers to our reclaim system in terms of next steps? Um, John, I sent you several things last night, but the mayor covered a lot of these as well. I won't put them together in a motion, but really uh a lot of clarification on anti- evasion concerns, clarifying the definition and treatment of offset, um strengthening language to ensure reclaim water is used to the maximum extent feasible, and protecting um I'm sorry, providing a comparative analysis of pure cities and other uh dry cities like ours to look at that 10,000 CCF threshold and make sure it it aligns and keeps us competitive from an economic development standpoint. And um I appreciate that you guys are going to be working with all of our offices to refine that over the next coming months. I think that's really important. So great job to everybody. Vice Mayor.

Hi. Uh thank you mayor and also um thank you for all the work to staff and putting this together. It sounds you know like it um you know could be challenging at times. Um, I saw that some of the feedback that y'all gave us was um the lack of tribal participation as a concern, you know, for committee members. And I think it is challenging when we're talking about just inviting a tribe to participate in a convening like that might not be, you know, the best way. And so maybe having more one-on-one um ongoing conversations with them so that we're implementing that feedback as well. Um because I think you know I was having this conversation with our city manager yesterday that we can't treat the tribes like they're another stakeholder or nonprofit. We have to treat them like their own sovereign government entity and we should be communicating with them as such. Um so um I just wanted to kind of you know put some focus on that. Um I also heard right that of the the members of the committee it wasn't always consistent right how many people showed up so it was hard to like kind of carry on a reputable knowledge bank right to draw conclusions from meeting to meeting um so how are we taking that into consideration um moving forward I know that at least um for myself I think the the I guess the guiding value I want anybody in this committee or whoever is giving us feedback back is water as a precious resource that we need to conserve. And so if you're already coming into it as like water as a means for just economic development and you're not seeing it as a as a precious resource, then I don't really care what you have to say. So um just something else to take into consideration. And then we we heard, you know, from the No Desert Data Center Coalition um that

they had some suggestions um about the memo lacking context of the current large water users in Tucson, including the University of Arizona, an average hospital, grocery store, small farms. Um so just having a little more context moving forward. And then finally just defining and I think this kind of um what was being shared um total water use that includes portable reclaimed um and water use for for energy generation as well. So just wanted to add that and and thank you for coming to us and saying there's more work that needs to be done um instead of you know specific language that we need to change at this time.

Yeah. Council member Cunningham. I can't even believe what I'm about to say today because it's so the opposite of what we've been doing for 20 years. I actually want to start with this item. The way you started really concerns me. I want to start with this item and say that um

this is kind of the impetus of a discussion we've been having for a long time and it's a little it's a little out there but I think it's important and it it we can probably get around it but unfortunately there are some entities that use as much as 3.75 million gallons a month. Um and but they don't do it for every month. they do it for like eight months and they are recreational water parks and the city has none. And so in this program in these guard rails we don't have a recreational water park in the city of Tucson. And one of the reasons that that's a concern for me is a we're a warm weather place that could have a really cool water park all that should have a water park all the time. When I was a kid we had three of them. Uh the other piece is is that we have families that literally drive to Phoenix every weekend and abandon our city and don't spend money in our city and don't want to be in our city just so they can go to a water park, whether it's the Wolf Lodge. There are um water parks that don't use 3.75 million gallons a month. Um, and some of them can even recirculate and use as little as the amount of like 900 gallons a day, which is pretty cool. But that's which is about the equivalent of a softball field at one of our parks. So, we probably want to, you know, temper action with wisdom here. But part of this item for me is thinking about some type of water park ordinance for the city limits and thinking about a water park ordinance that's responsible. But this is one business that should have some type of carveout just so we have something for kids to do, just so we have an extra place for kids to do in the summer. Um, if you grew up in Tucson in the summers and you were aged, you know, 12 to 16, some of you didn't have a great

experience. I can tell you I had a great experience. I loved that time. And really, all I did was ride around my bike, go to water parks, go to the pool, and go to the movies. And by the way, if you ask any 12 to 16year-old right now what they like to do during the summer, they're going to say those four things. So, I'm thinking about this in terms of realism. I'm thinking about this in terms of attracting something like that in our Rio district. Believe it or not, uh there is a water park in Salt Lake City that I visited a few years ago that exists on only three and a half acres of land. The lazy river goes around and there's a big tower with a bunch of slides that come down and a splash pad in the middle and it that's it. That's all there is. So, it's called Kowabanga Bay. You can Google it or use Google Maps and check it out. But the bottom line is is that I'm thinking about this safeguard and it's aimed to the data centers and I totally agree with it. But having a water park ordinance attached to this that at least says, "Hey, we're open for business if you want to build a water park or two and maybe limiting the number we have because we don't need to have 15 of them." But that would be a really good use of our time. And I see Chris Avery, probably one of the finest water attorneys in the history of mankind, asking to speak. So I invite Chris Avery to the podium. Uh, Council Member Cunningham, members, mayor Mero, members of the council, I don't see anything in the current version of the water use large water users ordinance or in some of the amendments that you've discussed today that would prevent a water park operator who conserves water and who is operating sort of state-of-the-art technology for the industry that they the industry space that they inhabit from submitting an application to the director of Tucson Water. The director of Tucson Water

would then work with the water park owner to verify that indeed the technology that they're proposing to use is state-of-the-art, that the benefits are contained in the application, that the community benefits are contained in the application, that the water is recycled and used as appropriate. that perhaps after it goes to the water park, it goes to replace irrigation use on a park or golf course, right? There are a lot of things that that could be done under the terms of the current ordinance that a a good responsible water park order could fit into. The way the ordinance then works is after the water park operator or proposer submits that information to the Tucson water director, Tucson water director reviews it to see if it is appropriate, asks any questions, try to clear up any concerns. Then what's the next step? The next step is that report and that proposal goes directly to you for submission to you to approve or deny.

Do they get to customize their rates based on this? So then you get a a a review of a water park ordinance proposal that comes to you for review that you get to look at in your discretion and then you get to say look this is what we think is is is uh appropriate with this this is how we think this project should work. They could propose to use existing reclaim rates. They could propose that because of this maybe they form a partnership with the local park so that the water is used first at the water park and then at the park so you split the rate that there are some things that you could do under the ordinance as it exists. that would be that are really cool and that this ordinance is when you when you take a particular example like that and and apply it through the mechanism that we have here. You see that it's pretty flexible in terms of you got technology that you think of somewhere here and out of the blue a water park ordinance here some other things but the ordinance is pretty flexible to be able to do that

and that's why I brought this up today because we don't need to write a whole other water park ordinance. This kind of covers it. I just want to be sure that some of that language in there. I know there's water park ordinances who've been knocking on our door for years waiting for an opportunity an opening to have the rates and and and the water usage make sense. So having that in this I think is important. That's all. Yeah. And I and I think that what this ordinance does is is give you space for a responsible water park orderer to perhaps meet the criteria and ultimately obtain approval from the mayor and council and for irresponsible water park owner to have its irresponsibility apparent to all

when that proposal gets here. But the ordinance gives us that protection. The ordinance gives you the that's why it's important that we take what the ordinance really does is give you as a mayor and council a a a good set of staff reviewed comprehensive criteria and and facts before the proposal gets to you instead of having those sometimes as we've seen in the past those proposals get here without all those facts being fully vetted. Yeah. No, I understand.

Um in the interest of time Paul I'm going to move on. We have like 10 minutes left and I really want to make sure I hear from my other colleagues. Um, Council Member Dah and I don't know Councilwoman Lee if you wanted to add. If not, we'll move on to Council Member Vasa.

Thank you, Mayor. This is a good start, right track. We We do need some more time for us to digest it, talk to each other, and uh reach out to other people whose voices weren't included yet in the stakeholder process. Water is life. Water is a precious resource. and Tucson has been a good steward of this um compared to most any other municipality in the state or nation. Um we need to keep it up though and it was clear um when Project Blue came to our community we um we heard loud and clear that decisions need to be made about big large water users and that's why we we took this step. Um but there's other contexts too. We're reading about the Colorado River. We're knowing a climate change. We're going to need water to keep ourselves cool with climate change uh to to establish the trees we need. So, some very specifics I just want to mention. Um I don't believe reclaimed water is which should be an offset or an inloo. Um reclaimed water is a water resource. It's in our um one water 100red-year plan that it's a source of water and using reclaimed water is expensive in terms of energy. Um, I do love the idea of zero net water and you know that I've proposed this for a long time. These doing zero net cost water means our water customers, current customers are not um subsidizing these new users. Um, and the inloo fees can be great benefit. We know how to do water conservation. We can do it lots of different ways and we can do it in ways that support our most vulnerable neighbors who don't have the ability to do the water conservation. It would help save their bills. Um I'm a big proponent of shall not may in this case that we need a real penalty especially against these big big folks. Um we shut water off for poor little people who can't pay their bill and um and then we decide to help them if we need to help them. But but I like that.

Um, it also is part of what we're doing elsewhere with the Bloomberg um, initiative. Um, we're continuing to think about how do we attract the new businesses um, whether they're small or large. Maybe they should use a lot of water like a water park, maybe not. Um, but that create great jobs and that will be good community members um, and benefit our community in other ways. It was clear that the data center that came in with their slick hype, their um lying and their hiding of information would not be a good neighbor. And I'm so proud to be part of a deliberative body that is taking the step and took that step immediately to prevent that from happening immediately. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Council member Barahas.

Well, thank you both for just the work you're doing. And I would like to um you know reinstate what uh vice mayor what you shared earlier about including our indigenous tribal communities. So just reemphasizing that I'd like to recommend that recommend that there's some follow-up engagement efforts um especially because our conservation teaching teachings originate from you know from them. So that's uh really important. And then I'm just going to pose some questions. We don't have to answer them, but just due to time, I'm curious to know who who are the large water users and stakeholders in our service area and what types of potential new businesses would likely be the large water users.

Okay, take that, honorable mayor, uh, council member. So, on the portable side, because we have the two water systems, on the portable side, we currently do not have a customer that reaches that 10,000 CCF uh monthly average threshold. Uh we have a few that are close. Uh but to give you the kind of operations locally that uh would be close to those thresholds if we had any new businesses, uh food processing uh is our largest water customer. uh large penitentiary services uh primarily because they have a captive audience 24/7 uh that is using water. Um and then on the reclaim water side, we have about six uh I believe it's about six uh customers on that side that do meet that threshold uh right now and those are related to the the golf industry um throughout the community.

Any other questions? Council Council Member Schubert. I'll be fast. I know we're low on time. Um I just echo the water is life sentiment and really feel that you know that guiding principle that Vice Mayor Santa Cruz called out resonates with me. Um I also liked council member Dah's um comment about water shut off. I think that whatever enforcement mechanisms we have in place should just be assessing fees um but having real real teeth to it. Um I'm also I have a few questions too um that you know um you know you can send me the answers some other time. Um one one thought that I have is how we can embed expert review into the final approved process sort of like how the planning commission um is kind of that mechanism for um code changes. Could we have sew or ccees um add another layer to the um to the approval process for these large water users? Um, oh, and then related to the guiding principle of water is life. I was a little bit intrigued by the notion of CCEES, like what do they think of this ordinance as as the as the commission that is tasked with um overseeing conservation and not just the delivery of our water enterprise. Um so having both those perspectives to kind of balance it out because um I feel uncomfortable with the way that um economic development and conservation concerns are coming into tension and I know we need to balance that and thread that needle. Um so to that end my final question is um you know many of the hesitations by committee members hedged on economic development concerns but it seems important to keep the water application focused on sustainability and conservation. So, for large water user applicants, do we anticipate a separate economic benefit analysis that might address some of those questions and concerns? Um, and I think those are my questions for now, but I really appreciate that everybody seems to be on the same page as far as taking our time. This is really important. We've seen over the summer that hundreds and

hundreds of community members care um about um our water usage and our future water security, the work of the No Desert Data Center. Um, I want to avoid those kinds of situations from coming up again in the future. So, if we have a really strong ordinance that we can lean on and refer to, I think that will go a long way to building public trust. Thank you so much.

Yeah, important points. I think that um not using economic development uh to create the illusion that conserving water is bad, right? And so um it is not mutually exclusive. We can absolutely the goal is you know if an extreme large uh if a customer wants to use an extremely large amount of water they have to prove that they can do it responsibly and we can balance the um the economic development needs with the conservation needs. We we live in the Sonora desert. You know, water is life. Without water, we do not survive as a city, much less uh grow in terms of economic development. So, we've got to be good stewards of the resources that will help us and seven generations from us. So, um, you know, I do want to basically push back on, um, that we, um, passing this ordinance will, um, prevent, uh, you know, uh, businesses to come to Tucson. I I I don't think so. I think that it it it will create certainty that we will have, um, water resources into the future. So I want to keep uh creating good jobs. I want to um make sure that we have a good economy for our children and ourselves um not at the expense of um our water resources. So strengthening the um the way that we are creating these ordinance and strengthening the

responsibility that we all have uh towards the future of waters is really really important for all of us. So I know that today is not the final decision. We're going to continue having this conversation. Thank you so much for um for all of the work put into this so far. I know that the large water uh large quantity water user ordinance also goes hand inand with the land you land land uh use code work that we're doing uh to protect further protect um our water resources. So thank you for for the work. Um this ordinance aligns with our one water 2100 uh work that we have and our climate our broader climate um adaptation goals that we have. So thank you all. Uh looking forward to continued dialogue. All righty. Um the next item I believe is um the PAS update. So we're going to do the PAS update then take a little bit of a break then come back. So item five, time has been set aside as requested by mayor and council for Tucson water to provide an update on PAS for the fourth quarter of 2025. Mr. Manager,

honorable mayor, members of the council, Director Kamik will uh give you his uh quarterly update.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you, honorable mayor, members of council. Um today I'll provide you a comprehensive fourth quarter 2025 update on how the city of Tucson is addressing per poly floral substances commonly known as PAS in our water supply. Uh this update reflects regulatory developments, operational actions, capital pro project progress and ongoing coordination with our state and federal partners. On the drinking water side, uh, as a reminder to the community, Tucson Water continues to provide drinking water that meets all current regulatory standards. We monitor our system extensively and take protective action whenever necessary to ensure public health remains our highest priority. In May of 2025, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will maintain the national primary drinking water regulations for PFOA and PFOS while indicating its intent to extend compliance deadlines to 2031 for most U community water systems and reconsider regulatory determinations for several other additional PAS compounds. Regardless of the potential federal extensions, Tucson Water is not waiting to act. We continue to operate under internal operational guidelines that are in some cases more stringent than federal standards, including targets of less than two part trillion for both PFOA and PFOS. Between October 1st and December 31st of 2025, Tucson Water collected and analyzed 449 PAS uh samples across our system. All portable water delivered to customer remain within our operational standards. To further protect the system, 24 production wells remain airgapped and out of active service due to PAS detections. An additional eight wells are designated as emergency use only in coordination with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. And the 10 tarp wells remain removed from portable use and are currently being used on the

recycled water side. On groundwater contamination, uh, several major groundwater remediation and treatment projects continue to move forward. At Randolph Park, initial well drilling and development were completed. However, the yield of the well did not meet the anticipated capacity necessary to support the proposed treatment configuration. Tucson Water is actively working with our design consultants, ADEQ, and the Air Force to evaluate alternative well locations to ensure effective plume containment and long-term treatment. This placement for future wells is to ensure protection of the city's central wellfield from further impacts. Construction at the TARP AOP PAS treatment pre-treatment project remains on schedule. The project is approximately 45% complete. Installation of the ion exchange vessels and associated piping is underway along with construction of new electrical and control building. Substantial completion is anticipated in July of 2026 with final completion in August of 2026. Uh to date, approximately 12.2 million of the state allocated funding has been expended for that project. And we're going to be setting out a save the date card in the not too distant future for a ribbon cutting for when that pre-treatment facility is is ready. probably late August. In the northwest service area, the Northwest wellhead treatment facility project continues progressing. One well has been completed. A second redrill is nearing completion and a detailed design of the treatment facility and conveyance infrastructure is underway. Based on current production results, Tucson Water may be able to to eliminate a third plan well without reducing the system capacity, improving the overall project efficiency. Uh remedial investigations by the US Air Force at Air Force Plant 44 and by Arizona Air National Guard at Morris Air National Guard base continue. Pilot treatment systems utilizing ion exchange

are operational and long-term treatment facilities remain in design. Some reporting timelines were affected by the federal government shutdown in late 2025, but are back on track. EPA's emergency administrative order issued in May of 24 remains under discussion between EPA and the Department of Defense. While legal interpretations differ, the Department of Defense has affirmed its commitment to incorporating federal PAS drinking water standards into its CIRCA cleanup program and prioritizing sites that impact public drinking water supplies. Tucson Water continues to advocate for durable, enforcable, long-term solutions to protect the tarp wellfield. At the state level, ADQ remains a strong partner following renewal of its agreement with the Air Force, the Central Tucson PAS project. This is the project just north of Davis Mountain that resumed in operations in October of 2025 with funding secured through May of 27. Uh with respect to the national PAS litigation, the city has now received two settlement pay payments under the AF multi-dist litigation. These payments represent approximately 60% of the anticipated allocation estimated at roughly $30 million from 3M and Dupant settlement pool. Additional settlement pools and special claims still remain under review. These funds will help offset treatment, monitoring, and capital expenditures already incurred and those anticipated in future years. On community engagement, Tucson Water remains committed to transparency and public communication. Although the Unified Community Advisory Board or UKAP meeting scheduled for October 25 was cancelled due to the federal shutdown, regular reporting resumed in January of 26. We also continue to update the regional PAS detection map to reflect current sampling data uh not only from ourselves but from municipal uh monitoring and private wells across the region. So in conclusion uh Tucson water continues to act proactively and responsibly in addressing PAS. We are advancing treatment infrastructure

maintaining strict internal operation standards coordinating closely with regulatory partners and pursuing financial recovery through litigation. While regional groundwater contamination remains a complex and long-term challenge for our community, our residents can be assured that the water delivered to their homes meets all applicable safety standards and is being managed with vigilance and care. Thank you, honorable mayor. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, John. Really appreciate it. I just want to remind folks every time we talk about PAS and you give us an update, I I uh like to remind folks, especially those watching at home, that we have already received some settlement funds from litigation and continue to seek reimbursement from uh the responsible parties. Uh my goal has always been um I know my colleagues um and and Tucson Waters goal is very clear that polluters pay not to some families. And so we're going to continue to be really aggressive at going after polluters paying um for remediation. Also, Tucson water continues to be very safe. Uh to it meets federal drinking water standards in many cases uh operates under stricter internal guidelines. We did that with PAIFAS with um 14 dioxan etc etc. So, I just want to remind um especially those that are watching at home uh that we have removed a lot of wells from service uh included, right? If it if it has um um um standards that do not meet uh the Tucson water and and what we're used to delivering to our community. So, our drinking water is safe. it's safe to use in um in your home. And as a matter of personal privilege, I forgot to mention in the last item, the large water large quantity water users that I wanted to thank Eddie Garcia from my office. He attended each and every one of the meetings uh for stakeholders uh for for

that item. So, I just didn't want to lose the opportunity to thank Eric Garcia from my office on that. Open to any questions, comments. Council member Vargas. Thank you, John. Um, my only I guess question is I know UKAP presents itself as that ideal opportunity for the public to listen, to engage, but how are we keeping residents informed like on a more regular basis and to reinsure that our drinking water is safe? because I still get, you know, folks that call our office really concerned if we can work um together on that. Thank you.

Okay. Uh thank you, uh honorable mayor, council member Rahas. So, Tucson Water continues um to update several times a year our water quality outlook in our water matters, which is the our standard bill insert where we transmit a lot of information related to that, related to water quality, amongst water resources and other things. Um so we we do have a site uh that talks about our water quality and talks about what we have done uh related to PAS um as well. Uh but we continue to look for opportunities to share whenever a customer uh is unaware that they're always open to reach out to our our water quality concerns um email and we can answer any questions or concerns that they have related to any water quality. Any others? Council member Schubert.

Thanks, John. Um, just a quick question. Um, I see in the the lawsuit that the Air Force and the National Guard have been required to submit the PAS water treatment plan and other safety measures, but had they been required to stop using um, POS or PFOA?

Thanks, Council Member Schubert. So, the PAS containing AF uh, has been removed, my understanding, from service. uh from the military across department of defense activities. Now there may be some still remaining. I don't know if it's remaining in the Tucson area um just because of different sensitivities of operations related to defense department for but all in all I believe it's all been uh categorized and at least quantified and mostly removed and replaced with different uh perllorinated compounds.

All righty. Uh thank you so much. Thank you u Mr. Kimick. really appreciate it. No other questions. We're going to take a quick 5m minute break and then we're going to uh finish the study session. Hey, hey, hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. boy, but I'll just call him back, but we can start with item cuz we have the clerk here. All righty. So, we're moving on to item six. Uh, this item is an update to mayor and council on the continued efforts by the city of Tucson to improve traffic safety in our community. Mr. Manager, I know that we have a presentation.

Thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Yes, we as you know this is a uh right work in the right hands type topic and that means we have cross departmental teams that work on these issues together. So we do have folks here from transportation mobility and TPD um and they're also bolstered by the efforts of many people across the organization. Having said that they're here representing um the the group and we'll turn it over for the presentation. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Manager, Honorable Mayor, members of the council. Um, thank you for having us today. Um, give an update on our multimodal our annual update on multimotal traffic safety. Um, and I know you we have a lot on the agenda, so I will try and leave plenty of time for discussion. Um, so, um, regrettably, far too many people are killed or severely injured on Tucson streets every year. Um, last year in 2025, 97 people lost their lives to traffic collisions, uh, including 38 people driving or riding in a motor vehicle. 34 people walking, 21 people using motorcycles, and four people riding bicycles. Um this is tragic and unacceptable loss of life. Uh notably, people walking make up a disproportionate share of the total traffic deaths um on our system. Um as you can see, the longer term trend uh yeah, last slide, almost there. Um uh is moving in the wrong direction. Uh again, especially for people walking um for people using motorcycles and driving. Um there's been about an 80% increase in traffic deaths uh over the last decade which slide um was you know mirroring national trends uh for some time. As you can see the orange line there is the total traffic fatalities nationwide with the scale on the right hand side. Um the blue line is city of Tucson traffic fatalities with the scale on the left. Um they're trending approximately together until around 2015 when Tucson started to outpace the trend nationally. Um, some silver lining or good news. We've started to taper off since our high in 2022 and national high in 2020. Uh, and are are roughly tracking back together since. Um, I do want as we get into this topic to just take a second to emphasize some foundational principles and approaches to traffic safety. So, our work is really guided by what is known as a safe systems approach that assumes uh that death and serious injuries on our roads are unacceptable.

uh that humans are vulnerable and we make mistakes. Um that safety is proactive, responsibility is shared and redundancy is critical. You'll also hear and see traffic safety discussed and organized around the five E. Um really both of these are complimentary frameworks that emphasize that traffic safety is a complex problem and requires diverse solutions. We can't just engineer our way out of it or just educate or enforce or or evaluate our way out of it, but it'll take a combination of efforts uh in all those areas. Um thanks to leadership from mayor and council and the work of a lot of our talented and dedicated staff, we have made meaningful changes to our policy planning and design frameworks uh recently and beginning with the adoption of the complete streets policy in 2019. Um subsequently developing our first strategic transportation and mobility master plan. move Tucson um which really prioritized investments. So the project list out of there uh extra weighted uh um investments on safety and on social equity considerations. And we've also updated our street design guidance um following the safe systems approach to focus roadway design around best practices um in traffic safety especially for our most vulnerable road users. Um, of course, traffic safety challenge is not limited to uh the city limits and I want to draw attention to our regional partnerships and collaboration especially with the Puma Association of Governments, Pima County and UVA uh center for applied transportation science. As you all know, we received a federal grant from the safe streets and roads for all program to develop a regionwide traffic safety action plan. That effort is led by Puma County and we're a partner jurisdiction with others. Um we expect to have a draft of that action plan at the middle of this year in June. Um I will um so speaking of funding uh oh so that plan will help guide and target future funding and safety interventions. Um I'll spend a

minute and talk about our funding uh landscape for traffic safety from an infrastructure and engineering side. Um we continue to seek you know all available funds. Uh in total, Tucson is actively investing over $850 million in tra transportation safety infrastructure projects. That includes uh about 550 million in collaboration with the RTA in the TIP at this time. Um 240 million from a combination of Props 407, our parks and connections bond and Prop 411, better streets safe streets bond program, and $36 million of federal grants from the Highway Safety Improvement Program um fund. But really all of our our capital projects and our maintenance projects are aimed at improving safety. Even a simple repaving project that gives an opportunity to narrow travel lanes to add or enhance infrastructure for people walking and biking that wasn't there before. Um and in terms of how we target those investments and how we evaluate uh our needs. So we do work with PAG um with our partners at TPD um and with UVA to understand crash trends by location, by type, and by contributing factors. Um you see here a map a heat map of the all modes traffic fatalities over a five-year period uh in the city um and the frequency of fatal crash types by manner for 2025. So last year and what you can see there is that um pedestrian crashes, left turn crashes and single vehicle um crashes make it the majority of fatal crashes on our network in the last year. Um I'm going to spend the next couple slides talking about uh some of the things we're doing to address these particular crash types. So, first looking at pedestrian crashes, um we know that over 74% of occurred at night and in dark conditions. So, we've been very aggressive in seeking funding to add um lighting on our major streets. Um we have 28 new uh corridor projects for new lighting um from a variety of funding sources that you can see there. Um, we are, as you all know,

experiencing a tremendous uptick in copper wire theft, which has hampered our ability to maintain some of the street lights we do have. Um, we're doing the best we can to get on top of that and, um, implement solutions to prevent that theft from reoccurring. Um, but that is, you know, contributing to dark conditions on some of our major streets. Um, 99% I'm still on pedestrians. A couple more. Sorry.

Yeah, I'd uh I'd love to get off it sooner. U, 99% of pedestrian fatalities occur on our major streets. arterials are collectors. So, um I do want to draw attention to our our Hawk program. We're very proud of that. We have 147 um signalized crossings of major streets for people walking and biking and we have 70 more funded uh over the next 5 years. So, we're moving aggressively in that area. Uh and then Prop 411 has a carve out of $45 million on top of what I've uh discussed there for general pedestrian safety improvements. Next slide. Um so speed uh whether someone is um exceeding the posted speed limit or not. We know that speed uh uh is an an important factor in a traffic fatality because uh you're more likely to survive being hit by a car when the car is moving more slowly. So um some of the things we've been doing um to address speed control on our on our network are narrowing travel lanes I mentioned earlier which are demonstrated to reduce speeds. Um, we do evaluate annual speed limits on our major streets annually using um a best practice tool called US Limits 2, which I can talk more about if if you have interest. Um, in generally we've been lowering speeds on the on the major streets. We've been installing permanent and temporary speed feedback signs, installing speed tables and speed humps where appropriate. Um, adjusting our signal timing um to control have more consistent speeds on our meter streets. Um, and installing local tra uh local street traffic calming. And of course in enforcement plays a significant role in speed management as well. And I know um TPD will um speak to that momentarily. And then finally our left turn uh and intersection related crashes. So, um, we've been retrofitting a lot of our signal technology across the system to have the ability to do protected left turn only, um, or flashing yellow arrow left turns, which we know, um, have, uh, um, are reduced the incidence of severe and fatal crashes due to left turns at

at signalized intersections. We've been implementing leading pedestrian intervals. uh and we have the ability with some of these technology investments to do to hold the left turn in a protected only phase when there's a pedestrian present in a crosswalk. So, we've been implementing that um slowly but surely throughout the city. I would like to draw attention to the investments in Prop 411 in our traffic safety signal technology. So, that's given us the ability to um really upgrade our smart signals to run what's called adaptive signals. It gives our traffic signals the ability to respond in real time to con um conditions on the street to adjust their timing um and without going too deep into the weeds. Basically, that has had a significant impact in reducing red light running among other infractions because the camera can see let that last car through before it turns the phase. So, you don't put someone in a position where they're tempted to run a yellow or run a run a red um because they're detecting that in real time. We have that on 85 different uh intersections across the city and we've seen an 80% reduction in red light running as a result of that. Um next slide please. And then I do want to um reference one um case study that to find try and find some optimism in an otherwise um pretty dark topic. I highlight a project from 2020 where we reduced and reconfigured the lanes on South 12th Avenue from Irvington to Drexel. Um we partnered with the UVA Center for Applied Transportation Science to do a post pre and post uh intervention study. So three years post project we saw a 44% reduction in total crashes on that segment of South Avenue. An almost 85% reduction in pedestrian involved crashes and a 100% reduction in bicycle and fatal crashes with zero since the the intervention. I believe that's still true. Um so we do you know that does help us affirm that you know when we make targeted investments that you know uh to address traffic safety problems we do have some tools in the

toolbox that can work um and uh so I do want to speak also while we're making significant investments in engineering um solutions u and infrastructure we have modest uh and some limited offerings by way of education and encouragement though meaningful um for many years now we've had a safe routes to school program where we provide traffic safety um encouragement and education curriculum to third and fourth graders across the city I think in 150 different classrooms every year. Um we do do in collaboration with our partners at at TPD and others do PSAs related to traffic safety. We have our slow down yard sign um program among other events and and giveaways that we have. Um, and we had a modest budget for bus wraps and and advertisements, traffic safety advertisements, um, which we we don't have at this moment any any longer. Um, and with that, I will turn it over to Lieutenant Jason Brennan to speak about our enforcement efforts related to traffic safety. Thank you.

Thank you, Andy. Uh, thank you, honorable mayor and members of the council. Just to start with, we we recognize that enforcement is just one piece of the traffic safety plan and it's not something this isn't a problem that we're going to be able to enforce our way out of. Uh that that being said, we do know that traffic enforcement is a way to to affect positive change in driving behavior uh amongst our motoring public. Uh what I would add is that on our end, you know, we we can do better in terms of the traffic enforcement that has been uh going on and we have room for improvement. What we plan to do in 2026 is capitalize on the gains that we've seen in our our POP initiatives and the high crime and violent crime initiatives. And we're going to uh recalibrate some of those efforts toward traffic pops. Essentially what a traffic pop is is locations amongst the city that are picked uh in concert with our folks in in the analysis division data driven along with input from our patrol commanders of of areas that they're seeing specific problems in deploy those on a daily basis throughout the city and then rotate those through a quarterly basis. The idea being that we're going to combat the the high collision times that we're seeing from a patrol perspective to leverage our patrol resources to quite simply generate additional enforcement opportunities uh to the ultimate goal of that initiative is to change the the culture of the driving public in the city to assuage any concerns of of overarching or heavy-handed enforcement actions. We we are not limiting officers discretion. uh they do have the ability to still give written warnings. The the overarching goal is is to educate the public through these these opportunities and enforcement to also show to the public that we are doing traffic enforcement while while not and I'm sorry while also focusing on specific

hazardous moving violations within those areas. primarily focused on speeding red light violations and the failure to yield violations that we're seeing that are problems in in our traffic collision data. We're also looking at uh reorgan reorging how we deploy our motor officers on a daily basis. Uh that is also being data driven in how we deploy them. I'd like to thank Andy for his help from DTM. uh we're now using some additional data based on the no traffic model that he was talking about which will factor into how we deploy our motor units separate from the TPOP initiatives to kind of increase uh enforcement. The overall goal that we have is to redesign how we do traffic enforcement to give the impression that we're leveraging the max amount of people across the citywide across the city during our high uh volume hours to to kind of change that driving behavior. Thank you. And this is our our last slide just to kind of summarize the presentation today. Uh in general, unfortunately, trends are worsening over time, especially for motorcyclists and pedestrians. Um meaningful policy planning and design changes are are have are complete and ongoing. Um we're making significant increased investments in engineering and infrastructure solutions. And of course, we have an ongoing need for investments in enforcement, evaluation, and education. Thank you very much. Happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate the update. Um, also Andy, I um requested that Andy present at the Puma Association of Governments. It must have been a month ago. Uh, where we heard from Puma County as well as the Puma County Health Department, Dr. Cullen. Um we are working together both the city county um and hopefully now the Puma Association of Governments to be able to have a regional approach um datadriven um plan that we can all get on board with. And so appreciate that presentation as well. I think it was um it was really really good and an opportunity for um the association of governments and our members to really think about how we do regionwide planning um for the benefit of of people and community. So I know uh vice mayor that you um wanted to jump in on this conversation.

Thank you mayor. Um I had a question before I share some of my remarks. Um, I read a lot in the paper that when somebody um gets hit in like a crosswalk, whether it's a pedestrian or it's a motorcyclist, that they aren't being cited on the spot. Is that because an investigation needs to take place before a citation is given, especially when there is a um a death? Um so curious why a citation doesn't happen immediately.

Thank you, honorable mayor and vice mayor, for the question. Uh in short, in fatal and serious collisions, often times what we're waiting on is the talk screening to come back from the the drivers that are involved. Uh right now, depending on where those results or where those test results we're waiting on come from, can be anywhere from 6 months to 12 months. And that'll impact the charging decisions on uh how we proceed with the case. That's the delay.

Okay. I'm just Yeah. curious um about was curious about that. All right. So, thank you um for the presentation and for the continued cross department work on traffic safety. Um we've been asking for a clear and more complete picture of what is happening on our roadway so we can respond with precision and accountability. Um a couple months ago, Mayor Romero's safe city initiative gave us a city-wide framework for addressing quality of life safety issues. And this discussion is an important opportunity for us to zero in on roadway safety um across car, bike, pedestrian, and transit travel as a core part of that work. Um and then the mayor and I were just discussing how we can include a listening session specific to safety on our public roadways to inform policies we need to implement. Um what stands out to me um in this update is that traffic violence continues to be one of the most serious and preventable public safety issues in our city. According to the memo and and the presentation, we lost 97 people on our Tucson streets last year and fatalities are up 80% over the past decade. We know that this is unacceptable and it demands a system level response from us. Um, so to put this into context, and I know um, uh, TPD just kind of went over this, when we look across the region at major causes of violent and preventable death, we typically talk about homicides, suicides, and overdoses. Traffic deaths belong in that same conversation. Uh, year-to-year traffic fatalities are often in a similar range as homicides. And while overdoses and suicides may be higher at the county level, our roadway debts are one of the few categories that are directly shaped by how we design and ma manage our public infrastructure. That means this is an area where city policy can make a measurable difference. I also want to name something important in the data that when we look beyond the fatalities, we see an even larger layer of harm. Um, over the past 10 years,

we've had nearly 800 fatal crashes, but more than 2,000 incapacitating injury crashes. Those are life-changing injuries. It's disability, it's long recovery, loss of income and instability. And if we're serious about safety, we need to measure and respond to serious injuries, not just debts. Um, you most of you all know that I got hit on a crosswalk and even though it wasn't um, uh, like a long-term disability, I continue, you know, to suffer from the harms of being hit by a car. Um, the fatality heat maps show that these crashes are not random. They are concentrated on specific corridors and intersections. That tells us that this is not just about individual behavior. It's about street design and system design. Um, we also saw in the presentation that certain crash types dominate left turn conflicts, high-speed, straight through crashes involving pedestrians and a high share of deaths happening at night. Those patterns point directly to design solutions, signal timing, protected turns, lighting, speed management, and safer crossings. Um, you uh Andy shared, you know, proof locally that corridor corridor redesign works. The South 12th Avenue project resulted in significant crash reductions, crash reductions, including eliminating fatal and bicycle crashes in in the after period. And that should be our model. And I know it's hard for us um to to do this culture shift, but identifying these high-risisk corridors are systematically and systematically redesign them. Um, with Proposition 411, we were proactive about integrating safety infrastructure into our neighborhood repaving efforts because residents told us their concerns were lighting, safe crossings, and speed mitigation. We listened and we responded. So now we need to bring the same level of urgency and prioritization to our most dangerous corridors. PAG, as

the mayor mentioned, is our regional transportation funding body. They run competitive projects calls that fund corridor and intersection safety improvements and we should be targeting those funds to our highest injury corridors first. So for me um the the next step is clear. We need a formal high injury network map that includes both fatalities and serious injuries and we need to align our project selection, quick build fixes and capital investments to those corridors first. If we believe as the safe system approach says that debts and serious injuries are unacceptable, then we should be organizing our decisions around that principle. So with that, mayor, I have a motion. Um, I move that the Maring Council direct the city manager and Department of Transportation and Mobility in coordination with Tucson Police Department and regional partners to return to Maring Council within 120 days with a multimodal traffic safety action framework as part of our mayor's safe city initiative initiative that includes the following. Development of a city of Tucson high injury network map identifying corridors and intersections with the highest concentrations of traffic fatalities and serious injuries across all modes. That is updated annually. Expansion of the city's traffic safety reporting dashboard to include serious and incapacitating injuries, not only fatalities as core performance metrics. A prioritized list of the top high-risk corridors and intersections with the menu of recommended engineering, signal, lighting, speed management, and crossing interventions matched to dominant crash patterns. Identification of quick build and near-term safety treatments that can be deployed within existing budgets on high injury network corridors. A funding alignment strategy that directs highway safety improvement program, HSIP, safe streets and roads for all. SS4A and Puma Association of Governments, regional and

federal passroughs, funding opportunities, and other safety funding sources towards this high injury network, corridor, and intersection priorities, and a proposed annual reporting structure to the Maring Council so that we can track progress on fatalities and serious injuries by mode and by corridor. Second. I second.

So, there's a motion and a couple of seconds. Uh, thank you, Vice Mayor. I really appreciate um how carefully you prepared that motion because it it really is very thorough. Um and yes, I I absolutely believe that it it absolutely fits under the safe city initiative. We're killing way too many people on our streets and uh being able to, you know, feel comfortable and safe while walking or bicycling, rolling in our streets is part of having a good safe city and a good quality of life. So, thank you for including it there. And I felt from the beginning that that piece was missing. Um I just wanted to ask uh in terms of the 12th Avenue example um and by the way it's a culture shock for many and 12th Avenue we have heard from neighbors or businesses um about the measures the investments that we've done there. Um, and it's it's kind of like growing pains for for the businesses in the area, but um, but before they complained about people driving 60 m an hour down 12th Avenue and and the traffic safety. Uh, so it is a it is a culture shift that has to happen in many of these places. But um it's amazing to hear the difference between what was and what is. Uh can you can you talk about again because I want to make sure that I

you know itch this numbers in my brain about uh the before and after incidents um on bicycle pedestrian and crashes.

Sure. Um so on South 12th Avenue in three years uh following the um the project uh in the lane reconfiguration um we saw a 44% reduction in total crashes. So there were in the three-year period before there were 201 total crashes in that segment of 12th Avenue and there were 111 in the three years following. Um that that takes you through the end of 2023. Um, uh, pedestrian involved crashes, there were 13 prior and two after, or an 85% reduction. Bicyclist crashes, there were two in the three-year period prior and zero in the three-year period after. And fatalities, there were two in the three-year period prior and zero after. And I did check that remains true um today.

Okay. All righty. Well, thank you so much. I just wanted to mention 12th Avenue because it's stark numbers, but it's also a culture shift and painful for some. But when we talk about well, you know, the biggest complaint that you had before these investments was safety, right? That people drove at 60 m an hour through there. And now we've reduced by these numbers. That's always it, you know, people open up their eyes really big and say, "Oh, wow. Okay, I didn't remember." So, thank you. Thank you, uh, Vice Mayor. Really appreciate it. I want to open it up for my colleagues on the council, Council Member Barahas, and then Council Member Schubert. Well, thank you for that. Especially, you know, highlighting 12th Avenue because I did help with that engagement piece back in 2018. And the big concern for a lot of residents, business owners, and just commuters was drag racing and, you know, donuts, illegal um racing. Has that also declined as well? And is that part of the you said it uh the traffic, what is it? Um the traffic pops. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. The as far as the traffic pop locations for the southside patrol division, we do have several that are going to be along the 12th corridor. Yeah, I just wanted to chime in about South 12 because I went to go help paint that with council with Vice Mayor Santa Cruz's office and I would love to do a community project like that again where we bring together different community partners and get out there and do it and it's really heartening to see these numbers. Um I'm very thankful for the motion that Vice Mayor Santa Cruz put forward because we've got to do this more. We have to do this more throughout the city. Um, I'm sure this kind of quick build when you when you factor in the costs um and the benefits, it's pretty clear. Um, so I'm I'm excited for um what this uh what the set of recommendations is going to do and I'm committed to helping push it forward.

Thank you, Council Member Council Lee.

Thank you, mayor. Um, again, I appreciate the the mayor or sorry, the vice mayor's motion. I think it's very thorough and I'm really eager to see what that looks like when that comes back. I think that's exactly the right direction. Um, this is tricky because as we've talked about changing behavior, changing mindset of people is really, really challenging. Um, we talked about enforcement and I just wanted to share an experience that we had recently with the team that did a deployment on Hton and some of the results that we saw. Um, this was a 5-hour long deployment. It was comprised of TPD, DPS, UAPD, and Puma County. And during that time, in 5 hours, they did 285 total stops, 242 hazardous citations for speeding in 5 hours, and 209 non-hazardous citations for expired tags, no insurance, and that's just on one road during five hours. So, we have a very real problem in some of these areas. Um, what was interesting after the deployment, it was kind of mixed. You know, some people were a little more cautious because they knew that people may be lingering around and some people had no idea it had happened and they were still flying down Hton. So that leads me to this continual conversation about how do we responsibly use technology to assist us in traffic enforcement because we don't have enough police officers to be everywhere in 240 square miles all the time. So that continues to be something that I'm thinking about. Um, some of the other challenges that I see, and I know you talked about this a little bit, Andy, with the with the different signals and signs, but the the signaling is inconsistent, right? In some places, for example, at Irvington and Harrison, a flashing yellow light means like this is your chance to go because the other traffic is stopped. And I always have to brief people what different intersections mean with the lights who don't live here. And we have a lot of winter visitors. So, that's always something I'm thinking about, too, is how can we get to a point where we have standardized signaling and people don't

have to know what this light means at this particular intersection. Um, the speed feedback signs I'm particularly interested in because you can see it when you're driving. If someone sees what the speed is, they will hit their brakes just because they're being observed. And I don't know how expensive those things are, but as we're doing this evaluation, I would be really interested to know where some lower cost interventions can go. Um, and again, the the technology piece is particularly interesting to me, but I I really liked the 85 intersections that have that smart signal technology had an 80% reduction in red light running. So, that's huge to me because if for any reason we cannot use traffic cameras any, you know, now or in the future, then we're going to have to think of other ways to do that. So, I was curious if you knew, Andy, of a plan to deploy more of those across the city or if we just have the 85 or is there still a plan to do more of that?

Yep. Thank you, um, mayor and council member Lee. We do have a plan to do more of that. Yeah. Um, so that it basically it takes a hardware and a software investment and we have to change um some signal heads and we have to change the cabinets and the controllers. Um, we're doing that with the Prop 411 traffic. There's a carve out in Prop 411 safety funds for traffic signal upgrades. Um that covers most of our network and we're perk funds and others to continue rolling it out um citywide. So So you do expect citywide we'll have this capability. Um I'm not positive that we have all intersections in the city funded at this time. I think there is a a gap there still. Um but I know we have many more fun. Okay. Get back to you on what is and what isn't.

Perfect. And last piece on the education and encouragement. I I talked to the vice mayor about this and the mayor, you know, how could we partner with the county, with the state, with the federal government because these behaviors we're seeing on the road are everywhere, right? It's not just a Tucson problem and people drive through our city. So, if there are opportunities to partner on educational campaigns or um I shared with the vice mayor recently some really powerful commercials that came out of um Ireland and I think New Zealand like 10 years ago that are storytelling that really pull people in to get them to start to think about the impact of of their behaviors on the road. Um that's the type of stuff I'm interested in seeing what we could partner with other jurisdictions to to start to help get people get to get people to think a little differently when they get behind the wheel. So, um, the last piece, I promise, is, um, is involving both of you all when you do these traffic deployments, and I talked to TPD and DTM separately, but just wanted to put it out here to the group. When we had that deployment on Hton, we also had an overlap with a lot of potholes, and I was really concerned for the safety of our motorcycle cops out there. I got a picture today. It's not a 5 foot two pothole, but it's literally five feet by two and a half feet on Irvington. No kidding. You could lay inside of it, mayor. I don't want you to, but you could fit inside of this pothole. And those are the things that I want to make sure you guys are collaborating on when you do those traffic enforcements to make sure that our team members are safe out there on the roads because that is really important for the community to be safe. But when we know we're doing these deployments, we need to make sure we can go out ahead of time, make sure the roads are are extra safe for our officers out there.

Well, part of the deployment, we could have transportation department like prep the road exactly before that deployment. Go ahead, mayor. May I offer a point of clarification?

Yes. Uh, Council Member Lee, the so the deployment that you saw in Hton, what I didn't mention in this is also part of our regional traffic task force that we're forming with DPS, UVA, and PCSO. Um, that's separate from the TEOP initiatives and and our goal with those is to deploy those monthly. The idea being that to your point, it is a it is a region behavior that we do see. Um, and by working with those other stakeholders, it it leverages our assets. You know, in that case, we had, I think, 35 units out there, which is is significant. And being able to do that on peripheral fringes around the UOVA area with those other stakeholders gives us a whole lot of ability to to leverage our our, you know, enforcement abilities. Um, as far as DTM goes with that that red light camera or the red light, I shouldn't say red light camera, red light m red light running mitigation. Um to your point about datadriven policing, that system also catalogs when they do have red light runs. And so what we're using that from the enforcement side is okay, yes, we did mitigate some red light runs at this intersection, but we also saw this many that still ran the red lights. So what we're doing with our motor officers is saying, okay, we have data to show what intersections are pinging high numbers and sending them to go do enforcement at those locations. That's excellent. That's great to know. Um, also related to your to your comments, Councilwoman Lee, um, and and your motion, Vice Mayor, the funding alignment strategy that directs highway safety improvement program, safe streets and roads for all um, from the Puma Association of Governments. That's going to be really important as we do this regionally um because we have to make sure that we

are um funding the areas that are most problematic and so being able to be on the same page and the work that TPD is doing with other uh law enforcement agencies is equally important. We have to make sure that those maps are, you know, they're data driven. They're fact-based and uh that's where investments have have to happen. Council member Barahas.

And and to carry on that motion and thank you, Vice Mayor, for bringing this to our attention and bringing up the motion cuz looking at the pedestrians will really help with the prevention work. I want to see, you know, cuz you stated that a lot of these accidents are occurring at night and due to street lighting. Is there a way that we could also I would like to recommend if there's a way we could put almost like a audit of our street lights to see what lights are working, what lights aren't. So that way we could focus and prioritize some of the the corridors that don't have ample lighting because that also goes handinhand with um you know probably that concentration of the map of the areas that we see most you know in need. Thank you.

Yep. Uh thank you mayor and council member Barahas. we are um generally aware of where the lights are working and where they're not. Um we have um some remote ability to detect that. Um and when that system isn't functioning, which it has some issues, we do go out and expect inspect and and when we receive complaints, I should mention that um whether wire theft related or not wire theft related, um we prioritize sending our crews and our contractors. So we have a significant outsourced effort to to catch up to the problem um of replacing um damaged street lights. uh we are prioritizing those based on safety. So we do look at um prioritizing major street corridors first if they're on our high injury network or in major crash corridors um if the outages are near pedestrian crossings or bus stops or major pedestrian attractors or generators. Um that's where we're trying to prioritize the fixes first because we do have a large backlog. That's why I'm sure you're hearing from many folks in the neighborhoods, hey my my street lights been out. I I request this a long time ago. um some of those local street um lighting issues have have, you know, necessarily slipped towards the back as we prioritize the major streets. We do try and if we're the crews in the area and they can get to it and we're aware, we try and go fix those those two. But just so you know, we are absolutely using safety data to try and um prioritize our our lighting investments both for repairs and new lighting.

Honorable mayor, if I could add to that just real briefly, in the FY26 budget that you adopted last year, there was a 1.2 2 million supplemental request um out of HERF to address copper wire theft, which was thought to be enough to kind of catch us up. Uh we have another unmet need of the same amount for FY27 because that's in the HERF side of the equation. I'm expecting we should be able to put that into the mix. Um but I just wanted to let you know that the it's also being backed up by significant funding on the copper wire theft piece.

Oh, good. All righty. Uh if we're going to have to move on. Uh but we do have to vote first. Um a continued discussion for sure. I mean this is really important for all of us. Thank you vice for the motion. Um all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying I.

I. Any against? Motion carries. Um thank you so much. Really appreciate it. We're moving on to item seven. Item seven. Time has been set aside for an update on activities uh regarding PAG RTA on the delivery of the 2006 RTA program and RTA next. Mr. Manager, honorable mayor, members of the council, um because there's no um regional council RTA board meeting this particular month, um traditionally we're looking for guidance and things that the mayor then carries forward into those meetings. uh we don't have that facing us this particular meeting um but we did provide some update on on general activities around RTX. Uh Mr. Beas if you have anything you wanted to add background certainly. Um thank you mayor Tim. Um we have included in your materials a summary of the activities at the last RTA board meeting in the PAC regional council. Um, I think would like to call your attention to the request that was made at one of your last meetings and that we had forwarded in writing to the RTA executive director and their general counselor council to inquire about the feasibility or eligibility of using RTA1 dollars to continue funding transit operations beyond the end of FY26. So, we've included that exchange including their response uh in your materials. Uh in short uh uh the the the answer was they don't ex uh um anticipate that being an eligible expenditure of RTA1 dollars. Um there was an update on the status of uh the remaining RTA projects and I think that was the extent of the um significant updates at the most recent meeting. Uh the next meeting I believe was scheduled for March 19th. I think that may be being rescheduled now but sometime in late March if I'm not mistaken.

End of March. Yeah. Thank you. That that's all.

Um, also I want to thank Supervisor Hines for bringing the discussion about high-speed transit in Mexico uh to the board to the Puma Association of Government's board. hearing from our colleagues um about uh the plan that President Sha Shambomb um administration has is exciting especially the highspeed train to Ngales Sonora uh and the possibility of thinking about a vision for high-speed transit for Arizona uh from Ngales to Tucson and then Tucson to um to Phoenix was very very exciting to to be able to hear from uh government officials uh from Mexico really thinking ahead um and really making multibillion dollar investments in high capacity uh transit was just really wonderful to hear. So I think that's exactly what the Puma Association of Governments should be doing and should have been doing um uh for the last 15 years. But I think uh we're catching up and I wanted to especially thank uh Supervisor Hines for for bringing that conversation and lining up all the speakers to us. Uh other than that, that's all the report I had for um Puma Association of Governments. I'd be more than happy to open it up for questions uh from the colleagues on the council.

Uh Council Member Do. Yeah, I'm intrigued by the high-speed train. Is that the new uh line from Rosio to Nogalas? Um uh President Manuel Lopez Orador started the Tren Maya which kind of opened up highspeed um rail from um Mexico City to other cities uh close. This one is from continuing some of that line all the way to Ngales Sonora.

Um, so it it really was an exciting presentation and and we had I think the subsecary of transportation and transit and from me from the president's um uh from the president's cabinet present to us. It was really very exciting and um something I think that we have to talk about but also make sure that the governor and state legislature is hearing about the ad advancements in transit um happening on the Mexican side of the border. So if they can do it maybe we could do it.

Absolutely. Hope absolutely. Any other comments, questions, input, observations? All righty. So, um, other than that, anything else, Andy? All righty. Thank you so much. We're moving on, uh, to item eight. Let me call the item. Item eight, I've requested uh that this uh this item for mayor and council to receive an update on the efforts to support the unsheltered homeless uh crisis in uh in our region and um I know that we have um an update from Brandy Champion. Thank you all so much for uh for the update and putting this together. Miss Champion,

honorable mayor and members of the council, I am happy to give you this update today. Um, I want to start by saying that we are um continuing to take a balanced approach to everything that we're doing, right? Specifically, our enforcement, our outreach, um our housing pathways for folks. We're working all together um through the Safe City Initiative um to do these things. Um the goal here isn't just to clear people out, move people along, and um just cause a whack-a-mole effect, right? The the idea of this is to get people into the services they so desperately need. Um aligning them with services that'll get them to a place of stability um and keeping our communities and our neighborhoods safe. Right. Um, before I go on, because I have a lot to cover in a very short amount of time, um, I would like to give my colleagues a chance to come to the podium and give you an update about some things that they're doing. So, I'd like to call on Cat Davis with Tucson Puma Collaboration to End Homelessness and Justin Hamilton, who is our multi- agency resource coordinator.

Honorable mayor and council, thank you so much for having me here today. Um I want to highlight some new data that was submitted from TPCH to housing and urban development. This is our longitudinal system analysis data which is a picture of our system performance over the whole last fiscal year. Um so this uh covers FY25 and the overall number of people served by the whole system uh increased from FY24 to FY25 to 5,974 individuals. This is about a 9% increase over the FY24 numbers. Um approximately 80% of the individuals served are single adults. The other remaining 20% are um either multiple adult households or households with children. Um one indicator of the demand of our homeless response system is the number of people unique individuals who complete a housing questionnaire each year. Um this housing questionnaire is what can prioritize and match people to housing as kind of the first step into the homeless response system. Um and so the number of people who completed a housing questionnaire decreased from FY24 to FY25 to 6,949 individuals. This is about a 6% decrease from the year before. So overall um decrease to demand on the system and increased number of people served is a positive indicator overall. Um there was also a significant decrease in the number of um average number of days homeless for people. So um in FY24 that was 106 days and that dropped in FY24 to 89 days. So this is over two weeks of time where people are no longer on the streets reducing harm, trauma, um

stress, etc. So this is a really great indication of our system performance. Um one area that remains challenging is the returns to homelessness. So um people who are housed and then re-enter the homeless response system. Um so that number increased from 5% to 8%. Um, TPCH has established a new prevention and stabilization committee um to help improve stabilization systemwide um and to help prevent future um in increases in returns to homelessness. Um the point in time count was also completed January 28th. Thank you to those who um participated. Um we had over 400 volunteers register. No major incidents reported the day of the count. Currently, that data is being cleaned um and we anticipate having some preliminary data by April 1st. Um that will go out publicly and then we'll have finalized data from HUD um later in the summer. Um and then lastly, February 12th was TPCH's most recent general council meeting. At this meeting, our strategic plan was adopted. Um, so it's available online now, but we'll also be sending out an email announcement about that later this week in social media, so you'll see it around hopefully. Um, so that is all from me and I will hand it over to Justin for further report.

Thank you, K. Thank you, Brandy. Uh, honorable mayor, um, council members, let me get this microphone where I need it. about right about right there. I'd like to give a a brief update on our operation clear path, our safe city deployments that we've done since uh December and January this year. Um we did have three deployments uh that resulted in uh 54 direct contacts. We had one deployment uh December 10th at 12th in Irvington. uh one on December 17th at 6th and I 10 and one on January 21st to the 22nd Street corridor from Crayoft heading east. Um out of these three deployments in the 54 direct contacts, 27 people accepted services, that brings us to a 50% acceptance rate of services. And I just want to stop there um and just for briefly for a moment and talk about when I started my career with the city uh providing outreach to the unshelter was very very challenging on on any given week out of one out of every 10 folks that you engage with would accept services. Um the burnout was real. Um the struggle was real for each outreach worker trying to sit on the side of the road and try to call shelters and available service providers. Um with our deployments now that's not happening. Um, everybody's working as a cohesive team. Um, all of our partners are really enjoying our deployments. Um, it just makes us feel like we're not alone out here doing our job, that we are all one team helping our community together. So, I just wanted to touch on that real briefly before I hit everybody with all the numbers. So, out of those three deployments we did, we had 50% uh acceptance rate. Um, we were able to remove 2 ton 2.5 tons of debris from these deployments from these areas. also improving the accessibility of these spaces for everybody and the quality of life in these in these spaces. Um, like I said, we've had long-standing challenges over and over again with service acceptances. And I and I believe

and I've personally witnessed this with our deployments. The trust that we've built with our clients has improved, too. Our clients are actually listening to us and trusting us and believing in us. So, I mean, not only are we building trust in the community, we're also building trust with our clients by our follow-through and our consistency through our deployments. So, also, I do have one that did not make it on here. We had a decommissioning yesterday in collaboration with uh the state of Arizona, uh, Los Rial State Land between Alurnon and Swan on Valencia. Um, we did a decommissioning in collaboration with the state yesterday. Um 35 structures were removed from the site with 60 tons of debris. Uh 21 RVs and we were successful in getting six people into the safer center right off the bat right at the beginning of the operation. So, and that's all I have and I'm here to answer some questions if anybody has any.

Wow. Um Cat and and Justin, thank you so much for the update. It's it's incredible the work that our teams are doing. um in collaboration with other nonprofit groups and organizations as well as with our um police department. It's important to note that um the safe city deployments and the work that we're doing holistically are not meant to incarcerate but find help, right? there very specifically to make sure that we're connecting uh individuals that need the help to the services uh that they need. And so just hearing you uh Justin and um really looking at the memo that the that the service acceptance increasing means that there are um that um we're creating trust with community but it's also um combined with the enforcement that we're finding the individuals that are committing crime. that there are um you know that we have to make sure that we hold people accountable and that those are committing crimes, selling drugs or causing harm to other unsheltered folks uh need to be held accountable for uh for the trouble that they're creating for others. So, I really am um appreciative of the report and um appreciate all of the work. I'm sorry I jumped in. Okay. Uh Brandy, go ahead and if you want to add anything else and finish your question.

Oh, yes. I I will finish my last few points pretty quickly here. Um honorable mayor, members of the council. Um, I had the opportunity to take the vice mayor um and supervisor Kono and supervisor Allen on a tour de Tucson so to speak um of our shelters um last week and we were able to tour Casa del Pueblo which otherwise known as AI 8. Um we were we toured Star Village and we toured the Wildcat. So there was a lot of questions, a lot of conversation that happened. I had to keep moving people along. Come on, you guys. We got to keep going. Um, and it was uh really informative and and really collaborative to see our vice mayor and some of our supervisors taking this tour. There were some questions asked about our homeless work program, which is exciting. Um, uh, I can't wait to hear more about that. And, um, I just thought it was great for our leadership to go there. I think that at one point um some of the clients asked if they could speak to our leadership um which they agreed to and they really thanked them and this was at Star Village. I mean, this was at the outdoor space. Um, and they really thanked them for opening that or for initiating that because um, they weren't really comfortable going inside and now they've had the opportunity to get stabilized and begin their stabilization journey toward their housing or whatever's next for them. So, um, I just wanted to say, um, thank you to Vice Mayor for reaching out, um, and allowing me to host you guys. Um the transition center is something that's great. It's exciting. We have two employees. The Pima County Transition Center, as you all know, um the city provides two employees there that are navigators that are able to drive um and transport clients, whereas Puma County um direct service staff aren't necessarily um permitted to do that yet. Um so we do provide that that service with those two staff members. They're expanding. Um

they're getting ready to go seven days a week from 7 am to 1:00 a.m. Um and that's to be effective around April 1st. They're in the process of recruiting right now to fill those hours. So that's another um uh really good thing that gives us diversion capacity. Um it also gives us fewer unnecessary bookings in jail. It gives us less ER visits with that transition center open. um and connects people to real crisis services and gets people moved along into some case management and some stability plans. Um a few more things here. I'll be really quick here. Um across all of our city- owned shelters, I just want to point this out. Um we currently have across the six shelters that we we operate one of and partner with the other five people on, we have 307 adults and children that won't sleep on the street tonight. That's our current census. That to me is incredible. And that just goes to show that all this coordinated systemwide work is working right. Um, small but mighty. Um, and those are the things that we need to scale. And I think that what vice mayor and the supervisors were interested in seeing what are these low barrier situations look like. People bringing in their pets, their property. As we've always talked about, even at one of the congregate shelters, you can bring your partner. your partner goes to the other bay, but you can meet in the middle and visit throughout the day and and go out together and then come back and go to your your respective bays. So, um this is is working. It's not just about the beds. It's about connecting households to health care, um case management, um getting them uh headed towards long-term stability, right? Um again, I just want to congratulate Justin and his work. 50% acceptance rate outreach deployments. I mean, incredible, right? The partnership and the collaboration and the coordination that it takes to go into this. This is heavy work. And I just want to congratulate Community Safety,

Health and Wellness, Housing First as a whole. Great team of people, all of you here. Thank you so much. Um, the expansion of the transition center services is going to be great. I'd like to do a shout out to Kate Vesley. She's a wonderful person to work with. Um, very creative. Um and I think that in when necessary enforcement is a must as you said Mayor Romero um consistent outreach sustained maintenance um is what gives us those drives those numbers towards acceptance of services right staying out there staying on people saying hey we have a solution the safer center being a good drop off point for our our core officers and our outreach staff and our encampment assessors imperative it's working right now it's working Right. Um, community confidence is improving. Although you guys don't hear a lot about it, I know that this mayor and council get beat up a lot. We get the emails that say, "Thank you, Justin. Great job. We appreciate you so much. Thanks, officer, whoever it is that that helped on a deployment." We're the ones that get to see those thank you emails and the gratitude that the community shows towards getting a fast response out to an encampment and and handling the situation. You guys might get beat up a lot and I'm so sorry, but we're the ones that get to see the back end result of what's happening. Um, public safety and humanitarian efforts are not separate things. They're united. And um, I just want to again thank you all for being able to give us our um, autonomy to work in this space and to pilot things and try them and then pivot and try another thing and and um, scale that. So, um, that concludes my updates and I'm open for questions.

Thank you, Miss Champion. Really appreciate it. And I think that's why for me it was so important to have these updates on a monthly basis so that we can stay on track and also uh inform the community. We do get the nice emails once in a while, Brandy. Uh I I have been receiving and I've been thanked a lot um by uh neighborhoods neighbors basically thanking us for the safe city initiative that people are seeing tangible results as we pulled everything together and uh coordinated and and started piloting our safe city deployments at a deeper level. Um we're we're seeing we're seeing a lot of getting a lot of uh neighbors seeing the the tangible results from it. Um, I think it's important and I want to thank Vice Mayor Santa Cruz for uh her invitation to Supervisor Kano and Supervisor Allen, taking them to the tour and personally showing uh how well, you know, the uh the low barrier shelters that we have uh and our safe outdoor sleeping site are are managed and coordinated and operated. operated by incredible people that work for us. Uh I think that um especially during these times where we're seeing federal funds dry up specifically for the work that we're doing, it's going to um be very important that we continue working with uh Puma County uh so that we could continue delivering the services that um are important for

both the community but the unsheltered people that we're serving and that we're finding uh solutions for. So, I really thank you for that and you know and they'll be prepared uh to have a conversation in in our uh very near future joint meeting. Um and then lastly, I just wanted to talk about Star Village and um I received a couple of um questions from the media about it closing and I'm like, "Wait a minute. I was just there. Um, and we talked about with um with the the Prima Vera uh and OPCS uh executive directors, we talked about, hey, we need to get ourselves ready uh to what happens uh after we after the pilot period. Uh and the pilot period doesn't end till October if I if it is I I think October of this year. We really have to start planning now as to how we fund the continuation and even see if OPCS and Primava are still interested in in um in providing these services for for the most vulnerable. So I just wanted to kind of flag it and bring it to your attention and see how we're planning. And maybe this is a question for for Liz or Brandy if you'd like to respond.

Honorable mayor, council members, Liz is aware um and we are absolutely um on top of it. We're discussing ways in which um that can be continued. Um it's much needed. So um absolutely it's on our radar. Absolutely. Did you want to jump in Liz?

Um thank you mayor. I can tell you in speaking with Prima Vera, we are actively tracking the outcomes. My hope is in the uh very soon we will be able to give a very full report both programmatically and financially. Um Prima Bear is very very much committed to seeing this pilot through and potentially uh working together to identify funding if if it's the decision of mayor and council to continue this. But at this point um all the results that we are seeing uh in this very short time period is very positive. Any other questions, comments? Vice Mayor,

I just um wanted to jump in and thank you um Brandy and your team for all the work that you're doing. Um, uh, it just makes me feel so proud of, um, not only the work of this Marine Council and staff, but your team and and how, um, just like the not only the passion they have, but the integrity and care into all the work. And so, um, thank you for putting that team together. And I know a lot of it is because they have lived experience and know how challenging it is, um, to to make that transition and the support that's needed. Um, and I also I just wanted to just share with my colleagues that like again my going that extra step of of bringing along um our county supervisors is you know what we envision for this vice mayor position that it's um uplifting amplifying the work the council but also getting commitments to support our work and and help invest in the work that we're doing because we know that it's working. Um so just again thank you to my colleagues for the opportunity to serve as vice mayor in this position. Any others? All righty. Well, thank you so much for the update. Really appreciate it. Um and appreciate the entire team for your work. All righty. So, we are moving to item nine. All righty. So item nine, time has been set aside for discussion direction relating to ma matters pending in front of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions and joint meetings. Mr. Manager,

honorable mayor, members of the council, you'll see a little bit of a shift of how we're handling the next two items. Um, we've we've got the band back together here. So, we have uh Stephanie Zamora rejoining us at the table um working closely with Laura Dent uh because there's a lot we Jackie Vega did a great job of setting up our process by tracking lo local jurisdictions and she is still engaged in that. Um Stephanie's now taking it kind of to the next level. So, for these two items moving forward, you'll see both Laura and Stephanie at the table whenever possible and they'll sort of tag team our way through the next two items. So, you can see the synergies there. So, with that, we're we're local in Puma County. So, uh Stephanie, take it away.

Good afternoon, honorable mayor, members of the council. I prepared and submitted a report, um overviewing some recent actions from uh Puma County Board of Supervisors and other regional jurisdictions. Um at the county level, this included um both a regular uh meeting as well as a retreat where uh several uh topics were discussed such as uh special taxing districts. Um the county took a look at their budget and fiscal outlook for the next year. Um and they also um just yesterday um had a meeting regarding uh different uh immigration policy updates. If you have questions about that, I'm very happy to answer them. Otherwise, in other uh jurisdictions, uh Mor uh Morirana approved a resoning for a proposed large scale data center project and right now they're going through uh referendum petitions that have been submitted seeking to refer that reasonzoning to voters. So, if significant um amount of signatures are validated, that resoning approval would be suspended uh pending election results. Um, and we also have a little bit of an update from Rion We Neville again uh included in that report. Uh, pretty short today. So, if uh anyone including mayor and council have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Stephanie, what um I was just leaning over and talking to our clerk about was the joint meeting with the Puma County Board of Supervisors. I think we're targeting March 3rd uh to make that happen. And I was asking her, I think we need to have you all submit um topic priorities to speak with the board of supervisors about. The first meeting that we had was highly focused on unsheltered homeless and um the opioid settlement funds. So um I think councilman, you had brought up an issue that we should touch base with them if you can choose like the top three issues. uh that you'd like to talk

about. It's um important for us to hear from you so that we can know, you know, what what to focus on in our joint meeting. Other than that, I don't know if you have any questions on uh for Stephanie on the Puma County Board of Supervisors. I do, Mayor. I I would just ask that you send me those three top uh items that you want put on the agenda by at least Tuesday of next week because I do have to work with PE County Board of Supervisors to get that agenda prepared and posted in time for the March 3rd meeting

and yeah, you have to work with the clerk. Um the potential um meeting spot is going to continue being the Puma Association of Governments. That worked out well. The first time we uh we met, I think we all fit in the table plus uh presenters. So, uh we're going to be we're going to be using that space as well. And then the the plan is having our study session and then a break uh meeting with the board of supervisors. uh lunch I think it's going to be provided by

Puma County or PG uh Pima counties this time around and then and then we'll have the meeting with the joint meeting with the board of supervisors. Am I missing anything? Okay. All righty. Um other than that, any questions about that? Council member Rodus,

if I can add my two now so we don't so I don't forget. Um, thank you for presenting. I would love if we could add the safe streets for all Puma County safety action plan to provide an update and then also the Puma County regional housing strategy and Tucson's Tucson HCD's PIP plan, regional housing needs assessment.

All righty. We're going to still ask you to write that down so that we can I know you're trying to get out of that. Um we're going to still ask you so that we can kind of coordinate it. Well, um other than that, we're going to move on to item 10, which is an update on state national legislation. Time has been set aside for mayor and council to receive an update on the state and national legislation uh and regional committees executive orders and direction uh to any associated litigation. Um Mr. Manager, did you want to kick us off? We can uh go straight to Laura Dent on this.

Thank you.

Uh thank you honorable mayor, members of the council. I'll go ahead and start with a state update. We do have a new election schedule. Uh, Governor Hobbs signed HB 2022 into law this month, which pushes the primary elections date for the state forward two weeks. So, elections are now on July 21st. That also bumps up candidates signature gathering deadlines to March 23rd. So, if you see lawmakers out there in the streets, their their timeline just got shorter. Um, this bill was accelerated to make sure that elections administrators and and candidates and voter education work could happen promptly. So, um that is why that moves so quickly. I did want to give you a brief update on revenue bills. There are a handful of um revenue bills that undercut local control that are moving forward at the legislature. There were a couple in committee this week. I'll just highlight two. The first is um SP 1745, which would limit a city or town with a population of 550,000 or more to an excise tax rate of no more than 2.5% unless voters approve a higher rate. So that is a explicit carve out for our two largest cities in the state. And then another one that uh was heard in committee this week, a pair of companion bills is HCR 2052 and HB30. Um this bill would prohibit counties and municipalities from increasing fees, transaction privilege tax rates, search charges or utility rates for 5 years. So think Ramada fees, water rates, uh bed tax, all the things would be on a hiatus for 5 years. Um the particular threat around uh the HCR is that it would um essentially if approved bypass the governor's veto or signature and go directly to the ballot. So we're working hard with peer stakeholders. Um it was a robust uh conversation I'm understanding in committee today. So we'll keep you posted. Um relatedly uh next week is crossover week. So bills that start in the House uh go to the Senate start in the Senate go to the House. So, we are

going to see this week is also the last week that bills can be heard in committee. So, we're going to see the universe narrow. That will also help inform some of the updates that we're providing you here since there's just so many bills out there. Um, we're going to get a better sense of what's moving in the next couple of days. Uh, moving into our federal update. We are in Before you move on to the the federal update, my brain is burning right now. Um, because HCR 202 is veto proof. Correct. or no? Correct. U Mayor Romero, it would go directly to um the voters via a referral. It's veto approved. Then it could it they don't need the governor would not be able to veto it

if if it were passed. Yes. And would this be scheduled for a November election? That is correct. So, if this bill um if this ballot referral were to pass, the city of Tucson would not be able to have um an initiative, a voter initiative. My understanding is that that would be the exemption, but there would be a full freeze of revenues and fees at this fiscal year rate for 5 years. Okay? So action couldn't be taken um by local leadership.

So that we would be able to have for example uh voter initiative for bonds or uh sales taxes um through voter approval. Yeah, my understanding is that is correct. Okay. But then SB 1745 would limit cities Tucson, Phoenix, maybe even mess up from um having more of a more than 2.5 um sales tax percentage.

Yes, I believe so. And I would like to consult with the attorney around the layering of those because I do believe there are different types of revenues. And I um I'm not positive if that is a collective or if that refers to a basic sales tax rate. So, okay, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, I was just telling the mayor it's it's just so hypocritical, right, when it's okay for them to tax us 5%, right, of the sales tax and then we the city can only do two and a half. So, I think people forget that the state taxes us the most and we see very little in return from them. Um, and just another example of of Republicans trying to override, you know, municipal authority. Um, and completely out of touch with our economic realities here in the city of Tucson. Um, you know, we're dealing with all the bad economic policies, you know, from Republicans, from Doug Ducy's flat tax, the impact of tariffs, the decline in tourism because of the Trump administration's hostility towards our neighbors in Mexico and abroad. Um, and we even so our we are tightening our our belts across all the departments. So these the if these bills become law, they would create even more restrictions for Tucson's right to raise its own revenue and provide valuable city services for our residents and then getting people throughout the state to weigh in on how larger cities, you know, kind of operate. Ridiculous. Well, this is on top of the Doug Ducey flat tax um that the state legislature passed uh that really has taken millions of dollars uh from um from the budgets of cities and towns throughout Arizona. It's just it is as I said, my brain is still burning. Um my hair my hair will be on fire if these bills pass. Um Council Member Cunningham and then Council Member Vakas.

The maneuver by the state legislature is nothing new. It still amazes me that we're probably one of the only cities in the country whose state government seems to actively worked against its success. I guess my question is why the legislature is supposed to serve the state of Arizona is not supposed to serve the fictional place called the state of Maricopa. This is not unexpected. It is still getting old. Um, we have a couple of pieces to this and that is that I guess part of my question about some of these are how many uh of these bills treat Maricopa County towns and cities different than Puma County towns and cities. And I'd like to pose that question whenever we bring these up because a lot of times there's some nuances in this and you go why would we even do this? the league should have already kind of stopped this and a lot of times they uh single out Tucson or try to single out Pimac County. Some of you found out recently that Santan Valley is the newest town or municipality in the state of Arizona. That's no secret and it's not a surprise considering that Panal County recently met the threshold on the penalized tax basis. This goes back to the discussion of that we're hurting ourselves by not having incorporated areas. People who live in Catalina Foothills, Vale or Green Valley who probably never watched this meeting should understand why Santan Valley Incorporated.

Uh and it relates to our previous item. We're struggling behind a lot of different uh pieces. Our property taxes and making Tucson affordable are hurt because we're providing those municipal services to areas that should be getting state shared revenues and pro and charging their own sales taxes. So, these discussions have to keep evolving. We have to keep bringing them up. Um we're never going to get respect from the legislature until we play their game as well. So, um I'll be visiting the legislature tomorrow. Um in a I think my first visit to the floor in about 16 years. The first time I visited the floor was in 1994. Um, and I know that seems even I seem a little young for that, but uh I visited the floor actually in 1993 or 1994 1993 um and was introduced on the floor by my father who was serving in the legislature. So, I'll be at the legislature tomorrow uh and I'll be met with some some great folks who who understand Arizona, but sometimes they don't understand Tucson. that's our job to get them there. Uh in the meantime, um that's really my big question is how are they treating us differently and what can we work with other cities on and what can we work with other counties and cities on that are just outliers where they're where when we have a bill that's Maricopa County, we have to fight it with all the other counties. Doesn't matter what party they are. There are a lot of people in La Pass County that would oppose this bill even though they're on the opposite political spectrum as me and we've got to we've got to u appeal to their uh paternal instincts. All right, that's

it.

Thank you. Uh Council Member Cunningham, I think the the SB 1745 limits a city or town with a population of 550,000 or more. I think that targets Tucson and Phoenix very directly. I think Phoenix just passed um and they didn't have to go to their voters. They can pass it by a majority of their mayor and council a half cent sales tax uh ve very similar to the one that 414 the one that we put in front of voters funding very very similar issues. Um would that would that remove cuz that went up their their sales tax went up. Would that basically say no like kind of go back on what the Phoenix City Council just did? I wonder if it's retroactive.

Yeah, I I think it's probably best uh mayor to do some diligence around whether that would have retroacterative impacts or just be moving forward.

Okay. All righty. And maybe Messa might be at 550 now. I'm not sure. Maybe 520. Anyway, but it's very obvious that it's targeting both Tucson and Phoenix. Um, you know, and targeting uh those of us that run the city. Uh, which is which is horrible. I agree with you, Council Member Cunningham. I mean maybe other cities around the country have to face similar um uh attacks by their own state. Um I I hear from my fellow mayors. I know that there is an alliance being formed right now. It's blue cities in red states. Um I think it's just going to be more of a therapy group. I'm not I'm just kidding. Um, but I I'll I'll bring some information to all of you just to keep you informed on how other cities interact. Uh, blue cities interact with their very Republican um, state legislatures. Go ahead, Laura. Sorry for interrupting.

Not at all. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. So, moving into our federal update, we are currently in a partial shutdown that is affecting the Department of Homeland Security um including FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, Secret Service, ICE, and cyber security operations. Um essential personnel are still working. Um this is a fight over uh ICE policy conditions. Um ICE has received prior supplemental funding, so their operations are less immediately affected. Um but Congress is out this week, so there's no um near-term resolution expected, but we should see that pickup um when they return. And uh the House uh did pass um on the housing front uh bipartisan funding via the 21st Century Act last week, um housing for the 21st Century Act, and it supports this bill focuses on speeding up home building, expanding affordable and manufactured housing production, broaden broadening um CDBG eligibility for housing. Uh the Senate currently has the Road to Housing Act uh that they're going to bring to the floor again and so we'll see negotiations between those um two bills to find a resolution. Um so that concludes my uh report. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Laa. I really appreciate your report. I wanted to share a little bit of information. I spent um a couple of days this weekend um at the US Conference of Mayors leadership meeting uh that I'm part of and um we talked about extensively about the Trump administration recently proposing restricting certain federal transit funds for cities over 200 100,000 uh people that operate more than 100 buses and provide fair free service which would

obviously include Tucson. Uh if included the surface transportation bill would include this provision and it could jeopardize federal funding or force communities to reinstate fairs. Uh this is an uh conversation. Um there are not a lot of cities that have fair free transit and so um you know some of the cities that uh that have fair free transit were there represented. Uh I raised the issue at the at at this weekend's uh uh conversations that we were having. Um I'm working with other mayors. I believe Albuquerque is um instituted for free transit is in 2023. Um we're going to uh coordinate with national municipal organizations and transit partners to push back and defend our local authority. We're making it clear that decisions about how we structure our transit systems should remain at the local level. So going to keep pushing on that end. I also wanted to share that um the deadline for the seven basin states to reach agreement on the Colorado River passed uh along with Valentine's Day. Um we had a good conversation about uh negotiations. Uh, but I sent a letter outlining Tucson's position to our congressional delegation. Um, as well as wrote a letter to members of our Arizona state delegation, uh, just to let them know the position of the city of Tucson. We remain aligned with our state. Uh, a stable Colorado River is critical to

Sucan's water security and economy. We've been talking about water all all day today. So, uh, we will make sure that we keep on working on this, um, and keep the community, uh, informed. Any questions, comments? Council member Vakasi,

I just wanted to say a few comments. I want to thank you, Laura, for helping us organize a productive program for us uh, last week to attend environmental day as well as planning day at the state legislator legislature. And um along with Laura uh we had Alma Alvarez from our W five staff, Jack um Ericson, one of our W five fellows and I traveled to Phoenix together and met with some of our uh legislators to share the importance of you know conservation especially in regards to water and climate action for our southside uh neighborhoods you know W five and Tucson overall. So thank you. you made it so uh effortless.

Any other questions, comments, observations? Thank you so much, Lara, Stephanie. Gracias. Thank you. All righty. So, we move on to the next item, which is item 11. Does anyone have any items to remove from the consent agenda? Hearing none, we move on to item 12. Does anyone have any items for future agendas? All righty. Hearing none, we will be adjourned. Uh the next regularly scheduled meeting study session item is Tuesday, March 3rd. I'm looking at the time. Um I'm going to give us 45 minutes. So, uh we can return at 5:40.

Can I say something real quick, ma'am? Yes. Council member Barakas, if anyone wants to enjoy a live performance, we have Viva Dance Studio outside City Hall. They're going to be performing what they're going to perform at the rodeo because they're going to be the open performance as well as a flororico performance right now. Right now at 5. Oh, perfect. All right. One minute.

Thank you so much. We'll see you at 5:40 everyone. Thank you. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey.

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Heat. Heat.

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eating. Um, all righty. So, we're going to start with the public housing authority board of commissioners meeting first. Uh, so we will start with roll call. Commissioner Santa Cruz here. Commissioner Cunningham here. Commissioner Dah here. Commissioner Lee here. Commissioner Barahas here. Commissioner Steart here. Commissioner Hawkins absent. Excused. Or or um absent excused. Okay. because I didn't know they were if they were online. Absent excused. Chair Romero

here. All righty. We move on to item two. Revised FY2026 payment standards. City manager PHA communication number two dated February 18th is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read resolution PHA 2026-49 by number and title only. Resolution number PHA 2026-49 relating to housing and community development approving the revised fiscal year 2026 FY26 payment standards in response to and is required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD and setting an effective date.

Do we have a presentation? No. All righty. Um, so, uh, do what is the board's pleasure? Mayor, I move to pass and adopt resolution PHA 2026-49.

There's a motion in a second. Any further discussion? I did want to include some some commentary here. Uh the board of commissioners for our public housing authority continues to address many changes coming from this administ administration federally designed to disrupt. This item returns to us following our December vote in response to formal guidance from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The letter from HUD makes it clear that housing authorities across the country are being instructed to reduce costs now in anticipation of uh possible funding shortfalls in 2026. When policies change at the national level, the impact is felt immediately by our residents. Our housing choice voucher program is an is essential for so many tonins to achieve housing stability and safety. Demand for assistance continues to outpace supply. As of January 1st, our public housing and housing choice voucher weight lists were closed with approximately 60,000 residents waiting for access to these programs. That number alone demonstrates the scale of need in our community. Our responsibility is to balance compliance with federal requirements while while protecting housing stability for Tucson residents. We will continue working with our housing authority to man manage and monitor how these changes impact housing stability. And we will also continue advocating for federal re resources uh to come to our community. With that, uh we need to go to roll call.

Commissioner Lee, I. Commissioner Cunningham. Hi. Commissioner Schubert. I. Commissioner Dah. I. Commissioner Barahas. Hi. Commissioner Santa Cruz. Hi. Chair Romero.

I. The motion is approved uh with a vote of 70 uh resolution PHA 2026-49. Item three, PHA calendar year 2025 review and calendar year 2026 housing reinvestment strategy. City managers PHA communication number three dated February 18th is received into and made part of the record. Time has been set aside for review of calendar year 2025 public housing authority activities and accomplishments. Uh does staff have a presentation for this item? Jason Thorp will be presenting.

Thank you, Chair Romero. Thank you, Commissioner. Can you make sure that you have the Yeah, the mic right in front of you.

There we go. Thank you, Chair Romero. Thank you, commissioners. I'm pleased to provide this update. During this presentation, I will provide an update on PHA activities in accomplishments during calendar year 2025, as well as outline our plans to reinvest in city-owned housing using federal, city framework, and state funds in calendar year 2026. I'll be happy to take any questions at the conclusion. We'll begin with a review of activities and highlighted accomplishments from calendar year 2025. Despite challenges with federal funding, the Housing Choice Voucher Program continues to make an incredible impact with the local community. More than 6,000 extremely low-income families received assistance through the program in calendar year 2025, the majority of whom included persons exiting homelessness, disabled and older adults, and families with children. In addition to making a meaningful impact in the lives of our low-income neighbors, the program infuses more than $52 million annually into the local economy through payments to property owners for rental assistance. Our family self-sufficiency program provides supportive services and escrow accounts to support long-term self-sufficiency of voucher program participants. In calendar year 25, 83 households participated in that program. We're also very proud to share that the housing the HCD has launched a federally approved voucher home ownership program through which voucher program participants are able to purchase homes and continue to receive voucher assistance in the form of mortgage payments. The program maintains the same shared contributions as traditional rental assistance with the household paying 30% of their adjusted gross income toward the mortgage and federal voucher funds paying the difference. Last year, the first family participated in this program. This working family established savings and connection to financial counseling and down payment assistance coordinated through the family self-sufficiency program and was able to purchase their first home. Through their hard work and commitment to building a better life for themselves and their children, they are now proud homeowners. We look forward to continuing to support home ownership through this program going forward.

Like the housing choice voucher program, the public housing program is experiencing significant need that outweighs available federal resources. As Sher Romero pointed out, at the close of December 2025, more than 41,000 low-income families were on the waiting list for public housing alone. In the last year, we provided 2,69 families with housing assistance through public and city-owned housing. The majority of these households included one or more disabled or older adults, and several entered the program after experiences of homelessness. Through our Tucson House resident services and resident opportunities for self-sufficiency programs, we've provided comprehensive case management and service coordination for over 350 house um public housing participant families. This year, we provided more than $100,000 in eviction prevention assistance using federal funds to prevent housing loss among participant households who are experiencing short-term strain on financial resources necessary to pay their rental contributions. While these numbers provide insight into the scope of our public and city-owned housing programs, the real impact is demonstrated in the lives of the folks who are supported through these critical programs. I'd like to share an example of two program participants who today are pursuing home ownership as a result of their participation in the public housing program. The cohort of families graduating the family self-sufficiency program in 2025 included two families which are well on their path to home ownership. Together, these families earned a combined escro dispersement of more than $35,000 supporting down payment costs. Both participants achieved all of their service goals and as a result of participation maintain gainful employment. Their accomplish demonstrate significant personal growth and continued progress toward long-term stability. We look forward to supporting their home ownership journey through that program in 2026. Participants in these programs don't just obtain assistance from us, however. They're actively giving back to their communities. For example, a group of seniors from our Martin Luther King Apartments multif family housing site located downtown recently partnered with the city's multi-disiplinary outreach team to pack 300 backpacks with essential supplies and food items that

were distributed to people experiencing homelessness at the November 2025 Hope in the Park event. As you can see, the public and city-owned housing programs are providing stable housing, pathways to self-sufficiency, and opportunities for meaningful community involvement to better the lives of our participants and of Tucson as a whole. Thanks to the investment of federal funds, city framework funds allocated by Tucson Mayor and Council, and state water infrastructure finance authority funding, HCD was able to make considerable improvements to 512 city-owned housing units in calendar year 2025. These included water conservation and plumbing improvements, HVAC, chiller, and furnace improvements, flood restoration activities, storm damage repairs as well. These improvements included critical upgrades at several multif family housing communities including our Tucson House, Landers Gardens, Posadas, South Park, Dodge, and Silverbell sites. Additionally, we were able to purchase two new maintenance fans to improve operational efficiency and ensure our maintenance technicians have access to safe, reliable, and heat resilient workspaces. As we've previously reported, HCD has also initiated a full redevelopment of the Tucson House and successfully transition that program from public housing to the voucher program with operational services provided by Gorman & Company. This will allow comprehensive improvements to the Tucson House property and increase site revenue at no additional cost to our residents. Lastly, as we continue to and we will continue to report on progress, HCD is actively working on converting 216 public housing units from the um to the housing choice voucher program and completing a full modernization of our Krakoff Towers multifamily housing site. This is all part of the PHA financial stabilization and asset repositioning strategy that was approved by the board of commissioners in 2023 and it's been reported on annually since. And I'd like to talk a little about planned improvements in calendar year 2026. In 2026, HCB will use federal funds, city framework funds invested by mayor and council, and state funds to continue

to improve our public and city-owned housing portfolio. These improvements will occur throughout the city, including all wards, with specific concentration on improving some of our dated multif family sites located in wards 1, three, and six. Oh, specifically this year, we anticipate improving 420 housing units and making community site improvements at six multif family housing communities. Specific improvements include large-scale redevelopment projects, HVAC improvements, installation of video security and entry controls at multiple locations to protect residents and increase safety, water main improvements, modernization of of multif family and single family homes, and installation of water efficiency upgrades in 251 additional units. Lastly, I'll provide an overview of the PHA's current financial position and a forward look at continued cost controls and other strategies to continue financial stabilization, particularly of the housing choice voucher program. Oh, some of my slides are missing. FY2025 marked a significant milestone for the authority with public housing closing the year in the uh in the black for the first time since 2020. At present, the program is operating with a healthy surplus, reflecting improved financial management and stabilization efforts. This provides a critical buffer against anticipated federal cuts to the public housing operating subsidy and capital fund programs, which provide the primary funding to support public housing. The recently approved transportation, housing, and urban development or THUD appropriations bill included a reduction in federal funding for these programs. While the exact local impact is not yet known, we estimate that this will result in a net reduction of at least $1 million in federal funds annually. The existing surplus will ensure that we are able to maintain fiscal stability despite the reduction in the current fiscal year. In the event that the local impact impact of the federal reduction is less significant than we anticipate, HCD

intends to strategically reinvest available surplus into critical housing capital needs and vehicle replacements to protect assets, improve service delivery, and increase occupancy. The housing trace voucher program continues to operate within HUD's administrative fee allocations, demonstrating disciplined cost control on the administrative side. Despite administrative stability, the available budget for tenant rent and utility payments remains overspent due to increased market marking market rent pressures. To address this shortfall and in response to HUD's guidance, HCD has taken several cost control measures, including suspending the issuance of new vouchers, reducing rental payment standards on new rentals, pausing new project-based voucher allocations, excluding those projects that are associated with asset repositioning, and suspending voucher transfers known as portins from other communities in which our public housing authority must absorb the participants rent and utility expense. Despite these um in addition to these challenges, we continue to work to increase funding um from the federal government and we'll be submitting an application for supplemental federal housing assistance payment funding to address those current and projected over expenditures. This is a standard HUD mechanism used by public housing authorities experiencing marketdriven cost pressures and is intended to stabilize the voucher program while longerterm funding uncertainties are resolved. As we discussed on the prior slides, HCD has implemented cost comprehensive costs saving strategies to reduce our voucher expenditures. These measures are designed to responsibly manage program costs while maintaining compliance with HUD requirements and minimizing disruption to participating households. To strengthen the the authority's long-term financial position, HCD continues to actively pursue asset repositioning for approximately 950 of the of the prior 155 public housing units. This work is focused on improving financial stability, reducing structural operating deficits, and positioning the public housing portfolio for long-term stability in an increasingly constrained federal funding environment. With that, I'm happy to take any questions that you

may have.

Thank you, Mr. Thorp. Really appreciate the presentation. Really informational. I just want to recognize um our housing authority, our housing community development team, um director Anchan, yourself as deputy director, uh and all of the people in in housing community development that do yman's work um in being able to provide services to our community and very specifically housing. Last year alone, the PHA assisted uh 6,313 families through the housing choice voucher program and 2,69 households through the public housing program. Uh that means seniors and families with children and individuals with disabilities and individuals um that are moving out of unsheltered homelessness um were helped um because of this program. I know that you mentioned $52 million uh in housing assistance payments were made to local property owners last year alone uh in support of our local economy and our housing market. Um that's $52 million that goes directly back um uh to you know landlords, many local landlords. uh and so I just wanted to bring attention to that. My concern is with the changes that are happening in the federal government um and the state resources dwindling down um how are we communicating the federal changes to voucher holders and public housing residents?

Sure. So, there have been some specific changes um that we have been sort of actively communicating to households that we believe to be most impacted by by some of those changes. Um the many of the changes that we're seeing right now relate to funding specifically and are able to be addressed administratively. And so, because we're making those administrative adjustments, we don't at this point foresee that we would need to be removing people from a pro from programs. and so haven't been um communicating that maybe as deliberately as could be done. And part of that honestly is um wanting to avoid creating alarm for folks who are in financially precarious positions when we don't believe at this point that we will have to exit anyone from the program. um if we were to see more drastic funding cuts coming forward and there was certainly risk of that in the current um the current budget process at the federal level um then we would have needed to begin to have conversations with our residents about um how we would make decisions as to who would need to come off of assistance and u make and we'd have some really tough decisions as a municipality and a housing authority to make in that case. Um, I do think because of the level of funding that was enacted by Congress this year, we are in a position where we should be able to continue to support the households currently enrolled, but at least for the time being, we'll not be able to enroll new households.

Thank you so much. What is the board's pleasure on this item? Mayor, I move to approve the items as submitted. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I I any against motion carries. All righty. We move on to item four, approval of minutes. The city manager's PHA communication number one dedated February 18th is received into and made part of the record. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of December 16th, 2025? So moved. Second.

There is a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Uh, the motion to approve the minutes of the December 16, 2025 meeting passes by a vote of 70. Item five, adjournment. The meeting of the board of commissioners is adjourned. The mayor and council will now convene our regular meeting. It's a problem. There you go. No one can compete with you.

Thank you. Council will stand in session. Let's go to roll call. Vice Mayor Santa Cruz here. Mr. Cunningham here. Mr. Dah here. Mrs. Lee here, Mrs. Barahas here, Miss Dubert here, Mayor Romero here. Uh before we go to item two, the city attorney will go over the rules of decorum for mayor and council meetings. Mr. Attorney.

Thank you, Honorable Mayor. Arizona's open meeting laws provide that members of the public may attend and listen to the pro proceedings during tonight's public meeting of the mayor and council. Arizona law also allows the mayor and council to enforce rules and procedures for public attendance of the meeting to ensure orderly behavior and to prevent unnecessary interference with the public meeting. Here are the rules that apply. The rules require a decorum and orderly conduct by the members of the audience. No person attending the meeting shall engage in conduct conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting, including any statements or conduct that interrupts the persons who might be addressing the mayor and council or that disrupts the discussions of the mayor and council. The mayor has the authority to ensure compliance with the rules of order and conduct. If disorderly or disruptive conduct continues after a warning, and this is that first warning, the mayor may direct the removal of persons from the chambers and or recess recess the meeting itself. If disruptive behavior makes it necessary to clear the chambers, the persons who disrupted the meeting will not be allowed to return to the chambers for the remainder of tonight's meeting. As a final note, please be aware that interfering with or preventing this lawful public meeting from being carried out in an orderly manner not only violates the rules of participation, but also violates title 13 of the Arizona RISE statutes.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Item two, invocation, pledge of allegiance, presentations, and appointments to boards, committees, and commissions.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk, the invocation will be given by Pastor Randy Reynolds of Community Renewal. After the invocation, I ask that everyone remain standing if you're able to do so for the Pledge of Allegiance. Lord, you have encouraged us to pray for our leaders. So we want to pray and lift them up that you would grant them wisdom and grace that you would give your wisdom so their decisions are blessed. We pray that you would guide them in all that they do. Grant them the wisdom they need to fulfill their calling. Help them to be strong and not accept criticisms that would hamper their performance as public servants. Let them serve with compassion and wisdom. Allow them to work together with their differences without internalizing their differences. Please grant them respect and listening ears and give them clarity in what they say. Lord, we do acknowledge that uh we're struggling with Nancy Guthrie and we ask for your blessing on them and on their family and we thank you for all the blessings that you have given our leaders and we ask that your grace and goodness would be there. Amen. America for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you Pastor Reynolds for um gracing us with your presence. All right. Item 2 C, presentation. Presentations and proclamations. We have a couple of um proclamations and presentations.

Um and as always, my colleagues on the council are invited to come down with me to do do these presentations and proclamations. Our first um our first one is proclaiming National Engineers and Women in Engineering Week and then it will be followed by uh the proclamation um uh to celebrate the USS Tucson month uh in our community. And then we have a special recognition um and appreciation plaque for Julie Ggo of Viva Performing Arts. So, if you'd like to come with me, I'd be more than happy to have you all there.

All righty. This is the our first one's going to be uh National Engineers and Women in Engineering Week. As we welcomed the uh Lunar New Year, the year of the Firehorse, we celebrated a symbol of passion, freedom, and bold action. Qualities that reflect how I see women engineers. Um, I have proudly issued this proclamation each year since 2020. And I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Ruby O'Brien Mezer and Bill Damon from Ashray Tucson chapter for joining us once again in the celebration. Um, we also have present some of our very own engineers uh here in the city of Tucson, Elizabeth Masias and Amayani Garcia. uh engineers at Tucson Department of Transportation and Frank Bonas, engineer at Environmental Services and of course our engineers at Tucson Water, John Van Winkle, Cad Gerber, Richard um uh Santi, oh Sardy, sorry, Kevin Miller, Kristen Amante, Garrett Wright, Kevin Jyn, Scott, uh SL sleder, uh who's the deputy director of Tucson water. And uh honorable mentions go to Carlos de la and our very own assistant city manager Christina Swallow and our city manager Tim Tamir. All of those that uh that I've mentioned, if you are in um in the chamber, please join us over here. And a big old round of applause. Someone started it. Let's do it. Join us, please.

Thank you so much for joining us. All righty. So, in celebration um for February 22nd through uh February 28th, 2026, we celebrate National Engineers and Women in Engineering Week. Alrighty. So whereas engineers use their scientific skills and specialized knowledge and skills in creative and innovative ways to fulfill society's needs. And whereas engineers help solve major te technological challenges of our time from designing efficient building systems to rebuilding towns devastated by natural disaster disasters. And whereas founded in 1951, N National Engineers Week or EW week is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers. And whereas eweek promotes recognition among parents, teachers and students of the importance of a tech technical education and a high level of math, science and technology literacy and motivates youth to pursue engineering careers in order to provide a diverse and vigorous engineering workforce. And whereas 16% 16% of engineers in the United States are women, we recognize the women engineers who also make significant advancements in every discipline of engineering including mechanical, civil, chemical, biomed, and electrical engineering. And

whereas efforts are ongoing across the world to increase the number of women and girls enrolled in training and educational programs in engineering and related subjects including computing and physics. Whereas am I pronouncing it correctly? Ashray. Yeah.

Whereas Ashray, the city of Tucson and other professional engineering societies include women engineers who make invaluable contributions as members uh acknowledges the impact of women engineers across the world. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the city of Tucson, do hereby proclaim February 22nd through the 28th, 2026, as National Engineers and Women in Engineering Week. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 18th day of February, 2026. Congratulations. And very very typical of engineers, you guys are standing perfectly like a foot from each other. You can squish and get closer. I don't know if we can

anyone of you or want to add anything. Anyone? Anyone? Moving. All right. Come on. Get closer. Don't be afraid of proximity. Uh, all righty. Well, let's take a picture then. Let's do a picture.

Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations.

Everybody looked up from their shoes.

Thank you everyone. All righty. So, the next one is in recognition of um February 2026 to be USS Tucson month. We have a special guest with us, Gary Bartlett, president of the of the USS Tucson 770 Club, and all of the volunteers supporting the crew and their family. So, if anyone is here and then of course, Bener Garcia, vice president of the USS Tucson 770 Club. If you brought anyone else, just join us. Here you go. Thank you so much. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much. Gift us has two senses is beautiful. Thank you so much. Well, I'm going to wear it since others have hats.

All righty.

Thank you. So whereas the USS Tucson commissioned on September 9th, 1995 is a submarine of the Los Angeles class, making her one of the most advanced vessels in the world and capable of operating in all ocean areas of the world. And whereas for over 30 years, USS Tucson has and will continue to provide intelligence while serving at the tip of the spear, delivering strike capability options to the joint force at below and beyond the surface. And whereas USS Tucson most recently returned from a seventh month deployment to the Western Pacific, representing our city's name proudly in Yokosuka, Japan, Guam, and throughout the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Whereas the crew of the USS Tucson are an example of the resolute volunteers of the American armed forces. And whereas the city of Tucson is proud to have such an honorable vessel named after the city of Tucson and Tonins alike celebrating a great symbol of the patriotism that the USS Tucson embodies. Now therefore, I, Raa Romero, mayor of the city of Tucson, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the month of February 2026 as USS Tucson month and encourage all Tonins to warmly welcome USS Tucson crew members when whenever you see them in our community. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cost the seal of the city of Tucson, Arizona to be affixed this 18th day of February, 2026. Congratulations.

You want to give them?

Thank you, honorary uh honorable Mary Romero, members of the council. You know, it's it's uh there's very few cities that have a active duty Navy vessel named after them. So, it's quite an honor. And as you heard, uh, these sailors just returned from seven months at sea. And so we really appreciate the fact that they've volunteered twice, actually volunteered for the Navy and volunteered for the submarine corps to spend time away from their families so that we can safely spend time with ours. Um, as you can imagine, sailing several hundred feet under the surface of the ocean is inherently dangerous. So we really respect that and it's been a tradition since she was commissioned. If they're not at sea, they always try and visit Tucson during rodeo week. So the new commander and several of the crew members will be marching in the parade on Thursday uh with two sonins. They'll be paying a visit to Erikson Elementary School, which is their adopted elementary school to talk about math and science. They'll be visiting the pediatric patients at TMC to make them all honorary subcommanders. And then because um fire is one of the greatest threats they they face below the surface of the ocean, they'll also be doing some training with their own Tucson Fire Department out there academy amongst other things. So, we really appreciate this recognition and uh maybe in two years we'll get you another hat for a picture.

Thank you. Of course. I'm honored to receive this for the crew of the Tucson. I thank the honorable mayor for presenting this to us. 30 years is a long time for an operating submarine. She would have been decommissioned this year, but she's in such great condition. They extended her 15 years. So where I thought my job was over, I got 15 more years to take care of my crew. And I mean my crew, I commission her. I served four years on the Tucson 30 years ago.

So it's just a passion for me to take care of my crew. So come out to the rodeo parade and see them. Wave at them. Show them you know how much you respect them. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Before you leave, we're going to take a couple of pictures. Oh, no. Thank you.

I didn't know Engineers was on the engineer too, but you left out nuclear engineering many.

No, you okay. Um, Council Member Barahas uh brought the special recognition uh to the table, so I'm going to have her do a lot of the talking, but I wanted to um add my two cents in terms of Julie Julie Ggo. Thank you so much for the incredible work in um really continuing a tradition in Tucson and teaching our kids about the value of their culture and um having so many amazing years and uh so many students under you uh that value and continue the tradition that you've taught them. So the for chlorico and all of the bases that you have um taught so many uh of the young people here in Tucson will continue and Julie Gayos and Viva Performing Arts uh will um definitely have a piece of uh history in Tucson. So thank you Julie. I appreciate you so much. So since I'm talking at you, come come and join us. So, um, we proudly recognize a true gem of Tucson, um, of of of Tucson arts, uh, scene and, uh, Southsider right at heart with her beautiful uh, performing arts center right there in the middle of our uh, Southside. Julie has been a dedicated leader bringing dance, arts, culture to our community and inspiring

generations of young people. Uh thank you for your unwavering commitment, Julie. Uh we're so happy and I'm going to bring um council member Vahas because I know that she is going to uh add some few words and then I don't know if you have the language for this. Uh I was hoping that maybe one of the students could help me. Okay, perfect. Thank you, mayor.

Well, thank you, Julie. Thank you, Mayor, for helping us create this opportunity today to present just such a fearless pioneer, a leader, and a beacon of cultural preservation. Let's give a round of applause before we get started to Julie Ggo Gonzalez. On behalf of Tucson, thank you for your service, your energy, and your heart. We are so lucky to have you. I want to take a moment to recognize and thank thank you for all the good work you've done here in Tucson. Um I wish I was a little Viva dancer growing up. So this is like my daughter's dancing for you is healing my inner child. But you know, through the art of dance, from Mexican fllororico to hiphop to modern dance, Julie has dedicated herself to our youth, many that are here in this room, to our families, and to our neighborhoods. They even dance outside for us today. She uses movement to tell our stories, to celebrate our culture, and build confidence in the next generation. Time and again, she has shown up to support, inspire, and uplift the people of our city. As we look ahead to one of my favorite weeks next week, laa de los peros, I can't help but think of our families, your families, all the families here with us. Generations who gather, celebrate, and pass down the traditions that make Tucson so special. Julie embodies that spirit. She is deeply rooted here in Tucson. And through dance, she bridges tradition and innovation. From the bi vibrant skirts and rhythms of Mexican fukorico to the energy of hip hop and the expression of modern dance, she ensures our c our culture is both honored and evolving. Whether on stage or in the rodeo parade, she proudly showcases the rich history and vibrant heritage we carry together. For nearly 16 years, the studio was down

the street from our ward, Ward Five on Park Avenue, serving as a home where young people found discipline, creativity, and joy. Today, Julie's daughters are here with us, Julie's daughter Chanel and her niece Pilad, are carrying on that tradition at their new location on AO at the Santa Cruz Plaza, continuing to create a space where every child can find their rhythm and their voice. Julie, your legacy continues to flourish. Your commitment and passion have made a lasting difference, mentoring our youth, strengthening our families, and enriching Tucson's cultural heartbeat through dance in all forms. Thank you for being a pioneer, a leader, and a beacon of cultural preservation and artistic expression. On behalf of Tucson, thank you for all your service, your energy, and your heart. We are blessed to have you. Now, if I can have maybe one of your grandb babies or one of the dancers to help me read um a special plaque that we have. Yeah. Would somebody now

ready? Okay. Yay. Can you help me read this? The truth is we can't read it ourselves.

Okay. On beha on behalf of Mayor Raa Romeo and the residents of city of Tucson, we proudly recognize Julie Gaygo Gonzalez for over 40 years of extraordinary dedication to preserving, uplifting, and advancing the legacy, culture, and artistry of dance and music through Viva Dance Company. Through your passion, leadership, and commitment, you have opened doors for generations of children, youth, and families to see themselves on stage, to move with pride, honor their heritage, and connect deeply to culture and community. Your impact reaches far beyond the stage, shaping life, strengthening our culture, heritage, and enriching Tucson year after year. Viva Dance Company has been more than a place to learn dance. It has been a home and a lasting source of celebration and belonging for countless tousinians. In appreciation for your last lasting contri contributions, we honor you and celebrate your remarkable service to your community to our community. We hereby proclaim this day, February 18th, 2026 as Julie Ggo Gonzalez day in city of Tucson. given under my hands and sealed of the city of Tucson, Arizona, this day 18th of February, 2026.

Do you want to say something?

First of all, I want to thank the honorable Regina Romero. Thank you so much. you know, and I've seen her since so many years just do such wonderful things. So, so proud of you. So proud of you. And to my Selena Barahas, thank you so much. And everyone um behind this to give us this honor. Um I just want to say a few things about the rodeo. Okay. And and some of our memories from um Viva Performing Arts Center. Uh I started at St. John's um Catholic School in their cafeteria. And I started in January of 1987. And then uh when rodeo came, which was just, you know, one month away, the parents got going with um making costumes and our first performance was for the rodeo festivities at St. John's and we just loved that. And then um we years went and we just had so many wonderful relationships with the rodeo. Um, we of course being in the parade, we won several of the best awards and trophies um for our Hispanic culture and our costumes for being in the parade. And one year we won the overall Marshall award for overall um trophy. And so we were so excited for that. And then when we um had our new studio on Park Avenue, the the um rodeo let us um dance in the streets before the parade started. And then um they announced from from our dance studio all the entries. So that was an honor for us. And when I sold my building, I think the parents were so sad because we weren't going to be able to do the rodeo anymore. And then we found out they moved the route. It's not going to pass our studio. So we were relieved. We were relieved. Now they have to get it through Aaho to our new um dance studio. They have to change the route for us. Um and then I mean these are just some of the few wonderful memories. Um when we did Viva Arizona, that was the whole history of Tucson. We started with Father Kino to the Prescidio through music and dance um all the way to present time um um teaching

the history of our beautiful city of Tucson. And um we did that during rodeo week because we were proud of of our heritage here in Tucson. So those are just some of the few memories in the 40 years that we have been together. Um, and what I love about it right now with all my students that are here is all the opportunities because we've traveled internationally, we travel throughout the United States, but every time my students go out and they see like the city council and they and they are getting inspired, they wouldn't be here without this type of a recognition and giving them the opportunity to be here and see our wonderful leaders. And I just wish that I would be here for many years to see them grow up and because I already know my dancers are now 50 years old and they have done amazing uh things. They've gone off to be ambassadors of goodwill just like my dancers are here today. And I couldn't have done it without of course my husband, my partner, and everything. Tony, my husband, um my children, my parents, my mother, and then all the wonderful parents that are here today. U my instructors that give their heart out to all of our students. We're just so blessed and I know I'm taking a long time, but this means very much to me and to all our families at Viva and we thank you so so very much. Thank you. I say today take as I was going to say today is Julie Ggo Gonzalez day. So you can take as much time as you want, but if we want to get some of the close families to take pictures a couple

Yes. and the dancers in the audience. Yeah. All of the dancers, please join us over here so we could take a picture. I see so many familiar faces. And of course, the family. Perfavor, join us. And I also um Chanel, can you come up to the front with me? Just right here. Okay. I want to recognize I'll let all my dancers come up in my There's

Yeah. No, we'll take over though. The moms are great. Okay, you're going to have to Everyone look that way. Cameras out there.

Yeah. If you all want to see these dancers perform, they're going to open up for the parade on Thursday. And I just wanted to recognize my daughter Chanel here, Tolantino. Um, she will be continuing the legacy of Eva Performing Arts Center. And I pray that the Lord um continues to be with our company and uh that we go for another 40 years and then for all the other children in the future.

All righty. who are going to see straight over there.

And then at the count of three, we're going to say Viva. One, two, three. Viva. You all could walk out quietly or you could stay for the meeting. Oh my god.

If it's okay, we're going to start while um people exit the chamber. We're going to move to item 2D, appointments to boards, committees, and commissions. City managers communication number 46 dated February 18th is received into and made part of the record. May I have a motion to approve the appointments in the report, please? So moved, mayor. Second.

There's a motion and a second. And the motion means that we're moving to approve appointments of Jan Muddler to the Armory Park Historic Zone Advisory Board and the appointments of Cecilia Chavis and Paul Rust to the West University Historic Zone Advisory Board. Um, any further discussion on this item? I do have a little bit of a reminder and I'm um really contribute to this issue myself. Uh there are a lot of boards, committees, and commissions that need our appointments in there. Um I am really bad about staying update as to who's dropping off. There's term limits in some of the boards, committees, and commissions. So I would highly highly highly encourage all of us including myself to um uh get an update on your appointments to boards, committees and commissions and please make a really big effort in appointing uh to those committees um to make sure that we make quorum and then the the the work of our um citizen advisors can continue with that. If there's no other discussions are um all those in favor signify by saying I

I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Are there any personal appointments to be made at this time? Seeing none, we move on to item three. Mayor Council report summary of current events. City manager communication number 47 dated February 18th is received into part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow members of the mayor and council to report on current events. These are to be current event of activities within the community, not position statements on policy issues. Does any council member have anything to report at this time? We'll start with uh Council Member Schubert and then down the line. Council member,

thank you honorable mayor and council. Thanks to everybody who's in attendance tonight. Um, I'm going to start off my current event report with um more serious items and then it'll end on a positive note. Um, but I am going to start um with a traffic um violence update at the start of my current event reports to reflect the fact that street safety is a major priority for the people across Tucson. And this is in the hopes that maybe sometime we come to these meetings and I don't have any to report. Um, and I just went back to everything that had happened since the last mayor and council meeting. So, um, as recently as this Monday, there was a head-on crash in the county that happened at the intersection of Salarita Road and Okato that injured at least one person on Friday, February 13th. Two pedestrians were killed in two separate hit-and-run crashes that were not related to each other. Um, there was also a threecar crash on February 7th. On February 6th, a 34year-old was hit by an SUV and died from his injuries. Um on February 5th, there was a deadly crash involving a pedestrian um who passed away at the scene. And early on February 3rd, uh two vehicle accidents sent a school bus crashing into a Tucson apartment complex when a small SUV failed to yield while making a left turn in front of the bus. Um so just to just to highlight that these things are happening all the time and I think that we need to keep it at the forefront of our minds as we're making decisions about um how we're how we're investing in safety in our communities. Research shows that increasing vehicle speeds from 20 to 40 mph increases the likelihood of a pedestrian death when hit from 10% up to 80%. So that 20 mph increase increases likelihood someone's going to die by 70%. So we got to slow cars down. Um we need to take a look at the data that shows us that 90% of crashes occur on 11% of our roads. Um and we had a really productive

discussion about traffic safety during study sessions. So, I encourage folks to go back and listen to that if you weren't here. Okay, on to other current events. Um, on January 9th, um, I was really fortunate to make it to the Spaces for Solidarity event honoring Lorraine Lee. It was a community panel on campus at the Lotus Lounge. Um, incredibly moving to um, hear about Lorraine Lee's legacy, especially um, her impact on my colleague um, Council Member Barahas. Lorraine was actually the person that inspired her to um, pursue urban planning. And we also had food at the event from Fung Fun of the Chinese Thorreso Festival. And just want to let you all know that there's a commemorative hike in honor of Lorraine Lee happening on Saturday, February 21st. And then um I wanted to highlight that on Tuesday, February 24th from 12:00 to 2 um at the coalition space, that's the historic 4th Avenue, um Coalition Space at 311 East 7th Street, we're going to have an in-person in-person listening session to collect additional feedback about Park Tucson rate changes. So that flyer is circulating on social media. We'll have it in our newsletter as well. Um, but this is so that we can um revisit this item and have more information from the community about how this might impact you. So again, that's um Tuesday, February 24th. And then finally, thank you to everybody who made it to our first ever W 6 openhouse event last night celebrating the Lunar New Year. We had over 200 attendees including Vice Mayor um Santa Cruz and the Ward One team and council member Selena Brahas along with the W 5 crew. Um so just want to wish you all happy year of the firehorse. And that concludes my current event report. Thank you,

Council Member Vz. Well, thank you. Um well, first I want to thank the mayor's office and the W 5 team for helping us with that special presentation we just experienced. It has been a very uh it has been a powerful few weeks in Ward 5 filled with moments that reflect the heart of our community. Honoring legacy, investing in our youth, strengthening climate resilience, and expanding care for those who need it the most. Uh I too was especially honored to serve as the panelist for uh spaces for solidarity, honoring Lorraine Lee. It was awesome um panel discussion and and it was hosted by a new community building initiative launching in spring of 2026 through the University of Arizona student culture and engagement hub in partnership with faculty um from AsianPacific American Studies. This program connects students to the outdoors and to Tucson's rich history of environmental and social justice organizing. And yes, um it was a very very special honor for me because it does uplift my mentor and um somebody that I still think about every single day, Lorraine Lee, an environmentalist, activist, and community champion champion. And I too want to invite you all to attend the commu the hike that's going to be happening this Saturday alongside Rainas who hike and the University of Arizona campus community connections. We are starting, I believe, at 10:00 a.m. and we are meeting at the Lorraine Lee Hidden Canyon Trail located at 3800 West Star Pass Boulevard. It will be a meaningful opportunity to gather outdoors, share stories, and honor her lasting impact. Um, our vice mayor will also serve as one of our hike leaders. So, we'll follow different leaders on that trail. and our W 5 office attended the third annual Southern Arizona heat summit and continued those conversations at environmental day. We met with community

leaders of all ages at the Arizona State Capital, researchers and advocates to address urgent challenges facing our region, especially extreme heat and figuring out solutions on how we could continue to protect our water for future generations. Last week, I had the privilege of spending the morning with high school students at the She-Heck Explorer Day at the University of Arizona. This event brought together organizations, different schools, industry, and government to inspire our young people to pursue STEM degrees and career pathways. It was especially meaningful for me to see so many students from our W five schools such as Desert View and Sunnyside High School in attendance and their talent and leadership give me hope. um for our future in this field. And on Monday, I had the honor alongside our mayor celebrating the completed expansion of Sister Jose Women's Center, which is located in Ward 5. This expansion means more women can access shelter, receive daily meals, and now connect to on-site medical and behavioral health services. It is this is an important investment that um focuses on dignity, stability, and care for women in our community, our neighbors. And I would like to wish Chad Kasmar best of luck on his next endeavor and congrats to our our new Tucson Chief of Police, uh, Monica Pto, a Desert View grad, which is in W 5 as well. And, um, many of us are observing holidays. So, yesterday was Lunar New Year. We had so much fun at the W 6 office and just meeting all your team and and the community. Last night, uh, Ramadan began and today is Ash Wednesday. So, I see some of you all with your ashes. Also, with the passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson, we are all feeling the loss of one of the country's foremost civil rights leaders. Um, and in this month, Black History Month, um, I want to just honor him and our holy days, traditions,

you know, remembrance remembrances make us reflect and connect to our greater purposes. They are incredible ways to connect with our neighbors and communities. And lastly, a quick reminder. Our ward 5 fiesta is tomorrow. I hope to see you all anytime between 4 and 8:00 PM. I'm truly looking forward to gathering with you all, our neighbors, our communities, and please don't forget to wear your rodeo attire. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Councilwoman Lee, no announcements, mayor. Council member D.

Thank you, Mayor. I do have a prop. Saturday uh is an event to celebrate that um we have signed the Tucson urban bird treaty and our mayor is going to do a signing and there'll be all sorts of other events at the Sweetwater Wetlands. There'll be guided bird walks, kids scavenger hunt, live raptors, and a pop-up nature shop. Goes from 7:30 to 11. I think you sign what 10:00

I think at 8:30. at at 8:30. Um nearby, the same day, Saturday, from 10:00 to 11:30, um starting at Danny Lopez Park, Friends of Danny Lopez and the Riverrun Network are sponsoring a creek walk. There's incredible riparian vegetation along the Santa Cruz River there because there's outflow from the treatment center. And there's also a lake where until very recently an immature bald eagle had been cited, but all sorts of other good birds. So this Saturday, come enjoy the birds because in many ways, Tucson is for the birds.

Birds the movie or the birds the movie or Just kidding. Council member Cunningham. Uh congrats to Monica Prietto. Uh we're going to name her. Um, you know, I don't want to Yeah, don't jinx it.

Jinx it, but uh no one's more deserving of this and uh it's a great selection. Uh we also attended the farewell to uh Chief Kasmar uh last week and uh wish him the best in his future endeavors. He's going to be nearby and he's still going to be part of uh building some of the things we need in Tucson. Um, just want to let people know that uh you can drop off your ballot at 7820 East Broadway uh for the RTA vote. I also want to thank the uh RTA staff for hosting the February 9th uh town hall. Uh so the the big one today is um I'm really excited for Sarro High School. Uh they're the word two high school about 90% 95% of their students are my constituents and um they are one of two teams locally to make the state open uh championship along with Tucson High. We have another employee whose son plays for Tucson High. So it's really cool to have those two schools uh participate. Um, two Saro High School actually plays tonight, so I can't like give a big announcement about their game, but uh I'm really I'm really happy for them uh for Coach Henry and for uh what they've accomplished because that that school uh 7 years ago uh was down to under a,000 students and we're now at about 12 to I think we're almost at 1,400 students at this point. I got to check that. And I think a lot of that has to do with some of the work that the city did in interacting with that uh with that school. Uh there's 120 kids in

the guitar orchestra and that's what happens when a city and a a a a local public high school actually work together and it's hopefully a model we can duplicate in every wart. So congratulations for Samaro. Their women their girls team is also in state. I don't want to leave them out, but I think it's exciting when we have a community come together, one section of town come together for a group of kids. And so that's exciting. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Hi. Thank you, Mayor. Um I do wanted to um give Council Member Baras the thanks for the recognition to a Southside giant. Um it's a really big deal to see our Southside families and children here at city hall. It's not something we see often. So, thank you for being that bridge from our communities into city hall. Um, I also had the opportunity Oh, I look forward to attending your open house tomorrow. Um, had the opportunity to attend uh council member Schubert's um open house and thank you for such a sweet event and allowing us the opportunity to engage with W 6 neighbors. Um, last week um I'm sure as many of you had the pleasure of participating in Love of Reading Week. I got to um visit with Miss Aayon's fourth grade class at Douglas Elementary School and spending time with and spending time with students at Davis um the Romero bilingual. Uh Miss Aayon's class enjoyed I enjoyed connecting with the students. They had a lot of questions about what it means to be on the city council and what kinds of what does my day look like. So that was a lot of fun. They also didn't know who Freda Kalo was. So I made sure that that was one of the books that I read to them. Um but then at at Davis Romero, it was great. every kid there knew who Freda Kalo was and I think that's so much because of the bilingual um bicultural um education that our students get there. Um so I had the opportunity to read to them in Spanish and um when I left one of the teachers was like a lot of the kids here knew you and I was like yeah cuz I ride bikes with them. So that was um fun to see um see young kids in a different context. So, I want to just thank the teachers and all the staff that always reach out to our offices um to come out um and and read to the kids because I think it's one of my favorite things about this job. Um I also had the opportunity to attend Chief Casmar's retirement celebration last week with uh TPD and it was incredible to see, you know, all the colleagues, community members, and friends and family that showed up to recognize his service. His

leadership and dedication to our city will truly be missed. Um and the turnout spoke volumes to the respect and appreciation people have for him and his years of commitment to public safety in Tucson. So look forward to the continued relationship with him um on with the Puma County. All right. So, for our upcoming um events, as council member Barak has mentioned, Saturday, February 21st, we're doing the commemorative hike um for Lorraine Lee and I was asked to help um lead the hike and um Council Member Baraz was giving me a hard time that I need to bring a first aid kit um with me. I'm going to I'm going to try to pace pace myself because uh I get really excited when I'm out on trails. Um but it's a meaningful opportunity to pause, connect um with the community and reflect outdoors together. And I'm really thankful for the work um being done by Rainas who hike who are making these trails accessible to our community members and especially you know with um the work of Lorraine Lee and I know um our our late uh supervisor Richard Elias played um a a big role in trying to name that um that trail after her. And um just the way that Lorraine Lee inspired um Selena's um work in public planning, you know, she inspired my work in activism and working with young people. So I'm looking forward to that. And that'll be at uh 3800 West Arpass Boulevard. And then on Saturday, February 28th from 9:00 to 11:00, um join us for Save Our Salad's Biodiversity Fiesta as part of the Santa Cruz watershed day of connection. Come enjoy a morning of service, nature, and community as we work together to protect and celebrate our local biod diversity. It's an opportunity to connect with neighbors while caring for the watershed that sustains us. We'll be meeting at Pel de Glacias Laspas Community Farm at 2405 South Cottonwood Lane. Um, come

prepared with comfortable shoes, a hat, and a water bottle. That's it. Mayor, thank you, Vice Mayor. And I don't have any announcements today. So we are going to move on to item four. City manager's communication number 48 dated February 18th is received into and made part of the record. This time has been scheduled to allow the city manager to report on current events. Mr. Manager.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh couple things for tonight. Uh first of all, I'm pleased to announce that work is underway for the installation of a bicycle and pedestrian signalized 2can crossing at the intersection of Uklid and Second Street. It's 2can because two can cross at the same time, both bikes and pedestrians. This is uh the site where three UFA students were tragically struck and killed during a hit-and- run incident last October. Uh this work is scheduled to be completed by May. And I want to also indicate that this through a combination of local, regional, state, and federal funding sources, the city of Tucson will be installing more than 60 bicycle and pedestrian signalized crossings over the next several years to help improve safety. Secondly, the city of Tucson invites community members to participate in public meetings to provide input on proposed new new regulations for largecale data centers. These meetings are intended to present considerations for a potential amendment to the unified development code or UDC to establish standards and regulations for this land use. Four public meetings will be offered for the community to learn more about the proposed regulatory framework and to share feedback. The first meeting will be held tomorrow, February 19th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at PBLO Go Warriors High School at 3500 South 12th A. Uh the proposed code amendment was initiated by mayor and council during the August 6 study session uh when uh you all directed city staff to develop regulations for large-scale data centers and people can find out more at the about the meetings at tucsonaz.gov and I will close with off the script after tonight whenever somebody says chief kasmar my response will be chief who

so anyway just I close with that. Thank you Mr. Manager. Item five, liquor license applications.

The manager's communication number 50 dated February 18th is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, please read the liquor license agenda. Your honor, on the evening's agenda, we have five applications for new licenses and seven special event applications. All applications are in compliance with city requirements with the exception of item 5B3, the taco spot, which needs a mitigation plan filed with PDSD, and item 5C5, 4th Avenue Merchants Association, which has a written opposition filed for that uh event. So an appropriate item would be appropriate motion would be to forward items 5B1, 5B2, 5B4, 5B5, 5C1 through 5C4, 5C6, and 5C7 to the state liquor board with the recommendation of approval.

May I have a motion, please? So there's a motion. You didn't do it. Second. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. And then we have to consider um the two items are ward six. The first one is the taco spot. Okay. Council member Schubert, usually. Can I ask a question? You could lead. You could absolutely lead wherever you need to.

Yeah. I was really curious about um the taco spot. I don't know if this goes to staff or to you, Rory, specifically, but I'm curious about the option for conditional opposition. It's my understanding that the applicant is not in compliance because there's no liquor mitigation plan that has triggered a hearing uh with the liquor board. So, if they complete that required liquor mitigation plan before the hearing, can we withdraw the opposition and allow them to move forward or how does that what how do we proceed?

Mayor, members of council, council member Shure, that's correct. you can you can withdraw that um upon the the applicant uh meeting the condition. So once the condition is met then uh the the denial would be um so it'd be a conditional denial. So it' be the denial would be removed after uh the condition is met. Okay. Okay. And I my understanding is that the applicant is here. Just want to sort out the best plan of action.

Can you go to the tall mic and introduce yourselves for the record? Hello. Good evening. Uh, hi council. My name is Carlos Arojo from the Taco Spa Tucson down the street. Nice to meet you guys. I'm the owner. Yes. Good evening, mayor and uh council members. My name is Jared Rapinsky. I'm the representative who uh filed the liquor mitigation plan on behalf of uh the owner. So, I'm just curious how you would like to proceed. I, you know, I'm sensitive to your position as a small business owner. I think it's a great location for that. I understand the importance of having a liquor license so that you can, you know, thrive as a business. So, um, you know, the options are conditional denial, um, or withdrawing the application.

Yes, that's correct, council member. Well, no, I appreciate that. You know, being a native tonian myself and a small midown, uh, small to medium business owner. Sorry, I'm a little nervous, but you know, uh, first of all, thank everybody here. I appreciate your time. It is the evening and we're all here. So, thank you guys for that. Uh but yeah, ultimately we would prefer not to withdraw our application. We would appreciate the motion to conditionally deny until the LMP has been fulfilled and then we can move forward. We would we think that's the best outcome for all parties involved, especially all our constituents and students around the the neighborhood.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that feedback. I' I'd be comfortable moving forward with the conditional denial pending the liquor mitigation plan. Uh thank you council member. Um just to be just to be clear if if for some reason and not saying not trying to prejudge it or anything if for some reason the the uh litig liquor mitigation plan is not approved then we would have to go back to the drawing for it just so everybody's clear and is aware. Appreciate that clarification. So also Mr. attorney. If the mitigation plan is not approved by the time that the board has the hearing and your your application is denied, you have to wait another year to reapply. I can kind of speak to that.

Yeah.

Okay. Um, you know, as far as the liquor board hearing, once once it's set, first off, they're they're the first uh Thursday of every month. So, we're clearly not going to meet March. It's going to go to April. Uh I just received an email prior to this uh council meeting from planning and zoning that the first step in the uh uh you know liquor mitigation plan is already completed the neighborhood meeting and everything went well. uh they have now sent out the notices that second step in the liquor mitigation plan. Uh the final date for comment period on that's going to be March 11th and basically she indicated that uh uh she'll know if we can issue the liquor mitigation plan on March 12th which is well before any any um hearing. All that said and and we certainly want to consult to the city attorney on this one um because I I consulted with an attorney and he pointed out that uh 4224 uh which handles these circumstances there there's a sentence the very last sentence that statute says um zoning shall not be a basis for denial of an application under this title. So although a conditional thing sounds good a and uh certainly the applicant does realize that um he can't sell alcohol. So like like let's say for instance you did make a um approval. We realize he cannot sell alcohol even if that state liquor license was issued prior to the liquor mitigation plan being in play. Um I did some research on this and I found out two different circumstances and it's a little difficult you know going through all the archives and things like that but back in 2022 there were two different occasions where liquor mitigation plan was not really jing real well with the uh uh state application uh and um in the first one that was uh March 9th uh uh 2022

uh the council voted uh 7 to zero in favor of forwarding a approval to the uh uh state liquor board on that. On the Mar June 7th uh uh 2022 um it was 6 to zero in favor of recommending approval of of that. I I would be willing to bet that was probably as a result of realizing that okay, they can't move forward, but we can also use zoning and this is clearly a zoning issue as a basis for denial. Uh so you know and and and one last thing I'll I'll point out you know clearly uh uh approval would be better because then if by chance you know the liquor mitigation plan does not go through um the license can be you know placed inactive and eventually surrendered you know if if it if it doesn't go through but the difference between you know the liquor board um you know withdrawing the the necessitation for the uh uh for the hearing at that point the it goes back to licensing division they got to then finalize things and that's going to add another 3 weeks to it but whereas if if it's approval and there's no hearing that's set then as soon as the liquor mitigation plan goes on his license is issued now all that said I got one last thing and I'm so sorry and thank you for being so patient with this um because I know this is very wonky and procedural and you know things like that um from this date right here like if council was to make a recommendation for approval of this application then it goes back to the state. The state has to sit on it for 15 days as per state statute uh for any comment period at the state level. Then it goes into final review and and all that stuff. It is, oddly enough, tracking right around the same time because right around the second week of March would be when the state's ready to issue the this application, which

ironically is right around when the liquor mitigation plan would be uh ready to be issued. So everything would just kind of all happen at the same time. Does all that make sense? And does anybody have any questions on that? Because I know that's a lot to I have a question for our city attorney. Why does it have to be denial with the condition of the mitigation plan versus approval with the condition conditioned approval?

Sure. So the the the main concern I think for our office would be that uh given that there is an a non-compliance at this point it could lead to a u in the future any non-compliance could then anybody could come through and say hey we're not compliant but we're willing to do the things. So our our advice would not change at this point. Yeah. I mean that was what it hinged on for me was the non-compliance part. So, I mean, and you know that we're not the ultimate decision makers on this anyway, but um I feel comfortable with the conditional denial. It sounds like you'll be able to deliver on that. So, thank I appreciate the historical context.

Okay. Thank you. So, what is uh your pleasure on this item? Yeah, I'd like to move forward with a conditional denial. Second. There's a motion. There's a second. Any further discussion on this hearing? None. All those in favor, please signify saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. All all the success for you all. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you. Okay. The second item is the um special event application for North Fourth Avenue Merchants Association. We just had a written argument opposing the application. Council member Schubert.

Yeah, thank you so much. Um my understanding is that this um this uh constituent who opposes opposition does so regularly for the same event for the same reasons. Um I actually uh bring personal experience of volunteering at a beer booth at the 4th Avenue Street Fair. Um and I can attest to um you know both the fact that uh the participants are following the letter of the law and that there also very reasonable um controls in place to ensure that um you know folks are being responsible. Um and I do understand it as a valuable resource to um neighborhood associations for fundraising. Um I don't have any data right now that gives me justification to deny. So I recommend moving it forward with an approval. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion on this? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Any against? Motion carries. Thank you, Council Member Schubert. Thank you, Miss Clerk. And thank you, Mr. Attorney. All righty. We move on to item six. Call to the audience. Miss Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes. At this time, the public is allowed to address the mayor and council on any issue except for items scheduled for a public hearing. Call to the audience will last for 30 minutes, and speakers are limited to three minute minute presentations. The green light will turn on when you begin speaking. It will turn yellow and beep when you have 30 seconds left of your allotted time. When your 3 minutes are up, the light will turn red and the timer will begin beeping. If that happens, please uh immediately conclude your remarks. Our first speaker is going to be Dan Hunt. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, two things, two things I believe in that you can support that have a huge impact for citizens of Tucson. Free fairs for transit and public power. First, free fairs. For me personally, I don't need public transit to be free, but many people do. For many people, the bus is all they've got to get to work, run errands, go to the doctor. I want it to be free for them. I want it to be free to encourage more ridership, which reduces congestion. Um, encourages ridership, reduces congestion and air pollution. I want public transit to be free today to also benefit future generations of Tonins. Second, public power. I recently read an article about the current economic state being described as a boom session. It's the blending of phrases booming economy and economic recession and describes how the rich are riding high on the stock market while the poor and middle class are suffering more than ever. The Canadian-owned corporation TE is one prime example of the boom session. They are experiencing rec record profits and huge bonuses for seauite while half of their customers are forced to decide

between paying for medication, groceries or their electric bill because TE corporation jacked up the rates by 14%. In contrast, public power, as stated in the name, is for the public, not for corporations. It offers an alternative to price gouging and is for the people. For the people of Tucson. We don't have to accept the status quo of a foreignowned corporation focused on profits and stock value. Let's consider an alternative and give power back to the people with public power. Thank you. Thank you,

Armando Valencia. Armando Valencia. Good evening, Mayor Council. Uh my name is Armando Valencia. I'm a 31-year-old Tucson native. I'm also a veteran and a current uh letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. Um my interest in local government uh although less than dynamic throughout the years uh has began to intensify with the understand with my understanding that you all re rejected the large scale data center uh campus that was proposed near um Puma County Fairgrounds. There are a few things that I truly love in this world and one of them is our desert, our home. And so with your vote on last year, uh it showed me that you all love this desert as well. After my focus on project blue, I began to learn more about uh public power and its viability and I felt compelled to speak before you today be after learning such. Uh we are all aware of how hot it is here in Tucson and actually there was 112 consecutive days of 100 plus degree weather in 2024. Uh we all know this TE and also its parent company Foris uh they know this as well and they know that this community relies on HVAC and swamp cooling systems to mitigate those those issues. Uh despite the promises of sustainability I uh from be infrastructure, I imagine the power consumption from that project and the continued havoc of climate change will inevitably fall on the backs of regular Tonomans.

I feel that means bringing forth a vote for public power before the citizens of Tucson has never been more critical. The decisions being made on our behalf are being made by a business. Uh a business that must adhere to the profit motive, which is why we get data centers and price hikes instead of innovation and preparation for the future. Forming a community choice aggregation would not only give Tucson the ability to choose a greener portfolio sooner, it would also top down improve lives. I hand letters to people every month with a grimace on their faces, not towards me, but towards the bills that they receive. Worst being TE. TE has increased their rates twice, including the most um including the highest one recently in 2023 and another proposed in June. In conclusion, I humbly request that you give those of us bound by the necessity the option to have an option. Thank you.

Thank you, Matteline Gold. Maline Gold. Change my glasses here. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Meline Gold and I live at Third Avenue and 20th Street near Santaorita Park. And it is this park that brings me here today. First, I would like to thank the mayor and council for putting $8 million into the renovation of Santaorita Park. As a resident of this area, I am unquestionably excited about bringing my granddaughter to this park when it reopens. But I but I am not just here to speak as a resident or a grandmother, but I am also here representing the friends of Santaorita Park, a newly formed organization committed to bringing the activities and events to the to the park that we know are critical to making that park a vital resource for our community. But many people are worried that the renovated park will not survive. It is with this in mind that I share our great disappointment in your action at the last council meeting to eliminate all permitting for the distribution of prepackaged food in city parks. We believe this action will basically give a free hand to encourage the return of large numbers of unhoused individuals into the park and thereby jeopardize the community's willingness to use the park. No permitting process abdicates oversight. Santaorita Park has a long and wonderful history. For decades, it was a well-used park and a valuable recreational resource for swimming, ball games, community picnics, and playgrounds. But for many years, there have been no children, no families wandering the

park, and most ball teams have long since migrated to other safer parks or closed down. The park has taken over has been taken over by the unhoused and unfortunately also drug traffic and gun violence. I recently heard one mother tell me that they needed to show up hours before ball games in order to clean up the park of needles and poop as well as clean the bathrooms so that the children could use them. There is no question that we believe and that we all want to see a humane and effective way to assist the unhoused. We also know that the issue of unhoused in city parks is just not true is not true with just Santaorita Park. But Sanorita Park is different. Until the park was closed for renovation, the city basically abandoned the park. We thank the council Barahas for efforts to delay the action on permitting the ordinance to order oh dear to order the and allow broader presentation representation to speak on the ordinance. That did not happen. The ordinance passed and it is now a done deal. Do I have more time or am I

No, ma'am. You have two seconds. Two seconds. You don't have any time anymore. I'm sorry. you have to come to a conclusion. Okay. Anyway, we um we hope that the city really takes a responsibility for seeing that there is oversight of this park and that opening day is not the city's just the end of a city's responsibility. It is the beginning.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Mary Odonahue. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Mary O' Donahghue, and I have the privilege of serving as the executive director of Southern Arizona Senior Pride. We are a nonprofit that provides supportive services and healthy aging programs for older LGBTQI plus community members in our region. First, I want to express our gratitude for your persistent advocacy at the PAG RTA meetings. Um, over the years, your work has delivered meaningful benefits to Tissson. For our neighbors on the south side and throughout the city, the revitalization of major streets has been long awaited. That is why I stand before you tonight in strong support of Proposition 418 and 419 and the proposed RTA next plan. The long- aaited improvements to corridors like 22nd Street, Irvington, and Drexel are essential not only for mobility, but for community well-being. Passing these propositions is also vital to support and fund and fund neighbors helping neighbors initiatives such as the neighbors care alliance or NCA administered by puma council on aging. NCA programs and their volunteers provide mileage reimburseed transportation assistance to isolated and resource limited older adults throughout re throughout Puma County. As a member of the Neighbors Care Alliance, Senior Pride serves our elders. Some of our elders lack stamina and ability to

access or wait for bus or van services. Even as these public transit options remain essential for many, the RTA next plan thoughtfully addresses the needs of our entire community, whether they walk, bike, ride, or drive, and it ensures critical transportation options for those who depend on supportive services. We believe in a Tucson where everyone can move about safely and with dignity. That is why we stand firmly in support of Proposition 418 and 419 and we thank you for your time and your leadership on this effort. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Donahghue. Thank you, Paul Ferrell.

Good evening everyone. Uh my name is uh Paul Ferrell and I'm a resident of Tucson and I'm speaking on my own behalf tonight. I'm here to ask our mayor to change the city's policy on sharing personal private information with the federal government. Uh now under normal circumstances, sharing information with state and federal agencies is essential to having an efficient functioning city government. But today, we're not living under normal circumstances. You see, back on September 25th, Trump declared a war on domestic terrorism when he issued a presidential memorandum titled Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence. This memorandum is not just another midnight tweet tweet from Donald Trump. This document is published in the Federal Register and Donald Trump is the author. Uh Trump in this passage writes about the ideology that promotes organized political vi organized political violence. Uh quote common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti- capitalism, anti-Christianity, extremism on migration, race, gender, and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, reli religion, and morality. Well, a few weeks later, Pam Bondi, our attorney general, followed up this memorandum with one of her own. This memorandum is a war plan to fight domestic terrorism, and the plan targets nonprofits and political activists. Um, I don't have enough time to go into all the details of this plan, but um, I can give you a rough outline. Uh Bondi wants

to get the FBI to compile a list of domestic terrorists. Then the Department of Justice will quote investigate the matter uh from the past five years that involved potential acts of of domestic terrorism. Bondi provides also a long list of misdemeanors like picketing, parading, and trespassing. She recommends that prosecutors that prosecutors should seek all applicable enhancements including the terrorism enhancement. She also recommends that using using the IRS to go after political enemies and she says that the FBI is going to start a cashreward program for information on terrorists. So what can we do about this situation? Well, Bondi's plan relies on on uh cooperation from state and governments and city may mayors. Let's not cooperate. The ACLU has come up with a plan that includes a mayoral executive order. This is a mayoral executive order that will put an end to this nonsense and we can be safe from this. I'm sure the mayor would want to take a look at this. And I have a few copies here for other people.

Yeah. Can you give it to one of our clerk's team? Thank you so much, Mr. Frell. I really appreciate you coming here and and being interested in this issue. Okay, just for the record, the KKK has never been um designated a domestic terrorist organization. Okay, the KKK two, I just have a small question. We can't get too much into this because it's not it was it called to the audience, but I just had a question about um city of Tucson policies and sharing information with the federal government. Mr. Attorney,

thank you, Madame Mayor and members of council. We don't currently have any agreements to share information other than what's required by by federal and state law. Um that includes uh things where we're involved in directly in criminal investigations, but that's it. But other than criminal investigations, the city of Tucson does not share. Correct.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Pharaoh. Really appreciate it. Um, our next speaker is Reyes Suarez. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Uh, my name is Reyes Suarez, a Tucson native representing myself, but I speak on behalf of those afraid too afraid to leave their homes and the ones disappeared by ice. I'm not sure if everyone heard the news last night, but the city of South Tucson voted 5 to1 to end their flock contract um for their AI cameras. Um, I was there uh at the meeting. Uh I wait I know the meeting that I was here before last I said that they had decided to end it. I did so a bit too enthusiastically in November. Um I guess they made me a profit instead of uh someone giving that announcement. Um but I do prophesize that this council will follow suit. In all reality, I had digitally diligently attended every South Tucson Council meeting since that November meeting, presenting the emerging and varied information at each participation. I highly suggest that this council look to the present to the points that the South Tucson council members gave defending their decision. Cesar, Dula Himenez, and Po Robles met the moment and more and chose their community over false safety. And so my attention now is focused back here, waiting for you all to meet the moment. So again, I advise you divest our city's usage on AI surveillance, whether that's flock cameras, Motorola, Axon, ALPRs, and body cameras, as well as Eagle Eye systems. This cannot wait. The federal

government is feeding data from these systems regardless of what limits you believe exist. They have back doors. They're they're moving too fast and spreading too wide for that not this not to be the case. They're coming after undocumented and those that are critical of the administration. It's no longer of question that we are in a current fascistic and oligarchal takeover of our country. We're in it. Um there's other practical reasons to divest from AI too. It takes up too much water and energy. The UN UN University for institute of water environmental health said by 2040 projection suggests that twothirds of the global population will face water scarcity conditions. If global temperatures rise 2% up to three billion people will be experience chronic freshwater scarcity. Um that'll send refugees flooding to our area. This is going to affect everyone all over the globe. Um yeah the we can't drag our feet on this. you need to move on this now. Um, it's past time to be the leaders that we need, not just the ones forced on us. It's the year of the fire horse Rosenante. Time to get moving and melt ice. Thank you,

Victoria Devasta. Hello, Mayor and Council. Can you hear me? Nice. Um, every single council member here should have a working plan for how they are going to address the massive homelessness issue in their wards. And to be clear, the homelessness issue is not homeless people. It is the gaps between them and getting help. Here's a quote from someone near Sanorita Park recently. They've made it illegal to be homeless. The cops woke me up almost 5 miles from downtown at my new camp because they had kicked me out of my last the night before. I got arrested again and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm going with this person to community court next week to see about getting these charges dismissed. The wash ordinance is actively creating an even more hostile environment for people unable to access care. Council Member Lee and Council Member Cunningham, I would greatly appreciate a meeting regarding the perspective you guys both share about around drug users. These are the same people who qualify for medical detox and treatment because it's a health issue, but instead are already getting arrested in mass. That proposed drug ordinance would have been absolutely catastrophic if enacted, and I am glad it is off the table. However, now is the time to have these talks so we can all share more understanding be before something is proposed. Again, mutual aid groups witness the reality of these ordinances and how they actually affect people on a day-to-day basis. Help is not as easy to get as it may seem, and I would really appreciate

discourse. Budget season is starting up. We need to focus on boosting alternative community care projects and things like Star Village. The success has already been witnessed. It does work. Although the pilot year is not over, we can already see the impact it has made in the community. Star Village was never intended to be completed in a year. Again, the model for growth is replication. I hope all council members will take a step in this direction and begin discussing how STAR can be implemented in your awards. Additionally, I'd like to encourage the city to come up with a plan to encourage larger nonprofits, faith-based groups, and agencies to participate in similar models, offer an incentive, or conduct a meeting with service leaders on how they too can participate. Mayor Romero and city manager Tomier, I'd also like to request a meeting with you and your offices to just sit down around a table and talk about homelessness. Call to the audience is not a conversation. I want and hope you all want conversations continuously. The general public has been force-fed a narrative on homelessness, partially by government, faulty media reporting, and of course, our local superstars, the crime, the crimefree coalition. The narrative is they don't want help. But more and more people aren't buying it because the more you actually engage in your community, see the daily pain and suffering, the mass inequal inequities, and the never-ending cycle these people go through day in day out, you can humanize. Over half of the people I have worked with and gotten to know on the streets have been through the system. Not just jail and detox, but the housing system. They had a voucher or were housed with an agency and they end up coming back to our tables. The reason is not laziness. It's because we are setting people up for failure. Agencies are linked in with slum lords and then leaving people high and dry with very little support. These and many other real observations are things you would not be briefed on without someone working on the ground directly reporting to you. I also have

new cow flyers and they're very cute if you would like to grab them for your Thank you. Yeah, please give us some. Thank you so much, Miss Devast. Um, our next speaker is Mike. I'm sorry I couldn't read the last name. Mike Lipman.

Lipman. Yes. Hello. Nice to see you again. or for the first time some of you as you just heard my name is Mike Litman. I'm speaking very much on my own behalf at this point. I'm very glad that you just heard about the domestic terrorism and the issues about it and the ACLU. So, I'm coming here in the hopes that if things go south with this, I'm going to mitigate the punishment that might be coming my way. I am very much a thought criminal. And I have to confess this to you. I'm a thought criminal because I have taught over 9,000 college students. I've taught 1984, which I know has been banned in some places in America. I have taught Plato Symposium, which has recently been banned in Texas and does not does not comply with definitions of terrorist or domestic terrorism and gender identity. I just finished this afternoon tutoring a kid in Edipus Rex which does not fit traditional family values. I basically have been teaching a long time and much of what I have done would be considered domestic terrorism under this rule. I have been a proud but not card carrying because I didn't know there was a card member of anti-fascists since I first saw Raiders of the Lost Arc in the 80s. I have been dedicated to this cause my entire life. I have also been a writer. I have written a translation of an Aristophanes

play that is directly attacking the current government government. I have been writing satires that have mocked our immigration current immigration laws. I've called them in incompetent and you know sort of uh well not fair in the way they arrest people. and I continually march and protest and I'm a very loud person. Um, and I continue to continue being this sort of person. But one of the things that troubles me the most about the description there is I apparently have been a domestic terrorist since birth. Because one of the things it says there is you're a domestic terrorist if you participate in non-Christian activities and I'm Jewish and I've been doing that since a few days after I was born when they did the snip. So please take what this gentleman said very seriously. Appreciate it.

Thank you Mr. Lipman. Uh, Timothy Deng. Uh, good evening, Mayor Council. Uh, my name is Timothy Dang. I'm a Tucson resident. I'm speaking on my own behalf and we'll see what becomes of this because two prior speakers have addressed some of it and perhaps uh, Mr. Lusk has uh affected how what it means as well. Um so uh the president created this national security memorandum that's known as NSPM no sorry yes npm7 and attorney general Bondi followed up with a memo about how to implement it. Um the memos outline aggressive tactics such as informants and bounties uh using organized crime tools like RICO coordination across all federal agencies like the IRS. Um the memo also makes it clear that the DOJ intends to work with joint terrorism task forces that would include state and local agencies. Um, under the broad language, things like identifying a federal agent or supporting somebody who did would be considered domestic terrorism. Um, we know that the government is broad in what they call terrorism. Now, after being killed by federal agents, Renee Good and Alex Prey were both called domestic terrorists. Good's wife was targeted for investigations after Good was killed. Uh, Maramar Martinez survived being shot five times and was then charged with assaulting a federal officer. Alfredo Ahorna and Julio Sosakelis were charged after one of them was shot. Alejandra Oriana was charged for providing protective gear to protesters. All of these were determined to be false or charges were dropped, but they

happened and the investigations happened. Um, what I'm asking you to do is to adopt the ACLU's draft executive order so that Tucson employees have clear guidance when federal agencies come asking for cooperation or information. Um, if policy is not clear, and perhaps policy is clear, um, but when policy is not clear, the staff would be having to navigate complex constitutional and ethical issues on their own. Um, the order provides a framework before Tucson residents or nonprofits are caught up in politically driven investigations. Um, council member Barahas already has links to relevant documents so she can share them so you can read them. And I would encourage you to figure out how to act on them. Whether that is passing the ordinance or whether that is just assuring us that the ordinance already describes city of Tucson policy. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we're going to call JP Salvater and then our last speaker is going to be Sheay Howell. Madame Mayor, council JP Salvatira, Tucson native resident, uh, not retained. I say no to another RTA failed logic and coercion scheme. We as a community are faced with several important tasks that cannot be adequately resolved by passing RTA next props 418 and 419. Waiting through five more new presidential administrations over an RTA next 20-year cycle constitutes an impossible assumption of taxpayer risk

without concern for inner city traffic, pedestrian and bike safety connectivity as primary cohesive cost benefits. RTA next magnifies profit-driven stakeholder contractor developer special interests when the public pays for a subsidies that are new rural developmental infrastructure. Move Tucson though is the city paid $500,000 analysis template for full fully formed and cohesive inner city future plans. I don't understand this skewed plan to dominate uh every open road project possible to scare us into accepting RTA next as the only cure. The feds are are adamant about saying that potholes are not covered under RTA. Next, the smart option for another proven 10-year well-managed proposition like 49 411 that will more thoroughly address inner city transportation, traffic, pedestrian, and bike friendly corridors without underfunding or cost overruns. Together we can stop runaway foreign proxydriven profitering.

When the next financial crisis adjustment occurs, we can invest in safe, lowinterest municipal bond funding to complement a state, city, and county master IGA. Please help us adopt a prudent uh plan for the future after RTA next fails. Thank you, JP. Uh and our last speaker is Sheay Howell. Sheay Howell.

Mayor, city council, good evening and thank you for letting me speak with you tonight. Uh special thank you to Selena Barahas for allowing the friends of the Santaita Park to meet at the W five offices. I'm here to oppose the recent passage of the um prepackaged food distribution ban. Um this poses a number of difficulties in our planning of events and activities for the park when it does reopen. Number of our members are concerned about the homeless population and distribution of food to them. I have a different reason um for this. As we're planning events and activities, we need funding. And sponsorship comes in many different forms, from many different places. But one of the places that it can mainly come from is from companies who wish to distribute free samples of their products, drinks, um cold, icy uh beverages, other products that might bring uh business to our communities and help the events that we're planning come to life. So, I would ask you to reconsider this blanket ban and prohibition on the distribution of prepackaged foods in light of these activities that we're trying to bring forward. Um, and maybe put some conditions down for where that would be appropriate and where it would be inappropriate. The the blanket prohibition doesn't help though. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Hull. And that um will be our last speaker. We ran out of time 10 minutes ago. Um, but thank you all so much for coming to speak uh at call to the audience to your uh mayor and councel. Item seven,

consent agenda items A through J. Reports from the city manager on the consent agenda received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read the consent agenda. Item A is approval of minutes. Item B is a lease agreement with T-Mobile West LLC. DBA T-Mobile for the telecommunications facility at the southwest corner of Golf Links and Pantano Road. Item C is industrial development authority, El Rio bond financing. Item D is disposal of city-owned property at 2937 Northstone Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85719. Item E is an intergovernmental agreement IGA with the with Puma County and the city of Tucson for emergency eviction legal services the Craig shelter. Item F is COPE community service incorporated Shasta Apartments impact fee subsidy request. Item G is a second amendment to the lease agreement agreement with Step Up to Just to Justice for the office space located at 320 North Commerce Park Loop, Sweet 100, Tucson, Arizona, LF878RP 22264. Item H is a lease agreement with Dulceia vs Gusa DBA Skyline Beauty and Wellness PLLC to occupy city own space at 147 Northstone Avenue for res 2026-141 LF number 1711 RP number 2200. Item I is a lease agreement with Jacqualene Larson DBA El Ritual Tucson LLC to occup occupy 1500 60 feet at 400 North Truel Avenue 2026-142 LF number 1710 RP number 2475 item J is renewal and extension of continuation of fire medical and special

hazard services at the Rathon um company United States Air Force Plant 44 manufacturing facility. May I have a motion, please? Miranda, I move. Your honor, I move we pass the items on the consent agenda.

So, there's a motion in a second to uh move the matters on the consent agenda. Um, any discussion on this? I do want to say a little something. Item C, we're not considering separately, but I did want to talk about the industrial de the city of Tucson Industrial Development Authority uh issuing a Rio clinic bond financing. The IDA, the city of Tucson IDA plans to issue up to $41 million in industrial development revenue bonds to finance um a 95,000 square foot Rio Stone Health Center facility at 48.88 Northstone Avenue. This is a W 3 including construction improvements, reserve, and issuing costs. Um I am so happy about this particular project. Um and the work that the city of Tucson IDA is doing is uh really adding to the health and wellness um and safety of our city. Uh the city of Tucson IDA is a project that I have carried with me since I was on the council side of the equation working in collaboration with Mayor Rothschild uh to appoint individuals to the city of Tucson IDA uh that really wanted to look outside of the box that the city of Tucson IDA had created for itself. Um, and thanks to the work uh that we've done together, we have seen such incredible benefits uh from the city of Tucson IDA, including the purchase and uh of a building and the creation of a small business center uh where our small

business program is housed. So, I just wanted to kind of bring attention to this because again, uh, this $41 million that the IDA is is issuing is putting to work a building that had been empty for at least 10 years. So, um really happy about this and I just wanted to uh give the board of the IDA kudos and kudos to you all um for having a hand in in really creating an amazing innovative board at the city of Tucson IDA. With that, um I believe we need a roll call. Mr. Cunningham. Hi, Mrs. Barakas. Hi, Mrs. Lee.

Hi, Miss Schubert. Hi, Mr. D. I, Vice Mayor Santa Cruz, I, Mayor Romero, I, uh, the items on the consent agenda are approved by a vote of 70. Item eight, appointment of new Tucson Police Chief Monica Prito. Um, city manager communication number 40 dated February 8th is received into and made part of the record. Miss Clerk, you are requested to read ordinance 12232 by number and title only.

Ordinance number 12232 relating to the Tucson Police Department approving the appointment of Monica Prito as the chief of police for the city of Tucson approving employment agreement and declaring an emergency. What is the council's pleasure? Council member Cunningham. She starts on Friday. She start She started on Friday. Um your honor, I'd like to move I'd be honored to move if I could uh to appoint Monica Prito as our next police chief.

Second. There is a motion to appoint um Chief Monica Prito uh as police chief of the city of Tucson. Um and a second. I'm going to ask for discussion. I know that we all have some good stuff to add. Uh I wanted to start the discussion by congratulating Chief PTO on her um appointment to being the only the second uh woman chief that the city of Tucson we've ever had. Um a person that absolutely deserves to be the chief of our city. uh has more than I think it's 25 years 26

26 get that one

uh years of experience in grew up in the department and has done everything um as any leader should right and I'm very very proud uh of this moment um I'm I'm very happy to have seen your career uh blossom and TPD and um I know for a fact that um Chief Casmar left an incredibly prepared team and um we want you to be successful in the work that you're doing to protect our community. Um and I know that we have an incredible partner in you to continue the work that we had started in putting the right work in the right hands. uh under Casmar and I know that we will continue to see innovative um programs uh within our police department because of you, Monica. You you carry uh you carry uh a lot of experience and we're very proud um that we move quickly when Mr. Mr. Tamir, you didn't skip skip a beat uh in moving and acting quickly, but that was because all of us and the community and your officers in the police department and your civilian employees and the community, I mean, all of us um are happy to see you ascend to chief. So, congratulations. I know that we're all very excited about that. Uh vice mayor, I think I saw your mic on and then we'll come down the line. All right. Thank you. I also want to congratulate you, um, Chief Monica Prito, on your appointment as a fellow Desert View Jaguar. Um, with more than two decades of service to our community, you understand this city and department

intimately. I appreciate your emphasis on strengthening public trust and transparency, and I look forward to working together to advance community safety rooted in accountability and care. And I already think that Chief Prito is gonna get more public attention than Chief Casmar because after meeting with her, she just had a fan base telling her how beautiful she was. So good times. Good times.

Congratulations. You're up to this task. There's no uh there's no one else we there's no one else that we would have considered at this point. Um, you've got a you've got a heavy load and um I know it's fun. I want to be like I want to I you don't normally I keep it light but we've already had our discussion about that. So, um, whatever you need, uh, we're here to support you, build the vision you have for this police department, and you've got a, you're lucky because you've got a great group of people working for you. And, um, well, let's I'm I'm really looking forward to, to what you bring and what your vision, uh, entails to improve what we have. We're one of the best departments in the country doing uh, more with less, and now we're going to do more with more. So, thank you. Congratulations, Chief, and condolences. Um, it's not one of the easiest jobs in the world, and I know that the stress level will take a toll. And thank you, family, for letting her do this and supporting her in this because she will continue to need support. Look forward to working with you. Um, I am so proud of the Tucson Police Department. You know, there's people who made mistakes. Um but overall I would compare ours to any other in the country and we would come up that much farther in the values that I think are important. Uh um the officers I've worked with um respect our community values and are there um to do good work and I look forward to the good work that you're able to lead. What's convincing to me is that the last couple weeks when I've seen an officer say, "So, what do you think about Casmar leaving?" Sad. What do you think about the um Chief Prito? Oh, pretty good. So, do a pretty good job.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Um Kevin pretty much stole everything that I was going to say to an extent. Um but thank you for your willingness to step into this position. I am sure that those four stars are a lot heavier than the three you had before. So, thank you for being willing to do that. And I was also going to acknowledge the family for sharing her for 26 years. And I know the next several years are going to be challenging and it's going to take even more toll on the family. So, I just want to acknowledge all of you and share my gratitude and I'm excited to work with you. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. I mean, thank you, mayor, for allowing us to share some words. Um, just first congratulations. I am so excited and just proud of the work you've already committed here to our Tucson community. And I want to thank your family for being here at this moment because this is a historic moment. You know, um, when it was announced, I received so many messages like that fan base is real. Like I've had so many people, cousins, theas, my own parents that know of your family and all positive words from, you know, public education to your brother played baseball for my dad at Desert View and everyone has a story about you and that just shows me that um you know, you truly care for Tucson and I'm really honored that I'm going to be working alongside you and your team and and our W five team. We're really excited to have you as our chief. So, congratulations again.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Um, we've only met a few times, but I've really enjoyed our conversation. Uh, you know, and I'm really on behalf of, you know, the W 6 team. Uh, we're all really excited to partner with you on these innovative approaches that are really showing results. And, uh, I'm so excited to see a woman in leadership. I'm so excited to see someone who's so rooted in the community and I just I see the care that you have for your role shining through um having grown up in the department. So I just I look forward to what's next. Thank you. Thank you.

I just want to say the fan base is real. Um really really happy. Uh Chief Prito, I just wanted to invite you to say if you want to say anything, if you want to add.

Yes, I do. Honorable mayor, members of council, city manager Tamir, assistant city manager Liz Morales, I just want to thank you for putting your trust in me. That's a, you know, that's a heavy heavy load for you guys as well. Um, as a native of Tucson and as somebody that grew up on the department, I am so incredibly honored to lead such fantastic men and women and um the responsibility is is will never be lost on me. Thank you. Yeah. All righty. Let's go to roll call then. Mr. Cunningham. I. Mrs. Lee. I. Miss Schubert. I.

Miss Barahas. I. Mr. Dah enthusiastic I Vice Mayor Santa Cruz I mayor Romero I Congratulations. Ordinance 12232 passes by a vote of 70. Thank you so much. Congratulations. I'm so happy about this. Um item nine is adjournment. Council will stand adjourned. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 at or after 5:30 p.m. Thank you. Have a wonderful rest of your week, everyone.