City Council - workshop

I'd like to call a work session order for September 21, 2026. Everybody's here to roll, right? Thumbs up. One item on the agenda tonight, remind council the staff will be pausing every so often to answer any questions. Item is water service. So she's going to be paused. What we'll do is I'll just rotate, do left. And then right, we'll just do it this way so everybody gets a shot to kick it off. So with that, you're up. It's the Barb Show.

Thank you for mentioning about the private water companies that serve north of I-10.

Go ahead, Vicki. How often do you meet with EPCOR?

Okay, because I met with them Friday in Scottsdale, and I met the guy that runs all of that, and it was really interesting some of the things he had to say and the amount of work that he's willing and wanting to do more in Goodyear. So I just wanted to see how often you were meeting with him. Thanks. Go ahead.

I'm going to work it around on this side. Benita, question?

Yes. Council Member Kano got into quite a bit of Obviously, some lessons learned. I would encourage, you know, you're fabulous for things like this, but sometimes even some of these presentations, your average viewer will still be left a little, you know, eyes glazed over, you know, getting too in the weeds just for this issue and any department with any sort of technical issue that needs to be relayed to residents, I would hope we heavily involve our communications department because if you sell it to them and can't sell it in 10, 20 seconds, unfortunately, that's the world we live in these d

And so from that, I know we had a plan of action. What's our timeline on not only getting, hopefully attacking this, as I saw in the presentation, from multiple angles, but ensuring that multiple pronged attack ensures we're not here next year doing that.

So it's a logistics issue on how fast he can move. How fast. Okay. And then I guess finally it was mentioned there are notices about to go out again. What neighborhoods were those in? I believe Cantamia was one of them. And Estrella. Okay. And then city manager, just for the record, what neighborhood do you live in? I just want to highlight that just so folks watching realize that this isn't stuff that we're doing to people. We live in these neighborhoods as well.

I also have a home in Australia. So I agree with Trey and with Laura. I know when this happened the last time, we had some pretty, I was not in town at the time, and I had some pretty, you know, freaky calls. And, in fact, I had talked to Brian about it because I didn't know what was going on because I was out of town. And so, but I'm seeing a difference from the letter that was sent out last time to what you just put up on the screen, and it looks much more concise and to the point. Thank you for that. because that should explain a lot before they start, they might still call us, and rightly

Okay, and the treatment vessels will be here on the 12th, so they'll be starting to be installed right after that. Okay, so that should explain a lot, and that will be what we can tell people, because they will call us. There will be some. So we can tell them that it's being taken care of, and we have invested in these treatment vessels to help us deal with this so that maybe it can eliminate this from the future. Is that how we say it?

Perfect. That's what I wanted to know. All right, so we have something to say this time as opposed to last time. Thank you.

What was the full, when it's going to be fully implemented there at the water treatment facility? What do you expect that?

So you think the vessels that you're putting in will take care of that until 2031?

So you'll get something in place until the full-blown thing happens in 2030?

Don't you hold this right there before it go to Trey. Just a real quick question. Are we going to have to decide at some point when we get council here together, as we expand our city farther south, is there going to be value in having them bring their own water and private companies where we save some of that water for us for as we're billing in our current area. Is that something we're going to have to have a discussion for? Like from my perspective, logic tells me if we can keep the growth outside of our area from using our water, then that saves us water for others. If these are going to g

Can I, while I get on something else, can I see the map of the basin again?

So my understanding is we're facing 14% cut here over the next few years. Yeah. Have we thought about, you know, with some of the news I've seen lately, just changing the name of the river to the Arizona River? Would that help? Because to me it looks like it should be.

And I know that was realistically a little unserious. But I do want to speak, kind of framing it a little bit for the public. Are we running out of water? No. So how can we still build? How can we still have growth in the city of Goodyear in the most, like, basic sense, because that's what we're going to get. People are going to hear and see that we have cuts to water, we have cuts to river. How can you approve this new commercial plaza?

I'm glad you brought this chart. I think it does represent it quite well. I know it was a ways back. I wasn't going to ask to go back that far. But no, it does show.

The framework or stuff that we've been talking about, we're dealing with 10 years. So what happens in 10 years? Are we back in the spot where we're hoping the federal government makes a wise decision or a less worse decision?

And then both scenarios. assume an AWP system online within that ten years. I guess is the city planning right now or kind of have an idea of a framework in mind of which one we're starting to plan around? And then what happens if the AWP, you know, slips, it's not online or Anything like that?

OK. And with all of that, what is the concern then more immediate when it comes to our residents, whether quality, safety of the water, those are obviously high priorities, cost, what are we looking forward to as a prognosis for pretty much all three of those?

And safety of the water, I guess quality of it. You had mentioned with AWP, I think it was maybe third grade science class, he learned about the water cycles. Obviously, we don't import water from another planet. And there's a lot of perception out there about how small is your circle, I guess is the kind way to put it. But the reality is that circle has been spinning for millions of years here, and even your bottled water has probably transferred through humans throughout the course of its life. I know that's a blunt way to put it, but I'm sure somebody's going to take a sip right now. But ye

I'm sorry. I'm just throwing that out there. I can bring that up. later but I appreciate the work you're doing and again on this similar to the last one when we're dealing with our residents this gets highly technical making sure we're involving our communications department so that we can phrase things and answer things truthfully transparently in the language that is best digested by our residents thank you thank you

Okay. So I think it's important to make clear to the people that are listening tonight, because this can be a very scary thing, and that they do know that we do have the 100-pound in groundwater supply. We have that. And so that we are not creating panic. We are not trying to create panic. We don't want people thinking, oh my God, we're running out of water. We're still gonna develop here. We're the ninth fastest growing city in the nation. I don't know, maybe we're faster growing now, I don't know. But the bottom line is we don't want to, as we are still growing and booming, because we are, w

Purification. That's what I want people to know. I don't want people to watch what we're doing here tonight and say, oh, another way for them to spend our money. So it's like, yes, there are things we have to do to get this ready. But we're just pointing out all the things that could be done. But we're not necessarily saying, oh, no, we should do the desalination. Because when people look that up, that's pretty scary. And especially when it costs so much money. And these plants have been closed down after building So we don't want people thinking that we're going to do that, that there are oth

Great discussion with the council. I think your biggest challenge kind of going forward is there's so much misinformation out there. I mean, seriously, misinformation. So I know our digital communication is gonna have to work on that as well. Things on whether data centers are using all our water or that we have no water in the ground. That's all not accurate. So I think we just gotta sometimes be a little more on the offensive and tell them what we're doing. And there's plenty of water that we've got. We've got water for growth. We've got long-term planning. And we just gotta make sure we get

Just real quick before I start over to the right. How long does it take them to review a draft? Usually you read it, you change a few words in there, and you send it out. So any idea how long it's going to take them to take a look at a draft?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Benita, you got anything? Okay, Laura.

Yes, just one follow-up when it comes to paper water versus wet water. Yeah. Paper waters, you know, my understanding is essentially an entitlement to water. Yes. Whether or not it exists because As we know, Colorado River has been over-allocated, as have other sources over the times. But what concerns would we have that that paper water would not be fully at risk of trying to make up words? I won't. fully realized to where it then becomes wet water that can actually be delivered if and when we need it at that time. Are there political concerns? Because City of Goodyear is, and I don't mean pa

Okay. It's also probably one of them that's most expensive to treat. That's all I wanted to get in. That's kind of concern that's developed there, but as has been said, we are better off than most cities.

I actually am not confused. Newsflash. I think that you have explained it beautifully. We have gone over it and over it and sometimes I think three and four times. I think that you have made it very clear what is going on in this city and what we're doing compared to other cities and what we're doing as far as the state. You are watching it very closely and I feel good about it. I feel good with what you've explained today. I just, I don't think there's anything confusing about it for me. Thank you.

You know, there's not a whole lot to add. You've got great discussions here with the council. Did you have something you want to add there, Brian? You good? Yeah, so is there anything else?

Is there anything else anybody wants to add here? We all good?

Yeah. Are we done with this one? Yeah, we're done.

I wanted to say this last time, but I didn't get it in quick enough. So I wanted to say that, and I think many people did here, attended the Firebirds opening. I THOUGHT IT WAS FANTASTIC. I THINK IT'S SOME OF THE BEST FOOD IN THE CITY. I THOUGHT IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. THEIR STAFF WAS FANTASTIC. I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT. I LOVED THE LEMONADE STAND IN THE FRONT. I HAVE FOLLOWED ALEX, THE LITTLE GIRL THAT DIED OF BRAIN CANCER, THAT HER AND HER MOTHER STARTED THAT FOR YEARS THEY STARTED IT. AND I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE WHAT THEY HAVE DONE IN RAISING MONEY FOR CHILDHOOD CANCER. SO SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT

Did you smooth over that stuff between Canada and the U.S.? I did.

I actually did, and I said on behalf of the mayor, he would like me to tell you all this. So it was amazing, and it's something that I'm not usually involved in, and I can't believe what I learned, found out, and what I was able to accomplish. In fact, one of the first people that I introduced Joe to was the Canadian consulate. I know, I couldn't believe it. So anyway, it was really exciting. So I found something that I actually liked doing that I never had wanted to be involved in. Economic development, you know, no. But I enjoyed it. So I wanted to say thank you for that. They want me to sit

Well, you have a ribbon cutting coming up.

Yeah, that's next week, right? Yeah, the ribbon cutting there is coming up. So, you know, I just couldn't say enough about them. This week. This week, Thursday? Okay, good. Good. It was amazing. I can't say enough good. Thank you.

ALL RIGHT, ARE WE GOOD? WELL, I TELL YOU WHAT, WE'RE NOT FINISHED YET, SO HOLD ON. NEXT MEETING WILL BE SEPTEMBER 28, 2026. NO FURTHER BUSINESS. THIS MEETING IS OVER. Got a lot of blue here. All right. I'd like to call a special meeting order for September 21st, 2026. City Clerk, please read the roll call. We're all here, correct? Yes, sir. All right. A vote may be held to call an executive session for the following, pursuant to ARS 38-431.03, A3 and 4, for legal advice and consultation and to consider its position and to provide instruction, direction to the city attorney and city manager reg