City - Special Meeting

good afternoon special session mayor and city council meeting 6 p.m wednesday june 10 2026 city hall council chambers call this meeting to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance We go to call to the public. I've got one. Mr. Brian Vanderbilt, please take your name and address. Turn on your mic, please. Three minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council. Yes, my name is Brian Vanderbilt. I live at 31 Saddlehorn Road in Tubac. I'm here tonight to speak about the IGA, the intergovernmental agreement between the city and the county regarding the library. I'm on the library board, and this is an issue that's very important to all of us who are associated with the library and work for the benefit of the city library. The approval for the IGA, the county has already approved it. It now comes to the city council for your approval. I hope that later in the meeting you will vote to approve that IGA. The IGA as presented to you is basically almost identical to the ones you've had before with one exception. Previously, the IGA has been for four years. This IGA tonight is for one year. The reason for that, I believe, is that later on in the year, the county wishes to engage the city in conversations about their vision for the library system and how it will affect the county as the county grows in the next few years. I also would like to comment on the importance of communication between the library board and the library administration. Without open paths of conversation, misunderstandings may occur. Courtesy of communication brings strength and stronger relationships between the administrators. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. And let me tell the public, we have an attorney here for Mr. Estes. Would you present yourself, sir?

There we go. Good evening, Mayor. I assume this is picking me up.

Yep.

My name is Matthew Bedrick. I'm an attorney with the firm Pierce Coleman. I see one of my old co-workers from Prescott Eric Stewart out there in the audience. So it's a small world in the municipal world. It's nice to meet you. I've been practicing municipal law for about 30 years now. This year is my 30th anniversary practicing law. I was the attorney in Lake Havasu City for years and then A DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY IN PRESS THERE FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS. AND I QUASI RETIRED OUT OF THE ASRS SYSTEM BUT STILL NEED TO WORK BEFORE I CAN DRAW MY SOCIAL SECURITY. HERE I AM TO HELP YOU TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. JUST TO LET THE AUDIENCE KNOW, MR. BONILLA IS NOT PRESENT TODAY. OKAY. WE MOVE ON TO OPEN THE PUBLIC HEARING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Blood Grant, CBDG Project Selection.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Will Osborne. I'm the Community and Economic Development Manager for Segoe. We generally help you with CDBG in its application and in its management of the grants. Tonight, Maria Valles, our community coordinator, is going to offer you our P4 public hearing presentation. It should be very brief because I understand you guys have a rather loaded agenda. And so without further ado, I'd like to introduce Maria Valles.

Thank you will and welcome Maria.

Thank you. Members of the community, the members of council, Mr. Mayor. I'm here this evening to talk to you about the next steps in obtaining your funding for 2026. Next slide. So, just to kind of recap on what we presented at the last meeting, you are, of course, aware of the grant, which is, uh. funding given to the state by the government for different projects, public works, and infrastructure projects. This year is Nogales' designated year, so their award year. So this means that with a complete and correct application and complete environmental review report, their city's entitled to $440,128 for funding the project that you all select this evening. In addition to the regular account, 2026 is a colonial year in which this would present the opportunity to compete for funding to accomplish projects for water, wastewater, stormwater, and housing rehab relating to sewer or potable water. And that's for areas that are designated as colonial. Finally, the City of Nogales may also consider competing for funding from the state special projects funds. This opportunity is also a competitive grant funding opportunity for which the entire state may be competing for funds for a broader range of projects.

Next slide.

So the non-competitive funding amounts, as I said, for the regional account, which the city is entitled to, is $440,128. And that's for infrastructure, community facilities, parks. It's also available for public and community services. Again, there's a 30% maximum designation for that. Planning, design, engineering grants for other projects upcoming is also a consideration for that money. That's 20% max. And then there's slum and blight reduction, 15% max. and then housing development and rehabilitation. Next slide, please. So go ahead and click one more time for me. So you've got, of course, the three different accounts that you're able to leverage. Of course, we would want to get a resolution for sure, the regional account. However, if you're interested in applying for the other grant funding, you'd want to get resolutions out this evening as well. So as far as the national objectives for the CBDG grant, the projects need to benefit low and moderate income people. So that would be 50% of the area of which the project will serve. The beneficiaries have to be in the income level of 80% or less of median household incomes for the same size in that area. Um, specific interest, special interest needs, uh, groups are automatically considered such as senior citizens or, um. You know, disabled people or people that are victims of domestic violence. So these projects must eliminate or prevent slum or blight conditions. Um, area wide 25% or more of the properties are deteriorated or abandoned in these areas that would qualify also. Or there's spot grants that's specific to detrimental conditions of public health safety concerns. The project must meet urgent needs related to health and public safety. And then natural disaster or events resulting in area damage and hazards. So it has to fit one of those criteria in order to be eligible. Next slide, please. Some former projects that Nogales has undertaken or undertaken planning for was the 1904 courthouse rehabilitation planning and assessment. Public and community facilities, it looks like 2016, the McNabb water improvements. And then there looks like some projects that were not completely realized for the Nogales Innovation Center's commercial kitchen improvements, Rio Rico Street and drainage improvements, Nogalitos Colonia's wastewater and drainage improvements, Coriancorte and Calle Marinette's street drainage and wastewater system improvements. So these are some things that were considered in the past for projects. Next slide, please. So at the last hearing, the P2 hearing that we held here, these were projects that were discussed. I can go through them quickly. So it's green infrastructure in downtown, so that was Morley Avenue and Grand Avenue fruit tree plantings. Historic clock tower rehabilitation. The water harvesting increased shade to be used as an educational collaboration. The municipal golf course improvements were mentioned, along with sidewalk ADA improvements. water and sewer system improvements, neighborhood level improvements, extending infrastructure improvements from current projects, as well as exploring passenger rail connectivity between Nogales and Tucson, and park improvements, specifically baseball and soccer fields.

Next slide, please.

If anyone would want to contact someone internally about the projects, the CBDG projects, these would be the people to do so with. Mr. Palkin, of course, short-term, temporarily, right? And then Mr. Will Osborne of Segal. Next slide, please. And that is it. I would leave this in the hands of the city council and the mayor, of course, to make your resolutions. And I appreciate the time so much. Thank you.

What's the timeframe of having the projects with you? What's the timeframe?

Project selection, selection, excuse me, and resolution would, we would hope get that out tonight, to be very honest. Well,

Just to add, ideally, you would have your resolutions considered tonight for adoption. And if you needed another meeting to actually sign off on those resolutions, you could have that. We're just concerned that if you don't make the decisions tonight, that we would have to notice for another public hearing, which means at least a month away from today, given the publication schedule of the Nogales International.

Okay. Ms. Montoya, do you have a question?

First of all, thank you for being here. Appreciate your time. What criteria did you use to make certain projects a priority other over others?

Actually, the project prioritization. They've been mostly for staff to consider which ones were among the most feasible to do some of the project ideas that were in that list that were shown wouldn't necessarily qualify for the low moderate income national national objective, nor would it for any of the others. It doesn't mean it's a bad project. It just means it may not be a project suitable for CDBG.

Yeah, it doesn't fit the criteria.

Right, it doesn't fit the national objectives criteria. That said, there are other funding sources that are CDBG that Maria mentioned. Some of those might be better suited for the competitive grants. Noting that the city of Nogales has had a great success in competing for especially colonists, state special projects being statewide, it's a little bit tougher on that competition, but the funding availability, Typically is going to be in the same ballpark as your annual or rather your regional account Maybe even greater the last project that was done with the city of Nogales just wrapped up last winter And it was for Camino del Sol phase two improvement on Alice Street, and that was a colonial Colonial CDBG project so that wrapped up after about three years from the start But that was a colonial project. So we encourage, you know applications where you know a or your staff knows that the capital improvement plan or even the transportation improvement plan where over overlaps with some of your under the ground improvements for water stormwater and wastewater improvement or for sewer lines stuff like that. That exists or in areas where you know you have significant need for housing rehabilitation where the folks have lower moderate income or even senior citizens and they need help with their housing. owner-occupied housing rehab is something that could be across any of these grant opportunities, but they usually are really strong with colonias as well as those infrastructures that I mentioned.

Well, thank you for being very specific. And just one last question. How does the funding compare to last year? I should have checked that, but I didn't see the funding of last... To the last regional account?

Yeah. I believe that it's gone up. It's gone up? Yeah. Which is good. I believe that the last go-round for regional account I believe was in the neighborhood of 380,000 closer to around 400,000. Yeah. Uh, but from 2024. Until I believe it's next year, it will be 440,000. For communities in Santa Cruz county, but the, um. The method of distribution and the amounts will sort of shift upward as part of a formula. But that said, there may even be a small increase this year simply because there's kind of like a cost of living adjustment that ADOH will sometimes make, but it's usually very, very small.

Minor. Okay, thank you.

Go ahead, Mr. Starr.

Yes, my question is also based on the funding amount. If so, say, we have 440. And a project runs 400,000, and we want to start another 1 that runs maybe. 250 will it will those 3000 be applied to the.

The 250 for the other 1, if it qualifies for this 1 of the reasons why we suggested the, or at least mentioned the other funding sources that are, but are competitive. Is that if you have more than 1 project that you really want to do, and you believe that you are competitive for those competitive funds that you could have a 2nd project. off of one of those other funds. But with your regional account as a city, not being a county, you can only have one project. And it's like, well, what if we wanted to have one construction project but have part of the award separated out for looking ahead to the next competitive project? It's like, well, you could do that, but some would actually say, well, go for one of the competitive for that purpose of, hey, part of that competitive fund would actually go towards Uh, the design engineering, the assessment of where the. Need is most critical and then to say part of that fund would also maybe address. Like a larger problem of a project that, you know, maybe the project gets identified through that process. But for your regional account, you're usually looking kind of for your slam dunk. This is like something that is. More generally applicable doesn't necessarily have to be housing rehab or, uh, infrastructure under the ground. Um. Because usually those competitive grants are things that are going to be like, yeah, your computer community really needs this. not like they would make the community better to look at or better to walk around and stuff like that, which is great and important. But when it comes to health and safety, it's like when your wastewater system is having problems in an area, that's where you kind of like, yeah, that's like a very critical need.

Thank you. Question. Mr. Puckett, have we, as public works are, have we looked at it What projects could be on the list for this grant?

I don't think you'll be surprised to know that we would like to see this money invested in a water project, given the state of our water fund. Would you agree, Eric?

For instance, like what?

Uh, there's Mr Delgado's list of 30 projects we can. Easily spend 440,000.

The 30 projects that were on the original plan, that's not Mr. the girls list, but that's a list that was that was created by by the city. But I don't think 440 is going to clear him up.

Every little bit is going to help in water fund.

I will, I will add is that the last project that was a colonial funded project, the amount of the award was somewhere around, I believe 600,000. Wait, I'm sorry it was in the 430,000 range for the community. Yes, but you also had a Water Infrastructure Finance Authority funding, which was significantly greater in size. Yes. About a million and a half, I think. So that was, again, looking at some of these projects, CDBG is a good layering or leveraging source to put together with something else, and that's something else also to consider, as well as if you may have other funding sources to combine for these projects.

Those are... You could tell you, I think we have 2526. Street water projects that are small. They've been getting bigger and bigger every year.

Yeah, cost of materials and labor, especially materials going on so projects tend to get a better reception for competitive.

Yeah, so if you do have a capital improvement plan or program. And Eric, who's just on board, he may be able to help identify those. You may have some idea of generally what areas of town might be best to address and then getting down to the detail. Uh, where exactly that's something that we could do in the application phase, but it probably would be good to make note that a water system improvements. That's usually the project title, but you actually want to kind of identify what. Area of would be the focus of that. In your resolution, it would be suggested, but.

Mr. there are. And I think you got the bigger version of that list there, the one that you can actually read. Now, there's, there's a few projects on here. Without regard to location that would fit close to or within. The amount of the funding.

Well, we, we can mix can we mix and match 2, 3 projects and use the funds.

Yes, pardon me if the projects are. In an area. Like, sort of like, uh, focusing and saying, hey, this is a West quadrant. West quadrant colonial area project for water system improvements. That might be sufficient, but you'd probably still kind of want to. Kind of draw a line around it, be able to provide a map for that. and uh have the engineering if it's able to be done in-house to come up with the here specifically engineering is done yeah the engineering is done that's great um that would again when you have that situation where all the stuff is done um a competitive grant like colonias especially if it's in the colonia uh area of town uh would be I think it would be a strong opportunity and still allow you for, in your regional account, to do something that may be the same kind of a project or maybe something different, a little more variety of project types that you can pursue with a regional account. But yeah.

Well, Mr. just, uh, why don't we, uh, well, and Maria. Why don't we change the contact information? Now, okay. Uh, Mr Melendez has volunteered to take my place on the list. Okay. Because he probably will be working here a little longer and he's got more than 48 hours. It's got more than 48 hours. So if you would change the contact information for the city clerk, we appreciate it. Thank you.

Basically, it should be the same number and everything except the email and the name. It'd be Mike Melendez and Melendez at NogalesAC.gov.

We have his contact info. So we'll just change him to be the applicant contact.

Council. We need we need to come with a project today.

I already send my list and priorities to Mr. Estes.

Do you know what Ms. Matilda said?

Do you want to repeat that? I heard you.

I sent my priorities. Which Mayor, we could decide if you want now or whatever you choose to do. Is there a priority list of yours included in here?

I was, I was thinking if we didn't have, you know. I know we could go with with those streets, but, you know, my other option was. We, we have the necessity of certain parts with no bathrooms. You got 1 1 in on Western. that we could put in there. You know, I don't think the Meadow Hills Park fits the file price. But you guys want to, you said we could bring it back next month, right?

You'd have to have basically another P4 public area to sort of bring it back where you could have had the Month of time to consider, I will say, just as a heads up the notice of funding availability for the competitive grants, both state special projects and the colonial CDBG. Neither of those have yet dropped. But when they do, they tend to require a Gallup to get. To that finish line, and we provide the help to get you there. But it gives us a bit less time from when that happens. Which is why it might be useful to think about the, the projects that you want and again. The colonialists or state special projects, there's a bit more flexibility you have. In some ways, but with colonialists, it's kind of very much specifically like, hey, get the infrastructure under the ground that helps to keep the community clean safe. Or owner occupied housing, we have get that under a colonial grant application. And look for your regional account to be something where I think you've mentioned restrooms at. One of the parks or something like that, the kind of project that the city events, and that was our last project was to do. Park improvements with restroom restrooms and a stack bar. They folded all that into. into one grant but they did partner with a national parks grant so you know again where you have those opportunities to layer together that could also help but the idea would be that you would have an idea that you've got a regional account priority which is money that you can't really lose unless you don't finish the project versus uh colonias which is going to be competitive It's going to be in competition with other colonialist-owning communities, communities that have colonialists in them, of which Nogales has, I believe, three or four. But Segoe's service area has 37 out of 68 statewide. So we've got plenty, but we haven't really had a lot of bites for projects on that yet.

Yeah, just so we can move on. Maybe perhaps we can, we can, um. Decide to to allocate the funding to parks. Um, because I know that's a huge priority and it has been a priority specifically on the project could be maybe we could decide in the next few weeks, but could that happen? Steve.

Good. That's that's council's priority.

Yeah. Okay. That's I mean, you guys can have your input.

What I would say, and as part of the consideration and making a decision for a resolution to apply. That you have some specificity. About which park to put the focus on or. Or if there's more than 1 part, but to kind of make it so that our application process. Is much more clear about here are the 3 parks. Here's a map. Here are the improvements that are being suggested for that and here's how they're going to be able to. Fit into that budget that you give us a 440,128. Um, for the other ones, uh, the competitive grants. You could submit later. As long as you've already had the discussion of here, the projects that would qualify. And I think that you kind of have that in the list of projects. Even those generic where it says water and water system improvements and sewer system improvements. I believe owner occupied housing rehab was in there as well. That you've got it in there, you could hold off on that. On a resolution for application there, but, like I said, the time is going to be, it's going to be like, the bomb is dropped on us and we're going to be like, holy moly. You guys really need to have this together that you're going to apply for colonists right? And that we would run that through, but tonight probably would be important to get your resolution for application on a regional account. Just so that you have that in.

I have a question on the water and sewer systems. To me, that's a priority. So I would like to not decide this minute, I believe. Can we have a little bit of time? Because that's my priority is the water and sewer systems.

So I think as well, what may be a value and I know other communities have done the same. You do have new professional staff. I'm assuming that they're getting themselves up to speed and it seems like they have experience in projects for infrastructure. Uh, and the like is to, uh, get some input from them as well. Uh, in a, I mean, if it's going to be a wait to make a decision until next time, it's going to be a public hearing that Miguel will have to provide notice for. Um, but I would suggest that between this. Tonight, and that time that you actually have the staff, not necessarily like on, like, we're doing this to staff. You can do this is let them go through the documents that they have that kind of provide them with the direction. It sounds like there's a circulating list of projects. That they actually do a little bit of the background to help you make those decisions and maybe even suggest more specifically. Here's a list of projects that are like, highest priority, the biggest bang. For the buck for these bucks, remembering to that. Colonials can be for a larger amount. We don't know how much, but it's not been unreasonable to ask up in the ballpark of 700 plus 1000. I know that the City of Nogales received a grant for over a million in Colonius back before 2020. So, if nobody else is applying. that let your staff be your guides as well.

Yeah, I think that process happened already. Mr. Hogan came up with a list of projects in our last meeting, not maybe this last one, but the previous to that. And so it's compiled already. I think what we need to do is just decide which project. And it's just a matter of different opinions. But that list was information was given to us prior to this meeting. So I think it's just a matter of just deciding. And I suggest that we just move on and have people on the council email. Steve, one more day or two more days.

Maybe not the best.

What would you recommend?

Okay, so most of what's eligible for funding would either be under the auspices of Public Works or Park and Recreation. And those two are sitting right next to each other back there. And what I would suggest is that you send your input to both of them by email. And that way, the two of them can help you collaborating, deciding what put the priorities together, if you will. You may you may want to do a work session or a special meeting in order to take the information that they provide you and dissect it and come up with actual recommendations that you can give to Maria. And I think that could be done fairly quickly, gentlemen.

Right and and following on resolutions for application, you could have multiple resolutions for application draft on your at your station. For that meeting, where it's like, here are the here are the 5 or 6. Different projects and and it's like, well, we have to make a decision. For the regional account, which 1 of these projects would be the best 1 to apply to that. Which project do you feel would be the best? And then it comes down to your parliamentary procedure. As I make a motion that here's all the language of CDBG regional account 2026, that we would construct or do these things to have this project Be be the project. Do I have a 2nd, there's a 2nd, and it's like, okay, discussion and then you can start the start the party and then and if that 1 fails, then it's the next project and so forth. You're welcome.

And Mr. Mayor, I believe, Marie, you can be available at a minimum virtually to help them along through those meetings.

I'm absolutely happy to help in any way that I can.

Okay. And would you please make sure that Eric and David have your contact information?

Yes, sir, sir.

Before you go home tonight. Thank you.

Mr. Eric, were you going to make a comment? I saw you sneaking in.

Mr. Mayor and Council, Eric Stewart, Public Works. No, I agree with this idea. Conceptually, I think we need to understand the criteria that the projects would have to meet to fall into this category. And then we take the projects from the Council and see which ones match and probably just pick what we can afford.

Yes. Okay. First of all, let's not lose the opportunity. That's the main thing. All right. Thank you. We need to close the public hearing.

You can take testimony if you'd like.

Anybody wish to make a comment on the public hearing? That's it. We closed the public hearing. Move on to presentation. Turn water quality standards and emerging regulations in term of public direct.

Thank you Mr mayor council. Uh, over the last couple of months, we've been talking about, uh, the budget that we've created and so forth for our water department. Some questions that come up, um, at best, I gave some vague answers and tonight's just kind of a, a summary of, uh, some, some better answers that you, you and the community have been looking for over the last, um, couple months. Um, first line, please. First, next slide. I'm looking at it. Now, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, or ADEQ, is responsible for ensuring public water systems comply with federal drinking water regulations. These standards are established under the Safe Drinking Water Act and are designed to protect health, public health, by limiting contaminants and ensuring proper treatment of drinking water. Tonight, I'll briefly discuss three key areas of water quality regulation. One is arsenic, PFAS, and chlorination. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element found in many groundwater sources throughout Arizona. Historically, the federal standard was 50 parts per billion. In 2001, the EPA adopted a much stricter standard of 10 parts per billion, and that became compliant or fell into compliance in 2006. So it was a question that came up in the past. So that's been around for 20 years. The purpose of the change was to further reduce long term health risks, including certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. Today, the 10 part per billion standard remains in effect. And there are currently no major changes considered. We do have arsenic in some of our well water. We actually have arsenic remediation that extracts it out. And it's a very expensive process we don't always replace the media unless it falls in until that increases up close to the maximum standard, I think, to do all three of our wells or our stick remediation media it's about $350,000 so we take them one at a time when we need to meet this requirement. Next slide please. PFAS are often referred to as forever chemicals because they break down very slowly in the environment. Unlike arsenic, PFAS compounds are manmade and have historically been used in manufacturing firefighting foams and consumer products like nonstick cookware and food containers. In 2024, the EPA established the first national drinking water standards for these compounds at four parts per trillion. This is one of the most significant new drinking water regulations in decades and will likely be a major focus of the water utilities nationwide in the coming years. And at this time, I think it's worth noting all the wells we've tested so far, we're testing all of them, all wells we tested so far are negative in PFAS. So that's good news for us. Next slide, please. Thank you. Chlorination remains one of the most important public health protections in drinking water treatment. Its purpose is to eliminate bacteria, viruses and other pathogens before water reaches customers. Federal regulations not only require effective disinfectant, but also limit the byproducts that can form when chlorine reacts with natural occurring organic matter. The current standards balance these two objectives. maintaining safe disinfecting and disinfection while minimizing disinfection byproducts throughout the distribution system. It's worth noting that Nogales does use chlorination and right now we're in the process of retrofitting the last couple of water production facilities with injection process instead of manually installing the tablets in the water supply. Key takeaways. Next slide, please. Thank you. Key takeaways, the most important takeaway is that the city of Nogales continues to meet applicable ADEQ and EPA drinking water standards. Arsenic regulations have remained relatively stable for the past two decades. PFAS regulations represent the most significant emerging regulatory challenge facing water providers. chlorination remains essential to protecting public health and Staff will continue monitoring regular developments and will keep council informed of any future impacts to the city water system And with that I'll entertain any questions Any questions Thank you On our

You said on our wells, arsenic is the main issue on three wells?

That's the only issue that we, it's measurable that we have to continue using media to mitigate the arsenic in the water to keep it down below the required levels.

And we're doing it successfully right now.

We do that. And it's kind of a drawn out process. We put the media in every three years. We recycle new media. When the standard when the sampling indicates that it's getting high up close to our standard, we have to meet. We'll back flush this to wash the media off, so to speak, and then we'll reuse it. And that works for about three years. This next year, we'll be replacing a couple of their well sites with that just because we're. We're bumping up against those standards even though we can backwash It's still not still just meeting those standards Go ahead

I have a question. I know that the chlorination is very important. Do we have a water treatment person right now to make sure that they're checking?

We do. In fact, we have someone that focuses primarily on that. And it's it's a it's a hand distribution process for putting pellets in the water system. And ADQ has. basically worked with us to improve that system. So it's injected through a process that's all metered, so to speak, so that it's consistent. So we'll see more consistent chlorine usage in our system by having this.

Go ahead, Mr.

So how often are those wells monitored? The sampling? For the pathogens and the arsenic?

This is to get to the good questions now. We have a schedule that we have to adhere to per ADE2. So arsenic we measure, it looks like four times a year. And that's our big one. Bactes we do monthly. And we don't have anything for,

chlorine here but it's regularly monitored so I hope that answers your question any more questions thank you thank you mr. next we move to item six financial monthly report number one may may 26 2026

Good evening mayor and council members today. I'm bringing the finance report for April 2026. The financial report focuses on the general fund highway user revenue fund, which is a her overweight fees, the sewer water and sanitation utility funds. For April at 10 months, we should be at least revenues higher than 83% or at 83% and expenditures below or at 83%. On table A, the general fund revenues total are 26,384,939, which is at 92.1%. General fund expenditures total $25,156,146, which is at 57.8%. The general fund revenues exceed expenditures by $1,228,793. Revenues are $2,618,353 above the year-to-date budget. And expenditures are at 10,954,272 below the year-to-date expenditure report.

So is that a savings? What's that? Is that a savings?

Yes, we budgeted to be spending at that time to be at 83%, we're below that, we're at 10 million less. Thank you. On table B, deposits for local sales taxes are 1,539,460, which is 409,467 more than April of 2025. Overall, we're below by 291,671 at this point last year. For the general fund expenditures, as of April, Pending is at 57.8% of the budget, below the 83% straight line benchmark. All departments are below the 83% threshold. for HEERF and overweight fees. In HEERF, the revenues total $2,752,018. That is at 94.6%. Expenditures total $1,850,774 at 54.3%. Revenues exceed expenditures by $901,245 year to date. Revenues are $336,499 above the year-to-date budget. And the expenditures are $977,207 below the budget. And we're above.

On that comparison, is it because gas prices have risen? Has the tax risen on that, or is it the same as last year?

Well, this was a set amount before the budget started that how much that Nogales was going to receive. What happened is that we're spending less than what was actually budgeted.

Okay.

For overweight fee revenues, the total is $339,525, which is 113.2% of our budgeted amount. Expenditures total $72,772, which is at 7.9%. Revenue exceeds expenditures by $266,753 year-to-date. Revenues are at $90,525 above the year-to-date budget, and expenditures are $689,289 below the year-to-date budget. For enterprise funds on sewer, revenues total $3,334,277, which is at 102%. Expenditures total $2,164,876, which is at 61.2%. Revenues exceed expenditures by $1,169,401. Revenues are $620,011 above the year-to-date budget, and expenditures are at $980,822 below the budget. For the Water Fund, revenues total 2,966,964, which is 88.3%. Expenditures total 2,821,407, which is at 67.7%. Revenues exceed expenditures by 145,558. Revenues are $177,666 above your today budget, and expenditures are $637,389 below the budget. As you can see, by the end of the month of April, the Water Fund, this is the first time that the expenditures passed, I mean the revenues are more than expenditures. For the month of April, by the end of April. Go ahead, Mr. Doe. And what do you attribute this to? It could be that we were collecting more revenues now for the water fund, and expenditures were lower as of the end of April. For the sanitation fund, the revenues total $2,616,021, which is 93.3% of the budget. Expenditures total $2,515,257, which is 66.9%. Revenues exceed expenditures by $100,763 year to date. Revenues are $287,871 above the year-to-date budget. Expenditures are $606,013 below the year-to-date budget. For business licenses at the end of May, we had 2,900 active business licenses, 15 new business licenses, zero were canceled, and there were no special event for one day licenses. I wanted to mention regarding the change of the pennies. So there's a, just wanted to give you a heads up that it might be, you might be getting calls or maybe down the line in a couple of months because banks are no longer giving out pennies for change. So we're looking at different types of options on what to do when, you know, they overpay, we can leave those extra pennies as credit for their accounts, but we'll continue to monitor that and bring you guys an update on that.

And that concludes the... Start rounding that up? What's that? We're going to start rounding that up?

That can be an option. It can be rounded up to the nearest five cents. There's different options at the end. You'll get to decide what to do.

Any questions? On today's report, basically in our three accounts, water, sewer, and sanitation, we got over 1.187 $1,187,000, approximately $1,100,000 of revenues more than budget. On all three accounts.

Okay.

On expenses, you have almost $2.1 million less expense. expenditures than budgeted. We put sewer water and sanitation. 620,000 a gallon, 177,666, 287,871. Rough math, it's 2.1, or 1.1. Yeah, that's from the budgeted amount that we were expecting. More revenues than budget. Correct, than the expected revenues. And expenses. We have 606.013, 637.389, 988.22, less expenditures, which is around 2.1. So that's less 2.1 expended, and gain 1.1, that's 3.3.

between the three different funds that manage different departments.

So in general, the city did good in all three accounts?

At least by the end of April, yes.

April, yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

I don't have the right number.

Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

Next, we move to item. Liquor license number 1, public hearing consideration and possible action on liquor license number 2026 dash 12 consideration and recommendation to approve. and insurance of a Series 9 liquor license for Circle K Stores, 750 Great Northwestern Avenue, Nogales, Arizona, 85621.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. I remember a discussion items, discussion, possible action consideration of in kind support for American Legion post 23 for the veterans parade and state parade event to be held on November 11th. 2026 from 9 0 AM to 4 PM. American Legion.

No, it's not. I'm the manager of the American Legion, and I really don't need, you know, to be put in a bad light.

I second. Thank you. The attorney. Sure. Why would there be a conflict if one has nothing to do with the other?

The conflict of interest statute is very clear that the council person themselves is the person who makes the determination of whether or not they have a conflict of interest. And he's made that determination. Um, I haven't discussed it with necessarily so. You know, you're just gonna have to rely on on his, his, his assessment.

Based on his training while we had a 2nd motion for that.

Thank you. Mr. vice mayor. And it's got you all in favor. All right on the post motion passes. Number 2 discussion and possible action consideration of in kind support for veterans, foreign affairs. 2066 for the veterans day parade event to be held November 11th, 2026 from 9 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, that's it uh all in favor all right all opposed motion passes going to number mr dove going back

Mr. Mayor, we have a quorum. We can continue on to the next item.

Well, it's between Ms. Monteiro and Mr. Doyle, so we can bring in the item. The discussion item.

Oh, okay.

That's fine with me. We have a quorum.

And he comes back on the day.

Okay.

Thank you.

Number three, discussion and direction on possible action on selecting an audit firm for a fluorescent audit of the various departments in the city of Nogales, Arizona. Ms. Montiel and Mr. Doe. Mr. Doe. William. Mr. Doe, we're on item number three of the Forensic Audit. You and Ms. Montiel put it on the agenda?

Yes.

Turn on your mic, please.

Mayor, we actually, what we're looking now is for the firm, we already passed approved for an audit. And I think now is the time to start or continue with the process of selecting a few firms and seeing what they have to offer, the cost, and details about doing a little more deep audit on certain departments, not the whole city, We'll discuss that, I guess, when we get ready to cross that bridge and then we'll take it from there. So basically, we're asking to give direction to staff on getting a few firms that we can take into account on maybe the next meeting or the one following, whatever it is.

Ms. Montiel, are you good with that? Go ahead.

Mm-hmm.

Go ahead.

You or me? I know he's looking at me.

Well, I was going to go ahead. I was going to say, I did take a quick look at your procurement code. And a lot of cities allow for direct selection of accountants and professional services, but I think your city require probably an RFP. for this particular one, just based on the way the code is written. So it'll probably, if you choose to proceed this way, have to go through a fairly formal process.

Okay, now we've had this discussion before, so I'm gonna try not to repeat myself too much, but last couple of times we brought the subject up, we've chosen not to move forward. If Mr. Doyle's concern has to do with the water infrastructure, I think there's probably a better way than hiring an auditor. Auditors like numbers, engineers like pipes and valves. And I'm going to ask Mr. Stewart to come up and explain what he and the Public Works Department Uh, are doing right now with our asset allocation. We had. An earlier study done in house. With regard to, um, our, our collection of assets, all the sewers and pipes and valves and motors. And quite frankly, that was probably not as thorough as it should be so that we know where all of our assets are and how many connections there are, both legal and illegal, because we all know there's probably some illegal connections out there. But I would like Mr. Stewart to explain what they're doing right now that may be of significant value to this process of discovering where our assets are. Sure.

Eric Stewart, Public Works. Mr. Mayor, Council. What kind of initiated this whole process was talking with... will then consult financial consultant Michael Vasquez and he mentioned that we need to get our water and wastewater master plans completed create a 20-year capital project list for operations and maintenance and new infrastructure and then hand that over to them so they can continue on with understanding where our rates need to be so that we can be make our ends meet with the water system So what we chose to do was to approach it from an asset management point of view. And we're now going through the process of working with a consultant. And we're taking all of our assets and summarizing them with all of the attributes. And so a manhole is an asset. A water valve is an asset. So there's literally tens of thousands of assets for water and wastewater. We're collecting that. providing it to a consultant who's going to put together this asset management water wastewater plan. With that data, we can also then align that with our accounts we have in finance. And say hey we've got i'll just make up a number 1000 commercial buildings do we have 1000 commercial accounts and so on, so forth, with our residential accounts to and with that we'll be able to look at any sort of. forgotten issues out there were folks did make a connection that was not authorized or. It was done before anyone was having any oversight to that. So we're in that process of I Won't say forensic but basically going to line our assets our buildings commercial buildings residential buildings with all of the accounts to make sure that Everyone's a part of the system. I

Go ahead, Mr. Don.

And when do you expect to complete that? So we're just starting the process. They promised us August, and I promised we'll end financial mid-September to have that dated to them.

Is that part of the mapping that we're talking about?

Is it part of the what?

The mapping of the water?

It is, actually, yes. We're getting some help from a GIS consultant, kind of putting things together, taking record drawings, importing that into our GIS system, and from that we're exporting this data into spreadsheets and handing it to our consultant. It's an extremely arduous process and we're going through it painstakingly to make sure that we're as accurate as we can be with it.

So you don't think that An audit that we that we put in place will actually go in hand in hand with what you're doing. In other words, the things that might fall through the cracks might be picked up on past errors of the way we did business in the past. And maybe they would be able to detect a lot of accounts or that. In other words, it doesn't match up. You have so many dwellings or places in the city, and then you only have so many accounts that are payable. In other words, they don't add up. So that would help line up where those missing connections are. And there's quite a few. And as a matter of fact, they've even done it. Yes, and they've done it recently. So that's the reason for an audit, to find out where the problem is, who has created that problem, and that way we can be more effective in addressing it. So that that's the reason for the audit. And that's why we need basically what we're talking about now is just lining up some firms, getting some costs, which ones would be more more cost friendly and effective for this process. But I think it goes hand in hand with it, with with the plan you have. It would help you. In other words, you'd feed off it. It would it would you would probably instead of how many is that 20 years or something like that?

Some of the connections I've heard about that are worrisome have been around for 20 years.

Right. So this would be ideal if we go back 15 years. I think that would cover probably 80, 90 percent of the connections that are out there. Maybe more. Yeah. So we're just trying to make sure that things get done right, that there's no accounts falling through the cracks. We need to collect underwater usage from everyone that's using it.

I concur. And Public Works will be here to support Council however you choose. Okay, thank you.

Vice Mayor?

When we talk about audits, we always think we're talking about finances, about numbers. In this case, I'm not so familiar with a forensic audit, but it sounds more like an infrastructure investigation on what lines are not connected to the proper city lines and why they are not accounted for. So we just submitted the regular audit. Is this audit going to correlate with this forensic audit or is it going to overwrite the regular audit? So how is it going to work?

Just to add to that word forensic, it's just a more in-depth audit, really. You know, forensic is just to give it more detail, a closer look. So it's more in-depth. But, you know, we're not talking about these crime programs as we see on TV, you know, forensic this and forensic that. It's just to get a closer look at things and make the proper adjustments.

Mr. Bohorkas, I'm not totally sure I understood your question just now, but I think I do. First of all, an audit, okay, doesn't necessarily mean money. It can mean anything. If you think you've got so many widgets and you're not sure, then you do an audit to make sure how many widgets you've got, okay?

Okay.

When you do an inventory of your warehouse, that's an audit, okay? You're verifying everything that's in there. So audits can be any, including infrastructure. And yeah, what Eric is having done right now is an audit. So it doesn't have to be about numbers. It just, it has to be about verifying things what you think you have or answering questions that you think you have, but aren't sure. Okay. The use of the term forensic isn't quite on point for what Mr. Doyle is asking for. But what we're trying to explain here tonight is you can get the same answer a number of different ways. Okay. In the course of them finding out where all the pipes and valves and connections are, you're going to come up with the same answer as if you were to audit every account. Because once you audit an account in the finance office, then you've got to go out in the field and verify it.

That's what we want.

And he's going out in the field and verifying it up front. So now when he when he catches a location, let's let's just call it a garage operation that is not doesn't have a meter. OK. And so they've been getting essentially water without paying for it for however long it's been then. That dude has been busted, okay? And what's going to happen is they're going to come back in and report that situation to finance, and then finance is going to set up an account for it and make sure a meter's installed. So what Mr. Doyle is asking for is the same way, only the other way around. We're dealing with the infrastructure, not the money. But when we find the locations that aren't paying for water, then immediately they're gonna become revenue producers. So, and also, and this goes back a little bit to Sergio's report, some of what you're seeing happening with the revenue in water fund has to do with the fact that the revenue, the revenue department right now is spending part of every day calling delinquent. Delinquent customers and getting them on payment plans or getting their bills paid. So that's obviously going to have a. A positive impact on. On water collections, you know. We always build more than we than we collect and right now the delinquencies and water is like 600,000 dollars. Okay. And those are the accounts that we know about. Okay. So, the, the purpose of. There's many purposes to what Public Works is doing right now, but the process of finding out where all of your pipes and valves and meters are is exactly what you call it. It's an audit. And so, you know, while I don't have any objection to going out and getting pricing from a firm that does those kind of specialized audits, by the time you get that stuff, we should have some idea where we are with the other one. So I guess my... My recommendation is let's proceed cautiously because we don't want to end up doing, it's like the financial audit starts at this end and the infrastructure audit starts at this end. And if you spend the same amount of money on both to make it to the middle and find all your answers, then you've spent twice as much of the taxpayer's dollars than you want to spend.

Thank you for the explanation. So in that case, who would be making the audit adjustment? The regular auditor or the one doing the forensic audit?

Well, if, okay, so if you discover accounts that are non-paying accounts, there's going to be no real, there's not going to be an adjustment. There's going to be a hookup and there's going to be new revenue. Okay, so there won't be a financial adjustment to be made. The adjustment will be the additional revenue that we gain by having that account as paying customer. Thank you.

It's just that, you know, those are the things that we need to do to make sure that we collect all the income that's due to the city. and and basically you know and that's why right now as far as i'm asking or both uh i guess uh councilman montiel and myself uh discussed that it's just to get the process going doesn't mean we're going to hire somebody but let's find out which companies are out there what do they charge And how feasible it is, and then at the same time, we'll have a month or 2 to decide. While you're implementing this process, and if we see that you're speeding up the process. Well, then, you know, let's, let's, uh, let, let, let that process continue. If it's if it's going to benefit, but but we need accountability so that we know. who's not paying, which are the people that are hooked to the city water supply without paying for it. And like you said, start hooking them up and now we're gonna have more revenue coming in, which will be a more positive result than even what we have today. On on the different enterprise funds, so. So, that's that's all that's where we're at. Uh, right. Councilman. Yes. It's just to. You know, to get if you could just find out. What companies out there that are that are good doesn't mean we're going to contract them right away. But at least so that that we have something to fall on in case. If things don't don't speed up here on your site, and maybe that would that would help. your your own your own uh whatever investigation you're doing or your due diligence of what you're doing to make sure that we find those those those people or or uh whoever's hooked up illegally to the water supply i i like this idea and if i might make a recommendation so we're going to create gis layers with all of the infrastructure

That's as accurate as possible. Then we're going to drop on their little dots for the accounts that we have. They're going to drop on the building footprints of buildings we have. And if things don't all line up and we start seeing one or two or three or ten, we can address those. I have no problem with, I mean, so that's an effort that public works is working on myself. I'm directing that. But if someone wants to piggyback on that and help double check our work, that would be a tool we would create to actually double check that work. Mayor? If chosen.

And Eric, I couldn't have said it better than how you explained it. And that's the essence, I think, of what Mr. Dole and I are trying to accomplish here. Because you work for the city, obviously, so you're doing your independent... I'm not going to use forensic attorneys. Attorneys don't like forensics. I know that. But you're doing your independent study or whatever you... What do you call it? Independent review and... Have different names here, because attorneys don't like forensics, but independent financial review about who's playing water and who hasn't paid for years and years to the city of no gals. And that's where we're coming from. You know, there are. Businesses and residents that haven't paid for years and years and years and so thank you for taking this task on. I see your expressions when he said that there are a lot of people that were not connected. We're not paying water and you're kind of like, so we're on the same page here. You.

So I've heard.

So, yes. And you're doing your independent review of that. So what Mr. Doyle, what I from what I understand is that he wants to kind of check your work, like you said. And so meantime, we can look into the whoever's going to take over as a city manager can look into some independent. I'm not going to use forensic financial consideration. you know, someone that can come in independently and not that because they don't work for the city in Nogales, they're going to be impartial. So they're going to be looking at your work. It's just when you get some mediator of some sort like that. So thank you very much for what you're doing. I really appreciate that. You've been doing that. You're doing something that hasn't been done for years and years because the regular audit that municipalities do or counties do, we know it's kind of a general audit, if you will. At least that's the type of audit that we get from Clifton Larson. And this is more in depth. And we're going to be able to see and identify the businesses and residents that haven't been paying water for years. And then we, of course, then the next part of it is what do we do? And I'm sure legal will have to step in and do their legal stuff. So thank you. I really appreciate what you're doing.

You're welcome. And I appreciate having this conversation. It'll give us kind of a it gives us direction because we'll show our work when we build a model. And so whoever comes behind us to double check, they can look at our work and say, OK, this all makes sense. And then look at the data and say, yep, OK, there's five, there's 10, there's 100, whatever. And then we can deal with it.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mr. Sturt.

Thank you.

So, we'll give direction for. For you to leave a note for the next I think we'll start before that. Okay. Thank you, sir. The next next, uh, thank you. We move to item number 4 discussion possible action. On amending the policy, allowing the city manager or. This needs to approve expenditures up to. 100,000 without council approval and reducing the approval authority to 50,000 without council approval. Mr. Do.

Mike.

So everybody knows we're signing your attendance chart and we'll pass it along because I know you have to go back. Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Doe.

I place this item, Mayor, just because... You know, it's mostly to bring more accountability and also for the council to be more directly involved and aware of the bigger expense items that might be going on. And this is something we can tweak. It's not just like, okay, that's why we want discussion on this. And the idea is that if for some emergency reason or unforeseen reason that management needs to act right away and make a greater expense, I would say that's fine as long as on the following meeting, they bring it to before council and say, we have to make this expense for these reasons, and now we're bringing the report on this. And that's basically accountability. It's not gonna hold you back from something going to arise, so we won't have to be calling special meetings or something to approve anything that goes over that amount. I mean, I think we can just put it in and say, give direction, to to the city manager saying okay uh if you need to make an expense going beyond that uh because it's it's kind of a real important at the moment we can't take action of calling a meeting well that's fine you know but but bring that that expense before the council the following meeting and is that does that make sense to you mayor yes so mr mayor go ahead thank you um

Now, this is this is the other one that we've now had discussion three meetings in a row. Now, I signed on for three meetings and I got to do the same thing three times. That might also be the definition of insanity.

Well, OK, you can take that with you.

And and believe me, a lot of people agree with that. But let me start out by saying this. We do have a procurement code. that's already part of the city's policy.

One of the most important features of that is that every- Did you turn off your mic, sir?

Oh.

Thank you.

Thank you. Every expenditure, $10,000 and above, has to be signed off by the city manager, okay? So boom, there's tier one, in accountability, okay? The second thing is, I think we need to take a look at, okay, so what is really happening out there, okay? You will recall a couple of weeks ago, we reported to you that the Crawford tank, which is a 2 million gallon storage tank, all of a sudden sprung a big leak, which means that it was leaking a lot longer than we knew and did some damage to the hillside. that it was on. And of course we acted quickly and decisively and we had an engineering firm come in to start designing the solution to the problem. And that contract is $55,000. OK. Also recently at the Santa Cruz pumping station, the pump was the pump failed and needed repair. That's fifty thousand dollars. The arsenic filters that Mr. Stewart was talking about a little bit earlier tonight are seventy thousand dollars a piece. That's a maintenance item. OK, when it's time to replace them, we replace them. Seventy thousand dollars. Okay. And we had Meadow Hills, number one, we had a repair there. And the cost for the repair through the vendor, Weber Water Resources was $91,000. OK, these are part this is part of running a city on a daily basis. OK, this is what we do and this is what it costs. And I, you know, here's another one. Ambulance billing. OK, we get an ambulance bill every month. Seventy thousand dollars for ambulance billing. Okay, so, and these are six items on a list that I had, Sergio ran for me of expenditures between 50 and $100,000. You know, there were 60 or 70 of those. And so, you know, $100,000 sounds like a lot of money until you have to run $100 million corporation. And that's what we're doing here. We're running a $100 million corporation. So we have policies in place that govern how we spend our money. We have a limits in place where we have to stop and check a box to make sure that it's appropriate. And I have not heard yet, All I've heard is that this will bring better accountability. Is there a problem with accountability now where this is concerned? If there is, I've heard no evidence, none whatsoever. And so, and I've been here long enough now that I would have heard it if it were happening. And so staff's unanimous recommendation is that we leave that policy stand as it exists.

Mayor, there can never be enough accountability. I think there's been some problems that you should have been aware of that have arisen while you've been here. And one of them is, I think I thought it was under investigation, maybe it's not, but our former, I guess, public work directors left a lot of a lot of orders that he ordered that weren't for the city apparently. And they ran over $10,000. And so why don't we, how come it's never reported? That's what I'm trying to get to is that you make reports to the council, even though those expenses occur, that's basically the, not so much the $100,000 limit, it's that we are aware of what's going on because there's things that go on that apparently do not, if we shed the light on it, we'd find out what's going on, but we don't get brought in or reported about things that are going on and what they're doing to find out why. We don't get the whys and yet, There's been processes like that in the past where money has been misspent, misappropriated, not in the recent since you've been here, but we need to have more accountability so that will cease. We don't need that to continue, gotta stop. And the only way it is is through accountability and we need to be involved because apparently what you guys do out there, you guys keep to yourself most of the time. And then it changes from each city manager. One city manager can be more open. Another one will decide not to shed light on it. No, we need to give direction to all staff. And that's basically what this is for, that this conversation will be brought out so we can give some direction where we are addressed with these problems, that we're familiar and that we're informed. So that we don't have later the public looking at us like, how come you guys didn't do your due diligence? Because we're the ones that overlook it. We're the oversight committee really over here. And that's basically, again, if you think you saw everything in three months, well, good for you. But I've seen a lot more and I don't like what I've seen and we need to address this problem.

Okay, and when three months ago when this conversation was held, I took you seriously. What did I offer you? I offered you accounts payable reports. Okay, when we write a check, we put it on a list, and we send it to you, all seven of you. Now, if that isn't the ultimate accountability, I don't know what is. If I may rebuttal with that. I'm finished, Mr. Mayor. I think the point's been made.

Go ahead, Mr. Chair. Well, the point, again, is that there were some purchasing orders, and we don't even know who signed off on them. Bring me the evidence. Pardon? Bring me the evidence.

Oh, okay. You have to bring us evidence. If you believe there's wrongdoing, you have to bring me evidence of wrongdoing.

Well, what do you guys think? You're the one that should be on top of it, or at least your public works director. I mean, okay, I'll get witnesses. I'll get witnesses. No, I'll get witnesses from the city to come and say, now you're trying to cover up something. Let's bring it out in the open. Please do. We want to hear it if it's true.

Mr. Palkin, I agree with you 100%. We can't be micromanaging everything in every department. There's transparency. We have those emails that are sent, and I take the time to read them. That's it. There's nothing to discuss. I really feel what you're saying. That's how we have to go. We're not going to be micromanaging every single department everywhere, especially if there's no proof.

Mayor, I'll bring the proof. And Councilwoman, this is not about micromanaging. It's basically just about being informed and accountable. That's it.

And we've proven accountability. Thank you. Go ahead, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, I just have a comment. Even if we did change this policy to 50,000, and let's say Mr. Parkin brings that item like a water tank, you know, it's going to cost $91,000. I don't have the expertise to make that decision and say, hey, you don't need $91,000. You can fix it with $40,000. So I think we should leave the policy as it is right now. If in the future it runs into... into bigger problems and maybe then one can face down that issue.

Thank you.

I have a question for legal. Yeah, so of course, maybe if it will make Mr. Dahl more comfortable, perhaps we should if he we know we should just I know we have to change the ordinance. And that's the first thing we have to do. And we could amend it to whatever amount he wants, but nonetheless, we need to have the four votes. And maybe that will put an end to it. Because that's the only way we could change the existing ordinance. The threshold is $100,000. Right, attorney? Correct.

Yeah. So it's in your procurement. It's a procurement, $100,000.

But we would have to change it. Yeah.

Which is an ordinance.

An ordinance, okay.

Really, what I just want is that we get more reports from, that's why I said 50,000, so that we get, if they can provide the expense reports that they occur running the city at each meeting, basically that's great. That's it. That takes care of that.

That's what the check register is, Mr. Doyle. What you're asking for is exactly what we're giving you now. Okay.

Well, continue to do it, and that'll be fine. All this is about accountability. And I think we're headed in the right direction. So, again, but then you're leaving. And then we've got to start again to make sure that that process continues.

When you hire people on the basis of their professional qualifications and ethics... It doesn't matter whether it's Steve Paukin sitting here or somebody else, okay? You're gonna have accountability if you hire the right people and that's in your ballpark. OK, it could be me or anybody else, but I think we've we've if we've done anything in the last three months, we've we've got good policies in place now. We've clarified by giving you the check register exactly what we're doing. And, you know, the only way you could get more accountability than you have right now is if you sat over in finance and wrote the checks yourself. And we're probably not going to let you do that.

I think what it does is more of a, you know, if we have high expenditures, you know, maybe just get a report on anything over 50 or something.

At any time that any of you feel like you need financial information of any kind.

Did you sign the... Sign it so Maria wants to leave. Let me start my sentence again. Go ahead.

Anytime any of you feel you need any information, financial information of any kind, it is our responsibility to provide that to you, okay? So if you observe something that you think we spent money on inappropriately, or somebody's been doing something inappropriate, whether it's finance or not, quite frankly, You don't only have the ability and the privilege of doing that. You have a duty to do that. And, you know, and I appreciate the fact that that you're all pretty good about dealing with those matters through the city manager's office. I don't know that that's always necessary 100% of the time, but it is proper protocol. There's a few of you sitting there that have been in my office a lot asking questions about matters, financial and otherwise. On the other hand, there's some of you who have not bothered. And the ability for you to do that, especially as council members, is there for all of you. And so my best advice to you is take the systems you have and use them and ask the questions when you have them. And I'm sorry, but I don't think you need to have this discussion every single month because we've given the same answer every single month.

Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you, Maria.

Have a safe travel back.

So as far as all the discussion, Councilwoman Montiel, how would you like to wrap this up as far as anything that we will be getting the input that we need?

on the agenda, you did, but well, like I said, if we wanna change the threshold, we would have to put it at that.

So we'll leave it at that as long as we get that. Yeah, for now, 100,000 is fine.

And we do get it every month. We get an email of all the expenditures.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

No, but you know, like I said, there's. Thank you.

Every legitimate question has a legitimate answer.

Thank you.

We move to item number five, discussion possible action regarding the possible land exchange between Corrie Enterprises and the City of Nogales in the Meadow Hills area involving Lot F and adjacent city-owned property near Lot A. Yeah.

Yes, he is.

Yeah.

Um, and the city attorney's sitting to my left your right and when I, when I. When I make a mistake, he'll be right there to correct me, but. Currently, there is no policy. um on uh in the city of nogales for um selling uh publicly owned property okay uh there is and i believe i'm correct in in statute uh a requirement that uh property whether it's sold exchanged or otherwise transferred from the city's ownership to someone else that it has to be done with a public auction Um, it can't we can't just make a deal. We can't just put it for sale, sign out yard and and take the best offer. Okay. Um. There are policies out there and in fact, the policy that I worked under in my last job pretty much spelled out the process for exchanges of publicly owned property or sale of publicly owned property. In your case, it's a little different because you're asking us to Except a piece of property you own in exchange for a piece of property that we own. Okay. Um, so, uh, well, on the face of it, it looks like it might, you know, it might be something we could just do under statute. I don't believe that's possible, but. Um, uh, what I'm going to suggest to council is that we adopt a policy. Uh, maybe not the same as the 1 that I worked under before. Uh, but something similar to that, and you have the advantage of having the same attorney I had when it. When I use the policy last place I work, so he's intimately familiar with the with the policy. Um, it's going to take a little time. But essentially, and I'll just give you the highlights of the policy, and that is that the prospective buyer would have to apply to the city, and there would be some forms, just two pages, it's not a big deal. Two pages that are filled out, in fact, they can be a fillable form on our website. And that will start the process where the staff will evaluate the property. Necessarily, there has to be a fee, okay, for an application fee for the process, which that would be established by council. And under the policy I worked under before, this would require both an appraisal and NOT NECESSARILY A SURVEY BUT AT LEAST A WOULD HAVE TO DRAFT WHAT THEY CALL IT. The thing that goes with the appraisal. No, the appraisal has it. So those 2 things would have to be done and they would be done at the at the applicant's expense. So, in your case, what you're proposing, there would have to be an estimate of value and. In a survey of both of the pieces of property, so that, uh. They could be determined independently to be of certain value. Okay. Uh, the 2, the 2 properties are a little bit different in size and shape. So, 1's not necessarily going to be equal in value or equivalent value to the same. And then once that. Information is gathered, then the staff would come to council with. A recommendation and council would then choose the first thing they would choose to do is whether or not to sell. Okay. Um, you know, the, the 2, the 2 properties that that are, um. The subject of this discussion are fairly close together on the same street. Um, and, uh, but council may decide that the, the property they own has a more strategic value than, uh, than financial value and may elect for whatever reason. To decide not to sell on the other hand, they may look at the 2 properties and decide. Well, yeah, we'd like to sell and in the 3rd case. Uh, they might decide that, uh, well, we can swap properties with this guy, but. Uh, what are we going to do with the property that we get from him? Because it may be a no value to us intrinsically. So, um. And once that happens, once all that's been decided and council says, yes. Then we would schedule it at a regular council meeting or. Whenever you want for for a public auction, I think the mayor's probably auctioned a few items off in his lifetime. So he would be eminently qualified to hold a public auction. And then in many cases, in my experience, unless it's a really hot piece of property, usually the only person who comes to the auction is the applicant. And at that point, you would tender your bid for the property, which usually ends up being about what the appraised value is. And then once the mayor has declared the successful bidder, then we would enter into the process of doing a property transfer. That's it in a nutshell. It's actually about three pages long. So my recommendation, and I have a copy of the ordinance here that Joe can use to draft something similar to bring to you for consideration. And depending on his schedule, I mean, he's like I said, he's intimately familiar with this ordinance because he's modified it several times over the years. But you have to have clear information. You have to know what you've got. You have to know what it's worth. And you have to have a public sale. So that was a long way of describing something that takes one sentence. So that would be my recommendation. We don't know that yet, sir.

Okay. Turn on the mic, please. Yeah. Turn that little light green. There you go.

Okay. If there's no money changing hands, is it a sale?

I will tell you, there is a state statute that allows for exchange of substantially similar property values. It's ARS 9-407. But that has to be read in context with the existing, whether, is Nogales a charter city?

Yes.

So we've got to read it, and I haven't read the charter in regards to how you dispose of real property, if it's even addressed in the Nogales charter. So we're going to have to look at that. One thing I think you're for sure going to have to do is get an appraisal on your property and the city property. to make sure it's truly a substantial exchange of property. The statute goes on to say that there are all sorts of notice requirements that go with that. You have to publish a newspaper notice for three times, and then there's a notice of intent to do the exchange that has to be published for the public to know. So I think there are some processes we can get to. Right now we're probably a little premature. But I think the one thing, if the council is interested in doing it, is we can start looking at appraisals. And I don't know if the city has appraisers on contract. Some cities just keep an appraiser on contract as a third party contractor.

I can't tell you.

Yeah, that they can kind of push it out to or not. But it's probably doable unless the charter says you have to do it a certain way. I'm filling in the blanks today for the regular attorney. I'll run it past him for sure.

Mr. Estes was the one who suggested that I bring out the Bisbee ordinance to use that as a template.

So there you go.

So it's going to take a little time.

Question, who do I talk to at the city? Who do you talk to at the city? Yeah, you're looking.

Well, for purposes of exchange of property, that would end up going through the clerk's office.

Okay. New City Matters.

The new city manager would assist the clerk. The clerk's office actually does most of the administrative work that's involved with an exchange like this. So that would be Miguel.

Okay. Well, I'll make an appointment with you then, and we'll get started all over again.

Okay. Is it something the council is interested in pursuing? Okay.

Yeah.

I think, you know, it's what I read in the charter and all that. It's basically, it's something doable, but we got to look, you know, at values, you know, and if there's any, you know, fees, you know, who takes them. And, you know, I did not know about this application fee. You know, if that's something that we'd have to inquire.

That's your call, sir. Well, that's counsel's call, sir.

And if legal says that for us to do an exchange like this, we've got to do notices, that was due to me right now.

The general rule is the charter will govern if it addresses it. If it doesn't, most charters say to the extent we don't address something but state law does, you can use the state law. So we're going to have to just do some homework on our end. It sounds like Mr. Estes, the regular attorney, has been looking at it. with the city manager. I'm going to move it forward.

We'll move forward, Mr. Corey.

It's not my intent to stand in your way, but we have to do it by the right way. Right now, the city of Nogales doesn't have a policy in place, so that's going to, at a minimum, we're going to have to start with that.

Thank you, sir. Now, we go into number 9 orders, public hearing consideration possible action of orders number 2026. 06. 023. an order of the mayor and city council of Arizona adopting. The official final budget for fiscal year 2026 2027 as present.

I think I just want to say before. Before we adopt the official budget. And I think that we need to get a little proactive and. Kind of look ahead of some of the. Situations that we're facing with, you know, we're raising, well, we're not raising, but we're debating whether raising rates and we've gave pay raises. And there's some positions that are kind of... overinflated there at public works they have a project manager quality assurance position that was created and it's not really being that beneficial for the city we have the utilities uh superintendent that was also created uh just to you know when a super when supervisor could be doing that same work and not having to be paid so much uh there There's that civil CAD designer that our last city manager again put in place and to to actually design. And he hasn't done any any of that since he's been there. And at the same time, there's an employee there, an assistant that's actually an engineer that can do that same work. and so we need to cut the excess we have we have too many people there's the building inspector right now he hasn't been on there uh the one for building plan review and buildings but they already have one that's there and and is doing the work uh we need to cut one of those positions off and and then they another thing that was created was a senior administrative assistant uh that now signing off on all kinds of things when There's no certifications. I think that position should be done away and go back to the normal secretarial work that that used to be done. So these are some of these positions. you know if we cut back on some we're going to be saving close to a quarter million dollars uh and depending uh you know with the perks and all it could even be a little more but but there's uh there's a few that just need to be eliminated and that's and i think they should just be eliminated from the budget

Any other comments? Go ahead.

Mr. Mayor, I have no other comment than to recommend approval of the budget that's before you this evening. Mr. Doyle's comments are well taken in many cases. With regard to some of what he's mentioned, this is not the time or the place to do that.

It's a public hearing.

It's what?

A public hearing.

Yeah, you have to open up the public hearing. Yeah. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Sorry about that. It is a public hearing to open up the discussion for public hearing. Is there any in the audience that wants to do a comment or anything on our budget? We've heard. Okay. I should know you've made your comments. Anybody else have any comments on the budget?

Recommend approval, sir.

Go ahead. I'm sorry.

I just want to say thank you, Mr. Palkin, because I know this was a lot of work putting this together and along with my colleagues here and along with all the directors out there. Thank you so much. I know your input was very valuable. These are all public funds that we need to be accountable for. And I appreciate your leadership and also Mr. Esty's leadership and And everyone, it takes a village to raise a city.

It does.

I know. You know, I don't know if that's exactly the way I should put it. But, you know, I do personally want to thank everybody. I know it's a lot of work. And without your collaboration, it would have not happened. Because it's a lot of work to put a budget together. Because you get a lot of input, different ideas, and different ways of seeing how we can work. you know, divide this huge pie in an equitable way. So thank you.

and uh and uh same goes the other way uh you all spent a lot of hours uh going through every single department and discussing uh revenues and expenditures and your input made some important changes in some of those departmental budgets along the way and uh so um your individual contributions and your contribution has a GOVERNING BODY WAS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT IN GETTING TO WHERE WE ARE TONIGHT. THANK YOU.

MR. PUKIN, YOU KNOW, ONCE WE APPROVE THE BUDGET, THE DISCUSSION THAT MR. DOE HAD CAN BE LOOKED INTO AND, YOU KNOW. THAT WOULD BE A SUBJECT FOR. IT'S BETTER TO HAVE HIM AND REMOVE HIM THAN NOT HAVE HIM AND TRY TO PUT HIM ON, CORRECT? I'm not sure I agree with that, but if we don't budget for it, it's hard to put it up.

Well, you're right about that.

That's what I'm trying to say.

On the other hand, and this is an internal discussion that we've been having with all of the bigger departments, with Public Works, Police and Fire. The question is, what's the right size? And what's the right number of employees and what kind of qualifications should they have? You know, I don't want to go into detail because that's not really part of this agenda, but but that discussion at the very least in public works has already begun. And, you know, we see it from, you know, on the ground right where it is. And since, you know, Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Stewart are a fresh set of eyes. in community development and in public works they're seeing stuff that they're already taking action on and you will be seeing some changes pretty rapidly so okay you know

Well, I still think there's some positions here that are a little top heavy. They're not being utilized by public works. And I hate to see employees just not doing anything or much of anything and getting a paycheck when we are still in a crisis situation. Uh, for the city, and we have to be more accountable. To our residents, our taxpayers, because, uh. You know, it's that position as the civil cat designer. You have a, an assistant engineer there that can do that work. And, uh, and, and, and, you know, uh. And a lot of times, uh, she's running that office pretty much. and the other person is just really floating around. The building and plan review inspector, that's another one that he has. I think he's not even on the job right now, but there's another person. You're not closing the hole. There's another person that's doing the work. And so we just have one too many there. Again, as far as as a project manager and quality assurance to that, my fellow council person side of here, he has he had a little bit to say about that again. Again, the utilities superintendent, you could have a supervisor instead of paying $80,000 plus all the perks. It's really up to our public works director. If he's qualified, like you say, we don't need all this personnel because all you need is supervisors that take orders from him. And so we're spending a lot of money, extra money. And again, it's it's the consul's choice if that's if that's what they they they they want. But I think this is we're at a period where we should be a little more considerate with our taxpayers and expect a little more from our employees and the positions that aren't. really being, you know, taken care of by, and somebody's just getting a check. Well, we need to put a stop to that and make sure that everybody's doing their fair share of the workload and not just collecting from the taxpayers. So that's my point of view. But I think we should take a vote on this, Mayor.

Ms. Montero, excuse me, Ms. Parada.

This question is for legal. This is not the time and the place for this, right? We can do it later further down the line that we can take into consideration, right?

And we were told by Mr. Assets, this is time to, if you want to move, remove something, this is time to do it.

You can remove, you can't add on, but you can remove.

Yeah, the general rule with budgeting is once you set the budget, you obviously can't go beyond that budget. So a lot of times towns will be conservative. and budget a little higher, knowing they're not going to spend that money, but also retaining the contingency in case there is some sort of event or something where you need to spend the money.

So I can't increase the amount, but we can certainly increase it.

Go ahead, Mr. Butler.

Okay. So, well, Mr. Estes is technically correct. OK, we've gone through a long process here, which I might want to remind you started late. Didn't start till I got here. Should have been started in January. We managed to get it done. Maybe not to everyone's satisfaction, but it got done and it got done with everybody's input. You had two full days of council workshops. you had opportunities to have this discussion at those workshops. That is the place, okay? And then you had another opportunity when you considered the tentative budget, which set the expenditure limit. That was the place, okay? With all due respect, what tonight's about is the sum total of all of our work put in a budget, or two reasons. The first reason is to hold this public hearing and get input from the public if they wish to do so. And the second reason we're here is to adopt the work you've done. In order to even begin to think about removing items from the budget, we might as well put the tables back out in the room and have a couple more days of budget sessions. That's what you're talking about. The opportunity was there. Now, I've been hearing from both direct and indirect comments from council members, two in particular, that they want to eliminate positions. Well, I've already answered that question by telling you that that's an ongoing effort that is currently taking place. And some of the positions you mentioned are some of the targets. Now, you can choose to believe us or not. OK, but we are looking for places to eliminate expenditures that are going to help you, especially in your enterprise fund accounts, where, quite frankly, one of them is a complete disaster. And so now, do you think that we just sit there and let this crap happen? Okay, wait a minute. This is budget number 38 for me, okay? I've been around the block and I've had these debates for 38 years, okay? We're gonna eliminate the problems, but you need to eliminate the problems the right way. You don't sit up here and decide that you're gonna get rid of these six people now tonight. You can't do that. And besides, the city's personnel manual If you cut those jobs, then those people are still entitled to move to another job that's open within the city. So you don't solve the problem doing it that way.

You exacerbate the problem. But you're deflating these titles that we're paying a big amount of money for. And you're still putting the work in another position, which is good. and there's nothing wrong with that. What I want is for people to earn their keep, earn their paycheck. That's what I'm addressing this problem for about. And then one of the problems here that I'm harping on, and the mayor knows about it, we're probably gonna have discussions down the road with the county on trying to merge on certain positions that these people are gonna still have to find another position because I guess you're not aware of that.

I am fully aware of that, and I've had that conversation with those three gentlemen sitting there. Okay, so that's something that's going to be coming up, and you're not going to be here. I'm sorry, Mr. Doyle, but we're already ahead of you.

Well, then, why are we keeping these positions and paying out when... We still might have to send them somewhere, you know, to another position to work.

You're just going to have to wait and see. There's a personnel process. It's a wait and see process. You're not going to be waiting very long, I guarantee.

Okay. All right. Then that's good. I just wanted to make sure that the residents here know that we're doing something to alleviate some of the excess costs. We don't want to be looked at with eyes that we're not being diligent.

Let's put you on the other foot. I've been here three months. How long have you been here?

Long enough. Why aren't the problems solved already? Oh, if I had more of a say-so than just addressing the city managers that have failed us so miserably, yes, things would have changed. But, no, we have to go through you guys. We're here to let you know about the problems and hopefully you resolve them.

Well, that's a really good answer. That's what we pay you for, right? That's a pretty good answer, Mr. Dahl. Okay, thank you. But you've still been here a lot longer.

yes sir and i've seen these problems and i know they exist that's why i know that's why i know because i've been here long enough nothing got fixed thank you sir we had a uh motion a second all in favor all right all opposed motion passed actually thank you very much public hearing close Then, uh, consideration number 2 consideration possible action of order number 2026, 06, 24, 024, and order the city council of the city of Nogales authorizes the city manager to award the contract to Sunland Asphalt and Construction LLC for Frank Reed Road Improvements Project A.IGA25-0011196-I. for an amount not to exceed 1,500,000. Do you have a second? Do we get a second?

Second. Okay. Go ahead. Before, if you have any questions for Mr. Stewart, but I did want to report to you that our lobbyist sent me a message this morning. As you know, the state budget got passed. Finally? Kinda. And there were some clawbacks, but because we were proactive and you were part of that proactive getting with our state representatives and and others to make sure because we knew that these projects were on the shopping block. So we were able to sustain to make that happen. And I did get a report today that these projects are still in a budget.

Do you have a comment? I got a comment. We approve industrial road. 2 months ago last month. Yeah. That's 1 or 2 months ago. When are we going to see a. A pick or a show over there. I think you ought to do a ribbon cutting Mr. Mayor and council people say you approved it, but nothing's being done.

We started construction about two weeks ago. We're going to it's all preliminary now. Starting nights, starting next Monday, we're going to go to full blast on replacing curb, replacing water line. It's about three weeks in our schedule. It was more than we anticipated. So that sends us into July for actually pulverizing the pavement. we're gonna cement treat the base and then mill and fill that out and start our paving process mid July.

So schedule. Now I got bad news for you. We get monsoons July, August. And I'm a rancher, hopefully we get lots of them. And I've been assured that- Have the contractors been aware of the situation of the potential issues. And, you know, I don't wanna go back to what they call them, order exchange, what is it? Change orders? Right. You know, because, you know, hopefully they know what they're getting into and when they're getting into.

So we've made it very clear that every step of the process, we're having what we're calling a pre construction meeting to discuss all of the critical items, including weather. And one of the things we'll be doing before we open up the pavement is having that one week look ahead and saying, what's it going to take to get this work done this week? And if there's any weather, we're going to push it to the next week to discuss. So that's been an agreement we've made up front.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other discussion? No, go ahead. Go ahead. Uh, yes, sir.

Uh, what part of Frank Reed is is going to take place?

What part of Frank Reed?

Oh, you know, pretty much just West West of the bridge all the way to Grand Avenue.

Right. I want to say right in front of the high school.

West of the bridge where we stopped, almost where the housing finishes, where the downgrade is, all the way to Grand Avenue.

About 3,000 feet of it. Thank you.

You're welcome. With that said... Um, all in favor. All right, all the posts motion passes next. We move to number 3 consideration possible action to order number 2026. that's 06. that's 025 in order of the city council of the city of Arizona authorizing the center manager to award a contract to sun and asphalt and construction for the. La Quinta Road Improvement Project 8.IGA25-0011198-I for an amount not to exceed $1,800,000. Second? Second. Any discussion?

I guess this is extremely similar to the last item on your agenda. Yes. It's very similar to the last item on your agenda. It's just in the same neighborhood. If there's any questions, you can address Mr. Stewart.

Go ahead.

If I may, Mr. Mayor, Council. I personally was responsible for this agenda item, and there's a typo in it. And if... It's something I need to bring forward because the contractor that we're awarding it to proposing to is Not Sunland. It is cactus asphalt. That's who I have That's rewritten order if I may bring it forward.

Yes, please. We make a correction before Can I just have the names I could announce mention it Okay So the motion was made for legal. The motion was made for Sunland Asphalt and Construction LLC.

Do we need to retract the motion or just correct the... Whoever made the motion, do you agree to amend to the proper contracting party, which is Cactus Asphalt?

And the second is in favor of that change. Okay.

It's cactus asphalt and construction LLC.

It's just cactus asphalt, correct?

Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. So. Emotions been, uh, yep, got a motion. Change to cactus asphalt with that said. All in favor. All right on a post.

I mean, we know. We just approve something. Is there no discussion?

We were in discussion Mr. Okay, okay, Mr. go ahead and ask your question.

That's your question.

So, I'll back up and say, we selected 3 contractors off of the 1 GPA. Contract that follows the state statute. I'm sorry. Arizona revised statute title 34 in selecting. We contacted three of them. One of them turned us down. The other two were smaller companies that we couldn't interest in the work. So we ended up going with Sunland on two of them, a larger one last month and then the smaller one this month. Cactus actually is a very well-known firm in the Phoenix area. and they do work throughout the entire Southwest. Their specialty is pavement, and myself and other staff have worked with Cactus before, and we have great confidence in their abilities.

So you have some direct experience.

Direct experience, yes.

I appreciate that. And Sunland, how was it that we ended up awarding two different companies? Was that for the...

I gave the other contractor that we chose to ask for a proposal, a JOC proposal on a week to get that to us. I was kind of under the gun. I thought our funds would be clawed back from ADOT. And at some point, I had to make a decision. I needed a number, and I asked who could do it. And someone said they could put the numbers on it. Now, this is not to be constructed until after monsoon seasons, both of these. And so I didn't press the contractors for a construction schedule. I pressed them to get a proposal to me so I could get it into this budget. I'm sorry, into this council meeting to get the contract locked in so that ADOT would see we have these funds encumbered. Oh, yes, both contractors committed to doing October November And I'm confident if we work during the day daylight hours in this region will be okay that's what happened to Frank Reed before and I Paving is my specialty, construction is, and so I tend not to let people down with that.

All right. Thank you. I'm just curious, Eric.

Eric, I'm just curious. Do local companies apply for bidding? I should say better.

So there's multiple different cooperative use kind of programs out there. This one that Nogales is a member of, and so it makes it easy for us to purchase through. Unfortunately, not all smaller contractors, the local contractors in Tucson are members of this. I think there was one in Tucson. Ideally, as we move forward with our in-house CAD designer and things like that, these things would be designed ahead of time. We won't have ADOT clawback schedules to deal with. And we'll design these, bid them out, and then consider low bid for these things. And that way, to me, it's a more fair process. And you're also splitting up the work amongst all of the qualified contractors who are interested in this work. This measure, when I arrived three months ago, was to keep our $6.2 million from being clawed back, essentially. And so this item is the last in that. I also wanted to note the $6.2 million of the funding we actually already have for this. The total of these three are $6.05 million. So we're under budget with all of these projects. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

I think we've already voted except for Mr. Doyle.

All in favor? Aye. Mr. Doyle? Aye. Thank you. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. And in forward consideration, possible action of order number 2026-06-026 in order of the City Council of the City of Nogales, Arizona, authorizing the establishment of projects and acceptance of congestion, migration, mitigation, excuse me, air quality and CMAQ funds for the Nogales PM 2.5 non-attainment area. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Number five, consideration possible action of order number 2026-06-027 in order of the Council of the City of Nogales, Arizona, authorizing the submission of an application for FY2026 Regional Account R8 Community Development Block Grant, CDBG funds certified that said application shall meet the community's previously identified housing and community development needs and the requirements of the state CDBG program and authorized all actions necessary to implement the complete and complete the activities outlined in said application. Any discussion? Go ahead, Mr. Vice Mayor.

This is part of the presentation that we had that we need to before we submit you.

This is this is a procedural order that you need to adopt in conjunction with doing your application. Okay, thank you.

All in favor. All right. All opposed. Thank you. Motion passes number 6 consideration possible action of order number. 2026 that 06 that 028 in order to. Council of the city of Arizona authorities in the submission of an application for fiscal year 2025 and 2026 colonials set aside community development block grant funds certifying that said application shall meet. the community's previously identified housing and community development needs and the requirements of the state CDBG program and authorizing all actions necessary to implement and complete the activities outlined in said application. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. 7 consideration possible action of order number 2026 that 06 that's 029 consideration and possible action of an order of the mayor and. Council of the city of Arizona, authorizing the city of to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Santa Cruz county, whereby the city public library shall act as an counties. free library system and provide library facilities and services throughout the Santa Cruz County. So moved. So moved, and I have a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Number eight, consideration possible action to Order number 2026 of 06-030, an order of the Mayor and Council of the City of Nogales, Arizona, approving an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Nogales and Santa Cruz County for Animal Control, Care and Enforcement Services. Second?

Second.

Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, General. Move to go into Executive Session. Second. All in favor? Aye. Go to Executive Session. We'll take a 10 minute break.

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We convene from Executive Session. We move to item number 11, Discussion 9, Discussion Possible Action, Mayor and Council, ratification of the appointment of Laura Farias as Human Resource Director. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Ms. Lara? All opposed? Congratulations, Ms. Lara. Could you please come up to the mic and give us a little presentation of yourself? Introduction. Muchas felicidades. Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me. Well, I replied because you spoke to me in Spanish. Yes. Thank you for having me tonight. It's a pleasure and a privilege to to be here tonight with you. Thank you. My name is Laura Bennett. But yes, I am from Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. I that's my hometown. I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, most of my life. I've been in human resources for 12 years, so this opportunity comes as a great opportunity for me. I'm excited about it. I'm excited as to the work that I can do here and what I can contribute along with the skills that I've acquired in the last 12 years.

Thank you. And on behalf of the city, we want to thank you for taking the opportunity and applying for this because I think you're going to be a good fit in our work and employment and with our employees and all that. So anything that you need from the mayor's office, my doors are open. And I think council is open to any discussions that you want to have with anybody. So congratulations and thank you for, welcome to the team.

I'm happy to be here, thank you again.

Thank you. Next we move to Mayor and Council's report on current events. Mr. Doyle.

Well, Mayor, I've been busy and other things and I don't have a lot to report on. on the events that have been going on. Thank you.

Ms. Melendez?

We're going to have an event on Saturday the 20th with the Matadores across the line. And the event is going to be to sponsor scholarships for students here in Nogales. The event is going to be at the Coliseo in Nogales, and the tickets are $20. If you're interested, I have a lot of them. and i wish you could join us it's going to be a nice event and for a nice class the 20th next wednesday june the 20th it's a saturday saturday next saturday next saturday thank you miss montiel

Yeah, I just want to remind I don't have to remind the public about 4th of July. David is out there. Thank you, David for collaborating and helping the mayor's office and myself organize the 4th of July. You've become an expert in doing this, huh? So the fireworks have been ordered and the music's all lined up and we've got a great show ahead and can't wait. And again, thanks, David, and your team for for coming. Helping me and the mayor organized the 4th of July again. Thank you and looking forward to it and we have flyers mayor all over the city and banners. You guys put some banners out there. The banners are great. I good idea about having them. made a little differently now. But any questions about the parade? The parade is going to start a little later, right, David, at 1030, because there's going to be a flyover. And organized by Dan Delegis and along with the police department and Parks and Rec. And I'm really excited about that, Mayor, because we're going to have a couple of jets going through the city of Nogales. And that's why they move the parade to 1030. It's going to start downtown and the route is on Morley. 1115. 1115, thank you for that correction. 1115, the parade starts 1115 and then the flyover is at 1130. Same route as last year, starting behind Morley and going down all the way from, going down Morley all the way to the baseball stadium as we have every year, so.

Thank you. Hold on. Go back to Ms. Fernandez.

I have a question. I have been asked about the applications for the parade, and I've been sending them here because apparently last year they were here. And in here, they don't know anything about it. Can you imagine? They told these two people that they knew nothing about the parade. So we should at least let them know.

I got a call earlier today regarding the forms. And I was I told him to send them to parks and rec.

It wasn't you.

It was the people here because, sorry.

It was the people from the water department. Who else can they ask if nobody's up front? That's why our next step, we should have somebody right there. I've always said that we need somebody there.

You gotta go back to the reception.

Yes, we all agree.

Would you do me a favor and hire receptions before you leave? within 24 hours it'll be a good idea because everybody is complaining really it's in the works oh good thank you it's in the world and i want to get in between my miss benendez's talk but this this phone uh system is terrible you know it's not a good old so whenever anybody tells you after i'm gone that i didn't answer the phone it's because i didn't know how

Oh, well, he's answering the phone from City Hall.

They've been actively working on your position. Yes, we have to. Okay. We have to. Nothing like a person answering and saying, who do you want to talk to?

Yeah.

Yeah. We're going to direct you.

Yeah, so just so the public can know that the parade is handled by the police department. It has always been done like that historically. So I will ask the city clerk, Miguel, if he can just have applications just available in the front. And if you can communicate with finance, because people don't know that when they ask for an application for the parade, that they know that here it is, you know, they have some available there and some available in the front.

Perfect. Yeah. Turn tournament to PD.

It says on the form to submit to parks and rec or to the police department. It says both mayor and the form.

I'll take care of it.

Anyways, thank you, David. I want to thank you for Memorial Day with you and the crew. It was amazing. Everything was perfect. Everyone was happy. It's an amazing crew that you have there, and thank you for that. That's all I have.

I had the opportunity to represent the city of Nogales and Mayor Maldonado because he wasn't available for that. So they told me if I could do like a three minute speech. So I did it in 60 seconds. So everything went fine. But everything was fine. And we went up to the VFW and I want to thank the city manager, the mayor, the council for approving the the support for the American Legion and for the VFW so the people could join us up there for some carne asada and sodas and stuff like that. Thank you. So that's all, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. You know, and I want to thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. You know, I did have a family unexpected issue for Memorial Day. You know, unfortunately, I lost a brother-in-law. but I'll leave town. But I appreciate for taking, being my representative at the memorial events. Ms. Perrault, thank you for understanding on my unexpected travel. But, you know, we've been busy, you know, I was with the governor up in Tucson and, One thing that we were talking is the screw worm issue and the cattle. I was with USDA up on Friday, May 15th, also with USDA talking, you know, opening the cattle port of entry down here. It's something that the city really needs. You know, we've been... Really talking to people in Washington, trying to get them to do a visit on both Sonora and Nogales to bring in experts and at least teach us or show us what they're going to want in the future. Not that whenever they decide to open, we're not going to be prepared. So we haven't heard much on that. One thing... Coming early, you know, the end of the month through Little League, I'm going to have, I'm starting on this Friday, excuse me, next Friday, the 19th, we're going to have at 6 p.m., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., we're going to have the Little League closing ceremony. So you're all invited at Little League Park. That is, we just made a little committee that people wanted to help and we're organizing to have it on the 19th from 6 to 8 p.m. There'll be a flyer out. It was just approved that the flyer and everything who's involved and all that this afternoon. The other thing, on Friday the 26th, We start district tournaments, and I'll say it right now, we've had district tournaments the last, 14 years that I've been a district administrator, assistant district administrator in Nogales. And it's something great for the kids. I think we got to enjoy it and go support the kids. I'm having the juniors, which is the 13, 14-year-olds play at Memorial on the 26th, game at 5, game at 8 p.m. So with that said, I'm saying there is a forum being conducted on the 26th, and I will not be present. I have the duties to Little League. I've had it, and I will not be present. I will send a statement. When I was asked for the forum, I told them that that day I was very busy and that I wouldn't be available, and I asked them for time change, and they did not respond. Try to work with me. So I'll be sending a statement and and and about my me not being present because I've got my other commitment. So I want cheese mess to go out there saying why I wasn't there. Okay. Yes, sir. Go ahead.

I just want to remind everybody Mr. Melendez was telling me about the conference at the cities and towns and there's been some changes because we didn't get information on time right so they're going to change the lodging is that for the location yes

So after I spoke to you guys, I went in two or three days later to do the reservation and it was already full.

I told you since day one.

Mr. Mayor, I needed your approval first. But I think by the half of the first day when it was open, it was already full. Oh, it gets full like that. That's why I warned you. We're going to be preserving at the... yes uh it's about the recommendation from the uh league of cities was uh they gave us a list of five and they're all about six to seven minutes from the venue um are they gonna do shuttles no but we we could rent a van or if needed but we will we will all have the vehicle so

I know how full they get. Like I said, it was book and worry about the rest later. That's the way you got to work it. You got to book and worry about the rest. You could cancel later. Next year, if I'm still here, Mr. Mayor, I'll do that. My experience tells me. You got to book and worry about the cancellation. The cancellation is easy.

Or get on the board.

Yeah.

If you're a board member, you've got a hotel room.

So no rooms then? We are on the waiting list, though, just in case something comes up. We're already on the list.

Let me try to pull some strings. All right. Yeah, because it's not as enjoyable having to drive after the events and all that. Okay. All right. Besides that, you know, I mentioned about the tournaments and... You're good. And, you know, I want to thank Mr. Pocket. You know, I know it's temporary, your last full meeting, but I want to thank you for all the help and support you gave to the community. You know, one thing you, even though you We had good high end loans and all that. I think you made seven new friends. Thank you. So thank you for supporting the city. Appreciate that, sir. All right.

Yeah.

Well, that's it.

One more. I just want to say thank you for everything. We're really going to miss you. Really?

Thank you for changing your mind.

Remember, think about us. There's more than one mind you have to change.

Don't worry. No, sir. Thank you. There were some good moments. I know we had our differences, but, you know, thanks again for coming in and keeping the reins on the city. Thank you.

And if you don't mind, I can't walk away without saying a few words. Go ahead, sir. It's not in my DNA. It's been educational, instructional, all kinds of. adjectives, but I agree with you, Mr. Mayor. I've made seven new friends and I made a whole staff worth. You know, a lot of uncertainty In the air when I came came into to do this, I told you it was going to be over in a blink of an eye and it's been over in a blink of an eye. Um, but while we were blinking. You know, we went from start to finish with the city budget. Uh, we negotiated, uh, labor agreements with both the police and the fire unions. It'll be on your next agenda. Um, we, uh. Put the finishing touches on both of them, uh, this week and, uh, and I want to say this because I truly believe that I'm a. old school guy from a collective bargaining state who didn't have a choice. When I became mayor, we had to bargain collectively and there were high stakes because the civilian unions had the right to strike. So there was a little bit different atmosphere and I gotta say it was a positive one. uh... because everybody knew that uh... and then uh... didn't do anything in colorado because their right to work state uh... and no bargaining units were allowed and i came to colorado excuse me i came to arizona twenty years ago and uh... the bisbee city council had just elected to recognize uh... their three unions uh... for meet and confer purposes and uh... all of my neighbors around me in Cochise County said, oh my God, you did that? Well, I didn't, but council did. But having had the collective bargaining experience, it was like kind of fun. And it was an opportunity to build relationships. And I think that the experience that I've had here dealing with the police and the fire groups built relationships. And I actually, I mean, we had a couple of tense moments, but you're always going to when you're talking wages and benefits. But the bottom line is, is that how do you come out on the other end? And how do you feel about how you came out on the other end? And I feel pretty confident, and you can talk to them for sure, that we not only forged a good agreement with both of them, we also forged a good relationship with both of them. And so and they did exactly what you guys are doing right now. Do you think you can stay? And I mean, I think we succeeded because they didn't ask me to leave. So, you know, and and and you got to add in the recruitment, you know, that was a major undertaking for all of us. may or may not turn out the way we like. However, it was something that had to be done. You all got started on it the same day that you brought me back. And we went through a pretty intense process together on that. And after all that, we ran the city too. And I think... One of the firefighters says, well, I think you left it better than you found it. That's where I get choked up. And so I'm going to be back around on Friday. I can't give up my phone yet because people are still calling me. I don't know what we're gonna do. It's his problem with the email. In addition to making seven new friends, I can look at John Doyle and I can say, we fought like dogs, but we're still friends. And we may differ on policy, but we don't have to differ as individuals. I think that's the step that we've lost in American politics. That's one reason why I stopped running for public office was because of the lack of civility that is involved with being in politics. And not that it's a whole lot better from this end, but it's still better. Um, you know, I think we did, we accomplished some things. We pointed out some things that we haven't done that we need to do. Um, I, I hope that the advice that the staff and I have been able to give you will guide you in the near future into helping to put the city on a little bit more. sound footing. All the pieces are in place. The auditor told me yesterday on the phone to blame her for the delay. Well, it is her fault, quite frankly. Every time we give them five things, they come back to us with five more. And audits have changed a lot in the last 20 years. They were just strictly about numbers. Now they want to know your firstborn's name and birthday and everything else. So it's not getting easier to be in this business, which is why I made the decision a while back to ratchet back a little bit. If you can call this ratcheting back. But I truly have enjoyed the experience. with your folks okay the people who make your city work uh you know for the most part they are a wonderful group of people uh they deserve your respect and support um we're we we've done everything we can and we're not done uh we've set the stage to make those improvements that uh john's like to have conversation with me every month. And truly, you're going to see positive change. And that's what we do. So thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. I usually get the benefit of the doubt. And the other thing I forgot is we had the Arizona-Mexico Commission, the governor's whole entourage here last Thursday and Friday, and they really enjoyed coming to Nogales. They know that Nogales is the gateway to Arizona. So I think, thank you, Mr. Parkett. We supported them with vehicles, transportation to move them around. And they went to the Deconcini, they went to the mine, they were at Widener, They went to some warehouses, really opened their minds, you know, on what Nogales is. And I think it was a great opportunity with them to see Nogales. And I think they're going to be back. They're going to be back. Like I said, they know that this is what feeds Arizona and the country. So, thank you. Thank you for doing all that with the transportation and everything. And Andy and David, our drivers, were great. They really did a great job. With that said, any future agenda items?

We'll send them to him. Okay.

All right, with that said, move to adjourn this meeting. Move to adjourn this meeting. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Meeting adjourned. Thank you. Good night.