City - Regular Meeting

and city council meeting 6 p.m wednesday august 5th 2026 city hall council chambers call this meeting to order would please rise for the pledge of allegiance mr fontes please join me in honoring the flag of the united states of america i pledge allegiance We got a call to the public. We'll limit it to three minutes. We have four on the same topic. First one is Ryan Quick and Luis Gagiola.

Okay. Hello. Hi. Good evening. My name is Ryan Quick. I'm the health and social services manager at Mariposa Community Health Center. And I'm also the co-chair for the Santa Cruz County Overcoming Substance Addiction Consortium, otherwise known as SOSA. I'm here today because August is Overdose Awareness Month. and it impacts many people in our community, whether it's friends or a loved one. And what we're doing through SOSA is we are hosting a overdose awareness car show. We're doing a car show because we want to have a fun way to get the community together while also celebrating those in recovery, honoring those who have lost their lives, and giving hope to the future. So we came here today to give you all a flyer and invite you all to our car show, which is on August 2nd from 10 to 3 at the Oasis 9 Theater. If anyone has a cool car, motorcycle, Razor, August 22nd. Oh, 22nd. We invite you guys to show it off or come and meet all the different community agencies that are offering resources for prevention, treatment, and recovery. But I just wanted to invite you all. So thank you so much for your time.

Thank you very much. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Adam M. Dalton. Please come forward, state your name and address.

Hello, everyone. So let's raise this up a little bit. So my name is Adam Dalton. I live at 520 West Crawford Street, and I'm going to speak today regarding the GSA proposed port expansion, of which other people will speak soon. I'm sure you'll hear from many of my neighbors and other community members, but... Sorry, as someone who has a Masters of City Planning, I just want to share with you a few facts and numbers about the proposed port that you are not going to hear from the GSA or the Port Authority. So, first and foremost, the proposed project in terms of lanes is wildly disproportionate compared to similar projects that the GSA is currently undertaking or has slated for progress. So, for example, Calexco is downtown, which sees double the number of vehicular traffic as Deconcini, they are 16 lanes. So working backwards reverse logic by the GSA's logic, that would mean eight lanes is appropriate for Deconcini. Furthermore, the most similar port of entry is Eagle Pass, Texas. They currently operate four lanes. The GSA is proposing an expansion to, wait for it, 10 lanes. So literally, then they have 10% more traffic than us. So literally, we'd be at like eight or nine lanes is what the GSA would think is appropriate. So even if you're going to work at the reverse way, we would be if 17 to 22 lanes to be the second largest port in America, we are currently the 18th out of 39th in traffic volume. So we're a mid-tier port and then we have the second most number of lanes for who knows what reason on the other side too we've seen this with mariposa we have two lanes going into 16. the mexican government especially downtown with the flyover bridges the downtown buildings they basically it's very difficult for them to expand those two lanes to you know lead into that large number um also in the converse if any of you have been to san diego to San Ysidro, they have 32 lanes. If we were going to use the logic of how many lanes the GSA is proposing for us, there'd be over 200 lanes of San Ysidro, which makes absolutely no sense. So basically this project is wildly out of scope to basically every project that the GSA has currently under progress. I'm not against expansion, but I think just the scope of this project is immense. Obviously, my neighbors will speak to other elements about this, but I did do a lot of research. All of these data is basically presentable. Something I did want to note as well is that our public crossing data has basically stayed flat since COVID. We're not seeing massive growth. So like, obviously, we would like to aim for growth, but that's not what we're currently seeing. So basically, all of this data is publicly available via governmental sources. I'd be very happy to share my research with all of you. I've also done research regarding the specific number of properties impacted in the Crawford Hill Historic District, the number of proposed residences and businesses being impacted, the proposed expected number of people being impacted as well. So I've done all of this based on public data. And if you'd like, I'd be happy to share this. But, you know, I just would like for you as my ask to take into account the thoughts of the communities as well as the data, in addition to what the GSA and Port Authority are telling you. So I appreciate your time. And thank you very much for listening to me today.

Yeah.

Um, yes, I, I have 1 copy. Um, is there anyone who would like to take this or okay. Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Next we have Mr.

Good evening. Mayor, council, thank you for having this meeting. Thank you for allowing me to speak. And those who are attending, thank you for attending and I hope I say something worthwhile. I'm here to talk about a little bit about the GSA project on our port. My name is David Lundstrom. I live on Crawford. And I'm class of 1974, Nogales, Apaches. I've been here since 1961, so do the math. That's quite a few years. getting to know a lot of people, making a lot of friends, and a lot of friends who deserve improvements and deserve something good for our community. Adam, thank you for speaking. I learned a lot that I didn't know. And I kind of lean towards, you know, taking a step back a little bit and seeing what this really involves. I'm humbled by the fact that they want to spend billions of dollars improving Nogales. It's hard. Improving Nogales means also destroying a few things that mean a little bit to all of us. But I'm still humbled that they want to do this project. But on the same token, being in business for many years and studying business and business law and accounting, some things don't add up. GSA has billions of dollars and I'm sure DHS does too. But since 9-11, the service, the staffing, the funding, the utilization of capacity at DeConcini has been below full capacity. So we're looking at a facility like DeConcini, which I mean served its purpose years ago at full capacity. Everybody's complaining that it's not servicing our community anymore. And you hear different reasons why, but mostly it's they're not using the full facility, they're not spreading the money, the funding, wherever that is allowed to go, somewhere in Washington DC since 9-11, somebody's saying, it's not going down. It's not going to make people happy at the border. And if we want commerce and we want ambos nogales and we want friendship, we have to build on that. That has to be our priority. So. What I want to say is. Give DHS or lobby for full funding for full staffing, full utilization of. The facility that is. Ask GSA to come in and put some. Millions of dollars in. State of the art facilities for foot traffic at morally put traffic at you can see. Spend it wisely improve. Give the the port a year if they don't prove to the community that. They're a value in that they're a service to our community and they're doing it. Well, then. GSA, come on down, tear down half of Nogales and make what you think is fair for the community. So, I hope we can buy a year and we can have full support of government and DHS and still have the humbling support of GSA. Thank you for listening.

Next we have Miss Mary Darling.

Good evening, everyone. Yes, it's me. my name is mary darling i live on crawford street as well in downtown nogales the um deconcini plan as presented on july 29th is compelling it's the word that i keep using about that proposal and i say that um because i know it's going to continue to change as we move forward i've been told that hundreds of times now but it's also a catalyst for transformation, that we have an opportunity to really look at how that will change as well as our greater community. When I think about it, when I've re-looked at this, when we've had our community meetings, um which gives me an opportunity to say thank you to humby chamberlain for joining us last week and talking with some of the neighbors about this plan it is eye-popping at the same time our community is also navigating affordability of just living every day the impact of south 32 now and moving forward and yes even things that now feel almost simple by this proposal that includes the new gallus wash and the ioi the Saving the Humane Society, and just simply doing the things to do to get kids back to school safely. So over the last few days, we've talked with neighbors. I've heard about property values, displacement of our neighbors, air quality during COVID. demolition construction ongoing I've heard about traffic pre during and after staffing issues continue to come up and even though this is not about this particular section is not about staffing it is coming up a lot the noise etc etc what I haven't heard And I hope to hear, and this is coming back to all of us, is what we're gonna do about an old and dated downtown. We have this brand new potential port that's gonna look amazing and have all the things of a 21st century port, yet our downtown, which again, in my mind, is not the Morley entrance to Court Street. Over the years, that's all I've heard about revitalization of downtown is this piece downtown downtown is much bigger than that and the vision needs to be much bigger than that so I have three requests that also come along because of the current administration we've got changes happening with the EPA rules as well as the rules concerning historic homes and cultural landmarks, the rules are changing. And so that is something to keep in mind. So the request for all of you is to intentionally meet and continue to meet and collaborate with the county in terms of how we are going to move forward on this project. Second is to resurrect the following commissions or task forces or advisory boards. I forgot they even existed until I looked for the agenda for tonight. And that would include the Cultural Heritage, which met for the last time in October of 2014. The Economic Development Board, which met for the last time in January 16th. and the economic development tourism, which met for the last time in April of 2015. Please resurrect those, and I think that would be super important to get import from the community from an organized way. And then the third one is asking all of us in the city as well as the county to please vote in November. It makes a difference who our mayor is. It makes a difference who our council members are. It will make a difference who our federal delegation is. It will make a difference who our state legislators are. So please vote. It does matter. And then I come back to my little neighborhood. My little neighborhood is not just Crawford Street. It's Elm. It's Terrace. And it's West Street. And if this is going to create the impetus to repair West Street, yay. I will love the fact that West Street gets fixed at I-19. But at the end of the day, I drove it again tonight. Those houses and those homes will be affected. And that is up to us in the city. That is not the federal. That is us. So I look forward to working with all of us to work forward on something that will be a catalyst for this community. So thank you.

Thank you. Next we got Yvette Fernandez.

Good evening. My name is Yvette Fernandez and I have been a proud resident of Nogales, Arizona since 2015. I chose to invest in this community because I believe in its future. I was fortunate to purchase a home in the historic district Crawford neighborhood, an area with significant architectural and cultural value. We have also built a business that serves customers on both sides of the border, giving me firsthand knowledge of how important economic growth and cross-border commerce are to our region. For that reason, I support responsible development. Responsible development. However, I'm deeply concerned about the scope of the proposed reconstruction of the Deconcini Port of Entry and its impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. The project will directly affect residents of Crawford, Elm, West Street, Morley Avenue, and nearby commercial areas. I would like to understand what plans the City, County, and federal agencies have developed to address the increased traffic, lighting, noise, water infrastructure, and other impacts that will result from this expansion. These changes could significantly reduce our quality of life and the value of our homes. Because this is described as a near complete reconstruction of the port, I also ask whether alternative locations were seriously considered in coordination with the Mexican government. On the Sonora side, the existing urban layout appears to leave little room for additional expansion, making me question whether this proposal is the most practical long-term solution. I would appreciate clear answers to the following questions, either from you or GSA or whoever is in charge. First, has the environmental impact statement has been fully approved or is it still under review? Also, what does the term record of decision mean in this process? Second, will any portion of the project budget be dedicated to neighborhood revitalization? If so, will those funds come from federal, county, or city resources? Third, how will the traffic entering and leaving Mexico be managed? I have difficulty understanding how traffic will flow from four border lanes on the Mexican side into a system that expands to nearly 30 lanes still functioning efficiently throughout downtown Nogales. Finally, if homes must be acquired, how will fair market compensation be determined? How will properties be appraised? And what assistance will be provided to displaced residents in finding comparable housing? I respectfully ask that these questions be answered before decisions are made that will permanently affect our community. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Just to clarify, we do have an item on discussion that Mr. Ashman will present on the project. Okay, that's item eight. Next, we go to resolutions. A consideration and possible action of resolution number R2026-08-012, a resolution of the Mayor and Council of the City of Nogales, Santa Cruz County, Arizona, canvassing the return and declaring and adopting the results of the primary elections held on July 21st, 2026, certifying the facts requiring an automatic recount for the Office of Mayors, authorizing the filing of a petition in Santa Cruz County Superior Court for an order requiring the recount, authorizing the taking of all other actions necessary to carry out the purpose and intent of this resolution and providing for an effective date. Any discussion? Legal question? Go ahead.

Yeah, it's a legal question. Mr. Justice, you provided us this information on the packet. I'm assuming and making an assumption, which I shouldn't, but I will. The data is disaggregated, of course, and it's just the City of Nogales numbers that I see in front of me, right?

Correct. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that's it. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. And now I would like to present a presentation of certificates of elections. Can I please Mr. John Doyle? This is something that had never been done and I want to thank our city clerk. Apparently it is his obligation to give a certificate. to the known winners of, you know, of the elections. Okay. Mr. Dara, certificate of election. I got Mr. Louis Parra. Please come forward. Luigi, congratulations. Then I've got Mr. Jose Joe Diaz. January 1st, 2027. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The city council.

Thank you very much for voting for me. Thank you for those that couldn't vote for me and for all the support on the.

the county level and the super duper Facebook and everything. Thank you for voting for a new participation and a new perspective. I'm not here to make any friends, but I'm not here to make any enemies either. I'm here because of the council's continuing choice of controversy, lack of common sense, and lack of vision. Time and again, Nogales is in the news for all of the wrong reasons. In my opinion, Nogales is being led by a pseudo-leadership. My definition of pseudo-leadership would most likely be taken as abrasive and offensive, so instead, I will share what Google says about pseudo-leadership. A deceptive style where your person uses inspirational and charismatic behaviors to avert caring and visionary while secretly pursuing self-serving goals. They try to imitate true guidance and leadership all for personal gains. It mimics real leadership but lacks genuine moral foundation. They use control and manipulation to charm and exploit followers instead of empowering them. They discourage critical thinking and they deter opposing views and see them as a challenge to their authority and their power. They control through fear. They use power and bureaucracy to scare or force employees into compliance. That's not cool. That's not cool. That's a well-being of families. In my opinion, this current pseudo leadership encourages gossip, tribalism, slander, and accusations. It's a shame because all this does is promote an us and them mentality and the city of Nogales suffers. Most importantly, the city employees are the ones who suffer the most. They are in constant state of low morale, unnecessary stress, and threat. The bottom line is that the current city administration is polarized and spends more time discussing office politics, strategy, and allegiance instead of getting to work for a better Nogales and a better tomorrow. No more kookas. Let's get to work, Nogales. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't need the microphone, I guess. I'll just say thank you all for your support. I'm still going to continue to be a voice for the people of Nogales.

We have many things in the near future that we're going to be addressing, and even in this present administration. So I welcome you on board. The new lessons coming in, because hopefully we'll be able to work to accomplish a lot more. In this coming administration, so thank you. Thank you again for all your help for your support.

And again, we're here for no, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

That's in the room.

Everybody that works with the city of Dallas. They've been instrumental in helping me come out and win this election. And I just want to say thank you. I look forward to working with everybody. Let's move Nogales forward, let's work together, let's unify and push Nogales forward to make it a better Nogales. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And now the presentation certificate nomination. to Mr. David Reese nomination for mayor. Thank you, sir.

Congratulations. Thank you guys for having the support or for having supported.

Okay, we just went through the first hurdle. The second hurdle now is in November. But I'm still looking forward to your support. I'm very transparent and I'm very open. leave. So in November, I look forward to your support so I can work with these three gentlemen to start elections and work together. I've always worked within a structured environment, and that's what we need to do with the city of Delta. We need to build our foundation, fix everything within the city first, and then we can go out and help out the Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Rich. Next, we go to recognitions. of the steaming company honoring Victoria Villa and Ashley Wilson for their outstanding leadership and dedication in organizing a community relief effort for families affected by the recent floods in Nogales, Sonora, in collaboration with the mayor's office, Jorge Maldonado, Councilwoman Lisa Montiel, and the city of Nogales. They coordinated the collection of essential items to support families in need, demonstrating compassion, generosity, and commitment to our community. Ms. Montier?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I've asked both. both Victoria and Ashley to come up. Thank you for coming up. And if you can say a couple of things about your project and how it went, and I want to thank you on behalf of the city council and mayor for putting this event together. And it was an example of neighbors helping neighbors for sure. Thank you. If someone can just explain a little bit about your project.

Yeah, no problem. So thank you everybody for having us. My name is Ashley Wilson and I'm the co-founder of the stemming co. and i'm victoria yeah i'm also the co-founder of the simico so our organization is about bringing um awareness to families here so this call of action was a little bit different than what we're used to but nonetheless our hearts went into it thank you mayor manuel and lisa for really helping us you guys were big cheerleaders in this we have a lot of people to think because there was a lot of moving pieces to this It started out as just collecting. We were two moms out collecting donations in the rain, and it ended up being that we called Diaz Towing, and we filled up a tow truck here at City Hall.

Can they also come up? Can they also come up? Because it takes everyone. It takes everybody's effort. Come on, little Diaz and all of you, Mr. Villa. Please come up. All the Hope organization.

Annette. Annette. Come on up, Annette. Everybody, come on up.

Please come up all of you. It took everyone's effort. Thank you.

No, no, that is fine. So, yeah, we were able to fill up a whole tow truck full of donations and we are still working. We're packing and getting everything ready for our 2nd, drop off and I'll pass over to Vic and she can kind of tell you more about the details of the event.

So once me and Ashley heard and saw videos of the effect of the flooding in Nogales, Sonora, we didn't hesitate. We put our heads together. We did a flyer. And amazingly, of course, our community came together. We collected a lot of clothes, shoes, blankets, pillows, hygiene products, pet food. So it was amazing of how our community came together. When we saw the effect that it had with the families, we didn't see border. We saw neighbors. We saw families that needed hope. We saw children that needed comfort. And that is exactly why me and Ashley have the stemming code to be always united and helping each other, no matter where we are.

And then another thing I want to say, thank you for the community coming together and the shares. So social media is 1 of the biggest marketing and if it weren't for everyone share. Or telling a family member or a friend, we wouldn't have been able to put this together. So thank you. No gala. So no gala strong. Um, and yeah, no borders, uh, we created this will Vicki came up with the slogan hope has no borders and we're going to continue. We're going to continue uniting, uh, with no Dallas and, um. Doing as much as we can, uh, there are some other people that we need to think as little Caesars donated 20 pizza and we were able to cross and give those to the families and. The smallest thing that we've taken, um, they thought was great in a time. So they, they enjoyed the pizzas. Um, also helped us, uh, get the word out and they were able to help us coordinate across the line with, um, some organizations that were able to get the donations to the right people. Uh, live also a huge part of making that connection happen. So thank you everybody. So, thank you. Actually, thank you very much.

Excellent. Yeah. Victoria.

And a little plant.

It won't try. Thank you. Did you drive it? Yeah.

Yeah, I know. I know. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

issues uh we are gonna table the the financial report and come back we'll probably have a special session uh because it's been went through a surgery okay thank you thank you next we move to item number eight discussion presentation and possible direction regarding the u.s general service Administrating Proposal Expansion of the Dinkins City Port of Entry. We got a good friend, Mr. Ashton, on the Zoom. Ms. Montiel, did you have some questions? Go ahead, turn on your mic.

I wanted to put this on the agenda. Good afternoon, good evening, gentlemen. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate it. And Mayor and Council, I put this on the agenda so we can actually hear it from the horse's mouth, give us an update. I know a lot of people weren't able to attend the meeting that you provided to the public for whatever reason, but I found it prudent to have this meeting today And those people that are not here will be watching on YouTube. And as a council, those people that are not here will be watching on YouTube. And as a council member, I have my own opinion about this project. And I will be going on record later. But I'm grateful that you're here today. And hopefully you can provide a lot of answers to a lot of people's questions. Thank you.

but I'm here virtually. I heard a little bit of input already and hopefully we can, this presentation can answer some of those questions or comments. I would also note that we are in the preliminary stages of this project. EIS just began. And so no drop report is out yet. The record decision is. Over a year away, so there is plenty of time for public input. The public comment period is still open until August 8th. So, I would invite anybody with questions or comments to. Submit them to me, I am the email on all the handouts. So you will reach me directly. We will present. the slides, if I can get to them.

Do we have the slide made?

I have them.

You should be able to share them. You're sharing?

Yes. Yes. Okay. Can everyone see that? Yes. Great. Welcome if these slides are. Look familiar, these are the boards that we presented, um. 2 weeks ago at the public scoping meeting. This is the 1st, very 1st step. In the process. So they will look familiar. The purpose of this meeting is to provide an overview overview, excuse me. Of the United States general services administration's proposed project. Overview of the current project phase very quickly. Is we have just begun the national environmental policy act, or the process. As well, as the national historic preservation act process. We will go through that briefly in the following slides. I'm sure you're all familiar, but the project background is we are looking at the Nogales-DeConcini Port of Entry as well as Morley Gate. You all know where it is. There was a feasibility study completed last summer. but we are in the process of updating that feasibility study in conjunction with the environmental impact study. Again, I'm sure you're all familiar with the existing port. Here's a short overview of the layout of the existing port. The purpose of this project is to bring operations in line with current design standards and requirements while addressing port deficiencies as identified by the Customs and Border Protection under the Department of Homeland Security. The need for the project is well documented. The facilities are currently undersized with outdated technologies. Additionally, there are impediments to even operating the current facility at maximum capacity. DLPoE is undersized for the traffic demand, and as you all well know, flooding and drainage issues are of paramount concern. There is also a lack of separation between traffic types, and the traffic congestion and security concerns in downtown Nogales compound this concern. Very quickly, GSA has identified two action alternatives, as well as the no action alternative, which is used to baseline our analysis. So comparing what is there now to what we envision for the future. Alternative one would expand POV to 17 lanes northbound. Alternative two would expand that to 22. And then again, as I mentioned, the no action alternative will be used as a baseline to compare these alternatives to. Both action alternatives would include consideration for expansion up to eight outbound vehicle lanes and approximately 16 pedestrian lanes. I would stress again, this is very preliminary. There will be plenty of time for public input and comment. But also we are looking at renovating the Morley at renovating Morley gate. To include more pedestrian lanes and reconstructing the bridge, the pedestrian bridge, excuse me. From Morley gate to the main port, we will be considering multi story buildings. Including a parking garage as well as advanced security and processing technology. The project footprint is the same for both action alternatives. I know this has probably been shared widely in the community, but this is the proposed project footprint. I'd also add that this information, all these slides are available via the project web page. Which I will again share with the city council, but has been disseminated widely. If you can't find it, my contact information will be on the last slide of this presentation, and you are welcome to submit any comments, concerns, or questions directly to me. This is the conceptual and very preliminary layout of the proposed proposed project. As you can see, The new primary POV booths are now moved back approximately 300 feet from the border, allowing CVP officers to conduct their inspections safely and with the information that can now be gathered in what we term pre-primary. That would include license plate readers, weight checks, and preliminary vehicle screenings. Specifically, we are presenting tonight on the National Environmental Policy Act. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of background on that. This is really intended to integrate environmental values into decision making by the federal government. The EIS will consider potential impacts of this project. So, I heard earlier a little bit of concern about whether we would be looking at potential impacts We will be also public input and common opportunities. Again, I would like to mention we are in the 1st comment period. Notice scoping there will be another comment period. um after the draft uh document is presented is published um but any comments questions uh concerns made now during this comment period will be addressed in that document and i'll get into the a little bit more later to give you an idea of our proposed timeline We published a notice of intent as well as news newspaper notices. The notice of intent was published in the federal register on July 9th. We are current in the public scoping comment period. As I think was mentioned, we held a public scoping meeting, which was very well attended. So, thank you for everybody who came out. I see some familiar faces on July 22nd. I would like to reiterate that the common public comment period ends on August 8th. So, um, anybody with comments concerns questions. Please get those in by August 8th. Um. After this, we will go and actually start our analysis. This is really just a kickoff. Um. after we do that analysis we will publish a draft environmental impact statement followed by a public comment period we do not yet have exact dates but we are projecting that to occur in the spring of next year and it will be accompanied by another public meeting which i will be at i'm your point of contact please feel free to reach out Um, that will be followed by the final environmental impact statement. In which we will address any additional concerns, comments and questions. That are posed to us during that comment period after the publication of the draft document. Anything that we have not addressed. In the draft document will be addressed in the final environmental impact statement. which will include a waiting period. And we project that document to be published in the winter of 2027 or beginning of 2028, that winter, next winter. That will be followed by a Record of Decision, which will be signed by the GSA Commissioner. already during this public comment period we have heard um concerns and comments regarding the historic nature of the neighborhoods well the port as well as the surrounding historic neighborhoods um that process will run tandem with the uh nipa process and we have contracted for specifically for a historic preservation officer. So for those of you, again, who attended the public scoping meeting on July 22nd, I guess that was two weeks ago, we had a great turnout. So thank you. An estimated 250 to 275 members of the public attended. um including representatives from mexico um adq a dot the historical society um the consul general from the state department made time took time out of his i'm sure busy schedule to attend um also the state historic preservation officer for arizona was in attendance as well as the greater nagales poor authority Um, so far we have heard, um. Comments and concerns regarding the need for the project. Again, as I mentioned impacts to historic structures and neighborhoods. And the loss of local businesses, housing and parking. As well, as the volume of traffic in downtown, both via and pedestrian. Next steps, as I mentioned, we are currently in the public comment period. That period ends August 8th. I would just like to reiterate again, that date is important to get your comments and concerns into us so that they can be evaluated in the draft environmental impact statement. There will be another public review Period and comment period, which will be next spring when we publish the draft environmental impact statement. And then we will take those into consideration. And move towards publishing a final environmental impact statement. Which includes a waiting period, and then the decision document, which is called a record of decision. In the winter of 2027, or. Beginning of 2028. Um, as you can see, I. It's here, but I will share it with, um. The council as well as the mayor, and it is also available via the handout. But that is the link to our public facing web page, which will include all pertinent. Neva documents, including these boards. And any updates again, I am the project contact. That is my email please reach out to me with any comments, concerns or questions. And thank you, thank you for your time tonight and thank you for your interest in consideration of this project.

Do we have any questions from the council?

I would like to, sorry, Mr. Mayor, I would like to quickly note that while I can answer questions regarding what I have presented today, we are in a very preliminary stage. So please excuse me if I cannot fully answer your questions yet. Also, any comments made should be made in writing via the email that I provided or via mail. uh the address of which has been provided via fact sheet but i will share again um with mayor and city council as well as the port authority for their dissemination okay thank you i'd just like to and thank you for putting this on uh you know that was a very busy day uh

on the 22nd. But I'd like to inform that this is very preliminary. This is what people saw at your presentation was something that we just saw that morning. So it was very surprising and you could say Nobody had seen this presentation, this configuration of what GSA is thinking about. And that's why, you know, they came down, they presented it, they showed the community just like they showed all entities, you know, county, city, port authorities, and everybody for the first time. So, communication, comments from here on are—I know, you know, we've talked about it. We were in April—I was in Washington with Mr. Ashman, and we talked about this. Uh, reconstruction, it's very, very, very in the 1st pages of the book. Uh, we're, we're trying to obviously get it right. Because it's an opportunity for the, for the city to. To do what what's right for the community, you know, and it's not for next year. It's for the next 50 years. You know, it's something that, you know, you're a baseball player. You better go for the home run. You know, it's not like like, you know, there's no money. You know, we have to to. Work with GSA, we have to work with the community and try to get the best fit for that. We'll work with with our so, you know, GSA has been very. very responsive and very communicative with the county, with the city, with everybody here in Nogales. And for them to come down and open up what they've been talking about, what they've been thinking about, That is an opportunity for the community. That is an opportunity that we, the citizens of the community, of the border, you know, I extended invitations to authorities in Nogales, Sonora, What we do on this side matters to them in Mexico. So, you know, let's, let's try to put all our heads together, work with them and make make this, uh, you know, the best the best border that we can.

So, um, thank you for mentioning. I missed a couple notes. Thank you for mentioning when we were looking at a port. Um, this needs to fulfill your requirements for the next 25 to 50 years. Um, border projects do not come around. Very often, as you well know, you have lived with the current. That continue port of entry for a very long time as long as along with more of the gate. Um, also, I would like to mention, we have retained the services of, um, an acquisition and relocation firm. Um. they will be reaching out in the next coming weeks to anybody whose property we are considering acquiring in development of this project. If you would like to speak to them, please email me. Again, my email has been shared widely. And additionally, we are working on a downtown revitalization study that is in the preliminary stages as well as this entire project. I would really like to reiterate that. But that downtown study was worked on in tandem with as well as the community. We held a community meeting last year. Um, so moving forward, there are. There have been and will continue to be opportunities for the community. To, um, comment and give their input on this project. We know that we, while we are the developer. This impacts, um, the not only the officers, the station, um, at. You can see and morally gay, but. along with the broader community of both Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. Again, thank you.

Mr. Durk.

Yes, Mayor. I don't know if you or maybe our host can actually, as far as GSA, can answer the question. It does tie in a little bit with the GSA project. But if we go two miles, like you said, west, And we have the Mariposa port of entry that's understaffed. We have a lot more lanes that they could handle right now, the traffic that's coming in from Mexico, and alleviate the problems that we have right now. I know we're looking ahead for in the future, but how are we going to alleviate the problems right now? There's long waiting times when... when if they can't staff the Mariposa port of entry, what's the assurance we're gonna have that this is gonna be staffed in the future? That's my question. If we can't address the problems right now, which we have a port of entry with the lanes that are available to make the traffic from across the border come move easily, especially when we have Mariposa Road with a flyover and there's no bottlenecks, And I thought you'd be sitting on the table with that, talking to the commissioner and trying to get staffing here in the port of Mariposa Port of Entry. And you can bring that, I guess, to the question, to the table of if they're not manning, if we don't have the people to man those closed lanes, how are they going to man the ones, all these other lanes are going to supposed to be in the near future? That's my question. Thank you.

Um, well, I cannot speak for customs and border protection, um. Staffing or resources, I would invite you to submit that comment. So that I can bring that to CBP and get that addressed in the draft environmental impact statement.

Thank you. Yes.

Thank you for the presentation. My question is almost similar to Councilman Doyle. When you sat down and did the study, what was the main purpose of, you said you have two options, 17 inbound, northbound lanes, and option B was 20, and they're all northbound, right? So my question is, When you did the study, is that going to improve the wait times that we have right now? I think we're averaging two to three hour wait times, sometimes even longer than that. If you implement this project, do you think that's going to alleviate that problem? And what about the traffic going southbound? I don't know. We're just accommodating the traffic coming northbound, and we're not thinking about the traffic going southbound, because I hear that Mexico is not going to be expanding anything on the other side of the border.

Um, yes, part of this project is to expand the southbound traffic to 8 lanes along with the expansion of northbound lanes to either 17 or 22 via the 2 alternatives. As you well know, we are currently. not running all available lanes. That is partially due to staffing, but also partially due to the layout of the port, which is outdated and does not allow CBB to conduct their full inspections. So yes, one of the needs of this project is to alleviate congestion and reduce wait times.

Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Ronea.

So my question is a little bit the same as Doyle and Councilman Bujorquez. So you wanna have southbound eight lanes. So where are we at or you guys at with talking to Mexico? Because it doesn't, I would see having eight outbound lanes and at the end of the day, if we're gonna be bottleneck, they're not planning or at what stage are you in talking with Mexico as far as accommodating our project on this side?

I would again reiterate. Thank you. I would again reiterate. We are in the preliminary stages of developing the project on our side, but we are in. Consistent coordination with the government of Mexico. Regarding the state of facilities on their side of the border.

That's okay.

In our talks, you know, Tijuana border, San Diego border was done in the same area. You know, they expanded both U.S. incoming and they expanded outbound lanes. And I think the outbound was 12 now to Mexico. and they're still going out to the same four lanes that they had throughout forever. I know from the talks that we've had, the precaution that they're trying to take is one, obviously move the agents away from the actual border because they're right at the border. They're in danger of anything being so close to the border. When we have our monsoons and and we have the issues with not just the floodwaters, we have the issue with sewer water coming close to the port. They're trying to move all those people back from the port for safety, for health, for environmental reasons. That's why they're trying to move away from the actual border. And, you know, so that is one of the main things they're trying, looking at moving the first checkpoint 300 feet inward in the city. Yes, Mr. Doe?

Yes, Mayor. I guess the point that the Council and myself are trying to point out is that yes, there are, we need improvements here, especially everything that you mentioned. But would it be more logical to work hand in hand with those improvements and having that other port that's two miles west open 24 hours a day and having those lanes that are closed staffed so they can be open and that way we don't we need so many lanes right here coming through de quincey uh we could balance out but but yes we need to work on this but i mean it's just a suggestion that we're making like uh and and also we need that we need those lanes open right now to alleviate the problem right now not 10 years from now thank you mayor thank you anything else mr ashford any other comments

Do you hear me?

Mr. Oh, my apologies. No, I have no further comments. Thank you very much.

Okay. Any other comments? All right. Thank you very much. Hold on. I got the city manager.

I do have 1 comment. Um. Mr. Khadri, and thank you for mentioning anyone needing information on your site for possible relocation acquisition assistance. I would remind the public that the actual federal government is quite good at adhering to the 1970 Relocation Act. And if you have a business, if you own it, or if you own it but you're a tenant, if you have a residential property, if you own it or if you're a tenant, it behooves you to contact Mr. Khadri's office early on in the process so you begin to learn the process that the feds engage in. It's to your financial benefit to do so early. So it's just a reminder. They provide that service, and they're pretty good at doing it. Been involved with it in the past. It's just a reminder to anyone within the footprint, do it early on. You can't do it early enough because it'll benefit you in the long run. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Thank you. And to dovetail on that, I would reiterate, I think I mentioned before, but our acquisition and relocation specialist team will be reaching out in the next couple week or so i believe next couple weeks um to all um owners and tenants of properties within that project footprint to begin those discussions so thank you very much for mentioning that thank you sir and whatever we could assist please let us know thank you sir thank you And I would just reiterate that this is not your last bite at the Apple. This is the preliminary, the very beginning of this project. So you will have you have until August 8th. For this bite at the Apple, so to say, you will also have. An opportunity to comment on the draft environmental impact statement. Which will lay out in more detail. most aspects of the project um there is also uh a it's called a waiting period but it's really a common period um after the final environmental impact statement uh is published next winter okay thank you sir thank you very much all right thank you for your time tonight next we move to item b discussion report

an update regarding flood damage on the Nongal's water recovery and migration efforts available local state and federal resources and the governmental response to the recent flooding.

I also, um, put that on the agenda so we can, um, have Mr phone this, um, kind of do a little introduction here because, um, you know, every time it rains, it's just my personal opinion. You know, it becomes sort of like a headline and it's getting a little, you know. Insulting it's getting tiring. It's not. It's not good for the city. We're going in circles and every time there's this rain and flooding, you know, we international gets on the headlines and people come take pictures and so forth. And I don't I don't think that that's going to solve it. So I asked you to place it on the agenda. Excuse me. Yeah. Hi. Yeah. Okay. So you have someone giving a presentation about yes, an update.

Thanks for bringing it up growing up here. I'm very familiar with what you're saying. I'm full agreement. Uh, Mr. Steve will go ahead and present please proceed.

I didn't see it. I didn't see you. Sorry.

Yes, Mr. Mayor and council. Thank you for having me here. I've just been on the job for a week right now, so I may not have all the answers you're looking forward to.

You're beating me by, no, actually, I beat you by two weeks. So I've been here three weeks, three and a half weeks, so proceed. But I just wanna point out that Mr. Tenza has work. for the city before previously for a few years. He is a licensed registered engineer in Arizona. He's also you've got the certificates in floodplain management and several water designations. So we're glad you're joining us even for an interim period. Please proceed.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. My presentation will be brief. I'm not sure if there's going to be a presentation showing a few pictures of the wash as it is right now. I don't see that, but I just want to bring up that we understand that the wash had problems starting about July 18th. It was an emergency situation that we contracted with Innova Engineering and Construction, and at this point, they are approximately... Could you get closer to the mic, please? Closer to the mic. Closer. They're approximately...

It's very fussy. There we go. Thank you.

As I said, they were approximately 80% done with the work to stabilize the slope and fix the pipes that got damaged. They're going to finish their work. I talked with the contractor tonight before coming here and they expect to have everything complete in by next Monday. So. The project is one of a normal type of thing for bank stabilization. I don't know if I have too much to say about that right now. If there's any questions, hopefully I'll be able to answer them. Go ahead, Mr. Doe.

Considering the work they're doing, which in the past we've had similar issues or problems with the banks in that area, are they addressing it a little more? aggressive or different so that maybe it will hold in the future future floods coming through there that they won't erode the banks uh you said about bank stability uh is is this is this work that they're doing now going to improve uh and bring more stability to those banks

Oh, absolutely. The amount of work that they're doing is, again, designed by a registered engineer who is the owner of the construction company. They've done similar work in other places. This is expected to be a 20 year improvement project. Unfortunately, throughout the wash, as you well know, there's other areas that are going to need work over the next few years. So, right now, the responsibility for the wash is with 3 agencies. Santa Cruz county, the city of no, no, no, and the international boundary and water commission that has a large intercepted pipeline. So, there's any other questions.

Well, I would like to add at this point, I would like to add a couple of comments. I'd like to recognize supervisor Davis. In the audience who joined us. For the tour of the damage location. The water pipe was threatened. Other lines were threatened. The work began immediately and relating to this, there is a proclamation on item nine B that I asked for the council support shortly. That will give us the ability to move faster and more efficiently. The work that Mr Tang had done, the registered engineer, THE VAST MAJORITY WAS COMPLETED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF THE FIRST DAMAGE AT THE FIRST SITE ON HOHOCUM AND THAT WAS WITHIN TIME FOR THE NEXT SERIOUS RAIN. WE TOURED ANOTHER SITE THAT WAS IN FRONT OF THE BOWLING ALLEY. SOME WORK WAS DONE BY THE RAILROAD AND THERE THEY USED A COMBINATION OF CONCRETE RIP WRAP AND to buttress the lining of the wash. But again, that can be unstable. And as the railroad moves through there, there's a lack of lateral and subjacent support that needs to go down to the sub base. That's work. But at the first location, if you look at the totality of that work, that could be up to 30 million. And that was a figure that will take a lot of lobbying. a lot of grant writing and long-term work, but the engineer assured me that the work that was done at the first location with the water pipe would last for years, that it was a good fix, that it was a very good fix. And then to kind of address the councilwoman's concern, on the longer-term basis, we toured Ephraim Canyon, and that would require, A lot of work up to 80 million for a large detention slash retention basin meant to slow down. The monsoon rains, especially if you get past 25 year or more flooding. That would slow the water down and allow it to. To to overrun on a very slow basis to link out of a slow basis, so you won't have peak. Floods. So that's the long term fix. The 30 million is the big fix for the first location. Overall, that's a lot of money. We're working, we're starting to have binational meetings, staff to staff. And again, the supervisor was involved with Nogales, Sonora and his staff. with my counterpart uh fernanda forget her last name and their public works what happens during monsoons is that in nogales sonora they don't have as many detention retention bases as here it again it surcharges down the middle of some streets and in the past when it floods you open up the manhole covers it goes into the sewer system the surcharges on this side you get black water coming through the streets and it's not something new i saw it when i was here 16 17 years ago it happens but we're trying to get better cooperation on both sides of the border to do that because as long as we're in this valley it will continue as long as a month soon to come but we're looking for a larger chunks of money and now that the feds have the ioi back that's something we can deal with but um it's going to be a long-term fix and a lot of planning but for now we're trying to coordinate our efforts on a regular basis for the time that i'm here uh with nogales sonora and that's going to be the key we can't do it alone but we Thank the county for joining us in doing that and try and get the state involved. But it's going to be a multi agency effort. Anything else to add, Steve, on your part?

Other than I mentioned that, it's a cooperation effort over the last, golly, 70 years. We've had these damages to the wash, and there needs to be a more concerted effort in improving the removal of vegetation that's in the wash. And it's a matter of safe safety within the concrete area close to the border. There used to be safety ropes to provide for people to come if they're caught in the water.

And lastly, I'd like to thank Councilman Mundell for organizing Again, a tour of Los Osos Wash upcoming this Friday, and we'll be joined by the county and environmental groups. Again, building going on on the Mexican side quite a bit, and we're looking for the sustainability on their side to have the sewer and detention, retention basis infrastructure on that side to the east of Nogales. So that's also going to be key.

I have more of a comment. In the past, we've, myself and other council members here that we've been concerned with the, this is not a new issue, this is something that didn't happen overnight. Some of us here have been raising this issue for many years, and we saw it coming. We saw the scouring, and we saw it eroding, and we asked, and we asked, and we kept pressing, what are we going to do? But in the past two years, or two and a half years, we've had two big issues. on our side of the wash that has cost the city of Nogales a lot of money. And it almost seems that we can see the problem, but we don't do anything because, well, nothing really happens until like this one that an actual water line was exposed. Now we're reacting to it. Instead of being proactive, we keep seeing, we pass through Hohokam Drive, and we see that they're scouring. There's a severe erosion of our side of the wash, and yet we don't do anything until this happens, until now we had to get money from different parts from our financials. Why is it that we always have to, we see the issues. We've always seen them. It's not like, oh my goodness, how did this happen? We saw it coming and yet we didn't do anything. We wait until we have the issue. I think it compounded a little bit more with the bigger floods this year, but that scouring on that side of where that water line got exposed, You couldn't step on there because, as a matter of fact, the railings were already flying. They were already hanging from there. So it's not something that, oh, my God, this happened. How did this happen? It just seems that every year we don't, instead of taking care of it on seasons that are monsoon season, it's not all that harsh. We say, well, we survived another year. See what happens next year. Wow, this is what happened this year. And what's gonna happen for next year? There's other issues on Hohokam Drive, on the wash that are right now, there's erosion issues. And yet we're not gonna take care of them because, well, we're not gonna take care of them because I guess nothing, it's not a crisis right now. And so my big concern is how many times does the city have to pick up the tab for this? Right now we had to dig deep into our pockets I believe we have to get money from our reserve again. So at what point does the city have to pony up for the money? And that's my concern. You know, we have to get money, which the city of Nogales, obviously, does not have. wouldn't it be a lot easier or I would say more fiscally responsible if we were proactive. We know the issues on the watch. I'm sure that it's nothing new to you or anyone in the city, but again, we wait until there's a big emergency and then the costs are way up there. And so could we have mitigated this issue? I think we could have, but we let it get to this point. So my question is, how are we going to be taking care of this in the future? Because the city cannot be ponying up money for flood issues. That's my big concern. And as far as the Efren Canyon project, Mr. Fontes, I remember that the county manager, he was here and he told us that the money was in the coffers as far as the Efren Canyon. It's not something that I'm going to. He told us that the money was in the coffers. So I don't understand. Why now this whole big issue of where the money is coming from when the county went on record and said the money is in the coffers? So it's just something that that was said here not too long ago. And so but that's the discussion for another day.

And I thank you for your concerns. I share them.

Of course, money is always a very serious issue.

Yes, and I came back after 16 years and it's like back to the future. It's the same thing going on. But no, I share your concerns. It's going to be a lot of money. I think we have to model a fix like we did with the sewer plant. We did modeling for two and a half years and eventually got the $62 million from beef back. ivwc for the money and that was the biggest grant of 207 for the plant total uh we may have to take that approach but it's going to be a partnership between the city and the county um to head in that direction and but good comments i thank you for them and i think it's going to take some coordinated effort like that on a large basis

There may be some hope and a horizon with federal agencies like FEMA who have cash to be able to help and expertise in designing improvements that will last a long time. You're absolutely right that... it's a band-aid approach and it has been that way for decades and so now it's maybe an opportunity to start with new council and to work on a workshop that can come up with some better ideas and maybe not so much cost involved but cost effective work we also have here Mr. Stewart, who is a temporary public works director like I am, has a comment to say.

Thank you, Steve. Do we have any other questions from the council?

Mr. Doyle had a question.

I had a comment or a comment in the direction that we should go. And you, you pointed out right about working together with the county and and getting the resources together. But the funding, like you said, FEMA, there's a lot of different sources, but 1 of the big ones is you need to get. Together with counterparts in Nogales, Sonora, because we do need more retention basins over there and we need some kind of dam that will hold up the majority of the water that comes down this way. And that would that would alleviate the flooding that we have here. And the one that's ready to that has the money for that is not bank. for border communities, especially working together, I can't see where they would say no to this type of funding that alleviates, because that's exactly what they're there for. So that's one of the sources that we need to tap into. And again, get also the IBWC to work together, FEMA, and even if the Corps of Engineers are available to do some of the of the work free, that would also help and alleviate the cost. So there's a lot of things that can get done. I think City Manager Fuentes and the mayor should start working closer together with the county and working with your counterparts across the border. And this is something you can start now and be ready by next year. Hopefully there'll be something in place aside from the proactive that Councilman Bonilla said that the city can do now to be able to be ready for any other flooding that might come in. So it's a matter of, it's an urgency. It's something that should have been done and we need to get it done. I think the county would be more than willing. They already have good connections over there across the border. I think the mayor has good connection. Let's put him to work.

I just have one more comment if I may. Go ahead. I've had meetings with Mr. Davis in the past about the wash and stuff like that. And I know they have a plan already. They have a project already in place. It was done a few years ago and it was expensive then. So I imagine it must be more expensive now. But I think that definitely we need to have some type of study session with county and city as far as exactly what are their numbers. Because we can't have this band-aid approach. We need to fix it. We need to fix that whole part of the wash once and for all. We have way too many things that we're at risk. Mayor hosts a big tournament during when we had that big issue. So... We just can't afford to lose Hohokam Drive, and it is expensive, but I admit it's not going to cost $100,000, but I saw that project that Mr. Valdez showed me not too long ago, but these numbers were almost a couple of years old now, right, Mr. Davis? So I imagine that it must be way more expensive now. I think we're looking at 53 million or something like that, Mr. Davis, right? But now it must be more. So we need to have some type of study session on this so we can fix this issue. That's right.

Thank you for your comments, Councilman Bonilla, and thank you for bringing it up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we move to discussion, direction and presentation regarding the fiscal year 2025 financial audit report, including the city's financial conditions, audit findings and recommendations. Ms. Montiel.

Mayor, I'd like to welcome Jean Dietrich, Principal, CPA for Clifton, Larson, Allen. They are auditors. We've met each other for the first day today, but we've had numerous conversations and she's here to tell us about her audit. May not be the most pleasant thing in the world, but it's best to hear the truth. and we're committing, as I mentioned to you, to do all the fixes necessary, item per item. With that, please proceed.

Is my presentation available? Thank you.

Can you get a little bit closer to the mic? Thank you.

Thank you. Again, my name is Jean Marie Dietrich. I am the principal responsible with CLA for the external audit of the City of Nogales for the year ended June 30, 2025. I want to go over what our audit scope was in the process and procedures we performed. the audit opinions and communications that we'll be issuing, our financial statement highlights, as well as any industry highlights and emerging issues. Within your audit reporting package is our required communication to council and mayor as governance of the organization, your annual financial report, as well as your single audit report. And within your single audit report, we perform an audit in accordance with government auditing standards. The report also includes an opinion on your internal control over financial reporting, as well as a report on the major federal programs, as well as your schedule of federal expenditures. Overall, during the fiscal year, there were two new standards that were implemented from the Government Accounting Standards Board. One's regards to compensated absences regarding the more likely than not use of PTO in sick time. And one was GASB 102, which involves certain risk disclosures. With the implementation of GASB 101, there was changes to your compensated absence liabilities, but there was no impact in regards to GASB statement 102 on your financial statements. We evaluate all your estimates at arriving at your financial statements. What we deem to be the most significant estimate with a higher degree of uncertainty is the single employer other post-employment benefits liability. We evaluated that estimate and we did not identify any management bias at arriving at that estimate. The other items that arrived during our audit that were significant that needs to be communicated is there were multiple utility billing errors and issues and anomalies identified that resulted in delays to issuance. Other items that resulted in delays to issuance were significant internal control deficiencies and material weaknesses, and the significant number of audit adjustments proposed and made. In addition, there were significant changes in key employees that probably attributed to these findings. We did have one minor adjustment that was passed on because it was not material to your financial statements as a whole. And that was in regard to your sanitation fund and just an adjustment for your OPEB asset. And you can see $18,000 to your financials as a whole is not going to be deemed significant. I'm going to go through and identify to you each material audit adjustment. These are audited adjustments that were proposed and made by management to your trial balance because of issues in your financial reporting. When we work with management to arrive at your financial statements, there are annual reclass adjustments, there are government-wide entries for your pension obligations, et cetera. These weren't those adjustments. So we had an adjustment proposed and recorded to correct errors regarding the recording of your sales tax revenue and receivables of $825,000. We had an adjustment to correct errors over your ambulatory service revenue and receivable of $155,000. We had adjustments recording your intergovernmental revenue and receivable balances, those are your grant fundings, of $440,000. We had an adjustment to correct errors recording investment income allocation. of 523 000 we had an adjustment recording lease receivable balances in the amount of 309 000 we had an adjustment for errors and a restatement of fund balance due to interfund and pooled cash account balances in the amount of 214 000 all these adjustments were to the general fund and this yes

Go ahead. What is the difference between the GASB 101 and the GASB standard?

I'm sorry? The GASB standard and a...

Yes. For accounting policies, you're using GASB. And for the other audit, you're using GASB. Is that...

One is in regards to the financial accounting standards, and one is in regards to our standard auditing. So we perform an audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards, as well as one in accordance with government auditing standards. And the GASB is the government accounting policies that need to be adapted for your financial statements. Within your streets and her fund, we had an error regarding income allocation for $100,000. To your grants fund, we had to record correct errors regarding your grant revenue and unavailable revenue in the amount of $1.9 million. This is that you did not receive the grant funding within what we call the encumbrance period. And so you can't recognize that revenue at the fund level until you get that money in the door. Thank you. We also had involving your internal service funds, multiple adjustments in that they were not recorded properly in the internal service fund. That would be the utility management fund. That's the administration of the utilities that are governmental activity level. We also had an internal service error in regards to the support for the Nogales Housing Authority. And so you're looking at about $473,000 of adjustments there. In recording medical claims, your cash balance and your outstanding claims were netted by 650,000. So a material adjustment there. And we also proposed and recorded errors regarding your beginning net position of about $200,000. And we recorded and restated net position to correct errors recording those internal balances of about $66,000. Within your sewer fund, I think that's the most significant errors that we identified. you have an agreement with the ibwc in which a liability was created probably about 2019 2020 because there were disputes and charges that liability grew to about six million dollars and in 2022 you came to an agreement with ibwc and that agreement was not recorded So we had a prior period restatement of about $5.6 million.

That agreement, I don't know if it makes any change, but that agreement was agreed but not finalized until IBWC received a federal fund of $12.2 million. And I think they just did it within the last month.

This was a liability that was on the books that management didn't realize. And they were funneling your payments to BWC through accounts payable rather than through this liability. Resulting in expenditures being overstated. That error has been corrected.

That was cleared up with Mr. Massey, right? One of the attorneys. So that's cleared up.

And then within the Water Fund, we had identified errors in the previous year regarding your WIFA transactions. Management had improperly recorded sewer transactions in the water fund. And so they had included those receipts and capital assets in the sewer fund and the water fund rather than the sewer fund totaling about 1.5 million, understating the assets in the sewer fund and overstating assets in the water fund. And within the water fund, we had to restate for that 1.5 million to correct that error. We also identified investment allocation errors within the water fund. We also had to restate net position due to internal service fund errors. And we also had that investment income allocation error within the water fund where they were allocating investment income to the water fund, which had a deficit cash balance. And so we had 456,000 of investment income allocated to a fund that had a deficit cash balance. And so we corrected that error working with management. And then with the loan, because of the prepayment, we had to adjust that so it was recorded as a receivable and not a liability on your books. And so those adjustments totaled about 1.9 million. And then within your Interfund, we identified about 800,000 of An error regarding inner fund cash pulled balances within the water fund. Within the sanitation fund again, the investment allocation, so we properly allocated 121,000 of investment income to the sanitation fund, which had a positive cash balance. And then with a no gala's housing authority. Management was trying to properly establish a payable receivable for the reimbursements. However, those transactions weren't always recorded properly resulting in a 418,000 dollar balance within your internal service fund that we had to eliminate. And restate for the new Dallas housing authority. So. I want to make it clear that these aren't repeat findings that these are errors that were identified in the current year that some have arrived at in prior periods and some that occurred in the current year. And it really is an indication that there needs to be more heightened sense when it comes to your financial reporting. As a result of the utility billing errors and anomalies that were identified, we performed additional procedures and we did the deeper dive into your meter readings and how those meter readings are put into your billing system. And we identified significant errors to the point that we could not rely on the revenue receivables recorded in your sewer fund and water fund. So we could not say that they were not materially misstated or not that they were properly presented. And so we had to qualify opinions on your business type activities, your water fund and your sewer fund. We are issuing clean unmodified opinions on your governmental activities, your general fund, your streets, her fund, your grants fund, the sanitation fund, and other auditors issued a clean opinion on the Nogales Housing Authority. And we also are issuing a clean opinion on your aggregate remaining fund information. And in regards to the single audit, your total federal expenditures for June 30, 2025 was about 2.1 million. We tested two federal programs that included the Department of Environmental Protection Agency's capitalization grants for drinking water, state revolving fund, about 700,000, as well as the remaining ARPA funds of 170,000. However, due to procurement policies in place and errors identified, we have issued modified opinions on those programs. As a result, our audit will be issuing 12 instances of material weaknesses and two instances of significant deficiencies. And those are over the preparation of your financial statements. There needs to be a better closeout in identifying what estimates and what accruals need to be made. We also have issued a material weakness over the material audit adjustments regarding your accrual basis accounting, your allocation of investment income, your recording of your debt, pension and OPEB liabilities, and recording various correcting entries. We're issuing a material weakness on the timeliness of your financial reporting in that you have yet again missed your OMB compliance deadline, as well as your Arizona advice statutes for your ELR, as well as your continuing bond disclosure requirements. We've issued material weaknesses over the improper recording of your WIFA transactions. A material weakness over lack of management approval over employee rate changes due to changes in the director of human resources. We also issued the material weakness due to unsupported utility billing amounts. We issued a significant deficiency over the enrollment and within your OPEB plan. The census data was not consistent and of the 25 employees that we tested in review, five of the employees sampled were incomplete and did not include evidence of proper review. We gave you a material weakness over the improper allocation of investment income as you're in your pooled cash investment income was only being allocated to the general fund and to the water fund and not to the other funds that had positive cash balances. We also issued a material weakness in the preparation of the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. This was due to the grant accrual process not being completed. And so your expenditures were not matching your revenues in your accrual process. The material weakness on the 825,000 for improper tax revenue cutoff. material weakness over your intergovernmental revenue due to the recognition of the 1.9M in the wrong period. We also have issued a significant deficiency on your information technology governance and risk management. That's a repeat finding from the previous year. We have a material weakness over the settlement agreement where we made the $5.6 million adjustment. And we have the material weakness over the $1.5 million misclassification of the WIFA capital expenditures. For your single audit, we had identified four instances of material weaknesses and one significant deficiency. And this is in results for your procurement in place in that we could not substantiate that proper procurement policies were followed in accordance with uniform guidance. And that would also include a material weakness over suspension and debarment, making sure that your contractors are not debarred. And a material weakness over procurement for the coronavirus fund and suspension and debarment for the coronavirus fund. and then the improper reporting of the funding and uses of your ARPA dollars. So as a whole, what we would recommend is proper promoting of segregation of duties within the financial reporting, within your finance department, having someone with knowledge overseeing the financial close process and having reviews of what people are doing. We promote the retention of key employees. There was significant turnover in the past year, two years, three years. And I think almost every department was affected. You have to be able to attract someone knowledgeable and experienced to fill that finance role. Improve oversight of the enterprise funds and your debt activities. Enhance documentation approval controls, as well as retention of that documentation, especially when it comes to procurement. Strengthen your grants management, your revenue receivable, utility billing. And management is arriving at a corrective action plan to respond to these findings. And then we would really strongly suggest that you develop a formal information technology governance program to grow and strengthen governance framework and the cybersecurity risk that is out there for all municipalities. Overall, when you look at your financial highlights for the year, We had to restate beginning balances for 2024, so your revenues changed. So revenues are declining when it comes to governmental activities, but not significantly, where expenses are increasing. Last year, your net position change was 9.3 million to the positive, this year it was 7 million. For your business type activities, Significant decrease in revenues from $22 million to $18 million. And then your expenses decreased slightly. Overall, going from $7 million of change in net position to $3.4 in the current year. So we do feel that management has properly adopted GASB statement 101 regarding compensated absences, and that resulted in a restatement of your financial statements, but that was a proper restatement for the implementation. GASB 102 did not impact your financial statements this year, but you would want to evaluate it every year. Hearing the discussions regarding the damage from the flood control should be evaluated for disclosure for fiscal year 26. We have two significant GASB statements for fiscal year 26. One is the improvement to financial reporting model. And this will impact your MD and your management discussion and analysis, the presentation of your enterprise funds, as well as any major component unit you have. And it will also change the way your budgetary comparisons are provided in your financial statements. GASB 104 is regarding capital assets held for sale, lease assets, those intangible assets such as subscription assets, and right to use PPP assets, which is public partnerships, which your deal and your agreement with IBWC is considered a public-public partnership. And then some improvements from cash flow reporting and subsidies. And then the following year in 27, we have a clarification on what's required for subsequent event disclosing. That is our presentation of your audit results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. And I thank you for your time.

Thank you. Do you have a question?

How many times can the budget be amended during the fiscal year? Is there a limit?

I think that is within your policies. You would have to ask management that.

Okay. And on the and also on the findings, there are some findings that are repeated a couple of years back. Is anybody following up on the corrective action plan that they had for the previous years to make sure that it doesn't happen again? And who does that?

We're going to have to do that. And we need new muscle in finance. I know there was previous discussions about freeze on hiring. Typically doesn't apply to public safety. to positions that lose you more money if you don't fill them and revenue neutral activities. But I will be recommending very shortly a new finance director. The individual who works has done a yeoman's task in doing it, but he's not interested in the position, but he was called upon to do additional and more elevated work Not the right practice, but I don't want to criticize anyone before me, we just have to correct this and move forward so at minimum, we need to additional staffers in. Finance director and another senior account and likely the services of a CPA firm we can't afford. A CPA in the current market they make too much money so will contract with them as you do when you do your taxes, but we're beefing up finance and we're going back into the years to see that anything is missing i'd like to thank. Ms Dietrich for. the work that that she's doing we're committed to work with her and correct as much as we can over the last few years it's very concerning to me to see that um like I said I've been here three and a half weeks but that has to be done quickly and you will see that I'll start filling those spots very rapidly and we'll go back over the last few years to make sure everything's kosher we have

And when is this audit going to be ready for submission?

The audit, we expect to be ready submission within the next week or so. We need to work with management on the wording and the corrective action plan. We also need to work with them to get their ELR up to date. But it's going through those final levels, and we really feel that we're close enough to present to you.

We found ourselves, for example. Going back previous attorney before you just to track down the settlement. And we were able to find it, so we find ourselves in that mode, but we'll, we'll do that.

So, based on these findings. Mr. Fontes has only been here a few weeks, so the financial reports we've been receiving the last few months haven't really been that accurate based on these findings.

Is that assumption kind of correct?

I have not seen what the internal reports.

OK, OK. But it just comes from what you mentioned. That's what I picked up on that, especially when it comes to the water and sewer and WIFA accounts. Right. So so hopefully this will be corrected in the near future then.

It's going to take several months and findings.

We can rely more on the future reports of more correct information coming in.

To translate, findings are not good. They're problems. Exceptions, we can live with those given the size of our city. We can work with those, but findings are an immediate concern.

Thank you.

Mr. Mr font is this or these issues that you found in the audit was this just due to lack of training, lack of staff or I think it was due to.

Lack of training, lack of staff, lack of knowledge. Um, I don't. Know that you have any in your finance department I. You know they're really good and responsive, and they know what they know. So if you're an AP clerk, you know AP. And I think they are stretched to the point of their knowledge.

And we need CPA services, obviously, not just the graduate education, the licensing. you know you you if you have a cps not only he or she's well educated well experience and if you say give it to me in uh... report form compilation or wonderful blown out of the they can do those things for you but internally we probably cannot for one will contract for those surface services and i look to was the trick to uh... help us with that task but we need to beef up our internal staff and and uh... make sure that we are at full capacity. So we not only correct these findings, but we can go back the last few years from nothing else surprises us.

Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead, Ms. Montiel.

Thank you. And thank you very much for taking our call. George and I, Mayor and I called you a couple of weeks ago. So I know that since 2020, It has not been completed in a timely manner. So this is the sixth year. Okay, so it's not, you're auditing last year's, of course, you're behind, but it's the sixth year that it's not been on time. And not only, there's obviously a pattern of ongoing concerns that have grown into several years of issues. So it's been going on every year and some are corrected and most of them are not from the, correct me if I'm wrong, there's a total of, of 18 red flags. I like to say red flags, I don't know what you used. 19. 19, okay, I'm sorry, one more, 19. So some of them are very complicating and because I don't have the background in finance and nor accounting, but some of them are easy to read using chat, right? We have that good old chat. and I went in there and looked into some of the some of the I asked chat some of the questions and GPT chat oh yeah yeah and so I asked some of the questions and of course you know it's depending on how you ask it then they'll respond to you but some of them are concerning only because You have employees that have been given raises and it hasn't been documented. Forms have not been completed to justify those raises. For example, then we have insurance. Some employees, like five, were never completed. Insurance forms were completed, paperwork. then you deal with some of the investment funds that there's no also policy in place. So how are they supposed to follow if we haven't adopted policies? So in fairness to the employees, we don't have policies behind those red flags, if you will. But one of them is kind of concerning is the water, because we've been kind of tackling the issue about raising water. And what concerns me too is about the sewer and water, how some accounts are not jiving with the readings. Correct me if I'm wrong, because you're the expert. So when a reader goes and reads my and my husband's meter, where I live, then they bring that information into the city and they record that. So correct me if I'm wrong, what I'm understanding from this is that they're not jiving. Some of the counts that you looked into are not jiving. Correct. Yeah. So some, is it fair to say, is it fair to say, the attorney here, cause they like asking questions like that. Is it fair to say that some people are not paying for water?

I would not confirm that it's fair to say that what's being on certain meters is not agreeing what's in the billing system.

Yeah. So it's fair to say also that.

It's also fair to say that I think that you've had customers that were overbilled in that period as well. So as far as saying someone's not paying or someone is paying too much, I can't speak to that. I can just say that your systems at the period of time for that year, anomalies were identified and we did a sample and I think it's in the finding. Yeah. And it was like 80% had errors.

And I believe that issue was discussed previously that they were handwriting down readings and then transcribing them back and that a new system has been put in place to alleviate those issues.

Okay. So that's one of the, um.

So that will be in the plan of improvement or yes, the corrective action plan, which I believe management as far as the utility billing.

Yeah.

What they have communicated to me, they've already put the plan in place. They've also put a plan in place for inventory of all meters that hadn't been done before as well.

So, so. I'm looking at the, um. the 2025-006, which is unsupported utility billing amounts related to water meter readings. So out of, you tested 60, and 42 of them were, is it fair to say they were billed incorrectly?

It's fair to say that the meters, what we were given as support, did not agree to what was in the billing system. Okay. At the time, we were told there were reasons for certain meters to be read wrong versus the billing, but we couldn't substantiate whether that was due to error or other. Oh, okay.

So, yeah. So there are some people that were building correctly and some people that were not failed. We don't know that. We don't have that information.

And we can't quantify it. We can't quantify it. Because the way that we tried to get the data, we really tried and management tried to work with, I think it's called Encode. to get the historical data for the meter readings. And they could only give us what was read because like Mr. Esty said, some were manually written and not going through the meter system. Some meters were broken, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah. And this is not just like going back one year. I mean, you found you tested 60. We test 16 transactions that occurred in fiscal year 25. Yeah. So it's just last year's, of course. But there's no historical data going back all these years since 2020. Correct. Yeah. Can I also ask you if it's fair to say that since you only went, of course, you go back one year, but since a... Since the audit hasn't been done in time since 2020, is it fair that it could also have been a problem during those times? Because I went back to the last few years I've been here to see if that was a red flag.

What stirred the issues in us looking in fiscal year 25 were the talking to governance and talking to management. I believe it was October, November. that you had significant billing issues. Yeah. And so we took a deeper dive because there were anomalies identified. In prior years, that had not happened. Oh, okay.

That's good to know.

So I can't speak to if it was occurring then, but I can tell you that's why we took the different approach in our audit regarding your utility billing.

Thank you.

Okay, I think that's that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions from.

Can you make me make that decision. I'm going to say it's 8 o'clock.

No, no comments. No. Normally, for the presentations, it's, it's a presentation for, for the council, but. If it's a quick question or something. Comment go ahead.

Mr. We all want to get home. So, first of all. I think my water.

David, can you come up to the podium for the record if you're going to do it? Got to hear it on the mic. To the mic for the record because we won't have a good record. Just extend us that courtesy, please.

Hi, Jean Dietrich.

Nice to meet you, David Lunsford. I was looking at all the adjustments and I was looking at all the material weaknesses. And that's the reason why I dropped out of accounting at ASU after two years. It's phenomenal what your company does or your LLC. I would want to know... There's so many problems here it looks like in accounting and it's like scaling Mount Everest. What would your recommendations be to the city and to their staff prioritizing the top five, the next top, the next five and the next five and going going one by one by one and slowly climbing that mountain instead of everything like here?

One, find a way to retain the stuff that you have right now. They are working with weak leadership, I would say, in the finance department, in the finance department. Number two, And management's already alluded to this. Get a consultant, because we are your external auditors. We've got to remain independent. So we have to not cross that line into management function. But hiring a consultant that understands government accounting. Because out of all the accounting, governmental accounting is the hardest. People might dispute that, but we have conversion entries. We have modified accrual, full accrual. It's very complicated. And the team you have right now are going to do what they know. Like I said, accounts payable, they know what they know. They're not going to think outside that. And so I think retaining what you have, getting a consultant, and then getting financial leadership in there.

And Mr. Lundstrom, I'm glad you asked that. It's a very good question. Appreciate that. I remember the last time I saw you was at ASU outside of my apartment on East Orange. Really?

I'm sorry for whatever I did.

No, I remember you. We were a year apart, but glad to see you again. You're doing okay. But great question. We've had an extensive conversation regarding the next steps, but I won't get into it, but they've been very fruitful. So Ms. Dietrich has been very, very helpful in outlining what we need to do next sequentially. So I'll be sharing that with the council shortly in another session. So I appreciate you asking that. Oh, good luck. Thank you.

You've got quite a task ahead of you. Thank you, Dean. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Ms. Dietrich.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good night.

Next, we move to item D, discussion possible action regarding in-kind support in an amount not to exceed $1,500 to be provided by the police department for the Paw Bonds event hosted by the Santa Cruz Children's Museum, Inc. scheduled for Saturday, November 14th, 2026, starting from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir.

I move to approve the in-kind support services for not to exceed $1,500 for the Paul Bond event.

I have a question about that before we approve it. Is there a discussion?

First, you have the motion, and then a second. Is there a second? But if there's no 2nd, then it fails for lack of 2nd, and then you don't need a discussion.

It's gotta be a 2nd.

So, yeah, it appears motion fails for lack of 2nd. So if you want to have discussion on the item, you can still have discussion on the item, but there's there's a motion has been made and no 2nd.

Go ahead, sir. One of the things is, again, like you mentioned, the in-kind far exceeds the limit that we have. But the thing is, is the Children's Museum open? I mean, they make it sound like it's already open. As far as I know, it's not. Does anyone know?

We don't have that information.

I see heads going, but it's not. I was asked to look into the status of the...

I could see maybe if they... Mayor, members of the council, we do have representatives from the Children's Museum if you would like to avail yourself of their involvement.

Well, okay.

If somebody's willing to answer some of the questions... Somebody's willing to answer the question. It already failed company. Why are we discussing this?

Oh, oh, the, oh, the motion failed. Yes. Okay. Never mind.

Uh, I, I, I get some out of line. Sorry.

Yeah, you read. You're reviewing your question. Let's go.

Basically, go ahead and come over here and I'll ask you a more direct question. Go ahead.

Now, again.

Most of the time we, somebody comes up with a. With in kind, you know, that that they need. Need it's because it's something that's already been. In use, like the boys and girls club, or these different organizations that are that are already serving the community. But as far as I know, the, the. The Children's Museum hasn't been open. We don't even know if they're going to charge for their services or what. But at this time, they're kind of nonexistent to the community. They're not serving a role or a purpose. I mean, just a name there. And that's my question. Are they going to open soon or...?

We are trying to open fact all these this is the 3rd annual festival that we do to raise funds. We brought some pictures about about the. Progress that we have the building is beautiful in place. Several people have made donations. We have more than. um around um a million dollars worth of exhibitions uh south 32 other companies have put in like interactive exhibitions that will be out there for the community unfortunately it it's a dream the company that i represent has but we've tried to Uh, put it out there for the community, but there's a lot of requirements that we don't know. So we're bringing in people experts as to how we should be doing this whole project. Now, in all honesty, when I got on board with this project, it seemed that the in kind was something that was just done the 1st year. And it just happened the 2nd year that they requested it, but we haven't been well advised as to. Is this the way we should go? Because last year we did not get the in kind, but we still did the festival and we still put the money into the museum and we have all our records and financial background validate that. But we've come to the city asking for, is this the right way to do it? Is this how we should proceed? And mainly because we don't know how much policemen, officers need to be in place for the festival. We want our people, because it is a big event. Last year, we had around 500 people come in, and we don't know how to handle that crowd. So our intention was to first come here and get advice as to how how we should host this event and make sure that the community were going to be safe. But it seems to be a focus on to the money that we're requesting. In all honesty, we did not come in for the money. We wanted to know how many officers needed to be in place and how can we get those officers as part of the service that the community should be getting. So moving forward, I'm pretty sure we will be able to work city museum to try to get this out there to the community in the best way possible. This is an individual's dream of having a space where children and young people can get One of the dreams of the owner is we have lots of companies and young people come and ask for jobs, but they're not prepared. They don't even know how to dress to go in and ask for the interview. So he wants to have a space where senior management, senior people could actually host like evenings where we could tell you young people, this is how you can prepare yourself. There's lots of things that we want to do. But we are not there yet. But I would invite you all to stop by the museum. You should see how big and how much it's grown. It's ready. It's literally ready to just make it run.

It doesn't turn green or anything. Oh, there it is.

I guess just to, if you're not familiar, other events that are held here in the community, they get this group of retired rangers,

that I don't know if they offer their services free or they give them a minimum payment, but they're always ready to serve the community as far as in events like this. Even the Boys and Girls Club, we had the event on city property. They were there. They didn't get the regular PD department. These folks are trained especially for events like this. Okay. And if they charge anything, it's sure a lot less than what the city, especially with our staff that's a little understaffed, it's a 10-hour event. There's a concern now of public safety that we can be using those officers and making sure they're serving the community to keep it safe instead of just being at an event. But But I would go with those rangers and ask them first. Thank you. You might get a lot more bang for what you're asking for at a lower cost.

Perfect. And we really appreciate that because this is all about that. Last year, the networking that we were able to do in that festival was amazing because we were a bit lost with the in-kind and trying to get that. safety for the community. And we ended up having volunteers who had some training and were able to host the event along with us.

No, these are very highly trained. A lot of them are ex-law enforcement. And so they get good training, especially for events, crowd control and everything that goes along with those events.

I appreciate it. We'll definitely look into it. And I will leave this just in case you want to take a look at how the museum is doing. Thank you. Good evening.

Can I keep?

Yes. Thank you.

I'll share and pass it on.

Yeah, I'm getting on the last one to see it. Thanks.

We move down to item B, discussion and possible action regarding in-kind support in the amount not to exceed $1,500 to be provided by the police, street, and facilities department. Yes, sir.

I'm sorry to interrupt, Mayor.

Thank you.

The department, facility departments for the Fiesta Patas hosted by the Cultura Arte Committee scheduled for Saturday, September 12th, 2026, starting at 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Do I have a motion? Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Item F, discussion of possible action regarding in-kind support of an amount not to exceed $1,500 to be provided by the police, streets, and facilities department for the Dia de los Muertos hosted by the Cultura Arte Committee scheduled for Saturday, October 24th, 2026, starting at 4 PM to 10 PM.

2nd, I have a question. Does does the county this is a. Santa Cruz county event that everybody benefits from. Does the county give any in kind in these types of events?

She's part of a.

That is of today. The ones that we are involved is the city, the consulado, and the cultural arts. They are responsible for any expenses on these two events.

Okay. So the in-kind is just paid by the city of Nogales?

The city of Nogales.

In-kind, this in-kind here?

Oh, this in-kind, yes. So we pay for the rest of it.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? All in favor? Aye. Other opposed? Motion passes. G, discussion possible direction regarding the activation, operation and maintenance of streetlights located along city streets and within public rides, right of ways. Mr. Dove.

Mayor, it's not the first time I place this agenda item on the agenda. As a matter of fact, I think it was like five, the last time was like five months ago or so when Mr. Pocken came in, the interim city manager. And I guess it's about the time when Mr. Arik stepped in and we were promised that those lights that they were on it, they would be turning on. And apparently I still see the same darkness. So I'm bringing it up again, and I'd like to get some discussion going or direction from Mr. Arik on what procedure they have, what's the process, and why in five months there aren't any I don't see the difference. There's still a lot of darkness in the community. The ones that got lit up are the ones that you were working on with, and I spoke to the man in charge here locally, Mr. Roy Bermudez with Unisource, and he told me that it's the city that's dropping the ball, not the Unisource. So, and he also told me that you were working, I had mentioned those streets here, the lights that were, here I guess on Grand or down by the ones, by Food City.

From Court Street to the library.

And they finally, but they were ready. Unisource in other words has been ready since five months ago to connect any lights, but they need those cuckoo numbers that, that I don't know, I don't think it's our job to go around at night and getting, we get paid, what, $25 a month when some of our people that are in charge are getting 20,000 a month. I think the people that are getting paid should be getting their staff out there. That's why I wanna know what's the process, who's supposed to be going out there and getting those cuckoo numbers. And I would say start with the areas that are, In other words, there's more traffic at night that are darker, like Western is an artery of the city. You don't wanna have an accident, you don't wanna get somebody run over. This is for safety. This is not only just to make the city look good, but safety and having a lit up city bring more people to our community. And I think we're wasting a lot of time and things aren't getting done. Mr. Fontes, that's not on you because you're only here less than a month, but I'm bringing this out so that everybody can be on board and hopefully get things done, Mayor. We need to get the lights on.

Okay, we've been working on it. Mr. Fontes, go ahead and give him a little repeat.

So with that, Councilman Doyle, thank you for bringing up the subject. I'd like to extend our appreciation to Roy Bermudez former uh manager who's evolved into a whole new bureaucratic animal at Unisource and he's very helpful to the City so with that I'll I'll ask the Chief to come up and address uh what is happening in that regard thank you.

Good evening uh Mayor if I may. Those are very valid questions, and I'll give you a brief history of how what we call the light check is processed. Our officers, during the graveyard shift, quarterly will do a light check and submit that through the channels that were in place prior. But in speaking with Mr. Fontes and Fire Chief Mr. Lariva, We're approaching it in a different way. In the past, what we would do, we would have that light check, get the appropriate information, which would include Cuco numbers, ADOT numbers, in some cases, just geographical locations. They didn't have neither of those. For example, the corner of West and Elm Street. So that information was then funneled through the city, eventually to Unisource. And to be honest, we did have mixed results. We provided that light check a little bit later quarterly. Same lights that were off were still off when the second or the next quarterly light check was done. So just to hit that point a little bit, it really hasn't been. just the city dropping the ball. It's been a mixture of results there. But at this point right now, what we're going to do is resume because the light check that we were doing in the past was going through the city. And at that point, the results, like I mentioned, weren't weren't the best. So now we're going to approach it differently. The current quarterly light check will be completed this Sunday evening and submitted through the process here for the city to directly submitted to Unisource and hopefully, like you mentioned to Mr. Bermudez, And hopefully the results are more positive than they've been in the past. And then we're going to do a coral inspection. And I'm actually thinking of making it more than just corally, maybe every couple of months to see what the results are. And I can come back with a more detailed report of what our findings are. I'm hoping to see that there is better results and that we can share the responsibility a little bit more, not only just being on the city slash Unisource.

Thank you. I appreciate it because the nights are starting to get longer and we need to have more light.

Thank you. Go ahead. Mr. Money is Mr. Fontes.

Can you give direction to the department? Mr. Kissinger and I had worked on a spreadsheet where all the numbers were taking down all the addresses from the numbers were in there and they were we were working on what lights belongs to the county, the city and. So a lot of information was on that spreadsheet. So it must be somewhere in that computer or system. I don't know. But that spreadsheet exists. And it's not only it was years of information that was compiled onto that spreadsheet.

Good information. We'll gladly track that down. Do we have any more questions on it? I think we're good.

I'm not sure if he knew the answer.

Unless we have any more. Thank you. Thank you.

So we're working on Mr. Doe. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next, we've got to proclamations. Uh, a pit Hopkins, uh, they, uh, vice mayor.

UD of Nogales Proclamation, Pitt-Hopkins Day. Whereas Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome is a rare and severe neurological genetic disorder caused by spontaneous mutation or deletion of the TCF4 gene, and whereas Pitt-Hopkins affects brain and nervous system development and is characterized intellectual disability and developmental delay, breathing problems, epilepsy or recurrent seizures, gastrointestinal issues, lack of speech, and distinctive facial features, and whereas approximately 2,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed with Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, and whereas even though The cause of Pitt Hopkins is known. There are currently no treatments available to this disorder. And whereas the Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation celebrates September 18th each year as an internal Pitt Hopkins Syndrome Awareness Day to raise awareness and funding for research. The date was chosen to bring attention to the disorders caused, which is spontaneous mutation or deletion of the 18th chromosome. And whereas the Pitt Hopkins Research Foundation is an all-volunteer organization of families, professionals, dedicated to finding a cure for Pitt Hopkins Syndrome through research, funding, education, and advocacy, and its board of directors is currently comprised of parents and grandparents of children and adults with Pitt Hopkins Syndrome, and whereas the Foundation's goal is to bring practical treatment into current medical practice, now therefore be it proclaimed by the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Nogales, Arizona, that September 18, 2026 is hereby designated as Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome Awareness Day in recognition of the needs of individuals with Pitt Hopkins Syndrome and their families and to encourage all citizens to increase awareness and understanding and support for those who live with the condition every day.

Thank you, sir.

Mayor, if I could, I think we're going to have Miguel share a picture. I asked for this proclamation to be presented. This is my son, Cody. He has Pitt Hopkins. And it's a very, very rare condition, as what was stated, less than 2,000 worldwide have been diagnosed with this chromosome deletion.

It's not coming up.

It must have been a a photo that is password protected or something. But anyways, every year there's a large group of families in Arizona 2000 worldwide, I think we have close to 15 families in Arizona because Arizona is one of the best states in the country for handicapped care programs. And so every year the governor issues a proclamation and I try to also present those to the various municipalities that we represent to recognize that day for those individuals. So thank you.

Thank you. Could you get it? We'll let you work on it while I read the next proclamation. Proclamation declaring a local emergency in the City of Nogales to address the July 2026 monsoon crisis, whereas pursuant to ARS 26-311, the mayor and the incorporated city, when authorized by ordinance or resolution, may declare by proclamation that an emergency or local emergency exists when a flooding or other nature or man-made commodity or disaster endangers life, or property within the city and whereas pursuant to ARS 26-307, cities and towns may make amend or rescind orders, rules and regulations necessary for emergency functions provided that such orders, rules and regulations are not inconsistent with those promulgated by the governor and whereas the City of Nogales is responsible for protecting the health, safety and welfare of its residents and coordination emergency response efforts during nature disaster, natural disasters and other public emergencies and whereas during July 26, the City of Nogales and surrounding areas experienced an extreme monsoon weather event that caused catastrophic flooding, significant damage to public and private property and infrastructure, and tragic loss of life. And whereas the flooding caused a vehicle to become lodged against a utility pipe within the Nogales Wash, and whereas the lodged vehicle combined with high volume floodwaters and substantial debris redirected increased amounts of water towards an area vulnerable section of the Nogales Wash. And whereas the floodwaters exposed a water utility line undermined it, and adjusted roadway caused additional damage to the structure wall of the nogales watch and created an immediate threat to public infrastructure and community safety and whereas the flood disrupted transportation and essential services and created hazardous condition requiring immediate and conditioned action to protect the health, safety and welfare of the community and persons relying upon the exposed water utility line. And whereas The extent of the damage and the conditions threat of life, property, public infrastructure, and essential services may exceed the personal equipment facilities and financial resources immediately available to the city of Nogales and whereas continued emergency response, recovery, repair, mitigation and coordination with Santa Cruz County and the state of Arizona federal agencies, neighboring jurisdictions, utility providers, nonprofit organizations, and community partners are necessary to protect the public and restore affected areas. And whereas on July 23rd, 2026, Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors declared a countywide emergency in response to the July 2022 monsoon crisis and its impact throughout Santa Cruz County. And therefore, I, Jorge Maldonado, Mayor of the City of Nogales, Arizona, pursuant to the authorities granted by ARS 26-311 and other applicable laws and city authorities do hereby proclaim and declare that a local emergency exists within the City of Nogales as a result of the July 2026 monsoons crisis. Be it further proclaimed and that all appropriate city departments, officers, employees and emergency personnel are authorized to direct to coordinate emergency operations and that all lawful and necessary actions to one protect life, health, safety and property to restore and maintain essential public services. Three. Stabilize repair and protect damage public infrastructure, including the gals watch adjacent roadways utility lines and related facilities for migraine continuing and future hazards caused by flooding debris erosion. structural damage and other conditions resulting from the monsoon crisis. Five, provide and coordinate emergency assistance to affect residents, businesses, and property owners. And six, coordinate response and recovery efforts with Santa Cruz County, the State of Arizona, the federal government, neighboring jurisdictions, utility providers, nonprofit organizations, and other public and private partners. Be it further proclaimed that city officers and employees may take such additional action as Are authorized by law and necessary to carry out the purpose of the proclamation such subject to applicable federal state and local laws, regulations, ordinance policies and procurement requirements. Be it further proclaim that. This local emergency shall remain in effect until the Mayor determines that the emergency conditions no longer exist and issues a proclamation terminating the local emergency or until otherwise terminated in accordance by applicable law. We are... Thank you. Next we move to item 10. Liquor License 8, Consideration and Possible Action on Liquor License Number 2026-14, Consideration of the Recommendation to Approve the Insurance of a Special Event Liquor License, submitted by Socorro Rangel on behalf of San Felipe de Jesus Roman Catholic Parish for the Grand Baile Mexicano event scheduled for September 5th, 2026 from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. B, consideration possible action of liquor license number 2026, that's 15, consideration of the recommendation to approve an insurance of a special event liquor license submitted by Constantine Panasopoulos on behalf of the Santa Cruz Children's Museum Inc. for the Paul Bonds event scheduled on November 14th, 2026 from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Go ahead.

My question is, are we able to approve this special event license when neither the Children's Museum nor the Paul Bamboots are not compliant with the Arizona Corporate Commission? So are we able to grant this special liquor license under those conditions?

First, the Council doesn't grant the liquor license. It recommends an approval or denial. The event is not until November, and the applicant should know that in order for the State Liquor Board to issue the license, they have to issue it to a valid active entity. So there's time for them to bring that entity up to current standing. I did look into the... Currently with the Corporation Commission, they're showing as inactive because the annual reports haven't been filed for the corporation. The Bond Ball event is just Paul Bond event, Paul Bonds event. IS AN EVENT. SO THE ENTITY ITSELF IS THE SANTA CRUZ CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC. AND THAT IS THE ENTITY THAT WOULD NEED TO BE BROUGHT UP TO CURRENT STATUS WITH THE CORPORATION COMMISSION. SO THE COUNCIL CAN STILL APPROVE RECOMMENDING THE LIQUOR LICENSE, BUT IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THAT SHOULD BE ADDRESSED PRIOR TO SUBMISSION TO THE

Go ahead, Mr. Doe.

And if it shouldn't be, does that affect our decision at all? That it was not brought up to, you know, by that time?

Again, that's up to the state liquor board. They're the ones that issue the special event permit liquor license. So it's what council's doing is recommending or not recommending. So it's totally a council decision on whether or not to recommend or not recommend.

You could probably address with them after our vote.

Yes, Mr Mayor, there's three options on the liquor license. You guys.

Okay, thank you. Well, that's it all in favor. All opposed. The motion passes. And my friend, we have your son on the screen.

That's my son, Cody. So he'll be 33 and September. But he's like essentially a six to ten month old child. He doesn't talk, doesn't walk, but loves Disney cartoons.

I have a nephew like that.

Just like me.

Next, we go to C, consideration possible action on a liquor license number 2026-16, consideration of the recommendation of approval of insurance of a special liquor license submitted by Irma Lopez on behalf of Sacred Heart Parish for the Sacred Heart Fiestas event scheduled on September 18, 2026 from 6 p.m to 11 p.m september 19 2026 from 3 p.m to 10 10 p.m and september 20th from 6 30 a.m to 9 p.m any discussion all in favor aye all opposed motion passes move to orders a order Consideration possible action on ordered Number 2026, that's sorry. That's so far. 1, an order of the mayor and the council of the city of Nogales, Arizona, authorizing the acceptance and execution of a highway intensity drug trafficking area. H. I. D. T. A. grant agreement with the city of Tucson in the amount of 64,863 dollars for the Santa Cruz County investigating task force. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. B, consideration and possible action of order number 2026-08-042, an order of the City Council of the City of Nogales, Arizona authorizing the purchase of two 2025 Ford Police interpret in separators utility vehicles from San Tan Ford utilizing state of Arizona contract pricing in a total amount not to exceed 159,000 for the Nogales Police Department.

Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. C, consideration possible action of order number 2026-08-043, an order of the Mayor and Council of the City of Nogales, Arizona, approving a final plot for Meadow Hills Equestrian Estates, a 17-lot residential subdivision located along West Portero Drive. Oh, any discussion go ahead.

Before it's been approved. Has there been any action on the, uh, on the land? Has there been any grading or anything done?

Mr. pardon me.

Right before approval. Okay. Thank.

Thank you. Well, that's it all in favor. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. I move to go into Executive Session. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Go to Executive Session.

you you Thank you. you you Bye. you do do

We reconvene from executive session and go to item 13 discussion item. The discussion. And possible action, Mayor and Council. Ratification of the appointment of David Oropesa as Parks and Recreation director. Motion go ahead Sir.

I make a motion to appoint Mr. David Oropesa as Parks and Rec director.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Congratulations, Mr. Oropesa. Well deserved. Going to item 14, Mayor and Council reports on current events. Mr. Bonilla?

I attended the 4th of July event. It was a great event, and that's all I have to report, Mayor.

Mr. yes, I was there, I was there at the 4th of July event and I mean, we all had a blast. There was plenty of people, the families, the kids were all enjoying themselves. I think. Special thanks and congratulations councilwoman for. We're doing an outstanding job there at the. on the 4th, also had a blast with the Little League Tournament, went over there at the opening, I guess, ceremony at, what do you call that restaurant? or inviting the coaches and everybody. Like always, it was a great moment to extend a welcome to all the coaches that came from all the different states. Uh, make him feel at home in, but the mayor always does a great job doing that. But, um, I also there was, uh, that other event jumped back to school. Also a great success, uh, especially, uh, giving thanks to to, uh. the people in the school system they really planned it out they made it so easy for everyone that it seemed like there was more space even though there was probably more people giving things out so again thank you mayor for uh making us part of that team to support our youth the kids were all like smiles and everybody was happy it was a great event and again uh it's so good to see uh the city get involved in events like this thank you mayor um that's that's pretty much it

yes we're working on a silent auction but it's going to be august the 22nd on the linear studio from 5 to 9. all proceeds from that event would go to ime becas you are all cordially invited thank you that's what this is okay now uh yes um fourth of july was great uh everybody you know

Did a great job. Parks and Rec, the fire department, PD, administration, everybody was good collaboration of everybody. I think we had close to 9,000 or 10,000 people out there. The bands were great. All a nice turnout and safe. A little hot at the beginning, but I think we got through it. Like you said, Mr. Doyle, the 50-70, I had a state and then I had the regionals. I want to thank Parks and Rec for all the great efforts on the fields. I think every team that came over here. I want to thank the community. I want to thank everybody that participated with the hotels, everywhere the families went, restaurants, everywhere. Let me tell you, they all fell in love with Nogales, what Nogales does to make these tournaments happen. A success goes on beyond what people think that Novalis is. I think the turnout in Arizona, the state, we had six teams coming in. Marana ended up winning. being the Arizona representative. Then we had 11 teams, including Nogales as the host team. And, you know, to have Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Northern Cal, Southern Cal, the Arizona team here all at once. It's tremendous. And again, the people this year came out and watched the games. We did have a special game this year. We had a challenge game at the beginning and that was, you know, players with special needs and we did a for the first time we picked out two players of every team and it was almost like an all-star team two players of every team and we played they played against each other and the let me tell you the challenge kids had a ball we gave them medals we gave them pins and it was like them playing a yankee stadium you know it was really really a great opportunity so i want to thank you know the city for all the support that they give little league and uh hopefully uh you know we continue that success the back to school was also a great success uh thank you mr doyle thank you mr for your help it was um great uh giving out uh essentials for school uh to all the kids and hopefully we could continue continue doing i want to thank david and and martin for helping us out with taking everything to the school and back and now uh right Mrs. Dahlia was there, and your wife also, Mr. Wilhook. So thanks to everybody and all the volunteers that helped out. Also, in Little League, we had the Border Patrol out there. We had, I want to thank the sponsors that supported the meals for the kids, all the way from McDonald's, Carl, excuse me, Carl Jr.'s Burger King. Little Caesars, Bucanita, you know, the Nogales team hosted a dinner. And I think it was sponsored by Earth Blend, Mr. Javier Fisher. So everybody supported and helped, which was a great experience. You know, great for the kids and let me tell you, it's the 1st time I see Hawaii almost not miss a meal. Normally they're very special, but it was great. Great seeing them have their meals with that said also, I want to thank GSA for coming down and doing the opportunity. I was not present at the event at the rec center, but I did meet with them earlier because it. It mixed in with the tournament. Opening ceremony was at 4, and that event started at 4. But I did meet with Emma earlier in the day, and hopefully talking and hearing more, we could get this appropriately done. Anything else? Future agenda items? No? All right. With that said, I move to adjourn this meeting. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Meeting adjourned. Congratulations, Mr. Oropesa.