City Council Formal Meeting - Regular Meeting

That they put in.

Starlux was the first airline to announce international service between Asia and the city of Phoenix. Welcome to Phoenix. The friendliest island and the friendliest airport are now connected. Taipei could not be a more important partner to us and the country of Taiwan.

We're incredibly grateful to you all, as you know, for your commitment to connecting our two great cities and our communities for a vibrant future. International flights contribute more than $3,400,000,000 to the local economy each year, and this flight is expected to generate over a 170,000,000 each year statewide.

This is more than just a new route. It's also a meaningful milestone in the close partnership between Taiwan and The United States. Arizona has become one of Taiwan's key partners in the global semiconductor industry. Phoenix is now a cherry second home for many Taiwanese families.

Phoenix actually offers very strong potential in both business and tourism. It has emerged as a major hub for team. Welcoming you onboard very soon.

We We have have formed not just a partnership, but a friendship. And I think the people in Phoenix are gonna see just what a wonderful, wonderful carrier Starlux is, and they're gonna love flying the airline. This

new service is a win. It's a win for travelers. It's a win for all the airlines here today, and it's a win for the communities that we serve.

Starlux is a new airline with brand new planes and great friendly, friendly staff. So we look forward to filling your planes and to this deep, deep partnership. It's time to start thinking about your next vacation, and Taiwan should be at the top of your list. So Starlux, welcome to Phoenix.

We all want to get to our destination safely, so be aware of everything happening around you whenever walking, riding, or rolling along our streets. Most pedestrian and bike crashes happen when drivers are turning. Scan the street for wheels and feet when turning or entering intersections.

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Welcome to the city of Phoenix. Welcome South Mountain Park And Preserve on this beautiful morning. This is an exciting day to culminate years of, planning and construction and community outreach to get to a point where we're ready to open this amazing facility. On behalf of the Parks and Recreation Department, I want to welcome you to the first and therefore oldest mountain preserve that we have in the city of Phoenix. This is South Mountain Park And Preserve.

In 2024, we celebrated one hundred years of stewardship of the city of Phoenix of this amazing place. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy day. We know you have other things you could be doing, but you being here means a lot to us who have stewardship of this land and it means so much to us. So thank you. I want to acknowledge that we have many people here visiting that we want to make sure that you are aware of that.

We've got Mayor Kate Gallego, who's always been an amazing advocate for our preserves, Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington from District 8. We have City Manager Ed Zerker, who's a frequent user of our mountain preserves as well. Parks Director Martin Whitfield, Deputy City Manager Cynthia Aguilar, assistant parks and rec directors Brandy Barrett and Todd Shackleford. As well, we have some visitors from other agencies including Sunday ISLT from the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Thank you, Sunday, for being here, as well as Barnaby Lewis from the Gila River Indian Community who will be providing a blessing as we get started in a few minutes.

I also want to acknowledge we have several members of our Phoenix Sonoran Preserve Mountain Parks And Preservation Committee. We have John Furness and Scott Covey. There may be others here if you're here. I apologize if I didn't see you. We also have some educational exhibits that are available in the back to kind of learn more about our storm preserve, including the Office of Environmental Programs, the Phoenix sorry, also Central Arizona Conservation Alliance and the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council.

I want to take just a moment, others will also acknowledge them, but I wanted to, as somebody who worked with the design team and the construction team, I just want to say thank you for all of your hard work and professionalism to make this project a success, specifically J2 Environmental Design, the contractors were Valley Rain with Cali Anti Ironworks, Kimbrough Electric, Rummel, Sierra Signs, and AF Steel, among others. My name is Jared Rogers. I'm the Deputy Director of the Natural Resources Division within the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department. A few years ago, walking around on this site, we were struck by the amazing views that you can see behind me of the valley. As the ground drops away from where we are now, it reaches its lowest point at the Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area, where the city of Phoenix has stewardship of an amazing restored riparian habitat.

From there, as you continue to head north, the land rises until you see the distinct peaks in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, the Camelback Mountain Preserve and Papago Park. A key feature of what you'll see if you walk around the site when we're completed here is bands of pavement that point to those peaks. And on the t shirt, you'll notice that same motif. We worked with the Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community to make sure that we were okay using those symbols. And we're very fortunate to be able to point out those other views that you can acknowledge and see the city, and then beyond that the other preserves that we have in our system.

We do have a great relationship with both the Gila River Indian Community and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. I wanted to take a moment to read our land acknowledgment statement, and following that statement we'll have a blessing from Barnaby Lewis, an elder from the Gila River Indian Community. The Parks and Recreation Department acknowledges the city of Phoenix is located within the homeland of the O'odham and Piposh peoples and their ancestors, who have inhabited this landscape from time immemorial to present day. The landscape is sacred and reflects cultural values central to the O'odham and Piposh way of life and their self definition. This acknowledgment demonstrates our commitment to work in partnership with the ancestral indigenous communities to foster understanding, appreciation, and respect for this heritage.

So now we'll have a blessing by Barnaby Lewis. Thank you, Barnaby.

Morning. Morning, my name is Barnaby Lewis. I'm from the village of Blackwater located on the East end of the Eagle River Indian community. Pleased to be here this morning in this way to help, this way, ask the creator for his blessing for this gathering today. And I hope to read this in the language that the Creator gave us, the Ottoman language.

Thank you. That concludes the activities for this morning. Thank you.

Thank you, Barnaby. We love having you here and appreciate your willingness to come and and bless these events. We'll now get to hear from mayor Kate Gallego, followed by vice mayor Kesh Shahad Washington against from Council District 8, And then following Councilwoman Washington or Vice Mayor Washington, we'll have Parks Interim Director Marty Whitfield. Mayor.

Good morning. It's such a pleasure to be with you in one of the most special places in the city of Phoenix. To Barnaby Lewis, thank you so much for the very special blessing to start this event on the right note and to recognize the heritage of this area. This is a really special day for us at the City of Phoenix as we share with all of you this beautiful new space in our city. We are under a pavilion that is about a half an acre. It is one of the most beautiful spots in our city and a really a new way for people to enjoy a beloved park. As Jared mentioned, we just in 2024 celebrated one hundred years of the city's involvement in South Mountain Park.

And I like to think this

is like a belated birthday present for the park. South Mountain Park is a favorite for so many of us. For me, it is the first mountain park I took my son to when he was still in a stroller and he did so many of his hikes here. This is the park that got us through COVID. But a really special place.

Many people have celebrated graduations, done their photos here, or we've had some movies filmed here, we've had weddings, and now we have a really special place for so many incredible events or family picnics to come together. And we're so excited to celebrate the South Mountain Activity Complex. This very special park the city bought for $17,000 so I think a great investment. We are able to do these type of investments because of our wonderful voters. The voters overwhelmingly supported our Phoenix Parks and Preserve initiative.

I got to say, we have very smart voters here in the city of Phoenix. This new facility has everything you would expect from a world class facility, including ramadas, restrooms, and lighting, but also some amenities that are very unique to our wonderful desert environment. We're really excited to invest in so much shade. We know that helps people enjoy our parks for more and more of the year. And there's a beautiful breeze blowing today. So really creating a nice space for community gatherings.

I had a little bit

of fun yesterday on April Fools' Day where I announced I was going to be the new bachelorette. We were joking we would continue with it and have the wedding here. What do you guys think? I am not

the new bachelorette.

But we do try to create a space that will make sense for people's special events, but also just to get to know more about our city and to see how you can manage well in a desert environment. This park is intentionally designed with water harvesting features. There's a terraced tree bosque and a cactus garden. We have a beautiful pollinator garden behind us. I'm part of the Mayor's Monarch Pledge where we try to make sure we create habitat for monarchs and pollinators.

And this is a wonderful example of that habitat. It's one of the few places in Phoenix where you can see an elephant tree. So thank you to the Desert Botanical Gardens for partnering with us to make that possible. And again, you can learn more about water harvesting and how to take advantage of rainwater.

Is also a chance

to learn about our other beautiful mountains in the area. So as Jared mentioned, there are bands that point to the different mountains and you can figure out if you don't know which mountain is also known as Iron Mountain, you can learn from the signs here. The signs also celebrate the Odom names for the places and help us learn that history. I want to do a huge thank you to the Parks and Recreation Department, to Marty Whitfield and his team, including Justin Olson. Thank you to Todd Shackleford.

To our partners from J2 Design to Valley Rain, thank you for bringing this vision to life. Understand Valley Rain will get to celebrate here very soon. So very, very important. A ton of work taking out lots and lots of asphalt and concrete and creating a beautiful space. But I think we can say that it is absolutely worth it. And now I get to introduce to the podium one of my great partners who represents District 8, the North Side of the mountain, our Vice Mayor, Vice Mayor Hodge Washington.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for being here. I'm Vice Mayor Keisha Hodge Washington and I have the honor of representing District A here in the City Of Phoenix. For me, South Mountain holds a very special place. When I first moved to Phoenix, I was trying to get oriented as to where everything was located. And at night, the advice that was always given to me is, if you can find Stout Mountain, you'll see the red lights, you'll find your beacon. It was my compass on how to navigate this city. I think it's a great way to talk about the importance of South Mountain to our community. It pulls such a valuable space. Many of us hike it.

Many of us have had events here or just had the opportunity to engage with some of the educational things that are out here. Or for others, for me specifically, it's a place to come unwind. Just come on the mountain, take a walk, and just forget that I'm in the fifth largest city. Not that you need to forget it, but it's a reminder that in the midst of our urban area, we have such wonderful preserves here. I think this new complex represents a major investment in the people of District 8 and our community.

It continues to give our community a place to gather, to continue to do that, to celebrate, and to connect with the natural beauty of South Mountain in a way that feels welcoming and accessible to all. As the mayor mentioned, this is almost a half an acre. This is a 14,000 square foot pavilion, which creates a gathering space that truly belongs to the community. And with the Trailhead To Holbert Trail right here, residents can step directly from their neighborhood into one of the most iconic experiences South Mountain has to offer. That connection to nature, to culture, to one another is the heart of what makes this project so special.

This redesign isn't just about new buildings or new pathways. It's about creating a space where families can come together, where residents can build healthier lifestyles, and where the community can take pride in a park that reflects who we are and what we value. This space was truly built for the community, and I'm excited to see what it will be utilized for for years to come. I want to take a moment also to recognize the incredible staff who make this possible. Our Parks Recreation Department team, our designers, our construction crew, and the many, many employees who work behind the scenes who put their hearts into this project.

Their dedication ensures that this community and our district and our residents from across the city have a gathering space at South Mountain that does not only serve them, but it serves them across all generations. I want to take a quick point of privilege to take a shout out for the Preserve Rangers here. One of my first opportunities as I started this concept called Keisha on the Job, one of the first jobs that I did was being a Preserve Ranger. I've learned how much goes into keeping the preserves beautiful, keeping our residents safe, and just making sure that we continue to be great stewards of this land. Thank you to our Preserve Rangers for all that you do.

Not that all of the departments don't deserve it, but I just want to give a special thank you because they are the ones that make sure that this park continues to be accessible and usable by all of our residents. And with that being said, I get to welcome Interim Parks and Recreation Director, Marty Whitfield, who will share more about this project.

Good morning, folks. Like the Vice Mayor said, I'm Marty Whitfield, the Interim Parks and Recreation Director for the City Of Phoenix. Wow, this place is amazing and such a remarkable day. I was a little concerned the last couple of weeks with our increased temperatures, what a great day. I'd like to thank Mayor Gallego and Vice Mayor Hodge Washington for your attendance today and your continued support from the Parks Department.

So please give them a round of applause. The mayor did mention our voter approved parks and preserve initiative programming funding. We are so grateful to have that funding and the voters did it, right? We have this funding through 2038 and without that funding, we'd be unable to build great amenities like this and keep our maintenance up as well. A lot of great amenities at this location.

We've added more than two fifty new trees to expand shade and comfort and we carefully salvaged and replanted over 40 mature trees to preserve the site's character. Alongside those, more than 700 new shrubs and native plants now fill out the landscape. And another three acres have been hydro seeded in desert appropriate vegetation, so great stuff out there. I know Jared mentioned our team, but I am very thankful to lead an amazing team on a daily basis. So, I cannot close without saying, talking about our amazing park and recreation team.

My assistant directors, Brandy Barrett and Todd Schackleford are here. I'm sure Todd is in the back someplace. Natural resources division deputy director, Jared Rogers, and, the incredible South Mountain team. I also want to thank our partners on this project, J2 Design and Valley Rain Construction, who are also here today. We are very grateful, for your partnership and a job well done in this beautiful new facility, for the community.

I would also like to thank our amazing communications team that does an amazing job on a daily basis and got us ready for today. That's Talia Galavez and Stephanie Chavez. Thank you for being here today to celebrate the opening of the new South Mountain Activity Complex. And without further ado, let's cut the ribbon and officially open the space. Thank you.

I think when you consider the Santa Capri and the impact it had on Phoenicians and Phoenix and society around this area, you gotta stop for a second and really understand where Phoenix as a city was at that time. I mean, the early sixties, Phoenix had just come from about a ten year span where the population of our city increased 400%. Phoenix has always been associated with growth, but especially in the early 60s we just reached a point where we're about 500,000 people. So it was really growing like crazy. The downtown had shifted, shopping had moved from downtown.

Places like Biltmore, where the Cinna Capri was were really booming the whole Arcadia area. All of that was really, really growing at a very rapid pace. Movie theaters in town where they're just on the leading edge of what were called multiplexes where they're very common now where you go and there's 10 or 12 theaters in one shopping mall or something you have all kinds of choices. Well, was just beginning. The majority of the theaters were still the single screen like the Fox Theater, the Orpheum, the Palms Theater.

They were single screen theaters. Paramount, Arizona hired a guy named Ralph Havert to design the Synod Capri Theater. They really wanted a one of a kind, massive, very ornate luxurious theater that rivaled theaters anywhere in the country and that's what they wanted. They hired Ralph Haver who at that time was a very prominent architect in Phoenix. He was primarily known for designing homes and residences and different kinds of retail buildings.

He wasn't really known for designing and drawing a theater. And so they hired him and building it starting in about 1964. And the building itself, when it was finished, 16,000 square feet, 17,000 square foot theater, had a big arc, curved entryway, a portico. As you came into the lobby, there was Italian tile everywhere. There was a 24 foot high stained glass window, the stained glass that had been imported from New York.

One of the things that when you talk about people who went to the Synod Capri on a regular basis in those years, they remembered the curtain. And the curtain was just a massive piece of material and it was gold and it swept back and opened up and just to display and present the movie theater. But there was 4,000 inches of gold metallic material that were purchased to create this massive, gorgeous curtain. So on 03/31/1966, the theater opened and the following day, Charlton Heston, who was the star of the first film there, The Agony and the Ecstasy, he came in person and did a little workshop for high school kids in the theater and introduced the first movie at the Prix. And it was a big hit.

And the thing about the Cineca Prix, which rivaled a lot of the other theaters, and I can remember as a kid, you would decide which movie you're gonna go to and then you would go see which theater, was showing it. Well, with the Cineca Prix, the Cineca Prix just going there was an event in itself. People went to the Cineca Prix just to experience the luxury of it and the beauty of it. It was a destination in itself. People would go there for celebrations or first dates or some special event.

The Cinna Capri primarily in the early years ran just big movies. Movies like Agony and the Ecstasy which opened the theater. The Godfather was the only movie theater in Arizona who was showing the Godfather at the time. The Titanic, unfortunately, was the final theater, so Cinna Capri kind of sank right along with the movie Titanic at the same time. Star Wars opened there in 1977.

Wars, the first Star Wars actually showed consecutively for a full calendar year. It was the longest run of Star Wars in the entire country. It was a very profitable movie to be shown. The whole theater was an event in itself. Actually they had a dress code, if you could believe it.

They didn't allow anybody to wear jeans. Females could not wear shorts and, sandals. You could not wear sandals. They actually had a published dress code to attend the Santa Capri Movie Theater, which sounds kind of odd today. For the opening, I actually saw an ad you could send in money and pre order tickets for that opening movie of The Agony and the Ecstasy. So as years went by, the total of Santa Capri was open for about thirty two years from sixty

One minute. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for our May 5 council meeting. I'll call the meeting to order with the clerk call the roll Councilman Guerrevado. Councilwoman Hernandez here.

Councilwoman O'Brien Here. Councilwoman Pastor? Here. Here. Sorry. Councilwoman Robinson? Here. Councilwoman Stark? Here. Councilman Waring? Vice Mayor Hutch Washington. Here. Mayor Gallegos. Here. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll begin with council information and follow-up requests. Who would like to go first? Start with the vice mayor. Thank you.

Perfect. Thank you, Mayor, for the opportunity to provide some updates real quickly from District 8. Next slide. Want to start off by saying thank you to the streets Transportation Department for installing two new flashing stock lights at 59. Sorry Stop signs at 59th Avenue and Dobbins as well as 51st Avenue and Ellis Ellison And Elliot. I'm sorry in South Mountain. This new tool will help improve visibility and safety to everyone on the road. And also last weekend, we cut the ribbon for the new shade canopy over the splash pad at New Asher Park. This is the first shade canopy funded by the twenty twenty three Go Bond, and it was great to see the kids out there enjoying it already. Next slide.

We've had several recent community engagement opportunities throughout District 8. Want to say thank you to everyone that attended the recent meeting to discuss Dobbin Roads from 202 To 27th Avenue. Also, CED recently conducted a survey for the 24th Street and Broadway proposed redevelopment. Want to say thank you to everyone that completed the survey and then close it a friendly reminder to provide your input on the new name for the library in Levine next slide. Also everyone is invited to attend our upcoming community cookout on Saturday, May 23 from twelve to 4PM at Hermosa Park.

We will have food entertainment, a car show and the pool will be open. We hope to see you there. Next slide. As always, we are here to help. Please reach out to myself and my team if you have any questions. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much. Anyone else have an update? Councilwoman Pastor.

Thank you. As I get the slides up, I'll just start. The first slide is regarding the FAA. FAA is conducting a study to determine whether the flight path changes are needed and what changes need to be made. The FAA released their environmental assessment yesterday after a delay and now is our chance to review it together and determine next steps.

Join me this Saturday at Memorial Hall to regroup and prepare for the FAA's upcoming virtual meeting on May 13. District 4 residents have been following this closely and I'm right there with them. See you there. Mark your calendars for the major West Phoenix Transportation Projects Community Meeting. This will include Arizona Department of Transportation, St. Phoenix, Phoenix BRT and Valley Metro. It is being hosted Thursday, May 21 at six p. M. And we will determine the location. Please contact us if you are attending.

Congratulations to the Monte Village Garden Association. This was a neighborhood led community garden near 35th Avenue in Canto, almost up and running. It took them about two years to get this going and there it is as you can see them celebrating. I'd like to thank Naomi Mickey. She has used her education in Green Thumb to deck out her own yard with heat resistance and food producing plants.

So I'd like to thank Naomi for the lead and really getting this party started, getting this garden started. Most importantly, I'd like to thank Rosie Espinosa. She's the neighborhood specialist who helped us in this process. Next slide. As always, contact us as you can see the District four team. We're open, we're available and we're here to help. Thank you.

Thank you. Any additional public comments or council comments? Alright. Then I will turn it over to our city manager to introduce agenda item one, the budget.

Thank you, mayor and members of the council. I'm pleased today, to be joined by Amber Williamson, Aaron Mertz, and in the audience, the entire city budget team to present the twenty twenty six, twenty seven proposed budget for your review and feedback. It's interesting. This is the first real pro post COVID budget because it marks the end of six years of federal stimulus funding. And I would just commend the mayor and the council for the discipline you've shown in applying COVID funding to important one time capital projects for the community such as workforce, senior, and affordable housing and shelter, or when you funded operations like heat relief and homeless services, you've planned ahead to absorb that responsibly into the operating budget.

As an example of the discipline you've shown, this is the second of a two year commitment to continue Office of Homeless Solutions programs that started in 2021. This budget preserves those efforts and adds an innovative housing program like master leasing to accelerate the moves from homeless shelters. The twenty twenty six, twenty seven budget fulfills the commitments you've made to city our city workers by allocating a significant amount of the surplus to labor. It continues your work to expand fire and EMS, community assistance cap teams, address the needs of the unhoused, and protect neighborhoods. It builds up a housing trust fund.

We are opening new parks, upgrading lighting in some existing ones. We're significantly expanding youth programming at parks community centers and creating a program for more affordable childcare partnerships and all this is being done within a balanced budget. While it's not possible for the city to make up for federal and state government retreat from programs like SNAP, food assistance, this budget does expand assistance for residents that is provided at our family services centers by our human services employees. It also adds navigation services for those in danger of losing snap from federal cuts. In short, this budget addresses your community priorities, it honors our employees, and reflects your balanced responsible decision making to keep the city on sound financial footing.

Full details of it are available in the packet that's posted at phoenix.gov online, including responses to requests and information that we heard at all of our budget hearings. I wanna say a special thank you to all of you for hosting and attending those budget hearings. With that now, I'll turn it over to our Budget and Research Director, Aaron Mertz, who will walk us through the details and then action on the budget is scheduled for May 19. Aaron?

Alright. Thank you, Ed. Good afternoon, mayor, members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to present the twenty six-twenty seven city manager's proposed budget. There we go.

Alright, in this presentation I'll begin by providing a brief overview of the general fund and citywide operating budgets. I'll then provide a recap and update on our general fund status. I'll also discuss community feedback on the budget before discussing a summary of the additions that are in the proposed budget. I'll then specifically highlight recommended changes from the trial budget and then I'll discuss position conversions and non general fund additions before reviewing the next steps in the budget process. First, just a brief reminder of where the general funds revenues come from.

The local sales taxes make up the largest share of our revenues at about 42%. State shared revenues are also significant at 35%. Those include our state shared income taxes, state shared sales taxes, and vehicle license taxes as well. Primary property tax revenue makes up 12% of the total and then user fees and other revenues make up the remaining 11%. This slide shows where general funds are spent in the twenty six-twenty seven budget at $2,300,000 The largest share is in public safety which includes police and fire.

Community enrichment is the second largest share and that includes our parks, our libraries, human services, and our arts and culture department. General government is the next largest share at 11% and then criminal justice, community development, environmental services, and transportation make up 7% of the general fund budget combined. What I would note is that many of these categories have larger budgets overall, but their main funding sources are either enterprise or special revenue funds rather than the general fund. I'll touch on that in just a moment. Finally, our contingency and other items such as set asides make up 7% of the budget.

While the general fund is the focus of this presentation, it's actually only about a third of the city's operating budget. Our enterprise funds such as water, aviation, solid waste, and convention center are the largest part of the operating budget. And then our special revenue funds, which include restricted funds such as grants or voter approved dedicated sales taxes like the Parks and Preserves Initiative also make up a significant part of the budget. The citywide operating budget covers the wide range of services the city provides as this pie chart demonstrates. Now public safety is still the largest slice of the pie but at a significantly smaller percentage just 34% and you can see the other large areas that make up this chart including transportation, environmental services which includes water and wastewater, community enrichment and community development.

Looking at the citywide budget is important because some of the areas we see here again may not be as large pieces of the general fund, but still do have significant funding and really reflect the wide depth of service that is provided to residents. Moving on to the general fund status, as a reminder, the trial budget reflected a surplus of $163,300,000 The city manager's proposed budget updates that number slightly to $162,500,000 and this is based on staff's continued work to revise and refine, excuse me, expenditure estimates. The chart below shows how we determine the surplus comparing our total anticipated resources versus our total forecasted expenditures which leaves a surplus of $162,500,000 and you can see here the breakdown between ongoing and one time funds including just over $100,000,000 in one time funds and about $62,000,000 in ongoing funds. Now we took the trial budget out to the community as we always do through 12 budget hearings in late March and mid April. We also solicited feedback via phone and email.

We advertised significantly in this effort including both television and Spanish radio ads as well as social media efforts and advertising in the city's Phoenix at your service newsletter. These efforts were fruitful yielding over 400 comments on the budget. Major themes included flexible financial assistance, refugee support, shade, libraries, and eviction legal assistance. A summary of these comments as well as information about the ways the city is already addressing many of these areas is included in today's council report, So I encourage residents to check out Attachment D. Again, ton of really great information in the packet.

Both city charter and state law require us to have a balanced budget. Again, means our resources must equal our expenditures and so the city manager's proposed budget recommends allocating our surplus in a number of ways. This includes investments in a variety of key council priority areas as you see here, addressing employee compensation and setting aside funds to ensure we remain balanced in fiscal year twenty seventwenty eight. You can see these categories here and I'll walk through each of them in just a moment. First however, I want to highlight the changes that have been made from the trial budget.

Again the feedback we receive on the budget is important and I believe you'll see how it is reflected in these changes. So first this includes an updated amount needed next year for employee compensation which is $50,000,000 That amount was $53,200,000 in the trial budget and was based on assumptions about what the final agreements with labor groups would look like because at the time of the trial budget we were still in the middle of negotiations. So those agreements are now finalized and the specific amount needed for the first year of the agreement has been determined and so it's been slightly reduced and actually moved to the second year of the agreement. Because of this additional resources are able to be invested in several areas starting with the flexible emergency financial assistance program which was included in the trial budget. An additional $1,650,000 is recommended to be added to this new program bringing its total allocation to $3,150,000 in one time funds.

Teen services programming was also included in the trial budget and it too is being recommended for additional funding in the amount of $437,000 bringing its total allocation to $937,000 in ongoing funds. While this funding is new, the parks budget already funds approximately $1,900,000 in teen related programming and additional programs also occur through Phoenix Public Libraries which includes roughly 2,600,000 annually on teen programming as well as funding in the youth and education office. The next item is the park services permit staffing support and service connectors. This is a new item in the city manager's proposed budget and includes ongoing funding of $379,000 in three positions. This includes one position in Parks and Recreation to administer the permitting program and two positions in the Office of Homeless Solutions to work alongside medical treatment and food distribution providers to connect homeless individuals with services.

Now this item is contingent on council's passage at tomorrow's formal meeting of the Park Services Permit Program. If item does not pass, this funding would be recommended for reallocation in the revised city manager's budget in two weeks time. Finally, the city manager's budget proposes or recommends a portion of the childcare affordability set aside that was included in the trial budget to be used next year for SNAP navigation services. So this would take a portion of those funds just in twenty six-twenty seven and use them for SNAP navigation, the full $5,000,000 would still be anticipated to be used for childcare affordability initiatives in twenty seven-twenty eight. I'll now briefly review each of the council priority areas and specific funding allocations.

This starts with community health and safety which includes $1,600,000 and 11.5 FTEs. This area includes $500,000 in one time funds for community safety plan enhancements along 27th Avenue to enhance lighting and continue the progress that has been made in this area. It also includes $500,000 in one time funding for playground and perimeter enhancements at several city parks. There's also $266,000 and 8.5 FTEs in ongoing funds to support the 2023 GEO bond funded Esteban Park Recreation Center and Lone Mountain Park both of which are coming online next year. And then finally as previously discussed, the Park Services Permit Program is included in this category and again includes three positions and $379,000 in ongoing funds.

The next priority area is children, youth and families which includes $9,400,000 and 0.5 FTEs. This area includes the $5,000,000 ongoing set aside to improve childcare affordability for Phoenix families. As I mentioned previously, this item has been adjusted slightly to reflect that a portion of the funding will be used in twenty six-twenty seven for SNAP navigation. This is intended to assist residents impacted by federal legislation changes and state changes to the administration of this program which have impacted many of our residents. Next, the flexible emergency financial assistance programs total funding again is now $3,150,000 in one time funds up from its trial budget amount of $1,500,000 This includes both targeted one time crisis assistance for households impacted by federal legislative changes to programs such as SNAP and Medicaid.

It also includes stability assistance which includes a variety of types of financial assistance alongside case management and coaching to help residents become more financially stable. Next we have teen services programming which increases again to 937,000 from $437,000 in the trial budget. This item uses ongoing funding and expands team programming including structured tutoring opportunities, increased program affordability and enhanced recreation programming. Finally, this priority area includes $322,000 in ongoing funding to secure a parking lease for Cholla Branch Library whose parking situation has been impacted by the redevelopment of the former Metro Center Mall. The next priority area is homeless service continuity.

This includes $18,400,000 in ongoing funds. As a reminder, this funding is replacing expiring American Rescue Plan Act funding and will allow the city to continue the vital range of homelessness services that it has been providing. This includes $12,900,000 in ongoing funding for shelter operations which includes both our city owned shelters such as the Phoenix Navigation Center and the Safe Outdoor Space, as well as nonprofit operated shelters such as Rio Fresco and the North Mountain Healing Center. It also includes $1,500,000 to continue heat relief efforts, which includes our 20 fourseven heat respite center as well as multiple extended hours cooling sites. Also includes $1,500,000 to support the Keys to Change key campus operations as well as $2,500,000 for the master lease program.

Again, that program will establish master leases that the city will sublease to individuals exiting shelters and so it serves as an important transitional step for those individuals but also has the benefit of increasing shelter bed availability. The next area is housing affordability at $6,600,000 and zero FTEs. This item is focused on the housing trust fund By allocating $6,600,000 in one time funds to the trust, it will reach $15,000,000 in total funding. Within this funding, there's $2,000,000 specifically allocated for affordable housing fee waivers to help support affordable housing development and $1,000,000 for pre approved housing plans to help expedite affordable housing creation. The next priority area is planning and development customer service enhancements at $1,500,000 and zero FTEs.

This one time allocation will be used in part to make improvements at Phoenix City Hall, improving the customer experience through improved customer check-in processes and overall customer flow. The funding will also be used to support continued customer service and process improvement initiatives, helping to ensure that customers are aware of and can utilize the wide range of services provided by our planning and development department. The city manager's proposed budget also includes funding for employee compensation helping to keep the city competitive in the labor market. As discussed previously, 50,000,000 is needed for the first year of the new labor agreements and then the budget also sets aside $75,000,000 to help ensure fiscal year twenty seven-twenty eight remains balanced reflecting the mayor and council's continued concern for wise financial planning. The proposed budget also includes position conversions and non general fund additions, 69.9 FTEs in conversions that use existing department resources and therefore require no additional funds which allows critical positions to become ongoing.

They include positions in the fire special hazards unit which will be paid for by the recently updated special hazmat and fire prevention fees. Similarly, several positions are being created in the law department to bring litigation in house that was previously outsourced for the city's self insurance reserve fund. Finally, $1,200,000 in eight FTEs at aviation to address needs in several areas including capital planning, international airline support and water quality monitoring. The next steps in the budget process begin two weeks from now with the City Council budget decision on May 19. This is the first of three votes the council will make on the budget.

After the council budget decision on May 19 comes the tentative adoption on June 3 and then final adoption is scheduled for June 17. And after final adoption, one final vote is needed that comes on July 1 with the property tax levy adoption. With that, I'll conclude my presentation and we'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you Erin for all the hard work and thank you to team Phoenix. I want to celebrate the fact this is a great budget for kids. We're investing in childcare, libraries and then so many kids have lost their SNAP benefits so hopefully we can help kids get the nutrition they need to grow and be successful. Council comments or do you want to go to public? Public. Alright, we will begin with public comments. We'll begin with Maria Mora followed by Kirsten Paulette. And I'm sorry. Before we begin public comment, Julie, our city attorney, will you explain the role of public Yes.

Thank you, mayor. For items on today's agenda, members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on the agenda item. Comments must be related to the agenda item. The city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations, claims, or litigation. The city code requires speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner. Profane language threats or personal attacks on member the members of the public, council members, or staff are not allowed. Speakers should not act in a disrespectful manner that is openly hostile to others. A person who violates these rules may lose their opportunity to continue to speak. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. So very important if we, it is fine for people who are being paid to be here, but we do need you to disclose it. And then Mario, would you introduce yourself and translation?

Yes, Mayor, sure. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you so much. And again, we'll begin with Maria followed by Kirsten.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Maria Mora, and I'm here to ask, please vote for those $5,000,000 as a relief found as a relief fund in this crisis for our community. Since we are already suffering under this administration and the abuses by ICE and so many deportations, which has caused many families to be separated. These families are suffering because they can no longer pay their rent. They can't pay their bills, and it becomes difficult for them to go out to work because they have no one to leave their children with.

For this reason, you must increase customer service department and allocate these 5,000,000 so that our community, which has been affected, can move forward. Also, are so many young people who have seen their education being frustrated because they have to work part time to help their mother since their father has been deported. Now they feel committed to help and their education becomes a second priority when these young people should be focused on their education since they are the future of this country. Thank you.

Thank you. Kirsten is next, followed by Brent Stockwell.

Good afternoon, Mayor Gallego and City Council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. My name is Kirsten Pollitt, and I am with Children's Action Alliance. We are based in Phoenix, but we are a statewide advocacy organization that promotes policy solutions for the well-being of children and families here in Arizona. In addition to my work at CAA, I'm also a mother to a three year old, and I am welcoming my second child in October.

And through both my professional and my personal work, I've seen firsthand how many families are struggling right now with the rising cost of raising young children. The new report shows that the cost of raising a young child has surged 28% in the last three years. The number one expense in that report was childcare, which in Arizona right now for one child is upwards of $16,000 a year. I'm here today to express strong support for the city of Phoenix's proposed $5,000,000 investment to improve childcare affordability. At the state and the federal level, we are experiencing less and less financial support for families with more and more wait list for support.

When families cannot find or afford childcare, the impacts ripple throughout the entire community. Many children do not have access to early learning opportunities that help them enter kindergarten ready to thrive. Parents are forced to cut back their work hours, leave jobs, or turn down better opportunities. Businesses struggle to hire and keep workers, and the state loses billions of dollars each year in lost productivity and tax revenue. This proposed investment is a meaningful signal that the city of Phoenix recognizes how critical childcare is to the families, the workforce, and the local economy. I respectfully urge you to maintain this funding in the final budget and continue prioritizing policies for uplift children and families. Thank you.

Thank you. Brent is next followed by Beth Strano.

Good afternoon, mayor and council. My name is Brent Stockwell. I'm a registered lobbyist representing the Phoenix Community Alliance, which is the business leadership organization that has worked side by side with the city for more than four decades to create a stronger downtown for a better Phoenix. Hance Park is one of Phoenix's most treasured public spaces, unique among Phoenix's parks as the home to major cultural institutions and host of visitors from around the world for major events. But persistent criminal activity, drug use, and encampments continue to prevent our community from fully and safely enjoying it.

Today, we ask the city council to set aside dedicated partnership funding for Hance Park safety, modeled directly on the successful arrangement already in place at Civic Space Park to support dedicated park rangers at Hance Park. The model works. We've seen it work downtown. We're simply asking for it to be extended to Hance Park. As the city continues to invest capital dollars in revitalizing the park and as Phoenix Community Alliance fundraises on its behalf, a daily enforcement presence is essential to building and protecting that investment.

A safe park is an accessible park for everyone. That's only part possible when the park's code of conduct is constant consistently enforced. We appreciate the dedicated efforts of staff from parks, OHS, and the Phoenix Police Department working on this challenge, and more dedicated resources would be helpful. To build the public private partnership this park deserves, we need dedicated funding set aside in the budget for this purpose. Thank you.

Thank you. Beth is next, followed by Leah.

Mayor and council. Under the Trump administration, working class folks in Phoenix are struggling for a myriad of reasons. Funding cuts on housing programs, increased restrictions on access to health care, widespread defunding and dismantling of safety net programs. Many community organizations that have been serving as bridges to support and safety have been defunded, causing even more precarity and isolation at a time that our communities are also experiencing visibly increased violence through immigration enforcement. The city of Phoenix has the opportunity to help defend their residents by investing more intentionally in the quality of the programs that improve the quality of life for our residents, such as housing, financial assistance, refugee crisis support, childcare, food, access to healthcare.

Nothing on the budget could be more important than preventing our neighbors from falling through the cracks. Client services must be funded as a higher priority by raising the relief funds available by an additional $5,000,000 than is allocated in the proposed budget. Client services programs must be low barrier, even no barrier when possible. The only qualifier should be that somebody lives here in Phoenix, whether they are housed, documented, or sober, should not and cannot be a barrier. There are many deeply rooted community organizations present today in the chambers, as well as those who couldn't be present because of the important work they're doing.

These orgs maintain trust relationships with the community and are the ideal partners to assist the city with outreach and implementation of expanded support. The need is great. The time is now, and you have both the capacity and the obligation to act.

Leah is next, followed by Adriana.

Good afternoon, mayor and members of the council. My name is Leah Fregulia. I'm here on behalf of the Hance Park Conservancy, a nonprofit founded in 2010 to advance the vision of Margaret T. Hance Park. It is an organization composed of over 20 cultural organizations, neighborhood associations, business leaders, and individuals supporting the vision of the park.

I'm a

resident of District 7 and also a member of the Rose Roosevelt Historic District. Hance Park is the home to major cultural institutions and a destination for visitors from our own city, but also from around the nation attending major events. Hance Park serves as a vibrant cultural hub and a vital connector across downtown. However, the persistent criminal activity, drug use encampments, and the residual trash and paraphernalia left throughout the park contribute to conditions that make our park less safe and accessible to our public. Today, we're asking the council to take a practical, proven step and set aside dedicated partnership funding for Hance Park safety modeled on the successful approach already in place at Civic Center, at Civic Park, Civic Space Park, specifically funding for dedicated park rangers to provide consistent daily presence and enforcement of the park's code of conduct.

We've seen this model work downtown. We are just asking you to extend the model to Hance Park in partnership with the Conservancy given our 15 proven history supporting the park. We deeply appreciate our partnership with the park staff, the Office of Homeless Solutions, the Phoenix Police Department. Additional dedicated resources will allow that work to be more effective and more sustainable. As the city continues to invest capital dollars and as partners like Phoenix Community Alliance raise private support, consistent safety presence is essential in protecting that investment.

Thank you. Thank you. Adriana is next followed by Jay.

Hi, good afternoon everybody. My name is Adriana Garcia Maximiliano. I'm here on behalf of Organized Power Numbers, an organization dedicated to serving and advocating alongside working class families. We like to thank the budget team for putting together this budget. We are happy to see the city make so many great investments in programs like childcare, the master lease program, flexible financial assistance, refugee crisis support, the housing trust fund, and other programs that expand affordable housing.

We appreciate you taking community feedback during the budget process to add funds to the flexible financial assistance programs, but we are asking that you make that fund go up to $5,000,000. The Trump administration's cuts to programs and attacks on immigrant and refugee communities are being deeply felt by Phoenix families. And there is room for more in the current allocation. Organization asked that the city lowers barriers for Phoenix residents to access these programs and funds. Specifically, the flexible financial assistance program.

It is our understanding that the human services department will be managing this these particular funds. The feedback our members have shared with us is that the city's application processes, bureaucracy, and lack of cultural competency become barriers to accessibility to the people who need it most. In the future, we'd like to see partnership with and regranting to community based organizations that already serve the diverse constituencies you represent. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Jay is next followed by Stephanie.

Good afternoon, mayor, council members, and all those present in the chamber. I'm Jay Eberle with Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, and I'm here to talk to you today about refugees. Resettlement organizations like LSS are here to represent the thousands of Phoenix residents who came to the community as refugees. Refugees were invited into the country and came through an international refugee resettlement program specifically because they are fleeing violence and persecution. They are vetted outside of The United States before they're ever allowed to come into our country, and they go through extensive vetting.

They are vetted through eight government agencies. They go through many, many interviews, iris scans, and they get all their vaccinations before they come into the country. When they get here, they are assigned a social service organization like LSS that help them as they integrate into the community. They are approved to work from day one. The goal of the program is self sufficiency, and more than eighty five percent reach that goal within six months.

Years of research has proven that refugees pay back in taxes more than they ever receive in benefits. The changes that have occurred during this presidential administration have impacted Phoenix residents who came as refugees within the

past three years or longer.

HR one has made it so that refugees that have not obtained their green card are no longer nor no longer eligible eligible for SNAP during the most vulnerable time when they first come into the country. Their employment has also been impacted because employers are beginning to be hesitant to employ them because of all the rhetoric and misunderstanding. So we are we are here to ask that you support the additional funding in the children, youth, and families portion of the budget, to support the working families in the community, and to support community education and outreach. The support is needed to bridge the gap. Thank you. Thank you so much. It is a wise investment for the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Stephanie is next, followed by Aram.

Hi. So the federal administration has attacked Arizona residents and the city Of Phoenix residents in a multitude of ways and increasingly so in a short span of time, which has and will continue to create a domino effect of suffering. Whether that's through increased ice ice attacks, through loss of health insurance, and also through cut of SNAP benefits. So the state of Arizona has seen the most amount of snap benefits cut in the entire country where we represent about a 50% drop. When I lost my job years ago, my friends told me about Snap, how it was actually a big support to them when they had lost their jobs as well and they guided me through that process.

I felt more secure knowing that it was something I had access to, instead of just focusing on paying rent. This was something that just made me feel a huge sense of security, but this is no longer the case. And for some like immigrants, it was never an option. Our sense of security as Phoenix residents is diminishing fast, and the city of Phoenix can help combat the threats that we are facing from Trump and the administration by increasing the client services line item for crisis relief funds to $5,000,000. It's also important to note that these funds need to be accessible to all Phoenix residents, including immigrants who already have to endure endless amounts of barriers to basic necessities.

Having this accessible and available to immigrants means that they can focus less on survival so that they can use that energy, time to defend themselves in court or in detention. Thank you.

Thank you. Aram is next, followed by Maisha.

I want to say thank you for letting us speak. City Council every year. We come together for a purpose to talk about how we can make our communities better by the increase the client service line team for crisis relief by $5,000,000 and expand access to all Phoenix residents in 2024. I lived in an apartment with my daughter. What the Trump administration has been doing and the increase in housing has led me to lose my apartment, and I had to move in with my mom.

By obtaining the $5,000,000, it would give us the resources to lower housing cost and get people off the streets. I have talked to people that are on the streets that say they could no longer afford to continue paying for the rent of their apartment. And that's why and that's why they are they are out there on the streets, and some of them are living in their cars. Thank you.

Thank you. Myesha is next, followed by Melina.

Well, good afternoon, Mayor Gallego, council members. My name is Myeisha Fish. I am a disabled resident over the age of 40 and currently living in District 3. I'm here with Organized Power in Numbers, and today, I am struggling. Every day and every year, I am forced to make the impossible choices.

I have to decide whether to pay rent or buy food. I have to I have to determine if I can afford gas to pick up the one of two food boxes I have have to feed me for the month. I have to choose whether to get my prescriptions filled or go to a doctor's appointment and pay the co pay. I am grateful for my permanent housing voucher and having a roof over my head. Even though this takes 30% of my Social Security income, I would not be able to afford housing at today's rental prices at all.

I am so grateful for the $10 of food stamps and snap benefit. After recent revisions and cuts, but it isn't enough. My life, like so many others in similar circumstances, is hanging by a delicate thread. One unexpected expense could undo everything and push me back onto the streets I fought so hard to get out of. I am asking you provide a greater transparency to the resources available for residents like me.

We appreciate the addition of flexible emergency financial assistance, but we need to see more. We need real support that reflects the reality we are living in every single day. Thank you very much for your time.

Melina is next, followed by Alicia.

Good afternoon. My name is Melina, and I'm a resident of District 8. My parents live in District 7, an area that we all know has been heavily policed and has been targeted by immigration enforcement, especially since the start of this administration. There's no day that goes by where I don't worry about the safety of my parents and whether they're gonna make it home that day. Every time I speak with my mom on the phone, she shares about someone, whether it's a relative or someone that, you know, we buy goods from down the street that has decided to move back to their home place due to the constant fear that they live in or to the lack of work or to the lack of cuts that the programs that provided them these resources.

Day by day, my community, the community that you all serve, is deciding to leave the homes that they worked hard to purchase, leave the businesses that they worked hard to build, and you all can help build protections for these people that will inevitably face faced immigration enforcement by increasing the client services line item for crisis relief funds by $5,000,000. Thank you.

Leisha is next followed by Yolanda.

Good afternoon. Currently, in cities and towns all over the country, working class folks and families are under attack. The Trump administration has gleefully engaged in immigration and economic policies that are directly harming people. To combat these intentionally harmful policies and protect residents of the city of Phoenix, the city needs to add an additional $5,000,000 to the client services line item for crisis relief funds. These funds will be utilized by folks impacted by the regime to pay for childcare, housing, and food while also providing refugee crisis support and access to funds for flexible financial assistance.

Eligibility for this funding must be sub granted and entrusted to culturally competent providers already embedded in the community. Additionally an implementation committee consisting of providers and community members must be established to ensure effective distribution of these funds. Eligibility for these funds must be expanded and the barrier to entry sufficiently accessible by making these funds available to all Phoenix residents regardless of status. Adding these funds and managing who distributes them and how they are distributed is meaningless if the funds are inaccessible to those who need them most. Trump's big beautiful bill caused cuts and snap benefits to over 420,000 Arizona residents, including more than a 181,000 children.

That number accounts for 47% of the people who previously received these benefits. These cuts come at a time of increased inflation and cost of living while wages remain stagnant and unemployment increases in the state of Arizona. According to the president and CEO of St. Mary's Food Bank, the demand for local or for food from the bank's 700 partners is up by 15% in last year with a significant loss of snap benefits being a likely driver of the additional needs. The city must step up and by excuse me, it's essential that an additional $5,000,000 be added to the client services line item for crisis relief funds, while expanding access to all Phoenix residents.

In doing so, you allow for those folks negatively impacted by these intentionally exclusionary home for harmful policies, access to funds for flexible.

Is next, followed by Ben Laughlin.

Good afternoon, city council members. My name is Yolanda Landeroz, and I live in Buckeye, Arizona. Since the Trump administration's ICE actions targeting innocent Americans, many families in our state have been severely affected. I've witnessed the impact first hand through volunteering with a local community organization that delivers food and basic necessities to households where a primary provider was has been taken. These families are facing extreme financial hardship, emotional distress, and ongoing fear.

It's heartbreaking to see innocent people suffer and be mistreated. No human being should ever be harmed by anything or anyone. Some households include newborns, small children and pets, and many are struggling to make ends meet. The rising cost of essentials like food and diapers has only made their situation more difficult. Living under constant fear has taken a visible toll on their well-being.

I respectfully ask that you consider the human impact on members of our community who are currently suffering. Please increase the client services line item for crisis relief funds by 5,000,000 and expand access to all Phoenix residents. This support would provide flexible flexible financial assistance for urgent needs such as childcare, housing, food, and refugee crisis support. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Ben is next, followed by Andrea.

My name is Ben, and I'm a resident of District 4. I'm here today with mixed emotions about this budget. I'm really excited to see investments and services for unsheltered folks, in housing access, and in child care. And I'm happy to see the city is taking folks' concerns a little more seriously about the impacts of the Trump administration. From people having their SNAP benefits stolen to their health care being cut to the increased violence by ICE, people all across Phoenix are being put in harm's way.

But we both know that the $3,000,000 in client services isn't going to go far enough. So we're asking you for you to add $5,000,000 to that line item, bringing it to at least 6,500,000 today. It's a bad look when the police budget is increasing by 59,000,000 even though they were estimated to be 13,000,000 under budget last year, 16,000,000 under budget the year before that, and 49,000,000 under budget the year before that. But you can't seem to find 3,000,000 more to make sure more folks are staying in their homes. You keep telling us it's because you need to be fiscally responsible, but I know you all know how this works.

When people become unhoused, they there are increased costs to the city in terms of emergency services and homeless services, and more money is wasted on policing and incarceration. Not to mention the long term impacts physically and mentally on youth who become unhoused, which includes, but is not limited to cycles of poverty, mental illness, substance use, and shorter life expectancy. If this is actually about money, why would we knowingly choose the more expensive route? Policing as a strategy for public safety does not work. Keeping people in their homes does. Whether you wanna be or not, the city of Phoenix has become a key line of defense to protect Phoenix residents from the threats that are coming from the Trump administration and the threats that are already here. So please add 5,000,000 more for client services to make sure more of us stay housed, stay fed, and stay with our families and communities. Thank you.

Andrea is next, followed by Monica.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Andrea Lunas Advantes, and I'm a resident of District 8. And I'm here because too many families in Phoenix are being pushed to the brink. Under the Trump administration, we've seen people lose snap benefits, lose health care, and live in constant fear of ICE rates that tear their families apart. We're grateful to see the funding for the master lease program, housing trust fund, and flexible financial assistance, but we need to see more.

That's why we're calling for an additional 5,000,000 in crisis relief funds that are accessible to all Phoenix residents. Our campaign is led by people directly impacted by these issues. Our committee members are working families who are shaping this work through their lived experiences. Right now, they are the ones facing these cuts. As you heard from one of our members today, people are losing access to food assistance, people are losing access to health care, and the basic resources that they need to survive.

The city of Phoenix has the power to act as a first line of defense. That means investing in our people right now. I'm urging you to increase the client services line item for crisis relief funds, a mouthful, $5,000,000, and expand access so all Phoenix residents can receive support. These funds should be flexible, accessible, and we're wanting to engage in the conversation of what this looks like. This is about safety, stability, and dignity. Phoenix can and must do more to protect working families. Thank you.

Thank you. Monica is next, followed by Nancy.

So as a first generation immigrant from a working class family, I'm here to ask that the city of Phoenix increase the client services line item for crisis relief funds by $5,000,000 and expand access to all Phoenix residents to access flexible flexible financial assistance, refugee crisis support, housing, and food. This is deeply needed right now as Phoenix residents have had their SNAP cuts benefit their SNAP benefits cut have lost access to health care and are facing violence from ICE. This funding must be self granted to trusted and culturally competent providers already embedded in the community, and an implementation committee made up of providers and community members must be created to ensure effective distribution of these funds. On another note, I also see that the trial budget has designated funds for teen prevention. I support this investment and want to ask that we please ensure that it stays in future drafts of the budget and that some of those funds go to the Jacob Harris Foundation.

Adding more funds for teen prevention is possible and should also be prioritized. Lastly, I also ask that you support right to counsel. The city needs to pass an ordinance to guarantee the right to an attorney for people facing eviction. This has been a community demand for the past three years, and now more than ever is incredibly crucial. If we truly want to lower the amount of people on the streets, we need to invest and look at other solutions to help stop people from ending up on the street to begin with, like right to counsel and adding $5,000,000 to the client services line item for crisis relief funds. It is the responsibility of the city and our council members to provide for their constituents. Our tax dollars are meant for us, put them back in the community. Thank you.

Nancy is next followed by June.

Good afternoon, mayor and, members of council. My name is Nancy Lam. I live in District 4 and work in District 5. Thank you for expanding the client services line item for flexible emergency financial assistance to 3,150,000 and for increasing teen services programming to nine and thirty seven thousand. If a budget is our moral document, then we as a city are saying with these increases that we value the health and well-being of children, youth, and families.

However, there's an opportunity right now as the Trump administration has canceled staff benefits, loss of health care, and constant violence from ICE to do more for our community. The city of Phoenix must increase a client services line item for crisis relief by $5,000,000. In our conversations with you all and city staff, many of the concerns about increasing the funding for client services were about fiscal responsibility to ensure we have a balanced budget. And I do understand that, so I did some research. Studies from the National Alliance to End Homelessness show a 49.5% reduction in public costs when individuals are placed in supportive housing.

It costs the city much less to keep folks housed and to meet the basic necessities and prevent homelessness than to address it after folks become unhoused. This is what adding $5,000,000 to the client services budget would help do. But beyond the stats, I want to make sure we're grounded in why we're here today. Two weeks ago, a father to two high school students in our community was detained by ICE. On top of the emotional hardship and the loss of their father's presence in their lives, this family has had to resort to starting a GoFundMe to cover unexpected costs, legal expenses, and to keep the family afloat because the father was the main provider for the household.

As of right now, they're about 78% of the way to their $10,000 goal because of the generosity of our community. But they shouldn't have to rely on this GoFundMe to get by, and I know they are not the only ones. The city has the opportunity and responsibility to do more to alleviate the immense burden, stress, and difficulty that these families are facing. Please increase the client services budget by $5,000,000. Thank you.

June is next followed by Evelyn.

Mayor Garrigo and co counsel, thank you for this time. My comment is two parts, and I'll save the second half for item two. I want to use this first space to talk about systematic abuse as it correlates to budgeting and from direct lived experience. You may conceptualize the term systematic abuse as the inevitable symptomatic effects of deploying protocols, regulation, and laws that protect and benefit a greater number of people than they do harm to, and that these side effects absolve the system's individual proponents from accountability to harm. But when an individual uses rules and they're backing in the creation of those rules to cause direct individual and ongoing harm, I'd say that individual has weaponized the system in order to enact depressive abuse and it remains self validated and unseen.

There consistently has been disproportionate funding to the cities of Phoenix's capacity to police and ongoing expansion into more and more blatantly distorted criminalization of people caring for each other's survival while we are actively faced with neighbors who are suffering at the hands of systematic abuse. It remains as true at the city level as it does at the federal level. The budget expansions for human services conjunct with the failure to directly communicate with and spotlight the voices of survivors of all forms of violence is a disproportionately negligible growth in capacity to restore and uplift survivors and is not congruent at all with the expansion of PPD's to continue enacting harm and violence.

Evelyn is next followed by Jason.

Good afternoon, Mayor and council members. My name is Evelyn Castillo. I'm the Phoenix field organizer with organized power numbers. I'm happy to see more investment in the housing trust fund and in child care. Thank you for that.

And I'm also here to urge you to increase the client services line item for crisis relief funds by $5,000,000 in the city budget and expand access to all Phoenix residents. Right now, working families in our city are carrying the weight of economic instability. I wanna acknowledge that there are so many people that couldn't join us and stories you won't get to hear. So I wanted to uplift the experience of community member Carmen Terrell, who wasn't allowed to sign up to speak today. She shared the challenges she's faced trying to access rental assistance through the city.

While funding going to social services is important and appreciated, She highlighted that the way these programs are structured creates real barriers for the people who need them most. For example, current guidelines exclude individuals living in subsidized housing even though many of these residents are still struggling to make ends meet. She also described the difficult and frustrating process required just to apply for help. Residents are expected to call every Monday to try to secure an appointment only to still be denied assistance after completing extensive verification steps. This kind of system is not serving our community.

It's discouraging people from seeking help and leaving many without the support they need. Carmen also emphasized the need for more direct communication, constant communication, and accountability. While city council members are often the face of these issues, she urged that the city manager and department directors create opportunities such as regular sign up forums, community meetings, where constituents can directly share their experiences and concerns, with those responsible for implementing these programs. These are the individuals who are most closely connected to how policies are actually playing out on the ground. Just wanted to end with please increase the client services crisis relief fund by $5,000,000 to make it accessible to all Phoenix residents. Thank you.

Jason is next, followed by Lexiri.

Hello. My name is Jason and I would like to start this off by just asking the question as to what is the purpose of the city budget? Because I believe it is to serve all the residents of the city through their own tax dollars allow for the continued existence for the government. Now there are multiple levels of government that working families are under, and currently the federal administration is failing them. They have their SNAP benefits cut, their health care has been denied, and they have been harassed and assaulted by ICE officers.

So it is now up to the city government to step up and provide relief for them. And my demand is simple. The client services line item for crisis relief funds must be expanded by 5,000,000. This funding must be provided to all of the working families regardless of immigration status. And if you are worried about this not being properly utilized, the solution is simple as well.

Subgrant the funding to local community, to culturally competent providers already doing this work, as well as established committee of both these providers and the community members, and they will ensure that this funding gets properly utilized. I have seen families have to decide whether or not they will have to pay their rent,

their

storage, or their or to get treatment for their own daughters for an infection. And I would want to emphasize that this has to be accessible to all regardless of immigration status. We cannot say that this is that it is equal and then say some are more equal than others. This shit city should not have a hierarchy of which it serves its residents. Thank you.

Luxeria is next followed by Sebastian.

Hello. My name is Luxeria Coronado. I am an organizer with Organized Power Numbers. Right now, in this current political moment, there are too many working families in Phoenix that are dealing with, the economic instability such as higher gas prices, cuts to basic benefits such as SNAP, which has set families back for many months, and the constant threat of detention and family separation. When attacks happen on our people, the city cannot just simply stand by.

The city has to step up and protect the people of our city. That's why Phoenix must expand the client services line item for crisis relief funds by 5,000,000 in the twenty twenty twenty six, twenty seven budget. This funding would provide real flexible support help with housing, food, childcare, and emergency relief that families in Phoenix desperately need. It would also ensure support for refugees and immigrant families navigating detention or fighting their cases in court who often lose income and stability overnight. This funding needs to be available to all Phoenix residents who need it, and it should be distributed through organizations that already have the trust of our community and know how to reach people effectively.

At the end of the day, this is about priorities. A city budget is a moral document. Investing in crisis relief means choosing to protect working families, to support refugees, and to make sure no one in our city faces hardship alone. I've seen firsthand how during certain political crisis such as cuts on social services and billions of dollars invested in immigration enforcement can destabilize entire families, such as losing jobs, homes, and security all at once. That kind of fear shouldn't define life in our city. Phoenix has the resources. What we need now is the political will to use them to take care

of our people. Thank you.

Thank you. Sebastian is next followed by Doctor. Katie Sprutt.

Hi. Good afternoon, council. My name is Sebastian Del Portillo. I'm with Organized Power and Numbers. And I'm here today to also advocate that the city should increase the client services line item for crisis relief funds up to the tune of $5,000,000. I think there's a lot of good stuff in this year's budget. And so I wanna appreciate the staff and the city council for making improvements. It's definitely a better budget than last year. The childcare, the master lease program, the flexible financial assistance, the refugee crisis support, the housing trust fund, and some of the other things that I keep hearing about are really good additions this year. Unfortunately, we're just in a context in the situation that is just not enough.

We need to continue funding all of these streams, but we need to fund them to a higher degree. And as LSS pointed out, stabilizing families is just so incredibly important. I mean, we, the working people of the city, are the economic backbone of our nation, country, our city, and we're always being kicked behind the knees to make things work. I know we all know what that feels like here in this room, I'm sure every single one of us is stressed about a bill or making rent. And it's very unfortunate that we're in this context where 17% of children in Arizona are living in poverty.

That's just so sad that 50% of our households here in Arizona are rent burdened. And I think I really wanna land the points that you know, we need to sub grant these funds to organizations that have the cultural competency necessary to even be approached by a lot of the community members. The community doesn't want to come to the city, can't in a lot of ways trust the government. So they rely on these community organizations for help. So sub granting an oversight committee made of community members and providers.

So there's a real conversation that's active happening to shape these funds. And so we went from 1.5 to 3,000,000, and we're almost there at the 5,000,000 that these organizations consider we need. So I hope we can find some room in the budget to do that. Thank you.

Thank you. Katie is next, followed by Robert. Online Doctor. Sprupe. All right.

Doctor Sprutt, go ahead.

Thank you, mayor and members of the council for the opportunity to comment today. My name is doctor Katie Sprutti, and I serve as vice chair of the Phoenix North Council of First Things First, Arizona's early childhood agency and an early childhood professor at Grand Canyon University. I'm here to share what early childhood looks like for families across Phoenix and why it matters to all of us. The first five years of life are the most critical period of brain development. These years shape school readiness, reading success, long term health, workforce participation, and ultimately the strength of our economy.

Investing in early childhood is not charity, it is essential infrastructure. And right now, Phoenix is facing a childcare crisis. More than 72,000 children have working parents, but there are only 47,000 licensed childcare slots, leaving roughly 25,000 children without access. In some areas, there are eight infants for every one available slot, and more than 3,000 children remain on wait lists for assistance. Families are not opting out.

They're being shut out, often forced to reduce work hours or leave their jobs entirely. Cost is another major barrier. Infant care in Maricopa County exceeds $1,100 per month, which is up to 17% of a family's income. I experienced this personally when childcare costs nearly matched my mortgage. For menly families, it is simply unaffordable.

That is why it's not just a family issue. It's an economic issue impacting employers and workforce stability. Research shows every dollar invested in early childhood returns up to $16 through better outcomes and stronger productivity. That's why I support the PHENIC trial budget allocation of 5,000,000 for childcare. It is a meaningful investment in families, our workforce and our shared future. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Robert will be our next speaker.

Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Robert Wolenzine and I represent the Christown YMCA. I want to start by sharing that as a community serving organization, the importance of childcare and early learning access is at the forefront of our work. We see it firsthand in the families who walk through our doors every single day. Parents come to our YMCA looking for help.

They are trying to grow, to improve their lives, and to do right by their children. Many are working incredibly hard yet feel stuck and unsure on how to move forward. Quality childcare makes an enormous difference. Early childhood education is critical for children's success in school and beyond, but is also critical for family stability. So many parents are caught in the middle, earning too much to qualify for assistance, but nowhere near enough to afford childcare.

The YMCA does everything we can through scholarships and support, but the need is far greater than we can meet alone. We want we see that families want to work. They want consistent employment and financial stability. Childcare is the gap standing in their way. I have seen a real sense of hopelessness change once a parent gets reliable childcare support.

Suddenly, they can show up to work consistently. They can plan, they can breathe, and begin to move forward. We also see the pressure on providers. Childcare providers want to serve families and to keep quality staff, but without sustainable funding, it remains a constant struggle. And this is why we strongly support allocating $5,000,000 to childcare funding. This investment supports families, children in early learning and providers who make it all happen. Thank you for listening and recognizing how essential childcare is to Phoenix families and our community.

Thank you so much for that testimony. And then, for our virtual speakers as these last two do it. If you could just start by saying your name, we need to make sure we have the right person and it needs to be the person who have called. So we'll begin with Alberto Campos, followed by Angelina Flores, followed by Sareidi Garcia. Thank you so much for that testimony.

And then, for our virtual speakers, these last two, if you would just start by saying your name, make sure that's the right person, Alberto. I'm here. Okay If you could just introduce yourself and then testify.

Okay so I am here today at the City Council virtually to express your

name, please. Can you please say your name?

Alberto.

Thank you. Alright,

Alberto. Please go ahead and testify.

Okay I am Alberto. I am here today in support so that we receive the $5,000,000 in support. This is Alberto. I'm here in support, regarding the $5,000,000 increase so that we can receive the support that our communities much need as we're facing attacks for the communities regarding ICE attacks to undocumented families, migrant families, the working class. We are hoping that we can receive all this support from the councils, but we are expressing that push. In regards to this measure.

Thank you so much, Alberto. And then, Angelina, could you please introduce yourself? And part of our challenge earlier was we could hear the meeting being played back to us. So if you could mute the meeting while you're speaking, we'll have Angelina and then Sarede and then Leonor.

Okay. Angelina?

My name is Angelina. We're requesting this $5,000,000 as a relief fund for residents of Phoenix, Arizona who are affected by the policies of this Trump administration because most of them are working people who bear the brunt of this administration. Regarding immigration and violent migrant policies, let this fund be for We want the city to increase the sum of customer services to $5,000,000 because under this administration, residents have lost their SNAP benefits, their medical coverage, doctors' expenses, they're very expensive. Gas prices are rising, and on top of that, they have had to face ICE violence. We want a flexible crisis supported financial institution that is accessible and has a low threshold for refugees, childcare, housing, and food.

We want it to be available to all Phoenix residents regardless of their social status. We want an implementation of committees made up of suppliers and community members to be established to ensure the transparent distribution of these funds. Immigrant families especially need this fund for food, housing, and other basic necessities while their relatives fight in immigration court over detention. That's why we're asking for this $5,000,000 fund to help our working people. Thank you.

Serrated followed by Leonor, followed by Brianna.

So I guess not present.

Is this ready? I need to read a please s o r. A y d e.

Yeah, she's not available, but we do have the next person.

Leonor. Okay.

She's going to say her name. Go ahead.

I'm Leonardo Garcia, resident of Phoenix. I'm requesting that you concede our petition for customer service allocation for crisis relief funds of $5,000,000 and expanding access to all Phoenix residents, allowing those affected by these policies to access flexible financial assistance. Supporting people in crisis, refugees, childcare, dwelling, feeding, The city has an opportunity to become the first line of defense against these attacks, providing financial relief to working families affected by this administration. And we also don't want any more separated families. No more deportations.

No more children suffering, please. Thank you.

Brianna followed by Irma followed by Maria Hernandez Hernandez. Brianna.

Hello, my name is Brianna Marciano. I'm here to request support for working families for this customer self service support. These families have been affected by this administration. Thank you.

Irma followed by Maria, followed by Rosalia.

Maria. Good afternoon. Sorry.

My name is Irma Hernandez. I thank every resident of the Phoenix, Council. For listening to my concerns. I'm a resident for over thirty five years, and it's the first time that I faced a situation so drastic attacks on everybody. That's why that's why I'm requesting $5,000,000 to customer service for working families that are being affected. And thank you for letting me express my concerns.

Maria Hernandez, Rosalia, Elizabeth.

Good afternoon. My name is Maria Hernandez. We're requesting to expand customer service. We're requesting $5,000,000 in this fund for families that are being affected by this new administration. Thank you very much for your time.

Rosalia Elizabeth Maria. Hara.

Hello, good afternoon. My name my name is Rosalia, and I'm here because I'm demanding customer service for crisis relief funds, and that they add $5,000,000 for working families that are working, who are bearing the brunt of the Trump administration's violent immigration and economic policies, which threaten their safety and economic stability. We demand flexible financial assistance, crisis support for refugees, childcare, housing and food. That's why I'm here demanding customer service for crisis relief funds that add $5,000,000 Thank you.

Elizabeth Hana, Maria Hana.

Hello, good afternoon, council members. My name is Elizabeth Hara. I live in District 5. I'm here supporting the addition of $5,000,000 for customer service for relief funds for working families in crisis. As you know and you've seen under the Trump administration, We're suffering this wave of massive violence by ICE.

We know that many people have been targeted by undercover ICE agents as this has become a manhunt for people without a criminal record. Many people are being affected by losing their benefits such as health insurance for their children or themselves, benefits like food stamps, rents are getting more and more expensive, and nowadays it costs us more money to get our jobs because gasoline is so expensive or get to our jobs because gasoline is so expensive. And thanks to this new administration, that's why I'm asking you to vote to add $5,000,000 for customer service to crisis relief funds. This fund will allow those affected by these policies to access assistance funds, but it will be flexible for the entire most vulnerable community and will not require a social status. I believe we deserve to feel safe, healthy, and hopeful because we all pay taxes even if we don't have a status.

We see that the preliminary budget has been designated. We also see that the preliminary budget has allocated 500,000 for adolescent prevention. I support this investment, and I would like to see this amount increased as it is still not even 1% of the $770,000,000 surplus. Our young people need more support with counselors or psychologists as they are also affected and we need them healthy and safe. We need to see at least 1,500,000 invested as they are our future plus add 5,000,000 for customer service for crisis relief funds. I thank you.

Maria next and then Karen Olson. Maria

Hello, my name is Maria Jara. And I'm I'm expressing myself because many families are being affected by this administration. There is lots of families that have their coverages taken. And also medical coverages. They've been taken away and our children are especially affected.

Besides facing violence from ICE, that's why I'm asking all council members to support the $5,000,000 increase in customer service funding for crisis relief. This fund should be affordable for all or accessible to all Phoenix residents. Thank you. And I hope you listen to us.

Karen Olson.

Hi. Can you hear

me? Yes.

My name is Karen Olson, and I'm here to echo so many of my community members that are supporting a community initiative, to increase the client services line item for crisis relief funds by $5,000,000 and open it to all Phoenix residents to pass a right to council ordinance for tenants facing eviction, and to increase teen prevention funding, to $1,500,000. I hope all council members would take the time to listen to your community members who show up again and again and again. I know for you all, this feels like a regular day, but for all of us, this is life or death. This all means a lot. It really does.

Every single one of us makes a difference only by showing up and doing differently because what we have been doing is not enough. It will never be enough, and therefore, we have to keep showing up. Please listen to community, that shows up time and time again, whether that be, organizations that have been showing up for decades plus, People like myself who show up even though I honestly, every time I'm on these kind of mics, I get nervous. And I'm gonna keep breathing, and I'm gonna keep showing up because we deserve better. We deserve funding that goes to us, your constituents, not the continued policing of us.

Whether it be Phoenix p PD or it'd be the current ICE on ongoing raids. We need people in these seats of power that you nine sit in to listen to us, to take action where you can, and to be brave, To know that it is important that you know that what you do isn't enough, but today maybe it can be. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We'll now turn to council members for comments. Councilwoman O'Brien.

Thank you, Mayor. First, I'd like to start by thanking

all of

staff, especially Amber Williamson and Erin Mertz, but especially for all the staff members who showed up at all of the budget meetings across the city. It's very helpful to have you there to answer some of the tough questions and very specific questions. There are a lot of great things in this year's budget to help children, teens, refugees, and help bolster our safety net programs to ensure that no one falls through the cracks due to a missed utility bill or an uncertainty about whether they'll be able to pay for groceries due to actions taken by the federal government. On top of the safety net programs, I also want to point out the money being set aside to help create more homeownership opportunities and create more affordable housing opportunities through the investment into the Housing Trust Fund. I'm most excited about the $2,000,000 being set aside to help offset permitting fees for affordable development projects because we all know that every dollar incurred by our developers gets passed down to the end user many times over.

This funding will ensure we incentivize affordable housing developments all over Phoenix and ensure that we start to close the gap, not just on the missing middle housing product, but the desperately needed affordable housing stock. So again, thank you for all of your hard work. I look forward to supporting this budget, mayor. Thank you. Vice mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I too want to start off by thanking the budget and research team for all of your efforts. Specifically, you've attended I've attended four of the budget hearings in the community, and I think it was just a very good exercise in showing our hearing from our community. I could take a little point of privilege, I know some of the concerns we were talking about a little bit more transparency, and I think that for me, I heard that as a request to maybe consider reviving the Fund Phoenix tool, the Fund PHX tool. If we can look into that, I think that would be helpful.

I want to go back a little bit. I mentioned this before, but the one reoccurring theme that we heard throughout, at least I heard at all of the budget hearings, was affordability and focusing on housing and ensuring that we were helping the vulnerable and our vulnerable neighbors. And I think this proposed budget takes into account the community concerns. I really want to take a moment to highlight the fact that when we started this process, sorry, the flexible financial assistance was at $1,500,000 and I think our community spoke up and I think we heard from them and you not only doubled that, you brought that to additional 1,650,000 added to that, bringing that to 3.15. And I think that is helpful.

That tells the community we're hearing them. Of course, we were hearing cries for additional resources, but I want to at least acknowledge that you heard our community feedback and we're making those changes. We also heard a lot of community feedback asking for additional funding for the youth program and at our community centers and elsewhere. And again, you took that information, you incorporated that, and you almost doubled that again from 500,000, you added another 437,000, bringing that up to almost a million dollars. I wanted the other thing that was brought up in our community conversations, and I think it might just be worth clarifying for the community that our existing programs are not going anywhere.

These are just supplements. So I want to ask for a few, for example, some of the concerns I heard were about heat and additional shade in our community. And I think it might be helpful to give a little explanation about the shade entry plan that was passed by by a health and council in November 2024, which reflected a $60,000,000 investment and just kind of let our community know whether or not that still stands.

Yeah, thanks, mayor, members of council, vice mayor. Yeah, there is extensive information in the packet on share, but I know that Doctor. David Hondula, who leads our heat, our Office of Heat Response is here as well, and he can talk about the wide variety of programs that we're already doing in that area because there is a really significant investment there.

Thank you so much for that. Sorry, David, for bringing you to the front of the table, but I just think it would be helpful to hear a little bit like this is still a priority for the council, even it's not stated as a supplement.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor and council members for the question. Yes, vice mayor, you're absolutely correct. There there's no reduction in any of the investment in the programs and activities in the Shade Phoenix Plan that's reflected in this budget.

Okay. Thank you. So our community can still expect the 24,000 trees as well as over five hundred five hundred shade structures over the next five years as outlined in the Shade and Tree Plan. Correct?

Mayor, vice mayor, our our team and many colleagues across many departments are pushing as hard as we can every day toward those goals.

Thank you so much for that. I just wanted to clarify because that was an issue I continue to hear throughout my budget conversations, and I wanna make sure the community understands that this is still moving forward. So thank you for that. My other question goes to, we've had a, we've heard quite a number of requests for right to counsel. Similarly, we have a, we have a, we have a tenant eviction assistance program that is funded through our, that is operating and it's going to be included in the fiscal year twenty six twenty seven budget. I see you nodding your head, Aaron, confirming that for us and I think it just might be helpful to explain that funding still is stands.

Thanks, mayor, members of council, vice mayor. Yeah. The eviction legal services program is funded through ARPA interest, and as you mentioned, is funded through June '27. There's been good interaction with that program so far, and we have some specific, you know, data here in the report on that, but it is continuing through June '27.

Okay. I just want to take a moment again to just reiterate that that program still stands for the residents that may need assistance with eviction assistance, that we do have a program that is available for them. I did hear the feedback, I try to take notes when members of the community are speaking, there seems to be some areas where we need a little clarification and I would challenge our Human Services Department to see if we can continue to make that a more streamlined process. So, but thank you for that for confirming that that still exists and I just wanted to take a moment also to talk about the affordability is one of those concerns and I'm very proud to support the childcare assistance. We were going to probably be the first city in the state to provide this type of assistance, and I think that is us listening and being responsive to the needs of our community.

Not only does this childcare assistance subsidy provide for affordability concerns, but it also helps us to invest in the next generation by investing in another form of trip early childhood education to continue to move us forward. And then finally, one of the things that we heard as a I heard as a takeaway in some of the community meetings was talking about some additional bike lanes, light rail and traffic studies, and I think it might be helpful for someone from the streets department to talk about the existence of continued funding for area specific programs and how that would be allocated under the budget. Is there anyone here for that? I did not preplan my comments. But while we wait on that, there's, is someone here?

While we

Here is, we'll get them go.

Okay, well while we wait on that, I also want to, I was gonna close with this, but since we're here, I'm gonna go ahead and talk about it now. I am beyond elated to see us continue to make investments in the housing trust fund. As many of you know, this is an area I have advocated for since joining the council, and I think it is a step in the right direction. We are showing that as a city, we prioritize the housing needs for all of our residents and we are not just relying on our federal and state partners to be a part of the solution. We are now bringing the resources to be an active participant in the creation of more affordable housing in our community.

I am also very grateful to see that it includes a financial opportunity to help those who who are building affordable housing be able to apply for permit waivers and draft plans and other things that make the cost of housing more affordable. And I also like the fact that we've included some improvements to our plan and development customer service desk so that we can continue to make that process more efficient for our community. I just wanna add, and then is someone on the road or should I continue? Okay, no worries. And then I also wanted to take an opportunity to thank again the Office of Homeless Solutions and our housing department.

I am also very happy to see Master Leasing. Again, this is us, the city of Phoenix, thinking outside of the box, where we are coming up with creative and innovative solution to help address the needs of our community. Master leasing as its outline will be a pilot program where the city will be the tenant on the project so that we can sublease it to those that may have some difficulty securing leases on their own. Again, I think that we solved, we are coming towards problems with creative solutions so that we can help solve our community. I understand that there are a number of concerns that our federal and state partners have done that now are trickling down to a city level, but I think as a city we are responding in a way that is responsive and as well as financially good stewards.

So again, thank you. And I won't wait any longer on the comments, but I just wanted, the point of my question was to show the community that although their specific item was not articulated included in the budget, there is a process for those things that they are requesting, and there's still an opportunity for them to go ahead and fund those. So again, thank you to all. I want to thank my community for showing up at the budget hearings. I want to thank the city staff for also showing up.

I want to specifically give another shout out to the Budget and Research Department. You do this work behind the scenes. I've had an opportunity to sit down and talk with you on multiple occasions and even talk about how it is that we come up with a process and it's not just a month long process or a few months, it is a year long process and they take a lot of the feedback from the community in different mechanisms in order to get to what we see here. So I want to thank you Erin and Amber for your hard work on that. Thank you to the city manager for incorporating and identifying the priorities of the council, especially for my own, I'm going to be biased for a second, into this budget because I think it really is a budget that addresses and reflects the needs of our community. So thank you for thank you, mayor.

Mayor, vice mayor, just Brianna is dealing with another issue, but generally speaking, bike lanes, light rail, traffic studies, and those sorts of programs for traffic calming neighborhoods are funded primarily through the city's transportation sales tax. So it doesn't show up as much in the general fund, but there are resources in our street transportation department and public transit department to address those things that you mentioned. And given that she's not able to be with us right now, we'll put some information together for the return in two weeks to address that issue more specifically, but to your point, there are resources available in the city's budget, but not through not as much through general fund, but through our dedicated transportation sales tax.

Thank you so much for that clarification. That was what I was hoping to be explained to the community a little bit more, and as you mentioned that, I looked down, I realized I forgot to also highlight an important portion of our budget that I think should be stated that while other cities and other jurisdictions are battling and determining deficits, we are in a place with a surplus and most importantly, we're able to provide employee compensation increases to the fine men and women that work for the city of Phoenix and I think that should be applauded as well. Thank you for very detailed and inclusive budget process. So, thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Councilwoman Hernandez, Councilwoman Stark.

Thank you so much, mayor. I wanna thank the city manager's office, budget and research, all the city departments, and mayor and my council colleagues for the time and dedication that we have spent to ensure we have a more fiscally responsible budget. I also wanna thank our community. You are truly who keeps our city alive and thriving. Thank you for all of the input, time, dedication, and labor you have been putting into helping us create an equitable budget that truly prioritizes all of your needs.

I do wanna echo that I would love to see the return of the Fund Phoenix, tool as well, so I echo, that from the vice mayor. I also wanna say that as elected leaders with the focus to serve and do right by our residents, it is important that we acknowledge where we have found solutions that address the issues our communities face, as well as acknowledge the areas that need improvement. Those don't have to be mutually exclusive because duality exists. We should be open to critique from the community when they have questions or concerns about our decisions. So I will continue to point out, opportunities for growth in our institutions, as well as show gratitude to spaces where we are exceeding.

With that being said, there are a few things that I am excited about in this budget, and there are some opportunities for improvement that I would like to name. I'll be asking questions as I go through the points, but mostly my questions are for Ed, Aaron, Brandy from Parks, and Tim Tim from youth and education, and Cynthia. So if y'all could just be on standby for a few questions. First, wanna start with the homeless service, housing, child care, and SNAP navigation. I am really excited that we have set aside funds for homeless services to continue the work that already exist for housing.

You know, the investments into the housing trust fund are amazing, and especially childcare. So those continue to be some of the most pressing issues of our time. So I'm really looking forward to working with the mayor's office, with OHS, and the housing department on how we can use these funds to be of service to our community. As we've heard throughout different comments and, you know, mayor, thank you so much for highlighting this piece at the state of the city. We have seen that Arizona leads in snap cuts with over 400,000 of our residents losing across the state losing access, and out of those over 180,000 children who have lost those snap benefits.

So just want to thank you again, mayor, for your willingness to support navigators to ensure that we get as many of our Phoenix families back onto their SNAP benefits as soon as as soon as possible. This is an emergency, and we do need and we need to do everything we can to support these families. Second, on the flexible emergency financial assistance, I would have liked to see more money added to the flexible emergency family assistance. I am glad that we were able to increase the fund to from the original 1,500,000 to the now 3,150,000. I also echo that this shows that we have heard the community's request throughout this process to make sure that we are investing more into this line item.

So truly thank you for for making sure that the community is heard in this process. But I do agree with those that have voiced used their voices today that under Trump, our families and communities are under direct attack. The social safety nets that we typically depend on to support poor and working class Americans are getting chopped. And as a city, we must act to we must act to ensure that services do not stop and people do get the resources they need to survive. I would like to thank our HSD department under Jacqueline's leadership for your attention and to your support on this issue.

The ask is for what we've heard today is for $5,000,000 and asking Ed and Erin and the budget team to continue to review where we can find additional funds before we vote on this budget, on May 19. So my first question, Ed, what would need to happen between now and May 19 to ensure that we can increase the investment into the flexible emergency family assistance fund to $5,000,000?

Thank you, mayor, council member Hernandez. So the budget is presented today is a, allocates all the resources as Erin laid out. So in order to add something to any other portion, we would either have to have more revenue or we would have to take it away from something that's already funded in the budget. So you either have to find some new revenue or replace something else that we're already doing or that has already been proposed in this at an equal amount.

Okay. Thank you so much for that response. I have a few ideas where we can find someone to show money. Just saying. Okay. So I just wanna make some comments on the teen service programs. It excites me that we are providing more preventative programs for teens at our community centers. I appreciate this investment into our kids because we're showing them that we will lead with care now so that they are not criminalized later. This is how we meaningfully shape their future. But overall, we are failing falling behind on supporting our teams, and my office takes that responsibility very seriously.

But that's why we are grateful for the bump from 500,000 to the 937,000. We would like to still advocate and see that bumped up to 1,500,000, and 1,000,000 going to the teen services and 500,000 for literacy hubs. I wanna take a moment to thank to thank Tim and the Youth and Education Office for your strong vision on what successful Literacy Hubs can do to not only improve the reading levels of our children, but their life outcomes as well, and to our community centers team teams that already pour so much into our youth. My my question around this, probably to Brandy or or Cynthia, what kind of teen prevention programs will we be seeing in the community centers, And have we partnered with any community organizations or youth to identify what program mean is needed?

Mayor, members of the council, Councilwoman Hernandez, thank you so much for your question and for your advocacy of teen programs. We are really excited about the additional 937,000 to improve youth and teen programming. Specifically to your question, the enhanced youth and teen recreation programming that we're planning to provide at 16 sites is really designed to increase youth and teen engagement through a variety of programming opportunities. We will be working with residents as well as our teen participants and their families to help us identify what programs they're interested in and where those areas of needs are. And please do, if there are specific community organizations that you're interested in us connecting with, we are happy to hear about that.

Thank you so much. Tim, can you describe the types of youth programs you have seen, in existing our community centers during your tenure in working, with parks?

Mayor, members of the council, Council Member Hernandez, thank you for that question. One of during my tenure, again, this was, you know, we're probably about twenty years ago. We really focused on providing fun, structured activities as they do now, as really to bring them into the center and then connect them to and ground them with new development programs, specifically when it comes to interventional strategies and prevention. The goal was always twofold, really, is to welcome them in these spaces, but then connect them to meaningful resources and supports. At that particular time, we had a wide range of programs offered, including juvenile diversion and juvenile rights and responsibilities, violence awareness education, which still exists in parks today, truancy, reduction initiatives, life skills development, employment skills, nutritional education, team programs and conferences, which exist, and cultural competency programs, that really target this, you know, the teens and youth of Phoenix.

Each program was designed to address real challenges facing young people, like substance abuse, family instability, school disengagement, bullying, and other risk factors where sometimes they just make unhealthy choices. And we're really focused on partnering with community based organizations who could refer youth to us that maybe we don't necessarily reach, and so not only will we be serving the, you know, the students, or I should say students, but the youth within our community centers and programs, but working with community based organizations to refer youth that we may or may not have that ability to reach.

Alright. Thank you so much, Tim. And then my I have a next question for you. Can you describe some of the success you have had with the development of literacy hubs and how, if those are done right, impact, or could be impactful at inside our community centers?

Yes. Our community literacy hubs have demonstrated some success when it comes to some evidence based practices, and also working with community organizations and even city programs, who have, those programs that meet the needs of our families. When we coordinate early learning and literacy supports, tutoring, family literacy programming, access to books, digital learning, these hubs really counteract the early grade level declines that we're seeing currently, specifically with their grade reading, and create more consistent support system for our families. We're seeing some great success when it comes to those students who are receiving tutoring compared to their peers. They're outpacing, especially with their growth.

We're also seeing a small reduction in chronic absenteeism at those hubs, at those schools located that have those hubs because of the family engagement strategies that we're providing. Now, one thing to keep in mind is when we engage families at a unified hub, this definitely can work at a community center, but most importantly, I think it's, we just have to be intentional and uncoordinated when we provide those services, which that means is tapping into community resource resources, those high quality programs, Southwest Human Development, Make Way for Books, Condellin, even our own, libraries kindergarten boot camp is really those are the experts, and that's what a literacy hubs is bring those community resources in and then provide those services to families and youth and students in the community.

Alright. Thank you so much, Tim. And I know that's an area that's really, really important and critical to quite a few of us. So just thank you for sharing more on that. And I have another question, but I think the answer might be the same. But what needs to happen between now and May 19 in order to see, find an an increased investment in this line item?

Your mayor councilmember Hernandez, you you are correct that the answer is the same for any additional program that we wanted to add or expand beyond what's proposed in the in the package today. We'd have to identify either new revenue or take away something else that we're currently doing.

Okay. Still have ideas. Okay. Cynthia, this question is for you. I saw that we have we have built into the supplementals 379,000 set aside for parks. Can you explain a little bit more? We heard a little bit in the presentation from Erin, but can you explain how this money will be spent and if all of that money would be for enforcing the parks ordinance that we will be voting on tomorrow?

Sure, mayor, members of the city council, councilwoman Hernandez. So a portion of that is for one administrative assistant position that would be respond work in the parks department and be responsible for overseeing the permitting process for the new ordinance should the City Council approve that tomorrow. Right now we have existing staff who are working on that permitting process, but again this would be a dedicated person to oversee that, to work with our partner agencies throughout that process and really just be a point of contact. There are two additional positions in that package that would actually live with the Office of Homeless Solutions, and I will ask Gina if she can speak to the work that those positions will carry out.

Thank you, Mayor Councilwoman Hernandez and Rachel can be on standby if you want any additional detail. The positions that are planned or proposed for the solutions would be caseworker positions and they would be responsible for connecting outreach and attending events related to the that are permanent events in the parks and also connecting particularly with the medical providers and making sure that we have connections so that they can do outreach together and also connect folks that the medical providers are seeing to our services and OHS and also connecting folks to the medical services, treatment beds. They have a whole array of services that are available that that we would be able to more meaningfully connect them to.

Okay. Thank you so much. I think that's helpful. I don't don't think you missed anything there. Have we done any research on that can show us what the fiscal impact will be to the city, if we move to criminalized providers and shifting the work that they currently do onto the city's plate?

I'm sorry. Mayor, members of Council Councilman Hernandez, if that's specific to looking into how the ordinance itself

Just from the fiscal impact side. Yeah. Because we're talking about the budget. Right? And right now, we're showing that we have allotted 379,000 for three positions around this. Just trying to understand if the fiscal impact, like, is that gonna be enough to shift that work to the city? And is are those three positions going to be enough to make up for the impact of losing those services from providers? That are currently doing that or filling that gap.

Sure, mayor, members of the council, Councilman Hernandez, I think the best way I can answer that is we've certainly, in terms of the Parks Department, evaluated what we think the impact will be in terms of managing the permitting process and looking at field staff that will be able to go out and be on-site and meet with the providers and check to make sure that they're in compliance and understanding of what that ordinance is should it go into effect. So we feel like with this additional position, we'll have the capacity to manage that. Also that being said, we're uncertain about the volume that will come in through that permitting application, so that's something that we will monitor and keep an eye on and see if we think that the volume is greater than we expected or lower than we expected so we can adjust accordingly.

Okay. Thank you so much. Another area that we heard about, especially from our teenagers that showed up to a lot of the community hearings, it was also really amazing to see them so engaged in the process. We heard a lot about was to add shaped structures and spaces around their schools and on routes that they used to walk home. They had complaints about the heat and how difficult it is to walk to and from school, without enough shade.

I know the office of heat and mitigation and the streets department worked together, over the past year to spend down ARPA funding to provide some of that much needed shading. So we just really wanna thank those two departments for the leadership on that. Just had a follow-up question on that, and I don't know, this might be for you, Ed. What other specific departments need to be funded for this to continue happening? And will is there a possibility for those shade structures to be near schools? Because one of the comments was specifically from students as they walk to and from school.

So your question, if I understand it, is what other what needs to be funded for more shade structures?

Yeah. Which departments could work on providing more shade structures, specifically in these areas?

Yeah. I think it's really combination of departments because we have to coordinate between streets and public transit, certainly the heat office, doctor Hondala, but he can speak more to kind of how that coordination works.

Thank you, Ed. Mayor, council members, and councilman Hernandez, thank you for the question. Yes. As Ed alluded to, it would be a coordinated effort amongst several city departments, and our team would certainly be happy and privileged to be a part of that conversation about how to increase shade for pedestrians. And the shade Phoenix plan does guide us to think about these critical impact areas like schools. Several of the structures that we were able to build with your ARPA investment are located in the vicinity of schools, but but, of course, there are many more children in schools that could be served with additional shade.

Okay. Thank you. I mean, I think it would be great if we could, between now and May 19, hopefully find ways to make sure that there's investments there for that. So I appreciate vice mayor bringing up the shade Phoenix plan earlier. Would love to continue the conversation on that to make sure that, hopefully, we can get these students some some really good shading options and some solutions so they can get to in school from in a in a in a good way.

Okay. I that's, I think, all my questions for most of you. I also have some just brief feedback that I would like to give on the community engagement process. I looked through the attendance report for this year's hearings, and I can see that there was no community attendance or very few at multiple budget hearings. I can also see that some of those hearings lasted twenty minutes in length.

My office also had constituents reach out who directly opposed the budget process itself because it lacks transparency and real community engagement, and I think that there's room to improve that from us, right, on how we engage the community. I would like us to look at more ways where we can build, more engagement into the budget process to ensure that the community budget hearings are even more accessible next year. We should look at ways that where we can drive up that attendance, in this process for specifically for our working families. D seven hosted a budget town hall, and we were able to fill the South Mountain Community Center with about 50 residents in attendance. As a city, I would love to see us be able to fill that same room next year in the community budget hearing to that same capacity to make sure that we are engaging those residents in this process.

My last bit of constructive constructive feedback is on the video. I believe the video could have been better by explaining the entire budget process in a way that everyday residents can understand it. We'd be happy to work to, closer in providing ideas that would make it more digestible, funnier, smart, and informative for future sessions. And finally, I have a few last questions on the budget process itself for just clarity to the public. Aaron, can you explain to the public briefly what the difference is from our general fund surplus and the total general fund budget?

Yeah, mayor, members of council, Councilwoman Hernandez. Yeah, the way to answer that is that the the total general fund budget is really just about the total cost to fund the programs and services that are provided by the general fund. Right? So you can almost kind of think about it as like the equivalent of your household budget. The surplus on the other hand, going back to that slide in the presentation is saying, okay, based on the cost to provide that suite of programs and services, do we have enough resources to cover it?

And if we have more resources, we have a surplus, we have some extra resources, and that's what the proposed budget is about deciding how to allocate. So this again, similar to an individual's home budget, you take home paycheck, right, covers all your expenses and you have a little more, then you have a surplus and you have decisions to make about whether to save it or to use it on needs you have. So that's the difference between the two.

Okay. Thank you. And is there is there a reason why we don't present on both instead of just how the surplus will be spent in this process when we have our community budget hearings?

Yeah. That's a good question, mayor and members of council. Councilwoman Hernandez. I think that part of the answer to that question is one of the terms we used to use, I don't know that we've used it in a while, we have what we call a modified zero based budget. The fancy term that basically means council has approved again this range of services over the years and our starting point is to say, what is it going to cost to continue to provide those services the residents know and rely on, right?

And that's what so many of those budget processes that we go through throughout the year, our three plus nines and seven plus fives is about zeroing in on what's the true cost and can we find savings? We're gonna compare that to our resources then and can determine what the surplus is. So I think the concept is let's continue doing all the things that residents are used to and then if there's money left over and there's a surplus, let's take that out into the community and get feedback what else would the community like to see us doing. I think that's the idea behind the process.

Okay. Thank you so much. And I know earlier in the presentation, went over where our revenues come from for our general fund, and you know, you stated that the 42% of our general fund or sorry, 42% of the revenues to our general fund come from local sales and excise taxes. You be able to provide like a tangible example of what that would mean for the everyday person?

Yeah. Mayor, members of council, councilwoman Hernandez. Sure. I'd I had a little bit of help on this one, I'll admit. But, suppose that you need to go out and buy a pair of shoes, right, and suppose you're not like me and you're not shopping the sale rack, you're getting the cool looking stuff and it costs you a $100. We'll make it nice and easy, right? Of a $100 purchase, about a dollar 84 goes to the city's general fund, right, because we have the city's general fund sales tax. We also get a little slice of state shared revenue as well out of the state shared sales taxes. So with each purchase, right, a little bit goes into the general fund that then funds those programs and services that we've been talking about today.

Okay. Thank you. So you can find a lot of really good things on the sales rack, so I'm just Don't

don't I know it?

I'm just saying. Okay. And my next question for you is, what percent of the total general fund will be going to Phoenix Police Department for public safety in the twenty six, twenty seven fiscal year?

Yeah, mayor, members of council, councilwoman Hernandez. It's about 38% of the general fund that's going to police.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. And what percentage will be going to social services?

Mayor, members of council, Councilwoman Hernandez. I think that it probably depends on what you're gonna include in the social services category. One way that I might think about that are our community enrichment and community development categories of the budget. I think in some of our budget schedules in the back of the packet you can see those. So again, think I mentioned a few of them are our human services, our libraries. If you look at those two categories combined, they make up about between 1415% of the general fund budget.

Okay.

Thank It's

also important to know though that, for example, many human services programs are not a direct responsibility to the city of Phoenix, so we're often in human services allocating federal grants. So there's a larger portion of our budget going to it than just the general fund. In in case of parks, we have a dedicated sales tax for parks that's outside the general fund. So probably looking at the entire budget gives you a more true picture of what we're funding. The general fund is more focused on sort of the general services of the city.

Yeah. No. No. Thank you. I appreciate that. I think when we've talked about the budget, right, like, there's so much focus on the general fund for the public because that's where their tax dollars directly go to. Right? So it's like, I wanna make sure that the community understands, like, hey. When we're talking general fund, it's because the bulk of your tax money goes there through either the city directly, through the state, and some of the misguided steps the state legislature has done in the past to affect our state shared revenues. But that's a that's a vent session for another day.

Okay. Thank you. Those are all my questions. Just wanna close you know, finally, just thank thank you again to everyone on city staff from Ed all the way down to well, really every single department because there's so much work that goes into the budget behind the scenes from every single one of our employees. So thank you so much.

I really do wanna express my gratitude to to all of you, and, you know, I'm gonna always extend my concerns as well. But overall, as has been the pattern for many years, I still see too much money going to policing in the general fund. And while I celebrate a lot of the good things in this budget, it is my responsibility to keep pushing for more. And so I hope we can work together to get the community who we did hear as priorities accounted for in this budget before the May 19 final vote. So thank you so much, Mayor.

Thank you so much. Councilwoman Stark.

Thank you, Mayor. I too want to thank all city staff, the city manager's office, and budget and research. I remember a time when I was the department head, I wasn't so happy with budget and research because they were always saying cut your budget by 5%. And so every department had the exercise of cutting their budget by 5%. But I understand you do that for purposes to make sure that we can meet our budget every year and I do appreciate that.

What I really do want to thank you for is that you have continued to compensate our city staff. There was a time that staff had to take deep cuts during the Great Recession and I'm glad to see that we restored everything and that we are being competitive with other cities and towns in the State of Arizona. Quite frankly, we I reiterate the importance of staff, they deliver the everyday services that we all take and sometimes take disregard the good service we do, like picking up our garbage and fixing our pothos and organizing our after school programs and biting fires. So, you know, staff does a tremendous amount of work and so I thank you so much for making sure we continue to compensate them. And I appreciate that you really did listen to people at our budget hearings this year.

I too attended four hearings and heard a lot of diversity in comments, but also you take into consideration the comments that we hear on a daily basis. For example, probably because of my position, I hear a lot about planning and development and that you really did consider that we need to continue to do some process improvements in planning and development. So not only do we hear during the budget hearings, but you're also hearing things that we hear on an everyday occurrence, such as traffic safety and water issues, and so I appreciate that that goes into the budget as well. I know it's a tough situation because there's so many diverse interests out in our city. There are people that are friends of the libraries, friends of transit, friends of the airport, and you have to take all of that into consideration when you're looking at the budget, which really makes it a task.

And I know it's a lot of work and I do appreciate it. I continue to say that we need to do a better process, but I will tell you there were times, especially during the Great Recession, that we had three hundred and four hundred people show up at budget hearings because we were cutting services and people were fighting for those services. I'll never forget the Horse Lovers Park that actually I think brought 300 people to District 2 hearings. It really is important that while we have these hearings that we continue to listen to our constituents on an everyday basis because they do bring value in their comments and they do help us create the budget. So thank you so much for your hard work.

Thank you so much. We'll go to Councilman Waring and then Councilwoman Pastore.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate it. Ed, I think it was said that 38% of the budget is police. I think that was just

Aaron, I think it was 38% of the general fund.

Yeah, general fund, sorry, should have said. So general fund, so looking at page two, chart four, it says public safety is 63%, so I assume the other 25% is fire?

Fire and the municipal court Oh, court's fault is also included in public safety, think. Is that correct, Aaron?

Mayor, members, council councilman Waring, it's just police and fire that is in the public safety category.

Okay. Yeah. I thought the courts were set because you got a criminal justice.

It's about 24 and half percent.

Alright. So one quarter of the budget is fire, 38% is police. The vast majority of the general fund budget is public safety, as it should be. And one thing I don't see on here that's normally on here is the percentage of the budget that's personnel. Do you happen to know I think it's traditionally been 70 to 75% is personnel.

Mayor, members of council, councilman Waring, you're correct. It's actually about 77% of the general fund goes to the personal services.

So of that 77%, how much is police and fire? Because personnel is what we do, really. That's as you just said, 77% of our budget is personnel.

Yeah. Thanks, councilman Waring, mayor, members of council. I I believe it's about 72% of that number is police and fire staffing.

So for those watching at home, the, really the majority of the general fund budget is paying for police officers and firefighters. That's a true statement. Correct, Aaron?

Yes. Yes, sir.

That's correct.

I'm not smart enough to do 77% times 72% and come up with what that is as a but but I think it's over 50, right, for the

I I would assume so.

Yeah. And just to put

a finer point on police officers, firefighters, and all the people who support them in those departments.

Yeah. The support staff. So basically operators departments out the capital. Yes. I think for anybody watching at home who's interested in such things, that is the reason cities were formed in the first place. And so I'm pleased to hear that that's still the majority, and that the people who are working to protect us, police officers, firefighters, the people who support them, make up the majority of the budget. So I just want to thank you for that. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you so much. Councilwoman Pasteur. Thank you, Mayor.

I first want to start off with thanking the community and thank you for the community to show up and attend many community meetings but also attend council and keep asking for what you need in our community. So I want to thank you. Secondly, I believe many of my colleagues, or all my colleagues and staff, did listen to community and did add several areas of where community had asked for. And one in particular was the childcare affordability. And that is very strong and popular, and I want to thank the mayor for really leading that space and putting it in the forefront.

At several of our meetings, was talked about in the sense that people in our community need childcare. In addition to that, they also spoke about teen programming and teen mental health pieces, and there was money added to this. And it may not be enough, but additional dollars were added to the flexible emergency financial assistance. And I think that's important because people did show up and discussed that. One of the areas that was added also was Snap Navigation Support.

My question is that it says one time money, so are we only using one time money and then next year will be another possible ask.

Yeah. Mayor, members of council, councilwoman Pastora, that's correct. It would be a one time usage just in in next year's budget.

Okay. Thank you. There's one area that I think we should talk about, and it's really about the set aside to ensure that FY twenty twenty seven-twenty eight remains balanced. Can you please explain that? Because it's 75,000,000, and

it

can be very confusing for people, to say, well, there's 75,000,000. You set that aside. What is the purpose?

Yeah. Mayor, members of council, Councilwoman Pastor, it's a really good question. That set aside is built off of the financial forecasting and budgetary forecasting that we're doing. We covered quite a bit of that at the multi year forecast back in February, but the idea is that we're looking at when you add the items that are in the proposed budget, what does that do not just to next year to make sure we stay balanced then, but what does that do to our future years? And so if you don't set aside that amount you spend it next year, that could put us in a situation where we're significantly out of balance in fiscal year twenty seven-twenty eight. So the $75,000,000 was the number that our modeling showed was needed to ensure that we stay balanced in that year.

And when we put set aside away, and I wanna say use this year, and I could be wrong, and you can say, no, that's not right, when we put set aside, then sometimes if we forecast was very, I'm going use the term conservative, or we realize, okay, we put 75 in but our costs are really 60, then the 15 I say that right? The 15 then become in the sense of our one time budget or our one time dollars or ongoing.

Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, it would be one time money. But to your point, yes, if there's any difference between what we have forecasted, then that could be additional resources if we, for example, spent less or if there was additional revenue. Now it could also go the other way and one of the items we talked about in the multi year forecast, we do stress testing, right? And so if we have economic slowdown, as of right now there's geopolitical issues, what have you, that could send us in the other direction where maybe our revenue targets aren't hit, if there's additional unknown expenses, it could send us in the other direction. So take both of those into account.

And I want to thank you for doing that because at the end of the day, we're required to balance our budget. And in balancing our budget, if it's not there, then we start to look at positions or other ways to balance our budget. And so I think it's a way of how we manage through this process that then helps us get to where we are today. And it's not easy at times, and it's not easy on you, so I wanna thank you guys for going through this process because it's stress all the time, to look at that budget. I know, I look at my budget at home and say I don't have enough, I need another job.

No, just joking. So I am just saying I did hear some concerns about Margaret Hans Park and I want to acknowledge the people that are here that did speak about Margaret Hance Park and I'm not sure what that looks like and hopefully Parks will get with you and have that discussion if the possibility, if that's possible, I don't know. But I thank you for coming. My final is I also heard from HSD that the process, and this is a stickler for me and it always has been since I entered, of the process of how people get help and that they have to call on Monday, try to get an appointment, the appointments fill up, if they don't call at the right time, right space, then there's not an appointment, and there's really sometimes emergencies that are happening that they need help. And so I really wanna look at that process or have an emergency process.

It's just important to me to make sure that people that in their need get the help that they need. And so I would like to look at that. Once again, thank you, thank you to the city manager, thank you to the assistant city managers and the budget department and everybody that attended the meetings, but I also want to thank my colleagues and the mayor for also being actively engaged in the budget process and attending, so thank you. Thank you so much.

Councilman Robinson.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll join the chorus of everyone thanking Amber and Aaron and all the folks and all the departments who worked on this budget. And clearly, Amber and Aaron spent a great deal of time with me helping me to understand things, and I really appreciate that. I like the budget. There are a lot of things there I wish we could do more clearly, but as my colleague, Councilwoman Pastorgia said, we have to balance the budget.

We have to have a balanced budget each year. And our folks do a lot of work, and I think that is being recognized, understand where people are coming from, we understand what their wants are, their wants, their needs, we get it. We have to try to figure out across the board what makes the most sense where we can represent everybody. It was mentioned that some of the budget hearings, some of the budget meetings that we had, you had a lot of people in some, and some you don't. I think outside of Ed, I probably have been to more budget meetings over the years.

I have been there when the budget is real tight and you're looking at cuts and things like that, that's when you get a lot of people out. I remember the budget meetings taking hours and dozens and dozens of people who wanted to speak and explain what they want saved, it all kind of comes out in a wash. But one of the things I think is also important for everyone to know, I think it's pretty common in our office, and my guess is, and all the other council offices and the mayor's office, we get tons of calls every day about the budget, about other issues, and we're dealing with those things. We answer those questions. So when we wonder why some people don't come out to the budget meetings, I think that we have done a good job in making sure our constituents are informed and understand what's going on.

So I think that is to everyone's credit that you don't necessarily have to have a big showing of folks to show that it's important to them. I think if they're informed along the way, they appreciate that. And the last thing I will end with, it's a compliment, a compliment to the city. I was at a meeting yesterday with President Crow of Arizona State University, and he and I were talking, and he asked, what was going on with Phoenix? How was the budget? And I said, we're going have a little bit of a surplus. He says, now what's that from? Is it from cuts, or is it from good work? I said, it's from good work from our people. And he kind of shook his head, and if you look at everything that's going on with ASU and all the buildings and everything else that they're doing, that was a great compliment.

He was appreciative of the fact that our folks truly understand what's important, and they get down to work. And so to each and every one of you, each and every employee in the city of Phoenix, thank you. Folks in leadership, you're doing a wonderful job in directing our folks and moving in the right direction. This is a budget that I will support. I think it does all the right things for all the right reasons.

We add it in areas where we could add. It would be great if we had an unlimited amount of money. It would be great if Ed would plug in the money making machine in the basement, but that's not necessarily going to happen. So what we have to do is figure out what's best based on what our constituents tell us, all of our constituents tell us, and we all hear from them. And so with that, again, thank you very much. Great presentation. Really appreciate hearing from everybody's citizens, and I appreciate everyone coming out and letting us know where they stand. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor, for the time.

Thank you so much. This, we will vote on May 19, so we will be back for a vote. So that concludes this agenda item. For agenda item number two, our very hardworking staff I see has produced more than 80 slides. This seems like something that we need full attention for. For my colleagues, if we were to move this, we have an upcoming policy that has only the Food Action Plan on it, so this could go first. So we will Julie, help me do this appropriately. We will withdraw it today.

Mayor, I believe that you can vote to continue it

to Alright. That meeting. Okay. Do we have a motion to continue to six nine? So move. Second. And confirming I got the right date? Okay. Six nine. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Thank you so much. We have continued it to a future policy session, incredibly important and it deserves our full attention and energy. We are adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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