Board of Supervisors Addendum - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the July 14th Board of Supervisors meeting. We will start out with roll call. Okay, Supervisor Cano.

Present.

Supervisor Christy.

Here.

Supervisor Hine.

Present.

Supervisor Scott.

Here.

Chair Allen. Here. Let the record show Supervisor Christy is participating remotely. All board members are present.

The next item is going to be the Pledge of Allegiance, and I would like to invite Sailor Stratton, who is an administrative assistant, too, with the clerk of the board's office to lead us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Any exciting happenings in the clerk's office you'd like to share?

Well, like Chair Allen said, I work for the clerk of the board's office. We're constantly preparing for the next board meeting, for the study sessions, the virtual meetings. We're also working with FLPs, so that's liquor licenses, bingo licenses, fireworks permits. and we also handle public records for the county and we process litigation for the county too and none of it could be possible without the amazing staff at the clerk's office i work with really wonderful people and they make every day great at work we also schedule the pledge of allegiance for the board of supervisors meeting so if any any um pima county employees want to do the pledge please contact the clerk's office and we'd be happy to get you set up for a meeting

Thank you. Chair Allen?

Yes, Supervisor Cano.

I nominate Chad Casmar for the next meeting.

Okay. Our next item is our land acknowledgement statement, and it's going to be offered by Carmen Jones, who is the Director of Operations for JobPath. Thank you, Carmen.

Okay. On behalf of Pima County residents, we honor the tribal nations who have served as caretakers of this land from time immemorial and respectfully acknowledge the ancestral homelands of the Thawna O'odham Nation and the multi-millennial presence of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe within Pima County. Consistent with Pima County's commitment to diversity and inclusion, we strive toward building equal partner relationships with Arizona's tribal nations.

Thank you. Any updates from Job Path that you would like to share?

So we are just excited to plan this upcoming year and figuring out how we can better serve our students and work with the county. So I just want to say on behalf of Job Path, thank you for your continued trust in us as we do our part in serving our community. Thank you.

Next, we have Paws for Paws. I've been watching this puppy out of the corner of my eye.

Good afternoon, everyone. I do want to apologize first for my appearance. I know that I am covered in hair. I keep picking dogs that seem to choose to not walk, so I'm sorry for that. I usually am more pulled together and dog fur free. But this lovely gal... This is Nellie. She's one of about 500 animals in PAX care. Most of them lost stray dogs like her. She was found near Flowing Wells and Roger. So very busy area. We're pretty sure she has an owner that's looking for her, which is why I brought her. um she's well trained um and she's very very loving um to the people that she knows and she really really really needs to get out of the shelter because she hates it because it's so loud and it stresses her out um so share her picture and and everything for uh For your friends, family, anyone, someone who might know her or one of the 500 other dogs. We just had our Dog Days of Summer event. We had more adoptions this year than last year. It wasn't a huge number more, but it was still more. So we take that as a win. And we did take in an extra... I think 112 dogs the first three days after the 4th of July so we are dealing with crowded space again so we're reminding folks if you see a stray dog try to knock on some doors and help us see if if you can find the owner before they end up at pack and scared and nervous because as much as we try to make the shelter a lovely place it's still very nerve-wracking for a lot of dogs especially dogs that have never been inside a loud place like that so Please help us share Lost Dog posts. Come check us out. EPAC is open and doing well. We can't keep cats in stock, so to say. So come check out EPAC if you live closer on that side. That location finally did get a free tag machine. So you can get a free pet ID tag just like you can at Pima Animal Care Center and Friends Pet Clinic. And that's free to everyone in Pima County, not just people who adopt from PAC. So thank you.

Thank you. And I'll also just say thank you to all of the PAC employees who navigated a distemper outbreak. And it was a huge effort to both test and isolate the 500 plus animals. So amazing. Thank you and congratulations for weathering that storm.

Thank you. Our team was amazing through the whole thing. They identified the problem, shut it down really quick. We actually got national praise from some nationally recognized veterinarians for as quickly as we were able to contain it. So thank you to the community who gave us a whole lot of, you know, time and ability to hang on to stray pets to help us during that time. So we really appreciate it. It was able, with this community's help, we were able to turn that around very quickly. Thank you guys. Thank you.

Our next item is item five, it's current events and public acknowledgments.

Chair Allen. Supervisor Scott. Thank you. I was pleased to join the District 1 staff in touring the recently renovated and upgraded Northwest YMCA and wanted to let both Ms. Lesher and Mr. DeBone, I'm sorry, Mr. Casmar know that I got some really positive feedback from YMCA staff about Parks and Recreation staff that are working in partnership with them, especially around the pool. We had our quarterly meeting the district one team did with the Metropolitan Pima Alliance on on June 29th and I think Miss Solomon who's long been the director of MPA has publicly let everybody know that she's going to be stepping down from that position and I know that everybody on the board appreciates her service in that role. She's certainly been in that position for some time, but I think the reasons that she is stepping down are certainly worthy of celebration. We had our briefing on July 6th from staff with the Department of Transportation on the Safe Streets for All grant and how transportation is working in partnership with the Health Department and also with other jurisdictions to move forward that very important federal grant. I'm really excited with the work that is being discussed and the work that is going to unfold as the year progresses. And then ended the week on an extraordinarily positive note. I joined Mr. Bacall from the District 1 staff for a recognition of Sabino Vista Hills swim coach Chris Harrison at a gathering of the swim team and all of their parents. Very, very well attended. And Coach Harrison has been a coach of various area swim teams in Pima County, get ready for this, for 53 years. And he was also a longtime high school teacher, including being Mr. Bacall's economics teacher at Tucson High. So, yes, more badgers, Ms. Lesher. Thank you, Chair Allen.

Well, I will note that we have office hours in Pitcher Rocks on Wednesday, July 15th from 4.30 to 7.30 at the Pitcher Rocks Community Center. We will also be at Three Points on July 20th from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Family Resource Center in Three Points for the Family Cafe and Family Foam Party. Mm-hmm. And then on Sunday, July 26th, we'll be out in Ajo for a film screening at 4 p.m. and then caravanning to Oregon Pipe National Monument for a press conference at 6 p.m. This is being pulled together by the International Sonoran Desert Alliance and other organizations in the area. to highlight and denounce the irreplaceable environmental, historic, and cultural impacts of a secondary wall, a second wall, border wall, that is being built in western Pima County. So we will be there for that. And we will move on to item six, which is agenda adjustments, and I will pass it to the clerk.

On the regular agenda, under Board of Supervisors, page 6, item 24. This is resolution number 2026-37, opposition to building a wall on the Tohono O'odham Nation's border with Mexico. This item will be heard at a time starting at 6.15. Thank you.

We're gonna move on to item number seven. This is a County Supervisors Association presentation, an update, and a presentation of an award. So I would like to invite Michael Rossi, Jacob Emnett, and our, okay. Yes, the two of you, please.

Thank you, Michael. I didn't realize this moved up. Good evening, Chair Allen, Vice Chair Hines, Supervisors Scott Cano and Christie, and County Manager Lesher. My name is Jacob Emnett. I'm the Legislative Director of the York County Supervisors Association, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to connect Arizona's county supervisors to policymaking at the state capitol. I want to thank you for permitting me to address you today and for your continued participation in our association. I'd be remiss if I didn't give a special thanks to Supervisor Scott, who serves on our association's executive committee as its president-elect and is Pima County's representative on our legislative policy committee. The state legislature adjourned just under one month ago, brought to close an incredibly active session with a record number of bills introduced. We've been working to wrap up our final work product since then. That includes our sine die briefing, which some of you are on, our legislative summary, which should be coming out soon, and our attempt to get out to each county to provide a more detailed briefing. It's my understanding that Mr. Rossi will be speaking to you tonight on the session, so I won't steal his thunder, but we'll be reaching out to Manager Lesher to see when our team might be able to come back around. One of the most rewarding post-session activities is taking the time to recognize lawmakers who have been responsive to our outreach, which given the number of interests who work at the Capitol is not a given, and who have worked closely with our team to ensure that the perspectives of you as county elected officials and your taxpayers are not lost in the fray. If I could have Representative Stahl-Hamilton join me. I am very pleased to be able to recognize Representative Stahl-Hamilton, who represents significant portions of Pima and Santa Cruz counties, as well as portions of Cochise County, with one of our 2026 Good Government Awards. And we're very, very grateful to be able to do it with you, one of the boards she represents. Representative Stahl-Hamilton serves on several committees central to county interests, including the House's Committee on Government and its Committee on Land, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs, and and serves as the ranking member on the Committee on Appropriations. Throughout this year, despite many demands on her time, she has been very communicative with our association regarding issues that are critically important to counties. This year, that included ensuring that the state met its commitment to fund probation officers for another fiscal year and without her efforts as well as the efforts of others counties could have been made to shoulder over a 10 million dollar burden to pay for state employees so in a very tight budget year we're really thankful for her advocacy and we're also thankful for her consistent support for dedicating additional resources to fighting wildfires which spanned both this and last year legislators have a very difficult job they guide affairs of very large and public organizations and must balance the interests of a number of different stakeholders so we just wanted to express our gratitude to Representative Stahl-Hamilton for remaining open to the perspectives of locally elected officials and wanted to give her this plaque as just a small token of our gratitude.

Madam Chair.

I hope we can go down to get a photo. But before we do that, I, with your permission, wanted to just extend my appreciation in the District 5 office's appreciation to Representative Stahl-Hamilton. The people of Legislative District 21 are so fortunate to have you as their advocate, and our county is fortunate to be the recipient of the compassion that you bring to your public service. Representative Stahl Hamilton over the last two sessions has been in the cage, which is a legislative term for the legislators who have the opportunity to work with the majority, the minority and the governor's office to negotiate our state budget. And through that process, Representative Stahl Hamilton has led with courage, facing tough obstacles, limited resources and lots of need in our state. and I'm so grateful that the county is able to offer our thanks. Thank you for working closely with Mr. Rossi, who we entrust every single day to be our voice as well at the state capitol, and with the two of you together, it's a dynamo team advocating on behalf of Pima County residents. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Rask.

Chair Allen, board members, thank you very much. 153 days, 2,030 bills, 160 resolutions, the necessity to reprogram the state's bill system, where Senate bills are in the 1,000s and House bills are in the 2,000s, and for the first time in the state's history, there were Too many bills and we went into the four thousands and well into the four thousands. Two budgets, silly, but a slight improvement on last year where we had three budgets, two vetoed and then finally a final budget. Usually in the state, you negotiate and have one budget. About 400 and some odd bills sent to the governor, a little more than usual. Over 150 vetoed, about 250 passed into law. So fewer than usual. I can't thank Representative Stahl-Hamilton and the entire Pima County delegation enough. They are always phenomenal, and they always come together for our region. But this year, we had some very critical and very challenging events. items come up in committees as i mentioned record number of bills legislative council and legislative staff was more overwhelmed than i have ever seen them significantly and this is my 41st year representing folks at the legislature it's not too strong to say that committee process was a bit of a mess the drafting of the bills through no fault of the staff was Not as good as it usually is because people were just overwhelmed and overworked. But the Democratic caucus was more involved in this budget than at any time in the Hobbs administration. Our caucus, and led by Representative Stahl Hamilton, ensured that the probation funding got in the budget. The Republicans refused to include the money for the state employees. Not our employees, state employees and their share of it. We share in that. This is an especially big deal for Pima County because Maricopa County has a separate arrangement. So of that 10 million, that's for the 14 counties. That would have been a $3.5 million hit to Pima County, but for her work and the delegation's work saying we must have this included in the budget. We had a number of other things that we've worked on for years. We've been trying to get included in reentry funding. Pima, for a variety of reasons, has been excluded for that. This year, for the first year in modern times, we've got $2 million for coordinated reentry funding. And this was in a year that was incredibly tight. Almost nothing extra got funded. And so to get that additional funding in this year was a pretty big deal and something we should all be pretty proud of. And again, it was people in our delegation that stepped up. But also we had a Republican friend from Mojave County. a senator who won't be coming back, but was a former county supervisor. And so Supervisor Senator Angus really helped us to get included in her bill for coordinated reentry funding, which didn't go through the process, but then we were included in the budget. We've been working to update publication statutes for years. Pima has been a leader, but the League of Cities and Towns has worked on it. CSA has worked on it. Little tiny tinkering. For the first time since the internet, we dramatically updated and modernized the publication statutes in the state of Arizona. Didn't get everything we wanted, but we worked closely with the media association, negotiated an agreement so they're not furious at me and at you in an election year, which I think makes everyone happy. And we came up with something that had bipartisan support and got the governor's signature. And this is something we've worked on for years. We got a bill through working with pharmacists that allow them to prescribe PrEP, something that's been on the agenda and we've worked on for years. So in what was a very, very challenging session, we had some nice things. We also, in the budget, got relief from the expenditure limit for any opioid settlement dollars that are spent annually. in excess of the expenditure limit. We had hoped to get that for at least three years. We were blocked by one representative. We only got one year. I'll be working with CSA. We're going to do a series of learning sessions over the summer. on how to do the bookkeeping for that. I won't spend the time tonight to talk about it, but we're hopeful to come back and get multi-year relief in that area. And this year, like every year in recent years, it's the defensive side that the biggest and heaviest lifting is done. Mojave County, again, same center, had a crisis dealing with dangerous, incompetent individuals. And during that bill process, it was used opportunistically by folks on both sides of the aisle. not in the legislature, but in other offices, to shift the responsibility for those individuals from the state to counties. Would have been a $5 to $10 million ongoing forever impact. Our delegation, more than any other, stood up in that committee, backed me up. I led the testimony for all counties on that and said, we're not going to do that. That's not going to happen. And I negotiated with that senator. We came up with a solution for their crisis, but protected us. We had multiple attempts to preempt us on various land use areas, elections, immigration enforcement, and a host of others. While some of those succeeded going through as ballot initiatives, the worst of what was out there was either stopped at the legislature and, thankfully, the governor is a backstop vetoing almost another record number of bills protected us from most of the worst things that could have happened during this session. Disappointments that we didn't get more progress on wildfire funding and on insurance industry Reforms a little more notice and other things, but that'll be an ongoing effort into next year and we're already actively working with CSA all the other counties. On legislative projects for next year and we'll be getting all the staff recommendations shortly submitting those to CSA by the 14th but already working with representative stall Hamilton and this one's ongoing. trying to get some summer youth funding even for the current fiscal year out of ARPA dollars working with Legislative Council on some Additional requirements for row officers working with our county attorney on some additional authority for deputies in the event of a vacancy in a row officer. So a whole lot of activity already going on, especially with Pinal, Maricopa, Santa Cruz, and Coconino counties. They tend to be the most active in trying to put new initiatives together. So that's just a very quick flavor of the session, but I'd be happy to answer any questions or go into more detail on any of these or any other items.

Madam Chair.

Supervisor Christie.

Yes, Mr. Rossi, thank you for your work on homeowners insurance and availability and affordability in wildfire prone areas. That's a subject near and dear to our heart in District 4. Hopefully, we'll be able to take a better approach or a more successful approach in the upcoming legislative year. But again, thank you for your efforts on that. And I just urge you to keep it up. Could you very briefly comment on your efforts with combating home title fraud? That's another very interested topic in my district.

Chair Allen and Supervisor Christie, we worked with the coalition folks that have tightened up signature and other requirements and procedures to help combat deed fraud, which is becoming a growing problem throughout the country and throughout the state, especially impacting elderly folks and less sophisticated folks. And we were able to get some meaningful legislation through this year that the governor has signed. You all have copies of that. That'll we're going to continue those efforts. We're going to try to enhance it even further. But it was a pretty big and a pretty successful step this year. Another one I didn't touch on, but we got all the way through the House of Representatives on some reforms of. the vacation rental area, and we had two chairs in the Senate just plain refused to hear the bill. We had the votes, we had the support, we had done, we thought, a compromise with the industry. Don't know why those two chairs wouldn't hear the bills. We tried two separate committees, but we'll be back on that one as well. I know another issue that impacts a number of parts of your district, Supervisor Gristie.

Madam Chair, one final question as a follow-up also. Mr. Rossi, County Assessor Drewby had explained on numerous occasions down in town halls that we held in my district in the Green Valley area in particular regarding a plan she has to help combat title fraud, home title fraud. Have you had a chance to discuss that with her?

Chair Allen and Supervisor Christie, yes, I have. And most of those discussions were near the beginning of the session as we were working on the legislation that passed that ties in with that. And that's actually part of the ongoing effort that I was referencing. In Arizona, there are a series of assessors that are implementing different national systems to try to help track and prevent that kind of activity.

Great. Thank you very much.

Any further questions? Well, thank you very much for the presentation.

Board members, thank you very much and look forward to putting the agenda together for next year. We've got a lot to work on already. I went over with the administrator our list and I think I have probably 10 or 12 carry forward items already. So I look forward to our agenda. Thank you all very, very much.

Thank you. Our next item is a proclamation, and this is to Megan Brajewicz and Chris Desborough from the Office of City of Tucson Councilmember Paul Cunningham from Ward 2, proclaiming the month of July 2026 to be Disability Pride Month. I'll move the item. Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 5-0. And I am happy to read and present the proclamation.

Thank you. Hello. Hi, Janet. How are you? Nice to see you.

Good to see you.

Hello. Two hefty frames. And I'm going to read the proclamation and then I will pass the mic over to you all if you have anything you want to add. So the proclamation reads, whereas the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990 to ensure the civil rights of people with disabilities and to protect against discrimination in all areas of public life. And whereas disability is a natural part of the human experience that does not diminish the right of individuals to live independently, enjoy self-determination, and contribute to the economic, political, social, and cultural fabric of Pima County. And whereas disability pride is a rejection of the stigma and shame often associated with disabilities, and instead celebrates the unique experiences, resilience, and vibrant culture of the disability community. And whereas, Pima County acknowledges that despite the progress made since the passage of the ADA, many residents with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental health disabilities still face significant barriers to housing, transportation, employment, and healthcare. And whereas the Pima County Board of Supervisors recognizes its responsibility to move beyond mere compliance with federal law and toward proactive leadership in universal accessibility and inclusion. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Pima County Board of Supervisors hereby proclaims the month of July 2026 to be Disability Pride Month. be it further resolved, sorry, that was a little premature, that Pima County affirms its commitment to prioritizing policy and budgetary decisions that expand access and protect the rights of our neighbors with disabilities, identifying and dismantling physical, digital, and systemic obstacles within county infrastructure and services, and ensuring that the voices of people with disabilities are centered in the design and implementation of programs that affect their lives. Passed and adopted this 14th day of July, 2026. Offer any words?

Chair Allen, thank you very much. Board of Supervisors, thank you. This proclamation may not say much, but it's pretty significant for those of us who live with disabilities. And those words also come with a plea. Don't forget us when you are making policy. We talk about equity, but we need to make sure that we are covering equity through every lens, not just most lenses. So please, please engage with the community. Please ensure that the community is part of any decisions and policy from an early stage. And thank you very much indeed, again, Chair Allen and Board of Supervisors for finally recognising July as Disability Pride Month. Thank you very much indeed.

Chair Allen, Board of Supervisors, thank you for this recognition and for expanding disability visibility here in Tucson. Silence has never brought about change for our community. And this is a step in the right direction to bring us forward. So thank you.

Well, hello, everybody. I wasn't going to speak, but good to see you. Thank you so much for all of this. I'm super grateful. I'm a mom, first and foremost. That's the first hat I wear in this space. And I have a son with a disability. He impacts every part of my life. And in the state of Arizona, we have 12% of our population is disabled. We're celebrating the 36th anniversary of the ADA being signed. And with all these bigger things happening in this space, it's important for people to feel proud and pride when they think about disability. So as Chris wrote this, it was really to set precedence moving forward. If there was any sort of target on our community, hopefully this proclamation will be read and set that foundation that we won't have more rights or things taken away from us. So thank you all very much. Big deal. Thank you.

And I think we have a picture back, if we will. Okay, we are now gonna move on to call to the public. So we have, so today during the agenda, we have two things, call to the public, and then we also have a number of hearings. Just wanna make sure that if people know, if you wanted to speak, call to the public. Those are the green cards. If you intended to speak for a hearing, those are the yellow cards. We have 12 speakers for call to the public who have signed up, which means that because it is less than 20 speakers, that means everybody gets three minutes. When we cross that 20 speaker threshold, that amount gets reduced to two minutes. But we are at three minutes. And I want to read our rules and regulations for call to the public. So people attending the meeting shall observe rules of propriety, decorum, and good conduct. Any person making personal and pertinent slanderous remarks or who becomes boisterous while addressing the board may be removed by the sergeant at arms if directed by the chair. Unauthorized remarks from the audience, stamping of feet, whistling yells, or similar demonstrations should not be permitted by the chair who may direct offenders from the hearing room. We have our first speaker is telephonic. It is Trista DiGenova. I will say while we are getting Trista connected, our next... Go right ahead, Trista.

Okay. Hi, Pima County voters. My name is Trista DeGenova. I am running as an independent candidate for District 5 of the Pima County Board of Supervisors. And I'm going to take the next three minutes to tell you why everybody should write me in TRIST in the general election on November 6th. This board apparently thinks it's part of their job description to ignore constituents, and I assure you it is not. This is the 16th time I have been asking this board, and in particular Supervisor Cano, to intervene in my situation, which involves a home invasion, a highly illegal home invasion carried out by Sheriff Nano's department involving up upwards of 60 officers, and all paid for by your taxpayer dollars, Pima County voters. So this illegal home invasion, which was a character assassination attempt, was carried out by Pima County sheriffs and PAC and the district attorney's office, who unlawfully seized my... flock award-winning flock of service animals and so if you're an animal lover um and uh wants uh someone on the board to fight for the rights of the disabled uh you need to write me in because they got a warrant without probable cause um based on ridiculous false uh false reporting by a third party And the suspect of Noon in the case, he solicited a crime by fabricating charges two weeks after the raid. It was August 30, 2023, and they falsely arrested me. They assaulted me. They dragged me off to Pima County Jail, which is one of the worst in the country with four times more jail deaths than Rikers Island, by the way. And Sheriff Nanos is presiding over that case. which is, you know, this board's responsibility to provide oversight for the agencies that are involved in this outrageous, what's called in legal terms, shocking to the conscience of the community case and involving the worst mistreatment and abuse of animals probably in American history because of They got a warrant without probable cause. And I will be speaking out at every meeting until this board intervenes or I can get some justice in the appeals level right now. I'm appealing it to the Arizona Supreme Court because they basically did everything wrong that they should do.

uh not have done and we should use this example uh thank you that's time mr jenova um i'm gonna call up the next three speakers in order uh we have designated some seats in the front so folks don't mind coming up just so we can kind of speed speed along so the next three speakers first is going to be jd wallace followed by pauline bell and then craig langrell

Hello, Chair Allen and Board of Supervisors. I'm J.D. Wallace, a Tucson resident and also a retained speaker for Tucson Electric Power at 88 East Broadway downtown, with some updates on how we're working to remain a trusted energy provider. We've welcomed the return of the monsoon, and we've been answering the challenges dealt by its storms. On Saturday, storm damage left 11,000 customers without power. By 7.30 Sunday morning, that outage number was down to 350, with seven poles either blown down or damaged and requiring replacement, potentially more. Sunday's storms took 4,400 customers out of service, but all but 80 were restored by Monday with a handful of poles needing replacement. And I should note that all of the customers affected by the storms this weekend have now been restored. Last night, though, while 6,400 customers also experienced outages, we restored those customers within an hour by rerouting power. This comes three weeks after storm activity along Park Avenue and Benson Highway required us to replace 40 poles, impacting 9,500 customers that Wednesday night. But by midday the next day, that number was less than 200 and all residential customers were restored by the weekend. Restoring residential customers remains our priority during these outages. Our energy grid is strained more during summer than any other time of year, and that's why we work year-round to strengthen the electrical grid, including $320 million worth of upgrades in 2025, adding transformers, power lines, and breakers at our different substations throughout the city, such as our Pantano, Northeast, and Drexel substations. and $30 million of improved distribution lines in our neighborhoods to provide greater capacity for our customers' energy needs. I have previously mentioned the second phase of our Roadrunner Reserve battery storage facility. Those additional 200 megawatts of storage are online now. expanding our total storage capacity to 550 megawatts. This time last year we had 50, so we have more than 10 times the battery storage capacity, which means we can store plentiful solar energy during the day and deploy it later when it's needed most and when energy costs more. This helps us reduce fuel costs for our customers. We're the first corporate sponsor of the Community Coalition for Prosperity, working in partnership with Pima County and others. The Prosperity Initiative is a community-wide evidence-based policy framework adopted by Pima County and the City of Tucson to reduce generational poverty and improve economic stability through policies and community collaboration throughout our region. Our $100,000 donation comes from corporate resources, not ratepayer funds. Thank you for your time, and any constituents seeking ways to manage summer bills can find tips on TEP.com or call our customer service representatives.

Thank you, Mr. Wallace. Our next speaker is Pauline Bell.

Good evening members of the board. My name is Pauline Bell and I'm a current employee of Pima County Treasurer's Office. I stand before you tonight in hopes a perspective will help you guide your crucial decision to appoint Jake Martin, Mr. Jake Martin. I along with my dedicated co-workers share profound concern. We are terrified that the board will make a monumental mistake by appointing a new treasurer based strictly on age. rather than proven qualifications. I am over the age of 55 myself, and I know what dedicated professional experience looks like. I have witnessed firsthand the blatant age discrimination faced by Mr. Martin. I have read the public articles scrutinizing his ability to lead, and I've heard people dismiss him as a kid or the child or the little boy. That behavior is utterly disgusting. Jake Martin is by far one of the most professional, mature, competent leaders I have ever had the honor of working under. Let us look at the reality of our office. While Brian Johnson had the elected title, he held it only by name. jay martin was already doing the heavy lifting for both the treasurer and the deputy treasurer he is the one single handily ensures our everyday public service runs smoothly by simultaneously managing the complex accounting projects furthermore i watched last tuesday's debate I was utterly appalled by some of the opposing candidates that could barely answer basic questions asked of them. Others chose to dodge the question entirely, derailing the conversation to completely unrelated topics. Worst of all, they chose to stoop so low to accuse Jake of coercing our staff into signing a letter of recommendation. As a co-writer of that letter, I am here to tell you that is an outright lie. My coworker, July, and I authorized that letter independently because we believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jake Martin is the only person truly qualified to lead us. We neutrally asked the team if they wanted to sign it, and everyone who read it wholeheartedly agreed. Jake has earned every ounce of unwavering loyalty. Old ways do not mean good ways. It's time for young, fresh minds to take the lead. I urge Pima County to set powerful precedent tonight that the true capability and character matter that anyone can lead regardless their age. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Craig Langrow. And then I'll note following Mr. Langrow, we will have Brian Kessler, Nancy Allen, and then Catherine McCronus.

Thank you very much. It's a privilege to be here tonight. My name is Craig Mangrell. I'm the CEO and founder of the Blackbriar Group and the Blackbriar Foundation, also a national investigative consortium that's first of its kind in the United States. I am here speaking on behalf of Nancy Guthrie and all of those who are currently missing. He's got a lot of emotion to me. So I'll just read really quick because I have a lot to share. Every once in a while, a story transcends the city where it began. Nancy Guthrie's disappearance is one of those stories. Her family, time stopped that day when she disappeared. Every morning begins the same, unanswered questions. Where's Nancy? For most people, missing person cases slowly disappear from public view. The headline ends, the cameras leave, the public moves on. Families never do. That's why our team and I have traveled across the United States from Florida to Tucson. We were not asked to come. We came because we believe every missing person matters, every family deserves answers, and no family should ever be forgotten simply because time has passed. Our awareness vehicle isn't the story, the photograph on the side isn't the story, and the Blackwire Group isn't the story. Nancy is a story. Everything you see on the vehicle exists for one purpose, to remind people that someone is still missing and someone somewhere may hold the information that brings this family answers. This campaign is built on one simple belief. Someone knows something, someone has seen something, someone remembers something, and someone knows something that may have been dismissed as unimportant. The smallest detail, a conversation, a vehicle, an observation, a name, a memory from months ago could be the one piece investigators need. If today's interview causes just one person to stop and think, If one friend calls another, if one family member decides to finally, it's time to speak, if one witness comes forward, then the journey across America would have been worth every mile. I want people watching today to understand something. This is not just Nancy's story. This is thousands of families across the country who live with the same uncertainty every day. Imagine not knowing where your mother is. Imagine not being able to say goodbye. Imagine wanting every time the phone rings hoping that today will finally be the day someone calls for an answer That's a reality of these these families live with we cannot solve every case but together we can refuse to let them be forgotten But today I ask every viewer take one more. Look think back talk to your family and Sorry, this just kind of like went somewhere. Think back. Talk to your family. Share Nancy's story. If you know something that could help investigators, no matter how small you think it may be, contact law enforcement. Let trained investigators determine whether the information is significant. I'll close with this. Thank you. I already had a phone call today. that I passed on to the FBI. So the efforts of today may have bared some fruit. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Brian Kessler.

Good evening chair supervisor over the past several months. I've spent hundreds of hours reading county budgets project blue memorandums land agreements. Utility filings, planning documents and meeting transcripts. It started with project blue, but it became something much bigger. This is my home, and I wanted to understand where Pima County is headed. One thing became very clear. Every budget is a statement of priorities. Every dollar spent reflects a choice. And every choice reflects what this board believes is most important. Supervisor Cano. I've watched enough of these meetings to notice a pattern. When Supervisor Christie questions spending, the response often shifts to reminding everyone that he voted for a previous budget. His vote matters. He is responsible for it. But citing yesterday's vote does not answer today's questions. It doesn't explain why a program deserves continued funding. It doesn't explain whether it's producing measurable results. And it doesn't explain why taxpayers should trust the next commitment. Accountability works both ways. Every member of this board should be willing to own the votes you've taken together, the priorities you've chosen, the investments you've approved, and the results those decisions produce. That matters now more than ever. You've asked voters to approve Proposition 425 and permanently increase the county's expenditure limit by 75%. Yet your own FAQ says the immediate needs is only 10 to 20%. You've asked taxpayers to grant enough spending authority for roughly the next 20 years. That's more than a budget decision. It's a request for long-term trust. It's before asking voters for that trust, show us how the long-term commitments you've already made will be measured, evaluated, and adjusted over time. That includes the county's 10-year $250 million housing initiative. If those commitments succeed, show us the results. If they fall short, tell us how you'll adjust. Taxpayers aren't asking perfection. We're asking to understand what we're buying, how success will be measured, and who is accountable for it. because at the end of the day it isn't the board's money it's the taxpayers money leadership isn't reminding people who they voted for leadership is explaining why today's priorities deserve tomorrow's trust thank you thank you our next speaker is nancy allen

Hello, my name is Nancy Allen. I'm here with my husband, Pastor Lorenzo Allen of the A Mountain Church. And when we came in, we weren't offered a yellow card, but we do have a scheduled hearing. So I don't know what to do to fix that.

We can give you a yellow card, and if you want to speak during the, when we get to the hearing, so it's more connected to that item itself. And if you tell me which hearing it is, I can bump it up so you're not sitting around waiting. Petition for relief of taxes? Oh, right. Oh, okay. If that is... Okay, that's item number 25. It is not a hearing. So you did absolutely the right thing. I'm going to be quiet and pass it back over to you. And we'll restart your time. Oh, so we go now? Yep.

We've never done this before. Oh, you're good. You're doing it just right. We've never been taxed before. We are a church, a non-profit. All of the many, many years up until the year 2019, we filed the affidavit for exemption. And then from, they're saying that we owe taxes for 2019. And then 2020 up until this year, we've been current on filing that affidavit for exemption of taxes. 2019 was some kind of fluke where the affidavit was sent to somebody else's address. We didn't receive it. We didn't even know that it hadn't been completed and filed because we just do it every year when it gets sent to us. So we're petitioning that tax that's been assessed against us.

Thank you. We also have Pastor Lorenzo Allen, and I'm thinking that might be you. You were later down in the deck of speakers. If you would like to utilize your speaker card, you're welcome to do so now.

I'm okay with what my wife said. Okay. This is all new to me, so we're at your mercy, however you guys want.

Well, great. Thank you. We appreciate your comments.

Do we wait at the end, or how does this work?

um so yes if so normal we do we get all the all the comments out and uh then we shift back over to the agenda and we'll run through the items okay and then you give us your determination or you give us an answer today yes it's on the agenda which means that we will vote on it today thank you very much Okay, our next speaker is Catherine Micronis.

Thank you, Chair Allen. Members of the Board of Supervisors, my name is Catherine Micronis, and I'm an employee of the Pima County Treasurer's Office. I would like to share my firsthand experiences working with Chief Deputy Treasurer Jake Martin. During the events that led to the recent investigation, I had the opportunity to observe Jake's professionalism, judgment, and leadership under extraordinarily challenging circumstances. Throughout this period, Jake has continued to carry the responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the Treasurer's Office. I observed his efforts to maintain continuity and stability while navigating circumstances that affected both the leadership and employees of the office. My experience with Jake during this period reinforced for me the importance of leadership grounded in professionalism, discretion, respect, and sound judgment. At a time when trust within the workplace has been significantly affected, his leadership and conduct have contributed to the difficult and necessary process of beginning to rebuild that trust. The past 18 months since I started working in the treasurer's office has reinforced for me that leadership and public service is measured not only by operational knowledge and professional qualifications. But by how a leader responds during difficult uncertain and consequential circumstances. Based on my firsthand experience, Jake demonstrates professionalism, steadiness, and respect. I appreciate the opportunity to share my personal experiences with the board, and thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you.

Our next three speakers are going to be the Honorable Sarah May Williams, Justice of the Peace Ho Court, Julie McLaren, and Billy Peard. And then our final speaker will be Reyes.

Chair Allen, members of the board. For three years, I've had no reprimands, no appeals and no corrective action taken against me. I announced my reelection campaign on October 2025. Then on December 4, 2025, control of my court was taken through administrative order issued by the Supreme Court Chief Judge. For seven months, I asked for proof and none was ever provided. While this entire experience has been incredibly difficult to maneuver, and through the level of disrespect that I have been shown, I'm happy to report that on July 9th, my administrative authority was restored, with no findings, I might add, leaving me just 13 days to set the record straight before my primary election on July 21st. Win or lose, With the restoration of my authority over Ajo Justice Court, my focus is exactly where it has always belonged, ensuring that the people of Precinct 3 have a court fully equipped to serve them. While administrative control has been returned, many of the challenges that existed before and during Superior Court's administration still remain. Ajo Justice Court continues to struggle with unreliable internet service, an outdated phone system, aging technology and server issues, and infrastructure that urgently needs modernization. These problems are not new, but they can no longer be delayed. As the elected Justice of the Peace, I have a responsibility to advocate for resources for my community. This body was ready to provide Superior Court with the money needed to fix my court funding that has never been provided to me in the three and a half years I've served. I am hopeful that these long overdue improvements will finally be addressed. That is why I'm appearing here today before the Pima County Board of Supervisors. We must rebuild a strong partnership so that all our justice courts can thrive once again under the leadership of the elected justices of the peace in Pima County. I also need a clear understanding of my court's budget to effectively lead Ajo Justice Court. I must know what resources are available, what expenditures have been made, and what funding is necessary to move the court forward. I am aware that LD23 State Rep. Pena sent a letter to this body requesting a number of issues impacting our Pima County Justice Court's financial resources. If this board responded to that letter, I would like to have a copy. Transparency and collaboration are essential if we're going to provide the level of justice our rural community deserves. Regaining control of my court was never the finish line. It was the beginning. Now the work begins restoring confidence, strengthening operations, and building a court that is efficient, accessible, and prepared to serve Precinct 3 for years to come. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Julie McLaren.

Good evening members of the board. My name is July and I am but one of the 10 other employees here today speaking on behalf of the Pima County Treasurer's Office. Our office has just endured an incredibly painful chapter. Following the resignation of former Treasurer Brian Johnson, amid severe sexual harassment allegations, our staff's morale, trust, and safety were left deeply fractured. I am concerned that this board might try to rectify a profound cultural problem with a superficial fix, specifically voting for a candidate simply as a public relations shield. As a woman in this office, checking a demographic box does not automatically guarantee safety or competent leadership. Real healing requires an appointed leader who truly has the best interest for both the employees and the office's reputation at heart. Jake Martin kept our day-to-day public services running smoothly while navigating complex accounting projects. More importantly, he maintained absolute professionalism, safety, and respect for our staff when the leadership above him failed entirely. This isn't just about internal morale. With the sudden change of resignation of Brian Johnson, the public's trust in the treasurer's office has been deeply shaken. Our community and staff have reached their limit with political instability. Jake already has concrete, actionable plans to rebuild that trust through increased operational transparency. Having already stepped up to perform the duties of the role, he will hit the ground running upon appointment to continually restore that vital public confidence. I am also aware of public commentary dismissing Jake as too young. Capability and moral character do not have an age requirement. Jake Martin is by far one of the most mature and competent leaders I have ever worked under. Furthermore, during last Tuesday's forum, Jake was accused of coercing his staff into signing our letter of recommendation. As the person who actually spearheaded that letter, I'm here to tell you that that is an outright lie and an incredible insult to our staff. Jake has earned every ounce of our loyalty and our respect. True progress is about actual capability and character. Do not weaponize gender or age to make a political statement. Appoint the person who has already proven he can run this office with absolute integrity. I hope you appoint Jake Martin. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Billy Peart.

Thank you, good evening. Billy Peart, I rise in support of Treasurer applicant Sami Hamed. Many of you know that I'm a history buff and many years ago I read a wonderful book called Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin about the Lincoln presidency. And the message of that book, which later became the Spielberg movie, a part of it did, is about how he brought literally a team of rivals, his adversaries, his political adversaries, into his fold after he was elected president. And that became the strength and the resilience of his presidency during unprecedented times. Nowhere is that lesson, in my view, more apropos at the local government level than in perhaps the treasurer's office. In recent years, we've seen down in Santa Cruz County, for example, and we've seen more recently here locally in Pima County, the importance of a treasurer who surrounds themselves with those with whom they disagree, those who are not afraid to speak up when they see that their boss is not doing the right thing. Now, I have no reason to believe there's any improprieties of this nature in Pima County, but in Santa Cruz County, for example, imagine the number of deputies or assistants who must have known something, must have seen something over the course of years as Treasurer Gutpar did what she did, what we now understand she did. Again, I'm not saying that's at issue here, but it brings to light the importance of having a leader who's not afraid to bring in people, deputies and assistants and employees who disagree with them, who are willing to challenge them, who are willing to speak up when they see something or suspect something is improper, whether that be financial impropriety or, in the example we've seen in recent weeks, a different type of impropriety. I've known Sammy for a number of years, worked with him on a number of levels, political and non-political. He has a sharp mind. To my knowledge, he's never worked as a treasurer, but he's a quick study. And if he's putting himself as a candidate for this position, you can rest assured that he has carefully studied the various issues. One final thought is this position, we talked, there was a mention earlier about the Prosperity Initiative. and about social justice. And this position we think of as primarily a ministerial role. We lawyers call ministerial duties. There's not really a lot of discretion, but there are some areas in the treasurer's office where there is discretion. For example, they oversee, as you all know, the tax lien program, which disproportionately affects communities of color and other disadvantaged communities. For example, he's someone I know personally will take seriously his responsibility to make sure that homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes are fully informed in both languages, in all languages, in all manners, are adequately communicated with. That's the type of dedication I know he'll approach this job with. Thank you.

Thank you. And our final speaker is Reyes.

Hello, Pima County Board of Supervisors. My name is Reyes. I'm representing D-Flock Tucson, although I'm not a paid speaker. First of all, I want to thank Jen Allen. Last time I was here inquiring about if the county had still been using Flock devices. I and others in D-Flock Tucson are aware that Flock ALPRs is currently really only used by private vendors such as U of A and big chain stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's. I was speaking more towards all AI surveillance, whether that be through different brands such as Axon, Verkata, Motorola, LiveView, ALPRs, and biometric cameras such as Tucson Police Department are known to use, as well as in their fusion center, aka CSAR, Community Safety and Response Center. We're not aware of any current ALPR contract through Pima County, but we do know of a drone program and of AI-enabled axon body cameras. With recent use of neighboring Cochise County, we wanted to have a clear demand that no such pervasive practices of iris scanning as their department is doing, rolling out. Okay. Uh, we know that DHS has been doling out money to almost every jurisdiction for the strict purposes of implementing surveillance measures. It's how CSARC was funded as well as the litany of ALPRs littering our streets. TBD took this money and wrapped themselves in strings of DHS interest and I hope Piedmont County doesn't follow suit. There's no reason someone who hasn't committed a serious crime to be iriscanned, much less without a warrant. This is an extension of our own bodies. And much like ALPRs, the legislation protecting this data has been far outpaced by the advancement of technology. There's a larger plan at foot as more and more prisons are being built under the guise of detention centers and more excess funding to ICE Homeland Security Task Force and the newly created Cork combating online retail theft. There's a trillion dollars going to the centralization of all of our data, private, public and everything in between. And people are being caught in the gears of advancement. There was a 50-year-old grandmother from Tennessee who was pinged in North Dakota by facial recognition for a bank robbery. She never stepped foot in there. U.S. Marshals arrested her, and they kept her in jail for five months until she was proven innocent, losing her home and pets in the process. Colorado Springs, a woman was also falsely accused of package theft, they say at APRs, and was told by the accusing officer, you know we have cameras in that jurisdiction, and you can't get a breath of fresh air without us knowing. I also worry about Exxon's AI-enabled body cameras, whose translating capabilities is leading departments to file their trusted translators. We know that these cameras also auto-transcribe and even write officers' reports for them. How long until an officer asks its AI to suggest probable cause in order to justify detainment?

That's time.

I ask that you implement some active protections for your citizens. Thank you.

So I am now closing call to the public. Would any board members like to do any of the following? Request staff to follow up on any matter from call to the public. Request that an item be placed on a future agenda or respond to a criticism. Hearing none, we will move on to our time certain, which is agenda item number 24. This is a resolution in opposition to building a wall on the Tonantum Nation's border with Mexico. And I would like to invite our very honored guests, Chairman Jose, Vice Chair Johnson, any staff, if they would be willing to come to the podium and share a bit about the context for this resolution. While they're approaching, I will move the item. Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Chairman Osai, Vice Chair Johnson, welcome and thank you for coming.

Good evening to each and every one of you. My name is Verlin Jose. I am the chairman of the Tohono O'odham Nation. Chair Allen and members of the board, thank you for giving us this opportunity. We are here on behalf of Tohono O'odham Nation to once again humbly request and seek your support opposing a border wall on tribal lands. On June 16, the nation filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. to stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from constructing a border wall on our reservation. We had to take action because even though we were in the middle of negotiations, we learned that DHS was preparing to award contracts for a construction of a wall on our lands. The nation's lawsuit argues that the construction of a border wall by DHS would illegally take nation's land and decrease the size of our reservation, which is not within the Department of Homeland Security's power to do so. Our lawsuit also argues that DHS and its contractors would be trespassing on the nation's lands and violating our rights to our reservation and its resources. The lawsuit also explains that the wall would destroy sacred cultural sites important to us that impact our ceremonies, our religious practices. It would further divide our people and harm our natural environment. This morning, Madam Vice Chairwoman and I met with about 20 elders on this very topic. They requested an update. They were in tears when they said, don't they care about us? They're further dividing our people again. They don't care about the land and they don't care about the animals. It's sad to see our elders in tears. We understand the importance of securing the border. For decades, we have been working closely with federal law enforcement on the border. We know how to secure our own lands. We have lived since time immemorial in this area, including right here in Tucson. And we've always been very humble people, but stood to protect the people and the land. We have approved vehicle barriers, patrol roads, forward operating bases, integrated fixed towers, checkpoints, and more. We've also spent millions of dollars annually of our own tribal funds on securing the border. Together, these measures have created an incredible successful border security infrastructure. In just the past two years, apprehensions of illegal border crosses on our reservation have dropped by over 95%. And that's by their own data and their information that they've reported to us. Today, virtually no one is crossing the border illegally on our lands, which raises the question, if no one is crossing, why do we need a border wall? Why do we need a secondary wall? It won't make us safer. It would only destroy sacred sites, damage our natural environment and further divide our people with American taxpayers paying billions of dollars for the bill. The only rationale conclusion is that the wall is being promoted for political reasons, not to protect, not practical ones, because there is no practical reason to construct this wall on our land. We should be building education centers, rehabilitation centers, homes for our homeless, and all those other things that America is facing. We have explained to DHS many times, but they are still pushing forward with a destructive wall. So we had to take them to court. We were pushed into a corner. And in order to make our case, it is important that we demonstrate that we are not standing alone on this issue. In 2017, the Pima County Board of Supervisors passed Resolution 2017-37, which opposes the border wall and noted the harm it would do to the Thawnauth Nation. At that time, I was vice chairman of the nation, and I applauded the board's action. Now, as chairman, I am asking you to reaffirm your opposition to the border wall on our reservation land. This resolution will help demonstrate to the courts and the Trump administration there is strong public support on the nation's opposition. It will help us to fight and protect our land, our culture, our people from this destructive war. This It's aligned with the Pima County values and the previous resolution in 2017. We respectfully and humbly ask again, please stand with us once again to oppose this wasteful, ineffective, and harmful wall. With the womb of the together, we are stronger. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. Any further questions or discussion?

Chair Allen.

Supervisor Scott.

I want to thank our friends from the Tohono O'odham Nation for being here today. You know, we begin every meeting with a land acknowledgement statement that recognizes that we are on land that has been part of your civilization, as you said, Chairman Jose, for many thousands of years. I know that Many of our county departments work in partnership with the nation to ensure that services and supports that Pima County provides are delivered equitably and responsibly on Tohono O'odham Nation lands. I actually can't talk. Something that I think people should pay attention to as the Trump administration is once again considering a medieval solution to a modern problem is part of this resolution where it says that the nation has continued to work with federal authorities to implement a modern, robust, and dynamic border security system on its lands. including but not limited to forward operating bases for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, vehicle barriers, integrated fixed sensor towers, the all-native Shadow Wolves tracking unit, and other measures. And as a result of these measures, detentions of people illegally crossing the border have dropped by 95% in the past two years. So not only is this wall, again, a medieval solution to modern problems, but you and the other folks in the Tohono O'odham Nation have demonstrated your willingness to work with federal authorities on measures that are actually going to confront these issues while also showing respect for tribal lands. So I very much appreciate and respect the fact that you came and spoke to us tonight and want to thank the chair for bringing this resolution forward.

I, again, thank you for coming and for taking your leadership and filing the lawsuit and appreciate that. I am curious, we are going to be down in Oregon Pipe area end of the month. And I'm wondering if you might be able to share a little bit about what happened to the intaglio and the threat to Quito Paquito Springs from the second wall.

Chair Allen, thank you for the question. Supervisor Scott, thank you for that. So what happened in the Intaglio, 1,000-year-old Intaglio site? That area was clearly marked. They are building a double wall there. They have a primary wall, and they're building the secondary wall. And they can't do that because in that particular site, it's on land with the Cabeza Prieta, which is land of the Department of Defense, and the organ pipe. And the Quito Biquito, that's an organ pipe national monument. So it's easy for them to build it there. Matter of fact, in the previous construction of the wall, They blew up Monument Hill there, which was a known archaeological burial site, which was marked, and they blew right through it. Fragments of bones were found scattered all over that mountain. So the intaglio site was clearly marked. that it was an area that they needed to avoid. There was a tribal monitor in the area, they sent them somewhere else, but the contractor and whoever is operating that grader just went and graded right through it. You can't bring that back. Thousands of years destroyed. An area that is sacred to our people, an area that most people may not understand how important it is. It's not only sacred to the O'odham, It's sacred to the people. It's sacred to the generation. So they destroyed that. And as they're moving forward and they're going to build that secondary wall, it's going to have a major impact on Quito Buquito. There are three endangered species at Quito Buquito that are not found anywhere else in the world but there. And that is a site as well that has been protected because of its sacredness, not only to the autumn, but to many people traveling through that region and is at the verge of being destroyed because they're going to have to come out. They say they want to operate on the 60-foot Roosevelt boundary. They're going out 150 to 200 feet out, and that's concerning to us. And we were out there the last time, and I'll tell you, the elders who went out there to see, they wanted to see this wall. We're devastated when they saw that, and they don't want that to happen to us. So thank you, Chair Allen, for asking that question. And we were out there. Matter of fact, Vice Chair and I were on the call with Commissioner Scott, and we told him when we heard about that news, and we went out there to look at it. And it's pretty sad because we knew about these things. There's so many places along the border that are known to us but are not known to a lot of other people. Because to us, our church, our place of worship is in the sacred desert. Thank you, Carolyn, for the question.

Thank you. I will just read the last two clauses of the resolution. I'm not gonna go through the entire text. So it is now therefore be it resolved that the Pima County Board of Supervisors affirms its support for the Dona O'odham Nation's lawsuit to prevent a border wall on its lands. And be it further resolved that the Pima County Board of Supervisors reaffirms its opposition to the construction of a border wall and the additional and ongoing militarization of the border region. That's the resolutions of it. There is no further discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Opposed. Resolution, oh, and I do need to read this number. Resolution number 2026-37 is approved, passes 4-1. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Ellen. Thank you, Board of Supervisors, for your support. Thank you.

We are going to, I know we have some guests here for different items. I'm gonna move really quickly to item number 25. I believe who the Allens are here for, and perhaps it's just because we share the last name, we're gonna go to your item quickly. Just kidding, just kidding, we wouldn't do that. So this is regular agenda item number 25, relief of taxes. I will move the item.

Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Scott. Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 3-0. Chair Allen.

Supervisor Scott. Just while we're on that portion of the agenda, I would move items 26 through 29.

All right. Second. Is there discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Items pass 3-0. That was 26 through 29. All right. i before we get to item number 22 which is appointment of the treasurer i want to request a quick executive session um do i have i will make a motion that we recess

I'll second, Chair Allen.

Seconded by Supervisor Scott. Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 5-0. Yep, 5-0. So we're going to take a quick executive session break, and we will be right back. Okay, we are back. So for item 22.

Chair Allen. Supervisor Scott. Chair Allen, on the advice of legal counsel, I move that we continue item 22 until the next regular meeting of the board on July 28th, unless a special meeting of the board is called before then. Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. No discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 5-0.

Chair Allen. Madam Chair.

Madam Chair. Go ahead, Supervisor Scott. I'll wait till you're through.

Thank you, Supervisor Christie. I just wanted to extend my apologies to the staff from our treasurer's office and also some of the applicants who are here tonight. We didn't want to continue this item, but again, upon the advice of legal counsel, it was the most prudent action for the board to take. I apologize that you had to be here up until this time just to hear that we're not taking action on it tonight.

Madam Chair?

Supervisor Christie.

Yes, to change gears a little bit, I got a little bit exuberant with all the bundling that my colleague, Supervisor Scott, was doing. And I would respectfully request the board, by making a motion for reconsideration of item 26. Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. all those in favor of the reconsider discussion all those in favor of the reconsideration aye aye opposed the reconsideration of item 26 passes 5-0 uh we'll take up uh supervisor connell thank you chair allen i'll move item number 26 as recommended by staff second Seconded by Supervisor Scott. Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed?

No.

Item passes 4-1. Okay. I was just going to note that if you were here for the treasurer appointment, please feel as much as we would love for you to stay and enjoy the rest of the meeting with us. We do understand that you may have other places to go and things to do. So please feel free to get up and back up and we will hopefully see you soon. Thank you. All right. I want to take a little, if we could do a little something by show of hands here. I'm guessing so some of you might still be here for some hearings. Okay. are could you raise your hand if you're here for item number 18 this is the the rancho del cerro hearing okay great and then oh and that's why we have speaker cards that is uh the efficient way to do this too okay and then is anyone here for other agenda items that are not that is not 18 for the rancho del cerro

Mr. Courtney is here for item 17.

17. Okay. Great. Okay. We have 17 hearing 18. Are there any other items? I just want to make sure that we don't leave folks hanging out. Okay. All right. Great. Then let's open up. Let's go then to item number 18. And this is hearing for the plat note modification for Rancho del Cerro. And it looks like we have three speakers who signed up with yellow cards. If you did not yet fill out a card and wanted to still speak, you can get one right here in the front. So our first speaker is going to be Robert Workman, followed by Janice Arnold, and then Oscar Gomez. And similar to call to the public, it's three minutes each. Oh, that's completely fine.

Thank you for your time today. My name is Janice Arnold, and this is the first time that I'm speaking to all of you. We moved to Tucson about three years ago when we moved into this particular house last October. It is our dream house. We love the area. We love this particular house. However, there's one little thing that we need in order to make it exactly that dream house, and it's to build an additional garage. Now, we love this area. We share with our neighbors the desire to minimize disruption to the beautiful landscape. However, we do acknowledge that we as the property owners have the right to build and improve upon our property, which is what we'd like to do to really realize the dream house that we want. um so we're going to talk a little bit today and my husband's going to talk about some of the details that went into our careful consideration of not only where we're placing the garage but the real decision today around the modification to the plat note which is about the driveway that's going to go to where the location of the garage is I don't think that some of our neighbors that are not supportive realize that we share a desire to minimize disruption and what we've put forward for that driveway with the plat note modification is the shortest and most direct route that minimizes disruption. Our plan B option would be to connect from our existing driveway all the way around the hill, which will be four to five times longer in length for the driveway, which logically tells you that that's going to be a heck of a lot more disruption than what we'd like to do. So that's like what I really wanted to convey. And I'm going to turn it over to my husband to talk a little bit more about some of the details that went behind our thoughtful consideration of why we're here today asking for this platinum modification.

Madam Chair and the rest of the board, thank you for this time. Yes, the question is for Chair Allen that did your chief of staff convey our response document, if you want to call it that. Not sure if you had time to share with the other board members or how this actually works in this situation. I do have additional copies if anybody else on the board wants it or if you would distribute that. That would be great. And I guess I would start with asking if you had any questions with regards to the information that we have provided to you today.

So my understanding of sort of how this works, which is not also a little bit on the limited side, but I think in sort of these things, it's one way. And we just kind of sit here with some poker faces on. But then we can have discussion afterwards.

Okay, just wanted to see if that was the case. But yes, as my wife has said, you know, this is as close to our dream house as we've come, with the exception of having additional storage space in the form of a garage. And we understand that the issue at hand is not building the garage itself. It's really lifting that one foot easement that would allow us access to the back part of our property. And as Janice stated, we have walked over our property looking at locations where it would be best suited. The reason we chose the rear of the property is there is a naturally a less steep part of the property, as flat a spot as we have, other than where the house is. I know one of the comments kind of alluded to in talking with Chief of Staff, Chair Allen, one of the concerns or one of the recommendations was, well, they can just build it up by their house. While yes, from anybody who has not been to the house, could say that, there is technically not the footprint for it. There would have to be additional film material brought in and that would be a larger impact than what we have. As Janice said, we are Pretty firm with the location of the garage as we've had it cited. One of the other concerns was runoff, things like that. We've had an engineer as part of the building package develop a grading and erosion plan. So discharge will be taken care of. That's been looked at. Other consideration that went in regarding the landscape, particularly the swarrows, we are fortunate to have many mature swarrows on our piece of property. We specifically chose location of the driveway. We will not be disrupting any mature swarrows. There is one small swirl that's in the footprint. It's about four feet tall. We plan to have that relocated on the property. So any of that disruption would be minimized as much as we could, you know, from that standpoint. So I think is that the end of our time?

It's time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Oscar Gomez.

Good evening. Upon looking at where this house is located, My house from the driveway or the street, Camino del Cerro, is 150 feet down below. So if I stand on my street and look across to my house, I can see I'm almost level with the top of my flat or roof. If I look up, Approximately the height of four story hill going up in this direction is a house Down below The property that comes from the back of that house comes down is Camino del Risco, Calle del Risco, and that's what gets me down to my neighborhood and comes around. When you look at that house, the slope is about that angle. From the street, if he wants to build a road in, he has to go, To build Camino del Oeste, I mean, Calle del Risco, the highway department or the building construction company that built those houses there had to make a cut on that particular hill to build the road. And when I stand next to that road and the cut that has been made, it's almost as tall as me. So how much is going to be cut is, difficult for me to understand where the flow of the water is going to go. One of the reasons I'm concerned about the flow of the water is because a few years ago, water line broke right underneath the road. And you won't believe the damage it caused overnight to my driveway. And the county had to spend $1,000 just to fix my driveway. It also affected the guy next door. And the water that was coming out of that water line went down his driveway and went into his garage. And the neighbor over there who's further down below, his water went down there and also affected his garage because they face the street. I'm concerned about the erosion more than anything else because where is the cut going to be made to – allow this road to come up to his garage. There's no way that I can keep him from doing that. But where is the water going to go? The flow downward is pretty sharp. And the elevate, how much dirt is going to have to be cut for him to have a flat spot to build a garage? And I don't know how big it's going to be. And where is all that water? It's a concern to me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Did we have any more speakers on this item? I mean, Minister Lesher, let me see if there's anything that our development services department may want to add.

Chair Allen, board members. Staff is supportive of the request. The reason we were supportive is that this area of where the proposed development is is the flattest of a property that has lots of slopes to it. Item before the board is whether or not they can access to the north through that additional street, or whether or not they're going to have to cut and fill a driveway up to their existing driveway to the north. So the question before the board of whether or not a structure could be built, they're gonna need to meet our standards, our grading requirements, our HDZ requirements. before the board is whether or not they can access through that northern piece which is closest to where they're proposing the garage or whether or not they're going to have to meander that driveway up to the to the south to access through the existing driveway so that's the reasons why we're supportive i can answer any questions that the board has

Chair Allen. Supervisor Scott. Thank you. Mr. Druskowski, under the staff recommendation at the end of the first paragraph, it says one foot no access easements are found on many streets in Rancho del Cerro, including on North Calle del Risco. And then it says, if approved, staff recommends the following condition. I wondered if you could... explain the reason for the condition, and also if the commonality of the one foot no access easements is also a reason for the staff recommendation.

Chair Allen, board members. In the staff report, we are proposing Let me get to the condition.

This is under the section titled staff recommendation.

Staff recommends the following condition. The property owner will be required to process a formal right-of-way abandonment with Pima County for the limits of the driveway and removal of the one foot no access easement and recorder release of easement. Right, those are standard, you know, that condition came from us to ensure that they go through the appropriate processes. Most of the time these one foot no access easements and subdivisions that were developed years ago were really developed to protect what could be perceived as hillsides. Obviously this is an area that is, you know, the lot is steep with a hillside. So we did route this through our Department of Transportation and Flood Control District and neither one of them had any objection to the request.

if there would have been the if there would have been the potential for concerns from those departments they would have been articulated in our staff report and then just to follow up the um the commonality of the one foot no access easements found in that subdivision is another reason for the staff recommendations

Mr. Chair Allen, Supervisor Scott, the reason we had one foot no access easements has changed over time. We added them, subdivisions that were developed in the 70s and 80s were added for different reasons than they are today. I think today they're more from a site visibility perspective, safe access control to ensure that driveways are located in appropriate locations. from my research over the years sometimes in older subdivisions they were added for less known reasons and just to protect hillsides or things the way things were developed years ago were different thank you sir thank you chair ellen thank you

I have a, I've got a question for Mr. Workman and Ms. Arnold. I'm sorry to make you come up. Do you mind coming back up? It feels very Price is Right. So I am a, What I'm thinking about is suggesting that we continue this item to our next meeting, which is in two weeks. I saw your sigh. And this is why. I absolutely understand that this is your property. You need to build a garage, you got to get a driveway to it. From what I've heard from you and what I've read, that your site selection is that you selected the site that has the least impact to native plants and the shortest distance for road. And I also know, and you found a house in a gem of a neighborhood. I have been out, met with the neighbors, and it is a beautiful little kind of hidden place. And so I think my objective is that if it is possible, right, because... Property, right? Owning our homes and doing what we want in our home is a piece of it. But, you know, having good neighbors and having good relationship with neighbors is really helpful, right? Neighbors are the ones who help us out. We look after one another. And it is a, you know, it is a beautiful place that you live, that you live in. And so if there is a way that we could figure out whether it be, if there were any other options, you can say, I mean, obviously you were in all right to be like, Nope, this is it. That's what we want. But if there are any, if there's any way in which we could come up with some conditions that might be amenable to the neighbors that, that could minimize some of the concerns so that we can get to sort of a, you know, win, win ish. I, I would hope that we could take two weeks to try to do that if you would be amenable to sitting down. We're happy to come. We could sort of see who else we might be able to get to help have that conversation. Would you be open to that?

Of course, rather than having a vote of no tonight. Yes, if it's two weeks, certainly we would accommodate that because there are still, you know, as our one neighbor that's present is thinking the driveway is going to be in one spot, which is, I believe, right across from your driveway somewhat where that embankment is that they cut originally. Our proposed driveway is 65 feet further up the road towards the corner where there is no embankment. Yes.

Mm hmm.

yes and the wash is not on our property it is further beyond okay so it if if i'm i'm sorry i don't want to start yet not we'll do this later that's fine um so so that that was my question and and and i and i appreciate your your your willingness and so i i will move to continue this item until the next board meeting seconded by supervisor heinz uh discussion All those in favor? Aye.

Clarifying question? In terms of you had mentioned about meeting, do we work with your chief of staff to set something up before the meet, before the next meeting?

Yep, he actually just came right on out to just try to make it happen. Okay, very good. Yeah, those opposed? All right, motion passes 5-0.

Madam Chair.

Supervisor Christie.

Just as a quick note, I can't see from my vantage point. Is Director Cotsens-Hargrove here?

Yes.

Perhaps we can remember maybe to move up her item as well so she won't have to suffer and endure what we're going through. Yes. At your discretion, but I'm just suggesting we be aware of that.

Yes. We have, so just as a little roadmap, we are going to consider the consent agenda because we have somebody here for consent. And then we have three staff, I believe, here for addendum items 2, 3, and 21. So that's going to be, we're going to go with consent first, and then we'll go to... Oh, I'm sorry, and I skipped one. We have hearing item number 17. First, we're going to go to 17. Then we'll go to consent. And then we'll hit those other three items. So I'm going to call up on hearing item number 17. This is two hearings, two items, and we have a speaker for it, Craig Courtney.

Chair, board members, I'm Craig Courtney. I represent the owner of lot four requesting this extension. We've worked with staff briefly. Staff has come up with a good report. We're supportive of it, and we would like to just move forward based on their staff report. Thank you very much. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Any questions for our?

Chair Allen, I don't have any questions for Mr. Courtney, but I did want to thank through both Mr. DeBonis and Mr. Druskowski, Mr. Donaldson from your department, because a lot of the history related to this development predates my time on the board. Even though the first extension, I think, was one of the first meetings that I had when I was a supervisor in 2021. Some of the pre-2021 stuff, I needed an update, and Mr. Donaldson gave a very detailed response, and I was grateful for that. So please pass that on to him, Tom.

I will. Thank you. I must comment, it was going down a memory path. I got to read it to it. The printout of the staff report was a history of how this property evolved and all the effort and energy that staff over the years have put into it. So I do thank you for that memory.

Chair Allen. I move that we close the first public hearing and approve the staff recommendation against closure. Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 5-0. Chair Allen.

Supervisor Scott. I also move that we close the second public hearing and approve the staff recommendation of a five-year time extension subject to modified standard and special conditions. Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Item passes 5-0. All right. Now we're going to hop not too far over to agenda item 20. This is approval of the consent calendar. I will move the item. Second. Madam Chair. Supervisor Christie.

Yes, I would... respectfully ask that we pull the following items for consideration. Items one through eight, 15, 16, and 23.

Okay, I am going to modify my motion to approve the consent calendar with the subtractions of items one through eight, 15, 16, and 23. Also second. Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Any discussion?

Chair Allen. Supervisor Scott. Just wanted to thank the county attorney for her response to some written questions I had about consent agenda item number nine. Really appreciated her response. And serendipitously, I had a podcast episode yesterday, Mr. Holmes, with our staff from Grants Management and Innovation. And they answered the second part of my question. So it all worked out.

Further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Madam Chair?

Item passes 5-0. Supervisor Christie?

Yes. I would like to move that items 1 through 5 be considered together.

second seconded by supervisor heinz discussion all those in favor aye aye as opposed uh items one through five on the consent calendar pass five zero uh thank you pardon madam chair

Karen Grove- Yes, I'm sure I was.

Karen Grove- Sorry, your thumb sort of. Karen Grove- Some hovering in the middle.

Karen Grove- Okay, so my chair and have a point of clarification yeah supervisor Christie did he mean what items one through eight or is it just one through five.

One through five.

Okay, so clarification then. Items one through five of the consent calendar passed for one.

And Madam Chair, the balance of one through eight, which would be six, seven, and eight, I ask be considered together as well. Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Discussion? All those in favor?

Madam Chair.

Oh, discussion? I'm sorry, are you voting?

Well, are we able to discuss this item now, or are we voting to address 6, 7, and 8 together?

We were in discussion of items 6, 7, and 8.

Together?

Yes. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed?

Now, is there going to be discussion on six, seven, and eight?

No, we're voting. She made the motion.

I second this motion.

I think we're confused. Well, I know we're confused. Were you wanting to discuss? So I just did a vote. I think we may have a little delay, which might be causing this confusion. We just voted on it.

I apologize. I wanted to consider six, seven, and eight together, and then I have some questions on them.

Okay, we just voted on it, and you voted, I recorded a thumbs up for you that you voted in favor of it. Happy to come back for questions, but first let me just double check that you indeed wanted to vote in support of six, seven, and eight. No?

No, I did not. I move that we reconsider items 6, 7, 8 on the consent agenda.

I will second that motion for reconsideration of items 6, 7, and 8. All those in favor of reconsideration of items 6, 7, and 8? Aye. Opposed? None. The reconsideration passes 5-0. All right. Clean slate. Item 6, 7, and 8. Why don't you ask your question, Supervisor Christie, before we get into the...

Thank you very much. They all apply the same thing. I'd like to have some sort of a clarification. This appears to be some new source of revenue to fund the Pima Early Education Program. Could I get an explanation of what the CWDP Special Revenue Fund is?

Administrator Lesher.

It applies to all three.

It's the PEEPS Special Revenue Fund.

Yes, Administrator Lesher, Chair Allen, Supervisor Christie, this is the monies that were transferred from the library district to CWD for this funding source. We now call it the Special Revenue Fund for CWD, but it's the same transfer of funds from the library district to CWD for the PEEPS program.

So to be clear, it used to just come out of the library fund. Now it's being renamed in this capacity, but it's still coming from the library fund.

Chair Allen, Supervisor, that is correct. It's the same funding source. This was a better way of doing it through our budget to make sure that those are being funded directly to those school districts via CWD since they handle the contracts.

Is there any money coming from the general fund?

Chair Allen, Supervisor Creasy, no.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Okay. I will move items six, seven, and eight. Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 4-1. So we have a couple lingering items, items 15, 16, and 23. I will move those items together. Seconded by Supervisor.

Hold on. On the regular agenda now?

Consent. These are your last three exclusions from consent.

I figured, yeah. So we are gonna be voting on 15 and 16?

And 23. Okay.

15, 16, and 23, thank you.

Discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Items passed 4-1, and that concludes the consent calendar. Okay, we are now gonna go to addendum item number three. This was Supervisor Christy's item, 2026, primary election.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm disappointed, it's unfortunate that our recorder chose not to attend tonight, especially since the primary election is one week away. We could have, we would have liked to have had the opportunity to learn about and be given an update on several items. I'll just mention them here now. And the recorder asked that I send them to her personally, and she'll respond. But some of the issues that I would have liked to have heard from the recorder is what she is thinking of the volume of voters at early voting sites, what she is thinking of the operational aspects of in-person voting versus ballot drop-offs. And why isn't the new ID verified early ballot drop-off process being offered at early voting sites? I would have liked to have heard about the deployment of the recorder's vote mobile. And it was particularly when the recorder stated that the vote mobile will be available throughout FEMA County. Yet her website station states that the Vote Mobile will make only four stops, all in District 3. I want to thank Constance Hargrove for her willingness to be here tonight. She's always available. She's always most amenable to answering questions. So Madam Director, I think just a couple of questions. Has the recorder's new policy of the no privacy envelope for the return of ballots aided in your offices receiving an ability to faster tabulate the ballots? Are you seeing a notable improvement in the tabulation?

Chair Allen, Supervisor Christy, point of clarification, are you referring to my office receiving the affidavits from the recorder's office or the process of actually tabulating the ballots?

The processing, not the tabulation. So the answer would be yes.

Okay, so Chair Allen, Supervisor Christie, it doesn't affect us one way or the other. We would not have received the outer envelope most of the time anyway. They removed the outer envelope to scan for the signature to do signature verification. So our process is actually the same.

I see, okay. Also, can you kind of give us a, I don't know, 30,000 foot or a thumbnail sketch on What can voters expect when they arrive to drop off a ballot? One of the things that we've been noticing on the statements is that sufficient ID is listed in the process. And if we could have a definition of what sufficient ID is so that when folks go to show up, they can show up prepared.

I'm sure, Chair Allen, Supervisor Christie, sufficient ID is the same identification we would require for them to actually vote in person on election day. And so if they actually have that driver's license or government ID with their picture on it, address we can verify, then it is valid. So it is the same identification that's listed on our website and the recorder's website that they would use to vote on election day.

So basically it's the same identification id and that that uh makes it in the process sufficient that is correct okay um and i've also been looking at this elections oversight task force and uh i don't see my colleague supervisor scott um but i just like that since he's the county's representative or the board's representative to this task force I'm just wondering, Ms. Lesher, are you involved on the meetings with the task force?

Chair Allen, Supervisor Christie, yes, there's been one meeting.

There has been one meeting? Yes. And has the task force determined if the Emergency Operations Center will need to be open on election day?

We're asking questions about the elections task force. I don't think we have made a determination. I know that he was asking you, but now that you're back, I don't want to step on yours.

Supervisor Christie, I apologize. I had to step away from the dais for a moment. We just got notification today that there was a special meeting part of Microsoft Teams set aside in case the group needed to come together quickly. We did, as Ms. Lesher said, only have one meeting, but everybody who was appointed attended the meeting, including Mr. Strabala as the representative of the Election Integrity Commission. And we talked about circumstances under which the group might be convened again, and how quickly the group could be convened if it was determined that they needed to meet. And I would just ask, since the county administrator had designated Deputy County Administrator Holmes as the chair of the group, and he presided over our one meeting, Mr. Holmes, anything that I left out in my description of what we discussed?

Supervisor Scott and also Supervisor, sorry, Chrissy. No, nothing that you left out. I think the whole purpose of that initial meeting was to really just determine what are situations that may arise that would require the group to gather and get together and really be an extension of communications and any kind of emergencies that would have to happen On behalf of the county, for the recorder and our elections director, as things are going on during the election, if anything was to occur, we had a team available and ready to meet and deal with any situation that may arise.

Well, that was going to lead into my second question, Madam Chair, that maybe perhaps Mr. Holmes could best answer it. Has this task force determined what the Emergency Operations Center will need to What will activate it? What will need to make this EOC operate in your estimation? And basically, what is its function again?

Madam, Mr. Vice Chair and Supervisor Christie, the task force was pulled together so that we have a group of people representing every aspect of elections here. We have the recorder elections, the board, the EIC, communications, the county attorney's office, IT, facilities management, so that we know that if at any point we find, as we're preparing for the election, that we need to get communications out about a topic. Depending on what it might be, IT is there in case we have an outage in a certain area. If we have weather concerns or if we need to- Could you give me an example of what might- As I'm doing right now, if the power goes out in a part of the community, if there is a storm, if there are concerns, if there are lines, whatever we might need to communicate. The belief was if we can convene the task force now simply so people are all in the room together we can set up the system that allows for quick communication so that if something were to happen and we need to convene a group of people we're not doing it for the very first time and trying to establish those communication networks the day that there is a concern the only other action we did a little bit at that meeting was mr Strabla is the representative from the Election Integrity Commission. And we asked that the EIC help him by identifying an alternate so that if he is not able to attend, someone will be there. Because the rest of us had somebody else that could attend on their behalf. And so we did that. But I think at this point, as I say, The action at the meeting that occurred at that meeting was making sure we could set up a communication system which is in place should it be needed now.

Well, just as an observation and a question, you were here at that time, as was I. Why wasn't this in effect or in place in the 24 elections?

We've been communicating, I'm sorry, chair Allen and supervisor Christie. I think that one of the, it was not in place. And one of the things that we've discovered through other elections that is that there are times during the day of the election where we wish we had a rapid response network or some ability to communicate. to get together on Teams calls or to know where people are going to be, to know that if the EOC could stand up, that we know how to do it quickly. So what we've learned from our communications in 22 and 24 and other elections is that we hope this group never has to meet again, but it is in place if it is needed.

And Madam Chair, Ms. Lesher, you indicated that that group or the actual committee has met once this year already. Are there any minutes available of that meeting?

Chair Allen and Supervisor Christy, there are not, but there is information. We can put those together for you and post them. there was no real action taken other than the conversation and discussion. What we can also make sure we do is if and when the group meets again to make sure that we are making that available to people and knowledgeable in case any of the board offices would like to attend as well.

Okay, and again, my thanks to Ms. Hargrove for her presence and for her availability, much appreciated. As I said, she's always been that way, and thank you, Madam Chair.

Chair Allen? Chair Allen, Supervisor Creasy, if you don't mind, I have a couple of other things that I would like to share and maybe expand on the ID verify with the early ballots, if that is amenable to, okay. So as far as the ID verify, we have identified about seven vote centers that we think may have increased lines possibly with individuals wanting to drop off early ballots. So we have actually sent them an additional poll book to be able to accommodate that and we have some additional backup poll books ready for any other locations that have increased drop off if individuals are just kind of holding on to their ballots until election day. So we plan to do that. We do plan to report those numbers out separately. We are required to report on election night how many early ballots are dropped off at polling places, and we will report that. We will have a separate column for ID Verify, early ballots that have been dropped off, as well as when we begin to process those ballots, we have created a process where we can report those separately so you and the public will be able to see what we received and how quickly that turnaround was for us processing them. In addition to that, I know there's been a lot of information and questions floating around about the DOJ, the Department of Justice. Yes, we did receive a letter from the Department of Justice. It was in reference to Section 203 with bilingual language accessibility. And I did respond to that letter today. We will have monitors here in Pima County on election day. We have had monitors here since 2022, so since I've been here. And I've been in contact with the chief deputy there and he sent me the contact of the person that will be on the ground here in Pima County, and I will speak to that person tomorrow. They plan to send about four to six individuals here to assess whether or not we are in compliance with bilingual, providing assistance to bilingual voters. And... um in addition to that i mean there have been a lot of questions about security there are always questions about security we plan for security every year every election and we meet with different groups as far as the secretary of state's office with the state home department of homeland um I just drew a blank here. I'm getting a little late here. Anyway, Homeland Security and different groups as far as, and we meet within Pima County as well to discuss different types of security needs that we may have on election day. And it's not always the big threats that we're concerned about. It's those things that pop up with voters maybe having issues, poll workers that may have issues that we need to take into account, things that may happen outside the 75 foot prohibited area with observers and individuals campaigning. So we do plan for those things all the time. And the task force will be a part of that as we move forward. And I think that's all that I would like to share, except for I want individuals to remember they can go to Pima Vote because the recorder and the elections department has a shared website where they can find all of the information for early voting locations, drop boxes, as well as election day vote centers, and a sample ballot if they want to see that. Thank you for allowing me to share the rest of that information.

Well, thank you, Ms. Hargrove. Again, you're always so forthcoming, and it's greatly appreciated by the community. I know that. Thank you.

today i believe is the last day to drop off to put in the mail a ballot if you are going to mail it so hereafter it is find a location near you to drop it off um i also just want to note because i think we all received an email from recorder caceres kelly explaining that she could not be here because you know we're we're voting right now and this is this is her uh the thick of it for her and her team and that they're currently working 10 plus hour days getting through early voting so moving on i think we're going to go to we are in the addendum so we're going to go to addendum item two This is Debt and Financial Transparency Advisory Commission. I will give Supervisor Scott, who brought us this item, would like to move it.

Thank you, Chair Allen. I would like to move the item. Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines, discussion.

Chair Allen.

Supervisor Scott.

You know, I've been a member of this board since 2021. And when I was a candidate, I used administrative memos, budget documents, and other readily available resources to familiarize myself with the work of the Board of Supervisors and the operations of the county. And there really is a commitment to and a proud tradition of openness and transparency in the county. uh really anything that you want to learn about the county and and how we do our business is readily available to you and going into the fall election and our request to the voters to raise the constitutionally imposed expenditure limit for the first time in 45 years We need to double down on those commitments to openness and transparency. So I was therefore very honored to put this item on the agenda, or I should say the addendum, on behalf of county leadership. And I'd like to ask the county administrator to share more about the details behind the structure and proposed duties of this new committee.

Chair Allen and Supervisor Scott, yes, what we have been in working with folks in the community, as you point out, we look to make sure that all is transparent as we deal with issues related to finance. We hear three things quite regularly that people are looking for. transparency, accountability, and some specificity, and this is part of what we are doing to make sure that we're covered in the realm of accountability, that we do have a bond advisory commission, and this is looking to mirror that to a great extent. It is to monitor debt levels, to make sure that all of the information to remind us and help us get other eyes on it to ensure that all of the information we provide is available to the public are there things that we're not seeing that the public should should know it is designed to help encourage best practices in fiscal transparency our long-term financial planning and and then to work with the board and all of us to help recommend any improvements to our financial reporting and public engagement it is designed to be six members one appointed by each of the supervisors one appointed by me with the director of finance and risk management serving as an ex officio member and it will be receiving and looking at financial presentations reviewing our financial audit and monitoring all of the reserve policies our long-term financial forecasts and just i think in the in the final analysis being another set of eyes from the community to watch over all we do as it relates to our finances in the community.

And if I could just add to that, Ms. Lesher, I really appreciated the fact that the six members have staggered terms because I think that's going to be of great assistance in terms of continuity and institutional knowledge and also bringing new voices into the committee as needed. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Allen. Chair Allen.

Supervisor Kano.

Supervisor Scott, the first half of your recommendation is focused on ensuring that this happens in coordination with the ask of Pima County voters later this year. Is your intention for this to be a standing commission regardless of the outcome of that election? Supervisor Kano, yes. Thank you.

You know, I will just add that the memo that accompanied the outline for the creation of this commission that Administrator Lesher had distributed, I think it is impressive, right? It speaks to the degrees of transparency and all of the documents, be it from financial to operational and everything in between, that are accessible and where in fact to find them. So I really appreciated that memo and putting all of that together in one place. So thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion passes, item passes four one. We are going to hop back to the regular agenda and go to item number 21. This is the county administrator hiring process. And we are fortunate to have with us here Director Kathy Boland. If I... I sort of feel like I shouldn't go through you about the hiring process. Go right ahead. Speak directly with Ms. Boland.

That's fine.

I'm hoping that you might be able to provide. We've made some significant progress in the last few weeks with the recruiter. So if you don't mind sharing an update of some of the steps that have been... It's late. Steps that have been stepped. Okay.

Yes, definitely. Good evening, Chair Allen and board members. As you're aware, we have hired We have hired SLAVIN management consultants, and we are working with the assigned executive recruiter, John Cross. I have been working with him to develop a tentative proposed timeline. The first thing that we will be doing is updating the brochure and updating the website. We plan on publishing that by July 24th. After that, there will be a first review of applications that will take place by Mr. Cross on August 21st. After that, he will be preparing a report for this board to review of semifinalists. He plans to submit that by September 18th. There is a board meeting on September 22nd, so we will look to get an executive session so that he can share that report with you of the semifinalists. After that, we plan that there will be the search committee that will be interviewing the semifinalists that will take place after September 22nd. After their review, they will make a recommendation to this board of the finalists and we propose that those finalist members will be interviewed by this board in middle of October and then there can be a final decision that will be made anywhere by the end of October to the beginning of November looking at either October 27th or November 10th board meeting to make your selection of the next county administrator. I don't know if you have any questions.

Looks like not, all right. Well, thank you for the update.

You're welcome, appreciate it.

All right, we're in the final stretch. We're gonna go back to the beginning of the agenda. to leave item 10. Supervisor Scott.

I wonder if you would entertain a motion to consider items 10 through 12 together sitting as the flood control district board.

Just going to say that. Indeed I would. Seconded by Supervisor Hines. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Items pass 5-0. Moving back to sitting as the Board of Supervisors. I am going to suggest that we cluster items 13, 14, 15, 16 together.

Oh, we can do that with hearings? Wow, you learn something new every day.

I asked, and indeed, I was told yes.

Wow, I didn't get to do that when I was the chair, Mr. Brown.

So is there anyone here who wishes to speak to items 13 through 16? Hearing none, we will close the public hearings, and I will move to approve these permits.

Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Items passed 5-0. We will now move to item number 19. This is a hearing and it is a hearing only. It's a roadway development impact fee audit for fiscal year 23 and 24. Is there anyone present who wishes to speak on this item? Hearing none, we'll move to close the public hearing.

Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes or closing of the hearing is completed 5-0. I'm not sure we actually had to take action. But we're overzealous on our actioning. That leaves us with... Item number, on the addendum, item number one, this is the Board of Super, oh, 23. Oh yeah, item 23, Southern Arizona Rescue Association. Supervisor Scott, this was your item. I'm sorry, Supervisor Christos.

Thank you, Madam Chair, this of course is an institution in Southern Arizona, the Southern Arizona Rescue Association. They save countless lives year after year for those that are trapped in life-threatening positions. They put their lives out in order to save other lives. Just as an aside, I read a great book about how this organization was founded back in the late 50s. There was a horrific snowstorm up on Mount Wrightson And several scouts, Boy Scouts were on a hike up there and they got trapped and went missing. And it was an absolute outpouring of community support to try to locate these missing trapped Boy Scouts. And unfortunately, three of them perished in the storm. And it really galvanized the community in the way that it's never been seen before. And that was the the beginning of the Southern Arizona Association, Rescue Association. Their funding is having a difficult time gathering steam due to various reasons. And what we're asking for is that the county administrator, maybe she already has, I don't know if there's a source, but at her discretion to identify a source and to continue the contract that we have with the Southern Arizona Rescue Association and give their approval for funding.

Chair Allen. Supervisor Cano. Thank you. I have a number of questions about this item and was hoping that the county administrator and or designee might be able to give us more information. My number one question is, is this a continuation of an existing contract? And if so, at what amount is the current contract? Let's start there.

Chair Allen and Supervisor Cano, it is an existing contract. It has been funded at the last three years at $100,000 annually.

Chair Allen, Administrator Lesher, were we in the middle of renewing this? How did this come from District 4? And it's not clear to me that the organization itself is requesting this.

Chair Allen and Supervisor Cano, a representative of the organization had reached out to the Office of Emergency Management, which is the agency and the department that generally handles this and is the point for it. Staff of that organization pointed out rightfully that there's a lot of changes going on. uh as we are looking at a loss of federal funding and that uh they are transitioning staff and other positions within the organization from grants funding to the general fund and it was not clear Uh, and at the time they were initially contacted that there would be the funding available as there was in the past. Um, we were communicating then about whether or not we should simply move this forward with the general fund. And since supervisor Christie had been working with the organization in the past, they placed the item on the agenda. I, I believe that that's my understanding from my side, supervisor Christie, if that's accurate and accurate summary.

Yeah. That's accurate. This item was pulled from the June 23rd agenda. The contract ended on June 30th. So your summary there is correct.

So let me just make sure that I understand this, Supervisor Christie. This is an organization that is facing fiscal challenges, including the loss of federal funding, and you're asking this board to hold this organization harmless

No, that's not the case. I'm asking that the county find the funding to fill in this gap until the original funding sources could be returned to.

What original sources, Supervisor Christie?

The original sources were from the federal government.

Thank you. Chair Allen. Supervisor Scott. Can someone refresh my memory? Why was the item pulled from the June 23rd agenda? That was something that Supervisor Christie just mentioned. I didn't recall that.

Chair Allen, Supervisor Scott, it was actually pulled from the draft agenda. And it was pulled by the director. Director contacted our office and asked us to pull it off of the draft agenda.

Thank you. OK, so we would not have known that if we weren't on the agenda committee.

Chair Allen, Supervisor Scott, the draft agenda did go out to the board offices that Monday, and then it was pulled prior to posting on Wednesday.

And the OEM director made the request through county administration?

Chair Allen, Supervisor Scott, she sent an email to our office to pull it off.

All right, and the reason she asked it to be pulled was...

I would like to turn to Deputy County Administrator Casmar who works with that director got it Professor Scott Chair Allen yes it was in the time so just to be totally clear I was in support of and gave direction to pull that item It was really a timing issue when we were notified on the grant award amount which was reduced by several hundred thousand dollars, and frankly puts a broader, you know, conversation up on, not just Sarah but other pass through grant dollars that we do through the Office of Emergency Management so we thought of the responsible thing to do is to PAUSE THE CONVERSATION POOL THE ITEM NOTIFY SARAH AND FRANKLY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS THAT DEPEND ON US FOR THESE FUNDS AND BRING THAT BACK TO THE BOARD AND WE HAD A SUGGESTION BUT OBVIOUSLY THERE'S BEEN FURTHER CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS ITEM SINCE SUPERVISOR CHRISTIE HAS BROUGHT THIS MATTER BACK TO THE ATTENTION OF THE BOARD AND JUST TO FOLLOW UP THE THIS IS AN EXISTING CONTRACT AND IT'S BEEN IN PLACE FOR THREE YEARS

Chair Allen and Supervisor Scott, the current contract has been in place since 23 fiscal year ending 23. I believe that we have funded Sarah prior to that. But I'm just looking at the most recent series of contracts that have been amended, I believe. I believe that this series of contracts are the only ones that were at $100,000. I don't have that at my fingertips. I think that the prior... Are you familiar with this? Simply that we were funding at a lower level, I believe. I just don't have those contracts in front of me. I know that it has been in place for many years. This is the current...

This contract's been in place for decades. Decades.

Okay. Chair Allen. I'm going to make well, there is no motion on the table, right? This is just discussion. I'm not ready to vote on this today. It's important that we support public safety and rural and urban pima county but i'm not sure that i have the answers from my colleague from district four about the specifics so i'm hoping that the administration can work with uh the district four office to provide a little bit more clarity it's uncertain to me if this is a request coming from the supervisorial office or from the southern arizona rescue association and we Already at our last meeting how I made a decision to put some of this funding on hold until later in the fall and we can assess what the impacts of federal shortages would mean to nonprofits. I would much rather ensure that the emergency crisis fund have a be expanded in terms of categories eligible for funding such as public safety so that we are not awarding one entity over another in that robust process. And I also feel that I would like some greater clarity of this 100,000 amount because I also just heard that it's a lower amount, the contract that we've had, So just a history, perhaps, of what this funding source has been in years past. And it goes without saying that the operations that the Southern Arizona Rescue Association does throughout our county through volunteer leadership require this board's consideration. But I certainly appreciate Supervisor Christie's desire to ensure that county taxpayer dollars go toward services that ultimately should be a federal expenditure that are now trickling down to local taxpayers and appreciate you bringing that to our consideration. So I would move to table it until our first meeting in October.

Can we still ask questions?

Madam Chair? Supervisor Christie? Madam Chair, I'm just curious. Can the county administrator give any illumination as to why the federal flooding has been jeopardized?

Chair Allen and Supervisor Christie, We have been providing reports to the board. All of the grants across the board from the federal government have been in question. And we have been working with the county attorney's office, with our staff, and providing regular updates on where we thought we might be losing funding from any number of grants across the board. This is one of the areas of federal funding that is jeopardized as we look at all of those grants across the board.

Yeah, and to be clear, this isn't coming from District 4. It's not a supervisorial issue.

I would also just add that I think his audio I think his audio cut out.

Supervisor Christie. The last part of your statement got cut off you were saying it didn't come from your office and then we didn't hear what you said after that. Now his his audio is out. I'm sorry, Supervisor Christie, we're having trouble hearing you on this end.

While he is connecting or figuring out the audio, can I just add an additional question? I had heard that there were other, that item was pulled from the draft agenda and that there may have been other organizations who were previously funded through OEM but have also been pulled back. I'd be curious to know who those other organizations were. Yeah. Yeah.

Administrator Lesher, Chair Allen, so if I can just, while we're working through the technical difficulties, what I can tell you from history, because I was part of those email threads, was once the Office of Emergency Management notified Sarah of pausing that and the item wouldn't be moving so they wouldn't come to the board meeting and saying just bear with us while we have some additional conversations about funding sources, At that time, there was a conversation between SARA leadership and District 4. So that's how the item came forward. To clarify, the ask through federal grants for the state are always a moving target and they're a match grant and it's sometimes two years in the rear. So it's a moving number, it's a moving target. As Ms. Lesher stated, there's additional complications because of federal language that we've discussed as a board related to immigration efforts and 287 standards. and we've had conversations about that. So with this moving target, it is an ongoing conversation with county administration, the finance department, post the budget being set on what exactly that moving target might be from the federal government, which is not unusual in the past few years on that pass-through match, and what dollars through that. So we could certainly put those items together for the board to further assess.

Thank you.

Do we have Supervisor Christie back? I'm guessing no by the phone in hand.

Can I ask a further question? Go ahead, Supervisor Hines. Supervisor Hines has been patiently.

I phased out a bit. How is this different than what the sheriff does? If that was already answered, I apologize if I just missed that. But can someone explain to me, isn't this a duty of the Sheriff's Department? And how is it different if it is not somehow to staff, maybe? Or should I just rewind the meeting? Oh, put him on speaker.

We have not, we're still having conversation about the item supervisor Christie.

Okay, so in terms of where we're at, there was a question about how, what, can you just restate your question?

Can you just thumbnail sketch, how is this entity different than the search and rescue functionality that is currently within the Sheriff's Department? And if that was already answered, I apologize, but just clarify that for me and perhaps people that are watching this.

Chair Allen and Supervisor Hines, and if we're gonna be continuing the item, we can get a full report on what they do, what other groups do, and how this fills in those gaps.

Okay, thank you.

So to bring us back, Supervisor Cano made a motion for continuation, I believe. I'll second that.

yes chair allen to the first meeting in october and look forward to receiving information from administrator lesher in the form of a memo i would also encourage us to send a unanimous letter of concern to the federal administration about the impact of this cut to an organization like the southern arizona rescue association and hope that would be a unanimous letter i'll still second but why october I'm happy to adjust the memo to or the motion to the first meeting in September, I think this is going to require a little bit of time and ultimately that timeframe is the same one that we provided to other regional nonprofits that we're asking this for to consider doing a third. round of the emergency crisis fund okay so i'm just kind of trying to get as close to that possible and you know it goes without saying that um we we are facing tremendous federal cuts and thank goodness for county taxpayers for uh being able to have the resources to be able to support non-profits uh in this time of significant need and still second with the september

first meeting September 10th.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Further discussion? Chair Allen. Supervisor Scott.

I just wanted to ask Ms. Lesher or Deputy County Administrator Casmar, when the June 23rd item was pulled, that administration have a date in mind as to when it was going to be put back on the agenda by administration? Given that the OEM director requested that it be pulled in June 23rd, did you all have a date in mind as to when you were going to put it back on the agenda?

I did not. Okay.

All right, any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The item passes 5-0.

Oh, sorry.

Yes, the continuation passes. All right, we have three items left. So the next item is, that is correct, correct, yes. Addendum item one, this is us sitting as the library district board. This is a contract with Overdrive for $20 million over four years. I move the item. Second. Seconded by Supervisor Hines, discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 5-0. Moving on to addendum item number four. This is a contract and award with Helping Ourselves Pursue Enrichment. I move the item. Second. Oh, and I'm sorry, we have returned to sitting as the Board of Supervisors. Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 5-0. Item number five, acceptance of a grant for CWD. I move the item.

Second.

Seconded by Supervisor Hines. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Item passes 4-1. And with that, leave we have made it through our agendas and we will adjourn the meeting