Town Council - Regular Meeting

And can be watched afterwards. After the pledge and invocation, we'll suspend our regular meeting briefly to conduct two community facility district meetings immediately after the pledge. Tonight's invocation will be given by Nathan Barrett, our Community Development Director, followed by the pledge, led by Ella Benitez, a fifth grade going into sixth grade student at Wrightson Ridge Elementary School.

Our dear Heavenly Father, we bow our heads before thee this evening and humble thanks for this day and for the opportunities we have to serve our community. We thank thee for all those who serve, whether here in Sahuarita or far from home. We thank thee for those around us who seek to lift and inspire and edify. We thank thee, Lord, for this nation we live in and the freedoms we enjoy. We thank thee for the men and women who protect those freedoms, who give of themselves to keep our community safe and secure. Please bless them and their families. Keep them safe from harm and bring them home safely at the end of every day. We ask thee at this time to bestow thy spirit upon these council chambers. May it fill our hearts with peace, patience, and understanding. May we have grace for the human feelings of ourselves and our neighbors, and bless us with the ability to see the divine in those around us. May thy spirit bless these proceedings with the dignity and decorum befitting a free people under thy hand. We ask a special blessing for our town council as they deliberate this evening. Bless them with the wisdom to govern amid conflicting interests and issues. Bless them with an understanding of the needs of our residents. Bless them with confidence and peace as they make decisions that impact the tens of thousands who live within our town boundaries. We give these thanks and ask these blessings, Lord, with humble hearts. In the name of thy son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Amen. Thank you, Nathan. Ella, step right up.

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

Thank you.

I hope you're going to do something with lots of fun this summer, Ella and family. I'll hereby suspend the town council meeting and commence with our Rancho Cerrito Community Facilities District meeting. I'll call that meeting to order of the Rancho Cerrito Community Facilities District. Madam Clerk, may I have a roll?

Board Member Gillespie? Here. Board Member Lisk? Absent. Board Member Lytle?

Here.

Board Member Morales? Here. Board Member Priolo?

Here.

Vice Chair Egbert? Absence. Chair Murphy?

Present.

Quorum, present.

Thank you. Next is call to the public, but each of the CFDs have a call to the public, so this is not the general call to the public, this is for the CFD. At this time, any member of the public is invited to address the district board. On any issue which is on tonight's consent agenda or any issue which the district board can lawfully act upon at a future meeting pursuant to Arizona open meeting laws, the district board may not discuss items, but individual members of the district board may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the district board, may ask staff to review the matter, or may ask the matter to be placed on a future agenda. I don't have any cards for the Rancho Sarita community. Community Facilities District Board. So I'll close the call to public on that item and move to item 4A, which is the consent agenda, and I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Do I have a second? Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Madam Clerk, item 5A.

Discussion on possible adoption of resolution Number 36, regarding the 2027 tentative budget.

Thank you. And AC Mariotti, our district treasurer, will be presenting this item. Good evening, sir. I know you'll be presenting three times this evening, so I don't know if you drew the short straw or whatever, but thank you for being here.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, members of the board, so tonight you'll have an opportunity to adopt the tentative budget for the district for fiscal year 2027. The fiscal year commences on July 1st. So the tentative budget sets the budget ceiling for the year ahead. So what's established tonight cannot be exceeded when the final budget is adopted at the end of June. So I wanted to give a little bit of background on the district. So it was formed on March 24, 2014. It encompasses 943 acres, all within the Sahuarita town limits. At build out, it's intended to have 3,267 residential units in it and about 1.25 million square feet of commercial space. Each year in January, we receive information from the County Assessor's Office that gives us information on the number of properties within the district. That includes the number of lots as well as the assessed valuation for those lots. So with respect to the Rancho Cerrito Community Facilities District, those assessment roles indicated that there are 1,279 residential lots. That is 24% or 244 more than last year, so we're seeing a lot of growth in the district. Of those properties, 81 are listed as rental properties. So if each one of those lots has a structure on it, that would represent a 39% build out rate. So if you compare that 1,279 to the 3,267, that's 39%. The district also has seven properties that are identified as commercial lots. So this slide provides some historical information on the property values within the district. And you can see that the last several years that that trajectory has steepened quite a bit. And you just have to look at our windows here to see all the development that's going on over there that explains why that is the case. So the latest evaluation of all property in the district totals $37.8 million in total. That is a $6.1 million or 19% increase over last year. Of the total, about 9% comes from commercial property, 9% from vacant property, leaving a residual of 82% for residential property. So the district is a tax-levying public improvement district that was formed pursuant to Arizona revised statutes. The purpose of the district is to finance the acquisition and maintenance of public infrastructure and facilities. When the district was formed, there was a successful bond election that authorized up to $60 million in bonds to be issued. It also authorized a secondary property tax which would be used to repay those bonds. Between fiscal year 2018 and 2022, there were three general obligation bond issuances for the district. Those totaled $28.1 million. That leaves a remaining bond authorization of $31.9 million. The bonds that were issued were used to acquire a number of roadways and a number of sewer lines in the district. So total outstanding debt principle is a little bit more than $25 million and all debt will be paid off by fiscal year 2047. So the district is legally separate from the town. However, we're so intertwined with the town in that the town council members also serve as district board members. The town staff also function as district staff. We use all of the same policies, procedures, and resources as the town that the governmental accounting standards board says that if it weren't to be included in the town's financial reporting entity, that it would be misleading. So the way that this gets accounted for is as a blended component unit, a special revenue fund of the town. So apart from the budget that's going to be adopted in a few weeks here, there are no separate financial reports that the district issues. It just gets incorporated into the towns. When the auditors come, they look at it as one entire entity. Okay, so with that, we'll actually get to the budget. So the 2027 budget is set at $1,949,100, and it is balanced. This budget is lower than the current year budget by $7.3 million, which is a 79% decrease, and it's lower because the current year budget had a lot of unspent bond proceeds that should be spent by the end of this fiscal year. That means that next year's sources aren't gonna have those proceeds, which means our sources are lower and our uses are lower and the overall budget is lower. So this slide provides information on where the district's resources come from. It levies a property tax that will provide 92% or nearly $1.8 million of its resources for the year. That tax has two components to it. The first is to repay the bonds, that's the debt service component, and the second is for operations and maintenance. The combined tax rate is $4.99 per $100 of net taxable assessed valuation. Of that amount, $4.69 is going for that debt service component and 30 cents is going for operations and maintenance. This tax rate is unchanged from the current fiscal year and it's actually been unchanged since we established a debt service property tax for the district. All things being equal, the average homeowner is going to pay about $29 more or 3% more next year than they are in the current year. Developer contributions are the next pie wedge at $147,000 or 8% of the total sources. So what that represents is when the bonds were issued, the developer agreed to pay the difference between the property tax collections that afford debt service in the district compared to the annual debt service obligation payments that we need to make. So obviously the district didn't have a lot of properties on it initially, right? So there wasn't generating any property taxes. So the developer was paying the bulk of the debt service payments through the form of this contribution. As the district has been built out, that's shifted more to property taxes paying a larger component of the debt service. and then the developer paying a smaller portion. But the developer is still on the hook for about $147,000 next year. We've also programmed $11,000 for investment income. As we collect property taxes, that money goes into our accounts. A lot of it goes into a trust fund to pay for debt service. While it's sitting in that trust account, it's earning interest. So that's what that represents. So this slide shows you how the district is going to use those resources we just looked at. As you can see, 97% is going to be used to make principal and interest payments on the bonds that were issued. And a small amount of that will be used for banking fees for the trustees involved in the process. Operational costs total $51,000 and that will be used to pay for general administration of the district, for an outsourced district engineer, as well as for street maintenance costs. And you'll see that there are no ending fund balances because we fully anticipate the district to use all of its resources during the year. So with that, the resolution before you, if approved, would adopt the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget. The resolution also requires the tentative budget to be filed and made available to the public. And it also establishes a public hearing and notice for final budget adoption, which right now is scheduled for June 22. Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Any questions for staff? It's pretty cut and dry. I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Mr. Mayor, I move to adopt resolution number 20260036. I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Madam Clerk, I was informed that Council Member Lisk is on Teams. Are we able to bring her in on Teams or if possible? Okay, thanks. And Council Member Lisk, well, she's probably listening. She probably can't respond. I think she responded. Oh, she did? I told her we didn't hear you. Yeah. So we'll continue. Hopefully you can hear us, and we're working on being able to hear you. Thank you. Having no more further business for the Rancho Cerrito Community Facilities District, we'll adjourn and now I'll commence with the Quail Creek Community Facilities District meeting. Hereby call this meeting to order of the Quail Creek Community Facilities District. Madam Clerk, may I have a roll call?

Board Member Gillespie?

Here.

Board Member Lisk? Coming on shortly. Board Member Lytle?

Here.

Board Member Morales? Here. Board Member Priolo?

Here.

Vice Chair Egbert, absent. Chair Murphy.

Here.

Quorum present.

Thank you. This is our second call to the public, but this will be for the community facilities district. At this time, any member of the public is invited to address the district board on any issue which is on tonight's consent agenda or any issue with the district board can lawfully act upon at a future meeting. Pursuant to Arizona open meeting laws, the district board may not discuss the items, but individual members of the district board may respond to criticism made by those who've addressed the board may ask to review the matter may ask the matter class on a future agenda item and I'll move to item number four which is the consent agenda and entertain a motion at this time mr. mayor I move to approve the consent agenda as presented a second We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Madam Clerk, item 5A.

Discussion and possible adoption of resolution number 51 regarding the 2020 Senate, 2020 Senate, 2027 tentative budget.

Easier said than done. Mr. Mariotti hasn't gone straight too far. He'll be presenting this item. AC.

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, different board. This agenda item will provide you an opportunity to adopt the tentative budget for the Quail Creek Community Facilities District for fiscal year 2027. The fiscal year also commences on July 1st. tentative budget here will set the budget ceiling for the year ahead so when the final budget is presented to you in a few weeks that budget can be no higher than the amount that's established tonight as part of the tentative budget OK, so a little bit of background on this district. This is older than the Rancho Cerrito Community Facilities District. It was formed on September 12, 2005. It includes 1,192 acres, all within the Sawaritha town limits. And at build out, it's intended to have 2,600 residential lots in it. should point out that this district only represents about 56% of the entire Quail Creek specific planned development area. So that area is 2,113 acres total. Each year in January, we receive information from the County Assessor's Office on the number of lots in the district as well as the property valuations. That information indicates that there are 1,573 residential units. If every one of those units has a structure on it, that would be a 61% build out rate. This number is 5% more or 76% more than last year, so there's still a good amount of growth going on in the district. Of the total, 61 of those lots are identified as rental properties. So this slide provides historical information on property values in the district since it was formed. You can see the trajectory of growth over time, and that's because there's been a lot of new development, especially in the recent years out there. The latest valuation of all property is $57.4 million. That is 4.9 million, or 10% more than the information we received from the assessor last year. Of the total, 1% is identified as commercial properties, 2% would be for vacant properties, and 97% would be for residential properties. The district is a tax-levying public improvement district that was formed pursuant to Arizona revised statutes. Its purpose is to finance the acquisition and maintenance of public infrastructure and facilities within the district. When the district was formed, there was a successful bond election where the voters authorized bonding capacity up to $30 million. Of that amount, $12.7 million in bonds were issued back in 2006, so that leaves us with $17.3 million of voter-approved bonding capacity. Total outstanding debt principle is three point five million dollars and that will be paid off by the end of fiscal year 2030 so not in the too distant future so when the bonds were issued they paid for roadways paid for sewer lines wash crossings and it also paid for portions of the Quail Creek Veterans Municipal Park and So the district is legally separate from the town. However, it's so intertwined with the town for the same reasons that I gave on the Rancho Cerrito Community Facilities District that the governmental accounting standards board requires us to incorporate the financial information into the town's financial reports. The district does not issue separate financial reports other than the bond schedules that you have tonight. Okay, so with that, the 2027 budget is $1,129,840, and it is balanced. This budget is a little higher than the current year budget, only by about $22,000. There are really no significant changes compared to the current fiscal year. So this slide provides information where the district's resources come from. So the district levies a property tax which provides 89% of the resources for the year and totaling a little bit more than a million dollars. There are two components to that tax. There's a debt service component to repay the bonds and an operations and maintenance component. The combined tax rate is $1.82 per $100 of net taxable assessed valuation. 30 cents of that is for operations and maintenance, and $1.52 is for debt service. This rate is a reduction by 44 cents per $100 of net taxable assessed valuation compared to the current fiscal year, so that's a 20% drop. The rate is lower than the current tax rate. And so all things being equal, the average homeowner will pay $115 less next year than they are in the current year. So that would be about a 15% drop in the tax liability. Beginning fund balances are $115,000, and that results really from higher property tax collections in the current fiscal year, as well as some residuals from prior years that we're seeing materialize this fiscal year. So part of that is helping to lower the tax rate as well. So that wasn't necessarily expected when we developed the 2026 budget, but those will carry forward to next fiscal year. So we've also programmed $7,000 for investment income. And that is, as we collect those property taxes, it goes into accounts that earn interest. And so that's what that represents. If we look at how the district intends to spend the money, again, the lion's share is going to make those principal and interest payments on the general obligation bond. There are also some banking fees in that component. And then operations makes up 16% of the costs, and that will pay for administration, street, and right-of-way maintenance, and also pay for some of the maintenance on Quell Creek Veterans Municipal Park. There are no ending fund balances here, as the district is expected to consume all of its resources during the year. So if approved tonight, the resolution would adopt the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget. It requires the tentative budget to be filed and made available to the public. And it also establishes a public hearing and notice for final budget adoption. And that is slated for the June 22 meeting. Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Any questions for AC or staff? If not, I'll entertain a motion at this time. Thanks, Mayor. Yes.

I move to adopt resolution number 51.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? I second. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? And Council Member Lisk, I understand you can hear us, but I think something may be wrong with your speaker. So if you have any questions or comments, if you could let Lisa know, and then she can let us know, and we can appropriately respond. Having no more further business, we're adjourned and we will return to our regular meeting. Madam Clerk, may I have a roll?

Council Member Gillespie?

Here.

Council Member Lisk? I see you on the screen. Council Member Lytle?

Here.

Council Member Morales? Here. Council Member Apriolo?

Here.

Vice Mayor Egbert, absent. Mayor Murphy?

Here.

Quorum present.

Thank you, next is call to the public. The call to the public is now open. Individuals may speak for three minutes, spokesperson's 10. The council cannot discuss matters not on the agenda. However, at the end of the call to the public, council members may respond to criticism, request staff to review the matter, or add the topic to a future agenda item. And I have a few over here, and we begin with Mel Selway. Good evening, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, other members of Sarita's staff. As you listen to presentations by we residents, do you consider the impact that projects like the proposed copper mines, copper oil mines will have on our living conditions and on the value of our properties? Jen, my wife and I have viewed some videos related to the theme of health issues related to living near open pit copper mines. Some of these health issues are by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry states that two major health impacts are due to the drinking water quality in this instance and exposure to airborne particulates which can contribute to irritation to nose, throat, and lungs which particulates are generated by drilling, blasting, and loading. I recall that two major factors that were added to our recently presented general plan are environmental concerns and water quality and quantity, so they kind of parallel. The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine located in Butte, Montana. It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet with water that is acidic. The pit's water is laden with heavy metals and dissolved metals that leach from the rock in a natural process known as acid rock drainage. The pit's water content includes but is not limited to dissolved copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and in danger of entering local water sources. Copper World's proposed mines will be larger than this Superfund site. Charles Stock, a former employee of a mining operation and his wife, moved to Quail Creek in 2019. They are not comfortable with what the air quality will be like if this mine project goes forward, especially regarding the substantial traffic on the unpaved section of Santa Rita Road. coppermine toxins, you can Google this video. Dr. Stan Hart mentioned the dangers related to tailing piles and ponds and that Arizona state laws were weak on the regulations because mining companies were instrumental in their development. Dr. Hart mentions lead as a shadow element that is rarely considered in discussions of open pit mining hazards. In 1978, lead paint was banned from this country. The EPA requires mining companies to report the amount of lead that enters their tailings sites each year and is there forever. Chukamata Chile is adjacent to the largest open pit copper mine in the world in terms of excavated volume. You can do a search for this video by Michael Hoft from Germany on YouTube, and the extant conditions are appalling. Refer to the photo that's attached. Impact on children is especially horrifying. Cancer rate is five to seven times greater than anywhere else in the area. A hubris, a German company that sources copper from this mine, has a compliance officer who refutes the data, photos, and verbal comments from local Chukwumara people. He sounds just like Jerry Bustamante from Copper World, who doesn't answer the facts we present. Please help us stop Copper World. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Sowie. Jack Krukschank, thank you. And then Kerry Berg will be on deck.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Jack Krukschank. I live in Quail Creek. I understand that Head Bay is required under the terms of the license for right-of-way encroachment to provide annual reports of the amount of water withdrawn from the recharge area and the amount recharged. I'm wondering how or where those reports for 2024 and 2025 can be accessed. Are they on the website?

Well, we can get staff with you afterwards. We can't respond because there won't be many lots. Thank you. Oh, thank you. And after, I'm sorry, it looks like Carol. Carol Berg. I apologize. And then Diane Tipton up next.

So good evening, Mayor and council members. Thank you for letting me speak here. So I come to you as a relatively new resident of Sarita. My husband and I moved to Quail Creek two years ago because we fell in love with the extraordinary region, the Santa Rita Mountains, the desert beauty, the wildlife, the peacefulness, and the quality of life that this community offers. But when I moved here, I didn't fully understand Arizona's long history with mining, nor the scale of what's being proposed. Over the past several months, I've spent considerable time listening, reading, learning, and trying to understand the realities and consequences of large-scale mining can bring to a community. I've listened to residents, environmental advocates, scientists, journalists speak about long-term impacts of mining operations that they have on groundwater, air quality, wildlife habitats, and public health. I've listened carefully as representatives from the HUD Bay Minerals Project avoided directly answering community concerns regarding water sustainability, dust pollution, and the future of the Santa Rita Mountains and the surrounding ecosystems. I've also listened to members of this council express frustration about the limits of your authority and the challenges of regulating projects of this scale. And while I understand those limitations, I do not believe that there are no options. History shows us that communities can make different choices when they decide that protecting their citizens' water and environment must come first. I understand the argument being made about economic benefits, tax revenue, parks, and infrastructure. But I ask you to consider a deeper question. What truly makes a community livable? People do not move here because of industrial development. They move here because of the mountains, the clean air, the wildlife, the dark skies, the trails, the peace, and the natural beauty of this valley. Those are the real assets of Saurita. So what happens if our groundwater becomes compromised? What happens if air quality declines because of dust, heavy truck traffic, and mining operations? What happens if the views that define this community are replaced with industrial infrastructure and massive transmission towers? What happens when the very qualities that brought the families and retirees here begin to disappear? At that point, no amount of tax revenue can restore what's been lost. I believe that the people in this room tonight are only the beginning of a much larger public concern that will continue to grow. Residents are paying attention. People care deeply about what happens to this valley and to the future of southern Arizona. I respectfully ask this council to continue fighting for stronger protections for this community to challenge assumptions that this project is inevitable, to pursue every possible avenue to protect our water, health, environment, and quality of life. wrap up before irreversible damage is done please do not wait until the mountains are scarred the infrastructure is built and the consequences can no longer be reversed i'm respectfully and asking each member of this council to seriously reflect on what kind of future you're creating for sarita and to communicate openly with residents about what actions you believe are still possible to protect Our water, air quality, wildlife quality of life leadership is tested most in moments when the easiest path is not necessarily the right one. I will be providing copies of my remarks, and I would genuinely appreciate your email response, not only for my benefit, but to the growing number of residents who are asking to be heard before irreversible decisions are being made. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Diane Tipton and David Babson.

Hello.

i'm also very new here i moved here in august welcome i am quite surprised with how beautiful this valley is that you guys are encouraging this mine you guys can stop it It's the power in your hands. You can stop the water going to the mine. You can stop that before there's problems. This mine, as the gentleman before me, is very similar to the mine in Butte, Montana, where it's going to be deep enough to hit the water and start filling up with water. The water has nowhere to go. The rain fills it up, fills it up, fills it up. That lake in Butte, Montana, that copper mine lake, is so poisonous, nothing lives in it. Nothing. And I don't know in the, I forget what year, I'm looking at something else here. 60,000 migrating bird flock landed on that lake. And even though they have mitigation to chase these birds off the lake, thousands of them died in less than a day. That's our future that you guys can stop. They break their contract that you have for that pipeline. The county doesn't want it. The people of the town don't want it. But you guys seem to be, yeah, we're going to poison you guys. Rah, rah, rah. I looked at your new plan that you want us to ratify. There's nothing about, anything about that mine. And what it says about water, I have it here. It's on the... bottom of page 91 of your plan total estimates of existing water demand for the Sarita region is currently below the designations of assured water supply allocated to this area and then it goes on but we already had water cut off from the Colorado River from what 50% was cut from the state of Arizona we're not getting more water we're losing water if I wanted to build drill wells like that mine's been drilling wells that are go against this contract your contract how much trouble would I be in a lot of trouble legal trouble you guys can stop this if you guys love this town like we do for the beauty, for not poisoning. The city of Butte has a big problem. That mine is filling up with this poison water nothing can live in. And they don't know how they're going to deal with when it overflows the pit. And that's our future. That's the future that you're giving all of us. The hunting is going to be gone. The bird watching in the canyon is going to be gone. And you guys can stop it. That's one of the few entities that little kind of blip in the law gives that power to you. And you guys can do it. So if you don't, we'll probably have a recall.

Thank you. David Babson and Oriana, who I'm going to, oh, thank you for spelling a whole little boo. Ease. Oriana will be next. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Dave Babson. I live in Quail Creek. In a recent testimonial ad in the Capital Times under Hud Bay's logo was the following quote. HUD-Bay has taken meaningful steps to listen to community concerns, share information openly, and incorporate feedback where appropriate. I think this is a quote that we would expect from any reputable company. However, a recent HUD-Bay meeting at Quail Creek turned into a chaotic Q&A with lots of questions from very frustrated residents, but no real answers from HUD-Bay. It was a real opportunity missed by HUD-Bay to provide residents with their plan of operation, how they would monitor toxic emissions and dust, how they would monitor water usage, specific plans on routing of truck traffic, maybe even show a rendering of the entire operation. That was not to be. Mayor, in your interview on the Buckmaster Radio Show on the 16th of May last year, you were not only supportive of Copper World, but you characterized mine opponents as merely people who don't want it in their backyard. Rest assured, if Copper World is developed, the effects will be felt in everybody's backyard. The threats the copper world poses to Sajarita and surrounding communities are real, including devastation of the northern end of the Santa Rita's, air quality issues, pumping 10 million gallons of water per day or more from our aquifer, And they already appear to be in violation of the project renews agreement that is supposed to protect our aquifer. If copper world becomes reality, town council might want to consider how you'd respond to outraged residents who complain about reduced water pressure, or how you would inform residents and developers that they might need to drill their wells deeper. or how you'd respond to complaints about reduced new home sales or a severe drop in resale home prices and tourism dollars, as well as health and subsidence issues. Under town leadership, Sao Rita has become a vibrant community. My wife and I moved here full-time in 2010, and we love it here. We were drawn here by the beautiful Santa Rita Mountains. I'm scared to death of what could happen. I respectfully request that town council give serious consideration to the dire environmental consequences as well as the corporate culture of Hud Bay and join the Tucson City Council and Pima County Board of Supervisors and stop copper world. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm going to try it again. Oriana Holubiziki? Holubisko. Holubisko. I was getting closer. Thank you.

You were inching along. So I'm Oriana Marisi Holubisko. Holubisko. And we're original owners here in Rancho Sarita. And I am... As an environmental biochemist, I am very curious on the actual impact and how it's actually been studied and looked at. And what I'm hearing is the real knowing of the people that feel what is going on is extraordinarily detrimental to our community. Don't you feel that it would be a miracle to really hold our home while we're here? What we all love about the place, what was so eloquently stated, just that knowing we're here to be in this community. And wouldn't we all hold that miracle and receive it fully as water is alive? We're 99% water by molecules. We're mostly water. We're living. The water is alive. The watershed, the ecosystem, all is part and parcel of our living community. We are the heart, not a copper mine. And that water is being enslaved to take the life force and wash it over what is being drained from the very core of the planet and return then to the living. It's alive. It's flowing through us. It's flowing through our forests. It's flowing through our aquifer. It's alive. And it has a voice that says stop and receive the miracle of living right here, right where we are. in the most beautiful ,, the ,, the whole valley. Beautiful and a miracle and fully received. That miracle belongs in the heart of this community. That's why we're here.

Thank you.

philip huffman and then paige humphrey good evening good evening sir members of the council my name is philip hoffman uh i live in quail creek my wife and i moved here last summer because quite frankly we fell in love with the community we fell in love with the environment we fell in love with the mountains I want to apologize because I'm not as well spoken and I'm certainly not as well prepared as some of our previous speakers. But when I learned that we were going to allow an open pit mine in this community, frankly, I was shocked. It was something that I thought was part of the very colorful past of Arizona, but I couldn't believe there was going to be a new one. particularly when you look at where it's placed with regard to schools and homes and roads. The environmental impacts that I've heard of are astoundingly negative. The consumption of water is unimaginable to me and my understanding is that HUD-Bay is not even living up to its initial commitments for preliminary start-up agreements. The water that they want to replenish our aquifers with simply does not exist anymore. It's not in the Colorado River. It's not in Lake Powell. It's not coming from America. It's not there. They cannot uphold their agreements. If one-tenth of what I've read about the company's environmental history and their human rights history is true, I'm appalled. There's no other word to describe it. Their practices have been entirely reprehensible. And I would encourage every single one of you to do two things. Number one, read the room. How many signs are here that support opening Copper World? How many signs are out in the community that support Copper World versus how many signs that people oppose it? Second of all, I would invite every single one of you to look over your shoulder and read the sentence that is behind council members' that guarantees an outstanding quality of life for all of us. And ask yourselves how your actions are going to make that mission statement come true for us and whatever people live here after us. I thank you very much for your time and attention. Thank you for coming.

Paige Humphrey and Marjorie Delker. Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Paige Humphrey, and I am the Outreach Coordinator for Safe the Scenic Santa Rita's. As you are likely aware, we are an environmental group opposed to HUD-based Copper World project. I'm here today to present you 133 signatures from eligible voters in the town of Sarita on a petition that we circulated requesting that the town hold a public hearing to determine if HUD-Bay can prove it can recharge 105% of the groundwater it withdraws with Central Arizona Project Water. If HUD-Bay is unable to do so, the town should not allow HUD-Bay to install its water pipeline along the Santa Rita Road. HUD-Bay appears to already be in violation of a 2013 right-of-way encroachments license agreement with the town of Sarita. Arizona Department of Water Resource records reveal that HUD-Bay pumped nearly 11 million gallons of water from its wells in 2025. None of this water has been recharged into the area as defined by Exhibit B of the agreement. While HUD-Bay and its predecessor, Rosemont Copper Company, have stored 1,683 acre-feet of water at the Pima Mine Road recharge facility, this water is outside of the boundaries of the recharge area defined by the agreement. The water in question flows the same direction as the Santa Cruz River, north towards Tucson, not south towards Salrida. Furthermore, the Sarita Town Council passed a resolution in 2007 opposing Copper World's predecessor, the Rosemount Mine. This decision followed on the heels of Pima County's first resolution opposing mining in the Santa Rita Mountains and cited the same concerns. Water quality, conflict with Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, and undue costs and adverse impacts on the taxpayers of Pima County. I urge the council to consider and take seriously the 133 signatures presented today and listen to what your constituents are sharing with you. I urge the council to consider and take seriously Salarita Resolution 2007-11 opposing the Rosemont mine. The voters of Salarita do not want to live in the shadow of Copper World. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. After Marjorie, Rick Corrado.

Hello. Good evening. I'm also a resident of Quail Creek. And like a previous speaker, I looked at the mission in the town, and it ends up with outstanding quality of life. And I think that's here for us. But I think putting a copper mine right next to our back door doesn't meet the conditions of that mission. And I want to thank you as a council for stopping the tar pit that we were going to travel with. I really appreciate that. And I won't be spending time talking again of all the negative issues that are among us about the mine. Hopefully, as we look at this election year and new members of the council, there is a way that we can have access to information about the candidates regarding their position on this mine issue. Quality of life is not driven by industrial expansion, abrasive industrial expansion, and I encourage you to continue to support the last statement in your mission for all of us.

Thank you. And after Rick, it will be Harry Stevens.

Good evening, Mayor and Town Council, Town staff. After listening to Jerry Bustamante of Hud Bay Minerals at the last council meeting, it's clear that Hud Bay is duplicitous about their unverified facts, especially with regards to water use. Mr. Bustamante claims data presented by the public is inaccurate, yet resident after resident comes before you and states the same facts. Are they all wrong or inaccurate in their research? Alas, Mr. Bustamante provides no usable information that substantiates his claims. He continually alludes to the fact that HUD-BHS permits and therefore they have permission to use water and resources unabatedly. Make no mistake, HUD-BAE will pollute the air, poison the water, drain your aquifer, and destroy the ecosystem. Without an independent accredited hydrological study, accurate assessment to evaluate HUD-BAE's planned water activity and permission is impossible. Central Arizona project water will be unreliable, likely unavailable. Project renews cannot and will not restore the aquifer. The data from HUD-BAE's website provides this information. Non-disclosure and failure to report various issues allude to the fact that HUD-B is already non-compliant, and they have no intention of honoring their 2013 agreement to replenish the aquifer to 105%. Between drought, misrepresentation, and failure to abide by prior agreement, water depletion and water deprivation are all but assured. Who moves to a municipality with no water? Better yet, who moves away? It is up to this council to provide guidance, prudence, and forethought to create protection and mitigation from permission. Oversight and monitoring are the only path to protect the public's health and well-being. Monthly monitoring by unaffiliated agencies for air, water, traffic control should be non-negotiable for any agreement moving forward. Consider this. No hydrological report? Then let us explain how water quality and water use will be monitored. No traffic study? Then these are the available routes available to you for highway access to Highway 19. Here are the number of trucks allowed per day across Zaharita Roads. Create maximum payload weight for the road protection and not 80,000 pounds per truck. Designate allowable speed and driver certification issues with strict police enforcement. Designate times and days that trucks can traverse roads to provide safety and prevent accidents. Advise that 24-7, 365 road access will not be tolerated. Make it absolutely clear, HUD-B is solely responsible for all damages resulting from all of their subcontractors. We are residents and we demand your accountability as we see none thus far. Protect us against those who do whatever they want to do simply because they think they have permission. Create guidelines and guide their permission. Having permission and having a right to do what you please are two different things. I think this council seriously needs a public hearing to discuss this issue because the community does not want it. Thank you. Thank you, Rick.

And I'm assuming you're Harry stepping to the microphone. Thank you.

I am Harry Stevens and I've been a ten-year resident here and my wife and I chose to live in this community because we thought that this was one place that had clean air and possibly clean water and those are the things that we were looking for that we thought were the most important things. now to see our our City Council and the mayor be able to allow these people to come in here and and the the things that they've said are ludicrous it's like they haven't uh shown any any type of a of proof of what they can do and they've uh Over the years, I've read a lot about the Colorado Water Project, and I have a family in Utah, and they're also on that. it it's a fact that Arizona was last to come and sign up to be a part of that and they're the lowest on the list and there's an article out the other day that was talking about how that project, the Colorado project is in a lot of trouble right now and are not able to sustain the flow of water from the Lake Powell and the Lake Mead is where that water comes from and So it's looking really bad, and there's no way that these guys can say that they're going to be able to do 105% of what they use. They always, it's like the contractors that are up in Phoenix that are already going through this and they build without being able to get water for their projects. And they're finding out now that the state isn't backing them. And then also So they don't, I'm sorry. Anyway. Yeah, that's good enough. And what everybody else said.

Thank you for being here.

Shirley Cox. Yep, I saw you turn it in. I'm not gonna move on without you.

My name is Shirley Cox.

Good evening.

My family and I moved here in 1971. The Santa Cruz Bridge was one lane. That's how long we've been here. Drilled our well. Our wells are set at like 340 feet. most of our wells set. We were like one of the first nine families and that was long before all these houses came in. Rosemont, well, Rosemont drilled a well about a fourth of a mile from my house, okay? And they pumped and they pumped and they pumped just right down the road, you know? I went to a lot of their meetings and they talked about bringing in CAP water to Green Valley. I said, okay, we're high.

The water's not gonna run uphill.

I said, why don't you use CAP water? You know what their words was? We need good, clean water. So in other words, we drink the not so good water. And they use the water, the good water. They're drilling down 900 feet, 1,000 feet. We're at 340. They're going to soak us up like a sponge. And we're not going to have water. So somehow, we need to stop this. Yes, the environmental, all the dust. We have a lot of retired people. They moved out here for that reason. And like I said, we have our trees planted, our grass planted. And we're not going to be able to if that mine goes in. So, like I said, they're gonna soak us up like a sponge. And that's all I got to say. Thank you.

Mr. Daugherty, you're the last speaker. I saw you turn in a card, so. I didn't want you going in the other direction.

Good evening, council, staff, and everybody who's here. I just returned from the TEP Santa Rita connection hearing that was held up at the casino up by the airport. And I had the opportunity to speak and I think the council and everybody here needs to understand something about this Santa Rita connection. The application that TEP filed expressly excluded the Santa Rita substation. Now that sounds like a little bit of arcane, but the power line will go from the Sonora substation to the Santa Rita substation. And they excluded that substation from their application, which meant TEP could go around and tell everybody this power line that's going to come from, bisect the community north to south, has nothing to do with Copper World. That's a lie, because the Santa Rita substation is being built immediately adjacent to Copper World's Santa Rita south Toro switchyard. And the Santa Rita substation is going to connect to the Toro switchyard, and that will energize that switchyard, and that is going to allow them to build a second 138 kilovolt power line that's going to go right out the Santa Rita road all the way to the mine site. So this deception that TEP was doing, and I think they misled this council by stating there was no connection to the mine, that's not true. It's flat out not true. The Santa Rita connection is going to bring the power to the Santa Rita substation, connect it to the Toro switch yard, and build the 138 kilovolt line across Santa Rita Road. So you guys are going to have two new 138 kilovolt power lines because of this. And this is the kind of deception that really erodes the public's confidence in government. Our job is to provide information. We research, we look into the facts, and the facts are TEP was lying to you and everybody up here about saying there was no connection to Copper World. Without that project, without the Santa Rita connection, there would be no power going out to that mine site. So I think it's really important to step back and listen to us. We are not the bad guys. We are not the opposition. We are trying to provide legitimate, important information to this community so you can make decisions that are going to impact the future of this area for the next 100 years. for the next 100 years. And sometimes the game plan of grow, grow, grow, grow, grow runs out because we are facing a new reality. And the new reality is the water game is over. The surface water is impaired. The groundwater is impaired. This is a subsidence area. And you can't let these guys come in here and drain this on some sort of promise that they're going to replenish 105% when they've shown you no proof. No proof. We request you hold a public hearing. Bring them in and ask them the questions. Thank you very much. Thank you.

My name is Mike Perfumi. I've lived here for about 11 years. My wife told me not to mumble, so I'm going to try to speak up. This won't take long. First of all, I want to thank the council members for serving because I know it is not an easy job. Okay. And I didn't see your name plaque. Your name, sir?

A.C. Mariotti. He's our finance director.

I feel I'm listening to him. He seems like an extremely intelligent man. So I'm pretty sure the factors in the fact, in his budgets, that residential people, residential people, basically housing, doesn't really pay the full cost of their utilities. Commercial housing does. Which is why communities, like the mayor said, wants to have commercial businesses in our communities to pay the bills. Otherwise our taxes go through the roof. Some people don't quite understand that. I understand that. You understand that. They now understand that. However, there are a lot of different types of commercial that can come into a community. Small businesses put more economy into a community than any other type of thing. Okay, we have a lot of big businesses coming in. That's fine too. But the mine, we have two mines already. We have Freeport. We have Argo. They were here long before any of us were, except for a few of us. We are kind of old in here. But now we're putting in a third, and we can barely support the two we have. Putting in that third mine is going to be extremely detrimental. I really, really hope. that this Council will look for other types of commercial industry to help us with our taxes, not a mine. Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here. Thank you all for being here. I'll close the call to the public and move on to Council brief summary of current events. Council Member Priolo.

I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful Memorial Day event at Rancho Sahuarita, organized by Council Member Lytle, attended by the Mayor and myself, and it was glorious. If there are any Gold Star families here, I salute you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you. Councilman Lytle, you were complimented.

Well, I appreciate the compliment, but it wasn't just me. It was a whole lot of other people involved in that and the veterans themselves who deserve all the credit. Thank you.

Lisa, did Kim, Council Member Lisk, want to weigh in or have any comments so far? I'll just pause for a second and see if she has any updates.

I have not seen any.

You have not seen anything. Dr. Gillespie? Nothing? I would just add, not only did we have a nice event there, American Legion post-66 soon afterwards had standing room only in there. So when they had, to Councilmember Priolo, they had two gold star moms present a wreath. So that was hard and touching. I also was able to attend the three high school graduations. Scholarship-wise, they totaled over $20 million in scholarships. We had someone go to the Coast Guard Academy, Notre Dame, so we're turning out really great students as we move forward. Obviously, I'm appreciative of Public Works, especially John Garcia, for the flag placement that we've noticed. They are up to 247, and they promised that they're gonna add three more for July 4th, which brings us to 250, kind of a magic number. So really appreciate the Arizona Rangers partnering with the town, really appreciate that. um uh covered post 66 and there was one more big event that happened like oh yeah it was shane dilly's uh birthday on sunday so happy happy birthday shane um hope you had a restful weekend with the family um i know your wife was working on monday because she was with the boy scouts at one of those remembrances so i just wanted to wish you a happy birthday Our next meeting is June 8th, 2026. And Madam Clerk, we'll move to item number seven.

Item number seven is the Town Manager's Report.

Thank you. And birthday boy, Shane Dewey, will be presenting this item.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Once again, it's a privilege to highlight the activity and the doings of our staff in support of the community and its needs for the month of May. Obviously, there's a lot of hands at play.

Somebody have the, do you want me to do that, Lisa?

Oh, well, we're having technical difficulties. My birthday was wonderful, by the way. Actually, having a birthday on a weekend means you have a whole weekend of birthdays. So it was great.

And there was a four-day holiday, of course. There was a four-day holiday to boot. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

It was wonderful. We good?

All right, perfect.

So for the period of April 15th through May 15th, we added two new employees to our family. Talia Carey, who you've already met and been introduced to as our new HR director, started on the 20th of April. And Damian Mahalka, Parks and Rec recreation specialist, also started on the 20th of April. So we welcome them. We don't have any employee anniversaries to mention. for this period of time, so we'll move on to the next slide. For major department highlights, obviously there's a lot covered in the report, but I will highlight just a few here tonight with you. On Saturday, April 25th, Sergeant Amanda Sebold in the police department received the 2026 law enforcement commendation from the Sons of the American Revolution medal. She received that medal for her demonstrated leadership through the year 2025. So we congratulated Sergeant Seabold for her exemplary leadership in the police department. For our court department and our law department, they kind of teamed up on May 1st. They had a fourth grade class from the gifted program arrive at the court and they conducted a mock trial and they used fairy tales and each participant took roles of the prosecutor and defense attorney and the judge. They had a great opportunity to learn what trials are like and how the courts operate. And there were a lot of our staff members involved from both of those departments. So we really appreciate our ongoing efforts to engage the community in these significant ways. On May 24th, The Salwarita Optimistic Squad SOS hosted an exciting Salwarita cleanup day. I appreciate Councilmember Morales joining us that day to help us out. It was wonderful. But we picked up here in our downtown community over 35 bags of trash and other items. It was a great event in support of the larger community volunteer efforts to keep Salwarita beautiful. So that was absolutely wonderful. We are resting some of our fields in a design program to keep our turf healthy and strong. We're advertising that on our websites and with our user groups, but for the North Santa Cruz parks, field one through three, and Animax field five, we've already started the resting period, which for those fields, May 4th through May 29th, and then Actually already started, we've added some fields to that, field three at the Anza Trail Park and field four at Anamax. They just started their field resting from yesterday through June 19th. This is all an effort to keep those fields usable for a longer period of time to our user groups. We had the Fiesta Salwarita, we talked about that at our last council meeting. Over 10,000 people showed up from our community to engage and to come together as a community, which was a wonderful event. Appreciate our Parks and Rec. The El Toro intersection, El Toro and Salverita Boulevard, Rancho Salverita Boulevard is open. I can tell you that shaves off several minutes from many people commuting. That north-south connection is important and we look forward to other north-south connections like the La Vida road that's slated to go in period one of the new RTA Next program. So we're excited about those north-south connections and how important they are for our community. In community development, the month of May is Building Safety Month. I appreciate the proclamation, Mayor, that you did earlier. But it's very timely in that the council adopted new building codes in April of 26. So having recognition of building safety, highlighting the critical role of our building codes and code professionals in keeping our community and the buildings that we occupy safe to inhabit is very important. And then on the economic development side, our economic development staff, in partnership with Parks and Rec and Community Development, visited the Mosaic Quarter and the Iceplex and Fieldhouse project in Tucson, hosted by the architects JLG. Architects, we did that visit to help us understand the kind of planning and effort and design and coordination that it takes to embark on that kind of size and magnitude of commercial retail. So we really appreciated that experience. Next slide, please. On the capital improvement projects, I wanted to highlight just one. The police department expansion with the annex building already gone vertical. It's a very exciting project. We're moving along. We're doing electrical now and plumbing in these buildings. On June 9th, there's a beam signing event for the town council. You got some further instructions later today on the time to meet and how we're gonna move forward with that, but we're excited for that. And Mayor and Council, that really concludes my update to you tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

And the court's parking must be coming along as well. It is, yes. Thank you. Very well, thank you. Any other questions? Nope, thank you. Item nine, excuse me, item eight is the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Madam Clerk, item number nine.

Presentation and discussion of the results of the 2026 Citizen Survey.

Haley is up, Haley Tavoyan, I've had a lot of names tonight. Our public information officer, we'll introduce Mary Rowley from New Point and we'll present this item, good evening.

Good evening, good to see you Mayor, members of the council. My comments will be brief, I'm just gonna introduce Mary Rowley, she's the founder and president of New Point Marketing, long time partners for the town, they've helped us with a lot of significant projects over the years. The community survey that we'll talk about tonight, specifically we've done for 10 years, so we try not to change it up too much because we really want the longitudinal data, the time points that tell us where were we in 2016 and be able to compare that with 2022 and 2026. So the one change that you'll see this year that is new data that we've gathered was specifically related to the waste program. We wanted to ask about attitudes related to the new waste consolidation and recycling behaviors because we feel like it will give us some good benchmark data as the recycling specifically grows. We want to know sort of where people stand, how much they're using it now, and where the pain points are that we can improve that specific project. other than that really the questions are about quality of life where they'd like to see the community go it was really positive results overall let Mary dig into the specifics but essentially we have some great action items that we can look into as per usual and we heard a lot of the same things that we heard you know five years ago restaurants everybody wants everybody's hungry so yeah so that's that's all I have to say about that I'll I'll give the floor to Mary Raleigh

Thank you. Good evening, Mary. Welcome.

Thank you. Nice to see you all. Thanks, Haley.

You can bring that microphone down a little bit closer to you. Yeah, there you go.

Are you insinuating that I'm not tall?

No, you're just soft-spoken.

I know. And I'm not tall.

But we can move the podium up and down on the mic.

No, I'm good. Thank you. I just have to give you a hard time once in a while. Okay. Okay. So how did we do this survey? It was online, and we used as many methods as we could. Every household got a postcard. There were ads. We put it in social media. And we were in the field from the beginning of March to the 24th. We got 780 responses, which is similar to what we've gotten on past surveys, and it's plenty to do some slicing and dicing with. The confidence interval was 95%, which means if we were to redo this over and over, there's a 95% chance we'd come up with the same information. The margin of error was 3.5%, and anything below 5% is considered valid. So what were we trying to do? We wanted to see what people thought about life in Salarita, which we've done in the past, evaluate resident satisfaction with local government, which we've done in the past, see how people felt about growth and infrastructure, how happy they were with department services, and then on this one to learn how they felt about the waste program, which is new. So who are the folks who responded, and where do they live? Sorry. So 41% of the respondents live in Rancho Saurita, 16% in Quail Creek, and 7% in Madeira Highlands, no surprise. 51% were female, which on a lot of the surveys we see tends to skew slightly more female. And four decided they didn't want to answer. Ages were spread out with the most being 35% were over 65. I would say compared to some of the past surveys, we've skewed a little older in this, but nothing crazy.

Do you think, Mary, that's because obviously they have a higher propensity to vote as well.

Yes.

So they just are more apt to pause and take the time to actually fill out a survey?

I do, I really do. I don't know if it's solely a matter of time, but they are more informed in a lot of cases. Homeownership, 92%, and that compares to the 2022 at 88%, so it's up a bit. 74% married, which compared to 79% last time. And we have more folks in the 100,000 and plus income, 44% versus 40 in the 22 survey. Then we went to find out where are people learning things. And a difference this year was that we added the town Facebook on there, the community Facebook pages, which we hadn't segmented that out previously, but we were interested in seeing how much impact that had. and if you just look at social media compared to 2022 it's lower but if you combine social media category plus the community Facebook pages it's really comparable at 33% to what we got in the last community survey So how do they feel about the community? This one was really interesting to me. Does the government act in the best interest of your community? And that showed a decrease. But I did a little research on national. And I really think it's just a part of a national trend that we are seeing. there have been long running national surveys forever. And two that are prominent are the Pew survey in 2026 and Washington University, both of which said trust in government to do what's right is between 17% and 20%. And if you compare that, In the 1960s, it was above 70%. So it's an overall decline. That's what I put a lot of this up to. Of the people who said no, they were in the range of 45 to 54, and half were male. OK, town aspects. Again, pretty comparable to the prior survey. The only real difference, I would say, is if you look down the list as a place to participate in social events and as a place for recreational activities, from 22 to 26, those two changed places that's the it's you know significant as we've seen in the past it's a great place to raise a family not so great as a place to work in the people in every survey want more places to work in addition to places to eat but overall it's a good good score Then we asked people, what are the three great things you think of when you think of Saurita? Again, very positive, and the only difference from the prior survey was neighborhoods and size of the community switch places, as at the top.

But if you add, like you did before, if you add them together, whether it's one, two, two, one, very comparable.

It's very close, yes. Then we said, what are the three challenges that you see in the community? And no surprise, they want more restaurants, and they want more retail. And again, a switch between the 2022 survey, health care services, and employment opportunities changed places. But again, positive scores. It's a positive view.

One, back to your national, you know, look, healthcare services, it's not even just a regional or state problem, it's across the country.

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

I know we're doing a lot, you know, trying to, where we are today with Banner, Northwest, Pima Heart, UCHC, and where we were, you know, 10, 15 years ago.

Yeah, yeah.

We're trying.

Yes, and as we do these, It's interesting to see the changes and then to see what stays the same. Great place to live, great place to raise their kids. Then we said, do you support growth? We had a decrease in the people who said yes and an increase in the people who said no. Of those saying yes, it was 72% in 22 and 59% in 26. Of those who said no, 65 plus and 50% are male. We asked them how they felt about development. What would they like to see? Number one, restaurants. Followed by entertainment, retail, recreation center, sports complex, office complex. Again, the same kind of things. The only difference here is we did not ask. In 2026, we did not ask about a technology center, which was done in 2022. And some of these, they're very, very comparable from one year to the next, but sometimes people want to know a little bit different information.

Well, and of course, I always find it interesting because rec centers and sports complexes always come up. We had an opportunity to get it, and the voters said no. So wanting it and paying for it, I guess, is always a separate factor.

So then we asked people, what should Celery to be known for? And it's the same things that was said previously, which is it's a great place, a community to live in, it's safe, it's a great place to raise a family, it's friendly, and great neighbors. That has not changed. Then we looked at infrastructure. I know I'm going through this quickly, but there's a lot, and hopefully you've all had a chance to look at it. So town infrastructure. The parks and sports fields, 41% rated it as good, and 28% as very good. So the overall score, if you look at that, stayed very similar. And overall, on the town infrastructure, it's still rated very good and good by the majority. Intersections got a lower rate, and I'm not sure why. We didn't ask an open end there.

Yeah, I mean, Shane, I mean, when I saw that earlier, I'm like, I don't even, honestly, I don't even know what that means because we've certainly improved, you know, like the stoplight at Walden Grove, but I just don't know how to measure what does it mean that intersections are poor. I mean, people blow through lights, I guess, but it's hard to control that. Any thoughts on what that means or how to address that?

Honestly, when I saw that, I was thinking that there was a lot of pent-up frustration on the El Toro and Rancho Sahuarita Boulevard intersection.

Right.

And how that was in this...

In the mix of, yeah, like, it's almost here, but it's not. Get it open.

That was ongoing for quite a long time. Yeah, I didn't think about that one. And that could have influenced it a little bit.

Right, especially so many people that voted or took the survey out of Rancho Sarita.

Yeah.

Good point. 41% of the respondents are from that community.

And people do get frustrated with everything. Right. Let's get them more restaurants. OK, then of infrastructure improvements you could have, what would you like to see here? And roads number one, bike trails, community center, parks, and then traffic. And so we did a word cloud for that.

So they wanna see more, no, I'm just teasing.

And then, I thought this was great, the weekly trash collection, 54% are very satisfied, and if you combine the somewhat satisfied, you've got 78%. That is great for a brand new program.

I see Daniel in the back, and Nalo, thank you, appreciate it, Public Works.

Good job. Then in terms of the recycling, also high, combined with somewhat and very satisfied, 74%. Again, for a brand new program, that's really, really good. Bulk waste, I'll show you on the next slide, a lot of people didn't really understand that. So I think it's an opportunity for us to help people understand it.

It's never been included, so the natural inclination to use it when you had to pay for it before, that's probably gonna take a little bit of education to educate. It's a free service. Well, it's included, it's not free.

We expect that number to change over time where the word gets out, it's better advertised and more familiar with people on how to use it. Because I can assure you that people have stuff they want to get rid of. Oh, absolutely. Having this.

Always.

And they're probably paying still.

Yeah. Yeah. So we asked them, of those using it and not using it, if you look at the familiarity, 48% said, no, but I'd like to know how to use it. So that's a real opportunity for us for community education. Why am I not clicking in the right area here? There we go. Waste collection, what would they like to see? Glass is number one. And I can tell you, we also do surveys for the Tucson Department of Environmental Services, and we've seen the same thing for 10 years there. And they don't recycle glass. You have to haul it someplace.

Yes, yeah. And most of us, I think all of us, took the tour of the recycling plant and have, I think, a deeper understanding why we can't and why it's so expensive and difficult. But I know people want to figure out a way to do it.

Okay, safety. Safety. People feel safe here, very safe. 90% feel very, very safe here, which is wonderful. We have 3% that aren't sure. But overall, people feel safe, which is, again, some of the things they talk about is why this is a wonderful place. Then we said, how safe do you feel in each of these areas? And between 2022 and 2026, it's almost identical. So fear is not growing at all. People feel safe. And then the police services are still rated good or very good by the majority of people with the police department. And then town services, slightly fewer people use town services in the time between the two surveys, but it's not significantly different. It's only four points. And overall, the rating decreased slightly, but again, nothing of great significance that we could see.

In the first slide, Mary showed that there's a 3.5% error rate, so if you factor that in on a lot of these, not the wide one, but certainly on the smaller numbers, that could account for that, or some of that.

Then if you look at the overall performance, there was slightly more poor, but again, I attribute that to trickle down from the whole national view of government as a whole. But if you do look at in 2026 and you combine good and excellent, those are good numbers. It's almost 60%. And it was lower before. OK, so what did we learn from all this? People are very positive about the new waste collection service. And as I mentioned, we need to help them understand what bulk collection can do, how to use it, et cetera. And we may want to educate them about glass. I know Tucson's been trying to do that as well, and people just don't understand it. a little change in where people get information and what's important to them and then health care as you talked mayor that that's important and then lastly the town performance is still very very good there was a drop in support for growth but I'm not sure why on that one, unless it's new restaurants. Seriously, we can joke about it, but that's what people want. And maybe that's.

Well, the tendency is after I'm here, it feels like it's growing. I want to lock the door after I got here.

Yeah, that's a good observation.

Mayor, it's not just that. It's not after I'm here, nobody else. But now that I'm here, I want all the amenities of a larger community. So I want the Trader Joe's and I want the whatever, right? Right.

but that only comes with growth.

That takes growth to get there, so it's interesting.

That is, yeah. Parks and sports field are breeded about the same as they were. Infrastructure is good. And to have 90%, nine out of 10 people, feel very safe living here, that's fantastic. And then, again, as I said, the police department is rated good or very good by the majority. Any questions?

Thank you. Mostly just for Shane. So how do you, what will you do with it? What will you recommend for us to respond to or to work on? Was there any aha moments or one or two things that went, oh, I think we can work on that or this? Any thoughts from when you saw it the first time?

I was a little interested when it, you know, getting back to town services, I think it was, I don't know what slide number it is, but it's town services comparing 22 to 26, and in 22, wastewater was the least, and in 26, wastewater had moved up to the middle of that road. And so animal services dropped down, actually increased as well in terms of public perception on those services. Municipal court fell down on the list to the bottom in 26. um and i'm not quite sure how to interpret i was thinking the same thing i'm like if i got a ticket or had to go to court i'm probably not you know maybe that drops down a little bit um to me it might be we're doing our you know the courts doing their job right um to have a rating like that so i don't know it's all in all i was i was uh i sat back pretty pleased with this outcome The things that the council holds near and dear in terms of its standard and what it looks for, what it looks staff to do on a year-to-year basis, it seems like those are very well supported in this survey outlet. We're happy to answer any questions, but I don't know if I had any big ahas, and this is what we definitely need to be looking at and focusing on.

Right, thanks. Any thoughts, questions, comments to my colleagues? Oh, he was scratching. He was pondering. on there um okay well thanks for um continuing to work with us and i love the fact that we kind of keep it aligned and then we can measure it over time and you know against national trends not only locally trends um but you know from pd to park and rec to public works roads you know the things that are the biggest line items on our budget you know it is nice to see that's where the higher level of satisfaction don't know how to create more restaurant workers to create the ability for more restaurants to open here because I know that's what people want but it's a it's a tough slog you know to hire and the margins are so thin but you know it's continue with that one of the things that we work on you know we had the chick-fil-a pop up a couple of times and support our food trucks and others but thank you thank you Thanks, Haley. Madam Clerk, item 10.

Item 10 is a presentation and discussion regarding the Campbell Avenue extension.

Thank you. And Daniel, I think, will be introducing. And I saw Rod sitting there. I'm like, oh, my goodness, what a blast from the past. So I'm excited to have the presentation. Thanks, Daniel.

Mr. Mayor, council, Mr. Manager, Daniel Logan, Deputy Public Works Director here for the town. I have the esteemed pleasure of introducing Cheryl. I'm going to butcher it. I do it all the time. Spots, spots. Our project manager for SOMUS, she's going to share with us an update for the Campbell Avenue connection.

Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening. Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

You just saw how important roads are, so it was a perfect segue, right?

Exactly, and it's a north-south connection. Perfect.

Can't do any better than that.

All right, so Campbell Avenue extension key stakeholders, of course, town of Sarita and Pima County. They've entered a joint intergovernmental agreement for this project. There's multiple utility companies out there. There's the Continental School District that will be using this route. The Madera Reserve Homeowners Association and the United Community Health Center on the south end of the project. Just a quick overview. We have some funding sources for the project. There's the $3 million that was awarded for the federal discretionary funding.

Could I just do a quick shout-out to thanks of Congressman Siskamani, who, you know, this was one of our first gets from the discretionary funding, congressionally designated spending. So very pleased about that. Thank you.

Thank you. The Santa Cruz impact fees and local funds both from Sarita and Pima County. The project limits is just under a mile. It's from Tunnel Canyon Place to White House Canyon Road with the road extension being from Tunnel Canyon Place to Josephine Canyon. The purpose of the project for safety and accessibility and local continuity It has all-weather access road with a continuous paved shoulder. It's an alternate route if White House Canyon is flooded or if the UPR is blocking the road. It's also an alternate route for emergency response vehicles and school buses. There's also pedestrian facilities and bicycle facilities along the entire extents, going from the health center all the way through town of Sarita. This is a little sketch of what the roadway will look like. This is on the south side of the road. It's gonna be two lanes with 11 feet lane, sorry, six foot paved shoulder, and then four feet for extra shoulder for pull-off that's gonna be separated with a multi-use path, 12 feet for bicyclists and pedestrians to use.

So the multi-use path will be on just one side, correct?

Correct.

Correct. Will that be the north side or the south side?

So the project goes north-south, so the multi-use path will be on the west side.

The west, oh, test me now. Okay, west side. Yeah, okay, I get that.

And then there's a channel on the east side of the roadway to direct flow into two crossings. We'll be discussing that here shortly. On the town side, there's a section of the proposed drainage structure. A bridge was looked at, but it was found to be cheaper and quicker for construction time for a box culvert to be placed. So this is a eight cell. 20 feet wide by six feet tall box culvert. You still have your six foot paved shoulders, your 11 foot travel lanes, and your 12 foot multi-use path. There's a separation of a vertical element there with a bike curb. There is a one foot offset. That's why it says 13 feet for multi-use path. You have one feet from that curb to the 12 foot multi-use path. Other enhancements, there's drainage improvements. So there's Salmon Canyon Wash, which we touched on. We'll touch on more later. We also have the two minor wash crossings south of that. There's the sidewalk and multi-use paths that is going to be going in on that west side. And that's going to be tying in from the health center to Salmon Canyon Place. The right-of-way access, there's going to be drainage easements that will be needed for the project. And then there's landscaping design through native drought-tolerant plants. For the multi-use path as well, there's going to be crosswalks at Josephine Canyon and Tunnel Cannon Place to allow access to and from the facility. This is a snippet of the main wash crossings for the project. The black line there is the roadway extension, where there currently is no pavement. There is a dirt road, which people have used in the past. So it's going to be paved all the way from Tunnel Canyon to Josephine. There's three washes there. The two south ones that are unnamed are going to be combined into one crossing to consolidate the flow and the outlet for these washes.

So for the part that is in front of UCHC, just north of the White House Canyon Road, so there won't be any touching or adding sidewalks or any of those types of things for that portion?

So the existing roadway is to our main. We are going to be widening, and so we have a six-foot shoulder all the way through, far away from White House Canyon. Okay. We'll have that transition from the six-foot shoulder. The Maltese Path will be in front of the United Community Health Center. It's going to be at those driveways where you can access the Maltese Path.

Yeah, because most of it's driveway, wide driveways to get to the Campbell Road. Yes.

The wash there that's at the bottom is out of the project scope. We are focused on the Salmon Canyon and the two unnamed ones that are shown here. The all-weather access route during a rain event would be Joan Josephine Canyon and Madera Reserve Drive, where the roadway does go over that wash. Here is a snippet out of the 60% plans, which were recently submitted. I know this is a 30% update. Well, it's now 60%.

OK. Just since you came here tonight, we've gone from 30% to 60%.

Just like that. It's in review.

Very productive.

It's in review currently by both the town and county. This is their profile grade. You see the 820x6 box culvert there. The roadway goes up and around it and then ties back into that negative 1% grade on Campbell Avenue.

Can I ask a question? What would be separating the pedestrians on that box culvert?

It's a 6-inch tall curb.

Okay, thank you.

I can go back if you want. This is a section at the culvert itself. We are currently looking at alternatives and best use of the outlet protections. Currently shown is a plunge basin that is currently being taken a look at. Our upstream flow, we are looking at adding some graded berms in order to direct the flow into this wash and through the box culverts themselves.

Do you know who maintains that wash currently? Is that in the town or in the county?

The wash itself is in the town.

It's in the town, okay.

Currently where we stand, we're going after a categorical exclusion, CE, from ADOT, who is representing FHWA.

Can you explain what that means?

Yes, so for NEPRIS review for federal highway administrations needs to go through a thorough process. It takes about 18 to 24 months. They require 30, 60, 90, 100% plans to review as well as multiple reports such as cultural, biological, historical, hazardous materials, and native plant inventory. So we're currently in deep with the environmental. ADOT is reviewing our biological evaluation form for geotech to get geotech out there and start doing some borings. We have submitted the cultural resources report, which ADOT is in review. We should be having that review and hopefully approval here within the next month.

So the good side is we got some federal funding. The bad side is we got some federal funding. Correct. Right?

OK. Mayor and council, I mean, staff, we're constantly talking about this. As of most recent today, talking about, OK, when we're going and we're seeking out these federal funds, we have to realize that if we're awarded federal funds, that federalizes the project. And we heard a little bit of that on the lake project during the budget retreat. the categorical exclusion is an effort on our part, the county's part, to help speed that up and say, hey, we recognize these federal obligations, but here's why they don't really apply in these situations. And so hopefully we'll have some success there. Right, Rod? Yeah.

So some things to note, the preliminary initial site assessment has been completed. The native plant inventory was completed as well. There are no Pima pineapple cactus out in this area, which is good for moving this project forward. Just a few more agency coordination. So as it is a federal administrative project, we have FHWA. We have the Department of Transportation, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Arizona State Museum, and the Arizona Game and Fish. We also have the town and Pima County Cultural Resources who are reviewing the project as well. Preliminary cost estimate is $8.7 million for the project. And that is from, again, Tunnel Canyon Place to Josephine Canyon, with extending the shoulders to White House Canyon and the Maltese Path all the way to the health center.

And knowing that we can't begin construction until 2027, that's touching on the previous slides that it's getting to construction that really delays it in some ways, right?

Correct.

But then when we get to construction, it can blow and go, and then we get it built.

Exactly. So six, eight months once we can go to construction to get there. So since it is a federally funded project, we need to have the funds obligated, which means that ADOT has to formally approve and accept the plans. We're looking at having that accepted by April of 27. The deadline to get this obligated is September 30th, 27.

Oh, okay. So once we get deep into 27, we have to watch it a little bit.

Yes, so as long as we have five months buffer there to obligate the funds, construction can begin after those funds are obligated. So it's not construction start date, it's obligation date.

Okay.

And with that, just a few key dates here. So the intergovernmental agreement was in 2023. The discretionary grant was received July 2024. The RMAP, the 2055 air quality conformity had to be in alignment before the project would be cleared to be added onto the Pima County TIP. Yep. The RMAP was approved in August 2025. The suspension was lifted for adding amendments to the TIP, and that was added for the project in September 2025. ADOT could not get this onto their project list and get signed as a project manager until it was on the TIP. And so that was signed in November 2025. Great. So here we are. We proceeded with 30% plans before ADOT was on board. The 30% plans were submitted in December. We have completed the 60% plans. And we're looking at having final plans done by February 2027 with the ADOT acceptance in April.

Great. Mayor? Yes. Just a quick question. So at an estimated budget of $8.7 million, are there funding questions on the table, or are we squared away that way and we're moving forward?

I believe we're moving forward. We're good with that. We have all the funds kind of allocated from the town, from the county, and from the discretionary funds and impact fees that we're getting. So hopefully we should be in alignment. We have the 6% estimates in there right now for review, and we're looking at making sure that that causes splits between town and county for the contractor.

Thank you.

So the project assessment, one of the many documents that we need to do for federally funded projects, the draft PA for 30% plans was uploaded onto the Pima County project website. It has these areas included into that document. The final PA, which is the 60% plans, is being finalized right now. And that should be going into ADOT review here shortly. With that, I would like to open it up to any questions. We do have a project website. And if there's any direct questions, then Matt Smith, the Pima County manager, is happy to answer. We also have Rod Lane.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Sounds like we're on track, on task, and just the good with the bad. When we get the money that we wanted, the bar becomes a little higher, right? The hoops that we have to jump through on there. Rod, do you want to add anything to it? No, thank you. Oh, thanks.

I'm just grateful to see Rod. I know, that's why I made my night.

It's been a while.

It's been a while.

Thank you, thank you for being here. Madam Clerk, item 11A.

Item 11A is a public hearing and possible action regarding the 711 liquor license application.

Thank you, and Mark Felix, our deputy town clerk, will introduce the item, followed by a public hearing after council has any comments or questions. Thanks, Mark.

Good evening, this is gonna take really quick. This is an item before use of public hearing in consideration of a series nine liquor license application made by 7-Eleven, located at 795 West Via Rancho Sabarita. This location was previously a speedway and that caused the need for an owner transfer application. The applicant on behalf of Trio R Legacy is requesting approval of the owner transfer. It's a Series 9 liquor license which authorizes the sale of beer, wine, and distilled spirits in original unbroken packages for consumption off the license premises. The application was reviewed by Public Works, Police Department, and the Community Development. No objections were received, and Town Clerk has not received any written protests from the public. All fees have been paid, all required documents have been submitted, and based on this review, staff recommends that the Town Council forward a recommendation of approval to the Arizona Department of Liquor License. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Thank you, any questions for Mark? I'll open the public hearing if anybody would like to address us on this particular item. Seeing no movement, I'll close the public hearing and I'll entertain a motion at this time.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I move to submit to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control a recommendation of approval.

We have a motion, do we have a second?

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mark. Item number 11A, and at this time I'm going to, I'm sorry, where am I at? But yes, 11B, it says 11A in my script, sorry. 11B, I had a question for legal advice, so at this time I'll ask, I'll make a motion that we move to executive session, if I can have a second.

I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? I don't think this is gonna take a long time, but we're just gonna go upstairs for a minute. I'm gonna have a question for our attorney. and then we'll be back downstairs.

Thank you. Hi. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We need a million dollars. Thank you. um um Thank you. well i was i was on the week like on our team

Thank you.

Thank you. Can you? Thank you. Thank you. I got here in 84. Yeah. Yeah. uh

Thank you. Thank you.

And then, and then, and then... Thank you.

yeah so we're still working on it

Thank you.

Yeah, we got a guy.

if we would have been if we would have been on the floor today

We don't want that. Thank you.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. It's a little bigger than I thought it was going to be. I just finally bought bullets for it. you know it's not as big where do you want to go I know stuff that you really don't need. I walk out with five or six guns. really nice really nice when you're when you're starting

$25,000.

How many places are you going to shoot?

Yeah, the leadership program started last year. A lot of chambers will do a leadership program. And so we kick off that year, for example, Marana, Sierra Vista, they do one of those. And up there, they do it once a month, all day. program once a month give information to people do a series

We have another one on education, so we have two superintendents that go with the administrative commission. And we do three-hour sessions from 9 until noon.

And there's different topics about the community. We have one that's not as good as we have one on industry and stuff like that. So it's just a series of different things. Kind of like when I was a legislator for 25 years. I didn't know what I did. You're busy doing your job every day and you don't know all the other things. We had one other night. We had a talk about the public safety. We had one at the school.

We had one at the school. We had one at the school.

And so it's a presentation that's out to a group that will register for it at 3.16 p.m. And at the end of the day, it's just a graduation, right?

So it's just a...

So it's just trying to get people specifically what all is actually going on in the economy and what's happening in the history of water. And that would be a good topic that a lot of people don't know about. and some sort of scheduling. We have two timelines again, and we'll have eight or 10 sessions. There may be a day or two where I try and do a day thing, so I might have one session in the morning and one in the afternoon. I might not get a session, but I can figure it all together right now, and that's all I can think of. It's three hours, that thing, with a couple breaks, 10 minute breaks in there, so, and like I said, I'm just trying to put it all together right now.

I reached out to everybody that presented the plan to the board.

We'll see if there are any questions.

I know.

I think a lot of people so they may have people so we have

We moved over to . So yeah, so we . It's great networking out here. We meet people .

Four months, every other . We get sessions that get to know each other pretty well now. There's some good connections. we can use I'm trying, I'm going to try to get the information out. Thank you.

A little bit, but it's like, a little bit.

Oh, fine. He got on it again. Okay.

like i said the one in moran that's right but they do it once a month

Kids got a ball game room, but we can't remember what that was. No, actually, it was a state one.

I know.

It was, like, almost 11 o'clock. That was so bad.

And then I had to come in the next morning, and I'm like, seven o'clock.

Oh, my God. That was so bad.

I know.

I know. Thank you.

Can you tell them to come back, AC?

We're tired. I found the paperwork. We'll take care of you. We'll be okay. Do you live in town?

Not that I'm from here.

Did you get it? Sorry. Yeah, my husband actually did not do that. Did he? He did. He did.

I'm like, yeah, I mean, I can watch YouTube videos and learn how to do things too, but yeah. so he's been around that's one thing whatever i can do like basic things

He did a great job.

So we have actually been state-searching for a while. I'm from Massachusetts, so we have a link somewhere.

What kind of things do you use in Virginia?

You don't want to know.

We're not with you right now.

Thank you.

when she gives us all those names we are reaching out to all of them by email We read that one night. We invited them all to come up. Send an email to 600-0. We invited them all to come up. It's just hot. We got 21 responses. 13 actually showed up. We just picked up a couple numbers.

well

yeah it's it's a southern culture

Well, we're actually . Thank you.

Thank you. Is that a smaller community?

I don't want to have to worry about that.

I just want to sit where everyone carries around. It's the diet I have in front of me. I have ritz and collard greens. I don't know if I can. I've had everything. What was that? Oh, in the house. We had a bunch of vendors come in.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm good.

Thank you.

And yesterday was my experience. I know. So was me.

So is he today.

So I'm putting him on trial. I am. I'm listening. Really? So let me see what I have for Reebok and just take the rest of it. Because I got some from RTA.

Oh, yeah.

Well, let me see what I... I don't think I'm going to use all mine. No. And I'm not buying any more. How many do you have? Well, I can't. I only bought 10. So I can't match you. Let's see, are we missing anybody? Oh, Jessica. Okay, thanks for your patience. We're back to regular session. And at this time, Nathan, our Deputy Community Development Director, will introduce the item. Oh, there you are.

Actually, Mr. Mayor, I am going to let Dylan handle this 100%. Okay. I'm stepping away.

Mayor, if we could, I just saw a text that Kim can't hear us yet. Okay. Let's just make sure she can hear us.

We'll just pause a second. You just let me know when you hear from her, or Kim, let Shane know when you can hear us. Well, you can't hear us, so that doesn't make sense.

Okay, she's got it, so we can proceed.

Okay, thanks. Dylan?

Mayor Murphy, members of the council, tonight's public hearing is for a zoning code text amendment to Salarieda Town Code Section 18.01, general provisions related to legal nonconforming uses, case number SA8-25-0008. So for a little background on this, a nonconforming use or building is one that was legally established under previous zoning laws, but either due to annexation or a change in the zoning regulations, it no longer complies with the current regulations. The use or building is allowed to continue to operate as is. However, if they want to make changes to that, whether that's expansion or a change of use, that's where these provisions would then apply. The provisions regulate the establishment, expansion, maintenance, abandonment, and change of use of nonconforming uses. The current provisions that we have have remained the same since the town code was adopted when we first incorporated from Pima County. And as they are currently written, are very difficult to interpret and apply for both staff and for the public. The intent of this amendment was to make the nonconforming use provisions easier to use and interpret for staff and the public. And in order to do that, we completely rewrote and reorganized the code related to the provisions for nonconforming uses. So as part of that amendment, we clarify the regulations for the expansion of a nonconforming use. There is a change in what is currently allowed, which allows for an expansion up to 100% of the building or the site, the existing site. This would limit the expansion to only the interior expansion of the existing building where the nonconforming use operates. This amendment also provides clearer language on the maintenance and abandonment of nonconforming uses. It also increases the amount of time that the owner has to begin the rebuilding process. I believe it went from three months to 12 months and that's just to allow them to have a little bit more time since it usually does take a lot of time to begin that rebuilding process. We held with the Planning and Zoning Commission held a meeting on a public hearing on March 3rd and voted in favor of affording a recommendation of approval to the Town Council. We did provide a display ad in the Green Valley News on May 10th, and we have not received any feedback from the public to date. And I have a recommended motion on screen, and that concludes my staff report, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Any questions for staff before I open the public hearing? Before we move to the motion? Hearing no questions, I'll open the public hearing on this item. Anybody like to comment on this item? Seeing no movement, I will close the public hearing. And now I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move to adopt ordinance number 2026199. I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by aye. Aye. And I'm sure Kim can let us know, Madam Clerk, if we hear from her on that item. Aye. Aye. OK, we have another aye. And now we move to item, it keeps on saying 12A. I know. I can't have three 12As. Oh, this one actually is 12A. Good. Madam Clerk, Adam 12A.

Discussion and possible action regarding resolution number 20260869 for the 2027 tentative budget.

Thank you. And Mr. Mariotti has been waiting patiently on his third presentation. And as a reminder, this is for a tentative budget. Correct me if I'm wrong, AC, just like we did on both of our CFDs.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, that's correct, except this time you are the mayor and council, not board members. But again, just to repeat, the tentative budget sets the budget ceiling for the year ahead. So when we come back to you with the final adopted budget opportunity, that what's established tonight can be no higher in the final budget. And this is just part of the regulatory process of adopting budgets in municipal government.

Right.

So we've already spent a lot of time going over the budget in detail during our budget retreat in April. So tonight's presentation is going to be much more abbreviated. I'm sure there's a sigh of relief for that.

I was hoping for the full-blown presentation.

Well, you weren't at the retreat personally. That's right. Yeah, maybe there were some things you missed viewing it remotely. But if there's anything that I'm not covering that you want to address, by all means, just stop me and we can cover that in a little bit more detail. So all right, I'm going the wrong direction. All right, so the 2027 tentative budget is programmed at $113,036,970. And the budget is balanced, which means that our financing sources are equivalent to our financing uses. So what does that really mean? That means that all the money that we're going to start next year with, so the fund balances that carry forward, the savings that carry forward next year, plus all the money that we're going to collect during the year that we anticipate to collect next year is programmed for something specific, either for an expenditure or not to be spent and to be saved for future years in the form of fund balances. Right. So this budget is 3% more than the current year budget of $109.8 million. So that's a $3.2 million increase. Why is it higher? It's higher because we have more funding sources. So you go back to the equation there. This budget figure is also $1,932,000 more than what we showed you during the budget retreat. So there have been some changes, and I'll cover that on this next slide. Try to do this in the most simplest fashion, but I don't know if it's simple. So if I'm confusing you, please stop me, and I'll try to state it a different way. All right, so within the general fund, we have a $142,000 funding allocation to the economic development and public affairs budget. And this is to accommodate costs for an economic development agreement with Roadhouse Green Valley. So we did not build that in when we presented during the budget retreat. But now it's looking like probably in the next couple meetings here, we'll come back to you with a proposed economic incentive agreement. So we want to make sure that the budget can accommodate that. $38,000 of those costs will notably be covered by our construction costs. contracting taxes that we record in the capital infrastructure improvement fund so that's the amount of taxes that we expect the project to actually generate to the town so pursuant to the economic development incentive program that can roll back into this incentive agreement so that would reflect itself in the budget by way of a transfer so generates $38,000 in contracting taxes in the SIF. We transfer those over to the general fund and then the economic development department pays the incentive. In the Capital Infrastructure Improvement Fund, we have a number of changes all related to our capital projects. So first, we have three projects that we thought were going to be completed this fiscal year that are going to carry forward to next fiscal year. So we thought it was going to be a 2026 expenditure, which would have lowered our beginning fund balances next year in what we presented at the budget retreat. Those projects are the Anamax Maintenance Yard Project, Anamax Recreation Center Parking Expansion Project, and the El Toro Laveita Multi-Use Path Project. This change also includes two new projects that were not proposed during the budget retreat. That would be the inclusion of the Anamax Pickleball Courts, although we did talk about it, the numbers weren't built into the budget, and the Laveita Road Improvements Project. There was also a slight increase to the police department first floor improvement project. We increased that by $5,000 to accommodate some more costs that became known through this process. So if you take all of that in total, compared to what we presented during the budget retreat, total project costs are going up by about $2.5 million. Of that amount, $915,000 will be paid for by higher beginning fund balances than we thought. And then we have another $1,017,000 added for the regional transportation authority. So once that got approved and we looked at the scheduling of a project, there's some design costs that we want to pay for. And that's primarily related to the Lava Ita roadway project. A small portion of this $17,000 is for the multi-use paths. All right, so here's how the $113 million budget is allocated across our funds. So a portion of the town's funding sources come from external parties, right? Sometimes those come with strings, some restrictions on how they can be used. So the law also establishes restrictions on how some of our funding can be used. And then our own policies create restrictions or limitations on how some of our money can be used. So we use fund budgeting and fund accounting as a mechanism to demonstrate compliance with laws, grant agreements, and our own policies. And when the auditors come here, they look at that pretty closely. So we use this color of money as a way to visually depict that. But fund budgeting is also a required component of budgeting for municipal government in Arizona. We establish our legal level of budget at the fund level and also at the department level. So one of the things, since we're dealing with colors, we don't blend colors. They're just the colors that you see. All right, so the general fund is our largest fund. It comprises 64% of the total budget, and it pays for most of the town's operations, and the money that's in the general fund is not restricted. Now, all money collected by government has to be put to public use, but apart from that, it's unrestricted, and it's to the discretion of the council on how that money gets allocated out. The other 36% of our funding source has some form of purpose restriction to it. So I'll draw your attention to the blue pie wedge. That's our capital infrastructure improvement fund. We put our contracting taxes there and grant agreements that are related to capital projects, such as the RTA funded projects, that would also go here. So some of it's internally restricted by policy. Some of it's gonna be externally restricted by grant agreement. So that budget's $17.4 million, 15% of the total budget, and that pays for most of our general purpose capital projects. Next we have our two enterprise funds, making up about 10% of the total budget. That's the brown pie wedges there combined. Enterprise funds are basically funds that operate like a business where the charges that it assesses to its customers should be sufficient to pay for all the costs of running the operation, debt service, establishing its own fund balance policy requirements and paying for capital items as well then we have the transportation fund six point seven million dollars or six percent of the total budget that's where we put our state shared fuel taxes which are externally restricted by law for use on our streets and roadway system we also put our franchise fees and our incremental utility taxes here which are internal restrictions And then we have our two community facility districts, legally separate. But as I mentioned, it gets pulled into the town's financial reporting entity. That makes up 3% of the total budget. And then the grants and restricted sources fund budget making up 2% of the total. And that's kind of our catch-all for the smaller grants, more operational in nature rather than capital. Okay, so if we take a closer look at our funding sources, you notice that beginning balances, so that's our savings from the current year that are gonna roll forward to next fiscal year, amounts to $51.4 million, about 45% of the total budget. So that's a sizable savings amount rolling forward. You also see that we're very reliant on revenues from other governments. So this would include our state shared revenues, which we use for our operating budget, as well as capital grants. These total $24.7 million and make up 22% of the total budget. Third most significant would be taxes. And for many jurisdictions, taxes makes up a much higher percentage than what you see for us. We happen to be much more reliant on the intergovernmental revenue sources. That totals $21.2 million, 19% of the total. That would include our general TPT, transaction privilege taxes, our construction contracting taxes, franchise fees, and it also includes the CFD property tax levies. It's worth noting that we are not recommending any rate increases or rate changes to our taxing structure. And maybe the one exception to that would be in the Quail Creek Community Facilities District because the property tax rate is actually declining because of the growth out in the district and assessed values of the properties. Charges for services total $8.8 million, or 8% of the total. Most of this is related to our wastewater sewer user fees and our solid waste user fees that are recorded in our enterprise funds. We have licenses and permit fees programmed for $3.3 million, or 3% of the total. These revenues are mostly generated from new growth and new development in the town. Other revenues, also 3.3 million, 3% of the total, would represent court fines and fees, investment income, developer contributions, and miscellaneous revenues that are not recorded elsewhere. And then rounding out our sources, we have other financing sources at $375,000, and that would be our contingency carry-forwards and a small amount for sales of assets. The budget is balanced. So looking at the financing uses side of the equation, this is how we're going to, or this is how we plan to spend the money. Well, I guess it's all spending, right? Because some of it's not to be spent. So we have $46.7 million, or 40% of the total that's actually for ending fund balances, which we're not anticipating spending, and that can be used for fiscal year 2028 and beyond. The rest of the budget totaling $66.3 million would represent the spending portion of the budget. We have $6.6 million for debt service. The town and the CFDs issue long-term debt to pay for infrastructure and other capital assets, sort of our big ticket items, much like a mortgage, and then we incur a debt service payment to pay that back over time. Capital items at $15 million. This would include our capital projects, some cost allocations, some payroll that's in there, and also some minor equipment purchases that don't qualify as a capital improvement plan. So to be a CIP project has to be $50,000 or higher, but there are some equipment purchases under that that are accounted for here. And then operations comes in at $44.7 million or 40% of the total budget. And if we drill into operations a little more closely, you can see that the vast majority of it is for personnel costs. In the general fund, the percentage is much higher. So here it's 60% of the total budget. This number is actually lower than it was or is compared to our current fiscal year budget. And that's namely because we have Solid waste operations now that are actually mostly contracted out We have 28% of the operating budget for services 7% for supplies 6% for other and then we have 1% for allocations and that represents some of our personnel costs and other costs get allocated to the capital pie wedge and some gets allocated to debt service and So if we look at that same operating budget and break it out across our 12 departments, you see that the police department has the largest budget at more than $15 million. That's followed by the public works department budget of more than $13 million. In this particular year, it includes a full 12 months of solid waste operations. The current fiscal year only had 10 months of operations built into it. The parks department budget is third with a budget of over five million dollars and generally speaking the departments with larger budgets are those that provide services directly to our residents or to other constituents such as the development community. The administrative departments tend to be those with the smaller budgets and most notably the mayor and council department budget is the last on the list there. Okay, so this was the first year that we used priority-based budgeting to help develop our budget. And as part of that process, our department leaders identified 116 operational programs and services that are provided to our community or to other departments. Programs were scored and placed into an alignment tier based on standard attributes for the programs, as well as connectivity to the strategic plan key objectives. This resulted in 22 programs that are most aligned with priorities, 38 that are more aligned, 38 less aligned, and 18 that are least aligned, and that allocation is based off of, it's a normal distribution based off of a bell curve. If we allocate it based off of dollars, you see that 19.8 million falls under tier one, most aligned, 12.6 million in tier two, More aligned, 8.8 million in Tier 3. Less aligned, and then 3.4 million in Tier 4, which would be least aligned. So overall, we felt pretty good with those results. 52% of our total programs in Tier 1 and Tier 2, so most and more aligned, represents 72% of our operating budget. We're going to drill into our capital outlay budget a little bit more. So it's $15 million in total. That provides funding for 26 projects in fiscal year 2027. The number in parentheses that you see here would represent the number of projects that falls within that line. So by way of example, our PD building expansion slash renovations line at 4.21 million is three separate projects in our capital improvement plan. It would include the building expansion that's going on, if you were to look out that window right there. It also includes improvements to the first floor of the building and the second floor of the building. The lake remediation line includes the completion of design, which started this year. And it also includes the beginning of improvements to fix the lake next year. That's for 2.61 million. We've got road improvements, which includes projects for the Safari Access Road, Laveita Road, the completion of El Toro and Laveita multi-use path, and also the Campbell Avenue extension project we just talked about a little bit earlier. That's for 2.58 million. Park and playground projects include playground replacements at the Onza Trail School Park. It includes Animax Pickleball Courts. It also includes the Animax Maintenance Yard Expansion Project and the Animax Recreation Center Parking Expansion Project for $1.58 million. We've got the wastewater treatment plant odor control project at 1.4 million. We've got four projects for a variety of vehicle replacement and new vehicles, as well as equipment that goes into those vehicles.

AC, on the wastewater treatment plant odor control, there's a possibility we'll get congressionally designated spending. Did that include the odor control along with the boards and going to the new technology of the plant-based, or is that separate? If we get the congressionally designated spending money, is that on top of this, or could we replace this?

I'll have to defer to somebody from Public Works, but the 1.4 million does not include federal funds. That would just be wastewater. Now, I don't know if the expenditure side only considers the normal stuff and not the federally mandated component.

Because there's a distinct possibility that we might be getting some funding for that. So I was just more curious on if we did get it, and we have an expenditure limit, right, a tentative budget, Where would we, oh, I guess we could do a budget. No, we can't, though, can we?

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, yes, you can. So the general fund has a lot of fund balance available. So that provides budget capacity. That's what it is, right. Even though this would be a wastewater. Right. The reality is those costs would be covered by federal dollars. We did not budget for those federal dollars, but from a budget capacity standpoint on the expenditure side, because we budget for our ending fund balances, we can tap into that. So we're not going to exceed our expenditure limitation.

Thank you for that. Appreciate it. Beth, please. Yeah, do you want to? I just can't remember when we went out to D.C., you know, the odor control part of it. Was that part of the full package that we briefed on?

Mr. Mayor, Member of the Council, if we do get the congressionally directed spending, we would change up the type of process we use to the more environmentally sound and safer for our workers process. If we don't get the funding, we do still need to upgrade that system, but we would likely use a different system.

Right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

Okay, so the vehicle projects amount to 1.13 million and then we have eight other projects for $970,000 and that would include several for technology. We got furniture replacements in there. We got equipment replacements and some other facility improvements fall under that line. So similar to our operational programs, we scored our capital projects using priority-based budgeting to develop our 10-year capital improvement plan. So 47 projects were included in the plan, but there were nine projects that ranked too low and or did not have sufficient funding for inclusion in our CIP. So we did not score three projects because we thought that they were going to be completed in the current fiscal year. So those three projects that I identified earlier that are rolling forward were not scored. Okay, so you can see how those shake out. And then I didn't keep this exactly apples to apples and I'm regretting it now. So I apologize for that because the pie chart on the left includes all the projects in our 10 year CIP. The pie chart on the right includes just the dollars that were programmed in the 2027 budget, so that was an oversight on my part. But you can see that. If we look at how those dollars shake out over tier two or better, 80% of what we've got programmed into the 2027 budget from the capital standpoint is either more aligned or most aligned to our priorities. So that also is a good message. OK, so another way to look at the budget in summary format is we have beginning balances of $51.4 million that we're going to start the year with. We expect to collect around $61.2 million during the year. We have $375,000 of other resources. giving us our total sources, which this is our budget figure, $113 million. Our spending plan is $66.3 million, leaving us with ending balances of $46.7 million. So you see that there is a decrease of $4.7 million between beginning and ending balances, and that's directly related to our capital program, spending on our capital projects. OK, so the tentative budget is presented on the prescribed auditor general budget forms. And if it's adopted tonight, we'll schedule a public hearing and final budget adoption for your June 22nd council meeting. So Mr. Mayor, I'll turn it back over to you if you have any questions.

Thank you. Any questions? Any questions to the right? Well, I always appreciate all the work staff puts in and Shane directing us with our budget retreats. I think it gets to this point much better than years past. So I will continue to thank you. for enacting that and allowing us the multiple days to weigh in on that so at this time I will entertain a motion you can't go home if I don't hear one so Mike

I move to adapt resolution number 2026-0869. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, signify by aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Having no more further business for the public, we're adjourned. Thanks for hanging out tonight. Kim said aye. That's important for Lisa to know.

Amen.