Town Council - Regular Meeting

And you see you ready? I'm ready. Thank you.

Shane, are you ready? Okay. Having reached the hour of 6:10, I'll u call the meeting to order and also like to remind everybody that as all meetings are that it's being recorded and you can watch it afterwards. Uh, tonight's invocation will be given by Ron Bishop, our chief technologist, followed by the pledge of allegiance by Camila Ortiz, a fifth grade student in Ritson Ridge Elementary School. Ron, good evening, mayor, town council members. Let us begin tonight's meeting with a prayer. Heavenly Father, you have so many names. The Torah calls you creator. The Quran calls you peace. The Gita calls you destroyer. The Dharma calls you truth. Quantum theory calls you the great link. Yes, Father, even modern science has a name for you. My favorite name of yours is from St. John's first epistle to the early Christian church. For God is love, and those that abide in love abide in God and God in them. Such a powerful statement written in as few words as possible. So much of humanity has a common trust, a basic faith in you that one would think this would join us together. Our common belief that all beings should be well, happy, and free from suffering should also create a familiar bond. Unfortunately, father, we humans get tied up in the semantics of how to practice our faith and how to each offer each other peace. We sometimes think that our way is the best way, possibly the only way. However, St. John was very clear in his words. He

didn't insist on going to church on Sunday or not eating meat during Lent. He didn't add any disclaimers or stipulations. He didn't get bogged down in semantics. He kept it simple knowing there is grace in simplicity. Father, tonight let us remember St. John's words as we deliberate the future of our community. We thank you for all the blessings you've bestowed on us. May all beings be well, happy, and free from suffering. In all your names, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Ro. Appreciate it. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Great job. And thanks to your parents for supporting you in this effort. appreciate it and family. Uh, madame clerk, may I have a role? Council member Gillespie here. Council member Lisk.

Council member Lisk, I see you. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Lidle here. Council member Morales here. Council member Polo here. Vice Mayor Egggert absent. Mayor Murphy. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Uh, and that wasn't an angel from a high. That's one of our council members, Kim Lis, who's calling in uh virtually. Um, tonight we have more than we usually do. We have three presentations and three proclamations. Uh, we'll begin with the presentations with the ESGR uh award to the police department. Um, Mr. inventors. Uh Darren will be uh mcing for us and then we'll go to a presentation by uh Matt Roland uh with the deputy director of SAKA Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance. Uh provide a year-end review and announce the winners of our Sarita photography contest. And then we'll hear a presentation um on the AP awards. That's the park and recreation awards for the state. And then I'll be issuing three proclamations, an anti-fall uh awareness month, a fire prevention month, and a cyber security awareness month. So at this time, Darren, I already lost. There you are. Second.

Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. It's a pleasure to be here tonight uh to uh uh honor you and the police department with the great things that you have done. I want to take just a moment and uh introduce some ESGR members we have in the audience. We have John Cernowski who's been member for a number of years, Rick Palmer who was our state chair and uh Rusty Orv who is here with a camera somewhere. Uh there he is. There's Rusty. Uh, and our military representative tonight is General Zoe Allen. Thank you. We have some uh some members of the uh MOA chapter of the Military Officers Association uh here tonight if uh they would stand up and be recognized. And anybody who has ever worn the uniform of the United States, would you please stand up and be recognized? Well, thank you. Um, it's uh, you know, we thank and honor our military and our veterans for their service. So, it's just a a great occasion to be able to do that. Once again, the employer support for the Garden Reserve is about building a strong, supportive workplace for those who serve on our reserve components. We work with employers through outreach, um, recognition, education to raise the awareness of employers, um, and help reserve conflicts if they arise. The these goals are simple, but they're powerful. They support every employer across the United States and the territories. And when employers stand behind their employees who serve, it strengthens not just the workplace but readiness and resiliency of the reserve

forces. Uh at this time, I'd like to introduce uh Mr. Rick Palier um who is the our Arizona State Chair. Mr. Palanteer uh is an attorney with more than three decades of experience both in the civilian sector and military. He's retired from the army uh with over 29 years service as a JAG. Uh his army service has included active duty guard and reserve. Uh in addition to being a JAG, he's been the uh ethics and conflict resolution um advisor, human resources officer, and chief of staff for the Arizona uh Army National Guard. His current civilian law practice includes work with county and city pro prosecutors, indigent defense council, veterans disability case work, and is currently the assistant general counsel for the Arizona Bar Association. His career with the SGR has focused on providing mediation and training for service related um matters as an onbudsman serving as an assistant on bbudsment director. In 2003 he was was selected to be the state chair of Arizona overseeing the military and employer outreach efforts of the employer support for the garden reserve. So without further ado, Rick Mr. Obl. [Applause] Thank you, Darren. Uh, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, staff members, uh, town members of Suareita, thank you for allowing us a few minutes here today. Uh, but I think more importantly, thank you for what you do for uh, this the service members, the the folks that are in the National Guard, the folks that are in the reserve components.

um you make their lives a lot easier. Certainly uh a little bit of history, the the law that is involved in this stretches back to World War II time frame. Uh it was tweaked uh in the late60s which was Vietnam era. Uh ESGR uh came to be by uh by virtue of an executive order in 1972. So we are over 50 years uh in existence. Um if you put those those two bookends together, World War II was drafting uh military members out of their civilian careers. Uh Vietnam was the end of the draft and becoming an all volunteer force across the board. Uh so we exist to say thank you to the employers to help the the service members, the reservists understand what their responsibilities are uh under the law. Um help deal with problems that may come up which I will say here in Arizona are few and far between. And it is uh in appreciation to the uh the efforts of the employer community uh that that there's no issues. The the propatria award that that we're here to present is the highest award that we here in the state can present to you as as an employer. Uh, Chief Nolan, to you as the police department, you're uh you're the the supervisor that uh that we're officially recognizing, but it's the town. It's the attitude of the town. It's the environment that uh you have created that uh that make the reservists certainly feel like they continue to to

balance both sides of of the tightroppe between their civilian careers and their military careers. They tend to run in parallel and so you become supervisors probably in both sides of the fence at the same time and it's a little bit tougher to get away. Um, but it's it's the attitude that that you have fostered here which makes that certainly easier for Staff Sergeant Perez as as the guard knows him, Officer Perez as as the town knows him. Uh, so it is with our appreciation that we're here to to recognize what you have done as far as being a a great employer to work for. This isn't the first. In order to get to this stage, there's been Patriot Awards, which are a one-on-one individual to a supervisor. There's been above and beyond award. Uh this isn't the first time that we've come to thank you. So again, our undying appreciation for what uh what the town has done and tonight, the police department in particular u has done to to make life easier for the reservists. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Rick. See, I've got to get my notes together. So, anyway, thank you. Uh, and I'd like very much to introduce, uh, Brigary General Zoe Aller. General Oliger was commissioned in 1993 through the reserve officer training program at Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama, where she earned her bachelor's degree in biology. And her post uh

education included a master's degree in technical management from Emory Riddle Aeronautical University and a master's degree in strategic studies from the US Army War College. Her military career began as a medical services officer with the 86 combat support hospital at Fort Campbell in 1995 with follow-on assignments as a battalion personnel officer with the 626 forward support battalion under the 101st Airborne. In 1968, General Allinger joined the Arizona Army National Guard where she served in many assignments including company battalion, company and battalion commander, deputy state surgeon, um staff officer at the battalion, brigade, and state levels. Um and she is currently the commander of the joint task force for Arizona. General Azure resides in Phoenix with her husband Steven and her six children Kelsey, Kayla, Michael, Sophia, Andy, and Alex, and their grandchildren, Wade, Beckett, Lily, and Landon. General, [Applause]

good evening, Mayor Murphy, distinguished members of the town council, residents of Saharita, of course, my Alabama accent comes through. I have a hard time with that word, and the dedicated men and women of the Sorita Police Department. On behalf of the agent general for the Arizona National Guard, Brier General John Connley, it is an honor to be here tonight to be part of the presentation of this distinguished award. For our citizen warriors, our National Guard and Reserve members, answering the call to serve is rarely simple. It means putting aside personal and professional lives, facing the anxieties of prolonged separation from family, and deploying for months, often in challenging and dangerous environments. It requires immense courage and strong support back home. The Solderita Police Department didn't just allow Staff Sergeant Chris Perez to serve his country with the 860th Military Police in Kuwait. They actively enabled his service. They understood the weight of that decision, the diff the difficulty of leaving a career, a community, and most importantly his family. As someone who has personally deployed to Afghanistan, leaving my young children behind, I can tell you that the last thing a service member needs to worry about is their job security. The thought of returning home to uncertainty, of potentially losing the career that they have worked so hard for is a burden no one should ever have to bear while serving our nation. The department proactively supported Staff Sergeant Perez throughout his deployment, staying connected, providing reassurance, and ensuring a smooth transition upon his return. But their support extended beyond Staff Sergeant Perez himself. They recognized the strain on his family, maintaining a vital connection with his son, offering comfort and stability during a difficult

time. This commitment isn't just a policy. It's a demonstration of genuine care. It's a recognition that a soldier's ability to focus on the mission hinges on knowing their family is secure and their career is protected. The Sutterita Police Department provided that security. On behalf of the Arizona ESG State Committee and the entire Arizona National Guard, I I would love to present and help present this pro Patria award to the Sorita Police Department. Thank you for understanding the sacrifices of our service members for and provi pro providing the support they and their families deserve. Thank you.

Thank you. [Applause]

Sergeant uh Perez wrote the nomination for the Secretary of Defense Freedom Award. It's the highest award that the secretary gives. Secretary has 15 of those annually. Uh so as you can imagine uh there are thousands of those that come in. Last year there were 1,626 nominations came in. Out of those 1,600 nominations, the town of Serita, Sergeant Perez's nomination rose to be among the top 30 in the nation, placing the Sarita Police Department amongst the top 10 public service organizations were nominated in the nation. unfortunately uh didn't make the top 15 but are in really wonderful company to be in the top 30. So it's just a a great So in part what he said was the Sorita Police Department exceeds expectations in support of the service members deployment reaching out to inquire how he was doing keeping him a breast of the changes and the opportunities in the department and ensuring that he has the proper amount of time to fully reintegrate when he comes back to work in his shift truly shows a sense of professional and personal pride in supporting the reservist and his or her family. The nomination points to the care and the contact to his family during his employment. Even dur during those times when he was unable to do so, they connected and stayed connected with my son and kept him assured that I was okay even though he couldn't. the department's application of its military leave policy, including the continued renewal um that worked to provide financial

security to himself and his family, allowing him to continue to make contributions to the PSSR um without worrying about credible time. The HR department was fully aware of the USERA Uniform Services Employment Reemployment Act and their goal was to exceed all of those requirements which they've done done in spades. The town policies of survey specifically incorporate the philosophy of continuation of benefits and the prohibition of any adverse impact on the military reser. The service member notes that a jointly sponsored ceremony honoring the fallen police, fire department, fire, and military as a result of a tragic incident on 911 on the past anniversary of September uh 1924. Beyond the public ceremonies, the department expresses its appreciation to the service members through personalized emails, uh email, phone calls, and personal contact. The personal attention the nominator feels is amplified by the hiring attitude and gives preferential treatment to veterans and reserveist and a professional recognition of the worth that extends throughout their careers. The service member noted the police department provided a 4-week reintegration program on his return, creating the awareness that he is always covered in my abn due to military obligations and do not receive negative attention when gone for an exterior extended period of time as a result of his service. Further, he feels that overwhelming support from the entire staff in the town while communicating with his peers and ser and supervisors during the deployment. So, Chief Nolan, Mayor Murphy,

General Olinger, um, and Mr. Palunteer if you join at the table for the presentation of the propatri award

if I could let me uh read the uh in the inscription. This is from the employer support of the guard and reserve awards the propatria to the town of Suarita Police Department for the year 2025. Presented on behalf of the men and women of America's reserve forces for outstanding service to the national defense through continuing support of the national guard and reserves. Chief, thank you very much.

Sergeant Perez, if you'd join the group, please. [Applause] Chief, I know you know the concept of challenge points. There's there's certainly no rank associated with it, but on behalf of the ESGR, this is our 50th anniversary point. Uh remember 50 plus years we've been in existence. Thank you for for the environment that you Chris in the middle of between officer and

chief if you've got some comments. I actually I'll say staff sergeant um Perez is not the first uh uh we've hired that does service for um the US government uh won't be the last. There are challenges with that. But uh the fact that uh Chris values uh his uh employment here and obviously uh with the military is significant. He serves uh our community both in uh the military as well as the uh law enforcement service. Much appreciated. I want to say thank you, Staff Sergeant and Officer Perez. Um, I'll I'll jokingly say Chris can write. So, um, there's there's um a lot in there, but I'll I'll emphasize this. It's not me. It is the commanders, the lieutenants, the sergeants, the corporals, the officers, the detectives, etc. that back uh Chris and others up in uh the duty he does here. and when he was away um uh the outreach etc. hearing that again I I heard it uh before but hearing it again and word is so welly or well rather uh I appreciate that. So um with that I think I'll step away and um say thank you for the recognition appreciate it. Thank you.

Senator Perez, you have some comments for us. Yeah, I'll make it quick because I think we covered everything.

Uh just uh good good evening everybody. I want to thank General for being here. Thank you for your long trip. Uh the SG ESGR group as well. I've known them for about 5 years. We've been working together. Thank you, sir. Um and I just want to say thank you to the the town of Serita. is a a great place to live, work, and play like we say. Um, and I'm going to cut it short just we everybody said everything I was going to say, so I'll just leave it with a quote here um from uh General Dwight D. Eisenhower, he once said, "The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible." Uh and then to remind Department SPD, uh your integrity as an organization shown through your support to those who serve is what makes this uh this this community so great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chris. We have one more small item here which is really a very important item and it's called the statement of support. The statement of support is a program at the cornerstone of ESGR's effort to gain and maintain employer support of the garden reserve. The intent of the program is to increase employer support by encouraging employers to function as advocates for employer participation in the military. Supportive employers are critical to maintaining the strength and the readiness of the National Guard and the Reserve units. The first statement of support was signed on December 13, 1972 in the office of the Secretary of Defense by the chairman of the board of General Motors. President Richard Nixon was the first president to sign a statement of support. And in 2005, every federal cabinet secretary and all federal agents signed a statement of support signifying their continued effort to be model employers since its inception. Hundreds of thousands of employers have signed

the statement of support pledging their support to the Garden Reserve. Employers signing a statement support pledge. We fully recognize, honor, and comply with user. We provide our managers and supervisors with the tools they need to effectively manage their employees who serve in a garden reserve. We appreciate the values, the leadership, unique skills members bring to the workforce, and we will encourage opportunities to hire Guardsman, reserve, and veterans. We will continually recognize and support our country's service and members and the families in peace in crisises as in and in war. So if um Mayor Murphy, uh Chief Nolan, uh Rick Paler, and General Aller, if you join us at the table, we have a statement of support there for the town of Serita, which by the way had already signed. So, this is a resigning of that commitment and a specific one for the police department. the same thing.

Thank you, [Applause] Mayor Murphy. Um, I'll just say a couple of words. Obviously, uh, for me personally, um, it makes my heart smile being a retired Air Force member. Um, I remember my days serving from the 70s through the '9s, the reserve and guard were more seen as a weekend warrior. Uh, but with the right sizing that's gone on over the years, the reserve and guard are indispensable on balancing the total force with the active duty. And it wasn't lost on me, Darren, when you asked about who has served. you know, myself, uh, Ed, Chief Wonder, our own town attorney, and my friend Bill Brco, who served with me on the council. Um, he supported these efforts, um, way before any of us, um, served on the council. Um, so, you know, I really appreciate, uh, Officer Sergeant Perez for the recognition. Um, I think it goes without saying that, uh, you know, we appreciate the service of our reserving guard members. It means a lot to us and the recognition goes a long way to support that. So, thanks for being here and taking the time. I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Uh and next we'll go to our uh presentation for with Matt Roland, our deputy director of uh SAKA, uh provide a re um yearend review and announce the winners of the photography contest. Oh, okay. We're going to have uh Devon do a uh entry remarks and then we'll move from there. Nice.

Yeah. Uh, Mayor Murphy, members of the council, um, I'm excited to introduce Matt Roland with the newly branded uh, Art State of Arizona. Did I get that right, Matt?

Okay, perfect. Um, before Matt gets up here and presents, I just wanted to share um, this year has been amazing working with previously Saka, now the art stake. Um this partnership is going on about four years and each year it seems to be getting better um with the public art um output um as well as the growth uh and expansion of this uh photo contest. So I know Matt's going to share some good good news and uh some winners that I think we have in the house tonight. So with that Matt, [Applause] thank you so much. Uh thank you mayor and thank you council. It's a pleasure to be here again and uh recognize some of the incredible creativity we have here in Serita and and we had some RSVPs, but I just want to ask if you are an award recipient tonight, you just want to wave your hand at me for the photography. Oh, look at that. All right. Love it. Well, we're going to recognize all of the winners of our Serita photography competition this year. Um and we'll have them stand up when we get to uh that recognition. But just want to give a quick recap. As Devin said, um we are excited to announce that last week officially was our name rebrand. So we have been the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance uh for the last 15 years or so and before that we were the Greater Oral Valley Arts Council. And so we are now taking the next step in our evolution as a nonprofit serving the region. And um we've officially changed our name to ArtState Arizona. Uh a lot of you know we we have been working in the Phoenix area for quite some time. Um we have about 10 festivals up in the Phoenix area as well and we work with several cities up there and so we decided it was time for the name to reflect that work. Um so our heart and soul is still very much here in the Tucson area and Serita area and we're excited to take all the creativity up north. Um and so uh we'll continue that our work here with Serida as Art State Arizona and continue all that programming. So, a quick review of

the programs that we work on together. Uh, this past year, our programs focused on placemaking. So, that's what we call putting art in public places. And so, we had two new big uh murals come um come to fruition. We had the Rights and Ridge mural uh a repaint uh of a electric box in there that was done, the Roadrunner mural outside of Writes and Ridge. It's incredible, vibrant new Roadrunner on that electric box. And then uh we also had the sidewalks. Um we had a muralist named Jesse Perry that was selected by the committee to create over a hundred square feet of murals uh in partnership with Ritsson Ridge and he worked with elementary school students there. So that's a great piece that's um come up this past year. We've also been focusing on public art maintenance. now being, as Devon said, uh 5 years into the contract, we have over nearly 20 pieces of public art that have been created through this partnership and it's time to start looking at the age of all of those pieces and restoring them, renovating them as possible. So, that's been a focus this year is creating an assessment report and then starting strategically um to renovate and make those updates on those pieces. Uh create a sector directory. Um this is a asset mapping project. Essentially we wanted the parks and recck wanted to start looking at expanding our list of all the artists and nonprofits um and partners that we have here in Serida. And so we've been working with them to build that database. Um and it's being incorporated into our annual magazine and will be an available resource to help find new artists and connect with nonprofits in the area. Um and then our two signature events and I can say two now because it's not just Art on the Lake. uh which will be taking place again in January. Really vibrant celebration that will be going on its uh fourth year. But we now have Serita Oktoberfest, which I promise you we spelled Oktoberfest correctly. PDF acts funny sometimes. Um but that will be

taking place this Friday. So it is a free new event. We invite all the council. We invite the community to come. Be 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Serita Lake Park. And we'll be hearing live poker music. There will be dance lessons. Yes. If you don't know how to poke, you can come and learn how to poke. I know the mayor knows how to poke. Yes. Yes, he does. I'm still I'm holding out that the mayor will show up with later hosen, but I'm not going to hold you to it if that doesn't happen. But we'll have a great uh a lot of free activities, um some some great beer as well, but also some uh food, very family-friendly activities, a lot of fun games. So, please come and join us Friday night for the first inaugural Oktoberfest and of course our uh photography contest. So, that's what we're here celebrating today. So, just a couple quick highle highlights of the contest this year. Uh we had over 300 photos submitted this year. Um that was by over 50 photographers. And something that I was really happy to see when I kind of went back through and did the analysis, over half of those were firsttime applicants. We did have people coming back um from previous years, but every year we want to see new photographers entering. It is open to photographers from any location. They don't have to be residents, but the photos do have to be taken in or around Serita. Um and why is it so important to invest in a photography contest? A couple quick reasons. One, it gives you a chance to celebrate the creativity of the residents here, both professional and amateur. Uh photography is a great way kind of stepping into the arts. Um, so we celebrate that creativity. We give a platform to recognize the beauty of Serita, but also the culture, right? So some of our categories have to do with the people and the culture. So creating a platform for that. But third, it also gives you a dynamic way to keep getting new photographs to use in town materials. Um, all of these photos are the permission is given to incorporate them into publications. And so uh PE residents can take pride when they see their photo that they took appear on a calendar when it appears in the parks

and wreck annual calendar. Um and those do get uses and gives you a continual lens to see the town of Serita through the resident's eyes. Uh so this year we we changed up the categories a little bit. We want to give some fresh inspiration going into our third year and so we added a heart of service category. So recognizing teachers and military service members and public uh police and fire joyful moments celebrating the joy of residents um on the go. So celebrating movement be talking about bic bicycling cycling later. We know there's a lot of movement in town. Uh and then of course light and night celebrating the beautiful night sky. So a couple new uh categories that got really great response. Over 2,000 prizes were awarded and the gallery system is now upgraded out in town hall. And so all of those photographs um are available for display throughout the year. And anytime residents can bring u the winners can bring their family and friends and see them their photo displayed here in town hall. And our judging team included seven community members and that included both professional photographers uh town staff, local art teachers, and a community leader from a nonprofit. So try to get a diverse uh voting pool in the judging selection. All right. And now on to the awards. So, first up is our nature's inspiration category, which you'll see nearly half of our photos fell into the nature's inspiration category because this is a very beautiful area. Uh, and so this was landscapes, wildlife, and natural beauty. And first place was red in an ocean of yellow by Bobby Joe Smith. Bobby, are you here? Right there. And how about a hand for Bobby? Thank you. Second place went to Holly Mansfield, the black and white hawk. Is Holly here today? Thank you so much, Holly. Congratulations. [Applause]

And third place went to Susette Rocher, Sunrise in the Desert. Susette, now I'll call out all the honorable mentions at the same time and then we'll recognize them at the end. So, our five honorable mentions in this category were Chuck Russell, Spring is Time to Eat Flowers, Aubrey Preswitch, Rancho Skies, Zeno Weiss, Down in the Mist, Holly Mansfield, Elephant Head, Sky Islands, and Bobby Joe Smith, Springtime, and Serita. So, if you're one of those five, would you please raise your hand? All right. Thank you so much. I want to visit all of those places. I don't know about you. And onto our heart of service category. So this was a new category, first-time category to honor teachers, nurses, and public workers. First place went to Michael Corbin, Kid Welder. Michael, are you here today? All right. Congratulations, Michael. Second place went to Tyler Rushing for his photograph English class. Tyler, thank you. That is not the last time you're going to hear Tyler's name. So, and third place goes to Hennessys Via Lopez for her photograph grit. Henness. All right. Congratulations. [Applause] All right. And our two honorable mentions, we have Aaron Ray's photograph, A Doctor's Work, Paul Livingston, Police Squad. [Applause] And on to the joyful moments category. We had 37 submissions in this category this year showcasing smiles, laughter, and joy. And first place went to Tyler Rushing Photograph Showcase.

And that's Serita High School. Is that right? Performance,

the dance showcase. And then second place from Hennessys Via Lopez, Felicidales. And third place goes to Pria Fatigiri Lab Ballerina. [Applause] And then our three honorable mentions of this category. Tyler Rushing's Blissful Memory, Steve Pete Meyers Community Spirit Mural, and Kayla Hancock's The Last Graduate. So, if you wave your hands. All right, we'll move on to our shadows, light, and night category. And as many of you know, this is a designated uh we have dark sky communities. Um we really try to celebrate and honor our astronomy and view here. Uh so that was what this category is going towards, both exploring the night sky, but also light and shadows. And we had 48 submissions in this category. First place went to Chris Travers, Reach for the Sky. Chris, are you here? All right. Love that photo. Second place, Christian Morales. Iltoy's hand. Christian, are you here? [Applause] And this nighttime photography is a bit of a extreme sport, I know. Go out in the middle of the night and wait and wait and wait. So in third place, Chris Travers, High Moon. Congratulations. Then our honorable mentions, Aaron Ray, Teddy, Aubrey Preswitch, Night Storm, Christopher Travers, Point the Way, and Joel Ruiz, Evening Sky. [Applause] And we'll go on to on the- go. So this category is also a new category

celebrating movement action. We had 40 submissions. First place Tyler Russian high step. [Applause] Second place Tyler Russian smokec screen. And I will say the judging process is blind. So there's no names attached when you're judging. So the judges don't know that these are all from the same photographer. Third place goes to Patrick Mulligan. Ready, set, I'm reloaded. Reloaded. And I will shout out Patrick Mulligan's going to be running the photo booth at October Fest on Friday. So along with his company, so you can say hi if you see him on Friday. All right. And then our honorable mentions, Aubrey Preswitch, Eye on the Ball, Priadiri, Fan Wings, Charlotte Palmer, Serita Spins. Congratulations. All right, and on to our final category, youth showcase. So, this uh is for photographers under 18. We had 24 submissions this year, and first place went to Joel Ruiz with Moon Flower. Joel, beautiful photo. Reed Bennon took second place with a photo. Teamwork. Reed, are you here? [Applause] Third place went to Brooke Bowman, senioritis. [Applause] And our three honorable mentions, Marbel Reyes, looking into the future, Elelliana Davis, Young Girl in Prayer, and Nathaniel Perez, catching a glimpse of 15. So, I just want to say congratulations again. every year. It's so exciting to see this competition grow every year and

just see new names come into the mix, but also just see the professionalism of all these photographers and see them capture Serita and how they respond to new prompts. So, if we could have all of the winners that were recognized, if you would come up, we'll take a photo up here together since we have just extra minute and a half. Then you want to join us. Everybody Yeah.

Thank All right. Thank you so much. Uh congratulations to all um just especially some of the younger photographers. Uh just amazing on the work that you do. Holy mackerel. and thanks for catching me in so many of my sporting events. I saw me. No, I'm teasing. Um um Did you want to say questions?

Yeah. So, uh it's weird looking that way, but no, they're behind us. So, uh congratulations again from parks and recreation in the town of Sarita. Incredible work. Every year I'm so impressed with uh how these photos come in and how many we get and the quality of them. So, really congratulations and uh come back next year. We've doubled this year. Next year we are going to shoot for doubling again. Right, Matt. Awesome. Thank you. Do you want to do

and thanks we look for everybody attending on Friday as well as u I spent four years stationed in Germany. So we'll say pro a lot uh when we tip a beer if you choose to. Uh next we have Devon a return visit uh presentation about the ARPA awards. Devin thanks. All right. Thank you, Mayor Murphy, members of the council. So, um I don't I do have a clicker in front of me. Um so, I'd like to invite our our um events team up and I think Oh, they're here. They're on it. Um Lacy, Abigail, and Manny um our events team have done something that I think is truly incredible. Um when I came on with the department just about four years ago, events was a bit in chaos. Um and since then, I can't tell you the good work I'd be here all night um that this team has done to rethink, reinvision, reinvision, um organize, prioritize safety in our event planning. And I think that that was uh best recognized at our state conference that we attended uh the Arizona Recreation and Parks Association uh three weeks ago where this team received an award for outstanding event for Winterfest 2024. Um they did a really good video for us which I'm going to share. Um but I also we wanted to bring it here to council tonight because this is not just an events team effort. Um it starts at the top with mayor and council supporting these community events. Um supporting the communities coming together, the community coming together for not just Winterfest but the other signature events as well as our partners and that's why we really wanted to bring it here tonight too. Uh so that our partners helping us put this together um with the Sanorita Fire Department um Chief Wonder uh the police department with Chief Noland um and and there's too many of the other departments, public works, community development. Um it really is an

undertaking to make sure that these things are put together well, safely, and effectively. Um so with that, um I'd like to play the video that uh AP put for together for us for this award. Welcome to Winterfest, hosted by the town of Serorita Parks and Recreation Department. This annual holiday spectacular truly lights up the Sorita Town Hall complex like never before. It's so much fun. On December 7th, 2024, over 14,000 smiling faces from across southern Arizona came together for a magical day of holiday cheer, and it was all free. The event features live ice carving, a drone show and fireworks finale, an ice skating rink, an interactive Santa Claus, ornament crafting, a local beer garden, food and craft vendor, and a light parade. A standout component was the partnership with the children's entrepreneur market, allowing youth ages 5 to 17 to sell handmade goods, promoting youth development and community commerce. Winterfest is supported by a wide range of sponsors and partners who provide funding and inind support. The event receives significant media coverage through social media, local radio, newsletters, and regional press outlets. As Parks and Recreation Director Devin Stalder notes, Winterfest is a celebration of everything that makes our community special. Family, fun, and a commitment to connection. Congratulations to the town of Serorita

for winning outstanding special event in populations 25 to 100,000. [Music] So with that, I'd like to introduce Lacy Simmons. Yeah. So a round of applause. Um and Lacy has the award and I think she's got a few words. So, here's the award if you haven't seen it. Um, I know there was some photos going around, but I'll just echo Devon's words. It wouldn't be possible without with our uh amazing community partners that we have. It's such an honor for our team to be recognized with this, and we have to go for another one next year. Thank you. All right. So, while we were at conference, uh, Mayor Murphy had the the privile I think we actually had the privilege of Mayor Murphy attending with us um to the conference. Um, another really special thing happened and I'm going to turn it over to Mayor Murphy to share this item.

Uh, thanks Devin. Uh, the night was both joyous and sad. Um they recognized Mayor Ed Hony as the outstanding u public official for all of his support over the years and obviously getting their rec center um with their half their halfs sales tax to the finish line and opening up. Um his son Wit was there to accept on his behalf. So it was extra special for me to see uh some of his family members there. And if you remember, that was the night we had the um the haboo um that literally you had to risk your life in some cases. Fortunately, we were out of our PAG RTA meeting early, so I was able to get up there. Um but it was so um nice to see the um acknowledgement and recognition of Mayor Honey for all of his hard work, you know, over his 36 plus years as elected official. And they also did a uh a video for him. [Music] For nearly 40 years, Mayor Ed Honey served the town of Morirana with unwavering dedication and a compassionate heart. On November 22nd, 2024, Mayor Honey sadly and unexpectedly passed away at home, leaving a void in the community he loved so dearly. He loved the town of Morirana and uh he was all about making this place better, and he was all about serving people.

Even in his final days, his steadfast commitment to the well-being of others never wavered. Mayor Holly's influence will be felt in Morirana by everyone, I think, every day. He was a good mayor. He's a good father. He's a good husband. He's a good brother. He's a good grandfather. And that really resonated with people. You could see the love he had for people.

Just 3 days before his passing, Mayor Honey stood proudly at the town council meeting, speaking passionately about the importance of parks and recreation. He believed these spaces were vital for community health, happiness, and connection. Values he held close to his heart. At the core of his vision was the Morirana Aquatic and Recreation Center, fondly known as the Mark. A dream years in the making, the 64 million facility became a reality through his unwavering leadership. To Mayor Honey, it was more than just a building. It was a sanctuary where residents could gather, play, grow, and feel a true sense of belonging. Through his inspiring career, Mayor Honey championed parks and recreation. From securing essential funding and supporting vital programs to driving the development of the MPR 10-year master plan, thanks to his visionary leadership, Morirana has been blessed with countless top tier recreation projects that will serve generations to come. His legacy is etched into every trail, park, and program he helped bring to life. a testament to a life dedicated to enriching the community he loved.

I'd like to end like I always do, which is God bless the town of Morirana and God bless you each and everyone. [Music] Uh so maybe I should have started with what AP is. Um but I think it really shares and sheds light into what parks and recreation is uh broadly through the state of Arizona. This conference is our state association. Um this year t I talked with Kate Nelson who's our president. um they had over 800 people attend um all parks and recreation professionals across the state of Arizona and at this uh wards banquet there was just over 400 attendees. So it was quite a big um part level of participation. uh everybody from staff, town staff, city staff to elected officials. And I think you know, Mayor Ed Hony's story is uh important to share um how important it is to create vital recreation spaces, but also the important work that not only, you know, staff are doing, but our elected officials are doing to fight for these spaces. Um and I really personally enjoyed um this this video for Ed and um all the things the wonderful things he did for the town of Morirana. So,

thank you. Uh thank you, Devon. And it was nice that when I got to intermingle with other park and wreck directors from across the state, uh your name and our team's name came up, um that how well everybody works together, especially in southern Arizona. So my appreciation um to all of you. I did in my state of the town mention that maybe because of my attendance that helped the award-winning. So if you just want to keep inviting me back, uh that would be nice. Um but uh no, as every my colleagues know, Ed was my mentor and um I learned so much off of um him and when I see that pool, I think of Debbie and her desire someday to have our public pool here, which we'll keep working on. Um but it was uh nice um to be in attendance and to see the recognition not only of our team um but also how much how well our team works with other teams um especially in southern Arizona. So thanks again for everything that you do. Appreciate it. Uh next we'll move to um three proclamations. Will Amy uh Mulan uh come up? And this is for the uh fall uh Arizona fall prevention coalition. Uh whereas falling is not an ev inevitable effect of aging. And whereas come over here and whereas slips and falls are the leading cause of injury related deaths among residents 65 years of age and older. And whereas Arizona had 34,000 uh 84 severe fall-related injuries reported in 2022 that resulted in $4.13 million in hospital charges. And whereas the total cost of unintentional falls, even excluding those for physician care, EMS services, rehabilitation, and long-term disability, exceeds $3 billion

a year. And whereas non-fatal falls can lead to a loss of mobility and loss of functional independence. Whereas older Arizonans at risk of falling demonstrabably benefit um from fall prevention programs that teach them specific everyday strategies to improve mobility and stability and reduce fall risk. Now therefore, it be resolved that I, Tom Murphy, the mayor of town of Salita, on behalf of the town council to hear proclaim the month of September as falls prevention awareness month and testimony whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cause to be affixed the seal of the town of Sarita on this 22nd day of September, 2025. And thanks Amy for being here and accepting this proclamation on that recognition. [Applause] I I truly appreciate um this um as a senior living operator. Many of you know that I I work um in senior living and have since um 1988. you have a point out.

Um I work for a Royal Gardens independent and assisted living. Um and I have seen countless uh seniors fall in countless um bad outcomes from it. So this is something I'm very passionate about. Um, and uh, one of my goals is to get EMS, uh, hospital systems and senior living operators to work as well as we do with the, um, Santaorita Fire Department here. So, thank you. Thanks.

Uh, next, uh, is Anna here? Come on up. They're always in the cheap seats in the back. So, obviously Anna, um, everybody knows is our community development director and Chief Wonder.

Oh, there you are. Oh, you brought in a mascot. There you go. Uh, whereas the town of Sarita is committing to ensuring the safety and security of all those living in, working in, and visiting Sawerita. And whereas fire remains a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally and the presence of lithium ion batteries in many household devices introduces unique fire risks. Whereas most of the electronics used in homes daily including smartphones, tablets, laptops, power tools, ebikes, e- scooters, and toys are powered by lithium ion batteries which if misused, damage or improperly charged can overheat, start a fire or explode. And whereas the National Fire Protection Association reports an increase in battery related fires underscoring the need of for public education on the safe use of lithium ion batteries. And whereas residents should follow these three key calls to action by only listed products, charge batteries safely, and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery related fires. Whereas lithium ion batteries store a large amount of energy in a small space and improper use of such as overcharging using off-brand chargers without safety certification or exposing batteries to damage can result in fire or explosion. And whereas the proper disposal of recycling lithium ion batteries help prevent environmental hazards and reduce fire risks. There might be one right there in the home and community. And whereas the Santaita Fire District first responders together with the town of Sorita are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety education, and community outreach. And whereas in 2025, fire prevention week theme, charge into fire safety, lithium ion ion batteries in your home, serves to remind us of the importance of using, charging, and

recycling lithium ion batteries safely to reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities. Now therefore it be I that be it resolved that I Tom Murphy the mayor of the town of Salarita on behalf of the town council do hereby proclaim October 5th through October 11th 2025 as fire prevention week and test testimony whereof I have here unto set my hand and cause to be affixed the seal of the town of Sid on this 22nd day of September 2025. Congratulations, Chief. [Applause] Just really quickly, we want to say thank you for uh recognizing fire prevention week. Obviously, lithium battery ion or lithium ion batteries are a focus and is certainly a danger, but we also want to remind people about the other public safety programs. It's that time of year. Make sure you're checking your smoke detector. Uh make sure you're changing out those batteries. If you need assistance, go to our website. We have lots of public services available uh to make those happen. So, thank you very much.

What's the proper way to recycle lithium ion? The lithium ion batteries. So, you need to dispose of those at like a hazardous material spot. Exactly. So, yep.

You bet. You bet. Thank you. And Ron, it was fortuitous that you did an invocation. You got to stay around uh for this proclamation. Uh this proclamation is for cyber security awareness month. Whereas the town of Salita recognizes that it plays a vital role in identifying, protecting its citizens from, and representing responding to cyber security threats that may have significant impact to our individual and collective safety and privacy. Whereas critical infrastructure is increasingly reliant on the support of information systems and technology. And whereas cyber security, education, awareness are crucial for everyone. Whereas every year since 2003 October has been recognized as cyber security awareness month by the US Department of Homeland Security and National Cyber Security Alliance and whereas this year's theme safety stay safe online is all about the simple ways to protect yourself and your family and your businesses from online threats. Now therefore, it be resolved that I, Tom Murphy, the mayor of the town of Sarita, on behalf of the town council, do hereby proclaim October 25 is cyber cyber security awareness month and testimony whereof, I have here to set my hand and cause to be a fix the seal of the town of Sarita on this 22nd day of September. And um thank you, Ron, and your team for everything you do. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I get an email that um my council members are sent to that I need, you know, gift cards, you know, sent to me, which I do, but that's not a real that's not a real email um uh for there. But I know the um the ongoing vigilance is so important because, you know, we're just hacked um constantly or the attacks are constant. So, uh thanks for everything that you do. And if you'd like to say, we'll grab a picture. Yes. Sure.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of town council. Uh we deeply appreciate uh your commitment to uh supporting us in our cyber security efforts. It's not just us, like you know, mayor said, it's it's actually everybody in this room and it's our entire community. Um we've been recognizing these for number of years. I think this is our our fifth year and uh like you said, Mr. Mayor, um you know, we can stay safe online with just uh some simple things and this year uh the uh the u overall theme is recognizing the core four which is uh passwords. Yeah. Keeping passwords uh comp complex and keeping your passwords secure. uh multifactor authentication which is uh using these devices for two fac more than one uh updating our software you know keeping our software up to date and also uh reporting scams because you know scams are they happen a lot and sometimes we think we're alone in this but we're not so the core four again we really appreciate your support in in this effort it's a team effort thank you

thanks Ron appreciate [Applause] Uh next we come to call to the public. Uh it's now open. Individual may speak for three minutes. Spokespersons for 10. The council cannot discuss matters not on the agenda. However, at the end of the call to public, council members may respond to criticism, request staff to review the issue or add a topic to a future agenda. And Rick Curado. Most of the crowd is gone, so that's too bad. But

anyway, u Mayor Murphy, distinguished members of the council and uh town staff. Um, as you're well aware, our community continues to grow and to thrive. The question becomes for how long? Years ago, when the mining community attempted to create an open pit mine, uh, under the opices of Rosemont Copper Company, permits and approval were continually denied and refused. Uh subsequent attempts by Augusta Resources in 2014 also met with similar fate. Yet in 2024, uh Hud Bay Minerals through heavy lobby and false claims has been able to reverse decades old legal decisions. When Rosemont originally envisioned a compromine in 1963, there were no surrounding communities or population. Now the established communities of Cenoida, Patagonia, Sarita, Green Valley, Corona de Tucson, and Vale will be heavily impacted. We always champion our concern for the children in the community. It's always about the kids. However, Copper Ridge uh excuse me, however, Copper Ridge Elementary is approximately 700 yards from the projected border of the mine. Uh Copperview Elementary in Sarita is not much further down the road. There exists strong community support and evidence the mine will pollute and surface will pollute surface and subsurface water and damage aquafer quality and quantity. It will destroy natural habitats. It will cause regional air pollution and harm the local tourism industry. Is this what we want for our community? Is this what we want for our children? Um the project will not create uh adequate long-term jobs. It will not generate sufficient tax revenue. Uh to my knowledge, there's still no adequate environmental impact associated with this. Uh there's no traffic study. There's no funding for being put aside for road repair. And I'm assuming Sarita will get stuck with that bill. Uh Sarita will not receive any royalties or

reimbursement from uh from the mining of our resources. And be aware that Hudbay uh has had a complete about face on its promises and intent to build uh smelting plants here in Arizona. Furthermore, Hud Bay has decided to export all copper concentrate production during the first four years of operation. They only hope its commitment to build smelting plants will be forgotten by this time. Um, just recently, an agreement has been made between Hudbay and Mitsubishi materials for $600 million. This will allow Mitsubishi to export a large percentage of Copper World's production to Japan with no return to the United States. This deal comes at the same time that Hudbay is attempting to deflect criticism. Uh the copper world will not destroy the Sanorita mountains, obliterate headwaters for two watersheds, pollute the air, and leave behind a mountain of toxic mining waste all to export copper overseas. Uh the town council needs to consider these facts and pass strong resolution that our community vehemently opposes the copper world mining project. Uh personally, I'm confused. uh we sit idly by and allow this to happen um with no control or mitigation as to the environment requirements that would keep our community safe. So um I know that uh this is asking a lot but I think that from the standpoint of uh air quality uh pollution and danger to our water resource um that's something that affects all of our citizens even though this may be considered out of your jurisdiction. So, I would like you all to consider this as something that we might want to at least have a feeling for this and and support.

Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Um, and as a reminder, our next meeting is Monday, October 13th, regular meeting. Uh, Madame Clerk, item number eight. Item number eight is the town manager report. And, um, I think Mr. Dilly uh communicated with me earlier because of the length of presentations and proclamations that um he might uh keep this a little short, but it's up to you. Shane, thank you. Mayor, members of the council, um were there no Did you guys do brief summaries already? Oh. Oh, I did I forget those? I That's how brief they were.

That's how brief they were. You're right. Um I jumped right over that. Um why don't you do that and we'll go back or Okay. Thanks, Mayor. I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something. Thank you. Appreciate that.

Um and yes, uh given the length of the agenda tonight, um I'd like to just focus um on this page here in particular, you have the report, the monthly report. It's also posted on the u the town's website under the town managers u section of the website for the public's um reviewing pleasure. Um but uh you know we've we've spent quite a bit of time on our parks and rec uh department and um and their their due recognition. You know, signature events are a big part of the culture of our community. Our community takes a lot of pride in that. Um it's it's uh it's notable here that all five of our new employees are uh are are from the uh parks and recck department. Um, so I wanted to do a heartfelt welcome to Jose Gonzalez, uh, Rowan Lemons, uh, Francine Sto, and Carlos Martinez. Um, as as newbies for our our parks and wreck, um, I want to save the the last here um, for a special call out. Uh, this budget year, the council approved a new position um for the parks and recck department. U, it's one of our larger departments um, for good reason. And uh the time has come for us to have a little additional um management capacity in that department and leadership capacity. Um that was that manifested with um the introduction of a deputy parks and recck director position. Um, want to allow Devon to come forward and and formally introduce our new deputy uh, parks and rec director, Jody uh, Gowen. And if uh, Jody could come forward, too. Uh, that would be great. Welcome, Jody.

Welcome to team Salerita. Jody, that was over. That was me. Sorry. That's okay. You'll get to recognize our voices after a while. Devin, Mayor Murphy, members of the council, me again. thanks for having us up here. Um, I'm not going to take so too much time. I just want to share, uh, we're excited to have a deputy director. Um, I think that it's already starting to pay dividends to the department and to the organization. Um, we had a very lengthy recruitment process and I'm excited, uh, that we have Jod joining our team. She has a wealth of experience. But, uh, with that, I'll hand the mic off and let her introduce herself. Welcome.

Thank you. And thank you for the welcome. I've I can't tell you how happy I am to be here. I've really enjoyed the community so far and I look forward to getting to know all of you and the community members. Um I come from a town that's very similar in size. Uh very different in weather, but uh I'm adapting. I'm adapting nicely. It's a dry heat, Jody.

It's a dry heat. Actually, it is. And actually, it's a little more humid than where I'm from. Um anyway, the opportunity to come down here and work with a growing community and a growing um recreation division and and department is really exciting to me. I've been in a town that didn't grow very fast and so everything we did felt just a little restrained and as Devon has told me many times, um it's like uh the handcuffs are off. We've got a lot of work to do and we are busy. I had the opportunity to go with the team to uh the National Recreation and Parks Association uh national conference last week which is a an annual conference that's good for uh maintaining certifications but also it gave gave us a really good opportunity to talk about all the things in detail that we have ahead of us and I think we've got some good plans ahead and I'm really looking forward to it. So thank you. Appreciate the welcome.

You're I've heard nothing but good things about you. So welcome to the team. Thank you. look forward to meeting you all. Thanks, Mayor and Council. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions from that report if you've had a chance to read it. Um, otherwise, we can move on in the agenda. Yep. Thanks. Any questions for Shane? If not, I'll jump back. Uh, any um recent updates? Uh, Mr. Lidle, anything to report? Um, no. No. Debbie Diane?

Yes. I I had the uh honor of attending a turning point memorial for Charlie Kirk that was held at the Rock Church and it was very very well attended be between residents of Sawadita and Green Valley joining together. So I really appreciated that effort.

Thank you Dr. Gillespie. Uh Council Member Lisk, anything to report? Um yes, I attended our second session for the civic craft leadership program that both um council member Furla and I are involved with. It's a year-long program. We meet once a month virtually and then three times we'll be meeting in person. But it's very informational. I'm really excited about this um leadership program. I'm glad I got accepted into it. And then a heads up. Um um Council Member Morales and I are planning our second coffee with council on Friday, October 10th. It will be from 9:30 to 3:30 and this time will be over at La Pasada. So I hope the community joins us.

Uh thank you.

Thanks. Appreciate that. Um also, um I attended the Greater Tucson presented to the Greater Tucson leadership. It's um a collective group of folks just to talk about how government runs and we always my ask of them is to be involved and stay involved. Um a big shout out to everybody uh for all their support at the state of the town. Haley, Dustin, Jorge for all of their help along with everybody else. Um I have now realized I actually have six fellow colleagues, not five. I forgot to introduce Council Member Morales. So, um, my perfection was knocked down a little. Uh, my apologies to Debbie. Obviously, I didn't forget her. Um, she wouldn't let me. U, but it was nice to, um, you know, I heard a lot of positive feedback about the event. So, you know, great great thanks to um, all of our staff who supported um, that this effort and Randy and the chamber. Uh, thanks Randy to your volunteers and all that support. I just think um, it gets better each year. It gets bigger each year. So definitely going to break 500 next year. Um I think he was sandbagging me, holding back just a little under so he could reach another bar. Um and um you know it was um this Sunday, not only was it my granddaughter's first birthday, uh they were back in Virginia, but I also attended the Charlie Kirk Memorial up in Glendale. and you just can't even imagine attending that with 70,000 other people um just you know worshiping and um shouting out um good words to to Charlie. So it was one of the most impactful events I in my lifetime that I've ever attended in person. Um and again reminder October 13th is our next meeting. Thanks Shane for bringing me back uh to Earth. Uh item number nine is our consent agenda and I'll hand a motion at this time.

If you'd like to call I'll make I can call I I was getting ready but I like my colleagues to participate. Go ahead Dr. Lesby. I think um I move to approve the consent agenda and I think Mr. Lidle has a second. Thank you. All in favor signify by I. I. I. Any opposed? Uh motion carries. Uh madame clerk, item number 10A, discussion and possible action regarding El Tour, a Tucson sponsorship and services agreement. Thank you. And Devin and Beth. Devon's a return. Uh Beth's first time tonight. Uh we'll be touching this item. Welcome back again,

Mayor Murphy. Thank you for welcoming me back. Uh members of the council, I think this is the last time I'm in front of you tonight. So, um

we are excited tonight to share with you um a possible agreement. It's uh an item in ahead of you um for a potential agreement um with El Tour de Tucson um a sponsorship and service agreement. So, want to try to do a high level overview. Um all of the details are in front of you uh with the contract, but at a high level, El Tourday Tucson is a premier bicycling event. Um they host um nearly 10,000 cyclists. Um they were voted the best cycling event in America. Um and they've raised um almost $130 million uh since 1983 in the region. Um the town of Sarita has supported since 2021 on the 102 loop. Um and we in parks and recreation host aid station number six at Quail Creek Veterans Municipal Park. Um we also use that location for a viewing site um for anybody who wants to come out and see the riders. Uh public works assists with intersection control throughout the community. Um and Sarita PD supports a traffic control throughout Sarita as well. So there's been a lot of work that has occurred uh to get this agreement ahead of you over the last month, month and a half. Um, I got to start by sharing um, Perimeter Bicycling Association of America, which is the um, parent organization of Elour, has been incredibly um, supportive and helpful working alongside us uh, to try to find an agreement that will work for us. And so when we started down this path of reviewing the agreement, one of the things we were looking at was how can we make this work for our community um, the town of Sarita um, and Elour in long in in perpetuity. Can we keep this as a long-term effort? So, um just at a high level, uh aligning with our strategic plan uh for community well-being, uh this agreement is intended to provide benefits to the town to enhance the quality of life for all. So, at a high

level, some uh highlights of the change uh for parks and recreation and public works, um the town of Sarita will provide uh $5,000 each department of inind uh work. This is something we've already been doing. Um but now if we see ourselves exceeding that cap we can look for reimbursement from perimeter bicycling. Uh the big one is for Sarita Police Department. Historically we've been helping with this effort without um seeing um you know an offsetting um from perimeter bicycling uh for the cost of this event. And so we worked into the agreement. Um ideally it's going to be a bit of a premium. So something to entice entice officers and get them excited uh to work this event. But, uh, in the agreement this year, uh, we have up to $50,000 in reimburseable, uh, expenditures. And so, the last item, uh, typically when this 102 goes out to the communities, it's been through other communities, town of Morirana, I believe, Oro Valley at one point. Um, they see tourism. So, the way that their community benefits is they see hotels being booked, uh, restaurants being used. Um, so their sales tax is boosted through the weekend. we don't see that when they come down to the town of Sarita. So, we took a different approach and we actually asked for 8% of their um don charitable donations to be uh attributed back to the town of Sarita. I don't have a number what that's going to look like dollar for dollar, but I believe that that's going to create a sense of community and ideally will give this community something to support uh Lour for uh coming through the town um in years to come. So, with that, um, I wanted to take some time and answer questions if there were any. Uh, but we are recommending approval for the 2025 and 2026 agreement.

No, thanks for working so hard on it because, um, you know, a couple of those, the reimburseable. I know you and I and Beth and I have gone to some of the downloads and we're always the best condition of the roads um, one of the best um, you know, rest sites uh, for it that we have a lot of pride in. Um and you know to me the one of the big wins is you know going to our charitable you know donation I'm sure such as the food bank or VAS or somebody that um partners with us locally because as we know the need is continually you know going up. So to have this come back I see is a a really big win. So thanks Beth. Did you want to add anything to that or hear from moral support?

Mr. members of the council. Actually, I was here if anybody had needed any of like kind of the back history, any questions kind of how we got here. But also to Devon's point, this was um kind of a really big lift. It wasn't just park and wreck or public works. It was PD and the TMO and finance and HR kind of all working together to make sure that any of like the past kind of holes that were in that contract were kind of buttoned up. Y and that it was kind of more equitable to the residents of Sarita because we don't get that tourism dollar.

Right. Thank you. Any questions? Any questions to my left? If not, um I'll entertain a motion and it would really just be I don't have a a number um associated with it. So would it be the correct motion would be approval of the contract, right? Yeah. I got a lot of shaking in my head. Anybody like to make a motion at this time? So moved. I'll make Oh, you can be the second council member Lisk. How's that? Okay. All right. Thanks. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by I. I. I. I.

Any opposed? Thank you. Uh, Madame Clerk, item 10B. This is discussion and possible action regarding the town council legislative ambassador council appointment. Thank you. And this is a continuation of last uh month's meeting. Mr. Dilly, would you like to kick it off?

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. This is a continuation of uh this item that was initially presented to you at your last council meeting. Um, the council request was to hit the pause button, allow a little bit of time for you to digest the program and maybe thoughts about uh the appointment process and names to be offered up to the table for your consideration from amongst yourself. Um, I know that when we uh when we left that conversation, we had um uh Council Member Lisk with a nomination for Council Member Morales. We also had council member Prio uh step forward and put her name on the table as well. Um so that's where we left it, mayor. And um again, this is the council's pleasure. I think I, you know, spoke to the details of the of the program last time. Happy to answer any questions you have if there are any follow-up um needs on my end. Otherwise, um it's the balls in your court to determine what you want to do with it as a council.

Thanks. And I know there was a little bit of discussion uh before and I know Diane uh council member Priola was one of the ones that actually expressed an interest. Diane, would you like to just touch on a little bit on again, you know, why you'd like to serve? And I know there's usually um we have our personal desires and then we have our desires when we're advocating on behalf of the town as a whole. if you wanted to touch on that a little bit and um just as a reminder on why you were wanting to serve in this capacity. Yes, as I shared the last time, over the past several months, I've developed a deepening interest in the legislative process and I enjoyed very much meeting with Mina Marross and a monthly basis going over all the legislative initiatives and learning from him the process. And then also um in my other outside activities, I rub shoulders with people in elected office serving in the legislature. Some of them I know over a period of years and I have been to Phoenix and seen the legislature in action and have actually had to field questions from constituents on the spot when there was a hot button issue before our town. I think I'm well able to represent the town's interest and to separate my own personal um positions from what's in the best interests of the town. Particularly being acutely aware of the all the initiatives that the town needs and the funding for such and the impact that legislation has on our tax base. So, I'm I'm acutely aware we don't have a money tree growing in the backyard. And I also

have uh many many years experience testifying and having to put forth compelling arguments and I think that skill set qualifies me and I'm very interested in the position. Thank you. And I know a recommendation was made for Council Member Morales, but um any thoughts on that? Um, yeah, I've had a lot of thoughts on it, a lot of discussions about it. I'm honored that I was nominated and I mean I think I'm suited for the job also. Okay. Um, would anybody Okay. Um, Mr. Mayor. Yes.

I uh, you know, it takes a lot to stand up and nominate yourself and I I do applaud that. I think all the members here on this council are also quite capable. Uh myself included, but I I I really like the way that Diane has come forth and she's been out there and she has taken the time to learn the deal. So, I'd like to nominate Diane. Okay. Um so we have one nomination so far. Um and then day two

well we have two right with um Debbie. So um if you follow the process from how you select the mayor and vice mayor, right? I'm sorry. That's okay. Um select the mayor and the vice mayor. You you give time for the council to put whatever names they're going to put forward and then you go through and you and you vote on those names and whoever gets the majority is the one that goes right. Yep. Okay. Okay. Any other nominations? I think

mayor there just for the record um council member Morales hasn't been nominated at this meeting. So if if there is a desire to nominate, it should be at this meeting. It was last time, previous meeting. Yeah. So just if there is a desire to nominate Council Morales, it should be done on the record at this meeting. Miss Cole, I will.

Mayor, if you'd like, I can go through the nomination process where I call upon each council member and they can nominate someone. And then what we'll do is we'll form the slate of candidates. After we have the slate of candidates, then I can call upon each council member again and they can state the name of the individual that they would like to serve. And that's why I picked you last to comment. Thank you very much. Uh, Miss Cole, Council Member Gillespie, do you have a nominee?

And and Oh, so since you're going first, I'm sorry, Miss Cole. So, just as a reminder, um if a nominee has already been presented, which they haven't in your case, um you can either nominate somebody or say no nomination. It's totally up to you. I just want to ask a clarifying question. So, does this is this like starting fresh or is this with people have already spoken? Starting fresh. This is starting fresh. Starting fresh. Okay. Um so, I'd like to nominate Debbie Morales. Council member Morales, do you accept the nomination? Thank you. Mayor Murphy.

Uh, I'll nominate Diane Priolo. Council member Priolo, do you accept the nomination? I do. Thank you. Council member Lisk. I nominate um, Council Member Morales. If if there's already a nomination, Kim, you can say no nomination because Okay. those two people have already been nominated. Okay. No nomination. Council member Lidle, no nomination. Council member Polo, no. No nomination. Vice Mayor Eggger is absent. Council member Morales,

no. The slate of candidates is Council Member Morales and Council Member Polo. We'll now move on to the election process. First up is Council Member Morales. Whom do you vote for member? Council member Prio. Council member Priolo. Vice Mayor Eggbert is absent. Council member Gillespie, Council Member Morales, Mayor Murphy,

uh, I know both of these people would do a great job, but just based on probably time availability, uh, Council Member Pel, Council Member Lisk, Council Member Morales, Council Member Lidle, Council Member Ciola. That's three for Polo and three for Morales. Well, having not a full quorum here. I'm sorry. Oh, well, it's really it's up to um Debbie and Diane on how I guess

right how we do Well, I guess one of two ways. Um either one of you could have a comment on it or because it's a tie vote. Um is it appropriate, John, if we bring it back to the next council meeting when there's seven people? Well, historically, mayor, in Arizona, we cut cards to determine who wins an election. You could do it that way or you could defer it to another meeting when you have a full full council of seven. Right. Your call. Well, I would default to the two of you. What would you like to do? Cut cards. Oh, who?

I I just Oh, so um I just wanted to remind the council that the idea behind this program is that it has the potential of rotating every session. Right. Right. So, we have this legislative session coming up. you know, this this appointment is for that legislative session and then I'll bring this thing back in front of you guys again for another opportunity to make a different appointment or to stay with that same appointment. Either way, the point is is that there's an opportunity for this to rotate through the council by design, right? So I just and I hope anybody that wants to get a chance over time, you know, does get a chance because it's it's a good opportunity

and at the end whatever whatever name comes forward or services through this I mean it's important that the entire council just support that and let's you know we move forward. That's that's that's your mo that's how you guys usually operate. Uh this is a good thing. It's not meant to be a divisive thing. Um but it is meant to by design rotate. So thanks. Thanks. Yes. Well, once before you've tossed a coin. Why not toss a coin, have them call it, and the winner takes the first year and the other takes the second year? That's we did a lobbying trip. Yeah. For it when it was a tie. Are both of you okay with a coin flip? You okay with a coin flip?

Yeah. I I think we have no double-headed coins. Well, it's okay as long as neither one sees what it is. I I uh I think John is our our attorney should I I don't carry cash, man. You have a challenge coin. Oh, I do. I have a challenge coin. Thank you.

Okay. Oh, another challenge point. And I think to um unless well I hate to trust I I am that's from a general that's from a general yes. So that would um the department of defense is heads and the is that wings? It's wings. Wings as tails. Oh it's handshake as tails. Yep. Sure. I'll toss the point. Let's see if I can catch it. Um, so yeah, that's right. So, how about UV heads and UVB tails since you're to my right and you're to my left. Okay. And and

good luck. Who's going to call it? You. Not me. Oh, should I? No. Well, wait. It's heads and tails. So, you flip it and wherever it lands, it lands. Oh, I can flip it in the air and it can on the ground. Yeah, just like the Super Bowl. Make sure it flips, though. tails. So, Diane, this year I got the wings, the tail. Well, thanks for both of you for putting your names forward. I really appreciate it.

And got number two. Yeah. And I would say um Shane, is it inappropriate if u there's a need um and for whatever reason Diane can't make something that Debbie could, you know, fill in with the proper briefing um on there. Are you okay with that? You know, at le giving you given some time. I can't call you today and say you got to testify tomorrow if you're not well if you're not comfortable. But um but I think that would be a good, you know, backup plan. Uh item number 11, Madame Clerk. So is

presentation and discuss real quick is is there any kind of formal action on this on that appointment? I know they flipped the coin, but is there like formality to that or is that good enough? That's how you do it. Okay. All right. I just wanted I just wanted to make sure. I just want to make sure. Okay. Thank you. You could take all our votes that way. That would be good. Madam clerk, item number 11, presentation and discussion regarding priority based budgeting with Tyler Technologies.

Thank you. And AC Mariotti will be our finance director will present this item and welcome uh Ian Mlean of Tyler Technologies um who will be presenting virtually.

Yes, Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of the council, I'm just here pretty much to facilitate the discussion and advance slides, but uh to save some time for this uh fairly robust uh discussion I think we're about to uh undertake, uh I'll just introduce Ian and Jesse who are two of three members of our uh implementation team on the resource X priority based budgeting tool that we'll be using to undertake the council approved initiative uh to um you know undertake a priority based budgeting in the fiscal year 2027 year. Uh Shane, sorry. Sorry. Yeah. I I just in in light of what time it is and knowing that you have this little internal agreement that at 8:00 you want to take a break. I'm wondering if you should just take a break right now and then jump into this so that it's it goes unin interrupted

because we have another item after that as well. We do um a study session. So everybody okay with that? Uh, five minutes. Five minutes. Yeah, five minutes.

You're drownling. Thank you. Yeah. It's literally

Right.

It's on camera. There's less controversy with That was very nice. It says

Turkey. places where they pulled it out, put the lining in.

Oh, were we protected from down here, too? So they can't shoot out of our legs. Well, that's from there. That's That's where Anyway, so drop down and get a lot of protection. And then when these go in, these will be bulletproof as well. And then they'll put a plate. They'll put a plate right here that will protect this part here.

All of them. Not a knot like this, but yeah. Oh, really?

Wow.

State of our society,

right? Yeah. Yeah. No, it would be good. Well, you will need it afterwards to keep up. It's a full winter. It has to be cool. Some guys need

Yeah, you have Bring your hot [Music] I never tie a moment. I thought that's how beautiful,

but I'm not a bunch of you know better than I do. Goodness gracious. Okay. I want to wear my ties. Okay.

I am. I was just waiting for you. Trying to get better. [Music]

Yeah. Welcome back. Our five minutes has expired. And before AC starts, um I think Shane wanted to kind of kick us off maybe as a little reminder of what we're working on and why we're working on it. Shane.

Uh thank you, mayor, and uh members of the council. Um and AC, thank you for giving me a little bit of time on the front end of this. Um just by by way of housekeeping, just make sure that um when we go on breaks, we have the mic turned off, your mic turned off. Um it'll pick up conversations and stuff outside. So, all right. Um that said, uh mayor and council, uh with this budget year, we embarked on this journey of implementing priority based budgeting, a new way of approaching our our budget every year. um using data to help us drive decision- making, bring greater transparency to the budget process. And you'll see how that unfolds as we get into next year's budget pro um process itself, as well as helping us to align our budget allocations with the um the values and priorities of the community. Um that's spoken through you as our elected representatives. Um, in order for us to implement, we have to score our programs. Scoring tells us how aligned with our priorities our programs are. Um, in order to do that, um, we need to, uh, go through this exercise of, um, revisiting our strategic plan and our not the not the focus points, those five focus areas of the strategic plan. And I think those are good, but we need to um revisit the objectives supporting those focus areas. And it's and it's those objectives that help us score our programs, you know, in in the priority based um tool, priority based budgeting tool. Um, so we thought it was a good idea now

that we're in uh into the implementation to have our consultants um through Tyler um kind of give you a high view of priority based budgeting again so that you can keep in your mind's eye what we're trying to accomplish and have that um in your thoughts as we enter into the exercise in November on uh on recreating or revisiting ing our strategic plan objectives in support of those five focus areas. Is that making sense? Um I just want to make sure that I'm connecting with you on the importance of this. Any questions for anybody yet?

Okay. Thank you. Turn the time over. Thank you, AC. Yes. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, I'll go ahead and turn it over to Ian and Jesse. Good evening, Ian and Jesse. Can you hear us? Okay. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. Can you hear us? we can. Thank you. There we go. Okay. Hello everybody. Good evening.

All right. Um so AC is going to run through the slides for me. So AC I guess when I just kind of signal you um to move on to the next slide, we'll we'll go from there. So uh we can uh go on to the next slide. There we go. All right. Uh, so my name is Jesse Mise there on the list, head of customer success with Tyler Technologies. Uh, and obviously with me is Ian. So Ian, just let you introduce yourself really quick before we move on.

Yes. Uh, I'm a customer success manager on the priority based budgeting team here at Poly Technologies. Um, I've been kind of the primary boots on the ground for the project on the Tyler side. Um I've got about 18 months experience with performing priority based budgeting with Tyler Technologies and before that um I worked as a implementation consultant for enterprise ERP formerly known as Munis uh but your ERP software I worked yeah four and a half years uh working on the financial side of that. So um I've experienced from the title side of getting um anything financial up and running for uh cities, towns, counties. Thank you, Ian. Um, as for myself, just really quickly, uh, I'm based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, so not too far from you all. Uh, I've been in local government now for well over 20 years. I began my career as a as a an auditor for state and local government here in New Mexico. Uh, went on to work for um, the city of Albuquerque for about 13 years. I was actually uh an implementer of priority based budgeting for the city of Albuquerque. Uh the last couple years that I was there, uh we were looking to get get a better understanding of our budget process too. Uh our budget process always seemed to be a uh a black box. And so the city council really wanted to get a better understanding of what the budget was and what it looked like. And so we did a pilot program where we were looking at our public safety departments and then um we moved on to some of our social service areas. So uh was an implementer on that side on the side of UWAT. I decided that uh you know I really wanted to kind of do this for other organizations as well. Uh it's something that I'm very passionate about and something near and dear to my heart. And so um basically just asked Chris do you need some help to implement this for other organizations? And so here I am today uh being able to talk to you on it as a council and other organizations as well. So um on the list there as you see is Chris Vabian our senior director of

product strategy. Uh the brainchild behind priority based budgeting uh you is not with us tonight but uh is with us in spirit all the time as we uh go through these projects. So uh next slide please.

Sorry I don't um my view is kind of strange. I'm seeing Ian on my screen, but I do see the slide off to the side, so apologize. So, really quick, we're going to our agenda uh here. Again, we're just going to go real high level overview of the PBB methodology. Uh so, I don't want to get too knee deep into it. I know you've been presented this information before from Chris, so I don't want to give a complete recap of what he's done in the past. uh we'll kind of touch on some of the technology and advancements we're have been using uh to get your project going and what we're going to be using uh into the future as we complete the data set. Um and then I'll hand it off to Ian where we'll kind of talk about the project plan currently where we're at and then looking ahead uh for Sorita. Next slide please and we can go on to the next slide. So just going to quickly touch on um priority based budgeting. So very simply, well, what is priority based budgeting? For those of you who don't recall or or just as a reminder, uh it really simply priority based budgeting is a unique what we call unique and innovative approach that helps local governments and organizations uh allocate their funds based on your community needs and your priorities. So as Mr. Jilly said earlier, what we're trying to accomplish is developing a data set from your current budget system and really trying to identify what are we investing in uh in terms of uh how they align with the priorities in the strategic plan for Surorita. So, uh we're going to be doing that uh by answering three basic questions. And what we're trying to do from a priority based budgeting standpoint is we really want to kind of change the mindset, change the view of how you're looking at the budget. Right? So as that point says, we want to disassociate decision-m from from an account number, from a line item perspective, a traditional budgeting perspective, and really start to look at your budget from uh making sure that you're funding the programs and services

that are meeting very specific needs, right? And so the platform that we provide as a software is going to help identify what what those are and how they align with those particular priorities. And so next slide please. Uh the methodology itself in terms of what we're trying to do here is I can get to the next slide. There we go. Uh methodology. So we're basically answering very simplistically three questions, right? We want to ask the question, well what do we do? How much does it cost to do it and what do these programs provide? In terms of what do we do? We're doing that and we're answering that question by developing a program inventory. So, we Ian's been working with all your departments uh and saying we want to identify all the services and programs you provide and we're going to list those out and the next step is going to be is we're going to take your line item budget data. We're going to allocate those line items to say how much of this is supporting the programs and services that you're developing as part of your program inventory. So, we'll be taking your personnel uh budgeted items, your operating expense items, moving those to programs so that we can try to get to a what we call bottom line cost of providing these programs and services. And then to Mr. release point at the end, we're going to be taking those programs and say, "Okay, we want to know just how well they align with our strategic plan, right? Uh we're going to evaluate every program uh against uh the strategic plan. We're also going to evaluate every program over some basic uh program attributes, and we'll touch on that here in a second, but we're really starting to look at the from a program perspective. Uh very simple things like the level of mandate of the program, a population of the program, uh uh demand of the program. So some very basic points in addition to the strategic plan itself to get us a collective view of where does it align with what we're trying to accomplish here. So how are we going to

get there? That'll be on the next slide. This is just our road map of the project itself. So although we're trying to interpret the budget differently and look at the budget differently, the line item uh traditional budget process is still in play. we still want to use that line item data uh that we have currently and we want to use that to translate the budget right so we're going to do that by developing that program inventory uh next we're going to do the pro the program allocation costing we'll then move into the program scoring and once we get to that information we have a data set that hopefully it lets us uh allows us to take action right we want to look at resource reallocation opportunities any revenue generating opportunities how uh this data set will then help inform budget decisions going forward in 2027 by saying we can now look at our budget and say the reason we want to do this is because it aligns with this strategic priority at this level. And so that's the type of information that we're helping build uh for everyone going forward. Uh next slide please. So first thing we're going to do uh again as I mentioned we want to develop that program inventory and this is just high level program inventory in terms of what we're doing is we kind of think about it as your elevator pitch right what is it that you do uh if you ask if a constituent asked you uh what services you provide or what do you do in terms of uh helping the community you're going to answer in terms of uh the items that you provide right things like uh senior meal service programs uh park maintenance uh youth sports programs right we want to understand what we do in those types of terms as opposed to just talking about the budget in terms of funds, revenue sources, divisions, departments, etc. Right? So, the program inventory itself is going to be the foundation of the data that we're developing. Again, it's it's programs that we call our the services that are providing to the stakeholders, right? So, the citizens out there, what are we

doing directly for them? What are we doing indirectly for them? And in in in a priority based budgeting terms in terms of how we categorize programs, we look at programs in two different types. We look at programs from a community standpoint and a governance standpoint. From a community uh standpoint, kind of think of it as direct services, right? So those programs that I mentioned earlier, youth sports, senior meal delivery services, park maintenance programs and services that are directly affecting the community as a whole. And then on your governance side, those programs are going to be more like what are what are the functions to operate the government, right? You got to pay the bills, you got to pay the people, um you got to collect the money, right? So understanding that there's also some internal service functions, some operational things that have to happen to run the government. And so we categorize those types of programs as governance programs because they are important. We want to know just how uh how valuable we are meeting the goal of things like high performance governance. So uh in order to do that is we want to identify those services as well. Uh so next slide once we kind of get to uh program inventory uh again we go into that allocation uh what we call program cost allocation. So here's where we're going to take uh personnel. So your employees we want to know where they're spending their time. Uh very simply, if I'm if I'm an employee and I spend my time on four or five services or programs, I'm going to allocate my time accordingly to those programs. And then I'm going to take my operating expenses. So things like my supplies, my contractual service, and my professional services. I want to map out what do those line items represent? What programs do they support? I'm going to allocate costs to those programs as well. And then from a revenue standpoint, for revenues that are outside of the general fund. So to take general fund uh off the table for now, what we're looking at in terms of revenue are what are the revenues that we collect? What are the

fees that we collect? What are the charges that we uh have and collect money for? Any other revenue outside of the general fund that helps support these programs and services? We want to capture that as well because if we can, we want to show that net cost of providing a program. So if I do have senior meal services program and I have a cost associated with it in terms of personnel and operating expenses, if I do collect any money, any sort of fee charge, any sort of grant money, etc. I want to show that as well because I want to have an informed decision about just how much uh just net costwise what does it take to provide this program or service. And then finally um next slide please. we'll get into what we call the program scoring. So on program scoring, we're going to be looking at your strategic plan uh and saying, "Okay, how do these programs align with your strategic plan?" We look at your plan and say, "Which of these items are more community results oriented?" So things like, you know, economic development, uh safe uh cities, safe towns, you know, public safety, those are more of your community results that you're looking for, right? your governance results are going to be more like you know high performing governance etc. Those are the ones that we're going to evaluate against those but we also evaluate every single program against what we call basic program attributes and we have five of them that we look at. So every program is going to get evaluated under uh the attribute of mandate. What we want to know is is the requirement to provide a particular program of service and if so what's the level of that? Is it a state or federal requirement? Is it a local town uh charter requirement or is there no official requirement? It's just something that our town needs and so we've been providing the service but it's not necessarily a must or a have to based on any sort of like laws. The second one we look at is reliance. What we just want to know simply is are you

the only entity that could provide a particular program or service or is the potential out there for any sort of partners to kind of help us provide these things. The third one we look at is population serve. Very simply, we're just looking in terms of the program and services. Who is getting the service related to this uh program or service? Is it less than 10% of the population? Is it uh up to 50% of the population or is it the majority of the population? We just ask simply the fourth one. Is there any sort of cost recovery? So again, outside of the general fund, do we collect any revenue for a program or service? It's a simple yes or no. And then we want to look at the demand. Is the demand of a service going up? Is it going down? Or is it uh staying flat? As far as we know, those attributes combined with the alignment of the priorities gets us the ability to look at data and says, okay, again, how are we investing in the priorities uh and the strategic plan that we have? Just where are we at level-wise? And are there any opportunities? Can we look at programs that are not mandated? Can we look at programs that maybe could be uh partnered up with somebody else? So, we got these now basic data points to kind of help us evaluate and look at the budget ele. Uh next slide, please. Now, this is just kind of like a really generic view of the budget, right? You know, uh just like line items, you see things on there kind of got covered there, but you know, things like supplies, professional services, etc. And one of the challenges that uh organizations have and a challenge that we faced when I was doing this in Albuquerque was, you know, you really could never tell based on looking at a budget from a line item perspective whether or not you were really investing or moving the needle on some of the things, right? So, could you look at a budget document? Could you look at a line item and say, are we getting safer or more prosperous? Are we really

funding economic vitality? Funny story really quick is I had a counselor come to me one day and asked uh just how much we invested in our uh airplane that we had at the city of Albuquerque. Uh and I kind of gave him a look because I had no idea that we had an airplane at the city of Albuquerque cuz you could never see it in our budget. And so I had to kind of dig dig around, make some phone calls, send some emails, uh, and finally got to a point where I said, I think we invest about $300,000 a year based on what I've been finding. It wasn't until we, uh, implemented our priority based budgeting that it actually showed up as a program uh, within our public safety. And so now I was able to say, hey, we we have uh, two FTE equivalents. we invest X dollars uh in contracts and it cost about $2 to $300,000 to actually run this program. But I couldn't see that before if I was just looking at the budget from a from a fund line item uh division department perspective. So this helps us get a little bit deeper right into how we look at our budget. And so next slide, please. And what we're trying to get to is what this will show is we'll go from a line item perspective. And if you click on it again, we're going to then translate the line items to now a program perspective. So you can see there we have programs and costs associated with those particular programs. And then finally, if you click one more time, we can then visually see how well we're investing in those community priorities and in those five basic attributes of demand for cost recovery reliance, etc. So, in a in a situation like this, this is a this is a um example here that you can see from a uh community safety standpoint. We're investing about uh I believe that's $140 million. That's telling us that there's an extreme alignment, $140 million worth of program extremely aligns with the priority of community safety. And we want to say that's great. Now, why is

that? What are we doing that shows that we're we're investing so much in this area? And we're going to be able to see that for everything that you do within your organization. Next slide, please. And what we're hoping to build towards is what we call, if you haven't seen this before, you should see this over and over again. I really want to burn this in everybody's uh brain as they're doing this project is we call this process, you know, a blueprint for funding the future. And so in any organization that we work with, you're really looking at two things. You either have new needs, right? you have new uh challenges that you're trying to tackle. Uh things that are coming about that you haven't done before and you have new needs. Uh maybe you're just trying to enhance current programming. Maybe you're underinvested in some of the things that you're doing and so you need to invest more. Uh on the other end, maybe you don't have any new needs. Maybe what we're looking at is just maintaining and preserving the current service levels that we have. Or we could be possibly looking at how can we lower our tax rates. maybe we can do some refunds or something in terms of what we're doing. So, we kind of have two lenses that we look at and we want to pull one or two levers. We either want to free up and reallocate the resources that we have or possibly generate new revenue. And we do that by looking at those six items there as you see at the bottom of the screen. We want to look at things like sourcing and questions that we want to ask are can we use the data? Can we see are we able to leverage partners uh source anything else with any quasi government organization or private entity uh in order to free up some of our general fund dollars to reinvest um on efficiency standpoint? Can we look at are we overlapping uh anything in services? Can we find some efficiencies? Can we use some technology to automate some of our processes? Can we augment volunteers to help offset some of the costs of doing some of the services? And so we want to look at all the efficiencies available to us in order again to free up those resources. We want to look at things like service

levels, right? What is the minimum service level requirement for providing a program? How much can we get away with? What maybe what is the bare minimum in some areas and where do we need to go overboard in others? We want to be able to evaluate that based on what we're doing. From a revenue standpoint, um it's your typical things that you see in revenues, fees and charges. You know, really what you're looking at for those things that you're you're co uh charging a fee uh char charging a fee for is are you covering the cost of this program? Uh is there an opportunity to increase? Are you charging too much? Do you need to decrease the fee that you're you're looking at, right? And so there's some there's some ways that we look at those there. Uh grants always on the table. I know grants aren't free. Um they are a lot of work, you know, but they are available. uh sometimes there might be something out there that you can utilize to continue to fund a program or service and so we definitely don't want to take those off the table and so we want to look at all the opportunities between sourcing efficiency service levels fees and grants before the very last one there although we don't like to talk about it it's still an option on the table if we cannot help find any of the previous five things and at the end of the day you decide you know what we just we we got to look at our tax taxes and we we may have to increase them. That's always on the table, but we do want to present a scenario where that is the ultimately very last resort. Uh so we want to be able to provide data and decisions uh and information to kind of make sure you don't do that. So how are we going to get there or how have we started getting there? So next slide, please. Uh next two slides, we're going to get into how we're trying to help the organization uh navigate through this. back in the old day uh of PBB when I first when I was being when I was implemented in Albuquerque uh and when I first joined we used to kind of just develop this data programs allocations and costs. It was all done organically meaning everyone would sit down at their

desks on the software and do all the things. uh projects could take a little bit longer as you know this it's hard to do especially this first year when you you you're trying to develop brand new data and so to counter that in order to help organizations get through this process faster we're starting to use technology right we're starting to use things like machine learning techniques we're starting to use AI we're really digging into our databases of all the clients that we worked with over 300 clients and say what has everyone been doing so we can take all the information that we've been doing We can also look at other organizations that we haven't quite worked with and say, "Okay, we can help you identify as a department your inventory of services. We can give you a possible list of services that you provide and get you a starting point." So rather than you sit down at your desk and say, "What do I do?" I can hand you a list of 20 to 50 programs and say, "Looks like you do some of these things. Let's start to narrow that down so we can get a really good list of services that you provide." We can also take that data. We can also take that information and say we think it costs X number of dollars to provide this programming services using our machine learning techniques. So again get you a starting point. You don't have to start from zero. You can react to something and say yep we're pretty close there or no we need to make some adjustments here but again we can now get to a point where we can give you the estimated cost of programs and services based on our experience. We can also do the same for scores. So we can take similar programs and services offered up by any other town, any city, county and say these types of programs typically align with these priorities in this way and we can predict that and again you can look at the information and say yes or no pretty close no we need to make some adjustments but again it does provide a starting point. So projects that usually could take uh in the olden days from 8 to 9 months can really be condensed if we wanted to down to a 3 or

2 or 3 month time frame. But this is all because of the techniques and the abilities of technology to help us get there. And then that final point there is that once we have a data set using technology we can start to come up with ideas. Do you need some cost-saving ideas? Do you need some revenue generating ideas? Well, we can help you uh come those up. And so with our next slide there, we can get into identifying those costs saving and revenue opportunities using our AI technology. So we can comb our database of everyone that we've ever worked with uh from 10 years ago till now. We can look at information for other organizations as well and say, "Find me a very similar program that the town of Zerita does and come back to me with some ideas for saving money and for generating additional revenue." And so our insight report, what we're going to get to later on down the line that I will touch on is that we can take your data and say, "Here's all the programs and services that SATA offers. give me back some ideas and we can give you an insight report that says, "Okay, here's this city, this town, this county, this state. They did this to save money or they did this to generate revenue." So, it's going to look at your programs and services. It's going to look and find some pattern matching and say, "Do I find anything similar? If I do, give me back some information." Um, it's probably hard to see on this slide, but this is a program that's a historic preservation program. Um, in this example, uh, we were able to find some insights that said, "Here's an opportunity to save some money here. Here's an opportunity to generate some revenue." And that came out to be at about a $50,000 opportunity, depending on, uh, what official action was taken. And if we go to the next slide, uh, same type of example, we find a food assistance program. So, through our

technology, we're saying, "Give me some ideas." And again, between um these ideas, we found anywhere from $150 to $300,000 of opportunity between saving money and generating revenue to continue to provide the service. And that's terms of if you can save an amount of money from a general fund perspective. Think about it. You can now reinvest those dollars into those programs and services that maybe need a little bit more attention that maybe they haven't been given to in the past. And then the next slide there, final one for me, um, is just another example of a, uh, substance abuse counselor treatment center that gave us some ideas of a sliding fee scale and partnering some nonprofits. Again, our insight report is going to give you the idea. It's going to give you who did it. It's going to give you the sources where we found the information. And then it's going to provide you if you wanted to do this, here's some of the possible implementation steps it would take. And based on your size of your budget, the size of the cost of your program, you could potentially save x amount of dollars or you could potentially generate x amount of revenue if this idea is actually viable for you as a town. So this is all through technology um again machine learning techniques AI we're going to take your data set and we're going to try to help identify where we can um going forward how do you continue can provide how you can continue to provide the current programs and services and possibly hopefully help you identify or where can we find some money to invest in areas that we wanted to before. With that, I'm going to pass along uh to my colleague Ian, and he's going to walk you through um the project plan, where we're at, and where we're going to be headed.

Yep. Thank you, Jesse. Um so, the next slide here, uh we can talk about our plan for implementing priority based budgeting, PB, um at the town. Um and so the first major point is that we uh basically implemented immediately with fiscal year 26 budget data rather than waiting for fiscal year 27 budget development. So we're using the current fiscal year's budget, something that's already been approved, signed off, hard posted to the general ledger. Um and the reason for that are there's a few benefits. One is smoothing out the workload. So rather than having to build this data set um look at things, refine it while also creating the budget requests uh for the departments uh we allow them to start working uh on priority based budgeting now. Um and so there's less of a burden uh down the road during the formal budget season. Um and that's because program inventories they carry over year to year. We don't have to start from scratch and develop a whole new list of programs. what you do, what you uh provide to the community yeartoear tends to stay relatively the same with just some minor changes. Um things like how your staff spends their time. Those percentage breakdowns of, you know, I'm an employee that has a 50/50 split between two programs tends to stay the same roughly yeartoear. There might be some changes, but we can carry that over. And so by working on the 26 budget, um it's going to be pretty similar to what the 27 budget is, you know, going to hopefully look like project to look like. Um another benefit of implementing immediately is uh lessons learned and being able to adjust and lessons learned in the sense of uh we would like this to be an exact black white science, but there is an art to um priority based budgeting. what constitutes a truly good program can slightly differ from department to

department, entity to entity. And so uh we make some decisions uh regarding guidance, how we might you know generally uh you know push lean departments one way or another, certain philosophies that we might adopt um that are in a gray area. And if we find that the results from this year zero um aren't exactly what we're looking for, now we can pivot, try the other direction and see if that yields better results um in fiscal year 2027 budget preparation. And then lastly, uh by implementing now, that gives us on the Tyler end more time to create those uh program insights for you. And so they're in the hands of department heads. They're in the hands of decision makers um at the beginning of the whole budget preparation process rather than in the middle or towards the tail end of it. And so you don't have to read through it and scramble. You can um you know have it day one and start making you know budget requests um start having budget discussions with these insights in hand. And then another decision we made regarding the implementation of project based budgeting is we've separated out operating and capital budgets. Um they're going to be kind of done parallel. Uh there's you know a toggle in our software tool where you switch from the operating side over to the capital side. And the reason for that is um there's just lots of little things where operating programs and capital programs are treated differently. kind of um you know the decisions around budgeting and funding are different. Um how they score and rank tends to be skewed one way or the other and so we can now by separating them out compare more apples to apples on the operating side and oranges to oranges on the um capital side. Um and yeah, just in general the discussion between um amendments, adjustments, uh requests in

the future for capital budgets tends to be slightly different than amendments, requests, uh projections on the operating side. Uh so those are the two major decision points. Um with that on the next slide, we'll talk about how things have been going so far. So we started the program inventory phase August 12th. Um with that on the Tyler technology side we gave a training and we rolled out a predicted uh set of programs to all departments and over the course of August into early September there they reviewed it and they completed September 2nd and as a result we have 123 operating programs that were identified and 31 capital programs or capital projects that were identified. Moving on to the next slide, we are currently in phase two, the cost allocation phase. Um, and so that started September 3rd, immediately after phase one completed, and we're expected to complete that next week on September 29th. Um and so with that on the Tyler side, we predicted uh using your fiscal year 26 budget data where people's time went, what the um revenues for certain programs uh might look like uh and the non-personnel costs as well. Programs are or departments are in the process of reviewing that and making their adjustments. Um so far so good. uh you know the check-ins that I've had via office hours or email questions all seem to be pretty promising that departments are taking it seriously looking at it asking the right questions and so um I expect us to hit that September 29th deadline with uh quality data and then that will bring us into phase three the program scoring phase um we've had some discussion about that even today so I think we're going to try to have that phase start um October 1st if I'm not mistaken. And with that we will have

predicted scores. So how each program lines up to the strategic plan, how each program lines up with those five BPA's basic program attributes. And uh this phase um like the others, we're expecting maybe roughly 3 weeks. And so that would put us into mid or late October um for completion of that phase. Uh so next slide. So looking forward um with the completion of these three phases what does that mean? Um that means uh with phase three complete us on the title side can start working on that insights report looking at all the programs and generating some of those uh new revenue ideas some of those uh efficiency costsaving ideas um which I'm sure Jesse mentioned or touched upon it but uh nowhere in that insight report ever says cut the program just delete it you know get rid of that staff or you know abandon it. It's always going to be we want to maintain this program. It's there for a reason. So, how can we do it better or how can we get more support, grant funding, whatever may be for it. So, um in case there was any uh unease or uh nervousness, anyone hearing what our insights are like, it's never ever going to be just it's on the chopping block, it's gone. That's our Tyler recommendation. Nope. Never. Um beyond that that gets us prepared for the fiscal year 2027 budget preparation. Uh with priority based budgeting it is new it is different but it shouldn't uh significantly impact your timeline. Um everything uh that went into you know budget preparation for fiscal year 2026. uh it should be roughly the same with you know same start date same you know council approval vote dates things like that I don't expect there to be any major

changes there just now we should have more data to look like more fruitful impactful discussions surrounding um the 27 budget and then um in regards to I've been told there's a council retreat in mid November um with the potential of revisiting and discussing the strategic plan. Um by completing uh an implementation on fiscal year 26 budget data, you can see what the results of those scores are and that can be there to inform and guide if there is a change to the strategic plan. Um, you know, PBB doesn't necessarily have to be the one and only sole focus developing the strategic plan just so it fits us perfectly, but we are using that strategic plan to um create budget data and we can see what that budget data looks like and um hopefully that can inform you and maybe you know uh slightly adjust you know maybe some terminology or the size and scope of those um goals. And so with that, I'll dive a little bit deeper into um how we took the current strategic plan and put it into priority based budgeting as it currently stands. So on the next slide um we saw that you have five focus areas containing 15 goals underneath it or objectives underneath them. And those five focus areas uh do seem to fit the mold. They're exactly what we're looking for on the priority based budgeting side. uh four of those five uh nationally fit community priorities. Those are those program services that are uh directly going out to citizens, to local businesses, maybe maybe to neighboring um towns and counties. And then one of those focus areas naturally fits the governance side. A more

internally focused um programs would be scored against it. That would be the highly performing organization focus area. the other four uh fit towards community outward facing items. Um the 15 goals or objectives underneath those um we've included it in like kind of the description of these uh PBB scoring items um as context, but they do tend to be um too narrow for the PBB methodology. there is something great to be said for a very specific limited uh focused objective. Um but uh within the PB framework we we tend to go a little broader little um kind of anyone can get in on it. And so as a demonstration of that uh on the next slide I just took a snapshot from the document with your strategic plan and infrastructure and facilities. Great. Excellent. That is a focus area that many programs across many departments could get involved in. uh right public works, parks and recreation, um you know, tech, IT, finance and technology, they could all have programs that are dedicated, um have some influence, have uh you know are working towards this idea of infrastructure and facilities. Um but using as an example the top item there uh the meet and maintain an average overall condition index OCI rating for all roads at a minimum of good by 2028 uh with that presentation on the the bike bicycle uh event and the contract talked about road condition being important there. It's an excellent goal to have. Um, you know, would never dissuade you from, you know, saying we

need to scrap that, but we wouldn't implement that into the PBB methodology because uh how many programs even within public works would contribute to that specific uh goal of um road quality, right? And if you're outside of public works, uh you know how parks and wreck isn't going to be involved with that. Police department isn't going to be involved with that. Human resources would have no shot. Um and so, uh if we get too narrow too often on too many things for scoring, that could lead to frustrations from the other departments feeling like, well, I've got no shot. All my programs are going to score bad. Like this this feels it just feels bad to them. Um, and so we we like that that's a specific goal. We'll keep it in the context and the definition of what infrastructure and facilities might mean to the town as a whole. Um, but uh, it wouldn't be a directly implementable item. And so I think that was maybe what Shane was touching on at the very beginning is maybe we expand this list of goals to include more examples across more departments. um or uh you know do we roll it up into potentially more focus areas um you know not not for us to give a 100% direct recommendation here but just you can see how it would affect the PB process um and then that brings us to our final slide my closing notes here um having worked with um the town uh I would say that this project is going great I'm very optimistic for for it. Enthusiasm for participation has been very high. Uh the number of people attending the meetings is, you know, very high. You know, there's not a lot of invites that go unanswered or people that were invited and don't show up. Attendance has been great. We do um office hours

where it's just kind of a informal, hey, if you want to stop by and ask questions, you can. And those always get a handful of people. um the amount of times where we have it and no one shows up is uh unfortunately too too high but that has not been the uh with Sria um someone's always showing up asking questions and they're always good questions not just how do I get through today but they're looking at well what's going to happen next or what's going to happen the year after that asking the right sorts of things um no major hurdles or risks at this time there's nothing that um keeps me up at night nothing that makes me go like I'm not sure if we're going to hit deadlinesine or timelines. Um, so far all timelines have been hit and um, I don't expect that to change at this moment. And, you know, I let off with it, but yeah, ultimately we're optimistic about the success of this project um, in the town and we think that it will produce um, good results for Sara. Um, so with that, that concludes our presentation. Um, and I'll turn it back over to um, AC or whoever on the town side.

AC, did you have any wrap-up comments before we open it up for questions or Shane?

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, um as Ian and Jesse had mentioned, I think the process is going extremely well and there is a high level of optimism and enthusiasm um in getting this project completed in the time frames that have been outlined. Uh for me personally, I'm really excited about how this process is going to lend itself into the strategic plan development process because I really think it's going to help us produce a better strategic plan which is just going to serve the community uh better in the future and help us to evaluate these programs more effectively and efficiently to maximize the benefits of this effort altogether. So, um, you know, initially I think when we were talking, we're looking at this being potentially a two-year process, but, uh, we may actually be able to get this done in one year and have it implemented in time for the 20, uh, 27 budget, and I think that that would be fantastic.

Yeah. No thanks. Um, you know, I was glad to see that we're going to revisit the strategic plan because I heard multiple times, you know, to really tie it to that. Um, and we haven't really revisited, you know, with changing things that have happened. Um, you know, where are we at on that? So, I was glad to see that I guess Novemberish time frame, we'll probably look at putting together a retreat um on the strategic plan just to revisit it.

Yeah, we're we're lining up um we're lining up a facilitator to help us with that process, help the council and staff through that process. Um, but we're targeting November um to um have a one-day retreat with the council and to uh to get our strategic plan um geared up for the 2027 budget process so that we have we have a a recalibrated strategic plan to score our programs against. For this round, we're going to use our current strategic plan, right,

and get that baseline in. Um, we'll learn a lot in this process. Um, but we need we need to we need to true up that strategic plan for the 2027 budget process and the PBB use.

Yep. and AC um you know other than I get or maybe that is the the result of aligning is there an expectation you know what success looks like that there might be an aha moment that we have a lower priority of a particular program but we're spending lots of money on it and then that will become apparent um I'm you know I was just trying to search what does other than implementing it which would be successful in itself considering we're looking at one year as opposed to two years. But, you know, other than that, from a monetary standpoint, what does in your mind or Shane's mind look like success at the end of it? Um, what would be like one or two factors that would be an outcome that you would feel would be successful?

Mr. Mayor, that's an excellent question. Um, you know, I think it can work either way. Um, if going through this process would identify that we're putting a lot of money into something that would be a lower priority, you know, I think we'd have to ask ourselves, is is that the right thing to do? And, you know, maybe we need to shift things around a little bit, right? To make sure that we're doing things that provide the most value to the community. And that's not to say that things that are lower tier aren't important. I think all the things that we do are important, but again, when you're dealing with limited resources, you want to get the biggest bang for your buck, right? And that's kind of what I was thinking about because obviously we're probably not doing it because it's not necessary, but we could be spending, you know, more money on it than we would have expected. So kind of how do you balance it all um to, you know, because a lot of stuff is the important stuff is uh resident facing, right? But you need all the, you know, sort of the back office stuff to make that happen. Um, and I guess I was just searching, you know, is it, you know, grants or the way other communities have done it. Is it a possibility? We're looking for those, you know, few aha moments that, well, we've always done it. We've always built it in, you know, and we've never really opened the box up, so to speak, to

Yeah. Why are we doing this in the first place? But but yeah, I think you know through the insight report and through this process um certainly there could be opportunities to generate additional revenues to offset programmatic costs. I think that that would be a huge win for us. But even if we go through this process and we find out that our 2026 budget is very well aligned with the things that matter most to the community, then I think we have confirmation that indeed that is the case. I think right now we we believe that's the case through our current process. But how do we actually demonstrate that in some sort of objective fashion to this community? And I think that's where this process lends itself to that sort of transparency side of the budgeting effort.

And you don't expect to find a a plane that we have that we haven't haven't seen before or anything out of there, do you?

I hope I hope we don't find any planes. We shouldn't. You know, mayor, one of the I I appreciate AC pointing out that, you know, we could go through this process and find that the budget that we have put together is is pretty comfortably aligned with our community values. Um, that's great. I mean, how many times do we go to these professional conferences or state conferences and we hear presenters present on best practices and we're like, hey, we're we're doing that, right? So, I mean that's that's good to have that confirmation. Right now, we don't we cannot answer the question, what does it cost us to provide our animal control services, right?

We we can't answer h what does it cost us to what fill in the blank, right? It's because we haven't broken our budget down that way and where we we've allocated staff time to each of the programs that we provide and we we we're counting our pencils and paper and you know electricity and everything like that. Right? So, one of the outcomes of this exercise is that we'll be able to answer those types of questions. We'll know exactly what we do and what it costs us to do it. And then we score it against our values and uh and that puts us in a wonderful position to um make datadriven decisions. Right. Right. And that's huge.

That's huge. Um you know I Ian are is one of the uh the the the products or deliverables is it does does the pro does the program still give us that that tree plot? Is that what you guys call it where it's the cortiles and it's different shades and all the programs Yeah, the the matrix there. What do you call that? I is that it's like a tree plot or something, right? I mean, I I don't But it's a it's a very powerful image that that helps us to see the different size of the programs is is indicative of how much money we're putting into that program.

And the shade of the color is indicative. The darker the color, the more aligned with our community values it is. And so you can imagine the 120 plus programs that we've identified or services that we provide and those are all scored in some way somehow and it and it spits out this image that is very powerful in telling a story and we can identify we might have we might have a really large program that doesn't score very well. Right.

Right. We might have a very small program that's really dark in in their color, meaning it's incredibly aligned. And we might say, well, we need to we need to shift some resources, people, and budget support to make the smaller program that's aligned really well bigger because our community needs that because that, you know what I mean, right? So we can make those kind of decisions um because we now have the data to support it and help us identify it. A lot of this is it's just not on our radar because it's not presented in the way that this tool is going to allow us to do.

That's kind of what I was thinking of. It's detail oriented. So everything that we do or spend or allocate um there will be, you know, a line item virtually, you know, for it, right? So it's a little bit I guess transparent or understandable. uh from that and obviously I'm sure it's morphed over time but you know with the ability of AI right you know to do it

it you know years ago it probably would have maybe not made sense from a al um a time perspective because it would just take so much time physically um you know to go through it and figure everything out that it probably wouldn't be worth it but you know because of the way you know technology has developed you know, it could probably spit out a product pretty quickly and and have a placeholder for every single hour we spend and every single dollar, you know, that we spend. Um, so it'll be interesting to see um how aligned we are actually with what we say we want to focus on. But again, I'm glad we're going to revisit the strategic plan because I think doing uh, you know, an update as things change each year, one, it would give us the ability, you know, quickly, right, to do priority based budgeting depending on how the needs change, you know, over year to year from that. Um, any questions from my right, thoughts, questions? Any questions from my left? Okay, go ahead. Oh, before I do that, Diane Kim, can I just I don't forget. Kim, do you have any questions on from what you heard before I go to council member Priolo?

Um, no. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. I just didn't want to forget you out in the ether. Diane. Yeah. So, if I'm understanding things, this prioritybased budget will help us make tough decisions better and base it on hard data and not just emotion. And it'll give us all of the it'll align it with values and it'll help us make tough decisions when we have re only a certain amount of resources to choose from in um in climates where we may be tight with program cash and have big unexpected needs that manifest like a a leaky a leaky lake.

Correct? Yes. Okay. It's all about the data being in front of you so you can make important decisions when you need to and build it into a budget. I'll also add that uh oh yeah the the data will be top to bottom across organizations. So it'll allow departments to make probably more informed better budget requests you know that maybe uh make it easier for you to make decisions. They're going to produce a more high quality proposal um for you to look at. Um, and it'll also, yeah, maybe get citizens more involved as well. But yes,

yeah, that's a good point. Um, because I imagine it's not a department that couldn't use or wouldn't want to have more people, you know, or more money, but I guess this gives us the ability between the strategic plan, at least for the department heads, to kind of understand what their priorities are and maybe come in more realistically. Not saying they don't now, but knowing that it's the data is going to drive it. You know, I can ask for 40 people, right? But if it's not aligned with the strategic plan, probably not asking for 40 people or expect to get them at the end of the day. Anything else from the council? Uh, and more to follow, I'm assuming. Lots more to follow.

Indeed. So stay tuned as they say, right? Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh thanks for the gentleman being on the online. Appreciate it. Y thank you for having us. Thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate it. Thanks. Um next we're going to go to the study session, but um we're going to change the order. So first um 12B um the adoption process for the 2024 international building codes followed by 12A which is the economic development incentives. I guess we wanted to end with Victor and exciting news about incentives. I'm only assuming, but welcome, Anna.

Thank you, Mayor Murphy. Are you suggesting building codes are not exciting? Um, no, no, I would never suggest that. Well, thank you. We're here tonight for a study session regarding the adoption of the 2024 International Building Codes. Tonight's just a broad overview. We're not going to dive into details. We'll do that in a few months from now. So tonight we're just going to tell you what we're doing, why we're doing it, where we're at, and where we're going. So I have with me Andrew Parkin, who is our acting building safety manager, and Jesus Priado, who is a plans examiner, building inspector, who's been with us for almost a year. Y

and Jesus has very bravely taken on the huge lift of going through the 2024 building codes and preparing a set of amendments. So kudos to Jesus for taking that on and they're both troopers sticking around this late tonight. So we'll try and keep it brief for you. And with that I will hand it over to Jesus.

Thank you Jesus. Um and in for all of you when we're going through this process and I know this is the first phase if it's because I know you're going to work with you know Saba and MPA and other you know groups. if there's ever opportunities because we're always about affordable housing, right? That's always the topic of conversation. I would love it's if you can tie the cost, you know, of doing these things um at as the end result, right? You know, you can adopt this or you cannot, but if you do adopt it, let's just make it up uh rain, you know, mandatory rainwater harvesting, right? you know, maybe sounds good on the face of it, but the average home, it's going to add, making it up, you know, $10,000 to the cost of it. So, if you can weave in as this goes on the financial impact, um, because I think that would be important to understand, um, because we can want all kinds of things, but if it doubles the price of a new home, making it up, um, that may be not a good thing. um or if if the international code is changing for a reason, you know, what were the incidents, right? Um if it's changing a wiring code, right? But in our whole town's existence, we've never had an issue, you know, with that particular wiring code, um, whatever the upgrade would be. You know, those are the types of things I'd be interested, you know, to learn about. Um, as we work through it, because my old my early days, I just thought it was sort of, okay, the international code comes up. Um, we don't even really discuss it. We just implement everything. And then over the years I've learned talking to other mayors, well there's a significant impact to the development community um by doing it and because federal lobbyists, you know, want something enacted and it really hasn't helped us um because I can make driving fatalities very easy go

away. We just don't drive anymore, right? But that's not really what you know was possible. So, I know that's sorry that's longwinded, but just think about that as

that's good and that's what we're here for tonight is to get a little bit of feedback, that type of feedback so that when we come back to you with the details, we know what you're looking for. It's sometimes hard to get an exact dollar value because it can vary greatly depending on the type of construction, the size of the building, but we do have our eye on that diminishing return where you know you spend a certain amount of money and you get a huge value and then the more you spend that return just drops off and drops off. So, we want to make sure that our amendments and our code adoptions are getting you the most bang for your buck and really focusing on those life safety issues and less on the lifestyle type choices.

No, that's a great way to put it. And also, how are comparative communities, right? We're in competition not only with Morirana and Oro Valley and Tucson and Pimac County, but also Queen Creek and Cassag Grand. So I think you know where m my mindset comes from that particular um philosophy. So if you can kind of keep that in mind or weave that in as well because I like to be the outlier but only on the good way and the good things not on the opposite way but

right and that feedback from our customers especially Saba is very critical because they do have the the wherewithal and they're they have the reach into all the communities down here and they also communicate with the homebuilders association up in the Phoenix area. So they're able to really identify the the factors in the codes and in the amendments that have the greatest impact on the cost to build because they obviously have a very vested interest in keeping those costs down. And just my appreciation to all of you early conversations with Saba, you know, they've been very complimentary that you kind of know our mindset and you operating in there. So I just want to throw out a thank you before. Yeah, you're very welcome. That's where having been with the town for 17 years really helps.

Thanks. All right, I'll hand it over to Jesus now. Good evening. Good evening. All right, let's Can you see? Trying to manage the slide here. Now, this is your first test. You have to use the uh

So, Okay, perfect. There we go.

Thank you. So, um, to begin with, I wanted to begin with a little bit of a background into what the building code is and how it relates to the town of Sawarita. So currently the town of Sawarita is operating under the 2018 suite of building codes and the 2017 national electrical code. These codes are updated by the international code council on a three-year cycle, but because of the cost associated with implementing these codes, they are typically adopted every other cycle. So the question boils down to why is it necessary to update the codes? So updating the codes allows us to keep up to date with the latest construction practices, emerging technology, and the implementation of the newest materials from the field of construction while aligning ourselves with the surrounding jurisdictions to provide a consistent base of building safety requirements that both that both contractors and developers are familiar with and can plan for. So staying current with the code adoption cycle also helps us minimize the risks and costs associated with falling behind since doing so would create a greater than six-year gap between the existing codes and current ones which would adversely affect our ISO rating and as a result can affect the insurance rates for our citizenry. Let's see here. The current codes being recommended for adoption under the 2024 year cycle include the international building code, residential code, plumbing code, mechanical code, fuel gas code, fire code, swimming pool and spa code, and the international property maintenance code with the national electric code being the exception as its addition runs independently under the 2023 code cycle. So now one of the key codes being brought into consideration for adoption this year is the

international existing building code and its adoption will allow the ability to bridge the gap between what is considered new construction and existing construction. Thus providing both homeowners and contractors the additional flexibility for partial remodels and potentially bringing down the cost of remodeling without sacrificing on our department's goal to ensure the safety of the public. So it is for this same reason that we have also opted to continue with the 2018 energy code as amended. Not only does this align with surrounding jurisdictions with Morirana, Oro Valley, and Pima County all opting to remain in the 2018 edition, but it allows us more time to research its impact as well as additional costs which have been a major concern for homebuilders. And with this, I'll pass it over to my colleague Andrew Parkin. Before you do that, um, thanks for that last comment because that was one of the things I was paying attention to and watching, but and I know most of what these codes mean. What is the International Property Maintenance Code? What what is that actually addressing or or do because I can figure out the rest of them, but I've never heard of that one before. So if uh if I may touch on it, the international property maintenance code uh gives us a basis for when we're doing um that's code

for code enforcement and it's typically u you know taken care of by not directly from the building department but by by our code enforcement uh you know personnel. It typically um details, you know, overgrown weeds and and you know, I never I never imagined there was an international code for I don't want, you know, toilets stored on the outside, you know, like we go up old Nala Highway, you know, that type of thing. Interesting. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I was just curious. No, I appreciate it.

Okay. key steps. Um staff review the code changes. Um what that entails is an analysis of the significant changes of the existing our existing 2018 code to the 21 uh 2021 code and then from the 21 code to the 2024 code. Um from that we can identify uh with our existing local amendments uh the amendments that we would be changing to those amendments. um which and our local amendments are specific to our community.

Um and that's driven by u the desire to attract businesses and more residential properties. Um we are the next one is a town council study session where we are tonight. From there um we are going to engage with our stakeholders which is our local builders and um Sabah um that has already been penciled in for October 1st um as a uh inerson meeting at town hall here uh which will be doing a virtual meeting as an alternative the following day. Um so we'll get some good engagement from them that body of people and hopefully uh we'll get some good feedback. Um once we've gone through that process, we shall approach the board of appeals for them to review our proposed amendments and the adoption of the 2024 codes. Um that is penciled in for October. We're looking at we commencing the 20th um or the 27th. We may just not too sure if it'll be one meeting or two meeting with the board of appeals. So we'll probably pencil in two just in case. Um and the outcome from that meeting is hopefully that we have something um an agreement or recommendation from the board of appeals to adopt for the council. Um the next move then and from there onwards the timelines a little vague because they may move a little bit depending on how those two meetings go. Um so the next proposed uh step would be a town council study session which would be a deep dive and we can probably touch on some of those topics that you've just talked about costs of implementing codes and and the effects on the local market. Um from there hopefully we could move into ordinance drafting and a legal review.

Um not quite sure how long that would take but um from there we would come back to town council for consideration of adopt adoption in sometime in probably late December. Um and then from there we would go to implementing and training. Um and again those uh last four items depend on timelines. It might vary a little bit. Um and that is the end of our presentation. Uh we can open up for discussion and questions. Um, well, I think I got a lot of mine out in the beginning. Um, any questions to my right? You know, obviously there's more to come, but I just wanted to set the table a little bit. Questions to my left? Diane?

Yes. Will you be using AI like the gentleman from Tyler Technologies are going to use where they have that nifty AI that they can compare across all the municipalities with the codes? to the mayor's point. Um, that's not something that we've used just yet. Can you um I don't believe that it's available just yet for codes or plan review or anything to do with building safety, but maybe I'm sure it'll come along.

We need more data centers first in our area before we can do that. Sorry. Couldn't resist. Mayor Murphy, Council Member Polo, if that's something that you'd like us to do, what we could do is collect the amendments from the other jurisdictions, drop them into chat GPT, and have it do a comparison. I believe it's capable of doing that. mayor's advances.

The the amendments really don't list a cost, but what it does do is say uh where the differences and the similarities are in the amendments. And I think um to further um probably Saba you know has um you know groups that they coordinate with that on some of these they could probably tell you at least their estimated cost. If we go from here to here on let's say electrical it probably would add whatever about the amount of cost. So probably our stakeholder groups have a better ability to probably price out a little bit because you know the home builders will know okay if we go from here to here plumbing or whatever it's going to you know

right and there there are certain uh factors in the code that are pretty easy to calculate. So, if you're talking about adding some extra room on a circuit breaker, that's not that hard to figure out, right? When you dive into something like what's the cost going to be if we require air conditioning in every new residential unit? Well, most of the new builds have that. Nobody really wants to buy a new house here, but we do have older housing stock that doesn't have it. So, if we're going to require air conditioning, which we're actually not recommending, but some other jurisdictions have done that, how do you calculate that cost? That's that can be really challenging,

right? Yeah. Especially because you don't know the wiring already. You can probably find out what a three-tonon air conditioner costs, but you know, does the wiring does the panel, right? Right. So, that can vary pretty wildly, but some of the simpler ones are pretty easy,

right? But I have I have a lot of I have a lot of confidence that the stakeholder groups are going to come up with kind of a range of what all of these things would add to the end cost of a home. Um I mayor and council I I I think you're exactly right mayor. I think these industries are going to come forward and help us with that. I I know that when I was up in Flagstaff they they had um a bit of a local lobbying group that was that was really putting a lot of pressure on the council to force every new home to be wired for the electric car to be charged. and and there was a that there was you know there was a cost to you know that that that would require on every home that was part of the factoring. Back to the benchmarking question. While we may not be poised to do this in this round, we are considering um AI technology for our internal use as an organization to better help us in preparing our staff reports, responding to public inquiries, um using our own database, creating our own database. Um and and then and then part of that tool, at least one of the one of the options that we've been looking at, um includes a benchmarking component where we can benchmark our stuff against the, you know, the rest of the world out there.

And so that could come in helpful as we as we look at some of these, you know, code changes or or whatever. We just haven't gotten there quite yet on the AI stuff, but we're actively pursuing it. Right. Thank you, Diane. One more question. Um, so how do we know uh if another municipality or town with the best of intentions adopted a code and then it had unended consequences that they didn't anticipate, but then it bit them in the rear end. uh how do we know what boooos have been made so that we don't make the same errors

and and could I piggyback off of that and if that did happen is there can that those things come back to council and that can it be reversed once you adopt something?

Yes, Mayor Murphy, Council Member Po, that is a great question. That's one of the reasons why we are not on the leading edge of the code adoptions in the region. We're kind of on the tail end. We've let Puma County and the city of Tucson take the lead on it. So, as they've gone through that adoption process, they've had the interaction with the stakeholder groups. They've done the outreach, had the lessons learned from that stakeholder outreach, and, you know, probably corrected a lot of the issues before they happened. Now, if something does go, we'll say, wrong with one of the code amendments, it's a council adoption. So, if we're noticing issues with one of our code provisions, we can bring that back to the council. You can amend it. Thanks. Okay.

You do not have to wait three or six years to amend it. Yay. Do we have to adopt every one or can you say I'm going to adopt that one but not that one? You can pick and choose but they interact with each other. So it tends to make it a little more complicated. And I I think I've heard before some of them can be amended right to the individual municipality. So it doesn't have to be all inclusive if half of it is to be aligned and everybody's okay with but it doesn't always have to be and it's in an whole.

That's correct. The amendments are local amendments so that it gives us the ability to go into those codes and decide if there's something where we maybe we need something different for local conditions like for example wind speed, right? Snow loads. We we don't design our trusses for snow loads here. Right. Right. So that we do have that ability to create those local amendments and the process that we're using is to look at the local amendments that the city of Tucson and Pima County have come up with and use that as a starting point. So they've done a lot of the leg work without using their work. This is a year process instead of a few months, right?

So by and they've got a team of building officials working on it, coordinating with Saba and the other stakeholders. So, we're really um thankful for that work that they've put in. So, we're not having to reinvent the wheel, but we are taking a good look at that wheel and making sure it's right for if it's a square wheel up there. We want a round wheel down here. Yes, we're taking a critical eye to it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Everybody okay? More to follow, which I guess has been my mantra tonight, whether it's um on any of these issues. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Madame Clerk, uh, 12A,

today's session regarding economic development incentives. Thank you, Victor. You're going to give us all kinds of great news, I'm assuming, right? Or maybe good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I understand that we have a 10 o'clock curfew. So, we do. Um, so that's the good news. Bad news is I have I have 20 slides. Okay.

So, we'll try to get through this uh quickly but as well as uh thorough and certainly uh we're talking about uh economic development incentives and the importance of it. So, uh I'm sure we'll have some discussion. Um so yeah this evening uh the intent is to introduce to you uh the um concepts uh and the potential tools uh that uh as a body you may be adopting in the near future um as it relates to economic development incentives. Uh so tonight's purpose is to introduce you in concept to these tools uh how uh they would uh function uh in concept uh get your feedback as well as to share a little bit of about the process in which uh we've come to uh look at these concepts and uh how we're structuring. So um just want to remind you a little bit about our journey. So, we uh introduced uh the question of why economic development incentives back in the uh May 12th town council meeting. Uh much of that meeting focused on the dos and don'ts and what Arizona state statute tells you about uh how you can utilize incentives. And so this evening we'll spend much of our time uh really on that last bullet point which is uh what we're proposing by way of the incentive program. But I do want to take a little bit of time and just remind us as to what we need to consider when we're looking at economic development incentives. Uh so just as a reminder what are incentives? Well incentives is really a reward. It's either a financial or non-financial uh offering uh that encourages private

investment uh job creation and development uh really what we all want to see more of uh in Sawarita. And so financial uh incentive could be in the form of grants, loans, reimbursement, uh tax rebates. Uh non-financial can be in the way of um expedited permitting could also be infrastructure assistance. So the municipality or the local government uh comes along and helps with some of the off uh off-site uh cost to that project. It also could be in the way of workforce uh training. Um so incentives is a means to overcome those barriers. Uh so it's a means to close if you will the costs of doing business uh in an area. Um it's also a means to activate uh a development uh or several developments uh in an area that uh that community uh wants to see economic growth. It's also a means to help us uh achieve our economic goals uh sooner, right? And so you incentivize uh projects. Um incentives are not entitlements, right? So it's not a handout um but it's a means to really drive uh a targeted investment and ultimately that investment uh has a uh public return. Um so at the last meeting uh Mr. John Paladini spoke much about the state statue and the gift clause uh and essentially the what we call a two-part legal test uh and you have to demonstrate right so that expenditure must serve a public purpose and have a benefit. So that's the first part of the test, right? Does that uh project uh have a public purpose, a benefit? Uh and

so for economic development, right? It's is it creating jobs? Is it creating wealth? Is it generating uh revenue uh for the community? Uh is that project going to enhance the skill sets of the local local labor force by way of the jobs that are being created? Right? That's the the public uh benefit and the purpose. And then uh the second part to that test is um you know the consideration received by the public must be proportionate to the value. So essentially we're not giving more than what that uh uh purpose and benefit is uh by that project. So it has to uh be proportional, right? So you can't give out more than what you get. Uh so that's just a little bit of uh just a reminder of what incentives are and we talked uh in depth uh at the last uh council meeting. So uh before we get into the proposed uh programs uh when we look at incentives uh and start to think about how are we going to structure an incentive tool or program uh there is three things that we need to consider right. So number one uh is is there an alignment to the economic development goals for that community. Uh in our case right the question for ourselves is uh is there an alignment uh to our uh P3 master plan uh which is our economic development master plan. Um the other way to look at it is right is this incentive going to help us uh reach our economic development goals. So uh there needs to be right uh familiarization with the economic development plan and its goals. Uh and we'll get into that a little bit just to remind ourselves what those goals are. But essentially uh

number one uh does the incentive help us achieve those economic development goals. Uh number two what we need to consider is uh what is the public benefit? Right? So is that tangible? Is it measurable? Right? is it benefiting the the broader community and so uh the incentives have to be structured in a way that um there's performance right so we're not just providing incentive and the project is not performing but it's what are those performances performance and the goals uh and uh that that project is generating and uh and is does it align with the incentive uh and then lastly the incentive should be evaluated like any other public investment. And so again, it's not an entitlement, but what is the return on investment? Uh and like any other public investment, we also have to analyze what the the the cost benefit, the risk, but also what are going to be uh the clawbacks. So if the project doesn't perform as it's uh intended to do and it's not meeting those thresholds then we have to have cause uh to claw back that incentive that's been given. So those are the things that we need to consider uh when we starting to pull together an incentive program. Uh so um this is just kind of a recap once again. So uh again when we consider incentives uh the question for us is is there an alignment to the economic development goals. Uh so just as a reminder for us uh our economic development plan is is pretty simple. Um in theory there are three uh major components to that plan. Now how we get there can vary year to year right?

That's our annual plan. That's projects that may uh come to our table. Uh but ultimately if you don't remember anything else about our economic development plan, it's really three things. People, prosperity and place, right? So people, right? Promoting the workforce development and talent attraction. I think that's what we all want to strive and achieve is uh that we have uh job opportunities and those job opportunities lead to developing the workforce and the skill sets. And then the other part to that which really within the last 1015 years has been how do we attract more talent? How do we increase our labor force in the in the community? And so um our number one goal on the economic development plan is is all about people. Uh the second goal is about prosperity. Um so prosperity really covers all things uh that have to do with growing uh the industry, creating jobs and uh most importantly generating capital investment. Then lastly um right is place and that really at the end of the day is developing right our community uh of which then enhances the identity right we bring in investment of which then leads to increasing the tax base and grows the consumer market. So when we think about incentives, right, we think in terms of is that incentive going to help us achieve the goals that we have in our economic development plan. And those are three simple goals, right? Three Ps, people, prosperity, and place. Uh the second uh diving a little bit more deeper into what we need to consider. Number two is the public benefit, right? it must be tangible,

measurable, benefiting the the broader community. Uh and that's looking at right does that project generate capital investment but also considering how that incentive is going to incentivize the type of capital investment that we want, right? The capital investment that's actually going to uh make a a significant impact um in terms of the project, right? So think about it in terms of construction, scope of construction, uh the size of square footage, the size of acreage. Uh we also have to look at it from a job creation, right? Not only the number of jobs it's going to create, but also the type of jobs. So uh that's measurable, that's tangible when we're going to incentivize. Uh and then also um is it a new service? Is it a new amenity? Is it going to improve the quality of life? So again, is that project or the incentive that we want to put in place going to drive the type of projects right that are going to bring the new services, amenities, and overall enhance the quality of life in the community. Um so that's uh the number two uh on the list of what we need to consider. And then lastly what we need to consider is uh when we look at incentive program right is evaluating right the public investment and benefit it's going to have. How do you do that? You do that through uh costbenefit analysis. You do that through economic uh impact. Uh right assessing uh what that project is going to generate. Um so the direct and indirect um many consider it and look at it from a multiplier effect. So for every job that that project creates there's a

multiplier effect. And so that's the economic uh impact and assessment that that you look at. Uh the incentive when we start to get into the specifics of it, you also structure an incentive in a way that again it's not an entitlement. Uh but the incentive also has uh the checks and balances. And so uh what is going to be uh the reporting requirement and the compliance that that project or that business uh will be required uh to produce right to demonstrate that uh the incentive u has that public uh benefit. But also lastly, when we start to get into the weeds of the incentive, uh we need to consider uh the clawback provisions. We don't want to be in a position where we're clawing back an incentive. Uh but that's what holds a project and or a business honest. uh is that that they understand that there is going to be penalties if they don't uh produce and generate what they say they're going to do. Uh and so it's very important for us to have that that clock back provision. So again uh those are the three things that we need to consider when we're starting to look at incentive programs. Uh and then just as a as a footnote uh as uh before I get into the proposed programs um um what uh helped over the process of developing these programs was a number of resources right so along with what we need to consider right uh what goes into the mix is the best practices um so over the course of the last few months uh reviewing a number of publications so the international economic development council is a um Benchmark and they've put out a

number of of research uh and study uh papers uh over the last uh couple years u about incentives. And so they've taken a look at what's best practice across the nation with different communities. And so uh two documents have been a source uh for uh for staff and developing um the proposed uh program but also doing that comparative analysis and review of uh what other municipalities are doing uh by way of incentive programs. And then right now as we speak uh we are gathering uh some peer review from stakeholders. Uh so I've had the opportunity to visit with uh our uh development community uh which includes Rancho Saworita FICO. Um we've also have gotten some uh peer review from uh the Chamber of Southern Arizona which is our economic development uh regional group as well as Puma County. And so uh we're still pulling together some of their comments and feedbacks. uh but along with best practices uh doing the comparative review by other uh cities, we've also asked our our stakeholders to give us some some feedback.

So I know you're very involved in AED. Um did we reach out to them at all because that's kind of the field they play in, right? And you've been very connected to them over the years. Yes, that's one uh one of the organizations that has um that uh we have connected with uh and they've uh been very helpful in actually directing us to uh other municipalities uh in uh benchmarking through through that network uh with an AED. Yeah, absolutely. So just a quick recap before we get into the specifics. Uh right understanding uh what we need to consider uh when we start to look at incentives and tools around incentives as well as best practices. And so what uh we're proposing today in concept is really a three-prong uh incentive program. Uh and again tonight is really to introduce you uh to these concepts, how they work, how they would function. uh understanding that we're gathering some feedback. Uh we're going to be uh making some uh refinement of these programs and certainly uh your feedback will be helpful this evening. Uh but in concept what we're proposing is a three-prong program uh to our incentive. uh and that would be uh a facade grant, a business attraction program that focuses on the construction sales tax and then the building fee waiver. Um and so um we'll get right into it.

Great question. Can you turn your mic on for that question, please? just repeat it just for the record. Are you planning on granting them all three of those incentives or is it one or the other?

As it currently stands, the the the program is designed that uh a business could qualify uh for for all three. Um now again, this is the purpose of tonight is to solicit some of that feedback. Uh but as it's designed right now it's uh the intent is to make businesses uh if if a business is qualifies could qualify for all three because it probably the answer would be depends right on what type of business it is where where it's located you know like a facade grant would it wouldn't be an A class new building that probably would qualify for it but it would be a C-class older building that we would want to incentivize. I think sergeants up in Morirana, that was one of the ones they qualified for because they really wanted that better public finish, you know, on it as they expanded and there was some incentives. That's the one I can kind of think of. But

absolutely, uh, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Yeah. So um as as we get into the overview and the criteria, you'll start to get a sense of um how each program is designed uniquely, but also there could be situations in which uh a project uh may qualify for all three. And I think having that latitude could be uh beneficial um right uh depending on on that on that uh project. So the facade grant um as a as an overview right it's a it's it's the town may reimburse so it's a reimbursement base right a share of eligible exterior improvements right cost for qualifying commercial industrial properties um so this program is really designed for an existing uh building um right either commercial we don't have a whole lot of industrial but maybe at some point in the future Uh but for the sake of of conversation, right? Uh a commercial building could qualify for for this. Um and then when we start to look at the criteria, then we get into how right that project can become eligible. Um in this case, we're proposing right the criteria to be um for a commercial building uh with the building age of 20 years or older. Um that's what we find right in most communities and markets where um buildings of that age or older um have an uh more so of a need uh for facade improvement. Uh other proposed criteria is that there needs to be uh documented blight or just obsolete. uh and um right that it's deteriorating to a certain uh extent right it's maybe sitting there

for vacant for quite some time and so by just being vacant it becomes oblied right uh uh and deterioration is happening and then the other uh proposed uh criteria is that um right it's again vacant or unrealized for uh over a year um And so again, facade grant programs uh are pretty common uh in a number of municipalities and really it's it's for that purpose is to bring older buildings uh to design standards. Uh it's to help older buildings address um blight or they've just have become uh not functional uh from an exterior standpoint. And so you have uh a user, right, that now wants to lease that space uh but is having to do uh significant um improvements, exterior improvements. Um again, all this is in in in concept, right? But uh what we're proposing is um what could be some of those eligible uh costs, right? So again, the facade would be uh available uh grant will be available for exterior upgrades um whether that's landscaping, hardcaping, enhancing the streetscape as well as ADA access uh and improvements. Uh how would that work? Uh well, as of right now, we're proposing an award structure of up to 50% of the total eligible costs, not to exceed 100,000. And then there is uh some uh requirements on the uh user side for for matching and demonstrating that they

also have um some costs into into the project. Um so a little bit about the right eligibility. Um so things that would not be eligible for funding. Um so interior work, routine maintenance.

Victor I think another are you supposed to be on another slide? No, I'm just I'm going off my notes now. Yeah. Yeah. Um just because I wanted to to keep this slide a little bit more condensed, but yeah. In terms of eligible public costs, rights, everything exterior wise. So, let's use Desert Sky Cinema as an example. I think that one is is pretty straightforward. So, um, right, we have, uh, a building that's been vacant for a number of months going on to years now. Um, you know, it's now at a point where it's becoming, uh, a blighted uh, facility, right? Uh the exterior as well has shown its age and it's um not uh uh comparable to the other commercial centers and facilities that we have. Um and so in essence this facade grant uh could be a tool right that is utilized to help right the future uh tenant and user uh address uh some of the exterior needs that it has. Um so what could that be? uh you know paint uh signage um you know if there's uh some of the landscaping hardscaping that's associated with the building as well uh and then a ADA compliance right um in terms of you know ramps from the sidewalk to to the main entrance. Um, so things that would not be eligible again, interior work, uh, you know, routine maintenance, um, you know, things that are just, uh, not associated with the facade. And, uh, and so, yeah, uh, and that's kind of the the award structure that would be set up. So, I'll just kind of pause there, uh, see if there's any thoughts, questions regarding, um, how

this program would would be proposed. I think that was a good example. Um because, you know, it's been neglected, right? You know, in many ways, right? So, if we're trying to attract a new tenant into there, my opinion, um getting that back to some reasonable standard or our standard, right? You know, that we're very proud of in the community. Personally, I think that's a good investment, but not just one

question. Yeah. So building how are we going to deal with them? Like that. So that's when we look at incentives again we go back to um the the incentive itself we'll you know could the applicant could be really any business. Um but when we look at the incentive itself we have to we have to look at also from the does it align with our economic development goals? Does it uh address some of those priorities? So um it is on a case-bycase basis but um you know the incentive having it on paper right that uh tells uh right the business community that uh we have this program now it not all businesses may be eligible on it uh based on what we want to achieve from from an economic development standpoint. point.

That didn't really answer my question. Yeah. But to Debbie's point, let's say I was thinking of Goyas, right? You know, from before. So, we have a, you know, Ashley's and everybody else there and then that that particular endcap was empty for crap 12 years or something, right? So, could that have been used to sort of upgrade getting let's say a restaurant in there without touching the rest of the building, right? Because it's Yeah,

it's broken up. I think that's what where Debbie was going to. So, let's say if Goyitas had came to us and you know, I I'm guessing they would have probably upgraded or kept it up in a general way, but if it's empty, if it's an endcap, they probably weren't investing in that as they were other portions that are are actually being leased. Is if that might be another example.

Yeah, absolutely. So, the the program won't necessarily be just for standalone buildings. So if there is a user that comes into a shopping center um right so let's just use go as an example um and this program was in place uh goas could could very well apply for it right um uh and again it doesn't necessarily need to be a standalone uh building it could be you know a shopping center in which you know we feel that there's merits to uh uh having that business in in the town of Sawita and operating and uh they could go through this program and apply for it.

Okay. So, I'm going to open up a business, right? Um we'll use that complex. Um Debbiey's Delicious Cookies and the town is going to give me a grant to redo the whole facade. But Tom's next door and he's been next door with Tom's memory loss. Um, which may be appropriate. Exactly.

And he's been there for 20 years already and he sees that the town has done all these upgrades for me at no cost to me. He's going to come to the town and say, I want my but my business to look good. But I think with the with that example, one is occupied, right? Paying rent and here the other one is looking back to goas that thing was empty for like 12 years. Right. Right. So I guess I could see the the thought behind that because that's untaxable

uh space, right? That's giving nothing to us. And mine would be very active. Mayor

Mayor. Okay. So, just to be clear, if you look in economic development, there's um there's also business retention as a as an as a in other words, if you have a business already here, you know, you can use incentive programs to help retain or or or expand their business. So, uh, you know, it's not just business attraction, new business, there's business retention elements. So, in your example, if the mayor's store wanted to expand or needed, you know, needed some incentive to stay, then then they can also apply for these economic development grants. So, it's not it's not a zero sum,

right? No, good point. Because in that case, you know would it be the developer itself right that you know these businesses are going out I remember the old bashes right we had a lot of businesses closing if we had had maybe this in place right to backfill and cut up the bashes right into these other ones um you know it they the developer of the property you know I think that was Finnfrock I'm not sure but they could have come to us and say okay now bash is going out. You know, it's an older building. We'd like to get new businesses in or whatever it might be. Um, that could be a potential. Right.

Well, and what I'm hearing is that, you know, this program should uh maybe articulate uh and have clear language that uh an existing business business that's operating could could be eligible. Uh and so this is great feedback because as of right now the criteria leads you to believe that the vacant has the building has to be vacant. Uh but to council member Morales to your point um you know there may be a business that um we want to retain right and we feel that that business aligns with our goals right and uh and so we want to provide a facade grant now. uh so that this business can enhance their signage, right, or the exterior um so that it can draw people into their storefront.

Uh and so um we could expand that language a little bit more um so that as uh people read through it that there's a clear understanding that if you're a business in Sorita, you essentially could u be eligible if it meets those criterias for this facade grant. Is that I guess the issue I

the issue I have is I don't like the facade grant only because I think that should be the building owner's responsibility to keep that up. The signage I'm okay with, you know, helping them with the signage costs and tinning windows or whatever, but the building maintenance should be on on the owner of the building because they're going to be getting rent money from that. They should be keep be keeping it up so that it all looks uniform because we come in and we we make it look good but everything around it still looks old and run down.

Yeah. Um but the I guess where I would be in favor of it is but if it stays old and run down maybe it be takes six more years to actually fill it. So, if it helps to actually fill it quicker, I'm thinking from a tax revenue standpoint, I'd rather put something into it to get that continuing revenue that the owner of the facility or um if if they don't have the means, you know, to do it, um I personally I'd rather, you know, collect the revenue stream over the next I just go back to Goyas. That thing was empty for 12 years. And if something like that could have helped um get something in there sooner, uh we wouldn't have lost all this income over all these years. That's just my thought.

Yeah. And so yes, this program is is is structured to to drive, right, a business into a building and or a location in which has been sitting vacant for for quite some time. So desert sky right that's a good example because we can see that um it's sitting there and uh the user right could stand to benefit from a facade grant because now right the grant provides them the ability to to make some of the improvements to the facade. Now, I agree with you, Council Morales. It the the grant should not be used for just standard maintenance. And so, again, right, things that um are just standard maintenance and and operation, uh right, that that is not a qualifying expense. Um and and those would be as we get into the specifics of of the application. Uh I think that is going to be important to note um so that the applicant knows um upfront that it's not just because you failed uh and were negligent but because there's a demonstrated need and there's going to be a net positive uh impact. So we go back to right uh looking it through the lens of of those um three things that we need to consider right um is that incentive right so is this facade grant going to uh have um right a return um so is it going to uh generate uh an impact whether that's you know increase in sales tax revenue job creation

uh is it going to eliminate or uh address blight or uh you know a building or space that's been sitting vacant for quite some time

and and that's a good point that you know please everybody weigh in because I'm assuming when we go through this process not to be ended tonight it'll come back to us to be voted on. So it's up to the majority you know of us you know kind of to weigh in. So when it does come back, it may not be unanimous um on it, but but Victor needs to hear from kind of everybody from, you know, yes, no, or well, it depends on how it looks. Um because I'd hate to have him go down this road and let's just say I'm the only person in support of something, you know, part of it. I I think he needs to know that so it's not something that comes. Diane and then Dr. Lesby.

I I'll go. Um, I guess a couple thoughts. Um, if if we do have buildings that we're looking at that we're saying this is there's ble and this doesn't look good, would that go to our coding department to go and say, "Hey, bring this back up to stand standard." I I'm not sure on that. Um, you can think about that. Um, uh, I'm not I I I agree that it should kind of be up to the building owners to be in charge of keeping things up to date and looking good. Um, though I I do view this as bringing in new businesses versus even though Tom's Memory Care has been here for 20 years and is a staple in the community, you know, it's a a staple in community,

but and and so I can see how they could view this as unfair if a new business gets it. Maybe a question is when businesses apply, who picks like who chooses like the winners and the losers?

Yeah, that's a great question. Uh so when we start to to land this plane a little bit um right part of the uh administrative process is to create um an application and in that application right we'll have uh the criteria that that business needs to meet uh and also within that criteria uh be able to demonstrate the the need. So right so demonstrating the need uh the impact that it's going to have. So on one hand having right a facade grant right uh broadcastes to businesses that there's this tool but not all businesses will will qualify based on the criteria uh on this tool. Um and so this is great feedback because if if as a as as a council as a body if you believe that yeah standard maintenance should not be you know an eligible uh expense or should not merit the incentive then you know we make sure that we articulate that uh in the program that right it's maintenance standard uh standard maintenance is not an eligible expense, right? So, there has they have to demonstrate and articulate that that need.

Yeah. Um Diane. Oh, and well, you were first and then I'll go to Ed. Okay. So, I see a difference between standard maintenance and supposing somebody's business is and they're going to go under. You want to speak with me. Speaker, please.

Well, just move it. Yeah. Close. There you So supposing somebody's business is struggling and they're going to go under and a facade upgrade would would keep them above water and to Tom's point generating revenue uh tax income for the town. I see that different if they could prove that. And I I guess you could have business records that would prove that because if it maintains a business being able to stay open, generate tax revenue, and keep the employees working, then that's different than somebody that's just looking for somebody else to pay their bill. If their business is doing well and they actually or is above board and they have the money to do the maintenance themselves. Yeah, I I would caut I would be cautious if a business is relying on improving their facade to keep their business open. I I would I would say that they probably have some underlying issues or problems just from a business management operational side. So uh if that was their basis of their application, we would probably uh engage with them through our growing sita program first and foremost uh and understand if if there's you know some some challenges because when we get into uh the clawbacks right there are going to be some requirements uh that this uh business uh must uh will be upheld to.

Hey Victor. Yes. Victor, let before we get into this next section, I I think it would be helpful for the council to really just categorically um think of these in this incentive program as a way to bring business into the community, not to retain business and not to help, you know, the facade issue, right? This is this is an incentive package that we can consider in attracting and drawing in new business. I don't want to go down a rabbit hole about okay, can this qualify for an existing business that's here and it the facade is just like you this is bringing new business into town. Okay, it can we can we focus on that? Because I I think that I mean we've talked about this as staff and and maybe what we need to do is is put a little more effort into developing this idea, but we have talked about a small business loan type program as well where the the the town offers up a resource and and it's through the budget process and and through application Um, a business can come in and and appeal or or apply for a a a subsidized loan of sorts where it's it's a better loan deal than they could get at a bank, but it and it and it but it still generates a little bit of an interest income, a principal and interest income so that the loan can survive multiple, you know, years. Um, and as that loan is paid back, you know, it kind of paves the way for another loan to be given out

to another business that may need to get some work done on their on their facade or, you know, you know, redo something inside to, you know, some tenant improvements that would enhance it and make it better. Um, we can we can consider that kind of stuff to help the existing business. Um, but this is really meant to bring new business into town. Does that help if we Yeah, if we categorize it that way. Yeah, please. Okay, thank you. All right, Ed, did you have a comment or Deb Ed?

Uh, yes. That's where I I think I've gotten confused. I thought these incentives were for new businesses coming in and to draw business and not uh to uh help other business have been there already. This is for businesses who have not been there, but we're trying to get them. We're trying to give them a reason that give them the incentive to come here. That's that's what I think. And you know, like if the neighboring business doesn't have a decent facade, that's on them. But let's uh help the new business get bring camera in. In our own mind's eye, we can think of um industries that aren't here that we would love to have here.

Yes. Right. All of us have we can we can fill in the blank.

All of us. Right. And and and our answers might be different one to another, but we all we all have these industries that we think of, wow, it'd be great to have that here as a community, right? And we don't have it today. The incentive program is meant to try to help us have a tool to draw those businesses here. Okay? It's not for the fifth McDonald's. All right? It's not for you, you know, it's it's just not for that. It's it's a tool for us to bring that desired job creator or that that desired retailer or that desired whatever into our community. That's what this tool is meant for. I just want to put a finer point to this and what we're trying to accomplish. Thanks,

Debbie. So, I I like your idea about the loan. Um I don't like the idea of us paying for to to redo somebody's building. That's what we're in the business for. I mean, all I want is pull. And if we're going to be dishing out money to to upgrade people's buildings, I don't think that's right because he can turn the owner is going to turn around and sell it and we he's going to benefit from from it, not the not the occupant.

I don't I don't ever go to a business because of the way it looks outside. I go to it because of the service inside. Mayor, just just so we're clear, this is an is in all of the all three of these incentive programs are intended are intended to help offset the cost of a of a new business coming to town. So, so it's it's not the purpose of the facade or the or the construction sales tax or sales tax rebates or or the other one. It's it's not to change the face of the building. It's to help offset the cost because they're going to do that anyway. So, it the incentive is is the whole purpose of these economic incentives is to help reduce the the entry the barrier to entry to come to put your business in the town. So that's why when you ask could somebody qualify for all three. Sure. If you get the right developer or the right business that come that wants to come to town and they let's say they want to use an existing building but they have to do a bunch of infrastructure, a bunch of other work to make their business work, then they could qualify for at least two of the three. So the whole purpose is not to make the building look better. I mean, that's a that's just the tool to help, but because they're going to want they're going to do that anyway. So, the whole purpose is to offset to help offset costs so that it attracts people to come here because if they can, you know, if they can if you can help offset a hundred or $200,000 in cost or, you know, up in Mesa, they're doing one that's like $7 million in infrastructure incentives. I mean, a huge project. So, think about it on a smaller scale. It's it's strictly to help offset the cost for a new business to come to town.

And to put a finer point on it, like in the case, let's say, of the movie theater, you know, that's why you have clawbacks and things because there has to be a performance. We we can't do a facade grant and all of a sudden they turn around in two months and sell the building. It has to get, you know, the movie, let's say it's the movie theater, right? So, you have to get a movie theater user in there. Um, if you think about, let's say they wanted 50,000 and they came up with 50, right? Because it has to be matched. For me, it's like how long before we've recouped that generation and tax revenue, which would be probably pretty quickly um to recoup that. Um, that would actually go into our coffers, right, and build on that. So, maybe there's money to build a pool at some point. I mean 50,000 is

and the other thing is important to note is that you know if there's a a conversion of let's say you had a movie theater and you want to convert it to some other use there's going to be there's a there's an added cost to that too. So all all of the you know it used to be easy you used to be able to give somebody 50 cents on the dollar for every new tax dollar they generated that you can't do that anymore. So, you have to tie it to something physical. Um, and and as Victor was saying, there's a there's a public purpose to improve the facade of a building. There there is a the law sort of recognizes that there's a public benefit or public purpose is that, you know, there's a public purpose to have new infrastructure built. And so and so if you if you have a developer who's going to build new infrastructure that's there's a the public owns it. It's it's a it's public infrastructure whether it's private you know water company or public sewer or utility that that's that's there's a public benefit or public purpose to that because by you know we had talked about this Mesa project they're going to build six or seven or eight million dollars of infrastructure. You know, the argument could be, well, Mesa could just go out and do that ahead of time and then hope somebody comes and develops, you know, puts this new development in. They you do it you do it the other way. The development comes in and you reimburse them out of the revenue they generate. But ultimately that's all public infrastructure. So this again this is just a this is just to offset the the whole purpose is to offset cost to either attract new business. Sometimes you some incentives you can use to retain, some you can use to expand, but primarily it's to attract new and and it just it helps. Talked earlier about the the building code and how you want to compete with Oral Valley or Morirana by by not outpricing your out outpricing houses because of regulation. This is kind of the same notion is you're competing with, you

know, you name it, whoever you're competing with for business to come to town. And so this is the so everybody's sort of fighting on these incentives.

Yeah. And and and I'll just I just gonna add one thing more on this is as we compete with other agent other municipalities out there. The these are these are common things. It's not uncommon for this these these types of packages to be also offered by Morirana or Oro Valley or you know Maricopa or up in the valley you know the the Queen Creeks and Chandlers and things like that of the world and so you know it's just it's just part of the part of the game that that that's played in terms of us being able to have appeal and attract. So thanks thank you. Can I counel that say something?

Sure. Sorry, I don't know how to do this. I don't know if you guys see me or don't see me or lower my hand. Well, Lisa caught it. She was She saw the hand raised, but you can always interrupt if you hear a one second of silence, say, "Don't forget me." Um, isn't the whole purpose of when we're trying to get more businesses in here, isn't it just better just to work with the future business owner to go what what is it that will take you to once we know that they want to come in here such as the movie theater and then to really work with them and going what is it that will help you pick our location

to be here? I mean, instead of it just being such a um open-ended or so specific instead of, you know, I mean, there's certain things I don't think we should be able to do, but there should be things that working with that business owner or that developer to bring in that attraction, you know, listening to them like what is it that you could what what is it that you would want the town to do that would encourage you to be here.

Yeah. And you I think and then Victor can but I'll give it a shot. Part of it is that's how it's kind of been but there's an unequal iness and also from our economic development team not already having the tools in the toolbox to go out and um engage with these um you know businesses. I think over time we've seen and it um where it could be advantageous to already have these tools available. They still have to go through the application process, but I think part of it was to you know um sort of ease out the um you know the oneoffs you know uh you know from from time to time and the unequalness you know for certain developers um you know if they engage with us they get something if they don't they don't or whatever it might be. So I think Victor, you can touch off of that, but I I I I think that's where some of this was developed off of. Correct.

Yeah, absolutely. Having an incentive policy in place uh tells, you know, businesses, developers that um as a body, as an organization, we've adopted uh an incentive um that we can use to to market, convey, communicate uh to businesses that yes, we support business attraction. uh it also creates uniformity u so there's a little bit more clarity right uh there's less of of optics of we're picking winners and and losers uh but having the incentive in place tells okay I know what the the rules are I know what the the the structure is I know what the town is is willing to offer um and uh and the intent is to be um it's not compre comprehensive, but at least, you know, we're looking at not just one or being singular, but being um, you know, multi-dimensional by proposing a three-prong program. So, um, and what I would suggest is, you know, kind of power through maybe, okay,

some of the other ones kind of quickly. Sure. We can get some quick feedback, but obviously you can any of us can give feedback after hearing it, right? um to you and thoughts because it's going to be um you know multiple occasions.

Can I just ask one more thing? So Victor, I mean do we have do we have multiple businesses that are looking at this particular site that you're trying to attract? Are we trying to attract more than just the movie theater into um Sorita? So, I mean, I guess I'm looking at trying to be broader, you know, letting people know out there that we are looking for businesses, certain businesses, you know, hotels, movie theater, whatever, bowling alley,

um, to come into Sarita, aren't you, when you're working with them, aren't you sort of getting some of their feedback like this would help us if this was happening or you could if the town could help us you know, that kind of stuff. Isn't it more individual? Well, part of it is we got stuck on the facade grant. Um, and there's, you know, other incentives, but because we got on the facade grant, it went back to the movie theater as an example or goitas. Um, but that this is just one part of the incentive program. So, I didn't want you thinking, yeah, I would say yes, the answer is we just haven't got there yet because we haven't got to the slide.

Absolutely. Yeah. So going back to I think uh Shane made the comment, right? It's it's really from the business attraction lens because a facade grant could apply to a particular business that's proposing to build something to locate and you know we might want to incentivize that building to enhance its appearance, right? Because it might just be a box. uh but we want that box to now have character and so we want to incentivize uh the facade for for that business. But yes, I'll power through the last two and uh certainly this won't be the last uh time that we bring forth uh this this item and the discussion. Um so just to quickly note the clawback uh as we're proposing right this provision within the facade grant. Um so right this is very strong language uh that they need to maintain uh right those improvements in good conditions over a 5-year period. Um and if any alteration and or uh the business itself ceases to operate um for less uh for more than 12 consecutive months, right? So they've gone out of business. uh then what we're proposing is that now that business needs to to pay us 100% of what was awarded. So um so that's a means to to to uh assure that uh people are maintaining what they say are are are going to do. Uh so the next the next program is is we are loosely calling it business attraction but it's focused on the uh construction sales tax. Uh again all this is uh uh conceptual language and it's up to u discussion and or feedback. Uh but overall the way this would work this would be uh a reimbursement of a portion

of the construction sales tax that's generated by that qualifying commercial industrial or mixeduse project. uh but also uh this is very specific to incentivizing the type of industries that we want to attract. So what are those industries? Well, according to our economic development plan, we have uh several of them. Um it could be an industry in advanced manufacturing, right? So, a company uh like an optics company, an aerospace defense company, uh a company that's doing maybe some precision fabrication that's supporting uh some of the other industries in the area, right? If they all if if that company all of a sudden wants to come to Sawarita and they fall within that sector, then it's it becomes a qualifying project. uh other uh industries that this program is designed to incentivize uh is in kind of the medical uh it's also in the um mining technology materials but also the other industry that we want to uh target uh with this incentive is is destination hospitality entertainment. So again this program is if we visualize it's on the business attraction side. So we want to incentivize the type of business specifically that we want to attract. Uh right. So if we think about uh a type of business that is going to offer now some kind of family entertainment center or if we think about a business uh hospitality like a hotel or if now we get a business that's in the aerospace defense sector then this program is a means to incentivize that and utilize the construction sales tax. that will be generated. So what would be the criteria conceptually right if it's uh the

construction uh or the expansion uh because they might find you know a facility to lease but now they need to expand. Um so we have a a square footage right that is a minimum criteria. We also have a capital investment. Um so they have to demonstrate that the capital investment by way of hard construction costs is going to be equal or greater to uh a million. And then there's also uh a job creation criteria. So they have to demonstrate that they're going to be creating jobs uh and that there'll be an average wage uh generated by uh by that project. Uh so what would be those eligible expenses? So think about it in this terms, right? This project generates X in construction sales tax and that X is going to now be used to offset certain costs that that project is going to have uh costs that will be generated uh by them relocating or expanding to Sorita. So they can use X to be reimbursed for certain costs. And so the list here is in conceptual list of what those eligible costs could be used uh to be reimbursed. Uh so if now right that project is uh doing uh improvements in the public rightway um if now uh that project is making improvements to utility and infrastructure that's serving the the the the public or has a public use. um that is maybe now uh has a a workforce development training for their employees and they want to be reimbursed for the cost of that training then they

can use X for that cost. Uh as well as other um you know features that provide a public benefit. Uh so again uh this program is uh targeting the construction sales tax that that project would generate right that sales tax would be X and they can now use that amount that X to be reimbursed for what uh we're proposing would be some of those eligible costs. Essentially, those eligible costs have to have uh a public benefit, public use, um uh whether that's infrastructure or uh being reimbursed for for job training. So, I think does that I'll pause there.

I wouldn't pause. Don't pause. Don't pause.

Okay. Uh I think this one's probably a little bit more straightforward than than the facade grant because again it's a project comes in or once it comes to Sawarita they are uh within one of our targeted sectors right so aerospace and defense mining technology um uh medical and then hospitality and entertainment uh and then if they meet the criteria in terms of square footage capital investment and jobs then they could be eligible for that. Uh so this is a little bit in terms of the award structure in concept we're introducing this uh uh and there's still some massaging that this needs to be done uh you know visiting with AC our finance director in terms of how we want to propose that reimbursement to happen. Uh but essentially there are some triggers uh in the last bullet point right uh that reimbursement really doesn't happen till construction has started uh and that they've uh reached certificate of occupancy I think that's going to be where we land in terms of of when they're awarded and the timing of that is as post uh certificate certificate of occupancy and then the clawback as well u so the timing of that. Um, so in paper they're awarded the incentive, but essentially if they don't uh break ground or receive certificate of occupancy within 36 months of breaking ground, then that's caused to uh right uh pull back that award. Um and then uh also failure to achieve uh the capital investment and job creations. Uh so there is going to be that reporting that's going to be required from from this business that receives the award uh that they're are meeting they're meeting their obligation uh of which if they are then they get

awarded. If not then um then we call back that incentive. Well by its nature if there's no construction there's no construction sales tax. Right. Right. So you got to have that you know you got to have A to get B. Absolutely. On it or if you don't have A you don't have B at the end of it.

Yeah. Yeah. And then lastly uh is the uh building fee waiver. Uh so this is a third component to the incentive. Uh so essentially right for a qualifying project uh we may you know wave uh essentially the the the building fee and the there's a number of other fees associated uh planning and zoning fees as well. Uh but essentially all the qualifying fees under the uh community development uh would be um a project could be eligible to uh have that those fees be waved. Um and again that project would need to be a qualifying commercial industrial mixeduse project. And then you can uh we can see that the proposed criteria again uh there would need to be uh expansion from a from a square footage uh but also uh there's need to be a demonstrated um uh capital investment by way of of construction costs. Um eligible fees would be uh town plan review, building permit, uh zoning fees as well as what we're proposing. Um uh fees that would not be eligible would be any fees uh from outside agencies. Uh so during the plan review, right, there's outside agencies that uh may need to review that and there's a fee that's generated with that. So uh those fees would uh be hold uh harmless and then uh the award structure would be again uh having to to meet a number of our criterias around that uh award structure. So um there is a clawback again if construction does not commence right certificate of occupancy is not obtained um then uh we hold the right to be able to uh uh capture those fees. Uh but also again if they cease to operate

within 3 years of the certificate of occupancy then we can also uh come come after them uh for the sum of those those fees. Uh, and I've heard about different sectors, but um, I'd like your thoughts on if it's a Costco or a Home Depot or a Target, you know, something that produces one, we don't have, and two, you know, quality of life, it's closer. It does produce jobs. Probably not to the highpaying jobs. Um, is that exempt from this or is it up to kind of us to because I could see a lot of benefit for, you know, those types of businesses that don't already exist. that are making decisions like Home Depot went to Hton,

right? Didn't come here. If we had something like that, that's a huge revenue generator, right? Um, right. So, there could be benefit, but are we looking at those as well? Yes. So, uh, you know, this program along with the, uh, construction sales tax as well as a facade grant could could be programs that, you know, if we're looking at a a Target or Home Depot or something to that effect, um, you know, and they meet the criteria, they can certainly be awarded all all three programs. Okay. I just hadn't heard you mention retail when we talk about hotel and others, but Yeah.

Yeah. Thanks. Um thoughts before we wrap up? Are you done? Yes. Um well, more to follow, right? Um I think you've heard some of the, you know, thought processes kind of weave those in to maybe the next, you know, presentation. But, um I'm personally excited about it. You know, my last comment would be these are out there around us, you know, and in Arizona. So, if we want to be, my opinion, if we want to be competitive, we got to be in the game. Um, and none of none of this money that we're talking about would exist without having the businesses opening and coming here. Right. Right.

So, it only works if we actually have these businesses. Um, Marin, we'll take a look at that um that business revolving loan program. Yep. and um and maybe maybe consider that as one of the items in the uh upcoming budget retreat stuff that we talk about.

I'm in favor of that as well because some of our smaller businesses that would be maybe a little bit of that, you know, difference as they open up and they go, "Oh, you know, I didn't have this or that." But if I had access to capital um you know that could be a very small investment with a return on it with sure the same kinds of protections and clawbacks and things like that right but I think that's a really great idea okay everybody all right for now having no more further business we're adjourned I was ready to go to midnight personally but I guess I'm the only partner.