Board of Supervisors - Special Meeting

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This calls this meeting to order on July 23rd, 2026 at 930 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Meeting Room 120 located at 2150 North Congress Drive, Nogales, Arizona 85621. Juan, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

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

Thank you, Juan.

Mr. Manager, adoption of the agenda.

Mr. Chair, there is no changes to the agenda.

Hearing that, I entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as presented.

I move.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Item C, action item. Discussion possible action to approve proclamation declaring an emergency in all areas of Santa Cruz County to address the July 2026 monsoon flooding crisis. Chris, Mr. Young, county manager.

Good morning, Chairman Fanning, Supervisor Davis, Supervisor Muleta, and public. Thank you for letting me speak. I'm requesting this, I'm asking for this. As you guys know, we had heavy rains Thursday through Monday here in Santa Cruz County on both sides of the border also, and it created Some infrastructure breaks here on both sides of the border, obviously. And one of them was in the Nogales Wash. We know that a patrol car was trapped in the wash and it got stuck on a utility pipe that crosses the wash. And so on Sunday, we were able to meet with city officials, Nogales police, fire chief was there, Kenny Larriva, the interim city manager, Mr. Fontes was there, along with the mayor, Mr. Maldonado, and then from the county, myself and Howdy Aguilar, our road superintendent. And so I mean obviously that's an emergency situation and so we needed to get that patrol car out of there and then fix the side of the road because there's an exposed water line. And so usually for that type of expense there's a there's a procurement process that we need to go through but obviously and it takes a few weeks and so what this is doing is this is allowing us to make that decide on that expenditure more rapidly, more quickly, so that we can make sure that whatever emergency there is during this monsoon season is taken care of immediately to prevent further damage, but also to ensure safety. Thank you, sir.

Supervisor Maleta, do you have anything to add? No, no, no. Vice Chair.

No, no, I was basically you already mentioned some of it. But how is this emergency declaration due to the process that we already have in place? How is it different?

So like the example that I gave, obviously in that moment on Sunday, we needed to make a decision because if you leave that patrol car in there, and that wasn't only the patrol car. I mean, you have a utility pipe through the wash, and so you have a lot of debris. A lot of debris is stuck on that. And so it diverts the flow of the water, and the way that's set up, it diverts the flow of the water into the side of the wash. And so if you don't mitigate that immediately, it's gonna just get worse. And so we can't wait for a procurement process, or it's not advisable to wait for a procurement process in order to authorize that expenditure. We need to get that taken care of immediately.

Mr. Chair, if I could add on. I could jump in. So this is not the first time that we have, what's that?

It's okay.

This is not the first time that the county has declared an emergency, right? So what it really helps us do, it helps us bring light to the fact that we had a rain event that caused some damage. Now the damage threshold for us to get reimbursed about $10 million, I don't think we're there yet. But we can't predict what this monsoon season is going to bring. So this gives the county a lot of flexibility to move forward with procurement and getting some aid. Other things that it does is if this goes beyond it, we could request state aid. We could activate mutual aid. That means we could go knock on Pima County's door and say, can you please help out? And all that cost gets tracked. It establishes a formal record of the emergency. So those are the big things. It's not to circumvent the procurement. It's just to be able to act with this emergency. And right now, it's so unpredictable that we need to have all the tools available to us. Any further questions?

So another question is that, is there any way that we're gonna be able to track this emergency spending? I mean, I know we track it, but how are we going to track it differently? Does it change with this emergency proclamation or not? Declaration, I mean?

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, our procurement policy is very extensive. It's very strict, right? So it's tiered. It's tiered and it's based on a monetary value at $10,000 and then at $60,000 and then over $100,000. So this provides the flexibility to the flood control district so they can start moving faster and protect public health. That's really what it's doing. It's about protecting the public. You're asking about tracking mechanism. Our accounting system is well established and we have the ability to track that separately and run reports regarding that specific incident if you so need that.

Let me add, so the fear shouldn't be that we're going to do a $10 million project. That's not within our means. We safeguard our budget really closely, so this is just to be able to act when needed.

Mr. Chair, I just personally want to thank Chris, staff, the city of Nogales, the mayor, and For your expeditiously For expeditiously getting out there and taking care of this issue And because there was exposed an exposed sewer line and maybe in a water line as well So you have a utility line?

That's a sewer line that crosses the wash And then underneath the road the road was compromised too. So underneath the road is where you have that large water line So both of those things needed to be addressed

And we are hosting a southwest border counties meeting, and attending that meeting was Lori, I forget her last name. She was with the US Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and she says she can, try and secure some funding for us.

Right, Mr. Davis? Yes, I'm trying to get the last name, because actually we have a meeting with her, hopefully today, to see if she can help in any way. We also... wrote a letter we sent a letter to the office of congresswoman grijalva and see if there was any way to help us with the situation and i also want to thank like chris for working really hard on that letter submitting it that same day hit mr mr valdez and for also going on site like you said with the city of new york with everybody and and just was proactive when this happened

That's fine. Bill, go ahead.

Yeah, are you guys able to hear me?

Yes, sir.

Yes, so this emergency would not suspend procurement processes so that you guys could track I'm sorry, there's an echo.

You're fine.

Is there a line I could call into?

You're fine. You're coming out fine without an echo on our end.

I know, but I'm coming out with an echo on my end and I can't think of what I'm saying as a result. So, this emergency procurement process, it doesn't stop transparency into what expenditures are being made. 11254.01 provides that where there is an emergency, the expenditure limit. probably contracts that are going before the board for ratification so this isn't to circumvent transparency it's not a black box where there's just expenditures within the emergency process it just makes it so that those expenditures can occur promptly immediately to address Any current infrastructure issues that were caused by the flooding so that it doesn't get worse so that you know what might be $100,000 problem doesn't turn into a multimillion dollar problem or cause danger to the public or welfare.

Understood, thank you so much for that clarification. Myself, I just wanted to thank Chris, your team, the city of Nogales, all those who were part of the decision-making and the collaborative effort. Thank you. You know, it's a shame. We all want rain. And we certainly have it. But be careful what you ask for sometime with what happens when it comes down in a monsoon, especially here in Arizona. So yes, although we want the rain, it brings with it sometimes unfortunate circumstances. I just have one question. And it may have been answered, and I missed it. This is based on past rains. With the fact that we are currently in the monsoon season Let's say today tomorrow the next week. We have another incident into August. Perhaps we have another incident that creates damage Will will this Proclamation declaration what have you will that cover future events or is that only for? What has just happened?

Bill would you like to answer that?

Um, it'll cover future events because the emergency status remains in effect unless or until the board. essentially undeclares an emergency. So we do reference that it's the July monsoon events, but anything that would happen, let's say August 2nd, August 3rd, hopefully nothing happens August 2nd or August 3rd, but anything that would happen then would be a continuation of this ongoing emergency and frankly would probably be closely correlated.

Understood. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Bill. Anything else to add?

No, just I personally want to send out our condolences to the people that passed and their families. It was kind of tragic and sad.

Go ahead, sir. Mr. Chair, I believe it's the declaration. In the declaration, it mentions unincorporated areas in Santa Cruz County. Can we change that to countywide? That's been reflected, and I'll let Bill weigh in on that if that's necessary or not.

yes it should be countywide I believe that there were changes made to the final draft that said countywide but if there's any straggler clause that says unincorporated areas it should be countywide the reason for unincorporated areas being listed is we were thinking at one point of doing two proclamations the chairman of the board is able to do his own proclamation without a board vote for the unincorporated areas that's under one statutory section. Boardwide that's declarations for countywide and that requires two-thirds vote from the board and here it would be a countywide emergency and specifically in the actual incorporated areas because it involves Nogales and the Nogales slush.

Thank you, sir. Vice Chair, do you have anything?

No, no, no. Once again, I really want to thank Shannon Hall, also county management, because during this process, we were able to reach Congresswoman Guijalva, the Office of Senator Cali Gallegos, Senator Gabaldon. We also made contact with Mayor Jim. And in this process, we were bouncing back and forth, so they were key to make this happen. So I just want to thank again and make that emphasis. Even Juan was very helpful making this communication possible, reaching out to the community and stuff. So I just want to thank everybody for this.

Thank you. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the proclamation declaring an emergency in all areas of Santa Cruz County to address the July 2026 monsoon flooding crisis. So move. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing and seeing none, we'll move forward with the vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Move on to item D, adjournment. Do I hear a motion?

I move to adjourn. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. We are now adjourned at 946. Thank you, team.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, sir.