Council - workshop

City of Somerton work session. We're just going to go straight to roll call and start with the presentation.

Mayor Gerardo Anaya.

Present.

Vice Mayor Juan Castillo. Present. Council Member Jesus Roldan. Present. Council Member Luis Galindo. Council Member Miguel Villalpando. Council Member Marta Gonzalez. Present. Council Member Lorena Delgadillo. Present. Mayor Havocorn.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Stephanie Pereira, Special Events Coordinator, Parks and Rec. So I'm gonna go over our special events that we're gonna have this fiscal year, 2026, the remaining ones, and 2027. So the calendar of the events, so starting with the upcoming month, which it's going to be October 2026, we're gonna have the Summerton Art Festival, the UTV Off-Road Show and the Trunk or Tree slash Fall Festival. In December, we're going to have the lining of Centennial Park, the Light Parade. And then next year for 2026, 27, sorry, we're going to start with the Senior Center Golf Tournament on February, the Papalooza. On March, we're going to do the Miss Summerton and Summerton Greater Days. On April, our celebration for Dia del Niño and ended up our physical year in July for the 4 July celebration. So I'm gonna go over each event. And if you have any questions, just let me know. So the first event, it's going to be the Somerton Art Festival. This is going to be on a Thursday, October the 1st, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. This time, we're gonna do a little bit of change. We're gonna, instead of doing at Centennial Park, we're gonna do it at Council Avenue Park. The reason is last year, we have a very successful event. So the venue, it's becoming a little bit smaller. for the big community that we have right now. So that's why we're changing to the Council Avenue Park to have more space, more presentations and have a better parking spaces available. This is an event that goes along with the Parks and Rec Commission. So it's going to be our slogan for this year. It's the power of belonging. We're going to start using the power of for this event. PB, Lupita D Montoya- past month we celebrate the parks and rec month and or the slogan was the power off so for this event where we thought the power of belonging as a community that's why we're doing this Logan and it's going to be October 1 at Council park. PB, Lupita D Montoya- Any question.

No, just one of my comments was as far as evaluating the event, but the location has been changed. So that's probably something that I'm looking at, that all the events look at what works, what doesn't, and what changes can be made. So I'm glad that that was looked at, at least for this event, because it's, what, the fourth year we've had it or third year? So I'm glad it's been successful.

I noticed that you had this on a Thursday and their school the following Friday because I checked the schedule. I'm just thinking because it ends at nine. We still have school the next day. What's the reason why Thursday, not a Friday?

Normally in the past years, we've been doing on a Thursday. That's why we're following the same path as previous years. The timeframe, we can make it adjustable. It can start a little bit early, but I think the schedule when the kids are getting out of school, that will not give them enough time to maybe get out of school, get something to eat, rest, and then go to the event. Most of what our intention is, have them to be this time or special guests, meaning that we're gonna go to, actually we have a meeting next week with the Somerton School District. So we're gonna send an invitation to all the school district from Somerton to have the kids do an art project, even though it's art, painting, singing, any special art that they have. So our main focus will be on the art exhibition that they have, but we can modify the times as well.

Not necessarily the times, I'm just saying the day, just have in mind or talk to the school district as far as being at school the following day, because I know not everybody leaves at nine, they leave later. So just a mention of it.

Man, teachers are working on lesson plans on Thursdays and maybe Fridays. Well, chat GPT now, but.

Come on, man. But Stephanie, you said that this event in the past, I mean, it's like last year, like we have to move the venue because of more people are attending and everything. So really, I mean, based on that information, the date really and time is, I mean, our attendance hasn't been impacted by it, has it?

No, so last year we have I don't have the exact number, but I can email it to you, but last year we it was really packed now that we make some modifications to the park being that offense. It will be harder to have the performances and also have the art exhibition parking spaces that's why we move it out to Council of any part, so that way we can have a better space, maybe have more vendors and have more exhibition for the kids.

Yeah, yes.

Yeah, I also want to recommend for you to consider moving it to Friday because of the school the next morning and the, you know, little kids and the teachers and so forth. And since you're going to get the school districts involved, my recommendation is to move it to Friday, but that's me. It's just a recommendation.

james jones parks and rec director i have talked to some of the uh like the sponsors of those the dance groups and things like that their concern is if we move it on a friday that those kids are disappear and they won't come to the event and they won't be able to perform with the full group that's why they kind of recommend kind of doing it in the during the week i do understand as i have a child that's 10 years old i understand like friday's a school day they're staying out till nine o'clock how are they sleeping are they coming back to school next day but that's one of the feedbacks we got of if we move it to a friday that they might lose some of their kids to, you know, trips on the weekend or wherever they go.

Any other questions?

So moving to the next event, it will be the UTV Off-Road Show. This is going to be on a Saturday, October the 17th from 4.30 p.m. all the way to midnight. And that event is here on Main Street. I have... Some questions regarding this. In the past, we have the UTV overall Enchilada Fest, and we have a recommendation to maybe change it up to Bacanora Fest and partner up with our sister city, Tesopaco, Rosario Tesopaco. to make a partnership and maybe get more exposure of the Bacanora here to this event. We would like to have your guidance and see what are the things or plans that you have for this event, or maybe just leave it as what it is, the Chilada Fest. One of the things that we need to consider is in order to have the Bacanora, we will need a series 15 alcohol license, which is applied for the beer and the spirits. So Bacanora follows into the spirit, like the whole thing, the Bacanora. So we will need to have a series 15. the alcohol. The other thing, if we invite the Bacanora and the sister city, they will need to make their own arrangements to export the Bacanora here to the US and do their logistics. So we're gonna let them use our venue, saying that one example that we have, it's having here on the front of the city hall, have that area situated for the Bacanora. PB, Lupita D Montoya- And, but they will have to figure out their own logistics and we can just send the invitation to them and also with the help of jasmine there's an agave event that they do in tucson maybe we can invite those vendors as well.

That was my question. I understand staff went to an event in Tucson. How was that? Because last year, the Chelada, in the last two years, we had three Chelada vendors, so it really wasn't a Chelada fest. I guess my question, how was that event in Tucson and And the logistics of actually bringing something similar to this, is it something that can be done here until October, the process of bringing the baccalaureate over here?

Good evening, Mayor Anaya and Council. Jasmine Samudio, Economic Development Director, who also oversees our governmental affairs. We did not attend the Agave Festival in Tucson. We felt that the logistics were unreasonable for the time frame. However, I did reach out to the organizer and I asked for any recommendations. any tips and names of vendors that they use that were US based. I also reached out to our sister city and I asked for references of their vendors based out of Sonora. Since this is a product based out of Sonora, the biggest challenge is going to be getting vendors who are authentic Bacanora brewers to come to our city. And of course, whenever there's cross-border activities, there's always logistical issues that we might run into. So that's why I want to make an effort to also include some US-based vendors that have worked in festivals in the Phoenix and Tucson area. I know that this event came because we want to include our sister city, but we have to also consider, we want to have a little bit of both in case there is some logistical issues with cross-border activities. With that said, I have reached out to them and asked them if they'd be interested with a pending flyer in the email. And of course, I let them know about the event, how much people we attract and really what it means to our culture. I have gotten no response yet, but I do think that it is possible. And I did speak to the mayor of Bacanora, sorry, mayor of Rosario de Sopaco, and he did mention that he also believes it's possible. And he confirmed to me that many of the vendors do have visas to cross. In terms of the biggest hurdles, is it possible? Yes. Will there be hurdles? Yes. And I think the biggest hurdle will be getting the Series 15 Four Spirits, like Stephanie mentioned.

One thing... Just having the conversation with the previous director of Bacanora and the current one, he did mention that the state of Sonora could assist with like bringing a band or bringing, so that's something that we should explore that they would be able to pay for something like La Brisa or something that they had a budget for it, so.

I can reach out to the current director who oversees that area and so on, of course.

Stephanie, can you elaborate again what you said, what's going to be at this area here?

So it was just an example. Normally, we have our stage here in the front. And maybe in the beer cells, it's the empty lot in the corner. So maybe we can have the bacanora here on the front of City Hall in this little green area. And that way, we can have it concentrated in the main part. It was just we can work it out on the layout for sure and everything.

So the city would be. working the Bacanora beer garden?

No.

They would. So they would have to get their liability insurance as well?

Yes.

Are they able to do that?

That's one of the things that we need to figure out with them if they're gonna be allowed to export, have their visas, have everything, all that logistic, it's something that we need to work it out with them and see if they're able to do it. Maybe like Mayor mentioned, Maybe the state can issue some paperwork that they can export it. We need to follow up with more information regarding that. The only thing that we do a little bit of research is the series 15 alcohol permit that we will need to get if we're going about that route.

So the funds that they will collect will be theirs? Yes.

Yes. So in case that we do an agreement, we can do an agreement as we do for the beer sales that we can have 50-50. So 50% it will go towards them if they do any sales and the other 50% will go to the city. But that will be the other thing. Are they doing only tasting or are they doing selling? Because that will depend as well on the license. Yes. So it's a tasting. It's a little bit easier than if they're selling bacanora.

Hopefully we also can get the council can work with us because I went to an event in San Luis. It was at La Bodega, but they had like a bacanora. And also they've been involved in something similar to this.

Also, we have a committee that we used last year for the UTV. We're working with them. We already have our first meeting. We're gonna have a next meeting this next week. So they're helping me as well, getting more exposure to the UTV group. Also trying to get new ideas for special events, sorry, special guests. Last year, we have one special guest from the off-road from UTVs. The other guest was Exotic. Can't remember exactly the name that they have. So he's in charge of doing all the customized UTVs. So he brings a lot of people here to the event as well. So they are the ones who helping me getting more exposure with the groups. and getting more ideas as well. So we're getting more meetings at least every two meetings per month to go and follow up with the UTV groups.

I have a question on the series 15 permit that you mentioned. I can't seem to understand it. Can you just break it down for me so that I

So the Series 15, what it allows to have or sell, it's beer and spirits. So the Bacanora will follow into the spirits. So that's how the group name for Tequila Bacanora, everything that it's from Agave. So in order to have beer, that we're going to have the beer cells and have the bacanora that follows under the spirits so we can have a series 15. The other thing that might change is if they're selling the vacanora or if there's only tasting. So if they're doing the tasting, it will be a different kind of like category for the business, like for the alcohol department.

We just start working on that logistics as soon as possible. Let's go through.

So you want me to get more information regarding the Bacanora?

You're going to have to, of course. There's not enough. Yeah, just try to come with a game plan and make sure that this can be done.

And then, Mayor, if I may, Stephanie, could you talk about a little bit about the music theme? I think last year went really well, and that's the same that you'd be looking at.

So regarding the music theme, we're going to Norteño Banda slash Cumbia, that type of music we're working on with a promoter or different promoters. to find the best fit for our main artists. Also, we can use for the opening numbers of local artists and have the support of them. So far, the price range goes from 30 all the way to $100,000 for the big bands. Big bands, I'm telling you about Los Recoditos, El Palomazo, which it's three big main artists about the regional Mexicano. Another one, it's between the 25 and 30. So we're looking up the best offer that we can get the best bid for the main artists.

And like I mentioned, the governor of Sonora said that they would have some budget. And when we go to those, hopefully that was communicated to special events. When we go to those, you know, when we went to the Bacanora, those are the conversations that we have. And it's expected for that to be communicated to staff. If they just found out about that, then... Why do we make those trips if there's no follow-up with staff? So hopefully that's the case. And hopefully we didn't miss an opportunity because they were excited to come. And they said that the budget, I don't know how their budget works. But when staff goes, that's what I want for them to come. And I know I mentioned it to you.

So as you know, some of these fall in a recreation or senior center. So I'm going to step in for those events. While Stephanie's not directly tied to them, she does help out with those. So we wanted to include those. About three years ago, this is our third one. We started the Trunk or Treat at the Centennial. Like I said, that grew. Now we're moving to Council Park. With that one, we get the local nonprofits or people in the community to come and hand out candy. Last year, we did the carving of the pumpkins, the costume. So we made it more of a fall festival. So we're going to kind of continue. It's going to be a trunk or treat, but mainly we're going to name it fall festival. This has turned into a pretty successful event. Yes, I know it's on a Thursday. We did look. San Luis is doing theirs on a Friday. Cocoa Paws is doing theirs on a Friday. So this is kind of the best time to put that in. We're going to do our recreation department, which is falls under their name. They're going to do a little bit more community events like this. These are small just for our community. They're not large-scale events. I don't know if you have any questions on this.

So, James, for this Trink and Treat, any community member can come and enroll or sign up to give candy there?

Yes, we reach out to all the businesses. We drop off flyers, all the nonprofits in town. We go to the school district.

Like a private citizen?

Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

I heard it was well attended last year. Yeah. It's been a very successful. Let's keep growing it.

You know what, if I remember correctly, I think maybe we had those informal conversations about maybe moving to a different location just because it was.

Yeah, we're planning on having this at Council Park.

So when are you going to see Council Park? Everything is there.

I think it's November. We have a schedule. Any other questions?

So following up with December events, we're starting with the lining up Centennial. Again, I know it's on a Thursday, December the 3rd. It's the week that they came back from the fall break. And this is going to be from 5 to 8. And this is the only one remaining at Centennial Park because we're lining up the Christmas tree in there. We cannot move the water tower to another location, but we're going to do our best to have this event in there. Yes, right.

I believe that that's part of the CIP projects that Jonah is going to car our finance director is going to cover on the 11th.

So this is one of the events that are remaining at Centennial Park. Same thing, we're going to invite the school district. Last year was really full. We have a lot of kids around. We have the... ASU bring the hot chocolate that goes super fast. The cake walk as well with the Somerton Education Inc with the help of them. We have a few sponsors in there giving up like cookies and everything. And so the main thing it's the space now that it's fencing, we need to figure it out more about the layout, how we're gonna do it because last year was a little bit full And we didn't have the fencing on the side. So now that we're, it's all fenced, we will need to think about maybe using the parking lot that it's on the back and closing again, George Street to have more space available for the performances, the families to be able to see the performances. And also everybody can be joining us to light the train. Any questions on this?

Did we have a new lighting last year or we didn't? So this year is going to be animation. Questions or comments? Thank you.

And the last event that we're gonna have for this year will be the library, which is also on a Friday, December the 18th. It's a day before the Tamal Festival, starting at 6.30 PM on Main Street. One of the things that we're gonna, same thing, do an invitation for the school district, local business to have more participation. Last year, we have about 45 floats. Hopefully this year we can go a little bit more and each time gets better. Any questions on this?

Are you able to get that? I know it's been hard in the past, but I don't know if they've become more flexible or not. But the the light parade that they do in Yuma, I know they're really overprotective of their list. But I don't know, I'm trying to reach out again and see if they can share their list. So you know, we can have a more floats in ours too.

Okay, just suggest the one that does the parade on the foothills area. It's only in your mouth.

Okay. Okay.

Okay, last year we have a lot of participation of local business from Yuma, but let's see if we can get that list and get more of them.

uh, this is our senior center golf tournament. It is already scheduled for January 30th. Um, last year we did teams of three. We're going to speak with the golf course again and see if we, what their justification is. I know we used all their carts and they're a little worked up. Um, it's been a, we brought it back after a couple of years exit last year, it was full. Um, it's been very successful. If there's, we got raffles, we got 50, 50 prizes. It's been good. I don't, I'm not sure. I know the mayors have 10 attended before, but If you guys have any suggestions on how to make it better or improve it, please let us know.

Just get those prices. Get them good baskets.

and continue with the events. It will be the Petpalooza. It will be a Saturday, February the sixth from nine to one at Council Avenue Park. Same thing we're gonna start doing a little bit early this time to get our Petpalooza start. Last year was this little dog that we have in the picture. So we can start doing the advertisement maybe like in December. That way we can have this contest that we used to do on social media, have the community to send out their dogs, have them vote to get who's going to get the best likes or whatever works now with social media and the contest. And they can be the stars so we can use that dog to be Like we can make the stickers, the promotional items and everything for our Papalooza. We have a pending meeting with Lerma Speed to have more feedback on maybe some changes that we can do for the event and make it better. regarding the contest. Last year, we have the Chihuahua contest and we open up to any breed, small breed dogs, because it was one of the things that they were asking for that they don't have Chihuahuas, but they have a different small dogs that they want to participate. So last year we open up and it was very successful. And also Lerma's support us with the first winner. and give them food as well, as well for the Chihuahua race. Any comments, concerns, questions on this event? Moving on, this is a proposal that we want to share with you, having the Miss Somerton 2027. We're planning on having on a Friday, March the 12th, and the greater days, we're planning to have it on the following week, maybe just make a week of difference. Now that we have our high school that we are going to have seniors, we can attack more of that population and have them to participate. Our mission or our goal to have a Miss Somerton, it is to provide a partnership with another organization to provide the main prize, a scholarship. So we don't want to make it like the traditional beauty pageant. We want to make this beauty. Well, this It will be a beauty passion, but more towards leadership community service and how the price instead of cash having a scholarship so they can continue with their education and make and make them grow so. One of the things that we have in mind it's leading with purpose will be your main like model for the for the event and celebrating our Community culture and also the leadership.

I do want to add that we are trying to tie this way in to a close date with the greater days to kind of bring that community feel and have Ms. Somerton be kind of at the event, make it a big deal, kind of, yeah, kind of tie it together, make me all the contests and a flow types like that. We're trying to build some kind of identity with that greater days or rebuild the identity of graders, kind of increase the population at the event. So this is one of the ideas we had along with other events that, or other items that Stephanie's gonna share with you on the next slide, but that's why we moved it to this time of day to try to tie it in with greater days and the celebration of our town. Go ahead.

I would just like to recommend not to call it a beauty pageant. Okay. It's a normal Miss Somerton pageant or whatever. I think San Luis Obispo has something similar and they also focus on the leadership and the scholarship. I used to participate through my employer to be part of that through my employer. And so I don't think they call it a beauty.

It doesn't sound. The scholarship program, I think is what they call it.

Yeah.

This is a great idea. Thanks.

There's going to be affiliated like with Miss Arizona is going to move, move on and

We haven't get to that point yet, but there's an organization which is called Miss America Scholarship Pageant. They do local, they used to do it here in Yuma and in Somerton. Really back at the days, I was part of that program that helps me where I'm in here right now. So I got scholarship through that organization and what they want to achieve is getting more of the young generation going back and giving back to the community. Force them to do leaders, to continue with their education. And it's more towards focus to onstage question. What are you going to do back to the community? Have a platform, have something to do and get back to our community. That's their main focus. But this is just the first time presenting this. So we would like to have more directions and maybe we can reach out to those organizations to partner with them and be able to get more scholarship for the younger ladies.

Maybe that's so young ladies can have more visibility and more resources. And I'm pretty sure they have their standards of what they, they have their program. So maybe that, yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a fee that needs to be paid, but something like that that's more structured. and more serious, then maybe we can get that support and the ladies can go and compete for state.

So that competition, it's local, state, and then they go to nationals. Also, we had, I think it was like a month ago, we have a conversation with the high school. They're very interested and they really liked the timing because this is the first time that we're gonna have seniors at the high school. So they believe if we can go, now that they're already starting school, we go and have this invitation and they can start preparing themselves for next year. I know you say, oh, it's until next year, until March, but time flies, believe me. and maybe they can start preparing or maybe they can do some programs and start any community activities.

Mr. Summerton, maybe 35 to 50 or something. Yes.

I have a question. What's the projected cost of this project? For this summer.

So. Under the GL code 43 1070 43 right 52 sorry um we have right now, we have that the summer to pageant. budgeted internally for what is it where you can see. Oh 6000.

I didn't get on the budget. i'm.

but I'm gonna have Chona come up here because we had an internal conversation about this.

107042 for special events, but I didn't.

So our budget is for special, Chona Medell, finance director. So our budget for special events is one line item. The Parks and Rec and the special events, they do their internal budgeting within each specific, item. So for instance, he's stating $6,000 for Ms. Somerton. That's within that one line item. As long as they don't.

Like what you presented, the descriptions that you presented, that's why I'm asking, because I didn't see it here.

Oh, because it's added.

They have, you know, Pepalooza, Greater Days, all the events that she's presented. And I didn't see, that's why I asked what the projected cost was. Okay.

So I can answer this Councilwoman. When we originally were putting this together, we thought about putting it in the fall, in the fall festival. But when we looked at how our trunk retreat's doing, we decided to move the fall festival to recreation and move that budget item to Miss Somerton. And so we kind of adjusted it that way as a promotion to add to greater days, but a separate item. But it was going to be part of a general fall festival I don't know if Louie has any more to say, but we decided after looking at the greater days numbers that that needed a little more central focus to Somerton and celebration of Somerton. So we thought it would be more appropriate to have it be part of greater days than to be.

So it's coming out of that line item or whatever.

Any other questions? PB, Lupita D Montoya, So moving with the next one, it will be the greater days festival, so it will be on a Saturday march the 20th at Council avenue park and have our parade here on main street so as we mentioned we're trying to have the mid summertime a weekend. before there are celebration for the greater days and have it incorporated, have the ladies that participate be part of the parade, have the first appearance for the Miss Somerton and also continue what we're doing with the parade and the festival. This is one of the conversations that we're gonna have with the school district. We want to know their recommendations. I know that there were some issues this year regarding that day being so hot. and some of the kids that they were playing on the marching band. It was too much with the custom, the playing, walking, and plus going to the festival. So we want to, we already scheduled this meeting a month ago, but they're having all those beginning of the school year. So next we're going to have this conversation with the school district to have their recommendation. We can do it in the morning and then the festival or we move it a little bit. The times for having it in the evening and then ended up at the festivals.

That day was an outlier. I remember it was only that hot day. The rest of the month, it was nice. So it's just the luck of the draw. One year, it's rained out. Three to four others the last three years. Yeah, so yeah.

Like Mayor said, it's up in the air because we've had the parade also. And I remember because she almost fainted where the parade started on Avenue F. And it ended at the park. And that's when the festival started. It was in the evening. And yeah, she had to go home. And like the mayor says, it's unpredictable that month. Yeah.

The only thing that we notice and the numbers, it was for this year's festival, people start arriving after 5 p.m. when the weather, it was a little bit more tolerant. So that's going to be one of the things that we would like to discuss with the school district. What do they think if...

Yeah, like you said, take their comments into account. It depends. The fair is in April, the month later, and it's windy, but it's not unbearable. And that day was so, let's not change because of one outlier day, make a wholesome change. It's, you know, it, yeah, it happened.

Yeah, so, yeah.

Yeah.

Rain. I mean, it's just. yeah. yeah.

Also, another thing that I would like to get more guidance will be the Grand Marshal. That way we can prepare and send the invitation early on this year to have them be prepared and everything and have more advertisement for the Grand Marshal. If you have something, someone in mind that you would like to share, please reach out to Luis. Luis can give us more feedback regarding any question about that.

Mayor, if I may. So I've always tried to look for a grand marshal and kind of select someone that's been impactful to community. But I'd really like to see if a mayor and council could help me with that selection. I've been pretty fortunate. Well, that we've selected individuals that are impacting our community. But, you know, I would just like to see maybe we're missing someone or or haven't thought of something. And so I'd like to get some recommendations and then come back to you and then see what we can do there on the process.

With that shirt.

Also another conversation that we're gonna have with the school district will be the Battle of the Bands. We would like to add that item to our festival. So having a little competition with the high school and the school district to have a committee and then make this Battle of the Bands so that way we can have more interaction and have a little twist to our event. Any other questions? We follow on to the other Niño Celebration. This will be on a Saturday, April the 24th. This is going to be from 9 to 12 and it's going to be at Council Avenue Park. This will be the second year that we're going to be in charge of this event. Last year was the first one. Same thing with the weather. It was a little bit iffy. It was so windy and cold. But we have a good lineup presentation for the kids that were performing. We have agencies presenting their organizations advertising and we have a food vendors as well. And we ended up with the 4 July celebration. We have it for Saturday, July the 3rd, 2027 from 7 to 12 at Council Avenue Park. So this year we had drones and fireworks. We have light music. And we would like to get your recommendation if we can move forward with having both, just one. What are your thoughts?

Me personally, I mean, I really enjoyed that you guys were able to do both, you know, the fireworks and the drones. I mean, from the feedback that I received from the community, they really enjoyed the drones. You know, if possible, I know we can add more drones. I mean, it'd be amazing. Maybe you can make it work. We can add more. We're going to have to fork out $50,000. You know, from everyone that was there, I mean, they really enjoyed the drones. that they also enjoyed the fireworks also. So, I mean, great job on that. I mean, to me, I mean, I think we really have a good combination. We're the only one in Yuma County doing the drones. So, I mean, I think if possible, let's add more.

I feel like the To me, it was good. It was perfect. You know, we paid, what, $38,000 for both of that right there. It's a steep price, but it was a great show. But adding more to me, we can get a super sponsor

Yeah. You know, and I will say this, I think that one of the, some of the comments from the feedback that I received was that there were some trees that when they would kind of look to see it, that kind of obstructed the view.

Yes.

You know, so I mean, maybe Do it on like on the west side, and you know just something to take into consideration, but that was only that was some of the feedback that I did receive that the view was obstructed because of the trees.

We have fire here so look at different sides and and see where we can move it but yeah the tree was. And we don't want to bring the tree down.

Mayor, if I may, just want to point out, I mean, last year, you know, we tried to do both. It was 250, you know, the 250th anniversary of But like the mayor mentioned, cost-wise, it is up there. And I mean, if we go back down, I think we have to select either or. And so, you know, that's...

I think we set the expectation of both. But like I said, that's like the maximum probably. The more it'd be like...

because it is a like you mentioned that is a the prices are there yeah and you're correct councilwoman the prices are only going to go up uh you know we we actually you know james uh in the parks and rec department actually instead he did a great job of getting that pricing other places it's probably double that uh but again uh It's just going to go up, and it's something that, I mean, if we continue, that's kind of the price range we're looking at right now, what we did this last year. But just to make you aware.

Regarding the live music, we are sticking with rock and Spanish and English. I don't know if you have any other suggestions regarding the music-wise. Mm-hmm.

I think it's fine having a rock band or something, an English band. It's America's birthday, so yeah.

Okay. So stay. For closing?

Yeah, for closing, yeah.

Okay. So do you prefer something, a little bit of mix, maybe at the beginning with Spanish rock and ending up with English rock?

Okay.

I'm gonna have Jasmine come over this slide since she runs majority of these.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Jasmine Smith, the Economic Development Director, who also oversees Government Affairs and Public Relations and Communications, MPIO. We typically have what we used to call micro events. We're transitioning the name from micro events to public relations events, because essentially it's our efforts to involve the public with our city hall, whether it be through partnerships we have with other agencies such as Cocopah and municipalities like Cocopah, Commissioner's Dinner and Night with Mayor and Council, but also interactions that we as City Hall have with the public. So I'm gonna list everything that I have co-led. This is a small committee that makes these organizations, these small events happen. So we have the Commissioner's Dinner typically in April. The Cocoa Pond Summerton Council dinner, typically in April. Night with Mayor and Council, typically in May. Field trips. We always get schools who want to do field trips here in the City Hall. And it's a great opportunity to bring the children here. And they get to see City Hall. We show them what each department does. And we do little work sessions with what Public Works takes care of, what I take care of, et cetera. We have the alumni recognition typically always, or actually always in June, early June. The Campesinos field trip, which is another field trip with students, but these students are high school students who are in the Campesino summer camp. Again, it's also a city hall interaction where we teach them what we do. We survey them. We get to hear what they want to see in the city of Somerton. I also didn't mention that in the field trips for the children, we survey them as well. And they tell me what they see in the city of Somerton and it's a fun interaction. Not only do they learn, but they get to, I get to collect data of what the public, the young generation and what high school students really wanna see, envision the city of Somerton to develop as. And then lastly, we oversee the lakes of city as well. Is there any comments on any changes on these or maybe removing some are adding some or.

i'm looking at the night with mayor and Council we've tried to what to three years and and it hasn't been well attended, maybe we can look into in past years we've done Community meetings, maybe. do something like that. So we can at least take it, you know, the first two times we did that, it was well attended. The last time it wasn't. So I guess we can play it by ear. But yeah, that, the last two years, I don't know what, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, you know what I was also going to add that. I mean, I think we had we, you know, discuss maybe adding like a coffee with mayor and council something to add like a morning event. I remember discussing it. So I mean, maybe that that could that could help. And, you know, just looking at these events for 2027. I mean, Great job on giving us the dates and everything. As you guys were saying, I was already putting them in my calendar. Jasmine, if we could have the dates that way, you know, I can secure them. That'd be great. But I mean, I know we discussed something about maybe having coffee with mayor and council, kind of like informal. You know, I don't know if...

I'd be interested to see how the attendance. We, you know, usually if there's people that's involved and go there, but I would like to see something go out to the community and have the community give us our feedback because here, Mayor and Council, yeah, there are people that hang out here around City Hall and then plus people that are involved that we have conversations, you know, regularly, but I want to have impact, not just being out there and saying that we're doing something. Actually, I want to hear it. Maybe we can discuss ideas of what to do. You mentioned coffee. See how that works.

Maybe interacting with the local businesses.

Local businesses. Yeah. So maybe diversify that budget into different micro events.

Mayor and Council, just to reiterate the direction, we are going to slightly remove night with Mayor and Council and transition it to community meetings. Within that, you want different dates with coffee with Mayor and Council where the objective is to hear at the community, such as survey them or just... Not different dates.

We can try one. We can have community meetings at... say at Joe Munoz at Council Park and invite, pass some flyers and have the people, those that have been well attended in the past that we had a video, we had a program where, and then we have a question and answer with the public. And, you know, it was good. We were doing it too often that maybe it got old, but we haven't done it in, four or five years, that maybe that's, we can have that impact. Yeah, when Bill Lee was the city's manager, we had a different, and it was more like they had a tent, they had like, it was like people were like, what's going to happen there? And they had the light towers, and so maybe we can create that. And we had, you know, good attendance and different and that's how we came up you know at that time it was a look at speed bumps or identify areas of problems with you know speeding and lighting and it gave us ideas for you know what to include in our budget just being out there and people pointing out and you're like okay you know even in retention basins we need uh we, you know, the playground and we would tell them, you know, it's a district, so we have to get signatures and this is, but at least people understand because of, you know, we saw that lately there's been a lot of misinformation with social media and then, so we can need to be more out there and provide the message.

Mayor and council, okay, so we're gonna transition from mayor and council into community meetings such as neighborhood meetings. We're gonna pick, you will let us know which neighborhoods you would like to attend, and it would be meetings, and then also have maybe one event with coffee with mayor and council, and then maybe coffee with the businesses and mayor and council. Is that what you're thinking for micro events?

Yeah, something similar to that. And I don't wanna just right now say that's what we're gonna do, but I mentioned one time we went walking to other businesses, maybe that can do, it doesn't take a lot, maybe just.

Mayor.

For any other ones, any comments?

Mayor, if I may. So what we can do is we can work with staff and kind of put some things together, present them to you. Also these dates, I don't know if we can put dates, if you have any direction. This is usually what we've done annually. Unless there's a conflict, we usually try to do these. The majority of these events are on Thursday evenings, seems to be working the best. But if that's fine, we can continue doing that. I know that we're working with the alumni on better recognizing the students. And I think each year we've gotten different feedback, but the commission dinner and the Kokopal usually the third week of, first and third week of April, trying to keep the weather nice. And usually, like I said, it's on Thursday. And then we can bring you back some ideas for, you know, maybe logistically look at the city and how we can meet and really try to capture the different areas of the city and invite people from the different areas so they can come. And everybody has an opportunity that's not too far away from their homes.

Any other questions or comments? So 57 meetings adjourned.